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Spain's socialist government is going to dig up the remains of nationalist leader Francisco Franco against the wishes of his family because Spaniards on the far-right "glorify" him to this day.
From BBC:
Spain's Supreme Court has ruled that the remains of dictator Francisco Franco should be exhumed.
It backed the Socialist government's plan to move the remains from a state mausoleum to a less controversial site.
An appeal by Franco's family against the exhumation and proposing an alternative site was rejected. The issue has divided opinion in Spain, which remains haunted by the Franco era. He won the 1930s civil war and went on to rule Spain until 1975.
In a unanimous ruling, the court said it had decided to "completely reject the appeal lodged by the family in relation to Francisco Franco's exhumation".
In a tweet (in Spanish), Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hailed the decision as a "great victory for democracy". Digging up dead people's graves is peak democracy! The government argued that the former dictator should not be placed anywhere where he could be glorified. More from TIME:
Franco’s exhumation tends to divide Spaniards along party lines. A 2018 poll for Spanish daily El Mundo found that 62.6% of Socialist voters back the exhumation, compared to just 13.1% of supporters of the main centre-right Popular Party. Lawmakers of rightwing parties abstained from a vote to legalize the exhumation in 2018. The leader of the right-wing Vox party criticized the move:
Santiago Abascal (VOX):
"Legal or not, the gov's intention is to desecrate tombs against family's wishes. We will always oppose digging up the dead and the hatred of the past. Let's look to the future because we love Spain & want harmony amongst Spaniards" https://t.co/xEkivvUx2a — Spain's Memory Wars (@SpainMemoryWars) September 24, 2019
Anyone want to wager how long it will be until leftoids in America start digging up the graves of our Founding Fathers and throwing them in garbage cans so they can't be "glorified"?
#BREAKING Protesters in #Durham topple confederate monument downtown pic.twitter.com/a3BNIavyxC — Derrick Lewis (@DerrickQLewis) August 14, 2017
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| 3,200 |
Highway 63, which stretches the length of Missouri and runs through Columbia, Jefferson City and Rolla, has the highest rate of fatal crashes over the past decade of any road in the state, according to a new report.
Fleet management company Geotab compiled data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration to calculate the roads with the highest fatal-crash rate in each state.
Highway 63 saw 158 crashes and 179 fatalities in the past 10 years.
State Rep. Don Mayhew, R-Crocker, said he is not surprised by those numbers. He routinely drives a twisted, two-lane section of 63 to go back and forth from his home to Jefferson City.
“It’s not a safe road,” Crocker said.
The Missouri Department of Transportation estimates it would cost about $300 million to upgrade the length of 63 to make it all a four-lane, divided expressway.
Mayhew said MoDOT did a study last year to see what safety improvements could be made to the most dangerous parts of the road. The $20 million price tag for that work would still be a tough sell in tight budget times, he said.
“Those would be some intersection improvements and some passing lanes. Not the ideal of course,” Mayhew said. “But I think if we can figure out some way to get the $20 million worth of improvements funded, I think it’s going to help the situation a lot.”
Mayhew said he will try to break those upgrades into smaller projects.
“Quite honestly, until we have or figure out some kind of dedicated revenue source for the highway department, it’s probably not realistic to think we are going to end up with $20 million all in one place at one time,” Mayhew said.
Mayhew said that dedicated source could be a gas tax, but even that would not be the long-term solution. Voters in November rejected a gradual gas-tax hike from 17 cents to 27 cents by 2022.
“Cars get better gas mileage and use less gas. So we have twice as many cars on the road, doing twice the damage, using the same amount of gas,” Mayhew said. “A per-gallon gas tax would only hold us for a while. There has to be another dedicated revenue source.”
Follow Jonathan on Twitter: @JonathanAhl
Send questions and comments about this story to [email protected] | 3,201 |
The national parks brought in nearly $36 billion for the economy last year, the highest amount in at least six years, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Wednesday.
The annual report touts the economic value the parks generate for their surrounding communities and the nation. Zinke had recently sought to double and triple entrance fees at parks to pay for maintenance, but pared back the plan after public outcry opposing the rate hikes.
“This report illustrates the incredible economic value of our national parks, and further shows the value in President Trump's plan to rebuild park infrastructure,” Zinke said.
The report showed visitor spending in communities near national parks generated $35.8 billion in benefits to the nation’s economy, which the Interior Department said was almost a $1 billion increase from 2016.
The National Parks did do well over the past five years, with 2017 being one of the highest for economic output in past two years. Yet, the numbers cited by the Interior Department don't seem to add up to support a near $1 billion increase from 2016.
In the past year of the Obama administration — and the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service — the parks had more visitors than in 2017, higher visitor spending, and more jobs supported than in the first year of the Trump administration.
Yet, in 2017 the total aggregated economic benefit from parks equaled $35.8 billion, while in 2016 the parks only raised $34.9 billion.
In 2017, the lodging sector saw the biggest direct contributions with $5.5 billion in economic output and 49,000 jobs, while the restaurant sector generated the second-greatest activity of $3.7 billion for local economies and 60,500 jobs.
"The variation in estimates is due to a data update to the system used for the estimates," said a National Park Service spokesman. Basically, a change added to the software the park service uses estimated an increase in output per worker from a previous data set, which "increased the total estimated economic output while estimating slightly lower numbers for earnings and jobs."
Multipliers differ between the 2013 and updated 2015 software data sets used for the 2016 and 2017 visitor spending analyses, according to the agency.
"Overall, jobs and labor income multipliers are relatively smaller in the 2015 IMPLAN data set compared to the 2013 IMPLAN data set; this reflects an increase in output per worker and explains why economic output estimates increased for 2017 while earnings and jobs decreased," according to the park service.
• This article has been updated to add the park service's explanation of the data. | 3,202 |
An image of the Nexus 7 tablet was just spotted on Google's internal servers, but it now appears there's another device that Google will announce at its annual developer conference today: the Nexus Q.
It's a home media center device that plugs into your television and powered by Android, Google's smartphone operating system. You can control the device with an Android smartphone or tablet.
It will cost $299, according to the Google Play store.
You can access movies and music you've bought through Google (as well as YouTube videos) and play them on your television, or through speakers you plug into it, like the Apple TV.
You can follow the full announcement on our live blog.
A landing page for the Nexus Q has also appeared on the Google Play store. Here's the description of the device:
Nexus Q streams your favorite entertainment from Google Play and YouTube to the biggest speakers and screen in the house
Q THE MUSIC... and thousands of HD Movies, TV shows and YouTube videos. Browse all your favorite entertainment from your phone or tablet and play it instantly on Nexus Q.
TURN IT UP Power a pair of bookshelf speakers directly with Nexus Q’s built in 25W amp, or connect Nexus Q to your AV receiver or HDTV. Sync multiple Nexus Qs to fill your house with sound.
PLAY TOGETHER Anyone in the room can use their Android phone or tablet to control what’s playing and add their own entertainment to the mix.
Requirements
Phone or Tablet running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or higher with access to Google Play
Wi-Fi use requires 802.11a/b/g/n access point (router)
Compatible speakers, AV system or HD TV
Here are all the specs:
Die-cast, precision machined zinc bottom housing.injection-molded, interactive balanced top dome with precision bearing and satin touch coating
32 RGB perimeter LEDs, 1 RGB LED for mute indicator
Google Play Music, Google Play Movies and TV, YouTube supported
OMAP4460 (dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and SGX540 graphics core)
Rotating top dome volume control, c apacitive touch sensor for mute on/off
Micro HDMI (Type D), TOSLink Optical audio (S/PDIF), 10/100BASE-T Ethernet (RJ45), Micro AB USB (for service and support), Banana jack speaker outputs
Here's a video of how it works: | 3,203 |
Nineteen Sig Ep brothers remain after national membership review
by The Dartmouth Senior Staff |
by Naomi Lam / The Dartmouth
UPDATED: April 25, 2018, at 7:11 p.m.
Nineteen members of Dartmouth’s chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity were invited back to the fraternity following a membership review instituted by their national organization, according to a member of Sig Ep who was not invited back after his review. Before the review, there were 102 active members.
Of the 19, one is a member of the Class of 2018, three are members of the Class of 2019 and 15 are members of the Class of 2020, according to the former member. He said that to his knowledge, based off of conversations with other Dartmouth Sig Eps, at least 62 of the chapter’s members chose to pursue the membership review.
College spokesperson Diana Lawrence confirmed that invitations were extended to 19 members. She also added that the college recognizes Sig Ep's ability to select their own members as a private, self-selecting organization.
Those who were not invited back following the membership review or who chose not to participate will remain as suspended members as long as they "remain in good standing with SigEp New Hampshire Alpha until graduation," according to an email sent to suspended members by chapter services director Paul Andersen. Suspended members are not permitted to identify as members of the fraternity, attend any house events or meetings or wear any clothing associated with Sig Ep, according to Andersen's email. They may earn alumni status upon graduation, though members may also choose to resign. Members who were not invited were also given the right to appeal the decision by Apr. 24.
The Dartmouth Sig Ep chapter, formally known as New Hampshire Alpha, was suspended on March 26 by Sig Ep National pending the membership review. The suspension came following risk concerns and worries that the house would not be able to comply with a substance-free policy from Sig Ep National. Brothers who wished to regain full standing were required to interview with a review board consisting of Sig Ep alumni, volunteers and Headquarters staff and to supply their academic transcript, conduct record and financial information.
“Knowing that this was a difficult decision, Sigma Phi Epsilon Headquarters and your alumni and volunteers ask that you continue to conduct yourself with the behavior that befits a SigEp and a student of Dartmouth College,” Andersen wrote. “Doing so will benefit all of those invested in the chapter, your friends, yourself, and provide for the future successes of Sigma Phi Epsilon at Dartmouth College.”
This article will be updated as additional information becomes available. | 3,204 |
Are you going to see 'Captain Marvel'? Look out for Oxnard
March seems a bit early for the county fair.
But on an eight-acre property in Oxnard, a carousel, spinning tea cups and a cotton candy stand are ready for business.
Not actual business, but the business of more than 100 extras on Marvel’s latest film set. Filming of “Captain Marvel” begins Friday morning at the Jim Hall Racing Club near Rice Avenue and Fifth Street.
On Tuesday, Oxnard Assistant City Manager Jesus Nava told the City Council that a film crew of 150 people with approximately 135 extras will be in town to shoot a film set in 1986 starring Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson.
Oscar winner Larson is cast as the lead superheroine in “Captain Marvel,” scheduled to be released in March 2019.
This week, the racing tracks were turned into a carnival scene. Crews started setting up on Monday and will wrap up Sunday.
Jim Hall, owner of the kart racing business, said his outdoor facility now looks like a county fair from the 1980s or ’90s.
“We just rented them a facility and were told we’re a gem in the rough,” Hall said. “We’re honored for that. It will be neat to be featured.”
REVIEW: 'Captain Marvel' sparkles as intro to Brie Larson's work-in-progress warrior
Hall said he’s been observing and dispensing advice as crews prepare to film a go-cart scene. The sun is expected to make an appearance during filming on Friday for the summertime scenes. Most of the week during setup, however, the weather has been stormy.
It’s not the first time Hall has caught the eye of Hollywood with his high-performance car and kart racing business. Hall said actors Patrick Dempsey and Josh Brolin have come to race before.
To make way for the filming, Hall closed his business for a week, informing members that they would get credit for not being able to drive on the tracks during this time.
Just two weeks ago, TV crews came to downtown Oxnard to shoot scenes of a new ABC show, “The Rookie.” The crews were there for three days setting up and filming at the Bank of A. Levy building on Fifth and A streets. According to social media reports, actors Nathan Fillion and Julie Ann Emery were in the scenes shot in Oxnard.
READ MORE: | 3,205 |
SANTA FE, N.M.— The New Mexico Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide once and for all whether same-sex marriage should be legal statewide after several counties recently began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, prompting a legal challenge.
Stepping into an intensifying debate over same-sex marriage in a state where such unions are neither expressly recognized nor prohibited by law, the high court set a hearing for Oct. 23 to consider a request from all 33 counties statewide to settle the matter.
All five of the justices concurred in ordering a review of the case without comment.
The justices had previously declined to intervene on the issue, saying they would leave it to the lower courts to rule on lawsuits being filed in different counties.
In August, a district judge in Santa Fe, the capital, ruled that New Mexico's constitution didn't bar same-sex matrimony and ordered a local government clerk there to either issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or appear in court to explain why she couldn't.
Days later, a district judge in Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry violates state constitutional provisions guaranteeing equal protection under the law and barring gender-based discrimination.
The 33 county clerks, meanwhile, joined by the New Mexico Association of Counties, subsequently petitioned the high court to weigh in on the decision and decide whether the judge's ruling should extend statewide.
Separately, several Republican lawmakers filed a lawsuit challenging a Dona Ana County clerk who began voluntarily handing out marriage licenses to same-sex couples last month. Several counties have done likewise since then, some on their own and some under court order.
Both sides in the debate welcomed the intervention of the Supreme Court.
"I think it's excellent," said state Rep. Anna Crook, a Republican from the town of Clovis, one of 29 lawmakers who have so far joined the lawsuit in Dona Ana County. "It's been absolute chaos. We need to have a ruling one way or the other instead of'my county can, yours can't.'"
A statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, representing couples in the Bernalillo County case, said gay rights proponents hope Friday's move "will lead to a speedy decision establishing the freedom to marry for all same-sex couples in New Mexico."
If same-sex marriage supporters prevail, New Mexico would join 13 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing same-sex matrimony.
Related:
As courts weigh issue, NM county issues same-sex marriage licenses | 3,206 |
The South Korea government was still reeling Wednesday after former U.S. President Bill Clinton's surprise visit to North Korea.
A senior government official said, "The worst-case scenario for us would be to see the repetition of the nightmare of 1994." At the time, the South Korean government was completely left out in the cold as the U.S. and North Korea concluded the Geneva Agreed Framework in the wake of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's visit to Pyongyang.
Under the deal, South Korea had to bear most of the construction costs for a light-water reactor that was to be traded for the North's closure of its plutonium-producing nuclear plant in Yongbyon.
"It's important for us to maintain close cooperation with the U.S. to prevent us from being left out in the cold as in 1994," the official added.
But a Unification Ministry official said a repeat of that disaster is unlikely. "At the moment, North Korea is excited with memories of 1994, but it seems most likely that Clinton's visit was a kind of one-point relief pitch aimed at winning the release of the American journalists. We need to watch how Washington and Pyongyang will go ahead with their dialogue," he said.
His rationale was that Carter visited Pyongyang in 1994 expressly to find a solution to the nuclear issue, while Clinton visited to seek the release of the two U.S. reporters who had been sentenced to hard labor for illegally entering the country.
Especially, the government is concerned about the possibility of the critical public opinion seething over Seoul failing to seek the release of a South Korean man detained at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
A Cheong Wa Dae official claimed there had been a "sharing of views" between South Korea and the U.S. over humanitarian issues such as the female journalists under detention and the South Korean man held incommunicado at Kaesong before Clinton went to Pyongyang. "I believe there'll also be progress in the issue of the South Korean man under detention," he said.
So far, however, North Korea has said nothing about the man, identified as Yoo, who has been held incommunicado for 129 days, and the crew of a South Korean fishing boat 800 Yeonan towed to the North on July 30.
In a press briefing, the ministry said, "The government is watching closely how the release of the female journalists will affect the issues of the South Korean staffer at Kaesong or the Yeonan. It's still too early to judge what kind of effect their release will have on these issues." | 3,207 |
View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.
A man caught impersonating a pilot was arrested after he boarded a plane scheduled to fly from Philadelphia International Airport to West Palm Beach, Fla, authorities said.
Philippe Jernnard, 61, of France, boarded the US Airways flight Wednesday night, according to the FBI.
NBC10's Rosemary Connors talked with airport police Capt. Michael Murphy who says that Jernnard was wearing an Air France shirt, had an Air France bag and presented a ticket to the gate agent and walked onto the plane.
Jernnard does not work for Air France, the airline said in a statement released Friday. "This person was not wearing an Air France uniform, badge or carrying an Air France crew baggage," the statement said. "Regarding the badge, it was a very poor fake badge, which in no way resembled the Air France Crew Member Certificate."
The gate agent told authorities that Jernnard had asked if there was any room in first class and was told "no."
According to the arrest report, Jernnard became irate after being told "no" and told her that he hated Americans and began to argue with her.
When the gate agent finished boarding the flight and went to close the plane's doors for takeoff, the arrest report states that she saw Jernnard sitting in the jump seat behind the captain's seat and his carry-on bag was stowed in the cockpit.
“She just assumes he takes his seat in coach and when she goes in to inform co-captain of the number of passengers on the flight that’s when she kind of recognizes he’s out of place,” said Philadelphia Police Lt. John Walker.
According to the arrest report, the agent told Jernnard that he couldn't sit there unless he filled out paperwork and the captain told him to return to his assigned seat.
Read more from NBC10.com
Police say Jernnard started arguing and that's when they notified authorities.
The captain and first officer told authorities the man told them he was a pilot with Air France and knew how to fly 747s, but they became suspicious when he couldn't figure out how to open the jump seat.
After Jernnard was taken off the plane, police found an Air France ID card that had been changed to match his name.
Jernnard was arrested and charged with criminal trespass, tampering with records, impersonating a person privately employed and false ID to law enforcement. He will be charged federally Friday morning. | 3,208 |
We have told the story before about how we stumbled into beekeeping. Our first year as beekeepers we were able to attract a swarm directly into a hive without much effort. Last season we got 4 the same way (although one entered the owl box) and even caught one on video. So this year we have our method pretty much figured out and are hoping last year wasn't a fluke. Here's what we do.
We start by getting a normal hive ready. We use all medium sized frames and boxes. We use all foundationless frames to let our bees build their own wax. Our swarm traps are really a full hive setup, with a base board, a box, 10 frames, and inner and outer covers. We tend to look for hives that have already been used by the bees. This year we have a couple of boxes we removed from the hives to consolidate them for winter that should work better for swarm attraction.
After we setup the hive we then take a small ziplock bag and stuff a paper towel inside and then wet the paper with lemongrass oil. We then close the ziplock almost all the way leaving a small entrance for the smell to get out slowly. That bag gets dropped to the bottom of the hive. We also drop a couple of drops of lemongrass oil on the flying board to help attract swarm scouts looking for locations to test out. You can replace the lemongrass with a number of industrial attractants although we've never tried them.
Once we have the hive fully assembled and with the lemongrass attractant deployed we set it somewhere where it's not in the way and make sure the hive is level. That's particularly important as we're using foundationless frames. Bees will follow gravity and build their wax hanging down vertically. If the hive wasn't level the combs wouldn't be aligned with the frames. So far we've set out 4 hives in a few spots. We've doubled down on the wooded area where last year we caught two large swarms. We're now completely out of hives and thinking of how many we want to order from our typical supplier.
Our main idea is to set out full hives that we can then just move into the bee yard without any other intervention. Moving them once they are full is a little harder than if we were using a lighter box but we've managed fine so far. If you want to look into this in more detail there was a pretty large study done on what characteristics will attract swarms. The main outcome of the study is the following list of characteristics of the optimum swarm trap: | 3,209 |
Moody’s report predicts challenging times for sports channels
Add Moody’s Investors Service to the list of analysts predicting tough times ahead for sports channels.
In a recent report, Moody’s offers a particularly negative assessment of pay-TV channels, suggesting that the cable bundle will wither away at some point in the not-so-distant future. The service warns that distributors and TV channels need to reach a “grand bargain” to keep the business afloat.
“However, we do not expect that leadership or consensus to materialize easily if at all, so disruption and headline risk will continue to be the default environment for big media,” writes Moody’s Senior Vice President Neil Begley in the report.
All pay-TV channels will be affected, but it’s sports channels — which have expensive long-term contracts with leagues — that face the biggest risks, Moody’s says. The problem is that subscribers increasingly are cutting the cord, which will lead to a drop in affiliate and advertising revenue for both national and local sports channels.
Moody’s believes companies like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu are poised to step in and begin competing for local media rights once teams’ deals with traditional sports channels expire.
“Regional sports networks … will likely see a significant drop-off in subs when teams are inactive and under-performing, which could result in some mergers between RSNs,” the report warned. “High-dollar commitments for long-term contracts for the RSN rights in the face of lower subscribers and ad revenues in a direct-to-consumer environment could spell disaster for many RSNs and the teams they are linked to. Overall, we expect much greater credit risk to fixed long-term sports rights contracts and pain for leagues and players unless the disruptors fill the void and open their wallets.”
Moody’s predicted that sports networks will end up launching over-the-top systems that bypass the traditional pay-TV bundle. But that solution is unlikely to be successful, as RSNs would have to charge consumers exorbitant fees to make up for the money they’d be losing in affiliate revenue.
Rich Greenfield, a media analyst with BTIG Research, said RSNs may be better positioned than national sports channels to weather the storm because of the appetite for local sports. But Moody’s Begley, in an interview, said his concern is that if RSNs pursue OTT options, consumers will subscribe only seasonally. | 3,210 |
Dubs listed with March 15 premiere date
Funimation Entertainment is listing the Garo the Animation and Rage of Bahamut: Genesis anime series with dubs. Both dubbed series are listed with a March 15 premiere date.
Funimation describes Garo the Animation :
The King's close advisor implemented a large-scale witch-hunt. The tragic victims of this hunt were not witches, however, but Makai Knights and Makai Priests. One Makai Priestess gave birth to a child while being burned at the stake. That child carried the bloodlines of the Golden Knight. Although he was saved by his father, a Makai Knight himself, the newborn, León Luís, suffered greatly from the unjust death of his mother. And so he vowed to learn the ways of a Makai Knight from his father, Germán Luís, and use his training to seek revenge. During his battles against the demons known as “Horrors,” León must gradually approach reality and accept the truth. Meanwhile, the powerful former adviser to the King, Mendoza, banished Prince Alfonso and his mother while the king was bedridden. Eager to reclaim his kingdom and save his people, Alfonso embarks on a quest to find the legendary Knight – but destiny holds a twist of fate in store for him. Together, León and Alfonso begin long and difficult journey filled with many hardships.
The series premiered in October 2014. Funimation streamed the series as it aired in Japan. The series is the first animation installment in the popular GARO franchise that since 2005 has spawned multiple television series and movies. The second GARO anime, Garo: Crimson Moon, premiered last October. Funimation is streaming the series as it airs in Japan.
Funimation describes Rage of Bahamut: Genesis :
Two thousand years ago, the black-and-silver-winged dragon, Bahamut, terrorized the magical land of Mistarcia. The humans, god, and demons that inhabited the land united forces against the fiend and sealed its power into a key which was split in two, one half protected by gods and the other protected by demons. Now, Mistarcia is a peaceful realm – until a human woman steals the god's half of the key.
The series premiered in October 2014. Funimation streamed the series as it aired in Japan. A second season and a spinoff, Rage of Bahamut: Manaria Friends, have been green-lit, with the latter slated to premiere in April.
Thanks to Matoro for the news tip. | 3,211 |
Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Housing, Planning and Local Government, Barry Cowen TD has today launched a new bill that will help to increase transparency in home buying bidding.
The Property Services Regulatory Authority (Amendment) (Bidding Transparency) Bill 2017 puts in place a 10 day statutory timeline for the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PRSA) to confirm the existence of other bids on a property with the estate agent.
Deputy Cowen said that: “This bill is designed to ensure that the practise of non-existent bids being used to drive up house prices is ended by opening up information on the bid during the process, and not afterwards as is effectively the case at present.
“Failure to adhere to the proposed law would result in a Class A fine of €5,000.
“Buying a home is the biggest financial decision a person or family will ever make. It is an incredibly stressful time which is currently being compounded by the scale of the housing crisis in Ireland.
“Dishonest practises such as fake bids make this tense situation a lot worse. We have anecdotal evidence that the current bidding process is not transparent. While there is a complaints procedure is rarely used, and is not fit for purpose as it quite a lengthy and time consuming process. And such is the nature of the problem, by the time a decision has been made, the house has, in most cases, been sold to another buyer.
“Our bill puts in place a swift 10 day mechanism for a potential buyer to confirm the existence of what they believe to be a suspicious, potentially fake, third party bid they believe is being used to drive up the sale price.
“Estate Agents will have to provide the PSRA the details confirming the suspect bid and the PSRA will then confirm it to the complainant. Failure to provide the information will result in a hefty fine and further investigation.
“The national average list price is now almost €241,000, 8.9% higher than just 12 months ago. The housing crisis is making the dream of home ownership even more unobtainable for many young families who are starting out in life.
“Dishonest practises such as fake bids are only worsening the situation. While not a silver bullet to all the challenges in the housing market, it will shed light on the process, provide transparency, and ensure that all parties are operating fairly.
“It will help put an end to exploitive practises and create an even playing pitch for all would be home buyers,” concluded Cowen. | 3,212 |
Woman who duped her 11 husbands arrested
NOIDA: It could well be the real-life enactment of the Bollywood film, Dolly Ki Doli. Like Sonam Kapoor, who plays the devious dulhan in the movie, Megha Bhargav too saw matrimony as her road to wealth, so much so that the 28-year-old sat on the wedding mandap allegedly with 11 wealthy men. If police had not caught up with her in Noida on Saturday, her hoard of gold and silver jewellery would have presumably gone up, given her modus operandi of dumping husbands and vanishing with their riches.The tipoff came after Loren Justin of Kochi registered a case in October against his “wife” Megha, who, he alleged, had disappeared with jewellery worth Rs 15 lakh sometime after the nuptials.After a two-month probe, a police team from Kerala, assisted by Noida Police, arrested Bhargav, her sister Prachi and her brother-in-law Devendra Sharma from Amrapali Zodiac Society in Sector 120.Justin was the fourth man from Kerala that Bhargav had duped, the Kerala cops realised. She had married three others earlier and left them similarly poorer though only Justin approached the police.The investigators said the woman would identify rich but matrimonially disadvantaged men — divorcees, those with physical disabilities, or dark-complexioned aspirants who despaired of ever finding partners — and win them over. After marrying them, she would stay with them for a while, biding her time till an opportune moment when she could spike a beverage with sedatives and make off with all the valuables in the house.“Since the bride was good looking, several men easily fell into her trap,” said inspector Sunil of Kerala Police. The woman was helped in identifying the carefully researched victims by an associate called Mahendra, who is being pursued by police, having escaped Saturday’s raid in Noida.The police team from Kerala had reached Noida last week in Bhargav’s pursuit and had started tracking the location of the con woman. They finally brought her run to an end on Saturday.After her arrest, Bhargav, originally a resident of Indore, admitted to having married four men, including Justin. However, she vehemently denied that she had duped them. She claimed she opted out of the marriages when her relationship with her “husbands” deteriorated. The 28-year-old has been taken to Kochi on a transit remand to face charges there. | 3,213 |
Lately I have really been noticing how bright the evenings are getting and it makes me very happy and positive! I am planning to do loads of hiking and exploring nature this year so I can’t wait until the days are little bit longer to facilitate this better. I am yet to see my first snowdrop, but they are out, and the other spring flowers will be following soon. Although sadly the seasons are getting increasingly altered -I did a double take when I spotted my favourite tree, cherry, fully blossoming in the middle of december so perhaps I shouldn’t be using flowers to gauge the arrival of spring!
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Although spring is somewhat in the air, it’s not quite in the weather yet, and here in Ireland the coldest winter weather can last into March so I am still making lots of warming winter dishes like this creamy roasted root vegetable soup. Root veggies such as these are in season here at the moment, making them plentiful and cheap. Roasting the vegetables and using fresh herbs instead of dried really adds flavour to this soup, while the cashew nuts add a creamy texture along with some extra protein. I brought a big tub of this in to work for my lunches last week. I had no wheat free bread so I dipped dark rye crispbreads in to it which was delicious!
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I made this soup in my new high powered blender, my new favourite thing! I’ve been having green smoothies every morning for breakfast made with my own homemade almond milk, and love making my own blend of almond butter with a hint of coconut. I had been wanting to get a Vitamix for months, but I couldn’t justify the expense. I ended up buying a similar blender for half the price, but with all the same functionality. Time will tell if I would have been better off buying the Vitamix but my brand has a seven year warranty so that sounds good to me! I think that the extra money would just have be paying for the brand name!
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Obviously I am going to be using my blender for a lot of recipes from now on, but I still want my recipes to be adaptable and accessible,, so wherever possible I will adapt the recipe to be made with more standard kitchen equipment also. Take this soup for example -I made mine in the blender but you can make it on the stove also. If you don’t have a high powdered blender to blend the cashews, use unsweetened almond milk instead to add some creaminess. I list both ways in the recipe below.
INGREDIENTS: | 3,214 |
Unboxing
I unboxed Lunar Soil Sample first, the biggest one in the bunch. This is Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean on the surface of the moon. Pete Conrad is reflected in Bean's visor. I ordered this as a 24" x 24" print with a 2.5" mat. The wall space I had in mind for this big one was an empty wall over my bed.
Before unboxing any more I decided to move them to a carpeted floor. I didn't want to scratch the wood finish once I removed the protective corner pieces.
Above: The five prints shown are Lunar Soil Sample, Earth From The Moon, A Vision of Pluto, The Day The Earth Smiled, and Shadows and Rings.
Above: unwrapping Europa, the last print in the collection
Above: the black framed prints together and unwrapped.
I used white maple frames for the two saturn prints to differentiate them a little. These are gorgeous photos taken by the Cassini spacecraft.
The print on the left (The Day the Earth Smiled) is only the third time that Earth has been imaged from the outer solar system. Earth can be seen as a little blue dot near the rings. This photo marked the first time that people of Earth knew we were being imaged.
The print on the right Shadows and Rings) depicts the interplay of Saturn's shadows and rings. Mimas, a moon of Saturn, appears in the lower-right corner of the image.
The prints have different widths but the same height, so they look good next to each other on a wall.
Hanging
I started with my bedroom. I have a big blank orange wall behind my bed and I decided to put Earth From The Moon and Lunar Soil Sample on this wall.
I really like the lighting effect of my bedside lamp beneath Earth From The Moon.
Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, is thought to be the most likely candidate in our solar system to harbor life. This image was taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft and depicts the cracks and patterns of its puzzling icy crust.
I did something different with this print and put it on the living room bookshelf, rather than hanging it on a wall. I had this printed in black and white, but the color version is also very nice. The color version has vibrant reddish tones on the surface.
-- Damian Sowers
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The Musicians’ Union is calling on Government and Parliament to back a Musicians' Passport for musicians working in the EU post-Brexit.
Please sign the petition to show your support.
The Musicians' Passport must:
Last a minimum of two years
Be free or cheap
Cover all EU member states
Get rid of the need for carnets and other permits
Cover road crew, technicians and other staff necessary for musicians to do their job
Most musicians and performers rely on touring and performing in the European Union to make a living.
Musicians, and other creative and cultural workers, are a distinct workforce with specific needs. Visa and customs rules post-Brexit need to account for that.
The Musicians' Passport must be affordable, multi-entry and admin-light.
Placing costly and resource heavy barriers to that could have a severe impact on working and aspiring musicians – as well as the broader UK music industry.
Musicians already have experience with difficult visa systems. It can cost thousands to take a band to the United States, and the cost of fast-track visa processing fees have just gone up 15%. Musicians have voiced their fears that something similar might happen with the European Union, to devastating effect.
The Musicians' Passport should cover all EU member states.
Musicians visit multiple countries on tour, often jumping across borders on a daily basis, often with very little notice.
If every musician has to get a visa and carnet for every country they visit, it will make any work in Europe impossible to schedule regardless of whether they are an emerging band or a world-renowned orchestra.
The lack of clarity on the future of musicians working in the EU is already having an impact.
MU members are already moving to Europe because they are worried about their future work; to get jobs, to make sure they can get work later, to travel, and to collaborate.
It’s also about who we are
“Music and the performing arts rely on exchange of ideas and interaction between performers of different nationalities. We love working in the EU and we love artists coming over here. If musicians can't travel easily both ways, our reputation as a country that embraces all arts and culture will be severely damaged. Our members' ability to earn a living will also be severely affected” – Horace Trubridge, MU General Secretary and founder member of Darts
Let touring musicians travel
Protect the music you love. Sign the petition for a Musicians' Passport. | 3,216 |
'I Remember the Day You Raped Me': Tx. Teacher Allegedly Sexually Abused Boy at Her Parents’ Home
A Texas substitute teacher has been accused of sexually abusing a teenage student for two years beginning with a tryst at her parent’s home.
Olivia Huerta, 23, was a teacher at Sam Rayburn High School in Pasadena, Texas. According to a charging affidavit first obtained by the Houston Chronicle, Huerta began a relationship with the boy when he was 16 years old. She has been charged with two second-degree felonies: improper relationship with a student and sexual assault of a child between 14 and 17 years old.
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According to KHOU-TV, the alleged victim told a classmate about the sexual relationship; the classmate then notified the school administrators, who then called police.
In a police interview, the boy told police he met Huerta when she substituted in one of his classes in early 2018. He alleges he walked with Huerta to her parents’ home, which was near the school. That’s where, he says, she allegedly sexually assaulted him for the first time. The relationship allegedly continued for almost two years.
The charging document alleges Huerta gave a graphic confession to police in which she admits to walking with him to her parents’ home to have sex. Police allegedly found messages on Huerta’s phone between the two where he tells her, “I remember the day you raped me,” the charging document alleges.
According to the court documents, Huerta also admitted to communicating with the student via Snapchat.
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The school district says in a statement that they are complying with the investigation. “The administration at Sam Rayburn High School immediately notified district administration and the Pasadena ISD Police Department,” the district wrote. “The accused individual was promptly removed from campus and is no longer employed by Pasadena ISD. The District has provided notice to the Texas Education Agency as required by law.”
PEOPLE confirms Huerta is free on $20,000 bond. She has not yet entered a plea. Court records do not reflect an attorney authorized to speak on her behalf.
As a condition to her bond, Huerta may not have any contact with the student she is accused of sexually assaulting. | 3,217 |
the funding necessary to build the infrastructure and housing we need in Hawaii to support our men and women in uniform. I will see to it that the government continues to provide whatever the military needs to perform their duties and return home safe to their families and loved ones. The construction projects included in these bills will also create much needed jobs for Hawaii’s construction industry. The Committee’s action on the Department of Veterans Affairs budget continues our efforts to improve care for our veterans, many of whom will be returning to Hawaii as we wind down the war in Afghanistan. Finally, I am pleased the Department of Homeland Security bill supported requests which will help keep our communities in Hawaii safe by supporting the Coast Guard’s many missions and preserving Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for the state and county governments in Hawaii. I would urge my colleagues in the Senate to quickly approve these measures,” said Chairman Inouye.
Hawaii has been turned into a vacation destiny as well as a military strategic location for the United States of America. Hawaii has economic problems and over the years, an increase of homeless people according to an Associated Press article published before the APEC meeting titled ‘Hawaii grapples with homelessness as summit nears’ reported that “Hawaii has the third-highest ratio of homeless people to residents of any state, better only than Nevada and Oregon, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.” But the Military-Industrial Complex takes precedence over any other issue that involves the Hawaiian population and their well-being.
Hawaii has been occupied since 1893 and continues to be exploited for its location and its agricultural resources that include pineapples. Hawaii’s future will be difficult with a US military presence that dominates the politics, culture and economy. With Hawaii’s independence movements, environmentalists and anti-war activists continue to protest the occupation. However, US Imperial ambitions will continue expand over the Asia-Pacific region until China and North Korea give in to Washington’s demands. But do not expect China or North Korea to back down from US aggression anytime soon. The fact that President Clinton signed United States Public Law 103-150 that acknowledged the illegal actions committed by the United States government and that the Hawaiian people did not surrender their sovereignty or that in 1999, the United Nations stated that the plebiscite vote that led to Hawaii’s statehood was a direct violation of article 73 of the United Nations’ charter only confirms that the Hawaii statehood vote was illegal and even non-binding. Hawaii’s struggle for independence will continue for years to come because the people are on the right side of history. | 3,218 |
Sprint Global Roaming Add-On: Limited time offer. Subject to credit. Requires international capable phone and eligible domestic service plan on the account with primary usage in the U.S. For a list of available roaming cities, visit sprint.com/internationalroaming. Int’l voice, text and data in other areas not included are subject to applicable casual rate. Monthly add-ons must remain active on customer’s line of service for a full month after activating: no proration applies and refunds will not be issued for unused days during the billing cycle. Not for extended international use; primary usage must occur on our U.S. network. Service may be terminated or restricted for excessive roaming. Communications with premium-rate numbers not included. High speed data roaming passes: One-time charge applies and usage may appear over 2 bill cycles. Includes number of days, or amount of data based on selection on to 3G speeds, whichever is accrued first. Capable device and coverage required for 3G speeds and depends on performance of roaming network. Service only available in select countries. Mexico-Canada Plus Add-On: Limited time offer. Subject to credit. Requires eligible domestic service plan. Unlimited Calls: Unlimited calls only available to Mexico and Canada. International Calls: Outside of Mexico and Canada, per minute rates apply. International Texts: Unlimited text only; excludes audio, picture and video messaging. Cuba 20 Plus: Includes 20 voice minutes to Cuba. After 20 minutes, $0.70 per minute rates apply. Mobile termination fees may apply. Includes text to and voice rates to 180 countries. Excludes audio, picture and video messagings. Excludes int’l roaming and certain call types. See sprint.com/international rates for countries and rates. All calls use Anytime minutes from your plan plus applicable rate and texts will be counted against any text allotment you may have. Prohibited network use rules apply. Usage Limitations: To improve data experience for the majority of users, throughput may be limited, varied or reduced on the network. Sprint may terminate svc. if off -network roaming usage in a mo. exceeds: (1) 800 min. or a majority of min. or (2) 100MB or a majority of KB. Prohibited network use rules apply — see sprint.com/termsandconditions. Other Terms: Offers and coverage not available everywhere or for all phones/networks. Network speeds subject to coverage/device availability. Sprint reserves the right to change or discontinue offer at any time. Restrictions apply. See store or sprint.com for details. © 2017 Sprint. All rights reserved. | 3,219 |
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A cloak of invisibility may be common in science fiction but it is not so easy in the real world. New research suggests such a device may be moving closer to reality.
Scientists said on Thursday they have successfully tested an ultra-thin invisibility cloak made of microscopic rectangular gold blocks that, like skin, conform to the shape of an object and can render it undetectable with visible light.
The researchers said while their experiments involved cloaking a miniscule object they believe the technology could be made to conceal larger objects, with military and other possible applications.
The cloak, 80 nanometers in thickness, was wrapped around a three-dimensional object shaped with bumps and dents. The cloak's surface rerouted light waves scattered from the object to make it invisible to optical detection.
It may take five to 10 years to make the technology practical to use, according to Xiang Zhang, director of the Materials Sciences Division of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
"We do not see fundamental roadblocks. But much more work needs to be done," said Zhang, whose research was published in the journal Science.
The technology involves so-called metamaterials, which possess properties not present in nature. Their surfaces bear features much smaller than the size of a wavelength of light. They redirect incoming light waves, shifting them away from the object being cloaked.
The cloaking "skin" boasts microscopic light-scattering antennae that make light bouncing off an object look as if it were reflected by a flat mirror, rendering the object invisible.
"The fact that we can make a curved surface appear flat also means that we can make it look like anything else. We also can make a flat surface appear curved," said Penn State University electrical engineering professor Xingjie Ni, the study's lead author.
Story continues
The researchers said they overcame two drawbacks of previous experimental microscopic cloaks that were bulkier and harder to "scale up," or become usable for larger objects.
Ni said the technology eventually could be used for military applications like making large objects like vehicles or aircraft or even individual soldiers "invisible."
Ni also mentioned some unconventional applications.
How about a cloaking mask for the face? "All the pimples and wrinkles will no longer be visible," Ni said. How about fashion design? Ni suggested a cloak that "can be made to hide one's belly."
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Eric Beech) | 3,220 |
June Update: Towards Infinity
New Visuals, Tipping, Sharing, Bounty Commenting, Stats, and more
Centians,
I have some big updates to share with you all. We’ve been working hard building new features and poring through all the creative requests we receive each day and we’re excited to release a whole bunch today.
Visual Updates
To start, we’ve updated our visual brand. As Cent continues to evolve, our visual soul continues to match our evolution. I created our previous logo, and loved it at the time, but over the last few months have come to feel that it lacks the versatility that we need to bring Cent to the mainstream. The design of the new logo is a foreshadowing of the announcement of our token model. It’s symbolic of our ultimate form, and that form will only make sense as we release more details.
On a more relatable level, it arose out of holding a few cents in my hand one day. In physical form, cents are small circles, and the idea of circles being a defining element of the brand seems to be increasingly obvious. Circles classically represent the infinite because they have an infinite number of vectors to be drawn from their centerpoint. A big part of our ethos as a company is that we see each human being as representing a small infinity of creative potential, or a small circle. Cent is designed to extract that infinity into something that can be materialized into value for someone else.
The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. — Emerson
Logos are always a love/hate thing, so if you don’t immediately love it, just give it some time :)
In addition to the new logo, a few months ago I noticed a font that I instantly fell in love with. It was clear, modern, unique, and soulful. Yet it was easy to read and neutral enough to be versatile. I began to furiously scour the nerdy design corners of the internet to identify it, and eventually discovered it was a typeface called Averta. Averta is ‘αβέρτα’ in Greek — meaning to act or speak openly, bluntly or without moderation, without hiding. It’s perfect for Cent. Openness of expression is a huge aspect of our ethos, and once we tried Averta on for size, we knew we’d found the one. | 3,221 |
The memorial was inaugurated in November 2011
MOHALI: The tallest ‘Minar’ of India, Fateh Burj, at Chappar Chiri village off Mohali commemorates Sikh leader Baba Banda Singh Bahadur historic victory over the Mughal army. The battle paved the way for establishing of Sikh misls (groups) and the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1799.
The Fateh Burj, a 328-ft (100 m) tower memorial to brave Sikh general Baba Banda Singh Bahadur and the lone heritage monument in Mohali, is in a state of disrepair today. The memorial was inaugurated in November 2011 by then Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal, but with the passage of time, the grand victory tower has been forgotten. The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority’s still hasn’t set up a lift in the tower, even though it was part of the plan.
The Burj marks three battle wins: one in Samana at 67 feet, at Sadhaura at 117 feet and that in Chappar Chiri at 220 feet.
The 20-acre memorial also comprises six mounds with statues of Banda Singh Bahadur and his five generals atop, and these too appear to be losing their shine.
It is tough for the visitors to get to the memorial. The Burj is in a bad shape, the road encircling the memorial has become non-motorable and the lone road leading to the village -- used by commuters travelling to Kharar from Mohali -- is in a rundown state while the one leading to the memorial is pothole-ridden.
Chappar Chiri village is located along the Kharar-Banur Road, now named Banda Singh Bahadur road. Located few kilometres from Landran and 20 km from Sirhind, the village has 50-60 houses and 1000 inhabitants.
Sudhir Sharma, an employee of a private company in Mohali, rues that the Mohali administration has failed to repair the road despite repeated requests from villagers.
A panchayat committee comprising Balwant Singh, Dalip Singh, Zora Singh, Prem Singh, Daljit Singh, Harnek Singh and a few others run the village gurdwara. Zora Singh and Prem Singh say, “The previous government set up the memorial here, giving a fillip to our village, but the present regime is paying no heed to Sikh history and culture. The memorial is dying a slow death.”
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same places today reveal how treasured landscapes have recovered.
The cyclone killed 18 people and caused an estimated £1 billion of damage when it struck the south of England 30 years ago. It also brought down around 15 million trees.
Photographs taken from a helicopter in the aftermath of the night of October 15/16 1987 revealed the devastation wrought in gardens and woodlands at National Trust properties.
How Chartwell looked after the Great Storm of 1987 - and how it looks now Credit: Mike Calnan/National Trust/PA
The shoot was coordinated by Mike Calnan, now the conservation charity's head of gardens.
He said: "Seeing the gardens and woodlands from above offered a whole new perspective on the damage caused.
"As we hovered over Emmetts Garden everyone in the helicopter fell silent - it was like a war zone."
The aftermath of the Great Storm of 1987 at Emmetts Garden in Kent - and how it looks today Credit: Dr Mike Howarth/National Trust/PA
The National Trust has replicated the series of photographs three decades on at some of the most severely hit places - Emmetts, Chartwell and Knole, in Kent.
Pictures have been taken from the same vantage points, this time using drones, and show how nature has bounced back from the catastrophe.
Emmetts Garden, Kent, after the storm - and how it has recovered Credit: Dr Mike Howarth/National Trust/PA
Mr Calnan said: "It was quite moving to put the photographs next to each other and compare how different they are.
"After being shattered by the storm, our gardens and woodlands now look similar to how they did before, which is down to a combination of careful planning, hard work and time.
"We learnt a lot from the storm, which has shaped how we look after the places in our care today. Interestingly, areas that were left to regenerate naturally in some cases developed faster than those that we carefully replanted."
Devastation at Knole, Kent, in 1987 is now a distant memory Credit: Dr Mike Howarth/National Trust/PA
Some 58 National Trust properties across 13 counties, from Blickling Hall in Norfolk to Slindon in West Sussex, were affected by the Great Storm, with more than 350,000 trees lost on the organisation's land.
In the years after the storm the Trust planted 500,000 trees, in some cases selecting species better suited to extreme weather, and designed "shelterbelts" to ensure greater resilience to storms. | 3,223 |
Cyanogen Inc., the company built around the CyanogenMod open source Android OS ROM project, declined a acquisition offer by Google two years ago as it sought a $1 billion valuation. Now, the company has shut down its namesake open source development project and all its related services. Defiant CyanogenMod developers have now seized the project and relaunched it under the name LineageOS.
On December 23, a Cyanogen Inc. spokesperson posted a notice on the company’s blog:
As part of the ongoing consolidation of Cyanogen, all services and Cyanogen-supported nightly builds will be discontinued no later than 12/31/16. The open source project and source code will remain available for anyone who wants to build CyanogenMod personally.
The move came just a week after the CyanogenMod development community released the final versions of CyanogenMod 13.0 and on the heels of the departure of Cyanogen Inc. co-founder and the founder of the development project itself, Steve “cyanogen” Kondik. The shutdown is essentially a death sentence for the CyanogenMod project, since the project’s infrastructure was supported by the services being shut down.
But CyanogenMod isn't going to just vanish. On December 24, a group of CyanogenMod contributors announced in a joint post on the CyanogenMod blog that they would be “forking” the OS and continuing its development. Shortly after the post was published, Cyanogen Inc.’s management had the DNS for cyanogenmod.org shut down, but the contributors' blog post (for now) remains in Google’s cache:
CM has always been more than the name and more than the infrastructure. CM has been a success based on the spirit, ingenuity and effort of its individual contributors...Embracing that spirit, we the community of developers, designers, device maintainers and translators have taken the steps necessary to produce a fork of the CM source code and pending patches. This is more than just a ‘rebrand’. This fork will return to the grassroots community effort that used to define CM while maintaining the professional quality and reliability you have come to expect more recently. We will take pride in our Lineage as we move forward and continue to build on its legacy.
The LineageOS project has been set up on GitHub, and members of the team have created a placeholder project website at lineageos.org. As soon as it was clear that the fork had been launched, Cyanogen Inc. shut down all of CyanogenMod’s infrastructure. | 3,224 |
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Zarif told lawmakers the U.N. resolution restricted only missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads, which would not affect Iran's conventional missile program.
Revolutionary Guard chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Monday, according to Tasnim news agency: "Some parts of the (resolution) draft have clearly crossed the Islamic republic's red lines, especially towards Iran's military capabilities."
Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Khamenei on foreign affairs, broke a long silence on Tuesday and said the deal was "not without flaws”, although he did not reject it outright.
“No one can tell us which weapons we can have.... Except nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, Iran will continue making all the missiles, fighter jets, anti-missile defense systems, tanks and other armored equipment it needs,” he was quoted as saying on the Supreme Leader’s website.
BUSINESS AS USUAL?
The prospect that sanctions will be lifted is spurring businesses to make plans to return to Iran.
In Paris, Laurent Fabius, who next week will make the first trip to Iran by a French foreign minister in 12 years, said having taken a hard line towards Tehran at the nuclear talks would not hurt France's businesses once sanctions are lifted.
"It's true that France was very firm," Fabius told France Inter radio. "Will French firms be penalized? My answer is no because in the past we had an important presence in Iran... You know, in foreign policy, I think you lose nothing in being respected."
French firms such as carmaker Puegeot and oil major Total had leading positions in the Iranian market before the United States and European Union imposed tighter sanctions in 2011.
Fabius will travel without an entourage of business leaders, unlike Germany's economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, who took a large commercial delegation to Iran on Sunday as the first senior Western official to visit after the deal was agreed.
Gabriel's haste drew some domestic criticism: "Our economy minister wanting to explore business opportunities for German companies a few days after the nuclear deal is a dangerous signal to the region," said Paul Ziemiak, head of the youth wing of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc, during a visit to Israel.
"Our Israeli partners are irritated at how easily the crises and the problematic role of Iran in the region is overlooked."
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Additonal reporting by Noah Browning and Dan Williams; Writing by William Maclean and Peter Graff) | 3,225 |
What a weekend for Phil Lesh as the Grateful Dead / Furthur bassist has performed at his own Terrapin Crossroads each and every night since Thursday as part of the San Rafael, Calif. venue’s causal opening and also sat in with Railroad Earth on a segment of Dead tunes at The Fillmore in San Francisco on Saturday night. For last night’s sets at Terrapin Crossroads, Lesh’s Furthur / Grateful Dead band mate Bob Weir lent a hand, along with members of Railroad Earth.
The special version of Phil Lesh and Friends that took the “stage” at Terrapin Crossroads yesterday featured Weir on guitar, Lesh on bass, Grahame Lesh on guitar, Jaz Sawyer on drums, Danny Eisenberg on keys, Ross James on guitar, pedal steel and vocals as well as Railroad Earth members Tim Carbone on violin, John Skeehan on mandolin and Andy Goessling on banjo, dobro, guitar and sax.
Watch the group’s takes on The Wheel and Cumberland from last night…
Phil Lesh and Friends – The Wheel
Phil Lesh and Friends – Cumberland Blues
[via nowiknowuryder]
And here’s the full setlist thanks Rich of Ratdog.org’s forum…
Set 1 (9:05pm – 10:05pm) Alabama Getaway – Grahame
Loose Lucy – Bobby
Pride of Cucamonga – Phil
Chinatown Shuffle – Ross
Ashes and Fire – Grahame
Peggy-O – Phil
Will The Circle Be Unbroken – Ross
Not Fade Away – all (Phil & Bobby share a mic) Set 2 (10:35pm – 12:15am) Cumberland Blues – Phil, Bobby, & Grahame
Spring-Heeled Jack – (instrumental)
The Wheel – Phil, Bobby, & Grahame
Long Road – Grahame
Cold Rain & Snow – Phil
Dear Mr. Fantasy > – Grahame
Viola Lee Blues – all
In The Midnight Hour – Bobby Enc: Donor Rap & Phil thanks crowd
Johnny B. Goode – Bobby
Yesterday’s set was the final one as part of the venue’s “casual opening.” Terrapin Crossroads opens its Grate Room this Saturday night, March 17. | 3,226 |
Sex workers: 10 questions you always wanted to ask
Sex workers: 10 questions you always wanted to ask
A sugar baby has savaged her deceased husband in a brutal post on Instagram on social media.
In the lengthy post, Lydia Dupra said she was, “Sitting here and trying to dig up a good memory to remember him on this day.” Dupra made the post on the one year anniversary of her husband’s passing.
“Brad, you bought me my first pair of Louboutins, my first Birkin (bag) and my first and only race horse,” she said. Hermes Birkin bags are worth around $55,700.
“We had an incredibly toxic relationship,” she went on, “And ultimately I wish I never met him.”
“I still don’t forgive you for taking me out of the will after you attacked me while you were on whippets.” Whippets, or whip-its, are small doses of nitrous oxide ingested from the spout of a cracked whipped cream canister.
“However, you knew I would always be okay and yes … I’ve been living a double life this whole time with the guy you thought was my gay bodyguard.
“I’m also an author and serial entrepreneur.
“So, let’s call it even.”
“PS please don’t haunt me again.”
Posted four days ago, Dupra’s blast has attracted over 7500 likes. Her social media account shows little evidence of her marriage. A post from this time last year references being “brave”.
“Remember, you’ve made it through worse,” she wrote at the time.
Dupra is an author who has penned a number of ebooks that act as a “guide to escorting” and a memoir. She is a self-described former “adult entertainer” and high class escort who claims to have amassed millions of dollars during her career.
She has done interviews espousing her views on the importance of “rebranding sex work” as adult entertainment.
Lydia now acts as a mentor to aspiring sex workers across the US, bringing women into her home to live with her.
She dresses the women and coaches them in various things to do with the business, according to a video posted by Vice earlier this year. | 3,227 |
While there are plenty of conversations to be had about the best Android phones — conversations that ususally start and end with the major brands out there today — the folks at Yota Devices delivered something truly unique this year with the YotaPhone 2. The dual screen device offered a fun twist on using your smartphone to do more, and in the process turned out to be one of the better experiences out there for users who prefer the Nexus way of doing things. The only things missing from the YotaPhone 2 experience during our review were proper US band support for 4G LTE and an update to the latest version of Android. A quick glance over at the YotaPhone website this morning gives us a peek and when we can expect both.
While there were some initial rumors about Yota Devices partnering with T-Mobile for the US launch of the YotaPhone 2, it looks like the company has opted to remain untethered to a single US company and has instead announced an IndieGoGo campaign to fund its entrance into the US. Alongside this US announcement is the appearance of a white version of the device, though it appears to only be white on the ePaper side of the device. The campaign goes live on May 19th, with the promise of Early Bird deals for those who grab their spot in line early. While we don't yet know how long the campaign will be, if the company starts shipping immediately after a 60-day campaign users will probably have devices in hand by the end of July.
The Yota website also has an image of the device running Android 5.0, and as expected from our time with the Kit Kat version of the phone it looks quite close to the Nexus experience. We don't yet know what improvments have been made to the ePaper side of the device to go along with this software update, but with all of the APIs that are opened up with Lollipop there's a good chance the folks working on YotaPhone 2 have a couple of tricks up their sleeve. For those of you who currently own International versions of YotaPhone 2, no update timeframe has been announced just yet.
The delay from seeing YotaPhone 2 in action at CES this year to being able to actually purchase one for US use feels like eternity, during which a number of excellent devices have been released here in the states, but those of us who appreciate the thinner form factor and unique experiences offered by this dual screen device will soon be able to fully appreciate YotaPhone 2. How well that translates to devices sold in the US, especially with so much time having passed, is something we'll all have to wait and see. | 3,228 |
China and the DPRK must be seen together with other less dramatic but significant developments.
There was the quiet deployment of 400-plus Marines to Syria to strengthen forces trying to capture the Islamic State group’s capital, Raqqa. These conventional forces are added to the hundreds of Special Forces already there. The Marines are equipped with Apache helicopters and M777 howitzers capable of firing 155mm shells, among other weapons. Their deployment represents a clear escalation of the U.S. war in Syria.
The Pentagon has escalated the war in Yemen as well. Previously the war was carried out by Saudi Arabia, with logistical and material support from the Pentagon. Recently U.S. commanders in the field have been granted new authority to conduct raids on villages and drone strikes, without prior approval from the White House.
The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., recently testified to Congress that he could use “a few thousand more troops” to break the “stalemate” in the country. (New York Times, Feb. 9)
These developments represent a major step forward in the political authority of the military high command under the Trump administration.
By contrast, Rex Tillerson, the head of the Department of State, has been kept out of meetings with heads of state by Trump, Bannon and Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law). Tillerson has had no joint appearances with Trump. His requests for assistants have been turned down. No press will be allowed on his plane on an upcoming trip to Japan, south Korea and China. And the State Department budget is to be cut by 37 percent, while the Pentagon is to get a $54 billion increase.
Just days ago Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray was in Washington. “The Los Angeles Times’s Tracy Wilkinson asked State spokesperson Mark Toner what the plans were for his visit. Toner, a highly regarded career foreign service officer, apparently had no idea that a key foreign dignitary was even in the city.” (Vox, March 10) The foreign minister met with Kushner.
To be sure, while the State Department wields the so-called “soft power” of U.S. imperialism, it is a vicious enemy of the world’s people. It engineers regime change, engages in every manner of subversion against progressive governments, and uses nongovernmental organizations to promote “color revolutions.”
Nevertheless, the shift toward open military power in government under Trump is a menacing move that will expand imperialist war and intervention. | 3,229 |
Mon, September 22, 2014: Today’s free Amazon android app of the day is: Peppy Pals: Empathy Adventures!
Peppy Pals is a fun adventure game for children ages 2 to 6 about emotions and friendship in which you meet four quirky animals. There’s plenty to do in this colorful and exciting world, be it playing with your new friends, helping them out in various situations, or enjoying a mini-game.Peppy Pals is rooted in empathy, emotions, and social skills and has been created with the help of both experts and psychologists. You might have heard of emotional intelligence or social and emotional learning (“EQ”, “EI”, or “SEL”), and research indicates that these skills are an important factor for success and happiness, as well as reduce the chance of being bullied or bullying others.Peppy Pals is a unique way of learning and exploring an exciting game world without?right or wrong?, set in a relaxed and pleasant environment. Without any language, Peppy Pals reaches out globally with focus on high quality visuals and simple, fun and meaningful interactions.About Eqidz:Eqidz is a digital game studio that makes fun and innovative games for children, focusing on emotional and social intelligence. Social issues like bullying and peer pressure are increasingly hot topics, all while children’s social time is cut short by time in front of screens. Here is where we can help, and we see our games as a way for children to start cultivating their emotional skills in a natural and fun way. Peppy Pals can also let parents partake in their children’s feelings, fantasies, and thoughts, working as a shortcut to questions and discussions about emotions. Our games are child-friendly and have no third-party advertisements, external links, or in-app purchases.Emotional Intelligence:Emotional Intelligence, or simply?EQ? or?EI? is a modern term that simply refers to perceiving, understanding, and managing emotions. Emotional intelligence helps us develop social skills and build healthy relationships with family, friends, and community. Research has also shown that improving children?s?EQ skills? helps in their ability to problem solve their way toward cheerful, productive, and ethical lives.Privacy Policy:Privacy is an issue that we take very seriously. To learn more about how we work with these matters, please read our privacy policy: http://ift.tt/1n9BFSx from GeekExile: Free App of the Day from Amazon! http://ift.tt/1rgGXjo | 3,230 |
ISIS, we're 7,000 miles away. Russia is much closer. Iran is right there, Turkey is right there. They all hate ISIS. Turkey a little bit less so, but the others very much. Russia had a plane blown up by ISIS. Russia wants nothing to do with ISIS. Russia's tough. They can kill ISIS just as well, and they happen to be in their neighborhood.
All I'm saying is this, I'm not going to lose potentially thousands and tens of thousands of American soldiers fighting a war between Turkey and Syria. Syria's not our friend. Assad is not our friend. That's the way it goes.
(Rep. Liz Cheney reportedly pushed back on that comment in a meeting with Trump later on Wednesday, reminding him that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had come from people 7,000 miles away.)
And when asked about criticism at home from erstwhile supporters like Sen. Lindsey Graham, Trump turned his full ire on the Republican senator, urging him to get back to running the Senate Judiciary Committee and, well, investigating conspiracy theories like "Spygate":
Lindsey Graham would like to stay in the Middle East for the next thousand years with thousands of soldiers fighting other people's wars. I want to get out of the Middle East.
Lindsey should focus on... the do-nothing Democrats, as I call them. They're getting nothing done. They're not getting USMCA done between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. They're getting nothing done.
I think Lindsey should focus on Judiciary. He ought to find out about what happened with Comey, what happened with McCabe, Lisa [Page], what happened with Peter Strzok, what happened with President Obama, what happened with Brennan. That's what Lindsey ought to focus on. That's what the people of South Carolina want him to focus on.
The people of South Carolina don't want us to get into a war with Turkey, a NATO member, or with Syria. Let them fight their own wars. They've been fighting for a thousand years. Let them fight their own wars. The people of South Carolina want to see those troops come home. I won an election based on that. Whether it's good or bad, that's the way it is. And if you look at this country, I'd be willing to bet anything, political instinct, that that's what the country wants.
As he was putting that out there, Graham was busy grilling Brian Hook, a senior State Department official, about Trump's decision. It did not go well for Hook. | 3,231 |
International Day of UN Peacekeepers recognizes the courageous and dedicated men and women around the world who don the blue helmet and risk everything to create the time and space needed for conflicts to end and stabilization to take hold. We honor the vital role these men and women play in curbing violent conflicts and preventing suffering around the world, and reiterate America’s commitment to supporting, training, and equipping the international forces who make these vital missions possible.
Peacekeeping missions are a critical tool for promoting peace and reconciliation in some of the world’s most troubled countries. Today, more than 113,000 UN personnel from 124 countries serve in peacekeeping roles in 14 missions around the world — in Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Europe. The diverse, robust, and demanding mandates of each of these missions see peacekeepers working to contain violent groups, protect civilians, bolster stability, and promote health and well-being.
This year’s theme, “Protecting Civilians, Protecting Peace,” is especially timely. As the world’s leading financial supporter for UN peacekeeping, the United States demonstrates its steadfast commitment to these ideals. The Bureau of Political-Military Affairs is proud to contribute through both capacity building efforts to enable more countries step up to help meet the growing global demand for trained military and civilian personnel, as well as support for efforts to improve performance and accountability of UN peacekeeping missions.
A key building block for an effective peacekeeping force are well-trained, disciplined, and properly equipped security forces. Programs like the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) have played a pivotal role in meeting the expanding need for well-trained and adequately equipped peacekeepers capable of responding to evolving mission requirements.
GPOI brings together the Department of State and the Department of Defense to strengthen international capacity and capabilities to implement United Nations and regional peace operations. GPOI’s 54 partner nations comprise the bulk of uniformed forces engaged in UN peacekeeping operations around the world. Through our program activities, GPOI assists partner countries to enhance their self-sufficiency in training for peacekeeping operations; and, so far, over half of our GPOI partners have achieved this level. The program also delivers training and equipment to build the capacity of our partners in critical enabling capabilities such as aviation, engineering, and medical services – all of which have been persistent shortfalls in UN missions. A critical enabling capability supports not only the country that deploys it, but also the other international troops deployed across the mission. Read more
Read also: China issues US travel warning over ‘shootings’ | 3,232 |
Interoperability project Interlay has been selected to receive a Web3 Foundation grant to continue its work on Polkadot. The money will be used to develop a parachain on Polkadot that will connect to the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain.
According to the March 5 announcement, Interlay is one of the recipients of Web3 Foundation’s fifth wave of grants deliberated in Q1 2020.
The Web3 Grants program funds teams and projects working to improve Polkadot in a variety of contexts. Each grant is for a maximum of $100,000 and is tied to the execution of specific proposals, though the foundation does not disclose the final amounts granted for each.
The funding is primarily earmarked for software developers building infrastructure for Polkadot. Key areas of focus for software are parachains and integration with other projects, testing tools, new wallets and UI development.
The foundation will also fund research efforts into Polkadot’s security, benchmarking and protocol, as well as educational initiatives.
Interlay’s project
Interlay calls itself an interoperability project for decentralized finance (DeFi). It has developed an interoperability framework called Xclaim with the purpose of creating assets backed one-to-one across different chains. The company has been working on a blockchain-agnostic implementation of Xclaim since 2018.
The Xclaim relies on “collateralized intermediaries” to facilitate the transfer of funds from one chain to the next. The system also allows users to become “its own intermediary,” similar to how atomic swaps would work.
The developers argue that Xclaim is “95% faster and 65% cheaper” than atomic swaps based on Hash Time Locked Contracts (HTLC).
Polkadot progress
The Polkadot project is led by Parity Technologies, a company co-founded by Gavin Wood, who previously co-founded Ethereum (ETH). It aims to be an implementation of a sharded and interoperable blockchain, directly competing with Ethereum’s platform.
The project has been in the news for several high-profile integrations of ecosystem players that are primarily oriented toward Ethereum. On Feb. 25, it announced an integration with Chainlink to provide Polkadot-based oracles — a key feature for enabling DeFi.
A few days before that, a strategic collaboration with Celer Network was announced to bring its layer-two sidechains to Polkadot.
With the Interlay grant, it appears that the project has now set its sights to bringing Bitcoin over as well. | 3,233 |
win medals in both the summer and winter games. She would go on to win a gold and silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy and was chosen as the flag bearer for Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics opening ceremonies. Her final Olympic speed skating race in Vancouver, in which she won a bronze medal, was one of the best races of her career, she says.
“There was still eight skaters to go and I celebrated like I won the Olympics even if I looked like a complete jerk if I ended up in ninth place because I wanted people to connect to the moment and the beauty of being complete, being completed, not depending on something outside and knowing who you are and celebrating excellence,” she said.
Her mom was in the audience that day for the first time at any of Hughes’s Olympic races.
“I looked up and I waved and I blew her a kiss,” said Hughes and then she went to call her dad, who lived with undiagnosed bipolar disorder and has since died after suffering from dementia. He hung up the phone.
“But you know what?” said Hughes. “For the first time in my life I was able to look at that phone and I was able to smile and I was able to say, ‘Dad, I love you. I love you and I can’t fix you and I can’t rescue you and I can’t even change you but I can love you. I can love you with all my heart and today was a good day. Today was a great day and I’m going to celebrate it.’ And the only reason I was able to do that, not be destroyed by success, is because of all the help I had in the previous 14 years. Without that help, there would be no speed skating. Without that help, there would be no comeback. Without that help, there would be no life and no person.”
Though Hughes said she is proud of her athletic achievements, she says what she has done outside of competition, including working with the Right to Play organization – to which she donated $10,000 after the 2006 Winter Olympics – and becoming a national spokesperson for the Bell Let’s Talk campaign to encourage open discussion of mental health and illness, has been even more meaningful.
“We connect, I think, at the deepest level through struggle yet all we share is joy,” she said. “If we could learn to talk about it more, people wouldn’t feel alone.” | 3,234 |
Then something unfamiliar happened: Federer fell apart. The errors came fast, and Nadal started toying with him. He took the set, 6–1. Federer had won only fifteen of the set’s forty-five points. But another swerve was in store. Federer regained his form on his serve and rediscovered his forehand, and Nadal struggled to break. Federer took the third set, 6–3. In the fourth and final set, Federer’s ground strokes, unexpectedly, allowed him to outlast Nadal in rallies. He took the final set, 6–4. Was it revenge for 2008? Not really. But that wasn’t the point.
Meetings between Federer and Nadal were once almost crude in their symbolism: brute force versus elegance, right versus left, passion versus cool. Now those old story lines feel a little silly. Even the debate over which player is the greatest of all time can seem a little off point (and, besides, Djokovic may have something to say about that). The more they play, and the more they distance themselves from almost everyone else, the more they seem to share. Most notably, they have in common a calmness under incredible pressure, a mental fortitude that others can’t match, and an ability to recover, physically and emotionally, even mid-game. On Friday, they even shared in the ebbs and flows of the match.
However high the level was for stretches of the match, it wasn’t a classic—not quite, no matter how much we may have wanted or expected it to be. But, like all the matches between these two men, it offered a chance to watch two players who have made each other, improbably, almost impossibly, improve, in order to keep pace with the other. The pressure, at this point, is off, or should be. Their semifinal was one more data point in their long rivalry, not a definitive showdown. It didn’t decide who is the best ever, or even who is the best in the world right now. (That title belongs to the man whom Federer will play in the final, on Sunday, Djokovic.) Toward the end of the fourth set, as I watched Nadal fend off four match points—in an astonishing stretch that matched the level that he and Federer showed more than a decade ago—I found myself simply submitting to each shot, without worrying what it meant in a larger sense. They were just playing grass-court tennis, and we had the privilege just to watch. | 3,235 |
With fall camps right around the corner, we've moved from watch-list season to ranking season. And, the first rankings of the 20125 season are out with the release of the USA Today Coaches poll.
In this poll you see a lot of the usual suspects at the top, but what you don't see are the Miami Hurricanes, who are unranked as of this point. The Canes did, however, receive votes for the poll, earning 16 tallies from coaches around the nation.
Much like in recent years, Miami will have to prove its worth by winning games before pollsters and coaches grant them a spot in the top 25.
You can see the full top 25 below:
RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS 1ST PLACE VOTES PREV CHANGE HI/LOW 1 Ohio State 14-1 1598 62 NR – 2 TCU 12-1 1487 1 NR – 3 Alabama 12-2 1452 1 NR – 4 Baylor 11-2 1365 NR – 5 Oregon 13-2 1260 NR – 6 Michigan State 11-2 1230 NR – 7 Auburn 8-5 1103 NR – 8 Florida State 13-1 1057 NR – 9 Georgia 10-3 1026 NR – 10 USC 9-4 1014 NR – 11 Notre Dame 8-5 883 NR – 12 Clemson 10-3 838 NR – 13 LSU 8-5 727 NR – 14 UCLA 10-3 697 NR – 15 Ole Miss 9-4 668 NR – 16 Arizona State 10-3 577 NR – 17 Georgia Tech 11-3 573 NR – 18 Wisconsin 11-3 470 NR – 19 Oklahoma 8-5 407 NR – 20 Arkansas 7-6 377 NR – 21 Stanford 8-5 365 NR – 22 Arizona 10-4 299 NR – 23 Missouri 11-3 229 NR – 24 Boise State 12-2 190 NR – 25 Tennessee 7-6 166 NR –
Others Receiving Votes
Mississippi State 164; Texas A&M 149; Oklahoma State 89; Virginia Tech 70; Utah 40; Kansas State 37; Louisville 27; Nebraska 27; Minnesota 25; Penn State 20; South Carolina 18; Miami (Fla.) 16; Texas 8; Illinois 7; Duke 6; Air Force 5; Louisiana Tech 5; Marshall 4; Utah State 4; West Virginia 3; North Carolina State 3; Brigham Young 3; Florida 2; Georgia Southern 2; North Carolina 2; Maryland 1; Michigan 1; Kentucky 1; Central Florida 1; Cincinnati 1; Washington 1.
Thoughts, Canes fans? Leave them in the comments below. | 3,236 |
On Wednesday morning, Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe confronted New York Times Deputy Managing Editor Clifford Levy in Brooklyn to get comment on the status of Nicholas Dudich’s employment at the paper.
Levy appeared deeply perturbed by O’Keefe, refusing to answer any questions on the matter. The Times executive attempted to evade O’Keefe by slipping into a coffee shop.
“O’Keefe also asked Levy if he had seen the comments that Senior Editor Desiree Shoe made on hidden camera, which corroborated some of Dudich’s claims. Shoe was caught admitting that NYT journalists wrote articles to expose how “crazy” Trump is in hopes to influence voters,” reports Project Veritas.
Below is O’Keefe’s statement on confronting Levy posted to Facebook.
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“Today I confronted NYT Deputy Managing Editor Clifford Levy to ask for his reactions to our American Pravda NYT investigation. Our investigation has exposed Audience Strategy Editor Nick Dudich admitting the overt bias at The Times. He also admits that he uses his position at the Times and his connections in Silicon Valley to push his personal agendas. The Times responded saying he was a “junior” editor. Next, we uncovered Desiree Shoe, a Senior Editor for The Times who curates their home page. She admits a blatant anti-Trump bias, and explains that New York Times journalists wrote about how “crazy” Trump was during the election in hopes of swaying voters against him. Executive Editor Dean Baquet later called me a “sinner” for this investigation. During my confrontation, I asked Levy several simple questions: What is the employment status of Dudich? What do you have to say about Shoe’s comments? Do you agree with Baquet calling me a “sinner?” Levy declined to answer any of the questions. See more: https://breaking.projectveritas.com/NYTimesSilence.html“
On Tuesday, James O’Keefe released part 3 of Project Veritas’ undercover New York Times operation. The sting targets Senior Homepage Editor Des Shoe, who admits employees at the Times have great difficulty reporting objectively on the Trump administration. On the same day as releasing part 3, O’Keefe announced the subject of part 1, New York Times video gatekeeper Nicholas Dudich, has reportedly been terminated from the paper. | 3,237 |
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have produced. It's basically looking for a reason to criticize at this point.
Name
League
Team
Timeline
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Mac Bennett
NCAA Michigan Last Week
1 0 0 0
Total
4 1 3 4
Just one game for Bennett so far this week and no points to report., but you can't complain about him being a point per game player so far this year.
Name
League
Team
Timeline
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Danny Kristo
NCAA North Dakota
Last Week
1 0 3 3
Total
1 0 3 3
Kristo stormed back from his suspension with a 3 assist game in a 4-1 win. Great start for the senior as he looks to bring a championship to UND.
Name
League
Team
Timeline
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Mark MacMillian
NCAA North Dakota
Last Week
2 0 0 0
Total
3 2 0 2
MacMillan couldn't replicate the performance of his first game of the season, but he's still off to a solid start to the year.
Name
League
Team
Timeline
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Mike Cichy
NCAA Western Mich.
Last Week
1 0 0 0
Total
4 1 3 4
Cichy didn't put up any points in his one game this year for Western Michigan.
Name
League
Team
Timeline
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Josiah Didier
NCAA Denver Last Week
2 0 0 0
Total
3 0 0 0
Still nothing to report for Didier.
Name
League
Team
Timeline
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
Colin Sullivan
NCAA Boston College
Last Week
2 0 0 0
Total
4 0 0 0
Sullivan didn't put up any points this week but after going -4 in his first two games in the NCAA, he was even in two games this week. A marked improvement. | 3,239 |
Castlevania's final boss Dracula makes his appearance with the new First 4 Figures statue. The statue is based on official artwork from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The statue is beautifully artistic and highly detailed and if you start it too long it might get lost in his trance. The statue stands at roughly 20 inches tall and he is posed with his servant bat. Even though this statue is for Castlevania, this could also be of interest to Dracula to other fans of this a vampire king. The detail and the portrayal of Dracula from this statue could be iconic to fans of the video game but also shows traits of the Vampire Lord. The statue that could sell is one that can attract a wide variety of people and this one does just that. The red and blacks in the paint give this statue a beautiful feel to it and just grab the nature of Castlevania. The base is quite detailed too, with the cobblestone flooring and the copious amounts of blood at his feet. This is a statue that I think could be a perfect statue for Castlevania fans or fans are Dracula.
The Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Dracula Statue from First 4 Figures is priced at $525. It is set to ship out in the first quarter of 2021. Pre-orders for Dracula are already live and you can find them located here. Navigate their page to and look at all of the other amazing statues coming soon from First 4 Figures and maybe we can see more Castlevania statuesin the near future.
"It is not by my hand that I am once again given flesh."
Product Description
Based on official artwork from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, First 4 Figures is proud to introduce Dracula in statue form.
Dracula is seen striking a static yet exalted pose, with an intimidating gaze that manifests fear into the hearts of mere mortals. His garments are highly textured and detailed, with just the right amount of wrinkles in the right places to impart a level of realism to the statue.
On his arm is a bloodshot-eyed vampire bat that answers to only its master. He stands atop the cobblestone floors of his throne room adorned with an embellished red carpet, which, at closer inspection, is stained with the blood of the Count's victims.
Product Features
20 inches (51cm)
Made of resin
From Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Garments are highly textured and detailed
Stands atop the cobblestone floors of his throne room
Box Contents
Dracula Castlevania figure | 3,240 |
"My Name Is My Name" in 2013.
"Just a play on street culture. Bape is the cornerstone or "rock" of street wear, Pusha-T as a brand is the cornerstone or "rock" of the street corner...Pyrex inspired measuring lines to enhance the "dopeness" of the design..." - Pusha T
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RSVP GALLERY (Fashion Brand)
Select Shop/Fashion Brand created by Kanye West staff member Don C of "Just Don" and Kanye West "D.O.N.D.A" team designer Virgil Abloh of "Off White".
"We are excited and honored to collaborate with such an iconic brand and hope to continue having a great relationship for many years to come." - RSVP Gallery
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STASH (Graffiti Artist)
Born in New York, this graffiti legend created his own fashion brand with Futura during the 90s, and has close ties with Japan.
"I am always happy to work with BAPE and real happy to be involved in NYC store 10th anniversary, my design thru the Bape logo, using iconography that best represents myself and my design work." - Stash
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Travis Scott (Rap Artist/Producer)
Signed to Kanye West’s label G.O.O.D. Music and appeared on the label’s compilation album “Cruel Summer”, with the track “Sin City”. In 2013, Travis was awarded with XXL Magazine’s 10 freshman award.
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Wiz Khalifa (Rap Artist)
Originally from Pittsburgh, Wiz Khalifa debuted in 2006 and was launched into the spotlight with his hit song “Black and Yellow” in 2010. In 2011 he won BET’s Best New Artist award and has been nominated for 4 Grammys since 2012 including Best Rap Album, Blacc Hollywood (2014). Wiz is now adding “See You Again” ft Charlie Puth- the lead single from the box office smash Furious 7- to his string of multi-platinum hits, which is currently sitting at the top of the charts in the US and is also #1 in 93 countries.
“What I love most about my BAPE NYC 10 design is how it perfectly combines my style and the BAPE brand. As a friend and a fan of BAPE, I am honored to be involved in the celebration”
- Wiz Khalifa.
BACK | 3,241 |
Market will make three stops today: Chrysalis Center (255 Homestead) from 10 a.m. until noon; Community Health Services (500 Albany Ave) from 1-3 p.m.; and, Wilson-Gray YMCA (444 Albany Ave) from 4-6 p.m. What they call a “grocery store on wheels” accepts SNAP/EBT and WIC.
August 29
Take a Hartford Landmarks & Legacy Tour at Cedar Hill Cemetery. $5 admission. Tour begins at 10 a.m.
Excuse My French screens free at Hartford Public Library as part of its Global Lens Film Series, 1 p.m.
Check out the Dahlia Show at Elizabeth Park. This is in the Pond House, 1:30-4:30 p.m. Free.
Church by the Pond: Christ Church Cathedral provides a 2 p.m. service every Saturday by the pond in Bushnell Park. Bagged lunches are provided following the service.
Sodaliscious: a pop art tribute show and event at the Dirt Salon (50 Bartholomew Ave). There will be snacks, music by June Bisantz, and a cash bar, along with complimentary Wild Moon Liqueurs tastings. Art work by Katie Fogg and Thomas Radovich will be on display. $20 suggested donation (at door); $15 in advance.
August 30
Free yoga in Colt Park every Sunday at 10 a.m. Meet on the lawn near the entrance from Wethersfield Avenue across from Morris Street. Bring your own mat.
Steve Davis and Friends play at Max Downtown (185 Asylum Street) from 6-9 p.m. No cover!
August 31
Free yoga in Bushnell Park every Monday at 5:30 p.m. Meet on the lawn between the pond and Pump House Gallery. Bring your own mat.
The Hartford Jazz Orchestra performs at 8 p.m. at Arch Street Tavern. No cover!
DISCLAIMERS
This listing is not intended to be all-inclusive. Events that are free or low-cost are given preference over those that would exclude a large number of Hartford residents.
To have items included in the September listing, send details to realhartfordATgmailDOTcom by August 25. Once published, late submissions are not added.
We strive for accuracy, but if showing up to something that has been canceled makes you nervous, contact the venue in advance. Sometimes we are given incorrect information about dates, people, times, and cost. | 3,242 |
At Poolin we pride ourselves in having the best tools for our miners. Our goal with these tools is to ultimately increase your profitability with Poolin. We always strive to create your mining experience that much more efficient and we continuously add new tools to our suite.
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Smart agent is a stratum proxy released by Poolin. Acting as the connection between miners and mining pool, smart agent can help increase the management efficiency of miners and save network traffic. The agent mainly has the following functions:
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Poolin Smart Agent supports various brand miner, such as Avalon, Antminer, Innosilicon, Whatsminer etc.
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Come try out our comprehensive tools here: https://www.poolin.com/tools & don’t forget to let us know what you think of them on Twitter, Facebook or Bitcointalk! | 3,243 |
Clinton spoke on the Simpson trial, and Powell opted not to run in 1996. | AP Photos Clinton O.J. speech made in part to counter Powell
The Clinton White House’s decision to have the then-president speak out on race issues in the aftermath of the verdict in O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial was in part seen as a way to counter a potential presidential bid by Gen. Colin Powell, a document released Friday shows.
“This is a defining moment. The country is waiting for the president to talk,” speechwriter David Shipley wrote in a memo to colleagues sent on Oct. 12, 1995, more than a week after the not guilty verdict was read.
Clinton was “one of the few American leaders with the credibility to address both blacks and whites — more than the G.O.P.; almost as much as Powell,” Shipley argued in the note, which was sent to five communications and strategy staffers, including Don Baer, Dick Morris and George Stephanopoulos. “In fact, if he demonstrates that he can bring people together now, he could preempt the vision of Powell as the only leader who can erase division and bring us together.”
( Also on POLITICO: Clinton files show worries over health care bill)
Powell ultimately chose not to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, but could have been a formidable opponent for Clinton in the general election.
Shipley, now the executive editor of Bloomberg View, wrote in the memo that the whole country was waiting for Clinton to speak out on the “racial divide” following the announcement of the verdict. “If he does not step up to the plate, it will be seen as an abdication of leadership. If he does step up to the plate, but does nothing more than fall back on the dated elixir of ‘opportunity and responsibility,’ then the effort will fall flat and we will have missed a terrific opportunity to show leadership. It will be seen as a failure. The president must address the rift head-on.”
Clinton did just that four days later when he spoke at the University of Texas at Austin, urging Americans to begin by “recognizing one another’s real grievances” but to also “take responsibility for ourselves, our conduct, and our attitudes.”
“America, we must clean our house of racism,” he said in the speech, echoing language in Shipley’s memo, which suggested that Clinton “clean our national house.” | 3,244 |
as if they are only indirectly affected by the Mediterranean migration problems, so whatever responsibility they have in fixing Europe’s migration problem is limited,” Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said Monday.
On the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, where the majority of refugees land and where a single processing center has been operating far beyond capacity almost nonstop since February, residents are split over whether efforts should be focused on helping the migrants or turning them back to Africa.
Elsewhere in Italy and across Europe, nationalist political parties have stepped up calls for stricter immigration policies, but pollsters say most Europeans favor offering a helping hand. The trouble is that cash-strapped governments have been slow to allocate resources to those efforts. Analysts and activists say that may change in light of the latest tragedies.
“It is sad that so many lives have to be lost for leaders to finally pay attention,” said Antonio Luppi, an immigration activist who follows the issues in Africa closely. “All indications are that that will finally happen, but it’s still not clear how Europe will confront this growing problem.”
In his Sunday homily, Pope Francis called for a moment of prayerful silence for those who drowned trying to reach Europe’s shores. In unscripted remarks, he urged compassion for those who will be making the trip.
“They are men and women like us, brothers and sisters who seek a better life: hungry, persecuted, wounded, exploited, victims of war,” the pope said less than 12 hours after the ship tipped to its side around 130 miles from Lampedusa, and around 70 miles from Libya, where the vessel began its ill-fated voyage.
With distress calls arriving regularly, Italian officials say, this month likely will be the worst ever for refugee deaths at sea, and Italy apparently has pulled out all stops in trying to prevent more fatalities. The Italian media said more than two dozen ships, including some private merchant vessels called into service, were searching the open seas for survivors and distressed ships. But an Italian Coast Guard spokesman said it would not be enough.
“We don’t have the manpower or the ships,” the spokesman said. “This has to be a multinational effort, or the death toll will rise.”
• Christopher White in Washington contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.
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New Jersey Man Held for Four Months in East Africa, Threatened With Torture and Disappearance
December 10, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, [email protected]
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union will appear in court on Wednesday on behalf of a U.S. citizen who was illegally detained and mistreated by American officials in three east African countries in 2007. After fleeing unrest in Somalia, New Jersey resident Amir Meshal was arrested, secretly imprisoned in inhumane conditions, and harshly interrogated by FBI agents over 30 times before ultimately being released without charge four months later.
The ACLU argues that Meshal’s treatment violated his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights to a judicial hearing and the prohibition against torture under U.S. law. The government’s motion to dismiss the case was first argued in July 2011, and the court has ordered a second argument to address the impact of four appeals court decisions issued since then. The government argues that the case should not be considered on its merits because it relates to national security, even though it would leave Meshal with no legal remedy.
"The harsh treatment and mental anguish this man suffered should never be experienced by anyone, let alone an American citizen at the hands of his own government," said Jonathan Hafetz, cooperating attorney with the ACLU, who will argue in court Wednesday. "When an American’s constitutional rights are violated by law enforcement officials, courts must hold them accountable."
In December 2006, Meshal was studying in Mogadishu when civil unrest broke out. He fled to neighboring Kenya, where he wandered in the forest for three weeks seeking shelter and assistance before being arrested. He was then repeatedly interrogated by FBI agents, who accused him of receiving training from al Qaeda, which Meshal denied. The American interrogators threatened him with torture and kept him from contacting a lawyer or his family.
Meshal was subsequently rendered to Somalia and then Ethiopia, where he was secretly imprisoned in filthy conditions with inadequate access to food, water, and toilets for more than three months, and again harshly interrogated by U.S. officials, who bore responsibility for his rendition and continued detention.
"The government’s argument that FBI agents should bear no responsibility for subjecting Mr. Meshal to unlawful detention and harsh abuse while he was at their mercy is extreme and untenable," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. "We hope the judge will reject what amounts to a request for immunity when law enforcement officials violate Americans’ constitutional rights abroad." | 3,246 |
Nov. 11th 2019 8:11 am
The worst aspect of Google’s 2019 flagship line is the battery life, but it’s been well-known since day one that the larger Pixel 4 XL fares better. Now, a battery test puts the Pixel 4 XL against the iPhone 11, and the results are very surprising.
PhoneBuff, the same YouTuber who put the Pixel and iPhone in a performance test earlier this month, is back with a battery test. While it doesn’t truly reflect the use of the average person, this test does give us a good idea of just how well the Pixel can hold its own against the iPhone.
The test eliminates as many variables as possible by matching the brightness, speaker volume, and charges of the two phones right from the get-go. After that, both devices are subjected to a one-hour phone call on the same network. Then the two devices are put through messaging for an hour to simulate a real-world conversation using a chatbot. At this point, the two devices are only separated by a couple of percentage points.
Further tests include one hour of email usage and then one hour of web browsing. This brings the Pixel 4 XL’s battery down to 66%, where the iPhone 11 is at 72%. Scrolling through Instagram for an hour causes both devices to lose 10% of their batteries. Next up is a standby test where both devices are left alone for 16 hours with the Pixel dropping by 14% and the iPhone by 10%.
Rounding out the test is an hour of watching YouTube videos where the iPhone continues to pull ahead as well as an hour of gaming. Once they jump into Google Maps, the Pixel 4 XL dies after 43 minutes using the app. The iPhone finally dies an hour later in a Spotify streaming test.
The final results put the Pixel 4 XL’s battery at 7 hours and 43 minutes of screen time and 16 hours of standby. The iPhone 11, on the other hand, manages exactly one hour more at 8 hours and 43 minutes of screen time and the same 16 hours of standby.
While the Pixel did comes behind Apple’s more affordable device, it’s really not a bad total at the end of the day, considering the higher resolution, faster refresh rate, and more power-hungry internals.
Pixel 4 XL battery life isn’t as bad as everyone says, folks.
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Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: | 3,247 |
Khan, a Pakistani-American whose family’s biryani recipe has been in her family for around three generations.
Khan’s family received the recipe from an elderly cook in her grandfather’s hometown. The cook’s biryani recipe had quite the reputation, but he didn’t have his own family to pass it down to, as was tradition. Since he was good friends with Khan’s grandfather, on her grandparents’ wedding day, he decided to part with his cherished recipe. “He felt that the best way for him to leave some sort of legacy was to pass down his famous recipe,” explains Khan.
Biryani recipes are a point of pride, often used to bolster a family reputation. “The best way to make a good impression is to serve an amazing biryani,” says Khan. Weddings are an especially good time for this. “In a way, biryani is used as the sort of trademark of a family. And who doesn’t want to be represented in the best way possible?”
Biryani from Lucknow. (Photo: Fatimahope/CC BY-SA 4.0)
Each family recipe differs slightly from the next in terms of ingredients, and families take pride in the differences and particularities of their recipes. “Each of these ingredients, believe it or not, say a little something about the family that [the recipe] came from,” says Khan. “This is why it’s very difficult for families to share their recipes, because they need to be able to trust that the next family will be able to make the dish just as well, if not better than the one that is sharing the recipe.”
Families guard their recipes closely, for fear of the fact that they will be altered or incorrectly prepared by others. “There’s nothing more heart-wrenching than to watch your cherished family recipe be ruined by someone who does not appreciate the dish enough to prepare it properly,” says Khan.
Of course, there are plenty of resources out there offering up “authentic” biryani recipes, such as cookbooks packed with regional recipes, and more recently, reddit threads claiming to reveal users’ family recipes. But for now, India holds onto its best kept secret for a little longer.
Gastro Obscura covers the world’s most wondrous food and drink.
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(Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp Chairman Eddie Lampert won a bankruptcy auction to buy the once iconic U.S. retailer after presenting an improved offer of $5.2 billion, Sears said on Thursday, but creditors quickly moved to oppose the deal.
FILE PHOTO: A store closing sale sign is posted next to a Sears logo in New Hyde Park, New York, U.S., October 10, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
Sears picked Lampert’s hedge fund ESL Investments Inc as the winner at a bankruptcy court-supervised auction after his latest bid topped an earlier $5 billion proposal following weeks of talks.
The deal would keep open more than 400 stores, preserve up to 45,000 jobs and ESL would acquire substantially all of the company, including its “Go Forward Stores” on a going-concern basis, Sears said.
“We are pleased to have reached a deal that would provide a path for Sears to emerge from the chapter 11 process,” the restructuring committee of Sears’ board of directors said in a statement.
The official committee of unsecured creditors said in a court filing it opposed the sale and asked court permission to file under seal a complaint against ESL for years of misconduct.
“ESL’s current bid to ‘save the company’ is nothing but the final fulfillment of a years-long scheme to deprive Sears and its creditors of assets and its employees of jobs while lining Lampert’s and ESL’s own pockets,” the committee said.
The committee said it wanted to disallow the debt that ESL used to bid for Sears and wanted to unwind deals from recent years that the committee said benefited Lampert, including the sale of real estate assets and the spin-off of Lands’ End.
ESL said in a statement it would “vigorously contest” any effort to pursue claims against it or Lampert. The fund said it had extended $2.4 billion to Sears for its transformation plan and its deals were approved by the board’s independent directors.
A Sears spokesman declined to comment.
The sale to ESL must be approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge and a hearing to consider the deal is currently scheduled for Feb. 1. If approved, the transaction is expected to close on or about Feb. 8, Sears said.
More than 20 U.S. retailers have filed for bankruptcy since the start of 2017 in the face of e-commerce competition from companies like Amazon.com Inc. | 3,249 |
Moscow and New Delhi sealed a deal on four Russian guided-missile frigates for the Indian Navy. The two warships will be built in Russia’s Kaliningrad region, and two more are to be constructed on a shipyard in India’s Goa.
The major deal consists of two separate contracts, with one signed on Tuesday and another one concluded last month, Russian media reported, citing defense officials.
In total, India will get four Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates. The ships are designed to strike all types of enemy vessels, as well as submarines. They are equipped with the newest Russian 3M-54 Kalibr cruise missiles, which saw action hitting militants’ targets in Syria, and may host attack helicopters.
Chairman and Managing Director of the Goa Shipyard, Shekhar Mital said that the contract for the two ships constructed in Goa is worth $500 million, and the vessels will be ready in 2026-2027. Earlier reports suggested that the whole deal, together with the two frigates built in Russia, will amount to $2.2 billion.
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The two nations have enjoyed strong military ties since the Soviet times. The Indian Navy has bought numerous Russian warships over the years, including its sole aircraft carrier ‘INS Vikramaditya’, a former Soviet-era project, which underwent a thorough modernization in Russia.
India already operates six Russian-built Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates. The first pack of three ships was delivered in early 2000s, and the second pack came in 2012-2013.
In recent years, India experienced difficulties in getting Russian military equipment due to the risk of violating the provisions of the US Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which targets countries that purchase arms from Russia. The US officials tried to pressure New Delhi into scrapping its talks to buy Russian-made S-400 air defense missile systems. Indian officials refused to abandon the deal and the contract for five S-400s was ultimately signed in October.
Washington eventually promised to grant India waivers on buying certain types of Russian arms in exchange for strengthening military cooperation with the US. Blanket waivers, however, are not to be expected, government officials have warned.
“We continue to have conversations with the Indian leadership on ways that we are working to hold Russia accountable for its behavior,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Alice Wells told reporters back in September.
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During an event in New York today, Tag Heuer officially announced the Connected Watch, its first smartwatch running Android Wear. A luxury watch through and through, the Connected costs $1,500 and carries much of the legacy of Tag Heuer's watchmaking prowess. It shares many of its design attributes with Tag Heuer's Carrera analog watch. The company says it went through great efforts to make the Connected not "look like a connected watch."
The Connected is the first Android Wear watch to retail for over $1,000, and Tag Heuer isn't shy in making comparisons to the Apple Watch, which can cost as much as $17,000 for a tricked out gold model. The Carrera Connected isn't made of gold, but it is comprised of titanium, a metal prized for its high strength to weight ratio compared to steel. Tag Heuer says the watch can be personalized with six different rubber straps. The watch measures 46mm in diameter, putting it on the larger side of the spectrum.
Inside, the Connected features Intel processing power, which is a departure from the Qualcomm chips that are found in most Android Wear watches so far. Its touchscreen is covered in sapphire crystal, and its "all day" battery is recharged with a simple dock. It includes the standard Android Wear features of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and a microphone for voice commands.
Intel powered and full Android Wear compatibility
Tag says that it developed three watch faces for the Connected, which emulate its analog designs. There is a chronograph, a standard 3-hand dial, and a world time face, and all three are available in black, white, or blue colors. You can obviously install other watchfaces from the Google Play Store, as the watch is fully compatible with Android Wear. Tag also developed a handful of apps for the watch, including a time, alarm, and stopwatch.
Of course, whether or not Tag's pedigree is enough to get people to spend $1,500 on a smartwatch remains to be seen, especially since it is not functionally any better than other Android Wear watches that sell for a couple hundred dollars. Tag Heuer's luxury bet will be put to the test immediately, as it is available for sale from the company's website and a handful of luxury boutiques around the world today. Interesting, Tag is hedging its bets, as a line at the end of the press release for the Connected states "Anyone who purchases a Tag Heuer Connected watch will have the opportunity to exchange it for a mechanical watch with Swiss movement inside."
Developing... | 3,251 |
At This Point, I Excuse You
Day 180 of A Year of War and Peace
But he mounted right to the top. And I heard harps in the air.
Guilt’s ultimate destination is often tragedy. In Ibsen’s The Master Builder, for example, the main character, Halvard Solness, cannot forgive himself for allowing his family house to burn down in the middle of winter. The cold his wife endures due to lack of shelter makes her sick and her milk, in turn, infects their twin infant sons who expire soon thereafter. Halvard cannot forgive himself because he feels like a crack in the flue that he never got around to fixing is what caused the fire. This guilt estranges him from his wife and, some time later, guides him into the affections of a younger woman, Hilda Wangel, who convinces him to overcome his acrophobia by climbing to the top of a towering steeple he has built where, with an exquisite sense of Scandinavian morosity and irony, he completes the play with an unintentional and terminal swan dive onto the unforgiving street below.
Natasha is climbing Halvard’s steeple right now. At the opening of today’s chapter her mood hasn’t much changed. She’s crying a lot. Mostly tears of remorse. “Something,” we’re told, “stood sentinel within her and forbade her every joy.” This something is undoubtedly guilt for having betrayed Prince Andrei and having behaved so improperly.
Things start to get better for her, however, when a friend from the country, Agrafena Ivanovna Belova, arrives in Moscow and suggests that Natasha join her in a fast in preparation for Holy Communion. Natasha, dismissing the doctor’s advice, decides to join Agrafena Belova at church every single day. She commits wholeheartedly to this spiritual regimen, not missing a single Vespers, Matins, or Mass. It seems to work: “Natasha experienced a feeling new to her, a sense of the possibility of correcting her faults, the possibility of a new, clean life, and of happiness.”
This is an important moment for Natasha or anyone else, really, struggling with guilt and personal failure. The idea is that one must learn from one’s mistakes by first examining their behavior critically. Then, once the problem is identified, one must engage in self-forgiveness with an honest eye towards behaving better next time.
DAILY MEDITATION | 3,252 |
Daiya Beer Cheese Nachos
As a brand advocate for Daiya, I’m lucky to be able to create delicious recipes using their fabulous products… and this is one of them! And believe me when I tell you, these Vegan Beer Cheese Nachos will knock your socks off!
Regular vegan nachos are faboo, don’t get me wrong… but when you add a little beer, it just makes it better. I’m not sure why, it just is. Want some more nacho porn?
That’s a whole lotta beer-cheesy goodness, isn’t it? And the best part is, once you get this beer cheese down, you can add any other toppings you want to make your dream nachos.
Mmmmm….. nachos….
We both know you want these for dinner tonight, so go ahead. Make them. I wont tell anyone.
Daiya Beer Cheese Nachos 2014-03-04 18:03:12 So cheesy and sooo good! Write a review Save Recipe Print Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 10 min Total Time 20 min Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 10 min Total Time 20 min Ingredients 1 tablespoon vegan butter 2 tablespoons AP flour ~1/2 bag Daiya cheddar shreds 1/2 -3/4 cup your favorite vegan beer 1 small sweet bell pepper 1/2 yellow onion 1 jalapeno 3-4 dashes garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon (or more!) chili powder Sliced vegan sausage (I used a bratworst-style sausage, and it tasted fabulous!) Your favorite tortilla chips Instructions Chop your bell pepper and onion, and slice up the jalapeno. Water saute for 2-3 minutes, then set aside. Add the sliced sausage to the pan with a little non-stick spray, and fry until crispy on each side, then set aside. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low/medium heat. Add flour and stir until it's basically a big glob. This is your roux. Stir in the beer and cheese until everything is smooth, and reduce heat to lowest setting. Stir in the garlic and chili powder, and taste test. Adjust as needed. Top your chips with the veggies, jalapenos, and sausage. Pour the cheese mixture over your chips, and serve immediately! By Barb That Was Vegan? http://www.thatwasvegan.com/
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*I was provided free product, but the opinions are 100% mine! | 3,253 |
More than 42,000 people, including almost 16,500 children, are waiting to be housed by Dublin City Council, the highest number ever seeking social housing in the city.
The city’s social-housing waiting list is made up of 21,592 applicants, 1,368 of whom have been on the waiting list for more than 10 years. Just two months ago the council’s housing list exceeded 20,000 applicants for the first time, with a total of 21,015. Since then, 577 more people have made applications, the highest number ever to seek council flats and houses in the city.
In the first report of its kind, the council has collated the number of applicants for social housing; the number of children each applicant has; the length of time on the waiting list; the size of accommodation needed; and the areas of greatest housing need in the city.
The new figures show, for the first time, the total number of people who need homes. The applications have been made on behalf of 42,106 people, 25,617 of whom are adults and 16,489 of whom are children.
About a quarter of applicants are single, but almost a third are lone parents with between one and eight dependent children. Couples are far less likely to need council housing, with 4,025 couples having made applications for homes to the council, 3,142 of them with children.
Single-parent households
Of the 21,592 applicants, almost half, 10,310, have been waiting for between one and five years, while more than a third, 7,394, have been on the list for between five and 10 years. Some 2,520 are new to the list, having made their application for social housing within the past year, but 1,368 have been waiting to be housed in Dublin city for more than 10 years.
The biggest demand in the city is for one-bedroom flats. Some 12,071 people have applied for a one-bedroom home, most of them single (11,075 applicants), with the remainder mainly older couples. A third of applicants want a two-bedroom home, and 2,103 have applied for three bedrooms. A far smaller number want more than this: 194 applications are for a four-bedroom house and 33 are for five bedrooms.
The greatest demand for housing is in the northeast of the city, in Artane, Coolock, Killester, Raheny, Darndale, Beaumont, Marino, Clontarf, Kilbarrack and the surrounding areas, where 5,733 applicants are seeking housing. | 3,254 |
Advent Spirits colored By Rekkou Watch
226 Favourites 85 Comments 13K Views
Name : Spirits
Serial Number :
Unit type : Advent-High Mobility-Melee-Unit
Height : 13,1 Meters
Weight : 27,3 Tons
Power Source :
-Ether Core
-Emergency Power Pack
Armor : Layered Composite Carbon
Special Equipment :
-Gravity canceler
Fixed Armaments :
-20mm Vulcan Gun x 2
-Short Blade x 2
-Blade anchor x2
Optional Weapon:
-Kiyomasa katana
Pilot: Reki
Advent with high speed attack capability, mainly uses its short blades and an extremely sharp katana to deliver a quick yet lethal attack. Spirits movement is fast and agile thanks to the Gravity Canceler that able to manipulate Spirits weight. Spirits also has a specially layered armor and multi-terrain booster that allow spirits to fight well underwater. An additional equipment called Hresvelgr booster can also be equipped to give Spirits flight capability.
Armaments & Special Equipment
20mm Vulcan Gun x2
A ranged armament specially modified to be more effective underwater, mainly used to counter missiles, not to effective against ARC.
Short Blade x 2
A pair of short blades mainly used as a primary weapon and melee defence. The sharpness of the blades is way inferior to Kiyomasa but very lightweight.
Blade Anchor x2
Bladed anchor attached to Spirits hands, tends to be used with the short blades to increase attack range or to retrieve thrown blades.
"Kiyomasa" Katana
A katana named after "Kato Kiyomasa" and one of the seven katana named after The Seven Spears of Shizugatake. It is said that Kiyomasa is so sharp that the user wont feel anything when it cut through something. The only weapon inherited from Spirits previous pilots configuration, but rarely used by Reki.
Gravity Canceller
A device that capable to reduce Spirits weight up to 70% but still capable to maintaining the mass, making Spirits to be lighter, faster and also having greater physical attack momentum. However this device constantly consumes a large amount of energy.
IMAGE DETAILS Image size 754x1156px 169.38 KB Show More | 3,255 |
Neo-Nazi boss Bill White, long given to swaggering threats and proposals for violence, this week went even further than normal — announcing plans for a magazine cover headlined “Kill This N-----?” with a photo of Barack Obama and, two days later, publishing the home address of a juror who helped convict another neo-Nazi leader in a federal conspiracy case.
White, who heads the Virginia-based American National Socialist Workers Party, has issued a series of Internet calls for violence in recent years, including his infamous September 2007 suggestion that followers “Lynch the Jena 6,” a reference to black high school students in Jena, La. But of late, his postings have become even more violent, possibly as a result of White’s deliberate attempts to be provocative in the face of waning public attention.
On Tuesday, White posted on his Overthrow.com website a request for money to pay for a special issue of his National Socialist magazine. The mocked-up cover, with a huge “Kill This N-----?” headline, shows Obama speaking to a crowd with a rifle’s crosshairs superimposed on his head. White said that the accompanying article would explain the Democratic presidential nominee’s “radical Communist politics and Jewish backers … and how he plans genocide against white working people.”
Then, on Thursday, White posted the name, home address and several phone numbers for an allegedly “Gay Jewish anti-racist” juror who helped convict Matt Hale, then-leader of the neo-Nazi World Church of the Creator, of soliciting the murder of a federal judge. Hale was sentenced in 2005 to 40 years in prison.
White does not directly propose violence against the juror. But he told his readers that the man “played a leading role in inciting both the conviction and the harsh sentence that followed.” He also described the conviction as wrongful and said that the prison term handed Hale was a “criminally long sentence.”
White, who lives in Roanoke, Va., has a long history of issuing sneering threats and vulgar, racist attacks. Earlier this summer, on July 22, he verbally attacked what he called “‘respectable’ n------” in the NAACP and elsewhere in American society. “I am convinced, more and more each day, that the only solution to this problem is to kill all of the n------ involved, preferably with state sponsorship,” he wrote. “When the death squads come, line me up as volunteer number one.” | 3,256 |
of 1206 funds, ahead of second-place Pakistan. These sums do not include US funds for special operations or drone strikes.
Yemen will become another billion-dollar war this year, measured in direct funding. The country has a population of 24 million, less than that of California.
Obama is trying to prevent the inexorable slide into another quagmire requiring direct military intervention. Last year he admonished a Pentagon general for describing the military role in Yemen as a “campaign” and insisted the US is not at war. At the recent NATO meeting, the president said “there’s no doubt that in a country that is still poor, that is still unstable, it is attracting a lot of folks that previously might have been in” Pakistan’s tribal areas. It was an astonishing remark: in the long war thus far, the US has caused the birth of Al Qaeda in Iraq, helped them take root in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, pushed them from Afghanistan to Pakistan and now to Yemen (not to mention multiple cells in other countries). There is little intellectual or political capacity to understand that counterterrorism only relocates and inspires new terrorism.
Congress has done nothing so far to constrain the runaway escalation in Yemen, suggesting that Congress only reacts to American casualties and headlines. During the popular upheaval against the US-backed Saleh regime in 2010-2011, most US aid for training had to be frozen. When it resumed, the Congress instructed that the funds be used only for counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula “and its affiliates”—a meaningless proviso. One January 2010 report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee concluded “the ROYG [Republic of Yemen government] was likely diverting US counter-terrorism assistance for use in the war against the Houthis, and that temptation will persist.”
In summary, no one really knows if the Pentagon and CIA can suppress both terrorism and civil war while the National Security Council promotes a three-step “Yemen Strategic Plan” of crushing Al Qaeda, investing in economic aid and a global effort at stabilization.
It’s doubtful whether the Long War can continue without US ground troops, but that’s the only alternative that can be imagined in the national security mindset. RAND historian Seth Jones, like many defense intellectuals, emphasizes that we are in a “Long War” that “will be measured in decades.”
Such dim and narrow views mean there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, which is why we are going down the rabbit hole in Yemen. | 3,257 |
The death of a 19-year-old man along the highway highlights the plight of the rising number of homeless in the area.
A car went off a freeway ramp in Seattle on Monday morning, killing a 19-year-old man inside a tent in a small homeless encampment, said the Washington State Patrol.
The dead man was identified by the state patrol on Monday afternoon as Walter Burton.
The driver, identified as 33-year-old Oscar Gutierrez de Jesus, of Seattle, fled the scene but was arrested soon after for investigation of death by dangerous driving.
The tent pitched in the grassy central reservation of Interstate 5 is among hundreds of unauthorised camps that have popped up on vacant land, along freeways and in neighbourhoods throughout Seattle.
Like many cities, Seattle has been wrestling with how to deal with growing numbers of homeless people. According to 2015 data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Seattle has the third highest population of homeless people in the country, behind Los Angeles and New York.
A one-night census of homeless in January revealed a 19 percent jump in Seattle, the third annual increase in as many years.
Last autumn, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray proclaimed a state of emergency and called on state and federal officials for support.
The city has also been wrestling with how to clean up unauthorised encampments, as it considers public safety concerns as well as how best to serve those living in the outside spaces.
The encampment where Monday’s crash happened is on state transportation land. It is one of the more well-known areas where tents are pitched, and it was scheduled to be cleaned up in mid-October, state transportation spokeswoman Kris Olsen said.
In many cases after the clean-up, crews often find that the former residents move nearby or return a few days later, or new people move in, Olsen said.
“It’s a persistent problem, but the bottom line is our top priority is safety,” she said. “While we’re sympathetic to people experiencing homelessness, this morning’s incident demonstrated that these areas are just not a safe place for any member of the public.”
Since November, the city has conducted 441 sweeps of illegal homeless encampments. During that time, only 126 people received permanent housing or shelter services while outreach workers talked to about 18,50 people.
The mayor has announced a new task force to review the city’s policies on encampment sweeps.
Several Seattle City Council members have proposed legislation to make changes as well. | 3,258 |
ja) July 15, 2012
Feel better now that I know the government built my business for me. I'll let them stay up nights worrying about it. — Varmint Cong (@MetricButtload) July 14, 2012
Bravo and brava!
I am a small business owner–& I don't owe Barack Obama or his command-n-control planners a damned thing==> http://t.co/pme5Opnw — Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) July 15, 2012
That’s right. Michelle Malkin, once again, is creating or saving more jobs than President Obama ever has. Not bad for “just a blogger,” huh?
Perhaps President Obama should listen to people who actually function in the real world. Heck, maybe he should stop listening to Nancy Pelosi, who thinks unemployment is the biggest stimulus to the economy (yummy The State checks!) and instead listen to another fellow Democrat Blanche Lincoln? Remember when she rightly dissed his lack of payroll skills?
She also took a swipe at Obama’s White House, referencing a constituent who “fears that there’s no one in your administration that understands what it means to go to work on Monday and make a payroll on Friday.“
Bingo. But that isn’t the full extent; not only is he clueless, but he truly believes The State is paramount and should run all. Everyone must rely on The State for everything; no personal successes. It’s totally not fair if some businesses are more successful, through hard work and determination. The State will do a better job … handing out participation ribbons, at best, only.
To Obama, people can’t succeed on their own without being tethered to and enslaved by The State.
Update: More are speaking out using the hashtag #BuiltItMyself
Own a business #Obama #BuiltItMySelf, risked my own capital, not governments, quit taking credit for my success — Diane N. (@LadyDi0723) July 15, 2012
The average small business owner works 60 hours a week. Over 50% work 7 days a week. Obama worked 12 hours last week. #BuiltItMyself #tcot — Harry Larris (@HarryLarris) July 15, 2012
I want to thank all the little people who took care of my billing and accounting. OH WAIT, that was me #BuiltItMyself — ن IllegallyChristian (@TalonsPoint) July 15, 2012 | 3,259 |
I’m obsessed with a Clinique foundation for the first time since I was 14 and wore base the colour of a bandage. Some context: when it comes to foundation, the beauty world seems solely interested in coverage. Do you want to mask everything (including, frequently, the look of living skin), sport a sheer wash of healthy colour, or prefer to sit somewhere in the middle?
This approach ignores a basic but more important question that makes for a better-looking base. What is your skin type? And it’s answered, at least for us dehydrated types (whether oily or dry), by Clinique’s Even Better Refresh, £30 (30ml), which takes the hyaluronic acid- and glycerin-rich hydration of its Moisture Surge franchise (her in the pink pot) and packs it into a medium-coverage base (the packaging says “full”, but I gladly beg to differ). There’s some niacinamide and salicylic acid in there to minimise pores and clear blockages, no oil, and the overall texture is as I like it – slippery on application (I’ve been using fingertips to apply), smooth and dewy on the finish.
If you like the matte eggshell look, this won’t work, but don’t despair: you can barely move for foundations in that category. It stays uniform and moist all day, shifts not a smidge and covers redness a treat. With 27 inclusive shades to choose from (I’m Cream Chamois, should that help) and convenient and hygienic tube packaging, I’m struggling to find fault.
Nonetheless, don’t discount HydraLuminous Moisturising Foundation SPF15, £15 (30ml), from No7, another brand I’ve scarcely recommended in the category, but which has also just knocked it out of the park. With less than half the shade range of Clinique, but at half the cost, this is a very similar offering – minus some of the skincare problem-solving ingredients, but including a decent lineup of antioxidants. Again, this slides coolly and silkily on and sets to a dewy finish with a bright, moist-looking glow that lasts.
Both are a godsend if you find foundations look a little flat, dull, cakey or flaky, including under the eyes. I hear rumblings that more hydrating foundations are on their way from the big players. These two have set the bar high. | 3,260 |
On June 3, in 140 cities across the nation — double the number from just two weeks ago — Americans will march to demand answers about Donald Trump's ties to Russia.
Breaking out of "red" and "blue" boxes, the March for Truth movement continues to grow across the nation.
On June 3rd, Americans from more than 40 states will take to the streets to demand answers about the possibility of collusion between Donald Trump and the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election.
Marches are now scheduled in approximately 140 cities, both within the United States and abroad — a number that has more than doubled from two weeks ago, reflecting a groundswell of grassroots interest.
The diverse coalition of march organizers includes: Stand Up America, MoveOn, Women’s March, Indivisible, Public Citizen, Free Speech for People, Town Hall Project, the Oppstn, Swing Left, Common Cause, OurStates, Action Group Network, Flippable, Rock The Vote, Lawyers for Good Government, Working Families Party, Rise to Run, and Progressive Democrats of America.
Though many of the groups involved in the organization of the marches are on the left side of the political spectrum, the nature of the demands is non-partisan, focused on national security and sovereignty. In communications with Shareblue, one of the national organizers for March for Truth, Jordan Uhl, emphasized the non-partisan nature of the effort:
The March for Truth transcends partisan politics. This isn't about a political party winning or losing. Transparency, honesty and accountability in government aren't partisan issues. So we welcome support from people of all political affiliations.
Seeking to convey the urgency of the issue, the demonstrations will call for the establishment of a non-partisan, independent commission with subpoena powers to fully investigate Russian interference in the election and coordination between Trump and his associates and the Russian government,
With the White House now refusing to answer any questions about Trump's ties to Russia and related investigations, the public's role in keeping the pressure on is more important than ever.
In the words of Linda Sarsour, one of the organizers of the massively successful post-inauguration Women's Marches and a national organizer with March for Truth, "Women's March organizers in states across the nation are joining the March For Truth to protect the foundation of our democracy."
If the Trump team coordinated with a hostile power to subvert the will of the American electorate, the American people deserve — and will demand — to know. The very legitimacy of our elected government is at stake, now and in the future. | 3,261 |
Home Daily News Cleaning worker who got new job with $3-an-hour…
Labor & Employment
Cleaning worker who got new job with $3-an-hour pay raise faces possible suit over noncompete pact
Benny Almeida admits he saw a noncompetition provision in paperwork he signed when he got a $15-an-hour cleaning job with ServiceMaster of Seattle earlier this year.
But he didn’t think much about it, figuring the boilerplate language didn’t apply to him. And, when another company contacted him and offered to pay him $18 an hour to do cleaning work there, he jumped at the chance to get a $3-an-hour raise, columnist Danny Westneat writes in the Seattle Times.
ServiceMaster, however, asserts that it has the restrictive language in its documents for a reason, and it has threatened legal action against Almeida if he doesn’t give up his new job. The noncompetition provision bans employment at any company that does cleaning work in Seattle’s King County and other nearby counties for a two-year period after a worker leaves ServiceMaster, the article explains.
And ServiceMaster is far from the only employer that restricts workers this way: A camp counselor and a hair stylist are among those who have lost jobs over such restrictions.
Attorney Brian Boice, who represents the company, told Westneat the noncompete clause is intended to prevent ServiceMaster from training employees only to see their efforts benefit competitors.
Almeida says he didn’t get any training there.
His new boss, CEO Larry Weinberg, of Superior Cleaning, says he thinks such provisions are “just taking advantage of blue-collar workers.
“It’s like we’re going back to the feudal societies of the 12th century, where the vassals are indentured to their corporate lords,” Weinberg continued. “We’re still in America, right?”
Related material:
Carter Ledyard & Milburn: “Contractual Restraints on Employee Conduct”
Kroger Gardis & Regas: “Employment Non-compete Agreements: Disfavored Does Not Mean Not Enforceable”’
University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law: “The Growing Disfavor of Non-Compete Agreements in the New Economy and Alternative Approaches for Protecting Employers’ Proprietary Information and Trade Secrets” | 3,262 |
(CNN) A majority of adults in the US approve of same-sex marriage in the eyes of the law. In fact, according to a Gallup poll taken in May, the largest majority ever (67%) say marriages between same-sex couples should be legally recognized.
Does that mean LGBTQ+ rights are done? Everyone is equal now? Not necessarily.
The 2015 US Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples can marry nationwide was an important milestone for the community. But while about 25 out of the 61 usable questions asked on LGBTQ+ issues in 32 polls from 2015 to today have been about marriage, polling demonstrates there are more hurdles to come.
In 2015, Suffolk/USAToday conducted a poll on the levels of discrimination against gays and lesbians. A plurality of adults -- 44% -- say gays and lesbians face "some discrimination," while 28% say they face a great deal, 15% only a little and 9% none at all.
Among the issues LGBTQ+ people may face, job and housing discrimination have often been asked about in polling. In an early 2018 Public Religion Research Institute poll, 70% said they were in favor of laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing.
These numbers have remained steady throughout surveys in the last few years, with a 2016 CNN/ORC poll reporting 75% supported laws that guarantee equal protection for transgender people in jobs, housing and public accommodations, and 80% supported laws protecting gays and lesbians.
Most people oppose allowing small businesses or companies to refuse service to same-sex couples, with the March 2018 PRRI poll showing 57% opposing allowing store owners to refuse service and 37% favoring it.
Quinnipiac had asked the same question in 2015, finding that 30% said business should be allowed to refuse services. Respondents were then prompted with "what if the business says homosexuality violates its owners' religious beliefs?" When that was the case, 42% said they should be allowed to refuse service.
In 2016, Mississippi and North Carolina sparked controversy by passing legislation that restricted transgender access to restrooms. Since then, surveys show relatively stable results of mild support for allowing people to use the restrooms that match their gender identities, as opposed to their biological sexes at birth.
February 2017 PRRI poll found that 50% opposed a law that would require transgender individuals to use bathrooms that correspond to their sexes at birth, and 38% were in favor. In one of the first polls to ask after the issue was raised in 2016, CNN found almost the same numbers, with 57% opposing and 38% favoring. | 3,263 |
Following back-to-back impressive performances by the Chicago Bears’ offense, they came out with a dud in the most important game of the season against the Green Bay Packers in a 21-13 loss Sunday at Lambeau Field.
Just when it appeared that progress had been made for a unit that has struggled to find any footing throughout most of this season, they reverted back to their disjointed ways with their playoff hopes on life support. Now, they’ve officially flat lined.
Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky wasn’t pleased with the offense’s performance, and he shouldn’t have been. But when questioned about the Packers’ pass rush, he has upfront about his thoughts on Sunday’s game plan and play selection.
“I feel like they were pretty good,” Trubisky said of the Packers. “They had a really good front. I felt like our O-line played really well. I thought we could have taken more pressure off them moving the pocket a little more and me getting out… We’ve just got to continue to find ways to take pressure off our O-line. With a good pass rush like that, continue to mix it up, whether it’s with screens, running it, draws — all that kind of stuff helps.”
It seemed like shots fired at head coach and play-caller Matt Nagy. When asked to clarify his comments, Trubisky made it clear.
“Could’ve done a lot of stuff, yeah,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Nagy has been questioned as a play caller this season. While there is plenty of blame to go around — including Trubisky — for the offense’s struggles, you could argue that the play calling was a brutal blow especially for a unit that seemed to have finally found its stride.
But everything that didn’t work against the Packers in Week 1 appeared to replicate in Sunday’s loss. Nagy reverted back to the conservative kind of playcalling that got them losses this season.
Lack of a run game; Trubisky throwing for 45+ times (53 on Sunday); not rolling Trubisky out of the pocket; forcing gadget plays that result in a loss of yardage on first down.
Everything that the Bears offense seemed to do well over the last couple of weeks, they couldn’t manage it against Green Bay in Week 15, and as a result, Chicago found themselves eliminated from playoff contention. | 3,264 |
Created Equal posted a video of a conversation with a post-abortive mother that highlights the lasting effects an abortion decision can have.
The woman in the video says she was forced by her mother to get an abortion when she was 17. She tells the man filming the video, “I tried to like cover it up and not think about it, but it’s the older I get the more it comes back to me.” She explained, “Because it’s like, my baby would be this old.”
The woman emphasizes the lasting effects of the abortion, saying, “My life changed. I changed.” She adds, “I ain’t been the same since.”
The video was shot at a Created Equal demonstration that featured controversial images of abortion victims. The man filming the video notes that some people are opposed to the use of these disturbing images because of the effect they may have on women who have had abortions and asks the mother in the video what her views are.
The post-abortive mother’s response is not what you might expect. She says seeing the images is part of coming to terms with what happened, explaining, “That’s a stage of my healing process.” She also says that images of babies killed in abortion opened her eyes to what abortion is from a young age, saying, “These [images of abortion victims] are what have always made me against it [abortion].”
READ: ‘These are babies’: Student sees abortion victim images, becomes pro-life
Far from condemning the use of these controversial displays, the post-abortive woman supports Created Equal’s efforts and views them as a way to bring the truth to more people. While she was coerced into an abortion as a minor, many women choose abortion without knowing what they are consenting to. The woman explains, “sometimes some people might be for something that they really don’t know much about.”
Abortion facility workers have described the aftermath of abortion as “gruesome” and witnessing the destruction of preborn life has led some abortion workers to leave their jobs. As the grieving mother in the Created Equal video points out, people who have never seen these images can be deceived about the reality of abortion. Post-abortive women need help and support; they also deserve the truth so that they can heal.
“Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary! | 3,265 |
were equally guilty of association with the establishment. Trump and Sanders, despite their radically different policy positions, similarly appealed to voters with their populism.
We’ve also seen a rise in nationalistic versus cosmopolitan tendencies and arguments. The immigration debate often falls along these lines, as do many debates surrounding economic policy.
But there are also many folks who identify with humanitarian or planetary issues they believe important: abortion, economic sustainability, animal rights, human rights crises around the world. Many conservatives have seen the Republican Party desert or ignore one of the issues most important to them and their families: the pro-life issue. For these individuals, a party’s practical platform often matters more than the big-picture philosophies behind it. Many pro-life folks I know would vote for a Democrat in a heartbeat if he or she promised to defund Planned Parenthood.
We Need to Consider the Best Step Forward
So what does this mean, practically, for voters who feel homeless post-2016?
Perhaps we can do some good—and find some bipartisan agreement—by willingly putting labels aside. By having conversations across the aisle, understanding that politics and parties as we currently understand them are shifting and changing.
It’s difficult to know what party realignment (or disintegration) might look like in years to come. But unless the parties as they currently stand begin to shift and change, more and more voters seem likely to walk away from their political representatives. This may not be a bad thing, if it forces us to break the current gridlock in Washington, and bridge some of the disdainful and angry chasms that have plagued our nation of late.
As Linker puts it, this is a “deeply disorienting moment.” But I’m reminded of these words Wendell Berry shared with me in 2015:
I prefer to get along without political labels. They don’t help thought, or my version of thought. Since I’m self-employed and not running for office, I’m free to notice that those political names don’t mean much of anything, and so am free to do without them. I’m free, in short, to be an amateur.
Perhaps those of us who aren’t running for office, who don’t feel satisfied with “left” or “right,” can happily call ourselves amateurs: lovers of family, of community, and of place—without having to throw a “Republican” or “Democrat” on the end of that definition. | 3,266 |
Image caption Blagojevich met supporters - and cameras - outside his home on Wednesday
Disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has reported to prison to begin his 14-year term for corruption.
Blagojevich, 55, was convicted in June 2011 after he attempted to sell President Barack Obama's former Senate seat.
The married father will serve his time at the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood outside Denver, Colorado.
Blagojevich is the second consecutive Illinois governor to be convicted for corruption.
The Democrat, who appeared on a reality TV show during his case, was covered by camera crews as he left his Chicago home and went through security at the airport.
Menial jail job
"I'm leaving with a heavy heart, a clear conscience and I have high, high hopes for the future," said Blagojevich on Thursday as he left home.
"While my faith in things has sometimes been challenged, I still believe this is America; this is a country that is governed by the rule of law; that the truth ultimately will prevail," he said on Wednesday to an assembled crowd and reporters outside his home.
The former governor, who was heard on FBI wiretaps scoffing at a low-six figure salary, will work a menial prison job that pays 12 cents an hour.
Blagojevich's lawyers say they are working to appeal his sentence. Federal prison rules require inmates to serve 85% of their term before becoming eligible for early release.
He will spend his term in a low-security Colorado prison that also counts Jeff Skilling, Enron's former chief, as an inmate. Skilling is serving a 24-year sentence for fraud.
Most of the 1,000 inmates at FCI Englewood are in jail for drug offences, according to a US Bureau of Prisons spokesman.
Blagojevich was elected governor of Illinois in 2002 and served until 2009, when the state legislature threw him out of office following his arrest.
As governor, he was tasked under law with appointing someone to fill the Senate seat left vacant when Mr Obama won election to the White House.
In wire taps, Blagojevich was heard describing the Senate appointment as a "golden" opportunity.
He was also convicted of trying to extort campaign donations from business executives, and of soliciting bribes from racing officials.
One of his top fundraisers, Antoin Rezko, was sentenced in November to 10-and-a-half years in prison. | 3,267 |
A lot of interesting things are happening in the world of cryptocurrency right now. It is evident the Stratis currency is rocketing up the charts. Less than a week ago, the coin surpassed the US$4 mark for the very first time. Today, one STRAT is worth over US$107. The currency is now in the top 8 and looks poised to overtake Dash very soon. The market cap is growing quickly, but can it sustain this growth?
Stratis Is On A Mission
Most people will be all too familiar with the Stratis project. The blockchain platform has gotten a lot of attention these past few months. Moreover, their ICO was quite successful, which resulted in a lot of funds being raised by the team. However, it now appears his fundraising was only the beginning for Stratis. The native STRAT currency is rocketing up the charts right now for some reason. That is good news for anyone who bought the coin during the crowdsale.
When the STRAT value first started going up, a lot of people assumed this was a mere pup. However, the momentum has kept things going for quite some time now. Spectacular price gains were made over the past week, and it appears things will not be slowing down anytime soon. With STRAT valued at nearly US$11 at the time of writing, the growth has been nothing short of amazing. Keep in mind one STRAT was worth just US$0.20 on April 1st of 2017.
This price increase can mainly be attributed to Poloniex driving the volume. Although STRAT can be traded across many different platforms, Poloniex is the go-to place. Bittrex is also bringing in over US$16. 5m worth of trading volume. This growth is rather strange, though, considering there are over 98 million STRAT in existence. However, the recently announced Master node program means users need to lock up a significant amount of coins. Assuming a lot of people did exactly that, this could explain the price surge.
In terms of market cap, Stratis now sits at US$1.08 billion. That means it has successfully overtaken both WAVES and Monero, and Dash is next on the list. At this rate, it is only a matter of time until STRAT surpasses Litecoin as well. This growth is quite spectacular, to say the least. We can only hope people who invest in STRAT will not get burnt by this momentum. Then again, the future of Stratis development looks quite solid, thus there is nothing to worry about just yet.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock | 3,268 |
Joni Sledge, who recorded the dance anthem We Are Family with her three sisters, has died aged 60.
Sledge was discovered dead at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, by a friend on Friday.
The band's publicist, Biff Warren, said a cause of death has not been established and that Sledge had not been ill.
The family said in a statement: "On yesterday, numbness fell upon our family. We welcome your prayers as we weep the loss of our sister, mother, aunt, niece and cousin."
Sledge and her sisters Debbie, Kim and Kathy formed Sister Sledge in 1971, and had their breakout success with the album We Are Family in 1979.
We love you Joni. pic.twitter.com/6Zxj6gLoQh — Sister Sledge (@SisterSledge_) March 12, 2017
The title track was an infectious song that celebrated their familial connection with the refrain: "We are family, I got all my sisters with me."
The song, which sold more than a million copies, was nominated for a Grammy and became an anthem of unity and women's empowerment.
Image: Joni Sledge, Debbie Sledge, and Kim Sledge perform onstage
Other hits on the album included Lost In Music, Thinking Of You and He's The Greatest Dancer.
The songs were co-written and produced by Chic star Nile Rodgers, who paid tribute to Joni.
He tweeted his condolences to the family and added: "We did something pretty amazing together."
#RIPJoniSledge #WeAreFamily My heartfelt condolences to your family because they are my family too. We did something pretty amazing together https://t.co/2UPcaD1zUL — Nile Rodgers (@nilerodgers) March 12, 2017
La Toya Jackson also paid tribute on Twitter while TV Star Ru Paul tweeted "Sister Sledge Forever".
Although Sister Sledge reached their peak in the US in the late 1970s their biggest UK hit came in 1985.
Frankie stayed at number one for four weeks and was one of the biggest selling songs of the year.
When sister Kathy left for a solo career in 1989, the remaining members continued to perform and record.
Several of their songs were re-released in the UK in the early 1990s and became hits all over again and, in 2015, they performed for Pope Francis.
They last performed together in concert in October.
Joni Sledge is survived by a son. | 3,269 |
An online campaign has been launched to have Metallica removed from the Glastonbury festival bill because of frontman James Hetfield's interest in hunting.
He’s described himself as a “keen huntsman” and enjoys travelling round the world to take part in shooting expeditions – and angry anti-hunt campaigners believe that means he shouldn’t be associated with the Worthy Farm event.
A Facebook page entitled Remove Metallica has gained over 2500 likes since launching last week. Organisers say: “This page is an appeal to Glastonbury to remove Metallica from their lineup. We believe James Hetfield’s support of big-game hunting is incompatible with the spirit of Glastonbury and brings its good name into disrepute.”
The campaign has been ignited by the announcement that Hetfield will narrate a History TV series about bear hunting in Alaska. Its producers argue the documentary presents a balanced view, saying: “Brown bear co-existence with humans on the island is a delicate balance, yet is regarded as one of the most successful conservation efforts in the world. Most hunters go after adult males, or boars, who when food is scarce are known to kill and eat cubs, as well as cause trouble near populated areas.”
But some people feel the musician’s involvement in the show means his band shouldn’t perform at Glastonbury. The campaign admin says: “I doubt very much that James Hetfield is the first high-profile big-game hunter to grace the stages – I’m sure there have been many.
“I do however doubt that any of them have had a prime time History show promoting his view that hunting is a good thing to do, on at the same time. This double-exposure gives his views extra publicity and acceptability, and this is where we can have an effect.
“This is about raising awareness and making both Metallica and Glastonbury aware of what appears to be a large number of people’s disapproval.”
The documentary series, Hunt, is launched on June 8. Metallica are due to headline Glastonbury on June 28. Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson, whose band co-headline Sonisphere with Hetfield and co in July, last week said he’d never consider following them to the Worthy Farm event, branding it “middle-class” and “bourgeois.”
Blogs Of War: Why Metallica at Glasto is a good thing | 3,270 |
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday suggested a mysterious bloc of millions of "illegal" voters cast ballots for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton on Election Day, costing him the popular vote.
Clinton is likely to defeat Trump in the popular vote by over 2 million votes.
"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," Trump wrote in a tweet Sunday, without providing any factual evidence to support his claim.
Various far-right sites known for peddling false or misleading information, like the conspiracy-riddled InfoWars, claimed after the election that close to 3 million votes were cast by immigrants living in the US illegally. The fact-checking websites PolitiFact, Factcheck.org, and Snopes have all ruled that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Trump furthered the accusation on Sunday night by saying in a subsequent tweet that there was "serious voter fraud" in Virginia, New Hampshire, and California. No evidence of voter fraud in those states has surfaced.
This isn't the first time Trump has indulged his conspiratorial impulses about supposed voter fraud. Before the election, the president-elect frequently claimed that immigrants living in the US without permission were voting, constituting a "massive problem," despite providing no credible evidence to support his claim.
And despite lacking strong evidence, he also alleged voter fraud in the Florida Republican presidential primary and the Iowa caucuses. He too floated several different conspiracy theories claiming "dead voters" supported President Barack Obama's reelection in 2012.
Before it was apparent that Trump was slated to win on Election Day, his attorneys were already preparing to challenge election results in Nevada, accusing poll workers in left-leaning precincts of violating rules.
The president-elect's allegation came as infighting over Trump's pick for secretary of state spilled into the public view and as he has refused to change his business practices to reduce potential conflicts of interest to the office of the presidency.
It also came as Wisconsin officials prepared for a possible recount of the state's presidential election initiated by a request from Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee. The Clinton campaign said it would participate in the recount, though it said it had not found "actionable evidence" of voting irregularities or hacking. It also suggested it didn't expect results to change.
Trump spent much of the weekend raging against Stein and the Clinton campaign amid the recount effort.
"Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in," Trump wrote in a Sunday tweet. "Nothing will change." | 3,271 |
President Trump is heading to Helsinki, Finland to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Democrats are demanding President Trump cancel his meeting with Putin because Mueller decided to roll out another junk indictment of Russians.
Trump refuses to bow down to the lunatics on the left.
On Sunday, President Trump called the fake news media “the enemy of the people” and said all Democrats know how to do is resist and obstruct.
TRENDING: This Is America? Young Mother TASED, CUFFED AND ARRESTED for Not Wearing Face-Mask at Mostly Empty Stadium to Watch HS Football Game
Trump: Heading to Helsinki, Finland – looking forward to meeting with President Putin tomorrow. Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia…
Heading to Helsinki, Finland – looking forward to meeting with President Putin tomorrow. Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018
Trump: …over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition! Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems…
…over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition! Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018
Trump: …know how to do is resist and obstruct! This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country – but at some point, it will heal!
…know how to do is resist and obstruct! This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country – but at some point, it will heal! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018
President Trump is correct. The fake news media is the enemy of the American people.
The fake news media is the propaganda arm of the Democrat party. All they do is manufacture one crisis after another in order to divide the American people and undermine President Trump.
Mueller and Rosenstein purposely rolled out another fake indictment of Russians who will never see the inside of a US courtroom as the President was heading to Helsinki to meet with Putin in an effort to embarrass and undermine Trump. | 3,272 |
The number of asylum cases in which immigration judges find that an immigrant has a “credible fear” of persecution has dropped sharply this year — a shift that leads to swifter deportations and provides an early glimpse at the narrowing path to refuge for many under the Trump administration, according to a report released Monday.
Researchers with the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University reported that immigration judges found asylum seekers had provided enough evidence to establish they had a credible fear in 14.7% of cases heard since January — about half as often as the same period in 2017.
Immigrants who show that their fears are credible can stay in the U.S. and advance to the next stage of the asylum process. Those who don’t are subject to deportation. Credible fear of persecution can be based on an applicant’s religion, race or political opinion, or membership in a specific social group.
Credible fear reviews apply to many parents now arriving at the Southwest border with children.
The decline in favorable rulings comes as Trump administration officials have bashed “meritless” asylum cases. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions in October 2017 called on immigration judges to elevate “the threshold standard of proof in credible fear interviews.”
In June, Sessions ordered immigration judges to stop granting asylum to most victims of domestic abuse and gang violence, a move that could block tens of thousands of people, especially women, from seeking refuge in America.
The latest from Washington »
The outcomes varied widely by judge and region, the report found. Since October 2015, for example, judges in Arlington, Va., found that asylum seekers appearing before them had established credible fear of persecution in 60% of cases. Judges in El Paso gave such a favorable ruling in less than 10% of cases.
Judges in Los Angeles found credible fear in about 20% of cases, putting them in about the middle of the range of immigration judges nationwide.
“It has long been clear that the extreme level of disparity now present in asylum adjudication is inconsistent with our country’s commitment to equal justice and the rule of law,” the report said.
Previous studies by the university have captured wide disparities in who is ultimately granted asylum, depending on the immigration judge who takes up the case. The new report is the first to document that sort of wide variation in the early stages of the asylum-seeking process.
More stories from Jazmine Ulloa »
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@jazmineulloa | 3,273 |
Los Angeles’ bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Thursday released the final video in its ‘Legend of LA’ series featuring Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky and The Forum that hosted their athletic performances.
The series showcases legendary athletes describing the iconic venues in which they competed, from their unique perspectives.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson is Vice Chair of LA 2024 and played professional basketball with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) at The Forum. He said in the video ” “[The Forum] is going to supply every athlete the energy they need to play at their highest level and at their best. The crowd feels a part of the game, and the athletes feed off that energy from the crowd.”
The iconic venue also hosted Olympic basketball at Los Angeles’ second Games in 1984. The city hosted its first Games in 1932. The 1960’s arena underwent extensive renovations to reopen in 2014 and hosts world-class sports and entertainment events year-round in its 17,500-seat auditorium.
Should LA win the right to host the Games in 2024 The Forum would host Olympic Gymnastics eliminating the costs and risks of developing a new venue for the event.
Olympian Wayne Gretzky who played ice hockey for Team Canada at the Nagano 1998 Olympic Winter Games said “As a child, you’ve got to have dreams and you’ve got to have goals.”
“Olympic athletes are so inspiring to young kids. I don’t think that there’s anything more inspiring than to compete against the greatest athletes in the world, on one stage together. You can’t take away the atmosphere and the history that [The Forum] has.”
Gretzky won four Stanley Cup Championships in the National Hockey League (NHL) before joining the Los Angeles Kings in 1988 where he played his games at The Forum, the venue that hosted The Kings for 32 years.
The other videos in the ‘Legends of LA’ series featured Olympians Carl Lewis, Kobe Bryant and Cobi Jones reliving their memories of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, STAPLES Center, and StubHub Center respectively.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission will be visiting The Forum and other proposed venues for the 2024 Games when they arrive in Los Angeles for a three-day visit starting Wednesday.
The IOC will select from between LA and rival bid Paris when they choose the 2024 host city September 13 in Lima, Peru. | 3,274 |
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and other ruling party officials meeting the Chinese Communist Party delegation in Belgrade. Photo: Presidency of Serbia/Dimitrije Goll
The ruling parties in China and Serbia on Monday pledged to forge ever-closer links, as a Chinese Communist Party delegation in Belgrade met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.
Both sides hailed the strong relations between the two countries but also between the two ruling parties – the Chinese Communist Party and Serbian Progressive Party, SNS.
Chinese Community Politburo member Yang Xiaodu, the Chinese delegation leader, told Serbian Prime Minister Brnabic – who only joined the Progressive Party four days ago – that the two parties and countries were “all-time friends and important partners” that shared the same values of service to the people.
At a meeting with President Vucic, who is also the SNS leader, Xiaodu said the goal of the visit was to realise previous agreements made between the two presidents and intensify exchanges between the two parties.
“I am sincerely thankful to the Serbian Progressive Party, especially to you personally, for your hospitality and careful organisation for my delegation, especially [to SNS] vice-president [Marko] Djuric [who] is with me and our delegation all the time and has done everything for us,” Xiaodu said.
Serbian officials congratulated their Chinese guests on the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. They also thanked China for its important investments in Serbia and for its equally important diplomatic support over the issue of Kosovo.
Like Serbia, China has not recognised the mainly ethnic Albanian former province of Serbia that declared independence with Western backing in February 2008.
The Chinese delegation previously visited Novi Sad, the main city in northern Serbia, where the local authorities, also members of the Progressive Party, welcomed them. On Sunday, some members visited an extended session of the SNS executive committee, held in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.
“This is going to be a meeting of friends and today the representatives of the world champions in political work will talk to the European champions,” said Novi Sad Mayor Milos Vucevic.
The two countries have long developed economic cooperation, with Serbia forming an important part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in southeast Europe. China is also becoming a “player” in Serbia’s security sector, as BIRN previously reported. | 3,275 |
When News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch attacked Google on Twitter for its opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act, he had no idea what he was letting himself in for.
“Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying,” Murdoch tweeted to his followers.
As Business Insider quickly noted, however, the reaction from the tech community was swift and snarky — and by Sunday even included a Google policy manager.
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Journalism professor and author of What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis was one of the first — and nastiest — writing, “Google doesn’t pirate and it doesn’t hack dead girls, @rupertmurdoch. I am so happy I pulled my book from you.”
Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezburger Network, which is a leading opponent of SOPA, more straightforwardly told Murdoch, “Accusing Google of piracy is like accusing the library of copyright infringement. Access to knowledge is a human right.
And comedian Rob Delaney urged Murdoch, “Sup bro you’re doing great on Twitter nobody thinks you’re a weird asshole or anything keep it up.”
Google’s Derek Slater, however, was at pains to point out that Murdoch seemed to be comfortable using Twitter, which is protected against copyright infringement claims under the “safe harbor” defense that SOPA would do away with.
Slater wrote, “so cool to see @rupertmurdoch crowdsourcing how he can enforce his copyrights better using Twitter, a DMCA safe harbor dependent platform.” He added in a second tweet, “@rupertmurdoch we’ve also innovated in tools that make it easier for rightsholders to submit DMCA takedown.”
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A Twitter search late on Sunday afternoon showed users still happily engaged in Murdoch-bashing. “I think the problem is not Google’s links but your understanding of them (and the web)” one wrote.
“I love the suggestion that opposing sopa is where all that sweet lobby money is, @rupertmurdoch. never change!” another offered.
And an editor with the Newcastle Evening Chronicle remarked, “Interesting to see @rupertmurdoch rallying at Google’s copyright infringement. Will remember that next time his newspapers lift our stories.”
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Photo by the World Economic Forum via Wikimedia Commons | 3,276 |
MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi asked a Democratic lawmaker Friday if the U.S. was essentially doing "Israel's foreign policy at this point" following President Donald Trump's call for United States recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Speaking with Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), Velshi discussed the foreign policy announcement, which some critics charge was done by Trump to bolster Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his April 9 re-election bid.
"There also seems to be an increasing coordination between the president and the Prime Minister of Israel … One does begin to wonder if we're doing our foreign policy or Israel's foreign policy at this point," Velshi said.
After a notable pause, Murphy said the U.S. had always had its foreign policy "inter-linked with Israel's."
"It has been part of U.S. foreign policy, rightly so, that we work to defend the security of the state of Israel, so I have no objection to a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is all about the security of Israel," Murphy said.
Murphy went on to criticize the Trump administration for exiting the Iran nuclear deal, echoing the Obama administration line that such a move emboldened hardliners in the Islamic Republic.
Velshi's remark comes after several anti-Semitic controversies involving Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), including one comment invoking the "dual loyalty" canard of wondering why supporters for Israel were pushing her to show "allegiance to a foreign country."
Although she had to apologize for tweets suggesting pro-Israel politicians are paid off by the lobbying group AIPAC and "it's all about" money for them, she refused to apologize for her "allegiance" remarks. She has retweeted supporters praising her over decisions by 2020 Democrats to not address AIPAC this year.
Trump has denied his move was meant to help Netanyahu's Likud party, telling Fox Business he had been thinking about making such a decision for a "long time." Leaders of Netanyahu's rival Blue and White party also praised Trump for his announcement.
Israel captured the northern border territory from Syria in the defensive 1967 "Six-Day War," and Israel annexed it in 1981. Trump cited its 52-year control of the area and its significance to Israeli and regional security in his tweet calling for U.S. recognition of its sovereignty.
Netanyahu called Trump to thank him while he hosted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at his home in Jerusalem. He has been campaigning under the threat of indictment from corruption investigations. | 3,277 |
The Trump administration is planning on targeting so-called “sanctuary cities” for additional scrutiny by allocating more agents and resources to those cities.
Thomas Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Washington Examiner Tuesday that border crossings have plummeted while arrests and demands for removal of undocumented criminals from localities have increased 80 percent since Trump entered office. Homan also criticized sanctuary cities, which he called “ludicrous.”
“In the America I grew up in, cities didn't shield people who violated the law," he told the Examiner. “The president recognizes that you've got to have a true interior enforcement strategy to make it uncomfortable for them.”
Trending: "Give It Hell John," Obama Tweets At McCain After Cancer News
Sanctuary cities are localities that do not fully cooperate with federal efforts to enforce immigration laws. Often, these localities do not let ICE agents into local jails to detain undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. Sanctuary cities include New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and Austin, Texas.
“Actually, cities like Austin are safer and have better economies,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler tells Newsweek in a statement Wednesday. “ICE should be figuring out why that’s true and applying those lessons.”
Proponents of sanctuary cities argue sanctuary status increases trust between undocumented immigrants and police, making them feel safe to report crimes and speak out as witnesses. Opponents argue localities should comply with federal immigration laws.
Don't miss: First Trump Ignores LGBT Pride Now He Declines Invitation to NAACP Convention
ICE plans on hiring 10,000 more agents, Homan told the Examiner. He said he believed sanctuary cities would create more fear in immigrant communities as ICE agents would have to track down criminal and fugitive undocumented immigrants at their homes or workplaces.
Story continues
"What I want to get to is a clear understanding from everybody, from the congressmen to the politicians to law enforcement to those who enter the country illegally, that ICE is open for business. We're going to enforce the laws on the books without apology. We'll continue to prioritize what we do. But it's not OK to violate the laws of this country anymore. You're going to be held accountable," he added.
This crackdown on sanctuary cities lines up with Trump’s prioritization of immigration during his campaign. The president has also spoke in support of Kate’s Law, which increases the penalties for those who are deported and attempt to return to the United States.
More from Newsweek | 3,278 |
ageo, which deliver beer to bars, take M-Pesa payments rather than have the delivery trucks go around with cash.
It has even extended into Kenya's real estate and rental market with a service called Lipa Kodi— Swahili for "pay your rent."
Kenya's rental market is a large and growing segment (the latest census estimated there were 6.5 million rental households) as the country rapidly urbanizes. Valued at around 17.2 billion Kenyan shillings (US$200 million), it represents a fifth of the total value of the real estate market in Kenya.
Within five years, M-Pesa contributes almost 20% of Safaricom's total revenue and has been rolled out in Egypt, Lesotho and Mozambique, before first venturing outside Africa into India.
Universal appeal
While it was originally designed for and aimed at those at the bottom of the pyramid, M-Pesa is used by almost everyone that needs to move money in Kenya, allowing users to transfer between US$1,500--US$1,600 per day.
This service really works where people need an alternative to traditional banking Jack Kent, mobile analyst
Recent services, such as the credit application M-Shwari, however, have come under fire over what critics claim are high levels of interest charged to Kenya's poorest.
Even though the loans are small, typically just $300, they have a 30-day term at 7.5%. On an annualized basis, critics say, the loans attract an interest rate of about 100%.
Additionally, a higher rate of interest applies if the loan is paid either early or late and a subscriber's savings account is frozen up to the amount due.
Nevertheless, for many analysts, M-Pesa is an example of a successful social enterprise—a system that not only has a clear social benefit but returns a profit as well. For detractors of Africa's dependence on foreign aid, applications like M-Pesa are the way forward.
Ironically, aid organizations are using M-Pesa themselves to direct cash payments.
"When it was started, it wasn't even conceived as a social enterprise; I don't think it was even a popular term at the time," Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore told CFA Magazine. "But now, USAID, which distributes aid—and often this aid evaporates; it's stolen—these guys use M-Pesa to get the benefit directly to the person who is receiving it."
Read more from Tomorrow Transformed: | 3,279 |
Everybody knows it’s great to go green, but have you ever considered why? Here’s some advice for homeowners on how greening their homes can lead to a higher quality of life.
1. Homeowners with greener homes pay less for water and electricity each month. If you’re one of the green-savvy homeowners who have installed solar panels or a solar water heater, you are at a great advantage. Although these systems are usually used to complement traditional means of providing electricity and heating water, some lucky homeowners have discovered that they can produce enough green energy to go entirely off the grid. Not to mention that maximizing natural light can lead to lower consumption of electricity, as well.
2. Green homes last longer and sell higher. For those homeowners who are fortunate enough to be able to build their dream green home or participate in the construction of a home already in progress, green additions can be well worth the investment. Not only do these homes produce less waste during the construction process, but their green features — such as reclaimed bamboo floors and solar panels — last longer, giving them a higher resale price if you ever decide you want to move. And who knows how much more in-demand green homes will become as fuel prices continue to rise?
3. Green homes are healthier for you. When going green, it is important to think of the little things, as well. Using non-vinyl window blinds can help reduce the amount of lead particles in the air around your home, as well as using chemical-free paints. These chemicals, when ingested over a long period of time, can lead to health complications that you may not even be aware of. So greening your home is also a way to live a longer, healthier life.
4. Green homes require less maintenance. Whilst you’re spending time around the house this year treating your deck and polishing your floors, consider this: design materials made from recycled product often require little to no effort to maintain and last longer. This means that you can actually save both time and money by incorporating things like environmentally friendly flooring in your home’s decor.
5. They help maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the environment. This may seem like a no-brainer, but green homes do a lot more for the environment than just reduce waste. Home builders who know how to work with the environment in the process of designing their homes can actually use things like the angle of the sunlight to eliminate the need for artificial lighting. They can also take advantage of wooded areas on the land for climate control inside the home instead of destroying the trees. | 3,280 |
Next Game: at Marquette 10/17/2015 | 7:00 PM
INDIANAPOLIS -- Pushing its overall record to 13-0-0, the Creighton men's soccer team secured its ninth shutout of the season on Wednesday en route to earning a 1-0, road victory over BIG EAST opponent Butler. With the win, the Bluejays improved to 4-0-0 in BIG EAST play.
Creighton outshout the Bulldogs (6-3-3, 2-2-0 BIG EAST) by a 10-1 margin in the first half, but could not find the back of the net.
The ice broke for the Bluejays in the 69th minute when senior Timo Pitter collected a pass from fellow Germany native, Fabian Herbers, and fired a shot into the upper-left corner past Butler goalkeeper Eric Dick. It was the fourth time this season, and second time in the past two matches, that the duo had connected on a game-winning goal.
Pitter's eventual game-winner was his seventh goal of the season and 30th of his career, moving him past former All-American and current Creighton women's soccer head coach, Ross Paule, on the program's all-time lists for career goals and points. With marks of 30 goals and 19 assists, Pitter ranks seventh in Creighton history for career goals and ninth for career points (79).
Meanwhile, Herbers tallied his seventh assist of the season on the play. The BIG EAST's leading point-scorer, Herbers (10g, 7a) has recorded a point in 12 of Creighton's 13 matches this fall.
Wednesday marked just the second time this season a team managed to shut out Butler, which held a 6-0-2 record and No. 21 NSCAA ranking entering last week. Other than Creighton, only 10th-ranked and BIG EAST co-leader, Georgetown, has accomplished the feat.
The Bluejays held Butler to just one shot on goal on Wednesday.
Creighton's nine shutouts are tied for the second most in the nation, as are the Bluejays 29 offensive goals this season.
The Bluejays will look to remain the nation's lone unbeaten and untied team when they visit Milwaukee, Wisc., on Saturday, Oct. 17 to take on BIG EAST opponent Marquette.
Saturday's match will kick off at 7:00 p.m. CST, and can be viewed online through the BIG EAST Digital Network. | 3,281 |
other one Harry had encountered two years earlier. Harry supposed it had fallen into his robes in that glittery room within the DoM, when Harry and his friends were attacked and on the run. He remembered the Death Eater's head falling into the bell jar, and morphing into the head of a baby, and how curses were being flung around left and right. Yes, Harry decided, that's when the small time tuner must have fallen into his robes from one of the shelves.
As his Uncle Vernon pulled into the driveway at number four Privet Drive, Harry wrapped the small time tuner in an old sock he never wore, and placed it carefully back into his pocket. Tomorrow he would start the rest of his life. No longer would he be a bystander, tomorrow he would become a fighter, and he would need a few new things. His uncle and aunt were warned not to abuse him by members of the Order just a few hours ago, so they would go easy on Harry at least for a few days, and that would be plenty of time. So Harry got out of the car, walked to the back of it to open the boot, and dragged out his battered school trunk and owl's cage. Hedwig had flown ahead of them so she wouldn't be locked in the small trunk for the two hour car ride. His Aunt Petunia and Dudley hurried inside the house quickly (or as quickly as Dudley could waddle), and Harry's uncle waited impatiently for Harry to close the boot of the car so he could lock it up. Harry began to drag his possessions behind him, and was roughly pushed aside as his uncle flew by him on his way inside.
Harry watched as his uncle opened the door, and turned around. For an instant, Harry almost believed that his uncle was going to hold the door open for him and his heavy luggage. Harry should have known better. With a look of distaste and immense loathing on his face, his uncle turned to him and spat out, "Welcome home, freak!" before slamming the door in Harry's face.
Updated 11/18/04
I know originally my grammar and spelling could have been better, so I've gone through (I had to for the Schnoogle version anyway) and corrected all that I could find. This is the final version, folks! If you would like to reread the entire fic, there's also other stuff I changed to, besides the spelling. Nothing that will confuse a reader if they don't, but just enough to clean up some edges, and fix some mistakes in the mythology I made. Later all!
Ross | 3,282 |
The EU is studying a proposal that would count robots as people for tax purposes.
by Mish
Although the proposal is deemed “too early” to implement just yet, rest assured once nannycrats get a bad idea in their heads, it never leaves.
This provides yet another reason to vote in favor of Brexit.
Please consider Europe’s Robots to Become ‘Electronic Persons’ Under Draft Plan.
Europe’s growing army of robot workers could be classed as “electronic persons” and their owners liable to paying social security for them if the European Union adopts a draft plan to address the realities of a new industrial revolution.
Robots are being deployed in ever-greater numbers in factories and also taking on tasks such as personal care or surgery, raising fears over unemployment, wealth inequality and alienation.
Their growing intelligence, pervasiveness and autonomy requires rethinking everything from taxation to legal liability, a draft European Parliament motion, dated May 31, suggests.
The draft motion called on the European Commission to consider “that at least the most sophisticated autonomous robots could be established as having the status of electronic persons with specific rights and obligations”.
It also suggested the creation of a register for smart autonomous robots, which would link each one to funds established to cover its legal liabilities.
The draft motion, drawn up by the European parliament’s committee on legal affairs also said organizations should have to declare savings they made in social security contributions by using robotics instead of people, for tax purposes.
The motion faces an uphill battle to win backing from the various political blocks in European Parliament. Even if it did get enough support to pass, it would be a non-binding resolution as the Parliament lacks the authority to propose legislation.
Three-Fifths Rule
Like slaves in the US before the Civil War, do robots get Three-Fifths of a pre-programmed representation in the European Parliament?
Law of Bad Ideas
The Law of Bad ideas stipulates that bad ideas never go away, they just get worse over time.
At some point in the future, expect to have to register your robots and pay social security taxes on them as well.
When I first penned the “Law of Bad Ideas” I was shocked to discover nobody had used that phrase.
Also consider Monetarism, Abenomics, QE, and Minimum Wage Proposals: One Bad Idea Leads to Another, and Another.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock | 3,283 |
Help me Elon, via Farhan
“Please help Elon,” Farhan tweeted, after announcing to Twitter he had to climb in through the other side of this car when his Tesla’s door handles busted for the third time.
Read this lone tweet sent out yesterday of a Tesla owner with nowhere else to go:
Farhan also posted this to Reddit and you can also get the sense of woe:
this is getting really annoying... the first time my door handle broke was the passenger one about 6 months ago, it would not present when i unlocked the car, and Tesla fixed it after about a week. the second time a door handle died was just a month and a half ago. The driver side rear door handle failed to present itself when i unlocked the car, but it was no big deal because i don’t really use it. i called Tesla and they came out to fix it after a few days. now when i tried to unlock my car at the grocery store, the driver door handle would not present... i had to literally climb into the car from the passenger door. Tesla says they will address and fix my issue as soon as they have availability of the part and time to send out a technician with no clear answer on when that will be... I literally have to climb into my car to drive it until then... why am i having these kinds of issues with a $140k+ car?
It was only a few months ago that Farhan was tweeting at Elon in thanks for his car’s “insane” acceleration. And so too was he tweeting at Elon when his car was involved in a crash, saying it kept him safe.
Yes, this is the same car that was crashed back in April, though I don’t know if or how that might affect his door handles.
Farhan has had the car since the end of 2016, having to do all of the paperwork over email and pick up the car, as he explained to me over Facebook messenger. It’s because he’s in Texas, a state not particularly keen on Tesla’s no-dealership system. “Actually got a ticket for no license plates since Tesla can’t give out temporary plates in Texas,” he noted.
“Yeah, I still really like the car,” Farhan told me, “ [it] just has some issues that need to be worked out.”
Jalopnik has reached out to Tesla and will update if we receive official comment. | 3,284 |
of our daily academic, social and professional lives. In the Hedge community, we have people who identify as transgender and gender non-binary. Our responsibility to support their health and well-being stands clear. As part of an evaluation of our practices with regard to gender inclusivity, we modified restroom facilities to provide additional single-stall, all-gender restrooms across campus.
Aren’t you glad your last year’s contribution to Hedge went to adding single-stall, all-gender restrooms?
HFA’s list is singularly deficient, of course, omitting as it does most of the diversity menu: LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP, which stands for lesbian, gay, genderqueer, bisexual, demisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, intersex, queer, questioning, asexual, allies, pansexual, and polyamorous. But you knew that.
Despite Hedge’s “diversity” a good bet is that the curriculum isn’t diverse enough to include this writing from the fifth-century Christian writer Salvian, who contrasted the chastity of the Vandals with the complete corruption of the Romans.
More grave and criminal was the fact that those vices, about which the blessed Apostle Paul complained with the greatest lament of his soul, were almost all practiced in Africa. That is, men, having put aside the natural use of women, burned in their desires for one another; men doing base things with men, and receiving to themselves the reward of their error which they should receive. … Did the blessed Apostle say this about barbarians and wild peoples? No indeed. But about us, that is, the Romans in particular.
About 1,590 years after Salvian wrote those words (i.e., last week), the House of Representatives in Colorado passed a bill that would require the state’s public school sex-education curriculum to include instructions on LGBT relationships. The bill also prohibits teachers “from explicitly or implicitly teaching or endorsing religious ideology or sectarian tenets or doctrines, using shame-based or stigmatizing language or instructional tools, employing gender norms or gender stereotypes, or excluding the relational or sexual experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender individuals.”
Fools, the Knights of Columbus, and others may object. But will that matter?
From New York to Virginia to Colorado to California, the lamps are going out all over America: and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime, unless we make a more serious effort than we have been making to preserve our precious Western Civilization heritage. | 3,285 |
Warning comes as aid convoy seeks to break blockade of Gaza Strip as part of “Freedom Flotilla” movement.
Israel has warned to confront by force a Gaza-bound ship if it tries to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory, a Finnish foreign ministry spokesman has said.
“The foreign ministry has been informed by Israel that it would intervene if the ship Estelle which is flying the Finnish flag tries to break [Israel’s] blockade against Gaza from the sea,” spokesman Risto Piipponen said on state television on Saturday.
“We told Israel that the Estelle is a civilian vessel and that its crew is made up of civilians,” he said. Israel had been asked to act appropriately, he added.
The yacht, which was built in 1922, sailed from Naples, Italy on October 6 as part of the “Freedom Flotilla” movement, in the latest bid to break Israel’s blockade.
It carries 16 people, mainly from Western countries but also one Israeli national, as well as humanitarian aid. Depending on weather conditions, it is expected to reach Gaza in around two weeks.
The voyage was organised by an international pro-Palestinian coalition.
Canada’s Gaza’s Ark group which supports the mission said on its website the Finnish ministry had informed it of the Israeli warning.
“…In case SV Estelle seeks to break the blockade at sea on Gaza (20 nautical miles), Israel will intervene in the situation by using force. Should this take place, the safety of the people on board may be jeopardised”, Gaza’s Ark quoted the Israeli message to the Finnish foreign ministry as saying.
The first Freedom Flotilla in May 2010 ended in tragedy when nine Turkish nationals were killed after Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the lead ship, as it tried to break through the blockade.
A second attempt to break the blockade in mid-2011 with a coalition of ships setting sail from Athens failed after Greek authorities intercepted the boats, banning their departure and towing back into port those who tried to leave.
In November last year, the Israeli navy also intercepted two Irish and Canadian ships carrying 27 passengers and crew that were trying to breach the blockade in international waters off Gaza.
The Estelle set off originally from Sweden and arrived in the Gulf of Naples on October 4 after a tour of Europe, including Finland, France and Spain. Its exact location can be followed on the flotilla’s Ship to Gaza website. | 3,286 |
Through the beginning of the 2017 season, the Arizona Diamondbacks have had a great deal of success. Let’s take a look at the numbers and how the Diamondbacks have been producing throughout the first 65 games of their season.
Arizona Diamondbacks by the Numbers
Arizona Diamondbacks’ Winning Ways
3rd – The club is tied for third most wins in the majors with the Dodgers, as each has 39. That puts them behind the Colorado Rockies (41 wins) and the Houston Astros (44 wins).
11– The Diamondbacks have won 11 of their last 12 home games, giving them the best home record in the majors. They currently are 26-9 at home on the season.
22- The Diamondbacks have the most comeback wins in all of baseball, sitting at 22.
5– With five wins in the past six games, the Diamondbacks are cruising along as they stay in the chase for the division lead.
3– The Diamondbacks have won three of their past four series and six of their past eight. That includes a four-game series split to the Milwaukee Brewers in late May
Batting
The bats for the Diamondbacks have been heating up recently, keeping them in the run for the top of their division.
4th– The Diamondbacks have put up the fourth most runs in baseball with 335. This sets them behind the Rockies, New York Yankees, and Astros.
57– Jake Lamb has a MLB-leading 57 RBI for the Diamondbacks. Thirteen of which have come in his last 11 games.
52- Over the six-game homestand, the Diamondbacks have outscored their opponents 52-20.
16– Lamb has hit 16 home runs, tying him for fifth place on the National League leaderboard.
1st- The Diamondbacks are tied with the Boston Red Sox for first in the doubles category. They currently have 126 doubles.
15– The Diamondbacks have homered in 15 straight home games at Chase field.
4th– The Diamondbacks currently have the fourth most hits in the league with 580.
Pitching
3.58– The Diamondbacks have the second best ERA in the majors, behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers who carry a 3.21 ERA.
68– Only five teams have given up fewer than 68 home runs, ranking the Diamondbacks sixth in home runs allowed.
3rd– The Diamondbacks are currently ranked third in strikeouts in MLB with 604. They only trail the Dodgers (614) and Astros (647). | 3,287 |
set troll farm has been identified, rest assured there are others that need to be ferreted out.
KPI 2 – Framing the dialogue via ads and fictitious personas. The millions of dollars spent on internet ads via Facebook, Google and other social networks speak for themselves. The use of fake personas delivering divisive messages, which were subsequently picked up by MSM (Jenna Abrams, for example) are examples of their success. The Section A colleagues of 1985 are no doubt smiling as their one-to-one matrix has morphed to a one-to-many matrix due to the asymmetrical nature of social networks and the concept of reach.
KPI 3 – Divide the United States and NATO. It looked as though NATO was going to implode and explode, until the light went on and the discussions were taken offline and out of the public eye. Until then, the EU and U.S. public were being played like a ping pong ball by the Russian efforts. Once the Russian noise was cornered, the NATO alliance put their house in order, as evidenced by the 2017 EU Cyber Wargames.
KPI 4 – Silence opposition both foreign and domestic. The body count of dead or imprisoned dissidents alone is indicative of the hardball nature and seriousness of the Russian apparatus to silence these voices. Kseniya Kirillova, a Russian journalist who focuses on analyzing Russian society and political processes in modern Russia, noted in her June 2016 piece, “Russia Trolls Attack Americans,” she details how the Russian troll machine took it upon itself to discredit a highly decorated CIA officer who is also a well-known critic of the Russian Federation and others with strong opinions and followings. Of particular note is how it manipulated the customer support staff at LinkedIn through a barrage of complaints. The troll machine’s efforts were successful, as the individuals caught in their cross-hairs were banned from the social network, thus silencing their voice.
Russian Active Measures of Tomorrow
Tomorrow we will see more of what we are experiencing today. The Russian troll farms will continue to operate on steroids, overwhelming the ability of security researchers operating in singular fashion. No government is immune; the tactics of 1985 remain viable in 2017, using new techniques that allow messages, adjusted messages and false narratives to be shared a million times. We will be challenged to sort the truth from the lies, thereby proving Winston’s Churchill’s adage, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
Watch out for those whose pants are aflame.
— Christopher Burgess | 3,288 |
The Copywriter is responsible for creating messaging for all marketing mediums. This position will work both independently and in collaboration with the Content Marketing and broader Marketing teams to develop creative ideas and execute consistent brand messaging. Other responsibilities include executing the editorial element of projects throughout the entire production cycle; attend creative planning and review meetings to collaborate with the creative team to ensure timely, accurate and high-quality work; provide editorial guidance to other departments, when needed; work with the graphic designers and web team to create engaging, SEO-rich web content.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Develop concepts that lead to the execution of work, as well as the day-to-day management of project completion.
Ensure all copy communicates a consistent voice and style throughout all forms of communications.
Self-edit and proofread written assets prior to delivery.
Ensure accuracy of product information and price points, as applicable.
Protect business by ensuring copy has stylistic, account and legal approvals.
Demonstrate agile writing capability to adjust copy to most effectively deliver messages to support various business needs. Examples include editing brand copy to meet shorter, digital requirements.
Work independently to anticipate problems before they arise; find solutions and follow-up on issues.
Continually improve workflow efficiency and accurate completion of jobs according to timelines.
KNOWLEDGE / SKILLS / ABILITIES
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with ability to motivate, influence, educate, and inspire readers and teammates.
Proven ability writing, editing, and proofing digital assets, printed assets (i.e., catalogs) and other marketing vehicles.
Excellent editing skills with on-the-job proofreading experience.
Minimum 2-4 years of writing and editing experience, preferably with both digital & printed assets within retail marketing, advertising and editorial environments
Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent professional experience. A degree in English, journalism or creative writing is preferred.
Experience working in e-commerce. Bonus points for experience with beauty or cosmetics companies. Experience working with a global company.
Excellent problem solving skills and ability to execute projects quickly and efficiently while always
maintaining a level of excellence and high-quality work.
Articulate thinker with the ability to take creative direction, react quickly, and interact productively during brainstorming sessions
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: $50,000.00 to $60,000.00 /year
Required experience:
Copywriting: 3 years
Required education: | 3,289 |
is a mental disorder.)
To: af_vet_1981
Can you image Secy of State Clinton and Kerry saying this? How about Pres. Obama, who was more interested in protecting Islamic extremism than peaceful Moslems? Susan Rice - No way
Samantha Power - No interested
Ben Rhodes - fuck the Jews
Anita Dunn - I only like Maoists
Valerie Jarrett - Ain’t no Jews in my hood. Rep. Omar - The only good Jew is a dead Zionist.
Rep. Tlaib - We Palestinians don’t recognize any Jews in Palestine or elsewhere. That’s what Arafat and Abbas and Hamas have taught us. And Hitler wasn’t such a bad guy after all. He did work with the genocidal killer the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to kill all the Jews of Palestine. What’s not to like? AOC - What’s a Jew and why should I care? They aren’t my voting constituents. Nancy Pelosi- Hey, my mayor brother let the black rioters burn the Jewish businesses down to the ground in East Baltimore in 1968. What’s not to like? Chuck Schumer - I only care about Jews who vote for me. The conservative Jews are just ultra-right white nationalists and deserve what they get. George Soros - I betrayed my fellow Jews during WW2 by acting as a KAPO for the Nazis. What’s not to like about anti-Semitism?
To: BTerclinger
SecState Pompeo was also quoted in the article. His advice would likely profit us.
"U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a March speech that anti-Zionism - opposition to Israel's existence as a homeland for the Jewish people - was a form of anti-Semitism, or hostility toward Jews, that was on the rise worldwide and that Washington would "fight it relentlessly"."
by 17 posted onby af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began)
To: af_vet_1981
Exactly:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson | 3,290 |
Retirement is a really bad, bankrupt, industrial age idea that was never a good idea in the first place. It was invented by big businesses to steal the best 40 years of our lives so they could discard us when our good years were all behind us.
What makes it so wrong? A few very important ideas:
A goal realized is no longer motivating. Retirement is a goal that can be realized and once it is realized, it’s not what we were promised. In the Industrial Age, the average life expectancy for men after retirement was 18 months. No longer motivated. Out to pasture. Stick a fork in them – they were done. Men are beginning to live longer after retirement, but for reasons connected to Lifetime Goals – they’re finding meaningful things to do after they stop going to work every day, or they continue to work but because they choose to do so, not out of necessity. The very concept of retirement teaches us to put off doing anything really meaningful and substantial with our lives. I heard it hundreds of times growing up from future pasture-geezers still in their 40’s – “When I retire, I’m going to….[fill in the blank.] What a horrible way to live – always hoping for a future time when you’re actually free to do something with your life. The other really bad notion of retirement is that you’re supposed to work until your 65, then begin enjoying life. The not so subtle message here is that work and play do not mix and that you are really supposed to live two lives – your work life and your meaningful life. But shouldn’t work be meaningful, too? And the ideal way to do it is to live your work life first and hope you have time left to live your meaningful life afterwards, when you have no energy left to do so.
Wealth is the freedom and the ability to choose what to do with my time. The retirement game teaches us you won’t be free until you retire. What a load of crap. Stop living for a future that never arrives. Don’t be that guy who, when you’re gone, others say “Too bad he didn’t get to enjoy his retirement.”
Lifetime Goals give us something to begin to enjoy today that we find meaning in, the rest of our lives. Do you have Lifetime Goals that you’re already living, without any need to be retired to get after them? Life should be meaningful, fulfilling and satisfying today.
Tomorrow never comes. Carpe freaking diem already. | 3,291 |
abuse is handled by the authorities, not Jehovah’s Witness. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t handle crime, they handle sin. Their guidelines for handling sin are scriptural. It’s a Christian concept, it’s not a legal concept.”
In an online document explaining the “scripturally” based position of the church on child abuse, posted in May, it is stated that “Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse and view it as a crime. (Romans 12:9). We recognise that the authorities are responsible for addressing such crimes. (Romans 13:1-4) The elders do not shield any perpetrator of child abuse from the authorities.”
In 2009, Naomi again came face-to-face with her abuser. He was in the Christchurch District Court, on trial for historical sexual abuse against another girl, over the years 1975 to 1980, when she was aged seven to 12. Naomi’s father had informed her that her uncle was facing trial and she was there for the sentencing. Alan Parkes was found guilty on four counts of indecent assault, three of which were at the upper end of the offending scale. He was sentenced to nine months’ home detention and ordered to pay $5,000 to a charity of the victim’s choice. He was separately disfellowshipped as a member by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Almost a decade on from that conviction, Naomi’s uncle is back in the protective fold of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Spinoff spoke to him in April this year, when he confirmed he is an active member of a South Island congregation, although he said he does not hold a position of responsibility, owing to his history of sexual offending.
Naomi says she is appalled to hear Parkes, much like Debbie’s abuser Owen Tutty, has been reinstated within the Jehovah’s Witnesses. “There are plenty of children in the congregations, there always are,” she says.
“He could be sitting next to one right now.”
Contact the author on [email protected]
This feature was made possible thanks to reader contributions via the Spinoff Longform Fund.
Click below to support our investigative journalism.
If this story has been triggering in any way, please consider contacting any of the following organisations:
Help: Support for sexual abuse survivors
NZPC
Women’s Refuge
Rape Crisis
Lifeline | 3,292 |
Valve has implemented a new policy which will limit the accounts of some Steam users. Steam gaming regulars won't be affected because the new 'Limited User Account' policy won't affect anyone who has spent more than US$5 (or equivalent) on the platform. The move aims to protect Steam users from some registered customers who only use Steam for directing spam and phishing type communications.
In a post explaining the thinking behind the $5 limited account policy Steam Support wrote "Malicious users often operate in the community on accounts which have not spent any money, reducing the individual risk of performing the actions they do." Pondering the differences between legitimate and dodgy Steam members Valve came to the realisation that "One of the best pieces of information we can compare between regular users and malicious users are their spending habits, as typically the accounts being used have no investment in their longevity. Due to this being a common scenario we have decided to restrict certain community features until an account has met or exceeded $5.00 USD in Steam."
While we don't expect any HEXUS users who are also Steam gamers to have such a minimal investment in the platform (considering all those irresistible sales, including Humble Bundles), let's look at the restrictions put on an account with less than $5 invested.
Limited users cannot:
Send friend invites
Open group chat
Vote on Greenlight, Steam Reviews and Workshop items
Participate in the Steam Market
Post frequently in the Steam Discussions
Gain Steam Profile Levels (Locked to level 0) and Trading Cards
Submit content on the Steam Workshop
Post in an item's Steam Workshop Discussions
Access the Steam Web API
Use browser and mobile chat
Valve has thought about possible 'loopholes' so has blocked the following alternative'sideways' access methods to the above listed Steam platform features:
Activating a retail game on Steam
Playing free demos
Adding a non-Steam game as a shortcut
Adding/playing promotional trials like Free Weekends
Free to Play games (Examples: Alien Swarm, free versions of Portal and Team Fortress 2)
Activating promotional CD Keys from hardware or graphic card manufacturers
Games received as gifts or trades.
This isn't the only security-concious feature Valve has implemented in Steam recently. Just ahead of the weekend it opened up a beta Mobile Authenticator System. If you are interested in and get selected for the beta you will be able to use your Android or iOS smartphone as part of a two-factor authentication system to access your account. | 3,293 |
Who is Gangly Sister, and why did they declare 2014 the Year of the Girl? The company put out a video called 2014: The Year of the Girl, where they interview girls about their new year's wishes.
"It's just obvious to us. Everyone is so fed up with the media's bombardment of girls with pink unicorns and high-heels for toddlers," says Miriam Lottner, co-founder of Gangly Sister. "It was just a matter of time before we ladies took things into our own hands."
Taking things into their own hands is precisely what Gangly Sister is doing. The founders are parents, and they realized that they could simply produce their own content rather than wait for Hollywood to come around.
"It’s just like any startup," said Lottner. "We saw a problem and set out to solve it."
Gangly Sister will be coming out with the pilot for their animated series, Purple and Nine, later in January.
The Gangly Sister team is setting out to provide clean and funny entertainment for girls, and at the same time expose them to different types of technology. Co-founder Rebecca Rachmany says that there is nothing scary about technology, and that it's not just about coding.
"My favorite example of technology is the coating on chocolate-covered ice cream pops. When I was a kid, that coating used to crack into pieces, but thanks to technological developments, now you can enjoy that chocolate on the more expensive ice cream pops," explains Rachmany.
While that seems like a trivial example, it illustrates how conservative we are in our ideas of "technology." In fact, technology has made it possible to grow food in arid climates, treat diseases, recycle plastic, and even run faster. When you think about it, technology influences everything.
Gangly Sister emerged from the founders' frustration at having so few women in startups. While programs abound to encourage women at later stages in their live to learn to code or to get into technology companies, that's a fairly late stage in life.
The idea behind Gangly Sister is to catch kids at ages 8-12, when they are imagining what they would like to be when they grow up. In the Purple and Nine series, there are no bad guys or mean girls. It's all about two kids who just want to help out their friends, get along with their families, and have a great time. They just happen to use technological inventions to fix those problems.
To learn more, check out http://www.ganglysister.com. | 3,294 |
in the day.
He drank two quarts of Crown Royal – which was nothing for him – but he wanted me to drink with him. The stuff makes me sick, even to smell it – but I didn’t want to do anything to get him hot, so I figured if I had to sit there and drink with him, I’d do the best I could.
So I cheated – whenever he wasn’t not looking, I got rid of it!
Even [just before] going to the ring, I asked him, ‘Andre, what do you want to do out there? Who’s going to win? Who’s going to lose..?
‘DON’T WORRY, BOSS…’
I had no idea what was really going to happen.
When I tried to pick him up in the beginning as I’d planned – but he sat down on me and I fell backward with him, so I kind of thought, ‘Forget about it…’
He had great instinct. He would listen with his heart.
About three-quarters of the way through the match, the place is rumbling – a wave of people cheering for Hogan! Hogan! – all of a sudden, out of nowhere: ‘SLAAAM!’
I went, ‘What-?’
He yelled at me again, ‘SLAAAM!’
He came towards me and I got underneath him and – thank god – I got him. I tore my back, I tore my bicep, tore my delt in three places, but I turned him over…”
Watch Hogan bodyslam Andre at WrestleMania III below:
“Andre didn’t have to do that.
He did that for the wrestling business. Andre knew it was time to pass the torch…”
Hulk Hogan was a recent guest on the Steve Austin Show where he opened up further about his relationship with Andre. You can listen to this to this recommended interview in full here.
WATCH: Hulk Hogan working as a heel against a face Andre the Giant in 1980
*There have been numerous claims since WrestleMania III that the quoted attendance figure of 93,173 which established a world record attendance for an indoor event was false and that the real attendance figure was closer to around 78,000.
Follow us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram
The Pro Wrestling Stories Podcast - your favorite stories, in the form of audio! | 3,295 |
Cyclists endanger motorists
Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Cyclists endanger motorists 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
It seems that more and more bicyclists from San Antonio are coming to Bulverde to ride on our streets. They say what attracts them is the wide open streets, picturesque scenery and rolling terrain.
To me there is a flaw in their reasoning. Our streets are not wide open. Most of our roadways lack any type of shoulder. As the roads wind through the hills they also are lacking any kind of safe-sight distance.
I was sitting in the parking lot of the post office April 15 when suddenly there was a loud and abrupt knock on my truck window. It turns out that a couple of cyclists did not like me passing them between Luke's Chevron and Bulverde Hills Drive.
Traffic was quite heavy at the time. School had just let out, there was a scramble to get income tax checks mailed and the evening rush was beginning. My patience was already worn thin and being stuck behind a couple of slow-moving cyclists riding side-by-side did not help.
So I gave a brief tap on the horn. The cyclists changed formation to single file. Then a break in traffic gave me the opportunity to accelerate and pass on a stretch of road that has a double-yellow center stripe which you can't cross.
I had to pass them quickly, but nobody was hurt and there were no close calls.
When someone is dressed in their work clothing and using a bicycle to get to work, that's one thing.
However, it's another matter when someone is joyriding on an expensive bicycle all decked out in riding attire on probably the most dangerous roadway in the city.
What can we do? The cyclists do legally have a right to the road with some exceptions, but does this mean all motor vehicle traffic must suffer?
When and where these cyclists pick to ride is the real problem. They should stay to the less traveled roads at off-peak hours. They are only endangering themselves, the motorists behind them and those coming from the opposite direction.
For those at the post office that afternoon and heard me unleash on this pair, I apologize.
To the cyclists, just because you have the right to come and use our roads does not mean you are exempt from common sense. Pick your route wisely.
The last thing we want to do is to start ramping up citations for the littlest infractions to get you to notice.
Bill Krawietz is mayor of Bulverde, Texas. | 3,296 |
among countries that confirmed their first cases over the weekend
What's happening in South Korea?
The nation on Monday reported two more deaths, taking the total to 28.
About 60% of the country's more than 4,000 confirmed cases are members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus religious sect. Members are believed to have infected one another and then travelled around the country, apparently undetected
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The leader of Shincheonji Church apologised for its role in the spread of coronavirus
The sect's leader, Lee Man-hee, got on his knees and bowed at a news conference to apologise.
"Although it was not intentional, many people have been infected," said the 88-year-old leader. "We put our utmost efforts, but were unable to prevent it all."
Prosecutors in South Korea have been asked to investigate Mr Lee on possible charges of gross negligence.
What's the situation in China?
China reported 42 more deaths, all in Hubei. The province has registered more than 90% of the global fatalities.
Only eight of the newly reported cases of infection were outside Hubei, suggesting containment was working.
The 206 new cases reported nationwide on Sunday represented the lowest number of daily cases since 22 January.
A spokesman from China's National Health Commission said the next stop would be to "focus on the risks brought by the resumption of work".
How deadly is Covid-19?
The WHO says the virus appears to particularly affect those over 60, and people already ill.
In the first large analysis of more than 44,000 cases from China, the death rate was 10 times higher in the very elderly compared to the middle-aged.
But most patients have only mild symptoms and the death rate appears to be between 2% and 5%, the WHO said.
By comparison, seasonal flu has an average mortality rate of about 0.1%, but is highly infectious - with up to 400,000 people dying from it each year.
Other strains of coronavirus, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers), have much higher death rates than Covid-19.
How have you been affected by the spread of Covid-19? Share your experiences by emailing [email protected].
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: | 3,297 |
Google updated its Platform Versions Web page for Android on Tuesday, and it would appear that the second latest version has peaked. Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) are still growing but Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) may never pass the 30 percent mark. Meanwhile, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is still on over 45 percent of devices.
Breaking down the numbers more specifically, 13.6 percent of Android users are now using Jelly Bean, 29.0 percent are using ICS, 1.3 percent are on Honeycomb, 45.6 are stuck with Gingerbread, and 8.1 percent tragically still have Froyo. Here’s how the current Android landscape looks like in graph and table form:
Last month, Android hit a bunch of new milestones: Jelly Bean finally passed 10 percent share of the droid’s pie, Gingerbread fell below the 50 percent mark, and Froyo dipped below 10 percent. Compared to then, Android 4.2 has budged a minor 0.2 percentage points (from 1.2 percent to 1.4 percent) and Android 4.1 has gained a solid 3.2 percentage points (from 5.9 percent to 9.0 percent).
Android 4.0 has stagnated, dropping 0.1 percentage points to 29.0 percent, suggesting it may not ever cross the 30 percent mark. Android 2.3 meanwhile is down 2.0 percentage points (from 47.6 percent to 45.6 percent) and Android 2.2 fell 0.9 percentage points (from 9.0 percent to 8.1 percent). The bigger picture is still the same though: Gingerbread (released December 2010) is first, ICS (October 2011) is second, the latest and greatest Jelly Beans (June 2012 and November 2012) are third, and Froyo (May 2010) is fourth.
If ICS has indeed peaked, and we should know this for sure in the next month or two, Jelly Bean will rather quickly move up into second place. We would estimate that this will happen before the end of 2013, though Gingerbread will probably remain in first throughout.
There are of course already rumors that Key Lime Pie will be out this spring. Depending on what devices launch with it, the landscape could change yet again. Either way, we’ll be watching closely.
Image credit: Daudzegier
Read next: The White House to release its 'We the People' Petition 2.0 API, plans to host Open Data Day Hackathon | 3,298 |
You’ve probably used Google Maps to preview vacation destinations on this planet, but the newest locales added take you on an out-of-this-world escape.
Maybe you’d rather visit frozen Enceladus than stay at a ski resort. The methane waters beneath Titan’s thick clouds are certainly a change from your typical beach weekend. If you prefer to venture into the eldritch darkness, go on a virtual expedition to Pluto’s Chtulhu region, a shadow land whose icy wastes and menacing craters make it appropriately Lovecraftian.
For those looking for something a little less exotic, there’s always the moon.
These mind-blowing images were transmitted to Earth by the spacecraft Cassini before it plunged to its demise in the atmosphere of Saturn. Astronomical artist Björn Jónsson then brought the planetary maps into being with imagery from the ESA and NASA. There are 12 new locales ranging from Mercury all the way to Pluto. Though the project hasn’t yet evolved into something like Google Earth, which lets you see any location in the world in exact detail (and is admittedly sort of creepy), being able to zoom into places even astronauts probably won’t get to see up close in this lifetime is all sorts of awesome.
You know you want to explore the eldritch dark of Pluto.
You can get a 3D view of any moon or planet by clicking on it and spinning it around to view the side that’s fully illuminated or shrouded in shadows. Zoom in on alien geological features to feel almost as if you’re peering out the window of a spaceship. If you want an experience that’s almost virtual reality, start on Earth and zoom out as fast as you possibly can until you find yourself floating beyond the atmosphere.
While you obsess over how unearthly things like this actually exist, you might also geek out about how many distant moons and planets take their names from mythical entities. Just click on any name to see its origin as you explore space from your laptop. The Rusalka region of Titan is named for the undead water nymphs of Slavic folklore that was have believed to drown people in despair who got too close to a river or lake. Mimas is a crater-covered storybook of names from Arthurian legend, and Europa’s Annwn region is named for the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. No one can guarantee eternal youth if you stare at Annwn long enough, but it definitely is otherworldly.
Try it out right here. Warning: this could be incredibly addictive. | 3,299 |
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