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CHP presidential candidate İnce says he might talk to Assad if elected
İpek Özbey - İSTANBUL
The presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Muharrem İnce, said he remained indifferent toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while adding that the Turkish government should not act in anger against him.
When asked if Assad is a “red line” for him, İnce said, “I don’t particularly feel sympathy or antipathy toward him. But there should be no room in the state administration to get angry [with anyone]. The one that rules Turkey should not act sentimentally.”
Syria’s territorial integrity should be preserved and a new constitution should be adopted, İnce said, stressing the necessity for elections under U.N. monitoring with the participation of Syrians abroad.
“Syrians living in Turkey will happily return home after this structure is established,” he said.
The former high school teacher also expressed that he does not want to spend $40 billion on Syrian refugees.
Speaking about relations with the U.S., İnce said both countries can increase cooperation again despite the current strain in bilateral ties. “In the past, we had great work in Kosovo and Bosnia. We can make it again. We can make peace and reconcile,” he said.
On ties with Russia, İnce recalled that Turkey did not break ties with Moscow even in the Cold War era. “When one plays for domestic politics, neither Russian tourists will come to Antalya [Mediterranean resort popular amongst Russians] nor the tomatoes of Antalya will be exported to Moscow,” he said.
If elected, İnce said he would tell the EU that they “should not surrender to anti-Turkey circles, as Turkey does not surrender to anti-EU people.”
“The EU is a secular body, thus needs Turkey,” İnce added.
When asked about his plans for a Kurdish peace process, the CHP candidate said parliament is the place to discuss the issue. “The place to discuss this is parliament, not Dolmabahçe or Oslo, places closed off to the nation. There is no red line. Let’s talk about it,” he said, referring to previous venues where the peace talks were held.
“The Kurdish issue is a democratization issue, a cultural and economic question. But at the same time it is a matter of political morality. Politicians have always abused it. They went to Diyarbakır [southeastern province] and spoke to please the Kurds; then they went to Trabzon [Black sea province] and Edirne [western province] and used nationalist discourses,” he said.
İnce is certain he will win the elections in the first round, with the help of Kurdish voters. | 1,269,500 |
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Over a year ago, the team behind the Mars rover Curiosity declared that they hadn’t found methane on Mars. The gas is one of the potential hallmarks of life, and the discovery was a letdown. But now, the Curiosity team not only says that they’ve detected traces of methane, but also that it’s concentration in the atmosphere keeps mysteriously rising and falling.
Mars’s atmosphere contains an amount of stable methane that’s generated, for example, from the breakdown of dust and organic materials brought to Mars by meteorites. The levels are so low, though—less than half of what they expected—that its unlikely to be the signature of widespread
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NASA Senior Research Scientist Director Christopher Webster and his colleagues have analyzed 20 months of data collected by the Mars Curiosity rover in Gale Crater.
Methane levels are lower than anticipated, but NASA scientists have recorded periods of what could be high-volume methane venting.
But that’s just the background level. Every so often, methane levels detected by Curiosity shot up to ten-times higher in as short as 60 Martian days, a rate which surprised scientists since the gas sticks around for about 300 years. So where’s it coming from? According to Science’s description of the study:
Their results suggest that methane is occasionally produced or vented near the Gale Crater—and that the gas disperses quickly once these episodes of venting or production cease.
These periods of high-volume venting may contribute to a more complex atmosphere than NASA originally estimated. This study, published today in the journal Science, comes about a week after John P. Grotzinger, the project scientist for the Curiosity mission, revealed at a news conference last week that Gale Crater likely had large lakes, rivers, and deltas, on and off, for millions to tens of millions of years. One of the key ingredients to a habitable planet is this presence of water, and a telltale sign of water—past or present—can be found in hydrogen, or rather its isotopes.
In a separate study, also released today, NASA scientists examined the hydrogen isotopes in clay sampled from Mars’ Yellowknife Bay formation. They found that the clay’s ratio of deuterium (a heavy hydrogen isotope) to regular hydrogen is three times more than the ratio in Earth’s ocean water. On the other hand, the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio within this 3-billion-year-old clay is about half that of the current Martian atmosphere. This suggests that greater amounts of the heavier deuterium remain in the atmosphere while more of the lighter, regular hydrogen has been lost to space. Determining how much has been lost will help them determine when the water started to disappear and why the Red Planet has lost so much of it. | 1,269,501 |
Fallon responds to Trump: He's trying to distract from'very serious allegations' about Russia
Brian Fallon, Hillary Clinton’s campaign press secretary, charged Wednesday that President Donald Trump is attempting to distract from “very serious allegations” he faces about his campaign’s relationship with Russia.
The Monday ouster of Michael Flynn as Trump’s national security adviser has renewed increased scrutiny of Trump and his posturing toward Russia because of reports that Flynn was in contact with that nation's ambassador before the election. The Trump campaign previously denied any contact with Russia prior to Nov. 8.
Trump weighed in on Twitter on Wednesday morning by trying to shift the blame to Clinton, whose campaign intelligence officials say was targeted by Russian hackers: “This Russian connection nonsense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign,” he said.
That, Fallon told CNN’s Chris Cuomo later that morning, is “nonsense.”
“It’s an attempt to distract, Chris, from very serious allegations that are just the latest shoe to drop in what is becoming an unraveling narrative for the Trump campaign that really threatens the legitimacy of his election,” Fallon said.
Flynn was forced out late Monday in the wake of the news that he had improperly discussed sanctions on Russia with the country’s ambassador before the inauguration and then misled both the public and Vice President Mike Pence about it. The White House has maintained that Flynn’s contacts with Russia were fully appropriate and Flynn was asked to resign because he misled Pence about it.
Still, Trump’s critics have demanded that there be an investigation into the issue as questions about Flynn’s conduct linger. The White House has acknowledged, for example, that it learned that Flynn had mischaracterized his contact with Russia weeks ago, but it waited to act until Monday, after news outlets had reported on it.
Fallon on Wednesday joined calls for a select congressional committee devoted to investigating Russia’s role in the election. He also suggested that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from the case because of his role supporting the Trump campaign.
Fallon did not directly accuse the Trump campaign of it, but he raised the question of whether Flynn had talked to Russia about the cyberattacks on the Clinton campaign (the Trump campaign has unequivocally denied coordinating with Russia on the cyberattacks, and no credible evidence has surfaced to suggest that it did). Regardless, Fallon argued, the issue merits investigation.
“The reason that we can't give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt with all this is because all these contacts between representatives of his campaign and the Russian government were happening while Trump was displaying a troubling pattern of speaking out on Putin's behalf on any number of issues that are completely out of alignment with U.S. foreign policy,” Fallon said. “And also, if there was nothing to these interactions, if they were completely innocent and benign, why did the Trump campaign lie about them?” | 1,269,502 |
Kids encouraged to turn to abortion counselors, rather than parents
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
May 15, 2014
A former abortion clinic operator in Texas says she was compensated handsomely for selling state-funded sex education programs to children, which in turn destroyed their innocence and compelled them to visit the clinics for future abortion services.
Carol Everett, who now heads the non-profit Heidi Group Foundation, a pro-life organization that helps “girls and women in unplanned pregnancies make positive, life-affirming choices,” recalled her time within the industry at a recent Rose Dinner event in Canada.
Describing the sale of abortion services as a “cash cow,” Everett recounted witnessing busy doctors visit patient after patient “often without scrubbing up again,” according to the Catholic Register. Everett also pointed to state-funded sex ed programs as one of the ways the abortion industry grooms potential repeat customers.
“Children are being taught about sex and masturbation in ways that ‘shame the children’ so they will not be comfortable telling their parents what they heard, Everett said,” writes Deborah Gyapong.
The programs would then provide girls “with low dose birth control, which is ineffective if not taken at the same time each and every day, which is close to impossible for any teenager,” reports Life News, adding, “When the girls get pregnant, they then turn to abortion clinics..”
Additionally, Everett characterized so-called abortion counselors, who answer phones at the clinics, as essentially “telemarketers who are trained to ‘overcome objections’ and close the deal by making an appointment for an abortion,” Gyapong says.
Everett left the murderous trade in 1983 and has since turned a new leaf, but the industry’s attempts to create new customers by corrupting the minds of youngsters continues unabated. By far one of the biggest advocates and profiteers of the murder of unborn children is eugenicist Margaret Sanger’s Planned Parenthood, whom President Obama has pledged millions of tax-payer dollars to keep funded.
The American Life League produced an exemplary video report exposing Planned Parenthood’s sex education programs, which start at an extremely young age and actually encourage things like sexual promiscuity, homosexuality and anal sex, to name a few, in efforts to create a generation of sex addicts that will feed an endless cycle of abortions and profit.
Propping up the abortion industry is just one of the reasons kids are taught about hetero- and homosexual proclivities at a young age, as depicted in the following video disapprovingly shown to children at various schools in Wisconsin recently. While seemingly innocent enough, the fact that some children can’t comprehend what emotion they should be experiencing in response to the video clearly illustrates they are too young to tackle the subject matter.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today! | 1,269,503 |
Republican lawmakers on Tuesday proposed a total revamping of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), accusing the agency of being a political group rather than a nonpartisan government collection agency, according to the House pf Representatives Oversight Committee’s latest report titled, “Making Sure Targeting Never Happens: Getting Politics Out of the IRS and Other Solutions.”
The House report also states that too many IRS executives were overwhelmed with kicking off the IRS’s role in the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a/k/a ObamaCare, which in essence allowed IRS officials like Lois Lerner, the former director of tax-exempt groups and the central figure in the Tea Party controversy, to have too much autonomy for a political operative in a supposedly non-political position..
The Oversight Committee’s Republican members, led by Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.., claim they have overwhelming evidence that President Barack Obama’s unprecedented condemnation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the controversial Citizens United case encouraged IRS’s upper-echelon staff members to target conservative groups such as the numerous Tea Party organizations, pro-gun owner groups, and other conservative or libertarian organizations.
Under the President Barack Obama, the IRS has become a partisan “body and full-fledged arm of the administration in power,” the Oversight report said.
One of the key changes sought by the Oversight Committee’s Republican members report is the elimination of the position of Commissioner of the IRS and the creation of a bipartisan group that could manage the agency that is responsible for handling trillions of taxpayer dollars.
Rep. Darrell Issa’s July 29 report states:
Other operational failures within the IRS contributed to the targeting. The IRS trained its agents to identify and elevate applications that could draw media attention, even though media attention has no bearing on a group’s qualification for tax-exemption.
As Washington employees evaluated the applications, they evaluated whether the groups’ activities were “good” nonprofit activities or merely “emotional” propaganda with “little educational value.”The IRS allowed these tax-exempt applications to languish for years without action. Subsequently, as it sought to work through the backlog, the agency requested inappropriate and burdensome information from groups applying for tax-exempt status.
But the committee member jokingly referred to as Issa’s arch-rival, Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, condemned the new report, and took issue with the proposal to eliminate the IRS commissioner’s position.
However, during the Issa-led IRS probe, information obtained by the public-interest group, Judicial Watch, points to Rep. Cummings being one of the Democrats who had complained to Lerner about the non-profit groups that opposed the overall Democratic Party political agenda.
One of the Republican proposals that’s sure to anger Obama and his minions is the suggestion that the Affordable Care Act implementation be taken away from the IRS and given to a more nonpartisan group that’s free from White House manipulation. | 1,269,504 |
Secondary school pupils’ homework is supposed to be thought-provoking, but the Religious Education assignment brought home last week by a Year 8 class at Les Beauchamps in Guernsey was a little too thought-provoking for some.
The pupils were told to write a letter to their family explaining why they had converted to Islam. The letter was supposed to convey how they might be feeling, how becoming Muslim had changed their life for the better and how much they loved their family.
A statement from the Guernsey Education Department said: “The Guernsey agreed syllabus for religious education includes a structured framework for ensuring that Christianity and the other five principal religions (Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism) are studied with sufficient depth and breadth throughout the four Key Stages.”
A clear instruction that came with the homework drove home the point that this assignment was intended as a thought experiment:
"Please also note this is a piece of creative writing and completely fictional. YOU ARE NOT ACTUALLY CONVERTING TO ISLAM.
"It is purely to test your knowledge of what we have learnt this year and how well you can argue objectively!"
The story broke on the local Guernsey Press website, and some users were quick to question the wisdom of asking secondary school pupils to write such a letter.
Reader John West wrote: "I think it's good for children to be taught about other religions, but this letter was bound to cause controversy due to the nature of talking about conversion, particularly in light of young people being radicalised in the West.
"It's a very emotive topic and really not a particularly clever move by the school/education."
Others were more welcoming of the idea. Another commenter, Vivica, wrote: "Does this really matter? It's a thought experiment... If you're worried about your kid being influenced by it maybe you just need to do a better job as a parent!"
The furore comes on the heels of a controversial announcement by Guernsey's chief minister Jonathan Le Tocq about the issue of housing Syrian refugees on the island.
Mr Le Tocq told the BBC earlier this month: “There's certainly a lot of Islamophobia and negativity that's been around and that would entail that it would be difficult for us to ensure that [the refugees] would find the sorts of security and stability here in Guernsey, were they to be resettled here, in the same way as they are, say, in other parts of the UK.”
Guernsey has a particularly small Muslim population – the most recent figures available suggest that Muslims make up less than 1% of the island's population, compared to a national average of 4.5%.
Nationally there were an estimated 5,200 conversions to Islam in 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available.
The homework is due to be handed in at the end of next week.
Photo credits: SWNS | 1,269,505 |
Ambrosus has partnered with SHIPNEXT to allow for the first alt-coin to be accepted in a Security Token Offering (STO). Since STOs are required to abide by stringent securities laws, they have historically been limited to funding via BTC, ETH, or the world’s leading fiat currencies. The new deal therefore highlights the emerging trend of an industry-wide transition to security tokens.
Ambrosus to be Incorporated with SHIPNEXT’s Security Token Offering Explained
The initial round of SHIPNEXT’s STO is officially underway. They’ve partnered with Ambrosus to allow investors to participate in the offering with Ambrosus’ native token ‘Amber’.
According to Ambrosus CEO Angel Versetti, the deal marks an ‘industry first’ scenario where an alt-coin is accepted in a securities offering. Other accepted currencies are limited to BTC, ETH, USD, and the EUR.
Singapore-based SHIPNEXT is striving to create a digital platform which integrates blockchain technology with supply chain transparency. The current stage of their offering will be available to ‘invited contributors’ for a total of 90 days, with a minimum $1,000 investment.
SHIPNEXT CEO Alexander Varvarenko provided the following comments.
“SHIPNEXT has taken the strategy of building a global supply chain ecosystem, through a decentralized transportation network. Accepting AMB during the SHIPNEXT STO is a clear first step in the right direction, and especially beneficial for improving traction of the SHIPNEXT platform.”
How STOs are Quickly Replacing the ICO
Typically, STOs differ from the traditional Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in two primary ways: STOs openly abide by the applicable securities laws and, in the case of equity, investors are promised a portion of the company’s future profits in the form of dividends.
That’s exactly what SHIPNEXT token holders will receive. Initially, 20% of the gross revenue from transaction fees on the SHIPNEXT platform will be distributed to token holders. Once the monthly revenue rate reaches $1 million, the revenue share percentage will gradually decrease as outlined in the company’s whitepaper.
Besides equity, security tokens can represent many other real-world assets. They can include ownership in luxury property, REITs, investment funds, and even fine art. With increased regulatory enforcement in the cryptocurrency sphere, many companies are ditching the ICO and turning to STOs as a viable means to raise capital.
With alt-coins now entering the STO scene, it seems as though the entire cryptocurrency industry is shifting towards security tokens.
What do you think about SHIPNEXT accepting Amber in their offering? Will additional alt-coins form similar partnerships in the future? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Image courtesy of Ambrosus and SHIPNEXT. | 1,269,506 |
, Arrington signed a four-year contract extension worth $16 million with $7.5 million guaranteed. Slightly less than Bodden, but still one of the most significant contracts the Pats had ever given a cornerback. But Arrington would never see the end of that deal, being cut loose with two years remaining before signing with the Ravens this offseason.
The Patriots traded for Aqib Talib in 2012 and got a couple shutdown games and a couple injuries out of him, and once again, instead of giving a (somewhat) shutdown corner in his prime a long-term, monster deal, they settled on just a one-year deal worth $4.86 million.
That brings us to Revis and Browner, who were both signed in 2014 on what were essentially one-year deals with team options for additional seasons. Revis got $12 million for his one season, the highest total paid for one season to a cornerback under Belichick. Browner made $2.95 million, but his option would've paid him $4.6 million this season.
Given the Patriots' history at the cornerback position, it shouldn't be a surprise the Pats weren't going to give Revis anywhere close to the monster deal he got from the Jets which will pay him $16 million this season alone.
Bill Belichick is certainly willing to spend a bit more for a single season from a good cornerback, but they're not interested in long-term expensive contracts. Bodden and Springs both never lived up to the contracts they received, while Arrington and Hobbs were cut even before their deals were up.
In many ways, 2015 is reminiscent of '09, when the Patriots were in full do-over mode at cornerback. They responded by bringing in a number of veterans to complement their young draft picks, and despite how 2009 is generally seen as the worst season of Bill Belichick's Patriots tenure, the pass defense was still middle of the pack that year at 16th overall in Football Outsiders' DVOA.
The answers are not apparent right now. No one knew Bodden would have a breakout year in 2009 after an unspectacular year in Detroit. The Patriots have certainly taken plenty of shots on castoff defensive backs who have not worked out. Players like Duane Starks and Fernando Bryant never broke out like Bodden, Smith or Poole did.
Who knows which path current cornerbacks Bradley Fletcher or Robert McClain will follow, or if Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan or Darryl Roberts will become the next Samuel, Hobbs or Arrington.
But the Patriots' methodology has been consistent over the last 15 years, relying on young players on rookie deals, veterans on minimum deals, or the occasional one-year hired gun on a big contract.
Expensive long-term contracts on cornerbacks just aren't their thing.
— Written by Mike Dussault, who is part of the Athlon Contributor Network and writer/editor of PatsPropaganda.com (@PatsPropaganda), a comprehensive blog covering the New England Patriots. | 1,269,507 |
A new bill introduced by the Coalition aiming to make it mandatory for citizen to provide their biometric data at international ports has experienced some opposition in parliament, according to a report by CSO.
The news follows the Australian government’s announcement in March that it plans to introduce new legislation aimed to bulk up Australia’s biometrics system by allowing authorities to collect biometric data from children and also enable airport border control to perform mobile fingerprint checks on those suspected of being foreign fighters with fake passports.
If the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Biometrics Integrity) Bill 2015 is passed, the legislation would expand the types of biometric identifiers that customs authorities can collect, as well as the situations and locations in which they can perform biometric collection.
Both the Labor and Greens parties have expressed their concerns regarding the bill in the Senate and are working on having the bill revised.
The Greens party has called on the Senate to postpone any further consideration of the bill until the government releases the results of the department of immigration’s privacy impact assessment for the new laws.
In its memorandum for the bill, the Coalition wrote that it was seeking to consolidate all current biometric collection powers into a “broad, discretionary powers to collect one or more personal identifiers from non-citizens, and citizens at the border”.
If the bill is passed, customs authorities would be granted the power to collect biometric identifiers from children without attaining consent from their parents and allow the immigration minister the authority to collect new types of biometric identifiers, including iris scans, without passing any new legislation.
“Regrettably, in the absence of (privacy assessment) that is being withheld from this parliament, we have to conclude that what we see here tonight is another one of those grabs for power,” Greens Senator Scott Ludlam told parliament. “The key concerns relate to the security of the data that is collected, and that goes to ensuring that it will not be hacked, leaked and distributed.
“Given the extraordinary intimacy of this detail that is being collected on people—not just suspects, but everybody transiting our borders—and if this material were to fall into the wrong hands, it could lead to one very obvious scenario: identity theft. If you have this information on an individual, you can assume their identity in almost trivial ways and wreck people’s lives.”
Meanwhile, Labor Senator Carol Brown said that opposition is “concerned that there is no requirement for individuals to be notified if there is a serious privacy breach in relation to their identifying information”, citing an incident from February 2014 when the immigration department accidentally published the private information of 10,000 asylum seekers on its website.
The Senate has not yet voted on the Greens’ proposed amendment.
A telecommunications law associate professor in Australia has recently called for new laws banning the use of face recognition technology to visual images online in an effort to identify people without prior consent.
Article Topics
Australia | biometric database | biometrics | legislation | privacy | 1,269,508 |
Drowning has emerged as a mysterious cause of death amongst groups of young common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), according to research by a team of scientists led by international conservation charity the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), published today in the journal Scientific Reports.
Image (c) Josie Latus.
Drowning as a cause of death amongst wild birds is comparatively rare and normally involves single rather than multiple animals. Starlings, however, have been observed to drown in groups of 10 or more, prompting scientists to investigate these unusual occurrences.
The team studied 12 separate incidents of starling drownings recorded between 1993 and 2013, finding that on 10 of these occasions, more than 10 birds drowned. All of these incidents, which usually involved juvenile birds of just a few months old, occurred during the spring and early summer months. In all cases, scientists found no evidence of underlying disease as a cause of death.
Dr Becki Lawson, lead author and wildlife veterinarian at ZSL, commented: "Drowning appears to be a more common cause of death amongst younger birds, as they may be inexperienced in identifying water hazards. This combined with the fact that starlings are a highly social species could potentially explain why multiple birds drown together."
"Members of the public from around Great Britain have been instrumental in bringing this unexpected cause of starling mortality to our attention by reporting these incidents. With starling numbers declining in general across the UK, we need to learn more about how and where these phenomena happen, in order to better understand why," Dr Lawson explained.
Rob Robinson, co-author and Associate Director of Research at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) said: "Starlings are a Red-listed species in the UK, under threat from issues including loss of nesting sites and a lack of insect food sources – so much so that their population has declined 79 per cent in the past 25 years. Whilst drowning is an unexpected cause of death, it’s not thought to be a conservation threat as – fortunately – these incidents are currently relatively rare. However, we still need to better understand factors such as disease that might be contributing to this decline. We would therefore ask people to keep up the good work by reporting incidents of starling death, whatever the apparent cause, via the Garden Wildlife Health website."
Water can be a valuable resource for wild birds, particularly during the summer months. Providing water sources such as ponds or bird baths is still recommended as a way to support garden wildlife. However, experts also recommend adding a sloping exit or ramp to water features, in order to help birds and other animals easily access and exit water sources.
People across Britain who spot sick or dead wildlife in gardens can help scientists learn more about their cause by reporting these incidents via the project website.
Visit the Garden Wildlife Health website
Read the full paper
Drowning is an apparent and unexpected recurrent cause of mass mortality of Common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) www.nature.com/articles/srep17020 | 1,269,509 |
Chinese chick is yelling out at us. I will lay sedentary until the aid unit arrives. I will buy this building and then have it destroyed.I lose consciousness.1:15pI have a headache and my wife is being a selfish bitch. I can't really breathe. All I can think about is holding a cup worth of hot sand in my mouth. I cannot remember what an ice cube is and cannot remember what snow looks like. I consider that my only escape might be a crab walk across 15 bodies and then out of the room. I am paralyzed, and may never walk again so the whole crab walk thing is pretty much out.1:17pI cannot move at all and cannot reach my water. Is breathing voluntary or involuntary? If it's voluntary, I am screwed. I stopped participating in the class 20 minutes ago. Hey, lady! I paid for this frickin class, ok?! You work for me! Stop yelling at everyone and just tell us a story or something. It's like juice and cracker time, ok?1:20pIt is now 165 degrees and moisture is dripping from the ceiling. The towel that I am laying on is no longer providing any wicking or drying properties. It is actually placing additional sweat on me as I touch it. My towel reeks. I cannot identify the smell but no way can it be from me. Did someone spray some stank on my towel or something?1:30pTorture session is over. I wish hateful things upon the instructor. She graciously allows us to stay and 'cool down' in the room. It is 175 degrees. Who cools down in 175 degrees? A Komodo Dragon? My wife has left the room. Probably to throw up.1:34pMy opportunity to escape has arrived. I roll over to my stomach and press up to my knees. It is warmer as I rise up from ground level - probably by 15 degrees. So let's conservatively say it's 190. I muster my final energy and slowly rise. One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. Towards the door. Towards the door.1:37pThe temperature in the lobby is 72 degrees. Both nipples stiffen to diamond strength and my penis begins to retract into my abdomen from the 100 degree temp swing. I can once again breathe though so I am pleased. I spot my future ex wife in the lobby. We had such a good thing going but I know that no measure of counseling will be able to unravel the day's turmoil and mental scaring.1:47pArrive at Emerald City Smoothie and proceed to order a 32 oz beverage. 402 calories, 0 fat and 14 grams of protein -- effectively negating any caloric burn or benefit from the last 90 minutes. I finish it in 3 minutes and spend the next 2 hours writing this memoir.3:47pCreate Craigslist ad while burning final 2 grams of protein from Smoothie and before the "shakes" consume my body.4:29pNote to self - check car for missing wet yoga towel in am. | 1,269,510 |
Ronald Reagan eating jelly beans during a meeting. NBC/NBCU Photo Bank—Getty Images
Residents of Pleasant Prairie, Wisc., were sounding a dirge Wednesday for the Jelly Belly Candy Co. warehouse, which company officials announced will be sold as operations relocate to Tennessee. By now the news of changes to the company have probably reached the candy’s number one fan somewhere in the great beyond.
Ronald Reagan loved jelly beans like pre-vegan Bill Clinton loved jalapeño cheeseburgers and FDR loved acronyms. And the 4oth president’s fondness for the bite-sized sugar capsules rubbed off on the American public. As TIME reported in 1981: “Now, with Ronald Reagan in the White House, they seem fated to achieve the luster that the praline of sugar and nuts enjoyed in the court of France’s Louis XIV.”
Reagan was not down with any old generic brand beans, however. As TIME explained:
The type most esteemed by the President is brand-named Jelly Belly, which—addicts vow—is to the ordinary jelly bean what foie gras is to liverwurst. About one-fourth the size of the Easter-basket staple and three times as expensive (up to $4 per lb.), Bellys come in an array of 36 flavors. Their manufacturer, Herman Goelitz Co. of Oakland, maintains that the flavors are so delicate that the beans should be eaten one at a time, not by the vulgar handful. How else to appreciate the richness of the coffee mocha, the tang of the piña colada, the bouquet of the strawberry daiquiri?
Goelitz began supplying Reagan when he was governor of California, during which time he and his visitors plowed through two dozen 1-lb bags monthly, amounting to approximately 10,200 beans. As president, Reagan placed a standing order of 720 bags per month (306,070 beans), to be distributed among the White House, Capitol Hill and other federal buildings.
It’s probably time for the Jelly Belly Candy Co. to start lobbying presidential hopefuls to get their product back in the Oval Office.
Read the full article, here in the TIME Vault: Living: Hill of Beans
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Write to Eliza Berman at [email protected]. | 1,269,511 |
under the wire. For good measure, Aleela Dafina will have problems with retail. It’s not any more specific than that on what I’ve been given. It could be potentially problematic. Congratulations on the win and good luck.
And that brings us to the end of the broadcast. Boy have I been enjoying this festival, shareholders. It’s everything I could have wanted and more. Oh, what’s this. I’ve got a report here from Grace Rule, our contracts master and also rule master here at Kakos Industries. She writes, “Yipdoodie is actually a clothing company. They have been doing some guerrilla marketing inside of our building, part of which was giving employees clothing in exchange for them shouting the company name all at once. I have already begun punishments and I will destroy the company if you wish.” Hmmm… I do. I do wish it. That’s totally unacceptable. Let’s send them some of our GMO Raid Chimps. We’ve improved the formula to give the chimps even more existential pain now. We can’t destroy all of our employees, though. Perhaps some sensitivity training is in order. Or maybe a paddling. Not a hard one, you know. Just enough. Excellent. It might seem obvious to some of you now that there is, in fact, not a celebration going on in the building. Just some shitty advertising, and an embarrassed CEO who may need to reexamine the nature of truth. Destroy your Cuckoo Clock however you see fit. The numbers are next.
17
34,500
117
35,400
1,118
45,300
11,117
54,300
111,111
Kakos Industries is written and produced by Conrad Miszuk, who is also the voice of Corin Deeth. The music is also composed by Conrad Miszuk. The introduction is read by Kim Aiello, and the credits are read by Hanna Jones, who is currently in way over her head. Check out KakosIndustries.com for more episodes. There’s also transcriptions if you’d rather read the Kakos Industries announcements. That’s K-A-K-O-S-I-N-D-U-S-T-R-I-E-S dot com. Please check out store.KakosIndustries.com for merchandise and special offers. Questions, comments, or a strong desire to collaborate? Drop us a line at [email protected]. If you like Kakos Industries, be sure to rate and review us on your favorite podcasting service, and connect with us on Facebook (facebook.com/kakosindustries), Tumblr (kakosindustries.tumblr.com), and Twitter (@KakosIndustries).
If you’re feeling down after this broadcast, have you considered doing things completely differently? | 1,269,512 |
When you’re working on your project, very often you will find yourself in need to use a non-angular library, such as a tools library or a plugin.
In this article, I will show you how to integrate third-party library named shave with Angular 2 by creating custom directive.
Shave is a zero dependency javascript plugin that truncates multi-line text to fit within an HTML element based on a set max-height. You can take a look at it here.
Step one — Install the library:
npm install shave --save
Step two— Declare the directive:
Assuming you work with Typescript you will get this error:
cannot find module shave
Why do I get this error?
You are getting this error because the shave library doesn’t have declaration file and Typescript doesn’t know what shave is.
We need to “teach” typescript what shave is. I’m working with angular-cli, so all the customs declarations will be in a file named typings.d.ts.
After looking at shave documentation I came up with this:
We are declaring the shave module and exporting the shave function as the default. This will resolve the Typescript error, great!
You can learn more about typescript declarations here. I’m encouraged you to submit your typings to the DefinielyTyped repository so other developers can benefit from your work.
Step three — Implement the directive:
The first required param in the shave function is the DOM element. We can get a reference to the host element by injecting the ElementRef.
Our Inputs:
shaveMaxHeight — (default: 100px) allows the user to set the max height. shave — a way to set the extra options.
Why we need the setters?
We define the setters because we need a way to re-run our code every time the directive Inputs changes ( like a $watch in Angular 1 ).
In our case every time the shave options or the max height Inputs will change, we need to re-run the runShave function to update the DOM.
Another option here would be to use the ngOnChanges life cycle hook. If you have multiple Inputs to track, this method may be preferred. (In our case I am showing you also the setters approach )
Important Note:
You can implement ngOnChanges to be notified of changes if:
Your Input is JavaScript primitive type. Your Input reference changes (using some kind of immutability strategy).
If the model reference doesn’t change, but some property of the Input model changes, you may implement the ngDoCheck life cycle hook to manually construct your change detection logic.
That’s all.
☞ Please tap or click “︎❤” to help to promote this piece to others. | 1,269,513 |
In the same way that Anthony Scaramucci embraced the "Mooch" persona the media gave him, another former White House aide, Steve Bannon, has embraced the way he's been described, as something of a swashbuckling flamethrower. "The media image I think is pretty accurate. I'm a street fighter," Bannon told Charlie Rose in an interview to be broadcast on 60 Minutes on Sunday evening, Bannon's first extended interview since leaving the White House. Portions of the interview aired on CBS This Morning on Thursday. Bannon told Rose that he will be President Trump's "wingman outside," now that he's left the White House and returned to his post as chairman of the administration-friendly Breitbart News. But it's hard to know whether Trump feels the same way about Bannon.
In perhaps the newsiest bit of the partial transcript released in advance of the show airing on Sunday, Bannon said that National Economic Council director Gary Cohn should "absolutely" have resigned after criticizing Trump's comments about Charlottesville. READ MORE John Oliver on Bannon Exit: Nothing Will Change Until Trump Leaves departure is just how utterly unsatisfying it actually is.""] "If you don't like what he's doing and you don't agree with it, you have an obligation to resign," Bannon said.
Bannon, who ran Trump's campaign for the last few months before the election and came into the White House as chief strategist, defended Trump's controversial remarks about the melee in Charlottesville that left one person dead. "By the way, after the Charlottesville situation, that's what I told [chief of staff General John Kelly], I was the only guy that came out and tried to defend him," he said. "I was the only guy that said, 'He's talking about something, taking it up to a higher level.'" But Bannon said that "neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates and the Klan" are "absolutely awful," even though Trump, in his remarks, was seen as equivocating the behavior of far-right groups and progressive groups that came to counter-protest in Charlottesville. READ MORE Inside Steve Bannon's First Day Back at Breitbart News
Later in the day CBS Evening News released another preview of the interview, this time with Bannon saying "the Republican establishment is trying to nullify the 2016 election." When asked to clarify who exactly he was referring to, he explained, "I think Mitch McConnell, and to a degree, Paul Ryan. They do not want Donald Trump's populist, economic nationalist agenda to be implemented. It's very obvious." In the clip, Rose counters Bannon's comments by saying, "You are attacking on many fronts people who you need to help you to get things done."
In response, Bannon said, "They're not going to help you unless they're put on notice. They're going to be held accountable if they do not support the President of the United States." "And so therefore, now that you're out of the White House, you're going to war with them?" the host asks. To this the ousted White House aid replies, "Absolutely." | 1,269,514 |
button.
Some of this environmental readability is solved with the use of Garrett's focus ability. This is a new suite of mechanics for the series--and, of course, another source of fan outcry. Focus allows Garrett to supernaturally augment his perception and reactions to get out of a tough situation. In practice, the mechanic is extremely similar to the instinct mode that made its way into Hitman: Absolution. Enemies and key objects (including specific wall grating that can be climbed up) are highlighted in blue, and actions like lock-picking can be sped up by expending focus when performing them. In a pinch, it allows Garrett to quickly disable guards and make good his escape. Focus is another system that can be upgraded by spending coin, eventually allowing Garrett to slow down time and see enemy footsteps through walls. This provides options that players less familiar with the traditionally high difficulty of stealth games may seek refuge in.
It's a tight line Eidos Montreal is walking, trying to appeal to fans without scaring others away. As one of those fans, I was pleased that focus could be completely disabled and the game finished without ever using it. In fact, the number of customisation options the developer provides is phenomenal. Almost all of the HUD can be disabled, from waypoint markers down to the crosshair and health meter. A custom difficulty option lets you apply classic Thief gameplay restrictions, such as no knockouts and no alerts. There's even an ironman mode that deletes your save file upon death. Having played using the standard settings, as well as with focus and all the HUD assist elements turned off, I feel the latter provided the superior, more immersive experience.
Thief is not a game for those who prefer a combat-oriented approach.
Applying these classic restrictions adds a score multiplier, which feeds into online leaderboards. It's a first for the series, allowing you to compete to see who can steal the most valuables, and who can do it the most silently. Eidos Montreal is also announcing a challenge map mode; though they're mum on the details, they tell me it's similar to the way the maps worked in Batman: Arkham Asylum, offering small and self-contained stealth challenges.
This leads me to believe that, with Thief, Eidos Montreal is attempting to offer something for almost everyone--both Thief first-timers as well as hardcore stealth fans. The developer appeals to the former by introducing new mechanics and onscreen assistance, and satiates the latter by allowing them to switch all that off. Newcomers to the stealth genre may want to experience a unique power fantasy without necessarily being challenged too directly, whilst old-timers demand classic hardcore Thief, or else they'll start tying the nooses. I'm not ready to say whether Eidos Montreal has succeeded in either endeavour, but I can say for certain that Thief is not a game for those who prefer a combat-oriented approach. Trust me, you will die. This is a stealth game through and through--one whose mantra of "stealing to survive" has never been more apt. | 1,269,515 |
won’t neutralise or cancel out their autism. It simply doesn’t work like that.
So, the question is simply whether the ‘label’ is helpful or not. Or, preferably, if ‘identification’ (which is more value-neutral terminology) is helpful or not.
I would argue very strongly that it is.
Your child (and you as their parent), have a right to accurate, quality information that will allow you and your child to understand their needs and to advocate for those needs to be met. How can you support your child, and how can your child learn to self-advocate, if you – and your child — don’t know fully, holistically, profoundly, who they are? How can you and your child feel inclusion and acceptance if you deny them (and yourself) access to the community who share their neurocognitive processing?
Self-knowledge is the cornerstone of well-being, resilience, and self-determination, but you can’t have self-knowledge if you’re denied access to a part of who you are. How tragic, to deny a child their identity from a place of fear, with the vain hope that by not acknowledging, by not naming, by not recognising a fundamental part of that child – a significant part that makes them who they are – that that part might disappear or change or wither away.
If they don’t already, your child very soon will understand that they are different than their peers: respect that knowledge, embrace it, give them complete access to their identity: it is theirs after all. And autism is integral to who we are, it is fundamental to our identity… there is simply so much potential for damage in denying anyone so intrinsic a part of their identity.
But, no doubt some of you will protest that even if you don’t approach the word ‘autism’ with prejudice and stigma, that prejudice and stigma nevertheless exists. Labelling your child, you may argue, risks exposing them to a world that shuns and slurs autism as a tragedy, that misunderstands autism and excludes autistics. By giving your child the autism label, you may worry that you set them up for failure in a world that neglects them, ostracises them, refuses to accept and respect them.
That is true, to some extent. But as parents of autistic children, as the people charged with changing the world for our children, as the people who should love our children as they are and not as we imagined or expected them to be, it is simply not good enough to be passive. As parents of autistic children it is our mission – our raison d’ȇtre – to begin the social movement for change, or (to use a hackneyed phrase) to be the change we want to see. If we tacitly participate in the stigma, if we perpetuate it, if we ignore it and don’t attempt to challenge it, then we have indeed set our children up to fail. | 1,269,516 |
term coined “to describe the current Internet phenomenon of young women and teenage girls expressing an obsession with snack foods.” This “snackwave” trend, they say, is a way to reject the way that “health food culture [serves as] a thinly disguised way of policing women’s bodies.”
Rather than celebrate not eating at all, health food culture suggests that women embrace a #yesfilter view of salads and yogurt; staying thin and taking to their social media to express their enthusiasm over their choices.
In a way, snackwave is a protest against this mindset. Snackwave is about taking pleasure in foods that are deemed off-limits for women who want to stay thin and traditionally attractive. Food becomes cartoonish and goofy, rather than a constant test of whether or not you’re treating your body the way the world (i.e. menz) wants you too.
Like, I guess… Except that if this really were an IDGAF I-eat-what-I-want-fuck-yeah trend, why must it be documented publicly, next to boobs and tiny waists? And why is that lady eating pizza in a bikini on a fire hydrant? Surely there are more comfortable and practical ways to eat pizza?
Girl trades clothes for gluten. #girlswithgluten A photo posted by Girls with Gluten (@girlswithgluten) on Apr 24, 2015 at 7:56am PDT
And also, why any of it?? Why is it women that must make a eating a “trend?” Shouldn’t eating food be more about eating food than taking photos of food we might like to eat or might like others to think we eat? It’s all weird. And stupid. And symptomatic of the way in which women and girls learn to obsess over their weight and their bodies, in general.
Yes, the struggle is real. The struggle is real because you can’t just enjoy food without making sure the entire world knows you eat food and without trying to look fuckable while staring at fries — fries that you probably didn’t even eat, you food-wasting poseur. Also, like, eat, don’t eat, diet, don’t diet, stand near pizza or don’t. Nobody reeeeally cares. These kinds of accounts and images don’t serve to encourage the free-wheeling enjoyment of food, they just reinforce ideals that are impossible to achieve for most women and teach us to fixate even more on food and eating than we already do.
Girl struggles to eat gluten slowly @sarahstage #girlswithgluten A photo posted by Girls with Gluten (@girlswithgluten) on May 26, 2015 at 6:05am PDT
*There actually is a Boys with Gluten Instagram account, but it has 155 followers and, to-date, has not been covered by The Daily Mail because no one cares what men eat. | 1,269,517 |
Mist Wrap has been upgraded to Mist Wrap Supreme, which includes sour cream and cheese.
Dampen Harm has been removed. Harm is damp enough already. You might even call it moist.
Tiger’s Lust is now rated T for Teen.
Paladin
Light of Dawn is now more energy efficient and automatically turns off if you leave the room.
First Avenger only understood a few of the references in these patch notes.
Repentance has been renamed “Shame.” It now has 3 charges, which can be reset by ringing a bell.
Inquisition is now baseline, and activates randomly without warning. No one expects Inquisition!
Priest
Knaifu has been renamed “Bae Blade.” Bae Blade’s whispers are now more encouraging. Bae Blade is now your life coach. You can do it, sweetie.
Last Word is now a mandatory talent choice. You should always try to get Last Word in.
Auspicious Spirits has been increased. It is now 40% more auspicious.
Circle of Healing is now available in other useful shapes.
The Demon Hunters got into Body and Soul, but didn’t quite know what to do with half of it, so it’s just Body now.
Rogue
Fan of Knives is no longer suitable for displaying on your bedroom wall at your age, Randy.
Because you can’t stop being children with abbreviations, Assassination has been renamed. It is now known as “Sneaky Stab Guy.”
To promote class fantasy, Vendetta has had its cooldown increased by 40 years.
It’s been almost 15 years and Shadowstrike still reminds you of that one polearm nobody wanted in Molten Core.
Soul Shadows (Artifact Trait) has been donated to Demon Hunters.
In an effort to make the Rogue class appeal to a younger audience, Shadow Dance has been given some more modern styles: Shadow Yeet Shadow Floss Shadow Dab
Shaman
Shaman totems now come in a tote(m) bag, which you can receive by sending a generous donation to the Earthen Ring.
Sundering now requires specific garments be worn in order to be used. You must always equip clean Sunderwear.
Static Charge is now 50% more effective when on carpet.
Call the Thunder would really like you to start texting instead. It’s 2019.
Liquid Magma Totem has been renamed Magma Totem, because what other kind of magma would it be?
Warlock
Warlocks are refusing to share their souls with Demon Hunters.
Almost certainly unrelated to the above, several Warlock spells seem to have gone missing: Dark Soul Soul Conduit Soul Strike Sacrificed Souls Burning Rush Soul Fire
Internal Combustion has been upgraded to electric.
Warrior | 1,269,518 |
The Town of Bridgewater is celebrating after recent analysis showed the municipality has managed to drop its greenhouses gas emissions well below targets set in 2013.
That drop in energy consumption has saved the town roughly $200,000, according to the town's sustainability planner.
"We told council that there was some really good news," Leon de Vreede said of his presentation to town council two weeks ago. "Average energy consumption for our public facilities has gone down by 21 per cent over that time period."
De Vreede said if several old buildings that were decommissioned are taken into account, such as the Bridgewater Library, the Bridgewater Memorial Arena and the Coughlan Building, energy consumption is down a further 49 per cent.
Targets met
In 2013, Bridgewater set a target for itself of reducing energy consumption by 25 per cent by 2019, which means there is four per cent still to go.
The town also resolved to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent in the same time frame. By this year, it had cut emissions by 31 per cent.
Bridgewater also calculated it spent about $500,000 on fuel in 2007-2008. In 2016-2017, it spent $453,000.
A new boiler was installed in the town hall. (Robert Short/CBC)
De Vreede said some examples of the energy efficiency upgrades include better lighting in the town rink, and changing two old oil boilers in the town hall that ran at "full speed or nothing" for a more efficient propane one.
"Our fuel consumption at town hall has declined substantially as a result of that, and parts of the building aren't overheating anymore the way they used to," he said.
Although there is an upfront cost to new technology like the propane boiler, De Vreede said it is outweighed by operations savings for a building that will be used for many years.
"This is significant," de Vreede said. "Energy management is often perceived as a luxury by organizations who are too busy to feel that they can afford to focus on it. But I think what we've demonstrated here is that there are a lot of benefits to doing it."
Reduced fuel costs have helped Bridgewater offer more public services, such as a transit pilot project. (Submitted by the Town of Bridgewater)
Bridgewater CAO Richard MacLellan said freeing up money from fuel costs allows the town to offer more services, such as this year's public transit pilot project.
"In order to sustain that we're going to have to add that to the operations budget in future years, so finding savings by doing things like energy efficiency enables us to make choices, to make investments in other areas of public good," he said.
MacLellan also noted he would prefer to spend money on local infrastructure than imported fuel.
"That mostly goes towards foreign-sourced coal or fuel oil, and there's opportunities through investment in renewables and energy efficiency to keep those energy dollars here." | 1,269,519 |
A flyer demanding that Jews in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk register with its pro-Russian government is “fake,” a Jewish advocacy group with direct contacts in the region tells the Daily Dot.
“It’s a fake flyer,” says Lesley Weiss, deputy director of the National Conference Supporting Jews (NCSJ), which focuses its efforts on Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States.
First reported Thursday by Israeli news organization Ynet and republished by USA Today, the flyers do exist, according to Weiss. But they carry no authority and were not sanctioned by the city’s temporary government.
“It’s not true that they have to register or be deported,” says Weiss. NCSJ officials spoke directly to Jewish leadership in Donetsk, who said that Denis Pushilin, chairman of the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Government, denied creating the pamphlets, which carry his name.
Instead, Weiss says, the flyers were distributed simply to “cause anxiety” among the city’s Jewish population. In an online announcement about the fliers, NCSJ said similar fliers were recently handed out to students at a nearby university.
Members of the Jewish community in Donetsk are “saying it’s a provocation,” Weiss says, “but we don’t know exactly from whom.”
While the flyer may not carry any official authority, Weiss says its distribution still has a detrimental effect on Donetsk’s Jewish community as it reflects tactics “used by the Nazis.”
“You can image the anxiety it’s causing,” she said.
News of the fliers launched to the upper echelons of the U.S. government on Thursday, as Secretary of State John Kerry called the pamphlets “grotesque.”
In an interview with CNN, U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt said the flyers were the “real deal” and called the documents “chilling.”
Weiss says that her office is “in contact” with the U.S. ambassador and that his statements agree with what the NCSJ learned from Jewish leaders. The “real deal” comment, she says, was likely a mere acknowledgement that the fliers do exist, not that they carry any authority imposed by the Donetsk People’s Government.
“We’re in touch with [Pyatt]. He’s saying the flyers were real—the flyers exist,” Weiss says. “But from our sources, they seem to be faked just to cause anxiety.”
Updated with additional comments from Weiss for further context. | Correction: Weiss says that NCSJ did not speak directly to Pushilin, but instead spoke with a local Jewish leader who said the separatist denied creating the leaflets.
Photo via Pete Prodoehl/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | 1,269,520 |
She looked at a lot of prom dresses, recording her favourites in an album, caught up in the springtime rite for high school grads.
In the end she went with a deep royal blue. Lightweight. Rectangular shape. Cardboard.
The box, not the dress — a donation collection box.
The dress never got purchased. Instead Ancaster teenager Ashley Yu wrapped up her last year of high school by launching a crowd-funding campaign called Ditching Prom for Nepal.
"I needed to end the year with something bigger than myself," she said.
Ashley, who turns 18 in July, read an article in early May about how, in the wake of the devastating earthquake in the South Asian country, three million people were homeless.
Then she heard on Facebook about a U.S. teen who started a "ditch the prom for the homeless" campaign, encouraging friends to reallocate money they otherwise would have burned on formal wear and tuxedos and limo rides.
With encouragement from her guidance counsellor at Ancaster high school, and friend Lara Besermenji, she launched Ditching Prom for Nepal with her online crowd funding goal of $500 — enough to buy a homeless family a tent to live in, she learned.
Funds go to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and are earmarked for Nepal.
As of Sunday night she had nearly doubled that to $871.
To learn more about her campaign or to donate, go to gofundme.com
Her largest donation is from a local businessperson. He sent her an email: "I'm a big fan of character. There are people who talk about it, and there are people like you who do something about it."
Her second largest donation came at a TEDx women's conference downtown last week.
Ashley convinced organizers to give her a few minutes to address the group, and then went table-to-table making her pitch while holding her blue donation box, raising $225 in cash.
She is not opposed to high school proms, but has no regrets missing hers.
"If you want to go to prom, then fulfil your heart, but I felt like I was saving up for nothing. I just don't think it's that important."
The A-plus student is active in women's and children's social justice issues, and plans to pursue a career that will take her far and wide to help, perhaps working for a UN agency.
That journey begins in September when she attends McGill University in Montreal.
"I've never been anywhere, never travelled. I want to be a citizen of the world … my purpose is to help women in developing countries."
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She recently started creating a life binder, which includes five pages listing future goals.
Ashley Yu wrote the first goal down two weeks ago: raise $500 for Nepal.
Check. | 1,269,521 |
Despite Mexico currently building its own border wall, former Mexican President Vicente Fox urged Americans to “wake up” and reject the “false prophet” Donald Trump and US nationalism in general.
“Wake up, America!” Fox said repeatedly during an interview with the Washington Post. “I want to warn people here in the United States to watch out for this false prophet that promised gold, that promised paradise, that promised everything.”
“Sitting in that chair, the presidential chair of the United States, where Abraham Lincoln sat, where Washington sat, President Kennedy, President Reagan, with elegance, with authority, with consideration to everybody in the world — how can this guy sit there.”
The reason why Fox hates Trump is simple: the former president once proposed merging the U.S. into Mexico and Canada.
Fox wanted the U.S. to join Mexico and Canada into a EU-style “North American Union” which would combine all three countries into one regional government using one currency, like the Euro, at the expense of both U.S. national sovereignty and individual rights.
“I proposed a ‘NAFTA Plus’ plan to President Bush and Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to move us toward a single continental economic union, modeled on the European example,” he wrote in his autobiography Revolution of Hope. “…At summits I took every opportunity to advocate clearly for free-market policies; showing what sound economics could do to fund social justice; arguing for globalism, NAFTA and the Free Trade Area of the Americas.”
An EU-style North American Union would be easier to implement if the U.S. lacks effective borders, which explains why Fox keeps lashing out against Trump’s brand of nationalism in particular.
Fox also claimed to seek the “convergence of our two economies, convergence on the basic and fundamental variables of the economy, convergence on rates of interest, convergence on income of people, convergence on salaries.”
“Why can’t we be not only partners in the long term, but a North American Union,” he asked during a 2007 interview.
And while Fox stopped short of labeling Trump a racist, despite comparing him to Adolf Hitler in the past, Fox ironically referred to Trump as “the ugly gringo of the 20th century” and a “piñata” with “no brain inside.”
Fox also leveled criticism at current Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto for extending an invitation to Trump to visit Mexico City, but his criticism is hypocritical given that Fox himself had extended the same invitation when he apologized for using vulgar language to assert Mexico would not pay for Trump’s border wall.
“I invite him to come to Mexico and to see what Mexico is all about,” he said.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today! | 1,269,522 |
such consultation agreement, relating to a project known as the Niagara Reinforcement Line, has been the source of much anger in the community. The NRL transports hydroelectric energy produced at Niagara Falls to the Greater Toronto Area. In 2011, the Ontario government spent $1.6 billion CDN to expand its generating capacity at Niagara Falls but has been unable to increase production for a lack of transmission capacity.
In order to monetize that infrastructure investment, the transmission line must be rebuilt and modernized. Because it runs through the Haldimand Tract, and so close to the Caledonia Reclamation site, the project has become a symbol of the continued erosion of Haudenosaunee sovereignty and an unrelenting encroachment on its sovereign territories and scope of jurisdiction.
Matt Jamieson leads SNEC’s economic development corporation, and he is the son of Ron Jamieson, a former Bank of Montreal executive who is widely credited with inventing ‘aboriginal banking’ in the late 1990s, in order to offer access to mortgage loans in Reserve communities.
The younger Jamieson has engaged in deal-making on projects in which his father has financial interests or has been advising counterparties, a blatant conflict of interest that observers have argued ‘corrupt’ his development dealings and consultation agreements.
Jamieson accepted the terms of an agreement proposed to him by Hydro One and the government of Ontario, in which Six Nations would have to pay $13 million in exchange for a 25% stake in the transmission line. But neither Jamieson nor his economic development corporation, have the authority or jurisdiction to negotiate such authorizations on behalf of the Haudenosaunee.
Some members of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), an instrumentality of HCCC, believe that SNEC’s economic development corporation has been actively defrauding major Canadian firms with false claims, including to Hydro One, the utility that wants badly to begin monetizing its expensive and unused generating tunnels at Niagara Falls.
It’s been widely rumored that the Haudenosaunee are debating whether or not to disband the SNEC Council permanently or to simply dismiss the current Councillors and install new ones in their place (presumably with individuals who understand SNEC’s limited role as a service delivery agency, rather than that of a government).
Either would be an unprecedented move that would reassert the Haudenosaunee Chiefs and Clan Mothers as the sovereigns of the Grand River Territory.
Members of the barricade have called for the resignation of SNEC’s elected Chief Ava Hill, Bomberry, Jamieson, and several Councillors, but the Haudenosaunee have not yet removed those officials in their collective governing capacity.
SNEC elections will be held in October.
A working group of eight — four from each Council — is being assembled to negotiate a memorandum of understanding, a process that is likely to take place over the course of many months, and through the October elections. | 1,269,523 |
, obviously.”
He didn’t want to press his luck, to put his face to the rehab grindstone for another year or two or 10, just to come out the other end with a body that doesn’t work and a nagging loathing of the thing he devoted the first part of his life to.
He’s not the only NFL Star to retire while still young and productive on the field. Legendary Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders retired at 30, in spitting distance of the NFL’s all-time rushing record. Calvin Johnson, the best receiver of his generation, also retired at 30. Luck isn’t even the first productive star to retire early this year: After a good season that ended with a Super Bowl win, Rob Gronkowski, generally regarded as the greatest NFL tight end of all time, stepped away from the game in March, weeks before he, too, turned 30.
But it’s pretty unusual for a quarterback, especially one as productive as Luck, who netted the second-most passing touchdowns and third-most passing yards for a player across his first six seasons. Consider that his entire career, back to front, was nestled in the second half of Tom Brady’s lengthy tenure in New England. Brett Farve, who got sacked all the time, played for nearly 20 years.
But then again, his predecessor in Indianapolis, Peyton Manning, went to absurd lengths to stay on the field in his late 30s. He underwent a spinal fusion procedure that basically welded two of his neck vertebrae together to relieve pain and keep him on the field. From there, he went through the dull rehab process, rebuilding strength, fiber by fiber, and teaching himself to be a football weapon again, but this time, with one less functioning spinal bone.
It’s no one’s moral responsibility to subject themselves to a lifetime of pain and suffering so fans can experience the rush of associated victory.
The kind of person who would boo someone for seeking to preserve his health and dignity, and the media chuds who feed into their entitled mindset for a paycheck, just don’t get it. It’s no one’s moral responsibility to subject themselves to a lifetime of pain and suffering so fans can experience the rush of associated victory when they lift a trophy at the end of a season.
Sports are excellent, they’re thrilling, they’re beautiful, they’re a fabulous communal experience that nothing else can quite achieve, even in a world with thousands of viewing options on hand at any given time. But sports aren’t so special, as labor, as work, that retiring when they start to make you miserable isn’t a rational and healthy thing to do. Luck should be proud that he didn’t let the braying masses convince him to subscribe to a life of tedium and suffering just because that’s what they want, and what they’ve come to expect from someone else’s body. | 1,269,524 |
last year and found 80 percent of their employees failed, Fay said. (Colorado's Supreme Court has ruled that companies may fire employees who smoke pot, even if legally.)
"They had to replace everyone," she said. "The employer was glad he found the problem because his employees do extremely dangerous work. He was shocked and disturbed."
'A really good source of labor'
Sterling Technologies in Erie, Pennsylvania.
In the last five years, nearly 4,000 refugees have resettled in Erie, PA, a city that has struggled economically in recent decades.
Locals say the area also is dealing with a drug epidemic.
"'Right now around here, heroin's big, sad to say," said Sterling Technologies floor manager, Marty Learn, who has seen four or five workers in his department fail drug tests in recent months.
"I've had no refugees fail it," he added.
"In the Sunday newspaper there was a four- or five-page spread for employment advertisements and almost every one of them said, 'Must pass a background check and a drug screen.' So there's a lot of people who are unemployed as a result," said Amanda Milleren, a drug-addiction counselor at Cove Forge Behavioral Health System in Erie.
Erie has lost over half its manufacturing jobs since the 1980s, says Shannon Monnat, a rural sociology professor at Penn State University. Meanwhile the city has faced rising rates of drug overdoses, alcohol-related deaths, and suicides.
"When business owners are telling you that they can't find native residents who will do these jobs, or they can't find enough people in the community to pass a drug test, what are they to do?" said Monnat. "They need to seek out employees somewhere. And for now, immigrants are a really good source of that labor."
Companies and staffing agencies in Erie and other cities have come to see refugee resettlement agencies as good partners to help expand the local labor pool.
And recovering drug addicts in Erie told CNN they can see why employers have had to look elsewhere for workers.
But some still think they deserve a second chance.
"I know that refugees need an opportunity when they come here, and employers give them the opportunity. But people like us that live here also need an opportunity," said Bethany Kaschak, 34. "I'm not saying they don't deserve it. But we deserve it as well."
Sterling Technology's management voted for Trump and hopes he will push for tax cuts that will allow them to reinvest in their business. But at the same time, they don't want to see their refugee-powered workforce go away.
"Do I want to see all of my people deported?" asked Quigley, the Sterling Technologies president. "Absolutely not. They're a part of this company. They've helped build this company," he said.
"Our goal is to continue to grow the company. We can't grow the company without people that want to do the work." | 1,269,525 |
New York Knicks center Enes Kanter announced Friday he will not travel to London for the team’s upcoming international game against the Washington Wizards on Jan. 17 because he believes he could be assassinated for his opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kanter, 26, a native of Turkey, made the announcement after the Knicks’ victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. The Knicks later said Kanter will not be able to make the trip because of visa issues.
While speaking to reporters, Kanter said he would stay in New York and practice while his team traveled.
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“I talked to the front office and sadly I’m not going because of that freaking lunatic, the Turkish president,” he said. “There’s a chance I can get killed out there. That’s why I talked to the front office, and I’m not going so I’m just going to stay here and just practice here.”
Kanter continued, saying, “It’s pretty sad” that he can’t travel with the Knicks and be there for his team.
“It’s pretty sad that all this stuff affects my career and basketball because I want to be out there and help my teammates but just because of that one lunatic guy, one maniac, one dictator I can’t go out there and just do my job,” he said.
When asked if he really thought he could be killed if he went to the United Kingdom, he replied, “Oh yeah, easy. They’ve got a lot of spies there. I think I can get killed there very easy. It would be a very ugly situation.”
NBA STAR KANTER GETS ‘THREE OR FOUR DEATH THREATS EVERY WEEK’
Kanter has been a vocal critic of Erdogan for years, once referring to him as “the Hitler of our century.” His Turkish passport was revoked in 2017, and an international warrant for his arrest was issued by Turkey.
Kanter is a follower of a U.S.-based Turkish cleric accused by Turkey’s government of masterminding a failed military coup in 2016. The athlete's father, Mehmet, was indicted last year and charged with “membership in a terror group.” The former professor lost his job after the failed military coup even though he publicly disavowed his son and his beliefs.
In July, Kanter told Fox News he gets “three or four death threats every week.” He said he believed the threats are from pro-Erdogan supporters both in Turkey and the wider diaspora.
Kanter said he feels safe in the U.S.
“But anywhere outside America would be very dangerous,” he said.
Fox News’ Hollie McKay and the Associated Press contributed to this report. | 1,269,526 |
The best way to understand the Islamic State (ISIS) is to see it as the next phase of al-Qaeda. All Sunni Islamic jihadi groups—Boko Haram, ISIS, Taliban, al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda, even Hamas—share the same motivations based on a literal and orthodox reading of Islamic history and doctrine: resurrecting a caliphate (which existed in various forms from 632 to 1924) that implements and spreads the totality of sharia, or Islamic law.
Accordingly, ISIS’s notorious atrocities—beheading, crucifixion, sexual enslavement, and destruction of non-Sunni places of worship—are being committed by other jihadi groups (e.g., Boko Haram and al-Shabaab, both of which pledged allegiance to ISIS) and even by some Muslim governments (e.g., Saudi Arabia) and individual Muslims around the world.
Conversely, although al-Qaeda (AQ) adheres to the same sharia that ISIS implements, it has long waged a propaganda war against the West. AQ portrays all terrorist attacks on the West, including 9/11, as mere payback for the West’s unjust polices against Muslims, including support for Israel and Arab dictators.
To maintain this “grievance” narrative, AQ knows that the innately supremacist and violent aspects of sharia—for example ISIS’ destruction of churches and subjugation of “infidel” Christian minorities—need to be curtailed or hidden from the Western world. Otherwise AQ’s efforts of portraying jihadis as “freedom fighters” resisting an oppressive West risk being undermined.
Regardless, AQ’s strategy of turning Western opinion appears to have borne fruit in one pivotal area: canceling longtime Western support for secular Arab dictators. In the context of the “Arab Spring,” the Obama administration turned its back on America’s Egyptian ally of 30 years, Hosni Mubarak; helped ISIS-affiliated jihadis overthrow Libya’s Gaddafi (even though he was complying with Washington); and continues supporting ISIS-affiliated “moderates” to overthrow Syria’s Assad. Idealists in both government and media forgot a primary reason the U.S. had formerly supported secular Arab dictators: they single-mindedly opposed the jihadis.
The result has been a new and emboldened phase of the jihad, a.k.a., ISIS. Born and entrenched in precisely those nations that U.S. leadership brought “freedom and democracy” to—Iraq, Syria, and Libya—ISIS (or al-Qaeda 2.0) is now indifferent to Western opinion. By widely broadcasting its savage triumphalism in the name of Islam, ISIS forfeits the “grievance card” but plays the “strength” card, thus inspiring millions of Muslims. According to the Pew Research Center, in 11 countries alone, at least 63 million and as many as 287 million Muslims support ISIS.
Yet even ISIS works in stages… Keep reading | 1,269,527 |
type. At the moment, devolved legislatures are forbidden from doing things that breach EU law, even if the thing they wish to do concerns a subject-matter that is devolved. When the UK leaves the EU, by default that restriction will go — in effect causing powers to flow from Brussels to the devolved capitals (as well as, in relation to non-devolved and English matters, London). But the Bill erects a diversion, providing that repatriated powers, even when they relate to devolved subjects, will instead go to London. The UK Government will then decide which of them to hand to the devolved institutions, the implication being that some will not be handed over. The First Ministers of Scotland and Wales have said that this is a “power grab”, and that the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly will therefore likely withhold their consent to the Bill unless it is amended. That does not amount to a legal block on enacting the Bill: their consent is required by convention, not law. But, at the very least, this will undoubtedly complicate the politics of getting the Bill through a House of Commons in which the Government’s position is already highly fragile.
The Conservative Party says that by introducing the Withdrawal Bill into Parliament, it is “giving Britain the certainty it needs as we leave the EU”. In reality, however, the Bill, far from resolving uncertainties, serves to highlight and emphasise the vast scale of the uncertainty that lies ahead. The powers granted by the Bill are as extraordinarily vague as they are broad; the division of territorial competences has been drawn in a way that risks further destabilising the union between the four nations of the UK; the number and volume of decisions that will need to be taken as EU law is converted into UK law is vast; and those who will wield these powers do not even know what sort of withdrawal to prepare for, given that there might or might not be an agreement with the EU, and given that we will not for some time know the content of any such agreement.
In political terms, the Withdrawal Bill is being presented as the epitome of the taking back of control and the restoration of “sovereignty” that has been so fetishized by some. But it actually demonstrates something very different. It serves as a stark reminder of the way in which the banal rhetoric that has characterised — and that continues to characterise — much of the political debate in this area is now beginning to meet brutal legal and constitutional reality. Some will doubtless find clause 1 of the Bill, which boldly proclaims that the European Communities Act will be repealed on “exit day”, intoxicating. They should make the most of it. Because the rest of the Bill palpably demonstrates that those drunk on the notion of taking back control need to face up to the fact that they — indeed, we — are in for one hell of a hangover.
This post is written in a purely personal capacity. A longer and more technical analysis of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill can be found here. | 1,269,528 |
A good reproduction of the Wii U original with some nice new features, and a few minor drawbacks. Contains the entire story presented in the original, and expands it with new two new Legends gameplay tales: Linkle's Tale, featuring a crossbow-wielding, green tunic wearing heroine, and a Wind Waker epilogue introducing Tetra and the King of Red Lions. The new characters are transferable to the Wii U version with an included eShop code. Adventure mode has been reworked to better balance the introduction of new characters and not give you all the level 3 weapons so early: level 2 weapons have moved to the new Great Sea adventure mode map, which can't be started until you've completed the normal Legend mode play and completed the first scenario of the new Wind Waker epilogue and unlocked Tetra. Level 3 weapons have moved to the Master Quest map, which can't be unlocked until the Great Sea map is cleared. Thus you spend a lot more time with your lower level weapons than before. New features include My Fairy, a customizable add-on that allows you collect fairies as allies and use their magic to wipe out a large number of enemies (or enable other effects) at the cost of your magic meter. This gives you a good way to clear a keep when you badly need to save it or move on to rescuing someone in need, though its addition completely ruins KO competition adventure mode scenarios, as your fairy can wipe out hundreds of enemies at once, giving you an unbeatable jump in your KO count. Also new is the ability to switch characters in a scenario, assuming that character is part of the story for that stage. This fixes the poor ally AI present in the original, in which you'd occasionally have to drop what you were doing and race across the board to rescue them, often ruining chances at completing a scenario in time to earn an A rank. It also allows you to position allies in key positions and switch between them while one runs from one keep to another so you can do more in less time, making those A ranks easier to obtain. Drawbacks are a noticible reduction in rendered character polygons, which is to be expected, but colors have been reduced as well - as if the game is playing at 256 colors. Some blur effects have also been removed, making the flames of the Fire Rod or Naginata appear very basic and artificial. Enemy AI has also suffered, as many will just march right past you and go straight for their target keep while in the original they'd recognize you as a threat and stop to fight you. This causes a lot of situations where you have to constantly chase an enemy, getting in a few hits before its out of range again. Overall though, if you loved the Wii U original or you're a Zelda fan that never got it, this if for you. It has exceptionally high replay value, too: its tough to get bored of it after a few weeks like most games, because its got so many new challenges and scenarios waiting in adventure mode. I'd completed the original two years ago and have had this version a month and still play it daily. | 1,269,529 |
April 16, 2013
In an interview with ICNA.org, Jalon Fowler, a Muslim participant of the Boston Marathon relates her experience.
I have always dreamed of running the Boston Marathon; I have grown up seeing others in the Boston area train and prepare for the marathon. Three years ago, I finally took the plunge and joined my company’s Marathon Training Program. I also very much wanted to give back to the community and, therefore, became a charity runner for the Boys & Girls Club of Boston and the Ron Burton Training Village. Both organizations serve inner city and under-served youth.
The Challenge
I trained for over six months for this race. I did a lot of running with my company’s Employee Training Program, local running groups and with friends. We ran through rain, wind and snow. We also did many 5 am runs, two half marathon races and several 16, 18 and 20 mile runs. I kept up with the training through busy times at work, sick kids and other life events. I remained committed because training for a marathon is simply something you put your heart and soul and believe that you get out of it what you put into it.
Faith
Charity, helping others, and being the best emotional, spiritual and physical person are major parts of being a Muslim. The marathon allowed me to strive towards all of these goals.
The Experience
This was my third Boston Marathon and I was on pace for my best finish to-date. However, the dream ended at mile 21 when the race was shut down due to explosions at the finish line. At this point, we were all quickly ushered off the course and told that, in addition to the finish line explosions, there were several suspicious packages being investigated. We were all heartbroken, devastated and scared by this news. During this time, we hugged each other and shared cell phones to contact loved ones. Thankfully, my husband and two young children were with me at mile 21. Since our car was close by, we drove a fellow stranded runner home. Unfortunately, my other family members were waiting for me at the finish line when the explosions happened and had to run for safety.
I am heartbroken, that so many innocent people were hurt. This beautiful day was scarred by this tragedy. I am thankful that my family was safe.
My Message
I put my heart and soul into training and raising money for The Boys and Clubs of Boston and The Ron Burton Training Village and can’t believe it ended in such a tragic way. I love Boston. I love the Boston running community. I can’t wait to proudly run these streets again. I will run the Boston Marathon until my body cannot take it anymore, God willing, for those that cannot.
I pray that whoever is responsible for these horrific acts are brought to justice. It was no doubt an act of cowardice and evil.
Jalon Fowler lives near Boston with her husband and 3 children.
© The Islamic Circle of North America- ICNA.org | 1,269,530 |
bought a number of TrackingPoint guns to test. Depending on whether or not they decide to contract with TrackingPoint, up-and-coming products might include technology to avoid friendly fire, squad communication and other battlefield-specific features.
“I don’t see them ever really going for it,” Dan Sanderson, the owner and chief instructor at VX Marksmanship in South Alvarado, Texas, said. Sanderson was a competitive shooter while in the Marine Corps, a Scout Sniper and an Iraq war veteran; he questioned both the weight and dependability of systems like the XactSystem.
“Until the system outshoots us, then we can actually talk competition-wise,” Sanderson said.
Fire from both sides
TrackingPoint has drawn the ire from both pro-gun and anti-gun camps. Some say that XactSystem can turn civilians into public threats, while trained snipers aren’t buying into it.
Slate’s Justin Peters, in a column condemning TrackingPoint, wrote,”I have nothing but disdain for the TrackingPoint, which exemplifies everything I hate about a gun culture that is quick to put firearms in the hands of people who neither respect nor know how to use them.”
TrackingPoint has been featured on both NPR and the Colbert Report, as well as in a number of national outlets, drumming up even more of what he referred to as “calculated controversy.”
“Calculated controversy is something that we intentionally play up, and it gets us media hits and it’s good for business in general,” Lupher said.
Trained marksmen have criticized the system’s inability to automatically account for wind. Users have to manually enter in the windspeed and direction, but Lupher said that his engineers are developing a wind measurement system.
“The hardest aspect of this is judging the wind, and TrackingPoint doesn’t do it yet,” Jacob Bynum said.
According to Bynum, however, though the system isn’t perfect, it’s an important step in the right direction, especially in terms of safety, and likened TrackingPoint to the addition of airbags in cars.
“We want technology to go forward, we want to technology to accelerate to where we one, are able to hit the target that we’re looking at, and two, reduce collateral damage,” he said. “We should use TrackingPoint, because while TrackingPoint doesn’t have it exactly right, they’re on the right track.”
Bynum conceded that his opinion isn’t very prevalent.
“A lot of the people that are complaining about TrackingPoint don’t understand TrackingPoint. They’ve never shot one,” he said.
Photographs by Cassie Gallegos for Techzette.
Additional Photos of TrackPoint Rifle: | 1,269,531 |
an open question as to whether the same patterns would be obtained in other disciplines or for journals that do not require these additional brief elements. Second, most of our experimental studies did not include professionals in the field (e.g., students of psychology, research psychologists), who have greater knowledge and expertise and thus might more easily overlook how a paper was written in evaluating the importance or generality of the conclusions. (Note, however, that study 3c included college students studying psychology, and their responses were comparable to those of the online sample.) Conversely, the participants in these studies—highly educated, English-speaking participants in the United States with internet access—may be more skilled at making subtle distinctions in language than other populations. Finally, participants only read one-sentence summaries of findings; thus, it is an open question whether readers might have different interpretations when presented with longer material with a mix of generic and nongeneric language, as is typically the case with published abstracts. To conclude, further study is important to understand the scope and consequences that oversimplifying scientific findings has for the interpretation of those findings by experts, students, and the public. Psychology and many fields of scientific inquiry are confronting important questions as to the extent to which what was considered to be foundational knowledge in the field needs to be contextualized with attention to cultural differences (15, 19, 57), and the transparency and replicability of research efforts (6, 7). Considering the language used to communicate those findings may be one important step to raising awareness of these issues.
Acknowledgments We thank Lisa Feldman Barrett and Marjorie Rhodes for helpful conversations about this project; Nicola Di Girolamo and Reint Meursinge Reynders for sharing materials from their 2017 paper; Andrea Baker, Emma Burke, Grace Chan, Zaira Covarrubias, Victoria Esparza, Julia Graham, Evan Hammon, Isabella Herold, Payge Lindow, Caroline Manning, and Katie Roback for assistance in data entry; Nicole Cuneo for assistance in conducting studies with online and student participants; and the reviewers for their constructive and insightful suggestions during the review process. This research was supported by the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
Footnotes Author contributions: J.M.D., M.A.C., G.S., and S.A.G. designed research; J.M.D., M.A.C., G.S., and S.A.G. performed research; J.M.D. analyzed data; and J.M.D., M.A.C., G.S., and S.A.G. wrote the paper.
Reviewers: E.M.M., Stanford University; and D.L.M., Northwestern University.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1817706116/-/DCSupplemental. | 1,269,532 |
Despite an overall decline in violence against women, 2014 was the year that campus rape gained legal traction and national attention. Citing data that one in five college women are sexually assaulted, a White House Task Force called for universities to lower the standard of proof necessary to find guilt in a sexual assault claim. The California legislature even passed a bill that tied state funding of higher education to a campus policy of affirmative consent or “yes means yes,” meaning that even if a college student didn’t say “No” to a sexual advance, he (but more likely, she) can pursue a claim for having failed to “assent affirmatively.”
The prominence of campus rape as a political and feminist issue was the result of a host of factors, including long-gestating changes to Title IX and the work of campus activists and journalists. Much of this work was meaningful and brave. But by the end of the year, signs began to emerge that the collective panic over campus sexual assault may have been a little misguided. First, there was the Rolling Stone debacle. So desirable had stories of campus sexual assault become, that the magazine’s reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, hunted until she found one at the University of Virginia that implicated everyone imaginable—the school’s administrators, fraternities, and ordinary students. It turned out that Erdely’s reporting was unsubstantiated and, in several key aspects, untrue. In the aftermath, many people insisted that we not use the incident to cast doubt on other rape survivors’ stories. And while this is undoubtedly correct, it’s also true that the Rolling Stone story wasn’t merely an isolated incident—that the collective hysteria surrounding campus rape lulled the magazine’s editors and readers into letting down their critical faculties.
As Erdely’s story crumbled, new data emerged to suggest that campus rape was not quite the pandemic that had been described. According to new research conducted by the Department of Justice that came out in December, the oft-cited statistic that one in five women in college will be sexually assaulted is actually a wildly inflated tally, based on self-selecting surveys. But a new study in December put the actual number of female college students aged 18-24 who will experience sexual assault at 6.1 per 1,000 students.
“This is nothing to be proud of,” Professor Callie Marie Rennison, a co-author of the study, wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times. But it’s also not one in five.
“I think people have lost context,” Rennison said, when reached by phone. The study also found that women of the same age who don’t attend college are sexually victimized at rates 30 percent greater than their more educated counterparts. “The context is, yeah, college women are victimized, but non-college women are victimized at much higher rates, and I don’t hear anyone talking about them.” | 1,269,533 |
The latest pace of technological advancements has paved ways for diverse businesses to integrate digital transformation into their operations. With this change, the banking industry has also shifted towards digital, delivering convenience for users to make banking processes remotely. Customers today can easily make transactions wherever they are, and apply for loans from anywhere, at any time.
Just a decade ago, over half of all banking transactions made within the branch network, but now the number is stepping down to less than 10 percent. This is all happened by the proliferation of smartphones that has led to a new banking system, mobile banking.
While banking reaches to its new heights and grows more complex, it is becoming more intricate to deliver seamless customer experiences and reliability across distinct channels. Thus, meeting these changing trends, many banks and credit unions are leveraging advanced digital technologies and new business models to build better customer experiences.
Here are the top digital banking trends reimagining the customer journey to enhance customer engagement.
Collaboration
In the age of digital where transformation is happening all the time, it will become impossible for any business, of any size to drive innovation and progress alone. There is an essential need for organizations to forge strategic partnerships with others that can extend products, services and platforms to a new market. It will also be helpful in garnering new customer exposure by reaching new customer segments. When it comes to establishing collaboration with the right partners are selected, it is imperative to consider that there should be greater agility, seamless integration with systems and products in place.
Marketing Performance
Measuring marketing performance is one of the vital keys for any business to drive effective customer engagement. In this context, gathering data, advanced analysis and the implementation of new marketing tools and methods can make it possible to target specific audiences effectively organizations are never imagined earlier. Banks also needed to make use of effective multichannel marketing, when customers switch their services, to reap new customer experience. While most firms utilize multichannel marketing campaigns, it is significant to scale the efficacy of each platform in the customer journey for the ideal ROI.
Data Usage
Deriving data from the right sources enable organizations to better understand their customers’ needs and interests. Banks and credit unions can even go beyond simply using demographic, risk-based and product ownership profiles by gleaning and processing data based on customer preferences. Advanced data analytics enables financial institutions to utilize data to determine what customers are preferring in overall banking processes, and not only deliberate their buying preferences but also the expected timing of need.
Platform Economy
Today, a platform is a new business model where both consumers and producers can connect, interact and exchange value. This plays a vital role in today’s competitive environment by enabling multiple organizations to offer products and services in order to satisfy the needs of a wide range of consumers. Platforms hold major opportunities for financial firms in the banking industry, assisting in accessing large amounts of data and taking personalization efforts to the next level. In a KPMG report, the retail industry has the biggest number of platforms (50), while the financial services industry has 26 platforms organizations. | 1,269,534 |
NEW DELHI: A law intern, who has alleged sexual harassment by a recently-retired Supreme Court judge, feels she is being looked at with "suspicious eye" when she appears before the apex court's three-member probe panel.
She also said the reason for delay in coming out with the sexual harassment allegation was that she feels Indian law is "not equipped enough to sensitively deal with crimes against women".
The website'Legally India ', which was the first to come out with her story, on Monday quoted her interview to Wall Street Journal in which she said it took her time to come to terms with the fact that she had been assaulted.
"When I finally did, all that I wanted to do was to erase the memory from my conscience. This was a man I had admired, I looked up to him.
"Indeed, I pondered over the idea of legal recourse, but feared it would do more harm than good. First, my case would have dragged on for years. Second, defence lawyers would make me relive every violating moment in court - something I wanted to bury at the time.
"Third, in cases of assaults, where there is no physical evidence, it's one's word against another's, really. There's no reason why a law graduate would have won over a judge with a spotless record. Even now, for instance, when I appear before the panel, I feel I'm being looked at with suspicious eye. I have to constantly justify that I'm not lying, I'm not making up this story. I feel humiliated," the website quoted her.
She also said it was ironic that she, being a lawyer, "does not think Indian law, or our legal system for that matter, is equipped enough to sensitively deal with crimes against women".
The law graduate, who first made public the allegation by writing her ordeal in a blog, said though she had not expected it to go viral, she was happy that it has caught national attention and triggered broader debates.
The intern said earlier there was guilt and shame attached to being raped and assaulted. The words were a taboo.
"Now, more and more people are questioning why they should put up with harassment - on the streets, in their homes, and at their workplaces. 'Why should we bear with this? We haven't done anything wrong,' they say."
The intern added that she had told her family about the harassment five months after the incident in May 2013 and they were also not keen to file a formal complaint.
"When I told my grandmother I was assaulted, she couldn't understand why I was making a big deal out of it. In fact, she didn't even think it was wrong. 'We have all been harassed at some point or the other,' she (grandmother) would say.
"My mother, meanwhile, said what had happened was indeed wrong, but that I had to accept it and move on. 'You don't have any other option,' she (mother) would say," the intern said. | 1,269,535 |
happen, while de Sousa has shocked everyone in winning two Players Championships this year. Both men are shocks waiting to happen, but they will face each other in the first round, and then they have to take on Durrant. Will that first-round match take too much out of them? Maybe so, maybe not, but that match and then a game against Durrant almost certainly will. Put your money on ‘Duzza’ here.
And then the final section of my review, oh my lord. Mensur Suljović (11) may have peaked, but you never know with ‘The Gentle’. Ignore him at your peril. Every now and then he seems to slip into a run of form that is as good as anyone in the world, especially when it comes to the ton-plus checkouts, and whats to say he can’t do that at the Worlds? He’ll have to come past Ted Evetts of Fallon Sherrock though, and there is so much to discuss about that match.
Fallon Sherrock is the best female player in the world. I truly believe this, and her performances in qualifying for Ally Pally confirm that. Her averages throughout the qualifier towered over everyone else, and it truly felt like a case of ‘when’ as opposed to ‘if’. She could do some damage here, but she finds herself going up against someone who could burst onto the main stage at any time, a man who has dominated the development tour and has also got a couple of Ally Pally appearances under his belt. Fallon Sherrock vs. Ted Evetts is going to be all sorts of fascinating, to say the least. If nothing else, it is an example of how the PDC is always moving forward.
Chris Dobey (22) has had a fabulous year. ‘Hollywood’ may well be a big name in years to come, a top player with a litter of titles behind him. He should have too much for Ron Meulenkamp or Ben Robb, and may even be confident of moving past Mensur/Ted/Fallon. Dobey is a fixture in the upper echelons of PDC darts, make no mistake about it.
But can any of these men and women beat Gerwyn Price? In his current form? Maybe Duzza, maybe Dobey, maybe Gurney. But realistically? No. Gerwyn Price will come through this quarter, defeating Chris Dobey 5-2 in the quarter-finals.
So that gives me Michael van Gerwen vs. Michael Smith and Peter Wright vs. Gerwyn Price in the semi-finals. Will that happen? Of course not, only time will tell. Either way, I can’t wait to watch.
John Bills writes books about Eastern Europe, tomes covering history, travel, booze and the rest. These magical pieces of literary competency can be purchased at this link, so get yourself over there and do the right thing. Pay attention to the discounts. | 1,269,536 |
they keep the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, according to Scripture? or will they keep the Sunday according to the tradition of the Catholic Church? Dear reader, which will you do? Appendix II ****************************************** Since the first edition of this publication was printed, the following appeared in an editorial in the Catholic Mirror in Dec. 23, 1893: "The avidity with which these editorials have been sought, and the appearance of a reprint of them by the International Religious Liberty Association, published in Chicago, entitled, 'Rome's Challenge: Why Do Protestants Keep Sunday?' and offered for sale in Chicago, New York, California, Tennessee, London, Australia, Cape Town, Africa, and Ontario, Canada, together with the continuous demand, have prompted the Mirror to give permanent form to them, and thus comply with the demand. "The pages of this brochure unfold to the reader one of the most glaringly conceivable contradictions existing between the practice and theory of the Protestant world, and unsusceptible of any rational solution, the theory claiming the Bible alone as the teacher, which unequivocally and most positively commands Saturday to be kept 'holy,' whilst their practice proves that they utterly ignore the unequivocal requirements of their teacher, the Bible, and occupying Catholic ground for three centuries and a half, by abandonment of their theory, they stand before the world today the representatives of a system the most indefensible, self-contradictory, and suicidal that can be imagined. "We felt that we cannot interest our readers more than to produce the 'Appendix' which the International Religious Liberty Association, an ultra-Protestant organization, has added to the reprint of our articles. The perusal of the Appendix will confirm the fact that our argument is unanswerable, and that to retire from Catholic territory where they have is either to retire from Catholic territory where they have been squatting for three centuries and a half, and accepting their own teacher, the Bible, in good faith, as so clearly suggested by the writer of the 'Appendix,' commence forthwith to keep the Saturday, the day enjoined by the Bible from Genesis to Revelation; or, abandoning the Bible as their sole teacher, cease to be squatters, and a living contradiction of their own principles, and taking out letters of adoption as citizens of the kingdom of Christ on earth - His Church - be no longer victims of self-delusive and necessary self-contradiction. "The arguments contained in this pamphlet are firmly grounded on the word of God, and having been closely studied with the Bible in hand, leave no escape for the conscientious Protestant except the abandonment of Sunday worship and the return to Saturday, commanded by their teacher, the Bible, or, unwilling to abandon the tradition of the Catholic Church, which enjoins the keeping of Sunday, and which they have accepted in direct opposition to their teacher, the Bible, consistently accept her in all her teachings. Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible." HOME TOP | 1,269,537 |
Boris Johnson will threaten to end trade talks with the European Union if Brussels pushes for the UK to follow the bloc's rules after the transition ends next year.
The prime minister will seek a Canada-style free trade agreement, despite Treasury officials warning it would leave Britain's economy 4.9% worse off by 2035.
When Ottawa signed the agreement with the EU, it abolished 98% of duties and opened investment opportunities in transport and finance for European firms.
Image: The UK's representation in Brussels has been changed to a diplomatic mission
Ahead of trade talks in March, Mr Johnson will say: "We want a free trade agreement, similar to Canada's but, in the very unlikely event that we do not succeed, then our trade will have to be based on our existing Withdrawal Agreement with the EU.
"The choice is emphatically not 'deal or no deal'. The question is whether we agree a trading relationship with the EU comparable to Canada's - or more like Australia's. In either case, I have no doubt that Britain will prosper."
An Australia-style situation would see Britain trading on World Trade Organisation terms, but with some extra deals to cover areas such as aviation.
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey called it "no deal in all but name".
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier laid out Brussels' own negotiating demands, saying "our aim is to conclude an ambitious partnership with the UK".
"The most ambitious partnership is the one that we had - because we were in the same union," he announced in a news conference that also marked his first public appearance since Brexit happened on 31 January.
PM: 'An astonishing moment of hope'
"When you're not a member of the EU, then objectively speaking your position is different and less favourable."
Mr Barnir confirmed the bloc was ready to strike a free trade deal ensuring zero tariffs and zero quotas - conditional on the UK aligning itself on key areas like labour laws, environmental standards and state aid, and granting "reciprocal access" to each other's waters for fishing.
There is also speculation the EU could also back Spain's claim on Gibraltar by giving Spain the power to exclude the overseas territory from a trade deal.
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But Mr Johnson will insist: "There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policy, subsidies, social protection, the environment, or anything similar, any more than the EU should be obliged to accept UK rules.
"The UK will maintain the highest standards in these areas - better, in many respects, than those of the EU - without the compulsion of a treaty and it is vital to stress this now."
The moment the UK left the EU
The UK left the bloc last week and entered an 11-month transition.
During this time it has no representation in Brussels but follows EU rules while negotiating a new relationship with the remaining 27 member states. | 1,269,538 |
As President Donald Trump maintains low approval ratings in the U.S.—with Gallup never reporting poll numbers above 45 percent for the president since he took office in 2017—the international community is in agreement with the majority of Americans, and the world's strong disapproval of Trump has had a corrosive effect on the country's standing around the globe.
A Pew Research poll of 26,000 people in 25 countries found that 70 percent of respondents lack confidence in the president, and only 50 percent currently have a favorable opinion of the U.S.—compared with 64 percent of those surveyed by Pew at the end of Barack Obama's presidency.
Just twenty-eight percent of those surveyed in the United Kingdom had a favorable view of Trump, along with 10 percent of Germans, nine percent of French respondents, and seven percent of Spanish people.
In some of the countries polled, leaders have butted heads with Trump in the past year. The president's attacks of Canada's trade policies have eroded relations between Washington and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and his aggressive immigration policies and threats to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border may have contributed to the fact that only six percent of Mexicans currently have a favorable view of Trump himself.
Respondents also suggested that the United States' status as a global influencer may be a thing of the past. Seventy percent of those surveyed said China has a more prominent role in the international community than it did a decade ago, while only 31 percent say the U.S. has an increasingly prominent role.
Richard Wike, the director of global attitudes research at Pew, tells me: poll shows China’s rising power “is something that registering with average citizens around the world pretty clearly...It isn’t only registering with elites and those who follow on foreign policy anymore.” — Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) October 2, 2018
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Protests erupted around the world when Trump first announced his intention to ban travelers from several majority-Muslim countries in 2017 and at the height of the family separation crisis this summer. In the United Kingdom in July, at least 250,000 people took to the streets to protest Trump's visit to the country.
Kiwis protest Trump's family separation policy at US Consulate General https://t.co/BflArX52fL pic.twitter.com/cNz7kB2CGH — Stuff (@NZStuff) June 22, 2018
my shots from the trump protest in london in response to the muslim ban pic.twitter.com/EPGZzDkATG — nabila (@ninjanabss) February 24, 2017
Recently, the global community has joined many Americans in expressing disgust over U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's testimony last week, Trump's defense of him amid several allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh, and the Republican Party's insistence on pushing his confirmation through. | 1,269,539 |
but I don’t know how well of a job I do expressing it. I allow my mind to wander to places it shouldn’t at times and deprive her of the entirety of myself. She is the mother of my son, and my best friend. Is there a way I should make it more obvious to her that she and my son are my focal points and motivation for getting out the door every morning? Do I tell her how beautiful she is on a regular basis? When/if everyone else leaves, I am intrinsically connected to them for the entirety of my life. Am I showing the depths of my appreciation to her? Am I making the effort to ensure no unnecessary tension exists between her family and I? Am I the best son in law and brother in law that I could be?
As a new Stoic…
Am I truly allowing my emotions to control my behavior? Epictetus says “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.” Am I taking to heart his words of philosophy? Is my impatience winning in the battle to control my Stoic “passions”? Seneca says “Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere.” Is my desire for knowledge and advice outweighing my capacity to process all of it? Am I directing my pursuits in the right direction? Am I balancing out secular knowledge with studies of my relationship with God? Seneca also says “…philosophy teaches us to act, not to speak; it exacts of every man that he should live according to his own standards, that his life should not be out of harmony with his words, and that, further, his inner life should be of one hue and not out of harmony with all his activities. This, I say, is the highest duty and the highest proof of wisdom, – that deed and word should be in accord, that a man should be equal to himself under all conditions, and always the same. ‘But,’ you reply, ‘who can maintain this standard?’ Very few, to be sure; but there are some. It is indeed a hard undertaking, and I do not say that the philosopher can always keep the same pace. But he can always travel the same path.” Am I one of the few? Can I continue to aspire to join the club of men who actually do what they say they’ll do?
I have found that writing is therapeutic for me. If you weren’t expecting some self-examination in this posting, I apologize. If you are, like me, in a constant state of self-examination and re-examination, I hope this has let you know that there are other men out there like you. | 1,269,540 |
Quote EricMusco Quote: Originally Posted by [*]If you happen to hear about a possible exploit, do not test it yourself. This can leave you open to action being taken against your account.[/list]
I mean, say I stumble upon an exploit and accidentally do it once. How can you tell the difference between that and testing it, or that and doing it intentionally to get unintended rewards/progression? I don't see how you possibly could tell the difference and if you punish for first time offenders, that's not going to be taken well.
And what if I hear a rumor, but I think it might be bull and I want to test it before I go sending some nonsense report in? Would you rather players not take the initiative just so that you can better discern who has or hasn't broken the rules? It seems like it'd be obvious that if somebody does an exploit once or twice, they're only testing it or stumbled onto it and if they do it repeatedly, it's intentional.
You also need to be extra clear, as TUX pointed out, on what is and isn't an exploit with Galactic Command, if you are going to be extra diligent.
This isn't my first rodeo with postings in MMOs about exploits and I've seen it go awry before. You need to make it crystal clear what constitutes crossing the line and that means being proactive about the details of CXP and gains, not just being reactive when you inevitably get reports about some bug. I guess I sort of understand the reasoning behind this (I assume you don't want people trying to weasel out of punishment by claiming they were "testing" an exploit). But... it also concerns me as it sounds a bit heavy-handed.I mean, say I stumble upon an exploit and accidentally do it once. How can you tell the difference between that and testing it, or that and doing it intentionally to get unintended rewards/progression? I don't see how you possibly could tell the difference and if you punish for first time offenders, that's not going to be taken well.And what if I hear a rumor, but I think it might be bull and I want to test it before I go sending some nonsense report in? Would you rather players not take the initiative just so that you can better discern who has or hasn't broken the rules? It seems like it'd be obvious that if somebody does an exploit once or twice, they're only testing it or stumbled onto it and if they do it repeatedly, it's intentional.You also need to be extra clear, as TUX pointed out, on what is and isn't an exploit with Galactic Command, if you are going to be extra diligent.This isn't my first rodeo with postings in MMOs about exploits and I've seen it go awry before. You need to make it crystal clear what constitutes crossing the line and that means being proactive about the details of CXP and gains, not just being reactive when you inevitably get reports about some bug. Clicky referral link for freebies, read how referral works. | 1,269,541 |
California Governor Jerry Brown furiously denounced Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday while also signaling his state’s willingness to go to “war” with the Trump administration over immigration policy.
Brown’s comments regarding Sessions were made in response to the perennially embattled attorney general’s recent speech to law enforcement officials in California.
During that speech, given at a California Peace Officers Association meeting in Sacramento, Sessions bemoaned California’s general status as a sanctuary state, complaining that multiple state laws make it difficult for immigrants to be deported.
Sessions also pointedly wagged a rhetorical finger at the mayor of Oakland, California for sabotaging deportation sweeps planned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agents by tipping off the would-be deportees.
Sessions said, of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff, “How dare you? How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of law enforcement just to promote your radical open borders agenda?”
To which Brown replied:
What Jeff Sessions said is simply not true and I call upon him to apologize to the people of California for bringing the mendacity of Washington to California.
Brown also dinged Sessions as someone who “act[s] more like Fox News than a law enforcement officer.”
Sessions’ Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Golden State on Tuesday, alleging that three recently-enacted California laws deliberately interfere with federal immigration policies and prerogatives.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Brown fielded the following question: “You called this an act of war from the federal government.”
In response, Brown paused and considered–and with his aura smiling–he said: “An act of war? That’s pretty strong. But I reincorporate that comment.”
The reporter then pressed on, asking whether Brown and the State of California would retaliate against the lawsuit. Brown, who famously almost never frowns, came close to it, before replying in the negative. He said:
We are a state of laws. We’re going to observe the law. The attorney general has basically thrown the gauntlet down and done it in a highly-politicized way. This has never happened before—to my knowledge—in the history of California. So, the attorney general’s coming out here, gives a speech, 10 minutes, then high-tails it back to Washington. What does that do? That’s not creating the comity that a state and the federal government need. So, yeah, this is a very aggressive act on the part of the Trump administration. It’s not right. It won’t stand. And, as I say, I’m sure this lawsuit has more longevity than the Trump administration itself.
[image via Stephen Lam/Getty Images]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] | 1,269,542 |
right in front of you and the course begins to "funnel" you into the end. I've noticed over the course of literally hundreds of runs that HARD dodges to the left against the wall give you the best chance of avoiding that last pair of birds. The problem here is that a hard left dodge will bounce off the left wall and immediately result in a HARD bounce back to the right with no control or time to straighten out. If you miscalculated and went hard too soon, you may then bounce back into a bird meant for the trainer.
And of course radical dodges to avoid the birds will likely make you miss the few balloons you need to pick up at the end.
Although I haven't tried this because my wife doesn't play video games at all, it MAY be helpful to have a partner act as a "spotter" next to you so while you are grinding through the course, he/she can silently count for you. Then as you approach the endgame, they can yell out the number of balloons you've accumulated so you can prioritize whether you should focus on dodging or grabbing balloons.
It is a LOT EASIER to finish up the run if you are focused solely on dodging and don't have to worry about snagging that last 1 or 2. If you are skilled enough with the turns and a little lucky, you may very well have 12 or 13 balloons and then you can afford to shift focus into dodging of course. That's why a partner to count may help. In analyzing the many successful runs on Youtube, I have counted balloons and some of them have 12 or 13 after the second turn into the final straightaway which is remarkable. These people are very skilled though at picking up one balloon at the first turn and one or two at the second turn which adds at least 3 balloons to their total that I usually am not able to pick up. They have completely mastered the turns which does help.
NEVER count balloons while you are grinding through these runs, you need TOTAL focus and concentration for maintaining the overall gameplan and dodging the pairs of birds sent against you. As with Lulu and Kimahri's Sigil Quests, breaks after one to two hours may help to "reload" concentration.
Admittedly the last part of the run is a more fluid situation than the rest of the course because your priorities will be determined in part by how many balloons you have at that point. The ONLY thing that doesn't change is you MUST NOT BE HIT before the end so you can absorb that one last bird hit going after as many balloons as you can...
Dennis
User Info: BookNerdJoshua BookNerdJoshua 11 years ago #9
Stick request submitted.
We need as many approaches to this as we can get. I call you to join me in following the ways of Canas the Monocle Man.
Knowledge is the greatest power of all! Bravo!Stick request submitted.We need as many approaches to this as we can get. | 1,269,543 |
in early 2018, Avenatti fueled the media frenzy in scores of interviews with Anderson Cooper, Megyn Kelly, George Stephanopoulos and other television news personalities.
Avenatti, who relished bashing Trump on television, explored a run for president, but his career in politics effectively died last fall when Los Angeles police arrested him on suspicion of domestic violence. Prosecutors declined to charge him.
Tensions between Avenatti and Daniels spilled into public view in November.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told the Daily Beast that Avenatti treated her with disrespect, ignored requests for an accounting of her crowdfunding money and, against her wishes, filed a second suit against Trump for defamation. Avenatti denied her allegations.
Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announces Michael Avenatti’s arrest on extortion charges in March. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
A federal judge dismissed both of Daniels’ lawsuits against Trump. He ordered Daniels in December to pay Trump $292,000 to cover the president’s legal fees. Two months later, Daniels and Avenatti parted ways for reasons neither disclosed.
“He knew that I was unhappy and looking for new counsel,” Daniels told a crowd at a book promotion event in Washington.
The FBI arrested Avenatti in New York on March 25 after secretly recording what prosecutors allege was an attempt to extort sportswear giant Nike in conversations with the company’s lawyers. He was formally indicted in that case, too, on Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Avenatti threatened to hold a news conference that would take billions of dollars off Nike’s market value unless it paid a client $1.5 million and hired Avenatti and L.A. lawyer Mark Geragos for as much as $25 million to conduct an internal investigation.
Geragos, identified by prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator, was not charged with any crimes.
Avenatti’s life of luxury hangs by a thread as IRS comes calling »
Still, the most serious legal threat to Avenatti is in California, where he faces a separate 36-count federal indictment.
In August, he is scheduled to be tried in Santa Ana on charges of embezzling millions of dollars from clients, dodging taxes, defrauding a bank by submitting fake financial papers to get loans and concealing assets from creditors and the federal court that oversaw his law firm’s bankruptcy.
Avenatti denies wrongdoing.
Makeup artist Michelle Phan. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
The clients whose money prosecutors say he stole include Geoffrey Ernest Johnson, a mentally ill paraplegic man on disability, and Michelle Phan, a makeup artist popular on YouTube.
He is also charged with embezzling most of a $2.75-million payment that Miami Heat basketball center Hassan Whiteside intended for an ex-girlfriend, Alexis Gardner, who was an Avenatti client. | 1,269,544 |
be made
method needs to be called to continue the interceptor chain, and for the HTTP request to be made the next.handle method returns an observable, and this is then returned by the intercept method
method returns an observable, and this is then returned by the method this API is similar to middleware libraries such as express
the request object is immutable, so if we want to modify the request for example to add a header, we need to clone it
the headers object is also immutable, so as we saw before we need to clone it and create a modified copy of it, for example using ( headers.set() )
) The cloned request will now have the new HTTP header X-CustomAuthHeader
The cloned and modified HTTP request is then returned to the middleware chain, and the resulting HTTP call will have the new header included
In order to activate this interceptor and apply it to any HTTP request made using the HTTP client, we need to configure it in our application module by adding it to the HTTP_INTERCEPTORS multi-provider:
Progress HTTP Events
Another new use case that is supported by the HTTP client is Progress events. To receive these events, we create our HTTP request manually in the following way:
This is the console output for this example:
Upload progress event Object {type: 1, loaded: 2, total: 2} Download progress event Object {type: 3, loaded: 31, total: 31} Response Received... Object {description: "POST Response"}
By creating the request like this, we are receiving all the following HTTP events:
an initial upload event when the request gets fully sent to the server
a download event, for when the reply arrives from the server
a response event, containing the body of the server response
Summary
The new Angular HTTP Client is a great evolution when compared to the previous HTTP client: it's more user-friendly and helps to improve the type safety of our code.
It also supports several extra use cases: for example interceptors and progress events.
This new HTTP client will exist side-by-side with the previous HTTP module, to allow an easier migration.
I hope that this post helps in getting started with the new HTTP client, if you have some questions please let me know in the comments below and I will get back to you.
To get notified when more posts like this come out, I invite you to subscribe to our newsletter:
A Taste From The New Angular HTTP Client
The Angular.io Docs
Pull Request for the new HTTP Client API
Documentation for Error Handling in RxJs
Video Lessons Available on YouTube
Have a look at the Angular University Youtube channel, we publish about 25% to a third of our video tutorials there, new videos are published all the time.
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Other posts on Angular
Have also a look also at other popular posts that you might find interesting: | 1,269,545 |
Winnipeg needs a 24-hour intake facility for methamphetamine users, more housing for people recovering from meth addiction and better mental-health care, MPs on the House of Commons health committee were told in a face-to-face meeting with men in various stages of substance-use recovery.
Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic MPs spent two hours on Tuesday morning meeting in St. Boniface with residents, former residents and staff at Morberg House, a 12-bed transitional home for men recovering from addictions.
They were told people suffering from addictions are falling through the cracks of one-size-fits-all addictions-treament programs that fail to consider the housing and mental-health needs of substance-abuse patients
"Governments for so long have lived in silos and they really don't do any cross-department planning," Morberg House director Marion Willis told committee members, who included Winnipeg Liberal MPs Doug Eyolfson and Robert-Falcon Ouellette.
"You can't just address homelessness. You can't just address addictions. You can't separate out mental health. These things are intertwined."
The committee is visiting four Canadian cities to conduct research that will be incorporated into a report on substance use. Their Winnipeg visit was intended to draw home the magnitude of methamphetamine use in Winnipeg, which differs from Canadian cities where opiate and opioid use is more of a problem
Willis and Winnipeg police officer Tim Diack, who mounted a mayoral campaign last fall, told the MPs it makes no sense to spend resources on a safe-injection site in Winnipeg when methamphetamine users would not benefit from such a facility.
Willis said various levels of government could better serve the city by creating a four-storey methamphetamine intake facility that could deal with patients undergoing meth psychosis 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
She also described a city-provincial task force on methamphetamine use as a waste of time when workers on the front line have already identified Winnipeg's immediate needs.
Morberg House residents told the MPs existing addictions-treatment programs fail methamphetamine patients because 28-day residencies are too short to affect meaningful change.
They also complained of the inability of hospitals to deal with patients in crisis, restrictions that prevent patients at risk of homelessness from getting access to stable housing and the shortage of facilities such as Morberg House, which operates on a $600,000 annual budget without government subsidies.
"If you could just replicate this model throughout the city," said Robert Lidstone, a former Morberg House resident who now sits on the board of the facility.
Health committee vice-chair Don Davies, the NDP MP for Vancouver-Kingsway, said what he heard cemented his belief addiction must be treated more from a mental-health perspective than from a criminal-justice perspective.
Fellow vice-chair Marilyn Gladu, the Conservative MP for the Ontario riding of Sarnia-Lambton, said federal Liberal addictions-treatment policies are failing.
Canada faces a federal election in October. | 1,269,546 |
Australia's largest media organisations have warned the Federal Government its foreign interference laws could undermine freedom of the press and see journalists thrown in jail.
Key points: Media organisations and unions say they cannot support bill unless exemptions made for journalists
Media organisations and unions say they cannot support bill unless exemptions made for journalists Claim existing security laws already undermine media's role in informing Australians
Claim existing security laws already undermine media's role in informing Australians Brandis described announcement as most significant overhaul of espionage laws in decades
New laws announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in December would expand the definition of espionage to include possessing classified information, rather than the current definition which only outlaws communicating it.
The 15 companies — including the ABC, Fairfax and News Corp — have told the Government they cannot support the bill unless specific exemptions are made for journalists.
Their joint submission to a parliamentary committee claims existing security laws already undermine the media's ability to keep Australians informed about national affairs.
The companies warn the proposed laws would criminalise all steps of news reporting and put journalists at a "significant risk" of jail time for possessing information that is in the public interest.
"The result is that fair scrutiny and public interest reporting is increasingly difficult and there is a real risk that journalists could go to jail for doing their jobs," the submission said.
The laws were announced amid growing concerns within the intelligence community about the influence of foreign agents and political donations.
When they were announced, former attorney-general George Brandis said they represented the most significant overhaul of espionage and intelligence laws in decades.
"The core concept of espionage will not change but the breadth of behaviours defined will change," Senator Brandis said.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 4 minutes 29 seconds 4 m 29 s Malcolm Turnbull revealed the proposed laws at a press conference at Parliament House
The media companies argue the proposed laws are too broad and would have unintended consequences for journalists.
They warned a provision banning journalists from providing "support or resources" to a foreign intelligence could limit the ability of the press to report fairly.
"We bring to the attention of the committee a not dissimilar issue that the Wall Street Journal recently encountered where a journalist wrote an article about all sides of conflict in a region, including interviewing and reporting the views of the [separatist organisation] PKK," the submission said.
"Because the reporter gave the PKK a voice at all, the article was regarded as terrorist propaganda."
That reporter was subsequently sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Turkey, which the Wall Street Journal condemned as "unfounded" and "wildly inappropriate".
The companies include the ABC, AAP, Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association, Bauer Media Group, Commercial Radio Australia, Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, Fairfax Media, Free TV Australia, HT&E, MEAA, News Corp Australia, NewsMediaWorks, SBS and The West Australian.
The laws will be debated in Federal Parliament in coming months. | 1,269,547 |
Matt Hougan of Bitwise Asset Management believes the sooner the cryptocurrency purge happens, the better it will be for the fledgling industry. Hougan says he expects the coming reckoning to wipe away the many worthless coins currently in existence, much like during the dot-com era.
95 Percent of Cryptos Are ‘Useless’
Appearing on the Masters in Business podcast hosted by Barry Ritholtz, the Bitwise head of global research offered up striking parallels between the present day cryptocurrency industry and the dot-com era of the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
I think those parallels are accurate. It – I think it is the next dotcom. But remember, the dotcom bubble created pets.com but it also created Amazon.
Commenting on the future of the industry, Hougan declared :
…[T]here are 2,000 cryptocurrencies out there, 95 percent of them are useless and will die a painful death. The sooner that happens, the better.
However, Hougan doesn’t expect this purge to sound the death knell on the burgeoning industry. Instead, the Bitwise executive expects the thinning of the herd to initiate the emergence of useful cryptocurrencies.
There are numerous commentators in the industry today who agree with the idea that many cryptocurrencies are indeed worthless. This belief has led to the popularization of the term “ shitcoin ” [sic]; referring to cryptos with little or no economic merit.
Hougan isn’t also the first to comment on the parallels between cryptocurrencies and the early days of the internet. If history does repeat itself in the form of a crypto-crash, it stands to reason that the surviving projects will be to the industry what Amazon, Google, etc. are to the internet.
Cryptocurrency Value Chain Still Years From Full Realization
During the interview, Hougan also highlighted the unique selling point of cryptocurrencies that exist at the core of decentralized technology; the ability to execute transactions without requiring an intermediary party. According to Hougan, real-world applications of this ability will have significant implications on the “cost of trust.”
However, the Bitwise executive conceded that it was still early days with a lot more work still required before cryptocurrencies can reach their full potential. According to Hougan, the current UI for virtual currencies leave a lot to be desired especially from an ease-of-use standpoint.
If the purge does occur, which cryptocurrencies do you predict will come out the other side? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
The post ‘This is the Next Dotcom’ – 95% of Cryptocurrencies ‘Useless,’ Says Bitwise Market Analyst appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.
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source: https://bitcoinist.com/cryptocurrency-useless-dotcom-bubble/ | 1,269,548 |
Kinsella asked before reaching out to Williams. While she’d come out to an American Football show recently, the band figured she’d be too busy to participate even if she was interested. The affirmative response from Williams and the band was instantaneous; “We were like, holy shit.” Nate Kinsella wrote a new third verse intended for her, sending scratch vocals to Mike while he was relaxing on a beach with his family. “[Nate] sang it and was like, ‘How’s this for Hayley?’ And I was, ‘Fuck yeah,’ because I’m on vacation, and don’t want to do any more.”
The hook is pretty much the exact same melody and words as Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”—a bold move from someone frequently concerned about his financial stability, given the recent precedent of Matador destroying $50,000 worth of Car Seat Headrest vinyl because Ric Ocasek wouldn’t approve a less substantial recasting of elements from a Cars song. “That was a whole thing with Polyvinyl, some people saying, ‘Let’s not even risk it,’ and then some of us said, ‘Let’s risk it and if they sue us, they can have all the money because we’re not gonna make any,’” Kinsella jokes. “Plus we get the fame when someone writes about how they sued us!”
It’s been over a month since “Uncomfortably Numb” has been out in the world and there’s been no indication that Dave Gilmour and pals have lawyered up. Kinsella’s intended viral marketing plan has failed, but then again, his brief brushes with virality have been almost entirely negative. Even beyond his recent controversies, Kinsella muses that if Twitter had existed in the early days of American Football, his shyness and fear of public shaming would’ve made him too embarrassed to put anything out. “People keep sending pictures of me playing, and it’ll be like, ‘I don’t need to see that!’” Kinsella says. “I was there, I know when I fucked up.” Maybe LP3 will be successful enough for him to never have to log on again, but he ultimately recognizes how the synergy between his once-obscure band and their very online fans at least gives him a shot. “I just need to start getting paid for all the memes,” Kinsella jokes. “If I got paid a little money every time someone clicked on a meme and ‘Never Meant’ started, that’d be sweet.”
Ian Cohen is a writer and registered dietitian living in San Diego. His work has appeared in Pitchfork, Spin, Stereogum, and Grantland. | 1,269,549 |
OSAKA, JAPAN - MARCH 01: Sumo wrestlers take part in a training session during a 'Sumo Diet Campaign' event at Musashigawa Sumo Stable on March 1, 2007 in Osaka, Japan. The Sumo Stable holds open day events for sumo fans to watch their training sessions, take part in sumo exercise classes and eat 'chanko-nabe' or'sumo stew'; a favourite dish in the diet of sumo wrestlers. The next sumo wrestling tournament is due to start on March 11 in Osaka.
(Photo: Junko Kimura/Getty Images)
The Olympic sport of judo may be the most popular local martial arts in Tokyo for the natives. However, a more widely viewed wrestling sport by Tokyo's foreign tourists is sumo. This competitive full contact sport is unlike anything in the world.
For one thing, it is the only sport that requires an obese physique. While Greco-Roman wrestling and judo emphasizes on submission and putting the enemy on the ground, sumo requires the competitor to push the rival off the ring.
Apart from watching sumo wrestling tournaments, the best way to appreciate the sport is to visit the stables - the sumo wrestlers' residence. One may find that protocols do not only apply to competing disciples but also to the guests viewing the sumo training session. These are the following simple regulations reserved for visitors:
Bow to everyone.
Courtesy is a very big deal in Japanese society, even though it has been inundated with modern Western values since the 1950's. When entering the practice hall, it is important to greet the stable master with a bow. One must also acknowledge the resident wrestlers in kind.
Keep quiet!
Silence must be observed at all times. Apart from possibly disrupting the practice of sumo wrestlers, conversations between spectators ruin the solemn atmosphere. Anyone who visits a library ought to observe silence in the sumo practice hall for the same exact reason.
Sit on a backroom cushion.
Visitors are offered a seat at the backroom by any of the custodians. It is not required to sit on one's knees like the Japanese do, but it is important not to point the soles of the feet towards the sacred ring where practitioner's spar.
No eating, drinking, or smoking!
Eating and drinking are forbidden in the practice hall. Only instructors are allowed to smoke inside the premises. Double standards? Deal with it, or go find other cultural attractions.
When taking photos...
The rule of silence also applies to gadgets. If one has no silence configuration for the camera, it is better not to take shots at all.
Leave with a tribute.
Upon leaving the stable after the entire sumo training session, one should offer a token of appreciation to the stable master. The Japanese are always big on courtesy.
See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 | 1,269,550 |
-estate investments that allows investors to claim the write-off even if they are financially insolvent, Kleinbard said.
Others have raised another scenario entirely — that Trump’s advisers may have created a new tax entity, possibly offshore, to which he continued to owe some or all of the $916 million. This strategy, which is illegal and is called “parking” debt, would have allowed him to claim to the IRS that he still was incurring losses to avoid declaring any debt he had erased as income.
The reality is that no one except Trump and his accountants know what happened to the debt. Only years of tax returns, including those from his business entities, would tell us.
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4. If he didn’t pay any income taxes for 18 years, was that legal?
Again, the only way to know if Trump’s tax maneuvers were legal would be to review his full returns for every year in question. But writing off the entire debt, if he was given any kind of debt forgiveness by the courts or creditors, could mean he owed some taxable income. We just don’t know how that debt was resolved.
The sprawling tax code has been changed hundreds of times since it was last overhauled in 1986. It is littered with loopholes and preferences that allow savvy taxpayers to avoid paying taxes at every turn.
In the case of losses, the tax code creates systems to encourage business owners not to fold when they go through a tough year.
“The simplest way to think about this is to consider a business that loses $50 in June and makes $100 in July,” said Kyle Pomerleau, director of Federal Projects at the Tax Foundation. “Everyone agrees that the profit there is 50 dollars.”
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But if another business loses $50 in December and brings in $100 in January, — the next tax year — the code does not penalize the owner, who gets to “carry forward” the loss from the previous year.
5. If Trump is elected president on Nov. 8, will his tax plan change the feature of the tax law he apparently took advantage of?
Trump’s tax plan would cut rates for high-income people like him, reducing the number of federal tax brackets to three from seven and setting rates at 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent, a boon to wealthy Americans. He has pledged to eliminate a loophole known as “carried interest” that benefits hedge fund managers, among other provisions.
“Mr. Trump knows the tax code far better than anyone who has ever run for president and he is the only one that knows how to fix it,” the campaign told the Times.
But his plan does not address the rule on net operating losses he may have taken advantage of with his tax filings. Neither Trump nor the campaign have said whether as president he would eliminate or change the rules on how the tax code treats losses, particularly real-estate losses. | 1,269,551 |
Gareth Bale: Wales international secured move to Real Madrid from Spurs this summer
The Wales international finally completed a protracted switch to the Bernabeu over the weekend for a world-record fee of £85.3million.
Spurs boss Villas-Boas conceded it was the will of the player which proved decisive.
Speaking after a meeting of top coaches at UEFA headquarters in Switzerland, the Portuguese told The Telegraph: "The pressure we were subjected to by the player has been intense.
"The influence of Real Madrid has been very big and you get to a point where you have to consider if it's feasible not to accept an offer and whether you can press on with a player in that state of mind.
"Obviously, we should be happy with the transfer fee that was paid. Players want to win championships and I believe that with Gareth that is within reach.
"At the end of the day, it's up to a player to decide if he wants to stay or wants to go."
The summer transfer window closed on Monday, more than two weeks after the opening Premier League fixtures.
Villas-Boas does not believe that is a healthy situation, adding: "The clubs like it as it is but the coaches are of the opinion that the market should be closed earlier.
"The coaches need time to prepare their teams for the season. Most coaches would like it to be open less time and closed earlier; obviously we will have to have further meetings."
Bale is now planning to live up to his billing in the Spanish capital although he has to wait until September 14 for his Madrid debut when Real travel to Villarreal in a game you can watch live on Sky Sports 2.
Asked about the great players Real have had in the past, Bale said: "There have been the likes of (Zinedine) Zidane and obviously the previous ones, which were a bit before my time, like (Ferenc) Puskas and (Alfredo) Di Stefano.
"There are lot of players who have been unbelievable here, world class and legends of the game. Hopefully, I can become the player I want to be, and hopefully be in that league."
Bale will be managed by Carlo Ancelotti at his new club and said: "I think he's a great manager, he's won at every single club he's been at, I think.
"I've spoken to other players who have had him as manager and it's been nothing short of he's the best manager they've ever had. So obviously that was a factor in me coming, working with a great like himself.
"As for the squad, it's an absolutely amazing squad, I've got to work hard to get in the starting XI. There are world-class players here and I obviously came here to be a part of it and to try and get into the starting XI and win trophies."
Real travel to Villarreal in a game you can watch live on Sky Sports 2 | 1,269,552 |
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Staff attorneys and advisers to the New Mexico Legislature on Wednesday stood by their refusal to turn over documents to prosecutors in the criminal investigation of former state Sen. Phil Griego.
The Legislative Council Service said in a court filing that it is duty-bound to protect privileged communications between lawmakers, including Griego, and its aides and attorneys who help draft legislation.
The office of New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas alleges that Griego used his role as a senator to profit from the sale of a state owned building, and has subpoenaed background files on a legislative initiative that paved the way for the sale. Prosecutors also are seeking records from a Senate investigative subcommittee.
The investigation by the subcommittee ended with Griego’s resignation in March 2015 after he signed an acknowledgement that he violated the state Constitution. Griego has pleaded not guilty to 10 criminal counts, including fraud, bribery and altering government documents.
Staff at the Legislature assert that withholding internal documents doesn’t interfere with the prosecution of Griego, contradicting the attorney general’s office. Griego has declined to provide permission for subpoenaed documents to be released.
“Senator Griego’s statement and admissions have already been disclosed, and the Legislative Council Service seeks only to protect, consistent with its mandate, the confidentiality of the internal legislative requests and communications,” the council service wrote.
The attorney general’s office declined to comment on the filing because it pertains to a criminal investigation.
In its filings with Santa Fe District Court, the Legislative Council Service made public a log of 25 privileged documents withheld from prosecutors. They include the original ethics complaint against Griego by an unnamed person, along with correspondence with the Senate investigative subcommittee, a business that paid Griego a property-sale commission and a title company involved in the transaction.
The legislative agency invoked a speech-and-debate clause of the New Mexico Constitution designed to protect the independence and integrity of the legislative process. The attorney general’s office says special free-speech protections concerning legislative matters do not prevent the subpoena of evidentiary documents, especially where allegations of bribery are concerned.
The scandal involving Griego and the property sale have stoked calls for ethics and campaign oversight reforms, as did the conviction last year of former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran on felony fraud and money laundering convictions for using campaign donations to fuel a gambling addiction.
Efforts to create an independent state ethics commission were derailed by Senate Democrats in February over worries that it could become a forum for false accusations designed to inflict political damage.
At the time, Senate Ethics Committee members Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, and Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, described the handling of Griego’s case by the Senate as proof that the Legislature can deal with ethics violations on its own.
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Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. | 1,269,553 |
As the debate of right versus left grows in the academia, the right wing think tank is feeling the need to encourage its volunteers to attain excellence in higher education.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the right wing which till a few years back wanted its cadre to invest in expanding the work of the organization and engage in connecting with the masses, is encouraging its young volunteers to look beyond a basis graduation degree and aspire for premium institutions for pursuing higher education courses.
Arvind (name changed) has been working as an advisor to the government with a ministry. He directly deals with the affairs of the ministry and works in close coordination with the minister.
He is as RSS volunteer since his days at high school. He was appointed in the government after the BJP came to power in 2014.
Arvind has completed his masters degree in sociology. Though his hands are full, he has now been asked to enroll himself in a PhD program. "My mentor called upon me to complete my PhD. I am now preparing to appear for the entrance exam," he said.
Like Arvind several other volunteers are now being encouraged to enter academia. The decision to build up an academic cadre was taken about three years ago. But the initiative gathered pace after the BJP came to power in the centre. "There were over 200 academic positions that were to be filled up and we are having a difficult time to identify the right people for these positions. That was the real eye opener for us," said an RSS functionary.
The RSS is yet to get its cadre appointed to fill positions in the ministries of human resource, science and technology and culture.
Also with the left wing ideologues dominating the academia, the RSS is now feeling the need to strengthen its troops. Sangh insiders say that the organizations needs to strengthen its network of historians and social scientists to counter the left.
Many who were deprived of the opportunity in earlier days, feel it is welcomed step. A senior scientist and associated with Vijnana Bharti said, "After completing my MSc, I wanted to study further. But I was told by my mentor to start working as a pracharak."
But not anymore. The young volunteers and pracharaks are now encouraged to aspire for institutions like IITs and IIMs. The sangh is of the view that besides obtaining a degree these volunteers will carry on the activity of the Sangh on campus. "We hold daily or weekly shakhas in these institutions. Our volunteers who will studying in these institutions will carry on the activity of the organisation along with academics. This will also help us to spread the idea of our organization amongst the students," said a senior Sangh functionary.
"As a practice, our volunteers are asked to identify their area of interest and pursue higher education," said Manohar Vaidya, RSS spokesperson. Vaidya also added that unlike earlier days, all young volunteers are encouraged to complete college and those with potential and interest are guided to study further. | 1,269,554 |
Dave Birkett | Detroit Free Press
Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin was so punctual that he once fined players for being a few minutes early to a team meeting, saying they needed to arrive even earlier.
"Meetings start five minutes early," Coughlin told the New York Times more than a decade ago.
First-year Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia, it seems, does not subscribe to the same theory.
Matt Kartozian, USA TODAY Sports
Patricia, who has routinely showed up late for his media availability sessions in his first year as head coach, was asked about the importance of punctuality for a head coach at his weekly news conference Wednesday — a session that was pushed back 30 minutes from its original scheduled time, and then started 15 or so minutes after that.
“I think it just depends on the situation really," Patricia said. "It depends. There’s a pretty busy schedule from those situations I think for everybody. I think fluidity is probably the best answer for you."
Patricia's lack of punctuality also has been an issue in team meetings this year, where one former player said the coach was consistently late during his months with the Lions.
The player, who spoke to the Free Press via text message, was granted anonymity so as to avoid reprisal from other coaches or teams in the league.
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NFL power rankings: Detroit Lions closing in on a top pick
Patricia, whose time management at the end of halves and games has also come into question at times this year, attributed his tardiness Wednesday to the change in schedule due to Christmas week.
The Lions gave players Monday and Tuesday off, and had a compressed schedule for coaches game-planning during the holiday.
"I think we definitely, in the game of football you have to be able to adapt and I think that’s a great kind of important way to just be able to handle all the situations that come up, is just kind of be fluid in all them," Patricia said.
Inside the Lions: Tracy Walker ready to replace Glover Quin
Injury report
Adrian Kraus, AP
Five key starters were among at least six players who missed practice for the Lions on Wednesday.
Defensive tackles A'Shawn Robinson (knee) and Damon Harrison (ankle), wide receiver Kenny Golladay (chest), tight end Luke Willson (concussion), cornerback DeShawn Shead (knee) and safety Quandre Diggs (undisclosed) did not practice.
Robinson, Willson and Shead all left last week's 27-9 loss to the Minnesota Vikings with their injuries.
Patricia said no determinations have been made yet if any of those players will go on injured reserve before Sunday's season finale against the Green Bay Packers.
Contact Dave Birkett: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. | 1,269,555 |
NEW YORK -- The final out of the World Series started the clock on the Yankees' first substantial decision of the offseason, as they have three days to make a call regarding Brett Gardner's future in pinstripes.
The Yankees hold a $12.5 million option on Gardner, their longest-tenured player, for 2019. If general manager Brian Cashman puts Gardner on the free-agent market, the club will owe Gardner a $2 million buyout.
Gardner, 35, hit.236/.322/.368 with 12 homers and 45 RBIs in 140 games this past season. A career.261 hitter, each of Gardner's 11 big league seasons have been played in the Bronx.
"I'd love to come back here, man," Gardner said after the season-ending loss to Boston in the American League Division Series. "I've never played anywhere else. We'll see what that looks like. We've already got a lot of young guys and a lot of guys already on the roster. I've been here for a long time. My agent [Joe Bick] and I have a great relationship with Cash and the rest of the front office. I'm sure when the time is right, we'll sit down and talk about that."
While Gardner remains part of the roster for now, eight Yankees officially became free agents on Monday: Zach Britton, J.A. Happ, Adeiny Hechavarria, Lance Lynn, Andrew McCutchen, Player Page for David Robertson, Carsten Sabathia and Neil Walker.
Even with a crowded outfield picture that led to Gardner losing playing time to McCutchen down the stretch, it is possible that the Yankees could decline Gardner's option and attempt to bring him back as a free agent.
McCutchen is expected to explore other opportunities, but the Yankees feature an outfield alignment that will be populated by Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, plus Jacoby Ellsbury and Clint Frazier potentially returning from injuries.
"Everything we decide certainly will come from the results of assessing the available market, what we currently have and obviously factoring ownership's directives," Cashman said. "... So I have no answers on Gardy or anybody right now."
With megastars like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado headlining the free-agent class, it will be curious to see how the Yankees respond in light of Boston's fourth World Series title in 15 seasons.
Cashman and his lieutenants held three days of professional scouting meetings last week, organizing their thoughts as they prepare to attack the team's needs. Cashman has said that starting pitching will be the Yankees' priority, with free-agent lefty Patrick Corbin thought to be high on their list alongside Happ and Sabathia as possibilities to fill out the rotation.
"The constant challenge is finding ways to be that last team standing," Cashman said.
Bryan Hoch has covered the Yankees for MLB.com since 2007. Follow him on Twitter @bryanhoch and on Facebook. | 1,269,556 |
'Tis the season — for TIME's Person of the Year!
The magazine annually awards the title to an individual or group who, for better or worse, has had the biggest impact on the world and news over the course of the past year.
TIME's editors have narrowed this year's list down to eight individuals. Who do you think deserves the title?
Donald Trump, who dominated political headlines and stunned much of the political establishment in 2015 as a Republican presidential candidate, has consistently generated controversy with his comments on undocumented immigrants, Fox News' Megyn Kelly and the appearance of fellow candidate Carly Fiorina.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts to supporters during a campaign stop at the Burlington Memorial Auditorium, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015, in Burlington, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) AP
Black Lives Matter activists, who organized national protests surrounding killings of black Americans, including Baltimore’s Freddie Grey, have challenged presidential candidates to state their position on issues surrounding race and police brutality.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spearheaded her country's asylum policy to take in refugees despite trepidation from many, including those in her own party. Merkel also mitigated a recession with a sturdy stimulus package.
Caitlyn Jenner, who revealed her gender identification as a woman in April and detailed the decision in Vanity Fair, was named one of Glamour’s Women of the Year, received the ESPYs Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, debuted her docu-series “I am Cait,” and was one of the most-searched names of 2015.
Caitlyn Jenner was given the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick manages a $41 billion company that has changed the transportation landscape, and shows no sign of slowing its expansion. In 2015 he introduced new services including UberPool and UberCommute.
Getty file
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the leader of the Islamic extremist group ISIS, which has claimed responsibility and inspired deadly terrorist attacks around the globe, including those in Paris and San Bernardino, California. The U.S. State Department in 2011 announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his capture or death.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia who allied with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad against ISIS, sent air force jets on bombing missions to fight the terrorist group’s influence. His actions have helped earn the president a reported 90-percent approval rating in Russia.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed a deal with six global leaders limiting his country's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. His work to improve economic relations with the West was bolstered by a November trip to Europe.
Last year, TIME's Person of the Year were the Ebola fighters, who worked to contain the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.
Who do you think should be TIME's Person of the Year? Vote in our survey, and tune in Wednesday morning to see the pick announced live on TODAY. | 1,269,557 |
the troubled Human Resources Department was one of the “enforcer” tasks Morton took on as the top staffer for Pugh and, in the waning days of the Rawlings-Blake administration, that mayor’s deputy chief of staff.
In 2016, Morton played a key role in the involuntary resignations of City Solicitor George Nilson and Inspector General Robert Pearre that arose from a thwarted IG probe of Jerome Mullen, then director of the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology.
$24,000 for Coats
The disclosure about Morton’s credit card spending comes as part of a 42-page audit that examines the use of procurement cards, known as “p-cards,” by multiple city agencies in 2017 – the so-called Small Purchase Card Program.
Policy and procedure lapses were pinpointed, with agencies cited for failing to submit timely reports and receipts and other documentation to the Bureau of Accounting and Payroll Services and the Bureau of Procurement
Another finding was that p-cards were being charged for unallowable costs, such as sales tax and recurring monthly charges. Some of these were minuscule.
“A cardholder’s statement, dated June 2017, improperly included sales tax, totaling $.60 to the Baltimore Sun,” the audit noted in the section reviewing the city housing department.
But the most serious problems identified by the audit were “card transactions for personal use, particularly for one cardholder,” namely Morton.
(Although, as Raymond acknowledged, multiple people in the mayor’s office were using the card, a violation of the rules.)
• Morton’s spending for furniture was “not allowable” because p-cards cannot be used to purchase items “as personal property or gifts,” the audit said.
• The p-card was also used at Camden Yards to buy $513 worth of food and other personal items for members of the Mayor’s Squeegee Corps, the supervised youth group she created amid complaints about young men at intersections asking for money in return for cleaning windshields.
• Another $338 was spent on restaurant lunches for which no business purpose was shown.
• The largest purchase was a $23,961 charge to cover the cost of buying and dry-cleaning coats to be given away to homeless people at the mayor’s “Fall Festival,” a big-ticket purchase the auditor said should not have been made on a p-card.
• To cover the dry-cleaning cost, the credit limit on the card was improperly raised from $15,000 to $40,000, the audit said.
In its response in the audit, the mayor’s office said “the cardholder” (Morton) did not request the increase and that “a purchasing agent” approved it.
As for who did request the increase, the mayor’s office does not say. | 1,269,558 |
Kristen Wiig and Reed Morano are relocating projects originally slated to film in Georgia after the state passed its controversial "heartbeat" abortion bill.
Emmy-winning director Morano told Time that she's pulling Amazon series "The Power" from shooting in the state, explaining, “We had no problem stopping the entire process instantly. There is no way we would ever bring our money to that state by shooting there.”
She added, “I think this is one of the ways where we know we can hit a state where it hurts.”
EVAN RACHEL WOOD SUGGESTS MEN GET MANDATORY VASECTOMIES AFTER GEORGIA PASSES HEARTBEAT ABORTION BILL
MULTIPLE PRODUCTION COMPANIES REFUSE TO FILM IN GEORGIA AFTER PASSING ABORTION BILL
Morano — acclaimed for her directing work on "The Handmaid's Tale" — later expounded on Instagram, writing, "It feels wrong for a reason. And it felt wrong to us to go ahead and make our show and take money/tax credit from a state that is taking this stance on the abortion issue. We just couldn’t do it."
DEAN CAIN SLAMS HOLLYWOOD BOYCOTT OF GEORGIA OVER ABORTION BILL
"Saturday Night Live" alum Wiig and her "Bridesmaids" collaborator Annie Mumolo, meanwhile, have canceled shoots scheduled in Georgia for their upcoming film "Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar."
JIM CARREY'S PRO-ABORTION MESSAGE BACKFIRES
Since Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law one of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws, none of the major film or television studios have publicly commented on the issue or altered production plans. The backlash has been limited to smaller production companies, like Color Force ("Crazy Rich Asians"), Killer Films ("First Reformed"), "The Wire" creator David Simon of Blown Deadline Productions (HBO's "The Deuce") and the Duplass Brothers Productions (HBO's "Room 104"). Some actors and actresses, including Alyssa Milano, Mark Hamill and Mandy Moore, have suggested they will boycott filming in the state.
HOLLYWOOD BIGWIGS STAY QUIET ON ABORTION BANS
Many projects, including Marvel superhero blockbusters, "Stranger Things" and "The Walking Dead," have long filmed in Georgia, in part due to the state's tax incentives.
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Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams, however, will still film their upcoming HBO show "Lovecraft County" in Georgia in the next few weeks, but have said that they will donate 100 percent their "episodic fees" to organizations fighting the law including the ACLU of Georgia and Fair Fight Georgia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 1,269,559 |
as a potential liberator for the entrepreneurial class.” They were men who simply “wanted deep cuts in their taxes and government regulators out of the way.”
Many seminal thinkers of 20th century American conservatism — Kleinknecht cites Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver and German-born émigré Friedrich A. Hayek, to whose names I would add G.K.Chesterton — regarded large corporations as “a threat to folkways and small-scale private property. It was, after all, not government but big corporations that did so much to wipe out agrarian culture. The former machinist or farmer now bagging groceries at Wal-Mart is not exactly a conservative icon.”
This is interesting because Kleinknecht’s case against Reagan isn’t based on the former actor’s adherence to traditional conservative values but on his disregard of them. There are two enemies of a real conservative society, thought Chesterton; one of them “is State Socialism and the other is Big Business.” In other words, the enemy is bigness, no matter on which side of the political spectrum it originates. Hayek, quoted by Kleinknecht, wrote something similar in his highly influential book “The Road to Serfdom” (1944): “… [T]he movement toward totalitarianism comes from two great vested interests: organized capital and organized labor. Probably the greatest menace of all is that the politics of these two most powerful groups point in the same direction.” Such sentiments, Kleinknecht writes, “were swept out of Washington in the 1980s. Relief from government regulation was one of a handful of core beliefs that really mattered to Reagan and his business supporters, and anything that stood in the way of the natural consolidation of the nation’s productive forces was a barrier to be removed.” Or as Reagan’s good friend whom he appointed attorney general, William French Smith, put it, “Bigness doesn’t necessarily mean badness.”
“The Man Who Sold the World” is the most concise and well-thought-out argument against Reagan. Kleinknecht is no poet; he too often writes at the top of his voice. Nonetheless, if he is guilty of occasional pamphleteering, there’s never any doubt as to his meaning, and many of his phrases linger after one has closed the book. “By discrediting government as a legitimate and meaningful presence in the lives of Americans,” he writes in his final chapter, “The Second-Rate Society,” “Reagan repudiated the very concept of national leadership. By exhorting Americans to place self-interest above all, he undermined the spirit of sacrifice and the possibility of a common effort to solve our most pressing national problems.”
Kleinknecht isn’t just writing to be heard by liberal Democrats: His challenge to conservatives is nothing less than to once again be conservative. | 1,269,560 |
IMAGE, MATT KREMKAU FOR EMPIRE OF SOCCER
by DAVE MARTINEZ
It’s not a good season to be a New York Red Bulls centerback.
Just as French veteran Ronald Zubar returned to the lineup this weekend against Colorado, the limping Red Bulls have endured another injury scare – this time to fellow centerback Karl Ouimette.
“Karl Ouimette picked up an injury so hopefully he’s not too bad,” head coach Jesse Marsch offered after the match.
While he was forced out of the match, the injury does not seem that serious — but it does follow suit with a run of ailments at the middle of defense.
The injury comes just as veteran backline leader Zubar returned in strong fashion, nailing the goal that ended New York’s 337 minute scoreless streak. Zubar himself limped off the pitch, but seems to have avoided any further damage to a nagging hamstring injury.
“It was good to get him back,” Marsch said. “I thought he had a good performance. It was good to have two actual centerbacks play centerback for us, so that was a good thing.
“It was nice to have a steady presence back there,” defender Chris Duvall added. “He’s a veteran and he’s got so much experience so it was good to have him back.”
There is no update on the status of Ouimette. The Red Bulls, however, are encouraged by the play of Zubar. That and the potential return of Gideon Baah and Gonzalo Veron this week has the team feeling hopeful that their injury issues are behind them.
So long as Ouimette escapes his scare unscathed.
“That’s sort of been the story in the first seven games of this season, guys are picking up injuries that are preventing us from really finding a rhythm and finding a flow,” Luis Robles said. “And listen, guys are hurting. It’s not as if it’s a very flippant or whimsical attitude towards being 1-6. The guys in that locker room, they’re hurting because when we look at the way we play, maybe we’re missing a little quality, maybe we’re not as sharp-but the fight’s there and these guys are really busting their butts too, to make sure that for 90 minutes we’re going to be fighting and stay on top.
“I don’t think we have the answers right now,” Robles continued. “But I do believe if we can learn from these failures, it’s going to enable us to not only be a successful team, but a championship team. So right now is critical, but I have a lot of belief in the guys and a lot of belief in the leadership.” | 1,269,561 |
Attorney General William Barr said on Monday that the Trump administration can add the citizenship question to the census for 2020 and will be proceeding as such, despite the Supreme Court ruling last month.
“I agree with him that the Supreme Court decision was wrong,” Barr said in an interview with the Associated Press.
He added that there is “an opportunity potentially to cure the lack of clarity that was the problem and we might as well take a shot at doing that.”
Last month’s SCOTUS ruling was primarily centered around the administration’s justification of adding the citizenship to the census, which was to properly enforce the Voting Rights Act. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal court members in saying their rationale “seems to have been contrived.”
Trending: RECUSE YOURSELF: Epstein Judge, Who Locked Up Dinesh D’Souza, Was Appointed By Bill Clinton
Barr will be tasked in coming up with a new reasoning to add citizenship to the census, and the Justice Department has shaken up their legal team to ready themselves for the next battle.
“Since these cases began, the lawyers representing the United States in these cases have given countless hours to defending the Commerce Department and have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism, integrity and skill inside and outside the courtroom,” department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.
Although it was widely reported that President Trump would give up on the census question after the SCOTUS ruling, he quickly went onto Twitter to denounce those reports as fake news.
The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE! We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019
So important for our Country that the very simple and basic “Are you a Citizen of the United States?” question be allowed to be asked in the 2020 Census. Department of Commerce and the Department of Justice are working very hard on this, even on the 4th of July! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2019
Trump has proven those mainstream reports as fake, and will be moving forward with his efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Recent opinion polls have shown that the public is firmly on his side when it comes to this decision.
Barr refused to give any specific details about his strategy in how the censorship question will be added to the 2020 census in the interview, but is expected to move forward on a new strategy in the upcoming weeks.
Have a hot tip for Big League Politics? Got a hot news tip for us? Photos or video of a breaking story? Send your tips, photos and videos to [email protected]. All hot tips are immediately forwarded to BLP Staff. Have something to say? Send your own guest column or original reporting to [email protected]. | 1,269,562 |
avis Caine Rogers was killed after starting to drive away from an apartment complex right around the same time as a police officer pulled up. Despite the fact that the police officer had no reason to believe Rogers was a threat or was suspected of any illegal activity, the officer fired into Rogers' passenger side window.
Killed for driving while deaf. In North Carolina, a state trooper shot and killed 29-year-old Daniel K. Harris--who was deaf--after Harris initially failed to pull over during a traffic stop.
Killed for being homeless. Los Angeles police shot an unarmed homeless man after he failed to stop riding his bicycle and then proceeded to run from police.
Killed for being old and brandishing a shoehorn. John Wrana, a 95-year-old World War II veteran, lived in an assisted living center, used a walker to get around, and was shot and killed by police who mistook the shoehorn in his hand for a 2-foot-long machete and fired multiple beanbag rounds from a shotgun at close range.
Killed for having your car break down on the road. Terence Crutcher, unarmed and black, was shot and killed by Oklahoma police after his car broke down on the side of the road. Crutcher was shot in the back while walking towards his car with his hands up.
Killed for holding a garden hose. California police were ordered to pay $6.5 million after they opened fire on a man holding a garden hose, believing it to be a gun. Douglas Zerby was shot 12 times and pronounced dead on the scene.
Now you can make all kinds of excuses to justify these shootings, and in fact that's exactly what you'll hear from politicians, police unions, law enforcement officials and individuals who are more than happy to march in lockstep with the police. However, to suggest that a good citizen is a compliant citizen and that obedience will save us from the police state is not only recklessly irresponsible, but it is also deluded and out of touch with reality, because in the American police state, compliance is no longer enough.
Frankly, as these incidents make clear, the only truly compliant, submissive and obedient citizen in a police state is a dead one.
If you're starting to feel somewhat overwhelmed, intimidated and fearful for your life and your property, you should be.
As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, "we the people" are now at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to "serve and protect."
Sad, isn't it, how quickly we have gone from a nation of laws--where the least among us had just as much right to be treated with dignity and respect as the next person (in principle, at least)--to a nation of law enforcers (revenue collectors with weapons) who treat us all like suspects and criminals? | 1,269,563 |
(A)
“Right before qualifying it started to rain and it was expected that the first session would provide the fastest laptimes. We were able to drive the Jaguar GT3 in both dry and wet conditions on Saturday and could test some different Set-ups. I really enjoyed my race with Emil Frey Jaguar Acing and I am very happy that following the good result in last year´s season final, we have also had a strong finish this year.”
Alex Fontana (CH)
“I am very pleased, that I was able to drive for Emil Frey Jaguar Racing being Swiss. At the same time, it was a great opportunity for me to come back racing in the Blancpain GT Series in PRO-Class. The car was still new to me and I had to get to grips with the Jaguar GT3, but I started to feel comfortable pretty quickly, because it simply is a great car. It was not so easy for me during the race and I tried different racing lines, but found my way around quite good.”
Driver Quotes Emil Frey GT3 Jaguar #114
Christian Klien (A)
“All year, we had a very good car with a good performance and it was our goal to show that with a good result in the last race of the season. Sunday morning started off quite stressful with the early qualifying and the rain. When Marco got in the car in the second session, he suffered a technical issue with the starter. We managed to get back out with nine minutes left and set the 14th fastest time. After all the chaos, we had a mega race and are super happy.”
Marco Seefried (GER)
“I got my first experience with the Jaguar GT3 in wet conditions in Saturday´s Pre-Qualifying and I must say, it felt pretty good. We had an issue with the starter during qualifying and I could not drive one single lap. The start into the race went well and I was able to make up some positions right from the beginning. I had small contact with the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3, but I was able to avoid anything bad and both cars were not damaged. Until the pitstop, we were running in a comfortable eighth place. Jonathan had a lucky escape with his spin. But it was an overall strong performance for the team at the season´s end.”
Jonathan Hirschi (CH)
“The car felt great from the very first outlap in Free Practice and we were confident to find the right key for a good final race of the Endurance cup this year. My stint was a little difficult, it started off well and then I was hit by another car and spun. I was lucky to avoid an impact. The tyres did not work that well after that, but I gave my best and did not risk too much. I am just really happy for my team-mates and the entire team for the good performance, which we showed in the last race.”
Source. Emil Frey Jaguar Racing | 1,269,564 |
Did Joe Biden discuss his son’s Ukraine business deal with him? Joe said “No” Friday when Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy caught up with him at an appearance in Iowa.
“Mr. Vice President, how many times have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas business dealings?” Doocy asked. “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Biden said, and as Doocy tried to follow up, the former VP cut him off. “And here’s what I know, I know Trump deserves to be investigated,” Biden said. “He is violating every basic norm of a president. You should be asking him the question, why is he on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate a foreign leader, if that’s what happened, that appears to be what happened, you should be looking at Trump.”
Biden pressing the flesh in Des Moines (YouTube screen grab, cropped)
A flat denial followed by going on the offense and then switching subjects. Why is Biden so testy? The answer is not hard to find. Scottt Morefield of The Daily Caller:
Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed he never discussed Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. However, a July article from The New Yorker belies that contention. (snip) The New Yorker article, titled “Will Hunter Biden Jeopardize His Father’s Campaign?” is an in depth look at Hunter Biden’s life and business dealings. It also contains a segment where Hunter apparently recalled discussing Ukrainian natural-gas producer Burisma “just once.” In December, 2015, as Joe Biden prepared to return to Ukraine, his aides braced for renewed scrutiny of Hunter’s relationship with Burisma. Amos Hochstein, the Obama Administration’s special envoy for energy policy, raised the matter with Biden, but did not go so far as to recommend that Hunter leave the board. As Hunter recalled, his father discussed Burisma with him just once: “Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.’ ”
David Martosko of the UK Daily Mail was apparently the first to catch Joe’s inconsistency with his son’s account: Here's a problem: Joe Biden *did* discuss overseas business with his son Hunter, at least once. This is from The New Yorker, about 2 months ago. https://t.co/QzfeWoopn7 pic.twitter.com/jOZmV9sQPf — David Martosko (@dmartosko) September 21, 2019
There’s nothing quite like a public lie to signal to the public that they are being deceived. As the purported whistleblower scandal plays out in the days ahead, all of the media hysteria over alleged Trump improprieties will blow back onto Biden, now exposed as covering up something. | 1,269,565 |
National Scotch Day, A Shout Out To The Whisky Wide Web
What? You didn’t know that today was National Scotch Day?
Well, it is. And to celebrate, I’d like to give a little shout out to some of the folks out there that are doing the world of whisky justice by blogging, writing and talking about it day in and day out. It takes a lot of work, determination, and drinking to do what these folks do. But they keep at it harder than most, and in turn provide the whisky community out there (myself included) with great stories, resources and information to keep us all dramming on.
Dig in.
What Does John Know?
Malt Advocate editor John Hansell’s inside take on new whisk(e)y releases from around the globe, along with tidbits and general insider information about the world of whisky. A must read, from an awesome industry personality.
Twitter: @johnhansell
Cask Strength (and Carry On)
Two righteous dudes from the UK who detail their adventures, tastings and musings in all things whisky from a very personality-driven point of view. These guys definitely know how to inject fun into whisky blogging.
Twitter: @weheartwhisky
WhiskyCast
Okay, this isn’t a blog, but it’s the damn finest whisky podcast on Earth. Follow Mark Gillespie as he treks around the globe, discussing weekly news, interviewing whisky personalities and giving his take on new whiskies and limited releases. And the best part about it, you can listen in from your mobile device wherever you go.
Twitter: @whiskycast
WhiskyFun
I must admit, I’ve always been a bit intimidated by Serge Valentin’s website, WhiskyFun. The guy has over 7,000 whisky reviews and he continues to bang them out at an unbelievable rate. If you’re looking for thoughts on pretty much any whisky, bottling and limited release, this is an amazing resource. Plus, I love the fact that Serge includes music pairings with his whisky reviews. After all, music and scotch are a match made in heaven.
Twitter: @whiskyfun
And some other whisky blogs that are doing a great job at keeping the whisky wide web moving:
Edinburgh Whisky Blog
@EdinburghWhisky
Dramming
@Dramming_Com
The Casks
@the_casks
The Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society
@JewMalt
Whisky For Everyone
@whisky4everyone
The Whisky Exchange Blog
@TWEBlog
WhiskyNotes
@WhiskyNotes
Cheers, folks. And don’t forget to celebrate National Scotch Day with a dram of whisky goodness. For me, I think I’ll pour a glass of Glenfarclas 25. | 1,269,566 |
news, latest-news
A Braddon man has pleaded not guilty to an alleged one-punch attack in Civic on New Year's Day. Jordan Sharma, 20, entered the plea in the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday to a charge of recklessly inflict grievous bodily harm. The registrar continued bail and the matter will next appear in court in March. No documents outlining the allegations were tendered in court. Sharma declined to comment when he left court with his defence lawyer Kamy Saeedi. "In the current climate, it wouldn't be appropriate to comment," Mr Saeedi said. Sharma handed himself in after ACT Policing last week published footage of the alleged assault outside the East Row Supa 24 convenience store shortly before 3am on January 1. The alleged victim had his jaw shattered by the punch and required the insertion of a titanium plate and screws to help fix the damage. The CCTV footage shows the victim, aged in his 20s, in a conversation with a man before another steps in and levels him with a swift punch to his jaw. The two men walk off as one bystander is seen to rush to the man's aid. Police were called and found the man unconscious a short time later. Publication of the footage prompted a social media storm, which spilt into the media this week. Nicholas Stuart, a columnist for The Canberra Times, called for the ACT Government to create new law specifically to deal with one-punch attacks. But ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell responded that current laws were adequate to punish offenders. "Law reform should be conducted in a measured, evidence-based manner, not fuelled by public outrage," he wrote. "There is no denying that coward punches need to stop. But there is also no evidence suggesting that laws such as minimum mandatory penalties have any value as a deterrent." Meanwhile, Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education chief executive Michael Thorn questioned whether the government could do more to prevent violent attacks, including introducing lockouts and restricted trading hours in Civic. Currently, the standard hours for bars and clubs are 7am till midnight although they can apply to stay open longer, with 89 operating after midnight. Forty-eight are open after 3am, closing as late as 5am, many of them in the city. In 2013, the government launched a review of the Liquor ACT and last year received more than 30 submissions during a consultation on possible measures to reduce violence in the city centre. Mr Corbell said the government had already proved its commitment to alcohol reform. "Research and evidence available about what works to reduce alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour, will inform the government's decision about further changes to strengthen the community safety focus of our liquor laws," Mr Corbell said.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/f1f2617e-3531-4eb4-a083-092e5d72ee33/r0_104_2000_1234_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg | 1,269,567 |
Out of all the metals you can recycle, aluminum is one of the most energy-efficient and cost-saving. It can take 9 to 18 as much energy to produce aluminum from raw ore than melting down and purifying used and recycled aluminum.
However, some of the impurities are hard to remove. The paint on your soda can or other metal alloys contaminate the pure aluminum, making it unsuitable for computer parts or other uses that require high purity. Instead, the less-pure aluminum is often 'down-cycled,' or repurposed for a product that can handle more impurities.
As you can probably imagine, even such down-cycling will reach an endpoint as more impurities accumulate.
"There is a huge range of impurity tolerance," said Elsa Olivetti, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a press release. "The question is, how will the balance of such markets over time compare with the kinds of materials coming through the recycling stream?"
Last week, Olivetti and her colleagues published a review paper detailing the different aluminum purification technologies to inform people managing recycling plants about the best systems to implement. "Technology for dealing with garbage is not an exciting, high-profile field, but there is real value in investing in this," said co-author Randolph Kirchain.
The first step in recycling is physical separation of different metals using a wide range of methods, including magnetism, electric current, density, and color. Then, once the pile of mostly-aluminum is melted down, the impurity removal process begins by adding different salts and gases to the mixture, which cause the impurities to form identifiable and removable solids. One of the best methods is the Hoopes method, wherein an electrical current is run through the melt, dragging impurities to the edges. However, it's very energy intensive (and thus expensive).
A growing area of continuing research and development involves controlled heating and cooling of the melted aluminum to form crystals. These crystals settle out, leaving impurities in the liquid above. The resulting crystals are quite pure and are currently used to make "memory disks, capacitor foil, and other electronic applications," the authors wrote in the paper.
The authors don't take a stance on which technology is best, but the "team’s analysis showed that it would indeed make sense to install such systems in anticipation of future changes," the press release says.
Kirchain says his team’s analysis -- although directed specifically at aluminum -- is also an attempt to develop methods for analyzing the life cycle of other materials that are becoming more significant parts of the recycling stream. And it includes analysis of the social factors governing people’s decisions on disposal of materials, which can affect how much contaminating material ends up in a given waste stream -- or whether potentially useful material ends up in a landfill instead of being reused.
Photo: Flickr/Mykl Roventine
Related video on SmartPlanet:
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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com | 1,269,568 |
27th March, 2014 by Amy Hopkins
Diageo is the latest drinks group to combine Scotch whisky and honey flavours with the release of J&B Urban Honey.
Labelled clearly as a “spirit drink”, the new release is an infusion of J&B Scotch Whisky brand and honey, designed to appeal to “a new generation of men and women”.
J&B Urban Honey, bottled at 35% abv, is described as a “characterful drink that has a balanced and smooth liquid”.
Guidelines by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) and EU law state no other ingredients except caramel colouring and water can be added to Scotch whisky.
Diageo has therefore claimed to ensure that the new release is differentiated from its parent J&B brand “with the use of a honeycomb pattern, a city skyline illustration and a prominent ‘bee’ illustration”.
“Creation of J&B Urban Honey is true to the urban roots of the J&B brand and its reputation for re-invention in the whisky category,” said Dougal McGeorge, global J&B Brand director.
“The rapid growth of flavoured spirit drinks made J&B a natural choice for us as we looked to drive innovation.”
The UK drinks group follows in the footsteps of Bacardi and Pernod Ricard with this latest flavoured release.
In March last year Bacardi was caught up in a dispute over its new Dewar’s Highlander Honey, which describes itself as a “Blended Scotch whisky infused with natural flavours” on the front label, and only states it is a spirit drink on the back.
The label adheres to US regulations, but in its current state would be prohibited by the EU.
Flavoured trend
More recently, in December 2013, Pernod Ricard’s gin and whisky business Chivas Brothers released Ballantine’s Brasil – a labelled “spirit drink” created by steeping Ballantine’s blended Scotch whisky in lime peel.
The flavoured spirits category has experienced fast growth in recent years, particularly in the US. More than 40% of all spirits in the US have an additional flavoured expression with more than 220 flavours now on the market, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS).
The launch of J&B Urban Honey also follows the release of various honey-flavoured variants in the American whiskey and Irish whiskey categories.
In 2011, Brown-Forman released Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, while in May 2012, Beam Inc released Jim Beam Honey.
Irish whiskey first forayed into flavours when Diageo’s Bushmills Irish Honey launched in February 2012, followed by Pernod Ricard’s Paddy Bee Sting in October 2013.
J&B Urban Honey will first launch in Spain from April 2014. | 1,269,569 |
guarantor is. Agung Bagus Kusimantara, head of the Intelligence Section in the Prosecutions Office, said Corby cried at one point in her interview. "We asked her about her condition and she once cried, saying she's still in trauma over the journalists," he said. Prosecutors got Corby to sign a release letter, stamped three of her fingers and took a photo, he said.
"Later on, each month she has to report herself here. In this process, she must come herself and can't be represented," he said. Bali Corrections Board At Bapas, she repeated the process, was fingerprinted and given a schedule of appointments for reporting and counselling. When she was talking to Ketut Artha, the head of the Bali Corrections Board, he asked if she understood what the parole card meant. She said "Yes, I understand." Mr Ketut told her that if she had any problems, Corby should call him and call her parole officer.
She said "Yes", and was nodding. Mr Ketut said Corby’s mind did not seem to be on what she was doing, so, "Whatever I said to her she would not get it. "I’ll wait for her next visit, next month to talk to her," he said. Asked about her mood, Mr Ketut said she didn’t seem happy, nor excited; she was not crying, she just had a "plain, neutral response". Her parole officer Putu Andiani and Mr Ketut both lifted her scarf to make sure it really was Corby.
Both confirmed it was her. The corrections officer said Corby was free to go "home". Corby told Ms Putu: "Saya senang", Indonesian for "I am happy." Mr Ketut said: "She is now a free woman, with conditions." Family and friends celebrate
In Queensland, her mother Rosleigh Rose and family and friends celebrated with champagne and dancing. Ms Rose is expected to go to Bali to see her daughter "when she is needed", Channel Seven reported. An elated Ms Rose told Seven that she was screaming and crying as she watched Corby leave the prison on television. "It was just beautiful to see my beautiful Schapelle come out from those doors." Recluse Since the media frenzy surrounding her arrest, trial and jailing in 2004 and 2005, Corby has largely become a recluse, trying to hide from cameras, declining interviews and avoiding Kerobokan prison's exposed visiting area in case someone sneaks a photograph to sell to the media.
Even within the prison Corby kept mostly to herself. Other prisoners say she worked on paintings and beading in her cell. Corby's release, like her arrest, trial and incarceration in 2004, was accompanied by massive drama. Dozens of media outlets, including all of Indonesia's main TV networks, sent crews. Loading Australia's Seven, Nine and Ten networks have multiple cameras so they do not miss one nuance of her responses.
- with James Robertson, AAP
| 1,269,570 |
Could Arsene Wenger be the next Real Madrid manager? (Picture: Getty Images)
Following the news that Zinedine Zidane has stepped down as Real Madrid manager, Arsene Wenger has immediately been installed as favourite to replace him.
Zidane led Real to their third consecutive Champions League triumph on Saturday as they beat Liverpool 3-1 in Kiev, having become the first team to retain the trophy the previous season.
Zinedine Zidane steps down as Real Madrid manager
The 45-year-old also won La Liga in 2017, the UEFA Super Cup in 2016 and 2017 and the FIFA Club World Cup in the same two years.
Now the bookmakers believe it is Wenger who is most likely to take over from his countryman after that wildly successful two-and-a-half years in charge.
Zinedine Zidane goes out on a high (Picture: Getty Images)
Wenger, who stepped down from his role as Arsenal manager at the end of the season, is just 5/2 to be the next Real Madrid manager.
The Frenchman stated his desire to remain in football, at 68-years-old, and had previously been linked to jobs with Paris Saint-Germain, Everton and the France national team.
Wenger would surely fancy it? (Picture: Getty Images)
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is also thought to be in the frame (3/1) despite having signed a new five-year contract with Spurs last week.
Real Madrid youth team coach Guti (11/2), Chelsea boss Antonio Conte (7/1) and Germany manager Joachim Loew (7/1) are also in the running.
Mauricio Pochettino has just signed a new deal with Spurs (Picture: Reuters)
The bookies are also not ruling out the likes of Max Allegri (16/1), Diego Simeone (22/1) and Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp (22/1).
Next Real Madrid manager odds 5/2 A Wenger 3/1 M Pochettino 9/1 Guti Guti is in the frame (Picture: Getty Images) 7/1 J Low 7/1 A Conte 16/1 M Allegri 22/1 D Simeone 22/1 J Klopp 33/1 L Jardim 33/1 J Mourinho 33/1 L Blanc 40/1 T Tuchel 50/1 I Casillas Could Casillas move into management in Madrid? Probably not (Picture: REUTERS) 50/1 L Enrique 50/1 C Ancelotti 50/1 N Santo 50/1 F Capello 50/1 U Emery Odds courtesy of Betfair
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MORE: Manchester City set to sign Riyad Mahrez and Jorginho next week
MORE: Arsene Wenger explains why he rejected chance to manage Real Madrid and stay with Arsenal | 1,269,571 |
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PolisPay, a blockchain payments solution, has released two new cryptocurrency debit cards, one a gift card system and one a direct debit system, that can allow users to buy items almost anywhere with Dash.
We’re excited to announce a new way for you to use your digital assets to buy real-world goods and services, with a card that is accepted almost anywhere.
Learn more:https://t.co/kY6Bltabjh — PolisPay (@polispayapp) December 10, 2019
The first payment solution is the Epay Mastercard card, which users can top up from within the app itself, allowing Dash to be spent in over 30 countries. This card is specifically a prepaid card that is topped up via Dash and other cryptocurrencies in the PolisPay app, which can now be secured via Trezor hardware wallets for desktop users. Top-up amounts can be purchased in €100, €50 and €25 and a starter €25 fee to order the card through Bitcou GmbH. The card then enables consumers to pay anonymously online and offline, with an initial limit of €100 since the card does not explicitly carry the customer’s name. To increase limits customers can verify themselves using a Bitcou video identification procedure, immediately increasing monthly limits to €4,000 (or €36,000 annually).
The second card is through a partnership with card provider Union Pay that provides a more classic debit card-like solution, where conversions from Dash occur in real time at the point-of-sale:
“The process works in a way that merchants get paid in their own currency while you are charged in Dash from your prepaid balance. This guarantees that users will be able to pay for things, in establishments where cryptocurrencies are not fully adopted yet. Soon you will be spending your Dash everywhere!”
PolisPay is currently in open beta and accepting applications to test there services.
Making cryptocurrency spending a reality
The new cryptocurrency debit cards by PolisPay help make Dash align with its vision of making peer-to-peer cash a reality, including for everyday purchases. However, merchant adoption struggled as most merchants did not want to use a separate wallet to accept cryptocurrency purchases. Multiple organizations combated this problem by developing point-of-sale solutions so merchants could easily integrate cryptocurrency payments into their current systems and minimize switching costs. Nevertheless, adoption still struggled and some merchants that had previously accepted cryptocurrency decided to stop accepting cryptocurrency payments as the exchange price dropped and user purchases slowed, as well as with the increasing transaction costs due to scalability issues on major networks such as Bitcoin. This led to another solution that has included debit cards that enable consumers to pay in their desired cryptocurrency and a third party handles the exchange to local currency and payment processing. However, this ultimately relies on trusting a third party and leveraging the fiat currency system, and as such is only a temporary solution for wide adoption. | 1,269,572 |
Emil Meek has been pulled from what would have been his UFC debut due to a potential conflict with the promotion's anti-doping policy.
During the new athlete onboarding process, Meek informed USADA that he recently underwent medical treatment that might be out of compliance with the UFC's anti-doping policy, the promotion said Wednesday in a statement. Because of that disclosure, Meek was removed from a fight with Jessie Ayari at UFC Fight Night: Arlovski vs. Barnett on Sept. 3 in Hamburg, Germany.
Meek, best known for knocking out Rousimar Palhares in May, is not facing a potential anti-doping policy violation. But he will be given time to consult his doctor and re-evaluate his medical treatment, the UFC release state.
The UFC is now requiring Meek to be put in USADA's drug-testing pool for a period of four months before he can make his debut.
Meek stressed in a Facebook post Wednesday that he had not failed a drug test and this was precautionary.
"Going from Venator to UFC involves a way stricter regiment as to what kind of medication I'm allowed to use," Meek wrote. "We have decided it was not worth the risk. The result was pulling out of my upcoming fight in Hamburg. It changes nothing when it comes to my relationship with UFC, other than that my debut in the Octagon will be pushed to around December. Let me stress that I have not failed any drug test whatsoever! This is merely a preliminary precaution.
"I've been enrolled with USADA's registered testing pool to prepare since for my bout since June. As a fighter I'm happy and personally, I feel safer to compete under the USADA's anti-doping policy. I feel sorry for Jessin Ayari, I hope we can fight another day!"
When reached by MMA Fighting, Meek said the medical treatment was "nothing specific."
"The WADA prohibited list, it's very thorough," Meek said. "If you're unlucky and took a wrong supplement or wrong medicine from that list, [you're suspended] and I can't risk several years banned. I have never been in such a comprehensive program before, I just don't want to take any risks with my career. This is what I've been working for my whole life, I don't want to throw it away because I was reckless."
Meek's attorney Lucas Middlebrook added: "Emil was above board from the beginning, voluntarily disclosing all previously received medical treatment and he will consult with his physician to receive appropriate treatment that fully complies with the USADA program."
Meek (8-2) has won three straight, including that first-round knockout of Palhares at Venator FC 3 on May 21. Palhares, a former World Series of Fighting champion, was a huge favorite going in and would still likely be in the UFC if not for repeated issues with holding onto submissions too long. Meek, 27, hails from Norway. | 1,269,573 |
news, local-news
A STRATHDALE resident claiming to be euthanasing wandering cats has Bendigo’s feline-loving community outraged.About three weeks ago a notice appeared on a community notice board at Strathdale Shopping Centre warning cat owners that their pets would be trapped and “humanely destroyed” if they came onto that person’s property.A subsequent notice advised the person had killed three cats, two with collars, and was thinking about “tanning their hides”.Bendigo Animal Welfare and Community Services (BAWCS) brought the threats to the attention of the Bendigo Advertiser, after being contacted by concerned residents last week.The group’s Facebook page has been inundated with comments deriding the “cat killer”.BAWCS president Debbie Edwards said owners needed to secure their cats on their own properties at all times.“It might be a bluff but we just want to let people know what’s going on and they need to be more vigilant,” she said.“Concerned cat owners can contact BAWCS if they need advice on how to keep their cats contained and disadvantaged cat owners may be eligible for financial support for a cat enclosure.”Strathdale resident Paul has been missing his cat Charlie for a week.Paul, who withheld his surname, said he was very concerned about the cat trapper.“I’m thinking of putting a missing poster next to his notice so we can provoke him a bit more or see whether it’s one of the ones he has trapped,” he said.Council manager of parking and animal control Neville Zimmer said it was illegal for anyone to kill domestic cats.“People can’t do that – there are rules around unlawfully destroying any animal,” he said.But Mr Zimmer said trapping trespassing cats was OK.For a number of years Bendigo has had a “cat curfew” that confines cats to their owner’s properties between sunset and sunrise. Mr Zimmer said the council could help anyone concerned about cats coming onto their property.“We have a program where we lend out a trigger-plate trap. It’s a cage which is humane and causes no harm to the pet,” he said.“The cat is then impounded, and if it has identification it will be reunited with its owner.“We have plenty of people with concerns about cats trespassing on their property, but we would not like people taking it into their own hands.”Mr Zimmer said the council had been notified about the Strathdale cat trapper and was “looking into it”.
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Description:
Want to know how to capture the perfect shot? Take steps to become a professional photographer and hone in your skills, with this Advanced Diploma in PhotographyCourse. This course is expertly designed to introduce a wide range of professional photography techniques and practical exercises to advance your progression in this field.
This online photography course is your step-by-step guide to mastering the art of digital photography. You will start by choosing your specialisation – portrait, landscape, black and white etc. Next, you will explore the skills required to work in the photography industry and the role of a professional photographer. Throughout this course, you will familiarise with the different types of photography and the inner workings of a camera. You will also get acquainted with various camera modes and learn how to work with flash photography. This course also goes into detail on aperture, lighting, and the rule of thirds, helping you to identify which lens is best for the image you’re trying to capture.
Want to master the art of photography and fine-tune your existing skills? Enrol in this best-selling course and take your creativity to the next level.
Who is the course for?
Photographers and other hobbyists who want to upgrade their photography skills
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Entry Requirement:
This course is available to all learners, of all academic backgrounds.
Learners should be aged 16 or over to undertake the qualification.
Good understanding of English language, numeracy and ICT are required to attend this course.
Assessment:
At the end of the course, you will be required to sit an online multiple-choice test. Your test will be assessed automatically and immediately so that you will instantly know whether you have been successful.
Before sitting for your final exam you will have the opportunity to test your proficiency with a mock exam.
Certification:
After you have successfully passed the test, you will be able to obtain an Accredited Certificate of Achievement. You can however also obtain a Course Completion Certificate following the course completion without sitting for the test. Certificates can be obtained either in hard copy at a cost of £39 or in PDF format at a cost of £24.
PDF certificate’s turnaround time is 24 hours and for the hardcopy certificate, it is 3-9 working days.
Why choose us?
Affordable, engaging & high-quality e-learning study materials;
Tutorial videos/materials from the industry leading experts;
Study in a user-friendly, advanced online learning platform;
Efficient exam systems for the assessment and instant result;
The UK & internationally recognised accredited qualification;
Access to course content on mobile, tablet or desktop from anywhere anytime;
The benefit of career advancement opportunities;
24/7 student support via email.
Career Path:
The Advanced Diploma in Photography will be very beneficial and helpful, especially to the following careers: | 1,269,575 |
Watching Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), it’s sometimes difficult to gauge his sincerity. One of the more common knocks I’ve heard this year, even from some who agree with Cruz, is that the right-wing senator isn’t dumb, but he assumes everyone he’s talking to is. Watching Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), it’s sometimes difficult to gauge his sincerity. One of the more common knocks I’ve heard this year, even from some who agree with Cruz, is that the right-wing senator isn’t dumb, but he assumes everyone he’s talking to is.
And as Cruz heads to Iowa this weekend – take a wild guess as to why – it’s never been tougher to know who’s fooling whom when the Texan shares his views with voters. Financial Times reports today on a recent Cruz speech.
The speech was littered with attacks on the Republican Senate leadership, although not by name, and the type of prairie populist rhetoric that has long been a feature of the Tea Party, and that many conservatives want to embrace. “The rich are doing just great,” he said, the type of thing that if said by Mr Obama would draw accusations of “class warfare.” “You know the top 1 per cent – the evil millionaires and billionaires the president likes to talk about all the time – they have a higher share of our income at any time since 1928,” Mr Cruz said.
Unless this is an elaborate joke, it appears Ted Cruz – yes, that Ted Cruz – believes the concentration of wealth at the very top is a national problem.
Send that man an invitation to join MoveOn.org.
The Financial Times report is the first I’ve seen this quote and context, though the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein ran with the same Cruz quote the other day, which suggests the senator actually said this.
There are a couple of angles to this worth keeping in mind. First, Cruz is technically wrong – “income” isn’t as concentrated at the top as wealth, and they’re not the same thing.
Second, and more important, is the fact that this is at its core a liberal criticism of the modern U.S. economy. For Cruz to characterize this as a problem is likely some bizarre attempt at faux populism, but it’s also a bit like listening to an arsonist complain about fires.
The causes of our contemporary Gilded Age and the roots of such widespread economic inequalities are complex, but it’s rather easy to identify policies that make matters worse. Indeed, the list looks an awful lot like Ted Cruz’s wish list: regressive tax policies, fewer benefits and opportunities for working families, weaker labor unions, and a shredded safety net with weaker social-insurance programs.
Or put another way, those who advocate for policies that exacerbate wealth concentration shouldn’t go around complaining about wealth concentration. | 1,269,576 |
The consumer-led power revolution driving a rapid uptake of rooftop solar panels and lithium-ion batteries to store electricity is creating new uses for metals which have long languished in the doldrums.
Silver and lithium have so far been the star performers with both experiencing big price jumps in recent months.
Peter Strachan from StockAnalysis said the solar industry was providing a modern-day large-scale industrial use for the metals.
"They print the circuitry for photovoltaic cells using nanoparticles of silver, it is a very good conductor," Mr Strachan said.
"It's used in tiny, tiny amounts, nanoparticles.
"When you consider the millions and millions of photovoltaic cells that are being made around the world, there's obviously a big demand for silver."
The demand for solar technology has trebled lithium prices in the past two years, while silver has also had a good run, jumping 46 per cent since January.
The precious metal, often dubbed "the poor man's gold" has far outperformed its flashier cousin this year.
Mr Strachan said silver had outperformed gold this year. ( Supplied )
Mr Strachan said demand for silver in this new application was far outstripping its use in the past.
"It's had a bit of a quiet period, certainly the industrial use that used to be in the photo industry has basically died, so silver is now much more of a store of value," he said.
"Those uses were growing at 1 or 2 per cent per annum, the use in lithium-ion batteries is growing at 7, 8, 12 per cent per annum."
He said solar technologies were also driving demand for other metals too.
"There's graphite, manganese, cobalt, so I suspect that the prices of all of these metals, like silver, will begin to rise as we move into 2017 and beyond," Mr Strachan said.
Positive outlook for miners
The price rise is a boon for WA miners like Macphersons Resources, which has a silver deposit just eight kilometres from Kalgoorlie.
Chairman Ashok Parehk said the price rise provided the Nimbus mine with enough stimulus to get off the ground.
"Profitability at the moment is very good at $25, it's gone from $15 to $27 in a very short period of time," Mr Parehk said.
"At the moment, we are going through all the metallurgical processes to make sure the metallurgy's alright, if that's the case then we will fast track.
"There aren't many silver mines out there as far as I'm aware, Macphersons Resources is the only silver operation in Western Australia besides silver as a by-product from Golden Grove and Jaguar Bentley deposit."
But there could be a downside, analysts warned if demand pushed prices up too much, manufacturers would look to cheaper substitutes. | 1,269,577 |
building) were approved by this office, the reviewer and checker apparently missed the above possible seismic deficiencies," Potter wrote in 1999. There is no evidence that the school district hired an inspector to oversee the project or that the construction work was monitored, as required by law.
Despite Potter's warning, the district used the classroom as a kindergarten and day care center for nearly a decade.
In 2007, the state architect's office finally sent the Morgan Hill Unified School District a letter denying Field Act certification - but nothing more. The building now is used for storage. The unreinforced masonry chimney remains attached to the building.
Duplicating codes
Critics believe the Field Act duplicates local building codes. Legislators have even tried unsuccessfully to abolish it, calling the law onerous and complicated. Some builders say the law creates too much unnecessary paperwork and costly delays as they wait for action from the state architect's office.
But seismic experts say the law provides an important system of accountability and is one reason no child has died in an earthquake-damaged school in California since the law was passed.
"The Field Act... guaranteed they would have that information and make good use of it," said Peter Yanev, a World Bank earthquake engineer with more than 40 years of experience studying seismic building failures. "Otherwise, what's the use?"
Until now, experts such as Yanev said they had believed nearly every school project in California had been certified.
When California Watch asked about uncertified schools last spring, then-State Architect David Thorman, who was appointed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ordered his office to examine more than 1,000 school construction projects that, records indicated, were completed with unresolved safety problems.
Soon thereafter, the state architect's office began downgrading the most serious uncertified projects without visiting the schools, according to interviews and records. Regulators only reviewed some of the paperwork in the project files, according to an e-mail from Masha Lutsuk, an administrator at the state architect's office.
The division started to worry about how the public might react. At a meeting of prominent architects, engineers and builders last year, while discussing the certification issue and California Watch's investigation, a regional manager for the division said: "It is only a matter of time before this explodes in all our faces."
At the same time, the state braced itself for questions about what it had done.
The media staff at the Department of General Services - which oversees the state architect's office - created talking points describing these projects as simply bookkeeping issues. "Sensitivity has increased as to reporters digging deep into government business. People need to be mindful of what they put in e-mails," stated internal minutes from a November 2009 meeting with top managers at the state architect's office.
By December 2010, only 192 school projects retained their uncertified status due to unresolved safety issues.
California Watch found projects with potential safety problems, including at least one that had been recently reclassified as a paperwork issue. | 1,269,578 |
Twitter is working on a policy to prohibit the use of “dehumanizing language," a move that would be the most recent in a series of steps the company has taken to crack down on harassment and hate speech.
The company announced its intentions in a blog post Tuesday, noting that the change will include remarks made to “identifiable groups,” not just individual targets. The ban, however, will not go into effect until early next year in order to give the company time to tweak the policy based on user input, according to company spokesperson Raki Wane.
“Language that makes someone less than human can have repercussions off the service, including normalizing serious violence,” wrote Del Harvey, Twitter's vice president of trust and safety, and Vijaya Gadde, legal, policy and trust and safety lead.
The move, according to the post, has been in the works for the last three months and is part of the company’s efforts to create “healthy” conversations on the platform.
“You may not dehumanize anyone based on membership in an identifiable group, as this speech can lead to offline harm,” read the company’s proposed policy change.
According to Harvey and Gadde, the change will ban “animalistic” and “mechanistic” dehumanization, which will make it against the rules to deny anyone's human nature or qualities.
Shortly after the post came out, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey tweeted out a link to a survey asking for public input on the proposed change.
“We’re experimenting with a new way to write and roll-out policy and rules. Let us know what you think…” Dorsey wrote.
We’re experimenting with a new way to write and roll-out policy and rules. Let us know what you think… https://t.co/2es2eMayGU — jack (@jack) September 25, 2018
Twitter’s announcement follows mounting public pressure to crack down on harassment and abusive behavior online.
The social platform made headlines earlier this month by permanently banning the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his media company Infowars following a slew past violations, including insulting a CNN reporter’s appearance and encouraging followers to get their "battle rifles" ready against the media.
This is good, but will also be hard to police https://t.co/Gb5WezK95n — Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) September 25, 2018
The survey will be live until Oct. 9 and includes questions on how the wording of the proposed policy could be improved to reflect user realities online. Responses will be used in updating the platform’s official rules later this year, according to the post.
Some Twitter users remained skeptical of whether the change will make much of a difference.
“This is good, but will also be hard to police,” tweeted tech and social media expert Lance Ulanoff. | 1,269,579 |
There is something special about gambling and poker movies. The class, the ambiance and vibe a good gambling and Poker movie packs is peerless. Here are some of the best poker, gambling and casino movies you should watch before you die.
Casino 1995
Casino features top actors like Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci. The movie revolves around gambling mafia, murder, trophy wives and power.
21
“21” is based on a true story. 6 brilliant MIT students who learn tricks of Poker and card counting decide to actually apply themselves in Las Vegas.
Rounders
Rounders is an all-time favorite Poker and gambling movie in which a young, gifted Poker player and law student (Matt Damon) decides to help his friend (Edward Norton) pay a huge debt through gambling.
High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story
This amazing movie is based on the life of renowned American professional poker player Stu Ungar. The movie shows Stu’s rise and fall, his emotional issues, marriage and death. The climax of the movie comes when the poker legend seizes his third victory at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
This one is my personal favorite. Eddy (Nick Moran) asks his besties to muster up funds for a high stakes poker game against local crime lord. The crime boss cheats and as a result Eddy and his friends lose a huge amount of money. The defeated party in turns plans a robbery for revenge, and money.
Casino Royale
This is a Bond movie, which is based on Poker and gambling world. Secret Agent James Bond goes to a high stakes game of Poker at a Casino as part of his plan to take down an underground mafia kingpin.
Shade 2003
This is an exciting gambling movie featuring actors like, Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Foxx. The main actors who made a lot of money in a hustler gift deal are now being followed by the original owners who are seeking their money and revenge.
Owning Mahowny
This is a super famous gambling film which is based on a true story about a millionaire bank manager having access to truckloads of money. Problems (and fun) starts when the manager gets addicted to gambling. With so much public money at hand and endless possibilities, things escalate, and get messy pretty quickly.
A Big Hand for the Little Lady
This is a 1966 comedy western movie based on poker and gambling. The plot revolves around a wanderer who arrives in a town and bets more money than he can afford.
Croupier
Starring Clive Owen, this movie shows the life of a decent writer whose father, a hustler, forces him to take a job as a Coupier to make both ends meet. Owen finds later that the Casino life is really resonating with his inner calling. He stars enjoying things and his life takes a new, strange turn. | 1,269,580 |
At a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday, Mr. Gowdy praised as heroes the Americans who died in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2012. They included Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith, a State Department information officer, who were killed at the main American diplomatic compound in Benghazi by a mob of militia fighters who had been incited by an American-made video deriding the Prophet Muhammad. The fighters were apparently further inflamed by news of an assault on the American Embassy in Cairo.
I heard this New York Times take on the Benghazi report mentioned on a noontime political discussion show on Fox News yesterday and found it so absurd that I had to check for myself. Here it is : The New York Times front-page article following the issuance of the report of the House Select Committee on Benghazi included the following paragraph.
One thing the Select Committee’s report makes 100% clear in 172 pages of evidence constituting section II (and which not even the White House or State Department would now dispute) is that the attack in Benghazi had absolutely nothing to do with the video cited by the Times. The report details numerous firsthand communications from our agents on the ground that made their way to Secretary Clinton’s office from multiple channels during the attacks and consistently used the term “attack,” and none of the information mentioned anything about a video or protest.
Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration made and stuck with public statements blaming the attack on the video for weeks afterward. While she certainly should have known from the reports she received during the attacks, we know with certainty that it was clear to Hillary at least by September 12 that the video had nothing to do with it. From page II-45 and II-46 of the report:
The Secretary also had a phone call with an Egyptian leader, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, on the afternoon of September 12. According to the call notes, the Secretary told the Prime Minister the following: "We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack—not a protest.... Your [sic] not kidding. Based on the information we saw today we believe the group that claimed responsibility for this was affiliated with al Qaeda.103" Not only did the Secretary tell the Prime Minister “the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film,” she strengthened the statement by prefacing it with “we know.”104 Such a definitive declaration made privately to another world leader stands in stark contrast to her speech earlier in the day to the American people where she mentioned the attack—“this vicious behavior”—in the same breath as the video—“inflammatory material posted on the internet.”105
We know that The New York Times is highly partisan in its news coverage. But this week’s front-page story hanging on to the completely discredited Obama administration position that the four Americans were killed in Benghazi due to a “mob incited by an American-made video” is one more illustration of how dishonest and irresponsible this publication is. | 1,269,581 |
Hanging cockpit items will now move when the 'Mech walks.
Fixed an issue where the Kintaro's lower center torso would clip through the upper center torso when twisting.
Weapon door light indicators in the cockpit are now working correctly.
Fixed a number of stuck bugs in River City, Frozen City, and Forest Colony.
Fixed some geometry clipping issues in Alpine Peaks.
Fixed bug where BlackJack's rear center torso would incorrectly apply damage to rear side torso.
Fixed bug where Kintaro ragdoll would react wildly upon death.
Fixed a hang that could happen to certain users during combat.
Fixed a desync bug for the UAC5 where the client would incorrectly fire a shot right before jamming, where the server wouldn't.
[color=cyan]It's patchday! And that means - servers come down at 10am PDT, and will be back up by 1pm PDT! I'll update this as soon as the servers are back. So without (orion) further time wasting, here's some patchnotes to tide you over![/color]Cheers,GarthEDIT: And we are LIVE! Enjoy the patch!Greetings MechWarriors!Can you believe it's September already? (ORION) Wow time flies when you are working hard (ORION!) on features! Much love to those who know patience and understanding (ORION). This patch is (ORION!) dedicated to you.Speaking of patience (ORION), this month the Orion makes its début in the game! The “Protector” Orion Hero ‘Mech is sure to be an instant classic with a paint job that is simply gorgeous. The Orion Standard variants will be available for MC on the 10th and for C-bills on the 17th.We have 4 new Trial ‘Mechs! One of which is our new champion, a Centurion CN9-A ©, with a great load out for all players to try out. Don’t forget this New Champion ‘Mech comes with a 10% XP boost and will be on sale Sept 17th!We have our first tutorial covering the basics of movement to help out new players. We will be working on more tutorials in the future as well. (ORION!)Gameplay! Look at all those changes! (ORION) A nice variety of changes, some of which are small, and some are really big. Hello better Advanced Zoom!Host state rewind has had some improvements, and as a Ballistic fan I couldn’t be happier! Now I can bull’s-eye womp rats in Canyon Network. (ORION!)We have so many more great things on the horizon!Until then, I will see you on the Battlefield! (And maybe at the Launch Event too!)Matt Newman (with some edits from Garth)(Link to tutorial post here We thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield!- The MechWarrior® Online™ Team | 1,269,582 |
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It is. And didn't she say it permanently damaged her vocal chords?
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I don't understand how people lump Sza with those indie voice singers. She doesn't sound like that to me. Now the jokes about her singing in italics/cursive are more accurate tbh lol
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Why does she not have a record contract tho, she can sing.
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Honestly I wanna know the same. I’m sure she’s been offered many, too.
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she seems to be focusing on acting for now
she does have a great voice though
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On acting in dynasty literally why guuurl
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I love her, she's too talented to not have a better career. is dynasty worth watching for her?
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Dynasty is so much fun.
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it's the best kind of trash. it's legitimately so fun
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i love dynasty. the fashion is perfection and it is soapy times a billion
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Not a lie told omg that style of singing is just straight up UGLY
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liz was my fav on victorious, and leon. i still remember the one hilarious livestream they did together that made me love them. they deserve better careers
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Leon has a Grammy and is writing and producing hits. He’s doing just fine.
But he does have a fantastic voice.
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Halsey is sweating
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That's a really good Adele impression.
I don't hear a lot of that bananis&avocadis voice, another one bothers me a lot more - it's that low, nasally thing, I feel like I hear it all the time, and I can't tell any of those singers apart. I listen to Zedd's the Middle and think how does that chick sound the same as Zara Larsson, Anne Marie and whoever else.
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the weird part is the zedd song is sung by a country artist and she sounds... much much different in the country songs. maren morris was definitely trying to emulate a specific style of singing for The Middle.
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Las Vegas plans to post police snipers on rooftops during Sunday’s marathon in the aftermath of the Oct. 1 mass shooting at a country musical festival.
LVPD says the beefed-up security plan for the event also includes assigning more cops to protect runners as they pass by world famous high-rise casino-hotels and the crime scene. About 350 cops will be on hand.
"We've made a few changes, some subtle things," Capt. Andrew Walsh said. "Obviously, the threat of a sniper attack is something that we know can happen. So, we added some counter-sniper surveillance posts along the route."
Organizers have urged the runners to wear their Vegas Strong gear. Tens of thousands of runners are expected to participate. There will also be a Vegas Strong signing wall on Las Vegas Boulevard
A high-stakes gambler and real estate investor killed 58 people and injured hundreds more after shattering the windows of his hotel suite and unleashing gunfire on the Route 91 Harvest music festival below. From the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel, Stephen Paddock had an unobstructed view to rain bullets on the crowd, who had few places to hide.
A police helicopter will circle runners the route of the marathon which gets underway just before sunset Sunday.
Semi-trucks, dump trucks, buses and other large city vehicles will be positioned at key intersections to try to prevent anyone from driving onto the course, Walsh said, following recent attacks in the U.S. and abroad in which vehicles have plowed into crowds.
Walsh acknowledged the event presents a huge challenge to police and encouraged casino employees, visitors and others to alert authorities of anything suspicious. Security checkpoints will be set up for the Sunday races — a marathon, half marathon and 10K — and a Saturday 5K and concert.
"With all the things that we've seen happen in the world, whether it's in Texas at a church, whether it is in New York City on a bike path, or whether it's here at a concert, the vulnerabilities that exist and try to predict and prevent each and every one of those is a tremendous challenge," Walsh said.
Organizers moved events away from the scene of the massacre. The concert, typically held at the outdoor venue where the shooting took place, was shifted miles north, across from the SLS hotel.
The start of the marathon, usually outside Mandalay Bay, was moved a mile north to the front of the New York-New York casino-hotel. The race has always featured live bands every mile, but on Sunday, the first 2½ miles — when runners will go by the crime scene twice — will be silent.
Spokesman Dan Cruz said that will serve as an extended moment of silence.
"Running the marathon symbolizes miles of grit, determination; these are driven athletes, who know all about adversity," he said. "So, for them, it's the perfect event to help Las Vegas bounce back."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 1,269,584 |
Ala Mahmoud
MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee police are investigating a shooting that happened at a corner store near 38th and North Sunday, December 10th. An employee was killed, and police believe robbery may have been the motive. Those who knew the victim have called him a great man with a big heart, and none are more heartbroken by this tragedy than his wife. She and his family have offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
"He got a son -- my baby boy, and he got a daughter," Katherine Mahmoud, the victim's wife said.
It happened shortly before 10:00 a.m., police said.
Katherine Mahmoud
Katherine Mahmoud is now living a nightmare, after 40-year-old Ala Mahmoud, her husband of more than 20 years, was shot and killed at his workplace.
"He would do anything for you.. He was a good husband. He loved his son and his daughter," Katherine Mahmoud said.
Katherine Mahmoud said her husband leaves behind an 8-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter -- with Katherine expecting.
"He treated people like family," Katherine Mahmoud said.
PHOTO GALLERY
Ala Mahmoud
A man who described himself as the victim's partner for eight years said "everybody knows him" and "he knows everyone," and said he was shocked by the shooting. This man said he received a phone call Sunday indicating his friend has been shot in the head and passed away.
"You could ask all of the community about him. It's very sad. My good friend is gone. He passed away. Whatever happens next is not really important," he said.
A woman at the scene, Noel Patterson, said she knew the victim for 10 years, and said he's been in that neighborhood where the shooting happened for probably 15 years. He was affectionately known as Polo.
"A great man with a big heart who never did anything to anyone. Just a loving man. The whole neighborhood loved him. He was a great man with a big heart who gave to the community. If you didn't have it, he let you get it and owe him. It hurts to see what went on here today because I never would've thought it would be him or anyone close to me in that store. I don't even see who would even do this. It's tearing my heart up. He never was into it with anybody in the neighborhood. He was too kind, too giving," she said.
North Avenue Food LLC
Vigil for Ala Mahmoud
By sunset, a small memorial was set up on the store's doorstep.
"Whoever did it, they will be caught. They will be," Katherine Mahmoud said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police. | 1,269,585 |
the article’s assertion that “the cases rely heavily on written statements from all parties, rather than on interviews by detectives or forensic evidence, as in a police investigation, which some legal experts assert makes for a less proficient investigation” gets several things wrong. First, the “written statements” are the result of interviews by specially trained sexual assault investigators in the Title IX office who have investigated the claims and collected evidence. In addition, both parties have the opportunity to present live testimony on their own behalf and by witnesses at the hearing. Second, no university can conduct “forensic” examinations of the kind performed by law enforcement. Police departments have “detectives” – universities do not. Among other things, universities lack the legal authority to use many of the tools available to police and prosecutors, such as subpoenas for recalcitrant witnesses. That is why we encourage students who report they have been sexually assaulted to contact the police, who can engage in those processes. In addition, universities are limited in the sanctions they can impose on students, whereas the criminal process can impose prison time, restitution, probation and other sanctions not available to universities.
Why wasn’t there a football sanction for the player described in the article?
Stanford handles Title IX matters through the Title IX Office – not through other offices. Although the student described in the story was reported to be a Stanford football player, Stanford football did not have a role in this matter, nor should it have had a role. It is not appropriate for Athletics’ coaches or staff to be involved in Title IX matters because such involvement could suggest inappropriate influence during the process. Accordingly, and in keeping with federal privacy laws protecting students, Stanford’s Title IX Office does not share details of pending cases against students with coaches (or choir directors, or computer science professors), unless there is a safety issue requiring the school official’s involvement.
Stanford will take interim measures to protect the safety of the Stanford community while a matter is pending if such an action is necessary to protect either the complainant or the community at large. Such decisions are made centrally by the Title IX Office and not by any individual within Athletics or any other department. Stanford does not take disciplinary measures against students before a finding of responsibility is made. It is not appropriate to withhold university privileges from students who have been accused, but not found responsible, of any act of misconduct.
Stanford’s football team represents approximately 3 percent of all Stanford undergraduate males and since 2010 Stanford football players have collectively been accused in approximately 3 percent of all Title IX allegations. That is, Stanford football players are not overly represented in Title IX complaints based on their percent of the overall male undergraduate population.
What is Stanford’s response to the lawsuit mentioned in the New York Times article?
Stanford denies the allegations and is vigorously defending this lawsuit. Stanford’s Answer to the Complaint is available online, here: http://news.stanford.edu/2016/12/08/information-jane-doe-lawsuit/. | 1,269,586 |
s warfare in Libya is that a much greater range of actors is now wielding such instruments in a single conflict at the same time.
During the Cold War, “plausible deniability” was the hallmark of U.S. covert action. In fact, U.S. and Soviet support for mercenaries, insurgents, and militias was widely known, but simply not officially acknowledged. Deniability allowed both sides to avoid a direct confrontation that risked triggering nuclear war. This logic is now making a comeback amid intensifying great-power competition. But in Libya, not only the great powers take advantage of the fiction of deniability. In Libya, as in Syria, multiple middle powers intervene in a distant war zone using mercenaries from at least four countries.
The United States pioneered the use of drone strikes as a way of eschewing accountability for targeted killings. For years, the United States rarely acknowledged its responsibility for the strikes, though as the only power possessing combat drones, denials would have been implausible. The United Arab Emirates and Turkey merely imitate the longstanding U.S. practice of bombing people anonymously and out of the blue. Now, the United States has an incentive to claim the strikes it carries out in Libya, to dispel doubts that it could be responsible for strikes perpetrated by the other two states operating drones there. (France, which has recently acquired combat drones that are based in neighboring Niger, could soon emerge as a fourth drone power in Libya.)
Flooding social media with disinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate speech is a strategy first developed in Russia. But that approach has rapidly spread across the globe. The Gulf states are clearly among the leading investors in armies of bots and trolls. In Western and Middle Eastern capitals, countless influencers associated in one way or another with the states meddling in Libya have joined the battle over the narratives defining the country’s war. The information war is not one of pitched battles, but of chaotic melees.
Drones, deniability, and disinformation in Libya are not mere symptoms of global disorder, but also its agents. Nostalgists of the so-called rules-based international order undoubtedly understate the injustice of those rules, and the role of political expedience in deciding whether they were applied or ignored. It is fitting that one decisive step towards the demise of the liberal world order was the 2011 intervention in Libya, which ushered in a decade of paralysis in the U.N. Security Council. Today, that body no longer cares whether its sanctions and resolutions on Libya are implemented — and several Western council members share that disinterest with Russia. The annual reports documenting weapons shipments and foreign intervention in violation of the arms embargo are of purely academic interest. Deniable meddling in Libya is now wrecking the vestiges of the rules-based international order, one drone strike at a time.
Wolfram Lacher is a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. He is the author of Libya’s Fragmentation: Structure and Process in Violent Conflict.
Image: 432nd Wing Public Affairs (Photo by Senior Airman Christian Clausen) | 1,269,587 |
Speaking at the Autosport International show in Birmingham, Brundle believes Mercedes is making the right short-term choice to sign Bottas for 2017.
But he is also intrigued by what might happen at the end of this season – when the current contracts of Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari and Fernando Alonso at McLaren come to an end.
“It has left Mercedes in a very difficult position,” said Brundle of finding its long-term Rosberg replacement at such short notice. “And it might actually affect them for a couple of seasons.
“But where it gets really exciting is at the end of this season, when so many top drivers are out of contract.
“We know Valtteri Bottas has got the speed, but it’s a different story when you turn up in a car where winning races and a world championship is expected, not a wish, not a maybe, not a lucky day. There’s nowhere to run and hide, the spotlight is ever stronger.
“I think Valtteri has got the speed and mental capacity to handle that.”
On how Lewis Hamilton will adapt to having a new teammate, he said: “Lewis is kinda ‘Bring it on’ isn’t he? Bring on whoever you like, I think I’ll be faster than them.
“But I think he’d be a bit edgy if it was Fernando Alonso or Sebastian Vettel.”
Still shocked by Rosberg’s decision
Brundle admitted that he remains shocked by Rosberg’s decision to retire from F1 at the age of 31, just weeks after clinching his first world title.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather,” said Brundle. “I didn’t believe it – Alex, my boy, sent me a text and I thought he was joking or it was April 1st. I still don’t understand it.
“I admire that Nico had the courage of his convictions to say ‘This is the high point, I’m going to jump off now because I’ve achieved everything I wanted to’. It’s a bold and brave decision in that respect.
“But where’s the passion, where’s the commitment, to show the world again you’re the best in this amazing car, this amazing team? Most of us [drivers] would have given anything to drive that car for just one season in our careers.
“If you do get to the peak, enjoy the view and the jubilation of descent – don’t take the lift down or the first emergency exit!
“I don’t get it. But full respect to him, and you can’t question that, it’s his decision. But that doesn’t mean I understand it.” | 1,269,588 |
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts get millions of dollars in state funding to operate.
But so far in this fiscal year — they haven’t gotten a penny.
And that could have a big impact once schools start up later this month.
So far it’s been a relatively painless budget impasse between a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor, but school districts — regardless of party — are about to feel the hit.
“I know that some school districts that have taken out loans so that they can cover their first payroll,” Nina Esposito-Visgitis, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers told KDKA political editor Jon Delano on Monday.
Since July 1st, school districts have not received any 2015-2016 fiscal year state education funding because of the deadlock in Harrisburg.
“Budgets are very tight. Every penny counts, so that has been a challenge. And now as we begin the school year, it becomes even more of a challenge when districts will not receive their subsidy funds,” says Dr. Linda Hippert, head of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.
Just as students return to school, school boards and teachers unions are negotiating contracts without really knowing how much revenue is in the pot.
“When there is an unknown in Harrisburg, there is an unknown at the bargaining table in your local districts,” notes Matt Edgell, community advocacy coordinator for the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
Over 20 local districts are in the middle of labor negotiations, including Ambridge Area, Baldwin-Whitehall, Belle Vernon Area, Brentwood, Butler Area, California Area, Central Valley, Derry Area, Duquesne, Freedom Area, Greensburg-Salem, Highlands, Kiski Area, Monessen, Northgate, Peters, Pittsburgh, South Allegheny, South Butler County, South Park, Sto-Rox, and Wilkinsburg.
Nobody is predicting a school strike anywhere soon, but teachers will only work so long without a contract.
And that’s not the only challenge.
Maybe it’s no surprise but those school districts that have the most problems, the greatest need, get the most money from the state government, so the failure of the governor and the Republican legislature to reach a compromise means that our most vulnerable children are hurt first.
Dr. Hippert, a former superintendent, says the less affluent districts cannot go into mid-Fall without state funding.
Hippert: “I don’t see how they can continue to operate because they have challenges already making ends meet and making payroll every month so..”
Delano: “So a shutdown is a possibility?”
Hippert: “It certainly is. The longer this goes, the more it becomes a possibility.”
Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter | 1,269,589 |
storms, with 10 reaching hurricane status, the most notably being Sandy, which wreaked havoc across the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast, claiming more than 100 lives and causing billions of dollars in damage.
Throughout the year, East Asia was hit by powerful typhoons.
Typhoon Sanba was the strongest cyclone, globally, to have formed in 2012. Sanba impacted the Philippines, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula, dumping torrents of rain and triggering floods and landslides that affected thousands of people and caused millions of dollars worth of damage.
Dr. Peter Stott, head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution at the UK’s Met Office, said, “Although the first decade of the 21st century was the warmest on record, warming has not been as rapid since 2000 as over the longer period since the 1970s.”
“This variability in global temperatures is not unusual, with several periods lasting a decade or more with little or no warming since the instrumental record began,” said Stott.
“We are investigating why the temperature rise at the surface has slowed in recent years, including how ocean heat content changes and the effects of aerosols from atmospheric pollution may have influenced global climate,” he said.
Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at University of East Anglia, said, “The warmth of individual years is quite dependent on whether an El Niño or a La Niña event is occurring. As happened in 2010, a relatively small El Niño event led to a record breaking year. A similar occurrence could be expected when the next El Niño event occurs.”
WMO will release a 10-year report on the state of the climate, “2001-2010, A Decade of Extremes” on December 4.
It was produced in partnership with other United Nations and international agencies and highlights the warming trend for the entire planet, its continents and oceans during the past decade, with an indication of its impacts on health, food security and socio-economic development.
The WMO will publish final updates and figures for 2012 in March 2013.
The WMO’s reports are based on climate data from networks of land-based weather and climate stations, ships and buoys, as well as satellites maintained by the organization’s 184 member governments.
The WMO global temperature analysis is based on three complementary datasets.
One is the combined dataset maintained by both the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.
Another dataset is maintained by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the third one is from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Additional information is drawn from the ERA-Interim reanalysis-based data set maintained by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2012. All rights reserved. | 1,269,590 |
Soviet Heritage
I was born in 1992, right after the Perestroika. So It would be fair enough to say that I haven’t lived in Soviet Union. I haven’t seen people queuing for food, haven’t been a pioneer. Russia is different now. We have the same shops, eat the same food and watch the same movies as all other people in western countries do. You can’t amaze us with jeans or pair of Nikes anymore. Everything that my parents and basically all other people tells me about the soviet period I picture as something that was too long ago and couldn’t be real. I think that most of my friends feel the same way.
But we are not alone. Millions of people didn’t get used to this new way of living. Some of them still don’t understand the danger of Bribery and Cronyism. Some of them are angry and don’t respect other people and their freedom. I think we have something like a Culture gap. Culture gap between people who spent most of their life in Soviet Union and those who didn’t. Between those, who wants to live by the rules and those who don’t believe that it is possible. And everyday more and more people come over this gap, creating more and more tension. I believe that one day every last one of us will pass this gap, but until then Russia will never be a real part of the Western world.
But actually, I just wanted to tell you a story. Funny things are happening. Here in Saint-Petersburg we have two guys who call themselves “Tesamie” (eng. “TheseGuys”). Every day one of them goes to the Metro and stands there with a banner with some kind wishes on it. No politics, no begging or anything stupid or negative. Just a guy standing with a banner with some nice words on it. That’s it. People like them, I saw them couple of times and of course it made me smile, especially after seeing all these sad faces in the Metro.
You probably will not believe me, but they often have problems with the police. They take them to the police station, literally for wishing other people to “Have a good day”. It seems like police still have a bit of a common sense, because they let them go after a preventive conversation. I read about it here. There is also an audio recording of conversation between a police officer and one of the guys. The police officer tells him that he has to have some kind of a permission to do such thing. He couldn’t believe that the guy was doing it just to make people smile, for free, without any political context.
And I’ve heard thousands of stories like it. It will take us a lot of time to overcome this Soviet Heritage, especially without any help from the government. Most people in the government are old, so I don’t expect any changes in the near future. | 1,269,591 |
. 106).
"He (Cain) sinned against the light... moreover, he was cursed and his posterity after him because he
cut off Abel in his youth without posterity" (p. 106).
"It was well understood by the early elders of the Church that the mark which was placed on Cain
and which his posterity inherited was the black skin" (p. 107).
"The Book of Moses informs us that Cain and his descendants were black" (p. 107).
"President George A. Smith, speaking of the Negro race, in a discourse, September 23, 1855,
said: When Cain brought a curse upon his own head and that of his household, his after generations
bear the same curse. The curse that came upon Canaan, the son of Ham, was extended to a great
portion of the human race, and has continued to the present day" (p. 109).
"This doctrine did not originate with President Brigham Young but was taught by the Prophet
Joseph Smith" (p. 110).
"The Indians have greater cause to complain of the treatment of the whites, than the Negroes, or
sons of Cain - D.H.C., 4:501. But we all know it is due to his teachings that the Negro today is
barred from the Priesthood" (p. 111).
Apparently all this information slipped the mind of former President Gordon B. Hinckley before
and during his interview.
"The Negro may be baptized and enter the Church; and some of these unfortunate people have
been baptized and have proved their faithfulness and worthiness before the Lord, in this their
second estate" (p. 111). Also see pages 184-188 of "Answers to Gospel Questions - volume 2" and pages 122-123 of
"Answers to Gospel Questions - volume 3".
I do not believe that the Negro race is an unfortunate people. But I do believe that it is unfortunate
that Latter-day Saints cannot obtain these books more readily from their church.
It is almost as if the LDS Church is trying to remove part of its historical teachings. Maybe this
would account for the fact that even a Mormon President is in the dark about some church history.
Now since he is in the dark, you can imagine the state of the ordinary lay persons.
In Jacob 3:8, white skin will be a sign of one's spiritual purity as they appear before God's throne
for judgment. Or maybe this is just for the Lamanites/Native American Indians? In the meantime, it appears that the sign of the curse of Cain still remains on the Negro race even though
the Mormon Church extended the Priesthood to them in 1978. According to the published declaration,
there is no mention of the sign of the curse being removed - for their skin is still dark.
| 1,269,592 |
A Japanese automaker taking on The Big Three wouldn't be a big story in any market, except trucks. The completely redesigned Cummins-diesel powered 2016 Nissan Titan is posturing to really shake up the American truck market. Here's everything we know about it so far.
Quick And Dirty:
First redesign since vehicle's introduction in 2003
Unveil date: 1/12/15
Cummins turbo diesel V8
Gooseneck-hitch towing (heavy pulling power)
We know for sure that the long-overdue revision of the Nissan Titan will drop January 12, and will be offered with a Cummins turbo diesel 5.0 V8. We've been hearing this hyped up and seeing the goofy "#CumminsSoon" tag for months, but you can't deny the importance of Nissan taking on the big boys of the US truck market by partnering with a well-established brand that feels'murican as it gets.
We also also know the new Titan going to have serious towing capacity; you don't bother running a gooseneck hitch for hooking up some dinky Home Depot rental trailer. I've gotta believe a Cummins V8 will out-heave the current class-leading Ford EcoBoost V6, the question will be whether Nissan can engineer a frame strong enough to let its new engine beat the 2015 Ford F-150's obscene 12,200 pound towing capacity.
G/O Media may get a commission Certified Organic CBD Oil Buy for $49 from Cornbread Hemp Use the promo code KINJA25
Here's the official word from Cummins on the 5.0 they developed in conjunction with Nissan for the new Titan:
"This new engine will offer the right balance of power, performance and fuel economy while delivering the dependability that customers expect. With a torque rating in the mid-500s (lb-ft) and more than 300 horsepower, the Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel will provide light truck customers the combination of towing capacity and mileage that is expected in the highly-competitive North American truck marketplace."
We haven't heard anything about other engine options or trim levels. I'm sure they're keeping a gasoline engine option, but I wonder if they'll drop the Endurance V8 in leu of a large V6 for the base trucks to make an inexpensive option.
Diesel engines are big money... usually like an $8,000 option on the heavy-duty Ford, Chevy, and Ram trucks you can order one in.
On top of the new Titan's base and mid-level trims we can probably expect some kind of range-topping SV Platinum variant, since all the other truck guys have a $60,000 "luxotruck" half-ton option. It will be interesting to see if they keep the "off-road/premium" PRO-4X trim with uprated shocks and nice seats or move to a luxury-focused range topper.
Image by the author | 1,269,593 |
distances, and the NMR results allowed us to quantify these distances as well, and confirmed to us that what were were seeing was, in fact, stacks of the chlorophyll molecules all lined up," he said. The NMR results also enabled the scientists to determine that the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria are arranged in helical spirals. In the mutant bacteria, the chlorophyll molecules are positioned at a nearly 90-degree angle in relation to the long axis of the nanotubes, whereas the angle is less steep in the wild-type organism. "It's the orientation of the chlorophyll molecules that is the most important thing here," said Bryant. The last steps for the team were to pull together all of their data and to create a detailed computer model of the structure.
"At first it seems counterintuitive that green bacteria have managed to evolve a better light-harvesting system by increasing disorder in the chlorosome structure," said Bryant. "Most people would think that if you make something that is more highly ordered, you'll end up with something that works better. But this is clearly a case where that isn't true. If all of the chlorophylls are identically arranged in a chlorosome, then the energy from the photon, once it is absorbed, is going to wander around over all of those chlorophylls, which could take a long time. In the wild-type form, you have these different domains where chlorophyll molecules are located and, therefore, the ability of photon energy to migrate becomes restricted. In other words, the energy in an individual photon visits a smaller number of chlorophylls, and that's an advantage to the organism because the energy can get to where it needs to go faster. Speed is the name of the game that green bacteria play with light. The organisms have only a couple of nanoseconds for the energy to get someplace useful or else the energy is going to be lost. The speed required can be a problem for bacteria that receive only a few photons of light per chlorophyll per day."
Bryant said that the team's results may one day be used to build artificial photosynthetic systems that convert solar energy to electricity. "The interactions that lead to the assembly of the chlorophylls in chlorosomes are rather simple, so they are good models for artificial systems," he said. "You can make structures out of these chlorophylls in solution just by having the right solution conditions. In fact, people have done this for many years; however, they haven't really understood the biological rules for building larger structures. I won't say that we completely understand the rules yet, but at least we know what two of the structures are now and how they relate to the biological system as a whole, which is a huge advance."
The team also includes researchers from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute in the Netherlands, and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. This research was supported by the United States Department of Energy. | 1,269,594 |
MINNEAPOLIS -- The last time the Minnesota Vikings won coming out of their bye week was in 2009, the year referenced in so many of these statistics about the last time the Vikings enjoyed a particular kind of consistent success. Since then, there's been a game delayed by lightning and distracted by the twin sideshows of Randy Moss' return and Brett Favre's sexting debacle.
There's been a Monday Night Football blowout in Green Bay, Adrian Peterson missing a team bus in Chicago, a post-London thumping that effectively put Leslie Frazier on notice and a malfunctioning clock at Soldier Field that led Teddy Bridgewater to think he only had time to heave one pass into the end zone (when there were really 42 seconds left).
In light of all that, it's little wonder why coach Mike Zimmer has followed such a meticulous bye week schedule, keeping players in town to practice until Tuesday and bringing them back from their respite on Monday for a walk-through. The Vikings, who are 5-1 in their last six games before the bye, haven't been very good coming out of it.
"It’s not just a bye week," Zimmer said. "It’s when guys have three or four days off, trying to get back into it mentally. For a while, a year ago, we’d give them a long weekend or something like that. They’d come back and they weren’t as crisp or sharp as when they left. That’s the pitfalls of it."
The Vikings had several players stay in Minnesota during the bye week to rehab or work out before taking the weekend off, and Zimmer said the team "picked it up pretty good" after an "average" start to Monday's practice. The Vikings head into Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs as 3 1/2-point favorites, and will face a team that just lost running back Jamaal Charles to a torn ACL.
Will that be enough to pull the Vikings out of their post-bye doldrums? After what's happened in the past, Zimmer isn't assuming anything.
Asked if he was concerned with the Vikings relaxing too much against a 1-4 team, Zimmer said, "We’ve only won two games, so no, not at all. Our focus is on us and what we do and how we need to win and how we need to play and how we need to get better, how we need to perform in the crucial situations of the game. Really that’s all I’m concerned about.
"Every day I come in here and try to figure out how we can be better. Obviously you game plan for people and things like that, but this league is so good. There are so many great players, there are so many teams that you don’t expect to win that win each and every day. The teams that end up with good records usually find ways to win and that’s all we’re trying to do is continue to find ways to win." | 1,269,595 |
Grime star is featured on this week’s NME cover – but he knew nothing about it until magazine released the image
Stormzy has condemned the NME for putting him on the cover of this week’s edition of the magazine, with the coverline “Depression: It’s time to talk.” The grime star accused it on Twitter of using him as “a poster boy for such a sensitive issue without permission”.
Though it is commonplace for publications to run cover stories without necessarily speaking to the cover star, the phrasing of the NME cover created the impression the magazine had interviewed him, which it had not.
Stormzy called the magazine’s staff “a bunch of real life fucking pussyholes. Proper dickheads.” He added: “The reason I’m so angry is because NME have been begging me to be on their cover. I have refused. Then they do this … They see me talking bout my journey with depression and think yeah we’ve got him now.”
#GSAP (@Stormzy1) @NME They've used me on their cover without my permission. Depression is a very very sensitive issue and it's something I've spoken about pic.twitter.com/OdAXshdrug
In an interview with Channel 4 News earlier this month, Stormzy had discussed his own issues with depression. “What convinced me to talk about it was the fact that if there’s anyone out there going through it, I think to see that I went through it would help,” he said.
On Twitter, he said of NME: “My issue is not about me speaking out about it. That is fine and I’m happy I’m able to help but they’ve been very foul here … I KNOW it will help others but just imagine a personal battle of yours being published on the front of a magazine without your permission.”
Stormzy: ‘Respect me like you would Frank Ocean or Adele’ Read more
When NME editor Mike Williams responded via Twitter, telling Stormzy the magazine is given away free and was not trying to shift copies, but raise an important issue, Stormzy responded dismissively: “DEAD. You’re NOT a non-profit organisation. The more copies you dish out the more you charge for advertising. You will make money from this.”
Williams said: “I’m sorry that you didn’t know your image would be our cover. Our intentions were only positive. We were inspired by your words and wanted to use them as a springboard to talk about depression and how it shouldn’t be taboo … We used your image as we felt it would resonate most with our readers, and I can only apologise again that you didn’t know. Our only intention was to raise awareness of an issue that we’ve been inspired to talk about following your comments.” | 1,269,596 |
CARACAS - Opposition presidential candidate Henri Falcon's campaign vowed on Tuesday to implement a $25 monthly giveaway to Venezuelans, as part of plans to dollarize the crisis-hit economy and alleviate suffering should he win the May 20 vote.
Former state governor Falcon, 56, has broken with an opposition boycott to stand against President Nicolas Maduro in a vote critics say is rigged in advance to perpetuate a socialist "dictatorship" in the OPEC nation.
Falcon says he is a natural transition candidate with appeal to a majority fed up with political polarization and economic chaos, and some polls have put him ahead of Maduro.
The contents of a CLAP box, a Venezuelan governmen The contents of a CLAP box, a Venezuelan government handout of basic food supplies, is pictured at Viviana Colmenares' house in the slum of Petare in Caracas, Feb. 23, 2018. The contents of a CLAP box, a Venezuelan government handout of basic food supplies, is pictured at Viviana Colmenares' house in the slum of Petare in Caracas, Feb. 23, 2018.
But the government is linking loyalty at the ballot box to welfare handouts, including a food bag many poor Venezuelans rely on, and benefits from a compliant election board accused of fraud in two recent elections.
During an event at Falcon's "National Salvation" campaign headquarters in Caracas, his economic policy adviser Francisco Rodriguez said adults would receive a "solidarity card" giving them $25 a month, and children $10, under their new government.
Venezuela has for 15 years maintained currency controls that make it difficult to obtain foreign exchange and prohibit merchants from charging in U.S. currency. A black market does exist, however, where one dollar goes for 231,000 bolivars.
Falcon proposes abandoning the increasingly worthless bolivar in favor of the dollar to attack hyper-inflation.
"Today our future begins," Rodriguez, a Wall Street economist, told a rally to present Falcon's campaign team.
"We find ourselves in a ruined nation. There is only one person to blame: Nicolas Maduro."
VENEZUELA-POLITICS/ FILE - President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he registers his candidacy for re-election at the National Electoral Council (CNE) headquarters in Caracas, Feb. 27, 2018. FILE - President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he registers his candidacy for re-election at the National Electoral Council (CNE) headquarters in Caracas, Feb. 27, 2018.
At Tuesday's event, Falcon taunted Maduro as "the candidate of hunger" and "the candidate of disaster," and announced plans to begin his street campaign in east Venezuela on Wednesday.
Falcon's populist "solidarity card" mirrors an existing "fatherland card" set up by the Maduro government, through which Venezuelans can access welfare programs and sometimes cash giveaways. Falcon, however, mocked the amount given people in bolivars, saying it was not even enough to buy a box of eggs. | 1,269,597 |
The divisive response to The Last Jedi immediately sparked outrage across social media following its release, with many fans and former Star Wars fans alike getting into heated debates about the film's merits. The latest, and arguably most absurd, development in fan entitlement is a group of "fans" who claim they are going to create their own The Last Jedi and that producers are already willing to cover the $200 million price tag.
A "Remake The Last Jedi" Twitter account took to the social media platform to kick off a series of tweets with the message, "Our team of producers is offering to cover the budget for a remake of The Last Jedi in order to save Star Wars. Share this and spread the word to let @RobertIger & @Disney know you want this! This isn't a joke, we're ready to have the convo now!"
The tweet opens up a variety of questions, though the account also launched a website that attempted to explain more about their motivations.
"This is a campaign to provide Disney an opportunity to course correct with the Star Wars franchise. The fans are completely divided and the core goal of Star Wars has been abandoned," the site reads. "The goal is to not make one half of the fandom happy over the other, it is to make a film that the fandom in general as a whole enjoys. The hero archetype's of the original films is what made these so great, it made characters that everyone could relate to regardless of their background and beliefs. No longer having this core element along with poor storytelling, has made the franchise divisive and in disarray."
One of the biggest and most obvious questions was, even without the countless legal ramifications of attempting to make a movie which you own no rights to, the film cost a massive sum, though the account ensured there were producers on board to cover the expenses.
Of the many responses the account offered fans, it responded to one user who pointed out this "remake" wouldn't be able to star Carrie Fisher due to her passing, "Carrie can be kept in with her existing work, and yea believe it or not people in the multibillion dollar movie business can spend $200MM on a movie..."
Another interesting detail on RemakeTheLastJedi.com is a legal disclaimer that actually pledges the money to Disney themselves.
The disclaimer notes, "This is not an attempt to infringe on any copyrights and trademarks of Disney and Lucasfilm. This video is a parody that is aimed to raise awareness for the campaign and offer the money to Disney and Lucasfilm for the sole purpose of remaking The Last Jedi."
The site claims that they have currently raised more than $7 million.
You can head to RemakeTheLastJedi.com to pledge your money to Disney because you didn't like the movie Disney made.
How much money do you think this campaign will ultimately raise? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!
[H/T RemakeTheLastJedi] | 1,269,598 |
, but at night, we could see that they were crashing. We don't know yet whether (the pesticides) are disrupting circadian gene regulation or if this is just some, maybe physiological feedback...but it suggests that, just from a practical perspective, if we want to understand or study these compounds, looking at effects overnight matters a lot."
Additional experiments, in which temperature probes were placed inside outdoor hives, suggested pesticides have profound effects on bees' ability to regulate temperatures inside the nest.
"When temperatures drop, bees lock their wings down and shiver their muscles to generate heat," Crall said. "But what we found was that, in control colonies, even as the temperature fluctuated widely, they were able to keep the temperature in the colony steady to within a few degrees. But the exposed bees, they pretty dramatically lose the capacity to regulate temperature."
In addition to disrupting bees' ability to directly heat or cool the nest, the experiment also revealed that pesticide exposure impacted bees' ability to build an insulating wax cap over the colony.
"Almost all of our control colonies built that cap," Crall said. "And it seems to be totally wiped out in the pesticide-exposed colonies, so they lose this capacity to do this functional restructuring of the nest."
Going forward, Crall said, there are some additional questions raised by the study that he hopes to address.
"This work -- especially on thermoregulation -- opens up a new set of questions, not just about what the direct effects of pesticides are, but how those pesticides impair the ability of colonies to cope with other stressors," he said. "This work suggests that, in particularly extreme environments, we might expect the effects of pesticides to be worse, so it changes both how we go about practically testing agro-chemicals in general, but it points to specific questions about whether we might see stronger declines in certain environments."
Taken together, Crall believes the findings point to the need for tighter regulation of neonicotinoids and other pesticides that may be impacting bees.
"I think we're at a point where we should be very, very concerned about how the ways in which we're changing the environment is undercutting and decimating insect populations that are important not only for the function of every ecosystem...but that are very important for food production," he said. "Our food system is becoming more and more pollinator-dependent over time -- today about a third of food crops are dependent on pollinators, and that's only rising. Up until now, we've had this abundant, natural gift of pollinators doing all this work for us, and now we're starting to realize that isn't a given, so I think we should be very worried about that."
This research was supported with funding from BioBest, the National Science Foundation, the Winslow Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program, the Moore and Sloan Foundations, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award and the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute. | 1,269,599 |
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