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President Donald Trump delivers remarks during the anti-abortion Susan B Anthony List gala May 22, 2018 in Washington, DC. | Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images healthy care Oregon judge says he’ll block Trump’s abortion rule
A federal judge in Oregon said late Tuesday night he would block the Trump administration's controversial overhaul of the Title X federal family planning program and indicated he would issue a formal opinion soon.
U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane, an Obama appointee, said he’ll grant a preliminary injunction against changes set to go into effect May 3 that would strip funding from any participating family planning organization that offers abortions or refers patients to abortion providers — a provision critics have labeled a “gag rule.”
McShane heard arguments in a pair of suits filed by Planned Parenthood and the American Medical Association and by a coalition of more than 20 states. Plaintiffs say the administration rule issued in February should be struck down or blocked, arguing it interferes with patients' rights to counseling on pregnancy options and oversteps the administration's authority.
The judge, according to a report in The Oregonian, called the Trump restrictions a "ham-fisted approach to public health policy.'' However, his ruling may be limited in scope, because he said he was reluctant to set "national health care'’ policy.
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Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement the development was "a victory for patients and doctors" and vowed to continue to fight the administration in court and in Congress.
The American Medical Association, in a statement, said the rule would have created obstacles to health care for low-income patients. "We are pleased the judge shared the AMA’s concern about the physician-patient relationship that the rule would have jeopardized,” said the physician group's president Barbara McAneny.
Nearly two dozen states and several medical provider and advocacy groups have filed a series of suits to block the Title X change. Similar arguments were heard last week in San Francisco, and additional hearings will be held this week in Maine and Washington state.
The Trump administration maintains the Supreme Court upheld a similar Title X rule issued by the Reagan administration that was never fully implemented. The Justice Department also argued the rule is justified because, despite a longstanding ban on federal funding for abortions, groups like Planned Parenthood could “co-mingle” their federal income for contraceptive services and screenings with other funding used for abortion care.
Alice Miranda Ollstein contributed to this report. | 1,266,300 |
The OLM Souissi crowd was really into nostalgia!
Rabat – Jamiroquai has invited the public of Rabat to his funky world. Performing at the 2018 Mawazine Festival Rhythms of the World, the British band, led by jazz singer Jay Kay, has succeeded in bringing together a crowd from the youngest to the oldest, friends, families, and colleagues who came together as one to funk it!
Missing some 90’s vibe? Jamiroquai was gladly here to make us live (or relive) the golden years. “Salam Morocco,” he addressed his excited fans, before starting his very colorful and spacy concert with an electrifying performance. Jay Kay was surrounded by 5 members of his band and a female choir.
Coming after the fired-up performances of Martin Garrix (June 22) and French Montana (June 23)—who said that the international stage had the“best crowd I have seen in a long time”—Jamiroquai has proven that he has nothing to envy of the new generation of artists.
Unstoppable and energetic, the band led by the British star, for nearly two hours plunged the public into an incredible trance. Furrowing the scene from side to side in a hyperactivity out of the ordinary, the artist stopped only to drink a sip of water and to interact with the crowd. “I am delighted to be here, thank you for your presence,” he repeatedly said.
The nostalgic Moroccans have enjoyed the band’s anthological hits, such as “Cosmic Girl,” which was warmly requested by the audience, as well as “Now We Are Alone,” “You Give Me Something,” and “When You Gonna Learn.”
Saving the best for last, Jamiroquai performed the worldwide hit song “Virtual Insanity,” in front of a crazy crowd, singing and dancing along. Having a great time on stage, the 48-year old leading singer will probably never forget his first concert in Morocco.
For over a decade, Jamiroquai has proven to be one of the most influential funky bands of the 1990s generation. Having a great effect on pop culture, the very-colorful band formed in 1992, and, led by the soulman Jay Kay, rose to fame thanks to his hit single “When You Gonna Learn?” which has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.
The funky pals continue to amaze fans through the years with singles like “Cosmic Girl” and “Virtual Insanity.” Their global success can be seen in their more than 27 million album sales, 2 Grammy Awards, 5 sold-out world tours, and more than 25 years of making jazzy hits. | 1,266,301 |
The politicians have it all wrong. We are not addicted to foreign oil. We are addicted to Wi-Fi, the wireless networking technology that holds our youth in its wavy grip.
How bad is it? Seventy-five percent of American respondents to a survey sponsored by the Wi-Fi Alliance said that a week without Wi-Fi would leave grumpier than a week without coffee or tea. The poll, conducted by Wakefield Research, includes responses from more than 1,000 millennials (those between the ages 17 and 29) in the United States and 400 millennials in China, Japan and South Korea.
Two-thirds of respondents in the United States and four-fifths of those in China reported they spend more time on Wi-Fi devices than watching television. This distinction seems a bit blurry, however, since you can watch TV on your Wi-Fi connected smartphone as well as on a Wi-Fi-connected television.
And many who watch traditional TV use a Wi-Fi device — smartphone, laptop or iPad — in tandem to dig up tidbits about the shows and movies as they watch.
But Wi-Fi enables more than entertainment: Many millennials said that Wi-Fi was critical to maintaining relationships with both friends and family. In fact, 44 percent of American respondents said it would be difficult to stay in touch with family members without Wi-Fi. Personally, I find this bit off. My mother is one of those goofy people (Hi Mom!) who never bought a PC, and my niece will only communicate through cellphone texting.
So what do these millennials want from Wi-Fi that they’re not getting now?
“There is a desire for constant connectivity,” said Edgar Figueroa, chief executive officer of the Wi-Fi Alliance. “They want to connect while in a car, in a plane, while shopping.”
Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly available on airlines in the United States, with more than 1,200 planes expected to offer in-flight connectivity by year’s end. Cars remain a moving target, however, and connecting to Wi-Fi in a mall can be tricky because it’s difficult to determine which network to join.
Mr. Figueroa, who lives in Austin, Tex., says the city’s various shopping malls have taken a range of approaches to the shopping problem. Some malls offer a single Wi-Fi network throughout; in others, separate stores provide connections.
That’s not an optimal situation when you to need to quickly research pricing on that sweet-looking digital camera. Mr. Figueroa says the Wi-Fi Alliance is spearheading an initiative called Hotspot 2.0 that aims to help users find the best network, and then quickly and securely join it.
“It should be transparent, like cellular roaming,” he said. | 1,266,302 |
Folajimmy Awode has been found guilty of the sexual assault of a female patient at the Mater Private Hospital
A man who sexually assaulted a patient while working as a care assistant at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin has received a prison sentence of two years with six months suspended.
Folajimmy Awode (31) of Ballinteer House, Tyrellstown, Dublin had pleaded not guilty to sexual assault of a female patient at the Mater Private Hospital, Eccles Street in November 2013.
Last month a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court returned a majority guilty verdict after a three day trial.
Awode was working as a part-time care assistant in the woman's ward and had cleaned the toilet that evening at her request. Before going to sleep around 11pm the woman, who cannot be identified, had taken a muscle relaxant for her back.
She told the trial that she later awoke to feel rubbing on her right breast. She opened her eyes and the sensation seemed to stop. “Because of where I was, in hospital, you're just not expecting this to be the case, so I closed my eyes again,” she testified.
The sensation resumed when she once again closed her eyes. She then turned over and saw Awode standing by her bed and moving his hand away from her body.
“I looked at him. He looked totally stunned and just took off,” she said.
Another patient in the ward told gardai that she was sitting up reading and saw Awode coming into the ward twice and leave again. She said after she had turned her reading light off and lay down to sleep she saw Awode come into the ward a third time and go to the bed of the injured party.
Judge Patricia Ryan said there was an element of planning and pre-meditation to the crime. She said the breach of trust was another aggravating factor.
“She was a patient. She had taken sleeping medication. She was either asleep or trying to go to sleep,” Judge Ryan said.
She suspended the last six months of a two year prison term and placed Awode on the Sex Offenders' Register. Judge Ryan said that she had to consider his previously good employment record and the extra hardship of custody on someone who is not from this country.
The father of two has two previous convictions for dangerous driving and having no insurance. He previously worked for Eagle Eye Security and had done work experience in St Mary's Hospital in the Phoenix Park. He had worked at the Mater for three years before this incident.
Michael Hourigan BL, defending, handed in a testimonial from Awode's widowed sister who said he is a tremendous help to her and her children. Counsel said he came here from Nigeria at the age of 17 seeking asylum and was later granted residency.
Online Editors | 1,266,303 |
The following tips have been suggested by Michael J. Pitman, MD, from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, to help singers keep their voice in good shape.
1) Drink up to 8-10 glasses of pure water every day (any caffeinated drink does not count)
Water thins your mucus and lubricates your vocal cords like oil lubricates a car engine. Thick mucous causes friction and trauma to vocal cords. More water, less friction, less trauma, better voice.
2) Warm up your voice regularly
Simple warm ups are recommended, especially for auditions and performances (just as runners warm up for a marathon). Better yet, take a classical music approach: do glissandos (descending scales) and staccatos (punctuated breathing exercises) and messadivoce (controlling intensity of volume).
3) Take vocal "naps"
Your voice needs a rest, just like you do. So, find quiet time everyday - especially if you're on tour.
4) Get adequate sleep
Sounds like common sense -- and it is. The more sleep you get, the more you will be awake and have more energy for a show.
5) Do not smoke anything
No finger wagging here, it's just that smoke is an irritant that swells your vocal cords. And a reminder: New York bars are smoke free, so you can play in any venue without the damage of second hand smoke.
6) Use your microphone
There is no need to sing to the back of the room. Let the microphone be loud for you. Using the microphone prevents straining your voice.
7) Have good monitors
You need to hear yourself for vocal feedback. Use a floor monitor or ear monitor to be aware of what you sound like, what the band sounds like. You may be singing louder than you need and straining your voice.
8) Develop good singing technique
Vocal training will not change your style. It will strengthen your voice and allow you to sing longer, louder, more often and without fatigue. Vocal training will help make you a vocal athlete.
9) Develop a speaking voice to go with your singing voice
You speak 99% of the time and sing 1%. A poor speaking voice often leads to vocal strain that will carry into your singing voice. This is true especially on tours, when giving radio and other media interviews.
10) Most importantly, listen to your voice
Like any athlete, you will be the first to know when trouble is starting. If you voice hurts, back off. Change your set. Chose songs you can sing without straining your voice.
By Michael J. Pitman, MD
New Director, Center for Voice and Swallowing
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary | 1,266,304 |
It was an early October day, the day we were matched. I was already excited to be participating in a HP Exchange, which has to be the best sort of exchange for a girl like me. Raised on Harry Potter, one time pilgrim to the WWoHP and owner of a boxful of memorabililia, I clapped my hands in glee when I received a message almost straight away, titled Wait till my father hears about this!
Oh, I knew then I was going to absolutely adore this person and anything they sent. We were drawn into conversation almost immediately. We had good chats, they were going to visit HPWW soon, and we were exchanging pilgrimage notes and revelling in the awesomeness of both of us being proud Slytherins.
I was also lamenting the loss of my beloved Slytherin bottle while I was out doing CSR, and they had lost their jammies somewhere too, so we were commiserating. We had (and still have) a lot to say.
Today, their gift arrived. This great big shoebox-sized parcel which made me go "WOAH". Queue the unboxing. Holy jumping frogs, I thought. What a haul, and what beautiful penmanship! For you see, nestled in this chest with a Slytherin emblem was SIX individually wrapped parcels. She'd clearly been to Diagon Alley for a spot of shopping - there was a brown package from Ollivanders, and one from Madam Malkins.
My Hogwarts letter was there too - in a red wax seal, and parchment paper and green ink with an original ticket to the Hogwarts Express!
And curiously, a package marked Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus which we all know is the Hogwarts motto. Whatever could it be, I thought. Included also, was an unmarked, soft package. Curious and curiouser.
Contained were the following, though I'm sure you can guess what item came from what package: a Slytherin tie, a Harry Potter wand with stand, a Ron plushie, and beautiful mini replica of the Hogwarts castle with flickering lights. The Hogwarts castle provided its light so beautiful and I knew it'd keep it in my home wherever I go henceforth. I was already over the moon with all these gifts.
But then... do you know what caught my attention? A package that said “Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.”
Oh. I didn't know what exactly lay within, but I knew it's nature. As I opened it to reveal a Hogwarts tumbler, my Santa brought tears to my eyes - no way could they have known the true heartbreak of losing your prized possession - except that she did know, and in that moment, all was well. | 1,266,305 |
Not that indecent-exposure laws aren't often gender-biased to begin with. The "Free the Nipple" campaign released a film in 2014 and has recruited celebrities into its drive to bring attention to laws (as well as extralegal social taboos) that bar women but not men from displaying their nipples in public. Moore's proposal at least has the benefit of gender-neutrality on nipples, and he also favors a ban on Speedos, which would seem to effect mostly men.
It's been a rough stretch, so to speak, for yoga pants, which went from unknown to must-have in no time at all. But in 2013, Lululemon, perhaps the best-known purveyor, had to recall a jaw-dropping 17 percent of its inventory of the stretchy garments because they were made too thin and consequently were translucent. The horrified reaction by consumers to the too-thin pants suggests that woman are conscious of the dangers of the leggings without Representative Moore's intervention.
It's not the first time a Republican politician has gone to the mat with opponents on a yoga-related issue. During the 2013 election, Virginia lieutenant-gubernatorial candidate E.W. Jackson made a bold ploy to alienate Northern Virginia voters and was mocked for saying that yoga opened practitioners to satanic possession. But Jackson's comment wasn't actually all that radical. As Garance Franke-Ruta detailed at the time, there's a robust literature in some conservative Christian circles that objects not only to the importation of a Hindu practice but also to the spiritual approach at its heart. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote:
The bare fact is that yoga is a spiritual discipline by which the adherent is trained to use the body as a vehicle for achieving consciousness of the divine. Christians are called to look to Christ for all that we need and to obey Christ through obeying his Word. We are not called to escape the consciousness of this world by achieving an elevated state of consciousness, but to follow Christ in the way of faithfulness.
Even Pope Benedict has reservations about yoga. There is, however, a Christian alternative to yoga, for the believer who also wants a good stretching exercise. (It's called PraiseMoves.)
Back in Montana, Moore would also like to loosen the penalties associated with indecent exposure. First and second offenses currently carry fines of up to $500 and six months in jail, and $1,000 and one year in jail, he would leave those in place. But he would lower the penalty for a third offense from fines of up to $10,000 and up to life imprisonment, reducing the upper bounds to $5,000 and five years in jail. That extra five-grand savings could pay for a pretty sweet haul at the local Lululemon. Unfortunately, there isn't a single one in the Big Sky State. | 1,266,306 |
switch even if it causes a mismatch and they don't communicate their intentions to each other quickly enough when doing so. There's no reason for Harden and Howard to switch here, and even if there was, they need to talk to each other to prevent an awful breakdown like this.
This problem pollutes every Rockets lineup and probably explains why Howard hasn't been the savior he was in the past. Drivers have too much of a head start for Howard to adequately contest shots. When Howard played last year, the Rockets funneled dribble penetration to him. He's caught unprepared this year and that's enough to profoundly change his rim protection numbers. Backup Clint Capela at least has more spring in his legs, but his positioning is even worse and he too gets punished by his teammates.
Houston certainly has less defensive talent on the perimeter, particularly with Patrick Beverley sitting. Nevertheless, they should be performing much better than this. It starts with actually talking to each other.
Concentration
Talking to each other also means we'll see fewer awful lapses. The Rockets should be embarrassed by the number of times an opponent has cut backdoor on a snoozing defender. It's a plague that cannot continue.
Harden is clearly the worst offender. As CBS Sports' Matt Moore notes, he's devolved into Internet Meme James Harden after working hard to shed that reputation last year. The narrative of Harden's defensive improvement was always a little overblown, but there's no denying that he's averaging significantly more bloopers per game this year.
But it's not just Harden. Everyone has been afflicted. Lawson has been victimized.
Corey Brewer has fallen asleep in as obvious a way as Harden.
Even Trevor Ariza and Beverley, the two players counted on most to establish a defensive identity, aren't immune.
The lack of focus here is astounding and must be addressed. Interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff will surely point out the errors, but the onus is on the players to correct them.
It's amazing that a purported title contender is having trouble paying attention on defense, but here we are.
***
The evidence points to a major chemistry problem with the Rockets, which is why they felt the need to fire McHale so quickly. Coaches always take the blame when the players give such a poor effort, simply because it really is easier to fire one coach instead of 15 players.
Yet blaming McHale for this debacle is shortsighted. The Rockets players simply need to show more professional pride to dig themselves out of this mess. They're too talented to be playing this poorly and renewed focus on the basics will allow them to display that talent.
On the one side, "try harder" is a simple solution. On the other hand, what does it say about a team with such high hopes that we even have to say that? | 1,266,307 |
Mark Zuckerberg may have fallen foul of power struggles between internet regulators and other authorities
For a little while, Facebook was poised for a comeback in China, where it has been banned for almost a decade.
On Wednesday a government database showed Facebook had been approved to set up an office in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Facebook said it was interested in opening “an innovation hub” in Zhejiang, similar to others it has started elsewhere. Then on Thursday, the filing had disappeared and terms related to the operation were censored on Chinese social media.
Facebook sets up subsidiary in China despite website ban Read more
The apparent about-face underlines the difficulty for companies operating in China, where they answer to a legion of ministries, local and central authorities, and regulators whose internal power struggles can derail new ventures like Facebook’s.
According to the New York Times, citing an unnamed source, Facebook had secured the approval of provincial authorities but not the country’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China. According to the paper, the regulator was angry it had not been consulted more.
Faxed questions from the Guardian and calls to Cyberspace Administration of China went unanswered.
Chinese media who on Wednesday visited the site of the Facebook office listed on the filing reported local tenants saying they knew of no new companies moving in and there had been no renovations. Screenshots of the filing, still circulating in Chinese media on Thursday, said it would focus on technology development, service, consulting, as well as investment management and consulting.
Facebook may have fallen victim to a change in political guards. Mark Zuckerberg famously hosted Lu Wei, the ex-head of the Cyberspace Administration in 2014, at the company’s campus in California. Zuckerberg greeted China’s top internet censor in Mandarin and posed for pictures in his office, with books of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s speeches on his desk.
Last year, Lu became one of the most prominent officials to fall during Xi’s second term, netted by a corruption crackdown that observers say has long been used to purge political rivals.
Facebook’s attempt to re-enter the Chinese market, even in the form of an innovation centre, is made difficult by tightening censorship. While Facebook, Google, Twitter, Youtube, Whatsapp and other platforms have long been banned, Chinese regulators are increasingly policing online content, from humour apps to mentions of British comedian John Oliver. Toutiao, the country’s top news aggregating app, has hired thousands of censors to help regulate content on its platforms.
Even if Facebook’s hub were to go through, removing a ban on the platform is still unlikely. Speaking to Recode last week about the company’s efforts in China, Zuckerberg said: “We’re, I think, a long time away from doing anything.” | 1,266,308 |
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Chocolate Pot de Creme is one of my all time favorite desserts. It’s like a mix between chocolate pudding and chocolate fudge, what could you not love about that? This low-carb version tastes just like my favorite go-to recipe but without the guilt of all of that sugar! This is one ketogenic treat you can feel good about!
Since these are little individual sized desserts they make a great option for dinner parties. You can easily double or triple the recipe as well. If you’re not dairy free, feel free to use heavy whipping cream in place of the coconut milk!
You also have a few choices as far as toppings go. Sea salt is a personal favorite but crushed nuts, keto whipped cream, or extra chocolate shaving would all be delicious.
The #1 Keto Diet App Free Download 1,500+ delicious keto recipes Trialed & tested for best results Optimized for nutrition Never feel hungry Planner & tracker Track all macros including net carbs Scan products Create your own meals Advanced tracking Track ketones, blood glucose & lipids Stay hydrated with water tracking Track your mood & energy levels Macro calculator Calculate your ideal fat, protein & carb intake Set any goal: weight loss, maintenance or weight gain Your macros update based on your progress Progress Monitor your macros, water intake, mood & energy Body weight, body fat and body measurements Ketones, blood glucose & lipids Evidence-based content Expert articles to help you make informed choices Guides & free diet plans New daily content And so much more...! Complete Keto Diet guide Integrated shopping basket Restaurants & guide to eating out Free Download App Store Google Play App Store Also available on Google Play Google Play Also available on App Store
0 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes Hands-on 15 minutes Overall 3 hours Allergy information for Keto Chocolate Pots De Creme ✔ Gluten free ✔ Dairy free ✔ Nut free ✔ Nightshade free ✔ Pork free ✔ Avocado free ✔ Fish free ✔ Shellfish free Pescatarian Vegetarian Print Recipe Download Recipe
Nutritional values (per serving)
Net carbs 6.2 grams Protein 6.6 grams Fat 29.5 grams Calories 329 kcal Calories from carbs 8%, protein 8%, fat 84% Total carbs 10.4 grams Fiber 4.1 grams Sugars 1.3 grams Saturated fat 20.6 grams Sodium 55 mg ( 2 % RDA ) Magnesium 64 mg ( 16 % RDA ) Potassium 677 mg ( 34 % EMR )
Do you like this recipe? Share it with your friends! Pinterest Reddit
Lauren Lester Creator of Healthful Creative Lauren is a food photographer, recipe developer, and author. She is the founder of the creative content agency, Healthful Creative. HC specializes in helping food centered brands share their story through recipe development + food photography. More posts by Lauren Lester | 1,266,309 |
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Very good run for me. 4th victory (stealth of course) and in only ~5k turns. Granted, I was sort of abusing the 6 move delay, but still. If you were being *really* efficient you could probably win in 3-4k turns pretty easily.Small notes: Powered Armor is really, really good for stealth runs. Imp. Powered Armor was giving me like 42% coverage, while only taking up 2 mass. I considered stacking them but I wasn't able to find any more of them.I didn't really need or use the 5th propulsion slot but I wanted to see what would happen if I equipped more flight units. The answer is weird shit. Still not worth it, since you can just get utility mass capacity and you aren't getting faster and just losing a lot more energy / gaining heat.Backup Power VII's are probably my favourite engine in the game. 4 mass for 12 power, with okay heat generation. Repair stations are pretty much the best.I really try to take advantage of fabricators, but they always get locked or I can't find them or I don't have any particularly necessary schematics. Maybe if I tried harder to get schematics out of terminals, but usually there are more important things - finding other terminals, traps, exits, recalling any squads, figuring out which haulers need to get intercepted, etc. Even just identifying prototypes is really useful, mostly so you don't waste your time equipping useless shit. Also, having to carry around mass containers is somewhat frustrating, especially since I usually prefer to use non-kinetic weapons anyway. Finally 90% of the time you wanna build prototypes anyways, and when they come out broken that is genuinely depressing. Also, scanalyzers are usually not super useful, although I imagine in a non-stealth run they're better. But here if I'm carrying it, I probably don't really need to build it.Also, I think both transmission jammers and ECM suites aren't that necessary for a stealth run, at least when you have 10 or less move delay and a LR scanner. Better off with hacking, storage, defensive utilities, or whatever.In any case, pretty sure I can reliably win stealth runs nowish, even when horrible things like pic related happens. Probably time to start being more horribly violent and blowing shit up. | 1,266,310 |
The internet's ubiquity is making it harder to form human connections, and stay in touch with ourselves.
A great reverse migration is underway in India.
On March 24, prime minister Narendra Modi urged all Indians to stay at home for three weeks to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. The short, four-hour notice for the shutdown, though, effectively trapped the country’s 470 million migrant workers in no man’s land.
The closure of all but essential services has made it impossible for the daily wagers to live in the rented shanties of big cities. Even though finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs1.7 lakh crore ($23 billion) relief package yesterday (March 26), to aid those who live on the margins, panicked labourers are undertaking 500km long journeys on foot in the absence of trains and buses.
This arduous trek back home to their villages now threatens to defeat the very purpose of the ongoing 21-day lockdown.
Contrast this to the several aircraft India flew to rescue its citizens stranded in various countries across the world. From the early flights to China and later to Italy, India’s foreign ministry went above and beyond to rescue Indians abroad.
Not all migrants are equal, as these pictures show.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi A migrant worker runs behind a truck as others try to board it to return to their villages.
AP Photo/Ajit Solanki Ramesh Meena from Rajasthan carries his wife, who fractured her leg, on his shoulder, as they leave for their village from Ahmedabad.
AP Photo/Altaf Qadri On the outskirts of Delhi, a family is prepared to walk for hundreds of miles to reach their village in Uttar Pradesh.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Scores of migrant workers and daily wagers walk back to their villages from Delhi.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi In Ghaziabad, where several migrant labourers work on construction sites, a mass migration is underway on foot.
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui Walking for survival in Delhi.
AP Photo/Altaf Qadri An Indian man carries his children on his shoulders as he along with his family walk along an expressway hoping to reach their home, hundreds of miles away, as the city comes under lockdown in Ghaziabad
REUTERS/Amit Dave Migrant families walk towards their villages on a highway in Ahmedabad.
Some states, such as Delhi, have announced free community kitchens for those in need. The choice is brutal—to let people die hungry, or risk the spread of an infection that has killed thousands across the world.
Others have had to improvise.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi A migrant worker eats food offered by local residents on a highway in Ghaziabad. | 1,266,311 |
Extra-Terrestrials in the Oceans ∞The 9D Arcturian Council
“Greetings. We are the Arcturian Council. We are pleased to connect with all of you.
We have begun investigating the probable scenarios that lie in front of you for the second half of your calendar year, and we have noticed that some new probabilities have come to the surface involving the discovery of extra-terrestrials living in your oceans. Now, when we say that they will be ‘discovered,’ what we really mean is that there is a high probability that the existence of these extra-terrestrials will be revealed to the public. Now, you have already seen the groundwork for this laid by the articles that have come out proclaiming that the octopi in your oceans could not possibly be from planet Earth.
You are beginning to accept more and more as a society that extra-terrestrial life is a real thing, and the numbers of humans who accept that e.t.s have been on planet Earth with you is growing every day. Now, the reason why the revelation will be made about the e.t.s living in the ocean first is because most individuals do not spend a lot of time on ships and boats and those who do already know about great white sharks. They understand that the oceans can be a dangerous place, even with just the possibility of a huge storm coming. And so, it will not rattle too many of you to know that there is life from other planets living in your oceans.
Most people will still not believe that the evidence is real, if they are inclined to not believe. If they are skeptical for any reason, then the revelation will not affect them. So, it is a step forward for those of you who want full disclosure, but it is not news for those of you who want full disclosure. It is showing a willingness on the part of those who have been keeping secrets from the public to reveal more. We see this probable timeline as a sort of test to measure the response of humanity. And as we have said, we do believe that those of you who already know about extra-terrestrials will find it satisfying to see something like this revealed in a regular publication.
Even our announcing of this probable timeline creates a greater likelihood of it coming to fruition, and we are excited for all of you. We are excited to see humanity getting closer and closer to the time where you will have e.t.s walking, swimming, and flying among you.
We are the Arcturian Council, and we have enjoyed connecting with you.”
Purchase my NEW book on amazon, or the ebook from me – Channeled Wisdom from Higher Dimensional Beings, Volume 2 here
Watch the Video Here – I’m in It!
Love these quotes? Make a donation here | 1,266,312 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal regulator said on Tuesday it is seeking input on rewriting decades-old rules aimed at encouraging bank lending in low-income communities.
FILE PHOTO: Joseph M. Otting speaks after being sworn in as Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, U.S., November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
The move by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to seek public comment is an initial step by regulators to rewrite the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rules, which banks say have become outdated since they were last updated in the 1990s.
The rules are aimed at preventing discriminatory lending and so-called redlining by requiring banks to extend mortgages and other types of credit to low-income communities where they take deposits.
Regulators regularly grade banks on their compliance, and lenders that do not make the grade face limits on their ability to expand through mergers, acquisitions or adding new branches until issues are addressed.
Banks say that the rules overlook technology that allows customers to apply for loans and transfer funds via a mobile app regardless of physical location or hour restrictions.
The Trump administration, which is looking across industries for places to trim regulations, has pushed for a more relaxed approach to the CRA rules.
The OCC shares responsibility for enforcing CRA rules with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Federal Reserve, which did not sign off on Tuesday’s consultation.
But both agencies have expressed interest in rewriting the rules. The OCC plans to share responses with the other regulators after a 75-day open period for comment, it said on Tuesday.
Comptroller Joseph Otting, a former banker, has identified updating CRA regulations as a top priority, and the Treasury Department has similarly said bank regulators should look for ways to modernize the rules.
“Stakeholders of all kinds have spoken up, calling the current regulatory framework for the CRA outdated, complex, and cumbersome,” Otting said in a statement on Tuesday.
The OCC is considering expanding the types of bank activity that would qualify under the rules and potentially broadening the geographic areas where a bank can do business and still comply with CRA, in a nod to the rise of digital banking.
“Current CRA rules make it harder for [community bankers] to serve their communities, which makes today’s OCC action both timely and necessary,” Rob Nichols, president of the American Bankers Association, said in a statement.
“The current framework is holding back investment in communities the law is intended to serve, while failing to account for significant innovations in the banking sector, including the opportunities presented by mobile technologies.”
Consumer and fair-lending groups agree the rules could be modernized, but are wary of any changes that could lower standards and hurt minorities’ fair access to credit. | 1,266,313 |
The bible of psychiatry says that kinky sex could be problematic, but a new study claims that whips, chains and nipple clamps might actually be good for one’s health.
Practitioners of bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism (BDSM) feel more secure in their relationships, have a higher sense of well-being and are less neurotic than people who prefer tamer sex, according to a new study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Beyond that, members of the BDSM community tended to be more extroverted, were more open to new ideas and were less sensitive to rejection, according to study researcher Andreas Wismeijer, a psychologist at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands who conducted the research while at Tilburg University.
“[BDSM practitioners] either did not differ from the general population and if they differed, they always differed in the more favorable direction,” said Wismeijer according to LiveScience.
Wismeijer conducted his research by subjecting 902 BDSM practitioners and 434 non-BDSM participants to questionnaires that examined personality, sensitivity to rejection, style of attachment in relationships and overall well-being.
“We did not have any findings suggesting that people who practice BDSM have a damaged psychological profile or have some sort of psychopathology or personality disorder,” Wismeijer said.
While the researcher was reluctant to offer explanations for his findings, he did offer a few hypotheses.
For starters, BDSM practitioners tend to have a heightened awareness of their sexual needs and desires, so they might be able to build less frustrating relationships both inside and outside the bedroom when compared with their more “vanilla” peers.
Along the same lines, Wismeijer also suggested that accepting one’s unusual sexual preferences and choosing to live in a societal niche like the BDSM community might involve huge amounts of psychological work, which could translate into positive mental health.
Wismeijer’s study comes hot on the heels of the release of the newest version of the psychiatrists’ bible, the DSM-5, which classifies BDSM as an unusual sexual fixation.
This classification means that BDSM is a mental disorder only when it causes harm to the practitioner or to others.
While BDSM’s placement in the DSM seems damning, the tome has a checkered history when it comes to classifying sexual preferences. For example, in the DSM-1, printed in 1952, homosexuality was listed as a sociopathic personality disturbance, and it wasn’t removed from the DSM-2 until its seventh printing in 1974.
“I’m not so convinced that BDSM should be placed within the DSM-5,” Wismeijer said. | 1,266,314 |
Gandhi Jayanti: Rajnath Singh participated in "Swachch Bharat Abhiyan" in Delhi.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday unveiled a bust of Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary at an event organised in Delhi Cantonment.
"Mahatma Gandhi started the cleanliness drive in 1917 from Champaran and Prime Minister Narendra Modi converted it into a public movement in 2014," Mr Singh said after unveiling and garlanding the statue.
He said that awareness regarding cleanliness has increased among people and Mahatma Gandhi's dream is now being fulfilled on his birth anniversary.
Sharing pictures from the event, Mr Singh wrote on Twitter, "Participated in "Swachch Bharat Abhiyan" on the occasion of 150th Gandhi Jayanti in Delhi. As the world facing the challenges of climate change and other environmental issues, it is time to follow the path shown by Gandhiji to make this country and the planet a better place."
Participated in ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyan' on the occasion of 150th #GandhiJayanti in Delhi.
As the world facing the challenges of climate change & other environmental issues, it is time to follow the path shown by Gandhiji to make this country and the planet a better place. pic.twitter.com/FJqlv0LcPI — Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) October 2, 2019
One of the students gifted Mr Singh a greeting card extending good wishes on Gandhi Jayanti. Mr Singh also distributed jute and khadi bags to students.
A skit was also organised portraying Mahatma Gandhi's struggle for India's independence.
They raised slogans of "Bapu tum aage badho, hum tumhare saath hai'' (Father you take a step forward, we are with you)".
The Defence Minister later planted and watered a sapling to spread the message of green and clean India. Earlier in the morning, he administered a "cleanliness oath" to people present at the event.
The Congress and the BJP are organising a number of events throughout the country to mark Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has extended its Gandhi Sankalp Yatra by a period of three months. The Yatra will now be a 120-day exercise and will culminate on January 31, 2020. Earlier, it was scheduled to be held between October 2 and October 31.
Under this, the BJP is planning to propagate Mahatma Gandhi's ideals and principles of non-violence, independence and simplicity to mark his 150th birth anniversary.
Posters, banners and kits for the programs to be held during the yatra will be directly sent to the state units from the party headquarters. | 1,266,315 |
Colombo: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday tabled in Parliament a report of experts on drafting a new Constitution in which the foremost place would be given to Buddhism, rejecting allegations by the Opposition that the majority religion will be diluted.
Parliament met as the Constitutional Assembly of Wickremesinghe presented the report prepared by the Panel of Experts for the Steering Committee, which is based on the Interim report, six sub-committee reports and representations made by political parties on drafting a new Constitution.
"This report consists of proposals made by all parties including the chief ministers of provinces," he said, adding that it was up to Parliament to take the process forward.
Wickremesinghe debunked theories put forward by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Sinhala majority nationalists that the Constitution-making exercise will give into the demands of Tamil minority separatists.
They have condemned the new Constitution as the one which will grant a federal states to the north, eventually leading to the separation of the island.
Wickremesinghe said: "There is no federal proposal in this. All have accepted the unitary character, although they may have different views on its terminology".
The Rajapaksa camp has also accused the new Constitution of diluting the Buddhism's foremost position over other religions.
The prime minister emphasised that the foremost place given to the majority religion Buddhism has been preserved.
Leader of the Opposition Rajapaksa said Parliament has no political moral right to bring in a new Constitution as the ruling party of Wickremesinghe was defeated in local council elections last year.
"We demand that a general election be held so that people will be given the opportunity to decide on the new Constitution. We will come up with our own proposals," Rajapaksa said.
The Marxist JVP, while blaming Rajapaksa for carrying out misinformation on the new Constitution, said the Constitutional Assembly had not been able to come up with a common draft let alone making a Constitution.
"This is now only a time wasting exercise," JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said, adding that it has failed to make a draft Constitution over the last four years.
Rajapaksa loyalist and senior Parliamentarian Dinesh Gunawardena was more vocal in calling for abandoning the Constitutional Assembly.
The main Tamil party leader R Sampanthan recalled the history of failed Constitution making attempts to redress the Tamil community and urged Rajapaksa to stop playing politics.
Wickremesinghe stressed that all parties must take the process forward with a debate on the report. No date was fixed for the debate.
According to some analysts, the process of formulating a new Constitution faces the danger of being abandoned if Friday's proceedings in the Constitutional Assembly was an indicator. | 1,266,316 |
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House before signing a new law aimed at curbing six trafficking Wednesday in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP | AP
Asked for his response to word President Trump wants to fire Robert Mueller and shut down the special counsel’s investigation of Russian interference in the election, Sen. Dean Heller said he would urge Trump not to do it.
“I would urge the president not to fire Mueller,” he said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
At the same time, Heller, R-Nev., said the investigation needs to be wrapped up.
“I want him to be thorough but I want them to get this over with,” he said.
Asked whether he thinks Congress should pass legislation aimed at protecting the special counsel from firing, Heller said he doesn’t think that’s necessary.
“I disagree with most Republicans in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen so I don’t think there’s a need for legislation.”
Heller said he thinks Speaker Paul Ryan’s announcement he won’t seek re-election and will leave the House in January has major implications on who controls the House of Representatives next year.
“I don’t think this bodes well for the House,” he said. “It puts more emphasis on the Senate moving forward.”
Heller said he’s proud of accomplishments including making sure there’s significant funding for the Veterans Administration in the Omnibus funding bill passed by Congress.
He said there’s $685 million for construction of veterans homes and other facilities. He said Nevada can apply for a share of that cash to pay for the Northern Nevada Veterans Home. Nevada put the money up front to build the home and is hoping the federal government will pay the state back.
He said that fact should weigh heavily in Nevada’s favor when it applies for the funding.
He said there’s another $160 million in grant funding the state can seek to help put up more fire-watch cameras in the Tahoe Basin. He said the existing cameras have proven invaluable in early detection of fires in the basin.
“When I was chairman of the (Tahoe Regional Planning Agency) my biggest fear was having a lightning strike and having that basin burn up,” he said.
Heller, who questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday about plans to improve security of personal data in Facebook, said he expects there will be a couple of bills to tighten regulation of social media but he doesn’t support “heavy regulation of the Internet, which I consider one of the last bastions of freedom we have.” | 1,266,317 |
E-cigarettes and smoking hookah have gained popularity among middle and high school students in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes tripled from 2013 to 2014.
Among high school students, 13.4 percent were found to be using e-cigarettes in 2014 compared with 4.5 percent in 2013. The number of middle school students using e-cigarettes also tripled from 1.1 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2014.
Vince Willmore, vice president for communication at the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said marketing of e-cigarettes has played a big role in young people using the product.
“They’re available in flavors that appeal to kids like cotton candy and gummy bear, so it’s not surprising that kids are using more of these products because they’re being marketed in the very same way that regular cigarettes have been marketed to kids,” he said.
In 2014, former Gov. Steve Beshear signed a law banning the sale of e-cigarettes to minors in Kentucky.
Smoking among young people has long been prevalent in Kentucky. In 2012, an estimated 24.1 percent of high school students were smokers, according to United Health Foundation.
CDC’s findings also show the number of middle and high school students smoking hookah nearly doubled.
Among high school students, 9.4 percent were found to be smoking hookah in 2014 compared with 5.2 percent in 2013. The number of middle school students smoking hookah also doubled from 1.1 percent in 2013 to 2.5 percent in 2014.
Willmore said smoking hookah has become a social activity for some young people.
“There’s a perception that hookah smoking is not as harmful as regular smoking, but the evidence shows that it is very harmful,” Willmore said.
Currently, e-cigarettes and hookah are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The government agency has issued a proposed rule that would extend its authority to cover additional products that meet the legal definition of a tobacco product, according to the FDA.
“We so desperately need the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes to prevent marketing and sales to kids, and the use of flavors that appeal to kids,” Willmore said.
E-cigarette use among youth now surpasses use of every other tobacco product overall, including conventional cigarettes, according to the data.
CDC says 24.6 percent of high school and 7.7 percent of middle school students were found to be using some type of tobacco product. There was no decline in overall tobacco use between 2011 and 2014.
The CDC and FDA’s Centers for Tobacco Products used data from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey. | 1,266,318 |
White House counsel Don McGahn expected to leave job in fall, Trump says McGahn's departure was expected after the Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
Don McGahn, the White House counsel, will be leaving his position in the fall, President Trump announced in a tweet Wednesday morning.
Trump said McGahn's departure would come after the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
McGahn had openly expressed his frustrations regarding his frayed relationship with the president and had signaled his desire to leave the White House months ago. McGahn had decided to stay on to lead the confirmation process of Kavanaugh, according to sources.
McGahn has cooperated extensively with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia's meddling with the 2016 presidential election, meeting with Mueller's team of investigators at least three times, according to news reports. Sources familiar with his cooperation told ABC News that McGahn has been questioned by the special counsel’s team more extensively than any other member of the White House staff.
White House officials, including the president himself, have insisted they are not concerned over the testimony McGahn gave -- testimony that could bolster claims the president sought to obstruct justice.
Trump first announced McGahn's appointment as White House counsel in November 2016, describing him as having "a brilliant legal mind, excellent character and a deep understanding of constitutional law."
He has since been a key player behind the scenes of many of President Trump's most consequential and controversial decisions since taking office. McGahn was responsible for briefing the president regarding former national security adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russian officials, including former acting Attorney General Sally Yates' contention that Flynn could be susceptible to Russian blackmail.
McGahn also reportedly blocked the president from moving forward with threats of firing special counsel Mueller. According to The New York Times, McGahn threatened to resign in June of 2016 if Trump took any action to remove Mueller from his role overseeing the probe.
But McGahn's tenure has also been lauded by Republicans for his role in coordinating the administration's efforts to appoint conservative judges to federal benches across the country, including the president's first Supreme Court justice appointment of Neil Gorsuch.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley tweeted Wednesday that the president should not to let McGahn leave.
In a statement to ABC News, Grassley's spokesman said the senator's tweet reflected his admiration for McGahn's work regarding judicial nominees.
"Senator Grassley has admired Mr. McGahn’s work over the last two years and has considered him integral to the President’s record-breaking success on filling judicial vacancies," the spokesman said. "From Senator Grassley’s perspective, there’s not been any White House Counsel who has worked so well and so efficiently with the chairman’s office and the Senate Judiciary Committee on judges."
ABC News' Tara Palmeri, Katherine Faulders and Mariam Khan contributed reporting to this article. | 1,266,319 |
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The streets of “occupied” Palestine closely resemble the police brutality witnessed in Ferguson, Missouri, in the US, members of the Black Lives Matter group told The Jerusalem Post.Ferguson became a hotbed of unrest after police fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August 2014, resulting in a series of riots and protests. Police efforts to dispel the unrest raised even more controversy, leading activists to claim widespread police brutality – one of the issues at the core of the Black Lives Matter movement.Black Lives Matter has pulled no punches when it comes to criticizing Israel, claiming it is an apartheid state that perpetuates genocide against the Palestinian people, according to its platform released on Tuesday.For the delegation of Black Lives Matter activists here, who spent the majority of their time in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the parallels between Ferguson and the Palestinian territories were eerily similar.“Going through checkpoints, seeing rubber bullets, reminds us what our comrades and some of us experienced in Ferguson, [and] IDF soldiers totally remind me of the cops that brutalized [me],” said Ash-lee Henderson, a regional organizer for Project South, which does grassroots advocacy for low-income communities. According to Henderson, a Black Lives Matter movement member, a violent encounter with police left her gravely injured and forced to use a cane for more than a year.A similar observation was made last month by New York University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which accused Israel of being complicit with police brutality in the United States. The allegation drew swift criticism, resulting in a half-hearted clarification from SJP.Such a comparison dovetails with the popular BDS slogan, “From Ferguson to Palestine.”“We’ve met with folks leading the BDS movement to talk about organizing strategies.There’s a lot of similarities between organizers working in the United States on anti-black racism and organizers here,” said Shanelle Matthews, Black Lives Matter’s communications officer. “We share many of the same organizing strategies.”Black Lives Matter, which “unequivocally” supports BDS, has “a lot to learn from the movement,” Matthews said.“I think that one of the best parts of our trip was listening to folks talk about how they strategically thought about building a nonviolent movement that spreads like wildfire across the world in a way that can actually change the conditions in the most oppressed places,” she said.The full interview will be published as a Frontlines feature in Friday’s paper. | 1,266,320 |
Winter is quickly drawing to an end, but what about your hair? After all the cold outside, and hot and dry inside, your hair can get pretty damaged over the holiday season. Even if you're just looking for an affordable pick-me-up every few weeks, homemade recipes are often the best way to go. Here's a quick, easy hair mask DIY trick that you can make at home, and I'm sure you'll absolutely love!
You'll need:
Olive Oil
Honey
A microwave-safe bowl
A tablespoon for measuring
A hairbrush
Plastic wrap or a shower cap
Hair clip
Hair dryer (optional)
Measure about 5 tablespoons of olive oil into your bowl. If you have hair past the shoulders, you may use a few more to make sure you have enough for your whole head. My hair is around the middle of my back, so I use around 8. Measure about 5 tablespoons of honey into your bowl. Again, up this if your hair is long or thick. I find that around half olive oil to half honey works well. Stir well. Place the bowl in the microwave for 15 - 20 seconds. Your microwave time may vary--we just want it to be warm, not boiling. Be careful when you take it out, it may be hotter than you think and you do not want to burn yourself with hot oil! Stir until the oil and honey are very well mixed. Brush your hair out. Apply your concoction from root to tip! (I find that flipping my hair over helps a lot in this step. You may want to do it over your bathtub, for easy cleanup.) Once your hair is well-saturated, make sure to really massage it into your ends. Twist your hair and clip it up. Twisting your hair keeps any existing heat from escaping, which allows your hair to absorb all the moisturizing goodness of the mask! Apply the plastic wrap or shower cap. Use your hair dryer to apply some heat. This also really assists in allowing the mixture to fully penetrate the hair. Leave on for 30 - 60 minutes. Wash and rinse your hair well. Since there is honey in this mixture, you may find that you have to shampoo more than once to completely get it out. Style your hair to your liking. Admire your revived tresses!
Your hair will feel soft, manageable, and moisturized after completing this hair mask. I like to use this mask once a week or once every two weeks to keep my hair healthy, shiny and frizz-free.
Beauty tips for your hair and skin are everywhere. They can be amazing to keep you naturally healthy underneath the beauty products you use, as well as make a great canvas to work your beauty magic on. DIYs are a girl's best friend!
I hope you enjoyed this beauty tip, and thanks for reading! | 1,266,321 |
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) On Saturday, Kim Mi-ok waited in a Chinese border city for her husband to step off the train from North Korea.
He never emerged.
"I waited until the last passenger. I waited until the train doors closed, but I couldn't find him," Kim said.
The next day, North Korea's state news agency announced security services had detained Kim's husband, Kim Hak-song, "on suspicion of hostile acts against the state."
"I was speechless, I was in shock," his wife said, speaking to CNN in an emotional interview.
Kim Hak-song, left, and his wife, Kim Mi-ok, in a photo provided to CNN by the family.
Weeping and beating her chest, she said her husband had been falsely accused.
"He went to the country and served with love and I believe his words that there was nothing else," she said.
Kim Hak-song is an ethnic Korean who was born in China. He became a naturalized US citizen more than a decade ago. It was there that he was also ordained as an evangelical Christian pastor affiliated with the Oriental Mission Church in Los Angeles.
Kim's wife said her husband had been teaching agricultural techniques at Pyongyang University for Science and Technology. She insisted that he did not engage in missionary work in fiercely atheistic North Korea.
Kim's wife, left, and Kim, center, in a photograph with other family members.
"He worked as a farmer," Kim's wife said. "He always loved the soil and the land."
She showed CNN photos of her smiling husband standing in rice paddies at an experimental farm where he worked on the outskirts of Pyongyang.
"Last year they had a big harvest," she said.
In the 1990s, North Korea suffered from a famine that was estimated to have led to the deaths of some 2.5 million people.
Kim says she and her husband made multiple trips to North Korea in recent years in connection with the university.
The first signs of trouble came on April 22, when the North Koreans suddenly detained Tony Kim, a fellow Korean-American academic teaching at the same university in Pyongyang.
On Friday, North Korean officials announced the launch of a campaign to root out suspected foreign agents, after Pyongyang made dramatic, unsubstantiated claims to have foiled a CIA-backed plot to assassinate supreme leader Kim Jong Un.
US and South Korean intelligence officials have dismissed the accusations.
Now, with the detention of the second Korean-American working at Pyongyang University in barely two weeks, a tearful Kim Mi-ok had a message for the North Korean government.
"We are all the same people," she said. "I hope this detention is solved in a humanitarian way and he is sent back to our family. Our family members are waiting." | 1,266,322 |
Murat Tüfekçi, a Turkish citizen who was detained and jailed as part of the Turkish government’s massive post-coup witch hunt targeting alleged members of the Gülen movement, died after he allegedly suffered a heart attack in prison.
According to a post shared by Turkish Twitter account @TutukluHastalar, Tüfekçi had been held in Karabük Prison for the last two-and-a-half years.
The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) reported in one of its studies titled “Suspicious Deaths and Suicides In Turkey” that there has been an increase in the number of suspicious deaths in Turkey, most in jails and detention centers, where torture and ill-treatment are being practiced. In the majority of cases, authorities concluded they were suicides without any effective, independent investigation.
Suspicious deaths have also taken place beyond prison walls amid psychological pressure and threats of imminent imprisonment and torture, sometimes following the release of suspects or just before their detention. SCF has compiled 121 cases of suspicious deaths and suicides in Turkey in a list in a searchable database format.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey have been the subject of legal proceedings in the last two years on charges of membership in the Gülen movement since the coup attempt in July 2016, a Turkish Justice Ministry official told a symposium on July 19, 2018.
“Legal proceedings have been carried out against 445,000 members of this organization,” Turkey’s pro-government Islamist news agency İLKHA quoted Turkish Justice Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Ömer Faruk Aydıner as saying.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016, that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. On December 13, 2017, the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018, that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016, and April 11, 2018, over alleged links to the Gülen movement.
Take a second to support SCF on Patreon! | 1,266,323 |
In what could be the show’s shortest lived tenure, comedian Shane Gillis has been fired from NBC’s Saturday Night Live after old jokes resurfaced in which the comedian used slurs against Asians and gays.
His departure comes just fours days after Saturday Night Live announced that Gillis was joining the cast for the show’s new season, set to start Sept. 28.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” a show spokesperson said on behalf of producer Lorne Michaels, in a statement.
“We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as comedian and his impressive audition for SNL. We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”
Gillis was fired despite issuing an apology last week.
“I’m a comedian who pushed boundaries. I sometimes miss,” Gillis said. “If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses. I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said. My intention is never to hurt anyone, but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes hat requires risks.”
The media backlash against Gillis began almost immediately after Saturday Night Live announced that he was joining the cast.
A video clip from Gillis’ Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast resurfaced in which the comedian is heard talking about New York’s Chinatown.
“Let the fucking ch-nks live there,” Gillis said, adding that a restaurant was “full of fucking Chinee [sic] in there.”
The podcast series also featured Gillis using the words “retard” and “faggot.”
Despite numerous calls for him to be fired, Gillis found one defender — Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
“For the record, I don’t think he should lose his job,” Yang tweeted. “We would benefit from being more forgiving than punitive. We are all human.”
For the record, I do not think he should lose his job. We would benefit from being more forgiving rather than punitive. We are all human. — Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 14, 2019
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at [email protected] | 1,266,324 |
In an encouraging move, Mozilla announced the launch of “Global Mission Partners: India”, an award program for open source enthusiasts from India to participate and win funding up to Rs 1.0 crore. Applicants can apply for funding to support any open source/free software projects which extends Mozilla’s Mission.
Mozilla Mission is basically 10 principles which the organization is dedicated to. These principles support Internet as an integral part of modern life and must remain open and accessible for all. Internet must enrich the lives of the individual and their security and privacy should be the fundamental right. Individuals must have the ability to shape the internet and their experiences.
Mozilla believes free and open source promotes the development of the internet as a public resource and transparency is a key component promoting participation, accountability, and trust. Mozilla also acknowledges commercial involvement brings many benefits to the web and lists magnifying public aspects of the internet as important goal.
To support and further extends its Principles, Mozilla has come up with the “Global Mission Partners: India” promoting the active participation of Indian students and professionals in the area of open source and free software.
With Linux and Open Source gaining popularity lately in India, if you are already onto something which can benefit the open source world, you can get a funding of Rs. 1.25 lac – 50 lac ($2000-$80,000)!
Project Criteria
For your project to qualify, you must be an individual resident of India, a company registered in India or a non-profit organization which is FCRA-registered. An umbrella organization who intend to use the money to contract an individual resident of India can also participate.
The project should meet the below criteria:
The project should be to write or enhance some software or software documentation which already falls in Open Source / Free Software license.
The project should benefit Mozilla’s Mission listed above.
Project activity must be endorsed by someone well-known and respected in a wider community of which the project is a part of.
Selection Criteria
Mozilla explicitly mentions these selection criteria are indicative and does not really guarantee a particular outcome, however these will help them more or less likely to make an award.
How significantly your project advances Mozilla mission.
Will the award make a significant impact on the project?
Is level of funding appropriate for the completion of the task?
What reputation the project have in technical, inclusion or other areas.
Your track record of delivering.
A committee of 5 participants has been formed to assess awards.
How to apply
You can apply by filling the form below:
Apply for Mozilla Funding
The last date to apply is September 30, 2017, midnight IST.
We at It’s FOSS sincerely thank Mozilla’s initiative to promote and fund open source projects in India. | 1,266,325 |
When Sharks defenseman Paul Martin confirmed reports in January that he was willing to go elsewhere for more playing time, his head coach was insistent that the team would need the veteran blueliner.
"I really believe we need eight NHL defenseman here," DeBoer told reporters in January (via The Mercury News). "If it happens that he isn't here, then that'll be disappointing for us. I'm not hoping that's where this goes. I'm hoping this goes to a place where he can maybe go down, play some games and keep himself ready, because I know we're going to need eight defensemen."
That's pretty much exactly what's happened.
After clearing waivers in January and playing with the AHL's San Jose Barracuda, Martin was called up ahead of the Sharks' four-game road trip at the end of February. He did not play until last Saturday in Vancouver, when an upper-body injury to rookie defenseman Joakim Ryan, whose play pushed Martin down the depth chart in the first place, created an opening alongside Brent Burns.
Martin's now played three straight games with Burns, his defensive partner for the vast majority of the previous two seasons. It's the first time Martin's played in three consecutive NHL games all season, and although he hasn't played much (11:53 in average time-on-ice), he's acquitted himself nicely in a sheltered role.
His five-on-five possession numbers (52.78 percent corsi-for; 53.33 percent fenwick-for) are the second-best marks among Sharks defensemen over the last three games. Burns, too, has posted better possession numbers with Martin (47.62 percent corsi-for; 50 percent fenwick-for) during the last three contests than without his longtime partner (43.40 percent corsi-for; 41.67 percent fenwick-for).
The Sharks have also outscored (3-0) and outchanced (17-16) opponents with Martin on the ice, neither of which was the case in Martin's first three appearances earlier this season. The former is owed to a decent amount of puck luck, as the Sharks have converted on 17.65 percent of their shots with him on the ice, but the latter is an extension of his solid underlying numbers.
Martin's played the least amount of total minutes among Sharks defensemen since coming back, even as Marc-Edouard Vlasic missed time in two of the last three games, and has barely been used in special teams. His days of averaging 20-or-more minutes a night are likely behind him, but the 37-year-old has played well in a limited role.
Considering Martin's NHL days appeared to be behind him as recently as last month, his play has been a pleasant surprise. With the exception of his head coach, that is. | 1,266,326 |
Police are investigating an altercation early Saturday morning between Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel and his ex-girlfriend.
According to a Fort Worth police report, officers responded to a report of a possible assault at the Berkeley Luxury Apartment Homes near TCU around 2 a.m. and talked with a 23-year-old woman who stated she was involved in a disturbance with her ex-boyfriend earlier in the evening in Dallas.
Fort Worth Police Department Press Release regarding Johnny Manziel pic.twitter.com/n4Avlmxhs6 — Fort Worth Police (@fortworthpd) January 30, 2016
"The preliminary investigation determined that a possible assault had occurred in that jurisdiction or multiple jurisdictions," the report states. "The complainant was uncooperative with officers on scene, and they were unable to locate a crime scene within the Fort Worth jurisdiction, however, our officers prepared a report nonetheless, and that information was forwarded to detectives for further investigation."
The report also states the woman was concerned about the well-being of her ex-boyfriend -- who Fort Worth police publicly stated on Twitter was Manziel -- which launched an effort to locate him that involved the police's "Air One Unit," a helicopter. They later determined that Manziel wasn't in danger.
The Dallas Police Department acknowledged "it had been notified by the Fort Worth Police Department of a possible offense that may have occurred within the Dallas city limits" and are in the preliminary stages of investigating the case.
Manziel had been dating Colleen Crowley, but the two appear to have split up, deleting photos of one another from their Instagram accounts.
In October, Manziel was questioned by Ohio police after he and Crowley were involved in a heated argument on a highway. According to the police report from that time, Manziel was driving at a high rate of speed and passed cars on the shoulder before police were called.
In a dashboard camera recording, Crowley told police Manziel hit her a few times and that she threw his wallet out of the window after Manziel took her phone and wouldn't give it back. No charges were filed.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league was aware of Saturday's incident and is "looking into it."
Manziel starred at Texas A&M before being drafted 22nd overall by the Browns. He has spent a tumultuous two years in Cleveland.
Last offseason, Manziel checked himself into a rehab facility. This season, Manziel started six games for the Browns but was demoted to third string in November after a video surfaced of him partying in Las Vegas. He reportedly lied to Browns officials about the video.
Before the Browns' final game of the season, Manziel, out with a concussion, was reportedly spotted at a Las Vegas night club. He then didn't report to the team medic on the final Sunday as required to and couldn't be reached.
Staff Writer Claire Z. Cardona contributed to this report. | 1,266,327 |
wake of Instant Article backlash to help publishers build out paywalls. Given how centrally it’s featured, Facebook’s team surely reads plenty of it. And supporting the sector could win it some kudos between scandals.
But what’s not central to Facebook’s survival will never be central to its strategy. News is not going to pay the bills, and it probably won’t cause a major change in its hallowed growth rate. Remember that Twitter, which hinges much more on news, is 1/23rd of Facebook’s market cap.
So hopefully at this point we’ve established that Facebook is not an ally of news publishers.
At best it’s a fickle fair-weather friend. And even paying out millions of dollars, which can sound like a lot in journalism land, is a tiny fraction of the $22 billion in profit it earned in 2018.
Whatever Facebook offers publishers is conditional. It’s unlikely to pay subsidies forever if the News tab doesn’t become sustainable. For newsrooms, changing game plans or reallocating resources means putting faith in Facebook it hasn’t earned.
What should publishers do? Constantly double-down on the concept of owned audience.
They should court direct traffic to their sites where they have the flexibility to point users to subscriptions or newsletters or podcasts or original reporting that’s satisfying, even if it’s not as sexy in a feed.
Meet users where they are, but pull them back to where you live. Build an app users download or get them to bookmark the publisher across their devices. Develop alternative revenue sources to traffic-focused ads, such as subscriptions, events, merchandise, data and research. Pay to retain and recruit top talent with differentiated voices.
What scoops, opinions, analysis and media can’t be ripped off or reblogged? Make that. What will stand out when stories from every outlet are stacked atop each other? Because apparently that’s the future. Don’t become generic dumb content fed through someone else’s smart pipe.
As Ben Thompson of Stratechery has proselytized, Facebook is the aggregator to which the spoils of attention and advertisers accrue as they’re sucked out of the aggregated content suppliers. To the aggregator, the suppliers are interchangeable and disposable. Publishers are essentially ghostwriters for the Facebook News destination. Becoming dependent upon the aggregator means forfeiting control of your destiny.
Surely, experimenting to become the breakout star of the News tab could pay dividends. Publishers can take what it offers if that doesn’t require uprooting their process. But with everything subject to Facebook’s shifting attitudes, it will be like publishers trying to play bocce during an earthquake.
[Featured Image: Russell Werges] | 1,266,328 |
’s satisfaction every time something like that happens.) Mostly, this is just the funny-yet-unsettling diversion story, there in part to make sure the Legends are well and truly stranded.
And so they are, without an exit and without much hope. Of all three stories, this one is the simplest. Neron-as-Ray puts Constantine in a position where he tells Sara to fire; when she hesitates, Mick doesn’t, and Gideon fires on (and misses) the pair but manages to kick off a mighty avalanche. Then they’re stuck, and Sara and Mick, the two people who’ve been with Ray-Ray since the beginning, find themselves blaming each other, rather than themselves. Legends wisely doesn’t keep them at odds for that long—and finds a way for Charlie, the team’s new peacemaker, to put on Mick’s face for a fun Dominic Purcell Spiderman-points at Dominic Purcess moment—because at this point, Sara and Mick speak the same language, and not even the mighty time-bro bond can compete with the link between three people who all had to take down Vandal Savage.
As Sara and Mick make up, they wander around in Ray’s room, finding his survival guide (with a forward by Ray Palmer). That in turn leads Sara to conclude, with the help of Ray’s words, that all that’s left to them is the enjoyment of each other’s company. So they play some Cards To Save The Timeline, and lo and behold, their warmth—literal warmth—gets them out of a jam. It wasn’t superpowers, or technology. It was them irresponsibly consuming the ship’s power, fucking off, and paying tribute to a friend that did it. That’s not quite giant Beebo-level Legends, but it is definitely their particular luck in a nutshell. They screw up for the better.
A quiet episode—and something obviously intended as a sort of bottle episode, though the one new location and typically siz able cast both fall outside the bounds of that classification —ends on a typcially WTFN note, as Tabitha is revealed to be Jane Carr’s fairy godmother from early this season. A s she’s beloved by Neron, she then makes out with Ray-Ray’s mouth, and as she’s still super powerful, she bibbidi-bobbidi-boos Wolfie back into Mona, and Neron, Tabitha, and Gary steer her out of the Time Bureau with Nora hot on their heels. It’s a hell of a surprise (assuming you missed her name in the credits) and an exciting place to leave things before we get into the final two episodes.
Stray observations | 1,266,329 |
ano and others began raising questions.
In an Aug. 17 letter to the Department of Juvenile Justice, Fasano said he was surprised to learn the contract had never faced a competitive bid and, despite the program's success rate, he urged the department to hold the contract "to a higher level of scrutiny."
He ordered that it be "either immediately cancelled and properly rebid to ensure the public's trust" or handled in-house.
DJJ Secretary Wansley Walters agreed and, in a Sept. 16 letter to Fasano, said "upon closer examination, we have determined that the use of this exemption from competitive procurement may not be in the best interest of the state."
Unlike most of DJJ's contracts with private providers, EBA's agreement with the state allows the company to evaluate its own performance. DJJ does routine contract monitoring.
The agency's most recent review of the contract showed that some of the company's subcontractors have fallen short of key provisions that two-thirds of the program's clients remain out of jail, and that no more than 40 percent of its graduates commit new crimes.
Some of the efforts served far fewer youth than the contract called for, as well.
Walters followed through on her assurances to Fasano, and sought interested bidders. By January, the agency had heard from 11 other companies, some of whom said they could reduce the amount of money spent on administration.
Legislative budget leaders inserted a requirement that the agency bid out the entire contract - the $9.4 million original contract, which was set to expire in the fall of 2013, and the additional $6 million. When the first draft of the budget omitted a requirement that the $9.4 million contract be put up for bid, Sen. Ronda Storms objected.
'A better deal'
"If it hasn't been rebid since 2004, you can't convince me there's not a better deal out there unless I see it for myself,'' said Storms, R-Valrico, during a Feb. 8 meeting of the Senate Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee.
"We agree with you,'' DJJ's chief of staff, Christy Daly, told the committee.
Sen. Mike Bennett, a Bradenton Republican and a key Senate leader, also recommended the contract face competition and urged the agency to consider cutting out the middleman.
Tsamoutales said Tuesday there was "no intention on the Legislature's part" to put the contract out for a bid and "the governor's office went along" because "the program has saved taxpayers millions over the course of this contract."
He said the Legislature's reason for adding the extra $6 million was "expanding the contract would expand the savings."
Storms, who announced this spring that she will not seek reelection to the Senate, called the situation "just nauseating." | 1,266,330 |
Chris Pither somehow snagged a full time drive for 2020, but who knows how long that will last with Team Sydney! Now every fibre in my body tells me I shouldn’t like this. It’s plain, basically no actual design apart from the logos – should be boring right? Maybe it’s nostalgia or maybe it’s just a livery I’ve wanted to see for some reason. I like it.
There’s nothing fancy about the red they’ve used, but it is stunningly vibrant. The Coca Cola logo is one of the most recognisable in the world and doesn’t look out of place anywhere. Every brand is on board, making it a perfectly uniform two tone livery. The cheeky branding on the bonnet is clever and relatable. Everything on this livery works. I can’t imagine it would have the same impact if used for another year, but for now, it’s great.
★★★★☆
Truck Assist Racing
Finally, Truck Assist has joined Tickford, replacing Bottle-O which had backed the team for many a year. Out goes the bright green, in comes the old Hispania grey, which I hate a little less than I used to but I’ve never understood why a team would want their car to blend in with the track.
They’ve gone with matte grey as opposed to gloss which adds some form of interest to the car, and just a wee bit of orange – a missed opportunity to bring a more excitement with a lot of orange. It’s simple, the lines are clean and the logos are well placed, although red on grey isn’t ideal for Isuzu. Just not an attractive main colour which hinders the livey from the get go.
★★
And the award goes to…
Best Looker Award – Mobil 1 Appliances Online Racing
The perfect colour and design choice. Thanks Appliances Online!
Least Attractive Award – Truck Assist Racing
Ever look at a car and think “That would look way better in tarmac grey.”? Me neither.
Most Improved Award – Castrol Racing
In previous years Kelly Racing tried to make a design to suit all cars, which didn’t really suit any of the cars. Fortunately they’ve made a livery specially for Castrol, and it shows.
Press Rewind Award – Matt Stone Racing (Unit)
The all silver car was brilliant last year, shame they moved so far away from it.
Award to Enjoy a Coke With – Team Sydney
Maybe with Courtney and Boost gone, we’ll be able to enjoy two Cokes with Team Sydney!
So, thoughts? What’s your fav? Let me know! | 1,266,331 |
Bitcoin seems to have found acceptance below the psychological mark of $10,000 over the weekend, amid increasingly bearish long-term indicators.
After closing below $10,000 on Feb. 22, bitcoin (BTC) hit an 11-day low of $9,304.68 yesterday, as per CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). As of writing, the BPI has seen gains and is at $9,666.
The cryptocurrency is down close to 20 percent from the Feb. 20 high of $11,768.58, suggesting the rally from the Feb. 6 lows below $6,000 has stalled.
However, trading volumes have dropped 42 percent from the highs seen on Feb. 20, as per CoinMarketCap, indicating supply is drying up. Hence, the drop from $11,767.58 to $9,400 appears to lack substance and a limited corrective rally could soon be in the offing.
1-hour chart
A break above the descending trendline would open up upside towards the head-and-shoulders neckline resistance (former support) seen today at $10,320. A violation there would expose $10,500 (Feb. 24 high).
That said, the outlook as per the weekly relative strength index (RSI) would remain bearish, as long as it stays below the resistance of 53.00 (former support).
Weekly chart
As discussed earlier this month, throughout the bull run (from 2015 to December 2017), the bears were never able to push the RSI below 53.00. However, the RSI fell below 53.00 in January, signaling a long-term bullish-to-bearish trend change.
Note that, despite the bullish doji reversal, the bulls failed to push the RSI above 53.00 last week. In fact, it created a lower high at 53.00 (marked by a circle) last week, as bitcoin fell from highs above $11,700 to below $10,000.
View
The corrective rally from the lows below $6,000 ended at last week’s highs above $11,700 and the sell-off will likely resume this week or next week, according to the weekly chart.
BTC is likely to test $8,211 (61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement of the recent rally) in the short-run. A daily close (as per UTC) below that level would shift attention to $6,000.
A possible corrective rally is likely to run out of steam around the downward sloping (biased bearish) 10-week MA, now seen at $11,251.
Long-term bearish-to-bullish trend change would be confirmed once the weekly RSI has moved above the resistance at 53.00.
Bear sculpture image via Shutterstock | 1,266,332 |
�Fight the Smears” website declared that the allegations were an invention. In 2013, in another blog post, Mr Johnson falsely accused John Kerry of sexual assault, claiming that he had “raped some poor Vietnamese woman” in Vietnam. The assertion came from a TV debate in 1971 which had been edited and altered to make Mr Kerry say “I personally raped for pleasure”. When the manipulation was pointed out by readers of the blog he deleted the article. No apology was ever offered.
As was the case two years ago, there remains no evidence that anyone associated with Trump was improperly surveilled during the 2016 election. FISA warrants were taken out against onetime Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page after he left the campaign, but the warrant applications went through standard processes and were authorized by four judges appointed by Republican presidents.
Trump has been tweeting nonsense about a variety of topics
While Trump’s Wednesday morning tweets were especially off the rails, Monday and Tuesday weren’t much better. Trump tweeted bogus theories about how the impeachment process works, falsely claimed Mueller didn’t seek testimony from people in his inner circle, retweeted a post accusing Democrats of trying to orchestrate a “COUP” to get him out of office, and urged the New York Times to “get down on their knees & beg for forgiveness” in a tweet in which he falsely claimed the publication apologized to him for its coverage of the 2016 campaign.
In other tweets, Trump rewrote history about Bill Clinton’s impeachment, called Morning Joe anchor Joe Scarborough “Dumb and Sick,” and pushed baseless conspiracy theories about Twitter decreasing his follower count by “taking people off list.”
His string of tweets the past three days comes during the first full week after the release of the Mueller report. The report, which was released last Thursday, makes clear that Trump tried to obstruct the FBI’s investigation of his campaign on a number of occasions, only to be thwarted by aides who refused to carry out legally dubious orders.
“The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful,” the report states, “but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.”
Trump kicked off his tirade with a tweet Friday morning labeling parts of the Mueller report “total bullshit.” That represented a dramatic reversal from a month earlier, when he trumpeted Attorney General Bill Barr’s misleading summary of Mueller’s bottom-line conclusions as “Total EXONERATION.”
If Trump still feels like he’s been exonerated, he sure isn’t tweeting like it.
The news moves fast. To stay updated, follow Aaron Rupar on Twitter, and read more of Vox’s policy and politics coverage. | 1,266,333 |
Guest blog post by Zied HY. Zied is Senior Data Scientist at Capgemini Consulting. He is specialized in building predictive models utilizing both traditional statistical methods (Generalized Linear Models, Mixed Effects Models, Ridge, Lasso, etc.) and modern machine learning techniques (XGBoost, Random Forests, Kernel Methods, neural networks, etc.). Zied run some workshops for university students (ESSEC, HEC, Ecole polytechnique) interested in Data Science and its applications, and he is the co-founder of Global International Trading (GIT), a central purchasing office based in Paris.
Context
In the previous course Introduction to Deep Learning, we saw how to use Neural Networks to model a dataset of many examples. The good news is that the basic architecture of Neural Networks is quite generic whatever the application: a stacking of several perceptrons to compose complex hierarchical models and their optimization using gradient descent and backpropagation.
Inspite of this, you have probably heard about Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), LSTM, Auto-Encoders, etc. These deep learning models are different from each other. Each model is known to be particulary performant in some specific tasks, even though, fundamentally, they all share the same basic architecture.
What makes the difference between them is their ability to be more suited for some data structures: text processing could be different from image processing, which in turn could be different from signal processing.
In the context of this post, we will focus on modeling sequences as a well-known data structure and will study its specific learning framework.
Applications of sequence modeling are plentiful in day-to-day business practice. Some of them emerged to meet today’s challenges in terms of quality of service and customer engagement. Here some examples:
Speech Recognition to listen to the voice of customers.
Machine Language Translation from diverse source languages to more common languages.
Topic Extraction to find the main subject of customer’s translated query.
Speech Generation to have conversational ability and engage with customers in a human like manner.
Text Summarization of customer feedback to work on key challenges and pain points.
In the auto industry, self-parking is also a sequence modeling task. In fact, parking could be seen as a sequence of mouvements where the next movement depends on the previous ones.
Other applications cover text classification, translating videos to natural language, image caption generation, hand writing recognition/generation, anomaly detection, and many more in the future…which none of us can think (or aware) at the moment.
However, before we go any further in the applications of Sequence Modeling, let us understand what we are dealing with when we talk about sequences. | 1,266,334 |
Aggravated burglary has become the “crime of choice” for Sudanese youths in Melbourne, Australia, according to senior police officers.
The state of Victoria, where Melbourne is the regional capital, is home to 6,000 Sudanese migrants, accounting for just 0.1 per cent of the population — yet Sudan-born youths account for some 8.6 per cent of aggravated burglaries and are helping to drive the African gang crime wave gripping the country, reports news.com.au.
“We’ve seen Sudanese youth become involved in aggravated burglaries,” admits Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp.
“A lot of the time it’s to steal keys, so they can steal cars to commit further crimes. It has become the crime of choice for this particular group.”
https://twitter.com/JackBMontgomery/status/950299828218728448
The police chief said it was his belief that the home invasions were not being driven by “an organised gang in terms of any organisation and structure”, but rather by a phenomenon he called “network offending”.
He explained: “So, it’s not that you’ve got a core group of six, generally young, men committing crime over a number of nights.
“What we have seen is that you might see half a dozen involved in an aggravated burglary, steal a car and commit some further offences that night.
“The next night, you might have two of those offenders, but there could be three or four new ones that have come from other parts of Melbourne — networking through social media.”
https://twitter.com/JackBMontgomery/status/851498216956846082
Statistics for the year to September 2017 show Sudanese in Victoria are not just overrepresented for home invasions.
Figures reported by the taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation — analogous to Britain’s BBC — show Sudanese migrants were involved in 3 per cent of serious assaults, 2 per cent of non-aggravated burglaries, and 5 per cent of motor vehicle thefts.
It should be noted that these figures are not inclusive of second- or third-generation Sudanese in Victoria, but only first-generation migrants.
The broadcaster attempted to play down the statistics, however, quoting criminologist Rebecca Wickes as complaining that Sudanese migrants tend to be younger than the general population, and it is not fair to compare them to Australians.
Wickes suggested the real problem was a “significant and very worrisome bias” against African migrants among the general population, adding: “Frankly I think that that’s where we should be focusing our attention.”
Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery | 1,266,335 |
English [ edit ]
Etymology [ edit ]
Coined in 1956 by G. E. M. Anscombe in the essay “Aristotle and the Sea Battle”.
This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Pronunciation [ edit ]
Audio (AU)
Noun [ edit ]
Examples His "solution" only caused more problems.
scare quote (plural scare quotes)
( chiefly in the plural ) A quotation mark deliberately used to provoke a reaction or to indicate that the author does not approve of the term, rather than to identify a direct quotation. shudder quote sneer quotes 2001 January 1, “The Retreat From Inquiry and Knowledge in Special Education.”, in Journal of Special Education : One other important figure in postmodern thought is Richard Rorty, who might be characterized as master of the scare quote
2004, P Timms, What's Wrong with Contemporary Art? : He is inordinately fond of the scare quote, a sign that he is not really sure of what he's talking about.
2006 September 6, “Where Hairsplitting Can Become High Drama”, in New York Sun : An incidental pleasure is his witty mastery of the scare quote and the square bracket.
2008, D Jeske, “Friendship and the grounds of reasons”, in papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca : I put the relevant pronouns in scare quote because Bundy’s interviewers succeeded in getting Bundy to talk about his crimes only by allowing him to describe them in the third person
Related terms [ edit ]
Translations [ edit ]
quotation mark used to provoke reaction Arabic: please add this translation if you can
Chinese: Mandarin: ( no equivalent exists; translation given for "quotation marks" ) 引號 (zh) 引号 (zh) ( yǐnhào )
Czech: please add this translation if you can
Dutch: please add this translation if you can
Finnish: ironinen lainausmerkki
French: guillemet ironique m
German: ironisches Anführungszeichen n Hindi: please add this translation if you can
Italian: virgolette ironiche f pl
Japanese: please add this translation if you can
Korean: please add this translation if you can
Portuguese: aspas irónicas f pl ( Portugal ), aspas irônicas f pl ( Brazil )
, Russian: please add this translation if you can
Spanish: cita de miedo f
Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can | 1,266,336 |
Nine years before disaster struck the Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator TEPCO rejected a government watchdog’s advice to carry out a tsunami simulation. The company cited a lack of evidence regarding a tsunami threat.
A government research group warned that large tsunami waves could hit anywhere along the Pacific coast of Japan back in July 2002. The group referred to a 20-percent tsunami probability over the following 30 years.
The now-reformed nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), decided to act on the report and requested that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) stage a simulation of a possible tsunami, according to a testimony from NISA official Shuji Kawahara, who headed a team responsible for quake safety issues.
Kawahara’s testimony was submitted to the Chiba District Court as part of an ongoing compensation lawsuit against the government and TEPCO, which has been filed by affected evacuees.
Read more
TEPCO representatives, Kawahara said, “resisted for 40 minutes” during a meeting with NISA officials, and eventually dismissed the request for a simulation. He believed the company turned it down because “it would take substantial time and expense to carry out a simulation.”
Citing a report from two seismologists, TEPCO said there was not enough evidence that a powerful earthquake and tsunami were a realistic threat to the Fukushima plant. NISA agreed with the rejection, which was a “justifiable” response under nuclear safety regulations that were in place at the time, Kawahara said.
TEPCO still conducted a simulation in spring 2008. Although it showed that waves as high as 15.7 meters could slam the plant, the company did not act on the findings. The simulation was based on a hypothetical scenario, TEPCO said, noting that no evidence suggested such a powerful tsunami could actually happen.
In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit off the north-eastern coast, sending shockwaves across the country. The subsequent tsunami waves, reaching up to 40 meters in height, breached the Fukushima plant’s sea defenses, triggering reactor meltdowns. In the wake of the disaster, more than 160,000 people fled their homes.
READ MORE: Japan’s nuclear watchdog urges discharge of Fukushima radioactive water into ocean
Last year, a district court in Maebashi ruled in favor of evacuees seeking damages from the government. The court said the government and TEPCO could have prevented the catastrophe if anti-tsunami measures had been put in place. The operating company “was capable of foreseeing several months after (the estimate) that a large tsunami posed a risk to the facility and could possibly flood its premises and damage safety equipment, such as the backup power generators,” the ruling stated, citing government estimates from 2002. | 1,266,337 |
An American man says he was denied entry to Canada at Vancouver's airport because of a conviction stemming from a high school prank 20 years ago.
San Francisco resident Jon Cobb, who says he has visited Canada four or five times before, flew to Vancouver on Saturday planning to see friends for a few weeks. Instead, he was sent home the same day after at least seven hours of questioning.
"I was basically flabbergasted, trying to figure out what these questions have to do with visiting friends in Canada."
Cobb said border officials questioned him about his uncle's death in a bus accident in 2009, scrutinized his belongings, took his cellphone and read his text messages.
Finally, he said, the real problem was revealed — a burglary conviction resulting from a high school prank more than 20 years ago.
"I told [the agent], I said it was prank week in high school and we broke into a rival school to steal the mascot — it was a goat."
Cobb was denied entry into Canada even though he had visited previously with little problem.
"I've been to Vancouver four or five times," he said. "I've always had this extra screening, every single time, and this time was the most brutal. It was quite possibly the most humiliating experience I've ever had in my life, being escorted all around the airport and people looking at me like, 'What did that guy do?'"
Databases going 'deeper and deeper'
Cobb's story comes after members of Tinariwen — a musical group from Mali headed to Vancouver to play the annual folk festival — were denied entry on Friday.
It appears the group was turned away because some members had been involved in a civil war in their native country, even though the band had played in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Vancouver Centre Liberal MP Hedy Fry can't speak to either case specifically, but said she has heard other complaints from people frustrated with what seem like new roadblocks at Canada's borders.
"There are rules and there is an inconsistency with how those rules have suddenly been applied starting this year."
Meanwhile, one Vancouver immigration lawyer said he's not surprised to hear people are being denied entry to Canada for apparently minor convictions.
Zool Suleman said the clampdown that began after the Sept. 11 attacks has become even more restrictive in the last few years.
"The databases for criminal conduct are going deeper and deeper, so the short answer is, no, this does not surprise me at all," Suleman said.
"I am hearing of convictions that are 30 years old — municipal type of convictions, driving convictions — where the individual thought things had been taken care of a long time ago."
The Canada Border Services Agency said decisions are made on a "case by case" basis and even misdemeanours can mean entry is denied. | 1,266,338 |
(CNN) -- A man shot his estranged wife to death, along with their son and grandson, before turning the gun on himself as police closed in, authorities in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, said Sunday.
Police say Dennis Carter Sr. shot four family members, three fatally, before turning the gun on himself.
Dennis Carter Sr., 50, also shot and critically injured his pregnant daughter-in-law, the parish sheriff's office said in a statement. The shootings occurred Saturday night in the town of Holden, Louisiana.
Authorities were dispatched to a report of shots fired at a home about 10:40 p.m. Upon arrival, they found three people dead and the fourth -- Amber Carter, 25 -- in critical condition, the statement said.
Those killed were Dennis Carter Jr., 26, Amber Carter's husband; their son Mason Carter, 2; and 49-year-old Donna Carter, mother of Dennis Carter Jr. and estranged wife of Dennis Carter Sr., police said. All had been shot to death. A 16-month-old child at the home was unharmed, authorities said.
Deputies believe Amber Carter attempted to escape from the gunman by jumping from a second-story window, holding Mason in her arms, the statement said, but the boy did not survive his gunshot wounds.
Amber Carter had several bullet wounds, said Perry Rushing, chief of operations for the sheriff's office, and authorities believe the gunman shot her in the back as she was attempting to get out the window while holding the child. She also may have been shot again after she got outside the home, Rushing told CNN.
Amber Carter was flown to a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hospital, and later transferred to New Orleans, Rushing said. She was in critical condition as of Sunday morning.
A neighbor in the area told deputies that he heard a gunshot and saw Carter Sr. walking to a car, a red El Camino, with a gun in his hand, the sheriff's statement said.
At 11:30 p.m., a police officer in the adjacent town of Livingston saw the vehicle entering Interstate 12 heading eastbound, the statement said. A Livingston Parish sheriff's deputy followed the car and attempted to stop it. "However, the suspect shot himself with a handgun, in plain view of the officers, as the vehicle veered off the shoulder of the interstate near the Holden exit," police said.
Records from the Livingston Parish Detention Center show that Dennis Carter Sr., of Hammond, Louisiana, had been jailed "on three separate occasions in 2009 alone, on three separate charges of violation of a protective order and one charge of aggravated assault (domestic)," the sheriff's office said.
"At this time, there do not appear to be any other suspects or victims in this ongoing investigation," police said.
Holden is about 35 miles east of Baton Rouge. | 1,266,339 |
Thousands of people took to the streets of Paris and two other French cities on Saturday, demonstrating against police brutality nearly two weeks after an activist was killed during a protest against a controversial dam project.
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At least two police officers were injured and 21 people were arrested as protesters clashed with the police in the southern French city of Toulouse. Similar demonstrations in Paris and the western French city of Rennes passed peacefully.
Demonstrators were commemorating a 21-year-old student, Rémi Fraisse, who was killed on October 26 in Albi, in southern France, while protesting against the Sivens dam project in the Tarn region.
An autopsy from the prosecutor’s office found Fraisse had died instantly after being hit in the back by a grenade. A detailed report is expected on whether the grenade was thrown from the area where the police were posted or from among the protesters, who were clashing with the police.
Protesters opposed to the Sivens dam project in the Tarn region say it will destroy a reservoir of biodiversity and will benefit only a small number of farmers. Those promoting the project say the dam is in the public interest as it will ensure irrigation and the development of high-value crops.
The death of the young environmental activist has sparked angry demonstrations across France and a political debate as members of the Green Party have called the killing “an indelible stain” on the track record of French President François Hollande’s government. Meanwhile, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has denounced the “shameless politicisation” of the tragedy by Green deputies.
'We will not forgive or forget'
On Saturday, an initial peaceful demonstration in Toulouse degenerated into violence as protesters, many with their faces wrapped in scarves or wearing gas masks, clashed with the police, throwing projectiles at the lines of police officers surrounding the demonstration.
Around 1,400 people gathered for a protest in the Place de la Bastille in Paris Saturday afternoon chanting slogans against police brutality and holding signs that said “Police, assassins”.
Chanting, “We will not forgive or forget,” Parisian protesters said the government's response to the incident was inadequate and death underscored a deeper malaise plaguing France today. “It's a human tragedy, [it’s also] a political symbol, the symbol of a break between young people and the government. There are tensions in our society and things can get out of hand,” said William Martinet, president of the student union, UNEF (Union Nationale des Etudiants de France).
At the request of the Fraisse family, the government has launched a formal investigation into the circumstances of his death, the results of which are expected later this week.
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Pastor Kevin Swanson in Colorado thinks the state is going to hell in a hand basket.
You heard that correctly: a guy on a radio station criticizing the state, without the police busting in (and with no fear of the police busting in), is saying that Colorado a worse police state than North Korea.
Here’s the real juicy part:
If it was evil, they loved it; if it was against God’s laws, they said go for it. Our legislature in Colorado stuck a finger in God’s eye every opportunity that they had in this last legislative season, it was amazing, they obliterated family freedoms at every step, they trashed gun rights, they embraced every moral abomination they could find, they undermined liberty at every single point. Their vision for Colorado is a drugged-out, marijuana’d-out homosexual culture where children are abused as much as possible, because children in non-nuclear families are twenty times more likely to be abused than children in nuclear families, so children abused as much as possible. This is the vision of the Democrats, get children abused, kill them in the womb as much as possible, be sure there are as many dysfunctional families as possible, as many homosexual families as possible and children abused as much as possible, so government can grow their child welfare services even more, so that they can kill more kids, so that more adults can commit adultery, so that more kids would be murdered, so that more kids would be abused, so more government would tax and regulate and tax and regulate to produce the worst possible hellhole on planet earth.
Added Swanson:
Additionally, anybody conflating love among consenting adults or loving parents who happen to be gay with a dedication to child abuse can get fucked. That “study” about child abuse has been cited time and again even though it’s been debunked for years. Here’s someone trying it on CNN in 2005 and getting hammered for it (thanks, John Stewart). 2:12 is the magic time stamp:
Seriously, way to protect adults from additional, harmless fun on the weekends and way to protect foster kids from adoptive parents. Yeah, just like North Korea.
You know what’s going to happen in Colorado as a result of same-sex unions and marijuana legalization? Not a god damn thing. The state’s going to keep chugging along at about the same clip, except some people might get high instead of drunk and more couples will get to visit their spouse in hospital. The overall happiness of the state would obviously increase if not counterbalanced by the religious people shitting their pants over the happiness of others. But eventually that will stop and life will go on, and even Swanson’s followers will forget all the fear-mongering he was doing.
Hell, they’ll probably be the first to forget it. | 1,266,341 |
On its face, there appears to be a good chance Colin Kaepernick’s last game with the 49ers is coming Sunday, fittingly, against the Seahawks.
The embattled quarterback has done all he can to deflect speculation about his future during his regular media availability this season. But behind the scenes, Kaepernick and his agents worked to renegotiate his contract in October allowing both sides a chance to move on this spring.
“It was something that we thought was mutually beneficial while doing the contract,” Kaepernick said Nov. 1. “That’s a long ways out.”
With the season finale upcoming, the ultimate tipping point in the relationship between player and organization is now in plain view.
Related 49ers place Carlos Hyde on injured reserve
The new deal essentially ripped up Kaepernick’s six-year extension he signed in 2014, giving him the ability to opt out after the season. In turn, Kaepernick gave his injury guarantee, which forced the 49ers to bring him back in 2016 even after he requested a trade in February.
Kaepernick was asked about his future Tuesday and maintained his week-to-week mantra, negating talk of 2017 as a distraction.
“My focus once again is this week and making sure that I’m doing everything I can to prepare and to try to help my teammates prepare this week to get a win and I think that’s where this whole team’s focus is,” Kaepernick said.
This year has been an eventful one for Kaepernick.
He had surgery to repair knee and thumb injuries in January. He requested a trade in February. He met with the Broncos to talk about a new contract to help facilitate a trade to Denver in the spring.
He lost the competition to start in August to Blaine Gabbert after getting shut down from the first two preseason games with shoulder soreness.
Then there was his national anthem protest, which made him one of the most polarizing figures in the country. Then came the re-done contract and his return to the starting lineup in October.
But, despite all that, Kaepernick maintains it hasn’t been difficult to keep his focus on football in seven-day stanzas during the season.
“When I step into this building my focus is football and what I have to do to try to win and try to help this team win and I think our players, our coaches all have that same mentality,” Kaepernick said. “So, to me it’s an easy environment to come into and work and make sure you’re staying focused on that.”
Kaepernick will likely speak to reporters twice more – after Sunday’s game and exit interviews Monday – before leaving the team’s facility for the offseason, where he might never return as a member of the 49ers. | 1,266,342 |
Deputy Mayor Krista Adams revealed the pet travel proposal last week at a council committee meeting after a petitioner asked the council to reconsider letting pets ride on the river. “I personally think it would be nice to have animals on the CityCats, but they would need muzzles,” Cr Adams said. “I’m familiar with North Stradbroke Island where dogs can go on the water ferries. “I think it is the same type of thing. “But they have to have a muzzle.”
The council committee meeting heard modern-day soft muzzles could be used by pet lovers. Cr Adams said the council would write to TransLink and ask that pets - mostly dogs on leads - to be allowed on CityCats and ferries. Dog lovers in the City Botanic Gardens were enthusiastic but acknowledged the change could be tricky. IT specialist Steve Bakker lives in the inner city on the 30th floor of an apartment building with his labradoodle Bozo. He works at South Brisbane. “Bozo would love to go to work on the CityCat,” Mr Bakker said.
Steve Bakker with Bozo in Brisbane's Botanical Gardens. Credit:Tony Moore “Bozo has to walk to work at the Mater Hospital at South Brisbane and he would love to catch the CityCat home on a Friday night." Not all dogs were well behaved, he acknowledged, but then "not all people are well behaved." “It is a valid point to say it can be difficult because some dogs can be difficult to control," he said. “But it is a subset of dogs that live in the inner city and I think they are used to being around people.”
Bozo would probably not like wearing a muzzle but if it was a condition of travel Mr Bakker imagined he could get used to it. Car broker Todd Simpson also lives in the CBD. His dog, Daisy, flashed her eyes as he said the idea had plenty of merit. “I think if it’s a well-behaved dog it should be fine,” Mr Simpson said. “It would be good if they let dogs on the CityCats; that would be awesome.” Some owners suggested dogs with their owners could be restricted to the back of the CityCats, away from people who were nervous of dogs.
Mr Simpson did not know dogs were not allowed on the ferries until he was asked about the proposal. "I suppose the difficult part is if you make it law then someone will have 15 killer breeds and they want their dogs on,” he said. “So is it going to create bigger problem? “Does it bring out all the wild breeds and create more problems than it is worth?” A TransLink spokesman said the organisation understand people wanted to be able to travel with their pets. | 1,266,343 |
FILE - This undated file photo shows Rachael Hilyard of Wichita, Kansas. Hilyard is charged with first-degree murder in the April 2017 killing of 63-year-old Micki Davis. Prosecutors say Hilyard demanded that Davis collect her son's belongings from her home. Davis and her 9-year-old grandson went to Hilyard's home, and that's when Hilyard attacked. (Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle via AP, File)
FILE - This undated file photo shows Rachael Hilyard of Wichita, Kansas. Hilyard is charged with first-degree murder in the April 2017 killing of 63-year-old Micki Davis. Prosecutors say Hilyard demanded that Davis collect her son's belongings from her home. Davis and her 9-year-old grandson went to Hilyard's home, and that's when Hilyard attacked. (Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle via AP, File)
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas woman is on trial for murder in the decapitation of her ex-boyfriend’s mother whose body was discovered in the suspect’s garage and her head was dumped in the kitchen sink.
Rachael Hilyard, of Wichita, is charged with first-degree murder in the April 2017 killing of 63-year-old Micki Davis. Prosecutors say Hilyard demanded that Davis collect her son’s belongings from her home. Davis and her 9-year-old grandson went to Hilyard’s home, and that’s when Hilyard attacked.
Authorities say the boy ran away and called the police using his grandmother’s cellphone. He wasn’t present when his grandmother was killed.
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As the trial got underway Tuesday, defense attorney Quentin Pittman didn’t dispute that his client killed Davis and said he anticipated the jury would find her guilty of the “appropriate charge.” He didn’t say what that that charge might be, The Wichita Eagle reported.
Prosecutors said they would introduce evidence at trial such as testimony from the police officers who discovered Davis’ body lying in Hilyard’s garage, a taped law enforcement interview with the grandson, and photos of the crime scene.
In a jail house interview not long after she was arrested, Hilyard told The Eagle that God was responsible for Davis’ death. She said a church had performed an exorcism to eradicate “evil spirits” at her house in the days before the killing. She has received treatment at the state psychiatric hospital since her arrest.
She was declared competent for trial in August.
Her trial is expected to last through the week. She remains in custody at the Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of bonds totaling $550,000. | 1,266,344 |
public education. The attack on school bus drivers is part of the overall to slash costs, privatize schools and undermine the right to public education for working class youth.
In a letter to the membership, Cordiello wrote, “No other workforce in either the public or private sector has been targeted as harshly and driven into poverty as aggressively as our city’s school bus drivers and matrons… the thousands of workers who have been laid off and the thousands of others whose jobs are at risk since the EPP were stripped out of a number of school bus contracts have put their faith in the Mayor to correct this injustice.”
The desperate conditions Cordiello describes are the direct result of the betrayal of last year’s strike by the ATU, UFT and other city unions, which isolated the school bus workers and blocked any unified struggle by city workers against the mayor and his attacks.
Cordiello, UFT President Michael Mulgrew and the rest of the union executives are not opposed to the destruction of their members’ jobs and living standards—they only want a “seat at the table” to defend their own financial and institutional interests. For Cordiello & Co. the destruction of the EPP undermined the cozy relations the ATU had long enjoyed with private bus contractors and the school administration.
Cordiello is more than willing to work with the de Blasio to achieve a “fiscally responsible contract” as long as it includes some form of “job security” for the ATU executives. Having survived the onslaught of the Bloomberg administration and the weathered a potential rebellion by rank-and-file workers from below, the union officials now have a mayor with whom they hope to do business again.
All of the bitter experiences of the school bus workers—with the union, with every section of the so-called “labor” movement and its pseudo-left supporters, and with the big business politicians of the Democratic Party—demonstrate that a new political strategy and new methods of struggle are required.
In response to the surrender of the union after the month-long strike last year, the Socialist Equality Party worked with school bus workers to organize a rank and file committee, which initiated a fight to mobilize school bus workers independently of the union apparatus. The SEP denounced the efforts of the ATU to subordinate the struggle of school bus workers and other city employees to the election of a Democratic mayor, who, we warned, would only escalate the attacks on the working class.
If school bus drivers and other city workers are to defend their jobs and living standards, this initiative must be revived and taken forward today. Above all a political struggle must be launched, uniting all sections of city workers in a common struggle against both big business parties and the capitalist profit system they defend.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. | 1,266,345 |
Episode notes
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Photo: Pascal Le Segretain, Getty Images.
Greta Gerwig on her new film: Lady Bird
You probably know Greta Gerwig as an actress – she starred in Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha and a bunch of other mumblcore indies. She’s also been in Oscar contenders like Jackie and 20th Century Women. Now, she’s written and directed a film of her own: Lady Bird. It’s a piece of work that is grounded in reality – the reality of growing up. And no exaggeration – it’s one of our favorite movies from this year.
The protagonist is named Christine McPherson, but she’d rather you call her Lady Bird. She’s played by Saoirse Ronan, she lives in Sacramento and the whole movie is set in 2002. It’s almost like a period piece from the Bush years. You can bet anyone with a cell phone is rocking a flip phone. Greta talks with Jesse about growing up in Sacramento and the importance of writing the phrase “hella tight” in the script of a major motion picture.
Click here to listen to Greta Gerwig’s interview on YouTube!
Photo: Jesse Thorn
Pixar’s Lee Unkrich on directing Coco.
For over 20 years, Lee Unkrich has been one of the leading creative voices at Pixar. He worked on Toy Story, Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life, and a bunch more. He directed Toy Story 3, probably the darkest and most affecting of the movies in that series.
Now, he’s directed Coco, the newest Disney Pixar movie. Set in Mexico, Coco is a story wrapped up in the Mexican day of the dead – Dia De Muertos. Lee Unkrich talk with Jesse about the making of Coco and lots more, especially his time working on 1993 USA classic police procedural Silk Stalkings back when Pixar was a side gig for him. What could be sexier than solving sex-related crimes on cable television in the 90’s?
Click here to listen to Lee Unkrich’s interview on YouTube!
The Outshot: E.B. White’s Death of a Pig
Finally, for this week’s Outshot: E.B. White’s most eloquent words about a pig were not about Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web. Jesse talks about White’s Death of a Pig, which was first published in The Atlantic in 1948.
Click here to listen to Jesse’s Outshot on YouTube! | 1,266,346 |
Feb 13, 2017 at 16:24 // News
Jacob Okonya Author
On a continuous regulation drive against capital flight and in an attempt to block all loopholes that allow large sums of money to flow out China, the PBOC have intervened to block margin-based and zero-fee Bitcoin Trading. The Chinese government is still struggling with the massive capital outflow from its economy.
In economics, large sums of money flowing out of the country is an indication of economic woes. China is attempting to avoid the economic disaster which might besiege it if the current rate of money leaving the economy is unchecked.
Will increasing transaction fees on Bitcoin reduce its usefulness for money transfers?
Coinidol.com spoke to Eliot Ball, a computer Engineer with Palantir Technologies, an ICT solution firm for firms and governments, about the effects increasing transaction fees can have on bitcoin in China. He responded:
“The fees we pay to transfer bitcoins (either to pay online, to move funds to friends or change to migrate coins from a wallet to another) are vital for the blockchain network to keep working and accepting new transactions. Increasing the fees is not a solution, even miners (the ones who collect the fees) do not want this option. The fee will not change, but its value will increase a lot if the price of bitcoin go up (and it will be).”
How will this affect small Bitcoin Transactions?
There are thousands of people who send small amounts of bitcoin to their family or as payment for services. Coinidol.com talked to Vlad Cealicu, CTO and Co-Founder of CryptoCompare.com, a bitcoin discussion forum and market information point, on how small transactions will be affected. He responded in a statement:
“The block size will have to increase once we can't fit all the transactions in. Then the difficulty will be automatically adjusted as the hash rate and transactions grow and the network will be able to handle it. The only issue will be the growth of the blockchain size, but in time that can be handled as well.”
Is there a possibility that China will put a ban on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?
With the current rage the Chinese government has put on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general, there could be an attempt to put cryptocurrency to death in China. Kayee Tong, Managing Partner at Cryptoexchange, a bitcoin and altcoin exchange platform, commented on how it might go down:
“The PRC definitely do not want capital flow outwards. It's evident they guard their currency's value carefully. Chinese officials aren't dumb, they know that if they ban Bitcoin they won't be able to regulate it and it would make matters worse. Banning it would mean telling everyone in China it posed a threat. People would jump on to that and exploit it more.” | 1,266,347 |
Hey, you there! Yeah, you, sitting in front of your computer at work or staring at your phone on the subway. Are you tired of working nearly every single day to maintain a barely tolerable standard of living? Do you wish you could live a life of luxury? Well, thanks to the technological miracle of the Ethereum blockchain, you can now "own" a digital token representing one-sixth of an expensive car that you can drive for exactly four days but only after going to pick it up somewhere.
The company behind this scheme is Swiss startup TEND, founded by former Credit Suisse banker Marco Abele. The way it works, according to the startup's website and a customer service representative I spoke to, is that TEND first buys a luxury object like a vintage car or a Steinway piano. Users may also put their own objects or properties up for sale, but they have to be vetted by TEND. The company then creates digital tokens for those objects, which describe terms of shared ownership, and sells them to people.
For example, you could partly "own" a 1955 Porsche Speedster (read: four days of use, a club membership, and a racetrack experience). And when you're done with your "investment," you could sell your digital token representing one-sixth of a used car to someone else. Or, you could "own" a Steinway piano (read: one rehearsal day, opera tickets, and an "intimate concert")!
Those token buyers collectively own that car or piano, although it is stored and maintained by TEND and the ability of token owners to change the terms of their ownership is limited, the customer service representative told me.
"We will use some of the proceeds of the token sales as capital to source [additional] assets," the representative wrote in a message.
TEND's business model sounds exactly like time-sharing on steroids, and it targets the same types of people. The TEND website states that the company will give people "opportunities which are currently beyond their reach but reflect their aspirations."
The company is running a pilot with 20 people, according to cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk, so the platform is not yet accessible to the public. But the company's website gives an idea of what offers will look like in the future.
According to the customer service representative, co-owners can decide to take their object off the TEND platform entirely to store and maintain it themselves, but "the rights to change the terms [of ownership] are limited and depending on assets."
Personally, I'm all for co-ownership. If I could legitimately co-own something useful but infrequently used, like a set of tools, that would rock. But timesharing luxury goods, simply because I could never hope to afford them myself? Man, that's just dark, with or without the shiny blockchain tech. | 1,266,348 |
We tried. Chris Hayes, and April Ryan, and I tried very hard to pull Rep. Steve King (R-Berchtesgarden) back from the shoals toward which he was merrily sailing. Helm up, Steve! Hard over!
Too late.
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And now, in the oft-quoted words of Micheal Ray Richardson, the ship be sinking. From the New York Times:
House Republican leaders removed Representative Steve King of Iowa from the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees on Monday night as party officials scrambled to appear tough on racism and contain damage from comments Mr. King made to The New York Times questioning why white supremacy is considered offensive...Mr. King, who has been an ally of President Trump on the border wall and other issues, has a long history of making racist remarks and insults about immigrants, but has not drawn rebukes from Republican leaders until recently. In November, top Iowa Republicans like Senator Charles E. Grassley endorsed Mr. King for re-election even after one House Republican official came out and denounced him as a white supremacist.
So Kevin McCarthy, the Minority Leader of the House, moved on King, which gives us another chance to toss an elbow at former Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from the state of Wisconsin. Ryan was perfectly fine with having an outright white-supremacist in his caucus for more than a decade because Ryan never found the political gumption to bring the wild kingdom there under control.
Ted Cruz and Steve King at a town hall in Iowa in 2015. Eric Francis Getty Images
Many Republicans—including Willard Romney—have now piled on as well. (Ted Cruz, whose Iowa campaign in 2016 King helped run, puffed out some nondescript squid ink over the weekend.) None of them, of course, have addressed the real facts about Steve King—namely, that he was nurtured and produced in the same conservative Republican terrarium as all the rest of them, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy included. King bloomed more lushly and more exotically, but he's of the same genus. Now, they're all required to pretend that they never understood how this lethally poisonous plant sprouted in their midst. I wonder how long the delusion can last. I've been wondering that for three decades now.
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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.
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Earlier: Dems Not Debating Immigration In New Hampshire—All Agreed On Stealth Open Borders Campaign?
Steve Sailer has this thing were he does "CTRL+F immigra" on stories about schools or finance or crime which should mention immigration but don't.
I just did it with the transcript of the Democrats's South Carolina Debate, and there's practically nothing on the subject. Warren mentioned immigration as one of the things she doesn't like about the institution of the filibuster.
Klobuchar said at the end of one speech "Final thing is comprehensive immigration reform. I have passed..." and then the moderator called "Time."
Finally, Sanders mentioned it when he was saying he wasn't "radical." Sanders has a list of things he's saying isn't radical (they are, of course) and he mentioned "immigration reform," which on Democrat stage only means Amnesty, as something that he defied Mayor Pete to say was radical. Aside from that, crickets.
The thing is, they're all agreed on opening the floodgates.
Sanders has said that his first executive act will be to reverse everything Trump has done to protect America, and to do so, he's willing to actually resume terrorist immigration:
My first executive orders will be to reverse every single thing President Trump has done to demonize and harm immigrants, including his racist and disgusting Muslim ban. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 27, 2020
Biden wants to increase immigration to two million a year:
ALERT: Joe Biden wants to almost triple immigration!
2 million more EACH YEAR would:
🔻Crush wages for working class
🔻Kill blue collar jobs
🔻Ravage Medicare & Social Security
🔻Drain federal treasury
🔺Crowd schools & hospitals@realDonaldTrump puts American citizens first! pic.twitter.com/K90hUjEf83 — Team Trump (Text VOTE to 88022) (@TeamTrump) August 9, 2019
And Bloomberg, in spite of being part sane in some ways, has always been crazily pro-immigrant, one of the "Billionaires For Open Borders."
"A couple of years later, @Mike2020 was touting the benefits of a low-wage workforce thanks to immigration. 'You and I both play golf,' Bloomberg pointed out to radio host John Gambling. 'Who takes care of the greens and the fairways in your golf course?'" https://t.co/TLZlGzlRzB — Andrew Good (@Drewbueno) February 14, 2020
So here's the problem for the Democrats—when they face Trump in the general election, they'll have no idea what to say about immigration in response to his attacks on them, because they'll never have heard any of it before. | 1,266,350 |
they are in compliance, which they still have not provided, we have to maintain our assumptions that they can't prove that they are in compliance,” de Jong said.
Coal Free 2020
Several months ago, Elizabeth O’Nan invited a few people over to sit in her living room and talk about coal.
That informal meeting became the Chapel Hill Organization for Clean Energy, a local chapter of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. The group participates in a weekly demonstration in front of the Cameron Avenue plant on Friday mornings.
O’Nan said she has long been disillusioned with UNC’s promises to switch to safer and more sustainable sources of energy. But if the allegations in the lawsuit were to be proven true, she said, it would be “outrageous.”
“I mean, that puts a university on the level of a common criminal and a felon,” she said.
O’Nan said UNC has failed to take responsibility for its coal-burning plant in many ways. And the use of fossil fuels in any context, she said, inches the globe closer to a climate crisis.
“(The switch to clean energy) is not just important for Chapel Hill and UNC,” O’Nan said. “We are having a climate crisis that calls for it. To do otherwise is unspeakable — to allow this to continue, when there are very clearly things that could be done.”
Duncan, the student who works with the North Carolina Reinvest Coalition, shared similar feelings.
“I hope this serves as a wake-up call that (the University) really can’t brush everything under the rug,” Duncan said.
According to de Jong, this past summer the Cameron Avenue facility burned only natural gas. While it's still a fossil fuel, he said, natural gas alleviates carbon pollution and the risk of emitting other harmful pollutants.
De Jong said that demonstrates the University’s ability to ultimately move away from coal as a fuel source.
After UNC conceded that it would not reach the goal of going coal-free by 2020, the University shifted its focus to becoming greenhouse-gas neutral by 2050, meaning a net zero carbon footprint by eliminating carbon dioxide emissions completely — or by balancing emissions with carbon removal.
But de Jong said 2050 could be far too late.
“It is completely irrelevant to the survival of this planet, the survival of this species, and the survival of every single species on the brink of extinction, whether or not UNC is carbon neutral in 2050 — when we have to completely turn the carbon curve upside down in the next handful of years to make a difference for the survival of the planet,” he said.
@hannaherinlang
[email protected] | 1,266,351 |
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
While many Democrats will be jeering, mocking, and hissing President Trump during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, a handful of them will likely be shrinking into their seats and hoping that nobody notices them.
According to a recent poll, a majority of voters support the President’s position on border security in 10 congressional districts that voted for President Trump in 2016 but elected a Democrat to the House of Representatives in 2018.
In fact, respondents indicated that they approve of a border wall by an impressive margin of 53 percent to 43 percent, with an even larger majority of 61 percent saying they support the President’s stance in general terms.
Voters in these Democrat-held swing districts support “building a border wall or barrier to improve security between the US and Mexico,” placing their elected representatives in the difficult position of choosing between listening to their constituents and obeying the obstructionist dictates of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
That’s not just the opinion of voters, either.
An overwhelming majority of the Border Patrol agents who police the border every single day say a wall is necessary to ensure national security, reduce crime, and cut the influx of drugs pouring in — just as the barrier separating Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas has done with remarkable effectiveness.
It’s worth noting that before President Trump made the border wall a central element of his contract with the American people, most Democrats actually supported the same solution, voting in favor of border barriers and border security without hesitation under previous presidents from both parties.
Deep down, at least some swing-district Democrats still seem to agree with their constituents that border walls work. Indeed, Representative Collin Peterson, who represents one of the districts surveyed in the poll, recently expressed exasperation with the obstructionist tactics of his Party’s leadership.
“Give [President] Trump the money,” Peterson said in a recent radio interview. “I’d give him the whole thing … and put strings on it so you make sure he puts the wall where it needs to be. Why are we fighting over this? We’re going to build that wall anyway, at some time.”
So far, Peterson’s fellow Democrats haven’t shown much inclination to follow his lead, preferring to advocate for extremist open-borders policies that are anathema to moderate voters.
While their colleagues plot how best to use the State of the Union address to telegraph their anti-Trump credentials, moderate Democrats in vulnerable districts will have to find a way to balance the competing desires of their voters and their Party’s leaders.
Madison Gesiotto is an attorney, political commentator, 2016 Inauguration Spokesperson, and former Miss Ohio USA. | 1,266,352 |
“ Go to hell! ” –Norman Deek
Norman Deek is a supporting character and a minor antagonist featured in Red Dead Redemption.
Contents show]
Background
Norman Deek is the second-in-command of the Williamson gang, holed up at Fort Mercer.
Interactions
Deek is first encountered in the mission "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bandit". He is situated along with Williamson on the escarpment, holding a gun on John Marston and Marshal Leigh Johnson's posse. Deek then leads the assault immediately after this encounter. Deek survives, having only minor wounds, and is arrested by Johnson.
Johnson intends to interrogate Deek and exploit him to assist Marston's planned assault on Fort Mercer. Several days after his capture, the Williamson gang kidnaps Bonnie MacFarlane from Hennigan's Stead, and holds her under threat of execution. A Williamson gang member rides to Armadillo to deliver the ultimatum to Johnson, initiating the mission "Hanging Bonnie MacFarlane".
Johnson pragmatically accepts the exchange, carrying a restrained Deek to Tumbleweed alongside Marston, Eli and Jonah. The gang members, awaiting their arrival, ambush them during the exchange and Deek is unceremoniously gunned down by his own gang while being in front of Marston. His death is announced in the Blackwater Ledger.
Mission appearances
Red Dead Redemption
Quotes
“ I'm sure it's been nice for the boys to have a whore to play with. I hear those rancher girls like it in the rear. Maybe she won't wanna go home, she's been fucked so good. „ Norman Deek, referring to Bonnie MacFarlane and her abduction
“ You wait, Marshal. I'll be back for you. „ Norman Deek to Leigh Johnson
“ We already filled you with lead once, you ugly bastard. „ Norman Deek to John Marston
“ I can't wait for you to meet the boys. Stop spurrin' so hard, dammnit! Only a coward hides behind a badge. „ —Norman Deek
“ It'd be my pleasure. „ —Norman Deek to John Marston after the latter said he'll use Norman as a shield
“ What you waiting for? Untie me fellas! „ —Norman Deek's last words
Trivia
When Jonah captures Norman in "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bandit" he does not have his hat on. In Hanging Bonnie MacFarlane, he does have his hat on. This most likely a developer oversight.
Norman Deek is one of the few characters to say the word "fuck" more than once.
Gallery | 1,266,353 |
evli 8
Being stuck in high school does not seem like a good idea. However, lets say if you kill one of your classmates you can leave. Still Being stuck in high school does not seem like a good idea. However, lets say if you kill one of your classmates you can leave. Still interested? This is precisely the premise of this game. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a visual novel for the PS Vita with some additional elements. Namely, this visual novel has 'investigation' and 'trials' gameplay. This is similar to other popular games of this genre such as Phoenix Wright and Zero Escape. With a well written story and diverse cast of characters, Danganronpa is a wonderful introduction to visual novel games and a great addition to any PS Vita library.
While the subject matter is serious, killing classmates in order to survive or punishing those have killed them, the game is often humorous in a over the top way. The game starts with the main character receiving an acceptance letter to a high school only to find out the high school has been taken over by a bear-like robot which sets out to tell all incoming students that, if they wish to leave, they must kill a classmate and get away with it! This over the top premise is followed with a suiting art style that serves only to intensify the situation the protagonist is put into.
As it is often true with visual novels, they are only as good as the characters in them. In this regard Danganronpa does not disappoint. It presents a diverse cast of characters, each with their unique feature. However, the characters in this game are hardly believable, there is little development done in the story as no character seems to mature or chance from their starting persona. This is true with a few exceptions. This however does not affect the game too much as it keeps well with the story being as over the top as the characters in it.
In conclusion, this game holds itself well against other titles of this genre. However, if you are long time player of visual novels you will find the elements here are not new. You can find similar elements in different games but if you are looking for a over the top story with excellent writing you will find Danganronpa to be exactly what you are looking for.
GRAPHICHS/ART 9
MUSIC/SOUND 8
STORY 9
GAMEPLAY 7
FINAL SCORE: 8
Play this game if:
+ You enjoy good writing.
+ You enjoy visual novels
Avoid if:
- Reading a lot turns you off to a game.
- Choices that actually affect the story sounds better to you.
If you have any question about this game or would like to talk about games follow me on twitter!
@evjsli … Expand | 1,266,354 |
• Categorized under Objects | Difference Between Ivory and Bone
Ivory vs Bone
There are many products and handicrafts available which are made from ivory and bone. These are at times a bit costly owing to the base material and intricate designs. But there are hoax products as well. The hoax products are made on cheap quality plastics or other materials which resemble ivory and bone. So you must be able to identify the fake from the original as well as ivory from bone.
Ivory is dead matter like the nails and hair. It comes from the teeth and tusks of mammals. The most popular ivory is the tusk of the elephants. The teeth of seals also are considered as good ivory. Other real ivories come from hippopotamus, mammoth, wild boar, and mastodon. The ivory obtained from the Asiatic elephants are much white denser and whiter than the African elephant tusks. The Asiatic ivory is much softer and hence carvings can be made intricately on these.
Bone will always have minute pores on the surface and these pores appear as black or brown. The pores are the result of the minute blood vessels which once ran through these bones. These may not be visible to the naked eye. You will have to use a magnifying glass for the purpose. If you are looking at ivory, you will notice that instead of pores, there will be lines on the material. The lines can be cross hatched or even in circular rings.
Fake ivory will have bone or powdered ivory on it. The hot pin test can be used to identify fake and synthetic ivory. In this test, a person will heat a pin to red hot and try to pierce it into the ivory. If it is not real, the pin will pierce through the ivory. So using this simple test you can identify real ivory. While if you expose bone to excess heat it will smoke out.
Ivory is harder than bone and hence it is not that easy to make a scratch on a piece of ivory as you can make on bone. Ivory, if broken can be glued together easily. But if it scatters to pieces, gluing back may not be possible. It is easy to glue broken ivory because of the smooth and shiny texture. But bone is very dry and coarse looking. So it is not possible to glue broken bones and the grooves and ridges can be noticed very easily.
Summary:
1.Ivory comes from the teeth and tusks of mammals while bones are the components of the skeletal systems.
2.Bones have minute pores due the presence of minute blood vessels when it was in the body of the animal. Ivory has lines or circular rings.
3.Bones are very dry and coarse textured. Ivory is smooth and has a shiny texture.
4.Ivory is harder than bone and cannot be broken that easily. | 1,266,355 |
o Project pair artist-mentors with city youth. The Urbano Project would lose 5 percent of its budget if Gov. Baker's arts funding cuts are approved. (Andrea Shea/WBUR)
In fairness to the governor, Pignatelli said the state's financial picture is dire, with a revenue shortfall of about $800 million. Baker said he has to find ways to fund so many other things, including emergency assistance for the homeless and ice and snow removal.
“And I get the fact that those are difficult decisions,” Baker said this week, “but I think it’s really important for us to start the year with a budget that we have full confidence is balanced so we don’t end up doing what we did last year which was chasing the number down all year long.”
Senate President Stan Rosenberg sees the governor’s arts funding cuts differently.
“It's really very short-sighted and it's frustrating,” he said.
Rosenberg said he expects the governor's arts funding veto to get overridden. That’s what happened last year when Baker tried to reduce the MCC's budget from $14 million to $11.8 million.
In discussing the arts funding cuts, Rosenberg evoked a letter John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail as he was penning the Constitution.
“He talked about the importance of funding the arts all the way back at the founding of the country,” Rosenberg said, “and here we are still having these little skirmishes over providing a few dollars to help support arts and culture in our society which is really a really critical element of a well-balanced society.”
And so is the back and forth between the Legislature and the governor.
Longtime arts advocate and Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition co-founder Kathleen Bitetti urged people to learn more about the way things work in the State House because a lot goes on behind closed doors. Bitetti has been fighting for artists' issues on Beacon Hill for more than 20 years.
"Nothing surprises me anymore with arts funding being cut," Bitetti said, "It’s more like, 'Here we go again, let’s go back in it!' "
Bitetti has followed arts funding battles for years through previous administrations. She said, in a way, the MCC is lucky because the arts community and its backers are usually very vocal.
"It’s easy for us to say, ‘Oh god, it’s horrible what they did to the arts,’ but the big picture? It’s horrible for a lot of people," she said.
The governor's veto for the MCC’s budget is just one of about 300 that the House and Senate need to address before the session wraps on July 31. | 1,266,356 |
Fanboys love nothing more than to bitch and moan when some nitpicky detail of a novel they love doesn't make it into the final cut of the movie ("They left Peeves the Poltergeist out of Harry Potter? Now everything is just ruined!"). But the thing is, sometimes those changes happen for the right reasons. Below are honest-to-God insane elements of best-selling novels you definitely don't remember from the movies:
6 The Lord of the Rings - The Ridiculous Tom Bombadil
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Tolkien's Lord of the Rings defined the fantasy genre so hard that it'd have been stupid for all the other fantasy writers in the world not to rip him off, but it's also probably one of the least-cinematic novels you'll ever find this side of Ayn Rand. See, as we've already pointed out, Tolkien wasn't actually a novelist at all; he was a stodgy old linguistics professor with an awesome pipe habit who basically wrote the books as a support system for his made-up Elf languages.
Via Wikimedia Commons
Even in military uniform, he looks like the world's biggest nerd.
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A fake language dictionary disguised as an epic fantasy novel, as you can imagine, doesn't exactly lend itself to the big screen. So, for the sake of streamlining the story, a lot of elements had to be tweaked or outright abandoned. For example, the book version drags on for six chapters after Gollum takes his swan-dive into the volcano, and before it's over, we see Saruman acting like a small-time mafioso in the Shire before ending up on the wrong end of a shiv. So, yeah -- the infuriating multiple endings in Return of the King: That's real. But what they left out was much weirder, such as the part where Merry and Pippin almost get eaten alive by an angry tree but are saved by a dancing, prancing forest-dweller who calms down the tree by singing to it and then lures the bewildered hobbits back to his secluded shack in the woods.
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Wait, What?
Meet Tom Bombadil:
Via Wikimedia Commons
Also known as "Holyfuckingbeard!"
Tom enjoys long walks in the woods, wearing a blue coat with stylish yellow boots, singing, flitting about like a wood-nymph-hobo and rescuing wayward travelers from angry trees. Oh, and when he talks, he sounds like this:
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"Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!
Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!" | 1,266,357 |
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King will launch for 3DS in North America and Europe on January 20, Nintendo announced.
The 3DS version of the RPG, originally launched for PS2, features two new playable characters, additional side quests, and more.
Here is Nintendo of America’s description of the game:
The story begins when a jester, Dhoulmagus, comes to Castle Trodain and steals the King’s sceptre. He then uses its power to turn his majesty into a troll, the Princess into a horse and the castle inhabitants into plants. The only one left unscathed from this attack is a castle guard who escaped the curse and must now step up to save the kingdom he’s sworn to protect. Only by traveling the lands, recruiting allies and following the trail of destruction that Dhoulmagus leaves in his wake will The Hero be able to retrieve the sceptre in order to restore Trodain back to its former glory.
As players dive into the rich story of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, whether they’re visiting for the first time or coming back to relive the adventure all over again, they can enjoy full voice acting in all plot-important cutscenes, and new story content that will provide more back story about The Hero and the villainous Dhoulmagus. Further additions include additional quests to complete and dungeons to explore, and even a new alternative ending.
Returning heroes may also find that elements of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King have been streamlined for this hand-held outing. The new Quick-Save function allows players to save and exit the game at any time. And for warriors in a hurry, battling foes is also much faster with the introduction of the “Speed Up” feature, allowing heroes to cut their way through each encounter with much greater haste.
Those who wish to capture mementos of their quest to restore peace to the land will now find it’s easier than ever before, as at any time outside of battles and cutscenes players can pause the action and take a photo of their adventure thus far. These photos can be customized in a variety of different ways, including allowing The Hero and his companions to perform special poses, adding stickers and filters, or putting a frame around the image to add a personal touch to their memory. Once the player meets Cameron Obscura in Port Prospect they’ll also be able to unlock Cameron’s Codex, where they’ll be rewarded for taking pictures of certain subjects, monsters and situations.
All of these images can be saved to the SD card and shared to other Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King owners via the StreetPass feature. Once these photos have been shared, other players can give them a thumbs up, and the more of these the image earns, the higher the chance of receiving a new item. | 1,266,358 |
The House of Representatives on Thursday evening voted to overturn an Obama-era rule that had been put in place to prevent people with severe mental illnesses from buying firearms.
The rule, which was finalized by the Social Security Administration in December, banned Social Security beneficiaries from buying guns if their disability payments are handled by an outside party due to their “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”
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Appearing on CNN Friday morning, Rep. John Barrasso (R – WY) defended his vote to overturn the rule on the basis that it went into effect at the very end of President Barack Obama’s second term, and was thus a “midnight” regulation that deserved to be scrutinized. Although the rule was only put into effect in December, it had actually been in the works for years, and was a response to the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.
But when Barrasso was asked repeatedly by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota whether he thought that it was a good idea to give people with severe mental illnesses guns, the congressman repeatedly deflected and refused to answer the question.
“As I understand it, it involves 75,000 people with mental disorders so severe that they cannot work, and they have someone else manage their Social Security benefits,” Camerota said. “How does it make sense to let them have guns?”
“This is a new change by President Obama, a midnight regulation on his way out the door,” he said. “It should be subjected to full debate, discussion, and the House voted on it yesterday.”
Camerota wouldn’t let him off the hook, however.
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“If someone has a mental illness so severe that they cannot work, should they be able to have a gun?” she asked.
“Well, the question is, is somebody able to have a gun at the same time they’re receiving Social Security disability benefits,” Barrasso replied. “And you can take a look at how those decisions are being made. But for seven or eight years, right up until the end of President Obama’s turn, it was fine.”
Camerota was still undeterred.
“Senator, are you comfortable with somebody having a mental disability and having a gun?” she asked.
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“You can take a look at what the Constitution says, which is what I do,” he replied. “As a physician who’s spent lots of time dealing with patients with all different backgrounds, there are clearly people who have been labeled one way or another, and I’m not comfortable with midnight regulations by the president.”
Check out the full clip below. | 1,266,359 |
Google sign language AI turns hand gestures into speech Published duration 20 August 2019
image copyright Google AI
Google has developed software that could pave the way for smartphones to interpret sign language.
The tech firm has not made a product of its own but has published algorithms which it hopes developers will use to make their own apps.
Until now, this type of software has only worked on PCs.
But campaigners from the hearing-impaired community have welcomed the move, but say the tech might struggle to fully grasp some conversations.
In an AI blog, Google research engineers Valentin Bazarevsky and Fan Zhang said the intention of the freely published hand-tracking technology - which can perceive the shape and motion of hands - was to serve as "the basis for sign language understanding".
"We're excited to see what people come up with. For our part, we will continue our research to make the technology more robust and to stabilise tracking, increasing the number of gestures we can reliably detect," a spokeswoman for Google told the BBC.
Google acknowledges this is a first step. Campaigners say an app that produced audio from hand signals alone would miss any facial expressions or speed of signing and these can change the meaning of what is being discussed.
Also, any regionalisms which exist in a local area would not be included.
image copyright Google image caption The algorithms can track two hands
Jesal Vishnuram, Action on Hearing Loss's technology manager, says the initiative is a good first step for hearing people, but that it needs to be paired with other capabilities.
"From a deaf person's perspective, it'd be more beneficial for software to be developed which could provide automated translations of text or audio into British Sign Language (BSL) to help everyday conversations and reduce isolation in the hearing world," he said.
Hidden fingers
Until now, when trying to track hands on video, finger-bending and flicks of the wrist have hidden other parts of the hand. This confused earlier versions of this kind of software.
Google imposes a graph on 21 points across the fingers, palm and back of the hand, making it easier to understand a hand signal if the hand and arm twist or two fingers touch.
Other large US software providers have developed technologies that have attempted to read aloud sign language on PCs.
Last year, Microsoft teamed up with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf to use desktop computers in classrooms that helped students with hearing disabilities via a presentation translator
image copyright Microsoft
In a blog, students described having previously missed some of what their professors had said because they had to keep switching attention from human sign language interpreters to what was being written on the board.
But by having all the viewing information presented via a desktop, the problem was solved.
Elsewhere in the world, innovators have created their own home-grown tech. | 1,266,360 |
Zach Collaros is one big step closer to returning to game action for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The team’s starting quarterback, who has been out since tearing an ACL last September was back on the practice field on Monday as the Ticats began preparations for their game in Montreal against the Alouettes on Friday.
Ticats head coach Kent Austin told reporters Collaros will not play on Friday — Jeremiah Masoli is expected to remain the starter.
“It’s good to have (Collaros) back out there working,” Austin said. “He has a great presence about him, as you all know. We’ll just see how it goes. He’s got to work back into it and they’ve got to evaluate how he feels and all the protocols that we follow.”
Austin did not reveal the team’s projected timeline for Collaros, but he’s clearly getting closer to a return. The Ticats traded another quarterback, Jake Waters, to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday.
“There’s a tentative (timeline),” Austin said. “I don’t want to talk about it because if there are some issues that may delay it, I’ve kind of set an expectation and that’s not good. I don’t want to do that with him or anyone else on the team. We’ll see how the next week goes in practice and go from there.”
Collaros said it was fun to return to practice.
“When it’s taken away from you like that and you can’t do anything but sit around and do rehab, it gets very monotonous and boring,” he said. “I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t boring. I just missed the competitive nature of the game.”
Collaros is wearing a knee brace and said he will continue to do so when he enters a game.
“I wouldn’t really call it an adjustment anymore, it’s kind of just second nature to me,” he said. “I feel like I need to have it on because that’s what the surgeon told me and that’s what everyone is telling me. I’m pretty used to it. Obviously in a perfect world I wouldn’t have it on, but it is what it is.”
The trip to Montreal is the start of a four-game road swing for the Ticats (1-2), who have lost two in a row after winning their season opener in Toronto against the Argonauts. Hamilton’s next game is July 23 in Edmonton against the Eskimos. | 1,266,361 |
EAST LANSING — Andrew Maxwell will start at quarterback for Michigan State when the Spartans take the field against Western Michigan on Friday night, according to coach Mark Dantonio.
"I think he's poised for a great senior season,'' Dantonio said. "I'm comfortable we have a No. 1 quarterback, he was our No. 1 quarterback last year.
"He had some balls dropped, we have to protect him, we have to run the football and do the things around him,'' he said. "He has great leadership skills. Like I told him today, here's the keys, bring it back full.
"I'm very confident he's going to be able to do that.''
Maxwell, a fifth-year senior, was forced to win his position after Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio declared the quarterback position open following last season's 7-6 campaign.
While Maxwell will start against the Broncos (TV: Big Ten Network, 8 p.m.), Dantonio has said he will use at least two quarterbacks in each game for an indeterminable amount of time.
Redshirt sophomore Connor Cook caught Dantonio's eye by leading the game-winning drive in the 17-16 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl victory over TCU.
Cook, along with redshirt freshman Tyler O'Connor continued to press Maxwell throughout spring drills and into the fall camp.
True freshman Damion Terry entered the mix in fall drills, and in an Aug. 17 scrimmage impressed enough to find himself in the running for playing time.
Dantonio maintained that Maxwell was No. 1 on the depth chart throughout the spring and fall, but he stopped short of declaring him the starter for the first game, indicating that the competition remained open.
In the days leading up to today's announcement, Dantonio mentioned Maxwell's experience and leadership ability as a distinct edge over the younger quarterbacks.
"I've maintained all along that Andrew Maxwell is our No. 1 quarterback and somebody was going to have to beat him out,'' Dantonio
. "So he brings knowledge to the table, experience — there's no substitute for experience.''
The Michigan State quarterback race figures to remain fluid, as all four have exhibited different strengths.
If there's one thing they can take comfort in now that fall camp is over, it's very likely the only contact they'll get from here on out will be on game days.
Dantonio, uncharacteristically, made his quarterbacks live throughout spring and fall drills, approaching the maximum amount of contact practices allowed by the NCAA in the process.
-- Download the MSU basketball on MLive app for iPhone and Android
-- Download the MSU football on MLive app for iPhone and Android
-- Follow Diamond Leung and Mike Griffith on Twitter
-- Like MLive's Michigan State Spartans Facebook page. | 1,266,362 |
Our atmosphere behaves like a fluid, changing its flow and direction when it runs into an obstacle. Sometimes we can see (and feel) these movements on a small scale, as winds blow trees and water. Satellites, however, can observe these twists and bends on a broad scale as they create interesting shapes in the sky.
This image shows spiraling cloud patterns off the coast of Morocco on July 19, 2019. Known as von Kármán vortices, these eddies can form nearly anywhere that fluid flow is disturbed by a solid object. In this case, the vortices formed when winds flowed around small islands in the North Atlantic.
“The basic idea is that flow over, and around, a mountainous island slows down,” said George Young, professor of meteorology at Penn State University. This creates a vertical wall of whirling air—with faster wind flowing past slower wind below. These sheets can wrap themselves into vortices and shed alternately off the two sides of the island. They can subsequently travel downwind from the island to create “vortex streets,” as seen in this image. The pattern of the spirals depends on the intensity of the wind.
“This is a spectacular satellite image,” said Paul Beggs, an associate professor at Macquarie University. “I don’t recall having seen an image of von Kármán vortices at nighttime previously, so I would consider it rare.” Atmospheric vortices are commonly observed by satellites, and Earth Observatory has shown them many times. But we have rarely noted them in nighttime imagery.
Young notes that nighttime von Kármán vortices are not necessarily infrequent occurrences; new sensor technology has just made it much easier to capture these scenes. Satellites now carry shortwave infrared channels and image filters that achieve the spatial resolution and faint light detection to allow researchers to see vortices at night.
This image was acquired with the “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite. VIIRS detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight.
“I’m not the least surprised to see them at night because the two factors they primarily depend on (wind speed in the boundary layer and a strong stable layer at the top of the boundary layer) vary little between day and night at sea,” said Young. These von Karman vortices also appeared in daylight.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using VIIRS day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Story by Kasha Patel, with image interpretation by George Young. | 1,266,363 |
of a firearm;
Jason Rose, aka Honkey, 42, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and for being a felon in possession of a firearm;
Shawn Schmidt, 33, sentenced to serve 30 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm;
Charles Soper, aka Slim, 25, sentenced to serve 34 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm;
Jeffrey Robinson, 37, sentenced to serve nine years in prison for drug conspiracy;
Roy Naughton, sentenced to serve 100 months in prison for carjacking;
Colter O’Dell, sentenced to serve 27 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to the indictment, as part of their operations, 1488s members and associates allegedly engaged in illegal activities under the protection of the enterprise, including narcotics trafficking, weapons trafficking, and other illegal activities to generate income. The 1488s allegedly had a detailed and uniform organizational structure, which is outlined in written “rules” widely distributed to members throughout Alaska and elsewhere. Members of the 1488s allegedly acted in different roles in order to further the goals of their organization, including “bosses” who had ultimate authority in all gang matters. “Key holders” were allegedly responsible for all gang matters within penal facilities where 1488s had a presence, and in “free world” Alaska (outside of prison). “Enforcers” were allegedly responsible for enforcing the rules and performing tasks as assigned by higher-ranking gang members.
The indictment further alleges the 1488 gang was established in approximately 2010 within the Alaska Department of Corrections and by Alaskan inmates incarcerated within the Colorado Department of Corrections and the Arizona Department of Corrections through interstate compact agreements.
The FBI and AST Alaska Bureau of Investigation Special Crimes Investigation Unit and Technical Crimes Unit, the Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit (SDEU) Mat-Su Drug Unit, AST ‘B’ Detachment Major Crimes Unit and Criminal Suppression Unit, and AST’s participation in the Task Force Officer program led the investigation. Investigative Assistance was provided by IRS Criminal Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Anchorage Police Department (APD), the State of Alaska’s Department of Corrections and the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Gang Section (OCGS). This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Taylor and James Klugman of the District of Alaska and Trial Attorney Marty Woelfle of OCGS.
The charges in the indictments are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. | 1,266,364 |
Metal Gear Solid V’s Quiet – love on the battlefield
Cosplayers take note
Hideo Kojima has attempted to defend a new character who he previously admitted he’d made ‘more erotic’ so that cosplayers would dress up as her.
Kojima now insists that what he said should have been translated as ‘sexy’ not erotic, but he’s otherwise defended the design of the character Quiet.
Quiet is a gigantically-bosomed sniper who wears nothing but a bikini and a torn pair of tights. She’s not entirely out of keeping with the series’ portrayal of women, but is certainly the most outwardly sexualised design so far.
‘You’re going to notice [when you play] there’s limited dialogue with the [Metal Gear Solid V], and for that reason we really want to show the characteristic from each character,’ Kojima told website Polygon. ‘Sexy could be for guys, weapons, vehicles, it’s really that characteristic.’
Several images such as the one on the right were released specifically to aid cosplayers (costume players – fans that dress up as video game characters) and were first teased with a shot of Quiet’s bottom.
‘The character I asked Yoji [Shinkawa, series concept artist] to make it more erotic, this one may not be cosplayable,’ wrote Kojima originally.
The character I asked Yoji to make it more erotic, this one may not be cosplayable. — HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 4, 2013
The whole episode has caused considerable controversy, with Halo producer and former journalist David Ellis tweeting that he finds the design ‘disgusting’, adding: ‘Our industry should be better than this’.
Don't care if this gets me in trouble. This character design is disgusting. Our industry should be better than this. http://t.co/4CCaF1qNEP — David Ellis (@DavidEllis) September 6, 2013
Quiet’s voice and motion capture is provided by Dutch model Stefanie Joosten, who had this to say on the matter:
‘Of course, I was surprised to see Quiet’s outfit at first. But, you know, it fits in the Metal Gear universe, I think. I don’t think I’m allowed to say a lot about this, but, well, Mr. Kojima has his reasons for deciding why Quiet [is] wearing what she’s wearing.’
Thoughts? Email [email protected] or leave a comment below | 1,266,365 |
In case you missed it, on Wednesday President Donald J. Trump rolled back protections for transgender kids in public schools. Here’s a noteworthy summary of the rollback from The Young Turks Network, an independent media source:
As you can imagine, the response to Trump’s rollback has been massive. The LGBTQA community has taken to Twitter, to Facebook, and to the streets in a public outcry against what many are calling an attack on the trans community.
Hollywood’s most famous transgender and advocate for the LGBTQA community, Caitlyn Jenner, came out with her response to the rollback late Thursday:
Well @realDonaldTrump, from one Republican to another, this is a disaster. You made a promise to protect the LGBTQ community. Call me. pic.twitter.com/XwYe0LNUOq — Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) February 24, 2017
And while Jenner’s response may be garnering the majority of the attention online, some of the world’s largest brands are also stepping up to oppose the Trump administration’s rollback. The leadership and brands like Airbnb, Microsoft, Salesforce, Twitter and Square are tweeting to make it clear that they support the trans community:
Airbnb
We believe no matter which gender you identify with, you deserve to belong. #weaccept — Airbnb (@Airbnb) February 24, 2017
Jack Dorsey – CEO at Square, Twitter
Rolling back rights for transgender students is wrong. Twitter and Square stand with the LGBTQ community, always. pic.twitter.com/GKXrdjKkrV — jack (@jack) February 24, 2017
Marc Benioff, CEO at Salesforce
Since Jan. 1, 1863, the federal government has played a vital role in protecting the rights of all Americans. Let’s not stop now. #LGBTQ — Brad Smith (@BradSmi) February 22, 2017
Brad Smith, President at Microsoft
Since Jan. 1, 1863, the federal government has played a vital role in protecting the rights of all Americans. Let’s not stop now. #LGBTQ — Brad Smith (@BradSmi) February 22, 2017
Others, like Google, IBM, and Apple, are releasing statements to the press:
The Ham’s Take
As the Trump administration continues to stumble, tech brands are making it clear that they will push back. We at The Creative Ham are not blind to see that opinions differ even within the creative community, but we will not stand by idly. Brands who boldly proclaim their values and fight for humanity are the ones that win. We support these bolds brands, and we support the trans community. Now, can we see the CPG sector step up?
featured image by DonkeyHotey/flickr | 1,266,366 |
In the race of making electric vehicles more efficient, the Hyundai Ioniq Electric is still the reigning king with its exceptionally small and efficient battery pack.
The Tesla Model 3 is its closest competitor and it could eventually beat it with upcoming new versions of the car, but not with the new Performance Model 3 which is unsurprisingly much less efficient.
According to the EPA, the Long Range rear-wheel-drive Model 3 got 131 MPGe for city driving, 120 MPGe on the highway, and 126 MPGe combined.
Tesla apparently made efficiency gains during upgrades in the early production ramp because it was later updated to a combined 130 MPGe with the 2018 model year.
It came close, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Hyundai Ioniq Electric’s 136 MPGe.
Unsurprisingly, the Performance version of the Model 3 isn’t going to be the one pushing in the right direction due to its focus on performance over efficiency.
The EPA hasn’t released the fuel economy results for the performance version yet, but a Tesla employee shared on Reddit a picture of a Performance Model 3 test drive vehicle being delivered to a store and it shows a glimpse of the Monroney sticker with the ‘116’ MPGe visible:
It is significantly lower than the rear-wheel-drive version, but that was to be expected with bigger wheels, performance tires, spoiler, and more weight from the additional motor.
The bigger question is going to be how much it will affect the range. When Tesla introduced the Model 3 Dual Motor and Dual Motor Performance, the automaker advertised the same 310 miles of range as the Model 3 with a rear-wheel-drive motor and the Long Range battery pack.
That figure comes from the EPA test cycle – though documents revealed that the rear-wheel drive version achieved an EPA-cycle range of 334 miles (537 km), but Tesla asked the EPA to lower the official range to 310 miles, which raises some questions.
Electrek’s Take
The main theory right now is that Tesla requested to lower the EPA range in order to advertise the same range for the Dual Motor and Performance versions.
Last week, a CARB filing for the Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor and Performance versions showed that they performed 8% lower in the “urban dynamometer driving schedule” test than the rear-wheel-drive version.
It is not necessarily representative of real-world driving, but it does show the dual motor versions of the car being less efficient.
It will be interesting to see what kind of real-world range people will get because even though Tesla is advertising the same range, it is becoming clear that it won’t be the case.
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Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast. | 1,266,367 |
With four enchanting arms, four enchanting legs and two of the most enchanting faces since Gable met Lombard, the merest glimpse of the hybrid creature known as Hiddleswift can be an inspiration if you happen to be immobile, which I more or less am. With my systems of locomotion packing up one after the other, I can just about move if it isn’t hot, but lately it has been hot. Hiddleswift, by contrast, can sometimes walk almost 100 yards before being brought to a halt by the spectacle of a couple of dozen photographers hanging upside down from trees.
This column threatens to be a bit fragmentary this week, because so am I. Not long ago, I missed my usual appointment at Addenbrooke’s to have my immunoglobulin enhanced. The very word sounds as if it is enhanced already, but the important thing the patient has to do is actually get there. A few days ago I did. I got linked into the system, opened my little Oxford Classics collection of George Herbert’s poems and, despite all vows to apply myself, conked out instantly. When I woke up, the TV hanging from the ceiling was saying, but not showing, that John Kerry, arriving at No 10 Downing Street, mistimed his relationship with the front door and got hit in the head.
Eventually, Kerry and Boris were up there on screen with a lectern each, and the contrast was as startling as ever. Kerry, despite the fact that he had just been slugged in the head by a massive door, looked as smooth as Sean Connery with a better hairpiece. Boris, despite several hours of training for his new role, gave an immediate impression of total dishevelment. On closer inspection, this impression proved false: he was as well-groomed as he is ever going to get. It’s not his clothes and coiffure, but his personality that makes him look as if he has been rolled on by a horse and then seduced by it. My own guess is that the suavely cool Theresa and the barking head-case Boris will be the greatest political double act since Ferdinand and Isabella, for at least five minutes.
I hope it’s just the heat that has been scrambling my brains, but it might be that they’re scrambling themselves. Perhaps it’s time to quit writing. If it is, I still have plans: there are several thousand hours of music that I’d like to listen to again. Trouble is, if I did that, I would write remarks. Recently, I have been writing a poem about the most fabulous of Beethoven’s late quartets, Opus 131 in C sharp minor. That amazing thing doesn’t need my poem, but my poem still needs it, the way every poem still needs all the world. | 1,266,368 |
MINNEAPOLIS -- While the Yankees reveled in what seemed to be their most enjoyable victory of the season to date, Gary Sánchez glumly shuffled to his locker in the visitors' clubhouse at Target Field, expressing hope that another stint in the injured list was not in his future. Indeed, Sanchez
MINNEAPOLIS -- While the Yankees reveled in what seemed to be their most enjoyable victory of the season to date, Gary Sánchez glumly shuffled to his locker in the visitors' clubhouse at Target Field, expressing hope that another stint in the injured list was not in his future.
Indeed, Sanchez landed on the 10-day injured list prior to Wednesday's game, as an MRI revealed a Grade 1 left groin strain. The Yankees recalled catcher Kyle Higashioka and left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, optioning right-hander Jonathan Holder to Triple-A.
"It's a Grade 1 strain, so in the scale of strains, I guess it's minor," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "It's somewhat good news, but it's still going to need some time. We'll have to see how these next few days and week unfolds and how he's healing."
Boone said Sanchez could return to the lineup at some point in August, though he acknowledged that a September return is also possible. The All-Star catcher was forced to exit in the eighth inning of the Yankees' 14-12, 10-inning victory, sustaining the injury while running out a grounder to Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco.
"It just feels a little tight," Sanchez said through an interpreter on Tuesday. "It's not preventing me from walking or moving my back freely, so I'm positive about that."
Sanchez went hitless in his past 19 at-bats and was 10-for-85 (.118) across his last 21 games (20 starts), over which he struck out 28 times.
Last season, Sanchez served two stints on the injured list with a right groin strain. He also missed 11 games this season with a left calf strain.
"It felt like kind of like a cramp," Sanchez said of Tuesday's injury. "It's nothing like what I had last year. The pain is completely different."
With Sanchez out, Boone said he envisions Austin Romine and Higashioka splitting duties behind the plate, suggesting that Higashioka could start two games this weekend against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
"I think you'll see a lot of both of them," Boone said. "Even though Gary being down is a blow, we feel like in Higgy we have a guy capable of not only coming up here and filling in, but a guy capable of coming up here and thriving and having an impact on us winning games." | 1,266,369 |
reduced to such shorthand. The game even makes a point of giving each one of your prisoners their own rap sheet, noting their history, time served, and pressing needs. The longer the game goes on, the more needing to be done, the less the information on those sheets mattered.
Why bother learning a name when his next-door cellmate will have him killed in the shower tomorrow? How long he has till he gets out only matters in as much as an empty cell means I save a few miniscule dollars per day. The only criminals that tend to stand out are the ones who start trouble. And in enough numbers, they too just make up a general collective of "bad". Many a prisoner has written or spoken about how prison reduces a man to a number. It’s worse thinking that from this distance, each prisoner is a microscopic part of a larger statistic.
There’s an argument to be made about this being the purpose, an examination of how these people aren’t people but a series of multicolored pieces to be moved around and corralled into compliance with consequences you feel from a detached distance. The campaign would be the perfect place to put a punctuation mark on that statement of purpose, but instead, it’s a sub-HBO crime drama occasionally broken by comic book inserts. In the escape mode, you can play as a prisoner trying to Shawshank your way out of your own prison or a downloaded prison that feels tacked on and wafer thin compared to the massive number of options available in the main game.
The campaign’s real purpose seems to be the erstwhile, slapdash tutorial the sandbox mode will never provide. The man or woman who is actually in charge of that job for a prison somewhere in America would ultimately still be forced to face the human cost. This game dodges that responsibility whenever it gets too close to having to answer any deeper questions about what we’re meant to do for the incarcerated.
Instead, managing your prison is functionally no different than making sure your Sims go to work in the morning. It involves stats to watch and growth to measure with hard numbers. It’s a marvel of, well, architecture. There are more and deeper games out there that allow for interesting feats of building. What Prison Architect dangles in front of every player is the opportunity to see a dark part of humanity from a different, vital angle. When it’s at its best--when you’re genuinely invested in prisoners’ quality of life, creating the best possible space for people to rehabilitate, and realizing just how many tools are at your disposal to accomplish it all--it is exactly that. And it’s worth playing for just that feeling. The loss of humanity Prison Architect breeds in its players could be its greatest strength, but without even an acknowledgement of that loss, the game stumbles instead of teaches. | 1,266,370 |
Have you ever been on a sofa safari? DnA’s Caroline Chamberlain joined L.A.-based assistant director and photographer Andrew Ward on a recent Saturday morning to hunt down our city’s abandoned sofas and mattresses. It’s part of a photo project he calls “Sofas of LA” (with the sister project Mattresses of LA).
For three hours Andrew Ward and I toured Highland Park and Silver Lake and found sofas of all shapes and sizes at varying degrees of deterioration. If ‘sofa detective’ were a profession, he’d be your guy. Every sofa had a narrative that came to him immediately as he examined his subject. Whether it was determining matter-of-factly what species of animal had partially chewed off an arm of a particular couch– or speculating that a particular piece of furniture was part of a relationship ultimatum, he perceived dramatic tales behind our abandoned furniture.
Of the chair above, he said he believed the latter tale was true. “It’s either me or the chair,” he imagined one loved one saying to another before dumping it on the sidewalk.
And while he enjoys this project as a creative outlet where he gets to express his point of view as a photographer, it also serves a practical purpose. He reports each sofa and mattress he finds to the city with the MyLA 311 app so they are promptly picked up.
Despite his excitement for spotting these most intimate of objects, he sees them as a reflection of disrespect for neighborhoods. “No one wants to wake up in the morning and find abandoned furniture or any kind of illegal dumping in front of their house. I don’t think I’m the only one who would harbor that resentment. But also I like to think of it in some small way my kind of community activism. I don’t just take a photograph and go about my business, I make it a point to photograph it and to use my smart phone to call it into the city.”
Taken as a whole, though, he sees these cast-off sofas as an indication of L.A.’s transient nature as a city. “It’s a city that has millions of people that are always on the move, myself included. When you rent and move from place to place, these things have sort of a lifespan now,” he said.
From an artistic standpoint, he believes that his collection of sofas makes the strongest statement, as opposed to any single sofa: “I never thought or assumed that a piece of furniture could have its own personality, but when you lie them all along each other they do.”
Track Andrew’s sofa spotting on Twitter with #SofasofLA
All images except the vertical one by Andrew Ward. | 1,266,371 |
you." And with that, Machida's entire game falls apart. The smooth footwork with which he led Thiago Silva to the slaughter is gone. In Frame 6, he performs some kind of awkward stance switch rather than simply stepping or pivoting to his right. In Frame 7, he gets caught with his feet completely square, with Romero at a strong inside angle. Ironically, Romero put Machida in the same unfortunate position in which he put Thiago Silva six years ago.
At this reduced range, Romero was able to play all kinds of tricks on Machida--the same kind that Machida has long been known for playing on his opponents.
1. Romero stands just outside of punching range.
2. Preparing to close the distance, he slides his rear foot forward, extending his hands to engage Machida's as he does.
3. Now stepping forward into range with his lead foot, Romero reaches for Machida's left hand--
4. --and then quickly jukes his right down the center, between Lyoto's outstretched arms and into his chin.
5. Followed by a swinging left to the neck.
Closing the distance allowed Romero to force reactions out of Machida, playing his own game against. him. And once Romero became confident that he could predict those reactions, he began capitalizing on openings he knew would be there.
Now let's be clear: Romero didn't do anything particularly incredible as far as technique is concerned. His boxing is rudimentary at best, and his love of flash over substance means that he spends a good deal of time on the feet getting very little done. But the framework upon which those techniques were hung was incredibly solid.
If Machida had a respectable jab, he could have thwarted Romero's entries, since Romero more often than not walked right into the pocket without any set-up. A darting right hand here and there would have stalled Romero's advance and given Machida the time he needed to reestablish his own range. Better "boxing footwork" would've helped as well. Lyoto might have moved into Yoel instead of constantly dancing away from him, cutting off the distance himself and then pivoting away while the Cuban was still reacting to the sudden change of direction.
But Machida doesn't do these things, and it's pretty clear that Yoel Romero knew that. Or his trainers did. With a relatively limited offensive toolkit, Romero shut down one of the most successful striking styles in the history of MMA. And whatever nonsense he said after the fight shouldn't wipe that from our memories. Machida may not be long for the sport now, but beating him like that still means something.
For more analysis (and lots of other waffle) check out my new podcast, The Fistorical Perspective, in which myself and boxing historian Kyle McLachlan talk classic fights, legendary boxers, and more. | 1,266,372 |
, your mind is thinking about all the things that you need to get done today?
I can assure you, no matter how enmeshed you feel in the thoughts of the narcissist, and even if this has been going on for years or even decades, that 100% when you do the inner work to detox yourself from a narcissist, you will go completely free.
People ask me in disbelief all the time, ‘How can you not think about the ex-narcissists in your life?’ My answer is this, “I did the inner work. I loaded up, released and replaced every single thing about those people that hurt me, or that I was obsessing about. That’s how. Then nothing about them existed anymore.”
You may think that this is not possible until you start doing this work and discover just how possible it is.
You may think that if you are co-parenting, or that you have a business with the narcissist or that if this is a narcissistic family member that you need to see at functions, that this is impossible.
Yet, regardless of the situation, when you detox this person out of your inner being, you will discover how this person will dissolve out of your experience.
The narcissist detaches, moves away, gets another job, is brought to justice, and stops harassing whilst co-parenting. You name it, it is possible. Life has unlimited ways to start matching your inner being.
So I hope that this Thriver TV episode has explained to you the three most powerful ways that you will get a narcissist to leave you alone.
Less is more – less combating the narcissist and more doing the feeling and empowering work on yourself.
Do you understand?
If you do, write below, “You get less of me, and my inner being gets more!”
Are you ready to be done with this and get a narcissist out of your life? If so, come with me on your incredible journey of self, by clicking this link.
And, if you want more of my episodes please make sure that you subscribe to my YouTube channel so you will be notified as soon as each new one is released.
Please also share this information with your communities, especially those people who are deeply enmeshed and stuck in the trauma with narcissists who won’t leave them alone.
As always, I look forward to connecting with you in your comments and questions below.
Oh and … It’s the first event of my Oz tour tomorrow … Sydney I can’t wait to see you all – I’m so excited! There is still time for tickets for Melbourne and Brisbane – to which you can get your tickets here: melanietoniaevans.com/oztour
Read More –> | 1,266,373 |
escape from custody” and it should only be used “when no other viable option is available.”
Both Oryszak and Sanchez initially failed to comply with the order to exit the car.
Sanchez, who also goes by the name Thomas Carrasquillo, is no stranger to police. Not only does he have a criminal record, but he also won a $10,000 settlement against the city in 2014 for a use of force complaint.
Once they both exited the car, Sanchez passively resisted by telling the officers not to touch him.
Officers ordered him to turn around and put his hands on the vehicle, but Sanchez continued to record with his phone. Officers then took him to the ground.
“You saw every officer that was on the suspect holding down a different body part,” said Rinaldo. “Nobody other than one person was delivering any type of impact. Just the officer that had the handcuffs was attempting to get him handcuffed, so I applaud their use of force.”
David Rivera, a city councilman and former police officer who is chairman of the Police Oversight Committee, said he understood why the use of force was necessary, but he still found the video disturbing.
“I’m disturbed by a number of things,” Rivera said.
“I’m disturbed by the long conversations and some of the words that were used, I’m disturbed by the conduct of the people that were there involved in the domestic dispute, I’m bothered by all of the whole thing. I would look at this video and I would make recommendations … perhaps we need to better train in de-escalating situations like this.”
McCauley also believes that Officer Hoffstetter’s behavior that afternoon ran “contrary to accepted police practices.”
“And we know that profanity typically or often leads to the escalation of force and tensions among and between people,” McCauley said.
“I noticed on the one police vehicle it had the statement of community policing and community policing basically involves, among other things, the reduction of tensions and the increase of communications among and between people.”
Rinaldo acknowledged that the department “can’t tolerate those kinds of mistakes.”
“Everybody is entitled to making mistakes in any profession as long as your mistake doesn’t injury somebody,” he said.
“And I think in this case, with this officer, it’s a matter of having a conversation and a bit of training recognizing that things could have been handled better.”
Sanchez was charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of justice in the second degree. His next court date is Sept. 19, when a judge could decide on a motion to dismiss the charges. | 1,266,374 |
Cowardly critics hide behind anonymity to attack our town
Anonymous critics don't have the courage to put a name to their opinions.
It’s time to get off my chest a real bugbear I’ve been feeling for some time now – and if it makes some of my readers feel uncomfortable then tough. It’s aimed at you!
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As someone who earns a living by writing, I want as many people as possible to read my words. I hope I sometimes get readers thinking by my comment pieces – but my main motivation is that people should know more about the area they live in by the news stories I tell them.
However I am getting increasingly fed up with the number of people who feel they have to read and comment on my work – and that of my colleagues – for free... and then have the gall to criticise this professional work while hiding behind the cloak of anonymity.
Yes, I’m having a go at those people like “PC Plod” and “The Original Victor Meldrew” and “The Opinion Man” who jump up when our stories appear online to have a go at the contents and the writers responsible for bringing them to the public attention.
How many of these anonymous whingers have actually put their hands in their pockets to buy a paper, or subscribed to the e-edition?
Of course they may all be subscribers to every copy of the Star that is published, in which case I take my hat off to them, but I suspect from the tone of many of their contributions that they’re the kind of people who would not put their hands in their pockets if they can get something for free!
I know that we have to embrace the digital age, and I know that news is freely available out there – but frankly if people want to know what is really happening in the world, you need to have proper professional journalists gathering that news.
And by definition professional journalists need to be paid to get the news. It is a profession like teaching, nursing, being a lawyer.
You don’t get real unvarnished facts from bloggers who spend two hours a night putting their own spin on the news after a hard day’s work and a couple of glasses of claret!
So next time you think about putting a web comment on the bottom of one of our stories, just think about where it came from, how we found out about it, and the effort that was put in.
And have no fear, when this goes online I’ll be looking out for the web comments – and if any anonymous whingers think at having a pop at me then I’m ready... even if you’re not prepared to admit who you are! | 1,266,375 |
Comments:
NOTE : The below Blu-ray captures were obtained directly from the Blu-ray disc. ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray - January 17': Like the entire "Before Trilogy" package this is d escribed as "New, restored 2K digital transfer, approved by director Richard Linklater". It is dual-layered with a max'ed out bitrate. The visual improvement over SD is, like Before Sunset, more modest than we have seen from other bumps to the higher resolution. The Criterion is brighter with a very minor shift in colors (skin tones) and it, again, shows more information in the frame on the side edges. It looks authentic to its production roots but fans anticipating crisp, pristine lines will be left wanting. The film was never meant to look dynamically tight and glossy. Criterion's lossless, DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel (24-bit) audio advances upon the lossy Dolby of the Warner DVD. This is noticeable, mostly, in the film's music. The score, credited to Fred Frith, is augmented by Henry Purcell, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Strauss, Bach as well as Boots Randolph, Kath Bloom and Fetish 69. It all sounds quite wonderful via the lossless. Criterion have added optional English (SDH) subtitles and their Blu-ray is region 'A'-locked but it is possible that it might be released in the UK (with a region 'B'-coding) in the future. Supplements include The Space In Between, a new, 3/4 hour piece in which Linklater and actor-cowriters Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke discuss the trilogy, moderated by critic Kent Jones. It was recorded in Los Angeles and new York by Criterion in 2016. 3×2, a new 40-minute conversation between scholars Dave Johnson and Rob Stone about Linklater’s work as they explore the writer-director's themes in The Before Trilogy and beyond. There is also 6-minutes of Behind-the-scenes footage from the film’s production. The Criterion "The Before Trilogy" package includes, Blu-rays of Before Sunset and Before Midnight, and a liner notes booklet with an essay on the trilogy by critic Dennis Lim. Criterion's package has the most value with the three films - which cry-out to belong together - and the extensive extras. Very unique and I am always reminded of Eric Rohmer... Absolutely recommended! *** ON THE DVD: This is a good DVD. Take into account it is from 2001 - it is anamorphic, tight lines, a little on the dark side, but appears to have avoided manipulations. Subtitles are clear yet unobtrusive. There are no extras to speak of. I am happy with the image and audio (a French DUB is offered as an option too). The price sure is right (less than $12)! out of | 1,266,376 |
We asked our Twitter and Facebook friends and followers which country they thought was the friendliest in the world. Everywhere from Albania to Uganda was mentioned but these are the top ten friendliest countries in the world as voted by you.
Starting the countdown, Sri Lanka took the tenth spot in our reader poll. Hospitality here is famously wonderful – and the scenery isn’t bad either, what with the tea plantations and gorgeous beaches on offer.
© Shutterstock
Next on the list is Scotland, a country that garnered votes on both Twitter and the Rough Guides website. Rebecca Drees insisted on RG.com that, “Scotland can claim its fame to rural friendliness”.
One RoughGuides.com user summed up Fiji’s entry in the list well. Englishian declared, “definitely Fiji. I’ve also been to Canada, Thailand and Cambodia but the Fijians are genuinely the nicest people I’ve ever met! They have the biggest hearts and although they’re poor, they say they’re rich in life”.
From Bali’s stunning white beaches and temples to the enigmatic ruins of Java and the jungles of Sumatra, Indonesia is populated with welcoming locals.
Myanmar (Burma) may have been off-limits for some time, but has been increasing in popularity of late. @Zoetipler deemed its inhabitants “welcoming, generous, and super hospitable”.
Another popular choice, Thailand slides in at Number Five. @halcyonnicole said on Twitter: “Friendliness is a two way street. While smiles are contagious, nothing beats the Land of Smiles”.
© Shutterstock
Nepal’s peoples belong to a host of distinctive ethnic groups, and speak a host of languages, but in your experience share a uniquely gregarious nature. Head to our full destination page to fully explore this beguiling country’s charms.
The third most welcoming country in the world according to Rough Guides fans and followers is landlocked Laos in South East Asia. Twitter user @achapcalledjay remarked, “Friendliness seems a way of life. Three weeks there and not one raised voice”.
Cut off from the mainland Asia route by the South China Sea, The Philippines is often in danger of being overlooked by travellers, which would be a big mistake. @SaviorThere mentioned on Twitter that the country “was off the chart for friendliness & fun”.
Cambodia was by far the top answer in our poll, and a popular choice among staff members and Rough Guides Twitter followers alike. @AndreaLeber declared, “They’ve been through so much and still have a smile on their faces!”
© Diego Cervo/Shutterstock | 1,266,377 |
If you don't care even slightly about how Paul Ryan's policy ideas will impact poor people then I really recommend that you read McKay Coppin's new long Buzzfeed feature article about Paul Ryan's newfound interest in poverty issues. Reporting? Check. Color? Check. Political context? Check. Great writing? Check. This piece has it all. Except for even a teeny tiny shred of insight into how Paul Ryan's policy ideas will impact poor people. The article's subhead says that Ryan is "trying to challenge the notion that his party is out of touch with poor people the old-fashioned way: by talking to some." Perhaps one reason is that the more newfangled way of showing in touchness with the economically struggling — by advancing a policy agenda that would help them in concrete ways — is wildly out of step with Ryan's basic ideology.
Increases the after-tax income of the rich, while raising taxes on the working and middle class
Conveniently, when he's not being the subject of profiles, Paul Ryan actually offers fairly extensive documentation of his public policy views.
All politicians do this to some extent, but Ryan is unusual in that as Chair of the House Budget Committee he really does put the whole thing down on paper on an annual basis. His Fiscal Year 2015 budget came out earlier this spring, and we at Vox were able to glean quite a bit about Ryan's policy views from reading it.
For example, what does Ryan's budget mean for the poor? Well it turns out that the majority of his budget cuts come from programs that benefit poor people. He wants to reduce spending on poor people's Medicaid benefits. And on their nutrition assistance. And on their college tuition assistance. And on their access to subsidized private health insurance. Ryan does cut some programs that aren't aimed at helping low-income Americans, but mostly he cuts programs for the poor.
At the same time as it cuts spending on the poor, Ryan's budget also has tax provisions. Specifically he calls for $5.7 trillion worth of tax rate cuts. That money, he says, will be made up through unspecified reductions to tax credits and tax deductions. When the Tax Policy Center analyzed the distributive implications of this kind of plan, they found that it increases the after-tax income of the rich while raising taxes on the working- and middle-class.
I admit that this way of looking at things is a bit less colorful than following Ryan around a bunch of visits to low-income neighborhoods. But to the extent that you want to know how an increase in political power for Ryan and his allies is likely to impact the lives of American citizens, it's worth looking at these things. His big job in politics is to write budgets. And his big budget idea is that rich people should pay lower taxes, middle class and working class people should pay more taxes, and poor people should get less food, medicine, and college tuition. | 1,266,378 |
the ADR issuers will need to file a particular form with the SEC, so if the regulator has objections to the idea, it will become clear at the stage of filing. Even if it won’t fly with the SEC, ABE’s depositary receipts will be available in Europe and Asia, Pigott added.
Bringing small-caps back
If all goes according to plan, ABE will enable U.S. firms to raise capital on public markets at a much lower cost.
While the average IPO cost, according to PwC, in 2017 was more than $4.2 million in various fees, at ABE it will be between $200,000 and $500,000, depending on the size of the STO, the startup says.
One type of firm ABE will court is owners of real estate looking to fractionalize and sell shares in their properties.
“It offers a very clear departure from the era of ICOs, and it appeals to one of the global advantages of tokens,” Pigott told CoinDesk. “For example, there are a lot of Singapore investors that would like to hold the U.S. real estate, and a lot of American investors that would buy real estate in Singapore.”
The other focus of the new trading platform will be so-called small-cap companies (those with a market capitalization of between $300 million and $2 billion). Many of them are growing very fast, Pigott said, and until the 1990s, 400 to 800 of those companies would launch IPOs every year, but after 2000, when new, stricter regulations came in place, “that market got crushed by 95% and has never recovered.”
“As a consequence, you have these unicorns financed by venture capital firms and never have a $100-200 million dollar round for a private company, and it’s very odd,” Pigott said. “What we ended up with now is only accredited investors can access these companies.”
Calling American small-cap companies “one of the best wealth creation vehicles the world have ever seen,” he believes the new asset class of tokenized securities can re-open the broad world of investments to this segment of the U.S. population, with an ultimate goal “to connect the token economy with the global investment economy.”
While ABE will be entering an increasingly crowded STO field, including the already launched security token trading platforms tZERO and OpenFinance, the founders are not discouraged, with Blom concluding:
“It’s not a good idea if you don’t see other people pursuing it.”
Image of Joel Blom and John Pigott at the DC Blockchain Summit (second and third to the right) by Nikhilesh De for CoinDesk | 1,266,379 |
A cow was shot and killed in a Cincinnati street near a McDonald's Wednesday morning after it escaped a slaughterhouse.
Police say the cow was one of three animals to escape the Tri-State Beef Co. on the city's West Side around 11am and believe the animal slipped out through a back gate while the other two were corralled, WLWT reports.
Chris Poor, a tow truck driver, told the station that he saw the animal trotting down a viaduct westbound with two Tri-State Beef employees chasing after it.
Escaped: A cow was shot and killed in a Cincinnati street near a McDonald's Wednesday morning after it escaped a slaughterhouse
Slipped Out: Police say the cow was one of three animals to escape the Tri-State Beef Co. on the city's West Side around 11am and believe the animal slipped out through a back gate while the other two were corralled
Tiffany Hardy, Cincinnati Police Department spokeswoman, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the cow was nervous.
'It got confused and it ended up going up the Western Hills Viaduct onto Queen City,'Hardy said.
Poor said he offered the men a ride to capture the cow. He said the animal seemed very angry and aggressive.
'One was a truck driver that was delivering another truckload of cows and he pulled his gun out,' he said.
Authorities cornered the animal near the McDonald's by Queen City Avenue, Hardy told the Enquirer.
Chase: The cow was seen trotting on a viaduct westbound with two Tri-State Beef employees chasing after it
Charged: The handler, with a.22 caliber rifle, shot the cow once after the animal charged at him; the cow charged a second time and was shot again, this time fatally
The handler shot the cow once with a.22 caliber rifle after the animal charged at him, Metro reports. The cow charged a second time and was shot again, this time fatally.
'The man who put the cow down, it was so close it actually fell on his leg and he seemed to be limping but he refused medical at the time,' Sgt. Stephen Meyer told WLWT.
Hardy said no one was injured and no investigation is necessary.
Humane:Tri-State Beef officials said that the cow's escape was not due to negligence and they hold that the cow was put down in a humane manner
Tri-State Beef officials told KPTV that the cow's escape was not due to negligence and they hold that the cow was put down in a humane manner.
The slaughterhouse is located at Baymiller and Bank streets in the city's West End so the animal had to travel through city streets for just over a mile before making its way onto the viaduct, WKRC reports. | 1,266,380 |
The Ladies of Llangollen as they came to be known, were two upper-class Anglo-Irish women from Kilkenny.
Eleanor Charlotte Butler (1739 - 1829) was the youngest daughter of the Bulter family of Kilkenny Castle. However, her family had difficulties getting her married off - and so introduced her to a young lady - whom they hoped would become her friend and together they could search for two husbands.
Sarah Ponsonby (1755 – 1832) lived with relatives in Woodstock, Kilkenny.
Their families lived only two miles from each other. They met in 1768, and quickly became friends. Over the years they formulated a plan of a private rural retreat. Rather than face the possibility of being forced into unwanted marriages, they ran away together in April 1778. Their families hunted them down and forcefully tried to make them give up their plans – in vain.
They decided to move to England but ended up in Wales, and set up home at Plas Newydd, near the town of Llangollen in 1780.
They devoted their time to seclusion, private studies of literature and languages and improving their estate. They did not actively socialise and were uninterested in fashion.
After a couple of years, their life attracted the interest of the outside world. Their house became a haven for all manner of visitors, mostly writers such as Robert Southey, Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron and Scott, but also the military leader Duke of Wellington and industrialist Josiah Wedgwood; aristocratic novelist Caroline Lamb, who was born a Ponsonby, came to visit too. Even travellers from continental Europe had heard of the couple and came to visit them, for instance Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, the German nobleman and landscape designer who wrote admiringly about them.
The Ladies were known throughout Britain, but in fact led a rather unexciting life. Queen Charlotte wanted to see their cottage and persuaded the King to grant them a pension. Eventually their families came to tolerate them.
Butler and Ponsonby lived together for the rest of their lives, over 50 years. Their books and glassware had both sets of initials and their letters were jointly signed.
Eleanor Butler died in 1829. Sarah Ponsonby died two years later. Their house is now a museum run by Denbighshire County Council. Both of the ladies are buried at St Collen's Church in Llangollen.
Produced and narrated by Leeanne O'Donnell
Production Supervision by Liam O'Brien
First broadcast RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday 30th April, 2011
Rebroadcast RTÉ Radio 1, Sunday 11th March 2019
An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries. | 1,266,381 |
He can barely read Spanish.
Jesús’ wife works the night shift in a cannery. They raised their two children by taking turns so there would always be a parent at home. They recently adopted a third child, a little girl who is a distant relative. Jesús has many private customers who have told him they would gladly invest in any business he started. He does not say no, but he wants to keep his medical benefits as long as he has a child at home. He is doing fine, anyway. He and his wife own two houses. They used to have three but the county forced them to take down one, that they rented, because it violated some code or other. He is a good friend of mine so, I offered him a loan to tie him over. He thanked me affectionately but declined. “We are prepared,” he said.
Jesús and his wife have plenty enough money to move back to Mexico and live there forever without lifting a finger. They are not even thinking about it. He loves this country. He wants his children to be 100% American; he wants American grandchildren. The family speaks Spanish at home and attends a Catholic church in Spanish. They eat Mexican food every day. (But so do my children and every other Anglo kid in California.) They listen to corridos and rancheras on the radio. Yet, they are American to the core. This country made them, or they made themselves in this country. California is the best place to be Mexican, Jesús says, besides, here, you don’t have to choose one or the other.
Every one of Jesús’ customers gives Jesús a gift without knowing it. Everywhere he goes, he asks questions, in Spanish if possible, in English otherwise. In this fashion, he is quickly getting himself a first-rate political education. He never misses a chance to do someone a good turn. In a couple of years, when his first two children are out of the house for good, Jesús will work less and he will have time to run for local office. He laughs a lot; he has exquisite manners; he is a very good-looking man with smiling black eyes. Many women will vote for him just because of this. All the men who know him, and many who have only heard of him, will also vote for him because he is a good and strong man, and a perfect American.
Peter and Yasmina will most likely not have a chance to vote for Jesús. They will probably have floated back to Canada, or to Europe, where the gentle-born don’t have to work so hard. If, by some miracle, they are still here and have American citizenship, they will still not vote for Jesús: With his experience of the real world, the son of a bitch will probably come out a Republican! | 1,266,382 |
Bitcoin (BTC) just broke out of a giant falling wedge and has now started a bullish recovery. However, it has been rejected strongly at the 21 Day EMA and so far it does not seem to have the strength to break past it anytime soon. That being said, the sudden breakout yesterday took most bears by surprise. The rising bearish momentum is lost and the bears are looking to pull their money off the table and make a run for it. The whales on the other hand are not ready to let BTC/USD break past critical resistances without spilling some blood. So, it is unlikely that the price may break past the 21 Day EMA anytime soon. The bears will get lured in one last time with a false hope that this was a false breakout.
The whales always knock out reckless bulls or bears at turning points in a market. They have been doing it since time immemorial. Some may argue that it is a necessity that they have to do this in order to fill their large positions while having the liquidity to do so, without unnecessary slippage. However, I contend that there is a lot more to it than just a necessity to fill positions. The whales in this market are greedier than those we have seen in any other markets. Perhaps this is because they realize that most people in this space are first time traders with no prior experience. They are not privy to the schemes and tricks that the whales use to hunt down retail traders and steal their coins. This might sound a bit dramatic but if you discover the way they operate you will agree that this is exactly what happens.
Exchanges need liquidity and there are people who are happy to provide them with this. The way this works is that these people who are known as market makers buy the opposite side of the market trend. Let’s say we are in a bull market and the price is going up. If we all know the price is rising and we all want to buy, then who is going to sell us? This is where market makers step in. The only reason they are selling when the trend is on the buy side is because they know what they are doing. The way this works is that they sell when everyone else is buying.
When the buyers get too confident, they sell hard to hit their stops. Then they buy all the stops that they hit and start selling in small parts again to encourage further buying. These are the people who never lose in this market. The whole price action is in their hands. They get to choose which way the price goes. If we look at the daily chart for BTCUSDShorts and compare it to the daily chart for BTC/USD, we can see that both are struggling to get past the 21 Day EMA. Both of these charts point to the same conclusion. If the number of shorts falls before the 21 Day EMA, we can expect BTC/USD to rise before the 21 Day EMA and vice versa. | 1,266,383 |
When New York City FC crosses the Hudson to visit Red Bull Arena (1:30 pm ET; FOX, FOX Deportes in US | MLS LIVE in Canada), two promising teenagers - NYCFC’s Yangel Herrera (19) and the New York Red Bulls’ Tyler Adams (18)--will likely be squaring off in the center of the park.
Both youngsters have been turning heads -- Herrera’s star turn in South Korea has many speculating on where the Manchester City loanee will end up next season, while Red Bulls assistant coach Chris Armas tacitly acknowledged that big teams could come calling for Adams in the future.
The similarities don’t end there.
Both players have replaced respected veterans in the lineup -- Herrera has started in front of Andrea Pirlo, while Adams’ potential was reportedly one of the reasons the Red Bulls felt comfortable parting ways with Dax McCarty.
Additionally, both players have been complimented by coaches for the astute way they read game situations, a key part of playing in central midfield.
But what do Adams and Herrera offer their respective teams? We turn to the Audi Player Index to see what that numbers have to say.
Herrera earned his first start of the year on April 29, stepping in for Pirlo. Playing alongside Alex Ring and Maxi Moralez, the young Venezuelan helped control the midfield en route to a 3-2 New York City victory.
His Audi Player Index score from that match -- 791 -- trailed only teammate Jack Harrison (1132, including two goals). Herrera also showed he could get it done on the offensive end, earning an assist and notching his first goal of the season on a brave header in the penalty area.
Adams, on the other hand, has been a steady contributor in his eight starts this season. If you ignore poor games against Orlando City and Philadelphia, he’s averaging 349 Audi Index points per match, which compares favorably to the league average for midfielders of 233.
Adams also holds the edge on Herrera in most of the defensive and passing categories, besting his counterpart in tackles, interceptions, passes completed in the opponent's half as well as in the final third.
In addition, Matt Doyle has praised the Red Bulls teenager for his ability to hit third-line passes in the vein of his former mentor McCarty.
Based on those comparisons, it seems clear that Adams is more of a "classic" defensive midfielder - one who wins the ball back and connects with teammates. Herrera, on the other hand, presses the issue more on offense, taking on defenders and getting into goal-dangerous positions.
Adams vs. Herrera is just one of several intriguing matchups in display during Saturday’s match. However, if either player is able to turn in a dominant effort, it could be the matchup that claims the city of New York. | 1,266,384 |
art-and-culture
Updated: Oct 05, 2015 01:36 IST
Agnes of God, the play about a catholic nun who has a baby and claims immaculate conception, is set to open at the NCPA, Nariman Point, on Monday evening with both organisers and opponents looking to get the state government to step in on their side.
Catholic groups have sought a meeting with the state minister for minority affairs, Eknath Khadse, on Monday to ask the government to ban shows; the play’s director, Kaizaad Kotwal, and his lawyer also plan to be at the meeting to ensure there are no disruptions.
The NCPA said that the play had received a certificate from the censor board and the first show would be at 7.30 pm with police security in place. “We are very clear about having the play tomorrow. However, it will be a free show and we do not intend to offend anybody’s feelings,” said KN Santook, director of NCPA.
Catholic groups have claimed the play defames the clergy who take a vow of celibacy. “We are going to call for a complete ban as liberalism can be no excuse for tarnishing somebody’s image,” said an official from the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI)
“There were many rumours that the show has been called off, which has absolutely no truth in it,” said Kotwal. “We will meet the minister and make our claim too.”
His lawyer explained that a meeting with both groups being there was imperative. “We do not want any interruptions in the evening and hence the dialogue is really important,” said Sujay Kantawala, the director’s lawyer.
The play’s producers said shows had been planned in Hyderabad, Kerala and abroad. “We will plan the schedule for more shows in the city after taking a look at Monday’s scene,” said Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal, who plays the main character in the play.
The play has stirred a debate and not all Catholics are for a ban. “We are living in a new age with time and need to encourage liberalism,” said Joseph Pereira, a resident of Colaba. However, Amy Fernandez, a resident of Bandra, disagreed. “Artistic license or freedom cannot be allowed to disturb public order or create unrest,” she said.
The Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), the group which first called for a ban, was uncertain about being able to meet the minister. “Other Catholic groups who are protesting against the play will surely go but we are not sure and are still trying to seek an appointment with the minister,” said Joseph Dias, the general secretary of CSF. | 1,266,385 |
reconciled with the UK’s obligations under the Climate Change Act.[2]
We are delighted that our friends at Stansted have had the threat to their homes and environment lifted. Over the past 10 years they have fought a good fight and won a worthy victory. Now we at Gatwick must do the same. We have done it before in 1970, 1993, and 2003 and we will do it again.
Georgia Wrighton, Director of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (Sussex) said: ‘A second runway at Gatwick, together with sprawling development and urbanisation anticipated on a massive scale, would concrete over cherished open countryside. A heady cocktail of increased flights, HGVs and cars would erode the tranquillity of rural communities, and the health and quality of life of people living under its shadow. The national obsession with expansion will land a disaster on the countryside whilst making runaway climate change unstoppable. Instead of airport expansion we need genuine support for and promotion of alternatives.’
Andy Smith, Director of CPRE Surrey: ‘Surrey is already struggling to cope with being squeezed between Heathrow and Gatwick airports, with serious environmental impacts in terms of noise and air pollution, both from flights and from road traffic. These problems would become significantly worse with a new runway at either Heathrow or Gatwick, which would undoubtedly make the quality of life worse for communities across Surrey, and would lead to new pressures on the beleaguered Green Belt.’
Sewill added: ‘A new runway used to full capacity would cause substantial environmental damage to all the towns and villages for many miles around Gatwick.[3] In addition to the usual issues of noise, pollution and climate change, one of the emerging concerns is that making Gatwick larger than Heathrow would lead to the urbanisation of much of Surrey and Sussex. Doubling the number of airport jobs plus an influx of new firms (as envisaged by the Gatwick Diamond business association) would mean that a large number of workers would be attracted into the area from the rest of the UK or from the EU, with a need for extra housing equivalent to a new town the size of Crawley.[4] The resulting pressure on schools, hospitals, roads and railways, and on the countryside is beginning to worry many councils. Once people recognise that the threat is real, and that a new runway is not just a strip of concrete, there will be tidal wave of opposition.
The Airports Commission will now require all the short-listed airports to produce an environmental impact assessment. GACC will be watching like a hawk to ensure that Gatwick does not try to use its expensive PR consultants to gloss over the impact.[5]
www.gacc.org.uk
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Posted: Tuesday, December 17th, 2013. Filed in General News, News about Airports, Recent News. | 1,266,386 |
osean shadow bankers unseated the Conservatives in UK for almost one and half decades by first unleashing a relentless media blitzkrieg that bombarded the mass minds with a narrative that falsified the reality about excellent performance of the Conservative government. The reality of good times was attributed to global factors.
Then it convinced an overwhelming majority of Brits that a Conservative government was always bad for the people.
The same cognitive dissonance we can spot in the Street protests in America that seem to terribly miss and lament the dismal performance of Obama- Clinton administration for two terms.
On the other hand, no sooner than Trump merely became President Elect, the criticism of every unintended word or action of his administration has already begun starting with his key appointments.
Over time this mainstream media narrative can convince enough people to acquire a pessimistic outlook and a cynical evaluation about Republican governance and Trump.
Though the Shadow bankers among themselves would be the ones to early on invest into the economic boom they know would follow suit.
Simultaneously with equal vigor they would spread the cynicism, anticipating way ahead the bubble creation, which the very same media mercenary would lure the uninformed and unwary middle class investors and speculators to get caught in the web.
They would do all this even as they rally forces, roping in Unions and activists to scuttle the Recovery.
The cynical narratives over time would acquire a critical mass and at a crucial juncture, the shadow bankers would spot the Achilles heel of the boom cycle and zero down there to plunge everything in a spectacular market crash.
Along with the enormous sums Soros and his vultures amassed through many cycles of boom and bust, came besides god like powers to make or break any nation’s markets.
Since such manipulation of markets is forbidden by law, George Soros never operated in a strictly regulated market such as the American capital market. Knowing he would go to serve time for rest of his life if caught by Exchange Regulators, he operated from islands that provide sanctuaries for money launders and drug dealers.
This man without scruples is now the Moral champion at the vanguard of the Protest movement against Trump who won on a working class mandate.
Left liberals who would want every conservative cause or lobbyist to be seen by us as a Jewish capitalist conspiracy funded by ‘zionist bankers’, are rushing to this traitor Jew who made a fortune destroying the wealth many nations manipulating capital markets. What was till the other day an illuminati New World Order conspiracy is now the way forward under a Currency Trader and shadow banker?
As long as there are zombies who agree how to think only through the dictated lines of left liberal Political Correctness George Soroses are inevitable. They reduce people of a free society, abusing the freedom of thought to turn them into mere crowds that cheer or mobs in a frenzy, driven by the same processes of Thought control. | 1,266,387 |
>>> another big story we are following tonight, the visit of pope francis to brazil. his first overseas trip as pope. there were security concerns before this trip for the pope who likes to get there within the crowds and moments after the touch down, security fears were realized during a wild, and at times, down right hazardous trip through the straights of rio. nbc's anne thompson is traveling with the pope spoke with him on the plane en route to brazil. she is with us from rio tonight. hey, ape, good evening.
>> reporter: good evening, brian. pope francis is resting tonight after a 12-hour flight and what can only be described as a raucous welcome, beginning a week that will test brazilian security and put the global spotlight back on this nation's economic woes. they could not wait to touch him. brazilians rushing pope francis'motorcade as he made his way through the streets of rio, his car mobbed, forced to a standstill several times by the excited crowd. the first latin-american pope wasted no time reaching out to the people, a potential security nightmare, rio officials said federal police changed the motorcade's route without informing city authorities bunch francis seemed to revel in the chaos, even stopping to kiss a baby. officials say this is the biggest police operation in the history of rio and today the mayor promised francis would be safe during his six-day stay.
>> he wants to be open to the people. now, that's risk. i think we love him for doing that but at the same time, we worry about him.
>> reporter: as cardinal of argentina, francis made this transatlantic trip many times. speaking to reporters on the plane, the pope talked about the crisis of youth unemployment, saying we are at risk of having a generation that does not work. we are used to a throw-away culture, he warned. we do it with the aged. and now the pope said we are doing it with the young. brazil is a nation raw with economic tension but the pope did not address these problems directly. he took no questions from reporters, but he did greet each journalist personally. i told him there was great excitement in the u.s. about his papacy. the pope laughed and said thank you and then said, pray for me. and blessed the med dal yin i wore. now, authorities announced they discovered a homemade pipe bomb at the shrine complex nearby. and that is where the pope will go to visit on wednesday. authorities say they detonated the bomb and at this hour, no arrests have been made in connection with that pipe bomb. brian?
>> anne thompson? rio as we start off coverage of this trip after let's just say an eventful trip getting there. anne, thanks for that | 1,266,388 |
FLUSHING, NY - APRIL 13: A Mets logo inside the ground is seen on opening day at Citi Field on April 13, 2009 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. This is the first regular season MLB game being played at the new venue which replaced Shea Stadium as the Mets home field. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
Mets ownership will change the name of their newly acquired franchise in time for the team’s first season in the organization
At Wednesday afternoon’s New York State of the State Address, Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke about the sports franchises that belong to our state. Of course since the Mets are one of them, their latest purchase in Syracuse this past year was a big deal and worth mentioning.
Cuomo shared some information about the acquisition of the Triple-A franchise by the Amazins and noted that they would undergo a change in name once they take over next season.
No longer would they be known as the Syracuse Chiefs, but instead, they’ll now be called the Syracuse Mets.
As someone who was really hoping the organization would ditch that racist name, I’m happy to see them rebrand the team next year. I would have hoped that they would have picked a more fun name though, specially since that seems to be the trend around minor league baseball for the last few years.
The only thing that could have made this all better, as my good friends at Good Fundies pointed out, would have been if the new name went into effect this year as the Washington Nationals’ Triple-A team plays their last season in Syracuse.
As for other Mets affiliates, well, one of them really had some fun with the whole naming thing recently.
The Double-A team in Binghamton was known as the B-Mets for years, until the offseason before the 2017 season. The organization ran a pretty fun contest and the winning name would ultimately be used going forward. Thus the Binghamton Rumble Ponies are now a very real thing.
I guess I’ll have to hold out hope that they’ll start another contest in a few years to rename the Syracuse Mets all over again. I wouldn’t hold my breath for that, but it would be cool to see.
The move to purchase the Syracuse franchise is arguably one of the smartest moves the Mets have made in years. Having their Triple-A team in Las Vegas these last few seasons has been abysmal for the team. They’ve constantly had to play short-handed, and when the players that are needed do arrive, they’ve had to adjust rather quickly to a new time zone.
Having their minor league system concentrated (for the most part) in the same state where the major league team plays their home games is huge. Props where they are due. | 1,266,389 |
employees (24 percent have a "strongly favorable" view and 30 percent have a "somewhat favorable" view), while 28 percent have a "neutral" view of public workers, nine percent have a "somewhat unfavorable" view, and five percent have a "strongly negative" view.
Regarding the retirement benefits public employees receive, 52 percent of Americans believe public employees receive better benefits than private sector workers in similar jobs, while 24 percent think public and private-sector worker benefits are about the same, and 19 percent believe government workers have worse benefits of those in similar positions in the private sector.
A strong majority of Americans, 78 percent, believes the public should get to vote on any increases to public employee pensions, while 20 percent say the public should not get to vote.
Retirement and health care benefits are highly valued by Americans. When considering whether to take a new job or stay at their existing job, 30 percent of Americans say benefits such as health care and 401(k) savings are the most important factor, followed by how interesting the work is (20 percent), earning the highest pay possible (17 percent), making a difference in society (13 percent), a pension (nine percent), and a flexible work schedule (seven percent).
When asked to choose, 65 percent of Americans would rather take a job with a lower salary but more health and retirement benefits, while 33 percent would rather take a job with a higher salary but fewer health and retirement benefits.
About the Reason-Rupe Poll
The full poll is available online at:
https://reason.com/poll/2015/02/06/february-2015-reason-rupe-pension-poll
Toplines
https://reason.com/assets/db/14231597715814.pdf
Cross Tabs
https://reason.com/assets/db/14231598897977.xlsx
Methodology
https://reason.com/assets/db/14231598612281.pdf
Questionnaire
https://reason.com/assets/db/14231598065741.pdf
The Reason-Rupe national telephone poll conducted live interviews with 1,003 adults on cell phones (501) and landlines (502) including 290 respondents without landlines, from January 29 through February 2, 2015. The poll's margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percent and was executed by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.
For more information and resources about the Reason-Rupe poll, please visit:
https://reason.com/poll
This is the latest in a series of Reason-Rupe public opinion surveys dedicated to exploring what Americans really think about government and major issues. This Reason Foundation project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation. | 1,266,390 |
What are European and American Roulette?
Roulette is the most well-known game of chances in a casino. Invented in European France in the 17th century, it slowly started moving to Las Vegas in America. The original version of roulette is known as European roulette and this is the most famous and well known version of the game that is still around today. The other form of this game is called as American roulette, which was invented at a later time in the United States.
First we'll talk a little bit about the European version, sometimes known as French Roulette as well. This game essentially includes a wheel, a metal ball where is thrown on the wheel and also a table where people place their bets. The figures range from 1-36 and are allotted either a red or black color. This means there is an equal proportion of black and red numbers, odd and even numbers as well as high and low numbers which range from the low (1-17) and high ends (18-36). There is also a single zero which is allotted a green color. This green is also called as "house number" because it forces a small house edge into the game. Otherwise if you bet on black or red, the odds would be equal that the ball would end up either on red or black. A coin will be flipped either on the head or tail. This single green zero slot adds a 37th pocket in the wheel that the ball can land on. So the odds of the ball landing in red or black are slightly less than half. Every once in awhile, the ball will land on green and anyone who bets on red or black will all lose to the casino's house. In face, the house has a 2.70% house edge because of this single green "0″ spot on the roulette wheel.
What is the difference between them?
American roulette has the same rules; it only has an extra green color slot with double zeroes. This helped casinos earn more profits and also made players lose a larger sum of money at a faster pace. This form of Roulette had no benefits. In fact worldwide, European Roulette is preferred for winning a larger sum of money.
Only United States has this version of game, as people all over the world play only European Roulette because of its known benefits. People in the US only play it because they are fans or encourage this game. A word of caution always checks whether it is a European or an American Roulette before you start in a casino.
Roulette is a game of chances and you may win a fortune if u chooses the right game and apply the strategies and follow the rules of the game usually found on the surface of the table. Also try spending time with people well versed with this game to learn the tricks.Dont get discouraged if you loose money initially as this will be a learning experience in itself. | 1,266,391 |
LGBT activists in Russia announced that a May 17 rally in St. Petersburg will focus on victims of homophobic hate crimes, including Vladislav Tornovoy, who was raped with a beer bottle, stabbed and beaten to death in Volgograd last week, apparently because he was gay. Here is the announcement of the rally:
IDAHO RALLY WILL COMMEMORATE VICTIMS OF HOMOPHOBIC HATE CRIMES
The annual St. Petersburg International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia rally will take place tomorrow, May 17, at 2 pm on Marsovo Pole – the “Hyde Park” of St. Petersburg, in the city center. Traditionally, a joyful celebration of our pride, during which we release rainbow balloons in the air as a symbol of our wish for a world free of homophobia and transphobia, this year’s event will be dedicated to the memory of Vladislav Tornovoy, brutally murdered in Volgograd on May 9th of this year, and to all victims of homophobic hate crimes.
In recent months, regions of Russia have been rapidly adopting the infamous “propaganda of homosexuality” laws, inscribing discrimination of LGBT into law and leading to growing violence against LGBT in society. Vladislav’s murderers are allegedly trying to justify their actions by victim’s assumed sexual orientation “offending their patriotic feelings”. Members of extreme right groups refer to propaganda laws in their calls to violence. Yet, to this day, not a single homophobic crime in Russia has been qualified as hate crime, and LGBT is not officially recognized as a “social group”. Tomorrow we want to say loudly and clearly NO to homophobic violence, NO to hate crimes against LGBT, and NO to homophobic politics.
The rally will take place despite numerous threats from members of extreme right and clerical organizations, such as the “Russian joggers” (Russkaya probezhka) and the “People’s Council” (Narodny sobor). At last year’s IDAHO rally, around 100 counter-protesters showed up to intimidate and attack the participants. Organizers hope that tomorrow’s rally, permitted by city authorities, will have sufficient police presence to protect the participants. Other safety measures have also been taken.
The rally is planned to last one hour, with members of wider civil society and human rights organizations of St. Petersburg addressing the participants, after which, black and rainbow balloons will be launched into air. A minute of silence in memory of the victims of homophobic hate crimes will be observed.
This year’s rally is organized in St. Petersburg by LGBT organization Coming Out in partnership with the Alliance of Straights for LGBT Equality. Similar actions will take place all around Russia, coordinated by the Russian LGBT Network.
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Several masked protesters who were demonstrating outside conservative commentator Ann Coulter Ann Hart CoulterFauci responds to'mischievous' critics of photo at Nats game Conservatives mock Fauci on first pitch Lawsuit accuses ex-Fox host Ed Henry of rape MORE’s event on the campus of UC Berkeley were arrested Wednesday night, according to local police.
The UC Berkeley Police Department in a tweet Wednesday wrote that “multiple masked protesters arrested at tonight's campus event” where Coulter delivered remarks on immigration in an event titled “Adios, America.”
Multiple masked protesters arrested at tonight's campus event. #AnnCoulter #ucberkeley — UC Police, Berkeley (@UCPD_Cal) November 20, 2019
Police in a press conference after the event said “six or seven” people were arrested and one was injured during the night on campus, according to local news outlet Berkeley Side.
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Photos and video circulating on social media from outside the event showed a crowd of hundreds protesting Coulter’s appearance on campus.
“Multiple masked protesters” arrested as they protest @AnnCoulter’s speaking engagement at Wheeler Hall at @UCBerkeley, per @UCPD_Cal, supported by @CHP_GoldenGate & other agencies on campus pic.twitter.com/tUXwu39Zt9 — Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) November 20, 2019
“We have work to do to continue to find ways we can accommodate profound differences of opinion. We believe we have met our obligations to both free speech and the rule of law, and to provide for the safety and well-being of students and campus guests,” UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told the news outlet.
Protesters were reportedly trying to block people who had tickets from attending the event, though they were ultimately unsuccessful.
Police were seen in riot gear guarding the entrance to the Wheeler Hall auditorium on campus. Coulter was escorted in through the main doors by police.
Attendees are escorted by police into Wheeler Hall. T-minus 20 minutes until the event officially starts! #CoulterProtest pic.twitter.com/iLhc99Ptwm — Anjali Shrivastava (@anjalii_shrivas) November 20, 2019
Ann Coulter entering Wheeler Hall with escorts
Also: two helicopters above Berkeley pic.twitter.com/aYcBJjP7TP — Марк (@not_mapk) November 20, 2019
After the event ended, attendees were escorted out of a side door by police with hundreds of demonstrators still outside.
Wednesday marked Coulter's second attempt in three years to speak at the university, with her previous event in 2017 derailed after the university canceled it due to security concerns. | 1,266,393 |
Family not told of cancer op error at Coventry hospital By Michele Paduano
BBC Midlands health correspondent Published duration 15 September 2016
media caption Family not told of cancer op error at Coventry hospital
The family of a cancer patient who died two days after undergoing a medical procedure was not told about a surgical error during the operation.
Deborah O'Hara had a kidney removed at University Hospital Coventry and blood supply from two arteries was cut off, a procedure not part of the surgery.
The coroner's office said it had not been told about the mistake when the hospital reported the June 2015 death.
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust has apologised.
image caption Andy O'Hara said he had been "in utter shock" after learning of the surgical error
In a letter to Mrs O'Hara's family, the trust said sorry "for the distress that they have suffered".
It said the death had been immediately reported to the coroner and this report "went into detail".
Coroner Sean McGovern signed the death certificate which said she had suffered a lack of blood supply to her organs following surgery.
image copyright O'Hara family image caption Mother-of-three Deborah O'Hara had the operation to remove her kidney last year
But a statement from assistant coroner Emma Whitting said: "The hospital did not make the coroner aware of any surgical error at the time of death or subsequently until the matter was brought to the coroner's attention by solicitors for the family."
A death certificate was issued without an inquest.
However, a pre-inquest review is due to take place on Tuesday, with a full inquest to follow at a later date to be heard by Mrs Whitting.
image copyright Google image caption University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust said it had immediately informed the coroner following Mrs O'Hara's death
Mother-of-three Mrs O'Hara underwent surgery on 10 June, 2015 because of a cancerous tumour.
Mrs O'Hara's husband Andy said he had not been told her death could have been as a result of surgical error until being approached three months after the operation by the BBC, which had received a tip-off.
The hospital trust later wrote to him.
image copyright O'Hara family image caption Andy O'Hara said he had only found out about the surgical error during his wife's operation when he was approached by the BBC
"It was devastating to everyone; friends, family, the kids. It's just been awful," he said.
The hospital trust said Mrs O'Hara's death had been reviewed in line with its governance processes and it had shared the findings of its investigation with her family, adding it had "already implemented the recommendations" from the report. | 1,266,394 |
Give us this day our daily... Catholic church issues prayer for faithful to say before sex
Roman Catholic couples are being encouraged to pray together before they have sex.
A book published by a prominent Church group invites those setting out on married life to recite the specially-composed Prayer Before Making Love.
It is aimed at 'purifying their intentions' so that the act is not about selfishness or hedonism.
Message: The Roman Catholic church encourages couples to pray before sex to remind themselves that intercourse is a selfless act, not driven by hedonism
The prayer, which appears in the Prayer Book for Spouses, implores God 'to place within us love that truly gives, tenderness that truly unites, self-offering that tells the truth and does not deceive, forgiveness that truly receives, loving physical union that welcomes'.
It adds: 'Open our hearts to you, to each other and to the goodness of your will.
'Cover our poverty in the richness of your mercy and forgiveness. Clothe us in true dignity and take to yourself our shared aspirations, for your glory, for ever and ever.'
The 64-page book has been published by the London-based Catholic Truth Society.
Marital advice: The prayer book
The group has close links to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
The Rt Rev Paul Hendricks, who is the Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark and sits on the charity's board, said he thought the prayer's inclusion was 'brave but good'.
'I suppose it is a bit idealistic but it is recognising that God is at the heart of the marriage relationship between husband and wife,' he said.
'It is important for the Church to affirm the value of marriage and family life and I suppose this is a particular way of doing that.'
'Perhaps it is something that has not been tried, certainly for a while - I can't remember seeing something like that before.'
The book contains prayers for every stage of marriage and family life, including engagement, planning for parenthood, pregnancy and caring for children and elderly parents.
The prayers, written by a variety of authors, are interspersed with Catholic teaching on the meaning of marriage and family.
The book pushes the message that marriage should be exclusive and life-long and condemns abortion.
It criticises 'those who, in our times, consider it too difficult, or indeed impossible, to be bound to one person for the whole of life, and those caught up in a culture that rejects the indissolubility of marriage and openly mocks the commitment of spouses to fidelity'.
It adds: 'It is a fundamental duty of the Church to reaffirm strongly the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage.' | 1,266,395 |
Manitoba's government has hired former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall to head up a review of two Manitoba Hydro megaprojects.
Wall will serve as the new commissioner of the Manitoba Hydro review, Crown Services Minister Jeff Wharton announced Thursday in a news release.
Wharton said the former leader of the right-of-centre Saskatchewan Party will finish a review already underway into the Keeyask generation project and the Bipole III transmission project.
The Keeyask generating station, still under construction, was originally estimated to cost $6.5 billion and expected to be in service by November of this year. In March 2017, Hydro revised the cost estimate to $8.7 billion.
The Bipole III transmission line was completed in 2018. The cost for the project was originally pegged in 2007 at $2.2 billion. In its 2018 annual report, Hydro said the total estimated cost was $5.04 billion.
Wall is taking over the review of the two projects from former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell, who was hired to conduct the review last year.
But in February, the province said Campbell would no longer be leading the review after sexual assault allegations against Campbell came to light.
Wall will complete the review and report back to the province with recommendations, which Wharton said will help Premier Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative government avoid mistakes he said were inherited from Manitoba's former NDP government.
Wall's review is expected to be finished by Oct. 31, 2020, Wharton said.
'A political exercise': NDP
Opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinew criticized Wall's appointment.
"The appointment of Mr. Wall, the second conservative premier to take this position, emphasizes the fact that this review is just a political exercise meant to justify Mr. Pallister's cuts to Manitoba Hydro," he said in a statement.
Mandate letters sent earlier this year by the government to Crown corporations, including Manitoba Hydro, said "Centrally, we have reduced overall management by over 15%... and reduced overall headcount by 8%. We expect you to work towards the same, or more."
Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Bruce Owen said in an email Friday the corporation reduced its workforce by 821 positions in 2017 through a voluntary buyout program, as well as a 30 per cent reduction in management that year.
"The Manitoba government is aware that we have already achieved our reduction targets and there is no indication that government will be seeking further reductions in staffing levels," Owen said.
"We achieved the reductions outlined in our most recent mandate letter primarily through the 2017 Voluntary Departure Program as well as a 30 per cent reduction in senior management positions in the same year."
Wall, who now works as a special adviser at national law firm Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP, was premier of Saskatchewan from 2007 to 2018. | 1,266,396 |
U.K. FCA Says Bitcoin Evolution Crypto Exchange Not Permitted in the Country
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently added a crypto exchange company, Bitcoin Evolution, to its warning list. According to the U.K. regulator, residents should be cautious of the platform, as is not authorized by the FCA to operate in the country.
Bitcoin Evolution Operating Illegally in the U.K
The FCA issued the warning via its official website on Monday, March 17, 2020, stating that Bitcoin Evolution was conducting financial services in the U.K. illegally. Part of the announcement said:
“This firm is not authorized by us and is targeting people in the UK. Based upon information we hold, we believe it is carrying on regulated activities which require authorization.”
There have also been similar warnings in recent times by the U.K financial watchdog about unlicensed crypto exchange platforms. As previously reported by BTCManager earlier in March, the FCA declared that Kraken, a U.S.-based digital currency exchange platform, was operating without authorization in the country.
However, details provided U.K. regulatory for the exchange were incorrect, indicating possible signs of impersonation. Kraken founder Jesse Powell, also said the FCA made an error, stating that the crypto exchange platform had full authorization from the regulatory agency.
Another virtual currency exchange firm, BitMEX, also came under the FCA’s radar. According to the financial regulator, BitMex had no license to offer financial services in the U.K., asking investors to be wary of the platform.
In its latest warning, the FCA stated that businesses and individuals who intend to sell, provide, or promote financial products and services in the U.K. must get authorization from the FCA. Furthermore, the FCA asked residents to visit the Financial Services Register to check for crypto platforms permitted by the financial regulator.
FCA Relentless in Crypto Industry Scrutiny
The FCA has continued to monitor cryptocurrency businesses in the U.K. in a bid to weed out fraudulent virtual currency schemes. Crypto exchanges in the country came under intense scrutiny back in October 2019, when the U.K. regulatory body decided to increase the number of digital currency platforms under investigation.
Also, the financial regulator planned to place a ban on crypto derivatives trading, with stakeholders in the industry asking the FCA to reconsider its decision. The U.K. government came out to state regulatory watchdog had the right to make a decision to ban crypto derivatives in the country.
Back in February 2020, the FCA published new rules for virtual currency businesses, which touched on revised registration fees for crypto platforms willing to conduct financial services in the U.K.
The regulatory body also released its final crypto regulatory guidelines, which provided clarity on blockchain-based cryptocurrencies that were under the scope of the FCA. | 1,266,397 |
Peregrine Cam
Downtown Phoenix Peregrine Falcons
The live feed is brought to you through a cooperative agreement between Maricopa County and the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
New! Interesting information on the peregrines and their nesting behavior
Notice to Viewers
Please remember that these are wild animals and, like all wildlife, are subject to the unpredictablity of nature. It is not uncommon for one or more of the young birds to die before reaching fledging age. It is the intention of the department not to interfere with these nesting birds. While you are viewing the camera, you may witness a variety of behaviors that may seem cruel, including predation on other wild birds and even the young of the nesting peregrines themselves. It is important to remember, wild animals are neither cruel nor kind, good nor bad, but merely animals that are the products of countless years of evolution. An intimate view into the lives of wildlife is a rare privilege, and we hope that you enjoy and learn from this experience.
Peregrine falcon images
If you enjoy this streaming video you can help support it and other wildlife viewing program activities by making a donation.
Peregrine falcons have been nesting in the downtown Phoenix area for more than a decade. Early on, the birds selected the Maricopa County Administration Building as a nest site. An agreement with the county now allows the Arizona Game and Fish Department to monitor the birds' nesting progress. The Arizona Game and Fish Department constructed a nest box equipped with a live feed video camera and tried to entice the falcons to use the nest box, but efforts failed. Two different designs, both built by Mesa woodworker Glenn Bollinger, remained unused by the birds. The female instead chose to nest in a gutter adjacent to the box where she was seldom successful. Over a seven year period, only two chicks survived to the age of fledging.
In 2014, the female peregrine disappeared and was replaced that nesting season by another that did use the nest box. Two eggs were laid but failed to hatch. Early in 2016, preparations began to upgrade the video feed that no longer worked due to technological advancements.
The birds used the nest box again in 2015, laying three eggs in late March. All three eggs hatched. However, only two of the young fledged. The third left the nest box and, despite the best efforts of the department, could not be located and presumably died.
In early 2016, the nest box was renovated and state-of-the-art streaming video and audio equipment was installed in anticipation of the falcons using the nest box again this season. Since the renovation, the peregrines have been spending more time at the nest box, indicating they intend to nest there again this year. Peregrine falcons usually return to the same nest for many years. | 1,266,398 |
Job Title: Senior Clinical Research Coordinator
Industry: Clinical Research
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Salary/Benefits: $60,000 per year
Employer Type: Small for-profit private family owned business
Employer Size: 12 employees
How Long in Current Position: 4 years
Highest Level of Education: Bachelors
Path to This Job: My undergrad degree is in anthropology and biology. I decided I wanted a different job my junior year of college and kind of randomly got the next job that would let me work nights and weekends, and it turned out to be a research assistant job with the Department of Family Medicine. I knew lots about how you develop drugs, but nothing about what happens in between inventing the drug and how it gets on the pharmacy shelf – that’s where clinical research comes in.
A typical day at work:
8:00-8:30: I generally get to work between 8 and 8:30. My job is very different day to day depending on my patient load and what kind of trials I have.
How I spend my day:
Usually I have patient visits in the morning.
My patients schedule directly with me, so I can make my own schedule in a way.
If these are returning patients, the visits are generally shorter. I’ll take their blood pressure, get someone to draw blood, collect urine samples if needed, ask them about how their health has been since the last time I saw them, give them new bottles/syringes of medication, collect their medication diaries, and administer any other procedures that need to be done at that visit (questionnaires, EKG, etc.)
If they’re new patients, I’ll usually spend two to three hours with them, going over what the study is about, what they can expect, etc., and then taking a full medical/surgical history, list of medications, etc.
I spend about 15 hours a week with patients and the rest doing paperwork or solving various problems. Each study site is given a protocol (which is usually thick on the medical/statistical part and thin on operational details) that guides us in conducting the study, but there’s still lots of little pieces to coordinate.
4:30: I don’t work weekends, and I rarely work after 5. I do check my email after hours sometimes. I recently had a baby and am on a 3 day a week work schedule but previously worked Monday-Friday, 8 to 4:30.
READERS, SUBMIT YOUR DAY: The Career Files Submission Form
Photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash Unsplash
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