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"?There are two types of nation" a recent Nature editorial begins; "...those that use the metric system and those that have put a man on the Moon."
Such a pro-American jingoistic statement must be deep British irony. Anyway, the editorial continues...
The reliance of the United States on feet and pounds, along with its refusal to embrace metres and kilograms, baffles outsiders as much as it warms the hearts of some American patriots. But it is time for the country to give up on the curie, the roentgen, the rad and the rem.
This is about measuring radiation. There are several ways of measuring radiation. This has to do with the different ways radiation can exist, and the different kinds of effects it can have. For example, one might want a measure of biological damage, in order to measure, control, document, and discuss exposure in work places or disaster sites. The American tradition for this particular measure is the "rad" but by a 1970s convention that the US apparently ignores, it is the sievert.
The editorial points out the confusion, sometimes meaningful confusion, that arose in the wake of the Fukushima multiple meltdowns, when the Europeans and the Japanese were using sieverts and the Americans all had to pull out their slide rules to convert between sieverts and rads in order to keep track of what was going on. The Nature editorial notes,
Yes, it is possible to use both sets of measures, and to follow the rem numbers with the sievert numbers in brackets. In practice, this is what many US regulatory agencies do. But it is simply too awkward. The Australian government has publicly criticized the US system for creating confusion. In the middle of an international nuclear-radiation incident, should emergency-response officials huddled in a situation room really need to whip out their calculators?
As I was reading this editorial, I recalled the space robot that essentially crashed into Mars instead of falling into a nice orbit, because the American part of the team was not using the SI (International System of Unites) method of calculating the movement of the robot's mass. It seems that confusion over units could cause much worse disasters than losing a single (and expensive) robot.
The editors of Nature had the same thought.
Remember NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter, which was lost in 1999 when someone forgot to convert between imperial and metric units (even though they had plenty of time to check) — the spacecraft broke apart in the Martian atmosphere rather than smoothly entering orbit. Imagine if such an embarrassing error involved the life and safety of millions of people here on Earth.
Clearly, they have a point. The US nuclear industry resists this change because, they say, of cost. However, as Nature argues, it is already the case that the companies that manufacture equipment (and I'd guess software) for use in the nuclear industry already use both units, since they tend to be international.
The US should do this, and should go metric. | 1,268,700 |
Many don’t talk about this but our roster, if you’re only counting NA LCS championships, we have like eight between all of our players, and if you want to add Academy championships, let’s throw 10 on there, and if you want to add our victory at the university Olympics, let’s slap that on there too (laughs). This is a roster with a winning mentality, these people know how to win championships, they’ve done it before, and so they can do it again. They have that drive, especially because they’ve been there before and they can do it again. They also have those chips on their shoulder where it didn’t work out in “X,Y and Z”, so they want to prove that people made the wrong decision. So, it’s really easy to work with people that are as hungry as these five players, and with rookies like V1per, who wants to prove themselves and wants to get in there in what is honestly a very talented crop of top laners in the LCS and just stand on their throats and be on their throats. The transition was made a lot easier because the guys that I got this off-season, who are incredibly hungry, motivated and have something to prove.I don’t know about veterans in general, but for my players it’s been incredibly easy. These guys are very open and willing to grow, no matter what their experience is like. I think that’s one of our strengths as a team, especially Pobelter has been incredibly helpful in that with sharing his recent Worlds experiences and recent experience on Team Liquid to help us create and modify our communication system and our priority system in order to help us advance as a team and help us understand how to coordinate better. As I said before, I’ve worked with a lot of experience players in the past in Academy and those players helped me understand what I can do in my position as a coach and also help me understand how a pro thinks about the game and then apply it to my own thinking and knowledge. Working with people like Pobelter, WildTurtle and Santorin, who have been on experienced teams in the past, being able to bring that knowledge to help everyone is very crucial, including myself and how I coach. The other cool thing is that, again, this might not be true for all teams but these players are veterans without big egos, so it’s really easy to be a coach and be an authority figure and are experienced and don’t have those egos.Thanks to all the fans for coming out and your support means a lot to all of us. We’re looking to take some names and I hope you keep supporting us and keep fighting on! ___ Izento has been a writer for the LoL scene since Season 7, and has been playing the game since Season 1. Follow him on Twitter at @ggIzento for more League content. Image courtesy of LoL Esports Flickr | 1,268,701 |
E asy Hebrew was created by Yaffa McPherson, a Jewess reared in Israel with Hebrew her native tongue and her passion. She is the co-founder, with her husband, Ken, of I.A. Publications, established to promote the Hebraic mindset of the Scriptures. Yaffa grew up speaking five languages. In her teens, she immigrated to the United States, and shortly after, miraculously met her Messiah. English became her sixth language. Linguistics was her major, and translating from the Scriptures became her consuming interest. For over fifteen years, Yaffa has been a dedicated advocate of the Hebraic mindset of the Scriptures. She has a unique way of bringing to life the words of the Bible as well as of the Hebrew language. You will be enriched by the depth of the Hebrew word studies in the course. ========== A word from Yaffa: " S oon after I found the Lord, for two years I gave my personal testimony in many churches. I was only seventeen. Then something changed. Hebrew curiosity compelled me to seek God earnestly about Him and the Godly walk. Man's theology failed to satisfy me, so I sat at the feet of my Jewish Savior, Teacher and Author of the Scriptures. In awe of the pure Hebraic truths in Scripture, I realized how partial God is to Hebrew, my mother tongue, whose mindset abounds with the precious jewels of His mindset. From then on, Biblical truths from the Hebrew accompanied my testimony, and everywhere, people implored: 'Please teach me Hebrew with the Hebraic mindset.' For many years since, I have been teaching Hebrew to Believers individuals as well as groups. Throughout the years I had also helped many a pastor whose seminary Hebrew was more intimidating than enriching. (That should not be so.) For too long, until Easy Hebrew , I taught the language with existing courses which were more than disappointing. I know and feel the spiritual needs of those who love God and the Scriptures. Easy Hebrew is my response to the many, many requests. It is the kind of course I feel the serious student or teacher of the Scriptures deserves. You won't regret taking this course!" ========== Whether your desire is to get to the "root" of God's message in the Scriptures, or to use the language in Israel, Easy Hebrew fulfills its promises. Y affa has written a book of her growing up years in Israel and beyond a captivating story of endurance and triumph over adversity. Follow this link to: Yaffa, God's Prickly Pear to read a portion of the first chapter and find out how to order your copy.
Easy Hebrew Use the back arrow to return to the previous document.
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All rights reserved. 0214 | 1,268,702 |
The Foreign Ministry on Sunday removed the online animated video it produced satirizing coverage of the Gaza Strip by foreign journalists, which angered many members of the press stationed in Israel. Journalists expressed confusion about the government's motive for the mocking clip.
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Media outlets worldwide have reported on the mocking video, including the Washington Post and the New York Times.
The short video shows a foreign correspondent being interviewed on his perspective on life in the Gaza Strip, while the reality of the situation unfolds behind him. The journalist makes claims about the peaceful, democratic nature of Hamas rule.
Foreign Ministry Cartoon ( )
X
The film ends with the appearance of another reporter, who hands her colleague a pair of glasses. "Maybe now you'll see the reality of life under Hamas rule," she says. The reporter dons the glasses, and faints away once he sees "the reality."
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon defended the controversial video, which had both foreign and Israeli reporters up in arms on social media.
He said the video was "poking gentle fun at the phenomenon" of Hamas allegedly using "human shields" during fighting and only "partial reporting" of this by international media.
On the New York Times' website, Ernesto Londono stated flat-out about the video: "It was lame. It wasn’t funny. It was offensive."
Still from the cartoon (Photo: YouTube)
The Foreign Press Association in Israel issued a statement deploring the video. The Association was "surprised and alarmed by the Israeli Foreign Ministry's decision to produce a cartoon mocking the foreign media's coverage of last year's war in Gaza," read the statement.
"At a time when Israel has serious issues to deal with in Iran and Syria, it is disconcerting that the ministry would spend its time producing a 50-second video that attempts to ridicule journalists reporting on a conflict in which 2,100 Palestinians and 72 Israelis were killed.
"Israel's diplomatic corps wants to be taken seriously in the world. Posting misleading and poorly conceived videos on YouTube is inappropriate, unhelpful and undermines the ministry, which says it respects the foreign press and its freedom to work in Gaza."
Meanwhile, Paul Mason of the British Channel 4 said the video was insulting and a direct attack on foreign journalists.
The Washington Post's correspondent in Israel, Ruth Eglash, said the video did not reflect reality and that it was unclear why the Foreign Ministry was insulting foreign journalists instead of holding a serious dialogue.
Foreign Ministry sources said they were surprised by foreign journalists' outrage and that there had been no intention of offending anyone. "During Operation Protective Edge rockets were fired from populated areas and near public structures," said the Ministry.
"All this was well-known and documented. But incriminating photos were published only later, with a notable delay. The claim was fear of Hamas. The video looks at this phenomenon in an amusing way." | 1,268,703 |
We decided to tackle one of Canada’s most beloved, late night, drunken foods — the donair.
If you’re Canadian, you definitely know what a donair is. If you aren’t Canadian (or if you are but somehow don’t know what a donair is), then here is a quick history lesson! This magical food is an old school dish from Turkey where it goes by the name of doner kebab. It’s traditionally made with spiced minced lamb that is cooked, shaved thinly, and then placed into a pita or other flatbread along with veggies and some sort of sauce — similar to a gyro or shawarma, but so much better in every way.
In the early 1970s a Halifax man named Peter Gamoulakos created a version of the doner kebab which became what we know today as a donair. He swapped the minced lamb for ground beef (lamb is expensive, yo) and developed a sweet-garlic sauce that would soon be the base for millions of drunken messes.
Now that the history lesson is over, let’s get to making a homemade donair! The most intensive part of this recipe is making the donair meat, which actually doesn’t take that much work. There are many different spice blends that people use to make donair meat — we chose to go with a supposedly authentic blend. If you think that we’re wrong, feel free to let us know by commenting below.
Donair Meat Recipe
1 pound of lean ground beef
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp italian seasoning*
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
*This reddit comment suggests swapping out the Italian seasoning for za’atar spice — this apparently makes the donair meat that much better.
Making the donair meat is super simple. All you have to do is to combine all the above ingredients in a bowl and mix them all together. You don’t want the meat to have the texture of ground beef — after you’re done combining the ingredients, it should almost be a meat paste. The best way to accomplish this is to knead the sh*t out of it. Go hard. Squeeze it, slam it against the counter, rip it apart, and repeat.
Once you feel like the meat has been adequately kneaded, and the spices have been incorporated, grab it and shape it into a giant ball of meat. Then take it and slam it hard against the counter, or toss it back and forth between your hands forcefully. Flatten the ball, fold it in half, reshape it, and do it again. This will make everything smooth and homogeneous. This recipe is great for when you want to let a little anger out!
tl;dr: smack that meat. | 1,268,704 |
MONTARA, Calif. — A man walking his dogs in a federal park overlooking the Pacific Ocean was hit with a stun gun and arrested by a park ranger who accused him of not tethering the animals, astonishing passers-by who say the reaction was excessive.
The ranger deployed the stun gun on Gary Hesterberg after he gave a false name and then tried to walk away from the encounter Sunday, the National Park Service said. Hesterberg was allegedly walking his dogs without leashes in violation of the rules of Rancho Corral de Tierra, which was recently incorporated into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
A witness, Michelle Babcock, told the San Francisco Chronicle the ranger never gave Hesterberg an explanation as to why he was being detained and then hit him with the stun gun in the back.
“He just tried to walk away,” Babcock said. “She never gave him a reason. … It didn’t make any sense.”
Calls to the park service and a listing for Hesterberg were not immediately returned Tuesday. No one answered the door at Hesterberg’s home in Montara, a coastal community in San Mateo County with about 3,000 residents.
A neighbor, Judith Rosenberg, said she heard about the incident from a woman who claimed to have witnessed it. Rosenberg, who was walking her own dog when she found out, said she complained in an email to federal park officials.
“I was very concerned they are Tasering people just for not having their dogs on a leash,” said the 55-year-old. “It just seems really excessive.”
Rosenberg said the chief ranger for the recreational area replied with some details of the incident. In the response, which she shared with The Associated Press, Kevin Cochary said Hesterberg was “not compliant, tried to run away and lied to the investigating ranger about his name.”
“We will look into this matter in depth,” Cochary wrote.
Hesterberg was arrested on suspicion of failing to obey a lawful order, having dogs off-leash and knowingly providing false information, Howard Levitt, a spokesman for the park service, told the Chronicle.
Levitt said the ranger asked Hesterberg to remain at the scene, and he repeatedly tried to leave. The unidentified ranger was able to stop him after deploying the stun gun, Levitt said.
The ranger was trying to educate residents about the leash requirement, he said. The recreation area has proposed tougher rules for dog walkers, including requiring leashes in open spaces where dogs currently roam untethered and closing some popular dog-walking areas to canines.
Park service officials and environmentalists said they want to protect some 1,200 native plant and animal species, including the Snowy Plover, a federally endangered shorebird.
Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com | 1,268,705 |
Getty Dimitris Avramopoulos announced the new rules following last summer's migrant crisis
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New arrivals who refuse to give fingerprints in the country they first step foot in, or move between member states, will automatically have their asylum claims rejected. They will then face deportation and as little as a week to lodge an appeal. The new rules come in the wake of last year’s migrant crisis which left the continent in turmoil as countries on the outer edges of the Schengen free movement zone, notably Greece, struggled to cope with the numbers arriving.
At the same time, we set clear obligations and duties for asylum seekers to prevent secondary movements Dimitris Avramopoulos
West European countries such as Germany and Sweden were inundated with migrants who travelled freely across member states in a bid to get to the wealthier countries. This all happened despite the Dublin Regulation which makes the member state in which asylum seekers first enter the EU responsible for fingerprinting and processing an asylum application.
Getty Greece has struggled to cope with the numbers arriving on its islands
An EU-wide scheme aimed at distributing asylum seekers across the bloc came under threat after those sent to poorer eastern and central European countries defied orders and headed west. The new rules mean the obligatory five years, after which refugees can claim residency, will start again if they move from the country they’re designated to.
Those who move from where they have been placed and those who are at risk of “absconding” will be placed in detention centres, under new plans. Britain will not be affected as it can opt-out of home affairs policy.
Getty Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been rescued from the Mediterranean
Getty The arrival of migrants in Germany has caused much friction
Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s migration commissioner, said: “The changes will create a genuine common asylum procedure and guarantee that asylum seekers are treated in an equal and appropriate manner, regardless of the member state in which they make their application. “At the same time, we set clear obligations and duties for asylum seekers to prevent secondary movements.”
Migrant Crisis: Mass exodus from the migrant camp continues Tue, October 25, 2016 Hundreds of migrants are continuing to arrive in Europe as they flee the scenes of chaos and brutality of the Islamic State in the Middle East. Play slideshow 1 of 224
The move comes less than a week after the commissioner said the movement of migrants will be a determining factor in the world until the 23rd Century - 184 years away. At last Thursday’s meeting of EU interior ministers in Bratislava, he announced the European Commission would be putting forward its second package of proposals “aimed the total reform of refugee policy”. | 1,268,706 |
With the debris from the current financial storm still swirling, Congress must not overlook the other massive spending bill speeding its way through Congress. As a result of Congress’s stubborn refusal to fulfill their constitutional responsibility to fund the government (not passing a single appropriations bill this session) they must now pass a continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown. Unfortunately, instead of crafting a well thought out clean bill, Congress predictably larded it up with billions of dollars in false “emergency” spending, and believe it or not, even included a multi-billion dollar bailout of privately owned automotive companies.
The peculiar logic behind this massive spending hike is that if Congress can afford to spend massive amounts to rescue the economy, then the government can surely afford a mere $25 billion to bailout the auto-industry, and $24 billion in disaster aid. However, the reality is the opposite. It is because Congress has been spending so much money on other priorities that it can not afford additional spending hikes.
The bill raises several concerns:
• Members of Congress have likely not read the bill. The current language for the CR was only recently released. With the continuing turmoil in the financial markets requiring close Congressional attention it is highly unlikely members of Congress have had time to properly scrutinize the bill. The CR funds the entire federal government. The least Congress should do is take the time to read the bill.
• The CR doles out a $25 billion loan to bail out the auto industry. The companies involved have repeatedly proven to be inefficient and highly flawed. Other automotive companies across the country have flourishing plants relying on the free market alone. Continuing to prop up failing companies under the logic that one bailout necessitates another is a quick recipe for disaster.
• The CR also includes billions in bogus “emergency” spending. Although many of these programs such as $2.8 billion in “emergency spending” for low-income heating assistance, pull the emotional vote, the fact remains the best way to help families with high energy costs is to lower to price of energy.
• The bill also provides $24 billion in undefined disaster assistance, much of which will be funneled through the ineffective Community Development Block Grant Program. Such a large disaster aid package deserves significantly more scrutiny – and possible spending offsets – than has been provided so far.
The One Victory
Fortunately the CR isn’t all bad. After months of pressure by conservative leaders to allow the congressional moratorium banning offshore drilling to lapse, the CR finally makes that possible. Beginning October 1st energy companies will be permitted to begin the slow process of obtaining leases to drill for additional oil off American shores. One can only hope the next Congress does not overturn this accomplishment.
Although many Americans may celebrate the lapse of the drilling moratorium, then shift their focus to the financial markets, one must not forget this bill also spends billions of taxpayer dollars. Despite other responsibilities, Congress should recognize the continued funding of the federal government as a top priority and properly scrutinize the bill. | 1,268,707 |
Robert McNamara traveled to Capitol Hill to assure lawmakers that the August 4 “attacks” represented ”open aggression on the high seas against the United States of America,” as Johnson put it. In response to expressions of skepticism by Oregon Senator Wayne Morse, McNamara declared, “Our Navy played absolutely no part in, was not associated with, was not aware of, any South Vietnamese actions, if there were any…. The Maddox was operating in international waters, was carrying out a routine patrol of the type we carry out all over the world at all times.” As Robert Mann writes in a footnote in A Grand Delusion: America’s Descent into Vietnam, “That statement was, as McNamara knew, false.”
Arkansas Senator William Fulbright agreed to manage the Tonkin Gulf resolution on the Senate floor largely because he had faith in Johnson’s veracity. As Fulbright’s staff chief, Lee Williams, later said, “He had no reason to believe that he was used as a dupe, if you will, and that this was a ruse on behalf of Johnson to get the authority that he needed to conduct a wider war.”
George W. Bush and the Iraq war: Did Bush lie to the American people about those weapons of mass destruction that the U.S. government expected to find in Iraq? Probably not. More likely, Bush and his people lied to themselves in their zealous efforts to fashion justifications for overthrowing Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, and to ensure Middle East peace, protect the U.S. homeland, and preserve America’s regional influence. But officials have a grave responsibility to ensure extensive fact finding and sober deliberation in matters of war and peace. Presidents shouldn’t take America to war based on an oops. This was reckless behavior for which the Bush people, including Bush himself, have never been brought to account.
And it’s undeniable that the president and many of his top officials were bent on going to war against Saddam irrespective of the factual intricacies involved. There’s the rub. That invasion arguably constitutes the greatest American strategic blunder in at least half a century, perhaps in the entire postwar period. Those kinds of decisions require serious due diligence. So if Bush and his people didn’t know that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they should have. If not malfeasance, it was abject nonfeasance.
The lesson: beware when our leaders manifest a passion for war. That’s when it’s time to demand honesty, sobriety, and restraint—and answers. The burden of proof rests with the war advocates. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go to war, just that when we do, it should be with our eyes open.
Robert W. Merry, longtime Washington journalist and publishing executive, is the author most recently of President McKinley: Architect of the American Century. | 1,268,708 |
A French court on Thursday summoned former Guantanamo prison chief Geoffrey Miller over accusations of torture by two ex-detainees, in a move their lawyer said would open the door to further prosecutions.
Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali, both French citizens, were arrested by US forces in Afghanistan before being transferred to the notorious prison set up in Guantanamo Bay to hold terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks.
They were held there from the end of 2001 until 2004 and 2005 respectively, before being sent home.
A French probe into their case began after they filed a complaint in court.
"The door has opened for civilian and military officials to be prosecuted over international crimes committed in Guantanamo," their lawyer William Bourdon said.
"This decision can only... lead to other leaders being summoned."
Despite promises by US President Barack Obama to close the prison, which is located in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay -- an area on the east of the island under US control since a treaty signed in 1903 -- it remains open and still houses detainees without charge.
The US presence at Guantanamo Bay, where it also has a naval base, is one of the major stumbling blocks in Washington and Havana's historic move towards normalising ties.
In an expert report submitted to a French judge last year, lawyers for Sassi and Benchellali accused Miller of "an authorised and systematic plan of torture and ill-treatment on persons deprived of their freedom without any charge and without the basic rights of any detainee."
Miller, who was commander of the prison from 2002 to 2004 and is now retired, "bears individual criminal responsibility for the war crimes and acts of torture inflicted on detainees in US custody at Guantanamo," according to the report.
Just before Miller became commander of Guantanamo in late 2002, president George W. Bush's administration approved so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, including placing detainees in stress positions, stripping them, isolating them for extended periods of time and exposing them to extreme heat and cold.
Miller then implemented these methods.
And even though then-secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld withdrew permission for the most controversial of these interrogation techniques shortly thereafter in January 2003, "under... Miller's command at Guantanamo, these techniques continued to be used in certain cases," the detainees' lawyers said last year.
"These acts constitute torture and violate, at a minimum, the Geneva Convention's prohibition on coercive interrogations."
Sassi and Benchellali are not the only detainees alleging torture during their time at the prison.
Former Syrian detainee Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko had wanted to sue the US government for damages stemming from his treatment while held at Guantanamo for seven years until his 2009 release.
In his complaint, Janko cited years-long solitary confinement, lengthy bouts of sleep deprivation, "severe beatings," threats against him and his family, sexually explicit slurs against his female relatives, deprivation of adequate medical and psychological care, as well as "continuous" humiliation and harassment. | 1,268,709 |
Mayor Bloomberg spent more campaign funds in 2011 than any candidate in New York — and he’s not even running for office.
Bloomberg dished out $5.64 million of his personal fortune this year to prop up his public image — dwarfing the second- biggest spender, Steve Bellone, the Democratic candidate for Suffolk County executive, who has shelled out $2 million so far, the analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group found.
Erie County Executive Chris Collins, a Republican who is running for re-election, came in a distant third, spending $1.1 million from Jan. 12 through Oct. 24.
Still, the amount spent by Bloomberg is a pittance compared to the more than $100 million he spent on his successful re-election to a third term in 2009. He won’t face the voters again — at least for the mayoralty.
“In politics, it’s always nice to have deep pockets,” said Rob Ryan, spokesman for Angie Carpenter, the GOP candidate running for Suffolk County executive.
The Bloomberg camp emphasized that the mayor opened his wallet this year to counter TV and radio attack ads from the United Federation of Teachers and other unions. The UFT waged a successful campaign to block Bloomberg’s bid to get Albany to scrap the “Last In, First Out’’ law that determines teacher layoffs.
In March and April, Bloomberg spent $2.8 million on TV ads, $2.48 million in direct mail and $355,000 on polling.
The Bloomberg ad splurge came after the public beating he took during the city’s botched response to last December’s snow storm.
In March, the Quinnipiac University poll found that only 39 percent of the city residents approved of Bloomberg’s job performance, his lowest rating since 2003.
But a month later, only 40 percent approved of the job he was doing, despite the massive media campaign. Last month, 47 percent gave Hizzoner a thumbs-up after he was lauded for his handling of Hurricane Irene.
“It just shows that money is not an issue for Bloomberg at all. This is also one of the reasons he has been successful over the past decade,’’ said NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney, who conducted the analysis.
Hunter College poli-sci Professor Ken Sherrill said billionaire Bloomberg is using his financial resources to strengthen his political authority while he’s a lame duck.
“It’s a matter of maximizing his power. He has to negotiate a budget with the City Council and has to deal with a popular governor,” Sherrill said.
“The more popular he is, the better off he is. People are more likely to say ‘no’ to the mayor if he is unpopular. If Bloomberg is popular, he’s a force to be reckoned with.” | 1,268,710 |
Fry’s Electronics recently acknowledged it would shut its store in Palo Alto, California, in January because its lease wasn’t renewed. But stores in other places are running out of goods and don’t appear to be restocking them. It seems like another sign of the retail apocalypse.
But a Fry’s spokesman said any rumor of impending shutdowns isn’t true.
I visited a Fry’s store in Campbell, California, last week during midday, and the shelves looked quite bare, as you can see in the photos. Other consumers have reported near-empty shelves in stores in Sunnyvale, Sacramento, Burbank, Roseville, and Concord in California, as well as Las Vegas; Renton, Washington; and Austin, Texas.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
It certainly looks like competition with Amazon is taking its toll on physical stores like San Jose, California-based Fry’s, which has been an institution in Silicon Valley. Fry’s outlived other chains like Radio Shack, CompUSA, Circuit City, and numerous others. There are rumors that Fry’s will shut down its stores.
But the company says that isn’t true. Manuel Valerio, spokesman for Fry’s, said in an email:
We are in the process of re-ordering product and restocking shelves. More product in all stores in next few weeks. Fry’s is not liquidating. And products ordered online are now shipped to customers directly from their local stores. Fry’s is not going out of business or closing any stores (except Palo Alto, California in January 2020, due to lease expired). No plans to close any other stores.
As to the shortage of goods in the stores, Valerio said, “We’re responding to the competitive retail market, and are working to deliver popular, in-demand products to our customers in a timely manner. Thus restructuring our inventory and staffing adjustments in order to be agile and prepared for upcoming holiday shopping.”
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
Fry’s started out as a supermarket chain in California. The Fry family started its first electronics store in 1985 in Sunnyvale, California. The chain grew to dozens of big-box electronics retail stores over the ensuing decades. Each store had a unique theme, and they were huge. You could buy everything from potato chips to computer chips at Fry’s Electronics. Around 2014, Fry’s had 34 stores nationwide.
In days gone by, I spent a lot of time looking through the hundreds of magazines in the huge racks at Fry’s. It’s sad to see these stores with nearly empty aisles and so few customers. I’m waiting for a more convincing explanation from Fry’s about the bare shelves. Whatever the reason — from goods that are more expensive because of tariffs to other financial problems — it doesn’t look good. | 1,268,711 |
ASBURY PARK —An oceanfront lot slated for development in Asbury Park over surfers' objections could be preserved as open space with a $1.1 million grant recently approved by the state, city officials said.
The state Department of Environmental Protection announced the grant from its Open Space Preservation program on Wednesday, coincidentally hours before the city council discussed hiring appraisers to determine the fair market value for the site, dubbed Bradley Cove, councilwoman Amy Quinn said on Thursday.
The state approval now gives the city the green light to apply for more money from Monmouth County to help with the acquisition, Quinn said.
"The hundreds of people who came out to the protests and wrote letters to preserve this piece of land should be patting themselves on the back today," Quinn said.
A group of local surfers led the charge last year to convince city and county officials, as well as property owner iStar Financial to keep the half-acre lot on the city's northernmost oceanfront undeveloped.
During their protests, they complained building townhouses, as iStar planned, on one of the last pieces of open space on the oceanfront would cut off access to a prime surfing spot, fishing site and dog beach. They argued anything built in that area would eventually be damaged or destroyed by a storm because part of that area is in a high-velocity flood zone.
The backlash from surfers against iStar grew even stronger after the company used surfboards last summer in its campaign to highlight development spots in the city, including one posted at Bradley Cove, a strip between Deal Lake Drive and the city's wastewater treatment plant.
Before joining the city council this year, Joe Woerner, past president of the New Jersey Surfrider Foundation, was one of the organizing protestors.
On Thursday, Woerner called the grant notice "very exciting."
"It was an important victory for the movement. We've affirmed what we've known all along - it's a very special spot and should be preserved," he said. "The state obviously agrees this is a special place that needs to be preserved."
Laura Kirkpatrick, spokeswoman for the county, said city officials have until Sept. 16 to apply for up to $250,000 in open space funding from the county to be added to the $1.1 million state grant.
Brian Cheripka, vice president of land for iStar Residential, could not be reached for comment.
Woerner and Quinn said iStar has agreed to sell the property as long as it can receive fair market value.
The next step, Woerner said, is for the city to get two appraisals, a requirement of the Green Acres program. Quinn said that topic could come up for a vote at the next council meeting in two weeks.
MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook. | 1,268,712 |
Harris submitted letter in which “Jane Doe” alleges Kavanaugh carried out a gang rape “in the back seat of a car.” No place, date, or accomplices were listed.
You had to know California’s junior Senator would get in on the anonymous, uncorroborated claim party.
Late Wednesday night, Kamala Harris introduced a new accusation against Judge Kavanaugh. Harris claims an anonymous woman alleges a Kavanaugh gang rape party in the back seat of a car. None of the details have been provided.
BREAKING: Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee an anonymous and completely unsubstantiated accusation from a "Jane Doe" alleging Kavanaugh carried out a gang rape "in the back seat of a car." The letter omits place, date & alleged accomplices — Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) September 27, 2018
Gee, I wonder if Harris has an ulterior motive here?
Could it be money?
From The Daily Caller:
KAMALA HARRIS IS COVERING FACEBOOK WITH ANTI-KAVANAUGH FUNDRAISING ADS, AND SHE’S NOT EVEN UP FOR RE-ELECTION California Senator Kamala Harris has posted around 3,600 different Facebook ads opposing the confirmation of Trump SCOTUS pick Brett Kavanaugh, the Wall Street Journal reported. Most of the ads include a statement about Kavanaugh’s “opposition to Roe v. Wade, “loyalty” to the “president who appointed him,” or a complaint, such as the documents that have not been released, and all of them in some manner encourage voters to sign a petition opposing the judge’s confirmation to the court. Although Harris isn’t running for re-election this year, once voters click the petition they are linked to a fundraising page that suggests campaign contributions of $15 or more. “Judge Kavanaugh was hand-picked by conservative special interest groups because of his opposition to Roe v. Wade, and we know his loyalty will be with the president who appointed him, not to the Constitution or the American people who deserve someone who will treat everyone equally under the law,” reads one of the ads. “This is why we must work together to do everything we can to oppose his lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Sign our petition if you’re with me in this fight.” According to the Wall Street Journal, “no other senator appears to be doing as much Kavanaugh-related advertising on Facebook.” As of Wednesday, dozens of ads from Harris’ account were active.
Also relevant:
She was an AG for crying out loud. She knows evidence rules. — Blue Shift Blog (@BlueShiftBlog) September 27, 2018
This is getting laughable, which is incredibly concerning given the damage this does for victims of sexual abuse, the real ones though, not the imaginary ones invoked by Judicial Committee Democrats.
| 1,268,713 |
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A woman has effectively turned her 1,700-square-foot North Vancouver home into a hostel, offering up to 15 beds in dorm rooms and private suites.
With a listing on Google Maps and its own website, the Oasis Hostel boasts accommodations with mountain views.
WATCH: City of Vancouver says short-term rental crackdown is working
1:35 City of Vancouver says short-term rental crackdown is working City of Vancouver says short-term rental crackdown is working
The unit, which is no more than 1,700 square feet, offers a six-bed mixed dormitory, and another four-bed mixed dormitory. On top of that, there’s a two-bed budget suite and a three-bed comfort suite for a total of 15 beds.
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Neighbours say they have spent tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours trying to shut the operation down, but to no avail.
WATCH: West Van house party raises questions about short-term rentals
1:29 West Van house party raises questions about short-term rentals West Van house party raises questions about short-term rentals
Erin Wasney says she sees a constant back and forth of people with suitcases up and down the pathway.
“We’ve got strangers, we’ve got audible noise that has actually woken up my daughter in the middle of the night,” Wasney said. “We’ve had to call the cops lots.”
WATCH: Former tenant of illegal hostel speaks out
2:01 Former tenant of illegal hostel speaks out Former tenant of illegal hostel speaks out
That’s not the only cost.
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The strata had to raise everyone’s fees to take owner Emily Yu to the Civil resolution tribunal, a case which the council won.
Now, it might have to do it again to legally enforce that ruling and more than $6000 in fines.
“We don’t know what to do except to go ahead [and] spend even more money to try to get the courts to enforce on her,” said neighbour Dan Goldberg. “And when we do we’re not sure what the outcome of that will be.”
LISTEN: Townhouse owner flouts short-term rental laws, rents out 15 beds in North Shore townhouse
“It’s terrifying. Those people are stacked on top of each other,” Wasney said.
While the number of short-term occupants and use of the basement are city bylaw issues, Yu doesn’t see it that way.
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“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” she said. “A hostel that has 15 beds, there’s nothing wrong with that.” | 1,268,714 |
A University of Colorado fraternity is getting its newest pledges back.
Three ducklings rescued by CU fraternity members who were hiking up at Chautauqua will likely go back to the students after police determined the ducks were actually abandoned pets.
University of Colorado police originally confiscated the three ducklings Tuesday after three of the students held a pie-throwing fundraiser on campus to try and raise money for the baby birds.
CU police spokesman Scott Pribble said an officer found three students trying to raise money by allowing people to throw pies at their faces in exchange for cash.
March 14 is observed by some as National Pi Day.
“They were over at Norlin Quad doing a fundraiser to buy a proper shelter for their new pets,” Pribble said.
Pribble said police were not sure if the students actually raised any funds before police shut down their pie-throwing operation.
Police, thinking the ducklings were wild, decided that they were better off in a wildlife center than with college students and confiscated the animals, though the students were not issued any tickets.
But when Boulder police animal control Officer Taylor Barnes came to pick up the ducklings, he realized that they were not wild and were likely abandoned pets. The ducklings’ former owners have a week to claim them, but Barnes said he doubts that will happen.
“To be quite honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were dropped there (at Chautauqua),” Barnes said. “Unfortunately someone decided they didn’t want them.”
In consulting with the Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Barnes said he discovered local stores often begin to sell ducklings and chicks before Easter and that the baby animals often wind up being abandoned.
“That was kind of a bummer to hear that,” Barnes said.
But Barnes said that he went over to the fraternity to inspect the ducklings’ living situation and said if they aren’t claimed in a week, he was comfortable giving leaving them with the fraternity.
“I’m actually pretty happy with what they’re trying to do,” Barnes said. “They’re all pretty bonded. In fact, when one of the guys took one out of the box, he said, ‘Come to momma.'”
Barnes said the ducklings are only about three to four weeks old, and said he told the fraternity they will likely have to give them up when they get bigger. Barnes said he gave them a few recommendations.
“We’ll keep our tabs on them and see what they need and help out where we can,” Barnes said. “But at least for now, I think they’re doing a pretty stellar job.”
Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, [email protected] or twitter.com/mitchellbyars | 1,268,715 |
Salem, IN – An already very talented entry list for this weekend’s 48th Annual Winchester 400 Presented by CB Fabricating just got even better with the addition of NASCAR competitor Justin Haley, who has now filed an entry for the prestigious Super Late Model race. This will be Haley’s third time competing in the famed Winchester 400, with previous finishes of seventh in 2014 and 25th in 2015 after having suspension issues.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of a Super Late Model and racing in the Winchester 400 this weekend,” Haley remarked. “Being an Indiana native, I grew up knowing all about the Winchester 400 and how prestigious of an event it has become. The Winchester 400 is one of those races that any racer would like to say he won. The names that have been to victory lane in that event is just amazing. It would mean a lot for me to be able to add my name to that list!”
Haley has competed with the NASCAR Xfinity Series full-time in 2019, but his biggest win to date came in his third ever start with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Daytona International Speedway on July 7, when he came away with the surprising victory in the rain-shortened event.
Haley won the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour season-opening event at Springport Speedway in May of 2014. He was a three-time winner with the ARCA Menards Series in 2016 and a three-time winner with the Gander Outdoors NASCAR Truck Series during the 2018 season.
Pits open for the Winchester 400 cars on Saturday, October 12th at 8:00am, rotating practice for all divisions will begin at 10:45am. The ARCA/CRA Super Series teams will have a one-hour practice session beginning at 11:05am and a one-hour final practice session at 1:30pm on Saturday. Hamke Race Cars/Rowdy Manufacturing Pole Qualifying for the Winchester 400 will begin at 4:00pm on Saturday.
On Sunday, October 13 the pits will open at 9am. There will be an on-track autograph session with all the Winchester 400 drivers starting at 12:30. Opening ceremonies will begin at 1:30 pm with the 48th Annual Winchester 400 Presented by CB Fabricating taking the green flag at 2pm.]]
Additional track and event information can be found at www.winchesterspeedway.com.
Those unable to make it to Winchester, Indiana will be able to watch a live pay-per-view broadcast on Speed51. Visit www.speed51.com/winchester400 for more information.
The Winchester 400 entry form and more information on all the CRA Series is available at www.cra-racing.com.
-CRA Press Release
-Photo credit: Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images for NASCAR
NASCAR Daytona Winner to Compete in Winchester 400 | 1,268,716 |
Zenimax Online hasn't ruled out releasing The Elder Scrolls Online on consoles according to the studio's head.
“ Online game development is all about doing whatever you want, pushing limitations, and it's just easier to do on an open platform. Someday, it may all change.
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In an interview with GamesIndustry, Matt Firor explained that uncertainty over the next generation is the main thing that's holding the company back."There are a lot of rumors swirling around the next-gen coming back together with PCs," he said. "It seems like things are going back to a more standard platform. That being said, we haven't thought about it heavily right now. The worst thing you can do is worry about new platforms while in development."We want to do what we're doing right now and then look around for further opportunities. Certainly we're open to new opportunities, and we're going to be looking into new territories beyond North America and Europe."He claimed, "It's the classic desk vs. couch argument, but it is blurring over time. The current-gen and previous-gen MMOs were all about using the keyboard and mouse, and sure, everyone used things like Ventrilo and other voice chat services, but that only works in a small group. A lot of that has been thanks to design problems that people haven't focused on a lot, such as typing and controlling at the same time."The 360, when announced was a pretty ridiculously cool device, but it is not so good anymore compared to PCs and even when it was announced PCs were still better than it. The technology was a little limiting for the size and scope of the world you could have. It mostly comes down to PCs being wide open. Online game development is all about doing whatever you want, pushing limitations, and it's just easier to do on an open platform. Someday, it may all change."With so much still up in the air, it's no surprise that Firor refused to be drawn on the potential business model for the game, simply saying it would be revealed "later". There's been speculation both ways in recent months, with some arguing that Guild Wars 2's imminent release means the title can't risk charging a fee, while others argue that as development began in 2007 when most MMOs had recurring costs, it's likely the game was designed with that model in mind.But despite the crowded MMO marketplace, Firor explained the team isn't worried. He refuted the suggestion that Blizzard dominates the fantasy genre with World of Warcraft, arguing, "All fears have been erased after the success of Skyrim. It just shows that the IP, fantasy or not, is giant and very popular. It resonates with a lot of people in a lot of different parts of the world. It is perfect for an MMO, so I am not worried about that at all."The Elder Scrolls Online is due out in 2013.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter | 1,268,717 |
Papa John's tweets apology for being 'divisive' when ripping NFL
Kevin Spain | USA TODAY
Show Caption Hide Caption Papa John's apologizes for 'divisive' comments Papa John's apologized weeks after its founder and CEO, John Schnatter, said that the national anthem protests that have been ongoing in the NFL this season was hurting business.
A couple weeks after CEO John Schnatter blamed the NFL for sagging pizza sales, Papa John's is trying to tone down the vitriol.
Tuesday, the company apologized, said it supports players' protests and denounced neo-nazis, via its Twitter account
On the company's earnings call earlier this month, Schnatter basically called out NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for his handling of player protests.
"The NFL leadership has hurt Papa John's shareholders," Schnatter said. "The NFL has been a long and valued partner over the years. But we're certainly disappointed that the NFL and its leadership did not resolve the ongoing situation to the satisfaction of all parties long ago. This should've been nipped in the bud a year and half ago."
After the statements, a white-supremacist publication claimed Papa John's as their official pizza. The company scrambled to try to distance itself from the alt-right.
"The statements made on our earnings call were describing the factors that impact our business and we sincerely apologize to anyone that thought they were divisive. That definitely was not our intention," the company tweeted Tuesday.
NFL Week 11: Three must-watch matchups SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Lindsay H. Jones breaks down the three matchups that every NFL fan should make sure to watch this weekend.
"We believe in the right to protest inequality and support the players’ movement to create a new platform for change. We also believe together, as Americans, we should honor our anthem. There is a way to do both.
"We will work with the players and league to find a positive way forward. Open to ideas from all. Except neo-nazis — (expletive) those guys."
The statements made on our earnings call were describing the factors that impact our business and we sincerely apologize to anyone that thought they were divisive. That definitely was not our intention. (1/3) — Papa John's Pizza (@PapaJohns) November 15, 2017
We believe in the right to protest inequality and support the players’ movement to create a new platform for change. We also believe together, as Americans, we should honor our anthem. There is a way to do both. (2/3) — Papa John's Pizza (@PapaJohns) November 15, 2017
We will work with the players and league to find a positive way forward. Open to ideas from all. Except neo-nazis — 🖕those guys. (3/3) — Papa John's Pizza (@PapaJohns) November 15, 2017
Follow Spain on Twitter @kevin_spain | 1,268,718 |
DENVER (Reuters) - Public education officials in Colorado are considering a plan to tear down and rebuild Columbine High School, saying the site remains a “source of inspiration” for potential gun violence 20 years after a mass shooting there left 15 people dead.
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The idea was floated on Thursday in an open letter from the superintendent of Jefferson County public schools, Jason Glass, to Columbine staff, students, parents and members of the surrounding Denver suburb of Littleton, Colorado.
The proposal calls for placing a bond measure seeking $60 million to $70 million on a future ballot to pay for demolition of the existing school and construction of a new school to replace it just west of the current site.
Under the superintendent’s plan, the new campus would still be called Columbine High School, “honoring the pride and spirit the community has with the name,” and its school mascot and colors would remain unchanged.
The county Board of Education and administration are “in the very preliminary and exploratory stages” of discussing such a plan, and are seeking public feedback on the proposal, Glass said.
He cited numerous instances in which actual or would-be perpetrators of violence expressed a fascination with Columbine, including an 18-year-old Florida woman who shot herself to death in April after she sparked an extensive manhunt by traveling to Colorado days before the 20th anniversary of the 1999 massacre.
‘SOURCE OF INSPIRATION’
In 2010, 29-year-old twin sisters from Australia, obsessed with the shooting, traveled to Colorado and shot themselves at a local gun range in a suicide pact. One of the women survived, and police found among their belongings a photocopy of a news magazine cover depicting the Columbine killers and their victims.
The Columbine site, Glass said, “continues to serve as a source of inspiration for potential school shooters, and its lasting impact only seems to be growing.”
Fifteen people were killed in the Columbine rampage, which at the time ranked as the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Two high school seniors shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives in the bloodshed on April 20, 1999.
The now-retired principal of Columbine during the massacre, Frank DeAngelis, 64, said Glass had sought his opinion before going public with the demolition idea, and he thought it was a “good plan.”
“Twenty years ago, we never imagined that there would be people so infatuated with this tragedy years later,” DeAngelis said. “Maybe moving the physical plant would alleviate some of the issues.”
Aside from numerous threats and the hoaxes the school has received over the years, curiosity seekers would take pictures of their children in front of the school with the Columbine sign in the background.
“It became a tourist attraction,” he said. | 1,268,719 |
There’s no doubt that accidents involving autonomous vehicles will put challenging new liability questions before the courts. But that doesn’t mean the courts will be unable to address them. And it doesn’t mean that we have to put the autonomous-vehicle industry on hold so legislators can attempt to preemptively draft and enact an entirely new set of liability laws that anticipate everything that might go wrong. It’s an exercise that would be as impossible as it is unnecessary.
Why? Because we already have a legal framework that is basically up to the task, as I recently argued in detail in a Brookings Institution paper. Thanks largely to the tremendous technological change that has occurred since the middle of the last century, products liability has been a dynamic, rapidly evolving area of law. Notably, when confronted with new, often complex, questions involving products liability, courts have generally gotten things right.
Today’s products liability law is the result of decades—or more, if you take the longer view—of precedent that has established the responsibilities that accompany making and selling products. Plaintiffs in products-liability lawsuits can choose from among various (not mutually exclusive) “theories” of liability when seeking to recover damages.
Negligence occurs when manufacturers fail to design their products to be safe when used in reasonably foreseeable ways. Consider an autonomous steering technology that works well during the day but that tends to cause fender-benders when used at night. A person whose car is damaged as a result could assert that night driving is a reasonably foreseeable use of a vehicle, and that the manufacturer’s failure to ensure the technology worked effectively at night constitutes negligence.
Design defects are another commonly asserted theory of liability. Suppose that the software for controlling braking in an autonomous vehicle doesn’t sufficiently increase braking power when the vehicle needs to stop on a downhill slope. If, as a result, a vehicle causes a frontal collision (i.e., impacts a car in front of it), a person who suffers injuries or economic losses due to the collision could file a design-defects claim against the manufacturer.
Even when a design is sound, manufacturers can be liable for manufacturing defects. If an autonomous vehicle technology provider accidentally ships some vehicles with an early, non-market-ready version of software containing a flaw not present in the newer version that was supposed to have been shipped, a person injured in an accident attributable to this flaw could seek to recover damages from the technology provider.
Because the process of marketing and selling a product creates explicit and implicit warranties, products liability also involves contract law. Consider a provider of automated parallel parking solutions that claims in advertisements that the system can “parallel park in tight spaces equally well whether it’s day or night.” If, instead, the system only works during the day, and only in spaces that aren’t particularly tight, a purchaser of such a system could file a products liability claim citing breach of warranty (and would likely also allege that there was a design defect). | 1,268,720 |
Australia receives relatively little attention in academic literature when it comes to examining the origins and development of ancient weapons and tools. But neglecting to examine the capabilities of the ancient inhabitants of Australia would be missing out on an important piece of the puzzle. New research has shown that purposely sharpened or ‘retouched’ stone axes evolved in Australia thousands of years before they appeared in Europe. This suggests two possible scenarios – either the development of material culture evolved independently in various parts of the world, or the indigenous inhabitants of Australia had contact with other populations and passed on their tool-making capabilities.
According to a recent paper by scientists from the University of Western Australia and Australian National University, ground-edged axes were found at a site near Windjana Gorge in the central Kimberley dating back 30,000 years, challenging common assumptions about paleolithic innovations.
"The suggestion that all innovation has to come from the Old World is not true because clearly ground-stone axes were created here," said Professor Jane Balme, archaeologists from the University of Western Australia.
The researchers maintain that the stone axes were just one stage in the development of tools or weapons, but most likely not the first. They suggest that the first tools, such as spears, came from wood, and plants may have been used to create string for fishing.
The researchers suggest that the Australian Aboriginals developed the ground stone axes as a solution for chopping trees and plants, while the Europeans developed the same type of tools independently several millennia later, possibly to aid with hunting migrating game, which was common in Europe.
However, they appear to dismiss altogether the possibility that the Australian Aborigines could have passed on their innovations to other cultures. This is a view held by Steven and Even Strong, authors of ‘Forgotten Origin’, and other titles, who present the theory that Australian Aboriginals people “set sail from Australia, not to, 50,000 years ago. We claim that Australian Original people sailed to and settled in America over 40,000 years ago, and visited many other places including Egypt, Japan, Africa, India etc. They were the first Homo sapiens who evolved before the Sapiens of Africa, and who gave the world art, axes, religion, marine technology, culture, co-operative living, language and surgery.”
Indeed, researcher Professor Balme has indicated that ground-edged axes have also been found in Japan dating to several thousand years after those found in Australia.
Steven and Evan Strong add that “Many may not know that Professor Alan Wilson, the person responsible for the claim that we evolved from Africa, recanted his theory and now believes a small group of Homo erectus got to Australia 400,000 years ago. He believes they evolved into Homo sapiens and then spread from Australia well before the Africans.”
Featured image: Ground-edged axes like this one were found at a site near Windjana Gorge in the central Kimberley. Photo credit: Chris Langeluddecke
By April Holloway | 1,268,721 |
After a enduring a controversial saga that appeared to have ended his high school football career, MLive has received word that Walled Lake Western High School wide receiver Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen has regained his eligibility to play football this season.
After the MHSAA deemed Yaseen ineligible to play after ruling he had exhausted his high school eligibility, Yaseen’s father, Khalid Yaseen, called MLive late on Thursday afternoon with news that the decision has been reversed. Yaseen’s situation received ample attention from media partly because he is rated as a four-star wide receiver by ESPN and Rivals and is committed to Northwestern.
“It went through the process, I guess,” Khalid Yaseen said. “They took (an appeal) up again... I don’t know how, I don’t exactly know the inner workings of it but we’re definitely appreciative and grateful.”
Khalid Yaseen said that they received the news directly from the district-wide athletic director Brian Swinehart that Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen is now eligible. Swinehart did not respond to a voicemail at the time of publishing. Khalid Yaseen also mentioned that there was an executive committee meeting held on the topic.
The controversial saga surrounding Yaseen evolved from when Western school officials reported to the MHSAA that Yaseen had taken freshman-level courses while being homeschooled as an eighth grader. The MHSAA reviewed the issue and ruled that Yaseen was ineligible because he had exhausted all eligibility according to the MHSAA Handbook:
SECTION 4 (A)—A student shall not compete in athletics who has been enrolled in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, for more than eight semesters or 12 trimesters. The seventh and eighth semesters of enrollment or the 10th, 11th and 12th trimesters of enrollment must be consecutive.
Because Adbur-Rahmaan Yaseen took ninth grade classes in what should have been his eighth-grade year as a home school student, the MHSAA executive committee ruled that his eligibility was used up within his first three years at Western High School. Despite having turned 17 within the last month and still needing three classes to officially graduate, it looked like Yaseen was going to have to sit on the sidelines for what should have been his fourth year playing varsity football.
The decision left Yaseen heartbroken and his father was disappointed as well. Yaseen even mentioned the possibility of transferring out of state to play for a prep school.
Now, it appears Yaseen will be able to start playing football with Western right away. Western opens the football season next Thursday night at home against White Lake Lakeland.
Walled Lake Western coach Alex Grignon did not return a phone call at the time of publishing. Khalid Yaseen said his son was unavailable for comment at the time as well. | 1,268,722 |
Now that Tor 0.2.9.8 is stable, it's time to release a new alpha series for testing and bug-hunting!
Tor 0.3.0.1-alpha is the first alpha release in the 0.3.0 development series. It strengthens Tor's link and circuit handshakes by identifying relays by their Ed25519 keys, improves the algorithm that clients use to choose and maintain their list of guards, and includes additional backend support for the next-generation hidden service design. It also contains numerous other small features and improvements to security, correctness, and performance.
You can download the source from the usual place on the website. Packages should be available over the next weeks, including an alpha TorBrowser release some time in January.
Please note: This is an alpha release. Please expect more bugs than usual. If you want a stable experience, please stick to the stable releases.
Below are the changes since 0.2.9.8.
Changes in version 0.3.0.1-alpha - 2016-12-19
Major features (guard selection algorithm): Tor's guard selection algorithm has been redesigned from the ground up, to better support unreliable networks and restrictive sets of entry nodes, and to better resist guard-capture attacks by hostile local networks. Implements proposal 271; closes ticket 19877.
Major features (next-generation hidden services): Relays can now handle v3 ESTABLISH_INTRO cells as specified by prop224 aka "Next Generation Hidden Services". Service and clients don't use this functionality yet. Closes ticket 19043. Based on initial code by Alec Heifetz. Relays now support the HSDir version 3 protocol, so that they can can store and serve v3 descriptors. This is part of the next- generation onion service work detailled in proposal 224. Closes ticket 17238.
Major features (protocol, ed25519 identity keys): Relays now use Ed25519 to prove their Ed25519 identities and to one another, and to clients. This algorithm is faster and more secure than the RSA-based handshake we've been doing until now. Implements the second big part of proposal 220; Closes ticket 15055. Clients now support including Ed25519 identity keys in the EXTEND2 cells they generate. By default, this is controlled by a consensus parameter, currently disabled. You can turn this feature on for testing by setting ExtendByEd25519ID in your configuration. This might make your traffic appear different than the traffic generated by other users, however. Implements part of ticket 15056; part of proposal 220. Relays now understand requests to extend to other relays by their Ed25519 identity keys. When an Ed25519 identity key is included in an EXTEND2 cell, the relay will only extend the circuit if the other relay can prove ownership of that identity. Implements part of ticket 15056; part of proposal 220.
| 1,268,723 |
Still Evangelical?, a new book from InterVarsity Press, captures the way a certain segment of Christian leaders are thinking about this moment of evangelical identity crisis. All of the writers hold prominent positions in the worlds of ministry, seminaries, and religious advocacy, but none are household names outside of the Christian world. This is part of the point: Many highly respected evangelicals with significant influence are basically ignored by the mainstream press, creating a skewed view of what evangelicalism is.
Yet this group is also arguably at odds with many Americans who call themselves evangelicals. They write from elite perches. Many are unabashedly progressive, and at least one is a female executive pastor of a church—a controversial role for women in some evangelical denominations. Although some are bona fide conservatives, none seems to be a full-throated Trump supporter. For the most part, these are Christians who feel disoriented by their brothers and sisters who supported Trump in the election. That fact alone means they sit in the minority.
But these leaders are worth listening to for two reasons. First, as many of them write, they show the diversity of evangelicalism. Their stories add range and depth to an often flat portrait offered by the media. Second, their reflections on evangelicalism provide a road map of what may lie ahead. Each writer agitates for some kind of reform in churches and institutions; each sees the current state of affairs as unsustainable. If the term “evangelical” survives the turmoil of Trump—if, after everything, these Christians agree that they are “still evangelical”—his presidency may be looked back on as a crucible for change. Having redefined politics with evangelicals’ support, Trump may redefine expressions of evangelicalism as well.
Evangelicals are a notoriously difficult group to define. Many political exit polls determine who is evangelical by asking a single question along the lines of, “Do you consider yourself to be born again or evangelical?” This often confuses more than it clarifies: The answers may mix Protestants and Catholics together, obscure vast cultural differences among denominations, and downplay the distinctiveness of historically non-white churches. The most recent Pew Religious Landscapes survey goes into more depth, using “evangelical” as an umbrella term for churches and denominations that share certain convictions, practices, and origins. Pew puts their number in the U.S. around 62 million, a figure that includes people who identify as everything from Southern Baptist to Pentecostal to non-denominational.
Most of the writers in Still Evangelical? rely on a definition first published by the scholar David Bebbington in 1989, called a “quadrilateral” for its four distinctive qualities. According to Bebbington, evangelicals place the truth of the Bible at the center of their faith; they focus on Jesus’s atonement for sins on the cross; they emphasize a personal experience of conversion or salvation; and they believe they must actively share the gospel and do good in the world. | 1,268,724 |
DEMO INCLUDE NAMI ONLY, FULL VERSION IS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR MY PATREONS
As I promised, here is the second pack of my simulator. I hope you'l enjoy it. It's made just for you with more sexxx scenes, stages and exclusive models
IVY VALENTINE
from soul calibur series – normal and naked version – include soul calibur sailor’s rest full stage in VR
NAMI
from one piece - normal and naked version - include one piece sunny boat stage in VR
LARA CROFT
from tomb raider series – new tomb raider & anniversary & semi naked version
FULL SEX SCENE has been added and a lot of updates.
Link for CARDBOARD and SAMSUNG GEAR.( ivy and lara are patreon only)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/xxx-simulator-vr-8392483
Link for HTC VIVE & OCCULUS RIFT ( ivy and lara are patreon only)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/xxx-simulator-vr-8392483
CREDITS AND LICENCES:
NAMI
-nami normal model by Friends4Never from One Piece Pirate Warriors 2, all right go to Tecmo Koei
-nami naked by from TBOMB100, fixed by me All right go to koei tecmo
– one piece sunny boat by esuka3311
– music “we are” instrumental
IVY
Ivy valentine normal – by me spacebear7778 converted and rigged from xnalara model
Ivy naked – by me djywright body by nakao
stage sailor’s rest convert from xna deexie converted by me spacebear7778
music sailor’s rest
all right go to namco
LARA CROFT
lara new tomb raider normal – by me spacebear7778 converted from xna andersoncathy?
lara semi naked – by me spacebear778 – body part from maniaco loco
lara tomb raider anniversary by spuros12, Dusan & arisumatio
music main theme tomb raider 2
all right go to eidos and square enix
REDISTRIBUTION IS PROHIBITED!
HOW TO PLAY :
CARDBOARD & GEAR:Just look at the correct cube to change stage or motion or activate the hand.
OCCULUS & VIVE: Use the keyboard arrows and move with keyboard "WASD" keys.
IMPORTANT!:
If you have a GearVR headset, please don’t plug your Samsung phone with the GearVR. | 1,268,725 |
petemurdocknew.jpg
Pete Murdock
(File photo)
Council Member Pete Murdock will pay an estimated $400 for a Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to a proposed Amtrak train stop after the rest of council chose not to waive the fees.
Murdock previously said City Manager Ralph Lange won't provide documents relating to the stop that he requested, forcing him to put in a FOIA request for the information.
"I'm upset with the city manager for not giving us information. He doesn't want to give it up, but it's our information," Murdock said.
Council can waive the FOIA fee if it's determined that the request is for the public good. Murdock contends government transparency is for the public good.
However, several other council members appear to feel Murdock should pay for the train stop information.
At council's April 5 meeting, Council Member Brian Robb put forth a resolution to waive the fees. Murdock recused himself from the vote because City Attorney John Barr said Murdock had a financial interest.
No other council members seconded Robb's motion, so it died without discussion. That means Murdock must pay for the FOIA.
Mayor Amanda Edmonds, Mayor Pro Tem Lois Richardson, Council Member Nicole Brown and Council Member Anne Brown didn't second the motion. Council Member Dan Vogt was absent.
No council member provided a reason for their stance during the meeting, and none replied to emails from The Ann Arbor News.
"I think they should be interested in the information, but they seem to be fine making decisions without information," Murdock said, adding council members should get a raise if they have to start paying for information
Murdock said he submitted the FOIA on March 3 and has yet to receive documents, which he said he was told includes at least 1,000 emails. But he did pay $189 to the county for their time, and he said he was told he would pay around the same amount for the city's time.
He charged the "secrecy" on the train stop proposal is part of a larger issue he has with information flow from the city manager.
"I don't think we've been kept up to date on several major things. The train being one and Water Street being another, other than 'Oh we're working on it,'" he previously said.
In regards to the train stop, Murdock said he's concerned about an MDOT letter that Lange received on Dec. 9 stating MDOT would consider an Ypsilanti Amtrak stop.
Murdock questioned why Lange held onto the letter for three months without informing the public.
Lange has also known for a year that MDOT wanted to close the train crossings at Park and Grove streets, Murdock said, but he never made that information public until last month. Now the city is rushing to push the road closures through the planning process, Murdock said.
Lange has declined to comment. | 1,268,726 |
until he started to struggle and then get hurt. My guess is his agent also feels he has a lot of leverage with the Wild’s uncertain goalie situation regarding the health of Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding. Also, if you remember history, the Wild had a lot of trouble even getting an entry-level deal done with Kuemper the first go-around. So stay tuned here because it would not shock me if we’re still talking about an unsigned Kuemper next month.
In terms of Niederreiter, it’s also not easy to do comparables here. How do you project out exactly what he will be the next few years when he came to Minnesota without any shred of real stats because he was buried on the fourth line on Long Island and then spent all of 2013 in the minors? He showed glimpses of what he could be last season with 14 goals while playing basically every role, from left wing to right, to top line, second line and checking line.
He was also the Game 7 hero (bad word to use in sports, I know) against Colorado, scoring two goals on pure snipes, including the OT winner and setting up Spurgeon’s tying goal in the waning minutes of the third period.
As GM Chuck Fletcher told me last week, his preference would be to sign Niederreiter to a two- to four-year deal, although my guess is at the end of the day, it’ll be a two-year bridge contract. This way, Niederreiter gives himself the ability to pile up numbers the next two years and then tries to hit a homer on his next contract.
-- I’ll be filling in for Paul Allen next Tuesday and Wednesday from 9-noon on KFAN. Folin, who is heading back to Boston to train, may be one of my guests. I’ll try to talk a little hockey both days, but in the dog days of summer, it’ll be pretty hard to justify all-hockey shows. So there will be a lot of Vikings, Twins talk, etc. I’m also going to my first-ever Minnesota United FC game Saturday, so I’m sure we’ll have a futbol guest or two.
Musician Eric Hutchinson, who just was in town playing Oake on the Water at Maynard’s and then the Basilica Block Party, will be coming on one of the days. He’s a great guy and a sports fanatic – a self-proclaimed fantasy baseball and football expert. I’ll also try to get one other surprise, well-known musician on one of those days who’s also a sports fanatic and has a concert in town in the upcoming days.
Also, actor/comedian/SuperTrooper Erik Stolhanske may join me in studio one day. So, the shows will go beyond sports, which won't surprise anybody who knows me. | 1,268,727 |
Signs suggest that the credit crunch is picking up steam. Worried banks are reducing business loans as noted in We’re Saying No To Almost Everybody, and now corporate bonds yields show biggest rise since 2000.
Bondholders are demanding the highest interest rates for Wall Street debt since 2000, threatening the industry's business model of acquiring assets with borrowed money. Lehman (LEH) has seen borrowing costs for its five-year bonds rise to 7.7 percent, up from 5.2 percent six months ago, the biggest jump of the four largest U.S. securities firms, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
"This is almost self-induced balance-sheet destruction," said Joseph Balestrino, a fixed-income strategist at Pittsburgh- based Federated Investors Inc., which manages about $330 billion. "This is far beyond just your basic slowdown."
In some debt maturities, Merrill's bond yields are higher than Lehman's. For instance, Merrill debt that matures in April 2018 yielded 8.15 percent as of July 25, compared with 8.01 percent on Lehman notes that mature on May 2018.
"If you're going to be a big user of capital, then you have to be worried about how you finance your business," said William Cohan, a former investment banker at Lazard Ltd. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the author of "The Last Tycoons" about Lazard. "A lot of these guys don't know what to do. They're frozen, and they're just hoping that in time things will get better."
"It's going to be harder and harder for them to borrow long-term in this environment, to pay the spreads that investors are going to want," said David Hendler, an analyst at CreditSights Inc., a research firm in New York. "Can they deal with this type of funding environment?"
Lehman's long-term debt outstanding rose to $128 billion from $123 billion in the first half of fiscal 2008, as the firm cut its dependence on overnight funding, company reports show. Morgan Stanley's long-term borrowings totaled $211 billion on May 31, up from $191 billion at the end of November.
Today, a decade after the Russian government defaulted on bond payments, the country's bonds are yielding less than Lehman's -- meaning investors have more faith in Russia's prospects than in Lehman's future.
Russia's 11 percent BBB+ rated bond that matures in 2018 yields 5.68 percent, two percentage points less than the Lehman 2012 bond that's rated two notches higher by S&P.
"They do have the Fed as a backstop," said Balestrino, whose company owns bonds in Lehman, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. "In the meantime you probably are setting records in terms of yield spreads."
Record In Yield Spreads Coming
To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List | 1,268,728 |
Image caption The LHC has been built to investigate the fundamental building blocks of nature
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the Franco-Swiss border has made its first clear observation of a new particle since opening in 2009.
It is called Chi_b (3P) and will help scientists understand better the forces that hold matter together.
The as-yet unpublished discovery is reported on the Arxiv pre-print server.
The LHC is exploring some of the fundamental questions in "big physics" by colliding proton particles together in a huge underground facility.
Detail in the sub-atomic wreckage from these impacts is expected to yield new information about the way the Universe is constructed.
The Chi_b (3P) is a more excited state of Chi particles already seen in previous collision experiments, explained Prof Roger Jones, who works on the Atlas detector at the LHC.
"The new particle is made up of a 'beauty quark' and a 'beauty anti-quark', which are then bound together," he told BBC News.
"People have thought this more excited state should exist for years but nobody has managed to see it until now.
"It's also interesting for what it tells us about the forces that hold the quark and the anti-quark together - the strong nuclear force. And that's the same force that holds, for instance, the atomic nucleus together with its protons and the neutrons."
The LHC is designed to fill in gaps in the Standard Model - the current framework devised to explain the interactions of sub-atomic particles - and also to look for any new physics beyond it.
In particular, it is using the collisions to try to pin down the famous Higgs particle, which physicists hypothesise can explain why matter has mass.
Discoveries such as Chi_b (3P) are an important part of this quest because they add to the wider background knowledge, says Prof Jones, from Lancaster University, UK.
"The better we understand the strong force, the more we understand a large part of the data that we see, which is quite often the background to the more exciting things we are looking for, like the Higgs.
"So, it's helping put together that basic understanding that we have and need to do the new physics."
Prof Paul Newman, from the University of Birmingham, added: "This is the first time such a new particle has been found at the LHC. Its discovery is a testament to the very successful running of the collider in 2011 and to the superb understanding of our detector which has been achieved by the Atlas collaboration already."
And Andy Chisholm, a PhD student from Birmingham who worked on the analysis, said: "Analysing the billions of particle collisions at the LHC is fascinating. There are potentially all kinds of interesting things buried in the data, and we were lucky to look in the right place at the right time." | 1,268,729 |
Ignore the fact that you’re playing on a widescreen, flat-panel monitor and Thimbleweed Park
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Thimbleweed clearly enjoys being a 2017 adventure game set 30 years earlier as its Mulder and Scully-esque main characters arrive in town, with different agendas, in order to solve a murder. References to LucasArts and Monkey Island are everywhere – from a “G[uybrush] loves E[laine]” scratched into the hotel elevator panel to an entire subplot about one of Park’s five main characters revolving around a quest to get a job as a “MmucasFlem” adventure game designer. (Don’t worry, Maniac Mansion fans: there are plenty of nods to that classic here as well.) And in typical Gilbert fashion, the fourth wall is broken so many times that it must be made out of the same foam the Kool-Aid Man busted through in 1987 TV commercials.The meta works, and if you remember the point-and-click era as one littered with pixel hunts and puzzles of questionable logic, Thimbleweed Park not only fails to avoid that, it runs toward it and actively embraces it. Still, it offers a smart modern concession on the genre’s age-old “what do I do now?” problem: to-do lists. Every character has a running list of what they need to accomplish that can be referenced at any time, which serves as a welcome signpost to keep you on track without giving any specific puzzle hints or outright solutions.It wasn’t enough to keep me from having out reach out to friends for a hint or two. I had the same problems I always have in point-and-clicks: either I didn’t see something I could’ve clicked on, or I just flat-out missed the logic in a puzzle. But most of the time, as ever, walking away and coming back later often gave me the insight I needed to get unstuck from the puzzle bog.It helps to have so many playable characters. While you might assume that having five people and five inventories to manage could overwhelm you, Thimbleweed Park’s alternative paths are instead welcome, and later puzzles require multiple characters to work together from different locations. For instance, at one point, you’ll need to distract a reporter with one hero remotely, via radio, so the one in the room can get what he/she needs. On that note, every playable Park-er eventually gets a map, which effectively serves as a much-needed fast-travel system.Even still, I spent over 20 hours unraveling Thimbleweed Park’s mysteries. Of course, some of those were spent wandering in confused frustration, but that’s par for the course in this genre. I should mention that there is a Casual mode, just as Monkey Island 2 had an Easy mode, but it cuts out approximately half of the puzzles and, thus, the gameplay. | 1,268,730 |
Will Neymar leave PSG this summer?
Spanish football expert Graham Hunter believes Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is "obsessed" with signing Neymar, but does not see how the move would happen this summer.
Neymar joined Paris St-Germain from Barcelona last summer and has a contract with the French champions until 2022.
Real, who have sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus for £105m, released a statement last week to deny speculation that they had made a bid for Neymar.
Click here to listen to the Transfer Talk podcast
However, Hunter told the Transfer Talk podcast: "Florentino Perez is obsessed with signing Neymar. He was before Ronaldo left and it was one of the things that annoyed Ronaldo because the ruling king never likes to see a prince taking over his fiefdom.
"Neymar went to Real Madrid and trained there when he was a kid, they thought they had him signed and sealed before Barcelona nipped in and convinced him, his father and Santos that it had to be Barcelona.
0:20 Chris Coleman says he's not sure if Gareth Bale will remain at Real Madrid following speculation he will leave Chris Coleman says he's not sure if Gareth Bale will remain at Real Madrid following speculation he will leave
"The most traditional thing in football is the guy who does you damage, turns your team over or scores, or the one you thought you had and got away, that's the signing that every club says we have to get and right a wrong."
However, while Real might be keen to sign Neymar, Hunter thinks it will be a difficult move to pull off this summer.
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"I would be lying if I said there's an obvious means or any obvious will from PSG.
"I think Neymar would bite your hand off if you said here is a formula for you to get to Real Madrid, but given the high finances involved I am happy to say Neymar is a PSG player for at least one more season.
France's Kylian Mbappe is also reportedly wanted by Real Madrid
"I don't see how they achieve it but it is 100 per cent factual that Real Madrid are pouring every resource they have got, whether it's strategic or financial or marketing in order to try and get Neymar."
As well as Neymar, Real have also been linked with a move for PSG's Kylian Mbappe.
But Hunter also thinks that is unlikely after PSG were cleared of breaking UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules - although that decision has been appealed.
"Because PSG are not as in as much jeopardy as people thought they might be after the FFP investigations by UEFA, PSG are not predisposed to see Mbappe and don't need to sell him now," said Hunter.
"So unless their financial situation changes radically and quickly, I think that's out of reach for Real Madrid too." | 1,268,731 |
and work in semi-isolated bureaucracies with distinct ideologies that dont match how the world really works, you get bright, dedicated idiots. Have you ever actually met people from the State Department? They are the stiffest, whitest parsnips alive, often went to private schools with names like Crouton and Choake, ok for drinking wine with governmental officials but never spent time in Willy Bobs not-so-safe pool hall or in back alleys in, say, Cairo. Where do you think most of the world lives? The protesters come from?
Similarly, generals cant win wars because they live in an imaginary world of martial ardor and excessive order that doesnt correlate with Quang Tri or Helmand.
Now, as Egypt unfolds, or ravels, or whatever it is doing, Washington prattles of its love of democracy. We hear much of this from Hillary Clinton, whose qualifications as Secretary of State are that she is a Democrat. Hillary, nice Wellesley girl, retired housewife and former First Basilisk, says that Egypt must heed the people. She believes, or thinks she believes, or says that she thinks she believes, in the need for liberalization. The very mollusks of the earth must find this laughable, though it plays well in the heartland. What Washington wants most is a return to stable dictatorship.
Its simple enough for garden ants and some intellectuals to get it: Most of the world hates us because we meddle where we shouldnt, engender bloody revolutions, and impose every penny-ante Stalin we can scratch up. If you have democracy in countries where everyone hates you, you get governments that hate you. Thus you cant want democracy. You have to want obedient brutal dictators with torture chambers. Its what we always want, and usually get. This makes people hate us even more. Round and round we go.
The approach succeeds as long as you are strong enough to work opponents over with a length of pipe and keep them terrified. Them days is going the way of slide rules and wooly mammoths. Methinks the Pentagon had better come up with a ball bat, or hope Mubarak does, because if Washington cant crush the Egyptian population one way or another, American influence in the Mideast, and by extension everywhere else, is going to wither fast. Getting run out of Afghanistan will complete bin Ladens program in which Washington cooperates so effectively.
It doesnt take a Weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Me and Long Dog Silver, were going for potato chips.
Fred Reed is author of Nekkid in Austin: Drop Your Inner Child Down a Well and A Brass Pole in Bangkok: A Thing I Aspire to Be. His latest book is Curmudgeing Through Paradise: Reports from a Fractal Dung Beetle. Visit his blog.
The Best of Fred Reed | 1,268,732 |
Walk With Me
When I started working with refugees, I was shocked to learn that less than 5% of all funds raised globally help with education and healthcare combined. I decided to make those my top priority. As a Tying Vines Inc. board member, I launched projects under the title: Walk With Me.
This project title had a unique meaning; I wanted to build a network of partners who would walk with me on the journey to help refugees, providing assistance in specific areas of expertise. In 2015 we launched a small medical clinic in Jordan, serving a remote area of approximately 30,000 refugees.
Shortly before the launch of our second medical clinic in Lebanon, I met Brian de Francesca, Chief Executive Officer at Ver2 Digital Medicine. Brian is one of those smart, Johns Hopkins education experts who specializes in digitalization and connectivity to improve healthcare. He joined me and a small group of doctors on a trip to the Beqaa Valley to assess healthcare needs of refugees. The healthcare need in the camps was overwhelming. We called our small team, Real Sustainable Impact, and we began to dream of a way to bring more efficient and more effective care to refugees in remote areas. It was there the vision to connect 700 refugee camps world-wide was born.
As we’ve grown from one small clinic, to more than 15 projects in six countries, it’s incredibly apparent that we need help. Often, access to resources and lab work can be a huge issue in the isolated areas where we work. We need simple tools that connect us to the world, especially for remote war-torn areas.
I think it’s pretty clear when we talk about the needs of refugees, an IT system isn’t anything that comes to mind. For those of us who work on the front-lines, we know that many other things take priority, like safe drinking water, shelter, and food. However, it’s incredibly apparent to me that simple IT systems will allow us to exponentially improve the quality of healthcare for refugees.
We are excited to partner with Iryo (https://iryo.io), a blockchain startup centered around improving the state of technology in healthcare. Iryo is creating a new global healthcare network that is truly remarkable in scope; redefining the user experience of refugee patients and isolated healthcare workers. Iryo will also provide real-time records that will allow us to connect to doctors and professionals around the world through the Ver2 telehealth and education platforms.
What does this really mean? It means a refugee in a remote area who visits our clinic will have access to a vast network of professionals willing to help.
Our clinic might staff a general practitioner, but with the Iryo and Ver2 partnerships, we can now link patients with specialized care in almost any area. This transforms on-the-ground care, while keeping costs low, and facilitating opportunities for medical professionals and education experts to help from anywhere in the world; an incredible way to walk with us on the journey. | 1,268,733 |
feminist rhetoric to open the door to the kind of racist rhetoric being peddled by the likes of David Duke and the KKK. White people are being oppressed by many sinister forces, the argument holds, and racial diversity is a mask for the supposed genocide of white people.
Carusone perceives an ideological agenda on here — Trump is a semi-overt racist (although he denies that specific label) and Fox News has an interest in keeping his views in the political mainstream — but also a financial one.
Fox News needs "that younger audience," Carusone said, because the network's audience, with an average age of 68, is about eight years older than the typical cable-news viewer. Fox News is having some problems with advertising, and has openly yearned to attract more eyeballs among the 18-to-45 crowd that advertisers crave. Fox Nation, an online service that still hasn't launched, is clearly one effort to grab that crowd. But another is to shifting the rhetoric on Fox News itself to more closely mirror the racist, paranoid nonsense being eagerly gobbled up by the young men who flood places like 4chan, Reddit and 8chan and decorate their social media avatars with the Pepe the Frog avatar.
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Fox News, Carusone argued, increasingly sees "the alt-right Periscope channels and YouTube channels that really speak to the audience of young men" as their principal competition. That crowd isn't interested "the 30 or 40 minutes of standard right-wing stuff" normally seen on Fox News, he continued, but wants "vicious attacks and conspiracy theories" of the kind they often encounter online. Carusone notes that, along with the "white genocide" rhetoric, Fox News has also shilled for a conspiracy theory that has lately bubbled up in the 8chan and Reddit swamp: the proposition that Christine Blasey Ford has had false memories implanted.
The forces of online organizing behind white nationalism and other fringe, fascist-flavored ideologies have already had a significant impact on younger people. PRRI research indicates that while most young Americans are politically to the left of their elders, young white men, no doubt influenced by far-right online culture, increasingly reject the existence of actual racism and sexism and believe instead that white men are the true victims of oppression. Carusone expressed concern that seeing such views "featured front and center at one of the most prominent news channels" will offer the apparent imprimatur of mainstream acceptability, and encourage the existing audience to become even more overtly racist than it is already.
The constant drumbeat of news items about President Trump's racist remarks or Tucker Carlson's latest flirtation with white nationalism can be numbing, but the grim reality is that this situation is getting worse all the time. Fox News has seized on the increased coverage stemming from the Kavanaugh showdown to push claims that used to be entirely disreputable even on the right. That suggests the network is determined to tie the Republican Party's to Trumpism and define racial grievance as its core ideology. | 1,268,734 |
is lacking certain important qualities for it to be music. Report Post
Dubstep is not music. Music by definition is a vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Music can be formed by instruments and or someones vocal cords. From the genre of the music like smooth jazz, pop and or metal. Anything that creates song or rhythm is classified as music. The main idea of the theory is that music is a Super stimulus for the perception of musicality, where "musicality" is actually a perceived property of speech. "Musicality" refers to the property of music that determines how "good" it is, how strong an emotional effect it has, and how much we enjoy listening to it. Using a music note paper and creating clefs like triple or even bass is not classified as music only because the notes are only on a piece of paper but can hear the rhythm or the sound of the notes in the paper. But if you make the paper into a song or a rhythm or piano, guitar, flute etc then that is classified as a piece of music. Even though if the music itself is horrible or just a rough draft. The song from hearing is classified as a piece of music. But can dance be classified as music? In other words, dance is not just something which accompanies music, dance actually is music. Music is a super-stimulus for aspects of speech perception, but speech perception is not just the perception of sounds: it also includes perception of the speaker's movements such as facial expressions, body language and hand gestures. Dance can be identified as the super-stimulus for this component of speech perception.
Even though from a dance club or other dance activites sometimes can be really classified as music. Only because having “dance class” and have tap shoes. Is music. Only because you're using your movements and sound of the shoes to make a rhythm of the song or artist. Which is music. But think about how the artist makes the music, for example. Some artist have a type of tecno or sound to make the music stand out. Or have it stand out when the music is 100% complete.They're all kinds of sounds that make music. Well music. So my definition dubstep cannot be classified as music. Maybe another word. But to make dubstep takes no skill then using real instruments. Then a piece of electric. Like a laptop. Then a flute or guitar or even vocals. Its pretty simple to realize when you hear a dubstep song. Then a jazz song. Report Post
DJ's aren't artists. It does not take any aptitude of talent to be a good DJ, or to make a good song. Anyone can do it, and that's great. But it's not music, it's dubstep on it's own. A 12 yo with a Mashine Mikro could make a dubstep song that you might hear on the radio. Wheres the talent? Report Post | 1,268,735 |
the room, as ever, is what happens if anything befalls Kane. Son has the quality to operate as a false nine, as he did a few times last season, but it is no long-term solution. For all that Tottenham have developed collectively under Pochettino, Kane’s 30 league goals in 2017-18 were his highest proportion yet of the team’s total – a quality alternative is badly needed.
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If the midfield needs freshening up then Luke Amos, a 21-year-old who was barely on the radar before a series of excellent performances in the International Champions Cup, may be given his chance. There is hope, too, that Harry Winks will be available soon having recovered from ankle surgery. Two years after his first-team breakthrough it is still hard to tell quite how good Winks, a very tidy, technical player, actually is but there would be a clear opportunity to assert himself in an area where Spurs’ options are, again, hardly endless.
The rapid strides made by both Trippier and Ben Davies, considered back-ups two seasons ago, are a tribute to Pochettino’s player development, and the defence should get by unless there is any dramatic late change in Alderweireld’s situation. Cameron Carter-Vickers, another to impress recently, may stay put as an extra centre-back.
Early meetings with Manchester United and, on that red-letter day in north London, Liverpool will provide important indications of how well-placed Tottenham are to push on with the current crop. There will be intrigue and perhaps concern as to how quickly Jürgen Klopp’s reinforced side, who finished only two points adrift of Spurs in 2017-18, settle down as well as the adeptness with which Unai Emery and Maurizio Sarri recalibrate their new teams elsewhere in the city.
In an ideal world it may be enough to chalk this season off as one in which a fourth consecutive Champions League qualification would suffice. That no longer cuts it, though, and Pochettino was not only speaking for himself when he said that “for me, it is not enough” simply to sit at Europe’s top table.
The clear implication is that the time has come, in his fifth season, to win a major trophy. Bridging the gap with Manchester Cityby any significant amount looks a long shot; on the continent they have beaten the best only to be outsmarted by Juventus, and the easiest way to satisfy Pochettino’s urge may be to banish the ghosts of that crushing FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United. Otherwise they may have to content themselves with the strange feeling of treading water at a rarefied level, roared on from their gleaming new stands and waiting a little longer for the day when, like those navy-blue-and-white cranes, they get to tower above everyone else. | 1,268,736 |
A new Bitcoin scam is luring victims into downloading malware by promising them free Ethereum and BTC.
This scam is being promoted through various websites that offer several programs that reportedly reward users with free cryptocurrency.
Cunning Bitcoin scam
There are two levels to the current cryptocurrency scam being pushed.
The first is that the websites offer free Ethereum (ETH) to users who refer others to the scam-pushing websites.
The payout for the referrals breaks down to three ETH for every 1,000 visits, which amounts to US$807 [AU$1,170] at current prices.
The ETH referral payout is just the lure, however, and a means of expanding the scope of the Bitcoin scam.
It’s the second layer of the operation that is the true heart of the scam.
Once a person is on one of the shady websites, they are met with another offer of gaining free cryptocurrency in the form of $15 to $45 a day in free bitcoins.
To get their hands on this free BTC, the user is told to download a program called “Bitcoin Collector.”
This program is supposed to generate free BTC for the user but it actually does anything but.
Malicious consequences
If the victim downloads the “Bitcoin Collector” program and extracts it, a number of files are generated.
The notable file that is unzipped is called “BotCollector.exe,” which will run a program called “Freebitco.in – Bot” when launched.
Instead of generating a daily dose of free bitcoins, this program actually installs malware on the victim’s system.
A malware researcher who goes by the name Frost on Twitter uncovered the scam and, according to him, this malware has taken two different forms so far.
Originally, the “BotCollector.exe” sequence launched ransomware called “Marozka Tear Ransomware.”
Victims of the ransomware would have their files encrypted and then receive a digital ransom note, via a text file, telling them that they had 48 hours to contact the hackers and arrange or payment or else the files would be lost completely.
This particular iteration of the malware appears to have been foiled, however, as victims whose machines have been infected can run the HiddenTear Decrypter utility to decrypt their files for free.
Frost reports that the malware has now shifted gears and, instead of installing ransomware, installs a Trojan designed to steal information from infected computers.
This Trojan, identified by Frost as Baldr, can be used to steal files, document your browsing history, take screenshots, and even steal your login info for anything from your email to cryptocurrency wallets.
If you visited one of these “Bitcoin Collector” websites recently – especially if you downloaded the “official application” – it is recommended that you run virus and malware scans on your computer and update all of your passwords. | 1,268,737 |
While boosting its defense expenditure to come closer to NATO’s spending target, Oslo decided against joining its missile defense network for the time being.
The Norwegian government has decided against joining NATO’s missile shield. The debate about Norway’s possible participation has long spurred fears of tensions between Norway and Russia.
“Through a broader security policy assessment, the government has decided that Norway does not consider acquiring upper-tier sensors or intercept missiles that can become part of NATO’s ballistic missile defense,” the state budget said.
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“I think this prevents further tensions,” Russina expert from the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Affairs (NUPI) Julie Wilhelmsen said as quoted by Norway’s TV2.
A secret Norwegian defense document from 2017 cited the alleged “threat” from Russia as the reason why Norway should join the “missile shield”. The document also listed sizable gaps and deficiencies in Norway’s air defense, which reportedly make it difficult for Norway to defend itself on its own.
At the same time, Norway’s new budget increased defense spending to 1.8 percent of the GDP, further shrinking the distance to NATO’s spending goal of 2 percent owing to an increase of NOK 5.2 billion ($570 million).
The 2019 NATO estimate published in June placed Norway’s defense spending in 13th place within the alliance, down from the tenth spot it held in 2017.
RELATED CONTENT: The US Is Spending $1.25 Trillion Annually on War
“Most other countries increase more than Norway. That’s why we’ve fallen down in the list of contributors,” NATO Secretary General and former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told the daily newspaper Verdens Gang.
“Keeping up old capabilities can be more expensive than new ones. Technology has made the Armed Forces more expensive, so there is no doubt that we are devoting resources to the Armed Forces,” Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen retorted.
Over the past decade, NATO’s plans for a US missile shield in Europe has been one of the most divisive issues between Russia and NATO. While NATO officials have continued to assure that the defense network is not aimed at Russia, but rather at ballistic missiles fired from outside Europe, Moscow disagrees, arguing that the shield will topple the balance between the nuclear powers, triggering a new arms race.
Norway initially opposed the idea of NATO becoming part of the US missile defense plans, but changed its mind and has been rather supportive of the idea since 2010. In a twist of irony, Stoltenberg himself used to be against the missile defense network during his time as the leader of the nation’s Labour party.
Source URL: Sputnik | 1,268,738 |
no need to delete profession, might as well delete the account with these skills!
“Lulu.”
Ling Mu Yu called out again, and said, “Activate self-destruction command, I’m leaving.”
The little spirit lady looked at Ling Mu Yu silently, her eyes became watery, “Brother is going to leave? Does brother not want Lulu anymore?”
Ling Mu Yu wasn’t sure to cry or laugh, since he never saw the spirit cry before, so he decided to smile and said, “No, maybe….. We could find each other when we turn at an intersection. Lulu, help me to activate the self-destruction command. I’ve already made my decision!”
“Alright, brother.”
Lulu had to do her duty in the end, in the next moment, Ling Mu Yu passed his Guild Leader title to Li Le, then his body was slowly vanished into piles of data. It’s not a good feeling looking at his own body vanishing slowly.
But Ling Mu Yu had to withstand this. He understood, a man must know how to take responsibilities, and must do what he’s supposed to do. Escaping is only for cowards.
………
Shua!
As the light disappeared, replaced with darkness, Ling Mu Yu appeared in a closed space, without a body. Calling out the system, and said “Offline!”
1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds.
Half a minute had passed, but nothing had happened. Ling Mu Yu had a bad feeling “Offline, what’s happening?”
Nobody answered his question, it was empty around him.
Ling Mu Yu couldn’t stay calm anymore, and shouted, “System spirit? Lulu? Let me go offline!”
There was no notice of offline, but he felt a strong dizzy feeling, in front of him it felt like it turned into a spiral force field, sweeping Ling Mu Yu’s consciousness into it.
System Notification: The codes for exiting were edited, system is now installing program!
System Notification: Installation completed. You will now be disconnected from the internet forcefully!
….
“Ah?”
Ling Mu Yu was at loss. A stronger dizziness was felt, pulling him into the darkness in front of him, and he could only feel he’s falling non stop, falling further and further.
“Who’s the bastard that removed my internet wire?”
Before fainting, these were the last words by a person.
1. Ah Blank is a common name for people close to each other, it’s the equivalent of a nickname.
[ <_< ] [ >,< ] [ >_> ] | 1,268,739 |
December 11th, 2012 at 9:28 pm
In the last few weeks I’ve been making some video diaries showing off game features. It sure looks like this game is ready to play so why aren’t we in Beta already?
Well, we’re getting close. Here’s what we’ve been working on recently:
Playing through the first 18 levels of the game that are going to be in the Beta and making sure that they work and are balanced and fun.
Collating the huge set of items that are obtainable in these levels (around 1000!).
Finishing up the final cards that are needed for these items.
Play-testing the multi-player game using this item pool and trying to do some initial balancing so that all the classes and races are all competitive.
Working on how to load test the game so we can handle an influx of real players.
Fixing the worst bugs that would stop you from delivering useful feedback when you do get in.
Creating a figure store where you can buy new skins for your characters.
Implementing starter parties that you can buy to launch into multi-player without playing the single player adventures (if, for some reason, you don’t want to).
Setting up “metrics” so that we can gather real data to figure out what parts of the game are broken or require re-balancing.
Drinking lots of coffee.
Whew! Most or all of that stuff is done now, so you can see that we’re getting very close.
So, how are we going to run the Beta when we do launch? We’ll start small – inviting a few people in every few days or every week so that we can make sure that the game scales properly. We may have to pause that invitation process if we run into scalability issues or serious bugs. Once we’re really confident, we’ll pull in a lot more people and, eventually, we’ll open the Beta up and wait for the hordes to (hopefully) arrive!
If you are selected by our carefully engineered random Beta algorithm, you’ll receive an email with a Beta key that you can use to create an account. Once in, you’ll be able to start playing through the 18 levels of the single-player campaign and playing a whole lot of competitive multi-player.
You’ll find that there’s a great deal of the game still to come – many more levels above 18 and a whole bunch of powerful cards that aren’t available yet. You can also look forward to us adding a lot more story stuff – we have some really cool stuff up our sleeves that we haven’t put in yet. Yes, 2013 is going to be a great year for Card Hunting!
Until then, happy holidays and we’ll see you in game in the new year! | 1,268,740 |
Family and friends of an Alberta man who has been missing since Monday are asking for the public’s help to find him.
Andrew Nicoll was last heard from on Monday afternoon and officials have been conducting searches for the 55-year-old near his Breton property after he failed to show up for work on Tuesday.
Nicoll’s daughter, Bronwyn Taylor, said she had been texting back and forth with him on Monday.
“Nothing seemed out of the norm. That was around 3:30 or 3:40 on Monday. Then that evening I texted him and he never received a text, which out in the farm he doesn’t always.”
However, by Tuesday morning Taylor said her father still had not read the message. Then she got a call that he had not turned up to work.
“It is so out of the norm so right away we called RCMP.
“Right from the get-go RCMP started a search. They had air services out and tracking dogs and called in Search and Rescue and a full grid search was done for a couple of days.”
Over the weekend about 40 volunteers turned out to help with the search.
“We are doing searches of all the highways and ditches and sideroads and everything and around the area as far as we can get to,” Taylor explained.
“We have no tips. We have no leads. There were no signs of struggle. He doesn’t have any of his id. He doesn’t have his phone, wallet, keys, vehicle, anything.
“Absolutely nothing was taken. He doesn’t even have his jacket with him.”
She said that having searched her father’s property she believes he may have left the area with someone.
“He may have just gone with someone to avoid a struggle because it is pretty isolated out here, or he may have just gone with someone to try and give them a hand because that is what he is like.”
She said she has been hoping someone with information will come forward so they can find him.
“Even if it is an anonymous tip we are just hoping someone can come forward and let us know maybe which direction to start going.”
Nicolls has been described as 6’0 tall, slender with salt-and-pepper hair. He has a British accent and a tattoo of the word ‘courage’ on his wrist.
“He is loved and missed and we want him home,” Taylor said.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact the Breton RCMP detachment.
A fund has been set up to help cover the costs of the search.
If you would like to donate, go to any ATB Branch, funds are being accepted under the names Hope for Andy and Bronwyn Taylor.
With files from Sarah Richter | 1,268,741 |
Alan Grayson, the Democratic firebrand from Florida’s 8th District, made himself a nationwide household name — and angered conservatives — last year with his declaration that the Republican plan for health care amounts to hoping sick people “die quickly.”
Now his latest move could prove equally infuriating to his political opponents. In a new election campaign ad, Grayson compares Florida’s Christian politicians to the Islamist fundamentalists of the Middle East.
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“Religious fanatics are trying to take away our freedom in Afghanistan, in Iraq and right here in central Florida,” declares a female voice-over.
The ad focuses on Daniel Webster, Grayson’s Republican opponent in this year’s mid-term election and a former state legislator.
“Daniel Webster wants to impose his radical fundamentalism on us,” the ad asserts. “Webster tried to deny battered women medical care and the right to divorce their abusers. He wants to force raped women to bear the child. Taliban Dan Webster. Hands off our bodies, and our laws.”
Predictably, the ad is already attracting criticism from conservative corners. The HotAirPundit blog describes the ad as “a new low” for Grayson.
The ad — which cites Webster’s voting record in the Florida legislature to back up its claims — is clearly intended to speak to a female audience, with its feminine narrator and focus on women’s rights. It also clearly indicates that the outspoken Grayson has no intention of moving his political views to the center as the Democrats face an uphill battle to retain control of Congress past November.
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As Time notes, that means the battle for Florida’s 8th District — generally considered to be centrist — will be fought by two partisan politicians known for hewing to the more radical end of their parties’ ideologies.
“The Grayson-Webster contest illustrates how much more partisan our primary system, which exalts navy blue and crimson red over purple, has made our general elections,” writes Time‘s Tim Padgett.
Mark Schlueb at the Orlando Sentinel argues that the Grayson-Webster contest is a “political experiment.”
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“With the national spotlight trained on them, Central Florida voters will choose between two political opposites whose views and strategies align closely with the core beliefs of their parties,” he writes. “Whoever emerges to represent Florida’s 8th District — and proves that his message works — could hand his party a road map for success in 2012.”
For his part, Webster has been described by critics as “a member of the hardcore theocratic right.” TalkingPointsMemo links Webster to conservative activist David Barton, who has been criticized for addressing white supremacist groups.
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The following video was posted to YouTube by the Grayson for Congress campaign team, Sept. 25, 2010. | 1,268,742 |
Chinese chive is a very healthy grass-like herb, which cultivated and naturalized elsewhere in Asia and around the world.
What is Chinese chive
Chinese chive is also called garlic chives, Asian chives and Chinese leek. It is a species of onion native to southwestern Shanxi province, China.
And Chinese chive and egg stir fry is a traditional Chinese famous dish, which appears in many cuisines. The raw materials are chives and eggs. It is simple and easy to make.
Benefits of Chinese chive
The main nutritional components of Chinese chives are vitamin C, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, nicotinic acid, carotene, carbohydrates and minerals.
Chinese chive is also rich in cellulose. (Per 100 grams of Chinese chives contain about 1.5 grams of cellulose.)It is higher than green onions and celery. It can promote intestinal peristalsis and prevent the occurrence of colorectal cancer.
At the same time, it can reduce the absorption of cholesterol, and play a role in preventing and treating arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease and other diseases.
Growing Chinese chive
1. Temperature: Garlic chives like cold growth environment, cold and heat resistant. The suitable temperature for seed germination is above 12 ° C, the growth temperature is 15 ° C to 25 ° C, and the lower part of the ground can tolerate lower temperatures.
2. Light: Garlic chive is suitable for medium light intensity, strong resistance to negative. However, if the light is too weak, the accumulation of photosynthetic products is small, the tillers are small and weak, the yield is low, and early aging is easy; if the light is too strong, the temperature is too high, there are many fibers, and the quality is poor.
3. Moisture: It has a suitable air relative humidity of 60-70%, and the soil humidity is 80-90% of the maximum water holding capacity in the field.
4 soil nutrition: it has strong adaptability to soil texture, a suitable pH is 5.5-6.5. And it requires a large amount of fertilizer and has a strong tolerance for fertilizer.
Chinese chive recipe
You’ll need:
1 Chinese chive
1 egg
Salt
Vegetable oil
How to make Chinese chive and egg stir fry
1. Cut the chives into sections and beat an egg in a bowl.
2. Heat a wok with oil, and stir-fry the egg well. Transfer it on a plate.
3. Heat the wok with oil again, and stir-fry the Chinese chive for a few times. Add egg in the wok.
4. Sprinkle tight amount of salt in the wok and stir-fry evenly. Transfer it on a plate and serve. | 1,268,743 |
Hundreds of hidden nearby galaxies have been studied for the first time, shedding light on a mysterious gravitational anomaly dubbed the Great Attractor.
Despite being just 250 million light years from Earth--very close in astronomical terms--the new galaxies had been hidden from view until now by our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
Using CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope equipped with an innovative receiver, an international team of scientists were able to see through the stars and dust of the Milky Way, into a previously unexplored region of space.
The discovery may help to explain the Great Attractor region, which appears to be drawing the Milky Way and hundreds of thousands of other galaxies towards it with a gravitational force equivalent to a million billion Suns.
Lead author Professor Lister Staveley-Smith, from The University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said the team found 883 galaxies, a third of which had never been seen before.
"The Milky Way is very beautiful of course and it's very interesting to study our own galaxy but it completely blocks out the view of the more distant galaxies behind it," he said.
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Professor Staveley-Smith said scientists have been trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious Great Attractor since major deviations from universal expansion were first discovered in the 1970s and 1980s.
"We don't actually understand what's causing this gravitational acceleration on the Milky Way or where it's coming from," he said.
"We know that in this region there are a few very large collections of galaxies we call clusters or superclusters, and our whole Milky Way is moving towards them at more than two million kilometres per hour."
The research identified several new structures that could help to explain the movement of the Milky Way, including three galaxy concentrations (named NW1, NW2 and NW3) and two new clusters (named CW1 and CW2).
University of Cape Town astronomer Professor Renée Kraan-Korteweg said astronomers have been trying to map the galaxy distribution hidden behind the Milky Way for decades.
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"We've used a range of techniques but only radio observations have really succeeded in allowing us to see through the thickest foreground layer of dust and stars," she said.
"An average galaxy contains 100 billion stars, so finding hundreds of new galaxies hidden behind the Milky Way points to a lot of mass we didn't know about until now."
Dr. Bärbel Koribalski from CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science said innovative technologies on the Parkes Radio telescope had made it possible to survey large areas of the sky very quickly.
"With the 21-cm multibeam receiver on Parkes we're able to map the sky 13 times faster than we could before and make new discoveries at a much greater rate," she said.
The study involved researchers from Australia, South Africa, the US and the Netherlands, and was published today in the Astronomical Journal. | 1,268,744 |
Bitcoin Investment Fidelity Won’t Build Its Own Exchange, Focused on Bitcoin Custody, Exec Confirms
Tom Jessop, President of Fidelity Digital Asset Services says that the asset manager will take crypto to the next level by enhancing the sector and providing a secure Bitcoin custody solution so institutional investors can get a piece of the crypto pie.
Bitcoin Custody Solution Will Remove Barrier
In the most recent episode of her Unconfirmed podcast, Laura Shin interviewed Fidelity president of Digital Asset Services Tom Jessop. The two had a cryptocurrency and blockchain focused discussion about the company’s plans to help develop the Bitcoin 00 and cryptocurrency market to a higher level of functionality and value.
When asked whether or not Fidelity would build its own cryptocurrency exchange, Jessop explained that he believed that the current exchanges do a fairly good job at this and Fidelity is more focused on providing custody services for institutions looking to become involved in cryptocurrency.
Jessop also explained that a current barrier to cryptocurrency has been service providers that require pre-funded accounts and Fidelity intends to remedy this problem by building a more traditional investment platform, which allows users to execute trades on one or more exchanges at best price, then determine how to settle once completed.
Fidelity Foresees the Future of Crypto
Shin and Jessop them delved a bit deeper into the nuts and bolts of Fidelity custody solution and Jessop explained that at the moment there are plenty of investors with sizeable cryptocurrency positions that lack a custody solution and also find it tedious to carry out trades.
Fidelity intends to fill this niche by providing a cold storage solution and Jessop believes that the well-known fact that Fidelity manages more than $7 trillion in assets will provide the assurance of security that institutional investors require. According to Jessop, this is why Fidelity chooses to focus on custody rather than developing an exchange since “we know how to manage security at scale.”
Shin and Jessop closed the interview by forecasting future events in crypto and Jessop believe that retail and institutional interest in crypto is increasing as the market matures. He points out that hedge funds managers, family offices and emerging market analysts are all focused on creating new cryptocurrency products and instruments that will move the industry forward.
When asked what does 2019 hold, Jessop said the world can “expect more [influx] over this year and into ‘19, which will raise the bar for everyone and help accelerate growth in the market.”
Fidelity Digital Asset Services president Tom Jessop explains why its crypto offering for institutional clients is focused on custody and trade execution, why it's not launching an exchange + whether they plan to create an offering for retail customers. https://t.co/f6hlrIAqcC — Laura Shin (@laurashin) October 26, 2018
Do you think Fidelity’s Digital Assets Service will usher in the next cryptocurrency bull run? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter | 1,268,745 |
The parents and other family members of the Irish man Séamus (Shay) Lawless, who has been missing on Mount Everest for the past few days, attended a candlelit vigil in Dublin last night.
Organised by Trinity College, where Mr Lawless (39) works as a professor in the Artificial Intelligence discipline in the School of Computer Science and Statistics, the solemn event saw many of his colleagues, students and friends gather with his family to remember him and support each other.
From Bray, Co Wicklow, the father of one was part of an eight-member climbing expedition when he went missing after he reportedly fell from an altitude of 8,300 metres.
He is said to have slipped while in the “Balcony area” near the summit of Everest after reaching it early on Thursday.
A candlelit vigil was held at Trinity College Dublin on Saturday night.
The candlelit vigil was attended by family, friends, work colleagues and students of the missing man.
In a statement on Saturday morning Trinity College said it is thinking of him at this time and had arranged a vigil for the Trinity Long Room Hub on Saturday evening.
Speaking at the vigil Prof Jane Ohlmeyer, director of the Trinity Long Room Hub, first welcomed the missing man’s parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.
“I want Shay to know we are with him in spirit tonight,” she said before encouraging those gathered to sing a few songs together “because Shay loves a good singsong”.
They began with Wild Mountain Thyme and many wiped away tears before proceeded outdoors to Front Square to join in The Auld Triangle, followed by what was referred to as one of Shay’s favourites Raglan Road.
Their candles were an attempt to defy the darkness and bring light at a difficult time, Prof Ohlmeyer said.
Meanwhile the family of Mr Lawless have set upa fundraising page to cover the “substantial costs” to bring him home.
The company that organised the climb said the search has become a recovery operation.
His family aim to raise €750,000 to cover costs associated with finding him and bringing him home to Ireland. On Saturday night more than €198,000 had been pledged.
A post on the page reads: “With the weekend upon us, we, the family of Shay, have been left with no other option but to ask for assistance in raising funds to gather a team of expert Sherpas to locate and bring our beloved Shay home to Ireland. Time is of the essence in the search mission and the costs of running this mission are substantial.
“At this moment in time we have little to no information about what happened on Thursday 16th May, nor do we know the current location of Shay. It is our priority to locate him and bring him home and we appreciate all the support that can be offered as we face this hugely challenging situation,” his family said. | 1,268,746 |
Porn model fired as the face of German far-right party because she has sex with a black man in her new movie
Ina Groll, or 'Kitty Blair', was face of National Democratic Party of Germany
She encouraged men to join far-right party by dressing in revealing outfits
But she has been fired after senior NDP officials watched her new porn film
In the movie, titled 'Kitty Discovers Sperm,' she has sex with a black man
A porn star who was the face of a German far-right party has been fired - because she has sex with a black man in her latest film.
Ina Groll, who goes under the porn name 'Kitty Blair', had been widely featured in a high-profile campaign by the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDP).
She encouraged men to join the party by standing outside election polls dressed in revealing outfits.
Sacked: Ina Groll (pictured, left, taking a selfie and, right, as her porn alias, 'Kitty Blair') has been fired as the face of the country's National Democratic Party - because she has sex with a black man in her latest porn film
Porn star: Ms Groll had been widely featured in a high-profile campaign by NDP, which was founded in 1964
But the blonde model has now been fired after senior NDP officals watched her latest porn film - and discovered she had slept with a black man.
As the face of NPD, Ms Groll attended promotional events and starred on posters, while making friends with many senior neo-Nazis across Germany.
Party officials were apparently willing to turn a blind eye to Ms Groll's career choice, which saw her star naked in a number of adult films.
But they could not ignore her sexual encounter with the black male in her latest movie, titled Kitty Discovers Sperm.
Representative: She encouraged men to join the party by standing outside election polls dressed in revealing outfits. Above, Ms Groll poses with a member of the NDP, which is widely perceived as a neo-Nazi organisation
Confident: But the model has now been fired after NDP officals watched her film, titled: 'Kitty Discovers Sperm'
And once Ms Groll's actions were made public, a Facebook page was even formed to remove her from the party.
One member of the party wrote: 'Those who sell their body for money and disgrace their race have no place in our party.'
Following lengthy discussions and a party meeting, NDP officials decided to sever all ties with the porn star.
Posing: Ms Groll was sacked following a number of lengthy discussions and a NDP party meeting
Founded in 1964, the NDP identifies itself as Germany's 'only significant patriotic force'.
The party, widely perceived as a neo-Nazi organisation, is currently represented in two of the country's 16 state parliaments.
| 1,268,747 |
com e-commerce infrastructure by shifting from one seller name to another in chameleon-like fashion. If they get shut down under one account name, they have several others to fall back on, and they're constantly adding new "throwaway" accounts to make sure they always have visibility on Amazon.com.The fact that counterfeiters use fake ingredients to manufacture counterfeit products also meansthan the original manufacturers. This allows counterfeiters to oftenon Amazon.com, where resellers are recommended based on price sorting (low to high). Customers actually think they're getting a bargain, even when they're buying counterfeit nutritional products that Amazon.com has actually placed in the No. 1 position on these comparative lists.The Amazon.com star rating system can also grossly mislead consumers into thinking a counterfeit product has received a high user rating. This happens because Amazon assigns a star rating to, regardless of which seller is offering them. Thus, if Amazon.com can be tricked by a counterfeit seller into categorizing a counterfeit product as being identical to the original, genuine product, the counterfeit product will enjoy the high-star rating that users have actually assigned to the original product.In this way, the counterfeit product in essence "hijacks" the high star rating advertised by Amazon.com.One original product manufacturer told Natural News, "Amazon is allowing and supporting these acts of deception."Amazon does, after all, earn money on each and every sale. The fact that most nutritional supplements do not generate near-instant noticeable effects (like pharmaceuticals do) further plays into the ability of counterfeit manufacturers to exploit the Amazon.com e-commerce infrastructure for dishonest gains that can go unnoticed by customers for months or years.Until Amazon.com finds a way to effectively police this problem of counterfeit products, I am advising all Natural News readers to. The risk of obtaining a counterfeit product -- which may actually be dangerous to your health -- is simply too high. Instead, purchase nutritional products directly from companies and names you trust.Natural News hopes that Amazon.com takes this issue seriously and initiates the necessary steps to radically tighten up the use of its e-commerce platform by third-party sellers. Until Amazon can say it is more aggressively and comprehensively policing the authenticity of the products it displays and describes as authentic, it will experience a rapid erosion of customer trust.On a personal note, my hope is to see Amazon take the steps necessary to resolve this issue once and for all. Amazon.com is a wonderful place to shop, and I like the company. It is staffed by some very smart people who seem deeply committed to providing customers a superior shopping and product fulfillment experience.The fact that counterfeit products are slipping through the cracks at Amazon.com is potentially an enormous threat to the company's credibility, legal exposure, regulatory compliance and stock price. If a customer is harmed by a counterfeit product purchased on Amazon.com, Amazon may find itself legally liable for at least part of the damages due to "misrepresentation" and even "fraud" that it has negligently allowed to be carried out on its own website. | 1,268,748 |
all who support us. We are working hard to make EMC2 av… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/984649743732170752 2 years ago
Please join our official telegram channel https://t.me/emc2channel to get more frequent updates and "Behind the Scen… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/981256376851709952 2 years ago
Update on EMC2 algo change could be found on dev blog https://goo.gl/tajnrc @einsteiniumcoin https://t.co/HFgen2EQwr 2 years ago
Weeee update: v1.0.2 is now available at http://weeee.io. Fixed some known issues including'something we… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/975830043732541440 2 years ago
Check out this clip behind the scenes of our new commercial for Weeee! Weeee is designed to be a fun, engaging way… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/975472211837374464 2 years ago
Weeee!! The world’s first active blockchain P2P Mobile Wallet is finally here! And we’re giving away a special gift… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/974845019424083968 2 years ago
We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Stephen Hawking. He was an incredible human being who made an i… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/973778663060602880 2 years ago
2/2 Ben will be helping EMC2 to create partnerships in the finance, technology, and philanthropy sectors. He will a… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/971479178422796288 2 years ago
March 16th - http://www.weeee.io release - Einsteinium EMC2 social/payment mobile app: share money and gifts w… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/968916568263372800 2 years ago
March 16th - Weeee Cash - release date https://www.emc2.foundation/news/2018/2/20/weeee-cash-release-date @einsteiniumcoin https://t.co/iMEZi98gUx 2 years ago
Weeee Cash Release Date https://www.emc2.foundation/news/2018/2/20/weeee-cash-release-date 2 years ago
1/2 We manage to replace Scrypt algo with ETHash algo on EMC2 and to mine first test block. A lot to be done still… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/964642961802719232 2 years ago | 1,268,749 |
Arsenal in the Community won a special award in recognition of its Employability Programme at the European Club Association’s annual general assembly on Monday night.
The award for Best Community and Social Responsibility Programme 2015 was presented to chief executive Ivan Gazidis in recognition of the unique project, set up in 2011 as a direct response to the growing levels of youth unemployment.
Responding to this important local and national need, the club employed a full-time employment officer to lead a programme which enabled Arsenal in the Community to manage and deliver bespoke accredited work skills qualifications developed through leading awarding body, Pearson. The modules were designed to meet the needs of participants who often have no or few qualifications and to prepare them for the world of work.
The programme delivers either eight or 12-week employability courses resulting in an accredited work skills qualification and, where required, additional literacy and numeracy skills qualifications to ensure participants have the basic skills required to enter the job market.
Since 2011, more than 300 people have gained jobs as a direct result of Arsenal in the Community Employment Programme. Dedicated courses have been delivered to wider social inclusion projects, which include people suffering with mental health conditions, torture survivors, those in the local authority’s care system, those suffering from drug and alcohol addiction and a number of participants from our local housing estates football projects.
Many have successfully completed the work skills course and gained employment, while relationships have also been developed with a range of employers that offer real job opportunities. Participants are supported throughout the recruitment process and for a period while in work, too.
Ivan Gazidis collects the award
Alan Sefton, head of Arsenal in the Community, said: “The passion and support that our staff have offered participants has played a key role in preparing young people for work and motivating them to stay in work. The project plays a significant role in one of our local community’s priority aims and, most importantly, it is having a vital impact on the lives of young people and their families.”
Marc-André Buchwalder, of the ECA, added: “The Arsenal Employability Programme perfectly illustrates the force for good that clubs can have in their local communities. The tailor-made approach, the continuous support throughout the recruitment process, the special relationships developed with a range of employers and the tangible job outcomes make this a great example of an employability project that directly impacts the lives of the participants and their families.
"With more than 300 people gaining employment as a direct result of the project, the Arsenal Employability Programme has proved very successful and I can only invite other clubs to get inspired by this successful CSR model."
The award comes as the European Commission marks the European Week of Sport, which promotes sport and physical activity across Europe. It will generate new activities and build on already existing successful initiatives in the European, national, regional or local context. This European-wide campaign will inspire people to #BeActive during the week and encourage them to stay active all-year long. | 1,268,750 |
Alexis Ohanian, the cofounder of Reddit, an influential online community, expressed disappointment with President Obama's decision to allow the National Security Agency to continue collecting bulk phone data and said supporters of those surveillance practices had offered a “false choice” between privacy and security.
In an interview on NBC's “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Ohanian responded to comments from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that critics of the NSA failed to understand the terror threats facing the U.S.
“To me, that is a false choice,” said Ohanian. “In fact, I remember hearing President Obama campaigning on the false choice the Bush administration was positioning when they were trying to do this very same thing.
“I think it's really important for us to realize that it's possible for us to have security while also not overstepping our right to privacy,” he added.
Obama, in a speech Friday, largely kept in place the NSA’s surveillance of phone and internet traffic. Critics of the NSA say they are unsatisfied with the president’s reforms and will push ahead for more oversight.
Feinstein, though, said she did not believe those opponents had the support needed to end the controversial program collecting phone metadata.
Among Obama’s reforms are requiring the NSA to obtain a secret court warrant before accessing the phone data and storing the information outside of the government.
The president and the NSA’s defenders say there is no evidence the agency abused its surveillance powers, but Ohanian said the danger of privacy violations was too great to ignore.
“I would not like to have that hanging over my head. I think it is absolutely possible for the NSA to do their job without the bulk collection of America's phone records,” he added.
Ohanian also called for a “proper congressional investigation.”
“The sort of thing that will actually get us some answers, that has subpoena powers, that has the ability to sift through and actually give the American people the transparency that we deserve,” he said.
As a businessman, Ohanian said there were costs to private industry from the NSA's surveillance and warned that foreign companies would be reluctant to do business with U.S. firms over spying concerns.
“Forrester estimated about $180 billion is going to be lost in revenue because countries and citizens around the world no longer want to do business with American companies. Because they no longer trust that their private data is safe,” he said. “I'm an entrepreneur. I'm an investor. There's real business cost on top of this, on top of the very important civil liberties costs.”
Ohanian also praised Edward Snowden, the former government contractor whose disclosures sparked debate over the NSA's practices, saying that history would look back on him as a “whistleblower” and not a leaker. | 1,268,751 |
An international team of researchers have created the first evidence-based guide that helps parents work out which kids' education apps actually help their children learn.
Right now there are more than 80,000 entries in the App store that claim to be educational for toddlers and pre-school aged kids. But after analysing more than 40 years of scientific research on how children learn, the team found that there are four key factors that determine whether an app is actually educational.
Publishing in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, the researchers reveal that real educational apps need to encourage learning that is:
active
engaged
meaningful
socially interactive
"With the introduction of the iPad only five years ago, the market has been flooded with thousands of apps for young children labelled 'educational'," one of the researchers, Jordy Kaufman from the Babylab at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, said in a press release. "Until now, it has been difficult to determine whether or not these apps have any educational value."
So how do you work out whether your child's favourite apps meet those four requirements? The researchers explain that for an app to promote active learning, it needs to require mental effort - and simply tapping the screen or swiping left and right doesn't count.
"A good example of a storybook app that encourages mental activity is one that might ask children to choose among story characters or objects that enhance the storyline," said Kaufman.
For an app to be engaging, it needs to make sure that children stay on tasks and don't get distracted by on-screen animations, sound effects or rewards, such as virtual stickers.
Meaningful learning apps are those that the information being taught to the child's life or existing knowledge, to help them better remember and understand the lesson.
"A number of apps on the marketplace require shallow memorisation, such as an app that asks a child to touch a triangle and then applauds the child for doing so," said Kaufman. "Compare this to an app that explains and demonstrates that a triangle has three sides, then asks the child to 'find the triangles' in an everyday, meaningful scene."
Finally, an app that incorporates social interaction by involving more than two users engaging in face-to-face interactions has a better chance of helping a toddler learn than those that simply involve single player mode.
But while the evidence suggests that these four factors can help children learn, there's still not sufficient data to show just how useful apps really are when it comes to education - and whether they can replace'real world' learning.
"With a'science of learning' approach, apps will certainly provide learning opportunities unavailable in today’s apps," said Kaufman. "But whether apps can provide entirely new opportunities compared to what can be provided by an excellent teacher is still a lofty goal."
Want to use technology to make the world a better place? Find out more about studying at Swinburne University of Technology. | 1,268,752 |
Australia will import foreign-grown grain for the first time since 2007, after the Department of Agriculture approved a permit to import bulk wheat from Canada.
Key points: Australia to import whole grain for first time since 2007
Australia to import whole grain for first time since 2007 Canadian shipment of bulk wheat expected to arrive in eight weeks
Canadian shipment of bulk wheat expected to arrive in eight weeks Follows fall in Australia's winter crop production by 20 per cent
Australian-owned Manildra Group said it would use the high protein wheat for processing at its Shoalhaven Starches plant at Nowra, New South Wales.
"Due to the worst drought in 116 years, high protein wheat is in short supply which is critical to the Shoalhaven Starches wheat-processing plant," Manildra Group said.
"The permit will secure hundreds of regional jobs and the continuation of wheat processing at the plant.
"Shoalhaven Starches' preference is to use Australian wheat, and Manildra Group will continue to buy high protein wheat from Australian farmers, as supply permits."
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the permit came with strict biosecurity protocols.
"Biosecurity is always left to the department rather than politicians," Mr Littleproud said.
"This is not a new development, we have had grain imports before and the reality is the drought has impacted significantly the supply of grain."
Opposition spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said all Australians should be concerned that "a great agriculture country like Australia" was now importing grain.
"The key point here is that we are now in need of imported grain, and that should be a wake-up call to a Government that has been in complete denial on climate change," Mr Fitzgibbon said.
Speculation about imports has circulated for months as drought devastated the winter crop on Australia's east coast, driving up domestic prices for grain.
Grain grower groups have expressed concern that imports could jeopardise Australia's biosecurity.
A statement released by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources late on Tuesday said the import permit was "subject to strict conditions to manage the biosecurity risk".
"The import conditions require that the grain is sourced from areas assessed as presenting a low plant and animal biosecurity risk and impose strict movement, storage and processing controls within Australia," it said.
"The shipment is expected to arrive in Australia in the next six to eight weeks."
A Department spokesman said it had previously approved imports of whole grains, from several countries, in 1994-95, 2002-03 and 2006-07.
Last week, the Department told the ABC it was assessing 11 applications to import bulk grain into Australia.
The applications applied to canola, wheat, corn and sorghum.
Australian grain prices are currently trading below the international price for wheat on an import-parity basis, following a decline in prices post harvest. | 1,268,753 |
BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen has already earned a spot in the Internet hall of fame, but he's not done yet. In recent years he's taken a strong interest in cryptocurrencies, something he will devote himself full-time to in the near future. This includes launching a new cryptocurrency which addresses some of the challenges facing Bitcoin.
BitTorrent’s inventor is known for his passion for puzzles, and more generally speaking, offering elegant solutions to complex problems through lines of code.
When Bram Cohen first launched BitTorrent he offered a solution to the bandwidth scarcity problem, by allowing anyone to distribute large files without having to invest in expensive infrastructure.
In recent years Cohen has closely followed the cryptocurrency boom. Not as a money hungry investor with dollar signs in his eyes, but as a programmer who sees problems that need solving.
In doing so, Cohen hasn’t shied away from offering his opinions and suggestions. Most recently, he presented a paper and a talk at the Stanford blockchain conference, discussing proofs of space and proofs of time.
Without going into technical details, Cohen believes that Bitcoin is wasteful. He suggests that a cryptocurrency that pins the mining value on storage space rather than processor time will be superior.
In an interview with TorrentFreak’s Steal This Show, Cohen revealed that his interest in cryptocurrencies is not merely abstract. It will be his core focus in the near future.
“My proposal isn’t really to do something to BitCoin. It really has to be a new currency,” Cohen says. “I’m going to make a cryptocurrency company. That’s my plan.”
By focusing on a storage based solution, BitTorrent’s inventor also hopes to address other Bitcoin flaws, such as the 51% attack.
“Another benefit of storage based things is actually that there’s a lot less centralization in mining. So there’s a lot less concern about having a 51% attack,” Cohen says.
“Sometimes people have this misapprehension that Bitcoin is a democracy. No Bitcoin is not a democracy; it’s called a 51% attack for a reason. That’s not a majority of the vote, that’s not how Bitcoin works.”
While the idea of a storage based cryptocurrency isn’t new, Burstcoin uses a similar concept, there is little doubt that Cohen believes he can do better. And with his status and contacts in the Bitcoin developer community, his project is likely to gain some eyeballs.
Before diving into it completely, Cohen will first finish up some other work at BitTorrent Inc. But after that, his full dedication will go into creating a superior cryptocurrency.
“In the next few months I’m going to devote myself full-time to the cryptocurrency stuff,” Cohen concludes.
—
The full interview with Bran Cohen is available here, or on the Steal This Show website. | 1,268,754 |
Aluminum is one of the useful and adaptable materials. It is one of the cutting edge universes more flexible materials. It is used as a part of everything from pop jars to aircraft. Aluminum can be formed, expelled, machined, cast, molded and shaped into such an assortment of things, to the point that it is a ponder of present day metallurgical craftsmanship. It was just amid the 1880’s that a procedure was produced that made the boundless utilization of aluminum conceivable.
A remarkable and excellent ceramics handle on your furniture thing is much the same as a legitimately settled catch on your shirt. This implies despite the fact that the catch is a little part of the shirt, it is yet the most effective as without it; the whole shirt will lose its path and claim. Correspondingly, an earthenware knob presents the truly necessary liveliness and color to your furniture thing that really separates it. It improves the general look and feel of the furniture and charms various compliments from persons who see it.
Use of Aluminum and Ceramic
This metal is used in many things. Like daily packaging foods and drinks, transportations and electronic products. It’s commonly used in construction building industry light bulbs kitchen appliances. The ceramics also become very popular in construction industry designers and architectures highly recommended in contemporary home interior design. Ceramics mostly use for slab processed, the worker cut it in suitable sizes shape their edges and make it beautiful. These are very easy for cleaning which makes their appropriate for homes. Alumina ceramics are mostly used in the medical field, they must be used in making bulletproof armor and vests and ideally solution for protected vehicles. Aluminum is by itself is not a solid metal, but with the mixture of copper, magnesium, silicon and other elements it makes them very useful such as rust resistance.
Process of Alumina and Ceramics
Machining is a procedure of molding, boring, cutting, pounding and framing a bit of metal or different materials with the assistance of different machine apparatuses. A few metals require some type of machining within the assembling procedure; nonetheless, different materials, for example, rubbers, paper, and plastics are normally manufactured through machining forms. Accuracy machining is a kind of machining in which little cutting resistance in the middle of 0.013 mm and 0.0005mm is considered. It is connected to a wide number of apparatuses and creation techniques. The different components, which impact the exactness of an exactness device’s cut are solidness, damping, and geometric precision. The process of ceramics fiber material this must be handle with protection and eliminate the chances of risks. Bound materials, for example, sheets are less inclined to discharge upsetting particles, and uncut or exemplified materials are considered lower-hazard too. Ceramics materials ought to be occasionally observed and checked for indications of damage or corruption because of maturing; if such signs are observed, maybe the materials ought to be supplanted. | 1,268,755 |
Often when we think about the Middle Ages, it’s sort of this rarefied, distant time that we have no connection to. Probably know you picture gallant knights sitting astride brilliant destriers galloping through a sea of plagues, ignorance, and filth. And you can hardly be blamed for that, when everything from the movies you watch to your high school history teacher has told you that.
But Middle Ages are also responsible for inventing difficult techniques of making art and crafts. One of them is glassmaking. Forgotten for centuries, glassmaking became again very popular in the 19th century, when the stained glass was decorating new and old churches. But Middle Ages craftsmen and artisans experimented also on another level – even goblets and optical lenses were created. The production of glass relied on the mastery of technique, and as techniques improved, more glass objects could be manufactured. The mastery of this craft led to the creation of objects with amazingly innovative forms as well as a huge variety of objects for different use.
Until January 8th, The Musée de Cluny in Paris explores ten centuries of technical and artistic developments in glassmaking, which testify to the incredible creative wealth of the Middle Ages. In the fifth century, master glassworkers perfected the technique of stained glass, and glass took its place in society. 150 works from the Middle Ages illustrate the fascination with glass, its symbolism and its role in accompanying scientific discoveries. The visitor will discover various works of glass, in parallel to works of art such as illuminations, paintings or engravings, all highlighting the use of glass during the medieval period.
For example, this ring is one of the rare examples of cloisonné enamel of the Ottonian or Salian period. It is composed of a circular bezel set with an enameled disk, shank, and little spheres placed on the shank and shoulders’ circumference. The shank is filigreed and adorned with triangular motifs. The analysis suggests that the ring was made of elements used before as different artifacts. The enamel might have been a small circular medallion used in a gold religious artwork.
On the exhibition you can also see this beautiful painting-reliquary. The enameled plate represents Jesus Christ on the Cross whose thin and subtly engraved figure is somewhat reminiscent of the works of the prominent Parisian illuminator Jean Pucelle. The analogy, reflected in the extraordinary quality of the basse-taille technique and the plant motifs engraved beneath the blue enamel in the background, enables dating back to the mid-15th century. The relics of the True Cross and the Passion were probably kept in this reliquary, which suggests that the sponsor had connections with the royal environment.
So if you’re lucky to visit Paris until January don’t forget to visit Musee du Cluny to see the exhibition “Glass, the inventive Middle Ages” and it’s marvelous permanent collection!
Find out more: | 1,268,756 |
India and Pakistan on Thursday moved closer to becoming members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the six-nation bloc, which is led by Russia and China and perceived as a counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).
Foreign ministers of Russia, China and four other members of the SCO had a meeting in Moscow and recommended elevation of both India and Pakistan from ‘observers’ to ‘members’ of the organsation. The decision may lead to Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the SCO summit at Ufa in Russia next month. This may even create an opportunity for Modi having a bilateral meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister M Nawaz Sharif on the sideline.
Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, announced the decision after the meeting in Moscow. “We adopted recommendations paving the way for India and Pakistan accession to the SCO,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian government posted on Twitter quoting Lavrov on Thursday.
“Issues pertaining to the SCO expansion, based on the principle of openness, are of crucial importance for its future,” added the Russian foreign minister.
Modi will travel to Ufa in the second week of July to attend the BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, Russia and South Africa) summit, which will also take place in the capital city of Russian Republic of Bashkortostan.
The SCO summit will follow the meeting of the BRICS leaders at the same venue. Sources told Deccan Herald that prime minister might stay back and attend the SCO summit, as the bloc had now decided to grant membership to India.
Sharif is also likely to attend the SCO summit as Pakistan is being granted membership of the bloc along with India.
The possibility of Modi and Sharif having a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the SCO summit in Ufa was discussed informally between officials of the neighbouring countries.
Officials in New Delhi, however, made it clear that any decision on such a meeting between the two leaders would be taken, only after assessing Islamabad’s response to India’s core concerns on terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj last Sunday took a hard-line stand on restart of India-Pakistan parleys when she responded to questions from media persons last Sunday. She noted Islamabad’s failure to deliver on Sharif’s promise to Modi for speeding up the trial of the seven terror plotters, who had been arrested by Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan for masterminding the November 26-28, 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. She also expressed New Delhi’s disappointment over release of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba operative and key 26/11 plotter Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi.
The possibility of Modi and Sharif having a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Ufa was discussed informally between officials of the neighbouring countries.
| 1,268,757 |
MELBOURNE, Australia ― The Hanwha Land Systems K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer has scored another export success, with Norway being the latest customer for the South Korean artillery system.
The Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency, or Forsvarsmateriell, announced Wednesday it had signed a contract with Hanwha Land Systems for 24 K9 155mm, 52-caliber self-propelled howitzers with an option for 24 more.
The contract, which Forsvarsmateriell said was worth 1.8 billion kroner (U.S. $215.2 million), will also include an unspecified number of K10 ammunition resupply vehicles. Delivery of the Norwegian K9s will start in 2019 and is expected to be completed by 2021.
According to Brig. Gen. Morten Eggen, commander of Forsvarsmateriell’s Land Systems Division, Hanwha Land Systems was the bidder who best satisfied the Norwegian Army’s requirements. The military officer added that the K9 Thunder will be an important component of the Army’s operational capability.
The new howitzers will replace the M109A3GNM self-propelled howitzer currently in service with Norway’s armed forces, and the selection of the K9 comes after a competition alongside Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann Panzerhaubitze 2000, France’s Nexter Caesar and RUAG’s M109 Krait that also saw the contenders participate in trials held in Norway during early 2016.
Forsvarsmateriell also announced it had struck an agreement with Hanwha for lifetime logistical support for the howitzers, which will also see the company establish a technical competence center at Norway’s Bjerkvik Technical Workshop.
Hanwha will transfer test equipment, training materials and technical knowledge to the workshop to enable the Norwegian Army to carry out sustainment of its howitzers, as well to offer similar services to allied nations who operate the K9.
In addition to South Korea, the K9 is also in service in or has been selected by Finland, India and Estonia. Turkey operates the T-155 Fırtına, which uses several subsystems from the K9 including the chassis, howitzer and automatic ammunition-feeding mechanism. Poland is producing the chassis as part of its AHS Krab self-propelled howitzer program.
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The Norwegian contract is the latest win for South Korean weapons producers, who have seen a steady sales increase over the past few years with their products carving a successful niche in the competitive global arms market that had previously been dominated by big players like the United States and Russia. | 1,268,758 |
TLDR version: Santa, I'm blown away by your generosity and your gift-giving accuracy. Thank you and Merry Christmas
Full Version: I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best at giving a lot of info in my exchange preferences. I like for my Santas to get me something from them, not just from a list I give. Many might say that I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but the truth is that I'm happy with most anything that took a little thought or creativity. But this Santa...seriously...if the return address hadn't been somewhere I've only driven through once, 20 years ago, I would think they knew me.
1.Tools: I just bought a house, and while it's not a fixer-upper, it needs some work. Santa sent me a pack of driver bits (I don't need these right now, but these have a tendency to get lost, so I know I will soon), and a pack of 4 clamps. Clamps are one of things that you just never need when you live in an apartment, but now that I have a workshop I've needed several times. The clamps are already in use, BTW.
If I'd gotten just the clamps and bits I'd have been more than happy. But wait, there's more.
2.Tool-related: A sharpie pro marker, and 2 sharpie pro pencils (these things will write on--and stain!--anything), and a really nice-smelling activated charcoal soap. I've never used this brand, but I've used AC soap before and it's excellent stuff. And bergamot is like the perfect soap scent--but I digress.
3.Books: Star Wars Origami--which I actually stole during a White Elephant exchange last week, but then it got stolen away by the very last person. And The Guinea Pig Diaries, which I've never heard of but sounds like a science/humor mashup that could be fun.
4.Geek stuff: Got 2 pairs of Star Wars socks--there was nothing in my preferences that said that in the last year I've been amassing funny/goofy/sci-fi socks, but somehow they knew--and I don't have these. A 3-D printed TARDIS, which is very well done, and will probably be holding paintbrushes on my wife's desk within the week (I'm not giving it to her, but I'm 99% sure she'll take it.
5.Miscellaneous: Star Wars droids Pez set--you couldn't possibly have known that I have a random collection of Star Wars Pez that have been given to me over the years. And a Walking Dead magnet--this is the only thing that isn't totally me, as I've never seen the show or comic, but it will go into a package for my eldest who never shuts up about the show.
Thank you, thank you, thank you... | 1,268,759 |
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By Dirisu Yakubu
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said his endorsement by five geo-political cum socio-cultural groups on Sunday has challenged him to more for the advancement of the Nigerian state.
Atiku in a statement issued a few hours after the endorsement said with his endorsement, there is hope in the horizon for Nigeria and her citizens.
“I am moved to tears that in the midst of deep divisions and deliberate use of instrumentalities of state to set our people against themselves in the last three and a half years, responsible and respected leaders across Nigeria have agreed to come together for the purpose of endorsing my candidature for the February 16th, 2019 Presidential elections.
“The endorsement by the leading lights of our nationalities – Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Northern Elders Forum, Pan-Niger Delta Forum and Middle Belt Forum is a loud statement that there is hope for our country as we go to the polls in a few days.
“Today we put aside all our prejudices to elect a President with religion and ethnicity playing no role in our elections,” he wrote.
While thanking the groups for the confidence repose in him, Atiku promised to provide an exemplary leadership if elected into power.
“I profusely thank our leaders across the country that has created this wonderful moment for us to come to the table of brotherhood. Once again, and in the words of our old National Anthem, we can proudly sing: Though tribes and tongues may differ, in brotherhood we stand.
“This has buoyed me to lead a pan-Nigerian team that will give practical interpretation to what has been done by the time I take leadership of our country, by the grace of Allah, on May 29, 2019.
“Many countries of the world have been led into disintegration by strongmen (one in each country) and we have seen how individuals who understand the management of diversities have rallied their people for unity.
“I will run a properly federated Nigeria through constitutional reforms to bring out the best from all sections of Nigeria to make Nigeria work again like in the past when the Saudi Royal family came to Nigeria to access Medicare.
“We will promote an inclusive Nigeria based on productivity that every section of Nigeria will bring out the best under their soil, and in their brain to make Nigeria assume its position in Africa and the global community. It would be one hundred per cent for every section of Nigeria as I would not understand any arithmetic outside that.
“I enjoin our people across Nigeria to come out en-mass to vote on February 16 to pull our country from the brink and propel it to greater heights so we can live a better life. Take my words as a covenant with Nigeria ” he added.
Kindly Share This Story: | 1,268,760 |
Seventeen-year old Gabriel Trujillo lived in the same two-bedroom Mountain View home his entire life. Every day he came home to his mom, dad, and older brother.
Yet in January 2016, that house was no longer his home. The homeowners told his family the land was being placed for sale and they would need to find another place to rent.
Gabriel’s parents paid $1,200 a month for close to two decades. But with the Silicon Valley housing explosion, rents are rapidly rising and the family is now priced out of their neighborhood.
Now, the average price for a two-bedroom in Mountain View is over $3,100.
Getty Images
A three-month search for housing left the Los Altos High School senior with a lot of questions.
"Are we gonna move far away? Am I going to have to transfer schools? Am I going to lose friends?" Gabriel questioned.
In order to stay together in Mountain View, the family had to separate.
Gabriel now lives at his grandmother's house while his dad lives in a trailer, and his mom rents a room in a mobile home. He visits his mom after school a couple days a week.
"He comes over here on my day off to see me once or two days in a week," said Juana Alvarez, Gabriel's mom. "It's very terrible."
The separation has been hard for Gabriel as well.
"It's definitely been one of the toughest years of my life that I can really say because... it kind of just shook up everything and it was real stressful," Trujillo said. "There’s definitely just a lot of tears from the loss of all this stuff."
The Mountain View Tenants Coalition says many long-term families are being forced out of the area. The housing crisis has been extremely hard on children, especially kids whose parents don't speak English.
"Their children are acculturated, they know English, and are often having to translate eviction notices on behalf of their parents," said Evan Ortiz, Mountain View Tenants Coalition spokesperson. "That's not something that's appropriate for a middle schooler or even a high schooler."
Families like Gabriel's now have to struggle to make ends meet or to find affordable places to live. The financial difficulty has already made Gabriel's plans after high school a greater challenge.
"We had more of a solid ground, say if we were still living here, but since that's not there, definitely having to look into scholarships, a lot of funding like FAFSA and stuff of that sort," said Gabriel. "That's why I've said I need to get a job so I can as well find my own living space. So it's definitely put a big impact on a lot of things."
Gabriel’s mom, Juana Alvarez, explains her challenge searching for housing and how difficult living separately has been for her and her family. | 1,268,761 |
Tip: See my list of the Most Common Mistakes in English. It will teach you how to avoid mistakes with commas, prepositions, irregular verbs, and much more.
There are almost a hundred different languages spoken natively in Europe, but only about 40 of them have 1 million speakers or more. The map below shows estimates of the total number of native speakers for those languages. When a language is commonly spoken outside Europe, an estimate of the number of native speakers living in Europe and the total number of non-native (L2) speakers is also provided.
Do you like the map? Show your support by sharing it. Sharing with attribution helps me create more maps.
The languages shown in the map are not necessarily mutually exclusive; for example, most speakers of minority languages in Italy are also speakers of Standard Italian, and most authors include them in their estimates of the number of native speakers of Italian. Such languages are marked with an asterisk in the table below:
# Language Native speakers
(in millions) 1 Spanish 470 2 English ~400 3 Portuguese 220 4 Russian 170 5 German 95 6 Turkish 88 7 French ~80 8 Italian 64 9 Polish ~45 10 Ukrainian ~40 11 Romanian 24 12 Dutch 23 13 West Central German* 17 14 Greek 13 15 Hungarian 13 16 Czech 11 17 Swedish 9.2 18 Bulgarian 9 19 Serbian 8.5 20 Alemannic German* 7.2 21 Low German* 6.7 22 Neapolitan* 5.7 23 Croatian 5.6 24 Catalan 5.5 25 Danish 5.5 26 Finnish 5.4 27 Albanian 5.4 28 Slovak 5.2 29 Belarusian 5.1 30 Norwegian 5.0 31 Sicilian* 4.7 32 Venetian* 3.9 33 Lombard* 3.6 34 Lithuanian 3.0 35 Slovene 2.5 36 Bosnian 2.5 37 Galician 2.4 38 Macedonian 2.0 39 Emiliano-Romagnolo* 1.8 40 Latvian 1.8 41 Piedmontese* 1.6 42 Estonian 1.1 43 Sardinian* 1.0 … Other <1.0
Please note that there is no standardized way to divide German varieties into separate languages, so I divided them into 3 rough categories: Low German, West Central German (which includes Luxembourgish), and Alemannic German.
Figures preceded by the symbol “~”, as well as the numbers of L2 speakers, must be taken with a pinch of salt. The problem of estimating the number of native English and French speakers speakers is the large number of countries where the languages are widely spoken non-natively and the number of natives is unknown. Both Polish and Ukrainian have a large diaspora in many different countries. The situation of Ukrainian is further complicated by the existence of Surzhyk, which is a mix of Russian and Ukrainian spoken by around 15% of the Ukrainian population. | 1,268,762 |
The midterm elections sparked allegations of voter suppression from Georgia to New York, and Democratic leaders plan to prioritize voting rights when the next Congress convenes in January. In fact, NPR reports that the party will make strengthening democratic institutions the focus of its first bill in 2019.
Georgia's Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, sued state elections officials for rejecting absentee and provisional ballots in a race that's still undecided. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were told their voter registration was inactive weeks before the election. And the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued Waller County, Texas, for allegedly making it harder for college students to vote.
While voting rights were reportedly top of mind for congressional Democrats before last week's election, reports of widespread frustration may push them to act quickly. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), who leads the House Democratic Caucus on campaign finance and government ethics, told NPR that the Democratic Party's first bill will "demonstrate that we hear that message loud and clear."
More specifically, H.R. 1 will aim to establish automatic voter registration, bolster the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and take redistricting power away from state legislatures, according to NPR.
A 2013 Supreme Court decision crippled the Voting Rights Act by ruling that Section 4, which outlined which jurisdictions must get "preclearance" from the Justice Department before changing voting laws, was unconstitutional. Section 4 defined those jurisdictions as ones that had a history of voter discrimination. As The Atlantic notes, the decision put the ball back in Congress' court to determine new criteria for requiring federal clearance on local voting laws — which has yet to happen. Democrats' plans hint that the lingering questions regarding the Voting Rights Act could be addressed in a new bill next year.
When it comes to automatic voter registration, 15 states and the District of Columbia have already instituted the method, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In those states, eligible voters are registered or have their existing registration updated when they interact with government agencies unless they choose to opt out — and the move toward this plan has been swift. Oregon was the first state to implement automatic voter registration in 2016, and 20 states, by the Brennan Center's count, introduced similar legislation this year.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who could soon become the majority leader, told Politico before the election that voting rights would be a top priority for her party in 2019, along with campaign finance reform, lowering drug prices, protecting Dreamers, and strengthening background checks for gun owners.
Campaign reforms will likely be looped into the same bill as voting rights reform, as Roll Call reports. On that front, Democrats are reportedly focused on expanding anti-bribery law and requiring presidential candidates to publicly release their tax returns (a clear dig at President Donald Trump).
They'll still face an uphill battle to pass these reforms while Republicans maintain control of the Senate, however. There's also the issue of convincing the president to sign any bills Democrats back that do make it through the Senate. But Democratic leaders are vowing to try. | 1,268,763 |
Italy-France, 2018)
“Dovlatov” (d. Aleksei German, Russia-Poland-Serbia, 2018)
“The Favourite” (d. Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland-U.K.-U.S., 2018)
“First Man” (d. Damien Chazelle, U.S., 2018)
“Fistful of Dirt” (d. Sebastián Silva, U.S., 2018)
“Free Solo” (d. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, U.S., 2018)
“The Front Runner” (d. Jason Reitman, U.S., 2018)
“Ghost Fleet” (d. Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron, U.S., 2018)
“Girl” (d. Lukas Dhont, Belgium-Netherlands, 2018)
“Graves Without a Name” (d. Rithy Panh, France-Cambodia, 2018)
“The Great Buster” (d. Peter Bogdanovich, U.S., 2018)
“Meeting Gorbachev” (d. Werner Herzog and André Singer, U.K.-U.S.-Germany, 2018)
Netflix
“Non Fiction” (d. Olivier Assayas, France, 2018)
“The Old Man & the Gun” (d. David Lowery, U.S., 2018)
“The Other Side of the Wind” (d. Orson Welles, U.S., 1976/2018)
“Peterloo” (d. Mike Leigh, U.K., 2018)
“Reversing Roe” (d. Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, U.S., 2018)
“Roma” (d. Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico, 2018)
“Shoplifters” (d. Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan, 2018)
“They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” (d. Morgan Neville, U.S., 2018)
“Trial by Fire” (d. Ed Zwick, U.S., 2018)
“Watergate — or, How We Learned to Stop an Out-of-Control President” (d. Charles Ferguson, U.S., 2018)
“White Boy Rick” (d. Yann Demange, U.S., 2018)
“The White Crow” (d. Ralph Fiennes, U.K., 2018)
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. | 1,268,764 |
Climate change may be harming far more of the world's threatened species than previously thought. A new study suggests that nearly half of the mammals and a quarter of the birds on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's "red list" have already become victims of a shifting climate.
The research, published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, concludes that scientists and wildlife conservationists have failed to account for the damage inflicted by global warming.
"Our results clearly show that the impact of climate change on mammals and birds to date is currently greatly under-estimated and reported upon," co-author James Watson, of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Queensland in Australia, said in a statement. "We need to greatly improve assessments of the impacts of climate change on species right now, we need to communicate this to the wider public and we need to ensure key decision-makers know that something significant needs to happen now to stop species going extinct.
"Climate change is not a future threat anymore."
The authors, part of an international team of academics and conservationists, reviewed 130 previous studies on nearly 700 bird and mammal species and chronicled whether climate change had harmed, benefited or had no discernible effect on the creatures.
They then identified characteristics that appeared to make species more vulnerable to climate change and extrapolated their findings to all the birds and mammals listed as threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
According to their analysis, climate change has likely already harmed 47 percent of terrestrial mammals and 23 percent of birds listed. The IUCN lists climate change as a threat to only 7 percent of those mammals and 4 percent of the birds.
The review found that mammals that burrow into the earth, for example, can protect themselves from extreme heat and tend to be more resilient. Rodents and insectivores on the list seem to have benefited more than they've been harmed.
But members of nine other orders of mammals have not fared so well. Primates, marsupials and elephants have likely been hit hard by climate change, the authors wrote. They live primarily in tropical or sub-tropical zones, meaning they've evolved within a narrow range of temperatures. Primates' and elephants' slow reproductive rates also make it harder for them to adapt to rapid environmental changes.
Among birds, species living at high altitudes are particularly at risk. Aquatic birds and those inhabiting tropical forests are also more likely to be harmed, with their habitats particularly threatened by fragmentation.
The authors noted several uncertainties and limitations to their work. Animals in Europe and North America were studied far more than those on other continents, so the findings "might be less generalizable" to creatures in Africa, Asia and South America.
"Despite these uncertainties, our results suggest that the impact of climate change on mammals and birds in the recent past is currently greatly underappreciated," the paper said. "We recommend that research and conservation efforts give greater attention to the 'here and now' of climate change impacts on life on Earth." | 1,268,765 |
Sometimes silence is the action that speaks louder than words.
Addressing the nation this afternoon in the wake of the horrific school shooting in Newtown, Conn., President Obama was somber but matter-of-fact as he opened his statement, saying he reacted to the news that possibly 30 people, including as many as 20 children, had been killed, “not as a president, but as anybody else would, as a parent.”
PHOTOS: Shooting at Connecticut elementary school
As he continued his remarks, that became very clear. Acknowledging that “the majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” his tone, and then words themselves, suddenly failed him and he stood, lips clenched, moments ticking by in the ever-increasing sound of camera shutters, silently straining to collect himself.
He continued, of course, though more than once his hands moved to brush away tears, presumably before they could fall, and he never quite regained his initial composure. He said all the things a president should, and must, say in times of such tragedy, spoke of hugging his own daughters tighter and keeping the lost and the surviving in his prayers. But it was in those few endless seconds of silence that he reached the nation, as we sat in front of our television sets, many of us with Christmas trees and menorahs in plain view, horrified and sickened, wanting to turn the television off and keep the sorrow at bay, confined to a small chilly state miles away, and knowing that we can’t. That instead we must now sit vigil, in that same choking silence of a president struggling to do what must be one of the worst parts of his job, to appear calm in the face of evil and madness, resolute in a moment of utter powerlessness. We watch as the news comes in, bit by heartbreaking, enraging, despair-provoking bit because it is our duty, as Americans and grown-ups and human beings, to bear witness to the terrible crimes we commit against our children, against each other.
TIMELINE: Deadliest U.S. mass shootings
“We have seen this too many times,” the president said, and there was a promise of action in those words, though this was not the moment to discuss it, and we feel it too, as we sit on our sofas or stand in our office, listen on our car radios or watch on our iPads. We watch and we wonder how many more times we will have to explain tragedies like these to ourselves, to our children, before we do something. Before we work as hard as we can to ensure we never have to sit in this particular shared and awful silence again.
ALSO:
Connecticut shooting: 20 children among the 28 dead
Oregon shooter’s ex-girlfriend: ‘Last thing I would have expected’
Murder plot details: Infatuated inmate wanted Justin Bieber dead | 1,268,766 |
America has a gullibility problem, and it’s getting worse.
Whether you blame it on the Internet or political polarization or whatever, the fact is that more and more people seem more and more inclined to believe more and more crazy theories about (as a satirist once put it) plots to sap us of our precious bodily fluids.
Newsweek is out with a DISTURBING REPORT on this phenomenon:
Conspiracy theories have been woven into the fabric of American society since before the signing of the Constitution. But what was once dismissed as the amusing ravings of the tin-foil-hat crowd has in recent years crossed a threshold, experts say, with delusions, fictions and lunacy now strangling government policies and creating national health risks. �These kinds of theories have the effect of completely distorting any rational discussion we can have in this country,�� says Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center who recently wrote a report on the impact of what is known as the Agenda 21 conspiracy. �They are having a real impact now.�
Experts say the number and significance of conspiracy theories are reaching levels unheard-of in recent times, in part because of ubiquitous and faster communications offered by Internet chat rooms, Twitter and other social media. �Conspiracy narratives are more common in public discourse than they were previously,�� says Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has published research on the phenomenon. �We seem to have crossed a threshold.�
America has a gullibility problem, and it’s getting worse.
Whether you blame it on the Internet or political polarization or whatever, the fact is that more and more people seem more and more inclined to believe more and more crazy theories about (as a satirist once put it) plots to sap us of our precious bodily fluids.
Newsweek is out with a DISTURBING REPORT on this phenomenon:
Conspiracy theories have been woven into the fabric of American society since before the signing of the Constitution. But what was once dismissed as the amusing ravings of the tin-foil-hat crowd has in recent years crossed a threshold, experts say, with delusions, fictions and lunacy now strangling government policies and creating national health risks. �These kinds of theories have the effect of completely distorting any rational discussion we can have in this country,�� says Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center who recently wrote a report on the impact of what is known as the Agenda 21 conspiracy. �They are having a real impact now.�
Experts say the number and significance of conspiracy theories are reaching levels unheard-of in recent times, in part because of ubiquitous and faster communications offered by Internet chat rooms, Twitter and other social media. �Conspiracy narratives are more common in public discourse than they were previously,�� says Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has published research on the phenomenon. �We seem to have crossed a threshold.� | 1,268,767 |
arsmith, lends the seemingly depraved world an appealing sense of freedom. Wheatley, in true Ballardarian sentiment, manages to make the collapse of organised society comically desirable. High-Rise shows a world void of logic and responsibility. Instead life is dictated by a simple hedonistic freedom that’s impossible not to envy. When Wilder questions the strange lack of a police response it’s a rhetorical observation rather than a genuine query.
Midway through the film, upper floor dweller Simmons (Dan Renton Skinner) absurdly scolds Wilder: “He’s raping people he’s not supposed to and, to top it all off, he sh*t in Mercer’s attaché case.” Delirious moments like these almost had me miss the fact that Wheatley forgoes any concrete character development in his storytelling. The residents of High-Rise suffer from being a largely dislikeable bunch. Most are snide, sinister and immoral and that’s before all hell breaks loose.
Wilder is a rambunctious beast who dominates the film (an excellent turn from Luke Evans) but he’s a nasty chauvinist who despises women even more than his fellow man. Even Laing, who acutely diagnoses the high-rise “as liable to bouts of mania, narcissism, and power failure,” is at best neutral and at worst full blown psychotic. It’s only Charlotte Melville (Sienna Miller) and her deceptively observant son who garner any sympathy – probably since they don’t cave anyone’s skull amid the carnage. The formidable cast all provide memorable stops through High-Rise’s free-falling adventure; it’s just a shame there’s no investment to protect during the chaos.
Wheatley’s film never manages to critique capitalism, class and consumerism with the depth or vigour of Ballard’s original text, attested to by the film’s tokenistic use of a Margaret Thatcher speech on free trade in the finale. One of the film’s major flaws is Wheatley’s impatience to reach total anarchy. One second it’s squabbling over utility costs, the next minute it’s kidnapping and murder. This rush to take the express lift rather than the stairs limits the opportunity to build truly investable characters or complicate the social criticism. Yet these aren’t structurally crippling issues for the film; no, these are “merely teething issues,” as Anthony Royal would say.
High-Rise is such a joyous, funny, mad and memorable climb to the dizzying heights of decadence. Ballard’s novel is a filmmaker’s dream and Wheatley has seized the opportunity with all the gusto of Dr Laing clinging on to his precious paint tin for dear life.
Movie Verdict: Win
~ Jonny | 1,268,768 |
Jeff Sessions has been a U.S. Senator from Alabama since 1997, but he’s undergone renewed scrutiny after President-elect Donald Trump picked him for Attorney General. People wonder how he’ll behave in the position. So they dig, things pop up, and old stories become new again. For example, a KFILE report that he tried to stop a LGBT group from meeting on a college campus, according to a press account and legal ruling.
Back in 1996, Sessions was the Attorney General for Alabama, working under Republican Gov. Fob James. The Southeastern Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual College Conference was set to meet at the University off Alabama in February.
James told Sessions this violated a 1992 law that prohibited state schools from giving money to, or hosting any group “that fosters or promotes a life style or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws.” The group in question aimed to show how people could avoid STDs, and to foster discussion on substance abuse, and the Internet.
As KFILE puts it, Sessions was initially hesitant, reportedly saying the law was “fuzzy” in this situation, but he eventually tried to stop the group from meeting. He wrote a letter to the university president, but campus officials didn’t budge, arguing that the conference was protected by the First Amendment.
Sessions announced that he might try to get a court order to stop the conference, but that didn’t matter. A judge struck down the law days later. In his opinion, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson called it “an open effort by the State Legislature to limit the sexuality discussion in institutions of higher learning to only one viewpoint: that of heterosexual people. This viewpoint limitation violates the first amendment.”
Attempts to get a stay on the ruling failed, and Cathy Lopez Wessel, a conference organizer, actually told CNN that attendance was bigger than expected because of Session’s actions.
“What really struck me was that this seemed clearly to be about free speech and peaceable assembly,” she said. “I feel like Jeff Sessions used the full power of his office position to deny a student group the right to have a conference.”
We’ve reached out to a Sessions spokesman for comment.
The senator’s relationship with civil rights is checkered. In 2000 and 2009, he voted against expanding hate crime legislation to include sexual orientation. He called the 2015 Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage an “effort to secularize, by force and intimidation.” And in fact, about a week before that, he co-sponsored a bill that ostensibly protected the free speech of people who oppose same-sex marriage. Critics argued it could enable discrimination, and was actually flat-out unnecessary. His record with race has also fallen under some intense scrutiny.
[image via Rob Crandall and Shutterstock]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] | 1,268,769 |
Liberal Comedy Central host Jon Stewart told Rolling Stone magazine that he has trouble blaming tea partiers for the summer debt ceiling debacle.
“On the whole debt-ceiling thing, you can blame the intransigence of Tea Party Republicans all you want, but Democrats had a chance to pass a budget before they lost in the midterm election,” the Daily Show host said in an extensive interview. “They didn’t do it because they were afraid that those votes would cost them the House. Well, how’d that work out? They had the ability to avoid the entire fucking thing. And they didn’t do it out of cowardice. So I have a hard time mustering sympathy for the argument that a couple of Tea Partiers took Congress hostage. ”
Stewart also said President Obama shouldn’t get a free pass simply because he faces a difficult Congress.
“Was it a factor? Maybe,” Stewart said of the difficulty presented by tea party-linked members of Congress. “But conditions are what they are, and Obama is president. You are judged by how well you negotiate those conditions, not by how excusable the shitty end result is based on that it’s difficult.”
Overall, Stewart is disappointed with the Obama presidency.
“Obama ran on this idea that the system and the methodology are corrupt. It felt like the country was upset enough that he had the momentum needed to re-evaluate how business is done,” he said. “Instead, when he got elected, he acted as though the system is so entrenched that it has to be managed rather than — I don’t want to say decimated, because I’m not an anarchist or a nihilist. But I’m surprised at how much he deferred to the legislative process.”
Stewart added that he recognizes his criticisms might be somewhat unfair considering the challenges Obama faces.
“I recognize my own impatience, and I understand I am incredibly unfair. As someone who does what I do, it’s very easy to say what I say. It’s tougher when you’re actually in it, like he is,” he said.
Asked about the Republican Primary field, Stewart expressed bewilderment that Texas Rep. Ron Paul wasn’t getting more attention given his consistent standing in the polls.
“I love the fact that none of them talk about Ron Paul,” he said. “I don’t understand how a guy with consistent grass-roots support at the level he has is not a part of the conversation. I saw on the news networks, ‘Rick Perry enters the race and immediately jumps in at second place, bumping Michele Bachman down to fourth.’ But they don’t mention, ‘Hey, guess who’s in third place? Ron Paul!”
Email Jamie Weinstein and follow him on Twitter | 1,268,770 |
Gay San Francisco Police Officer Sues City in Discrimination and Harassment Lawsuit
Repeatedly, SF Sergeants have been harassing the officer, and when he finally reported the discrimination, things got worse.
Brendan Mannix, an openly gay San Francisco police officer, has filed a lawsuit against the city for numerous acts of sexual discrimination and harassment.
Sergeants at Central Station frequently made comments about his sexual orientation, including calling him a “queen,” “too dramatic,” and insulting his masculinity, Mannix’s attorney Lawrence Organ wrote.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
"The bulk of Mannix’s accusations focus on two sergeants. One suggested Mannix was in a sexual relationship with the other gay officer at the station, and when Mannix did or said something the sergeant believed was stereotypically gay, he would say “ugh, you gays!” or “God, you gays!” Organ said. The sergeant, Organ said, would also mock Mannix’s hair style and physical appearance, making comments like, “Is that hair big enough?!” and “How much do you weigh? One hundred pounds soaking wet?” In one instance, when they discovered a dead body in the water at night, the sergeant told him, “don’t be such a queen,” when Mannix said he was cold, Organ said."
When the officer attempted to solve the problem on his own, speaking directly with the sergeants, one of the sergeants got into his face, saying, “If you think I am a bully, file a f—ing complaint.”
So he did. The 28 year-old officer went to the proper authorities and filed a formal complaint. The sergeant who took the report was “dismissive” and omitted many of the incidents he reported, and the complaint was later closed.
Mannix believes that the station is now retaliating against him, giving him unfavorable assignments.
In what’s the most disconcerting, his entire unit seems to be leaving him high in dry when he calls in for backup while pursuing a dangerous suspect.
“In April 2017, he chased a robbery suspect down Market Street and radioed for backup. No one from his station immediately showed up to help and Mannix apprehended the suspect himself, Organ said. Officers from a neighboring station eventually arrived on the scene to assist, he said.”
The Police Department said it could not comment on the lawsuit. However, it takes “allegations of discrimination and officer misconduct seriously and will thoroughly investigate all complaints.”
“The San Francisco Police Department is committed to diversity, tolerance and respect for the public and all of our members,” said David Stevenson, a police spokesman. “Department members are sworn to hold each other accountable and required to act swiftly to report any misconduct.” | 1,268,771 |
Last Saturday night, a group of dirtbag vandals flipped over La Barbecue's port-o-potties. What the bandits didn't know was La Barbecue caught the whole thing on tape. When they launched an internet manhunt to find the perpetrators, the video went viral, and within hours they had a positive ID on the main culprit. Eater checks in with La Barbecue general manager Alison Clem about the vandalism and its aftermath.
When you posted the video, did you expect to actually find the perpetrators?
We had no idea how big this would get. We got fifteen emails and messages all identifying the same person, the guy with the mohawk. We can't release his name, because the investigation is still in process.
But I can't believe how much people cared. It has over 17,000 views on YouTube. We were on the news three times in Austin, and we made the news in Houston too. It's gross, but it's not that huge a deal.
It's a perfect storm of Austin internet: video, barbecue, entitled vandals.
Right. A lot of the reaction we get from people is, "What's the point of this? Why would you do that?" People are really mad. We're offering a free rack of ribs to anyone who tips us off, but the first woman who gave us an ID said she was just happy to help.
What's the overall cost of the vandalism to the trailer?
It could easily run us a thousand dollars. We have to have Lone Star Latrine out here, and get new gravel. Plus Lone Star's toilets were damaged, which they say could run over a thousand easily on their end. I can't imagine if they'd cost us a day of service.
That's why we want to press charges. If we let it go, this could happen to someone else.
Why did you guys put up security cameras to begin with?
It was Leann's idea, and at the time I thought it was crazy. Though it does make our lives easier. We're out of town a lot for her photography work, and we can check on the line remotely.
We've caught all sorts of weird stuff on cameras. Some girl peed in the alley during SXSW. She thought she was hiding behind a dumpster, but she was right in front of our cameras.
Have things been different here on East 6th, than on South First?
No, actually. Francisco, who does our cooking overnight, was worried he might get hassled. But there haven't been any problems before now. And the other trailers have been really supportive - Way South Philly blew it up on their account, too. Everyone knows how much it would suck to have something like this happen to them.
· Help La Barbecue Find The Jerks Who Flipped Their Port-O-Potties [EATX]
· All La Barbecue Coverage [EATX] | 1,268,772 |
Markus "Notch" Persson has opened up about his emotional state following his decision to sell Minecraft to Microsoft to the tune of $2.5 billion. In short, he's not having the best time.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, the billionaire Persson--who outbid Jay-Z and Beyonce for a $70 million Beverly Hills mansion and partied with Selena Gomez--said he's feeling lonely. He also says he's wary to use his wealth to do what Elon Musk has done and branch out into new industries.
In the flurry of tweets, Persson also laments how the team that remains at Mojang aren't fans of his. "When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of," he said. "And they all hate me now."
Persson--a self-described introvert--capped off his thoughts by thanking people for their messages of support, and said he's optimistic that his outlook will improve.
For more, check out CNET's editorial: "Billionaire who sold Minecraft to Microsoft is sad and lonely."
Previously, Persson said he kind of felt like a "sellout" for selling Minecraft to Microsoft. Persson reportedly had a 70 percent stake in Mojang, meaning he made around $1.75 billion from the sale.
The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance. — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
Hanging out in ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated. — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
In sweden, I will sit around and wait for my friends with jobs and families to have time to do shit, watching my reflection in the monitor. — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now. — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead. — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of assholes that made me sell minecraft again. — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
People who made sudden success are telling me this is normal and will pass. That's good to know! I guess I'll take a shower then! — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
I really appreciate all the offers to hang and talk and all. As an introvert, new friends is hard to do even when fine, but it means a lot! — Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015 | 1,268,773 |
according to Digitalsmiths, a video search and recommendation company. That's up from 14% and 13.4% in the second and first quarter, respectively.
Comcast, the largest cable company in the U.S., has had talks with Time Warner Cable about the possibility of merging. Charter Communications is also pursuing a possible deal with TWC in pursuit of a larger portfolio of TV and Internet customers that would give it more clout with cable and TV networks.
PRINT PROBLEMS
The relatively stable economic outlook didn't spill over into the print ad market. Print publishers — while heartened that the rate of decline has eased — continue to be confounded by what seems like an irreversible slide. Newspaper ad spending fell 6.1% in 2013 to $17.8 billion, while magazine ads were relatively flat. That's a slight improvement for newspapers from an 8.4% decline in 2012.
Earlier this year, Newsonomics' Doctor predicted that 2013 would prove to be the year of the great digital "crossover" for legacy media companies — a sober embrace of online distribution coupled with a stepped-up effort to find new revenue sources. The transformation was rough for many, as the year proved that digital ads — at least, without innovation — have a limited upside.
Overall digital ad spending grew 15.7% to $42.6 billion, but that was largely due to mobile ads that more than doubled this year, eMarketer says.
Ad spending on sites delivered via desktop and laptop computers remained flat at about $33 billion this year. Automated ad sales through online ad exchanges helped drive down ad prices. Even as large corporate customers are more comfortable advertising online, they may be increasingly steering clear of click-to-buy banner ads.
Instead, publishers have prominently turned to "sponsored content" and "native ads" — ads tailored to advertisers' wishes and displayed more seamlessly with other content — to replace the slide in more traditional online ads.
At the same time, more evidence surfaced to show that publishers are looking to lessen their dependence on advertising. More publishers are erecting paywalls, charging readers to access their content online. More than 40% of U.S. newspapers will have one in place by mid-2014, Doctor predicts. The New York Times Co., whose moves in the digital realm are carefully monitored, generated more circulation revenue — thanks largely to its metered digital paywall — than advertising sales for the first time in its history. In its most recent quarter, the number of digital subscribers rose 29% from a year ago to 727,000.
The occasional hints that readers and advertisers will pay for quality content — coupled with attractive pricing — may have driven several big names to buy newspapers this year. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos' $250 million acquisition of The Washington Post and a $70 million deal by Boston Red Sox owner John Henry to buy The Boston Globe are among the most prominent examples. And superstar financier Warren Buffett also added to his newspaper portfolio this year. | 1,268,774 |
's not necessarily the case. This could allow shareholders to get their Alibaba shares without the baggage of Yahoo the business, and without paying any taxes on Alibaba's increased value.
An activist hedge fund wants Yahoo to sell its core business
In a January letter, the hedge fund Starboard Value was scathing about Mayer's performance. "The management team that was hired to turn around the Core Business has failed to produce acceptable results," the firm wrote.
So Starboard urged Yahoo's board to choose a third option: selling Yahoo's core business to another company.
A spinoff would leave Mayer in control of Yahoo the business, which Starboard views as a disadvantage. The hedge fund believes a new owner could do more with the company than the current management, and would therefore pay more for the company than the current market value.
And Starboard isn't just making an idle suggestion. Starboard is an activist investment firm. Its strategy is to buy a stake in a company and then use it as leverage to force management to make changes. In 2014, for example, Starboard successfully ousted the management of the Olive Garden after writing an epic 300-page slide deck criticizing the company's management. The slide deck faulted the restaurant chain for stale breadsticks and mushy pasta, along with weightier criticisms of its real estate portfolio and business strategy.
Starboard is threatening to take that same approach at Yahoo. "If the Board is unwilling to accept the need for significant change," the company wrote on January 6, "then an election contest may very well be needed so that shareholders can replace a majority of the Board with directors who will represent their best interests."
Only failing companies face this kind of pressure
It's easy to get bogged down in tax and accounting details, but the big-picture lesson here is that Yahoo is failing under Mayer.
If Apple had made a prescient billion-dollar investment in Alibaba 10 years ago, Wall Street wouldn't be pressuring CEO Tim Cook to spin off the shares. And that's not just because Apple's success gives Cook leverage over Wall Street in general. It's also because so long as Apple continued to be profitable, there'd be no reason to worry about Cook raiding profits from one part of the business to cover losses in another part.
But there's a real danger that Mayer — or one of her successors — will dip into those Alibaba profits to help pay for Yahoo's continued losses. And because those Alibaba shares are worth a lot more than the rest of Yahoo put together, Wall Street's top priority is to make sure that a continued meltdown of Yahoo the company won't drain value from Yahoo's investments. The easiest way to do that is to put them into separate companies.
Reasonable people can debate whether the failure of Yahoo's core business is Mayer's fault or whether Yahoo was beyond saving when she arrived. Given the long line of failed CEOs that preceded her, I'm more inclined to go with option two. But either way, it's becoming clear that Mayer's turnaround plan isn't working. | 1,268,775 |
Malay traders should be allowed to do business on Petaling Street so that the place would not be perceived as being 'racist', said Sungai Besar Umno division chief Jamal Md Yunos.
He concluded that after yesterday's scuffle between the red shirts and the police outside the iconic shopping street, it is time for the Chinese to "share" what was theirs.
"Ten years ago, I applied for a spot in Petaling Street but it was not granted.
“It is better for the authorities and City Hall not to be racist. This is what we call 'racist', as all the traders are Chinese. What's wrong with adding a few Malay traders?
"We said we need to share. But they (Chinese) don't want to. Only we share ours," he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.
Jamal put the blame on Opposition-linked group 'Otai Reformis', which he named as responsible in provoking the red shirts through their statements and signs posted in front of Petaling Street banning the red shirts from entering the area.
No action against Petaling Street traders
Although claiming the rowdy protesters are not from his group, Jamal promised them he will help them by asking the government to 'clean up' Petaling Street, which he said sell counterfeit and illegal items.
"They told me they went to Petaling Street which has been running illegal trading for years and they told me that the traders are not Malaysian but foreigners.
“The stalls are given to Nepalese, Bangladeshis, and everyone else and because of that, I promised to help.
"Today, I will go to meet KDN (the Home Ministry) and ask them and other agencies to take action against the illegal traders.
"The protesters also questioned that in the Malay areas, the government took action against illegal traders but we see Petaling Street is still invincible," he said.
Abdul Rani Kulup Abdullah of Martabat Jalinan Muhibbah Malaysia also lodged a police report today, asking the police to investigate a video by 'Otai Reformis' ( photo ) that forbade red shirt rally participants from entering Petaling Street, saying they will defend it from the protesters.
More news
'Red shirt' rally a national day of shame, not unity
Three lessons in national soul-searching
MB: Racist slogans Umno’s best way to restore Malay dignity?
‘Abolishing vernacular schools won’t redeem Malay pride’
Utusan slams news portals for being anti-red shirts
Please, no more procrastination, go sue Al Jazeera
Provocation, racial slurs mar'red shirts' rally
The mysterious red shirt rally continues to mystify
What’s the story now about Petaling Street chaos?
The good, bad and ugly - what rally got right and not | 1,268,776 |
In the village of Gare, where Agrawal has helped villagers voice their objections to Jindal’s plans for more mining operations, the earth shakes violently for a half-hour each morning as workmen blast a gaping coal pit with dynamite, sending clouds of black dust billowing up. The acrid smell of smoke hangs in the air, already hazy yellow from the nearby power plant pollution.
The company has been mining coal in the area for several years, but Gare and the neighboring villages of Sarasmal and Kosampali have seen little economic benefit. No new schools or hospital clinics have been built, and only a few dozen menial labor jobs were offered after protests by residents, who were once self-sufficient growing rice and vegetables, villagers said.
There are, however, new roads on which dozens of uncovered coal trucks rattle through communities every day with coal dust blowing off the back.
“For six years I have been sick,” 55-year-old villager Sushila Choudhury said through bloodshot eyes and the wheezing cough of an asthmatic. “Why are they doing this to us? We haven’t done anything wrong.”
Dr. Harihar Patel, the area’s only trained doctor for 10 kilometers (six miles), said he’s seen a jump in the number of people with asthma and other lung ailments, skin lesions and exhaustion.
“The system is not working properly. The rich get richer, and the government supports them over us,” Patel said. “Twenty years ago we had no idea this could happen to us, to our land and our water.”
Agrawal began researching the rights of the poor in confronting corporations in 2005, after becoming alarmed by the sudden influx of industry into his home state of Chhattisgarh. In 2010, he won his first court victory in blocking Indian company Scania Steel & Power Ltd. from expanding a coal-burning power plant without clearance.
He’s been helped by some legal tools along the way. In 2005, India passed a law giving citizens the right to review public records. Six years later, India launched a separate environmental court system that gave any citizen the right to demand a hearing on environmental matters.
Two years ago, the court ruled on a lawsuit filed by Agrawal on behalf of Gare residents to revoke Jindal’s clearance for a second mine in the area. Jindal has since reapplied for clearance to mine in the village, and Agrawal is preparing another suit to block it.
“We have to look after the environment, or there will be hundreds of thousands of people with nothing, no employment, no money, no farmland, no forests,” he said. “They will end up cutting each other’s throats just to survive.”
___
Follow Katy Daigle on Twitter at http://twitter.com/katydaigle | 1,268,777 |
Hello everyone!
Remember our story about using Univention appliances to install ONLYOFFICE paired with ownCloud? We have some great news: the Nextcloud-based appliance has just been released too. Read more in this article.
Just to remind, Univention, an open-source corporate infrastructure developer, has recently introduced a handy method of installing systems already equipped with third-party components – virtual app appliances. These are VirtualBox or VMware images that include the app, UCS management system and the UCS runtime environment.
Following the ONLYOFFICE- ownCloud appliance, we are announcing the new VM that contains Univention Corporate Server, Nextcloud and ONLYOFFICE. The apps work out of the box with the additionally created auto-configuration that makes sure that the required ONLYOFFICE add-on in Nextcloud is configured correctly. The installation is far easier than a classic manual method: no manual steps by the administrator are needed.
How to install the app
1. Download the necessary components
First, you need to install the hypervisor for the virtual machine. Choose between VMware Workstation Player or VirtualBox (follow the documentation for detailed installation guide).
Then download ONLYOFFICE-Nexctloud VM for the hypervisor that you’ve chosen.
2. Import the appliance
Now open the hypervisor and import the ONLYOFFICE-Nextcloud virtual appliance. This guide by Univention can show you exactly how to do this in both platforms.
3. Install the application
Once the image is successfully imported, start the Virtual Machine. Go through the booting process via the installation wizard, following the steps below.
Note: The data in the screenshots is exemplary. While booting, input your own data to get the system operating in your environment.
The first step is localization. Here, select the nearest city for the wizard to adjust the correct timezone, keyboard layouts, and other parameters.
Next, set up your domain and network. Select your IP manually or choose the automatic option, then fill in the address of the DNS server where the system will be hosted.
In the next step, either connect to the existing UCS or Microsoft Active Directory domain, or set up the new one. To create the new domain, you need to choose ‘manage users and permissions directly on this system’ (this How-To is oriented at setting up a new system).
Further, fill in your Company name, admin email address for activating ONLYOFFICE, and create a new password.
Specify the full domain name for this system and the LDAP base:
Review your settings and make sure everything is filled out correctly. Then click ‘Configure System’
Once everything is configured, your new ONLYOFFICE-Nextcloud system is ready for action!
Read more about ONLYOFFICE in Univention in our dedicated article. For any questions, contact us at support.onlyoffice.com or use the comment section below. | 1,268,778 |
GAITHERSBURG, MD – While Wednesday's $758 million Powerball drawing was snagged by a player in Massachusetts, Maryland Lottery officials say the state does have a $1 million winner – one of 34 across the country. The $1 million-winning ticket was sold at Potomac Shell, 12140 Darnestown Road in Gaithersburg. The winning Powerball numbers for Wednesday, Aug. 23, were: 6-7-16-23-26, plus the Powerball of 04.
Lottery officials urge the winner to sign the back of the ticket and keep it in a safe location until he or she can come to Lottery headquarters at 1800 Washington Boulevard in Baltimore to claim the prize. The winner must claim within 182 days of the drawing date.
Wednesday's drawing also produced two $50,000 winners in Maryland. Overall, there were 201,079 winning tickets sold in Maryland for last night's Powerball drawing, with prizes ranging from $4 to the $1 million winner sold in Montgomery County. (SIGN UP: Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts, or like us on Facebook. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)
Mega-Millionaire Lottery Winners: Where Are They Now?
SEE ALSO: $758M Powerball Ticket Sold In MA Town — But Lottery Mixes Up Location
Like the Gaithersburg Patch Facebook page below, then continue reading the story.
The jackpot of $758.7 million is the largest grand prize won by a single ticket in U.S. lottery history. The winner can choose to accept the prize as an annuity paid over 29 years, or take a lump sum of $480.5 million (before taxes). It was the second-largest jackpot in history, topped only by the $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot in January of 2016, which was shared by three winners in Florida, Tennessee and California.
In addition to the $1 million winner here in Maryland, there were another 33 winning tickets worth $1 million sold in 18 states, including Virginia.
Players in Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands matched the five white balls and also added the Power Play option on their tickets, which doubled their prizes to $2 million. The base price of a Powerball ticket is $2. The Power Play option adds $1 to the cost of the ticket and will multiply any prizes other than the jackpot. Powerball tickets are sold in 47 states and jurisdictions.
Since its inception in 1973, Maryland Lottery and Gaming has awarded more than $24.4 billion in prizes to Lottery players and more than $15 billion in Lottery revenue to the State of Maryland, according to a news release. The Lottery supports important state programs and services including education, public safety and health, human resources and the environment. For more information, go to mdlottery.com.
Image via Shutterstock | 1,268,779 |
? Start snacking because they’re packed with vitamin C and fiber. Add a kiwi to your next fruit salad or granola bowl, or enjoy straight up with a spoon. 26. Cantaloupe Price: $0.50 per 1/2 cup, $3 per small melon Cantaloupe makes a perfect spring or summer treat. The antioxidant-packed fruit pairs well with yogurt, can be frozen as a DIY popsicle, or juiced. 27. Apples Share on Pinterest Price: $0.75 per apple
An apple a day, right? Apples have plenty of antioxidants and are an easy staple to keep around the house. Eat them plain, smear with a nut butter, bake ’em hot, or pair with a few cubes of cheese for a protein- and carb-rich snack — perfect post-workout. 28. Pears Price: $0.85 each, $1.75 per pound
Pears are high in fiber and antioxidants and come in varieties like Bartlett, Bosc, and Anjou. They’re a perfect match for fall-themed recipes. 29. Oranges Price: $0.50 each, $1 per pound
Oranges might get talked about for their vitamin C content, but they’re also strong in fiber, folate, and potassium. If you’d rather go with the juice, skip the carton and squeeze your own to make sure you’re not downing any unnecessary sugar.
Drinks 42. Coffee Share on Pinterest Price: $0.40 per 16-ounce cup brewed at home, $10 per pound
Not only is it good for you, but brewing coffee at home can save some serious cash. This morning pick-me-up also contains antioxidants that help protect your heart. A small amount can be a great pre-workout choice to help increase endurance (just make sure you limit yourself to about a half cup). 43. Tea Price: $0.10 per tea bag, $5 per box
There are plenty of health benefits linked to tea, ranging from lowering risks of depression and strokes to reducing chances of getting certain liver diseases. It may even help you maintain a healthy weight. Koithan M, et al. (2010). Using herbal remedies to maintain optimal weight.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20802831/ Skip the sugary stuff and brew iced tea at home, and opt for the green or white tea varieties if you’re looking to maximize antioxidant intake. Check out this guide for making the perfect cup. 44. Water Price: Free (… kind of). Head to the nearest faucet: Our bodies depend on it. Water keeps us hydrated, flushes out toxins, and helps keep you full between meals. It’s also a lifesaver for skin health. Still need more proof? Check out one of these science-backed reasons water is awesome. | 1,268,780 |
New research by the world’s top crypto exchange, Binance, indicates that portfolios that include Bitcoin exhibited overall better risk-return profiles than traditional multi-asset class portfolios.
Binance Research Delves Into Portfolios
The research division of Malta based Binance has been analyzing different portfolio structures to ascertain the differences in risk-return profiles.
“#Binance Research analysis shows that including $BTC in traditional multi-asset class portfolios provides overall better risk-return profiles.”
Portfolio Management Series #1 – Diversification Benefits with #Bitcoin#Binance Research analysis shows that including $BTC in traditional multi-asset class portfolios provides overall better risk-return profiles. How much of your portfolio is Bitcoin?https://t.co/s8MFE42sfl — Binance Research (@BinanceResearch) July 25, 2019
The study concluded that for a decade, Bitcoin has been an extremely volatiles asset exhibiting large drawdowns. Conversely it has also had some of the largest price rallies in recorded history. Additionally there has been no significant correlation between BTC and other traditional asset classes such as commodities, equities, or fixed-income products.
Bitcoin has a number of advantages from a trading perspective as it is one of the most liquid assets on the planet. With consistently low spreads and high volumes trading venues are consistently being arbitraged it added. The report added:
“Binance Research simulated different Bitcoin allocation techniques in existing diversified multi-asset portfolios. All simulated portfolios which included Bitcoin exhibited overall better risk-return profiles than traditional multi-asset class portfolios. These results show that Bitcoin provides active diversification benefits for all investors worldwide, following multi-asset strategies.”
New institutionally focused investment products and crypto custody solutions have made Bitcoin an essential asset to be included in any portfolio for its diversification properties.
It is no surprise that BTC was declared highly volatile with annual returns in four figures for three of its ten year existence. Only in 2014 and 2018 did Bitcoin show a loss year on year. Because it is a nascent technology and asset with a null starting value it has experienced wild price fluctuations.
The report added that volatility is likely to decrease as the industry matures and new institutional products such as Fidelity Digital, ETFs, and mutual funds are launched. Expanding on correlation, the research compared BTC returns with other traditional assets such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100, oil, gold and silver. It concluded that Bitcoin would be a very good choice for those seeking diversification since it remains uncorrelated with all other non-crypto financial instruments and asset classes.
The research was Binance’s first report in a series on portfolio management. Irrespective of preferred asset class, BTC was found to provide diversification benefits leading to an improved risk-return profile for investors. It concluded that despite the simplicity of the strategies described, they all provided overall positive results from a risk/return perspective.
Image from Shutterstock | 1,268,781 |
-litre is more at home up high in the rev counter, where it starts making real power around 5,000 rpm, all while emitting one of the most satisfying crescendo of intake and exhaust decibels. And it won’t stop pulling until it hits its 7,400-rpm redline. Set the variable exhaust in Track mode, and no matter how fast that V8 is spinning, it chortles out an unmistakable muscle car soundtrack. The Bullitt sounds mean, but also purposeful, mechanical and, dare I say, almost industrial. While I’m a total fan of the melody orchestrated by the Shelby GT350’s flat-plane crank V8, the Bullitt’s unique soundtrack is simply more emotional, sending inimitable shivers through your nervous system.
But don’t worry, you can still be friends with your neighbors. Just set your Bullitt’s exhaust to Quiet mode; an ideal feature for sneaking out of the house at night for a drive, and it’ll sound like a V8-powered SUV.
The Ideal Street Tune
While I’d personally opt out of the optional Recaro seats for their spine bending ergonomics (this applies to all Ford Recaro’s), the Bullitt is a fantastic boulevard cruiser. Its formidable suspension tuning takes in the hits, not your skeleton, and that gearbox is linked to one of the most satisfying cue-ball shifters in the business. Like all V8-powered Mustangs, the clutch is buoyant and absent of any form of bite. On a track, this could prove a bit of a letdown, but out there in the urban wild, it’s exactly what you need. I’m not saying the 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt could not be a capable track machine, because it’ll happily trade punches with Camaros and Caymans no sweat during a Sunday cup. But that’s not its promise. Like the movie in which McQueen chased the bad guys through the streets of San Francisco, the Bullitt was designed for street-tuned performance that flies under the radar. While many will argue you could have as much fun behind the wheel of a Mustang GT, the fact of the matter is the Bullitt captures more thrills, sensations and nostalgia than any other pony car within the Mustang lineup.
Clavey's Verdict Review of the 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt by William Clavey
Sports Cars Undeniable presence and character
A lot of performance for the price
Easy to live with every day Significantly more expensive than a Mustang GT
Hard on gas
Cramped rear seat 9.5/ 10
Clavey’s Corner is located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Prices and trim levels discussed in this article reflect the Canadian car market.
Special thanks: Ford Canada
Photography: Caleb Gingras
Contact the author: [email protected] | 1,268,782 |
Oh Alyssa, they’re insuring your car, not you! (Picture: Caters News)
A special needs teacher hilariously sent photos of herself instead of her car to an insurance company.
Alyssa Stringfellow was asked to take front and side profile photos before her car insurance could be completed.
When does Rosh Hashanah end and when is Yom Kippur 2020?
But the 25-year-old misunderstood and instead posed for a sequence of images and sent them to her insurer.
Alyssa was left red-faced after realising her mistake last week, and quickly sent across the correct images of the car.
She has since shared her post to give others a laugh at her expense.
Alyssa shared the pictures so everyone could have a right laugh at her expense (Picture: Caters News)
Alyssa, from Arkansas, US, said: ‘I was insuring myself on my grandmother’s car insurance when I decided to pose for the photos.
‘The guy from the insurance company rang laughing his head off after he received my email.
France sees highest daily rise in coronavirus infections since pandemic began
‘I was totally embarrassed and mortified that his entire office had seen my photos.
‘I did think it was strange that he wanted photos of me but I just thought he must need them to identify who I was.
‘My grandmother Carolyn was like, “he’s insuring the car not you”, and we’ve all laughed about it since.
Everyone at the car insurance company was in floods of tears (Picture: Caters News)
‘I decided to share what happened on Facebook and it has since had over 10,000 shares.’
Alyssa was trying to insure herself on her grandma’s insurance to save money on driving her Kia Forte.
Prince Andrew under more pressure as Epstein's chef 'fully cooperates' with FBI
She added: ‘I decided to add myself to Carolyn’s car and the insurance company rang her with the details I needed and their email address.
‘This included my driver’s license number, my date of birth, and a picture straight on and a picture taken from each side.
‘I emailed the information along with the pictures that night but I woke up to them asking for the same photos but for the car.
‘He’d told my grandma on the phone that he and his entire office were in hysterics at my obvious misunderstanding.
‘It was such a blonde moment but it has given so many people a laugh that I don’t care anymore.’
MORE: Random man strips and gyrates on Victoria Line tube train
MORE: Scottish parliament evacuated after alert over ‘package with white powder’ | 1,268,783 |
After receiving these three different kinds of data—student surveys, observations, and portfolio assessments—almost all teachers reported in a survey that they appreciated receiving multiple measures of their practice. Most teachers reported that the measures were a fair assessment of the quality of their teaching, and that the evaluation process helped them grow as educators. But there was also consensus that more information was needed to help them improve their scores. For example, some teachers wanted to know how to make assignments more relevant to students’ lives; others asked for more support reflecting on their observation transcripts.
Perhaps the most important accomplishment of this new system was that it restored teachers’ trust in the process of evaluation. Very few teachers trust that value-added measures—which are based on tests that are far removed from their daily work—can inform their improvement. This is an issue explored by researchers who are probing the unintended consequences of teacher accountability systems tied to value-added measures (such as the formula used by the L.A. Times). For example, Harvard researcher Susan Moore Johnson cautions that value-added evaluation methods may reduce trust and undermine collaboration, affirming schools as egg-crate organizations where teachers work in isolation. We know that schools flourish when the adults inside are working together, not apart. Long-term research on school reform affirms the central role that relational trust and respect play in improving schools.
The L.A. Times database and other rankings miss the most important qualities of great teachers. They open their classroom doors and make their practice public. And they trust their colleagues and others to tell them when they are calling on some students over others, to point out when their lesson doesn’t challenge all students, or to suggest ways to enliven classroom discussions. Embracing and acting upon this sort of feedback takes courage and isn’t easy, especially in today’s education climate. But focusing public attention on teacher learning and betterment is the best route to restoring trust in teacher evaluation. That’s a story worth sharing with your neighbors.
Karen Hunter Quartz is research director at the UCLA Community School and a faculty member in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. She wrote this for Thinking L.A., a partnership of UCLA and Zocalo Public Square.
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Contact us at [email protected]. | 1,268,784 |
The referendum is not binding, but a ‘yes’ majority would give parliament a mandate to change the constitution.
Macedonians have voted in a key referendum on whether to re-name their country North Macedonia in a bid to settle a long-running row with Greece and unlock its path to NATO and EU membership.
Polls for some 1.8 million voters opened at 7am local time (5GMT) and closed at 7pm. The question on the referendum ballot was: “Are you for NATO and EU membership with acceptance of the agreement with Greece”.
The referendum is not binding, but a ‘yes’ majority would give parliament a political mandate to change the constitution.
If the deal is passed through the referendum and is ratified by two-thirds of MPs, the Greek parliament will be called on to give the final stamp of approval.
While the Macedonian government plans to call any significant majority in favour of the deal a success, the right-wing opposition may question the vote’s credibility if turnout is below 50 percent.
Macedonia has struggled for recognition of its name since its birth in 1991 when the landlocked country declared independence from Yugoslavia.
Greece, which has its own northern province called Macedonia, has always maintained that Macedonia’s name represented a claim on its territory.
It vetoed Macedonia’s entrance into NATO and the EU, and forced it to enter the United Nations under a provisional name as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or FYROM.
Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev argues that accepting a new name is a price worth paying for admission into the EU and NATO.
But nationalist opponents say it would undermine the ethnic identity of the country’s Slavic majority population. President Gjorge Ivanov, who is allied with the nationalist, has said he will boycott the referendum.
The dispute stretches back nearly three decades, with both countries claiming links to Alexander the Great’s ancient empire of Macedon, which spanned the territories.
A grandiose “antiquisation” project under Macedonia’s former government that plastered Skopje with neo-classical facades and statues of Alexander the Great added fuel to the fire.
But in June Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zaev and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras reached a landmark compromise under which Greece would drop its objections to Macedonia joining the EU and NATO in return for the name change.
Some feel it is embarrassing to change their name at the request of another country.
But a desire anchor their future to the West – and the economic prosperity that could bring – is a powerful motivation to accept the deal in one of Europe’s poorest countries.
“We cannot really say it is fair, but the EU and NATO matter more for all of us, so let’s move forward,” 28-year-old Abedin Memeti said ahead of the vote. | 1,268,785 |
Does the car industry want the same? That’s an interesting question. They certainly seem to find the CAFE standards frustrating. For the last two years, they’ve claimed the rules are expensive and out of step with what Americans desire; they also argue that the Obama administration rammed CAFE down their throats. And the industry’s lobbyists have been complaining about the rules to any Trump administration official who would listen, up to and including the president.
But now they claim they don’t want the freeze. What gives?
Setting the stage for this farce is a development that almost everyone—including the car industry—says is a good thing: New cars and trucks sold in America burn much less fuel than they did a decade ago. In 2007, new vehicles in the United States averaged about 20.0 mpg. Last year, they averaged 25.2 mpg.
This happened, in short, because the government ordered it.
On May 21, 2010, President Obama unveiled an ambitious new set of CAFE standards. They aimed to get idealized U.S. fuel economy to 50 mpg by 2025. (Real-life fuel economy would lag behind this number.) They also doubled as climate-change policy, since more fuel-efficient vehicles release less carbon-dioxide pollution. Obama said the rules would save Americans money and “create or save more than 700,000 jobs.”
The car industry seemed less frustrated on that sunny morning. The chief executives of Daimler Trucks and Volvo flanked Obama as he made that announcement, nodding along with the young president. An overwhelming coalition endorsed the rules: Environmentalists, labor groups, consumer advocates, and every single automaker endorsed or acquiesced to the new CAFE standard.
But then again, the industry didn’t have much choice. Obama used Chrysler and GM’s government bailout to require them to comply with the rules. And if that wasn’t enough, he had twin Democratic majorities in Congress. He could write new fuel-economy laws, if need be.
It hadn’t always been this way. At the birth of the American car industry, the government didn’t do much about fuel economy. Though it belched toxic air pollutants, the Ford Model T could run at 25 mpg, almost tying today’s Ford F-150. But in the fat decades that followed World War II, cars became engorged, yacht-like, and wasteful. In 1973, new cars averaged 12.9 mpg, an all-time low.
The oil embargo changed all that. Gas prices shot up to 55 cents per gallon (or about $2.80 in today’s dollars). In 1975, Congress ordered the Department of Transportation to create the first fuel-economy rules. The CAFE standards were born, working much as they do today, with fuel economy increasing a little bit every year. By 1991, new cars averaged 19.6 mpg. | 1,268,786 |
) Getty Images Hurricane Matthew hits the US DAYTONA BEACH, FL - OCTOBER 7: A vehicle drives through water on International Speedway Boulevard after Hurricane Matthew passes through on October 7, 2016 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina have all declared a state of emergency in preparation for Hurricane Matthew. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Getty Images Hurricane Matthew hits the US WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 07: U.S. President Barack Obama (C) talks with reporters after meeting with members of his national security and disaster response teams to discuss Hurricane Matthew in the Oval Office at the White House October 7, 2016 in Washington, DC. The hurricane is now a category 3 and is headed for Florida after wreaking havoc in Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Getty Images Hurricane Matthew hits the US A US flag blows in the wind in Atlantic Beach, Florida, on October 7, 2016, as hurricane Matthew approaches the area. Hurricane Matthew unleashed torrential rains and up to 120 mile-an-hour winds as it hugged the Florida coast Friday, after a blast through the Caribbean that reportedly left at least 400 dead in Haiti. / AFP / Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Hurricane Matthew hits the US COCOA BEACH, FL - OCTOBER 07: Heavy waves caused by Hurricane Matthew pounds the boat docks at the Sunset Bar and Grill, October 7, 2016 on Cocoa Beach, Florida. Hurricane Matthew passed by offshore as a catagory 3 hurricane bringing heavy winds and minor flooding. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Getty Images Hurricane Matthew hits the US ORMOND BEACH, FL - OCTOBER 7: A downed tree from high winds rests against a car in a residential community after Hurricane Matthew passes through on October 7, 2016 in Ormond Beach, Florida. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina have all declared a state of emergency in preparation for Hurricane Matthew. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Getty Images Hurricane Matthew hits the US FORT PIERCE, FL - OCTOBER 07: Tree branches that snapped off trees are seen blocking the road after Hurricane Matthew passed through the area on October 7, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. The hurricane is expected to make landfall sometime this evening or early in the morning as a possible category 4 storm. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images Hurricane Matthew hits the US COCOA BEACH, FL - OCTOBER 07: Palm trees sway from the winds of Hurricane Matthew, October 7, 2016 on Cocoa Beach, Florida. Hurricane Matthew passed by offshore as a category 3 hurricane bringing heavy wind and some flooding. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Getty Images
Politicians said around $2 billion (£1.5 billion) of structural damage was caused - equivalent to Haiti’s entire national budget - by the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean in a decade. | 1,268,787 |
it just made you feel better. Beer muscles.”
At age 16, Norton tried his hand at suicide. “They weren’t real suicide attempts,” he says. “I was a cutter. It was attention-seeking stuff. It was ‘notice me!’ crap. I was 16, 17, and drunk. I never did that stuff sober. The last time was 1985, New Year’s Eve, going into ’86.”
Understandably alarmed, Norton’s parents took him out of school and sent him to a rehab facility in Princeton, N.J., where he continued to sneak alcohol during the month he spent there, but also picked up some self-awareness that ultimately helped him stop drinking a year later. He never graduated from high school, though, and he missed out on the distinction of being voted Class Clown.
“When they voted on the awards, I was in rehab for razor-cutting,” he says. “It was kind of hard to give the Class Clown award and send a photographer to fucking rehab to take a picture of me sitting there in front of the 12-step person.”
Eventually Norton got sober and stayed that way. These days he keeps healthy in body and mind by seeing two different physical trainers four times a week—“both attractive women,” he reports—and a psychological therapist, also a woman, once a week, something he’s been doing for the past 25 years. “I once had a therapist fall asleep on me,” he says. “That really wrecks your self-esteem. I never went to a male therapist after that.”
By any reasonable analysis, Norton’s self-esteem should be soaring. His career is chugging along on all cylinders. He has plenty of money, plenty of options. He’s much in demand, having been asked to deliver the keynote address Thursday night at the Montreal Just For Laughs comedy festival—a signal honor in his business.
And yet, Norton says ruefully, “You know the old expression: ‘Wherever I went, there I was.’ ” He continues: “I have meltdowns a lot. Part of it is that I’m afraid if things are good, I won’t know how to handle that. I’m afraid if I start to enjoy life, the rug will be yanked out from beneath me. It’s a stupid, self-fulfilling prophecy. I have depression a lot. I’m always tail-spinning myself. It’s like I feel good about something, and then a couple of things go wrong, and I convince myself that the only answer is to jump off the Queensborough Bridge.”
As if suddenly remembering the purpose of this lunch, Norton adds brightly: “I feel very positive about the Vice show!” | 1,268,788 |
The suicide bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester last year had been rescued from the Libyan civil war by the Royal Navy.
Salman Abedi detonated a home-made bomb in the foyer of the Manchester Arena on 22 May 2017 as concert-goers, many of them children, were leaving the venue.
Nineteen died at the scene while three were rushed to hospital and pronounced dead shortly afterwards. More than 200 other people were injured.
Daughters, wives, friends - victims of the Manchester attack
It has now emerged that in 2014 Abedi, his brother Hashem and around 100 other British citizens were evacuated from Tripoli by HMS Enterprise as the security situation in Libya deteriorated.
They were taken to Malta before returning to the UK.
Image: People disembark from HMS Enterprise in Malta following the 2014 Tripoli evacuation
A government spokesman said: "During the deteriorating security situation in Libya in 2014, Border Force officials were deployed to assist with the evacuation of British nationals and their dependants."
It is understood Abedi's name was on a list of stranded citizens handed to the crew in charge of the evacuation.
Until a month before his rescue, Abedi was being monitored by UK security forces. The review into the Manchester attack found that, based on the information available at the time, the decision to close his case was sound.
Hashem Abedi is currently held in jail in Libya by a militia group, but the British government has requested his extradition to face trial for his involvement in the Manchester attack.
Manchester bombing: One city, one voice
Libya has been plunged into chaos since the uprising against long-time ruled Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed in 2011.
Since disputed elections in 2014, the country has been split between competing political and military factions in the west and east of the country.
The country has been torn in two. The Tripoli government is rejected by its eastern-based rivals.
Political turmoil and armed conflict have led to economic collapse, allowing migrant smugglers to flourish and giving space to Islamist militants.
By July, the UN had to pull out of Libya, embassies were shut and foreign travellers and tourists had to leave.
Image: Salman Abedi and Raphael Hostey grew up in the same area of Manchester
Salman Abedi was born in Manchester in 1994 after his parents had fled the Gaddafi regime in Libya.
A Sky News investigation revealed how Abedi spent some years on the same housing estates in south Manchester as a group of young men who radicalised each other, with some fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq.
Information in the 'IS Files' - a huge cache of documents obtained by Sky News - shows how an IS fighter called Raphael Hostey, from Moss Side in the south of the city, sponsored hundreds of terror recruits.
Abedi and Hostey hung around on the same estates and worshipped in the same Didsbury mosque, before they became disaffected with life in the West. | 1,268,789 |
Suspected Islamic State operative Subahani Haja Moideen being produced by the National Investigation Agency before NIA special court in Kochi. (File) Suspected Islamic State operative Subahani Haja Moideen being produced by the National Investigation Agency before NIA special court in Kochi. (File)
A five-member team from a French anti-terror agency arrived in Kochi on Wednesday to interrogate an alleged Islamic State terror operative in connection with the 2015 Paris blasts, that left 130 people dead. The French team will interrogate Subahani Haja Moideen, who is under NIA custody, and presently lodged at Central jail in Thrissur district.
“The five-member team from a French anti-terror investigation agency met us at Kochi today,” PTI quoted an NIA official as saying. He said the team arrived in the country after an NIA court in Kochi granted them permission to interrogate Subahani, who had disclosed to the agency that he knew the terrorists who carried out the attack inside a theatre in Paris in 2015.
This is probably the first time that a European probe agency is questioning an Indian prisoner in connection with a terror attack in a foreign country. “They (the French team) will visit Thrissur and meet the accused Subahani at Viyyur Central Prison, as permitted by the court, from December 5 to 7,” the official said.
Another intelligence official confirmed that Moideen was understood to have been laterally involved with the accused in the Paris attack, IANS reported.
Subahani was arrested from Tamil Nadu in 2016 in a crackdown by the NIA with the help of central security agencies and other state police, foiling designs of IS operatives to target some judges of Kerala and foreign tourists. During interrogation, he had told NIA sleuths that Paris bombers — Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Salah Abdeslam — were in his camp in Iraq when he was fighting alongside the IS.
While Abaaoud was killed in a retaliatory fire during the Paris theatre attack in November last year, Abdelslam is in the custody of the French police.
Moideen, however, had said that he had no clue about the plot then and had returned to India by the time the attacks took place. Moideen told interrogators that he could not withstand the violence and war misery in Mosul and decided to leave especially after he saw two of his friends getting killed.
He left India for Istanbul from Chennai in April 2015 on the pretext of performing Umrah — Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. After reaching Istanbul, he had crossed over with other people from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Iraqi territory under control of IS, officials said.
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© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd | 1,268,790 |
Inquisitors,
the time has come for us to share more details about the future of Martyr! This means that we're presenting you a brand new Roadmap, which will hopefully communicate all our future plans for the game clearly, including all free updates (Seasons and smaller patches), with more accurate information added as they are developed.
What you can see right now is the first, static iteration of our soon-to-be dynamic Roadmap for the game. Please take a look, and let us know what you think!
You can view the current Roadmap here: Community Roadmap (Or just click the new Roadmap menu at the top)
Features of the final roadmap will include:
Dynamically changing entries with each update
Features for viewing related articles, posts, and patch logs for each milestone
Subscribe feature to get notifications for updates
What this Roadmap contains is our definite outline for the game's close future. As you can see, our plan for Martyr includes numerous free content updates and events, and we will keep to this plan throughout the lifetime of the game.
With that said, let's now talk a little bit about the first upcoming milestone.
Season 1: Drukhari
The first free content update of Martyr will be a Dark Eldar themed Season - this means a new Investigation series tied with a new enemy faction, the mysterious Drukhari, a new Subsector called Triglav where Inquisitors can rank up. The update also brings new planets, new missions, and various other in-game elements, so every Inquisitor shall find something new as the first Season starts.
With the additional new free content we'll be also increasing the level cap to 70. Power Rating of enemies and items will increase as well in correlation with this change.
We feel that it is also important to address all the constructive feedback that we have received during the Warzone. We want to assure everyone that we have received and processed all your requests, observations, but implementing them will take time - as you can see on the Roadmap, we have quite the work cut out for us. Not only is the launch of Season 1 is creeping up on us, but we would have to find the time between these major content updates to tend to these requests from the community, minor and major ones alike.
Therefore, we'd like to ask for your understanding - our utmost goal is to deliver to you the necessary fixes and our vision for the game. Our team is small, but we are dedicated, and we will keep working hard on Martyr to ensure that we reach our goals. Currently, our plan is to take a harder look at all the feedback that we have received so far after the arrival of the Dark Eldar, and do something about it.
As for the Warzone, although it was the event leading up to the first Season, it will remain active and playable for everyone.
After all, in the grim dark future, there is only war… | 1,268,791 |
The Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, is hoping to get some payback for endorsing Trump during his presidential campaign.
The group reached out to President-elect Donald Trump and issued an “advisory” to their members about what to expect from the Trump Administration once the nation’s next president is sworn in.
The FOP expects the following:
The dismantling of some of President Barack Obama ‘s 2015 reforms, including his call to increase the use of body cameras nationwide and create a national database on police use of force.
‘s 2015 reforms, including his call to increase the use of body cameras nationwide and create a national database on police use of force. The cut-off of some or all federal aid to sanctuary cities and the lifting of the 2003 federal ban on racial profiling.
During Tuesday’s edition of NewsOne Now, Former Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee, Jr. and Redditt Hudson, co-founder of the National Coalition of Law Enforcement for Justice, Reform and Accountability, spoke with Roland Martin about the FOP’s so-called “advisory.”
Godbee told Martin, “When you add a desire to remove the federal ban on racial profiling, you’re talking about exacerbating already a horrific situation in a lot of communities.”
According to Godbee, there are about 18,000 police agencies across the United States and not all the chiefs in these law enforcement departments harbor the same views about reinstating racial profiling.
Godbee reminded viewers the FOP is a police union and not representative of the management of all police departments in America. Godbee later added that Trump’s “law and order” rhetoric during the campaign was extremely effective in attracting “people who want to take race relations back to the Nixon years, because that was the same rhetoric that Richard Nixon came up with and it was specific to communities of color.”
Hudson rebuked calls from the FOP to return to increased scrutiny of African-Americans and other minorities. “Racial profiling has no utility for law enforcement,” he said. “When you focus on race rather than behavior, you’re going to waste resources, waste time and alienate many people in the community that you need to work with you to try to address a particular issue.”
Hudson said the Fraternal Order of Police is “really pulling back restraint on the police in their ability to target people of color.”
Watch Roland Martin, Ralph Godbee, Jr., Redditt Hudson, and the NewsOne Now panel discuss the FOP’s “advisory” in the video clip above.
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.
SEE ALSO:
How Will History Judge President Barack Obama?
Also On NewsOne: | 1,268,792 |
Sorcerous Origin
The Enkindled
A burning fire is lit within you sometime during your life. Whether a glowing coal or a raging wildfire, the blaze allows you to harness the power of raw elemental fire. Become a glowing beacon of power and burn all in your way.
Enkindled Features
Sorcerer Level Feature 1st Mantle of Flame and Inner Fire 6th Blazing Aura and Fire Linked 14th Heatstroke 18th Inner Inferno
Mantle of Flame
Starting at 1st level, you can unleash the fire that blazes within you.
As a bonus action, you magically wreathe yourself in swirling fire, as your eyes glow like hot coals. For 1 minute, you gain the following benefits:
You shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet.
Any creature takes fire damage equal to your Charisma modifier if it hits you with a melee attack from within 5 feet of you, or touches you.
Whenever you roll fire damage on your turn, the roll gains bonus equal to your Charisma modifier.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Inner Fire
At 1st level, you can manipulate and produce fire with a snap of your fingers. You learn the Produce Flame cantrip. Additionally, you can speak Primordial.
Blazing Aura
At 6th level, your Mantle of Flame ability is upgraded with the following trait:
Any creature takes fire damage equal to half of your Sorcerer level plus your Charisma modifier if it hits you with a melee attack from within 5 feet of you, or touches you.
This feature now recharges on a short rest.
Fire Linked
At 6th level, the ember inside you has grown in strength allowing for a weapon of flames to be summoned. As a bonus action, you can use 2 sorcery points to cast Flame Blade at 2nd level, and it does not require concentration. Additionally, you gain resistance to fire damage.
Heatstroke
At 14th level, the heated air around you causes a mirage-like effect. While using Mantle of Flame, you gain a +2 bonus to AC.
Inner Inferno
At 18th level, you gain the ability to channel the raw power of elemental fire. While you are using Mantle of Flame, you can spend 6 sorcery points as an action to release the inferno held inside you, shifting into the embodiment of fire. All creatures within a 10 ft radius take 4d6 fire damage, and take the damage again if they end their turn within the radius. You gain an immunity to fire damage and resistance to cold damage while Inner Inferno persists.
You remain in this form for 1 minute. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you die, or if you dismiss it as a bonus action.
Credits: Dmitry Burmak - burmak.ru | 1,268,793 |
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema talked repeatedly throughout the summer and preseason about how lucky the Razorbacks were to have such depth at running back entering this season.
That depth is about to be tested again following the announcement on Monday that freshman running back Rawleigh Williams is out for the season with a neck injury he suffered in a four-overtime, 54-46 win over Auburn.
Williams was injured in the third quarter and taken from the field on a stretcher. He had his facemask grabbed on the play before taking another hit from an Auburn player.
The freshman underwent surgery on Sunday, and Bielema said Williams was "upbeat" and expected to make a full recovery and possibly play football again — just not this season.
Bielema preferred not to describe Williams' injury in detail, but he did say how thankful he was for how quickly the medical personnel involved attended to Williams and kept the injury from being worse.
"Every report says that he's probably going to be able to play again," Bielema said. "It won't be until next year... When you're talking about the severity and the injury that it is, there's a lot of time between now and then to figure out what he wants to do and what his family wants to do."
Williams has 254 yards rushing and a touchdown this season for Arkansas (3-4, 2-2 Southeastern Conference), which hosts Tennessee-Martin on Saturday.
He was forced into action earlier than expected when Razorbacks leading rusher from last season, Jonathan Williams, injured his left foot in a preseason scrimmage. Also, senior Kody Walker missed several games with a broken hand before returning with a cast in the win against Auburn.
Alex Collins leads Arkansas with 787 yards rushing this season, but it was Walker who was on the field for much of overtime against the Tigers — finishing with 32 yards rushing on eight carries, including a 4-yard touchdown run to force the fourth extra period.
Bielema said both running backs, and possibly others such as sophomore Denzell Evans and freshman Juan Day, will be needed moving forward to fill the loss of Rawleigh Williams, who was averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
"It's been unbelievable," Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos said. "(Walker) and Alex are going to have to carry the load now, and thank goodness we had four (running backs) going into the season."
Bielema fought back tears on Monday while describing the moments after Williams' injury, particularly when he made eye contact in the stands with Williams' mother, Kim. She and Williams' father eventually made their way on to the field in Razorback Stadium while Williams was put on a stretcher and taken to a hospital.
"When one of your players tells you he can't feel his fingers, it's pretty freaky," Bielema said. "It's one of those moments where it wasn't anything more than just what was going on right there." | 1,268,794 |
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Related MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd Speaks Out Against 'Blackout' Protest of SOPA and PIPA Hollywood Reporter
If you thought that today’s blackout by Wikipedia, Reddit, the Cheezburger Network and other sites was a legitimate political protest against SOPA and PIPA, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) chairman Chris Dodd would like to offer an alternative viewpoint, calling the blackouts “an abuse of power” as well as “dangerous and troubling.”
Dodd released a statement yesterday in which he portrayed the blackouts as a blow against attempts by those on both sides of the debate to find a co-operative solution. “Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parities to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns,” he said, “rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging.”
(MORE: Check out Techland’s SOPA coverage)
The criticism that SOPA is being exploited by technology companies mirrors Rupert Murdoch’s Twitter rant this weekend, wherein he described the White House’s opposition to SOPA as President Obama “[throwing] in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery” before adding “Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying.”
Unsurprisingly, Google responded to the allegations by calling them “just nonsense,” adding that the company believed “like many other tech companies, that the best way to stop [pirates] is through targeted legislation that would require ad networks and payment processors – like ours – to cut off sites dedicated to piracy or counterfeiting.”
Elsewhere in his statement, Dodd — who has vigorously supported both SOPA and PIPA for some time — said that “a so-called ‘blackout’ is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals,” adding that “it’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms the serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.”
MORE: SOPA: Reddit Confirms Jan. 18 Blackout; Wikipedia, Others May Follow
Disclosure: Time Inc. parent company Time Warner supports SOPA legislation.
Graeme McMillan is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @Graemem or on Facebook at Facebook/Graeme.McMillan. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME. | 1,268,795 |
Children wear face masks at a school in Antananarivo, Madagascar, to guard against the plague (Picture: AP)
A deadly airborne plague in Madagascar has now killed 143 people and infected 1,947 people and it is continuing to spread.
The outbreak, which has been described as ‘the worst in 50 years’, has yet to reach mainland Africa but nine countries have been placed on high alert.
Triathlete gives up chance of winning medal after noticing rival go wrong way
The plague has spread through through coughing, sneezing or spitting and can kill within 24 hours.
The World Health Organisation has earmarked £3.8m to combat disease and predicts it could take six months to stem the outbreak.
MailOnline reported that Paul Hunter, professor of health protection at the world-renowned University of East Anglia, predicted the plague would reach mainland Africa.
There are fears the plague will spread to other countries in the region (Picture: MailOnline)
He said: ‘The big anxiety is it could spread to mainland Africa, it’s not probable, but certainly possible, that might then be difficult to control.
‘If we don’t carry on doing stuff here, at one point something will happen and it will get out of hand control cause huge devastation all around the world.’
Professor Johnjoe McFadden, a molecular geneticist at Surrey University, added: ‘It’s a crisis at the moment and we don’t know how bad it’s going to get.
‘It’s a terrible disease. It’s broadly caused more deaths of humans than anything else, it’s a very deadly pathogen.’
Patients infected with the plague play cards in a treatment centre in Madagascar (Picture: Getty)
He added: ‘It is a disease of poverty where humans are being forced to live very close to rats and usually means poor sewage and poor living conditions.
‘That’s the root cause of why it’s still a problem in the world. If we got rid of rats living close enough to mankind then we wouldn’t have the disease.’
Professor McFadden warned in countries such as Madagascar ‘people often need to walk more than a day to receive proper medical treatment’.
Medical staff from Doctors Without Borders) disinfect tents where infected patients sleep (Picture: Getty Images)
The outbreak has been blamed on a massive increase of rats in the Indian Ocean island’s two major cities Antananarivo and Toamasina.
The new strain of the plague can be treated with antibiotics and the WHO cash will pay for extra medical personnel, the disinfection of buildings and fuel for ambulances.
MORE: Man jailed for life for hammer attack on his neighbour
MORE: Care home residents gutted as Christmas decorations are banned due to Grenfell fears | 1,268,796 |
The front of a police station in Helsingborg, Sweden, was demolished by explosives shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, an incident which has been called an attack on democracy by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.
Approximately one kilogram of explosives destroyed the front entrance to a local station in Helsingborg Wednesday, which also caved in windows of building across the street from the target. Despite the “very powerful explosion charge”, there were no injuries or fatalities, according to reports.
While police are in early stages of the investigation and are analysing security camera footage from the vicinity around the station, terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp has said the incident could be a terror attack, reports Swedish newspaper Expressen. Speaking to the paper, he said the motives of the attack would have to be examined, and they could “seriously destabilise political social structures or bring serious fear to the population… This only leads to more serious attacks on the judiciary and democracy.
“It may be a terrorist attack, it is a question of interpretation.”
Sweden, from socialist utopia to grenade attack capital in one short decade https://t.co/yfyaC8b00W — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 6, 2017
Police spokesman Dan Eliasson said the attack was an assault on all the people of Sweden, and said the national force would be giving local Helsinborg officers all the assistance they needed in investigating the blast. He said: “This is very serious. An attack on the police is not just an attack on society but on the safety of all people.
“We now come from the national level to give our colleagues in Region South all the help needed to protect our employees.”
Eliasson’s comments came after similar ones by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, who called the event an attack on democracy, reports Helsingborgs Dagblad. Speaking Wednesday morning, he said: “The bombing of a police station in Helsingborg is extremely serious. An attack on the police is, in the long run, an attack on our democracy.
Sweden Rivals Mexico for Grenade Attacks, Shooting Fatalities Five Times Higher Than Neighbouring Countries
https://t.co/F1pNRTSMCn — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 6, 2017
“Violence against policemen can never be accepted and now it is important that those responsible be arrested. The [event] shows that we must continue and intensify the fight against the serious crime. With stricter laws, better tools, and increased resources for the police, we will fight violence and increase security.”
The bombing comes after a similar attack in 2014, when the entrance to a police station in Malmö was destroyed by a bomb. The old Rosengård police station, which was a unit in a local shopping station, was closed and replaced with a new purpose-built bomb and bulletproof fortress. | 1,268,797 |
Lawyers for the plaintiffs responded that in that case, the owner of the Zyklon-B gas company was found guilty. “Thus, even though it was solely the Nazis who controlled whether gas would be used on prisoners, and solely the Nazis who decided upon the victims, Bruno Tesch, the owner, was hanged,” they argued. “Like Mr. Tesch, defendants had control over assistance to the C.I.A. program, both personally and as the owners of Mitchell, Jessen & Associates. As a matter of law, that is more than sufficient.”
Image John Bruce Jessen, a psychologist and former C.I.A. contractor, is also a defendant in the case.
The defendants had also moved to exclude as hearsay any evidence from the executive summary of the 6,700-page Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture. They argued that the summary — published in December 2014 and based on a five-year review of over six million pages of documents, most of them from the C.I.A. itself — was partisan and not trustworthy or reliable. Judge Quackenbush denied their motion, but reserved the right to change his opinion for purposes of the trial.
To get a favorable summary judgment, the lawyers would have needed to prove that the relevant facts were beyond dispute. In recent weeks, each side submitted lengthy filings taking issue with the purported facts offered by the other. They also moved to exclude testimony of medical experts hired by opposing counsel who examined the former detainees for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Gibbons law firm of Newark brought the lawsuit under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign citizens to seek justice in United States courts for violations of their rights under international law or United States treaties.
The three former detainees included Mohamed Ben Soud, a Libyan who was detained by the C.I.A. in Afghanistan and was locked in small boxes, slammed against a wall and doused with buckets of ice water while naked and shackled; Suleiman Salim, a Tanzanian captured in 2003 and also held by the C.I.A. in Afghanistan, who was beaten, isolated in a dark cell for months, doused with water and deprived of sleep; and Gul Rahman, who died in C.I.A. custody in Afghanistan in 2002, probably of hypothermia, according to a C.I.A. investigation into his death.
While Dr. Jessen has kept a low profile, Dr. Mitchell has offered himself as a public speaker about his association with the C.I.A. program and his insights on “the minds of those trying to destroy America.” His fee is listed as $15,000 to $25,000 on the site of Worldwide Speakers Group, which states: “Dr. Mitchell led the development of the C.I.A.’s enhanced interrogation program after 9/11 and was a primary interrogator from its inception.” | 1,268,798 |
Cornerbacks Brian Peavy and D’Andre Payne combined for seven tackles for loss and 19 passes defensed last year as sophomores, and safeties Kamari Cotton-Moya, Evrett Edwards, and Mike Johnson were key in the big-play prevention efforts. Defensive backs made quite a few plays despite the woeful run defense keeping opponents in comfortable downs and distances and despite a lack of pass rush on rare passing downs. Give them just a little bit of help, and this becomes one of the Big 12’s better pass defenses. But that’s a big ask.
Special Teams
A good special teams unit can make the difference in close games, but in ISU’s case, a good special teams unit simply made games closer. The Cyclones ranked sixth in Special Teams S&P+, thanks both to excellent place-kicking from Cole Netten and the simple lack of predominant weakness.
Trever Ryan was a little bit too all-or-nothing in punt returns, but he indeed had a few “alls.” Meanwhile, Colin Downing’s punts were mostly unreturnable, Chris Francis’ kickoffs found the end zone 52 percent of the time, and Nwangwu was an excellent kick returner.
There will probably be a drop off this year. Netten is gone, and Nwangwu is hurt. Francis, Downing, and Ryan return, and Oregon State transfer Garrett Owens offers a new place-kicking option. But No. 6 is awfully high — we’ll say this is more like a top-40 unit this year.
2017 outlook
Iowa State has a potentially strong quarterback, it’s highest-ceiling skill corps in ages, and a line with decent experience and massive potential.
The defense’s strengths will be as strong or stronger, and its weaknesses probably won’t be weaker.
ISU lost four one-possession games last year, and put together top-50 level play for about two-thirds of last season.
I like where this is headed, in other words. The run defense could hold Iowa State back, but the Cyclones’ stats hinted at a team with far greater upside than the 3-9 record suggested, and with a top-60 S&P+ projection, it is conceivable that they threaten for a bowl bid. S&P+ forecasts 5.8 wins with three likely victories and three to five relative tossups.
I said in last year’s preview that, “I like the Campbell hire, and I assume he will have ISU steadily in the 5-7 to 8-4 range. He will sign top-50 recruiting classes and put a top-60 product on the field.“ If ISU plays at a certain level for three to four years at a time, expect these next three to four years to be awfully fun.
Team preview stats
All power conference preview data to date. | 1,268,799 |
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