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forecast/q/France/ Paris.json") print r.text
After inspecting the output given to us, we can see that the data that we are
interested in, is in the “forecast” key. Back to our program, and print out the
data from that key.
import requests r = requests.get("http://api.wunderground.com/api/your_api_key/forecast/q/France/ Paris.json") data = r.json() print data['forecast']
The result is stored in the variable “data”.
To access our JSON data, we simple use the bracket notation, like this:
data[‘key’].
Let’s navigate a bit more through the data, by adding ‘simpleforecast’
import requests r = requests.get("http://api.wunderground.com/api/your_api_key/forecast/q/France/ Paris.json") data = r.json() print data['forecast']['simpleforecast']
We are still getting a bit to much output, but hold on, we are almost there.
The last step in our program is to add [‘forecastday’] and instead of printing
out each and every entry, we will use a for loop to iterate through the dictionary.
We can access anything we want like this, just look up what data you are
interested in.
In this program I wanted to get the forecast for Paris.
Let’s see how the code looks like.
import requests r = requests.get("http://api.wunderground.com/api/0def10027afaebb7/forecast/q/France/Paris.json") data = r.json() for day in data['forecast']['simpleforecast']['forecastday']: print day['date']['weekday'] + ":" print "Conditions: ", day['conditions'] print "High: ", day['high']['celsius'] + "C", "Low: ", day['low']['celsius'] + "C",''
Run the program.
$ python get_temp_paris.py
Monday: Conditions: Partly Cloudy High: 23C Low: 10C Tuesday: Conditions: Partly Cloudy High: 23C Low: 10C Wednesday: Conditions: Partly Cloudy High: 24C Low: 14C Thursday: Conditions: Mostly Cloudy High: 26C Low: 15C
The forecast feature is just one of many. I will leave it up to you to explore
the rest.
Once you get the understanding of an API and it’s output in JSON, you understand
how most of them work.
More Reading
A comprehensive list of Python APIs
Weather Underground | 1,270,000 |
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — According to the New York Times, the Obama administration on Friday is expected to announce an executive order that every school district in the United States must order a gender-neutral bathroom in public schools.
On Thursday evening, KCAL9’s Serene Branson was at the Menifee Union School District and spoke to people on both sides of the issue.
The hot button issue has hit a boiling point.
“I just think that this is nuts and President Obama is just pushing and pushing and pushing us further and further away from any type values at all,” says Mary Rasar of Menifee.
She said she recently stopped shopping at Target over the issue after the store said that patrons get to use the bathroom they identify with, no questions asked.
“You got to draw the line somewhere, and if you want to give them individual bathrooms, that is completely fine, I have no problem with that, but to say they have to share the same bathroom especially when you’re younger,” Rasar said.
Branson spoke to other shoppers and students at the Countryside Marketplace for their reaction.
“I think that that’s a good think for the schools just to start doing, to have separate bathroom for the children that, you know, don’r really know who they identify with,” said Crystal Edivan.
“I think that it’s fine that if someone wants to identify with whatever sex they are, they should be able to go into that bathroom,” Kelly Purcell said.
“I would be concerned if my son was in the bathroom and there was a female in there and if there was an issue, or maybe something happened, or maybe something didn’t happen,” said Tarra Fox.
In and around West Hollywood, the ruling was met a lot more favorably. To most, it wasn’t a big deal.
“It’s really not any of my business and to each their own,” said one man.
“I think the whole thing is ludicrous,” said another man, “people should use the bathroom they’re comfortable with. And if the concern is safety, then have a bathroom monitor.”
The directive from the Obama administration comes just weeks after a controversy at Santee High School near downtown LA.
About 700 students there lobbied for a gender-neutral bathroom and school administrators gave the students what they wanted. A day after the bathroom was instituted, a scuffle broke out between supporters and and handful of protesters.
Attached to the letter, the Obama administration will include a 25-page document describing “emerging practices” in place in many schools around the country. Those included installing privacy curtains or allowing students to change in bathroom stalls.
While the ruling isn’t a law, per se, schools that don’t abide could face lawsuits and lose federal funding. | 1,270,001 |
Yahoo also said its general counsel and secretary, Ronald S. Bell, would be leaving the company, and would receive no payments in connection with his departure.
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The board's investigation concluded that some senior executives and members of its legal and IT staff knew of the hack in 2014 but “did not properly comprehend or investigate, and therefore failed to act sufficiently upon, the full extent of knowledge,” Yahoo said in the filing. While they took “certain remedial actions,” they should have done more, noting the probe “found that failures in communication, management, inquiry and internal reporting contributed to the lack of proper comprehension and handling” of the massive security breach. The board's probe “did not conclude that there was an intentional suppression of relevant information.”
In a statement, Mayer said she only learned that a large number of user files had been stolen in September 2016. “However, I am the CEO of the company and since this incident happened during my tenure,” she said, “I have agreed to forgo my annual bonus and my annual equity grant this year and have expressed my desire that my bonus be redistributed to our company's hardworking employees, who contributed so much to Yahoo's success in 2016.”
How much Yahoo's 8,500 employees will get if that that bonus is redistributed — or whether they will get higher payouts at all — is unclear. While some media outlets have said Mayer is “giving” her bonus to employees, she did not actually receive it, and only “expressed [her] desire” for that to occur. When asked whether employees will actually receive that money in the form of higher payouts or bonuses, a Yahoo spokeswoman said in an email the company was “still working on that piece” and had no further comment at this time.
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The amount that could be divvied up is also unclear. The value of Mayer's cash bonus for 2016 has not yet gotten final approval by the board's compensation committee, according to a spokeswoman. Mayer's 2012 employment agreement states that her target bonus is two times her salary, or $2 million, with an upper limit of four times her salary, or $4 million. In 2014, her bonus was $1.1 million, according to company fillings, a small portion of the value of her overall compensation, which is made up largely of equity awards and was valued at $42.1 million that year. (Like all executive compensation tallies, that number is based on accounting figures; Mayer's vested actual realized pay was just 60 percent of that number in 2014.)
This isn't the first time Mayer won't receive a cash incentive bonus. Last year, the company said in its proxy statement that before the board made a decision, Yahoo's highest paid executives “requested that they not be considered for a bonus” for 2015 because growth did not meet expectations. Therefore, the value of Mayer's cash incentive bonus for 2015 was zero.
Read also:
AD | 1,270,002 |
. The D-Class I interviewed seemed to be one of them, as he seemed to have a unclear take on events, and made multiple factual errors.
Dr. Robert Min: it seems unlikely, as they have never shown to be that intelligent, plus what do they have to gain from it, besides secrecy?
Dr. Elijah Min: they could get control and ship SCP-XXXX instances to other sites to seriously endanger the foundation.
Dr. Robert Min: Do you have any way of finding these SCP-XXXX instances?
Dr. Elijah Min: Yes, actually we just need to take a buccal smear and then look at the dna. I found that D-2148 has DNA drastically different to most humans, showing that he is in fact, a SCP-XXXX instance.
Dr. Robert Min: great. Have you told anyone else about this yet, or am I the only one?
Dr. Elijah Min: Nope, your the only one. Do you want to meet up at five so we can discuss?
Dr. Robert Min: sure, meet me at my lab at four, I have testing at five. [End Log]
Incident log 4-XXXX: 9 SCP-XXXX instances were found to be imitating foundation personnel such as scientists and D-Class. All 9 SCP-XXXX instances were terminated by lethal injection on 1/4/19.
.
► Audio Log_XXXX-002 ▼ Accessing content. Please stand by. REQUEST="Audio Log_XXXX_002"
…
…
…
[ACCESS: DENIED]
[This data is private. Please input credentials.]
…
…
…
REQUEST="Audio Log_XXXX_002"
CREDENTIALS="RMin/b43ll-S1x3d"
…
…
…
[ACCESS: GRANTED]
[Hello, Dr. Min.] Dr. Robert Min: termination under way in five minutes.
MTF-Delta-6-20: when should I go get them?
Dr. Robert Min: give them 3 minutes, then bring them in.
MTF-Delta-6-2: are you sure you don't want me to get them now? It would be easier for them.
Dr. Robert Min: they're scp's, they don't exactly need sympathy.
MTF-Delta-6-4: well i'm going to get them, are you guys comin, or are you just going to debate ethics until your jaws fall of. We are here to take orders, not give them, so let's go already.
MTF-Delta-6-20: I don't agree with this, but i'll do it if it gets this shit done faster.
Dr. Robert Min: Just go. [End Log]
. | 1,270,003 |
Christa Wittmier, who became one of the most recognized figures on Honolulu’s nightlife scene over the last decade, lost her battle with cancer on Thursday.
She died in Minnesota with family at her side, according to several sources. She was 43.
Known as “SuperCW,” Wittmier waged a well-documented battle with cancer for 3-1/2 years, and became a cause celebre in Oahu’s urban hipster and social circles, which raised money for her treatment and followed her condition. During that time, she co-founded the nonprofit Aloha Cancer Project to help raise awareness and to help other cancer patients.
Wittmier was a popular DJ, former marketing director, event planner and blogger (her “SuperCity” was posted on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser website). She worked at Young’s Market Co. as marketing director for eight years and became a ubiquitous presence at community events and parties. Her blog, supercw.com, became a trusted source for commentary on Honolulu nightlife, paving the way for other bloggers and online entertainment coverage. She received numerous awards for blogging.
Wittmier came to Hawaii while on active duty with the Navy, and also received awards for her military service.
A musician from an early age, she developed DJ skills and won a contest after being invited to compete on somewhat of a lark.
“It was a college thing, and I’m this 30-year-old on stage kicking ass,” she told the Star-Advertiser in 2016. She would go on to become one of the island’s more popular DJs.
Wittmier was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in May 2015. After four months she appeared to be in remission, but a year later Wittmier’s cancer had returned and spread to her liver, lungs and brain.
Despite her condition, she remained active, undergoing holistic treatments, traveling to places like New Zealand and continuing her work promoting cancer awareness. Some of her recent appearances included playing for the season premiere afterparty for “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum P.I.” in September and a gig at The Republik in October. She was also directing a documentary about her experience with cancer.
In December 2016, even as her condition worsened, Wittmier reflected on her experience with a positive attitude and gratification.
“Can you believe it? That’s so crazy,” she said. “I came here in the Navy, and how did I get to do all that? I know why: It’s because you can be whatever you want to be, and that’s what I wanted to do.”
Details on services have yet to be announced. Flash Hansen, a friend of Wittmier’s and a fellow event promoter, said on his Instagram page announcing her death that a celebration of life is likely to be held in February. | 1,270,004 |
Image caption The figures suggest opposition to the EU airline charge is melting away, except in India and China
The vast majority of airlines have conformed with EU rules on reporting carbon dioxide emissions, the European Commission has said.
From next year, aircraft emissions will be included in the EU carbon market in an attempt to increase efficiency.
The EU required airlines to report by March on 2011 emissions as a "dry run"; all did, bar 10 from China and India.
The issue is controversial, with China telling airlines not to take part and US firms mounting a legal challenge.
Some commentators have suggested the outcome could be a full-scale trade war, even though the measure will add only about $3 to the price of a trans-Atlantic flight.
The EU has said it will suspend the requirement to include all flights beginning or ending in the EU in the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) if other countries can agree a genuinely global mechanism that will charge airlines for the contribution they are making to global warming.
Although aviation accounts for only about 2% of global CO2 emissions, it is the fastest-rising sector, and there are fewer technical options for constraining emissions than in areas such as electricity generation, home heating and land transport.
'Dry run'
The requirement for airlines to report 2011 emissions by March this year was a dry run for next year, when the 2012 emissions they report by March 2013 will enter the ETS.
Image caption Hillary Clinton has taken up the cause of US airlines in the past, but they seem to be on board now
Failure to comply at that stage will land the airlines with penalties of 100 euros per tonne of CO2 emitted, and a ban from EU airspace if they refuse to pay.
EU member states have sent letters to the 10 Chinese and Indian airlines that missed the 31 March deadline requiring them to submit their data by mid-June.
Financial penalties are likely to be sought if they do not.
The European Commission calculates that the 10 airlines account for only 3% of the total basket of emissions caused by flights beginning or ending in the EU.
In February, 23 countries that had debated whether to challenge the legality of the EU move under the Chicago Convention, the international aviation treaty, decided not to press ahead.
However, they have left the option open for the future.
EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard also revealed that emissions from sectors covered by the ETS shrank by more than 2% during the course of 2011.
"This good result shows that the ETS is delivering cost-effective emissions reductions," she said.
"It also emphasises why the ETS remains the engine to drive low-carbon growth in Europe."
However, at just under 6 euros ($7.70) per tonne, the carbon price remains far too low to drive significant investment in cleaner technology or practices.
Ms Hedegaard confirmed that the commission is seeking to withdraw a batch of pollution permits from the market in order to drive the price higher.
Follow Richard on Twitter | 1,270,005 |
A new treatment combining shock waves with nanoparticles can successfully treat tumours that are difficult to target using conventional chemotherapy. This is the first time this combined therapy has been tested in live animals. The findings of this pre-clinical study, published in the journal Endocrine-Related Cancer, could lead to the development of more effective therapies for treating life-threatening cancers in the future.
Nanoparticles can be effective carriers of drugs to the tumour site through the blood stream. The particles contain the chemotherapy drugs and deliver them directly to the tumour, which reduces toxic side effects and enhances the effectiveness of treatments. However, in some cancers drug delivery can be compromised due to the disruption of tumour blood flow.
To overcome this problem, researchers led by Dr Catalano at the University of Turin, designed a treatment that combines Extracorporeal Shock Waves (ESW) and nanobubbles (NBs). ESW are sound-like waves that can be focused with high precision, so that the cancerous cells more readily absorb the drugs. NBs are nanoparticles with a gas core that can be loaded with drugs to be released at the tumour site. The combination of NBs and ESW helps to focus the effects of anti-cancer drugs at the tumour site.
In this study, researchers tested this approach on a mouse model of anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), a very aggressive, rare and difficult-to-treat type of cancer. ATC is one of the most lethal cancers - after diagnosis, the average survival rate is just five months. To date, a standard therapy for ATC does not exist and the only approved chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin, has severe side effects and is beneficial in fewer than 22% of cases. Doxorubicin-loaded nanoparticles were previously investigated as a treatment in other types of tumours, but drug delivery was limited. However, this study measured tumour volume once a week for 21 days and found that doxorubicin-loaded NBs combined with ESW significantly reduced tumour volume in comparison to those treated with doxorubicin-loaded NBs and no ESW, standard doxorubicin and no treatment at all. The combined treatment also resulted in lower tumour weight, higher doxorubicin tumour content and more dying tumour cells. The most common side effect of doxorubicin treatment is heart damage, which was significantly lower in animals treated with doxorubicin NBs compared with standard doxorubicin treatment.
"This could be a feasible strategy for the treatment of this and other aggressive solid tumours in which standard chemotherapy remains the only option", says Dr Catalano. "Given the promising results of this preclinical study and the lack of a standard therapy for ATC, the next step will be conducting clinical trials with the hope of improving the cancer treatment and patient quality of life".
Explore further Targeting cancer cells with an implantable drug delivery system
Provided by Society for Endocrinology | 1,270,006 |
Notre Dame is one of the most iconic buildings in the world. Built from 1160 to 1345, the massive cathedral is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Paris and is one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture that exists today. For all its storied past, however, little information survives about the architects and designers who raised the building. That’s where art historian and laser modeler Andrew Tallon has stepped in, with new methods of gathering data about Notre Dame that shed light on some of its earliest history.
The actual laser modeling is done by mounting a laser from a tripod and shooting the gallery, taking time to measure the distance between the scanner and every point it hits. Each one of these points represents a distance — by mapping millions of points from a single location, historians can measure how the building expands and contracts during the day, as well as how it shifts over longer periods of time. By combining the point cloud data generated by the laser scanner with on-site photographs taken at the same time, Tallon has created extremely accurate models of the underlying structure and design of the cathedral, and identified points where the cathedral’s masons either deviated from the original plan or paused work to allow the ground to settle.
Tallon’s research, for example, has found that the Gallery of Kings — the massive, three-doorway facade that dominates one side of the cathedral, had shifted almost a foot out of plumb. Researchers had previously suspected that work had stopped on the area for up to a decade, and this new work suggests why that might have occurred. The masons, realizing that the building was shifting in the thin, sandy soil, halted progress to give the ground time to settle and resumed a decade later.
Other findings from Tallon’s work include data that shows the internal columns of Notre Dame don’t align perfectly, and that workers likely incorporated existing structures in the area as part of the cathedral rather than tearing them out altogether. The flying buttresses, which were often thought to be a later addition to the architecture, were likely installed from the very beginning to counterbalance the effect of the vaulted ceilings (which tended to force the walls outward). External support from flying buttresses would push the walls inward, counterbalancing the vaults. The walls of Notre Dame have scarcely moved since they were constructed — a testament to the exquisitely balanced and counterbalanced supports.
National Geographic has a full update on the process and technology used to create the laser point models and a discussion of the work done at Notre Dame and other Cathedrals. Laser and LIDAR-assisted mapping has become more prominent in recent years, thanks to its ability to show us where long-buried structures or archaeological remains may still exist. Thermal maps and subtle gradation variations can also show remnants of mankind’s activity in an area, even when shifting sands or jungle terrain has obscured the more obvious visual reminders. Human buildings and structures absorb heat differently than surrounding terrain even when buried, which gives us a window into the past when conventional methods or other records come up short. | 1,270,007 |
Tunisia PM forms new government after assassination Published duration 6 February 2013
image caption Protesters flocked to the streets as Chokri Belaid's body was brought for burial
Tunisia is to form a non-partisan government of technocrats to run the country until elections can be held, the prime minister has said.
Hamadi Jebali made the announcement at the end of a day that saw a leading opposition figure killed and protests break out in several major cities.
Anti-Islamist politician Chokri Belaid was shot in the head and neck in Tunis.
His killing was the first political assassination since the Arab Spring uprising of January 2011.
He was shot dead at close range as he left for work by a gunmen who fled on the back of a motorcycle.
Announcing the new government in a nationally televised address, Mr Jebali said he had decided to form a government of "competent nationals without political affiliation".
The new ministers would have a mandate "limited to managing the affairs of the country until elections are held in the shortest possible time," he added.
'Odious assassination'
The killing of Chokri Belaid sparked an outbreak of anger across Tunisia.
image caption Mr Belaid was leaving for work when he was targeted by gunmen
Thousands rallied outside the interior ministry, many chanting slogans urging the government to stand down and calling for a new revolution.
In the centre of Tunis, a police officer was killed during clashes between police and opposition supporters protesting against Mr Belaid's death.
The interior ministry said the 46-year-old died after being hit in the chest by stones thrown by the protesters.
Shortly before the prime minister's announcement, confirmation came in that the army had been deployed in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Arab revolution.
Mr Belaid was a respected human rights lawyer, and a left-wing secular opponent of the government which took power after the overthrow of long-serving ruler Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
The Popular Front (PF), a coalition of opposition groups of which Mr Belaid was a member, said it was calling for a nationwide strike on Thursday to protest against his assassination.
Opposition supporters alleged the governing Islamist party Ennahda - which Mr Belaid frequently criticised - was behind his killing.
But the party's leader Rachid Ghannouchi denounced the killing.
The Islamist-led government said Mr Belaid's murder was an "odious assassination".
Speaking in front of the European Parliament on his visit to Strasbourg, President Marzouki said the murder of Mr Belaid should not affect Tunisia's revolution.
"There are many enemies of our peaceful revolution. And they're determined to ensure it fails," he said.
Referring to Mr Belaid as a "long-standing friend", he said his "hateful assassination" was a threat.
"This is a letter being sent to us that we will refuse to open," the president said. | 1,270,008 |
Rosen was right when he said that it "has now become cross-generational in real life, with adults introducing it to their children." It certainly helped when I worked at a school for North Korean refugee kids. While EFL vocabulary worksheets were a dreaded activity, my refugee scholars did know the English words "mega," "fox," and "pocket." How? Pokémon, of course. It's easier to be the cool teacher when you have a 3DS equipped with a completed Pokédex, and dull phonics lessons phonics suddenly become engaging when they incorporate Pikachu. (His static makes the "z" sound! "ZZZZ!")
This is one of the many anecdotes I've come to appreciate over time. Granted, I'm no sociologist, and this Huffington Post entry definitely didn't collect a sample size large enough for any sort of real thesis. But I do hope it will be received as something more substantial than a love letter to a childhood memory. My hope is to encourage those who critically examine media to look into what I've come to call The Pokémon Effect - the power of a global media franchise to improve group cohesion within a generation, acting as a pervasive networking grease.
I would hope that the children of Millennials benefit from Pokémon as deeply as we have. Almost every comment in our thread seemed to stem from a place of deep gratitude, growth, creativity, and courage. (And if not those, then certainly a sense of humor!)
Perhaps the story that touched me most thread was that of Meg Cialdella, from Texas. She wrote: "My son was old enough to read at a time when a new Pokémon game was being released. I've waited for this moment since he was born, and it did not disappoint. I played Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire with my offspring, nearly two decades after beginning my own adventure in Pokémon: Blue Version. I was overjoyed, and we bonded over the differences between the versions, and the originals versus the remakes. Two Halloweens ago, after the release, my son and I dressed as trainers together. I wore the original Ash costume from the TV show and carried Bulbasaur, while he wore the newest trainer styles and carried a Chespin. Pokémon has a beautiful legacy about respecting choices, being helpful, kindness, teamwork, and strategy, which definitely crosses generational divides. I couldn't be prouder to share this fandom I have been part of for twenty years with my son."
That's something I want to aspire to, as well. Without sounding overly sentimental, one of my goals is to hand down this beloved digital heirloom down to children of my own. I know they will forge new friendships and adventures with it, just as Meg's boy did, and the millions of players who came before him.
This idea was reflected in a Super Bowl ad, in which a father watches a Pokémon battle on TV with his son. As a pet Pikachu glances up at the two, the father leans down and whispers: "You can do that."
And with The Pokémon Effect, he can.
Train on. | 1,270,009 |
Astronomers have spotted an X-ray outburst from a white dwarf in the Small Magellanic Cloud some 200,000 light years away that indicates the compact star is pulling in material from a companion red giant at such a high rate that it may be the fastest growing white dwarf ever observed.
The X-ray emissions also suggest an alternative to the long-held idea that such radiation is generated by fusion reactions in a hot, dense layer of hydrogen and helium packed onto a white dwarf’s surface. That line of reasoning holds that when the weight of accumulated material pulled in from the companion star reaches a critical point, a fusion explosion goes off across the white dwarf’s visible surface.
But data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory indicate another mechanism is at work in the white dwarf binary system known as ASASSN-16oh. The observed low-energy “supersoft” X-rays indicate temperatures of several hundred thousand degrees, hotter than what is seen in the atmospheres of normal stars but cooler than the tens of millions of degrees associated with high-energy events.
If fusion reactions were responsible for the supersoft X-rays detected from ASASSN-16oh, the emissions should have come from an explosion across the white dwarf’s entire visible surface. But data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory show the emissions came from a smaller region. In addition, optical observations show the source is 100 times fainter than visible light from white dwarfs known to be experiencing fusion on their surfaces.
Given no signs of nuclear fusion are present with ASASSN-16oh, the authors of tahe new study in Nature Astronomy offer an alternative explanation. As the white dwarf pulls material away from the companion red giant in a process known as accretion, the captured gas gets hotter and hotter as it spirals inward. The gas then falls onto the white dwarf in a belt where that accretion disk merges with the star’s surface. The rate of accretion varies, and outbursts can occur when material flows in more quickly.
“Our result contradicts a decades-long consensus about how supersoft X-ray emission from white dwarfs is produced,” said co-author Thomas Nelson from the University of Pittsburgh. “We now know that the X-ray emission can be made in two different ways: by nuclear fusion or by the accretion of matter from a companion.”
ASASSN-160h is gaining mass faster than any other known white dwarf. When it eventually grows to the point where it can no longer support its own weight, the star likely will collapse and explode as a Type 1a supernova. Based on the new observations, the white dwarf already is unusually massive and may blow up relatively soon, astronomically speaking.
“The transfer of mass is happening at a higher rate than in any system we’ve caught in the past,” said lead author Tom Maccarone, a professor in the Texas Tech Department of Physics and Astronomy. | 1,270,010 |
clicked when I thought back to my first time having a full blown psychedelic mushroom trip. I took.25g of potent shrooms (dry), where some people say it's a microdose for them, for me I ended up 1km away from my apartment at a nearby beach. I woke up confused and I thought I travelled to another world. I had an ego death experience on 1/4th of a gram.Maybe ever since I took too much LSD my first time, I've been noticeably sensitive to psychs. Or maybe my brain was just designed like that from the beginning. Either way... I wasn't taking any chances this time.These truffles are wet, so the math is quite hard as converting truffles to shrooms isn't equal 100% and then wet to dry is also difficult without knowing the exact psilocybin %. But since I'm not in a lab, I just decided to weigh out a small chunk. It was.05g and I went for it. This was wet, so that means I probably took.005g dry.Nothing happened. I was anxious before and during, but that was probably due to how Pregabalin put me into this daily anxious state. So nothing new. I walked around the centrum of Amsterdam and decided to head back to the hotel. I walked in the day through the red light district (my hotel was not too far away) as I had just parked my car, and took a little over.1g more about an hour later.In total, I had taken.156g which would amount to.015 dry I think. A tiny amount. Most would suggest to do 10-20x that. I might've felt a bit more anxious, but I had 2 Xanax pills at the ready in case something went wrong and I felt a bad trip on the way.The reason I'm doing microdosing is because I don't ever want to do full on psychedelic trips. In fact, I decided to stop psychedelics altogether after I had a bad experience with MDA (the psychedelic version of MDMA). But since I've tried all normal approaches now with doctors and pharmaceuticals to try and heal myself, here I am back to alternative treatments.I will increase my doses slowly. It's been over 1 week now and I will try another microdose soon. I will continue this until a) I begin to feel bad and decide a Xanax is necessary, then I will stop. b) I feel fine but see no positive effects after a while.The proper way to microdose is to space it out every few days and do it in a proper set and setting. I will only do it on days when I have not much to do and it's a good day outside, so I can plan everything out and have no stress for a few hours. It's controversial, but then again... my old youtube life was all about that. Besides crypto, I was very pro-psychedelics and MMJ. It'd be a sin not to try this before going straight ahead to Ketamine infusions which cost a fortune.That's my update so far. | 1,270,011 |
ADEN (Reuters) - Houthi forces denied the United Nations access to a grain storage site in the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on Tuesday, sources familiar with the matter said, hindering efforts to increase food aid to millions facing severe hunger.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
Hodeidah is the entry point for most of Yemen’s humanitarian aid and commercial imports. World Food Programme (WFP) grain stores there have been cut off in the conflict zone for six months, putting the contents at risk of rotting.
A WFP technical team was scheduled to cross the front line between the Iran-aligned Houthi movement forces and the Saudi-backed government on the eastern outskirts of Hodeidah to fumigate the wheat stored in the Red Sea Mills.
But Houthi forces told the WFP team they could not leave Houthi-held areas inside Hodeidah city for “security reasons”, asking the United Nations instead for a way to investigate attacks on the mills.
“The Houthis argued that government forces will target the U.N. and then they will be blamed for it,” one source aware of the discussion said. “(But) if the wheat is not fumigated, it will be lost.”
The WFP regained access to the mills last month, a step hailed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The grain stores there have more than 51,000 tonnes of wheat, enough to feed 3.7 million people.
WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel said a WFP mission to the Red Sea Mills was scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed due to “safety concerns”. Verhoosel declined to give details.
Houthi officials did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Yemeni government officials accused the Houthis of another violation of the peace agreement signed last year which the United Nations has been struggling to implement.
The Houthis and the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi agreed at U.N.-sponsored talks in December to a truce and troop withdrawal from Hodeidah.
But talks aimed at securing a mutual military withdrawal from Hodeidah have stalled despite U.N. efforts to salvage the deal and nudge both sides to agree on steps toward disengagement after four years of war.
Under the deal, the government retreat would free up access to the Red Sea Mills and humanitarian corridors would also be reopened. The warring sides would still need to agree on which road could be used to transport supplies from the site to needy recipients.
The WFP is now reaching about 10 million Yemenis per month with food aid and hopes to scale up to 12 million this year, but sporadic clashes make Hodeidah and its province unsafe despite the ceasefire agreement.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are leading a military coalition that is backing Hadi government forces fighting the Houthis. The war that killed tens of thousands and thrust Yemen to the verge of famine. | 1,270,012 |
By now, you've probably seen the video. You know, the one where a clock face intended for Purdue's Bell Tower detached from a crane, bounced off a cherry picker lift holding two workers, and then fell more than 100 feet, crashing into the ground. It's pretty nuts.
The good news is that no one was hurt. After all, things can and will be replaced by the company, Verdin Company. The family-owned business, based in Cincinnati, has been building and installing clocks and bells for more than 175 years.
Verdin is the oldest family-owned business in all of Ohio, and over the years, has installed more than 100,000 pieces, including several in well-known places.
Walt Disney World clocks, glockenspiel
Those clocks you walk by on "the happiest place on earth?" Verdin put those in. The company also installed a glockenspiel in Epcot's German Village. You can hear it playing inside the clock tower on the hour (just like you can with Purdue's Bell Tower).
Verdin also has glockenspiels in places like the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, Michigan and on the "tree" Punxsutawney Phil comes out of or hides in every year in Pennsylvania.
New York Stock Exchange bell
Before Verdin's bell was installed, a Chinese gong was used at the stock market. In 1903, a brass bell replaced it. A new bell was installed in 2017 by Verdin.
This bell rings twice a day, signaling the opening and closing of trading. Just in case the main one gets stolen, Verdin made two extra.
IU's red clocks
An iconic part of the Bloomington campus, each of the clocks weighs 500 pounds. Recent upgrades to the clocks included adding more efficient motors, new LED lightbulbs, and of course, a fresh coat of red paint.
You'll probably notice a similarity if you watch professional golf. Verdin does those clocks too.
Interactive art installations in Cincinnati
In Verdin's hometown, they've created pieces that require a real hands-on approach.
In 2014, the company put together a 14-foot music box that stands in Cincinnati's Pendleton neighborhood. Called a "Spinnradl," it plays two songs when you pull the crank:
A ragtime "Coney Island Dip," which once played on the Island Queen steamer, A German-American dance tune called "Spinnradle"
A year later, Verin put in a 19-foot long foot piano in Smale Riverfront Park. Each of its 32 keys is connected to individual bronze bells that hang above.
If you're not too great on it, don't worry. More than 100 songs, like "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "America the Beautiful" were pre-programmed on the device too.
Nate Chute is a producer with the USA Today Network. Follow him on Twitter at @nchute. | 1,270,013 |
Microsoft Announces Launch Details for Xbox
(May 17, 2001) Microsoft Corp. has announced the North American launch details of its new Xbox video game system. Starting November 8, 2001, Xbox consoles will be available for purchase at retail outlets throughout North America for an estimated retail price of $299. Microsoft says that the games coming out for Xbox will "blur the lines between fantasy and reality." On Nov. 8, Xbox will hit the market and redefine how people think about and play video games, said Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer at Microsoft. Xbox is going to change video games the way MTV changed music. Your games are never going to be the same. Microsoft detailed its North American launch plans at a press conference at the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2001, one of the worlds largest annual games industry trade shows. During the press conference, Microsoft also announced strengthened relationships with console game studios Capcom Co. Ltd. and Sega Entertainment Inc., for delivery of high quality video games on the Xbox. Capcom confirmed that it will develop three games for Xbox, including two Xbox exclusives: DinoCrisis 3 (tentative title), the latest in the famed Dino Crisis series produced by Shinji Mikami, and BRAIN-BOX (code name and tentative title), an original robot simulation game also produced by Mikami. In addition, the popular game Onimusha will be optimized for Xbox and produced by Keiji Inafune. Sega announced that it is creating Xbox versions of its Sega Sports 2K2 games, as well as Crazy Taxi Next and House of the Dead 3. The games will ship in the Xbox 2001 launch window in North America. Sega also committed to design its Sega Sports 2K3 lineup for the Xbox broadband online game service, which is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2002. Having Capcom and Sega on board reinforces the incredible quality and selection of games that Xbox will deliver this fall, Bach said. The creative artists at these studios will not only deliver great Xbox games, but they will help us establish the benchmark for great gaming experiences to come." Microsoft also announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Warner Bros. and a signed alliance with Universal Interactive Services Inc. to create Xbox games. Microsoft and Warner Bros. will develop and publish Xbox games based on Steven Spielbergs movie, A.I., that will hit movie theaters June 29. Microsoft will publish three action-packed adventure AI games, considered interactive sequels to the movie, two of which are slated for release this fall in conjunction with the consoles launch in North America. Microsoft and Universal Interactive Services will develop an Xbox game Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon, developed by Ronin Entertainment. It will also be published exclusively on Xbox. Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon is a cinematic, fast-paced action game that allows gamers to play as the legendary martial arts master in his latest feature film. > Return to 2001 Video Game Industry Reports Main Page
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DURING THE Olympics most countries will have “national hospitality houses” in London to entertain athletes, VIPs and patriotic fans. The Brazilian house is situated in the historic Somerset House; the African countries are using the verdant spaces of Kensington Gardens; the Danish are taking over St Katherine’s Dock and the Belgians will be using the 11th-century buildings of Inner Temple. The Irish house will be in a pub in King’s Cross.
The idea of the houses is to provide a place for fans to congregate to cheer on their country’s team (with sporting action streamed live on giant TV sets) and for countries to assert their national identity through a series of events and concerts.
Dara O Briain and Ardal O’Hanlon have been named “ambassadors” for the Irish house which will be situated at the Big Chill bar on London’s Pentonville Road – just across the road from King’s Cross station which has direct transport links to the Olympic Park. Open every day from 10am until 2am, the Irish house will feature appearances from O Briain and O’Hanlon, Sonia O’Sullivan, Barry McGuigan and a host of Irish athletes competing at the Games.
Live music and entertainment will also be provided with a roof terrace doubling as a barbecue area. Bands lined up to play at the house include the fast-rising Dublin hip-hop act the Original Rude Boys.
Organised by THG (The Hospitality Group) Sports, a sports ticketing and hospitality service, the Big Chill venue will “create a vibrant Irish atmosphere that delivers all the elements of a great night out” says the press release. “Jack’s Bar, in the basement of the venue, will recreate the atmosphere of the Father Ted television comedy and reflect the personality of Fr Jack from the show,” the organisers say. Jameson’s Irish Whiskey is also contributing to the venue.
“We want the Irish Olympic house to be the No 1 party destination at the Games,” says James Sinton from THG. “We are working with some of Ireland’s top artists to ensure we can replicate the atmosphere and excitement of a true Irish night out. We will be creating word of mouth and social media excitement which, we believe, will drive high levels of repeat visitors to the Irish Olympic house, making it the No 1 entertainment destination for visitors during the Olympics.”
Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, says: “The London Games are so geographically close to us that we are treating it as a ‘home’ Olympics. Therefore we feel a strong obligation to cater for Irish people travelling to the event to support Team Ireland and to the Irish diaspora living in the UK. The Irish Olympic house will undoubtedly be a magnet for our supporters due to its excellent central location and superb facilities.”
* This article was amended on July 24th, 2012 to correct a factual error
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France's presidential rivals face off tonight in the second televised candidates debate with the result of the upcoming election on a knife-edge.
Even before either has opened their mouths, tonight’s clash, to be broadcast to millions, is a powerful symbol of the political earthquake that has already changed France’s political landscape.
Until two weeks ago no candidates debate had ever been held before the first round of a French presidential election.
This time all 11 candidates, rather than just the five front runners, will be taking part, creating both a historic and colourful piece of political theatre.
Even by the standards of French politics, which tend to include a vast spectrum of ideological hues, the panel will be diverse - it will include three representatives of parties on the right, four drawn from the left and four “independents”. Sparks are sure to fly.
The candidates of the two parties that have shared power since 1958 have struggled to be heard with conservative former prime minister Francois Fillon battling a financial scandal involving his British-born wife and left-wing Benoit Hamon regarded by many as too radical.
The rivals are having to speak to the whole of France from the very beginning, in the hope of riding what appears to be an almost revolutionary thirst for change all the way to the Elysée Palace.
Two very different political outsiders - Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron- have seen their position in the polls strengthen so far that more than half of the French electorate appears now, as in the Brexit referendum and in the US election, to be preparing to vote not so much for a change of government as for a change of regime.
In one corner sits Ms Le Pen, the far-right leader who wants to withdraw from the EU and, rather Trump-like, to make France great again.
In other sits Mr Macron, the independent centrist who hopes to become the first French president ever to win without an established party behind him and having never been elected to any office.
The latest poll showed Ms Le Pen, with 25 per cent in the first round, one point ahead of Mr Macron and six points ahead of Mr Fillon.
Although three hours long, tonight’s debate should be gripping from start to finish: It will be a debate about the very soul of the country.
During the last debate, Mr Hamon summed it up best when each of the candidates was asked at the outset what kind of president they would be. The socialist was the only one to turn the question around, by asking the viewers what sort of a people they wanted to be. This, he said, was their opportunity to decide. And he was right. | 1,270,016 |
. She tops the Conference in average minutes played (36.9)and steals (2.9) in addition to her 19 double-doubles. The Cowgirls' senior guard was also the only player to average a double-double in Big 12 play with league-game highs of 18.4 points and 11.4 rebounds along with 2.7 steals and 38.4 minutes played. She tallied double-doubles in 13 of the 18 conference games. Martin picked up a season-high five Big 12 Player of the Week awards. Her 35 points at Missouri State were the most in an individual game this season while her 32 points versus Texas Tech tied for the most in a conference outing. Her co-defensive player of the year honor was also a first for Oklahoma State.Boyette is the Big 12's top shot blocker with an average of 3.1 for the season and 3.6 in conference games. She pulled down 9.5 rebounds per game in league play and 9.1 per contest in all games to rank third in the Big 12. Boyette also contributes 12 points a contest and had 12 double-doubles with eight in Big 12 games while starting all 29 contests for second-place Texas. She is the Longhorns' first defensive player of the year award winner.In her first season with the Lady Bears, Jones has started 27 of 31 games and led the team in scoring in Big 12 games with 14.4 points per contest to rank seventh in the conference. For the season, she is second on the team with 14.5 points per game, which is eighth in the Big 12. The junior guard is also second on the team and fourth in the league with 4.0 assists, despite playing alongside the nation's assists leader (Niya Johnson). Her 3-point percentage (.397) ranks eighth while her.765 free throw mark is 10th. Jones has played her best against ranked teams with an average of 19.5 points in those outings.Tynice Martin is West Virginia's first freshman of the year honoree since joining the Big 12 in 2012-13. She has played in all 31 of West Virginia's games and is third on the team with 9.7 points per game. The rookie guard improved her scoring average in conference games to 11.2 to rank second on the team and help WVU to a third place Big 12 finish after tying for seventh last season. Martin has contributed double-digit scoring in 12 conference games and made 22 consecutive free throws. She was a two-time Big 12 Freshman of the Week recipient.Pierre-Louis comes in off the Oklahoma bench to lead the Big 12 in field goal percentage with a.625 clip in all games and a.633 mark in league games. She averages 9.3 points and 4.7 rebounds for the season with 10.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game in conference matchups. Pierre-Louis reached double-figure scoring in nine conference contests with three 20-point performances.The All-Big 12 honors were chosen by head coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes. | 1,270,017 |
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ART Grand Prix boss Sebastien Philippe believes Formula 1 development deals can prove to be an unhelpful distraction for up-and-coming drivers.
Philippe's ART team fields Mercedes F1 junior George Russell, Renault academy driver Jack Aitken and Honda protege Nirei Fukuzumi in GP3, all pictured, as well as Honda-backed Nobuharu Matsushita in Formula 2.
It also took Ferrari academy member Charles Leclerc to the 2016 GP3 title.
Although F1 development roles offer the chance to impress top-level squads, Philippe reckons the additional workload means young drivers sometimes struggle to stay focused on their primary targets in junior categories.
"It never helps, to be honest," he told Autosport.
"I now have quite a big experience of having drivers with F1 deals; Jack has his with Renault, George with Mercedes, I also have Fukuzumi with Honda [and] in the past I had Leclerc with Ferrari.
"I think it's very difficult in their minds to manage this because as we all know their dream is to be in F1 and sometimes to be very close like this can be difficult to keep focused on the main thing, which is GP3 this year for [Russell, Aitken and Fukuzumi].
"It's a hard job to make sure that their first priority is to win the title when you are also having a job in F1.
"I think it's more something that could play against you than with you."
Asked how he kept Leclerc, who made four F1 practice appearances for the Haas team in 2016, focused on his main goal, Philippe explained that constant communication was key.
"I had hard work saying that to Charles and he did a perfect job, [as] we had a lot of discussions to make sure that he was keeping his focus in GP3," he said.
"His goal of going into F1 could only [come] through a title in GP3 so I talked with him a lot and I will do the same with the others."
ART has won the GP3 drivers' and teams' championships for the last two years and Russell topped the first pre-season test at Estoril.
Dorian Boccolacci went fastest for Trident in the next two tests at Barcelona and Valencia, but Philippe is confident of his team's form heading to the first round at Barcelona this weekend.
"I really don't take too much importance for performance in testing," he said.
"Sometimes you see some drivers performing well in tests and after you don't see them back during the season and others who don't perform very well and are doing a good job afterwards.
"[My drivers] have learned and understood quite a lot and they are as optimistic as me for the first race.
"We used testing to learn each other and the different way of working the car and the Pirelli tyres, which are quite different from other categories." | 1,270,018 |
india
Updated: Nov 25, 2015 11:13 IST
Bollywood star Aamir Khan, whose comments over growing intolerance in India has drawn the ire of right-wing Hindus, has asked his wife Kiran and their child to leave Mumbai for a few days for the sake of their safety, a source close to the family told Hindustan Times on Tuesday.
Khan, 50, is under attack from the BJP and other Hindu groups for revealing his wife had suggested moving abroad following a spate of communal incidents in the country. Noisy protests have been reported from outside his residence in Mumbai as well as Patna, where angry Hindu activists painted his posters with black ink before setting them on fire.
“Aamir has asked Kiran to leave Mumbai for 2-3 days since he has been worried about her safety. They have decided to not talk further on this issue,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
“The actor feels that he has already expressed his opinion on the matter and has nothing to clarify.”
Read: For revealing intolerance fears, radicals brand Aamir a traitor
Neither the actor nor his wife took calls from HT through Tuesday.
A complaint has also been registered at a police station in New Delhi against Khan who made his comments over intolerance at a media awards event in the city on Monday.
“Kiran and I have lived all our lives in India. For the first time, she said, should we move out of India? That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make to me,” Khan had said.
“She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day. That does indicate that there is a sense of growing disquiet.”
Khan’s anxiety about his family’s safety may not be misplaced as a barrage of controversial Hindu leaders such as BJP MP Yogi Adityanath and VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi fired a barrage of shots at him.
“Out of Pakistan, Syria, Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel, they (Aamir and Shah Rukh Khan) should disclose the name of the country where they want to go. We will arrange tickets for them,” said Prachi.
For his part, Adityanath said: “Those who want to leave (India) must not be stopped.”
A complaint was also registered at a police station in Delhi against him.
Senior ministers also spoke out against Khan but the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have backed the popular artist.
Khan has been sucked into a swirling debate over growing intolerance in the country with opposition parties accusing tacit approval by the ruling BJP was behind the spike in sectarian violence, such as Mohammad Ikhlaq’s mob lynching and the killing of Dalit children in Faridabad.
Read: Police complaint against Aamir Khan over intolerance remark | 1,270,019 |
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A grandmother was washed out into the Icelandic sea while posing for photos on an “Iceberg Throne” when a large wave dislodged the chunk of ice, sending it drifting away from shore.
Earlier this week, Catherine Streng received several text messages and photos from her father about his trip to Iceland with his mother, detailing the grandmother’s misadventure. Streng shared the near-disastrous tale of her grandmother on social media.
“My grandmother almost got lost at sea in Iceland today,” Streng wrote, alongside some photos.
READ MORE: Jaw-dropping ‘dragon aurora’ engulfs Iceland’s night sky
The funny-yet-scary images show the grey-haired woman sitting on a chunk of ice in the shape of a lounge chair.
“Iceberg queen,” reads the photo caption her father crafted.
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Another image shows the elderly woman, still sitting on the iceberg, floating away into the Icelandic waters.
“Lost her kingdom when she drifted out to see! [sic],” reads the photo caption.
The woman was rescued by another tourist nearby, who happened to be a boat captain, as he waded into the water to grab the grandmother.
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Streng shared the conversation she had with her father about the incident with Storyful, and explained to the news service exactly how the entire situation unfolded.
Streng said her family is based in Texas but they enjoy travelling and it didn’t surprise her that “my grandmother and father decided to go to Iceland.”
“My father described [the incident] the following way,” Streng said. “She ascended the throne after a wave had pulled back and left it briefly exposed on the beach. Then a wave washed in and dislodged the ice throne, rocking it from side to side. When the wave retreated, it lifted the dislodged throne and carried her out with the tide.”
READ MORE: How Instagram has transformed how people choose their next vacation destination
Streng noted her father has a PhD in English and was an English teacher “so he’s pretty good with imagery.”
Speaking with ABC News, the grandmother had a good laugh about the incident.
“[The iceberg] was shaped like an easy place to sit, you can tell by looking at the shape of it. And I thought ‘Well that looks like fun,’” the woman said. “But when I got on, it started to totter and a wave was coming in, a very large wave came in and made the throne rock and I could tell I was slipping off.
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“I don’t weigh very much so, it was a little easier to float off with me I guess,” the grandmother said.
Good times for granny. | 1,270,020 |
Britain accuses Russia of trying to “destabilise” Ukraine ahead of national elections, following the seizure of regional government buildings in eastern Ukraine.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament on Tuesday that Moscow was behind pro-Russian protests in the cities of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk, and was trying to make it harder for Ukraine to “operate as a democratic state”.
“There can be no justification for this action, which bears all the hallmarks of a Russian strategy to destabilise Ukraine,” he said.
“This is something we have to expect in the run-up to Ukrainian presidential elections on 25 May.”
His comments follow those made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei lavrov, who dismissed US suggestions that eastern Ukrainian unrest was part of a Russian plan.
“With regard to the question about who was preparing and who is preparing the events in Ukraine, our American partners are probably trying to analyse the situation attaching their own habits to others,” Mr Lavrov said.
‘Anti-terrorist’
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian authorities moved to end protests in Kharkiv – and launched an “anti-terrorist” operation, arresting 70 “separatists” who had seized the regional government headquarters.
On his Facebook page, Interim Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said: “An anti-terrorist operation has been launched. The city centre is blocked along with metro stations. Do not worry. Once we finish, we will open them again.”
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency that those detained were suspected of “illegal activity related to separatism, the organisation of mass disorder, damage to human health” and breaking other laws.
On Monday night, protesters set a fire on the steps of the regional administration building (see video, below). On Monday official buildings were also seized in Luhansk and in Donetsk – where protesters declared the city was a separate republic and called for a referendum on joining Russia.
Kiev has accused Russia of being behind the protest, calling the incidents “the Crimean scenario”.
However, the Russian foreign ministry has called on the Ukrainian government to stop any military action which it said was tasked with suppressing anti-government protest.
“We call for an immediate halt to military preparations which could lead to an outbreak of civil war,” the ministry said in a statement.
But Nato’s secretary general has urged Russia to “step back” from Russia’s border to avoid a “serious escalation”.
“Events in eastern Ukraine are a great concern, I urge Russia to step back,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. “Any further move to eastern Ukraine would represent a serious escalation rather than de-escalation.”
He added that Russia had to pull back the “tens of thousands of troops” that had massed on Ukraine’s borders. | 1,270,021 |
PUYALLUP, Wash. – Sometimes, you really want that last chicken nugget.
Three teenagers were arrested Monday after they became enraged that a Puyallup Jack in the Box shorted their order and pulled a gun on workers at a drive-thru window, the Pierce County sheriff’s office said.
According to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s office:
The Jack in the Box on Meridian Ave. S. in South Hill was busy Monday afternoon, and there was a long wait at the drive-thru. When the car in question got to the window, the teenagers copped an attitude with employees.
After she got her food, the 19-year-old woman who was driving said workers forgot her drink and didn’t give her enough nuggets. She then said there was something in her drink and threw the cup through the window at an employee.
The employee closed the window, and the driver and a 14-year-old girl who was a passenger got out of the car and began punching the window and cursing. A group of employees finally went to the window to see if the car had left, and the passenger pulled a handgun and pointed it at them.
The employees dived to the floor and the car left, but witnesses had written down the license-plate number. Deputies went to the house where the car was registered.
When they got to the home, the driveway was empty but deputies looked in the windows and saw the car they were looking for in the garage. They knocked on the door, and eventually the homeowner opened and let the deputies come in to take a look.
The suspect was nowhere to be found in the house, but the deputies saw an access-panel to the attic in the garage. When they opened it, they found the 19-year-old driver hiding out with a male.
The driver was arrested on three counts of first-degree assault.
Meanwhile, a deputy in the neighborhood found a 14-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man who had also been in the car walking in the neighborhood. The man took off running when the sergeant asked to talk to him, and the girl was placed in the back of the police car after she admitted she’d been at the Jack in the Box.
Eventually, a deputy tackled the man after he tried and failed to jump over a fence, and the sergeant found a stolen 9mm handgun with 14 hollow-point bullets in his pocket.
The man was booked for unlawful possession of a firearm and resisting arrest.
The girl in the back of the police car grew angry as all this was happening, and tried to kick out the car windows. She screamed and cursed at deputies and told them none of it would’ve happened if the Jack in the Box worker had given them the right food.
She was booked into Remann Hall for assault, possession of Xanax and resisting/obstructing law enforcement. | 1,270,022 |
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The study from Dr. Jarred Younger of the University of Alabama at Birmingham is entitled “Advanced Non-Invasive Analysis in ME/CFS Diagnosis and Treatment Decisions.” This study will use a magnetic resonance spectroscopic thermometry (MRSt) technique to assess absolute temperature across the entire brain. This technique allows researchers to investigate the pathophysiology (in other words, the functional changes that accompany the disease), of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
Defining the pathophysiology of ME/CFS is vital to the development of effective treatments.
Dr. Younger theorizes that ME/CFS results from “low-level inflammation in the brain” and that chronic activation of certain connective tissues “provokes the release of proinflammatory agents that interact with neurons to cause symptoms of fatigue, pain sensitivity, and cognitive and mood disruption.” He continues that “MRSt may be able to detect that neuroinflammation by detecting the increased metabolic demand created by activated immune cells that overwhelm the cooling effect of the circulating blood.” If his theory proves to be true, neuroinflammation may be observed as a discrepancy between brain and core body temperatures.
For his preliminary study, Dr. Younger will examine 20 women with ME/CFS and 20 age-matched healthy controls. Their temperatures will then be assessed throughout the entire brain, yielding approximately 500 assessments of brain temperature.
Five distinct hypotheses will be tested:
1) The average whole-brain temperature of the ME/CFS group will be significantly higher than that of the control group.
2) The brain-body temperature dissociation (brain temperature minus core temperature) will be significantly greater in the ME/CFS group than in the control group.
3) Across the entire brain, ME/CFS individuals will show greater temperature variance than will controls, indicating areas of abnormal temperature elevation.
4) On whole-brain temperature maps, ME/CFS individuals will show discrete areas of temperature elevation in areas associated with fatigue and malaise.
5) In the ME/CFS group, severity of fatigue will be correlated with higher whole-brain temperature.
If these hypotheses are confirmed, this experiment will create an objective test of ME/CFS pathology that will indicate the presence of neuroinflammation. This test would become the first completely non-invasive tool for detecting neuroinflammation and would allow for safe and inexpensive longitudinal testing that can’t be accomplished with a PET scan.
This study will also gather the first whole-brain metabolic data in ME/CFS, which will be made available to other researchers for secondary analyses.
We hope this non-invasive scanning technique will aid in ME/CFS diagnosis the development of new ME/CFS treatments.
Read this study’s abstract here: https://solvecfs.org/advanced-non-invasive-analysis-in-mecfs-diagnosis-and-treatment-decisions/ | 1,270,024 |
Science & Exploration European boost to the all-in-one Bartolomeo service for the Space Station 23/10/2019 2676 views 58 likes
Quick access to space and high-speed data transfer are paving the way for competitive science on the International Space Station. The Bartolomeo external platform received a boost today as ESA and Airbus confirmed their interest in using this new space-based vantage point for several experiments.
The Bartolomeo service will provide end-to-end access for external payloads on the Station. A new community of start-ups and space entrepreneurs will benefit from an unobstructed view of Earth, direct control of experiments from the ground and the possibility of retrieving samples. The International Space Station has hosted around 370 European experiments over the last two decades. However, the demand for experiment slots far outstrips supply.
Bartolomeo signature at IAC 2019 “Bartolomeo offers an attractive and competitive space platform for new users looking to reduce costs and shorten turnaround times,” said David Parker, ESA’s Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, while signing a statement of intent at the 70th annual International Astronautical Congress. “Commercialisation is part of our vision to secure the continued presence of humans on the Space Station and beyond. This innovative, cost-effective approach is key for missions to the Moon and Mars,” he added. In a press statement, Airbus acknowledged it is “excited about the evolving interest of European customers,” following the signature of a partnership agreement with ESA last year.
The science must go on Columbus laboratory The door is now open to allocate new science to the Bartolomeo platform, named after the younger brother of Christopher Columbus. The two brothers will be united in space – Bartolomeo will be mounted on the forward side of the Columbus laboratory. The first experiment to find its science spot will be the Multi-Needle Langmuir Probe, a payload made in Norway to control the electric potential of a spacecraft or satellite platform with an electron emitter. New experiments such as ESA’s exobiology facility are increasing the Station’s capabilities for investigating the study of life in space.
ICE Cubes facility One of the main instruments to do this is an ultraviolet-visible spectrometer. Its technology was set to run for 75 days in the Station’s internal ICE Cubes facility to help refine the final product. Another experiment planned for Bartolomeo is being developed by France’s space agency CNES to investigate the ageing of new materials during spaceflight.
Getting ready The SpaceX Dragon approaches the International Space Station Bartolomeo is set for launch in March 2020 on a SpaceX Dragon cargo ferry, the SpX-20 flight. During the first all-female spacewalk last Friday, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Cristina Koch completed the installation of the adapters on the outside of Europe’s Columbus laboratory to prepare for this new platform. ESA and Airbus are currently working to simplify the contracts for all scientific ESA missions on Bartolomeo. | 1,270,025 |
{")) Output: &cc.StructOrUnion{ · Case: 1, · Token: example121.c:1:2: UNION "union", }
Pos reports the position of the first component of n or zero if it's empty.
String implements fmt.Stringer.
❖ type StructOrUnionSpecifier struct { Case int IdentifierOpt *IdentifierOpt StructDeclarationList *StructDeclarationList StructOrUnion *StructOrUnion Token xc.Token Token2 xc.Token // contains filtered or unexported fields }
StructOrUnionSpecifier represents data reduced by productions:
StructOrUnionSpecifier: StructOrUnion IdentifierOpt '{' StructDeclarationList '}' | StructOrUnion IDENTIFIER // Case 1 | StructOrUnion IdentifierOpt '{' '}' // Case 2
Example Code: fmt.Println(exampleAST(117, "\U00100002 struct { int i; } (")) Output: &cc.StructOrUnionSpecifier{ · StructDeclarationList: &cc.StructDeclarationList{ · · StructDeclaration: &cc.StructDeclaration{ · · · SpecifierQualifierList: &cc.SpecifierQualifierList{ · · · · TypeSpecifier: &cc.TypeSpecifier{ · · · · · Case: 3, · · · · · Token: example117.c:1:11: INT "int", · · · · }, · · · }, · · · StructDeclaratorList: &cc.StructDeclaratorList{ · · · · StructDeclarator: &cc.StructDeclarator{ · · · · · Declarator: &cc.Declarator{ · · · · · · Linkage: None, · · · · · · Type: int, · · · · · · DirectDeclarator: &cc.DirectDeclarator{ · · · · · · · Token: example117.c:1:15: IDENTIFIER "i", · · · · · · }, · · · · · }, · · · · }, · · · }, · · · Token: example117.c:1:16: ';', · · }, · }, · StructOrUnion: &cc.StructOrUnion{ · · Token: example117.c:1:2: STRUCT "struct", · }, · Token: example117.c:1:9: '{', · Token2: example117.c:1:18: '}', } Example (Case1) Code: fmt.Println(exampleAST(118, "\U00100002 struct a (")) Output: &cc.StructOrUnionSpecifier{ · Case: 1, · StructOrUnion: &cc.StructOrUnion{ · · Token: example118.c:1:2: STRUCT "struct", · }, · Token: example118.c:1:9: IDENTIFIER "a", } Example (Ca | 1,270,026 |
’s no white person alive who is the furthest from racism. You might be a great person, but it’s important to acknowledge how racism and white privilege manifests in our lives, especially systemically. You made a serious error and have a responsibility to own up, fix it and offset the damage. I don’t think that’s happened. There’s a lot WHIRL can do to be proactive, but I strongly urge you to avoid Wendy Bell’s mistakes and take a better path. Schedule anti-racism workshops in-house, write about the work of indigenous women in this region, etc. You can do better than she did.
Why the Wendy Bell reference? Because earlier in the week, it came to light that Point Park University has asked her to keynote a social media conference, a decision met with backlash by students and alumni. Bell has since stepped down and replaced with a panel led by Tony Norman.
See what I mean about rinse and repeat? Pittsburgh is awash in nice affluent white lady media figures, but sorely lacking in Elsie Hillmans.
I could make a list of examples of getting it wrong of late.
Point Park University invites Wendy Bell to keynote a social media conference a year after she lost her job for racialized elements in her social media content. White Democrat men rally behind white Democrat man to replace Natalia Rudiak on City Council, reducing women’s voice at the table by 25% and still say they think more women should run for office. Oh, and his opponent is a more qualified white woman. Women’s March on Washington exposing the lack of intersectionality among local feminists Planned Parenthood Counterprotest spearheaded by cis het men. Indivisible Pittsburgh organizing meeting bringing further exposure to the rift between two Pittsburghs
The Whirl situation is not an isolated event. I suspect white women in Pittsburgh are not paying attention and keep stepping into the same mistakes because our organizing foundation is not solid.
I predict this will continue for the foreseeable future. Everyone feels they are at least partially right in these situations and there’s that phrase ‘good intentions’ bandied about to the point that it deserves mention in the Pittsburghese dictionary. The disparity in resources, the influence of socially conservative faith communities and fiscally conservative corporateers, the dearth of independent media and the simple fact that most Pittsburgh residents couldn’t tell you a single fact about the indigenous residents of this region gives me a less than hopeful point of view.
So I reached out to Lenora Dingus, a local Seneca woman for her thoughts. She graciously sent them to me and I opted to publish them under separate cover so they are not lost in my own framing of the situation. Please read her feedback. I think you might find some hope there.
I do hope Whirl proves all of us wrong and takes solid, dramatic action to repair the damage that they’ve perpetuated. It is within their power to do so. They just have to be willing to ask and listen. | 1,270,027 |
Theresa May is struggling with two errant cabinet ministers whom she has been urged to sack. And that's aside from those tangled up in Westminster's sexual misconduct scandal.
Priti Patel, the International Development Secretary, held numerous undisclosed meetings in Israel (including with the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) and misled the press about them by suggesting the Foreign Office knew of her visit. She then issued an astonishing apology – which you can read on the government website – correcting her previous remarks to the Guardian basically line-by-line.
But the Foreign Office can claim no moral high ground, with its secretary of state Boris Johnson potentially condemning a British woman to five more years in an Iranian prison. He told a select committee that 38-year-old Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in the country "simply teaching people journalism" – a comment that contradicts her claim to be on holiday. The Iranian authorities are bringing her back to court on charges of "propaganda against the regime".
Opposition politicians are calling on the Prime Minister to fire these ministers. The HuffPost says May reprimanded Patel yesterday morning, reminding her of her "obligations" to comply with the ministerial code, but she remains in her position. The PM is also looking at tightening the ministerial code.
The Foreign Office said Johnson's remarks had been misinterpreted, but the Times has the story that senior Tories are preparing to call for Johnson to resign unless he owns his mistake; he is being urged to make a Commons statement.
But it doesn't look like either of them are going anywhere. This puts May's weakness in a stark light – under any other circumstances, argues James Kirkup in the Spectator, Patel would have been sacked; her apology is "an extraordinary statement" that "says something quite profound about the extraordinary politics of our times".
Yes, a prime minister with more parliamentary support would have felt empowered to sack blundering ministers like Patel and Johnson rather than tinkering around with the ministerial code. Yet there is something else at play here that existed well before May lost the Tories their majority.
Civil servants have long complained that the PM has tried to run government like she ran the Home Office. Micromanaging, disregarding the priorities of non-domestic departments, and therefore pushing certain ministers to go rogue and run their departments like fiefdoms in response to an untrusting No 10. (The Department for Exiting the European Union has similarly alienated other departments, behaving like a "school bully" to some officials).
Indeed, when Patel (one of cabinet's most zealous Brexiteers) was made International Development Secretary, it was thought that this was basically to get her abroad and out of the way. It sort of worked for a bit, but the Israel case is the logical conclusion of such a plan. And it didn't work at all with Johnson, who has stuck his oar in on Brexit and domestic policy as he pleases.
Patel and Johnson may be unsuitable ministers, but this reflects a prime minister who is not the most suited to running a government. | 1,270,028 |
He's done it: Sergei Lavrov just told the U.N. Security Council that U.S. coordination with terrorist groups in Syria warrants a full, impartial investigation.
In a carefully-worded address given in New York on Wednesday, Russia's Foreign Minister cited recent "coincidences" which have undermined the cease-fire agreement in Syria — and allowed ISIS and Al-Nusra to launch successful attacks:
Lavrov didn't mince his words during his address to the Security Council Coalition strikes on government troops positions at Deir ez-Zor on September 16 is a blatant violation of the cessation of hostilities regime. Furthermore, right after those strikes, ISIS forces attacked government troops. On September 19, there was another unacceptable provocation. I am referring to the bombing of a UN humanitarian convoy near Aleppo on a territory controlled by the armed opposition. Incidentally, it should be noted that on the same day, September 19, in the same area known as the Ramus road, Jabhat al-Nusra and allied detachments mounted a fierce attack on government forces. As a result, the jihadists advanced to Neighbourhood 1070. I am not trying to make any accusations. However, I am convinced that such coincidences call for serious analysis and investigation. We insist on the most thorough and impartial probe into the attack against the humanitarian convoy. There are many indications that it could have been a rocket or artillery attack. Initially that was how it was reported. Then they started mentioning helicopters and then aircraft. Therefore it is probably necessary to refrain from emotional responses and to not immediately grab the microphone and make comments, but conduct a thorough and professional investigation.
It's difficult to overstate what Lavrov's statements will mean going forward: In the most diplomatic way possible, Lavrov just accused the United States of military coordination with ISIS and Al-Nusra. Or, at the very least, he is suggesting that the U.S. acted with full knowledge that these terrorists groups would immediately benefit.
Lavrov's comments about the changing narratives of the aid convoy attack is easily verified: As we reported yesterday, the attacks were described first as involving helicopters, then Russian air strikes were blamed, and now not even NATO's Secretary General is brave enough to speculate. Even the U.N. quickly dropped the "air strike" language after it was clear that it could not be substantiated.
The blatant bombing of Syrian army positions — coupled with the latest accusations against Moscow, without providing any evidence — makes it difficult to believe that a meaningful cease-fire agreement will ever be realized. And of course, an impartial investigation into the attack on the aid convoy will never materialize.
We are now reaching a critical stage in Syria. When Lavrov and Kerry announced on September 9 that a deal had been reached, Lavrov began his remarks with a rather ominous warning: "I have to say, the – some mistrust remains and some – there are some people who would like our – today’s arrangement to be undermined."
Will the international community finally take a stand against Washington? If not, expect more "coincidences" — with disastrous consequences. | 1,270,029 |
Guatemala March 20, 2020
Location: Guatemala
Event: The U.S. Embassy is exploring all options to assist U.S. citizens in Guatemala who wish to return to the United States. This includes possible charter aircraft if commercial flights between the United States and Guatemala have not resumed. In preparation for possible flights, U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents interested in returning to the United States should do the following:
E-mail [email protected] indicating your desire to return to the United States, including your name, date of birth, passport number, age, any critical medical issues (very short description only), and a way to contact you in Guatemala (phone and e-mail are best). In the subject line of your e-mail, please write “Charter Flight Registration: LAST NAME, FIRST NAME.”
Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), the State Department’s system for registering and communicating with U.S. citizens abroad. This will ensure you receive all Embassy travel updates, including any regarding return flights to the United States.
Continue to follow up with airlines about the availability of commercial flights, which could re-start operations before other travel arrangements such as charter flights are available.
Please note:
We cannot guarantee that the Embassy will be able to arrange charter flights. We are gathering this information in anticipation of being able to do so.
Only U.S. citizens, their Eligible Family Members, and legal permanent residents may request embassy assistance to return to the United States.
Under U.S. law, passengers on a U.S. State Department-organized charter flight are responsible for paying the cost of their ticket, which may be higher than standard commercial fares.
Space on flights may be limited, requiring us to prioritize initial placement for those with the greatest medical need.
Due to the high volume of inquiries, you may not receive an immediate response to your e-mail requesting assistance departing. This does not mean the Embassy is not registering your information — only that we do not have the available staff to respond quickly to all communications.
We will continue to provide further information as soon as it becomes available, via the sources described above.
The Department of State has issued a Global Level 4 Health Advisory for COVID-19.
Actions to Take:
Consult the CDC website for the most up-to-date information.
For the most recent information on what you can do to reduce your risk of contracting COVID-19, please see the CDC’s latest recommendations.
Visit the COVID-19 crisis page on travel.state.gov for the latest information.
Check with your airlines, cruise lines, or travel operators regarding any updated information about your travel plans and/or restrictions.
Visit our Embassy webpage on COVID-19 for information on conditions in Guatemala.
Visit the Department of Homeland Security’s websiteon the latest travel restrictions to the United States
Assistance: | 1,270,030 |
your control? Does the provider offer role-based access management? Can you group users, assign them roles, and set permissions on the fly? If the provider offers automation for such processes, that’s even better. This is especially important if you integrating SSO into your internal apps.
Furthermore, check for support based on your existing usage. Today, company infrastructure isn’t limited to just a set of computers and servers in a single physical location. You’ll probably have things like cloud apps and VPNs, but you should also consider your employees’ devices. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is increasingly common, and this is another entry point that you’ll need to consider.
Reliability
Your provider is only as good as its uptime. The usual advice is to look for a provider that guarantees an uptime approaching 100% but depending on your use case, this generalization might not be enough.
You’ve probably seen a chart of availability percentages and what they mean regarding downtime, but let’s pull out several rows to use as examples:
Availability Percentage Downtime per Year 99% 3.65 days 99.9% 8.76 hours 99.99% 52.56 minutes
Obviously, the higher the availability percentage, likely the more you’ll pay for your service. If you don’t have a mission-critical service, then you might be just fine with an SLA offering 99% uptime. However, if you gave a shopping app, you might spring for higher uptime guarantees (because let’s face it, the probability that something goes down isn’t uniform — you don’t want to deal with technical issues on Black Friday/Cyber Monday).
Custom User Experiences
Though this item seems superficial compared to the others on this list, user experience matters. Some tools force you into a pre-existing design. If that design is good and it works for your use case, that’s great. However, if it’s not, then you have no way to change it.
A good SSO tool should, at the very least, allow admins to customize the user experience, including branding and feel. Ideally, you should also be able to implement custom conditional factors based on things like location, IP address, and so on.
Finally, with many users logging in to their accounts from a wide variety of device types, your provider should be able to provide a good experience for your users regardless of whether they’re on desktops, laptops, or smartphones.
Summary
If you’re looking for an SSO provider, there’s a lot of 3rd party alternatives that you can use. However, by carefully considering the needs of your team and your app, you can narrow down the field to find the option that’s best for you. If you’re curious, we’ve selected Auth0 for the mabl application. Try mabl today to automate your functional tests in minutes. | 1,270,031 |
decrease while China's share has increased exponentially over the last two decades.”
Such dramatic shifts in the global body politic have required the US to spend more and more on the military to maintain dominance. This has also meant that fewer resources are devoted to the needs of workers and oppressed people in the US mainland. The 2016 elections revealed the widening cracks in the armor of US imperialism's domestic project of austerity coupled with enormous military spending abroad. In 2016, polls showed low approval ratings for the corporate media and even lower ratings for Congress. A majority of people have become sick and tired of corporate politics. The populist messages of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders thus attracted more voters than the ruling class expected during the Presidential elections.
Donald Trump's victory further exposed the decrepit state of US imperialism to the world. Not only did a racist billionaire make his way to the most extolled seat in the White House, but the US ruling class also made a conscious decision to oppose Trump for his position on war and peace. The US ruling class has opposed Trump on the basis of his unproven ties to Russia while failing to provide any alternative to war, austerity, or racist immigration policy. That's because the US ruling class has no interest in fighting these policies at all. Doing so would invalidate their existence as a class. Only opposition that fights for a potential world war with Russia is acceptable to Washington. Trump's success has thus hastened the demise of US exceptionalism.
“A majority of people have become sick and tired of corporate politics.”
US imperialism has reached a dead-end in all facets of its rule. Capitalist economic decline has led to a condition of mass misery in its US and Western power centers. New formations such as Jeremy Corbyn's rise in the UK Parliament signal that working and poor people will not take unmitigated exploitation and theft without a fight. US imperialism is losing its grip over the oppressed beyond its borders and nothing short of nuclear annihilation can stop China and Russia from replacing it. Washington's uncontrollable chaos since Trump's elections only further proves that any solution to the crisis will have to be formulated independently of the institutions and ideologies of the ruling class.
That is where the people come in. US imperialism's current state is bleak and its future bleaker, but only the people can change the course of history. The general condition of the system has given much cause for workers and oppressed people all over the US to be suspicious and resentful of the very notion that the US is above the rest of humanity. An idea based in the enslavement and genocide of entire peoples and nations now has little to offer anyone outside of the rich, let alone the most oppressed sectors of society. But resentment and suspicion alone cannot transform the political and economic landscape. Active and organized leaders imbued with revolutionary ideas and sustainable organizations are needed to finish the job of laying a system of oppression to rest, especially one as expansive as imperialism. Just how this will occur is up for urgent discussion. What is certain is that the ruling class will continue to dig its grave until the people are prepared to choose the only path capable of burying it: revolution. | 1,270,032 |
LONDON — President Donald Trump is “a man who has gotten in over his head,” Stormy Daniels said as she explained her decision to pull out of a British TV reality show.
The adult movie actress also revealed that she often feared for her personal safety, carried a gun and was escorted by armed bodyguards.
Daniels, 39, who claims she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago and is suing him, did not appear as planned on “Celebrity Big Brother” in the U.K. on Thursday.
She had been due to spend a week on the show, living among the other longer-term contestants.
Stormy Daniels Gabe Ginsberg / Getty Images file
However, Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — said she withdrew because of a sudden development in her ongoing divorce battle regarding her 7-year-old daughter.
“I told producers I was uncomfortable spending the night in the ['Big Brother'] house. Being a mom comes first and I wanted to be able to talk to her,” she told ITV's "Loose Women" talk show in an interview that aired Monday.
She insisted that there had been no disagreement over money, and that she had agreed to donate her appearance fees to charity. “It was never about the money,” she said.
Daniels described Trump as "a man who has gotten in over his head.”
While she is concerned that the court case will harm her daughter, Daniels said does not regret her actions.
“I fear that her life is going to be changed forever in a negative way,” Daniels said. “I want to be someone she can be proud of. I feel like owning it and standing up and saying, ‘I will not be bullied.’”
Asked what she hoped to achieve, Daniels replied, “That one day it becomes known that I am not a liar that, that one day my daughter looks up to me and says, ‘I’m proud of what you did.’”
Daniels alleges in a civil lawsuit that she and Trump had an intimate relationship that lasted from summer 2006 "well into the year 2007" and which included meetings in Lake Tahoe and at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
The White House denies Trump had an affair with her.
But Trump's private attorney, Michael Cohen, admitted in February he had paid her $130,000 — which she says was to buy her silence over the "intimate relationship."
NBC News reported in April that Daniels is cooperating with federal investigators as part of their criminal investigation into Cohen.
In May, Trump said Daniels was paid to stop "false and extortionist accusations" she made about a sexual encounter with him.
Daniels has filed two lawsuits against Trump, one to get out of a nondisclosure agreement she signed in October 2016 ahead of the November presidential election in exchange for the $130,000, and another for defamation. | 1,270,033 |
This is updated release of my Windows 10 x64 PE Threshold 2 build 10586 Fall update version. As with the previous version this provides support for running 32bit programs (WoW64). The apps listed below are included in this build. Programs in Blue are new and programs in Green have been updated in this release.
7Zip Archiver and archive manager Defraggler Disk Defragmenter Winrar Powerful archiver and archive manager Acronis True Image 2016 Backup and disk imaging solution MS Paint and Worpad Microsoft’s basic image and text editors Macrium Reflect 6.1 Backup and disk imaging solution CCleaner System optimization, privacy and cleaning tool Media player classic Classic Windows media player HWiNFO Hardware information and diagnostic tool Snipping Tool Screen capture application. Windows Defender Microsoft’s excellent antivirus app Teamviewer Remote control solution Double Drive Driver backup application Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Excellent malware removal solution Winmerge File comparison tool Opera Web Browser Fast, simple and safe way to get around on the web. GetRight Download manager. Ntpwedit Change or remove passwords for local system accounts AOMEI Partition Assistant Partitioning solution. Partition Wizard Alternate web browser. Virtual Keyboard Virtual Magnifying Glass DiskCryptor Disk encryption application similar to Bitlocker Bitlocker Microsoft’s disk encryption application Powershell Powerful automation tool is both a shell and a scripting language Ultraiso Directly edit ISO files, make images from CD/DVD-ROM Ulocker Unlocker helps delete locked files with error messages Gimagex A graphical user interface for the ImageX tool SuperAntiSpyWare Free Malware Remover Magic Jelly Bean Key Finder A freeware utility that retrieves your Product Keys HiJackThis Spot home page hijackers and startup programs Ghost The classic imaging tool Skype Provides video chat and voice calls. VNC Viewer Remote Control Software Sysinternal Suite Troubleshooting Utilities VLC Media Player Open-source cross-platform multimedia player IrfanView Image Viewer FastStone Image Viewer User-friendly image browser, converter and editor. Mozilla FireFox Another great browser Easy BCD Boot management tool and bcd editor. Snipping Tool Take snapshots Drive Snapshot D isk imaging solution MyLan Viewer Network/IP Scanner Rufus Utility to format and create bootable USB flash drives Wise Data Recovery R ecovery program to get back deleted photos, documents, etc. WinToolkit Customize Your Windows Installation ImgBurn CD burning tool. Treesize Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Space Hogs Klite Codec Pack Basic RecoverKeys R etrieves your Product Keys Remote Desktop Latest version of Windows remote desktop. DismGui 4 Dism with a graphical interface Klite Codec Pack Basic RecoverKeys R etrieves your Product Keys Google Chrome Great Browser Powershell Automation scripting
Application Notes
The firewall is disabled by default so file sharing will work. For Windows Defender to work you need to enable the firewall before running defender. System Tools>Firewall Enable
Start Menu
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Category: Windows 10 PE | 1,270,034 |
india
Updated: Jan 18, 2018 23:10 IST
Electoral bonds will not solve all problems pertaining to transparency in political funding, Chief Election Commissioner A K Joti said on Thursday, but hoped that it will be a step in the “right direction”.
Electoral bonds, which were introduced by the government to make funding to political parties transparent, will allow a political donor to purchase bonds from authorised banks and can be redeemed by parties only through registered accounts in a prescribed time frame.
“There will be a banking trail of the donations which will be made. That is one step in the right direction. I have not said it will solve all the problems...Let it (bonds) be rolled out..,” he said, when asked if the usage of these bonds will address issues pertaining to transparency in funding of political parties.
Responding to questions at a press conference on the possible use of electoral bonds by people to fund parties during the upcoming Assembly polls in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland, the CEC said the bonds will “definitely” be used as the finance ministry has already notified their availability.
The press conference was called to announce the Assembly election schedule for northeastern states.
He also said that he was “hopeful that it will be a step in the right direction.”
Joti’s remarks come nearly eights months after the EC had told a parliamentary committee that electoral bonds introduced by the government is a “retrograde” step.
Asked “what has changed”, as the commission had earlier expressed reservations on the issuance of electoral bonds, Joti maintained, “nothing has changed”.
The commission, in a written submission to the parliamentary standing committee on law and personnel in May, had said changes made in the election laws after the introduction of the bonds would compromise transparency in political fundings.
“The amendment in section 29 C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 making it no longer necessary to report details of donations received through electoral bonds is a retrograde step as transparency of political funding would be compromised as a result of the change,” it had said.
An electoral bond can be purchased by any citizen of India or a body incorporated in India.
The bonds will be issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore, and will be available at specified branches of the State Bank of India.
Donors can donate the bonds to their party of choice which can then be cashed via the party’s verified account within 15 days.
Every party that is registered under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and has secured at least one per cent of the votes polled in the most recent Lok Sabha or assembly election will be allotted a verified account by the Election Commission. Electoral bond transactions can be made only via that account. PTI NAB PYK ASK ASK | 1,270,035 |
news, federal-election
FARRER MP Sussan Ley has outperformed her Indi counterpart Sophie Mirabella, results from a Border Mail survey show. But both candidates are less popular than their nearest rivals — Gavin Hickey for the ALP in Farrer, and Indi independent Cathy McGowan, who took out more than 65 per cent of the preferred Indi vote. Regardless of the results from the week-long online survey, all candidates stressed they were focused on the one poll that matters: Saturday’s election. Respondents had until Monday afternoon to respond to The Border Mail’s poll, which asked questions ranging from local members’ performances to who they will vote for. Of the 1260 responses, 80.4 per cent were Indi voters and 19.6 per cent were from Farrer (respondents could only answer candidate-specific questions for their electorate). About 25 per cent rated Ms Ley’s performance as “satisfactory” while another 25 per cent rated it as “poor”. But this far outstripped the results from across the Border, where 68.9 per cent (679 respondents) called Mrs Mirabella’s performance “very poor”. A further 17.1 per cent graded her performance as “poor”; 7.6 per cent said it was “excellent”. Ms Ley said such results were “great to get an indicator of how your work is being judged”. Mrs Mirabella said: “The only poll that I am focused on is election day. I am working to earn the trust of voters on Saturday, as I have for the past 12 years”. Though the surveys are a small snapshot of the electorates, if they are indication of the general mood, both candidates are facing competition. In Indi, 67.5 per cent said they would vote for Ms McGowan, followed by Mrs Mirabella on 11 per cent, then Greens’ Jenny O’Connor on 9.7 per cent. Ms McGowan said she was “humbled”: “While I would love to have the results from The Border Mail’s poll replicated this Saturday, all indications are this will be a very close contest.” In Farrer, ALP’s Mr Hickey took 36.7 per cent of the preferred vote, and Ms Ley 30.4 per cent. Mr Hickey said he was pleased to hear the result but said he was still the underdog in the election. “Labor has never won this seat but we’re giving it the best shot we can,” he said.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/storypad-AhwTEVHdSTgNNb2AhbTpkf/78f7c94f-5f4f-4fb8-a9e1-1b2b44ab3b13.jpg/w1200_h678_fcrop.jpg | 1,270,036 |
The daily car crash that is MSNBC’s Morning Joe did not disappoint Thursday, with Joe Scarborough attacking Mike Huckabee after the former Arkansas Governor defended his daughter, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Appearing on Fox News, Huckabee responded to a verbal attack on his daughter made by Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, who lectured the press secretary for defending President Trump.
“Go home. Go home. You’re doing nothing if you stand by this president.” Brzezinski said Wednesday of Huckabee-Sanders, demanding that the Press Secretary should resign for telling reporters to get their minds out of the gutter and to stop applying sexual connotations to what the President says.
Brzezinski’s outburst was part of a wider verbal tirade against the women surrounding Trump, including his own wife and daughter.
“I was stunned that of all the people who are going to give a lecture on morality and family, and marriage, it’s going to be Mika? I’m sorry, but I just found that stunning,” Huckabee told Fox host Martha MacCallum.
“I’ll probably have to take half a baby aspirin tonight just to be able to get to sleep because Mika Brzezinski attacked my daughter, who is one heck of a strong lady, a great mom, a lovely wife, and a terrific public servant,” he said.
“She deserves better from other women and it just amazes me that even the women who say they are feminists are doing everything they can to discredit my daughter,” Huckabee continued. “To her credit, my daughter stands strong and tough and walks into that lions den of a press room every day and I believe represents women, represents the president and represents strength in an incredible way.”
The former Arkansas governor added, “Mika can go pound sand somewhere as far as I’m concerned.”
“The fact that some people read that tweet and immediately saw something sexual in it says a whole lot more about the people who read it than it did about the president because those are the exact kind of words that he has, in fact, used time and again.” Huckabee also noted.
While Huckabee was lauded for eloquently defending the Press Secretary, who has also been the target of attacks by leftists regarding her appearance, Joe Scarborough was apparently disgusted that a father would defend his daughter.
“What a sleazy thing to do,” a visibly angry Scarborough said, adding “You go and you actually talk about — Mika never talked about marriage.”
“She never lectured on the morality of any of that,” he exclaimed. “What a sleazy thing for you to do. What a judgmental, predictably stupid thing to do.”
“It’s unbelievable.” Scarborough raged.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today! | 1,270,037 |
? … Should the U.S. return to accepting at least 110,000 refugees a year, as the Obama administration planned for fiscal 2017?
But there many other giveaways to business in Inslee’s radical immigration agenda.
Inslee’s plan includes many measures that would help Central Americans migrate legally and illegally into the United States. It says:
The United States must assist the governments of the Northern Triangle nations in addressing the root causes of large-scale family migration to the United States, especially climate change … It is imperative the U.S. government work with governments of countries where migrants from which migrants are traveling, as well as those of countries through which they travel and in which they settle, on a joint approach to responsibly integrate the processing of these asylum seekers into our overall immigration system. … Raise the ceiling for annual refugee admissions to the United States to allow for the acceptance of historic numbers of refugees, meeting and eventually exceeding the target of 110,000 refugees that was set during the final year of the Obama Administration. … Identify alternative pathways to bring qualifying [Central American] refugees to the United States, diminishing the need to transit through U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry.
Overall, Inslee’s immigration plan discounts Americans’ interests, as it formally puts the self-interests of immigrants first, while quietly handing the store to business and progressive political leaders, saying:
America needs an immigration system that functions well, not just for immigrants and families coming to America, but also for businesses, border communities and communities throughout the country touched by immigration.
Immigration Numbers
Each year, roughly four million young Americans join the workforce after graduating from high school or university.
But the federal government then imports about 1.1 million legal immigrants and refreshes a resident population of roughly 1.5 million white-collar visa workers — including approximately one million H-1B workers — and approximately 500,000 blue-collar visa workers.
The government also prints out more than one million work permits for foreigners, tolerates about eight million illegal workers, and does not punish companies for employing the hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants who sneak across the border or overstay their legal visas each year.
This policy of inflating the labor supply boosts economic growth for investors because it ensures that employers do not have to compete for American workers by offering higher wages and better working conditions.
This policy of flooding the market with cheap, foreign, white-collar graduates and blue-collar labor also shifts enormous wealth from young employees towards older investors, even as it also widens wealth gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, and hurts children’s schools and college educations. It also pushes Americans away from high-tech careers and sidelines millions of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions. The labor policy also moves business investment and wealth from the heartland to the coastal cities, explodes rents and housing costs, shrivels real estate values in the Midwest, and rewards investors for creating low-tech, labor-intensive workplaces. | 1,270,038 |
lucrative Cypriot league, but with the deadly trio of Miku, Chhetri and Singh, the heart of what made the Blues so good going forward under Roca was still there.
No surprise, therefore, to see the Blues return back to that familiar 4-2-3-1 formation that made them so successful, when they hosted Chennaiyin back at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on the opening day.
With Paartalu and Harmanjot Khabra providing the necessary protection in front of a settling back four, the Blues looked altogether more solid; the pair’s work in transition giving Bengaluru more balance in midfield, allowing that deadly front three to do their work, ably assisted by a Hernandéz who looked comfortable further forward up the pitch.
Since then Cudarat’s Blues haven’t looked back, drawing one and winning three of the four games since, and using just 16 squad players – Bhutanese striker Chencho Gyeltshen getting 15 minutes in their win against Kerala at the beginning of the month.
While Roca – as we saw in last year’s final – was forced to change things up on occasion, Cudarat hasn’t flinched from that 4-2-3-1 since the failed experiment in the AFC Cup – bar the sharing of attacking-midfield duties between Hernandéz and Dimas Delgado – much to his side’s benefit thus far in the league.
Even taking into consideration the fact that the Karanatakan side have played less games than any other team in the league, conceding just four goals in five ISL games thus far suggests that the early teething problems in their defence have been comprehensively ironed out, and scoring the tied-second most amount of goals in the league despite their bare early-season schedule shows that Bengaluru are no slouches going in the other direction either.
The real test will be after this international break, when the Blues face the prospect of playing six games in three weeks – beginning on Thursday November 22nd with a trip to league leaders FC Goa, and ending on Thursday December 13th hosting ATK – including an energy-sapping trip North-East.
Then we will truly see what the understudy has learned from his predecessor – who himself had previously commented on the scheduling of the league, having navigated an extremely busy February last season – and how Cudarat plans to stamp his own authority on the side, having to adjust to the inevitable suspension and injuries a packed pre-Christmas schedule brings.
Expect Roca’s legacy to continue with the club under Cudarat for some time yet – that winning formula continuing to deliver for the Spaniard well into Season 5. But Bengaluru’s doomed AFC Cup campaign has at least shown that the former assistant manager is capable of stepping out of the shadows and making changes to this Bengaluru squad.
When, and how often, at least for the moment, remains to be seen. | 1,270,039 |
BROSSARD - Things could have been far worse for Phillip Danault.
The 26-year-old centerman left Monday night's game against the Arizona Coyotes after being struck by a puck in the face in the second period.
Danault didn't participate in Tuesday's optional skate at the Bell Sports Complex, but head coach Claude Julien updated his health status before the team departed for Massachusetts.
"Phillip will make the trip. He didn't sustain a fracture. He has some minor damage to his teeth, but he can still travel and play," said Julien.
Video: Claude Julien's press conference
The Victoriaville native has been a key contributor this season. After 58 games, he ranks second on the club with 12 goals and 40 points.
He also ranks second with 28 assists as well.
In addition to picking up points, though, Danault has been strong defensively. The former first-round selection of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011 (26th overall) leads Montreal with a plus-15 differential since the start of the 2019-20 campaign.
The veteran pivot also blocked 30 shots this year, and won a rather impressive 54.86% of his faceoffs.
His teammates recognize just how valuable his services really are.
"We're relieved to know that nothing major happened and he can play. He's a big piece of the team and a hard-working player," stressed defenseman Xavier Ouellet. "We need a player like him who brings energy."
Video: Xavier Ouellet on the status of Phillip Danault
Even if he played just three career games with the Canadiens to date, young Jake Evans has already seen the impact Danault can make.
"He's an important part of this team. He's one of our best players both offensively and defensively," explained Evans, who scored his first career NHL goal on Monday night against the Coyotes. "It's good to have him on the trip."
Video: Jake Evans on his first career goal
First trek for Byron since November 15
For his part, forward Paul Byron joined his teammates for a charter flight for the first time since mid-November.
The 30-year-old winger underwent knee surgery on November 19, and has missed the last 38 games.
Byron, an Ottawa native, is eager to hit the ice for his first game in quite a while.
"I'm excited to play. I haven't played in a bit. I'm looking forward to it," explained Byron, who has one goal and four points in 19 games this season. "We'll see what happens this week."
Video: Paul Byron on his health status
Julien indicated, however, that Byron likely won't face the Bruins on Wednesday night in Boston.
"If he does get the green light from team doctors, he could play. I don't think it'll be [against the Bruins], but maybe Friday or Saturday," said Julien. "I'd say it's a day-to-day thing." | 1,270,040 |
The famous outdoor relief sculpture depicting Confederate leaders on Stone Mountain in Georgia has come under attack from the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP. The chapter’s leader is calling for the removal of the Confederate Memorial Carving that depicts Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
A press release from Richard Rose, the president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, calls for the elimination of the Confederate carving, calling it a “glorification of white supremacy.”
“It is time for Georgia and other Southern states to end the glorification of slavery and white supremacy paid for and maintained with the taxes of all its citizens,” the release states.
“History reminds us that despite the hero status accorded to Robert E. Lee, the West Point educated Lee was a traitor who led the military effort of the breakaway states, including Georgia.”
The release continues, “The insurrection’s sole purpose was to create a separate nation that would maintain the enslavement of generations of African descendants.”
Rose said in a phone interview with The Times on Tuesday that “symbols demonstrate people’s mindset. They mean something. There are monuments all over the South... that were erected to demonstrate and celebrate white supremacy.”
He said that the art work is also inappropriate because none of the Confederate leaders depicted hails from Georgia.
“The heritage we should be celebrating is the U.S. heritage. We’re not a separate nation,” Rose said. He added that he is working with local lawmakers to push this issue forward.
In an interview with local Atlanta WSB-TV, Rose said that the Confederate carvings “can be sandblasted off or someone can carefully remove a slab of that” to sell at auction to the highest bidder.
He also said, “Our tax dollars should not be used to commemorate slavery.”
The Stone Mountain Memorial Assn., which manages the state-owned Stone Mountain Park where the carving is located, says on its website that it receives no tax dollars and is self-supporting.
Rose’s comments come days after the South Carolina Legislature agreed to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse. In recent weeks, there have also been calls for the removal of public sculptures and memorials commemorating Confederate and other Southern leaders in Texas and other states.
The impetus for these recent events was the June shooting deaths of nine people at a predominantly black church in Charleston, S.C. Dylann Roof, 21, has been charged with murder in the shooting. Photographs have emerged of Roof showing him posing with the Confederate flag.
The Confederate Memorial Carving is believed to be the highest relief sculpture in the world, located 400 feet off the ground on the side of Stone Mountain. A popular tourist attraction, the massive carving was completed in 1972 and depicts Davis, Lee and Jackson on horseback.
Twitter: @DavidNgLAT | 1,270,041 |
Australian hospital refuses to discharge asylum baby Published duration 13 February 2016
image copyright Reuters image caption Protests have been held around Australia in recent weeks against the government's offshore detention policy
Protesters have gathered at an Australian hospital to support doctors that have refused to discharge a baby facing deportation to a detention camp.
The Lady Cilento Hospital in Brisbane said the year-old girl will not be released "until a suitable home environment is identified".
The daughter of asylum-seeker parents suffered serious burns at an immigration camp on Nauru island.
The government says its controversial offshore detention policy is necessary.
It is aimed at preventing asylum seekers trying to reach Australia on unseaworthy boats.
Ellen Roberts, a spokeswoman for campaign group GetUp, said protesters were "standing in solidarity" with the baby's parents - who are in Brisbane - and the hospital.
"We are calling on [Prime Minister] Malcolm Turnbull to do the right thing and let the family stay," she told Reuters.
image copyright Brent Cue image caption The hospital's decision has placed additional pressure on the government
More than 500 people are currently held on Nauru, a tiny island in the South Pacific.
The centre's facilities have reportedly improved and asylum seekers are now allowed to freely move around the island.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has not commented on the girl's specific case.
"All decisions relating to a patient's treatment and discharge are made by qualified clinical staff, based on a thorough assessment of the individual patient's clinical condition and circumstances," the hospital said in a statement.
Any child who is taken to hospital is only released if a suitable environment exists, it said.
The baby suffered the burns after boiling water was accidentally spilled on her in the tent she lived in with her parents, the ABC reports
Earlier this month, the High Court upheld the constitutionality of offshore detention, allowing the government to deport 267 people, including 37 babies, who were brought to Australia for medical treatment.
Their cases have sparked national protests under the banner #LetThemStay.
image copyright Getty Images image caption The state premier of Victoria offered to take in the 267 people facing deportation
Victoria's leader Daniel Andrews also wrote to Mr Turnbull offering to settle the asylum seekers in his state, a position that received the support of several other state premiers.
Mr Turnbull has said deportations of the group will be decided on a case by case basis and that they will be treated "with compassion".
Australia and asylum
The number of asylum seekers travelling to Australia by boat rose sharply in 2012 and early 2013. Scores of people have died making the journey.
To stop the influx, the government adopted tough measures intended as a deterrent.
Everyone who arrives is detained. Under a new policy, they are processed in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Those found to be refugees will be resettled in PNG, Nauru or Cambodia.
The government has also adopted a policy of tow-backs, or turning boats around. | 1,270,042 |
David Cameron in Plymouth enterprise zone gaffe Published duration 3 February 2012
image caption David Cameron was visiting the headquarters of the Royal Marines in Plymouth
Prime Minister David Cameron has been accused of a "hugely embarrassing" gaffe when he referred to a non-existent enterprise zone in Plymouth.
In an interview in Plymouth he said the government was helping a private sector recovery, adding: "That's what the enterprise zone in Plymouth is about."
Downing Street said Mr Cameron's comments were a "slip of the tongue".
A spokeswoman said: "It was an error. I am sure that he is very aware of everything that's going on in Plymouth."
'Slap in face'
Mr Cameron was visiting the headquarters of the Royal Marines in Plymouth as part of a whistle-stop tour of the city.
He said: "We're doing everything we can to help bring about a private sector recovery.
"That's what the enterprise zone in Plymouth is about.
"That's what the low corporation tax and investment in apprenticeships is about."
The city council's Labour group leader Tudor Evans said: "It's hugely embarrassing for Mr Cameron.
"It's a real slap in the face for Plymouth that he does not seem to be aware that Plymouth lost out in its bid for enterprise zone status.
"Perhaps he can make it up to us, dig out the application and take another look."
An enterprise zone is a designated geographical area in which businesses enjoy favourable tax credits, financing and incentives to encourage new businesses an an area.
Councillor Evans said an enterprise zone was "not a panacea, but is part of a cocktail of incentives Plymouth wanted to offer".
The city is pushing ahead instead with plans for a Marine Energy Park.
The £25m package announced in 2010 includes £7m from the former South West Regional Development Agency, £4m from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Department of Energy and Climate Change, £11.8m from the University of Plymouth and £1.5m from Plymouth City Council.
'Wonderful businesses'
Sheryll Murray, Conservative MP for South East Cornwall, said Mr Cameron was "mistaken" but said the prime minister could have been referring to the Marine Energy Park "and felt it could have been an enterprise zone".
She said: "We have some wonderful businesses in Plymouth and we are doing a lot to help to help private enterprise to grow."
A city council spokeswoman said: "We are pleased that the prime minister associates Plymouth with enterprise and it is recognition that we are doing some great things here, despite not having zone status.
"The city council and its partners have embarked on a huge number of initiatives designed to create a more enterprising culture that is good for the long term growth of the city and signals a move away from reliance on the public sector.
"We are very keen to embrace new powers which have been given to councils so that we can consolidate and expand our offer to business. | 1,270,043 |
331 High-Income Traders Declared Crypto Profits in Japan
The Japanese tax authority has for the first time revealed the number of high-income taxpayers who declared cryptocurrency profits in the year 2017. Out of the total number of taxpayers with miscellaneous income of 100 million yen or more, excluding public pension, 60% of them reported income from crypto transactions.
Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space
Declaring Crypto Income
The Japanese National Tax Agency announced on Friday the number of people with 100 million yen (~US$914,000) or more miscellaneous income that includes income from cryptocurrency transactions, according to local media. Nikkei elaborated:
It is the first time that the agency announced the result of the counting of virtual currency related declarations.
The tax agency revealed that 21.98 million people filed income tax for the year 2017. Last year, “The number of taxpayers with miscellaneous incomes of 100 million yen and over from sources other than public pensions jumped from the previous year’s 238 to 549,” according to Jiji Press. Of these 549 people, more than 60% or 331 of them “gained income from cryptocurrency transactions,” the news outlet conveyed.
The “total income [reported for all taxpayers] was 41.4988 trillion yen [~$379 billion] (up 3.4% from the previous year),” the Sankei Shimbun detailed, noting that the “declared tax payments amounted to 3.0207 trillion yen [~$28 billion] (a 4.6% increase), which was the highest in 10 years.”
According to Nikkei, tax reporting of crypto transactions is challenging because each crypto exchange reports transaction data differently. According to industry stakeholders, some exchanges do not separate purchase and sale transactions and “there may be upper limits on the number of transaction records that can be acquired,” the publication added.
55% Tax Possible
The National Tax Agency released guidance on how cryptocurrency profits are taxed in December last year. “In Japan, profits from cryptocurrency trading are categorized as miscellaneous income,” Jiji Press explained. The Japan Times described:
If you earn ¥200,000 [~$1,828] or more from cryptocurrency trading, you must pay tax.
There are seven tax brackets based on taxable income. Those earning 1.95 million yen (~$17,823) or less are taxed at 5 percent, the news outlet described, adding that the highest tax rate is 45 percent for taxpayers who earn more than 40 million yen (~$365,600). However, the publication pointed out that “your income is also subject to a residential tax of 10 percent. Together, the maximum tax rate is 55 percent.”
What do you think of how Japan taxes crypto transactions? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the National Tax Agency.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. | 1,270,044 |
Many medical conditions, such as chronic pain, cancer and diabetes, require medications that cannot be taken orally, but must be dosed intermittently, on an as-needed basis, over a long period of time. A few delivery techniques have been developed, using an implanted heat source, an implanted electronic chip or other stimuli as an "on-off" switch to release the drugs into the body. But thus far, none of these methods can reliably do all that's needed: repeatedly turn dosing on and off, deliver consistent doses and adjust doses according to the patient's need.
Researchers led by Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD of Children's Hospital Boston, funded by the National Institutes of Health, have devised a solution that combines magnetism with nanotechnology.
The team created a small implantable device, less than ½" in diameter, that encapsulates the drug in a specially engineered membrane, embedded with nanoparticles (approximately 1/100,000 the width of a human hair) composed of magnetite, a mineral with natural magnetic properties. When a magnetic field is switched on outside the body, near the device, the nanoparticles heat up, causing the gels in the membrane to warm and temporarily collapse. This opens up pores that allow the drug to pass through and into the body. When the magnetic force is turned off, the membranes cool and the gels re-expand, closing the pores back up and halting drug delivery. No implanted electronics are required.
The device, which Kohane's team is continuing to develop for clinical use, is described in the journal Nano Letters.
"A device of this kind would allow patients or their physicians to determine exactly when drugs are delivered, and in what quantities," says Kohane, who directs the Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery in the Department of Anesthesiology at Children's.
In animal experiments, the membranes remained functional over multiple cycles. The size of the dose was controllable by the duration of the "on" pulse, and the rate of release remained steady, even 45 days after implantation.
Testing indicated that drug delivery could be turned on with only a 1 to 2 minute time lag before drug release, and turned off with a 5 to 10 minute time lag. The membranes remained mechanically stable under tensile and compression testing, indicating their durability, showed no toxicity to cells, and were not rejected by the animals' immune systems. They are activated by temperatures higher than normal body temperatures, so would not be affected by the heat of a patient's fever or inflammation.
"This novel approach to drug delivery using engineered'smart' nanoparticles appears to overcome a number of limitations facing current methods of delivering medicines," says Alison Cole, Ph.D., who oversees anesthesia grants at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). "While some distance away from use in humans, this technology has the potential to provide precise, repeated, long-term, on-demand delivery of drugs for a number of medical applications, including the management of pain."
The study was funded by the NIGMS. | 1,270,045 |
WASHINGTON -- The novel coronavirus can survive on some surfaces for days or in the air for several hours, according to a U.S.-government funded study published Tuesday.
Scientists found that the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease had similar levels of viability outside the body to its predecessor that caused SARS.
This means that other factors like greater transmission between people with no symptoms might be why the current pandemic is far greater than the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003.
The new paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and carried out by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), University of California, Los Angeles and Princeton.
The new coronavirus was detectable for up to four hours on copper and two to three days on plastic and stainless steel, and for up to 24 hours on cardboard.
The team used a nebulizer to simulate a person coughing or sneezing, and found that the virus became an aerosol -- meaning its particles became suspended in the air -- making it detectable for almost three hours.
The study was first posted on a medical pre-print website last week before it was peer-reviewed, and attracted much attention, including some criticism from scientists who said that it may have overstated the airborne threat.
The virus is predominantly transmitted by respiratory droplets and in this form it is viable for only a few seconds after a person coughs or sneezes.
Critics questioned whether a nebulizer accurately mimicked a human cough or sneeze.
That said, there is other evidence to suggest it can become an aerosol, albeit in rare circumstances.
SARS comparison
Chinese paper that was posted last week and is awaiting peer-review found an aerosolized form of the new coronavirus was present in the bathrooms of patients in a Wuhan hospital, as the virus is shed in stools.
An aerosolized form of SARS was responsible for infecting hundreds of people in a Hong Kong apartment complex in 2003, when a sewage line leaked on to a ceiling fan creating a virus-laden plume.
The team behind the NEJM study performed similar tests on the SARS virus, finding the two viruses behave similarly.
But their similar viability fails to explain why the novel coronavirus pandemic has infected close to 200,000 people and caused almost 8,000 deaths, while the SARS epidemic infected about 8,000 and killed nearly 800.
"This indicates that differences in the epidemiologic characteristics of these viruses probably arise from other factors, including high viral loads in the upper respiratory tract and the potential for persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 to shed and transmit the virus while asymptomatic," wrote the researchers.
SARS-CoV-2 is the technical name for the new coronavirus.
The findings affirm guidance from public health professionals regarding social distancing, avoiding touching the face, covering your cough or sneeze and frequently disinfecting objects using cleaning sprays or wipes. | 1,270,046 |
BUDAPEST, Hungary — The recent discovery of what researchers believe is the tomb of Suleiman the Magnificent, the greatest ruler of the Ottoman Empire, could have Muslim tourists flocking to Hungary — just as its government is accused of fueling Islamophobia with its virulent reaction to Europe’s refugee crisis.
The 450-year-old tomb is thought to lie beneath a hilltop vineyard near the sleepy town of Szigetvar, 20 miles from Hungary’s border with Croatia, which the government sealed with razor wire two months ago after doing the same on the frontier with Serbia.
The fences keep most refugees out of Hungary; inside the country, Muslims complain of rising abuse and suspicion, which community leaders blame on the firebrand rhetoric of a leader who has become a scourge of Europe’s liberals.
Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed for months that Europe is being overrun by refugees who threaten to overwhelm its economy and security and alter its very culture and identity.
“Those arriving have been raised in another religion and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians but Muslims,” he said in September, when Hungary built the fence on the border with Serbia.
As well as erecting hundreds of miles of steel fencing, the government has paid for billboards, newspaper ads and radio messages that link the mostly Muslim refugees to a variety of threats, including terrorism.
This month the United Nations refugee agency and major rights groups jointly urged Hungary to stop “portraying those fleeing war and conflict as criminals, invaders and terrorists based on their religious beliefs and places of origin.”
The government insists it is willing to protect genuine refugees and opposes only uncontrolled economic migration, but Hungary’s small Muslim community says it is already suffering from rising intolerance fueled by Orban’s fiery rhetoric.
“In Hungary our situation was quite good in the past. We lived in peace, with no major problems,” said Zoltan Sulok, the president of the Organization of Muslims in Hungary. “But with the way key speakers of the government have communicated, the general situation has deteriorated, and now there are lots of verbal insults and even attacks against Muslims.”
“Now women are insulted and sometimes spat on, or their headscarves are dragged down. This never happened before,” he added.
At a mosque in Budapest, the leaders of the Hungarian Islamic Community agreed that Hungary’s Muslims have never felt so threatened.
“Society here is now very anti-immigrant and anti-refugee, and with that has come a very strong anti-Muslim feeling too,” said Ahmed Miklos Kovacs, the imam of the mosque and the vice president of the organization.
“We feel it everywhere — on television, social media and on the street. Our women who wear headscarves have the most problems … It’s dangerous, of course, and we are scared for our community,” he said. | 1,270,047 |
Why Futurism Matters
By the time we’ve built the capacity to significantly affect the world, the world will have changed. Thus the models and vectors of attack that we adopt now must be prepared to deal with the conditions and challenges we will face then.
As anarchists this is particularly salient — and not just because of our current weak and ineffectual state. Our goals are the most long-term of them all. For us, even the most practical, everyday struggle is only useful insofar as it actually furthers the abolition of all power relations.
That’s not to say that the present is irrelevant — some fights take less time than others, sometimes with certain issues the act of fighting itself can play a critical role of keeping us in the game. And it can be easy to build support on issues that more tangibly affect people in the here and now. But the relevance of these realities derives from their service to our longer commitment.
No matter how much we may despise malaise and disconnect, we struggle to accomplish certain ends — not for the sensation of struggle itself. To fight effectively we must always consider how things might change. Not just in the short term — the disparate tactical engagements that our individual struggles and projects comprise — but in the long term measured on the scale of our goal.
The fullest realization of the world we struggle for will not be achieved today or in two centuries. It’s attainment is a vast undertaking and even the knocking aside of our first, tiny impediments — the governments — still appears impassable. But we cannot afford to retreat from this enormity, to loose ourselves in petty reaction. If we mean for our struggles and sacrifices to amount to a damn we must consider how the world is developing, how it is likely to develop and what we have to offer in the light of those developments. We must be smart with our investments, mindful of their payoffs and of the effort required.
We cannot afford to continue building organizations, projects or campaigns whose barest potential will, at best, only be achieved after the relevancy of their battlefield has faded.
Rather than playing catchup to new social and technological developments, releasing critiques and responses after the rest of the world has already stumbled into their own language and analytical framework — we must seek to preempt them. To be ready and waiting with solutions. With theory and tactics not only reconcilable with the new context, but uniquely native to it.
Yes, this means we have to be conversant in advanced science. It means we have to pay attention to social and political trends. Not just the patterns we immediately pick out but the shaping forces and limitations that give rise to them. It means we’ll have to work our minds as hard as we claim to work our hands. And it means, as anarchists, that we’ll have to continue to consider and fully explore things others might dismiss as far-fetched. Not as exercises in masturbatory self-entertainment, but as an extension of our vigilance as alleged radicals. Futurism is the only damn hope this movement has. | 1,270,048 |
Well it certainly felt like February out at the Softball complex tonight as the Mississippi State Bulldogs looked to start their 2015 softball campaign. Temperatures started out fairly nice as the first pitch was thrown out. After that point, the mercury fell dramatically, and a cold wind over the Left field wall didn’t make matters any better.
The first inning started off well for the Bulldogs as Sophomore LHP Alexis Silkwood had 2 swinging strikeouts before giving up a single. She struck right back and finished off the top half of the first inning with another swinging K. Caroline Seitz ended up sparking the Bulldogs with a double down the left field line. 4 batters later, she crossed the plate for the Bulldogs’ first run of the night. That run came courtesy of a Katie Anne Bailey sacrifice to the right fielder.
The second inning followed the first as Silk struck out the first two batters, then had the last one ground into a 5-3 putout. Sophomore Amanda Ivy reached to start the inning on a throwing error by the MVSU third baseman, and hustled all the way to second. Then she stole third on the next pitch. Kayla Winkfield flied out to right field to score the second run of the game.
Sadly for the Bulldogs, the offense sputtered for the next two innings as they only were able to produce one hit the next two innings. Luckily, the Bulldogs got some quick offensive production by Ivy. Late in the 5th inning, Amanda Ivy came up to bat with 2 outs and the bases loaded. A couple of pitches later, she smacked it much further than required and I’m still not sure it has hit the ground. Running around the bases as the speakers blared “Hail State”, Amanda Ivy had just hit the first home run of the season. Not only was it a home run, it was a grand slam, the greatest of all dingers. The next inning, Seitz hit a dinger over the Right-center wall. 7-0 was the score, one more will end it. Senior Erika Gaul hit a single, then Ashley Phillips hit one to right field that was seemingly an out. But the ball had other plans as it bounced out of the right fielder’s glove, and both runners were in scoring position with Bailey came back up to the plate. He singled one right up the middle and the eighth deciding run crossed the plate.
Alexis Silkwood started off the season with a great pitching performance. 6 innings, 1 hit, 1 walk, and 15 strikeouts. That’s right…15 of ’em. Now the Mississippi State Marketing department throws out t-shirts for every strikeout and run scored during the season. So 15 plus 8 is 23. 23 total shirts were thrown during tonight’s game, and it could have been more if the run-rule had not been implemented. The 1-0 Bulldogs will return to action tomorrow to face off against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. First pitch is set for 5:30 and can be seen, once again, on SEC Network +. | 1,270,049 |
Facebook’s approach to extremist content is once again in the spotlight following a damning interview by Israel’s Public Minister for Security Gilad Erdan.
Speaking on his country’s domestic TV station Channel 2, Erdan claimed that the social network was “sabotaging” the work of the Israeli police force. He also accused Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of not doing enough to prevent incitement against Israel on his platform, reports Reuters.
“Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of ISIS and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster,” said Erdan.
“Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate,” he added. “It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts.”
Erdan also urged viewers to lobby Facebook (and Zuckerberg) for change, calling on “the citizens of Israel to flood him in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns billions.”
Israel has issued similar statements in the past, targeting not only Facebook, but also YouTube and Twitter as outlets used to encourage attacks on its citizens.
Following a spate of fatal street attacks on Israelis by perpetrators identified as Palestinians, who are often teenagers, the country has stepped up its scrutiny of social media. Israel claims it is drafting legislation that will permit it to issue takedown notices to social media platforms regarding content deemed as inciting hate or terrorism.
A total of 34 Israelis and two visiting U.S. citizens have been killed since October. Israeli forces have shot dead 201 Palestinians, 137 of whom were believed to be assailants. Palestinian officials claim the killings were the result of a growing desperation among its youth over the collapse of peace talks in 2014, and Israeli settlement expansion into occupied territory, which many countries view as illegal.
Facebook has indirectly denied Erdan’s allegations by declaring that it works closely with Israel, and other countries, to remove content that incites terrorism from its platform.
“We work regularly with safety organizations and policymakers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make safe use of Facebook. There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, [or] terrorist or hate speeches on our platform,” the statement said.
“We have a set of community standards designed to help people understand what’s allowed on Facebook, and we call on people to use our report if they find content they believe violates these rules, so that we can examine each case and take quick action.”
It was recently revealed that Facebook, and Google, are moving away from their current content monitoring systems — which rely on users to report policy violations in order for action to be taken — toward an automated takedown process.
Editors' Recommendations | 1,270,050 |
White House adviser David Plouffe assailed Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum today after the Republican presidential candidates suggested that President Obama is politicizing the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida.
"This Republican primary at some points has been more of a circus show, a clown show," Plouffe said on CNN's State of the Union. "And those two comments are really irresponsible. I would consider them reprehensible."
Gingrich criticized Obama -- who said Friday that "if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon" -- for citing the victim's race.
"Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white kid who had been shot, that would be OK because he wouldn't look like him?" he said. "It's just nonsense. Dividing this country up – it is a tragedy this young man was shot."
Santorum said Obama was "politicizing" the issue: "What the president of the United States should do is try to bring people together, not use these types of horrible tragic individual cases to try to drive a wedge in America."
Plouffe said the GOP candidates couldn't be more wrong.
"I think the president spoke movingly about this tragedy, as a father, made it clear that there's an investigation going on," he said on CNN. "So I think those (Republican) comments were really hard to stomach, really, and I guess trying to appeal to people's worst."
Speaking specifically about Gingrich on ABC's This Week, Plouffe said the former House speaker is "clearly in the last throes of his political career."
"You can make a decision whether to go out with some shred of dignity or say these irresponsible reckless things," Plouffe said. "And he's clearly chosen the latter."
The Justice Department is investigating the shooting death of Trayvon by a neighborhood watch volunteer who claimed he was acting in self-defense.
Obama said Friday that the nation needs to do some "soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen. And that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident."
All of the Republican candidates said officials need to get to the bottom of the case.
Mitt Romney: "The shooting of Trayvon is a terrible tragedy -- unnecessary, uncalled for, and inexplicable at this point. What we've heard from the media reports suggest that it's entirely appropriate for the district attorney to be looking into this and to have called a grand jury and find what the facts are."
Santorum: "It's chilling to hear what happened and, of course, the fact that law enforcement didn't immediately go after and prosecute this case is another chilling example of obviously horrible decisions made by people in this process."
Gingrich: "I think we have to recognize that all too often there are neighborhoods in which young people don't have a chance to pursue happiness, they don't have a decent future."
The president's full comments Friday: | 1,270,051 |
Writes Mark Gaffney, the author of Black 9/11 and The 9/11 Mystery Plane:
Friends,
I’m sending this email because action is better than despair.
Our country has just attacked a nation, Syria, that did nothing to us. It is raw blatant aggression. US warmongers have won again.
Today’s fateful missile attack by the US could easily lead to a nuclear confrontation with Russia and China in a matter of weeks, days or even hours. The die is cast. Time is short.
There is no hard evidence that Syrian president Assad ordered a chemical attack on his own people. The press headlines that Assad launched an attack are misleading at best. The facts are not yet all in, but it appears the toxic release and tragic deaths occurred when the Syrian Air Force bombed an al-Qaeda weapons facility in Idlib province. If this is correct, the toxic release was inadvertent, a tragedy of war. Al Qaeda terrorists have controlled Idlib for most of the war. Although the US government often describes them as moderates, they have beheaded journalists, desecrated Christian churches and murdered non-Muslim civilians.
Syria gave up its chemical weapons in 2013 thanks to effective Russian diplomacy. At the time, that diplomacy saved the US from becoming militarily involved in Syria, which would have been a terrible blunder. Unfortunately, our leaders are incapable of learning.
It is known that al-Qaeda rebels in Syria acquired chemical weapons as a result of the destruction of Libya orchestrated by the warmonger Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ghadaffi had chemical stockpiles and these “got away” after the US toppled his government. From Libya, there was an arms pipeline to al Qaeda-associated groups in Syria. The arms included chemical precursors. Thus, US aggression against Libya was largely responsible for the proliferation of chemical weapons across the region. This is the context for the latest tragedy.
Unfortunately, the American people are in the dark about all of this; because outside the Internet there is no independent media left in our country to counter government propaganda about Syria. Today, nearly all of the US media is controlled by the military industrial complex, thanks to the media consolidation allowed by Bill Clinton in the 1990s. This also explains why our political system is so dysfunctional. As Jefferson wrote, democracy cannot function without an informed public.
So, it comes down to us. We the people are the last resort, the last line of defense, the last chance for peace. Without immediate action by us, escalating events may soon result in the unthinkable.
But perhaps if enough of us get on the phone and are persistent and loud enough, our Senators and Congressional reps will do their job, which is to represent us. Congress must immediately pass legislation rescinding the broad war powers bestowed on the president after 9/11.
Here is the Washington Capitol switchboard number (202-224-3121). Please call Friday morning — EARLY! We must catch our reps before the weekend.
Peace, Mark
(Thanks, Dave Martin) | 1,270,052 |
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Two former NYPD officers who had sex in a police van with an 18-year-old woman they'd taken into custody in 2017 -- she claimed it was rape, the officers claimed it was consensual -- took a plea deal Thursday, pleading guilty to receiving a bribe and official misconduct in exchange for five years probation instead of a prison sentence.
Eddie Martins and Richard Hall pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Supreme Court to 11 counts of receiving a bribe, a felony, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor.
Those charges carried a maximum of seven years in prison. They will officially be sentenced to five years probation on Oct. 10.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement, "These defendants engaged in a shocking abuse of power which they finally acknowledged. While I would have preferred to see them serve prison time, they are no longer members of our police department and with today's plea are convicted felons."
Gonzalez continued, "As a result of this disturbing incident, New York passed a law to prohibit police officers from having sex with people in their custody, closing a loophole that had allowed officers to claim the sex was consensual. We could not apply the new law retroactively, and serious credibility issues in this case precluded us from proceeding on additional charges, yet we remained committed to holding these defendants accountable."
On Sept. 15, 2018 at 7:30 p.m., Martins, 39, and Hall, 34, were on-duty and riding in a Dodge Caravan, working as part of a team of plainclothes detectives assigned to Brooklyn South Narcotics and conducting a buy and bust operation in the confines of the 60th Precinct, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said.
The officers left their post without authorization and drove to Calvert Vaux Park in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Just after 8 p.m., the officers conducted a car stop of an Infinity Coupe driven by an 18-year-old woman with two male passengers. There was a quantity of marijuana in the front seat cup holder. The officers instructed the three occupants to step out of the car and asked if they had any drugs on them, according to the investigation. The young woman responded she had marijuana and two Klonopin pills. The detectives handcuffed the woman, told her she was under arrest and would be getting a desk appearance ticket. They let her companions go, the evidence showed.
After leaving the park, while inside the police van, the woman had sexual intercourse with Martins and performed a sex act on Hall, according to the evidence. The defendants then drove back to the vicinity of the 60th Precinct in Coney Island and released the woman, giving her back the Klonopin pills. They did not report the incident to their supervisor or to anyone else and had no authority to rescind the arrest or to release the detainee, according to the indictment.
DNA recovered from the woman was a match to both of the defendants. Video surveillance shows the woman exiting the police van at approximately 8:42 p.m., the investigation found. | 1,270,053 |
CREATE Arts Center, the Silver Spring-based provider of arts education and therapy services, will hold its first-ever fundraising gala this spring, according to Linda Marson Cox, the group’s executive director.
The “Paint the Town” gala will be held Saturday, April 27 from 7-11 p.m. to raise funds to support its programs and expand its art therapy services to veterans and their families.
“We wanted to bring [supporters] together and have this opportunity to raise money to support the expansion of all of our programs,” Cox said. “We’re in the big, beautiful, new space and we have the opportunity to really expand all of our existing programs.”
The gala will be held at Cissel-Saxon American Legion Post 41 at 905 Sligo Ave.
“[Post Commander] Dan Bullis has been so wonderful to CREATE and such a good partner,” Cox said. “We started talking to them about the critical needs within the veterans’ community and the amazing results that they see with returning veterans and their families who engage with art therapy.
“So that discussion kind of snowballed into ‘we’d really like to work with you,’” she added.
The gala will take over both floors of the post, as well as the outdoor barbecue area. The space is being donated at no charge by the Legion, since it will benefit veterans as well as others.
“This event is designed to help us do all of these wonderful things for our community,” Cox said. “And with regard to the veterans community, now we’re talking to Wounded Warriors and other groups, and we really want to engage returning veterans, their families in our art therapy services.
“That can be everything from workshops with a therapeutic component for veterans and their families,” Cox continued. “It can be waiving intake/evaluation fees for our individual and group art therapy, it can be forming new art therapy groups for veterans, and supplying our art therapy services with our licensed art therapists on a sliding scale based on ability to pay.”
The gala will feature two local bands, roots rockers The Loose Ends and The Crosstown Sounds, which plays a mix of blues, rock, funk, and soul classics as well as original material.
Negril Jamaican Eatery, All Set Restaurant and Bar, and Mark’s Kitchen will provide heavy hors d’oeuvres, and Nothing Bundt Cakes will set up a dessert bar. Proceeds from a cash bar will go to support the Legion.
Tickets are $55 for individuals and $90 per couple and are available through the Paint the Town web page (link above). Raffle tickets for prizes donated by various additional sponsors are available in advance and during the gala for $5 per pack of five tickets.
Screenshot from CREATE’s gala web page. | 1,270,054 |
April 2017 12:56 PM Roonis - 26 April 2017 12:50 PM Thanks Nod. I realize actual metrics aren’t that granular beyond the questions asked for scoring. Were there any trends in long form feedback that surprised the team? What are the teams thoughts on the dislike of the tile view vs being able to view several crew members stats at once? Like some players here mentioned, the Tile view was something that some players disliked intensely. Most feedback focused on a de-emphasis of the art, and diminishing some information. We’re investigating internally whether we want to create a new view for crew, something like a cinematic or art-only view for a crew; and we’re discussing about making changes to the tile view itself. Ultimately we decided to go with the current version and continue to iterate on the changes for a future client build. UI changes, by definition, need a new client build, which would delay a lot of the other great changes coming in 2.0. It’s safe to say that the feedback was heard and the team will continue iterating on the crew view in the future. Most of the other feedback was in-line with what we expected. Yeah, the dislike of tile seemed a common theme in commentary I saw. The art does look framed better on the left, but the size difference is noticeable, and hiding info that was there before is always going to illicit a reaction. (even though it’s not hidden, just requires individual loads) The new views is an awesome idea. and 1.90 was WAY better than 1.8 even if 1.9 wasn’t perfect for that video. Signature This week Frank and Roonis talk about extra long shuttles, the concept of F2P pain to convert to spending customers, discuss how Odo is not a Dax, and discuss the worst Starfleet Department to work in, HR.
Brand New Twitter Page!!!! https://twitter.com/FrankAndRoonis Profile
Posted: 26 April 2017 01:15 PM From the screenshots I saw..that tile view no longer has the character short names. I really wish they would put those back, perhaps at the top of the tile? Signature = EXODUS = Profile
Posted: 26 April 2017 01:22 PM As it seems that many ‘concerns’ were put into a ‘maybe someday’ pile. I have to reconsider any further investment into the game. As ‘maybe someday’ has a tendency to be months and years in your development and in some cases just into the bitbucket of ‘sorry’, this makes me feel like the ‘you’ve been heard’ statement is just a repeat of 2016. I dare you to prove me wrong. And just when you got me excited with an Expedition. Thanks for the ugly tile covered pig with feature laden lip-stick. Incidentally, putting the Fleet on the HUD isn’t the issue. What you get when you get there is very informative but worse than Medusa after a car wreck. Profile | 1,270,055 |
は一般的なGCランタイムと比較して薄れます。
実際、高速であることをを謳うGo言語のライブラリには、0-Allocationを実現しているものも数多く存在します。
しかしながら、長寿命なオブジェクトをGC毎に何度もスキャンする無駄自体は残ります。
この点に関してはGoogleのIan Lance Taylor氏も、golang-nutsのトピック“Why golang garbage-collector not implement Generational and Compact gc?”で言及しています。
That is a good point. Go’s current GC is clearly doing extra work,
but it’s doing it in parallel with other work, so on a system with
spare CPU capacity Go is making a reasonable choice. But see
https://golang.org/issue/17969.
これは個人の感想ですが、将来的には、なんらかの世代別の戦略を取り入れる可能性はあるかもしれません。
まとめ
今回Go言語のGCについて掘り下げた結果、GCが現在のような構成になっている経緯と、そのデメリットをどう克服しているかについて、理解が深まりました。
Go言語は進化が早く、GCの改善を含め、今後の動向に目が離せません。（今月にはGo 1.11がリリースされます）
明日は、立花翔さんによる「Clovaに関連する開発関連情報のアップデートとスキル開発のインセンティブについて」です。お楽しみに！
参考文献 | 1,270,056 |
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- As Wall Street tracks Washington's moves to help the beleaguered banking sector and push through a massive economic stimulus, nearly 400 of the S&P's 500 companies have weighed in and reported a collective loss, even excluding the financials.
“ 'This is the worst; after the sixth quarter of negative growth, it will be the first quarter ever of negative earnings.' ”
"This is the worst; after the sixth quarter of negative growth, it will be the first quarter ever of negative earnings," said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst, at Standard & Poor's.
A sixth quarter of negative growth ties the prior record set when Harry Truman was president, running from the first quarter of 1951 to the second quarter of 1952.
"Next quarter, we're expecting a new record of seven quarters of negative growth," Silverblatt added.
As of the close of business Thursday, Silverblatt calculates S&P earnings per share, on a reported basis, at a loss of $10.44 for the quarter. If financials were taken out of the equation, that deficit would drop to $2.35 a share.
"The majority of it is financials, but the biggest issue to hit as reported -- the worst charge -- was ConocoPhillips COP, -3.70%, which accounted for $3.66," said Silverblatt.
Income from continuing operations at the companies in the S&P 500 that already have reported earnings fell $90.8 billion, with financials contributing $70.4 billion of the decline. Conoco accounted for $31.9 billion of the shortfall, said Silverblatt.
Financials also led losses in Friday trades, while telecommunication issues fronted the gains. The major indexes meandered in and out of positive and negative territory before ending near session lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.47% fell 82.35 points, or 1%, to finish at 7,850.41, giving the blue-chip gauge a 5.2% slide from last Friday's close.
The Dow is now "too heavily weighted in financials to accurately reflect the current business mix of this country," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist, Cantor Fitzgerald.
The S&P 500 Index SPX, -0.48% declined 8.35 points, or 1%, to end at 826.84, translating into a 4.8% weekly drop, and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.29% shed 7.35 points, or 0.5%, to 1,534.36.
With 84.8% of the market value and 390 issues reported, operating earnings, which includes income from products or services and excludes financing and other costs, are down 62% from the fourth quarter of 2007, Silverblatt said.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers prepared for final votes as early as Friday afternoon on the huge economic-stimulus plan backed by the White House. Read full story. | 1,270,057 |
Still as atmospheric and impressively grim as it was last year, but inessential if you have the original.
Review by Jem Alexander.
need to know Price: £17 / $25 (50% off if you own the original)
Release: Out Now
Developer: 4A Games
Publisher: Deep Silver
Multiplayer: None
Link: Official Site
The reworked version of Metro 2033 in Metro: Last Light's far superior engine makes perfect sense. It offered a chance for 4A Games to go back and fix a ton of things that have been bugging them. To act on lessons learnt from their mistakes the first time round.
The Redux version of Last Light is pretty much the same game as last year.
And so, here we are. Facing a re-release of a game little more than a year old. A re-release that offers little extra to PC gamers whose rigs were up to the task of running it the first time, that looks almost identical to the version you played last May.
In fact, where Metro 2033 Redux is a lovingly improved version of the original, Metro Last Light Redux is little more than a GOTY version. It includes every piece of DLC released to date and some of the additional weapons have been integrated into the single player story.
Visually the games are practically the same. I played the original and the Redux version alternately, chapter by chapter, and found it easy to forget which version I was playing at any given moment. Not to say that Metro Last Light Redux is bad looking. As I say, the original is less than a year old, so it's still a fantastic-looking game. Which is why it doesn't need a remaster.
With so much special attention given to Metro 2033 Redux however, Last Light Redux isn't nearly as essential by comparison. Which is fitting, since it's also the worse game of the two. It's a fine shooter, but fans of the original's survival horror feel were disappointed by the sequel's focus on bombastic combat and boss fights over survival and atmosphere.
A new "Survivor" mode does its best to recreate that feel of Metro 2033 by making ammo more scarce and enemies more aggressive, but it feels little more than an attempt at a quick fix solution. Your mileage may vary on this. Some of you may prefer Last Light's feel. For those that want it, there's a new "Spartan" mode available in Metro 2033 Redux which emulates Last Light's combat system. Be aware that I will judge you for using it.
It makes sense for Metro Last Light Redux to exist on consoles, with locked 60fps framerate and higher resolution being the main selling points. Obviously this doesn't really impact PC owners. If you've not played Last Light before then Redux is worth picking up. It saves you some money over the original version, but if you already own the game there's very little to draw you back and buy it again. Unless you really want another set of Steam achievements. | 1,270,058 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pennsylvania’s $2 billion budget deficit is a “time bomb” that could cause “fiscal catastrophe the likes of which we have never seen” if it is not resolved, Governor Tom Wolf said in his budget address on Tuesday.
Pennsylvania's new governor, Democrat Tom Wolf, arrives at his "Let's Get Started" celebration at Hershey Lodge, January 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Makela
Wolf proposed a $32.7 billion fiscal 2017 budget that would add $200 million of funding for K-12 public schools and another $110 million to early and special education programs. Including pension contributions, the budget would be nearly $33.3 billion.
To pay for the increases, Wolf would increase personal income taxes by nearly 11 percent to 3.4 percent, expand sales taxes, raise taxes on tobacco products and implement a 6.5 percent severance tax on natural gas producers, according to documents released during his speech.
But dominating Wolf’s message was the budgetary crisis escalated by political gridlock. Wolf, a Democrat, and the Republican-led legislature have disagreed since this time last year, when Wolf proposed his first budget.
Now seven months after the start of fiscal 2016 on July 1, the state still has only a partial $23.4 billion emergency spending plan.
Wolf had been ready to sign a negotiated $30.8 billion agreement but it was scuttled in December. Wolf reminded lawmakers of that turn of events on Tuesday. In web-streamed remarks, he urged them to send the agreement back to him.
“House Republican leaders just walked away,” he said during his speech at the state capitol in Harrisburg. Some booed in response.
“Yelling will not make it go away,” Wolf said. “We need to do what’s right,” he continued, to applause.
He later told lawmakers to “find another job” if they could not reach a solution.
His 2017 proposal is built upon the eventual approval of that compromise budget for the current fiscal year.
Senate Republicans, who had passed the budget compromise, said Wolf was “doubling down” on last year’s proposal.
“This retread budget proposal offers superficial changes to his sizable tax-and-spend plan that has already been soundly opposed by taxpayers,” Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman said in a statement on Tuesday.
Unless next year’s deficit is closed, property taxes for homeowners will skyrocket, Wolf said. More than 23,000 teachers and school employees would be cut, as would special education and pre-kindergarten programs.
Services for senior citizens, the mentally ill, child care and domestic violence shelters also would be slashed, he said.
Wolf’s address was no olive branch, said Muhlenberg College political scientist Christopher Borick.
“He turned up the heat,” Borick said. | 1,270,059 |
The Ulster Cycle is a group of legendary stories from early Irish literature, set in and around the reign of Conchobar mac Nessa in Ulster. His warriors include his nephews, Cú Chulainn and Conall Cernach. His main enemies are queen Medb and her husband Ailill of Connacht, and their ally, Fergus mac Róich, former king of Ulster in exile.
I’m the creator of a series of webcomics adapting these legends on my main website, paddybrown.co.uk. The first storyline, which follows Conchobar’s mother Ness as she turns outlaw to pursue an illegal quest for vengeance, is complete and also available in print. The second, The Cattle Raid of Cooley, began weekly serialisation on Wednesday 6 August 2008. A first print issue is available and a second will be published shortly.
I used to run a website collecting translations and paraphrases of the stories of the Ulster Cycle. That’s been mothballed for a while, but I’m gradually reconstructing it with original translations. I’ve also provided links to translations on other sites, primarily Mary Jones’ Celtic Literature Collective, which is an enormous collection of myths, legends and literature from all the Celtic nations. I’ve also included the titles of stories I’m aware of that I haven’t found on the web, and hope to fill them in as I go.
Original translations on this site
Translations on other sites
The Metrical Dindshenchas
Poetic traditions of places, including the following featuring characters from the Ulster Cycle:
Stories not yet online
The Battle of Leitir Ruaid
The Sons of Conaire
The Seed of Conaire Mór
The Battle of Cumar
The Battle of the Assembly of Macha
The Battle of Findchorad
The Cause of the Exile of Fergus mac Róich
The Conception of Cú Chulainn version 2
Medb Enjoined Illegal Contracts
The Birth of Athirne
The Guesting of Athirne
The Words of Scáthach
The Training of Cú Chulainn
The Elopement of Emer
The Siege of the Men of Falga
The Eulogy of Cú Roí
The Vision of Ferchertne
The Deaths of Goll and Garb
Cú Chulainn’s Meeting with Senbecc
The Wooing of Treblann
The Scythed Battle-Chariot
The Exile of the Sons of Dóel Dermait
The Wooing of Luaine
Da Choca’s Hostel
The Deaths of Ailill and Conall Cernach
The Death of Conchobar’s Sons
The Guests of Guaire
Nede and Caier | 1,270,060 |
physicians and other medical researchers rely to help them choose treatments that they offer to patients and other research participants.
To better serve the public health, the FDA should make unredacted information about its findings of research misconduct more readily available. The agency should make sure that any substantial evidence of misconduct is available to editors and readers of the scientific literature. One possible mechanism for this would be to use the national clinical trials database: any OAI inspection affecting a trial site should be promptly noted at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. The FDA should also create a website or a publicly available database that lists all OAI-rated inspections of clinical sites and provides links to copies of the relevant, unredacted, inspection-related documents.
The FDA should be more transparent about its findings of research misconduct; however, most of the burden for ensuring the integrity of the research in the peer-reviewed literature falls to the authors of the articles submitted to peer-reviewed journals. Currently, there is no formal requirement for authors seeking to publish clinical trial data to disclose any adverse findings noted during FDA inspections. Journals should require that any such findings be disclosed. Voluntary disclosures are never foolproof, but, as with conflict-of-interest statements, requiring authors and journals to be forthcoming about significant departures from good clinical practice will help raise the standard for the reporting of research toward greater transparency.
Back to top Article Information
Accepted for Publication: December 3, 2014.
Corresponding Author: Charles Seife, MS, Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism at New York University, 20 Cooper Sq, Ste 628, New York, NY 10012 ([email protected]).
Published Online: February 9, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.7774.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.
Funding/Support: All financial and material support for this study was provided by New York University.
Role of the Funder/Sponsor: New York University had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Additional Contributions: Graduate students from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting and Business and Economic Reporting programs assisted with data collection and analysis: Lydia Anderson, MA, Rebecca Cudmore, MA, Kathryn Free, MA, Chelsea Harvey, MA, Joshua Krisch, MA, Jamie Lee, MA, Sarah Lewin, MA, Claire Maldarelli, MA, Elizabeth Newbern, MA, Hannah Newman, MA, Amy Nordrum, MA, Alexandra Ossola, MA, Neel Patel, MA, Krystnell Storr, MA, and Manasi Vaidya MA. Rob Garver and Tom Detzel of ProPublica contributed to useful discussions. Ms Anderson was compensated from the author’s research account for her role as the second reader of medical articles. No other individuals were compensated for their contributions. | 1,270,061 |
and that differences should be overcome. But that leads me to wonder if it wasn’t therefore in violation of the administrator’s admonition. After all, what is the point in debating doctrine if you don’t actually want the other guy to change his mind? Nevertheless, the idea of actually believing in one’s own faith and wanting other people to convert to it is referred to in a comment on one post in the group as “unilateral ecumenism” which is “like, so two centuries ago.”
Anyway, to me, good ecumenism is really the sort that tries to get other people to convert. We should want them to convert, and quite frankly, I want people who are not Orthodox to want me to convert to their religion. Why? It shows that they 1) really believe in it and 2) want to share it. If you don’t want me to convert to your religion, I have to conclude that either 1) you don’t really believe in it or 2) you don’t want to share it. Or maybe both!
It should be said that working for conversion is not the same thing as proselytizing, which generally involves some kind of coercion or manipulation. I’m not advocating anything of that sort. But shouldn’t we care enough about our faiths and about our family and friends that we should want to share that faith with them?
Should one be sensitive about how one shares one’s faith? Of course. Should one be careful about not being overbearing? Of course. Should one know that it’s sometimes most fruitful just to leave someone alone entirely? Of course. Should one hope that sometimes doctrinal differences turn out not to be differences at all? Of course. Should one not presume that membership in one’s own church guarantees salvation? Of course. (Actually, come to think of it, some may well believe that. And if that’s what their church teaches, well, they should either believe it or jump ship.)
But at least be praying that they convert. Anything else can only mean you either don’t believe your own faith or you don’t care about them enough to hope they share it.
If some of these ideas sound familiar, I’ve written on them here before. Here are a couple of those pieces:
I’ve also written on my personal weblog more generally about the question of theological engagement (“ecumenism”):
Update: Since writing this post, I’ve been informed by an administrator that the approach criticized here is not the official policy of that Facebook group and also that the post quoted above from another administrator has been removed and that its author has left the group. He also invited me to join the group. In any event, while I drew some examples from the group, my point is not really to criticize it (after all, its members clearly take different approaches) but to comment on a certain approach to theological engagement I observed there. | 1,270,062 |
a “night-soul” wherein were displayed elements and energies which afterwards shut themselves up within themselves at the appearing of this weary day of modern history.
As I say in that post, Berdyaev was not a proponent of sentimental nostalgia. Rather, he said we today must read the signs of the times, and see ourselves not only as “the last Romans,” observing the passing of an old order, but must also be “watchers for the dawn,”
looking towards the yet unseen day when the sun of the new Christian renaissance shall rise. Perhaps it will show itself in the catacombs and be welcomed by only a few. Perhaps it will happen only at the end of time. It is not for us to know. But we do know beyond any possibility of error that eternal light and eternal beuaty cannot be annihilated by any tempest or in any disorder. The victory of number over goodness, of this contingent world over that which is to come, is never more than seeming. And so, without fear or discouragement, we must leave this day of modern history and enter a medieval night. May God dispel all false and deceptive light.
That’s Berdyaev. As I put it then:
The Benedict Option is the term I use to describe this rising movement for a new Middle Age, a spiritual revolution in a time of spiritual and cultural darkness. The monk was the ideal personality type of the Middle Ages. Few of us will be called to the monastery, but all of us who profess orthodox Christianity are called to rediscover a monastic temperament, putting the service of God before all things, and ordering our lives — our prayer and our work, and our communal existence — to that end. We are going to have to recover a sense of monastic asceticism, and do so in hope and joy, together.
I certainly hope that the longing for a society with characteristics of the medieval era does not give strength to race nationalists, but we should not be surprised if it does. The idea that this is the only really interesting question about neo-medievalism in our current moment is absurdly parochial. One doesn’t expect neoliberals to be excited about a rediscovery of medievalism in all its various expressions, but they would do well to understand the social conditions that are turning people’s minds and hearts back to that earlier period, and to understand why the shortcomings of neoliberalism have called these impulses forward. We have to find a way to make use of the good things about the Middle Ages while resisting the bad things about the period.
The Middle Ages will not recur as they were in the West from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 until Petrarch scaled Mount Ventoux in 1336 and came down with the Renaissance. Time is not circular, but rather is a spiral. The first thing we have to be done with if we are to understand the time we’re entering is the myth of linear progress. This is very hard for neoliberals to do. | 1,270,063 |
Georgia DB Deandre Baker
Deandre Baker told reporters on Wednesday that he was honored just to be considered for the 2018 Paycom Jim Thorpe Award, given annually to the nation's top defensive back. A day later, the Miami native brought home the hardware.
The senior cornerback beat out the likes of Notre Dame cornerback Julian Love and LSU cornerback Greedy Williams and was announced as the winner at the Home Depot College Football Awards Show. The show took place at the College Football Hall of Fame and Baker was the only player representing Georgia at the event. He becomes the first Bulldog to ever win the award. Roquan Smith became the first Georgia linebacker to win the Butkus Award a year ago.
Baker has been named first-team All-SEC by the Associated Press and league coaches already after earning that distinction from the coaches and league media before the start of the season. He was hesitant to accept all the credit when he spoke with reporters just 24 hours ago.
"It's a big accomplishment for me," Baker said. "I just want to thank my d-line (Jonathan) Ledbetter and D'Andre Walker. I want to give them a shoutout."
His time as a starter has lasted two-plus years with both his junior and senior seasons being near dominant. Continually drawing the best receiver on the other team, Walker played a huge role in shutting down talented wideouts Deebo Samuel (South Carolina), Van Jefferson (Florida), Emanuel Hall (Missouri) and Kalija Lipscomb (Vanderbilt). Alabama receiver and Biletnikoff Award candidate Jerry Jeudy caught just three passes for 24 yards in the SEC Championship game with Baker being his primary defender. One of those passes as a 10-yard touchdown against UGA nickel defender Tyrique McGhee.
Baker has racked up 84 tackles, 18 pass breakups, five interceptions and three tackles for a loss during the past two seasons. In addition to putting up big numbers, Baker has also shown tremendous commitment to his teammates.
He elected to come back for his senior season instead of testing 2018 NFL Draft waters and told reporters that it was because he had some unfinished business in Athens. That had everything to do with how Georgia's 26-23 loss to Alabama in the 2017 National Championship game.
Unfortunately for Baker and UGA, the Bulldogs came up just short against the Crimson Tide under a week ago in the SEC Championship game, but once again he has found a way to show his support of the program. Baker made it known Wednesday that he plans to play in the Sugar Bowl when UGA takes on Texas on January 1 (8:45 p.m. ET on ESPN).
"It played a big role," Baker said. "I want to finish with a W for my team in my last game as a Bulldog."
Baker was posed with that question at the College Football Hall of Fame because nine other players have already announced that they will be sitting out their final game. Williams, viewed as many as Baker's primary competition for the Thorpe Award, is one of those players. | 1,270,064 |
Caracas, March 22, 2010 (Telesur) – The National Endowment for Democracy this month awarded the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow research prize to Venezuelan Andres Cañizález, the promoter of a media campaign against President Hugo Chávez.
Cañizález won the award for developing a project called: The Chavez Era: The political history and democratic challenges of Venezuelan journalism.
The award gave Cañizález residency at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the NED in Washington for four months, a working scholarship and funding for the research and publication of a book.
According to the NED, Cañizález’ stay in the U.S. capital will help him to "develop contacts and exchange ideas with his counterparts in Washington."
Since 2002, the Venezuelan has carried out a smear campaign against the Bolivarian Revolution led by President Hugo Chávez via the Institute for Press and Society (IPYS), which in turn is funded by the NED and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Investigations by lawyer Eva Golinger indicate that “millions of dollars from the NED have been channelled to groups like IPYS in Venezuela to finance coups, sabotage, psychological operations, electoral campaigns and actions to destabilize the government of Hugo Chávez.”
On March 16, Emilia Diaz from IPYS, based on information from right-wing media, said the right of citizens to communicate and be informed is at risk in Venezuela.
Diaz's statement came after the Venezuelan government was accused by the opposition of wanting to control internet use in the nation. However, what happened was that President Chavez condemned the broadcasting false information via the internet about the nonexistent murder of a member of the Cabinet and a current affairs show host of the Venezolana de Television (VTV).
After the incident, the Venezuelan Parliament decided to investigate the Noticiero Digital (ND) website for disseminating false news and denied that the government wants to exercise control over the use of the internet.
"IPYS has played a major role in the dissemination of manipulated information and distorted the policies of the Venezuelan government in an attempt to discredit it internationally and justify'regime change'," Golinger said in a recent article.
The Reagan-Fascell award is named after former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and the late congressman Dante Fascell.
According to Canadian journalist Jean-Guy Allard, Fascell was known as the “active representative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) within the U.S. Congress.”
Fascell was responsible for "concrete plans and for taking care of the specific interests of the U.S. intelligence community."
According to the article by Golinger, "the Reagan-Fascell award from the NED ensures that its recipients form part of a 'global network' of 'democracy promoters' linked to Washington's agenda.”
Translated by Kiraz Janicke for Venezuelanalysis.com | 1,270,065 |
Trump is right, but the government has long been enormous. What is different is that Trump ended up in the Oval Office having expressed little interest in how the government worked over the preceding decades of his life, and barely more during the presidential campaign. While he demonstrated a prodigious, intuitive grasp of electoral politics, policy held little interest for him; and because, despite that intuitive grasp, he did not expect to win the election, he did little to prepare himself.
During the campaign, Trump boasted that if elected he could cram and catch up, and now that process is in action. Some of what Trump is learning is purely factual—such as the size of the government, or his new understanding of how the Export-Import Bank functions. According to Peter Baker, Trump only asked how surveillance worked after he lobbed a wholly unsubstantiated claim of wiretapping at Barack Obama. Discussing his decision not to brand China a currency manipulator, as he had promised during the campaign, he told the AP, “But President Xi [Jinping], from the time I took office, he has not, they have not been currency manipulators.” This is true—but China quit devaluing its currency in 2014, long before Trump entered office.
But many of his revelations concern the human dimension of his job. His central new insight seems to be that in the world of politics, the personal is far more important than he realized. This might be a surprise from a man often described (sometimes pejoratively, but often not) as “transactional,” but as Trump notes, “Here, everything, pretty much everything you do in government, involves heart, whereas in business, most things don't involve heart … In fact, in business you're actually better off without it.”
One good example of how this manifests itself is the decision to strike Syria with missile strikes after a chemical attack by the Assad government. His quick change of position—from being staunchly against intervention against Assad to launching airstrikes—was dizzying, but seemed to be largely an emotional reaction to the horror of images from the strike. Yet despite tough talk about the military, he had apparently never grappled with one reality of being commander in chief up until then:
When it came time to, as an example, send out the 59 missiles, the Tomahawks in Syria. I'm saying to myself, “You know, this is more than just like, 79 [sic] missiles. This is death that's involved,” because people could have been killed. This is risk that's involved, because if the missile goes off and goes in a city or goes in a civilian area—you know, the boats were hundreds of miles away—and if this missile goes off and lands in the middle of a town or a hamlet.... every decision is much harder than you'd normally make.
Even where human life is not involved, basic human emotions are. Discussing the question of Chinese currency manipulation, Trump acknowledged that even if Beijing were still devaluing, he might be unable to pressure the government too forcefully | 1,270,066 |
"BANNED" THINGS (Nothing is truly banned, it just means it's judged harsher)
=============
Simple mashups (two songs synced with each other and no other changes); rap acapellas are especially discouraged for this
Simple midislaps (one midi's notes copypasted into another midi, or a game's soundfont simply applied to a internet/game midi)
Offkey rips, offsync mashups, etc., obviously
Inaccurate-sounding melodyswaps (especially Undertale); please compare to the original game audio and try to be as accurate as possible
Ironically bad rips (they can be very funny in the right context, but don't be surprised if something purposely bad is denied)
Unironically bad rips (although you probably don't know it is yet)
Blue balls rips that never have a joke/changeup at any point
Low effort rips/shitposts (i.e. completely unedited or barely edited audio); the joke would have to be very good
Stupid mix names that give away the joke, although we'll just change them; realistic/logical punny mix names are encouraged
PPAP
Come On And Slam
We Are Number One mashups (the stems make it too easy)
Kanye West, Hotline Bling (non-Kidz Bop) [hard ban for copyright reasons; melodyswaps are fine]
#notmyrodrick
Rips named "Circus - Five Nights at Freddy's"
Rips named "Athletic Theme - Super Mario World"
Rips named "Main Theme - (Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse) (The Simpsons: Hit & Run)"
Rips from the Star Wars: Battlefront series
Rips of licensed songs (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Tony Hawk) (Music - Topic is a better channel for these! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA6unRKtHoDQxQA73fSMvdg )
GarageBand rips are GarageBanned
Wario: Master of Disguise rips with Master of Disguise from Robbie Rotten
The Following Fake Games will be judged harshly (Waluigi's Taco Stand, L.A.M.A.J, The Nutshack: The Video Game, Star Fox 2)
Rips of made-up games in general
ENCOURAGED THINGS
=================
mm2wood, Smooth, Haunted House, Futurama
Wii Shop Channel rips in general
CS:GO rips
jacksfilms is a win win- COOL COOL
Rips making fun of the fact that The 'B' Emoji is a meme
Heathens and other Twenty-One Pilots songs
Luigi rips (I really like Luigi) | 1,270,067 |
Using a mix of fake admin alerts and a spoofed logon page, this newest campaign leverages IT’s urgency in fixing critical issues before they impact users.
Cybercriminals that use phishing as their attack of choice know two things make a successful campaign: context and urgency. In this latest attack covered over at Bleeping Computer, it looks like scammers have figured out the perfect angle to include both.
Using fake Office 365 alerts citing expiration of licenses or an issue that requires investigation, the bad guys are hoping to take advantage of IT’s desire to make certain Office 365 is available and licensed. With around half of all businesses using Office 365, this tactic makes a lot of sense – the phishing email is applicable to as much as half of all recipients (assuming they are all IT pros), and the alert aspect creates the urgency needed to trick IT into clicking the link.
IT pros are taken to an Azure-based windows.net site that mimics Office 365’s logon that even uses an SSL certificate published by Microsoft:
It’s the perfect recipe for tricking IT Pros into giving up admin credentials. And once the keys to the kingdom are stolen, every user account and bit of data is up for grabs.
There are two steps IT needs to take to thwart attacks like this:
1) Multi-Factor Authentication – in this specific case, the scammers had no mechanism for a second-factor pass through. But we have seen cases like this where codes sent to mobile devices are passed through to cloud applications to give attackers access. Use of multiple factors beyond just SMS messaging, etc. should be in play for every IT pro with elevated access.
2) Security Awareness Training – Even members of IT need to go through Security Awareness Training so they are practicing what they preach.Usually, it’s poor wording or HTML that gives away a phishing email, but attackers are getting better at their craft and IT shouldn’t assume they’ll always be able to spot the bad guys.
Free Phishing Security Test
Would your users fall for convincing phishing attacks? Take the first step now and find out before the bad guys do. Plus, see how you stack up against your peers with phishing Industry Benchmarks. The Phish-prone percentage is usually higher than you expect and is great ammo to get budget.
Here's how it works:
Immediately start your test for up to 100 users (no need to talk to anyone)
Customize the phishing test template based on your environment
Choose the landing page your users see after they click
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See how your organization compares to others in your industry
PS: Don't like to click on redirected buttons? Cut & Paste this link in your browser:
https://www.knowbe4.com/phishing-security-test-offer | 1,270,068 |
3 player. This is a long-term problem for Apple, and suing people who use the word ‘pod’ to describe other devices isn’t realy going to help them. The challenge they have is that they invented a brand name for an item that needed a word. Of course, it’s not just a problem, it’s a huge advantage.
If you had the chance to work at Apple five years ago, knowing what you know now, what would you do? Pick a name like “The Deluxe Apple Brand MP3 player?” Would you hassle the folks who coined the term “podcast”? Not me. Yes, it’s a great idea to think big, to ensure that you don’t make mistakes early on that haunt you later. But no, I don’t think you should spend a lot of time imagining the bad things that will happen if you succeed and your idea and your name become intertwined.
You can Digg this article if you click here. Notice that Digg is a verb, because there’s really no easy way to say, “You can recommend this article in a branded social news service like Digg™ by clicking here.” So Digg gets the power of spreading their idea. Nobody says, “Reddit this article by clicking here.”
Back to the paradox. Would you rather be Digg or Reddit? Is it better to have Google’s problem (notice I used “Google” as a verb in the second paragraph?) or to be ask.com and never get talked about?
The best thing you can invent, as far as I can tell, is an idea that needs a name. When they invented the Jeep®, there was no such thing as the SUV. The Jeep became the name for that idea. The lawyers at Chrysler worked superhard to keep the brand from becoming generic. When the engineers cooked up the Xerox®, they had the same problem. Now, people are happy to call it a copier.
You can recover from impending genericide. What you can’t recover from is a clumsy name, or hindering your idea so it doesn’t spread or coming up with a slightly better idea for something that already has a quite good enough name and idea.
Disclaimers: I’m not a lawyer. I don’t even play one on TV. If you rely on my legal advice, you’re getting exactly what you paid for. I called this post “Godin on Trademark” as a riff on Nimmer on Copyright. The irony, of course, is that “Nimmer” became the almost generic phrase for expertise on the topic… you can look it up in Nimmer.
The Blake Project Can Help You Grow: The Brand Growth Strategy Workshop
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education
FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers | 1,270,069 |
Aphex Twin only gave a handful of interviews around the release of Syro, his first album in 13 years, and the last of that handful has now been made available online.
Speaking to German magazine Groove, Aphex responds to a series of 25 questions from former Groove cover artists, including DJ Koze and Ricardo Villalobos.
Interesting tidbits from this session for Aphex nerds (though as ever with Aphex, take his answers with a pinch of salt): he claims that the fabled mp3 player that he left on a plane is no joke, and that he “feels really bad about it”, especially given that it had “80 unreleased Squarepusher tracks on it”, and he still has his infamous tank. It’s at his sister’s house in Wales.
Elsewhere in the piece, Aphex reveals that the “big face” on Come To Daddy track ‘IZ-US’ is actually his own (“It’s my nephew talking to me. He was about four years old or something at the time. I was following him around and trying to get samples and he wouldn’t say anything. So I started to make all this stupid faces and that’s what he said”) and he’s recently “hired a Chinese programmer to make a music software” for him, which “tak[es] the concept of mutation into music software. You give the program some sounds you made and then it gives you six variations of it and then you choose the one you like most and then it makes another six and it kind of keeps trying to choosing the variations by itself.”
“It’s a bit like that, but more advanced,” he continues, “but basically it starts with a sound, analyzes it, then does different versions of variations. It randomizes, it compares all of them to the original and then it picks the best one. It sounds totally awesome, but it needs to be tweeaked a little bit. I will continue with this. I have a whole book full of ideas for software and instruments.”
Oh, and he really likes Sd Laika too. Asked by Sven Väth what new artists he’s been listening to, Aphex said: “There are so many! I suppose most are from the dubstep genre, it’s stuff I find on Juno. There’s actually one thing that is pretty large: It’s some kid called Sd Laika.
“Generally, I think, I listen to old stuff more than to new stuff. At the moment I listen to lots of early 90’s Techno, I’m pretty obsessed with it. I really like that, because it’s so raw and basic not so complicated or detailed like my own tracks. Most of those early techno tracks have only three things in them.”
To read the full interview, head here. | 1,270,070 |
In a new article appearing in next month's American Journal of Public Health, a number of leading doctors and health experts, including former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, are calling for the total legalization of cannabis.
“The war on marijuana exacerbates poverty, which is strongly correlated with— among other problems—reduced access to health care,” Elders writes. “The unjust prohibition of marijuana has done more damage to public health than has marijuana itself.”
According to Marijuana Moment, Elders has advocated for drug reform since serving as Surgeon General under the Clinton administration. In 1993, she said that she believed that the country would “markedly reduce our crime rate if drugs were legalized.” Twenty-four years later, Elders notes that “times are changing. In 2017, even physicians who oppose legalization generally believe that marijuana should be decriminalized, reducing penalties for users while keeping the drug illegal.”
Elders, along with co-authors Dr. David L. Nathan and former director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration H. Westley Clark, used their space in the Journal of Public Health to make clear their belief that decriminalization alone is not an effective solution to the problems caused by cannabis prohibition. “Although decriminalization is certainly a step in the right direction, [it is] an inadequate substitute for legalization and regulation for a number of reasons,” they wrote.
“Decriminalization does not empower the government to regulate product labeling and purity, which leaves marijuana vulnerable to contamination and adulteration,” the doctors explain. “This also renders consumers unable to judge the potency of marijuana, which is like drinking alcohol without knowing its strength. Moreover, where marijuana is merely decriminalized, the point of sale remains in the hands of drug dealers, who will sell marijuana— as well as more dangerous drugs—to children.”
“Contrary to popular belief, decriminalization does not actually end the arrests of marijuana users,” the article continues. “Despite New York State decriminalizing marijuana in the 1970s, New York City makes tens of thousands of marijuana possession arrests every year, with continuing racial disparities in enforcement.”
The doctors also describe how the prosecution of illegal cannabis growers and sellers constricts the supply chain, increasing the price of illegal cannabis as well as “making the untaxed illegal product more lucrative, the market for it more competitive and violent, and purchasing it more dangerous.”
While legalization is spreading up and down the coasts, decriminalization is still the highest point of marijuana reform for municipalities in states with strong anti-cannabis leadership.
Elders was ousted from her position as Surgeon General in 1994 because of her progressive ideas about drugs and sex, and now, with cannabis closer to the mainstream than ever before and sex-positive attitudes prevalent across American culture, hopefully, 23 years later, the country’s decision makers will finally realize that she’s been right all along. | 1,270,071 |
compare that to what you might write in a non-Scala library it just becomes clear that you are saving a lot of space, a lot of room, you are getting concise code with very high information density. For me, these kinds of Scala actor examples are really great examples of the language at its best. Other examples would be the pattern matching, the functional idioms and the functional data structures that tend to be more elegant and more robust than the Java equivalents, in part because they handle concurrency in a better way.
Those are some small examples. Certainly, people like Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn and others have bet big on Scala and have been pretty successful with it. But I have to say to be fair these are teams that were motivated, very good developers, they were willing to live with the pain of "Your tools aren’t quite as good" and they have the abilities as developers to master the techniques of the language. So you always have to weigh those considerations, too.
16. With the growing use of JavaScript in all levels of a software development lifecycle and all levels of the stack like from server through to web client, etc. does this signal reversal in the trend towards polyglot programming which has been happening in the last few years? This is a really interesting trend and probably something that has taken a lot of us by surprise. What we maybe perceive as this kind of knock-off language for the browser is suddenly becoming part of the full stack and not even down to the server level but even into the database with JavaScript object notation - JSON - as a persistence model. I think it’s very compelling for a lot of solutions that you can really have just one language I know, one language to rule the world, if you will and then I can use it full stack. For me what’s most compelling maybe about this particular approach is that the data representation is uniform throughout. I don’t have to figure out how to convert to and from JSON at different levels on the stack, I just take the database JSON, run it right up to the browser and it’s all the same thing.
I don’t really think it invalidates the polyglot model at all because certainly JavaScript is not a perfect language in a lot of ways. There are other languages that are better for certain kinds of things. This is still an open question whether JavaScript will perform as well in some server context compared to languages like Java and Scala and things like that that are optimized for the JVM, although of course the JavaScript VMs are getting very good as well. I really think there will always be a place for alternative languages, for preference reasons or the way that particular languages are better at particular parts of the problem, but nevertheless it’s really quite a compelling argument that I don’t think you can ignore now that we’ve got one language that’s emerged - the full stack language.
At our company we’ve got people implementing full stack web apps written in basically JavaScript with maybe some Ruby and things like that. | 1,270,072 |
Last updated on.From the section English Rugby
London Irish finished the regular season 17 points clear at the top of the Championship
Greene King IPA Championship play-off semi-final first leg Doncaster Knights (3) 3 Pens: Flockhart London Irish (10) 35 Tries: Paice 2, Tikoirotuma 2, Lewington, De Chaves Con: Bell Pen: Bell
London Irish will take a handsome lead into the second leg of their Championship play-off semi-final after a 35-3 win over Doncaster Knights.
Irish, bidding to return to the Premiership at the first attempt, ran in six tries at blustery Castle Park.
Captain David Paice scored a brace either side of half-time, as did centre Aseli Tikoirotuma, with Alex Lewington and Sebastian de Chaves also crossing.
Doncaster's Aaron Carpenter and Paul Jarvis were sin-binned after the break.
The two sides will meet in the return leg on Saturday at the Madejski Stadium for a place in the final.
Doncaster, who have made themselves ineligible for promotion on financial grounds, almost scored the first try when Dougie Flockhart just failed to touch down before the dead ball line after a clever cross-field kick from Simon Humberstone.
Irish captain Paice was not to be denied soon after when he got underneath a rolling maul after Doncaster were penalised for hands in the ruck.
And Tikoirotuma added a second in the left corner following a break by Ofisa Treviranus.
Flockhart, who missed his first attempt off the tee in windy conditions, put Doncaster on the board before half-time with a penalty after Irish indiscipline at the breakdown.
Lewington gave Irish the perfect start to the second half when he broke through under the posts from Fergus Mulchrone's neat pass for their third try, and then Paice added his second of the game, and a potentially tie-deciding score, on 50 minutes.
After Jarvis' yellow card for a dangerous tackle, Irish again made the numerical advantage count when De Chaves added a fifth and Scott Steele combined with Tikoirotuma for the final score two minutes from time.
Doncaster: Jarvis, Flockhart, Bulumakau, Hayes, Lewis, Humberstone, Heaney; List, Hunter, Quigley, Challinor, Young, Shaw, Hills, Carpenter.
Replacements: Bergmanas, Nelson, W John, Williams, D Clark, Edgerley, Cusack.
London Irish: Bell, Lewington, Tikoirotuma, Mulchrone, Cokanasiga, Marshall, McKibbin; Hobbs-Awoyemi, Paice, Franks, De Chaves, Sinclair, Coman, Cowan, Treviranus.
Replacements: Porecki, Court, Hoskins, Robson, Gilsenan, Steele, Tonks. | 1,270,073 |
After releasing three really good demos starting in 2013, Portland, Oregon’s Bewitcher are now poised to release their self-titled debut album on August 18. It will be made available digitally via Bewitcher’s Bandcamp page and on LP through Diabolic Might Records, with a CD edition coming on September 9th from Divebomb Records — and today we give you the first chance to hear the entire album.
Bewitcher have been outspoken about their disdain for a lot of modern metal trends, and the fanatical zeal with which they embrace the hard-rocking, flame-throwing blasphemy of early ’80s devil music is on full display in this new album.
Bewitcher seem to have discovered a hidden vault filled with pure riff gold. Every song on the album is packed with electrifying guitar work, blending thrash, speed metal, Motörhead-style rock, first-wave black metal, and even elements of the classic NWOBHM in a way that’s as infectious as a rampaging new plague virus without a cure.
The band move from mid-paced headbangers to blasts of white-hot hellfire with equal skill and explosive energy, augmenting their blood-pumping bursts of vehemence with skin-melting, head-spinning solos and gut-busting bass and drum work. Even when they slow the pace to a doomed stagger at the open and close of the last track, they display a sure mastery of their material.
As icing on this very addictive cake, you also get thoroughly nasty vocal mayhem that’s as caustic as acid spray and as vicious as a rabid wolf, plus production quality that gives the music both clarity and a heavyweight punch.
There’s so much classic metal goodness on this album, performed with such eye-popping instrumental flair, that you could throw a dart at the track list and come up with a winner no matter where the needle lands. It’s the kind of music that’s made for working up a boozy sweat in a packed bar that’s coming apart at the seams with metal-charged mayhem — or just moshing with the furniture in the privacy of your own home. The one thing you really can’t do in listening to Bewitcher is sit still — it establishes such a tight connection with the reptile part of the brain that you can’t help but move.
In a nutshell, this is one of my favorite albums of the year so far and about as perfect a summoning of hellish rock ‘n’ roll traditions as you’re likely to come across in 2016.
To pre-order Bewitcher in your choice of formats, use these links:
https://bewitcher.bandcamp.com/
http://bewitcher.bigcartel.com
Bewitcher on the web:
http://facebook.com/bewitcherofficial
http://www.cultofthebewitcher.com/ | 1,270,074 |
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party campaign in Haryana has left BJP pondering on what to do with potential ally, the Indian National Lok Dal. INLD, which has 30 seats in the 90 member Haryana assembly, has been in the dumps after the conviction of president Om Prakash Chautala and general secretary Ajay Chautala in a teacher recruitment scam. But it is said to command the support of a significant section of Jats in the state.“In ordinary times, INLD would have been a good alliance partner for BJP but because of AAP ’s focus on corruption, there is a section in BJP, especially some senior leaders from Haryana, who feel that this would not be a good move,” said a senior NDA leader.BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi who was in Rewari for an ex-servicemen rally last year shared the dais with Haryana Janhit Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi. HJC has the support of some elements of non-Jat votes in the state, but doesn’t have the political heft of the Chautalas. Bishnoi is the son of former chief minister Bhajan Lal, who quit Congress when Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda overshadowed others.Negotiators from NDA grouping, including Shiromani Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral, have been trying to get INLD and HJC to have a triangular alliance with BJP but the saffron party’s hesitation, AAP’s focus on an anti-corruption plank and Bishnoi’s refusal to share an alliance with INLD have led to an impasse.“We have been meeting Kuldeep (Bishnoi) and trying to persuade him that it would be better to form a front against Congress, but talks are not making headway. We feel that Bishnoi could probably manage a seat, his own in the Lok Sabha polls, but Chautalas would add more,” said the senior leader.BJP is also enthused by the Jat vote in Haryana because of the support it gets from the community in western Uttar Pradesh after the Muzaffarnagar riots. “With Chautala, we can dominate the entire region,” the source said.Senior BJP leaders say that a call on the alliance will have to be taken as early as next week as BJP will begin finalizing tickets and releasing its first list on February 27. The entry of AAP at this stage and in a state where the party hopes to do well (they have fielded ideologue Yogendra Yadav from Gurgaon) has spooked BJP. “We don’t want the campaign to be hijacked because of the conviction of the Chautalas, we don’t know how much sympathy the family has been able to generate after the conviction,” a BJP source added.Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha seats and no party seems to be willing to concede any quarter in the fight. | 1,270,075 |
The 2016 election will be a marathon, not a sprint.
We are all focused on Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio.
Nobody is focused on Jeb Bush, John Kasich or Chris Christie.
Out of the Top 3, only Cruz is fit to run a true marathon. He has the ground game to win in the South, although it is far less likely that he will be able to compete as effectively in the rest of the country.
It’s unclear how real Donald Trump really is. Does his inevitability crumble after Iowa? What happens then?
What state does Trump really carry? New Hampshire? I don’t know. He has never run for anything before, so it is hard to see if he really has an organization or not.
Rubio is either running a truly modern campaign or he will collapse like a House of Cards. His campaign is also an enigma wrapped in a riddle. He seems like he is everybody’s second choice, except the right wing suddenly hates him as much as they hate Paul Ryan. I know, it’s weird.
The Bush family has long experience in running and winning presidential elections. In a small state, like New Hampshire, that matters. In a big state, like Florida, it matters more. Bush will win Florida, and do a lot better in South Carolina than people truly understand.
Don’t count either Kasich or Christie out either. They both have won in blue states and know how to put together winning campaigns. Kasich will win Ohio if he stays in that long, and there is no reason to think that he won’t.
Christie is doing very well in New Hampshire, and I bet he does pretty well in New York if he stays in. His brashness works there.
We usually have quick knock-outs in the presidential primary process. They are usually sprints more than marathons. But there is no evidence that the wide disparities within the party will get resolved quickly.
The hated establishment (I don’t hate them, by the way, but some do) will not sit idly by and allow the party to be hijacked by either Trump or Cruz. There is too much at stake to have the GOP become a complete joke to the wider world.
But the tea party is feeling its oats and they hate Bush, Kasich and Christie as much as the other guys hate Trump and Cruz. So, I wouldn’t expect the tea party to quietly disappear into the night either.
That means that both sides are going to grind it out, desperately get delegates in each primary, and then see what happens at the convention.
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This will be a marathon, not a sprint. The race isn’t over yet. It really hasn’t even started.
John Feehery publishes his Feehery Theory blog at http://www.thefeeherytheory.com/. | 1,270,076 |
understands, many — perhaps most — people know in their hearts that we’re right. All we have to do is let them see that together, we really do have this power.
People often feel uncomfortable with civil disobedience; it reveals tensions in the current system (in this case, the fact that our laws are deeply inadequate next to the laws of physics), and that system feels inevitable to them. But unexpected and deep social change happens regularly, in truth — from bringing down a dictator, to changing racist laws, to letting people marry (whether they’re of different races, or of the same sex). Seldom do these things happen without civil disobedience.
Here’s our choice: The world represented by Donald Trump, in which we fiddle while escalating climate change creates escalating horror, refugees, anxiety and walls — or a world in which we stand together and demand the change we need by every peaceful and inspiring method available to us, until it happens. There will still be climate change, but we’ll do our best to minimize it, and to become united as a people in our response — determined, compassionate and creative. Not building walls, but building communities that will fight together to keep the planet as vibrant and alive as physics and our previous bad behavior permit.
The people in power don’t actually know that this world is possible; almost to a person, they need to “evolve” (again). And we can help them.
We can’t leave the hard work to other people. We have to stand up for the world we love.
Look outside your window, and understand that if we don’t succeed, everything you see will be profoundly changed in coming decades: Your trees will die from insects, drought or flood; your neighborhoods may become fortresses or go underwater; the people walking down your street may die — or have babies who die — of diseases once unheard-of in your climate. That is what we have to lose.
What can we gain? Everything, but most of all faith. Faith in a planet well enough to continue supporting us; ecosystems slowly coming back into balance; and social systems that acknowledge the natural world, and know that we must be in harmony with it.
We gain a decent (perhaps even beautiful) future, which is a possibility that will otherwise — within years — be in our rearview mirrors.
When we are old, what will we wish we had done? Everything, perhaps, but for a start, we could do much worse than simply standing together in the resolved and clear spirit of Standing Rock: We demand the possibility of a decent future. We will not stand by as that possibility vanishes daily.
Not just in Standing Rock and Louisiana, but also in Washington State, Massachusetts, Vermont and many other places — that is exactly what communities are doing. Direct action by itself, of course, won’t be enough to set us on the right path. But when you’re in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging. So we have to stop digging. | 1,270,077 |
Strategies and Plays To Beat A Cover 3 Zone Defense In Madden NFL
Cover 3 defense is the most common zone in Madden NFL gaming history. It was the most used zone defense in Madden 15 and it will be the most common in Madden 16. There is just no getting around it.
Instead of getting frustrated when you see your opponent calling a cover 3 defense, you will be happy to see it after you are done with this post.
We went over a lot of different money plays from the Madden School team this year and so now we are going to compile them into one easy to use resource as you prepare for Madden NFL 16. All of these plays are on the XBOX One and PlayStation 4 for Madden 15 but most concepts will work great in Madden 16 as well.
Note: You can find out the latest Madden 16 news here.
Let’s first start with a way to use compression sets to beat the cover 3 defense. This play is call PA WR Cross out of the Gun Tight Doubles On formation.
Another really popular way of getting open over the middle of the field is something Yoda went over earlier this year.
It isn’t too complicated and is something that even beginners can use as well as experts. This particular play is found in the Singleback Ace formation and is called PA Flood.
Now let’s talk about how to use bunch formations like Singleback Bunch when you encounter someone who sits in a Cover 3 all day.
In the video below, SnA Exclusive goes over 4 of his favorite plays out that form a cohesive scheme out of the Singleback Bunch. The plays are Flood, Spacing, Seattle, and Flanker Drive. When you start mixing up the plays, it will be very hard for any opponent to defend.
Let’s now go over a play that exposes a different part of the field. This one is a bit of a timing route, but if you take it into practice mode, you should get the hang of it very quickly.
The play is called Z Close Corner. Yoda does a really good job of explaining how it all works.
Madden 15 introduced a brand new defense called Cover 3 Press which is just as it sounds. It is a Cover 3 shell but the corners are in press (bump and run) coverage. As the Madden NFL franchise continues to make improvements and add new plays on defense, we will also need to step our game up on offense.
Earlier in the year, SnA Exclusive found a really good way of destroying anyone who tries to use the Cover 3 press on you.
The play is called Salem Go and can be found in the Shotgun Doubles On formation.
These plays come out of a variety of formations and looks. We just went over ways to beat Cover 3 Zone defenses using undercenter, shotgun, spread and compression. You shouldn’t have a problem moving the football against a Cover 3 defense anymore, but if you find yourself struggling still, leave a comment and we’ll try to help. | 1,270,078 |
for-borrowing-and-reuse public domain. It is here, where our culture is born and grows and is reproduced, that the term ‘intellectual property’ holds sway and does considerable mischief.
Then again, one can’t just wish this complication away, and the (re)discovery of ‘cardiac coherence breathing’ might just be a good thing. It’s useful that scientists – anywhere, not just in India – are examining pranayama through the scientific method, with the potential to unlock some detail that an Indian, by virtue of her traditional knowledge alone, doesn’t already have.
As the Scientific American article goes on to note:
The method was developed based on the understanding that slow, deep breathing increases the activity of the vagus nerve, a part of parasympathetic nervous system; the vagus nerve controls and also measures the activity of many internal organs. When the vagus nerve is stimulated, calmness pervades the body: the heart rate slows and becomes regular; blood pressure decreases; muscles relax. When the vagus nerve informs the brain of these changes, it, too, relaxes, increasing feelings of peacefulness. Thus, the technique works through both neurobiological and psychological mechanisms.
This is certainly good to know. Where the ‘discovery’ errs is in passing it off as something new, where it runs the risk of being translocated from the commons to the specialists. Terms like ‘vagus nerve’, ‘parasympathetic’ and ‘neurobiological mechanisms’ aren’t exactly part of casual conversation.
Also read: The Conversation on Eastern Traditions of Science That Needs to Happen But Won’t
An attendant issue is that of cultural misappropriation. Many readers will remember the hoopla over Coldplay’s music video for ‘Hymn for the Weekend’ in 2016. In 2018, we discovered how the British author J.K. Rowling had shoehorned an Indonesian character, played by a Korean actress, into the script for the second Fantastic Beasts film in a bid to have diversity where none existed in her books. The only problem: the mythology she chose to draw from was of Indian origin.
The result, in the writer Achala Upendran’s words:
[Rowling] refuses to accept that her position as creator does not entitle her to rewrite cultural histories and rebrand different mythologies according to her own convenience, especially when this rebranding is so fraught with political implications.
In much the same way, many Western commentators and thinkers – if not scientists and policymakers – refuse to acknowledge that their cultural hegemony doesn’t give them the license to recast existing knowledge according to their convenience. Instead of slicing off one portion for scientific study and another to promote pseudoscience, we need scientists to work together with pranayama and yoga practitioners to marry technical inputs with cultural and spiritual rituals, and enhance their benefits for everyone’s sake. | 1,270,079 |
#Exclusive | We spoke to the woman who opened the car door that caused cyclist #TessRothstein to swerve into traffic, where she was struck and killed by a truck. #OnlyOnABC7 @abc7newsbayarea pic.twitter.com/kAS9BUkoz8 — Luz Peña (@LuzPenaABC7) March 12, 2019
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- In an exclusive interview with ABC7 News, reporter Luz Pena spoke to the woman driver who opened a car door that caused cyclist Tess Rothstein to swerve into traffic, where she was killed by a truck."No, I didn't see her," said the unidentified driver. The woman explained that since the accident, she's been heartbroken.Pointing to her heart, she said, "You want to put your head over here? I'm dying. She came to change my life," referring to Rothstein's death.Tess Rothstein was a 30-year-old design researcher in San Francisco. Her childhood friend, Tasha Pelaez, went to the scene to leave flowers."Tess was really full of life, she was really adventurous, she was really kind and generous and she had really strong convictions about things. And for someone with that much life to get killed for no reason is awful," said Pelaez.The cyclist's death has prompted an outpouring of grief from friends and neighbors who saw the collision."When the car door was opened, the lady tried to avoid hitting the car and fell out on the streets under the back tire of the truck of the big box truck and that has being stuck in my head for a long time... I can't sleep," said San Francisco resident Henry Belton.Cyclists all across the city have expressed concerns about the 6th and Howard corridor. John Firebaugh drives through the same route that Rothstein was on. He captures his daily commutes in fear that one day he will also be struck."It's also frustrating because Howard just protected bike lanes just one block west where Tess was killed, and the city didn't put bike lanes because it would have required moving parking," said Firebaugh.We spoke to SFMTA about a lack of protected bike lanes on 6th and Howard."Why did we have to wait for someone to die for this to happen? We know this corridor has safety issues. That's why we installed protected bike lanes between 6th and 11th. That was a specific project that we needed to go out for design and do public outreach and then do the construction for that to happen. The area between 5th and 3rd was not part of this project," said Paul Rose, SFMTA's spokesperson.Since Rothsteins death, SFMTA was given 96 hours to respond with a plan to protect cyclists."We put up signs and bagged some of the meters on the north side of Howard to make more space for bicyclist in that area," said Rose.Starting Wednesday, cars won't be allowed to park on 6th and Howard and, starting in April, a permanently protected bike lane will be installed. | 1,270,080 |
This week, a bill was proposed in Kansas that would give teachers and parent-authorized caregivers the ability to spank children harder than their state normally allows. If your first reaction to this was “Kansas allows teachers to spank students?” it might surprise you to know that Kansas isn’t the only state that allows teachers to hit students.
In fact, nineteen states allow teachers and caregivers to spank children (and administer other forms of corporal punishment). Iowa, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina all allow corporal punishment. This number is decreasing — in 1980 45 states allowed spankings, in 2004 22 states let teachers hit students. But, according to Alyssa Morones at EdWeek, 223,190 students were punished physically in the United States in 2006. That number comes from a Department of Education survey that looked at 60,000 different schools.
The spanking aren’t evenly doled out either. Morones writes:
The data also revealed that the punishment was disproportionately meted out for African-American and male students. While the student population covered by the survey was 17.1 percent African-American, 35.6 percent of the students paddled in 2006 were from that racial group. Boys accounted for 78.3 percent of the students paddled.
There is a Supreme Court case at work here, supporting the right of states to decide whether their teachers are allowed to administer corporal punishment. The 1977 case Ingraham v, Wright came down in the favor of the states—allowing them to determine their own corporal punishment policies. But some advocates are pushing back, saying that students should not be spanked in school. New York Representative Carolyn McCarthy is pushing a bill that would end corporal punishment in public schools. Anti-spanking advocates say that spanking is both ineffective and dangerous.
Of course, as with almost every kind of parenting question, it’s complicated. Melinda Wenner-Moyer at Slate tackled the question in her parenting column:
After digging into the literature on the topic and talking to a handful of experts, my best shot at a conclusion is this: It depends. If you spank your kids frequently, harshly, or after you’ve lost your temper, then your kids may end up worse off because of it. If, on the other hand (no pun intended), you rely primarily on nonphysical disciplinary tools like time-outs, but you (lightly) spank your kids with the palm of your hand several times when they don’t comply with these tactics, reasoning calmly but firmly with them as you do—then spanking might make your children better behaved, and it probably won’t do them any harm.
What parents do in their homes and what teachers do in school are two different things. But there are parents who wouldn’t hit their kids at home, who are also sending them to schools where their teachers can do just that. | 1,270,081 |
ICYMI: You’re Paying More for Comcast This Year
The cable giant hiked its broadcast-TV and regional sports fees at the start of the month.
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If you’ve scrutinized your first Comcast bill of the year this month, you probably noticed (or didn’t notice) that you got charged more in fees.
Beginning January 1st, the cable giant hiked its broadcast-TV and regional sports fees, yet again.
Cable TV customers are now paying two dollars more for each—$7 for broadcast-TV and $5 for regional sports. These charges are listed under the “Other Charges & Credits” section of your bill.
If you’re a subscriber paying both charges, that adds up to $144 in those fees alone for the year, a whopping $48 more than what you paid just last year.
While the pair of fees may sound like some kind of mandatory regulatory charge, they’re not. The fees are Comcast’s effort to itemize the growing cost of distribution rights. Comcast must pay programming costs for networks like NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX. After the company recently inked a last-minute deal with Fox, for example, it was rumored that the monthly carriage fee for the channel had gone up.
Whether the rising price of network carriage contracts should be reflected on the customer’s bill is a contentious issue that’s already a class action lawsuit that was filed against the cable giant last October. The plaintiffs allege that Comcast is falsely advertising their bundle rates by not including the fees from the get. Other providers like DirecTV and Charter charge similar fees, and Charter has come under fire, too.
Another point of concern is that Comcast owns NBC and thus many of the NBC Sports channels it puts into the TV package. As Consumerist puts it, “Comcast customers are paying that fee so Comcast can bring you Comcast-owned stations that you may or may not watch.”
When Comcast first instituted the broadcast- TV fee in 2014, it charged $1.50 a month, and the regional sports fee in 2015, its first year, cost $1 a month. To say that prices have skyrocketed in just a few years would be an understatement.
To address the growing concerns, Comcast notified customers of the annual increase beforehand and released the following statement:
“We continue to make investments in our network and technology to give customers more for their money – like faster Internet service and more WiFi hotspots, more video across viewing screens, better technology like X1 and a better customer experience. Unfortunately, the costs we are charged to carry popular networks continue to increase significantly – especially broadcast television, which is one of the largest drivers of increases in price adjustments.”
But aren’t these network investments why customers pay the company in the first place?
Follow @fabiolacineas on Twitter. | 1,270,082 |
In fact, Freelancers Union's survey revealed that the top 5 reasons people work independently reflect personal preferences: the opportunity to work on a diversity of projects with higher income potential and the chance of being one's own boss.
And this workforce is not only potentially happier, it can be a boon to the economy. It's obvious that businesses save when they hire freelancers (since they don't provide benefits and can hire only when they need the work), but what's less obvious is that new jobs are being generated from this sector. In 2010, we reported that 27% of freelancers hire other workers. And whereas Detroit's factory jobs used to be the source and model of secure work -- jobs that no longer exist -- the Motor City is now building a reputation as a hotbed of creative and entrepreneurial activity.
It's time we sit up and take notice: middle-class careers are becoming freelance careers. But freelance careers, at present, cannot sustain a middle class. A college degree and a regular old job used to be your meal ticket. Now you're lucky if you earn enough to eat - and if you want fries with that, or health insurance, you may have to go into the finance sector. If you want proof of where middle-class jobs are headed, look no further than the New York Times, which just reported that median household incomes dropped 2.3 percent last year, from levels that were already 7 percent less than their peak in 1999. With the top 1% of the country controlling 40% of the wealth, we've created such an atrocious distribution of income that we've left the middle class completely vulnerable. In fact, today we have the worst distribution of income in 100 years.
As a result, a photographer can make $500 in one day, but not be able to pay her rent. A graphic designer can count Coke as a client, but still have to choose between health insurance and Internet access at home. No employer-based benefits means you're on your own for health insurance, no 401(k) contributions means you can't plan for the future, and no protection from the Department of Labor means no guarantee of getting paid for your work. If you lose a gig, you've got no income until you find another; if your client pays a month late, too bad for you. And don't forget, you're doubly taxed as both an employer and an employee.
If we want a middle class -- millions of people who support themselves, have families, and buy homes -- they need a support system and a shot at financial security. Left to their own devices, they're already starting to do this on their own by creating informal networks, relying on one another for ideas and support, and becoming experts in as many areas as they can to support their livelihood. They're starting babysitting co-ops, using Craigslist, and relying on Zipcar. This so-called "sharing economy" is helping families low on cash buy access to goods and services without paying the full price for permanent ownership. This is a movement that might have happened without the recession, but it's accelerated in the downturn.
| 1,270,083 |
Just when you thought discussion over the transition of the internet's technical functions couldn't get any more ridiculous, here comes Donald Trump.
"Trump opposes President Obama's plan to surrender American internet control to foreign powers," reads a press release put out by the Trump campaign on Wednesday, as senators attempt to reach reasonable compromise over funding the US government past October 1.
"Donald J Trump is committed to preserving Internet freedom for the American people and citizens all over the world," the release states. "The US should not turn control of the Internet over to the United Nations and the international community."
As has been customary with the Trump campaign, the assertion in the text is wildly inaccurate. It even goes further than the instigator of the campaign, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who yesterday was awarded three Pinocchio noses for his claim that transitioning the IANA contract would allow Russia and China to censor the internet.
Trump's policy director Stephen Miller goes on to say: "Internet freedom is now at risk with the President's intent to cede control to international interests, including countries like China and Russia, which have a long track record of trying to impose online censorship. Congress needs to act, or Internet freedom will be lost for good, since there will be no way to make it great again once it is lost."
Channeling Cruz's campaign of misinformation, the release argues: "The US created, developed and expanded the Internet across the globe. US oversight has kept the Internet free and open without government censorship – a fundamental American value rooted in our Constitution's Free Speech clause."
And of course there is a dig at Trump's rival for president: "Hillary Clinton's Democrats are refusing to protect the American people by not protecting the Internet."
BS zone
Trump's unwelcome intervention follows several weeks where Senator Ted Cruz has pushed a wholly inaccurate version of events where the handover of a contract run by ICANN for 20 years suddenly represents the end of free speech.
Despite countless articles and witness statements pointing out that the claims made by Cruz – and now Trump – have no basis in fact, it has not stopped them being persistently put forward as part of a directionless partisan battle.
Cruz has been pushing to have the blocking of the IANA transition included as part of a "continuing resolution" to fund the US government until mid-December largely because he knows that Democrats and the Obama Administration want the two-year transition to proceed as planned.
The issue has infuriated politicians, government officials and internet experts alike because the arguments rest so firmly on false statements. (There are some good reasons to oppose the transition, such as ICANN's accountability failures, but they are playing little part in the current dialogue.)
In hindsight, it was perhaps inevitable that Donald Trump would wade into these post-fact, personality-led politics as soon as the spotlight on it grew large enough.
Just to be clear, both Trump and Cruz are indisputably wrong in their claims and both they and Congressional Republicans know it. But they may still block the transition before the September 30 deadline anyway. ® | 1,270,084 |
ek's famous essay "Why I Am Not a Conservative", he also found a way to say that Keynes was "an eager progressive, keen to help advance the world toward a more human future; Hayek, though he claimed throughout his life that he was not a conservative, was deeply skeptical of the new." In fact, Keynes addressed his best-known work "The General Theory" not to politicians, but to his "fellow economist", which was a kind of statement that revealed his reluctance his theory to be used in ideological quarrels. Hayek, on the other hand, put clearly in "Why I Am Not a Conservative," "I have all my life described myself as a liberal [...] Whiggism is historically the correct name for the ideas in which I believe. The more I learn about the evolution of ideas, the more I have become aware that I am simply an unrepentant Old Whig - with the stress on the "old" [...] It is the doctrine which is at the basis of the common tradition of the Anglo-Saxon countries. It is the doctrine from which Continental liberalism took what is valuable in it. It is the doctrine on which the American system of government is based. In its pure form it is represented in the United States, not by the radicalism of Jefferson, nor by the conservatism of Hamilton or even of John Adams, but by the ideas of James Madison, the "father of the Constitution." Keynes died from heart disease in April 1946, in his farmhouse in Tilton, East Sussex. He was "celebrated with services befitting a hero," in the words Wapshott. After his death, the "Age of Keynes" began. Although not applied orthodoxically in politics and economy, Keynesianism was the orthodoxy until the mid-1970s. Hayek died almost half a century later, in March 1992 in Feiburg, not less popular and respected than Keynes. He was awarded with Nobel Prize in 1974, his philosophy became a defining ideology of the politics of Thatcher and Reagan, and he lived long enough to see the collapse of planned economies in East Europe and Soviet Union. *** Today, the world faces another big economic challenge. The works and legacy of both Keynes and Hayek are explored once again, and once again we are not sure who of them gives us the right answer. Should we spend, as Keynes advised, since spending has brought us to the edge of financial collapse, or should we leave the economy to heal itself naturally, as Hayek believed, since deregulation caused the bankruptcy of the financial system? Instead of taking sides, perhaps we have to remember that Keynes and Hayek were wise but ordinary men. They were not saints or prophets. They wouldn't approve distortion of their ideas, and they would not fear to admit their own mistakes and go on to find new solutions as they did many times in their life. After all, this is what Wapshott's book suggests. And this is the most important thing we may learn from it. *** MORE ON THIS TOPIC: ECONOTALK PODCAST Nicholas Wapshott on Keynes and Hayek Hosted by Russ Roberts | 1,270,085 |
ROWLETT (CBSDFW.COM) – Despite living in Rowlett for more than a decade, Chad Aldridge says his beliefs aren’t represented in local government.
Aldridge is one of the founding members of the Rowlett chapter of the Metroplex Atheists.
Last week, he and several members of the group submitted a formal request to the Rowlett City Council to allow them to deliver an invocation before a city council meeting.
The request cited a Supreme Court decision in the Town of Greece v. Galloway case, which allows for non-religious invocations to be given at government meetings. The court also stipulated that the prayer can’t demean other religions, attempt to convert people and that the council cannot coerce attendees to participate in prayer.
President of the Metroplex Atheists, Randy Word, says the group just wants what they consider fair.
“We fully support people’s rights to pray wherever they want, whenever they want. They government is not allowed to. If they do allow it they have to be fair to everyone, non-believers and non-Christians as well,” says Word.
Rowlett citizens who identify as Christians told CBS 11 News they wouldn’t have a problem with an atheist group delivering an invocation.
“Just like we don’t want someone infringing on our freedoms as Christians to worship God in a way we see fit, we don’t want to infringe on anyone else’s freedoms,” said Frank Nelson, a pastor in Rowlett.
Rowlett’s current policy allows any established religion to deliver invocations, and right now, that’s only the Christian faith.
Mayor Todd Gottel sent CBS 11 News the following statement:
“The City of Rowlett has recently received another in a series of demands from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The City is aware of the recent US Supreme Court ruling in Town of Greece v. Galloway. In that opinion, the US Supreme Court ruled that the policy for council invocations in the Town of Greece was valid and constitutional. The policy followed in the City of Rowlett is almost identical to the policy followed by the Town of Greece, New York. The recent demand from the Freedom From Religion Foundation misinterprets the Supreme Court’s opinion. Rowlett’s policy is valid and the City will continue to allow invocations at its council meetings in accordance with the US Constitution.”
Aldridge and Word say they plan to take their fight to court, should the city continue to now allow them to deliver an invocation.
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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PHOTOS: Your Pet Pictures | 1,270,086 |
Despite the drop in fuel prices, the Baltic Dry Index, the global benchmark for ships carrying bulk commodities, has fallen 40 per cent since the start of November and is down 62 per cent this year.
The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index continued to fall this week as rates for capesize and panamax vessels continued to plunge. The overall index, which includes average daily earnings of capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize bulk transport vessels, fell by 38 per cent in just one month, from 1306 to 814.
At first sight this may seem counterintuitive. Shipping companies, as any other companies that focus on the transportation of goods, stand to receive a benefit from cheaper fuel costs. In fact, for shippers fuel is one of the biggest expenses. And yet, freight rates for capesize ships have sunk nearly 50 per cent in the past three months.
Capesize ships are huge cargo tankers that usually transport iron ore or coal and are too large to pass through the Panama or Suez canals. They therefore must sail around the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, hence the name. Because capesize ships are the largest kind of dry bulk carrier and account for approximately 40 per cent of the tonnage afloat, their activity is followed closely as a barometer of global trade.
Global Dry Bulk Shipping Market More
Current capesize rates average significantly less than $111,000 per day at their peak in 2008. In the supramax market, or vessels of about 57,000 tonnes, daily rates averaged more than $40,000 per day in the peak in 2007 and 2008. Capesize spot freight rates are now quoted at $4,400 per day.
Of course, energy costs are not the full story. Thanks to a glut of iron ore, iron ore prices have fallen nearly 50% this year, and as a result there is no rush to order new shipments. In addition, China's coal imports are down 13% year to date, and restrictions on the quality of imports could also limit coal shipments into China as Beijing looks to help the domestic sector.
As fuel costs come down, tankers are picking up speed and arriving at ports sooner, which, exacerbates the problem of over-capacity. Over the past three years, average speeds for bulk carriers have come down from 8.6 knots to 7.1 knots as bunker fuel prices stayed high.
What's more, in 2015, ships traveling within 200 miles of shore in Northwest Europe or North America will be required by the International Maritime Organization to burn cleaner - but more expensive - gasoil instead of traditional bunker fuel. Bulk carriers servicing North America could see their operating costs go up thanks to these newer emission control standards.
Shifting raw materials around the globe has rarely been cheaper in the 29 years since the Baltic Dry was launched and capesize rates seemingly face a difficult year ahead.
For more information on the Global dry bulk shipping market, see the latest research: Global Dry Bulk Shipping Market
Follow us on Twitter @CandMResearch | 1,270,087 |
issued this tweet on January 28, 2014, when Apple’s stock price closed at $72.36. As of the end of last week, Apple’s stock price is $225.74. Great prediction.
“What a STUPID deal for Verizon to buy AOL for $4.4 billion. AOL has been bad luck for everyone who touched it. Worth less than $1 billion!”
False and itself stupid. AOL is demonstrably worth $4.4 billion, what a willing buyer just paid a willing seller for it. Right around the time of the purchase, AOL reported its first quarter revenue at $625.1 million, a seven percent increase over the previous year’s Q1 revenue.
“Wow, Twitter, Google and Facebook are burying the FBI criminal investigation of Clinton. Very dishonest media!”
No they’re not, and they’re not media companies either.
“We are getting rid of all Glenfiddich garbage alcohol from Trump properties.”
Glenfiddich does not come from a publicly traded company, although I think it’s fair to point out that a teetotaling jackass doesn’t know whether Glenfiddich is garbage alcohol or not.
“Seems hard to believe that @Facebook could be worth that much–be careful if you invest. And Mark Zuckerberg–get a pre-nup.”
I sort of agree with this one. Healthy stock price aside, Facebook got Trump elected, which makes it pretty much worthless.
SEC rules should be applied with consistency or not at all. Maybe the SEC should even give the public some agency as investors. If you bought or sold Tesla stock based on one ill-conceived Musk tweet, just like if you bought or sold Apple stock based on one ill-conceived Trump tweet, you’re not an investor, you’re a speculator. You shouldn’t be making investing choices based on one day of any celebrity’s Twitter feed. The SEC should also consider what it’s doing. The filing of their complaint tanked Tesla’s daily stock price more than Musk’s tweet raised it; losing a bunch of value for them seems like a pretty shitty way to protect investors. At the end of the day, maybe the SEC just shouldn’t be bringing weak suits on a flimsy pretense of protecting people from their own bad investment decisions.
Jonathan Wolf is a litigation associate at a midsize, full-service Minnesota firm. He also teaches as an adjunct writing professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, has written for a wide variety of publications, and makes it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at [email protected]. | 1,270,088 |
EDIT: Fixed the link to download the 2001 US Letter PDF.
I took all the pages from 1992 through 2005 and added a blank commemorative and definitive page to each supplement and created A4 versions of all the supplements. Here are all the files:
1992
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1992-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1992-A4
ZIP File with editable Scirbus File: Ukraine-1992
1993
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1993-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1993-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-1993
1994
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1994-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1994-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-1994
1995
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1995-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1995-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-1995
1996
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1996-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1996-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-1996
1997
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1997-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1997-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-1997
1998
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1998-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1998-A4
ZIP File with Editable Scribus File: Ukraine-1998
1999
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1999-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1999-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-1999
2000
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2000-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-2000-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-2000
2001
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2001-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-2001-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-2001
2002
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2002-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-2002-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-2002
2003
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2003-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-2003-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-2003
2004
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2004-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-2004-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-2004
2005
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2005-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-2005-A4
ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-2005 | 1,270,089 |
Bitcoin Bitcoin Whales Quietly Stockpiled 150K BTC in Last Two Months
The 100 largest wallets (holding 10,000-100,000 BTC) excluding exchanges accumulated over 150,000 bitcoin in the past two months.
Do the Bart
In all the woe and misery of the crypto-winter, we can often find some meagre warmth from a positive story. An uplifting tale of a plucky hero, bucking the trend, and beating the system. Well this is not that story. While the rest of us felt the pain of Sunday’s ‘Bart’ on the chart, Bitcoin whales were busy accumulating coins. So that’s nice… for them.
Last week saw some interesting movement in bitcoin, with the price 00 jumping first to $4000, then again on Saturday to briefly hit $4200. Unfortunately, Sunday saw a reversal, with price dropping back to $3800. Still a good $200 more than it had been trading at, but not the breakout hoped for.
Of course, it wasn’t all bad news, as those who sold at the peak, or with cash to spare, could buy back in at the lower price. Which is exactly what the Bitcoin whales (holders of large amounts of bitcoin) did. In fact, that’s pretty much what the whales have been doing for this entire bear market.
In the past two months alone, holders of the 100 ‘fattest’ bitcoin wallet addresses have managed to accumulate over 150,000 additional coins, or well over half a billion US dollars.
52 Card Pickup
The five largest wallets belong to exchanges (Bittrex, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Huobi, and Binance) which all hold over 100,000 bitcoin. In the two months from December 17, 2018 to February 25, 2019, these added 2879 BTC, making a total holding of 573,958 BTC.
According to data from BitInfoCharts, the next 100 largest wallets (holding 10,000-100,000 BTC) accumulated over 150,000 BTC in the same period. In fact, at time of writing, these wallets held nearly 2.29 million BTC. Although another 2 wallets had risen into this bracket by this point, making 102 whales.
Call Me Ishmael
So where have all these additional bitcoin come from? Well, according to the data the only bracket whose wallets have less BTC is from 1,000 – 10,000. One would imagine that the bulk of this move comes from wallets accumulating bitcoin and moving up into the next bracket.
Unless the whales had recently sold at the peak, they would have been financially better off buying at $3600 a week earlier than at $3800 after the drop. Nevertheless, whenever there are unexplained price movements, it is perhaps somewhat comforting that we can always blame the whales. Bloody whales!
Do you think ‘whales’ are taking advantage of lower bitcoin price to accumulate? Share your thoughts!
Image courtesy of Shutterstock | 1,270,090 |
In honor of hunting season, Arby’s is about to do for venison what it did for roast beef.
Arby’s will offer the Venison Sandwich in select markets, and for limited runs, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 28.
The salt, pepper, and garlic-marinated deer steak sammie will diversify menus in six popular deer-hunting states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Overall, 17 restaurants will sell the Venison Sandwich, the only fast food chain item made from deer in the U.S. In 2014, Japanese fast food restaurant Becker’s released a Venison Burger to at least one rave review.
Thus, hunters exiting the field empty-handed with a craving for venison will have a new alternative to tag stew.
Venison Mass Market?
An Arby’s press release doesn’t note where the meat is sourced, but it’s probably not wild. USDA regulations require meat sold in the U.S. to be inspected and slaughtered at a licensed slaughterhouse.
There are deer farms in the U.S., certainly enough for a short run at a handful of Arby’s. But in a statement released by the fast food giant, Arby’s Chief Marketing Officer and Brand President Rob Lynch admitted “the venison sandwich is probably the biggest stretch for us yet.”
The 12-point sandwich comes on a toasted bun with onions and juniper berry sauce. For more info, check out Arby’s new YouTube campaign promoting the Venison Sandwich.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQFPWlncNaE&list=PLDsfTln9V_dWPRr4J1U2Df60pZakUwgvt&index=4
Craving a venison sandwich but don’t want to hunt? The sandwich will be available in the following locations:
Available Oct. 31-Nov. 3
2044 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, Tenn. 37228
Available Nov. 4-6
3821 Tower Ave., Superior, Wis. 54880
1690 Park Place Blvd., St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
704 Highway 33 South, Cloquet, Minn. 55720
348 Lincoln Ave. SE, St. Cloud, Minn. 56301
3275 First St. S, St. Cloud, Minn. 56301
4415 Roswell Rd. NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30342
Available Nov. 12-15
4229 W Vienna Rd., Clio, Mich. 48420
4040 17 Mile Rd. NE, Cedar Springs, Mich. 49319
1215 M 89, Plainwell, Mich. 49080
8685 Birch Run Rd., Birch Run, Mich. 48415
Available Nov. 25-28 | 1,270,091 |
Coronavirus cases soar as Israel prepares tighter measures
JERUSALEM: Israel on Wednesday reported a new record level of daily cases of the coronavirus, shortly before government officials were to meet to discuss tightening a new nationwide lockdown.
The Health Ministry reported 6,861 new cases on Wednesday as a raging outbreak showed no signs of slowing. Israel, a country of some 9 million people, now has one of the world’s highest rates of coronavirus on a per capita basis, and health officials say hospitals are quickly approaching capacity.
The government last week imposed a nationwide lockdown that closed schools, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants. The coronavirus Cabinet was to meet later in the day to discuss further tightening the restrictions.
Ahead of the meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that in light of the rapid spread of the virus, he would seek a “a broad general closure and significant tightening of restrictions immediately,” including the closure of large parts of the economy, his office said.
Israel won international praise for its handling of the outbreak last spring, moving quickly to seal its borders and impose a lockdown that appeared to contain the virus. But the government reopened the economy too quickly, and a new outbreak has quickly spread throughout the summer. The economy, meanwhile, has not recovered from a serious downturn caused by the first lockdown, and the new lockdown has led to a new wave of layoffs.
A new poll released Wednesday by the Israel Democracy Institute, a respected think tank, found that only 27% of Israelis trust Netanyahu to lead the country’s effort against COVID-19. That compares with 57.5% who trusted him in early April. The survey interviewed 754 adults and had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.
The Health Ministry has instructed hospitals to delay non-essential surgeries and to open additional coronavirus wards as the number of serious cases continues to rise.
Beyond further limiting economic activity, officials have been discussing shuttering synagogues and clamping down on protests — both of which risk sparking a public backlash.
The limits would come at a time when Israeli Jews are celebrating the High Holidays and when weekly demonstrations have been held against Netanyahu and his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
The ongoing protests have bitterly divided the country, with religious leaders saying their public is being unfairly targeted by restrictions on public prayer while Netanyahu’s opponents continue to hold large public demonstration. Demonstrators say Netanyahu’s supporters are using the outbreak as an excuse to muzzle their democratic right to protest.
Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch said restrictions would have to be tightened in the near future.
“Educational institutions will be closed, the economy will be limited to essential work, synagogues will have no indoor prayers, with arrangements for outdoor prayer, and demonstrations will be allowed without protesters traveling between cities,” he told Channel 12 TV. “Everyone will demonstrate where he wants, will pray where he wants and will stay at home. That is what is required now.” | 1,270,092 |
provider/host in the mix as the actual private key is _not_ stored in the card itself. Therefore (and as btchip just posted) it needs to be transferred to the card for signing.
btchip, if there is 16 kb of storage space available, is there a way to store and transfer out the encrypted key directly? Then you could do offline signing, as long as you trust the host software. Also, is it kilobits (Kb) or kilobytes (KB)? I see in the chip posted there is 66 Kbytes of User EEPROM... I can see it adding a bit more trust in a centralized, cloud-based card-provider scenario. The customer wins because the card provider doesn't have any way of getting at the funds directly as only the encrypted private key is stored (short of breaking 3DES.) They can also backup the funds directly in case the card provider goes defunct.If you add more verification in the card itself to only allow signed transactions from the card provider, then the card provider and customer are secure in the fact that the signed transactions are not affected by malware (except if the recipient/merchant generating the transaction is infected, but at least someone can see it before it is signed.)The customer would still have to trust the card provider not to spend all the funds as part of the next transaction, but then the card provider would also have to be cooperating with the merchant terminal/ host software provider to hide this fact when showing the receipt before signing.Another note on this smartcard, there will always be some sort of cloud provider/host in the mix as the actual private key is _not_ stored in the card itself. Therefore (and as btchip just posted) it needs to be transferred to the card for signing.btchip, if there is 16 kb of storage space available, is there a way to store and transfer out the encrypted key directly? Then you could do offline signing, as long as you trust the host software. Also, is it kilobits (Kb) or kilobytes (KB)? I see in the chip posted there is 66 Kbytes of User EEPROM...
Mike Hearn
Offline
Activity: 1526
Merit: 1008
LegendaryActivity: 1526Merit: 1008 Re: [ANN] Smartcard wallet project + btchip implementation (no reader required) January 06, 2013, 09:17:24 PM #8 By time horizons, I mean, if I buy a card and put some keys in it and then load up those keys with some coins, if I give it to somebody else I want them to be able to quickly load up a usable wallet. For sites that have a full index of the blockchain (like blockchain.info or things that use their API) you don't need any other data, but most nodes don't have such an index. For them knowing the block span which may be useful to scan can speed up synchronization immensely. It means storing two extra ints, so hardly a big deal if you have 16kb. | 1,270,093 |
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that the company has delivered more than 1,100 ventilators to help treat patients infected by the coronavirus to hospitals in the U.S. and Spain.
The shipments included 100 ventilators in Los Angeles County and more than 20 in the Bay Area, according to Musk.
But Los Angeles officials said they received a different machine: bilevel positive airway pressure units, which are not the same as ventilators.
“They have been distributed to hospitals in our system and are being used as intended. These units are used for breathing and airway support, reducing the need for certain patients to be placed on mechanical ventilation,” said Christina Ghaly, director of Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, in a statement.
A county spokeswoman didn’t have immediate information on whether coronavirus patients are using the machines.
Sonoma Valley Hospital said it received six continuous positive airway pressure units, not the six ventilators that Musk said were sent.
The disparity adds to confusion around Tesla’s ventilator commitments, particularly in California.
Musk posted a partial list of ventilator deliveries on Twitter after the Sacramento Bee and CNN reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said no ventilators had been shipped to California hospitals from the Palo Alto company.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy between its list and claims from Newsom’s office.
Musk said Bay Area deliveries also included 10 ventilators to Marin Health and five to Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City. The two hospitals did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.
Tesla had promised 1,000 ventilators to the state, a commitment announced by Newsom on March 23. Most of the ventilators on Musk’s list were sent to the East Coast, including New York, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases of any state in the country.
Newsom told reporters at a news conference Thursday that he “was not personally aware” of Musk’s list of hospitals.
“I appreciate Elon. I appreciate others that have really stepped up and lent their support and offered even more support beyond what has been made public,” Newsom said. “I look forward to learning more about where they went, and I’m grateful for his support.”
Musk said the ventilator models sent were based on hospital requests. “These were based on direct requests from their ICU wards, with exact specifications of each unit provided before shipment,” Musk said on Twitter, referring to intensive care units.
Last week, Tesla cut pay and furloughed some workers after shutting down its Fremont factory.
Chronicle staff writer
Alexei Koseff contributed
to this report.
Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @rolandlisf | 1,270,094 |
described feeling stress and self-loathing or shame and anger over having to worry about their safety. Many said they felt exhausted at the end of day. They are drained by worrying about what could happen to them.
MP: What impact did these fears have on participants’ health or quality of life?
BR: The most frequent coping response to expecting rejection was avoidance. If participants think they might be targeted for their gender identity, their response was often to avoid the situation altogether or escape. That makes for a pretty limited life.
The limited research that we have on transgender mental health focuses on reactions associated with experiencing discrimination, violence or stigma. We have evidence to support that experiencing those situations connected to stress, substance abuse and depression.
MP: Is the physical/emotional response to internalized stressors different than it is to external stressors?
BR: We found that our participants were constantly experiencing feelings of being “on edge,” sad or isolated. Often their response was substance use. What we found was that internal stressors could have the same type of psychological impact as an external experience. We found that worrying that you might be victimized could have a similar effect on a person’s mental health as actually experiencing real-life victimization.
Participants reported that on a daily basis they are constantly wondering or worrying and scanning their environment and making sure they have an escape plan. We would imagine that there is something about that experience that would be associated with an anxiety disorder or a mood disorder.
MP: This sounds like some of the symptoms of PTSD.
BR: I’m a clinical psychologist by training. I’ve worked with a lot of people with PTSD. Some of the common symptoms of PTSD include avoiding certain situations, reacting to certain cues in your environment, being on guard, having distressing nightmares. These narratives of fear, anxiety, hypervigilance and constant worry that we collected from our trans participants seem to be parallel to someone who’s had a traumatic history.
MP: What can care providers do to help transgender people cope with these stressors?
BR: I think health providers really need to be attuned to the internal stressors that trans individuals are likely facing. They are pretty well attuned to asking about external stressors, but it’s not very common that health providers know to ask about these internal stressors, about their internal experience.
MP: Are there ways that public policy can be changed to make life easier for transgender people?
BR: All the research that we have shows that we really ought to be allowing trans individuals to use their preferred restroom. Otherwise they are at greater risk of being victimized. These are stressful situations. Trans people want to use the restroom and get in and out like any other people. They don’t have larger motivations.
Research like this could inspire public policy, laws and regulations about trans individuals, protecting the rights and safety of individuals because they are so commonly targeted and misunderstood in our society. I believe and hope that my research will help to inspire such things. | 1,270,095 |
The National Basketball Association announced today that Bucks owner Marc Lasry has been tabbed to participate in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game 2016, which will tip off at 6 p.m. CT on Friday, Feb. 12, as part of NBA All-Star Weekend in Toronto. The game will air live on ESPN from Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.
Lasry, who played collegiate basketball at Clark University, will compete on the U.S. team, which will be coached by four-time NBA All-Star Celebrity Game MVP and actor Kevin Hart. Joining Lasry on Hart’s USA team are Jason Sudeikis (“Race”); Michael B. Jordan (“Creed”); Anthony Anderson (ABC’s “blackish”); Bryshere “Yazz” Gray (FOX’s “Empire”); Nick Cannon (“America’s Got Talent”); five-time NBA All-Star and ESPN analyst Chauncey Billups; NBA legend Muggsy Bogues; and WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne of the Chicago Sky.
Grammy® Award-winning artist and Toronto Raptors Global Ambassador Drake and will serve as the coach of Canada’s team. Drake will be joined on the sidelines by two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash and Toronto Blue Jays All-Star right fielder José Bautista. Canada’s team will feature Stephan James (“Race”); Arcade Fire’s Win Butler; Drew and Jonathan Scott (HGTV’s “Property Brothers”); professional tennis player Milos Raonic; actor and singer Kris Wu; seven-time NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady; NBA TV analyst Rick Fox; and Natalie Achonwa of the Indiana Fever.
For the 12th consecutive year, ESPN will televise the game beginning at 6 p.m. CT. Fans can also view the game on WatchESPN, available on your computer, smart phone, tablet, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Apple TV and Roku. The game rosters are subject to change without notice. Visit NBA.com/allstar2016 for more information.
About NBA All-Star 2016
NBA All-Star 2016 in Toronto will bring together some of the most talented and passionate players in the league’s history for a global celebration of the game. The 65th NBA All-Star Game, which will take place Sunday, Feb. 14 at Air Canada Centre, will reach fans in more than 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages. TNT will televise the All-Star Game in the U.S. for the 14th consecutive year, marking Turner Sports’ 31st year of All-Star coverage. The Air Canada Centre will also host the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge on Friday, Feb. 12 and State Farm All-Star Saturday Night on Saturday, Feb. 13. Other events at NBA All-Star 2016 include the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game and the NBA Development League All-Star Game presented by Kumho Tire. | 1,270,096 |
The horrifying story of an “honor killing” in Germany spotlights the sheer madness of importing millions of unvetted, unassimilated migrants.
The victim, a 20-year-old woman known as “Rokstan M,” is one refugee who had a strong case for asylum. She was gang-raped in Syria, emigrated to Germany two years ago, and found employment with the German government as a translator.
However, she strongly suspected her family wanted her dead for being “unclean,” and her suspicions appear to have been confirmed, as the German police believe her father and brothers slaughtered her with knives and buried her body in a garden, allegedly at the instruction of her mother.
So reports the UK Daily Mail, which notes that shortly before her death, Rokstan wrote on her WhatsApp profile: “I am awaiting death. But I am too young to die.” She wrote that after living and working in Germany for two years.
The Daily Mail relates the testimony of a writer named Mark Kruger, who hired Rokstan as an interpreter to help him interview refugees. After working with him for a while, she felt comfortable enough to tell him about her experience in Syria.
“I was taken by three men,” she said, delivering her account via tape recording. “Ever since that time my family have regarded me as unclean. My mother and my brothers mistreat me. They say that I deserve to die.”
At the time of her death, she had just returned to live with her family, after spending time in what the Daily Mail describes as a “house for single women.” Her body was found in the “family’s allotment” in the German town of Dessau. The police cannot find her father and brothers to question them, believing the father fled Germany for either Turkey or Syria.
Her mother has denied involvement in her death, but Kruger was convinced she ordered the killing and says one of Rokstan’s friends told her Mom once tried to hire a hit man to take her out. As a recent study of honor killings pointed out, women “play a very active role in honor-based femicide, both by spreading the gossip underlying such murders and by acting as conspirator-accomplices and/or hands-on-killers in the honor killing of female relatives.”
As a local prosecutor put it, “There is the suspicion that the act was carried out by persons in her close circle with a culture motive in the background.”
The Germans are going to need a fresh shipment of euphemisms to handle the forces their political leaders have unleashed. Leaked government figures say Germany will absorb up to 1.5 million migrants in 2015, nearly twice the official estimate given to the public. According to the German government’s secret figures, over 900,000 new arrivals are expected between October and December, arriving at the rate of 7,000 to 10,000 illegal border crossings per day. | 1,270,097 |
The Big Fundamental, Groundhog Day, Death & Taxes. In case you didn’t know, these are all nicknames of the continually great Tim Duncan. Repetitive, constant, ever present and just not very exciting. Those are the characteristics that these nicknames describe Duncan as. But what does Tim Duncan do that gives him this description?
I was watching a San Antonio Spurs game at the beginning of the playoffs and my friend made the comment that Duncan “hits that mid-range shot all the time.” I’m naturally a contrarian and immediately wanted to argue with him, but I just wasn’t sure. Duncan being a mid-range shooter felt right. Is it?
The Big Fundamental was the 77th best mid-range shooter in the NBA in the 2013-14 regular season.1 Duncan was just 130-for-354 (36.7%), the second lowest amount of field goals made from that range in his career2 but only the fifth lowest attempts from that range. His shooting percentage on these shots this season is the second-lowest of his career, with the 2005-06 season coming in last (141/401 – 35.2%).3
As you can see, the 38-year-old big man does have some good zones in the mid-range despite having a bad overall percentage on the season. Have Duncan’s mid-range woes continued in this playoffs? While a small sample, it seems to hold true for both his percentages and shot charts. Duncan is at 37.5% from the mid-range in the postseason4 and his shot chart still shows a few good zones, but an overall lack of consistent success.
Every player is prone to bad shooting stretches, some as long as seasons. Having that in mind, the statement that Duncan is a good mid-range shooter has generally been true throughout his career. His career average from the mid-range of 41.1% would jump him up to 44th this season and this is only the fourth time that Duncan has ever been below the arbitrary 40% threshold.
Duncan made his name in the post, setting screens, playing both ends of the floor and doing it all with extreme consistency. His bread and butter is the restricted area, as shown by the amount of attempts he takes there and he converts on a healthy 64.7% there. Duncan does this through post moves and methodical play, not relying solely on dunks and alley-oops.5
Looking at just the mid-range success and seeing an OK but not revelatory player should tell you one thing when that player is Duncan … you’re looking at the wrong stat. The Big Fundamental has been a capable mid-range shooter his whole career but he’s no Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Bosh or Serge Ibaka. We should probably adjust our expectancies for this part of Duncan’s game for the rest of the postseason, but if Duncan is back in 2014-15, I wouldn’t be shocked to see this percentage jump back above 42%. Death and Taxes after all. | 1,270,098 |
Flights departing from Stansted Airport are operating as normal after a large fire broke out on a bus.
The airport had cancelled all departing flights until midnight on Friday after an electrical fault caused the passenger shuttle bus outside the building to catch fire.
Passengers were told to leave the area and advised to re-book flights.
Stansted baggage system reduced to this. pic.twitter.com/JUrlglIILW — Andy (@andykaraji) March 30, 2018
The terminal forecourt and surrounding area including parts of the terminal building were evacuated due to smoke.
At around 5pm on Friday, the Essex airport confirmed the fire had been put out after four fire crews had been sent to the scene.
Image: The shuttle bus at Stansted was destroyed in the fire. Credit: @DareMe_UK
Many holiday-goers complained of poor communication and disorder during the evacuation.
Image: The bus fire prompted an evacuation of the airport. Credit: @DareMe_UK
Taylor Fulton-Ward, 18, from Hertfordshire, who was flying to Dublin with her family for the Easter weekend, said: "Announcements were telling us to leave the building, but the doors were not open - so people began pushing and panicking."
I honestly don't know who made all the calls tonight at #Stansted but that was so poorly managed. Bloody chaos and putting people through so much hell for nothing. No one got to fly! A bus caught on fire outside the building. Why did everything else fall apart?! pic.twitter.com/tfKkvRH9C8 — SFW (@cinnamonwalsh) March 30, 2018
We’re at RyanAir Gate 57 waiting with hundreds of people with no communication from anyone and we were just told that we now have to leave and go through security again because people had to go through security without being checked in order to evacuate. — Evan Roth (@eviansf) March 30, 2018
Evan Roth tweeted: "We’re at RyanAir Gate 57 waiting with hundreds of people with no communication from anyone and we were just told that we now have to leave and go through security again because people had to go through security without being checked in order to evacuate."
Another traveller, whose Twitter username is Sam, posted a video showing the bus engulfed in flames.
He later posted a photo showing a huge crowd, saying: "What's happening? @STN_Airport we can't hear your announcements".
A spokesman for the airport said some exits were cordoned off to protect passengers from the burning bus, which was very close to some of the doors, but staff were doing all they could to guide passengers to alternative exits.
The airport later tweeted things would be returning to normal: "Following the earlier incident involving a shuttle bus fire on the terminal forecourt, we confirm that the Airport will be open tomorrow and flights are expected to operate as normal.
"Passengers are advised to check the latest flight information with their airlines." | 1,270,099 |
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