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That’s why some students are applying to 20 or more schools: to increase their odds of making a single match. The most important elite college admissions statistic, then, is not the percentage of applications top schools accept. It’s the percentage of top students who are admitted to at least one top school. And that number isn’t 5 percent or 20 percent or even 50 percent. It’s 80 percent. It turns out that four out of five well-qualified students who apply to elite schools are accepted by at least one.
These numbers come courtesy of Parchment.com, a website that helps students submit college transcripts electronically and navigate the admissions world. Services like Parchment and the Common Application are among the reasons it has become easier for students to submit more applications and drive down institutional admission rates. This year, 800,000 students used Parchment to send more than 1.6 million transcripts.
Parchment began by identifying a subset of students with combined SAT scores (or an ACT equivalent) of at least 1300. Then it identified high-scoring students who had applied to at least one of the 113 schools identified by Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges as the most selective. The average overall admission rate among those schools was about 32 percent. Yet 51 percent of the applications submitted by top Parchment students to the same colleges were accepted. Why? Because top schools receive a substantial number of applications from underqualified students who are almost always summarily rejected. Once the wheat and chaff are separated, the success rate for the wheat looks much better.
And the real odds of success were even higher than 51 percent. The top students in the Parchment database applied to 2.6 elite colleges, on average. Flip a coin twice and, according to probability theory, you’ll get heads at least once 75 percent of the time. Sure enough, 80 percent of top students were accepted to at least one elite school.
Since there has never been a time when 100 percent of well-qualified students were successful in the college admissions market, the truism that elite colleges are far more difficult to crack than in years gone by can’t be correct: 80 percent is too close, mathematically, to nearly everyone.
This doesn’t mean that aspiring students can drop out of the college admissions rat race entirely. There’s a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses aspect to sending out applications. The Parchment data suggest that students who apply to many schools are more likely to strike gold than those who apply to only one or two, which makes sense given the idiosyncrasy of the admissions process.
But this is mostly a matter of optimizing odds that are very good to begin with. So the next time you read about terrifyingly low college admission rates, don’t panic: If you work hard and get good grades and test scores, there is very likely a place in the best schools for you. | 1,267,000 |
A bioengineered blood vessel R.D. Kirkton et al., Science Translational Medicine (2019)
Human blood vessels grown in the lab have successfully been added to circulatory systems in people. The blood vessels are grown from the recipient’s own tissue and could be used to replace arteries damaged by heart disease.
Heather Prichard and colleagues at Humacyte, a technology firm in Durham, North Carolina, grew the blood vessels using human smooth muscle cells, which are found in arteries and veins.
These cells were spread out on a scaffold and provided with nutrients. They produced an extracellular matrix, a 3D network of proteins including collagen, to make blood vessels. As the vessels formed, fluids were pushed through them to simulate the pressure of blood being pumped in the body.
Read more: Injecting new heart cells improves recovery from heart attacks
The researchers separated the cells from the vessels, removing proteins that may be recognised as foreign by a recipient’s immune system. They then implanted the vessels, which were 42 centimetres long and 6 millimetres in diameter, in the upper arms of 60 people with kidney failure.
Each was undergoing dialysis – the filtration of waste products from the blood by a machine outside the body. Normally surgeons have to connect an artery to a vein to create a wider and higher-pressure vessel for transferring blood to the dialysis machine. Everyone in the study was unable to have this procedure – some people’s blood vessels are too narrow for it to work – so they received a lab-grown vessel instead.
Grow your own
Samples taken from 13 of these people over a four-year period showed that the blood vessels developed into multi-layered tissues that self-healed after injury, effectively becoming like the person’s own vessels.
The blood vessels had no cells when implanted, says Prichard. Over time they became populated with different types of the recipient’s own cells, and became similar to regular living tissue, she says.
Blood vessel replacements are needed in many situations, such as when arteries are damaged by trauma or cardiovascular disease. Coronary artery bypass surgery, for example, involves grafting vessels to restore normal blood flow to the heart. Currently the gold standard is to use a person’s own arteries or veins. But sometimes this isn’t possible, in which case a synthetic tube is implanted.
The advantage of the bioengineered vessels over implants made from synthetic polymers is that they showed no signs of scarring or inflammatory reactions.
Growing a batch of blood vessels in the lab took around two months. The team is currently scaling up the process, with the hope of producing tens of thousands of vessels per year.
Journal reference: Science Translational Medicine, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau6934 | 1,267,001 |
Garam Masala in India is considered as an ingredient which adds taste and spice to a dish but very few know it also has a lot of health benefits.
Read below to know the unknown advantages of Garam Masala.
Garam Masala in India is also referred to what the entire world calls it as curry powder. Its relishing ingredient is the secret to popularity of many Indian recipes right from mutter paneer to chicken butter Masala. Garam Masala has the power to add that tinge of taste to all the flavors of recipes that will make you go yumm.
The ‘raw’ meaning of garam Masala means “hot spice mix”, which is the perfect blend of different usual spices. It not only adds a ‘chatpata’ essence to the food but also has many benefits which you might be unaware of.
Some of the benefits of the same are listed below:
Anti-Ageing Ingredient:
Yes you heard it right; Garam Masala has ingredients like pepper, fennel, cinnamon etc., which is a great anti-ageing ingredient. It works as a miracle with abundance of benefits. Add more time to your life with Garam Masala.
Say bye-bye to tooth aches:
Garam Masala is incomplete without cloves, which is considered healthy as it manages to fight many diseases. Cloves are a great source of antioxidants, calcium, vitamins, and omega fatty acids. They are great at reducing toothache and tooth cavity and thus have been used worldwide.
Improve immune system :
Apart from giving a rich taste also helps to build a healthy immune system by removing toxins from your body.
Lowers Cholesterol Levels: In the masala there are natural ingredients like pepper, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom that work great to lower your cholesterol levels. People suffering from type-2 diabetes Cinnamon acts as the medications. It lowers sugar levels and has source of fiber and calcium. It also helps improve your memory, fights cancer, and keeps heart problems at bay.
Anti-Inflammatory Properties:Cumin one of the ingredients of Garam Masala, is known bitter smell. But it offers a wide variety of benefits.Cumin is known to have powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. From acidic problem in abdomen to heart diseases due to inflammatory properties, this powerful ingredient controls your heart rate, improves digestion and enhances your metabolism.
To conclude Garam Masala is a combination of different ingredients with each ingredient playing an important role. From exotic taste to health benefits, Garam Masala has it all.
So, have you tried the Garam Masala in India? No? What are you waiting for? Try Shalimar’s Garam masala( Shalimar – India) which is one of the finest brands in India offering quality and taste. | 1,267,002 |
PARIS (Reuters) - Restaurateurs in France want the government to speed up its asylum process and make it easier to identify suitable staff to help them fill thousands of jobs they say are increasingly snubbed by French workers.
FILE PHOTO: A barman pours a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau wine in a bistrot in Paris, France, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
The hotel, cafe and restaurant union GNI-Synhorcat says some businesses are downsizing or shortening their opening hours as a result of the shortage of manpower.
Under France’s immigration laws, asylum seekers have to wait six months from lodging the application for refugee status before they can work.
“It’s frustrating,” said Alain Fontaine, owner of the Parisian bistrot Le Mesturet where waiters’ cries of “chaud devant” -- or watch your back -- mix with the lunchtime chatter.
Fontaine has employed several refugees in recent years, but only once they have waited months for their papers.
“Here you have a workforce, you’ve got potential, you’ve got people who want to work, and on the other hand you can’t hire them,” Fontaine said.
Unemployment in France hovers above 9 percent, a headache for President Emmanuel Macron who promises his business-friendly reform drive will create more economic growth and jobs.
However, restaurateurs say the long hours and often low pay of their trade puts off some jobless French people.
France rewrote its immigration law this year and the target is to halve the time it takes to process asylum requests to six months from the average of 11 months when Macron won power last year.
Yet even when migrants become eligible to work, the paperwork can be daunting.
An Interior Ministry spokeswoman acknowledged the process was bureaucratic and said reform was under way to streamline it.
Malian Bakary Kanoute fled his home country at the age of 15. By then he had already developed a love for cooking and once he secured his immigration papers in France he sought work in a kitchen. He was hired by Fontaine.
“When you work, you’re helping your boss and helping yourself,” the 22-year-old said.
The GNI-Synhorcat union wants to work closer with migrant charities to identify potential workers for the cafe and restaurant industry earlier in the asylum process. It is holding consultations with lawmakers on how processes can be made more efficient.
“The moment a migrant is awarded refugee status... we say bingo! We’ll train them and hire them,” GNI-Synhorcat union boss Didier Chenet said. “We want to pre-empt that moment.” | 1,267,003 |
Here's what we know: The 2017 NFL Draft begins Thursday. Everything beyond that is up in the air. Two weeks ago, the speculation was that Browns coach Hue Jackson preferred pass rusher Myles Garrett to quarterback Mitchell Trubisky with the first-overall selection.
And days ago, Browns vice president of football operations Sashi Brown made it clear that the team would not be trading out of the top pick. And while he didn't offer any specifics about who the Browns might be targeting, Brown hinted that he would be open to the idea of trading up to grab a quarterback, presumably after drafting Garrett.
So that's an option... unless it isn't.
Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot reports that quarterback Trubisky "is still under serious consideration by the Browns at No. 1."
The feeling on the part of the front office, sources say, is that the Browns are ready to draft their quarterback of the future and might not want to risk losing him if they try to trade up or hope he falls to them at No. 12. Sources have told cleveland.com that the 49ers also like Trubisky and might take him at No. 2. "Don't be surprised,'' said one.
Plan B for the Browns would then be DeShaun Watson or Patrick Mahomes, writes Cabot.
Earlier this month ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the Browns' brass were split on who to draft first overall, and even though Cabot reported that Jackson is a Garrett guy, we're at the point in the draft proceedings where different reporters are hearing different things.
A source previously told Cabot that rumors of discord between the Browns' coaching staff and front office are real, which reminds us of this nugget from 12 months ago, shortly after the Browns hired Sabermetrics pioneer and Harvard-trained Paul DePodesta, who was previously a Major League Baseball general manager. In a story at the time for ESPN the Magazine, one NFL executive described Jackson as possibly a "very bad fit" in Cleveland, a description that extends beyond the head coach.
"It's not just Hue Jackson," the executive continued. "When data overrides gut, the majority of his coaching staff will all be there screaming, 'What the f--- are these computer guys doing? They don't understand football, they don't understand the locker room. They're killing us.'"
A few weeks ago, DePodesta admitted that part of the Browns' rebuilding philosophy is to stockpile draft picks, which is the same strategy Jimmy Johnson used a quarter-century ago when he was taking the Cowboys from laughingstock to Super Bowl champs.
Finding a franchise quarterback would go a long way in expediting the process, but a year after the Browns said no thanks to Carson Wentz, would they really roll the dice on Trubisky with the No. 1 pick? We'll know for certain in four days. | 1,267,004 |
will reverberate across this nation and the world. Donald Trump has promised to reverse and eradicate every major initiative of the Obama administration. He’s promised to reimplement torture and even worse than torture, he’s promised to reimplement President Eisenhower’s deadly Operation Wetback, shake down NATO for cash, start a trade war with China, and cooperate with Russia and Assad over Syria and ISIS. He believes that Climate Change is a “hoax” and wind turbines “kill birds.” He’s promised to dismantle health care reform, effectively leaving 20 million people without health insurance. He’s ignited a new wave of open bigotry, violence, and threats of political murder. And he’s promised to cut taxes for the rich, as if that didn’t explode the deficit under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and as if our longest steady period of sustained economic growth besides the current one wasn’t under President Bill Clinton—when he raised taxes that ultimately balanced the budget and ran a surplus. That is, until Bush messed that surplus up with his tax cuts and sent us into two recessions.
Time says Trump’s economic plan is “magical thinking.”
Donald Trump’s economic plan, revealed Thursday in a speech at the Economic Club of New York, calls for 4% growth, which is about double the rate that the U.S. economy is currently growing. Is that even remotely possible, based on what he’s put out there? The answer, in a word, is no. Trump’s projections of 3.5% to 4% growth under his plan rely largely on something called “dynamic growth projections,” which assume that tax cuts will boost growth. But there has been not a shred of evidence over the last 20 years that they actually have. This is not a bipartisan issue. It’s a simple fact. The tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 under George W. Bush didn’t jump start sustained growth, nor did any of the tax cuts pushed through by President Obama post 2008.
Meanwhile, Moody’s says Clinton’s economic plan is likely to create 10 million jobs in four years.
Moody's Analytics estimates that if the Democratic presidential nominee's proposals are enacted, the economy would create 10.4 million jobs during her presidency, or 3.2 million more than expected under current law. The pace of GDP growth would also accelerate to an annual average of 2.7%, from the current forecast of 2.3%.
Sure, those are opinions. But they are opinions based on facts.
If you think trying to implement a tax plan that failed twice before just one more time because somehow it’s going to work completely differently this time, then fine—you should vote for Donald Trump.
If not, then you know what to do on Tuesday. | 1,267,005 |
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Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. | 1,267,006 |
More than 150 council leaders – including 36 Conservatives – have warned George Osborne that vital services such as libraries, children's centres and sports clubs will have to close if he imposes further cuts on local government in next week's spending review.
In a letter to the Observer, 151 council chiefs say that a further round of austerity, in addition to the 33% cuts already imposed since 2010, cannot be absorbed without devastating social and economic implications.
Councils fear that Osborne will impose a further 10% budget cut in his imminent spending purge, meaning that an average council will have to make a further £30m in savings in 2015-16. The Local Government Association, representing more than 370 authorities in England and Wales, says the rising cost of social care has added to already intense pressure on budgets and that local government is having to pay the cost of inefficiency in Whitehall. In their letter the council chiefs say that, while local government has been hit by 33% cuts since the coalition came to office, Whitehall departments have only had to take an average cut of 12%.
The letter states: "This pattern cannot be repeated without it having a serious impact on local services and on people. Councils have so far taken £3.1bn from the annual paybill, reduced management costs by more than 12.5% and saved hundreds of millions of pounds by teaming up to deliver both back office and frontline services.
"Council tax increases have also been kept well below the rate of inflation for the past four years. The resilience of local government cannot be stretched much further. For many councils, new funding cuts in 2015-16 will lead to a significant reduction in, and in some cases even loss of, important local services."
Warning of lasting economic damage, they add: "Local government bore the brunt of cuts in the last spending review. For the sake of the public it cannot afford to do so again. It would be bad for the country, bad for people and bad for our prospects of economic recovery if funding for local services is cut further to reinforce inefficiencies within Whitehall."
The chancellor will announce further cuts of £11.5bn for 2015-16 in the spending review and arguments are continuing in Whitehall over where the cuts should be made.
Earlier this month, the House of Commons public accounts committee said that dozens of local authorities were on the brink of financial collapse and argued that ministers had failed to come up with adequate contingency plans to support vital services
The committee said that if funding continued to decline while demand for services rose, it was likely that councils would have to be bailed out.
Councils are also saying that they will have to make deep cuts to highways' budgets, reduce spending on galleries, libraries and the voluntary sector, turn off street lighting between midnight and dawn and reduce non-statutory schools transport. Ministers argue, however, that councils are sitting on huge reserves and that austerity is forcing necessary efficiencies on them. | 1,267,007 |
-allah-in-prayer/
Is Praying in Arabic Difficult for You?
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/living-islam/is-praying-in-arabic-difficult-for-you/
How I Came to Love Prayer as a Muslim
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/finding-peace/remembering-allah/how-i-came-to-love-the-prayer-as-a-muslim/
3- Learn the Importance of Knowledge in Islam
Converts: Seeking Knowledge is Power
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/understanding-islam/converts-seeking-knowledge-is-power/
Reverts: 4 Steps Will Help in Your Path of Knowledge
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/living-islam/reverts-4-steps-will-help-in-your-path-of-knowledge/
Baby Steps in Your Journey to Islam
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/living-islam/baby-steps-in-your-journey-to-islam/
Take Knowledge from the Knowledgeable
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/understanding-islam/take-knowledge-from-the-knowledgeable/
4- Send us your questions on this series to: [email protected]
_______________
Series Background
As this is a special series for new converts to learn about Islam in a comprehensive way through learning the Seerah (Biography of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him) in a gradual chronological way, we will add a few more resources of other areas of Islamic knowledge related to each part of the Seerah at the end of each article as extra learning resources.
We will add new videos for this series as we progress from Year 1 to Year 23, in sha’ Allah.
The references used in each article are given for further details, so please feel free to send us any questions you may have to this e-mail: [email protected]
You may also wish to join our Facebook Group, Islam 101, for further learning and also to interact with fellow new converts and those who are new to Islam here.
_________________
Article References:
The Sealed Nectar by Sheikh Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarkpuri
Seerah of Prophet Muhammad – 12: Declaration of Prophethood (video by Dr. Yasir Qadhi)
Prophet Muhammad: The World’s Best Teacher
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/prophet-muhammad-the-worlds-best. | 1,267,008 |
free-kick was tipped over.
Just three minutes into the second half Liverpool were 3-0 up. Sterling, who lit up the club’s tour of America, was outstanding once again. The teenager pounced on Matthias Ginter’s error and intelligently picked out Coutinho.
The only criticism of the Brazilian’s game has been his lack of end product but this time he made no mistake as he drilled past Langerak from a tight angle.
Manquillo, who like Lovren had only trained with his new team-mates for two days, enjoyed a fine first outing at right-back.
The 20-year-old Spaniard showed no sign of nerves following his loan switch from Atletico Madrid.
He was strong in the tackle and expertly shackled Henrikh Mkhitaryan as the Armenian, who opted to sign for Dortmund rather than Liverpool when he left Shakhtar Donetsk last summer, failed to show Rodgers what he’s missing.
Manquillo, who has been handed the No 19 shirt, also made a contributiongoing forward as he combined well with the tireless Jordan Henderson, whocompleted the scoring just past the hour mark.
Once again Sterling and Coutinho were heavily involved as Dortmund were carved open.
Coutinho’s cross just eluded Sturridge but he raced to keep the ball in play and got away from Schmelzer before handing Henderson a tap-in.
A raft of substitutions meant the contest petered out but Rickie Lambert was granted a warm reception as he graced Anfield with the liver bird on his shirt for the first time.
By then Ronald Koeman, watching on from the directors box, had seen enough.
The Southampton boss will have departed knowing that Liverpool are primed and ready for battle when the serious stuff kicks off next Sunday.
On the weekend when the nation was hit by the remains of Hurricane Bertha Liverpool sent out a warning of their own. Even without Suarez, they will take some stopping.
Liverpool: Mignolet, Manquillo (Kelly 85), Skrtel, Lovren, Johnson (Enrique 62), Gerrard, Can (Lucas 46), Henderson (Allen 79), Coutinho (Ibe 72), Sterling, Sturridge (Lambert 76).
Borussia Dortmund: Langerak, Piszczek (Grosskreutz 58), Sokratis (Sarr 81), Ginter, Schmelzer (Knystock 81), Kehl (Hofmann 46), Kirch (Bender 46), Mkhitaryan (Ji 64), Aubameyang, Jojic (Amini 77), Ramos (Immobile 46)
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Attendance: 43,980
Goals: Sturridge 10, Lovren 14, Coutinho 48, Henderson 61 | 1,267,009 |
Andy Cohen is clapping back after Kathy Griffin said some harsh words about her former friend
Andy Cohen Says Kathy Griffin Has 'Made Up A Lot About' Him: 'I Hope She Finds Some Peace'
The feud between Andy Cohen and Kathy Griffin doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Cohen, 51, clapped back after Griffin, 58, called the Watch What Happens Live host “one of the worst bosses I ever had.”
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“She’s made up a lot of stuff about me in the past few years that has just been untrue and sad,” Cohen told USA TODAY. “I hope she finds some peace.”
Griffin and the Cohen have been fighting since October 2017, but things escalated when he was tapped to host CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live alongside Anderson Cooper after she was fired for posing with a mask of President Donald Trump‘s bloodied head.
During a recent interview with PEOPLE, Griffin said Cohen treated her like a “dog” and insinuated that Cohen had something to do with the fact that her talk show, Kathy, was canceled on Bravo in 2013. (Prior to that, her reality show, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List, had run for six seasons on Bravo and won two Emmys.)
Image zoom Kathy Griffin and Andy Cohen John Sciulli/Getty Images; Charles Sykes/Getty Images
“The guy, he decides the entire slate at Bravo, and yet he gave himself a talk show that magically gets renewed every year,” she said. “So, you know, I had a talk show at Bravo for two years that got canceled. And I thought, ‘Yeah it’s sort of competition for Andy,’ So, no, he has not been very kind.”
Cohen also defended his longtime friend Cooper, 52, with whom Griffin also fell out publicly after the Trump stunt.
“She said something that I found incredibly vile about [Cooper] last week that I think says more about her than anything else,” Cohen said.
Image zoom Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty
While he didn’t elaborate on which comment he was referring to, last week Griffin opened up about the death of Cooper’s mother, socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, saying that she “kind of knew her better … in a way” than her son did.
“I was really in love with Anderson’s mom, the great Gloria Vanderbilt,” Griffin said. “She let me call her Glo-Vandy. She gave me so many life lessons, we would chat, and I actually kind of knew her better than Anderson in a way.” | 1,267,010 |
One way to enhance your hipster cred is to feign interest in the high arts, so what better way than occasionally listening to classical music? Classical music on vinyl at that…
Much of my LP collection started out as stuff my parents previously owned. Nearly all of the classic punk and new wave I own once belonged to my dad, but I also claimed the classical music he got via mail-order back in the early eighties. These were from the Time-Life Great Men of Music series, which consisted of 4 records each from all the major classical composers. Each set had the composer’s most famous works (e.g. Symphony No.5 for Beethoven, Rondo alla Turca for Mozart) but also had some of their lesser known pieces. The full series pretty much covered everyone from the Baroque to the early Modern period (Bach to Copland), but my dad only had 8 of the 30 box set.
The records come in sturdy, attractive boxes with anti-scratch sleeves and a booklet containing the history of the composer and notes on each included recording. Many of the recordings are sourced from the well-regarded RCA Living Stereo series. Internet research later backed me up, but I had originally suspected this when I first played the Living Stereo SACD of Van Cliburn performing Beethovens Emperor Concerto and found it…somehow familiar. Sure enough, they are the exact same recording.
The overall sound quality of the records is pleasant and mellow; as I write this I am listening to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #2, which flows smoothly from the speakers while demonstrating a well defined soundstage (that is, every instrument has a discernible “place of origin” emitting from the speakers that mostly corresponds to how an actual chamber orchestra is set up). Mozart’s piano works are crisp and believable, if not a tad bright, while Beethoven’s Fifth is immersive and effective. The recordings aren’t always perfect though, some of the tracks, like Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, aren’t true stereo but are “electronically reprocessed”, which I personally don’t like but YMMV. Some of the speedy glissandos in Chopin’s Etudes kind of smear together, but I suspect this is a weakness of my system rather than the recording.
These boxsets are a great way to start a classical collection, and they seem like the kind of thing you could score from a yard sale, thrift store, or Craigslist. Amazon has just the Beethoven set starting at 22 bucks, but if you’re more of a completist then eBay has most of them, unfortunately sold separately.
Final scores:
Music: A
Sound: A- to C+, depending on each recording. | 1,267,011 |
.
C-3PO: My audio sensor no longer detects...
POE: Yes.
Where Crystal small animals, go?
(Creating great)
Come with me
You looking at me?
Follow him.
(Beacon rapid erosion)
If the letter of our rights at the foot, where they are.
Please scan of life forms.
(Beacon rapid erosion)
so.
(Pork sisuo sound)
I see them! Chewy, there is!
(CREATURES good-looking)
(Creative)
No, no no no.
Do not!
(CREATURES BARKING)
Raise the rock.
(Gasping)
(KYLO REN sounds)
(Light Saber crackling)
(snore)
I live up to you, Ben
-Sorry.
- I believe you!
Resistance is dead
The war has ended.
After the absolute best to kill me, you kill me.
amazing.
What, every sentence you just said is wrong.
Rebel rebirth today.
The war has just begun.
After the absolute best will not me.
I will ruin her, and you, and all of it.
number
Furious hit me, I will be with you forever.
Like your father.
(Light Saber crackling)
(Stone bass)
(Roared loudly)
number
See you, boy.
Do not!
(Stone bass)
(close the door)
- (C'ai laughs)
Easy!
-C-3PO: such a friend.
- (R-d beeps)
- (chewy roar)
- Chewy!
(BB-8 curious chirp)
-looks good.
- (BB-8 chirp)
Connie: That's crazy, man.
-POE: Hello.
- Hi.
I slope.
Rye.
I know
Up: When we arrived at the outer ring, I have a contact.
C-3PO: Absolutely possible.
Luke walked.
I feel it.
But this is not sad or painful.
It is peaceful and purpose.
I think this.
How can we build a revolt from this?
We have everything we need.
(BB-8 chirp)
(Say a foreign language)
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master.
(Say a foreign language)
(Roar) | 1,267,012 |
The world focuses on diversity, and breaking common molds and stereotypes found in high fantasy settings
It's honestly one of my favourite things ever
Edryss - Garuda Pirate - Earth Magic (internal caster - gravity)
An ambitious Naiad woman looking to study blood magic, and also tarnish her mother’s reputation in the process. Rebellious, determined, and secretly a sucker for trashy romance novels. Has the heart of a maiden and the temper of a tempest. Jotun Father & Naiad Mother. Edryss - Garuda Pirate - Earth Magic (internal caster - gravity)
Drulla - Dwarf Brawler - Air Magic (external caster - wind)
An easy going pirate brought up by his Dwarf father on a slew of ships and ocean outposts with his four sisters. Spent time in the Troll Isles raising hell and sinking ships. Sentimental, cheeky, and looking for purpose and direction in his life. Has issues with his own self worth. Dwarf Father & Garuda Mother. Drulla - Dwarf Brawler - Air Magic (external caster - wind)
Marrel - Jotun Soldier - Fire Magic (external caster - combustion)
An impish young Dwarf with a proficiency in starting and ending bar fights. Currently running amok with her childhood friend, Edryss, and trying to track down a set of heirloom bracers she lost in a bet. Brash, friendly, and tells the dirtiest jokes. Struggles with responsibility. Dwarf Father & Dwarf Mother. Marrel - Jotun Soldier - Fire Magic (external caster - combustion)
Lley - Jotun Pathfinder - Water Magic (internal caster - frost)
A rising star within the Jotun military. Was recently assigned to a small patrol station that borders Jotun and Ogre territory, and was not pleased about it. Enjoys pampering herself with expensive perfumes, and splurging on pretty jewellery. Has a very short fuse - literally smokes at the ears when frustrated or upset. Jotun Father & Jotun Mother. Lley - Jotun Pathfinder - Water Magic (internal caster - frost)
A blind Jotun elf with albinism. Adopted and raised by an Ogre family, and currently working as a pathfinder within the mines and tunnels of the Northern mountains. Gentle, patient, and mostly oblivious to romantic sentiments directed towards him. Has a seeing-eye falcon named Chepi. Troll Father & Jotun Mother
A bunch of my characters that I designed for a fantasy world created by From left to right: Myrrialla - Naiad Physician - Water Magic (external caster - blood)This art and these characters are not for public use!Art and Characters The Ocean of Cycles World belongs to Dyemelikeasunset | 1,267,013 |
, one has to weigh the cost-benefit equation to society. Will people think this is a safe drug... but will it, in fact, be a plague on society?”
Griffiths and Ross, the study leaders, said psilocybin is not addictive but agreed that it should not be used outside clinical trials, where participants are carefully screened.
[In a first, U.S. trial to test Cuban lung-cancer vaccine]
Both trials — NYU had 29 participants, and Hopkins had 51 — used synthetic psilocybin. The studies were randomized, and neither the patients nor their monitors knew who was receiving the drug and who was getting the placebo. Several weeks after the first dosing, participants received whatever treatment they had not received the first time.
Griffiths said he tried to minimize the placebo effect — in which patients perceive an improvement from an inactive treatment — by using a low dose of psilocybin as the placebo and a high dose as the treatment medication. The patients knew they would get psilocybin both times, but didn’t know the doses. He said there was such a large difference in the results that he didn’t think the placebo effect was a problem. NYU used niacin, a B vitamin known to produce a “rush,” as the placebo.
Psilocybin attracted intense interest from researchers in the 1950s and 1960s, but the work was shut down when the drug was banned under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Today, it is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it is deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no legitimate medical purpose.
In the past decade or so, research has slowly resumed, funded mostly by nonprofits and advocates who believe in psilocybin’s therapeutic value. The Hopkins and NYU studies, for example, were largely paid for by the Heffter Research Institute, a New Mexico nonprofit. George Greer, Heffter’s medical director, said the group was working with a nonprofit institute in Wisconsin to try to move the drug into larger, Phase 3 trials that would be required to receive Food and Drug Administration approval.
Petra, a 63-year-old Seattle resident who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used for privacy, was treated for ovarian cancer and, like Bazer, was worried it would recur. But during her treatment with psilocybin, she said, she calmed down.
“I felt an acceptance of the world as it is and myself as I am,” she said. She learned new ways to handle stress, such as meditation. Two years later, when doctors saw a suspicious lesion and suggested surgery, she urged them to wait, saying it was unlikely to be cancer — which turned out to be correct. “The psilocybin had knocked back my anxiety almost completely,” she said. | 1,267,014 |
't be good for you or your family," said the voice on the other end of the line. Three days later, a man in his early 20s turned up at Tony's house to deliver the same ultimatum.
"After placing a pistol on our table, he inquired about my reasons for not running for the seat reserved for minorities," Tony said.
"After failing to persuade me, he warned me that gunmen had been stationed outside my residence and said it would be unwise of me to leave my house."
Tony reported the threat at his local police station the following day.
"They offered me additional security but I couldn't afford to pay for four policemen for a week. Also I didn't have any vehicle to carry them around during my political campaign," he said.
During that election week, gunmen fired on Tony and his two sons at several locations.
"At first we thought it was just some people firing their weapons in the air, which a Pashtun custom. The next day we were targeted near a graveyard, and we took refuge at the house of a local," he said.
"Then on July 21, I heard bullets explode around me as I was about to drive off on my motorcycle. One of them struck my Dastar," he added, referring to the turban Sikhs wear, which is considered a sacred head garment.
Despite the threats, Tony cast his ballot early in the morning on the day of the election.
After repeated requests from his mother, who was suffering from cancer, he stayed indoors for two months.
Unable to pay the rent for his electronics shop, Tony had to bargain with the landlord by giving him several laptops to tide things over.
Finding a house to rent in Lahore was another challenge for this Sikh family.
"We had to spend a week with one of our relatives, who has since converted to Christianity. Several landlords agreed to rent us their property but they all cancelled the deal when they found out we where Sikhs," he said.
"They greet our community with friendly smiles but they won't let us live in their rooms," he added.
"The government helped Indian Sikhs by opening the corridor but ignored the calls from Pakistani Sikhs, who have demanded similar visa-free access to the Golden Temple complex [Sikhs' principal place of worship], which is a 20-minute drive from the famous border crossing at Wagah."
Father Saleh Diego, director for the Justice and Peace Commission in Karachi Archdiocese, has welcomed the news of the new corridor.
"After a long time, both the government and the armed forces are on the same page," he said. "They have shown a greater acceptance of diversity and are trying to get a handle on religious militants, who pose a threat even for Muslims," he said.
This article was first published 17.12.2018. | 1,267,015 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. general said on Wednesday it will be difficult to maintain “extraordinarily high standards” to avoid civilian casualties in Mosul, even as the U.S. military begins a formal investigation into an explosion in the Iraqi city that is believed to have killed scores of civilians.
The U.S. military has acknowledged the U.S.-led coalition probably had a role in the March 17 explosion but said Islamic State also could be to blame.
Local officials and eyewitnesses say as many as 240 people may have been killed in the Al-Jadida district when a huge blast caused a building to collapse, burying families inside.
When asked in a congressional hearing about the standards used by the U.S. military to avoid civilian casualties, General Joseph Votel said it would be difficult to apply those standards in the narrow, crowded streets of the Old City in west Mosul.
“I do agree that as we move into these urban environments, it is going to become more and more difficult to apply extraordinarily high standards for the things that we’re doing, although we will try,” Votel said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, said there had been no change in the rules of engagement, but commanders closer to the fighting had been given more authority in order to reduce potential delays.
U.S. officials have said that an increase in civilian casualties was to be expected as the war against the insurgents entered its deadliest phase.
Iraqi special forces and police battled Islamic State militants in close-quarters fighting to edge closer to the al-Nuri mosque in western Mosul on Wednesday, tightening their control around the landmark site in the battle to recapture Iraq’s second city.
The comments about standards by Votel are likely to cause concern. Human rights groups already are slamming the U.S. military for an increase in the allegations of civilian casualties in recent weeks.
Amnesty International has said the high civilian toll in Mosul suggested U.S.-led coalition forces had failed to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths.
Votel said Islamic State militants were aware of U.S. sensitivities to civilian casualties and were exploiting them by using human shields in Mosul.
What exactly happened on March 17 is still unclear.
Iraqi military command has said one line of investigation is whether Islamic State rigged explosives that ultimately caused the blast that destroyed buildings.
A U.S. probe into the incident has moved from an assessment to a more formal investigation, Votel said.
“It will be a more formalized approach to really look into the details of this as much as we can to establish what happened, establish what the facts are, identify accountability and then certainly identify the lessons learned out of that,” he told the hearing. | 1,267,016 |
Blogger Roosh Valizadeh, a staunch proponent of "legal rape" and the man behind Saturday's canceled meetup View Full Caption Wikicommons
ROGERS PARK — After citywide uproar about a planned "men's rights" group meetup in Rogers Park Saturday, the group has canceled the event.
The rally, originally scheduled at a flagpole near Devon Avenue and Sheridan Road at the border of Rogers Park and Edgewater Saturday at 8 p.m., was part of "International Tribal Meetup Day" in which followers of the Return of Kings blog were supposed to heed the call of their leader, blogger Roosh Valizadeh.
Valizadeh, 36, has written about the concept of "legal rape," but he later tweeted that his writing was "satire."
READ MORE: Chicago 'Men's Rights' Meetup Infuriates Locals, Has Police On Lookout
Groups across Chicago, including Loyola University, Ald. Joe Moore (49th) and the group Rape Victim Advocates, have denounced the group as rape apologists and advocating gender-based violence. Valizadeh has written that he believes sexual assault victims are "playing the rape card," saying the definitions of rape are too stringent in America.
Wednesday night, Valizadeh announced on his site that since he "can no longer guarantee the safety or privacy of the men who want to attend... there will be no official Return Of Kings meetups."
He added, "I can't stop men who want to continue meeting in private groups," and, "I apologize to all the supporters who are let down by my decision."
A local feminist group planned to preempt the meetup with a public protest, urging supporters to "show up in droves ready to stand up for gender justice as ["men's rights activists"] slink away into the shadows to bemoan how tough it is to have most of the privileges existent in a patriarchal society."
The group planned other rallies across the country and internationally as well, including in south suburban Homewood. The owner of Balagio Ristorante in Homewood, not excited about the prospect of the group breaking bread at his restaurant, asked the police to send "a couple squads," according to Chicagoist.
After widespread community uproar, Moore's chief of staff issued a statement reminding his constituents that Valizadeh and his followers had a constitutional right to assemble. But, he said, "They do not have a right to inflict actual physical violence upon anyone, and I am told the police will be closely monitoring their activity."
The "international call" for the gatherings inspired searing backlashes all over the world, from Canada to Texas to Australia. International hacker group Anonymous also promised to shut down the group's website, and apparently succeeded Wednesday afternoon.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: | 1,267,017 |
Black slaves doesn’t mean that White supremacy was no longer a factor. In fact, it complicated what was already complicated. Oppression is intersectional and hierarchical. Vertical and horizontal. And when I mention White supremacy, it is not to imply White = oppressor, anyone else = oppressed as the entire picture of oppression. It’s more complex.
There’s actually a third assertion that I receive almost weekly as well. It is an admission that sure, racism is in America and White supremacy is a problem, but it is “worse” in America. Again, this is not an assertion that Whites are at liberty to make. Even within America, there are Northerners who cling to the notion that all Southern racism was “worse.” (Some stick to that today. Meanwhile Black trans women are regularly murdered in Northern cities…). This worse/better perception within America reminds me of something that James Baldwin wrote:
Northerners indulge in an extremely dangerously luxury. They seem to feel that because they fought on the right side during The Civil War, and won, they have earned the right to merely deplore what is going on in the South, without taking any responsibility for it; and that they can ignore what is happening in Northern cities because what is happening in Little Rock or Birmingham is worse. Well, in the first place, it is not possible for anyone who has not endured both to know which is ‘worse.’ I know Negroes who prefer the South and white Southerners, because ‘At least there, you haven’t got to play any guessing games!’ The guessing games referred to have driven more than one Negro into the narcotics ward, the madhouse or the river.
Whites cannot be so desperate to escape culpability from the fact that they benefit from White supremacy (which racism and colourism are directly tied to and are global problems) that they seek to make it a “problem” that is “over there” and that has nothing to do with them. And this is a consistent stance from Whites looking from the outside into America. Ironically, often during the same weeks that I receive these “nope, your country is more racist” emails from Whites, people of colour from the same places (especially if Canada or U.K.) have another story for me. Literally in the same week many times. This is White privilege…the idea that Whites are in the position to dictate what people of colour experience from a system of oppression that they benefit from.
While it is important to recognize the multiple faces and facets of oppression, trying to remove the global albeit varying impact of White supremacy is a futile exercise that is often less about recognizing intersectionality and kyriarchy and more about removing the culpability of Whites and discomfort that discussions on Whiteness evokes.
Related Essay Lists: On Race…, On Race II | 1,267,018 |
A host of "The View" and notable anti-Christian Joy Behar made disparaging comments against Christianity in February 2018, and her network clearly saw how big of a mistake that was.
“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus, it’s another thing when Jesus talks to you,” Behar said while discussing Vice President Mike Pence's strong Christian faith. “That’s called mental illness if I’m not correct.”
The comments received a chorus of laughter from the show's co-hosts as well as those in the crowd.
However, the Media Research Center and thousands of Christians weren't laughing.
TRENDING: Devastating video shows Biden calling soldiers'stupid bastards'
Shortly after Behar made her remarks, the MRC began a campaign calling on ABC to hold the show's co-hosts accountable for spreading "anti-Christian bigotry."
The campaign gained momentum, as ABC received over 30,000 calls from angry viewers, Fox News reported.
Disgruntled viewers also contacted the show's advertisers, including Oreo, Home Advisor and Clorox. As noted by the MRC, the number of calls to advertisers soared to over 6,000.
MRC president Brent Bozell also published an open letter to the network, urging them to "right this wrong."
"Make no mistake, the slurs against the Vice President’s faith insult millions of Christians and are unacceptable," he wrote. "If there are no on-air apologies after this deplorable episode, Christians will tune out ABC programming across the board. And we will do our best to encourage it."
He added: “I am sure the advertisers of ‘The View’ will be just as appalled as I am about the anti-Christian remarks made on the show."
Bozell ended the letter with one final jab -- a thinly-veiled threat, "I hope you are able to take the appropriate action before we begin."
In a video announcing the campaign, Bozell stated that the MRC's goal is to "put all these anti-Christian bigots on notice for once and for all."
As reported by The Western Journal, Pence aired his grievances with Behar and ABC immediately after the remarks surfaced.
“I actually heard that ABC has a program that compared my Christianity to mental illness. And I’d like to laugh about it, but I really can’t,” Pence said in an interview with C-SPAN.
“Tens of millions of Americans today will have ash on their foreheads to mark the beginning of Lent,” he continued, referring to Ash Wednesday. “To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal. | 1,267,019 |
A new study has found that exposure to certain pesticides can alter bees' genes, leading researchers to call for tougher regulations on the widely-used chemicals.
The study, published Wednesday in Molecular Ecology, looked at the impact of two neonicotinoid pesticides on bumblebee populations and found that they impacted genes involved in a variety of important biological processes.
"Governments had approved what they thought were'safe' levels but pesticides intoxicate many pollinators, reducing their dexterity and cognition and ultimately survival," lead study author Dr. Yannick Wurm of Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences said in a press release. "This is a major risk because pollinators are declining worldwide yet are essential for maintaining the stability of the ecosystem and for pollinating crops."
Pesticides found to affect genes in bees www.youtube.com
Previous studies had looked at the impact of neonicotinoids on the behaviors of bees, showing that exposure impaired their ability to forage and develop colonies. But this study, conducted by researchers at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London, focused on how those impacts occur on the molecular level.
"Our work reveals that neurotoxic pesticides not only directly target the cells of the nervous system, but also indirectly affect the normal activity of the exposed organism's genes," study author Dr. Richard Gill of the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London said in a press release.
The researchers studied the impact of realistic concentrations of two neonicotinoids on bumblebees: clothianidin and imidacloprid. They found that clothianidin had a stronger effect and that queens and workers were impacted differently. Clothianidin exposure altered the activity levels of 55 worker genes, making 31 more active and the rest less active.
"This could indicate that their bodies are reorienting resources to try to detoxify, which the researchers suspect is what some of the genes are doing. For other genes, the changes could represent the intermediate effects of intoxication that lead to affected behavior," the Queen Mary press release explained.
For queens, 17 genes saw their activity levels altered, with 16 becoming more active.
While neonicotinoids were banned in the EU in 2018, they are still widely used elsewhere.
The researchers thought that the study mechanism could be used to assess the specific impact of pesticides on other pollinators.
"We examined the effects of two pesticides on one species of bumblebee. But hundreds of pesticides are authorised, and their effects are likely to substantially differ across the 200,000 pollinating insect species which also include other bees, wasps, flies, moths, and butterflies," first study author Dr. Joe Colgan of Queen Mary University said.
The study comes about a month after another study warned that insect populations around the world are in grave danger, and the widespread use of pesticides is one of the main reasons why.
| 1,267,020 |
Amandla Stenberg swaps the future dystopia of “The Darkest Minds” for the present-day real-life dystopia in “The Hate U Give”, an adaptation of the hugely successful young adult novel dealing with the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.
Starr Carter (Stenberg) who lives in the black suburb of Garden Heights but attends a private high school in a white neighbourhood. She finds herself living a comfortable double-life, fitting in in both worlds until one night after a house party when her childhood friend Khalil is driving her home and is pulled over by the Police for a minor traffic infraction but thanks to a jumpy police officer, Khalil is shot and killed. In the aftermath of his death and funeral, as citizens across the city demand justice, Starr must summon up the courage to find her voice and speak the truth.
The first hour of this movie provides a casually chilling, immersive experience of the merest glimpse of what it must be like to be black in today’s America. The constant fear, the lack of faith in justice, the constant second-guessing of every single authority figure is terrifying. This is no simple ‘us and them’ morality tale though. It’s no tone-deaf ‘there are good people on both sides’ traducery but it does show that there are malevolent individuals on either side of the divide the movie explores.
It’s this balance between the enemy without and enemy within that powers the film through its final, more melodramatic final hour as Starr comes under pressure to testify as to what happened from Khalil’s family and activist lawyers while the local drug dealer King (Anthony Mackie) and her white school friends provide pressure to keep silent. It’s a cunning nod to this tension that sees K J Apa cast as Starr’s white boyfriend Chris. He’s styled to appear as a typical shallow frat boy (and is introduced as a typically overly horny teenager) who runs through nearly every white woke cliché you can imagine and you keep expecting him to reveal his ‘true colours’ even though he turns out to be sweet and genuine.
The screenplay, by Audrey Wells who sadly passed away days before the film opened loses a little of the powerful, almost primal fight or flight tension of the story as the soap opera drama takes over, it’s still a potent and essential movie. The cast are great, particularly the magnificent Regina Hall and Russell Hornsby as Starr’s parents but the film orbits Stenberg and it’s to her your eye is constantly drawn, such is her star power.
7/10
[youtube=https://youtu.be/wK_Fegf0XBc]
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have a bunch of share buttons available, but the selection still doesn’t scratch the surface of possibility across the web.
Ultimately, a share API like this puts the control back into the users’ hands, allowing them to share to the applications they choose to install on their device.
Minimising JavaScript
You’ve seen the code above that I’ve used to implement the web share API. There’s not much of it.
It’s particularly small when you compare it to the scripts that popular sites supply to enable their share functionality. Twitter’s script is ~32kB and Facebook’s ~60kB (gzipped sizes). Best practice is to load those scripts asynchronously, so they shouldn’t affect page load time. But that is a significant amount of JavaScript that needs to be loaded and parsed simply for a share button.
These scripts don’t just function as the share buttons you are implementing as a developer. They allow Facebook, Twitter and the like to track their users around the web. The web share API not only gives site owners a more efficient way for users to share, but also gives back some user privacy.
Better feedback
While it may make it harder for large social networks to track users, the web share API actually makes it easier for sites to learn about their users’ behaviour. As the share API works with Promises, you can find out when the share link is clicked and when a click results in a share to another application.
What’s missing?
Currently the thing that is missing from the implementation of the web share API is the other side of it. The web share target API is an API that will allow web applications to register to appear in the share drawer when the web share API is invoked. Without the target API the web share API can only share directly to native applications available on a user’s device. While this is probably still ok for those large social networks which already have applications installed on users’ devices, this doesn’t help the long tail of potential share targets.
I understand that becoming a share target is a much more complicated process than sharing. It is a good thing that the investigation of the share API and the share target API has been split up so that we can experiment with the web share API sooner. I hope to see the web share target API trialling ideas soon though.
Share away
The web share API is currently an experiment (which you can sign up to trial yourself) but I think it’s an interesting and well meaning one. Ultimately giving users the choice over what they can share to is better for users and better for the long tail of applications.
What do you think of the web share API? Let me know on Twitter at @philnash. And if you’re feeling generous, why not share this post too! | 1,267,022 |
Thursday, January 27, 2005
The Normalised Google Distance
I love the idea of a lowercase semantic web, when you use “brute force” statistical analysis of the growing corpus the world wide web offers. Brute force is dumb by definition, but ironically I find this kind of dumb works best for Artificial Intelligence. Just think of the 20 questions game, which also simply (correct me if I’m wrong) matches patterns of previous games and still manages to get to look so smart.
One of the most powerful recent approaches is the so-called Google Mindshare, or Googleshare algorithm. I use a similar idea for my Centuryshare application at FindForward.com, by relating different years to a specific word to see when this word was most “popular”. Instead of googling for meta-data (which there is relatively little of, even though what exists is easily machine-readable) flat text is enough; very often, just the Google page count reveals all we need to know.
Now, as the New Scientist reports, the two scientists Paul Vitanyi and Rudi Cilibrasi of the National Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam, Netherlands, used Google to find what they call the “Normalised Google Distance.”
Basically this NGD quantifies the strength of a relationship between two words. For example, “speakers” and “sound” are more related than “speakers” and “elephant.” Instead of creating this manually, of course, they find the Google PageCount when both words are used together in a search. (“Speakers” and “sound” would have a relatively high number of result pages when compared to “speakers” and “elephant.”)
Now when you repeat this process of finding the NGD for a lot of words, you can build a multi-connection word map. According to the New Scientist, Paul Vitany says “This is automatic meaning extraction. It could well be the way to make a computer understand things and act semi-intelligently.” You can read all the details of this approach in Vitany’s and Cilibrasi’s paper “Automatic Meaning Discovery Using Google.”
I do believe the future of AI will evolve along these lines, but it might not be quite what we expected. After all, we may never really understand what we built, and possibly, aren’t able to fully control it. Just image a scientist’s suprise if he was successful in creating real Turing test intelligence, and as soon as he’d pose his first question, the automate replies: “I could answer this easily, but tell me, what’s in it for me?”
>> More posts
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block solution. Miners can, if they choose, retain the current 1MB limit or x limit, and there are situations one can envision that happen, say if technology truly does not keep up with bitcoin’s network requirements.
What is Segwit?
Segwit provides a number of modifications, but its relevance in the scalability debate is as far as it concerns its increase of transaction capacity from around 2/3 per second to 4/5. It does so, however, by maintaining the centralized 1MB limit, through a complicated method that has taken almost a year to develop. We may, therefore, return to the same debate again, in a couple of years, if segwit activates.
Segwit supporters, however, hope that won’t be necessary because their vision is to reserve on-chain transactions only for second layer hubs. The Lightning Network, which is still under development, is expected to process almost all transactions through intermediary non-proof of work processors, with the on-chain network acting as a SWIFT like settlement base.
The idea, therefore, is to make on-chain transactions very expensive, costing perhaps $20, $100, or even, in a mass adoption case, in the thousands with the effect being a division of bitcoin into the on-chains money issuing and verification system on one hand, and LN’s payment or transaction network on the other, as opposed to the current system where bitcoin is both money and a payment network.
Bitcoin’s Crossroad
Ultimately, both visions scale bitcoin, on-chain, and off-chain. The question is more in regards to methods and the consequences of such methods. Depending on who you ask, the method they oppose is slower, more expensive, more centralized, less censorship-resistant, perhaps less private, untested, potentially riddled with bugs, etc.
Every single aspect has been dissected over the past two years, with most of bitcoin’s community probably have made up their minds. It’s not an easy decision, but the overwhelming majority of businesses, who of course were established or employ many highly technical individuals, and, according to ViaBTC, the majority of miners, would like to keep on-chain transactions unconstrained, with the Lightning Network being optional.
However, that has been known for almost a year, but, finally, miners will now have to make an active decision, as opposed to their previous passive discussions. Their decision will likely determine, at least in the medium term, the future trajectory of bitcoin as, from inception, segwit makes future on-chain scalability more difficult due to its signatures only attack vector, while Bitcoin Unlimited makes the Lightning Network optional which means it will only be used for niche cases, such as microtransactions.
We are therefore likely to find out, in the next few weeks, where exactly bitcoin is going.
Featured image from Shutterstock. | 1,267,024 |
Jonnie Robinson, Lead Curator for Sociolinguistics writes:
This month we've uploaded linguistic descriptions of conversations about local speech in Bristol, Knowle West, Dulverton, Ilminster and Wellington. Together they constitute the set of BBC Voices Recordings made by BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Somerset Sound. The descriptions list the participants' responses to a set of prompt words and, in the case of Knowle West and Dulverton, also include detailed descriptions of the phonology and grammar of the speakers.
A unique feature of Bristol dialect is 'parasitic L' (or 'Bristol L' as it's often called in popular descriptions). This refers to the process whereby a word that in most accents ends in a weak vowel - e.g. area, idea and cinema - is pronounced in Bristol dialect with a word final <l> - i.e. to sound like 'areal', 'ideal' and 'cinemal'. This feature is often caricatured in stereotypical portrayals of Bristolian speech, but it's likely very few people have heard an authentic example. You can hear several spontaneous examples in the conversation in Knowle West here, including:
0:41:11 I can remember the first time I had a bananal [= 'banana']
0:41:45 I know at one time he came home... and our ma was stood at the living room windle [= 'window']
The second example above is particularly striking as it reveals a two-step phonological rule: firstly the final syllable of window is interpreted as containing an underlying weak vowel - i.e. 'winda'. This is a pretty widespread phenomenon in speech across the UK (and elsewhere) as confirmed by common pronunciations like 'fella' [= fellow], 'borra' [= borrow] and'marra' [= marrow, friend]. There's a platform announcer at Kings Cross underground station in London, for instance, who on a daily basis alerts passengers to Metropolitan Line trains stopping all stations to 'arra' [= Harrow-on-the-Hill]. In Bristol this process creates an environment where parasitic L can occur - hence window > winda > windle. You might think, therefore, that pairs like idea and ideal or area and aerial are indistinguishable in Bristol dialect, but in fact speakers who use Bristol L invariably convert word final <l> to a weak vowel so that aerial is pronounced 'area' thus maintaining the distinction. Again you can hear evidence of this in the conversation in Knowle West such as:
0:03:26 I lived at where the old origina Whitfield tabernaca was
Indeed the name Bristol itself (historically Bristow but re-interpreted locally and subsequently nationally as Bristol) is a tribute to this wonderfa loca feature that in my humba opinion makes Brista my ideal of an idea dialect areal. | 1,267,025 |
Do they like life in Galway? Again, Yob smiles, and answers in English. "So-so," he says. They live in Doughiska, with a "lot of Polish people," 8km outside the city. Neither of them drive. Cash is in short supply.
When they were fixed up with Galway in July, the terms and conditions they signed for were immediately reduced. It left them with no other option but to call their respective families back home. Their parents sent money to keep them afloat. "We cannot survive on the weekly wage," he says.
Ny interjects.
"After they signed, the club said they would be getting less money," he says. "That is actually unfair. But I told the boys that they had to try and forget about money. Because, if they did well, then next season they would get a chance with another team. I always try to think in the long-term and a good attitude will give you the best chance."
The question is whether toiling in a poor side has given them the platform to find security. Both reckon that Sligo are the best team they have encountered, with Yob speaking of his admiration for Richie Ryan, and Jingu a big admirer of John Russell. Ultimately, they fell short of that level, but Ny stresses they can improve when they grasp the English language.
Yob and Jingu admit that they find it hard to follow the dressing-room chatter. "Sometimes, if the manager is angry, it's tough to understand," says Yob. "Irish people can speak so fast sometimes. But I know that if I speak English better, it will help my performance. I'm a defender, and I need to talk."
Cheolseung, a right-back, is adamant that it's the key to a better life. Unlike the other pair, he won't go home this winter. Instead, he will continue to improve his English. "Communication is very important in football," he says. "It will make me a better player."
optimism
They all retain a healthy optimism, and Ny has plans to bring another batch over in January. "We have a better idea of the level of player that is needed now," he declares. They will join Yob, Jingu and Cheolseung on the trial circuit. If there's a contract offer on the table, they are prepared to go anywhere in Ireland for work.
At a time when clubs are slashing budgets, their persistence is admirable. It's no wonder they are so keen to figure against the champions, despite recent injury problems. "Maybe it's our last chance to show people our ability," suggests Yob.
Their motivation for the dead rubber is clear. The Koreans came to Ireland with big ambitions, but they are hardly living the dream. Through adversity, the chase for it will continue.
Irish Independent | 1,267,026 |
As Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren ramps up her 2020 election campaign, people can’t help but notice the glaring hypocrisy between her fiery rhetoric and who she’s collecting checks from.
In March, Warren published a Medium article announcing her pursuit to “break up monopolies and promote competitive markets” if elected president.
“Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy,” she wrote.
She followed up her article with campaign material, posting a massive “Break Up Big Tech” billboard in San Francisco.
A billboard from Elizabeth Warren’s campaign calling for breaking up major tech companies appears in San Francisco, one of the epicenters of the tech industry. https://t.co/0cHa1gMEID pic.twitter.com/GrJfd33yY1 — ABC News (@ABC) May 31, 2019
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With the launch of this billboard, her stance on the issue was solidified.
“Today’s big tech companies have too much power,” her campaign said in a statement to The Independent. “They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else.”
But this is where the situation gets hairy.
While Warren has only begun her campaign for the presidential nomination, she’s already collected tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the same tech companies she says she wishes to break up and regulate, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Alphabet, the parent company for Google, has been a massive donor to her 2020 campaign, giving over $30,000.
Donations to Warren’s campaign have also come from Apple, Microsoft, Yelp and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (owned by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan), amounting to over $22,000 in total donations.
This says plenty about Warren — her hypocrisy knows no bounds.
But what does it say about the big tech companies she’s securing donations from? Maybe they know she won’t take action like she promises? Maybe they can secure a place on her “good list” if they donate to her campaign now.
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Regardless, this transaction has the word “crooked” written all over it.
Why exactly is she advocating for the break up of big tech companies while quietly taking their heaping piles of cash at fundraisers and events?
Unfortunately, the world may never know.
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. | 1,267,027 |
How come some women are unaware they are pregnant until they are actually about to give birth?
Last week, 47-year-old Judy Brown made headlines for learning that she was pregnant only when she went to Beverly Hospital in Massachusetts due to severe abdominal pain. While she thought it was a gallstone issue, the hospital personnel figured out she was about to go through labor.
Brown, who said her pregnancy did not occur to her throughout that period, delivered a healthy 8-pound and 2-ounce female baby.
Doctors confirm that it is rare but actually possible for a woman to not realize she is pregnant until she is on the verge of labor.
“People don’t know sometimes or they’re in denial about it, and denial can be pretty strong,” said obstetrician and gynecologist Kimberly Gecsi of Cleveland’s University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
Even those in their late 40s, Gecsi added, should not assume they are already incapable of pregnancy until they have discussed menopause with their doctors.
Several reasons explain cryptic pregnancy or the total lack of awareness of childbearing:
• Inaccuracy of home pregnancy tests. Sometimes these tests do not work and false negatives can occur. It could be that a woman is using the test too early when there isn’t enough high levels of hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in her urine.
• Unnoticeable extra weight among overweight women. Someone already on the heavy side may not notice putting on extra pounds, especially as pregnancy weight gain tends to spread out over the nine-month term.
• Minimal pregnancy symptoms. The telltale signs of pregnancy, including fatigue and morning sickness, may not manifest at all.
• Irregular menstrual cycle. While menstrual periods usually stop once a woman has conceived, some still undergo spotting during pregnancy. Some women regularly miss their period, and the irregular pattern gets in the way of detecting a pregnancy.
• Fetus barely moving in the womb. While most babies kick in utero, some do much less. Some movements, too, are mistaken for digestive issues.
• Infertility diagnosis. Fertility tests and practitioners could be wrong as well, causing women to give up hope of conceiving yet finding themselves suddenly pregnant. In certain cases, pregnancy symptoms may be misidentified as menopause.
• Stress and denial. These effects can show even if a woman does not have a history of mental conditions and may merely be influenced by external stressors such as financial difficulties or relationship problems.
• Psychiatric issues. Those with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or another mental health problem may not be armed with the coping abilities to address the pregnancy and therefore ignore it.
Photo: Torsten Mangner | Flickr
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. | 1,267,028 |
A Tibetan mother of five has burned herself to death in southwestern China’s Sichuan province in a challenge to Beijing’s rule in the second such protest in a Tibetan area of China this year, a source in the region told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
Sonam Tso, believed to have been in her 50s, self-immolated on March 23 near a monastery in Dzoege (in Chinese, Ruo’ergai) county in the Ngaba (Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
News of Tso’s protest was initially delayed in reaching outside contacts due to communications clampdowns imposed by Chinese authorities in the area, but her self-immolation followed by almost a month a similar burning in Sichuan’s Kardze prefecture that killed a young monk.
Tso, a native of Akyi township’s Tsa village, launched her protest outside Dzoege’s Sera monastery after telling her husband, who was walking with her, to go ahead, saying that she would join him later, RFA’s source said.
“A young monk heard her call out for the return of [exiled spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama and for freedom for Tibet as she burned,” he said.
Tso’s husband and the monk tried to put out the flames, and an elderly monk named Tsultrim, Tso’s uncle, then brought her inside the monastery.
“She was later put into a vehicle to be taken to a hospital, but she died before leaving the monastery,” the source said.
Speaking separately to RFA, a Tibetan source in exile confirmed the incident had occurred, citing contacts in the region.
Police detained Tso’s uncle for eight days for discussing the incident with other people and forced him to delete the photos he had taken of Tso’s protest, the source said, adding that her husband, Kalsang Gyaltsen, was called in for questioning three times.
“She leaves behind five children—two boys and three girls,” he said.
Tso’s protest brings to 145 the number of self-immolations by Tibetans living in China since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009.
Most protests feature demands for Tibetan freedom and the return of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since an abortive national uprising in 1959. A handful of self-immolation protests have been over local land or property disputes.
Reported by Sonam Topgyal for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney. | 1,267,029 |
which a new male co-worker makes a sexist statement about diversity hiring. We randomly assigned participants to imagine confronting the statement or remaining silent.
Women who read about a growth mindset and imagined confronting the statement reported having a relatively less negative outlook on the male co-worker, which then led them to report having a greater sense of belonging and workplace satisfaction.
In contrast, women who read about a fixed mindset and those who imagined remaining silent (regardless of which mindset article they read) reported more negative outlooks on the male co-worker, which predicted lower sense of belonging and workplace satisfaction.
In our final study, we wanted to test whether these dynamics held in the real world. We asked 98 African American employees in different U.S. companies to recount a real experience where someone made an overtly biased statement at their workplace. The majority of those surveyed (67%) were able to recall an instance of this type, most frequently involving racial slurs or stereotypes about their race (e.g., laziness or criminality). We then asked these participants to write about how they responded to the comment, and we had independent coders evaluate whether they spoke up to disagree or remained silent. Participants also completed survey measures of their outlook on the person who expressed bias and their workplace satisfaction.
We found that African American employees who reported holding growth mindsets and who confronted the comment reported a more positive outlook on the person who expressed bias and higher workplace satisfaction than employees who held fixed mindsets or stayed silent.
In summary, holding a growth mindset only predicted having a more positive outlook on a co-worker who makes a biased statement when participants imagined or actually had confronted the comment, and their outlook predicted how much they retained their belonging and satisfaction in the workplace. When minorities and women did not confront bias, mindsets did not make a difference in their outlook on the person or their belonging or satisfaction in the workplace, both of which were relatively lower.
Minorities and women should feel no obligation to speak up and confront biased statements. They can face professional and social consequences from doing so, and much past research suggests situational pressures like this are reasons why confronting biased comments is so rare, despite people’s desire to speak up and disagree with bias.
Prejudiced comments in the workplace are always hurtful, offensive, and unacceptable, and the burden of addressing them belongs on those who make them and organizations, not the individuals who are subject to them. People also should not be expected or obligated to take a positive outlook on people who express bias toward them. Indeed, a mini meta-analysis of the four studies in our paper estimated that the effects of having a growth mindset and confronting bias were moderate. This moderate shift, though, had a meaningful influence on participants’ belonging and satisfaction at work.
Taken together, our studies shed light on the conditions under which minorities and women may cope with biased comments at work more effectively — a helpful tool until the problem can be fully addressed. | 1,267,030 |
He should have been extinct for ages. The idea that, as society grew older, it grew one-sided, upset evolution, and made of education a fraud. That, two thousand years after Alexander the Great and Julius Cæsar, a man like Grant should be called—and should actually and truly be—the highest product of the most advanced evolution, made evolution ludicrous. One must be as common-place as Grant’s own common-places to maintain such an absurdity. The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant, was alone evidence enough to upset Darwin. 20
Education became more perplexing at every phase. No theory was worth the pen that wrote it. America had no use for Adams because he was eighteenth-century, and yet it worshipped Grant because he was archaic and should have lived in a cave and worn skins. Darwinists ought to conclude that America was reverting to the stone-age, but the theory of reversion was more absurd than that of evolution. Grant’s administration reverted to nothing. One could not catch a trait of the past, still less of the future. It was not even sensibly American. Not an official in it, except perhaps Rawlins whom Adams never met, and who died in September, suggested an American idea. 21
Yet this administration, which upset Adams’s whole life, was not unfriendly; it was made up largely of friends. Secretary Fish was almost kind; he kept the tradition of New York social values; he was human and took no pleasure in giving pain. Adams felt no prejudice whatever in his favor, and he had nothing in mind or person to attract regard; his social gifts were not remarkable; he was not in the least magnetic; he was far from young; but he won confidence from the start and remained a friend to the finish. As far as concerned Mr. Fish, one felt rather happily suited, and one was still better off in the Interior Department with J. D. Cox. Indeed, if Cox had been in the Treasury and Boutwell in the Interior, one would have been quite satisfied as far as personal relations went, while, in the Attorney-General’s Office, Judge Hoar seemed to fill every possible ideal, both personal and political. 22
The difficulty was not the want of friends, and had the whole government been filled with them, it would have helped little without the President and the Treasury. Grant avowed from the start a policy of drift; and a policy of drift attaches only barnacles. At thirty, one has no interest in becoming a barnacle, but even in that character Henry Adams would have been ill-seen. His friends were reformers, critics, doubtful in party allegiance, and he was himself an object of suspicion. Grant had no objects, wanted no help, wished for no champions. The Executive asked only to be let alone. This was his meaning when he said:—“Let us have Peace!” 23 | 1,267,031 |
IHT and the WBO (World Blockchain Organization) have begun a strategic partnership. The partners will establish a “WBO Global Real Estate Blockchain Research Institute” together in Hong Kong, which will help aid the quick development of the global real estate industry.
As the world’s first real estate blockchain cloud transaction platform, IHT relied on their solid technology, investment background, strong team and platform, among other advantages, to accomplish extraordinary feats. Within a month IHT got listed on four online exchanges, had the first user who used IHT to purchase Japanese real estate, and released the IHTPay payment tool. At the same time, they came out with the world’s first ATO project, the Karuizawa Timeshare Resort. This project allows users to take apart right-of-use into little pieces to enjoy six-star luxury vacations for a greatly reduced price. Since its release, the project has received many accolades from industry experts and media.
Utilizing their experience and advantages in real estate blockchain, IHT has become the WBO’s first choice as a cooperative partner. Furthermore, both parties have decided to jointly establish a real estate blockchain research institute. IHT and WBO will together explore digitized real estate transactions, innovation in real estate financing as well as other research fields. This partnership will speed up the implementation and development of real estate blockchain in many other industries too.
IHT will also expand the scope of project cooperation outside of Japan, to cover the USA, Southeast Asia, Europe and other countries. Soon, IHT plans to release more ATO projects on the heels of the Karuizawa Timeshare Resort. They will add value to real estate through financing models, business promotion and project service; and will create the world’s first blockchain-driven real estate + finance management platform.
The WBO is a registered non-governmental organization with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The WBO is an international organization that is devoted to promoting responsible, sustainable, and universal blockchain technology.
The WBO strives to implement global ethic principles for the blockchain community and to fully bring about blockchain’s technological social and economic contributions. WBO attempts to reduce blockchain’s negative impacts to the best of their ability as well as push for blockchain technology to serve as a tool for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The WBO’s mission is to promote sustainable global development, provide market insight, push for competition and sustainable blockchain policies and tools, boost blockchain education and training and improve on the actualization of blockchain development through the UN’s 100-country strong global technology aid programs.
The global real estate industry has billions of markets and a multitude of places for exploration. IHT believes that through their efforts, resource sharing and common exploration, both parties will surely push the development of the global real estate industry to new heights. | 1,267,032 |
last, according to the league source, because they know the collective bargaining agreement requires him to cooperate, and they want to be able to question the player about all the evidence they’ve collected along the way.
Jones pointed out that the NFL could keep the investigation open as long as it wants. “I don’t worry about it,” he said, “because I don’t think there’s anything there.”
* * *
Once the Elliott investigation ends, Friel and Roberts will meet at the league office in midtown Manhattan to review the case. Such meetings also typically include Cathy Lanier, the NFL’s new head of security, a former chief of police for Washington, D.C. The three of them will need to decide if they have “sufficient evidence” that Elliott abused the woman, enough evidence that the case would be upheld in front of an arbiter. They’ll synthesize everything they have, bat opinions back and forth and debate the credibility of Elliott versus the accuser, asking questions such as:
What did each person’s demeanor say?
Did their version of the story make sense?
Is there evidence that corroborates their story?
Is there evidence that contradicts their story?
Do they have a motive to lie?
Once the group reaches a consensus, one of them will write a report laying out the investigation’s findings and explaining how the team reached its conclusion. After a draft is completed, Friel and Roberts will revise it several times for rigor, because if Elliott is ultimately suspended, a number of lawyers will dissect the document line by line.
When Friel is satisfied, she will send the report to Todd Jones, the league’s Special Counsel for Conduct, who was hired around the same time as Friel and Roberts. Jones previously worked as the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal law enforcement agency in the U.S. Department of Justice. After Jones reviews the report, he sends it to the players union and the player, who then has the opportunity to respond, either with a written statement or with another face-to-face meeting with league investigators.
Then the NFL’s investigative team will convene again, one last time, with Todd Jones running the meeting. He’ll ask, “What’s the appropriate discipline?” And they’ll go around the room, Friel, Roberts, Lanier and Jones, these former prosecutors and law enforcement figures, debating the case some more. Once they reach a consensus—to issue a suspension or not—Jones will present the report and the team’s recommendation to Goodell.
And then Goodell will levy whatever discipline against Elliott he sees fit.
Question or comment? Email us at [email protected]. | 1,267,033 |
for the company.
Their investigation uncovered a complex system set up within the Andalusian government to channel early retirement funds to friends of the director general of the labor department, to mayors and to high-ranking PSOE officials.
Over the years, the list of potential crimes and irregularities grew to fill two million pages. The probe was initially led by Judge Mercedes Alaya in cooperation with the Civil Guard and anti-corruption prosecutors.
The probe turned up public funds that had been spent on cocaine by ex-employment chief Javier Guerrero and his driver. There was also a web of ghost companies and a network of patronage involving hundreds of entrepreneurs, insurance companies, lawyers and more.
Sources involved in the case note that 85% of the money in the fund was used for legitimate purposes, chiefly early retirement payments for more than 6,000 employees. “The heavy-handed headlines about the biggest corruption case in democracy have acted like a steady drizzle that has had an effect, even though they are based on prejudice,” said one lawyer who requested anonymity.
Political ramifications
The ruling in the main probe of the ERE case, which has been used by the PP to counter accusations of corruption over its own Gürtel scandal, comes as Spain’s political parties attempt to forge agreements that will allow the formation of a government following the repeat election of November 10.
The chief justice of Andalusia’s regional High Court, Lorenzo del Río, on Thursday denied allegations that the decision was held back until after the election to avoid hurting the PSOE. “It is not true that it was deliberately delayed, it’s only now that the drafting of the ruling is being completed,” he said, calling it “one of the most complicated [rulings] in Spain’s judicial history.”
Besides the prison terms and other penalties for the defendants, the effects of the ERE case are also symbolic, since Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán presided Andalusia for 23 out of the 36 years that the PSOE governed the region uninterruptedly.
“The ERE case has been like a stone weighing heavily on Andalusia,” said Juan Marín, the Andalusian leader of the center-right party Ciudadanos. “It’s done a lot of damage. And those responsible are all with the PSOE.”
Elías Bendodo, a department chief with the PP, said that “an era is ending in Andalusia: there’s going to be a before and an after.”
“The damage is done, this ruling will not fix what’s broken,” added Teresa Rodríguez, of the leftist Adelante Andalucía. “There is a lack of trust that will not be restored for decades.” | 1,267,034 |
unified by marching under the same flag and forming a joint hockey team.
Kim and his cruel regime will be validated not just by the spectacle of North Korea’s presence at the games, but by South Korea’s obsequious agreement to partake in a farce about unity between the two countries. It only gives the authoritarian Kim regime some of the credibility it so eagerly desires, not to mention buying it time. Let’s not mince words: North Korea is a country that has impoverished, starved, and enslaved its people, and it should be wholly isolated until it shows signs that it’s willing to change. That includes barring it from the Olympics.
The stories that have come out of the forced-labor camps are heartbreaking, like the one from Shin Dong-hyuk, who was raised in a labor camp and later escaped to South Korea. At age 14, in exchange for food, he snitched to a guard about two other prisoners who were planning an escape. Those fellow prisoners — his mother and brother — were executed. Shin says he believed at the time that they deserved to die. Details of life in those camps show the absolutely inhumanity of the Kim regime.
Then there’s the mass starvation. In the 1990s famine killed, by some estimates, more than three million North Koreans. Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, eventually opened the country to international aid in exchange for supposedly ending its nuclear program, something the Kim family has never been serious about. Now, North Korea stands poised to face another famine as the Kim regime diverts much of its money and resources to nuclear and ballistic missile programs, bringing harsh economic sanctions. The Kims do not now, nor have they ever, cared about the suffering of the North Korean people.
The Implied Moral Equivalence Is Sickening
The country is essentially a vast prison. North Koreans suffer from widespread malnutrition and constant fear of their government. Some are sent abroad to work as slave laborers in China and Russia. Now, those peoples’ grief and misery will be mocked by a sham of a ceremony in South Korea in which everyone will pretend that the two countries are on the same side, root for the same teams, and want the same things.
All of this Olympic Games hubbub will also buy the Kim regime time. Pyongyang is preparing to test a submarine-launched ballistic missile with a new submersible barge, leading some to speculate that Pyongyang is using the Olympic talks with South Korea as a stalling tactic to complete its nuclear weapons program. The ongoing talks have already turned sour, with North Korea demanding on Tuesday that the South return North Korean defectors, repeating a familiar pattern.
Next month, two countries, long-separated following a bitter war and today in the midst of a tenuous nuclear crisis, will march together as though none of those realities were true. And the Kim regime will have the last laugh. | 1,267,035 |
With all the controversial casting decisions of recent times, one can never be sure.
Actor Will Smith had to reassure his fans that his version of Genie in the upcoming "Aladdin" movie will actually be blue — just like in the classic 1992 Disney cartoon — after some confusion over the initial look of the character.
"BAM!! First look at the Genie, Princess Jasmine, and #Aladdin! Check Me Rockin' the Top Knot Ponytail Vibes in @entertainmentweekly (and yes, I'm gonna be BLUE! :-))," the star wrote on his Instagram.
In the movie business, casting black actors to play white characters is not a new concept. In the classic "Men in Black" movies, Smith himself played the role of the originally white Agent J. His character Robert Neville in "I Am Legend" was also white in the source material. Some of these castings were received well by audiences.
However, other casting decisions have caused quite a stir among fans. For example, some "Harry Potter" fans who grew up with Emma Watson playing Hermione Granger have not welcomed black actress Noma Dumezweni in the role. Rumors that Netflix would cast a black actress for the role of Ciri, a major character its "Witcher" series, also caused quite a stir.
As we can see, the first (or most iconic) version of a character gets imprinted in the mind of the audience quite firmly. While the cartoon Genie was voiced by the late Robin Williams, he was most definitely remarkably blue. The poster featuring Smith as Genie shows him in "Human/Disguise Form," the actor explained. Apparently, at some point in the story, the Genie will have to conceal his magical nature.
For the rest of the movie, his character will mostly be a blue-hued CGI animation, Smith said on Instagram.
"Aladdin," which is set to premiere in 2019, also casts Mena Massoud as Aladdin, Naomi Scott as Jasmine and Marwan Kenzari as Jafar. Billy Magnussen and Nasim Pedrad are also in the cast.
The movie will be directed by no other than Guy Ritchie, the creator of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Snatched," "Revolver" and the two most recent movie interpretations of the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Disney, which has embarked on a long-term plan of remaking its most iconic cartoons as live-action films, has already released "Cinderella," "The Jungle Book" and "Beauty and the Beast." Upcoming movies also include "Dumbo" and "The Lion King," with the latter appearing to be a direct, shot-to-shot remake, much like Gus Van Sant's remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" — a rare occurrence, despite the ongoing trend on series reboots. | 1,267,036 |
I am not one for quotes and ‘Facebook philosophy’ memes but recently, I was reminded of my favourite quote on a certain social media platform:
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates
The pursuit of education can convert a criminal into a solicitor; it can envelop minds and have a plethora of benefits. Dietary education can change the shape of a person, and knowledge of the science that defines our time on earth can culminate with a robot on Mars. There is no debating it, learning is good for us!
But what can it do for security?
With my time assessing social engineering vulnerabilities, the ‘game of knowledge’ crops up time and time again. In almost every scam there is this game – it’s about the only thing consistent between the different formats of social engineering attacks.
A common attack in the wild that is a good example of this, is the telephone hijack. An attacker calls a landline number and explains they are calling from the telephone company and requires payment to avoid the immediate disconnection of the line.
For proof, they offer you the chance to validate their authority and power by asking you to replace the handset and check for yourself. Leaving the call open, when the mark replaces the handset and checks for a dial tone, there is only silence. The phone rings when replaced again and the attackers collects payment details or information in the second half of the call.
The basic knowledge of how a phone works would have avoided this mishap, but is it unpractical to teach 10,000 staff the basics of the plain old telephone service (POTS)?
And if you did – what next? How to validate SSL certificates? Checking the MD5 value of financial spreadsheets? RFID shielding? The list is endless.
At this point, a lot of companies flutter and panic. For the corporate giants, they are concerned about protecting this ‘vessel’ that ensures shareholders receive dividends and employees get wages. I personally am solely motivated by securing the staff and customers of these organisations.
Any worthwhile social engineering assignment will highlight a need for training and education based on the actions of staff but in my experience, the impact in security comes from the higher-ups. These people have to really be brave in their next board meeting and stand up and say, “I don’t know, but I want to learn.”
It’s only by looking at a company’s weaknesses that you can start to strengthen it – with the ever-evolving game of knowledge, you can secure your organisation. Security cultures must be changed and we (as an industry) have to stop thinking we know every last piece of the puzzle. I know I don’t! But I am always willing to learn more. | 1,267,037 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offered a rare acknowledgement of his close security cooperation with Israel in the Sinai peninsula during a U.S. television interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” news program broadcast on Sunday.
FILE PHOTO - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during presidential session at Africa 2018 Forum at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt December 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
The program said Cairo had asked the network not to air the interview but did not give further details.
Under Sisi, Egypt has quietly cooperated with Israel on security in Egypt’s Sinai, a desert peninsula demilitarized as part of a U.S.-sponsored 1979 peace treaty between the two countries but where Cairo’s forces now operate freely.
Acknowledging such cooperation with Israel can be a sensitive topic in Egypt.
Asked whether the cooperation was the closest and deepest that he has had with Israel, Sisi responded: “That is correct.”
“The Air Force sometimes needs to cross to the Israeli side. And that’s why we have a wide range of coordination with the Israelis,” Sisi said, according to a transcript provided by CBS.
Defeating militants in the Sinai and restoring security after years of unrest has been a key promise of Sisi, who was re-elected in March last year in a landslide victory against no real opposition.
Islamist militants have been waging an insurgency for years in the north of the peninsula, which lacks basic infrastructure and job opportunities. In contrast, the region’s southern coast is peppered with Red Sea tourist resorts.
Egyptian security forces have battled Islamist militants in the mainly desert region, stretching from the Suez Canal eastwards to the Gaza Strip and Israel, since 2013.
Asked why he had not managed to wipe the militants out, Sisi responded by pointing to the difficulties that the United States has faced in Afghanistan against the Taliban insurgency.
“Why hasn’t the U.S. eliminated the terrorists in Afghanistan after 17 years and spending a trillion dollars?” he asked.
Sisi’s critics accuse him of cracking down on all dissent, but supporters say tough measures are needed to stabilize Egypt, which was rocked by years of unrest after protests toppled veteran leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
In his interview with “60 Minutes,” Sisi denied that Egypt was holding political prisoners. CBS cited one rights group’s estimate of 60,000 political prisoners.
“I don’t know where they got that figure. I said there are no political prisoners in Egypt,” Sisi said.
“Whenever there is a minority trying to impose their extremist ideology... we have to intervene regardless of their numbers.” | 1,267,038 |
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30 Teenagers in Quarantine: How Parents Sent a Kid Positive With COVID-19 to School There are about 30 teenagers that must quarantine after some parents sent their child to school, even if they knew the kid was positive with Covid-19. According to some sources, a student attended class back on Monday, however, the school…
Michiganders Must Stay Inside To Prevent Spreading A Novel Mosquito-Borne Disease! Michigan health officials have a hellish year. First came the novel coronavirus, who is still out there claiming lives, and now they have to deal with a rare mosquito-borne disease. Authorities urge locals to stay indoors after dawn and protect…
Jupier’s Great Red Spot Highlighted In New Image Of Insane Storms Jupiter is a really special place with its swirling atmosphere which is riddled with wild storms. The colorful could bands of the planet are standing out in a fresh Hubble Space Telescope image that’s been recently captured back in August. …
How Can You Use Technology To Fight COVID-19 Effects? Going through a pandemic typically spells danger for people’s mental health. Thankfully, technology offers solutions for people struggling with depression and anxiety. Reasons For The Situation Terms like quarantine, pandemic, and social distancing are enough to induce a state of…
Best Natural Oils and Extracts to Look Out for in Your Skincare Products With the endless amount of skincare products out in the market today, it has become extra challenging to find out which ones work best for you. Aside from reviews and recommendations, there is an underrated value in simply reading the…
Scientists Are Searching For Life On Venus As It Was Labeled “Hothouse” Our view of Venus has progressed from a swampy planet to one that may host life somewhere around there. Venus is Earth’s sister planet, and it had experienced a love-hate path when it came to exploration. Currently, the results suggest…
5 Tips for Staying Healthy While Stuck at Home The recent crisis means a lot of us are staying home most – if not all – of the time. Unless you need to do something very important (i.e. a quick grocery run or a visit to the local pharmacy),… | 1,267,039 |
Introduction – Oct 29, 2019
Is it a coincidence that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea, just like bin Laden? After all, with burial at sea there is no way to exhume the body to conduct DNA tests, as the remains are likely to be consumed by marine scavengers.
If nothing else it’s an easy way for the U.S. to cover its tracks and avoid scrutiny.
Casting further doubt on claims that U.S. Special Forces killed the ISIS leader, Russia’s Defence Ministry has also rejected President Trump’s claim that it had opened up the airspace under its control in Syria to U.S. planes to carry out the operation.
The thing is if President Trump lied about that then he’s more than likely not telling us what really happened with Baghdadi either. As one French source claims, Baghdadi was actually a Mossad operative acting under cover so Trump has good reason to pull the wool over our eyes. Ed.
Baghdadi given burial at sea, afforded religious rites: U.S. officials
Phil Stewart – Reuters Oct 28, 2019
The United States has given the remains of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi a burial at sea and afforded him religious rites according to Islamic custom after he was killed in a U.S. commando raid in Syria on Saturday, three officials told Reuters.
Baghdadi here an Iraqi jihadist who rose from obscurity to declare himself “caliph” of all Muslims as the leader of Islamic State, died by detonating a suicide vest after fleeing into a dead-end tunnel as elite U.S. special forces closed in at the weekend, according to the U.S. government.
The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not disclose where the ritual was performed or how long it lasted. Two officials said they believed his remains were delivered to the sea from an aircraft.
U.S. Army General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news briefing on Monday that the U.S. military disposed of Baghdadi’s remains “appropriately, in accordance with our (standard operating procedures) and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”
Given the gruesome nature of Baghdadi’s death, it was unlikely the U.S. military followed as complete a process as it did after Navy SEALs killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid into Pakistan.
In the case of bin Laden, his body was transported to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. It was washed before being covered in a white sheet, and religious remarks translated into Arabic were read over bin Laden’s corpse.
Baghdadi’s remains were transported to a secure facility to confirm his identity with forensic DNA testing, Milley said.
Source | 1,267,040 |
What did you think of Westworld when you first read the script?
“I didn’t really know anything about it, and only three pages of lines were sent to me as an audition. But when I looked at them, I got goosebumps. It was like nothing I ever auditioned for, and it was some of the best writing I ever read, like beautiful poetry — Gertrude Stein, Edgar Allan Poe, or a line of Shakespeare. I read it over and over and over in the middle of the night, thinking, What is this?” Do you look for literary inspiration when preparing for a role?
“Yeah, my acting teacher would say, ‘If you’re not familiar with the great writings of playwrights like Tennessee Williams or Shakespeare or the huge library of characters and stories that exist, you can’t bring them into current-day roles.’ Like, for Alien, Sigourney Weaver drew inspiration from Henry V. Thinking she’d probably never get to play Henry V, she found him in her character Ellen Ripley.” Was your portrayal of Clementine inspired by any great literary prostitutes?
“No one specific. I've always been fascinated with prostitutes and strippers and I do have a book on them — it’s about all the different kinds of sex workers and all the actors who have played them in history. I am fascinated by the women who are empowered by the work, who find glory in it. In the time and place that Westworld’s set, prostitutes aren’t particularly looked down upon, and there’s a lot of power in prostitution for Clementine.” The role of every host in Westworld is to fulfill the fantasies of its guests. If Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is the damsel in distress, is Clementine the hooker with a heart of gold?
“I think she is. She embodies love and so she has this kind of naiveté. She falls in love with all the characters without any expectations. This is someone who is like a child. She isn’t bitter. There isn’t a cynicism to her, and I love that.” Part of Clementine’s backstory includes saving money for her family to move and have a better a life, but that almost seems like an intrusion on the fantasy she exists to fulfill. What purpose do you think it serves?
“I think it adds to her empathetic quality and allows her to not necessarily hate her job — it’s an opportunity, an opportunity to save her family. Everything she does ties back to that empathy.” Her empathy is her humanity.
“Yeah, it makes her more human. So when you see how inhumanely she — and really all the hosts — are treated in the end, you really feel it.” | 1,267,041 |
Last week was not a good one for what is now called the London Stadium. There was a hefty dollop of 1970s-style football hooliganism there on Wednesday evening when West Ham knocked Chelsea out of the EFL Cup. Trouble was predicted and, sure enough, it happened. Apparently the stadium breeds poor behaviour, therefore it is the stadium’s fault. Nonsense.
Let’s clear one thing up. A stadium never started a fight, threw a coin or taunted a group of supporters. It’s not the stadium’s fault, it is people that are to blame, football people. A lot has been written recently about how football crowds operate outside the bounds of normal behaviour. They can be racist, sexist, homophobic and idiotic and that is sadly accepted as the norm. It is a problem with people in football.
Not every football supporter becomes a halfwit the second he – and it does tend to be blokes – puts on his replica shirt and heads for the match, but a significant number do. It is how they are and how they are portrayed. Going to football gets people pumped up. Be a fan, be in with the crowd, the mob.
In the summer of 2012 the then Olympic Stadium was a splendid place to be. It was perfect for what it was built for: hosting the Olympic Games. What has happened since has been messy. There were arguments over who should have the use of it down the line. It played host to more athletics and will do again next year when the IAAF World Championships are held there. There have been Rugby World Cup matches and talk of Major League Baseball making an appearance. Also on the table is the suggestion it could host a London franchise in the proposed city-based Twenty20 competition due to start in 2018. After an expensive overhaul it now has West Ham United as a tenant. A stadium needs to keep busy if it is not to become a white elephant.
London is a stadium-heavy city because it is a sport-hungry place. But the stadiums are specific to the sports they hold in them. Twickenham is a rugby ground, Wembley does football, as do the Emirates, Stamford Bridge, White Hart Lane and many others. Lord’s and The Oval are designed for watching cricket.
The London Stadium is now neither one thing nor the other. It is a multi-sports arena, the kind that sprang up all over America in the 1970s and are now defunct. The concrete ashtray that could play host to anything is a redundant idea.
So, West Ham have a bad stadium for football, something the club should have seen coming when they pushed so hard to have use of the place. But let’s not blame the stadium for the behaviour of those who go and watch football there. Some football people behave like idiots because they are idiots, not because they are encouraged to do so by the design of a stadium. | 1,267,042 |
falling has been improved.
– Inviting friends starts the intended pre-game UI flow now for the joining player. This means that joining players can select a character and then will be taken to the host’s game right afterwards.
– Several text cut-offs or incorrect line breaks have been fixed in various languages.
– The art for the world globe in the background of the title screen and the worldmap has been polished.
– Several HUD elements have been polished, both stylistically and concerning the layout.
– Improved HUD elements layout for split-screen mode, especially XP bar and oxygen bar.
– Player names now keep the red color correctly when switching islands whilst low on health.
– Water behaves better at underwater dungeon entrances now.
– The level of an island is now displayed shortly before spawning at the landing pad.
– Pets move less erratic now.
– The tutorial no longer marks the camera switch step as done when the player walks close to a wall.
– The character no longer dies twice when returning to the landing pad at the same time as they died.
– Upgrade stations now show better that they can’t be upgraded any further when they are at maximum tier.
– Player characters no longer collect loot after having been killed.
– The sit emote no longer causes issues for follow-up actions like using the teleport scroll or returning to the landing pad.
– Mage weapons with light damage cause the correct damage type now.
– Improved the layout of some islands, especially in normal size, where not enough suitable areas for enemies occurred. Due to the randomized island shapes the issue may still occur occasionally.
– The C’Thiris Cultist Mask works better with several of the hair styles now.
– The Archer Station has the correct sound and visual effect now.
– Jumping up at wall feels more consistent now.
Developer Notes on the New Armor Progression
As with the changes to weapons in Update 1.3.0, we have reworked progression and loot drops for armor. Nearly all weapon stats and character level requirements for armor have been revised.
Our goal was to give players a more meaningful reward after completing a dungeon or a boss fight while at the same time refining our crafting system and giving you more choice when deciding what armor to craft and use next.
Standard dungeon chests now contain SPECIAL pieces of armor. Finding them all will complete different sets.
The remaining armor recipes have been restructured. Whenever players gain access to new resources they will be able to craft new sets of armor and will you be able to choose between two equally powerful sets.
These changes made previous armor recipes redundant and we have removed them from the game! Any armor players crafted using those recipes will remain in their inventories, however.
We hope you like the new changes as much as we do! | 1,267,043 |
(Reuters) - Sweden’s Alex Noren and American Webb Simpson shot four-under-par 66s for the lead as Tiger Woods was at even par for the opening round of Florida’s Honda Classic on Thursday.
Feb 22, 2018; Palm Beach Gardens, FL, USA; Alex Noren walks up to the green on the ninth during the first round of The Honda Classic golf tournament at PGA National (Champion). Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Noren birdied his final hole in the morning with Simpson joining him at the top in the afternoon on a windy day at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
“It was hard to the very end,” Simpson told PGA Tour Radio. “But I am very happy to get in there with a good score to start out.”
Both he and Noren finished with five birdies and a bogey to lead a pack of five by one stroke.
“I played quite steady my front nine, which was the back nine, then I just scrambled my way around the front nine,” said Noren, a nine-times European Tour winner who lost a playoff at the Farmers Insurance Open last month.
“This was by far my best putting and chipping round of the season.”
His only bogey came on his ninth hole, the par-five 18th.
PGA champion Justin Thomas, fellow Americans Morgan Hoffman and Daniel Berger, Canadian Mackenzie Hughes and South Africa Louis Oosthuizen, were all on 67.
Hughes had six birdies in his first seven holes before cooling off with bogeys at nine, 14 and 18.
Woods also had a solid start, standing two under after four holes before a bogey at his seventh hole and a double-bogey at his 12th proved costly.
Still the former world number one said he was pleased with his round of 70, which left him in a tie for 21st.
“Today was not easy” said the 14-times major champion who is making his third start of the PGA Tour season after a long absence following back surgery.
“It was tough all around today. One, the wind was blowing pretty hard. Then it was tough to make putts out there.”
Yet Woods said he was happy with his putting on bouncy greens.
“I made a lot of key short putts for par,” he said of his first back-to-back weeks of playing in three years.
He failed to make the cut last week at the Genesis Open in California.
Defending champion Rickie Fowler was one over par after three bogeys left him at 71 while Rory McIlroy put up a double bogey seven on the last for a two-over 72. | 1,267,044 |
Byre Theatre in St Andrews board 'deeply regrets' closure Published duration 26 January 2013
image caption The theatre was formally reopened by Sir Sean Connery in 2001 following a refurbishment
The board of the Byre Theatre in St Andrews has expressed "deep regret" over its enforced closure.
The theatre, which has hosted drama productions for the past 80 years, was forced to cease trading this week after running into financial difficulties.
The board said it had explored all avenues to try to keep it open, but there had been no alternative to liquidation.
The building will close its doors on Thursday night for the last time.
In a statement, the board said the Byre had struggled to cover its costs ever since the new building reopened after undergoing a £5.5m facelift in 2001.
It said the problem became acute when the annual grant it had received from the former Scottish Arts Council ended in 2011.
Cost-cutting moves and improved income streams "did little to help" the ongoing cost of running the theatre building, the board explained.
It claimed ticket sales and lettings had also been good recently, including a successful pantomime and large audiences for live film streamings from the Royal Opera and National Theatre.
But ticket sales were "never sufficient to cover all the overheads and staff costs".
'Ongoing challenges'
The board continued: "The board was hoping that these ongoing challenges could be resolved through the planned participation in the new Fife Cultural Trust from 1 April 2013 but, given the scale of the challenges being faced by the Byre, it became clear to us that this would no longer be a feasible option.
"The board has, of course, explored all other possibilities, including consultation with Creative Scotland and Fife Council, but there was no alternative to liquidation.
"The board of the Byre Theatre is extremely grateful to its highly professional and loyal staff, its many generous benefactors, including the Friends of The Byre, and to all those who have patronised and supported the Byre during its 80 years."
It added: "We are greatly distressed to be announcing its closure and profoundly sorry for all those affected by so sudden a termination. We did all we could, but it was not enough."
Saturday's performance of The Sound of Musicals with Donna Hazelton will go ahead, as will a charity performance presented by the Jenny King Dance Academy on 30 and 31 January.
The organisers of the Fife Jazz Festival have confirmed that concerts which had been planned for the Byre would go ahead.
Information about where the concerts will be held and where tickets can be purchased is being made available on their website
The Byre Theatre was originally a cow shed, but has played host to drama productions since the 1930s.
It was formally reopened by Sir Sean Connery after its facelift in 2001. | 1,267,045 |
"We meant to validate Oculus by announcing Morpheus, and the Oculus guys knew what we were working on. I think they were waiting for us to make the announcement, so it would be Sony and Oculus together," he explains backstage at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. "But now Oculus being acquired by Facebook is helping to validate our efforts." It's big-picture thinking. Yoshida already liked the idea of Sony and Oculus calling attention to each other's efforts, but adding the Facebook name to the mix broadens the duo's exposure. "More people will know about VR!"
Oculus being acquired by Facebook is helping to validate our efforts.
Mark Zuckerberg's vision for the purchase intrigues him too. "Mark said he believes VR can be the next platform after mobile," Yoshida says. "That's big thinking, and kind of excites our thinking." Sony's team has already been exploring uses for VR outside of traditional gaming, he explains, but nothing as broad as Zuckerberg's statements. "We've thought of doing virtual travel or something, but talking about a new platform? What does that mean?" Yoshida says it's given him something to think about.
Of course, a broader platform for VR means the technology will see more use -- and that technology still has several usability hurdles to conquer. "VR of the past, including our own prototype, has been very difficult to use in terms of getting headaches and becoming nauseated," he says. "Those early prototypes had larger latency and the positional tracking may not have worked as well. I feel really sorry for people developing VR stuff! They have to test it! With the kit we have now, what we demonstrated at GDC; I think it's the first time we can really provide developers with something and say, 'You can use ours, and you'll be alright.'"
Sony's been talking to medical professionals about overcoming simulation sickness, Yoshida explains, and wants hardware to be comfortable and usable without adjustment. "The Oculus DK1 has lots of adjustments available, but the Morpheus just works, the optics design. We'll continue to improve it." Eventually, the company wants to create guidelines for how old users should be, and how long they should use it for, but it's not quite there yet. Even Yoshida admits he hasn't spent extended periods of time in virtual reality, usually keeping his sessions at under 10 minutes.
The Oculus DK1 has lots of adjustments available, but the Morpheus just works.
Yoshida's plan for building those guidelines relies heavily on collaboration. "We need to share knowledge," he explains. "We can't just make the hardware; it's the game applications that need to be designed well. We need time for developers to experiment and find the killer application and, at the same time, we need to learn how VR applications should be designed." Providing the Morpheus dev kit to developers, Yoshida says, is the first step. | 1,267,046 |
The Mono project, which produces an open source implementation of the.NET runtime, has released version 2.8. The update brings full support for version 4.0 of the C# programming language, substantial improvements to the optional LLVM-based Mono backend, and a new garbage collection implementation that is more efficient.
Mono was originally created to accelerate Linux application development and enable Windows developers to bring some of their existing code and skills to the Linux platform. The focus of the project has expanded in recent years as Novell has explored ways to monetize the underlying technology. Mono is increasingly viewed as a compelling tool for supporting rich embedded scripting in applications and bringing C# to environments where it wouldn't otherwise run.
Mono is used in a number of well-known applications, including the Second Life client and the Unity game development suite. Novell also offers its own Mono-based commercial development tools for building native iPhone and Android applications with C#.
The Mono developers initially supplied a preview of C# 4.0 in Mono 2.6, but it is now feature-complete in 2.8 and has consequently graduated to fully-supported status. Mono's standard "mcs" C# compiler will now target 4.0 by default. Some noteworthy C# 4.0 features offered by Mono include dynamic binding and named arguments.
Mono 2.8 introduces a new generational garbage collector that is demonstrably more efficient. It hasn't been made the default yet, however, and must be activated with a special option. Detailed documentation that describes how the new garbage collector works can be found on the Mono project's website. There are also independent benchmarks available that demonstrate some of the performance characteristics.
Mono has gained several.NET libraries that were released by Microsoft under permissive open source licenses. These include the Dynamic Language Runtime and the Managed Extensibility Framework.
Another nice addition is x86 support for ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation. As we explained last year, Mono's AOT compilation will convert.NET intermediate code directly into native code at compile time. This allows developers to create static binaries and obviates the need to use JIT compilation at runtime. Mono supports this on several architectures like PowerPC and ARM for the benefit of mobile and embedded developers who are deploying on mobile handsets or gaming consoles. Adding support for the x86 architecture will make it easier for those developers to test the applications on their own development workstation.
Mono's optional LLVM backend got some significant improvements in this release. Lead Mono developer Miguel de Icaza says that it has reached production quality and has made Mono "finally suitable for High-Performance computing workloads."
Mono 2.8 packages are available for several different operating systems and Linux distributions. There is also a Mono 2.8 appliance in the SUSE Studio Gallery. For more details about Mono 2.8, you can refer to the official release notes. | 1,267,047 |
Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE on Wednesday promised to enact a national ban on fracking if he is president, hitting Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Trump carries on with rally, unaware of Ginsburg's death MORE as weak on the issue just days before California's critical primary.
Sanders said he supports state and county bans on hydraulic fracturing — more commonly known as fracking — the process of injecting water and chemicals at high pressure into underground rock to release oil and natural gas. But he vowed to go further.
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“I hope very much that Monterey County will continue the momentum that makes it clear that fracking is not safe, is not what we want for our kids,” the second-place Democratic hopeful said at a press conference in Spreckels, Calif.
“If elected president, we will not need state-by-state, county-by-county action, because we are going to ban fracking in 50 states in this country."
Sanders appeared with local anti-fracking officials and activists. He criticized Clinton, the race's front-runner, for supporting regulations on fracking and not a wholesale ban on the practice, which has helped fuel a sharp increase in natural gas extraction in the United States.
“Secretary Clinton and I obviously have many, many differences of opinions on many issues, but on the issue of fracking, our differences of opinion are pretty profound,” he said. “I think it is too late for regulation. I think fracking ought to be banned in America.”
Sanders is looking to make inroads with California’s environmentalist community ahead of next Tuesday’s Democratic primary there. He is hoping to capture enough delegates in California and elsewhere to give him momentum ahead of the party's national convention in Philadelphia in July.
“It’s just possible that we might win it in a significant way,” Sanders said of California. “I think we will be marching into the Democratic National Convention with an enormous amount of momentum.”
Sanders said he intends to compete in the June 14 primary in Washington, D.C., and try winning over individual superdelegates — party leaders who can vote for any candidate — something he will need to do if he hopes to secure the nomination.
He also said Democrats’ platform should endorse a fracking ban.
“I would hope the Democratic Party makes it clear that it has the guts to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and tell them that their short-term profits are not more important than the health of our children or the future of our planet,” he said. | 1,267,048 |
Research on painted solar cells isn’t new, but it has been challenging to make these solar cells efficient enough to actually be useful. Now, scientists in a lab at the University of Sheffield have discovered a trick to making them work better: A material called perovskite, which can be almost as efficient as silicon, but cheaper to make and, in theory, more environmentally friendly.
Scientists are one step closer to spray-on solar power. Instead of traditional bulky solar cells encased in glass–which can be awkward to put in places other than a roof, and take a lot of energy to produce–we may someday be able to easily spray paint low-cost, low-energy solar cells on everything from a pair of jeans, to a car, to the side of a skyscraper.
Adafruit has had paid day off for voting for our team for years, if you need help getting that going for your organization, let us know – we can share how and why we did this as well as the good results. Here are some resources for voting by mail, voting in person, and some NY resources for our NY based teams as well. If there are additional resources to add, please let us know – adafruit.com/vote
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Join 24,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!
Follow Adafruit on Instagram for top secret new products, behinds the scenes and more https://www.instagram.com/adafruit/
CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org | 1,267,049 |
Iconic author Toni Morrison says white Americans overwhelmingly supported President-elect Donald Trump due to fears that “their natural superiority is being lost.”
“Unlike any nation in Europe, the United States holds whiteness as the unifying force,” Morrison writes in an essay for the New Yorker, entitled “Mourning for Whiteness.”
Morrison catalogues an apparent list of concerns held by white Trump voters: “There are ‘people of color’ everywhere, threatening to erase this long-understood definition of America. And what then? Another black President? A predominantly black Senate? Three black Supreme Court Justices? The threat is frightening.”
The Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author also explains the lengths white Americans have gone to “restore whiteness to its former status as a marker of national identity”:
Much as they may hate their behavior, and know full well how craven it is, they are willing to kill small children attending Sunday school and slaughter churchgoers who invite a white boy to pray. Embarrassing as the obvious display of cowardice must be, they are willing to set fire to churches, and to start firing in them while the members are at prayer. And, shameful as such demonstrations of weakness are, they are willing to shoot black children in the street.
Morrison says, “To keep alive the perception of white superiority, these white Americans tuck their heads under cone-shaped hats” and train “their guns on the unarmed, the innocent, the scared, on subjects who are running away, exposing their unthreatening backs to bullets.”
The 85-year-old says, “So scary are the consequences of a collapse of white privilege that many Americans have flocked to a political platform that supports and translates violence against the defenseless as strength.”
Morrison blames the election of Trump on eager “white voters” who “embraced the shame and fear sowed” by the President-elect:
On Election Day, how eagerly so many white voters—both the poorly educated and the well educated—embraced the shame and fear sowed by Donald Trump. The candidate whose company has been sued by the Justice Department for not renting apartments to black people. The candidate who questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States, and who seemed to condone the beating of a Black Lives Matter protester at a campaign rally. The candidate who kept black workers off the floors of his casinos. The candidate who is beloved by David Duke and endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.
Morrison’s is one of sixteen such post-election essays on “Trump’s America” appearing in the November 21 print edition of the New Yorker.
Read Morrison’s entire essay here.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson. | 1,267,050 |
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement An 11-year-old girl who jumped out of a car moments before it rolled down a sheer cliff face and crashed on rocks below says she is lucky to be alive. Paige Dean escaped from the car which was rolling out of control down a 250ft (76m) hill just seconds before it went over the edge at Benllech, Anglesey. The schoolgirl had been sitting in the car listening to music when she accidentally knocked off the handbrake. Paige, from Kinmel Bay, Denbighshire, said: "I have never been so scared." Paige, who was later treated for shock, was on holiday with her grandparents at the Golden Sunset caravan park. I thought 'I've got to get out' and I jumped out and saw the car fall off the cliff
Paige Dean She was listening to music in the car when she accidentally knocked off the brake and despite frantic attempts, she could not pull it back up. The car started rolling towards the edge of the cliff, gaining momentum. It ran over two unoccupied tents as it neared the edge. With moments to spare, Paige managed to open the car door and fling herself to safety. "I dropped my phone down the side of the car and when I reached over to get it I accidentally knocked the brake off," she explained. "I was rolling towards the edge of the cliff and I was petrified. "I thought 'I've got to get out' and I jumped out and saw the car fall off the cliff. "I definitely would have died. I have never been so scared." Her grandmother Marie Dean, who looks after Paige and her brother Cameron, seven, saw the incident. "I could not believe what was happening. I ran after the car and I saw her jump out. But my husband Billy didn't realise and shouted'she's gone'," she said. Marie Dean spoke of her relief after Paige's lucky escape "My whole body went numb and I ran over to Paige and held her as she cried. "God was looking down on us," she said. Dave Massey, a paramedic and RNLI volunteer in Moelfre, was one of the first on the scene on Saturday at 1615 BST. "It is a miracle she survived and that she had the presence of mind to jump out at the last second. "There is no doubt that she would never have survived that fall," he said. The vehicle plummeted down the sheer drop and crashed into rocks before being submerged in water. Paige was taken to Ysbyty Gwynedd hospital in Bangor by ambulance and had treatment for shock. Mrs Dean said she was now on the lookout for a new car, and the police were recovering hers from the sea on Sunday.
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After news of the settlement between Sony and George Hotz came out, we had a few unhappy people complaining about how Hotz would now keep all the money donated to him, that he would run off to some tropical island, never to be heard from again. Well, as it turns out, Hotz has actually kept his word: he donated all the leftover donated money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
When the lawsuit started, Hotz solicited donations from people to support the fight with Sony. This way, he could afford decent legal presentation. From the get-go, he promised he would donate any left-over money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation once the court case was over. When news of the settlement got out, some people were worried that Hotz would simply keep all the donated money and spend it on frivolous things like socks and extension cords.
Well, worry no more, as Hotz has kept true to his word. He just posted on his blog that he has donated $10000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “As promised, all left over legal defense money, plus a little to bump it to a nice number, has been sent to the EFF. Thank you all so much for your support, without it, things could have been much worse,” Hotz writes, “This money goes to the EFF in hopes that America can one day again be a shining example of freedom, free of the DMCA and ACTA, and that private interest will never trump the ideas laid out in the constitution of privacy, ownership, and free speech.”
Hotz further stated that he won’t be hacking away at Sony products any longer. While he doesn’t respect Sony, he does respects the courts, he explains. He also doesn’t believe this case will affect future efforts by others to hack Sony products. “If you piss them off enough for them to pull out the legal team and their million dollar checkbook, worst thing that happens is you have to super swear to never do it again,” he says.
So, this means this particular case is closed, and that’s a good thing for Hotz. Lest we forget – he is but one individual, and I can fully understand it that he has decided not to devote the better part of a decade on a long, protracted legal battle. As Tess points out in this week’s podcast (yes! A podcast!), while such a case is going on, it could affect, for instance, his employment options.
Still, I have the sneaking suspicion that the EFF wasn’t chosen willy-nilly. In 2010, the EFF managed to get a DMCA exception added for hacking smartphones. In 2013, the next round of exceptions will be handled. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hotz and the EFF intend this $10000 to go into the lobbying effort to get consoles added alongside mobile phones in the list of DMCA exceptions. | 1,267,052 |
claim that he was wiretapped at Trump Tower. However, the Justice Department confirmed in a court filing in September that there was no evidence that Trump Tower was targeted for surveillance.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said Nunes' behavior stunned her and other committee members of both parties.
"I think it was disturbing to the staff as well, because it changed the entire dynamic of the committee," she said.
After the news conference, the House Ethics Committee began investigating whether Nunes mishandled classified information, prompting him to announce in April that he was temporarily stepping aside from the Russia probe. He tapped Conaway to lead the investigation.
However, Nunes has set the parameters of his own semi-recusal, and he has continued to disrupt the committee by issuing subpoenas on his own, Democrats said. Nunes recently announced that he was launching a new investigation into why the Obama administration allowed a Russian company to acquire U.S. uranium mines.
"It's supposed to be Mike Conaway who is in charge," Swalwell said. "But Nunes keeps coming back in to disrupt the process, usually timed around when we're making progress."
Schiff blames House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for condoning Nunes' behavior and his "investigations for show" of the Obama administration. Ryan has said in public statements that he trusts Nunes, who served on Trump's presidential transition team.
"At the end of the day, it's whatever the speaker allows," Schiff said.
He said there are "a considerable number" of key witnesses who still haven't been called in for questioning by Republicans. He would not name the potential witnesses.
"I'm not saying the majority won't bring them in," Schiff said. But he said the committee hasn't even sent out initial letters to those witnesses letting them know that the panel wants to speak to them.
Gowdy said he'd like to see Schiff's list and would support bringing in the witnesses if they are relevant to the investigation. But he suspects that Democrats just want to keep bringing in more witnesses to keep the investigation going for political reasons.
Gowdy believes that special counsel Robert Mueller's criminal investigation, which has already resulted in two indictments and a guilty plea, will ultimately have more credibility with Americans than any of the Russia probes being conducted by Congress. In addition to the House Intelligence Committee investigation, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee are conducting probes.
"What (special prosecutors) do is a very different — and in my judgment much better — investigation," he said. "Ours is an investigation in a very politically charged environment."
But Speier said it's crucial for committee members to work together to prevent Russia from interfering in another U.S. election.
"We've got to remember that we're here to protect the country," she said. "That's getting lost in all this." | 1,267,053 |
for Gawker and will buy all seven of the company’s media properties for $135 million.
Pay TV providers posted their highest subscriber loss ever in this year’s second quarter, with cable, satellite and telecom companies losing at least 665,000 subscribers, reports CNET.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey sent a letter to 13 airline heads inquiring about the status of their IT systems, following the high-profile Delta glitch and other tech failures.
Dropbox is reportedly consulting advisers about a potential 2017 IPO.
The RNC is trying to reconnect with Hispanic voters via a new social media strategy launched Tuesday.
Google is pushing information on voting laws in different states, through its search results.
Ford plans to have autonomous vehicles, designed for ride-hailing service, on the road by 2021.
Nokia has hired Alston & Bird LLP to tackle import policies from the International Trade Commission.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced his intention to appoint Paul de Sa as chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, starting later this month. He’ll be returning to a leadership position he held under former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
While traveling in China, Tim Cook said Apple will be increasing its investment in the country and plans to build its first Asia-Pacific research and development center there.
Google launched a video-chat app called Duo.
Former Congressman and failed NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner reflected on his digital indiscretions in a Q&A with The New York Times. Asked if he was still sexting women that aren’t his wife, he declined to “go down the path of talking about any of that,” but added: “There’s no doubt that the Trump phenomenon has led a lot of people to say to me, ‘Boy, compared to inviting the Russians to come hack someone’s email, your thing seems almost quaint.’”
Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Alex Byers ([email protected], @byersalex), Eric Engleman ([email protected],@ericengleman), Tony Romm ([email protected], @tonyromm), Nancy Scola ([email protected], @nancyscola), Margaret Harding McGill ([email protected], @margarethmcgill), Ashley Gold ([email protected], @ashleyrgold) and Li Zhou ([email protected],@liszhou)
Follow us on Twitter Heidi Vogt @HeidiVogt
Alexandra S. Levine @ali_lev
John Hendel @johnhendel
Cristiano Lima @viacristiano
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Steven Overly @stevenoverly
Nancy Scola @nancyscola | 1,267,054 |
Vogue Mexico‘s December issue will feature an openly transgender ‘Muxe’ on its cover, for the first time in its history. Muxes, or Muxhes, are indigenous transgender women (or third gender individuals) who have existed in southern Mexico for centuries. Accompanying the cover, the magazine features a series of editorial portraits, and profile of the Muxe community in the Oaxaca town of Juchitán.
On the cover is Estrella Vazquez, a 37-year-old Zapotec Muxe who says she didn’t know about Vogue until the magazine reached out to her for the story. “Everyone is seeing this cover, everyone is congratulating me,” she told The Guardian. “It’s just hard to make sense of the emotions I’m feeling. It almost makes me want to cry.”
Several Muxes were photographed by Tim Walker, a renowned fashion photographer, in a collaboration between Vogue Mexico and British Vogue. “To be muxe is a duality,” says La Kika, a Muxe and activist who is featured in the Vogue story by Karina González Ulloa. “We carry the role depending on circumstance. It could be that you see me on occasion as a man, but in other occasions as a woman.”
Though not immune to machista culture in Mexico that can include violence against LGBT people — Mexico, Colombia and Honduras accounted for 90% of more than 1,300 LGBT murders in Latin America in the last five years, according to a 2019 study — Muxes in southern Mexico are often seen in caregiver roles and are respected for their work as well as their identity.
Vazquez told The Guardian that she has seen a decrease in anti-transgender attitudes and behavior, and called the Vogue cover “a huge step.”
“There’s still discrimination,” she said. “But it’s not as much now and you don’t see it like you once did.”
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Write to Jasmine Aguilera at [email protected]. | 1,267,055 |
NORTON, Mass. – The Boston area’s FedExCup Playoffs tournament has its new name: the Dell Technologies Championship. The announcement comes one month after long-time tournament supporter, sponsor and Founders Club partner, EMC (now Dell EMC, a part of Dell Technologies) was introduced as the tournament’s new title sponsor.
Accompanying the announcement was the unveiling of the new tournament logo.
The second of four FedExCup Playoffs events, next year’s Dell Technologies Championship will be held September 1-4 at TPC Boston, with its traditional Monday Labor Day finish. In addition, a separate World Golf Championships—Dell Match Play tournament, which will be held in Austin, Texas from March 22-26, 2017, also gets a new name: Dell Technologies Match Play.
“This tournament (Dell Technologies Championship) has long been an exceptional event, and generates a positive impact on New England’s charities, communities and economy,” said Bill Scannell, President of Sales & Customer Operations at Dell EMC. “Dell Technologies is very pleased to build upon EMC’s legacy as a cornerstone supporter of the event, which has become a Labor Day tradition for many families as well as our customers and partners.”
Additionally the new tournament operator, PGA TOUR Championship Management, has hired Rich Brady as Executive Director of the Boston-based Dell Technologies Championship. A native of Massachusetts, Brady is a six-year veteran of the tournament, having joined the staff in 2010 as Director, Corporate Sponsorships.
Brady continued with the tournament through the operational transition from IMG to the Tiger Woods Foundation in 2012 and was promoted to Senior Director, Corporate Sponsorships in 2013. A graduate of Bentley University, he worked in finance for two years before beginning his sports career in 2006 with the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team in North Carolina.
PGA TOUR Championship Management is assuming operational oversight of the tournament with the Tiger Woods Foundation shifting its involvement to the Genesis Open in Los Angeles, where the Foundation is headquartered.
“Rich has been an integral part of the tournament for the past several years,” said Brian Goin, Senior Vice President and Chief of Operations for PGA TOUR Championship Management. “His knowledge and experience make him the perfect choice to lead the Dell Technologies Championship as it transitions from the Tiger Woods Foundation to Championship Management.”
The event was originally introduced in 2003 as the PGA TOUR returned to the Boston market for the first time since the last New England Classic was held in 1998. With the introduction of the FedExCup in 2007, the tournament was elevated to its current position as the second FedExCup Playoffs event.
Rory McIlroy began his final push toward the 2016 FedExCup title by winning at TPC Boston. He then closed the FedExCup Playoffs by winning the TOUR Championship in Atlanta. | 1,267,056 |
DETROIT, MI -- Idyll Farms hoped to start a goat farm in Detroit but officials rejected the idea, calling it an illegal violation of zoning laws.
Eighteen goats from the company's herd in Northport arrived in Detroit June 6. They were removed the following day at the demand of city officials.
Idyll Farms planned to fatten the goats by feeding them the plentiful unmowed grass on abandoned lots in Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood throughout the summer before butchering them and selling the meet to raise money to sustain ongoing urban farming initiatives.
Since the city rejected the idea, Idyll farms says the baby goats will meet a premature demise and be butchered earlier than planned.
"The goats are currently grazing somewhere else, and will be gradually processed," a representative for Idyll Farms told MLive Detroit in an email. "They cannot return to Idyll Farms because the goats there are in a closed herd and the herders never introduce animals from the outside (or even back into) the herd."
The farm issued a brochure to neighbors prior to installing the goats, along with fencing. They used an old garage that once belonged to a since-demolished home to for storing hay and tools.
"We hope to demonstrate, through our pastured goats in Detroit, that urban farming is a feasible and constructive way to further support and engage the community," the farm said in the brochure. "Idyll Farms Detroit expects to ace as a vegetative cleaning crew, help provide jobs, clean the neighborhood and help a community bond around a mascot known for survival and resilience."
Although current zoning laws don't allow goats within the city limits, the Brightmoor neighborhood is located in a projected urban farming zone established in the Detroit Future City Project. It's not clear when or if those zoning changes will be instituted.
Idyll Farms met with a representative from the Mayor's office last week.
"The city is standing by the ordinance banning goats, and Idyll Farms has fully complied," the farm said in a statement. "We also requested a temporary reprieve to allow the goats to continue the work they started, but we were denied. We want the city to overturn the ordinance, and Idyll Farms is hopeful that its attempt at supporting urban farming in Detroit will add momentum to that effort."
Several neighbors voiced support for the project, including Jermaine Houser, 39, who lives in a home abutting the goat farm,
"I think it was a good thing, being the way it looks around here," said Houser, who lives near the short-lived goat farm. "It wasn't an expensive thing, it was someone coming putting money into the city and trying to provide jobs for people around the neighborhood.
"They would actually train people... how to take care of them."
Idyll Farms has put the project on hold awaiting changes in the law. | 1,267,057 |
The Age of Voice
2018 will be an active year for voice technology. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas earlier this month, companies brought so many talking devices that it was hard to get a word in edgewise. Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM and countless startups, each are pursuing voice assistant technology. With voice recognition approaching 99% accuracy, a world controlled by the spoken word is just around the corner.
In 2017, many popular brands embraced voice technology, including Clorox, Nestle, Patrón, and Purina. Their creative use of engaging conversations brought new value to their customers. Purina, for example, used Amazon Alexa to educate consumers about the characteristics of different dog breeds.
Take a moment to consider, “What conversation is your company equipped to moderate?"
Marketing
Pro tip: To stand out in the Age of Voice, your brand must adopt an audio signature. This includes both an audio logo and a brand voice. Is your brand witty, friendly, smart, or authoritative?
Classic examples of sound logos come from Intel and “Mario.”
Anchoring your identity to a sound bite provides fast and effective brand recognition. In an audio experience, time is valuable and wordy slogans can compete for your customer's focus.
A 1-2 second audio logo is the key to success.
Do you want to see brands taking advantage of The Voice Revolution? Explore these 10 examples of effective content marketing.
Design
Proper design is crucial for voice only experiences. Here are some key insights:
Embrace Radical Simplicity: Time is valuable, and a brand that respects its customer's time will succeed. Understand Deep Empathy: Good voice design starts with an intimate understanding of the consumer. Avoid all Jargon: Conversation should be casual, direct, and concise.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Here's an interesting article that compares Voice User Interfaces (VUI) to Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). The article provides fantastic insights and it was written in 2002!
The Future
Voice experiences continue to gain traction. As they do, companies like Amazon are realizing that voice is fast and convenient for user input. However, computer screens provide fast and information dense output. Clearly, then, the future of voice is both spoken and visual. This video describes what to look for in the future.
Also, in the future, audio-only voice ordering might kill brands. Watch this video to find out why.
In short, if brands sit back and allow Amazon and Google to serve audio-only product searches, Amazon and Google are going to promote their own products. Yes, I’m sure advertising will arise eventually… so when it does, make sure your brand is prepared with its own audible presence. Otherwise, it might get lost in the static.
Is voice on your roadmap for 2018? | 1,267,058 |
This map of the left side of Pluto’s heart-shaped feature uses colors to represent Pluto’s varied terrains, which helps scientists understand the complex geological processes at work.
A newly created geological map of Pluto's famous heart-shaped region shows just how varied and complex the distant dwarf planet is.
Scientists on NASA's New Horizons mission, which performed the first-ever flyby of Pluto on July 14, have put together a color-coded geological map of Sputnik Planum, the huge nitrogen-ice plain that occupies the left side of Pluto's heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio.
The map covers an area that stretches 1,290 miles (2,070 kilometers) from top to bottom and features a resolution of at least 1,050 feet (320 meters) per pixel, NASA said. (Some parts of the map are even sharper than that.)
The newly released map allows researchers to see variations in Pluto's terrain, which, in turn, can provide insight into the geological history of the dwarf planet.
Pluto’s informally-named Sputnik Planum region is mapped, with the key indicating a wide variety of units or terrains. (Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)
For example, the bright yellow regions on the map are impact craters, which are notably absent from Sputnik Planum proper. This suggests that this portion of Pluto has been resurfaced recently; there hasn't been time for craters to pepper the surface there, scientists have said.
Other colors show different kinds of terrain, which are defined by their texture and form. One area coded with a greenish hue is defined as "featureless plains," while very light blue denotes "bright, cellular plains."
The black lines are troughs, which delineate "cells" of nitrogen ice on Sputnik Planum that are thought to form as a result of convective processes.
The red area at the southern tip of the map shows the 2.5-mile-high (4.0 km) Wright Mons, which might be a volcano that spews ice rather than lava. Scientists aren't sure why the material around it, which looks reddish-brown in New Horizons' "true color" photos, isn't more widespread on the surface, NASA officials said.
To make this map, New Horizons team members used the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taking pictures at a distance of 48,000 miles (77,300 km) from Pluto on July 14. At the time, New Horizons was less than 2 hours away from its closest approach, which brought the probe within just 7,800 miles (12,550 km) of Pluto's surface.
You can Follow Jesse Empsak @Mad_Science_Guy. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. | 1,267,059 |
if you need to get an eye test done? While there’s no option even at the best eyewear online site for getting an eye test online, yet, you can always request us to drop by your home for it. Yep, eye tests can be done at the convenience of your home without the fuss of visiting the store. And if you are eligible for an NHS funded eye test, then you are in for a cherishable treat. We can do that for you without any costs. But, even if you can’t get an NHS funded eye test, don’t get in a flap, we are here to get your home eye test done at the most affordable rates.
Once you have your latest prescription, get ready for the ultimate online eyewear shopping experience.
– 6. All essential coatings free of cost
Online eyewear shopping is certainly inexpensive and more comfortable. How do we know that? Well, we put in regular efforts to make it happen. From cutting off middlemen to providing essential coatings free of cost we ensure you get the best value for your dough.
Yep, as one of the best eyewear online sites, all of our glasses and sunglasses come fully loaded with necessary coatings like anti-glare, anti- UV, and scratch-resistant ones. That’s to help you get not only a charming set of new eyes but crucial protection alongside. After all, eye health and comfort is as important as sprucing up your looks for the ultimate confidence.
– 7. Reglaze glasses
If you have the perfect - your beloved frames already, you won’t want to give them up while upgrading to new lenses; would you? We understand you. That's why, to make your online eyewear shopping happier for the love of your old frames, we help you reglaze them. What this means is, that you can place an order for lenses with your latest prescription and then post your old frames to us. We’ll then embellish them with the new lenses to get you a new pair of glasses without spending extra on new frames. And all this, while valuing your sentiments for your favourite old frames. Click here to know more about reglaze.
– 8. Convenient return policies
Returning a pair of glasses to the store can be a headache. Usually, it’s out of the question. But online retailers like Specscart accept returns and exchanges within a certain window of time. Click here to read our Returns Policy
All that’s now left is checking out our collection and finding your favourite pair(s). We don’t want to be cliché and say that our collection has something for everyone, but well, it truly does! Ready to find your perfect frames and have a delightful online eyewear shopping experience? | 1,267,060 |
third row – when raised – is enough luggage space for a long weekend, assuming that four of your six passengers are nudists. Like most crossovers or SUVs equipped with three rows, a long vacation by a family of six will typically require a roof rack or FedEx Ground. Or both.
UNDER THE HOOD: The previous CX-9 came with a wholly capable 3.3 liter V6, offering 273 horsepower and 270 lb-ft of torque. It wasn’t sexy, but certainly met our expectations when accelerating to freeway speeds or sustaining those speeds for long periods of time. In short, we liked it. The new CX-9 turns the page, offering Mazda’s first application of a turbo on its 2.5 liter DOHC four. This doesn’t make this new CX-9 a MazdaSpeed CX-9, but would certainly make it a great airport wagon for a group of Mazda Cup racers.
Opting for a turbocharged four to supplant a normally aspirated six is clearly the order of the day or, for that matter, decade. BMW supplies the equivalent of a 2.8 liter six via its turbocharged 2.0 liter four, while Ford gives its EcoBoost V6 the horsepower of a V8 and the torque of a small train. In short, the benefits are obvious, the attendant complexity perhaps less so.
Here we get a 2.5 liter inline four – shared in normally aspirated form with the CX-5, Mazda3 and Mazda6 – with turbocharged induction, 227 horsepower on regular unleaded (250 on premium!) and 310 lb-ft of torque. That, friends, is a bunch of torque, and ups the CX-9’s towing capability from 2,000 pounds to 3,500 pounds. Delivering that power to either the front wheels or all wheels through a 6-speed automatic, we liked its responsiveness in normal driving, and liked it very much when the ‘sport’ button is engaged. In the sport mode throttle tip-in seems more immediate, and the somewhat large platform suddenly seems smaller. This powertrain works splendidly within the CX-9 – and would absolutely rock if installed in a Mazda6.
While – as mentioned – we get the benefits of three rows, we wish Mazda built a CUV where the third row was truly occasional, perhaps one with no provision for luggage if that third row is raised. Despite its age, Hyundai’s Santa Fe is attractive for this reason, as is Kia’s redesigned Sorento. A revived CX-7 would also be attractive, beyond filling the obvious numerical gap between the compact CX-5 and the new CX-9.
With that, the Mazda menu is even more compelling. And with this 2nd iteration of the CX-9 we think Mazda has a winner…a big winner. | 1,267,061 |
ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences
Jaffa cakes have become the latest chocolate treat to be downsized, sparking outrage from fans across the country.
McVitie’s has reduced the number of Jaffa cakes in a standard pack from 12 to 10, but some stores are continuing to sell them for the same price.
The new pack contains 122g instead of 146.4g, with the recommended retail price lowered from £1.15 to 99p. This means the cost per biscuit has increased from 9.58p to 9.8p.
However, some stores have been found selling the smaller packs for the same price as their predecessors.
Ocado is currently offering the 10-packs for £1.19, which works out at 11.9p per biscuit.
Other shops recently sold the bigger packs for £1 and are offering the new ones at the same price, the Sun reported.
A McVitie’s spokesperson confirmed there had been no changes to the actual biscuit, and said retailers were responsible for their own prices.
But fans of the popular biscuit took to Twitter to lament the latest saga in a series of downsizings including Toblerone, Maltesers and Walnut Whips.
Kien Tan wrote: “What's worse than Uber, Trump & Brexit? @McVities cuts no of #jaffacakes in pack to 10. Have We Not Suffered Enough?”
Rob Moore added: “It takes a lot to outrage me, but just read that @McVities have skunk a packet of Jaffa Cakes from 12 to 10 for same price!”
Another person tweeted: “Woke up to the terrible news today that @McVities have reduced the number of Jaffa cakes from 12 to 10. This is an abomination.”
One Twitter user added: “Jaffa cakes are now in packs of 10 rather than 12. Don’t you think this world is cruel enough already, McVities??”
The McVitie’s spokesperson said: “We have taken the decision to adjust the pack size of our McVitie's Jaffa Cakes products.
“There is no change in the size, shape or weight of individual cakes in the McVitie's Jaffa Cake range.
“Pricing ultimately remains at the sole discretion of retailers.” | 1,267,062 |
jail and are not receiving the drug and mental health treatment the measure had promised. Without the threat of a felony prosecution, they say, defendants are less likely to choose treatment as an alternative to serving time.
But supporters of Proposition 47 dispute the theory that crime increases are connected to the measure. Misdemeanors can still result in sentences of up to a year in jail, and it is up to police officers and prosecutors to enforce those penalties, Michael Romano, a lecturer at Stanford Law School, told the Los Angeles Times in December.
“The idea that Proposition 47 has been responsible for an increase in crime in California over the past year or two is fake news, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials, while extending their condolences, said that Mejia was never released early from state prison.
“This individual served his full state prison terms as defined by law,” said Jeffrey Callison, assistant secretary at the corrections department. “None of the state’s recent criminal justice reforms — including AB 109, Proposition 47 or Proposition 57 — impacted when this individual was released from state prison. Proposition 57, for example, which was passed by voters in November, has not even been implemented yet.”
Callison said AB 109 did not impact the time Mejia served, but did affect his post-release supervision in April 2016, which put monitoring in the hands of the Los Angeles County Probation Department.
The county’s chief probation officer, Terri McDonald, confirmed that office was supervising Mejia, but declined to provide details.
“He was under probation supervision pursuant to AB 109,” McDonald said. “We are reviewing the conditions of his supervision since being released from state prison in April 2016. However, as this is an active criminal and internal investigation, we cannot discuss any specifics but we will conduct a comprehensive post incident review. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families in this senseless homicide.”
[email protected]
Twitter: @LAcrimes
Times staff writer Cindy Chang contributed to this report.
ALSO:
Slain Whittier officer, ‘best of the best,’ was thinking about retiring, chief says
Gunman who killed Whittier officer had fatally shot cousin hours earlier, police say
A routine traffic stop ends with Whittier police in ‘a gunfight for their lives,’ leaving one veteran officer dead
UPDATES:
5:25 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from sheriff’s officials about the status of Michael C. Mejia, information about his criminal record and and information from corrections and probation officials.
This article was originally published at 1:15 p.m. | 1,267,063 |
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A gannet called Nigel has died alone after he fell in love with a concrete bird.
Nigel spent three years with the decoy on Mana Island, New Zealand, trying to start a relationship with the decoy.
What is the Ig Nobel Prize and who won it this year?
However, his feelings for the statue were never reciprocated and he was found dead next to the fake bird and dozens of other fake birds.
They were put there in 1976 to try and start a colony, but there was no action for the man-made impostors until 2012 when they were moved to another island.
Accompanied by solar-powered gannet calls and repainted every year by volunteers, they eventually managed to attract mates, including Nigel who arrived in 2015.
Nigel’s love was never reciprocated by the concrete bird, but his legacy is the colony he founded
Nigel spent three years alone on the island in New Zealand
He was alone until last month when three more arrived after the noise emitted from the speakers was changed slightly.
Sadly for Nigel it was too late for him to spread his seed and now his body is being examined to find out how he died.
Two bear cubs fighting caught on doorbell camera
Ranger Chris Bell found him last week. He said: ‘This just feels like the wrong ending to the story. He died right at the beginning of something great.’
Nigel – his name was chosen because he had no friends – was supposed to bring a girlfriend with him, but instead he became besotted by one of the concrete replicas.
He even built a nest and was observed trying to woo her with mating rituals.
A flock of 80 concrete gannets was installed to try and attract others to create a colony (Picture: Facebook/Friends of Mana Island)
However, Nigel fell in love with one of the concrete statues meaning he never got to sew his seed (Picture: Facebook/Friends of Mana Island)
It is believed that he may have been kicked out of another colony and he was ‘a bit confused’, hence why he fell in love with the inanimate object.
Chris said: ‘I certainly feel sad. Having had him sit there year after year with his concrete mate, it just doesn’t seem how it should have ended.
‘It would have been nice if he had been able to hold on a few more years and found a partner and breed.’
Now it is hoped that Nigel’s new colony will prosper and breed on the island with no more love affairs with concrete statues of gannets.
Chris added: ‘His legacy was that he was the first coloniser.’ | 1,267,064 |
Wisconsin has seen the highest number of farm bankruptcy filings over the past year, according to a recent report by the American Farm Bureau Federation.
According to the report, which tracked bankruptcy filings over 12 months ending in September 2019, the Midwest accounted for 40% of the nation's 580 Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy filings (a 24% increase from the previous year). Bankruptcy relief under Chapter 12 requires businesses to establish a plan to pay their debts to creditors over three to five years.
By the end of the year, the agricultural industry is expected to receive around $33 billion related to trade and disaster assistance, the farm bill and insurance indemnities from the federal government, the report notes. Comparatively, the government spent $80 billion in 2008 to aid General Motors and Chrystler during the auto bailout. But even with record amounts of help, the outlook for family farms this year doesn't look promising: farm debt is expected to reach $416 billion in 2019, the highest level ever.
In an effort to increase revenue, farmers in some states are diversifying their agricultural products and planting more hemp. Iowa's Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, for example, recently signed legislation in which the state will license and regulate hemp production. Like marijuana, hemp comes from the cannabis sativa plant, but unlike marijuana, hemp is not considered to be psychoactive since it contains very low levels of THC.
Other farms are working with environmental and advocacy groups to fight climate change by experimenting with new crops, including hemp, and practicing sustainable farming, according to CNBC.
For example, a start-up company called Indigo Agriculture plans to pay up to 3,000 farmers by the end of 2019 to move to environmentally friendly practices. The group will pay farmers around the U.S. $15 for every tonne (also known as a metric ton) of carbon dioxide that is stored underground, which farmers can achieve by planting cover crops between main crops and by cutting down on their tilling of the soil.
Indigo Agriculture CEO and Director David Perry told the Financial Times that a farmer can probably capture two to three carbon tonnes of carbon dioxide per acre per year.
(Courtesy of the American Farm Bureau Federation)
Wisconsin saw 48 Chapter 12 filings over the 12-month period ending in September, followed by Georgia, Nebraska and Kansas, each of which had 37 filings. Minnesota, California, Texas, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New York round out the top 10 states for farm bankruptcies.
Oklahoma experienced the largest increase in farm bankruptcy filings, rising from two filings last year to 17 this year. All regions of the U.S. saw an increase in filings, with the largest jumps in the Northwest ( up by 74%) and West (up by 65%).
(Courtesy of the American Farm Bureau Federation)
Experts attribute the farm industry's downturn to the U.S.'s trade war with China, along with unfavorable growing conditions thanks to droughts and floods. | 1,267,065 |
FAIRFIELD — He was a successful New York accountant and commercial real estate broker, but Charles Lawrence III is behind bars Friday because he claims eye problems caused him to misread a text and believe he was about to have sex with an 18-year-old instead of a 13-year-old boy.
“The text he received had a one and a three which he mistook for a one and an eight,” Lawrence’s lawyer, Edward Gavin, told Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin.
“I am not a pedophile,” added the 60-year-old Lawrence. “I used poor judgment but I have never seen, used or downloaded child pornography in my life.”
But Devlin said he wasn’t buying it and sentenced Lawrence to two years in prison in the case involving a Fairfield minor.
“The thing about this case is it has this Shakespearean quality to it, or maybe a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde aspect,” the judge said. “But this whole case is about protecting children. You did a bad thing here.”
In addition to the sentence of eight years, suspended after Lawrence serves two years in prison, the judge ordered him to register as a sex offender.
Lawrence was one of 10 men snagged in a sting last October at a house in Fairfield.
The sting, set up by TV newsman Chris Hansen, Fairfield Police and State’s Attorney John Smriga, had Fairfield University theater students posing as 13-year-old boys and girls.
When the suspects showed up at the house to have sex with the teenagers they were arrested and the incident was video recorded for a later television program.
Smriga told the judge that beginning in September 2015, Lawrence began communicating through the Internet site Grindr with what he thought was a 13-year-old boy.
Lawrence inquired about the boy’s sexual desires and told him he could be is teacher, the prosecutor said.
At about 3:45 p.m. on Oct. 3, Smriga said Lawrence arrived at the decoy house and was subsequently arrested.
On his person police found a bottle of lubricant and a bottle of nail polish remover, the prosecutor told the judge.
Lawrence subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted sexual assault, attempted risk of injury to a minor and enticing a minor to have an obscene performance.
Gavin told the judge that the irony of the situation is that his client knows Chris Hansen socially, commuted daily on the train with him and was aware of Hansen’s TV program, To Catch a Predator.
“After he was caught Charles sat down with Fairfield police and told them, “I thought I was going to meet an 18-year-old,” Gavin said. | 1,267,066 |
ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences
Britons today delivered a stinging verdict on the Cabinet’s two best-known “hard Brexiteers” in an exclusive survey.
More than half the nation think Boris Johnson is doing a bad job at handling Britain’s departure from the European Union, Ipsos MORI revealed.
The Foreign Secretary had the poorest score among senior ministers making decisions on Brexit, with 56 per cent giving his performance a thumbs down.
Only 34 per cent said he was doing a good job, a gap of 22 points.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s score was no better, with 50 per cent saying he was doing badly on Brexit and only 26 per cent saying he was doing well — a net score of -24.
Brexit Secretary David Davis did better with a net score of -13. A third thought he was doing well and 46 per cent said badly. Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, had the best rating of the Brexiteers, with 41 per cent saying he was doing a bad job and 32 a good job.
Theresa May had the best overall score of the senior Cabinet members, with 43 per cent of people saying she was handling Brexit well, and 50 per cent saying badly, a net -7.
The Prime Minister’s score has improved markedly since the question was last asked in October, when only 32 per cent thought she was doing a good job and 55 per cent thought she was handling Brexit badly, a net rating of -23.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd is next best, with 40 per cent saying she was doing badly in relation to Brexit, and 29 per cent saying she was doing well, a net score of -11.
Three in 10 thought Chancellor Philip Hammond was doing a good job and 45 per cent said he was not. Less popular than the Government was the EU, which had a negative overall score of -28.
The survey of 1,012 adults reveals that 74 per cent of Conservative supporters back Mrs May strongly, with 74 per cent hailing her for a good job.
Among Tories, 50 per cent thought Mr Johnson was doing a good job but 43 per cent said he was doing badly. For Mr Gove, the good-bad split among Tories was even at 38-37.
Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI said Mrs May’s ratings are more positive than those of the rest of her Cabinet, “especially among older people and her own party supporters”. | 1,267,067 |
How the Bitcointalk bounty campaign helps the ICO project attract investors Vitaliy Tsigulev Follow Oct 4, 2017 · Unlisted
This post will tell you more about the bounty campaign at Bitcointalk — the main forum for the cryptocommunity.
A bounty campaign is an instrument used to promote the ICO project by using the efforts of supporters. The company motivates the participants of the cryptocommunity to announce the forthcoming ICO on pages of forums, social networks and blogs. Participants in the bounty campaign distribute content about the ICO project and design their pages according to the corporate style of the ICO organizer on those platforms.
At the end of the crowdsale, the project pays rewards to the bounty campaign participants with its tokens.
According to SimilarWeb, the number of Bitcointalk page views hit 28 mln in August. The bounty campaigns help ICO projects expand their reach to the forum audiences.
Our experience suggests that the Bitcointalk bounty campaign is best to start in advance — 2–3 months ahead of the ICO launch. This time is needed to let potential investors look at the project more closely and study it better.
Participants in the bounty campaign are forum users who receive a reward for distributing information about the project and branding their userpics and signatures to posts.
Distributing information about the project
The project creates a Bitcointalk page with a description of its solution and the announcement of the forthcoming ICO several months ahead of the start of the token sale. Participants in the bounty campaign are rewarded for participation in moderating comments from other forum visitors, updating information about the project, and attracting new users.
Organizers of the bounty campaign also reward participants who translate the ICO project announcement into other languages, post it in the relevant forum threads, and interact with the foreign audience in their native language.
Example of Translations and moderation Bounty on Bitcointalk (Bounty Starta)
Branding userpics and signatures to posts
Participants in the bounty campaign are rewarded for designing their userpics and signatures to forum messages in accordance with the corporate style of the ICO project. This form of participation implies regular creation of posts on Bitcointalk to encourage potential investors to pay attention to the ICO project as often as possible.
Example of a branded signature to the Bitcointalk post (Bounty Anryze)
Under competition between ICO projects, the number of participants in the bounty campaign shows how much the cryptocommunity puts faith in the project and is ready to support it.
If less than 100 users join the subscription campaign, this is a sign to reconsider the project’s prospects. The normal figure is 300–400 participants.
The ICO organizer publishes information on the amount of rewards and KPI for participants in the bounty campaign in the Bitcointalk announcement, on the website, in corporate blogs, and on social networks. | 1,267,068 |
The nation’s largest abortion business is hoping to “turn the whole internet Planned Parenthood pink” on Wednesday so its supporters can “feel the groundswell of support from our movement.”
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is asking its supporters to wear pink clothing, to #PinkOut their profile photos on Facebook and Twitter with a special image filter, to take a special “I Stand with Planned Parenthood” pledge, and to “join the Thunderclap” on social media.
“Now that we’ve stopped the immediate attack on patients’ access to care at Planned Parenthood health centers, it’s time to regroup and start building towards our vision for the future — one that truly invests in reproductive health,” PPFA says.
The group is celebrating the failed GOP American Health Care Act (AHCA), which did not fully repeal Obamacare and which also contained a provision to defund the abortion giant for one year.
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie (R), who changed his vote against the AHCA from “No” to “Hell No,” also emphasized the short-term nature of the provision to defund Planned Parenthood:
I take it GOP leadership still hasn't told Trump the PP provision was a 1yr bait and switch? See page 23 of CBO https://t.co/O9cGKQeqzb https://t.co/yKVPG1UvHe — Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 26, 2017
Planned Parenthood’s “#PinkOut” day comes as undercover journalists at the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) reveal a video allegedly showing Dr. DeShawn Taylor, a Planned Parenthood abortionist, complaining about having to transfer a late-term aborted baby with signs of life to the hospital in Arizona, a state she describes as “conservative.”
When journalists asked her if there is “any standard procedure for verifying signs of life?” Taylor responds by saying, “The key is you need to pay attention to who’s in the room, right?”
In 2015, CMP began its series of videos that ultimately led to allegations that Planned Parenthood and its partners in the biotech field worked to sell the harvested body parts of aborted babies for a profit.
“The only difference between Planned Parenthood’s barbaric abortion business, and that of the notorious Dr. Kermit Gosnell, is that Gosnell was not so careful as to ‘pay attention to who’s in the room,’” CMP project lead David Daleiden says. “Elected officials must stop forcing taxpayers to subsidize Planned Parenthood’s criminal abortion business, and the Department of Justice must immediately open a full investigation and prosecute Planned Parenthood to the fullest extent of the law.” | 1,267,069 |
Pelosi and Schumer are doing back-flips celebrating the massive spending that just made its way through the “Republican” Congress. The Chamber and the GOPe are dancing a jig because, once again, the man from Florida Cornelius Huntersville has come through for them BIG:
Congress appears poised to allow more temporary, seasonal foreign workers into the country this summer, even as lawmakers skirted around larger immigration issues such as border wall funding and undocumented child immigrants in its $1.3-trillion spending package. A provision pushed by North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis to raise a cap on visas for those workers made its way into the must-pass spending package. Tillis, a first-term Republican, is a longtime proponent of the H-2B visas program that allows businesses to hire foreign workers for seasonal work if there are not American workers who are willing, qualified, and able to perform temporary non-agricultural labor. His stance has often drawn the ire of immigration critics on the right — and this time is no different. “It’s important to me because it’s important to thousands of American businesses,” Tillis said Wednesday. […]
Let’s finish that sentence properly for him: “[…] American businesses (that hire lobbyists who shower me in cash).”
MORE:
[…] One paragraph in the the 2,232-page, $1.3 trillion federal spending bill released Wednesday night allows the Department of Homeland Security to raise the 66,000 cap on H-2B visas for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The bill, which is needed to keep the government from another shutdown, passed the House on Thursday and is expected to clear the Senate on Friday, despite opposition from many conservatives. North Carolina Republican Reps. George Holding of Raleigh, David Rouzer of Johnston County, Mark Walker of Greensboro, Mark Meadows of Asheville and Ted Budd of Davie County voted no.It provides $1.6 billion for border security, far less than the $25 billion President Donald Trump wants for his promised southern border wall, and does not address the DACA population at all. “It is disappointing to see congressional leadership and the business lobby once again use a must-pass spending bill to expand their access to cheap foreign labor. Opening the door for a significant increase in guest workers is not only unwarranted, but harmful to the interests of American workers,” said RJ Hauman, government relations director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Many seasonal small businesses in North Carolina and the country rely on workers from the program to keep their doors open and support American workers, a Tillis spokesman said. As of March 2017, North Carolina ranked third behind Texas and Colorado with 4,324 H-2B visa workers.[…]
So, we’re already a national leader in terms of taking these people in. And Thom wants us to TAKE IN MORE??? | 1,267,070 |
the duration they disable protection prayers for has been reduced. Nylocas Vasilias will no longer be able to instantly attack players after switching combat styles. Verzik Vitur's attacks during her final form will now calculate damage dealt as you get hit, rather than when she fires her projectiles.The Teleport to House and Teleport to house tabs now have right-click options for you to teleport inside and outside of your house. The left-click option will continue to respect the option you have selected in your house settings menu.Some messaging has been implemented for when members log into free to play worlds. An issue with a cutscene during the Kings Ransom quest has been fixed. It is now easier to distinguish between charged and uncharged versions of the Dragonfire ward. The sound effect used for the Teleport to house spell has been changed to an area sound effect in order to be consistent with other teleport spells. Capitalisation has been added to the Great Olm's name. A few Mammoths were spawning on top of trees. They've been asked politely to stop doing that. The Elemental Wizards south of Falador now give loot at the end of their death animation rather than the beginning. The wording displayed when trying to buy a medium gamble at Barbarian Assault without the correct requirements has been changed. A missing word in the Tourist Trap's quest journal has been added. The Scythe of Vitur has been buffed. It can now slash webs. The Ring of life now displays a message when you change your teleport option to your default spawn point. A missing space has been added to a message received during the Murder Mystery quest. Cooks Assistant, Sheep Shearer and Imp Catcher will now recognise that you have the items required to complete the quest upon starting each of them. A spelling error within Doric's quest has been fixed.Last Summer we partnered with Twitch to deliverfor every player with Twitch Prime, and we are absolutely delighted to announce that we'll be partnering with Twitch Prime once again. Details of the partnership can be found below!Betweenmembers of Twitch Prime can claimand get access to the. Players without Twitch Prime will gain access to the skin colour once the partnership has ended.Getting the membership and getting the purple skin colour can be done in just four easy steps:We're delighted to tell you that Twitch offer a 30-day free trial to Twitch Prime. Those of you without Twitch Prime - Start your free trial today! Another benefit of Twitch Prime is a free subscription to a Twitch streamer each month. Put your free subscription to good use and support one of our fantastic Old School RuneScape content creators. Head to the Old School RuneScape stream directory to see who is live and to show some love! If there are any other questions you might have about Twitch Prime then please do visit our very handy Twitch Prime FAQ
Discuss this update on our official forums, the community-led 2007Scape Reddit, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. | 1,267,071 |
A 17-year-old student at Calhoun County High School in South Carolina was arrested for allegedly physically attacking her teacher, as shown in a viral video. (Photo: Facebook/Alicia Gadberry)
A high school student was arrested and charged after a social media video showing her standing on top of a desk and hitting her teacher was posted.
On Monday, Lyneria Lynn Glover, a 17-year-old student at Calhoun County High School in St. Matthews, S.C., allegedly stood on top of her teacher’s desk, trying to kick the elderly man who sat in a chair, while her classmates laughed.
When the teacher stood up, she allegedly smacked him on his head and pushed his shoulders, stomping on the desk.
“Get off the desk,” said the man, adding something inaudible, as Glover sat in his chair and put her feet up on his desk.
Steve Aaron Wilson, the superintendent of Calhoun County Public Schools, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the Monday video was shocking. “We investigated and suspended the student and recommended her for expulsion,” he says. “The student was out of line — she thought she was playing, but it doesn’t appear so, and she had no business behaving like that.” Wilson says the unnamed teacher is on administrative leave and would not provide further details.
A representative of the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the teen has been charged with public disorderly conduct and third-degree assault and battery, both of which are misdemeanors. If convicted, Glover could be jailed for a period of 30 days for each charge or pay fines.
An official statement from the school was sent to WISTV: “The Calhoun County School District is currently working with local law enforcement agencies involving the situation that occurred at Calhoun County High School on December 3, 2018. The student involved in this incident has been suspended and recommended for expulsion in accordance with board policy. The faculty member involved has been placed on Administrative Leave. The School District of Calhoun County takes the safety of both our students and faculty very seriously and will do everything in our power to ensure their safety.”
Story continues
A student told the news station, “Calhoun County is a great school, and that’s not what our students are about. I just want everybody to know that. We’re a good school. Our students just don’t need to act like that. We’re a better school than what has been shown on that video.”
Yahoo Lifestyle could not reach the Glover family for comment. A phone number listed for them was disconnected.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
| 1,267,072 |
A bill that would allow schools to punish students for off-campus activities -- even while at the mall on weekends -- reached Indiana's state Senate Committee on Education and Career Development Wednesday. The bill passed the state House Jan. 30.
House Bill 1169, the Restoring School Discipline Act, would permit schools to suspend or expel students for engaging in activities away from school and after hours that "may reasonably be considered to be an interference with school purposes or an educational function."
Under existing state law, schools can seek punitive measures if students engage in "unlawful activity" that interferes with schools or education functions. But HB 1169, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Eric Koch, strikes the term "unlawful," allowing for punishment of any off-campus activity deemed to be an interference.
A student may be suspended or expelled for engaging in activity on or off school grounds if: The activity may reasonably be considered to be an interference with school purposes or an educational function; or The student's removal is necessary to restore order or protect persons on school property; including an activity during weekends, holidays, other school breaks, and the summer period when a student may not be attending classes or other school functions.
"All students deserve a safe and conductive learning environment," Koch said in a statement last month, according to TheBanner.com. "In limiting grounds for suspension and expulsion to only 'unlawful' conduct, current law ties the hands of school officials to effectively deal with dangerous and disruptive behavior, including cyber bullying."
But the bill doesn't directly target bullying -- not once is the term used in the document -- and critics are concerned the legislation could challenge a student's First Amendment rights to free speech.
"If the bill becomes law, schools will be able to completely shut down the discussion of any topic they find disagreeable, since it is almost always possible to argue that stirring up public dissent 'interferes' with school purposes," Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, writes. "It will not be long before we see principals suspending the girl whose weekend wardrobe 'interferes' with the school's ability to promote a professional appearance or whose fondness for rap music 'interferes' with the teaching of proper grammar."
Koch tells the SPLC, however, that he "wouldn't knowingly promote anything that would infringe First Amendment rights."
Several states have already adopted or proposed policies that allow schools to punish students for disruptive behavior off campus and away from school. West Virginia recently adopted an anti-bullying policy that would punish students with detention or suspension for "vulgar or offensive speech" online if it disrupts school.
In a move that would counter Koch's Indiana bill, the U.S. Supreme Court last month let stand rulings that said schools could not discipline two Pennsylvania students for MySpace parodies of their principals that the students created at home.
| 1,267,073 |
Dwyane Wade says he can't put into words how it makes him feel that a victim of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting was buried in a jersey bearing his name. (1:00)
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade said Monday it makes him emotional to know that a student killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was buried in a jersey with his name on it.
Joaquin Oliver's parents revealed Sunday on Univision talk show "Al Punto" that their son was buried Feb. 17 in his Wade jersey.
"You really can't put that in words. You hurt for the family," Wade told reporters Monday. "If you ever get the opportunity to speak to them, you just try to hope the time where he was alive that you were able to bring some type of joy to his life and something memorable. A story that his family and you guys can talk about."
Before he was gunned down in a mass shooting at the Parkland, Florida, high school, Oliver, 17, was excited about Wade's return to the Heat.
Wade, who had played in Miami before leaving for Chicago and then Cleveland, returned to the Heat about a week before the shooting at Stoneman Douglas that killed 14 students and three adults. Wade responded to the news of Oliver being buried in a Wade jersey by tweeting, "You're about to make me cry this afternoon."
"Like I said, I retweeted on Twitter, you're going to make me cry," Wade said. "It's emotional even thinking about that, that his parents felt that, buried him in my jersey was something that he wanted. I take pride in what I've done in this state and what I've meant for the youth. I appreciate it."
Wade also took to Twitter to point out that how he affected Oliver's life shows that athletes should continue to speak up on topics in which they believe.
This is Joaquin Oliver. He was one of the 17 young lives that were lost tragically at Douglas HighSchool in Parkland. Joaquin was one of many that i heard was excited about my return to Miami and yesterday was buried in my jersey. This is why we will not just SHUT up and dribble! pic.twitter.com/X0tfTTao33 — DWade (@DwyaneWade) February 26, 2018
It's way BIGGER than basketball. We are the voices for the people that don't get to be heard. Joaquin Oliver may you Rest In Peace and i dedicate my return and the rest of this Miami Heat season to you. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 — DWade (@DwyaneWade) February 26, 2018
Wade and the Heat will be back in action Tuesday night at home against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 1,267,074 |
The Obama Administration will no longer defend legislation in court banning same-sex couples from receiving military and veterans benefits.
In a letter Friday to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Attorney General Eric Holder wrote:
The legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans' benefits to opposite-sex couples of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans. Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that would warrant treating these provisions differently from Section 3 of DOMA.
Section 3 of DOMA and several provisions of Title 38 of the U.S. Code that govern veterans benefits are unconstitutional when applied to same-sex married couples, according to Holder.
Title 38 defines "spouse" in the same terms as Section 3 of DOMA: "a person of the opposite sex who is a wife or husband." Together, they deprive same-sex spouses -- both of civilians and military veterans -- of federal benefits enjoyed by married heterosexual couples.
The letter comes in response to McLaughlin v. Panetta, a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The lead plaintiff, Shannon McLaughlin, is in the Massachusetts National Guard and serves as a Judge Advocate General. She is married to her partner of more than three years, Casey McLaughlin, and has one year-old twins.
"We are pleased that the Attorney General has decided not to defend the constitutionality of DOMA in the military context, just as he has declined to defend it in other contexts," SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis said in a statement. "We are also delighted that, for the first time, he has said that separate definitions that apply to military veterans are also unconstitutional. This is an important step for the McLaughlin plaintiffs."
The benefits in question, according to Holder, are "medical and dental benefits, basic housing allowances, travel and transportation allowances, family separation benefits, military identification cards, visitation rights in military hospitals, survivor benefits and the right to be buried together in military cemeteries."
Last February, Holder determined that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional when subjected to the same heightened judicial scrutiny currently applied to laws discriminating on the basis of race and gender. Accordingly, he instructed Justice Department lawyers to abandon their defense of Section 3 in federal courts, including cases pending in the 1st Circuit not involving servicemembers.
Laws subject to heightened judicial scrutiny, such as those that discriminate on the basis of gender, are much more likely to be struck down. Ultimately, the Supreme Court will decide whether this standard applies to laws that single out gays and lesbians for differential treatment.
Should these cases reach the Court, Attorney General Holder's decision to abandon DOMA and its veterans' benefits counterpart may help convince an otherwise skittish judiciary to put LGBT rights on similar footing to women's rights in the eyes of the law. | 1,267,075 |
couldn’t do more than two or three marathons a year. “Say you’re running a marathon,” Ball said.” Well, then you need two weeks to recover afterward. Then you need two weeks to train, and then two more weeks to taper. So that’s six weeks. And if you’re running a lot of races in a year, it’s hard to follow that, and then you risk training for less or recovering for less. There’s a point where you just have to know your body, Ball continued.
‘Relentless forward progress’
Why keep running? Why continue to put the body through such duress? The finish line.
But runners have to learn to be patient, and to respect time, said Ball, who has completed 58 marathons. Say you want to do a marathon — you can’t gobble down the whole thing at once, he said.
“Relentless forward progress,” Ball said. “That’s what I tell myself. Always move forward.”
For Boone, it’s about a greater impact — inspiration.
“If you’re out running in 2-degree weather, someone will see you and ask what you’re doing," Boone said. "But then they’ll think about it. And then they might say, ‘Hey, maybe I can do that.’ And they can.”
Advice for new runners
Mike Ball
"If you're out there running, you're a runner. I think there's a hesitancy to, sometimes, to go out and run and have people see you run.... Just go, go run. Go run."
Steve Boone
“Just don’t cry. Don’t cry on your first marathon. You can do anything else. Just don’t cry. But — whining is different. I’ve said some things during races that I’m not proud of. Whining is okay.”
Karen Mitchell
"At this point, I would say if I could do anything differently I would do exactly what all runners are told to do from the beginning, which is we’re supposed to cross-train. We’re not supposed to run day after day after day. We should run, bike, go to the gym, walk. I think we would all have a lot less injuries if we paid attention to that advice.”
Clay Shaw
“You have to be patient. It takes time to adjust to everything that occurs in a runner’s body — the breathing, the aches and pains, the shin splints and muscle pulls. It takes patience to learn how to take care of your body. | 1,267,076 |
Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro has accused the party’s then Goa in-charge Digvijaya Singh of not allowing him to hand over the letter to Goa Governor to stake claim. Express Photo/ Nirmal Harindran Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro has accused the party’s then Goa in-charge Digvijaya Singh of not allowing him to hand over the letter to Goa Governor to stake claim. Express Photo/ Nirmal Harindran
Former chief minister and Congress MLA Luizinho Faleiro has stoked controversy by alleging that party leader Digvijaya Singh, who was the Congress’s Goa in-charge during the state Assembly polls, did not allow him to hand over the letter to the Governor to form the government in the state.
In March 2017, the Congress had won 17 seats in the state polls, making it the frontrunner to claim majority in the 40-member Assembly.
Faleiro’s statement comes at a time when state politics is at a fragile juncture, with the BJP’s MLA count reduced to 13 after the death of former minister Francis D Souza. Congress now has 14 MLAs, regaining its stature as the single largest party in the Assembly.
Faleiro said that he chose to resign after the BJP rushed to hand over the letter and form the government, despite not having the numbers. “After the last election… that night when the general secretary Mr Digvijaya Singh did not allow me to hand over the letter to the Governor for the formation of then Congress government… I as a protest resigned from the PCC, asked them to accept my earlier resignation as PCC president and… refused to be leader of CLP, leader of opposition,” said Faleiro while inaugurating a road in his constituency in Navelim.
“I had refused even though I had the highest number of votes, nearly 12 to 13 votes out of 17. I refused because I said I will do work in my constituency. They had promised that they will form the government within 24 hours. Now 24 months have passed, but I still have patience for our party to form government. But I have not interfered, I will not interfere, nor do I want to contest the elections,” Faleiro said.
When contacted, Singh said, “I don’t want to add anything more than my tweet.” Till 12.15 am, there were no tweets related to Faleiro’s claims on Singh’s account. Faleiro is being seen as the Congress choice for the south Goa Lok Sabha seat, according to insiders.
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines
For all the latest Goa News, download Indian Express App. | 1,267,077 |
Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post
Calling out the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its serious lack of action taken to fight the widespread use and misuse of antibiotics in animal feed, Judge Theodore H. Katz is now ordering the organization to remedy the situation.
The ruling specifically calls for the FDA to revisit a previous ruling which, almost satirically, asks for the industry itself to voluntarily limit the use of antibiotics in animal feed for a few specific purposes.
The district federal court in Manhattan has now declared that the FDA must reconsider two past petitions filed by citizens asking the agency to revoke approval of some antibiotics still used in food-producing animals.
Speaking on why the FDA has ignored the two petitions, which were created in order to protect public health from the massive amounts of antibiotic intake, the court stated that the denial of the petitions by the FDA was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Furthermore, Judge Katz has stated that the FDA actually completely ignored the scientific evidence brought forward by the two citizen petitions filed in 1999 and 2005. Ignoring the evidence, which is required by law, the agency instead considered only the time and what it could cost to withdraw the drug approvals.
Katz explains that despite the two petitions leading to over 3,000 pages of court filings that held several scientific studies, “the agency did not address or even mention the scientific evidence in its response.”
In other words, the FDA was more concerned with the costs associated with these drugs than the actual threat to consumer health.
It was the same Judge who called upon the FDA in March to follow through with an initiative the agency made in which the use of both penicillin and two forms of tetracycline would be banned in animal feed.
Judge Theodore Katz has also expressed concern in the past over the fact that antibiotics in animal feed are contributing to ‘super’ bugs which are heavily drug-resistant. These resistant strains cost American taxpayers in excess of $20 billion each year, based on the conclusions of a 2009 study from the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics and Cook County Hospital.
Legal action is now being taken against the FDA, an agency which shows its favor towards large industry over the wellness of the general public.
Additional sources:
Reuters
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FDA Limits Usage of Antibiotics in Livestock After Activist Outcry
Flashback: USDA ‘Doesn’t Know’ if You Are Eating Cloned Meat
Leading Antibiotic Linked to Sudden Death
Animal Protein Shown to Reduce Bone Fracture Risk
This article first appeared at Natural Society, an excellent resource for health news and vaccine information. | 1,267,078 |
Alberta premier lauds Trudeau after latest Trans Mountain court ruling
EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Jason Kenney applauded a court decision Tuesday clearing another legal hurdle in the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project and offered some kind words for the prime minister.
Kenney acknowledged he has locked horns with Justin Trudeau on many energy issues, but said the prime minister had been as good as his word on the Trans Mountain project.
"I have my disagreements with Prime Minister Trudeau on a number of issues... but I think they did realize there has to be at least one project that gets Canadian energy to global markets so we can get a fair price," Kenney said in Montreal, where he has been pitching his province as a reliable energy provider.
"I think this government understands there has to be a balance, and we agree — a balance between economic growth and environmental responsibility."
The Federal Court of Appeal's three judges unanimously ruled to dismiss four challenges by First Nations in British Columbia that had been filed after Ottawa approved the pipeline expansion for a second time.
They had argued that the government's second set of consultations with Indigenous people had already predetermined the outcome.
"I want to underscore that the decision today said 129 First Nations groups were consulted and at least 120 were in favour or not opposed. That's the number we should keep our eye fixed on," said Kenney.
"I know that most of the coverage is focused on two or three groups who remain opposed. We also need to listen to the 120 who are in favour or not opposed. That's what the court did today."
The expansion project would triple the amount of bitumen shipped from northern Alberta to the west coast and from there to overseas markets.
The province has pushed for the project as an answer to higher unemployment rates and multibillion-dollar budget deficits due to depressed oil prices.
NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley, who was premier when the project was first approved, hailed the court decision as good for Canadians.
She suggested the project owes its survival in part to her government's working with the Liberals, which eventually led to the federal government buying the project to keep it going when operator Kinder Morgan Canada pulled the plug in 2018.
Notley said her government brought a majority of Canadians on side with the project as a fair balance between the economy and the environment.
She suggested Trans Mountain is alive not because of Kenney and his adversarial approach to Ottawa, but in spite of him.
"This is something we can say that the current premier really has not had a lot to do with," Notley said in Edmonton.
"And I'm not entirely convinced that we would have gotten the federal government to do what they did (to keep the project alive) had we been in a different political situation 2 1/2 years ago."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2020
Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press | 1,267,079 |
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Germany has frozen all arms deliveries to Turkey, the Bild newspaper reported on July 21, amid a row between the NATO partners that has sharply worsened since the arrest of several rights activists in Istanbul, according the Turkish Newspaper Hurriyet Daily News.
Berlin stepped up its travel advisory for Turkey on July 20 and warned it would review state guarantees for foreign investment there—measures which Ankara labelled “blackmail and threats.”
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel held a press statement yesterday and announced a series of sanctions on the Erdoğan regime after German human rights activist Peter Steudtner was arrested in Turkey.
"We want Turkey to be a part of the West, or at least remain in its current position, but it takes two to tango," Sigmar Gabriel at a press conference in Berlin. "I cannot make out any willingness on the part of the current Turkish government to follow this path with us. For that reason Germany is forced to reorient its Turkey policy. The first consequences will be new travel advisories for German citizens in Turkey."
Gabriel said that Germans traveling to Turkey were incurring "risks," and the ministry website recommended Germans should exercise "heightened caution" when visiting Turkey since "consular access" to Germans detained in Turkey had been "restricted in violation of the obligations of international law."
Gabriel announced three points of sanctions, “cutting off EU funds”, “travel and investment warning for citizens” and “reconsidering credit guarantees”.
As part of a sweeping overhaul of bilateral ties, Germany is also “freezing all planned and ongoing arms deliveries to Turkey,” the top-circulation Bild newspaper reported without citing a source.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s right-hand man, Peter Altmaier, did not confirm or deny the report in a ZDF television interview but warned that “we will at any time consider whether further measures are necessary.”
Relations between Turkey and Germany, home to three million ethnic Turks, have been badly strained, particularly after the failed coup last year.
In the war of words, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble compared Turkey with the former communist German Democratic Republic (GDR).
“Turkey is arresting people arbitrarily and not respecting even minimal consular standards. It reminds me of the way it was in the GDR. When you travelled there, you knew if something happens to you, no one can help you,” said Schaeuble.
Altmaier also confirmed that Berlin would urge Brussels to freeze 4.45 billion euros ($5.2 billion) in EU funds theoretically earmarked until the end of 2020 for Turkey, a long-term aspirant for membership to the bloc.
*(German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Image credit: Latvian Foreign Ministry/ flickr). | 1,267,080 |
Previously, the dawn of the Viking Age has been dated to a June 793 raid by Norwegian Vikings on Lindisfarne. But a new study, led by Dr Steve Ashby of the University of York, UK, shows that Vikings were traveling from Norway to the vital trading center in Ribe on Denmark’s west coast as early as 725.
“Long voyages were underway early in the 8th century AD, with the establishment of a marketplace in Ribe,” Dr Ashby said.
“What were to become history’s Viking expeditions can be directly linked to the development of Ribe as a town and commercial center.”
Dr Ashby and his colleagues from the University of Cape Town and Aarhus University studied bone/antler objects and fragments of manufacturing waste from the archaeological remains of Ribe’s old marketplace. A number of samples turned out to be reindeer antler, which is not local to Denmark, and was probably brought in from Norway.
“The antlers are proof that Vikings visited Ribe, the oldest town in Scandinavia, well before their infamous pillaging. Those trips gave the Vikings the seafaring skills that would be used some 70 years later to strike England.”
Deer antlers were central to one of the key industries of the Viking Age: the manufacture of hair combs.
Access to antler was fundamental to this specialist craft, and it may have been difficult for a professional combmaker to find sufficient quantities locally, so some form of organized supply network is likely.
The new study shows that the early Vikings from Norway had access to large quantities of reindeer antlers and sold them to craftworkers in Southern Scandinavia.
“This shows us that merchants and other travelers from the north were visiting Ribe long before the start of the Viking Age as we know it. Even in its early stages, the town was attracting visitors from afar. We have long wondered whether Ribe, and places like it, kick-started the Viking expansion in trade, travel and warfare, but it has been difficult to prove,” said Dr Ashby, who is the first author on the paper in the European Journal of Archaeology.
“Now for the first time, we can confidently say that people in the more remote parts of Scandinavia were visiting places like Ribe, presumably for commercial gain, from a very early stage. It’s a vital contribution to the question of what caused the Viking Age: it looks as though towns and maritime trade may have been the engine driving all this change.”
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Steven P. Ashby et al. Urban Networks and Arctic Outlands: Craft Specialists and Reindeer Antler in Viking Towns. European Journal of Archaeology, published online April 1, 2015; doi: 10.1179/1461957115Y.0000000003 | 1,267,081 |
of their conversation for the benefit of the eavesdropper. The result is a theatrical performance with an audience of one. Often the performers try to bait the audience with outlandish political opinions or vulgarity. The audience, in the same way that the audience at a real performance must not disturb the players, cannot change facial expressions or show any evidence of listening, no matter how provocative the players are. This little theater, in which the actors try to make the audience speak and the audience pretends it isn't listening, goes by the name EchoSpiegelUnterhaltung (echo+mirror+talk) in German. lesbian+metamorphosis+pride: Among extreme macho types ("Ja, I did a number on the bitch!") it is a point of pride to be able to say that your ex-girlfriend has become a lesbian. Some men exult in lesbischMetamorphoseStolz (lesbian+metamorphosis+pride). There is even a folk song by that name, the final chorus of which has the singers smash their beer steins on the bar. Danish+pushbroom: The German longing for orderliness is legendary, but, curiously, the Germans themselves think that the Danish are the ones who take orderliness to unnecessary extremes. The Danes are too orderly. The Danes make too much out of being on time, being clean, and being efficient. A German who exceeds even the German standards of orderliness may get called a dänishBesen (Danish+pushbroom). grandfather+history+dilemma: Imagine growing up in a country where everyone over a certain age is under suspicion of having committed murder. One walks down a pleasant country lane. One comes to a charming village. Four old gentlemen spill out of a tavern. How many Jews, Gypsies, and dissenters did they kill? In moments like these, a young German may experience GrosvaterGeschichteDilemma (grandfather+history+dilemma), the sneaking suspicion that one is in the company of geriatric killers. lifetime+meridian+threshold: At age 20, a man can flirt with the entire spectrum of womankind. Teenage girls are flattered by his attention and matrons blush. In the ensuing two decades, however, the 20-year-old slowly concludes that he cannot flirt with all women, not without looking ridiculous or violating social proprieties. Teenage girls would think he was a creep. To flirt with older women would wound his vanity. The erstwhile 20-year-old must resign himself to flirting only with women his own age, and even at that he can't be sure they notice, because they are so preoccupied by their careers and children. His youth is finished. He has reached what Germans call his LebenMeridanSchwelle (lifetime+meridian+threshold). [email protected] | 1,267,082 |
A David-and Goliath story that delves into corporate scare tactics, legal effrontery, brand protection, media manipulation, online propagandizing and craven behavior, “Big Boys Gone Bananas!*” relates the story of Fredrik Gertten and the persecution of his 2009 film “Bananas!*” by Dole Foods. Crazy title and urgent message will likely get auds to forgive Gertten’s occasionally self-congratulatory tone and failure to mine the obvious humor in his own ordeal; proximity to U.S. elections will make the docu particularly pertinent, especially for politically minded viewers.
In 2009, Gertten, a Swede, brought his expose, “Bananas*” — about a lawsuit brought by workers against Dole for its use of banned pesticides in Nicaragua — to the Los Angeles Film Festival and, according to the current docu, watched objective journalism and moral courage dissolve before his eyes. After Dole claimed the movie was defamatory and threatened to sue, the festival took “Bananas*” out of competition. A cover story in the Los Angeles Business Journal toed the Dole line, as did public radio station KCRW and other L.A.-based media outlets, deriding the film without having seen it, according to “Big Boys.” UCLA law professor David Ginsburg wrote a supporting document for Dole that compared “Bananas*” to anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda. The festival finally agreed to screen the docu, but only after then-festival director Dawn Hudson read a statement that essentially threw the movie under a bus.
Gertten doesn’t present himself as an anti-corporate crusader: Being in the crosshairs of a multinational company left him at risk, based on what he could lose personally, with “Bananas!*” trapped in litigation limbo. “Big Boys” asks why the media took Dole’s side. Although their testimony sometimes causes the eyes to glaze over, various American and Swedish journalists, PR experts and Web-based propagandists line up and weigh in on exactly how a company like Dole gets others — including journalists, professors and festival boards — to do their dirty work.
What is shaping up as a losing proposition for Gertten is turned around only because Swedish parliamentarians on both sides of the aisle are so outraged by an American company’s attempt to quash a Swedish film that they take bipartisan umbrage. A burger chain in Sweden stops selling Dole products. A supermarket chain drops them, too. Individual consumers use their economic clout to force a corporation to act like a human being. The lasting legacy of “Big Boys Gone Bananas!*” may be that viewers never look the same way again at online reviews, business journalism or purportedly objective chat.
Tech credits are perfectly adequate. | 1,267,083 |
Vogue editor Robert Sullivan today published a profile of Apple's Jony Ive, documenting his rise from a small London design firm to become one of the most recognized and respected designers in the world. The life-changing moment happened when Ive met Steve Jobs and the two "just clicked."
Ive talks about feeling a little apart, like Jobs. "When you feel that the way you interpret the world is fairly idiosyncratic, you can feel somewhat ostracized and lonely"—big laugh here—"and I think that we both perceived the world in the same way."
In his time at Apple, Ive has led design efforts on a number of iconic products including the iMac, iPhone, MacBook Pro and most recently the Apple Watch, which the company unveiled alongside the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and which Ive showed to Sullivan weeks before its public unveiling. Speaking about the Apple Watch, Ive hopes to rekindle interest in a device the smartphone threatens to make obsolete.
"It’s strange when you’ve been working on something for three years..." he says, shaking his head. He describes the trajectory of clocks to watches: from a public clock in a Bavarian square to timepieces owned by royalty, to military chronometers, to the watch’s arrival, only at the beginning of the twentieth century, on the wrist. "It’s fascinating how people struggled with wearing this incredibly powerful technology personally." The cell phone, of course, killed the watch to some extent. Now he wants to reset the balance.
Ive's emphasis with the Watch and all of his designs is simplicity. "Everything we’ve been trying to do," he says, "it’s that pursuit of the very pure and very simple." Ive also strives to foster an intimate connection between people and the technology they use, a philosophy that is apparent in the Apple Watch.
"You know how very often technology tends to inhibit rather than enable more nuanced, subtle communication?" he asks. This is the question that haunts the son of a craftsman: Is he making tools that improve the world or shut people down? "We spent a lot of time working on this special mechanism inside, combined with the built-in speaker" —he demonstrates on his wrist. You can select a chosen person, also wearing the watch, and transmit your pulse to them. "You feel this very gentle tap," he says, "and you can feel my heartbeat. This is a very big deal, I think. It’s being able to communicate in a very gentle way."
The full interview and profile is an interesting look at Ive, his design philosophy, and the Apple Watch. Ive's careful design will be put to the test once again when the Apple Watch hits retail shelves early next year. The smartwatch will be available in a variety of configurations designed to appeal to athletes, fashionistas, and the everyday consumer. | 1,267,084 |
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This article was first published in the SN Military.Space newsletter. If you would like to get our news and insights for national security space professionals every Tuesday, sign up here for your free subscription.
Geospatial imagery and services provider DigitalGlobe last week got a major vote of confidence from its primary customer, the U.S. intelligence community. The company secured a $900 million contract extension from the National Reconnaissance Office to provide commercial imagery until August 2023.
Dan Jablonsky, president of DigitalGlobe, told SpaceNewsthat the contract extension is proof that the government values “continuity” despite the rapid growth of new commercial players such as Planet. NRO added three option years collectively worth approximately $900 million to the EnhancedView follow-on contract. The NRO in September assumed responsibility of the contract that used to be managed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Along with the imagery-buying extension, the NRO signed a separate contract for an undisclosed amount to fund a DigitalGlobe cloud computing infrastructure upgrade to ease the sharing of data between the company and the government.
Jablonsky said the industry is being disrupted by innovators, “but what we’re seeing with this contract is that even as disruption happens, high quality data and information is essential to make decisions on rapid timelines and in the environment you need to make to make them,” he said. “It shows the importance of continuity.”
The original EnhancedView deal was signed in 2010. With three years tacked on, the estimated revenue for DigitalGlobe over the life of the contract would reach about $1.5 billion, said Jablonsky.
The company will support the NRO with three satellites — WorldView-1, 2 and 3 “as long they continue to perform,” he said. Should there be any interruptions or degradation in their performance, DigitalGlobe can tap into WorldView-4, and is currently building a $600 million WorldView Legion constellation. “It will be more than two satellites, but we haven’t said how many,” Jablonsky said. The first Legion satellite is scheduled to launch in 2021.
The NRO also has extended for another year DigitalGlobe’s contract to provide machine learning services. These are provided through the NGA’s Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery (Global EGD) program. Users can scan through vast quantities of imagery and other data with machine learning to detect change. The program was renewed for the seventh year in September for $44 million.
A spokesman said DigitalGlobe is “expanding its footprint within the U.S. government in a number of ways. We’re currently building a cloud-based analytics hub for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and NASA recently contracted with us for commercial Earth observation data.” | 1,267,086 |
Untitled Goose Game may be the working title for a hilarious stealth game where things run a-fowl (pun intended). Or, it could be the finalized name which sums things up rather succinctly. Either way, regardless of what name will be attached to it come launch day, Untitled Goose Game is charming, funny, and an absolute joy to play. Let’s just hope it can keep it up for its entire runtime.
At some point, everyone’s either been the victim of a trollish pet, or has laughed out loud at a YouTube clip where someone else has fallen victim to… a trollish pet. Either way, it’s easy to anthropomorphize our lovable canines and furry felines — there’s something about imagining that a cat or dog actually intended to be a nuisance that makes their penchant for destruction all the more palatable.
Untitled Goose Game taps into that primal tendency. Players take control of a goose, who (you guessed it) has an uncontrollable urge to troll everyone around him. The game’s website sums it up rather well, with a simple yet effective tagline: “It’s a lovely morning in the village, and you are a horrible goose.”
Of course, while you’re free to annoy those pesky humans any which way you choose, pausing the game brings up a list of specific ways to wreak havoc. In the Untitled Goose Game’s playable demo (which to my knowledge, is all we’ve seen of it so far) there are a handful of straightforward goals to accomplish, though some objectives do require some careful planning. Getting into the garden can be done by distracting the groundskeeper and tricking him into opening the front gate. More complex tasks — like stealing his keys or tossing his rake in a nearby pond — will require some forethought and a bit of sneakiness on your end.
The moment to moment gameplay deftly blends some light puzzle-solving and stealth, while having the player take control of a goose (as opposed to a neighborhood brat, for instance) turns any sense of blatant antagonism into a more palatable form of troublemaking. Still, if there’s one thing I’m still skeptical about, it’s Untitled Goose Game‘s ability to keep things feeling fresh over multiple levels. As a result of the same level being shown off for the past year or so, I’m left wondering what else the developers have to show off. Some screenshots and trailer footage hint at more complex interactions (like instigating a fight between two neighbors), so I’m hopeful that developer House House has a few yet-to-be-revealed tricks up its sleeve.
Untitled Goose Game is set to release in 2019, on Windows, Mac OS, and Nintendo Switch. Be sure to check out the rest of our coverage from GDC 2019. | 1,267,087 |
The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal has led to global attention on the social media giant’s data on its users. The scandal involved a Cambridge University researcher leaking the Facebook data of millions of people four years ago to a political consulting firm associated with United States President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, that was then potentially used to craft ads for the campaign.
What data are you really giving to Facebook?
Have you ever thought about how much of your personal data Facebook holds? There is a saying on the internet going around: “when the product is free, it means you are the product”. Facebook makes revenue by selling valuable newsfeed real-estate to marketers that pay good money to show ads to people most likely to buy them — in other words, you. Downloading your Facebook data reveals a lot about what the social media giant knows about your personal life. Reports from people that have tried it suggests that Facebook’s profiling capability knows the brand of clothing you like based on your Instagram following, to an ‘entire call history with [their] partner’s mum’. It even tracks your web history using embedded Javascript — Facebook users have surely experienced browsing for products on price comparison sites and online retailers, closing the tab, only to see the forgone product appear in an advertisement on Facebook.
Maxdata.io offers you the same consumer experience, without the annoying ads and privacy breaches.
Maxdata.io offers a platform that allows consumers to to connect directly with, and share data with the service provider securely and anonymously via a blockchain solution. By doing so, the overhead costs associated with a middleman are removed, and both service provider and consumer benefit from reduced costs. You, the consumer, simply need to provide information relating to your service needs and how much you are currently paying for them. Your personal data is encrypted, anonymised and provided to the blockchain. Service providers then use this data to analyze the market to build and send customised offers to you directly, which you can then accept with tokens. You retain your privacy and control of your personal data as your information is provided anonymously through Maxdata.io’s blockchain solution.
Facebook vs Maxdata.io
How does Maxdata.io compare, offering the same tailored consumer experience without the privacy breaches and irrelevant data storage?
Maxdata.io Vs Facebook
Maxdata.io offers the consumer the ownership of their private data, giving them the choice of who has access to their data. Data is also shared directly between supplier and consumer, all the while being secured and anonymized on the blockchain. Private data is also securely stored. With Maxdata.io’s solution, users have the ability to choose what offers and ads they see, allowing more control than Facebook provides. In addition to a transparent and reachable team, Maxdata offers the same, if not better, tailored consumer experience without the privacy breaches and irrelevant data storage. | 1,267,088 |
SYDNEY/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Australia’s Qantas Airways said on Tuesday it had amended its website to no longer refer to Taiwan and Hong Kong as countries, rather than Chinese territories, after China issued a warning to foreign airlines last week.
FILE PHOTO: Two Qantas passenger jets cross each other at Kingsford Smith International airport in Sydney June 27, 2013. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo
China has stepped up efforts to police how foreign businesses refer to parts of China, or territories claimed by Beijing, including Taiwan and Hong Kong - even if only in pull-down menus on websites.
“Due to an oversight, some Chinese territories were incorrectly listed as countries on parts of our website. We are correcting this error,” said Qantas in an emailed statement.
China’s civil aviation authority told foreign airlines to check their websites and make any needed changes, but the campaign goes beyond just airlines.
To comply, Qantas has now deleted several lists that categorized destinations by country.
China last week suspended Marriott International’s Chinese website for a week to punish the world’s biggest hotel chain for listing Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as separate countries in a customer questionnaire.
A Qantas spokeswoman did not immediately respond to questions as to whether the airline expected a similar action by the Chinese authorities.
Public apologies from Delta Air Lines, Zara and Medtronic for similar offences have so far satisfied China, which has grown increasingly sensitive to issues of sovereignty.
Qantas is the first Australian company to respond to Beijing’s heightened vigilance, though all firms exporting everything from iron ore to baby formula should be taking heed.
China, which is easily Australia’s biggest trading partner, bought A$93 billion ($73.98 billion) worth of Australian goods and services last year.
Hong Kong and Macau are former European colonies that are now part of China but run largely autonomously. China annexed Tibet in 1950, although Beijing has long claimed the Himalayan region has been an indivisible part of China throughout history.
Taiwan is China’s most sensitive territorial issue. The ruling Communist Party considers the self-ruled, democratic island a wayward province and refuses to renounce the threat of force to bring it into the fold.
On Tuesday, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had contacted relevant companies to comply with its own government’s strict position on this issue, and to reject China’s difficult and unilateral requests.
“We are closely watching the following developments,” said foreign ministry spokesman Andrew H.C. Lee.
“Of course, with the fact that Taiwan is a sovereign, independent country, there won’t be any change to this as a result of China’s unilateral way of handling things.” | 1,267,089 |
Had there never been a Mitchell report, or if Jason Grimsley had never spilled the beans to a grand jury, or if Andy Pettitte himself had not been so truthful in his congressional affidavit, the question of whether or not Pettitte belongs in the Hall of Fame would have made for great conversation.
By many yardsticks, he is a shoo-in, and by others, he is close enough that a strong case could be made in either direction.
But one slip-up renders the conversation moot: Pettitte admitted to using HGH, he said, on just two occasions in 2004 to speed his recovery from an elbow injury.
Andy Pettitte's exploits on the field will be talked about for years after his retirement. But one off-the-field choice will ruin his Hall candidacy. Rich Schultz/Getty Images
As much as I like and admire Pettitte, who announced on Friday that he will retire after this season, I can't vote for him, and judging by recent results for other known steroid abusers like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Pettitte's former friend Roger Clemens, a lot of other voters feel the same way.
Contrary to what the new breed of steroid apologists -- the ones who believe any means to success is justified -- would have you believe, this is not a moral judgment.
It is a strict reading of the Hall's own criteria for induction, which says as follows: "Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the team[s] on which the player played."
By most of those standards, Pettitte is very much worthy of consideration.
His career total of 255 wins is more than Whitey Ford's final haul. He also had more wins than Juan Marichal, Don Drysdale, Jim Bunning, Catfish Hunter, Lefty Gomez and of course, Sandy Koufax.
His career ERA of 3.86 would be the highest of any Hall of Fame pitcher, but when the current leader in the clubhouse, Red Ruffing (3.80), retired in 1947, the league average ERA was 3.71. This year, the AL average ERA is 4.01. Still, this would be a sticking point for a lot of voters.
And Pettitte's career WAR, if you're into that sort of thing, is 60.3, slightly below that of the average among Hall of Fame pitchers, but still equal to or better than that of Bunning, Ford, Koufax, Hunter and about 25 others who have a plaque on the wall.
Pettitte's winning percentage of.627 is well above the average among Hall of Famers, and he has never had a losing season, although with the way the Yankees have been playing lately, that could end over the course of the final nine games this season. | 1,267,090 |
Navjot Singh Sidhu said failing to protect the CRPF personnel was condemnable.
Highlights Navjot Singh Sidhu claimed that his comments had been "distorted"
"Was saying we need to find permanent solution to terrorism": Mr Sidhu
His comments were seen as a defense of Pakistan's role in terror attack
A day after Navjot Singh Sidhu faced a public backlash for allegedly trying to defend Pakistan's case in the Pulwama terror attack, the cricketer-turned-politician today claimed that his comments had been "distorted". "I was only saying that we need to find a permanent solution to the problem of terrorism. Why should soldiers be made to suffer each time? Such attacks have been happening for the last 70 years," he said.
Although Mr Sidhu had condemned the death of 40 CRPF soldiers in a terror attack at Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama in a statement on Friday, he reportedly followed it up by asking how "an entire nation can be blamed for the deeds committed by a handful". This was widely seen as a defense of Pakistan's role in the episode, and many angry netizens retaliated on Twitter by seeking a boycott of The Kapil Sharma Show - a popular television comedy programme of which the former cricketer is a member - unless he was removed. He is in the process of being replaced on the show by actor Archana Puran Singh.
"Terrorism has no religion or nationality," the Punjab Minister said in his clarification today. "The best antidote to venom is venom, and this should be dealt in the same manner. What I actually said was that we should always be open to doing good, just as we should be open to crushing evil."
He then went on to question why better arrangements were not made to ensure the CRPF soldiers' safety in Jammu and Kashmir. "When politicians come out, entire streets are blocked for their safety. But when 3,000 jawans - the very people who protect us - are out on the streets, why isn't their security a priority? They had been out since 3 am... why were they not airlifted?" he asked.
Mr Sidhu maintained that the sordid episode should not affect India's collaborative effort with Pakistan to build the much-awaited corridor to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in the neighbouring country. "Now, because of these three-four people (the terrorists), will we raise a question on the Kartarpur corridor? The nation cannot bow in front of terrorists," he said.
The politician has been an active proponent of the Kartarpur corridor, aimed at linking the Baba Nanak village in Punjab with the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Narowal, for the benefit of Sikh pilgrims. Both sides are yet to finalise the modalities of travel for Indian pilgrims.
(With inputs from Agencies) | 1,267,091 |
Bring Fantastic Arcade home to you with five amazing and exclusive games, presented by Austin's independent game collective JUEGOS RANCHEROS!
We brought together five of the most talented indie developers from around the world to create new games, all of which made their debut at our seventh-annual indie game festival, Fantastic Arcade, which took place in Austin, TX, September 22nd through 29th, 2016.
All proceeds from the sale of this bundle benefit our non-profit organization. Help us showcase more amazing games both here in Austin and a city near you, and commission more fantastic developers to create new games like these!
Included in this bundle are all five games you see here, along with extras & bonus materials! Here is what you'll get:
NIUM, by Moppin & Nemk
DOWNWELL creator Moppin has partnered with Nemk (one of our favorite artists working in games) to present NIUM: a post-apocalyptic action game where players will crawl through a ruined, abandoned, STALKER-esque exclusion zone inhabited only by a variety of mutated wildlife. (Windows, Mac)
ALPHABET, by Keita Takahashi & Adam Saltsman
Originally available only to select Kickstarter backers, ALPHABET is a slapstick marathon footrace for 1- to 26-players from Keita Takahashi (renowned creator of KATAMARI DAMACY & NOBY NOBY BOY) and Adam Saltsman (designer behind CANABALT & OVERLAND). Run, jump, eat, sing, poop, and sleep through silly obstacle courses! (Windows, Mac, Linux)
INSPECTOR WOOF, by Klondike
From Klondike — France's upstart super-collective of indie game stars — INSPECTOR WOOF & THE VEGETABLE HIGH SCHOOL is a procedurally generated mystery adventure game where every student is hiding terrible secrets. Armed only with your freshly-printed hints sheet, dig deep into their guilty consciences and expose the truth! (Windows, Mac, Linux)
F2OGGY, by Nathalie Lawhead
F2OGGY (Only one survives!) is a Brute-Force Frog-Combat Simulator, by the IGF-winning creator Nathalie Lawhead, made for a growing audience of competitive frogfans. Each player is divided into a faction (a Frog-Faction), and must defeat their opponent using High-Velocity Amphibian Impact Lunges. (Windows, Mac)
LASSOS, by SOKPOP
From SOKPOP — the Dutch collective behind indie cult classics like the low-fi sci-fi exploration game BERNBAND — comes LASSOS, a game fit for its Texas debut: throw lassos, get money! (Windows, Mac) | 1,267,092 |
strong and possible workhorse in the upcoming postseason which starts in April of this year. His goals-against-average has dipped below three per game sitting at 2.74 but his.887 save percentage remains somewhat of a concern moving forward. With this win, McIntyre now has a 2018-19 season record of 16-8-3. His 16 wins are good enough for 5th in the league, his goals-against-average is ranked 19th, and save percentage out of 53 goaltenders in the league ranked 46th.
The Providence Bruins get back to work this week starting on Friday, February 1st when they travel to the mid-Atlantic for two games in as many nights against the Charlotte Checkers for the weekend series. The Bruins are only two points from third place Lehigh Valley Phantoms and 15 points from Division-leading and Conference-leading Checkers Club.
Mark Allred’s Providence Bruins Top-Three Goals of The Week!
My top three #AHLBruins goals of week 16. With my third goal star of the week I selected the goal from Zach Senyshyn in Saturday night’s game against the Thunderbirds. Watch his work along the boards and the way he gets to the net for the 3-2 game-winner. Smith & Zboril w/helpers pic.twitter.com/MxeRorgTWr — Mark Allred (@BlackAndGold277) January 27, 2019
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My top three #AHLBruins goals of week 16. With my second goal star of the week I selected a third-period goal from Karson Kuhlman in Friday nights game against the Checkers. The rookie sets up a sweet give&go with streaking veteran Jordan Szwarz who dished it back for the 1-timer pic.twitter.com/SXDjp1c26C — Mark Allred (@BlackAndGold277) January 27, 2019
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My top three #AHLBruins goals of week 16. With my first goal star of the week I selected the first-period goal from Trent Frederic which was the first of two on Friday night against the Checkers. Watch Szwarz track the puck down and make the tip pass to Frederic for his 9th of YR pic.twitter.com/dqgQo6mjJW — Mark Allred (@BlackAndGold277) January 27, 2019
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Check out the available tickets from our advertising partner SeatGiant for your next Boston Bruins game. Click the link below, and when purchasing any event ticket, from the NHL, NBA, MLB, NFL to concerts and shows, please use discount code BNGP to save a little money. Thank You! | 1,267,093 |
Insurance regulators in Ohio say their residents can expect their premiums to spike by double digits on the federal exchange created for the state under Obamacare.
Individuals will see an average rise of 13 percent, while small businesses should expect an 11-percent increase for health plans sold in 2015.
The health exchange is a virtual marketplace where consumers, under the new health care law, can compare private plans and qualify for government subsidies that help them pay their premiums.
Among 16 companies filing to sell plans on the exchange, proposals for the coming year average premiums of $374 per month compared to $332 per month for the same coverage last year, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance.
“It’s bad news, no doubt, but it’s what we expected and it’s what the research we did in advance predicted would happen,” Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor, a Republican, said. “Ohio has traditionally had a very competitive insurance market which meant our rates were lower than a lot of other states. That means that Obamacare is hitting us harder and driving our costs up significantly.”
The increase plays into Republican claims that Obamacare will cause insurance premiums to skyrocket.
The Obama administration said there is good news embedded in Ohio’s announcement.
Four more providers are participating in the state’s marketplace next year, allowing customers to shop for the lowest price among competing insurers and, on the bottom end, pay less than the 2014 average so long as they are willing to switch plans.
Insurance commissioners must approve the rates before they are sold, and insurers who propose increases of 10-percent or more are subject to review by outside experts. And, it said, the premium numbers do not take into account income-based premium assistance offered on the exchanges.
“Before the Affordable Care Act, consumers in individual market regularly faced annual double-digit premium increases,” said Aaron Albright, spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“This is just the beginning of the process and as we saw last year all across the country, proposed rates were a high water mark and final rates were often lower than initially proposed. We are very pleased to see that the number of issuers planning to offer Marketplace plans in Ohio has jumped by 25 percent,” he said.
But for now, Republican leaders in Ohio insist that the figures are a bad sign.
“Higher premiums will continue to put a strain on consumers and small businesses at a time when our state’s economy is showing strong signs of recovery and growth,” Ms. Taylor said. “Continued and unnecessary headwinds out of Washington are making it more difficult for job creators, hard-working Ohioans and their families to purchase health insurance.”
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Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. | 1,267,094 |
skills. B vitamins are one of the first things alcohol sucks out of your body. You're also going to needs some electrolytes. Those little pouches of Emergen-C are perfect for this. They're cheap, they're electrolyte-balanced, it's easy to keep a couple in your pocket, AND they have all the B vitamins you need. Very handy at parties.
Approach Caffeine With Caution
Like Jack n' Cokes or Vodka Red Bulls to give you a little extra pep? Watch out. While it's true that caffeine will keep you more awake, it will not keep you more sober. In fact, this goes against the "listen to your body rule," because you are artificially tricking it into thinking it's better off than it is. This can lead to too much drinking, too fast, and serious black-out experiences. You're also going to be drunker than you think you are and are more likely to do something stupid. Additionally, caffeine is a diuretic, like alcohol, so it will further dehydrate you and increase your chances of getting the spins faster. We're not saying we never do this, we're just saying that you should be careful when you do. Four Loko was banned for a reason.
Training
This is a tough one to recommend, but it works. Seasoned, well-practiced drinkers can drink more (generally). Alcohol is a toxin, and our bodies adapt to metabolize and deal with it. That kind of adaptation takes time and repetition. The more tolerant we are to the toxin, the slower our bodies try to break it down, and thus the slower the rate at which it is absorbed into our bloodstreams. According to DUI Fighters "This rate varies considerably between individuals; experienced male drinkers with a high body mass may process up to 30 grams (38 mL) per hour, but a more typical figure is 10 grams (12.7 mL) per hour."
So if you know that you're going to a wild party in two weeks, you can slowly get your body used to the alcohol by drinking more during that period. Staying totally sober for two weeks to "get ready for the party" will be like going 0 to 60 way faster than your body can handle. Don't binge, but do drink enough to build a tolerance to the chemicals. Afterward, detox.
Use Brain Good
Obviously, the most important thing to do here is think. There's a fine line between "life of the party" and "obnoxious idiot." Don't get into some kind of alcoholic pissing-contest with your coworkers or relatives—that is a lose-lose situation. Use your head, take it slow and easy, have fun, then take a friggin' cab home. That recipe should ensure you're invited to many more holiday parties for years to come.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Elnur | 1,267,095 |
Scott Greer, Daily Caller, April 28, 2015
Freddie Gray, the deceased man at the center of the unrest in Baltimore, had numerous run-ins with the law prior to his fatal detainment in April–with offenses ranging from felony drug possession to assault.
The 25-year-old’s criminal history starts in July 2007 with an arrest for “possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute” and “unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance.” A month later, he was charged with three separate counts of drug possession, a count of violating probation, and making a “false statement to a peace officer.”
Heavy.com posted Gray’s complete rap sheet on Monday and it includes over several charges–primarily for offenses relating to drug distribution.
March 20, 2015: Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance
March 13, 2015: Malicious destruction of property, second-degree assault
January 20, 2015: Fourth-degree burglary, trespassing
January 14, 2015: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute
December 31, 2014: Possession of narcotics with intent to distribute
December 14, 2014: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance
August 31, 2014: Illegal gambling, trespassing
January 25, 2014: Possession of marijuana
September 28, 2013: Distribution of narcotics, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, second-degree assault, second-degree escape
April 13, 2012: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, violation of probation
July 16, 2008: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession with intent to distribute
March 28, 2008: Unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance
March 14, 2008: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to manufacture and distribute
February 11, 2008: Unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance
August 29, 2007: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, violation of probation
August 28, 2007: Possession of marijuana
August 23, 2007: False statement to a peace officer, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance
July 16, 2007: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance (2 counts)
The Washington Post reported on Friday that Gray had a lengthy criminal history and even had a two-year stint in prison. According to The Post, his charges were primarily for selling heroin and marijuana. However, only a few of the counts he was charged with resulted in convictions.
Before he died, Gray had two pending drug charges against him–one of which was a felony count for dealing heroin. {snip}
{snip} | 1,267,096 |
The Prodigy star Keith Flint's provisional cause of death has been recorded as hanging, an inquest has heard.
The 49-year-old was found at his home in Essex on Monday 4 March, with bandmate Liam Howlett saying he had "taken his own life" in a tribute post on social media.
Image: Flint (centre) with The Prodigy bandmates Maxim (left) and Liam Howlett
An inquest into his death has now been opened, with coroner's officer Lynsey Chaffe saying the cause of death has been provisionally recorded as hanging.
"Police attended, all protocols were followed and his death was confirmed as not suspicious," she told the two-minute hearing in Chelmsford.
A post-mortem was carried out at Broomfield Hospital three days after Flint's death, the inquest heard.
Further investigations are still under way, with the results of toxicology reports awaited.
Senior coroner for Essex, Caroline Beasley-Murray, opened and adjourned the inquest until July 23 for a full hearing.
Image: Flint was one of the most recognisable frontmen of the 1990s
Flint found fame with The Prodigy as a dancer in the '90s, with the band emerging from the underground rave scene and hitting the top 10 with singles including Charly, Out Of Space, No Good (Start The Dance) and Poison.
But it was when he moved to become the main vocalist on tracks including Firestarter and Breathe, from third album The Fat Of The Land, that the band were really propelled into the mainstream.
They released their latest album No Tourists in November, their seventh consecutive number one record.
The band were due to tour the US and also play Glastonbury Festival, but have now cancelled all of their shows.
Over the weekend, the band thanked fans for the outpouring of support and tributes posted on social media in the wake of Flint's death, saying the messages "kept us going".
Contemporaries such as Faithless and The Chemical Brothers were among those to pay tribute, but there were also more unlikely but touching posts from musicians including James Blunt and Brian May.
It is with deepest shock and sadness that we can confirm the death of our brother and best friend Keith Flint. A true pioneer, innovator and legend. He will be forever missed.
We thank you for respecting the privacy of all concerned at this time. pic.twitter.com/nQ3Ictjj7t — The Prodigy (@the_prodigy) March 4, 2019
In their own tribute, The Prodigy described Flint as "a brother and best friend".
"A true pioneer, innovator and legend. He will be forever missed."
:: Anyone experiencing difficulties can contact Samaritans UK on 116 123, or by emailing [email protected] | 1,267,097 |
A billboard in Dallas, Texas has sparked backlash from conservatives on social media and rightfully so, as it promotes the destruction of human life as “self-care.”
“Black women take care of their families by taking care of themselves. Abortion is self-care,” the billboard by The Afiya Center reads, along with the hashtag #TrustBlackWomen.
The group was responding to a billboard message a pastor put up last month that said “Abortion is not health care. It hurts women and murders their babies.”
“It sparked anger in me,” Marsha Jones from The Afiya Center told NewsFix. “It is shaming, it is stigmatizing, it’s trying to control women’s reproductive choices.” […] “The billboard is to support women in a loving way, in a non-judgy way, and to give them language to help them to understand why they had to make the decision they had to make so that they could fair better and be better for the children they still have and they may have one day,” Jones said. (NewsFix)
Prominent black anti-abortion activists were quick to speak out about it, reminding the group that Planned Parenthood continues with the eugenic racism of its founder, Margaret Sanger.
The boldness of abortion-racism.
Black communities are being targeted by the abortion industry with black women 3times more likely to abort their babies than white women. Yet,here is a billboard campaign to glamorize the killing of black babies.
Dear sisters,wake up & walk away. https://t.co/8O1uGDmQcN — Obianuju Ekeocha (@obianuju) August 29, 2018
The world’s largest population control entity, the @FordFoundation, funds “reproductive justice” orgs million$$$ of dollars. Now, those “minority-run” groups are claiming that killing members of your family is “self-care”. Help combat this #fakefeminism. https://t.co/AEGkewB5rE pic.twitter.com/Zl2krSQZea — Ryan Bomberger (@ryanbomberger) August 29, 2018
Keep up with the latest pro-life news and information on Twitter. Follow @LifeNewsHQ
WOWW. So for BLACK women, killing our offspring is like a day at the spa. They don’t market this way to any other group. @PlannedParenthood still operating on behalf of Margaret Sanger. pic.twitter.com/PkWeT6Xcz0 — Stacy Washington (@StacyOnTheRight) August 29, 2018
LifeNews Note: Leah Barkoukis writes for TownHall, where this column originally appeared. | 1,267,098 |
Union leaders at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are getting a better sense of how many people will be laid off once the newspaper’s shortened printing schedule takes effect at the end of the month.
The once-daily newspaper, which employs people represented by multiple unions, announced in July that it will only print three days a week—Sunday, Thursday and Friday.
“I’ve been here for 50 years and I’ve never seen anything like this from this employer,” said Joe Molinero, president of Teamsters Local 211, whose union members deliver papers to drop off sites. “It’s just terrible.”
Molinero knew jobs in his unit would be cut after the July 18 announcement, but wasn’t sure how many people would lose their jobs. Now, he says it’s clear his unit is facing the most drastic cuts. He represents approximately 93 people, and 32 will be out of a job beginning October 1, when the shortened print schedule begins.
For the remaining 61 members, he estimates about half will lose their health care on October 1. Under the new printing schedule, about half of his unit will work four-day work weeks, or 28 hours a week. The Post-Gazette says employees who work under 30 hours a week will not receive health care.
“I guarantee come October 1 they’ll all go look for other jobs,” said Molinero, who held a standing-room-only meeting with his members last week to talk about the cuts. “These guys they’re going to start getting rid of have over 20 years, 30 years, and even 40 years [of experience]. The guys with 40 years are going to be forced to retire.”
Four of the nearly two dozen pressmen positions are also expected to be cut. Those employees are responsible for printing the actual newspaper.
“We’re trying to save as many jobs as we can,” said Chris Lang, president of GCC IBT Local 24M/9N, the union that represents the pressmen.
According to a person familiar with the Post-Gazette's labor situation, 14 journalists have departed the organization since June, either by retiring, finding employment elsewhere, or without a job waiting for them. Managers were offered buyouts with a maximum of four months pay, but members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, the union that represents many newsroom employees, were not.
Newsroom departures include: Liz Behrman, Dave Bennett, Mike Bodura, Rebecca Droke, Chris Huffaker, Jim Iovino, L.A. Johnson, Trevor Lenzmeier, Courtney Linder, Dave Molinari, Patrice Noel, Gary Rotstein, Joe Smydo and Sarah Spencer.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did not respond to a request for comment. | 1,267,099 |
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