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place is where the masses are. If he carries out an individual act; if he responds to a policeman’s kick with a pistol shot; if he rebels against such iniquity; if he extinguishes the fire in some working factory, or if he breaks its windows (as was done in Moravia); if he goes to prison for spreading some propaganda amongst the troops or if he carries out quite another act of individual courage – his act will only have more impact, since it was done in the eyes of the masses, openly and publicly, while the press will talk about it in all details, while every worker will talk about it in the workshop”.
It is so simple, and we are so certain that all revolutionaries are of the same opinion, that there can only be debate on it by misunderstanding.
End Notes
[1] A reference to the 1889 London Dock Strike (see Kropotkin’s article “Ce que c’est qu’une gréve” [“What a Strike is”], La Révolte, 7th of September 1889. (translator)
[2] A reference to the 1886 eight-hour day movement in America that called upon workers to strike on the 1st of May. The Haymarket event in Chicago – a police attack on a strike meeting, a bomb being thrown and subsequent framing and hanging of five Anarchists, was a part of this strike wave. (translator)
[3] Moravia was a historical country in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic and one of the historical Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. (translator)
[4] A reference to founding congress of the Second International held in Paris during July 1889. This congress designated the 1st of May as an international holiday for labour to be marked by demonstrations and parades. It was inspired by the American Eight-Hour movement of 1886. (translator)
[5] Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (1826-1900) was a leading German social democrat. Under his leadership, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) grew from a tiny sect to become the country's largest political party. (translator)
[6] The Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district (Leopoldstadt). (translator)
[7] Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) was one of the one of the most radical voices of the French Revolution. He was a vigorous defender of the sans-culottes and published the newspaper L’Ami du people (Friend of the People) which was renowned for its fierce tone and advocacy of political and economic rights for the working classes. He was Marat assassinated while taking a medicinal bath and became a revolutionary martyr for the Jacobins. Kropotkin quoted him favourably in his classic 1909 history, The Great French Revolution. (translator) | 1,268,500 |
a range of different places, but we do that for really, really good reasons," he said.
Hager denied that was the case - the surveillance was not being conducted by the GCSB to combat the threat of Isis - "there's no sign of anything like that," he said.
"We don't spy on Tuvalu and Samoa because of terrorist threats, we do it to buy our way into Washington favour and into Washington," he said.
"That's what screams out of these documents, and I think we've been misled."
'MISINFORMATION'
Earlier, a spokeswoman for the prime minister said: "As we saw during the election campaign, misinformation was put before New Zealanders in an attempt to damage the Government.
"The Snowden documents were taken some time ago and many are old, out of date, and we can't discount that some of what is being put forward may even be fabricated."
Ahead of the documents' release, Key yesterday urged New Zealanders not to believe Hager.
Hager said the Snowden documents had been debated and analysed around the world and nothing had been found inaccurate in them.
"It's kind of a sad reflection on New Zealand that we have this undignified picture - we have a prime minister who just says to people 'I haven't seen it yet, I don't even know what the story is going to say, but it's wrong, you should put your heads in the sand and not look at it.'
"People have got their own choice to make on that," Hager said.
The countries spied on had the right to "feel pretty cheated".
"These countries are not powerful countries, they're vulnerable countries, they're dependent on us, so they're not going to be throwing their weight around, but they've got every reason to be upset," he said.
More stories on countries New Zealand had spied on would be coming out, but Hager refused to confirm whether China was one, answering "wait and see".
CHINESE CONTROL
Pohiva, who took office as Tongan prime minister nine weeks ago, is the first commoner to lead the nation of 100,000.
He faces a struggle to steer his country away from what now appears to be inevitable bankruptcy.
Tonga's major concern is a massive US$114 million (NZ$150 million) debt to China which Beijing pointedly refuses to write-off.
Sources inside the new Tongan Government say they are alarmed to have found that China seems to have taken control of a royal family-owned private satellite service.
Tongasat, as it is called, owns strategic satellite slots over Asia, giving the company the exclusive right to operate geostationary satellites over the region.
While the slots are a sovereign right, they've fallen into royal control.
Due to high volume, comments have now been closed on this story. | 1,268,501 |
Skycoin welcomes the newest addition to our advisory board — John Otto Peters, Chairman of SIWA therapeutics, Inc. and previously CFO of Triple Canopy, Inc.
Mr. Peters is a former financial executive with more than thirty years of experience across several different industries including technology, manufacturing and government services. Most recently he was a founder, board member and the original Chief Financial Officer of Triple Canopy, Inc., one of the world’s largest private security firms providing high-end services to the United States Government and commercial companies operating in high-risk environments. Triple Canopy, now Constellis, was successfully sold to a private equity firm in 2015. Mr. Peters is a CPA, a member of the AICPA, and earned his BBA from Loyola University of Chicago and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Mr. Peters works with several charitable institutions. He is a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and is a member of the Visiting Committee of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.
We asked John about his new position, and he provided his perspectives on joining Skycoin.
Why did you agree to become a Skycoin advisor?
I decided to become a Skycoin advisor primarily due to my friendship and respect for Skycoin’s founder Synth. I also admire Skycoin as a project and its determination to change how we communicate and interact digitally in the world.
What skills do you bring to Skycoin?
I will be bringing my large breadth of management experience and hard won knowledge of the world to the project. I want to be a sounding board that will help move Skycoin forward, assisting where necessary in order for Skycoin to complete its mission.
Which aspect of the Skycoin ecosystem excites you the most?
I’m most excited for Skywire. Skywire’s technology has the ability to replace the internet with a decentralized 2.0 version. Giving power back to the users through the use of millions of nodes, now that’s exciting! Skywire will be a wonderful evolution for us as a global community.
What direction do you see the crypto space moving in the next 6–12 months?
I see larger parts of communities participating to support global change. Skycoin’s Skywire initiative for a decentralized, secure internet give users the ability to regain control over their lives. Currently there are too many “terms of use” entities that exist with the caveat of personal data infiltration to take advantage of the average user however they choose. Blockchain-based communities will turn this on its head, since we as issuers are responsible for our communities and not investors with conflicting goals. Increased use by issuers will result in an overall shift of paradigm.
John is also the Chairman of SIWA therapeutics, Inc. He is highly experienced and we are excited about the excellent guidance he will bring to the Skycoin team.
Welcome, John! | 1,268,502 |
A better title might be, “Rhode Island Tells Feds to Send All Fines Related to State’s Shitty Benefits Computer System to Deloitte.”
From the Associated Press:
The federal government is fining Rhode Island about $2 million for problems with the state’s benefits system. WPRI-TV reports the problems stem from the botched rollout of a computer system for benefits programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service found the state’s payment error rate was nearly 14% during fiscal year 2018. In a letter late last month, the agency said most errors involved overpayments and ordered the state to pay $2 million. The state plans to appeal. The state Department of Human Services says Deloitte, the company that designed the system, is responsible for paying the fine.
Yes, the Unified Health Infrastructure Project (UHIP) that Deloitte Consulting designed for Rhode Island has come back to bite the fourth-best consulting firm in the U.S. in the ass again.
UHIP, which was rolled out in September 2016, was supposed to streamline benefits, such as Medicaid, food stamps, and child-care assistance, for hundreds of thousands of Rhode Islanders. But it was launched without a backup—despite warnings that it wasn’t ready and without Deloitte piloting the system first.
You can probably guess what happened next.
UHIP was a complete disaster: residents reported missing benefits, hours-long call wait times to the state’s Department of Human Services, and long lines at DHS field offices, among other problems.
Nearly three years after it launched, UHIP still isn’t working the way Deloitte had intended. And because Deloitte gave them a piece of crap computer system, Rhode Island has not paid the firm since the failed rollout.
But in April, to the disbelief of many (including Deloitte, probably), Gov. Gina Raimondo extended the state’s contract with Deloitte for two years and agreed not to sue the firm because she didn’t want the state to be “tied up in expensive litigation for years.”
As part of that agreement, Deloitte agreed to pay $50 million to Rhode Island, assuming the two federal agencies that oversee and finance the state’s public-assistance programs give their approval. As of today, they have not.
And Deloitte won’t be allowed to include the potential $2 million fine in its $50 million payment to the state, Rhode Island DHS spokesperson David Levesque told the Providence Journal.
Levesque said Deloitte’s responsibility for paying any and all fines related to UHIP “is in addition to the $50 million payment negotiated as part of the recent contract.”
Haha, #SoDeloitteful. | 1,268,503 |
Bruce Arians
Bruce Arians, the Cardinals' coach, is admired by Todd Bowles. (AP Photo | Rick Scuteri)
PHOENIX -- One of the neater things about this year's NFL annual meeting for new Jets coach Todd Bowles is that he got to return to Arizona, where his performance as the Cardinals' defensive coordinator the past two seasons turned him into a highly sought-after head coaching candidate.
Bowles, a 51-year-old rookie head coach, spoke glowingly Tuesday about many of the coaches he has worked under in the NFL, since he got his first job in the league in 2000, as the Jets' defensive backs coach.
But there is one coach, Bruce Arians, whom Bowles said he loves so much that he would give up an appendage for him.
From a Jets perspective, Bowles said Bill Parcells "helped me see the overall game." Parcells, the former Jets and Giants coach, was the Cowboys' coach from 2003-06. Bowles was the Cowboys' secondary coach from 2005-07.
Bob Sutton, who would later become the Jets' defensive coordinator, was their linebackers coach in 2000, Bowles' only previous season with the organization.
"Bob Sutton was meticulous as ever," Bowles said. "We'd go over coverages about 5 o'clock in the morning every day back in 2000. I learned a lot from him there."
But Bowles has a special place in his heart for Arians, the Cardinals' 62-year-old head coach. Their relationship dates to the early 1980s. Arians was Temple's head coach from 1983-88. Bowles played at Temple before entering the NFL in 1986 as an undrafted safety.
Arians later served as the Browns' offensive coordinator, from 2001-03. Bowles coached the Browns' secondary from 2001-04. And then Arians hired Bowles as his defensive coordinator in 2013, when Arians got his first NFL head coaching job, in Arizona.
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Darrelle Revis says he left New England Patriots to help deliver a Super Bowl title to the Jets
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Players connected to the Jets in 2015 mock drafts
"He kind of groomed me from a young man to a middle-aged man to now an older man, as far as seeing me grow," Bowles said. "He had, probably, almost every bit of seeing me during the things that I've learned, and letting me do the things that I did in Arizona. He had to do with that, almost everything. That guy, I can't say enough about him. I'd lose my left arm over him. He's such an outstanding person and outstanding coach. He coaches coaches. He challenges you to get better."
Darryl Slater may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook. | 1,268,504 |
The markedly nasty comments typically come as part of a final training session in an “Escape and Evasion” course, with recruits noting certain double standards in the approach, since reciprocal remarks about female interrogators’ private parts are strictly forbidden.
It appears that soldiers taking part in the selection process for the British elite force, the Special Air Service, commonly referred to as SAS, strip off for mock questioning, including by females, who frequently go ahead with sassy comments about the recruits’ manhoods.
However, now they have been warned against the unacceptable, in terms of political correctness, mockery, after a soldier complained to senior officers about his treatment while being questioned during a compulsory “Resistance to Interrogation” drill.
According to a source cited by the Daily Star, “it can be humiliating”, “but they are looking for a response”. The source went on to state that the female interrogators are “trying to make you snap and react”, which the recruits should by no means do, since if so, “you are on the road to failure”. “You just have to grin and bear it”, the source went on, adding people react differently, with some managing to laugh it off, but others “can get quite annoyed about it”, he stressed.
“The women come in and humiliate you and the easiest way to do that is to make fun of your penis size”, the source noted, going on to detail the physical details of the recruits during a mock interrogation.
“When you are cold, wet, dehydrated and hungry it has an effect on certain parts of your anatomy. Some parts of your extremities can shrink and shrivel”, he said, noting the female interrogators intentionally exploit the soldiers’ vulnerability, while they themselves would not be allowed to comment on the fair sex’s breasts or backside even as part of an exercise.
The said mock interrogation comes as part of a 36-hour “Resistance to Interrogation” training exercise, which is in turn an element of an “Escape and Evasion” course. The training lasts around two weeks and is a must for those aiming to serve in the Special Forces, be it the SAS, SBS or the Special Reconnaissance Regiment.
First, soldiers are tracked and are expected to do their best to avoid capture, but when caught in the mock operation, they get stripped and are made to stand in uncomfortable positions being interrogated by a mixture of male and female soldiers, with the latter being selected from across the armed forces for assisting twice a year in the selection of SAS troops.
READ MORE: Woman Suspected of Hiring Sicilian Mafia to Seal Her Ex-Lover Alive in Cement
The practice has been around for more than 25 years, with women soldiers considered to be exceptionally good at “breaking troops.”
| 1,268,505 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China must step up vigilance against plots to grab power, as political corruption is the worst form of corruption, Wang Qishan, the country’s still influential former top graft-buster, wrote on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: China's Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Qishan, the head of China's anti-corruption watchdog, attends the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 5, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
Wang, a key ally of President Xi Jinping, stepped down in a leadership reshuffle last month at the end of the five-yearly Communist Party Congress, but could assume a new role, say sources with ties to the leadership, though an announcement might not come for a few more weeks.
As the feared head of the party’s anti-corruption watchdog for the past five years, Wang has spearheaded Xi’s battle on graft, overseeing the jailing of dozens of former top officials, including the domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang.
China has rebuffed criticism that the corruption campaign is as much about settling political scores as about stamping out genuine criminal acts.
Writing in the party’s official People’s Daily, Wang said the fight against corruption went beyond battling the pilfering of assets or hedonism and was a political battle.
“Political corruption is the biggest corruption,” Wang wrote in comments drawn from a collection of essays released after the congress, but not previously published in full by state media.
The collection included pieces by former members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the height of power in China.
Aspects of political corruption include the formation of special interest groups to try and seize power, and the organization of activities outside party parameters, aimed at breaking party unity, Wang wrote.
“There are many new historical special characteristics to carrying on this great fight, the most important of which are to... prevent them from seizing political power and changing the party’s basic character,” he added.
Wang explicitly linked some of the most notorious cases to political crimes, mentioning not only Zhou but also the former party bosses of the southwestern city of Chongqing, Bo Xilai and Sun Zhengcai, two former top generals and a former top aide to retired president Hu Jintao.
In these cases, the party had “eradicated interest groups which mixed political and economic corruption”, Wang wrote.
Bo was jailed for life in 2013, while Sun was put under investigation for corruption in July.
There can be no challenges to the party’s power, Wang added.
“North, south, east, west and at the center, the party leads everything. If there is no forceful and strong leadership by the party, then the Chinese people are simply a loose plate of sand.” | 1,268,506 |
Newswise — A surgeon at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago is one of the first in the Midwest to use a new surgical technique that requires only one small incision to remove a diseased kidney.
Dr. Leslie Deane, assistant professor of urology and director of laparoscopy, endourology and robotic urologic surgery at UIC, inserted a camera and two surgical instruments through a port placed in a one-inch incision in the patient's belly button and remove a diseased kidney the size of an orange.
Surgical techniques have been advancing, as better surgical instruments and the introduction of cameras inside the body have made it possible to operate through small incisions. While laparoscopic approaches generally have fewer complications, shorter hospital stays, and faster recovery times than open surgery, they still usually require three to five incisions, each with attendant risks of bleeding, hernia, and scarring.
The technique called single incision laparoscopic surgery, or SILS, "gives us better pain control following surgery," said Deane. "And, of course, there is a much better cosmetic outcome for many patients. The small scar essentially disappears into their belly button."
Deane's surgical team included his chief resident Dr. Alexis Chesrow and senior resident Dr. Hector Pimentel and the nursing staff Elrayna Aten, RN and Annie Marrs, RN.
Chicago resident Eddie Bibbs, 55, is the mother of four grown children and has a number of grandchildren. She says she is not planning on wearing a bikini anytime soon, but was grateful that the simple incision kept bleeding to a minimum during her April 16 surgery to remove a diseased kidney. "I didn't need any transfusion at all," she said.
Bibbs' kidney had become infected months before, requiring insertion of a tube through the back. The kidney eventually failed, necessitating removal. She has been in and out of the hospital since last November and said she had barely been able to leave her house all winter.
On Friday, the day following the three-and-a-half-hour surgery, Bibbs was up walking the hallways of the hospital and looking forward to going home the next day.
"My daughter said I sound much better and I look much better," Bibbs said.
And, she added, "I feel much, much better!"
Deane expects SILS to become a more common procedure as new instruments are developed that are better adapted to the technique. The trend in surgery today is towards minimizing the size and number of incisions to reduce complications and scarring and improve recovery, he said. And with improvements in robotic technologies, the possibilities will be endless.
"I was also surprised to find that I was able to perform the surgery as quickly and safely through the single port as I would have expected from ordinary laparoscopic surgery," said Deane. "In 2009, the indications for 'open' kidney surgery are few." | 1,268,507 |
“We have to aspire to the annexation of Area C. These are areas where there are no Arabs at all, except a few thousand who don’t constitute a significant numerical factor,” Ariel said.
According to the Oslo Accords, the West Bank is divided into three areas. Area C comprises more than 60 percent of the West Bank and is under complete Israeli military control, both for security and civil affairs.
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Estimates of the Palestinian population in Area C are a subject of mystery and debate.
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The U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinians reported that there were 297,500 Palestinians in Area C in 2014.
An Israeli human rights group, Bimkom, estimates that 150,000 to 180,000 Palestinians live there.
The Israeli military division that controls Area C gives an estimate of 50,000 Palestinians.
Area C — which covers about 1,300 square miles spread throughout the West Bank — is where the Jewish settlements are located. More than 350,000 Israelis live on 125 settlements and about 100 outposts. The international community calls the settlements illegal; the United States views them as illegitimate and obstacles to peace; the Israeli government disputes this characterization.
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Ariel is a longtime advocate for the settler movement and lives in a settlement, Kfar Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
This is not the first time that Ariel has advocated annexing Area C. In January, Ariel said it was time to take full possession of the land.
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“If someone asks about Areas A and B, then their time will come. When, we will see,” Ariel said. “For now, let’s agree on Area C. There is more than 60 percent of the territory, with 50,000 Arabs. They do not pose a problem to the state of Israel.”
Ariel is a leader of the hard-right faction in the Jewish Home party, which is a member of the government. Other Jewish Home leaders, such as Education Minister Naftali Bennett, also have urged annexing Area C.
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Depending on the annexation plans, the Palestinians would be offered Israeli citizenship or residency or be made the responsibility of Jordan, Bennett has said.
These are not lone voices. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, supports annexation. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked wants to apply Israeli law to Area C, a step toward annexation.
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Ariel’s comments come as Netanyahu, the leader of the governing coalition, has been stressing that he supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Correction: This article has been updated. An earlier version cited a Times of Israel interview with Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel stating that he wanted to remove the Palestinians living in Area C. The Times of Israel later issued a correction of its article and said the call for removal was a mistranslation. | 1,268,508 |
The recently launched FiatMarketCap.com lets you imagine a future where Bitcoin is the de facto global store of value.
The new go-to tracker “monitors fiat currency market caps in BTC” using measures like the M2 or M3 money supply of nation-state currencies.
The different bands of money supply are typically classified as “Ms”. The “Ms” usually range from M0 (the narrowest) to M3 as the broadest classification of total money supply for fiat currencies.
Launched website to monitor fiat currency market caps in BTC:https://t.co/U5LilHjxSB This will be an ongoing exercise tracking Bitcoin's rise against major fiat currencies. — FiatMarketCap (@fiatmarketcap) June 13, 2019
What types of assets are classified into each band of money supply tend to differ according to different central banks, but to give an example, the Eurozone uses the following definitions:
M1 : Currency in circulation + overnight deposits
: Currency in circulation + overnight deposits M2 : M1 + deposits with an agreed maturity up to two years + deposits redeemable at a period of notice up to three months
: M1 + deposits with an agreed maturity up to two years + deposits redeemable at a period of notice up to three months M3: M2 + repurchase agreements + money market fund (MMF) shares/units + debt securities up to two years
The new website’s “Fiat Currency” tab lists the market cap and price (in BTC) with the nominal amount of fiat currency in total circulation for 116 state-backed currencies. All the currencies have a “max supply” set as “unlimited” – except of course number 35 in the list (Bitcoin) which has a total supply of just 21 million BTC.
If you click on the “Countries” tab, you can again see a list of 140 currencies, but this time next to the market cap and circulating supply. You can also see the measure and date of the last money supply audit for each sovereign currency.
Who is at the top of the leaderboard?
Topping the leaderboard today is the Chinese yuan, with a market cap of just under 3 billion BTC, or around $27 trillion when priced in USD. Coming in at number two is the US dollar, which the website measures at a market cap of just over 1.6 billion BTC (or $14 trillion).
Today you can see that Bitcoin has the 35th biggest market cap on the site ($163 billion). When looking at the Countries tab, BTC is tracking all the way down in 47th place.
As Bitcoin’s market cap continues its ascent, it will be interesting to see how this fun experiment will continue to track Bitcoin’s rise against major fiat currencies – watch this space!
For more news, guides, and cryptocurrency analysis, click here. | 1,268,509 |
David Frum: Speak up, John Bolton
Despite its humble origins and narrow legal foundation, in less than 20 years the position became known—by its unofficial title of “national security adviser”—as the most powerful appointed post in Washington. As government grew and America’s engagement with the world evolved during the Cold War, the influence of staffers grew along with the power of the presidency itself. Charismatic advisers such as Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski also made the job seem even more important than it looked on organizational charts.
For the most part, Congress accepted the rise of a bureaucratic heavyweight without asserting its authority to provide advice and consent on the president’s appointments, which was originally meant not just as a part of a system of checks and balances, but also as a means to keep incompetent presidential cronies out of government. It is not that the idea of making the national security adviser a Senate-confirmable post has never been discussed or threatened before, but letting the president make the selection is one of many practices, used during Democratic and Republican Congresses and presidencies, that have become part of Washington common law.
The closest Washington came to changing that rule of thumb was in the 1980s. As part of what became known as the Iran-Contra affair, President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser and some of the NSC staff pursued a scheme to trade weapons to Iran and then illegally use the proceeds to support those battling Nicaragua’s socialist government. When the plan and an attempted cover-up were exposed, some called for the eradication of the staff itself, or at least congressional oversight of the national security adviser.
However, as I wrote for The Atlantic in May, much of official Washington took another view, best articulated by the special review board established to look into Iran-Contra and led by former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. The so-called Tower Board concluded that the national-security system was the “president’s creature” and that, like the rest of the White House staff, the role of national security adviser should be malleable to fit the president’s “individual work habits and philosophical predilections.” Not only did the board recommend against confirmation; its members encouraged Congress to trust the president.
Graeme Wood: How long can John Bolton take this?
Despite how little government experience Trump brings to the White House, Congress has mostly accorded the current commander in chief the same deference. Although there was some vocal discomfort with his early decision to appoint his controversial political adviser Steve Bannon to one NSC committee, Trump has been allowed to shape the system to fit his habits and predilections. He has used the freedom not only to remove Bannon from the committee after a few months, but also to delegate some authorities, and to fire three national security advisers, including Bolton last week, during his almost 32 months in office. | 1,268,510 |
A California judge ruled Tuesday that a private Southern Baptist college was within its rights to expel a transgender student who applied to the school as female, but only as regards the school’s private courses. The student was found to have been discriminated against with regards to the college’s public facilities.
According to the Global Christian Post, the college was ordered to pay the student’s court fees and award her $4,000 in damages for denying her access to the public facilities.
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Superior Court Judge Gloria Connor Trask ruled in favor of California Baptist University, a private, Christian college in four of five claims against it by 27-year-old Domaine Javier, a nursing student who was expelled from the school in 2011. The school claimed that Javier had engaged in “fraud” by applying as a woman, although she has identified as female from childhood.
In her ruling, Trask wrote that California Baptist University is a private religious institution and can therefore impose its own strictures on students and faculty regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.
“The undisputed facts establish, as a matter of law, that for its on-campus educational activities, CBU is not a ‘business establishment,'” wrote Trask, and therefore is not covered under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits all forms of discrimination in businesses and public institutions.
However, Trask continued, the college’s library, theater and restaurants are public businesses, and therefore the college did illegally discriminate against Javier by denying her access to those facilities.
At CBU, she said, “(e)very secular subject is expressly intertwined with a values-based Christian religious component, taught by a Christian. Whatever economic benefit the student hopes to gain from the CBU educational experience, CBU clearly intends to send forth an engineer, nurse, businessperson, or teacher who will be able to apply its religious values in the secular world.”
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Javier’s attorney Paul Southwick said that he considers the ruling a victory for Javier and for LGBT Californians.
“Today is a great day for transgender Californians,” said Southwick in a statement. “[Trask] refused to recognize a Hobby Lobby type exemption for the university, at least with respect to online courses and parts of the university that are open to the public, like its library, counseling center and campus restaurants.”
Both CBU and Javier’s legal team say that they plan to appeal the rulings that they lost. Javier, herself, said in a statement that she feels vindicated.
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“It’s such a huge victory for me personally and for other transgender people like me,” she said. “While the monetary award is small, it’s never been about the money for me. It’s about being treated fairly and standing up for what’s right.” | 1,268,511 |
code can be created all on the 3D printers themselves,” says the story, paraphrasing the execs. The SDK will not only support the driving of the printer’s motors, but also the rendering of any 3D Object files for printing, connectivity, WiFi, and more, says 3DPrint.com.
Specifications listed for Marvell’s 3D Printer Development Kit include:
Processor: Marvell 88PA6120 SoC (1x ARMv7 core @ 533MHz ARM v7) 2x real-time microprocessors 4x 88PA800 security chips with IPSec and SSL support to ensure authorized materials
Memory/storage: 256MB to 2GB DDR2-800 RAM MicroSD slot eMMC slot
Display: LCD touchscreen support Parallel control panel/display support Parallel-to-MIPI DSI converter
Wireless — Optional Marvell WiFi card via memory card interface (Marvell 88W8801 Avastar); optional Marvell Bluetooth module via I2C
Networking — 10/100 Ethernet port
Other I/O: 2x USB host ports (1x dual-mode) with camera support USB device port SPI I2C (for Bluetooth) 16550-compatible UARTs GPIO Serial and JTAG debug ports
Printer mechanism support: Up to 7x bipolar stepper drive (4x simultaneous) Up to 8x DC motors (5x simultaneous) with quadrature encoder feedback 4x extruder heaters with heated build plate Support for 3x limit switches and 4x thermal feedback ports Support for 2x DC fans UPC expansion for inkjet/Piezo-based technologies
Power — supports 20–24V supply
Operating system/dev stack: Linux 3.14 SDK and BSP with source code I/O drivers and integration libraries Multi-source UBoot booting GNU toolchains Eclipse IDE XDB–GUI/CLI for real-time debug Example applications Real-time 3D motion control code High-volume production validated wireless and wired networking stack Cloud integration via Marvell Kinoma
“Combining the high performance of our advanced silicon hardware with the ease-of-use, flexibility and cloud service capability of our unique Kinoma software, I believe our complete platform solution will empower our global customers and partners with cutting-edge, cost-effective 3D printers for the masses and enable a new era of 3D printing,” stated Weili Dai, President and Co-Founder of Marvell.
Further information
No pricing or availability information was provided for the Marvell 88PA6120 3D Printer Development Kit. More information may be found in this 3D Printer datasheet [PDF]. Marvell is demonstrating its 3D Printing kit, as well as other printer solutions, at CES 2015 in the Marvell booth, Level 3, Murano 3304, at The Venetian, Jan. 6-9.
| 1,268,512 |
Update: Important context for this article.
Millions of Americans are drinking on the job as they work from home during the COVID-19 outbreak, according to multiple worker surveys.
Beer is their drink of choice over cocktails, according to Alcohol.org, but that’s probably little consolation to corporate bigwigs.
One survey, released Monday, found 42% of nearly 13,000 workers were drinking on the clock at home, according to Fishbowl, a social network “for verified employees.”
“Advertising and marketing agency employees had the highest percentage of employees answering with ‘Yes’, with 49.14%,” Fishbowl reported.
More than half of those surveyed said they feared layoffs due to the pandemic and 60% said COVID-19 “had caused clients to pause or cancel work,” the survey said.
None of the surveys reported asking how much people were drinking, but Americans began stockpiling alcohol as cities, counties and states started announcing stay-at-home orders and restricting travel for the virus.
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A 55% spike in alcoholic sales was reported in the third week of March, when panicked shoppers began hoarding alcoholic and other necessities, MarketWatch.com reports.
“Spirits like tequila, gin and pre-mixed cocktails led the way, with sales jumping 75% compared to the same period last year. Wine sales were up 66% while beer sales rose 42%. And online sales far outpaced in-store sales,” Marketwatch said.
The Alcohol.org study of 3,000 workers broke the drinking down by state, revealing where most of the drinking was taking place. It found half those surveyed in Virginia and New Hampshire were drinking on the job, while 60% admitted to it in Rhode Island.
“One-fifth of respondents stockpiled alcohol for self-isolation,” the survey added.
The larger Fishbowl survey showed workers in North Carolina, Oregon and Connecticut were the biggest drinkers, each with 47% partaking on the job.
Economist Nicholas Bloom of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research believes the “work-from-home movement … could actually generate a worldwide productivity slump and threaten economic growth for many years,” according to a March 30 report.
“We are home working alongside our kids, in unsuitable spaces, with no choice and no in-office days. This will create a productivity disaster for firms,” he said in the report.
“I fear this collapse in office face time will lead to a slump in innovation. The new ideas we are losing today could show up as fewer new products in 2021 and beyond, lowering long-run growth.”
--Tribune News Service
Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. | 1,268,513 |
is added. We sit across the board. The pieces are all worn down the king without the cross, the bishop without the mitre testimony to a thousand battles. He sets the clock: 11 seconds for the entire game, with 1 second increment. I look at him, there is no way I can play that fast. He reluctantly agrees and sets it to 1 minute, which to him is probably an eternity. When I demur again, he sets it to the regulation 3 2 3 minutes for the game, with 2 seconds added for each completed move.This, for someone who plays as fast as him, will feel like forever and a day. I play black and he opens with the king pawn and follows it up with a bishop move. I can see where this is going he wants to set up his bishop and queen and deliver checkmate in about four moves approximately. I know how to counter this, though, and soon the play becomes fast and furious. We castle on opposing sides of the board he hurls his pawns towards my king, I snap up the sacrificed footsoldiers but now there is a blistering attack on my castled king position.He is playing almost instantaneously while I'm taking more and more time, trying to calculate my way out. Finally, I counterattack in the centre my hope is to consolidate and then make my extra pawn pay. He reacts coolly, allowing my break, but now his queen and knight are descending onto my king a shot. A rook sacrifice blows open the position and I am in a situation perhaps familiar to his opponents imminent and inevitable checkmate.He points to some improvements I could have made but seems satisfied with my play. I look at the clock thanks to increments, he has more time than he started off with, while Im down to my last few seconds. It can be odd talking to him sometimes he gives the air of a much older person, giving out variations, before slipping back into the mischievous boy. When the interview is over, he runs off to play hide-and-seek in the car park. He had recently visited Anand at his home, We analysed some of my recent games, he says.How was it? He was giving moves so fast, 2-3 moves ahead of me all the time. He was too fast... I have to improve, he says. Does he analyse with his rivals after a game? The postmortem is one of the hallowed traditions of chess. If I win, I don't, he says, because the opponent might be in a bad mood.Does he look at his own games? If I lose, I analyse. If its bad I forget it. I can forget anything if I want to. As the true masters know, remembering is easy, but learning to forget is the hardest thing.As he runs off to play with the other kids, I try my best to fix the moves of the game we just played, but I know it will fade with time. Still I relish the encounter I might have just played a future world champion. | 1,268,514 |
This Week In Race: Immigration Headaches, Oscar Glow And POTUS At The Blacksonian
Enlarge this image toggle caption Kevin Winter/Getty Images Kevin Winter/Getty Images
POTUS Yanks The Welcome Mat
The effects of the Trump administration's deportation sweeps will be felt, of course, most immediately by the people who are caught up in them. But as many conservatives are applauding the president's effort to make good on his campaign promise to rid the country of people who are here illegally, they may start to feel the results of that campaign in unanticipated ways.
For instance, Eater has a good piece on the interconnected nature of immigrant labor and the price of the food in supermarkets and restaurants. If the human-rights aspect of the issue doesn't interest you, the prospect of $8 avocados and double-digit fast food might.
And as the week has shown, having DACA status is no guarantee that an immigrant is safe from deportation, as KPCC reports.
Nor are asylum-seekers.
Meanwhile, the sweeps have caused widespread anxiety in Latino communities — and eager anticipation in at least one business, according to Mother Jones.
And if past is prologue, the president's intention to remove millions of undocumented immigrant farm workers might sound good to many of his supporters, but, as Politico reports, it didn't work before.
In Happier News: It's Academy Awards Weekend!
#OscarsMaybeNotSoWhite this year — at least in nominations. But we'll have to wait and see if Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Denzel Washington and/or Mahershala Ali pick up a Little Gold Man on Sunday night. Meanwhile, the New Yorker ponders the effect Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs (who is African-American) has had on Academy members and Academy diversity.
Lots of people head to theaters on the movies' biggest weekend to catch up on what they've missed. If you've seen all the Oscar contenders you care about, try this: Jordan Peele (of the hit comedy sketch series Key & Peele) directed a film about an interracial couple whose weekend with her parents goes very, very wrong. It's called Get Out. Gene Demby talked with Peele on this week's podcast.
This Week In Race: Immigration Headaches, Oscar Glow And POTUS At The Blacksonian Listen · 25:24 25:24
We won't spoil it for you. Let's just say there's a lot of suspense, some surprises (Allison Williams of "Girls" fame plays the white girlfriend) and it's plenty scary.
YouTube
But Then So Was This:
The president had been scheduled to visit the Blacksonian earlier in the month, but had to postpone. He did stop in front of Ben Carson's exhibit during his visit. Apparently, Mr. Douglass wasn't around to greet him.
Get your acceptance speeches ready, and have a weekend free of alternative facts, y'all. | 1,268,515 |
After another disheartening loss, frustrations are boiling over for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They dropped Sunday’s game to the Tennessee Titans, 27-23, despite holding a six-point lead late in the third quarter.
“At this point, I just, I (expletive) hate losing,” Mike Evans said after the game, according to the Athletic. “Everybody's face, everybody's down in the locker room. I want to see everybody jumping up in the locker room, being happy. Against especially teams that we're better than. Obviously, if you watched the game, we're better than them. We gave them the game. We can't do that in the NFL. They're still NFL players. They're solid. But I believe we're a better team.”
Tampa Bay outgained Tennessee by a margin of 389-246 and earned 23 first downs to the Titans' 16. The Bucs converted seven of 15 third-down tries (46.7%) compared to the five of 13 conversions (38.4%) by the Titans. But Tampa Bay couldn’t execute big plays when it mattered most. An officiating mishap, however, didn’t help.
Late in the fourth quarter, Buccaneers linebacker Devin White stopped Titans punter Brett Kern on a fake goal, and safety Andrew Adams appeared to have a clear path to the end zone on a fumble recovery, but the play was ruled down by contact. Broadcast replays showed that the ball was out prior to the ball carrier hitting the ground, but the whistle negated any possibility for permitting the return.
The Buccaneers have now lost three in a row and are 1-4 in their last five. They’re in third place in the NFC South, just ahead of the 1-7 Atlanta Falcons.
One of the biggest issues facing Tampa Bay is turnovers. The team committed four Sunday against the Titans, including two interceptions from quarterback Jameis Winston. Though interceptions have plagued Winston in his career, his head coach was quick to point out that the blame for the picks shouldn’t fall on his passer.
“Jameis didn't throw one damn interception that was his fault,” Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said. “His receivers let him down today. Guys stopped on routes that were supposed to be going down the middle. The last play, the guy’s supposed to go down the middle. It should’ve been a big play. He played his tail off. You can write what you want. Not one of those interceptions was his fault, and it's a damn shame.”
Evans was one of the lone bright spots for the Buccaneers' offense, catching 11 of 12 targets for 198 yards and two touchdowns. Winston finished with 301 passing yards and two scores.
The Buccaneers now travel to Seattle in Week 9 to face the 6-2 Seahawks.
Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes. | 1,268,516 |
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is remaining in the Democratic presidential primary, despite acknowledging Wednesday that he is losing to former Vice President Joe Biden in the delegate count and has failed to convince millions of voters that he is more electable against President Donald Trump.
Sanders said he was looking forward to facing off against Biden in the next presidential debate on Sunday and said he believes he is winning in two key areas: support for a progressive agenda and backing from young people.
“On Sunday night, in the first one-on-one debate of this campaign, the American people will have the opportunity to see which candidate is best positioned to accomplish that goal,” he said.
Biden and Sanders are set to debate Sunday night in Phoenix, Arizona, a state that will vote next Tuesday. There will be no live audience and no press area, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Sanders pointed to concern over income inequality, support for corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, and a higher minimum wage as areas where the public supports what he is proposing.
“Poll after poll, including exit polls, show that a strong majority of the American people support our progressive agenda,” Sanders said.
Sanders continues to get significantly more support than Biden from young voters, and he argued that the Democratic Party needs to try harder with this demographic.
“Today I say to the Democratic establishment, in order to win in the future, you need to win the voters who represent the future of our country, and you must speak to the issues of concern to them. You cannot simply be satisfied by winning the votes of people who are older,” he said.
Sanders did not vow to stay in for the long haul, and his comments indicated that he sees the writing on the wall. While he’s still trying to make a last-ditch attempt to convince voters to choose him, he also is clearly trying to push Biden to adopt some of his more progressive policy proposals.
He said that at the debate, he will push Biden on issues including Medicare for All, climate change, college affordability and debt, immigration, childhood poverty, high health care costs, and “the absurdity of billionaires buying elections.”
Sanders pulled out victories in the first three voting states, but since then, Biden has outperformed him, especially in states with large Black voter bases. Sanders lost significantly to Biden in South Carolina and underperformed on Super Tuesday, even though Biden barely had any infrastructure in place in most of those states.
On Tuesday, Biden won nearly every state, including Michigan and Idaho, states that Sanders won against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. Sanders canceled his rally in Ohio on Tuesday night due to coronavirus concerns ― as did Biden ― but unlike Biden, Sanders did not make any public remarks.
“Last night, obviously, was not a good night for our campaign, from a delegate point of view,” Sanders acknowledged on Wednesday. | 1,268,517 |
水道にそうした物質が混入されたのが、故意によるものだったのかどうかは、今のところ明らかではないが、市内に水を供給している主要な5つの水源のうちの一つで、何者かが入りこんだ跡が見つかった。現在、水源への出入りは禁止されているが、おそらく供給されている水のすべてが汚染されたと見られている。地元TVが警察の情報をもとに伝えた。
市民に対しては、水道用の水を飲んだり、料理をするために使用しないよう呼びかけがなされた。マスコミ報道によれば、テトラヒドロカンナビノールに含まれるカンナビノイドは、協調運動失調を引き起こす可能性があり、幻覚や妄想といった心理的障害や不安を高めるため、車の運転などに影響を与える。
なお地元警察によれば、水の汚染は近く解消されるとのことだ。
#HugosWater- Well #1 is being held until addtl resources arrive. State Lab Team enrt to complete more tests pic.twitter.com/kJF8NOGqKy — Lincoln County S.O. (@LincolnCountySO) 21 июля 2016 г.
先に伝えられたところによると、米国で警官が自閉症患者を介助していたアフリカ系米国人を負傷させた。 | 1,268,518 |
Missouri executed a convicted murderer on Wednesday after a court turned down his attorney’s appeal based on a report that officials had lied over the drugs used in lethal injections.
Earl Ringo Jr., who killed two people at a restaurant in 1998, was pronounced dead at 12:31 a.m. Central Time at a prison in Bonne Terre, state corrections department spokesman Mike O’Connell said.
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Attorney Kay Parish sought a stay of execution, citing a St. Louis Public Radio report that said state officials administered the drug midazolam on every inmate executed since November, in addition to pentobarbital.
The use of midazolam is under scrutiny nationwide after inmates in a series of botched executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona were given the drug and took longer than is typical to die, showing signs of distress.
The Missouri Department of Corrections says it administers midazolam before executions and not as part of its execution protocol, and on Tuesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal.
“It should not be lost in the national debate over the death penalty that Earl Ringo Jr. was responsible for the murders of two innocent Missourians. For 16 years he avoided payment for this crime. Tonight he has paid the penalty,” Missouri’s Attorney General, Chris Koster, said in a statement.
The 40-year-old was the eighth prisoner executed in Missouri in 2014 and the 28th executed in the United States this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
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Ringo and an accomplice robbed a Columbia, Missouri restaurant of $1,400 and shot and killed a restaurant manager and a delivery truck driver, according to court documents.
“Please do not make this about how executions shouldn’t take place. Put your effort on how we can stop people from committing these terrible actions,” said Jama Brown, the widow of one of the victims, Dennis Poyser, in a statement.
“Please remember these two wonderful people who just wanted to go to work on the Fourth of July to support their families,” she said.
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Ringo declined to request a last meal, eating instead the Salisbury steak and macaroni and cheese offered to other inmates, O’Connell said. He quoted from the Koran in his written final statement.
Separately on Tuesday, the federal appeals court heard oral arguments in a long-running lawsuit filed by more than a dozen Missouri death row inmates, including Ringo, challenging the state over its lethal injection protocols.
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Texas is also due on Wednesday to execute Willie Tyrone Trottie, 45, who killed two people and wounded two others in a shooting spree after breaking up with a girlfriend.
(Reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Louise Ireland) | 1,268,519 |
cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });
Hamas has once again been trying to obtain intelligence from Israeli troops stationed along the Gaza border using online messaging applications.Posing as fellow soldiers, Hamas operatives contacted troops on the WhatsApp text messaging service asked for intelligence such as troop movements.One combat soldier serving in the Paratrooper’s brigade received a text message on WhatsApp from an unknown person asking to send dates of the next exercises the brigade was expecting to hold in the coming months, and when the troops were scheduled to leave the area.Despite the Hamas operative sending the soldier information on the brigade, likely taken from another soldier the operative contacted, the paratrooper did not divulge any intelligence and alerted his commanders.According to Ynet, an investigation was launched into how the Hamas operative received the classified information.“The IDF is aware of the enemy’s activity, and is following its efforts over social media,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit acknowledged. “We call on all military and civilian personnel to act carefully and responsibly. We would like to point out that this year marks the anniversary of Operation Heartbreaker, in which the IDF exposed Hamas activity against IDF soldiers on social networks. The operation contributed greatly to raising the awareness and alertness of the soldiers, which is also reflected in the current event.”The IDF recently launched two operations uncovering networks of Hamas operatives trying to lure soldiers through smartphone applications. According to the army, there have been hundreds of reports of suspicious individuals approaching soldiers online since January 2017.The military first uncovered Hamas attempt to honeypot male soldiers online that January in an operation dubbed “Hunter’s Network,” where dozens of accounts on social networks like Facebook were identified as being operated with false or stolen identities, with the intent of extracting classified information from both regular and reservist soldiers.The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate later launched “Operation Heartbreaker” and uncovered another cell behind suspicious online actions targeting soldiers on social networks, as well as on messaging applications such as WhatsApp, using Israeli numbers to get soldiers to download applications from Google’s official store.The military urged troops to only confirm friendship requests from people they know personally, to not upload any classified information to any social network, and to only download applications from the original App Store.Troops were also warned that if they were approached by a stranger online, to be aware that it might be an attempt to honeypot them, especially if the suspicious individual is unable to meet in person.The IDF has urged all soldiers, including reserve soldiers, to report to their commander and to security officials if the suspicious individual asks them to download applications, and if they feel that their phone may have been compromised. | 1,268,520 |
been broken and concrete footings have been poured at the facility. Steel construction at Ultium Cells...
Report: Tesla will no longer use Panasonic batteries for its production in China According to South Korean news outlet The Guru, Tesla will no longer use Panasonic batteries for its production in China. LG Chem and CATL will be the main suppliers for cylindrical cells for China-made Tesla models. In particular, as the deal with LG Chem expands, LG Chem is expected to emerge as the main supplier to take charge of battery volume for Tesla's Chinese electric vehicle models. This information comes...
Tesla has reportedly asked LG Chem to provide data about the carbon emissions of its batteries production South Korean media report that Tesla has asked LG Chem to prepare a report for all carbon dioxide emissions data related to battery production. For sure, acquiring this data is very time-consuming. It includes data from the production and delivery of raw materials to the production and delivery of the end product. This includes data from suppliers. And all this has to be verified. Reportedly, LG has started to...
BMW will receive EV batteries from EVE Energy EVE Energy is a joint venture partner of SK Innovation in China. Under the joint venture, the two companies are building the Blue Sky United Energy plant for EV batteries in Yancheng. It is projected to have an annual production rate of 20-25GWh. Recently, EVE Energy company has announced that it will supply EV batteries to BMW. For BMW Brilliance - the automakers' joint venture in China, batteries will come from...
SK Innovation started the construction of its second EV battery plant in the USA Various Korean media report that the SK Innovation has started the construction of its second EV battery plant in the USA. The site is located in Jackson County, Georgia. The initially planned inauguration event was canceled due to the state of an emergency caused by the Covid-19 spreading. The annual production capacity of the second factory will be around 11.7GWh. Combined with the capacity of the first factory...
Hyundai Motor and SK Innovation chiefs meet to discuss cooperation in the EV market Yonhap and other South Korean news outlets report that the chiefs of Hyundai and SK Innovation have met to discuss future cooperation in the EV market. The Executive Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group - Chung Euisun, and the Chairman of SK Group - Chey Tae-won have met to discuss cooperation on next-generation EV battery technologies, power management chips, and the battery-as-a-service (Baas) platform. The...
GM will introduce more EVs in South Korea, continues close partnership with LG Chem GM plans on introducing more electric vehicles in South Korea, reports Yonhap. Jesse Ortega, chief engineer at GM's Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Programs held an online briefing with Korean media dedicated to the topic. Earlier this month, GM launched in South Korea the 2020 Chevy Bolt EV. General Motors will present two new EV models this year - the Cadillac Lyriq SUV and the Hummer EV. The company said it will... | 1,268,521 |
University Of Kansas Labels 'My Pleasure' As Hate Speech
LAWRENCE, KS—The University of Kansas has labeled the phrase "my pleasure" as hate speech after students were triggered during a visit to a campus Chick-fil-A. According to reports, one staff member approached a group of students seventeen times during their half-hour visit, just to check on them.
"He just kept coming over to us like we needed something," said senior Kelly Davis. "I'm an adult, I don't need help refilling my soda. That is, unless my mom comes to visit. She usually does that for me, I guess. This guy though, he just seemed too happy to be at work."
The worst part, according to the students, was every time the staff member walked away from the table, he said "my pleasure" in response to their requests, as if he actually enjoyed his job. This set the students off so bad that they eventually left their food at the table and walked to the counselor's office, crying. Other students reported that the staff member quickly cleaned up the mess, packaged the food in case the students returned, and said "my pleasure" to nobody in particular.
The reason the students were so upset can be attributed to school curriculum concerning employment. According to the University of Kansas, the definition of work is, "a task one is forced to do at gunpoint for a capitalist." The university defines pleasure as "enjoyment and entertainment; not done out of necessity for a capitalist or fascist." This seems to indicate that Chick-fil-A employees genuinely enjoy doing their job for a fascist capitalist (and likely, racist).
"Only a fascist Christian would actually enjoy their job," a school counselor claimed. "This is the root of fascism and hate. You see these people at work, they greet you, they say 'welcome to Chick-fil-A, my pleasure.' They enjoy it. Never in my ten plus years at this university have I met one student who actually enjoyed their job, let alone their career choice. It's just wrong. These hateful words should be banned."
The University of Kansas had no choice but to outright ban the phrase "my pleasure" due to its origins in Christian fascism. Students praised the decision by packing up their anti-Chick-fil-A signs and going back to the dorms to sleep off their hangovers. Chick-fil-A is currently working on rephrasing their greetings to better suit their Kansas comrades.
Get Free Access To Our Brand New Site: Not the Bee After creating The Babylon Bee in six literal days, Adam Ford rested. But he rests no longer. Introducing Not the Bee — a brand new humor-based news site run by Adam himself. It's loaded with funny content and all the best features of a social network. And the best part? Everyone with a subscription to The Bee gets full access at no extra cost. Get FREE Access *with premium subscription to The Babylon Bee | 1,268,522 |
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) spoke from the House floor on Thursday to warn Democrat politicians that they are on the brink of pushing America into a civil war.
Never in the history of this country have we had such gross unfairness that one party would put armed guards with guns to prevent the duly authorized people from being able to hear the witnesses and see them for themselves. And then, oh, we hear from this resolution today, ‘we’re going to send you the depositions after we get through doctoring and looking at and editing the transcripts, we’ll send you those, so you have the evidence you need.’ That’s not the kind of evidence that a coup should be based on. If we’re going to have what they’re trying to legalize as a coup, we ought to have a right to see each of those witnesses.
Continuing, the Texas congressman pointed out that President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani was not allowed in recent impeachment hearings, unlike 1974 and 1998 when Nixon and Clinton lawyers were allowed in impeachment hearings.
Next, Gohmert explained how Democrats are putting the country at risk by trying to dismantle Trump’s presidency, saying, “You see, they want it to be a one-sided, non-due process, sham court, and it’s about to push this country to a civil war if they were to get their wishes. And if there’s one thing I don’t want to see in my lifetime, I don’t want to ever have participation in, it’s a civil war.”
“Some historian, I don’t remember who, said, ‘guns are only involved in the last phase of a civil war.’ What’s gone on here has not protected the Constitution. It’s not protected the institutions. It’s not protected this little experiment in self-government. No, what it has done is put it all at risk,” he fumed.
Ending his passionate plea, Rep. Gohmert warned Democrats that some Republicans will try to do the exact same thing being done to Trump to the next Democrat president.
“They’ll try to set him up and create a coup. Like I say, it won’t be me, but that’s the way history works.”
Democrats Triggering Violent Civil War, Republican Leaders Warn
Alex Jones calls in from the road to the War Room to join Owen and expose the Democrats’ plan to escalate their coup into a hot civil war!
By the way, our Everything Must Go Emergency Sale is now live! Get 70% off Survival Shield X-3 and an additional 50% off other products with free shipping and double Patriot Points!
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today! | 1,268,523 |
india
Updated: Dec 24, 2018 15:02 IST
Two women of menstruating age started trekking to Sabarimala early Monday morning despite strong protest from devotees.
Hours after they began the trek, they were being brought back to Pamba base camp.
On Sunday, the Sabarimala foothills had witnessed high drama as hundreds of devotees blocked paths and chased away a group of 11 women of menstruating age being escorted to the hill shrine by police.
Bindu from Malappuram and Durga of Kozhikode are on their way to the hilltop shrine in Kerala under heavy police protection.
Click here toSabarimala standoff LIVE updates
“We are here to seek ‘darshan’ (offer prayers) of Lord Ayyappa. The Supreme Court order must be enforced and hope, police will provide us security,” Bindu told media while on the way to Sabarimala.
Kerala had witnessed massive protests by devotees and the BJP opposing the apex court verdict of September 28 permitting women of all age groups into the shrine.
Thousands of devotees have gathered at the foothills of the shrine as the first phase of the annual pilgrimage season to Sabarimala comes to an end in the next three days.
Read more: Sabarimala tense again as devotees prevent 11 women from reaching temple
Bindu and Durga, escorted by police, have reached Marakootam, about a kilometer from the Sannidhanam. They are waiting for more police personnel to accompany them.
The women were earlier stopped at Appachimedu, a place en route Sabarimala, by protesters, who were later removed by police.
The BJP has started protesting in front of the houses of these women against their attempt to trek the hill.
The bid of the 11 women, who were members of a Chennai-based women empowerment outfit, ‘Manithi’, to reach the shrine to offer prayers was unsuccessful on Sunday as they were forced to return by protesting devotees.
Read more :
The trek to Sabarimla starts from Pamba, which is around four kms from the hilltop shrine.
Read more: High drama at Sabarimala foothills as women, police face ire of devotees
The first phase of the 41-day long annual pilgrim season at the Lord Ayyappa temple would culminate on December 27 with the puja.
Over a dozen women, including a journalist and an activist of menstruating age, had also earlier tried to trek to the shrine, nestled in the Western Ghats forests, but could not make it due to protests by devotees and right-wing activists. The Kerala High Court earlier this month had appointed a three-member committee, vesting them with powers to oversee law and order and other problems faced by pilgrims during the ongoing annual season. | 1,268,524 |
potential app that can be launched.
As the development team completes each milestone, it could pass on the app to testing team for quality check and fixing bugs.
App Testing & QA
Testing is another important stage in the mobile app development lifecycle. Testing lets you know the quality of the app and gives an idea about how good or bad the app is. The testing phase may overlap with the development stage in many ways and this depends on the way the development is planned and executed. For example, in case of agile methodology, every sprint or iteration could have a testing phase.
Testing is done to understand the defects in the app and to resolve them. If unresolved, it may cause the app to malfunction or create other technical issues. It is done by a separate team (other than the development team), has criteria, documentation to plan and execute the process. The testing phases are often accompanied by the associated development which is aimed at resolving the bugs.
App testing comprises of various types. For example, functionality testing is done to ascertain if the functional requirements that are listed in the discovery phase are met. Similarly, performance testing will establish performance capabilities such as touch response, average connection time and other metrics.
The testing phase is completed when all problems and bugs are resolved and the app is approved for launch by the client/project manager.
App Launch/Deployment
Launch stage marks the beginning of the market phase of the app. This could require the deployment of the backend before the app can be published in the app stores for downloads. You can do a soft-launch with a selected group of people/ internal team or publish in the app stores as a beta version for early user feedback.
Submitting the App in the App Stores
To launch the app, you need to publish it in a public app store like Google Play / Apple App Store or an enterprise app store if your app is intended for enterprise use only. Listing the app requires meeting the specific guidelines of the respective app store.
App Support & Marketing
Keeping Your App Healthy
Once users start downloading and using the app, issues may pop up related to the app functioning or you would want to incrementally add new features to keep your users engaged. For this, a good app maintenance services team can be very effective.
Promoting Your App
The success of a mobile app is greatly dependent on the app marketing strategy you implement. Most of the successful apps follow a robust promotional plan from the get-go.
Build an execute an app marketing plan to drive app discovery, increase organic installs and improve user engagement, preferably by working with an app marketing services agency to reduce cost overheads.
Wrapping Up!!
The mobile app development process can be quite overwhelming and tedious. However, it can become an extremely rewarding process if done in the right manner. The steps discussed above are built upon our years of experience in developing mobile apps for both enterprises and startup clients.
Author's Bio
Nitin Lahoti | 1,268,525 |
consequently will be able to focus their resources on a singular attack incident. By reducing time-to-mitigation and time-to-detection, businesses will reduce their IT costs. Organizations will be able to spend this money on additional IT security, including upgrades to systems and better security solutions. IT professionals will be able to focus on improving other areas of the network and other revenue generating activities. Increasing analyst productivity and efficiency. Investigating a single incident, even if it is comprised multiple related alerts, is much easier and far less time-consuming than trying to piece together individual alerts. This allows your analysts to be more productive.
On average, it takes 46 days to detect and resolve a cyberattack, at a cost of $21,155 per day. Organizations can substantially reduce their costs by reducing the amount of time it takes to detect and mitigate threats.
Connecting the Dots
Seeing separate alerts as pieces of a larger attack ultimately comes down to your analysts. They need to know how to look at the data and ultimately see the forest for the trees. When examining a potential attack and piecing together individual alerts into an incident, it’s essential to use a combination of deterministic-based correlations and probabilistic algorithms.
Deterministic items include any logical inferences and relationships that can be made based on known data. For example, if you know that a particular strain of malware wants to first connect for command and control and then download additional malware, when those specific activities are detected it’s evident that they are part of the same attack.
Probabilistic items naturally refer to probabilities: what are the chances of an alert or multiple alerts meaning X. For example, if a number of events happen within a short amount of time, it is highly probable that they are connected.
Of course, your analysts can’t do all of the heavy lifting. Identifying separate alerts as being part of a larger whole also requires technology that can help your analysts to “connect the dots.”
Thankfully, there are solutions that can map complex attacks in real-time, giving analysts all the information they need to identify multi-faceted incidents and respond to threats before they become dangerous to an organization.
Through advanced cybersecurity solutions, businesses can focus their efforts on the threats that are most substantial to them, rather than wasting time chasing down each alert. As networks become more complex and additional endpoints are added, this type of all-in-one cybersecurity solution becomes even more critical.
By looking at an attack as a whole and applying both deterministic and probabilistic analysis, Lastline Breach Defender is not only able to identify threat incidents quickly and correlate all activity and alerts generated by a particular attack, but additionally is able to determine the overall scope of the attack, enabling fast and efficient remediation. As a holistic system containing malware analysis, threat analysis, and network analysis, Lastline Breach Defender can cover all aspects of network traffic analysis and response. Learn more about Lastline Breach Defender. | 1,268,526 |
to each other. Previous Next 5. Make (2) assembly 4's each with (1) piece H, (1) piece D, and (1) flexible repair coupling. 6. Make assembly 5 with (2) piece A's, (2) piece H's, (2) piece J's, (2) 90 degree elbows with side outlet, and (2) tees.
7. Attach assembly 2 to assemblies 3R and 3L.
11. Bend the flexible pipe sections back and attach to the rear portion of the frame with (2) 45 degree elbows. Twist the elbows as make the frame symmetric. When everything is aligned, mark both elbow joints with a marker so you know how they should be oriented for gluing. Then, glue all joints. Previous Next
12. Trace the vinyl templates onto the vinyl with a dry erase marker and then cut out the 3 individual pieces with scissors. TEMPLATES top
sides
body hole Trace the vinyl templates onto the vinyl with a dry erase marker and then cut out the 3 individual pieces with scissors. Previous Next
13. Place a few wraps of masking tape, sticky side out, over the fittings on the top and sides. Then place the side panels in place. The masking tape will hold the panels in place while you position to get a good fit. If the panel is slightly askew, reposition it. Trim any large excess vinyl overlap. You can do a final trim at the end, so don't cut too much at this step. Previous Next
14. Place a continuous line of VHB tape on the side panels overlying the pipe. Leave the backing in place. Do this slowly so you get a straight tape line. You get one chance — the tape will not come off.
15. Place the center vinyl piece over the 2 side pieces. Start on one side and carefully remove the backing from the tape starting at one end of the seam and progressing to other end. Press the vinyl pieces together as you remove the backing. Again, you get once chance with the tape — it is extremely sticky, so work slowly and gently pull the vinyl taut and press out any bubbles in the tape.
16. Trim excess vinyl from inside and outside the hood along the tape line, and off the bottom of all the sides.
17. Print 2 copies of the Print 2 copies of the arm hole template sheet and cut into 4 individual arm hole templates. Tape into position on the vinyl sides at locations shown in the picture. The locations of these holes can be changed if you want — test with the PVC frame without the cover on to see what position is most natural for the intubator and an assistant. Using a sharp blade make a plunge cut at the 12 o'clock position and cut to 6 o'clock. Then make 2 more cuts — from 3 o'clock to the center, and from 9 o'clock to the center. Repeat for other holes. Previous Next | 1,268,527 |
Pakistani security forces arrested a "senior al-Qaida operative" in Karachi on Tuesday, signalling the first significant move against Osama bin Laden's network inside Pakistan since his death on 2 May.
Security agencies in the port city of Karachi apprehended Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, alias Abu Suhaib al-Makki, a Yemeni said to have worked directly under the al-Qaida leadership along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The army described the arrest as a "major development in unravelling the al-Qaida network operating in the region", triggering speculation it may signal a wider heave against Bin Laden's top lieutenants. However, Makki's seniority in al-Qaida was not immediately known. In the past both the US and Pakistan have retrospectively attributed seniority to previously unknown al-Qaida militants.
Since Bin Laden's death the US has put pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militants believed to be sheltering in Pakistan, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Senator John Kerry, visiting Islamabad for the Obama administration, on Monday presented a list of demands to the Pakistani government, but refused to say what they were. US officials are frantically sorting through a treasure trove of intelligence captured from Bin Laden's house, including hundreds of computer disks. It was not immediately clear whether Makki's arrest came from Pakistani or US intelligence.
The arrest offered a glimmer of hope in another gloomy day for Pakistan-American relations. Earlier there was an exchange of fire between Nato and Pakistani forces along the Afghan border that injured two Pakistani soldiers.
Two Nato helicopters opened fire on a Pakistani military post in Datta Khel, in North Waziristan, after coming under fire. Pakistan's army condemned the incident as a "violation of Pakistan air space". Nato said the helicopters scrambled after a Nato base came under fire from the Pakistani side of the border.
Meanwhile, a new account of Bin Laden's last moments emerged that suggested the American soldiers who killed him discovered his weapons only after he was dead. The Associated Press account, based on interviews with senior US officials, casts fresh light on the Navy Seal raid, painting it as larger and more perilous than previously reported.
The account may give ammunition to critics who say Bin Laden's killing was unlawful, and it throws up questions about how Pakistan's air defences failed to stop the American incursion.
The US raiding party slipped into Pakistan early on 2 May in five helicopters – two stealth Black Hawks carrying 23 Navy Seals, an interpreter and a sniffer dog named Cairo, and three large Chinooks carrying a squad of 24 backup soldiers that landed in a remote mountain area north of Abbottabad.
The Black Hawks were equipped with special technology to muffle the tail rotor and engine noise, the AP reported.
Some experts have speculated they were also equipped with a special skin to fool Pakistani radars. | 1,268,528 |
15 Amazing and Delicious Stone Fruit Recipes
It’s stone fruit season! With Peaches, Nectarines, Plums, Cherries, and Apricots at their peak-flavor, it’s my absolute favorite time of year! The only problem I have is when I go overboard and can’t finish all the ripe produce.. What’s a guy to do!? Luckily, this Stone Fruit Recipe Roundup has got you covered. Desserts, breakfasts, and even savory snacks, there’s a stone fruit recipe for every meal of the day!
I learned so much more than I ever thought from my years working in a health-food grocery store.
First, the phrase “health-food” has a much looser definition than you’d think (who knew Nutella (with its artificial flavors) is considered a health-food!?)
Most people working in a health-food store couldn’t care less about living a “healthy lifestyle”. McDonald’s on your lunch break, really!?
Customers are horrifically rude, demanding, and entitled no matter the industry (big shocker here)
One of the few things I did enjoy way my hyper-aware sense of the produce seasons. One day we’d have the same bland bananas, the next would bring Passionfruit, Dragon fruit, and all the stone fruit you could want! As you already know, I’m a big fan of eating seasonally. In season produce is usually cheaper, more nutritious, and tastes better. What’s not to love!?
(Get your local Seasonal Food Guide here!)
With huge purchases of produce comes great responsibility (to not let it go to waste!). Literally the story of my life! I wait so long for my favorite produce to be available, once it is I go crazy. And is it me, or does all the produce in the house seem to ripen at the same time?? I’ve been known to throw crazy amounts of produce into smoothies just to finish it all.
Overbuying pitted fruits isn’t a problem with this Stone Fruit Recipe Roundup!
Now that you have all this mouth-watering produce, it’s time to put it to good use! For all the stone fruit you don’t immediately eat, this recipe guide has you covered! Vegan cobblers, cheesecake, salsa, the list goes on and on! No matter what mood you’re in, there’s bound to be a recipe beckoning your taste buds. Let your senses guide you though this sweet and juicy Stone Fruit Recipe Roundup and let your inspiration flow!
Which fruit is your favorite!? Is it a Stone Fruit? Share your favorites in the comments below!
What are you waiting for!? Get some Stone Fruit (while they’re deliciously in season) and GET COOKING!
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A Victorian grandfather who was shot at point-blank range while cycling has told how he played dead in the moments after the attack, out of fear that his attacker would try and finish him off.
Kelvin Tennant was riding his motorised push bike through the popular Myrtleford-Everton Rail Trail, in north-east Victoria, in February last year when he was shot three times, once in the stomach and twice in the face.
Kelvin Tennant was shot in the face and stomach while riding his bicycle a year ago. ( Supplied: Victoria Police )
A year on, Mr Tennant has joined police to appeal for help to solve the mystery, which officers describe as peculiar and frustrating.
"I remember going down and thinking, 'This is it, I'm finished'. I thought my day had come," he said.
"I took in a deep breath and let out a big sigh and just lay perfectly still, deliberately.
"I thought, in my mind, that if I played dead he would think I'm dead and wouldn't come and finish me off."
In the moments before the shooting, Mr Tennant was approaching a dark sedan backed up to the trail.
He was shot by a man who got out of the driver's seat and walked towards the back of the car.
"I said to him, 'Why are you doing this to me?' — which is rather funny when I think back on it," he said.
"He was doing it to me because you don't fire three shots into somebody's body from point-blank range unless you want to kill them, for whatever reason."
'Frustrating' crime scene hinders police
A year later, police said they were still looking for leads.
"It is one of the most frustrating and one of the most peculiar investigations that I have seen in my time as a detective and certainly in my four-and-a-half years at armed crime," Detective Senior Constable Elise Douglas said.
The location of the shooting has been a particular stumbling block for police.
"It's hard to convey the pure isolation of it until you stand there at the crime scene. It appears to me as though somebody would have been familiar with at least that section of road," she said.
"We don't have the advantage of traditional investigative avenues that we would usually have in a more densely populated area."
Police said there was nothing to indicate Mr Tennant was followed, but rather that the shooting was tied to a particular time.
Detective Senior Constable Douglas urged anyone with information to come forward.
"It doesn't matter how small, it doesn't matter how insignificant you feel it is. Investigators at the armed crime squad are very, very keen to hear from you," she said.
"Somebody knows something. Somebody in the community knows what happened, knows who did it."
| 1,268,530 |
And the science is clear—when brain capacity is used up on these worries and fears, there simply isn’t as much bandwidth for other things.
Economic Mobility Pathways, or EMPath, has built its whole service-delivery model around this science, which it described in its 2014 report, “Using Brain Science to Design New Pathways Out of Poverty.” The Boston nonprofit started out as Crittenton Women’s Union, a merger of two of the city’s oldest women-serving organizations, both of which focused on improving the economic self-sufficiency of families. It continues that work with a new name and a burgeoning focus on intergenerational mobility.
After years of coaching adults and watching those benefits trickle down to children, EMPath has brought children into the center of its model—offering a way out of intergenerational poverty with brain science.
Elisabeth Babcock, the president and CEO of EMPath, said people in poverty tend to get stuck in vicious cycles where stress leads to bad decision-making, compounding other problems and reinforcing the idea that they can’t improve their own lives.
“What we’re trying to do is create virtuous cycles where people take a step and they find out they can accomplish something that they might not have thought they could accomplish, and they feel better about themselves,” Babcock said. Maybe that step helps them earn more money, solves a child-care problem that leads to better child behavior, or simply establishes a sense of control over their own lives. All of these things reduce stress, freeing up more mental bandwidth for further positive steps.
It’s true that exposure to the constant stresses and dangers of poverty actually changes people’s brains. Al Race, the deputy co-director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, which has an enduring partnership with EMPath, says children who grow up in and remain in poverty are doubly affected. But the sections of the brain in question are also known to be particularly “plastic,” Race said, meaning they can be strengthened and improved well into adulthood.
EMPath’s Intergenerational Mobility Project, known as Intergen, uses three tools—one for adults, one for kids, and one for the family as a whole—to frame how they think about their individual and collective lives.
The child and adult tools use a bridge metaphor to illustrate how various domains are all important for ultimate success—if a single pillar on a bridge is weakened, according to the metaphor, the whole bridge could collapse. “The Bridge to Self-Sufficiency,” for adults, guides parents to consider family stability, well-being, financial management, education and training, and employment and career management. “The Child Bridge to a Brighter Future” similarly guides children in thinking about health and well-being, social-emotional development, self-regulation, preparing for independence, and educational progress. | 1,268,531 |
Editor’s note: NJTV created a comprehensive series that looks into the history of Atlantic City, from its booming heydays through its decline and what hope the resort city has in reviving its fortunes for the future.
In 1976, Atlantic City, NJ — long an iconic seaside resort and home to a legendary boardwalk — became the first location outside Nevada to legalize casinos. But by 2014, four of Atlantic City’s twelve casinos had closed, costing nearly 8,000 people their jobs. Today, in this crucial election year, the political and economic future of the remaining casinos, those still working there and the city itself hang precariously in the balance.
Almost one year ago, a team from the “Chasing the Dream” reporting initiative in collaboration with NJTV began chronicling the struggle of that historic city through those most affected by the boom and the bust.
“Voices from Atlantic City” tells the story of the rise and fall of this gambling and entertainment mecca through the unique perspectives of local stakeholders – once prosperous card dealers, cocktail waitresses, construction workers and others — who lost their jobs or are hanging on to them by a thread, yet who still manage to have hope for the future.
PART 1: THE PROMISE
In this first episode of “Voices from Atlantic City,” we learn about the heady optimism as Atlantic City pioneered the idea of using casino gaming to revitalize a depressed urban community.
PART 2: THE HEYDAY
The 80s were the days of glitz and glamour, Donald Trump and disco. In this episode, we meet a cocktail waitress, a pit boss, a hair stylist and a drug dealer who tell us what life was like at a time when the opportunities seemed limitless.
PART 3: THE DECLINE
By 2014, the fallout from the economic crash of 2008 and other factors resulted in the closing of four casinos, costing 8,000 people their jobs. In this episode of “Voices from Atlantic City,” we learn about the social, political, natural and economic factors that lead to the closings, and hear from the workers themselves about the day they learned the doors were closing.
PART 4: THE AFTERMATH
In this episode, we explore the difficult road ahead for those affected by the closing of the casinos, as we follow former workers to a welfare-to-work program, a food bank, and a sheriff’s sale — today, with the casino closings, Atlantic County, New Jersey, now has the highest rate of home foreclosures in the country.
PART 5: THE FUTURE
In this final chapter of our series, as the summer of 2016 approaches, workers at the Trump Taj Mahal attempt to save one of the last vestiges of the “good old days,” while others search for new directions for themselves and the city’s economy. | 1,268,532 |
Adrian came on board from Williams, he was a shy and quiet guy but obvious a genius.
We won 98 and 99, but at some point in early 2000 he nearly went to Jag. We found out then that Ron refused to make him a shareholder. Adrian stayed but he was never the same then Christian [Horner] came along and that was that.
RD poo-pooed the move at the time like it was no big deal. Some agreed with him but there were others who could not believe we lost Adrian. I still am!!!
What we have today is directly due to that missed opportunity.
Ron is admired for what he did here at McLaren, great cars, beautiful kit, painting pit garages, great jokes, proper team spirit, and our attitude. We were Boss remember! We were the real deal and the team everyone had to beat. We walked tall. He deserves eternal credit for that.
But even the big boys f@ck up and that cannot be forgotten in light of what history has shown us. RD won’t ever admit it, but if he is intelligent and honest he will agree.
Allowing RB to take Adrian is so inexplicable it makes me question really how good RD actually was.
Imagine that a car designer and recognised talent working for our F1-spawned supercar manufacturer is lured away to work for an energy drinks organisation!!!
That was so f@cking stupid and the day Adrian walked the rot began here. It took a while to manifest but now we have it. Its a friggin morgue.
So true source of today’s problem is RD was shortsighted (stupid???) enough not to lock Adrian into a deal which would probably cost the team a couple of a million quid a year at the time.
I think he gets ten or 12 mil a year from RB, cheap if you think of the wage packages they dish out for our design staff that put together that shitbox.
Instead, they went matrix with Martin, tasked by Ron to the change the culture from Adrian who at the time had a smallish team of hand-picked assistants to what it is now.
It’s a mess! Try pinpoint what is wrong, or in this case who is to blame, when they deliver a shitbox like we have now. Instead, goodbye Tim, Eric and many more trust me… as you say watch this space. LOL!
Matrix means no accountability, faction fighting and pointing fingers. It has not worked.
So there you have it from the horse’s mouth.
Trying times lie ahead for McLaren’s Formula 1 team. Brown at the helm has nowhere to hide. He has talked the talk, now it is time to walk the walk to salvage the mess that began long before he even dreamed of being the team’s boss.
We welcome any feedback from people directly connected to McLaren. Transparency is important in times of change. | 1,268,533 |
These hybrids have a battery life of six months to eliminate the hassle of frequent charging. They also come prepared to track your steps, calories and even sleep. If your style is classic, you’ll love the look of our hybrid smartwatches. The beautiful dials move to whatever number you assign your top friends and family. So the next time you’re sitting in a meeting or out in public, you can know who is calling you without everyone else knowing too.
Hybrid Watches Are Style Savvy
Keep your classic style and enjoy up-to-the-minute technology trends with our hybrid smartwatches. Inspired by the vintage styles you love and infused with the modern technology you need, these watches are a must-have accessory for your active lifestyle. Hanging out at home, running errands, bouncing into back-to-back meetings or getting lost on vacation – whatever your day holds, hold it all together with the technological details and rocking style of our hybrid smartwatches. Don’t worry about keeping up with the little things like when to meet for coffee, pick up the dry cleaning or getting your steps in. You can set reminders for your appointments and keep track of your activity throughout the day with this innovative accessory.
Enjoy all of these features without losing an ounce of style with our hybrid smartwatches. Whether you love the timeless look of a leather strap, the eye-catching shine of a stainless steel bracelet, classic gold or even rose gold, we’ve got the look you’ll love. Rock your favorite work look, jeans and tee or little black dress and enjoy the charming versatility of our hybrid smartwatches. Guys, the same goes for you – whether you’re a boardroom boss wearing a suit and tie or you’re taking it easy in your favorite athletic wear, these hybrid watches have got you covered.
Dial Up Your Style with Hybrid Smart Watches
Controlling your music, finding your phone when you’ve misplaced it by pushing a button on your watch to make it ring and knowing who is trying to reach you are features you’ll love having at the tips of your fingers. Designed to complement your life wherever you wear them, our hybrid smartwatches are the perfect combination of head-turning style and convenient functionality.
Take on your day with effortless style. When you pair our hybrid smartwatches with your killer style, we know you’ll leave an impression wherever you go. Find your perfect match today and fall in love with the hybrid watch that’s just right for you.
READ OUR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SMARTWATCHES & HYBRID WATCHES
What Is A Hybrid Watch?
How Much Should I Spend On A Smartwatch?
What Functions Do I Want In My Smartwatch?
Is My Phone Compatible With My Smartwatch?
Hybrid Watches vs. Smartwatches
Smartwatch Comparison Chart | 1,268,534 |
Every year, more than 530 million tons of construction and demolition waste like timber, concrete, and asphalt end up in landfills in the U.S.–about double the amount of waste picked up by garbage trucks every year from homes, businesses, and institutions. But what if all of the material used in buildings and other structures could be recycled into a new type of construction material?
That’s what the Cleveland-based architecture firm Redhouse Studio is trying to do. The firm, led by architect Christopher Maurer, has developed a biological process to turn wood scraps and other kinds of construction waste like sheathing, flooring, and organic insulation into a new, brick-like building material.
Maurer wants to use the waste materials from the thousands of homes in Cleveland that have been demolished over the last decade or so as a source to create this new biomaterial. Now, the firm has launched a Kickstarter to transform an old shipping container into a mobile lab called the Biocycler, which Maurer and his team can drive to these demolished homes and begin the process of turning their waste into materials to build new walls.
If the project is funded, Maurer hopes to use the lab to build an agricultural building for the nonprofit Refugee Response, which puts refugees in the Cleveland area to work on an urban farm.
The biological process entails using the binding properties of the organisms that create mushrooms, called mycelium. Once the waste is combined with the mycelium, it is put into brick-shaped forms, where it stews for days or weeks, depending on how much mycelium is added. When bound together into biomaterial, the material has the consistency of rigid insulation. Then the team compacts them to make them sturdy enough to be used as a structural material.
The building for Refugee Response will act as a proof of concept, as Maurer hopes to eventually be able to help people in disaster-stricken areas using the technique. An added bonus? When allowed to grow, the mycelium will flower and mushrooms will sprout, creating a source of food that could also be helpful for humanitarian reasons.
Maurer has experimented with mycelium for years–and he isn’t alone, as startups and architects alike are also focusing on the stuff. He admits that it is a somewhat magical process: After turning an organic material like wood chips into sawdust and pasteurizing it to remove any organisms, a small amount of mycelium is added. Without any other life to challenge it, the mycelium grows like crazy. It secretes enzymes that dissolve the cellulose in the wood and replaces the cellulose with its own organisms, which are full of chitin–a material found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans and shells that happens to be the strongest natural polymer that exists. “The composite of the woody and polymetric mass is great building material–strong and rigid but also flexible, based on how much you compact it,” Maurer says. | 1,268,535 |
With a trunk in front, a 5-ft extendable bed in back and an engine in the middle, Elad Barkan's Counter Balance is unlike any pickup truck you've ever seen. The question is, will we ever see it for sale in a dealer showroom?
Barkan, an Italian designer, built the prototype Counter Balance after being rebuffed by one mainstream automaker after another. It seemed even Mother Nature was against him: just three days after completing the prototype, the unique creation was burnt to a crisp by California wildfires. Undaunted, Barkan pored over his blueprints and rebuilt the Counter Balance in under a year.
It would seem Barkan is a man on a mission to reinvent the classic American pickup truck. Indeed, the Counter Balance from Barkan Design differs from today's F-150, RAM and Silverado in a number of important areas.
Take the drivetrain, for instance. By locating the engine beneath the rear seats, space is freed up for a groceries/luggage-friendly space under the hood. Speaking of the engine, it's tuned to run on gasoline, E85 (ethanol) or even propane. How d'ya like THAT Flex-Fuel functionality, Ford!
Out back, a 5-ft open bed is configured to handle most loads but if not, no problem: the Counter Balance's “Smart Bed” extends the length to a full 7.5 feet. Rear seat passengers enjoy a 360-degree view thanks to a rooftop windshield reminiscent of the 1960s Old Vista Cruiser and a raised seating position necessitated by the engine placement.
Although the Counter Balance is all-in on front and rear storage options, it's still about 3-ft shorter than the average full-size pickup due to reduced front and rear overhang. This makes it easy to park and enables wider approach and departure angles. Out back, the standard 5-ft bed holds more (about 60 sq ft) thanks to higher sides, a bonus being improved stability.
While we're at the bed, note that those high sides allow the tailgate to act as a loading ramp. The tailgate also features dual-directional hinges that allows the gate to be flipped up for easier loading and unloading. Last but not least, the bed features an in-bed lockable trunk.
Sounds like the Counter Balance can't miss as Barkan has neatly addressed almost every issue important to pickup truck drivers... though styling is one area that may prove problematic. Does anyone see hints of an ill-advised mating between a Ford Econoline and a Pontiac Aztek here? Can you see Barkan's pride & joy causing Marlboro Men from Montana to tip their stetsons, or will they instead spit streams of Skoal in its general direction? We might learn those answers someday but for now, the Counter Balance remains a curious but promising concept. (via Impact Lab) | 1,268,536 |
The first annual Cannes Film Festival opens at the resort city of Cannes on the French Riviera. The festival had intended to make its debut in September 1939, but the outbreak of World War II forced the cancellation of the inaugural Cannes.
The world’s first annual international film festival was inaugurated at Venice in 1932. By 1938, the Venice Film Festival had become a vehicle for Fascist and Nazi propaganda, with Benito Mussolini’s Italy and Adolf Hitler’s Germany dictating the choices of films and sharing the prizes among themselves. Outraged, France decided to organize an alternative film festival. In June 1939, the establishment of a film festival at Cannes, to be held from September 1 to 20, was announced in Paris. Cannes, an elegant beach city, lies southeast of Nice on the Mediterranean coast. One of the resort town’s casinos agreed to host the event.
Films were selected and the filmmakers and stars began arriving in mid-August. Among the American selections was The Wizard of Oz. France offered The Nigerian, and Poland The Black Diamond. The USSR brought the aptly titled Tomorrow, It’s War. On the morning of September 1, the day the festival was to begin, Hitler invaded Poland. In Paris, the French government ordered a general mobilization, and the Cannes festival was called off after the screening of just one film: German American director William Dieterle’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany.
World War II lasted six long years. In 1946, France’s provincial government approved a revival of the Festival de Cannes as a means of luring tourists back to the French Riviera. The festival began on September 20, 1946, and 18 nations were represented. The festival schedule included Austrian American director Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend, Italian director Roberto Rossellini’s Open City, French director René Clement’s The Battle of the Rails, and British director David Lean’s Brief Encounter. At the first Cannes, organizers placed more emphasis on creative stimulation between national productions than on competition. Nine films were honored with the top award: Grand Prix du Festival.
The Cannes Film Festival stumbled through its early years; the 1948 and 1950 festivals were canceled for economic reasons. In 1952, the Palais des Festivals was dedicated as a permanent home for the festival, and in 1955, the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) award for best film of the festival was introduced, an allusion to the palm-planted Promenade de la Croisette that parallels Cannes’ celebrated beach. In the 1950s, the Festival International du Film de Cannes came to be regarded as the most prestigious film festival in the world. It still holds that allure today, though many have criticized it as overly commercial. More than 30,000 people come to Cannes each May to attend the festival, about 100 times the number of film devotees who showed up for the first Cannes in 1946. | 1,268,537 |
The protection of college athletes isn’t the NCAA’s legal responsibility, the organization maintained in a court filing last week obtained by The Washington Times.
“The NCAA denies that it has a legal duty to protect student-athletes,” the document said, “but admits that it was ‘founded to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitative athletic practices of the time.’”
The 30-page filing in Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court came in response to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in August by the family of Frostburg State University football player Derek Sheely. He died in August 2011 after suffering a brain injury during preseason practice.
The NCAA is named in the lawsuit along with helmet manufacturer Schutt Sports and three Frostburg State staffers.
On the same page as the denial of any legal duty to protect athletes, the NCAA admitted that the motivation behind the organization’s establishment in 1906 involved such protection. The NCAA grew out of two White House conferences in 1905 following a spate of football-related deaths.
“The NCAA admits that a founding purpose was to protect student-athletes,” the document said.
Two pages later, the NCAA restated the denial and attempted to shift responsibility to individual schools.
“The NCAA denies that it has a legal duty to protect student-athletes,” the document said, “but affirmatively states that under the NCAA Constitution each member institution is responsible for protecting the health of its student-athletes and that for decades it had provided appropriate information and guidance on concussions to its member institutions.”
The document goes on to describe the NCAA as an organization “committed to providing opportunities for student-athletes.”
The NCAA’s own website describes “part of its core mission” is to “provide student-athletes with a competitive environment that is safe and ensures fair play.”
One hundred ninety-five words added to the organization’s voluminous rule book in August 2010 mandate that schools have a concussion management plan on file. But internal NCAA emails and depositions have shown the provision isn’t enforced and no school has been investigated or punished for violating the rule.
Last month, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) wrote NCAA president Mark Emmert seeking answers about the NCAA’s concussion policy, spurred by concern over the circumstances surrounding Sheely’s death.
The NCAA has declined comment on the Sheely lawsuit other than to disagree with the lawsuit’s assertions and extend sympathies to the family.
Since September, former college football players have filed 10 class-action lawsuits against the NCAA over the handling of concussions. An 11th case, filed in 2011, is currently in mediation.
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Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. | 1,268,538 |
Rufus Hound has told Newsbeat politicians need to do more to champion the UK gaming industry.
Speaking ahead of the British Academy Games Awards, which he is hosting for the first time, he said he rarely hears "anything positive".
The comedian suggested politicians are too keen to please older people and criticise games.
"The Queen should be walking around with a PS Vita dangling out of her back pocket," he added.
Rufus Hound is taking over from comedian Dara O'Brien as host for the 2015 ceremony, at which Alien: Isolation leads the nominations this year.
More related stories Alien: Isolation leads Bafta games awards
The comedian, who has been heavily involved with the National Health Action (NHA) party in the past, criticised politicians for their approach to the UK gaming industry.
"I don't think I've ever heard them say anything positive about it outside of, 'well it might improve hand eye co-ordination'," he said.
"The problem with our modern political system is that it's mainly aimed at pleasing old people, old people are far more likely to vote than young people.
"What that means is when they see Grand Theft Auto, they don't say, 'Oh I see this this is a funny take on the overblown, hyper violent world of action movies'.
"So the people who have to pander to those people say, it's a 'bloody outrage, look you can hit a prostitute.'"
"Nobody is saying go out and hit prostitutes... but politicians can't say, 'no, this is a phenomenal new way of having fun with your brain.'
"'Getting to pretend to have all these incredible experiences and solve puzzles and things like that.'
"The nearest you'll get politicians saying that gaming is good, is like brain training on the DS because it's basically maths homework and that's what old people think young people should be doing all the time."
"I've played video games with people in their 60s and 70s who love video games so it's absolutely not true about all people, but it is true in terms of how politicians represent the video games industry."
Rufus Hound praised Bafta's recognition of games as a form of entertainment.
"What I like about Bafta is that it respects the craft of story telling, when it's told technologically."
Speaking to us at Bafta HQ in central London he said; "Largely these things are a marketing exercise but what the British Academy seems to be able to do is genuinely hail people who get it right.
"It does seem to exist in a far less political way than some of the others (award ceremonies)."
The awards take place on Thursday at Tobacco Dock in London.
A total of 51 games have been nominated across 17 categories.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | 1,268,539 |
I don’t often agree with Rand Paul in his approach to national defense and foreign policy (Marco Rubio was exactly correct when he said we can’t have an economy without an effective national defense), but Paul is spot-on in his attack on the no-fly zone advocated not just by Hillary Clinton but also by substantial numbers of his Republican competitors. I wrote about a Syrian no-fly zone last month:
Yet a no-fly zone would represent a serious strategic mistake. First, let’s state the obvious: Any no-fly zone that included Russia as “part of the solution” would be wholly ineffective. Russia would simply continue its bombing runs. Grounding only Assad’s air force and not Russia’s would be useless. Any meaningful no-fly zone has to be enforced against Russia. That decision — let’s be perfectly clear — would move a great-power conflict from “possible” to probable.... A no-fly zone is an unacceptable risk. Putin clearly views Assad’s survival as vital to Russia’s national interests. Even now, a Syrian, Hezbollah, Iranian, and Russian coalition is massing for a significant ground offensive. Would Putin let that offensive flounder simply because Americans told him not to support his troops and his allies? Or would he instead put American will to the test, resulting in direct aerial combat, lost lives, and a geopolitical incident that would not be easy to confine or control?
This is doubly true now that it looks like ISIS brought down a Russian passenger jet. Would we stand in the way of Russian retaliation for a direct attack on innocent Russian civilians?
Critically, rejecting a no-fly zone does not mean that we’re demonstrating weakness. As I said before:
we can and must continue — and step up — aerial attacks against ISIS in Syria and in support of Syrian Kurds. Instead of a no-fly zone, maintain a “we-fly zone,” where we aggressively protect our Kurdish allies and strike ISIS to degrade its strength and prevent it from reinforcing Iraq. In other words, American planes should remain on-mission when entering Syrian airspace and not automatically retreat when Russian planes get within 20 miles. Yes, staying on-mission presents a risk, but it is a materially different risk from that of telling Putin’s pilots to leave or be shot down. Instead, we would be telling Putin’s pilots not to interfere with our mission, not to create their own no-fly zone over the territory of our mutual enemies.
No-fly zones were key in stopping genocide in Iraq after Desert Storm, but Syria in 2015 isn’t Iraq in 1991. A competing, potentially hostile great power is involved, and I fail to see how stopping Russian flights over Syria would either protect American national security or be worth the fearsome risk of deadly conflict with an opponent orders of magnitude more dangerous than ISIS. When it comes to the Syrian no-fly zone, Rand Paul is right. | 1,268,540 |
the dumbness of Americans.” Maher cut in that “dumbness is a little different,” to which Freeland said it’s “very, very wrong to demonize a religion.” Maher countered, “I’m not demonizing, I’m just reporting. You are making it a demonization.” Freeland also accused Maher of saying that “Muslims are bad,” to which he countered he was only arguing “ideas need to be changed.”
After Freeland asked, “You’re saying their ideas are bad?” Maher responded, “Uh, killing women for being raped, I would say is a bad idea. Yeah, I do. Hang me for it.”
Freeland then stated, “the Bible says an eye for an eye.” Maher then countered, “Well, we don’t listen to the Bible.” Freeland responded, “And very many Muslims don’t listen to to these extreme positions.” Maher pointed to the previously cited numbers that showed “an alarming number do.”
Freeland then stated, “You went through opinion polls.” Maher asked her, “So, they’re all lying to the opinion poll?” Freeland said she wasn’t, and “we don’t need to say an entire religion, and the people who believe in it –.” Domenech then cut in to maintain that no one was attacking the entire religion, but rather the “radical portion” of Islam.
Freeland responded that the need to squash the radical portion is true, adding, “it is really important, now more than ever, for us to be standing up for moderate Muslims.” Maher then cut in, “That’s what I’m trying to do.” He continued, “I mean, there are a lot of Muslims who agree with me. I had one on last week, Asra Nomani, and she says the exact same thing. She said people like you are the problem, because they close off a debate that we need to have. … I’m for her. Who are you for?” Freeland responded that she is for Nomani in this case.
Later in the show, Maher argued, “bigotry is not asking Muslims to do more. We seem very shy — you mentioned a few minutes ago, why don’t they fight their own wars? Why don’t they? It’s like treating them like children. To me, that’s the real bigotry, is that we never seem to ask them to do anything. Why can’t they fight ISIS? Why are Muslim armies so useless? They have the troops.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1,268,541 |
horns, dancing chimes, and luxurious strings into the mix, but still managed to rigidly dictate the terms of their involvement, uncompromisingly incorporating them in a way that seems inimitably Spoon.
On more recent albums, particularly 2014’s They Want My Soul, the band has dialed up the impact of their instruments to new heights of booming immediacy. This localized maximalism — how Eno’s drums crack like a disciplinary cane or the guitars snap with pulverizing intensity — complements Daniel’s dynamically arresting howl by highlighting the physicality of each individual component. But on Ga Ga, the production never smacked to garner attention, instead achieving it with sheer acrobatic impressiveness. The album isn’t loud, but it’s played with a virtuosic confidence, a knowingness that this music is capable of dominating a room at any volume. Every song on Ga Ga sounds like instant canon, as though these were established classics from a previous era that you’ve only heard about but hadn’t actually heard yourself.
What these songs almost certainly don’t sound like to me is 2007. That year was Sound Of Silver, Boxer, In Rainbows, Neon Bible, Strawberry Jam, and dozens of other more minor works iconic in their bounded temporal associations — albums where you can hear the decade of distance on the recordings, or at least the crust of nostalgia beginning to cake on your impressions as you revisit them. Ga Ga, on the other hand, feels like 1967 and 1980 and 2013 all at once. It’s not just that the album sounds as good today as it did in 2007 — although the production and songwriting hasn’t aged in the slightest — it’s that these songs were so unequivocally presented outside of any trend or era in rock and roll that they could move with us from year to year. Or rather, they keep waiting for us to finally arrive to them at the turn of every timestamp.
And in 2017, where it seems like every agent of “important” indie rock from a decade ago is returning to release an album in a far different musical and cultural landscape to various degrees of receptions but much-discussed fanfare, Spoon are routinely paid less attention than they deserve. We take them for granted in a way we don’t with the likes of Arcade Fire or LCD Soundsystem, deflating Spoon’s output to “small stakes” because knowing the band will stick the landing makes us less interested in marveling when they do. But they’re not only releasing better albums now than almost all of those bands from 2007, they were releasing better albums at the time as well. While perhaps they weren’t the definitive act of that era, Spoon were quietly the best, and in the long run there isn’t an album among their peers that will be viewed as reverently as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by the time we’re celebrating its 50th anniversary. | 1,268,542 |
Source: Xinhua| 2019-09-06 21:49:22|Editor: xuxin
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STOCKHOLM, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Swedish government announced Friday that it will allocate a historically high 2.9 billion SEK (approximately 300 million U.S. dollars) to the environment and climate as part of the country's budget for 2020.
Part of the funding will go directly to protecting and cleaning up high-value nature areas, and part of the money will be used to fund initiatives that shift industry and consumer behaviours to away from the climate-damaging status quo.
"Climate change and a rapid loss of species on earth are happening here now and affect us here in Sweden. We cannot leave these huge problems for our children -- we need to take responsibility here and now. That is why we are once again proposing historically large investments in both the environment and climate areas," said Environment and Climate Minister Isabella Lovin in a government press release issued Friday.
The funding announcement came just a day after the nation's previous highest peak, the glacier, topped southern peak of Kebnekaise, was confirmed by Stockholm University to have melted to a record low.
"This is the lowest height ever measured. Over the past 50 years, the height of Kebnekaise's southern peak has decreased by 24 metres," said Gunhild Ninis Rosqvist, the geography professor in charge of the annual measurements of Kebnekaise, in a statement on Thursday.
To address climate change, part of the 2.9 billion SEK funding will be used to encourage companies to seek lower-emissions transport solutions, including using shipping instead of road transport and choosing fleets that run on electricity or biogas.
Sweden's green car initiative, which offers a bonus to consumers who purchase low-emission or zero-emission cars, will also receive a boost. According to a government press release issued Friday, a further 100 million SEK (10.3 million dollars) will be added to the subsidy program after sales of low-emissions vehicles have performed better than predicted.
Managing nature reserves, establishing new formal and voluntary conservation areas, refurbishing hiking trails, decontaminating coastal waters and combating eutrophication are among the many initiatives to benefit from the record-high investment in the Swedish environment.
Over the next three years, 70 million SEK (approximately 7.25 million dollars) will be spent on action to benefit pollinating insects, including bees.
"About a third of the food we eat in the world is dependent on pollinating insects. Many of these species are today classified as threatened in Sweden. In light of this, it is the government's responsibility to take powerful measures. That is why we now come up with a package of measures for pollinating insects in the Budget Bill 2020," said Minister Lovin. (1 U.S. dollar = 9.62 SEK) | 1,268,543 |
Members of Congress held a hearing on Thursday on Capitol Hill demanding answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs about what is being done to assist the tens of thousands of veterans who have fallen ill from burn pit exposure.
The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs spent nearly two hours interviewing a panel comprised of representatives from the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the VA. Curiously absent from the hearing were representatives from the Defense Department who were asked to attend but backed out just hours before with no explanation.
“They have every reason to be here, but chose not to,” Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, said of the DoD during Thursday’s hearing.
Nearly every other member mentioned the conspicuous absence of Pentagon officials during their statements.
“I find it quite disturbing that the DoD is not present,” said Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, said during the hearing.
“I’d like to ask them who was the genius that came up with this,” he added, referring to the burn pit disposal method.
During the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the burn pit method was adopted originally as a temporary measure to get rid of waste and garbage generated on bases. Everything was incinerated in the pits, say soldiers, including plastics, batteries, appliances, medicine, dead animals and even human waste. The items often were set ablaze with jet fuel as the accelerant.
When reached by Fox News, a Pentagon official declined immediate comment, offering instead to look into the inquiry, but never responded with further information.
Also in attendance at Thursday’s hearing were veterans who claim their health has suffered as a result of being exposed to burn pits while they served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many of them say they came to Washington to make their plea — for the VA to provide needed assistance with medical treat for the tens of thousands of service members with failing health because of their proximity to burn pits.
“We just want to be taken care of,” Will Thompson, a former army serviceman, said during a press conference in front of the Capitol Building earlier in the day.
Thompson received two double lung transplants after he returned from his tours of duty in Iraq.
“If you are going to send us, then take care of us when we get back,” he said.
Thousands of veterans and former contractors have developed cancer, respiratory problems and blood disorders from their exposure to toxins from the flaming pits, and many have died.
More than 140,000 active service members and retirees have put their names on a Burn Pit Registry created by the VA.
Today’s hearing comes on the heels of an exclusive report on Fox News where a former environmental officer for the Pentagon recalls how he warned Pentagon officials as far back as 2006 how the burn pit method needed to be replaced with a safer protocol. | 1,268,544 |
lytizing. A school is home to no more than a dozen Masters, as well as their students (who might number twice that). The notion of apprenticeship is not common. Instead students are taught by all Masters according to their interests and accomplishments. Along with runic study, students are taught history, especially that of the Cabal, languages necessary for scholarship, and necromancy - not to create undead abominations, but to better destroy them - for the Undeath rune has grown over the centuries, attracting adherents of its own. The Masters of Luck and Death are commited to eradicating Undeath in all its forms, and destroying the rune itself.
Yet these goals remain beyond the ability fo the Cabal. Some speak of potent forces manipulating Undeath, unseen by the Masters of Luck and Death, but glimpsed during the destruction of a powerful vampire or other abomination. Others whisper that perhaps Delac was merely defeated rather than destroyed, and is poised to rise as the god of the rune he discovered. Whatever the truth, new acolytes of Luck and Death are welcomed, and the Cabal seems primed for another transformation.
---
Creating a player character Acolyte of Luck and Death
Background: Any
Profession: Runic Sorcerer
Skills: Sorcery, Runes, History, Cabal Lore, Necromancy, Language(s)
Feat of Arms: Runic Affiliation (Luck or Death)
Spells: 6 Ranks of Runic Sorcery spells
New Spell:
This is the spell that has come down to the Cabal, in imitation of the devastating spell Rekkar cast upon Delac the Deathless in the final confrontation. Though not as powerful as the one that inspired it, it is potent - especially against creatures with a connection to the Luck Rune.
Sever Fate [Luck]
Range – 10 Yards POW check – Yes Duration – 1 Round
Time to Cast - Reaction Magnitude – Var
The caster temporarily severs the target’ spirit from its body and its fate, possibly altering the fate that had been set out for it. On a successful Pow contest, the spirit of the target can no longer access any spell or ability linked to the Luck rune, and is temporarily unable to control its physical form. The spirit may still be resident in its body, but depending on its nature, it might also be cast out of it - essentially becoming a disembodied spirit for the duration of the spell. Regardless, it is incapable of physical action for as long as it remains discorporate. If it has the ability to attack in spirit combat through other means it may do so, but not to repossess its own body, only to attack another. Even corporeal, it cannot access any ability that relies on a connection to the Luck Rune.
Each rank of Sever Fate increases the Duration of the spell by one Round.
Spell Manipulation: Duration - Special, Range. | 1,268,545 |
A lot has happened to the global oil industry in recent months. First it is important to understand that the concept of “peak oil,” the time when global oil production starts to decline, is alive and well despite the current, and very temporary oil glut. Conventional oil, the kind that comes shooting out of wells at thousands of barrels per day, stopped growing about ten years back. However, non-conventional oil (fracked shale, tar sands, deep water) is increasing. These very expensive “oils” gave many the illusion that all was well despite the steep climb in oil prices, which had to be on the order of $100 a barrel or more before they made economic sense to produce.
The technology of horizontal oil drilling and fracking, which had been known for many years, only played a part in the shale oil “miracle.” It took lots of money to get shale oil out of the ground and a selling price of less than $70 or $80 a barrel was not enough to make it happen. Only China’s rapid economic growth and ability to pay high prices forced them to unprecedented levels. Moreover, the Federal Reserve and its very low interest rates made the shale oil revolution possible by permitting the drilling of unprofitable shale oil wells using cheap money. Note that most of the shale oil under is under North Dakota and south Texas, where the local landowners and governments don’t mind letting drillers tear up the roads and countryside for lucrative fees and taxes.
Last summer, however, the bonanza came to an end: too much shale oil was being produced; the Chinese and other Asian economies slowed their demand; Europe ground to a halt; a glut developed and high oil prices were over — at least for a while. Starting in June of last year and continuing into January, oil prices fell steeply until oil was going for some $40 or $50 a barrel and less in North Dakota where getting oil to markets is difficult. Now these prices were OK for those selling oil from oil wells that only cost $10 or $20 to extract, but for the shale oil, tar sands, and even new deep water drilling projects, prices around $50 or $60 a barrel are a disaster. It takes oil well over $100 a barrel to justify new drilling for unconventional oil.
Currently the world is waiting to see if prices fall back to $40 or $50 as the supply continues to outpace demand and nobody seems willing to cut production. The massive losses most shale oil and other non-conventional producers are facing have resulted in a major cutback in the drilling of new wells and other energy production facilities. Within six months to a year these cutbacks in investment in new production will clearly result in a decline in global production of oil, which may not be possible to recover from. We just may be seeing the arrival of peak oil – conventional and unconventional – sooner than most believe.
Tom Whipple is a retired government analyst and has been following the peak oil issue for several years. | 1,268,546 |
Metro Transit this week will put up two billboards promoting pedestrian safety along the Blue and Green lines not far from where three people have been killed by light-rail trains over the past month. At least two others were injured.
The agency is using part of a $20,000 grant it received from Operation Lifesaver to pay for the billboards that will go up near 45th Street and Hiawatha Avenue S. in Minneapolis and around Hamline and University avenues in St. Paul.
The billboards carrying the message “See Tracks? Think Trains” are the first of a multipronged effort to remind pedestrians to be safe around trains — and also to not chase buses.
This is Metro Transit’s first effort to refresh its rail education and safety messages since 2014, and it comes after a string of collisions along the metro area’s two light-rail lines.
Daniel Wiese was killed while trying to cross the tracks Jan. 3 at E. 32nd Street and Hiawatha Avenue S. A bicyclist, Jason M. McCormick, 29, of Minneapolis, was killed at E. 46th Street and Hiawatha Avenue S. on Dec. 11. One person died in December in a crash along the Green Line in St. Paul. Two other people were injured in collisions with light-rail trains in December, one each on the Green Line and the Blue Line.
“It breaks my heart,” said Sheryl Cummings, executive director of the Minnesota affiliate of Operation Lifesaver, a national nonprofit issuing grants for the outreach.
In the coming weeks and into the spring, Metro Transit plans to put placards with the same message inside buses and light-rail cars and to wrap the outside of trains. The agency is looking at placing stickers with the safety message next to buttons that train riders push to open the doors. It also is contemplating creating public-service announcements that would play in movie theaters in proximity to the Green and Blue lines, a move Metro Transit has not tired before, said Mike Conlon, director of rail and bus safety for the agency.
“I really like the ‘See Tracks? Think Trains’ message,” Conlon said. “It’s very down to earth and logical. People don’t have to read a lot.”
Metro Transit was one of eight transit agencies nationally that recently received grants from Operation Lifesaver to remind motorists and pedestrians to be alert for approaching trains and light-rail vehicles. Metro Transit will kick in $6,600 of its own money, too, Conlon said.
The Operation Lifesaver grants were funded by the Federal Transit Administration.
Cummings said Minnesota Operation Lifesaver has worked for more than 30 years to prevent deaths and injuries around trains. “Most instances could be prevented if we take the time and don’t become impatient and don’t get distracted,” she said. | 1,268,547 |
omerangs back to arms companies when Israel buys U.S.-made weapons. And Israel acts as the eyes and ears for the U.S. in the Middle East, feeding crucial intelligence to their American counterparts that helps the U.S. prosecute its wars in the region. Changing this state of affairs is a mammoth task. But there are growing movements seeking to change U.S. policy on Israel. There’s the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to use economic pressure on Israel, and a sometimes overlapping, albeit distinct, movement of young American Jews seeking to stop Jewish communal support for Israel’s occupation, a support that provides moral and ideological backing for Israel no matter what the state does. While changing U.S. policy is crucial to the project of ending the Israeli occupation, it is likely not enough. Palestinians on the ground also have to create their own leverage to impose costs on Israel’s occupation. When Palestinians have revolted in the past, Israeli concessions followed. The First Intifada from 1987-1983 led to direct peace talks between Palestinian leaders and Israel for the first time. Today, the Palestinian political scene is ossified and divided. And Palestinian youth interested in fighting the occupation have to first deal with their own leaders — the Palestinian Authority, which cooperates with Israel to crack down on violent and nonviolent resistance to Israel. Palestinian resentment of the Palestinian Authority, however, is growing by the day among those fed up with allowing Israel to carry on its occupation cost-free. The occupation’s continuity is not inevitable. While current conditions are not ripe for a Palestinian uprising against their own leadership and Israel, they may be in the near future. And if that happens in combination with American pressure on Israel, the occupation may begin to crumble. That would spare the world of having to commemorate the 75th or 100th year of Israeli occupation, an anniversary people of conscience have no interest in seeing.
Galai said that the campaign is not arguing that Israel has introduced racism and human rights violations to American policing. Rather, the Deadly Exchange campaign is targeting nonprofit groups, like the ADL and JINSA, for normalizing Israeli counter-terrorism practices and trying to frame them as a model for American counter-terrorism campaigns.
He added that the campaign is a way for Jewish groups to mobilize against pro-Israel organizations that promote Israel’s model of counter-terrorism and security.
“It’s an opportunity for progressive Jewish organizations in each of these cities to come out against the conservative national security policies that organizations like JINSA are vocalizing,” Galai told The Indy. “We will be there on the streets, protesting and resisting, building those relationships and building solidarity which will hopefully make the campaign more resilient in the long-term fight against racist policing in the Trump era, where Islamophobia, racism and law-and-order discourse has re-entered the mainstream.”
____
Illustration (top) by Lynne Foster. | 1,268,548 |
Two US Public Pension Funds Back New $40 Million Crypto VC
Two American public sector pension funds have reportedly backed a new cryptocurrency industry venture capital fund with a large tranche of a combined $40 million investment. The deal is being hailed as a show of confidence in the field from some of the most conservative types of investment managers.
Also Read: In the Daily: New FSB Chair Fears Crypto, Wikileaks Goes After CSW, Bakkt Update
The Morgan Creek Blockchain Opportunities Fund
Anthony Pompliano, Partner at Morgan Creek Digital, the asset management firm backed by multi-billion dollar investment advisor Morgan Creek Capital Management, has announced a new $40 million crypto venture fund anchored by two public pensions. In typically defiant terms, ‘Pomp’ as he’s known on crypto Twitter declared: “The institutions aren’t coming. They’re already here.”
The two funds providing the main backing for the Morgan Creek Blockchain Opportunities Fund are said to be the Fairfax County Police and the Fairfax County Employees’ pension plans. Other participants reportedly include an insurance company, a hospital system, a university endowment fund and a private foundation.
The new fund is said to be structured like a traditional venture capital fund and will mainly invest directly in the equity of companies involved in the digital assets industry. However, the fund will also reportedly hold a small portion of its capital in cryptocurrencies. Morgan Creek has already made investments in companies such as Bakkt, Blockfi, Coinbase, Realblocks, Harbor, Open Finance Network, Cityblock Capital, Namebase, Good Money, and Digital Assets Data.
Every Pension Fund Should Buy Bitcoin
Morgan Creek Digital has been working on opening up the cryptocurrency market to pension funds for a while now. In August 2018 it launched the Digital Asset Index Fund, which was designed to provide endowments, foundations, pensions, wealthy families, and sovereign wealth funds access to broad-based crypto investment exposure.
In December, Pompliano wrote in a Medium post that “every pension fund should buy Bitcoin.” Explaining how this could be made to happen, he wrote: “It will take time for pension funds to get comfortable with investing in Bitcoin. We need to educate multiple stakeholders and demystify this nascent industry. When one makes the decision, it will create a cascading effect that leads to hundreds of them jumping in. Bitcoin has the potential to save us from the current pension crisis. We just need one or two courageous individuals to make the first move.”
What do you think this investment by pension funds means for the cryptocurrency ecosystem? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. | 1,268,549 |
Description
Edited text Original text
The trend of tourists taking beach selfies while planes take-off has angered Phuket airport chiefs who have threatened them with the death penalty.
The stretch of sand next to the busy airport on the island in southern Thailand has become a popular attraction with holidaymakers.
Many beachgoers take pictures of themselves with the jets in the background and post the images on social media sites.
But airport bosses are furious and have vowed to close off the section of beach amid concerns it could cause an accident.
The ban would be covered by the same law as distracting pilots with drones and laser pens.
Officials told local media that the maximum punishment under that law is the death sentence.
Wichit Kaewsaithiam, director of Phuket International Airport, said: ‘’We want both the income from tourism and the aviation safety to co-exist.”
Despite the warnings, footage taken this week at the popular selfie spot shows bikini-clad women and men in their swimming trunks taking pictures while planes take-off.
Officials said holidaymakers will be forced further down the beach with the area used by tourists for pictures being sealed off.
Anyone found guilty of breaching the planned married or deliberately distracting the pilots could be punished under the Air Aviation Act.
‘’The maximum penalty is the death sentence,’’ Mr Wichit told the Bangkok Post.
The footage was captured yesterday (April 4).
Tourists taking beach selfies while planes take-off have angered airport chiefs - who have threatened them with the DEATH PENALTY.
The stretch of sand next to the busy airport on the island of Phuket in southern Thailand has become a popular attraction with holidaymakers. Many beachgoers take pictures of themselves with the jets in the background and post the images on social media sites like Instagram.
But airport bosses are furious and have vowed to close off the section of beach amid concerns it could cause an accident. The ban would be covered by the same law as distracting pilots with drones and laser pens. Officials told local media that the maximum punishment under that law is the death sentence.
Wichit Kaewsaithiam, director of Phuket International Airport, said: ‘’We want both the income from tourism and the aviation safety to co-exist.”
Despite the warnings, footage taken this week at the popular selfie spot shows bikini clad women and men in their swimming trunks taking pictures while planes take-off.
Officials said holidaymakers will be forced further down the beach with the area used by tourists for pictures being sealed off. Anyone found guilty of breaching the planned married or deliberately distracting the pilots could be punished under the Air Aviation Act.
‘’The maximum penalty is the death sentence,’’ Mr Wichit told the Bangkok Post. | 1,268,550 |
utational. Before Valve's decision, a Change.org petition demanding the game come off of Steam attracted nearly 8,000 signatures in just a few days. That's a drop in the bucket in the Internet outrage machine, but it reflects an outcry about the game that was starting to hit mainstream news outlets and social media commenters who aren't usually immersed in the game industry.
In announcing its new policy back in June, Valve argued that "if we allow your game onto the Store, it does not mean we approve or agree with anything you're trying to say with it." But as I pointed out in an op-ed at the time, that sort of we-don't-have-a-position position doesn't prevent Valve's brand from being dragged down by Steam's worst content.
"By allowing practically the most hateful games imaginable on its storefront, Steam offers an implicit endorsement that amounts to much more than just a place on the digital shelf," I wrote at the time. "[Valve's position] lets anyone, with any point of view, essentially tie themselves to the Steam brand, complete with the explicit benefits and implicit endorsements that come with it... By refusing to define its own values, Valve will be letting anyone and everyone try to define those values by tying their content to Steam's storefront."
What can you do?
Valve's newest attempt to thread the needle on this issue, it seems, is an argument that "much of our policy around what we distribute is, and must be, reactionary [sic]—we simply have to wait and see what comes to us via Steam Direct." But the rest of the game industry shows that's not true. Game console platforms, mobile app stores, and even competing PC game distribution services all have predefined guidelines outlining what kind of content is and isn't acceptable for the games they sell.
Rather than simply taking a "wait and see" position, these storefronts all proactively try to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable ahead of time. Those kinds of content guidelines are open to interpretation, of course, and there are plenty of edge cases for games that seem to skirt the line. But simply having a line in the first place helps prevent those storefronts from being merely reactive, as Valve claims it "must be."
When controversial content wants to associate with these other storefronts, those platform-holders can at least point to their guidelines as justification for any decision they make. When such content tries to get on Steam, Valve can only be reactive, offering mealy-mouthed responses about unnamed "costs and risks."
Valve's ostensibly laissez-faire moderation policy for Steam games is becoming, in practice, more of a capricious, "I'll know it when I see it" method of directionless, case-by-case decision-making. For Steam, it seems, there are now three types of content that are banned: illegal content; outright trolling; and an amorphous set of "content that makes us look bad." | 1,268,551 |
feet," but the headset and the iPhone seemed to do poorly when separated by an obstruction of any kind, even when very close together. Simply putting the iPhone in my back pocket noticeably degraded the signal to the point where it was noisy, and I don't even have any bionic parts between my ear and my pelvis.
At less than a quarter of an ounce, the nearly weightless headset is at least as comfortable to wear as other earbud headphones, without the tugging wires. It seemed to prefer to occasionally rotate downward so that the mouth piece was pointed at my shoulder rather than my mouth, but it was virtually impossible to get it to fall out of my ear without physically bumping it.
Missing Features
Despite its minimal and sophisticated flat black appearance, Apple's headset doesn't do everything other headsets can. Many offer some sort of call redial feature, and some include fancy noise filtering features and a longer battery life. Apart from switching between calls, it doesn't offer any way to merge calls; any special call handling requires keeping the iPhone out and available. The adapter also doesn't add any new features to the iPhone, so there's no way to perform voice dialing, for example.
The most troubling problem for the Bluetooth adapter is that, while it's certainly serviceable as a phone headset, it ignores both the iPod and the 'breakthrough Internet device' that lurk within the iPhone. There's no way to listen to music or to live podcasts in Safari over the headset, meaning headset users have to restrict their use of the iPhone to simply being a phone, unless they play the iPhone's music through its built in speaker or through their vehicle's audio system. Otherwise, listening to music requires putting in earbuds and taking the headset out.
That makes the biggest consideration for potential buyers whether they feel wireless headset operation trumps listening to music. Ideally, Apple will release A2DP Bluetooth support for the iPhone and offer a stereo Bluetooth headset to match, delivering the best of both worlds. Until then, users will have to decide whether the iPhone's included earbuds — with integrated mic and call accept button — really need to be replaced with a Bluetooth headset.
The Wrap Up
Apple's Bluetooth Adapter is a well designed product that performs suitably as intended, but doesn't trade off any simplicity for some of the features in other Bluetooth headsets. Sound quality is very good for the remote caller but only fair to good for the user. Users attracted to Apple's attractive, minimalist, and easy to use designs shouldn't be disappointed, but it offers no real surprises in terms of features.
Rating: 3 of 5
Pros: Elegantly slim and very lightweight design.
Comfortable to wear.
Includes a dock and extra travel cable.
Easy to set up and use.
Cons: Limited range and battery life.
No fancy phone control features or redial.
No iPhone audio support apart from phone calls.
No voice dialing support. | 1,268,552 |
Mar 9th, 2020
Mar 9th, 2020
Parramatta hooker Reed Mahoney remains hopeful of becoming the latest to sign a long-term contract extension to remain at the NRL club.
Shaun Lane's re-signing last week means Mahoney is the only member of the Eels' expected starting 13 without a deal for beyond November.
Eels officials are understood to be deep in negotiations with the rake, who has been touted as a future Queensland State of Origin representative.
And after emerging as the Eels' first-choice No.9 last year, the Nambour product is keen on planting his roots in western Sydney.
A new contract could be announced before Thursday's anticipated season-opener against Canterbury at Bankwest Stadium.
"Parramatta's a great club. They're heading in the right direction and you can see now, we've moved into a new facility," Mahoney said on Monday.
"And in the years to come we're going to have a high performance centre here that's going to be one of the best. It's a great club to be a part of.
"But I'm just worried about playing my footy at the moment."
While Mahoney was buoyed by the Eels' new digs in Kellyville, he is just as excited about their premiership prospects this season.
The club added key duo Ryan Matterson and Reagan Campbell-Gillard to a squad that remains largely intact to the one that finished semi-finalists last year.
"They've come with heaps of experience, heaps of leadership that I didn't think that they would come with," Mahoney said.
"Myself as a young player, I've got RCG and Matto (running) off me, (and) it's really going to help my game, and obviously take theirs to the next level as well."
Other than Mahoney, only the likes of Kane Evans, Brad Takairangi, Peni Terepo and David Gower are unsigned following this season.
Eels coach Brad Arthur told AAP that having the bulk of his top 30 signed on long-term deals would allow them to narrow their focus on a title run.
"I know a lot of people in their last year say it doesn't play on their mind, but it's just natural. It's hard not for it to be there," Arthur said.
"I was off-contract and I found it hard for myself. Everyone says, 'No, no, leave it to my manager, don't worry about it'.
"Yeah well that's true, but there's some level of not white lies to that. It was in the back of my mind, pressure builds.
"Team results indicate where you're going to be at in terms of whether you're going to get your contract or not. It's the same with a player."
©AAP2020 | 1,268,553 |
It was bound to happen sooner or later, but the adult-themed animation outfit StudioFOW – best known for their popular short films based on video games, such as Lara In Trouble, Kunoichi: Broken Princess and NieR: First [Ass]embly – has been permanently banned from Patreon.
The payment service has been expunging a lot of adult-themed creators from its service, and just recently they banned Conservatives and Libertarians from the platform as well.
Many Left-wing organizations are currently involved in a purge of 18+ content, and StudioFOW was one of the recent victims.
The message that they sent out to their loyal followers was shared over in a comment on the Patreon sub-reddit by user bigwheese. The gist of the message states…
“ Patreon sent me an email saying they are shutting our page down permanently and that we are no longer welcome on the platform. Pretty hilarious considering they were giving us awards and plaques just a couple of years ago…how times change. Luckily we saw this coming from a million miles away – so there’s no need to panic – we’ve been working on a contingency platform and it should be operational towards the end of the year. It will be a place where we can have financial independence away from corrupt corporate entities such as Patreon and you can support us directly – no middleman. We’ve also been working on alternate revenue streams so obviously this is not the end of StudioFOW, but it does mean I cannot communicate with you guys on here anymore as this account is getting terminated In the meantime I encourage you to join the StudioFOW Discord as it is the easiest way to keep in touch until we can set up our independent platform”
The message attempts to assuage fans that StudioFOW is still alive and kicking and they have enough dosh stashed away to make during this transition period between Patreon and the new payment processing mechanism. This comes after Patreon suspended their account a month prior to review StudioFOW.
They obviously don’t want to deal with anymore middlemen processors, which is how they ended up in this situation in the first place.
This also isn’t the first time that we’ve seen payment processors overstepping their bounds to dictate what kind of content can and cannot be made available to the public. Mikandi Japan told Yume Creations they couldn’t host Imolicious on their digital storefront because payment processors forbade them from selling games or content that contains incest.
In the case of StudioFOW, they run the gamut of taboo material so it’s no surprise that Patreon was eventually going to come knocking at the door of creativity looking to slip them an eviction notice from the platform. Thankfully for fans, StudioFOW already had a backup plan in place and was ready to enact it when the day came that Patreon was dropping the banhammer on them.
(Thanks for the news tip Gemma Ham) | 1,268,554 |
Last year, nearly 170,000 people signed an online pledge with Veganuary to avoid animal products including meat, milk, eggs, and butter for the month on January. Going vegan for the entire month might sound difficult, but results prove otherwise. In 2018, the majority of folks who signed up for the challenge not only completed it but continued on, adopting veganism as a lifestyle change.
More than 80% of participants later reported that they’d eaten animal-free the entire month. And more than 60% of participants continue to maintain that diet shift.
Part of their success stems from Veganuary’s support network. Veganuary participants receive regular emails to stay motivated. There’s also a home page full of recipes, shopping guides, and other helpful resources. Since starting in 2014, the U.K.-based nonprofit has seen participation roughly double year-over-year. About 35% of those participants come from the Unites States, half are from the U.K., and the rest are scattered among more than 190 participating countries.
The other factor bolstering their success is that going vegan today may just be tastier and more convenient than it was a few years ago. Retail sales for a new wave of plant-based products jumped 20% in the U.S. last year, totaling $3.3 billion in annual sales, according to Nielsen research. A majority of Americans are also reportedly cutting back on meat consumption because of health and cost concerns. Toss in the fact that livestock accounts for a massive share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and you’ve got three pretty compelling selling points.
“Vegan trends are really hitting the mainstream now, and people are actively choosing these products because they think that they’re better for their health, they’re cognizant of the environmental benefits, or they want to help alleviate animal suffering,” says Veganuary’s CEO Simon Winch.
In addition to offering the animal-free pledge, the campaign also accepts donations, which it spends on more awareness efforts. Some of those come from different faux-meat companies; more than a dozen support the charity in different ways, including helping to raise awareness, with an obvious interest in seeing the trend take off.
Last year, Veganuary operated on a budget of about $750,000. Using some back-of-the-envelope math, Winch calculates (based on traditional eating habits) how much meat isn’t being consumed per convert. He estimates that the 2018 pledge takers alone saved about 2.1 million animals from slaughter. For Veganuary, that works out to spending about 35¢ per life saved, although it may be even cheaper: The group estimates that about 10 times more people participate in Veganuary informally than formally each year. “In terms of effective advocacy and really helping to make this planet a more compassionate place, we’re doing something quite incredible on a shoestring,” he adds. | 1,268,555 |
STRASBOURG—Official Ankara on Thursday rejected a report by the European Parliament, which among other provisions called for Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide and sent a stern warning to Turkey over the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s “backsliding” on democracy and rule of law.
“We will consider the report null and void,” said Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozakir, whose rejection of the report by Turkey was reported by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The European Parliament approved a 2015 progress report for Turkey membership to the European Union. The report urges Turkey to “open the archives and come to terms with its past,” by recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
“There is no moment in our history that we feel ashamed of. All of our archives are open. We believe this is an issue that should be decided by historians. Politicians should not write history,” Bozakir was quoted as saying from Vienna.
Earlier Thursday, ahead of the European Parliament vote, Bozkır told Anadolu the Turkey would reject the report if it maintained the language on the Armenian Genocide.
Turkey’s failure to recognize the Armenian Genocide was not the only scathing aspect of the European Parliament report, which sternly warned the government of its “backsliding” on democracy and the rule of law.
The parliament “is deeply concerned” that Ankara is violating criteria needed to join the European Union “in the light of the backsliding on respect for democracy and rule of law inside Turkey,” said a resolution approved by members of the European Parliament), reported Agence France Presse.
Rapporteur for Turkey at the European Parliament, Kati Piri, said the regression in areas such as freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary was “particularly worrying,” adding that the overall pace of reforms has also slowed down.
“We also express our concern about the escalation of violence in the southeast,” Piri said, citing figures that nearly 400,000 civilians had to flee certain provinces where extensive operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are being conducted.
The European Parliament members also called on Turkey to end “intimidation of journalists” and condemned the “violent and illegal take-over of several newspapers,” including daily Zaman. A local court had appointed trustees to Zaman media group, which is considered to be linked to U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP accuse of heading a “terrorist organization” aiming to topple the government.
The report also called for an immediate ceasefire in the country’s southeast while calling upon the PKK to lay down its arms and “use peaceful and legal means to voice its expectations.” | 1,268,556 |
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan residents risk brief interruptions of natural gas service for heat amid bitterly cold weather if they don’t help reduce energy use because of a fire at a utility’s suburban Detroit facility that limited natural gas supplies, officials warned Thursday.
Consumers Energy’s CEO Patti Poppe made an appeal Wednesday night for customers to reduce their natural gas usage. She told The Detroit News early Thursday that “localized planned curtailments” for some homes and business if demand isn’t reduced.
Loud noise and fire reported at Consumers Energy facility in Macomb County. MORE: https://t.co/3iGZTGX7cj pic.twitter.com/dOKlFZC4mZ — FOX 2 Detroit (@FOX2News) January 30, 2019
An emergency alert was sent late Wednesday to cellphones asking people to lower thermostats to 65 degrees or below through Friday. And Consumers Energy asked its largest business customers, such as automakers, to reduce natural gas usage.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also appeared in a video online Wednesday night and said the request to lower thermostats was for those in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Temperatures in Michigan were at their lowest levels of the week, with readings around negative 12 degrees in the Detroit area and at bitterly cold levels statewide.
Consumers Energy: Use less gas after fire at station. https://t.co/52fw2ttKvR pic.twitter.com/ubSqvXR6bt — The Detroit News (@detroitnews) January 30, 2019
“You can play a role in helping people across the state survive these extreme temperatures,” she said. “Please do. We’re calling on every Michigander to do your part and help us weather this storm together.”
Jackson-based Consumers Energy said no one was injured in the fire Wednesday at its Ray Natural Gas Compressor Station in Macomb County. The cause of the fire was under investigation. The company said all gas flow from the station was shut off, and that it activated natural gas peaking storage fields to help meet demand for gas to heat homes and businesses.
The Michigan Public Service Commission said all state-owned facilities in the Lower Peninsula lowered their thermostats to reduce the burden on the natural gas supply.
DTE Energy, meanwhile, also asked Michigan customers to help “safeguard the reliability of the regional energy grid” amid the cold by voluntarily reducing electricity use. Suggested steps include lowering the thermostat by several degrees and minimizing the use of appliances such as washers, dryers and ovens.
“While DTE’s plants are running well, our system is connected to energy grids in other states and Canada that are experiencing issues due to the extreme weather,” Christy Wicke, executive director, Generation Optimization, said in a statement. | 1,268,557 |
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is likely to form an exploratory committee to run for president in 2012. ( Photo by Melina Mara/ The Washington Post)
"The size and enthusiasm of the crowds she has been attracting is very encouraging,” said Ed Brookover, a consultant to Bachmann. “The voters are telling her to keep pushing forward with her fight to stop this unparalleled growth of government.”
Bachmann is currently in Iowa, speaking to grassroots activists and state legislators. This morning she addressed the state Senate caucus and has secured the support of Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson.
“I'm not saying it's false," she said of the reports, adding: "It could be before then."
If Bachmann does form a committee, she would join former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, businessman Herman Cain and former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer in that exploratory phase.
Bachmann has made a national name for herself thanks in part to her outspoken — and unapologetic — conservatism. Of late, she’s also been logging serious time in early primary states. And, if former Alaska governor Sarah Palin stays out of the race, voters looking for a charismatic, aggressive conservative could well gravitate towards Bachmann.
Like Palin, Bachmann has not built up the infrastructure traditionally used to win over primary and caucus voters. Until now, she’s relied primarily on her own family as a campaign team.
"The only person she talks to as an insider is her husband, Marcus, who's a wonderful man, and her son Lucas," former Minnesota Republican Party Chair Ron Carey, who served as Bachmann's chief of staff last year, told the Star-Tribune. "That's really her brain trust."
Brookover is, however, a well known commodity in Republican political circles and there are some indications that Bachmann is building a campaign team that could help her navigate the difficult process of running for president. She also has a network of tea party activists across the country.
One thing that is not in question is Bachmann’s ability to raise money. She has proven herself to be one of the most dynamic fundraisers in the party and in the 2008 election alone, she collected a stunning $13.5 million for her reelection race in the suburban 6th district. One Bachmann adviser said the the money is indicative of the excitement Bachmann generates on the campaign trail; “It’s times five, times ten” of the other candidates in the field, the source insisted. “I think we will be able to raise all the money, if I should decide to go forward,” Bachmann said on Fox News Thursday.
It’s not yet clear whether Bachmann would abandon her House seat if she ran for president; if not, she could face a real race in a seat that clearly tilts toward Republicans but is by no means a lock for her in a presidential year. | 1,268,558 |
Aereo will now have to pay in such fees.
If Aereo had won, experts said it could have radically changed the way people watch their favorite programs.
Live sports and other popular shows available only on broadcast TV or cable television could have been accessed more conveniently and cheaply online. That could have led many consumers to cancel cable subscriptions that typically reach well over $100 a month — as 5 million households have done in recent years — in favor of alternatives such as a broadband Internet connection and subscriptions to Aereo and other video service providers such as Netflix and Hulu.
Aereo offers all of the programming that appears on CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, PBS and about two dozen other channels. Customers can see NCAA basketball tournament games live or the most recent episodes of shows such as “American Idol” or “Dancing With the Stars’’ only a few seconds after they air on the networks.
The networks contended that Aereo violates a part of the copyright law that requires network permission for the right to transmit “public performances” of their work. Because Aereo’s individual antennas are dedicated to individual subscribers, the firm argued that it is not transmitting the program to the public, but only allowing the individual to capture what is available free over the airwaves. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit sided with Aereo.
But Breyer said the lower court decision was wrong. Just because Aereo’s system is activated by the user and records only what that person tells it to does not mean that it can be distinguished from cable providers, he wrote.
“Why should any of these technological differences matter?” Breyer wrote. “They concern the behind-the-scenes way in which Aereo delivers television programming to its viewers’ screens. They do not render Aereo’s commercial objective any different from that of cable companies.”
Congress, he said, made clear that such companies must pay fees to broadcast such material following a Supreme Court decision that went the other way.
In dissent, Scalia belittled the majority’s “looks-like-cable-TV” test.
“The key point is that subscribers call all the shots: Aereo’s automated system does not relay any program, copyrighted or not, until a subscriber selects the program and tells Aereo to relay it,” Scalia said.
He said he shared the majority’s apparent view that Aereo had found a “loophole” that allowed it to show the networks’ copyrighted material without having to pay for it.
“It is not the role of this court to identify and plug loopholes,” Scalia wrote. “It is the role of good lawyers to identify and exploit them, and the role of Congress to eliminate them if it wishes.”
The case is American Broadcasting Co. v. Aereo. | 1,268,559 |
”
No lazy hazy crazy days of summer in London either. As one analyst put it, “Unseasonably cold, barely any sunshine and wetter than an otter's pocket.” Apologies if any animal rights activists are triggered by the otter reference.
Is it El Nino? Or El Nina? Is it the jet stream or a polar vortex? Is it Trump supporters exhibiting toxic masculinity around the backyard barbeque grill? Or rich free market capitalists driving their gas guzzling SUVs? Theories abound, with the science settled… at least until it isn’t.
After a decade of fear mongering over global warning, it was noted that the planet wasn’t warming as predicted, necessitating a new term of climate change to cover all bases, from warming to cooling.
How else could Forbes run a headline saying, “This is why global warming is responsible for freezing temperatures across the US”? While CNN at the same time proclaims, “Future summers will'smash' temperature records every year.”
Which is it? Are we warming or cooling? Are we smashing records for high temperatures or low temperatures? The convenience of a term like “climate change” is that it’s a catch-all, an excuse for all manner of weather and temperatures.
Although we have long passed previously predicted doomsdays with no explanation or apology from those making the erroneous predictions, we now have new predictions, from AOC, Bill Nye, and others, telling us again that we have anywhere from 10 to 40 years before the planet burns to a crisp.
Where is the real climate science? Sunspot activity and heating-cooling cycles, both long and short term. Ice ages, long or mini, and interglacial warming periods. There is also a new theory, plate climatology, which may explain climate changes based on geology. This is real science, making observations, forming a hypothesis, then testing it against future measurements, modifying the hypothesis as necessary.
Instead we have handwringing, blaming every weather aberration on pseudo-science, with the media and socialist politicians singing in harmony, predicting the end of days unless the government confiscates much of Americans’ wealth to be redistributed as the self-proclaimed smart set sees fit.
God has a sense of humor though. It always seems to snow or be freezing cold whenever Al Gore makes a speech on global warming. And now we have a wintery summer just as the Democrat presidential wannabes screech about global warming.
The next time you hear Crazy Bernie, Sleepy Joe, or Pocahontas whine about global warming, check the thermometer to see whether the lazy hazy crazy days of summer are here or if it’s still a winter wonderland.
Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. | 1,268,560 |
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- An update on the John Moebs Missing Facebook page indicates police have confirmed the body pulled from Lake Michigan on Tuesday morning, May 20th is John Moebs, who was reported missing more than two weeks ago.
According to authorities, a person walking along the lakefront saw the body floating near the shoreline early Tuesday and called officials. Upon arrival, authorities recovered a man's body from the lake.
John Moebs
"I wish we had found him alive, but at least now we know and now we can start finding out exactly what happened to lead him there," Moebs' brother, Scott Moebs said.
"We now have one more piece of the puzzle -- a small bit of closure. We still have a lot of unanswered questions but we want to leave that to the police who have been very helpful," Moebs' sister, Rebecca Moebs said.
33-year-old Moebs was last heard from around 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning, May 3rd when he sent a text message to his girlfriend saying he was on his way home and that he thought his nose might be broken.
“That was his last text message. Now whether he received that in a fight or if he fell down and hurt himself, we’re not completely clear on that,” said Capt. Richard Durica of the West Milwaukee Police Department.
John and his girlfriend started the night together before taking a cab down to Water St. around 12:30 a.m.
“The taxi driver said that he was quite intoxicated. He was too drunk to pull out his own money and his girlfriend had to do it for him,” said Scott Moebs, John's brother.
Somehow, the two got separated and they agreed to meet back up at home.
John had texted her saying he was nearly there at about 3:30 a.m. -- and that was the last anyone heard from him.
Now, the Milwaukee Police Department says it is working with the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office to determine the cause of death.
After weeks of clinging to hope, his family now has to face the reality of a life without him.
"I`m not exactly sure -- how are we going to get through this?" Rebecca Moebs said.
"Just keep carrying on. That`s what my brother would want," Scott Moebs said.
When they're ready, they plan to say goodbye with a celebration.
"He goes into the next life -- not the way he went out of this one," Rebecca Moebs said.
"Give him the send off that he deserves," Scott Moebs said.
If you have any information that could help authorities in this case, you’re urged to call West Milwaukee police at 414-645-2151. | 1,268,561 |
For over 40 years the Star Wars franchise has captivated audiences with its dazzling special effects, dashing heroes, vile villains, and amazing storytelling. For the first time ever, a live action Star Wars series will hit the small screen in the upcoming Disney+ series The Mandalorian. The series has assembled an amazing cast including Narco’s Pedro Pascal as the title character, former MMA superstar Gina Carano, and of course Carl Weathers, best known for playing Apollo Creed in the beloved Rocky film series. Now he enters a galaxy far, far away as Greef Carga, leader of a mysterious bounty hunting organization.
FakingStarWars was able to catch up with Mr. Weathers during a break in production on the set of The Mandalorian.
On his lifelong love of Star Wars:
“I remember seeing the first movie at a second run theatre during a bargain matinee. I was completely blown away by the experience. I typically sneak in food from the outside, but this theatre included a free drink and small popcorn. Ever since then I’ve seen all the Star Wars movies at discount theaters that offer free snacks. Occasionally I’ll see a movie at a higher end theater if I get gift cards for Christmas or my birthday.”
On the challenges of taking on the role of Greef Carga:
“The Star Wars series is known for filming in exotic locations. Initially I thought I’d be filming in Tunisia or Norway. I didn’t want to use my frequent flier miles to travel; I almost have a million free miles. Once I found out we were filming in Los Angeles, and only a few miles from my house, I dove in head first.”
Can you relate to Carga?
“Absolutely! He’s the head of a successful bounty hunting guild. And I’ve run several successful ventures my entire life. And I know the struggle of trying to minimize costs. Carga successfully gets everyone to pay for everything so his pocketbook is always fat.”
Prior to returning to filming Mr. Weathers invited FakingStarWars to his private premier party for The Mandalorian. His friend signed up for Disney+ and Weathers was fortunate enough to gain access to his password. He told is to bring our own beer, lawn chairs, and snacks! Be sure to check back in to FakingStarWars after November 12th for our weekly reviews of The Mandalorian.
As always, stay tuned to FakingStarWars.net for all the finest Star Wars comedy, parody, and satire in the galaxy. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Google Play for even more unbelievable news from a galaxy far, far away. Also, consider supporting us on Patreon… for as little as a buck a month, you can help us fake harder, better, faster, stronger.
— Darth Morbum | 1,268,562 |
In a report on congressional debates over the Keystone XL pipeline, the Washington Post‘s Paul Kane (5/4/14) opines that “the pipeline’s political mythology runs up against the reality of its significance in the energy universe.” Both sides, its seems, are exaggerating the importance of the project:
At its core, the debate is about producing energy, and jobs, versus environmental protections. Yet Keystone’s actual impact is far less significant in those areas and instead has become much more politically symbolic for the sides engaged in this fight. Even the rosiest estimates predict just 9,000 jobs would be created by allowing this nearly 1,200-mile pipeline to be constructed from western Canada down to Nebraska — a nice bump but not exactly a game-changer for a domestic economy that created 288,000 jobs in April. Environmental opponents decry that the ensuing 830,000 barrels of oil coursing through the proposed pipeline each day would be carrying a dirty batch of tar sands oil — an alarming figure, yet the first three phases of Keystone pipelines have already been approved and have the capacity to deliver 1.3 million barrels a day through a longer route to the Gulf Coast.
If only politicians on both sides could be sensible like Washington Post reporters!
This convenient debunking of hotheads on each extreme breaks down, however, if you examine the math. Nine thousand jobs is indeed a small percentage of a single’s month’s job growth–about 3 percent, as a matter of fact. Whereas Keystone XL will increase the Keystone pipeline capacity by a considerable amount–about 64 percent per day. (That’s why they call it “XL.”)
Looked at another way, 830,000 barrels is about 4 percent of the US’s daily consumption of oil. If Keystone XL were increasing the total number of jobs in the US by 4 percent–that is, adding some 5 million new jobs–that would indeed be something to write home about.
But the really significant number is not the capacity of the pipeline but the amount of carbon in the Canadian tar sands deposits that the pipeline is intended to drain: 240 gigatons, enough to add 120 parts per million of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere if burned, as much again as the Industrial Revolution has managed to add over the past 150 years. If exploitation of the tar sands is not stopped, it will indeed, as climatologist James Hansen (New York Times, 5/9/12) wrote, be “game over for the climate.”
So, actually, comparing environmentalists’ concern about the impact of the Keystone XL pipeline to Republicans’ worry about 9,000 jobs is not as clever as Paul Kane thinks.
He deserves credit, though, for writing yet another article about Keystone that manages to avoid mentioning either “climate change” or “global warming.”
UPDATE: Date for Paul Kane’s Washington Post piece corrected. | 1,268,563 |
The bright orange dinghy was spotted on the beach at Walmer, near Deal, Kent, today
Three suspected illegal immigrants were detained this morning after they are thought to have crossed the English Channel from France in a bright orange rubber dinghy.
Police were called to the road on the remote seafront at Walmer, near Deal in Kent, at 9.15am after the three men were spotted by passers-by.
Officers detained the men as they walked along the road and handed them over to immigration officers.
John Varnham, 54, from Deal was out walking his dog when he came across the boat.
He said: 'I saw the three men being arrested by the police as I walked my dog down to the beach.
'It was only when I got to the beach that I saw the dinghy and realised what had happened.
'Their dinghy was on the beach nearby in Walmer with life jackets and lifebelts thrown across the beach.
'We saw along the beach at Walmer a bright orange dinghy washed up on the shore, and alongside it there were lifebelts.
'The dinghy would have been cramped for three people and had an outboard motor - it was about six to eight feet long.
'There was a torch, a drinks bottle and a petrol can.'
Their dinghy was found on the sandy beach close to 16th century-built Walmer Castle.
The building was the official residence of Sir Winston Churchill and later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in their official roles as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
One theory is that the men transferred from a boat off the shore into the dinghy before beaching at Walmer rather than navigating the channel - crossing the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
A Kent Police spokesman said: 'Officers were called to Kingsdown Road, Deal at 9.15am on Saturday September 24 following reports of suspected migrants.
'Three men were detained and have been handed over the Home Office Immigration Enforcement.'
Officers detained the men as they walked along the road and handed them over to immigration officers
Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke said: 'Yet again people traffickers have been able to land migrants on our shores by small craft.
'We must act now to catch and jail these criminals - and end their evil trade of modern slavery.
'This is why I have been calling for a new Dover Patrol led by the Royal Marines to protect our borders.'
A Home Office spokesman said: 'On Saturday September 24, officials from Immigration Enforcement were contacted by Kent police after three men were found in Deal, Kent.
'The individuals were arrested on suspicion of entering the UK illegally and are currently being interviewed by immigration officials.
'Where someone is found to have no right to remain in the UK, we will take action to remove them.
'It would not be appropriate to comment further while investigations are ongoing.' | 1,268,564 |
india
Updated: Sep 04, 2019 17:09 IST
Trinamool Congress leader Satabdi Roy, who is facing a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Saradha ponzi scam, has returned the money she got from the tainted group as its brand ambassador.
The 49-year-old Satabdi Roy had written to ED in July offering to return the money.
“I have sent a draft of Rs 30.64 lakh to the ED,” the three-time Lok Sabha member from Birbhum said on Wednesday.
An official of the ED confirmed that the draft has reached them, but refused further comment.
Roy, also a popular Bengali film actor, has become the second leader from the ruling TMC to return the money earned from Saradha. In mid-June 2015, former TMC Rajya Sabha MP and Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty returned Rs 1.16 crore he had received from the same group to ED.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal unit vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said it wasn’t enough.
“She got the money around 2011-13. She returned it now. But in the interim lakhs lost billions and many were driven to suicide. Who will give the victims back their lives? Merely returning the money is not enough. She must be ready to face whatever punishment the law will give her,” Majumdar said.
The Saradha ponzi scheme is the most high-profile ponzi scam in the state, for which a serving minister Madan Mitra and a Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh were imprisoned for more than two years. Several MPs, MLAs of West Bengal’s ruling party have already been interrogated by both CBI and ED for their alleged involvement in the scam that involved an estimated Rs 2,460 crore.
The Saradha scam shock waves went far beyond West Bengal when in April 2013, the group’s chairperson Sudipta Sen and its executive director Debjani Mukherjee were arrested from Jammu and Kashmir after a chase for a few days across north India.
The group operated through a network of more than 100 companies and several thousand agents arranged in a pyramidal structure. The agents were encouraged by commissions that ranged from 25-40%.
The group companies offered collective incentive schemes and investors never knew about where their money was invested. They were simply promised high returns on their money after a fixed period.
About 1.7-1.8 million depositors – mostly from the poor and lower-middle-class – lost their money. The victims were from West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
The Supreme Court asked CBI in May 2014 to investigate Saradha and other ponzi scams. | 1,268,565 |
Search --Artist-- A-C D-F G-I J-L M-O P-R S-U V-Z -- Year-- 1950-1959 1960-1969 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2004 2005-2009 2010-2014 2015-2019 2020-2024
Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada EP
Constellation - 1999
Michael Panontin
After the virtual subatomic explosion in indieland of their debut f#a#oo, Godspeed You Black Emperor!'s star was definitely in the ascendant, and their version of the post-rock narrative - rueful, repetitive guitar/string textures that patiently unfold into ominous guitar rock-outs - continued unabated on this excellent extended play. Recorded in Toronto (with "mastering botched by Masterworks, repaired by Constellation and Godspeed after all-night drive thru frozen blizzard"), Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada is a supremely subversive disc of shimmering beauty.
Two tracks spanning a side each on the vinyl version at 10 and 17 minutes respectively are all that is needed to confirm GYBE!'s depressing and apocalyptic world view. But the serene and subtle musical phrasing belies the record's caustic, revolutionary subtext. Rife with biblical references (the cover sports text in ancient Hebrew, "tohu va vohu", or "without form and void"), Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada is a sonic lament to our grim planetary fate. The inside cover paints an equally bleak canvas of sorts, again biblical, with "I beheld the earth, and lo, it was waste and void / And all the cities thereof were broken down" (Jeremiah 4:27). And lest one recoil in resignation, there are do-it-yourself instructions, in Italian no less, on concocting your own Molotov cocktail.
The opener 'Moya' is stock Godspeed minimalism, cloaking wistful, brooding strings with guitar and glockenspiel before soaring into sheets of stunning and limitless beauty. This coolly segues (on the CD at least - the vinyl requires a bit more effort) into 'BBF3 (Blaise Baily Finnegan III)', which juxtaposes the typically placid strings with another of their trademark taped segments, this time a found-sound screed highlighting a classic archetype, the powerlessness of the working man and the seemingly omnipotent state - man versus The Man, as it were. Again the formula is the same. The ambient strings yield to textured, riveting, almost anthemic space guitar before closing with some ethereal violin and cello, recalling the holy minimalism of Arvo Part's 'Tabula Rasa'.
Uncompromising and unparalled - this is an awesome disc!
Link: Godspeed You Black Emperor!
| 1,268,566 |
28th August 2018, Singapore — With few days away from the start of public presale, Õpet Foundation has attained strategic mutual investments totaling USD400,000. This amount is contributed equally by CareonChain and Bravocoin™.
The strategic and mutually beneficial alliance is forged in the face of the current market conditions, with a common vision to support disruptive and solid blockchain projects in facilitating liquidity of the tokens, and knowledge and resource sharing.
Bravocoin™ is a blockchain specialising in managing cost-effective cryptocurrency-facilitated transactions for the global Sports and Entertainment industry. Partnership with Bravocoin™ represents a strategic one as education is closely related to the sports and entertainment industry, especially in the current age. For instance, when an Õpet student achieves a certain milestone, he can be rewarded with entrance tickets to various sporting events of their choice.
CareonChain is a blockchain with a course of bringing positive social impact through its focus on the development of disruptive hybrid technology in the automotive sector. This initiative is in line with Õpet’s goal to bring about social impact and enable philanthropic activities.
These investments are made upon due diligence by the parties and are subject to lock-ups, which are somewhat in line with the listing timeline and development needs. The partnerships follow after a stream of achievements by the fast-progressing Õpet, which has already surpassed its soft cap in its private sale alone — on top of securing listings on two well-known exchanges, LATOKEN and GBX.
About Õpet
Õpet is a Singapore-based company focusing on the development of a blockchain-AI-powered companion chatbot capable of learning high school curriculum and providing revision assistance. It offers a digital companion tuition service that not only assists in students’ revision efforts, but also recommends users suitable courses and institutions via user data stored on its unique blockchain solution, thereby facilitating seamless tertiary/college application and admission validation. Õpet also empowers accountable education-related philanthropy.
Official Website: https://opetfoundation.com/
About Bravocoin™
Bravocoin™ is blockchain specialising in managing cost-effective cryptocurrency-facilitated transactions for the global Sports and Entertainment industry. The blockchain-based Bravocoin tokens can be used commercially for purchasing tickets, products, and services at cost-effective rates, driven by the aim of invoking a new, cohesive ecosystem comprising all event producers, sports personalities, entertainers, sports and entertainment management groups, and hospitality activities.
Official Website: http://www.bravocoin.io/
About CareonChain
Careonchain aims to bring positive social impact with curbing of pollution and carbon emission, by giving a boost in the development in the technology of hybrid automobile. It is a blockchain-based token that will allow investors to trade on the network for the future development in hybrid automobile technology.
Official Website: https://www.careonchain.io/ | 1,268,567 |
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The design of technology and technological systems has deep consequences for our use of products and services.
Alison Powell, Assistant Professor at LSE, researches our understanding and building of technology, from a social perspective, and how technological systems in turn change the way we work and live together. Powell spoke at our inaugural Fixfest in 2017 alongside Kyle Wiens of iFixit, and we’d been meaning to invite her onto our podcast since.
In this episode, we discuss links between design, innovation and our right to repair.
A question of rights, plural
As Powell suggests, we can think of the right to repair as a right to have autonomy. The right to know how our devices work and the autonomy to make decisions like modifying them or fixing them if they break. Her earlier work on open hardware informs her perspectives on autonomy and its possibilities.
We talk about repairability as a great example of information asymmetry – as manufacturers have control over repair manuals and spare parts, they restrict the capacity of people to understand and fix their products.
A right to audit, and to revert
One way of gaining more control over our products could be to track changes in the way our stuff works. This is what Powell calls “auditability”. What happens if a product or service changes so much that you no longer want it? Shouldn’t you have the right to say ‘I don’t want this anymore’?
As an example, we talk about software in Android smartphones, where there is no way, unless you are very technically confident and skilled, to go back to the old version after accepting an update. Powell suggests that a ‘right to revert’ could also be part of our set of rights to repair.
Discussing security
Part of Powell’s work is focused on the design of Internet-connected devices, through the Virt-EU project. From her conversations with developers, she highlights the tension in balancing openness and security when designing consumer technology.
Closed systems can be more efficient and more resistant to security threats, however, they can enhance the information asymmetries that limit our right(s) to repair. As an example, we talk about Apple’s controversial T2 chip, which could contain a ‘kill switch‘, disabling devices repaired by third parties.
Without discounting the challenges of security in our increasingly networked world, Powell maintains that security features cannot be an excuse to hold excessive control over the devices we use. She pushes us not only to demand autonomy to decide how we might tinker with or repair our products, but to seek out gaps in the market and opportunities that this autonomy can create.
Links: | 1,268,568 |
Extremely detailed knock-off Apple retail stores, complete with blue t-shirt-wearing employees claiming to work for the company, have been discovered in China.
According to the blog BirdAbroad (via ifoAppleStore), several counterfeit Apple stores have popped up in Kunming, China. One such location featured a winding staircase and employees in t-shirts with Apple logos and name tags.
"The name tags around the necks of the friendly salespeople didnât actually have names on them â just an Apple logo and the anonymous designation âStaff,â" the report read.
The author called the store "the best ripoff store" she had ever seen, though there were several giveaways, such as the poor quality of the staircase and a sub-par paint job. Also, the stores do not appear to have upgraded to Apple's Retail 2.0 layout that uses iPads as "smart signs."
According to her, the employees at the store "all genuinely think they work for Apple." After store security guards and employees prohibited her from taking photos, the author hinted that she and her husband were "two American Apple employees visiting China and checking out the local stores" and were then allowed to photograph the store.
Several of the pop-up stores were located within blocks of each other in Kunming, including one "Apple Stoer" location.
Though Apple products are frequently counterfeited in China, it is rare that copyists will pay enough attention to detail to so closely copy the company's retail store and business model.
Update: The Wall Street Journal spoke to a salesman at the store, who admitted the store was unauthorized, though he claimed store sells genuine Apple products at the same prices as advertised on the company's website.
âIt doesnât make much of a difference for us whether weâre authorized or not,â he said over the phone. âI just care that what I sell every day are authentic Apple products, and that our customers donât come back to me to complain about the quality of the products.â
The staff member also boasted that the store "should be one of the best in terms of scale and the level of professionalism."
The Cupertino, Calif., iPhone maker revealed on Tuesday that sales in Greater China $3.8 billion in the June quarter, a whopping six-fold increase from a year ago. Apple's four official retail stores in mainland China are the company's highest traffic and highest grossing locations.
The company announced plans last February to open 25 retail stores in China over the next couple years in order to keep up with growing demand in the world's most populous nation. Hong Kong will receive its first Apple Store during the September quarter, while two locations in Chengdu are rumored to be in the works. | 1,268,569 |
Yelp, the popular customer review site, launched its own bug bounty program on September 6 and announced that white hackers and security researchers were free to walk around on its security systems and find any flaws and potential bugs that would put the service down. Yelp announced during the launch that they would be pleased to give $100 for the smallest bugs and $15,000 for those that would serve up critical flaws and problems.
The bug bounty program will be run in conjunction with the Silicon Valley based bounty program company, HackerOne. Yelp had been offering a private bounty program, but their announcement shows the program now being expanded to the public. The company said that during the two years they were offering the private bounty program, they managed to quash 100 bugs that had been reported. They were working with academic researchers and bug hunters across the globe during the period.
Martin Georgiev said in a statement to announce the news that in the current tech climate, there was no such thing as perfect technology, and it has been like so since they finished the wheel. However at Yelp they strive to achieve that security. The world is a big place, and the company wants to work with skilled security researchers because they believe it would help them identify all the weaknesses in their system, he said. The Yelp bug program is expected to cover Yelp’s systems and services in various ways. The program will cover the website’s consumer site, it business owner’s site, reservations site, corporate blogs, support centre, mobile apps, and API.
The company does have newly acquired firms and third party applications, but it is believed they will not be covered by the program. The company has 73 million subscribers on its desktop site and a lower 69 million unique visitors on the mobile platform. Therefore some areas which they fear will be particularly impacted would be the consumer site and the mobile apps.
Georgiev said that the company was interested in finding out if there would be any attacker that would be able to map user entries to their email addresses. Other problems might include a hacker being able to influence other’s reviews on the site, order free food from the site, or in other instances gain payment details for other users. Bug bounty hunters are also being encouraged to go through the mobile apps to also help with searches for mobile apps related specific flaws.
Despite having said researchers could scour for flaws and bugs in their programs, Yelp however notes that the company wants researchers not to use automated vulnerabilities scanners because they would prefer people use their brain knowledge rather than their processing power. They also asked the researchers to try and be nice and not to break over anything intentionally and unintentionally. The company urged the researchers to bring their strongest game but they should however know the boundaries to their systems.
Yelp joins a long list of tech companies that have been employing the bug bounty method to combat security bugs and flaws. Several other tech behemoths such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter all use the program. The Defense Department also recently signed up for the program this year. | 1,268,570 |
come to expect. NC State shot 51 percent, with UM offering little deterrence.
UM (16-4, 5-3) reaches the midpoint of the ACC schedule when it hosts Notre Dame on Wednesday.
### CBS lead analyst Phil Simms, on a Super Bowl call Thursday, told me that when Dolphins coach Adam Gase was Denver’s offensive coordinator, “you walk by a meeting room in the hotel when he’s on the road, and he’s the only guy in there still working. No other coaches, just him doing work. Tireless worker. He’s the right man for the job.
“We’ve seen what he did with Peyton Manning, how they changed the offense to make it really good for him. He was there with Tim Tebow. What he did this past year in Chicago just another reason why he got a head coach and why I’m sure Ryan Tannehill is pretty excited to have him as the head coach and [play-caller].”
### Because Gase really likes what he has seen in Tannehill, and Mike Tannenbaum is convinced Miami can win with him, the Dolphins do not feel compelled to draft legitimate competition.
### Former UM assistant coach Clint Hurtt's chances for a homecoming were dashed when the Bears denied Gase’s request to interview (and hire) him. Hurtt, who very likely would have been Miami’s defensive line coach, will be an option for Gase when his contract as Bears’ outside linebacker coach expires next offseason --- if the Dolphins’ defensive line struggles under Terrell Williams….
Whereas Hurtt is in the NFL, the two other ex-UM assistants who got NCAA show-cause penalties from the Nevin Shapiro scandal are head coaches at the high-school level: football coach Aubrey Hill at Carol City, basketball coach Jorge Fernandez at Doral. Basketball coach Jake Morton, who received a notice of allegations but no penalties, is an assistant at Coppin State.
### Incidentally, Dan Campbell could have stayed on Miami’s staff if he had wanted (he chose New Orleans), while the Dolphins declined to allow multiple teams to hire special teams coach Darren Rizzi.
### Marlins executive Michael Hill said new hitting coach Barry Bonds is already immersed in the job, studying tape of Marlins hitters. Word is, he’s excited about working with Marcell Ozuna, among others.
### Among familiar names invited to Marlins spring training: former big-league infielder Robert Andino, the Miami Southridge High product who spent the first four seasons of his career with the Marlins (2005-2008). Andino -- who has hit.232 with 18 homers and 96 RBI in 468 career games --- hasn't played in the majors since a stint with Seattle in 2013. Andino, 31, spent last season with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League.
Twitter: @flasportsbuzz | 1,268,571 |
A key government witness at the U.S. trial of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman spelled out the bloodshed and other cold realities of international drug-trafficking Tuesday without expressing regret or making excuses.
Former Colombian kingpin Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia was asked on cross-examination by a lawyer for Guzman whether he ordered scores of murders, whether he kept a ledger that showed how much hit men were paid, and whether he repeatedly lied to and bribed Colombian authorities with tens of millions of dollars to stay in business.
Among the matter-of-fact answers he gave through a Spanish interpreter: "Totally correct." ''Obviously." ''At the time, of course I lied." ''That's how it was, sir."
The testimony by Ramirez Abadia, known for radically altering his face through plastic surgery, came during the third week of the trial in federal court in Brooklyn. Guzman's lawyers say the witness is part of a crew of low-life cooperators who are framing their client to get breaks in their own drug-trafficking cases.
Ramirez Abadia testified how his Norte del Valle cartel used a fleet of planes and boats to ship tons of cocaine to Mexico, where the Sinaloa cartel was tasked with smuggling it into the United States under the direction of Guzman and others. Prosecutors say the massive amounts of drugs and cash flowing back and forth across the U.S. border in the 1990s and early 2000s were documented in ledgers that looked like mundane business records.
Seeking to drive home the human toll of the violent drug trade, defense attorney William Purpura got Ramirez Adadia to confirm the ledgers also showed the expenses for murders for hire — $45,000 to have three people killed and $338,776 in another instance because, he said, so many hit men were involved.
The dead included a top lieutenant rubbed out in prison after his arrest merely because, Ramirez Adadia suggested, "he knew a lot about my organization." Another time, the witness said he lured a mutinous cartel member to a meeting where the victim and his entourage were slaughtered in a gangland-style ambush, their bodies then loaded in pickup trucks for disposal.
He also acknowledged lower-level operatives in the New York City area were knocked off under suspicion of stealing or snitching, including a woman in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Her husband and son also perished in the process, according to the defense.
Once he learned he had been indicted in the U.S., Ramirez Adadia fled to Brazil, where he made his face look like a theatrical mask with implants and injections. He also used disguises for photos on fake identification cards with various aliases in a bid to hide his identity, which ultimately failed.
On Tuesday, he was asked about the meaning of "Chupeta," the nickname cited in the U.S. indictment filed against him.
"Un dulce," he said. "Candy." | 1,268,572 |
all.
Suggestions for psychologists, law practitioners, and members of the public
Given the mixed quality of the assessment tools used in court and the low level of challenges these face, the authors suggest that psychological scientists should create stronger measures and encourage experts to use tools that are valid and suitable for the task at hand. Specifically, Neal and colleagues point out that practitioners should be aware that a tool might be valid only for specific purposes (i.e., context-relevant validity). The authors also suggest that attorneys and judges have access to low-cost or free online resources that might help them get basic information about the different tools—for example, the MMY provides information about purpose, appropriate population, score ranges, and quality for more than 3,500 tests. Law practitioners would thus be in a better place to evaluate the foundations of an expert’s testimony and whether the information given by the tool is relevant to the case. Similarly, members of the public interacting with psychologists in the legal system (e.g., litigants) could also procure information about psychological tools so that they can discuss them with their attorneys during the legal process. Overall, Neal and colleagues hope that their findings encourage psychological scientists, psychologists serving as experts in legal contexts, attorneys and judges, and members of the public to improve their own and others’ knowledge about psychological assessment and to question these tools more often. This way, psychological experts involved in legal cases might produce the highest quality of practice, Neal and colleagues suggest.
Criteria for admissibility of scientific evidence in court—Daubert
In an accompanying commentary, David DeMatteo, Sarah Fishel, and Aislinn Tansey examine in detail the criteria for admissibility of expert testimony and, in light of Neal et al.’s article, how these criteria are faring in keeping “junk science” out of the courts. In 1993, in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Supreme Court of the United States articulated four criteria for admissibility of evidence: (a) derived from methodology that has or can be tested empirically, (b) subjected to peer review and publication, (c) known potential rate of error, and (d) achieved general acceptance in its relevant scientific community. Daubert has been extended to all forms of expert evidence and is the admissibility standard in all federal courts. However, as Neal et al. showed, judges and attorneys seem to struggle to apply Daubert because they lack the knowledge and training to fully understand the tools used by forensic scientists. As a result, inaccurate data might be regularly admitted into court proceedings, with dire outcomes. In line with Neal et al.’s suggestions, DeMatteo and colleagues propose that judges and attorneys become more informed about scientific matters (e.g., law schools could offer a Basic Science course) and that psychologists receive better forensic training and select appropriate assessment tools.
About the Authors (PDF, HTML)
See related news release. | 1,268,573 |
An undercover video released by Project Veritas shows Democrat Kyrsten Sinema’s campaign manager listing all the gun controls Sinema supports.
The campaign manager, Michelle Davidson, made clear that Kyrsten Sinema’s approach is to avoid talking about her gun control positions until the election is over.
Davidson said:
We can’t be talking about an assault weapon ban. We can’t, right? … The conversation that she can lead is how do we get to a place where we can, background checks, right? Can we fix that system? … We’ve got to fix the gun show loophole, we have to fix the background check system. We’ve got to make it harder for people who have been convicted of domestic violence and other violent crimes to get guns — I mean those are the conversations we can have.
NEW: Our undercover investigation exposing Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona is a familiar story, a democrat trying to sound like a moderate in a red state. (FULL VIDEO: https://t.co/zzxQvPU8EM ) pic.twitter.com/LSUA4VRJTJ — PVeritas Action (@PVeritas_Action) October 30, 2018
On October 18, Breitbart News reported that we had contacted Sinema’s offices many times, only to have her staff refuse to speak about her position on gun control. We were told to email her communications director, Nick Zeller, which we did numerous times to no avail.
In the emails, we asked Zeller if Sinema still wants to require a license for all gun owners — On The Issues reports that she expressed support for “gun licenses” in 2006 — and we also asked if she supported an “assault weapons” ban. Zeller did not respond.
We also asked if she still wanted to expand background checks, as she was one of 194 Democrats who cosponsored background check gun control in 2017. Zeller did not answer that question either. But Davidson, Sinema’s campaign manager, unwittingly answered the question in a Project Veritas undercover video.
Davidson indicates Kyrsten Sinema will not only lead the conversation on background checks but on new regulations for gun shows and new prohibitions for gun possession.
On October 25, 2018, Breitbart News reported that the Arizona State Troopers Association withdrew their support of pro-gun control Sinema.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at [email protected]. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. | 1,268,574 |
‘The Hooligan’ Paddy Holohan’s first entry in Irish politics looks to have been a successful one after initial reports from Friday’s local election in Ireland.
Holohan was on the ballot for Sinn Fein, who hails from Jobstown in Dublin, looks to have finished in first place in the Tallaght South ward after initial tallies suggest that the former UFC fighter has received enough support to be named a victor in the first count. Official results are due on Sunday.
“Yeah I’m delighted, I’m delighted my housing estate got out to vote and its important that they get out to support of Sinn Féin’s work in the area,” Holohan said to the Irish Examiner on Friday. “Listen, I’m coming in as a new candidate but there are citizens of Jobstown, you know, you need to vote.”
UFC fighter and would-be Sinn Fein councillor Paddy Holohan is doing well in Tallaght South, and looks like he will be elected to the council:#le19 pic.twitter.com/ITSaQToaLT — Fiachra Ó Cionnaith (@Ocionnaith) May 25, 2019
#le19 #dsw
Tallaght South (5) (TALLY COMPLETE):
Holohan (SF) – 901 (15%)
Pereppadan (FG) – 743 (13%)
Richardson (SF) – 725 (12%)
Fay (SPBP) – 662 (11%)
Dunne (SF) – 652 (11%)
Corr (SD) – 515 (9%)
Leech (SPBP) – 460 (8%)
Hendrick (SPBP) – 433 (7%)
Nolan (FF) – 341 (6%) — David W. Higgins (@higginsdavidw) May 25, 2019
Best of luck paddy holohan you got my vote today — Mick Murphy (@micktmurphy) May 24, 2019
“It might have helped because everyone else in there was sh**ting themselves, but when you’ve competed and fought and that sort of thing, your brain is in a different realm when it comes to dealing with pressure and this.”
Estimates state that Holohan is the front-runner in the count, with Fine Gael’s Baby Pereppadan in second spot. Fine Gael are one of the two most historically dominant parties in Irish politics, currently holding power in the Dail.
Asked if a run to the Irish parliament is next for the Dubliner, he said: “I’ll see how it goes, yeah, I don’t know if I’m gonna be that corrupt … Only messing!”
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comments | 1,268,575 |
Neil Ferguson says he was probably infectious when he attended No 10 press conference
One of the government’s top coronavirus experts has had to self-isolate after developing coronavirus symptoms and revealed he was probably infectious when he attended a Downing Street press conference on Tuesday.
Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, tweeted that he has a persistent cough and high fever, and had been forced to self-isolate in his central London flat for seven days.
Ferguson, head of the modelling programme at Imperial’s MRC centre for global infectious disease analysis, who has been working round the clock with a team of experts advising the government, tweeted: “Sigh. Developed a slight dry but persistent cough yesterday and self-isolated even though I felt fine. Then developed high fever at 4am today. There is a lot of Covid-19 in Westminster.”
Ferguson has been advising UK officials for two months and was one of the co-authors of a scientific paper published this week which led to the government drastically changing its strategy in the face of the global pandemic.
In the paper it was predicted that 260,000 people could have died if officials had not announced social distancing measures.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday morning, he said he had developed a “slight cough” while being interviewed by the same station the previous day.
He said: “So I got a slight cough, actually while I was being interviewed by you [BBC Radio 4] yesterday.
“In the abundance of caution, I self-isolated then so I’m stuck in my flat on my own for seven days in central London. Then at four o’clock in the morning I got a high fever, which is somewhat better now but I still feel fairly grotty.
“I’ve been in so many meetings in the last few weeks, and a number of my colleagues from other universities who have been advising the government in those meetings have also developed symptoms.”
During the interview Ferguson, who has been in contact with the prime minister and his chief advisers, said he was not surprised that he had potentially contracted coronavirus, saying London was the current UK hotspot for the virus.
“I have to say central London is the hotspot in the UK at the moment. There almost certainly are thousands of cases in central London, so it’s not that surprising. I’ve been in lots of meetings and contacting lots of people,” he added.
Ferguson, went on to say that there was a potential risk that he had been infectious during a press conference in Downing Street on Tuesday.
He said: “We think there’s infectiousness for about a day before symptoms, and I was actually at a Downing Street press conference that day. I mean there is a slight risk I may have infected someone but that probably is quite slight.” | 1,268,576 |
SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's alcohol policy makers are watching a vote on beer in Oklahoma, and preparing for the potential impact it will have.
Question 792 on Oklahoma's ballot would allow grocery stores and convenience stores to sell high-percentage alcohol beer as well as wine. It could also be the death of 3.2 beer in Oklahoma and the rest of the nation.
"If something happens and brewers decide to move away from the market, we need to make sure we're able to deal with the fallout from it," Sal Petilos, the executive director of Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Currently under Utah liquor laws, 3.2 beer is allowed to be sold in grocery stores and convenience stores. Higher percentage malt beverages are sold in state-run liquor stores.
Oklahoma is the nation's largest consumer of 3.2 beer. The Utah Beer Wholesaler's Association cited figures it seeks that show Oklahomans consume 56 percent of the 3.2 beer produced and shipped. Utah comes in second at 29 percent, with Kansas, Colorado and Minnesota rounding it out. (Colorado is doing away with 3.2 beer in 2019.)
However, 3.2 beer only accounts for 1.8 percent of all beer produced nationwide, said Jim Olsen, the president of the Utah Beer Wholesaler's Association. If Oklahoma voters do away with it -- as polls suggest they will -- major brewers may not want to make a special batch just for Utah, which is not a heavy drinking state.
"Why would they do it? I think they won't," said Senate Minority Whip Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City. "If they do, it's their choice but if not, then legislatively and policy-wise, we've got to make some decisions. We've got to be grown up about our liquor industry."
Sen. Mayne has been approached about revising the definition of beer under Utah liquor laws in response to Oklahoma's beer vote. She said she believes some kind of a policy change is necessary, which could include moving high-point beers to grocery stores and convenience stores.
Olsen said if brewers drop 3.2 beer and Utah doesn't revise its definition, consumers could see a dramatic decrease in beer selection in convenience stores and grocery stores. Alternatively, state-run liquor stores could be forced to absorb an extra consumer base they're not prepared for (heavy beer accounts for only 20 percent of sales, according to the DABC).
"Our position would be they need to look at the definition and address it, so consumers can obtain the products they are wanting and desiring and it's not a major disruption to the private sector and the state," he told FOX 13.
Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, who has been tasked by the Republican majority with overseeing liquor laws, told FOX 13 the earliest the Utah State Legislature could look at it would be 2018 -- after observing the timeline of Oklahoma's beer vote, presuming it passes. | 1,268,577 |
Gravy is one of my favorite types of sauces; I smother just about everything on my plate with the stuff when I can get away with it. Even my favorite breakfast is fresh buttermilk biscuits under a blanket of piping hot cream gravy. That’s why it’s so confusing that I so rarely cook my own gravy on Thanksgiving day. I guess it’s just because I already have so much on my to-do list that I figure I will save myself a little bit of time by picking up a tub of vegetarian gravy from the grocery store. You know what though? It almost always disappoints. The quality of the other food at the table tends to outshine the hint of bitterness I feel for not having made the gravy from scratch… but not this year!
Whenever I was writing up this recipe I had some serious internal conflict as to whether or not I wanted to put “vegan” in the title. On one hand I’m excited to let vegans know that they can have gravy so good they’ll want to pour a bowl of it and eat it like soup. On the other hand… well, I want the non-vegans to know that they will want to do the same thing. The word vegan can be a little intimidating to some folks, especially when dealing with traditional meat centric recipes – but it shouldn’t be! This gravy is good. It’s damn good – and I think that anyone at your table (vegetarian or not) will absolutely love it.
First can I just tell you that this gravy is made with two heads of garlic? You heard right. Not two cloves… two heads of garlic. That alone should assure you that this recipe is not messing around when it comes to flavor. I know that plenty of people don’t want to put their pan drippings to waste, so if you aren’t a vegetarian you can certainly substitute them in place of the oil while making your roux. Vegetarians could also use butter instead of oil if that’s what they like. In either case I wouldn’t recommend removing the nutritional yeast from the recipe. It’s an unfamiliar ingredient to some, but don’t let the off-putting name deter you from giving it a try. It’s generally fortified with B12, is a good source of protein, is naturally fat and sodium free – but none of that stuff would really matter if it didn’t taste good, would it? Don’t worry – it does! Most people liken the flavor to that of a mild, nutty parmesan cheese. It has a lot of uses, but in this recipe it slightly thickens the sauce while enhancing its savory flavors. If you decide to go without, I would probably double the roux and allow your gravy to reduce for longer. I’ve never done this myself though, so if you try it be sure to let me know how it goes! | 1,268,578 |
The United States lost its top spot as the country with the "best brand" image, according to a new study whose results were released Thursday.
“The power and quality of each country's ‘brand image’” was measured by the Nation Brands Index (NBI) survey, which was conducted by German-based market research firm GfK and British political consultant Simon Anholt. The final NBI score was decided after collecting public opinion on 50 different countries on primarily six categories: its "people," "governance," "exports," "tourism," "investment and immigration," and "culture and heritage."
According to popular public opinion, the U.S. dropped to the sixth place while Germany rose to claim the prestigious first spot. Germany stood second in the same survey last year while the first place was held by the U.S. After just a year, the U.S. is lagging behind Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Japan.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel was thrilled to learn of the results. "Germany's image no longer rests on our economic strength,” Gabriel said. “People think we're capable of much in the world.”
While it was good news for Germany, it was a less-than satisfactory result for the U.S., where the biggest change in the last 12 months was none other than Donald Trump getting elected as the president.
So why did the U.S. not only lose its top spot but fall 5 places in the survey?
One of the categories in which the U.S. performed worse than 2016 was “governance,” in which it dropped from 16th spot to 23rd. Speaking to broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Anholt said Trump’s incessant push of his “America First” agenda might have caused the upset seen in the poll.
“The loss of the US's image in the governance category is indicative of the Trump effect, which was triggered by President Trump's policies and his 'America First' message," he said.
Incidentally “governance” is one of the categories that helped Germany secure the top spot, apart from “investment and immigration.”
The NBI survey comes after a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in June found that Trump was ruining the image of U.S. in the rest of the world. For that particular study, Pew had approached people from 37 different countries to weigh in on their opinion of the POTUS. The results were overwhelming against Trump’s favor.
“The sharp decline in how much global public trust the U.S. president on the world stage is especially pronounced among some of America’s closest allies in Europe and Asia, as well as neighboring Mexico and Canada,” the study found.
In the Pew survey, the only two countries which had a favorable opinion of the U.S. were Russia and Israel. | 1,268,579 |
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As the world prepares to celebrate Christmas, Chinese Communists have announced plans to rewrite the Bible so that it falls in line with the Party ideology.
The bizarre requirement was reported by respected French newspaper Le Figaro yesterday evening, quoting their correspondent in Beijing, and it apparently extends to all major religions, including Christianity, Islam and Buddhism.
Apparently, China wants all the major religions to review their holy texts and to adapt them to the "era of president Xi Jinping ".
As well as being president, Xi Jinping is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
China recognises all the major religions, but the country is known for its Big-Brother surveillance and policing religion is just one aspect of this.
The Chinese authorities, according to Le Figaro, have asked the representatives of all the main religions in the country to review the Chinese translations of their religious texts so that they conform with "the requirements of the new era."
The report in French news stemming from Beijing highlights "Jesus Christ's parables" will have to fall "in line with the Communist Party, failing which they run the risk of being purged from the bibles available to the faithful."
The Bible and Christianity are apparently not alone in being targeted, with the authorities setting their sights on all major religions, requiring a "sinicisation" of the Quran, the holy book of the Islamic faith, and the sutras found in Buddhism.
(Image: GETTY)
The bizarre requirement, which French newspaper Valeurs Actuelles noted "even the Soviets had not dared" to put forward, took place during a meeting on November 6.
The authorities apparently want "a complete reevaluation of existing translations of religious classics". If some texts are found not to confirm, they will have to be "modified and translated again."
The representatives of the various religions practised in China were reportedly summoned to the meeting after China's 4th Plenum.
Reuters describes China's Plenum as a meeting of the country's roughly 370-person Central Committee "to discuss improving governance and 'perfecting' the country's socialist system".
(Image: Getty)
The Chairman of the assembly, Wang Yang, reportedly underlined "the fundamental importance of the interpretation of the religious rules and doctrines" so as to be able to "gradually form a religious ideological system with Chinese characteristics."
(Image: Xinhua/REX)
Controlling and censuring religion is nothing new in the Communist country, with a portrait of the Virgin Mary even being replaced in a Catholic church with one of Xi Jinping. However, this new measure appears to go quite a bit further.
Xi Jinping, 66, has been in power since 2012 and is widely viewed as a strongman who has centralised power in the planet's most populated country. | 1,268,580 |
28th August 2018, Singapore — With few days away from the start of public presale, Õpet Foundation has attained strategic mutual investments totaling USD400,000. This amount is contributed equally by CareonChain and Bravocoin™.
The strategic and mutually beneficial alliance is forged in the face of the current market conditions, with a common vision to support disruptive and solid blockchain projects in facilitating liquidity of the tokens, and knowledge and resource sharing.
Bravocoin™ is a blockchain specialising in managing cost-effective cryptocurrency-facilitated transactions for the global Sports and Entertainment industry. Partnership with Bravocoin™ represents a strategic one as education is closely related to the sports and entertainment industry, especially in the current age. For instance, when an Õpet student achieves a certain milestone, he can be rewarded with entrance tickets to various sporting events of their choice.
CareonChain is a blockchain with a course of bringing positive social impact through its focus on the development of disruptive hybrid technology in the automotive sector. This initiative is in line with Õpet’s goal to bring about social impact and enable philanthropic activities.
These investments are made upon due diligence by the parties and are subject to lock-ups, which are somewhat in line with the listing timeline and development needs. The partnerships follow after a stream of achievements by the fast-progressing Õpet, which has already surpassed its soft cap in its private sale alone — on top of securing listings on two well-known exchanges, LATOKEN and GBX.
About Õpet
Õpet is a Singapore-based company focusing on the development of a blockchain-AI-powered companion chatbot capable of learning high school curriculum and providing revision assistance. It offers a digital companion tuition service that not only assists in students’ revision efforts, but also recommends users suitable courses and institutions via user data stored on its unique blockchain solution, thereby facilitating seamless tertiary/college application and admission validation. Õpet also empowers accountable education-related philanthropy.
Official Website: https://opetfoundation.com/
About Bravocoin™
Bravocoin™ is blockchain specialising in managing cost-effective cryptocurrency-facilitated transactions for the global Sports and Entertainment industry. The blockchain-based Bravocoin tokens can be used commercially for purchasing tickets, products, and services at cost-effective rates, driven by the aim of invoking a new, cohesive ecosystem comprising all event producers, sports personalities, entertainers, sports and entertainment management groups, and hospitality activities.
Official Website: http://www.bravocoin.io/
About CareonChain
Careonchain aims to bring positive social impact with curbing of pollution and carbon emission, by giving a boost in the development in the technology of hybrid automobile. It is a blockchain-based token that will allow investors to trade on the network for the future development in hybrid automobile technology.
Official Website: https://www.careonchain.io/ | 1,268,581 |
If a woman protests in the forest does anybody hear her?
A ribbon, a wrist band, a hashtag – these days your protest is meaningless if it doesn’t have an accessory.
This awards season the outrage-du-jour is the revelation that Hollywood is full of scumbag rapists and sexual harassers. Thanks, Harvey! Sure, it was an open secret forever. Sure, many of the most powerful men and women laughed it off and looked away for decades. But now their shame has leaked past the golden gates of tinsel town and seeped into “regular” America where we don’t really think that kind of stuff is normal.
What do you do if you’ve been outed as a greedy, selfish hypocrite who can’t stop their constant moralizing to flyover America? You start a protest and find an appropriate accessory, of course!
Meryl Streep – the most accomplished actress in Hollywood who knew everything and did nothing – has decided to accessorize her moral superiority by wearing black to the Golden Globes as a silent protest against Hollywood sexual misconduct. The idea seems to be taking hold and the Globes seem to be shaping up to be a monotone affair.
But one actress is not having any of it. Rose McGowan isn’t letting Streep off the hook and went on a Twitter rant to show her displeasure.
“Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @GoldenGlobes in a silent protest. YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly and affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa.”
Weinstein’s fashion designer wife is a designer for Marchesa.
Actress Amber Tamblyn hit back at McGowan’s criticism on Twitter, saying:
THREAD: Rose McGowan is a friend and while I support her kind of movement, I do not support any woman (or man) shaming or taunting the movements of other women who are trying to create change. Telling us to all wear Marchesa? This is beneath you, Rose. You don’t have to support and stand with us, but we stand and support you. You may take below the belt shots at us but we will not take them at you in return.
I stand with McGowan on this one. Tamblyn is being a snotty little brat. Rose McGowan has absolutely every right to be angry about this shallow so of support. When Weinstein (among others) was assaulting women and ruining their careers many of these women turned away wordlessly. They weren’t standing up for each other then. They certainly aren’t now. It’s all just another awards season accessory.
And Rose…that Marchesa burn nearly sent me to the hospital, girl! | 1,268,582 |
(Reuters) - Fast food chain McDonald’s Corp said on Thursday it would make its popular “Quarter Pounder” hamburgers with fresh beef, prepared when ordered, by mid-2018 in most of its U.S. restaurants.
A meal consisting of a Quarter Pounder hamburger, french fries and soft-drink is pictured at a McDonald's restaurant in Los Angeles, California July 23, 2008. REUTERS/Fred Prouser
Investors and analysts said the move, which would compete with rival Wendy’s Co’s promise of “fresh never frozen beef”, could bolster sales but would require restaurant operators to make changes to cooking routines that could slow service.
It was not immediately clear what impact the use of fresh beef would have on margins at McDonald’s USA, which does not disclose what percentage of sales come from the Quarter Pounder.
McDonald’s U.S. restaurants have suffered four straight years of traffic declines, resulting in 500 million lost transactions since 2012.
The multiyear turnaround plan launched by Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook has included menu changes that address consumers’ demands for fresher, simpler food.
To that end, its U.S. restaurants have swapped butter for margarine in Egg McMuffins and stopped buying chicken meat from birds raised with antibiotics important to human health.
“They’re trying to get people to give them another shot,” said Trip Miller, managing partner at Gullane Capital Partners, which holds 20,000 McDonald’s shares.
The question is whether the change will slow down service at restaurants, which are used to cooking frozen beef patties then holding them for use as needed, Miller said.
Diners “say they want fresh and healthier, but they want it faster than ever,” he said.
Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy said the move to fresh beef could lift sales, although likely not to the degree associated with all-day breakfast after its debut in late 2015.
“I don’t think it will move the needle like all-day breakfast did,” said Hottovy, who noted that the switch also will require restaurants to train workers how to safely handle fresh meat.
Wendy’s teased its bigger rival with a Twitter message reading: “@McDonald’s So you’ll still use frozen beef in MOST of your burgers in ALL of your restaurants? Asking for a friend.”
McDonald’s said it tested the new Quarter Pounders in about 400 restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
John Nalivka, president of meat consultancy Sterling Marketing, said there is not yet enough information on the quantity and cost of the fresh beef McDonald’s would be buying to know how that could affect the beef market or the company’s margins. | 1,268,583 |
to fuel labour disputes on the shop floor, although 60 per cent of companies surveyed said workers lost through automation were redeployed or retrained.
Wuhan-based Jointown Pharmaceutical Group, one of China's largest drug distributors, has cut the number of workers at its central warehouse from over 100 to just 13 since automating operations in 2012. Redundant staff have been sent to work for new Jointown branches across Hubei province.
"Robots have allowed us to store and deliver the same amount of goods with fewer people," said Zhang Qingsong, Jointown vice-president. "But business is growing so fast that we need more workers to perform those duties that robots can't."
A dozen workers lost their jobs in 2015 after Hubei-based Tianrui Electronic automated potting, which makes electronics resistant to shock or vibration. Instead of laying them off, Tianrui enrolled unemployed workers in a training programme and made them quality inspectors.
No zero-sum game
Such new demand in the labour market may help to absorb a minority of positions lost on production lines. Zhitong, a labour exchange in Dongguan, reported a threefold jump in robot-related job postings in 2016 from the previous year. Our survey found 80.6 per cent of companies reporting a drop in the number of frontline workers employed following the deployment of robots on production lines, but the same proportion said the number of technical staff either stayed the same or increased.
Robot-related positions require specialised knowledge of machinery and programming and this has resulted in a shortage of skilled labour. Zhitong routinely advertises positions ranging from maintenance worker to programmer, paying between Rmb10,000 and Rmb15,000 a month compared with Rmb4,000 for unskilled workers.
This has led to a training boom across China's factory towns as migrant workers scramble to try to master robotics. Chuancai Securities, a Chinese broker, estimates the vocational market for training in robotics could grow to Rmb28bn by 2021, from Rmb7.5bn in 2016. In Dongguan, a 400-place training course offered by Yucai Vocational and Technology School sold out in a week. Pan Qingxiu, Yucai's principal, said many of his students were from factory production lines.
Lu Zide, a 29-year-old electrician, left an Rmb8,000 a month position for a course at Yucai. "I want to become a robotics engineer. This is where the future lies," he said.
But not everyone succeeds. Zhang Jiawei, a 25-year-old migrant worker from Sichuan, left a production line to enrol on a Rmb5,800 Yucai coding course but failed the English and mathematics components required to pass.
He is back on the production line but knows the higher salaries are with the robots.
This article was first published on Feb. 24 by FT Confidential Research. | 1,268,584 |
BEIJING (Reuters) - There is no space for Hong Kong independence in the “one country, two systems” agreement under which Beijing governs the former British colony, but there can be tolerance for differences in their systems, a senior Chinese official said.
Chinese leaders are increasingly concerned about a fledgling independence movement in Hong Kong, which returned to mainland rule in 1997 with a promise of autonomy known as “one country, two systems”, and recent protests in the city.
The head of China’s Hong Kong Macau Affairs Office, Wang Guangya, told pro-Beijing Hong Kong magazine The Bauhinia that “under ‘one country, two systems’ there is absolutely no space for ‘Hong Kong independence’”, in comments carried in the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily on Saturday.
“Hong Kong is an inseparable part of the country, and in no situation is ‘Hong Kong independence’ allowed. This is a bottom line that cannot be touched in ‘one country, two systems’,” Wang said.
As “one country, two systems” is new, it has no ready-made experience to draw from, and it’s normal that in this process “new situations, new problems and new challenges” will arise, he added.
“You can’t expect it to be all plain sailing,” Wang said.
“The central government has confidence in and patience with Hong Kong. As long as the ‘one country’ principle is not damaged, the differences in the ‘two systems’ absolutely can be tolerated and respected,” he added.
China’s parliament last month staged a rare interpretation of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, to effectively bar pro-independence city lawmakers from taking office there.
In separate comments from the same interview reported by the official Xinhua news agency late Friday, Wang said the interpretation did not harm the independence of Hong Kong’s legal system, but that that independence could not limit the Chinese parliament’s ability to interpret the Basic Law.
“It needs to be pointed out that the independence of the legal system is an important principle of the rule of law in Hong Kong, and the central government has always cherished and protected the independence of Hong Kong’s legal system.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping told outgoing Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying last week that China’s central government strongly supports efforts by the Hong Kong government to curb moves by some promoting independence for the global financial hub.
Hong Kong returned to China under the “one country, two systems” agreement that ensured its freedoms and wide-ranging autonomy, including a separate legal system.
But Communist Party rulers in Beijing have ultimate control, and some Hong Kong people are concerned they are increasingly interfering to head off dissent. | 1,268,585 |
I hope that plenty of people got to meet Congressman Ron Paul when he visited Portsmouth last Friday.
June 13 — To the Editor:
I hope that plenty of people got to meet Congressman Ron Paul when he visited Portsmouth last Friday.
I'm writing today to make an appeal to reason and sense to my fellow New Hampshire citizens.
It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. The very real truth is that we cannot afford endless, expansive federal government. We need to scale back, on both war and welfare, and give money and control back to our local communities.
To my Republican friends: it is pointless to beat Obama in 2012 if we are just going to replace him with a Republican version of himself — a Republican version who would advocate the same policies that both parties have been advocating for the last 20 years. All of the other candidates are too actively a part of (or too weak to stand up to) the existing Washington establishment to offer any real change (especially Romney, and, yes, even Herman Cain, who was an ex-Fed chairman and advocated for TARP). To those of you who think Ron Paul can't win, the more you say so, the more it becomes true. Stand up and make it happen, if you truly want it. Romney is not your answer, and it saddens me that the recent University of New Hampshire poll showed so much support for him by Republican voters in our state.
To my Democrat friends: Stop voting for hypocrites, and stand up for yourselves. The same people who promised you change are just as beholden to special and corporate interests as any Republican. You want out of the Middle East; you want to end corporate welfare; you want to make sure that people at home are taken care of. I hope it is apparent by now that big government solutions only make these problems worse, and are in some cases the cause of the very things you are passionate about fixing. What we need is more economic freedom, more social freedom and more control given back to our states and communities to live in the democracy that we want to live in.
Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who will bring us back an America that recognizes the greatness of freedom. He is the only candidate who has a real plan to save Social Security and Medicare while allowing those who will never get any benefit from them to get out of the system. He is the only candidate who recognizes that the Bush Doctrine is just plain bad military strategy, and it is bankrupting our country. He is the only candidate who preaches sound fiscal and monetary policy.
I encourage you to really, really look into your hearts and your minds, read and listen to what Paul says about what he can do, and what he will do, as president. Then, at the New Hampshire primary, register as a Republican if you haven't done so already, and let's elect a president who will actually have some integrity for a change.
Jason Walls
Portsmouth | 1,268,586 |
private companies, it's been a race to the bottom and I just feel that the staff have left because of their poor conditions, and clients like my mother have been abandoned."
In a statement, the Northern Health Trust confirmed that the independent company providing the 97 year old's care had withdrawn it last month and since then, the trust has been trying to secure a package of care to meet her needs.
It added that the difficulty in securing care packages "reflects the demands on the sector in some geographical areas" and the trust acknowledged the impact and distress on the family.
Pay rates
A national report on the funding of older people's homecare across the UK reveals that Northern Ireland pays the lowest rate per hour.
According to the Homecare Deficit 2016, the average prices paid by the individual health trusts ranged from £11.42 to £12.96 per hour, with trusts paying rates which places them in the lowest quartile of all authorities in the UK.
Matters such as pay might be addressed if a Northern Ireland government was in place.
The ongoing political vacuum means that a report into social care in Northern Ireland, completed in May 2017, remains unpublished.
'Exploited workers'
However, the Department of Health confirmed on Monday evening that it plans to publish it within the coming weeks.
The BBC understands that the report is critical of some aspects of the system, including that workers are being exploited.
Asked if people were suffering under the current care system, Chief Social Worker Sean Holland said that it was a "system under pressure".
"I think suffering is a very strong word. There are certainly people who on occasion have to wait a period of time for the care that they have been assessed as needing," he said.
"But we are providing care to approximately 24,000 people and I think we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that if we were to go a generation back, many of those people would have to live in institutions or end their days in long stay hospital wards."
'Very concerning'
Meanwhile, none of the recommendations - included in a separate report entitled 'Domiciliary Care in Northern Ireland' by the Commissioner for Older People in 2015 - have been implemented.
The current commissioner, Eddie Lynch, said: "I would describe the situation with domiciliary care as very serious across Northern Ireland.
Image caption Commissioner for Older People, Eddie Lynch, said patients were not getting the care they deserve
"Many older people are not getting their needs looked after. They are getting them assessed, but then the care packages aren't being implemented for a series of reasons and this is very concerning.
He added: "In particular, two years on from when a report was published from my office which outlined clear recommendations to government about what needs to happen, that report has yet to be implemented.
"So, older people across Northern Ireland are still in situation where they are not getting the care they deserve at home." | 1,268,587 |
bourbon ever since I stole my mom’s handle of Rebel Yell when I was 13 years old. Straight bourbon is the nectar of the Gods. Straight bourbon is all we will ever make as long as I’m sailing this ship. Yet our distillery is located in a town called Hye, so there’s no doubt a Hye Rye is in our future. But it will be a rye-based straight bourbon. I just can’t yet say when it will be introduced yet. Great rye bourbons take time and must struggle with Angel’s Share, of which we have plenty.
RT: If I recall correctly, when you picked up your current stills, Fat Man and Little Boy, you said that right about now is when the first bourbon made in those stills would be ready for bottling. What kind of a first product can we expect from your new copper vis-a-vis what came out of your old equipment?
DG: A better one. Our Garrison Brothers Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Fall 2014 Vintage, which is in stores in 16 states now, was produced off Fat Man and Little Boy. I think its the best release we have ever made. White chocolate, caramel, butterscotch and brown sugar, drizzling down the back of your throat. I’ll put it up against any Kentucky bourbon or any other craft bourbon in a blind taste test. If you don’t like this bourbon, you’ll never be a Garrison Brothers bourbon drinker.
RT: Studying your releases over time, it seems like each one might have a different source of corn or mashbill or any number of factors. What drives your process in creating each batch of bourbon?
DG: Barrel selection. The mash bill remains consistent. There might be slight variations in the corn, wheat and barley harvest, or the fermentation temperatures, but the uniqueness of each vintage is purely driven by the barrels that my master distiller Donnis Todd and I choose to marry together into a small batch. We taste every barrel before we decide if its ready or which vintage it should be part of. Today, we have the luxury of more than 7,000 barrels to choose from to try to nail a particular flavor profile for a vintage.
RT: Texas has a fiercer summer than over in the Mid-South, and climate is a big deal in whiskey maturation. What impact does your local climate have on the bourbon you are making? Is the evaporation bad?
DG: Angel’s Share losses are about 13% annually. That makes most distillers convulse and start to sweat. It makes me smile. Because what primarily evaporates from the barrel during maturation is the water. The whiskey remains in the barrel and the caramelized sugar to whiskey ratio becomes more concentrated. There’s a reason Garrison Brothers is so dark, has no burn, and has such a long gentle finish. That’s thanks to the Angels. | 1,268,588 |
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) lashed out Monday at a Republican report that sharply criticized President Obama’s nominee for Labor secretary, Thomas Perez Thomas Edward PerezClinton’s top five vice presidential picks Government social programs: Triumph of hope over evidence Labor’s 'wasteful spending and mismanagement” at Workers’ Comp MORE.
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“Near the eve of the Senate confirmation hearing of the Secretary of Labor nominee, Tom Perez, House Republicans have launched a witch hunt,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “I have known Tom for years and can attest to his character and his long distinguished career.”
On Sunday, Republican lawmakers released a 63-page report that was the result of a months-long investigation into Perez’s handling of a housing discrimination case from his time in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Republicans say Perez pressured the city of St. Paul, Minn., to withdraw the case before a Supreme Court appeal, and in exchange pledged the department wouldn’t intervene in a separate whistleblower case with the potential to result in a massive windfall for St. Paul taxpayers. GOP lawmakers also charge that Perez sought to keep his role in the negotiations secret.
Perez says he acted with the knowledge of his superiors and in the best interests of the country, and he argued the housing discrimination case had broader implications that could have adversely affected the government’s ability to defend similar cases in the future.
“This is a sad state of affairs for House Republicans, who haven't been able to advance any meaningful solutions to the real challenges facing our country,” Van Hollen continued. “They’ve decided to get into the Senate’s confirmation business with the politics of personal destruction. Hopefully, the Senate will have the good sense to ignore these scurrilous attacks on an extremely qualified nominee that President Obama has selected to serve in his cabinet.”
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee unveiled their own report late Sunday, finding that Perez had “acted professionally to advance the interests of civil rights and effectively combat the scourge of housing discrimination.”
In a statement, the Justice Department defended Perez’s actions, saying they “were in the best interests of the United States and were consistent with the department's legal, ethical and professional responsibility obligations.”
“The real issue here is the GOP wants to derail a highly competent Presidential nominee from getting a cabinet position because he effectively enforced civil rights law,” Van Hollen said. “This is just the politics of personal destruction.”
In nominating Perez, Obama touted his tenure at Justice, saying he took the lead in fighting unfair mortgage lending practices, enforced human trafficking laws and fought for the working rights of veterans.
Perez currently heads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, and would replace former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who stepped down in January. | 1,268,589 |
Some status symbols are familiar to everyone: the car you drive, the clothes you wear. Now add to that list the level of mercury in your bodily fluids.
According to researchers at England’s University of Exeter, the amount of certain types of toxicants in our bodies is an excellent indicator of socioeconomic status (Environ. Int. 2013, DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2013.06.017). The team reached this conclusion after analyzing 10 years’ worth of blood and urine data collected by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Initially, the Exeter researchers thought such data would demonstrate that low-income individuals possess more toxic chemicals in their bodies than the rich. That, however, is not the case. The team instead uncovered nine toxicants that are more common among wealthy individuals as well as nine toxicants that are more common among those who are poorer.
So what are the hottest, trendiest chemicals among the rich? They include mercury and arsenic, whose prevalence the team attributes to higher levels of seafood consumption among the wealthy. Not as hot? Lead and cadmium, which appear in higher levels among the poor. These elements, the team posits, likely appear more often in people lower on the socioeconomic totem pole because they more frequently smoke cigarettes and interact with heavy industry.
According to Jessica Tyrrell, an epidemiologist who coauthored the study, such distinctions are important because they help us to better understand our bodies’ “chemical cocktails.” Newscripts wonders whether these findings might also make it easier to score actual cocktails at an exclusive nightclub: Simply mention the high level of arsenic in your bloodstream and watch as the bouncer waves you inside.
Moving from symbols of status to symbols of shame, dog owners in Brunete, Spain, are living in fear of receiving a surprise parcel in the mail. The package’s contents? Their dog’s poop.
In an effort to encourage dog owners to pick up after their pets, the Madrid suburb implemented a two-week-long program earlier this year in which discarded leavings were mailed back to negligent dog owners. The initiative required covert volunteers to monitor the town’s canine hot spots.
If volunteers spotted a disobedient dog owner, they would approach the offending party, pet the party’s dog, compliment its appearance, and then ask for its breed and name. Armed with this information, along with a pile of evidence, volunteers would then swing by city hall and look up the dog’s registration information. Later that day, a white box adorned with the Brunete town seal and the words “lost and found” would be delivered to the door of the offending party.
According to an Aug. 6 New York Times article, 147 such packages were mailed to Brunete residents during the two-week program. Mayor Borja Gutiérrez Iglesias says the threat of these deliveries has resulted in a dramatic improvement in the cleanliness of his town’s parks and sidewalks. | 1,268,590 |
revision, which paved the way for Xi to remain "president for life" was so important.
Emboldened by the elimination of presidential term limits, a group of close aides to Xi last summer blatantly pushed ahead with measures that built what strongly smacked of a "personality cult" around the president.
These efforts drew a strong backlash from elders and rival party factions, and began to lose steam after last summer's Beidaihe conclave.
If the fourth plenary session had been held last fall, immediately after the Beidaihe conclave, various demands might have surfaced regarding the personality cult, Xi's successor and the economy. Such a situation would have put Xi and his allies at a disadvantage.
This group wanted to let the dust settle before convening the fourth plenary session.
Another roadblock took the form of growing doubts within the party about Vice Premier Liu He's ability to preside over Xi's macroeconomic policies.
Had the fourth plenary session been held then, it could have plunged Xi into a crisis and possibly sparked calls for Premier Li Keqiang, who heads the State Council, China's government, to be allowed to play a greater role in managing China's economy.
Xi and Li are rivals who once vied for the party's top post. Li is now ranked second in the party hierarchy. Any move similar to a no-confidence vote against the Xi-Liu team would have strengthened Li -- another reason why Xi had no choice but to delay the fourth plenary session, according to many people concerned.
Some sources explained that the fourth plenary session was delayed because of uncertainty over how trade friction with the U.S. would play out. But the delay has not helped China make progress toward a solution. In fact, with its basic domestic and external economic policies remaining unclear, Beijing has impeded its ability to negotiate with the U.S.
Party rules dictate that Xi convene the fourth plenary session by the end of the year. This being the case, the president and party chief should do so as soon as possible. If Xi instead drags his feet, he could inflict real harm on China's economy.
Going forward, the negotiations with the U.S. will focus on whether China can return to something close to the deal it gutted in May. The answer to this could also affect Xi's future.
If Xi is able to prevent China's confrontation with the U.S. from further escalating, he will all but guarantee that he will remain as China's top leader at the party's next national congress, in 2022.
Consider the fourth plenary session as the first hurdle Xi must clear as he heads toward that national congress.
Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and editorial writer at Nikkei. He has spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He is the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize for international reporting. | 1,268,591 |
“The president uses language often that‘s very similar to the language used by these bigots and racists,” said Sen. Tim Kaine. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Congress Kaine: Trump’s rhetoric ‘emboldens’ white nationalists
Sen. Tim Kaine on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump’s rhetoric in the wake of a shooting that killed 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand.
In an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, ripped Trump for not calling out white nationalists and for “using language that emboldens them.”
“It is on the rise and the president should call it out but sadly he’s not doing that,” Kaine said. “We saw in the aftermath of the horrible attack in Charlottesville that he tried to say that the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, neo-confederates there were just, you know, ‘good people,’” Kaine said.
The accused shooter in Friday’s attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, praised Trump as a symbol of white identity in a lengthy, rambling manifesto filled with anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Trump mourned that attack in a tweet Friday. But Trump also said he doesn’t view white nationalism as a rising worldwide threat, calling white nationalists “a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess.”
“The president uses language often that’s very similar to the language used by these bigots and racists,” Kaine said. “And if he’s not going to call it out then other leaders have to do more to call it out and I certainly will.”
“I think the president is using language that emboldens them. He’s not creating them. They’re out there,” Kaine said, adding, “That kind of language from the person who probably has the loudest microphone on the planet Earth is hurtful and dangerous and it tends to incite violence.”
Kaine, the 2016 Democratic nominee for vice president, isn’t the only lawmaker criticizing Trump’s rhetoric.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Trump’s language “doesn’t help.”
“I don’t think you can actually take each of the murderous acts and say what role Donald Trump played, but I can tell you this. His rhetoric doesn’t help,” Klobuchar said.
“And many of these people... have cited Donald Trump along the way,” she said. “So, to me, that means, at the very least, he is dividing people. They are using him as an excuse.” | 1,268,592 |
It’s hard to believe, but Fastpass has been around at the Disney parks for 20 years now. There have been additions and changes to the system over the years, as well as endless operational tweaks. In 2017, a digital version of Fastpass called MaxPass was rolled out at Disneyland which no longer required paper tickets. The system has slowly grown in popularity and increased the overall number of guests using the digital rather than paper option.
As the number of guests booking their Fastpasses on their phones via the MaxPass system increases, the need for physical Fastpass machines decreases. That creates an opportunity for the park to start reclaiming the space used by some of the Fastpass machines for other purposes.
New consolidated paperless Fastpass distribution system on the way to Tomorrowland
We’ve been following a construction project in Tomorrowland that appears to be the consolidation of the Fastpass system in the land. When complete, guests will be able to book all of their Tomorrowland attraction Fastpasses from touch screens in front of the Tomorrowland Theater (where Path of the Jedi is shown).
This new system will begin testing mid-October (likely October 15th). If all goes well, Disney will be able to remove the traditional Fastpass machines from elsewhere in the land, freeing up space for expanded queues, seating, and stroller parking.
The Touch Screens will allow guests to select the Tomorrowland FastPass attraction of their choice (or they can continue to use MaxPass on their phones). The system will also be paperless, so no reminder tickets will be printed. Guests can link their park admission to the Disneyland app for reminders, or they can take a photo of their ride confirmation or write it down as a reminder of when to go to the attraction.
Guests will continue to scan their park admission at Fastpass Return, that part of the system has not changed.
In theory, it sounds like a reasonable evolution of the Fastpass system, but we’ll have to view it in operation to see how it impacts guests. Communication on where to find the machines will be important, as will instructions on how to use the new touch screens. But if this works, Disneyland could consolidate its entire Fastpass network into a small number of Fastpass kiosk locations throughout the Resort.
What Do You Think?
Will the new system be a success? Do you think that the elimination of most Fastpass machines could result in the service being added to some attractions which couldn’t support it before? Perhaps for Peter Pan, Millennium Falcon, and other attractions? What would you like to see happen with spaces such as the beautiful Haunted Mansion Fastpass distribution garden? Let us know in the comments below.
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Contributed by rueda on 2019-06-04 from the conceal my writeable calls dept.
Introduction
There have been some recent security innovations previously unreported here:
New flag " MAP_CONCEAL " for mmap(2) allocations No syscalls from pages where PROT_WRITE is still enabled
New mmap(2) flag: MAP_CONCEAL
Scott Soule Cheloha ( cheloha@ ) committed code changes to support a new " MAP_CONCEAL " flag for mmap(2) :
CVSROOT: /cvs Module name: src Changes by: [email protected] 2019/02/28 18:46:18 Modified files: sys/sys : mman.h sys/uvm : uvm.h uvm_extern.h uvm_map.c uvm_mmap.c uvm_unix.c Log message: New mmap(2) flag: MAP_CONCEAL. MAP_CONCEAL'd memory is not written to disk in the event of a core dump. It may grow other qualities in the future. Wanted by libressl, probably useful elsewhere, too. Prompted by deraadt@, concept from deraadt@/kettenis@. With input from deraadt@, cjeker@, kettenis@, otto@, bcook@, matthew@, guenther@, djm@, and tedu@. ok otto@ deraadt@
This was followed by th addition of malloc_conceal(3) and calloc_conceal(3) by Otto Moerbeek ( otto@ ):
CVSROOT: /cvs Module name: src Changes by: [email protected] 2019/05/10 09:03:24 Modified files: include : stdlib.h lib/libc : Symbols.list shlib_version lib/libc/hidden: stdlib.h lib/libc/stdlib: malloc.3 malloc.c Log message: Inroduce malloc_conceal() and calloc_conceal(). Similar to their counterparts but return memory in pages marked MAP_CONCEAL and on free() freezero() is actually called.
This was then used in smtpd(8) as the first user of those functions, as seen in this commit to reduce chances of leaking SSL data.
System Calls Prohibited from PROT_WRITE Memory
Theo de Raadt ( deraadt@ ) committed an improvement to check permissions on the memory from which system calls come, and make sure they are not in a piece of memory which is writeable at the time of the call (in addition to the existing checking of validity of the stack pointer.) | 1,268,594 |
The Bengals and Mike Brown may have broken the last straw with a lot of their fans. After 15 seasons under Marvin Lewis without a postseason victory and two straight losing seasons, the Bengals have extended their head coach with a new two year contract.
There is a good portion of the fan base that took this news very poorly, but I’m not sure how else you are supposed to take news like that. It is almost hard to make sense of the news given it almost has no rational reason.
Bengals fans on Reddit, however seem to be having some fun with the news. They have started a petition to change their page into a page about literal Bengal tigers and cats.
And it’s working with more than 4,800 people upvoting the petition, an INSANE number for a page like the Bengals Reddit page.
At first, you might find this to be a silly reaction, but did you know that Bengal tigers can ingest up to 40 kilograms of food on a single occasion? That is 88.1849 pounds. I bet Lewis can’t eat more than 10 pounds at any given time. How lame.
Did you also know that Bengal tigers are actually adept swimmers despite what most people think. Most people think Lewis is a bad coach, and he actually is. So far, it seems like literal Bengal tigers have a commanding 2-0 lead over the lame duck coach.
However, the tiger's roar can be heard up to two kilometers at night, which is 1.24 miles. The outrage of Lewis being re-signed for two more years could be heard all the way in Lexington from Cincinnati, which is roughly 80 miles away. We have to give it to Lewis there. He and the Cincinnati Bengals know how to make some noise.
In all seriousness, it is completely understandable to have this reaction as fans. It feels like we have had the team turn its back on us, and I know fans don’t run the team. However, there has never been a more obvious time for change in Lewis’ 15 years as the Bengals head coach. No one is trying to say He hasn’t done anything good for this franchise, but we were just sentenced to two more years of mediocrity.
A lot of people defending the decision keep saying how much worse it could be. I understand that, but this is the NFL and everything can get worse. On the flip side, things could get better. Things could get so much better than 0 playoff wins in seven trips over 15 years. It could get better than having a coach who refuses to play young talented players.
If the goal for your team as a fan is to just be better than the Browns, then let me just say it may be time to raise your bar just a little bit. It is true things can get worse, but have you really enjoyed watching the Bengals the past two seasons?
I don’t blame fans for getting more excited about Bengal tigers than the Cincinnati Bengals. | 1,268,595 |
You can bet that when MAC Marketing Solutions was brainstorming ways to get their name into the Huffington Post, this wasn’t what they had in mind.
The Vancouver-based realty marketing firm is reeling after two of its employees were busted posing as prospective buyers in a televised newscast to boost interest in an upscale Vancouver apartment development.
A wave of media and public backlash has resulted in the resignation of MAC’s Marketing Manager and a black eye on Vancouver’s already highly inflated real-estate market.
While it may feel good to single MAC Marketing out, they are just one of a growing number of brands, celebrities, and politicians who’ve had to defend their reputation due to a media blunder – intentional or otherwise. This is the backlash of rapidly progressing technology in the hands of inexperienced professionals, and we’re seeing it across the board.
Don’t believe me? Just scan any paper and you’re bound to see the same thing: Large reputable companies engaged in PR disasters.
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
Most managers can barely keep up with technology themselves, let alone monitor the way their employees are using it. What they’re discovering – many of them the hard way – is that whether you’re lying to a journalist or tweeting recklessly from a business account, the same rules apply: everything you put out into the digisphere comes back to haunt you. Good or bad.
This new reality is causing managers and CEOs to think twice about assigning the company’s communication to an intern or administrative assistant. They’re recognizing that social media is power, and in the words of Stan Lee, “with great power comes great responsibility”.
So, how can you protect yourself in a time when all it takes is a bored employee with a smartphone and a YouTube account to cause irreputable damage to a company’s reputation?
MINIMIZING THE RISK
One way companies deal with this risk is to hire an agency that specializes in social media. Yes, hiring an agency will cost you, but it will also let you sleep at night knowing that your company’s reputation is in good hands and that on the off chance that the excrement does hit the fan, it’ll be taken care of in a professional and timely manner.
No matter how you go about engaging online, it’s important to remind yourself what’s at stake – your hard earned reputation. The reality is that people are discussing your brand online and forming their own perceptions whether you actively participate in social media or not. You’re being discussed.
Take charge and limit the risk by ensuring that those sitting in the power-seat are mature enough to deal with the responsibility, and most importantly have a PR strategy in place in case things go sideways.
Thinking about outsourcing your social media? Get a FREE social media audit, or speak to our social media strategist. | 1,268,596 |
Why does Wildrose jobs critic Grant Hunter oppose raising Alberta’s minimum wage?
Because “we’re not a communist country,” of course.
The MLA for Cardston-Taber-Warner offered that explanation to cheering supporters at a closed-door session during the Wildrose Party’s Annual General Meeting this past weekend:
“Now [Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson] said to me, this is the reason why we’re [raising the minimum wage]: because we want every Albertan to be able to have, to go home and have a decent living wage. Well I hate to tell you but no one started this minimum wage as a living wage. That is not something that we ever promised anybody. We promised people that if you go get educated and you get more skills then you can rise up in your jobs. We’re not a communist country. This is not something that we do here.”
Hate to tell the Wildrose jobs critic, but he might want to go get educated on history.
Despite his claim that “no one started this minimum wage as a living wage,” minimum wage laws have, in fact, always had a thing or two to do with earning enough money to live on.
For example, the 1920 Federal Commission to Investigate Uniformity of Laws Relating to Industrial Work in Canada actually approved of a “minimum wage adequate to maintain self-support for women and girls”:
In 1918, suffragette Helena Gutteridge called for a minimum wage for both men and women, arguing that “if the father of a family is earning a wage which is not sufficient to support himself and that family,” then children of future and present generations will go “underfed”:
Of course, back in the good old days, the captains of industry opposed minimum wage laws.
Oh, they predicted “moral degeneration” and “laziness” and and yes, even “stifled ambition,” but something wandered along and changed the minds of business leaders – yep, you guessed it: Communism!
Worried that inequality would “create a situation” that “Bolshevists” could exploit, the Canadian Manufacturers Association began advocating workers be paid a fair wage based on what “it costs them to live” simply to prevent “opening the gates to revolutionary doctrine and inviting anarchy to run wild”:
And hey, just throwing this out there: Alberta has the highest rates of inequality in Canada. It’s even worse than it is in the U.S.
So if Hunter is as worried about the red menace as his comments at the Wildrose AGM suggest, maybe he should just support raising the minimum wage?
Oh, and Hunter does seem worried:
Photo: Wildrose Party of Alberta. | 1,268,597 |
Antisemitism allegations against Malia Bouattia are “false” and part of an “Islamophobic campaign”, Jewish supporters of the new NUS president have claimed.
The group of former students and NUS representatives wrote a letter to the JC in which they describe criticism of Ms Bouattia as a “witch-hunt”.
They were responding to a comment piece in the paper by Maajid Nawaz, founder of the Quilliam think tank.
The letter said: “We are therefore horrified at the Islamophobic campaign being waged against her, amidst opportunistic and false charges of antisemitism.”
“The witch-hunt against Malia is part of a wider narrative that includes, for example, the racist attacks on London mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan. It is a narrative that as Jews we should oppose without qualification.
“Her critics should hang their heads in shame.”
Ms Bouattia was elected as the 2016 NUS president at the union’s national conference last week. In the run-up to the conference, Ms Bouattia had been attacked over her remarks about Zionists, including her description of Birmingham University, which has one of the largest Jewish societies in the country, as a “Zionist outpost”. In a leaked video she was also seen referring to “Zionist-led media” in a speech.
An open letter signed by 45 Jewish society presidents during her election campaign raised questions about her “past rhetoric”.
However the signatories of the letter to the JC defend Ms Bouattia as an, “outstanding and principled record as an anti-racist activist and NUS Black Students Officer”.
The letter continued: “Just a month ago she spoke at the 20,000 strong Stand Up to Racism demonstration under the banner ‘Refugees Welcome Here: No to Racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and Fascism’.
“Malia’s critics conflate opposition to Israel with anti-Jewish prejudice per se. This is a recipe for division in the face of the real threat.”
In an interview on Channel 4 news on Tuesday Ms Bouattia said she was happy to be known as an anti-Zionist and said “Israel as it behaves is problematic to me”.
The letter was signed by NUS national executive members Sai Englert and Barnaby Raine, former NUS Scotland president Gordon Maloney, former Edinburgh JSoc president Keziah Berelson, Michael Rosen, Rob Ferguson, Marcos Schneider and Lev Taylor.
According to student newspaper The Tab students at 25 different universities are pushing for referendums over NUS membership following the election of Ms Bouattia.
Oxford University students union will hold a referendum on NUS membership after voting for a motion at a council meeting on Wednesday evening. | 1,268,598 |
really wants to be a hero? Is he genuinely intrigued by that notion, after everything he’s done?
I think to him the idea of sentimentally becoming the opposite of what he had been is shallow and melodramatic. I think it’s more the irony of it. I think he’s in a deep and dangerous point of self-loathing. I don’t think he’s thinking, “Yeah! Yeah, I’ll be a hero.” Because I think he knows that it’s not that easy. But is he now at a point where he wants to do the right thing? I think he’s entertaining the idea.
Before we end this, I want to congratulate you on your Emmy nomination. I know you’ve been there before, but I was wondering if this one means anything special to you.
It really does mean a lot to me just because I love this show and it was very scary for me. Your biggest fear when you go in is that you’re gonna do something that doesn’t work and somehow diminish it. But it is the most interesting acting experience I’ve ever had.
I know it sounds like I’m doing publicity, but I say this when I’m not talking to reporters. It is really inspiring working with [Moss]. I get to find this guy in her eyes, and it’s just a very interesting process. I find what June is doing really inspiring, given where we are in our shitty, nonfictional world. She is embodying the idea that despair is a luxury that your children can’t afford, and that action is the antidote to despair, and that no matter how dark things are, the future is an act of creation. We’re not in Gilead but I understand how it can happen now. I never would’ve a couple years ago. I truly understand that now.
So this role is precious to me. I almost feel paternal toward [Moss]. I met her when she’s, like, 17, this really great young actress on West Wing. Now, I meet her and she’s giving this just extraordinary performance and is like no other actor I’ve ever worked with, totally involved in every decision that gets made on that show. I’m incredibly proud of her. It’s very weird to work with someone when they’re 17, and then all of a sudden, they’re your role model. It’s like when your kid inspires you. It’s the best feeling in the world.
Well, I really hope Lawrence doesn’t end up in the furnace. I want him to keep us on our toes a little longer.
Yeah! He’s such a fucking weirdo. That’s just the most fun. He’s just such a fucking freak! | 1,268,599 |
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