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grapes, figs, berries, plums, banana, mango, and vegetables like onions, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, beets, and carrots can be dehydrated as whole or thin slices or its puree can be dried. They require pretreatments before keeping it for drying. Different herbs which add flavor to food are dehydrated for long use.
Drying curve
For every product, there is drying curve which describes drying characteristics at a specific temperature, velocity and pressure condition.
Three phases of drying –
Initial rate period – initial heating of equipment and the product to be dried occurs. Constant rate period – Free moisture is removed easily and unbound moisture will come-off at constant rate Falling rate period – Rate of moisture removal decreases with time
Ever Thought Of Preservation Of Food By Radiation, If Not Then Read This
Process for Drying Of Fruits and Vegetables :
Factors affecting drying
Temperature – Ideal temperature is 60-700C, higher temperature is not desirable
Humidity – humidity affects the drying time
Type of dryer – adiabatic and non-adiabatic dryers affects the product.
Air velocity & direction of air flow – rate of air velocity and direction of air flow affects the drying time and product quality.
Nature and size of food – physical, chemical composition of the material and its size affect the quality.
Rehydration ratio
When water is added to the dried product it forms similar product as it was fresh. It is used as the quality characteristic of dried products.
Rehydration Ratio = Weight of dried sample ÷ Weight of sample after rehydration
Drying is the most efficient technology for preservation of food and retains all the nutrients except vitamins. Various advanced drying technologies like superheated steam drying, impinging steam drying, contact sorption drying, pulse combustion drying has been developed to overcome the drawbacks of conventional dryers.
References:
http://www.aginnovation.org/wpcontent/themes/theme/images/Drying%20and%20Dehydration%20of%20Fruits%20and%20Vegetables.pdf
https://www.asabe.org/media/184966/chapter_10_in_wilhelm_food_proc._eng._tech.pdf
Written By :
Pratiksha Supekar
Connect to her @ [email protected] | 1,300 |
Google’s managing director for South East Asia and India Rajan Anandan told The Economic Times in an interview that the company is in talks with local telecom service providers to pilot Project Loon, its program to beam internet access from balloons floating thousands of feet up in the air.
We’ve known for a couple of years now that Google planned to bring its moonshot initiative to the country. In December 2014, the company met with government authorities to address potential issues concerning Loon transmissions interfering with cellular networks and to look into ways to work with existing telecom firms.
Last December, Sundar Pichai reiterated how important the Indian market was for Google and cited Project Loon as well as a program to bring free Wi-Fi to 400 railway stations across the country. The first of these went online in January and 99 more are expected to get connected by the end of 2016.
It’s worth noting that Google hasn’t claimed that Loon will provide internet access for free. However, it will solve the problem of bringing connectivity to rural populations and those who live in far-flung areas, where installing terrestrial networks proves difficult.
Anandan said that the government has been “very supportive” of Project Loon. That’s not surprising, given that India still has 1 billion who are yet to be connected to the Web, according to McKinsey & Co. However, he declined to name the telecom companies that Google is in talks with concerning the trial program.
It’ll be interesting to see how soon Google can begin to offer its balloon-powered internet across the nation and how it will monetize its offering. Zero-rating services that favor select sites and content are not an option, as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India banned them last month and effectively forced Facebook to shutter its Free Basics initiative in the country.
Google will have to figure out ways to educate millions of Indians who have never been online about its new service and also offer it at an affordable price. Local partnerships could help in those respects, but it will no doubt face a challenge in communicating the value of internet access to people who haven’t tried it before.
The company began technical trials of Project Loon balloons in Sri Lanka last month and is set to launch tests in Indonesia this year too.
➤ Google is in talks with local telcos to kickstart its ambitious Google Loon project in India [The Economic Times]
Read next: 3 awesome mobile onboarding scenarios you need to know | 1,301 |
The FINAL Elegant Weapon Has Been Revealed By The Senate on 2015-08-06 00:45:00 “An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age…” - Obi-Wan Kenobi
An entire galaxy was turned on its head when Ben Kenobi handed Luke Skywalker the weapon of his father: the Lightsaber. Since then, the Lightsaber has remained a cultural institution on par with no other.
Star Wars: Card Trader is proud to introduce our newest Insert series: Elegant Weapons. Collect the most iconic Star Wars Lightsabers from all of your favorite heroes and villains.
Elegant Weapons is available in four parallels--Black, Red, Blue, and Gold--and will be available in three separate packs: Elegant Weapons Padawan Pack (Black and Red Parallels only), Elegant Weapons Apprentice Pack (Red and Blue Parallels only), and the Elegant Weapons Master Pack (Blue and Gold Parallels Only).
*IMPORTANT NOTE*:
This set does have an Award and Award Card to chase, with more checklist information coming soon.
The newest, and last, weapon to search for was that of Darth Vader from his downfall in "Return of the Jedi."
The odds are:
- Gold - 10 printed, 1:4000
- Blue - 100 printed, 1:400
- Red - 500 printed, 1:200
- Black - 1000 printed, 1:100
This is the final Elegant Weapon. In two weeks, August 19th at 3 PM ET, the Elegant Weapons Award Card will go out: the lost Lightsaber of Luke Skywalker, inherited from his father Anakin. Have all 12 Elegant Weapons inserts of the same parallel on 8/19 at 3 PM ET to inherit yours.
The checklist is:
- Anakin Skywalker
- Count Dooku
- Obi-Wan Kenobi from "Attack of the Clones"
- Darth Sidious
- Darth Maul
- Yoda
- Obi-Wan Kenobi from "Revenge of the Sith"
- Darth Vader from "A New Hope"
- Mace Windu
- Luke Skywalker from "Return of the Jedi"
- Darth Vader from "The Empire Strikes Back"
- Darth Vader from "Return of the Jedi"
Claim your weapon. Get to the Cantina | 1,302 |
? Democratic legislators Monday blasted Republican-sponsored anti-union proposals they said would silence opposing viewpoints.
Measures that would prohibit voluntary paycheck deductions for union political action committees, eliminate collective bargaining laws, delay unemployment benefits and change the workers’ compensation appeal process are all moving through the Legislature.
“I have never seen an all-out assault on working Kansans like we are witnessing right now,” said House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.
Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, said House Bill 2023 is taken straight from model legislation put together by the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council.
The Kansas Chamber of Commerce-backed measure would prohibit public union members from making voluntary payroll deductions to their organization’s political action committee.
Supporters of the bill say it would protect workers who disagree with their unions and remove government from the process of deducting pay for union activity.
But Holland said that HB 2023 was an example of measures supported by Charles and David Koch “to benefit their interests.”
The brothers are the owners of Wichita-based Koch Industries and financial supporters of several conservative causes.
Missy Cohlmia, a spokeswoman for Koch Industries, said the business did not lobby on this bill. She added, “Equally troubling is the senator’s attack on a Kansas-based company that employs nearly 3,000 people in the state and pays compensation and benefits totaling more than $370 million.”
House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, defended the Republican-backed measures.
“House Republicans believe in giving Kansas workers options,” Merrick said. “The bills empower workers to negotiate the terms of their employment directly with employers, giving them more freedom and more choices. This is good for the worker as well as the employers who create jobs.”
The Democrats held a news conference to unveil a series of measures they said would help working families.
One proposal would create preferences to hire Kansans and purchase from Kansans first in the procurement of state labor and services.
Another would increase the state minimum wage by tying it to the consumer price index. The current state minimum wage is the same as the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.
And Holland has introduced a bill that would require state government to use the federal database E-verify to check the immigration status of new employees. The legislation also would apply to state contracts. | 1,303 |
Bowling Green hires Dino Babers as next head coach
USA TODAY Sports
Dino Babers will take over as head coach at Bowling Green, the school announced Wednesday.
Babers will replace Dave Clawson, who took the job at Wake Forest.
Babers, the runner-up for the Eddie Robinson Award for FCS Coach of the Year this week, led Eastern Illinois to a 12-2 record, a No. 2 national ranking and a quarterfinal appearance in the FCS playoffs.
"We are so proud to have Dino and his family join Bowling Green State University," athletic direcotr D. Christopher Kingston said in a statement. "Dino brings with him an incredible résumé of successful experiences that absolutely fit the Falcon football program. He is a proven winner who is in the business of developing young men who desire success on the field, in the classroom and in the community. His ability to maximize talent through skill development is unmatched."
Babers, 19-7 in two years at Eastern Illinois, was an assistant at Baylor under Art Briles.
Baber's Panthers led the FCS in yards a game (589.5) and points a game (48.2) in 2013. In addition, Eastern Illinois averaged 372.4 yards a game through the air and 217.1 yards on the ground.
"I am honored and excited to join the Falcon family," Babers said. "BGSU has great facilities and the fans are proving, most recently through ticket sales for this year's bowl game, that their support of BGSU football is among the best in the MAC. I want to thank President Mazey, Chris Kingston, and Lesley Irvine for the opportunity to take over the Bowling Green program. My family and I can't wait to get to Bowling Green and become Falcons. While I look forward to my time at BGSU, I want to thank the Eastern Illinois players and fans for their support the last two years, especially President Perry and (athletics director) Barbara Burke."
Babers' quarterback at Eastern Illinois, Jimmy Garoppolo was named the Walter Payton Award winner, the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. Garoppolo threw for 5,050 yards and 53 touchdowns in 2013. During his two seasons under Babers' guidance, he has thrown for 8,873 yards and 84 scores.
Babers was a four-year starter at the University of Hawaii, Academic All-WAC, and captain his senior year. | 1,304 |
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PIUTE COUNTY — A Piute County man pleaded guilty in July in connection with the illegal killing of a bald eagle and a buck deer.
The poaching occurred in early 2013, according to Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Logan Erickson shot and killed a bald eagle and left it to waste, DWR said. He also allegedly shot and killed a buck deer and removed the antlers from the deer, leaving the rest of the animal to waste.
DWR officers received information about the poaching and began to investigate. They recovered ballistic evidence that linked Erickson to the killing of both the deer and the bald eagle, DWR said. However, Erickson left the country to serve a church mission and charges were not filed until Erickson returned to Utah in June 2016.
Erickson was arrested and booked in connection with the illegal killings, and in July, he pleaded guilty to two counts of wanton destruction of protected wildlife, a class A misdemeanor. He was also ordered to pay $1,400 in restitution.
“This case, along with many others, might not have been discovered and investigated without information received from the public,” DWR officials said in a statement.
Photo Credit: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
Although they are no longer listed as an endangered species, it is illegal to kill bald eagles, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act was passed in 1940 and protects the birds by “prohibiting the take, possession, sale, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, of any bald or golden eagle, alive or dead.”
The fine for anyone who shoots, poisons, wounds, kill, captures or traps a bald or golden eagle can face a maximum fine of $5,000 or one year of imprisonment with $10,000. Felony convictions can carry a maximum fine of $250,000 or two years imprisonment, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
Anyone with information about other poachings in Utah can call the Utah Turn in a Poacher Hotline at 800-662-3337 or email [email protected].
×
Photos | 1,305 |
ap as follows:
export function uiRouterConfigureSitemap ( router : UIRouter, injector : Injector, module : StatesModule ) { let states : DynamicNg2StateDeclaration [] = < DynamicNg2StateDeclaration [] > module. states ; let filteredStates : DynamicNg2StateDeclaration [] = _. filter ( states, ( s ) => { return s. future &&! s. _complete }); _. map ( filteredStates, ( s ) => { let sitemapObj : any = _. find ( getSitemap (), ( sitemap : any ) => sitemap. module == s. name ); console. log ( `Retrieved ${ s. name } from sitemap ${ sitemapObj. path } ` ); // Set the URL from the sitemap object s. URL = sitemapObj. path ; s. _complete = true ; }); router. URLService. config. strictMode ( false ); }
This function starts off by filtering out router definitions which should not be dynamically resolved:
let filteredStates : DynamicNg2StateDeclaration [] = _. filter ( states, ( s ) => { return s. future &&! s. _complete });
For each of the states requiring configuration, we will find the sitemap object which matches the current dynamic State Declaration using the state name:
let sitemapObj : any = _. find ( getSitemap (), ( sitemap : any ) => sitemap. module == s. name );
Note that the getSitemap function is not fully specified. The specific implementation shall use the locale state parameter to retrieve the specific sitemap JSON from the CMS as defined above.
Once the sitemap object is located we will use this object to configure the URL as well as mark the State Declaration as complete to signal that it has been processed:
s. URL = sitemapObj. path ; s. _complete = true ;
Conclusion
In this post we have shown how to configure dynamic State Declarations on UIRouter in order to handle multilingual routes. Special thanks goes to Christopher Theilen for overseeing the changes required within UI Router to make this happen and for the interesting discussion around this topic. The ideas presented in this post will be pushed onto ui-router-ng2 beta5 (currently on beta4). Stay safe and keep hacking! | 1,306 |
IndiGo leaves behind the luggage of 130+ passengers on Delhi to Istanbul flight Photo: Reuters
On a flight from Delhi to Istanbul on September 15, 2019, IndiGo did something which led to the hashtag #ShameOnIndiGo trend on Twitter. IndiGo, which was flying the passengers to Istanbul, left behind the luggage of the entire aircraft back in Delhi.
Twitter user Chinmay Dabke, who was on this Delhi-Istanbul flight, took to his account to share the details of the incident.
Chinmay wrote, "Just flew in on @IndiGo6E flight 6E 11 from Delhi to Istanbul last evening. We received this piece of paper when we were waiting for our luggage at the belt. The airline did not load the luggage of the ENTIRE FLIGHT. Not a single passenger got their luggage (1/n) #shameonindigo," as he shared a picture of the apology note handed to the passengers.
He continued by saying, "How can an airline as big as @IndiGo6E 'forget' or'miss out' on loading luggage. I get you forgot the luggage for a few people on the flight. But the ENTIRE flight? What are Indian operations in Delhi doing? (2/n) #shameonindigo."
That was not all, he wrote all the problems that this created for the passengers. He tweeted, "My father has his necessary medication in his luggage. He is a diabetes patient who needs his daily dose. Some other travelers were on connecting flights to their end destinations in different countries. What do these folks do? (3/n) #shameonindigo @IndiGo6E."
Finally, while praising the ground staff at the Istanbul airport, Chinmay wrote, "However, the only positive from this ordeal is that the ground staff at Istanbul airport was extremely cooperative and helped everyone fill out requisite forms so they can identify luggage and give it back to us. It is not easy dealing with 130+ angry Indians."
A lot of people started tweeting about the incident.
IndiGo even responded to some.
Twitterati had a lot of views about the mishap. A few users also shared similar experiences that they have had with the airline. Have a look.
IndiGo has assured passengers that their luggage would reach them soon.
ALSO READ | IndiGo offloads checked-in baggage on Istanbul flights due to heavy headwind | 1,307 |
映画会社レジェンダリー・ピクチャーズが「ポケットモンスター」の実写映画を製作すると、The Playlistなどが報じた。
「パシフィック・リム」「ジュラシック・ワールド」で知られるレジェンダリー・ピクチャーズ。2017年より制作がスタートする本作は、日本で2月に発売されたニンテンドー3DS用ゲームソフト「名探偵ピカチュウ ～新コンビ誕生～」をもとにしたものだ。実写化の方法やストーリーなど、詳細は明らかになっていない。日本での配給は東宝が担当する。
なお現在アメリカでは、スマートフォン向けアプリ「Pokemon GO」が大ヒット中。日本では劇場アニメシリーズの最新作「ポケモン・ザ・ムービーXY&Z『ボルケニオンと機巧（からくり）のマギアナ』」が全国で上映されている。
※「Pokemon GO」のeはアクサンテギュ付きが正式表記
（情報提供：Indiewire.com / IFA / ゼータ イメージ）
上映スケジュール 近くの映画館 上映スケジュールがありません さらに読み込む
リンク | 1,308 |
Ahmedabad
I-League
football
Gujarat State Football Association
Vikram Patel
Kolhapur
GSFA treasurer Philip Job, ARA FC’s Vikram Patel and Vivek Nagul; Pic:JIGNESH VORA
Two weeks afterMirror first broke the news (City team set for I-league, AM, Nov 25), it is now official that Ahmedabad Racquet Academy FC is set to become the first team from the state to feature insecond division.The news surely livens upfans in the state.(GSFA) treasurer and former player Phillip Job hoped that it should serve as the much-needed fillip for the sport in the state."I would say that it is the perfect stage for football's take-off in the state. For long we have been minnows but things have started to change in recent times. We have been doing well in the under-age categories and already playing in the under-18 I-league," Job asserted."But there was a vacuum in the 18-24 years division. It is the period where most players develop. I think ARA FC's presence in I-League second division, can be a platform for our players to showcase their skills," the veteran administrator said.While expectations are big, ARA FC bossand football director Vivek Nagul remained realistic about their chances."I am not holding high expectations. It will be a learning process for us and I want to keep things real," Patel said, adding, "But I hope with time we will be able to boost football in the state. That is something I am looking for in the long run.""With the tournament around the corner, we don't have much time. But I think in another 1-2 years we will have a strong base and will be more competitive then," added Nagul, who has years of experience in coaching some ISL and I-League teams.While the team is still taking shape, Nagul said for the first year they are looking at experienced match-fit players."While we will have some 20 odd players from Gujarat, we will be looking for some experienced players to ensure that we are competitive," Nagul said, adding, "We will also be looking at 10 players from outstate. I will be travelling to Bengaluru andwhere the leagues are currently on."We are hoping to pick players who are match fit and experienced. Since we are short on time, our primary focus would be to ensure that the players bond well." | 1,309 |
Blood – Art from A and M in, waiting on the rest.
Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds – Sketches coming in.
Trinity Continuum Aberrant – KS Sketches and finals coming in.
Hunter: The Vigil 2e
Ex3 Lunars
They Came From Beneath the Sea – Getting it going.
TCFBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers
Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed
Ex3 Monthly Stuff
In Layout
V5: Chicago – Starting NPCs chapter…
Trinity Core
Trinity Aeon
CoM – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel
Proofing
WtF Shunned by the Moon – 2nd proof.
DR: E – proof back from Eddy
Aeon Aexpansion
C20 Cup of Dreams – This week.
Ex 3 Monthlies – At WW for approval
At Press
Dragon Blooded – Deluxe shipping to Studio2.
Dragon-Blooded Cloth Map – Shipped to Studio2.
Dragon-Blooded Screen – Printing.
The Realm – PoD files uploaded.
Trinity Core Screen – Printing.
TC Aeon Screen – Printing.
C20 Player’s Guide – PoD proofs ordered.
Geist 2e – Need to input Errata.
Book of Oblivion – Putting in errata.
Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs ordered.
Scion Jumpstart – Gathering errata from Backer PDFs.
Scion Ready-Made Characters – Gathering errata from Backer PDFs.
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
OK- so when I don’t have something specific to put here, I go to Wikipedia and look up the date and see who is born/died or any great events on this date. Today there was this:
637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dál Riata. It is claimed to be the largest battle in the history of Ireland.
Now as is, this might be interesting particularly for Neall and the Scion community. Except I read it as the Battle of Moria, and for a minute I wanted to know which one, and was that the battle where Thorin got his Oakenshield appellation? | 1,310 |
Zurich Insurance Group has announced that it has completed the acquisition of the life insurance businesses of Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ), making a major player in the life insurance industry for retail customers in the Australian market.
The A$2.85 billion (US$2 billion) deal to purchase OnePath Life, which was first announced in December 2017, has hereby expanded Zurich’s bank distribution footprint by providing access to up to 6 million new customers in Australia, the company said in a weekend newspaper.
According to Zurich, this acquisition will strengthen their strategy of giving more attention to less capital-intensive savings products.
As confirmed from Zurich, this expansion is in line with their merger and acquisition strategy with aim to have a leading role in attractive markets while they release funds from non-core operations.
As a result of this acquisition, Zurich will have a market share of around 20 percent in retail life and 6 percent in the local group life market.
Zurich is strengthening its business in Australia and we can now engage with up to 6 million new customers with this acquisition of OnePath Life and the access to ANZ’s distribution channels,” said Group Chief Executive Officer Mario Greco.
Asia Pacific is a key region for Zurich and this deal adds further complementary products and additional bancassurance distribution capacity in the region,” he added. “OnePath Life’s retail business, focused on protection and savings products, is perfectly aligned with our strategy in life insurance and should further add to our strong cash remittances.”
As part of the transaction, Zurich’s existing independent financial adviser (IFA) and bank distribution channels in Australia will be broadened by a 20-year agreement with ANZ to distribute life insurance products through bank channels.
This cooperation agreement strengthens Zurich’s business by giving it access to ANZ’s customer base served through more than 630 branches, and additional capabilities in independent distribution channels.
Since Zurich laid out its strategic three-year plan in November 2016, Zurich said it has made significant progress in improving the overall business mix and has strengthened its customer focus.
During the past few years, Zurich affirmed that it has released capital through the exit of a number of non-core businesses, while reinvesting in a series of bolt-on acquisitions.
These acquisitions have been focused on creating leadership positions in chosen market segments in key geographies, including Australia, Argentina, Indonesia and the U.S. | 1,311 |
YPG Calls On Residents Of Til Meruf To Evacuate Ahead Of Operation
(ANF/QAMIŞLO) The People’s Defense Units (YPG) are preparing to launch an operation in the village of Til Meruf, where a joint-attack was launched by the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS), the al-Nusra Front and the Ahrar al-Sham against YPG positions early this morning. The attack followed a written statement released by the YPG on Wednesday that it would not launch anymore offensive operations. However the YPG also reserved to itself the right to legitimate self-defense.
The YPG has called on residents of the area to evacuate ahead of the operation. The attack on the village, in the district of Tirbespiyê, was launched the ISIS, al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham at 3:00 AM this morning. As the al-Qaeda affiliated gangs entered the village they destroyed the Tomb of Sheik Xeznewi as well as the four-minaret central mosque, set houses on fire and kidnapped civilians. According t local sources 15 residents, including 4 women, were taken prisoner and brought to Til Hemis. As of this evening smoke could still be seen rising from the village.
The village of Til Meruf is 20 km from Qamişlo and 18 km from Til Hemis, currently under the control of the gangs. The village is composed of 450 households and its population is entirely Kurdish. YPG forces has established a protective perimeter around the village to prevent further civilian casualties.
The ISIS has confirmed the destruction of the Tomb of Sheik Xeznewi on Twitter. The YPG Central Command has said that no YPG units were in the village at the time of the attack, but that the YPG could not remain silent in face of such aggression. Pointing to a threat on the part of certain groups a couple of days ago to ‘burn down Qamişlo,’ a YPG statement said “this does not consist only of talk, they are making their intentions clear.” The statement went on to say that such “gangs did not understand any other language” and promised a severe response: “We declare this openly: we will make Til Meruf a grave for those enemies and their partners that are playing with the security of the people and attacking their lands.”
Earlier this evening the YPG released a second statement requesting that residents of Til Meruf evacuate ahead of a planned operation to clean Til Meruf of all gang elements. | 1,312 |
The U.S.F.L. appreciated Trump's flamboyant approach to business, and he was sought originally by the U.S.F.L. for its New York franchise. ''They wanted Trump,'' he said, ''but I was immersed in the building of Trump Tower then, and, even though I had some good friends who had bought teams, like Al Taubman with the Michigan Panthers, and John Bassett with the Tampa Bay Bandits, I just couldn't find the time.
''Then when J. Walter Duncan found that being an absentee owner was too hard - he lives in Oklahoma City and every game was an 'away' game for him - he was up for selling the team, and now the league came to me and I was ready for it.''
The interest of the U.S.F.L. in Trump is confirmed by Steven E. Ehrart, assistant to Commissioner Chet Simmons. It was believed that Trump's high visibility and the fact that he was not an absentee owner would stimulate a good New York franchise. ''And a good New York franchise,'' said Ehrart, is of ''paramount importance'' to the league.
Trump has hopes that in two or three or four years the U.S.F.L. will be competing with the N.F.L., and possibly moving from the spring-time schedule to fall and winter games. ''And I'd like to challenge them to a championship game,'' he said. ''That would be a lot of fun. Although I think a couple of our teams can play equally with some N.F.L. teams, it will take a few years before this league, this entity, this entertainment is fully formed.''
Meanwhile, Trump, the newest sports franchise owner, goes about becoming one of the most visible, and, in his way, candid.
At the news conference for Brian Sipe, for example, Sipe was telling about having been benched for a game. Trump stood up and said it came after Sipe, on an off-day, was in New York talking with Trump, and the Browns knew it, and reacted angrily to it.
''Brian is too much of a gentleman to say it,'' said Trump, ''but I guess I'm not.''
Trump was reminded of that recently. ''That's the way I saw it, and perhaps honesty overrides gentlemanliness,'' he said. ''But in the end we got him, we got results. I like results.'' | 1,313 |
LONDON (Reuters) - If the Scottish National Party wins the most seats in Scotland at a June 8 election, Prime Minister Theresa May’s refusal to agree to a second independence referendum will be unsustainable, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Sunday.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, arrives for a photocall with the SNP Westminster Group, following Tuesday's announcement that a general has been called for June, in Westminster, central London, Britain April 19, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville
The SNP, which won 56 of parliament’s 59 Scottish seats at the last election in 2015, has said Scots should get another say on independence once the terms of Britain’s EU exit are clear.
Polls show the SNP is set to easily win in Scotland in June, though May’s Conservatives are expected to take some seats from them as the issue of keeping the United Kingdom together takes center stage.
May has said now is not the time to discuss a fresh independence vote. Scots rejected independence by 10 percentage points in 2014 and support for secession since then is little changed.
“If the SNP win the election on June 8 in Scotland, and I am taking nothing for granted,... then I think that position of the prime minister is unsustainable,” Sturgeon said in an interview with the BBC.
She said the win would add weight to the SNP’s victory in the Scottish election last year and a vote in the Scottish parliament giving her a fresh mandate to seek a new referendum.
Sturgeon pointed to other times May has changed her mind.
On Monday May was forced to backtrack on one of her Conservative Party’s most high-profile election pledges to force elderly people to pay more for their social care after her opinion poll lead halved.
“In politics positions quickly become unsustainable and we have seen in the last few days... this is not a prime minister who is very good at holding positions under pressure. She is a prime minister that has seemed to perfect the art of the U-turn,” Sturgeon said.
The SNP will insist on Scotland’s right to decide its own future as Britain leaves the European Union when it sets out is pre-election policy document on Tuesday.
Sturgeon, who said she wants an independent Scotland to be a full member of the EU, argues that a new choice is needed because Scots voted to stay in the bloc in a referendum last June, at odds with the overall vote to leave. | 1,314 |
"For a shooter it's a no-brainer. The higher the frame rate is, the better it is."..."On my side, the type of game I'm going to work on... I don't want to put extra pressure on the team just because we can do it if it's not a necessity. If the players see nothing different, maybe I would prefer to have better physics and stuff like that and not this 60 frames per second frame rate."
If you were hoping for 1080p, 60fps and unbridled amounts of massive physics-based destruction for the early goings of next-gen games, think again. Eidos Montreal has put a pickle in the gears of expectations, knocking down the hopes and dreams of gamers by a peg, after acknowledging thatwill be relegated to 30fps.In an interview with Videogamer.com, Eidos Montreal producer Stephane Roy told them that while working onfor next generation consoles the priority has not been 60fps but rather, 30fps with a lot of physics-based effects, saying...This is a little scary if the hardware is being peaked so early on. However, there are some notes to takeaway from what he said that might help clarify a bit: He says he would prefer physics but not that the physics have – at this point, anyway – diminished the possibility of 60 frames per second. It sounds more like they're still testing ground and seeing what sticks, what works and what boundaries they can push while maintaining either 30 frames or 60 frames per second.Word around the block is that the final dev kits aren't in just yet for the PS4 and Xbox 720 and that what footage we're seeing and what screenshots we're getting aren't entirely finalized on the console manufacture's hardware. Nevertheless, if the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo for PS4 is anything to go by, I would presume that early releases on the PS4 will have to make some sacrifices in some graphics or effects departments to maintain 60 frames per second.It's also highly doubtful we'll be seeing anything from the Brigade Engine running on the PS4 and Xbox 720 anytime soon.Nevertheless, Sony has taken a completely pro-developer stance with the PS4 this time around and some developers like CD Projekt Red are already claiming that it's so much easier now porting between PC and PlayStation that there's a possibility that the quality of games and performance could increase between multiplatform titles during this next generation. So even at the cost of 60fps, consistent stability and performance could still go a long ways in keeping the console cycle feeling fresh. | 1,315 |
's competition all over the field, the strong safety spot, free safety spot. Still, you never know what might happen because of OTA's and camp. So, I'm going to do my best from the beginning from the start." - J J Wilcox
Battle Royal: Dallas D-Line Has Plenty Of Options, But Lacks Proven Playmakers - DallasCowboys.com
In a staff report, the crew over at the mothership is taking a pre-OTA look at the state of Jason Garrett's roster. The most recent look involves the defensive line. There are many questions revolving around this unit, and just as many possible answers to choose from. For the Cowboys it is going to come down, in part at least, to making the right choices.
The defensive line hasn’t gone unaddressed, though. The Cowboys signed four-year veteran Cedric Thornton to a four-year, $17 million contract in March. They followed that up with the unconventional decision to extend a three-year, $8.2 million offer to unproven pass rusher Benson Mayowa, formerly with the Oakland Raiders. The front office also spent two premium draft picks on the pass rush. Massive Nebraska defensive tackle Maliek Collins was drafted No. 67 overall, and Oklahoma defensive end Charles Tapper was taken with the 101st overall pick. Those additions will join the likes of Tyrone Crawford, David Irving, Jack Crawford and Terrell McClain in the rotation. There’s a fair amount of talent, to be sure. But the goal for the Cowboys will be trying to make the most of a group of pass rushers that are largely unproven on the NFL level.
Ezekiel Elliott: 'I thought Ohio State fans were crazy, but Dallas Cowboys fans are even more crazy' - Jon Machota, Dallas Morning News
I always like to end on a light note, and it came down to this or coverage of the DCC auditions, and I know BTB readers are not in to cheerleaders so I chose this,
"I thought Ohio State fans were crazy," Elliott said, "but Dallas Cowboys fans are even more crazy. Passionate fans, man. Very passionate." - Ezekiel Elliott
I have seen those characters at the Horseshoe in Columbus and how passionate they can be. I am going to take this as high praise from Zeke.
Oh, and if you are really bored and want to check in on the cheerleaders, here is that link too. | 1,316 |
Purdy’s Pub and Grill is taking over the space recently occupied by Angles in Sackville,and yes wing night are returning as well.
Speaking of new bars,Downtown Dartmouth is getting a new bar. Beside Bobs/Bluebell on Portland there is a bar catering to a different crowd than your usual Portland St bar, but then details get sketchier I have heard that it will be a craft brew spot with a Toms Havana crossed with Stillwell vibe but then I have also heard flights of wine and oysters. Will have to see in the new year as details become obvious.
Whole Foods has announced that they are undertaking an aggressive expansion in Canada expanding from 10 to 40 stores in Canada and having a presence “coast to coast” within in the next 5 years. What the means for Halifax is unknown, The rumour mill says they have been talking to Kings Wharf but they may just be hopeful speculation.
Montreal Menswear retailer Frank & Oak opened their holiday Pop upon the corner of Barrington and Blowers.
The former garage on Gottingen between Propeller and the Marquee is being convert into a bouldering Climbing Gym.
Smokes Poutinerie is setting up in Woodside beside Satrbucks, this Smokes is a little different in the fact it has a drive thru and is co-labelling itself as a Weinerie as well.
Woodys Larry Uteck closed, after 12 months. The owners of that recently had taken over the previously failed location in Dartmouth Crossing.
Reitmans is killing of the Smart Set brand over the next year, nationally they will be closing 31 stores and the other 76 will be converted to Penningtons, Addition Elle, Thyme, RW & Co and of course Reitmans.
The bottom of Wright Ave you is getting a new restaurant called Star Fresh Modern Diner which will be focusing on a healthier options for the Burnside lunch crowd.
Noticed a couple new ready to eat stall at the Brewery Market, the Meatball Merchant who has really tasty and hearty Meatball Sliders and The Early Burgs who are making a choice of vegetarian breakfast burgers.
To end off this week, anyone who follows me knows I have a few things I love more and one of those things is Salvatores Meatball Hero and this week it got better when my favourite draught Big Spuce’s Cereal Killer oatmeal stout went on tap. So tasty. | 1,317 |
Most of the attention in the electric-truck sector recently has focused on Tesla, which presented its Semi model to great fanfare earlier this month. Not to be outdone, Daimler beat Tesla to the punch by unveiling its big electric rig a few weeks before Elon Musk’s big moment. Those scene-stealing electric semis won’t be on the roads until 2019 at the earliest. In the meantime, smaller, lightweight e-trucks are desperately needed in cities crippled by air and noise pollution.
Daimler started delivering its small electric truck—the FUSO eCanter— in Europe this week. Made by Daimler’s Mitsubishi Fuso truck division, it has a range of 62 miles (100 km) and can transport 4.5 tons. UPS already uses eCanters in the US. German parcel service DHL will buy some too—but DHL already has a pretty amazing electric truck success story of its own.
While automotive bosses talked up their e-mobility plans, Germany’s Deutsche Post DHL got tired of waiting to electrify its fleet. In 2014, after no car company was willing to partner with it, the logistics company went ahead and bought a small startup called StreetScooter. Within 18 months, it had developed its own basic, electric postal vans to zoom around crowded cities, delivering post, parcels—and handling that all-important “last mile” of delivery.
The disruptive StreetScooter now makes fully electric pickups, vans, bikes, and trikes, which it also sells to third parties. It says that its some 5,000 e-vehicles have driven 13.5 million kilometers so far, and saved more than 16,000 tons of CO2 annually.
The project’s success irked some of Germany’s automotive behemoths: Bloomberg reported that VW CEO Matthias Müller said: “It’s extremely annoying to me. I am asking myself why Deutsche Post didn’t work with us on this.”
DHL plans to ramp up production of StreetScooters to 10,000 a year next year, and is building a second factory in Germany in 2018, allowing it to sell more vehicles to third parties.
The scrappy StreetScooter now has important friends: Ford is now a partner, and the company has plans to build it a fleet of around 2,500 bigger e-trucks, based on the Ford Transit van. | 1,318 |
Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song has attacked EOS calling it a scam and saying it holds no benefit for developers.
Song who is also an educator mentioned this in an interview with Crypto Insider while also speaking about upcoming developers. He encouraged upcoming developers to venture into open source projects as this will help them understand the ecosystem faster, adding that open source products opens doors to a wider range of opportunities.
“It isn’t that difficult to find someone that will hire you and a lot of these ICO projects will flush you with money but have no developers, and oftentimes they will come and offer a lot of money”
Song suggested working on Bitcoin or another open source project as a young developer rather than join an ICO or a project like EOS which he said “will die in a horrible dumpster fire in the next five years”. In addition, he said working on open source projects will help young developers develop skills that will make them competent and highly relevant in the ecosystem.
“I think most people will do fine trying to learn, getting better and seeing what market opportunities there are. It might involve getting an entry-level job at certain Bitcoin-related companies, or it might be creating a new open-source project”
Song is not the only one speaking against EOS. A major cryptocurrency investor James Spediacci has given several reasons why EOS is bad as an investment.
Spediacci took to his Twitter page to speak about the issues with EOS. He said EOS’ ICO that raised $4 billion was uncapped. The funds according to him was sent to Blockone, a for profit company based in Cayman which he said may do whatever it desires with the funds.
He also accused EOS of “pushing its cost” to developers, comparing it with ETH.
“It costs $10 in staked EOS to onboard a new end user on to any EOS Dapp. If your Dapp gets 1M users, that costs you $10M. This costs $0 on ETH. This is a massive issue that EOS has not publicly addressed it at all.”
This may be one of the reasons why Song says the cryptocurrency is not good for developers. With all these criticisms however, EOS seems to be really gaining popularity, even earning the title “Ethereum Killer”. Will EOS power up positively or will it die in five years like Song predicts?
Watch Full Interview Below
| 1,319 |
music and creative coding. Linux works great for standalone software like VCV Rack, mod trackers and audio programming languages, but the same is true for Windows and Mac. From a "mainstream user" perspective, however, Linux is seen as hard to use with sparse support for hardware and lacking in software choices if you just want to "get things done", and I can't blame them. On the other hand, a possible rectifying factor for Linux is the increased privacy concern of Windows and Mac, loss of control for things like automatic updates and the unfortunate blurring of the line between the internet and your desktop. People already have started seeking refuge in a Linux distro of their choice to avoid these problems.
McCurry encourages people to contribute back to the community, "for people who want to get involved, my response is 'Just get started.'" Help is needed from all sides. Developers are sorely needed; documenters are needed; designers are needed; marketers are needed; users with well thought out critical feedback are needed. McCurry adds:
For people just getting started, shop around. By looking at the mailing lists, forum posts and issue trackers for a project, you can get a feel for what's missing, what's being worked on and where things are going. Once you have a feeling for what you want to learn or contribute, start small. It's easy to get overwhelmed, and by taking small steps it's possible to go from knowing virtually nothing about a subject to being proficient.
Coelho echoes a similar sentiment:
Best thing you can do first is to get yourself familiarized with Linux itself. Trying to "fix" things or develop something new without knowing what already exists and how it works can end up badly. We already have enough software that tries to do the same thing over and over again, but not reaching a really good usable state. I think the biggest thing we're missing in Linux audio is documentation, and people willing to write more of it. I can speak for myself that I hate writing documentation—even for my own applications. Good designers are missing too, but it's hard to find people with the right mentality. Good designers willing to put their work on free and open software are very rare.
Coda
With modern hardware and robust offerings from the Linux software community, a full music production studio can be built around the Linux platform. From DIY bedroom producers to mainstream artists, such as Deadmau5, music makers of all stripes are exploring the versatile and powerful audio capabilities that Linux has to offer. | 1,320 |
alone and said this was her darkest period. With no money for bills, she sat home alone in the dark, crying and hungry. She attempted to take her own life.
(Image: Wales Online/Richard Swingler WS)
(Image: Wales Online/Richard Swingler WS)
"I didn't see the point in living anymore, the depression took over me," she said.
"I started to cut myself and began to bleed loads, but an ambulance arrived. After a few days I was released and it was back to normal again. People who I knew were sending me shopping to steal for them."
A year later, Danielle spent 11 weeks in prison after being caught shoplifting. But she says judges in court cited the fact her payments had been stopped and she was stealing to survive.
Danielle cares for her mum, who has spinal problems and arthritis in her hands. Her mum has helped get her life back on track and got her to attend support groups. Danielle has been clean since March, and wants to stay that way. She hopes to become a counsellor.
Danielle said she believes hundreds of other people across the country have gone through similar problems.
"There's so much support out there for anyone struggling. Since I put my story on social media, hundreds of people have been in touch to support me and there are groups who are dedicated to help you.
"My message would be to not go through this alone, reach out to people who can help you.
"The problem with the system is that there's no physical support so everyone just gets treated the same, there's no exception.
"My life wouldn't have gone that way if that sanction didn't happen. They destroyed 15 years of sobriety and nearly took my life."
A spokesperson for the DWP said: "Our job centre staff are experienced at supporting vulnerable people and when we know about their personal circumstances we can make sure we offer the right help.
"Sanctions are a last resort and when we are made aware - including retrospectively - of good reasons why appointments are missed, they will not be used.
"Universal Credit customers can keep in touch with their work coaches over the phone and via the online journal."
Figures released in December showed 68,136 people receive universal credit in Wales. By the end of the full roll-out, scheduled for 2023, it is estimated that more than 400,000 people in Wales will get the new benefit. | 1,321 |
The Angels went into the offseason looking to fill vacancies at a number of positions, but an upgrade behind the plate wasn't necessarily the priority.Things could change on that front, however, and there are several sensible reasons why the team's biggest and most surprising move of the offseason just might
The Angels went into the offseason looking to fill vacancies at a number of positions, but an upgrade behind the plate wasn't necessarily the priority.
Things could change on that front, however, and there are several sensible reasons why the team's biggest and most surprising move of the offseason just might be the free-agent signing of Matt Wieters.
The Angels haven't been mentioned as one of the prominent contenders for Wieters, who is the top remaining catcher on the market and one of the better overall position players still available in this free-agent class. He also was not extended a qualifying offer by his former team, the Orioles, which means the team that signs him will not have to surrender a valuable pick in June's Draft.
• Hot Stove Tracker
And in the new year, the Angels, who have already added outfielders Cameron Maybin and Ben Revere, second baseman Danny Espinosa and starting pitcher Jesse Chavez, might still be looking for another starter and a bullpen arm.
But none of the new faces are bank-breakers, and the team could clear up a decent amount of payroll space with the presumed departures of pitchers Jered Weaver and Christopher Wilson. That leaves about $15 million in 2017 salary left before they hit the luxury-tax threshold, putting Wieters in play.
Sure, the team made a deal at catcher, trading young backstop Jett Bandy to the Brewers for the veteran defensive specialist Martin Maldonado. But that got them a career backup in return. With unproven Carlos Perez as their other current catching option, the Angels seem to be either betting that Maldonado is good enough to be their everyday guy, or that there's another move coming.
Wieters is projected to land a three- or four-year offer worth around $12-15 million a year. The Angels could structure a deal to make that happen. Then again, if the market isn't buzzing around Wieters as the the mid-February Spring Training report date approaches, the price might become even more tantalizing. Also, Wieters' agent, Scott Boras, is located in Orange County and frequents Angel Stadium.
Plus, who doesn't love the weather in Southern California? | 1,322 |
Man who shot Sandpoint officers stole gun from grandfather
Kyle Simchuk by Kyle Simchuk
The man who shot at two Sandpoint police officers as they responded to an apartment in the Ridley Village stole a handgun from his grandfather.
William Crawford said his grandson, 28-year-old Brandon Kuhlman, suffered from schizophrenia and that on the night of the shooting, he stole his handgun, and was high on drugs when he shot at police.
Crawford spent the day sweeping up broken glass, and cleaning blood off his kitchen floor, where Kuhlman died after shooting the two officers.
Crawford says his grandson, who lived nearby with his mom, recently stopped taking his medication. On Sunday night, Crawford, who lives in the Ridley Village apartments, went over to a neighbor’s and left his door unlocked. He says his grandson snuck inside and stole his handgun, the only weapon he doesn’t lock up.
When Crawford returned, he found his bedroom light on and his gun missing. Crawford went over to Kuhlman’s mom’s house to search for the gun. He even searched his grandson by patting him down, but did not find the gun.
Crawford brought Kuhlman back to his apartment and continued searching for the gun. He says his grandson was high on meth and heroin and was “out of his mind” seeing spirits, and paranoid that police were out to get him.
By 3 a.m., the gun was still missing. Crawford called police, and whispered into the phone, asking them to come arrest Kuhlman. When Crawford opened the door to two Sandpoint officers, Kuhlman pulled out the gun he had been hiding and shot them.
Crawford ran outside, suffered a heart attack, and collapsed in the snow. He remembers his grandson Brandon saying “I’m dying, I need an ambulance,” before collapsing to the kitchen floor.
Crawford said he is beyond thankful that both officers are still alive. He said his grandson was out of his mind, and had no control over himself or his actions, which cost him his life. Crawford said he did everything to protect his grandson, but it wasn’t enough.
COPYRIGHT 2020 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. | 1,323 |
YOU could travel from Oxford to London for just £1 by stagecoach, but there was a catch – the journey would take you seven hours 45 minutes.
Timetables uncovered by Memory Lane reader David Brown show that a stagecoach service was operating between the two cities as late as 1928.
You could take the stagecoach from Oxford to London, then catch a train back to Oxford, or vice versa.
As you can see from the timetable published, the Old Berkeley stagecoach ran between the Mitre Hotel in High Street, Oxford, and The Berkeley Hotel in London.
It carried passengers from Oxford to London on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and in the opposite direction on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
They were promised a “65-mile drive with seven teams of six horses through the picturesque counties of Middlesex, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire”.
The horses were changed at Wheatley, Aston Rowant, West Wycombe, High Wycombe, Beaconsfield, Uxbridge and Isleworth.
The fare for the whole journey was £1, with box seats available at £1 10s (£1.50). It cost 10 shillings (50p) if you got off at High Wycombe and sixpence a mile for intermediate journeys. The whole coach could be booked for 10 guineas (£10.50).
While the coach took seven hours 45 minutes, the train completed its journey in just over two hours. The stagecoach proprietors were Claud Goddard and, intriguingly, Bertram Mills, the circus owner, who was apparently one of the coach drivers.
It appears that the stagecoach service at that time was coming to an end. A notice at the bottom of the timetable said that all 35 horses were to be sold at auction the following month.
Mr Brown, of Jordan Hill, Oxford, has also sent a photograph of stunning quality of the Mitre Hotel in August 1894.
He writes: “When the photograph is enlarged, you can read ‘Great Western Railway’ above the horse carriage.
“I believe there may have been a GWR booking office next door or as part of the Mitre Hotel.
“The most interesting subject here is the horse and carriage. The wording on the carriage appears to read ‘A GARDNER, Headington?, Oxford, Carrier Daily’.
Can anyone tell us more about A Gardner? | 1,324 |
March 18, 2014
"The Uncovery" Is State-by-State, Comprehensive Site with Facts, Graphics, and More
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, [email protected]
NEW YORK – With today's release of The Uncovery, the American Civil Liberties Union has put its devastating findings on racial injustice and marijuana possession arrests into the hands of web users. In partnership with Interbrand, the ACLU has developed a simple, elegant online advocacy tool, a one-stop shop where users select their own facts, convert them into customized graphic messages, share them on social media, and send them to legislators – all in sixty seconds or less.
"The push for marijuana reform in this country, state by state, has never been stronger. The Uncovery provides a fast and thorough way for anyone in any state to find local facts about racial injustice in marijuana possession arrests and bring them into the debate," said Ezekiel Edwards, director of the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project and lead author of The War on Marijuana in Black and White. "This is critical to effecting real and lasting change in marijuana laws."
The Uncovery, built from the explosive data from the War on Marijuana report, allows users to see the racial breakdown of arrests for marijuana possession in their own states. In Pennsylvania, for instance, a Black person is 5.19 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person. Nationwide, that figure is 3.73.
More than half of all drug arrests in 2010 were for marijuana. Edwards continued, "With The Uncovery, statistics about marijuana possession arrests become powerful statements. An arrest can bring life-changing consequences for the individual, like loss of employment, loss of student financial aid, and worse. No one should have to bear those burdens for possession of a drug we know to be less harmful than alcohol."
In addition to racial disparities in arrests, The Uncovery offers users dollar figures for government spending on marijuana. For example, the U.S. spent an estimated total of $3.61 billion in 2010 on the enforcement of marijuana laws. The Uncovery breaks this figure down by state, giving users another crucial argument for marijuana reform.
Interbrand, a global branding consultancy, partnered with the ACLU to provide an innovative, engaging platform for the data from The War on Marijuana in Black and White.
To view The Uncovery, please visit:
TheUncovery.org | 1,325 |
“He was an intelligent photographer with the eye of an artist,” Mr. Romero said. “He could make something from nothing. And he had a sense of anticipation. He could understand the potential of a situation.”
Consider one assignment when he went to a car show and encountered a model posing next to a lion (Slide 10).
“He said, ‘This is never a good idea,’ so he hung around for a while,” Mr. Romero said. “Sure enough, the lion attacked the girl.”
The New York Times
Another image from the mid-1960s captures a remarkable moment during a South Bronx fire, where firefighters are scrambling away from a collapsing wall (Slide 1). Mr. Boenzi, who like many staff members in that era could often be found regaling all and sundry at Gough’s bar on 43rd Street, was matter of fact about how he could stay put while others ran.
“That was after two martinis at Gough’s,” he said. “I didn’t have enough sense to run away. All I know is my reaction time had slowed down.”
His admirers aren’t letting him off that easily.
“These days everybody’s a photographer,” Mr. Romero said. “But for his generation, you had to know how to operate those machines. You had to wait for the moment and you had to make a decision.”
For someone who did not to set out to be a photographer, Mr. Boenzi did pretty well, and then some.
“My mother used to say, ‘Don’t ever let anybody tell you about the good old days.’ They were horrible, trying to feed seven people on a dollar a day,” he said. “My dad was a master plumber who couldn’t find work. He did tell me, ‘Don’t ever put yourself in a position of having to beg for a job.’ I earned my living with my index finger.”
The New York Times
“Vintage Boenzi” opens Wednesday at the Jadite Galleries in Manhattan and will be on view through Nov. 27.
Follow @dgbxny and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook. | 1,326 |
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Early-rising fitness fanatics have been accused of disturbing the tranquility of Primrose Hill with “high-fives, hugs and constant whooping”.
About 100 people turn up for free, high-energy workouts just north of Regent’s Park from 6.30am each Friday.
But some locals have been left furious with the group, whose members they say are ruining their peaceful dog walks and quiet jogs.
The fitness class is hosted by Project Awesome, which holds events in big cities including Edinburgh and Bristol.
One resident told The Times the fitness class was shattering the peace with “pumping music” and “constant whooping”.
Another, Craig Woodhouse, told the newspaper that the park was “jam-packed with hipsters who hug each other and go around high- fiving each other”.
He said: “They get in the way of normal people and the music is obviously ‘high energy’ stuff and very annoying and disruptive.
"I used to see Liam Gallagher jog around here, but I’ve not seem him for ages — maybe he’s been put off by these guys!”
Ianthe McWilliams, the chairwoman of Friends of Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill, said: “We would certainly not favour loud music spoiling other park users’ enjoyment of the park.”
Danny Bent, who founded Project Awesome two years ago, admitted the workout “involved a bit of shouting” but said that it was “hugely beneficial to the community” and the group began their sessions by picking up litter.
A spokesman for The Royal Parks, the authority responsible for Primrose Hill, said: “Our parks cater for a wide range of users and we’re keen to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to enjoy them.
"As such our park regulations make it clear that amplified music is not allowed in the parks. Enforcement of this regulation is a matter for the police.” | 1,327 |
John Banvard, 100, a World War II vet, and Jerry Nadeau, 72, a veteran of Vietnam, first met 25 years ago. They were married in 2013 at their retirement home in Chula Vista, Calif. (Photo: Instagram/StoryCorps)
When John Banvard, 100, met Gerard “Jerry” Nadeau, 72, neither was openly gay.
“When we met, we were sort of in the closet, and I’d never had a real relationship. Now, we’ve been together almost 25 years,” Jerry said in an interview with NPR’s StoryCorps.
Both Banvard and Nadeau are veterans. Banvard served in World War II, and Nadeau in Vietnam.
According to Banvard, if he hadn’t met Nadeau, he would have “continued being lonely. I’d been absolutely lost.”
The two moved into a Chula Vista, Calif., retirement home for veterans in 2010. At first, the other residents were unsure what their relationship was. That is, until the retirement home became the venue for their wedding in 2013.
“Well, when we got married, they knew what our relationship was,” Nadeau recalls.
They weren’t sure what kind of reactions they would get, but were pleasantly surprised. “I was expecting we’d be ridiculed, and there was very little of that,” said Banvard.
It was a casual ceremony, where they served hot dogs as the main course.
“We’d gotten married at the veterans home, and we said, ‘If you came to see the bride, you’re out of luck,’” recalls Nadeau.
One memory after the wedding stands out to the couple as particularly special. “I was with you in the cafeteria, and somebody came up with their family, and they said, ‘This is Gerard Nadeau, and this is his husband, John,’ ” Jerry recalls. “I’d never heard that before.”
The two continue to live at the retirement home and say they are very happy. “I think we’re probably as happy together as any two people you’re likely to meet,” said Banvard.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle
| 1,328 |
“The Cleveland Show” isn't the first time that Richmond has served as the setting for an animated sitcom. For about a decade, “Doug” entertained children as a part of the first lineup of cartoons commissioned by the TV channel Nickelodeon. The show, which later aired on ABC's Saturday morning lineup, was heavily influenced by creator Jim Jinkins' childhood in North Richmond.
>Doug Funnie was a 12-year-old boy whose Walter Mittylike escapades highlighted the dreams and fears of most children. He was neither exceptional nor a loser, just a quiet daydreamer trying to solve everyday problems. The series began with the Funnie family moving to the fictional — and oddly familiar — town of Bluffington.
“Bluffington is definitely my exaggerated, cartoony version of my memory of Richmond,” Jinkins says. He grew up off of Parham Road in the Valentine Hills neighborhood and was surrounded with locations that would eventually inspire his cartoon. Doug's hangout, Four Leaf Clover Mall, was based on the then-new Cloverleaf Mall of Jinkins' adolescence, and Stinson's Pond was inspired by Talley's Pond in North Richmond. Ms. Wingo, Doug's teacher, was based upon the real life Marguerite Wingo, Jinkins' instructor at Maude Trevette Elementary School. The artist was able to find Wingo again before she died in 2002 and thank her for encouraging him as a child.
One of the show's quirks was its obsession with beets. The idea came straight from Richmond's history. “In Virginia, tobacco — shame on us — was the big money crop. Well, I just replaced tobacco with beets,” he says.
Today, Jinkins serves as president of Cartoon Pizza, an animation studio in New York that works on the cartoon, “Pinky Dinky Doo” and children's shows such as “PB&J Otter” and “Jojo's Circus.” But “Doug” still remains his most personal creation.
“I don't know if anything will come as absolutely close to a fractured memory of childhood as ‘Doug,’” he says. The show had a successful run on Nick, and later ABC, before its cancellation in 1999, the same year that a feature film, “Doug's 1st Movie,” was released.
Back to the Cover Story | 1,329 |
Punch Line will launch for PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and PC via Steam on August 31 in Europe and September 25 in North America, publisher PQube announced.
A limited edition containing a high quality, 128-page premium art book and unique packaging will also be available at select retailers (Amazon UK, Micromania).
Here is an overview of the game, via PQube:
About Yūta Iridatsu is a pretty normal high school kid, with one exception: he faints if he sees girls’ panties. You never quite notice how frequent panty flashes can be until they ruin your day – he has to not look, or it’s lights out! When he one day finds himself in the midst of a bus hijacking incident, he meets the famed vigilante crime fighter Strange Juice, and something unexpected happens to Yūta – his soul separates from his body. Stuck in a ghostly incorporeal form, he finds that his penchant for panties has disastrous consequences. While a ghost form lends itself to panty sightings galore, allowing Yūta to wander unseen, looking up skirts and causing shenanigans, there’s a terrible catch: if he sees too many panties, Yūta gets too excited, faints, and somehow causes an asteroid to hit the Earth and destroy all life on the planet. Able to travel back in time to before the destruction of the Earth, Yūta’s task is clear – solve this mystery! What happened to turn Yūta into a ghost? How can he time travel? Why does fainting at the sight of panties cause destruction of the world!? Answers must be found! …right after checking out the panties on that girl over there. Key Features Be a friendly ghost – Haunt a house full of girls while you solve puzzles, play tricks and cause trouble
– Haunt a house full of girls while you solve puzzles, play tricks and cause trouble An immersive adventure – Visual Novel elements mixed with 3D environments
– Visual Novel elements mixed with 3D environments Beware your weakness – See too many panties and you will destroy humanity
– See too many panties and you will destroy humanity From the creators of Zero Escape – Written by Kotaro Uchikoshi, of the Zero Escape Trilogy
– Written by Kotaro Uchikoshi, of the Zero Escape Trilogy Live the anime – Based on the critically acclaimed anime, now on Crunchyroll
Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery. | 1,330 |
The home automation systems of tomorrow won’t look anything like they do right now. In the future, you wont have to whip out your smartphone and fire up an app to flip your lights on. Hell, you probably wont even need a smartphone.
Instead, the automated home of the future will look much more like JARVIS from Iron Man. No clunky remote controls or proximity-based Bluetooth tags – just wave your arms, point at whatever you want to interact with, an always-on 3D motion detector will sense your movements and make it happen.
These types of systems are already in the works. Companies like PointGrab and Frog Designs have built working prototypes that allow you to control your home appliances via gestures, but these systems rely on cameras to detect your motion – a technique that’s proven difficult, unwieldy, and unreliable.
A team of engineers from MIT has devised a better method – one that eschews camera-based detection in favor of radio waves, and can detect motion in three-dimensional space anywhere in the house, even through walls.
The technology, dubbed WiTrack, uses radio signals “whose power is 100 times smaller than Wi-Fi and 1,000 times smaller than cellphone transmissions.” These radio signals reflect off of moving human bodies, and with the help of receivers and triangulation algorithms, the system can use them to effectively determine a person’s position inside the house with an accuracy between 10 and 21 centimeters.
Furthermore, in addition to tracking your position, WiTrack can also detect the motion of individual limbs. This means it can not only be used for things like turning lights on/off when you enter or leave a room, but also for specific gesture controls like pointing at appliances to switch them on. Imagine a future where your house can tell when you’ve gotten out of bed in the morning and automatically turn on the hot water in the shower, or send you an emergency alert when grandma takes a spill in the living room. A system like WiTrack would make stuff like that possible.
Right now the system can only track one person at a time, but it serves as solid proof-of-concept that JARVIS-style whole-home gesture control is possible without retrofitting every room with an array of cameras and sensors. Right now it’s just an academic research project, but it’s highly likely to blossom into something bigger in the next few years.
Find out more here.
Editors' Recommendations | 1,331 |
(Reuters) - Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the most restrictive abortion ban in the United States on Wednesday, outlawing the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is detected, often at six weeks and before a woman realizes she is pregnant.
The Senate voted 29-17 to pass the House of Representatives-approved bill, according to the legislature’s online voting tallies. The bill now goes to Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, an abortion opponent, who has not said publicly whether she will sign it into law.
The legislation is aimed at triggering a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision which established that women have a constitutional right to an abortion, activists on both sides of the issue said.
Abortion opponents aim to land abortion questions back in front of the nation’s top court, where they believe the 5-4 conservative majority could sharply curtail abortion access or ban it outright.
“We created an opportunity to take a run at Roe v. Wade - 100 percent,” said Republican state Senator Rick Bertrand of Sioux City, who said the legislation is designed to be “thrust into the court” that has become more conservative following President Donald Trump’s appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Spokeswoman Becca Lee of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which supports access to abortion, called it an “intentionally unconstitutional ban on 99 percent of safe, legal abortion, designed to challenge Roe v. Wade.”
“The bill weaponizes fetal heartbeat, which is by all accounts an arbitrary standard that bans abortion long before the point of fetal viability,” Lee said in an email to Reuters.
Mississippi’s Republican governor in March signed into law a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks with some exceptions, sparking an immediate court challenge by abortion rights advocates.
A similar court challenge is underway in Kentucky, which in April enacted a ban on a common abortion procedure from the 11th week of pregnancy.
The newest Iowa bill, which the state Senate passed early Wednesday after overnight wrangling by lawmakers, requires any woman seeking an abortion to undergo an abdominal ultrasound to screen for a fetal heartbeat. If one is detected, healthcare providers are barred from performing an abortion.
Among the few exceptions are if the woman was raped or a victim of incest and has reported that to authorities.
The bill would ban most abortions in the state and was passed in the final days of the Iowa legislative session. | 1,332 |
Electricity supply is irregular and many Nigerians rely on generators Nigeria needs $85bn (£42.7bn) of investment in its power infrastructure in order to produce electricity 24 hours a day, experts say. The sum is 17 times the amount the government announced it would spend on the power sector, and four and a half times the country's oil savings. Most of Nigeria's 140m residents live without reliable power. The sum was given by a panel of experts appointed by President Umaru Yar'Adua after nine months research. Their final report has not been released to the public. NIGERIA ELECTRICITY FACTS Currently generates 1,800MW Nigeria wants to generate 6,000MW by 2009 In 12 years it wants to be able to generate 20,000MW Would need 100,000MW to become an industrialised economy, according to the ex-president Six power stations begun under the last administration have not been completed $16bn (£8bn) has so far been spent on the power sector since 1999
Nigeria power shortage to persist But the panel's chairman Rilwanu Lukman told journalists the power generation in the country had dropped to 1,800 megawatts (MW), from a capacity of 3,500MW. He also said even if the country's power stations were working at full capacity, the transmission grid was broken down and neglected. "The grid is very weak much of the equipment is currently responsible for causing the power cuts across the country," he said. The country's short-term goal of 6,000MW by 2009 would cost $3bn (£1.5bn), Mr Lukman said. The government announced last week it would spend $5bn (£2.5bn) from the nation's oil windfall on the power sector. Subsidies Mr Lukman said there were not enough engineers in the country to work in power stations or maintain the electricity grid. Nigeria wants to become one of the world's top 20 economies by 2020. But in May the president said the continual power cuts were preventing investment in the country. The government is working on plans to attract private investors by subsidising their electricity bills, the finance ministry said this month. Before his election last year Mr Yar'Adua said he would declare a "state of emergency" on power. Correspondents say revamping the power sector remains one of his greatest challenges.
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2018年ももうすぐ終わり。今年も様々な科学的な新発見があり、その一部はトカナでもお伝えしてきた。科学ニュースメディア「Science Alert」（12月24日付）では、今年明らかとなった新事実を紹介している。今年一年で一体どんな新発見があったのか？ そのいくつかを振り返ってみよう。
1. 猛禽類は山火事を広げる
今年は熱波で世界各地で大規模な山火事が報告された。そんな中、オーストラリアではトビやハヤブサといった猛禽類が故意に火を広げているという驚くべき事実が報告された。鳥たちは火のついた枝を拾って、火のない場所に落としているというのだ。なんとも信じがたい話だが、先住民の間では古くから語り継がれていることなのだという。
“Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia,” Bonta et al. Journal of Ethnobiology, 37(4) (abstract): https://t.co/JJVomc5zDy #ethnobiology #ethnoornithology #birds #fire pic.twitter.com/Bv4oSA6BpC | 1,334 |
DUBAI // The body of a diver who went missing 40 kilometres off the Dubai coast was recovered from the sea on Saturday.
Adel Ait-Ghezala, 35, a PhD student from Algeria, had been spearfishing with three friends when he went missing on New Year’s Day.
His body was discovered shortly after noon by a friend who was on a fishing vessel three kilometres south of where the missing man had last been seen.
“Our rescue patrol went to the location and met the fishermen and brought the body back to the nearest port, near the Burj Al Arab,” said Col Juma Al Falasi, director of the Dubai Police Search and Rescue Department.
“The man’s family were informed and they confirmed his identity.”
“We are deeply saddened,” said Abdullah Al Arian, a close friend of the dead man.
“It will give his family and loved ones some peace to have found him.
“He was my best friend and it is hard to picture the world without him. We know he has gone to a better place.”
Another friend of Ait-Ghezala who was with him on the diving trip said reports that he had been wearing a 6-kilogram diving vest were inaccurate and that the actual weight was closer to 4 kilograms. A Facebook page to update friends and family on the search for the missing diver paid tribute to him after the body was found.
“It is with a heavy heart that we say rest in peace dear Adel,” it said.
“Thank you all for all your prayers and support through the rescue efforts. Adel will be dearly missed. Please continue to keep his friends and family in your thoughts and prayers. We are full of gratitude for all your efforts.”
Col Al Falasi said the family would be given full support and an investigation would be carried out into the circumstances of the man’s death.
After he disappeared, Dubai police and coastguard services launched a search and rescue operation.
Friends and family of Ait-Ghezala, who was an experienced freediver, also began raising funds to help in the rescue effort.
A webpage was set up to take donations and facilitate an expanded search effort, and raised almost US$70,000 (Dh260,000) in three days.
[email protected] | 1,335 |
Laura Reynolds
5 Things You Didn't Know About The TfL Roundel
1. The location of the first roundel
These days you can't turn a corner in London without seeing a roundel on a tube station or bus stop, but there was a time when London was a roundel-free city. That era came to an end in 1908, when the first roundel on the transport network was installed at St James's Park station.
2. The biggest roundel on the tube network
... is widely believed to be the one on the window at the entrance to Brixton station. We haven't got our tape measure out to check, but Tim Dunn suggests the brick ones at Hillingdon may be bigger, but given that they're not in the traditional roundel colours, we're discounting them.
3. It comes in many colours
The blue and red roundel of the London Underground is the one most people know best, but at least eight different official coloured versions of the roundel exist today, not counting the old designs which are left over on the network. They are:
Underground (red and blue)
Overground (orange)
Buses (red and white)
Trams (green)
River (blue)
Elizabeth line/Crossrail (purple)
Bikes (white and red)
Emirates Air Line (red and white)
This doesn't even include temporary roundels, such as the rainbow roundels which make an appearance for Pride each year, and the temporary patriotic renaming of a north London station.
4. When roundels lie
Several stations have roundels which give a different station name to that shown on the official tube map. For example, South Woodford's roundel shows the station name as South Woodford (George Lane) despite the fact that George Lane was dropped from the name in the 1950s.
Similarly, Hillingdon has roundels which call it Hillingdon (Swakeleys), and South Wimbledon is shown as South Wimbledon (Merton) on one roundel
5. You can get it on your latte
View this post on Instagram A post shared by London Transport Museum (@ltmuseum) on Jun 10, 2016 at 8:55am PDT
The excellent cafe at the London Transport Museum pays homage to the museum's subject matter by offering roundels as a topping to coffees, cakes and even cocktails. | 1,336 |
NT fire service says ERA, which operates the Ranger uranium mine, ignored its recommendation there should be no burn due to high fire danger
This article is more than 4 years old
This article is more than 4 years old
A mining company defied warnings from the authorities and went ahead with a controlled burn in Kakadu national park, which then got out of control, the Northern Territory fire service has said.
A federal investigation is currently underway into a bushfire which burned through 200 sq km of the Kakadu national park and threatened heritage-listed and culturally significant sites.
Greg Hunt orders inquiry into Kakadu bushfire sparked by ‘controlled burn’ Read more
The fire began on the Ranger project site on 1 October. The operators of the Ranger uranium mine, Energy Resources Australian (ERA), said that shortly after it was finished wind conditions changed and it jumped containment lines into the park which surrounds the mine.
However a NT fire and rescue service (NTFRS) spokesman has now said they were warned against it.
“In response to an enquiry from the Ranger mine at 7am on the day in question, NTFRS recommended there should be no burn due to the high fire danger that day,” he said in a statement.
Traditional owners blamed ERA for lighting a fire too late in the top end’s dry season and losing control of it. They said it was the second year it had happened, and accused ERA of negligence.
ERA, which is majority owned by Rio Tinto, has said it did not require permission to start the weed management fire on the Ranger project site. The company is conducting its own investigation into the fire.
“On the day of the weed management activity, there was no fire ban in place for the area or the region in which the Ranger mine is located,” a spokeswoman said.
“ERA followed its normal protocol to notify stakeholders prior to undertaking weed management.”
A spokeswoman for federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, said earlier this month Parks Australia had been instructed to conduct a “full and thorough investigation into the cause of the fire”.
“This is a very serious matter,” she said in a statement to Guardian Australia.
“No permission was sought and no approval was received for the lighting of the fire by ERA. We will not hesitate to seek reimbursement for the costs of firefighting if negligence or wrongdoing are in any way shown.” | 1,337 |
There's also a domestic impact. Industries like airlines and automotives might benefit from lower gas prices. But the economies of states that have seen shale production could take hits, as could energy companies, many operating out of Houston.
What do politicians want to do about it?
Nothing immediately -- but it could affect their longer-term plans.
Obama has sought to combat climate change by increasing fuel economy standards, requiring manufacturers to raise the average mileage per gallon of their entire fleet to 54.5 miles by 2025 or else pay a penalty. But that plan could be undermined if buyers, less concerned about high gas prices, choose less fuel efficient options, such as trucks and SUVs.
There's also the connection to gas taxes, which Congress could consider raising while prices are so low.
Why raise gas taxes -- or tax gas at all?
The federal government has to pay for roads, highways and mass transit somehow -- so it requires users to pay for those items by taxing gasoline purchases.
Congress set the gas tax at a flat 18.4 cents per gallon in 1993 -- and it hasn't budged since then, which means that U.S. transportation funding has effectively declined as inflation ticks upward each year.
Right now, the gas tax is bringing in about $34 billion per year. But transportation experts insist the United States' Highway Trust Fund needs much more to pay for badly needed bridge and highway repairs and new projects.
Now that gas prices have dropped to their lowest levels in years, imposing such a tax hike might be less politically painful for Congress. And the timing could be right: The law replenishing the highway fund expires in May.
So what's the hold-up?
The issue doesn't break down along traditional Republican-and-Democratic lines. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for example, is one of the strongest advocates for a gas tax hike, though it traditionally is anti-tax.
Many politicians who support the idea of pumping more money into transportation funding don't necessarily have a problem with the gas tax. They each just think there are better ways to go about it -- and they rarely agree on which way is the best.
For conservatives, though, the issue remains a bit of a third rail. Long before his unrelated fall tied to ethics issues, former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was excoriated by the right for accepting a transportation funding package that included a gas tax hike in his state -- and his hopes for a presidential bid suffered as a result. | 1,338 |
DURHAM (WTVD) -- Bullets don't have names. A recent rash of weekend shootings in Durham is a sobering reminder of the adage that gunfire can harm innocent bystanders.Durham Police responded to two shooting incidents over the weekend. On Saturday, investigators found two people wounded inside a car at the intersection of Otis and Nelson Streets just a few blocks away from the NCCU campus. A backyard party was disrupted in 1600-block of Liberty Street at Briggs Avenue when gunfire erupted, wounding a man in the stomach.The shootings follow another dangerous weekend where 11 people were injured, including several at a child's birthday party. As part of its strategic plan, Durham's police department tries to identify areas where gang retaliation might occur. Officers also participate in targeted patrols. For the past ten years, officers have worked with the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) task force. There are four Durham police officers assigned to the task force and three ATF agents assigned to work in Durham.Police say arguments that end in gunfire and illegal guns are to blame for the recent shootings. They're investigating 10 gun-related homicides this year, plus one case where a shooting victim in 2011 recently died.At least 138 people were injured in gun related incidents that range from self-inflicted wounds to pellet gun injuries. Anonymous hotlines like CrimeStoppers and GunStoppers have helped police seize 20 illegal weapons this year. Officers confiscated a total of 16 last year.Crime prevention consultants hired by the U.S. Department of Justice visited the Bull City in May. They're working on a list of crime fighting recommendations to curb gun violence and improve community policing. They say other cities are also experiencing an uptick in gun violence for unknown reasons."We recommended that Durham really focus on youth violence," said Hildy Saizow, a senior specialist with the USDOJ's Office for Justice Programs.Saizow says the community is a key component to crime fighting."Give attention to high poverty areas in Durham," Saizow explained. "It's a tale of two cities. Durham has both a high rate of poverty as well as a high proportion of families that earn well over $100,000 a year."Saizow says this fall representatives with the Durham Police Department will visit Kansas City and Boston where law enforcement have implemented successful crime prevention programs.Anyone with information on the latest shootings is encouraged to contact CrimeStoppers at (919) 683-1200. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves. | 1,339 |
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — How do you stop a six-ton hungry elephant from rampaging through your garden?
For communities living alongside southern Africa’s national parks, the question has become more pressing in recent years. The African elephant population has boomed, leading to increased conflict with humans as elephants roam beyond park borders.
The elephants raid crops, threatening the livelihoods of farmers, and can also cause significant property damage in villages.
But researchers have found a crafty way to deter marauding elephants: African honeybees.
"Elephants tend to crop-raid at night time, and farmers confronting elephants in the dark are often left with no choice but to throw stones and firecrackers or shoot bullets into the air to try to scare them away," says the Elephant and Bees Project, run by the conservation group Save the Elephants.
"This confrontation leads to heightened aggression and some elephants will charge and attack. These negative incidents often lead to terrible injuries or deaths of both people and elephants."
And that's where the bees come in as potential life-savers. Samburu people in northern Kenya had noticed that elephants were scared of the insects. Researchers investigated further and found that not only were elephants alarmed by the buzz of bees, but they also displayed behavior warning other elephants away from the area.
The elephants dislike being stung by bees, particularly around their eyes and inside their trunks. Studies led by Dr. Lucy King in Kenya found that elephants fled at the mere sound of buzzing bees — including audio playbacks.
Fences hung with beehives have also proved successful, leading to the creation of a manual on how to build "beehive fences."
While other methods had been tried before — loud noises, fire, chilies, thorn fences — bees have proved a more successful and relatively inexpensive elephant deterrent.
A recent experiment at South Africa's Kruger National Park found that elephants responded most strongly to a mix of bee noises with the scent of honey.
"Bees represent a promising tool for managing elephant movements with potential to contribute to long-term conservation of the species by offering an alternative to lethal management of problem elephants," researchers from Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand wrote for The Conversation Africa.
There are other positive effects: For one thing, bees help pollinate crops. And in some places, local farmers have learned beekeeping skills and are now producing honey for sale — marked as "elephant-friendly honey." | 1,340 |
ProducerLoops are giving away their commercial Euro House Vol. 1–3 sound libraries (over 2 GB of audio material inside, normally priced at $90.00) as free downloads (royalty free for use in commercial projects) to anyone interested. This is a time limited offer which will expire in less than 48 hours, so hurry up!
So, this is a bundle of three Euro House sound packs which are temporarily offered as free downloads exclusively on the ProducerLoops website. Each of the three packs contains a set of five construction kits consisting of audio loops for each individual track in the arrangement (dry and processed versions), one shot drum samples, MIDI files and additional sound effects such as risers and and tension builders (for more of the latter, take a look at the amazing Cinematic Sound Effects collection by Joshua Crispin).
I’ve never been a huge fan of construction kits myself, however this is one of those freebie offers where I think that everyone will find some useful materials for their personal sound library. If you like using loops or remixing and mangling pre-made loops into totally different sounds, these packs have tons of that. If you like drum one shots, you’ll definitely find some nice punchy ones in this bundle. If you like experimenting with MIDI sequences, you’ll find those too!
Best of all, the included audio material is offered as royalty free for use in your music projects and even your commercial releases. Also, I believe that some of you guys will really appreciate the fact that there’s no need to sign up for a user account at ProducerLoops or anything like that. Simply hit the download button and the ZIP archive will start downloading automatically.
You may be wondering why ProducerLoops are giving away this $90.00 product bundle for free. Well, they’ve experienced a major server shutdown earlier this week and they are giving away these sounds as an apology to their customers. Of course, anyone else interested is also free to join in and use these sounds in their music. Nice touch!
A big thank you goes to Drogomir Smolken (the creator of the awesome free SFZ double bass collection) for letting me know about this freebie offer. Cheers for the support!
Download
Euro House Vol. 1–3 sound packs are available for free download via ProducerLoops (2.76 GB total download size, 3 x ZIP archive, 24-bit file format, REX format, MIDI format). | 1,341 |
incarcerate all illegal immigrants, and ship them back to where they came from unless they want to get a green card and become an American citizen. They all scattered. HB 1804. This was against the advice of the Federal Government, and the ACLU, they said it would be a mistake. Guess what………. Oklahoma did it anyway. The federal Government has made bold steps to take away our guns. Oklahoma, a week ago, passed a law confirming people in this state have the right to bear arms and transport them in their vehicles. I’m sure that was a setback for the criminals. The Liberals didn’t like it — But…. Guess what………… Oklahoma did it anyway. Just this month, the state has voted and passed a law that ALL drivers’ license exams will be printed in English, and only English, and no other language. They have been called racist for doing this, but the fact is that ALL of the road signs are in English only. If you want to drive in Oklahoma, you must read and write English. Really simple. By the way, the Liberals don’t like any of this either. Guess what…who cares… Oklahoma is doing it anyway.
The United States is not supposed to be a centrally-planned society where control freak bureaucrats watch, track, monitor and control virtually everything that we do.
We are supposed to be a society that maximizes privacy, freedom and liberty.
Sadly, at this point we are becoming more like centrally-planned societies such as China every single day. And if you want an idea of what life in a society that has a very high degree of central planning is like, just check out this video of a subway station during morning rush hour in Beijing…
A photo of the overcrowding in the subway station in the video above was recently posted on Twitter…
Is that how we want to live?
To the central planners, we are all essentially nameless, faceless cattle that need to be herded in the right direction.
And the central planners always believe that they know better than us. They believe that we cannot be trusted with freedom and liberty because we cannot handle it.
Unfortunately, central planners usually end up making a giant mess of things. And right now they are making a huge mess of the United States. If we don’t stop them, they will continue to wreck our once great nation.
So what do you think about all of this? Please feel free to share your opinion by posting a comment below… | 1,342 |
It’s obvious that automation will replace a lot of jobs in the coming decades, especially the low paying ones. A new report made at the White House assessed the likelihood of robots taking over jobs and broke it down by hourly wage.
The annual economic report addressed to the President suggests there’s an 83% chance automation will replace workers who earn 20$/hour or less; 31% for those that fall between $20 and $40; and 4% for hourly wages above $40 an hour.
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The findings echo those made by other researchers which suggest half of all U.S. jobs will be replaced by robots soon. Another study previously featured on ZME Science, found up to 87% of jobs in Accommodation & Food Services are at risk of automation, and even in some relatively skilled industries, such as Finance and Insurance, up to 54% of jobs could be displaced over the next decade or two.
Traditionally, innovation funnels more jobs and prosperity, although the paradigm shift meas obsolete jobs are superseded. The industrial age is a worthy example. Millions of jobs were displaced then in a myriad of fields by factories. The introduction of fast-paced and efficient assembly lines at the turn of the last century produced a new displacement. Massive globalization starting a few decades ago also caused millions of jobs in developed countries to be lost at the hand of outsourced cheap-labor in developing countries, mostly from Asia.
[MORE] A Chinese factory replaced 90% of its employees with robots – production soared soon after
This time around, the pace of innovation and automation across all fields is unheard of. It’s very likely that many people will not have the resources to repurpose their skill sets. Even if millions of cashiers, for instance, would train to become engineers or doctors, there would not be enough room in the job market for them. We seem to be nearing a cusp, and the solution doesn’t seem obvious at this point.
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Automating all these jobs means that products and services will become cheaper. In effect, automation should strengthen the economy, but only if the income people have today isn’t displaced in corporate profits and dividends at the hand of a few. For now, the only solution in 2050 to solve the foreseeable job crisis might be to implement a basic income. Some countries like Holland and Finland are experimenting with this scheme which says every citizen is given a monthly stipend that covers all the basic necessities of life with no strings attached. | 1,343 |
Microsoft will make available to anyone who has Windows 8 a preview of Windows Blue in June.
That's according to Julie Larson-Green, the head of Windows engineering, who made those remarks during the Wired Business Conference on May 7.
The timing isn't a surprise, given that Microsoft's Build 2013 developer conference is slated for the last week of June. Larson-Green said that Windows Blue will be available at the end of June to anyone with Windows 8 via the Windows Store.
Update: Does this also mean there will be a public consumer preview of Windows RT Blue at the same time? I asked and a Microsoft spokesperson told me the company had no comment. Tipsters have said previously that there will be a version of the Blue update for Windows RT later this year, however.
According to previous tips and leaks, Microsoft is close to completing what's believed to be the second internal milestone build, known as the Milestone Preview, of Windows Blue. Shortly after that, Microsoft is expected to make its one-and-only Windows Blue public preview available to consumers.
Earlier this week, Microsoft officials said to expect the company to make Windows Blue available by holiday 2013. I am still continuing to hear Microsoft is on track to release to manufacturing (RTM) Windows Blue by August 2013 or so.
Larson-Green emphasized -- like her Chief Financial Officer counterpart Tami Reller -- that Microsoft plans to be "principled but not stubborn" with coming modifications to the Blue update. Neither Larson-Green nor Reller promised that Microsoft would add back the Start Button to Windows Blue, but neither of them ruled out this possibility.
There have been rumors that both the Start Button and boot straight to desktop options are coming back to Windows Blue.
"The Start Button might be helpful," Larson-Green acknowledged during her remarks at the conference, and provide users with more of a "comfort level." She did note that the team has had "meaningful discussions" about bringing back the Start Button, but users shouldn't interpret that as meaning the old Start Menu would be coming back.
She noted that the Start Button today is basically hidden. "Some would like it showing up on the screen all the time," she said.
One Wired conference attendee asked Larson-Green at the end of her remarks if she'd consider following Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft. Larson-Green said she wouldn't rule out such a possibility, but acknowledged she was new to her role in Windows. She said "ask me in another year." | 1,344 |
The systems of pipes that carry natural gas around many major cities of the U.S. were laid well over a century ago and many of them are now corroded and prone to leaks. Studies in recent years have shown widespread gas leaks around some of the country's largest cities.
These leaks are major environmental and safety hazards. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is 80 times worse than carbon dioxide and gas build-ups from these leaks create a risk of explosions, not to mention that continual leaks in large cities amounts to a lot of wasted energy and money.
The Environmental Defense Fund funded the retrofitting of a fleet of Google Street View cars with gas leak-detecting technology and starting in 2013 these cars began roaming the streets of major cities to not only map the leaks, but also measure their severity.
Researchers at Colorado State University outfitted the cars with a laser-based sensor system which sucks in air from a spot in the car's front bumper and pumps it into a tube located in the trunk. A laser shines infrared light on the air sample and since methane absorbs infrared light, the system can then measure the amount of methane present in the sample by measuring how much of the light escapes the tube.
As the system takes in continuous air samples, an onboard computer analyzes the results and uses GPS to map each measurement creating 2,000 data points per minute. Each route is driven multiple times to ensure that the readings aren't coming from another source like a gas-powered bus nearby.
Environmental Defense Fund/Screen capture
In Boston where half the pipes are more than 50 years old, the cars found one methane leak per mile of pipeline, while in Chicago there was a leak for every three miles. In Indiannapolis where a gas leak-caused explosion in the 1980s lead to extensive pipe replacements, there was only one leak per 200 miles of pipe.
Why don't more cities replace the pipes? The upgrades are very expensive. Replacing just a mile of pipeline can cost between $1.5 and $2 million. Utilities typically only replace pipes where major leaks are found while slower leaks are left alone.
The exception is in New Jersey where the state's largest utility is taking on a major pipe replacement project. The Public Service Electric & Gas (PSEG) worked with the Environmental Defense Fund and Google to map out hundreds of miles of urban pipeline and found that their own estimates were way off. The utility now has a detailed plan to replace 510 miles of pipes and reduce methane emissions by 83 percent by 2018. | 1,345 |
+ slower Projectiles + Glacial Cascade
I think Ball Lightning would be better than Glacial Cascade.
You can't use arc, because in the split phase the arc chains to the reflect Atziri and kills you.
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Video:
Spoiler
->
Atziri:
https://youtu.be/9iP31jqqFGc
I made some mistakes at this Atziri run:
->Use Vaal Haste for duo(i used before)
->Watch the ground at Trio, i died there for no reason :)
->My freezing Pulse was lvl 14 because i traded it for a q20 at vendor, so i missed like 30% damage
->Well, i did not do Atziri in a while, you can easy dodge most of her Abilities in the fight
I did like 5 Atziri runs out of 10 without a death :) Canyon Map without taking loot-> https://youtu.be/DQnjcj2dMP4 Atziri:I made some mistakes at this Atziri run:->Use Vaal Haste for duo(i used before)->Watch the ground at Trio, i died there for no reason :)->My freezing Pulse was lvl 14 because i traded it for a q20 at vendor, so i missed like 30% damage->Well, i did not do Atziri in a while, you can easy dodge most of her Abilities in the fightI did like 5 Atziri runs out of 10 without a death :)
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Outro:
This is my first build guide, i hope you guys enjoy it :)
Would be awesome if you could give me some feedback, what i could do better(in my build or in the guide).
Feel free to ask questions ingame: Kinni_CoC
Excuse spelling mistakes, English is not my native language. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________This is my first build guide, i hope you guys enjoy it :)Would be awesome if you could give me some feedback, what i could do better(in my build or in the guide).Feel free to ask questions ingame: Kinni_CoCExcuse spelling mistakes, English is not my native language. Last edited by Kinni on Mar 29, 2016, 5:37:04 AM Last bumped on Sep 1, 2016, 12:48:21 AM | 1,346 |
LOS ANGELES — Reports that David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is undergoing re-shoots were vastly blown out of proportion by the blogosphere yesterday. A trusted source clarified the situation for us today. It appears Warner Bros. is indeed looking to inject more humor into the film given the poor reception of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and its overly grim tone. But the re-shoots only involve Killer Croc’s scenes, as Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje had a scheduling conflict during production earlier this year. The slight delay may have been worth it since the villainous reptile will now be gaining a playful partner-in-crime to add some much needed levity to the film.
Mark Hamill, rejuvenated from his appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has been tapped to play the Trickster in Suicide Squad. Despite Hamill’s fan-favorite portrayal of the character in The Flash TV series, this will be an all-new incarnation, exclusive to the DC Extended Universe. Hamill’s casting is meant to counter Jared Leto’s super-serious take on the Joker, because focus groups have shown it is seriously lacking in the jokes department. On the matter Hamill said;
“I get to play a second version of The Trickster… I mean that’s already funny. So yeah, I’m excited. To go from saying nothing in J.J.’s film to playing a loon who won’t shut up… I can’t wait. They literally said, show up and be funnier than these drips… I think I can manage. Have you seen my Twitter? Luke’s got jokes.”
Suicide Squad’s re-shoots will require two weeks of filming, which won’t necessarily impact the production of Star Wars: Episode VIII as Hamill’s scenes are being shot at a later date. We’re told Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy is actually very supportive of Hamill’s decision as she’s also friendly with Ayer and wants to see his superhero team film do well.
As always, stay tuned to FakingStarWars.net for the latest made up news from a made up galaxy far, far away. We’re also on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and even Miitomo!
-William “Willybobo” Bobo | 1,347 |
�s campaign was important to me, as I truly believe she represents those West Virginia values.” Kyle, a Marshall University senior majoring in Secondary Education, put in four or five days a week in the campaign office doing whatever was needed to get that next vote — making phone calls, knocking on doors, talking to the people at rallies — and from these responsibilities he “learned about the importance of reaching out to voters.”
Wow. The teachers’ union is going to just love this guy.
I asked these young people to tell me about their experiences because I’m curious about what attracted them to the Republican Party — the party without the Hollywood bling — and what they were looking for in a candidate to make them volunteer. So many of them are doing the much-needed and under-celebrated grassroots work that turns out the vote in elections. They’re not behind closed doors raising buckets of cash; they’re not writing intrusive algorithms that bombard your Facebook page with “Ready for Hillary!” spam; but their contributions are every bit as valuable as a check from the latest PAC. And far more personal and long-lasting.
I’m sure Republican Party elders know this activity is important, but they need to snap out of their funk and thank these upstarts instead of saddling them with an “old, white and male” label that doesn’t fit them. I think the men I’m talking about would be surprised to hear that they sound so unsupportive of efforts to broaden the appeal of the GOP. In the last few months I’ve been shaking my head at these guys — they’re missing the good stuff. Fellas, we’re not as old, white and male as you think.
I like what Ed Gillespie, the U.S. Senate candidate in Virginia, says to his college Republican volunteers: “I promise never to make it harder on you to be a college Republican.” And thank God for that. It’s already harder than majoring in quantum mechanics. In Arabic.
The Cliffs Notes version: Young people are attracted to energetic, vibrant campaigns and good ideas. The Republican approach to governing in a way that empowers the individual is simply the better one for America’s young people. So let’s stop checking IDs at the door. There’s new blood knocking. Let them in. This Grand Old Party is just getting started. | 1,348 |
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Last year, British entrepreneur Mike Watts made headlines when he opened England’s first private toll road in more than a hundred years. The road has now been closed, but its brief history provides a sad (and all-too-typical) example of how government sabotages entrepreneurs and hurts their customers.
The basic story is as follows: after a local motorway was destroyed last February by a landslide, Watts and his wife put their life savings into building a small access road that allowed drivers to avoid a costly detour. The toll road was an instant success, and Watts started to recoup his money by charging £2 per vehicle. (Out of goodwill he also allowed many free riders to use the road, including to emergency vehicles.) However, his success quickly attracted the attention of local government, which immediately set about trying to undermine the venture.
In a time-honored tactic, officials first questioned the safety of the road. But after travellers saw it was perfectly reliable, the Bath and North East Somerset Council turned to more bureaucratic measures, obliging Watts to pay a £3,500 tax bill along with £25,000 in surveyor’s fees and ecological assessments. Yet the road continued to attract large numbers of customers, not to mention worldwide media attention. Increasingly embarrassed by Watts’ success and its own failure, the Council poured an additional £660,000 (for a total of £2.66m) into fixing the damaged motorway ahead of schedule.
Watts managed to keep his road open despite these political obstacles, but ultimately he failed to turn a profit. Yet his idea was a good one. In fact if anything, it was too good—the toll road didn’t fail the market test, only the political test. Watts estimates he’s about £10,000 short on his money costs, so without the fees, he’d be £18,500 ahead. It just goes to show that in the marketplace, solving a problem quickly and cheaply makes you wealthy; in politics, it makes you a target.
Yet despite all the trouble Watts has had to endure, he remains confident he made the right decision: “People ask, would I do it again? And I say: ‘Yes, I would!’”
His optimism should serve as an example, but it also illustrates an important point: a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and the ethic of human service that goes with it, can’t be crushed by bureaucracy.
Image. | 1,349 |
Hulu is teaming with best-selling author John Grisham to launch an innovative universe with a pair of interconnected series.
The streamer is teaming with ABC Signature to develop what it is calling The Grisham Universe, a format that will start with two scripted series — Grisham's The Rainmaker and Rogue Lawyer — that will share one storyline with the potential to grow the franchise with other shows. Code Black's Michael Seitzman and Detroit 187's Jason Richman will serve as writers and executive producers on both potential series, with Grisham and Seitzman's Maniac Productions' Christina Davis also on board as EPs. The project, currently in the development stage, hails from ABC Signature, the cable- and streaming-focused arm of ABC Studios.
The Grisham Universe begins with The Rainmaker and Rogue Lawyer and combines them to create what ABC Signature is calling "wholly original": two books, two shows, one shared storyline. The two shows are independent of one another but feature intersecting storylines that create a new template uniquely designed for Hulu's platform. The plotlines of each show are told in a way that a viewer can watch vertically, viewing all of one without the other, and be told a story. But they're also told so that a viewer can watch horizontally, navigating from episode 101 of The Rainmaker to episode 101 of Rogue Lawyer, then episode 102 of Rainmaker to 102 of Rogue Lawyer, and so on. While some characters will live in just one show, many characters from each show will cross into and become integral to the other.
The project arrives at a time when streamers, cable networks and broadcasters alike are taking a page from the film world and looking for intellectual property that can be turned into franchises of multiple series in a bid to own content, define their brands and lure viewers and subscribers. The news comes as Hulu is also teaming with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin to bring his Wild Cards universe into a multiple-series world on its platform. Hulu currently has one writers room working on two series in the Wild Cards world. Elsewhere, Netflix and Amazon each spent nine figures to acquire rights to The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, respectively, with the hope that those properties can deliver multiple TV series and films and help bring subscribers to their respective platforms in an era of increased competition (and 520-plus scripted originals).
Seitzman (Quantico, Intelligence) and Richman are repped by WME. | 1,350 |
asleep. When Jack "dies", his head is left in the graveyard, and if chosen to continue, Zero comes and picks it up back in his mouth.
Zero is a purchasable character featured in the video game, Disney Magic Kingdoms. He can be bought with either 140 "gems" or could be purchased through a bundle. He can also be obtained through Nightmare Before Christmas legendary chests. In the game's Halloween event, he is able to help defeat Oogie Boogie as well as quests with the other characters.
He has his own quests titled A Dog's(Un)-Life, Beware of Ghost-Dog, A Ragdoll's Best Friend, and A Grave Solution. In these quests, he interacts with Jack Skellington, Sally, and even trying to prevent Oogie Boogie from breaking into Jack's House. Unlike the other Nightmare characters, Zero is easier to level up and requires less tokens.
Zero's Journey Edit
Zero returns as the protagonist of the sequel comic book, "Zero's Journey", where he gets lost in Christmas Town after an accident in Jack's House. He first appears sleeping in the comic, but wakes up wanting to play with Jack. He first gets ignored, but convinces his owner to stay for a game of fetch, where Jack removes his rib bone and tosses it around the room. Zero chases after it and nearly causes a mess in Jack's study, wearing his night cap after falling into a pile.
Jack throws his bone one more time, accidentally bumping into his desk and dropping his portal device. He also incidentally opens up the portal through Halloween Town, which Zero flies through in an attempt to catch his rib. He chases it through the graveyard and into the forest, where he finds the rib in the middle of the holiday doors. Much like his owner, Zero becomes fascinated with the Christmas door and goes through it, and gets lost in Christmas Town.
The reason he appears as the main character is because, according to a message left by creators TOKYOPOP, they "always wished there were more scenes with Zero. He was always there for Jack, floating along, a loyal companion."
Trivia Edit
Interestingly enough, it is implied in the movie that Zero still needs to breathe, as when you see him asleep in his basket in Jack's tower, part of his sheet-like body around his chest moves up and down.
When Zero is happy, he can wag his "tail", or flip in circles happily.
Gallery Edit | 1,351 |
groups have been classified a hate group by the SPLC and called "crypto-fascist" by many. Your response? The other co-founder of the gym is on a trip with the Waggeners right now — does that mean Vengeance supports their same beliefs? Lemyng: This business doesn't have ties to our personal lives. I think the controversial claims made against the WOV ultimately come from a place of ignorance, fear and bigotry. Vengeance is comprised of an eclectic group of people who support many different ideals. What are you referring to specifically? Scene: I mean, you have an Instagram post saying that "all men are created equal" is "an intellectually depraved statement" — which is a point of view also held by a lot of neo-fascist groups. Lemyng: Are all Catholics pedophiles? Are all feminists man haters? Scene: That has nothing to do with what I'm asking. Lemyng: It does absolutely. Scene: You publicly participate in a group that has been designated a hate group. The other gym founder is close enough to the founders of said group to be on a cross-country trip with them. You have stated you don't believe in equality. Why should a would-be customer of the gym think that it is not affiliated with neo-fascism? (Not a rhetorical question.) Lemyng: Because they would be customer which is equipped [sic] with such an intellect which is capable of critical thinking. I think these kinds of questions would be better suited for my non-white members and or co-trainers here at vengeance.... Just FYI, I think any kind of hatred towards an individual or a group of people based on their appearance, nationality, color, sex, religion or orientation stems from a place of weakness. At Vengeance we violently pursue the cultivation of strength on all levels. Weakness, such as the aforementioned flavor of thereof, is the only thing which is not tolerated here. You're welcome.
For what it's worth, no pictures by Vengeance on Facebook or Instagram appear to show anyone not white, including this group photo posted a few days ago:
If this what you want out of your expensive workout — semi-fascistic tribalism — then go on right ahead. Or you could just join a crossfit gym, get the same physical results and same cult-like atmosphere, and none of your money will go to werewolves.
This post has been updated to clarify that Valhalla Saints did not write the lyrics to "Skinhead" themselves. | 1,352 |
being said, the album still boasts a variety of three-minute pop gems - "Call You Mom," "Nanobots," "Lost My Mind" - that rank among They Might Be Giants's most instantly catchy tunes.
"I like the idea of short songs," says Linnell, "It's just gonna dilute the power of the idea if we make it longer. There's no need to force another verse and chorus if the song doesn't need one.
"There isn't necessarily a logical explanation to why Nanobots seemed like such an important title for the entire record, but I like the idea of these tiny things that are designed to do a very specific thing - they can replicate themselves in whatever way they might need to in order to do the required job. And I like the idea of self-replicating. Humans do that by having children. It's not necessarily a logical process, it's just something that happens. You unleash this force - a child or a microscopic robot - and then it goes out into the world and does it's thing…in a way you can't always control."
"We came of age in the time of albums", says Flansburgh, "So we were raised on the notion that songs - when collected together - serve to amplify and support each other when part of a well-considered collection. That's the power of the album. With Nanobots we weren't making a concept album, but it does have a certain power as a kind of song cycle. These short little tiny songs have a purpose and they make sense when surrounded by the longer songs. There's a certain mania to this record, a certain energy you get when you include all these hard working miniatures."
There are few bands currently in operation that can boast a thirty year career, let alone boast a career that includes 16 studio albums - including four beloved albums for children - and a history of embracing emerging technologies (the band's brilliantly curated iPhone app recalls their early "Dial-A-Song" days), but the genius of They Might Be Giants - and perhaps the secret to their success - is that they continue to operate within their own world. Three decades in, there is still no other band that sounds like them and - even more importantly - very few artists that approach songwriting with the kind of wide-eyed, natural curiosity as They Might Be Giants. Whether they are singing about tiny robots, broken hearts, combustible heads, or ticks, they do it in a vernacular that is uniquely their own. | 1,353 |
Portage schools Superintendent Mark Bielang, left, talks with board president Randy Van Antwerp prior to Monday night's meeting.
PORTAGE, MI — The Portage Public Schools Board of Education has threatened to file an unfair labor practice against the Portage Education Association if the union files one against the district.
In a surprise action around midnight, the Portage school board came out of a more than an hour closed-door session and voted 3-1-2 to authorize Ray Davis of the district’s Thrum lawfirm “to file an unfair labor practice against the Portage Education Association for bad faith bargaining that is conditioned on the board being served with unfair labor practice charges” by the PEA.
Trustees Bo Snyder, Rusty Rathburn and Terri Novaria voted yes, Joanne Wlllson voted no and board president Randy Van Antwerp and Geoff Howe abstained because their wives are teachers with the PEA. Trustee Ted Hartridge was absent from the meeting.
The board offered no other comment on the vote other than to say they had no idea the PEA might be considering filing an unfair labor practice charge against the board until that was hinted by union president Eric VerHey.
VerHey told the board during its more than three-hour meeting Monday in which more than 250 teachers packed the room that the PEA was unhappy that the administration and board tacked on 10 minutes a day of additional teaching time to meet the state’s increased 175-day school days total.
The decision to add the 10 minutes, especially at the beginning of the day and not the end, was made without consulting the teachers, he said, and could be a contract violation.
“It was a distasteful power grab,” VerHey told the board. “We filed an appeal on it and the MEA is looking into it. We don’t want to do that but it is our recourse.”
Only a Kalamazoo Gazette reporter remained in the audience after the board came out of the one-hour closed door meeting so VerHey did not learn of the board’s decision until this morning.
“We will file because it's the right thing to do,” he said in an email. “I can't comment as yet on anything as I don't know what their specific issue is…”
The two sides have been involved in state mediation, with the next session slated for Nov 21. | 1,354 |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — There’s a renewed push to legalize marijuana in Arkansas.
A local group is filing two ballot petitions Wednesday so Arkansans could have the chance to vote on them come November of 2020.
Melissa Fults with Drug Policy Education Group plans to submit an amendment Wednesday to put legalizing recreational marijuana on the Arkansas ballot.
“Number one, it will create thousands of job,” Fults said.
Jobs and tax revenue — which Fults says their plan has 60 percent going toward Pre-K and after school programs and 40 percent going to supporting UAMS.
“If we can take the money from that to help these kids, oh my gosh, it’s beyond worth it,” Fults said.
Along with legalizing recreational marijuana, she’s submitting a second amendment to expunge criminal records that deal with less than a pound of pot.
“This is very important to me to be able to give these people their lives back,” Fults said.
“I think that’s ridiculous to offer such a proposal,” Jerry Cox with Family Council said.
Cox is not on board.
“Legalizing marijuana is not a way to fix the criminal justice system,” he said.
He says the economic and health promises are something we’ve seen before.
“This is nothing more than market expansion for a huge marijuana industry that’s not unlike the big tobacco industry,” Cox said.
Push back Fults is prepared for, as she fights to get these amendments on the 2020 ballot.
“We just want to make Arkansas fair,” she said.
Along with Drug Policy Education Group, another organization called Arkansas True Grass is trying to pass similar amendments, but instead of two, they’ve combined it into one.
“We feel that it would push better for the voters to have it to have it all in one thing,” Daniel Davis a ballot question committee member with Arkansas True Green said.
Both groups would also allow individuals to grow up to 6 marijuana plants.
If recreational marijuana gets on to the Nov. 2020 ballot and passes, Fults says in their proposal it would open all medical marijuana dispensaries to sell to adults 21 and older starting Dec. 4, 2020.
It would then give the ABC three months to approve additional dispensaries. | 1,355 |
and expands on traditional research methods such as public opinion surveys, focus groups and even sentiment analysis of texts,” Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center Internet Project said.
Using the software tool NodeXL, a plug-in extension to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, researchers where able to import data from thousands of Twitter networks on hundreds of topics. The tool searched for keywords and hashtags and captured the tweet, usernames, hyperlinks, hashtags and information on the tweet’s author followers and follows. The data was analyzed and visualized in network social structure maps.
Rainie described it as similar to taking a photograph or video of a crowd.
“It gives us a way to take the digital equivalent of aerial photos of crowds and simultaneously listen to their conversations,” Rainie said.
Rainie said the data also pushes back against the notion that social media has disrupted everything and that nothing is the same as before.
“It’s clear that traditional important institutions and people still have the ability to be very influential,” Rainie said.
There are limitations to the data collected. NodeXL only captured public tweets in the English language and couldn’t grab direct messages or content from protected Twitter accounts. Data was also taken for specific periods of times and the researchers note it does not represent the sentiments of the full population of Twitter. Plus, Twitter users are still a relatively small demographic. According to the 2013 Pew Social Media Update only 18 percent of Internet users use Twitter and only 14 percent of the adult population.
Still, while the data is limited in scope, social media communicators everywhere will likely be pour over the results to figure out how to use it to their advantage.
“You could map who am I now, who am I like, who do I aspire to, and how close I am,” Smith said.
In other words an organization that wants to promote a brand name, product or news story might consdier what social media network is the topic most like–or target a network type with a goal. Then they could use network maps of the topic to track the progress of their message across Twitter.
While the researchers looked specifically at Twitter, the tool could be used on other social networks including YouTube, Flickr and Facebook fan pages.
So, when you share this story on Twitter, ask yourself what social conversation you’re taking part in–and are we at PBS NewsHour mapping it to see our impact? | 1,356 |
Image credit: UploadVR via Twitter. Click for original.
Valve's two-day Steam Dev Days conference is currently underway, which features keynotes from itself and third-parties focused on near-term and long-term expansions to Steam. It's also an opportunity to show off VR peripheral prototypes and designs, such as a new SteamVR controller (more on that in a moment).
VR is one of the hottest categories in gaming right now. Support for VR was only added to Steam six months ago, though developers have already published more than 600 VR experiences. Valve also made it a point to mention that it's licensed its SteamVR tracking technology to more than 300 companies for a variety of uses, many of which will see the light of day in 2017. While this year was primarily focused on getting headsets out the door, next year should see a bevy of product releases and supplementary technologies.
This event isn't open to the public nor is there a livestream for it. That means we're mostly relying on Twitter updates for what's happening, which can be short on details. That said, we've uncovered some goodies.
New Valve controller prototype was really cool. Much closer to having hands in VR vs holding a tool. pic.twitter.com/8LzEkGDEn1October 12, 2016
One of them is the aforementioned prototype SteamVR controller. The new design lets users open their hands to pick up and drop virtual objects without having the controller fall to the floor. Again, details are sparse here, but it looks as the the controller straps around the hand or wrist. This is something Oculus initially tried to do but ultimately abandoned, so it will be interesting to see what Valve's approach is.
Valve also revealed that there will be a new Lighthouse base station released next year. In addition, it wants to make its Lighthouse tracking technology as "open and standardized" as Wi-Fi.
Image credit: Shawn Whiting via Twitter. Click for original.
The other big news coming out of Steam Dev Days so far is that Valve's $49 Steam Link accessory will be integrated into future Samsung smart TVs. Steam Link lets you stream games from your PC to other devices, such as your TV, and this seems like a logical next step.
It's also a big win for Samsung, which last year announced that some of its smart TVs would gain access to Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service. With this latest development, there could be Samsung smart TV models that support both next year. | 1,357 |
new opportunities emerge. Finally he urges that a reformed Clean Development Mechanism and other offset programmes find a place in the framework for ongoing international cooperation. Incidentally this chapter of his book includes an eye-opening box listing what China has already done in already adopting “more effective policies to reduce emissions than the US has”.
Why has the US response been so inadequate? Repetto ascribes the failure to the broader failure of America’s political system. “At the root of it all is money.” Enormous sums are needed for campaigns, far too large to come from small donations by ordinary citizens. They come from interest groups, including corporations, who expect returns for their investment. Campaigning support leads to lobbying access. Industry also provides money for extensive public relations and disinformation campaigns and bankrolls right-wing and libertarian think tanks to advance arguments against policies to curb emissions. As Repetto elaborates on all this and describes the decline of bipartisanship in Congress the reader is not surprised by his declaration that a truly transformative climate law would be uncharacteristic of the American political system. Breakthroughs are possible, but they normally need circumstances not present today – room on the political agenda, and a strong public demand for action. It’s not a promising scene. Repetto doesn’t think oblique approaches like a clean energy message are sufficient to carry the day. The climate challenge must be faced directly, not danced around with secondary messages. Obama should use his bully pulpit to say bluntly that this is by far the greatest environmental challenge in American history. The way forward runs uphill. The more people get behind and push the better.
A final chapter examines America’s very inadequate adaptation measures in some detail and urges ways in which better preparation can be made to protect the country from the worst effects of climate change, concluding with the warning, however, that future adaptation cannot take the place of strong immediate measures to reduce emissions.
The book is thoughtful and measured and carries a quiet authority. Repetto hasn’t given up on his country being able to rise to the challenge of climate change, and he understands how it can be done, but he’s sober about the prospect. “Failure is an option,” he writes, “but by no means a necessity.”
[Purchase via Hot Topic affiliates: The Book Depository (UK, free shipping worldwide), Fishpond (NZ), Amazon.com.]
Like this: Like Loading... | 1,358 |
As some of you may be aware up until now, F1PP has been the result of a single person. There are no flash offices, no healthcare plan, not even a tea lady – just little old me, trying to bring a unique perspective to the Formula One landscape.
When I first started, it was purely a way to share my views and time from the Paddock with friends and family. Over time, it’s evolved to become it’s own living and breathing entity that now covers Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, DriveTribe and of course, WordPress. It’s a lot to keep an eye on and keep up to date with. One guy, a full time job, a family and various other interests to keep up and running – to say the least I am unable to devote as much time to F1PP to bring you as much unique content as I would like.
So here’s where you come in.
I’ve opened up the WordPress site to any budding journalist who would like to contribute to F1PP. Likewise if you’re an artist, a race reviewer – even someone who can help to code the site – anyone who would like their voice heard or their words read, I’d love to hear from you. I can’t offer you money, I can’t offer you an actual Paddock Pass (but if I had a pound for every time I got asked, I could actually afford to pay you – but I digress). What I can offer you is 21,000+ followers on Twitter, 6000+ followers on Instagram and a growing audience on Facebook, Drivetribe and within the motorsport community.
F1PP will credit you for your work, add you to the family and be honored to have you on board. The plan is to evolve the WordPress site over time to create a true fan-driven experience that covers every aspect of Formula One. Yes, there are other sites out there that do this – and they’re damn good at it too – but I am pretty sure there is space in the Pit Lane for an extra garage.
If you’d like to participate and join Anil, Hayley, Jack, Dinesh, Davo and the rest of the #F1PP Team, drop me a few lines at [email protected] with an example of your work or the style of thing you’d like to contribute to the site.
Thanks for reading. | 1,359 |
On Sunday, Xiaomi inaugurated its new “Mi Home” flagship store in Shenzhen. The newly unveiled two-storey Mi Home Shop expands over a huge space of 650 square meters. The company will be using this new store along with Mi Home stores in China to sell the full ceramic edition of the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 smartphone. After the opening of the new Mi Home store, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun expressed that the company aims to become a top 500 enterprise in the world by next year.
Xiaomi has reportedly shipped 70 million smartphones until October this year. By this, it has managed to complete its shipment target for 2017. Recent reports have revealed that company has revised its shipments target to 90 million phones in 2017. With rumored smartphones like Redmi 5, Redmi 5 Plus and Redmi Note 5 that are expected to launch before the end of the year, it seems that the company will be available to achieve it.
The Chinese firm has also completed its target of 100-billion-yuan sales for 2017. A recent IDC survey has revealed that the company is holding the fifth position in the worldwide smartphone rankings for Q3 2017. In the said quarter, it shipped 27.6 million handsets which has allowed the company to achieve a year-over-year growth of up to 102.6 percent. The market share of the company has also increased from 3.7 percent in Q3 2016 to 7.4 percent in Q3 2017.
Read More: Xiaomi Mi 6C May Arrive by Next Month with Full Screen Design, Surge S2 Chipset
Now that the company is now on a remarkable streak, it has high plans for 2018. After unveiling the new store, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said to the Chinese media, “Xiaomi has an even bolder plan to become a top 500 enterprise in the world in 2018.” He also expects that the revenue of the company will surpass 1 trillion yuan in a decade.
Fortune Global 500 is the annual list of top 500 global companies compiled by Fortune Magazine features couple of Chinese companies. The Fortune Global 500 list for 2017 includes unprecedented number of115 companies from China. The list has China Mobile Communications ranking at 47 and Huawei Investment & Holding is placed at 83. The list includes other Chinese companies like Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding, and more. Going by the current progress of the company, it seems that it will make it to the Fortune 500 list.
(source)
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GARY, Ind. — Two parents in northwest Indiana were outraged tonight – after their son, who has autism, was singled out by his fifth grade teacher and humiliated at an awards luncheon after receiving the “most annoying male” award.
Akalis Castejon is non-verbal, but the 11-year-old communicates with the joy of any child during summer break.
Akalis just finished the fifth grade at Bailly Preparatory Academy in Gary. The school ended with a special awards luncheon for the students.
Rick Castejon, Akalis’ father said they gave out awards for things like “best student,” “funniest,” “class clown,” and other categories.
However, he said when it came time for his son to receive an award, the mood quickly became cringe-worthy.
“So when they called him up, they’re calling the names, and they were like, ‘most annoying male award,’” he said. I wasn’t expecting that, not for an autistic kid, at all.”
Akalis didn’t understand that the award was pointing out and making fun of his behavior, and was so proud he wanted to show his mother the trophy.
His mother, Estella Castejon, said when she saw the award, she couldn’t believe it. She called the school immediately.
“For a teacher to do that, I believe it was a huge mistake. I also feel it’s how she feels about my son,” she said.
The school district issued this written statement saying that whether the teacher was intending to be harmful, or attempting to be humorous, it was inappropriate.
Akalis’ father said the situation provides a lesson that people with different abilities deserve the same respect.
“Treat him like you’d treat any other kid,” he said. “They need more affection and stuff like that. Just treat him right, that’s all. They don’t want to be treated like an outsider or left behind.”
The family says it plans to move to Valparaiso and into a new school district for the start of the next school year. | 1,361 |
Back in 2017, Hamilton repeatedly made it clear how much more satisfying it was to be fighting a driver from another team in the shape of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, after three years of the title being decided in intra-team battles at Mercedes.
The challenge from the Ferrari did not stop Mercedes from winning its fourth consecutive drivers' and constructors' championship last year - but in 2018 the Silver Arrows look to be facing a sterner test, having gone win-less in the first three races as Ferrari and Red Bull shared the spoils instead.
Asked by Motorsport.com what it would mean for him to come out on top in a close battle involving two other teams, Hamilton said: "Who knows what the season holds? If it continues the way it is, it's going to be very tough to win.
"But if there's an opportunity, and we were to finish on top, it would mean even more, as it's even a tougher season than before."
Hamilton admitted that his difficult weekend in China had emphasised that Mercedes does not have the fastest car at the moment.
"It hasn't changed my thinking. My goal is obviously still the same, but it is clear from this weekend that we are not the quickest.
"We've lost performance since Melbourne, and maybe more so even this weekend. So we are second- or third-fastest team at the moment, so we've got some improving to do, but that's not impossible.
"I think what this team has shown over the years is that we are great at staying united, and continuing to barrel on and keep working.
"So I know everyone here and back at the factory is just going to keep pushing as hard as possible."
Hamilton said he's spurring on the key players in the team to find improvements: "I think we've got a lot of information over the past couple of weeks. So I certainly also am also pushing very hard, James Vowles and James Allison, Niki [Lauda] and Toto [Wolff], trying to encourage them.
"So they know which kind of areas we're struggling most with, so they can really apply pressure maybe in those departments, or just make sure that we've got more development coming, or something like that.
"We've got to keep constructive pressure on the guys. But they're already pressured as they want to win just as much as all of us. It's just a battle, just working as a team." | 1,362 |
Exscudo has raised over 2300 BTC during the ICO. 3500 people have participated in the crowdsale. The ICO took place from April 25th to May 31st.
Most of the funds were raised during the first and last days of the ICO, with 1000 investors and over 400 BTC coming into the crowd sale in the last 24 hours.
According to the terms of the ICO, 50% of the unsold coins will be distributed among all crowdsale participants proportionally. The final unsold coins multiplicator is 7, which means the amount of purchased coins will be multiplied by this number. If a person purchased 1000 EON coins, he will receive 7000 coins after the network goes live. The multiplier also applies to bonus EONs earned for early investors, but not bounties as these are awarded a separate allocation. The remaining 50% of the unsold EONs will go to a non-profit Exscudo fund to be used as technical coins for further testing and development of the EON network.
The Exscudo team reports that the ICO was a success. “We have raised enough to fund the development of our products”, — says Andrew Zimine, CEO. “The ICO is over now, and we have entered a new stage in Exscudo. Now we are going to prove that our products and services are worth the trust our ICO participants have invested in us”.
The team is now preparing for the launch of the EON network. In June, the company plans to publish detailed instructions on setting up peer nodes. EON uses the DePoS mining algorithm, and to set up a node, a user needs to deposit 25.000 coins.
The EON test network is to be launched in a couple of weeks now that the ICO is over. Exscudo plans to run the net tests in collaboration with the community. After the tests are successfully finished and all issues fixed, the EON main net will go live. The launch of Channels, the mobile wallet and secure messenger, is planned for the same time.
ICO participants will receive the purchased EON coins right after the main network goes live. This will also enable exchanges to list EON coins. The launch of the Exscudo exchange is planned for Q3 2017.
The Exscudo team would like to extend a warm thank you to all of its ICO participants as we move closer to the next steps and milestones for the EON blockchain and Exscudo products that will be launched soon. | 1,363 |
where Simmonds is, come the end of this season.
After dominating the Swedish Hockey League, Lindblom made his professional debut last season for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He played solidly, posting 34 points in 54 games. He finally earned a call-up to the NHL in February. Lindblom managed only two goals and four assists in 23 games, however.
Despite the low point total, Lindblom proved that he could handle himself at the NHL level. His spot on the NHL roster is the most guaranteed among all of the Flyers other rookies. Due to only playing 23 games, Lindblom did appear at the team’s rookie camp. But that won’t mean much in terms of his shot at making the roster.
Lindblom showed he could drive play and his results improved during his stint in the NHL. The potential was there for him last season and it’s likely that he will continue to build off it. Continuing to adjust to the faster pace will be the main key for Lindblom.
Season Predictions
The Philadelphia Flyers appear to be on an upward trend and should see that success this upcoming season. The addition of van Riemsdyk gave the team depth scoring in the top-six that the team will greatly benefit from. It’s the consistency factor, though, that has always seemed to follow the team.
Aside from the major move to bring in van Riemsdyk, a majority of the team will remain the same from last season. And that team will come into the season trying to prove that they have what it takes to make some noise in the league.
The Flyers still aren’t up to par with some of the top teams in the league, however. So don’t expect this team to contend for the number one spot in their division. A similar finish to last season is more likely. The third seed or top wild-card spot is a potential landing spot for the team.
The Philadelphia Flyers 2018-19 season will be determined by many factors. Will Couturier and Giroux continue off of their breakout seasons? Can the Flyers goal-tending shake off their inconsistencies? Will a younger defence be the key on the back-end?
There are many questions the team will have to answer this upcoming season. On paper, though, the team is set up to do some damage come the regular season.
Main Photo: This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND | 1,364 |
The Government’s latest plan to protect Ireland’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters has been criticised by environmental groups as inadequate and lacking ambition.
The River Basin Management Plan falls far short of what is needed to address persistent environmental failures that are putting pressures on Irish water systems, they say.
These pressures include continuing discharges of raw and inadequately treated sewage; inappropriate spreading of slurry, fertiliser and pesticides on farmland; unsuitable coniferous forestry and drainage of peatland and wetlands; and faulty septic tanks, according to the Sustainable Water Network (SWAN).
There is an absence of what is needed to protect our rivers, lakes and bays and to bring them up to “a healthy standard”, SWAN says.
The plan lacks the political will needed to support Ireland’s claims to be a ‘green’ tourist destination, according to the Network, an umbrella group for 25 environmental groups. It also threatens Ireland’s capability to become a truly environmentally-friendly food producer through such programmes as Origin Green”, according to coordinator Sinéad O’Brien.
This was in spite of putting in place welcome new overseeing structures including a team of officials and scientists based in the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing, Planning & Local Government, and another at local authority level.
The legal requirement under the EU Water Framework Directive in place since 2000 is to introduce new measures to bring Irish rivers, lakes and bays up to a “good” ecological state by 2021, Ms O’Brien said.
“However this obligation has been under-resourced to the extent that half (52 per cent) of Ireland’s rivers and lakes are failing to achieve the ‘good status’ required by the directive. This latest plan is sadly consistent with Ireland’s lack of ambition to date, proposing to fix only a small fraction (12 per cent) of these,” she said.
“This plan lacks ambition and is an exercise in doing the best you can to stem pollution whilst imposing no significant obligations for change on any of the sectors responsible.”
SWAN said far more State investment was needed to end the discharge of raw and poorly treated sewage into rivers and bays. “Grant-aid to farmers must shift so as to support farming that prevents water pollution, protects the rural landscape and contributes to sustainable flood management, rather than encouraging intensification programme not yet proven to be sustainable.” | 1,365 |
The Finnish driver faced an uncertain future as his contract with the Maranello team was coming to an end, but the Italian outfit announced on Wednesday it had extended its deal with the 2007 world champion.
Although Raikkonen has not been able to match the results achieved by Vettel this year, the German believes the move is good for Ferrari.
"I think he's a very good driver. Other than that, I think it's good for the team," said Vettel on Thursday at Spa.
"I got the same question in Hungary but now it's a bit different, but it doesn't change anything to the answer.
"I have a good relationship with him and it's good to keep stability. The best thing is that we work together, working for the team, doing our best, and for sure everybody wants to race them himself, but I don't think either him nor myself have egos that stand in the way of the team."
He added: "It's not my decision, but for sure I was asked for my opinion and I said I'd love to keep working with Kimi.
"The half season that I've had so far, I think the results are not fair because Kimi had a rougher season than I had. That's how it goes sometimes.
"But in terms of performance I think it has been very, very close. And most importantly I get along with him. Nothing has changed since we became teammates, so I think that's positive for the team."
Title "bloody hard"
Vettel took his second win of the 2015 season in the Hungarian Grand Prix last month, reducing the gap to championship leader Lewis Hamilton to 42 points.
Although the four-time champion insists he is not giving up on the title, he admits it will be very hard to close the gap on Mercedes.
"If you look at the maths, I don't think it takes a genius to see how many points we can still score and how many points we are behind," he said. "But for sure we also know that being realistic that it will be bloody difficult.
"If we have the opportunity to turn things around like in Hungary then we have to go for it. If we have the opportunity and we don't use it then it's down to us and our mistake.
"But if you look at the races so far, we had two opportunities that we used. But the advantage is still there. It just doesn't disappear." | 1,366 |
Winner Dr John Kirkegaard and Dr James Hunt, CSIRO and Stuart Kearns, Grains Research and Development Corporation
More wheat without adding water
Australian grain farmers are boosting yield by more than 50 per cent without using any extra water.
The Water Use Efficiency team has discovered a few deceivingly simple changes in farming practice that can make staggering differences to water-yield efficiencies.
For their game-changing success developing more water-efficient grain-farming methods, the Water Use Efficiency Initiative team consisting of CSIRO’s John Kirkegaard and James Hunt, and Stuart Kearns of the Grains Research and Development Corporation, have been awarded the Department of Agriculture Landcare Eureka Prize for Sustainable Agriculture.
The gains are not just theoretical. On farms across Victoria, NSW and WA, grains farmers are seeing the light, sometimes after initial reluctance, and are adjusting time-honoured practices to switch to the new Water Use Efficiency principles.
“The Water Use Efficiency team has certainly overachieved,” Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay said. “From an initial aim of increasing yield by 10 per cent, they are helping growers achieve yield increases of well over 50 per cent. The implications for farming in a country with periodic water shortages are obvious”.
And it’s the numbers that really tell the story:
The team has increased participating farms’ returns by $250 per hectare
On some farms weed control and maintaining ground cover over summer increased yield by 60 per cent and earlier sowing of slow-maturing grain added another 22 per cent
Sowing a legume ‘break crop’ between crops could increase yield by up to 83 per cent
Average winter yield was increased across all regions by 25 per cent.
The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are the country’s most comprehensive national science awards. The Eureka Prizes have been rewarding science since 1990—celebrating 25 years in 2014.
The other finalists were:
EverGraze team from Future Farm Industries CRC, which has increased profits on livestock farms alongside improvements in surface water and soil retention.
Professor Richard Oliver’s wheat disease team from Curtin University, which has drastically sped up the process of developing disease-resistant wheat.
Watch their YouTube video
Contact Eureka Prizes
Please contact us on (02) 9320 6483 or via email.
Eureka Prizes homepage | 1,367 |
[엑스포츠뉴스=김영진 기자] BIGBANG’s DAESUNG is to release an album in South Korea.
DAESUNG, who gained much popularity with his solo song ‘Cotton Candy’ in 2010, returns for the first time in 4 years with a new album. Along with this, he will be holding solo album and arena tours in Japan, boasting his skills as an excellent vocalist in both countries.
DAESUNG kicked off the year in a dynamic way when he was joined by 771,000 fans in Japan at BIGBANG’s 6 largest dome tour, and he will continue on with this wave of sensation when he comes back as a vocalist in Korea and tours in Japan.
From June to July, DAESUNG is to hold arena tour in Japan. Starting from Yokohama Arena on June 11th, he will tour around Kobe World Memorial Hall, Marinemesse Fukuoka, Xebio Arena Sendai, Hokkaido’s multi-sports complex Hokkaikitaeru, Nihon Gaishi Hall and on to Nihon Budokan on July 17th. In 7 cities he will hold 12 concerts. In just this arena tour he is expected to attract 125,000 fans, which will be far bigger than his last solo Japan tour.
DAESUNG released his solo album ‘D’scover’ early last year in Japan, and his song ranked #2 on Oricon Weekly Chart, which is the highest rank for a Korean solo artist. His solo tour ‘D-LITE D’scover Tour 2013 in Japan,’ a total of 26 concerts, also ended in success in 20 cities with 100,000 fans.
His first solo single in Japan ‘I Love You’ was a huge hit as well, a song produced by Kameda Seiji, a member of Japan’s famous band Tokyo Jihen. It attracted more attention as Japan’s top violinist Hakase Taro also collaborated.
DAESUNG, who has successfully impressed many fans in Korea and Japan, returns to Korea and Japan with a new album along with the Japanese arena tour this time. All eyes are on him to see how great his songs will be this time.
2014. 2. 11. | 1,368 |
Geekadelphia Editor Tries to Stop Domestic Assault, Gets Assaulted
Mikey Ilagan tried to do the right thing.
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On Sunday night, Geekadelphia editor-in-chief Michaelangelo “Mikey” Ilagan was walking home in South Philadelphia when he encountered a man and a woman arguing. A few minutes later, this is what his face looked like.
Ilagan, a St. Joe’s Prep and Art Institute grad, encountered the pair at the corner of Sixth and Morris in front of Cambodian restaurant Khmer Kitchen.
“He was grabbing at her and she was yelling,” says Ilagan. “And then he put her in a headlock.”
That’s when he Ilagan decided to get involved.
“I said, ‘Everything OK here?'” Ilagan remembers. “And he tells me, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine.’ So I ask, ‘Why do you have her in a headlock?’ Actually, I may have said, ‘So why the fuck are you doing that?’ His only excuse was, ‘It’s fine. She’s my wife.’ And he also said, ‘She’s making too much noise.'”
At some point, Ilagan got between the two of them and managed to hold the man back with his arms around his chest.
“I told her to get away, but she wouldn’t leave,” says Ilagan. “‘Why are you not leaving?’ I asked her. But she just wouldn’t leave.”
Ilagan called 911 and continued walking home. When he rounded the corner at 6th and Mountain streets, he heard commotion behind him. It was the man and a friend.
“He asked me if I called the cops, and I said yes,” he says. “And that was responded to with a punch. Then the other guy grabbed and held me, and I started screaming for help. And then they worked me over pretty good.”
The men ran away, and he called 911 again to report his own assault. Police are investigating.
Follow @VictorFiorillo on Twitter. | 1,369 |
iano, along with his mother, shows off his certificate of recovery after receiving treatment for Ebola from Dr. Marc Forget at the Doctors without Borders centre in Guéckédou, Guinea. (MSF) The Doctors Without Borders team also takes the few survivors back to their villages and give them a certificate of recovery to fight the stigma toward cured patients.
"If we don't give them any certificate of recovery, then it's sometimes very difficult. They are cured but then they are rejected from the community because people don't understand what's going on."
Forget says that in Guinea, "there's so much misunderstanding and fear about the disease" that community education is critical. "There's a lot of paranoia" about Ebola and even about the outreach programs.
Sometimes people "think it's a foreigner thing that was brought by Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders] and we're spraying the houses and we give them Ebola," he says.
"We faced resistance, we faced hostility. In some villages they completely shut down, they're throwing rocks at us, at ministry of health authorities, Red Cross workers."
Safe burial
Another challenge in trying to contain Ebola is the very strong cultural beliefs in that area of Africa.
A nurse receives a suspected Ebola patient inside the high-risk area at the Doctors Without Borders treatment centre in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, on July 9. (Sylvain Cherkaoui/Cosmos/MSF)
As Forget explains, the No. 1 contamination risk is touching the body around the time someone has died from Ebola.
"They do rituals before they bury the body that involves washing the bodies and even, sometimes, sleeping with them, the dead person."
So after someone dies at a treatment centre, the Doctors Without Borders staff bring the family to the centre and do what they call a safe burial.
"We wash the body and we put them in a body bag, but with the zipper open so they can see the face, and we bring the body to the village," in conjunction with the Guinea Red Cross, Forget says.
"People can still do a burial process but in a safe way so they don't touch the body … they can still pray and perform ceremonies but without touching the body.
"When that is understood, things get easier for us," he notes.
Forget says he may return to Africa in October after working in Northern Canada, and hopes others will volunteer. | 1,370 |
The Champions League finalists Paris Saint-Germain are looking to sign the Englishman, Dele Alli. PSG, who are normally known for their big signings has not shown much involvement in the summer transfer window. They signed Florenzi on a free loan transfer from Roma. PSG has not spent a single euro until now, but they will surely not let a chance like this to slip away. Dele Alli is a great midfielder. PSG does have some good midfield options but this signing can totally be a game-changer. Dele Alli’s relationship with his current club coach Jose Mourinho is not good. He was not even included in their recent win against Southampton.
In the post-match interview when Mourinho was asked about Dele Alli’s future at the club, he did not give a proper answer. Tottenham even completed the signing of Gareth Bale which makes it even harder for Alli to stay. Mourinho has also stated that he has many options to make a balanced team. But, Mourinho did say that Dele Alli will play the knockout Match against Leyton Orient. The talks are very light and we will soon come to know if the deal is happening or not.
Who is Dele Alli?
Bamidele Jermaine Alli is a professional English footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur and the England National Football Team. Dele Alli is a great player and can handle the whole game from his position. He has a great pace which is not so common in midfielders. He started playing club football when he was 11 where he played for the Milton Keynes Dons FC. After that, he joined Tottenham Hotspur in 2015 for €5 million. Alli has played for England and actually started at an early age. He has played for the England Under 17, Under 18, and even the Under 19 team.
Alli made his professional debut for the team in 2015 and after a stunning performance, he also got a chance in the EURO 2016 and 2018 FIFA World Cup. He had a very uncomfortable childhood. His mother was an alcoholic and he had to move to Nigeria for two years with his father before returning to his hometown to live with his mother again. At the age of 13, he moved to stay with the parents of his MK Don teammate and he also prefers them as his adoptive parents. Alli was never legally adopted. Dele Alli is truly an inspiration for many youngsters out there. We hope the wherever his future lies, it may be the best for him. | 1,371 |
Anything Wolverine can do, Mystique can do better?
Following her increased role in “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” X-Men franchise producers said that Jennifer Lawrence’s shapeshifter could star in her own spinoff.
“I love what Jen Lawrence has done with her, and I feel like because she is in such a crowded ensemble, there’s so much more opportunity if you were to follow her solo,” “X-Men: First Class” writer-producer Simon Kinberg told Entertainment Weekly in this week’s issue.
Rebecca Romijn played the older version of the naked blue mutant in previous “X-Men” films.
Aside from a solo film with Mystique, Lauren Shuler Donner, who produced every “X-Men” movie, told EW that Gambit and Deadpool are also worthy of standalone movies.
“There was a regime (at the studio) that didn’t see the worth in (spinoffs), and the current people who run Fox understand, embrace it and we’re going to do right by it,” Donner said. “I’d like to do Gambit. I’d like to do Deadpool. We’ll see. There’s a lot of really great characters.”
Lawrence is currently filming “Mockingjay – Part 2” but will wrap up “The Hunger Games” franchise when the fourth film hits theaters on Nov. 20, 2015. Her Depression-set drama with Bradley Cooper, “Serena,” will be released some time this year. Lawrence’s hectic schedule will soon be able to accommodate a spinoff.
The next mutant film, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” will bow on May 27, 2016.
“Everyone grew up knowing Captain America or the Hulk, but not X-Men characters,” director Bryan Singer told EW. “I didn’t even know who Wolverine was. I call X-Men the bastard stepchild of the comic universes.”
Wolverine is now a household hero after the mega-success of the “X-Men” franchise and James Mangold’s “The Wolverine” in 2013. The latter pic grossed $415 million worldwide ($133 million Stateside). A sequel is dated for March 3, 2017. | 1,372 |
Acknowledging that individuals’ gender and sexual identities do not always fit neatly into binary paradigms, delegates to the 2017 AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago took several actions that support broadening how gender identity is defined within medicine and how transgender patients are treated by society.
The AMA House of Delegates (HOD) did so in an attempt to enhance care for the thousands of Americans who identify as transgender, as well as for many others who do not identify with one particular gender.
Delegates directed the AMA to work with other appropriate organizations to “inform and educate the medical community and the public on the medical spectrum of gender identity.” The authors of the adopted resolution wrote that gender is “incompletely understood as a binary selection” because gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and genotypic and phenotypic sex are not always aligned.
The HOD also adopted policy opposing any efforts that would prevent a transgender person from “accessing basic human services and public facilities in line with one’s gender identity.” Transgender people who live in states with discriminatory policies have “statistically significant increases in mental health and psychiatric diagnoses,” according to the resolution delegates adopted.
“Prejudice and discrimination affect transgender individuals in many ways throughout their daily lives, often in the form of physical or verbal abuse or bullying," said Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, member of the AMA Board of Trustees.
"Laws and policies that restrict the use of public facilities based on biological gender can have immediate and lingering physical consequences, as well as severe mental health repercussions," Dr. Ehrenfeld added. To protect the public health and to promote social equality and safe access to public facilities and services, the American Medical Association is opposed to policies that prevent transgender individuals from accessing basic human services and public facilities in line with their gender identity.”
In another action, delegates called upon the AMA to work with the Food and Drug Administration to establish a gender-neutral patient categorization in risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS). The idea is to take the focus away from gender identity and place it on reproductive potential. That is because there are patients who identify as male who may be taking medication that puts them at risk for damage to their biologically female reproductive systems.
Delegates also called for future AMA meetings to take place, whenever possible, only in those counties, cities and states that have nondiscriminatory policies.
Read more news coverage from the 2017 AMA Annual Meeting. | 1,373 |
A decision won't be made anytime soon as Marvel is being very deliberate in its search, according to sources. The movie has a release date of March 8, 2019.
Sources caution that there may be names yet to surface. Marvel had no comment.
Brie Larson is attached to star as Carol Danvers, an Air Force pilot who gains powers after her DNA becomes fused with an alien after an accident. Guardians of the Galaxy's Nicole Perlman and Inside Out's Meg LeFauve wrote the script.
Insiders tell THR that the next stage will involve Marvel giving a treatment and documents to the directors in order to prepare a detailed presentation.
The three contenders were whittled from a shortlist of about a handful of contenders, which also included Jennifer Kent, helmer of the indie horror hit The Babadook, and Jennifer Yuh, director of Kung Fu Panda 2. Marvel has made finding a woman to direct the movie key in the search.
The three top choices have diverse backgrounds in film.
Caro broke through with 2002's Whale Rider, the Oscar-nominated generational drama that looked at a young woman trying to break through a male-oriented culture. She followed that up with North Country, a rape drama that starred Charlize Theron. She also directed McFarland, USA and has The Zookeeper’s Wife, starring Jessica Chastain, in the can.
Glatter hails from the television world, a side of the entertainment industry where female directors are better represented than in film. She is the main director on Homeland, the hit spy thriller from Showtime that stars Claire Danes, and is up for the outstanding director in a drama series honor at September's Emmy Awards. Among her numerous helming credits are episodes of Ray Donovan, The Newsroom, True Blood, Mad Men, ER and The West Wing.
Scafaria may seem like the outlier here but actually follows many of Marvel's patterns. She made a name for herself as a writer of quirky material — Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist was her first writing credit — and wrote and made her feature directorial debut with Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, which starred Steve Carell and Keira Knightley. Scafaria also wrote and directed The Meddler, the semi-autobiographical dramedy which starred Rose Byrne and Susan Sarandon that was released by Sony Pictures Classics earlier this year.
Follow Heat Vision on Facebook and Twitter for more from Captain Marvel as it develops. | 1,374 |
Loyola University law professor Justin Levitt tried to quantify the epidemic of voter ID fraud that's forcing so many states to pass restrictive voter ID laws. He looked for not only cases where someone was convicted, but tracked "any specific, credible allegation that someone may have pretended to be someone else at the polls, in any way that an ID law could fix."
Out of roughly a billion votes cast, he found 31 credible cases of voter ID fraud. And that is, he thinks, an overestimate. At the same time, thousands of people really are being turned away from polling places because they don't have the right ID. So voter ID laws fix a fake problem by creating a very real one.
Which isn't to say voter fraud isn't real. In an August interview on MSNBC, Levitt explained why the voter ID laws don't do anything to address the main kinds of voter fraud:
It may not seem like asking for an ID is a big deal, but as Jenee Desmond-Harris writes in her excellent overview of voter ID laws, the numbers say otherwise:
A full 11 percent of voting-age US citizens — about 21 million people — don't have a government-issued photo ID. That means, in states that have strict photo ID laws, they can't vote. Racial minorities are disproportionately likely to lack photo ID and make up a big part of that 21 million. Fully 25 percent of African Americans of voting age (compared to only 8 percent of their white counterparts) don't have a photo ID. Voter ID laws also have a disproportionate impact on low-income Americans, who are less likely to have driver's licenses or to be able to afford a form of identification, which can also be used as ID. According to a September 2014 Government Accountability Office report, fees for driver's licenses range from $14.50 to $58.50. These are not huge fees, but they're certainly significant if money is tight. Even for those who could afford it if they stretched, $50 price tag on voting could be enough to dissuade them, which is its own form of voting restriction.
And that's to say nothing of the time-cost of getting a photo ID, which may require someone with two jobs, three kids and no car to spend hours in the middle of a workday at an inconvenient government office waiting in line to get the ID. When you make it harder to vote, fewer people vote. That may be worth it if there was some huge epidemic of voter ID fraud. But there's not. | 1,375 |
well (the Heinz principle)
When a function does one thing really well without any side effects, you will be more likely to reuse it more often
You will know a function is doing one thing well when you can no longer create any additional functions from it
Code inside the function should be at the same level of abstraction
If you are doing business logic, you shouldn't be doing string manipulation or database calls in the same function
Doing this allows you to easily read code from the top-most level of abstraction down, getting deeper if needed to pinpoint a source of error or change
Well-written functions should read like bullet points
Functions should be no more than 20 lines of code
Even 20 is a bit on the longer end -- strive for 10 lines or less
Much easier for the brain to scan and pinpoint problems this way
Forces code to be more modular
If a block of code is inside of a control statement (if/else/while, etc), that code should be moved into a function -- if function() else someOtherFunction()
Functions should have a max of 3 parameters, ideally 0 or 1
It's hard to remember the order of arguments when you have more than 3, making it more prone to defects and hard to read
If you have 3 or more parameters, you are probably dealing with a structured object that should be passed in instead. For example login(String username, String password) could be changed to login(Credentials credentials) where Credentials is a structured object with a username and password, promoting reuse elsewhere.
Avoid boolean parameters -- instead of a function with a boolean turn(Boolean isOn), create two functions to clarify intent: turnOn() and turnOff()
Functions should throw exceptions rather than returning error codes or messages
At Ethode, we've been called in to stabilize some truly horrendous code. If you feel you are suffering from spaghetti code, and are not sure how to regain control of your project, contact us for a consultation.
If you enjoyed this post, you should check out the following excellent roundtable discussion on legacy code. I was invited to appear on The Frontier vidcast with host David Ledgerwood from gun.io and fellow guest Debbie Madden from Stride Consulting in NYC in April 2018. You can view the video here: https://www.gun.io/legacy-code
Follow @JasonAAbles | 1,376 |
“Grow up, conservatives.” That’s what conservative Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona told his supporters in 1960 when it looked like the liberals were in charge of the Republican Party. Goldwater went on to win the GOP presidential nomination four years later.
The craziness we’ve seen from defeated Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama – and now from fired White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon in Michael Wolff’s new book “Fire and Fury” – is another “grow up” and “wise up” moment for conservatives.
The Democrats subscribe to a “no enemies to the left” philosophy. They can scarcely bring themselves to say bad things about the crazies on the extreme left, the Antifa thugs, the nuts who scream down people they disagree with.
If the Democratic philosophy is stupid, the answer isn’t an equal and opposite “no enemies to the right” response from conservatives.
Before we learned about allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore, we had heard that he was an unprincipled creep. Before Bannon back-stabbed President Trump, we knew that he was a one-man show with serious ego problems who thought he was the key to the Trump victory.
Never mind that Bannon joined the Trump campaign less than three months before the election. Never mind that people he denigrated – such as President Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner – were of much greater help.
The stupidity of “no enemies to the right” was something I knew when I assembled a list of pro-Trump intellectuals before the election. We didn’t want any neo-Confederates or alt-right nuts.
Tolerating the crazies in President Trump’s Republican Party amounts to putting a “kick me” sign on one’s backside. Worse, it detracts attention from the policies and ideas that elected Donald Trump president. Those policies – and the idea that the American Dream has been abandoned in a society made immobile by Democratic policies – remain as popular today as they were 14 months ago.
For those on the wrong side of those policies and ideas – such as Democrats dominated by their interest groups and an elite New Class – the last thing they’ll want to do is talk about policies. Much better to talk about imaginary charges of Russian collusion, or about crazy personalities on the right. Trump Republicans don’t need to help them do so. | 1,377 |
arted waters simply at the constitutional level.
The authors of the 25th Amendment really never considered a foreign power’s infiltration into a political party. There is no mechanism for recalling the Vice President, or politicians who might have had Russia’s hands in their pockets. Vice President Pence is not, in the circumstance of treason, the heir apparent to the throne either. The Gorsuch nomination to the Supreme Court was of such extreme urgency because a Trump melt-down would likely throw the future of the Presidency into the hands of the Supreme Court.
Is Pence promoted?
Is Clinton, the next highest electoral college vote-getter, put in power?
Is a special election held?
Their reluctance, though, given how fractious the GOP is these days, runs deeper. What is very clear is that, while evidence allegedly mounts that Trump had involvements with Russia’s oligarchs and banks, he is not alone.
How much money have Scott Walker, or other GOP candidates, received from the Russians or their surrogates?
Are there connections between Russia and the congressmen who visit Russia?
Does the influence of Republican party operatives who are also paid by Russian organizations, banks and oligarchs extend beyond the Trump White House?
The ties that have quietly bound the Republican party and Russia are becoming increasingly more visible as the flailing from Trump’s political drowning continues.
The GOP’s gaffe-fest of awkward cover-ups, resistance to a thorough investigation into the Russian tampering with the election, and Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey suggest that, unlike Watergate, the American government’s entanglement with Putin’s Russia may be far more profound.
Watergate was a botched burglary financed in part by one of the 1% funders of Teahadism, Dickie Mellon Scaife, to reframe America as a white Christian conservative enclave.
What is happening now is far different. Republicans have been acting as if they are complicit. What we are seeing, and the threads of the Russian infiltration suggest, is that the United States Congress may not be fit to investigate the Russian infiltration because the Russians may have compromised far more than the White House.
If the Republican Party has been breached to the point of this level of inaction and silence when the nation and its constitution are under attack, and our chief law enforcement officer may also be implicated, how do you prosecute a treason that may be an epidemic, not a localized political illness? | 1,378 |
TAMPA — Upon taking the stage in Ybor City on Wednesday night, an illuminated Jill Stein looked out on the crowd in the dark and smiled.
"This is what democracy looks like," she said to cheers from the roughly 200 people inside the historic Cuban Club theater. "Not that thing we saw the other night they call a debate."
Stein, who is running for president under the Green Party banner, cast herself as the alternative to the two unpopular candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
"They have not earned our votes," she said to reporters before the event. "It is a race to the bottom between the greater and the lesser evil.
"This is a perfect storm for a voter revolt," she said.
Those who packed into the auditorium came to hear a vision of change. Nataliya Ivanova, a Bulgarian immigrant who became a citizen in March and will vote in her first election in November, said Clinton would simply be more of the same.
"I want to vote for something I believe in," said Ivanova, 26, a former Bernie Sanders supporter.
Stein held Sanders close during her speech Wednesday night. Her No. 1 priority if elected, she said, is eliminating student debt, an idea Sanders popularized in his race against Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Like Sanders, Stein's platform largely targets disenchanted millennials.
"The first step is to bail out a generation of young people who are held hostage by student debt," she told reporters.
Young people, she said, have always paved the way for change.
"In order to accomplish the rest of our agenda, it's really important to liberate the ground troops for social change."
A Real Clear Politics average of recent polls put Stein at 2.4 percent, far behind both major party nominees and five points behind Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. She wasn't letting that tamp down her expectations for election night.
"I think it's too soon to say," she said.
Even though the election between Clinton and Trump is nearly a dead heat and though most Stein supporters lean left of center, Ivanova rejected the idea that her vote for Stein could mean a vote for Trump.
"I'm not willing to vote for Hillary just because I'm against Trump," she said.
Contact Josh Solomon at (813) 909-4613 or [email protected]. Follow @josh_solomon15. | 1,379 |
Journalist Nick Surgey, who has dug up dirt on Scott Pruitt for years, surfaced another doozy on Tuesday. Months before the last presidential election, Pruitt warned that Donald Trump would be a danger to the Constitution if he were elected president. “I believe that Donald Trump in the White House will be more abusive to the constitution than Barack Obama and that’s saying a lot,” Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general at the time, said in a February 2016 radio interview with Tulsa’s KFAQ. That is indeed saying a lot, as President Barack Obama has been Pruitt’s most frequent verbal punching bag since Pruitt became administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency nearly one year ago.
Pruitt blasted Trump over the idea that he might use executive orders if elected president. “[Obama] has basically taken an approach that says that if Congress doesn’t act or they don’t act the way that I want them to, then I can act in their place,” Pruitt said. “This, if Donald Trump is the nominee and eventually the president, he would take, I think unapologetic steps, to use executive power to confront Congress in a way that is truly unconstitutional.” Instead, Trump has used executive power to advance Pruitt’s agenda at EPA. In March, he signed the sweeping “Executive Order on Energy Independence,” which called on the EPA to review and potentially dismantle climate change regulations.
News of Pruitt’s comments broke as he testified before the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, and within minutes, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked him about it. Pruitt claimed that he doesn’t remember saying that about Trump, and that he doesn’t stand by it either way.
Whitehouse: "I can assure you there are a great many Americans who share the concern that you expressed in that interview."
Pruitt says he doesn't recall saying it and does not echo that today "at all." — Natasha Geiling (@ngeiling) January 30, 2018
Pruitt’s 2016 comments are further proof of how Republicans compromised their values to gain power in Trump’s Washington. They saw danger in his presidency, but also a professional opportunity for themselves. Pruitt was right that Trump is a threat to the Constitution, and he no longer feels that way precisely because Trump has enabled him to achieve his lifelong goal of gutting the EPA.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment. | 1,380 |
, and other conditions governing patentability. But a claim that is not directed in any way to a “scientific truth” and that recites tangible elements (such as computing elements) cannot be deemed ineligible under Section 101. Not only do such claims fall well within the realm of eligible subject matter defined by the language and history of the Patent Act, but their eligibility under Section 101 is also entirely consistent with this Court’s precedents.
_______________
[2] The exception directed to laws of nature, physical phe- nomena and mathematical formulas (as set forth in this Court’s precedents) addresses such types of claims. For simplicity, the term “scientific truth” is used herein to encompass scientific truths and mathematical expressions of such. Scientific truths are laws of nature, natural phenomena and pure mathematical laws or axioms. A scientific truth can be expressed in words or mathematically. For example, Einstein’s theory of relativity is expressed mathematically as E=mc2. Of course, as this Court’s decisions make clear, not every invention involving mathemati- cal calculations implicates this exception. Indeed, most do not, because they are applying mathematics, not reciting a pure mathematical law or axiom. For example, the automobile- related inventions discussed below apply mathematics (making distance and other calculations based on input from sensors). [3] Petitioner reads Bilski to have rejected a patent that, like the patents rejected in previous decisions applying the “ab- stract ideas” exception, recited a “fundamental or mathematical truth.” Pet. Br. 25-26. But because it is equally plausible, in amici’s view, to read Bilski as applying the “abstract ideas” ex- ception to claims that do not recite scientific truths, we devote our presentation to a demonstration of why computer- implemented inventions do not fall within the exception even as so conceived.
[4] Such complaints are hardly new. In the 1850s, for ex- ample, sewing machine manufacturers were up in arms over the proliferation of sewing machine patents, and yet judicial intervention was unnecessary to ensure innovation because private-ordering solutions eventually emerged. Adam Mossoff, The Rise and Fall of the First American Patent Thicket: The Sewing Machine War of the 1850s, 53 ARIZ. L. REV. 165, 170 (2011). Similarly, such unfounded complaints were made in the 1980s about the number of semiconductor patents. | 1,381 |
While we are stuck inside, many of us have grown bored of our endless Netflix binge sessions, so if that rings true or you are trying to work from home and want to just enjoy something to listen to this might be some good news for you. While many artists, labels and event brands have set up special streaming performances, TIDAL has stepped up the game for everyone to offer free daily streams.
This week they’ll be bringing on air a host of the biggest artists in the game from across the spectrum and delivering their exclusive concert performances to your home for 12 hours, completely free. Best of all you can watch them right here completely free. The “At Home” live stream sessions will kick off today at 12 pm ET, the live streams of archival TIDAL- exclusive concerts on TIDAL.com/AtHome.
Each day this week they will highlight a new genre with performances from the biggest names in music, starting today we’ll see the likes of Spanish Influenced artists Jennifer Lopez, Daddy Yankee, CNCO, Romeo Santos. Thursday will see pop takeover with the likes of Lizzo, The Chainsmokers, Rosalia, Bazzi and Dermot Kennedy. Then as the weekend arrives, Friday will see electronic stars start the party, including Deadmau5, Daft Punk, Kaskade, Marshmello, Cashmere Cat. Saturday’s line up is strictly hip-hop with JAY-Z, J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill, Gunna, City Girls, 21 Savage, and more. Wrapping up the week, are the R&B heartthrobs Beyoncé, Rihanna, Ari Lennox, Trey Songz, Jorja Smith, H.E.R, and more.
So as everyone establishes their somewhat unusual routines for the foreseeable future, TIDAL has over 60 million tracks and hundreds of thousands of videos in its library and are looking to help keep people engaged through these challenging times. Whether it’s learning more about artists through their exclusive docu-series and in-depth interviews, reliving some of the most iconic concerts, or hosting virtual dance parties with TIDAL-playlists, TIDAL has something for music lovers of all genres.
TIDAL is offering new customers a special limited-time offer of 4 months for any plan for only $4.00 now through April 15th – new members can redeem here: https://try.tidal.com/spring | 1,382 |
VIENNA TWP., MI - Thousands of sky lanterns are set to be released as part of new event coming to a Flint-area race track this summer.
Lantern Fest is scheduled to take place Sept. 17 at Auto City Speedway, 10205 N. Saginaw Road. It is billed as an "opportunity for thousands of revelers to join together as a community and create an unforgettable spectacle of light."
Participants will all receive lanterns, which will be released in unison around sundown.
"Before sundown friends and families can enjoy food, live music, a stage show, familiar princesses, face painters, s'mores, balloon artists and more," the event's website claims. "Then, when the time is just right, we will light the sky with our highest hopes and fondest dreams."
Clio Area Fire Chief Kerry Paulson said organizers reached out to his department in advance of scheduling the event.
Local fire crews and organizers will be on hand to ensure no fires are sparked by the lantern release. Paulson said organizers will be billed for the cost of any fires that are started as part of the event.
He added that organizers will have staff on hand to clean up the lanterns following the event.
Organizers could not be reached for comment on the event.
The lanterns have drawn criticism across the state in recent years.
Sky lanterns are airborne rice paper commonly used in celebrations and memorials. The lantern's paper shell is stretched over a frame with a small fire source inside. When lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, causing it to rise into the air like a hot air balloon. Once the lantern reaches a certain height, the flame extinguishes and the bag drops to either the ground or whatever catches it.
Some communities have placed bans on the lanterns over concerns of fire and litter.
State Rep. Henry Yanez, D-Sterling Heights, introduced House Bill 4857 last year trying to ban the lanterns. The bill failed to be passed by the House.
"As a former Sterling Heights firefighter, I know that there is no safe way to use a sky lantern because you can't control where it lands, so it could land on someone's roof or in a tree and cause a fire," the lawmaker said in a statement.
A similar event was planned as part of an art project in Flint three years ago, but it was grounded due to windy conditions. | 1,383 |
I wanted to update you on what we decided to do, in regards to our family cookout, and why. The reason it’s important to share this experience is because special needs families face these kinds of decisions all the time. Circumstances will vary, but the need to make a difficult decision, that will undoubtedly leave some people upset, is very common.
I can’t stress enough, how often we live our lives minute to minute. When we’re dealing with various chronic health issues, things pop up all the time.
My goal is to provide some insight into why we made the decision we did in this particular situation.
After a long, sleepless night with Mr. Emmett, Lizze and I made our decision not to go. We decided to err on the side of caution, because both Emmett, Gavin, and now Elliott, are running fevers.
Honestly, more often than not, it’s all or none when comes to us going anywhere, especially out of town.
In an ideal situation, I might have been able to make the trip myself, and leave the boys with Lizze. Unfortunately, our situation isn’t ideal. Lizze can watch the boys long enough for me to go grocery shopping, or run a few errands. The reality is, taking on the boys for as long as it would take me to go to my Grandma’s and back, would be too much for her.
While that may not make sense to some, I would imagine that people who live in extreme chronic pain would. It sucks. It’s far from ideal, but it is what it is.
It would be tough enough for someone in her shoes to manage three nuerotypical kids, let alone three kids with Autism, ADHD, and a host of other challenging behaviors.
Everyone understands in my family, and while they wish things were different, they know our options are limited.
Our plan is to give the boys a few days to feel better, and then make a trip to see my Grandma later this coming week. By that time, we will know what’s going on with Emmett, and Gavin will have another IVIG infusion under his belt.
Like I said, it’s less than ideal, but it’s the best of all the bad options. We have to make the best play we can, with the cards we’ve been dealt. | 1,384 |
was no way I'm going in with riot shields, with public order gear, to move them off," he said at the time.
Officers arrested about 50 people over the course of the festival - mainly for drug offences - and 10 were taken to court for public order offences. The case cost millions and saw all the defendants acquitted, though one other person did plead guilty to the same offence.
The force later admitted they had been "caught off guard" by the sudden arrival of so many people.
image copyright Malvern Hills Trust image caption An exclusion zone was set up banning convoys from the area
Determined not to have history repeat itself, the following year they set up roadblocks across the area, with 300 officers being fed from a special kitchen set up in the village hall.
The Malvern Hills Conservators - the charity set up to look after the hills and commons - obtained an injunction which enforced a five-mile "exclusion zone" for convoys of vehicles around Castlemorton during the bank holiday weekend.
Others called for long-term powers to stop raves and free festivals, including Castlemorton's then-Conservative MP Sir Michael Spicer, who even raised the matter in Parliament.
Then in 1994, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act was passed, giving police the powers to stop vehicles anywhere within five miles (8km) of a rave and turn them away.
It also included rules targeting gatherings of more than 100 people listening to music at night and even went as far as delving into genres, said Prof Robert Lee from Birmingham Law School.
"One of the most bizarre things is that they tried to define what music was, including wholly or mainly repetitive beats played time and time again," he added.
image caption Police faced angry questions at a public meeting in Castlemorton village
Mrs Spragg, who gave up travelling in 1995, says what happened at Castlemorton had an adverse effect on the community she belonged to.
"The travelling scene did carry on but it was a very different change of lifestyle for people - they moved onto farms instead of living on free sites so much, and people were a lot more scared.
"If it had been a big event, [which] had been staged [and] had cost thousands of pounds it would have been all right.
"But because it was poor people, with no money, doing something they haven't been granted permission for, suddenly it was the crime of the century. | 1,385 |
Gintama Collaboration
Time: TBA (after Legends)
Hatcher Monsters
Shimura Shinpachi (5★ Wood) & Elizabeth (5★ Dark)
Katsura Kotaro (6★ Light)
Type: Speed
Sling: Pierce
Ability: Regen / Null Damage Wall
Gauge: Null Block / SS Turn Reducer
SS: Sets up to 10 mines to contacted enemies.
Bump: Big Bomb
Kagura (6★ Fire)
Type: Balanced
Sling: Bounce
Ability: Null Gravity Barrier / Laser Stop
Gauge: Null Warp / Inner Strength
SS: Pierces enemies and attack with a shotgun to the closest enemy
Bump: Quad-Rebound Spreadshot
Evolution Sakata Gintoki (5★ Water)
Type: Blast
Sling: Pierce
Ability: Null Damage Wall
Gauge: Null Block / Inner Strength
SS: Attacks the first contacted enemy with a wooden sword.
Bump: Super Dimensional Blades
Ascension Sakata Gintoki (5★ Water)
Type: Balanced
Sling: Bounce
Ability: Mine Sweeper / Weak Point Slayer
Gauge: Null Damage Wall
SS: Increases SPD and Strength & slices surrounding enemies.
Bump: Energy Burst 5
Sub: Tri-Rebound Spreadshot
Drop Monsters
Sarutobi Ayame (5★ Water) & Tsukuyo (5★ Dark)
Okita Sogo (6★ Fire) & Hijikata Toshiro (6★ Wood)
Kondo Isao (6★ Light) & Takasugi Shinsuke (6★ Dark)
Insidious Takasugi Shinsuke (6★ Dark)
There will be an Extreme & Insidious for this quest. If you beat the Insidious difficulty, you will complete a mission to get you a special Takasugi Shinsuke.
Insidious Takasugi Shinsuke will have:
Increased Bump Combo power
2 extra Abilities
Badge of Honor
SS that scales with Luck
XFLAG PARK 2018
Time: 6/30 - 7/1
Writers Note: Since not everyone is going to be there I'll just give a rundown of in-game related stuff | 1,386 |
Must Watch: Chris Nolan, David Fincher in a 'Tree of Life' Featurette
Masters talking about masters. Fox Searchlight has just debuted a fantastic new featurette over on Apple for Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which is already playing in art house theaters nationwide. Since they couldn't get the reclusive Terrence Malick himself in front of a camera, they got two other notoriously hard-to-find legendary directors instead: David Fincher and Christopher Nolan. Yes, this is awesome! The two of them talk about how Malick has inspired them and their love for the way he shot Tree of Life, which is indeed a gorgeous film. This is definitely the convincing needed to go see this while it's in theaters!
Watch the brand new featurette for Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life:
You can also watch this The Tree of Life featurette in High Definition on Apple
From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 50's. It follows the life journey of eldest son Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years (Penn) as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack, as an adult, finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking out answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick's images we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life. Fox Searchlight is bringing Tree of Life to theaters starting May 27th.
1 shero on Jun 15, 2011
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Sorry, new comments are no longer allowed. | 1,387 |
Today at Microsoft’s Think Next symposium in Tel Aviv, Israeli startup StoreDot has demonstrated the prototype of a nanodot-based smartphone battery it claims can fully charge in just under 30 seconds. With the company having plans for mass production, this technology could change the way we interact with portable electronics, and perhaps even help realize the dream of a fast-charging electric car.
As we all know only too well, recharging our portable electronics can take a painfully long time. This is because reversing the chemical reactions that caused the battery to deplete is a process that can hardly be rushed, for considerations of both safety and energy efficiency.
But now, a radically new battery design advanced by StoreDot could bring charge times down to the order of a few seconds. The company produces so-called nanodots, chemically synthesized bio-organic peptide molecules that, thanks to their small size, improve electrode capacitance and electrolyte performance. The end result is batteries that can be fully charged in seconds rather than hours.
'In essence, we have developed a new generation of electrodes with new materials – we call it MFE – Multi Function Electrode," StoreDot CEO Doron Myersdorf told Gizmag. "On one side it acts like a supercapacitor (with very fast charging), and on the other is like a lithium electrode (with slow discharge). The electrolyte is modified with our nanodots in order to make the multifunction electrode more effective."
The company says that unlike other nanodot and quantum-dot technologies that are heavy metal based, making them toxic, its nanodots are made from a vast range of bio-organic raw materials that are environmentally-friendly. These materials are also naturally abundant, and the nanodots employ a basic biological mechanism of self-assembly, making them cheap to manufacture.
Self-discharge characteristics are similar to those of lithium-ion cells and, for its first prototype, the company targeted the approximate capacity of a smartphone battery (around 2,000 mAh).
But Myersdorf told us that the technology could also be adapted to electric cars, by modifying the electrode so it could sustain higher currents (and, of course, configuring a large number of cells in parallel).
StoreDot is in the process of submitting patents for the technology, and mass production of the smartphone batteries is planned for late 2016.
The video below illustrates just how quickly the battery can be recharged.
Source: StoreDot | 1,388 |
Update 9.15 will bring improvements to many of these chains of missions, based on our analysis of completion stats and your feedback.
Personal Missions are an excellent way to accumulate Credits, female Crew members, unique tanks and much more! Plus, they can challenge you to reach new goals.
Update 9.15 is fast approaching, and we've already given you a sneak peek at the new vehicle parameters that'll help you better understand your tanks' stats. Here we look at some smaller (yet just as important) features for the new update.
Vehicle Filters in the Garage
Tank collectors will be happy to hear that one of the new features will be more Garage filters for your vehicles. You'll be able to filter your vehicles by class, tier, nation and even the vehicles that still have their first victory bonus for the day. Spend less time searching for vehicles, and more time in battle!
Aiming Improvements
You'll be able to change your aim display from a dotted circle to a solid circle in the Settings. Regardless of which display you choose, the maximum zoom is increased from x16 to x25, plus a display to show you how zoomed in you are.
Server Ping in the Garage
Find out your ping from the Garage, so you can choose the best server connection.
Ping: Your PC's response time to a request. In other words, it’s the time it takes a packet to go from your PC to another PC and back.
Ping will only appear when opening the login screen, choosing a server or leaving a battle.
End-of-Battle Notification
One of the skills our experienced tankers have learned is to pay attention to the battle countdown. But sometimes, you get lost in the chase and don't even realize that the match is coming to an end.
Update 9.15 introduces end-of-battle notifications, so you'll be better prepared and can make better last-minute decisions in battle. One notification will appear reminding you when there are less than two minutes left in the fight, and another will be a countdown during the last 20 seconds. This will help in your strategy when capturing the base, so you know how many allies you need in the enemy base to achieve victory!
Proving Grounds Improvements
Teams in Proving Grounds will increase to 15 bots and players, with only one player being the minimum to form a team and seven as the maximum.
Stay tuned for more news on Update 9.15! | 1,389 |
supposed to save them. Driverless vehicles, marketed as a correction to human error, will have to overcome our low threshold for betrayal.
In “How Safe Is Safe Enough?” the authors wrote that “reduction of risk typically entails reduction of benefit.” Traffic fatalities could be massively cut, virtually overnight, if speed governors set to 35 mph were installed on every car. We have decided that the benefits of fast, unfettered mobility are worth the cost in human lives.
Ian Walker, a psychologist specializing in traffic safety and travel choices at the University of Bath, says there is something else, besides the perceived benefit and the voluntary risk, that leads us to accept highway fatality numbers that far exceed workplace—even combat—deaths. And that is randomness. “Implicitly, people are buying into this idea that it’s okay to have a system in which millions of people die as long as there’s no predictability or forethought about it.” It is millions of drivers, driving millions of miles, making their own risk/reward decisions, having the occasional “accident”—a word we turn to for comfort, even though we know most accidents are preventable. More than a century after the invention of the automobile, with the true “auto” mobile shimmering on the edge of feasibility, the whole calculus of risk and safety will be taken out of the hands of individuals and brought into the system-wide decisions of software engineers, vehicle manufacturers, and regulators. Whether those parties favor absolute safety at the cost of convenience (with slower, less aggressive cars) or embrace the gains of machine optimality with higher risks (platoons of tightly packed, fast-moving vehicles) remains to be seen, but for the first time, the decision to assign odds will be made consciously. We’ll no longer be gamblers but the casino.
Crash Stats
From 2005 to 2007, NHTSA collected the necessary data to determine the causes behind motor-vehicle crashes. NHTSA then used its sample of 5470 crashes to model the reasons for the roughly 2.2 million crashes that occurred nationally over the same period. It demonstrates that a significant percentage of crashes isn’t caused by human error.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io | 1,390 |
He only came in third place, but Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is the big winner in Iowa. That’s not a “media” meme; it’s the truth, for three basic reasons:
1. Rubio vastly outperformed expectations, finishing at 23% after polling at 15% (and even that was a surge). 2. Unlike Donald Trump, Rubio has lots of room to grow his support as other candidates drop out; 3. Unlike Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rubio has not alienated important sections of the electorate.
Digging deeper:
1. Outperforming expectations. Cruz is winning praise for his ground game and data operation. But Rubio–who, like Trump, ran a lackluster ground effort–closed better than both. He had the only memorable line of the last GOP debate: “There’s only one Savior and it’s not me. It’s Jesus Christ who came down to earth and died for our sins.” That resonated with late deciders, attracting religious voters without planting doubts among social moderates.
2. Room to grow. It is true that Rubio faces a crowded “establishment lane” in New Hampshire. But that lane, too, will start to narrow quickly. Trump, meanwhile, has been at a high plateau for weeks; recent polls suggest that he is not a second choice for many Republican voters. If voters elsewhere agree with Iowa caucus-goers that Rubio is the most electable of the candidates, he could consolidate “establishment” money and moderate support.
3. Alienating voters. Cruz’s victory in Iowa came at a cost. Attacks on “New York values” and explicit appeals to Christian faith mean that he will struggle to build the “Reagan coalition” he proclaimed on Monday night. Rubio courted social conservatives and the evangelical vote, but with a less confrontational style. As a result, he will face fewer challenges than Cruz reaching audiences outside Iowa–and outside the Republican Party.
That is not to say Rubio is the presumptive favorite to win the nomination. He has severe drawbacks. Unlike Cruz, he has not led the Republican opposition–and when he has tried (Gang of Eight), he has stumbled badly. Unlike Trump, the Florida senator has no executive experience beyond the state speaker’s gavel. He compensates with an overly intense rhetorical style.
But if Rubio improves and grows over the next several weeks, he has few limits. | 1,391 |
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A picturesque line of thunderstorms and numerous circular cloud patterns filled the view as the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 20 crew members looked out at the limb (blue line on the horizon) of the Earth. The region shown in the astronaut photograph (top image) includes an unstable, active atmosphere forming a large area of cumulonimbus clouds in various stages of development. The crew was looking west-southwest from the Amazon Basin, along the Rio Madeira toward Bolivia when the image was taken.
The semi-circular cloud patterns near the center of the astronaut photograph may be detected in a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) infrared satellite image of the region (bottom image, yellow rectangle) acquired about 20 minutes earlier than the astronaut photograph. The distinctive circular patterns of the clouds in the astronaut photograph are likely caused by the aging of thunderstorms. Such ring structures often form during the final stages of storms’ development as their centers collapse.
Sunglint—the mirror-like reflection of sunlight off a water surface directly back to the camera onboard the ISS—is visible on the waters of the Rio Madeira and Lago Acara in the Amazon Basin. Widespread haze over the basin gives the reflected light an orange hue. The Rio Madeira flows northward and joins the Amazon River on its path to the Atlantic Ocean. A large smoke plume near the bottom center of the image may be one source of the haze.
Astronaut photograph ISS020-E-47807 was acquired on October 6, 2009, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera using an effective 48mm lens (28-70 mm zoom lens), and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The astronaut photograph was taken by the Expedition 20 crew. GOES image courtesy NASA GOES Project Science and NOAA Comprehensive Large Array-Data Stewardship System. The photograph in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Susan K. Runco, NASA-JSC. | 1,392 |
Last updated on.From the section Arsenal
Arsene Wenger believes free movement of talent would further enhance the Premier League's global appeal
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed he was unsuccessful in signing a 17-year-old Angel Di Maria due to work permit regulations.
The Frenchman wants restrictions for non-European Union players to be scrapped as he tries to sign centre-half Gabriel Paulista from Villarreal.
He suggested Home Office criteria prevented him from signing Manchester United's Di Maria nine years ago.
"We wanted him to come here," said Gunners boss Wenger.
Di Maria, 26, signed for Manchester United from Real Madrid for a British record £59.7m in August.
Wenger said: "We had identified Di Maria when he was 17 in an international competition.
"But he went to Portugal, and from Portugal he went to Spain. Why? Because he could not get a work permit for England, so that meant you could only get him to England once he was worth a huge amount of money."
Wenger needs Home Office approval if he is to complete the signing of Paulista because the 24-year-old is yet to represent Brazil.
The Gunners boss has criticised proposals to reduce the number of non-European Union passport holders in the English game next season.
He said: "Ideally it would open completely, and anyone could come in."
Currently, the work permit requirement for non-EU passport holders is that they have to be an international from a country ranked within Fifa's top 70 and have played 75 per cent of their country's international matches in the last two years.
In order to sign Paulista, they would have to convince the Home Office that the defender was an "exceptional talent".
The Football Association wants to reduce the number of non-EU players within English football by up to 50%.
But Wenger thinks scrapping the regulations would be better for young English players.
"You could close completely the borders of the country and play only with English players. What will that do? That will kill the attractiveness of the Premier League worldwide.
"The second option is to say 'look we have the best league in the world, so let's produce the best players in the world'.
"One thing is for sure, if you put a young player with top-level players, he has more chance to develop. If you put him with average players he has more chance to remain average." | 1,393 |
A Call for “Mission 2016"
This is not the first time in the agency’s history the parks have been at risk of seriously deteriorating from lack of investment. During World War II, parks were nearly shuttered as workers and resources were repurposed to the war effort. After the war, returned soldiers and their families (and automobiles) found the parks crumbling and inaccessible.
At that time, the nation’s elected leaders responded by funding an ambitious revitalization campaign called Mission 66, referencing the year 1966—the National Park Service’s fiftieth anniversary year. With this focused investment, the ten-year period from 1956 to 1966 saw the construction of nearly every part of the park service’s built environment, from the parkways to accommodate recreational motoring to the iconic visitor centers to the familiar campgrounds to the standard signage.
National investment in our public spaces prior to the agency’s fiftieth anniversary modernized the parks to allow them to serve generations of users. Now, just a year away from the hundredth anniversary of the system, we once again have parks crumbling from years of disinvestment. But instead of pulling together to preserve and modernize our iconic and natural spaces for future generations, the National Park Service is forced to pass the begging bowl and limit access to only those who can afford to pay.
If you want to support the broader idea of public funding for public space and a call for “Mission 2016” investment in a public future for our National Parks, sign up here to keep informed.
A Chance to Speak Up
Next week, the US Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources will conduct a hearing on the Department of Interior’s FY 2016 budget. The Department of the Interior is the agency that houses the National Park Service.
Supporters of enhanced public funding for America’s national parks need to let Committee members know that we want those places to be cared for, maintained, and—most importantly—accessible to all Americans as publicly funded natural and cultural amenities.
Supporters of Mission 2016 will send letters of support to members of the Committee in advance of the hearing on February 24th. If you would like your name added to the list of supporters, please click here.
Disclaimer: This isn’t signing up for a list affiliated with any existing organization. This is a personal project, and the list is just a list of people who want to stand up for keeping our public natural spaces truly public. No spam, no sales pitch. | 1,394 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday unveiled a measure formally laying out next steps in their impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, which authorizes public committee hearings and the public release of transcripts of closed-door depositions.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
The proposal was previewed on Monday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It could be voted upon by the full House, which is controlled by Democrats, as soon as this week.
Even before the measure was unveiled, House Republican leaders said they would oppose it in protest of the closed-door proceedings by House panels over the past few weeks. But Democratic leaders expected it would pass; all but a handful of Democrats already have voiced support for the impeachment inquiry.
Under the proposal, the Intelligence Committee is authorized to have public hearings on its Ukraine investigation. The committee and other panels investigating Trump would forward their findings to the House Judiciary Committee, which could also conduct hearings before making decisions about filing any articles of impeachment.
Republicans would be allowed to subpoena witnesses and materials for the Intelligence Committee’s review. But the Democratic-majority committee would have the final say on whether those subpoenas would be issued.
Once the matter is with the Judiciary Committee, Trump and his lawyers would be allowed to participate in any Judiciary Committee impeachment proceedings, according to a Democratic fact sheet. They could cross examine witnesses, present their case and respond to evidence gathered and raise objections to testimony given, the fact sheet said.
The text of the measure states that the Judiciary Committee “shall report to the House of Representatives such resolutions, articles of impeachment or other recommendations as it deems proper.”
Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger, who flipped a Republican district in Virginia last year, said she had no qualms about taking a vote. “We’ve been clearly in an impeachment inquiry and laying out the plan for the next step I think is a helpful thing to do to help the American people understand the parameters of the public hearings.”
But another Democrat from a district that Trump won in 2016, Representative Jeff Van Drew, said he expected to vote no on the resolution. Van Drew says he does not oppose investigations of the president, but thinks lawmakers are spending too much time on an impeachment inquiry when there is little hope that the president would be convicted by the Republican-run Senate.
“He won’t be convicted, and then he will believe that he’s been exonerated,” Van Drew told reporters. | 1,395 |
’re as powerless as we are. We need a proper infrastructure and we need one now.”
“Imagine an earthquake or a flood in Haiti and the whole world rushes there to help: that’s what’s happening here and now in France, and no one is doing anything. British subculture and festival circuit people who are stepping up to help, because nobody else is.”
The only professional medical support available at the camp over the 48 hours following the storm was provided by Hands International, who have begun the process of administering vaccines to all the inhabitants.
They reported that 96 out of 100 initial recipients of the flu vaccine were suffering from scabies, and that many of the refugees they treated were also coughing up blood.
The Grande-Synthe camp (Rowan Farrell)
At the moment, there is one toilet for every 150 refugees at Grande-Synthe, and just eight taps concentrated in one wash-station serving the whole camp - or one tap per every 400 inhabitants.
Even in the most extreme conditions, experts advise a maximum of no more than 20 people per toilet.
Volunteers on the ground in Dunkirk have released a statement detailing the most urgent needs of the refugees at the camp. The document also contains contact details for anyone who feels they can help meet any of these needs.
As well as demanding an end to restrictions on the delivery of aid and construction materials, they are pleading for more aid, volunteers, resources and donations.
Stocks are already running dangerously low at the main distribution centre in Calais, where they are running out of shoes and blankets. There were only 15 volunteers working at the centre last weekend, down from a high of 200.
There is an urgent need for a warehouse to open near Dunkirk, as otherwise the volunteers will have to turn away bulk donations or watch them be dumped in muddy fields.
“There is one available,” Ms Clough said, “but they want 50,000 euros before they’ll open it, and the first thing we’ll have to do is buy a generator to run the roller shutter doors.”
The volunteers also highlight the need for direct financial donations, more long-term volunteers, increased medical cover, an industrial washing and drying service in the local area, child welfare specialists and individuals with legal and human rights training.
“And we desperately need someone to run PR and admin,” Ms Clough adds. | 1,396 |
ically 2019–04–21 02:01:38 — explorer#612 — $1 USD
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Special Contributions & Rewards
Alessiodf-$100
Delegate ‘Fun’ reported an issue where you could mistakenly (or intentionally) send coins to address that is not part of the current network (e.g. to BTC address, it would confirm transaction, but those coins would be lost since Ark’s prefix starts with ‘A’). This has been resolved by updating AJV validation schema for address to check that the address is on current network and in effect rejecting transactions that don’t follow current validation schema.
Are there any other development bounties going on?
Yes! There is also the community run ACF (ARK Community Fund) — read more here:
And remember to join our Slack! | 1,397 |
The news this year has been filled with headlines regarding increasing tensions among the United States, China, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. A full-fledged trade war is underway between the United States and China, and there is perhaps some potential for this to flare up into a military conflict. The United States has levied the most severe sanctions in history against Iran following the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, and Iran’s escalating rhetoric regarding the annihilation of Israel and the United States.
Venezuela’s economy and currency are collapsing, and the United States is attempting to foster a rebellion against President Nicolás Maduro and implement a democratic government. Lurking in the background is Russia, archrival of the United States since the end of World War II and an ally of China, Iran, and Venezuela. It’s possible that the world could be on the brink of the next world war if any of these regions flare up into a military conflict with the United States.
Bitcoin, the world’s first and by far most popular decentralized currency, is poised to increase massively in value if war breaks out, and an increase in Bitcoin’s value can be expected even if tensions remain the same or escalate without war. There are several reasons for this as will be explained in this article.
The trade war between the United States and China officially started on Jan. 22, 2018 when President Trump levied a 30% tariff on foreign solar panels and a 20% tariff on foreign washing machines. China is the top exporter of solar panels and washing machines to the United States, so these tariffs were aimed at China, and China decried the tariffs.
Notably, the stock market reached its zenith the same week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting 26,600 points after nearly a decade long bull market. Since January 2018, the stock market has been sideways and volatile, revealing the negative impact the trade war has had on the stock market since it first started.
The trade war started due to the tremendous trade imbalance between China and the United States. China had a $337 billion trade surplus with the United States in 2017. Essentially, hundreds of billions of dollars per year were flowing out of the United States into China. Specifically though, the trade war started to to punish China for its theft of U.S. technology — including top secret military technology — via hacking and espionage.
Read More at CryptoIQ...
#BTC #US #China #Iran #Venezuela | 1,398 |
care reform. The United States has enough money already, and we have the resources, including esteemed experts in public health, health policy and health financing. Our very own Dr. William Hsiao at Harvard has designed health systems in five other countries.
I am asking you to meet with me because the solution is simple. Remove all of the industries that profit off of the American health care catastrophe from the table. Replace them with those who are knowledgeable in designing health systems, and who are without ties to the for-profit medical industries. And then allow them to design an improved Medicare-for-All national health system. We can implement it within a year of designing such a system.
What are the benefits of doing this?
It will save tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of American lives each year, not to mention the prevention of unnecessary suffering.
It will relieve families of medical debt, which is the number one cause of bankruptcy and foreclosure, despite the fact that most of those who experienced bankruptcy had health insurance.
It will relieve businesses of the growing burden of skyrocketing health insurance premiums so that they can invest in innovation, hiring, increased wages and other benefits, and so they can compete in the global market.
It will control health care costs in a rational way through global budgeting and negotiation for fair prices for pharmaceuticals and services.
It will allow patients the freedom to choose wherever they want to go for health care, and will allow patients and their caregivers to determine which care is best without denials by insurance administrators.
It will restore the physician-patient relationship and bring satisfaction back to the practice of medicine so that more doctors will stay in or return to practice.
It will allow our people in our nation to be healthy and productive and able to support themselves and their families.
It will create a legacy for your administration that may someday elevate you to the same hero status as Tommy Douglas has in Canada.
Mr. President, there are more benefits, but I believe you get the point. I look forward to meeting with you and am so pleased that you are open to our ideas. The Medicare-for-All campaign is growing rapidly and is ready to support you as we move forward on health care reform that will provide America with one of the best health systems in the world. And that is something of which all Americans can be proud.
With great anticipation and deep respect,
Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Congressional Fellow, Physicians for a National Health Program | 1,399 |
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