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We have completed our initial overhaul of the cooking profession and have added around 20 new cooking recipes, as well as many new ingredients. Mana regeneration is also now a benefit that can be found on some food, along with some other benefits.
Other Changes
There are some more changes coming with the patch such as new system messages for skins that do not produce items, changes to Digging, mount/ship/warhulk ownership changes, and a new staff seen below.
Road Map Update
Task System and NPX
We are finalizing the list of tasks and actions that new players will be guided through for initial guidance. There is a lot of work required in order to get the Task System implemented, as it needs new tracking of mechanics and a brand new UI, along with the flexibility to expand it past the new player guidance. This system is currently being designed, along with some changes we can make outside of it to help ease new player experience (such as spawning in Action mode instead of GUI mode).
Wilderness Portals
Our artist Demo has been creating some new assets for our upcoming Wilderness Portal network. We are currently planning to have over 100 portal locations throughout the lands that will be providing one-way travel throughout the world of Agon. We have been working through some issues with placement of these new assets but are on schedule to have the system implemented for launch.
Here are a few teasers of some of the new wilderness portals that have been created:
Deployable Player Vendors
The developers have begun working on the mechanics of the deployable vendors, but the brunt of the work on the coding side still needs to be accomplished. This system is still planned to be implemented for launch, but is not planned for the upcoming patch or the one thereafter.
In the meantime our artist Adam has put together the initial draft of the art asset which you can see below:
Crafting Updates
After this patch we will have gone through the initial crafting changes of most of the professions in the game. We will be focusing on some of the combat updates that we want to work on after the game launches, and part of that will tie into the professions of Armorsmithing, Tailoring and Shieldcrafting. For this reason we will be holding off on making our changes to these professions until we can tie them into the changes we plan to focus on after launch.
Economy Updates
We are currently going through a pretty massive overhaul of the in-game economy, focusing on resource sinks and faucets as well as loot tables and resource locale. This will be a task that we will be working on all throughout Early Access to ensure that we can have a good starting point for the in-game economy when we launch. These changes, along with our persistence changes and monitoring tools we have implemented, will provide us with more insight and control of the economy. It is imperative to have a strong balance of risk vs reward when this game goes live, as that is one of the pillars of this game.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for our upcoming community competition!
Join us for the discussion!
Sincerely,
- The Team at Big Picture Games
For much of his life, former South Carolina defensive back Andre Goodman had a purpose to blanket wide receivers and make tackles and interceptions. Now the 10-year NFL veteran, who will be introduced as part of the 2015 SEC Football Legends Class in December, has a different purpose as the Gamecocks' Director of Football Student-Athlete Development.
"My job has a lot to do with grooming players for life after football and helping them transition from high school to college, and then from college to the real world," Goodman said. "We talk a lot about career development, job placement, time management and balancing your personal life with school, academics and your profession. We want the (student-athletes) to maintain that sense of balance once they leave the playing arena and enter into the real world."
Goodman played cornerback for South Carolina from 1998-2001. He earned second-team All-SEC honors by the league's coaches as a senior and was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll during his career. He was selected in the third round of the 2002 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions, and also played with the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos during his decade in the NFL. Now in his fourth year on the job with his alma mater, Goodman knows that a professional playing career is short, and that most student-athletes won't be playing professional football.
"Managing expectations and helping student-athletes remain realistic is key," Goodman said. "It is tough, even if they do make it to the pros. They have to be realistic because it's a violent sport, and it doesn't take much to go from playing to not playing in the matter of just one play. Helping them become realistic is the toughest challenge, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm not here to kill their dreams. I'm here to give them tools and resources to help them transition."
As he focuses on off-the-field activities of the student-athletes and serving as an important resource in balancing the demands of academics, athletics, community outreach, and their personal lives in their transition in and out of college athletics, Goodman noted that one of the most important factors for being successful in his role is trust.
"When they can actually sit down and have a conversation outside the game of football that they normally wouldn't have with someone else, it means a lot," Goodman said. "It can be tough for some of them to talk about personal issues, so anytime they can trust you enough to open up, that trust is probably the most gratifying thing. If they can see my sincerity so that they can open up to me and trust the reason why I am here, which is solely to help them, then I feel like I'm doing what I should be doing."
It's so easy and natural for athletes to overcome adversity, but handling prosperity can be a lot tougher. Andre Goodman
Goodman understands the difficulty in making transitions from personal experience, and he wants the student-athletes to know that he's been there.
"You want to be great at everything you do, but you don't realize how tough it is," Goodman said. "Staying centered and keeping a mental balance is always the toughest part. Since I retired (from the NFL), it's a daily challenge because my intensity and my energy are still at the NFL level, but the world doesn't move as fast. The NFL is daily evaluations and competition. We can use that in the real world, but we don't get up with that same intensity every day. It's hard because if I ever feel like I can't be great today, then I feel like I'm wasting my day."
Goodman saw highs and lows during his Gamecock career, which included a 1-21 record during his first two seasons, followed by back-to back Outback Bowl victories in his last two years.
"It's so easy and natural for athletes to overcome adversity," Goodman said. "But handling prosperity can be a lot tougher because when you feel like you have ‘arrived,' what keeps that fire burning inside of you? Not becoming apathetic is tough. I try to relate it in football terms to the guys because it is all about life after football.
"Whatever your goals may be, once you get there, if you don't set another goal then you're really just going through the motions. That's not what the journey is about. The journey is where the energy should be; not the destination. The journey is endless."
Among the 37-year-old's best memories of his playing days at South Carolina are beating top-ten ranked Georgia in 2000 and a victory over rival Clemson as a senior in 2001. Goodman will represent South Carolina as part of the 2015 SEC Football Legends class, which includes 14 former stars who excelled on the gridiron and helped write the rich history of the sport at their respective institutions.
"It takes a lot to get me excited, but I am very excited," Goodman said about being named to the Legends class. "I've never been big on accolades, but any time someone appreciates your efforts, it's always rewarding. I don't need a lot of fanfare, but this feels like a nice ribbon on my career. I'm very humbled and appreciative. It means a lot."
Always thinking ahead, Goodman looks to apply this honor to his work with current student-athletes.
"Any bit of credibility you can get with these kids, so I can gain trust with them and have conversations with them, gives me purpose," Goodman said. "My life now is all about purpose"
The Legends class will be honored at the 2015 SEC Football "Weekend of Champions" December 4-5 in Atlanta, Ga. The annual SEC Legends Dinner presented by AT&T will be held December 4 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, and the group will also be recognized prior to the SEC Football Championship Game, which will be held at the Georgia Dome on Saturday, December 5.
Goodman and his wife, Shana, have four children, Fabian, Andre, Kennedy and Mason.
Tata Group boss Ratan Tata launches the purifier
The Indian industrial conglomerate Tata Group has launched a new low-cost water purifier, aimed at lower-income households in rural areas.
The Tata 'Swach' purifier is less than one metre tall, and does not need running water or electricity to work.
The firm is hoping to revolutionise the business of providing clean water, a lack of which affects almost one billion people globally.
Tata says the device is the result of a decade of research and development.
The Tata Group includes India's largest carmaker Tata Motors, and also has interests in steelmaking, IT, and chemicals.
Major hurdle
Its Swach water device - named after the Hindi word for clean - will cost under 1,000 rupees ($21.50; £13), according to one Indian report.
This is opening up a complete new market
Tata Chemicals' boss R. Mukundan
Water shortages forge huge market
According to the latest Indian government survey of rural wages, in 2007/08, daily pay in rural areas can range from about 45 rupees a day for herd-keeping, to about 110 rupees a day for well digging.
The Swach uses ash from rice milling to filter out bacteria, and also uses tiny silver particles to kill harmful germs that can lead to diseases like diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid.
The health consequences of poor water quality are enormous for developing countries like India, with millions of people affected.
Trying to provide safe drinking water for them has cost the government billions of rupees, but it continues to be a major hurdle.
De la forma en que Marita juntaba sus pesitos no quita ni suma nada a la historia, salvo por el detalle que los medios también lo han ocultado para que "la verdad no arruine una buena nota". Todos ganaron con el caso de Marita Verón.
Ya había escrito algo sobre la prostitución y la trata aquí: Querido Eugenio
Hacia el año 1997se quería poner linda para el jubileo del año 2000. Había plata y las tasas de interés estaban por el suelo.Se pusieron a invertir de tal manera que generaron un boom inmobiliario que hizo que el rancho se les llenara de albañiles turcos (que después se fueron a), africanos y de los países delHubo tal migración que surgió un problema: las putas europeas eran caras para los salarios de los obreros. Por cuanto ante ese desbalance comenzaron a migrar trolas de losque si bien habían dejado la guerra atrás la crisis los comía vivos.Las primeras prostitutas independientes que entraron fueron rumanas y búlgaras, las primeras víctimas de las mafias de trata de personas fueron las albanesas cuyo país aun estaba asediado por la guerra de exterminio.Así comenzó la última ola de trata de personas en Europa, que recién se pudo contener hacia 2005 cuando eldio por finalizada la existencia de mafias relacionadas al secuestro para alimentar el mercado de la prostitución.Una simple y bestial situación de oferta y demanda. Hay que considerar además que la demanda era de baja calidad. Por eso un campesino turco que se pasaba el día fratachando una catedral por 60 euros y dormía en un contenedor podía violarse a una pobre mujer drogada y a veces atada sin muchas vueltas al asunto.A la par del problema surgieron -cuándo no- estudiosos del fenómeno que fueron financiados para tranquilizar las culposas almas europeas. Esos estudios sobre trata de personas tenían su base europea en. Cuando se les acabó el curro de la trata de personas, psicólogos, sociólogos, politólogos y cualquier otra especialidad de esas que no generan nada productivo, descubrieron la "violencia de género", otro regalito que también exportamos oportunamente.La creencia de que enexisten redes al estilo de organizaciones mafiosas, con jerarquías y estructuras mafiosas relacionadas con la trata de personasCuando en realidad. Por cuanto, cuál sería el valor práctico de secuestrar mujeres para obligarlas a prostituirse, con el riesgo legal (bajo, es cierto) que eso conlleva y con, supongo, el disgusto de quienes consumen prostitutas, de tener que cogerse un cacho de carne drogado, atado a una cama. Porque si buscaran eso, me imagino, se cogerían a sus esposas en lugar de buscar prostitutas.El casolo vengo siguiendo desde antes de iniciado el juicio. Me leí el auto de procesamiento, la elevación a Juicio, la mayoría de las testimoniales y seguí vía web, on line, muchas de las audiencias claves. Lo que digo me da paja referenciarlo pero está ahí, googleen en formatos doc y pdf y aparecerán las actas, todo. Busquen en medios locales independientes, entren en los foros de esas provincias.Si creen o no, es cuestión de fe, la misma fe metafísica que tienen algunos en creer el cuentito de la mujer buenaza que salió a buscar a su hija y andaba luchando contra las mafias. Repiten como loritos que liberó 100, 300 mujeres. ¿De dónde sacan esas cifras? Todo verso.Si algo se notó desde el principio es que estábamos en presencia de un gran fraude. Fraude basado en la incorporación de testigos truchos, cuyos discursos se armaron en lacon el asesoramiento de dos abogadas más truchas que la propia Trimarco y que habían sido oportunamente ofrecidas porPor tanto, si quieren putear, puteen al fiscal de Juicio y a la Procuración (que son el verdadero brazo del Poder Político) y no a los jueces a los que les llegan las pruebas cocinadas y deben decidir sobre su veracidad. Principalmente en un caso en que, como se dijo no se pudo componer la prueba con documentales, ni nada. Sólo testimoniales.. La absolución era cantada. El aprovechamiento que se haga de ahora en más del caso, pertenece a otra dinámica pero el juicio tuvo su control de legalidad en los más de 10 abogados defensores. Desconozco la calidad de los jueces que intervinieron pero no hay que serpara estimar que son unos zaparrastrosos, corruptos e influenciables. Pero hay que admitir que hasta el más impresentable queda registrado para la posteridad en sus fallos, sobre todo cuando adquieren esta trascendencia.Imagínense qué burdo ha sido todo que hasta se habrán visto imposibilitados de condenar a esos zopencos para calmar al viejerío.En principio, la fiscalía de instrucción y luego la de juicio compusieron la prueba de la acusación sólo basada en testimoniales, cuestión de por sí ilegal, pero alcanzó para los procesamientos y creyeron que podía pasar en el Oral. Los testigos fueron aportados en su totalidad por Susana Trimarco. No investigaron nada. Es cierto que la primer fiscal intentó avanzar en otras pistas pero fue eyectada de la causa.De parte de la fiscalía, salvo una mujer, el resto de los testigos se encontraban o estuvieron alguna vez, asistidas financieramente por la, que a su vez es financiada por el Ministerio del Interior y antes por el de Justicia. Las asistencias van desde préstamos para microemprendimientos productivos, capacitación, vivienda y cualquier otro rubro que se les pueda ocurrir que es fácil chorearse la plata sin justificarla.¿De donde vinieron esas testigos? de los famosos operativos que realizaba la Trimarco desde 2007 en adelante.. La construcción del personaje de Susana Trimarco como una mujer valiente, que recorría el norte liberando esclavas fue generado por lade la delegación más poderosa que tiene la Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado como es la de(donde además cobran sus dineros la piara de cibermilitantes que rompen las pelotas en las redes sociales luego de haberse desfinanciado el curro que les había armado).Por ejemplo, una mujer que declaró como testigo, al ser impugnada por encontrarse con un contrato de la Fundación Marita Verón, afirmó haber sido liberada de la esclavitud sexual en la que se encontraba por Susana Trimarco. Sin embargo se demostró que vivía a al menos cinco cuadras de ladonde había sido "liberada", que convivía con su marido y vecinos refirieron que diariamente llevaba a sus hijos al colegio. No fue imputada por falso testimonio.Como tampoco investigaron a otra "liberada" enuna tucumana que no pudo nombrar la calle que seguía a la que supuestamente estaba viviendo, no pudo decir de qué color era la Casa de Gobierno provincial (a pesar de domiciliarse a una cuadra del centro cívico), ni identificar datos de la terminal de ómnibus que teoricamente tomaba.Varias testigos afirmaron cobrar $3.000 mensuales de la Fundación por actividades que no pudieron precisar.El procedimiento era más o menos así. La SIDE identificaba algún puterío (que no perteneciera al Poder político), le pasaba el dato a la Trimarco y ésta, sola o acompañada a veces pory agentes de inteligencia, les caían encima.Te allanaban, entraban a las patadas y a los gritos, te tiraban todo el poder del Estado. Las pobres minas en bolas, medio en pedo, solas, pobres, alejadas de sus hijos, explotadas. Trimarco les ofrecía dinero, contratos, subsidios, etc. Imaginen qué iban a decir esas mujeres cuando se les pedía que dijeran que estaban secuestradas?Durante los últimos cuatro años, la fiscalía admitió esa calidad de testimonios para lograr la imputación a todo evento de los acusados, una banda de gordos impresentables que sus buenas cagadas se habrán mandado, pero coincidirán conmigo, amables lectores, que es insoportable pensar que se condene a alguien sin pruebas.Todo el andamiaje legal se basa en la confianza en que las condenas sean producto de pruebas admitidas y validadas en un juicio con garantías constitucionales. Porque podemos aceptar que un culpable se escape del cargo punitivo pero jamás que se condene a un inocente o a alguien que parezca culpable pero no se lo pueda demostrar.Bueno, algunos dirán que estos acusados eran culpables de otras cosas (por eso serán juzgados en La Rioja) o de la misma desaparición de Marita. Pero lo que nos diferencia de otras bestias es que tal vez algunos no queremos vivir en un país que condena sin pruebas y sin garantías.Pero la novelita de, ya había calado en el corazón de las viejas que se habían emocionado y llorado con la historia guionada. El personaje y la épica ya habían sido construidos., como refiere. ¿Si la historia está bien contada y es verosímil, porqué no creerla? Además, si algo de ingrata tiene la verdad (y la realidad) es que depende de las percepciones.El casoy toda la histeria que se observó en las Redes Sociales luego del veredicto ni siquiera sirve para elevar la conciencia crítica de las personas. Porque esa histeria parte de la proyección de miedos infantiles. El abuso, que mamá desaparezca, la violación, el terror a la pobreza propia, etc. Y el miedo, ese gran, gran, gran aliado y socio de la señora manipulación.La Trimarco es una pobre mujer (y era una mujer pobre) a la que le desaparecieron a su hija. Pero lo que tenía de pobre lo tiene de viva. Vio que había una desesperación de la progresía por financiarle sus delirios y matarle la angustia y el hambre y agarró viaje. Fue funcional. Simbiótico.Susana Trimarco, consta en el expediente, en 2003 no tenía $5 (cinco pesos) para prestarle a Marita (que tenía una infección). Y ahora anda con chofer, tiene una casa que no vale menos de U$S 200 mil (en 2003 el lugar en el que vivía no tenía calefón), se viste y viaja como la gerente que es deEso lo sabe todo, por eso es que los medios, pese a instarlo, no lograron que nadie, salvoy algún otro colectivo de colectivizados saliera a protestar por el fallo.Y en medio de este desastre, observamos a los políticos argentinos de la oposición haciéndose los enojados, entristecidos, abrumados por el fallo.. Si nuestra oposición, para logar un "me gusta" eno un RT en, no tienen la pelotas suficientes para enfrentar a la gente y decirles que, qué nos espera., como su madre, era una pobre mina. Pobre, pobrísima. Ejercía la prostitución en elal menos dos días a la semana. Esto consta en el expediente y fue señalado por vecinos, amigas y representantes de ONGs. Una enfermera refirió que le regalaba los profilácticos. Que era prostituta su mamá lo supo en 2005 y prefirió callarse.A Marita la volvieron a desaparecer un montón de veces. Y la peor de ellas, luego de la física, fue la que le provocó su propia madre. La que ocultó y minimizó que una chica instruída, sana y despierta como era ella, debiera tener que entregar su cuerpo a cualquier borracho a cambio de esos pesitos que le permitieran alimentar a su bebé.Perdió su oportunidad de denunciar el mundo de mierda en el que vivía su hija, un mundo de desocupación, miseria, desesperanza y abuso. En una provincia que es una vergüenza y una ofensa al sentido común.Todos menos la pobre Marita Verón.
“There is no right answer. Cream or jam is fine.” So says 34-year-old Tingting He, in answer to the question of which to spread on the scone first in a British cream tea. It’s a relief to learn that I haven’t been doing the wrong thing all my life. We’re in the Essex tea room of an upmarket British jam maker and on the table before us is a plate of fluffy scones, a bowl of clotted cream and miniature jars of strawberry jam. Tingting may be Shanghainese but she’s giving me a lesson in the British tradition of afternoon tea. As brand ambassador for Tiptree Farm she delivers the same lecture in China’s top hotels. Her home country may claim to be a communist state, but it has a healthy appetite for the branding and rituals of the British ruling class. Tingting brings Chinese buyers for a tour of the Tiptree fruit farm.
Tingting He and Carrie Gracie
“It’s refreshing for them. They’re paying for the countryside with the birds singing. There are lots of rumours about Chinese food sources, so the quality gives them peace of mind. And also they know the Royal Family has issued us with a royal warrant. That gives them another level of security.” It’s easy to see why Chinese visitors might enjoy the tour. Tiptree exported its first jar of jam in the late 19th Century and still has some of the rambling walled gardens and ancient orchards of that era. Inside the jam factory, the scent of simmering strawberries gives way to a hot wave of orange marmalade. And then the heady spices of the Christmas pudding room. Tingting says she loves the tradition of setting light to the brandy. She thinks she can sell Christmas puddings in China.
People like something festive, a good gift over Christmas or Chinese Spring Festival. It’s special, unique. They’re very curious and open-minded.”
British food is not fabled in China. But on a state visit to the UK in 2015 the Chinese president was filmed eating fish and chips. And walking between pallets piled high with jams and chutneys, Tingting is excited about China’s new breed of gastronomic adventurers. “The more they read and travel and encompass different food cultures, the more they try new things. Blueberry jam is something they are willing to try. Cheese and redcurrant jelly. At the start they found it strange but now they think it’s good. They are inventing their own way of getting Western food into their culture, which is very exciting for us. ”
When Tingting says “us” she means Tiptree. After many years studying in the UK, and with a British fiance, the Essex farm is as big a part of who she is as Shanghai. But the hard fact for exporters is that China is a long way away. Sea freight can take two months. Tingting hopes the rail freight service on the new Silk Road will shrink the time to market. When the train gets refrigerated containers next year, it should become possible to deliver British scones and Devon clotted cream. She dismisses my suggestion to bake the scones in China. “You can’t do that because British water and flour make for the special taste.” Once a symbol of British empire and engineering, now it’s China’s great age of the railways. The overland freight service from the UK began this year, carrying British hopes for post-Brexit markets from one end of the new Silk Road to the other. Tingting is impatient for faster progress.
Look on the bright side: This’ll make for one hell of a Slate column once he gets back.
I can only assume they didn’t recognize him, as the opportunity to scalp one of the world’s foremost atheists surely would have been irresistible.
I dont know if you find this as news worthy or not, but Christopher Hitchens is currently in Beirut sponsored by the same group that owns that crap NOW Lebanon. He got in a few nights ago and surprisingly went out drinking. On his way out of the bar he saw an SSNP poster and wrote on it “Fuck the SSNP”. There just happened to be some SSNP thugs near by–most likely asking people for their ID, and most likely to no avail–and saw him write on the poster and kicked his ass. He is still walking with a limp.
Abu Muqawama says he’s confirmed the story. The SSNP is, of course, a Hezbollah ally that advocates a Syrian anschluss of Lebanon (and Israel, natch). Consider Hitch a minor martyr to the cause of the Cedar Revolution here. Exit question one: More or less unpleasant than being waterboarded? Exit question two: Er, isn’t Ace there with him? Has anyone heard from Ace recently?
Update: Belated exit question three: Is it time for me to organize a mighty atheist army and lead it on a march to Damascus for justice? Yes.
Update: Forbes says Totten was in the mix.
But later that night, three of our “scoop” brigade–Jonathan Foreman, Michael Totten and Christopher Hitchens–got involved in a street brawl with some thugs of a Syria-loving skinhead party called the SNPN after Hitchens rather gallantly insulted their swastika flag. On our way to a meeting with Minister of State Nissib Lahoud, Hitchens showed me the gashed knuckles and bruises suffered during the punch up. The attackers had apparently come out of nowhere on posh Hamda Street, where they had gone to buy shoes. “I was on the ground,” Hitchens said, “and getting it in the head.” It was a miracle they didn’t pull Kalashnikovs.
Note: I changed the headline to reflect that the attackers were pro-Syrian, but not necessarily Syrian in origin.
Update: Ace sets the record straight.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Taliban’s reliance on extortion and kidnappings, along with narcotics and illegal mining operations, is transforming it from a group driven by religious ideology into a criminal enterprise hungry for profit, U.N. sanctions monitors said in a new report.
Taliban fighters pose with weapons at an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan in this May 5, 2011 picture. REUTERS/Stringer/Files
The latest annual report by the U.N. Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team on the Taliban was distributed to reporters on Friday, a day before Afghans vote in a run-off presidential election.
“In addition to voluntary or forced donations from Afghan businesses outside the country as well as voluntary donations motivated by religious or ideological convictions, the Taliban have established a fairly sophisticated system to generate resources inside the country,” the report said.
“Increasingly Taliban finances also rely on abductions of wealthy businessmen for ransom.”
The report said executing civilians and aid workers helps the Taliban reassert their power, block security improvements and prevent economic development 13 years after it was ousted from power by a U.S. invasion. It also creates new funding sources for the Taliban, hardline Islamists bent on toppling the Afghan government.
“However, these activities increasingly change the character of parts of the movement from a group based on religiously couched ideology to a coalition of increasingly criminalized networks, guided by the profit motive,” the monitors said.
Taliban revenue generation is uneven. In provinces such as Nimroz and Kandahar, the Taliban are financially self-sustaining, while others depend on payments from the central leadership.
In Kandahar, the Taliban raise $7 million to $8 million a month from narcotics, extortion and mining, the report said.
20 PERCENT GOES TO FIGHTING GOVERNMENT
The report includes details on Helmand, which it said is the Taliban’s main province for generating funds. Helmand is the top opium-producing region in Afghanistan, with some 100,000 hectares of land cultivated with poppy in 2013.
In the worst case, it said, Afghan officials expect $50 million yield from this year’s Helmand poppy harvest. Most of Helmand’s poppy farmers can expect to pay 10 percent of their opium production as tax for the Taliban.
Another lucrative Taliban business is illegal marble mining, which the monitors said is the second major revenue source in Helmand.
“The illegal and unlicensed mining sector in the province appears to be several times larger than the legal mining sector,” the report said. “The Team has currently identified from 25 to 30 illegal mining operations in southern Helmand.”
Most of the illegal mines are near the Pakistani border, enabling the illegal miners to quickly smuggle the marble across the frontier and move it onto the international market.
“The Team’s preliminary assessment is that this Taliban revenue stream is significantly larger than $10 million a year,” the monitoring team said about marble mining.
The monitors recommended that the Security Council sanctions committee warn U.N. member states about the Taliban’s use of illegally mined marble for financing.
In Helmand, the Taliban’s “Financial Commission” transfers its funds to the Quetta Shura, a group including the top Taliban leadership, who arrange for the transfer of narcotics to Pakistan for sale.
The money is then transferred back to the Quetta Shura in cash or via “hawala” agents, an informal system based on trust used to transfer money without actually moving any physical currency. The monitors said the Taliban spend 20 percent of the money on fighting the government in Helmand, while the Quetta Shura get 80 percent to redistribute to needier Taliban elsewhere.
The Taliban has been under U.N. sanctions since 1999. The sanctions include an international asset freeze. Many individual members face U.N. travel bans and asset freezes.
Sidechains have been the source of increased excitement in the Bitcoin community over the past year due to the belief that this new technology will allow an endless number of features to be integrated into the Bitcoin protocol. There are still a few people out there who believe sidechains are nothing more than vaporware, but the sidechains concept has an experienced team of Bitcoin Core developers behind it, not to mention a startup, Blockstream, that announced a $21 million round of funding late last year.
Blockstream recently released Sidechain Elements, which is a federated, alpha release of their originally outlined pegged sidechains proposal. The idea is that this early version allows the community to test out the concept without making any changes to Bitcoin Core. Some have pondered whether it could take up to five years for a true, two-way peg implementation to make its way to Bitcoin. Although the timeframe for a real two-way peg is unclear, there seems to be a general path for this new functionality to make its way into Bitcoin.
What Will It Take to Enable Two-Way Peg Support for Bitcoin?
Cryptographer Adam Back is, perhaps, best known as the inventor of hashcash, which is the underlying proof-of-work system utilized by the Bitcoin blockchain. He’s also the President and Co-Founder of Blockstream, which means he should have a general idea of how decentralized, two-way peg sidechains will eventually be rolled out. In a recent email to CoinJournal, Back was able to describe what needs to happen in order for two-way peg support to be possible in Bitcoin:
“Two-way peg support would generally be possible with any generic and sufficiently flexible scripting language, it is just a script that verifies a compact hash chain structure. Two-way peg appears almost — but probably not quite — possible today with Bitcoin script; however, I think we can fairly say this a historical accident due to slight limitations in bitcoin script, which had various opcodes disabled defensively for security reasons some years back. By doing some very advanced tricks across multiple transactions, it might even be just possible already (exercise for the reader).”
When it comes to the “very advanced tricks,” Back also added, “If someone can solve that exercise for the reader via advanced Bitcoin script hacking, we’d be very happy to hear from them.”
A BIP and Community Consensus
According to Back, either an upgrade to Bitcoin script or specific changes that enable two-way peg support should be enough to bring sidechains to Bitcoin. He then added that a concrete proposal is the next step that needs to be taken in order for decentralized sidechains to become a reality:
“I think the next step would be for someone to make a concrete proposal for community review (i.e. a BIP) and an example implementation, and then for there to be a design discussion with perhaps alternative methods compared side by side [and] evaluated by the community as has happened with prior BIP proposals and review process.”

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