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As Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton race around Ohio and Texas for tomorrow's primaries, they are telling a tale of economic woe. Yet the real story isn't how similar the two states are economically but how different. Texas has been prospering while Ohio lags, and the reasons are instructive about what works and what doesn't in economic policy.
There's no doubt times are tough in Ohio. The state has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, home foreclosures are soaring, and real family income is lower now than in 2000. Meanwhile, the Texas economy has boomed since 2004, with nearly twice the rate of new job creation as the rest of the nation. The nearby table compares the states over a decade or so.
Let's start with the fact that Texas's growth puts the lie to the myth that free trade costs American jobs. Anti-Nafta rhetoric doesn't play well in El Paso, San Antonio and Houston, which have become gateway cities for commerce with Latin America and have flourished since the North American Free Trade Agreement passed Congress in 1993. Mr. Obama's claim of one million lost jobs due to trade deals is laughable in Texas, the state most affected by Nafta. Texas has gained 36,000 manufacturing jobs since 2004 and has ranked as the nation's top exporting state for six years in a row. Its $168 billion of exports in 2007 translate into tens of thousands of jobs.
Ohio, Indiana and Michigan are losing auto jobs, but many of these "runaway plants" are not fleeing to China, Mexico or India. They've moved to more business-friendly U.S. states, including Texas. GM recently announced plans for a new plant to build hybrid cars. Guess where? Near Dallas. In 2006 the Lone Star State exported $5.5 billion of cars and trucks to Mexico and $2.4 billion worth to Canada.
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, a Democrat who supports Mrs. Clinton, blames his state's problems on President Bush. But Ohio's economy has been struggling for years, and most of its wounds are self-inflicted. Ohio now ranks 47th out of 50 in economic competitiveness, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Ohio politicians deplore plant closings even as they impose the third highest corporate income tax in the country (10.5%) and the sixth highest personal income tax (8.87%). A common joke is that Ohio lays out the red carpet for companies -- when they leave the state. By contrast, Texas has no income tax, a huge competitive advantage. | 1,400 |
How to Read Official 2020 CPBL Schedule
With the 2020 CPBL Opening Day just around the corner, the league finally announced the official schedule for the new season. And as always, it is not in English.
There is an old saying. “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Instead of translating the full CPBL season schedule into English and keeping it updated throughout the year, what we will do today is to teach you how to access and read the 2020 CPBL schedule on the official website.
So, without further ado, here our English guide on how to read the official CPBL schedule. (Last updated: February 17, 2020)
English Guide on CPBL Schedule
First, visit the official CPBL website and on top left corner click on 賽程 (Schedule) which we highlighted below in red. It will take you to a monthly calendar page.
Filtering Major, Minor League Schedule
On the official CPBL schedule page, at the top right corner, you will see a filter tab to switch between the first team and farm team schedule (一軍, 二軍). By clicking on it, it will automatically change the schedule to the one you selected. (See picture below)
一軍 (First Team/ Major League)
二軍 (Farm Team/ Minor League)
Switching Between Different Schedules
Now, this is probably the most important part. You have to go to the drop down menu and make sure you select 例行賽 (Regular season games). As right now we are still in Spring Training, so the default schedule is set at 熱身賽 (Spring training games).
例行賽 (Regular season games)
季後挑戰賽 (Playoff Series)
熱身賽 (Spring training games)
明星賽 (All-Star game)
總冠軍賽 (Taiwan Series)
Selecting Based on Stadium
The CPBL official site also comes with an option to filter based on the individual stadium. Click on the drop-down menu in the picture I highlighted below. Below are the translation of the stadiums’ names. | 1,401 |
Please take what will help you through the next couple days. Be mindful of other evacuees!”
Food trucks offered free meals and a cook flipped burgers on a grill. There were portable toilets and some people were used the Walmart restrooms.
Someone walking through the camp Thursday offered free medicinal marijuana. Laura Whitaker, an evacuee from Paradise, said that while everyone had been helpful, she heard people were pretending to be evacuees and were selling drugs from tents.
More than 75 tents had popped up in the space since Matthew Flanagan arrived Friday and still more were sleeping in cars.
“We call it Wally World,” Flanagan said, a riff off the store name. “When I first got here there was nobody here. And now it’s just getting worse and worse and worse. There are more evacuees, more people running out of money for hotels.”
Information for contacting the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assistance was posted on a board that allowed people to write the names of those they believed were missing. Several of those names, including Flanagan’s, had the word “Here” written next to them.
Melissa Contant, who drove from the San Francisco area to help out, advised people to register with FEMA as soon as possible and not to reveal too much information about whether they own or rent homes or if they have sufficient food and water, because that could delay aid.
“You’re living in a Walmart parking lot — you’re not OK,” she told Maggie and Michael Crowder.
Michael Crowder, a former sheriff’s deputy, had left behind a rental home in Magalia, a Sierra foothills town also ravaged by flames, on his motorcycle with this wife following in a truck with their pit bull, Coco.
They slept several nights in a Burger King parking lot and were running out of money and food when they went to buy a tent at Walmart and discovered the camp.
Tents had sold out, but a pastor and some volunteers showed up with the shelters and blankets and cots. A volunteer pitched a red tent for the Crowders in the dark.
“This is better than Burger King in some ways,” Maggie Crowder said. “We were kind of scared to be part of this.”
___
Melley reported from Los Angeles. AP journalist Terence Chea in Chico contributed to this story. | 1,402 |
Toronto is going to livestream the cherry blossoms in High Park this year, city spokesperson Brad Ross tells NOW.
Speaking in the latest episode of our NOW What podcast, Ross says residents hoping to catch peak bloom will be able to do so online.
“We are going to have a virtual experience form high park – a live streaming of the cherry blossoms,” he told host Norman Wilner. “It won’t be quite the same – we get that – but nothing’s been quite the same since five weeks ago. The cherry blossoms will be there but High park will be closed off to public access.”
During the pre-bloom and peak bloom periods, the city will close High Park to avoid crowds. The park closure dates will depend on weather and will be announced when the bloom period is determined.
In a statement, the city said it is creating “multiple livestream events and videos.” Details will be announced soon.
The closure follows similar decisions in other jurisdictions with both COVID-19 and cherry blossoms: Japan, Korea, Europe and Washington, D.C.
The park is already closed to vehicular traffic and will remain closed to vehicles during the pandemic.
Ross urged residents not to go to High Park, Trinity Bellwoods Park, Centennial Park or any parks with cherry blossoms. The website tracking blooms has been suspended due to the pandemic.
“While we understand many residents use High Park every day, a partial closure of the park isn’t possible given the number of cherry blossom trees throughout the park and the size and layout of the park itself,” the city said in a statement. “Health and parks staff believe this is the best plan to discourage gathering and protect public health.”
Toronto parks are open but park amenities and playgrounds are closed in order to limit the spread of COVID-19. The city has passed a bylaw making it illegal to break physical distancing rules in parks and public squares.
In a statement over the weekend, Toronto officials said that Trinity Bellwoods Park is “the most problematic park in the city when it comes to people flaunting regulations.”
Enforcement officers are fining people who do not live in the same household and do not maintain two meters distance when in public parks or squares.
Listen to the full interview with Ross here.
This story was updated on April 22.
@KevinRitchie | 1,403 |
, his administration said fewer than a dozen patients have been sent there for treatment by Chicago-area hospitals. “The consequence of being under-prepared would be the loss of life. And the consequence of being over-prepared would be that we built out more than we may have needed. And nobody can know exactly where we’ll end up [until] much after we’ve hit the peak and moved off of it,” he said.
Student loan relief: Those with privately-held student loans in Illinois could see some pandemic-driven financial relief under a multi-state agreement with 20 lenders. The federal CARES Act, one of several pandemic-relief steps enacted by President Trump and Congress, allowed for the suspension of monthly payments and penalties for those holding federal student loans. Roughly 140,000 borrowers in Illinois with privately-managed student loans would see similar relief under the deal Illinois and eight other states brokered with more than a dozen private lenders. “These are people just as affected by the turmoil of this pandemic as their counterparts covered by the CARES Act,” Pritzker said. Those struggling to make payments on their private student loans due to the pandemic are eligible for up to 90 days of forbearance and waivers of late-payment fees. Lenders also have agreed to stop initiating debt-collection lawsuits and making negative credit reports for three months. Those seeking information can contact the Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation at 217-785-2900.
Governing by executive order: In light of the 26 executive orders Pritzker has signed since March 13, 2020 — all in response to the coronavirus pandemic — Pritzker was asked about his comfort level in governing without checks on those orders by either legislators or judges. “I don’t feel comfortable at all,” Pritzker said. “As soon as we can get on the other side of this challenge — listen, I want regular order. There are so many things that you’ve heard me talk about, the things that I want to accomplish for the people of the state of Illinois, and those can’t be accomplished in the context of a pandemic.”
SNAP expansion: Pritzker also announced an additional $112 million in funding to help those who rely on food stamps and also take care of school-aged children. The extra funding — channeled through the state Department of Human Services — will help distribute food to more than 300,000 people statewide. | 1,404 |
The American political landscape has changed and I believe the change is permanent. The two main political parties should be disbanded, because they are irrelevant. Most Americans that don’t make their living in politics see no great difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. The issues that separate them no longer apply.
The Republican Party that once believed in smaller government and a smaller role in social programs while favoring business and States Rights (A great departure from the party of Abraham Lincoln) now believes in government interference in everything except the corporate bottom line.
The Democrats, once the party of the Middle Class and large scale involvement in social programs while defending the American taxpayer from corporate class-warfare is a thing of the past, both political parties and the people that comprise them can’t be recognizes from each other without a pundit telling us which side they are on.
There are two separate and distinct political views in our nation today. They are not the Republican view or the Democratic ideas of government. The two main schools of political thought in America today are the politicians that support involvement of big money and corporations to lead this nation, and the people that want a return to constitutional law and exclusion of multi-national stateless corporations in running the affairs of this country.
We may just as well call these two differing sets of people political caucuses. In fact, the divide is so great that this country would be better off scraping the two political parties that dominate this nation and forming two parties that accurately reflect the political realities of today’s political climate. We could call these two differing parties the Corporatists and the Constitutionalists. This would be a better way to differentiate the politicians that run for office, and make the process easier for the people of the United States.
To illustrate my point, let us take the current field of candidates and separate them not by the confusing labels of Democrats and Republicans which mean absolutely nothing in today’s political reality, but separate them into the two political divisions I mentioned above. It is apparent that the party lines would not only be drastically different, but it would also be much easier to differentiate these politicians by ideology.
Corporatists; Biden, Dodd, Clinton, Obama, Romney, Guiliani, Tancredo, Huckabee, Thompson, McCain. Hunter, Keyes
Constitutionalists: Kuchinich, Edwards, Richardson, Paul, Gravel
Next Page 1 | 2
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). | 1,405 |
A Syrian refugee who was granted asylum in Germany, along with his four wives and 23 children, is now reportedly receiving 360 thousand euro ($390,000) a year in benefits, sparking outrage among German citizens.
The 49-year-old Muslim migrant, identified only as “Ghazia A.,” fled his Syrian homeland in 2015 and is now based in Montabaur, in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
According to a report in the German newspaper Das Bild, Ghazia traveled along the Balkan route through Turkey along with his wives and children and eventually reached Germany. When he applied for asylum, since polygamy is prohibited in Germany, he had to choose which of the four women to become his “main” wife, in order to ensure to all his children social benefits that the state provides to refugees.
Ghazia chose his wife Twasif as his official wife, along with the 5 children he had by her. According to German law, Ghazia’s other wives are classified as “partners” but the man insists that he treats them all equally.
“According to our religion I have a duty to visit every family in the same way and do not prioritize any of them,” Ghazia said, meaning that he often must leave home to “visit” his other wives, who all live within a 30-mile radius of the man. All of his 23 children but one—a daughter now married and living in Saudi Arabia—are settled in Germany.
A local official in the town of Montabaur described Ghazia’s benefit situation as an “exemption.”
Ghazia’s story has provoked a strong reaction among many Germans, who are protesting the level of benefits enjoyed by the refugee.
The estimated sum of 360 thousand euros per year comes from a German financial manager who posted the figure on the website of the “Association of Employers” as an approximative calculation of what the German state would be paying for the whole family.
For his part, Ghazia claims he would “like to work” but his familial burdens make it impossible. Back in Syria the man reportedly earned enough money with his car sharing and car service business to cover the expenses of his large family.
Now he spends his time visiting his various families, he says.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1,406 |
A committee of members of European Parliament has voted to approve amendments to European copyright law that could spell disaster for the internet in a number of ways. If it gets voted in by the wider European Parliament, it threatens to eradicate mods, memes, and will even affect things as commonplace as sourced news and posting photos of you wearing a t-shirt of your favourite game.
First net neutrality in the US, now this. There are two highly-controversial articles in a piece of legislation called the Copyright Directive, approved by the EU’s Legal Affairs Committee. Article 11 would require anyone using snippets of online journalistic content to pay their sources via a license, which would make reporting on news broken by other sites impossibly expensive for mid-tier publications like us. There’s also Article 13, which makes platforms responsible for monitoring potentially copyright-infringing content themselves, even that which is published by users.
The problems with Article 11 are pretty clear on the surface, but Article 13 is potentially very dangerous. If all sites and services are required to strictly monitor for copyright infringement, then most will likely turn to unreliable algorithms that automatically flag copyrighted content. With how much of a problem this has been on sites like YouTube, and how stricter it looks to be than Google’s current systems for the video platform, this could ruin instances of fair use and make it hazardous to share and produce memes, make mods for games, and even something as innocuous as posting a photo on Twitter or Facebook of yourself wearing a t-shirt with copyrighted material on it.
This all comes after last week, when 70 leading figures in tech including Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee, signed a letter opposing Article 13, which called the proposal “an imminent threat to the future” of the internet. Talking to BoingBoing, activist Cory Doctorow criticised what he called a “foolish, terrible idea … No filter exists that can even approximate this. And the closest equivalents are mostly run by American companies, meaning that US big tech is going to get to spy on everything Europeans post and decide what gets censored and what doesn’t.”
Voting on the European copyright law legislation in the wider EU Parliament will happen in July. Until then, every advocate, tech leader, and activist is encouraging people living in Europe to contact their local MEPs and voice their concerns about the legislation. After today’s committee vote, US not-for-profit organisation Creative Commons called it “a dark day for the open web.” | 1,407 |
Six employees of a nursing home and a contract nurse in Ohio have been charged after the death of one patient and the neglect of another, state officials announced Thursday.
"This man literally rotted to death," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said at a news conference. Yost says three of the workers have been charged with involuntary manslaughter: two from the nursing home and the contract nurse.
The patients were residents at Whetstone Gardens and Care Center in Columbus, Ohio.
In February 2017, the first patient developed serious wounds on his body progressing to gangrenous and necrotic tissue, the attorney general said in a statement. Despite the medical emergency, nurses allegedly failed to take medically appropriate steps that could have saved his life.
After being admitted to a hospital, the man died five days later on March 5, 2017, from septic shock, a result of the wounds. In a second case, the indictment says nurses falsified a patient’s medical file and forged signatures about treatments she never actually received.
“This case goes to the heart of protecting the unprotected,” Yost said in a statement. “These victims were completely dependent on others for day-to-day care, which their families trusted Whetstone Gardens to provide. Instead of providing that care, evidence shows these nurses forced the victims to endure awful mistreatment and then lied about it."
The three nurses charged with involuntary manslaughter are Sandra Blazer, Jessica Caldwell and Kimberly Potter. The patients were not named.
In all, the six employees and the contractor were indicted on a combined 34 charges.
Nursing home spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch, when reached by phone Friday, told USA TODAY that four of the indicted employees have since been fired and the two others suspended.
"Whetstone vehemently disagrees with any suggestion that employees of the facility caused the 2017 death of a patient who was transferred to the hospital five days before passing away," Stubenrauch said in an email. "As to the allegations of forgery and neglect by former employees regarding a second individual, these issues came to our attention two years ago during an annual Department of Health survey and were immediately addressed."
He also pointed out that it was the employees – not the nursing home – that had been charged. The nursing home remains open, and its website Friday said that "every Whetstone associate upholds a commitment to ensure that you or your loved one has the opportunity to enjoy the best possible experience."
Contributing: The Associated Press | 1,408 |
I see this trade working for both sides for a couple of reasons. A lot of why this may work is that it is an exchange of former 1st rounders which means both clubs can save a little face by not just taking a lower pick than the pick expended on the player.
First, the Sharks have other defensive prospects. While Mueller was a high draft pick for the Sharks (18th), he has not really developed according to plan. At age 21, there is still hope that he can develop nicely; however, the rumblings I have heard (and correct me if I am wrong) is that he has never been able to regain his confidence. He plays sort of lost out on the ice and he may never be more than a 3/4 guy for the Sharks. That said, it sounds like we have other people at his age and talent level that are developing better and can satisfy the needs of the team.
As far as Yakupov goes, his value is apparently "bargain basement" variety. Some people report that a low 2nd or 3rd round pick could have him. Other reports are saying that the Oilers may be willing to take back someone else's failed prospect. As a team that needs Defense, taking a flyer on a guy who could develop into a good two-way d-man is appealing. It is a guy who is a little more mature and can come in and hit his peak years along the same timeline of their young crop of forwards.
The appeal for the Sharks in Yakupov is a guy with speed who can shoot the puck and has a high talent ceiling that is not being achieved. Unless he turns out to be the Alexander Semin type (tons of skill but cannot give a damn to try), he may just need a change of scenery for things to work out. I would be less concerned with his god awful plus minus as he was playing bottom 9 minutes on a team devoid of defensive capability. I think he is capable of learning a two-way game or at least not being an absolute liability. He could be a good guy to potentially pair up with Donskoi and Couture as all three have speed and hands. Yakupov may once again find his elite finishing ability when put on the line with the two of them.
To me, the price would be right and its a gamble that could pay off very nicely. At $2.5M for a cap hit, he is not a cap buster either as the Sharks look to complete out their roster for 2016-17. | 1,409 |
AARP doesn't want any senator to support the Republican healthcare proposal introduced on Thursday.
The organization dedicated to lobbying for older Americans over 50 years old took issue not only with some of the cuts the legislation would make but also the circumstances in which it was devised.
"This new Senate bill was crafted in secrecy behind closed doors without a single hearing or open debate—and it shows," AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond said in a statement. The Senate bill would hit millions of Americans with higher costs and result in less coverage for them. AARP is adamantly opposed to the Age Tax, which would allow insurance companies to charge older Americans five times more for coverage than everyone else while reducing tax credits that help make insurance more affordable."
The group also complained that the bill would make cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
"AARP is also deeply concerned that the Senate bill cuts Medicaid funding that would strip health coverage from millions of low-income and vulnerable Americans who depend on the coverage, including 17 million poor seniors and children and adults with disabilities. The proposed Medicaid cuts would leave millions, including our most vulnerable seniors, at risk of losing the care they need and erode seniors' ability to live in their homes and communities," LeaMond said. "The Senate bill also cuts funding for Medicare which weakens the programs ability to pay benefits and leaves the door wide open to benefit cuts and Medicare vouchers. AARP has long opposed proposals that cut benefits or weaken Medicare."
The bill introduced Thursday follows the passage of the healthcare reform bill passed by the House, which aims to partially repeal and replace Obamacare care, the signature healthcare law of former President Barack Obama. AARP says that like it did with all the members of the House, it will hold all 100 senators "accountable" for their votes on this "harmful" bill.
"Our members care deeply about their health care and have told us repeatedly that they want to know where their elected officials stand. We strongly urge the Senate to reject this bill," LeaMond concluded.
50 GOP votes are needed to pass the bill under the process of reconciliation, with a tie-breaker vote from Vice President Mike Pence. Already four of 52 Republicans, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have said they are "not ready" to support the bill in its current form. It is expected that all Democrats will oppose its passage. President Trump chimed in on Twitter on Thursday to say he supports the Senate bill. | 1,410 |
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong suggested on Sunday a general election may be called next year, more than a year before his government’s mandate ends, as the city-state braces for growing economic uncertainty amid global trade tensions.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong arrives at the ASEM leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium October 18, 2018. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
Lee’s People’s Action Party (PAP) has dominated Singapore’s politics over the five decades since the republic’s independence, winning all the elections with significant majorities, and faces no real challenge to its power.
But it has tried to address signs of voter discontent by vowing to ease wealth disparity and improve social mobility, while moving ahead with a leadership transition to pick a successor who will take over from Lee in coming years.
“This may be the last party conference before the next general election,” Lee told the PAP convention.
“The new CEC (Central Executive Committee) will be leading the party into the final stretch, gearing up to put our record before the voters,” Lee said.
The annual convention elected a new Central Executive Committee on Sunday bringing into its top ranks young cabinet ministers, dubbed 4G leaders, from whose number Lee’s successor will be selected.
Seven senior party members who have led the party and government, including the two current deputy prime ministers, retired from the committee.
Singapore’s central bank has warned that an intensifying trade row between China and the United States is likely to hurt its economy, hitting harder as the trade dispute drags on.
Lee, the eldest son of Singapore founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, has made clear he was ready to step down in the next couple of years, but no clear successor has been chosen from a group of younger ministers tasked with selecting a leader from their ranks.
“The PAP must win the next general election convincingly,” Lee told the convention. “We take a pragmatic and centrist approach in our politics and in our policies. And we’re setting a clear direction supported by the broad mass of Singaporeans who want to see stability and progress continue for many years.”
PAP’s worst showing at the poll was in 2011 when 40 percent of voters turned against it, partly in protest over growing strains on public services. | 1,411 |
n67Pro likely affect the function of NLS1. We then verified the activity of Glu253Gly, Leu298Pro, Trp348Arg, and Glu369Asp, all of which were identified in medulloblastoma (44). As illustrated in Fig. 5A, Glu253 and Leu298 are located at EPC-I required for KAT6A/B binding, whereas Trp348 and Glu369 are within the PZP domain important for nucleosome binding. Glu253Gly promoted expression of ING5 and MEAF6 (fig. S2G, compare lanes 1 and 2 with lane 4) but formed a suboptimal complex with KAT6A (Fig. 5E, bottom two panels, lanes 3 and 4). The interaction with ING5 and MEAF6 was also compromised (Fig. 5E, bottom, lanes 3 and 4, and fig. S2G, lanes 1, 2, and 4). This mutant was less active than wild-type BRPF1 in stimulating H3K23 acetylation and propionylation by KAT6A (Fig. 5E, top three panels, lanes 2 to 4). Unlike this mutant, Leu298Pro, Trp348Arg, and Glu369Asp all formed normal tetrameric complexes with KAT6A, ING5, and MEAF6 (Fig. 5E, bottom two panels, lanes 5 to 7). However, unlike Glu369Asp, neither Leu298Pro nor Trp348Arg stimulated H3K23 acetylation or propionylation by KAT6A (Fig. 5E, top three panels, lanes 5 to 7). Thus, Glu253Gly, Leu298Pro, and Trp348Arg, but not Glu369Asp, inactivated BRPF1. We also analyzed five other cancer-derived missense mutants that alter the PZP domain or its C-terminal region (Fig. 5F). Among them, Glu303Gln showed a modestly reduced activity in stimulating H3K23 acylation by KAT6A, whereas Asp344His, Arg347Leu, and the two other mutants were comparable to wild-type BRPF1 (Fig. 5F). Therefore, cancer-derived somatic BRPF1 mutations exert variable effects on H3K23 acylation, reiterating that the impact of each mutation needs to be verified experimentally. | 1,412 |
for the upgrade system we talked about in an earlier blog. Many players have been asking for a challenge level beyond what we have given them in the past. The new Elite mode is a response to that. This is not a mode we expect all players to be able to eventually complete. This is a mode that will result in many failed attempts before a successful strategy is struck upon, and even then, that strategy should take practice and precision to pull off on a continual basis. Not every event is getting an Elite mode version for the launch of Delta Rising, but at least one for each Mark type is scheduled to be upgraded before then. The Difficulty Slider In addition to Advanced and Elite modes getting changed for the queued events, the Difficulty Slider will be seeing a similar alteration. In Advanced and Elite difficulties, enemies will have more HP and more Shields, so some of the older strategies of “just use area effect powers” won’t be as effective in the higher difficulties. You’ll want to choose your targets more intelligently and take down the highest threats one at a time. Upping your difficulty in the game has always come with increased rewards in terms of XP and Expertise, as well as increased drop rates on items – you’ll enjoy a much better chance of rare (blue) and very rare (purple) gear items. With Delta Rising and the new changes to the difficulty slider, we will be increasing these even more, giving you even greater chances at higher quality loot drops than before. The Challenge of the Delta Quadrant In conclusion, we are proud to offer you these upgrades to the queued events and the difficulty sliders. With Delta Rising, we are taking the game to a whole new level, literally, and we wanted to make sure that the challenge for these new heights was appropriate and what you have been asking for years.
Matt Miller
Content Designer
Star Trek Online
Discuss in the forums
Click here to learn more about Delta Rising, our free-to-play expansion for Star Trek Online. Explore the Delta Quadrant & rediscover the allies & the enemies the Voyager crew made during their exodus from distant space back to Earth & the Federation. Prepare yourself & your crew with an Delta Operations Pack now available for purchase! Click on the logo below to learn more about it. Want more game details, screens, and videos? Like Star Trek Online on Facebook for more exclusive content and follow us on Twitter – tweet us your questions! And, subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest Star Trek Online videos | 1,413 |
red eyes, Hartman tells a hushed court the now familiar story. His gaze never crosses Curtis's, who sits opposite. Curtis opts not to give evidence. The jury takes two days to reach a verdict. As the verdict is delivered, his father Nick closes his eyes and bows his head briefly. A tearful Jacenko embraces Nick. Oliver knows he is going to jail and quietly begins making preparations for life inside. He quits as director of a string of companies, including his private company Encounter Investments, in which he owns the only share. He leaves its operation in the hands of his wife, appointing Roxy sole director. In a withering judgment, Justice Lucy McCallum notes that white-collar crime is a choice freely made by well-educated people from privileged backgrounds, prompted by greed. She sentences Curtis to a minimum of one year's jail, noting he never accepted responsibility for his actions.
His mother Angela and wife Roxy weep. Curtis, resigned to his fate, takes off his tie, belt and wedding ring and is led away. (His appeal is listed for later this month.) It took the best part of a decade to play out, but the hopes, reputations and friendships of two young men had been laid to waste. Was it just greed? Certainly, Hartman admitted it was all about the money. But the irony was that both men already had it all. So was it privilege? Or a misplaced sense of entitlement? Or, more disturbingly, entirely normal behaviour for their industry? Insider trading is notoriously hard to prove, with high- profile convictions, like that of Rene Rivkin in 2003, a relatively rare occurrence. There are countless other examples of suspicious tips, nods and winks. The clubby world of financial markets meets and mingles over lunch, after-work drinks, the golf club. Last month, Darren Thompson, a vice-president in investment banking at Credit Suisse Management Australia, pleaded not guilty to insider trading, having allegedly procured a close friend, Michael William Hull, to buy shares for him. The pair, who met working at ANZ, were regular jogging buddies. Hull was jailed for 17 months in June. Hartman and Curtis are certainly not alone: they may well be among the unlucky few who get caught and wind up paying for their crimes in prison. Curtis's barrister, Murugan Thangaraj, SC, summed up the affair the most theatrically. The downfall of Curtis and Hartman, he said, had all the hallmarks of a "Greek tragedy". | 1,414 |
The joint commissioner of BBMP has now passed an instruction as per which the amount paid for the garbage trucks in Bangalore would be prohibited unless the trucks are discovered. In the recent times, BBMP possesses a total of 594 garbage trucks out of which 74 are occupied for civil purposes whereas the remaining are run and controlled by the local contractors. The estimated payment made by the Palike to these 100 trucks contractors is around 1.7 lakhs every month. The compactor contract system was organized and formulated in the year 2013. At a moderate payment of 1.5 lakhs for 100 trucks in a month for around 60-70 months, it was observed that the expenditure of BBMP was extended to 90 crores. This scam was mainly noticed when the high court passed an order to the BBMP group to organize ward micro policies for solid waste management. The entire 198 ward committees were assigned the task of formulating award level plan to make certain the proper and appropriate operating of the solid waste management. Moreover, the rules were mainly implemented to ensure the sanitation facilities in diverse wards of Bangalore.
As per the formulation of the micro policy, the wards of Bengaluru were divided into blocks. The estimations stated that there exist around 750 households including a few of commercial units. The auto tippers were allotted the duty to collect the wet garbage from the entire 750 households and the commercial units. Usually, these auto tippers had the capacity to load up to 500 kg. Apart from this, in order to compute proper working of the contractors, the Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) was issued by the BBMP. The major reason for issuing the RFID was to ascertain and trace the location where the wet waste collected by the compactors and auto tippers were dumped.
According to the statement given by the commissioner of BBMP Sarfaraz Khan, there are about 100 of compactor drivers that did not participate in garbage dumping. These contractors were stated to be missing and the search is still continued. He also said “we are unaware of where the 100 contractors are? He also mentioned that BBMP was not at all informed if these contractors were even going to households and wards on a daily basis to collect garbage and dump the same.
The recent reports state that Sarfaraz Khan has assigned the duty of searching these 100 contractors to some of the major officials of their department. He has further asked the officers to make a list of the missing contractors along with their registration details. Furthermore, the payment of the remaining contractors is kept on hold until the BBMP successfully finds the missing workers. | 1,415 |
A tweet by filmmaker Shirish Kunder is making Twitter laugh.
.@LGIndia... Do you have a service center in Delhi?
The LG there is not working. Also, not letting others work. - Shirish Kunder (@ShirishKunder) June 16, 2018
We regret the inconvenience caused. Please DM us your contact details so that we can assist you shortly. - LG India (@LGIndia) June 16, 2018
OMG!! This one is killer - Sushil Jain (@SushilJ1960) June 16, 2018
Wow... his is what we call humour! Even @LtGovDelhi must be smiling - Dr.S.P.Singh MD (@medico956) June 16, 2018
Ha ha this one is one of the best.. So very miraculously hilarious.. Thanks for keeping the Twitter posts live.. - #MufflerTiranga (@vipinxsharma) June 16, 2018
Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has been working from home since Monday ever since Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and three of his ministers sat on a sit-in protest at the Lt Governor's office. Sources say that the Lt Governor or LG is going through files related to the Delhi Police, Delhi Development Authority and other departments at his residence, but he did not receive any Delhi government files as the chief minister and three other AAP ministers have been protesting. Amidst all this, a tweet by filmmaker Shirish Kunder, which has now been deleted, is making Twitter laugh out loud.The director, who often tweets his humorous takes on topical issues, took to the micro blogging website about four hours ago to ask LG Electronics if they have a service centre in Delhi, since "the LG there is not working." The tweet has now been deleted.And though Mr Kunder's tweet was meant to be a lighthearted one, LG Electronics took it in complete sincerity and immediately responded to tell him that they would assist him shortly. In a tweet which was deleted soon after, LG Electronics wrote "We regret the inconvenience caused. Please DM us your contact details so that we can assist you shortly."The hilarious exchange is making many laugh out loud: The AAP leaders have been trying to meet Mr Baijal since Monday evening to discuss two demands - one, that he step in to end what Mr Kejriwal alleges is a boycott by officials, and the second, a go-ahead for a doorstep delivery scheme that was nixed by the Lieutenant Governor.
Click for more trending news | 1,416 |
unclear if it caused by a slip or a medical issue).On the trail, James and Christine met a solo hiker heading for the cable route. He had set out with the intention of hiking Half Dome, and accordingly carried traction devices for his feet and a tether to tie into the cables. At the base, the cables were exposed, but for most of the way they were completely covered by up to two feet of unconsolidated snow. With the route concealed, the hikers would have to climb wherever the slope appeared to be safest, and without the aid of the cables. Furthermore, an impassible-looking spot was visible partway to the summit. The solo hiker took a few steps and then decided to retreat.Christine, who had climbed the cables in summer, suggested they turn around, but James wanted to summit. They started up, kicking out steps in the snow and digging in with gloved hands. When she reached the impassable-looking spot, Christine again tried to dissuade James from continuing, and she chose to turn around. After borrowing her cell phone, he continued on and reached the top, but he was only halfway to safety; he still had to descend.James took a new route down, to the right of his upward path. From the top it had looked easier, but as he descended, the slope increased. He tried to make his way back to familiar terrain on the left, but was forced to continue down the untested right.Without warning, James slipped and began sliding toward the steepest line. After about 20 feet, a snow-filled depression stopped his slide. The snow saved his life, but, with a single foothold and no handholds, he was unable to move. Christine, now at the base of the cables, was close enough to see and hear him. They discussed their options and realized that there was no way for her to rescue him without putting herself in danger.H40 reached the park at 4:30 pm, leaving only enough time to locate James and land two rescuers near the base of the cables before darkness prevented further flying. With crampons, the two rescuers climbed the exposed part of the cables until they were directly above James. In darkness and sub-freezing temperatures, they set up anchors on the cables, allowing one rescuer to be lowered to him. Once tied to a safety rope, and with the assistance of the lowered rescuer, James was able to make his way up to secure terrain. All four then hiked back to the Valley, arriving at 10 pm.
| 1,417 |
Why was I on FaceTime with @NEWCUPID? Good reason! A bull went after him. Full story on #abc13 at 6PM. #hounews pic.twitter.com/2IijBdypwZ — Steve Campion (@SteveABC13) March 7, 2016
HUMBLE (KTRK) -- Singer Cupid, whose real name is Bryson Bernard, calls what happened in Humble this past weekend "the scariest moment" of his life. The R&B singer was set to perform at a Heritage Day halftime show for the Black Professional Cowboys and Cowgirls Association.Incredible video into abc13 shows what happened next. Cupid steps down from a carriage when a bull jumps over a fence and comes charging at him."It was crazy. When I first saw the bull, it was all a blue," said Cupid. "I ran track in college. I thought I lost it all. I planted that boot in that dirt. I just went for the hills. There was a 6-foot fence and I just dove over it. I landed on my shoulder."You can hear the crowd yelling. Seconds later, an announcer calls for a paramedic.Sharon Stoll-Beckett is with the Black Professional Cowboys and Cowgirls Association. She arranged the performance and was on the carriage when the bull went after the singer."He was very lucky. I didn't know he was that fast," said Stoll-Beckett. "The bull cleared the pen. I was in the carriage. I looked up and said, 'What the heck?' Everyone was screaming and hollering. The next thing I know, Cupid cleared the fence."Stoll-Beckett said they're grateful no one was seriously injured. She explained there are professionals on hand to deal with such situations. Stoll-Beckett stressed this is very rare."We do have medical services on standby. We do try to make sure our guests are safe," said Stoll-Beckett. "You never know what's going to happen. It's rodeo life."It's hard not to get flash backs to a similar incident in Houston. In 2010 at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo which is not associated with the Black Professional Cowboys and Cowgirls, a bull got loose and was seen running around a private parking lot. Rodeo wranglers were quickly able to round up the animal. Representatives said they learned from the experience and adjusted safety procedures.Representatives released the following statement to abc13: | 1,418 |
The camera app offers a bunch of cool modes, such as a so-called Wide Aperture setting that lets you adjust the focal point and amount of depth of field (blurred background) after you shoot a photo. Huawei also made it easier to quickly snap pictures by building in some shortcuts. You can trigger the shutter by laying your finger on the fingerprint sensor below the rear camera or by saying "cheese." When the phone is asleep, you can launch the camera (and immediately take a picture) by double- or triple-pressing the volume down button, depending on how you set it up.
None of those features are new for Huawei's phones, though. Like the P9, the Honor 8 comes with the company's EMUI 4.0 software overlaid on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. This brings nifty features such as the ability to assign custom tasks to individual fingers laid on the sensor, as well as using your knuckle to outline a specific area of the screen to capture it.
The similarities to the P9 don't end there. The Honor 8 also has a 5.2-inch, 1080p display, a USB Type-C charging port and a 3,000mAh battery that supports fast charging. Huawei says the phone will go from 0 to 50 percent after 30 minutes of being plugged in.
While both phones use the company's own octa-core Kirin chips, the P9 has the faster Kirin 955, as opposed to the Honor 8's Kirin 950. Huawei said the Kirin 950 is equivalent to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820, which powers most of this year's flagships, but we'll have to put the Honor to the test to see how it holds up.
The Honor 8 comes in black, white and blue, the latter being my personal favorite. It's so popular, in fact, that folks in China are snapping up that version (which retails at about US$360 there) and reselling it for about US$500, according to Honor president George Zhao.
Too bad the Honor 8 doesn't cost the same in the US as it does in China. Other midrange phones on the market, such as the OnePlus 3, the ZTE Axon 7 and the Alcatel Idol 4S cost the same and the latter even comes with its own VR headset in the box. But so far the Honor 8 appears to have a pretty decent camera, and if it does offer performance that parallels its rivals, it could be a worthy adversary. Stay tuned to see how well it stacks up against its competitors. | 1,419 |
On May 5, 2017, President Trump set the internet on fire when he tweeted, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe” The left went nuts, accusing him of losing his mind and of not being able to spell correctly. Trump supporters claimed there was a hidden message in the word “covfefe.” T-shirts and coffee mugs were sold with the single word “covfefe” printed on them.
The word “covfefe,” that the left tried to mock Trump for using, quickly became a meme and a sort of battle cry for his supporters after it was revealed by many that the true meaning of the word, “covfefe,” is “In the end, we win!”
Now, the Daily Caller is reporting that a horse named “Covfefe” won a Breeder’s Cup event at Santa Anita today. The horse was named after Trump’s famous tweet. The horse has now won six of her last eight races.
Mitch Roschelle retweeted the Daily Caller’s video of the horse “Covfefe” after she won her most recent race.
Trump added to the mystery behind the word, when he corrected the Daily Caller, for calling his tweet a “mistweet.” Trump tweeted, “Great! But how do you know it was a ‘mistweet?'” He added, “May be something with deep meaning!” His tweet will definitely get the “Q” crowd speculating on social media, who are frequently looking for hidden codes in Trump’s tweets.
Great! But how do you know it was a “mistweet?” May be something with deep meaning! https://t.co/00EXMCgQLp — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2019
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What do you think? Was the tweet intentional or a mistweet? Tell us what you think about the meaning of the tweet in the comment section below. | 1,420 |
Former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenCast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response Biden tells CNN town hall that he has benefited from white privilege MORE's campaign is elevating top adviser Anita Dunn's role in response to a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, a longtime ally familiar with the decision told The Hill on Friday.
Dunn, a veteran Democratic operative, has worked on numerous campaigns, including former President Obama's 2008 run. She later served in Obama's White House, where she became a trusted adviser to Biden.
Until now, Dunn has been focused solely on communication strategy for the Biden campaign. According to an internal campaign email obtained by The New York Times, Dunn will now be "working closely with us on campaign strategy and overall coordination on budget and personnel as we build a bigger campaign for the next phase."
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Long thought to be one of the front-runners in the Democratic primary race, Biden finished fourth in Iowa, behind Sens. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersMcConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security The Hill's Campaign Report: Arizona shifts towards Biden | Biden prepares for drive-in town hall | New Biden ad targets Latino voters Why Democrats must confront extreme left wing incitement to violence MORE (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenWarren, Schumer introduce plan for next president to cancel,000 in student debt The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Don't expect a government check anytime soon No new taxes for the ultra rich — fix bad tax policy instead MORE (D-Mass.) and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg Pete ButtigiegBogeymen of the far left deserve a place in any Biden administration Overnight Defense: Woodward book causes new firestorm | Book says Trump lashed out at generals, told Woodward about secret weapons system | US withdrawing thousands of troops from Iraq A socially and environmentally just way to fight climate change MORE.
The move also comes four days before the New Hampshire primary, where a poll again shows Biden trailing the pack. The latest Boston Globe/Suffolk poll has Biden in fourth place at 11 percent. Warren is in third with 13 percent, while Buttigieg and Sanders are in a dead heat with 23 and 24 percent support, respectively.
The candidates will be on the stage Friday night for a debate at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire.
Amie Parnes contributed. | 1,421 |
Photo: Virginia Mayo / Associated Press
Google, one of the world’s most valuable companies, is growing in a big way. It’s planning a mixed-used development in San Jose that could include more than 6 million square feet of office and research-and-development space.
The plans, which are still in development and contingent on Google buying all of the parcels in a roughly 240-acre area near Diridon Station, would create a tech campus even larger than the 3.1-million-square-foot Googleplex in Mountain View. It would bring as many as 20,000 new jobs to San Jose.
In a normal time, these plans would be an example of excellent urban planning.
San Jose has long struggled with one of the region’s few jobs-housing imbalance in favor of housing. A Google campus could help stabilize the city’s finances and bring some much-needed revitalization to its long-suffering downtown.
Diridon Station is already a transit hub for Caltrain, and it’s also the future home of a BART station and possibly a high-speed rail connection. Placing a jobs center near a transit hub is good for workers and good for the environment. Google, with a workforce increasingly centered in the South Bay, has chosen the best possible location for a campus of this enormous size.
But these are not normal times.
The entire Bay Area is suffering from a catastrophic housing crisis. The adverse effects — increased homelessness, traffic gridlock, accelerated displacement of low- and moderate-income residents — are the region’s top challenge.
To put it more simply: It’s great that Google wants to bring 20,000 jobs to San Jose. But where are the workers supposed to live?
If Google — or any other major company — wants to build a campus of this size anywhere in the Bay Area, it needs to figure out ways to account for its housing impact. This may take many different forms, but for the good of the entire region, such discussions can no longer be optional.
Some may say that figuring out ways to account for the housing impact of a major tech complex isn’t Google’s problem.
But if Google wants to retain its employees, the company will understand that the Bay Area’s housing crisis is very much its problem. Local Bay Area governments, meanwhile, need to feel heat from their neighbors to ensure that they’re providing solutions for housing — not just jobs. | 1,422 |
that gay rights are human rights, and the death penalty—this requires a different sensitivity, which almost requires going back to your Catholic background, evoking some notion of Jesus and the other, and the good Samaritan or something, that everyone has a soul.
MF: Indeed.
RS: In terms of your work on the death penalty vote, which have had to remind us, that even people charged with the worst crimes, most insensitive, anti-human crimes, have a soul, have complexity, and in fact maybe wrongly accused.
MF: Absolutely. There are four hypotheses I have put out, which are that any human being, every human being, has intrinsic value, no matter what he or she does. No one is only the worst thing he or she has ever done. There is always a reason for human behavior, and the state killing lowers the entire community to the level of its least member at his or her worst moment. We just have to understand; it’s not like there’s some other out there who does terrible things. This bad-seed notion makes me ill—that people behave sometimes terribly, but if you look at the background, you’d understand that there’s a reason for their behaving terribly and that there’s a reason that society fails to not recognize how to deal with the circumstances of these lives, rather than simply terminating the individual because of his or her inability to behave in what we deem to be an appropriate manner.
RS: That’s a good place to end this. I’ve been talking to Mike Farrell, and I must say, I’ve been around this Hollywood scene for a long time. I worked for the L.A. Times for 29 years. I got to know a lot of people, and I have long regarded you with incredible respect. You’re not showy, you’re not at it for your career, you don’t exploit for any kind of big personal reason. You just work these issues, and it is really that workmanlike attitude of getting the facts, finding out what these cases are about, getting support, trying to educate the community. You really have become a really important public intellectual, so I want to take this moment to thank you. And that’s it for “Scheer Intelligence.” My producers are Joshua Scheer and Rebecca Mooney, and my engineer today has been Mario Diaz. We taped here at KCRW in Santa Monica. See you next week. | 1,423 |
Dropbox engineers have fixed what appears to be a very ancient bug that during the past two weeks has resurfaced previously deleted folders for several Dropbox users.
According to multiple support threads started in the last three weeks and merged into one issue here, users had complained about old folders that they deleted years ago, magically reappearing on their devices.
Files as old as 2009 reappeared in Dropbox accounts
In some of these complaints users reported seeing folders they deleted in 2009 reappear on their devices overnight.
"I'm having this same problem – several different folders of old files from 2009–2011, deleted years ago but suddenly reappearing overnight. And I definitely haven't connected to an old computer, either," one user said.
"I deleted these files over 6 years ago," another said. "The devices I had those files on are long gone, and trashed."
One user that didn't receive an answer from Dropbox support in a timely manner went as far as changing his account password and disconnecting all sessions, thinking his account was compromised.
Bleeping Computer also observed the same issue last week, when a folder removed in 2010 resynced to your reporter's account.
Dropbox admits to keeping files around for years
On Thursday last week, a Dropbox representative finally acknowledged the problem on Dropbox behalf and proceeded to detail the problem and announce a fix.
A bug was preventing some files and folders from being fully deleted off of our servers, even after users had deleted them from their Dropbox accounts. While fixing the bug, we inadvertently restored the impacted files and folders to those users’ accounts. This was our mistake; it wasn’t due to a third party and you weren’t hacked.
Wait, what?!? Dropbox was keeping your years-old deleted files around?
Typically, we permanently remove files and folders from our servers within 60 days of a user deleting them. However, the deleted files and folders impacted by this bug had metadata inconsistencies. So we quarantined and excluded them from the permanent deletion process until the metadata could be fixed. During this time no one had access to your files or folders and none of your other files were affected.
The Dropbox employee went on to reveal the company had implemented a fix, and most of these old files had been desynced and removed from affected accounts.
By this point, if you're not angry about Dropbox keeping your junk files around for years, you're probably baffled that it took them around eight years to fix a bug. | 1,424 |
Hitler items bought by Lebanese businessman to thwart neo-Nazis Published duration 25 November 2019
image copyright Getty Images image caption Adolf Hitler's top hat - with the initials 'AH' - sold for €50,000 (£42,847)
A Lebanese businessman has donated items of Nazi memorabilia he bought at a controversial auction in Germany last week to Israeli fundraisers.
Abdallah Chatila said he purchased the items to prevent them from being used as neo-Nazi propaganda.
The Swiss-based entrepreneur donated the items - including Adolf Hitler's top hat - to Israeli fundraising organisation, Keren Hayesod.
The auction had been sharply criticised by Jewish groups.
Mr Chatila spent about €600,000 (£513,000) on 10 items during the auction held by the Munich-based auction house, Hermann Historica.
He is one of Switzerland's 300 wealthiest people, having made his fortune in diamonds and real estate in Geneva.
"Far-right populism and anti-Semitism are spreading all over Europe and the world," Mr Chatila told the Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche. "I did not want these objects to fall into the wrong hands and to be used by people with dishonest intentions."
In addition to the hat, the items he purchased included Hitler's cigar box and typewriter, as well as a silver-covered edition of Hitler's autobiographical Mein Kampf.
image copyright Hermann Historica image caption The silver-covered edition of Mein Kampf sold for €130,000 (£111,429)
His actions were praised by Jewish groups, including the European Jewish Association (EJA), which had said the auction items held little historical value and would have been bought by individuals who glorified Nazism.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, head of the EJA, said in a statement he was "bowled over" by the gesture. "In a cynical world... such a noble act of kindness, generosity and solidarity," he said.
He also said Mr Chatila would join a visit by 100 European parliament members to the site of World War Two death camp Auschwitz in January, where he will receive an award.
The auction featured 147 items specifically related to Nazi Germany, among more than 800 German historical collectibles from 1919 onwards.
Hermann Historica said the majority of its customers were museums, state collections and private collectors, and that steps have been taken to prevent items from falling into the wrong hands. | 1,425 |
The Takeover exposed how the black bloc anarchists were completely infiltrated and provocateured by the authorities during the violent 1999 WTO protests in Seattle.
The authorities declared a state of emergency, imposed curfews and resorted to nothing short of police state tactics in response to a small minority of hostile black bloc hooligans. Police allowed the black bloc to run riot in downtown Seattle while they concentrated on preventing the movement of peaceful protestors. The film presents clear evidence that the black bloc anarchist group was actually controlled by the state and used to demonize peaceful protesters. Watch the video below.
At the WTO protests in Genoa 2001 a protestor was killed after being shot in the head and run over twice by a police vehicle. The Italian Carabiniere also later beat on peaceful protestors as they slept, and even tortured some, at the Diaz School. It later emerged that the police fabricated evidence against the protesters, claiming they were anarchist rioters, to justify their actions. Some Carabiniere officials have since come forward to say they knew of infiltration of the so called black bloc anarchists, and that fellow officers acted as agent provocateurs.
At the Free Trade Area of Americas protests in Miami in late November 2003, more provocateuring was evident. The United Steelworkers of America calling for a congressional investigation, stated that the police intentionally caused violence and arrested and charged hundreds of peaceful protestors. The USWA suggested that billions of dollars supposedly slated for Iraq reconstruction funds are actually being used to subsidize “homeland repression” in America.
The leadership of the black bloc has been completely usurped by the authorities and anyone who still professes to be a member of the group is either supremely naive or completely stupid. To dress up like terrorists, all in black with ski masks and bandanas (like the police) immediately sends out a negative message to the watching public and demonizes legitimate protesters, as does pointlessly setting fire to a police car. Engaging in such acts only bolsters the rational and reasonable facade of groups like G20 that the anarchists supposedly want to discredit.
Such incidents provide the perfect justification for the authorities to shut down the free speech of legitimate demonstrators who actually have something of substance to say and a means of communicating their message, people like Charlie Veitch, who was arrested, tortured and caged by Toronto police thugs after he used a bullhorn.
This article was posted: Monday, June 28, 2010 at 5:08 am
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Japan will not comply if a ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna is imposed, a senior official said after the United States threw its support behind the move ahead of a crucial vote on banning exports of the fish that's prized in Japan for sushi.
"If worse comes to worst, Japan will inevitably have to lodge its reservations," Vice Fishery Minister Masahiko Yamada said.
His comments came a day after the United States threw its support behind the ban on the international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, which conservationists say risks extinction if current catch rates continue.
Washington showed its support ahead of a March 13-25 meeting in Qatar, where 175 member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, will vote on the ban proposed by Monaco. A ban would require support by two-thirds of member nations.
Bluefin tuna stocks in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean dropped by 60 percent between 1997 and 2007, a result of surging demand as well as illegal and underreported catches.
About 80 percent of all Atlantic bluefin ends up in Japan, where the fish is a key ingredient in sashimi and sushi. Fatty bluefin - called "o-toro" here - can go for as much as 2000 yen (NZ$32) a piece in high-end Tokyo restaurants.
Japan opposes the ban, but Yamada said the country is committed to protecting bluefin species.
Tokyo believes that catch quotas, which have already been cut 40 percent this year to 13,500 tons by another body, the International Commission on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, should be sufficient.
Environmentalists say the quotas are widely ignored and are too high anyway.
If a trade ban on the species appears inevitable, Japan may register a reservation, which in practical terms means it could engage in trade with any other nation that also registers a reservation.
"There are countries that support our stance. We will continue to make our best efforts until the very last minute," Yamada said.
Other tuna species, including the Pacific bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin, would not be affected by the ban.
The European Commission has proposed that EU governments commit to the ban, although there still appears to be some division. Greece, Malta, Spain and Italy - which have strong fisherman lobbies - have resisted steps to curtail the hunt for bluefin, but recently France signalled it would support a trade ban if its implementation were delayed. | 1,427 |
Securing the PHP Community with Paragon Initiative Enterprises Hosted Services
Last week, our security expert introduced Certainty, our CA-Cert automation library, which we designed to make disabled certificate validation an extinct vulnerability in the PHP ecosystem.
Most of our open source software projects have historically fallen into the local developer tools genre.
EasyDB wraps PDO and makes it more user-friendly and secure-by-default.
random_compat is a pure-PHP polyfill of the PHP 7 CSPRNG functions, allowing PHP 5-compatible open source projects to develop against the new random_bytes() / random_int() API without usability breaks.
/ API without usability breaks. sodium_compat is a pure-PHP polyfill of (most of) ext/sodium, allowing open source projects that support versions of PHP older than 7.2 to use the new libsodium features without usability breaks.
However, there has been an increasing need for security-oriented, self-hostable microservices. With that in mind, we'd like to introduce you to PIE-Hosted.com.
PIE-Hosted.com: Open Source Security-Oriented Microservices
Everything we host on PIE-Hosted.com, including the website itself, will be released to the public as open source software. Our guiding principle is that everything we provide on this namespace should be easy for most developers to self-host.
Some examples of projects we intend to host in the immediate future include:
Chronicle instances The Chronicle instance for the PHP community is live Several other Chronicle instances are planned, but not yet spun up Client registration is not yet implemented in pie-hosted.com; until then, please contact our security team with your Public Key and what PHP project you represent we will respond with a Client ID as soon as we can
Discretion instances Discretion is a microservice for GPG-encrypted "Contact Us" forms Currently under development
As we become aware of more security pain-points that we can develop usable and robust solutions for, we will be adding to this suite of hosted microservices.
Thank You for Working With Us
None of our work to improve the security of the PHP ecosystem would be possible if it weren't for our clients for choosing to hire us to consult on security and application development matters since our company was founded in early 2015. We hope to continue to provide value to everyone who produces or consumes PHP software. | 1,428 |
Season 39 of SNL will end as it began: with a former-cast member returning to host. In September, it was Tina Fey; this Saturday, it’s Golden Globe winner Andy Samberg (with St. Vincent). I’m a lot more excited to see Samberg now than I would have been at the beginning of the season, partially because of his performance as Jake Peralta on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but mostly because his hair is SO much better.
To celebrate the occasion, I’ve rounded up some of Samberg’s finest moments on SNL, which basically means a whole bunch of Digital Shorts (will we get one this Saturday, or will Kyle Mooney try to murder the Lonely Island in their sleep beforehand?) and a sketches.
1. “Lazy Sunday”
The beginning of the Digital Short Revolution.
2. “Jack Sparrow”
Michael Bolton kissing a seagull while dressed as Jack Sparrow is everything I didn’t know I wanted.
3. “Ras Trent”
Ras Trent is every white-boy reggae fan who only owns Bob Marley’s Legend.
4. “The Creep”
The second best song Nicki Minaj’s name has been attached to, behind only “Monster.”
5. “Get In the Cage”
Props to Samberg for never breaking character, even as Seth Meyers is losing his sh*t.
6. “I’m on a Boat”
Yeah, it inspired an entire generation of d-bags to scream “I’M ON A BOAT,” but worth it.
7. “Shy Ronnie”
BONER ALERT.
8. “Taco Town”
Samberg’s not the star, tacos are, but he is the one who says, “Pizza?” Now that’s what I call a taco!”
9. “Dick In a Box”
“Motherlover” and “3-Way (The Golden Rule)” might be better, but “Dick in a Box” came first.
10. “Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals”
Say hello to your Golden Globe for me. | 1,429 |
A man who frightened lone women by stopping them in public and asking them for dates has been ordered into rehabilitation.
Jeevaka Charles Perera stopped one woman who was cycling along the Hutt riverbank in February, and told her he had seen her around. When she rode off, he called after her: "Are you chicken?"
A second charge related to a pregnant woman. Perera touched her back from behind and came so close that she felt his breath as she stepped away.
He told her, "I couldn't help noticing you. I would like to take you out sometime."
READ MORE:
* Unwanted secret admirers: the four types of stalker
* Christchurch child stalker Margaret Dodds returns to jail
* Serial stalker back in court
She told him she was married.
Judge Jennifer Ann Binns said the first victim felt "very unsettled" and suffered stress after the incident. The second woman was left feeling vulnerable and trapped.
Perera, a student living on a benefit, was appearing in Hutt Valley District Court on Friday for sentencing on charges of intimidating and frightening women.
The judge said he did not know either of the women. Looking through his mental health history, she said a pattern of behaviour started when Perera was 18 and living in Australia. The offending typically occurred when he felt stressed or bored.
He faced a similar intimidation charge in 2013.
A doctor's report said previous efforts at rehabilitation had been unfruitful.
Defence lawyer Jacquelyn Thompson said Perera wanted help, and wanted to pay emotional harm.
"THEY BOTH FELT UNSETTLED"
The judge told him it was important to protect the community by getting him rehabilitation. "Although you may think it's not sinister and just conversation, it's clear the victims do not feel that way. They both felt unsettled."
She sentenced Perera to 12 months of intensive supervision, 120 hours of community work, and to complete any recommended counselling. She emphasised an important condition of his sentence was to complete rehabilitation through WellStop.
She also ordered him to pay each of his victims $5 a week up to $100 each.
She refused to allow him to be photographed in court, saying he suffered from mental health issues, needed rehabilitation and could suffer further anxiety from media exposure.
There was also a risk he might be persecuted if his photo was made public. | 1,430 |
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Disney movies have captured the imaginations of children and adults alike for generations. The thought of flying through Neverland, experiencing a whole new world in Agrabah, and flinging your cares to the wind with Hakuna Matata keeps people daydreaming and visiting theme parks to experience a bit of the magic.
A few of our designers wanted to capture that longing to experience the true locations of these fantastic films, and the inner child in all of us couldn’t resist seeing how they interpreted the locations of their favorite films. The results are breathtaking and make us wish we could fall into our favorite Disney movies.
Head to the second star to the right, and straight on ‘til morning to fly with Peter Pan, hunt for treasure with the Lost Boys, and drive Captain Hook and his crew to distraction.
Take a trip to your once upon a dream location in the French countryside, accompanied by your furry friends and the three good fairies. But watch out for spinning wheels!
Relax and embrace your Hakuna Matata side with a visit to Pride Rock. As long as you stick to wherever the light touches and avoid the Elephant Graveyard, you’ll get the royal treatment.
Experience a whole new world in the exotic Agrabah! Spelunk in the Cave of Wonders, make your three wishes and take a sightseeing magic carpet ride.
Go where the ocean calls you and take a voyage to the beautiful island of Motunui.
Remember the past, seize your moment, and make memories that will last forever by visiting the Land of the Dead.
Experience the world under the sea! Be a part of a mermaid’s world, explore shipwrecks, and jam out with Sebastian. Just avoid fishhooks and contracts written by sea witches!
Wherever your heart might desire to go, we have a perfect wish-fulfilling credit card solution to get you there. And in our case, there’s no three wish limit! Travel under the sea or straight on ‘til morning and be prepared because you never know how far you’ll go. | 1,431 |
IS-Khorasan leader Abdul Hasib died on April 27 in the joint operation in Nangarhar.
A leader of the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Afghanistan was killed during a joint operation of Afghan and United States forces, an official statement has said.
IS-Khorasan leader Abdul Hasib died on April 27 in the joint operation in Nangarhar, the presidential office of Afghanistan confirmed late on Sunday.
“Head of IS-K in Afghanistan Abdul Hasib has been killed in a raid led by Afghan Special Forces...,” it said in a tweet, Efe news reported.
Group’s top commanders killed
The U.S. troops in Afghanistan also confirmed the death of the insurgent leader and added that several high-ranking commanders of the group and 35 other members were also killed in the operation.
Afghan authorities blamed Hasib for ordering the March 8 attack which killed more than 50 people at a military hospital in Kabul, abducting girls and beheading elderly people.
“This is the second IS-K emir we have killed in nine months, along with dozens of their leaders and hundreds of their fighters,” said General John Nicholson, the U.S. Force and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
The IS leader was confirmed dead three weeks after the U.S. launched one of the most powerful conventional bombs in Nangarhar province, with the aim of destroying one of the last IS strongholds and facilitating the ongoing field operations of U.S. and Afghan troops.
MOAB attack
The GBU-43 projectile, dubbed as the “mother of all bombs,” killed about 96 IS members. About 300 other extremists were also killed in other operations, according to the Afghan Ministry of Defence.
In June 2016, the Kabul government claimed to have defeated the terrorists in much of the IS-dominated areas.
However, the terror group has continued to claim responsibility for some of the country’s most bloody attacks, such as the suicide attack on Shia Hazara protesters in Kabul, which killed 80 and injured 300, in July 2016.
Three weeks ago, the Afghan government estimated the number of IS members in the country at around 400.
NATO further added without giving concrete figures that the number of extremists have halved in the last two years.
The IS reached different parts of Afghanistan in 2015 and established its main stronghold in Nangarhar, a province bordering Pakistan. | 1,432 |
Jamie Hewlett has confirmed that Gorillaz are working on their first material since 2010’s ‘Plastic Beach’ in a new interview with DIY.
The artist, who is currently in the run-up to his first art exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London next month, spoke of how he’s “shutting myself away” to work on the band’s next steps.
Speaking of upcoming plans for Gorillaz, Hewlett said: “That’s next year. I’m working on it at the moment, and it’s going very well. I’m very excited. I don’t want to say too much about it, but I’m at that phase of experimentation. What I try not to do when I’m working in this creative period, the cooking of the mess, is go to other peoples’ exhibitions and look at other peoples’ work. I close my eyes, and don’t want to know what anyone else is doing. Doing that has kind of ruined the creative process for me in the past, and I don’t want to let that happen again.”
Hewlett’s new exhibition ‘The Suggestionists’ is a three-part exhibit - ‘Tarot’, ‘Honey’, and ‘Pines’ - drawing together over twenty years of experience and experimenting, and including such pieces as a tower of cards, hundreds of hand-drawn pine trees, and an homage to ’60s and ’70s erotic magazines. The artist has been working on the art that has ended up in this new showcase since the release of ‘Plastic Beach’, and didn’t originally intend for the trio of pieces to come together in such a way. “I had no intention of exhibiting these pieces together, or at all, when I first started working on them at the start of the decade, but towards the end, I started to see a link between them all. I’ve wanted to do an exhibition for years, and finally had the relevant pieces which fitted together well. I waited because I wanted it to feel right, and wanted it to be a little bit different.
‘The Suggestionists’ opens at the Saatchi Gallery in London on 18th November and runs until 2nd December. Find more info on the exhibition at jamiehewlett.com. | 1,433 |
Image caption A variety of methods have been used by countries to try to curb problem drinking
More NHS money is spent treating alcohol-related illness in baby boomers than young people, a study says.
The Alcohol Concern report found the cost of hospital admissions linked to heavy drinking among 55 to 74-year-olds in 2010-11 was more than £825m.
That was 10 times the figure for 16 to 24-year-olds.
In total, nearly £2bn was spent on alcohol-related in-patient admissions in England, the report found.
This comes as more than 10 million people in England are drinking above the recommended levels, according to the report.
The sum spent on treating the baby boomer generation went on 454,317 patients, compared with the 54,682 under-24s who were treated at a cost of £64m.
Problem drinking is a contributing factor for a host of diseases, including liver, kidney and heart disease, as well as increasing the risk of injury.
In many ways the findings are not surprising as the effects of drinking are more likely to catch up with people later in life.
'Expensive care'
But the charity said part of the reason for compiling the report, which was based on NHS figures, was to break down the data by individual local authority area.
It is the unwitting chronic middle-aged drinkers who are taking serious risks with their health Sir Ian Gilmore, Liver disease expert
The figures have been collated in a clickable map.
It hopes the information, compiled with funding from drug company Lundbeck, will be used by councils next year when they take responsibility for problem drinking as part of their new remit covering public health under the shake-up of the NHS.
Alcohol Concern chief executive Eric Appleby said he hoped they would use the findings to help them focus their energy on schemes to tackle problem drinking.
"It is a common perception that young people are responsible for the increasing cost of alcohol misuse, but our findings show that in reality this is not the case.
"It is the middle-aged, and often middle-class drinker, regularly drinking above recommended limits, who are actually requiring this complex and expensive NHS care."
Liver disease expert Sir Ian Gilmore, a former president of the Royal College of Physicians, who has long campaigned about alcohol misuse, agreed. He said: "It is the unwitting chronic middle-aged drinkers who are taking serious risks with their health." | 1,434 |
iness, drawing a parallel with August Wilson’s heralded American Century Cycle, which memorialize 100 years of Black life in 20th century Pittsburgh. From those works, she said, she was overwhelmed by the sense that history keeps repeating itself, creating and recreating systems of trauma and displacement for people of color.
Attendee Sharon Brooks, who was born and raised in New Haven’s Dixwell neighborhood, pointed out that Gardin and the cast had skirted the G word—gentrification (Gardin was quick to say that hadn’t been her intention). She called out families who left the neighborhoods when they had the financial mobility to do so, heading to Hamden, West Haven, and Westville only to discover that “they couldn’t escape their skin color, that melanin.”
As a lifelong New Havener, she said that she’s watched Yale University snap up real estate at an almost unprecedented rate, making New Haven less livable for the people who have called it home for generations. While she did not mention them by name, the insatiable appetites of local mega-landlords Mandy Management, Pike International, and Ocean Management pulsed at the edges of the room.
“We are just being swallowed up,” she said. “That gentrification is so real. And coupled with lack of opportunity, the lack of real money—with Yale’s [$29.4 billion] endowment, who can compete? Unless we pool our resources.”
She described a national Facebook group called “Buy The Block,” dedicated to fighting gentrification by pooling community resources, and reinvesting in real estate in historically Black neighborhoods. She suggested that if enough community members pitched in, a group could buy back The Monterey, and surrounding properties.
“In small ways, that is what we will have to do to turn this tide of gentrification,” she said.
Gardin nodded. “I’d like to believe that there are people who want to preserve their community,” she said. “For us, by us.”
Dominique Morisseau's Paradise Blue runs at Long Wharf Theatre from Nov. 21 to Dec. 16. For tickets and more info about the play, visit the theater's website. To listen to Babz Rawls-Ivy interview the cast on WNHH Community Radio, click or download the audio above. | 1,435 |
by DAVE MARTINEZ
Following several reports out of Argentina, we are now hearing it from the horse’s mouth: Federico Bravo is leaving Boca Juniors to join New York City FC on loan.
The Boca midfielder spoke to Mas Radio on Friday, giving a candid interview on his pending move to MLS and NYCFC.
“I’ve had offers but the one that has interested me the most is New York City,” Bravo said. “It can be a great experience. It is a country on the global level that is very advanced, to be in New York, to learn the language, to play with three or four very important players, to learn from them as well … I feel I can go there and get the starting minutes I am not getting here so I think it can be positive.”
Prefacing that he is “still a Boca Juniors player,” Bravo says he expects his one-year loan to be made official by the end of next week, pending the status of his visa and some small loan details between both clubs. Once approved, he says he will join NYCFC in Florida for the second half of the preseason training stint.
“I am excited,” he said. “It is a positive experience for my career. I am looking for more playing time. In Boca, I haven’t been able to do that and it’s difficult. That’s why this team has shown a lot of interest in me. The United States, it is growing a lot with the big name players of the team I am joining.”
But it isn’t just starting minutes that draw Bravo into the NYCFC fold: it is the quality of the roster. “The thing that got my attention was the players,” he explained. “Pirlo, Villa, Lampard, they were even speaking to Iker Casillas. That sincerely got my attention and shows this is a club that is growing and fighting to win. That’s why I am going there.”
And while playing time is central to his move Stateside, Bravo also hopes to earn the experience necessary to return to Boca and earn his place in their starting corps.
“I am trying to take it all the best I can, take as much of football as I can,” he said. “And then come back to fight for my spot.” | 1,436 |
Netflix has responded to actress and comedian Mo’Nique’s pay discrimination lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday.
“We care deeply about inclusion, equity, and diversity and take any accusations of discrimination very seriously. We believe our opening offer to Mo’Nique was fair — which is why we will be fighting this lawsuit,” a spokesperson for Netflix said in a statement to TheWrap.
Mo’Nique’s complaint accused Netflix of gender and race discrimination, saying that the company had given her a “low-ball” and “discriminatory” offer of $500,000 as a “talent fee” for a one-hour stand-up special, while other comedians were offered millions of dollars per special.
Also Read: Mo'Nique Sues Netflix Over 'Discriminatory Pay Offer' for Stand-up Special
“When the talent was not a Black woman, Netflix offered to pay, and did pay, astronomically more than it pays to Black women like it offered to Mo’Nique,” the complaint reads. It also lists several other comedians and what they were paid by Netflix for comparison.
The filing goes on to say that “Netflix reportedly offered or paid [Chris] Rock, [Dave] Chapelle [sic], [Ellen] Degeneris [sic], and [Ricky] Gervais forty (40) times more per show than it offered Mo’Nique, and it offered [Amy] Schumer twenty-six (26) times more per show than Mo’Nique. In short, Netflix’s offer to Mo’Nique perpetuates the drastic wage gap forced upon Black women in the America’s workforce.”
Mo’Nique confirmed that she had filed a lawsuit in an Instagram post on Thursday.
Also Read: Rebel Wilson Apologizes to Mo'Nique for Calling Herself the First Plus-Size Rom-Com Star
“Hey My Loves — I can confirm that today I filed a pay discrimination lawsuit against Netflix,” she wrote in the post. “I had a choice to make: I could accept what I felt was pay discrimination or I could stand up for those who came before me and those who will come after me. I chose to stand up. I don’t have any further comment this time, but I appreciate all of your support and love.” | 1,437 |
Welcome to Speed Dreams,
an Open Motorsport Sim
Speed Dreams is a 3d cross-platform, open source motorsport simulation and racing game. It is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). For the moment, the supported platforms are Linux (x86, x86_64) and 32 bit Windows. The Mac OS X port is 95% finished, more volunteers are welcome...
Speed Dreams is a fork of the open racing car simulator Torcs, aiming to implement exciting new features, cars, tracks and AI opponents to make a more enjoyable game for the player, as well as constantly improving visual and physics realism.
The current official release features :
visually reworked menus by Brian Gavin, Eckhard M. Jäger, Andrew Sumner and Jean-Philippe Meuret,
by Brian Gavin, Eckhard M. Jäger, Andrew Sumner and Jean-Philippe Meuret, 3 amazing fine tuned and balanced new car sets by Andrew Sumner and Haruna Say: Super Cars, 36 GP and LS-GT1,
, and, an updated TRB1 car set (well balanced, more realistic behaviour),
(well balanced, more realistic behaviour), 3 exciting new tracks and many visually improved ones,
and many visually improved ones, smashing liveries for all these cars, by Eckhard M. Jaeger and Haruna Say,
for all these cars, by Eckhard M. Jaeger and Haruna Say, 2 new TRB first-class robot for the Supercars, 36 GP and TRB1 car sets : USR by Andrew Sumner and Simplix by Wolf-Dieter Beelitz (at last real AI opponents!),
for the Supercars, 36 GP and TRB1 car sets : animated driver by Andrew Sumner on 36GP cars, 3D wheels for all cars by Eric Espie,
2 new leader-board modes by Gabor Kmetyko, smoke on spinning tires by Andrew Sumner,
brand new gauges by Eckhard M. Jaeger, and many many other small visual improvements,
by Eckhard M. Jaeger, and many many other small visual improvements, experimental Simu V3 physics engine by Christos Dimitrakakis,
by Christos Dimitrakakis, many menu improvements (support for grid shifting, optimized track select load time, category filter when selecting driver, more infos in results and standings boards),
and much more... | 1,438 |
If you've ever seen a child and an animal together, you'll know that there is a unique bond between them. And this boy's bond with his goat is no different. Three year old Adrian, was visiting Nepal with his family and they had planned to take part in a ritual sacrifice at a temple. When Adrian realised that the goat would be hurt his immediate response was to cling to his animal friend and cry. "Goats are in pain there" he says, pointing to the temple.
Adrian's cry for compassion was heard by millions of people around the world as the video of his reaction quickly went viral. The fact he understood that hurting his goat was wrong had a powerful impact on his family. Not only did they spare their goat from slaughter, as they walk away you can hear them say something that suggests an even deeper shift in their thinking.
Kids are innocent and have intelligent minds. We actually shouldn't do this thing. What's done in the past can't be undone, but we will not do it again.
As grown ups, we don't always allow ourselves to think of cows, pigs, sheep and goats as individuals. It makes the sad truth that they will soon be killed for meat harder to reconcile. But Adrian reminds us what kids seem to intrinsically know — these animals have thoughts and feelings and are deserving of our compassion.
There are some things in life that we don't really think to question, as they have always been done a certain way. But kids question EVERYTHING. And in that way they can often be our greatest teachers. Whether it be killing a goat at a temple or having animals killed and packaged for us, when we stop to ask why? as Adrian did, the answers (or lack thereof) may surprise us. If the reasoning is simply that it has always been done that way, perhaps it's time to ask ourselves — is there a better way?
You only need to read some of the comments under the video to see that Adrian has prompted many people to reconsider their choice to eat animals. If you're in the same boat, the answer is yes — there is a better way.
Cutting back on the animal products you eat, or eliminating them altogether, is the simplest way to spare animals from being killed. As an added bonus, there are tons of health benefits to plant-based eating. Find out more with a free starter kit.
How animals should be:
Treat yourself to 2 minutes of bliss, thanks to our rescued friends at Edgars Mission Farm Sanctuary. | 1,439 |
White House: Obama to meet with LGBT activists in Russia
Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY
President Obama will meet with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activists while he's in Russia this week for the G-20 summit, according to a White House official.
The meeting will happen on Friday and will include representatives from groups supporting human rights, the environment, free media, LGBT rights and others, said the official, who asked not be identified in order to discuss the president's yet-to-be published schedule.
Russia has faced international criticism since it passed a law in June banning the promotion of gay relationships to minors. The Russians have also faced international scorn for another law that bans adoptions by countries allowing same-sex marriages.
Human rights groups have reported there's been an uptick of violence against the country's LGBT community since the laws passed. The legislation has led to calls for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Last month, Obama said he didn't support boycotting the Sochi games because he didn't want to penalize American athletes. But he has been sharply critical of the Russian laws.
"Nobody is more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you've been seeing in Russia," Obama said last month.
The meeting comes after Obama canceled a scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before the G-20 summit. The cancellation followed a string of disputes, including Russia's decision to grant asylum to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and its blocking of action by the United Nations Security Council against Syria.
Human Rights First, which had been lobbying the White House to hold a meeting with activists during the G-20, applauded the decision.
"President Obama's decision to meet with civil society sends a clear signal that the United States stands in solidarity with those targeted by Russia's civil society and LGBT crackdown," said Innokenty Grekov, a program associate with Human Rights First who is in St. Petersburg this week. "In addition to this important meeting, President Obama should also speak out against Russia's human rights abuses and reaffirm that the United States stands firmly on the side of LGBT equality and human rights."
In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, Putin addressed the international criticism.
"I assure you that I work with these people, I sometimes award them with state prizes or decorations for their achievements in various fields," Putin said. "We have absolutely normal relations, and I don't see anything out of the ordinary here." | 1,440 |
With the monstrous Hurricane Irma just days away, much of Miami Beach heeded mandatory evacuation orders from officials and headed out. But some of the Beach's smallest residents — the hundreds of feral cats who call the island home — have no way out.
So this week, animal lover Mary Garcia began scooping them up one by one and taking them home. She stocked up on cat food and kennels, and cleared out two rooms in her house in inland Miami-Dade County. By Thursday, she had taken in 40 cats. She jokes that her home has become an "animal hostel."
"I can't save them all," says Garcia, who works as a police officer. "But something is better than nothing."
Miami Beach has long been home to several cat colonies, which date back to the city's early days. First mayor J.N. Lummus imported felines in 1912, hoping they would take care of the swampy island's thousands of rats. His idea worked — the rats were soon gone. But the cats kept multiplying. Today they roam the city's alleyways and hide out in vegetation along its beaches.
EXPAND Kennels in Mary Garcia's home. Photo by Mary Garcia
Garcia has helped care for the city's feline population for years, feeding them, pitching in on trap-neuter-return efforts, and launching an animal advocacy group. She's also taken in several that have been injured.
When she saw how serious Irma was becoming, she immediately thought of the cats, worrying they'd be in harm's way.
"Where are they going to go?" Garcia asks.
She soon decided she'd house as many as she could, grateful to have a husband who's also a lifelong animal lover. She got started on Tuesday, picking up the cats that would come to her and setting humane traps for those that wouldn't. She's collected kennels from other animal advocates and rescue organizations and stacked them in her spare rooms.
Picking which ones to bring was tough; Garcia says she started with the ones she's been feeding. While leaving Miami Beach on Wednesday evening — her last time before the storm — she cried about the ones she had to leave behind. She hopes they'll be there when she comes back.
As for the cats she's taken in, she says she'll be looking for homes for them once the hurricane passes and things settle down.
"They don't know how lucky they are, these cats," she says.
| 1,441 |
Kabul (AFP) – The Taliban held talks with US officials in Qatar on ending the Afghan conflict last week, the militants confirmed Monday, but said no agreement was reached on “any issue”.
The statement comes a day after US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad expressed hopes in Kabul that a peace deal to end the 17-year war could be struck before the Afghan presidential election, scheduled for April.
Senior Taliban officials met with a “high-ranking” US delegation in Qatar on November 14, 15 and 16, the militant group said in a WhatsApp message, without mentioning Khalilzad. The US has made no statement about the talks.
The Taliban has a political office in the capital Doha that serves as a de-facto embassy.
“These were preliminary talks and no agreement was reached on any issue,” spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said.
“We want to reassure our Mujahideen and Muslim nation that the representatives of the Islamic Emirate will never agree to anything that does not adhere to Islamic principles.”
US envoy Khalilzad was in Kabul after a second round of regional meetings with top Afghan government officials to coordinate efforts on ending the conflict.
In a meeting Monday, Khalilzad told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that the “ground for intra-Afghan talks is more ready than any other time”, according to a presidential palace statement.
The second Taliban-US meeting in as many months come as the militants step up attacks on beleaguered Afghan security forces, which are suffering an unprecedented level of casualties.
The death toll among Afghan soldiers and police is nearing 30,000 since the start of 2015, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani revealed this month — a figure far higher than anything previously acknowledged.
In a recent report, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) cited the NATO mission in Kabul as saying this summer’s toll had been worse than ever for Afghan forces.
Khalilzad told reporters on Sunday that he recognised the “complexity” of the conflict, but insisted he wanted to “make as much progress as possible as soon as possible”.
His comments underscore an apparent increasing sense of urgency in the White House and among American diplomats for a peace deal to be done quickly.
Washington is facing competition from Moscow, which this month hosted an international gathering on Afghanistan that was attended by the Taliban. | 1,442 |
The world of physics is abuzz with speculation over an announcement expected Tuesday, Dec. 13, from the CERN laboratory in Geneva -- home of the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The announcement, planned for 8 a.m. EST (2 p.m. CET), will address the status of the search for the elusive Higgs boson particle, sometimes called the "God Particle" because of its importance to science.
This particle, which has long been theorized but never detected, is thought to give all other particles mass. Scientists at the LHC have been hoping that when protons inside the machine collide together at extremely high speeds, the energetic explosions that result will create the Higgs.
Researchers on two of the LHC's experiments, called ATLAS and CMS, will present the status of their search for the Higgs at a public seminar tomorrow.
"These results will be based on the analysis of considerably more data than those presented at the summer conferences, sufficient to make significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but not enough to make any conclusive statement on the existence or non-existence of the Higgs," CERN scientists said in a statement.
At that time, while the atom smasher was churning out lots of data from colliding particles, researchers had yet to see any conclusive evidence of the Higgs.
If scientists have found an indication of the Higgs, it could have far-reaching consequences in physics. It is the only particle predicted by the reigning theory of particle physics that has not yet been observed experimentally. Its discovery would help validate this theory, called the Standard Model, and fill in some of the remaining gaps in physicists' understanding of the smallest pieces of the universe.
The Large Hadron Collider, a circular ring 17 miles (27 kilometers) around that's buried beneath Switzerland, is thought to be scientists' best chance of finding the Higgs, because the explosions it creates pack more energy than anything else on Earth. This energy, when converted to mass, should be enough to produce many of the most exotic particles in nature, including the Higgs.
* Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature
* Behind the Scenes at Humongous U.S. Atom Smasher
* Warped Physics: 10 Effects of Faster-Than-Light Discovery
Copyright © 2011 LiveScience.com. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | 1,443 |
My roommate and I have been heavy smokers for years. I want to clean my entire house, walls, rugs, appliances, furniture, etc. to remove all nicotine from my home.
By sherri from Boston, MA
Best Answer
You didn't state if you were giving up smoking or not, but there are e-cigarettes that operate as a mist and you can buy vials of flavored non nicotine liquids to refill them. It's better healthwise for you than smoking cigarettes if you want to try giving them up and the best thing about ecigs is it's odorless and no nicotine building up in lungs, clothing, and home, etc.
In the future, anyone who smokes should do it outdoors, so your home remains odor free of cigarette smoke and remove all temptation by getting rid of the ashtrays. To clean a lot of your heavily coated household items like sofa, chair, carpet, drapes or anything else fabric, is not going to be easy. You may look on the internet for commercial cleaning products that get down deeper than what you can get in the supermarkets.
If you can afford to replace upholstered seating, I'd do that to save a lot of effort and time. You can buy almost new sofa/chair if you look around in newspaper ads or on the 'net if you can't buy new. I feel the same way about your carpet; years of smoke buildup and nicotine stains present in fabric won't all come out.
If you need to go cheaper on cleaners w/o replacing a lot of furnishings, use these two products but not together: PineSol and Lysol in brown bottle and wear gloves as too much on hands feel like they are burning a little. You'll have to go over and over everything to totally notice a big difference. The carpet padding may also have the odor in it and that's why you may not totally remove all odors especially noticeable on rainy days.
For walls if painted, scrub thoroughly to remove buildup and then repaint using a primer that deals with odors first. The primer will state it takes care of odors.
For woodwork, wash with PineSol and a lot will lift out and change the water frequently. Try a degreaser spray too. This may help lift some of that stubborn nicotine. You can use Scots Liquid Gold or a good wood polish afterward to bring back that newer look.
Sorry, there's no easy fix, but it'll be cleaner and you'll be in a healthier lifestyle. | 1,444 |
AP Photo/LM Otero Dancers who flock to Dallas might find the trip to be a total bust. Dancers who flock to Dallas might find the trip to be a total bust.
Attention, America: the greater Dallas metroplex needs you.
To take off your clothes, that is.
According to reports, a North Texas strip club manager is attempting to hire roughly 100 additional exotic dancers to handle -- excuse us, wrong choice of words; after all, no touching allowed! -- a Super Bowl-induced rise in demand. Moreover, the same manager estimates that due to the expected influx of big game visitors, the 60 gentlemen's establishments in the Dallas area are about 10,000 strippers short.
Look, Page 2 loves a sensationalistic sex-themed story as much as the next web site. Just so long as said tale actually passes some sort of smell test. Which the Great Dallas Stripper Shortage story flunks. Like, a skunky F-minus.
First, do the math: the Super Bowl is expected to draw about 150,000 outside visitors. Business boom for all, right? Not so fast. Academic economists claim visitor spending predictions of $200-$600 million are wildly inflated. Only half of the region's 90,000 hotel rooms are expected to be occupied during the four-night peak period around the game. And even if some Green Bay and Pittsburgh fans show up with cash-stuffed garbage bags in hand, ready to make it rain harder than a Category Five hurricane, is the Dallas area really going to need one extra stripper for every 15 visitors, a ratio to shame exclusive private school classrooms?
We think not.
Still, don't take our word -- and back-of-a-napkin calculations -- for it. Consider history. Prior to last year's World Cup, a reported 40,000 prostitutes supposedly were descending upon South Africa, expecting brisk business from 450,000 soccer fans. So what happened? The sex business boom flopped. Big time. Fans went to games. Museums and art galleries were packed. Meanwhile, the owner of a Johannesburg escort agency told CNN that the tournament was "devastating" and the "the worst month in my company's history."
Will the Super Bowl mark the worst week in Dallas strip club history? Probably not. Evidence suggests, however, that it won't provide much of a boost -- and that the primary devastation wrought by irresistible headlines such as STRIPPER SHORTAGE! is to journalistic common sense. | 1,445 |
on •
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — Details are scant and Detroit police are withholding certain details, but a person of color found shot to death on October 5, 2015 was transgender. The victim’s identity has not been released by officials. There have been two other trans murders in Detroit this year, both trans women of color.
In an interview with a local TV station, trans advocate Julisa Abad says the victim was known as “Melvin” and identified as gay and was a cross-dresser. The victim was, in fact, cross-dressing at the time of the murder. Abad believes the victim was targeted because of sexual orientation.
Since the victim was cross-dressing at the time of the murder, there should be no doubt to the question of whether this was a trans murder. Hate crime charges should apply.
No doubt there will be another rehashing of whether cross-dressers belong under the transgender umbrella, but remember this — to those who kill trans people, we’re all one and the same: “a man in a dress!”
——
I’m hoping further details surfaces soon.
First Detroit death this year (Amber Monroe): https://lexiecannes.com/2015/08/08/detroit-twoc-likely-another-transgender-murder-victim/
Second (Ashton O’Hara) https://lexiecannes.com/2015/08/16/transgender-deaths-in-north-carolina-and-phoenix-second-death-surfaces-in-detroit/:
Third death [Trigger Warning]: http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/30441421-story
Watch LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ Or get the DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332
Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/
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Categories: Everything else | 1,446 |
Image copyright CPS Image caption Syed had expressed admiration for the killers of soldier Lee Rigby, the court heard
A man has been convicted of preparing to carry out a knife attack in London, inspired by so-called Islamic State.
Nadir Syed, 22, from Southall in west London, was arrested hours after buying a chef's knife in November 2014, days before Remembrance Sunday.
Woolwich Crown Court heard how he had been inspired by IS leaders urging attacks on Western targets, including police and soldiers.
The jury could not reach verdicts on two other men on trial.
Haseeb Hamayoon, 29, from Hayes, west London and Yousaf Syed, 20, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, denied planning acts of terrorism. They will be retried.
Syria attempt
The jury returned a majority verdict on Syed after more than 50 hours' deliberation.
The court heard how he had expressed admiration for the killers of soldier Lee Rigby and how he shared violent footage of beheadings from Syria and Iraq on social media.
Some of his conversations were made on encrypted applications, the jury was told.
The court heard that Syed had also tried to travel to Syria to fight with IS militants but had been stopped from leaving the country in January 2014.
In September 2014, IS militants issued a fatwa or decree calling on its followers in the West to carry out attacks at home, jurors were told.
Image copyright Met Police Image caption Syed was arrested in November 2014
'Stamped on poppy'
In the weeks that followed, Syed's behaviour became increasingly worrying to MI5 and police intelligence officers who were watching him.
The court also heard how Syed had appeared in a video in which he stamped on a poppy and kicked it towards a drain, which prosecutor Max Hill QC said was demonstrative of his "attitude to the poppy as the remembrance image in this country".
By November last year he was actively searching for knives of "sufficient quality to source an attack", the court heard, and he was eventually arrested on 6 November shortly after buying a 30cm chef's knife.
Commander Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "This was an intense and lengthy operation by my officers, supported by the intelligence agencies, and I have no doubt that London is a safer place today with this conviction."
Syed will be sentenced at a later date. | 1,447 |
had overstepped the mark in putting her hand round the queen, but she was actually just being deferential and respectful,” Tominey said.
However, it's still wise not to be tactile with the queen, Wesson said.
“The guidelines are, you don’t touch the royal family,” he said.
The royals’ own guidelines state that shaking hands “in the usual way” is an acceptable form of greeting, should the president choose not to bow.
Whether this would resemble the eye-catching handshakes Trump gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or French President Emmanuel Macron remains to be seen.
DO BE YOURSELF
For all the pomp and ceremony surrounding a royal meeting, experts said the most important thing is for Trump to speak to the queen in a relaxed and open way.
“She’ll want conversation to flow freely, and I think they’ll probably find some common ground in discussing his Scottish heritage and his links to Scotland,” Tominey said.
“I think, equally, if Prince Philip is with him, then he’ll quite enjoy having a robust conversation because the Duke of Edinburgh enjoys a bit of banter and debate. That could be quite interesting.”
“You don’t have to bow and scrape and lick peoples’ boots,” Wesson said. “The queen would like to have conversations with people, find out about them and learn about the individual, as well as the affairs of state.”
IN SAFE HANDS
The sheer length of Queen Elizabeth’s reign means that she has become more experienced at greeting foreign heads of states and dignitaries than almost anyone in history.
First lady Melania Trump looks on as President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after arriving for a New Year's Eve gala at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Evan Vucci / AP file
Since ascending to the throne in 1952, she’s met all of Trump’s predecessors as president, except Lyndon B. Johnson.
Trump, therefore, should remember to take the occasion in stride, Tominey said.
“They’ve done this a hundred times before,” she said of the royal family. “She’s extremely well versed in the art of diplomacy. Put it this way, he’s in safe hands with her!” | 1,448 |
LANSING, MI - Michigan lawmakers are considering a suspicion-based drug testing program for some welfare recipients, and it's raising questions about who else should be subject to that type of monitoring.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, opposes the plan that passed the House last week and is now pending in the Senate. But Tlaib says if the state is going to require drug testing for cash assistance recipients, lawmakers also should be screened for illegal substances.
"We're all being paid through public, taxpayer dollars – just like the taxpayer dollars that are paying for public assistance for needy families," Tlaib said. "I think that we should be held to the same standards that we ask from some of our poor families."
Tlaib's amendment to the welfare bill, which would have required state lawmakers to be tested for illegal drugs as a condition of holding office, was dismissed without a vote.
Tlaib said it would be interesting to see how lawmakers would vote, given the chance. But Ari Adler, a spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, says the issue is more complex than that.
"When it comes to lawmakers, their bosses are the voters," Adler said. "If there is a suspicion or a problem with drug use by a lawmaker, then that's for the voters to take up with them each time they enter the voting booth."
Adler said it's possible there could be legal issues with requiring drug tests for lawmakers.
The House-approved bill calls for a program of suspicion-based substance abuse screening and testing for Family Independence Program applicants and recipients. It would not apply to food assistance programs.
If the screening provides a reasonable suspicion to believe the applicant or recipient has been using illegal drugs, a test would be required. Failing the test or refusing to take it would make an applicant or recipient ineligible for the benefits. A person denied benefits could reapply to the program after a certain period.
The testing would start as a pilot program but eventually would go statewide.
Supporters say the program is designed to make sure tax dollars are used efficiently, and aren't misused to buy illegal drugs. Some supporters note that many job applicants are required to pass drug tests as a condition of employment.
Opponents of testing welfare applicants say the plan could unfairly penalize children for their parents' drug use.
Email Tim Martin at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @TimMartinMI | 1,449 |
Shave Your Hair?
Since it is a hair drug test, you can easily pass the test when you are bold. Ensure you have an answer when they question why you don’t have hair.
You can say it’s a fashion statement or a change in your lifestyle. There are reasons why people go bald. Whatever reason you give don’t complicate things by saying that you have cancer. This is a wrong move that will result in a lot of follow up later.
Also, give yourself a full-body wax. You will be clean and hairless and pass the drug test. Nobody will think twice that you have a full-body wax since most people get those. It’s a matter of style, choice and lifestyle. Pretend that it’s your lifestyle for a day and get away with it.
If shaving your hair seems like an extreme choice for you. You can opt to clean your hair and ensure that all traces of drugs and toxins are eliminated.
This requires you to have a trip at the grocery store and get some supplies. This includes getting liquid detergent, white vinegar, shampoo with salicylic acid, nexus aloe rid shampoo, goggles, and shower caps.
Before cleaning your hair with these ingredients, you need to protect your eyes. Use goggles for this job since you can still see what you are doing while your eyes are protected. Wet your hair with some warm water. Get the white vinegar and massage it in your hair and scalp. Take your time as you want every inch of your hair to be soaked with vinegar.
Take the salicylic acid shampoo and pour some in your hair. Massage carefully in your scalp and hair. This will cause a burning sensation, which is quite normal. Ensure that you have wiped any excess shampoo from your forehead and ears. Get the shower cap and put it on. Wait for around 30 to 45 minutes before rinsing your hair.
Use warm water to rinse the hair clean. Wash your hair thoroughly by using nexus aloe rid shampoo. Ensure that your hair is rinsed and clean before adding the detergent. Massage your hair carefully while avoiding the detergent to get in your eyes. Clean and rinse it with clean, warm water.
Repeat this process every single day for ten days. If you have no time, you can do this twice in a day for five days. Ensure that you don’t do this process for more than ten days as you can risk damaging your hair. | 1,450 |
In climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, the most urgent calls for action have come from the world’s small island nations. For many of those nations, the negotiations aren’t about some far-off, abstract problem. It’s something they’re already living with, as a new Australian research project on the dramatic climate shifts underway for 15 Pacific nations reaffirmed this week.
Basically, the report finds that the closer one lives to the equator, the warmer it’s going to get. And even in the best-case scenario, oceans will rise up to 12 inches by 2100. It confirms what Pacific islanders have long feared: Home is getting windier, saltier, wetter, hotter and, well, submerged in water.
No wonder the Pacific islanders have banded together in the climate talks. Many negotiate together as the Alliance of Small Island States, or AOSIS. Representatives of those nations have demanded immediate action in Durban, rather than further delay, as some parties have suggested. The group also issued a joint statement with the European Union and the least-developed countries calling for a legally binding agreement. “We have all that it takes to begin the work right now,” said Karl Hood, the chairman of AOSIS and minister for foreign affairs in Granada. “We believe that waiting is a disaster.”
“Where we live, some say it’s a paradise,” Hood continued. “It’s a paradise when you come to visit. But we live there. We don’t leave after a week and go back home. This is our lives.”
Taito Nakalevu, a climate change adaptation officer with the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, has also been in Durban for the meeting and discussed this latest report. “The soil, the water, is slowly being affected,” he said. “This is our livelihood.” He noted a single flood in his homeland of Fiji in 2009 that did $162 million in damage in just one town, a burden for the country. “The funds that need to be used for development are being used for adaptation,” he said. “We cannot cope with that.”
The Climate Desk’s James West also spoke with one member of the Australian research team via Skype in Sydney—’scuse the poor connection, it’s a long way!—to take the temperature on the report. | 1,451 |
Remember Space: 1999? It was one of the biggest cult British Space Opera shows of the 1970s. The show had more lavish effects, sets and costume designs for the period. It was produced by Gerry Anderson and shot at Pinewood Studios – think of it as pretty much Anderson's version of Star Trek.
Now Big Finish has produced an audio drama of the show. It's not a sequel, it's a remake, starting with a new audio drama version of the original pilot episode "Breakaway" and first episodes.
Set in a (by now) retrofuture 1999, the series features a research facility built on the moon. When one of the nuclear reactors explodes, Moonbase Alpha and its personnel are propelled out of the solar system into into a black hole and emerge in deep space. There the heroic Commander Koenig and his crew encounter alien civilisations and various alien villains the same way Kirk and crew did on Star Trek. This could get very inconvenient as Koenig searches for a new place to call home.
The original TV series lasted only two seasons, but made a lasting impression on a lot of kids. It made Martin Landau a TV star for a time. Big Finish, of course, are big fans of the show, and have lovingly recreated the original pilot and even the original TV credit sequence with the new cast.
Big Finish Clearly Loves This Show No Matter How Goofy It Was
Big Finish also released a behind-the-scenes video where the producers, writers, director, and cast all geek out about the show. Isaac Asimov "science-shamed" the show. He just had to point out all the parts of the show that got the science aspects wrong. But hey, no other show had a sexy space changeling named Maya in its cast.
After the Apollo missions of the 1960s and early 1970s, space exploration was very nearly abandoned as public pressure mounted for money to be concentrated on problems down here on Earth. But, by a whisker, funding was granted for a base on the Moon. Greatly expanded, it became the international Moonbase Alpha we know today. 311 personnel serve in a perfect, self-sustaining, artificial environment – their mission statement: 'to forward the frontiers of human knowledge and science'. Dateline: 13th September 1999. The interplanetary Meta Probe is due to be launched from a platform orbiting the Moon. What could possibly go wrong?
Space 1999: Breakaway is available on CD and digital download at Big Finish. | 1,452 |
DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s powerful deputy crown prince flew to the United States on Monday for meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Saudi media reported.
The visit of Mohammed bin Salman, whose powers include his role as defense minister, comes amid a diplomatic row with the United Nations and policy differences with the United States over the war in Syria and relations with Iran.
Prince Mohammed, spearheading an ambitious plan to revamp the economy of the world’s top oil exporter, will also travel to California where he is expected to meet company executives in Silicon Valley, the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said.
The royal court said in a statement late on Sunday that the prince would discuss ways of strengthening relations with the United States, which have cooled under Obama’s presidency.
Saudi Arabia, a leading supporter of Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, has been critical of what it sees as foot-dragging by Washington over efforts to end the conflict.
It has also urged Obama to take a tougher stand on what Riyadh sees as Iranian meddling in the affairs of Arab states. Iran denies such interference.
Asharq al-Awsat quoted Saudi sources as saying that Prince Mohammed, a son of King Salman, would start his visit in New York where he was expected to meet the U.N. chief on Monday.
Ban said last week that Saudi Arabia had exerted “unacceptable” pressure on the world body after a U.N. report blacklisted a Saudi-led military coalition for killing children in Yemen, a charge denied by the kingdom.
The United Nations removed the coalition from the list after Riyadh threatened to cut its funding of U.N. programs, diplomatic sources said.
The prince would then meet Obama as well as Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Washington, the newspaper said.
State news agency SPA said that a number of senior officials, including Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf and Commerce and Investment Minister Majid al-Qusaibi were part of a delegation accompanying Prince Mohammed, but it did not specify who he would meet during the three-day visit.
Under broad economic reforms announced last week, which aim to free Saudi Arabia of its dependence on oil exports, the kingdom is seeking a big increase in foreign investment and tie-ups with foreign companies in non-oil industries including the technology sector. | 1,453 |
Ahmed al-Qarra was shot in the stomach by Israeli soldiers and succumbed to his wounds, Gaza’s health ministry says.
A Palestinian man has been killed by Israeli army fire during a weekly protest in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the besieged enclave.
The ministry said on Saturday that Ahmed al-Qarra, 23, died “as a result of wounds sustained (from) the Israeli occupation forces’ fire” the previous day.
He had been shot in the stomach during demonstrations along Israel‘s fence east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Al-Qarra, who succumbed to his wounds in hospital shortly before midnight on Friday, was the first fatality since June related to the weekly demonstrations that have been taking place for the past 16 months.
Another 38 Palestinians were hit and wounded with live ammunition, the health ministry said in a separate statement.
Israeli forces also reportedly targeted an ambulance.
The Israeli army said troops resorted to live fire against protesters after first using “riot dispersal means”.
“Approximately 5,500 rioters and demonstrators gathered at the Gaza Strip security fence,” a spokeswoman told AFP, saying that some threw explosive devices and grenades and tried to approach the fence.
“Troops responded with riot dispersal means and (live) fire in accordance with standard operating procedures.”
She was unable to confirm if any Palestinians were hit but said no soldiers were injured.
Demonstrators in Gaza began holding the weekly Great March of Return protests in March 2018, demanding the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were ethnically cleansed in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has shattered the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic amenities.
Israeli forces often fire on the demonstrators, saying they are seeking to prevent the border being infiltrated.
At least 296 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli fire since then, the majority during the demonstrations.
Seven Israelis have been killed.
Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, has scaled back the marches in recent months as an Egyptian-brokered unofficial ceasefire was taking shape. But Hamas says Israel is slowing the deal and has not taken enough measures to ease the crippling economic conditions in the coastal enclave. | 1,454 |
ATHENS, Greece — Greek police said Saturday they have arrested a suspect in the 1985 hijacking of a flight from Athens that became a multi-day ordeal and included the slaying of an American.
Police said a 65-year-old suspect in a 1985 hijacking and a 1987 abduction was arrested Thursday on the island of Mykonos in response to a warrant from Germany.
Lt. Col. Theodoros Chronopoulos, a police spokesman, told The Associated Press the hijacking case involved TWA Flight 847.
The flight was commandeered by hijackers shortly after taking off from Athens on June 14, 1985. It originated in Cairo and had San Diego set as a final destination, with stops scheduled in Athens, Rome, Boston and Los Angeles.
The hijackers shot and killed U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem, 23, after beating him unconscious. They released the other 146 passengers and crew members on the plane in stages during an ordeal that included making three stops in Beirut and two in Algiers.
The last hostage was freed after 17 days.
The suspect was in custody Saturday on the Greek island of Syros but was set to be transferred to the Korydallos high security prison in Athens for extradition proceedings, a police spokeswoman told The Associated Press. She said the suspect was a Lebanese citizen. The spokeswoman spoke on condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.
Police refused to release the suspect's name.
Several Greek media outlets named him as Mohammed Ali Hammadi, who was arrested in Frankfurt in 1987 and convicted in Germany for the plane hijacking and Stethem's slaying. Hammadi, an alleged Hezbollah member, received life in prison as a sentence but was paroled in 2005 and returned to Lebanon.
Germany resisted pressure to extradite him to the United States after Hezbollah abducted two German citizens in Beirut and threatened to kill them.
Hammadi, along with fellow hijacker Hasan Izz-Al-Din and Ali Atwa, remains on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists under the name Mohammed Ali Hamadei. The FBI offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his capture.
After the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, the United States issued a travel warning that referred to allegedly lax security at the Athens airport.
The advisory was widely perceived in Greece as punishment for the pro-Arab stance of the country's socialist government at the time, but also led to calls for tightening security measures. | 1,455 |
In response to the massive amount of criticism Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has received after calling the terrorist attacks on 9/11 “something some people did,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the backlash “is an incitement of violence.”
“The levels which Republicans and conservative groups, whether they are official party apparatuses, sending out emails calling me and others domestic terrorists or whether it’s Ruppert Murdoch and the New York Post printing on the front page to circulate all around New York City an image that is incredibly upsetting and triggering for New Yorkers that were actually there and were actually in the radius that woke up one morning or were in there schools and didn’t know if they were going to see their parents at the end of the day,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters.
“We are getting to the level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color and if they can’t figure out how to get it back to policy, we need to call it out for what it is because this is not normal,” she added.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) also defended Omar on MSNBC Thursday.
“This is just pure racist act by many of those, hateful acts by those because she does speak truth when she talks about different issues they don’t disagree with. I’m outraged. And I’m really outraged because as a person that has gotten direct death threats myself, I know that her life is put in more danger and I see her not just my sister and colleague, but as a mother of three,” Tlaib said.
AOC on NY Post/Ilhan Omar front page: “We are getting to the level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color and if they can’t figure out how to get it back to policy, we need to call it out for what it is because this is not normal.” pic.twitter.com/Zxad5H4I8n — Jason Donner (@jason_donner) April 11, 2019
Ilhan Omar recently made comments trivializing the attacks on 9/11. Owen Shroyer exposes her attempt to make Americans forget what really happened.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today! | 1,456 |
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph was briefly hospitalized after being knocked unconscious by a vicious blow to the head during a game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.
Rudolph, who took over as the Steelers' signal-caller when Ben Roethlisberger suffered a season-ending injury in week three against Seattle, took the blow from Ravens safety Earl Thomas in the latter half of the third quarter. The hit knocked Rudolph out cold and left some of his Steelers teammates emotional as he lay motionless on the field.
MINNESOTA VIKINGS FINE STEFON DIGGS OVER $200G FOR UNEXCUSED ABSENCES
“When he was on the ground, it looked like it was a lot more serious than just a simple hit,” Steelers offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva said after the game, according to ESPN. “I don't like to get into details of his medical condition. You could tell he had been hit to the head and the only thing I could do was to wave the trainers down to the location.”
Thomas told reporters he didn’t “intentionally try to hurt" Rudolph.
“I'm worried about him,” Thomas said, according to ESPN. “I heard he's at the hospital. My prayers go out to him and his family. I've never tried to hurt anybody. At the end of the day, guys have families.”
NEW YORK JETS' SAM DARNOLD BENCHED FOR MONO, SPLEEN CONCERNS: 'I’M NOT GOING TO DIE'
Thomas didn't receive a penalty on the play.
Medical personnel took Rudolph’s facemask off and had to walk him off the field because the medical cart appeared to break down.
“Embarrassing,” the NFL Players’ Association executive director of external affairs George Atallah tweeted. “I guess $15 billion (estimated league revenue in 2018) a year can’t buy you a working medical cart.”
Rudolph was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure. According to multiple reports Monday, he was home and resting.
Devlin Hodges, a rookie from Samford University, finished the game. He was 7-for-9 with 68 yards passing.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ALL-NEW FOXBUSINESS.COM
Baltimore won the game in overtime, 26-23. | 1,457 |
What happens when 10,000 people from all over the world control a single video game simultaneously? Now we have an answer.
The Twitch Plays Pokémon stream is a social experiment in which thousands of players control a copy of “Pokémon.” There are only eight buttons to input data into a Game Boy: up, down, left, right, A, B, start and select. Someone linked up an emulated copy of “Pokémon” to a Twitch stream — a popular way to stream video games — so that any user who types “left” into the stream would make the character move left. When thousands of people are doing it, it can get a little chaotic.
Here’s a video of the final battle in “Emerald,” a game from the third generation of the “Pokémon” series:
The participants have enjoyed considerable success. Players made relatively short work of the first-generation “Pokémon Red,” then powered through second-generation “Pokémon Crystal” to considerable acclaim. But in “Emerald,” the most recent game, the team hit a wall when confronting the final five “bosses,” the Elite Four and Champion. For all intents and purposes, the team needed to win 26 consecutive battles to complete the game. This proved difficult.
For days on end, players threw their team against the bosses. Nothing worked. Morale was low. The game’s organizer had set a completion deadline, only to extend it three days because of the failure.
And then, on the 103rd attempt, participants pulled it off. The team improved partly because all that playing earned them experience points, but it also made several strategic improvements.
The chart below represents the 103 attempts the players — they called themselves the A-Team — made against the Elite Four. There were 26 consecutive Pokémon, belonging to five trainers, that had to be defeated. The reasons we use numbers instead of the Pokémon names is that oftentimes the trainers would change the order of battle (however, you can find the Pokémon used by each of the Elite Four). A box is shaded if the team made it to that sequential Pokémon in the course of the attempt. A white X in the box means that one or more of the players’ Pokémon fainted during battle. I obtained the data from the Reddit TwitchPlaysPokémon community’s magnificent live updates.
For fans who watched from home, here were some of the turning points: | 1,458 |
Burnaby Mountain Caretakers Lock Down to Supreme Court in Vancouver
from Burnaby Mountain Updates
Early this morning four Burnaby Mountain Caretakers have locked themselves to the Supreme Court entrance in Vancouver. The action was taken to draw attention to the role of the courts in ongoing colonial occupation of Indigenous territory on Burnaby Mountain and across the country.
“This court represents colonial law, and it’s the only reason a Texas-based oil company is allowed to drill hundreds of metres into Burnaby Mountain against the wishes of the local First Nations and the municipality. It’s because of this court that RCMP is paid to defend corporate profit at the expense of the community it should be protecting.” Marija Brezev, Burnaby Caretaker
In granting Kinder Morgan’s request for an injunction and enforcement order on November 14th, the courts are once again ignoring aboriginal rights and title and breaching their constitutional duty to obtain consent on unceded Coast Salish territory.
These decisions by the BC Supreme Court continually dispossess indigenous people of the territories they have occupied and governed for thousands of years. Squamish elder Sut-lut was arrested last Thursday while protecting a traditional totem pole. This morning, Tsleil-Waututh elder Ta’ah George will be arrested, alongside Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, after crossing police lines set by the BC Supreme Court.
“We’ve been here for thousands of years, and we’ll be her for many thousands more,” George said this morning. “We’ve been stewards of the land, and when we’re stewards of the land, we make choices for our future generations. That’s for my children and my grandchildren and yours too.”
Yesterday, the BC Supreme Court in Terrace granted Imperial Metals–the company responsible for the Mount Polley Mine disaster–a long-term interlocutory injunction and enforcement order, displacing the Klabona Keepers, guardians of the Sacred Headwaters, from their traditional territory. Yet another case in which corporate profits were deemed more important than indigenous land rights.
The caretakers of Burnaby Mountain are taking this action with the hope of shedding light on the institutions responsible for the continued colonization and exploitation of the land and the communities they sustain.
The caretakers stand in solidarity with the First Nations of BC by refusing to recognize the authority of the colonial court. | 1,459 |
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 | 1,460 |
Top offers include $120 off the Nintendo Switch, 25% off selected laptops by Lenovo and Asus and up to 60% off selected Lorna Jane activewear.
With some major Black Friday deals already well underway, shoppers are busy hunting for the best places to splash some cash. As always, Amazon Australia has come out swinging with an absolute slew of great offers for you to shop.
First up, you can currently grab yourself $120 off the Nintendo Switch. Despite being one of the most popular consoles around, we haven't seen much of a price drop on the device since it came out two years ago, making this the perfect time to nab yourself one.
You can also save on other electronics with 25% off selected laptops by Lenovo, Asus and Acer, price reductions on selected Sony headphones and discounts on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.
Naturally, the online giant is also offering a range of deals on its own devices too. You can currently take up to 50% off the Echo range, save $50 on a Kindle Paperwhite and take $20 off the Fire TV Stick.
There are also tons of other offers available, which we've rounded up for you below. If you're looking for even more offers, you can also check out our round-up of best Black Friday 2019 tech deals or head on over to our Black Friday hub to see all the sales on now across all categories.
Amazon Australia Black Friday 2019 deals
Amazon Devices
Electronics
Fashion
Toys
Home appliances
Sport and outdoors
Video games and books
It's also worth checking out Amazon's top 100 toys. Teaming up with the Starlight Children's Foundation, Amazon recently donated a whole range of toys and games to children's hospitals and appointed the kids as the official "toy testers" to help determine this year's top 100 list.
For every purchase made from this list over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, Amazon Australia will donate $5 to the Starlight Children's Foundation with a minimum total donation of $50,000, making it a great cause to get behind.
Black Friday is a 24-hour shopping event, which will be held this year on 29 November. The massive sales event is closely followed by Cyber Monday, which falls on 2 December and sees even more bargains offered by a huge number of online stores.
Updated: This story was updated on 29 November to include more information on the Black Friday offers from Amazon Australia.
Images: Amazon Australia | 1,461 |
-attacking style he desires.
Lars Bender – twin brother of Sven, who played under Klopp at Dortmund – would certainly fit that brief given Leverkusen’s similar approach to die Schwarzgelben. The 26-year-old is currently the third-highest rated player in the Bundesliga this season – behind Lewandowski and Douglas Costa – with a score of 7.86. An average of 4.9 tackles per game is the most in the Bundesliga by a distance, with a further 3.7 interceptions, 1.3 shots and 1.1 key passes per game highlighting his ability to contribute at both ends of the pitch.
In terms of attacking options, Klopp has plenty at his disposal but may well be keen to add quality on the flanks given his favouring of a 4-2-3-1 formation. It’s a system that could shunt the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Roberto Firmino into unfavoured wider roles, so the new manager may prefer to add more natural width to the current squad.
One player already linked with the Reds is Schalke teenager Leroy Sané, who is one of the brightest talents emerging from the Bundesliga. The 19-year-old has secured a rating of 7.28 from WhoScored this season, netting three goals despite the fact that five of his eight league appearances have come from the substitutes bench.
Announcing himself to the watching world with a goal on his Champions League debut against Real Madrid last season, Sané has gone from strength to strength and promises to be the latest of a long line of exceptional academy graduates from the Gelsenkirchen outfit. Only Alexander Baumjohann has completed a dribble more often in Germany this season (every 15.4 minutes), while he has beaten a man more times than any other player in this season’s Europa League (11) and registered assists in both league and European action.
Of course, Klopp will be keen to assess his current squad before making any immediate decisions as to potential targets but it’s a squad that he is likely to find lacking in quality in a number of departments, particularly at the back. While his interest is certain to stretch beyond the Bundesliga when it comes to recruitment, his own knowledge of the league will surely be put to use as the manager – who already appears to have cult status at the club before a ball has been kicked under his tutelage – aims to put his stamp on a team in desperate need of direction.
Martin Laurence | 1,462 |
Uno.UITest, a library that provides cross-platform UI Testing for iOS, Android and WebAssembly. iOS and Android are backed by Xamarin.UITest and AppCenter, and WebAssembly testing is backed by Selenium.
The library provides the ability to run the tests in CI/Pull Requests environment, allowing for UI Testing to be part of the development flow, and not an after thought.
Here’s what the experience looks like when testing for WebAssembly:
You can visit the Uno.UITest repository for more details: https://github.com/unoplatform/Uno.UITest
Dozens of Performance, Stability and Usability features
We’ve been working to hard to create this release, and with the help of the community, here are some of the highlights set for this release:
ThemeResources support
ContentDialog
Magnetometer support
Texbox TextChanging and BeforeTextChanging
JumpLists support
DisplayInformation support
Accelerometer support
PhoneCallManager support
Vibrati o n Device support
Android Notch support
Refactored Pointer Events
And many more features and bug fixes!
For the full release notes, see the release notes document: https://github.com/unoplatform/uno/blob/master/doc/ReleaseNotes
Announcing Uno Platform User Group Support Program
Many of you have asked us to help you run a local event. To this point, we have prepared “Event in a Box’ – some demos, PPTs and SWAG to give out at the event. Please contact us and we will get you set up with PPTs and perhaps even help with pizza and pop or the event.
What’s next?
Firstly, you should absolutely take Uno Platform 2.0 for a spin and let us know what you think.
As for the platform, the strategic direction has been laid out – putting WinUI everywhere where it currently doesn’t run on. We would like to join forces with all of you on doing just that. If you are interested in contributing to Uno Platform, please let us know on [email protected].
If you are watching from afar or couldn’t make it to tomorrow’s UnoConf 2019 workshop: https://github.com/unoplatform/workshops | 1,463 |
Kerala’s Kuttamperoor is once again ready to defend communities against floods, aid fishermen
It’s a rebirth for the Kuttamperoor river, a tributary of Pampa and Achenkovil rivers. The river is getting a new lease of life thanks to a drive to remove accumulated waste.
A 5 km stretch flowing along the Budhanoor panchayat in Alappuzha district has been cleaned up. Thick layers of water weeds and waste dumped into the waterway for over a decade were removed.
A river cleaning scheme covering 12-km long, had been drawn up many years ago, but could not get proper funding. “The project was implemented under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. About 200 workers were engaged for the work during a two-month period, generating 30,000 man days. A sum of Rs.72 lakh was spent on the project,” P. Viswambhara Panicker, Budhanoor panchayat president said.
“Waste materials such as plastic bottles, containers and food refuse dumped by unscrupulous catering units had ruined the flora and fauna. Once the natural flow was obstructed, the polluted water infiltrated into drinking water resources, including wells along the river. Wells dried up in many adjoining areas,” Mr. Panicker said.
Shrunk in width
Redeeming the entire river could be achieved through joint efforts with neighbouring panchayats such as Mannar and Pandanad, said N.K. Sukumaran Nair, environmentalist and general secretary of Pampa Parirakshana Samiti. “The river, which was 100-130 ft wide in its heyday, has shrunk to 10-15 ft at many locations due to encroachment. Stern measures are required to evict the encroachers,” he says.
The river used to play a key role in natural flood control. Whenever the Pampa and Achencoil were in spate, the water flowed into the Kuttamperoor river, saving a large area from flooding. Idols of several temples were bathed in the river during ‘Aarattu’ festivals.
There is now a panoramic view of the river, and the operation has opened a new phase of freshwater fish growth.
“Fishermen have thanked us because there is new hope to return to their livelihood,” Mr. Nair said. | 1,464 |
The University of Southern California’s student government approved a $10,000 emergency fund to assist DACA students in the wake of President Trump’s decision to end the program.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the Trump administration would be revoking the Obama-era program that affords protection for students brought to the country illegally by their parents.
"There is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws."
“There is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws. Enforcing the law saves lives, protects communities and taxpayers, and prevents human suffering,” Sessions remarked. “The compassionate thing to do is to end the lawlessness, and enforce our laws.”
[RELATED: UA student gov to propose scholarship fund for DACA students]
In response, USC’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) approved a $10,000 allocation that very night to establish an emergency fund to assist those affected by the decision, particularly those DACA recipients seeking a renewal of their status in the next six months.
“Any USC students who are already on DACA and have a renewal date in the next six months are being instructed to complete their renewal documentation before October 5 of this year,” a proposal in favor of the fund states, according to The Daily Trojan.
In fact, the emergency fund will be specifically reserved for students financially unable to pay for the $500 renewal application.
At Tuesday’s meeting, USG President Austin Dunn vowed to make it his “absolute personal mission to ensure that every student’s needs are met.”
Campus Reform reached out to Dunn for elaboration on his comment, but did not receive a response, though University President C.L. Max Nikias expressed similar sentiments in a September 4 statement.
[RELATED: Universities begin to declare themselves sanctuary campuses]
“As president of one of the most global and diverse university communities in the world, I am deeply concerned about the adverse impact that potential DACA changes might have on our DACA and undocumented students,” he wrote, promising to continue to provide “free, confidential legal advice” upon request.
“Every individual deserves these same opportunities, and I am committed to ensuring the success and well-being of all members of our community so that the University of Southern California remains a global beacon of possibility, creativity, and compassion,” Nikias concluded.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowski | 1,465 |
Artificial intelligence has just proven itself to be a life saver for vegetative hospital patients.
A team of China’s best neurologists recently tested their assessments of coma patients in contrast to an AI system. After reviewing the varying conditions of seven patients in Beijing, the doctors rated the patients on a coma recovery scale. The patients were given very low scores, meaning that it was unlikely they would ever wake up and their families were legally allowed to take them off of life support.
The system, which was developed over the course of five years by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and PLA General Hospital, disagreed with the scientists and gave the patients close to full scores with a prediction that they would wake up within 12 months of the scan.
As it turns out, the AI was right – all seven patients woke up from their vegetative states within the year.
WATCH: Hundreds of People Are Being Cured of Blindness Every Day With Cheap, Minutes-Long Surgery
The system, which reportedly has an 88% success rate of diagnosis, achieves its efficiency based on its ability to see “invisible” details in hundreds of human brain images. In contrast, the current method of assessing a patient’s chances of recovery are based on subjective reactionary tests and judging certain factors, such as age and the condition of the brain.
Scientists believe that – with its carefully calculated machine-algorithms – the AI could be an invaluable tool for physicians to diagnose patients more accurately in the future.
“We have successfully predicted a number of patients who regained consciousness after being initially determined to have no hope of recovery,” said the researchers in a statement.
MORE: 8-Year Study Shows That Simple Treatment Can Reverse Type 1 Diabetes to Almost Undetectable Levels!
“At present, there are more than 500,000 patients with chronic disturbance of consciousness caused by brain trauma, stroke, and hypoxic encephalopathy with an annual increase of 70,000 to 100,000 patients in China, which brings great mental pain and a heavy economic burden to families and society.
“The possible prediction of the recovery of patient consciousness will directly affect the choice of clinical treatment strategies, and even the choice of life or death by the patient’s relatives,” the team added.
The results of the tests have been published in the international science journal eLife.
Wake Up to Our Good News… Sign Up for our Morning Jolt Newsletter – Representative photo by U.S. Navy | 1,466 |
DUBLIN (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will have to outline exactly why she wishes to delay Britain’s exit from the European Union if her parliament demands she do so, France’s finance minister said on Tuesday.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
May on Tuesday offered lawmakers the chance to vote in two weeks for a potentially disorderly no-deal Brexit or to delay Britain’s exit if her attempt to ratify a divorce agreement struck with the EU fails.
EU leaders have increasingly pushed May for an extension of the negotiating period. Three EU officials told Reuters on Tuesday that they would be ready to approve a short delay if Britain need more time to ensure parliamentary ratification.
“I just want to recall that there is an agreement. We believe this is a fair and a good agreement and it is up to the British government to assess the best way of adopting that agreement,” Bruno Le Maire said at a joint news conference with his Irish counterpart during a visit to Dublin.
“If there is a call for an extension of Article 50 (negotiating period), we will have to understand what for. And once again it is up to the British government to explain to the member states of the EU what for.”
Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said Dublin and Paris believed ratifying the divorce deal was “the best and only way forward”. But Donohue added that Ireland would not block any potential extension, calling May’s concession to pro-EU British lawmakers in her party an “important development”.
Le Maire and Donohoe also discussed how companies’ digital revenues should be taxed after a French-led effort to do so at a European level put them at opposite sides of the debate.
Ireland, the European home of tech giants like Facebook and Google, insists large digital firms should be taxed via a broader international deal at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Le Maire said he and Donohoe agreed that the two countries would work together to pave the way for a common position on digital taxation at the OECD level. But he added that he believed an interim European solution remained the best way of generating leverage for a wider deal.
He added that France had never made a link between its unwavering support for Ireland over Brexit and their disagreement over the proposed European digital tax.
“Like all good friends, we have agreements and might have some disagreements,” he said. | 1,467 |
June 25th, 2013 was a historic day in America: it was the day the Supreme Court decided that there is officially NO SUCH THING AS RACISM in America! We can all rejoice.
Now, with the Voting Rights Act effectively killed, every single state in the union is allowed to make any changes they want to their voting rules, policies and procedures without any kind of regulation or review. Any changes they want.
“What kinds of changes?” you say. Well, it’s funny that you ask. I turned to Twitter with my suggestions, using the hashtag #postVRAvotinglaws, and found that a lot of people had suggestions of their own.
ADD YOUR OWN IDEAS: Make sure to tweet your own suggestions using #postVRAvotinglaws, and the best ones will be added here!
TOP #postVRAvotinglaws TWEETS
#postVRAvotinglaws In Ohio voters can’t have been convicted of a crime, receive food stamps or Medicaid, or have ironic facial hair. — Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) June 26, 2013
#postVRAvotinglaws Arizona police are now required to stop anyone from voting who “looks illegal”. — Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) June 26, 2013
#postVRAvotinglaws In Kentucky voting times will only be announced on Sean Hannity’s show. — Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) June 26, 2013
#postVRAvotinglaws Lady folks must get signed off by doctor that they are not using any type of birth control. — Diana Dee (@DianaDee16) June 26, 2013
@TeaPartyCat #postVRAvotinglaws Minorities must prove, beyond reasonable doubt, they are worth that extra 2/5 of a person. — Tim Piatt (@tstimmus) June 26, 2013
#postVRAvotinglaws In Texas you must show video of you cheering for the execution of a mentally handicap person in order to vote. — Just Jahnavi (@JahnaviG) June 26, 2013
#postVRAvotinglaws In red states, voters must heterosexually consummate for poll watchers to prove they support sacred bond of 1man/1woman — Toni Armstrong Jr. (@toniajr) June 26, 2013
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| 1,468 |
Article content continued
Procreation is no more or less than a matter of personal preference. “I prefer conversations with adults about adult things, like books, immigration, religion and race” writes Sabine Heinlein in The Answer is Never: Rewriting the False Narrative of Childlessness. “I can talk about writing for hours on end. And I love to cook elaborate, super spicy dinners! None of these things indicate that I am more or less incomplete than anyone else.”
The anxiety that children might inconvenience one’s culinary habits or social life (in short, one’s “lifestyle”) courses like a subterranean river beneath the reasoned articulations of the child-free life. Indeed, the very phrase “child-free” appears to situate the decision to procreate among a host of other lifestyle choices, such as the decision to consume “gluten-free” bread, “hormone-free” beef, or “caffeine free” Coke. And as a lifestyle choice, the decision not to reproduce (along with the reasons that lie behind that decision) is beyond criticism: polite society will tolerate anything except intolerance toward another’s “lifestyle.” Not having children for fear of passing on a genetic defect thus requires precisely the same defence as not having children for fear of having to stop cooking spicy dinners — which is no defense at all.
And that is exactly as it should be. No woman (or man, for that matter) ought to feel pressured to reproduce, least of all those who are concerned that children might impede their existing lifestyles. To be sure, parenthood (particularly in its hyper-competitive, bourgeois, mommy-blogging incarnations) is also subject to the crass logic of “lifestyle” marketing. But parenthood, if that concept is to mean anything today, is special precisely insofar as it is a permanent choice (which, sadly, is never more true than for children of absentee parents); its permanence stands in stark contrast to the capricious series of consumerist poses that are adopted and discarded under the empty rubric of “lifestyle.”
Parenthood matters because it is the only truly permanent commitment left. Small consolation for anyone forced to endure a post-natal music class, but it’s a start.
National Post
Ira Wells is an assistant professor in the department of English and Drama at the University of Toronto. | 1,469 |
to copy or cheat with.) And then they've built it out as they did. And then some manager said OK, let's do a release.
BKK pays T-Systems Hungary 80kEUR/month to operate this system. Which sounds surprising, because the 80k sounds like enough to cover all the development cost of a decent implementation of this idea. Or maybe 2-3x the 80k of you add a few managers, some extra testing and just a little bit of corruption. (I haven't factored in the QR readers + mobiles used by some ticker controllers, but those seem to be pretty few and far between so far.)
You might ask the question: why was it so-so fucking urgent to do a release for the FINA championship? They said at the press conference that they wanted to test it and gather experiences, so that they can perfect the system by September, when the (public transport) high season starts. But let's forget about the BKK people, as that organization is controlled by the politics top down. How come any sane professional manager would let this pile of crap into release? Didn't any of the engineers on the team tell their managers that something isn't right? I find it hard to believe.
Again, was it related to the FINA event? Why are these guys covering up so violently? Knowing Hungary it's somewhat granted that people just don't like to admit if they have screwed it up. But usually it's the strongest when politics is involved. Add to this the unwarranted arrest of the guy who reported a bug. They could, or according to some lawyers should, have just cite him. Oh, BTW, and according to the law, what he did very probably wasn't even illegal. He was reported for 'unauthorized influence' of the system, which is covered by the paragraph about 'fraud committed using information systems', but the conditions mentioned therein are not met. Which makes it hard to believe that the police did their job properly (or maybe that the T-Systems Hungary guys provided all information they reasonably could).
UPDATE: He is being a suspect based on a different paragraph than I thought: unauthorized access to a computer system or data. IANAL, but after reading into it, that doesn't seem to hold either.
UPDATE2: The BKK CEO told the press that they didn't receive the original report from the guy, because he sent it to the wrong email address. Of course, this was refuted with a screenshot pretty quickly. | 1,470 |
Judicial Watch Sues Justice Department for Mueller Russian Special Counsel Budget
Mueller’s Budget Under Wraps
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning the budget and administrative records of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-02079)).
The lawsuit was filed after the Department of Justice failed to respond to an July 10, 2017 FOIA request seeking the following:
A copy of the budget prepared and submitted by Robert S. Mueller III or his staff in his capacity as appointed “Special Counsel to oversee the previously-confirmed FBI investigation of Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and related matters.” Temporal scope of this request is from 17May2017 to 10July2017. A copy of all guidance memoranda and communications by which the Justice Management Division will review the Special Counsel’s Office’s “Statement of Expenditures” prior to or for the purpose of making each public. Temporal scope of this request is from 1June2017 to present. A copy of each document scoping, regulating, or governing the Special Counsel’s Office appointed under the leadership of Mueller III. Temporal scope of this request is from 17May2017 to present.
On July 7, 2017, The Washington Post reported that Special counsel Mueller submitted a proposed budget to the Justice Department, “but officials declined to make the document public and committed only to releasing reports of the team’s expenditures every six months.”
Judicial Watch is pursuing numerous additional FOIA lawsuits related to the surveillance, unmasking, and illegal leaking targeting President Trump and his associates during the FBI’s investigation of potential Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election.
“The Mueller special counsel investigation is growing with seemingly little concern about costs to the taxpayer,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Is the Justice Department hiding basic budget information about the Mueller special counsel operation because taxpayers and Congress would be outraged by the costs? Mr. Mueller is not above the law and he shouldn’t be able to keep his budget secret. No one else in DC seems to be providing oversight of the Mueller juggernaut, so once again it is up to the citizens group Judicial Watch to go to court and demand accountability.”
### | 1,471 |
window, so it's all your eyes and your face, and everything else is cloaked. So you feel kind of cut off from your body.
Plaza: It's very oppressive.
Brie: But it did pose an interesting challenge, as Molly said. Using your face in a minimal way a lot of the time to convey emotion. And not really having your body as a tool.
Plaza: It's an equalizer, where you kind of feel like, “OK, we're all kinda in this together.”
[The movie] is based on a historical book, literature. It's not an attack on Catholicism in any way. It's just about a couple of nuns. — Aubrey Plaza
Alison Brie, Molly Shannon and Aubrey Plaza spent springtime in Italy shooting "The Little Hours." (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Are any of you Catholic?
Shannon: I was raised Catholic, but I'm not a practicing Catholic. I went to Catholic school for eight years.
Plaza: Me too. Same.
Do you think you'll get excommunicated for this?
Plaza: No. [The movie] is based on a historical book, literature. It's not an attack on Catholicism in any way. It's just about a couple of nuns.
Brie: Just a fun story.
Alison and Aubrey, what was it like to work with your partners?
Brie: I love it. More than anything it's just nice to be together. You spend so much time apart when you're shooting on location and in different cities, so to be able to go together to Italy for a month in the springtime was great. The same thing just even about working with friends and people that I know and love — it's just so much more fun, you get to skip that period of time where you're trying to get to know everyone and being polite. You just get to be intimate with each other and have a great time.
Plaza: Yeah, I feel the same way. This is our third time [Baena and I] have worked together, so I feel like our working relationship is always evolving and changing. It's really rewarding to get to see him totally in his element and to be a part of it, and to collaborate with him. It can be challenging at times, but I think working together sometimes makes you stronger by the end of it. | 1,472 |
Egypt has launched airstrikes on "terror camps" in Libya in response to the slaughter of Coptic Christians earlier on Friday.
The country's air force launched six strikes over its western border on Friday evening, with state media reporting jihadist training camps in the Libyan port city of Derna were targeted.
The area, in the east of Libya, is controlled by jihadists close to Al-Qaeda.
The action followed the killing of at least 28 people when masked gunmen attacked a bus of Coptic Christians travelling south of Egyptian capital Cairo.
A large number of the victims were reported to be children, including a two-year-old girl.
Image: Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announces the strikes
Announcing the strikes, Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi insisted he would "not hesitate in striking terror camps anywhere", whether inside his country or outside.
In a message to US president Donald Trump, the Egyptian leader added: "You have said that your priority is to confront terrorism, and I trust you are capable of doing that."
Mr Trump had earlier joined world leaders in denouncing the latest killing of Coptic Christians in Egypt.
In a statement, the US president said: "The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished."
"Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilisation, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil."
Pope Francis, who made a historic visit to Egypt last month, branded the attack a "senseless act of hatred".
Image: The action followed the killing of at least 28 in a bus attack by masked gunmen
Al-Sisi declared a state of emergency in Egypt following the bombing of two Coptic churches by Islamic State in April.
Libya's militant strongholds have come under further scrutiny since Monday's terror attack in Manchester, which left 22 dead.
Suicide bomber Salman Abedi, the British-born son of Libyan parents, is believed to have recently visited the north African country before carrying out the attack on a pop concert.
Speaking at a G7 summit in Sicily on Friday, Theresa May said Abedi's links with Libya will "undoubtedly shine a spotlight on this largely ungoverned space on the edge of Europe".
The Prime Minister said: "We must redouble our support for a UN-led effort that brings all parties to the negotiating table and reduces the threat of terror from that region." | 1,473 |
Russian-backed Syrian fighters wasted no time capitalizing on the US...
Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria created a humanitarian crisis that by Tuesday had displaced up to hundreds of thousands of civilians, according to Kurdish authorities and several humanitarian groups tracking the conflict.
The United Nations, meanwhile, was investigating whether Turkish troops and their Syrian allies committed war crimes by executing captured Kurdish fighters and civilians.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at least 160,000 people had been forced out of their homes since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the military offensive last Wednesday, days after President Trump ordered US troops to retreat from the area.
Other humanitarian groups put the number far higher.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said roughly 250,000 people have fled and 71 civilians, including 21 children, have been killed.
The Kurdish-led administration that controls that swath of territory in Syria said the fighting has displaced more than 275,000 people, including 70,000 children.
The UN High Commission on Human Rights said Turkey could be responsible for its troops or allies executing captured Kurdish fighters and a politician.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said video footage appears to show the execution of three Kurdish fighters by Turkish-affiliated forces on Saturday. And the UN is investigating whether Hevrin Khalaf, a female Kurdish politician, was executed the same day.
“Turkey could be deemed responsible as a state for violations by their affiliated groups as long as Turkey exercises effective control of these groups or the operations in the course of which those violations occurred,” Colville said Tuesday, adding that Turkish officials need to begin an “impartial, transparent and independent investigation.”
Meanwhile, Turkey shrugged off US sanctions and pressed on with its offensive while the Russian-backed Syrian army roared into one of the most hotly contested cities abandoned by US forces.
Russian and Syrian flags flew from a building on the outskirts of Manbij, and from a convoy of military vehicles.
Russia’s Interfax news agency, citing Moscow’s Defense Ministry, said later that Syrian forces had taken control of an area of more than 385 square miles around Manbij.
A week after reversing US policy and moving troops out of the way to allow Turkey to attack Washington’s Syrian allies, Team Trump on Monday announced a package of sanctions to punish Ankara.
But the measures mainly included a hike in steel tariffs and a pause in trade talks.
With Post wires | 1,474 |
Canada Border Services Agency has clarified that stunt actors may get punched, kicked or hit with batons during a training exercise for new recruits.
The agency posted bid documents online Monday looking for a company to supply actors for its training centre in Rigaud, Que., between Ottawa and Montreal.
The documents outline how the stunt actors will act out as many as 15 situations a day to help the agency assess the skills of new border agents and warn that people hired should expect to be handcuffed, thrown, held down using "pain compliance techniques," and hit by trainees' fists, feet or batons.
A spokesperson for the agency said the request for proposals (RFP), as the document is known, will be amended to let professional stunt actors know "there is a potential risk... of physical contact that cannot be entirely mitigated."
“Note that the current request for proposal found on buyandsell.gc.ca will be amended to clarify that the intent of the RFP is to advise professional stunt-actors that there is a potential risk in a training environment of physical contact that cannot be entirely mitigated,” the CBSA told CTVNews.ca in a statement.
“The purpose of the work environment section is to advise of inherent risks in the conduct of practice exercises in a training environment.”
In the past, instructors served as stunt actors in these training scenarios, the CBSA confirmed.
Hiring the dozen or so actors expands a pilot project the CBSA launched in May to replace instructors with professional stunt-people during training.
“As part of the RFP, the CBSA wanted to ensure that those involved understood that in this training environment there is a risk that stunt actors may be inadvertently hit by trainees or training tools in the course of practicing defensive tactic maneuvers,” the CBSA said.
“The scenarios are governed by safety rules, monitored by instructors and the actors wear personal protective equipment, the CBSA said.
“The actors are required to demonstrate a particular behaviour or set of behaviours to provoke a reaction and a subsequent intervention from the trainee during training,” the CBSA explained.
“The actors adapt to the reactions of the officer trainee including movement, communication techniques and physical force in order to simulate potentially escalating situations.”
The CBSA would not say what the budget is for the year-long contract, citing the ongoing bidding process that closes in early September.
--- With files from The Canadian Press | 1,475 |
water mark was in 2007-08 and 2008-09, when they had consecutive 7-7 finishes. Those seasons must seem like the good old days. The women’s team has racked up double digit conference losses in each of the past five seasons (which were also losing seasons in general), and they haven’t won more than five games within the conference in any of the last six seasons. Overall, the lady Eagles are a woeful 51-116 in their 11 seasons of ACC play, which equals a.305 winning percentage. Only Wake Forest (47-120,.281), Virginia Tech (39-129,.232) and Clemson (31-136,.186) have been worse.
At a certain point, the financial flexibility that being in the ACC affords BC is not worth the hit the school’s reputation is taking. BC’s “revenue’’ teams (in contrast, the hockey teams, which play in the Hockey East, have been quite good) in the ACC might be keeping an already wealthy school even more flush than they were in the Big East, but the trade-off also might be a generation of kids growing up being dismissive of BC sports. Just this week, one of BC’s best men’s basketball players – Dennis Clifford — said that his fondest memories of playing for the school was “going out to eat.’’ While he meant that he loved the camraderie with his teammates, the way he said it sounded bad, and when you watch the video it’s just heartbreaking – and it’s absolutely not the way that BC wants to be making headlines. Sunday’s feature story in the Boston Globe certainly doesn’t help, either.
Whether a poor reputation is fair or not depends on how much value you place on being in the best conferences, and in general how much importance you put on collegiate athletics. This isn’t a region that tends to view them with the same fervor as other parts of the country, so that’s a harder sell (especially when the hockey program is still a point of pride). Still, there’s no reason for this to continue. Given all its positive attributes, BC would likely have its pick of mid-major conferences (and specifically a return to the Big East could be very easily sold as a return to the good ole days). It’s time the school entertained the notion of joining one of them.
When they tore down the Boston Garden | 1,476 |
“Virginia has always been a conservation leader, and this is a time to step up,” Commissioner Steven G. Bowman said in a statement. He said the cancellation was needed to slow the decline of the rockfish population and “restore this fishery to sustainable levels.”
Recent studies have found that rockfish are being caught at a faster rate than they are reproducing, prompting concerns about their survivability. Virginia marine experts say nearly half of rockfish thrown back into the water after being caught are dying.
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Rockfish are popular to catch and eat along much of the Eastern Seaboard, from North Carolina to Maine. Fishing for large-size rockfish is also a popular sport, especially among charter businesses that offer fishing trips.
In the spring, they enter the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River from the Atlantic Ocean to spawn.
The Virginia ban on recreational catching and keeping of trophy-size rockfish — those 36 inches or longer — eliminates the spring season in the Chesapeake Bay that was to run from May 1 to June 15, along the coast from May 1 to May 15, and along Virginia tributaries of the Potomac from April 29 to May 15.
Anglers in Virginia still can catch and keep two striped bass that measure between 20 and 28 inches from May 16 to June 15.
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In Maryland, officials say they are concerned about the rockfish population, but have no plans this year to stop the season.
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Bowman said he hopes the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates fishing in coastal waters, will take similar measures for other states.
Fisheries in Virginia have seen the number of rockfish harvested for recreational anglers go from 368,000 in 2010 to 52,000 in 2018 as the population has dropped. The rate of trophy-size fish being caught also has fallen.
Experts said they’re particularly concerned that larger, trophy-size fish being caught are often females.
“The older, larger fish are the spawning females and the more eggs she lays, the more she produces, but you have to make sure you have fish that are breeding for the next generation, so you can’t have all the large females caught,” said Ellen Bolen, deputy commissioner for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
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It isn’t the first time rockfish numbers have worried the commission, which helps manage and oversee fish populations in the state. | 1,477 |
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Employees at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) - Get Report may be willing to put in few extra hours at the office.
The bank announced on Tuesday that it is allowing employees to expense Uber rides for specified work-related travel. Specifically, employees will be using Uber's year old "Uber for Business" platform, which allows riders to seamlessly bill rides to their employer.
They're not alone. According to the Uber Web site, Deutsche Bank (DB) - Get Report and Barclay's (BCS) - Get Report have also been using the service for its employees.
Uber is a San Francisco-based company that allows people to request car service from a mobile app. The service offering differs slightly in different cities but most riders generally travel in a black town car or SUV. During non-peak times, the cost is often comparable to a taxi.
"Allowing our employees to use Uber for business travel just makes sense," Trish Wexler, Chase's chief communications officer said in a statement. "It's cost efficient for the company, and convenient for our employees."
Much of the use is expected to cover employees when they travel or when they have to work late. As what constitutes a late night can vary among industries -- or even departments -- Uber for Business allows employers to set certain parameters so that the service isn't abused. For JPMorgan employees in the New York metro area, that usually means working past 9 p.m., according to a company spokesman.
Fans of Uber like that they don't have to weather the elements when hailing a cab as they are alerted via text message when their driver has arrived. Some riders also feel safer knowing their driver's contact information and having a map track their whereabouts while en route. Who wants a hassle after a late night in the office?
Though there are some people who oppose the service -- most notably taxi drivers who have lost business. The company has also faced controversy for its pricing surge during peak travel times as well as its questionable behavior with competitors.
A spokesman for the bank explained that some employees were already using the service and they wanted to make sure all employees were aware of the perk. Previously employees were able to expense taxi rides or other car services if they worked late.
"Over 70% of the United States is within 10 minutes or less of an Uber, and we look forward to connecting JPMorgan Chase employees with a safe, reliable and affordable ride whenever and wherever they need one," said Emil Michael, SVP of Business at Uber. | 1,478 |
s great to see Castro track back all the way into that area, but there was absolutely no need to pull Ninkovic’s shirt and it cost them dearly.
These defensive issues might be coming from the fact the Perth defence has been fully renovated and is now missing the leadership and composure of Shane Lowry, Jason Davidson and Matthew Spiranovic, but there should still be enough talent in the current crop that this should not be an issue.
The good: Perth have more than enough time to come back
Since the A-League was formed in 2005, only once has six points been enough for bottom place after seven matches. The gap between Perth and sixth spot is only two points.
This season could be the most competitive year ever for the league, with arguably all the teams looking evenly matched and little to no freebies like the Mariners and Phoenix of years gone by.
So although Glory are last, it would take only a few wins on the trot to see them reach the top six and possibly perhaps as high as fourth. Given that xG numbers show that they might have been unlucky with results so far, it wouldn’t be a huge leap to say that with a bit more good fortune they will be back in the mix before long.
The bad: Popovic changing last season’s winning formation and the change in how opponents play against them
Last season Popovic’s men became masters of transition, with Ikonomidis, Castro and Chianese all making the most the ample space provided by the opposition when winning possession.
Things are very different this year, with teams now comfortable to surrender the ball to the premiers and look to hit them on the counterattack. Glory now average 55 per cent possession this season, up from 51.9 per cent last year. The initiative is now with them to attack.
The change has meant Popovic has switched to a 4-3-3 formation rather than the successful 3-4-3 last season. It shows that the Asian Champions League-winning coach is looking for answers, but it’s still not entirely clear whether this change will be the solution.
Conclusion
Overall it’s clear that if they continue to perform like they do, Perth will eventually rise up the table. Though issues in their defence and being forced to change their style from last season might mean that they’re not the dominant of last team, their lethal attack should be enough for them to at least reach the top six. | 1,479 |
Have you ever wondered a little about the town you live in? Where its name comes from? Notable residents? Here are 5 little historical facts about Valparaiso!
What’s in a name? - Most know that Valparaiso means, “Vale of Paradise,” in Spanish, but some may not know that the original name of the city was Portersville from 1834-6. This was changed in 1836 to honor Commodore David Porter of the U.S. Navy for his efforts in the Battle of Valparaiso off the coast of Chile during the War of 1812. Porter’s frigate, the Essex, suffered a defeat at the hands of the British who he had been sent to harass and attempt to free some captured sailors. Porter had some successes in his voyage before this though, and apparently the tale of his battle captured the imagination of some local residents who were gathered in the local tavern to hear of the story.
Making Fuzzy Benjamins – The first business in the Valparaiso area was established by a French Canadian fur trapper named Joseph Bailley in 1822 which thrived in part due to the area being a popular meeting place for Native Americans and being the nexus of several trails.
To Infinity and Beyond – Valparaiso is home to not one, but two astronauts, Mark N. Brown and Henry Charles Gordon. Brown graduated from Valparaiso High School in 1969 and went on to become a Colonel in the United States Air Force before becoming a NASA astronaut in 1985, serving as a Mission Specialist and going to space twice for a total of 249 hours; he is now retired. Gordon unfortunately never got to go into space as the US Air Force Dyna-Soar program he was a part of was cancelled just after spacecraft construction had begun. This program had sought to develop a spaceplane that could be used for reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance and sabotage.
Presidential Hunting Grounds – The are of Valparaiso was so heavily wooded with a variety of trees from oak to pine, as well as game, that future president Benjamin Harrison Hunted and fished in Valparaiso quite often.
First Transcontinental Highway – Our very own U.S. 30 was the nation’s first transcontinental highway in the early 1900s. Even more than that, the route which the road takes through Valparaiso follows the Sauk Trail which was used by the Native Americans in the region for generations. | 1,480 |
André Schürrle scored a hat-trick as Germany recovered from a two-goal deficit to finish their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 5-3 win over Sweden.
Germany had already secured first place in Group C and a spot at the World Cup, while Sweden had clinched a play-off berth by beating Austria in the previous round.
Mesut Özil and Mario Götze also scored for Germany while Sweden's Tobias Hysen scored two and Alexander Kacaniklic netted one.
Both teams put on a display of clinical finishing but sloppy defending in Stockholm, with Germany controlling possession but looking vulnerable at the back.
Also in Group C, the Republic of Ireland rallied to beat Kazakhstan 3-1 and Austria defeated the Faroe Islands 3-0.
Germany finished with 28 points and could have had a perfect record had they not squandered a four-goal lead to draw 4-4 with Sweden last year in Berlin.
Sweden took second place with 20 points, three more than Austria, while Ireland finished fourth with 14.
Hysen gave Sweden the lead in the sixth minute after Germany defender Jérôme Boateng allowed the striker to slip into the penalty area unchallenged and meet a long pass from Sebastian Larsson.
Germany took full control after the early setback but struggled to create chances beyond Thomas Müller's header on to the crossbar. Instead the German defence was caught napping again as Kim Kallstrom fed the ball to Alexander Kacaniklic, who made it 2-0 in the 42nd.
Özil put the visitors back in the game just before the break as he caught a deflected pass from Max Kruse and struck a right-foot shot just inside the Sweden goalkeeper Johan Wiland's right-post.
Sweden, without the suspended striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, had very little possession and were lucky to be ahead at half-time.
The second-half substitute Götze equalized shortly after the break with an elegant shot and Schürrle silenced the home crowd with two goals preceded by sloppy mistakes in the Swedish defence. But Hysen revived Sweden's hopes when he made it 4-3 by volleying home following a free-kick from Larsson.
It took another goal from Schürrle to seal the win for Germany as he completed his hat-trick in the 77th minute with a curled shot from the left edge of the penalty area. | 1,481 |
Techdirt, a prominent and critical source for incisive tech reporting and analysis, is defending itself against a $15 million lawsuit that could become a fight for its very existence. That suit was brought by Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims he invented email, and is based on a series of detailed articles Techdirt published disputing Ayyadurai’s claims.
Important note: Techdirt is represented in this suit by Rob Bertsche and Jeff Pyle at Prince Lobel Tye, LLP.
The First Amendment provides vitally important protections for publishers – the Supreme Court ruled that public figure plaintiffs in defamation lawsuits must prove that offending statements about them are in fact false, and that the speaker actually knew they were false or seriously doubted them when they were published. That rule protects speakers, bloggers, and reporters against lawsuits designed merely to squelch critical speech about public figures. Nonetheless, defending against such suits can be very costly.
Techdirt released a statement on the litigation, making clear exactly what hangs in the balance in these kinds of suits:
Defamation claims like this can force independent media companies to capitulate and shut down due to mounting legal costs…this is not a fight about who invented email. This is a fight about whether or not our legal system will silence independent publications for publishing opinions that public figures do not like.
We wholeheartedly agree. Defending against even frivolous defamation and similar lawsuits can be extremely expensive, forcing news sites to shut down or settle the lawsuits under unfavorable terms. Those that settle often must agree to remove the offending content. These results are far from speculative - as Techdirt explains in its statement, Ayyadurai’s lawyer in this case, Charles Harder, has “already... [h]elped put a much larger and much more well-resourced company than Techdirt completely out of business.”
Techdirt is a vital resource – it provides a wide audience with independent journalism addressing some of the biggest technology issues of our time. The Internet community wouldn’t be the same without it. But of course this case is not just about Techdirt. It's about freedom of the press generally.
We commend Techdirt for taking on this fight for freedom of expression. And we urge everyone who cares about a free and independent press to support Techdirt in “its First Amendment fight for its life.”
Want to publicly show your support for Techdirt? Add this graphic to your website. | 1,482 |
Eli Newman / WDET
Are you missing your ancient Egyptian treasure? The government might have it, alongside drugs and cash seized at ports of entry in Michigan.
The Detroit office of the U.S Customs and Border Protection held a press conference today to showcase what the agency seized at five U.S.-Canada crossing in the state in 2019.
In 2019, “CBP officers at ports throughout Michigan inspected and facilitated the entry of over 17,000 passenger cars, 6,500 commercial vehicles, 29 commercial aircraft and 15 cargo trains” the agency said in a statement. The agency seized drugs, including 10 pounds of fentanyl, and over $7.8 million.
But that’s not all. Agents also showcased some of the stranger things the agency seized at the border. See photos of some of those items below, presented with the stated reasoning for seizure.
10. Rolex Watches
Seized for violation of: Intellectual property rights.
Eli Newman / WDET
9. $25,448 in Currency
Seized for: Failure/inaccurate reporting of over $10,000 out of the U.S. and concealed bulk cash/export.
8. Body Armor and Replica Grenades
Seized for: Failure to declare merchandise.
Eli Newman / WDET
7. 267 Pounds of Opium
Seized for: Failure to declare controlled substance, zero tolerance.
Eli Newman / WDET
6. Apple AirPods
Seized for violation of: Intellectual property rights.
Eli Newman / WDET
5. 213 Grams Khat, $7,700 in Money Orders
Seized for violation of: Exportation of a controlled substance, concealed bulk cash/export.
4. Nintendo Parts
Seized for violation of: Intellectual property rights.
Eli Newman / WDET
3. Kylie Cosmetics Lipstick and Liner
Seized for violation of: Intellectual property rights.
Eli Newman / WDET
2. $163,043 worth of gift cards, cash and checks
Seized for: Failure/inaccurate report of over $10,000 out of the U.S.
1. Ancient Egyptian Bastet
Seized for violation of: Importation of designated archeological or ethnological material subject to bilateral agreements or emergency action.
Eli Newman / WDET | 1,483 |
The Google Glass might be a niche product, both from the usability and price point perspectives, but it seems that this particular niche cannot be satiated by just one competitor. Or, at least, that’s what Epson seems to believe. The company that gained famed via its remarkable printing products has announced the second-generation of its Google Glass competitor – a smart glass christened Moverio BT-200, which can do pretty much everything that Google has on offer and more, for a significantly lower price point.
The Moverio, which will sell at $699.99, is primarily an augmented reality eyewear that will make it easier for its users (which are ideally the same crowd that Google Glass was aimed at) to mix the real world with the virtual one. The device is equipped with a front-facing camera, GPS chip and sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope and other to enable capturing of user movement data. The AR images are overlaid the Moverio’s lenses using two micro projectors on both sides of the lenses. It’s noteworthy that Moverio isn’t a standalone device; it needs to be paired up with a separate mobile-like unit for functioning, which in turn runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
The controller unit, however, is primarily aimed at navigating around the Moverio’s UI, and not really a functional piece of hardware itself. Since Moverio BT-200 is equipped with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity modes, it can be hooked up with a smartphone or tablet.
A stark difference from the first generation prototype from Epson is the fact that Moverio cannot be mounted atop any eyewear, which was a prime feature of the first generation device. This has allowed Epson to reduce the overall heft of the hardware, although necessitating the need for an extra purchase should you choose to go that way.
The best part of the whole deal is that Moverio is available to buy right now, without any wait period mandated. The device, although comparable to Google Glass, cannot be deemed as a competitor for everyone. It might find love from a niche within the niche that prefers such expensive hardware. Will you get one? Let us know in comments below.
You may also like to check out:
You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the Web.
Related Stories | 1,484 |
President Donald Trump deflected blame for the rise of incivility from himself and placed it on Democrats during an interview on “Fox News At Night With Shannon Bream” on Wednesday night.
WATCH:
“On the issue of civility today we heard from the former Attorney General Eric Holder saying instead of ‘we go low, they go high,’ He said ‘when we go low, it’s time to kick them,'” Bream began. “Hillary Clinton has said we don’t return to civility until the Democrats take the House or the Senate back because power is now the only thing Republicans understand. But when you talk to or press people on that, they will say you started this whole thing by encouraging people to rough up protesters and by going after people with nicknames and all kinds of things. How do you respond?”
Bream was referencing Holder’s comments from a Wednesday rally for Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams where he said, “When they go low, we kick them,” a reference to Michelle Obama’s famous line. (RELATED: Former AG Eric Holder: ‘When They Go Low, We Kick Them’)
Clinton said in a CNN interview this week that one cannot be civil with a political party that “wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.” (RELATED: Hillary Clinton Rejects Calls For Civility In Politics, At Least For Now)
“Well I don’t think so. My rallies have been very peaceful, and even at the beginning when there seemed to be conflict, they sent paid people in to disrupt our rallies. When you do that, you know, bad things happen,” Trump responded. “But they were the ones that started everything. So no, it wasn’t us. It was totally the other side. I would have a rally and paid people were going into those rallies causing trouble. And in many cases, it didn’t work out so well for those people.”
He continued, “Shannon, paid people were in those rallies. When I hear [Eric] Holder making a statement like he did today, I think it’s a disgrace. And Hillary, I really understand. She just doesn’t get it. She never did. She never will, and that’s why she lost the election.”
Follow Mike on Twitter. | 1,485 |
emerged as the nominee.
Franken’s run against incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman remained close throughout the fall. Coleman was pounding Franken for his provocative past as a humor writer and comedian, including a satirical column he wrote for Playboy magazine in 2000 called “Porn-O-Rama” where he would visit a fictitious “sex institute” to take part in sexual acts with robots and humans. Franken’s past was hurting him in the state’s more conservative areas and among women.
Clinton’s help came at a critical time, said Dan Cramer, a Franken consultant at the time.
Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign rally at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016.
Cramer said he was immediately struck by Clinton’s tireless effort to aid Franken. Usually, a top-level surrogate like that will land in a city, do a quick event and move on to the next state.
Clinton made two critical stops in Minnesota, without hesitation. “Hillary just said, ‘Yes,’ ” Cramer said.
In both instances, Clinton assured activists that the former comedian was a very serious candidate and he’d be a really good senator.
“I think that’s a lot of what people wanted to hear to throw themselves into it the final three weeks,” Cramer said.
After Franken was sworn into the U.S. Senate, he stayed in close contact with Clinton, who was then secretary of State. He called her directly to talk about Al-Shabab, the terrorist organization based in Somalia, and for help with Minnesota hitchhikers who were detained in Iran. The hitchhikers were later freed.
The alliance between Franken and Clinton is likely to get a new test if she wins the election.
Even if Franken stays in the Senate, he could become a critical Clinton ally. On the campaign trail, Franken usually squeezes in an event for Democratic Senate candidates, potentially building a coalition of allies.
Franken, who has two new grandchildren, shrugs off the long hours on planes to help his longtime friend. He talks about how she will work on climate change, mental health and education reform — issues that are all passions of his, as well.
“She is in my mind the smartest, hardest working, toughest, most experienced person in the world for this job,” Franken said. | 1,486 |
's prestigious Executive of the Year Award for making that deal and others that helped build that terrific Nuggets team.
The Nuggets returned the following season to win 47 games and lost in the second round of the playoffs to the eventual conference champion Houston Rockets (featuring the "twin towers" of Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon). The Nuggets final game of the season, Game 6, came in a double overtime loss at Denver's McNichols Arena.
After a disappointing 37-win 1986-87 season (highlighted by Moe's all-time great "We got no shot to beat the Lakers" quote prior to the 1987 playoffs), Boryla resigned just days before the 1987-88 season began and remained with the team afterward as a consultant. So while Boryla's successor Pete Babcock gets a lot of the credit for the Nuggets' amazing 54-win 1987-88 season, the credit really belongs to Boryla. In addition to "the trade", during Boryla's tenure he brought in key role players who helped the Nuggets through those amazing 1984 through 1988 campaigns, including Hanzlik himself as well as Elston Turner, Darrell Walker, Danny Schayes and Joe "Come on Moe, put in Joe!" Kopicki. If Boryla had a blind spot as a GM, it was in the draft but drafts can be a crap shoot when you're drafting in the middle-to-late first round. On Boryla's watch, his key draft picks included Rasmussen (1985, 15th overall), Mo Martin (1986, 16th overall) and Mark Alarie (1986, 18th overall). But at least Rasmussen has since joined Schayes and Hanzlik in the Denver Stiffs Hall of Fame!
Boryla remained in Denver after his short-lived tenure as Nuggets general manager was up and became a successful businessman in real estate and other ventures. The Denver Post's Tina Griego caught up with Boryla in 2011, noting Boryla's lifelong generosity and contributions to Catholic-related charitable causes.
As Griego writes, the humble Boryla was never one for the spotlight or accolades. But on Monday night at Pepsi Center - as the 2015-16 Nuggets face off against the Dallas Mavericks - here's hoping that the current Nuggets' brass honors Boryla with a lengthy moment of silence and a video tribute that takes us back to the days when Denver Nuggets basketball was at its very best.
Thanks in large part to Vince Boryla. | 1,487 |
There were many strands to Dr. Khan’s energetic life that the Taliban would have found objectionable. In the past year, Dr. Khan, 56, who was trained as a psychiatrist in Vienna, taught what he called a “worldly” Islam to 150 young boys who had been corralled by the Taliban and then freed by the Pakistani Army in the Swat Valley. “He said: ‘This is my passion,’ ” his wife, Dr. Rizwana Farooq, a gynecologist, recalled of her husband’s weekly sessions at a vocational school, called New Dawn. The school was established by the Pakistani military with financing from international aid organizations.
In recent years, Dr. Khan grew intrigued by American democracy. He visited the United States as a guest of the government in 2002, he met Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her first visit to Pakistan last year, and he was among those chosen to attend a farewell lunch for the departing United States ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, last month. “Dr. Khan has been a longstanding and valuable contact, a strong and central voice in denouncing extremism,” said Elizabeth Rood, the consul general in Peshawar.
But perhaps most challenging to the Taliban was his position as the vice chancellor of a new, liberal university in Swat, whose inauguration was scheduled a few days after Dr. Khan was killed. The Taliban effectively governed Swat, an area of scenic beauty within easy drive of the nation’s capital, for several months in 2009 before being driven out in a major military offensive.
The university had been a sore point with the Taliban for some time, partly because the government originally decided the campus would be built on land where the Taliban ran their biggest mosque and school. That site was later abandoned for a more neutral location on the edge of Mingora, the capital of Swat, and over the last year Dr. Khan had taken charge of hiring the faculty, shaping a curriculum devoted to the social sciences and recruiting a student body, said the rector of the university, Sher Alam Khan.
Of 280 students selected on merit, 50 were women, Mr. Khan said. Three of the 20 faculty members were women, he added.
The father of four children ages 22 to 27, all of whom are professionals, Dr. Khan may have been particularly irritating to the Taliban because his roots were in the rough and tumble of the nation’s right-wing religious parties, not the elite academies and mainstream parties. | 1,488 |
Apple's entry-level 16-gigabyte iPod touch received an update on Thursday, dropping the price to $199 while adding a rear iSight camera and expanding its color options to six. Apple also slashed prices on the 32- and 64-gigabyte variants, now priced respectively at $249 and $299.
The update brings the 16-gigabyte iPod touch in line with its larger 32- and 64-gigabyte versions, which are all available in black, space grey, pink, yellow, blue, and (Product)RED. All three models are available from Apple's online store and are advertised to ship within 24 hours.
Previously, the 16-gigabyte iPod touch was priced at $229, it only came in a lighter silver color, and it lacked a rear camera. It also lacked support the iPod touch loop wrist strap. Customers will still have to buy the strap separately for $9 with the 16-gigabyte model, however.
Prior to Wednesday's refresh, the 32-gigabyte iPod touch was priced at $299, while the 64-gigabyte version reached $399.
Aside from the addition of the 5-megapixel rear camera to the 16-gigabyte variant, the specifications on the media players remains the same. All three include a 4-inch Retina display, a forward facing FaceTime HD camera, and are powered by Apple's A5 processor. They also run iOS 7 and ship with Apple's EarPods.
The iPod touch lineup last received an update in June of 2013 when the previous 16-gigabyte version lacking an iSight camera launched for $229 in one color. It took the place of the previous fourth-generation model, which had been priced at $199 but featured a slower A4 chip.
While the iPod once led Apple's comeback, its portable media players represent a shrinking portion of the company's massive business, now led by the iPhone and iPad. Still, as of the end of 2013, the iPod continued to lead an ever-shrinking market of portable media players, with the NPD Group pegging Apple's share at 72 percent.
In its quarterly earnings conference calls, Apple used to routinely note that the iPod touch accounted for more than half of all iPod sales, though it declined to break down specific share based on model. Last quarter, iPod sales dwindled to just 2.7 million units, a sum that didn't even garner a mention from the company as it discussed its financial results. | 1,489 |
shake in the media,” Dante said.
On Monday afternoon, some Democrats who live in the leafy, tree-lined Historic Kenwood section of St. Petersburg, and who answered their doors to speak with a Gillum campaign field organizer, insisted their opposition to DeSantis and Scott had nothing to do with the president. “This is not about Trump,” Raymond Solomon, a retired IT worker, told the PBS NewsHour afterwards, before reeling off a list of policy differences on climate change, the environment and other issues.
Solomon, 65, had answered his door by insisting he would back Gillum.
“Have you voted?” the field organizer had asked. “I’m going to,” Solomon answered, prompting the Gillum campaign volunteer to respond: “You promise? When is that going to be?”
But other left-leaning voters did not seem to need motivation. They said they wanted to send Trump and Republicans a message. “I would love the midterms to shift power to the Democrats. Anything to turn the tide of how things are going right now,” said Kate Ciembronowicz, an independent voter who backed Gillum over DeSantis.
With early voting already underway across the state, the campaigns are running out of time to change voters’ minds. The Miami Herald reported Sunday that Republicans in Florida had an initial lead in early voting turnout, 42 to 40 percent, but that Democrats had pulled ahead among voters turning in ballots ahead of Nov. 6.
A spokesman for the DeSantis campaign declined to comment on strategy in the final days of the election. Geoff Burgan, the Gillum campaign spokesman, said the campaign was “highly engaged” in Pinellas County. “It’s an area where we can and are competing,” Burgan said.
Nick DeCeglie, the chairman of the Pinellas County Republican Party, said Republican voters in the state were unusually energized for a midterm election. He compared it to the enthusiasm on the right in 2016, when Trump upended predictions by winning Florida.
“We had people coming into our headquarters and Donald Trump’s headquarters in Pinellas County every day, all day [in 2016]. You could feel it on the ground,” said DeCeglie, who is running for a seat in the state legislature. “We’re seeing very similar energy in 2018.” | 1,490 |
1 Chris Tamburello and Veronica Portillo
2 Zach Nichols and Amanda Garcia
3 Paulie Calafiore and Natalie Negrotti
4 Derrick Henry and Tori Deal
5 Joss Mooney and Sylvia Elsrode
6 Chuck Mowery and Britni Thornton
7 Jozea Flores and Da’Vonne Rogers
One of these pairs has a person with 3 Challenge wins, and CT. Veronica is not in her prime, but she is no slouch either and is possibly the smartest strategic player in the game. The CT bump is real, especially considering he has made it to the final or final elimination in every season where he was not DQ’d. Zach had a great run on Vendettas, dominating the game with Tony. This season he is partnered with a girl who will operate as their brain in puzzles and mental competitions. The only problem is Zach likes a submissive partner and Amanda is known for being the Pop Off Queen.
The Big Brother pair may be overrated. Surprisingly, Natalie killed the daily challenges in Vendettas and was one of the strongest girls physically. Paulie was a college soccer player at Rutgers. While neither possess brute strength, they have great cardio, endurance, and coordination. The more confusing pairs are Tori/Derrick and Joss/Sylvia. While not liked much on social media, Tori is beloved in whatever house she is in, be it The Challenge or AYTO. Derrick is a college athlete who is sneaky smart. Can Tori elevate Derrick to a final? Joss and Sylvia impressed on Vendettas, Sylvia with her physical elimination win, and Joss with his elimination loss and challenge win. The sample size is not big enough to draw any major conclusions, but it would not be shocking to see them go decently far into the season.
Is anyone else shocked to see Chuck debut on the Challenge four years after his AYTO Season? He looks like Trent from Daria and will be competing with Britni. Maybe they will be good, though let’s hold a good long breathe until proven otherwise. Da’Vonne was eliminated second on her first Big Brother season even with a twist that allowed her to eliminate three votes. She was also the first person eliminated in the Jury phase of her second season. And she is the better partner in her pairing! Jozea is so bad that maybe you keep him in the game. Then again, he is annoying, you can cut him fast. | 1,491 |
The joint commissioner of BBMP has now passed an instruction as per which the amount paid for the garbage trucks in Bangalore would be prohibited unless the trucks are discovered. In the recent times, BBMP possesses a total of 594 garbage trucks out of which 74 are occupied for civil purposes whereas the remaining are run and controlled by the local contractors. The estimated payment made by the Palike to these 100 trucks contractors is around 1.7 lakhs every month. The compactor contract system was organized and formulated in the year 2013. At a moderate payment of 1.5 lakhs for 100 trucks in a month for around 60-70 months, it was observed that the expenditure of BBMP was extended to 90 crores. This scam was mainly noticed when the high court passed an order to the BBMP group to organize ward micro policies for solid waste management. The entire 198 ward committees were assigned the task of formulating award level plan to make certain the proper and appropriate operating of the solid waste management. Moreover, the rules were mainly implemented to ensure the sanitation facilities in diverse wards of Bangalore.
As per the formulation of the micro policy, the wards of Bengaluru were divided into blocks. The estimations stated that there exist around 750 households including a few of commercial units. The auto tippers were allotted the duty to collect the wet garbage from the entire 750 households and the commercial units. Usually, these auto tippers had the capacity to load up to 500 kg. Apart from this, in order to compute proper working of the contractors, the Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) was issued by the BBMP. The major reason for issuing the RFID was to ascertain and trace the location where the wet waste collected by the compactors and auto tippers were dumped.
According to the statement given by the commissioner of BBMP Sarfaraz Khan, there are about 100 of compactor drivers that did not participate in garbage dumping. These contractors were stated to be missing and the search is still continued. He also said “we are unaware of where the 100 contractors are? He also mentioned that BBMP was not at all informed if these contractors were even going to households and wards on a daily basis to collect garbage and dump the same.
The recent reports state that Sarfaraz Khan has assigned the duty of searching these 100 contractors to some of the major officials of their department. He has further asked the officers to make a list of the missing contractors along with their registration details. Furthermore, the payment of the remaining contractors is kept on hold until the BBMP successfully finds the missing workers. | 1,492 |
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Hanley Ramirez said he felt more confident than he had in three years when he came off the disabled list at the end of April. Why?
"Because of this," Ramirez said, gesturing to the three-inch scar on his left shoulder, a souvenir from September 2011 surgery. It took Ramirez that long -- 18 months -- to feel as if he was back to being himself following the surgery.
That doesn't bode well for Matt Kemp, who is coming off a similar procedure. But it could bode well for Ramirez, who was one of the best overall hitters in the game before the shoulder injury.
Ramirez went 5-for-12 with two doubles and a home run in those four games before a hamstring injury sent him to the DL again. Now, he's on the cusp of returning again -- probably Monday or Tuesday -- and it could provide a sizeable boost for the Dodgers' offense.
Dodgers shortstops have a.569 OPS this season, 27th in the majors.
Ramirez will play in minor-league rehab games starting Friday before re-joining the Dodgers, probably on Tuesday.
"To me, Hanley has looked really good. In spring, he was hitting a lot of balls the other way, he had a simpler leg kick and wasn't near as big," manager Don Mattingly said. "It's hard to know really what to expect because he essentially hasn't played since spring training. I know how good Hanley is."
From 2005 to '10, Ramirez batted.313 and averaged 21 home runs, 33 stolen bases and 65 RBIs.
Here are lineups for Wednesday's game vs. the Angels:
Dodgers
1. Carl Crawford DH
2. Nick Punto SS
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Andre Ethier RF
5. Matt Kemp CF
6. Scott Van Slyke LF
7. Skip Schumaker 2B
8. A.J. Ellis C
9. Luis Cruz 3B
Angels
1. Erick Aybar SS
2. Mike Trout CF
3. Albert Pujols DH
4. Mark Trumbo 1B
5. Josh Hamilton RF
6. Howie Kendrick 2B
7. Alberto Callaspo 3B
8. Chris Iannetta C
9. J.B. Schuck LF | 1,493 |
ami in this comic is excellent, and he even finds time for a great Mako and Bolin moment that caps a satisfying enough portrayal of the two. Sure the narrative of Turf Wars Part One is nothing special, but I think it’s extraordinarily impressive that he ties in so many characters, narrative elements, and themes from Korra into the only 10 or so pages that get devoted to the plot. Overall I was extremely impressed with Mike’s writing in this medium and look forward to what he brings to future editions of the comic, particularly if he continues to iterate on the Avatar world’s mythology in new ways like he did in this edition with exploring the different cultures’ views on homosexuality.
Yes there are weak elements to Turf Wars Part One. As mentioned before, the plot itself is not particularly captivating. For some reason we’re choosing to dive back into the triads of Republic City, a plot thread not focused on since the early days of Korra, and one that wasn’t really interesting then either. It would have been nice to focus more on Tenzin, Opal, or Ikki, among others, but there were really too many characters to incorporate in such a short amount of time and I’m hopeful we’ll get more from them in Parts Two and Three. There are a few new comic-specific characters that the plot focuses around, and none of them stood out to me. By far the least interesting parts of the comic were whenever they were on the page. Turf Wars would be better served in the future by focusing more on characters from the show rather than these new people, even if their introductions weren’t terrible or anything. That being said, I was really invested in the climax of this in a way that I’ve never been by any of the action sequences in the Avatar comics. The ending is excellent, and not because of the triad plot that comes to a head, but based how well it integrates characters from the show, in particular Korra and Asami whose relationship ties in prominently and very well.
Overall I’m just so happy with Turf Wars Part One. It follows up on Korra’s progressive and socially important ending by being progressive and socially important. As a Korra fan it was such a joy to read, filled with incredible moments from characters I love, and I hope the future Korra comics only build on this impressive characterization.
Turf Wars Part One is on sale in comic book stores July 26, and everywhere August 8. | 1,494 |
and then we crossed the road and looked over. The man was on the floor with blood.
‘He had a lightweight jacket on, dark trousers and a shirt.
‘He was running through those gates, towards Parliament, and the police were chasing him.’
Her partner David Turner added: ‘There was a stampede of people running out.
‘You saw the people and you thought ‘what the hell is going on’.’
The cordon in central London continues to get bigger (Picture: Reuters)
Armed police officers enter the Houses of Parliament (Picture: AP)
Paramedics treat an injured person on Westminster Bridge (Picture: Reuters)
(Picture: PA)
After the incident, Radoslaw Sikorski posted a video to Twitter purporting to show people lying injured in the road on Westminster Bridge.
Mr Sikorski, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Centre for European Studies, wrote: ‘A car on Westminster Bridge has just mowed down at least 5 people.’
Press Association Political Editor Andrew Woodcock witnessed the scenes unfolding from his office window overlooking New Palace Yard.
‘I heard shouts and screams from outside and looked out, and there was a group of maybe 40 or 50 people running round the corner from Bridge Street into Parliament Square,’ said Mr Woodcock.
‘They appeared to be running away from something. As the group arrived at the Carriage Gates, where policemen are posted at the security entrance, a man suddenly ran out of the crowd and into the yard. He seemed to be holding up a long kitchen knife.
Police are going through parliament floor by floor (Picture: EPA)
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Terror attack outside U.K. Parliament. 2 men down on road. Man with knife/machete got into Parliament and stabbed policeman. He's been shot pic.twitter.com/aYNktTiF4d — James West (@westicles69) March 22, 2017
A car on Westminster Bridge has just mowed down at least 5 people. pic.twitter.com/tdCR9I0NgJ — Radosław Sikorski (@sikorskiradek) March 22, 2017
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video | 1,495 |
A homeless man who suffered minor injuries when the skip bin he was sleeping in was emptied in the back of a rubbish truck has been offered emergency accommodation.
Key points: The skip bin at the back of a Vinnies op shop was tipped into the rubbish truck
The skip bin at the back of a Vinnies op shop was tipped into the rubbish truck He was discovered by the driver at the next stop and was rescued by the CFA
He was discovered by the driver at the next stop and was rescued by the CFA St Vincent de Paul said the man suffered minor injuries and had been offered emergency accommodation
The man, aged in his 30s, was asleep in a skip at the back of a Vinnies op shop in the northern Victorian town of Kerang when it was emptied into the truck about 7:50am.
The truck lifted the skip off the ground, over the cabin and dumped it into the back of the truck, with the man falling an estimated 2.5 metres.
Ramon Steel, the CFA brigade captain at Kerang, said the truck driver then continued on to another location.
"He had to get out of his truck to shift this particular bin … around so the forks will go into it," Mr Steel said.
"That's when he heard a gentleman yelling in the back of the truck.
"He was relatively unhurt. He had a soft landing in the garbage truck, [he was] just a little bit smelly."
The man fought his way up through the rubbish to get to the top of the truck.
"He managed to get up, probably climbing up on the rubbish and onto the roof of the truck," Mr Steel said.
"But it was far too slippery for him to get down so we were called to rescue him."
Man recovering from 'a bit of shock'
Mr Steel said the driver was in shock at making the discovery and it was lucky there was not too much rubbish in the truck.
"If he had have been compacting the truck, the outcome would've been much different," he said.
The man suffered a broken tooth and back injuries and discharged himself from hospital.
A spokesperson for the St Vincent de Paul Society said the man went back to the shop later to collect his belongings and had a coffee with the store manager who said he was recovering from "a bit of a shock".
The man is known to local volunteers who offered him emergency accommodation and other assistance. | 1,496 |
The ESO Council has now decided to start building the new large European telescope E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) on 1 January 2015. This begins the first phase of construction of the world’s largest telescope – with Danish participation.
Construction of the telescope is expected to cost 1.083 billion euros, or $1.34 billion (at 2012 prices). An optical and infrared telescope, the E-ELT will feature a gargantuan 39-meter aperture that will make the scope the “biggest eye on the sky” and give it unparalleled capabilities, according to the ESO. It is to be built atop Cerro Armazones, a 3,000-meter (10,000-foot) mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The desert is one of the driest regions on Earth and is considered one of the best places from which to observe the sky.
The new telescope will help researchers make new scientific discoveries within the areas of exoplanets (an exoplanet is a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun) and the composition of stars in both near and distant parts of the universe.
“This is fantastic news for Danish and European astronomy. The E-ELT is a flagship for the exploration of space and the areas of astrophysics that the E-ELT will give a huge boost to are absolutely central to Danish astrophysics. In particular, the two aforementioned areas of study, exoplanets and the most distant, first galaxies in the universe are very active research fields in Denmark. This is also very good news for the Danish universities who have chosen to invest considerable amounts of money into Danish participation in the project. Now the project is on track and we can finally begin to realise the dream,” says a very happy Johan Fynbo, Professor at the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.
Lisa Kaltenegger, Director of Pale Blue Dots, an institute that aims to study Earth-like planets, said in a statement that the power of the E-ELT will greatly help in gathering accurate data regarding life-sustaining features of other planets.
“We need big telescopes like this because Earth-like planets are smaller, and have relatively thin atmospheres – so we need to take in a lot of light to analyze them and search of potential signatures of life,” she said.
.
Source: https://goo.gl/0XFhCA. | 1,497 |
hints at a much more plausible reason. The series is, she said, “a forensic look” at Thatcher’s “impact and legacy on all corners and all aspects of British life.”
Note the “British”. It suggests, yet again, that Northern Ireland is not regarded as truly British.
Why does TV news use so many vox pops?
I now find myself paraphrasing Brenda from Bristol’s reaction to news of the 2017 election: “You’re joking. Not another bloody vox pop. Oh, for God’s sake.” Brenda is the only vox popper ever to make a memorable contribution to such an artless form of newsgathering.
That’s the problem, because reporters bearing microphones, cameras at their shoulder, now haunt the streets of Britain in the hope of finding another Brenda, another piece of comedy gold. After all, it’s about entertaining viewers rather than informing them, is it not?
Brenda from Bristol was horrified that Theresa May called for a snap general election. Photograph: BBC
Ivor Gaber, professor of political journalism at Sussex University and a former TV and radio news broadcaster, believes the overuse of vox pops has reached its apotheosis during the Brexit coverage, which has been skewed heavily towards those opposed to EU membership.
He imagines the thought process of news editors: “Let’s do vox pops in a solid leaver area where we’ll get people to say, ‘Why don’t they just get on with it’. Much better than a remain area where they’re likely to say, ‘Well, on the one hand …’”
I can’t be sure of the political slant because I haven’t studied the output as closely as Gaber. But every time I see a vox pop about any subject, whether on the BBC, ITV or Sky, I know it is not going to reveal anything of any value.
In a piece defending the practice, Mark Easton, the BBC’s home affairs editor, argued that vox pops are “a vital ingredient in trying to understand Britain”.
Sorry Mark, that just isn’t so. If you want to be sure, why not go into the street and ask people if vox pops help them understand anything? But please don’t broadcast the result. | 1,498 |
luck in the struggle.”
We spoke then about the situation in Germany, particularly the impending “Unity Congress” of the old Spartacists and the Left wing of the Independents. Thereupon, Lenin left in a hurry, exchanging friendly greetings with several comrades working in the room he had had to cross.
I set about the preparatory work with high hopes. However, the congress floundered, because it was opposed by the German and Bulgarian women comrades who were then leaders of the biggest communist women’s movements outside Soviet Russia. They were flatly against calling the congress.
When I informed Lenin of this he answered:
“It is a pity, a great pity! These comrades missed a splendid opportunity to give a new and better outlook of hope for the masses of women and thereby to draw them into the revolutionary struggles of the proletariat. Who can tell whether such a favourable opportunity will recur in the near future? One should strike while the iron is hot. But the task remains. You must look for a way to reach the masses of women whom capitalism has plunged into dire need. You must look for it on all accounts. There is no evading this imperative task. Without the organized activity of the masses under communist leadership there can be no victory over capitalism and no building of communism. And so the hitherto dormant masses of women must be finally set into motion.”
* * *
The first year spent by the revolutionary proletariat without Lenin has passed. It has shown the strength of his cause. It has proved the leader’s great genius. It has shown how great and irreplaceable the loss has been. Salvoes mark the sad hour when Lenin closed his far-seeing, penetrating eyes for ever, a year ago. I see an endless procession of mourning working people, as they go to Lenin’s resting-place. Their mourning is my mourning, the mourning of the millions. My newly-awakened grief evokes overwhelming memories in me of the reality that makes the painful present recede. I hear again every word Lenin spoke in conversation with me. I see every change in his face... Banners are lowered at Lenin’s tomb. They are banners steeped in the blood of fighters for the revolution. Laurel wreaths are laid. Not one of them is superfluous. And I add to them these modest lines.
Note
1*. Inessa Armand. – Ed.
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Last updated on 29.2.2004 | 1,499 |
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