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Administrators come and go on Harvard’s campus, and while each brings some new change or development to the University as a whole, few have the chance to see the breadth of change and help to impact the lives of the student body as Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67, who announced he would be stepping down last week.
Dean Dingman has served the College faithfully for many decades, but the work he has done during the 13 years he has spent at the helm of the Freshman Dean’s Office has helped transform the first-year experience. His actions have wrought positive changes that have positively benefited numerous freshmen, including the “Reflecting On Your Life” group sessions and a focus on matching incoming students with compatible roommates.
In addition, he helped to implement or bolster many pre-orientation programs, including spearheading the newly-announced bridge program for low-income and first generation students, after months of controversy and debate surrounding it. Many students have spoken positively of Dingman’s effect on their experiences, having recently matriculated, and it is clear that the dean has contributed to inclusion and belonging on our campus. We are grateful to him for all he has done.
We hope the next Dean of Freshmen will continue Dingman’s commitment to making sure every freshman gets a transformative first-year experience. Some ways in which we hope to see this is by the prioritization of the aforementioned bridge program, and by the Freshman Dean’s Office working with the Undergraduate Council to move forward on policies regarding social spaces for first-years. We also hope the Dean and the FDO continue soliciting student feedback and have actionable responses that take into account students’ needs and concerns.
In addition, Dingman’s notable transition on Harvard’s social group policy just a few weeks ago, during deliberations on the faculty motion to reverse the sanctions, shows a deep, incisive reflection on the state of the clubs on the undergraduate experience. Dingman was a member of the Delphic as a student here, and given this role, we are glad to hear his criticism of the clubs’ current behavior.
We’ll be sad to see Dingman go—he has been an uncommonly kind and dedicated figure, and a hallmark of many of our freshman years. For all of us, Dingman, clad in his signature red jacket, occasionally joining us for meals in Annenberg, will forever remain a part of our memory as first-year students. We wish good old Tommy D.—as he is affectionately known among freshmen—and his successor the very best.
This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.
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We have forever been trying to conserve energy and move towards a world that is less polluted and more environmentally friendly. Fossil fuels have been a leading cause of concern for environmentalists due to the alarming levels of pollution around the globe.
Not just roads but fossil fuels are increasingly used in waterways too due to which, the condition is moving from bad to worse. Now imagine a cruise ship in this picture that runs on hydrogen and solar energy!
Recent news brought hope to a lot of people around the world where a cruise ship developed by Victorien Erussard named Energy Observer caught the world’s attention. So, what is different about this cruise ship?
It runs on not one but two renewable sources and is now touring the oceans across the world by operating on these non-toxic energy resources. This entire circumnavigation is a way of verifying whether or not this ship can, indeed, sail effortlessly and without a hiccup on renewable energy resources without the use of any fossil fuels.
The ship works by eliminating the ions and salt from the water of the ocean and breaking them down into hydrogen and oxygen, that are its base elements. This hydrogen is then stored until it is required to run like a fuel.
As a supplement, there are also wind turbines and solar panels to run the ship.
The Energy Observer is being sponsored by Toyota and will be touring the world for a span of six years. It will be powered by solar, hydrogen, wind and water energy exclusively.
The plan is for the vessel to travel to fifty different countries during that time including Italy and Venice.
Vehicles This 17-Meter Long High-Speed Boat Can Never Capsize
This innovative idea came to Erussard when he felt the need for an alternative source of energy to power vehicles. This happened when he was racing on his boat across the expanse of an ocean and suddenly ran out of power.
This event, five years ago, prompted the developer to come up with a concept that today, is quite a revolutionary event. Now, the catamaran is proudly sailing the world’s oceans on renewable and non-toxic energy.
The motive of Erussard and his comradery Jerome Delafosse is to successfully finish this entire trip solely on the energy generated by the wind, waves, sun, and hydrogen without the use of any fossil fuels.
Energy Observer has already completed more than 7000 nautical miles since the commencement of its oceanic voyage. The ship plans to take 101 halts while covering 50 countries in six years.
The vessel is also extremely light and noise-free, as opposed to MS Turanor PlanetSolar, which was the first boat ever to go on such an oceanic expedition.
The ship is currently circling the planet without the use of fossil fuels. If this voyage is successful, it could answer a lot of questions and resolve a lot of environmental problems in the near future.
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Pentax 645Z Image Quality Analysis: Astronomical resolution and detail on screen and in print
Our coverage of the new 51MP medium-format Pentax 645Z continues with our famous image quality comparison and print quality analysis. Given its new massive 51-megapixel CMOS sensor, the 645Z is pretty much in a league of its own -- apart from other high-end medium format cameras, of course -- especially against other DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Nevertheless, full-frame sensors are making leaps and bounds in the resolution department, and there are a few models that are testing the boundaries between 35mm full-frame cameras and medium format territory, namely, the Nikon D810 and Sony A7R, which both feature just over 36 megapixels in resolution.
Now, comparing a 51MP medium-format camera to a couple of 36MP full-frame ones may seem like an apples-to-oranges comparison, but given the level of detail and sheer resolution that these two full-frame cameras can pump out, many photographers are surely wondering if medium format is even necessary now, or is the higher-resolution from cameras like the 645Z still king for things like landscapes, studio portrait and other commercial photography work.
Another aspect of comparing the new Pentax 645Z to both its predecessor, the Pentax 645D, and these two 36MP full-frame cameras, is the 645Z's ability to shoot at higher ISOs. The 645D's CCD sensor topped out at a mere ISO 1600, and nowadays, most cameras shoot way past that sensitivity. The 645Z follows this trend with the ability to shoot up to a whopping ISO 204,800. At a more appropriate level with our comparisons, you can now see how the 645Z performs at ISO 3200 compared to these two high-res 35mm cameras.
Head over to our Pentax 645Z Image Quality Comparison, as well as our Print Quality Analysis to see how this new medium-format monster performs, both on-screen and in real life, as ISO sensitivity rises.
*[Note: we no longer provide print quality ratings for sizes larger than 30 x 40 inches, as we felt this wasn't particularly meaningful. At low ISOs, print sizes from high-quality cameras are pretty much limited only by their resolution, vs noise and noise-reduction processing. Going forward, we'll simply note "30x40 or larger" for cameras that achieve that level. As we see it, the real challenge comes at higher ISOs, where noise and noise-reduction processing become bigger factors, and maximum sizes would be more representative of sizes a majority of users would actually print at.]
And if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out Mike Tomkin's latest Shooter's Report installment, in which he tested this big boy in some more challenging or unique shooting situations, including high ISO, HDR as well as video shooting.
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, they might be forced to pay more for housing up front in order for a private landlord to agree to rent to them, according to the Eviction Lab.
Evictions disproportionately impact people of color, particularly woman of color, and perpetuates social and economic inequities within the housing market.
On average, black renters have twice as many eviction orders filed against them by landlords compared to white renters, according to a recently released report by the ACLU.
Regenbogen says people with young children are also particularly at risk of eviction.
“It’s often a source of friction between landlords and tenants, even though that’s not supposed to be the case, as familial status is a protected class,” he said.
Others with higher risk include individuals with disabilities, older adults and victims of domestic abuse.
When a person is facing eviction, they have limited options. They can find a way to come up with late rent, vacate the unit or fight the case in court. But because eviction is often due to financial strains, finding representation for court can be a challenge.
“There’s been some strides in that area in the last couple of years in Colorado, but we found in a previous study that about 90% of landlords are represented by counsel, and less than 2% of renters, at least in the Denver evictions that we looked at, were represented,” Regenbogen said.
Regenbogen says the best option is trying to solve the issue informally with the landlord, but that’s not always realistic.
“There are misunderstandings that occur, sometimes whatever the issue was that led to the eviction can be resolved once it’s filed, to the satisfaction of both parties, but then of course the renter is saddled with the burden of having that filing record follow them around for years,” said Regenbogen.
He says he would like to see legislators address predatory financial strains for renters, such as excessive late fees, hefty security deposits, or unrealistic demands that rent be prepaid for a certain amount of time.
A handful of other bills are moving through the state legislature related to housing, including House Bill 1035, which aims to expand housing support services for individuals with behavioral, mental health and substance use disorders who come in contact with the justice system. Senate Bill 108, among other things, could prohibit landlords from requiring proof of citizenship when applying for housing. And House Bill 1141 seeks to put restrictions on the amount of fees landlords can impose on renters.
If the eviction suppression bill becomes law, it would go into effect on Dec. 1.
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The Russian Dossier: Enter, Sid
The strange case of the Russian dossier got even stranger this week with a new report from the Guardian raising a name from the seamy side of Clinton past. A “second Trump-Russia dossier” has been turned over to the FBI, the Guardian reported. The second dossier was compiled by Cody Shearer, who the Guardian identifies as a “a controversial political activist and former journalist who was close to the Clinton White House in the 1990s.”
That’s putting it mildly. Shearer in fact has long been linked to the sleaziest aspects of the Clinton operation, mainly through his close relationship with Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal. Longtime observers of the Clinton ecosystem know that when Cody appears, Sid Blumenthal is not far behind. A ceaseless schemer, Blumenthal was so offensive to the Obama White House that he was banned from an official role at Mrs. Clinton’s State Department. But that barely slowed him down. As documented by Judicial Watch and others, Blumenthal was a constant presence by Mrs. Clinton’s side during her State Department years.
Blumenthal and Shearer are connected to a global network of intelligence and military freelancers. They played a dangerous game meddling in Libyan affairs after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. They supplied intelligence to Secretary of State Clinton in the weeks leading up to the Benghazi debacle and pitched deals to make money off the Libyan turmoil. ProPublica reports at length on the Blumenthal and Shearer’s Libyan efforts here. According to Judicial Watch’s reporting, during Mrs. Clinton’s State Department tenure, Blumenthal also promoted African business deals and meddled in European Union elections.
As for Shearer, he has a long history of dirty tricks. He’s been linked to Whitewater-era efforts to dirty up Bill Clinton critics; to shakedown politics involving the Cheyenne-Arapaho Indian tribe; and to fronting for Bosnian Serb butcher Radovan Karadzic. Read more about it here and here.
The Guardian reports that the new Shearer document makes some of the same allegations about Mr. Trump as the original Christopher Steele dossier, including “lewd acts at a five-star hotel” in Moscow. It also notes that Steele passed on the Shearer report to the FBI in October 2016, but would not vouch for its accuracy. That’s worth pausing over.
According to the Guardian, Steele provided “a copy [of the Shearer report] because it corresponded with what he had separately heard from his own independent sources.” If the reporting here is accurate, that’s quite a coincidence—that Cody Shearer and Christopher Steele were hearing the same things from different sources at pretty much the same time. A closer look at timelines and sources might be revealing. If Sid and Cody are behind the original Russian dossier sources, that would be big news indeed.
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A crumbling, borderline unliveable weatherboard house in Northcote has sold for $1.1 million, almost $300,000 above its reserve price.
Owner Stjepan Gotvajn, an elderly gentleman who has called 190 Bastings Street home for half a century, had set the reserve price at $810,000.
But with an opening bid of $800,000, Mr Gotvajn’s expectations were quickly exceeded.
“He was a little bit excited,” said Nelson Alexander agent Grant Leonard after the auction.
It was one of 1066 properties scheduled to go under the hammer in Melbourne on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a clearance rate of 76 per cent from 819 reported results.
A total of six bidders — a mix of investors, renovators and young couples — competed for the keys in front of a crowd of more than 100 people.
The property was particularly appealing because there are very few completely unrenovated, freestanding houses in Northcote left, Mr Leonard said.
“It was almost falling down,” he said. “Twenty years ago, we sold a house like that every month but these days they don’t come up very often.”
The successful bidders plan to knock the house down and build a family home to live in.
Renovated or new freestanding houses in Northcote typically sell for around the $1.5 million mark, depending on the size of the home and block, Mr Leonard said.
Meanwhile in South Yarra, an elegant three-bedroom residence sold for $3.46 million, more than $200,000 above its reserve price.
The Domain Road property was once a grand single mansion but was converted into four homes in the 1980s.
The auction opened with a $2.9 million bid, before three bidders fought it out in $25,000 increments.
It sold under the hammer to a couple downsizing from the Boroondara area. Listing agent Grant Samuel from Kay & Burton said the Domain precinct was highly sought after for downsizers leaving the eastern suburbs.
Mr Samuel said the vendors were thrilled with the result, which was significantly above their expectations.
Title records show they purchased the property in 2005 for $1.8 million.
In Fitzroy, an architect-designed warehouse conversion passed in on a single bid.
The luxurious Napier Street property, once a farriers building and a panel beaters’ workshop, proved popular with the public as dozens of people relished the opportunity to inspect the house before the auction.
But the auction didn’t last long — the property was passed in on a bid of $3.55 million.
Auction results show it sold later in the day for $3,575,000.
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In Seattle, Rachel's is the first name in ginger beer, a sort-of soda-world answer to Salt & Straw, with prime locations in Capitol Hill and Pike Place Market, where they replaced the old Seattle's Best cafe and its photogenic neon coffee mug. Two months ago, when Rachel's opened a streamlined soda fountain in the old Peet's Coffee on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, it was a chance to put their lemon-forward ginger beer on the Portland map. And it was the latest example -- following Revelry, and a handful of Sichuan spots -- of a Seattle food business making the jump down Interstate 5.
As with the original locations, Portland's Rachel's shares its space with a micro-restaurant from Yakima, Washington-born chef Monica Dimas, specifically, a second outpost of her "permanent pop-up" Sunset Fried Chicken, which some Seattle colleagues consider a contender for the best fried-chicken sandwich in town.
The dish: If there are superlatives to be thrown around, they might be for the sides, especially the French fries, which are crisp and creamy in all the right places. You can order those, plus some tender hush puppies or tart fried-green tomatoes, or even the soupy kale Caesar with its broad swipes of Parmesan, from Sunset's corner window, which sits past the bar, opposite a trippy mural featuring a pyromaniac Clyde Drexler Stan. (Drinks are ordered from a separate station at the bar.) The fried-chicken sandwiches were another story. On our first visit, we tried two, the classic OG and a General Tso's-inspired GT, and while the griddled Franz buns were on point, the fry on the chicken was as tough and smooth as a well-oiled catcher's mitt. We chalked it up to a bad night. And indeed, on a return visit the next week, the fry was crisp, the buttermilk-marinated thighs juicy and the pickles added an aromatic tang.
Scouting Report
The takeaway: When the fryer is dialed in, Sunset's fried-chicken sandwiches take a spot among Portland's 10 best fried-chicken sandwiches. When it's not, well, there are ginger beer Hot Toddies and surprisingly strong wi-fi from the Starbucks across the road.
Sample menu: French fries ($4.25), fried green tomatoes ($5.50), wedge salad ($8), The OG ($8), The GT ($9).
Drinks: An array of Rachel's lemon-forward ginger beers, ginger beer floats or ginger beer cocktails are available from the bar.
Go: After catching "Rogue One" at the Bagdad Theater.
Details: Counter service, eat-in or take-out; disabled access; lunch and dinner daily; 3646 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.; sunsetfriedchicken.com
-- Michael Russell
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)
(Seven are NLC catchers and three are catchers the Cardinals will face in May)
As spokanecardsfan78 brought up in yesterday's game recap, another component Matheny could take into account is the opposing team's battery, on a game-by-game basis, when deciding who to start in center. Should there be a catcher who is particularly poor at throwing out base-stealers (such as Cervelli), it makes sense to start Bourjos, the fastest runner on the team. If a catcher effectively shuts down the running game (i.e. Sal Perez), it may be wise to start Jay. Or, Matheny could have a near perfect storm with a guy like Lester—a left-handed pitcher without the ability of holding down runners—and have zero valid reasons to avoid starting Bourjos.
Obviously, this is a much more complicated issue than just career CS% by opposing catchers, but I am confident the coaching staff of the Cardinals has scouting reports on which batteries are most vulnerable to stolen bases. In these instances, Matheny should start Bourjos, especially if scoring runs will come at a premium (i.e. versus another team's ace). On a completely unrelated note, looking at this chart makes me appreciate Yadier Molina even more as his career CS% is 45%, with the league-average CS% being 28% over the course of his 12 years as a major leaguer.
Strikeout rates among National League starting pitchers (since 2010)
Bourjos has a notoriously high strikeout rate in his career at 23.0%, while Jay strikes out considerably less at 15.6% of the time. Thus, starting Jay with a high strikeout pitcher on the mound makes sense. With five of these pitchers being left-handed (and also tough on left-handed batters), Bourjos is still probably the better option in some of these situations, despite his high strikeout rate.
Bottom line
At present, should there be a "platoon" in center field for the St. Louis Cardinals? In my opinion, the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Down the road, as performance samples grow for both players, one may begin to stand out and subsequently deserve more than just a 50:50 split of playing time. However, being barely over one calendar month into the 2015 season, we are not there yet, and we cannot simply replace past performance with what we have seen from each player in 28 games. Thus, I have provided three possible components for Matheny to consider (beyond LHB vs. RHP, RHB vs. LHP) when deciding who to start in center field. As I wrote last August, Matheny did pretty well managing center field in 2014. Here's to him managing the position even better in 2015.
As always, credit to Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference for statistics used in this post.
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to Pablo and said, “There’s one thing about Françoise I like very much. She’s the kind of person who may always have remorse, but will never have regrets.” Pablo said, “I haven’t any idea what that means. I suppose Françoise has no acquaintance with regrets but she knows even less about remorse.” Gide said, “It’s easy to see there’s a dimension to her inner life which has escaped you.”
A remarkably humane but damning diagnosis of a man and his faults, a testament to a great artist, an invaluable document providing a rare look behind the curtain at the fierce debates and relationships among artists in Picasso’s circle.
Read 4 Nobody's Looking at You: Essays by Janet Malcolm Read
NOBODY’S LOOKING AT YOU: ESSAYS by Janet Malcolm
Janet Malcolm is one of those writers I would follow anywhere, and this book is no exception. Topics discussed include the three sisters who together own the Argosy bookshop, a New York institution; the life and working habits of the eccentric pianist Yuja Wang; Tolstoy as a comedic writer; the fashion designer Eileen Fisher. But don’t be fooled if any seem boring. A longtime journalist for the New Yorker, Malcolm’s investigations tend to take apparently ordinary institutions or scenes and, through her unrivaled powers of curiosity, observation and description, reveal their extraordinary inner workings.
Read 5 How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell Read
HOW TO DO NOTHING: RESISTING THE ATTENTION ECONOMY by Jenny Odell
Exhaustively researched yet philosophical and poetic in its delivery, How to Do Nothing will make you rethink your relationship to thought itself. Incorporating history, journalistic narrative, scientific studies, literature, philosophy and even the study of trees and birdwatching, Odell mounts a convincing defense of individual attention. Her observations are fresh and often surprising. She wisely points out that the boundless connectivity afforded by smartphones is no substitute for knowing your real-life neighbors (less and less a commonplace reality these days, in the age of social media); neighbors, not Facebook friends, are the networks that spring to action in the event of local emergencies and climate-related disasters.
And against the grain of the average social science polemic decrying technology’s impact on our attention spans, How To Do Nothing argues that the designs modern media and technology have on our attention, while real and invasive, are ultimately shallow: it is much, much harder to penetrate and hijack levels of deep thought—the kind of reverent, insistent attention we pay to art and music. That’s the mode of devotion we should cultivate. This book changed my life, despite not a word of it being pedantic. I hope it will change yours, too.
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Michael Shank is hoping his team’s podium finish in last month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona will lead to additional races for its Acura NSX GT3, which could still turn into a full-season entry.
The No. 86 Acura of Alvaro Parente, Trent Hindman, Katherine Legge and AJ Allmendinger finished second in the GT Daytona class after a hard-fought battle in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener.
While the team’s No. 93 car of Lawson Aschenbach and Justin Marks is set for the season, the No. 86 car is currently only confirmed for the four Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup races.
Asked whether the strong result could help expand the season for the No. 86 Acura, Shank expressed the desire but said the deal has to make sense for the team.
“I hope so,” he told Sportscar365. “There’s certainly people talking about it. If we can put it together we will.”
With the Rolex 24 class-winning GRT Lamborghini set to miss next month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Parente, Hindman and Legge effectively head into the second round of the season as GTD championship leaders.
Shank said that on a day where the No. 93 entry suffered through misfortune before settling for an 11th place class finish, the NAEC-only effort was able to showcase the strength of the Ohio-based team.
“That car last year always was second fiddle it seemed to the 93 and I’m so happy it had an absolutely flawless run, except at the end when we had two gun failures on the last two stops,” he said.
“We lost a half-straightaway each time of track position and that’s what disconnected us [from the race-winning Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3] at the end.
“I think we could have pushed them, but I don’t know if we ultimately had the pace.
“[The No. 93] had the opposite experience. They ran really well for awhile and then we had a cooling hose come disconnected from the gearbox and never could recover from it.”
Additional Acura Possible for Mid-Season Debut
A fourth Acura, meanwhile, could join the GTD ranks later this season, alongside the two MSR and HART Racing entries.
Sportscar365 understands that a Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge GS class operation has been closing in on a possible partial-season program that could debut as early as Sebring.
It would come as a further boost to the second-year GT3 contender, which claimed a pair of class wins last year in its debut season.
John Dagys contributed to this report
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This article is more than 11 years old
This article is more than 11 years old
A British frigate and a Russian warship fought off Somali pirates trying to hijack a ship in the Gulf of Aden, both countries' navies said today.
The pirates used assault rifles as they twice tried to seize a Danish vessel, the Powerful, but were repelled by HMS Cumberland and a Russian frigate, the Neustrashimy, the Russian navy said. The defending ships used helicopters in the operation.
"The pirates tried to shoot at the ship using assault rifles and carried out two hijacking attempts," the navy said in a statement.
"The activities of the pirates were thwarted through the joint efforts of the Russian warship and the British warship," it added.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman in London said: "We can confirm that a UK warship yesterday carried out a boarding of a foreign-flagged dhow, suspected of being engaged in piracy. The situation is ongoing."
Cumberland, a type 22 frigate, is on anti-piracy duty in the Gulf of Aden along with another British frigate, Northumberland.
The Royal Navy's website describing Northumberland's activities said last week the vessel had faced "a busy and challenging time" patrolling the Somali coast and that operations included "preventing a number of pirate attacks".
According to Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency, the Neustrashimy, or Fearless, was ordered to accompany the Danish vessel, which is crewed by Russian nationals, at the request of Denmark.
Russia sent the missile-armed frigate to the region in September after pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter carrying military hardware, including grenade launchers and 33 Russian-made tanks. The MV Faina had three Russian citizens among its 21 crew members.
Heavily armed Somali pirate gangs, using speedboats and armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, have captured dozens of ships this year.
They are rarely interested in a ship's cargo, preferring to extract a ransom for the vessel and its crew.
Somalia's weak government, which has no coastguard, says it is powerless to stop the pirates who stalk the busy shipping lanes along the country's 2,300-mile coastline.
In a report last month, the UK-based Chatham House thinktank said there had been at least 61 hijacks or attempted hijacks off Somalia this year. Ransoms paid out could exceed £1m per ship at a cost of around £20m in total.
Insurance premiums had risen tenfold during 2008 and the upsurge in piracy could affect global business, the report said, as shipping companies diverted vessels away from the area.
The Gulf of Aden is used by tens of thousands of ships a year, and is a major route for cargo en route to the Suez canal.
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Sorry, kids (and kids-at-heart)—it's 2018, and even Cheerios are tainted. According to a study conducted by the Environmental Working Group released this morning, there’s a very good chance your morning cereal has traces of the potentially cancer-causing chemical glyphosate, better known as the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup.
According to EWG, of 61 samples of popular grain-based products like cereals, oatmeals, and granola bars—including Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Cereal, Lucky Charms, Nature Valley Oats ‘n’ Honey granola bars, and Quaker Old Fashioned Oats—48 contained traces of the herbicide, and half of the samples contained levels considered unsafe for children.
Based on nutrition guidelines and toxicity standards, EWG determined that 160 parts per million of glyphosate in a daily serving of the food products could constitute a cancer risk. Quaker Dinosaur Eggs instant oatmeal contained between 620 and 780 ppm. Lucky Charms had between 230 and 400 ppm. One sample of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats tested positive for a whopping 1,100 ppm.
Hundreds of millions of pounds of glyphosate, as EWG explains, are used on commodity crops like corn and soybeans every year as an herbicide. An increasingly common practice for many cereal farmers—the ones growing wheat, oats, and barley—is to spray glyphosate on their grain crop prior to harvesting to speed up the drying process. Grains, unlike other produce, are not harvested when they’re green; the plants have to essentially die in the field, drying out and turning brown so they can be processed. Spraying the crops with the herbicide hurries the drying and dying along, which is how EWG suspects that the chemical is ending up in some of our favorite foods.
Back in April, the consumer watchdog group US Right to Know discovered that the FDA has been aware of this issue and conducting their own tests for at least two years, based on emails published in The Guardian. But government data was never released to the public, so EWG did a little testing of its own.
Monsanto—which merged with the pharmaceutical company Bayer AG earlier this year—still argues that the claims of harmful side effects of human consumption, particularly as a cause of cancer, are based on “junk science,” and maintains that Roundup-treated crops are safe for human consumption. Both the World Health Organization and the state of California classify glyphosate as a chemical known to cause cancer.
Quaker defended the safety and quality of its products (many others of which were mentioned in the report), stating that it's common practice for farmers industry-wide to apply glyphosate pre-harvest. They added that the levels EWG found in their samples were still “significantly below any regulatory limits” for human consumption. (To which EWG already fired back, "Legal is not the same as safe.")
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Seen is a "Key Wallet," a USB-based cryptocurrency hardware wallet produced by local IT security firm Keypair. / Courtesy of Keypair
By Jun Ji-hye
IT developers have been increasingly releasing "cold wallet" systems as part of measures to ensure safe virtual currency transactions free from cyberattack.
Cold wallets refer to hardware devices that look like USB storage drives or cards.
The developers said such devices keep virtual money separate from PCs or mobile phones. This would make cryptocurrency transactions safer from cyber threats as the devices, equipped with individual crypto-chips, are separated from the internet when not in use.
The concept of cold wallets is compared to that of hot wallets that create and store data online.
Concerns about online threats escalated at the end of last year when local cryptocurrency exchange YouBit was attacked. Hackers stole about 17 percent of YouBit's cryptocurrencies in the attack, the exchange said in a statement at the time.
IT security firm Keypair has released the Key Wallet equipped with the firm's exclusive algorithm.
Keypair CEO Kevin Lee said there are three kinds of products.
"One is a USB type and another is an on-the-go type employing fingerprint verification technology," he said. "The other is a card type that can be connected to mobile phones via near field communications (NFC)."
On March 13, Penta Security announced a new line of cryptocurrency hardware wallets that enhance security features, noting closed beta testing is due to finish in June.
The company said it is seeking to differentiate itself by focusing on resolving vulnerabilities in the current cryptocurrency environment, noting its products are available in two types _ a card type and a device type.
"There will be several variations of the device in order to meet the differing demands of users," the firm said. "It will be capable of carrying out the entire cryptocurrency process from key generation to transaction."
The card type will feature advanced secure key storage and offer multiple authentication features such as a one-time-password (OTP) to act as a two-factor authentication (2FA) device, the firm added.
For its part, SCTECHONE, a subsidiary of KSign, has developed the "Touch x Wallet Card" cryptocurrency hardware wallet based on biometrics. The product is scheduled to be released within the first half of the year.
The system supports fingerprint authentication and allows users to check cryptocurrency information easily through an LCD on the wallet card, the firm said.
The company added the smartcard type is handy and portable.
Ledger, a French company known for its hardware wallet "Nano S," is also set to make a foray into the Korean market, planning to officially release its product here on March 27.
Nano S supports transactions in about 20 kinds of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and Ethereum.
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If part of your entrepreneurial dreams is to learn how to open up a barbershop, then you are in for an exciting journey. This is considered as one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. For the success of your businesses venture, you will be required to invest time and resources to ensure that you provide first-rate services and a traditional barber experience.
Factors For Determining the Cost of Opening a Barbershop
Barbershops provide shaves, haircuts and grooming services for men. Apart from having the skills and the enthusiasm of opening up this business, there are a number of things that are required. These include a business plan, a marketing strategy, a license, equipment specific to this industry and source of funding.
Location and Facility
Unless you have a lot of money, a leased space is cheaper and better than a commercial real estate purchase for a business start up. Establishing a shop in a prime location will definitely be more expensive. If you are renting a facility, the shop size will determine the amount of rent you will be expected to pay either monthly or yearly.
Business Requirements
In many states, before opening a barbershop, you need a master’s barber license, which require training and passing an assessment test. This is a requirement to ensure the set safety and health standards are adhered to. You thus need to undergo training from a recognized barber school to obtain the skills relevant to this venture. You also need an employer identification number, Federal tax identification number and sales and use tax identification depending on your state.
Shop Requirements and Equipment
If you want your business to be taken seriously, there is certain basic equipment that you should have. Comfort and aesthetics are important consideration when buying equipment for the business. If you go for the most comfortable, state-of-the art equipment, be prepared to spend some money. The equipment you purchase should meet state standards to operate the business.
Equipment Required When Opening a Barbershop
Besides the office space, you need various barber equipment and supplies in your barber shop. They will form the backbone of the business and help it to function normally. Examples of equipment and supplies you will need include:
Barber chairs, child seats and seats for the waiting area
Scissors, clippers, trimmers, razors, brushes, mirrors etc.
Disinfectant chemicals and sanitizers per station
Spray bottles, neck dusters, talcum powder, towels
Garbage cans for waste products and ‘to be cleaned towels’
The actual cost of establishing this business varies. It depends on various factors like business location, service quality, size of shop, number of employees, equipment purchases and the cost of obtaining business licenses and permits. Before establishing a barbershop, ensure you have the skills from a reputable school and also create a business plan that will help you get a loan.
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D-Day is one of the most important battles in WW2 history. It is considered as the turning point of the war by many people, including myself. It helped the allied forces (exception USSR) get back into European mainland. Otherwise, they were either operating from the Britsih mainland and the USSR territory.
During WW2, Nazi Germany had occupied France. If was one of their more strategic moves. Adolf Hitler also used his now infamous tactic known as Blitzkrieg. He also used France to play psychological warfare against the Allies (who at that time were just the UK). It was critical for the Allies to recapture France for them to gain an upper hand.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower (he later becomes the president of the United States) was appointed as the head of Operation Overlord, which later came to be known as D-Day.
Setting up the attack
The allies knew that Nazi Germany had heavily fortified the northern beaches of France. They needed to attack when the Germans were least expecting it. They created a plan to make it look like they were going to attack Pas-de-Calais (which happens to be the shortest distance between the UK mainland and French mainland). The plan worked.
The Germans expected an attack coming their and sent many troops to intercept the allied forces even before they came.
Many other deception tactics were used for catching the Germans off guard.
Before the attack started, there were several paratroopers and soldiers, who helped in securing bridges and outposts for the allies.
The attack was meant to happen on June 5, 1944, but got delayed due to unfavorable climate. This delayed the invasion by 24 hours.
The attack
The attack started on 6 June 1944. The combined British and Canadian forces attacked the beaches codenamed Gold, Juno, and Sword. The American forces alone attacked the beaches codenamed Utah and Omaha.
The troops landed in huge landing crafts. They picked their weapons and moved towards the German outposts on the beach. Many soldiers from the first few landing craft didn’t even make it outside the craft before they were shot down by artillery.
The German watchtowers with their machine guns were able to gun down many troops before they could reach the towers, but they were eventually overrun. The soldiers charged ahead, without any fear.
There were countless casualties, but it was not in vain. The soldiers were able to overrun the beaches and helped the Allies set up a base in the European mainland.
Aftermath
This helped them maintain a strategic position for the duration of the war and helped them coordinate attacks and invasions which helped the Allies take over Germany.
If this invasion were to have gone wrong, the Allied would have lost many soldiers and would have gained nothing. Without France, the Allied forces would not have been able to get heavy equipment to Europe, without which it would have been near impossible to win the war.
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BOSTON (AP) — Liberal groups have launched twin online petitions aimed at pressuring Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to temporarily name former Congressman Barney Frank to Sen. John Kerry's seat if Kerry is confirmed as secretary of state.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which helped raise money for Democrat Elizabeth Warren during her successful Senate campaign, has launched a new website and online petition.
The petition points to potential cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and says "we can't afford to have our other senator be lukewarm, undecided, or uncertain."
"We need someone who we are 100 percent confident will fight right alongside (Warren)," the petition adds.
The website SignOn.org, affiliated with the liberal activist group MoveOn.org, has posted a similar petition saying "we can't think of anyone who would do a better job over the next few months than Barney Frank."
"Barney will take on conservative Republicans in Congress who want to cut Social Security and Medicare and play politics with the full faith and credit of the United States," the petition says.
Frank, who opted not to run for re-election after a 32-year career in the U.S. House, has taken the unusual step of publicly lobbying for the interim post.
"I'm very well suited to do it," Frank said last week. "You're not going to have a long period to get acquainted with things."
Patrick confirmed that he was considering Frank and believed he would make a "great interim senator," but added that he has talked to other people about the position as well.
Patrick must appoint someone to fill Kerry's seat until a special election is held if Kerry's nomination is confirmed. That special election would be scheduled for about five months following the Massachusetts Democrat's resignation.
It would be the third Senate election in Massachusetts since 2010.
Patrick has said he won't reveal his pick for interim senator until Kerry's resignation is official. Kerry, who was nominated to the top diplomatic post by President Barack Obama, is not expected to run into serious opposition from his fellow senators during the confirmation process.
Story continues
Others mentioned as possible interim senators include Michael Dukakis, the former governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, and Victoria Kennedy, widow of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Patrick has declined to confirm any other conversations he might be having with potential candidates, saying those conversations are confidential.
He decided to confirm that he had spoken with Frank after the longtime Democratic lawmaker went public with his interest.
If appointed to the seat, Frank lists among his priorities cutting military spending, ending military operations in Afghanistan and encouraging "mainstream Republicans to break with the tea party."
Patrick has made it clear that he planned to choose an interim senator who was not interested in running in the special election. The winner of that race would serve out the remainder of Kerry's term, which ends after the 2014 election.
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23 May 2018 | dbdumonteil
8 | The toppermost of the poppermost.
I can hear you grumble :one more documentary about the greatest(some will say it is not so) album of all time...the Summer of love...Lucy was Julian Lennon's schoolmate.....tired of the tours and the screams,the Beatles had been experimenting in the studio for interminable agonizing months....A story we've been told,and told and TOLD.
Yet,any Beatle fan should watch this movie which thoroughly deserves its 8;Howard Goodall, a musician himself, dissects the most interesting songs, He integrates the strawberry fields forever/Penny Lane single in his absorbing study,quite rightly so.
Of course there are plenty things the fans already know;but there's an approach which enlightens us;sometimes it's as though Ian McDonald's"revolution in the head" was put on film ;Goodall insists on the nearly prehistoric means Martin and his team had at their disposal in 1966-67;the makings of "strawberry fields forever" "for the benefit of Mr Kite " or "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" were really wonders of technology,considering they were 4 -track recordings.
He also points out the intuitive genius of the Beatles :Paul using with startling effects the piccolo trumpet added on the final day of recording;George,inventing the world music and feeling that,in this cross-cultural fusion,an Indian-sounding vocal should not be attempted (to prove this,Goodall has an Indian singer perform the first verse : it's much more sophisticated than George's ).Ringo's drumming on " a day in the life",much more important to the overall sound he has generally been given credit for.)The treatment of John's vocal on "Lucy in the sky with diamonds " give the track its dreamy "psychedelic" landscape seen through the eyes of a girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
No other group -not even the Kinks,their closest relative in this field - has elevated daily life to popular entertainment and high art at the same time :," a day in the life" and "she's leaving home " are,based,as everybody knows, on three news items;the latter,says Goodall recalls the structure of old English folk songs :and using the third person (narrator) for the verses and the voices of the desperate parents for the chorus, the singer makes us feel for the runaway AND her folks.
We can also see rare footage of the era (several interviews are included,including one of Paul,sick and tired of the tours)
Recently,an English music paper (NME) did not include the Beatles in "their 100 most influent rock artists "!!! But anyway,they are in a class of their own,aren't they?
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Guatemala apologises to Arbenz family for 1954 coup Published duration 20 October 2011
image caption Jacobo Arbenz had been in office for three years when he was ousted
Guatemala's government has apologised to the family of former President Jacobo Arbenz who was toppled in 1954 in a CIA-backed coup.
Arbenz, who died in exile in Mexico in 1971, made land reform a centrepiece of his government's policies.
His overthrow came at the height of the Cold War as Washington sought to counter what it saw as the Soviet threat in Latin America.
The years following the coup saw Guatemala descend into civil war.
At a ceremony in Guatemala City, President Alvaro Colom formally apologised for the events of 57 years ago.
The move follows an accord reached in May between the family and the government by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Under the settlement, the government recognises that the Guatemalan State failed to protect the human rights of members of the Arbenz family.
"Asking forgiveness has historical implications for the country and for Guatemalans' historical memory because (the coup) was when our coutnry's debacle began," Ruth del Valle, head of the presidential commission on human rights told AFP.
'Communist'
Jacobo Arbenz, elected in 1951, embarked on a series of social policies, which included trying to enact agrarian reform.
For the US government of the time, this fuelled suspicions that Arbenz had communist sympathies.
image caption Organised crime and murder: Two key problems today
His actions also angered the United Fruit Company, a US multinational with extensive landholdings in Guatemala.
In June 1954, in a coup engineered by the CIA, Arbenz was replaced by a military junta led by Col Carlos Castillo.
"It was one of the key moments of the Cold War in Latin America," Arturo Taracena, who served on the Guatemalan Historical Clarification Commission, told BBC Mundo.
"It was the first time the US intervened in Latin America not directly with its own forces but via a mercernary army."
It also marked the start of a long and bloody conflict, according to Nick Cullather, who wrote Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954.
"The US replaced a democratic and relatively popular government with a tremendously unpopular dictator," Mr Cullather told BBC Mundo.
"That triggered a massive wave of repression."
Although the civil war did not fully break out until 1960, many believe that the origin of political violence in Guatemala lies in the abrupt termination of Arbenz's time in office.
"Without doubt, it set in chain a series of events that created a violent society in Guatemala which continues to this day," said Mr Cullather.
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Ser Nesther
Ser Nesther is a scholar at heart and a playwright by profession. He uses his bardic skills to craft elaborate and stunning performances to woo the crowds of Waterdeep, yet he is unsatisfied by his own imagination and loses himself in the imaginations of others. He wields his considerable fortune like a club, obtaining priceless historical documents and recrafting them into more compelling stories, perpetuating myths rather than propogating facts. It's unknown how much of Waterdeep's history has been clouded by his mad whims.
Personality
I'm prone to flights of fancy, and I often lose myself in day-dreams. I get bored if there isn't a story worth telling.
Ideal
The magic of the theatre is the greatest paragon any man or beast can live up to. The stories that are larger than life can become life through my work.
Bond
My dissatisfaction with reality has soured every single relationship I have ever begun. I've left countless bastard heirs and bitter women, thrown to the dirt once the magic of the early stages of the relationship has faded.
Flaw
I will go overboard with melodrama rather than risk exposing my true feelings and insecurities. Talking about these insecurities is the surest way to raise my temper.
Minions
Ser Nesther's estate is filled with mimics and animated armours, and it is staffed by doppelgangers, pixies, and sprites, the identities of which he is all aware. He has a yuan-ti mind whisperer as a caretaker in his gardens. Each of his minions earns their keep either by performing spectacles for him or by shapeshifting into forms that please his peculiar and ever-changing tastes.
Costea by Vyrhelle-VyrL
Ser Nesther Medium humanoid (human), chaotic evil Armor Class 15 (chain shirt)
15 (chain shirt) Hit Points 44 (8d8 + 8)
44 (8d8 + 8) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 12 (+1) 14 (+2) 7 (-2) 14 (+2) Saving Throws Wis +0, Cha +4
Wis +0, Cha +4 Skills Performance +6
Performance +6 Senses passive Perception 8
passive Perception 8 Languages Common, Draconic, Dwarvish, Elvish
Common, Draconic, Dwarvish, Elvish Challenge 2 (450 XP) Spellcasting. Ser Nesther is a 5th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). He has the following bard spells prepared:
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Ousted Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran, who was fired earlier this month by Mayor Kasim Reed for not following city protocol after the publication of his anti-gay book, gave a sermon at a Cartersville, Ga., church recently where he compared himself to Jesus Christ, Job and other biblical figures.
The sermon came just days before former Atlanta mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young said Cochran doesn’t understand the Bible amid signs that the Baptist leaders who initially sided with the former fire chief are beginning to distance themselves from him.
The Jan. 25 service at Tabernacle Baptist Church featured a sermon by Cochran that he called “the blessings of sufferings.”
Cochran described the difference between what he called “self-inflicted sufferings” and “God-induced sufferings,” calling his firing a “God-induced suffering.”
“That’s what this experience is for me and my family. This is not as a result of something that I didn’t do that God is chastening me for, this is something that God has chosen to do because of his purpose and design for not just me and my family but for a greater cause for the kingdom of God.” […] “God reminded me that I’m in pretty good company when it comes to God-induced sufferings. He reminded me, brothers and sisters, that Job was just minding his own business, being a faithful husband, taking good care of his children, minding his flocks in his fields and god volunteered him for an unimaginable God-induced suffering. But after he endured the suffering, God blessed him with twice as much as all that he had prior to the suffering.”
Cochran then compared himself to Daniel in the story of him and King Darius, and how others plotted against Daniel to bring him down, making a comparison between the 30 days that King Darius made Daniel pray to only him, and the 30-day suspension that Reed imposed on Cochran.
The plotters against Daniel were thrown to the lions, said Cochran.
In his final comparison, Cochran said God “reminded me of the ultimate suffering servant, Jesus Christ, who suffered, bled and died. Rose again on the third day and because of his suffering he has the name that is above every name. God blesses always during suffering.”
Cochran ended his sermon by predicting his full vindication:
“I found out there are worldly consequences for standing for righteousness, but what God is about to show everybody is that there are also kingdom consequences for standing for righteousness. And he’s going to vindicate me in such a way that everybody will see it and everybody will know that it’s nobody but the most high God who is vindicating me.”
Watch the full sermon at The GA Voice →
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against factory bosses, people's health against economic growth, state-owned industries against private enterprise.
There was once a time when even some party insiders used to argue that the process of deciding fairly who should be winners and losers would require at least limited political reform.
Not anymore.
One of the hallmarks of President Xi's first term has been the stifling of anyone making those arguments - hundreds of activists, democracy campaigners and lawyers have been detained, jailed or otherwise silenced.
And now the two-term limit, introduced after the death of Chairman Mao - precisely to prevent a return to the terror and tyranny of his indefinite rule - is gone too.
Might President Xi, in the middle of some future economic crisis, surrounded only by yes-men, begin to make serious mistakes of his own?
Image caption Qi Batu is interested in poverty relief
Qi Batu, sporting his trilby-style wool hat, is from Inner Mongolia. His political interest is poverty relief.
Among all the talk about historic destiny in President Xi's speech, the subject of poverty got barely a mention, but it is one dear to his heart.
Alongside President Xi's anti-corruption campaign - used to great effect to silence his political rivals - the anti-poverty campaign has been another defining feature of his first term.
State TV has been full of images of Mr Xi sitting in humble village homes, listening earnestly and dispensing wisdom.
The feedback loops are clearly limited in a country with such a large democratic deficit as China, but that doesn't mean the government can ignore the people entirely.
In the absence of voting, the Communist Party has a long history of using opinion polls to at least try to find out what the people are really thinking.
And here perhaps, lies a glimmer of hope for China as it appears to take a risky step backwards in time to the era one-man-rule.
Kerry Brown, a professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, points out the China of President Xi is a very different place from that of Chairman Mao.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Should China's Xi be president for life?
"So it looks worrying that there's this sort of incredibly powerful leader," he tells me.
"The fact is that he will have to keep a very pushy expectant middle-class happy. They are not the sort of people that will be loyal to the party if they don't get the things that the expect in their lives - he is their servant in the end."
There are plenty of people who, for now, buy Mr Xi's vision of national rejuvenation, and are willing to back him as the man to deliver it.
As the saying goes; if the cap fits, wear it.
And so, it seems only appropriate to end on one:
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Before he became President Donald Trump's "fixer" and personal lawyer, Michael Cohen's real estate and taxi cab businesses were marked by the same shadowy dealings that have made him a key player in numerous investigations, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Cohen's notoriety grew exponentially when he was identified as the lawyer who brokered a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels, a porn star who alleges that she had a past sexual relationship with Trump. The hush deal bars Daniels, who is now suing Trump and Cohen to void the deal she argues is invalid, from publicly discussing the alleged affair.
But before he became Trump's all-purpose fixer, Cohen made his bones amassing a trove of pricey and scarce taxi cab medallions, according to the Times' report. The publication scoured a trove of public documents and interviewed people close to Cohen, all of which shed light on his years as a personal injury lawyer and businessman before he joined the Trump Organization.
The Times noted that Cohen and his father-in-law gave more than $25 million in loans to a Ukrainian businessman who has a checkered financial record and a history of defaulting on loans. The publication detailed his links to immigrants from Russia and Ukraine, which extended to his business dealings.
On April 9, federal agents raided Cohen's office, residence and electronic devices, seizing cellphones, hard-copy and digital materials from Cohen. The materials are now in the hands of a so-called special master who will determine which of the materials are not covered by attorney-client privilege, meaning they can be presented in court.
The April raids of Cohen's properties revealed that Cohen, who has been deeply involved in Trump's finances and deals for years, has been under criminal investigation for months.
Some of Cohen's business partners have had past legal troubles, as well. The Times reported that one former associate paid nearly $1 million in fines after Chicago authorities found more than 180 cars that were used in the associate's taxi businesses were unauthorized.
Another partner of Cohen's has been on authorities' radar for suspicion of transferring more than $60 million offshore to avoid paying debts and is awaiting trial on charges of failing to pay millions in taxes, the Times reported.
Read the full story on Michael Cohen from The New York Times.
CORRECTION: This story was updated to delete incorrect references that Cohen paid nearly $1 million in fines after Chicago authorities found that more than 180 cars used in his taxi businesses were unauthorized. The story also incorrectly said Cohen was barred from managing taxi medallions in New York City last April. The newspaper said those cases involved one of Cohen's former business partners.
In addition, an earlier version also incorrectly reported that the Times said Cohen has been on authorities' radar for transferring more than $60 million offshore to avoid paying debts and is awaiting trial on charges of failing to pay millions in taxes. The newspaper said those instances involve a partner of Cohen.
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While many Vancouver Island residents are already familiar with Esquimalt Lagoon’s beautiful driftwood sculptures, many are not aware of the dramatic story behind the art pieces’ humble creator, Paul Lewis.
To capture Paul’s story, local documentary filmmakers have entered a competition to receive a $50,000 production grant to launch their project.
Fans of the driftwood birds can watch a preview of the documentary and vote for the film online here between May 28th – 31st!
See also:
19 years ago, like a scene out of a Hollywood blockbuster movie, Paul disguised himself with a gas mask, hard hat, and construction coveralls before grabbing a loaded sawed-off shotgun to rob a Victoria liquor store.
The crime — fuelled by a drug addiction — was the last in a string of armed robberies around the city that landed him in the BC prison system for 8 years.
But Paul’s incarceration is only the beginning of this story.
While in jail, he began drawing and sketching for himself and other inmates. His art was focused around wildlife and for Paul, his images of birds represented a form of freedom.
After years of good behaviour within the system, he was released from prison and reacquainted himself with Vancouver Island, now with a renewed passion for art and creativity.
Paul’s artistic spirit is what eventually led him to building the Esquimalt Lagoon driftwood sculptures.
The massive birds have been largely welcomed by the community, with Paul often receiving notes of praise and appreciation by fans of the sculpture.
Pieces have occasionally been damaged or stolen but Paul simply repairs them, acknowledging that their public placement inevitably leads to some wear and tear, imposed either by people or the weather.
Besides the sculptures, islanders may also recognize Paul from his incredible backyard igloo creation that he and his girlfriend made during Victoria’s February snowstorms.
See also:
If you think Paul’s story sounds crazy enough to appear on film, you’re not alone.
The local artist and documentary team creating the movie are in the running for a $50,000 production grant from Storyhive.
The competition involves viewers voting for their favourite documentaries and will run for 3 days between May 28th – 31st. Each viewer can vote for a documentary once per day, and the top 15 most popular stories will be chosen for funding.
Check out the documentary preview and take a look at Paul’s newest creation — a wooden Sasquatch in Shawnigan — below:
Took a trip up to Shawnigan and added to the sasquatch, now he is complete, he was missing the furry look I wanted…… Posted by Paul Lewis on Wednesday, May 22, 2019
https://www.facebook.com/paul.lewis.940/posts/2604772299546588
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House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said he wants James Comey to testify on Capitol Hill, but he's having problems getting in touch with the fired ex-FBI head.
'His telephone number changed since he left government service,' Chaffetz told ABC's George Stephanopoulos Thursday morning. 'So I used to be able to text and call him. I do believe he has my telephone number, but I do hope to chat with him.'
Chaffetz said to comply with House rules he's already sent a date for Comey to come testify, next Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. EST.
Scroll down for video
CALL ME, COMEY? House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz told ABC's George Stephanopoulos he has no way to get in touch with the fired FBI Director James Comey
FBI Director James Comey was spotted leaving his house in the D.C. suburbs over the weekend. Chaffetz can't get ahold of Comey because he no longer has his digits
Stephanopoulos also asked Chaffetz about the more recent news of the day, the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller to be a special counsel, tasked with overseeing the Russian investigation.
On Twitter Wednesday night, Chaffetz sang Mueller praises.
'Mueller is a great selection. Impeccable credentials. Should be widely accepted,' he wrote.
Though he explained to the ABC News man that he wasn't fully sold on the concept of a special counsel being appointed.
'Well, I don't know if a special counsel was warranted at this point,' he said Thursday morning. 'I have not seen the direct full evidence of an actual crime.'
'I do think Director Mueller is the best possible choice he could have made,' referencing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who made the pick.
As for the House's own investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election and the tentacles touching the White House, Chaffetz said he'd like to see Comey's notes that said Trump had encouraged him to drop the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Chaffetz also said he was doubtful that Comey's notes actually existed, explaining 'nobody has seen them, even the reporter that did the story hasn't seen them.'
'We have asked the Department of Justice to see those documents, I've said if we need to subpoena them we'll subpoena them, but we really do need to see the full content of these materials and also talk to Director Comey,' Chaffetz said.
Stephanopoulos suggested that Mueller-led probe may prevent Comey from coming before Congress, which Chaffetz dismissed.
'That's hardly an excuse that's worked in the past and it's not going to work moving forward,' the Republican from Utah insisted.
Comey, he said, needed to speak to Congress, 'In the light of day, in a public setting.'
'Clearly, we're taking this very seriously,' Chaffetz added.
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business logic that uses them. That’s why those methodologies have the programmer first write test code, and then implement classes and methods so that the test code satisfies the requirements implied by the messages sent by that code.
In extreme programming, in test-driven development, and in Smalltalk, it’s the semantics of messages that matter, and that are primary. Classes and methods are written to conform to the expected semantics of the messages they will be sent — to appropriately respond to the messages sent by applications or business logic. If the code fails, it could just as easily be the fault of the implementation of the objects that are responding (or failing to respond) to the messages, as the fault of the programmer who sent the messages. The compiler is not smart enough to know which is the case — so why expect it to assume that responsibility?
From the Smalltalk perspective, it makes just as much sense for the development environment to prevent the programmer from sending whatever messages he desires as it would for the existing class library (of any programming language) to prevent business users from writing use cases as they wish. Imagine a “use case compiler” rejecting a statement in a use case because there’s no such class or method in the existing class library. That would make no sense at all. To someone used to programming in Smalltalk, neither does static typing, and for the same reason: the programmer is the master, and the class library is his servant. The responsibility of the class library is to serve the needs of the programmer; satisfying the constraints of the class library is not the proper function of a programmer.
Of course, both use cases and methods can incorrectly specify system behavior. But static type checking cannot prevent that from happening, because it’s not at all equivalent to declaratively specifying the desired semantics, so that the correct behavior can be computed by the system. The behavior of a program must be tested for correctness and acceptability in any case — and the faster the programmer can get the code ready for such testing, the better. Dynamic typing gets that done more effectively.
Without static typing on which to rely, Smalltalk programmers put much more focus on the semantics of messages. The Smalltalk programming culture puts great weight and importance on having well-defined, reliable message semantics. Informally using the semantics of messages as (near) invariants not only provides many of the same benefits as would static typing, it also provides some of the benefits that would ensue from declarative programming. Why? Because a body of code that sends messages (whose semantics are reliably defined) functions, in a sense, as a declarative specification of the desired semantics of a computation — a property of code on which test-driven development relies. Test cases validate that the messages have the expected semantics — which static typing cannot do.
With reliable message semantics (validated and enforced by test cases), methods and classes become nothing more than implementation details — as they should be.
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valiantly to avoid talking about impeachment, as pro-Trump groups prepare to spend millions on TV ads in battleground areas.
“We have to look at what we can start to accomplish over the next few months that will help benefit the American people,” he told WPRI-TV Thursday, “health care, prescription drugs, election security, women’s equality.”
Good luck with that.
In his “Fox & Friends” interview, Trump also described the impeachment process as another “overthrow attempt at the presidency.”
“With no experience I come to Washington. I’ve defeated the Clinton dynasty, the Bush dynasty and the Obama whatever you want to call it … [and] the hatred is incredible.”
It really is. For better or worse, Trump was elected as the great disruptor to change “business as usual” in Washington, to drain the swamp.
The past two weeks, we’ve heard from the bureaucratic state just how much they hate Trump’s disruption.
Tough luck, says America.
Parenting is a job in itself
Andrew Yang got it right in Wednesday’s Democratic debate when he said not all parents want to work outside the home.
“We should not be pushing everyone to leave the home and go to the workforce,” he said. “Many parents … say if they leave the home and go to work, they’d be spending all that money on child care anyway. In many cases, it would we better if the parent stayed with the child.”
Amen. But with Rachel Maddow and MSNBC’s all-female team in charge of proceedings, Yang’s unorthodox honesty guaranteed he would be sidelined the rest of the night, continuing a snub so pointed that he is demanding an apology before he will return to the channel.
For some reason, it is an affront to feminism to point out that the upbringing of children is better done by their parents than outsourced to strangers.
The political party that recognizes parents’ true desires will have an electoral advantage.
Legal pot blows up in Boomers’ face
“OK, Boomer,” was Matt Gaetz’s puerile response to Kellyanne Conway’s concerns about marijuana legalization.
The 37-year-old Florida Republican congressman has it the wrong way around.
Boomers are the marijuana boosters who have caused the problems Conway rightly abhors.
The generation that inhaled still thinks weed is the benign, low-potency drug of their youth. Thus, boomer legislators have failed to understand the threat to mental health, especially for teens, of an easily accessible high-potency drug. Nor did they anticipate the expanding black market and associated environmental threat they now are powerless to control.
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Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters wants to see house prices no higher than five times income for young home buyers, but won’t say if he wants house prices to fall.
The most recent data shows the median house is valued at just over six times household income as an average across the whole country.
But that number rockets to more than nine times income when looking at Auckland alone.
Speaking at his weekly post-cabinet press conference, Peters said he looked forward to the day when a young couple can “prospect no higher than five times their annual income.”
This is the Government’s “long-term objective,” he says.
He does not expect this to happen in this Government’s first term, and not necessarily its second term either.
“But we will get there with these policies,” he says.
The Government has several policies which it says will increase the supply of houses in New Zealand, as well as raise incomes.
These include its plan to build 100,000 KiwiBuild homes in 10 years, as well as banning foreign buyers from the housing market.
The Government is also increasing the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2020.
“It is our long-term objective to ensure first home buyers can obtain their first home that is [in] a way which is affordable without the desperation which I’m seeing today.”
He says many couples are paying 65% of their weekly wage just to secure the mortgage, rates and insurance.
“If you ask me, do I want to see us dramatically improve that? Yes, I do.”
He would not say whether he wants house prices to fall – “I’m not that naïve,” he told reporters.
But he says under this Government, wages are going to increase “significantly.”
As well as increasing wages, it’s the Government’s job to make sure business’ profits increase as well.
“We understand that we can improve business outcomes, that are better able to handle better wage outcomes for their workers and we will all be better off.”
In its most recent Financial Stability report, the Reserve Bank says over the past year, credit growth has declined and house price inflation has stabilised.
“This is in part due to banks tightening mortgage lending standards, which has led to a reduction in the share of new mortgage lending at high debt-to-income ratios and on interest-only terms.”
The report says these are “positive developments for reducing financial system risk.”
The second phase of the Reserve Bank Act review is currently underway and part of that will address whether the Central Bank needs to add debt-to-income (DTI) restrictions to its macro-prudential toolkit.
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can use the FTA negotiations to wedge back open the door for Australians seeking work visas in Britain. Australians have been caught in a visa crackdown – the result of a British government policy to reduce immigration – which has made it much more expensive and onerous to get a work visa. Ciobo says the movement of people between the two countries will be examined as part of negotiations but signals change on this front could be difficult. So how quickly could an Australia-UK free trade deal happen, and would it be a priority for the Brits?
A senior UK industry insider familiar with Whitehall said after Brexit there would be "capacity issues" limiting the number of trade deals the British government could work on at any one time. One view is that on the numbers - taking account of who Britain's biggest export partners are and the markets that are growing the most rapidly - Australia would be down the list. But the contrary view is that Australia is an "easy win" – not the biggest prize, but much more achievable – making it much more of a priority for Brexit Britain. "It makes sense for the government to push quite hard on the Australian door," the insider said. Doing the deal
Professor Andrew Lang, from the LSE law department, predicted it would be hard for Australia to run equally intensive negotiations with the EU and Britain simultaneously, especially if they were also trying to salvage the TPP and TISA negotiations. That could mean Australia would only be able to turn its attention to the UK deal once its EU deal was concluded. "That said, there is genuine interest in a UK-Australia deal on both sides," Professor Lang said. "The UK has made clear that - after the EU and probably the US - it sees real potential in new trade deals with major Commonwealth countries, including Australia." Turnbull, for his part, reassured the Brits that Australia can negotiate multiple free trade deals at one time and, indeed, had done so in recent years when the China, Korea and Japan free trade deals were negotiated simultaneously. Or, as Ciobo puts it: "We can walk and chew gum at the same time".
But a London-based Australian businessman said the view at present was that the UK was using all its "A Team" negotiators for Brexit and that everything else, such as preliminary FTA negotiations, were on hold. Australia has offered to loan specialised trade negotiators to the UK, but so far, that deal has not been taken up Standing side by side in Number 10, May and Turnbull made all the right noises about a post-Brexit Britain that has drawn closer to Australia. "I know Theresa, that you believe passionately that the British people can do anything, can achieve anything, and that your post-Brexit Britain will be a Britain with big horizons, big opportunities, free trade, open markets," as Turnbull put it. The will is there for a Australia-Britain free trade deal that would draw back closer two nations connected by birth.
But the hard work is only just beginning. Loading Follow us on Facebook
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Look around Washington D.C. this summer and you’ll find parades, speeches and shows to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the 100th anniversary of World War I. Heck, there are even exhibits honoring the 25th anniversary of Prague’s Velvet Revolution and the fact the 50 years ago the Beatles first invaded America, to much teenage frenzy.
But what you won’t find are a lot of mentions about the War of 1812’s bicentennial. “Wait,” you may ask, “if it was the War of 1812, why would we celebrate it in 1814?”
“Although it seems rather morbid to celebrate the burning of Washington in the summer of 1814, it was the turning point of the war,” says Leslie Jones, public programs manager at the White House Historical Association, one of a dozen organizations organizing events marking the anniversary. “It was the force that pushed the American side to really come out and push for the victory that culminated in the battle of New Orleans with Andrew Jackson a few months later.”
Perhaps we don’t celebrate The War of 1812 because we started it to get back Canada, which we wound up losing for a second time, along with most of the buildings in the brand new capital. But the War of 1812 is worth commemorating: it cemented America’s identity as nation and it gave us Francis Scott Key’s ode to the Battle of Fort McHenry — also known as the Star Spangled Banner.
“This is an area of history that is so not well known by the broader American public,” says Karen Daly, executive director of Dumbarton House, a historic Washington property that is now a museum. “I find when people visit Dumbarton House, an incredible number of Americans don’t even know this event even happened. They tend to jump from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. This area of history is glossed over in our schooling. And yet, this is what gave us our national anthem and it is very much the event that cemented the union and the democracy. It’s an incredible piece of our history.”
You won’t likely see Michelle Obama reenacting Dolly Madison saving George Washington’s portrait from the burning White House this weekend. But Aug. 24, the actual day of the 200th anniversary of the burning of the White House and the Capitol, will be celebrated in Washington with a 5k run at the Historic Congressional Cemetery, a family festival in Georgetown and a beer festival at Yards Park. And there’s one group that’s really celebrating: the British Embassy, tongue just a little in cheek, will be holding a “White House BBQ... on the 200th anniversary of a rather unfortunate event in UK/US relations...”
Contact us at [email protected].
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Last week, American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL – Get Report) CEO Doug Parker said the carrier’s long-term prospects are outstanding, with profits averaging $5 billion a year indefinitely and never again falling below zero.
On Tuesday, Oct. 3, Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL – Get Report) said the third quarter looks OK.
Guess which outlook excited investors?
Last week, analysts focused on American throughout the week leading up to Parker’s presentation on Sept. 28 to investors and media. As he spoke, shares rose nearly 4% but they fell back. For the week, American shares gained 1%. Tuesday, American and United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL– Get Report) each gained about 6%, while Delta, JetBlue Airways Corp. and Spirit Airlines Inc. each gained about 7%.
Those gains occurred after Delta said in an investor update that third-quarter passenger revenue per available seat mile will increase 2%, which includes a 1% decline due to “a one point headwind related to Hurricane Irma.” Delta had previously guided toward a PRASM gain between 2% and 3%.
Delta said Hurricane Irma “negatively impacted pre-tax income by $120 million.”
Cowen & Co. analyst Helane Becker issued a report saying that excluding Irma’s impact “the pricing environment appears to be stabilizing, which should be viewed favorably.” She reiterated an outperform rating on the stock.
Despite Tuesday’s share price gains, analysts did not seem to regard Delta’s report as cause for elation.
On Wednesday, Buckingham Research analyst Dan McKenzie reiterated a buy on Delta, but trimmed his target price to $65 from $70.
Delta shares rose 1% on Wednesday, Oct. 4.
McKenzie wrote, “Pricing power for the industry exists in 2018 but is limited.” He forecast “modest margin expansion for Delta in 2018.” He noted that Delta and JetBlue are responding to Florida and Caribbean weakness with capacity cuts in affected areas, “which suggests that some of the unit revenue weakness (over travel perception issues” dissipates.”
Also, late Tuesday, JPMorgan analyst Jamie Baker reduced his third-quarter earnings estimate for Delta to $1.52 a share from $1.60. He said, “American is likely to guide down as well,” given that Florida represents 12.7% of Delta’s planned September domestic seats and 15.7% of American’s planned September domestic seats.
“Given outsized Florida exposure, we would not be surprised to see American similarly temper its 3Q forecast next week,” Baker wrote.
As for the outsized reaction to Delta’s monthly traffic report, Parker may be quietly shaking his head.
Read full originally published story at: TheStreet
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Galactic United Nations HQ, Anward Space Station, Paravox System
Pacifist factions from a broad range of empires have called upon the Galactic UN's to allow for the re-establishment of embassies and diplomatic attachés.
The use of embassies as a method of improving relations between spacenations was outlawed in August 2249 by the Galactic UN's controversial Asimov Act.
Officially the Asimov Act was passed with the intent of streamlining diplomacy and fostering deeper galactic cooperation. It proposed a novel system of 'trust' between empires, with one unit of trust equating to a greater degree of friendliness. Trust could be earned through various mechanisms, such as trade agreements or military alliances. Embassies were believed to promote'superficial' diplomacy and detracted from these more meaningful opportunities.
Critics of the Act argued it was aggressively pushed by the militaristic lobby as a means to boost their own corporate interests. Others felt it was simply reactionary, spurned on in the wake of the chaos left by the Unbidden invasion of the Outer Rim, where dozens of space empires passively watched as billions of organic lifeforms were purged.
Pacifist factions now argue a "diplomatic void" has been left. Prominent pacifist, Gaandee, told the newsdesk:
"We must fight, peacefully of course, anything that limits our options for peace. I wasn't familiar with this 'trust' concept before, but it works quite well. But we could bring back embassies too. Before it was so much easier to make your intentions clear to another empire through embassy establishment. It's how the Blorg operated for millennia, and look how many friends they have now? Almost three."
The closure of embassies had a profound effect on embassy staff, many of whom who found themselves abruptly unemployed. While this served as the comedic basis for the hugely popular sitcom, 01_Embassy_Propose, recent long term data from the Public Institute of Space Health (PISH) implies the closure has had a significant impact on former staff, who are 50-times more likely to have substance misusing or arrested development traits than the general population.
A representative for the Galactic UN, Gre'Kulf, responded:
"There are many ways to interpret the data from PISH. You could also say the former embassy staff now just have a lot more free time, and heck, who doesn't like a drink in their free time? Embassies represent an older style of diplomacy that is more suited to pre-FTL governments and Parabox games. As an aside, have you played Crusading Dukes IV?"
The Galactic UN has yet to comment on whether it will review the Asimov Act. Pacifist factions state if it does not, they will take their case to the Galactic Supreme Court, if it is re-established by the Galactic UN also.
> More accurate reporting from Ashley Easterbrook could not be possible.
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Berlin: Netflix Acquires Jamie Dornan's 'Jadotville'
The streaming service will premiere the war thriller in 2016.
Netflix acquired Jamie Dornan's Jadotville at the Berlin Film Festival, it was announced Monday.
The war thriller, co-starring Guillaume Canet will go into production in April and is set to premiere on the streaming service in 2016.
The film is based on the 1961 siege of an Irish UN battalion by 3,000 Congolese troops, led by French and Belgian mercenaries working for mining companies. Dornan will play the Irish commander Patrick Quinlan and Canet will play a French commander.
Jadotville will be directed by Richie Smyth and produced by Alan Moloney for Parallel Films. The screenplay was written by Kevin Brodbin.
Alex Walton's Bloom brought Jadotville to Berlin's European Film Market. The deal with Netflix was negotiated by UTA's Independent Film Group.
“The story of how Pat Quinlan led his troops against an overwhelming force without losing a single man is one of the great stories of the 20th century, and we are proud to be working with such a talented and committed team to bring it to life,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in a statement. “This film will be an amazing addition to our global original films initiative.”
Maloney added: “As filmmakers, we are constantly looking for new ways to bring a movie to the largest possible audience. Netflix has already reinvented the TV market and is now moving front and center into the film business. We are proud and excited to be part of their story and innovation."
Dornan is repped by UTA and U.K.-based United Agents. Canet is repped by CAA and France's UBBA. Brodbin is repped by CAA and Generate.
The acquisition is just the latest move into original, scripted films by Netflix. The streaming service, which has had success with original TV series like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, is now ramping up its narrative-film production and distribution business. Netflix recently announced plans to make a sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which is set to hit Imax theaters and the streaming service on Aug. 28.
The company also announced plans to make four movies with Adam Sandler, which will debut exclusively on Netflix. In addition, the Duplass brothers have struck a four-movie deal with Netflix.
Sarandos previously told The Hollywood Reporter that the streaming service is looking to make 10 to 14 movies a year.
Netflix has had success distributing original documentaries like the Oscar-nominated titles, The Square and Virunga.
The streaming service also recently acquired the Rashida Jones-produced doc, Hot Girls Wanted, about the amateur porn industry, out of Sundance.
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Have you ever thought the walk signs at street corners weren’t long enough? Probably not. But if you’re over 65 years old, it may be a different matter. What seems like a reasonable amount of time to cross a street is more like an Olympic sprint for the elderly. It’s one of numerous issues that have grown in importance as our population not only ages but becomes increasingly concentrated in cities.
In 2006, just 11 percent of the global population was over the age of 60, but the number is expected to double by 2050, according to the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the number of people living in cities continues to rise. In North America, 81 percent of the population lived in urban areas in 2005, and is expected to reach 87 percent by 2030.
Despite the clear trend toward an older, more urban population, most experts agree little is being done to make cities more age-friendly. Some of the necessary changes will be challenging. It won’t be easy or cheap to provide more public transportation or to build more affordable and accessible housing for seniors who are on fixed incomes and are less mobile.
But there are steps cities can take to make a place more attractive to the elderly without costing an arm and a leg. Take crosswalks. By adding more time, cities can turn what seem like fast dashes for some into less stressful pedestrian crossings. If lengthening crosswalk time might trip up traffic patterns, the use of pedestrian islands at major intersections could be another solution to this small but nagging problem.
Other low-cost ideas include adding more disabled parking places; increasing the number of sidewalk cutaways to make it easier for wheelchairs and walkers to navigate city streets; building more benches, including flip-down seats on the sides of buildings; and improving signage by using larger font sizes.
New York City, which forecasts that its 60-and-older population will increase by 47 percent between 2000 and 2030, has taken the lead in tackling the burgeoning age issue. In 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration looked at the problem and came up with a blueprint for making the city more senior-friendly, including a pilot project that would use school buses to ferry the elderly to grocery stores. Another transportation-related solution would provide eligible seniors with vouchers to use taxis and livery cars to move about the city.
Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized four urban areas for their efforts in combining and promoting smart-growth concepts with more active lives for seniors. Mecklenburg County, N.C.; Brazos Valley, Texas; Fairfax County, Va.; and Philadelphia have undertaken initiatives that range from more walking paths in parks, more land for urban gardens and more public toilets, to fewer barriers, greater social inclusion and a cleaner environment. Ultimately, cities that pursue age-friendly programs not only improve the lives of seniors but of the population as a whole. That’s one idea that doesn’t grow old.
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By Alice Donovan
Air strikes carried out by the US and its coalition partners in Syria have killed the highest number of civilians on record since the bombing campaign began, a war monitor has said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group mostly advocating anti-government forces in the war in Syria, said on Tuesday that the US-led coalition killed a total of 225 civilians between April 23 and May 23, the highest 30-day toll since the campaign began in 2014.
“The past month of operations is the highest civilian toll since the coalition began bombing Syria,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency. “There has been a very big escalation.”
A U.S. military spokesman was quick to characterize those casualties as being accidents, otherwise, the result of U.S.-allied bombings but deferring all blame from the U.S.-led alliance.
Stephen Townsend, a U.S. general and commander of Baghdad’s forces, said that the Islamic State group had “probably played a role in those casualties,” by using civilians as human shields. He provided no proof to validate his claims.
International human rights organizations argue that the official number of civilians killed in coalition operations is far greater than that reported by the Pentagon because Washington rejects figures provided by monitors on the ground and always tries to cut back on the number of the casualties.
In March, the US was accused of killing around 300 civilians alone after one strike which hit a mosque in Aleppo province and two incidents in the fight for ISIS-controlled neighborhoods of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Earlier this month, the US military said that coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had ”unintentionally“ killed 352 civilians since the campaign began, but rights groups have blasted the estimate as too low, saying the US is guilty of not taking “sufficient precautions” to avoid civilian deaths.
The US and allies formed the coalition earlier in 2014 to fight Daesh in neighboring Iraq, but they later expanded it to include territories in east and north of Syria. Damascus, which itself is busy fighting terrorists on multiple fronts, condemned the decision at the time, saying it violated Syria’s territorial integrity.
The Syrian government has never sought assistance from the West as it insists that Washington and allies in Europe have helped the surge in militancy in the Arab country by providing direct finance and weaponry to certain militant groups.
SOHR’s own estimate is that 1,481 people, among them 319 children, have been killed by US-led air operations since 2014.
The International Coalition consists of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Denmark among others.
Alice Donovan is an independent writer, blogger, meme maker and activist. She has been published in different alternative media outlets including WeAreChange, VeteransToday, CounterPunch, MintPressNews, GlobalResearch and OpEdNews.
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By: Monica Casey | WCTV Eyewitness News
February 10, 2020
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) -- The City of Tallahassee is hosting four community meetings on the subject of low-income and workforce housing.
The meetings are open to all residents; the City wants your ideas to address housing needs. Your input could affect federal funding.
The City also has two online surveys, including questions about fair housing and community needs. Tallahassee will use input from the meetings and surveys in its five-year strategic plan.
"We will then submit that to the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of our annual grant funding for housing in the community," said Commissioner Curtis Richardson.
The City is looking for input from residents about housing, where it's needed, where redevelopment is needed and how money from the federal government should be spent.
"Housing is becoming so unaffordable throughout the state and nation," said Commissioner Richardson. "We're looking at those areas in particular where those incomes are lower, and individuals are unable to afford the housing in those areas."
The City's Community Services Department is also looking into geo-mapping the homeless population.
"Where they lie, where they come from, what other characteristics and demographics do they have?" said TEMPO founder and Director of the Department of Community Services Dr. Kimball Thomas.
By learning more about that group, the City can help them with what they actually need.
"We'll be working with Big Bend COC, the Kearney Center, we'll be looking at what certain housing situations are there for them, what's available to them," said Dr. Thomas. "We'll be looking at those things before we have a concrete plan on how to move forward."
Another focus of the City Commission is home ownership.
"We're hoping to make that American dream of home ownership available to those who desire it. Regardless of what that is, multi-family or single-family residences," said Commissioner Richardson.
WCTV spoke with the President of the Tallahassee Board of Realtors about the current market.
"Stuff under $130,000 is kind of hard," said Nicholas Mihalich.
Tallahassee currently has a smaller supply of cheaper homes.
"One of the problems that we do have is that the stuff that is below $130K is not always desirable to everybody. So we have some stock there but it's not moving as fast as the stuff between $180K and $250K," said Mihalich.
Mihalich said it's not an unusual trend in the past couple of years. He thinks the City could help.
"I think they're on the right path with talking to the community and trying to get as many viewpoints as possible," he said.
You can participate in the surveys
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WASHINGTON/AUSTIN (Reuters) - Texas on Friday withdrew its request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the imminent resettlement of 21 Syrian refugees into the state, saying the U.S. government had provided it with the information it sought on the group.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott speaks during an anti-abortion rally at the State Capitol in Austin, Texas, July 8, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Stone
The move came just hours after the U.S. Justice Department filed papers in a federal court in Dallas, saying the state did not have the authority to act on national immigration policy and could not bar the refugees from resettling.
The relief agency that plans to resettle the Syrians in the coming days filed a separate motion at the U.S. District Court in Dallas, contending that Texas could not discriminate against refugees on the basis of nationality because that violates U.S. civil rights laws.
“Texas is not discriminating against all refugees, only Syrian refugees,” the International Rescue Committee said in its filing.
The results of this case could determine whether the governors of more than 30 states will be able to go through with plans to bar the local resettlement of Syrian refugees.
The International Rescue Committee plans to relocate a family of six Syrians to Dallas on Dec. 7 and another family of six Syrians to Houston the same day. The families arrived in the United States this week, according to court papers.
It plans to resettle a family of eight Syrians in Houston on Dec. 10, along with a 26-year-old woman whose mother resides in the area.
Texas has threatened a funding cut for the relief agency if it goes ahead with the relocation.
The state has requested that the court set a Dec. 9 date for a hearing on an injunction to halt Syrians from resettling.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission sued the U.S. government and the relief agency this week to block refugee resettlement in the state.
After the Paris attacks in November, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, was one of the first governors to seek to block the resettlement of Syrians into their states.
Abbott has said he was concerned that U.S. security screening is ineffective and could allow people with ties to terrorism to be admitted.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement the U.S. government is legally obligated to consult with Texas in advance of resettlement.
The Justice Department said in its filing the Refugee Act of 1980 requires the government to consult on a regular basis with states about the sponsorship process and distribution among states.
“It does not create any obligation to provide advance consultation regarding individual resettlement decisions,” it said.
Since the fiscal year 2011, 243 Syrian refugees have resettled in Texas, the U.S. filing said, making the state one of the main U.S. relocation sites since the Syrian civil war erupted about four years ago.
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The Kael Cup Championship (KCC) is a multi-format event bringing together a diverse group of competitors interested in claiming the title Master of All Formats.
Each of the first three days of the tournament tests a different format — Unheroic, Unlegendary, Standard — and offers players the opportunity to earn points toward a Top 16 cut for Day 4. Players making the cut will need to advance through a round of Unheroic, a round of Unlegendary, and two rounds of Standard to win the Championship and some awesome prizes including sixty thousand gold. (60,000!)
KCC Quicklist
More Information: KCC Tournament Overview
Results/Decklists: Day 1 – Unheroic | Day 2 – Unlegendary
Undefeated in Unheroic: Hectares, Zwaxor
Undefeated in Unlegendary: CarlChu
Two-Day Swiss Standings
After ten Swiss rounds the current Top 16 all have earned fifteen points or more. Three points are awarded for winning a round and one point is awarded for a draw.
27: Hectares, CarlChu
24: DmcRaze, Zwaxor
21: zrandles, Likeaboss, N3Rk
19: piquadore, Caitiri
18: Tabaluga, Aterocana, jmo101, jotto, Coxatrice (InsaneAtYou)
15: crazychan, Pion, Jabor, KxDow
(see full standings)
Format Notes
Both formats were dominated by Nekrium-Uterra (NU) decklists following well-defined archetypes. Top performers in the Unheroic event ran a combination of Plants, Overload, and the *bound underdrop cycle.
The Unlegendary event mimicked the recent World Championship Qualifier, overrun with the variations on highly consistent lists featuring Dysian Broodqueen and Bramblewood Tracker.
Here is a highlight from my experience of Day 2 in Round 5 vs. Likeaboss:
Upcoming
Day 3 of the event will take place in the Standard format with the same five round Swiss and the results will determine who makes the cut for Day 4. Additionally, someone will earn Best of Swiss which nets 5600 gold (in addition to any further prizes from the Top 16).
Follow Twitch.TV/Hectares for my coverage of the events Oct 25+26, 9am Pacific (noon Eastern).
Thanks
A big thanks to Kaelari for organizing and providing generous prize support and the streamers who invite the community to enjoy their games.
—
Ed. note: An earlier note in the article incorrectly suggested that Stoneblade provided prize support for this event and has been removed.
Follow @hahectares
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October 07, 2019
Syria - Trump Gives A Green Light For Another Turkish Invasion
This morning U.S. President Donald Trump has a little surprise for the Kurds in Syria:
Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey by telephone. Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial “Caliphate,” will no longer be in the immediate area.
...
Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years in the wake of the defeat of the territorial “Caliphate” by the United States.
This actually is not a surprise. Trump had tried several times to remove the U.S. from Syria and was only held back by the borg. Last December then Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned when Trump ordered the troops to leave Syria. I do not expect anything similar to happen now.
Turkey long wanted to move into the Syrian border area east of the Euphrates. It sees the YPG resistance group, with whom the U.S. allied to go after ISIS, as a threat to its country. That view is justified.
Erdogan wants to take a 30 kilometer deep strip including the M4 highway which runs west to east in that area.
But the border area Erdogan marked is quite populated with some 850,000 people living there. Most of them are Kurds.
Turkey wants to replace those Kurds with the Syrian mob that it armed and supported against the Syrian government troops. These people and their families currently live in Turkey. To move them into north Syria would be one of the largest ethnic cleansing operation the world has seen in recent times.
A saying goes "The Kurds have no friends but the mountains." But there are no mountains in Syria's north east. While the YPG might want to fight off a Turkish invasion they have little chance to succeed. The land is flat and the YPG forces only have light arms.
There is only one solution for them. They will have to call up the Syrian government and ask it to come back into the north east. That would remove the Turkish concerns and would likely prevent further Turkish moves.
The second part of Trump's statement, that Turkey will take responsibility for imprisoned ISIS fighters and families, can not be taken seriously. Those camps are far beyond the border zone Erdogan seeks.
It was long predicted that the Kurds would become the biggest losers of the war on Syria. They already lost Afrin in the north west to a Turkish invasion. Will they again resist the need to submit to the central government and repeat that mistake? One would hope that they are smarter than that but I would not bet on it.
Posted by b on October 7, 2019 at 14:33 UTC | Permalink
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Elizabeth Iorns had the same thought, and she saw a way to do a better and more transparent job. She had founded a start-up called Science Exchange, which uses a large network of contract labs to provide research support to scientists—and in some cases, check their work. She contacted the COS, and together, they launched the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology—an initiative that used the Science Exchange labs to replicate key results from the 50 most cited papers in cancer biology, published between 2010 and 2012. (The COS recently used the same model for psychology studies to good effect.)
The results from the first five of these replication attempts were published today—and they offer no clean answers. Two of them largely (but not entirely) confirmed the conclusions of the original studies. One failed to do so. And two were inconclusive for technical reasons—the mouse strains or cancer cell lines that were used in the original studies didn’t behave in the same way the second time round. These uncertainties mean that it’s very hard to say whether each replication attempt “worked,” or whether each original study was actually reproducible.
“Everyone wants us to paint the project in black and white,” says Errington. “What percent of these papers replicate? I’ve been asked that so many times, but it’s not an easy question.” To him, the project’s goal isn’t to get a hard percentage, but to understand why two seemingly identical goes at the same experiment might produce different results, and to ultimately make it easier for one group of scientists to check another’s work.
The Reproducibility Project team pre-registered all of their work. That is, for each targeted paper, they wrote up their experimental plans in full, ran them past the original authors, and submitted them to the journal eLife for peer review. Only then did they start the experiments. Once the results were in, they were reviewed a second time, before being published.
The hardest part, by far, was figuring out exactly what the original labs actually did. Scientific papers come with methods sections that theoretically ought to provide recipes for doing the same experiments. But often, those recipes are incomplete, missing out important steps, details, or ingredients. In some cases, the recipes aren’t described at all; researchers simply cite an earlier study that used a similar technique. “I’ve done it myself: you reference a previous paper and that one references a paper and that one references a paper, and now you’ve gone years and the methodology doesn’t exist,” admit Errington. “Most people looking at these papers wouldn’t even think of going through these steps. They’d just guess. If you asked 20 different labs to replicate a paper, you’d end up with 10 different methodologies that aren’t really comparable.”
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MANILA, Philippines - The ban on the use of mobile phones while driving is now in effect following the publication of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10913 or the Anti-Distracted Driving Act.
Motorists can still use their phones provided this is done hands-free.
“They can use headphones. They can use their smart phones without holding it because the law states that drivers should not be distracted in driving even during the stoplight or temporary stop,” Land Transportation Office (LTO) executive director Romeo Vera Cruz said yesterday.
Vera Cruz said the LTO will regulate the use of these highly technical devices while driving, even if motorists are using them for navigation purposes or searching for alternate routes when they are caught in the middle of heavy traffic, such as through Waze, a community-based traffic and navigation application widely used in the Philippines.
“If they are using Waze, the device should not be positioned in a way that would distract the driver,” LTO Law Enforcement Service director Francis Ray Almora said yesterday in a phone interview.
RA 10913 defines “distracted driving” as “performance by motorists or drivers in a running motor vehicle or even temporarily stopped at the red light.”
Under Section 5 of the new law, using smartphones or other gadgets is not considered to be distracted driving “if done using the aid of a hands-free function or similar device... provided that the placement of the mobile communication device or hands-free device does not interfere with the line of sight of the driver.”
The law, however, also exempts motorists using a mobile phone to make an emergency call to a law enforcement agency, health care provider, fire department and other similar agencies and emergency services.
Otherwise, motorists should park their vehicles if they have to use their phones and other gadgets.
The law’s IRR defines “distracted driving” as “the use of mobile communication to make or receive calls and write or send messages and other similar acts while the vehicle is motion.”
Other prohibited acts are using gadgets for playing games, watching movies, surfing and reading e-books, among others.
The law will take effect 15 days after the IRR’s publication in major newspapers nationwide last May 3, according to Almora and Vera Cruz.
Motorists who will be caught violating the law shall be fined P5,000 for the first offense; P10,000 for the second offense; P15,000 and suspension of driver’s license for three months for the third offense; and P20,000 fine and revocation of driver’s license for the fourth offense.
The law states that the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other concerned government agencies shall assist the LTO in the law’s effective implementation.
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The dock landing ship Fort McHenry has apparently been avoiding port calls for months after 25 sailors and Marines aboard were diagnosed with a viral disease in December.
In a statement, U.S. 5th Fleet confirmed that the service members, including sailors deployed on the ship and members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, were diagnosed with parotitis, a disease similar to mumps. CNN was first to report the outbreak Wednesday.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the disease involves swelling of one or both salivary glands. CDC literature indicates infections may be on the rise, with several hundred reported cases of acute parotitis during the 2014-2015 flu season in the U.S., the largest number of reported cases in history.
The first case was detected Dec. 22, officials said, and affected service members were quarantined and treated while they displayed symptoms. To date, 24 of the 25 have returned to duty, according to a statement, and there have been no active cases since March 9.
Fifth Fleet officials said none of the cases was life-threatening and full recoveries are expected in all cases. To minimize the spread of the disease, all living and working spaces affected were cleaned and disinfected, and the entire population aboard Fort McHenry received measles, mumps and rubella booster vaccinations.
"Fort McHenry's operational schedule has been modified while the ship's medical team monitors crew health to ensure the readiness of her Sailors and Marines," officials said. "... Routine unit-level training and operations have continued."
Officials with 5th Fleet did not immediately respond to questions about specific modifications to the ship's operational schedule, but releases tracking the deployment indicate the Fort McHenry has not made a port stop since early January.
The ship left its homeport in Mayport, Florida, in December for a seven-month deployment with the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd MEU to support operations in Europe and the Middle East.
The ship made a scheduled port visit in Constanta, Romania, on Jan. 7, according to military news releases. Following the port stop, the ship spent time in the Mediterranean before moving into the 5th Fleet area of operations in the waters surrounding the Middle East.
The Fort McHenry transited the Suez Canal on Jan. 15.
In addition to multiple replenishments-at-sea and a variety of onboard training evolutions, the troops aboard conducted a passing exercise, or PASSEX, on Feb. 14 with a guided-missile frigate from the Egyptian Navy in the Northern Arabian sea, and a burial-at-sea Feb. 19 for 36 military veterans. The ship transited the Strait of Hormuz, between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, on March 11.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
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positive emotions, then these are fish friendships.
“It would be a good thing if these kinds of results were used, not only to improve the lives of laboratory fish, but also for people who keep fish in fish tanks to think about what they are doing when they mix unfamiliar fish together or when they split groups of fish up.
“They are not just ornaments or play things for people, they are individuals, they are sentient.
“There’s quite a lot of research going on into fish personalities. Some fish are bold, some are shy, there’s a whole lot more going on in the fish tank than people than people thought previously.”
However she also criticised the study, saying the anaesthetic used on the fish before they were killed had been “shown to be very irritating for them”.
“They will work quite hard to get out of it. There are other anaesthetics that don’t have this effect,” Dr Hawkins said.
She said it was a “a bit of a tragic conflict” that the evidence “to make people sit up and think” about fish had come from a study that involved animal suffering.
“The price these individuals paid in order to find this out was pretty high,” Dr Hawkins said.
The zebrafish were kept in a laboratory tank and exposed to their own ‘alarm substance’, a secretion from their skin that signals danger, the researchers said in the journal Scientific Reports.
If they were alone, they displayed signs of greater fear, but when they were with other zebrafish they responded more calmly. They were then killed to allow their brains to be examined.
Professor Rui Oliveira, of the ISPA university in Lisbon, who led the study, said what made it significant was the discovery that zebrafish shared a similar social buffering process in the brain with humans and mammals.
Asked about whether it should change people perceptions of fish, he said: “What this study shows is certainly they change the way they perceive their environment when others are present, which suggests they might be cognitively more complex than we originally thought.
“Maybe because of that people will become more aware of their needs and welfare issues. I think if it helps, it’s great.
“There are all the myths about fish have a memory of five seconds, like in [the film Finding] Nemo, that’s obviously not the case.”
On Dr Hawkins’ complaint about the way the zebrafish were killed, he said the anaesthetic used was part of the official protocol and he was unaware of a better alternative.
His colleague, Dr Ana Faustino, stressed the zebrafish’s social support process “does not have the complexity of the social support verified in humans”.
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’s wealth to various good causes. In this scenario, after all, the intellectual who could make millions for charity as a financier or high‐powered attorney, but prefers to take his compensation in the form of leisure time and interesting work, is not obviously morally better than the actual financier or attorney who uses his monetary compensation to purchase material pleasures. Both are declining to sacrifice personal satisfaction in order to help others—one has just chosen a form of compensation that can’t be taxed and redistributed easily. If private efforts are ineffectual or relatively unimportant compared with political action, however, the intellectual can rest assured that he’s satisfying his moral obligations by paying taxes and writing persuasively in support of the appropriate political remedies.
This account seems consistent with our current political rhetoric, in which progressive political views are taken to signify compassion and concern for the badly off, while conservative or libertarian views are (progressives often say) evidence of callousness or selfishness. As Jason Brennan observes in a recent post at Bleeding Heart Libertarians, there’s something a little odd about using political views as a metric of compassion or selfishness. Talk, after all, is cheap: It costs nothing to express verbal support for a policy or candidate. One might think a better measure would be some indicia of compassion that involve a modicum of sacrifice—charitable donations or hours volunteered—and by these measures, Brennan claims the evidence is that progressives fare no better than anyone else. But of course, if you assume that political mechanisms are vastly superior to private ones, then writing blog posts and op‐eds supporting progressive policies (as opposed to giving large sums to charity or working in a soup kitchen) may be the more morally relevant way of expressing compassion.
Of course, many intellectuals of every ideological stripe also give to charity or volunteer, and some lack the temperament that would make high‐paying corporate work a realistic alternative. And one can just as easily tell a complementary story that explains why private businessmen would be disposed to believe (either because of selction effects or post hoc rationalization) that contributing to private economic growth is the best way to improve the world.
Still, combined with the effect of social information cascades, this account provides one reason we might expect wordsmith intellectuals to favor progressive views independently of whether these views are the best supported by arguments: It is on these views that—by engaging in intellectual activity, and by voting and advocating for the appropriate policies—intellectuals are already best meeting their moral obligation to help make the world better, even if other career choices might enable them to make larger direct, material contributions. This line of reasoning is no excuse for libertarians to become glibly complacent in their views, or to substitute psychoanalytic for substantive responses to specific progressive arguments. But it is, perhaps, reason to be less worried that the predominance of progressive views among intellectuals is, in itself, necessarily strong evidence against the libertarian position.
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Indiana couples await high court ruling on same-sex marriage
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Same-sex couples in Indiana who’ve flocked to the altar since courts threw out the state’s ban on gay marriage last year worry that a pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling could lead to legal limbo.
The high court is expected to rule by the end of the month on whether states can limit marriage to heterosexual couples. Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee are asking the court to uphold bans on same-sex marriage and allow the political process, not the courts, to handle major societal changes. But the decision would have a wide-reaching impact, especially in states like Indiana, which unsuccessfully fought to keep their bans.
After U.S. District Judge Richard Young ruled last June that Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal-protection clause, gay couples began to get married. The exact number isn’t known because until January, applicants for marriage licenses filled out a form at their county clerk’s office that featured two lines: “bride’s name” and “groom’s name.”
The Indiana Department of Health reports that 1,147 marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples from Jan. 1 to June 15 of this year. The current system for marriage licenses uses an online application form that requires each applicant to enter their name and check “male” or “female,” according to the South Bend Tribune (http://bit.ly/1dbF6bt ).
Support for gay marriage is rising across the country, with a Pew Research Center poll released this month showing 57 percent of Americans now favor allowing it and 39 percent oppose it. That’s a sharp swing from five years ago, when more Americans opposed same-sex marriage than supported it. The poll also showed that 72 percent of respondents said legal recognition of gay marriage is “inevitable.”
Even so, the Supreme Court’s pending decision has couples like Jennifer Weber and Arielle Schmitt of South Bend nervous. The couple had been engaged for about 18 months and thought they might have to go to Illinois to be married legally. But the court ruling allowed them to be married in Indiana on March 28.
Weber likens the debate over same-sex marriage to objections in the past about extending rights to blacks and women.
“I feel like we should have the same rights as any other couple that loves each other and wants to be together,” she said.
Schmitt said she hopes the Supreme Court will decide the issue once and for all.
“We’re always worried about it,” Schmitt said. “If it continues to go back and forth, it’s just going to leave couples in limbo.”
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South Korea just won its first international tournament in two years with a victory at Rift Rivals East!
LCK lineups proved dominant in the group stage, producing a combined record of 7-1 against the best League of Legends teams from the LPL, LMS, and VCS. The playoffs saw them clash with China and score a 3-1 victory in a nail-biting relay race final. Does this mean South Korea is finally back in shape? And how does this influence the global LoL esports landscape?
The resurging powerhouse
South Korea had a rough couple of years in League of Legends. After standing at the top of the LoL esports food chain for five years in a row, the region found itself struggling to stand up to China and Europe in 2018. This culminated in LCK teams not even making it past the first round of the playoffs of the 2018 World Championship and 2019 Mid-Season Invitational.
Things are likely to change, though, as South Korea scored a much-needed win at the 2019 Rift Rivals.
Granted, this event isn’t as prestigious as the MSI or Worlds. However, most Eastern teams still view it as a serious competition that gives them the chance to experience the thrill of international competition. Combine that with the fact that South Korea has an ongoing rivalry with China, and the 3-1 finals scoreline is more meaningful than it appears at first glance.
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The manner in which LCK teams won is also impressive. The series kicked off with Kingzone DragonX struggling to match Invictus Gaming’s aggression only to rally behind their ace—Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu—and take the game with surgical teamfighting.
In the following match, SK Telecom T1 ran circles around Top Esports in the early game and sealed the deal with a number of game-changing Neeko ultimates courtesy of Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. Surprisingly enough, the only LCK loss came off the back of the No. 1 South Korean team—Griffin—falling prey to the mid lane Pantheon of FunPlus Phoenix.
Finally, DAMWON Gaming picked up the slack and closed the series with a confident win over JD Gaming.
Future conquests
It’s still too early for celebration. A Rift Rivals victory doesn’t suddenly make South Korea the best region in the East. The LCK has a long way to go before it can claim to have regained its old dominance. However, this win does put a big dent into the narrative that LCK lineups are hopelessly behind their LPL counterparts. And it will be up to Korea to keep the momentum going at the 2019 World Championship and prove that the Rift Rivals victory wasn’t a fluke.
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The Federal Reserve is sure to hike interest rates again this year, but the key question is how many times. One market watcher says investors could look in an unusual place for a clue.
Crude oil prices are a leading indicator in evaluating whether inflation is getting too hot and the Fed is ready to play catch-up, according to Charlie Bilello, director of research at Pension Partners.
"We have this interesting phenomenon where crude oil is highly correlated to the direction of inflation expectations," Bilello told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Thursday.
Crude can be seen as a predictive measure for overall inflation as its moves impact energy prices in real time. Crude oil prices have moved in lockstep with inflation expectations, as measured by the iShares TIPS bond ETF relative to the iShares 7-10 year Treasury bond fund, Bilello said.
From 2014 to 2016, for example, when the oil glut pushed crude below $30 a barrel, inflation expectations also tumbled.
"During that period you have extremely easy central bank policies," said Bilello. "The fears were deflation, you had the ECB go negative on interest rates, the Bank of Japan go negative on interest rates and you had the Fed very reluctant to hike rates."
Since 2016, crude oil has made a roughly 160 percent advance, picking up speed this year, and inflation expectations have risen alongside it. President Donald Trump tweeted a blast against OPEC on Friday, accusing the oil bloc of keeping prices "artificially very high."
The rising prices should push the Fed to move rates higher to avoid being behind the curve.
"The Fed is hiking more aggressively, expected to hike three or four times this year, and now we're talking about other central banks joining as well," said Bilello. "The environment is changing, and I think this is an important relationship to watch going forward."
While common thinking is that easy money on the equity market will cease once the Fed pushes rates higher, Bilello says history shows the opposite to be true.
"If we look back in history, there's been some inflection points back in 1987, back in 2000 and back in 2007, you had yields failing to break higher," he said. "It ended up being a bad thing for the equity market."
By comparison, in 1988, 2003 and 2008 when yields failed to break lower and rates pushed higher, the equity market took off, he said.
"If you're worried about higher interest rates and you're hoping that they go back down, be careful what you wish for because it may mean an economy slipping into a recession or some turmoil in the markets," he added.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.93 percent on Thursday, its highest level since March 21. Yields have not topped 3 percent since January 2014. West Texas Intermediate crude ended Thursday's session at $68.29 a barrel.
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A family room at the QEII Health Sciences Centre is getting an upgrade thanks to a group of women from the Ummah Mosque.
Family rooms are rooms equipped with furniture and some amenities to give patients and their family and friends a space outside the patient’s room that is more comfortable and inviting.
“When you get here, it’s very draining for families.” said Bill Bean, CEO of the QEII Foundation.
“It’s very difficult, the need to have some place that feels like home. It’s not home, but we can make it feel like home.” Tweet This
Lama Issa says she has seen first hand the importance of such rooms, as they’ve been a gathering place for those supporting Kawthar Barho and her husband Ebraheim Barho, who suffered severe burns and was put into an induced coma following a tragic fire that claimed the lives of their seven children.
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READ MORE: More relatives of Barho family, who lost 7 children in Halifax house fire, to arrive in Canada
Issa says a group of women is now working to raise $10,000 to upgrade the room in honour of the family.
“We’re trying to give back to the hospital. We’ve seen how much they were generous and supportive for the Barho family and their crisis,” she said. Tweet This
The money raised will be used to transform the room into something that’s more modern and comfortable.
But some of the family rooms, like this one, are a bit outdated, with furniture that is in need of an upgrade. pic.twitter.com/DKt2Kz4NRW — Alicia Draus (@Alicia_Draus) April 18, 2019
“The renovation will include new furniture, new tiles, painting of the room and a new TV as well,” said Issa.
“We’re starting off with businesses, approaching businesses to see if they can support us. Down the road, we’re going to have fundraising events like bake sales, art sales and craft sales,” said Lubna Channaa.
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Donations can also be made through the Ummah Mosque Website under the campaign “Muslims Give Back” or directly through the QEII Foundation’s website.
“Just reference the Barho family project, 100 per cent of the funds will go directly to this space.” said Bean.
“If we could raise $10,000, $15,000, $20,0000, we could change this place, which will help change the experience of families who are going through very, very difficult times, like the Barho family have.”
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economically useful as prison laborers and numbers on the spreadsheet of a private prison than they are as free workers. And the old New Deal did it too, by choosing to exclude and discard so many black and brown and women workers.
There is a grand story to be told here about the duty to repair—to repair our relationship with the earth and with one another, to heal the deep wounds dating back to the founding of the country. Because while it is true that climate change is a crisis produced by an excess of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it is also, in a more profound sense, a crisis produced by an extractive mindset—a way of viewing both the natural world and the majority of its inhabitants as resources to use up and then discard. I call it the “gig and dig” economy and firmly believe that we will not emerge from this crisis without a shift in worldview, a transformation from “gig and dig” to an ethos of care and repair.
If these kinds of deeper connections between fractured people and a fast-warming planet seem far beyond the scope of policy makers, it’s worth thinking back to the absolutely central role of artists during the New Deal era. Playwrights, photographers, muralists, and novelists were all part of a renaissance of both realist and utopian art. Some held up a mirror to the wrenching misery that the New Deal sought to alleviate. Others opened up spaces for Depression-ravaged people to imagine a world beyond that misery. Both helped get the job done in ways that are impossible to quantify.
In a similar vein, there is much to learn from indigenous-led movements in Bolivia and Ecuador that have placed at the center of their calls for ecological transformation the concept of buen vivir, a focus on the right to a good life as opposed to more and more and more life of endless consumption.
The Green New Deal will need to be subject to constant vigilance and pressure from experts who understand exactly what it will take to lower our emissions as rapidly as science demands, and from social movements that have decades of experience bearing the brunt of false climate solutions, whether nuclear power, the chimera of carbon capture and storage, or carbon offsets.
But in remaining vigilant, we also have to be careful not to bury the overarching message: that this is a potential lifeline that we all have a sacred and moral responsibility to reach for.
Naomi Klein is Senior Correspondent for The Intercept, a Puffin Writing Fellow at Type Media Center, and the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author, most recently, of On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal.
This essay is adapted from the author’s chapter in We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism—American Style, a new anthology edited by Kate Aronoff, Michael Kazin, and Peter Dreier and published by The New Press.
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AN ASTRONAUT who is one of only 24 people to have flown to the moon is making a return visit to Limerick next week to a place that he truly fell in love with – Lough Gur.
AN ASTRONAUT who is one of only 24 people to have flown to the moon is making a return visit to Limerick next week to a place that he truly fell in love with – Lough Gur.
Since the voluntary board members took over the lakeside heritage centre in 2011, and under the management of Kate Harrold, the visitor attraction has reached the number one spot on Trip Advisor for places to visit in Limerick city and county.
Mr Worden was clearly among the many people who declared their new found curiosity and joy while walking near the shores of Lough Gur.
On his tour of Lough Gur in 2014 Mr Worden was so visibly moved by the beauty and tranquillity of the sacred site that he agreed to become a patron of the organisation.
Other Lough Gur Development patrons elected for the first time in 2015 along with Al Worden include well-known actor and local Lough Gur man Jon Kenny, international referee George Clancy, acclaimed singer and author Dr Noirín Ni Riain, life-long expert on Lough Gur and senior archaeologist in UCC Dr Rose Cleary along with author and historian Michael Quinlan.
Next Monday, June 8, all of the Lough Gur Development patrons will gather for the first time to mark their approach to positively develop, protect and promote the ancient site.
Before these formalities take place, first on the agenda for Mr Worden will be a presentation to the lucky students of Mainister National School.
“The school entered an online competition and won 25 tickets to meet with this space explorer,” explained Ms Harrold of Lough Gur Development.
The students will be treated to a view of the photographs taken within the original Apollo 15 shuttle. They will also find out exactly what happens in space from the science part to the fun parts. Mr Worden served as a command module pilot for the historic Apollo 15 in 1971.
After the primary school presentation Mr Worden will visit Grange Stone Circle to meet with Music Generation Limerick to officially launch the Summer Solstice Festival for 2015. Music Generation will perform a sound art act on June 21 within the stone circle to test the archaeoacoustics of the ancient monument. Following on from this visit to the Stone Circle Mr Worden, a proficient golfer, will receive honorary membership from Ballyneety Golf Club at a private function to mark the occasion.
Mr Worden will then return to Lough Gur Heritage Centre to officially launch the Dark Sky Park Initiative presented by the Shannonside Astronomy Club. Recent tests have shown that Lough Gur has some of the darkest skies in Europe. The last reading measured 21.1 which is a staggering figure given the proximity of many local towns.
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It seems like every year we are reminded of the lengths corporations will go to get a little street credibility and build more of a following. Yesterday's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was no exception. Here are 13 examples (and one apology) of when shameless Twitter promotion goes terribly wrong:
Zzzquil
Advertisement:
Zzzquil, the shining example of what happens when you make PR decisions while sleepwalking.
[embedtweet id="425273661260849153"]
Pornhub
Adult website Pornhub (yes, it has a Twitter) pathetically attempts to show tolerance.
[embedtweet id="425363419147927552"]
Advertisement:
Then they dig a deeper hole...
[embedtweet id="425373732056494080"]
PETA
Though well-intentioned, it may have not been the smartest move for PETA to equate the struggle for human rights with a sad animal.
[embedtweet id="425273020140105728"]
Forever 21
Forever 21 shows how important it is to make a statement by protecting your smartphone.
Advertisement:
[embedtweet id="425342721553731584"]
Krazy Glue
You shouldn't have, Krazy Glue. Really, you shouldn't have.
[embedtweet id="425296727176781825"]
Chicken of the Sea
How long did Chicken of the Sea spend Googling this?
[embedtweet id="425301443852382208"]
Popchips
Advertisement:
"Poptimist"? Seriously?
[embedtweet id="425311806333419520"]
Arby's
Put your silly hat back on, Arby's.
[embedtweet id="425316776436432897"]
McDonald's
McDonald's shows it knows how to follow Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
[embedtweet id="425326727930200064"]
Advertisement:
Coca-Cola
Coke shamelessly attempts to demonstrate what it's like at the mountaintop.
[embedtweet id="425281567993659392"]
U.S. Marine Corps
The U.S. Marine Corps should have thought first before kicking off the three-day weekend, guns blazing (H/T: @athertonKD).
Advertisement:
Then they took it down and apologized...
[embedtweet id="424247194053406720"]
Schwinn
#icant Schwinn...
[embedtweet id="425333236680892416"]
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Does this sound familiar?
OK, so maybe you’ve managed to kick the sugar habit, you’re doing well, you’re feeling more in control… then wham! You lose control, you grab a bar of chocolate while you’re paying for your petrol, and you’ve fallen off the wagon.
There are all sort of times and places that we can fall foul of temptation and crumble whilst trying to quit sugar.
If you really are a sugar addict then temptation can come at you from any angle, any time, any place.
We live in a world where sugar is constantly sold to us on TV, magazines, online, billboards, newsagents, supermarkets.
It’s hard to escape from temptation and so we really shouldn’t feel too bad about ourselves if we do fall off the wagon, it’s not the end of the world!
It's a lot easier for someone to stop smoking in some ways, all they have to do is not buy cigarettes, put them in their mouth and light up. The problem you have when trying to kick the sugar habit is that we all have to eat! And sugar is everywhere!!!
You've battled so hard agains the cravings!
So, you fallen off the wagon. You may feel sick.
Sick because you have gorged on something sweet, or sick at yourself for succumbing to the demon sugar, but don’t worry - sometimes we need to know what we don’t want in order to know what we do want.
Sugar withdrawal can sometimes be a tough nut to crack, but the health benefits of quitting sugar far outweigh the few discomforts you may temporarily suffer.
A lot of the health risks associated with a high sugar diet can be a lot more permanent!
Be honest with yourself
So, take in the moment, how do you feel about yourself?
Is this how you want to live, as a slave to a chemical?
As a slave to something that will control your moods, your eating, your energy levels, your mental clarity, possibly for ever!?
I think not!
So, just let this pass, chalk it down to experience, pick yourself up and start again.
It certainly doesn’t mean all of your good work is undone, it merely shows you how much of a hold this stuff has over you.
Let it make you stronger and more determined, and every time you fall off the wagon, you will get back on it, more powerful, more determined, more disciplined - tell yourself you will not let sugar win no matter how bruised and battered it may leave you!
If you would like to quit sugar and regain control of your food choices you can transform your life with my 21 Day Sugar Detox Program.
#sugaraddiction
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For one thing, China is so inferior to the United States in nuclear weaponry that any confrontation is much more likely to occur in cyberspace, or in space itself, than with intercontinental ballistic missiles. The People’s Republic does not have the same approach to global expansionism as the Soviet Union either. Chinese money goes into infrastructure projects and politicians’ pockets, not foreign guerrilla movements. The “One Belt, One Road” initiative — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature overseas investment program — does not aim for world revolution.
If Cold War II confines itself to an economic and technological competition between two systems — one democratic, the other not — its benefits could very well outweigh its costs. After all, the economic spinoff from research and development operations associated with the original Cold War were part of the reason American growth was so strong in the 1950s and 1960s.
Back then, there was also a political benefit. Once the spasm of McCarthyism had passed, as Americans came to a consensus that they all faced a common foe, domestic divisions decreased notably. It is telling that one of the biggest sources of political and social strife in the Cold War era was a war against communism that the United States failed to win — against Vietnam.
If Americans are now waking up to a new external enemy, might it not reduce the notorious internal polarization of recent times, which we can see in the decline of bipartisanship in Congress as well as in the vehemence of discourse on social media? It is possible.
Maybe the notion of an external enemy could persuade politicians in the United States to devote serious resources to the development of new technologies, such as quantum computing. Evidence of Chinese espionage and influence operations in American academia and Silicon Valley is already pushing the government to reprioritize national security in research and development. It would be nothing short of disastrous if China won the race for quantum supremacy, which could render all conventional computer encryption obsolete.
The one big risk with Cold War II would be to assume confidently that the United States is bound to win it. That is a misreading of both the first Cold War and the present situation. In 1969, an American victory over the communist enemy seemed far from inevitable. Nor was it a foregone conclusion that the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union would be so free of bloodshed.
Image Niall Ferguson Credit... Tom Barnes
Moreover, China today poses a bigger economic challenge than the Soviet Union ever did. Historical estimates of gross domestic product show that at no point during the Cold War was the Soviet economy larger than 44 percent of the economy of the United States. China has already surpassed America by at least one measure since 2014: G.D.P. based on purchasing power parity, which adjusts for the fact that the cost of living is lower in China. The Soviet Union could never draw on the resources of a dynamic private sector. China can. In some markets — notably financial technology — China is already ahead of the United States.
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Slater and Gordon is running the action on a no win, no fee basis and there is no litigation funder involved. It is also considering further actions against the other banks.
Slaters does not have a dollar value attached to this particular action, however it says it had registrations from "hundreds of customers" and "believe that there are thousands out there with similar claims".
When Commonwealth Bank was pinged for similar conduct, it refunded $10 million to more than 65,000 customers in 2017.
Pressure selling
Joining the class action will be customers such as Jessica Purcell, who was a full-time university student when she was pressured to take out consumer credit insurance.
She was a casual employee at the time and therefore ineligible to claim the policy if she became unemployed.
"It was sold to me like it was something that I had to take out," she said.
The class action comes after Slater and Gordon announced in March it is investigating potential class actions against banks for selling tens of millions of dollars worth of insurance that offered people little or no coverage.
The action also comes after the banking royal commission revealed Commonwealth Bank had been selling CreditCard Plus insurance since at least 2003 to people who couldn't claim the policy as they were already unemployed when they took out the policy.
Little or no benefit
Slater and Gordon's Andrew Paull said NAB pushed the insurance policy, "reaping millions in premiums while doing so".
"Most were existing NAB customers and the bank should have known the insurance was likely to be of little or no benefit to them," he said.
Mr Paull said NAB admitted in the royal commission the life cover for the policy provided minimal value to many customers.
"Both NAB and MLC were in much stronger bargaining positions than any of the people they were contacting and selling this insurance to.
"They have taken advantage of hundreds, potentially thousands of their loyal customers."
Rolling litigation
NAB is the first bank to be hit by a consumer class action following the banking royal commission hearings.
Slaters said this month it will sue CBA and AMP on behalf of their super fund members to recover at least $500 million, however it has not filed a lawsuit yet.
This is likely to be only the beginning of years of rolling litigation and potentially billions of dollars out of the Hayne royal commission, as Slaters' rival Maurice Blackburn is going after the bigger pie of banks over mortgage lending.
NAB chief legal and commercial counsel Sharon Cook said the bank has not been served with any legal documents from Slaters yet.
"We will consider carefully any allegations when we receive the claim. We encourage NAB customers who have questions regarding our products and services to talk to their banker or contact us," she said.
The bank has a dedicated hotline for NAB credit card insurance customers, the bank said.
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A controversial device that can be used to inhale liquid nicotine was approved and left on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods for two months before the mistake was realised.
In an embarrassing slip-up the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) allowed three electronic cigarette - or e-cigarette - products to be listed as "medical devices", with one application stating the intended purpose of the device is to "be used as a quit smoking aid".
While the devices are easily obtainable and hard for authorities to police, the sale of nicotine containing e-cigarettes is currently banned in Australia.
The World Health Organisation has called for strict regulation around the devices and found that currently there is not enough scientific evidence to support the belief that they helped people quit smoking.
By law, any product claiming to help people quit smoking is considered a therapeutic good and must be authorised by the TGA.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show the application for approval of an Electronic Vaporiser Kit, an Evo Electronic Vaporiser Kit and Vaporiser Kit Cartridges was made by Sydney-based company EVA natural.
Two of the three applications were received, approved and reviewed on the same day, while the third application took just one day to review and approve.
A spokeswoman for the TGA confirmed it was the first e-cigarette device to have been included on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.
"However, it was subsequently removed after it was identified that it had been self-listed inappropriately," she said.
The product was removed at the request of the applicant after the TGA began a review of the product.
The Federal Government is currently conducting an independent review of the TGA's regulation processes to remove ineffective regulation and encourage greater competition.
Electronic cigarettes are a multi-billion-dollar business overseas, but across Australia the products are regulated by a myriad of different and sometimes conflicting state, territory and federal laws.
In June a West Australian court ruled the sale of e-cigarettes in the state to be illegal, while the e-cigarette delivery device is also illegal to sell in South Australia if it resembles a tobacco product.
In September the Queensland Government announced that at the start of 2015 it would become the first state in Australia to subject e-cigarettes to the same laws as tobacco cigarettes, while the ACT Government is also considering similar restrictions.
Last month the ABC revealed the TGA was being lobbied by big tobacco companies to allow e-cigarettes to be sold as a medicine to help wean smokers off regular cigarettes.
The National Health and Medical Research Council is currently funding a clinical trial of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation through the University of Queensland.
Health advocates like the Cancer Council of Australia are concerned allowing big tobacco companies to market e-cigarettes as a quit smoking aid could encourage more people into taking up the habit.
The ABC has contacted the company involved in the TGA application, EVA Natural, for comment.
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New sanctions imposed by Washington targeting Iranian businesses and officials are in violation of international law, and any “fixes” to the nuclear deal will be rejected, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
In a statement published by the state-run IRNA news agency, the ministry said that Tehran would not accept any changes to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), “neither at present nor in the future,” emphasizing that it will “not take any measures beyond the commitments it has made” under the agreement. The targeting of one of the officials, judiciary chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani, “crossed the red line of international diplomacy and is against the basic principles of international law and a violation of bilateral and international commitments of the US” and would provoke a “fitting reaction” from Iran, the foreign ministry said in its statement.
Trump's policy & today’s announcement amount to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement, maliciously violating its paras 26, 28 & 29. JCPOA is not renegotiable: rather than repeating tired rhetoric, US must bring itself into full compliance -just like Iran. — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 12, 2018
President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he would for the last time waive economic sanctions that were lifted under the nuclear deal, while warning Washington’s European allies that the US would pull out of the accord if they did not fix its “terrible flaws.” Specifically, Trump called for the removal of the so-called “sunset clauses,” which allow Iran to gradually resume nuclear activities in the next decade. Trump’s ultimatum was also paired with fresh sanctions against Iran for alleged human rights abuses and ballistic missile development. Under the new sanctions regime, the Treasury Department will target 14 officials, businessmen and companies from Iran, China and Malaysia, freezing any assets they have in the US.
Read more
On Saturday the Russian Foreign Ministry said that it took a “rather negative” view of Trump’s Friday announcement, warning that Washington’s commitment to the nuclear deal should not be taken for granted and calling on the international community to protect the accord.
The 2015 nuclear accord was signed by the US, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, lifting economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for limitations on its nuclear program.
Trump has previously described the nuclear agreement as “the worst deal ever negotiated,” but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly stated that all nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the JCPOA have been implemented, stressing that Tehran is subject to the “world’s most robust nuclear verification regime” and that so far the IAEA has “had access to all locations it needed to visit.”
The deal will be re-assessed by Trump in May.
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With car break-ins hitting a five-year high this past summer in San Francisco, and our fair city having the highest per capita property crime rate in the US (something even the New York Times is squawking about), a recent exchange between SFPD Chief Greg Suhr and a Sergeant is raising eyebrows. San Francisco Magazine reports on a department-wide bulletin sent out by the chief telling rank and file officers that they must now start dusting all cars that have been broken into for fingerprints. The order to make this a new standard procedure was not well received by all members of the force, however, and Sergeant Paul Weggenmann of the Taraval Station sent a department-wide response blasting Suhr's "illogical" mandate.
"The city has experienced an increase in the number of auto-burglaries," explained Suhr in a letter dated April 29. "Evidence has shown that this increase is due in part to repeat offenders. In an effort to reduce this trend, officers trained in fingerprint processing shall be tasked with the responsibility of processing 852 vehicles."
According to Weggenmann's response, the illogical part of Suhr's mandate is that officers must dust every single car — regardless of whether or not "an officer determines [it] would be a good candidate."
"I urge you to please rescind this bulletin," penned Weggenmann. "This practice is not only not feasible, but illogical. [...] In 99.9% of 852s no prints are left behind by the suspect," he continued — though, how Weddenmann knows this if most cars aren't currently being dusted for prints, is unclear.
SF Mag looked into it, and apparently this kind of reply-all rebuke of Chief Suhr is extremely rare, and perhaps is reflective of the spotlight that appears to currently be on SFPD's handling of property crimes. With the dusting mandate supposed to go into effect May 1, we may now see officers handling car break-ins with a little more CSI-like flair. Whether fingerprinting all cars will actually have any impact on catching those perpetrating the crime, of course, remains to be seen — if officers even deign to do it in the first place.
Update: It seems that Weggenmann's reply-all missive was accidental, and that he intended to merely message Suhr directly. "I was reprimanded for having hit the'reply-all' button," he told San Francisco Magazine. "I meant to just hit reply."
As far as the content of the response itself, he's standing by his initial reaction. "My problem with the bulletin is, more and more, we're being told'shall,' " he explained. " 'Shall' means you have no discretion. It means, if someone reports their car has been broken into, under no circumstances can you not process it."
Related: Car Break-Ins Are Up, Hit 5-Year High Last Summer
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Monday Update (10:30am) The suspect, Aaron Lewis, has been found and arrested, said Lt. Carl Minden with the Pulaski County Sheriff's office. Click here for live updates. Minden said Lewis was arrested by Little Rock Police after a short foot pursuit near an apartment complex in West Little Rock. Officers said someone spotted him and called 911.Click here to listen to the 911 call. A warrant was issued Monday morning for the arrest of a 33-year-old man in the disappearance of a real estate agent in Scott.Click here for the video where Lewis was seen inside a Subway restaurant and here for images taken from surveillance video.Pulaski County sheriff's office says Aaron M. Lewis faces a kidnapping charge in the case of Beverly Carter who has not been seen since she went to show a home in Scott on Thursday night.Minden couldn't say how authorities linked Lewis to Carter's disappearance.Carter's husband reported her missing Thursday night when she failed to contact him after leaving to show the home to an unknown person about 5:30 p.m. Carter works as a realtor for Crye-Leike Realty.Deputies say her purse was found in her vehicle outside the home and that the door to the residence was open.A Centennial Bank account was established for a reward for information in helping locate Beverly Carter. For those details call (501)454-3150.
Monday Update (10:30am) The suspect, Aaron Lewis, has been found and arrested, said Lt. Carl Minden with the Pulaski County Sheriff's office.
Click here for live updates.
Minden said Lewis was arrested by Little Rock Police after a short foot pursuit near an apartment complex in West Little Rock.
Officers said someone spotted him and called 911.
Click here to listen to the 911 call.
A warrant was issued Monday morning for the arrest of a 33-year-old man in the disappearance of a real estate agent in Scott.
Click here for the video where Lewis was seen inside a Subway restaurant and here for images taken from surveillance video.
Pulaski County sheriff's office says Aaron M. Lewis faces a kidnapping charge in the case of Beverly Carter who has not been seen since she went to show a home in Scott on Thursday night.
Minden couldn't say how authorities linked Lewis to Carter's disappearance.
Carter's husband reported her missing Thursday night when she failed to contact him after leaving to show the home to an unknown person about 5:30 p.m. Carter works as a realtor for Crye-Leike Realty.
Deputies say her purse was found in her vehicle outside the home and that the door to the residence was open.
A Centennial Bank account was established for a reward for information in helping locate Beverly Carter. For those details call (501)454-3150.
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The U.S. Air Force is working with defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Aerojet to develop a new hypersonic cruise missile. The weapon, known as the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW, or “Hacksaw”) will be used to strike time-critical targets in places with strong enemy air defenses. The missile’s sheer speed, which will be a minimum of Mach 5, will allow it to penetrate strong enemy air defenses and reach targets before they relocate.
According to Military.com, the hypersonic weapon will follow in the footsteps of the X-51A Waverider scramjet-powered hypersonic vehicle, as shown in the photo above. Boeing built four Waverider vehicles for the Air Force in the early 2010s. The last test, launched from a B-52H Stratofortress off the coast of California in 2013, saw a Waverider hit Mach 5.1 and fly 230 miles in six minutes. The test validated the hypersonic weapon concept but the research—at least in the non-classified world—stopped there.
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Hacksaw is described as a cruise missile, capable of being carried by fighters and bombers. The B-1B Lancer bomber, for example, could carry between four and eight hypersonic weapons in its internal weapons bays. There’s a little bit of confusion about the program, however: In August 2018, Aviation Week & Space Technology described Hacksaw as a “solid rocket powered, GPS guided missile.” At roughly the same time, FlightGlobal described it as an “air-breathing, ramjet-powered cruise missile.”
Both publications are likely right and together tell the story: Hacksaw needs both a rocket booster and ramjet. Ramjets can propel aircraft at hypersonic speeds, but they can only start working while already moving through the air at a high rate of speed. Hacksaw would need a rocket booster to accelerate it to supersonic speeds, whereupon the ramjet engine would kick in to give it a hypersonic push.
The Air Force plans to have Hacksaw ready for action by 2022. The U.S. Military is pushing into hypersonic weapons in a big way, with the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force all pursuing multiple projects. The U.S. Air Force is not only developing Hacksaw, but also the AGM-183A Advanced Rapid Response Weapon, ARRW (“Arrow”).
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The Bank of England is unlikely to predict the next financial crisis, according to one of the central bank’s leading policymakers, who said economic models were unable to provide flawless forecasts for the UK economy.
Monetary policy committee member Gertjan Vlieghe said it was impossible for the Bank to forecast a recession, let alone the next crash, and no amount of fine-tuning models of the way the modern economy operates would change that harsh reality.
Appearing before MPs, Vlieghe warned it was inevitable there would be forecasting errors, which could include missing a cataclysmic event such as the 2008 banking crisis.
He said: “We are probably not going to forecast the next financial crisis, or forecast the next recession. Our models are just not that good.”
The Bank should continue trying to improve and refine its forecasting models, he said, but it was misguided for MPs to demand that economic forecasts offer a high degree of certainty about events that could happen several years from now.
Vlieghe, a former City economist, was answering criticisms from MPs on the Treasury select committee over a series of forecasting errors in the run-up to the Brexit vote.
Like the Treasury, the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Threadneedle Street predicted a sharp slowdown in the event of a vote to leave the EU.
Official figures have shown that, far from slowing, the UK became one of the best-performing economies in the developed world and the fastest growing in the G7 in the second half of 2016.
The Bank of England was told by MPs it should be more circumspect about forecasts, rather than presenting them as ‘holy writ’. Photograph: Graham Turner/The Guardian
Governor Mark Carney said actions by the Bank itself, which cut interest rates weeks after the Brexit vote, and Chancellor Philip Hammond, who lifted constraints on public spending in November’s autumn statement, had helped to boost the economy in the wake of the Brexit vote.
Carney admitted the MPC had misjudged the resilience of consumer spending following a wobble after the referendum, but it could not include in its forecasts actions that policymakers might take to offset weaker confidence among consumers and businesses.
MP Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested the Bank should be more circumspect about its forecasts, rather than presenting them as “holy writ”, and then revising them six months later.
Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, said fan charts showed the probability of the future path of growth and inflation and in most cases the predictions were within a narrow range of the central forecast.
However, he conceded that the economics industry and the Bank found it difficult to convey a sense of uncertainty to the wider world. He said: “We know that people find risk hard to understand; I find risk hard to understand.”
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The downside of these DIY militias is the risk they pose to the long-term stability of their countries. Baghdad and the U.S. military struggled to stand down and reintegrate Sons of Iraq groups after security improved and they became unnecessary. NATO has canceled several Sons of Iraq-style initiatives in Afghanistan after sedition-minded warlords co-opted some of the militia groups.
The Obo scouts could entail a similar long-term liability to Central African Republic's weak government. "The very act of civilians taking up arms outside of their government's direct control is a potentially problematic issue without an easy answer," Finck admitted.
The scouts could also find themselves at odds with the Pentagon's efforts in Africa.
Since its establishment in late 2008, U.S. Africa Command, headquartered in Germany, has participated in just one direct attack on the LRA. In December 2008, 17 Africom advisers helped plan, and provided fuel for, a complex assault on LRA strongholds in Congo. The main forces for the attack were 6,000 Ugandan and Congolese troops (pictured above).
Operation Lightning Thunder was a disaster. A Ugandan jet fighter crashed early in the campaign, killing the pilot. The Ugandan troops leading the ground assault arrived at the main LRA camp days late. The LRA scattered in all directions, killing a thousand Congolese civilians as the Congolese army stood idly by.
In the operation's bloody wake, Africom determined to take a more passive role in countering the LRA. Instead of directly attacking the rebels, the command sent trainers to help improve the Congolese and Central African armies. Africom is betting on the weak central governments of LRA-infested countries to eventually be able to handle the rebel threat on their own.
But the Obo scouts have all but given up on ever receiving help from their government. "Members of these local defense forces … feel that there is no other alternative [to arming themselves] and have committed to continuing their efforts until their community finds relief from the LRA," Finck reported.
Thanks in part to Invisible Children and the Dutch group, Obo is better equipped than most communities to defend itself against the LRA, and to strike back using come-home messages. As long as African governments remain weak, and their foreign allies focus on assisting these regimes rather than protecting the civilians on the front lines, the kind of DIY security practiced in Obo could become widespread.
The implications of Obo's self-defense efforts are huge for vulnerable communities across Africa, for the rebel groups that threaten them, and for the central governments whose legitimacy erodes by the day, as everyday people build their own armies and intelligence apparatuses from scratch.
Photos and videos: Invisible Children, Pulitzer Center, Voice of America, Ferruccio Gobbi
Wired.com has been expanding the hive mind with technology, science and geek culture news since 1995.
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"CEOs might argue that while they also loathe all that is wrong with the Trump administration, they can be more effective by remaining involved. Give me a break."
Does anyone doubt that even if he resigned from the Trump Council, any official at the Treasury, Fed or SEC or for that matter in the White House would be happy to take Jamie Dimon's call? Or that the head of the Department of Commerce would take a call from Jim McNerney, the former CEO of Boeing? Or that GE Chairman Jeff Immelt would not be able to "participate in the discussion on how to drive growth and productivity in the US" (his proferred rationale for failing to resign) without being on Trump's Manufacturing Council?
There is another argument I have heard CEOs make: "My company cannot afford to alienate the President and face retaliation." They should note that Merck's stock price rose yesterday (despite the President's disparaging tweet) as an indication that this fear is overblown. But more importantly, if this is what corporate America's leaders believe, it is a damning indictment of the President and of their own cowardice. If a substantial group of CEOs resigned en masse, what realistically could the President do other than tweet his frustration and hopefully ultimately take a lesson.
There is a long tradition in American history of business leaders as statesmen and moral leaders. Business played an important role in the passage of the Marshall Plan. Business leaders provided important support when the Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action. Business has long been a supporter of cooperation with other nations to promote prosperity. Most CEOs were strong and effective supporters of the Paris Climate Agreement. At the local level business leaders have fought to strengthen public schools and to resist discrimination against minorities.
This is the tradition that needs to be honored today.
In the Obama Administration, I frequently counseled that "business confidence is the cheapest form of stimulus." I resisted populist rhetoric that vilified corporations, instead favoring approaches that emphasized accelerating economic growth and competitiveness for the benefit of all. I still favor such an approach. But given the cravenness now on display in CEO-world, I fear that on the current path, a massive backlash against business is all but inevitable. Such a backlash would be highly unfortunate but not difficult to understand. Every member of President Trump's advisory councils should wrestle with his or her conscience and ponder Edmund Burke's famous warning that "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Since writing this post, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Intel CEO Brian Krzanich have decided to step down from Trump's Manufacturing Council as well. I applaud their decision, and hope that many other CEOs will follow suit.
Commentary by Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary and currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University. Follow him on Twitter @ LHSummers.
For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
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Intersection, the company behind the free gigabit-speed Wi-Fi hot spots that have popped up around New York City over the last few years, has launched a new network of the kiosks in London. The network is called InLinkUK, and the kiosks are called InLinks. (In New York, the service is called LinkNYC.) Intersection is working with telecom provider BT and outdoor advertising company Primesight to replace over 1,000 pay phones in major UK cities with InLink kiosks starting today.
Some of the InLink kiosks will replace London’s iconic phone boxes, but InLinkUK says the “majority of the red phone boxes will remain to preserve this iconically British part of the streetscape.” A map of active — and pending — hot spots can be found here.
The “majority of the red phone boxes will remain to preserve this iconically British part of the streetscape,” InLinkUK says
Like their Stateside counterparts, the kiosks will be more than just a Wi-Fi hot spot. Each one has a touchscreen tablet for access to maps and other city services, and they can also be used to make phone calls. There are USB ports for on-the-go charging emergencies, and for real trouble there’s a dedicated 999 button (the UK’s version of 911). They also won’t allow web browsing, after the controversy caused by that feature in New York City. The big displays on either side will be used for advertising, but they’ll also relay information about weather and status updates for the Tube, London’s underground rail service.
Unlike the LinkNYC kiosks, though, the InLinkUK versions will track the websites you visit on your personal device when you use the Wi-Fi, and it will store that browsing history. This is something all Internet Service Providers (and, therefore, Wi-Fi hot spot operators) are obliged to do in the UK, thanks to the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, a sweeping piece of legislation that requires ISPs to keep a record of every website that a citizen visits for up to a year. The act was roundly criticized by major US-based tech companies like Facebook and Apple when it was still a bill, but it was made law regardless in late 2016.
London has other free Wi-Fi services, like The Cloud, a network of more than 20,000 hot spots powered by Sky. But InLinkUK is promising fewer restrictions on browsing, as well as much faster speeds. How close your device will get to sending and receiving data at that speed will depend largely on factors like how many users are on a particular hot spot, or your device’s performance itself. InLinkUK says that “rarely will an individual device be able to access a full gigabit, but by providing a gigabit network we are ensuring the best possible performance for all clients.”
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a pro. One who did threw six passes in his career.
In the past 10 years, 48 quarterbacks have been drafted in the first three rounds. Ten were below 60 percent in college. Eight improved their percentage by 2 percent, and five improved by at least 5 percent. Of those five, four went on to some level of success -- Matt Ryan, Tyrod Taylor, Stafford and Jay Cutler. Three of the four were taken in the first round. None has won a Super Bowl, though Ryan played in one. The four have combined to play in 16 playoff games (10 by Ryan) in 38 NFL seasons.
Among the rest, Christian Hackenberg has yet to play for the New York Jets; Jacoby Brissett was traded from the New England Patriots to the Indianapolis Colts and is 4-12 as a starter; and Jake Locker and Colin Kaepernick are out of football -- though Kaepernick did go to a Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers. Kaepernick was a 58.2 percent passer in college and 59.7 in the NFL.
Ryan Mallett, Chad Henne, Josh Freeman and Kevin O'Connell had journeyman careers or short careers.
Focus can be placed on Stafford, but the rest of the names -- Freeman, Mallett, Henne -- are by and large quarterbacks teams cannot build on.
ESPN Stats & Information data indicates that only four sub-60 percent quarterbacks drafted since 2004 were taken in the first round (Freeman, Ryan, Stafford and Cutler). Ryan has improved to 64.9 percent and Stafford and Cutler to 62 percent. But even Ryan and Stafford had qualifiers. Ryan barely missed 60 percent in college (59.9 percent), and Stafford improved his completion percentage in each of his three seasons, from 52.5 to 55.7 to 61.4 in his final year at Georgia. Freeman's career never went anywhere; he finished a five-year career 25-36 as a starter with a 57.6 completion percentage.
The only other quarterback to start regularly in 2017 who was sub-60 percent in college: Josh McCown.
Most quarterbacks who are sub-60 percent in college simply do not translate well to the NFL; those who do have special skills. Allen might be the guy with the special skills.
Jackson said the decision will not be made to find the best guy today, but the best guy in 2019 and 2020 and beyond -- in other words, the guy who can learn the most from watching for a year, then grow into the job. In some ways, that describes Allen perfectly.
All of this means the Browns have a lot to ponder as they go over the best player for the first overall pick.
"There's not any piece of information that we're not going to wade through, because I think it's too important," Jackson said. "This is a huge decision for our organization. This is a time for us to get it right, and I think we'll do that."
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kitties in the best ultimate health.
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YOU ARE MAKING A DONATION TO PUFFY PAWS KITTY HAVEN WHEN YOU USE THE SHOPPING CART. SO WE MAY PAY THE CAT FOOD BILL. THANK YOU
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The Kitties Can Not Go Without Food If you can help - please do, because without your help,we are not going to make the cat food bill.
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Thank you.These two words can never express what Chrissy and I feel.
You have done where others do not dare to go.
You opened up your hearts to the second chance kitties at Puffy Paws.
What a difficult road we all travel for the sake of 200 special needs kitties that depends upon the entire world of kitty lovers to see the light of tomorrow.
We all are taking a stand, by words and deeds that every kitty life is just as precious as the next.
We can never thank you enough.
If you can help. Please do.
Thank you for keeping the kitties safe from an ever so cruel world where they came from.
Only by asking for help when we need it, is the only way we make it at a day at a time. No Donation Is Ever To Small.
In these hard economical times, we all know the personal sacrifices each and everyone of you make when you donate to the kitties at Puffy Paws Kitty Haven and for this we will always be eternally grateful.
Please only give what your heart & budget can afford.
YOU ARE MAKING A DONATION TO PUFFY PAWS KITTY HAVEN WHEN YOU USE THE SHOPPING CART. SO WE MAY PAY THE CAT FOOD BILL. THANK YOU
MAD KITTY LOVE
YOU ARE MAKING A DONATION TO PUFFY PAWS KITTY HAVEN WHEN YOU USE THE SHOPPING CART. SO WE MAY PAY THE CAT FOOD BILL. THANK YOU
MAD KITTY LOVE
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their lives on the line for us when they put on that uniform every day. Mr. President, you can have Kaepernick – I’ll take the cops any day."
Kaepernick has opened himself to criticism, and the socks he wore during a recent practice were in very poor taste. Politics Extra commends Chabot for backing the blue. But is it necessary for a United States Congressman to publicly call anyone – no less, an athlete who plays in a city 2,400 miles away from Chabot's district – a "punk" for peacefully exercising his First Amendment right?
Micro scoops & more
• Godspeed, Kevin Flynn. Your genuine commitment to good government and transparency on City Council will be missed.
• Congratulations to Kellie Wise, who got engaged last month. Kellie is chief of staff for Hamilton County Commissioner Dennis Deters.
• Sam Malone will run for City Council next year, the Republican told The Enquirer's Dan Horn. The former councilman has been at the center of questions surrounding $331,000 he was paid for consulting for the Metropolitan Sewer District. "Sam Malone works for the people," Malone said. "I've never wavered from that. I don't believe in squandering taxpayer resources."
• In this day of nasty partisan politics, kudos to GOP mover-and-shaker Chip Gerhardt for bringing local Republican and Democratic politicians and candidates together for a happy-hour event Tuesday in Over-the-Rhine. Both parties were well-represented at The Transept event center.
• Norwood City Councilman James Bonsall has worked tirelessly to solicit donations to help families displaced by last month's flooding. His generosity has gone beyond that. In an Aug. 29 Facebook post, Bonsall offered to open his home to anyone who needed a place to stay for the night. "Hot shower and cereal for breakfast included," he wrote, also posting his cell number. Bonsall told Politics Extra no one took him up on it, but he did tell us TriHealth has donated supplies and a $5,000 check to help with clean-up efforts. #norwoodstrong
• It's official: Everyone in Cincinnati has now weighed in on Big 12 Conference expansion. The Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District board sent a letter to Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby last week touting construction on the two main highway interchanges that lead to the University of Cincinnati's campus. In the four-paragraph letter, Hamilton County Commissioner and TID Chairman Todd Portune and county Engineer Ted Hubbard say the new I-71/Martin Luther King Drive and I-75/Hopple Street interchanges "will vastly improve travel to and from UC's main campus, Nippert Stadium and Fifth Third Arena."
Follow Enquirer local politics reporter Jason Williams on Twitter @jwilliamscincy. Send tips, questions and comments to [email protected].
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Russia has blocked access to LinkedIn after the social network became the first major foreign site to be found in violation of a law demanding that the data of Russian users is stored on Russian territory.
The law was passed two years ago, and this is the first time it has been used against a major foreign company. Giants such as Facebook and Twitter have so far resisted moving their servers to Russia despite pressure from the authorities.
A court ruling last week found LinkedIn in violation of the law, and Russia’s communication watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said on Thursday that access to the site would be blocked.
Though the site’s homepage was still working for some users on Thursday afternoon, a spokeswoman for LinkedIn said it had started to hear from members in Russia who were no longer able to access the site.
“Roskomnadzor’s action to block LinkedIn denies access to the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses,” the spokeswoman said.
The website, which has headquarters in the US, has more than 6 million registered users in Russia. The network’s management said it had asked Roskomnadzor for a meeting, which is likely to take place in the coming weeks.
Russian politicians have suggested the purpose of the law is to protect Russian citizens from having their personal data abused by foreign governments. However, critics have said it is merely a way for the Russian security services to access the data themselves.
Many other foreign companies are believed to have quietly complied with the Kremlin’s demands, but Twitter, Google and Facebook have not done so yet.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Roskomnadzor’s order was legal and Vladimir Putin did not plan to interfere in the case. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the president, said the Kremlin was not worried the case would stir fears about censorship. “There are no such concerns,” he said.
Andrei Soldatov, co-author of a book about the Russian internet, said targeting LinkedIn could be a first step that would avoid the controversy of going after a real giant such as Facebook.
“They need some success stories to show that it can work. They saw LinkedIn as relatively easy prey, in comparison with bigger companies, and, added to that, they just secured full cooperation with Microsoft,” Soldatov said.
Microsoft agreed a deal to purchase LinkedIn earlier this year.
A statement on Roskomnadzor’s website this week said its head, Alexander Zharov, had held a meeting in Moscow with a Microsoft vice-president, Steve Crown. Microsoft presented the watchdog with a report on its work relocating user data to Russia, and “the issue is now closed”, said Zharov, suggesting Microsoft had agreed to move servers to Russia.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced a controversial appeals court nominee after weeks of being in limbo.
Senators voted 12-10 along party lines to send Steven Menashi’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to the full Senate.
The committee’s vote had been in limbo for weeks as Sen. John Kennedy John Neely KennedyMORE (R-La.) mulled whether to support him.
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But the Louisiana Republican said on Thursday that he would support Menashi, whose writings he has studied in recent days.
“I spent a lot of time on this and I’m going to vote for his nomination because I think his reasons are carefully, carefully articulated,” Kennedy said ahead of the vote.
Menashi sparked bipartisan frustration during his hearing before the committee in September when he declined to answer questions, including those about his work in the Trump White House.
“I didn’t like the fact that the nominee wouldn’t straight up answer questions.... I didn’t like it all,” Kennedy acknowledged on Thursday.
Menashi has also garnered widespread opposition from Democrats and their outside group allies over his writings on the Muslim community and his work in the Trump administration.
Protesters confronted Republican senators over the vote as they left Thursday’s vote.
No Democrats on the panel supported to him, and his two home-state senators, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Kirsten GillibrandSunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election Suburban moms are going to decide the 2020 election Jon Stewart urges Congress to help veterans exposed to burn pits MORE (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerPelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' 3 reasons why Biden is misreading the politics of court packing Cruz blocks amended resolution honoring Ginsburg over language about her dying wish MORE (D-N.Y.), oppose his nomination.
But Democrats are unable to block Menashi’s nomination on their own. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning Menashi would need to lose support from four GOP senators in order for his nomination to fail.
So far only one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsDemocratic senator to party: 'A little message discipline wouldn't kill us' Poll: 57 percent of Americans think next president, Senate should fill Ginsburg vacancy On The Trail: Making sense of this week's polling tsunami MORE (Maine), has said she will oppose him.
"I oppose the nomination of Steven Menashi to be a United States Circuit Court Judge for the Second Circuit," Collins said in a statement. "Mr. Menashi's past writings, particularly about women, LGBTQ advocates, and diversity, raise questions about whether he has the appropriate judicial temperament."
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A report published Wednesday by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) has warned about “the presence of different hazardous chemicals in disposable diapers that can migrate into the urine and come into prolonged contact with babies’ skin.”
The list of chemicals is as long as it is disturbing. In total, ANSES identified some 60 chemicals, including glyphosate, the active chemical in Monsanto’s infamous herbicide Roundup. Some of the pesticides in the report have been banned in the European Union for over fifteen years, such as lindane, quintozene and hexachlorobenzene.
Many fragrances, such as benzyl alcohol or butylphenyl were found. PCBs, dioxins, volatile organic compounds (naphthalene, styrene, toluene, dichlorobenzenes, etc.) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are usually found in cigarette smoke or diesel engines were also discovered.
Since some of these chemicals have demonstrated carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic (CMR) effects and are considered to be endocrine disruptors, the risks related to their exposure are not limited to the simple skin irritations observed by the vast majority of parents on their babies’ bottoms.
“Exceedances of health thresholds” (calculated on the basis of the reference toxic values) have been demonstrated for several substances under “realistic” conditions of use, i.e. a total of about 4,000 diapers used by a child between 0 and 3 years old. These are fragrance substances (butylphenylmethylpropional or Lilial®, hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde or Lyral®), many PAHs such as benzo (a) pyrene, dioxins, furans and DL-PCBs.
ANSES calls for a more restrictive regulatory framework
ANSES experts concluded that “it is not possible to exclude a health risk related to the wearing of disposable diapers”. The Agency recommends eliminating or minimizing the presence of these substances in disposable diapers, strengthening their control over the market and calls for a more restrictive regulatory framework for these products.
How can these chemicals be found in baby diapers?
Some like fragrances are intentionally added by the manufacturers. Others come from the contamination of raw materials or manufacturing processes: these include PAHs, dioxins, furans, DL-PCBs, pesticides, formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds.
Twenty-three samples of representative diapers on the market in France were tested between 2016 and 2018. And potentially dangerous substances were also found in so-called “ecological” disposable diapers. The “toxicity” of washable diapers, which are used by only 5% of parents in France, has not (yet) been tested by ANSES.
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Does the time of year in which a child is conceived influence future academic achievement? Yes, according to research by neonatologist Paul Winchester, M.D., Indiana University School of Medicine professor of clinical pediatrics. Dr. Winchester, who studied 1,667,391 Indiana students, presents his finding on May 7 at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting.
Dr. Winchester and colleagues linked the scores of the students in grades 3 through 10 who took the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP) examination with the month in which each student had been conceived. The researchers found that ISTEP scores for math and language were distinctly seasonal with the lowest scores received by children who had been conceived in June through August.
Why might children conceived in June through August have the lowest ISTEP scores? "The fetal brain begins developing soon after conception. The pesticides we use to control pests in fields and our homes and the nitrates we use to fertilize crops and even our lawns are at their highest level in the summer," said Dr. Winchester, who also directs Newborn Intensive Care Services at St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis.
"Exposure to pesticides and nitrates can alter the hormonal milieu of the pregnant mother and the developing fetal brain," said Dr. Winchester. "While our findings do not represent absolute proof that pesticides and nitrates contribute to lower ISTEP scores, they strongly support such a hypothesis."
"I believe this work may lay the foundation for some of the most important basic and clinical research, and public health initiatives of our time. To recognize that what we put into our environment has potential pandemic effects on pregnancy outcome and possibly on child development is a momentous observation, which hopefully will help transform the way humanity cares for its world," said James Lemons, M.D., Hugh McK. Landon Professor of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine. Dr. Lemons is director of the section of neonatal-perinatal medicine at the IU School of Medicine and at Riley Hospital for Children of Clarian Health in Indianapolis.
Nitrates and pesticides are known to cause maternal hypothyroidism and lower maternal thyroid in pregnancy is associated with lower cognitive scores in offspring.
"We have now linked higher pesticide and nitrate exposure in surface water with lower cognitive scores. Neurodevelopmental consequences of exposure to pesticides and nitrates may not be obvious for many decades," said Dr. Winchester.
Collaborating with Dr. Winchester on this study, which was funded by the Division of Neonatology of the Department of Pediatrics of the IU School of Medicine, were Jun Ying, Ph.D. of the University of Cincinnati, Wesley Bruce, M.S. of the Indiana Department of Education and Janetta Matesan, B.S., of the IU School of Medicine.
The May 7 meeting is sponsored by the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Ambulatory Pediatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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GENEVA (Reuters) - A major yellow fever outbreak in Angola and two smaller flare-ups in Uganda and Congo are largely under control but countries have been warned to be vigilant in case the disease pops up elsewhere, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
Staff members of the Teaching Hospital receive the first vaccination treatment for yellow fever in El Geneina, West Darfur in this November 14, 2012 handout. REUTERS/Albert Gonzalez Farran/UNAMID/Handout
Yellow fever is hard to spot early on and spreads quickly in towns, transmitted by the same mosquito that carries the Zika virus, which bites in the daytime and has flourished during the abnormal El Nino weather of the past year caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.
“What we hope is that El Nino will not be faster than we are,” said Sylvie Briand, head of WHO’s department of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
“We are concerned for other countries that have high densities of mosquitoes.”
Until the development of the highly effective vaccine, yellow fever changed history, Briand said, with outbreaks delaying construction of the Panama Canal and encouraging Napoleon to give up territorial ambitions in North America.
In Angola’s capital Luanda, the first cases were at a roadside restaurant six months ago, when a group of friends fell ill with suspected food poisoning and several died. Only when the restaurant owner died was the alarm raised.
Angola has had 2,267 suspected cases and 293 deaths. Of the cases, 696 have been confirmed, including 445 from Luanda province. Democratic Republic of Congo has had 41 confirmed cases, almost all of them imported from Angola, but the outbreak was discovered early and should be stopped quickly, Briand said.
Uganda, which has seven confirmed cases in rural areas, was also well set up to tackle such outbreaks, she said.
Luanda’s population is now almost completely vaccinated, but it used up the world’s entire emergency stockpile of vaccines, and the slow vaccination campaign allowed the virus to spread to other provinces.
“The vaccine supply, which is usually sufficient, may become stretched if we have more outbreaks in the coming months,” Briand said.
An early risk is Angola’s population of foreign oil workers, who are in danger of taking the disease home with them.
Portugal and China, which both have strong links to Angola, have both taken the right steps to protect themselves, Briand said.
But many countries in Africa do not have vaccination coverage for children, and Nigeria, which suffered thousands of yellow fever deaths in a multi-year outbreak in the 1980s, was still “definitely a country at risk”, Briand said.
“We hope to be able to vaccinate everybody before there’s a case.”
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Banks around the world have been eyeing the distributed ledger technology and looking for its suitable applications. Central banks of Canada and Singapore have started working on projects to facilitate wholesale interbank payment settlements. JP Morgan Chase & Co. recently filed a patent for a blockchain-based peer-to-peer payment system. It seems like applications of the new technology are limitless and the financial sector is one of the first to realize this potential. Den Norske Bank of Norway has chosen a very open route, partnering up with IOTA not on a specific project, but as an agreement to explore the applications of IOTA Tangle with the bank’s services.
Den Norske Bank is one of the largest Nordic banks with a market capitalization of over $230 billion. The company has taken an atypical stance towards the blockchain technology. DnB has researched its uses before with R3 consortium. The new agreement with IOTA will give it more possibilities to explore the advantages of the distributed ledger technology. “Among other things, the technology is designed to handle hundreds of thousands of microtransactions per second. We will not let go of the market associated with this ecosystem that arises around these transactions,” – head of DLT at DnB, Lasse Meholm commented. “We have talked to Iota for two to three months now, and think technology is very exciting, and that the foundation has a Norwegian connection is also fun,” – he added.
The bank also underscores IOTA’s role in safeguarding company’s attempts at integrating the technology. As there are many risky activities associated with blockchain and DLT, it is only natural that the bank has some reservations regarding the issues. A representative from IOTA commented on the issue saying “the IOTA Foundation will contribute to separating useless crypto-projects from the serious ones”.
It is yet unclear what areas of business activity the companies will explore together. Blockchain technology can be applied to many financial services. One of the most obvious choices is facilitating transactions among banks and among customers. A long-term partnership between the bank and IOTA could be productive for both companies and for the sector as a whole. If a new business model were to be found, it would be adopted by many companies across the world. With the financial resources of Den Norske Bank and the technologies offered by IOTA, it will not be surprising if the companies find new business styles very soon.
More information available here:
http://nyecasino.ninja/casino-news/den-norske-bank-vil-samarbeide-med-iota/
https://blog.iota.org/dnb-teams-up-with-iota-to-explore-the-economy-of-things-and-mydata-gdpr-as-an-opportunity-20c41461e3f5
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Bitcoin (BTC) is trading in an ascending and a descending channel simultaneously. It points to two possibilities. Either the price will break out of the descending triangle and continue upwards towards the top of the ascending channel or the price will keep moving down the descending channel and eventually break the ascending channel. BTC/USD has already faced a strong rejection at the top of the descending channel and is now awaiting its next decisive move. If the price falls significantly, it could break the long ascending channel and Bitcoin (BTC) will be all set to fall to $6,000 and then eventually below it. That being said, I do not see that happening just yet. The most probable scenario is that the price will break past the descending channel and climb towards $9,500.
Bitcoin (BTC) may not end up testing the top of this channel but it will test the 38.2% fib retracement from all-time high. A decisive breakout above or below the 38.2% fib retracement level will determine Bitcoin (BTC)’s direction for the months and years ahead. The next few weeks and months are therefore very important for Bitcoin (BTC) as they will determine the long term outlook of Bitcoin (BTC). Recently, Willy Woo, a renowned Bitcoin (BTC) bull said that the market price of Bitcoin (BTC) has outstripped organic investor flow. He further said that never before have seen a divergence so early in the bull market. This is a classic example of having the data but differing in your approach to analyzing that data. Willy Woo and many like him see such indicators and they take it as a sign of unprecedented levels of bullish mania in the market. In other words, to put it plainly, they think this time it is different.
One of the biggest mistakes most investors make is to think, “This time it will be different”. Let us expand on this further. Most of us saw or read about how the stock market crashed after the dot com bubble popped. Now, this should have been a warning to those thinking “This time it will be different” with Bitcoin (BTC). As we all saw, it was not different this time. The exact same thing happened and the bubble popped over and over again after every hype cycle.
The ongoing cycle is a longer cycle than previous cycles which is why the crash was more noticeable. It will be even more noticeable during the next hype cycle which will be a lot longer than the ongoing cycle. The daily chart for BTCUSDShorts shows that the bears have almost experienced maximum pain and their good days are about to begin. It is very tempting to think that we are in the 2015 part of the last cycle, just weeks away from the next bull run. However, ground reality points to the contrary. We are way too far from a bull market just yet. I think we could see a rally towards $10,000 but I don’t think BTC/USD has even capitulated just yet.
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Canada's immigration website crashes during US vote Published duration 9 November 2016 Related Topics US election 2016
Canada's immigration website has suffered an intermittent fault that made it inaccessible to visitors during the US election vote.
Officials have confirmed that the cause was a higher than normal level of traffic.
It has been suggested this may have been caused by US citizens exploring their options following Donald Trump's victory.
The tycoon confounded polls predicting he would lose to Hillary Clinton.
"The Government of Canada is committed to secure and reliable IT infrastructure to ensure high-quality services to all users," a spokeswoman told the BBC.
"The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship website became temporarily inaccessible to users as a result of a significant increase in the volume of traffic.
"Shared Services Canada worked through the night and continues to work to resolve the issue to ensure that the website is available for users as soon as possible."
The problem was widely commented about on social media.
image copyright Twitter
image copyright Twitter
image copyright Twitter
image copyright Twitter
The issue is not the only glitch linked to the US elections.
Officials were unable to access Colorado's voter registration database for about half an hour on Tuesday afternoon.
"Clerks can't process mail ballots that need to have the signature verified," tweeted Lynn Bartels, spokeswoman for Colorado's secretary of state, at the time, adding that in-person votes also had to temporarily be treated as being "provisional" while the fault endured.
"Unfortunately our system goes down now and then," she said.
North Carolina's State Board of Elections was also forced to switch from using an electronic voting check-in system to a paper-based one at several of its precincts after experiencing "technical problems".
image copyright Getty Images image caption North Carolina's Durham County precincts were told to use paper poll books after an electronic system failed
It later reported a delay in uploading about 93,000 of its voting results before solving the problem.
There were also unverified claims that some machines had switched votes for one candidate for another.
"The machines, you put down a Republican and it registers as a Democrat, and they've had a lot of complaints about that today," Donald Trump told Fox News.
Elsewhere, the Verge has reported that a company that had provided a get-out-the-vote telephone and texting service to the Clinton campaign had suffered a cyber-attack causing "brief periods of unavailability".
The news site reported that members of the 4chan chat site had said they had intended to carry out a denial-of-service attack - which involves flooding a target with internet traffic - which might have been responsible.
image copyright EPA image caption Bloomberg's chat service is used to confirm trades and swap information
Meanwhile, Bloomberg has acknowledged "an internal issue" caused its instant messaging tool to stop working for about an hour on Tuesday morning.
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The Trump administration is doing everything it can to undermine Planned Parenthood's law-abiding, science-based reproductive health services. But Planned Parenthood has a powerful weapon in its arsenal: tech that increases access to care.
On Wednesday, Planned Parenthood announced that it had expanded its Planned Parenthood Direct app to functioning in 27 states, and that it will be available in all 50 states in 2020. The app lets users order birth control, get a prescription for Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) antibiotics, and schedule appointments at a Planned Parenthood clinic.
"As politicians across the country try to restrict or block access to critical reproductive and sexual health care, the Planned Parenthood Direct app is just one part of the work we do to ensure that more people can get the care they need, no matter where they are," Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.
In August, Planned Parenthood pulled out of the government's Title X funding program, which provides financial support for reproductive health services. Under the Trump administration's new rules, Title X funding recipients would not be allowed to refer patients to abortion services. Rather than capitulate to the anti-abortion agenda, Planned Parenthood forewent the $60 million in funding it would have received had it stayed in the program.
Planned Parenthood says the app is one of the ways that it is expanding care at a time when funding and access for women's health is shrinking across the country. This is part of a larger telehealth trend, in which doctors and app makers alike are utilizing technology to help reach rural, low-income, or other people who may not have access to healthcare.
Birth control and UTI prescriptions are also a great use case for this sort of tech. In the app, users go through the same questions they would in a doctor's office. Then clinicians assess what medication is right for them. That makes sense for an ailment like a UTI, since prescriptions to treat a UTI are just antibiotics, and waiting for a doctor's visit to treatment can be agony.
Birth control similarly does not necessarily require an exam beyond the standard questions, and expanding access is an important step to preventing unwanted pregnancy. The app doesn't take insurance (other birth control delivery apps, like Nurx and Pill Club, do), but out-of-pocket birth control can cost as low as $20 for a three month supply.
Planned Parenthood Direct is the result of two app pilot programs the organization originally launched in 2014 and 2015. The change today expands access to 27 states and the District of Columbia (you can check if it's available in your state here). Planned Parenthood also runs a chatbot for questions about reproductive health called Roo, a chat/text program, and other digital tools making reproductive healthcare and information accessible to as many people as possible.
Trump and his anti-uterine party may be living in the stone age, but at least Planned Parenthood is building for the future.
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A judge has granted bail to a teenager charged in the August shooting of a German tourist west of Calgary.
Provincial court Judge Peter Barley granted the youth’s release Thursday on conditions that he pay $2,500 and live with his grandparents on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
The youth, who was 16 when he was charged, is to remain in the home, be under constant supervision and abstain from drugs or alcohol.
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He faces 14 charges, including attempted murder and possession of a prohibited firearm.
His lawyer said it’s not often that a court will keep someone that young in custody.
“It’s rare for young offenders to be detained but again it can happen depending on a number of circumstances including the seriousness of the crime, the record of the young offender if they have any,” Balfour Der said outside court Thursday.
“Courts try to release young offenders because they recognize jail isn’t a good place for young people to be.”
The teen is to return to court in Cochrane, Alta., on Nov. 13.
Der said it’s too early to say if the prosecution will seek to try his client as an adult.
“The crime is very serious so that would encourage the prosecution to want to try and get an adult sentence,” Der said.
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“But on the other hand he’s a very young person with no prior record so in that regard it would probably lean towards staying in youth court so it’s hard to say.”
A 60-year-old tourist was driving a black Dodge Durango with his family near Morley, Alta., when he was shot on Aug. 2.
RCMP have said another vehicle was passing the Durango when a shot was fired from its passenger window and into the tourist’s SUV. The Durango crashed into a ditch near the Goodstoney Rodeo Centre on Stoney Nakoda land.
Three family members in the SUV weren’t seriously injured.
The driver survived and was flown back to Germany, where surgeons removed the bullet.
Der said he doesn’t believe that the public should be worried about the teen’s release.
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“When we all heard about this crime for the first time you think … it is such a serious crime but fortunately we had a very experienced judge hearing this bail who understands at this particular time that it’s just allegations,” he said.
“There’s such strict conditions because the public would otherwise be concerned that you have this person who allegedly shot a tourist for no good reason.”
RCMP have said there were others in the car with the accused, but no other charges are pending.
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Image copyright Rebecca Parker Image caption Shopper Rebecca Parker criticised H&M for how its clothes were sized
H&M clothes sizes will become bigger following complaints from customers.
A spokesperson for the high street chain said: "We are taking the steps to change our womenswear measurements to be in line with UK sizing."
For example, the Swedish chain said the previous measurements and fit of a size 12 would now be the measurements of a size 10.
Many shoppers have previously complained that H&M sizes are too small.
In March, shopper Rebecca Parker wrote an open letter complaining that despite being a 12/14 she struggled to fit into size 14 jeans at H&M.
Image copyright Rebecca Parker Image caption Rebecca Parker was "angry and frustrated" the size 14 jeans were not made for a size 14 woman
"Why is it OK for a brand to label an item of clothing as a size which it clearly isn't," she asked.
She pointed out that while H&M sold items emblazoned with phrases such as #GRLPOWER or SISTERHOOD the shop's sizing policy was the opposite of empowering women.
She said that, at the age of 25, she was "thoroughly content" with her body but wonders how her teenage self would have reacted.
As a 13-year-old, she writes, she felt "podgy and sad when I had to reach for a garment that was labelled with a number in the high teens".
Speaking to the BBC following H&M's announcement, she said she was "really thrilled" her "nagging" had paid off.
"I just hope they follow through," she added.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Size 8 fit model Megan Taylor investigates the sizes of jeans at different stores
Other customers had previously taken to Twitter to register their dissatisfaction with H&M's sizing.
The story of sizing
Much of today's sizing originates from a survey of measurements carried out in the 1950s by a man named WFF Kelmsley, sponsored by the Joint Clothing Council.
Despite attempts to produce a standardized sizing system in the UK, no government has ever made it obligatory, says textiles expert Dr Vikki Haffenden from the University of Brighton.
However, the difficulty is that if there was a comprehensive sizing system to match every body shape, there would have to be at least 50 sizes.
"It would be too unwieldy," she says.
The concept of sizing is relatively new, she explains. Before the mass-production of clothes people would usually make or adjust their own clothes or take them to a tailor.
However, technology could soon make clothes sizes obsolete.
Dr Haffenden says that many companies are exploring ways of using body scanning to accurately measure a customer's body shape in order to produce a perfectly fitted garment.
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Indeed, the funniest part of the Star’s account is that Wynne and Co. were confused that the media thought a police bribery investigation was such a big deal. Wynne “lash(es) out at the press for being ‘out to get’ her,” apparently, and “complains the media ‘just seem obsessed’ with the story. ‘That’s what makes me so mad,’ she fumes.”
“There are certain people in the press gallery who I just know are out to get me,” Wynne reportedly says. “I mean they just want to — not ‘they’ personally but their organization — just wants to bring me down. They can’t stand what I stand for and they are going to look for any way to make me look bad.
“And then there are others who are just more neutral, but there’s nobody who is standing in that press scrum who is there to make us look good or make us look like we’re doing the right thing.”
One hopes it’s true there’s no one in your average Queen’s Park press scrum “who is there to make (the Liberals) look good,” but I can think of one newspaper’s editorial page that performs that function about as well as any political party in a free society could hope for.
If anything, they should have an invincibility complex, not a persecution complex.
That the leader of the Ontario Liberals could think this way at this point in the party’s astonishing 12-year run of power — having regained a majority after the no-taxes pledge, the millions of dollars to ethnic groups with Liberal connections, the OLG fiasco, the e-Health debacle, the ORNGE catastrophe, the Caledonia sell-out, the skyrocketing energy bills and green energy shambles, Dalton McGuinty’s disgraceful exit and the $1 billion gas plant cancellations and subsequent cover-up and police investigation — is amazing. If anything, they should have an invincibility complex, not a persecution complex.
But I suppose the two aren’t mutually exclusive. If you’re constantly rewarded for doing the wrong thing, perhaps it’s difficult to appreciate the distinction between “what’s right” and “what we’re doing right now.” And then all those reporters really would start to look a bit crazed. It’s the sort of mindset that eventually brought down McGuinty, if not the Liberals. Even at this early point in Wynne’s tenure, it’s not hard to see her era ending in similar fashion.
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Twitter.com/cselley
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SINGAPORE - Home-grown gaming chair company Secretlab is the latest in a series of firms to attract the interest of Temasek subsidiary Heliconia Capital Management.
In a statement on Tuesday (Aug 13), Secretlab said the investment firm is its first external investor.
The Straits Times understands that the valuation of the partnership is between $200 million and $300 million, and the investment will see Heliconia take up a minority stake in Secretlab.
With the move, Secretlab joins a suite of firms that have received monies from the Temasek subsidiary.
Others include hardware gaming firm Razer, and Ascent Solutions, which specialises in Internet of Things.
Secretlab co-founder and chief executive Ian Alexander Ang told The Straits Times that the company is excited to partner Heliconia.
He said the gaming chair company will benefit from the investment firm's long-term strategic insights and extensive contacts.
The Heliconia-Secretlab partnership will also provide the "maturity and experience" to take Secretlab further, added Mr Ang.
The local company has a relatively young team, with an average age of around 28 years old for staff.
Secretlab co-founders Alaric Choo (left) and Ian Alexander Ang. PHOTO: SECRETLAB
Mr Ang and co-founder Alaric Choo put up the initial capital to start Secretlab in 2014 and the firm's gaming chairs are now available in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia, among other countries.
Heliconia's CEO Derek Lau noted that Secretlab has expanded rapidly within a short period of time and has gained global recognition for its products among both gamers and non-gamers.
"We believe the company has significant growth potential," said Mr Lau.
"As a Singaporean, I am very proud of what Ian and Alaric have achieved so far. We hope to add value and journey with them going forward."
The local firm is considered one of the leading players in the global gaming chairs space, having sold more than 200,000 chairs worldwide and earned top reviews from tech review sites such as PCMag and CNET.
In 2018, the Secretlab co-founders were named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.
The company’s gaming chairs range from $429 for synthetic leather options to around $1,000 for full leather designs.
Secretlab's tie-up with Heliconia is the latest in a string of news surrounding the firm.
In April this year (2019), it announced an endorsement deal with English international footballer, Dele Alli, who plays for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur.
Earlier in January, the firm announced that it was named the official seat for the esports League of Legends (LOL) Championship Series in North America, as well as three premier LOL global events.
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President Trump on Sunday accused TV networks of teaming up against his administration and questioned why shows like “Saturday Night Live” can take shots at him and other Republicans without “retribution.”
“Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!,” the president wrote on Twitter.
Moments later, he drove the point home in an all-caps tweet.
“THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT MEDIA IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!,” he wrote.
“Saturday Night Live,” which has targeted Trump and his administration in numerous skits, made light of his Rose Garden address last week when he announced he was declaring a national emergency on the southern border so he could build a wall.
Alec Baldwin, who has been impersonating Trump on the comedy show, called the emergency “fake” on Saturday night’s show.
“You all see why I gotta fake this emergency, right? I have to because I want to,” Baldwin said in the show’s opening segment. “It’s really simple. We have a problem. Drugs are coming into this country through no wall.”
He continued: “Wall works, wall makes safe. You don’t have to be smart to understand that — in fact it’s even easier to understand if you’re not that smart.”
Baldwin also aped Trump’s sing-song delivery when, during his Friday address, the president predicted his emergency declaration would be met with legal challenges and have a tough time in the courts.
“I’ll immediately be sued and the ruling will not go in my favor and then it will end up in the Supreme Court and then I’ll call my buddy [Brett] Kavanaugh and I’ll say, ‘It’s time to repay the Donny,’ and he’ll say, ‘New phone, who dis?’ And by then the Mueller report will be released, crumbling my house of cards and I can plead insanity and do a few months in the puzzle factory and my personal hell of playing president will finally be over,” Baldwin-as-Trump said.
He also made fun of the results of Trump’s physical released last week.
“I’m still standing 6-7, 185 pounds — shredded,” Baldwin said.
The physical found Trump was in “very good health overall,” but at 6 feet 3 and 243 pounds, he has a body mass index of 30.4, which puts him in the category of obese.
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Dear Producers,
Adam said something casually on the last show that took me a while to grasp (and to fully understand the ramifications).
It was the simple observation/query asking the question, “When did the liberals and progressives of the USA suddenly turn their focus on STEM (science technology engineering and math) and away from the arts and humanities?”
I’m not sure anyone has paid any attention to this atypical pragmatism sitting at that odd point in the political spectrum. I’m personally not sure what it means in the long term, but combine this emphasis alongside the politically conservative-orientation towards business and finance.
This cannot be healthy for the society. Arts and music, for example, have been largely gutted from many curriculums and those studies, which are completely suited for many personalities, do not contribute to the all-important testing results demanded by the government.
None of this is good for any of us.
From what I can tell only No Agenda has even noticed this phenomenon and this is what your No Agenda Show does best. Because the show is not itself burdened by the onerous oversight of advertisers worried sick about their corporate image. Advertisers believe that everything associated with them must also be worried about the advertiser's corporate image.
The No Agenda show can and does delve into controversial and often unseemly topics and analysis that advertisers would never allow.
not even remotely possible with any sort of advertising-based show.
Anyone who has listened to the free flow of real information and the unfettered analysis of the No Agenda Show for just a few months gets a sense of realization that this is how things should be.
And it’s only that way because of your support. And that’s why your support is so important. When you support the show you support the genuine principles of liberty, as corny as you think that sounds.
Please continue support for the Sunday show by contributing today by
Sincerely,
Your co-host,
John C. Dvorak
PS if you haven’t subscribed to the show consider the popular
In fact, the No Agenda style analysis iswith any sort of advertising-based show.Anyone who has listened to the free flow of real information and theof the No Agenda Show for just a few months gets a sense of realization that this is how things should be.And that’s why your support is so important. When you support the show you support the genuine principles of liberty, as corny as you think that sounds.Please continue support for the Sunday show byby clicking here or by going to the support page here Sincerely,Your co-host,John C. DvorakPS if you haven’t subscribed to the show consider the popular $33.33 month subscription by clicking here.
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band Zounds – but reflections of real life.
They’ve tried to retain their principles – they once turned down £250,000 to headline the Reading festival because they despised its commercialism – and Chadwick says that the thing he values most is their connection with their fans, and the fact they remain approachable (“If they come to the local pub, they can have a pint with us”). He’s happy to take on those among his audience who want to argue the case for the opposition. “You’d be surprised how many Tories and Brexiteers like the Levellers,” he says. “And I will rag them and rag them until they cry. Or until they never come to see the band again. But I don’t care.”
All of which makes the fact that the Conservatives once approached Chadwick to stand as a councillor for Kemptown in Brighton all the more surprising. “I said, ‘Are you insane?’ It was because I had a profile and I was political.” The Greens, Liberal Democrats and Labour have also all approached him, and he has said no to them all, though last year he joined the Labour party, “because I could see something different there, something positive”.
After 30 years together, Chadwick and Cunningham sound like nothing so much as the two old codgers who’ve spent most of their lives propped up at the bar, noting the injustices of the world. “If we could get get away with doing nothing, we probably would,” Chadwick. “We’re not that driven. We were once, but you can only be like that for a certain amount of time before you realise it’s pointless if you want to live a life, rather than drive a life.”
And they still have their heroes. All the Levellers were inspired as young people by Crass, the punk band who lived as a collective in a farmhouse in Essex (“The only thing that was unlistenable was the music,” Cunningham says). Years later, they booked the band’s frontman Penny Rimbaud to play at Beautiful Days. “I told him, ‘If it wasn’t for you, none of this would be here.’ He said ‘You’re the fourth member of your band that’s come up to me and said that.’”
Chadwick recounts his own memory of meeting a hero. “I did the same with Johnny Cash.”
“And what did he say?”
Chadwick adopts a burly deep-south baritone. “He said, I’m not familiar with your work, son.”
And the two of them hoot, fit to burst.
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I've been EXTREMELY impressed by this device. I was initially a little nervous as the system was somewhat glitchy for the first couple of weeks, seemed to be a problem with the Chrome OS because it was fixed by the next update. I previously had an Acer Chromebook c720 which I LOVED--had it for 3 1/2 years and traveled with it all over the world before the keyboard finally died. Here are my favorite things about the R11:
-Touchscreen: hey, it's not an iPad, but it works great for what I need it to do (reading and annotating e-books and pdfs through Amazon Kindle and a great app called Xodo). If you're an artist, probably not responsive enough, but if you just want to play games and underline the occasional text, this is awesome.
-360 degree rotation: LOVE the ability to watch movies in tent mode, turn it into a (slightly heavy, thick) tablet. Switching back and forth is seamless once you get used to it. I was super worried that touching the keyboard when it was in tablet mode would cause it to switch back to laptop mode, but it looks like once you move the screen back past like 180 degrees, it goes into full touchscreen. Took a week or so to get used to, but love it now. Screen stays in whatever position you put it solidly enough to use the touchscreen.
Processor: I currently have 4 windows with a total of 18 tabs open. I streamed an HD movie on Netflix with all those open, no pauses or buffering. Unreal.
Battery: SOLID. Seems to have a slightly shorter life than my Acer c720 (which literally went for days), but probably because of the aforementioned dozens of tabs and Netflix. The promised 8-9 hours definitely holds true, and will last longer if brightness is turned down/you're only web browsing, etc.
Price. I mean, come on $300 is unbeatable if what you want is email, Netflix, and books. I feel like I have a tablet and super mobile laptop rolled into one.
The bad:
- speakers are a little tinny (though the volume is AWESOME) and it's not possible to customize the equalizer on the Chrome OS right now :(
- though it's a super light laptop, the chromebook is a little heavy as a tablet, not super practical for holding, but if it's resting on something, it's golden. I mean, if you want a true tablet, buy a true tablet--this did honestly keep me from investing in a kindle as I was planning to.
Overall: I'm super happy with this product. So far, I feel like my expectations have been not only met, but exceeded. If you purchase this product, go into it with realistic expectations and patience getting familiar with the setup and you'll probably love it, too! :)
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Philippines Welcomes Crypto Economic Zone
After hemming and hawing in its strange relationship with cryptocurrencies and the businesses they imply, the Philippine government decided to make room for a set aside economic zone. The scheme is offered in hopes of generating more tax income, employment for its people, and perhaps a dedicated crypto university.
Also read: Telegram Urges Paper Airplane Protest, Pussy Riot Activist Arrested
Philippines Allows Crypto Companies to Operate Economic Zone
Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) spokesman Raul Lambinos told Reuters, “We are about to licence 10 platforms for cryptocurrency exchange. They are Japanese, Hong Kong, Malaysians, Koreans. They can go into cryptocurrency mining, initial coin offerings, or they can go into exchange.” Exchanges providing onramps to the nation’s fiat money, on the other hand, are encouraged to launch offshore to avoid running afoul of Philippine law.
Such zones offer advantageous tax regimes in the hope of creating more employment for Filipinos. Early this year, the country legalized such zones for crypto, which appears to be more welcoming to digital assets than other countries in the region.
Local authorities estimate over two years crypto companies will invest more than $1 million, with ten percent of that going toward building a tax base. Ambitious plans also include a possible blockchain-based financial technology university to help feed workers to surrounding businesses in the zone.
A Strange Relationship with Crypto
The government appears to be responding to popular sentiment regarding cryptocurrency, as it has not been very supportive of late: its Philippine National Police arrested bitcoiners, accusing them of running a Ponzi scheme, and the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission came down against cloud mining, asserting such contracts are too close to securities.
And, as we wrote recently, opposition “leader senator Leila M. de Lima thinks that the legislative chamber needs to prioritize Senate Bill 1694, a proposal she filed a month ago. The recent Ordonio Ponzi scheme has compelled her to call upon her colleagues.’I hope that this occurrence will push my esteemed colleagues in the Senate to take my proposed bill seriously and help pass it into law soon.’”
Slightly before that, the SEC “revealed to the public that it plans to enforce securities regulations against cloud mining operations. According to the SEC’s statement, the regulatory agency believes these types of contracts should be defined as ‘securities,’” News.Bitcoin.com reported.
Acceptance, however, of an economic zone for crypto is a positive first start for the industry, and might signal a slight change of heart on the government’s end.
Do you think this initiative will be imitated by other governments in the region? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
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Brady Quinn, Austin Davis, Kellen Clemens, Mike McNeil(RFA), Matt Giordano, and Tim Barnes set to hit the market.
More than likely the Rams will lose Williams, Dunbar, Stewart, Witherspoon, Quinn, Davis, Giordano, and possibly others. may of those holes will be filled in the draft or free agency with the new cap.
The Rams have a lot of tough decisions coming up for them in the near future, and this doesn’t even begin to go into the draft which will just include more tough decisions with the trade possibilities.
Re-signing Saffold will be a must for this team in the offseason and should be the number one priority. The Rams failed to re-sign Danny Amendola, Sam Bradford’s safety blanket, they need to re-sign Rodger Saffold, the guy who keeps Bradford upright.
Sometimes you have to let some big players go and replace them in order to get better, and that’s exactly what the Rams are going to have to do here. This is setting up to be an interesting offseason. Buckle up Rams fans, because this could be a bumpy ride.
That is just the player side of the decisions. Coaching changes should also be considered. Head coach Jeff Fisher has voiced that defensive coordinator Tim Walton is safe as well as offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.
Both coaches have disappointed at times this season, and fans have voiced their displeasure. Fisher likes to stick by his guys, but Walton didn’t look like the answer on the defensive side of the ball, and the play calling at times was questionable on offense.
Granted this was Walton’s first season as a defensive coordinator, and with this defense. Another year knowing the personnel, and adding pieces to the defense, might make Walton better. However, there is no doubt Walton should be on a short leash.
Same goes for Brian Schottenheimer, but more should be expected of him due to his experience, making his efforts this season even more disappointing. It almost looked like at times that the Rams had so many weapons that Schottenheimer didn’t know what to do with them all.
We didn’t see wide receiver Tavon Austin take many snaps at running back or many reverses and we didn’t see many shots taken downfield. Some of that had to do with Bradford being out, but even with Bradford in, Schottenheimer was struggling.
Next year will be a big year for this offense and there is no doubt Schottenheimer should be on a short leash and be on the hot seat.
The Rams have a lot of decisions that will have to be made this offseason, and this isn’t even the beginning of it all. The Rams are going to need to make some changes, and the changes that they make could determine the fate of the franchise.
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Virginia Roberts Giuffre and her husband Robbie celebrate New Year's Eve
Virginia Roberts Giuffre has tweeted out her New Year's wish that the powerful friends of Jeffrey Epstein face consequences.
'Happy New Year to all the people in the world who want to see a change!! Let’s make 2020 a year to be remembered in history as the year we took down the 1% who thought they were above the law!!' she tweeted on New Year's Eve.
The message featured a picture of her and her husband celebrating and was signed 'From Virginia & Robbie.'
Roberts claims Epstein, who died behind bars in August, forced her to have sex with his wealthy and powerful friends, including Prince Andrew when she was 17.
Prince Andrew, 59, who resigned from royal duties after a disastrous Newsnight interview last month, denies having sex with her and claims he can't remember meeting her despite a photograph of him with his arm around her.
Earlier on Tuesday, Roberts lashed out on Twitter at Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who is accused of acting as Epstein's pimp and procuring young girls for him and his friends.
Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured with Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, who says that the Duke of York slept with her after Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her to London
Maxwell, the daughter of alleged Mossad operative Robert Maxwell, is one of several close associates of Epstein under investigation by the FBI.
She denies procuring underaged girls for Epstein, but she has so far not been interviewed by authorities and her whereabouts remain unknown.
'How is anyone, friend or family member, hiding such a monster?? 99% of the population would turn [in] Ghislaine Maxwell. Who's hiding who and why??' Roberts tweeted.
'Maxwell’s downfall will be her arrogance- in her eyes always above the law,' Roberts added.
Epstein's death in August, at age 66, came a little over a month after he was arrested and charged with trafficking dozens of underage girls as young as 14
Virginia Roberts claims Ghislaine Maxwell (right) recruited her into Jeffrey Epstein's (left) circle before the financier forced her to have sex with his wealthy and powerful friends
'She is diabolically evil. I would suggest to whoever is hiding her or knows whereabouts she is, to turn her in as she’d easily throw anyone who gets in her way under the bus,' she continued.
Epstein died in federal custody while facing sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by New York City's medical examiner, but his lawyers have disputed that finding.
Epstein's death in August, at age 66, came a little over a month after he was arrested and charged with trafficking dozens of underage girls as young as 14 from at least 2002 to 2005. Prosecutors said he recruited girls to give him massages, which became sexual in nature.
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Chemistry in FUT 12 is pointless
We have been testing all aspects of FIFA for a number of months now. One of our favourite modes is FIFA Ultimate Team. Picking players and creating a team to play against others is good fun and there are always new in form players released usually reflecting performances in real life. Shame no league mode but maybe one day. It also allows online mulitplayer so 4 of us can play against other teams online using 3 guests. Really good fun but very very hard. Especially switching players and positioning everyone. Over the months we have been testing many parts including the key part of Ultimate Team – Chemistry! Or is it?
Our hundreds of games suggest not. We haven’t noticed any difference in play between teams with less than 50 chemistry and those with 100. Even with players out of position and 0 chemistry players have played no differently. For us it is pure psychology in your mind. Do a bad pass or shot and you blame the chemistry. A player has a bad game and you blame the chemistry. What do you blame when they have full chemistry and have a bad game? Usually scripting, lag, the goldfish making too much noise. Do some tests like we did create 2 teams one with full chemistry and one with none. Ask someone to blindfold you and they select one of the teams for you to play with. See if you notice the difference over a series of 10 to 20 games.
This means you can buy the cheapest versions of players in any formation and build your teams much cheaper without having to worry. Also change formation during game if not doing well in a game. And you won’t have to care about chemistry being affected. Notice EA have added 95% chemistry to the latest tournament as we hinted on forums this was the case previously. Not much we can stop them doing that but at least this raises awareness.
Below are the first two videos showing how chemistry hasn’t affected online tournament play. As explained on the youtube channel we wanted to leave the first video from our Samsung Galaxy s2 raw, to show no video editing was used. Apologies if a little bright. The second video is still from the S2 but added intro and exit. Don’t forget to like and share this below and get the whole FIFA community discussing and testing. We also found a video from ROS5iHD – https://twitter.com/#!/ROS5IHD using zero chemistry team players out of position and still winning. As linked below ours.
Link to youtube video direct if can’t see video above (mobile etc) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0564ZhpdAQ&feature=g-upl
Link to youtube video direct if can’t see video above (mobile etc) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h1oUFPH8-8
ROS5iHD zero chemistry online tournament campaign
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Facebook is the social network of choice for millions of people, but like any site out there, we all have our own list of improvements we'd like to see. Luckily the Greasemonkey script community feels the same way and has come up with hundreds of scripts to improve your user experience.
The scripts allow you to change colors, remove ads, automate repetitive tasks in applications and a whole slew of other improvements. Try out these more than 10 great scripts to use Facebook the way you want to.
What are some of your favorite Greasemonkey based Facebook enhancements?
Auto-Colorizer - An interesting script that analyzes the default image for any profile you visit and adjusts the color scheme of the page to match it. Also works on photos, events & group pages.
Facebook App Faviconizer - If you open your apps in separate tabs, this will replace the Facebook favicon with the one used by each application so you can more quickly identify what is in each window.
Facebook Colour Changer - Not only can you set the Facebook colors to anything you desire, but you may also change the logo image in the top left corner to whatever you want.
Facebook Fixer - Instead of loading several scripts, you can load Facebook Fixer and get larger profile images, video download links, Google Calendar integration and several other features.
Facebook Highlight Birthdays - With all of the info on your homepage, it can be easy to overlook the birthday notices. This script will highlight them for easier spotting.
Facebook Image Download Helper - This script will allow you to use a Firefox extension like DownThemAll! to download all of the images on a page in Facebook.
Facebook Video - This script will not only give you the ability to download videos hosted on Facebook and convert them, but it will also provide you with the option of embedding the videos on other sites. It is also available as a stand-alone Firefox extension.
Facebook View Photo in Album - A powerful script that allows you to view the photo albums of people you aren't friends with, and it also gives you the ability to see a person's pictures no matter who took them.
Friend Quick Remove - Streamlines the usual three steps to remove a friend down to just one easy step.
inYOf4ceBook - Tired of squinting at thumbnail images of people in search, thinking they kinda look like the person you meant to find? inYOf4ceBook will let you place your mouse over the image and see a large view of it so you can actually tell who you are looking at.
New Facebook Layout Adjuster - Allows you to remove ads, sidebar and more to make a smoother looking version of the new Facebook.
Remove Facebook Ads - As the name implies, this script removes all of the various ads that show up around Facebook such as banner ads, sponsored news items and so on.
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RELATED STORIES Sex and the City 'Sequel' Series In the Works at Paramount Television
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Lynn Cohen, best known for her role as Magda on Sex and the City, died on Friday at the age of 86.
The news was originally reported by Broadway World. A cause of death has not been disclosed.
In addition to her 13 episodes of Sex and the City, Cohen — whose character served as both a nanny and a maternal figure to Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda — appeared in both the 2008 feature film follow-up, as well as the 2010 sequel.
Cohen also had a significant presence on Law & Order. She guest-starred on 12 episodes of the original series as Judge Elizabeth Mizener, and in myriad roles on Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit.
Her career started in 1983 with a small part in the TV-movie Without a Trace. Additional TV credits included a recurring role on Showtime’s The Affair, on which she played Joan, grandmother to Ruth Wilson’s Alison Bailey. She also guest-starred on Blue Bloods, Chicago Med, Damages, Getting On, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Master of None, Nurse Jackie and NYPD Blue. She most recently appeared on the Jan. 5 episode of God Friended Me as Rose, the long-lost sister of an elderly Holocaust survivor.
On the big screen, Cohen played Mags in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. She also had supporting roles in The Cobbler, Eagle Eye, Munich and They Came Together.
Cohen is survived by her husband, Ronald Theodore Cohen; the two had been married since 1964.
Many people knew & loved Lynn Cohen as Miranda’s stalwart Polish nanny Magda. To me she was that & so much more — an involved citizen, a true friend & a great actress in so many different roles. Here’s one of my favorites: Lynn as Golda Meir in Munich. I will miss her so much. pic.twitter.com/OQ6FVnng8I — Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) February 17, 2020
Bless you and godspeed, our wonderful Magda for 15 years of episodes and films, thanks for your friendship and amazing talent….R.I.P. indeed #LynnCohen pic.twitter.com/aMVVUuaCSy — Willie Garson (@WillieGarson) February 15, 2020
Lynn is someone I knew long before we were both lucky enough to work on Sex and the City. You will be sorely missed, maestra. https://t.co/rUcJO4on4d — Evan Handler (@EvanHandler) February 15, 2020
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Cointelegraph's website has become widely inaccessible in Russia as authorities added the domain to a registry of blacklisted sites.
The blacklist
Although Cointelegraph has been publicly on a list of blocked sites since 2017, it was only on Oct. 16 that the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, more commonly known as Roskomnadzor, implemented the block on a technical level.
The developer of a popular Russian anticensorship browser extension, who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, confirmed the block to Cointelegraph.
"The URL was added to Roskmonadzor's blacklist file mailed to ISPs yesterday," the developer told Cointelegraph. "It's an XML file that’s privately distributed among ISPs so that they can enable blocking." The relevant section of the file reads as follows:
"Why this website was only added recently — I don't know," the developer added.
Johann Bihr, the head of the Eastern Europe & Central Asia Desk at Reporters Without Borders, told Cointelegraph: “The blocking of your website is one more sign that Russia's online censorship system is becoming more powerful.”
The readers
Cointelegraph has checked with many Russia-based readers, and most of them are unable to access the site. Some readers have retained access, while still others are seeing periodic outages on Cointelegraph’s site, suggesting that not all ISPs have fully implemented the updated XML file.
For its part, Roskomnadzor and regulators at large have not provided an explanation as to why they recently decided to enforce the block on Cointelegraph, but it follows a general trend of a more assertive internet censorship policy.
Other blocks from Roskomnadzor
In April of last year, Roskomnadzor took issue with encrypted messaging application Telegram, blocking 20 million IP addresses in the Russian Federation in an effort to stamp out use of the app. Those efforts were largely regarded as unsuccessful.
Johann Bihr explained to Cointelegraph:
“Since their largely failed Telegram blocking last year, the Russian authorities have been actively working to enhance their online censorship system. A major turning point was the ‘Sovereign Internet’ law signed by President Putin on 1 May, which is taking Russia much closer to the Chinese model. This law will be implemented gradually from 1 November onwards, and Roskomnadzor has been installing and testing these new tools in the past few months.”
In 2015, Roskomnadzor blocked seven websites involved in crypto, including bitcoin.org.
A 2016 ruling against storage of Russian citizens’ data outside of the country led to a Roskomnadzor block on LinkedIn that continues to this day.
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The New York Times editorial board on Tuesday called on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to cut ties with the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit corporation established by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, that focuses on fighting childhood obesity, addressing the effects of global climate change and creating economic growth.
Hillary Clinton’s ties to the foundation have come under increased scrutiny in recent months following allegations of ethical impropriety surrounding her tenure as secretary of state. Recent investigations, for example, found that some of the foundation’s donors used its channels to seek access to Clinton while she worked at the State Department.
“The Clinton Foundation has become a symbol of the Clintons’ laudable ambitions, but also of their tangled alliances and operational opacity,” the Times’ editorial board wrote. “If Mrs. Clinton wins, it could prove a target for her political adversaries. Achieving true distance from the foundation is not only necessary to ensure its effectiveness, it is an ethical imperative for Mrs. Clinton.”
Earlier this month, Bill Clinton announced the charity would not accept corporate and foreign donations should Hillary Clinton win the White House in November. The former president also said he would step down from the board of the foundation. Chelsea Clinton, however, will continue to serve on the board.
The Times’ editorial board urged the foundation to ban contributions from foreign and corporate entities right away. It also called on both Bill and Chelsea Clinton to relinquish their spots on the board if the former secretary of state wins in November.
Clinton’s Republican opponent, real estate mogul Donald Trump, has called on Clinton to shut down the Foundation entirely and return its donations to countries he claims “influenced her totally” while she served as secretary of state. In response, Clinton’s campaign urged Trump to divest himself of “all of his business conflicts to ensure that he is not letting his own financial interests affect decisions made by his potential administration.”
In a new statement released Tuesday, Trump’s campaign called the New York Times’ editorial “a devastating rebuke of Hillary Clinton’s poor judgment and broken ethical compass.”
“At a minimum, Hillary Clinton should heed the growing calls for her corrupt foundation to cease accepting foreign and corporate contributions immediately,” Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said. “With each donation she becomes more and more compromised.”
While it made clear Trump had no evidence to support allegations of “pay-to-play,” the Times’ editorial board acknowledged the GOP nominee did have “reason to say that while Mrs. Clinton was secretary, it was hard to tell where the foundation ended and the State Department began.”
Last week, after a New York Times article highlighted some unusual ties between the foundation and Russia, The Huffington Post called on Clinton to shutter the charity with a banner front page headline that read “Just Shut It Down.”
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and industries.
* Require visas for all people entering our country.
* Terminate dual citizenship.
* Modify legal structure of corporations and foundations so they no longer have unique characteristics allowing them to be used to the detriment of employees, stockholders, customers and our country.
* Reduce federal government activities to comply with specified Constitutional powers only.
We solemnly promise those Heroes who sacrificed and died to defend this great Republic that it will not perish. We will do our duty as law abiding citizens and when we meet them there will be no need to offer excuses for our failure.
Words used herein were selected for precision of meaning. Sensibilities of the ignorant, naïve, and political party dupes may be disturbed by the accurate use of words like treason, murder, rape, robbery, molestation, et al to describe results of actions taken by their revered government and corporate leaders who have brain washed them. The Constitutional definition of treason is correctly applied to those who took an oath to serve the people and betrayed them with a level of corruption and death, so heinous and all encompassing as to be unprecedented in history. Readers are invited, indeed challenged to question any written word or statement used in this document. People who rely on the mainstream media for information are Dupes, and will be as uninformed as a box of rocks.
Americans must choose between Patriotism or Slavery, there are no other choices. The most expeditious and effective means for our victory is to take control of Congress away from the traitors while not ignoring local politics. You may do your part by clicking this link that will Inform, Motivate, Direct and give you the Tools to face down your congressional politicians and take back your freedom.
James 4:17 Therefor to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
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The intent of this proclamation is to present a definitive outline of the all powerful treason controlling this country and offer viable solutions using the Rule of Law to defeat the traitors. If we fail, Americans will ultimately feel the pain of treason resulting in revolt, anarchy and a pyrrhic victory for the people.
There are no questions regarding this Proclamation that can’t be answered by reading any of the numerous in depth articles written by signers of this Declaration or those recommended in the preceding link. As signers of this document we are promising our continuing dedication toward the removal of traitors and tyranny from our government and Republic using the Rule of Law, as long as we have Sovereignty.
Thor H. Asgardson
Gary Burns
Paul Cappadona
Greg Evensen
Paul Grondin
Jackie Juntti
Ed Lewis
Mark K. Lowry
Bill Madden
Kenn d’ Oudney
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October 2, 2013; Stateline
One of the few areas of federal government operations that has been largely protected from the sequester has been spending on veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs. While most discretionary government programs have been sliced and diced under sequestration, the VA has seen some programs actually grow, such as the Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF) program. The VA needed the funding and flexibility, as nonprofits and veterans decried huge backlogs in VA benefits processing during the Obama years of rapid drawdowns of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Held harmless from much of the sequester, the VA isn’t quite so lucky under the government shutdown. According to VA sources, the department’s money for veterans pension and compensation claims and for education and vocational rehab programs will start to run out in late October. It is difficult to conceive of the shutdown going on for that long, but the lack of movement at this moment in Congress, even with the debt ceiling crisis looming, doesn’t make an extended shutdown inconceivable.
While the VA is according to many sources making headway with its backlog of veterans’ benefits claims, it still reported as of late September 725,469 cases pending, more than half for over 125 days.
The nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) has produced a VA shutdown FAQ, relying on information from the VA’s own shutdown plan. Among the unaffected parts are the VA hospitals, which are funded one year in advance, and prescription drug phone lines, veterans’ crisis lines, and VA home loan processing. However, the VA has shut call centers and hotlines for education and consumer affairs, closed the VA Inspector General’s hotline, ended overtime for claims processors working through the backlog, and for the moment suspended decision-making on claims appeals.
The VA is reportedly trying to reserve money that could be used for veterans’ benefits if the shutdown lingers, but it is unclear as to how much and for what purposes. Many veterans depend on VA checks due to disabilities incurred in action and frequently do not have other resources to turn to should the VA not be able to deliver.
Basic survival resources for veterans are jeopardized by the shutdown. Also at risk are program moneys used by nonprofits such as Swords to Plowshares for transitional and permanent housing for veterans. Swords even depends on AmeriCorps stipended volunteers to deliver some of its program services, but the organization’s AmeriCorps-funded staff, such as 29-year-old former Marine sergeant Kevin Miller, with his three tours of Middle East duty under his belt, aren’t being paid at the moment.
Welcome home, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans! Unfortunately, for the moment, it looks like that despite its best efforts, the Department of Veterans Affairs might not be able to deliver the assistance that you think you’ve been promised.—Rick Cohen
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Roger Stone, the longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, will not testify in his criminal trial in Washington, his defense attorney Robert Buschel told the court Tuesday.
Stone is accused of lying to Congress and pressuring another person to do the same.
The prosecution rested Tuesday after former FBI agent Michelle Taylor was recalled to testify about Stone's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, specifically when he told the committee about his thoughts about the potential connection between Guccifer 2.0 and the Russian government.
Stone's defense team told the court they plan to play a 50-minute clip of Stone's testimony before the committee for the jury, after which they will rest their case. Federal District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said closing arguments are scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The defense team also plans to file a motion asking the judge to dismiss the case, asserting that the prosecution didn't prove its argument.
A Trump friend for more than 30 years, Stone was arrested in January and charged with misleading the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 about his efforts to find out when WikiLeaks would be releasing emails hacked from the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign. The charges, which include giving false statements, obstruction and witness tampering, were the last to be filed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team before their investigation ended.
Stone, 67, could face prison time if convicted. He has denied knowing about the WikiLeaks' releases ahead of time.
Stone also served early on as an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign and has called himself the victim of a political prosecution. During the months leading up to the trial, he was repeatedly admonished by the judge to stop making public comments about the case that could influence the potential jury pool.
Prosecutors said Stone asked Randy Credico, a standup comedian turned radio talk show host, to be an intermediary between him and WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange. The charges say Stone urged Credico to lie to the Intelligence Committee about those contacts.
"Stonewall it. Plead the fifth," Stone texted him, and even threatened to take away Credico's dog, Mueller's team said.
According to prosecutors, Stone also urged Credico to emulate a character from "The Godfather Part II," Frank Pentangeli, who is called to testify against mob boss Michael Corleone. But Pentangeli changes his testimony when his brother from Italy enters the hearing room; he then claims to know nothing about Corleone, played by Al Pacino, saying, "I was in the olive oil business with his father, but that was a long time ago."
Court documents said Stone urged Credico to tell the House committee: "Sure I know Roger Stone. He was in the olive oil business with my father. But that was a long time ago." Prosecutors sought permission to show a clip from the movie during the trial, but the judge declined to allow it. The judge also informed the jury to not watch the film.
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The luxury car belongs to a Dubai-based Indian tycoon who paid Dh33 million for the D5 number plate.
A man has been detained by Dubai Police after a video he uploaded online showing Balwinder Sahni's D5-branded Rolls Royce allegedly parked illegally, went viral.
According to Dubai Police, the culprit was identified and has been brought to Al Barsha Police Station.
As per the UAE Cybercrime Law No. 5 of 2012, the man could face up to six months in jail and face fines of between Dh150,000 and Dh300,000.
Earlier this week, Sahni was left "embarrassed" after a video circulated online accusing his driver of illegally parking in a disabled bay in Dubai.
The news spread quickly, as Sahni is the owner of the Dh33 million D5 number plate which he purchased at an auction last month.
After Dubai Police was alerted of the video, his driver was issued a Dh1,000 fine and four black points.
But Sahni quickly refuted the claims saying he was "not parked in the bay".
"I had many bags carrying heavy catalogues so the driver pulled up for about 30 seconds so we could load the car," he told Khaleej Times earlier.
But early on Thursday afternoon, Sahni said he got some justice.
The Dubai Police informed him that they had caught the perpetrator who uploaded the video, after Sahni filed a case against him.
"They told me he worked in Aspen Tower where the car was parked and he was arrested just an hour or so ago. He is at Al Barsha police station. What he did was a sheer violation of the cyber law."
Commenting on the arrest, he said he felt good that "swift action" had been taken.
"I feel like Dubai Police has given my rights back to me, I want to thank them."
Since the video was uploaded, Sahni said he has received hundreds of calls about the unfortunate incident which was "misconstrued to the public".
"Maybe now this will deter people from taking my picture and video and using it to create negative stories. I will never say no to people who want to take my picture but please don't use it out of context to create attention."
The video has created a lot of interest worldwide since going viral earlier this week and was picked up in Moscow and the US.
According to the UAE Cybercrime Law which was issued by the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, fines can range from between Dh50,000 and Dh3 million, depending on the type of offence.
Those caught using technology to invade someone else's privacy or publish news, like in this case, can be jailed for six months and face fines of between Dh150,000 and Dh300,000. [email protected]
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Students throughout the United States will be celebrating the event known as Bring Your Bible to School Day on Thursday, October 3.
The annual event, sponsored by global Christian ministry Focus on the Family, celebrates religious freedom in America and seeks to empower students to express their faith in God’s word in a respectful way.
“Participation is voluntary and student-directed – meaning it’s completely up to students, Christian clubs and youth groups to sign up online and then lead the activities in their school,” states the event’s website and adds:
As a Christian student, you can be a powerful voice of hope at your school! In the Bible, it’s often young people who lead the way for the rest of their culture by providing an example of spiritual boldness and taking a courageous stand for their belief in God.
Additionally, the event team notes that when students bring their bibles to school and express their faith, they “are helping to protect religious freedoms for other students.”
Recently, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees received criticism after appearing in a video for the event.
In the video, Brees encourages students to “live out your faith on Bring Your Bible to School Day.”
“However, an intensely critical article from Business Insider labeled Focus on the Family an ‘anti-LGBTQ group,'” Breitbart News reported. “This, despite the fact that nowhere in Brees’ video did he mention LGBTQ people, or issues.”
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an organization of attorneys who defend the rights of people to freely live their faith, offers pro bono legal assistance as appropriate for students who bring their bibles to school and experience unconstitutional obstacles to exercising their First Amendment rights.
The event’s website reminds students they can voluntarily express their “personal and religious beliefs” to classmates “through verbal or written expressions,” as long as they follow school policy and refrain from these activities during classroom time.
Hey students! Thursday, October 3 is #BringYourBible to school day. Join the movement! Bring it. Share it. Live it.
Info: https://t.co/x9OLVRuUMP https://t.co/FEHNFdU7fA — FRC (@FRCdc) October 3, 2019
“[S]chools do have the ability to enforce basic procedures and regulations that students need to follow to engage in these activities,” the website states. “What schools can’t do, however, is enforce these regulations in a biased way and practice what’s known as ‘viewpoint discrimination’ – allowing certain groups and students to engage in activities, while censoring or prohibiting other groups and students.”
Students who want to know more about the event and their First Amendment rights can visit the website.
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By Darrol – Some historical facts emerge sooner than others. The snipers who started the final stage of the coup in Kiev, Feb. 18-20, 2014, by shooting 210 police officers and 70 demonstrators (though the article says only “dozens”), have come forth and given testimony in court. In neutral Belarus. The snipers came from the Georgian Republic, brought in by Saakashvili, they did their dirty work and were then whisked out of Ukraine. The snipers were not paid for their dirty work, but more importantly for them, ‘It is the death of six of their colleagues in mysterious circumstances, who was involved in the events of February 2014. Thus, the remaining witnesses are going to protect themselves.” This is from https://colonelcassad. livejournal.com/5375611.html
Yandex translation URL.
An American military officer supervised the snipers. “…snipers were instructed by a former American soldier Christopher Brian.” A pseudonym, no doubt.
Mikheil Saakashvili is still living in Kiev. He was created by George Soros for the 2003 “Rose Revolution” which brought Saakashvili to power in Georgia. Wikipedia claims the Rose Revolution was “bloodless”, but I know he murdered opposition politicians and journalists alike, after getting into office. So this mass murder put Soros fingerprints on the Maidan coup. We can leave aside the famous attack on South Ossetia of 8-08-2008, which many people say marked the turning point of the conflict between the Empire and Russia. The Georgian army started the war; the Russians ended it in 3 days. It took years to get the murderous Saakashvili out of the presidential office and then this supposed “Georgian nationalist” trudged off to Ukraine for his next Soros assignment.
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The snipers pointed fingers at Andriy Parubiy as also responsible. He is the top Ukrainian Nazi since 1991. 2016-2019, he was Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. A very big fish! When I say Nazi, that is precise. His National-Socialist Party (later rebranded as Svoboda Party) was the same old OUN-B from the days of Nazi occupation, having a short line of succession from Stepan Bandera to Yaroslav Stetsko, and then his widow, Slava Stetsko.
For details proving Parubiy’s party is exactly Nazi, no more and no less, here’s a very good link. It also details how the US protected these Nazis even though the OUN-OPA murdered millions of people – Jews, Poles and Russians: https://slavyangrad.org/2015/ 08/10/americas-dark-history- of-supporting-ukrainian- fascists-and-war-criminals/
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Poland is still one of the few European countries that doesn't have a single nuclear reactor.
Poles may only know of nuclear power plants from movies and television. But they remember their impact on people's lives through tragic memories such as the Chernobyl disaster.
Now this will soon change.
"We constantly need new energy sources. We need new power plants that will provide electricity to the dynamically growing Polish economy, " says Zbigniew Gryglas from the Ministry of State Assets.
It is known that Poland will not abandon coal completely. It is also known that renewable energy is not able to meet the needs of the Polish economy.
So, the Polish Energy Strategy has provided for the construction of a civil, energy nuclear sector.
"We achieve something that is very important for Europe. On the one hand, care for the natural environment, on the other: we maintain energy security," says energy expert, MEP Grzegorz Tobiszowski.
"A fight for climate and clean air"
The President of Poland, Andrzej Duda says its "a fight for climate and clean air. We must make changes in our energy sector. We must have more gas-based energy. We will probably also build nuclear power plants."
Poland won't do it alone because it has no experience and know-how. It will work together with the French or Americans.
"I think that we can expect these decisions already this year," says Piotr Muller, a spokesman for the Polish government.
"Negotiations are underway, it would be irresponsible on my part if I pointed out who is more preferred because these are talks about big money."
The government assumes that nuclear will contribute 20 per cent to the Polish energy mix.
Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure, Piotr Naimski says "in 20 years, we want to produce 6-9 gigawatts of nuclear power, which will mean that we will build six reactors in several places in Poland."
It is still unknown where the first Polish nuclear power plant will be built.
"Currently, there is talk about the location of the first nuclear power plant and it will be located on the Baltic Sea. Two locations west of Gdansk are currently under consideration," says Paweł Gajda from the Department of Nuclear Energy, AGH.
The cost of building the new power facility is difficult to gauge because so many questions remain, but the Government's early estimates suggest spending around 25 to 30 billion euros.
"We can afford to build nuclear power plants in Poland! thank you very much!" says Naimski.
There has been talk about nuclear power plants in Poland for over 30 years. The government insists that it doesn't throw words to the wind.
In the face of climate challenges and external political pressure, it seems that this time Poland will move from words to deeds.
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The CBC’s Fifth estate devotes 1 hour to exploring the sorry state of federal science in Canada.
The link above takes you to CBC’s official page which might not work for some people outside of Canada, but thankfully someone has posted it to YouTube.
Only briefly touched upon at the end of the Silence of the Labs program is the closure and destruction of several science libraries across the country containing irreplaceable data going back as much as 100 years. These closures were sold to the public saying that any material destroyed or sold would first be digitized and thus be made more widely available (a great idea) but only a tiny fraction of materials were ever digitized so lots of irreplaceable and potentially vital information was lost forever.
Scientists say the closure of some of the world’s finest fishery, ocean and environmental libraries by the Harper government has been so chaotic that irreplaceable collections of intellectual capital built by Canadian taxpayers for future generations has been lost forever. Many collections such as the Maurice Lamontagne Institute Library in Mont-Joli, Quebec ended up in dumpsters while others such as Winnipeg’s historic Freshwater Institute library were scavenged by citizens, scientists and local environmental consultants. Others were burned or went to landfills, say scientists. Furthermore, the government is falsely claiming that vital content is being retained by extensively digitizing material from nine regional libraries that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) whittled down to two. “The Department has claimed that all useful information from the closed libraries is available in digital form. This is simply not true. Much of the material is lost forever,” reports one DFO scientist who requested not to be named. That picture of a taxpayer-funded treasure trove of information laid waste emerges from interviews by The Tyee with half a dozen prominent scientists, many of whom asked to remain anonymous for fear that their funding or other government support could be hurt if their names were connected with the concerns they were eager to share.
In fact if a secret government document is to be believed then digitizing materials form these libraries was never the point.
A federal document marked “secret” obtained by Postmedia News indicates the closure or destruction of more than half a dozen world famous science libraries has little if anything to do with digitizing books as claimed by the Harper government. In fact, the document, a compendium of cuts to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans… mentions only the “culling of materials” as the “main activities” involved as the science libraries are reduced from nine to two. Specifically, it details “culling materials in the closed libraries or shipping them to the two locations and culling materials in the two locations to make room for collections from closed libraries.”
Uncertainty is a common reason stated for a lack of meaningful action on climate change. The large scale destruction of data like this helps ensure that the future remains uncertain.
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fun of the Orioles more.
3. Detroit Tigers
Miguel Cabrera, 169 OPS+ (2nd)
Victor Martinez, 126 OPS+ (11th)
J.D. Martinez, 131 OPS+ (3rd)
Do you believe in Victor Martinez? If you do, the Tigers can make a case for the top spot. Indeed, using adjusted OPS for the last three seasons, they are the best middle of the order in baseball. Cabrera and Victor Martinez just seem a little too creaky as a combo to justify them in the top slot.
It's a swell middle of the order, though. You can see why it's exciting that they added Justin Upton, even if there are still gaps in the bottom of the lineup and a 98-percent chance of scattered Mike Pelfrey.
2. Chicago Cubs
Anthony Rizzo, 132 OPS+ (12th)
Kris Bryant, 133 OPS+ (7th)
Kyle Schwarber, 128 OPS+ (7th)
Just a terrifying collection of young, imposing hitters who might keep getting better. They ranked fifth according to adjusted OPS, but their youth and the tyranny of small samples were taken into account, and they were bumped up to the second spot.
The Cubs should probably be first, considering that I have to cheat with the No. 1 team, but I guess it's not inappropriate to see if the league makes adjustments to Bryant and Schwarber, like it did with Rizzo in his second full season.
1. Toronto Blue Jays
Jose Bautista, 149 OPS+ (8th)
Edwin Encarnacion, 150 OPS+ (1st)
Chris Colabello, 109 OPS+ (20th)*
There's an asterisk, there. Right now the projected lineup over at Roster Resource has Troy Tulowitzki as the leadoff hitter for the Blue Jays. He might stay there, with Josh Donaldson hitting second. This would be the sabermetrically appropriate lineup construction.
I'm guessing, though, that tradition will win out, and the thirst for RBI will take over. Either Donaldson or Tulowitzki will hit fifth, with a speedier, slappier player hitting first or second. If it doesn't happen like that, move the Blue Jays down in this ranking, and keep them at the top of the Nos. 1-5 rankings.
Or maybe Colabello keeps hitting the ball like he did last year.
By the trading deadline, these morgfostenches will look quite different. Some of the above hitters will be dealt in blockbuster deals. Others will be hurt or ineffective. Until then, here are the best and worst middle-of-the-order trios in baseball. These are the hitters that pitchers see when they close their eyes at night, and some of the groupings are just unfair.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has vowed the elimination of the Daesh terror group in the near future amid advances on the ground by the army and allied fighters as part of the operation to liberate the city of Mosul.
Abadi made the remarks on Saturday during a visit to Mar Kurkis (St. George) Monastery in northeastern periphery of Mosul.
The Iraqi leader said that he brought “a message to the residents inside Mosul who are hostages in the hands of Daesh - we will liberate you soon.”
Mosul fell to Daesh in 2014, the year the terror group began its campaign of death and destruction in northern and western Iraq.
On October 17, the Iraqi army, volunteer Shia and Sunni fighters as well as Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a long-awaited offensive to retake Mosul.
Abadi further stressed that the camping’s progress and the advance into Mosul had been faster than expected.
However, he signaled that the advance may be intermittent in the face of resistance by the extremists and their bombings and sniper fire.
“Our heroic forces will not retreat and will not be broken. Maybe in the face of terrorist acts, criminal acts, there will be some delay,” Abadi said.
He further noted that the scale of the destruction caused by Daesh in the country is much more than the one left behind by the Mongolian invasion.
Also on Saturday, the Iraqi premier visited Erbil, where he met with senior officials of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Masoud Barzani (R), the leader of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, welcomes Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Erbil, November 5, 2016.
He also sat down for closed-door talks with KRG leader Masoud Barzani.
The Kurdish leader's chief of staff Fuad Hussein said that the two officials discussed more coordination between Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the Mosul operation.
Based on agreements between Baghdad and Erbil, Peshmerga forces will not enter Mosul, Hussein added.
Iraqi army gains
Separately, the Iraqi Defense Ministry announced that 30 terrorists were killed and an arms depot was destroyed in airstrikes in the village of al-Zawiyah, south of Mosul.
Two ringleaders of the terrorist group were among those slain.
The liberation of the strategic town of Hammam al-Alil in southern Mosul was among major gains by the Iraqi forces on Saturday.
Footage released by Iraqi media showed Hammam al-Alil residents celebrating army victories against Daesh.
According to reports, 11 villages were recaptured in the area while the Iraqi flag was hoisted over buildings.
Some 35 other Takfiri elements were also killed, 17 car bombs were set off and 15 improvised explosive devices (IED) were defused as part of the operation on Saturday.
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