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Internet Defense League members, thank you for your support.
It was epic. While member sites broadcasted their support, we blasted our “cat signal” into the sky in cities around the world (on Batman's opening night!)
Though the launch of a grassroots campaign to protect the Internet is worth celebrating, there's nothing like an IRL event to feel the power of the Internet community. We had such a great time at the Internet Defense League launch parties that we thought we'd share a few highlights.
The Cat Signal on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Credit: @EFF
The Cat Signal on Lafayette Avenue in New York City. Credit: @MagicZoetrope
Credit: @BenjaminSimon
New York City packed the house!
The Cat Signal on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Credit: Ben Simon, Mozilla
More pictures available on the event's livestream.
Thanks go out to our hosts and supporters: Mozilla, New America Foundation, Open Plans, the Participatory Politics Foundation, Craig Newmark, Matt Mullenweg, Union Square Ventures, Brad Burnham, Nick Grossman, Elizabeth Stark, and each of our donors. We couldn't have done it without you!
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**UPDATE** **Thank you everyone for all the information you provided. We've collected enough information and are actively working on fixing the issue** TLDR: If you're on a campus connection and can't log in...Run these commands and attach the logs to the post! (tracert 141.101.114.212) > "%USERPROFILE%\desktop\Tracert.txt" (tracert 141.101.115.212) > "%USERPROFILE%\desktop\Tracert.txt" Hey Everyone! We're aware that some players are having issues logging in to League of Legends from certain colleges/universities and are actively working with relevant parties to fix this problem. However, we could use some additional information to more quickly identify and solve this problem. But first, if you believe you're being impacted by this issue, we'd like you to check out this [article.](https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201761944-Login-Issues) Secondly, you may also want to check out [this Boards post,](http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/help-support/nnKzjoMb-new-pvpnet-login-issue-and-ssl-30-102814) just to verify it's not the same issue. If you still have issues logging in through a campus or university connection, we'd really appreciate it if you could attach the following tracert's to this thread, as well as tell us which college/university you're trying to connect from! To obtain a tracert first press the **[Windows Key] (that is the key on the left side of the space bar, between ctrl and alt) + R** Type **cmd **in the search bar and click **"Ok"**. You should now see a black window with white letters. Highlight and copy this command: **(tracert 141.101.114.212) > "%USERPROFILE%\desktop\Tracert.txt"** Paste this into the cmd window (black box with white letters) by right clicking and selecting **"Paste". Do not use the Ctrl+V shortcut as it will not work!** Depending on your connection, the trace may take 5-15 minutes to complete. A text file with the Tracert log will be created on your Desktop when it finishes. Please check that the command ran properly - if **Tracert.txt** contains a single line, it did not run properly. Attach **Tracert.txt** to a support ticket. **Repeat the steps above with the following tracert** **(tracert 141.101.115.212) > "%USERPROFILE%\desktop\Tracert.txt"** Once you've collected the two tracerts, please attach them to this discussion post! Thanks for your help! :)
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As mentioned in my introductory post, it takes quite a bit of work to make my audio-reactive cigar box “tick.” The mechanical assembly comes in another post, but this is all about how it was programmed and wired. If you’d like to just skip to the Arduino code, it’s listed here. In case you forgot or missed it, here’s the video of this cigar box in action:
As for how everything works, keep reading, and I’ll try to explain what is going on in a bit more detail.
Microphone Input
Getting a correct signal from a microphone breakout is a bit more complicated than one might think; Instead of just measuring the voltage, you have to define a sample size as shown in this Adafruit post. I actually used something from Sparkfun, but I think they work very similarly.
One thing that I’m told would have helped my results, would be to put the servo motor on a separate signal while combining grounds. The servo draws a lot of power from everything, causing the microphone breakout to be thrown off at times. At least that’s my understanding. Also, if you’re using an Arduino, you’ll need to make sure to hook the supply voltage to the “AREF” pin as well to give it a voltage to compare it to.
Servo Control
The servo is hooked to PWM pin 5 as well as the + and – of the batteries. The code is written so that it varies how high it lifts to lid (2 positions now). It would likely be possible to make it directly proportional to the lid, but I haven’t tried this yet. If you’re going to do this, I used, and would recommend my servo-connecting header “component.” This little device makes connecting a standard to a servo wire to a breadboard quite easy.
LED Strip Control
There is some good tutorial material on Adafruit, and you can certainly check out my code to see what is going on there. The cool thing about these strips is that you can control all the LEDs in them with two wires, not including the +5VDC and and GND cable. Also, to change the number of LEDs under control, you just change the code and cut the strip. It’s a really cool device that I hope to play with more.
Wiring
Wiring for this project is provided through a small breadboard (this one – Amazon), and a lot of hookup wire. Even though there are some wires that could be run into the Auduino directly (LED strip signal wires for instance) running it into the breadboard first, then into the processor seems to keep things clean. This is especially important since the lid jumping up and down definitely has a tendency to pull the wires out.
Along with this, I plugged the servo into the breadboard using a technique outlined here. This double-ended header really makes it easy to remove or plug it in without too much hassle. All in all, I was quite pleased with how the wiring turned out.
Thanks for reading, if you’d like to see how everything was put together mechanically, check out this post.
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Ciaran appeared in many stage productions with prestigious companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and has gone on to star in films such as The Road to Perdition and Tomb Raider, and TV dramas such as Persuasion and the upcoming Rome.
What's he been in?
Ciaran stars alongside top names such as Kevin McKidd, James Purefoy and Polly Walker in the major drama Rome. He plays Julius Caesar.
His early career was spent on stage. After a long stint with the Glasgow Citizen's Theatre, he went on to perform in various theatres in both London and Ireland. He appeared in many productions for The Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre and was in the original cast for Patrick Marber's hit play Closer.
One of Ciaran's first screen roles was in Excalibur, the hugely successful telling of the King Arthur legend. The film also starred Helen Mirren and Cherie Lunghi and launched the careers of fellow Irishmen, Liam Neeson and Gabriel Byrne.
During this time he also appeared in a number of dramas on TV. These included Seaforth, Prime Suspect and he played Brian Keenan alongside Colin Firth as John McCarthy in Hostages, a fictionalised account of real events in Lebanon in the 1980s. He also played a dashing Jane Austen hero when he appeared as Captain Wentworth in an acclaimed adaptation of Persuasion with Amanda Root.
His career continued with roles in many major films such as playing the baddie in the second Lara Croft, Tomb Raider film; Husband to Helen Mirren's character in the nude WI ladies film, Calendar Girls and as the subject of a hit in The Road To Perdition.
Ciaran also appeared in the big-screen version of the 1980's cop show Miami Vice. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx play Crocket and Tubbs. He has also recently worked on a major new historical drama with Steven Spielberg.
Did you know?
Ciaran originally started studying law, before leaving university to take up a place at RADA.
His first acting job was as the back end of a pantomime horse.
Personal Details
Ciaran is married and has daughter
He was born in Belfast in 1953.
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The AAP’s latest attack on Reliance Industries does more than simply divert attention from their failure to govern; unfortunately for them, it also underscores the two main elements of their core ideology. On display is not only their dogged commitment to destructive populism over basic economic rationality, but also, and far more dangerous, their scornful contempt for constitutional democracy. By pressuring the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to lodge an FIR against Mukesh Ambani and others in the absence of either jurisdictional authority or an iota of evidence, Kejriwal has sent shockwaves across the international business community, which would rather steer clear of India’s shores than risk engagement with a berserk anarchist. A bare perusal of the hyped complaint against RIL reveals fanciful conjectures and childish conclusions that are grounded in neither law nor reason, but advance a bizarre counter-narrative that believes in profit being evil. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and the real picture emerges.
The crux of Kejriwal’s charge against RIL is based on the infantile assumption that capital expenditure costs were unreasonably inflated to generate higher profits for the operator and less for the government. To substantiate this charge, he cites the Comptroller Auditor General’s flawed performance audit report on KG-D6 to allege that procurement contracts were arbitrarily awarded without due competition. He forgets that the mind-boggling scale of the Krishna Godavari basin (over 7, 000 sq km) necessitates an equally gigantic survey and exploration effort which is both expensive and technically complex, meaning in turn that very few international players operate in this niche segment. Unlike a standard building contract where it is possible to have a blend of different contractors, deep-sea extraction is one of the most complex engineering feats known to man and it would be impossible to execute a project on this scale with a mish-mash of contractors. For the CAG, without any technical expertise or knowhow about the complexities of subsea exploration, to simply declare that one contractor ought not to have been picked over others, is not only irresponsible but laughable. Besides, even the global consulting firm, Ernst & Young, confirmed that any increase in capital expenditure would in fact hurt the contractor’s profitability.
However the CAG’s insistence to audit private contractors raises fundamental questions of propriety that must not be ignored. The mandate of the CAG is circumscribed by the Duties & Powers Act of 1971, which outlines the scope of their powers to audit the accounts of public corporations. This law supplements Article 149 of the Constitution, and the two being in pari materia, must be read together. The CAG’s scope of audit is restricted to accounts of the Union and cannot extend to private entities. The hon’ble Delhi High Court, in its order on the 6th of January 2014, was absolutely correct when it reined in an overzealous CAG by ordering it to restrict itself to only the revenue-sharing arrangements that private telecom companies had entered into with the GOI. The court was very specific when it said that the CAG could only audit receipts and not inquire aspects like wisdom and economy in expenditure. An example of this overbearing sense of ‘duty’ is found on page 33 of the KG-D6 report, where the CAG adopts an irritatingly patronising tone in awarding unnecessary accolades to “the efforts of the operator in executing this world class…within record time.” Constitutionally speaking, the CAG has no business to be making such silly comments – they ought to stick to their mandate.
The CAG report also ignores the legislative intent behind the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), which was to provide an incentive to private contractors, to tap domestic energy sources that PSUs like ONGC and OIL could not. The driving force behind this policy shift was not merely liberalisation of the economy, but a concerted effort to make India energy independent, and to reduce the nation’s staggering fuel-import bill. In making the simplistic argument that RIL’s higher gas prices lead to a subsidy burden on the economy, Kejriwal has wilfully ignored both, the saved fuel import-costs and the substantial GDP contribution made by domestic contractors. GOI currently pays up to $15 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). By Kejriwal’s logic, India ought to pay billions of our precious and scarce foreign exchange to international gas providers but deny an Indian corporation from making a legitimate profit for the massive investment it has incurred, simply because the government subsidises the fuel. Even keeping aside the billions of dollars India saves by encouraging a domestic entity, why doesn’t Kejriwal talk about the billions that the Indian government receives as its share of profit from KG-D6? Would he rather than India be at the mercy of foreign gas-producers than achieve energy security? Even keeping energy independence aside, the creation of jobs and enhanced shareholder value aid in spurring growth and confidence in the economy that benefits everyone.
It may certainly be argued that RIL and its partner NIKO got the initial gas estimates for KG-D6 wrong, but to suggest that billions were spent by them to execute some elaborate heist is ludicrous. Subsea gas reserve estimates spread over thousands of square kilometres are often off the mark. At times production is way more than the original estimate and at other times it is less. However the production sharing contract contemplates such eventualities, which is why the safeguard of variable profits depending upon production is built into the agreement. To cry foul simply because production levels did not match the original estimates is akin to the losing side in a game of cricket asking for the rules to be changed midway. Kejriwal is understandably irate because he can’t write his own personal version of the PSC.
Lastly, the stunning allegation that RIL’s KG-D6 partner NIKO supplies gas at half the price to Bangladesh is another spin on the truth. The fact is that NIKO’s gas deal with Bangladesh has absolutely nothing to do with KG-D6. On the contrary, NIKO provides gas from an on-land gas field near Dhaka. The implication of this on cost is obviously immense – with dramatically cheaper production and transportation bills, thus resulting in a lower price.
With none of his political opponents too keen to entertain his shenanigans, Kejriwal was ultimately left with the ignominious route of pulling the plug on himself. Only time will tell if his gamble pays off electorally. But for anyone to assume that the people of India will ignore his dismal record, would be akin to gassing the truth.
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In our latest podcast, Jessica and I discussed the past week in politics and atheism.
We talked about:
— Arkansas State Senator Jason Rapert and the Ten Commandments monument going up (again) in Arkansas. (0:30)
— Alberta Catholic schools want to teach an alternative sex ed curriculum. (13:25)
— The dad from Duck Dynasty is spreading the lie that crime soars in areas without God. (24:40)
— A new Satanic billboard says “Our religion doesn’t believe in hitting children.” (32:10)
— No one in this TX school district understands the Establishment Clause. (36:40)
— The Catholic Church won’t allow a gravestone marker calling out abusive priests. (43:36)
— Pastor Robert Jeffress says we’ve let atheists “ seize control of this country .” ( 49:13
— An Indiana county ended a life-saving needle exchange program because Jesus said so. (55:49)
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the podcast. If you have any suggestions for people we should chat with, please leave them in the comments, too.
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Google Play, stream all the episodes on SoundCloud or Stitcher, or just listen to the whole thing below. Our RSS feed is here.
And if you like what you’re hearing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon and leaving us a positive rating!
(Image via Shutterstock)
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Between a block and a hard place?
While ethereum‘s latest hard fork went according to plan yesterday (so far without any drastic side effects), attacks on its blockchain quickly began anew.
In this case, ethereum executed a hard fork on Tuesday in a bid to stop denial of service (DoS) attacks that have been ongoing for about a month. Following weeks of transaction and block creation issues, the platform’s developers determined that the best way to fix the issue was to reprice certain network functions, and users and miners responded by quickly upgrading their software (a process known as a ‘hard fork’).
The stable transition to a new transaction record was what many in ethereum team arguably had expected, since the fork was a technical change (unlike the contentious move to rewrite the network’s ledger after the hack of The DAO).
However, the attacker appears to have switched gears, taking advantage of security holes that weren’t expected to be patched until later.
Developers are currently working on new fixes, according to Ethereum Foundation IT consultant Hudson Jameson, who told CoinDesk:
“We are working on client updates to help mitigate the issues somewhat until the second hard fork happens.”
Not yet thwarted
But this new wave of attacks has led to new problems, though they were (to an extent) forseen.
From the start, ethereum developers had planned two hard forks, as the attacker had been taking advantage of a variety of attack vectors. The first aimed to increase the price of certain opcodes that the attacker was successfully abusing to make it harder for him or her to slow down the network. The second hard fork was expected to remove empty accounts the attacker created to bloat the blockchain.
Still, with the second fork yet to be executed, short-term problems have emerged.
In response to the most recent attacks, the Ethereum Foundation issued a recommendation to miners, advising them to lower the gas limit (thus limiting how many transactions can be carried out) before a second fork. At the time of press, cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift has also paused the trading of ether (again).
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin suggested he believes the two attacks can be thwarted with the second technical upgrade. “A successful hard fork round two would resolve this for the short and medium term as it would make the state possible to put in memory again,” he explained.
The problem, Jameson said, is that the blockchain state has grown too big, and the attacker is taking advantage of that.
“The [second] hard fork will shrink the size of the blockchain state and disallow a specific attack that is being utilized to activate the empty accounts over and over again,” he explained.
One less severe attack, which increases processing times to an estimated one to three seconds, takes advantage of another mispriced opcode.
Johnson and Buterin claimed that the plan is to raise the price in the second hard fork.
Conditions ahead
Even after the second hard fork, however, it’s unclear what will happen or whether it will prevent attackers from finding other vectors.
Around these attacks there have been wider conversations about how (and whether) ethereum can stop these sorts of attacks in the short term or long term.
Many argue that the attacks are an inevitable result of the way ethereum is designed. (More on-platform capabilities mean that ethereum has a larger attack surface than other blockchain networks).
The new attacks prompted BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp to wonder “how many hard forks it will take to plug all the holes”.
And some observers are questioning whether developers are taking enough care before making changes to the network.
“The real story behind this attack and the hardforks is that they are not really testing well,” said IBM blockchain leader of the Latin American division Martin Hagelstrom. “Even when the devs talk about these issues it does not sound like they are aware that their network has $1bn in it.”
But others remain optimistic about ethereum’s future, especially since there haven’t appeared to be any serious problems so far as a result of the fork.
Even if the attacker isn’t thwarted this time, to some this only furthers idea that hard forks are an option for combating them, and that each hurdle that ethereum jumps brings it closer to a working platform.
Marco Streng, CEO of hosted ethereum mining firm, Genesis Mining, indicated he remains impressed by the network’s response to the pressures it has faced in recent months.
Streng concluded:
“It sets a clear sign ethereum will go out of this stronger than before.”
Spinning top image via Shutterstock
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Jonathan Cahn released a video today warning viewers to prepare for God’s judgment for the nation’s growing “apostasy” to fall upon America in September in the form of economic collapse, natural disaster, or a terrorist attack.
Or maybe not … as Cahn was careful to hedge his bets by also asserting that possibly nothing at all will happen because God “is sovereign and He doesn’t have to work according to our schedule or understanding.” But even if nothing happens, Cahn said, America still deserves God’s judgment because of things like the legalization of gay marriage.
“I believe a great shaking is coming to America and the world,” he said. “We have watched the apostasy of America continue, it has continued and it accelerating. The harbingers have not stopped, they have continued to manifest, which are indications of a nation progressing to judgment.”
“How does judgment come?” Cahn continued. “It can come in the form of collapse economically, financially, the nation’s blessing, sustenance being removed. It can also come in the form of natural disaster, earthquakes, famines, other things, many ways in the natural realm. It can also come in the form of man-made disaster, as in terrorism, war, as in 9/11.”
And America is ripe for such judgment because of the recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide, he said.
“This summer, America crossed the line,” he warned. “This was a tectonic event, a seismic change with ramifications not just about marriage but about the future of the culture, of society, of religious freedom, of persecution and, I believe, judgment.”
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Note I am reviewing the product itself (the price point is up to you, the buyer, to decide if it's worth the cost).
As noted, the Rear Admiral package was an early backer offering that is basically the same as the current Andromeda game package ([...]:
1.) Lifetime Insurance - Never need to pay in-game currency to insure your ship. Current understanding is that insurance is supposed to be easy to earn in-game. Given the portion of the game which deals with this (Persistent Universe) is still in closed Alpha, we can only go by what information we are given. The current offering "only" gives 6-months free insurance. Afterwards, you need to buy it periodically.
2.) Deluxe Silver Collector's Box - You get a physical box for your game, vs the current offering's digital-only access. No one knows what the box looks like at this point so it's a gamble if you'll like it. That said, you can google and find images of what the box "might" look like.
3.) Spaceship-shaped USB Drive - It's a USB drive. 'nuff said. Again, no one knows what it will look like so that's a gamble.
4.) A physical CD of the soundtrack. The current offering gives a digital soundtrack.
5.) A glossy fold-up starmap. If it's anything like elite dangerous, it's likely going to be about 3' x 2' sized. A nice to have if you have the wall space for it but again, since we don't know what it'll look like, it's a gamble.
6.) Hardback "Making of Star Citizen". A "making of" isn't worth much other than to fans, in my opinion. That said, I'm a sucker for hardback books in packages.
7.) 5 spaceship blueprints. - I believe this would be physical blueprints you can display. Which ships, no one knows yet.
8.) 3" plastic spaceship model - Current consensus is it will be a "Constellation".
I believe as a whole, the package does qualify as a nice "Limited Edition" package. You get a lot of swag that is quite nice but already somewhat expensive when compared to other Limited Edition / Collectors Edition packages (Star Wars: The Old Republic and Elite Dangerous come to mind). Still, take everything above with a grain of salt as no one has even seen what the above look like once released. My rating may change as soon as I actually get a hold of the items.
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Judge halts Pennsylvania voter ID law
Scene from an NAACP rally against Pennsylvania's voter identification law. (Photo11: John C. Whitehead, AP)
A Pennsylvania judge is putting a halt to the state's new voter identification law, ordering today that it not be enforced for the presidential election just five weeks away.
The ruling by Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson could be appealed to the state's Supreme Court. Simpson's ruling says the law -- requiring each voter to show a valid state-issued photo ID at the polls -- would be fully implemented next year.
Simpson's ruling means Pennsylvania voters will be asked to show photo ID, but can still vote if they don't do so. The same policy was in effect during the state's primary earlier this year.
The judge said during hearings last week that he was considering invalidating a part of the six-month-old law -- considered one of the toughest in the nation -- for the Nov. 6 election.
Democrats and their allies, such as the NAACP, have been opposed to the voter ID law, saying it would harm minorities and low-income voters. Republicans have praised the law as a way to reduce election fraud.
Pennsylvania, a swing state, has 20 electoral votes up for grabs. President Obama is leading statewide opinion polls by an average of 8 points, according to six recent surveys compiled by RealClearPolitics. Mitt Romney said during a recent campaign stop in Pennsylvania that he believes he can carry the state.
Simpson said today that he "expected more photo IDs to have been issued by this time. For this reason, I accept petitioners' argument that in the remaining five weeks before the general election, the gap between the photo IDs issued and the estimated need will not be closed."
Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, which challenged the law in court, hailed Simpson's ruling. "The evidence made it clear to the judge that this law would indeed disenfranchise voters and that the Commonwealth was not equipped to implement it fairly right now," she said in a statement.
Rob Gleason, chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, said in a statement that he was "disappointed" by the ruling. "We shouldn't have to wait for this commonsense reform to be enacted," Gleason said. "With that being said, voter ID is still Pennsylvania law, was found to be constitutional and we will work to encourage voters to bring their photo identification with them to the polls."
(Contributiing: Associated Press)
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/SkNwll
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The supreme court has shown, with it's overturning of a 100 year old Montana law preventing corporate intervention in elections that it is systematically making elections in the US meaningless. When corporations can outbid the people in buying media coverage, when the richest candidate can buy his way into a primary, as Romney did, when foreign money can flood into elections, the supreme court has become an enemy of democracy.
We must fight this every way we can, non-violently.
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Chris Hedges says the way to do it is with protests and civil disobedience. He and Kevin Zeese say, and I totally agree, that electoral politics are a distraction that don't work anymore. Sure, go vote for the lesser of two evils-- there are very few people in America who do not see their vote as such-- but also engage in non-electoral activism.
that's a start. We have to figure out a way to end this reign of terror against democracy, honest voting and the middle class. We cannot stand helplessly, idly by while total scum-- Alito, Scalia, Thomas-- routinely sell out the American people.
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Opednews will do what it can to keep exposing the wrongs, the injustices as well as the courageous acts of activism, protest and civil disobedience. We'll bring new approaches to activism and protest, new ways to share messages and build power.
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A remarkable international effort to map out the avian tree of life has revealed how birds evolved after the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs into more than 10,000 species alive today. More than 200 scientists in 20 countries joined forces to create the evolutionary tree, which reveals how birds gained their colourful feathers, lost their teeth, and learned to sing songs.
The project has thrown up extraordinary similarities between the brain circuits that allow humans to speak and those that give some birds song: a case of common biology being arrived at via different evolutionary routes.
Some birds are shown to have unexpectedly close relationships, with falcons more closely related to parrots than eagles or vultures, and flamingoes more closely related to pigeons than pelicans. The map also suggests that the earliest common ancestor of land birds was an apex predator, which gave way to the prehistoric giant terror birds that once roamed the Americas.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some birds are shown to have unexpectedly close relationships, with falcons more closely related to parrots than eagles or vultures, and flamingoes more closely related to pigeons than pelicans. Photograph: Alamy
“This has not been done for any other organism before,” Per Ericson, an evolutionary biologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, told the journal Science. “It’s mind-blowing.”
The scientists began their task by analysing fingernail-sized pieces of frozen flesh taken from 45 bird species, including eagles, woodpeckers, ostriches and parakeets, gathered by museums around the world over the past 30 years. From the thawed-out tissue, they extracted and read the birds’ whole genomes. To these they added the genomes of three previously sequenced species. It took nine supercomputers the equivalent of 400 years of processor time to compare all the genomes and arrange them into a comprehensive family tree.
Members of the project, named the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium, published the family tree and their analysis on Thursday in eight main papers in the journal Science, and in more than 20 others in different scientific journals.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The loss of so many species in a mass extinction freed up vast ecological niches, giving feathered animals an unprecedented chance to diversify. Photograph: Alamy
The rise of the birds began about 65m years ago. A mass extinction – probably caused by an asteroid collision – wiped out most of the larger-bodied dinosaurs, but left a few feathered creatures. The loss of so many other species freed up vast ecological niches, giving these animals an unprecedented chance to diversify.
Comparisons of the birds’ genomes with those of other animals pointed researchers towards a host of genes involved with the emergence of coloured feathers. While feathers may first have emerged for warmth, colourful plumage may have played a part in mating success. Researchers at the University of South Carolina found that waterbirds had the lowest number of genes linked to feather coloration, while domesticated pets and agricultural birds had eight times as many.
Further analysis of the genomes revealed that the common ancestor of all living birds lost its teeth more than 100m years ago. Mutations in at least six key genes meant that the enamel coating of teeth failed to form around 116m years ago. Tooth loss probably began at the front of the jaw and moved to the rear as the beak developed more fully.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Despite sharing many of the same genes, parrots and songbirds gained the ability to learn and copy sounds independently from hummingbirds. Photograph: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images
“Ever since the discovery of the fossil bird Archaeopteryx in 1861, it has been clear that living birds are descended from toothed dinosaurs. However, the history of tooth loss in the ancestry of modern birds has remained elusive for more than 150 years,” said Mark Springer at the University of California, Riverside.
Birdsong has evolved more than once. Despite sharing many of the same genes, parrots and songbirds gained the ability to learn and copy sounds independently from hummingbirds. More striking is that the group of 50 or so genes that allow some birds to sing is similar to those that give humans the ability to speak. “This means that vocal learning birds and humans are more similar to each other for these genes in song and speech areas in the brain than other birds and primates are to them,” said Erich Jarvis at Duke University in North Carolina.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The scientists began their task by analysing fingernail-sized pieces of frozen flesh taken from 45 bird species, including eagles, woodpeckers, ostriches and parakeets. Photograph: Martin Harvey/Getty Images/Gallo Images
The common genes are involved in making fresh connections between brain cells in the motor cortex and those that control muscles used to make sounds.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the scientists found differences in the vocal regions of the parrot brain. These birds had an area of brain for producing song that was surrounded by a secondary region, leading to what the researchers called “a song system within a song system”.
David Burt at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute said the results, the first to be released by the consortium, were only the beginning. “We hope that giving people the tools to explore this wealth of bird gene information in one place will stimulate further research,” he said. “Ultimately, we hope the research will bring important insights to help improve the health and welfare of wild and farmed birds.”
How penguins adapted to frigid conditions
Penguin DNA collected for the avian family tree project has cast light on how the flightless birds endure the Antarctic’s cold hostile environment.
Researchers led by Cai Li, at the Beijing Genomics Institute, analysed the genomes of Adélie and emperor penguins and found scores of genetic changes that help them adapt to the frigid conditions.
Both penguins were found to have a beefed-up gene set for making proteins for feathers, ensuring a densely packed covering of the short, stiff feathers, which keeps heat in and water out.
The scientists also spotted a gene, known as DSG1. In humans it causes thick skin on the hands and feet; in the penguins this adaptation, present all over the body, is beneficial.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Research suggests emperor penguins have been better able to handle the harsh environment than other penguin species. Photograph: Frans Lanting/Getty Images/Mint Images
Penguins must withstand the cold and go without food for months on end, making fat storage a crucial factor in survival. The Adélie penguin were seen to have eight genes involved with metabolism of fatty lipids, though the emperor had only three.
The birds lost their ability to fly but their wings became supremely adapted to underwater acrobatics. Writing in the journal GigaScience, Li’s team describes 17 genes that have driven the re-shaping of penguins’ forelimbs. Mutations in one of those genes, called EVC2, causes Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes short-limb dwarfism and short ribs in people.
The first penguins evolved about 60m years ago, but the emperors and Adélies have markedly different histories. The Adélie penguin population grew rapidly 150,000 years ago as the climate warmed, but crashed by 40% when a cold and dry glacial period arrived 60,000 years ago.
The emperor penguins fared better, their numbers hardly changing, pointing to a better ability to handle the harsh environment.
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The I.W.W. - Its History, Structure, and Method
Vincent ST. JOHN (1876 - 1929)
“We must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, ‘Abolition of the wage system’”
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies," is an international labor union that was founded in 1905. The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as "revolutionary industrial unionism," with ties to both socialist and anarchist labor movements. The IWW promotes the concept of "One Big Union," and contends that all workers should be united as a social class to supplant capitalism and wage labor with industrial democracy.
Vincent St. John (1876 – 1929) was an American labor leader and prominent Wobbly, among the most influential radical labor leaders of the 20th century. - Summary by Wikipedia
Genre(s): Essays & Short Works
Language: English
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Image caption Emissions data from major exporters like China can be unclear
The extent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions "hidden" in imported goods is growing, according to two studies.
Official data do not include emissions from making imported goods but both sets of researchers say they should.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports 26% of global emissions come from producing goods for trade.
The Carbon Trust found such "embedded" CO2 could negate domestic carbon cuts planned in the UK up to 2025.
'Delusion'
Researchers want all nations to publish their data on embedded emissions.
Glen Peters of research group Cicero, lead authors of the PNAS report, told BBC News: "There is a degree of delusion about emissions cuts in developed nations. They are not really cuts at all if countries are simply buying in products they used to manufacture.
"We really need all countries to be developing and publishing the full extent of their emissions, whether they are produced domestically or outsourced through traded goods."
Publishing this sort of data is the first step, the next step - what to do about it - is more difficult Glen Peters, Cicero
The issue of embedded (or outsourced) carbon emissions has been recognised for several years, and the methodology to track emissions pathways is developing.
Cicero produced a trade-linked global database for CO2 emissions covering 113 countries and 57 economic sectors from 1990 to 2008.
It found that emissions from producing exported goods increased from 4.3Gt (gigatonnes) of CO2 in 1990 (20% of global emissions) to 7.8Gt of CO2 in 2008 (26%).
Most developed countries increased their consumption-based emissions faster than their territorial emissions - particularly from goods such cars and clothes.
Border taxes
The Carbon Trust research confirms that the UK has increased emissions since 1990 rather than decreasing them, as politicians typically claim.
What may alarm ministers even more is a projection that the radical CO2 cuts planned by government into the 2020s may be offset by ever-increasing levels of CO2 in imports.
Dr Peters said: "Publishing this sort of data is the first step. The next step - what to do about it - is more difficult.
For a government which wants to be the greenest ever and is committed to data transparency it's essential that the British government publishes the best data available Guy Shrubsole, Public Interest Research Centre
"It raises questions about consumption patterns, and whether countries should consider border taxes on imports from countries with no controls on CO2 emissions… though this is controversial and will be some way down the line."
A UK think tank, the Public Interest Research Centre (Pirc), has been discovering how uncomfortable this issue is proving for rich nations.
A succession of Freedom of Information requests reveals a degree of frustration among some British civil servants that the UK insists on basing its emissions calculations solely on domestic emissions.
One piece of government correspondence reveals: "While technological efficiency has improved the CO2 impacts of our products since 1992, the rise in UK consumption has outstripped the improvements achieved.
"The government needs to be cautious about over-claiming on its achievements in decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation."
Ministers are well aware of the issue, but insist that the UK should stick to reporting domestic emissions, as these form the basis for international climate negotiations.
They also point out that emissions data from major exporters like China is notoriously opaque, and that the methodology for calculating outsourced emissions is unreliable. They say all this creates even greater pressure for the UK to persuade China to cut its own emissions.
Guy Shrubsole, from Pirc, told BBC News: "This is a cop-out. The figures aren't perfect but the problem has been recognised for several years and the calculations are getting better all the time. In the UK our emissions are up - not down.
"Of course China needs to be part of a global climate agreement. But for a government which wants to be the greenest ever and is committed to data transparency it's essential that the British government publishes the best data available right away - and then figures out what to do about it."
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At least four candidates seeking office in Western North Carolina cities and towns this fall have criminal records.
Carolina Public Press conducted a search of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Offender Public Information database and crosschecked with voter registration records for candidates in the state’s 18 westernmost counties.
This process identified four candidates with criminal histories:
Michael David Rogers, 52, is running for Highlands town commissioner in Macon and Jackson counties. Records show he has eight misdemeanor convictions for passing worthless checks stemming from incidents between April and November 2003. Three Class 2 misdemeanor convictions were in Henderson County and five Class 1 misdemeanor convictions were in Macon County. He received probation.
Charles Herman Schmidt, 35, is running for the Sylva council in Jackson County. He has an August 2006 conviction for Level 2 Driving While Intoxicated in New Hanover County on Feb. 4, 2006, for which he received probation.
William Alan “Justin” Phillips, 35, is running for mayor of Maggie Valley in Haywood County. He has four class H felony convictions in Buncombe County for obtaining property by false pretenses stemming from incidents between July and November 2004. He received probation.
Walter “Chub” Pettit Jr., 73, is running for Rosman Board of Aldermen in Transylvania County. Records show he was convicted on Jan. 18, 1989, in Transylvania County of having received stolen goods on March 10, 1988, a class H felony. He later faced three charges related to the possession and sale of illegal drugs in Transylvania County on Jan. 23, 1989, all class H felonies, for which he was convicted on March 8, 1990. He received probation.
While some individuals may have avoided detection, it appears that no other WNC candidates have records of criminal convictions in North Carolina.
While convicted felons cannot initially run for office in North Carolina, once they have completed their sentences they may have their rights restored and seek office. Those convicted of misdemeanors are not prevented from seeking office. CPP is providing information about these candidates, not to challenge their eligibility to seek office, but to educate voters, who can then decide whether these criminal histories should affect their decisions at the ballot box.
CPP contacted each candidate with an apparent record to discuss the charges against them. Their reactions varied.
Michael David Rogers
Rogers talked briefly with CPP by phone on Thursday. Asked if he would discuss his criminal record in advance of this article’s release, he responded, “Not really. That’s not anything. That’s in the past,” then he hung up.
Rogers is one of four candidates running for three seats on the Highlands Board of Commissioners. Each of his three opponents is an incumbent.
Charles Herman Schmidt
Also contacted by phone on Thursday, Schmidt thanked CPP for giving him “the benefit of the doubt” and allowing to explain what happened.
Schmidt said at the time of the 2004 incident he had recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and had returned to the coast to visit some college friends.
After going to a bar, Schmidt said he underestimated how much he’d had to drink and made the mistake of trying to drive back to his friends’ condo when an officer stopped him.
“You’re 24 or 25 years old and you don’t make the best decisions,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt he doesn’t have a drinking problem and hasn’t had any other run-ins with the law.
He is one of five candidates for three seats on the Sylva council. Schmidt’s opponents include one current incumbent, with two sitting commissioners deciding not to defend their open seats as they instead run for mayor.
William Alan ‘Justin’ Phillips
William Alan “Justin” Phillips, who owns a coffee shop in Maggie Valley, is one of two contenders on the ballot for the mayor’s seat in that Haywood County town. However, the previous mayor died after the filing period and another candidate with ties to town government is also campaigning as a write-in.
Phillips’ criminal history became public knowledge earlier this year when The Mountaineer in Waynesville approached him about his convictions and he agreed to be interviewed. Other media in the area have also noted his colorful past
The Mountaineer article said Phillips admitted to having made mistakes while battling a drug problem and has trouble recalling details of what he actually did at the time, though it involved cashing large checks in other people’s names. Some of those checks turned out to be on closed or bogus accounts.
Speaking with Carolina Public Press by phone on Thursday, Phillips largely confirmed these aspects of the newspaper’s article. He emphasized that his conviction was not for writing thousands of dollars in bad checks, but primarily for depositing bad checks he says he received from other people. He said there’s been some confusion over that distinction.
He also noted that he had been unaware of the charges he was facing while he was living out of state and trying to put his life back together. When learned of the charges, he turned himself in, he said.
“Circumstances in life can make us do some interesting things,” he said. “I was the common denominator in all of my problems.”
Phillips told CPP that he never experimented with drugs when he was younger but began doing so in his early 20s during a relationship with a woman he was dating who “liked to party.”
He described his successful career in radio before he became involved in drugs, as well as his success other business enterprises after he went clean.
“What happened 12 or 13 years ago, happened 12 or 13 years ago,” he said.
Phillips said the negative experience has imparted some important lessons. “For a four-year period in my life … I went off the rails,” he said. “It’s OK to derail sometimes. You can rebound.”
He described his drug period as educating him about unscrupulous individuals, something that’s been helpful and business and he believes would be valuable as mayor. “I can spot a con man from a mile away,” he said.
Asked whether he had begun using “Justin Phillips” rather than his legal name, William Alan Phillips, to avoid attention about his record, the candidate denied that was the case.
Phillips said his use of “Justin” dates to his days as a radio personality on country and rock music stations in Jacksonville, Florida, where his on-air nickname was “Justin Case.” “Justin” is the name by which everyone knows him today, he said.
Phillips said he could understand why someone might be suspicious. given the town where he’s seeking office. “There’s something very peculiar about Maggie Valley,” he said. “It does some to attract an unsavory type.”
Walter ‘Chub’ Pettit Jr.
In one case, a criminal history has already proven not to be an impediment to election and appears unlikely to affect the candidate’s re-election chances.
Walter “Chub” Pettit Jr. is a current member of the Rosman board of aldermen. He’s unopposed as he seeks another term.
Pettit talked with Carolina Public Press by phone Thursday about his record. A disabled veteran who was exposed to Agent Orange, Pettit said he went through a period in the 1980s when he had trouble with alcohol and drugs. His drug convictions stem from that period.
But Pettit said he recovered from those problems and has been clean for more than 20 years.
Regarding the conviction for receiving stolen goods, Pettit said he was operating a surplus store and received some items that later turned out to be stolen. Prosecutors pursued him instead of those who had taken the items, he said.
“We all have skeletons in our closets,” he said, pointing to the many people who cheat on their taxes. “But you live and learn.”
Pettit described his pride in the town’s progress since he’s been on the board.
CPP also talked with multiple sources in Transylvania County who confirmed that Pettit’s colorful history is well-known and does not seem to have affected his ability to serve.
Arrested, not convicted
One candidate who came to CPP’s attention during this process was Bob Spitzen, who’s running for mayor in Flat Rock in Henderson County against the current mayor.
“I was arrested four times (in Flat Rock),” he told CPP during a phone interview Friday. “That’s why I’m running for mayor.”
In addition to being thrown into jail on trespassing charges in Haywood County, Spitzen has also been arrested multiple times over the last 25 years for various acts of civic activism in Pennsylvania and in Wilmington.
But none of the charges ever stuck.
In Wilmington, Spitzen was convicted of trespassing on the property of a city official, but appealed the case, which was dismissed when the other party no longer wanted to pursue it. As a result, Spitzen’s record is officially clean in North Carolina.
Spitzen describes himself as a “provocateur.”
“That’s a couple of things (that led to arrests) out of 50 opportunities,” he said. “Good for me.”
“I get involved in whatever appears at the moment that it seems I should get involved in,” he said.
Spitzen also explained his sudden withdrawal from the race during one of his candidacies for Wilmington city government in 2001. The decision came because of the 9/11 attacks, he said.
“I was from New York,” he said. “I had been on Wall Street. I knew some of those people.”
At a forum that afternoon, Spitzen said he announced that he didn’t have his heart in the race and was dropping out.
Conducting the search
Except for the information that came to light about Spitzen, CPP’s candidate research did not include records from outside North Carolina. It’s entirely possible that some candidates have criminal histories in other places, but that was beyond the scope of CPP’s search. Also outside the scope of this search were records of any convictions on federal charges.
Due to limited information in voter records, some candidates who are using different versions of their names or who have changed their names would not have been identifiable in the state’s criminal database. Anyone using an entirely fake identification, including a new birthdate, would also have gone undetected.
Another group who would have avoided being flagged includes anyone who was charged but not convicted, or had convictions set aside or overturned on appeal.
CPP’s search did screen out a large number of false matches using birthdays, which are given in the offender database and searchable in the voter registration database.
For instance, if John Q. Public is seeking office and appears to be a match for a John Q. Public who had a felony conviction and was born on July 4, 1976, then CPP searched the voter record under that name for the 07/04/1976 birthday to see whether they are the same person. In the vast majority of cases, this process showed that they were not the same individuals.
But in the four cases identified, the birthdays matched.
In many other cases, very near matches of candidates with unusual names with people who had different birthdays and were convicted of crimes in the same area of North Carolina suggested that close relatives may have had criminal histories. But candidates’ families were not the focus of this CPP investigation.
In such cases, it’s also possible that the birthday in either the criminal database or the voter registration database was typed incorrectly into a computer. CPP had no way to check for this type of error.
One challenging aspect of investigating candidates was the mixed bag of public information about candidates from county to county. In most cases, a full list of candidate is available on the county board of elections website.
But that’s not always true. Some county websites provide only the sample ballot, which has less information about candidates’ full names.
Other counties have nothing about this year’s elections on their sites. In most cases the sample ballots appear on the North Carolina Board of Elections site, where they are broken down by county.
For some reason Avery County’s sample ballot was missing from the state site, but county election officials did email CPP a copy of their ballot upon request.
One drawback in trying to check candidates’ background using sample ballots alone is that these documents don’t provide the full names under which the person has registered to vote. With many candidates using their middle names or nicknames on the ballot, this can lead to confusion, especially if other voters in the same area have names that match the one the actual candidate is using on the ballot.
Voters who are interested in researching more about candidates using a search engine or other online tool, can attempt to follow some of the same procedures CPP did as they try to educate themselves ahead of Election Day.
But researchers should be careful to avoid being fooled false matches due to some of the issues CPP encountered.
In addition to the type of background search that CPP conducted, voters could be frustrated in efforts to seek other information about candidates when only the sample ballot is available.
For instance, knowing the full names under which candidates registered to vote can also help show pinpoint their party affiliation and voting history.
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The incredible speed and volatility of cryptocurrency was on full display over the past few days with IOTA. At the start of November, IOTA was a relatively obscure coin that was trading at around $0.38. Today, its value is closing in on $5.
While there’s nothing unusual about minor cryptocurrencies experiencing huge spikes in their valuation, IOTA is exploding in a way that could only really be compared to Ethereum. IOTA has just leapfrogged veterans Litecoin and Dash to become the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap. And there’s no indication that it’s stopping there.
Why is IOTA going supernova?
IOTA is a revolutionary platform that solves the main issues which have affected other cryptocurrencies – fees, scaling limitations, and centralization.
Fees and scaling limitations are by far the biggest barrier to Bitcoin ever becoming the digital currency it was originally envisioned as. As the blockchain ledger recording Bitcoin transactions grows ever larger, speed decreases as each Bitcoin transaction requires total verification of the entire blockchain.
The verification process for Bitcoin is conducted by miners who require a fee each time a transaction is processed. Bitcoin users are able to specify the fee they are willing to pay when making a transaction, which creates a bidding war when the network is congested. Miners obviously opt to verify the highest-paying transactions first, so the more popular Bitcoin becomes, the less likely it is that Bitcoin can ever be used for everyday purchases.
For Bitcoin, the problem of fees and scaling limitations are completely entangled. Other cryptocurrencies have scaling limitations of their own, with Ethereum’s transaction fees slowing down considerably thanks to the viral success of the kitten-breeding game CryptoKitties.
Centralization is happening inadvertently with Bitcoin, with power becoming concentrated in powerful mining firms who essentially control whether transactions get verified. Centralization is one of the central criticisms of other emerging cryptocurrencies like Neo, which operate a small number of nodes that could conceivably be taken out by any manner of digital or real-world catastrophes.
The first reason for IOTA’s sudden success is that it’s seemingly solved all these issues with the Tangle. The Tangle moves beyond blockchain to execute all transactions peer-to-peer, without any transaction fees. Instead of miners validating transactions on the ledger as with Bitcoin, verification is built into the ledger itself. The more popular IOTA becomes, the more widespread the transaction-verifying Tangle. Where scaling and network congestion hamstrings Bitcoin and Ethereum, IOTA actually becomes faster the more people use it.
The second reason is that the Tangle has got some major tech players very excited. It’s no coincidence that IOTA’s explosion in value followed an announcement of a partnership with Microsoft. Microsoft are very proactive in the cryptocurrency space. They recently launched a development contest with Neo and they are one of the main players in the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. The company responsible for making PCs user-friendly fared poorly in the smartphone space, with Windows Phone never coming close to rivalling Android or iPhone’s market share. Microsoft are keen to be at the front of the pack when it comes to the rapidly-evolving world of blockchain and cryptocurrency.
The third reason is speculation at its wildest. The cryptocurrency market is a hyper-charged version of the stock market where a slight bearish trend can become hysteria within hours. All-time highs generate headlines which generate speculation which generates more headlines, and the price starts increasing exponentially purely because the price is increasing exponentially.
How far can IOTA climb?
Speculation is still at the heart of all cryptocurrency investments and we may still be years from seeing the technology behind IOTA being used to its full potential. However, if it fulfils even a fraction of that potential, there’s almost no limit to how big IOTA can get.
While Bitcoin is increasingly referred to as digital gold, IOTA is positioning itself as the crypto equivalent of a major energy conglomerate. Central to IOTA’s potential is the idea that data is the oil of the digital economy. To take this metaphor to its logical conclusion, IOTA may have just invented the internal combustion engine.
IOTA’s combination of secure data transfer and zero transaction fees enable the sharing and monetization of data on a grand scale. IOTA’s vision is of a near-future in which data is freely and instantly amalgamated from smart devices connected to the Internet of Things.
We are already living in the early years of the data age, with an incredible amount of information on all of us existing on the internet and in the databases of the myriad companies we interact with every day. As IOTA points out on its website, 99% of the data that is currently generated is lost due to there being no real way to sync-up the data generated by every internet-connected device. The Tangle makes it easy for companies to automate the sharing and selling of this data.
Before Microsoft got on board, IOTA had already announced partnerships with Cisco Systems, Samsung, and Volkswagen. Its easy to see why the Tangle’s game-changing utilization of data would be incredibly interesting to major companies like this.
The suddenness of IOTA is surprising even by cryptocurrency’s crazy standards. The majority of trading volume is currently being conducted through Bitfinex and Binance. Korea’s largest exchange, Bithumb, will be adding IOTA soon, which could cause the value to rise even higher.
Cryptocurrency is so new, and IOTA is so different to every other player in the space, that there really is no guide by which to predict its future. The spikes and dips that have marked Bitcoin’s ascension can be plotted against trends experienced by other markets and technologies, allowing somewhat-educated guesses to be made about its future direction. But when something moves as suddenly as IOTA, all bets are off. The price could continue to sky-rocket or it could collapse tomorrow. The more speculation mounts, the more unpredictable things become.
But IOTA is undoubtedly an incredibly interesting project with almost unlimited potential.
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Just over six months after facilitating Zlatan Ibrahimovic's switch to PSG, the 45-year-old Italian was back in the news for masterminding yet another massive transfer
Mino
Raiola’s
Maguire
Napoli
Laurentiis
Raiola
Maguire
kwan
Mino
Raiola
Agri
Haarlem
Raiola
Raiola
Haarlem
RAIOLA'S WHEELING & DEALING
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC
The Swede has made five permanent moves since hooking up with Raiola in 2004 for an estimated cumulative total of €165 million. MARIO BALOTELLI
Raiola engineered the €30m switch from Inter to Manchester City in 2010 and has now brought him back to Milan, to the Rossoneri , for €22m. ROBINHO
The Brazilian wanted to swap City for Barcelona in 2010 but Raiola , who wasn't even Robinho's agent, intervened and sent him to Milan. PAVEL NEDVED
Again, Raiola wasn't technically representing Nedved when he left Lazio for Juventus in 2001, but the agent brokered the €41m transfer. MAXWELL
The defender officially came under Raiola 's wing in 2009 and has since made two lucrative moves, to Barcelona and then PSG.
Raiola
“The president of Haarlem came to eat with us every Friday,” he explained in an interview with
Secolo
Raiola
Raiola , having honed his skills as a mediator while working as a broker for Dutch businessmen with commercial interests in Italy, negotiated a deal with the player’s union in Netherlands that enabled him to represent all of the country’s footballers.
Napoli
Partenopei
Corrado
Ferlaino
Bergkamp
Bergkamp
Wim
Jonk
Nerazzurri
Raiola
Serie
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Raiola
Raiola
Zlatan
Ibrahimovic
Juventus
Calciopoli
Bianconeri
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Raiola
Moggi : "You and Ibra continue to make trouble. Don't send him to training ..."
Raiola
Pogba
Trafford
Pogba
Laurentiis
Raiola
Marek
Hamsik
Raiola
Laurentiis
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Raiola insists otherwise, though, claiming that he only ever does right by his clients, arguing that he does not engineer transfers, but merely facilitates them.
Pogba
Ibrahimovic’s
"I think that when a player decides to leave a team, he should leave ... The old agents worked in the interests of the club. For me, the player comes first "
- Mino Raiola
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By Mark Doyleaccountancy firm is calledTax & Legal, its name inspired by an Oscar-winning movie starring Tom Cruise.president Aurelio Dewould no doubt be offended by the insinuation thatis in any way similar to Jerry, the fictional sports agent who comes to champion love (or “”) over greed, but many of his clients would argue that the comparison is just.Welcome to the divisive - yet lucrative - world of, super agent.The 45-year-old was born in, Italy, but his parents emigrated to Netherlands when he was still an infant, settling in. It was in this Dutch municipality thatwas raised before taking the first steps to becoming one of the most influential agents in football.Although it might not look it now,was a moderately talented player in his youth and he played for his local club before quitting the game at just 18. However, while he started studying law, he had not lost his passion for football, electing to take charge of theyouth team.Even at such a tender age,was a straight-talker with a distinct lack of respect for any figure of authority other than his restaurateur father.IlXIX two years ago. “I was always telling him that he knew nothing about football. One day he takes me aside and says: ‘Listen, you try it.’ He appointed me sporting director.”, though, became frustrated by his inability to make what he reckoned were the requisite changes due to a lack of funds. However, with Dutch players very much in vogue in the mid-1980s, he saw that there was money to be made in selling his adopted nation’s top footballing talent to Italy, which was then the centre of the footballing universe.His goal at this point was to establish a special working relationship with, “the club of my heart”. However, the deal collapsed. "I called [thenpresident. We started the collaboration. I offered him [Dennis]for 700 million lire [€362,000]. He hesitated. Two years later [1993], he offered €14 million, but I gave the player to Inter."With thedeal, which also sawjoin thefrom Ajax,had established himself as a major player inA, coming as it did a year after Bryan Roy's successful switch from Amsterdam toWhat was clear at this juncture was thatwas adept at making his clients happy. However, clubs were becoming increasingly concerned by his methods.Indeed, Ajax, who had profited substantially from-arranged deals during the early '90s, were less enamoured with the way in which star forwardleft forin 2004. Their ill-feeling only intensified two years later when the fallout fromled to the release of the following recorded telephone exchanges between thenmanaging director LucianoandRaiola: "Tomorrow, I'll keep the player at home all day; he won't show up for training. I then have an appointment with the directors of Ajax at noon, but I'll come at two ..."'s influence on players was also queried by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson during his club’s ultimately futile attempts to persuade former midfielder Paulto remain at Oldlast year. “He [] has got an agent who’s obviously become a bit difficult ...”Meanwhile, the aforementioned Dewas, unsurprisingly, far more blunt when it came to addressingand the agent's all-too-public protestations that, who is not even officially a client, should leave the San Paolo in order to better himself as a player. "," Demused. "He's a pain in the backside, who, for years, has been trying to takeaway.""I think that when a player decides to leave a team he should leave," he reasons. "I have never made compromises; I work exclusively in the interest of my client. The players are my fortune and I have a great responsibility towards them. However, I have never carried out improper activity or activity that I, personally, do not think proper. The old agents favoured the interests of the club. For me, the player comes first.”Whatever the truth, this is a man with an undeniable way with words who knows how to sell himself, and his players. He has memorably comparedwith a Salvador Dali painting and claimed thatmove to Paris Saint-Germain has provided visitors to the French capital with something to see other than the Mona Lisa. However, while he speaks eight languages (Italian, Dutch, French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and "of course Neapolitan"), he rather humbly puts his impressive linguistic capabilities down to "preparation, not intelligence".Whatever it is, he is incredibly canny. He has cultivated a mutually beneficial relationship with Milan, as further evidenced by his masterminding of Mario's recent switch to San, and he has also proven himself wonderfully adept at massaging the ego of his players. He told a teenagethat he would make him a three-timed’Or winner, yet says the same award will be rendered meaningless if it is never given toSuch contradictions lie at the very heart of the role of agents in the modern game. Yes, the world of football would be a beautiful place if there were no agents, but it is a pipe dream, as football is no longer a sport, but big business. "We live in a cynical world," as Dicky Fox says in 'Jerry Maguire'. "A cynical world. And we work in a business of tough competitors."Consequently, there will always be a need for people like. Love him or loathe him, one cannot deny that he is very good at what he does. The man himself says he resolves problems. His detractors say that he creates them. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between - and perhaps utterly irrelevant because the bottom line is thatmakes money. Both for his clients - and himself.
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Getting Pushbullet set up should be easy.
In Today’s Android app update, we’ve completely rebuilt our onboarding flow to make it as simple as possible. The results speak for themselves, here’s the before and after:
We’re working to bring this level of simplicity to our entire service.
Pushbullet does some amazing things. It’s not always clear to newcomers, however, just how much Pushbullet can do for them. Making Pushbullet more accessible is the first step in making our service better for everyone.
Have a suggestion for us? Here’s how to get in touch:
The best place to post suggestions or report bugs is on the Pushbullet subreddit. This way others can see and comment on them, adding their support.
If you’re not a reddit user (or just want to chat with us directly), you can always send us an email at [email protected].
Discuss this post here on reddit
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This article is Day #5 in a series called the 31 Days of Mango.
Today, we are going to talk about a new sensor available to us, the Gyroscope. This sensor is only available in phones that were released after the Mango launch, and even then, not all phones will have a Gyroscope. However, it’s a powerful tool that we should take advantage of when its available, and this article will show you how.
If you have a device that contains a gyroscope sensor, you can download the application from this article from the Windows Phone Marketplace.
What is a Gyroscope?
According to Wikipedia, “a gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation.” Many of you probably have seen an example of a gyroscope before, but here’s an illustration of a physical gyroscope (courtesy of Wikipedia):
As you can see, it has the ability to spin on three axes, the X, Y, and Z axis (much like the Accelerometer, which we covered in Day #11 of the 31 Days of Windows Phone). While the Accelerometer measures acceleration, the Gyroscope measures rotational velocity.
Having said that, however, there is not a device in your phone that looks like the one pictured above. Instead, mobile phones use a MEMS gyroscope, which often use vibrations or resonance to determine their data.
Using the Gyroscope In Your App
The Gyroscope sensor is as easy to use as the Accelerometer, but we don’t yet have the benefit of the additional tools in the emulator. The data you receive measures the rotational velocity of the device in radians per second.
This means that you can more accurately and smoothly measure the current orientation of the device. This will become especially handy when you build applications that perform augmented reality. In most cases, however, you’re probably not going to be accessing the Gyroscope by itself. There are a couple of reasons for this:
Not all Windows Phones will have a Gyroscope. In fact, only phones that come out after the Mango release will be capable of having a Gyroscope, and it is still an optional piece of hardware.
Microsoft has created a Motion class that combines the data from the Accelerometer, the Compass, and the Gyroscope into one class that we can use more effectively (we will cover this in tomorrow’s article). If you’re interested in the attitude of the device (pitch, yaw, roll), you’re going to want to focus on the Motion class.
However, in the case that you do need to use the gyroscope independent of the Motion class, it should always be wrapped by a check to determine that the user’s device supports the gyroscope sensor. To do this, we need two specific pieces of code. This first is a using statement for the Microsoft.Phone.Sensors namespace. The second is an IF statement that checks the Gyroscope.IsSupported value. In this simple state, your code-behind file would look like this:
using System;
using Microsoft.Phone.Controls;
using Microsoft.Devices.Sensors;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; System;Microsoft.Phone.Controls;Microsoft.Devices.Sensors;Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Day5_Gyroscope
{
public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage
{
public MainPage()
{
InitializeComponent(); if (Gyroscope.IsSupported)
{
// DO SOMETHING
}
}
}
}
Now we just need to fill in that “DO SOMETHING” comment. In order to do this, let’s start with a user interface that will shows our Gyroscope data.
In the UI above, we have three TextBoxes to show the raw data, and three lines to reflect the degree of each value. To recreate this interface, use the following XAML as your page:
< Grid x : Name ="LayoutRoot" Background ="Transparent">
< Grid.RowDefinitions >
< RowDefinition Height ="Auto"/>
< RowDefinition Height ="*"/>
</ Grid.RowDefinitions > <!–TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title–>
<StackPanel x:Name="TitlePanel" Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,17,0,28">
<TextBlock x:Name="ApplicationTitle" Text="31 DAYS OF MANGO" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}"/>
<TextBlock x:Name="PageTitle" Text="gyroscope" Margin="9,-7,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/>
</StackPanel> <!–ContentPanel – place additional content here–>
<Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0">
<TextBlock Height="30" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="20,100,0,0" Name="xTextBlock" Text="X: 1.0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Foreground="Red" FontSize="28" FontWeight="Bold"/>
<TextBlock Height="30" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0,100,0,0" Name="yTextBlock" Text="Y: 1.0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Foreground="Yellow" FontSize="28" FontWeight="Bold"/>
<TextBlock Height="30" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="0,100,20,0" Name="zTextBlock" Text="Z: 1.0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Foreground="Blue" FontSize="28" FontWeight="Bold"/>
<Line x:Name="xLine" X1="240" Y1="350" X2="340" Y2="350" Stroke="Red" StrokeThickness="4"></Line>
<Line x:Name="yLine" X1="240" Y1="350" X2="240" Y2="270" Stroke="Yellow" StrokeThickness="4"></Line>
<Line x:Name="zLine" X1="240" Y1="350" X2="190" Y2="400" Stroke="Blue" StrokeThickness="4"></Line>
<TextBlock Height="30" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="6,571,6,0" Name="statusTextBlock" Text="" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="444" />
</Grid>
</Grid>
In the code example below, we create a new Gyroscope object, and after checking to make sure that the Gyroscope is supported with the Gyroscope.IsSupported boolean value, we create an event handler for CurrentValueChanged.
using System;
using Microsoft.Phone.Controls;
using Microsoft.Devices.Sensors;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; System;Microsoft.Phone.Controls;Microsoft.Devices.Sensors;Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Day5_Gyroscope
{
public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage
{
Gyroscope g;
public MainPage()
{
InitializeComponent(); if (Gyroscope.IsSupported)
{
g = new Gyroscope();
g.TimeBetweenUpdates = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(20);
g.CurrentValueChanged += new EventHandler<SensorReadingEventArgs<GyroscopeReading>>(g_CurrentValueChanged);
g.Start();
}
else statusTextBlock.Text = "gyroscope not supported";
} void g_CurrentValueChanged(object sender, SensorReadingEventArgs<GyroscopeReading> e)
{
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => UpdateUI(e.SensorReading));
} private void UpdateUI(GyroscopeReading gyroscopeReading)
{
statusTextBlock.Text = "getting data";
Vector3 rotationReading = gyroscopeReading.RotationRate; xTextBlock.Text = "X " + rotationReading.X.ToString("0.00");
yTextBlock.Text = "Y " + rotationReading.Y.ToString("0.00");
zTextBlock.Text = "Z " + rotationReading.Z.ToString("0.00"); xLine.X2 = xLine.X1 + rotationReading.X * 200;
yLine.Y2 = yLine.Y1 – rotationReading.Y * 200;
zLine.X2 = zLine.X1 – rotationReading.Z * 100;
zLine.Y2 = zLine.Y1 + rotationReading.Z * 100;
}
}
}
The Gyroscope, like the Compass, allows our event handler method to fire every time the Gyroscope detects a new value after waiting the duration that the TimeBetweenUpdates property specifies. In our example, we will get updates no faster than every 20 milliseconds.
You should notice a possibly unfamiliar bit of code in our g_CurrentValueChanged method:
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => UpdateUI(e.SensorReading));
The reason we use this is because we want to move the reading of our sensor to a separate processing thread. Without it, we would be trying to use the UI thread to access the Gyroscope, which will always throw an error. In Windows Phone, we are not allowed to lock up the UI thread, and so for many examples like this one, we will want to pitch our process to a separate thread.
We still pass the entire GyroscopeReading object to our new thread-safe method, UpdateUI, which allows us to gather each of the X, Y, and Z values from the Vector3 value RotationRate. We are displaying the data values in TextBlocks, but the cool data visualization is in those Line elements we created in our XAML.
If you imagine each line segment to represent a different data point (the red horizontal line is X, the yellow vertical line is Y, and the blue diagonal line is the Z axis. You could then manipulate the lengths of these lines to represent the rotational velocity of the device. Each of these calculations will extend the length of their respective lines, giving you a very illustrative example of what types of rotation your device is experiencing.
Remember, the code sample covered in this article will only work on devices that have a Gyroscope available. The emulator, as well as all original Windows Phone 7 devices do not have this sensor. Here’s a quick video of what this application looks like running on a device with a gyroscope:
Summary
The Gyroscope is a handy little sensor. It lets us get a very accurate picture of the device’s movement in space, which is especially useful when creating applications that use augmented reality. To download the sample application that this article discussed, click the Download Code button below:
Microsoft also created a new class in Windows Phone 7.5 called Motion, which combines the data from the Gyroscope, Accelerometer, and Compass to give us an amazing amount of accuracy. This Motion class is the topic of tomorrow’s article, and we will cover it in detail, including how to determine the “attitude” of a device, which includes pitch, yaw, and roll. See you then!
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The idea of coming together in common cause is woven into Washington’s social fabric, especially into its union history. But labor has suffered reversals before, and it suffered a large one on Jan. 3, when the Machinists union voted by a narrow margin to abandon the Boeing pension plan. At stake was a key production line.
Now union members and leaders are asking themselves – how can the labor movement recover when one of the strongest unions in the country buckled under the pressure? Among them was Billy Cox, who went to the Machinists’ Hall in South Seattle to find answers for himself and his colleagues.
“I want to not only be looking at short term – what’s happening now – but I want to know what we are going to be doing and what we’re going to look like as a union ten years from now,” he said in an interview.
Cox said he and his colleagues are concerned about the future. “We’re looking for information to see how we can come back together as a complete, whole union. Because the union was split.”
Seattle’s roots in the labor movement are deep. This was the site of the nation’s first city-wide general strike in 1919. The old Labor Temple in Belltown, with its mid-century features and famous neon sign, is still the central place where the labor movement comes together.
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Joe Scarborough on MSNBC. MSNBC Joe Scarborough on Wednesday cautioned President-elect Donald Trump against picking close advisers with little foreign policy experience for top administration posts.
The "Morning Joe" host said that Trump should pick "very boring, very middle-of-the-road" officials to serve in foreign-facing administration posts such as secretary of defense, secretary of state, and director of the National Security Agency.
"You don't get rookies for that. You don't get ideologues for that," Scarborough said.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton are both rumored to be potential picks for secretary of state — options that Scarborough warned would set off a media firestorm and damage relationships abroad.
"Abroad, you can't lurch to a John Bolton," Scarborough said.
"You think the Steve Bannon appointment got negative press? You think that's bad? Pick Rudy Giuliani as your secretary of state or John Bolton as your secretary of state, and watch everything melt down internationally."
Scarborough specifically singled out Giuliani, citing a New York Times article detailing large payments Giuliani took from the Qatari government as well as a group on the state department's terror watch list.
"After the Hillary Clinton debacle on paid speeches and foreign interests, how could Rudy Giuliani ever be secretary of state?" Scarborough said.
"Is [Trump] going to call him 'Crooked Rudy' now?"
Watch the clip below, via MSNBC:
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Love and Marriage WHAT IS THE PROPER AGE TO GET MARRIED? "Eighty-four. Because at that age, you don't have to work anymore, and you can spend all your time loving each other." (Judy, 8) "Eighty-four. Because at that age, you don't have to work anymore, and you can spend all your time loving each other." (Judy, 8) "Once I'm done with kindergarten, I'm going to find me a wife." (Tommy, 5) WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE? "On the first date, they just tell each other lies,and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date." (Mike, 10) "On the first date, they just tell each other lies,and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date." (Mike, 10) WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE? "You should never kiss a girl unless you have enough bucks to buy her a big ring and her own VCR, 'cause she'll want to have videos of the wedding." (Jim, 10) "You should never kiss a girl unless you have enough bucks to buy her a big ring and her own VCR, 'cause she'll want to have videos of the wedding." (Jim, 10) "Never kiss in front of other people. It's a big embarrassing thing if anybody sees you. But if nobody sees you, I might be willing to try it with a handsome boy, but just for a few hours." (Kally, 9) THE GREAT DEBATE: IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED? It's better for girls to be single, but not for boys. Boys need somebody to clean up after them." (Lynette, 9) It's better for girls to be single, but not for boys. Boys need somebody to clean up after them." (Lynette, 9) "It gives me a headache to think about that stuff. I'm just a kid. I don't need that kind of trouble." (Kenny, 7) CONCERNING WHY LOVE HAPPENS BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE: "No one is sure why it happens, but I heard it has something to do with how you smell. That's why perfume and deodorant are so popular." Jan, 9) "No one is sure why it happens, but I heard it has something to do with how you smell. That's why perfume and deodorant are so popular." Jan, 9) "I think you're supposed to get shot with an arrow or something, but the rest of it isn't supposed to be so painful." (Harlen, 8) ON WHAT FALLING IN LOVE IS LIKE: "Like an avalanche where you have to run for your life." (Roger, 9) "Like an avalanche where you have to run for your life." (Roger, 9) "If falling in love is anything like learning to spell, I don't want to do it. It takes to long to learn." (Leo, 7) ON THE ROLE OF GOOD LOOKS IN LOVE AND ROMANCE: "If you want to be loved by somebody who isn't already in your family, it doesn't hurt to be beautiful." (Jeanne, 8) "If you want to be loved by somebody who isn't already in your family, it doesn't hurt to be beautiful." (Jeanne, 8) "It isn't always just how you look. Look at me. I'm handsome like anything and I haven't got anybody to marry me yet." (Gary, 7) "Beauty is skin deep. But how rich you are can last a long time." (Christine, 9) CONCERNING WHY LOVERS OFTEN HOLD HANDS: "They want to make sure their rings don't fall off, because they paid good money for them." (David, 8) "They want to make sure their rings don't fall off, because they paid good money for them." (David, 8) CONFIDENTIAL OPINIONS ABOUT LOVE: "I'm in favor of love as long as it doesn't happen when 'The Simpsons' are on TV." (Anita, 6) "I'm in favor of love as long as it doesn't happen when 'The Simpsons' are on TV." (Anita, 6) "Love will find you, even if you are trying to hide from it. I've been trying to hide from it since I was five, but the girls keep finding me." (Bobby, 8) "I'm not rushing into being in love. I'm finding fourth grade hard enough." (Regina, 10) PERSONAL QUALITIES NECESSARY TO BE A GOOD LOVER: "One of you should know how to write a check. Because, even if you have tons of love, there is still going to be a lot of bills." (Ava, 8) "One of you should know how to write a check. Because, even if you have tons of love, there is still going to be a lot of bills." (Ava, 8) SOME SUREFIRE WAYS TO MAKE A PERSON FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU: "Tell them that you own a whole bunch of candy stores." (Del, 6) "Tell them that you own a whole bunch of candy stores." (Del, 6) "Don't do things like have smelly, green sneakers. You might get attention, but attention ain't the same thing as love." (Alonzo, 9) "One way is to take the girl out to eat. Make sure it's something she likes to eat. French fries usually works for me." (Bart, 9) HOW CAN YOU TELL IF TWO ADULTS EATING DINNER AT A RESTAURANT ARE IN LOVE ? "Just see if the man picks up the check. That's how you can tell if he's in love." (John, 9) "Just see if the man picks up the check. That's how you can tell if he's in love." (John, 9) "Lovers will just be staring at each other and their food will get cold. Other people care more about the food." (Brad, 8) "It's love if they order one of those desserts that are on fire. They like to order those because it's just like their hearts are on fire." (Christine, 9) WHAT MOST PEOPLE ARE THINKING WHEN THEY SAY, "I LOVE YOU": "The person is thinking: Yeah, I really do love him, but I hope he showers at least once a day." (Michelle, 9) "The person is thinking: Yeah, I really do love him, but I hope he showers at least once a day." (Michelle, 9) HOW A PERSON LEARNS TO KISS: "You learn it right on the spot, when the 'gooshy' feelings get the best of you." (Doug, 7) "You learn it right on the spot, when the 'gooshy' feelings get the best of you." (Doug, 7) "It might help if you watched soap operas all day." (Carin, 9) WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE? "It's never okay to kiss a boy. They always slobber all over you. That's why I stopped doing it." (Jean, 10) "It's never okay to kiss a boy. They always slobber all over you. That's why I stopped doing it." (Jean, 10) HOW TO MAKE LOVE ENDURE: "Spend most of your time loving instead of going to work." (Tom, 7) "Spend most of your time loving instead of going to work." (Tom, 7) Don't forget your wife's name...that will mess up the love." (Roger,8) "Be a good kisser. It might make your wife forget that you never take the trash out." (Randy,8) Anonymous If you enjoyed this, you might like:
Another Joke
A list of Jokes
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It may sound counterintuitive, but a free mind is a controlled mind. Having no control over our own mind is the same as having no choice in our thoughts. If we cannot choose what to think at any given moment, we automatically default to our habits and react with thoughts that we don’t even like half the time, such as attachment, envy, aversion, bitter disappointment, non-faith, unkindness, impatience, or whatever.
Freedom is the ability to choose any thought we want whenever we want it, regardless of what or who is going on around us.
Thoughts are just that — thoughts. They don’t have arms or legs. They are not physical. They only exert dominion over us because we have always let them. It is like the sky letting the clouds run the show, not realizing its own vast and profound power.
We all want to be happy, and we all have the limitless potential for happiness and even bliss – so why is it so darned hard to stay happy?! For example, when people first start to meditate, they often complain that they cannot even get their mind to stay still and peaceful for a few seconds, for three rounds of breathing meditation, let alone for an hour, a day, a week, a month, a lifetime. If we simply cannot stay happy, even when external conditions are going our way, does this not mean, effectively, that we don’t have enough control over our mind?
So, our usual response is to try to bypass this by controlling our world and other people rather than trying to control our thoughts, and look where that gets us.
Wild elephant mind
Buddha described our mind as a rampaging wild elephant, stomping around creating havoc much of the time. As mentioned in this article, Buddha called unpeaceful and uncontrolled minds delusions. I remember first hearing a teaching on the so-called six causes of delusions at Madhyamaka Centre and how much I appreciated having this very practical, seemingly fool-proof way of making headway in taming and overcoming my uncontrolled and unpeaceful states of mind. I realized I could start to think the thoughts I wanted to think whenever I wanted to think them. I could choose to be kind, loving, blissful, faithful, contented, cool, and wise whenever I wanted once I had control over my own mind. No one could stop me doing this, regardless of what they do, or say, or think!
In fact, the more obstacles put in our way, the more of an enjoyable challenge it can become to react in the way we WANT to as opposed to the usual, boring, choiceless, instinctive, negative way we’ve always responded in the past. To me, that is real freedom, and I want it more than anything else.
The first three causes of delusion are the main causes—if we have these three, we automatically have a delusion arising in our mind. The last three are conditions that make it easy for the causes to come together. Our temporary states of mind are like clouds in the sky — if the right causes and conditions come together clouds manifest, otherwise they don’t. Knowing these causes and conditions means knowing the techniques for controlling our mind.
(1) The seed of delusion
The seed of a delusion is the potentiality for that delusion to arise; it is the substantial cause of the delusion. ~ Understanding the Mind
We have at the moment potentials for irritation, attachment, ignorance, and so on. According to Buddhism, these are like seeds in our formless mental continuum, which we’ve had since beginningless time. For example, I have the seed of anger within my mind even right now, while I’m feeling peaceful, but it won’t arise without other conditions, such as an annoying object and inappropriate attention. We also have potentials for almost unimaginable bliss, goodness, love, compassion, wisdom, and so on – also like seeds. Which ones are sprouting in our mind right now depends on other factors, but right now we have the potentials for the dark side and the good side.
The result of spiritual practice is to dig out the seeds for delusions once and for all from our mental continuum. So-called Foe Destroyers have done this and as a result cannot develop delusions regardless of what is going on in their lives. We can imagine what it’d be like to be permanently freed from anger, attachment, ignorance, pride, selfishness, and so on – just imagining it feels like a relief, and starts bringing it on.
Interestingly and luckily enough, we can never destroy the seeds of our positive minds because they’re part of our Buddha nature, whom we really are, and are also based on a realistic, unexaggerated view of the world, not on inappropriate attention.
Ignorant, not evil
All ordinary beings have these potentialities in their mind, and they can be eradicated only by attaining the wisdom directly realizing emptiness and meditating on this for a long time. ~ Understanding the Mind
Our root delusion, from which all the others grow, is ignorance. Living beings are not evil — we engage in evil actions, we can have evil states of mind, but we ourselves are not evil. We suffer from an inner sickness or inner poison – our delusions — and all these are rooted not in evil, but in ignorance. We just do not know how things exist, and we think that things exist in a way that they don’t exist, in fact contradictory to how they exist — namely independent of the mind, having nothing to do with our perceiving consciousness, solid, real, inherently existent, “out there”, existing from their own side. There seems to be a gap between us and everyone else, between our mind and our world, whereas the truth is that everything depends entirely upon our mind, just like objects in a dream.
Just a dream!
In a dream everything feels real and vivid, it seems to exist out there, independent of our mind. Yet when we wake up, we realize it was made up by our mind. “Ah! I made this up! It’s just a dream! I projected the whole thing, it’s gone! It just came from my mind and then I thought it was out there, and I got really het up about all these things, and hmm, what was all that about?”
We’ve been doing this for years and years already, just in this life, every time we fall asleep at night. We still haven’t got it, have we?! We wake up every morning, “Ah, that was just a dream!” We fall asleep again at night, “Hey, what’s going on here?” Panic. Falling in love with people. Running away from other people. We wake up, “Oh, it’s just a dream.”
We’ve done this thousands of times, and still it hasn’t alerted us to the fact that, every time we dream, everything that appears to us is a projection of our mind that we are grasping at as real.
When I have a problem that seems intractable I imagine having it in a dream. I was talking to a good friend the other day who has just been through divorce. Not un-understandably, he felt disappointed and let down, like a victim, like it had nothing to do with him. This made him feel helpless and angry, with no clear way forward. He has a good understanding of Buddhism so I asked him: “If you had divorced in a dream, who would have been responsible for that?” If we understand that everything is a mere projection of our own mind, like a dream, we can see how we are responsible for what appears to our mind, for what happens to us. Knowing this always gives us a way to move forward, by changing our mind rather than bashing our head against an intractable brick wall. And when we change our mind, the situation itself changes – the brick wall does come down. He didn’t become undivorced, but the situation no longer appeared dire, and he got his mojo back.
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Gamespot’s Scott Butterworth rolled out a hands-on preview of Doom VR, the upcoming VR iteration of the 2016 release of Doom from id Software and Bethesda. The 740 word preview published on August 8th, 2016 titled “Doom May Have Solved VR’s Traversal Problem” was based on an early build that was showcased at this year’s QuakeCon. The preview garnered some interesting feedback from the community.
While a lot of gamers were disappointed that VR seems to be moving into a more restricted and less dynamic environment for interactivity, others actually wanted to see more if the game. One user, amaneuvering, was a little annoyed that there was an entire preview about Doom VR but nothing visual to convey what the experience was like, writing…
“[…] Well, I’m not blaming you guys. It’s just annoying as hell that the developers give you the chance to actually play the thing firsthand but don’t see fit to even let us see some footage of the game. We’re the ones paying their wages at the end of the day, almost like glorified shareholders, and I think that more important than sucking up to game journalists they should maybe think about what their actual customers might appreciate.”
Butterworth replied, explaining it’s incredibly difficult to capture VR footage from VR headsets and that it isn’t worth the time or resources, and then follows up that point by stating…
“Second–and I cannot stress this enough–you are absolutely nothing like a shareholder in this situation. In fact, you’re not even a customer yet, you’re just a *potential* customer. At this point, you are entitled to absolutely nothing. Even if you’ve purchased games from Bethesda in the past, they’re not beholden to you in perpetuity. You purchased a commercial product, not corporate influence. Eating at a restaurant once doesn’t mean you get to wander into kitchen the next day and demand they change the menu. I would strongly caution you away from this entitled attitude because I promise, the developers don’t owe you a damn thing.”
Developers don’t owe customers anything but a working product. However, they definitely owe them something worth getting excited about otherwise they won’t have customers, and without customers you don’t have revenue, and without revenue you don’t hit profit margins, and without profit margins you lose your shareholders. So, technically, customers are a heck of a lot more important than shareholders.
Additionally, a potential customer is exactly who previews are supposed to be made for. If Butterworth is indignant over someone reading a preview and asking for more information, then he’s obviously not writing for gamers.
Perhaps they should add disclosures at the top of some previews letting people know it’s only for corporate shareholders and investors?
That’s not to mention that someone interested in a game and requesting more information so they can make an informed purchasing decision is not being entitled, it’s called being an educated consumer.
But even more than that, there is already footage up and available on YouTube from customers who bought and paid for Doom and bought and paid for an HTC Vive. You can see what it looks like in the video below from YouTube user SorryAboutYourCats.
Now keep in mind this is not Doom VR but simply the 2016 release of Doom. It’s to show that if the average user can rig up recording software to record the gameplay experience, it doesn’t make sense why a major gaming publication can’t.
Anyway, this is just another instance in the media thinking more highly of their position than what it’s actually worth. Their only value to gamers is in bridging information from publishers and developers to readers. A journalist’s job is not to assiduously work PR for the publisher, nor is their job to tell customers what information they shouldn’t be requesting, because at the end of the day every customer should be asking for as much information as possible in order to make the most informed purchasing decision possible.
More than anything, journalists should be encouraging readers to ask, to pry and to want more information because an informed customer is more likely to return to a media outlet that they trust as opposed to a media outlet that tells them that they’re entitled and goes on a tirade about the importance of shareholders and corporate resource protection.
Sadly, this is the very same attitude that led up to instances like #GamerGate happening in the first place.
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Fall is one of my favorite seasons of the year. Perhaps it’s the gorgeous leaves, the steaming mugs of apple cider, or the fact that my fall fashion game is significantly tighter than it is in the warm seasons of the year. It’s also the season of festivals, football and state fairs (my personal favorite). These are all-American forms of entertainment. There is one consistent feature of these shared American amusements that we talk little about – the potential for and frequent enactment of white violence.
This past weekend, students at Keene State College in New Hampshire got, as one student put it, “way out of hand,” as they turned over a car and danced on top of it, threatened an elderly person, threw glass bottles, and popped fireworks. These violent white college kids were so unruly that the police had to come in riot gear and bring out tear gas, to quell the riots. One white female student reported feeling very unsafe. Why are these white kids so mad that they are terrorizing residents and destroying property? Should we be concerned about the fact that they seemed to really enjoy it? Is that sociopathic?
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It would be easy to talk about this Keene State College business as an isolated incident of drunken college students, getting “out of hand.” But that would be politically and culturally irresponsible, since this is after all #FergusonOctober. Several states over from New Hampshire, down in Missouri, citizens exercising First Amendment rights, citizens with righteous anger, who might get a “little out of hand” with an errant glass bottle or two, are met with a much larger show of force – tanks, tear gas, stun grenades. We’ve had no reports of Ferguson protesters threatening old people or threatening to kill the police. And thank God for that, because we would have witnessed a serious amount of bloodshed to go along with our protests if that had occurred.
But beyond #FergusonOctober, any person who has ever lived in a college football town knows exactly what Saturday nights after big games are like. My first academic job was in a college football town. When I arrived, my students instructed me of survival protocol for home games: “Get your food on Thursday night. When you go in the house on Friday evening, don’t come back out till Sunday.” Less a set of racial instructions, these were more pragmatic tips so that I didn’t find myself caught in the middle of town in a traffic jam caused by drunken revelers. Drunken white revelers.
On at least two occasions, one of my good friends, a fellow professor, called to say that she had come out to her car on a Saturday night in this college town to find a drunk college kid urinating beside her car. On both occasions, she weighed the benefits of confronting the drunk white guy blocking her access, or simply waiting till he had finished and moved on.
Implicit in her stories was a truth we refuse to tell: These young drunk white men were dangerous. Menacing. And they are made more dangerous precisely because their disrespect for public space and private citizens is seen as mere play, mere college kids having a good time, rather than as a threat.
But what the events in Keene suggest is that white folks often test the bounds and limits of public decency and order with little long-term reprisal. There were some arrests, and some tear gas. But no dead bodies. No stigma about white anger. No come to Jesus meetings about White America’s problem children. No public discourse about these “menaces to society.” As many commentators on Twitter pointed out, there’ll be no articles about the absence of white leadership, or about how white folks just need to learn respect for public property.
How does it feel to be white? Does it feel like freedom? Freedom to piss on people and property with impunity? Freedom to burn shit up and live to tell about it? Freedom to threaten old people and wake up the next morning and chalk it up to drunkenness? License to kill?
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This isn’t just about civility. This is, as are most things in this country, about stark and disparate forms of racial treatment. This is about the ways that white threat is largely illegible as “threat.” This is about the fact that a band of wild, drunken black college kids could not have turned over cars, threatened old people, and shouted about killing the cops and lived.
For instance, this is also black college homecoming season, and my alma mater Howard University canceled the annual free concert at the legendary Yard Fest this year, because there were a few issues with crowd control last year. The Yard Fest is the stuff of hip-hop legend, and it is the annual event that most alumni look most forward to participating in. But as a federally funded entity, Howard is hypervigilant about making sure campus events are models of black respectability. It cannot afford the public scrutiny if the event were to devolve into a cabal like that which occurred at Keene. So it canceled a portion of the event beloved by all of us, because any appreciable amount of black unruliness could be met with an unfavorable and devastating federal response.
It is an institutional example of how powerful systems of white supremacy are, how much those systems hold everyone from the most venerable black institutions to the most vulnerable black youth in their death grips.
In the midst of this, the Keene students have released a video of the positive aspects of the Pumpkin Festival. It’s filled with a merry band of white students throwing back cans of beer, white girls twerking, one token black girl surrounded (a bit uncomfortably) by her white friends, at least one shot of a white girl’s bare behind, and various forms of good ole American college fun, set to a Kanye West soundtrack.
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All it takes to redeem whiteness is a four-minute YouTube video. That there is an unself-conscious celebration of booze, sex, hip-hop and partying in this video attests to a particular kind of freedom that white folks have to conceptualize and think of youth as a time of rebellion, lawlessness and testing the boundaries.
If you’re black that kind of thinking is dangerous. If you’re black that kind of thinking will get you killed. And if you’re white, and you do the killing, you will most probably go free.
If we showed black people doing each and every activity in this video, it would be a testament to our lack of civilization, our utter ratchetness, and wretchedness. Black folks know how to have a good time, for sure. But we would never use our good time as a fodder for a racial redemption marketing campaign. No sane black person would ever think that was a good idea.
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Can you tell yet that I’m fed up? Fed up with white obliviousness. Fed up with “white” freedom, which seems very much to be euphemism for black terror. Fed up with American injustice. And yet wholly, visually convinced that racial injustice is as American as football, pumpkin patches, drunken white revelers and apple pie.
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ROMA, Texas — Five members of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel were arrested near this border city as they tried to illegally enter the country. The arrests took place this week when the group tried to cross the Rio Grande near the Mexican City of Miguel Aleman into this border city, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the 229th District Attorney’s office revealed.
The men were arrested by Texas state troopers and U.S. Border patrol agents moments after crossing. The men had managed to get into an F-150 pickup that had arrived at the banks of the Rio Grande to pick them up. The driver of the pickup has been charged by state prosecutors with human smuggling.
The names of the five confessed Gulf Cartel members have not been released since they were turned over to federal authorities for prosecution.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the Texas border area known as the Rio Grande Valley has been a haven for drug cartel members where they try to hide out when Mexican authorities come close to arresting them. While in Mexico cartel members move around with large armies of gunmen; in Texas the drug lords keep a lower profile in order to avoid drawing the attention of U.S. law enforcement.
In Starr County which includes Roma and Rio Grande City, authorities have arrested Benicio “Comandante Veneno” Lopez and Orlando Roberto “Comandante Boris” Rodriguez . Lopez had been living in Texas where he has a long criminal history that includes murder and other charges.
In Hidalgo County, the area that includes McAllen, authorities have arrested the regional cartel commander known as Juan “Panochitas” Saenz Tamez and Francisco “Comandante Paquito” Martinez.
Both cartel commanders were arrested in Texas where they had been hiding out. Saenz had been hiding out in the border city of Edinburg, while Martinez was arrested by the Law Enforcement Emergency Regional Response Team in rural Mission.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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When the first look at the Jumanji cast was released last year many eyes fell on Karen Gillan, but for all the wrong reasons. While her male counterparts (Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black) were all dressed appropriately for the treacherous jungle, covered up in neutral colours, Gillans character was shown in a pair of tiny booty shorts and top that shows off her stomach.
Rightly so there was a lot of outrage online. Gillan is the only female in a line of four equally accomplished actors, but is the only one being sexualised for her body. Then there’s the practicality of her outfit. The shot shows a jungle terrain, which would of course be rife with mosquitos – the poor woman would get bitten to death, if she didn’t die of heat stroke/sunburn first. She also has those gorgeous ginger locks, but they’d get muddy pretty quickly or even get tangled in a tree or something – someone get the girl a bobble!
Seeing all the complaints, Karen Gillan herself responded saying her the backlash was understandable but that we’d “find out why [she’s] wearing CHILD SIZED clothes when you watch the movie”. This seemed to imply that maybe she’d gone from a child to grown up… but if that was the case the clothes would never be as form fitting or sexual.
“As Sony rightly point out, women got a bad deal in video games back then, but we still do now. “
When the trailer dropped we were given their flimsy excuse. The characters played by the four are actually avatars in the 90s video game Jumanji, and four kids get sucked into it. Because it’s the 90s and, duh, video game stereotypes, of course we get the nerdy plump professor, the token sassy black guy, the hunky hero and the scantily clad action girl. Gillan’s character is also given the eye-roll worthy name of ‘Ruby Roundhouse’.
As the girl who becomes Karen Gillan is a nerdy, plain looking glasses-wearer (that’s Hollywood for feminist) she immediately exclaims, “why am I wearing half a shirt and short shorts IN THE JUNGLE.” And that’s all the totally feminist commentary we get in the film, well done Hollywood.
“Everyone knows that if there’s one thing that’s underrepresented in movies, it’s Jack Black.”
Unfortunately, sexism isn’t the other thing being joked about in the trailer. The gorgeous blonde girl turns into Jack Black and immediately cries that she’s “an overweight middle aged man”, no doubt paving the way for many a fat joke. There’s also the potential gay jokes that will come from the girl in Jack Black’s body crushing on Dwayne Johnson. Add to that the fact that the main cast was initially equally split between male and female actors, but then one of the teenage girls gets put in Jack Black’s body… because everyone knows that if there’s one thing that’s underrepresented in movies, it’s Jack Black.
The thing is that, as Sony rightly points out, women got a bad deal in video games back in the 90s, but er, they still do now. There are still very few games out there that let women play as women that look like them, whilst still giving them the same adequate armour or protection. Women try to fight against this but when we do we’re hit with horrible things such as gamer-gate.
If Hollywood wants to target bad stereotypes they need to do a better job of deconstructing them. I hope that in the movie Ruby Roundhouse becomes a fully fleshed-out character who uses her mind and skills to kick ass. Who knows, she may also get a costume the same as the men but with the addition of a scrunchie a la’ Ursula Stanhope in George of the Jungle . One can dream.
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Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment
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Anonymous said: remember the episode cat fingers when the gems went out to sea in a tiny boat? that was ridiculous and kind of adorable. when are they gonna do that again
The Gem sloop is like my favorite thing. It’s so tiny
Like it just barely fits the three of them. It’s only as big as it needs to be so they gotta sit on top of each other. There’s something really adorable about that. And, like, they must’ve had the boat for a while since Amethyst just says “the Gem sloop” like its a thing they normally have. So did they have it when Rose was around? Did they ever all go on the boat with Rose? They couldn’t all possibly fit then, did Amethyst and Pearl sit in Rose’s lap? That would be adorable.
They don’t use it anymore, its like Steven’s raft ended up being bigger than the boat so they were like “Why are we using the tiny boat when we have that nice raft?” so they just used the raft from now on. I want the tiny boat to make a comeback, though. I want them all piled into the tiny boat, struggling not to tip it over. I want more adventures in the tiny Gem boat
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A month or so ago, Modi government decided to impose a one day blackout on NDTV India for airing content regarding Pathankot strike that could have aided the terrorists and imperiled the lives of our security men and their families. The decision was recommended by an inter-ministerial committee after carefully analyzing the content aired by NDTV India.
This was not the first time that a channel was taken off air as a penalty for airing content which broadly speaking was ‘objectionable’. However, no sooner was this decision announced that the opposition, media persons, liberals of all shades and colours etc. loudly castigated the government for its decision. The decision was painted as an attack on Media’s freedom. The errant TV channel filed a case before Supreme Court. Amidst all the hullabaloo, the government backtracked and the ban was withdrawn. Critics wasted no point in reminding the public that here was a despotic government, hell bent on imposing dictatorship. One particularly loud mouthed and obnoxious political opponent wasted no time describing the government’s decision as ‘Emergency-like attitude’. The same loud mouthed, obnoxious opponent has now filed a non-bailable FIR against Zee News and its reporter Sudhir Chaudhary for daring to openly air the communal rampage which took place in her backyard.
.@MamataOfficial Govt files FIR against me& @ZeeNews reporter for covering #DhulagarhRiots with Non Bailable sections.FIR for showing truth? — Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) December 27, 2016
A few days ago, Dhulagarh, in Howrah district of West Bengal, located some 30 odd Kilometres from the state’s capital was rocked by communal violence. While Hindus of the town were busy with Margashirsha Poornima festivities on 13th December, the Muslims formed a procession, blaring loud music, ostensibly claiming to celebrate Milad-un-Nabi, which actually fell the day before and was a public holiday. A simple request by Hindus to lower the volume of loudspeakers, provoked the Muslims into a frenzy of riot and arson. Hindu homes and shops were set ablaze and scores of Hindus were forced to flee. Locals reported that the Muslims who rioted at Dhulagarh were not locals but had come from outside specifically with the purpose of ousting Hindus. As per news reports, the police party sent to put an end to the riot was stopped by the rioters and bombs were hurled at it.
As was expected, not a single major news channel reported the riots at Dhulagarh, with the exception of Zee News. In fact, Senior Journalists such as Rajdeep Sardesai, actually claimed that the riots were rumours.
Mamata Banerjee and her government maintained studied silence on this issue. Those closely observing West Bengal point out the regularity with which riots have been taking place in the state, with the government turning a blind eye is reminiscent of the riots that preceded the partition of Bengal. One would have hoped that Mamata Banerjee would show the same alacrity in coming to the aid of besieged Hindus of her state as she did in cursing Modi on the demonetization issue, but alas, Didi has no time to help the Hindus. It is the Muslim votebank in West Bengal that must be protected and nurtured.
Be that as it may, it now emerges that an FIR has been filed against Zee News and its reporter, Sudhir Choudhary for airing content on Dhulagarh riots.
This is deeply disturbing. The act is in complete contravention of the principle of Media freedom. If FIRs can be filed against journalists for airing content, which some secular parties may deem objectionable, it will be the end of democracy as we know it. Mamata Banerjee is effectively silencing the voice of Media, which so far has been free to air stories lauding her or criticizing her. The message is clear. Criticize Mamata Banerjee and she will ensure that wrath of the government will fall upon you. It is one thing to demand that Media should be regulated, either self-regulation or by agreed guidelines, but it is completely different for elected governments to threaten Media persons from airing content at the risk of prosecution.
Mamata Banerjee, who has so often claimed to be the guardian of democracy in India, should know this better. Instead of harassing media channels for highlighting the inadequacy of her administration, she should try and improve law and order situation in her state.
Also, while it is pointless to expect this, one would hope that our liberals, democrats, intellectuals etc. would fill the streets to challenge Mamata Banerjee’s draconian decision. Unfortunately, too many of them would have been eating out of Mamata Banerjee’s hands for their conscience to be stirred on this occasion.
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The Stack Archive
News Article
Adobe develops AI-driven approach that could end the age of the ‘green screen’ in movies and VR
Wed 15 Mar 2017
Researchers at Adobe have collaborated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology to develop a new system, based on deep convolutional neural networks, which can extract foreground content from its background intelligently and accurately – and with no need for the blue/green-screen techniques which have dominated cinema for nearly a century.
The paper Deep Image Matting outlines the process of evaluating the object which needs to be ‘clipped’ out of its background, which involved the generation of a novel dataset containing 49300 training images intended to accustom algorithms with the challenges of distinguishing backgrounds and eliminating them.
Traditional methods of extracting actors or elements from backgrounds, so that they can be inserted into other footage, have always centred around recording the elements (actors, miniatures, etc.) to be extracted in front of a flat field of colour, and relying on photochemical or (later) digital procedures to remove the background.
In earlier times, film production workflows generally used blue as a key colour to remove, though Walt Disney studios (which famously took on visual effects work for Alfred Hitchcock’s chiller The Birds) used a sodium-based process which keyed on yellow – however, its greater accuracy was offset by the complexity and weight of the equipment required, and the sodium process never gained widespread industry popularity.
In the last 15-20 years, green has been adopted as a drop-out colour, since it was proved to be present in less foreground material than blue (for the filming of Superman in the late 1970s, it proved necessary to shoot title actor Christopher Reeve in a costume which was nearer violet than the traditional blue of the man of steel, and to tweak the costume’s colour chemically later, so that Reeve did not completely disappear when extracted from a blue background).
Adobe has been at the forefront of this field for at least 27 years. Acclaimed visual effects producer John Knoll, then working as an employee at Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) effects facility, worked with his brother Thomas in the late 1980s to develop the early versions of Photoshop, which pioneered the digital alpha matte and ultimately joined CGI to transform the visual effects landscape. Later these principles were incorporated into the video-effects suite After Effects, and an industry-wide raft of programs which put the Chroma Key compromises of the 1970s to shame.
But the prospect of casual background removal via the use of neural networks seems likely to be a game-changer not only for the VFX industry but also for the much more potentially lucrative VR/AR sphere – which has some issues to face in this particular regard. Naturally latency will be a critical issue in any AI-driven approach to foreground extraction.
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Now that Helen Hitler Thomas has been forcibly retired, more video of the interview miraculously has become available for viewing:
Here’s the “appalling” transcript:
Q: Any advice for these young people over here for starting out in the press corps? Thomas: Go for it. You’ll never be unhappy. You’ll always keep people informed, you’ll always keep learning. The greatest thing of the profession is you’ll never stop learning. Q: Today they are covering the Jewish Heritage Month. Thomas: … and meet the President. A: Any comments on Israel? We’re asking everyone today, any comments on.. Thomas: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Q: Oooh. Any better comments? Thomas: Remember, these people are occupied, and it’s their land. It’s not German and it’s not Poland. Q: So where should they go, what should they do? Thomas: They can go home. Q: Where is home? Thomas: Poland. Germany. Q: So you are saying Jews should go back to Poland? Thomas: And America and everywhere else. Why push people out who have lived their for centuries? See? Q: Now, are you familiar with the history of that region and what took place? Thomas: Very much. I’m of Arab background. {It goes on for a little while with friendly banter about languages they both speak with words I can not even begin to spell.} Q: Thank you. Thomas: All the best to you (directed at the Jewish students). Go for it- go for journalism, you’ll never regret it.
Clearly, this woman is evil beyond words. The way she smiled at those Jewish kids while giving them friendly advice to enter careers in journalism so they can have fulfilling lives of learning and accomplishment when secretly, I have been assured by liberals and others, what she really wants is to transport them back to the gas ovens of the Holocaust (for the morons- see the update).
You guys got played. And by this jackass, running around doing Mexican impressions in his spare time. Does anyone still want to try to pretend she was suggesting people be time-warped back to Auschwitz? Or that her pleasantly offering advice to Jewish students was horrifying anti-Semitism at work? Anyone?
On the upside, no one is talking about the unpleasantness with the flotilla anymore.
*** Update ***
For the folks with comprehension problems, the sarcasm employed regarding her chatting with the students is directed at the foolish notion she was implying folks should head off to the ovens, not to deflect from what I have repeatedly stated were her idiotic and obnoxious remarks. There seems to be some desire in every one of these pile-ons to turn stupid remarks by someone into something altogether unforgivable. I’m reminded of the time I spent days arguing that no, Republican Bill Bennett wasn’t actually suggesting that all black babies be aborted in order to lower the crime rate.
Grow up. What Thomas said was stupid enough. She’s lost her job. There is no reason to pretend she was implying people should be sent off to Nazi Germany or Poland and be exterminated. Quit making things up and impugning those who aren’t into playing your games. I think (again, as I have stated repeatedly), the state of Israel and her citizens have every right to exist. I don’t think, however, that criticism of policies of the state of Israel are somehow verboten.
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A Baltimore County McDonald's owner announced on Saturday afternoon that an employee who taped the violent beating of a customer — a video that went viral Friday — had been fired.
"My first and foremost concern is with the victim," franchise owner Mitchell McPherson said in a statement, adding that action might be taken against other restaurant workers as well. "I'm as shocked and disturbed by this assault as anyone would be. The behavior displayed in the video is unfathomable and reprehensible."
The video of a beating the Rosedale restaurant went viral Friday, garnering hundreds of thousands of views on websites and prompting the fast-food giant to issue a statement condemning the incident.
The video shows two women — one of them a 14-year-old girl — repeatedly kicking and punching the 22-year-old victim in the head, as an employee and a patron try to intervene. Others can be heard laughing, and men are seen standing idly by.
Toward the end of the video, one of the suspects lands a punishing blow to the victim's head, and she appears to have a seizure. A man's voice tells the women to run because police are coming.
The three-minute clip was apparently first posted on YouTube, then taken down by administrators who said it violated the site's policies. But it popped back up on other sites and was ultimately linked from the popular Drudge Report, which gave it top billing for much of the day.
County police confirmed that the attack occurred April 18 in the 6300 block of Kenwood Ave. Police said the 14-year-old girl has been charged as a juvenile, while charges were pending against an 18-year-old woman.
Equality Maryland said the victim is a transgender woman and called on state Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to step in and investigate the case as a hate crime. Police and prosecutors said they did not know whether the victim is a transgender woman.
"It does appear that the victim was a transgender woman, and she was brutalized while people stood by and watched," said Lisa Polyak, vice president of the board of directors for Equality Maryland, an advocacy organization that fought unsuccessfully in the past legislative session for greater protections for transgender individuals. "There's no excuse for that violence under any circumstances, but we would encourage police to investigate as a hate crime."
The police report does not provide a motive, but quotes one of the suspects saying that the fight was "over using a bathroom."
The victim suffered cuts to her mouth and face, and a police report said she had been taken to Franklin Square Hospital Center in fair condition. Police said Friday they had no update on her status.
The video begins with two women near a bathroom door kicking and hitting a woman who is lying on the ground.
An employee repeatedly tries to separate them, but the attackers continue to stomp and kick the victim's head. People yell, "Stop! Stop!" to no avail, though others can be heard laughing. An older woman at one point also attempts to pull the attackers away and is shoved.
About halfway through the three-minute clip, the attackers rip a wig off the victim and drag her by her hair to the front door. That is where the victim is sitting before another blow to the head causes an apparent seizure.
Throughout the attack, a man is filming and does not intervene. But when the victim appears to have a seizure, he yells, "She having a seizure, yo. … Police on their way. Y'all better get out of here."
jill.rosen@baltsun.com
justin.fenton@baltsun.com
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Around the world there has been a huge increase in the number of children being referred to gender clinics - boys saying they want to be girls and vice versa. Increasingly, parents are encouraged to adopt a 'gender affirmative' approach - fully supporting their children's change of identity. But is this approach right?
In this challenging documentary, BBC Two's award-winning This World strand travels to Canada, where one of the world's leading experts in childhood gender dysphoria (the condition where children are unhappy with their biological sex) lost his job for challenging the new orthodoxy that children know best. Speaking on TV for the first time since his clinic was closed, Dr Kenneth Zucker believes he is a victim of the politicisation of transgender issues. The film presents evidence that most children with gender dysphoria eventually overcome the feelings without transitioning and questions the science behind the idea that a boy could somehow be born with a 'female brain' or vice versa. It also features 'Lou' - who was born female and had a double mastectomy as part of transitioning to a man. She now says it is a decision that 'haunts' her and feels that her gender dysphoria should have been treated as a mental health issue.
This documentary examines Zucker's methods, but it also includes significant contributions from his critics and supporters of gender affirmation, including transgender activists in Canada and leading medical experts as well as parents with differing experiences of gender dysphoria and gender reassignment.
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Image caption Fierce fighting has been raging around the key Syrian town of Qusair
The US and Germany have called on Russia not to supply Syria's military with an advanced missile system they say could prolong the conflict there.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the delivery of Russian weaponry would have a "profoundly negative impact" and put Israel's security at risk.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged Moscow not to hinder the chances of mooted peace talks.
In Syria, fierce fighting continued on Friday around the key town of Qusair.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Activist Hadi says: "It's like hell inside Qusair"
Dozens of opposition fighters reached the town on Friday to bolster it against an offensive involving government forces and militants from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
One opposition activist told the BBC the humanitarian situation in the town near the Lebanese border was worsening, with 800 wounded people needing treatment.
'Unified' government
Mr Kerry and Mr Westerwelle held talks in Washington a day after Mr Assad said a Russian contract to supply the S-300 surface-to-air missile defence system was being implemented, without confirming any deliveries.
The S-300PMU-2 - the variant experts believe will be sent - is a highly capable system that, as well as targeting aircraft, also has the capacity to engage ballistic missiles.
Two Russian newspapers on Friday quoted defence sources as saying that it was unclear if any of the missile system would be delivered this year.
Mr Kerry called on Russia not to upset the balance in the region by providing weaponry to the Assad regime, "whether it's an old contract or not".
Analysis After 40 years of tight dictatorship in Syria, it is not surprising that the opposition is finding it hard to produce a coherent, representative leadership to face off against a tough regime team in the proposed Geneva conference. What was meant to be a three-day meeting of the opposition coalition in Istanbul turned into eight days of in-fighting that has failed to achieve its stated goals of electing a new leadership, approving an interim government and taking a clear position on the Geneva proposal. After initially saying it would go to Geneva with conditions, the opposition now says it will not go as long as Hezbollah is fighting at Qusair. That buys it time for the great deal of work, and doubtless wrangling, that will be needed to construct a plausible delegation for the talks, and more meetings will be held early next month. By contrast, the regime side is unified and coherent, and has decades of negotiating experience to draw on. The opposition risks a severe defeat in the talks, unless it gets its act together very seriously.
"It has a profoundly negative impact on the balance of interests and the stability of the region and it does put Israel at risk," he said.
"We hope that they will refrain from that in the interests of making this peace process work," he said.
He added that he was convinced the Syrian opposition would take part in US and Russian-backed talks expected to be held in Geneva next month. Russian and American officials are set to meet next week to prepare the ground for the peace conference.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says a lot more needs to be done for the opposition to be in any kind of shape to attend any conference in a coherent manner.
He says that, by contrast, the Syrian government appears unified and confident.
Mr Assad said on Thursday that Syria would "in principle" attend the peace conference in Geneva if there were not unacceptable preconditions.
In an interview with Lebanon's al-Manar TV, which is owned by Hezbollah, he warned that Syria would respond in kind to any future Israeli air strikes.
Qusair crisis
Meanwhile, Syrian state television said troops and Hezbollah fighters had captured the Arjun district of Qusair on Thursday.
Syria's Russian-made military Nearly 5,000 tanks; 2,500 infantry fighting vehicles; 2,500 self-propelled or towed artillery units
325 Tactical aircraft; 143 helicopters
Nearly 2,000 air defence pieces
295,000 active personnel; 314,000 reserve personnel Statistics: IISS Why Russia sells Syria arms
An attempt to get wounded people out of the town on Friday had failed, an opposition activist told the BBC, as the convoy had come under attack, with nine people killed.
The source said 30,000 people were still in Qusair, 80% of which was under rebel control, although these figures cannot be independently verified.
"There is no water at all, because the Assad regime controls the water supply, and there has been no electricity for four months," he said.
More than 80,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million have fled Syria since the uprising against Mr Assad began in 2011, according to UN estimates.
How the Russian S-300PMU-2 missile defence system works
The long-range surveillance radar tracks objects over a range of 300km (185 miles) and relays information to the command vehicle, which assesses potential targets A target is identified and the command vehicle orders the engagement radar to launch missiles Launch data is sent to the best placed of the battalion's six launch vehicles and it releases two surface-to-air missiles The engagement radar helps guide the missiles towards the target. It can guide up to 12 missiles simultaneously, engaging up to six targets at once
The vehicle used as a launcher is currently manufactured at the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant (MZKT) in Belarus, although Russia is now shifting the production to its western city of Bryansk.
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Chapter 1: Some Facts of Life
“We can comprehend this world only by contesting it as a whole... The root of the prevailing lack of imagination cannot be grasped unless one is able to imagine what is lacking, that is, what is missing, hidden, forbidden, and yet possible, in modern life.” — Situationist International
Utopia or bust
Never in history has there been such a glaring contrast between what could be and what actually exists.
It’s hardly necessary to go into all the problems in the world today — most of them are widely known, and to dwell on them usually does little more than dull us to their reality. But even if we are “stoic enough to endure the misfortunes of others,” the present social deterioration ultimately impinges on us all. Those who don’t face direct physical repression still have to face the mental repressions imposed by an increasingly mean, stressful, ignorant and ugly world. Those who escape economic poverty cannot escape the general impoverishment of life.
And even life at this pitiful level cannot continue for long. The ravaging of the planet by the global development of capitalism has brought us to the point where humanity may become extinct within a few decades.
Yet this same development has made it possible to abolish the system of hierarchy and exploitation that was previously based on material scarcity and to inaugurate a new, genuinely liberated form of society.
Plunging from one disaster to another on its way to mass insanity and ecological apocalypse, this system has developed a momentum that is out of control, even by its supposed masters. As we approach a world in which we won’t be able to leave our fortified ghettoes without armed guards, or even go outdoors without applying sunscreen lest we get skin cancer, it’s hard to take seriously those who advise us to beg for a few reforms.
What is needed, I believe, is a worldwide participatory-democracy revolution that would abolish both capitalism and the state. This is admittedly a big order, but I’m afraid that nothing less can get to the root of our problems. It may seem absurd to talk about revolution; but all the alternatives assume the continuation of the present system, which is even more absurd.
Stalinist “communism” and reformist “socialism” are merely variants of capitalism
Before going into what this revolution would involve and responding to some typical objections, it should be stressed that it has nothing to do with the repugnant stereotypes that are usually evoked by the word (terrorism, revenge, political coups, manipulative leaders preaching self-sacrifice, zombie followers chanting politically correct slogans). In particular, it should not be confused with the two principal failures of modern social change, Stalinist “communism” and reformist “socialism.”
After decades in power, first in Russia and later in many other countries, it has become obvious that Stalinism is the total opposite of a liberated society. The origin of this grotesque phenomenon is less obvious. Trotskyists and others have tried to distinguish Stalinism from the earlier Bolshevism of Lenin and Trotsky. There are differences, but they are more of degree than of kind. Lenin’s The State and Revolution, for example, presents a more coherent critique of the state than can be found in most anarchist writings; the problem is that the radical aspects of Lenin’s thought merely ended up camouflaging the Bolsheviks’ actual authoritarian practice. Placing itself above the masses it claimed to represent, and with a corresponding internal hierarchy between party militants and their leaders, the Bolshevik Party was already well on its way toward creating the conditions for the development of Stalinism while Lenin and Trotsky were still firmly in control.
But we have to be clear about what failed if we are ever going to do any better. If socialism means people’s full participation in the social decisions that affect their own lives, it has existed neither in the Stalinist regimes of the East nor in the welfare states of the West. The recent collapse of Stalinism is neither a vindication of capitalism nor proof of the failure of “Marxist communism.” Anyone who has ever bothered to read Marx (most of his glib critics obviously have not) is aware that Leninism represents a severe distortion of Marx’s thought and that Stalinism is a total parody of it. Nor does government ownership have anything to do with communism in its authentic sense of common, communal ownership; it is merely a different type of capitalism in which state-bureaucratic ownership replaces (or merges with) private-corporate ownership.
The long spectacle of opposition between these two varieties of capitalism hid their mutual reinforcement. Serious conflicts were confined to proxy battles in the Third World (Vietnam, Angola, Afghanistan, etc.). Neither side ever made any real attempt to overthrow the enemy in its own heartland. (The French Communist Party sabotaged the May 1968 revolt; the Western powers, which intervened massively in countries where they were not wanted, refused to send so much as the few antitank weapons desperately needed by the 1956 Hungarian insurgents.) Guy Debord noted in 1967 that Stalinist state-capitalism had already revealed itself as merely a “poor cousin” of classical Western capitalism, and that its decline was beginning to deprive Western rulers of the pseudo-opposition that reinforced them by seeming to represent the sole alternative to their system. “The bourgeoisie is in the process of losing the adversary that objectively supported it by providing an illusory unification of all opposition to the existing order” (The Society of the Spectacle, §§110–111).
Although Western leaders pretended to welcome the recent Stalinist collapse as a natural victory for their own system, none of them had seen it coming and they now obviously have no idea what to do about all the problems it poses except to cash in on the situation before it totally falls apart. The monopolistic multinational corporations that proclaim “free enterprise” as a panacea are quite aware that free-market capitalism would long ago have exploded from its own contradictions had it not been saved despite itself by a few New Deal-style pseudosocialist reforms.
Those reforms (public services, social insurance, the eight-hour day, etc.) may have ameliorated some of the more glaring defects of the system, but in no way have they led beyond it. In recent years they have not even kept up with its accelerating crises. The most significant improvements were in any case won only by long and often violent popular struggles that eventually forced the hands of the bureaucrats: the leftist parties and labor unions that pretended to lead those struggles have functioned primarily as safety valves, coopting radical tendencies and greasing the wheels of the social machine.
As the situationists have shown, the bureaucratization of radical movements, which has degraded people into followers constantly “betrayed” by their leaders, is linked to the increasing spectacularization of modern capitalist society, which has degraded people into spectators of a world over which they have no control — a development that has become increasingly glaring, though it is usually only superficially understood.
Taken together, all these considerations point to the conclusion that a liberated society can be created only by the active participation of the people as a whole, not by hierarchical organizations supposedly acting on their behalf. The point is not to choose more honest or “responsive” leaders, but to avoid granting independent power to any leaders whatsoever. Individuals or groups may initiate radical actions, but a substantial and rapidly expanding portion of the population must take part if a movement is to lead to a new society and not simply to a coup installing new rulers.
Representative democracy versus delegate democracy
I won’t repeat all the classic socialist and anarchist critiques of capitalism and the state; they are already widely known, or at least widely accessible. But in order to cut through some of the confusions of traditional political rhetoric, it may be helpful to summarize the basic types of social organization. For the sake of clarity, I will start out by examining the “political” and “economic” aspects separately, though they are obviously interlinked. It is as futile to try to equalize people’s economic conditions through a state bureaucracy as it is to try to democratize society while the power of money enables the wealthy few to control the institutions that determine people’s awareness of social realities. Since the system functions as a whole it can be fundamentally changed only as a whole.
To begin with the political aspect, roughly speaking we can distinguish five degrees of “government”:
Unrestricted freedom Direct democracy consensus majority rule Delegate democracy Representative democracy Overt minority dictatorship
The present society oscillates between (4) and (5), i.e. between overt minority rule and covert minority rule camouflaged by a façade of token democracy. A liberated society would eliminate (4) and (5) and would progressively reduce the need for (2) and (3).
I’ll discuss the two types of (2) later on. But the crucial distinction is between (3) and (4).
In representative democracy people abdicate their power to elected officials. The candidates’ stated policies are limited to a few vague generalities, and once they are elected there is little control over their actual decisions on hundreds of issues — apart from the feeble threat of changing one’s vote, a few years later, to some equally uncontrollable rival politician. Representatives are dependent on the wealthy for bribes and campaign contributions; they are subordinate to the owners of the mass media, who decide which issues get the publicity; and they are almost as ignorant and powerless as the general public regarding many important matters that are determined by unelected bureaucrats and independent secret agencies. Overt dictators may sometimes be overthrown, but the real rulers in “democratic” regimes, the tiny minority who own or control virtually everything, are never voted in and never voted out. Most people don’t even know who they are.
In delegate democracy, delegates are elected for specific purposes with very specific limitations. They may be strictly mandated (ordered to vote in a certain way on a certain issue) or the mandate may be left open (delegates being free to vote as they think best) with the people who have elected them reserving the right to confirm or reject any decision thus taken. Delegates are generally elected for very short periods and are subject to recall at any time.
In the context of radical struggles, delegate assemblies have usually been termed “councils.” The council form was invented by striking workers during the 1905 Russian revolution (soviet is the Russian word for council). When soviets reappeared in 1917, they were successively supported, manipulated, dominated and coopted by the Bolsheviks, who soon succeeded in transforming them into parodies of themselves: rubber stamps of the “Soviet State” (the last surviving independent soviet, that of the Kronstadt sailors, was crushed in 1921). Councils have nevertheless continued to reappear spontaneously at the most radical moments in subsequent history, in Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary and elsewhere, because they represent the obvious solution to the need for a practical form of nonhierarchical popular self-organization. And they continue to be opposed by all hierarchical organizations, because they threaten the rule of specialized elites by pointing to the possibility of a society of generalized self-management: not self-management of a few details of the present setup, but self-management extended to all regions of the globe and all aspects of life.
But as noted above, the question of democratic forms cannot be separated from their economic context.
Irrationalities of capitalism
Economic organization can be looked at from the angle of work:
Totally voluntary Cooperative (collective self-management) Forced and exploitive overt (slave labor) disguised (wage labor)
And from the angle of distribution:
True communism (totally free accessibility) True socialism (collective ownership and regulation) Capitalism (private and/or state ownership)
Though it’s possible for goods or services produced by wage labor to be given away, or for those produced by volunteer or cooperative labor to be turned into commodities for sale, for the most part these levels of work and distribution tend to correspond with each other. The present society is predominately (3): the forced production and consumption of commodities. A liberated society would eliminate (3) and as far as possible reduce (2) in favor of (1).
Capitalism is based on commodity production (production of goods for profit) and wage labor (labor power itself bought and sold as a commodity). As Marx pointed out, there is less difference between the slave and the “free” worker than appears. Slaves, though they seem to be paid nothing, are provided with the means of their survival and reproduction, for which workers (who become temporary slaves during their hours of labor) are compelled to pay most of their wages. The fact that some jobs are less unpleasant than others, and that individual workers have the nominal right to switch jobs, start their own business, buy stocks or win a lottery, disguises the fact that the vast majority of people are collectively enslaved.
How did we get in this absurd position? If we go back far enough, we find that at some point people were forcibly dispossessed: driven off the land and otherwise deprived of the means for producing the goods necessary for life. (The famous chapters on “primitive accumulation” in Capital vividly describe this process in England.) As long as people accept this dispossession as legitimate, they are forced into unequal bargains with the “owners” (those who have robbed them, or who have subsequently obtained titles of “ownership” from the original robbers) in which they exchange their labor for a fraction of what it actually produces, the surplus being retained by the owners. This surplus (capital) can then be reinvested in order to generate continually greater surpluses in the same way.
As for distribution, a public water fountain is a simple example of true communism (unlimited accessibility). A public library is an example of true socialism (free but regulated accessibility).
In a rational society, accessibility would depend on abundance. During a drought, water might have to be rationed. Conversely, once libraries are put entirely online they could become totally communistic: anyone could have free instant access to any number of texts with no more need to bother with checking out and returning, security against theft, etc.
But this rational relation is impeded by the persistence of separate economic interests. To take the latter example, it will soon be technically possible to create a global “library” in which every book ever written, every film ever made and every musical performance ever recorded could be put online, potentially enabling anyone to freely tap in and obtain a copy (no more need for stores, sales, advertising, packaging, shipping, etc.). But since this would also eliminate the profits from present-day publishing, recording and film businesses, far more energy is spent concocting complicated methods to prevent or charge for copying (while others devote corresponding energy devising ways to get around such methods) than on developing a technology that could potentially benefit everyone.
One of Marx’s merits was to have cut through the hollowness of political discourses based on abstract philosophical or ethical principles (“human nature” is such and such, all people have a “natural right” to this or that) by showing how social possibilities and social awareness are to a great degree limited and shaped by material conditions. Freedom in the abstract means little if almost everybody has to work all the time simply to assure their survival. It’s unrealistic to expect people to be generous and cooperative when there is barely enough to go around (leaving aside the drastically different conditions under which “primitive communism” flourished). But a sufficiently large surplus opens up wider possibilities. The hope of Marx and other revolutionaries of his time was based on the fact that the technological potentials developed by the Industrial Revolution had finally provided an adequate material basis for a classless society. It was no longer a matter of declaring that things “should” be different, but of pointing out that they could be different; that class domination was not only unjust, it was now unnecessary.
Was it ever really necessary? Was Marx right in seeing the development of capitalism and the state as inevitable stages, or might a liberated society have been possible without this painful detour? Fortunately, we no longer have to worry about this question. Whatever possibilities there may or may not have been in the past, present material conditions are more than sufficient to sustain a global classless society.
The most serious drawback of capitalism is not its quantitative unfairness — the mere fact that wealth is unequally distributed, that workers are not paid the full “value” of their labor. The problem is that this margin of exploitation (even if relatively small) makes possible the private accumulation of capital, which eventually reorients everything to its own ends, dominating and warping all aspects of life.
The more alienation the system produces, the more social energy must be diverted just to keep it going — more advertising to sell superfluous commodities, more ideologies to keep people bamboozled, more spectacles to keep them pacified, more police and more prisons to repress crime and rebellion, more arms to compete with rival states — all of which produces more frustrations and antagonisms, which must be repressed by more spectacles, more prisons, etc. As this vicious circle continues, real human needs are fulfilled only incidentally, if at all, while virtually all labor is channeled into absurd, redundant or destructive projects that serve no purpose except to maintain the system.
If this system were abolished and modern technological potentials were appropriately transformed and redirected, the labor necessary to meet real human needs would be reduced to such a trivial level that it could easily be taken care of voluntarily and cooperatively, without requiring economic incentives or state enforcement.
It’s not too hard to grasp the idea of superseding overt hierarchical power. Self-management can be seen as the fulfillment of the freedom and democracy that are the official values of Western societies. Despite people’s submissive conditioning, everyone has had moments when they rejected domination and began speaking or acting for themselves.
It’s much harder to grasp the idea of superseding the economic system. The domination of capital is more subtle and self-regulating. Questions of work, production, goods, services, exchange and coordination in the modern world seem so complicated that most people take for granted the necessity of money as a universal mediation, finding it difficult to imagine any change beyond apportioning money in some more equitable way.
For this reason I will postpone more extensive discussion of the economic aspects till later in this text, when it will be possible to go into more detail.
Some exemplary modern revolts
Is such a revolution likely? The odds are probably against it. The main problem is that there is not much time. In previous eras it was possible to imagine that, despite all humanity’s follies and disasters, we would somehow muddle through and perhaps eventually learn from past mistakes. But now that social policies and technological developments have irrevocable global ecological ramifications, blundering trial and error is not enough. We have only a few decades to turn things around. And as time passes, the task becomes more difficult: the fact that basic social problems are scarcely even faced, much less resolved, encourages increasingly desperate and delirious tendencies toward war, fascism, ethnic antagonism, religious fanaticism and other forms of mass irrationality, deflecting those who might potentially work toward a new society into merely defensive and ultimately futile holding actions.
But most revolutions have been preceded by periods when everyone scoffed at the idea that things could ever change. Despite the many discouraging trends in the world, there are also some encouraging signs, not least of which is the widespread disillusionment with previous false alternatives. Many popular revolts in this century have already moved spontaneously in the right direction. I am not referring to the “successful” revolutions, which are without exception frauds, but to less known, more radical efforts. Some of the most notable examples are Russia 1905, Germany 1918–19, Italy 1920, Asturias 1934, Spain 1936–37, Hungary 1956, France 1968, Czechoslovakia 1968, Portugal 1974–75 and Poland 1980–81; many other movements, from the Mexican revolution of 1910 to the recent anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, have also contained exemplary moments of popular experimentation before they were brought under bureaucratic control.
No one is in any position to dismiss the prospect of revolution who has not carefully examined these movements. To ignore them because of their “failure” is missing the point. Modern revolution is all or nothing: individual revolts are bound to fail until an international chain reaction is triggered that spreads faster than repression can close in. It’s hardly surprising that these revolts did not go farther; what is inspiring is that they went as far as they did. A new revolutionary movement will undoubtedly take new and unpredictable forms; but these earlier efforts remain full of examples of what can be done, as well as of what must be avoided.
Some common objections
It’s often said that a stateless society might work if everyone were angels, but due to the perversity of human nature some hierarchy is necessary to keep people in line. It would be truer to say that if everyone were angels the present system might work tolerably well (bureaucrats would function honestly, capitalists would refrain from socially harmful ventures even if they were profitable). It is precisely because people are not angels that it’s necessary to eliminate the setup that enables some of them to become very efficient devils. Lock a hundred people in a small room with only one air hole and they will claw each other to death to get to it. Let them out and they may manifest a rather different nature. As one of the May 1968 graffiti put it, “Man is neither Rousseau’s noble savage nor the Church’s depraved sinner. He is violent when oppressed, gentle when free.”
Others contend that, whatever the ultimate causes may be, people are now so screwed up that they need to be psychologically or spiritually healed before they can even conceive of creating a liberated society. In his later years Wilhelm Reich came to feel that an “emotional plague” was so firmly embedded in the population that it would take generations of healthily raised children before people would become capable of a libertarian social transformation; and that meanwhile one should avoid confronting the system head-on since this would stir up a hornet’s nest of ignorant popular reaction.
Irrational popular tendencies do sometimes call for discretion. But powerful though they may be, they are not irresistible forces. They contain their own contradictions. Clinging to some absolute authority is not necessarily a sign of faith in authority; it may be a desperate attempt to overcome one’s increasing doubts (the convulsive tightening of a slipping grip). People who join gangs or reactionary groups, or who get caught up in religious cults or patriotic hysteria, are also seeking a sense of liberation, connection, purpose, participation, empowerment. As Reich himself showed, fascism gives a particularly vigorous and dramatic expression to these basic aspirations, which is why it often has a deeper appeal than the vacillations, compromises and hypocrisies of liberalism and leftism.
In the long run the only way to defeat reaction is to present more forthright expressions of these aspirations, and more authentic opportunities to fulfill them. When basic issues are forced into the open, irrationalities that flourished under the cover of psychological repression tend to be weakened, like disease germs exposed to sunlight and fresh air. In any case, even if we don’t prevail, there is at least some satisfaction in fighting for what we really believe, rather than being defeated in a posture of hesitancy and hypocrisy.
There are limits on how far one can liberate oneself (or raise liberated children) within a sick society. But if Reich was right to note that psychologically repressed people are less capable of envisioning social liberation, he failed to realize how much the process of social revolt can be psychologically liberating. (French psychiatrists are said to have complained about a significant drop in the number of their customers in the aftermath of May 1968!)
The notion of total democracy raises the specter of a “tyranny of the majority.” Majorities can be ignorant and bigoted, there’s no getting around it. The only real solution is to confront and attempt to overcome that ignorance and bigotry. Keeping the masses in the dark (relying on liberal judges to protect civil liberties or liberal legislators to sneak through progressive reforms) only leads to popular backlashes when sensitive issues eventually do come to the surface.
Examined more closely, however, most instances of majority oppression of minorities turn out to be due not to majority rule, but to disguised minority rule in which the ruling elite plays on whatever racial or cultural antagonisms there may be in order to turn the exploited masses’ frustrations against each other. When people get real power over their own lives they will have more interesting things to do than to persecute minorities.
So many potential abuses or disasters are evoked at any suggestion of a nonhierarchical society that it would be impossible to answer them all. People who resignedly accept a system that condemns millions of their fellow human beings to death every year in wars and famines, and millions of others to prison and torture, suddenly let their imagination and their indignation run wild at the thought that in a self-managed society there might be some abuses, some violence or coercion or injustice, or even merely some temporary inconvenience. They forget that it is not up to a new social system to solve all our problems; it merely has to deal with them better than the present system does — not a very big order.
If history followed the complacent opinions of official commentators, there would never have been any revolutions. In any given situation there are always plenty of ideologists ready to declare that no radical change is possible. If the economy is functioning well, they will claim that revolution depends on economic crises; if there is an economic crisis, others will just as confidently declare that revolution is impossible because people are too busy worrying about making ends meet. The former types, surprised by the May 1968 revolt, tried to retrospectively uncover the invisible crisis that their ideology insists must have been there. The latter contend that the situationist perspective has been refuted by the worsened economic conditions since that time.
Actually, the situationists simply noted that the widespread achievement of capitalist abundance had demonstrated that guaranteed survival was no substitute for real life. The periodic ups and downs of the economy have no bearing on that conclusion. The fact that a few people at the top have recently managed to siphon off a yet larger portion of the social wealth, driving increasing numbers of people into the streets and terrorizing the rest of the population lest they succumb to the same fate, makes the feasibility of a postscarcity society less evident; but the material prerequisites are still present.
The economic crises held up as evidence that we need to “lower our expectations” are actually caused by over-production and lack of work. The ultimate absurdity of the present system is that unemployment is seen as a problem, with potentially labor-saving technologies being directed toward creating new jobs to replace the old ones they render unnecessary. The problem is not that so many people don’t have jobs, but that so many people still do. We need to raise our expectations, not lower them.
Increasing dominance of the spectacle
Far more serious than this spectacle of our supposed powerlessness in the face of the economy is the greatly increased power of the spectacle itself, which in recent years has developed to the point of repressing virtually any awareness of pre-spectacle history or anti-spectacle possibilities. Debord’s Comments on the Society of the Spectacle (1988) goes into this new development in detail:
In all that has happened over the last twenty years, the most important change lies in the very continuity of the spectacle. What is significant is not the refinements of the spectacle’s media instrumentation, which had already attained a highly advanced stage of development; it is quite simply that spectacular domination has succeeded in raising an entire generation molded to its laws... Spectacular domination’s first priority was to eradicate historical knowledge in general, beginning with virtually all information and rational commentary on the most recent past... The spectacle makes sure that people are unaware of what is happening, or at least that they quickly forget whatever they may have become aware of. The more important something is, the more it is hidden. Nothing in the last twenty years has been so thoroughly shrouded with official lies as May 1968... The flow of images carries everything before it, and it is always someone else who controls this simplified digest of the perceptible world, who decides where the flow will lead, who programs the rhythm of what is shown into an endless series of arbitrary surprises that leaves no time for reflection ... isolating whatever is presented from its context, its past, its intentions and its consequences... It is thus hardly surprising that children are now starting their education with an enthusiastic introduction to the Absolute Knowledge of computer language while becoming increasingly incapable of reading. Because reading requires making judgments at every line; and since conversation is almost dead (as will soon be most of those who knew how to converse) reading is the only remaining gateway to the vast realms of pre-spectacle human experience.
In the present text I have tried to recapitulate some basic points that have been buried under this intensive spectacular repression. If these matters seem banal to some or obscure to others, they may at least serve to recall what once was possible, in those primitive times a few decades ago when people had the quaint, old-fashioned notion that they could understand and affect their own history.
While there is no question that things have changed considerably since the sixties (mostly for the worse), our situation may not be quite as hopeless as it seems to those who swallow whatever the spectacle feeds them. Sometimes it only takes a little jolt to break through the stupor.
Even if we have no guarantee of ultimate victory, such breakthroughs are already a pleasure. Is there any greater game around?
Chapter 2: Foreplay
“An individual cannot know what he really is until he has realized himself through action... The interest the individual finds in something is already the answer to the question of whether he should act and what should be done.” — Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit
Personal breakthroughs
Later on I will try to answer some more of the perennial objections. But as long as the objectors remain passive, all the arguments in the world will never faze them, and they will continue to sing the old refrain: “It’s a nice idea, but it’s not realistic, it goes against human nature, it’s always been this way...” Those who don’t realize their own potential are unlikely to recognize the potential of others.
To paraphrase that very sensible old prayer, we need the initiative to solve the problems we can, the patience to endure the ones we can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference. But we also need to bear in mind that some problems that can’t be solved by isolated individuals can be solved collectively. Discovering that others share the same problem is often the beginning of a solution.
Some problems can, of course, be solved individually, through a variety of methods ranging from elaborate therapies or spiritual practices to simple commonsense decisions to correct some mistake, break some harmful habit, try something new, etc. But my concern here is not with purely personal makeshifts, worthwhile though they may be within their limits, but with moments where people move “outward” in deliberately subversive ventures.
There are more possibilities than appear at first sight. Once you refuse to be intimidated, some of them are quite simple. You can begin anywhere. And you have to begin somewhere — do you think you can learn to swim if you never go in the water?
Sometimes a little action is needed to cut through excessive verbiage and reestablish a concrete perspective. It needn’t be anything momentous; if nothing else comes to mind, some rather arbitrary venture may suffice — just enough to shake things up a bit and wake yourself up.
At other times it’s necessary to stop, to break the chain of compulsive actions and reactions. To clear the air, to create a little space free from the cacophony of the spectacle. Just about everyone does this to some degree, out of instinctive psychological self-defense, whether by practicing some form of meditation, or by periodically engaging in some activity that effectively serves the same purpose (working in one’s garden, taking a walk, going fishing), or simply by pausing to take a deep breath amid their daily round, coming back for a moment to the “quiet center.” Without such a space it is difficult to get a sane perspective on the world, or even simply to keep one’s own sanity.
One of the methods I have found most useful is to put things in writing. The advantage is partly psychological (some problems lose their power over us by being set out where we can see them more objectively), partly a matter of organizing our thoughts so as to see the different factors and choices more clearly. We often maintain inconsistent notions without becoming aware of their contradictions until we try putting them down on paper.
I have sometimes been criticized for exaggerating the importance of writing. Many matters can, of course, be dealt with more directly. But even nonverbal actions require thinking about, talking about, and usually writing about, if they are to be effectively carried out, communicated, debated, corrected.
(In any case, I don’t claim to cover everything; I am merely discussing certain points about which I feel I have something to say. If you think I have failed to address some important topic, why don’t you do it yourself?)
Critical interventions
Writing enables you to work out your ideas at your own pace, without worrying about oratorical skills or stage fright. You can make a point once and for all instead of having to constantly repeat yourself. If discretion is necessary, a text can be issued anonymously. People can read it at their own pace, stop and think about it, go back and check specific points, reproduce it, adapt it, refer others to it. Talking may generate quicker and more detailed feedback, but it can also disperse your energy, prevent you from focusing and implementing your ideas. Those in the same rut as you may resist your efforts to escape because your success would challenge their own passivity.
Sometimes you can best provoke such people by simply leaving them behind and pursuing your own course. (“Hey, wait for me!”) Or by shifting the dialogue to a different level. A letter forces both writer and addressee to work out their ideas more clearly. Copies to others concerned may enliven the discussion. An open letter draws in even more people.
If you succeed in creating a chain reaction in which more and more people read your text because they see others reading it and heatedly discussing it, it will no longer be possible for anyone to pretend to be unaware of the issues you have raised.
Suppose, for example, that you criticize a group for being hierarchical, for allowing a leader to have power over members (or followers or fans). A private talk with one of the members might merely meet with a series of contradictory defensive reactions with which it is fruitless to argue. (“No, he’s not really our leader... And even if he is, he’s not authoritarian... And besides, what right do you have to criticize?”) But a public critique forces such contradictions into the open and puts people in a crossfire. While one member denies that the group is hierarchical, a second may admit that it is and attempt to justify this by attributing superior insight to the leader. This may cause a third member to start thinking.
At first, annoyed that you have disturbed their cozy little scene, the group is likely to close ranks around the leader and denounce you for your “negativity” or “elitist arrogance.” But if your intervention has been acute enough, it may continue to sink in and have a delayed impact. The leader now has to watch his step since everyone is more sensitive to anything that might seem to confirm your critique. In order to demonstrate how unjustified you are, the members may insist on greater democratization. Even if the particular group proves impervious to change, its example may serve as an object lesson for a wider public. Outsiders who might otherwise have made similar mistakes can more easily see the pertinence of your critique because they have less emotional investment.
It’s usually more effective to criticize institutions and ideologies than to attack individuals who merely happen to be caught up in them — not only because the machine is more crucial than its replaceable parts, but because this approach makes it easier for individuals to save face while dissociating themselves from the machine.
But however tactful you may be, there’s no getting around the fact that virtually any significant critique will provoke irrational defensive reactions, ranging from personal attacks on you to invocations of one or another of the many fashionable ideologies that seem to demonstrate the impossibility of any rational consideration of social problems. Reason is denounced as cold and abstract by demagogues who find it easier to play on people’s feelings; theory is scorned in the name of practice...
Theory versus ideology
To theorize is simply to try to understand what we are doing. We are all theorists whenever we honestly discuss what has happened, distinguish between the significant and the irrelevant, see through fallacious explanations, recognize what worked and what didn’t, consider how something might be done better next time. Radical theorizing is simply talking or writing to more people about more general issues in more abstract (i.e. more widely applicable) terms. Even those who claim to reject theory theorize — they merely do so more unconsciously and capriciously, and thus more inaccurately.
Theory without particulars is empty, but particulars without theory are blind. Practice tests theory, but theory also inspires new practice.
Radical theory has nothing to respect and nothing to lose. It criticizes itself along with everything else. It is not a doctrine to be accepted on faith, but a tentative generalization that people must constantly test and correct for themselves, a practical simplification indispensable for dealing with the complexities of reality.
But hopefully not an oversimplification. Any theory can turn into an ideology, become rigidified into a dogma, be twisted to hierarchical ends. A sophisticated ideology may be relatively accurate in certain respects; what differentiates it from theory is that it lacks a dynamic relation to practice. Theory is when you have ideas; ideology is when ideas have you. “Seek simplicity, and distrust it.”
Avoiding false choices and elucidating real ones
We have to face the fact that there are no foolproof gimmicks, that no radical tactic is invariably appropriate. Something that is collectively possible during a revolt may not be a sensible option for an isolated individual. In certain urgent situations it may be necessary to urge people to take some specific action; but in most cases it is best simply to elucidate relevant factors that people should take into account when making their own decisions. (If I occasionally presume to offer direct advice here, this is for convenience of expression. “Do this” should be understood as “In some circumstances it may be a good idea to do this.”)
A social analysis need not be long or detailed. Simply “dividing one into two” (pointing out contradictory tendencies within a given phenomenon or group or ideology) or “combining two into one” (revealing a commonality between two apparently distinct entities) may be useful, especially if communicated to those most directly involved. More than enough information is already available on most issues; what is needed is to cut through the glut in order to reveal the essential. Once this is done, other people, including knowledgeable insiders, will be spurred to more thorough investigations if these are necessary.
When confronted with a given topic, the first thing is to determine whether it is indeed a single topic. It’s impossible to have any meaningful discussion of “Marxism” or “violence” or “technology” without distinguishing the diverse senses that are lumped under such labels.
On the other hand, it can also be useful to take some broad, abstract category and show its predominant tendencies, even though such a pure type does not actually exist. The situationists’ Student Poverty pamphlet, for example, scathingly enumerates all sorts of stupidities and pretensions of “the student.” Obviously not every student is guilty of all these faults, but the stereotype serves as a focus around which to organize a systematic critique of general tendencies. By stressing qualities most students have in common, the pamphlet also implicitly challenges those who claim to be exceptions to prove it. The same applies to the critique of “the pro-situ” in Debord and Sanguinetti’s The Real Split in the International — a challenging rebuff of followers perhaps unique in the history of radical movements.
“Everyone is asked their opinion about every detail in order to prevent them from forming one about the totality” (Vaneigem). Many issues are such emotionally loaded tar-babies that anyone who reacts to them becomes entangled in false choices. The fact that two sides are in conflict, for example, does not mean that you must support one or the other. If you cannot do anything about a particular problem, it is best to clearly acknowledge this fact and move on to something that does present practical possibilities.
If you do decide to choose a lesser evil, admit it; don’t add to the confusion by whitewashing your choice or demonizing the enemy. If anything, it’s better to do the opposite: to play devil’s advocate and neutralize compulsive polemical delirium by calmly examining the strong points of the opposing position and the weaknesses in your own. “A very popular error: having the courage of one’s convictions; the point is to have the courage for an attack on one’s convictions!” (Nietzsche).
Combine modesty with audacity. Remember that if you happen to accomplish anything it is on the foundation of the efforts of countless others, many of whom have faced horrors that would make you or me crumple into submission. But don’t forget that what you say can make a difference: within a world of pacified spectators even a little autonomous expression will stand out.
Since there are no longer any material obstacles to inaugurating a classless society, the problem has been essentially reduced to a question of consciousness: the only thing that really stands in the way is people’s unawareness of their own collective power. (Physical repression is effective against radical minorities only so long as social conditioning keeps the rest of the population docile.) Hence a large element of radical practice is negative: attacking the various forms of false consciousness that prevent people from realizing their positive potentialities.
The insurrectionary style
Both Marx and the situationists have often been ignorantly denounced for such negativity, because they concentrated primarily on critical clarification and deliberately avoided promoting any positive ideology to which people could passively cling. Because Marx pointed out how capitalism reduces our lives to an economic rat-race, “idealistic” apologists for this state of affairs accuse him of “reducing life to materialistic concerns” — as if the whole point of Marx’s work was not to help us get beyond our economic slavery so that our more creative potentials can flower. “To call on people to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions... Criticism plucks the imaginary flowers from the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he will throw off the chain and pluck the living flower” (“Introduction to a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right”).
Accurately expressing a key issue often has a surprisingly powerful effect. Bringing things out into the open forces people to stop hedging their bets and take a position. Like the dexterous butcher in the Taoist fable whose knife never needed sharpening because he always cut between the joints, the most effective radical polarization comes not from strident protest, but from simply revealing the divisions that already exist, elucidating the different tendencies, contradictions, choices. Much of the situationists’ impact stemmed from the fact that they articulated things that most people had already experienced but were unable or afraid to express until someone else broke the ice. (“Our ideas are in everybody’s mind.”)
If some situationist texts nevertheless seem difficult at first, this is because their dialectical structure goes against the grain of our conditioning. When this conditioning is broken they don’t seem so obscure (they were the source of some of the most popular May 1968 graffiti). Many academic spectators have floundered around trying unsuccessfully to resolve the various “contradictory” descriptions of the spectacle in The Society of the Spectacle into some single, “scientifically consistent” definition; but anyone engaged in contesting this society will find Debord’s examination of it from different angles eminently clear and useful, and come to appreciate the fact that he never wastes a word in academic inanities or pointless expressions of outrage.
The dialectical method that runs from Hegel and Marx to the situationists is not a magic formula for churning out correct predictions, it is a tool for grappling with the dynamic processes of social change. It reminds us that social concepts are not eternal; that they contain their own contradictions, interacting with and transforming each other, even into their opposites; that what is true or progressive in one context may become false or regressive in another.
A dialectical text may require careful study, but each new reading brings new discoveries. Even if it influences only a few people directly, it tends to influence them so profoundly that many of them end up influencing others in the same way, leading to a qualitative chain reaction. The nondialectical language of leftist propaganda is easier to understand, but its effect is usually superficial and ephemeral; offering no challenge, it soon ends up boring even the stupefied spectators for whom it is designed.
As Debord put it in his last film, those who find what he says too difficult would do better to blame their own ignorance and passivity, and the schools and society that have made them that way, than to complain about his obscurity. Those who don’t have enough initiative to reread crucial texts or to do a little exploration or a little experimentation for themselves are unlikely to accomplish anything if they are spoonfed by someone else.
Radical film
Debord is in fact virtually the only person who has made a truly dialectical and antispectacular use of film [see Guy Debord’s Films]. Although would-be radical filmmakers often give lip service to Brechtian “distanciation” — the notion of encouraging spectators to think and act for themselves rather than sucking them into passive identification with hero or plot — most radical films still play to the audience as if it were made up of morons. The dimwitted protagonist gradually “discovers oppression” and becomes “radicalized” to the point where he is ready to become a fervent supporter of “progressive” politicians or a loyal militant in some bureaucratic leftist group. Distanciation is limited to a few token gimmicks that allow the spectator to think: “Ah, a Brechtian touch! What a clever fellow that filmmaker is! And how clever am I to recognize such subtleties!” The radical message is usually so banal that it is obvious to virtually anyone who would ever go to see such a film in the first place; but the spectator gets the gratifying impression that other people might be brought up to his level of awareness if only they could be got to see it.
If the spectator has any uneasiness about the quality of what he is consuming, it is assuaged by the critics, whose main function is to read profound radical meanings into practically any film. As with the Emperor’s New Clothes, no one is likely to admit that he wasn’t aware of these supposed meanings until informed of them, for fear that this would reveal him as less sophisticated than the rest of the audience.
Certain films may help expose some deplorable condition or convey some sense of the feel of a radical situation. But there is little point in presenting images of a struggle if both the images and the struggle are not criticized. Spectators sometimes complain that a film portrays some social category (e.g. women) inaccurately. This may be true insofar as the film reproduces certain false stereotypes; but the usually implied alternative — that the filmmaker “should have presented images of women struggling against oppression” — would in most cases be equally false to reality. Women (like men or any other oppressed group) have in fact usually been passive and submissive — that’s precisely the problem we have to face. Catering to people’s self-satisfaction by presenting spectacles of triumphant radical heroism only reinforces this bondage.
Oppressionism versus playfulness
To rely on oppressive conditions to radicalize people is unwise; to intentionally worsen them in order to accelerate this process is unacceptable. The repression of certain radical projects may incidentally expose the absurdity of the ruling order; but such projects should be worthwhile for their own sake — they lose their credibility if they are merely pretexts designed to provoke repression. Even in the most “privileged” milieus there are usually more than enough problems without needing to add to them. The point is to reveal the contrast between present conditions and present possibilities; to give people enough taste of real life that they’ll want more.
Leftists often imply that a lot of simplification, exaggeration and repetition is necessary in order to counteract all the ruling propaganda in the other direction. This is like saying that a boxer who has been made groggy by a right hook will be restored to lucidity by a left hook.
People’s consciousness is not “raised” by burying them under an avalanche of horror stories, or even under an avalanche of information. Information that is not critically assimilated and used is soon forgotten. Mental as well as physical health requires some balance between what we take in and what we do with it. It may sometimes be necessary to force complacent people to face some outrage they are unaware of, but even in such cases harping on the same thing ad nauseam usually accomplishes nothing more than driving them to escape to less boring and depressing spectacles.
One of the main things that keeps us from understanding our situation is the spectacle of other people’s apparent happiness, which makes us see our own unhappiness as a shameful sign of failure. But an omnipresent spectacle of misery also keeps us from seeing our positive potentials. The constant broadcasting of delirious ideas and nauseating atrocities paralyzes us, turns us into paranoids and compulsive cynics.
Strident leftist propaganda, fixating on the insidiousness and loathsomeness of “oppressors,” often feeds this delirium, appealing to the most morbid and mean-spirited side of people. If we get caught up in brooding on evils, if we let the sickness and ugliness of this society pervade even our rebellion against it, we forget what we are fighting for and end up losing the very capacity to love, to create, to enjoy.
The best “radical art” cuts both ways. If it attacks the alienation of modern life, it simultaneously reminds us of the poetic potentialities hidden within it. Rather than reinforcing our tendency to wallow in self-pity, it encourages our resilience, enables us to laugh at our own troubles as well as at the asininities of the forces of “order.” Some of the old IWW songs and comic strips are good examples, even if the IWW ideology is by now a bit musty. Or the ironic, bittersweet songs of Brecht and Weill. The hilarity of The Good Soldier Svejk is probably a more effective antidote to war than the moral outrage of the typical antiwar tract.
Nothing undermines authority like holding it up to ridicule. The most effective argument against a repressive regime is not that it is evil, but that it is silly. The protagonists of Albert Cossery’s novel La violence et la dérision, living under a Middle-Eastern dictatorship, plaster the walls of the capital with an official-looking poster that praises the dictator to such a preposterous degree that he becomes a laughingstock and is forced to resign out of embarrassment. Cosséry’s pranksters are apolitical and their success is perhaps too good to be true, but somewhat similar parodies have been used with more radical aims (e.g. the Li I-Che coup mentioned on page 304 [A Radical Group in Hong Kong]). At demonstrations in Italy in the 1970s the Metropolitan Indians (inspired perhaps by the opening chapter of Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie and Bruno: “Less Bread! More Taxes!”) carried banners and chanted slogans such as “Power to the Bosses!” and “More work! Less pay!” Everyone recognized the irony, but it was harder to dismiss with the usual pigeonholing.
Humor is a healthy antidote to all types of orthodoxy, left as well as right. It’s highly contagious and it reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously. But it can easily become a mere safety valve, channeling dissatisfaction into glib, passive cynicism. Spectacle society thrives on delirious reactions against its most delirious aspects. Satirists often have a dependent, love-hate relation with their targets; parodies become indistinguishable from what they are parodying, giving the impression that everything is equally bizarre, meaningless and hopeless.
In a society based on artificially maintained confusion, the first task is not to add to it. Chaotic disruptions usually generate nothing but annoyance or panic, provoking people to support whatever measures the government takes to restore order. A radical intervention may at first seem strange and incomprehensible; but if it has been worked out with sufficient lucidity, people will soon understand it well enough.
The Strasbourg scandal
Imagine being at Strasbourg University at the opening of the school year in fall 1966, among the students, faculty and distinguished guests filing into an auditorium to hear a commencement address. You find a little pamphlet placed on each seat. A program? No, something about “the poverty of student life.” You idly open it up and start to read: “It is pretty safe to say that the student is the most universally despised creature in France, apart from the policeman and the priest...” You look around and see that everyone else is also reading it, reactions ranging from puzzlement or amusement to shock and outrage. Who is responsible for this? The title page reveals that it is published by the Strasbourg Student Union, but it also refers to “the Situationist International,” whatever that might be...
What made the Strasbourg scandal different from some college prank, or from the confused and confusing capers of groups like the Yippies, was that its scandalous form conveyed an equally scandalous content. At a moment when students were being proclaimed as the most radical sector of society, this text was the only one that put things into perspective. But the particular poverties of students just happened to be the point of departure; equally scathing texts could and should be written on the poverty of every other segment of society (preferably by those who know them from inside). Some have in fact been attempted, but none have approached the lucidity and coherence of the situationist pamphlet, so concise yet so comprehensive, so provocative yet so accurate, moving so methodically from a specific situation through increasingly general ramifications that the final chapter presents the most pithy existing summary of the modern revolutionary project. (See SI Anthology, pp. 204–212, 319–337 [On the Poverty of Student Life and Our Goals and Methods in the Strasbourg Scandal].)
The situationists never claimed to have single-handedly provoked May 1968 — as they said, they predicted the content of the revolt, not the date or location. But without the Strasbourg scandal and the subsequent agitation by the SI-influenced Enragés group (of which the more well known March 22nd Movement was only a belated and confused imitation) the revolt might never have happened. There was no economic or governmental crisis, no war or racial antagonism destabilizing the country, nor any other particular issue that might have fostered such a revolt. There were more radical worker struggles going on in Italy and England, more militant student struggles in Germany and Japan, more widespread countercultural movements in the United States and the Netherlands. But only in France was there a perspective that tied them all together.
Carefully calculated interventions like the Strasbourg scandal must be distinguished not only from confusionistic disruptions, but also from merely spectacular exposés. As long as social critics confine themselves to contesting this or that detail, the spectacle-spectator relation continually reconstitutes itself: if such critics succeed in discrediting existing political leaders, they themselves often become new stars (Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, etc.) whom slightly more aware spectators admiringly rely on for a continuing flow of shocking information that they rarely do anything about. The milder exposés get the audience to root for this or that faction in intragovernmental power struggles; the more sensational ones feed people’s morbid curiosity, sucking them into consuming more articles, news programs and docudramas, and into interminable debates about various conspiracy theories. Most such theories are obviously nothing but delirious reflections of the lack of critical historical sense produced by the modern spectacle, desperate attempts to find some coherent meaning in an increasingly incoherent and absurd society. In any case, as long as things remain on the spectacular terrain it hardly matters whether any of these theories are true: those who keep watching to see what comes next never affect what comes next.
Certain revelations are more interesting because they not only open up significant issues to public debate, but do so in a manner that draws lots of people into the game. A charming example is the 1963 “Spies for Peace” scandal in England, in which a few unknown persons publicized the location of a secret bomb shelter reserved for members of the government. The more vehemently the government threatened to prosecute anyone who reproduced this “state secret” information which was no longer secret from anyone, the more creatively and playfully it was disseminated by thousands of groups and individuals (who also proceeded to discover and invade several other secret shelters). Not only did the asininity of the government and the insanity of the nuclear war spectacle became evident to everyone, the spontaneous human chain reaction provided a taste of a quite different social potential.
The poverty of electoral politics
“Since 1814 no Liberal government had come in except by violence. Cánovas was too intelligent not to see the inconvenience and the danger of that. He therefore arranged that Conservative governments should be succeeded regularly by Liberal governments. The plan he followed was, whenever an economic crisis or a serious strike came along, to resign and let the Liberals deal with it. This explains why most of the repressive legislation passed during the rest of the century was passed by them.” — Gerald Brenan, The Spanish Labyrinth
The best argument in favor of radical electoral politics was made by Eugene Debs, the American socialist leader who in 1920 received nearly a million votes for president while in prison for opposing World War I: “If the people don’t know enough to know who to vote for, they’re not going to know who to shoot at.” On the other hand, the workers during the 1918–19 German revolution were confused about who to shoot at precisely by the presence of “socialist” leaders in the government who were working overtime to repress the revolution.
In itself, voting is of no great significance one way or the other (those who make a big deal about refusing to vote are only revealing their own fetishism). The problem is that it tends to lull people into relying on others to act for them, distracting them from more significant possibilities. A few people who take some creative initiative (think of the first civil rights sit-ins) may ultimately have a far greater effect than if they had put their energy into campaigning for lesser-evil politicians. At best, legislators rarely do more than what they have been forced to do by popular movements. A conservative regime under pressure from independent radical movements often concedes more than a liberal regime that knows it can count on radical support. If people invariably rally to lesser evils, all the rulers have to do in any situation that threatens their power is to conjure up a threat of some greater evil.
Even in the rare case when a “radical” politician has a realistic chance of winning an election, all the tedious campaign efforts of thousands of people may go down the drain in one day because of some trivial scandal discovered in his personal life, or because he inadvertently says something intelligent. If he manages to avoid these pitfalls and it looks like he might win, he tends to evade controversial issues for fear of antagonizing swing voters. If he actually gets elected he is almost never in a position to implement the reforms he has promised, except perhaps after years of wheeling and dealing with his new colleagues; which gives him a good excuse to see his first priority as making whatever compromises are necessary to keep himself in office indefinitely. Hobnobbing with the rich and powerful, he develops new interests and new tastes, which he justifies by telling himself that he deserves a few perks after all his years of working for good causes. Worst of all, if he does eventually manage to get a few “progressive” measures passed, this exceptional and usually trivial success is held up as evidence of the value of relying on electoral politics, luring many more people into wasting their energy on similar campaigns to come.
As one of the May 1968 graffiti put it, “It’s painful to submit to our bosses; it’s even more stupid to choose them!”
Referendums on particular issues are less susceptible to the precariousness of personalities; but the results are often no better since the issues tend to be posed very simplistically, and any measure that threatens powerful interests can usually be defeated by the influence of money and mass media.
Local elections sometimes offer people a more realistic chance to affect policies and keep tabs on elected officials. But even the most enlightened communities cannot insulate themselves from the deterioration of the rest of the world. If a city manages to preserve desirable cultural or environmental features, these very advantages put it under increasing economic pressure. The fact that human values have been given precedence over property values ultimately causes enormous increases in the latter (more people will want to invest or move there). Sooner or later this property-value increase overpowers the human values: local policies are overruled by high courts or by state or national governments, outside money is poured into municipal elections, city officials are bribed, residential neighborhoods are demolished to make room for highrises and freeways, rents skyrocket, the poorer classes are forced out (including the diverse ethnic groups and artistic bohemians who contributed to the city’s original liveliness and appeal), and all that remains of the earlier community are a few isolated sites of “historical interest” for tourist consumption.
Reforms and alternative institutions
Still, “acting locally” may be a good place to start. People who feel that the global situation is hopeless or incomprehensible may nevertheless see a chance to affect some specific local matter. Block clubs, co-ops, switchboards, study groups, alternative schools, free health clinics, community theaters, neighborhood newspapers, public-access radio and television stations and many other kinds of alternative institutions are worthwhile for their own sake, and if they are sufficiently participatory they may lead to broader movements. Even if they don’t last very long, they provide a temporary terrain for radical experimentation.
But always within limits. Capitalism was able to develop gradually within feudal society, so that by the time the capitalist revolution cast off the last vestiges of feudalism, most of the mechanisms of the new bourgeois order were already firmly in place. An anticapitalist revolution, in contrast, cannot really build its new society “within the shell of the old.” Capitalism is far more flexible and all-pervading than was feudalism, and tends to coopt any oppositional organization.
Nineteenth-century radical theorists could still see enough surviving remnants of traditional communal forms to suppose that, once the overarching exploitive structure was eliminated, they might be revived and expanded to form the foundation of a new society. But the global penetration of spectacular capitalism in the present century has destroyed virtually all forms of popular control and direct human interaction. Even the more modern efforts of the sixties counterculture have long been integrated into the system. Co-ops, crafts, organic farming and other marginal enterprises may produce better quality goods under better working conditions, but those goods still have to function as commodities on the market. The few successful ventures tend to evolve into ordinary businesses, with the founding members gradually assuming an ownership or managerial role over the newer workers and dealing with all sorts of routine commercial and bureaucratic matters that have nothing to do with “preparing the ground for a new society.”
The longer an alternative institution lasts, the more it tends to lose its volunteer, experimental, nothing-to-lose character. Permanent paid staffs develop a vested interest in the status quo and avoid rocking the boat for fear of offending supporters or losing their government or foundation funding. Alternative institutions also tend to demand too much of the limited free time people have, bogging them down, robbing them of the energy and imagination to confront more general issues. After a brief period of participation most people get burned out, leaving the work to the dutiful types or to leftists trying to make an ideological point. It may sound nice to hear about people forming block clubs, etc., but unless a real local emergency comes up you may not want to attend interminable meetings to listen to your neighbors’ complaints, or otherwise commit yourself to matters you don’t really care about.
In the name of realism, reformists limit themselves to pursuing “winnable” objectives, yet even when they win some little adjustment in the system it is usually offset by some other development at another level. This doesn’t mean that reforms are irrelevant, merely that they are insufficient. We have to keep resisting particular evils, but we also have to recognize that the system will keep generating new ones until we put an end to it. To suppose that a series of reforms will eventually add up to a qualitative change is like thinking we can get across a ten-foot chasm by a series of one-foot hops.
People tend to assume that because revolution involves much greater change than reforms, it must be more difficult to bring about. In the long run it may actually be easier, because in one stroke it cuts through so many petty complications and arouses a much greater enthusiasm. At a certain point it becomes more practical to start fresh than to keep trying to replaster a rotten structure.
Meanwhile, until a revolutionary situation enables us to be truly constructive, the best we can do is be creatively negative — concentrating on critical clarification, leaving people to pursue whatever positive projects may appeal to them but without the illusion that a new society is being “built” by the gradual accumulation of such projects.
Purely negative projects (e.g. abolition of laws against drug use, consensual sex and other victimless crimes) have the advantage of simplicity, immediately benefiting virtually everyone (except for that symbiotic duo, organized crime and the crime-control industry) while requiring little if any followup work once they are successful. On the other hand, they provide little opportunity for creative participation.
The best projects are those that are worthwhile for their own sake while simultaneously containing an implicit challenge to some fundamental aspect of the system; projects that enable people to participate in significant issues according to their own degree of interest, while tending to open the way to more radical possibilities.
Less interesting, but still worthwhile, are demands for improved conditions or more equal rights. Even if such projects are not in themselves very participatory, they may remove impediments to participation.
Least desirable are mere zero-sum struggles, where one group’s gain is another’s loss.
Even in the latter case the point is not to tell people what they should do, but to get them to realize what they are doing. If they are promoting some issue in order to recruit people, it is appropriate to expose their manipulative motives. If they believe they are contributing to radical change, it may be useful to show them how their activity is actually reinforcing the system in some way. But if they are really interested in their project for its own sake, let them go for it.
Even if we disagree with their priorities (fundraising for the opera, say, while the streets are filled with homeless people) we should be wary of any strategy that merely appeals to people’s guilt, not only because such appeals generally have a negligible effect but because such moralism represses healthy positive aspirations. To refrain from contesting “quality of life” issues because the system continues to present us with survival emergencies is to submit to a blackmail that no longer has any justification. “Bread and roses” are no longer mutually exclusive.
“Quality of life” projects are in fact often more inspiring than routine political and economic demands because they awaken people to richer perspectives. Paul Goodman’s books are full of imaginative and often amusing examples. If his proposals are “reformist,” they are so in a lively, provocative way that provides a refreshing contrast to the cringing defensive posture of most present-day reformists, who confine themselves to reacting to the reactionaries’ agenda. (“We agree that it is essential to create jobs, fight crime, keep our country strong; but moderate methods will accomplish this better than the conservatives’ extremist proposals.”)
Other things being equal, it makes sense to concentrate one’s energy on issues that are not already receiving public attention; and to prefer projects that can be done cleanly and directly, as opposed to those that require compromises, such as working through government agencies. Even if such compromises don’t seem too serious, they set a bad precedent. Reliance on the state almost always backfires (commissions designed to root out bureaucratic corruption themselves develop into new corrupt bureaucracies; laws designed to thwart armed reactionary groups end up being used primarily to harass unarmed radicals).
The system is able to kill two birds with one stone by maneuvering its opponents into offering “constructive solutions” to its own crises. It in fact needs a certain amount of opposition to warn it of problems, to force it to rationalize itself, to enable it to test its instruments of control, and to provide excuses to impose new forms of control. Emergency measures imperceptibly become standard procedures as regulations that might ordinarily be resisted are introduced during situations of panic. The slow, steady rape of the human personality by all the institutions of alienated society, from school and factory to advertising and urbanism, is made to seem normal as the spectacle focuses obsessively on sensational individual crimes, manipulating people into law-and-order hysteria.
Political correctness, or equal opportunity alienation
Above all, the system thrives when it can deflect social contestation into squabbles over privileged positions within it.
This is a particularly thorny area. All social inequalities need to be challenged, not only because they are unfair, but because as long as they remain they can be used to divide people. But attaining equal wage slavery or equal opportunity to become a bureaucrat or a capitalist hardly amounts to any victory over bureaucratic capitalism.
It is both natural and necessary that people defend their own interests; but if they try do so by identifying too exclusively with some particular social group they tend to lose sight of the larger picture. As increasingly fragmented categories scramble over the crumbs allotted to them, they get caught up in petty mutual-blame games and the notion of abolishing the whole hierarchical structure is forgotten. People who are normally quick to denounce the slightest hint of derogatory stereotyping get carried away into lumping all men or all whites as “oppressors,” then wonder why they run up against such powerful backlashes among the vast majority of the latter, who are quite aware that they have little real power over their own lives, much less over anyone else’s.
Aside from the reactionary demagogues (who are pleasantly surprised to find “progressives” providing them with such easy targets for ridicule) the only people who actually benefit from these internecine squabbles are a few careerists struggling for bureaucratic posts, government grants, academic tenure, publishing contracts, commercial clienteles or political constituencies at a time when there is increasingly limited space at the trough. Sniffing out “political incorrectness” enables them to bash rivals and critics and reinforce their own positions as recognized specialists or spokespeople of their particular fragment. The various oppressed groups that are foolish enough to accept such spokespeople get nothing but the bittersweet thrill of self-righteous resentment and a ludicrous official terminology reminiscent of Orwell’s Newspeak.
There is a crucial, though sometimes subtle, distinction between fighting social evils and feeding on them. People are not empowered by being encouraged to wallow in their own victimhood. Individual autonomy is not developed by taking refuge in some group identity. Equal intelligence is not demonstrated by dismissing logical reasoning as a “typical white male tactic.” Radical dialogue is not fostered by harassing people who don’t conform to some political orthodoxy, much less by striving to get such orthodoxy legally enforced.
Nor is history made by rewriting it. We do need to free ourselves from uncritical respect for the past and to become aware of the ways it has been distorted. But we have to recognize that despite our disapproval of past prejudices and injustices, it is unlikely that we would have done any better had we ourselves lived under the same conditions. Applying present-day standards retroactively (smugly correcting earlier authors every time they use the formerly conventional masculine forms, or trying to censor Huckleberry Finn because Huck doesn’t refer to Jim as a “person of color”) only reinforces the historical ignorance that the modern spectacle has been so successful in fostering.
Drawbacks of moralism and simplistic extremism
A lot of this nonsense stems from the false assumption that being radical implies living up to some moral “principle” — as if no one could work for peace without being a total pacifist, or advocate the abolition of capitalism without giving away all their money. Most people have too much common sense to actually follow such simplistic ideals, but they often feel vaguely guilty that they don’t. This guilt paralyzes them and makes them more susceptible to blackmail by leftist manipulators (who tell us that if we don’t have the courage to martyrize ourselves, we must uncritically support those who do). Or they try to repress their guilt by disparaging others who seem even more compromised: a manual laborer may take pride in not selling out mentally like a professor; who perhaps feels superior to an ad designer; who may in turn look down on someone who works in the arms industry...
Turning social problems into personal moral issues deflects attention from their potential solution. Trying to change social conditions by charity is like trying to raise the sea level by dumping buckets of water in the ocean. Even if some good is accomplished by altruistic actions, to rely on them as a general strategy is futile because they will always be the exception. Most people naturally look out first for themselves and for those closest to them. One of the merits of the situationists was to have cut through the traditional leftist appeal to guilt and self-sacrifice by stressing that the primary reason to make a revolution is for ourselves.
“Going to the people” in order to “serve” or “organize” or “radicalize” them usually leads to manipulation and often meets with apathy or hostility. The example of others’ independent actions is a far stronger and healthier means of inspiration. Once people begin to act on their own they are in a better position to exchange experiences, to collaborate on equal terms and, if necessary, to ask for specific assistance. And when they win their own freedom it’s much harder to take it back from them. One of the May 1968 graffitists wrote: “I’m not a servant of the people (much less of their self-appointed leaders) — let the people serve themselves.” Another put it even more succinctly: “Don’t liberate me — I’ll take care of that.”
A total critique means that everything is called into question, not that everything must be totally opposed. Radicals often forget this and get caught up in outbidding each other with increasingly extremist assertions, implying that any compromise amounts to selling out or even that any enjoyment amounts to complicity with the system. Actually, being “for” or “against” some political position is just as easy, and usually just as meaningless, as being for or against some sports team. Those who proudly proclaim their “total opposition” to all compromise, all authority, all organization, all theory, all technology, etc., usually turn out to have no revolutionary perspective whatsoever — no practical conception of how the present system might be overthrown or how a postrevolutionary society might work. Some even attempt to justify this lack by declaring that a mere revolution could never be radical enough to satisfy their eternal ontological rebelliousness.
Such all-or-nothing bombast may temporarily impress a few spectators, but its ultimate effect is simply to make people blasé. Sooner or later the contradictions and hypocrisies lead to disillusionment and resignation. Projecting their own disappointed delusions onto the world, the former extremists conclude that all radical change is hopeless and repress the whole experience; or perhaps even flip to some equally silly reactionary position.
If every radical had to be a Durruti we might as well forget it and devote ourselves to more realizable concerns. But being radical does not mean being the most extreme. In its original sense it simply means going to the root. The reason it is necessary to strive for the abolition of capitalism and the state is not because this is the most extreme goal imaginable, but because it has unfortunately become evident that nothing less will do.
We need to find out what is both necessary and sufficient; to seek projects that we are actually capable of doing and realistically likely to do. Anything beyond this is just hot air. Many of the oldest and still most effective radical tactics — debates, critiques, boycotts, strikes, sit-ins, workers councils — caught on precisely because they are at once simple, relatively safe, widely applicable, and open-ended enough to lead to broader possibilities.
Simplistic extremism naturally seeks the most extremist foil for itself. If all problems can be attributed to a sinister clique of “total fascists,” everything else will seem comfortingly progressive by comparison. Meanwhile the actual forms of modern domination, which are usually more subtle, proceed unnoticed and unopposed.
Fixating on reactionaries only reinforces them, makes them seem more powerful and more fascinating. “It matters little if our opponents mock us or insult us, if they represent us as clowns or criminals; the essential thing is that they talk of us, preoccupy themselves with us” (Hitler). Reich pointed out that “by drilling people to hate the police one only strengthens police authority and invests it with mystic power in the eyes of the poor and the helpless. The strong are hated but also feared and envied and followed. This fear and envy felt by the ‘have-nots’ accounts for a portion of the political reactionaries’ power. One of the main objectives of the rational struggle for freedom is to disarm reactionaries by exposing the illusionary character of their power” (People in Trouble).
The main problem with compromising is not so much moral as practical: it’s difficult to attack something when we ourselves are implicated in it. We hedge our critiques lest others criticize us in turn. It becomes harder to think big, to act boldly. As has often been noted, many of the German people acquiesced to Nazi oppression because it began fairly gradually and was at first directed mainly at unpopular minorities (Jews, Gypsies, Communists, homosexuals); by the time it began affecting the general population, they had become incapable of doing anything about it.
In hindsight it’s easy to condemn those who capitulated to fascism or Stalinism, but it’s unlikely that most of us would have done any better had we been in the same position. In our daydreams, picturing ourself as a dramatic personage faced with a clear-cut choice in front of an appreciative audience, we imagine that we would have no trouble making the right decision. But the situations we actually face are usually more complex and obscure. It’s not always easy to know where to draw the line.
The point is to draw it somewhere, stop worrying about guilt and blame and self-justification, and take the offensive.
Advantages of boldness
This spirit is well exemplified by those Italian workers who have gone on strike without making any demands whatsoever. Such strikes are not only more interesting than the usual bureaucratic union negotiations, they may even be more effective: the bosses, uncertain of how far they have to go, frequently end up offering much more than the strikers would have dared to demand. The latter can then decide on their next move without having committed themselves to anything in return.
A defensive reaction against this or that social symptom at best wins some temporary concession on the specific issue. Aggressive agitation that refuses to limit itself exerts far more pressure. Faced with widespread, unpredictable movements like the sixties counterculture or the May 1968 revolt — movements calling everything in question, generating autonomous contestations on many fronts, threatening to spread throughout the whole society and too vast to be controlled by cooptable leaders — rulers hasten to clean up their image, pass reforms, raise wages, release prisoners, declare amnesties, initiate peace talks — anything in the hope of preempting the movement and reestablishing their control. (The sheer unmanageability of the American counterculture, which was spreading deeply into the army itself, probably played as great a role as the explicit antiwar movement in forcing the end of the Vietnam war.)
The side that takes the initiative defines the terms of the struggle. As long as it keeps innovating, it also retains the element of surprise. “Boldness is virtually a creative power... Whenever boldness meets hesitation it already has a significant advantage because the very state of hesitation implies a loss of equilibrium. It is only when it encounters cautious foresight that it is at a disadvantage” (Clausewitz, On War). But cautious foresight is quite rare among those who run this society. Most of the system’s processes of commodification, spectacularization and hierarchization are blind and automatic: merchants, media and leaders merely follow their natural tendencies to make money or grab audiences or recruit followers.
Spectacle society is often the victim of its own falsifications. As each level of bureaucracy tries to cover for itself with padded statistics, as each “information source” outbids the others with more sensational stories, and as competing states, governmental departments and private companies each launch their own independent disinformation operations (see chapters 16 and 30 of Debord’s Comments on the Society of the Spectacle), even the exceptional ruler who may have some lucidity has a hard time finding out what is really happening. As Debord observes elsewhere in the same book, a state that ends up repressing its own historical knowledge can no longer conduct itself strategically.
Advantages and limits of nonviolence
“The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of struggle... If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” — Frederick Douglass
Anyone with any knowledge of history is aware that societies do not change without stubborn and often savage resistance by those in power. If our ancestors had not resorted to violent revolt, most of those who now self-righteously deplore it would still be serfs or slaves.
The routine functioning of this society is far more violent than any reaction against it could ever be. Imagine the outrage that would greet a radical movement that executed 20,000 opponents; that’s a conservative estimate of the number of children that the present system allows to starve to death each day. Vacillations and compromises allow this ongoing violence to drag on indefinitely, ultimately causing a thousand times more suffering than a single decisive revolution.
Fortunately a modern, genuinely majority revolution would have relatively little need for violence except to neutralize those elements of the ruling minority who try to violently maintain their own power.
Violence is not only undesirable in itself, it generates panic (and thus manipulability) and promotes militaristic (and thus hierarchical) organization. Nonviolence entails more open and democratic organization; it tends to foster composure and compassion and to break the miserable cycle of hatred and revenge.
But we have to avoid making a fetish out of it. The common retort, “How can you work for peace with violent methods?” is no more logical than it would be to tell a drowning man that if he wants to get to dry land he must avoid touching water. Striving to resolve “misunderstandings” through dialogue, pacifists forget that some problems are based on objective conflicts of interest. They tend to underestimate the malice of enemies while exaggerating their own guilt, berating themselves even for their “violent feelings.” The seemingly personal practice of “bearing witness” actually reduces the activist to a passive object, “another person for peace” who (like a soldier) puts her body on the line while abdicating personal investigation or experimentation. Those who want to undermine the notion of war as exciting and heroic must get beyond such a cringing, beggarly notion of peace. Defining their objective as survival, peace activists have had little to say to those who are fascinated by global annihilation precisely because they are sick of an everyday life reduced to mere survival, who see war not as a threat but as a welcome deliverance from a life of boredom and constant petty anxiety.
Sensing that their purism would not hold up under the test of reality, pacifists usually remain deliberately ignorant about past and present social struggles. Though often capable of intensive study and stoic self-discipline in their personal spiritual practices, they seem to feel that a Reader’s Digest level of historical and strategical knowledge will suffice for their ventures into “social engagement.” Like someone hoping to eliminate injurious falls by abolishing the law of gravity, they find it simpler to envision a never-ending moral struggle against “greed,” “hatred,” “ignorance,” “bigotry,” than to challenge the specific social structures that actually reinforce such qualities. If pressed, they sometimes complain that radical contestation is a very stressful terrain. It is indeed, but this is a strange objection to hear from those whose spiritual practices claim to enable people to confront problems with detachment and equanimity.
There’s a wonderful moment in Uncle Tom’s Cabin: As a Quaker family is helping some slaves escape to Canada, a Southern slave catcher appears. One of the Quakers points a shotgun at him and says, “Friend, thee isn’t wanted here.” I think that’s just the right tone: not caught up in hatred, or even contempt, but ready to do what is necessary in a given situation.
Reactions against oppressors are understandable, but those who get too caught up in them risk becoming mentally as well as materially enslaved, chained to their masters by “bonds of hate.” Hatred of bosses is partly a projection of people’s self-hatred for all the humiliations and compromises they have accepted, stemming from their secret awareness that bosses ultimately exist only because the bossed put up with them. Even if there is some tendency for the scum to rise to the top, most people in positions of power don’t act much differently than would anyone else who happened to find themselves in the same position, with the same new interests, temptations and fears.
Vigorous retaliation may teach enemy forces to respect you, but it also tends to perpetuate antagonisms. Forgiveness sometimes wins over enemies, but in other cases it simply gives them a chance to recover and strike again. It’s not always easy to determine which policy is best in which circumstances. People who have suffered under particularly vicious regimes naturally want to see the perpetrators punished; but too much revenge sends a message to other present and future oppressors that they may as well fight to the death since they have nothing to lose.
But most people, even those who have been most blamably complicitous with the system, will tend to go whichever way the wind blows. The best defense against counterrevolution is not to be preoccupied with sniffing out people’s past offenses or potential future betrayals, but to deepen the insurgence to the point that everyone is drawn in.
Chapter 3: Climaxes
“As soon as the relations of exploitation and the violence that underlies them are no longer concealed by the mystical veil, there is a breakthrough, a moment of clarity, the struggle against alienation is suddenly revealed as a ruthless hand-to-hand fight with naked power, power exposed in its brute force and its weakness, a vulnerable giant ... sublime moment when the complexity of the world becomes tangible, transparent, within everyone’s grasp.” — Raoul Vaneigem, Basic Banalities (SI Anthology, p. 93 [Revised Edition p. 121])
Causes of social breakthroughs
It’s hard to generalize about the immediate causes of radical breakthroughs. There have always been plenty of good reasons to revolt, and sooner or later instabilities will arise where something has to give. But why at one moment and not another? Revolts have often occurred during periods of social improvement, while worse conditions have been endured with resignation. If some have been provoked by sheer desperation, others have been touched off by relatively trivial incidents. Grievances that have been patiently accepted as long as they seemed inevitable may suddenly seem intolerable once it appears possible to remove them. The meanness of some repressive measure or the asininity of some bureaucratic blunder may bring home the absurdity of the system more clearly than a steady accumulation of oppressions.
The system’s power is based on people’s belief in their powerlessness to oppose it. Normally this belief is well founded (transgress the rules and you are punished). But when for one reason or another enough people begin to ignore the rules that they can do so with impunity, the whole illusion collapses. What was thought to be natural and inevitable is seen to be arbitrary and absurd. “When no one obeys, no one commands.”
The problem is how to reach this point. If only a few disobey, they can easily be isolated and repressed. People often fantasize about wonderful things that might be achieved “if only everyone would agree to do such and such all at once.” Unfortunately, social movements don’t usually work that way. One person with a six-gun can hold off a hundred unarmed people because each one knows that the first six to attack will be killed.
Of course some people may be so infuriated that they attack regardless of risk; and their apparent determination may even save them by convincing those in power that it’s wiser to give in peacefully than to be overwhelmed after arousing even more hatred against themselves. But it is obviously preferable not to depend on acts of desperation, but to seek forms of struggle that minimize risk until a movement has spread so far that repression is no longer feasible.
People living under particularly repressive regimes naturally begin by taking advantage of whatever rallying points already exist. In 1978 the Iranian mosques were the only place people could get away with criticizing the Shah’s regime. Then the huge demonstrations called by Khomeini at 40-day intervals began providing the safety of numbers. Khomeini thus became recognized as a general symbol of opposition, even by those who were not his followers. But tolerating any leader, even as a mere figurehead, is at best a temporary measure that should be abandoned as soon as more independent action becomes possible — as did those Iranian oil workers who by fall 1978 felt they had enough leverage to strike on days different from those called for by Khomeini.
The Catholic Church in Stalinist Poland played a similarly ambiguous role: the state used the Church to help control the people, but the people also used the Church to help them get around the state.
Fanatical orthodoxy is sometimes the first step toward more radical self-expression. Islamic fundamentalists may be extremely reactionary, but by getting used to taking events in their own hands they complicate any return to “order” and may even, if disillusioned, become genuinely radical — as happened with some of the similarly fanatical Red Guards during the Chinese “Cultural Revolution,” when what was originally a mere ploy by Mao to lever out some of his bureaucratic rivals eventually led to uncontrolled insurgency by millions of young people who took his antibureaucratic rhetoric seriously.
Postwar upheavals
If someone proclaimed: “I am the greatest, strongest, noblest, cleverest, and most peace-loving person in the world,” he would be considered obnoxious, if not insane. But if he says precisely the same things about his country he is looked upon as an admirably patriotic citizen. Patriotism is extremely seductive because it enables even the most miserable individual to indulge in a vicarious collective narcissism. The natural nostalgic fondness for one’s home and surroundings is transformed into a mindless cult of the state. People’s fears and resentments are projected onto foreigners while their frustrated aspirations for authentic community are mystically projected onto their own nation, which is seen as somehow essentially wonderful despite all its defects. (“Yes, America has its problems; but what we are fighting for is the real America, what America really stands for.”) This mystical herd-consciousness becomes almost irresistible during war, smothering virtually all radical tendencies.
Yet patriotism has sometimes played a role in triggering radical struggles (e.g. Hungary 1956). And even w
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA - OCTOBER 31: Tim Lincecum #55 of the San Francisco Giants waves to the crowd during the San Francisco Giants World Series victory parade on October 31, 2012 in San Francisco, California. The San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers to win the 2012 World Series. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – The Giants overcame the Kansas City Royals in a do-or-die Game 7 on enemy soil to win the World Series Wednesday night, so get ready for a party – a big one. San Francisco is planning a welcome home bash for Halloween-day.
Team officials have been planning for days to be ready to host the city’s third victory parade in five years, and they’re counting on previous experience to help make things as smooth and enjoyable as 2010 and 2012. As in previous years, the center of the action will be on Market Street as it approaches the Civic center from the East. The official starting point for a parade has moved up to Market St at Stuart St. (Planners originally slated it for 2nd and Market but plans are constantly shifting).
From there, the “Parade of Champions” will march west on Market before veering right on McAllister to the steps of City Hall. Here’s the planned route:
KPIX 5 parade coverage will begin at 11 a.m.
KPIX LIVE WEB STREAM: Any Giants events available will be live-streamed online here. KPIX Live video works on mobile devices including iPhones, Androids, iPads, and more
The impending Halloween-morning rainstorm could affect the timing of any parade. The parade will actually get rolling slightly later this year (it was 11 a.m. in the past). This year, the festivities start around noon and culminate with speeches from players and dignitaries in front of San Francisco City Hall. In the past the parade portion has lasted about an hour and a half. The length and timing of the speeches are a big variable, depending on how big a show the city and team plan to put on. The entire event would wrap up by around 4 p.m. Combine the event with a planned Critical Mass cycling protest, and the commute home for San Francisco-based workers hoping to trick-or-treat with kids in the suburbs could be particularly painful.
TRAFFIC: KCBS Live Traffic Map
Complete street closure information will be made available prior to the event. As always, you can get the latest on local freeway conditions from the KCBS Traffic Maps.
The KPIX 5 forecast calls for the chance of rain moving in right around the lunch hour on Halloween. So unless you enjoy partying like 2012 Marco Scutaro in the rain, plan on bringing an umbrella.
Click the following links to get transit info for Caltrain, BART and Muni, which will likely be the most heavily trafficked public transit options for the events. BART says they will run rush hour service all day long and operate until 2 a.m. to handle the crowds, Caltrain won’t be adding trains but does say it will “provide extra capacity” on existing runs. Runs out of San Francisco at the end of the day will take off when the trains reach capacity. The Golden Gate Ferry says extra ferries have been added to the schedule, they will be loaded up and sent when full, rather than operating on a schedule. Riders are encouraged to buy tickets in advance or use a Clipper Card.
Want to prepare by re-living the last two parades? Check out these photo galleries from 2010 and 2012.
Complete Giants Coverage:
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More small restaurants may be able to find a home on some of Edmonton's most vibrant streets if council approves a pilot to ease parking requirements for businesses in those areas.
Council is considering reducing the number of parking spots restaurants and bars need to open on 124th Street, Whyte Avenue or part of Jasper Avenue.
As it stands, a typical-sized restaurant considering setting up shop on Whyte Avenue would need to find 28 parking spots.
"There's just physically no way to meet that requirement," said Murray Davison, executive director of the Old Strathcona Business Association.
Davison said the requirements are a major obstacle for new businesses looking to move to the area. City data shows that special permission to have fewer parking spots had to be granted in 74 per cent of all food and drink-related development applications on Edmonton's main entertainment strip.
Davison said the current bylaw does not account for the fact that many people don`t use vehicles as their main way to get around, particularly when visiting places like Whyte Avenue.
The pilot would reduce the number of spots required on its three main streets from:
50 to eight spaces on 124th Street
24 to three spaces on Jasper Avenue near Oliver
28 to three spaces on Whyte Avenue
The current parking requirements in Edmonton are much higher than other Canadian cities, according to a city report.
Coun. Ben Henderson said there's still plenty of parking in the areas that could be affected by the pilot. But, he said, the city has to look beyond accommodating cars.
"The success of a 124th Street or a Whyte Avenue is not about your ability to park," he said. "It's about your ability to walk around, to go from shop to shop."
He said the reduction signals that the city is moving away from suburban-style developments, and embracing old-style main streets.
"Ultimately we know we can't build the kind of infrastructure where everybody can drive and park wherever they want to go. It's just not possible," he said.
If approved, the city will monitor the development permits in the area to make sure pilot is having the desired effect.
Council will debate the pilot on Tuesday. Further plans to improve the city's main streets will be discussed in March.
Meanwhile, Davison said more work still has to be done before parking issues in Old Strathcona are resolved.
He's hopes the city takes steps to improve residential parking and access to public transportation and LRT.
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PARIS: Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter has again accused former French president Nicolas Sarkozy of influencing the awarding of the 2022 World Cup hosting rights to Qatar rather than the United States.
Qatar controversially won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, a decision that has since sparked a series of corruption investigations surrounding FIFA and its officials.
Speaking to Friday’s edition of Britain’s Financial Times, Blatter repeated the claims he made on Wednesday to Russian news agency TASS that FIFA’s executive committee had originally agreed to award the 2018 tournament to Russia and the next World Cup to the US.
Blatter told the FT that there had been a “gentleman’s agreement” that the two World Cups in question would go to the “two superpowers” — although Moscow denies there was any such arrangement.
“It was behind the scenes. It was diplomatically arranged to go there,” said Blatter, who has found himself at the centre of a FIFA corruption storm ever since being re-elected to a fifth term in May.
However, as he stated on Wednesday, Blatter, who is set to stand down after February’s FIFA presidential election, said Sarkozy’s influence moved the goalposts -- something the French politician strongly denies.
“Just one week before the election I got a telephone call from Platini and he said, ‘I am no longer in your picture because I have been told by the head of state that we should consider ... the situation of France’. And he told me that this will affect more than one vote because he had a group of voters, “said Blatter.
Platini, the suspended UEFA chief, admitted to voting for Qatar at the election in December 2010 when the World Cups were awarded to Russia and the tiny desert kingdom, but denied doing so on the orders of Sarkozy, who was French president from 2007-2012, despite the latter having not long beforehand invited him to dinner with the future Qatari emir, Tamim ben Hamad al Thani, then the prince of Qatar.
‘GREAT POWER’
Speaking to French 24-hour news channel BFMTV on Thursday, Sarkozy also denied using his influence to affect the World Cup vote.
“There you go, once again someone who attributes great power to me,” said Sarkozy from Moscow where he was meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“That was not my aim, nor was it to manage PSG, nor to attribute the World Cup to anyone in particular,” he added ironically.
“But you thank him (Blatter) nonetheless from me. It was doubtless a reference that points to his very great friendship with Michel Platini. “Blatter told TASS on Wednesday that after the Franco-Qatari summit, “four European votes deserted the United States and the result was 14-8 (to Qatar)”.
Otherwise, according to Blatter, the United States would have won the right to host the World Cup by 12 votes to 10 following the supposedly secret ballot in 2010.
Earlier this month, both Blatter and Platini, who is a FIFA vice-president as well as running European football, were suspended by FIFA’s independent ethics committee for 90 days as part of a wide-ranging investigation into corruption at the heart of world football’s governing body.
Those suspensions are related to a 1.8 million euro ($2 million) payment made by FIFA to Platini in 2011 for consultancy work carried out several years earlier. Both parties deny there was anything untoward in the payment, for which there was no written contract, despite the inexplicable delay.
FIGO FOR INFANTINO
Meanwhile, former Portugal star Luis Figo, once a presidential candidate himself, has given his backing to UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino, whose own candidature has been seen in many quarters as sounding the death knell of Platini’s own bid.
“His experience, competence, capacity for work and his honesty make him the best candidate for the presidency,” said Figo, who eventually pulled out of the last FIFA election in May, said of Swiss lawyer Infantino.
Banking giant Credit Suisse also revealed on Friday that it is under investigation by Swiss and US authorities over links to FIFA officials accused of bribery and corruption.
“Credit Suisse has received inquiries from these authorities regarding its banking relationships with certain individuals and entities associated with FIFA,” the bank said in a statement.
US and Swiss authorities are probing whether Credit Suisse and other institutions waved through improper transactions or failed to observe anti-money laundering regulations in dealing with the accounts of FIFA associates.
Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2015
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With all the changes taking place at Roush Fenway Racing for the 2015 season, it appears veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig may be in his final year calling shots on the pit box.
Currently serving as crew chief for Carl Edwards — who will move on to Joe Gibbs Racing next season — Fennig indicated he would likely take a behind-the-scenes role with the team once the season comes to a conclusion.
Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Fennig told FOXSports.com he will have to wait and see what team owner Jack Roush has in store for him next year, but added that he will most likely not be atop the pit box after the 2014 season.
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Saying it would ultimately be his decision when to walk away, Fennig indicated he would most likely work with the research-and-development arm of Roush Fenway Racing.
Jack Roush said of Fennig’s future: "We don’t have a plan yet," Jack Roush said of Fennig’s future. "We haven’t heard definitively from Jimmy what his plans are, but he may be thinking about retirement. We’re just not sure."
Trevor Bayne is making his move to a full-time ride in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2015 and does not yet have a crew chief in place, so that is a possible spot for Fennig if he decides to continue working in a crew chief role.
One of the longest tenured crew chiefs in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage, Fennig has been calling the shots atop the pit box since getting his start in 1986 with Mark Martin.
Over the next 28 years, he would go on to work with the likes of Bobby Allison, Dick Trickle, Hut Stricklin, Jimmy Spencer, again with Martin, Kurt Busch, Kenny Wallace, Jamie McMurray, David Ragan, Matt Kenseth, and has spent the last two seasons calling the shots for Carl Edwards.
Edwards said Friday that he did not know what Fennig’s plans were at the end of the season.
Fennig’s most successful season came while working with Mark Martin in 1998, scoring seven wins, 22 top fives and 26 top 10s. Working with Kurt Busch in 2004, Fennig scored his lone NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
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Battle lines are being drawn for a fight over the future of rooftop solar energy in Maine, as the Public Utilities Commission prepares to hold a hearing Monday in Hallowell on proposed rules that would cut financial incentives for homeowners with solar panels.
Similar fights are taking place across the country, as utility regulators and politicians try to define the value and benefits of small solar-electric installations, as well as who should pay, and how much, to help expand their use.
Zach Good of ReVision Energy prepares a roof for solar panels at a home in Cape Elizabeth last year. The cost of solar technology has fallen dramatically. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Press Herald file SOLAR PANEL HEARING WHEN: Monday, 1 p.m. WHERE: Worster Room of Maine Public Utilities Commission building, 101 Second St., Hallowell
The outcome of these skirmishes matters because thousands of jobs are tied to these home-scale installations, and shifting policies about compensation have led many residents to put off investing in solar. Maine installers say that began happening last spring, after the Legislature failed by two votes to override Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a bill that would have restructured the financial incentives.
What’s happening this fall at the PUC is likely to be only a prelude to a rematch next year in the Legislature. Clean-energy advocates are talking about drafting another bill, all but assuring that the matter won’t be settled in the near future.
At issue is a decades-old rule that requires utilities to credit the bills of small energy generators for the full retail price of all the electricity they send into the grid. Those credits chiefly help homeowners recover the investment in solar-electric panels, which can average $10,000 or so. They continued to be paid as long as the power’s being generated.
This arrangement, called net-energy billing or net metering, was set up in the 1980s to help jump-start solar when the technology was new. But panel costs have fallen sharply in recent years, and utilities and some policymakers say it’s time to trim the incentive. As solar’s popularity grows, they say, the payments are shifting the cost of serving homes with solar panels onto other customers.
Last month, the three PUC commissioners – all appointed by LePage – proposed a change that would grandfather net-metering credits for 15 years for residents who already have solar panels installed at their homes, and limit benefits for new solar owners to 10 years.
DISPUTING VALUE OF HOME SOLAR
The PUC review was triggered by a requirement that net metering be revisited once peak solar power production hit 1 percent of Central Maine Power Co.’s installed capacity. But reducing the net-metering incentives drew immediate fire from solar installers and clean-energy supporters. They countered that the value of this energy actually is greater than the cost of service. And they pointed to a study done for the PUC in 2015, and updated last summer, to prove it.
The updated study concluded that the value of distributed solar – power produced near its point of use – is worth roughly 27 cents per kilowatt hour over 25 years. In Maine, the average home electric rate today is less than 16 cents per kilowatt hour, so solar advocates see a clear benefit.
But teasing out the components that contribute to that 27-cents figure paints a more-complicated picture. The PUC’s consultant found that just over 17 cents of the total value was from avoiding “market costs,” largely by not needing power from large generators. The other 9 cents or so were “societal benefits,” linked to emitting less climate-changing carbon dioxide and pollutants into the air.
In testimony filed Wednesday, Portland-based ReVision Energy, the state’s largest solar installer, reiterated its view that the cost-shifting claim isn’t supported by the study. It also criticized the PUC for proposing changes to net metering before any investigation of the facts.
“The failure to fairly, fully and rigorously evaluate the overall impact of net metering delegitimizes the proposed rule and this proceeding,” ReVision said. “The commission has made critical findings of fact and proposes to fundamentally change the existing, legislatively approved rule based on these findings – yet there is no sworn testimony in the record.”
Responding to this criticism, PUC spokesman Harry Lanphear said the commission laid out its reasoning in a notice of rulemaking last month. In it, the commissioners acknowledged that net metering supports state energy policies to promote renewable, clean electricity supplies, and that there may be environmental values to ratepayers. But they added that “programs that involve the cross-subsidization of ratepayer funds among customer groups should be reviewed periodically,” especially when the cost of the technology is falling sharply.
CMP is expected to amplify that point Monday. John Carroll, a spokesman, said the cost of rooftop solar has fallen by roughly half over the past decade, yet it’s still being subsidized at the same level as it was in the 1980s. He said CMP gets little benefit from rooftop solar because the values cited in the PUC study are largely tied to generation and energy supply, not to the cost of delivering power to homes. CMP contends that the cost of crediting solar homeowners shifted $1.3 million in expenses to other ratepayers in 2015, although solar advocates say CMP hasn’t substantiated those figures.
CMP has hired an expert witness to testify about the value of solar. Ashley Brown is a former Ohio PUC commissioner and executive director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group, which studies power issues. He is expected to make a case for why net metering should be discarded and replaced with market-based pricing.
LePage, through his Governor’s Energy Office, will make a similar plea. The office has filed comments that say the PUC’s proposed rule should be scrapped. A system should instead be adopted that uses CMP’s smart meters to compensate small generators for the value of their power in real time, because costs vary hour by hour.
The office wrote: “During the duration of the proposed rule that extends through 2040, there are companies proposing the colonization of another planet – yet the proposal is stuck in 20th-century thinking and fails to utilize modern metering technology that has already been deployed across the state.”
SOLAR DEBATE IN OTHER STATES
These opposing views, in various forms, underpin the debate nationwide. The Solar Energy Industries Association website has posted links to cost-benefit studies from 17 states that are studying or have examined the value of solar. They include California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. Various interest groups and think tanks also have weighed in with national studies.
But in Maine, as elsewhere, value studies are ammunition for larger political battles. In their filed testimonies, clean-energy advocates such as ReVision, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and SunRun, a national solar installer, urge the commission to hold off on any rule change and let the next Legislature set solar policy.
In a recent email message, ReVision also encourages its supporters to vote for candidates who will advance solar.
“We are confident that Maine’s Legislature can do the right thing for solar,” ReVision says, “and we will work to make the facts clear despite ongoing campaigns of misinformation and bullying on the side of anti-solar advocates.”
Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or
[email protected]
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As New York was busy installing its brand-new bike share stations earlier this year, D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare program clocked its 4 millionth ride. It was a Wednesday evening at the peak of rush hour when the milestone journey began from a station outside the State Department.
Washington, in all its geeky glory, beat every other major American city in establishing a premier bike-sharing system. When Boston, Chicago and San Francisco decided to try the trend, they turned to D.C. for guidance. And the District continues to set the standard, with its experiments using protected green lanes, programs to reach out to new riders and efforts to integrate the bike plan into a broader transit strategy.
Bike commuters wait for the green light at the intersection of 15th and Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
Embracing bike-friendly policies might seem logical for a modern metropolis, but Washington was resistant to early efforts. In 2009, then-Mayor Adrian Fenty led a polarizing push for bike lanes, including the District’s first against-the-traffic, protected lane on 15th Street NW. In light of the city’s significant economic strains at the time, his enthusiasm was seen by some as a frivolous pursuit. Now it is regarded as visionary. Mayor Vincent Gray’s recently released Sustainable DC plan calls for 75 percent of commutes to be made by public transit, walking or biking by 2032. It’s now 50 percent.
There will be bumps along the way. Despite mayoral support, new bike lanes draw opposition, as in the case of the cycle track along M Street. After members of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church complained about losing parking, the city decided in August to drop a section of the lane. Instead, bicyclists have to merge with car traffic for the block between 15th and 16th streets.
But as more residents opt for two wheels instead of four, the opposition to accommodating cyclists is fading. Bike sharing is rapidly taking hold in the suburbs, and regional planners are expanding options and road access for riders.
The man responsible for coordinating the District Department of Transportation ’s bike plans says he fell into the city’s bike culture out of necessity. “My story is not that much different from a lot of people’s stories in D.C. who discover bicycling,” Jim Sebastian says. “They discover it’s quicker, it’s more convenient, it’s cheaper and it’s more fun than driving or taking the train.”
Sebastian, who is helping coordinate for the first time all of the District’s master transit plans as part of the moveDC project,became the District’s bike program coordinator in 2001 and helped bring bike share to the city, first with a pilot program called SmartBike D.C. in 2008, then partnering with Arlington County to launch the Capital Bikeshare system in 2010.
Today, with the swipe of a credit card, residents and tourists alike have access to more than 1,800 bikes. They can become members of the system for a single day ($7), a month ($25) or a year ($75). The program encourages short rides between stations and rapid turnover. There are usage fees for every trip longer than 30 minutes. Keeping a bike for a day costs members $70.50 and non-members $94. There are 176 solar-powered stations in the District, 59 stations in Arlington, eight stations in Alexandria and, soon, 51 stations in Montgomery County.
Under Sebastian’s watch, the District has added more than 50 miles of bike lanes and 2,500 bike racks, and has more than doubled the number of people on the streets biking. But he’s not done yet. In addition to overseeing the growth of Bikeshare, which is managed by the company Alta, he’s also partnering with DDOT to complete the 20-mile Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, now 60 percent done, and the M Street cycle-track.
“He has been a real moving force behind gaining acceptance of bicycles here in the District of Columbia,” Gray says. “We’re very fortunate to have him working with us, because it is not just a job to him, it is a commitment, and that’s a big difference.”
Right now, bikes represent 3.3 percent of total commutes, Sebastian says. But he expects it to hit 5 percent by 2015.
Bike advocates such as Sebastian and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association also insist commuting isn’t their sole focus. Short trips to the grocery or library, or a recreational ride along the water, are the sorts of things they say that Bikeshare can facilitate better than Metro and buses. Indeed, a 2013 member survey showed that seven in 10 users had used Bikeshare for social activities or to run errands.
“Every city’s bike culture is a little bit different,” says Greg Billing, advocacy coordinator at WABA. “I think where we really excel is kind of how commonplace it is.”
WABA has been around since 1972, long before bike sharing captured the imagination of city planners. The organization helped lobby for bikes to be allowed on Metro during non-rush hours and to close Beach Drive to car traffic on the weekends. Now it’s offering adult biking lessons and safety instruction while continuing to lobby for more bike lanes and infrastructure.
Sebastian says part of what made Bikeshare such a success, which now drives the creation of more infrastructure for all riders, was a strong community of cyclists and a healthy regional trail system. League of American Bicyclists president and Virginia resident Andy Clarke also points to the District’s bikeable fabric of gridded streets and long boulevards.
1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The changing face of Downtown D.C. View Photos The city’s core has seen an explosion of change in the past several years, and there’s no signs of slowing. You can expect residences along the Mall, new communities and experiments. WP Magazine looked at several proposed plans and how it would effect the city as part of the Urban Design issue. Caption The city’s core has seen an explosion of change in the past several years, and there’s no signs of slowing. You can expect residences along the Mall, new communities and experiments. WP Magazine looked at several proposed plans and how it would effect the city as part of the Urban Design issue. Kristie Conserve, front left, Meghan Simpsonm front right, and Phanuelle Duchatelier, left, along with other interns for World Learning sit in Franklin Square while having lunch. The National Park Service and the District are launching a pilot partnership to remake Franklin Park into "an active, flexible, sustainable, and historic urban park ." Lucian Perkins/For The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Projects such as the installation of a two-way cycle track in the median of Pennsylvania Avenue helped show the District’s dedication to putting cyclists on an equal footing with motorists, Clarke says. The rate of bicyclists along the iconic street tripled after the track’s installation.
But the popular cycle-track is also home to a familiar battle between the two groups. Bicyclists complain that cars, often cabs, complete dangerous U-turns across bike lanes without looking. Accidents involving bicyclists along the corridor went from nine in the previous four years to 16 during the first 14 months after the lane’s installation. Police have made efforts to warn and ticket offending drivers, but the problem persists. Enforcement was one of the city’s weak areas, according to the league’s annual bicycle-friendly ratings.
D.C. Police Department Commander James Crane agrees that there has been a learning curve for his force. “We’ve had to educate our officers that it’s usually not the biker failing to yield the right of way.”
Incidents between bicyclists and motorists, as well as between bicyclists and pedestrians, are increasing, a problem that has not gone unnoticed in the media or pro-smart growth sites such as Greater Greater Washington. Even as incidents increase, Jason Broehm, a member of the D.C. Pedestrian Advisory Council, says fatalities are decreasing. Safety measures such as high-visibility crosswalks, longer pedestrian intervals that give walkers a head start crossing the street before a light change, and photo enforcement have helped road users be more aware of each other.
A station of D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare near Farragut Square on 17th and K Streets in Northwest. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
A bicyclist uses the center bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
Sebastian and Crane and groups such as WABA are working to curb the rising number of accidents as biking becomes more popular. In 2004, there were 284 bike crashes, according to data from DDOT, compared with 582 in 2011. The intersection at 14th and U streets NW had nine accidents from 2010 to 2011, the highest number of any in the District. However, the number of new bicyclists, as measured by the number observed at a given point during peak hours, continues to outpace the growth rate of accidents.
Sebastian doesn’t just want more new riders, he also wants those new cyclists coming from all over the city. David Daddio, then a master’s student in planning at the University of North Carolina, took D.C.’s Bikeshare to task last year for its many underutilized stations. He estimated that 13 percent of the stations as of 2011 received fewer than 18 total trips per day. Many of these were in Southeast Washington. As Bikeshare puts more stations here and in the city’s suburbs, critics point to these numbers in opposition.
Sebastian insists that scaling back in one part of the city is not an option. “Bikeshare is a citywide phenomenon, and it will continue to be as we expand.” He says those areas where the bike community is not yet self-sustaining is precisely where DDOT needs to double its efforts, hence projects such as the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, which will connect the Tidal Basin to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Bikeshare, whose majority of users are young, white, male and employed, also offers discounts on its $75 annual membership fee for low-income riders.
Sebastian’s vision for a biking community that includes all of the city is shared by Veronica O. Davis, founder of Black Women Bike. “As a biking community, anytime a new person gets on a bike, we need to celebrate that,” says Davis, who started the group after a young black girl outside a housing project exclaimed upon seeing Davis, “Mommy, Mommy, it’s a black lady on a bike.” The group has 800 members. According to the League of American Bicyclists, these women are part of the fastest-growing population of bikers nationally. In 2009, African Americans took 461 million bike trips, a 100 percent increase from 2001.
A bicyclist rides along 15th Street in Northwest which offers separate bike lanes and vegetation. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
Though Davis has her own bike now, she says she started riding on a Bikeshare bike and that for many people, the hefty red bikes can offer a gateway to a new lifestyle. She hopes that as the program expands, more diverse users will flock to it. Current users reported saving $800 annually in travel costs.
Sebastian takes Metro and Bikeshare to work most days. His own bike, he jokes, isn’t as meticulously maintained as the Bikeshare bikes. Looking at the city’s biking boom and Washington’s spot as a national trendsetter, Sebastian says, “I don’t know if I would’ve picked D.C., but my job is to make D.C. more bike-friendly.” Now, with the growth of groups such as Black Women Bike and D.C. Bike Party, a monthly “party ride” around the city, Sebastian says, “you don’t need the government anymore to tell people to ride their bikes by building facilities and promoting riding Bikeshare. It’s happening. People are bicycling because it just makes sense.”
Leah Binkovitz is a freelance writer who lives in Bethesda. To comment
on this story, e-mail wpmagazine@
washpost.com.
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When George Mallari-Lee met some of his best friends in detention at Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School – all of them in trouble for reading comic books – he never imagined one day they would own their own shop.
Now he and his three friends, all comic fanatics from the West Island, are making their mark in Montreal's St-Henri neighbourhood with Crossover Comics.
The co-owners of the shop, all in their thirties, say they are living out their dream, although they admit it wasn't easy starting up a small business.
We live in the digital age, and we are selling paper-bound books. - George Mallari-Lee, Co-owner of Crossover Comics
"Happy struggles," said Mallari-Lee. "Opening any kind of small business is difficult, especially [since] we live in the digital age, and we are selling paper-bound books."
"But the reaction has been amazing. There's a lot of enthusiasm. The neighbourhood has just shown a lot of love for us."
More than superheroes
The owners of Crossover Comics say they are unlike many of the other shops around the city, which they say carry mainly superhero-based comics.
Mallari-Lee's partner Ray Silas says more than half of their shop is filled with dozens of categories of comics, far beyond the superhero genre.
Crossover Comics in St-Henri carries a wide range of comic books. (CBC)
"We have romance, crime, sci-fi: You name it, we have it," says Silas.
"If you're five years old or you're seventy years old, and you've read comics your whole life or you've never read comics, I should be able to find something for you."
They also carry a wide range of graphic novels, independently published books, board games, collectors' cards and comics for kids.
Comics in the community
Crossover Comics is also a meeting spot for weekly community gatherings.
There are board game nights, Magic collectible card game meetups and book clubs.
They've already made their way into several schools in the area, organizing after-school comic book clubs and anti-bullying and literacy workshops for kids.
For Halloween weekend, kids can stop by to trick-or-treat and walk away with a free comic.
Crossover Comics store on Notre-Dame in St-Henri is celebrating its fourth anniversary. (Kristin Falcao )
Loyal customers
A testament to their loyal customers is the store's constant traffic, despite major road construction going on outside their door.
The stretch of Notre-Dame Street from Atwater Avenue to their shop near Rose-de-Lima Street has been torn up for weeks.
Construction along Notre-Dame street outside of Crossover Comics store in St-Henri has been going on for weeks. (Kristin Falcao )
Celebrating 4 years of comics in St-Henri
The shop is celebrating its fourth anniversary this weekend with a big sale, a comic book launch and a party. Previous events have seen lineups around the block, which may be a bit tricky this year due to the construction mess outside.
Local hip hop artist Yassin (Narcy) Alsalman is launching a comic book he wrote called World War Free, based on one of his albums at the store's anniversary event.
Multimedia hip hop artist Yassin (Narcy) Alsalman wrote a comic book that he's launching at Crossover Comics' four year anniversary party. (CBC)
"I like that they're independent guys that started with a passion and created something out of it. Come support these guys, man," says Alsalman.
Crossover Comics's event starts at 11 a.m. on Saturday, at 3560 Notre-Dame Ouest.
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Investors got what they wished for.
In a Sunday sitting of the lower house of Congress, legislators voted by a landslide to end Brazil’s misery and begin impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.
For foreign exchange traders it marked the culmination of a rally that has sent the Brazilian real soaring for months.
Yet the outlook is far murkier than the view projected from the markets, Olivier Desbarres, an independent currency strategist previously with Barclays and Credit Suisse, says on this week’s Emerging Opportunities show with Frontera Managing Editor Gavin Serkin.
With a far from straight-forward political and legal battle ahead, he advises short-selling the real as the currency will reverse its gains once the new reality sets in.
- Advertisement -
Brazil’s political crisis is one of many unknowns confronting emerging market investors. North Korea’s increasingly long-range nuclear capability, Islamic State’s spread into Asia and Vladimir Putin’s expanding influence are part of the big picture analysed on the show by Phill Hynes, the head of ISS Risk.
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Security forces in Balochistan have killed 92 militants, including a key commander, and have conducted 417 targeted operations in the province during the last four months, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said on Friday.
“Security forces in the province have also seized more than 10,000 kilogrammes of explosives and other arms and ammunition,” said Bugti while addressing a press conference.
The home minister said that terrorism will not be tolerated in the province, and stated that during the last four months of operations, 22 Frontier Corps (FC) personnel have been killed and 65 injured.
Referring to the recent arrest of Kulbushan Jadhav from the province, an Indian intelligence officer working with RAW, the home minister reiterated that RAW was active in subversive and terror activities in the province.
The government later aired a confessional video of the Indian spy.
“The RAW agent is being interrogated in connection with terrorist activities in Balochistan,” added Bugti.
Anwar ul Haq Kakar, spokesman for the provincial government, said the Indian intelligence agency was “hatching conspiracies against China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).”
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed province, has remained under the grip of violence for over a decade which has claimed thousands of lives.
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— 30 April, 2014
So you know how to build a status bar to get informations about your computer? That's cute. How about bringing it to the next level?
Let's go through another way to display informations from your lovely computer: popup notifications !
What's that ?
Popup notifications (I'll call them "popup" from now) are a tiny window that will appear on your screen with an informative text on it, and then disappear after a certain amount of time, or a user interaction.
The important part is that the popups show up when an event occur, not upon user request (well, if the user request a popup, it can still appear, obviously).
Usefulness
Well, most of the popup we have to deal with are annoying most of the time (except those that notify me that I won an IPad by being the visitor number 1 000 000, it's nice to tell me!). But if you choose wisely the content and the event to pop it, it can become really useful, and help you to unclutter your desktop by removing useless informations.
Do you really need to know that your laptop battery is at 78% ? NO Do you really need to know that you have 0 new mails ? NO
This can apply to many other informations (RAM, CPU, current workspace,..). You don't need the information to be displayed all the time. You just need it when it's relevant, like battery under 10%, or new mail incoming.
But if you just LIKE to have it displayed all the time (Sometime, I enjoy a nice status bar with the fine infos in it), then it's okay! Remember that you can have both anyway ;)
Moreover, you can use popups to notify you when a task running in the background has finished, or that a torrent has finished downloading, or whatever weird usage you can find!
Existing software
There are in fact, many notification systems that you can use: libnotify, notify-osd, twmn, etc...
These are fine. But as always, it's just funnier to build your own! And in order to do so, we will need an important program: bar! (note that you can use dzen too)
I love this one, because it's really light and simple to use. Moreover, I contributed to it to complete the geometry setting. You can now create a window of any size and place it wherever you want!
Popup itself
This part is the most simple in fact. bar will do anything for us.
All you have to do is to create a script that will take a serie of argument and put them in a resized bar on your screen.
The simplest script I can think of is:
#!/bin/sh Create the popup and make it live for 3 seconds (echo " $@"; sleep 3) | bar -g 120x20+20+20
And it's working, already! After that, you can style it to make it look like you want:
#!/bin/sh # how long should the popup remain? duration=3 # define geometry barx=10 bary=10 barw=120 barh=20 # colors bar_bg='#ff333333' bar_fg='#ffffffff' # white is default # font used bar_font='-*-gohufont-medium-*-*--11-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1' # compute all this baropt='-g ${barw}x${barh}+${barx}+${bary} -B${bar_bg} -f ${bar_font}' Create the popup and make it live for 3 seconds (echo " $@"; sleep ${duration}) | bar ${baropt}
Obviously, that's not an informative popup at all (is it?). All you need now is to write some simple script to grab the informations you will need to display in your popup. I'll not develop it here, as I already wrote a not-so-tiny section on a subjet in my previous post.
You could then just pop notifications using:
popup $(~/bin/volume)
Automate the popups
The best thing about popups is that they spawn when it's relevent, eg: when a new mail arrived, volume is changing or battery is low.
To catch those event there are many way. We will run through three of them:
infinite loop
inotify event
key presses
infinite loop
This one is easy. We just check whatever we want at regular interval, and depending on some conditions, we raise a notification. That's what I use for my battery:
#!/bin/sh # # z3bra - (c) wtfpl 2014 # check battery level, and raise a notification if the capacity is # under a defined level LEVL=7 BATC=$(sed 's/%//' /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity) test ${BATC} -le ${LEVL} && popup battery level: ${BATC}
Then run this every 2 minutes or so, and it will notify you when your battery is running low. You can put it in your .xinitrc or as a cron job:
# .xinitrc while :; do ~/bin/battery_check; sleep 120; done & # crontab */2 * * * * DISPLAY=0 ~/bin/battery_check
inotify event
Inotify (inode notify) is a Linux kernel subsystem that acts to extend filesystems to notice changes to the filesystem. That strange sentence means that you can catch an event when a node (file, socket, fifo, directory, ...) is modified. There are many events like modification, access to a node, node moved, etc...
To catch those event, there are really few tools.. I wrote mine, wendy, but there are other. Just take a look at this reddit thread to find out more.
So let's define the environnment. There is that directory:
$ ls ~/var/mail/INBOX cur/ new/ tmp/
I use fdm (see this blog post to retrieve my mails from my POP3 server. Each new mail creates a file in ~/var/mail/INBOX/new , so we will just need to watch file creation in that folder, and pop a notification at each new mail. It's done like this in my ~/.xinitrc
# .xinitrc # note that $MAIL is set to my inbox through my ~/.profile wendy -m 256 -q -f ${MAIL}/new -e popup 'new mail(s)!' &
And there we go. each time fdm will fetch mails to your inbox, a wild popup will appear!
key presses
The last type of popup I use is those that occur when a key is pressed. The best exemple for that are the volume keys. I don't know how you handle this, but personnally, I use xbindkeys for that. It's a software that let the user map commands to hotkeys, which is totally useful for everything. I know some people ( bspwm users, mostly) use baskerville's sxhkd to do so. I have nothing against this soft, but it will just not cut it here. For further explanations, see this comment @nixers.net. (/u/jumpwah pointed that sxhkd can run multiple commands using a single keybind, as show in examples/sxhkdrc ).
So, if you already use xbindkeys to change your volume level, probably already know what to do.
I personally have a script to manage my volume level:
#!/bin/sh # # z3bra - (c) wtfpl 2014 # Manage ALSA Master channel test "$1" = "-h" && echo "usage `basename $0` [+|-|!]" && exit 0 level() { amixer get Master | sed -n 's/^.*\[\([0-9]\+%\).*$/\1/p' | uniq } state() { amixer get Master | sed -n 's/^.*\[\(o[nf]\+\)]$/\1/p' | uniq } test $# -eq 0 && echo "`level` `state`" && exit 0 case $1 in +) amixer set Master 5%+ >/dev/null;; -) amixer set Master 5%- >/dev/null;; !) amixer set Master toggle >/dev/null;; state|level) $1;; *) amixer set Master $1 >/dev/null;; esac
It's quite simple. volume +|- will raise|lower volume, volume ! will toggle on/off, volume level|state will output the level or state, and volume whatever will execute whatever through amixer (exemple: volume on|off ).
Back to the topic. Here is my .xbindkeysrc
"~/bin/volume +" XF86AudioRaiseVolume "~/bin/volume -" XF86AudioLowerVolume "~/bin/volume !" XF86AudioMute "~/bin/popup volume: $(~/bin/volume level)" XF86AudioRaiseVolume "~/bin/popup volume: $(~/bin/volume level)" XF86AudioLowerVolume "~/bin/popup volume: $(~/bin/volume level)" XF86AudioMute
There, simple. The popup command is bound to my volume keys, so each time I press them, the notification comes up! It's quite simple.
Improvements
This system is not perfect at all, because popup overlap, the width and timing is fixed, ... But it's also a bare simple system, easily hackable. You could use it to build a more complex system on top of that. For example, you can easily write a simple daemon that will read messages from a fifo and stack popups together:
#!/bin/sh # # z3bra - (c) wtfpl 2014 # Popup wrapper used to stack notifications together # fifo that we'll use to feed the popups test -p /tmp/popup.fifo || mkfifo /tmp/popup.fifo # popup definition w=150 h=20 x=1930 y=10 # popup counter (starts at -1 so that the first popup has no offset n=-1 # get messages from the fifo tail -f /tmp/popup.fifo | while IFS= read -r message; do # increment the counter n=$((n + 1)) { # display the popup under the others ~/bin/popup -g ${w}x${h}+${x}+$((y + (h+y) * n)) $n ${message} # decrement the counter n=$((n - 1)) } & done
Then, write your messages to /tmp/popup.fifo to see your popup stacking together ( echo shblah > /tmp/popup.fifo ). It will probably require improvements, but it's a good starting point!
Here are a few other ideas I had (but did not bother trying :P):
Using txtw to change width dynamically
Make use of the clickable area of bar to get rid of the popup
to get rid of the popup Make long notifications scroll using skroll
shampoo / soap
4 apples
some fresh meat Ah, wrong list...
Ah, wrong list... ...
Be creative, as usual!
Good bye
I hope this will be helpful to someone. It's not meant to make you throw your status bar away, or switch from libnotify and such. It's just a bare simple alternative to those, as I like to have :)
Enjoy!
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Remove the door knockers. Pull down the shutters. Pretend no one’s home. Your adult children are coming back — for good.
One-in-nine baby boomer parents said their adult children returned home within the last year, according to a new report from financial services firm Fidelity Investments and Stanford Center on Longevity, which surveyed 9,000 employees.The adult children save money on rent and household goods, but their parents are the ones who appear to be suffering: 68% said they were more stressed, 53% said they were less happy and another 53% said they had less leisure time after the return of their “boomerang kids.” More than three-quarters (76%) said they took on higher expenses, too.
Even people who are now in their 40s and 50s are considering mom and dad an option. Older millennials are 2.7 times more likely to live in their parents’ home than people under 55 years old than in 1999, while Generation-Xers, who are now in their mid-30s to early 50s, were 2.2 times as likely to live with their parents, according to separate data released last week by real estate site Trulia. “No parent is going to want to say no to a child who needs help, but certainly being realistic about the financial situation is important,” said Katie Taylor, vice president of thought leadership at Fidelity.
See: The real reason college grads move home with their parents may surprise you
More American adults are living with their parents and grandparents than ever before — 19% of the U.S. population (or nearly 61 million people) lived in a multigenerational household, up from 17% (42 million) in 2009 and 12% (27.5 million) in 1980, according to the Pew Research Center, nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C.
But not all millennials are as “lazy” or “entitled,” as they are often accused of being. About one in four 25- to 34-year-olds who live at home and are not working or going to school do so because of a health-related reason or because they are acting as caregivers to their family members. And more than a third of Americans, including millennials, expect to financially help their parents within the next few years, another survey found. Some are even making efforts to help their parents save for retirement.
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Saying he’s grown frustrated with waiting for congressional Republicans, an angry President Barack Obama said Monday he will bypass Congress and act on his own to make changes to immigration policy by the end of the summer.
Obama spoke Monday from the Rose Garden, where he slammed House Republicans for being too accommodating to the conservative, anti-immigration wing of their party and chided House leadership for not working to pass a “darn bill.”
“They’re unwilling to stand up to the Tea Party and do what’s right for the country. And what’s worse — a bunch of them know better,” Obama said in the Rose Garden, where he was joined by Vice President Joe Biden.
A White House official said earlier Monday that Obama’s new moves came after House Speaker John Boehner told him last week the House will not vote on immigration-related legislation this year. Obama said Boehner informed him Republicans will not vote “at least for the remainder of this year.” The president has faced pressure from immigration advocates to stem the tide of deportations in lieu of waiting for congressional legislation.
Obama said he will direct Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present him with executive actions he can take without congressional approval by the end of the summer. He said he will implement them “without further delay.”
Obama also announced he will direct his administration to move enforcement resources from the interior to the border, amid a staggering humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. Obama said the border crisis only underscores the need for Congress to pass legislation.
“The President will continue to make clear that regardless of the steps he takes through administrative action, nothing replaces Congress’s ability to pass commonsense immigration reform, and will continue to make the case for a comprehensive bill,” the White House official said early Monday.
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Traumatized and depressed, a 24 year-old girl decided to commit suicide when her boyfriend left her. After getting a government job, the boy came under family pressure and left the girl. After such a drastic incident, all that the girl could think of was suicide. She decided to end her life by jumping in the Yamuna canal which is 4km away from Saharanpur.
Just before jumping she suddenly decided to search for an easier method to end one’s own life.
She searched “How to commit suicide” on Google. Fortunately, instead of showing the methods, the search results showed “Suicide Helpline Numbers”.
Instead of thinking more, she dialed one of the numbers that appeared on the mobile screen. The call was received by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, who convinced her to get counseling.
According to DIG Jitendra Kumar Sahni,
On January 3, I got a call from the girl on my public number. She was quite nervous and was about to end her life. She told me she had even searched how to kill herself on Google. Among the search results, she told me, she found my number. I heard her out and told her to come to my office so we could talk about it in detail. Also See Download our Android App And Stay Up-To-Date
After some time, the girl reached the DIG’s office, where she told her story. She was depressed and out of her mind. All she wanted was to end herself.
The DIG asked the station officer of the women’s police station to take the matter in her hands and give counselling to the girl. The female inspector got in touch with the boy and talked to the couple to search for better options for a better future.
Technology saved this girl’s life and Google should get all the appreciation for listing suicide helpline numbers for such searches instead of the methods.
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Last Friday, Capcom published a picture on Twitter which suggested that Urien was not the only character with a secret suit in Street Fighter V. Since then there have only been a couple of days, but a player managed to solve the mystery behind its tweet.
In a recent publication, the user of Steam called “The Who” said that it is possible to unlock alternate costumes for other fighters, and also revealed how to perform this trick.
The secret is to keep pressing and holding the buttons of LP+MP+HP+LK and hold UP after selecting their character until the battle begins. This also works between rounds that should not be activated from the start.
So far, these variants have been confirmed:
Chun-Li – Costume CPT without boa
Chun-Li – Without skirt swimsuit
Cammy – CPT without vest suit
Cammy – swimsuit without equipment
Necalli – Costume CPT shirtless
Laura – Shirtless swimsuit shirt
Karin – Swimsuit without glasses or hat
Ibuki – Swimsuit without scarf
R. Mika – Swimsuit without hoodie
In recent news, Capcom has also released a tool to fix security risk in the recent patch of Street Fighter 5. The company has provided a rollback of the patch and also introduced a tool which will remove the corrupted file, incase you were not lucky enough to have downloaded the patch at the very first place. You will need to follow all the instructions given at this link and step by step follow the process.
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As Silver Hayes, formerly known as Dance Village, announces two additions to the bill, the Guardian Africa network explores the festival's long tradition of supporting African music
Glastonbury Festival will announce two new acts for its 2014 line-up today. DJ Fosta and Thibo Tazz, two artists from Cape Town’s townships, will play Silver Hayes, the area formerly known as the dance village, on Saturday.
Both artists will bring their African-inspired house beats to the blues stage, the first booking of its kind for Silver Hayes.
The pair's trip is funded by the British Council's Connect ZA scheme and The Department of Arts and Culture of South Africa, which aim to build cultural connections between young people in South Africa and the UK, Pioneer DJ are a co-sponsor. Bridges for Music – a charity that works with some of dance music’s biggest stars to support artists in developing countries – has also helped to arrange the pairing between the acts and Glastonbury.
DJ Fosta
Speaking by phone from his studio in his home in Langa township South Africa, DJ Fosta, real name Thulani Headman, said he hadn’t heard of Glastonbury before being asked to play at the festival, but has since done his research.
For him the opportunity has already opened up a wave of possibilities; he nearly gave up on music last year, disillusioned with the scene and struggling to make ends meet.
Headman's music is a combination of deep house beats with live vocals. "It represents my lifestyle, an expression of myself and my surroundings" while growing up in Langa township. He also runs his own label, 021 records, for up-and-coming artists in the area. The label champions house, hip hop and kwaito (hip-hop beats featuring vocals in local languages) which has proved very popular.
Sounds from DJ Fosta and his crew are sometimes referred to as sjoko-jojko, which means the party lifestyle. Whilst Johannesburg is considered a music hub, Headman is passionate about maintaining a Cape Town scene. "My problem is that once people move [away], they don’t enrich the music industry," he says. "Kids in the township get into the wrong type of things, they don’t have local icons, only people they see on TV".
Thibo Tazz, whose real name is Thabo Rasenyalo, lives a 10-minute drive from Headman, describes his sound as a mixture of, deep house, soulful vocals and minimal tech. It's finding its niche in South Africa, where house has been a near-obsession for the past few years.
Rasenyalo says he is not "usually into festivals" but he understands how important they are for the global music scene. "The first thing that caught my attention is that tickets sell out in the first hour, so it must be good".
Headman played Synergy Live for the first time last year, and he regularly appears at picnics in and around Lunga – outdoor events for the community which attract up to 10,000 people. But even in South Africa, he says DJs from the townships can be overlooked.
"The local DJs are still supporting DJs, the fees [for performing] are close to nothing," and there is a general lack of respect from promoters and others in the industry, he says.
Rasenyalo enjoys playing township events the most, where he sees "youngsters getting very excited, they tell you how much how they are enjoying themselves and that they want to get into music." He says that is how he started: "I used to sneak out of school and go to cultural events". He’d take a cricket bat along so his mum thought he was playing sport. At the time he didn’t really know what a DJ did, he was drawn by the sounds and the atmosphere. For Headman, DJing was an avenue out of trouble.
As they talk about their artistic struggles, it seems they have a lot in common with artists around the world. Headman talks about how "major labels make things difficult for independent labels". Whilst they are hindered by a resources and a lack of facilities. Rasenyalo is keen to point to other South African artists like Black Coffee and Culoe de Song, local heroes who’ve made it big.
He says artists like himself "tend to rely on not having resources as our way of saying 'we cannot to get to next level'", but says that is a mindset he says needs to change. He cites workshops hosted by Bridges for Music as critical to shifting thinking.
The DJ have worked Richie Hawtin, Skrillex and Lucanio in South Africa, ambassadors for Bridges for Music, Hawtin said it was "one of the proudest moments in my career". Hawtin and Srillex are both booked for Glastonbury too, and Silver Hayes coordinator Malcolm Haynes says he would love to see another collaboration.
Thibo Tazz
Both Headman and Rasenyalo have a long list of other DJs they want to see and meet. "I am not just there to deliver my set but to learn, I want to go home with something," says Headman.
Neither DJ seem bothered about headliners Metallica, so what else should they do? "Oh my days, where do they start," says Haynes. "I just hope that they take in the sheer enormity of the festival and enjoy their time with us. Glastonbury has so much to offer, not just in music, but culture, and performing arts as well."
Should British festivals be doing more to foster this type of collaboration? "Of course" Haynes says, where possible. "Glastonbury is in a great position to do this, as we don't rely on the line-up in to sell tickets, this gives the festival the opportunity to bring acts and performers to the festival that normally would not get the chance".
It only seems fair that they have been warned about the weather, with a laugh Rasenyalo tells me he heard "it is not to be taken lightly… I’ve seen the pictures and it gets pretty grimy at times". He will use the next few weeks to prepare, he says. Headman who heard "it gets a bit hectic" has started to look for a pair of wellies. Both will be camping.
It's not the first time Glastonbury have partnered with African musicians to promote social causes. Malian singer Rokia Traoré was the first act announced for Glastonbury 2013, speaking at the time Festival organiser Emily Eavis said it was "an act of solidarity", responding to Islamists who had banned music in the north.
Others listed on the official line up include Seun Kuti (youngest son of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti) with Egypt 80, and Toumani and Sidiki Diabat, who will play on the Pyramid on Sunday and Tinariwen, a group of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali.
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A COLLEGE ESSAY ON POKÉMON (649 words, complerted September quitetheoresama Nov 5th, 2014 792 Never 792Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 3.92 KB Every time I look back on what makes me who I am, the roots of my personality always traced themselves to one video game franchise—Pokémon. The Pokémon franchise, developed by Game Freak, is a series of role-playing games for portable Nintendo consoles, such as the Game Boy and Nintendo DS. Now, my love for this franchise contributed to my desire to major in game design in college. The portable nature of the games in the Pokémon franchise encourages players to communicate with each other in real-life. Pokémon fans learn how Pokémon creatures develop from other like-minded Pokémon trainers by trading and battling with each othe. As a result, players didn’t just catch ‘em all, but learned how to exchange their ideas through their Pokémon creatures! In short, Pokémon games encouraged people to communicate and express their ideas with each other. I fell in love with the aspect of expressing oneself through play. I was just two years old when that game made me who I am. At that age, I owned a Game Boy Color which I brought wherever I went while playing Pokémon. I was using my Game Boy Color all the time, to the point where it would sometimes be confiscated by teachers or parents. If ever I wasn’t eating my food or paying attention to what my parents were saying—swipe!—it would be taken away. But the Pokémon games themselves captured my attention only because I was captivated by how Pokémon worked. More importantly, it made me fall in love with video games, and I wanted to know how I could use that technology to express my ideas. I ended up taking Japanese language classes when I was six just so I could communicate with game developers and learn from them, especially those of Nintendo, whose headquarters were based in Kyoto. Nintendo was responsible for publishing Pokémon, The Pokémon Company making it known the world over. I couldn’t help but feel the need but bring my ideas to their table! As a bonus, I learned how to read, write and converse fluently in Japanese. As I learned about how Pokémon’s art was inspired by Japanese manga comics, I ended up studying manga drawing techniques and how artists crafted their characters. I worked hard to analyze the styles of various artists so I could incorporate them into my own. Lo and behold, did my drawings improve! I then became the budding manga artist in my circle of friends, presenting my drawings to others and expressing my creativity and desire to improve. Manga in itself along with Japanese language classes gave me a high degree of exposure to Japanese culture. I learned about the subtle nuances in their crafts, their attention to detail and how orderly their societies worked. And even then, it gave me a thirst to learn about other cultures, and it encouraged me to understand how people express themselves. That thirst for learning made me absorb ideas like a sponge, making school much more enjoyable as I loved seeing what ideas people had to offer. Be it a discussion, presentation or even as simple as a conversation during lunch, I made sure to let others express themselves. That exchange and expression of ideas seemed like battles between Pokémon trainers, and it only made communicating with each other all the more fun. However, you can’t communicate if you can’t express yourself! What ideas would there be to learn from? Being able to exchange and express your ideas like Pokémon battles makes quite an impact on the world around us. After all, self-expression is what solves problems, what bridges faraway societies together and what enables human beings to break ground and evolve, much like Pokémon. It’s no wonder I’m known for being so talkative—I value self-expression. Pokémon, art, video games, language and communication all share one underlying thread, and that common thread is… …self-expression! By Ryen Raftery, for submission to NYU (this portion not included in the word count of 649)
RAW Paste Data
Every time I look back on what makes me who I am, the roots of my personality always traced themselves to one video game franchise—Pokémon. The Pokémon franchise, developed by Game Freak, is a series of role-playing games for portable Nintendo consoles, such as the Game Boy and Nintendo DS. Now, my love for this franchise contributed to my desire to major in game design in college. The portable nature of the games in the Pokémon franchise encourages players to communicate with each other in real-life. Pokémon fans learn how Pokémon creatures develop from other like-minded Pokémon trainers by trading and battling with each othe. As a result, players didn’t just catch ‘em all, but learned how to exchange their ideas through their Pokémon creatures! In short, Pokémon games encouraged people to communicate and express their ideas with each other. I fell in love with the aspect of expressing oneself through play. I was just two years old when that game made me who I am. At that age, I owned a Game Boy Color which I brought wherever I went while playing Pokémon. I was using my Game Boy Color all the time, to the point where it would sometimes be confiscated by teachers or parents. If ever I wasn’t eating my food or paying attention to what my parents were saying—swipe!—it would be taken away. But the Pokémon games themselves captured my attention only because I was captivated by how Pokémon worked. More importantly, it made me fall in love with video games, and I wanted to know how I could use that technology to express my ideas. I ended up taking Japanese language classes when I was six just so I could communicate with game developers and learn from them, especially those of Nintendo, whose headquarters were based in Kyoto. Nintendo was responsible for publishing Pokémon, The Pokémon Company making it known the world over. I couldn’t help but feel the need but bring my ideas to their table! As a bonus, I learned how to read, write and converse fluently in Japanese. As I learned about how Pokémon’s art was inspired by Japanese manga comics, I ended up studying manga drawing techniques and how artists crafted their characters. I worked hard to analyze the styles of various artists so I could incorporate them into my own. Lo and behold, did my drawings improve! I then became the budding manga artist in my circle of friends, presenting my drawings to others and expressing my creativity and desire to improve. Manga in itself along with Japanese language classes gave me a high degree of exposure to Japanese culture. I learned about the subtle nuances in their crafts, their attention to detail and how orderly their societies worked. And even then, it gave me a thirst to learn about other cultures, and it encouraged me to understand how people express themselves. That thirst for learning made me absorb ideas like a sponge, making school much more enjoyable as I loved seeing what ideas people had to offer. Be it a discussion, presentation or even as simple as a conversation during lunch, I made sure to let others express themselves. That exchange and expression of ideas seemed like battles between Pokémon trainers, and it only made communicating with each other all the more fun. However, you can’t communicate if you can’t express yourself! What ideas would there be to learn from? Being able to exchange and express your ideas like Pokémon battles makes quite an impact on the world around us. After all, self-expression is what solves problems, what bridges faraway societies together and what enables human beings to break ground and evolve, much like Pokémon. It’s no wonder I’m known for being so talkative—I value self-expression. Pokémon, art, video games, language and communication all share one underlying thread, and that common thread is… …self-expression! By Ryen Raftery, for submission to NYU (this portion not included in the word count of 649)
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The Canadian government abandoned an appeal of a controversial court ruling that let the Catholic Church out of its responsibility to raise millions of dollars for aboriginal healing programs, court documents show.
The appeal was dropped just six days after the Trudeau government took office.
The revelation comes in a week when the Liberal government has repeatedly said that it had no options for appeal. It did not mention, however, that an appeal had been commenced and then withdrawn.
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The abandonment of the appeal means that a major element of Canada's historic 2007 settlement – the contribution of the Catholic churches, which ran most of the residential schools, to the aboriginal community – was brought to an end by a lone Saskatchewan judge, in an informal hearing called a Request for Directions.
The ruling by Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench Justice Neil Gabrielson on July 16 found that the former federal Conservative government had inadvertently released 50 Catholic entities from their contractual responsibility to try to raise up to $25-million for aboriginal healing pro- grams. He ruled that there was a "meeting of the minds" between a federal lawyer, Alexander Gay, and a lawyer for the Catholic entities, Gordon Kuski, on a re-lease from all obligations. He also found that Mr. Gay should be presumed in this dispute to have had the authority to negotiate on be-half of the Canadian government.
Under the former Conservative government, the Justice Department served notice in August that it intended to appeal the ruling. A Liberal government was elected on Oct. 19 and took office on Nov. 4, as the cabinet – including Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould – was sworn in. On Nov. 10, the federal Justice Department formally abandoned the appeal, without giving reasons, in a letter signed by Wayne Schafer, senior counsel for the Attorney-General.
The Liberal government says its Conservative predecessors were the ones who released the church from its obligations under the settlement agreement to try to raise $25-million for healing and reconciliation.
After Justice Gabrielson's decision in July, "officials from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development received a mandate from the former Conservative government to negotiate a settlement with the Catholic entities," a government spokeswoman said in an e-mail on Wednesday evening. "Negotiations began in August 2015 and an agreement of release was signed October 30, 2015. As a result of these negotiations, it was agreed the Protective Notice of Appeal would be withdrawn." In other words, abandoning the appeal was a mere formality.
The Liberal government did not provide The Globe and Mail with a copy of that negotiated agreement of release. Without a copy of that settlement, it is impossible to know if the Liberals were legally able to continue with the appeal, according to Toronto lawyer Kirk Baert, who represented residential school survivors at settlement talks.
"This is an important aspect of the original settlement," he said. "I don't get the logic of withdrawing [the appeal]. They're already at zero in terms of what the Catholics have to do. If you win, you may restore these benefits."
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The Conservatives' justice critic, Rob Nicholson, could not be reached for comment.
The Liberals have made a rapprochement with indigenous peoples a centrepiece of their government. "No relationship is more important to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous Peoples," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says in the mandate letters given to each of his cabinet ministers.
The 2007 settlement created three obligations for the 50 Catholic entities: pay $29-million in cash to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation; give $25-million in services to aboriginal communities; and use "best efforts" to raise $25-million for additional healing programs. The fundraising fell well short – bringing in just $3.7-million. Justice Gabrielson ruled that, for a payment of $1.2-million, the Catholic entities were to be released from their responsibilities to raise the remainder of the $25-million, and be seen to have completed the other two categories of contributions. (There had been a dispute over deductions from the $29-million that the Catholic entities had been claiming for administrative costs.)
In such a hearing, the judge makes no credibility assessments of witnesses for either side, unlike in a full-blown trial. Appeal courts therefore may find it easier than a trial ruling to overturn. (Appeal courts usually defer to trial judges' credibility assessments.)
Among its grounds for appealing the decision, the federal government said the judge had made an error in law by saying that Mr. Gay had the authority to bind the government to a settlement, and had made "palpable and overriding errors" in assessing the facts relating to the negotiations, public documents on file at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal show.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said this week that the government would pressure the church into resuming its fundraising efforts and rejected suggestions that the government should make up the shortfall.
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University of Alberta law professor Eric Adams, who had no involvement in the case, read the ruling at The Globe's request. He said he was surprised Canada didn't appeal it, because Mr. Gay had indicated throughout his discussions with Mr. Kuski that there were details to be worked out and approvals to be sought before the deal was finalized.
"Part of the calculus in deciding whether to appeal something is the stakes – and the stakes were huge," Prof. Adams added.
Ken Young, a Winnipeg lawyer who spent 10 years in a residential school, has read the ruling of Judge Gabrielson and said he believes the government should have appealed.
Mr. Young said, from his reading of what happened, it does not appear that there was any agreement made by Mr. Gay, on behalf of the government, to allow the Catholic entities to walk away from their fundraising obligations, as found by Judge Gabrielson. "They hung the government lawyer out to dry. I don't know how he is feeling about that."
As for the Catholics making their "best efforts" to raise $25-million for healing and reconciliation, said Mr. Young, the "best efforts" would have meant the Catholic church stepping in and contributing the difference between the $25-million goal and the $3.7-million. "The Catholic Church is a big enough institution to cover what their people and their parishioners couldn't cover."
Grouard-McLennan Archbishop Gérard Pettipas, who chairs the board of the Corporation of Catholic Entities, referred questions Wednesday about whether the church would be willing to do that to Pierre Baribeau, the entities' lawyer.
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When asked Tuesday if the fundraising might resume, Mr. Baribeau suggested it would not happen because the various organizations of the church had already been solicited for funds and many were already near bankruptcy.
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To celebrate the shipment of 100 million GeForce GPUs, MSI is launching a new revision of the GeForce GTX 970, the Gaming 100ME (millionth edition). The cooler is identical that used in the GTX 970 Gaming 4G but replaces the red color scheme of the MSI Gaming brand with a green very close to that of NVIDIA's.
This will also ship with a "special gift" and will be a limited edition, much like the Golden Edition GTX 970 from earlier this year.
MSI had some other minor updates to its GPU line including the GTX 970 4GD5T OC with a cool looking black and white color scheme and an 8GB version of the Radeon R9 290X.
PC Perspective's CES 2015 coverage is sponsored by Logitech.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
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The US has tried to bolster the Afghan government in Helmand Province with air support in their fighting against the Taliban, but the support appears to have gone horribly wrong today, as a US drone attacked and killed at least 15 Afghan police.
The airstrike was targeting what the US thought was a Taliban compound in Helmand’s Gereshk District, but was actually a site used by Afghan security forces to meet and plan operations against the Taliban. A number were inside when the US attacked.
Death tolls still aren’t totally finalized, but Helmand Governor Hayatullah Hayat confirmed that two top police commanders were among the slain. The Afghan government suggested no soldiers were among the slain, and that it was only the local and provincially-provided police forces that sustained casualties.
The Pentagon expressed condolences for “the unfortunate incident,” but provided no indication as to why they attacked the compound, simply terming the attack part of a “US-supported operation.” Either way, this likely derails the anti-Taliban operation that was ongoing in the district.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
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The day we’ve all been waiting for has arrived—Wilson’s Heart is officially here! Drawing equal parts inspiration from classic monster movie horror and Twilight Zone bizarre, this narrative-driven first-person adventure lets you star in your own psychological thriller. Thanks to neo-noir cinematic flair and a cast of voice actors including Peter Weller, Rosario Dawson, Michael B. Jordan, and Alfred Molina, combined with the immersive power of VR, you can step inside a mystery like never before.
We’re taking a break from speedruns and exploratory playthroughs to celebrate with a new installment in our Touch Tuesdays series. Today’s in-depth Q&A features Twisted Pixel Games CEO Bill Muehl and Chief Creative Officer Josh Bear.
What motivated you to bring your character-driven approach to narrative games into VR?
Josh Bear: We’ve always enjoyed making character interactions feel engaging and responsive—bringing that approach into VR expanded what we could do narratively, especially from the first-person perspective. As an example, when we were prototyping Wilson’s Heart, we quickly found that the immersion of VR let us influence players’ moods and reactions through the placement of NPCs relative to the players’ personal space. That unique ability to affect the player through character interactions, paired with the natural controls that Touch provides, opened up a lot of narrative opportunities that couldn’t have been done outside of VR.
What’s your favorite part about designing for Touch?
Bill Muehl:As a studio, we’ve always loved finding ways to be creative with new technology. Touch is such a big leap forward in terms of natural interactions, we feel fortunate to have had such early access to the prototypes so we could design Wilson’s Heart to take advantage of the new interface. We’ve really enjoyed the way Touch let us design the game so that people who would normally be intimidated by a traditional controller with tons of buttons can instead put their attention toward exploring the environments, solving puzzles, and advancing the narrative in an intuitive way.
Did you encounter any obstacles while designing for VR?
BM: A big challenge was the fact that we had to give up camera control to the player, but that’s something all developers face as they make the transition to VR. We saw right away that we’d need to put a lot of attention into our sound design and subtle visual cues to guide the player without breaking immersion.
JB: There was also the challenge of locomotion in VR. We decided early on to commit to a solution that fit our gameplay and narrative design, and the natural use of Touch controllers helped a lot toward solving that. Our node-based teleportation has the added benefit of ensuring that Wilson’s Heart is comfortable experience.
How do you think VR will continue to impact the way we play and tell stories moving forward?
BM: This is clearly just the beginning of an entirely new way to experience alternate and enhanced worlds, characters, and social interactions, and we’re excited to be part of the whole movement. As the hardware and platforms evolve, we’re looking forward to even more ambitious ways to create interactive narratives.
What’s the craziest reaction you’ve seen while demoing the game?
JB: We often get a great reaction to the mirror sequence near the beginning of the game—a mix of shock and amazement as players come face-to-face with their virtual self, Robert Wilson, who’s a man in his mid-60s.
BM: It’s also great to witness the moments when players have to do something that would normally be pretty gross like reaching into a bathtub full of nasty, sludgy water, or something very painful like reaching down to pull their heart out of their own chest. Scenarios like those often create a really visceral reaction in the player.
Any particular Easter eggs we should be on the lookout for?
JB: We hope players feel like the narrative and puzzle designs provide a bunch of unexpected twists and turns, but the game also includes variety of side areas for players who want to explore deeper context of both the story and characters. Some of these include interactive comic books, newspapers, photos, and radios with plays and period music. Also, try tuning the station dial on the radios—you may get more than you bargained for.
Thanks for the eerie insights, Bill and Josh—we can’t wait for everyone to tap into the supernatural chills of WIlson’s Heart.
And NVIDIA has a surprise to make launch day even more exciting! Now through June 13, you can score Wilson’s Heart, SUPERHOT VR, and The Unspoken for free with the purchase of Rift and Touch plus any GeForce GTX 1080, 1070, or 1060 graphics card, system, or laptop. Please visit Amazon or Newegg for more information. Prices may vary, so check with your local retailer for details.
Already have your rig set up? Get Wilson’s Heart today on the Oculus Store and unravel its unsettling mysteries.
— The Oculus Team
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The heat goes on: After a blitz by climate change skeptics, hard science vindicates their targets
Of late U.S. public opinion has turned very chilly for the vast majority of the world's climate scientists whose data demonstrates that human-generated emissions are heating the globe with potentially catastrophic results. Thanks to a confluence of events, some significant and others bogus, polls show Americans are increasingly confused about the reality of global warming.
After the election of President Barack Obama, the expectation was that the U.S. government would end the foot dragging of the George W. Bush administration and aggressively move to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. While the Environmental Protection Agency did classify carbon dioxide as a pollutant and the House of Representatives passed an ambitious energy bill with cap-and-trade measures to reduce emissions, the bipartisan version in the Senate sponsored by John Kerry, D-Mass, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., faces tough sledding.
The Copenhagen climate summit that was supposed to design a global climate treaty to succeed Kyoto instead produced little more than platitudes about future action. The worldwide economic recession made the costs of combating global warming less acceptable to both industrialized nations and their developing counterparts.
In the midst of that gloomy outlook came a pair of highly publicized incidents that were used to cast doubt on the validity of climate change theory.
First, hackers raided the computer system at the climate research unit of Britain's East Anglia University and published thousands of scientists' private e-mails. Global warming skeptics portrayed the communications as proof that devious researchers were cooking data to support a global warming hoax. That charge was decisively rejected by a British government commission that examined the e-mails. Although it faulted the scientists for petty and sometimes vindictive comments about their detractors, the commission found no grounds to challenge the scientific consensus that global warming is happening and is caused by human activity.
In a second flap, global warming disbelievers seized on a single misstated claim in a 900-page report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that Himalayan glaciers will melt by the year 2035 as proof the massive body of science authenticating global warming was suspect. Although the evidence of retreating glaciers around the world is incontrovertible, a single error on a timeline was used to cast doubt on the U.N. panel's work. is cooling rather than heating up. Brushed aside was the fact that globally 2009 was the second warmest ever recorded, and the past decade was the warmest ever measured by man. An analysis compiled by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies projects that this year may be the hottest yet.
As writer Elizabeth Kolbert points out in the current issue of the New Yorker, “The message from scientists at this point couldn't be clearer: the world's emissions trajectory is extremely dangerous. Goofball weathermen, Climategate, conspiracy theories — these are all a distraction from what's really happening.”
For those of us living in hurricane-vulnerable areas, keep in mind this ominous measurement: Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic main development area for tropical storms last month were the warmest ever recorded for March, already reaching levels typical of late June. The conjunction of several climate patterns combined with ongoing overall warming of the world's oceans is thought to be the cause.
Despite all the spinning and hot air, the science is solid and global warming is a real, deadly serious concern. It's time to deal with it.
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The lack of air superiority became quite a problem for the German army in both World Wars.
Very often you will hear people spouting about “invincible Tigers only defeated by enemy airplanes”, which of course was only somewhat true until the Soviets started fielding 122 and 152mm self propelled guns, not to mention the IS series, while British and Americans also put 76mm high velocity cannons to good use on the other side.
The Germans of course were aware of the consequences of loosing air superiority and developed several solutions, of which we will cover only the ones based on tank hulls, ranging from sensible battlefield modifications to daring paper tanks that never reached the battlefield, using mainly “Gepard” by Spielberger and “Panzer Tracts 20-2” by Jentz & Doyle.
2cm Flak 38 auf Panzer I A
Possibly the very first German attempt at a flak panzer, in 1941 at least 18 by then obsolete Panzer I ausf A chassis were converted into a flak panzer using the ubiquitous 2cm flak 38 and were used with moderate success of the battlefield until Stalingrad, where the last tanks were lost.
2cm Flak 38 auf RSO
A relatively simple modification of the “Ost” tracktor, it was developed as AA/Ground support vehicle for mountain troops. Given similar experiments with the heavier PAK 40 the design seems reliable enough, especially given the dismountable gun specification.
Developed in 1943, it never entered service.
Early modifications based on Panzer 38(t)
Between 1943 and 1944 over 150 of those tanks were produced, putting yet again the 2cm flak 38 in a Marder-like configuration. By then though, their firepower left a lot to be desired but as in late war everything that could be used was fielded, they ended up serving until the very end.
A second attempt was made relatively quickly to make a more flexible configuration, ending up in a recon/AA hybrid armed yet again with the 2cm flak 38 and a MG42, a configuration that would resurface on Paper for the 38D design later on.
Using the sd. kfz 222 turret, 70 of those vehicles were made.
Luftwaffe projects on Luchs/Leopard/VK2801 hulls
In September 1943 Krupp and Rheinmetall were requested to submit designs for a light flakpaner carrying the 3.7cm flak 36 (then upgraded to flak 43) or quadruple 20mm flak 38. The proposal was based on the Luchs but later on maximum integration with Leopard components resulting in a 25 ton tank.
Ground support role was also planned for the tank so the turret had a respectable 50mm front and 30mm sides armor, enough to face most light tanks.
Several configurations were proposed, including the use of a single 5cm Flak 41 or Gerat 58 but ultimately the project was aborted due to the cancellation of the Leopard tank by Speer.
The very same studies were conducted on the VK2801, likely as waffentrager as the same hull configuration was planned to carry the 75mm L/70, although limited to an traverse angle of 15° to each side until the chassis development was aborted in 1945.
Panzer IV based modifications
Being disappointed with earlier attempts, in 1943 Krupp was called in to develop a better solution based on Panzer IV chassis.
The very first solution was to still use the 2cm flak 38 but now in a “Vierling” or quadruple configuration.
This gave a much more intense barrage capability although still relatively short ranged.
Unfortunately the tank was not without drawbacks, resulting in very tall sides when enclosed (earning the nickname of “Mobelwagen” or furniture wagon) and in an unprotected crew when in firing position.
Additional requirements such as entrenching tools and a big supply of hand grenades for close defense (imho this was useless, the main guns could mince meat anything the grenades were meant for at much longer ranges and that close the crew would have been dead meat long before exhausting the grenade supply) meant that insufficient ammo was carried and thus the vehicle never left prototype stage.
A second attempt involved using a newer gun, the 3.7cm Flak 43:
While seemingly puny, the gun was a much stronger advancement from the early 1936 “door knocker” and it could dish out punishment at considerable distances spitting lead up to 250 RPM and also pretty effective against tanks when using special ammunition able to penetrate up to 140mm/0° at 100m.
Both proposals evolved into slightly more compact 22ton turreted designs, called “Ostwind” (east wind, armed with the 3.7cm flak 43), and “Wibelwind” (with the quadruple 20mm) which got over 100 tanks in production.
A derivative prototype was made out of Panzer III chassis but it never reached production.
Another design was an enclosed turret with twin MK 103 cannons using a turret derived from U-boat AA, called the Kugelblitz, or ball lighting with about 80 of those being produced:
Of course, being nice designs with reasonable features wasn’t enough and like everything else it was brought to the extremes late in the war.
In order to gear up the Wibelwind, the “Zerstorer 45″ program was started, bringing a slightly larger turret to mount this:
Quadruple 30mm MK 103 cannon, enough to make minced meat of even the vaunted IL-2 and most light tanks on ground. Only two of those prototypes were made but the hail of fire must have been impressive.
At the same time, Ostwind was planned to be upgraded to “zwilling” or twin, 37mm Flak 43, basically going akimbo:
This was later on planned to be upgraded to the slightly more powerful 3.7cm flak 44.
An heavier configuration was developed in 1942 based on a special Panzer IV chassis mounting the 8.8cm Flak 37 or Flak 41 in a fold-able platform that was later on proposed to be integrated first with Leopard components then with Panther ones but was ultimately discarded for more compact solutions using either 3cm MK 103 or the 5.5cm Gerat 58.
Later modifications based on Panzer 38(t) and 38(d)
As the Panzer IV was scheduled to be phased out, design moved on what was supposed to be its closest replacement, the Panzer 38(d) which could be described as looking like a turreted Hetzer redesigned to be produced in Germany.
Although not evident in the drawing, it sported two 20mm MG 151/20 cannons allegedly for ranging and two MK 103 for the kill, an impressive weapon array for such a compact design.
Later on during flak Panther development the 3.7cm flak 44 was also proposed for the Panzer 38(d).
A final modification was made on an enlarged 38(d) chassis in a waffentrager configuration, using the Gerat 58 in a twin mount.
Panther based modifications
As soon as Panther design started being finalized, flak panzers were being discussed with the very first proposals coming from Luftwaffe in 1942.
Initially a quadruple 20mm MG 151/20 configuration was proposed and trialled but while delivering an impressive barrage, it was deemed insufficient and discarded for twin 3.7cm flak 43.
This configuration, dubbed the “Coelian”, was later on upgraded to twin 3.7cm flak 44, which benefited from a longer, more powerful cartridge.
This was again upgraded in 1944 to make use of the new 5.5cm Gerat 58 still in a twin configuration.
Developed by Krupp and Rheinmetall, this impressive weapon could be elevated from -5° to +80°, firing its ammo at over 1000 m/s and 120-140 rounds per minute per gun.
The heaviest modification however regarded using the 8.8cm Flak 41 in an open turret, proposed in 1943 by Rheinmetall and discarded in 1944 as Panther chassis were direly needed for heavier tasts and 8.8cm cannons in fixed positions were felt more than adequate for the task.
Modifications by Porsche
Development of a light flak/ground support chassis by Porsche in collaboration with Rheinmetall started in 1943 as resources for heavier designs were drying up, using the 3cm MK 103, 5.5 cm MK 112 and the 10.5cm LEFH 43.
60mm frontal armor and a top speed of 58 KM/H would have made this tank double wonderfully as light scout and support, although that role would have been better covered by its enclosed turret version.
All in all, the germans developed quite a few interesting designs of varying effectiveness, especially as planes got faster and faster.
As with similar designs from other nations, the germans basically focused on sheer rate of fire for closer ranges, while using heavier guns was rapidly becoming the chosen option in later vehicles.
As analogous designs to the soviet ZSU 37 and 57 they could have lasted as anti helicopter/light ground support tanks even after the war, until being ultimately supplanted by a mix of SAM and Radar-equipped SPAAGs.
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On Monday, Dr. David Agus injected the media's regular hype about climate change into CBS This Morning's coverage of the outbreak of Enterovirus D68 in the U.S. and the Ebola crisis in Africa. The morning show brought on Dr. Agus to discuss the polio-like virus that has afflicted children across the country. Near the end of the segment, anchor Charlie Rose wondered, "So we have Ebola virus in Africa, and we now have this virus [Enterovirus D68]. What's going on?"
The CBS medical contributor admitted that science didn't have any answers at this point, but that didn't stop him from wildly speculating: [MP3 audio available here; video below]
DR. DAVID AGUS, USC PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE: Well, the world is flat – is that, you know, right now, anybody can get on a plane, and end up anywhere in this country and spread these viruses. And we have to be aware of it. We don't know exactly why there was a dramatic spread this year, but something is happening now. We have multiple viruses. And together with global climate change, things are changing in the virus world, and we have to pay attention.
This isn't the first time CBS has injected the climate change issue into a human tragedy. On the July 16, 2014 edition of CBS Evening News, during a news brief about the 20 injuries from severe turbulence on an international flight, anchor Scott Pelley played up a study that indicated "this kind of turbulence will increase significantly in the future because of climate change." Five months earlier, CBS This Morning promoted a "controversial book" that predicted that "winter sports could be doomed" due to global warming.
Back in November 2013, Pelley hyped how "greenhouse gases, which influence climate change, have hit their highest level in 800,000 years," according to a U.N. climate change report. Correspondent John Blackstone touted the supposed apocalyptic nature of this report, and asked a scientist if it was "too late" to do anything about climate change.
[H/t: Pundit Press blog]
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Always ready and always on, the Aimpoint PRO Patrol Rifle Optic provides 2 minutes of angle red dot for accurate target engagement at all distances.
A hard-anodized 30mm tube was utilized, enclosing a high efficiency circuit that allows the Aimpoint Pro to be turned on and left on for up to three years using a single battery. The front lens utilizes a unique band-pass coating, which allows the sight to be used with all generations of night vision devices. The modular QRP2 mount includes a removable spacer that indexes the sight at the optimal height for co-witness with the standard iron sights on AR15/M16/M4 Carbine style weapons. This spacer can be removed to enable the use of the sight on police shotguns or sub-machineguns. The QRP2 mount also incorporates a torque-limiting twist knob that provides the optimal level of pressure on the rail while completely eliminating the possibility of over-tightening.
Both the front and rear lenses are recessed within the sight body to provide protection against impact damage, scratches, and fingerprints. Flip covers are included on the Aimpoint Pro to further protect the lenses, and a transparent rear lens cover is utilized allowing the user to engage a target with the lens covers closed in an emergency situation. A two Minute of Angle (2 MOA) red dot is utilized to allow maximum accuracy at all distances and under all environmental conditions.
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Hubballi: A barber trimming the hair of a person in Haveri district stopped his job midway and shooed the customer away after learning he is a dalit. The incident took place in Ranebennur's Itagi village recently. Ranebennur is about 300km northwest of Bengaluru.The customer was visiting a family in Itagi, and the barber came to know his caste during a chat. Immediately, the barber asked him to leave his place. The customer had his hair partially cut by then. He travelled to the nearest town, Harihar, about an hour's drive, to get the job completed.This is not unusual in Itagi, which has seen fractious ties between dalits and hairdressers. After a skirmish in the 1990s, village barbers don't give dalits a haircut.The customer brought this incident to the notice of a friend, also a dalit, and the latter alerted zonal police seeking action against the barber. A dalit organization, too, raised the issue of ill-treatment with police and the social welfare department.A team of tahsildar, social welfare officers and police personnel visited the village and held a meeting to resolve the issue, but to no avail. The Itagi hairdressers refused to blink and said they will not welcome dalits.After the incident, all the five salons in the village have downed their shutters. To preempt further trouble, a police contingent has been stationed in the village.Prakash Pujar, a dalit leader, told TOI the trouble started 20 years in the village with 70 dalit families. Vasanth HC, a police sub-inspector from Halageri station, said resolution efforts will continue.Ranebennur tahsildar Ramamurthy said barbers should make no distinction on the basis of caste or religion. "We held the meeting with barbers in the presence of villagers, including dalits. We will hold a second meeting in the next couple of days. If they continue to remain adamant, then we will file a case against them for trying to cause disturbance in society," he said.
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You might want to stick to taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the daytime (Picture: Getty Images)
Not many people know this, but taking pictures of the iconic Eiffel Tower at night is illegal, and punishable by a massive fine.
The ban has been in place for a while now, but as France becomes more aggressive in its crack down on photo sharing, MEPs are joining forces in a bid to finally lift it.
What does the ban mean?
EU law allows members the choice to demand permission before people can share or sell photos of historic buildings protected by copyright.
Most countries abide by something called ‘freedom of panorama’. This allows people to take photographs and video footage of buildings, and other art works, that are permanently located in a public place.
But there are countries where the freedom is limited, like France, Italy and Denmark, reports Politico.
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Online freedom advocates across the EU have called its failure to secure panorama across the board as an example of ‘Europe at its worst’ and is demanding change.
EU copyright law allows state members to impose restrictions on certain monuments (Picture: Getty Images)
How do I get around this?
Technically taking the picture is also illegal, but it’s the sharing part that will land you in hot water.
If you want to publish the image to social media you must gain permission from the ‘Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel’ (the Eiffel Tower’s operating company).
Julia Reda, a German MEP from the Pirate Party, told Politico: ‘The European Commission is afraid to pick a fight with the French government.
‘The French government has been quite clever and are telling the Commission that they’ve done something, so drop the issue.’
Are there other iconic buildings protected by copyright law? Yes – other landmarks include Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid Statue, the Louvre’s pyramid in Paris and the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Even the 2,000-year-old Colosseum in Rome has certain limitations.
Is there any hope of changing this?
The EU held a public consultation asking people for their opinions – but despite the European Commission promising to publish the results in July, they’re yet to be seen.
The Wikimedia Foundation, MEPs and other parties in Europe are currently fighting to lift the restrictions and impose freedom of panorama everywhere.
MORE: Police recover £2.2m worth of jewels stolen from Drake’s tour bus
MORE: #Grammerschools is trending on Twitter and the irony is beautiful
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At least seven people were injured after a two-car collision resulted in one of the vehicles crashing into a Starbucks in Valley Glen early Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
The initial crash took place in the 12900 block of West Victory Boulevard -- at the intersection of Coldwater Canyon -- shortly after 1 p.m., according to a Los Angeles Fire Department alert.
A blue car was going west on Victory and trying to make a left turn onto Coldwater when it collided with a red Chevrolet, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Andrew Neiman said.
The red car spun out and crashed into the nearby Starbucks, which is located on the southeast corner of the busy intersection, according to Neiman.
A total of 8 people inside in the Starbucks were hurt, including three who were transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, he said.
The remaining five patients were treated at the scene.
Neither of the drivers were injured in the collision, which is under investigation.
The crash caused "an unknown amount of structural damage" to the Starbucks location, according to the LAFD alert.
KTLA's Irving Last contributed to this story.
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The Maranello-based outfit went into 2016 determined to fight for the title and win races from the off, but a mixture of strategy calls, poor reliability and lack of update progress hurt its chances against Mercedes.
In the end, as Red Bull hit peak form towards the end of the campaign, Ferrari even slipped to third place in the constructors' championship, exactly 70 points behind its Milton Keynes-based rival.
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has singled out its lack of development during the season as its biggest fault this year, and says the matter must be addressed for 2017 if the outfit is going to achieve its target.
Speaking at the Ferrari Mondiali 2016 races in Daytona, Marchionne was pretty clear about the weaknesses his team had to sort.
"The most important recognition that the team has made during this season is a clear identification of the gaps we have in terms of two things: one is honestly performance on track, but, more importantly, I think about the rate of change of the other teams," he explained.
"I think we have seen a Red Bull at the start of the 2016 season that did not have, at least on paper, the attributes to try to take on Ferrari. And by the end of the season, Red Bull did effectively become a viable competitor.
"And it was not due to the power unit side, it was down to the work that was done on both aero and chassis.
"And it's pointed out probably one of the most significant holes in the strategic development of Ferrari in the last few years.
"We will try to remedy that problem. That's not to say we don't consider the power unit to be crucial, work continues on both fronts. But I think the biggest issue is that we need to recognise from the '16 findings is the gap that exists on aero development and I think we are trying to close it as quickly as we can."
It is Red Bull rather than Ferrari that is being tipped by many to be Mercedes' main threat for the championship in 2017, and Marchionne thinks it impossible to be too confident about how his team will go next season.
"I think it is impossible to make any prognostication for the 2017 season," he said. "The only thing I can guarantee you is that we are leaving no stones unturned.
"And we're also preparing for in-season development of the car, which is crucial to maintain the competitiveness of whatever goes on to the track in Australia in March."
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While more people continue to move to New Zealand a former Treasury economist says there is no significant economic gain from such high immigration.
Michael Reddell says while it's a sensitive issue now is the time to sensibly discuss our immigration policy without fear of being dismissed as a racist.
In the last year a record 68,000 migrants made New Zealand home and with most settling in Auckland it is changing the way the city looks, sounds and feels.
India leads the migrant numbers with 13,000 over the past year, followed by China, Britain and Australia.
Mr Reddell told Q+A it's not ethnicity but a numbers issue and he would like to see them come down to around 10 to 15,000 skilled migrants - the same per capita level as the US.
"It's very high by international standards. Some of that is the trans-Tasman movement between Australia and here but the core of it - 40,000 - is not and there's no evidence there are any great economic gains from migration," Mr Reddell says.
When New Zealand was opened up to higher levels of immigration 25 years ago, it was promoted in immigration fairs around Asia but now our shop window is the internet and in the last few years four off-shore immigration offices have been closed.
In 2013, the Government tweaked the student visa rules allowing students and their spouses to work and making the transition to residence easier and student numbers have shot up to 27,600.
The unprecedented flow of Kiwis returning home has also driven up the migrant statistics and while Prime Minister John Key says that means we are in good shape, Mr Reddell disagrees.
People from poor countries will always want to come to a richer country. - Economist Michael Reddell
"Frankly I think that's an argument that's got no merit apart from short term politics," says Mr Reddell, adding that while New Zealand is still a relatively wealthy country by the standards of the advanced countries around the world, we're now quite poor.
"They come to us because they can't get in anywhere else. We're richer than the Philippines, China or India so of course many people want to migrate here but if they can get into the United States, Canada, UK or Australia, they'll go there first."
This week Treasury warned that high levels of immigration could push low skilled New Zealanders out of jobs and Mr Reddell argues that we should scrutinise the costs and benefits of immigration.
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Dozens of writers and artists have signed an open letter this week imploring President Trump to “rescind” his executive action that bans individuals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
“Its restriction is inconsistent with the values of the United States and the freedoms for which it stands,” the letter reads.
Some of the more than 60 notable writers and poets who signed it include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Rita Dove, Jonathan Franzen, Khaled Hosseini, Azar Nafisi and George Packer.
The advocacy group PEN America led the effort, reportedly saying that the travel ban “hindered the free flow of artists and thinkers — and did so at a time when vibrant, open intercultural dialogue is indispensable in the fight against terror and oppression.”
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The letter says artists directly and negatively affected by the ban include Syrian singer Omar Souleyman, the poet Adonis and Iranian director Asghar Farhadi. Farhadi is Oscar-nominated for his film “The Salesman,” but says he is unable to attend the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday because of the ban.
“Preventing international artists from contributing to American cultural life will not make America safer, and will damage its international prestige and influence,” the letter adds.
The letter also urges Trump to avoid any further measures that “similarly impairs freedom of movement and the global exchange of arts and ideas.”
Packer, however, expressed doubt that the letter will have an impact.
“I don’t expect it to change any minds at the top of the Trump administration, but perhaps it will give heart to officials lower down, and to foreigners who wonder if America is losing what makes it great,” he told The New York Times, which first reported the letter.
PEN America plans to share the letter on social media.
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Participants dressed in pink perform cheerleading stunts before taking part in the forming of a giant pink dot at the Speakers' Corner in Hong Lim Park in Singapore June 28, 2014. The annual Pink Dot Sg event promotes an acceptance of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in Singapore, according to organizers. REUTERS/Edgar Su (SINGAPORE - Tags: SOCIETY)
Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker. She is also involved in the We Believe in Second Chances campaign for the abolishment of the death penalty. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views expressed are her own.
Ireland – a largely Catholic country which only decriminalised homosexuality in 1993 and divorce in 1995 – voted resoundingly to amend their constitution and approve same-sex marriage last weekend. They have become the first country in the world to approve gay marriage by popular vote, and at a count of 62 per cent to 38 per cent, no less.
This piece of news stood in stark contrast to another development circulating on social media in Singapore: that the Media Development Authority (MDA) had apparently banned from radio and TV a song and music video by Jolin Tsai, presumably because its pro-gay message would encourage a push for same-sex marriage here.
It feels a bit as if the MDA has jumped the gun; there *is* no push for same-sex marriage in Singapore, mostly because everyone is still wondering how to shift the supposedly-not-enforced-but-somehow-still-important-to-keep Section 377A, which criminalises sex between men. On top of that, many in the LGBT community find themselves struggling against the fact that some Singaporeans don’t even recognise that discrimination exists.
That conservatives exist in every country is beyond doubt; I’m sure there were some fundies praying for the Lord to chuck rain down on gay people in Ireland too.
But while we’re riding high on the inspiration generated by Ireland’s stellar example, it’s time to think of how our own country could be so much better for everyone living in it. To not just dwell on hate and fear, but on love.
The repeal of 377A would have little to impact on the lives of heterosexual – or even religious – people. It would, however, mean a lot for LGBT people in Singapore, all of whom have parents, siblings, relatives and friends who would in turn be affected. It would be a strong signal that Singapore’s government will no longer be in the vanguard of discrimination against LGBT people, that it will no longer support the symbolic legislation that validates countless forms of bullying, dehumanising language and prejudice.
It would be a step towards telling young LGBT persons that they *are* accepted in Singaporean society; that they don’t have to be ashamed of who they are and that they can have a future without stigma and fear in Singapore. It would tell the parents of these LGBT persons that they are not alone, that they don’t have to worry about their children being branded as deviants and criminals. Conservatives aren’t the only ones who care about family; gay people have families too. Love, even familial love, is not exclusive to heterosexuals.
The court has rejected the constitutional challenge to 377A, essentially pushing the responsibility back to the legislators. Yet legislators have often pointed to Singapore’s conservatism as a reason for maintaining the status quo. As we see from the MDA’s move, the state is not only unwilling to change, but actively restricting the conversation.
Ireland has done something wonderful and historic in this past weekend. Let us Singaporeans not be caught on the wrong side of history; let us not wait for court cases or politicians to bring us the equality that we should have.
Make it to Hong Lim Park for Pink Dot. Write to your MP about LGBT rights and the need for anti-discrimination legislation. Talk to your friends about acceptance and diversity. Reach out to LGBT people around you who might need support. Do what you can to create a safe space for them to be who they are and say what they need to say.
377A continues to loom over us all – a symbol of prejudice and discrimination. Yet we cannot simply wait for it to disappear; we as Singaporeans can do our part to start making Singapore a more inclusive place. Today.
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This anti-intellectualism is antediluvian. No wonder a 2009 Pew Research Center report found that only 6 percent of scientists identified as Republican and 9 percent identified as conservative.
Furthermore, a 2005 study found that just 11 percent of college professors identified as Republican and 15 percent identified as conservative. Some argue that this simply represents a liberal bias in academia. But just as strong a case could be made that people who absorb facts easily don’t suffer fools gladly.
Last month, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana , the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said on CNN:
“We need to stop being the dumb party. We need to offer smart, conservative, intelligent ideas and policies.”
This is exactly the kind of turn the Republicans need to take, but Jindal’s rhetoric doesn’t completely line up with his record. As The Scotsman of Edinburgh reported in June, “Pupils attending privately run Christian schools in the southern state of Louisiana will learn from textbooks next year, which claim Scotland ’s most famous mythological beast is a living creature.” That mythological beast would be the Loch Ness monster.
The Scotsman continued: “Thousands of children are to receive publicly funded vouchers enabling them to attend the schools — which follow a strict fundamentalist curriculum. The Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) programme teaches controversial religious beliefs, aimed at disproving evolution and proving creationism. Youngsters will be told that if it can be proved that dinosaurs walked the Earth at the same time as man, then Darwinism is fatally flawed.”
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This is all because of a law that Jindal signed. Thankfully, last week a state judge ruled that the voucher program is unconstitutional. But Louisiana isn’t the only red state where creationism has state support.
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Kentucky has a Creationist Museum that warns visitors to “be prepared to experience history in a completely unprecedented way,” according to its Web site. It continues: “Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers.” Unprecedented is certainly one word for it.
Now the museum group is planning to build a creationist theme park, with $43 million in state tax incentives. It should be noted that Mitt Romney won Kentucky by 23 points last month. President Obama won only four of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
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And the beginning of the world isn’t the only point of denial. So is the potential end of it. A March Gallup poll found that Republicans were much less likely than Democrats or independents to say that they worried about global warming. Only 16 percent of Republicans said that they worried a great deal about it, while 42 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of independents did.
This as the National Climatic Data Center reported that “the January-November period was the warmest first 11 months of any year on record for the contiguous United States , and for the entire year, 2012 will most likely surpass the current record (1998, 54.3°F) as the warmest year for the nation.”
Surely some of this is because of party isolationism and extremism and what David Frum, the conservative columnist, called the “conservative entertainment complex.” But there is also willful ignorance at play in some quarters, and Republicans mustn’t simply brush it aside. They must beat it back.
If the Republicans don’t want to see their party go the way of the dinosaurs, they have to step out of the past.
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Last week, I was scouting some studio spaces in a Chelsea office building when I happened to notice a vacant office across the hall.
Normally, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, except something in the room happened to catch my eye…
…was that a subway car inside??
It was a subway car! Or at least, a pretty creative replica of one…
…right down to those chains they always have at the front…
…and the yellow warning line on the platform:
The train is actually divided inside into a series of offices…
…each equipped with sliding stainless-steel doors:
Doing some quick research, I learned that this used to be the offices of B-Train Films (which pretty much explains everything), a production company specializing in sports production (they’ve since moved on to a new office space).
Very curious to see if the next tenants decide to keep their very own indoor subway train.
-SCOUT
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At least eight people were killed and nearly a dozen more were injured when a truck driver deliberately mowed down people and targeted a school bus in lower Manhattan. Gus Rosendale reports. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017)
What to Know Eight people were killed and more were injured when a man in a rented pickup truck rampaged down a popular Manhattan bike path Tuesday
Witnesses described a shocking and gruesome scene along the bike path; the truck then deliberately crashed into a school bus
Sources say the driver, Uzbek national Sayfullo Saipov, who has been living in New Jersey, left a note saying he did it for ISIS
UPDATE: Attack Suspect Left 'ISIS Lives Forever' Note in Truck, Showed No Remorse for Deadly Rampage
At least eight people were killed and nearly a dozen more were injured when a truck driver deliberately mowed down people and targeted a school bus in lower Manhattan Tuesday in what authorities called a "cowardly act of terror."
A 29-year-old Uzbek national living in New Jersey, Sayfullo Saipov, drove a Home Depot rental pickup truck at least 10 blocks down the popular Hudson River Greenway bike path from West Houston to Chambers streets, hitting nearly a dozen pedestrians and bicyclists before crashing into a school bus near Stuyvesant High School and elementary school P.S. 89, just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center, authorities said.
The crash into the school bus appeared to be deliberate; witnesses told police they saw the driver swerve the truck to target the bus, which was carrying children.
Two staff members and two children on the bus were injured, police said.
They said the driver then screamed "Allahu Akbar" in the truck, then emerged carrying what turned out to be a pellet gun and a paint gun and started running around before he was confronted by a nearby uniformed officer on patrol, who shot him in the abdomen.
Law enforcement sources said Tuesday night that authorities found a note inside the man's truck -- rented from a Passaic Home Depot an hour before the rampage -- saying he committed the attack for ISIS.
Watch: Truck Rampage Suspect Runs Through Traffic
Witness video shows the suspect in a Lower Manhattan truck rampage running through traffic with what looks like two weapons. For the latest updates on this story click here. (Published Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017)
One witness told News 4, "A guy got out with a biker jacket with a stripe, and started shooting up the place. All the kids were in the courtyard at P.S. 89 and started running."
Another woman standing at a bus stop nearby said she saw children and teachers from P.S. 89 screaming and running back into the school around dismissal time.
"A man said, 'Run, run for your life,'" said Margaret Yearwood.
The witness who saw the truck driver emerge from the pickup went to go help the school bus driver after the crash.
"I wasn't sure why he was so spaced out and then I went to the other side, it was all caved on. A poor girl was stuck right above the wheel well. There were two kids that were just stuck by the window. It was all blown out," he said.
Another witness described a gruesome scene along the bike path; amid the heaps of twisted metal and mangled bikes, he saw two victims laying unconscious on the ground: "One gentleman’s leg was hanging by skin. Another man had tire marks across his chest. His eyes were open."
Six of the victims were pronounced dead on the scene, according to FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro. They were all male. Two other victims were pronounced dead at local hospitals.
Nearly a dozen people were taken to hospitals, many with serious but non-life threatening injuries. Saipov was also taken to Bellevue Hospital after he was shot by police.
Hear It: Emergency Services Respond to Truck Rampage
Listen as emergency responders react to reports of an out of control box truck in lower Manhattan. For the latest on the deadly incident click here. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017)
Sources initially said they were responding to a report of at least five people shot; in fact, all the victims in the case appeared to have been injured or killed from the truck crash.
Dramatic Images: Aftermath of Deadly Manhattan Truck Rampage
"There was a loss of innocent life," NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said at a news briefing Tuesday evening. "The dead and injured were just going about their days, heading home from work or from school, or enjoying the afternoon sun on their bicycles. This is a tragedy of the greatest magnitude."
Mayor de Blasio condemned the "particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians" and said it would not break the city's spirit. He urged New Yorkers to be more vigilant, and said police presence would be stepped up across the city, adding, "New Yorkers are resilient; our spirit will never be moved."
'A Particularly Cowardly Act of Terror': De Blasio
Mayor Bill De Blasio speaks out against the 'cowardly act of terror' that killed at least 8 people in lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon. (Published Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017)
To that end, the NYPD said the famed Village Halloween Parade would proceed Tuesday evening, though with more police officers and resources, including blocker vehicles, sand trucks and weapons teams.
Stuyvesant High School, P.S. 89 and P.S. 289 were put on lockdown in the chaos and confusion after the crash. Stuyvesant High School sophomore Areyan Kayum said he was in class when he heard the crash; students rushed to the window and saw the destroyed school bus below. The school was immediately put into shelter mode.
"I'm just glad I'm safe and everyone in the school is safe," said Kayum.
Parents were seen picking up their children from the elementary schools after the lockdown was lifted; many of the kids were in Halloween costume and makeup.
Schools chancellor Carmen Fariña said, "Today there was an act of terror in close proximity to several schools in lower Manhattan. We stand with the entire city as we mourn this senseless loss of life. We are grateful to the first-responders and school staff who work tirelessly to help keep our schools and communities safe. Ongoing guidance and trauma counselors will be provided across schools to those in need tomorrow."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there was no evidence to suggest the "lone wolf" attack was part of a wider plot. A U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News that the intelligence community is unaware of any claims of responsibility in the attack at this time.
On Twitter, President Donald Trump called it "another attack by a very sick and deranged person" and declared, "NOT IN THE U.S.A."
Tuesday’s attack bears resemblance to several attacks where a vehicle was used as a weapon in recent years.
In 2014, ISIS called on so-called lone wolf attackers to use their cars to kill people if they couldn’t get their hands on weapons. Two years later, an attacker plowed a cargo truck into hundreds of people celebrating Bastille Day on a beachfront promenade in Nice, France, leaving 86 people dead. Since then, there have been at least 11 other instances where attackers used cars to kill dozens and injure many more.
And earlier this year, a driver from the Bronx jumped a curb in Times Square and hit nearly two dozen people as he drove on the sidewalks -- allegedly intoxicated by PCP -- for three blocks.
The NYPD and FBI are asking anyone with information about Tuesday's attack should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS or the FBI's tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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The layout principles–columns and rows, angles and lines–that we use to build websites today are largely influenced by their print heritage. And although grid implementation on the web is getting better and more polished, web layout in general is still awkward compared to print media, especially when it comes to content flow.
Magazines and newspapers have always enjoyed elegant ways for arranging content layout, such as wrapping text around, or inside, non-rectangular shapes.
Multipurpose Magazine by GreenSocks
Let’s explore how the CSS Shapes Module will allow us this same freedom on the web.
Quick Intro to CSS Shapes
CSS Shapes enable web designers to create more abstract, geometric layouts, beyond simple rectangles and squares. The specification provides us with new CSS properties which include shape-outside and shape-margin . Browser support is reasonable, though these properties are currently only available in Chrome, Opera, and Safari, with the -webkit- prefix, hence -webkit-shape-outside .
The shape-outside property will cause inline content to wrap around (outside) following the element curve, rather than the box model. Initially there was also shape-inside to wrap the content inside an element; text within a circular element would be moulded into a circle shape as well. However, the implementation has been postponed for CSS Shapes Level 2.
From top to bottom: shape-outside and shape-inside in action.
The shape-margin property sets the margin around whichever shape is using the shape-outside .
Let’s take a look at some examples.
Creating a Shape
The easiest way to find out how CSS Shapes works is probably through creating a circle. So, here’s a div (our circle), with several paragraphs alongside.
Here’s some basic styling, including the width and the height of our circle, the border-radius to shape the element, and a float so the paragraph wraps around the element.
As the we would except, the paragraphs is now wrapped around the element. However, since the border-radius property does not define the actual element shape, the paragraph wrap does not form the circle curve.
If we inspect the element through our browser DevTools, we will find the element is, in fact, still a box. So, even though our div has the appearance of a circle, the border-radius has done nothing to the actual shape of the element.
Notice the rectangular highlight around the element.
In order for our paragraph to adhere to the circular shape, we need to change the actual element shape through the shape-outside property; in this case, we’ll add one with the circle() function passed as the value.
Our paragraphs now wrap neatly around the circle’s circumference.
Additionally, if we now inspect the element through DevTools, we’ll see that the element is properly rendered into a circle.
Notice the darker highlight.
With some margins, look how it might enhance a simple layout:
Customizing the Circle
The circle() function takes a couple of values for defining the radius and the center coordinate respectively: circle(r at x y) . By default, the radius value is derived from the element size; if the element is 300px wide, for instance, the radius will be 150px (the radius being half of the circle’s diameter).
Similarly, the x and y coordinates are measured relative to the element’s size, and they are by default set at 50% 50% ; right at the centre of the element.
The circle is positioned at the center of the element.
These two values will come in useful when you want to resize the shape, while keeping the actual element size, or move the shape while retaining the element position. In the following example, we’ll reduce the circle radius down to 60px and set the center coordinate to 30% 70% , which should move the circle to the bottom left of the element box.
The paragraphs now pass through the element box following the circle size. View the demo.
It is worth noting that when modifying the circle both the center coordinate and the radius have to be explicitly defined; adding only one of the them is invalid.
Shape Box Model
CSS Shapes inherit the same box model principle as the element, but applied outside the scope of the element itself. This allows us to separately set the element, say, to border-box while setting the shape to padding-box . To change the shape box model, add one of the box model keywords, content-box , margin-box , border-box , or padding-box after the function.
The default box-model of the shape is set to margin-box . And in the following example, we’ve changed it to padding-box to tell the browser to exclude the element margin when determining the shape size or span. Now we should find the paragraph pass through the border, and immediately touching the padding of the element.
The orange square is the margin, the yellow square is the border, and the green square is the padding,
I highly recommend checking out our free course on the Basics of CSS Box Model for more about how the box-model works in detail.
Creating More Shapes
The CSS Shapes specification comes with a few more shape functions:
ellipse() : As the name implies, this function will create an ellipse shape. We can configure the ellipse radius and move the shape center coordinate as well. But unlike the circle() function, the ellipse() function applies two radius measurements, horizontal and vertical, hence ellipse( 100px 180px at 10% 20% ) .
: As the name implies, this function will create an ellipse shape. We can configure the ellipse radius and move the shape center coordinate as well. But unlike the function, the function applies two radius measurements, horizontal and vertical, hence . polygon() : This function enables us to create more complex shapes like triangles, hexagons, as well as non-geometrical shapes. Using polygon is not as easy as creating a circle, but the Path to Polygon Converter tool makes it a bit more intuitive.
Wrapping Up
In this tutorial, we looked into the basic application of CSS Shapes; we created a shape, customized the size, the position, and the box model. At the time of the writing, several aspects of CSS Shapes are still very rough around the edges, which is probably why we don’t see it used widely just yet.
As mentioned earlier in this tutorial, the CSS Shapes shape-inside property, which allows us to wrap and shape content inside an element, has been put on ice.
property, which allows us to wrap and shape content inside an element, has been put on ice. The CSS Shapes specification provides a separate property named shape-box to define the shape box-model, though it currently seems inapplicable to any browsers.
to define the shape box-model, though it currently seems inapplicable to any browsers. Safari requires the -webkit- prefix, highlighting that this feature is experimental.
Nonetheless, despite slow progress and disparity across browsers at the moment, I’m looking forward to CSS Shapes! Once the major browsers pick it up I can’t wait to see some really creative layouts on the web!
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September 2017 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops
Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors
Search for titles on Comichron! Search tips
While September closed out the worst quarter year-over-year (off nearly 16% in dollar terms) in nearly a decade and a half, it was the best of the three months in comparison with the same month the previous year. Overall orders were down 6%, while orders for Marvel comics and graphic novels were up 14% in dollar terms over the previous September, an increase of about $2 million at retail. That represented the publisher's best year-over-year performance since June 2016.
A major part was the chart-topping Marvel Legacy #1, which played on DC's earlier success with lenticular covers. With lenticular and non-lenticular versions at the same cover price, combined orders were reported as one entry in the charts, totaling more than 298,000 copies and becoming the top-seller of the year thus far. While Marvel did some deep-discounting on graphic novels, the effect was partially offset by several Omnibus editions priced at over $100. Marvel's 88 new comic books in September was also the smallest number of periodical releases for the publisher in any month during the year.
Marvel's improvement relative to its past performance continued to reverse the trend seen earlier in 2017, in which the publisher was entirely responsible for the industry's decline in dollar terms; as of September it was DC, up against the previous year's Rebirth numbers, which accounted for most of the loss. But there, too, DC's rate of decline in September was nearly half what it was in August, thanks to the continuation of its Dark Multiverse event and the fact that Rebirth was starting to come down off its heights from the previous year. DC had two Action Comics issues with lenticular and regular editions; combined, they would have made the top 10.
Retailers ordered 24% more copies DC's Mister Miracle #2 than they had ordered of the first issue the month before, an infrequent occurence usually associated with high reorder activity.
The 50th place comic book was up above 40,000 copies for the first time since January; the level was significant because few years in the 21st Century to that point had seen the 50th place title regularly go above it.
Read more in our preliminary and final analysis posts for the month. You can also click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month.
—John Jackson Miller
This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.
September 2017 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops
Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors
This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy, Manga, and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
The links lead to details about each title on Amazon. You can also find the books at your comics shop.
#1 #2 #3 #4
A new Walking Dead volume led the chart in a month in which graphic novel sales continued to lag behind periodical sales.
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Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist from Malta who was known for her reporting on governmental corruption, was killed in an explosion near her home Monday, officials say.
Galizia, who had just published a story on her blog, was driving away from the house in a rented Peugeot 108 around 3 p.m. when the car went up in flames, according to local media reports.
The explosion sent detritus far into the surrounding fields and badly burned the body. Photos showed the Peugeot’s mangled shell in a field, dozens of yards from the blast site. Witnesses described a small explosion followed seconds later by a larger one as the burning car skidded down the road and into the field.
“I am never going to forget, running around the inferno in the field, trying to figure out a way to open the door, the horn of the car still blaring, screaming at two policemen who turned up with a single fire extinguisher to use it,” Galizia's son, Matthew, wrote on Facebook the morning after his mother's death. “They stared at me. 'I’m sorry, there is nothing we can do', one of them said. I looked down and there were my mother’s body parts all around me. I realised they were right, it was hopeless.”
No suspects have been identified in the bombing, but the son said Tuesday that his mother was dead because of the incompetence and negligence of the Maltese government and police.
“My mother was assassinated because she stood between the rule of law and those who sought to violate it, like many strong journalists,” he said in a post on Facebook. “But she was also targeted because she was the only person doing so. This is what happens when the institutions of the state are incapacitated: the last person left standing is often a journalist.”
Nine journalists have been killed for their work this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. If it is confirmed that Galizia was targeted, she would be the 10th, and the first in Europe, the CPJ said.
[Censor or die: The death of Mexican news in the age of drug cartels]
Her death has been widely condemned by officials and nongovernmental organizations across Europe and Malta, where Galizia's relentless focus on corruption, cronyism and political malfeasance had drawn wide attention.
Galizia spent much of her work in recent years reporting on the Panama Papers, the cache of records from a law firm in Panama that detailed offshoring activities of powerful officials and companies around the world. Her reporting on allegations about the wife of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and a shell company in Panama had caused concern when Malta had assumed the rotating, six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Guardian reported.
Galizia’s focus on cronyism was not accidental, she told Politico after it named her one of the 28 people most likely to shake up Europe in 2017.
“I can’t bear to see people like that rewarded,” she said.
Galizia started working as a journalist in the 1980s as a columnist with the Sunday Times of Malta, the newspaper reported. She later worked as an editor at the Malta Independent before writing a column.
Her blog, Running Commentary, was launched in 2008 and is one of the most popular websites on the island nation.
Traffic to her website sometimes swelled to 400,000 readers, nearly equal to the country’s population. Her last story was about court testimony that pertained to allegations about Muscat’s chief of staff. Other recent stories included a dispatch about what she described as an unlicensed zoo operated by a man she said was a friend of the prime minister and other prominent figures in Malta.
“Everyone knows Ms. Caruana Galizia was a harsh critic of mine, both politically and personally, but nobody can justify this barbaric act in any way,” Muscat said Monday on Maltese television, according to news reports.
This is a spiteful attack on a citizen and freedom of expression. I will not rest until justice is done. The country deserves justice -JM — Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) October 16, 2017
U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday that the FBI is assisting Malta with the investigation.
But Galizia's son accused Muscat and other government officials of allowing a “culture of impunity” to flourish in Malta, which he said had turned into a “mafia state.”
“It is of little comfort for the Prime Minister of this country to say that he will 'not rest' until the perpetrators are found, when he heads a government that encouraged that same impunity,” wrote Matthew Caruana Galizia, an engineer and data journalist for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, according to his social media accounts.
He said that one of the police sergeants assigned to investigate his mother's killing had posted a flippant message on Facebook after her death.
“If the institutions were already working, there would be no assassination to investigate — and my brothers and I would still have a mother,” he wrote.
He later wrote that it was “untrue that my mother’s assassination was an attack on freedom of expression. It is untrue, because there was no freedom to begin with,” noting that his mother had been the subject of lawsuits meant to “financially cripple” her because of her work.
[Angered by gun control, this lawmaker drafted a bill to require licenses for journalists]
His mother had filed a report with Maltese police about receiving threats in the weeks before her death, according to reports.
“Daphne Caruana Galizia was a true investigative journalist,” said the deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Robert Mahoney. “She did not shy from taking on the powerful in Malta’s political, business and criminal worlds.
“She probed the very authorities who are now charged with finding her killer or killers. For this reason, the investigation into her brutal murder must be beyond reproach. Anything less will send a terrible signal for journalists everywhere.”
Adrian Delia, the leader of Malta’s opposition Nationalist Party, said in a statement posted on Twitter: “This is the collapse of democracy and freedom of expression. We shall not be silenced.”
Great shock and sadness at the brutal murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. An appeal for a unified resolve to promote true democracy. RIP. — Bishop CJ Scicluna (@BishopScicluna) October 16, 2017
What happened today is unacceptable in a free and democratic country like #Malta. A very sad day for our country. — Partit Laburista (@PL_Malta) October 16, 2017
Galizia and husband Peter Caruana Galizia have three sons, including Andrew and Paul, according to the Malta Independent. The couple lived in Bidnija, a rural area on the island.
In a sign of Galizia’s far reach in the country, the duty magistrate assigned to start the inquiry in the case had previously taken her to court over a libel claim related to stories Galizia had written about her, Malta Today reported. Galizia’s family has requested that the chief justice ask the duty magistrate to abstain from the inquiry, the publication reported.
Thousands of mourners attended a vigil held Monday night; another demonstration followed Tuesday outside the courts in Valletta.
A woman places a candle during a silent vigil after the death of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta. (Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)
A woman holds a lantern with a picture of Daphne Caruana Galizia during a protest outside the courts in Valletta, Malta. (Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)
Demonstrators show the victory sign in front of the courts in Valletta, Malta. (Rene Rossignaud/AP)
Devlin Barrett contributed to this report, which has been updated.
Read more:
She claimed tall, blond aliens kidnapped her as a child. Now she’s running for Congress.
Passengers accuse Indonesia AirAsia crew of setting off panic during plane’s rapid descent
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So Grover Norquist wrote a letter to one of Pennsylvania's Republican state senators:
When is a fee a tax? When Grover Norquist says so. The Inquirer reported last week that anti-tax guru Norquist was the wizard behind the Oz-like fiscal contortions of the GOP-controlled state legislature, which has refused to consider raising revenue of any kind in the face of a massive debt. It was Norquist and his D.C.-based group, Americans for Tax Reform, who advanced the "no tax" pledge signed by hundreds of elected officials, including Gov. Corbett and 34 members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The state House - in keeping with Corbett's "no way, no how" to new taxes - has buried any proposals to place a levy on Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction. But this month Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) bit the bullet and offered up a shale gas "impact fee" with proceeds funneled to affected areas. Over in the governor's office, Corbett remains unwavering in his campaign-era hard line over tax increases, but in recent months has shown some hint of openness - if not support - of the prospect of an "impact fee." Until now. Because Grover - arbiter of all things fiscal throughout the land - said so. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today reports that Norquist sent a letter to Sen. Mary Jo White (R., Venango) whose committee would have to consider the shale fee pronouncing it, in fact, a tax. “Make no mistake, this proposal is a tax increase based on any honest and objective analysis,” Norquist wrote. “As such, a vote in favor of Senate Bill 1100 also represents a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a commitment which Gov. Corbett and 34 members of the legislature have made to their constituents to impose any and all efforts to raise taxes."
I wonder who voted for this guy. Oh, that's right: NOBODY. He's just the guy with all the corporate cash who can target you and take you down. So the politicians will do anything, no matter how immoral or unpopular, if Grover tells them to do it.
But let's look at the logical consequences of Grover's famous strong-arm tactics. Because of Grover Norquist, the man who's vowed to drown government in a bathtub, the lives of disabled Pennsylvanians are at risk. Via RIck Smith:
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Economically and environmentally, it would be far better for the future of the planet to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and provide more incentives for clean energy.
Economically and environmentally, it would be far better for the future of the planet to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and provide more incentives for clean energy. Photo: Union of Concerned Scientists
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt recently proposed eliminating federal tax credits for wind and solar power, arguing that they should “stand on their own and compete against coal and natural gas and other sources” as opposed to “being propped up by tax incentives and other types of credits….”
Stand on their own? Pruitt surely must be aware that fossil fuels have been feasting at the government trough for at least 100 years. Renewables, by comparison, have received support only since the mid-1990s and, until recently, have had to subsist on scraps.
Perhaps a review of the facts can set administrator Pruitt straight. There’s a strong case to be made that Congress should terminate subsidies for fossil fuels and extend them for renewables, not the other way around.
A century (or two) of subsidies
To promote domestic energy production, the federal government has been serving the oil and gas industry a smorgasbord of subsidies since the early days of the 20th century. Companies can deduct the cost of drilling wells, for example, as well as the cost of exploring for and developing oil shale deposits. They even get a domestic manufacturing deduction, which is intended to keep US industries from moving abroad, even though—by the very nature of their business—they can’t move overseas.
All told, from 1918 through 2009, the industry’s tax breaks and other subsidies amounted to an average of $4.86 billion annually (in 2010 dollars), according to a 2011 study by DBL Investors, a venture capital firm. Accounting for inflation, that would be $5.53 billion a year today.
The DBL study didn’t include coal due to the lack of data for subsidies going back to the early 1800s, but the federal government has lavished considerably more on the coal industry than on renewables. In 2008 alone, coal received between $3.2 billion and $5.4 billion in subsidies, according to a 2011 Harvard Medical School study in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Meanwhile, wind and other renewable energy technologies, DBL found, averaged only $370 million a year in subsidies between 1994 and 2009, the equivalent of $421 million a year today. The 2009 economic stimulus package did provide $21 billion for renewables, but that support barely began to level the playing field that has tilted in favor of oil and gas for 100 years and coal for more than 200.
A 2009 study by the Environmental Law Institute looked at US energy subsidies since the turn of this century. It found that between 2002 and 2008, the federal government gave fossil fuels six times more than what it gave solar, wind, and other renewables. Coal, natural gas, and oil benefited from $72.5 billion in subsidies (in 2007 dollars) over that seven-year period, while “traditional” renewable energy sources—mainly wind and solar—received only $12.2 billion. A pie chart from the report shows that 71 percent of federal subsidies went to coal, natural gas and oil, 17 percent—$16.8 billion—went to corn ethanol, and the remaining 12 percent went to traditional renewables.
A new study by Oil Change International brings us up to date. Published earlier this month, it found that federal subsidies in 2015 and 2016 averaged $10.9 billion a year for the oil and gas industry and $3.8 billion for the coal industry. By contrast, the wind industry’s so-called production tax credit, renewed by Congress in December 2015, amounted to $3.3 billion last year, according to a Congress Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate.
Unlike the fossil fuel industry’s permanent subsidies, Congress has allowed the wind tax credit to expire six times in the last 20 years, and it is now set to decline incrementally until ending in 2020. Similarly, Congress fixed the solar industry’s investment tax credit at 30 percent of a project’s cost through 2019, but reduced it to 10 percent for commercial projects and zeroed it out for residences by the end of 2021. The JCT estimates that the solar credit amounted to a $2.4-billion tax break last year. Totaling it up, fossil fuels—at $14.7 billion—still received two-and-a-half times more in federal support than solar and wind in 2016.
The costs of pollution
Subsidy numbers tell only part of the story. Besides a century or two of support, the federal government has allowed fossil fuel companies and electric utilities to “externalize” their costs of production and foist them on the public.
Although coal now only generates 30 percent of US electricity, down from 50 percent in 2008, it is still responsible for two-thirds of the electric utility sector’s carbon emissions and is a leading source of toxic pollutants linked to cancer; cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological diseases; and premature death. The 2011 Harvard Medical School study cited above estimated coal’s “life cycle” cost to the country—including its impact on miners, public health, the environment and the climate—at $345 billion a year.
In July 2016, the federal government finally began regulating the more than 1,400 coal ash ponds across the country containing billions of gallons of heavy metals and other byproducts from burning coal. Coal ash, which has been leaching and spilling into local groundwater, wetlands, creeks, and rivers, can cause cancer, heart, and lung disease, birth defects and neurological damage in humans, and can devastate bird, fish, and frog populations.
But that was last year. Since taking office, the Trump administration has been working overtime to bolster coal, which can no longer compete economically with natural gas or renewables. Earlier this year, it rescinded a rule that would have protected waterways from mining waste, and a few months ago it filed a repeal of another Obama-era measure that would have increased mineral royalties on federal lands. More recently, Energy Secretary Rick Perry asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure that coal plants can recover all of their costs, whether those plants are needed or not.
Natural gas burns more cleanly than coal, but its drilling sites, processing plants, and pipelines leak methane, and its production technique—hydraulic fracturing—can contaminate water supplies and trigger earthquakes. Currently the fuel is responsible for nearly a third of the electric utility sector’s carbon emissions. Meanwhile, the US transportation sector—whose oil-powered engine exhaust exacerbates asthma and likely causes other respiratory problems and heart disease—is now the nation’s largest carbon polluter, edging out the electric utility sector last year for the first time since the late 1970s.
Like the coal industry, the oil and gas industry has friends in high places. Thanks to friendly lawmakers and administrations, natural gas developers are exempt from key provisions of seven major environmental laws that protect air and water from toxic chemicals. Permitting them to flout these critical safeguards forces taxpayers to shoulder the cost of monitoring, remediation, and cleanup—if they happen at all.
The benefits of clean energy
Unlike fossil fuels, wind and solar energy do not emit toxic pollutants or greenhouse gases. They also are not subject to price volatility: wind gusts and solar rays are free, so more renewables would help stabilize energy prices. And they are becoming less expensive, more productive, and more reliable every year. According to a recent Department of Energy (DOE) report, power from new wind farms last year cost a third of wind’s price in 2010 and was cheaper than electricity from natural gas plants.
Perhaps the biggest bonus of transitioning to a clean energy system, however, is the fact that the benefits of improved air quality and climate change mitigation far outweigh the cost of implementation, according to a January 2016 DOE study. Conducted by researchers at the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the study assessed the impact of standards in 29 states and the District of Columbia that require utilities to increase their use of renewables by a certain percentage by a specific year. Called renewable electricity (or portfolio) standards, they range from California and New York’s ambitious goals of 50 percent by 2030 to Wisconsin’s modest target of 10 percent by 2015.
It turns out that it cost utilities nationwide approximately $1 billion a year between 2010 and 2013—generally the equivalent of less than 2 percent of average statewide retail electricity rates—to comply with the state standards. On the benefit side of the equation, however, standards-spawned renewable technologies in 2013 alone generated $7.4 billion in public health and other societal benefits by reducing carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter emissions. They also saved consumers as much as $1.2 billion by lowering wholesale electricity prices and as much as $3.7 billion by reducing natural gas prices, because more renewable energy on the grid cuts demand—and lowers the price—of natural gas and other power sources that have higher operating costs.
Take fossil fuels off the dole
If the initial rationale for subsidizing fossil fuels was to encourage their growth, that time has long since passed. The Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, published a fact sheet in May 2016 identifying nine unnecessary oil and gas tax breaks that should be terminated. Repealing the subsidies, according to CAP, would save the US Treasury a minimum of $37.7 billion over the next 10 years.
An August 2016 report for the Council on Foreign Relations by Gilbert Metcalf, an economics professor at Tufts University, concluded that eliminating the three major federal tax incentives for oil and gas production would have a relatively small impact on production and consumption. The three provisions—deductions for “intangible” drilling costs, deductions for oil and gas deposit depletion, and deductions for domestic manufacturing—account for 90 percent of the cost of the subsidies. Ending these tax breaks, Metcalf says, would save the Treasury roughly $4 billion a year and would not appreciably raise oil and gas prices.
At the same time, the relatively new, burgeoning clean energy sector deserves federal support as it gains a foothold in the marketplace. Steve Clemmer, energy research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, made the case in testimony before a House subcommittee last March that Congress should preserve wind and solar tax incentives beyond 2020.
“Until we can transition to national policies that provide more stable, long-term support for clean, low-carbon energy,” he said, “Congress should extend federal tax credits by at least five more years to maintain the sustained orderly growth of the industry and provide more parity and predictability for renewables in the tax code.” Clemmer also recommended new tax credits for investments in low- and zero-carbon technologies and energy storage technologies.
Despite the steady barrage of through-the-looking-glass statements by Trump administration officials, scientific and economic facts still matter. Administrator Pruitt would do well to examine them. Congress should, too, when it considers its tax overhaul bill, which is now being drafted behind closed doors. If they did, perhaps they would recognize that—economically and environmentally—it would be far better for the future of the planet to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and provide more incentives for clean energy.
Posted in: Energy, Uncategorized Tags: Administrator Scott Pruitt, EPA, Scott Pruitt, Trump Administration
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From fashion to environment, everything is changing drastically. The awareness of environment condition updates reaches us not so often. So, every new update from environment friendly people/organizations increases our concerns towards eco-friendly environment dream. We are wasting countless forest tress for our fashion craze. As these trees are being used in the manufacturing of dissolving pulp to produce fabrics like Viscose, Modal and Lyocell. These are the fabrics which are extensively use by the famous brands for the fashion wears. As per the research findings, More than 120 million trees are cut every year for cellulosic fabric. And, the pulp production will be double by 2050.
From last three and half years, the CanopyStyle campaign, which is partnering with fashion brands, fashion designers and their viscose suppliers to keep the world’s endangered forests out of the rayon/viscose clothing. The Canopystyle’s campaign is with a motto that being stylish doesn’t have to cost the earth. The Canopystyle environmental friendly initiatives become the fastest moving environmental step in apparel industry. And now in such a short time period, the 100 famous fashion and apparel brands (H&M, C&A, M&S, Levi’s, Inditex/Zara, ASOS, VF Corp and many more) who have already signed on to the fastest-pace environmental initiative and became the part of this environment friendly cause.
Forest Sustainability:
The Canopy and the United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) have decided to work together to keep the global endangered forests out of the US fashion supply chain. As per the president of USFIA, Julia K Huges, “Several of our members are part of the CanopyStyle initiative already. And we look forward to propelling Canopy’s positive impact in the rayon and viscose supply chain even further in the US marketplace.”
Canopy & USFIA Partnership:
The Canopy (not-for-profit environmental organization) has deep expertise in supply chain management. It collaborates with more than 750 companies around the world to develop innovative solutions to make their supply-chains more sustainable. And it helps to protect the world’s remaining ancient and endangered forests. Whereas, the USFIA has more than 200 members who are doing businesses globally and are champions on global trade issues.
So, everyone from the industry is expecting that this alliance will give the opportunity to the importers to make sure this thing that rayon and viscose fabrics from controversial sources will not be the part of their supply chain. Along with that, this alliance will also support to develop and introduce new products methodologies through innovative technologies. And this will ultimately support the fashion and environment to develop such alternatives like straw and recycled clothing which would recover the environment too.
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By latching onto bacteria and detonating at just the right moment, a new drug could help take out the leading cause of bacterial infections in humans worldwide.
The drug, a deadly combo of an antibody glued to an antibiotic, specifically seeks and destroys Staphylococcus aureus—even the difficult-to-kill, drug-resistant variety, methicillin-resistant staph (MRSA). In mice infected with MRSA, the dynamic duo fought off the infection better than the standard antibiotic treatment of vancomycin, researchers report in Nature. If the findings hold true in humans, the new superdrug could vastly improve the success rates of MRSA infection treatments, some of which can fail up to 50 percent of the time.
That fail rate is likely linked to staph’s stealthy infection strategy, the authors note. Inside a victim, the bacteria battle immune cells that try to gobble them up. Once sucked into the cells, the bacteria normally get digested into un-infectious bits. But some of the bacteria can dodge death and hide out. Instead of a death chamber, the cells become bacterial getaway cars, leaving killer antibiotics in the dust and giving the germs a ride around the circulatory system to uninfected organs and tissues.
Standard antibiotic treatments can fight off staph at infection sites. But those cellular stowaways are left unscathed, leaving patients with lingering or recurring infections.
The new superdrug, on the other hand, specifically targets those stowaways. The antibody part of the drug tightly binds to acids on staph’s surface. When the bacteria get sucked into an immune cell, the antibody-antibiotic combo drug sticks with it. Once inside, cellular enzymes blast the drug apart, freeing and activating the antibiotic. In this case, the researchers found that a derivative of the common antibiotic rifampicin, called rifalogue, worked best. Bacteria that survive the cells’ digestion attempt ultimately succumb to the newly free rifalogue.
In lab tests, more than ten thousand copies of the superdrug could clamp onto a bacterium, towing more than enough rifalogue to deliver a deadly dose inside the cell. In mice, the superdrug was orders of magnitude more powerful at wiping out MRSA than vancomycin or antibody treatments alone.
But, for now, there are no guarantees that the superdrug will be that effective in human patients. Researchers point out that the human immune system may produce competing antibodies that bind to staph, possibly elbowing out the superdrug.
Still, whether this particular antibody-antibiotic pair is successful in humans may not matter in the long run. Researchers can continue to try new combinations, even reviving antibiotics that failed to make it through the development pipeline. Antibiotics that may be toxic or bad at circulating through the human body on their own could be highly effective when glued to a bacteria-targeting partner. And researchers could make pairings with antibodies that target other infectious microbes, creating a host of other potential new therapies.
Nature, 2015. DOI:10.1038/nature16057 (About DOIs).
correction: the original version of this piece suggested MRSA treatments fail about half the time. The correct figure is that some treatments can fail up to half the time.
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* Dept of Homeland Security: Java vulnerable to hackers
* Could be used to steal identity, form malicious networks
* Applies to browsers on all major operating systems
By Jim Finkle
Jan 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged computer users to disable Oracle Corp’s Java software, amplifying security experts’ prior warnings to the hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses that use it to surf the Web.
Hackers have figured out a way to exploit Java to install malicious software enabling them to commit crimes ranging from identity theft to making an infected computer part of an ad-hoc network of computers that can be used to attack websites.
“We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem,” the Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in a posting on its website late on Thursday.
“This and previous Java vulnerabilities have been widely targeted by attackers, and new Java vulnerabilities are likely to be discovered,” the agency said. “To defend against this and future Java vulnerabilities, disable Java in Web browsers.”
Java is a computer language that enables programmers to write software utilizing just one set of code that will run on virtually any type of computer, including ones that use Microsoft Corp’s Windows, Apple Inc’s OS X and Linux, an operating system widely employed by corporations.
Computer users access Java programs through modules, or plug-ins, that run Java software on top of browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.
The U.S. government’s warning on Java came after security experts earlier on Thursday warned of the newly discovered flaw.
It is relatively rare for government agencies to advise computer users to completely disable software due to a security bug, particularly in the case of widely used programs such as Java. They typically recommend taking steps to mitigate the risk of attack while manufacturers prepare an update, or hold off on publicizing the problem until an update is prepared.
In September, the German government advised the public to temporarily stop using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser to give it time to patch a security vulnerability that opened it to attacks.
The Department of Homeland Security said that attackers could trick targets into visiting malicious websites that would infect their PCs with software capable of exploiting the bug in Java.
It said that an attacker could also infect a legitimate website by uploading malicious software that would infect machines of computer users who trust that site because they have previously visited it without experiencing any problems.
They said developers of several popular tools known as exploit kits, which criminal hackers use to attack PCs, have added software that allows hackers to exploit the newly discovered bug in Java to attack computers.
Security experts have been scrutinizing the safety of Java since a similar security scare in August, which prompted some of them to advise using the software only on an as-needed basis.
At the time they advised businesses to only allow their workers to use Java browser plug-ins when prompted for permission by trusted programs such as GoToMeeting, a Web-based collaboration tool from Citrix Systems Inc.
Adam Gowdiak, a researcher with Polish security firm Security Explorations, subsequently said that he had found other security bugs in Java that continued to make computers vulnerable to attack.
Java suffered another setback in October when Apple began removing old versions of the software from Internet browsers of Mac computers when its customers installed new versions of its OS X operating system. Apple did not provide a reason for the change and both companies declined comment at the time.
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When you’re depressed, it’s easy to lie in bed and consider staying there forever – here are some suggestions for owning the world you might be scared of
Text Beth McColl
I wasted most of my time when I was depressed. I stared at walls instead of doing my essays. I got in from work and lay face-down on the floor instead of getting started on dinner, putting my clothes in the wash, or calling someone who loved me. I watched two seasons of Nashville before I realise how much I hated Nashville. Then I watched the third season of Nashville. It was so fucked up. Point is – in the midst of soul-crushing depression, wasting time is easy. It’s understandable. When you’re in the deepest dark of depression your only job is to survive. It’s enough to begin and end each day alive. Getting out of bed is almost impossible, getting a glass of water takes 45 minutes. You weigh up the pros and cons of leaving your room to pee. ‘Could I pee in that cup?’ you think. ‘Is that a thing I could do?’ But what about after? What about when the depression lifts – and it will lift, it will, it will. What about then, when you’re standing almost healed among the wreckage, wondering how to begin building it into a life worth living? This was me last year. I’d gotten over the worst of the breakup that felt like it would kill me. I was taking my Prozac on time, every day. I was putting an end to those harmful behaviours that had kept me locked in a depressive state for two years. I was eating. I was taking walks. Basically, I was only a little bit depressed, instead of full blown suicidal. Progress, sure, but six months after this turning point, I was still sort of in the same place. My self-destructive behaviours had morphed into inertia. I was so afraid of ever going back to The Worst Place that I didn’t dare to take any risks on myself, didn’t dare to take a step forward in case I stumbled and brought the world crashing back down. I didn’t write, I didn’t date. In short, I didn’t Do. But here’s the thing. The best of life is in the Doing. It’s in the Deciding To Apply For That Job. It’s in the Finally Learning How To Knit. It’s in the Healing. It’s in the Getting Up Everyday To Do Yoga. We could do these things, right? We survived the worst of the worst, these things should be easy. So why aren’t we doing them right now? Why are we keeping them undone? Maybe it’s because we’re avoidant idiots with hearts of gold. Maybe it’s because we’re just not ready (which is fine). But maybe it’s simply because, undone, they can’t be proven undoable. It’s like the promise of a feast at the end of a long day. It both starves and sustains us. And the real terror is that you can stay hungry forever. It’s a possibility. It happens. What’s to stop it happening to you?
IT’S YOU THAT DECIDES IT CAN’T HAPPEN You can calmly accept that, if you want to have something, you will need to reach out and take it. You will have to fill your own belly with food. It is as terrifying and as easy as that. Your best life will not be handed to you by the universe. But that’s OK. Because the universe doesn’t know what you want. The universe is like that great aunt you have who smells like medicine and knits you a jumper for Christmas that’s two sizes too big and has three sleeves and says ‘From Your Aunt Morgaret’ on the front even though that’s not her name. That’s nobody’s name. MAKE LISTS Take it as lightly as you can. Be nice to yourself. Hold your own hand. Understand that these are things that need to happen. They’re things that can happen. You can make the phone calls you need to make, you can fill out the forms that need filling in, you can learn what needs to be learned. You can push through the panic and do what you need to move forward. You can do these things, not because the world will fall apart if you don’t, but because you are as important as any other person on this planet, and your life will be better and more enjoyable if you try your best to get to where you want to be. Also because it’s what Aunt Morgaret would have wanted.
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THE owner of an Estepona sex club where a woman drowned on Sunday December 4 has been taken into custody. The man has been arrested so that the police can shed some light on the circumstances surrounding the young woman’s death.
There has been strong speculation that the woman, who was Romanian, was working illegally in the brothel, named Club California. The owner of the club will now be questioned to determine if this is true. Reports have indicated that he has denied these accusations.
The police are also attempting to determine whether the young woman had been locked in the basement. Were this proven to be the case, the owner of the nightclub could be charged with manslaughter. She had reportedly been the only person in the building at the time of her death.
According to the man, the woman had just been passing through, as she had a friend who was working there. He insisted that in his establishment, “no one is kept against their will.”
As expected, the postmortem examination has confirmed that the 26-year-old woman died from drowning after she became trapped in the basement of the nightclub. The building had become flooded following the heavy rainfall which occurred in the area last weekend. The exact identity of the victim has still not been determined, although her name has been reported as Alicia in the Spanish press.
In the moments leading up to her death, the woman had called a friend, saying that she was surrounded by water. Reports have indicated that she climbed onto a bar and tried to open a window to escape, but had been unable to do so. Firefighters went to the scene and found the woman’s lifeless body floating in the water.
In the aftermath of the death, Podemos representatives in Estepona have drawn attention to the issue of illegal prostitution. They argued that many of these women are being exploited and went on to describe the recent tragedy as a wake-up call for the town. Party members stated that “now is not the time to look the other way, but rather this is the moment to tackle the matter of prostitution in our community.”
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You can find out how crucial an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software rollout can be for a company from a single word: billions—as in, lawsuits over failed ERP and customer relationship management (CRM) implementations are now being denominated in the billions of dollars. Greg Crouse, managing director at Navigant Consulting, has learned all about this from inside the belly of the litigious beast, serving as an expert court witness or consultant after spending 25 years managing large-scale projects.
Twenty-one percent of companies who responded to a 2015 Panorama Consulting Solutions survey characterized their most recent ERP rollout as a failure. So there are a lot of disasters out there. But the high stakes in these projects, and the uptick in litigation, have meant that they're simultaneously more and less visible than ever. When lawsuits go public, that's a flag that there's a juicy story out there — but legal necessities often mean that the full details of the dispute never come out. "You'd have a hard time finding anyone who will talk about it — cases either litigate forever or get settled and sealed," says Crouse.
Nevertheless, we've assembled some dramatic ERP flops from over the years and tried to suss some wisdom out of the wreckage. (All comments from Crouse are about his general experience with these kinds of cases; he hasn't actually worked on any of the specific disasters we're discussing here.)
1. Vodafone: The long arm of the law
When British telecom provider Vodafone consolidated its CRM systems onto a Siebel platform, they ran into problems: not all the customer accounts migrated properly. The company didn't go out of its way to advertise this, of course, but people started to notice when their accounts weren't properly credited for payments made.
The upshot: a £4.6 million fine from the British telecom regulator. And while this incident was concluded with just the fine paid, Crouse points out that regulatory oversight can, somewhat surprisingly, lead to private litigation down the road. "If there's problems with large scale implementations, people are going to find out about it — because you have to report it to your regulator if things go bad." Whereas a company might've been previously tempted to keep quiet about the whole affair, with regulators revealing screwups, that company might decide its best bet is to cast blame on someone else through litigation.
2. Washington community college system: When third parties flop
But that litigation can go both ways. For instance, students at Washington State's community colleges have been paying a portion of their tuition every year to help the schools upgrade to a PeopleSoft ERP system that was supposed to go live in 2012. Instead, the project is still limping along. One cause of delay was internal: the 34 campuses in the system had widely varying business processes that needed to be standardized, which wasn't clear until well into the rollout.
But now another crisis has emerged: Ciber, the third-party company hired to roll out the PeopleSoft system, went bankrupt in April of this year, only to have its assets scooped up by HTC, a Michigan company — and HTC then cancelled its contract with the school system and sued for $13 million, claiming the failed rollout was due to "internal dysfunction" on the colleges' part.
Crouse says that this sort of mutual animosity is not uncommon. "You get into cases where the client is unhappy with the work the implementation firm has done and so they sue them. You also get into issues of the client’s not happy so they stop paying the bills. Then you have the third parties that sometimes get involved from a vendor reseller perspective. You can see either side being the plaintiff or the defendant, based on who got mad first."
The rollout is meanwhile stuck in limbo.
3. Woolworth's Australia: The death of institutional memory
The Australian outpost of the venerable department store chain, affectionately known as "Woolies," also ran into data-related problems as it transitioned from a system built 30 years ago in-house to SAP. One of the biggest crises that arose was that profit-and-loss reports tailored for individual stores, which managers were accustomed to receiving every week, couldn't be generated for nearly 18 months.
The problem lay in the change in data collection procedures, but the root cause was a failure of the business to fully understand its own processes. The day-to-day business procedures weren't properly documented, and as senior staff left the company over the too-long six-year transition process, all that institutional knowledge was lost — and wasn't able to be baked into the new rollout.
"I often see companies that don’t take the people who really know business processes and dedicate them to the ERP rollout," says Crouse. "They make it a part-time job, or they hire new people to tell the system guys what to build. None of that works. You have to really dedicate the people who know the process that you’re trying to get right, full-time. And it’s a common theme that, when you don’t dedicate those people, you get into trouble."
4. Target Canada: Garbage in, garbage out
Many companies rolling out ERP systems hit snags when it comes to importing data from legacy systems into their shiny new infrastructure. When Target was launching in Canada in 2013, though, they assumed they would avoid this problem: there would be no data to convert, just new information to input into their SAP system.
But upon launch, the company's supply chain collapsed, and investigators quickly tracked the fault down to this supposedly fresh data, which was riddled with errors— items were tagged with incorrect dimensions, prices, manufacturers, you name it. Turns out thousands of entries were put into the system by hand by entry-level employees with no experience to help them recognize when they had been given incorrect information from manufacturers, working on crushingly tight deadlines. An investigation found that only about 30 percent of the data in the system was actually correct.
5. PG&E: When "sample" data isn't
Some rollouts aim to tackle this sort of problem by testing new systems with production data, generally imported from existing databases. This can ensure that data errors are corrected before rollout — but production data is valuable stuff containing a lot of confidential and proprietary information, and it needs to be guarded with the same care as it would in actual production.
In May of 2016, Chris Vickery, risk analyst at UpGuard, discovered a publicly exposed database that appeared to be Pacific Gas and Electric's asset management system, containing details for over 47,000 PG&E computers, virtual machines, servers, and other devices — completely open to viewing, without username or password required. While PG&E initially denied that this was production data, Vickery says that it was, and was exposed as a result of an ERP rollout: a third-party vendor was given live PG&E data in order to fill a "demo" database and test how it would react in real production practice. They then failed to supply any of the protection a real production database would need.
6. Definitely not a sweet experience for hershey
Could a failed technology implementation (in this case SAP's R/3 ERP software) take down a Fortune 500 company (in this case Hershey Foods)? Well, it certainly didn't help Hershey's operations during the Halloween season in 1999 or make Wall Street investors thrilled.
In the end, Hershey's ghastly problems with its SAP ERP, Siebel CRM and Manugistics supply chain applications prevented it from delivering $100 million worth of Kisses for Halloween that year and caused the stock to dip 8 percent.
So I guess a failed technology project can't actually take down a Fortune 500 company for good, but it can certainly knock it around a bit.
7. Just do it: Fix our supply chain system!
What did a $400 million upgrade to Nike's supply chain and ERP systems get the world-renowned shoe- and athletic gear-maker? Well, for starters, $100 million in lost sales, a 20 percent stock dip and a collection of class-action lawsuits.
This was all back in 2000, and the horrendous results were due to a bold ERP, supply chain and CRM project that aimed to upgrade the systems into one superstar system. Nike's tale is both of woe and warning.
8. HP's "perfect storm" of ERP problems
The epic tale of HP's centralization of its disparate North American ERP systems onto one SAP system proves that one can never be too pessimistic when it comes to ERP project management. You see, in 2004, HP's project managers knew all of the things that could go wrong with their ERP rollout. But they just didn't plan for so many of them to happen at once.
The project eventually cost HP $160 million in order backlogs and lost revenue—more than five times the project's estimated cost. Said Gilles Bouchard, then-CIO of HP's global operations: "We had a series of small problems, none of which individually would have been too much to handle. But together they created the perfect storm."
9. A new type of freshman hazing
Pity the college freshman at the University of Massachusetts in fall 2004: The last thing they needed was some computer program to haunt their lives and make their new collegiate experience even more uncertain.
But more than 27,000 students at the University of Massachusetts as well as Stanford and Indiana University were forced to do battle with buggy portals and ERP applications that left them at best unable to find their classes and at worst unable to collect their financial aid checks. Said one UMass senior at the time: "The freshmen were going crazy because they didn't know where to go." After a couple of tense days and weeks, however, everyone eventually got their checks and class schedules.
10. Waste Management trashes its "fake" ERP software
Garbage-disposal giant Waste Management is still embroiled in an acrimonious $100 million legal battle with SAP over an 18-month installation of its ERP software. The initial deal began in 2005, but the legal saga commenced in March 2008, when Waste Management filed suit and claimed SAP executives participated in a fraudulent sales scheme that resulted in the massive failure.
Several months later, SAP fired back, claiming that Waste Management allegedly violated its contractual agreement with SAP in several ways, including by "failing to timely and accurately define its business requirements," and not providing "sufficient, knowledgeable, decision-empowered users and managers" to work on the project.
In the fall 2008, accusations were still flying about documentation, depositions and delays in bringing the case before a judge. And that proposed 18-month implementation now sounds like a dream scenario.
11. The curious case of Oracle Fusion Applications
Back in January 2006, Oracle boasted that it was halfway through the Fusion Applications development process. You might remember the hype about Fusion Apps: a killer enterprise application suite that combines the best features and functionalities taken from Oracle's expansive E-Business Suite, J.D. Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel product lines.
Oracle's master plan was to "build the next-generation of applications that are completely standard." More than three years later, we're all still waiting for the first generation of Oracle's suite of Fusion Apps. Guess what? We'll have to wait some more. How does 2010 sound?
12. Oracle, SAP and a little company named TomorrowNow
If enterprise software maintenance wasn't so boring, the details of this sordid story would make Hollywood producers fight over the rights to shoot this movie. Here's a brief summary: In 2005, SAP bought TomorrowNow (TN), a small company that provides ERP software maintenance and services for Oracle's ERP products—at 50 percent off Oracle's prices. Of course, TN's services could work equally as well for SAP's products (but we were supposed to ignore that). We have come to find out that not everyone at SAP thought the TomorrowNow acquisition was a good idea.
Flash forward to 2007: Oracle alleges that SAP (via TN) "has compiled an illegal library of Oracle's copyrighted software code and other materials." A nasty lawsuit unfolded (and is still going strong) and SAP abruptly shut down TN in 2008.
Meanwhile, a former TN cofounder (Seth Ravin) formed his own TN-like company (Rimini Street) and has been scooping up all the former TN business. And, oh by the way, in addition to the Oracle ERP products his company already services, he's going to start offering half-off maintenance services for some of SAP's ERP products this year. (BTW: I've got the script ready if anyone in Hollywood is interested.)
13. Shareholder pressure halts SAP ERP rollout
All was not well with bedding-maker Select Comfort's multi-module ERP implementation of SAP's ERP, CRM, supply chain and other applications. So in 2008, with serious shareholder pressure to end the $20-million-plus project that was "indicative of extremely poor judgment by management" (charged one shareholder's SEC filing), Select Comfort did just that: It put the project on hold.
In this economic environment, is this just an incidental sign of the times or a sign of more things to come?
14. ERP + SaaS = Software success or bad idea?
When CIO magazine surveyed 400 IT leaders about their ERP systems in early 2008, CIOs said they remained committed to on-premise, traditional ERP systems—despite aggravating integration and high-cost headaches.
The results weren't that surprising. CIOs have been reluctant to take chances storing the sensitive data (accounting, HR, supply chain) contained in their ERP systems in another company's data center. In the survey, just 9 percent of respondents reported using an alternative ERP model, which included SaaS applications.
That was then. This is now: SaaS ERP providers such as NetSuite have experienced greater acceptance of their house-your-ERP-data-offsite models, which in turn has allowed them to go from upstart to industry player.
15. A legendary "moon" on the high seas
The details of the infamous "mooning" between SAP's Hasso Plattner and Oracle's Larry Ellison have become stuff of urban legend. So what actually did happen? Well, during the 1996 Kenwood Cup sailing race, Ellison's sailing crew reportedly ignored Plattner's wounded sailing yacht (which had a broken mast and bloodied crew member).
Plattner did admit to mooning Ellison's crew ("I lowered my pants," he told Sailing World) for not helping with his injured crew member and battered yacht. But, alas, Ellison was not aboard that yacht. SAP and Oracle haven't stopped battling it out—on land or on water—since.
Surviving an ERP rollout
So what have we learned? Well, don't fall afoul of regulators, make sure your data is secure and clean, and document your processes before you move to a new platform: all good advice for any rollout (or any other big IT project, really). If there's one other key word Crouse has for CIOs, it's this: continuity.
"I’m working a case today that involves an ERP implementation with a timeline of multiple years," he says, "and there have been four CIOs during that timeframe. That causes a whole host of problems. You have to have an executive sponsor. You have to have someone who's really championing the project. It’s difficult if the people at the top and the people who know the project from the client side continually change."
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Four gay men were beaten and detained by moral vigilantes in Cario, after being caught having sex in car
A group of styled moral vigilantes detained four men who were said to have ‘practiced immorality’ (i.e. gay sex) in Cario, Egypt.
The four men were apparently caught in the act by the group in a private car on Game’et el Duwal el Arabya (Arab League Blvd), Mohandeseen neighbourhood, Cario last night (26 October).
The car driver apparently tried to drive away, but the vigilantes with the help of other car blocked the passage and beat up the four gay men, reported the Egyptian portal January 25.
They then detained and brought them to the local police station.
In the last year there have been increased concerns in Egypt over the presence of self-proclaimed morality vigilantes.
Many groups become well organised during and after the revolution, that combined with a reduced police presence in many areas after the revolution, has raised concerns that self-appointed morality vigilantes will start flexing their muscles on the street.
Speaking with Gay Star News, Ali, a 23-year-old law student from Cairo said: ‘I don’t know who this group is but the portal is connected with the revolutionary and Islamic groups.
‘Many groups connected with various political parties are operating in Egypt and often take the law into their own hands.
‘We had a number of cases of people being arrested, beaten up and even killed (like in Suez this summer), by some of these groups.
‘I am very concerned about these four men, and I urge NGOs to verify this information and check how they are being handled.
‘The general atmosphere here in Egypt is a bit scary for the LGBT community, I don’t know what exactly to do, but sit tight and wait and see.’
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Jürgen Klopp has become the angry young manager of German football. Only a year after Borussia Dortmund were Champions League finalists and two after clinching a second consecutive Bundesliga title his side are a fading force, and Klopp a coach in need of reinvigoration.
Last week the 46-year-old stormed out of the studio of ZDF, a national television channel, when posed a question he deemed beyond the pale.
After Dortmund had gone down 3-0 to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final, the ZDF presenter Jochen Breyer asked if the tie was virtually over. It seemed a reasonable enough question given that even a repeat of last season's 4-1 win over Cristiano Ronaldo and co at the Westfalenstadion, which came at the semi-final stage, would not be enough.
Klopp's reaction belied his urbane reputation. "How can anyone pay my salary if I say the tie is done? I would be just as stupid to say we are going to thrash them but I'm not going to be able to continue standing in this studio to be provoked into saying a stupid thing," he said. "For stupid questions I can give stupid answers."
This prompted Klopp to end the live interview, shake the hand of Oliver Kahn, the former Bayern Munich and Germany goalkeeper who was also present, and ignore Breyer as he stormed out.
"He took the microphone and threw it on the floor and just walked away," says Jan Aage Fjortoft, the former Norway striker who is a German football expert. "So Klopp is not always the charismatic Elvis Presley like you always love to see in press conferences."
This was not the first sight of a disgruntled Klopp on German TV. Previously this season he had taken Kahn to task when the Bayern goalkeeping coach defended the sporting director, Matthias Sammer. In reaction to Sammer's questioning of rival clubs' determination in a championship Bayern romped to, Klopp said: "Let me put it that way; if I was Matthias Sammer I'd thank God every day that somebody had the idea to bring me in. Bayern would not have less points without Matthias Sammer."
In his newspaper column, Kahn responded: "The remark that Sammer does not contribute anything to Bayern was disrespectful and shameless. It is not a coincidence that Bayern's recent dominance started with the arrival of Sammer in 2012."
Later in March, following Dortmund's win over Zenit St Petersburg in the previous round of the Champions League, the pair were in the ZDF studio and debated the Sammer issue, with Klopp just about keeping his cool with Kahn.
The latter's presence once more in the ZDF studio, alongside Breyer last week, hardly helped Klopp's mood. "That was part of the problem," says a highly placed source who reports regularly on Dortmund. "He said to Kahn when he shook his hand before walking out: 'The problem wasn't between us two this time.'
"Klopp's issue is he can't lose. I hear from players that he screams at them in the dressing room. The players who know him for years like him because they know how he is. He's a really great guy when he is winning. The newer players in his squad respect him more than like him. He has to watch out his style of coaching does not alienate the squad."
The spectre of Bayern seems to disturb Klopp more and more. Last summer he lost Mario Götze to "FC Hollywood" and this close season it will be Robert Lewandowski, the Bundesliga's joint top scorer.
This adds to the sense that the clock ticks on a tenure that began in 2008. "Lewandowski will go for free to Bayern and of course that will make Dortmund worse," Fjortoff told TalkSport. "Klopp's linked to Arsenal, he's linked to Manchester United. He has just signed another contract taking him to 2018 but my prediction is that in 2015 [Marco] Reus also has one of those buy-out clauses [that becomes active]. Klopp already lost Götze and Lewandowski. If he loses Reus I think there will be a time where the club will say: 'Well, we don't want this thing any more.'
"And then he can go for an adventure because I don't think he will be the German national coach, [Pep] Guardiola will stay another couple of years at Bayern, so he is one of those who will think this is my chance to go abroad and be a manager."
This campaign's dismal league challenge followed last term's disappointing title defence that ended with Bayern 25 points ahead.
Yet the continent's leading clubs will still fight for Klopp's signature if he were to leave. "Everyone still thinks he's a really great coach – only one of a few who make the team better than the players are," said the source.
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There’s a really cool film series taking place in Los Angeles where a rare horror film is screened on 16mm film one Sunday a month at the Jumpcut Cafe (13203 Ventura Blvd, Studio City).
The series is called Secret Sixteen, and true to their name, the programmers keep you guessing by only dropping hints as to what the movie will be, without mentioning the title.
Past secrets revealed themselves to be the Pete Walker cannibal flick Frightmare and the Amicus chiller Deadly Bees. Tomorrow they are teasing a lost ’80s slasher film never available on DVD. We aren’t sure what it is, but can’t wait to find out!
FREE ADMISSION!
Doors at 7pm for FOOD AND DRINK. Screening starts at 8pm. Presented on 16MM FILM.
See you there, Los Angeles!
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Yards Brewing Company Cicada Indigenous Ale: A New Hop Variety taking on a Classic Beer Style
As I perused the shelves of my local beer shop (shout out to Norm’s Beer and Wine, they’ve got a great selection of beers and are my go to for my beers), the label of Yards Brewing Company’s Cicada caught my eye. I always love going to the beer store and just browsing beers just by looking at their labels. I usually go in having an idea of what I’m looking for, be it a new release or a certain style, but I almost always find myself being sidetracked, with a flashy or funky label drawing my attention. However, with Yard’s Cicada, I wasn’t drawn by the flashiness of the label. I was drawn by its simplistic and yet detailed nature, with its drawing of a cicada on a hop vine looking like something taken out of an 18th or 19th century science textbook. At the same time, the drawing of the cicada brought back memories of the last “invasion” of the red eyed beasts that took over my town during middle school as they made their emergence after seventeen years underground. But I digress.
Yard’s Cicada Indigenous Ale is a Belgian style India Pale Ale, which is brewed with “local wildflower honey, a classic Belgian yeast strain, and a hop variety so new it hasn’t been named yet.” In my last review, I looked at New Belgium’s French Aramis IPA, which also used a new hop variety: the Aramis hop. I chose that beer to review because I thought reviewing a beer with a new hop variety would be fun, but when I chose Yard’s Cicada, I had no idea they were using a new experimental hop variety. And I was pretty stoked to find that out. In my last post, I talked about how it is really cool brewers are using these new hop varieties in new beers, and I’m glad that I stumbled on another beer using a new variety (although I wish I had a little more information on the hop. Further research proved fruitless when I tried to glean any more information on this “new hop”).
Numbers-wise, this Belgian IPA comes in a 750mL bottle, and is 8.5% ABV. Watch out for the ABV, since this beer proved to be quite drinkable! Poured into a tumbler pint glass, this beer is as aesthetically pleasing as any.
Mugshots of Yards Brewing Company’s Cicada Belgian IPA
Appearance– The beer poured amber in color, tinged reddish-orange. A thick and luxurious tan head rushed to the top of the glass, creating a dense and frothy head that subsided over a few minutes, but never disappeared fully, with tiny bubbles of carbonation racing to the head as long as there was beer in the glass.
Aroma– The aroma of this IPA is decidedly one of floral hoppiness. It starts off with an earthy character, with a mild citrus undertone. It has an herbal character to it, but that takes a backseat along with the citrus aromas when compared to the floral notes. About halfway through the first glass, once the beer sits and warms up a bit, more citrusy aromas are released. There are also some malt aromas to the beer, which makes for a very interesting balancing act of malty and hoppy aromas, which is reflected also in the flavor profile of this IPA.
Taste– This IPA is very malt forward. It has a malty flavor which resides somewhere in between biscuit, roasty, and caramel in character. This maltiness is balanced out by bitter hop flavors that are mostly floral, with hints of citrus that are more apparent when the beer warms up a bit and settles. It finishes with an overall malty body with moderate hop bitterness. It has a surprisingly clean finish, where the hop bitterness doesn’t overpower and overstay its welcome. It does finish with a warm alcoholic bite, but that is to be expected from the addition of the wildflower honey, packing in an 8.5% ABV.
Mouthfeel– Lots of carbonation, but not overly carbed, giving it a full body without being thick. The beer has a warm alcohol mouthfeel to it, but it is a pleasant sensation that accentuates the malt backbone. It finishes dry, which makes it a really drinkable beer. Which is great if you are wary of its 8.5% ABV.
Overall Impression– Yards Brewing Company’s Cicada is a solid Belgian IPA. It has a flavor profile that is well balanced: malty, roasty-biscuit flavors balancing out a hop bitterness that is driven by floral and earthy flavors, with an underlying citrus hoppiness. It finishes dry, with a hop bitterness that is to be expected from an IPA, but it isn’t so overly bitter that you can’t taste the next sip through a residual drowning hop bitterness. For an IPA, it is definitely malt forward, and it is a good example of the style of the Belgian IPA.
For being an impulse buy based mostly off of the label, I am pretty happy with picking up this bottle of Yards Brewing Company’s Cicada Indigenous Ale. Established in 1994, the guys at Yards are brewing some solid beers. This Belgian IPA, which I personally think is an interesting style to begin with, is a really great beer to drink. It makes use of a “classic Belgian yeast strain,” which reflects traditional Belgian brewing culture, “indigenous wildflower honey” which adds an American spin on a Continental style, and a “new experimental hop variety,” which reflects the innovation and experimentation that craft brewers are embracing in order to create new and engaging beers that consumers are going to be eager to try. And on top of all of this, Yards Brewing Company is Pennsylvania’s first 100% wind powered brewery, and works to reduce its environmental footprint in its brewing processes. So when you’re supporting them, you’re supporting Mother Nature! What’s not to like about that?
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Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Today, Randy Newman weighs in on the racial subtext of our presidential politics, and, as you might expect from the writer of “Short People,” “Political Science” and “Rednecks,” he doesn’t hold back. His new song, “I’m Dreaming,” which you can hear below—and which is available as a free download—is sung in the voice of a narrator who’s not just unreliable but … well, here’s the refrain: “I’m dreaming of a white President / Just like the ones we’ve always had.” (In case we miss the reference to Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas, Newman throws in a der Bingle-esque “buh buh buh” toward the end of the number.)
Newman’s groundbreaking albums have, at this point, been heard by far fewer people than his movie scores, which include Ragtime, Seabiscuit, and all three Toy Story films. He took time out from scoring the prequel to Monsters, Inc. to talk about his new song, his relationship to the people who inhabit his work, the handsomeness of George Romney, and the pitfalls of irony.
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Slate: You once famously described “Political Science”—with its refrain, “Let’s drop the big one and see what happens”—as “a pinhead’s view of China,” and I guess my first reaction to the new song is that it’s good to have you back in pinhead territory again. Is it satisfying for you, too?
Randy Newman: Yeah, it feels good. But, you know, they’re not all complete pinheads. The guy in “Rednecks,” for instance, the case he makes is a just case. His language was execrable, and the ugliness of the words he chooses tends to disqualify him, but not completely. When he said that the North didn’t have any moral superiority to the South on racial issues, he was right. Of course, this guy, in “I’m Dreaming,” he has no case at all, just some vague pseudo-scientific theories that no doubt sound good to him but are nonsense.
Slate: Right. At one point the scene shifts to Africa and the singer says that the continent could never have produced any geniuses because of all the lions and tigers—an Albert Einstein or a Ronald Reagan would have been “gobbled up before their time.”
Newman: It’s the guy’s attempt to ground his theory in some gauze of intellectual wrapping.
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Slate: You’ve said that one thing that inspired you to write this song is the thought that, “there are a lot of people who don’t want a black person in the White House and they want him out.” To put it bluntly, how do you know?
Newman: Well, I don’t know, partly because no one, and I mean no one, would admit feeling that way. Still, it’s clear that there are lots of people out there who are uncomfortable. The Civil War was a long time ago but there are aspects of it that remain unsettled, I think. Early on in Obama’s term, there was heat generated by issues that you wouldn’t think would cause such passion. Even the term “Obamacare,” the way it’s spit out, like he was some kind of witch doctor. Maybe I’m overly sensitive to the issue, but I don’t think so. There’s an edge to things that normally wouldn’t have an edge. I thought it was a little extra.
Slate: Did you have Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby in mind when you were writing the song?
Newman: Not them specifically, but maybe the America they represent. Oddly enough, I did a version of Faust years ago, and the vision of God I had in my mind was George Romney. He looks like what God would look like to me. That wide-open, beautiful face. That’s what I see when I picture him. The idea was that the devil always worked real hard and the Lord always beat him, and he just couldn’t understand it. And Romney is the guy I had in mind for that. He just looks so great.
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Slate: This was George, not Mitt? He’s a kind of good-looking guy, as well.
Newman: Yeah, kind of. Not like his dad.
Slate: With Ry Cooder’s angry new record, Bob Dylan’s blunt comments about race in his recent Rolling Stone interview, some of Springsteen’s no-holds-barred songs, and now “I’m Dreaming,” it seems that you and a few of your colleagues are getting pretty fed up. Is this a trend?
Newman: I’m not sure about a trend, but for me it’s a reaction to the Republican Party, which seems to have drifted farther to the right than a major party has drifted in my lifetime in any direction. It seems to have become almost a radical party. The hate and… I don’t think it’ll last. That kind of thing doesn’t seem to last.
Slate: You’re releasing “I’m Dreaming” free of charge, but you’re encouraging listeners to donate to the United Negro College Fund. Why that particular cause?
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What collection of Star Trek resources would be complete without a list of the Rules of Acquisition? Found in this list are the 85 canon and official rules, plus a handful of other quotes that could have been rules. (This list does not include the complete reference including the 47 commentaries, 900 major and minor rulings, and 10,000 considered opinions, which is published by the Ferengi Commerce Authority.)
The Official Seal of the Ferengi Alliance
Rules of Acquisition
Official Rules
Once you have their money, you never give it back. (“The Nagus” [DS9]) Never pay more for an acquisition than you have to. (“The Maquis, Part II” [DS9]) Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity. (“The Nagus” [DS9], “Acquisition” [ENT]) Keep your ears open. (“In the Hands of the Prophets” [DS9]) Small print leads to large risk. (Legends of the Ferengi) Opportunity plus instinct equals profit. (“The Storyteller” [DS9]) Greed is eternal. (“Prophet Motive” [DS9], “False Profits” [VGR]) Anything worth doing is worth doing for money. (Legends of the Ferengi) A deal is a deal... until a better one comes along. (“Melora” [DS9], Legends of the Ferengi) A contract is a contract is a contract... but only between Ferengi. (“Body Parts” [DS9]) A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all. (“Heart of Stone” [DS9]) Satisfaction is not guaranteed. (“Meridian” [DS9], Legends of the Ferengi) Never place friendship above profit. (“Rules of Acquisition” [DS9]) A wise man can hear profit in the wind. (“Rules of Acquisition” [DS9], “False Profits” [VGR]) Nothing is more important than your health... except for your money. (“Acquisition” [ENT]) There is nothing more dangerous than an honest businessman. (Legends of the Ferengi) Whisper your way to success. (“Treachery, Faith, and the Great River” [DS9]) Never insult a Ferengi’s mother. Insult something he cares about instead. (“The Siege” [DS9], Legends of the Ferengi) It never hurts to suck up to the boss. (“Rules of Acquisition” [DS9]) War is good for business. (“Destiny” [DS9], “The Siege of AR-558” [DS9]) Peace is good for business. (“Destiny” [DS9], “The Perfect Mate” [TNG]) She can touch your lobes, but never your latinum. (Legends of the Ferengi) Profit is its own reward. (Legends of the Ferengi) Never confuse wisdom with luck. (Legends of the Ferengi) Don’t trust a man wearing a better suit than yours. (“Rivals” [DS9]) The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife. (“Rules of Acquisition” [DS9]) Never ask when you can take. (Legends of the Ferengi, “Babel” [DS9]) Good customers are as rare as latinum. Treasure them. (“Armageddon Game” [DS9]) There is no substitute for success. (Legends of the Ferengi) Free advice is seldom cheap. (“Rules of Acquisition” [DS9]) Keep your lies consistent. (Legends of the Ferengi) The riskier the road, the greater the profit. (“Rules of Acquisition” [DS9], “Little Green Men” [DS9], “Business as Usual” [DS9]) Win or lose, there’s always Huyperian beetle snuff. (Legends of the Ferengi) Knowledge equals profit. (“Inside Man” [VGR]) Home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum. (“Civil Defense” [DS9]) Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies. (“The Homecoming” [DS9]) Beware of the Vulcan greed for knowledge. (Legends of the Ferengi) The flimsier the product, the higher the price. (Legends of the Ferengi) Never let the competition know what you’re thinking. (Legends of the Ferengi) Ask not what your profits can do for you, but what you can do for your profits. (Legends of the Ferengi) Females and finances don’t mix. (“Ferengi Love Songs” [DS9], “Profit and Lace” [DS9]) Expand or die. (“False Profits” [DS9], “Acquisition” [ENT]*) Enough... is never enough. (Legends of the Ferengi) Every man has his price. (“In the Pale Moonlight” [DS9]) Trust is the biggest liability of all. (Legends of the Ferengi) Nature decays, but latinum lasts forever. (“The Jem’Hadar” [DS9]) Sleep can interfere with your lust for latinum. (“Rules of Acquisition” [DS9], Legends of the Ferengi) Faith moves mountains... of inventory. (Legends of the Ferengi) There is no honor in poverty. (Legends of the Ferengi) Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack. (“Rivals” [DS9]) Treat people in your debt like family... exploit them. (“Past Tense, Part I” [DS9], “The Darkness and the Light” [DS9]) Never have sex with the boss’s sister. (“Playing God” [DS9]) Always have sex with the boss. (Legends of the Ferengi) Everything is for sale, even friendship. (Legends of the Ferengi) Even a blind man can recognize the glow of latinum. (Legends of the Ferengi) You can’t make a deal if you’re dead. (“The Siege of AR-558” [DS9], Legends of the Ferengi) Wives serve, brothers inherit. (“Necessary Evil” [DS9]) Only fools pay retail. (Legends of the Ferengi) There’s nothing wrong with charity... as long as it winds up in your pocket. (Legends of the Ferengi) Even in the worst of times, someone turns a profit. (Legends of the Ferengi) Whisper your way to success. (“Treachery, Faith, and the Great River” [DS9], Legends of the Ferengi) Know your enemies... but do business with them always. (Legends of the Ferengi) Not even dishonesty can tarnish the shine of profit. (Legends of the Ferengi) Let others keep their reputation. You keep their money. (Legends of the Ferengi) Hear all, trust nothing. (“Call to Arms” [DS9]) Never cheat a Klingon... unless you’re sure you can get away with it. (Legends of the Ferengi) It’s always good to know about new customers before they walk in your door. (“Whispers” [DS9]) The justification for profit is profit. (Legends of the Ferengi) New customers are like razor-toothed gree worms. They can be succulent, but sometimes they bite back. (“Little Green Men” [DS9]) Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer. (“Ferengi Love Songs” [DS9]) Employees are the rungs on the ladder of success. Don’t hesitate to step on them. (“Bar Association” [DS9]) Never begin a negotiation on an empty stomach. (“The Maquis, Part I” [DS9]) You can’t free a fish from water. (“Past Tense, Part I” [DS9]) Always know what you’re buying. (Legends of the Ferengi, “The Abandoned” [DS9]) Beware the man who doesn’t make time for oo-mox. (Legends of the Ferengi, “Profit and Loss” [DS9]) Latinum lasts longer than lust. (“Ferengi Love Songs” [DS9]) You can’t buy fate. (Legends of the Ferengi) Never be afraid to mislabel a product. (“Body Parts” [DS9]) More is good. All is better. (Legends of the Ferengi) A wife is a luxury. A smart accountant is a necessity. (Legends of the Ferengi) A wealthy man can afford anything except a conscience. (Legends of the Ferengi) Don’t let doubt interfere with your lust for latinum. (“Bar Association” [DS9]) When in doubt, lie. (Legends of the Ferengi) Deep down, everyone’s a Ferengi. (Legends of the Ferengi) No good deed ever goes unpunished. (“The Collaborator” [DS9], “The Sound of Her Voice” [DS9])
Unofficial or Uncertain Rules
The unofficial Rules have been quoted on screen, but either were not given a number, not explicitly stated to be a Rule, or were not part of the generally-accepted canon by the Ferengi Commerce Authority.
Rule 142: Only fools sell wholesale. (See Rule #141)
Rule 286: When Morn leaves, it’s all over. (“The House of Quark” [DS9])
Rule 299: After you’ve exploited someone, it never hurts to thank them. That way, it’s easier to exploit them next time. (“False Profits” [VGR])
Unknown: Exploitation begins at home. (“False Profits” [VGR])
Unknown: Time, like latinum, is a highly limited commodity. (“Bar Association” [DS9])
Unknown: If that’s what’s written, that’s what’s written. (“Favor the Bold” [DS9])
Unknown: A good lie is easier to believe than the truth. (“Shattered” [VGR])
Unknown: A man is only worth the sum of his possessions. (“Acquisition” [ENT])
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Hugh Glass, the protagonist of the story, never was chased off a cliff, cut a dead horse open for warmth or had a half-Pawnee son. But the frontiersman played by DiCaprio lived a life even more fantastical than any film.
This story first appeared in the March 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
Before a grizzly tore a hunk of meat from his rump and lobbed it to her squalling cubs, Hugh Glass was just a middle-aged pirate who had abandoned ship, then dodged two tribes of cannibals only to witness his friend being roasted alive. And then things turned really nasty.
That's the story, anyway. But it's not the one told in The Revenant, the Alejandro G. Inarritu-directed Oscar favorite, in which Leonardo DiCaprio's Glass is chased off a cliff, recalls his Pawnee wife, eats raw buffalo liver — and mainly, drags his grizzly-ravaged body hundreds of miles through a wintry frontier, driven by bloodlust for the men who had left him to die.
The real Glass, however, made much of his journey in late summer. And he had no Pawnee wife. Even the liver is not a sure thing.
To separate mythology from biography, it helps to remember that the film is based in part on a 2002 work of fiction, which itself is based in part on the three earliest written and largely forgotten accounts of Glass' adventures. None of those authors knew Glass, and one of them, a novelist, wrote the forgettable sequel Monte Cristo's Daughter. Thucydides, these guys were not. But their accounts, as well as letters, testimony, trapper memoirs and a rich oral history, are what is left regarding Glass' life.
Based on those sources, this much is certain: Glass was alive, he survived a grizzly attack and he died. There is no evidence he had a Native American wife or girlfriend, or that he had a son by a Native American woman, or that he plunged off a cliff on a horse, or that he gutted and climbed into a dead horse to stay warm or for any other reason.
Glass lived in Pennsylvania, where he might have had a wife and two sons whom he abandoned. He was a sea captain already in his 30s when pirates attacked his ship off the coast of what is now Texas in 1819. The pirate captain offered Glass a choice: Join their crew, or join the scores of bleeding, gutted, naked, screaming and drowning men, women and children bobbing in the choppy waters below. Glass joined.
After a year of pillaging, kidnapping, killing and the like, Glass and another pirate jumped overboard and swam toward Campeche (now Galveston), the primitive headquarters of Jean Lafitte, who, it turned out, was Glass' pirate boss' boss. The two deserters slunk north toward St. Louis, the westernmost locus of American civilization. They took special care to avoid, to the east, the Karankawa, notorious for eating settlers (tribesmen called the dish "long pig"). The duo couldn't stray too far west, though, because there dwelled the slightly pickier Tonkawas, who included only severed human hands and feet in their diet (to ingest extra strength and speed).
On they pressed, away from these man-eating tribes and Lafitte's band of murderers and toward Comanche, Kiowa and Osage, the former two scary, the latter really scary (the Osage eschewed scalping in favor of decapitation). When Glass and his pal ultimately were captured, 1,000 miles after emerging from the water, it was by Pawnee, which should have provided a measure of relief. Alas, the Loup branch of the Pawnee regularly offered human sacrifices to the god of the morning star — usually young girls from the village. But an exception was made for a couple guys who represented the vanguard of an invading, land-grabbing, genocidal force.
A gang of Pawnee stripped and tied Glass' friend to a stake. As Glass watched, they stuck slivers of resinous pine into his friend's flesh, then lit them. When it was Glass' turn, he bowed before the chief, then reached into his pocket and produced a vial of cinnabar, the flaky red mineral then found in Texas and used around the world for makeup and pottery. War paint, too. The chief was impressed by the gift, as well as the sangfroid with which the white man presented it. Somehow, the pirate turned mutineer turned fugitive escaped the flaming porcupine treatment and became an honorary Pawnee.
Other than omitting a futile attempt by Glass to climb a tree and an early on-target gunshot, the grizzly attack depicted in 'The Revenant' largely is accurate.
He learned lance throwing, tomahawk chopping, and how to break and suck the marrow from buffalo bones. He ate his share of dog (don't judge). It was during this period that he likely procured his legendary and beloved rifle, the mighty and thunderous .54 caliber Hawken to which Glass grew profoundly attached and that later would cause him so much trouble.
After two years, in January 1823, Glass headed east with the chief to meet with the U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis. Afterward, the chief returned to lead his tribe while Glass stayed in town. He answered an ad placed in the Missouri Republican by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, which was seeking 100 men to pack up and leave fancy duds, womenfolk and saloons behind to head into the Rocky Mountains. There, for $200 annually, they would trap beaver.
Men who didn't respond to the ad were enlisted from "grog shops and other sinks of degradation," according to a recruiter. Many would go on to form the sweaty, calloused core of the country's mid-19th century trapping force. It was risky, hard labor that favored the ornery. So maybe it's unsurprising that the trappers tended to be some of the more profane, violent, nature-despoiling, aboriginal land-trespassing, wildlife-poaching, gun-toting cusses ever to range the Rockies.
The party, led by Gen. William Ashley, set out on the Missouri River in early March, and except for one man falling overboard and drowning the first day, and three others being blown to bits when someone lit a pipe too close to a pile of explosives, the trip began smoothly. At least until Ashley went ashore to talk business with the Arikara (aka the Rees). Could Chief Grey Eyes and his warriors, by reputation suspicious and at times murderous regarding trespassers, spare 50 horses? Why yes, Chief Grey Eyes replied, as long as Ashley could spare a few kegs of gunpowder. A deal was struck, goods exchanged and most of the crew set up camp on a sandbar near the Arikara village. They would continue downriver in the morning.
All went without incident that evening, notwithstanding the throat-slitting of young Aaron Stephens, one of the many trappers who had visited the Ree village to celebrate the procurement of horses by fornicating with a village maiden.
The Rees attacked in the morning, wounding Glass and killing 15 of his companions. Which brings us to the film's first scene, with Leo dodging arrows and barely making it to the boat that took the trappers downriver to safety.
The film skips over the counterattack and subsequent siege of a Ree village that involved Ashley's men, another trapping party led by a Lt. Andrew Henry, 250 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Sioux, who harbored a deep and abiding antipathy for the Ree. It was the first military encounter between the U.S. and Native Americans in the West, and relations pretty much went downhill from there.
John Fitzgerald and the teenager named Bridger did volunteer to stay with Glass until he died, and they did betray him, but the famed trapper’s quest ended without bloody vengeance in the mountains. In real life, Glass mostly just wanted his rifle back.
But back to the film — namely, that grizzly attack: Glass left Ashley's group to join Henry's (don't ask), and early in the journey, Henry sent two of his now roughly 30-strong group to hunt some meat, telling the rest, including Glass, to stay put. But our protagonist had never liked orders. Also, he hankered for some berries.
He was standing in a berry patch when Ol' Ephraim — that's what mountain men back then called grizzlies, even females — charged. Glass shot her with his rifle. It was a good shot, but Ol' Ephraim kept charging. Glass ran to a tree, but as he began to climb, O.E. grabbed him, threw him to the ground and tore some meat out of his rear. She tossed the meal to her cubs, who probably had never tasted man before (odds are they liked it). Then Ol' Ephraim returned her attention to Glass. She raked her claws across his back, bit him about the head and shook him like a rag doll. Glass moved in close and slashed the bear repeatedly with his knife. He tried to yell, but what came out was a kind of high-pitched gargling, as his throat had been torn open and was gushing blood.
The grizzly fell, dead either by Glass' shot or by those fired by two hunters who had heard the commotion. Fellow trappers bound Glass' wounds as best they could, using sweaty, soiled pieces of fabric ripped from their shirts. The next morning, having abandoned their boat, the group marched on, carrying Glass on a litter made from branches.
It slowed them down. They knew hostiles were nearby. On the fifth day or so, Henry offered cash (accounts vary between $80 and $400) to any two men who would stay with Glass until he died, then meet the others at his namesake Fort Henry.
One volunteer, an otherwise forgettable figure, was named John Fitzgerald. The other was a teenager named Bridger. They kept Glass comfortable and waited for him to die.
After five days, though, the men had a talk (which Glass reportedly later told another trapper he'd overheard). No one had expected Glass to live this long, and no one would want the pair to stay. Glass was going to die anyway, Fitzgerald told the kid. It was only a matter of time before Ree or Cheyenne found them. And besides, they had already earned their money. The two men left Glass next to a nearby stream, underneath a berry bush. Just in case.
Fitzgerald and Bridger took Glass' rifle, knife, tomahawk and flint; if they showed up empty-handed, Henry would have asked where the weapons were, and they wouldn't get paid.
In the film, Glass has a half-Pawnee son whose murder fuels his fierce pursuit of justice. There’s only one minor problem: Glass never had a half-Pawnee son.
But Fitzgerald never tried to suffocate Glass, as he does in the film, nor did he murder Glass' beloved half-Pawnee son — mostly because Glass didn't have a beloved half-Pawnee son. But seeking vengeance against a child killer is box-office gold.
The two minders set out for Fort Henry, and while the film depicts their journey as perilous and semi-epic, it was neither. They arrived two days after the others, displayed Glass' armaments and collected their reward. While the duo's conduct was dastardly by modern sensibilities, leaving their sure-to-die comrade wasn't what got mountain men talking. They were a hard lot with an affinity for risk management. Heinous and unforgiveable to mountain men, however, was taking a man's only means of survival — his tools.
As for what happens next — Glass' solitary crawl to Fort Kiowa, which comprises the bulk of The Revenant — all we have to go on is the savaged trapper's testimony, as passed on to a bunch of lying, hard-drinking louts with nicknames like Pegleg and Liver-Eating, who, in turn, relayed the account to reporters and writers of not much greater repute.
Still, one can ascertain with high probability a few things: One of Glass' legs was broken, and his throat had been mangled so terribly that he'd never speak in the same voice again. He would lie next to the stream for five days, subsisting on a large rattlesnake he killed with a sharp stone. (Filmgoers might have gone for the rattlesnake eating. Go figure.)
He did crawl, and then crawled some more, and after that, he limped. The film got that right.
He did not get chased off a cliff, nor did he crawl inside a horse carcass for warmth. He did not meet a Native American with a sly sense of humor who tossed him a buffalo liver. Perhaps he ate some liver on his sojourn, but the truth is, he ate far more dog. Dog eating was not such a big deal back then. The Comanche thought it was disgusting, true, but it was a staple of the Sioux diet. The Kickapoo revered dogs, believing they had spirits like humans and lived in heaven after death. The Kickapoo bottle-fed their dogs, kept their paws from the dusty ground, washed and swaddled and sang to them. They also ate puppy stew.
But enough with the dog-eating. What about the buffalo? Glass did, in fact, eat a calf that was being worked over by wolves. And yes, if the wolves hadn't gotten to it first, he probably ate the liver. And he did shoo the wolves away, but he waited till he saw they had eaten their fill.
Did he burn with rage and seethe with the compulsion to seek justice, to kill the men who had betrayed him, as the film depicts? You bet he did.
Three books on the life of Hugh Glass were written long before Michael Punke's 2002 novel, The Revenant, including the closest thing to a historical account, 'The Saga of Hugh Glass,' which was published in 1976.
But not for child murder — he just wanted his gun back. His beloved and trustworthy Hawken. And if he had to crawl and limp 350 miles to kill the bastard who stole it, so be it. The film doesn't get into the whole man-rifle bond too much. It also doesn't mention the few days Glass spent with some friendly Sioux, who welcomed him to their village, where they cleaned the maggots from his back wound and poured vegetable juice on it.
Glass kept walking. After many weeks, he joined six French traders at Fort Kiowa, who he thought might drop him off near Fort Tilton, where he suspected the rifle thieves would be. After six weeks he parted ways with the Frenchmen. Just a mile later, they were butchered by Ree. Some Ree spotted Glass and gave chase, but a Mandan on horseback swept in, pulled him aboard and took him to his village. Mandans generally didn't like Ree. The Mandan villagers made a big deal over him. For supper? Man's best friend.
Glass then decided to go to Fort Henry, about 400 miles back in the direction from which he'd come. He never floated downstream in frigid water (it would have killed him), but he did stop at a fort to ask after his two sworn enemies and to catch up on mountain man gossip. There was another Ree attack that he managed to survive. There was a stretch where he subsisted on more bison calf, but now, stronger, he simply walked into a vast herd, ran down a calf, killed it, cooked it and ate it.
Can you blame Inarritu for leaving out so much? Who wants to see a dog-and-calf buffet? Who would believe a guy went through all that trouble for a rifle? Too many miles, too many Ree attacks, too many arrows. The film already runs two hours and 36 minutes.
Glass eventually found Bridger at Fort Henry, and Bridger thought he was a ghost. Instead of killing him, Glass lectured the kid and told him he knew Fitzgerald had persuaded him to leave. Then Glass invoked God and told Bridger to behave better in the future.
Revenant's Glass finally tracks down Fitzgerald, wounds him, then floats him downstream to a gang of Ree, who finish the job. But that's not what really happened. When Glass arrived at Fort Atkinson in 1824, after another long trek, he learned that while Fitzgerald was indeed present, he had enlisted in the Army. A captain named Bennet Riley informed Glass that he could not kill a soldier — if he did, he'd be tried for murder. When Riley heard Glass' story, he offered to fetch Glass' beloved rifle back. What a reunion it must have been.
The film's final shot is of a terribly wronged but righteous man, peering with grit and hard-won wisdom into a forbidding but conquerable wilderness. Not even a Texas state school board would quibble with that vision of how the West was won. If you like Manifest Destiny, this ending is for you.
Another popular version of the Glass legend has him suffering and crawling, but instead of dispatching his arch-enemy, he finds himself swollen with empathy and love, and turns his chiseled, manly cheek and forgives Fitzgerald, as he did Bridger. This too syncs with our notions of how the West was won, or conquered, or not exactly stolen. Forgiveness works about as well as vengeance, as long as you get other stuff right.
What actually happened was more complex. Glass tried his hand at trading in New Mexico, didn't like it and went back to trapping. Then Europeans developed a taste for cloth hats, and the trapping business dried up. Wagon trains started coming, too, and along with them women, children, dogs whose owners objected to them becoming a source of protein. Civilization.
Fitzgerald was never heard from again. Bridger went on to establish, in 1842 in southwestern Wyoming, the first resupply post for settlers on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails, opening up the path west and effectively ending the era of the mountain man. And the ne plus ultra of those unruly, undisciplined, comfort-spurning creatures?
Glass endured, as the world he knew best faded away. He took a job with a new fur company. He trapped some himself. He told stories about the old days, including some juicy ones about grizzlies and rattlesnakes. Some say his greatest talent was in creating and polishing the Legend of Hugh Glass.
In the winter of 1832-33, Glass was living at Fort Cass, a new garrison built near the junction of the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers. He worked as a hunter, procuring meat for the trappers of the American Fur Company, owned by John Jacob Astor. One cold morning in the spring of 1833, he and two other hunters left the fort looking to kill a bear or two. They hadn't walked far, and it was considered safe territory. As they made their way across the frozen Yellowstone River, 30 Ree on horseback surrounded them.
They took Glass' clothes, his gear. Then they scalped him.
Nothing heroic about his death. Nothing tied to the American dream or the nobility of pioneers. Glass had grown overconfident. He had grown careless. He had grown old.
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Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) shoots in front of Indiana Pacers forward Solomon Hill (44) during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) (Photo: Sue Ogrocki, AP)
OKLAHOMA CITY – Even when expecting an offensive flurry and the torrent of noise cascading down from the cheap seats inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, the anticipation isn't enough to actually endure the blows.
In the quiet time before Tuesday night's game, the Indiana Pacers had prepared for everything that makes the Oklahoma City Thunder one of the most feared home teams in the NBA.
But then, Russell Westbrook shrieked and scored. The Thunder splashed 3s. The sold-out arena went unhinged and the Pacers, for the first time in more than a month, digested a blowout defeat, 105-92.
BOX SCORE: Thunder 105, Pacers 92
Indiana never held the lead and by the fourth quarter had fallen into a 23-point deficit even before coach Frank Vogel emptied the bench of his DNP crew to finish the game.
"I don't remember the last time," C.J. Miles said, referring to the team being on the wrong end of a big loss. Miles would have had to think all the way back to the Jan. 21 game in Atlanta to recall that bad memory.
Through February, the Pacers had won seven of eight games and pulled within half a game of the last spot of the playoffs. However, the trip to Oklahoma City stalled this run as the Pacers (23-34) couldn't withstand a devastating 24-5 run that stretched from the third quarter to the opening minutes of the fourth.
This wave all started after Miles knocked down a 3-pointer that pulled the Pacers to within 65-64 with 4:32 remaining in the third quarter. Then, Westbrook responded by either scoring or facilitating the Thunder through the rough patch and solidifying his triple-double (20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) with more than 2 minutes still left in the third.
"We did mention some of the guys could get red hot," Ian Mahinmi said. "We did mention the Russell Westbrook pick-and-roll game, and some of the stuff we could control, we didn't go a great job."
The depth of the Thunder, now 9-1 through February, has carried the team through a season of injuries. Both teams have felt their share of pain, but while Indiana's have subsided – every injured player but Paul George has returned to the lineup – Oklahoma City remains in recovery mode. Kevin Durant, the reigning MVP, missed his third straight game and recently needed surgery to reduce pain in his surgically repaired right foot. Then, before Durant even arrived in the arena on Tuesday night, wearing a walking boot, the team announced that newly acquired Steve Novak had undergone an appendectomy. Thunder players have now missed 152 total games this year.
"A lot of punches thrown at us this year," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. "But we're still standing."
The Thunder stand because Westbrook's sheer energy and will command them to. In the first quarter, after he attacked the rim, Westbrook had already entered gonzo mode, flexing and yelling at the crowd as he strutted back to his sideline.
"He's the motor of that team and just what he means to that team speaks for itself," said George Hill, who had to spend time tracking Westbrook. "I think he's one of the top players in this league, for sure."
By the fourth quarter, Westbrook turned into the craziest cheerleader in the house. Since no Thunder starter played a single minute in the final frame – their work for the night was over after opening an 80-69 lead at the end of the third – Westbrook could celebrate the round of 3-pointers the Thunder bench drilled in three consecutive possessions. From that knockout punch, the Thunder led by 20 points and the Pacers would soon turn their attention to Friday night.
"We have to play better to beat a really good team in their building," Vogel said. "Even without KD, they're a really good team. We didn't play well enough and we have to regroup and go after Cleveland."
Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.
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James Sugrue, Tom Kelshaw, Matt Rowley, Gavin Heaton and Katie-Rigg Smith
Innovation has supported the massive restructure Fairfax is undergoing that has seen it axe 125 jobs from editorial teams, according to chief revenue officer of Australian metro publishing Matt Rowley.
“It’s a real case of innovate or die,” Rowley said, speaking at the AdNews Media + Marketing Summit held in Sydney last week.
“If you look at the ways [Fairfax] could go, there’s only one way it’s going to end and we know we can’t go in that direction.”
Rowley was speaking on a panel alongside Mindshare CEO Katie-Rigg Smith, Maxus New York director of innovation Tom Kelshaw, AFK founder James Sugrue and Disruptor’s Handbook managing partner Gavin Heaton about the role of innovation as a key driver of growth.
“[Fairfax] is on quite a journey. It’s well documented that things began to shift five years ago and as people looked to chase trimming revenue lines with expense lines, we had rounds of cuts,” Rowley said.
“Two years ago our board looked at that and said 'we don’t think this is a trend that is going away, so what are we going to do about it and is there a way forward?'”
Rowley said the board came to the conclusion that “everything was up for grabs” as Fairfax looked internally at what it could do to remain profitable.
As it began to rework its model, which led to significant cost-cutting initiatives, Fairfax was criticised for pivoting to softer news and the future of its integrity was called into question.
“You probably saw some headlines questioning our commitment to print, only because all those questions were on the table,” he said.
“That culminated and the consultants got pushed out the door last year and that’s when Chris Janz came into the business and really started the process of getting us ready for the future.”
Under Janz’s reign, a $30 million editorial restructure was announced, as well as a commercial leadership overhaul that saw the exit of Tom Armstrong.
Since the end of last year, Fairfax has been overhauling its product build, including its technology stack and CMS system. Rowley said this is expected to be completed at the end of the year.
“In the design of that, we’ve gone right back from scratch and literally said 'what are the drivers of how people want to engage with news media?' and started from the ground up,” Rowley said.
The question put to the panel was if innovation was a genuine opportunity or a distracting gimmick.
While innovation existed in some parts of Fairfax, Rowley said it was important for Fairfax to build a 50-strong innovation team that could better pool the publisher’s resources and plug them into the business.
“It’s one thing to create innovation or buy innovation, it’s another to turn it into something that drives profit. That’s the trick and that’s how you get out of gimmick and falling into the chasm. That’s our approach,” Rowley said.
“The appetite is there. It’s always there. The key part is if you can deliver it in a form that can deliver performance and not just be in the end, an expensive fizz.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
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tl;dr – Given the challenges around VR graphics performance, the Rift will have a recommended specification to ensure that developers can optimize for a known hardware configuration, which ensures a better player experience of comfortable sustained presence. The recommended PC specification is an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD 290, Intel i5-4590, and 8GB RAM. This configuration will be held for the lifetime of the Rift and should drop in price over time.
The Rift is specifically designed to deliver comfortable, sustained presence – a “conversion on contact” experience that can instantly transform the way people think about virtual reality. As a VR device, the Rift will be capable of delivering comfortable presence for nearly everyone. However, this requires the entire system working well.
Today, that system’s specification is largely driven by the requirements of VR graphics. To start with, VR lets you see graphics like never before. Good stereo VR with positional tracking directly drives your perceptual system in a way that a flat monitor can’t. As a consequence, rendering techniques and quality matter more than ever before, as things that are imperceivable on a traditional monitor suddenly make all the difference when experienced in VR. Therefore, VR increases the value of GPU performance.
At the same time, there are three key VR graphics challenges to note: raw rendering costs, real-time performance, and latency.
On the raw rendering costs: a traditional 1080p game at 60Hz requires 124 million shaded pixels per second. In contrast, the Rift runs at 2160×1200 at 90Hz split over dual displays, consuming 233 million pixels per second. At the default eye-target scale, the Rift’s rendering requirements go much higher: around 400 million shaded pixels per second. This means that by raw rendering costs alone, a VR game will require approximately 3x the GPU power of 1080p rendering.
Traditionally, PC 3D graphics has had soft real-time requirements, where maintaining 30-60 FPS has been adequate. VR turns graphics into more of a hard real-time problem, as each missed frame is visible. Continuously missing framerate is a jarring, uncomfortable experience. As a result, GPU headroom becomes critical in absorbing unexpected system or content performance potholes.
Finally, we know that minimizing motion-to-photon latency is key to a great VR experience. However, the last few decades of GPU advancements have been built around systems with deep pipelining to achieve maximum throughput at the cost of increased latency; not exactly what we want for VR. Today, minimizing latency comes at the cost of some GPU performance.
Taking all of this into account, our recommended hardware specification is designed to help developers tackle these challenges and ship great content to all Rift users. This is the hardware that we recommend for the full Rift experience:
NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM
The goal is for all Rift games and applications to deliver a great experience on this configuration by default. We believe this “it just works” experience will be fundamental to VR’s success, given that an underperforming system will fail to deliver comfortable presence.
The recommended spec will stay constant over the lifetime of the Rift. As the equivalent-performance hardware becomes less expensive, more users will have systems capable of the full Rift experience. Developers, in turn, can rely on Rift users having these modern machines, allowing them to optimize their game for a known target, simplifying development.
Apart from the recommended spec, the Rift will require:
Windows 7 SP1 or newer
2x USB 3.0 ports
HDMI 1.3 video output supporting a 297MHz clock via a direct output architecture
The last bullet point is tricky: many discrete GPU laptops have their external video output connected to the integrated GPU and drive the external output via hardware and software mechanisms that can’t support the Rift. Since this isn’t something that can be determined by reading the specs of a laptop, we are working on how to identify the right systems. Note that almost no current laptops have the GPU performance for the recommended spec, though upcoming mobile GPUs may be able to support this level of performance.
Our development for OS X and Linux has been paused in order to focus on delivering a high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows. We want to get back to development for OS X and Linux but we don’t have a timeline.
In the future, successful consumer VR will likely drive changes in GPUs, OSs, drivers, 3D engines, and apps, ultimately enabling much more efficient low-latency VR performance. It’s an exciting time for VR graphics, and I’m looking forward to seeing this evolution.
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The gaunt, slight-framed boy is all buttoned down in his going-to-court blazer and navy trousers. Sitting alongside his lawyer, he swivels absentmindedly in his chair, the picture of youthful innocence.
Mitchell Wilson, who had muscular dystrophy, committed suicide last year at age 11. His parents say he was never the same after he was mugged in November 2010 by an older student at his Pickering school, and had been bullied by other students at the school. ( FAMILY PHOTO )
Thirteen years old but looking much younger. In court Monday morning, his side — the defence — lost the legal battle. If I may say so — and I can, because this is a judge-alone trial, which permits more latitude in characterizing evidence before a verdict is rendered — it’s difficult to see them losing the war. Oral and written statements made by the 11-year-old who’d fingered this accused as one of his two attackers in a sidewalk mugging were ruled admissible at trial. Justice Mary Teresa Devlin concluded those utterances rose to the level of “reliability,’’ thus invoking an exception to the use of hearsay evidence in court.
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Hearsay is pretty much all the Crown had left in prosecuting charges of robbery and assault causing bodily harm. Mitchell Wilson was the victim. But the lad, despondent over his physical deterioration from muscular dystrophy and tormented by bullies, committed suicide last September. He tied a plastic bag around his head. His father, Craig Wilson, made the ghastly discovery upon entering Mitchell’s room to rouse him for school on what would have been his first day in Grade 6. The previous day, Mitchell had received a subpoena commanding him to appear as a witness in court against the youth whose buddies had hounded Mitchell at school for the entire previous year, taunting and jeering him for pursuing the matter. It is unknown how much that hectoring, the bullying, contributed to Mitchell’s depression and the terrible decision he made to take his own life. This was a resilient kid who’d watched his mother succumb to cancer only three years earlier, then was diagnosed with the muscle-atrophying condition a year after that. Yet he’d maintained his emotional equilibrium, his cheerful disposition, through all the hardships, until the afternoon a couple of punks jumped him from behind, smashed his face into the pavement, two front teeth chipped, and robbed him of the iPhone he’d borrowed from his father. That assault made him feel weak and vulnerable. This is Craig Wilson describing his son Monday: “He was just like every other kid, you know? He just wanted to have fun and be liked by his siblings. Just live life and smile and have fun and be a jokester, do all the stupid crap that kids do. He wanted to be a normal kid like everybody else and he couldn’t be. But damn, he tried.’’
With Mitchell’s suicide, the case against the defendant, his identity protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, nearly collapsed. The victim was no longer alive to take the stand so that his allegations could be tested, his account of events probed, and, most crucially, his ID of the one individual arrested challenged under cross-examination. There was only his word: “Utterances’’ made to his stepmother, to police, to school officials, and the statement he’d signed, with no supporting audiotape or videotape secured by investigators. Devlin agreed to hear arguments on the admissibility of that evidence in a voir dire — a trial within a trial — with five witnesses summoned. Hearsay evidence, she wrote, is “presumptively inadmissible’’ because it deprives the court from hearing testimony from a sworn witness, from observing the demeanour of that witness, and having the evidence tested through cross-examination.
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But there were extraordinary circumstances here and the law allows for exceptions at a judge’s discretion. The criterion, as established by the Supreme Court: “That sufficient trust can be put in the truth and accuracy of the statements because of the way in which they came about, or by showing that in the circumstances, the ultimate trier of fact will be in a position to sufficiently assess their worth.’’ Mitchell had described the assault to an officer on the day it happened, Nov. 1, 2010. That officer told court last week Mitchell, though shaken and upset, seemed “very bright and very articulate for a 10-year-old boy.’’ Const. Colin Campbell, from Durham Region’s street-level robbery unit, followed up with Mitchell two days later, walking with him over the route he’d taken on the afternoon he was set upon. Mitchell, who used a walker at school, stubbornly continued taking lengthy strolls every day around his Pickering neighbourhood, to maintain his mobility skills. It was during this walk that he’d stopped to call home on his iPhone, inquiring what stepmom Tiffany Usher was making for dinner, just as he was passing by a group of youths standing outside a townhouse complex. Two of those boys, he believed, had then followed him, attacking from behind so that he never saw it coming, then rummaging through his pockets as he lay bleeding and stealing the phone. Usher, who happened to be driving past, saw the two youths attacking a child but didn’t realize until turning around to take a closer look that the victim was Mitchell. She pursued the two assailants — one of them tossed the phone back at her — but they both got away. On Nov. 3, Usher returned Mitchell to school following the police walk-through. They were entering the principal’s office just as another boy was exiting. Mitchell said to his stepmother: “Mom, he’s one of them.’’ Presented with class photos, Mitchell picked out the boy from pictures taken in two different years. “For sure the one,’’ he told Usher. When Campbell arrived at the school an hour later, Mitchell confirmed he was “100 per cent’’ certain of the identification. Campbell wrote a “verbatim’’ statement that Mitchell signed. All of that evidence was accepted on Monday by Devlin. Mitchell was given his voice in court. No further evidence was called by either the Crown or the defence and Devlin has reserved her verdict to March 5. “That was the biggest thing,’’ Craig Wilson said afterwards. “To know that the words he put to paper are going to be read in court as evidence. When he’s not there, they’ll stand.’’ It must be stressed, however, that the threshold of believability — proof beyond reasonable doubt — is higher at trial than in a voir dire hearing assessing reliability for admissibility of evidence. Devlin can say yes to the former, as she did, and no to the latter, when rendering a verdict. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is at the heart of any trial. And there is significant room for doubt here. In his initial conversation with the first responding officer, Const. Susan Dubois, Mitchell could provide only a general description of his attackers: One taller and heavier, the other (the defendant) smaller and lighter, both black. He did not recognize them. Indeed, because both boys had worn their collars and hoodies up, he’s seen only a small portion of their faces. Further, his father told reporters Monday that Mitchell had no history with the accused; that boy had not bullied his son. There seems no argument Mitchell correctly identified the boy in those classroom photos as the youth who’d brushed past him in the school office. But had he been one of his assailants? It is not a small technicality. Another boy’s fate hangs in the balance. The irrefutable evidence doesn’t appear to be there. Mitchell did not die in vain. His tragedy and this trial have helped illuminate the plague of school bullying. “It seems like after this story broke, this was an underlying problem all over the province, all over Canada,’’ says Craig Wilson. “So, if this story brought more of it to light, that it’s going to make that kind of thing stop, yeah, it’s a good thing, for sure.’’ Whatever the outcome, that will be the legacy of sweet Mitchell Wilson.
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WATCH ABOVE: Animated map of Sunday’s parade route
TORONTO – Toronto police have released a list of road closures ahead of Sunday’s annual Santa Claus Parade.
Towing of illegally parked along the parade route will begin at 6 a.m. Sunday.
The event, which begins at 12:30 p.m., will result in the following closures:
– Bloor Street West, from Ossington Avenue to Christie Street, at 8 a.m.
– Bloor Street West, from Christie Street to Bathurst Street, at 10 a.m.
– Bloor Street West, from Bathurst Street to Bay Street, at 10:45 a.m– Avenue Road/Queen’s Park, from Davenport Road to College Street, at 10:45 a.m.– University Avenue, from College Street to Dundas Street, at 11 a.m.– University Avenue, from Dundas Street to Front Street, at 11:15 p.m.– Wellington Street, from University Avenue to Jarvis Street, at 11:30 p.m.– Front Street, from Bay Street to Jarvis Street, at 11:45 p.m.
Meanwhile the parade route, which will last two and half hours, is as follows:
Start: Bloor Street West and Christie Street
– Eastbound on Bloor Street West
– Southbound Queen’s Park Crescent East
– Southbound University Avenue
– Eastbound Wellington Street West
– Eastbound Front Street East
Finish: Front Street East & Jarvis Street
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Washington (CNN) The Office of Government Ethics Wednesday sent a series of four tweets outlining its procedures examining incoming Trump administration officials -- right in the middle of a contentious Senate hearing about Rep. Tom Price's stock transactions.
The OGE tweets did not specifically cite Price, his financial holdings or the Senate hearing.
The tweets came less than an hour after Price -- President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services -- defended himself against questions about his stock transactions at a Senate hearing and invoked the ethics office's approval.
Under questioning about his investments, Price cited the Office of Government Ethics and its "diligence" in its role reviewing all Cabinet nominees' financial records.
"We have agreed to every single recommendation that they've made to divest of whatever holdings we have that might even give the appearance of a possible conflict," Price said.
CNN reported on Monday that financial disclosures show Price invested in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing a bill that would benefit that company. Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have called for an investigation into whether Price may have violated the law.
Price has said the stocks were purchased through a broker and that he did not know which stocks he owned.
He repeated that he did nothing inappropriate and pointed to disclosures he made to OGE that were signed off on in the nomination process.
The ethics office's tweets came shortly thereafter, with messages outlining what it does -- and doesn't -- do.
"OGE's focus is prevention; IGs investigate potential misconduct & @TheJusticeDept prosecutes criminal violations," OGE tweeted shortly thereafter.
"OGE oversees the executive branch #ethics program, while Congress & the Courts have their own ethics programs," they continued . "OGE does not handle complaints of misconduct. Please learn where & how to report #fed employee misconduct," the agency wrote , including links to its missions and procedures.
OGE did not comment on the tweets on the record.
Though the tweet did not specially refer to Price, the OGE has tangled with the incoming Trump administration before.
The office's Twitter account has been vocal in advocating for full divestment by President-elect Donald Trump, which Trump is not opting to do, and the chief of the office has been vocal about his concerns.
An expert on ethics and former Federal Election Commission general counsel said Price's submission to OGE would not have been scrutinized for past actions.
"The Office of Government ethics reviews his current situation for potential conflicts of interest and negotiates an agreement with how he should handle (divestment) in the future," Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, said about Price's testimony. "It does not look at his past activity."
Noble also said that purchasing the stock through a broker alone wouldn't mean there are no ethical questions -- saying Price would need to assure he and the broker did not discuss the stock or the bill.
"The fact of the matter is that I have had no conversations with my broker about any political activity at all other than her congratulating me on my election," Price said before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said that Price appeared to have invested in a number of drug companies before taking action to "inflate" those firms' values.
"Why wouldn't you at least tell her, 'Listen, stay clear of any companies that are directly affected by my legislative work?'" Murphy asked.
"Because the agreement that we have is that she'd provide a diversified portfolio, which is exactly what virtually every one of you have in your investment opportunities, and make certain that in order to protect one's assets, that there's a diversified arrangement for purchase of stocks," Price said. "I knew nothing about those purchases."
Correction: The OGE tweets did not specifically cite Price, his financial holdings or the Senate hearing.
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About
**CURRENT PRODUCTION PROTOTYPE**
100% of mom's agree... Raspberry Pi tastes best in a PiCrust!
"The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. The Raspberry Pi Foundation's goal is to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming." **
The Raspberry Pi is a great little micro computer... but it does have one flaw: They all ship without a case.
This project's goal is to design, develop and mass produce a case to get the cost as low as possible.
Version 1.0 of my Raspberry Pi Case, with Fan Mount (This is the 3d printable model, **Not the final production model**:
Printed Prototype (Notice the lack of curves...):
I've custom built my own 3D printer, and have been turning out print after print of my prototype case design; but this process is slow... Very Slow. Every case takes me an hour and a half to print. Which means I have to keep the costs high to keep demand low.
I'd like to reverse that, and get lower priced cases (like, very low priced), into the hands of anyone who wants one.
To get the price low, the answer is simple: bulk.
I need to get enough people interested to get funding to do a mass production run through an injection molder. This is the only way to drop the price low enough to make it feasible to offer them at this price.
** Injection Molded prototype rendered in black, showing GPIO Port (and how the case fits together)
**Old Injection Molded Prototype (Still Changing)
If I don't get enough orders to cover the cost of injection molding; I'll still continue making cases on my 3d printers... I'll just make a lot less of them.
So... what do you think? Are you in?
** RaspberryPi.org
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JACKSON, Mississippi -- Actor Dan Aykroyd has been sworn in as a reserve deputy with the Hinds County Sheriff's Department, according to a report in the Clarion-Ledger.
Aykroyd is in Mississippi for his role in the movie "Get On Up," the film about the life of singer James Brown.
Aykroyd plays the part of Ben Bart, Brown's manager for four decades.
The movie is scheduled to premier in October.
Aykroyd filled out a request to join the reserve unit and his request was granted.
"My family fell in love with this state on the last trip down here," he said, adding that his wife is from Tennessee and Virginia and feels a Southern kinship with Mississippians. His daughter, a correspondent on Bluesmobile Radio, has been all over the state interviewing its residents.
Aykroyd also said he wants to work to bring more attention to the needs of law enforcement agencies.
"A lot of departments can't even afford ammunition for practice; it's that kind of tiny little challenge that you never think of," he said. "We're going to be aware of that and aware of maybe doing some programs and some fundraisers to supplement the resources of the department here."
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The Great Divide is a series about inequality.
Averages can be misleading. The familiar, one-dimensional story told about American education is that it was once the best system in the world but that now it’s headed down the drain, with piles of money thrown down after it.
The truth is that there are two very different education stories in America. The children of the wealthiest 10 percent or so do receive some of the best education in the world, and the quality keeps getting better. For most everyone else, this is not the case. America’s average standing in global education rankings has tumbled not because everyone is falling, but because of the country’s deep, still-widening achievement gap between socioeconomic groups.
And while America does spend plenty on education, it funnels a disproportionate share into educating wealthier students, worsening that gap. The majority of other advanced countries do things differently, at least at the K-12 level, tilting resources in favor of poorer students.
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Historically, the role of the federal government, which takes a back seat to the states in education, has been to try to close achievement gaps, but they have continued to widen. Several changes in federal education policy under President Obama have actually increased the flow of scarce federal dollars toward those students who need it less, reinforcing inequities and further weakening overall educational performance. Reversing America’s slide in international education rankings will require turning that record on its head.
America’s relative fall in educational attainment is striking in several dimensions. American baby boomers ages 55 to 64 rank first in their age group in high school completion and third in college completion after Israel and Canada. But jump ahead 30 years to millennials ages 25 to 34, and the United States slips to 10th in high school completion and 13th in college completion. America is one of only a handful of countries whose work force today has no more years of schooling than those who are retiring do.
On international tests, American students consistently score in the middle of the pack among advanced countries, but America underperforms most on two measures — preschool enrollment and college on-time completion. Nearly all 4-year-olds in Japan, France, Britain and Germany are enrolled in preschool, compared with 69 percent in the United States. And although the United States is relatively good at getting high school graduates into college, it is horrible at getting them to graduate on time with a college degree. With more than half of those who start college failing to earn a degree, the United States has the highest college dropout rate in the developed world.
On average, money is not the problem. Given the country’s relative wealth, per-pupil spending on elementary and high school is roughly on track with other advanced countries. At the college level, the United States spends lavishly, far more than any other country.
The problem is that the United States is not spending its education dollars effectively. At every point along the education track, from preschool to college, resources are skewed to wealthier students.
The wealthy inhabit an educational realm very different from what national averages suggest. Consider these examples. If ranked internationally as nations, low-poverty Massachusetts and Minnesota would be among the top 6 performers worldwide in fourth-grade math and science. Among 15-year-olds, Asian-Americans, who also tend to be more affluent, are the world’s best readers; white Americans are third only to Finns and New Zealanders. In a 2012 Harvard Business School survey, high-quality universities were rated the country’s chief competitive advantage. The world’s brightest students clamor to attend them.
But educational excellence is increasingly the preserve of the rich. Everyone — black, white, rich, middle class and poor — is testing better and enrolling more in college than the previous generation. But rich students, and particularly rich girls, are making bigger gains than everyone else. Strikingly, these achievement gaps exist when children first begin elementary school and are locked in place all the way through to college.
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Wealthy Americans have an advantage in the admission process for elite colleges, and despite the few who may slip in on family legacy, the advantage is largely based on academic merit. Students from families in the highest income quintile are now eight times more likely than students in the bottom quintile to enroll in a “highly selective” college, one that requires a high school transcript filled with As in advanced placement courses, SAT scores in the 700s and a range of enriching extracurricular activities.
Those who get in are doing better than ever. The best colleges are seeing their dropout rates fall to near-zero levels, especially for women. The education they offer is generally better than what students get at less selective schools, too. One very revealing fact is that even for equally qualified students, academic outcomes at selective colleges are better across the board and their graduates earn more and are more likely to progress toward an advanced degree.
The real quality crisis in American higher education — where the dropout rate is sky high and climbing — is in community colleges and lower-tier public universities. They have also absorbed most of the historic increase in college enrollment and disproportionately serve minority and low-income students. Money is a big reason for their worse performance.
At the college level, the divergence in per-pupil spending is staggering. Since the 1960s, annual per-pupil spending at the most selective public and private colleges has increased at twice the rate of the least selective colleges. By 2006, the funding chasm in spending per student between the most and the least selective colleges was six times larger than in the late 1960s.
In short, more money is being spent on wealthy students who have never been more prepared to excel in college. Meanwhile, poorer students who are less prepared — those who a generation ago would not have even enrolled in college — are getting a smaller slice of higher education spending. According to a study by the demographer John Bound and his colleagues, lack of institutional resources explains up to two-thirds of the increase in dropout rates at lower-tier colleges.
Of course, this divergence in educational investments begins long before college. Wealthy parents are piling on cognitive enrichment activities outside of school from preschool on up, and at a rate that is leaving everyone else in the dust. Schools could make up some of the difference by intensively investing in poor children, and the majority of richer countries do just that — spending more per pupil in lower-income districts than in higher-income districts. But it is the reverse in the United States, in large part because, unlike most other advanced countries, revenues for public schools continue to be raised mostly from local property taxes.
This record is a harsh indictment of the federal government’s efforts to promote greater educational equality. Out of the civil rights era of the 1960s and early 1970s sprang a host of federal programs whose sole objective was to close achievement gaps. One is Head Start, which now serves close to one million low-income 3- and 4-year-olds and has tried for many years, with modest success, to make sure they’re ready for kindergarten. For K-12 public schools, the federal government apportions money, called Title I and IDEA grants, to school districts based on the number of low-income or special-needs students they serve. Then there is the huge Pell grant program to help low-income students pay for college, which is the single largest component of the Department of Education’s budget.
Reversing the long-term trend toward education inequality would be an impressive feat for the Obama administration, which has tried to intelligently reform federal programs that serve low-income students. Nonetheless, some of the biggest changes in federal funding priorities have favored wealthy students.
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On the plus side, the Obama administration has pushed for more cost and quality accountability for education providers who cater to low-income children, while also developing better ways to measure and evaluate quality. The worst Head Start preschools are being forced to re-compete for federal funding under a more rigorous set of standards. States are being encouraged, through No Child Left Behind waivers and the Race to the Top competitive grant program, to improve teacher evaluation techniques, to invest in data systems for tracking teacher performance and student achievement, and to refocus reform efforts squarely on the worst-performing K-12 schools.
At the postsecondary level, for the first time vocational college programs could soon be held directly accountable for a “gainful employment rule,” where they will lose federal accreditation if the programs’ costs outweigh labor market benefits for their graduates. In other words, programs would shut down if their graduates don’t land good jobs. There are also new initiatives promoting more transparency at all postsecondary institutions. The hope is that parents and students armed with better information will be better consumers and will punish schools with a record of charging too much or delivering too little.
Yet some of the administration’s most ambitious ideas for reducing education inequality have not been implemented. In spite of research that shows that high-quality preschool can make a positive — and ultimately cost-effective — impact on children’s cognitive development, President Obama’s call for universal preschool is going nowhere in Congress, mostly because it would be extremely expensive. The Obama administration has made no attempt to expand Head Start enrollment, even though half of all impoverished children are not enrolled in any preschool program.
At the college level, while Mr. Obama has placed community colleges higher on the federal agenda than any of his predecessors, his funding promises have gone unfulfilled. In his first term, he proposed three new community college funds totaling $25 billion and then a further $12 billion in stimulus. But in the end only $2 billion in direct aid for community colleges was appropriated.
What is most disappointing about the Obama administration’s oversight of educational programs, though, is the way the administration has arranged its funding priorities. Real baseline funding has been flat for Head Start, Title I and IDEA grants, and their financing will be cut by 5 percent under sequestration. It’s true that the number of Pell grant recipients has surged recently because more students are opting for college in the tough labor market, but Pell grant eligibility has been rolled back, with stricter limits put in place on income and lifetime eligibility. And even after a recent increase in the maximum Pell grant size, it still covers a much smaller share of a student’s college expenses than in the 1970s. The Pell grant program is also chronically underfinanced; it faces a $7 billion budget shortfall in 2014.
Where federal education policies have become much more generous, the benefits have disproportionately flowed to the wealthy. The administration has eased repayment terms for student debt, and the biggest gains will go to borrowers with the largest debt, who tend to be graduate or professional students with more earning potential. These already well-off graduates could end up receiving a federal subsidy that is four times larger than that provided to low-income students through Pell grants. Meanwhile, a new, more generous college tax credit also extended tax write-offs to families earning between $120,000 and $180,000. They reap most of the credit’s $10 billion in annual benefits.
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These education-spending decisions are hard to justify. The politics are understandably tricky; middle- and upper-class families want relief from skyrocketing tuition bills, and poor families have a small fraction of their political clout. But a smarter allocation of scarce resources would focus on boosting lower achievers. Because sometimes averages don’t lie. Historically, broad educational gains have been the biggest driver of American economic success; hence the economist’s rule of thumb that an increase of one year in a country’s average schooling level corresponds to an increase of 3 to 4 percent in long-term economic growth.
In his first State of the Union address, in 2009, President Obama set a goal: America would regain the top spot internationally in the percentage of students graduating from college. No matter how much wealthier children keep gaining, there are not enough of them to raise that number. The only way America will again rise to the top in education is by lifting every student up.
Rebecca Strauss is associate director of publications for the Renewing America initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations. This article draws on research in a new council report, “Remedial Education: Federal Education Policy,” part of a series on restoring American economic competitiveness.
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Most Americans want to save for retirement, but most don't know how to start. Putting money into a savings account is ideal for short-term goals and emergency funds. But there are better investment vehicles for long-term savings. One investment vehicle that I've grown to love almost as much as much as I love In-N-Out Burger (key word: “almost”) is the Roth IRA.
I know Get Rich Slowly has covered the Roth IRA a lot in the past, but new readers might not be that familiar with it. Besides, even though you might think you know everything there is to know about Roth IRAs, here are some facts that might be new to you.
1. The Roth IRA has been around the block
Most people don't know that the Roth IRA is getting close to getting its driving permit, having been around for almost 14 years. It originally started with the Tax Relief Act of 1997, named after late Senator William Roth of Delaware.
After the Roth IRA conversion event of 2010, there was a further influx of Roth IRA contributions. Much can be attributed to this based on when the Roth IRA conversion was made available in 1998, allowing savers to to convert from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. During that time, 1.4 million taxpayers converted $39.3 billion in traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs.
Related >> Read whether it's better to have a traditional IRA or Roth IRA.
2. Contributions to Roth IRA are not tax-deductible
Unlike other retirement vehicles, such as the employee-sponsored 401(k), contributions to a Roth IRA are not tax-deductible. Contributions to your Roth IRA are made with after-tax dollars. This does not offer an immediate tax benefit compared to one that is recognized at the time of distribution. When you take a qualified distribution from your Roth IRA, you will never pay taxes on that money.
This allows you to have access to your contributions at any time. That's an attractive feature for those that want to save for retirement but are worried about having to pay a penalty if they need access to the money.
While you don't get a tax deduction, you may qualify for the Roth IRA savers credit. The downside of the credit is that if your adjusted gross income exceeds $27,750 filing single for the 2017 saver's credit for a credit rate of 50 percent of your contribution, you don't qualify. For people married and filing jointly, the adjusted gross income limit is $37,000.
3. You must meet eligibility requirements to contribute to a Roth IRA
As the Roth IRA gains popularity among retirement savers, many people fail to understand that not everyone will be able to contribute to this type of account. In order to contribute to a Roth IRA, you must fall below the established income thresholds set forth by the IRS each year. The cut-off limits (otherwise known as phase-out limits) for 2017 are $118,000 to contribute up to the limit and $132,999 to contribute a reduced amount for single filers. The limit is $186,000 for married couples filing jointly to contribute up to the limit and $195,999 to contribute a reduced amount.
If your income falls beneath the threshold for your filing status for the year, you must also make contributions from taxable compensation. This means individuals cannot use rental property payments, royalties or other non-taxable compensation to make contributions to a Roth IRA.
4. You may be able to convert other retirement accounts to a Roth IRA
Since 2010, there are new conversion rules that apply to the transferring of funds from a traditional IRA or 401(k) to a Roth IRA. When you convert from a tax-deferred retirement account to a tax-free retirement account, you'll potentially see many benefits long term. It's important to remember that the IRS isn't going to forget about the taxation of this money. Whatever amount you transfer to the Roth IRA will be tacked on to your earned income (and taxed at your current rate) for the year of the conversion.
5. Benefits of Roth IRA savings can help meet other financial goals
Usually, experts recommend that retirement vehicles be used solely for retirement purposes. However, out of all the retirement accounts on the market, the Roth IRA can be used for other goals.
Since you have already paid taxes on your contributions, you are able to enjoy tax-free distributions of those contributions (but not the earnings) before you reach retirement age. As long as all distribution requirements have been met, you may access that money for other things. These include a down payment on a home or college tuition. Often times I will meet with young parents who are very ambitious about saving for the kids' college. However, they are barely saving anything for their own retirement. In these situations, I often suggest the Roth IRA as a viable substitute.
6. Roth IRA distributions don't contribute to taxable earnings
One of the most attractive features of the Roth IRA is that, when you start taking distributions, you don't have to worry about them contributing to your taxable income. This is because Roth IRA contributions grow in your account tax free since you're contributing after-tax dollars. With a traditional IRA, you make a contribution with pre-tax dollars. As a result, you end up with a deduction. A traditional IRA contribution lowers your taxable income.
This is not the case with a Roth IRA. You get no tax benefit immediately for making a contribution to your Roth retirement account. You pay taxes on your income, and then you make your contribution. However, because you have already paid taxes on the money you use, you won't be taxed on it again. Your money grows tax free. For those who think that they'll be in a higher tax bracket or that tax rates will go up by the time they retire, this can be an advantage. You pay taxes at your current, lower rate. And then when you take your distributions, you avoid paying taxes at your future higher rate.
7. There is a five-year rule for Roth IRA withdrawals
It is possible to withdraw money that you have contributed to your Roth IRA at any time, tax- and penalty-free, as long as you meet the distribution requirements. However, if you want to withdraw the earnings from your Roth IRA, it is important to realize that you must have the account for at least five years. The clock starts ticking from the first day of the tax year in which you designate your contribution. So, if you open your Roth IRA in September of 2016 and make your initial contribution, you can make withdrawals of your earnings starting January 1, 2021.
This also works if you open your Roth IRA before April 15 and designate the contribution for the previous year. For example, you can open a Roth IRA on April 10, 2017, and designate 2016 as the year for your contribution. The clock starts ticking on January 1, 2016, even though you opened your IRA in April.
The five-year rule also applies to conversions. You cannot withdraw the converted amount in your Roth IRA until five years have passed.
8. There are no required minimum distributions during the life of the Roth IRA owner
For some folks, required minimum distributions (RMDs) are a big problem with retirement accounts. This is a minimum amount that the IRS says you have to withdraw from your retirement account each year once you reach a certain age. With some accounts, like 401(k)s, this can be disheartening. Since RMD can add to taxable income, this can possibly put you in a higher tax bracket.
However, with a Roth IRA, there are no RMDs. The owner never has to withdraw money if he or she doesn't want to. It is important to note that this privilege disappears upon the death of a Roth IRA owner. Heirs to the Roth IRA must take RMDs (but the RMDs are still tax-free). Inheriting a Roth IRA is very similar to receiving the proceeds of a paid-out life insurance policy.
The bottom line for Roth IRAs
The Roth IRA is growing in popularity because it offers many benefits without several of the drawbacks associated with other retirement accounts. In addition, the Roth IRA allows for contributions for the remainder of your life. This is unlike the traditional IRA that restricts you from contributing after age 70-1/2.
A Roth IRA can be a great savings tool. Just make sure you understand the Roth IRA rules that come with it, and be careful to adhere to them.
Author: Jeff Rose Jeff Rose CFP blogs at GoodFinancialcents.com. Jeff is well known among bloggers for his various causes: The Debt Movement, The Roth IRA Movement and The Life Insurance Movement. His also wrote a book, Soldier of Finance.
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The Gang of Six isn’t satisfied by screwing over Social Security and Medicare, and imposing sneaky tax hikes on workers with the Chained CPI. They want to give billions of dollars in tax savings to the richest corporations in the US, and encourage them to move jobs overseas. That is the logical result of changing to a system of taxing income only if it is “earned” in the US. This is called a “territorial taxation” system. Currently we have a hybrid system. We tax income from whatever source, but we give a credit for foreign taxes on the income, and we don’t tax any of the money until it is repatriated.
The territorial tax will delight these monster corporations that have accumulated billions of untaxed profits overseas. They can invest the money off shore to create any new business they might want to enter, in any country they might like, and with little effort completely avoid US taxation. This removes any reason for any corporation to manufacture in the US for export. As soon as possible, the company simply moves production off shore, and uses tricks to make the profits in some low tax country. Jobs leave, exports drop, and so do tax revenues.
The rich benefit from higher stock prices as the profits of their pet corporations rise,. When they sell off the stock, they only pay at the low capital gains tax rates.
The US Chamber of Commerce and many of the anti-American corporations it represents are begging congress to enact a one-time repatriation with at 5% tax rate. Their web site is the patriotic WinAmerica, with a lovely picture of working Americans, you know, the people expected to make shared sacrifices. That is a tough sell in light of the howling about the debt ceiling. Even our corrupt elected representatives are having trouble saying that this is a jobs measure, when we know from recent experience that it is just a devious way to give more money to the rich, and increase their leverage over US workers at the same time.
The best part is that in the uproar of trying to increase taxes on workers and screwing Social Security recipients, this little provision won’t attract any attention. The New York Times and the Washington Post don’t mention it in today’s stories. Of course, the business press spotted it immediately. Here’s Bloomberg:
The proposal also calls for the Finance Committee to switch to a territorial tax system, under which U.S. multinational companies wouldn’t face taxes on income they earn outside the country. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have been urging Congress to make such a change. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who has proposed his own bipartisan tax-code overhaul, said yesterday that driving rates down that far would require making big changes to breaks that many taxpayers enjoy. Those include the mortgage interest deduction and the deduction for charitable contributions. “You would have to cut back very dramatically on some of the middle-class tax incentives,” he said.
And, of course, Wyden is right. The bandits in the Gang of Six include this instruction to the Senate Finance Committee: “Reform, not eliminate, tax expenditures for health, charitable giving, homeownership, and retirement….”
Reuters has a good summary of liberal dismay over this provision. The Hill notes The Business Roundtable’s enthusiastic support, and quotes Rich Trumpka of the AFL-CIO making the point that this system encourages export of jobs, not goods and services.
“We need to keep asking our leaders: ‘Who got us into this mess?’ It wasn’t working people. The people who got us into this mess are getting off scot-free, and this Gang of Six proposal shows they have accomplices in both parties.”
The Pretend Democrats couldn’t care less who caused this mess. Working people have to pay, in higher taxes and fewer and worse jobs. Better they should suffer and die than that Dick Durbin should have to tax his precious contributors.
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Only during New York Fashion Week do five-ten models appear to grow on trees. They’re from all over the world, but they’re in Manhattan to show off their grace and precision in hopes of becoming the next great Supermodel.
Dan Nguyen A model walks during a go see at Andrew Weir's casting call session for Fashion Week, on Sept. 1, 2012 in New York City.
“Take a walk, babe.”
On casting director Andrew Weir’s command, an impossibly tall, incredibly thin, beautiful blonde woman does an about face and begins striding to the other end of the room. When she reaches a stool placed about half way she pauses, turns around and struts back. The look on her face is all business, like she’s never found anything funny in her life.
When she reaches the table where Weir is sitting, she pauses again, holding the steely-eyed look for half a second, then suddenly her expression melts into a genuine smile. “Where are you from?” Weir asks her. Germany, she replies, and for 30 seconds they chat about cities they love in Deutschland. “Thank you so much,” Weir says kindly, and as she walks away, he jots some notes on a card just as the next model strolls up to the table.
(VIDEO: Top 10 Models Falling Down)
It’s five days before New York Fashion Week, and Weir is spending one of his precious preparation days, in its entirety, holding a giant casting session. Over more than six hours, Weir sees roughly 400 models, some of whom will be cast in the upcoming shows by Thakoon Panichgul and Jen Kao. Weir’s team has transformed Mister H, a swanky bar attached to the Mondrian Soho hotel in New York City, into a studio. There is a backdrop for headshots and two photographers working simultaneously to document the action.
Dan Nguyen
At the far end of the room, Weir sits at a long table with three of his assistants. He’s dressed in black jeans, boots and a Batman hoodie, which is necessary because the air conditioner is on full blast. The A/C itself is a necessity, not only because it’s nearly 90 degrees outside, but because Weir’s team has set up blinding lights that illuminate the space in front of the bar, which today serves as a makeshift runway.
For most of the models it’s a quick process. After getting a headshot taken behind the bar, they line up on couches, waiting their turn to be seen. For most of the afternoon, no one comes to tell them they’re next; they wait patiently and hop up one by one like they’ve been through this process a million times.
(MORE: Michelle Obama’s Fashion: On Message)
One by one they approach the table; one by one they walk to the end of the room; and one by one, sometimes after a few quick questions, Weir thanks them for coming. He asks each model where she is from: California, Florida, Georgia and Michigan; the Netherlands, Russia, Jamaica and more than a couple from Brazil. Some are dressed in skinny jeans, others in cut off jean shorts that make Daisy Dukes look like pantaloons. So many models are wearing leather shorts that Weir predicts that they’ll be a fashion trend in the coming year. He watches intently, and he seems to know exactly what he is looking for. After jotting a few notes on one of his cards, he either circles the names of the designers whose shows the model might fit, or he circles the word “No.” But regardless of what he writes on the page, Weir is unfailingly polite, complimenting each of the models and thanking them for coming in. “We try to be aware of the power of our words,” he says. “These girls are so young.”
Indeed, the veterans among the models are about 18. When Weir asks them which shows they’ve done, some rattle off a list of designers and cities that could fill an entire page. Others seem to have genuinely forgotten. When one of the models explains that in high school none of the boys wanted to date her because she was so tall, Weir asks how old she is. Sixteen, she replies, but the way she describes high school in Colorado, it sounds like a distant memory. Before thanking her for coming in, Weir asks if her mother or a chaperone is here. Even though we’re in one of the chicest neighborhoods in Manhattan, he doesn’t want a 16-year-old wandering the streets by herself.
While most of the models get the standard treatment, Weir asks every tenth one or so to walk again, only this time faster and with longer strides. When I ask if that’s to correct something in their walk, he shakes his head. “To really get a sense of what they’re capable of, I have them walk faster and take bigger steps,” he explains. “It changes their energy. When they’re walking faster and turn around, they give a more intense look.”
(MORE: Marissa Mayer’s Executive Style)
Second to that look, it seems, the walk is the model’s most important skill. For the ones who do it well, it’s a combination of precision and grace, placing each foot forward, swinging the arms back and forth to create a gentle swaying of the hips. The turn around, like an about face in a military parade, appears to be the most challenging part. Each model has her own technique: some shift their heels to the side and step around where they stood a micro second before; others move the left foot slightly behind the right and complete the turn before the watcher has time to realize what she’s done.
That back step technique appears to have the highest degree of difficulty and the biggest payoff, because each of the three times I saw it, Weir leaned over to me excitedly and said, “Watch this. This is a Supermodel.” He told me to concentrate on the walk, the glide, pause, turn, glide, pause. At first it was hard to see exactly what separated these few gorgeous women from the room full of other gorgeous women until it hit me: they were executing movements with a precision usually seen in military parades. They did all of this under blinding, blazing lights wearing four-inch stiletto heels. But the great ones made it look effortless, appearing to expend no more energy than sitting on a couch. “That in the human race doesn’t happen very often,” Weir tells me after one of the supermodels exits the stage.
Out of the 400 or so models Weir will see that day, there are three he will proclaim to embody that perfection, destined for stardom. And while he’s noticing the subtle, nearly invisible differences between those women and the dozens of others, he’s sorting them into who will work best for the aesthetics of each show. I ask him how his time behind the camera prepared him for this job. “It sharpens my view,” he says. “Twenty years looking through the lens and 15 years in casting” allows him to see the details while keeping the bigger picture in mind.
When I ask why he’s taking an entire day to see hundreds of models when he might only recommend a few dozen for the week’s shows, he says it’s necessary because there are new, talented faces all the time. “Now that the world’s wide open, there’s more girls to see than ever before,” he says. “Scouts are looking for girls from every part of the planet.”
After the stroll under the hot lights, the models change out of their astronomical heels and into sneakers or flip flops, gather their things and head out into the late summer day. Out of their stilettos, they’re still tall and thin and beautiful. But with flat soles beneath their feet, they appear much more normal. It is trait that will benefit them as they traverse the cracked sidewalks and packed streets of New York until they put on the heels yet again at the next of many casting calls—or, if they’re lucky, on the runways of New York Fashion Week.
MORE: A Fashionable Fit
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