text
stringlengths 245
34.4k
| id
int64 0
1.27M
|
|---|---|
i. Choose javascript and type y as in yes to any remaining questions from the cli. Open index.js and create your function such as below:
// index.js const functions = require('firebase-functions'); const admin = require('firebase-admin'); admin.initializeApp(); exports.sendNewChangesNotification = functions.database.ref('houses/{house}/items/{item}/').onWrite((change, context) => { var topic = "Serenity"; // A message that contains the notification that devices will receive var message = { notification: { title: 'New Quantity', body: change.after.val().product +'now has'+ change.after.val().tentative +'new items.' } }; // Using Cloud Messaging to create notification return admin.messaging().sendToTopic(topic, message).then(function (response) { console.log('Successfully sent message:', response); return null; }).catch(function (error) { throw new Error("Error sending message:", error); }); })
First thing to note here is, you won’t start your ref with the Project ID.. Instead, the branch below it. The ones in the brackets are ids, which varies. This will detect any write or changes happening in that reference. It will catch the changes in the change parameter. Thereby, allowing access to the new tentative value in change.after.val().tentative from the reference houses/1/items/2/tentative. 1 and 2 here are just examples of IDs. sendNewChangesNotification is just a variable. You can change it however you like.
When everything is in place, go back to terminal and deploy it with firebase deploy. Now, you have a listener or a trigger whenever your items have been changed or added.
Your AppDelegate.swift should look like this. This firebase sample is as instructed in the documentation.
To send a notification, admin.messaging.send will do the trick. But you have to provide a token, topic, or a condition. Token is generated by the AppDelegate and is uploaded to Firebase automatically. If you specify a specific token, then only the device with that token will receive the notification. Topic is what its name suggests. To subscribe to a topic, add this to wherever you need to put in your Xcode project:
Messaging.messaging().subscribe(toTopic: "Serenity") { error in print("Subscribed to weather topic") } | 3,500 |
Bryant Lake County Sheriff's Office/LiveLeak
A man who called a judge a ‘racist ass b*tch’ because he was sentenced to 22 years in prison has had six more years added to his sentence.
Manson M. Bryant, 32, appeared in court earlier this month to face charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and carrying a concealed weapon.
However, he was less than happy when he received his 22 year sentence and decided to take his anger out on the judge, who became the subject of an expletive-filled rant.
Advert
Man swears at judge Lake County Sheriff's Office
While appearing in Lake County Common Pleas court on March 1, the Independent reports Bryant sat and listened as the judge announced his sentence.
However, when Judge Eugene Lucci declared Bryant would spend 22 years in prison it became too much for the defendant, who stood up from his chair and began shouting at the judge.
The shocking moment was captured in footage of the hearing, which has since gone viral on social media.
Advert
Take a look below:
In the footage, Bryant can be seen getting out of his chair before he screams at the judge, calling him a ‘racist ass b*tch’.
He says:
Advert
F*ck your courtroom, you racist ass b*tch! F*ck your courtroom, man. You racist as f*ck! Twenty-two f*cking years! You racist ass b*tch.
At this point, officers in the courtroom restrained Bryant and pulled him away from the judge as he continued to yell.
Judge Lucci, in response, added a further six years onto the defendant’s sentence, telling him the maximum imprisonment was needed as he was not showing remorse.
Manson Bryant LiveLeak
Advert
The judge said, over Bryant’s shouting:
Actually, you know what? Remember, remember when I said that you had shown remorse. When I said you had a certain amount of remorse, I was mistaken. The court determines, the court determines a maximum imprisonment is needed.
According to court records, as per ABC News, Bryant ’caused serious psychological harm to both of his victims and serious economic harm to one victim’.
Court records also state that Bryant committed the crimes as ‘part of organized criminal activity.’
Advert
New York Post report this was the fourth time defendant Manson Bryant had stood before Judge Eugene Lucci. | 3,501 |
In a move to boost his national security credibility, Donald Trump released an endorsement letter signed by 88 retired military figures.
Now some are questioning if there is a hidden anti-Semitic message behind the statement — since the number 88 is a well-known code for ‘Heil Hitler.’
In the open letter, the former generals and military officials state that the country needs “a long overdue course correction in our national security posture and policy.”
“As retired senior leaders of America’s military, we believe that such a change can only be made by someone who has not been deeply involved with, and substantially responsible for, the hollowing out of our military and the burgeoning threats facing our country around the world,” the[ letter states.
It should have been a pretty standard (if underwhelming) vote of confidence for the Republican nominee. Mitt Romney released a similar missive signed by 500 leaders in 2012.
But soon after the letter was released, Twitter started buzzing about something very peculiar about the endorsement – the number of people who signed it.
88 is a standard White Supremacist slogan online. It means Heil Hitler. Today 88 generals and admirals endorsed Trump. Oh boy …?— Bill O’Keefe (@DefendWallSt) September 6, 2016
What the Twitterverse was talking about is the fact that H is the eight letter of the alphabet, so 88 stands for HH, which in turn stands for Heil Hitler.
The Anti Defimation League calls 88 “one of the most common white supremacist symbols, [that] is used throughout the entire white supremacist movement, not just neo-Nazis.”
In March @NewsHour item on Trumpista with Celtic Cross & “88” tattoos “widely recognized white supremacist symbols.” https://t.co/ys8fVywf3U— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) September 7, 2016
While the number of military officials who signed the letter may be a coincidence, Donald Trump has previously used anti-Semitic symbols in a number of instances.
In July, the Republican frontrunner tweeted a picture of Hillary Clinton with the slogan “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever” written over a Star of David. And just last month, Trump used a graphic that originated on an anti-Semitic site and was shared by white supremacist David Duke.
Lilly Maier is a news intern at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @lillymmaier. | 3,502 |
's request, she says. Non-papers? A non-paper is a government-produced document that has no official standing. At the request of Trump's first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, Bishop sent him a non-paper explaining the logic of changing the Asia-Pacific as a strategic operating concept to the Indo-Pacific. That is, a zone which doesn't end at the edges of the Pacific Ocean. The US has since followed Australia's lead on this. Being foreign affairs minister had been Bishop's dream from the moment she entered Parliament, but the reality, she says, was "far more exciting. I learned that Australia is so highly regarded, that our voice matters. We are a significant economy, we are a significant country and we should act like one. "That's why I never called Australia a'middle power'. Middle of what? There are 200 nations in the world. Are we in the middle, number 100? We are a top 20 country." Bishop would have called Australia a top 10 nation for most of its attributes if it weren't for the fact that Australia's economy, ranking 13th biggest, doesn't quite make it. After unsuccessfully running for the leadership last week, Bishop decided to leave her dream job as foreign affairs minister. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
After unsuccessfully running for the leadership last week, Bishop decided to leave her dream job even though the new Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, was happy to keep her in it. She will say only that she is "considering my options" while remaining in Parliament for now. (Her local newspaper, the Cambridge Post, reported on Friday that she intends to contest the next election). Why? Her travel schedule was frenetic but at 62 years old she says she is still "raring to go", so it's not her energy levels. In winning just 11 votes in the ballot for the Liberal leadership we can assume she was left feeling overlooked, under-appreciated and dismayed at what she's since called the "treachery" of the other Liberal MPs from Western Australia, none of whom voted for her. Loading The Liberals can't be said to have entered into a popularity contest in their leadership contest. Bishop was - and remains - by far the most popular with the people among any of the federal Liberals, a status confirmed by an Essential Media poll last week. In a struggle dominated by factions rather than electability, Bishop ran third of the three contenders. Bishop doesn't say so, but people close to her say that she couldn't work in a Morrison cabinet and in a leadership group increasingly under the sway of the right-wing faction headed by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. | 3,503 |
The FBI has salvaged work and personal emails thought to have been deleted from the private server Hillary Clinton used while she was secretary of state, Bloomberg first reported Tuesday night.
The FBI has been trying figure out how many classified emails Clinton had on her server and how they got there. The agency is concerned about whether Hillary Clinton's private email system exposed any classified information, and if so, the extent of exposure, as well as why it occurred.
The request for the Justice Department investigation came after the inspector general (IG) for the State Department and the inspector general for the intelligence community penned a memo in late June suggesting that Clinton's private account had "hundreds of potentially classified emails" in it. The two IGs were concerned about the possibility that classified information may have been compromised.
Clinton turned over about half of the 60 thousand emails that were on her server, after telling the State Department that the emails she deleted - about 30,000 - were personal.
Get Breaking News Delivered to Your Inbox
Back in August, Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the State Department and FBI to communicate about what was recovered from Clinton's server, as well as a thumb drive that also contained thousands of her emails.
The State Department was also told to communicate with the FBI about documents on Clinton's server that could be relevant to FOIA requests involving her emails.
But when State contacted the FBI to ask for its help on one of those FOIA requests, the FBI wouldn't even acknowledge its investigation, according to a Politico report Monday.
Politico referred to a letter written by the FBI's general counsel with a boilerplate rejection: "At this time, consistent with long-standing Department of Justice and FBI policy, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation."
About a month ago, Sullivan asked the State Department to reach out to the FBI for assistance in addressing a Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative group Judicial Watch regarding Clinton aide Huma Abedin's employment arrangements. The judge also asked State to report on arrangements for the FBI to share information about the ongoing investigation.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement, "We've cooperated to date and will continue to do so, including answering any questions about this that anyone including the public may have."
While the discovery of the deleted mails on Clinton's server is a new development, it is largely incremental. Computer analysts have always expected that the FBI's technical experts would likely be able to recover the information they sought from Clinton's server.
What remains to be disclosed is the number and nature of the emails they're able to extract from the server. | 3,504 |
Trump Attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night that the Trump administration is considering a lawsuit against corrupt Congressional Democrats.
Rudy says the Trump administration has several charges they are considering against House Democratic Leaders.
Brilliant!
TRENDING: HERE SHE COMES! Judge Amy Coney Barrett Seen Leaving Her House with Her Seven Kids and Husband! -- Announcement at 5 PM ET
Rudy Giuliani: I had a couple talks with civil rights lawyers and a constitutional lawyer today and here is what they are recommending. That we should bring a lawsuit on behalf of the president and several people in the administration, maybe even myself as a lawyer, against the members of Congress individually for violating constitutional rights. They’re doing extraordinary things. For example: They’re interfering with the president in exercising his rights on Article 2. The president of the United States gets to form the foreign policy of the United States. They’re calling foreign leaders, they’re going to foreign capitals. Senator Murphy went and threatened the President of the Ukraine…
Rudy Giuliani added, “We have to raise their violation of constitution and civil right! This is worse than McCarthy.”
Via The Ingraham Angle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o8aeTyyuSA&feature=youtu.be
On Wednesday Rudy Giuliani doubled-down on his threats.
Rudy tweeted out that the Trump team is carefully considering their legal options to seek redress against the corrupt leaders of the Democratic Congress.
We are carefully considering our legal options to seek redress against Congress and individual members. For engaging in an organized effort that exceeded their limited powers, under the Constitution, and… — Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 2, 2019
…for trampling on the constitutional rights of citizens by engaging in several illicit plans, carried out by illegal means, to remove the President of the US, on knowingly falsified charges allegations. — Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 2, 2019
If you want a hint as to why we are considering a major law suit a small example is Adam Schiff. We can allege he advanced information he knew was false as part of first frame-up and, let’s not prejudge this one, but not looking so good. Keep following the real story — Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) October 2, 2019
Do it, Rudy!
It’s time to take on the coup plotters. | 3,505 |
The Brewers, Angels, and Rangers are among the teams that have at least some level of interest in outfielder Austin Jackson, according to a report from ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). Meanwhile, he adds, the Cubs could conceivably bring Jackson back “for the right price.”
We haven’t heard much at all on the market for Jackson, who has endured a tough run of late but remains an intriguing player as he nears his 29th birthday. He’s queued up behind Dexter Fowler among center fielders, and Fowler could well be waiting to see what happens with Yoenis Cespedes before he commits to a contract.
But Jackson is a notable free agent in his own right. He entered the offseason placing 35th on the top-fifty list of MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes, landing with a one-year, $12MM prediction. As Dierkes noted at the time, it has always been unclear whether Jackson would land with some kind of multi-year arrangement or instead take a one-year pillow deal in hopes of finding a bigger contract next winter.
At his best, Jackson has delivered pop and speed to go with a quality glove in center — rather a difficult mix to find. Indeed, he tallied over 15 rWAR in his first three years in the league. Things have trended downward since, as Jackson owns a cumulative.269/.319/.382 batting line since the start of 2013.
While teams probably won’t be expecting a return to his established ceiling, even the diminished Jackson looks to be a useful performer. He’s still a capable center fielder with near a league-average bat, and has traditionally performed about as well against both left-handed and right-handed pitching. And it isn’t difficult to see the reasoning behind the interest from the clubs that appear in Crasnick’s report.
As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explained in today’s podcast (around the 21:00 mark), in fact, Jackson looks like a nice fit with Texas since he could fill in all across the outfield. Los Angeles has long been seeking a solution in left field, while the Brewers’ could certainly stand to add a solid veteran in center — potentially with the hope of flipping him at the deadline or extending a qualifying offer after the season. And Chicago obviously was interested enough to add Jackson late last year. He’d possibly add an up-the-middle option to the Cubs’ outfield mix, especially if the team were to strike a trade involving Jorge Soler. | 3,506 |
I’ve had this idea to make a low ABV sparkling mead fermented with ale yeast for awhile now. A few weeks back, I think I mentioned something about this idea in the Reddit homebrewing community, which resulted in a cool conversation with a user named NocSimian, aka Reed, who ultimately offered to send me some mead he had made. I received a bomber from Atlanta the following week and refrained from reading any of the details of what went into making the mead until I had tasted it “blind.” Here’s how it went:
This experience has absolutely inspired me to try my hand at mead making! I’m thinking I’ll throw together a small batch using only honey, water, and ale yeast, probably stick with my cider go-to, SafAle S-04, and force carbonate it to about 2.8 volumes. We’ve actually got quite a few farms around my area that sell honey, I’ll try to source mine from them… or Costco if I’m lazy. Reed was kind enough to share his recipe, should anyone desire to (attempt to) replicate this deliciousness.
RECIPE
~12 lbs Goldenrod Honey (from hobby apiary in Western Pennsylvania)
Water (enough to bring blend to 5 gallons)
10 lbs Organic Blueberries blended and added directly to carboy without Campden or pasteurization
Lalvin 71-B Yeast rehydrated in 180˚F water and pitched around that same temp
Danstar Belle Saison yeast rehydrated in 90˚F water, pitched a couple days after 71-B shows no signs of active fermentation
Thanks again to Reed for graciously sharing this mead with me, it was a lot of fun! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment.
***If you’re into soft, somewhat thoughtful, and oftentimes cheesy acoustic music, check out my music page and have a listen. I know a lot of us homebrewers have other hobbies as well, writing/recording songs is really the only thing I’ve been doing longer than making beer.***
Cheers!
————————————————————————————————————————–
If you enjoy reading this stuff and feel compelled to support Brulosophy.com, please check out the Support Us page for details on how you can very easily do so. Thanks!
Advertisements
Share this: Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Tumblr
Email
Like this: Like Loading... | 3,507 |
Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has warned of a looming "crisis" in Australia's taxation system, and says there is an urgent need for changes.
Dr Henry authored a major review of the tax and payments system in 2010, which was commissioned by the former Labor government and became known as the Henry Review.
It recommended simplifying and abolishing taxes as well as streamlining welfare payments for an ageing population.
Speaking at a forum at the Australian National University on Tuesday, Dr Henry expressed frustration that so little progress had been made.
"The tax review that I was associated with - that I had the pleasure of leading - it identified a number of medium-term challenges confronting the Australian economy and it identified pathways for future tax reform," he said.
"And it said there was no urgent case for moving at that time.
"We're getting much closer to that point at which we should acknowledge that... there is an imminent crisis ahead for the tax and transfer system and therefore there is a strong case for developing a comprehensive tax and transfer reform package."
Dr Henry suggested the Abbott Government take another look at his 2010 review, which he described as a "comprehensive" document.
"It covers all elements of the tax system, obviously not the GST, and it covers the entire transfer payments system as well, there's a lot in that document I think," he said.
The Prime Minister has promised another review of the tax system, which will include the Goods and Services Tax, although he has previously said there would be no changes in the Coalition's first term.
Dr Henry said at some point, the GST needed to be looked at, adding that he thought that was "inescapable".
But he acknowledged the Government needed to get the public onside before introducing major changes.
"I think it's very important that a government does have a mandate if it is going to effect large-scale reform," he said.
The Federal Government has repeatedly warned the budget situation is dire, and one area under review is the indexation rate of the Disability Support Pension, given that it increases more quickly than unemployment benefits.
Dr Henry said this was an issue identified in his 2010 review.
"That problem's been known for many, many years, and the problem is just getting bigger and bigger as each year goes by, so at some point it's going to have to be looked at," he said.
"Obviously the Government has to consider it. Whether it decides it's the appropriate thing to do is going to be as much a political consideration as anything else obviously." | 3,508 |
Icelandair today announces a new year-round service from Aberdeen International Airport (ABZ) to Reykjavik (KEF). The new gateway will become Icelandair’s second in Scotland and sixth in the UK. Flights will begin on 9 March 2016 and operate four times weekly, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The flight to Reykjavik (KEF) will provide easy connections to Icelandair’s 15 gateways in North America and reduce current travel times by up to several hours. Icelandair destinations in North America include New York, Seattle, Toronto and recently announced Chicago starting in 2016. Flights will go on sale on 24 August.
“It is a pleasure to be able to announce Aberdeen on the same year as we celebrate 70 years of flying to Scotland. We see great opportunities in connecting this market to our route network of North American destinations. Travel times will be shortened and we’re confident customers will appreciate the easy connections in our hub in Iceland” says Birkir Holm Gudnason, CEO of Icelandair.
Carol Benzie, MD at Aberdeen International Airport said: ‘We’re thrilled to welcome Icelandair to Aberdeen, our first direct flight to Iceland. The decision to commence the service from the North East is fantastic news for both leisure and business travellers wanting to reach Reykjavik, and of course the extensive number of onward connections to the US and Canada now available. We look forward to working with Icelandair and its subsidiary Air Iceland and wish them every success with the route’.
Icelandair has a long, illustrious history of providing flights between Europe and North America. This year marks the airline’s 70th anniversary of flights to Scotland. The story of Icelandair’s relationship with Scotland started on 11 July 1945 when the airline initiated the first scheduled passenger flights in post war Europe. A Catalina boat plane flew from Reykjavik, Iceland to Largs Bay, Scotland, carrying 4 crew members and 4 passengers. Three years later, a Skymaster aircraft made the airline’s first transatlantic flight to New York on 26 August 1948.
The new Aberdeen-Reykjavik service will be operated on behalf of Icelandair by Air Iceland, a subsidiary of Icelandair Group. Aircraft used will be Bombardier Q400 seating 72 passengers and offering passengers two cabins to choose from, Economy and Economy Comfort.
Icelandair also operates UK flights from London Heathrow and Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham all of which connect into the airline’s network to North America. | 3,509 |
had grown into a massive market for tea, and in 1903, the Tea Cess Bill was passed, regulating cess on tea exports, which would then be used for tea promotion in India and globally.
Stolen gift
It was after World War I that Indian and Eurasian vendors, equipped with stoves and kettles, began selling tea at the historic railway stations of Bengal, Punjab and the Frontier provinces.
The Tea Association prided itself that “a better cup of tea could in general be had at the platform tea stalls than in the first-class restaurant cars on the trains.” Large hoardings and posters for tea recipes were put up in Indian languages, on several railway platforms, quite a few of which are still to be found in the domestic and suburban railway network of Bengal, at stations like Ballygunge, Dum Dum, Naihati, Bangaon, Shantipur and Ranaghat.
Fortune’s stolen gift to the British empire turned into a hybrid beverage in India, as local vendors began to add large quantities of milk and sugar into their tea. By the 1930s, a nation of erstwhile ‘teetotallers’ became the factory as well as market for British-packaged tea. By the 21st century, India consumed over 70% of its crop. From small-town railway stations to first-class compartments, tea and its accoutrements — the earthen pots, the glass tumbler, and the chai-wallah — became the ubiquitous symbols of a typical train journey.
As historian Lizzie Collingham writes, “The chai-wallah is still the first thing a passenger hears on waking up in a train in northern India as he marches through the carriages, a metal kettle swinging in one hand and glasses in the other, calling out ‘chai-chai-chai’.” As a noisy tea-vendor hands over a cup of tea from the other side of the window, we are reasonably convinced of being a race of tea-drinkers since the age of the Mahabharata — blissfully oblivious to how much we owe that satisfaction to a few serendipitous discoveries in the Assam and Darjeeling valleys, and a sneaky Scottish mandarin who patiently trekked up the mountains north of the Fujian and Jiangxi provinces in China a 170 years ago.
The writer teaches English at O.P. Jindal Global University, and is author of The Purveyors of Destiny: A Cultural Biography of the Indian Railways. | 3,510 |
Suffolk: Danish teachers think EBacc is ‘English humour’
Geoff Barton from King Edwards VI School in Bury St Edmunds Archant
DANISH teachers visiting a Suffolk school laughed off the exam system that will replace GCSEs as “a strange English joke”, a headteacher has revealed.
Share Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in.
Geoff Barton, of King Edward VI School in Bury St Edmunds, said confused Scandinavian colleagues refused to believe that the UK would adopt the “backward-looking” English baccalaureate (EBacc) system, which will involve all pupils sitting gruelling three-hour written exams.
In Denmark, which is famous for its modern education techniques, a reliance on written exams has been abandoned in favour of oral assessment and in some cases full internet access is allowed in exams.
Mr Barton said the visiting teachers’ reaction to Micheal Gove’s EBacc pointed to the philosophical gulf between the UK and its European and Scandinavian neighbours.
He said: “The Danish start from a different point of view.
“They think that after 11 years in education, every pupil should achieve as much as possible, whereas we have an exam system that if more people do well, it must be failing.”
Mr Barton added: “The Danish believe that every child should pass some kind, to make sure that every child does the basics – it is an enlightened approach.”
Although the Danish education system does have a universal exam – half of it written and half of it spoken.
“The oral component is recognition that students learn and express themselves in different ways. This isn’t considered dumbing down,” said Mr Barton.
He added: “When I described the EBacc concept they thought it was the surreal ramblings of an educational nutter – some strange English humour.
“I think they couldn’t believe that it is so backward-looking and that the system is built on a lack of trust of teachers.”
In Denmark, the spoken exam is assessed by the pupil’s own teachers, along with a visiting teacher.
The written exam is also marked by teachers who apply to become examiners.
The East Anglian Daily Times reported this week how Mr Barton has given his backing to proposals for the Suffolk baccalaureate – a qualification aimed at bridging the gap between school and work. | 3,511 |
Cambridge Green Party parliamentary candidate Rupert Read has been accused of allying with anti-trans feminists.
Mr Read’s tweeted about the use of the word “cisgender” as the opposite of “transgender” saying it “troubled” him. This drew attention from trans activists as an opinion shared by many prominent anti-trans feminists.
A blog post was shared, written by Mr Read in January 2013 in which he defended such feminist writers who had come under fire for transphobic views.
He referred to trans women as “a sort of ‘opt-in’ version of what it is to be a woman”. He also suggested people should not be “forced” to regard trans women as women: “Imagine that some people regard themselves within themselves as disabled, as missing a limb. Are disabled people obliged to regard those people as already part of the disabled community? I would suggest: obviously not.”
“That there is a genuine, complicated question within Feminism about whether trans-women can or should in every or all respects be regarded straightforwardly as women (They don’t have periods, they don’t experience menopause; they chose to be (to become) women rather than having been brought up gendered female; etc. etc).
“It is complicated. Does feeling psychologically as if you are a woman and making certain changes to your body as a consequence make you a woman? Is it enough, in order to BE a woman, to psychically identify as one? To this second question, we must surely answer: no.”
“Do the mass of women who did not go through the process of sex-reassignment — ordinary women, so-called ‘cissexuals’ — have no right to point out some differences between themselves and trans-women?”
He had previously caused controversy by using words such as “moron” which many disabled people consider offensive.
Sarah Brown, former Cambridge councilor and trans activist, told Cambridge News: “Rupert seems to be endorsing a fringe form of feminism that portrays transgender women as dangerous sex pests and predators.
“In reality, transgender women face prejudice and violence at rates far higher than other women, and desperately need protection.”
The Green Party is one the few parties with openly trans parliamentary candidates. Charlie Kiss is a trans man standing in Islington South and Finsbury, and Stella Gardiner in Bexleyheath and Crayford. | 3,512 |
into one district in order to limit the number of places where these voters can impact elections.
In creating our map, we had one of our experts conduct “racially polarized voting analysis.” This is the analysis used in the context of the Voting Rights Act to determine what minority voting age population is needed to ensure that minority voters have the opportunity to elect their candidates of choice. Setting the minority voting age population below this threshold would demonstrate vote dilution achieved by the first of the two methods described: submerging minority voters. Setting the minority voting age population substantially above this threshold would demonstrate the second: overpacking of minority voters in one district.
Our analysis found that in order for Black voters in northeastern Ohio to have the opportunity to elect their candidates of choice, they needed to make up above 45 percent of the voting age population in District 11.
Currently, Black voters comprise over 52 percent of the voting age population in District 11, where they are overconcentrated. The map drawers never did the necessary analysis before overpacking black voters into District 11.
In our proposed map, District 11 would retain a Black voting age population of about 47 percent. That means it would address the excessive packing of Black voters into District 11, but still ensure that these voters have the opportunity to elect their candidates of choice — thus ensuring the protection of these voters, as required by the Voting Rights Act.
It is responsive to the will of voters
Instead of the consistent 12-4 split, which gives Republicans 75 percent of the seats despite getting just over 50 percent of the vote, the new map allows for electoral results that actually change based on voters’ choices. In fact, it encourages it — by creating districts previously designed to be forgone conclusions to become newly competitive.
Tracking the 2012 and 2016 congressional results across the new districts shows how. When you project the votes from the 2012 election across our proposed map, a Democrat would have been elected in 6 districts and Republicans in 10. Two of those 10 Republican seats would have been competitive, projecting Democratic vote totals of 48.5 and 48.6 percent in each. And in 2016, when Democrats took fewer votes statewide, the outcome using the new map also shifts, to an 11-5 Republican to Democrat split, with two of the 11 seats being competitive.
The answer to partisan gerrymandering is not to allow the opposite political party to gerrymander instead. It is to create districts that reflect and respond to voters’ choices. There are clear, neutral ways to do that.
View your district on Ohio’s current map and our proposed one. | 3,513 |
? Will calls for impeachment, popular only on the Democratic fringe in Congress, ramp up ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections?
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, echoed Trump in saying that “nothing we heard yesterday has anything to do with Russia or the reason why director Mueller was appointed special counsel.”
Senator Cornyn also defended Trump when asked about Cohen’s implication of the president in a crime over payments Cohen made to women, at Trump’s direction, to keep them quiet over alleged past sexual relationships with Trump. Cohen, he said, is someone whose “credibility is in tatters, because he’s basically been all over the map as to what his story is.”
Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, said Wednesday on NBC that Cohen would not accept a pardon from Trump, and didn’t expect one “from somebody who has acted so corruptly as president.” The statement was bracing, as Cohen had once said he would take a bullet for Trump.
As for Trump’s legal exposure in the Cohen case or anything that may come out of the Mueller probe, it is longstanding Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Mueller is expected to write a report on the findings of his investigation, and then it’s up to the House to decide whether to launch impeachment proceedings. A majority of the House is required to impeach a president.
And so, at heart, the Mueller investigation points to a political outcome. That’s why Trump’s job approval rating is so important. As long as GOP voters stick by him, so will Republicans in Congress. For now, most Democrats in Congress are holding back on impeachment. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that impeaching Trump is “not a priority.”
In the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is required to oust an impeached president, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts said Wednesday on CNN that the priority now should be to avoid a constitutional crisis and shield Mueller.
Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy
“Protect Robert Mueller, let him finish his investigation, let him make a full and fair report to all of the American people,” Senator Warren said. “And when we’ve got that, then we can make a decision on what the appropriate next step is.”
Staff writer Francine Kiefer contributed to this report. | 3,514 |
colluded with any other bidders or third parties. Bids will be done in increments of no less than $25,000 over the highest bid going into the auction. The winner of the bidding will be finalized at a court hearing at 10 a.m. on July 17.
What Does the Gawker Sale Mean for the Future of Digital Media?
Perhaps the most interesting part of this sale is that it tests the question at the core of Thiel’s crusade (or vendetta) to destroy Gawker. Thiel explained to me in 2016 that he believed Gawker was a unique product of a unique time and place in the internet, one that could not—and in his view, should not—be replicated. Meaning, if Gawker were to be destroyed legally, it would be impossible for another site with a similar ethos to take its place.
Certainly Gawker writer, editors and fans disagree with this theory, holding sincerely that Gawker was an important part of not only the media ecosystem but of culture at large as an unfiltered truth teller. Since Gawker’s fall, Spiers has been working on The Insurrection, which was originally heralded as a “Breitbart for the Left,” but has since pivoted to a political consulting company. Tom Scocca, another former Gawker editor, is working on Hmm Daily, which promises to “be against everything The New York Times opinion section stands for.” Univision assigned most of the remaining former Gawker writers to a new brand called Splinter which covers a similar beat as the old Gawker. The success of any of these ventures still remains to be seen.
But if Gawker really was valuable and important, and Thiel was not able to interfere with a potential purchase, why wouldn’t another media entrepreneur buy it and put the old gang back together? Or hire a new gang and give them the same mission?
We will soon find out. The winner of the auction for Gawker.com will be, in that sense, a vote between the two competing worldviews of Denton and Thiel, the people who loved Gawker and the people who hated it. It will answer the question of whether the world should have a site like Gawker in it or not, and what people are willing to do in pursuit of that vision.
Ryan Holiday is the bestselling author of Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue, which The New York Times called “one helluva page-turner” and The Sunday Times of London celebrated as “riveting…an astonishing modern media conspiracy that is a fantastic read.” | 3,515 |
The Washington Post conducted a fact check on claims made during the Mueller hearings Wednesday, but declined to review a single statement made by a Democrat.
Instead, the article, titled “Fact-checking lawmakers’ claims during the Mueller hearings,” focused solely on statements made by Republican lawmakers during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s marathon testimony in front of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.
WaPo fact checked the following Republicans: Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson, Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert, Florida Rep. Greg Steube, and California Rep. Tom McClintock.
The article declined to fact check any Democrats during the hearing, despite there being a wealth of material.
For example, one of the biggest bombshell claims during the House Judiciary hearing was made by California Rep. Ted Lieu, who asserted that Mueller did not charge President Donald Trump with a crime because of an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion stating that a sitting president cannot be indicted. (RELATED: Mueller Starts House Intel Hearing By Correcting Major Bombshell)
Mueller initially agreed with Lieu, but later corrected himself, explaining, “That is not the correct way to say it.”
“As we say in the report, and as I said in the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime,” Mueller said.
Mueller also pushed back on New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ characterization of the report’s findings on obstruction of justice, stating that he doesn’t “subscribe to the way that you analyzed that.”
Lieu also attempted to reach a conclusion on whether or not the president obstructed justice – something Mueller specifically declined to do in his report — prompting a clarification from the special counsel.
“Based on the evidence we heard today, I think a reasonable person can conclude three crimes of obstruction of justice by the president occurred,” Lieu said.
Mueller replied, “Going through the elements with you does not meant that I subscribe to what you’re trying to prove through those elements.”
Finally, Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell claimed that three Trump campaign officials actively sought electoral help from Russia, to which Mueller declared, “I can’t accept that characterization.”
None of those statements, which were directly challenged by Mueller as straying from the facts laid out in the report, made their way into WaPo’s comprehensive fact check. | 3,516 |
Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan was quoted as saying that PAS leader Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz had confessed to saying the things in the recording, but claimed the conversation about the money in the audio was taken out of context. ― Picture by Azinuddin Ghazali
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 — PAS leader Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz has admitted that he was the person in an audio recording critics claim was proof that the party received money from Umno, news portal Malaysiakini reported today.
Its secretary-general, Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan, was quoted as saying that Nik Abduh had confessed to saying the things in the recording, but claimed the conversation about the money in the audio was taken out of context.
“Yes Nik Abduh admitted that it was him, but it wasn’t in the context that (accusers) had painted it to be,” he told reporters in Kota Baru earlier today.
“It wasn’t just about receiving money from Umno, there were many more (issues) discussed. So to me to get the real picture you have to look at the context of the entire recording,” Takiyuddin added.
The man in the audio recording had purportedly discussed receiving RM2 million from Umno, which Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown produced as evidence to back her allegation that PAS took RM90 million from then Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Nik Abduh in April last year denied he was the person in the recording, and claimed the audio was fabricated to tarnish his image.
The issue resurfaced again after PAS unexpectedly announced that Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had settled his defamation suit against SR and Rewcastle-Brown out of court, with no order to costs and with both bound to confidentiality.
He filed the suit in 2017 over a 2016 article alleging that several PAS leaders received RM90 million from former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in order to covertly support Umno and Barisan Nasional ahead of the 14th general election.
PAS has been mocked over the out-of-court settlement but has insisted that it still obtained a moral victory despite SR continuing to carry the offending article on its website.
The party had also asked the members to donate to a fund amounting to RM3 million to meet the cost of the legal suit against SR for which they had already paid close to RM2.5 million. | 3,517 |
August 13, 2008 – Oakland, Calif. – A new study conducted by researchers at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland shows that a century-old drug, methylene blue, may be able to slow or even cure Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Used at a very low concentration – about the equivalent of a few raindrops in four Olympic-sized swimming pools of water - the drug slows cellular aging and enhances mitochondrial function, potentially allowing those with the diseases to live longer, healthier lives.
A paper on the methylene blue study, conducted by Hani Atamna, PhD, and a his team at Children's, was published in the March 2008 issue of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal. Dr. Atamna's research found that methylene blue can prevent or slow the decline of mitochondrial function, specifically an important enzyme called complex IV. Because mitochondria are the principal suppliers of energy to all animal and human cells, their healthy function is critical.
"The results are very encouraging," said Dr. Atamna. "We'd eventually like to try to prevent the physical and cognitive decline associated with aging, with a focus on people with Alzheimer's disease. One of the key aspects of Alzheimer's disease is mitochondrial dysfunction, specifically complex IV dysfunction, which methylene blue improves. Our findings indicate that methylene blue, by enhancing mitochondrial function, expands the mitochondrial reserve of the brain. Adequate mitochondrial reserve is essential for preventing age-related disorders such as Alzheimer's disease."
Also impressed is one of Dr. Atamna's co-authors, Bruce Ames, PhD, a senior scientist at Children's and world-renowned expert in nutrition and aging "What we potentially have is a wonder drug." said Dr. Ames. "To find that such a common and inexpensive drug can be used to increase and prolong the quality of life by treating such serious diseases is truly exciting."
Methylene blue, first discovered in 1891, is now used to treat methemoglobinemia, a blood disorder. But because high concentrations of methylene blue were known to damage the brain, no one thought to experiment with low concentrations. Also, drugs such as methylene blue do not easily reach the brain.
Dr. Atamna's research is the first to show that low concentrations of the drug have the ability to slow cellular aging in cultured cells in the laboratory and in live mice. He believes methylene blue has the potential to become another commonplace low-cost treatment like aspirin, prescribed as a blood thinner for people with heart disorders.
Source: Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland | 3,518 |
Flesh-eating bacteria cases have been seen in increasing numbers throughout Florida, including the recent death of a Florida woman and multiple close calls.
"Since 2010, approximately 700 to 1,200 cases occur each year in the United States," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the CDC, which has been tracking the infections, says those numbers are likely underestimated.
Officials with the Florida Department of Health said in an email to News 6 that necrotizing fasciitis, also known as the umbrella term of "flesh-eating bacteria" is caused by more than one type of bacteria.
Several bacteria common in Florida's water bodies can cause this condition.
Vibrio vulnificus is a subset of flesh-eating bacteria that is naturally occurring in warm, salty waters such as the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding bays.
This kind of bacteria is seen in higher numbers when the water becomes warm, like it does every summer in Florida.
"Waters are getting warmer, and the bacteria love warmer water, so we're all at higher risk," CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus said.
The following four safety tips can help reduce the risk of exposure to the dangerous bacteria.
The CDC "encourages all people to avoid open bodies of water, pools and hot tubs with breaks in the skin. These can include cuts and scrapes, burns, insect bites, puncture wounds, or surgical wounds."
If you do have a cut, just make sure it is properly covered. A waterproof Band-Aid will can do. If it falls off in the water, make sure to clean and treat the wound. The Florida Department of Health and the CDC encourage wound care, to keep bacterial skin infection at bay. Keep open wounds covered with clean, dry bandages until healed, and don't delay first aid of even minor, non-infected wounds like blisters, scrapes or any break in the skin, according to the Department of Health.
However, "severe infections with Vibrio vulnificus are extremely rare" and can be treated with antibiotics or surgery in more extreme cases, according to the Department of Health. Being correctly diagnosed and treated is one of the most important things to prevent the bacteria from spreading.
Symptoms of an infection include redness, swelling, fever, severe pain in the area or red or swollen skin near or around a wound.
Lastly, if you do seek medical attention, make sure you let your doctor know of any recent water exposures including Gulf or bay waters, pools or hot tubs. | 3,519 |
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A plan to build the nation’s first small modular nuclear reactors to produce commercial power is a step closer to being realized.
A Utah-based energy cooperative said Wednesday that it has sales contracts for enough carbon-free power to begin a license application process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the reactors in eastern Idaho.
Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems already has agreements with the U.S. Department of Energy to build the reactors at the federal agency’s 890-square-mile (2,300-square-kilometer) site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory.
A small modular nuclear reactor can produce about 60 megawatts of energy, or enough to power more than 50,000 homes. The proposed project includes 12 small modular reactors.
The energy cooperative said it has carbon-free contracts for more than 150 megawatts. Its goal is to begin construction on the reactors in 2023, with the first reactor starting up in 2026.
Specifically, the energy cooperative is embarked on a plan called the Carbon Free Power Project that aims to supply carbon-free energy to its nearly 50 members, mostly municipalities, in six Western states. It says 34 members have now signed on, pushing it past 150 megawatts and triggering work on the license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The company said the carbon-free plan is in response to new technologies and regulations targeting fossil fuels.
Last year, it reached an agreement with the Energy Department that would use one of the reactors for research and development, and another for power needed by the Idaho National Laboratory, considered the nation’s primary federal nuclear research lab. Scientists at the lab will have access to one of the modular reactors for experiments.
Licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the reactors, being built by an Oregon company called NuScale Power, and an environmental analysis of the high desert site where they will be built are needed before construction can start.
The small modular reactors will usher “in a new generation of smaller, safer, more flexible, less expensive, carbon-free nuclear energy,” the energy cooperative said in a news release.
The modular reactors are also part of a much larger federal plan to replace current reactors, many of them decades old, with more efficient and safer reactors. U.S. officials say nuclear power helps reduce carbon emissions from coal and natural gas, a cause of global warming.
About 20% of the nation’s energy comes from nuclear power.
Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters
Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. | 3,520 |
AFP / Joel Saget | Syrian refugees at the Edouard Vaillant park in Saint-Ouen, north of Paris, on April 21, 2014
A majority of French people are against softening rules to access refugee status, a poll showed on Sunday even as thousands poured to the streets to show their solidarity with migrants seeking asylum in Europe.
Advertising Read more
Around 8,500 people marched in Paris on Saturday carrying banners such as “Refugees welcome”. Other demonstrations took place in several cities across the country.
But a poll conducted by Odoxa for Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France daily showed 55 percent of the 1,000 people surveyed were opposed to an easing of rules for migrants asking for refugee status, including Syrians fleeing civil war.
Thirty-three percent thought France was less hospitable to war refugees than Germany, which opened its door to several hundred thousands of migrants in the last months, while 44 percent thought they are on the same line.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition is expected to agree on a series of measures on Sunday, including cutting red tape to facilitate the construction of asylum shelters, increasing funds for federal states and towns, and speeding up asylum procedures.
The picture of three year-old Aylan Kurdi’s body washed up in the Aegean resort of Bodrum spawned sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the images showed the need for urgent action by Europe to address the crisis.
France is now considering joining a coalition conducting air strikes on Islamic State in Syria, Le Monde said on its website on Saturday, quoting an unnamed “high level source”.
Such a decision would likely be broadly endorsed politically, former prime minister and conservative candidate to presidency Alain Juppe said on Sunday.
“I think there could be quite a large agreement on this,” he told reporters from Europe 1 radio, iTele TV and Le Monde daily when asked whether there would be a consensus if President Francois Hollande was to decide air strikes on Syria.
In the Odoxa poll, 61 percent said they would back France taking part in a coalition sending ground troops to Syria to fight Islamic State.
France was the first country to join the U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes on Islamic State in Iraq, but had ruled out doing so in Syria, fearing that would benefit President Bashar al-Assad.
(REUTERS)
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe | 3,521 |
Justin Bieber’s good boy image has completely gone now as it has been revealed there is a huge chance that not only will he be arrested for the alleged assault he will be convicted too.
The 18 year-old was involved in a scuffle at the weekend during a trip to the cinema with girlfriend Selena Gomez, which resulted in the photographer ending up going to hospital and the ‘Boyfriend’ star wanted for questioning by the police. He left the scene before the authorities arrived and spoke to the photographer.
According to TMZ police have decided to refer the case to prosecutors and the star could face up to six months in jail.
Former New York prosecutor Raoul Fedler has told HollywoodLife that the only way the singer can avoid arrest is if his legal team can prove the incident never happened.
“Anytime the police say you need to come in for questioning they usually arrest you when you come in and then you get bailed out,” he revealed.
“They want to hear your side of the story. But very frequently, they arrest you right on the spot.” Currently the teen idol is in Norway for a scheduled performance and will most likely turn himself into authorities on his return.
“He’ll show up with his lawyer when he’s back and they might arrest him,” Raoul explained. “But it’s a misdemeanour, it’s not a felony. He is working with his legal team, publicist, personal manager and writing a lot of checks out right now.”
Despite his clean-cut image, the former prosecutor claims the best move for the teenager could be to plead guilty even though his team claim the assault didn’t happen.
“He’ll most likely go before the judge and plead guilty because he doesn’t want a jury trial like a Lindsay Lohan situation,” he added. “He’ll apologize and say he’s sorry and didn’t mean to hurt anyone. The judge will probably give him 30 days community service.”
Selena stepped out the day after the incident and showed her support for Justin with her ‘J’ themed jewellery. She joined other celebrities at Hollywood producer Joel Silver’s annual Memorial Day barbecue.
Selena Wears Justin Jewellery
Kate Middleton Boasts Of Hubby Prince William's Impressive SixPack
Paris Hilton Fighting Kim Kardashian Over Kanye West
LISTEN: Chris Brown Unveils New Track 'One More Time'
| 3,522 |
average at Sens home games this season.
That should change Saturday afternoon, when Karlsson returns to Ottawa for the first time as a member of the Sharks. If the building is not sold-out it should be close to capacity as many disenchanted fans circled this as their one must-see game of the season.
There were multiple false starts last season and so many trade rumours that never came to fruition that Ottawa fans never got a proper chance to say goodbye to Karlsson.
They never had a chance to properly say thanks for multiple Norris Trophy seasons and an extended playoff run in 2017 on a fractured foot that has reached iconic status in this market. Even the most ardent Alfredsson fan would have to concede that Karlsson is the greatest player to ever put on a Senators jersey.
They’ll get their opportunity on Saturday afternoon, inside a building that should be full of life. Senators fans have been through this act before, with a former high-profile star returning home to an arena that doubles as a bubbling cauldron of emotion.
In December of 2010, the atmosphere was downright toxic when Dany Heatley stepped onto the ice in Ottawa for the first time as a member of the Sharks. He was voraciously booed every time he touched the puck and the atmosphere was so venomous that Heatley action figures were even placed inside some urinals inside the arena.
When Alfredsson made his much anticipated return in December of 2013, the mood was distinctly more divided. It was mostly a love-in for the former captain, but there was a portion of the fan base that was booing Alfredsson because they felt like he alienated the fan base with his decision to sign as a free agent in Detroit.
On Saturday afternoon, the mood will almost certainly be unanimously in support of Karlsson. Whereas the fans cast all of the blame on Heatley for leaving and some of it on Alfredsson for his departure, almost all of the venom in the Karlsson-Senators divorce has been directed towards the organization.
Management will point back to the fact that they offered the Karlsson camp a contract and never heard back. If a contract negotiation is supposed to be like a tennis match, with constant volleys back and forth, the Senators felt like they lobbed up an easy serve and got no return.
But perhaps the more accurate tennis term to use in this situation would be double-fault, because ultimately, both sides bear some responsibility for how things played out.
And truthfully, Karlsson was ready to move on from Ottawa. Clearly the Senators were also ready to move on from him. | 3,523 |
Donald Trump has threatened the European Union over what he perceives as “brutal” treatment from the bloc in its approach to Brexit and trade dealings with the US.
“Too bad that the European Union is being so tough on the United Kingdom and Brexit,” Mr Trump tweeted late on Wednesday. “The EU is likewise a brutal trading partner with the United States, which will change.
“Sometimes in life you have to let people breathe before it all comes back to bite you!”
The US president’s complaint came hours after EU leaders agreed to a lengthy Article 50 extension, allowing Britain to remain a member state until 31 October and giving Theresa May more time to get a withdrawal deal through parliament.
It is unclear which elements of the EU’s Brexit negotiation strategy the president believes to be unfair, but he has long railed against the bloc’s trade policies, and on Tuesday announced the US would impose tariffs on $11bn (£8.4bn) of EU goods, including cheddar cheese, aeroplane components and motorbikes.
'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range Show all 6 1 /6 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The mug 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The can cooler 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The tee 'WITCH HUNT!' Trump cashes in on Mueller report with merchandise range The can cooler
“The World Trade Organisation finds that the European Union subsidies to Airbus has adversely impacted the United States, which will now put Tariffs on $11bn of EU products!” he tweeted.
“The EU has taken advantage of the US on trade for many years. It will soon stop!”
In fact, the WTO has handed down unfavourable rulings to both the EU and US in recent months. In March, it ruled Washington had failed to stop giving Boeing illegal tax subsidies, and last year issued a similar ruling against EU subsidies to Airbus.
Mr Trump’s late-night tweet on Wednesday came just minutes after he stepped up his attacks on the Democratic Party by baselessly accusing it of treason, a crime punishable by death in the US. | 3,524 |
Chris Pratt wrote an angry Facebook post on his verified account, warning fans to block a “potential predator,” who was attempting to target female fans and get their phone numbers. You can read the post in its entirety below.
Pratt is one of most well-known actors right now especially since starring in Guardians of the Galaxy, Infinity War, and the Jurassic World: the Fallen Kingdom, so it was only a matter of time for someone to come in and impersonate him. The good news is he’s being proactive about it and warning fans, something that we don’t always see from celebrities. He makes an apparent plea in his post that this is not okay and if he finds them, he will shut them down.
“Tell your siblings. Educate our young ones. It’s probably mostly kids who would fall for this. Makes me sick.”
Pratt, having a child himself, is probably even more disturbed by online predators since it’s common for older men/women to approach younger kids online to trick them into either sending photos or meeting with them under false pretenses.
While some celebrity impersonators are not harmful and exist primarily as parody or fan accounts or expert internet trolls, others come with terrible agendas that can become criminal acts. In the past five years, there have been several cases of men impersonating Justin Bieber online as well to gain photos and just recently, comedian Kevin Hart had an imposter claiming to be him for financial gain. And last year in a post on thedebrief.co.uk Gemma Styles talks about how sinister these accounts can be and how in India it’s become common practice for people to pretend to be celebrities to illicit sexual photos for exploitation on adult websites.
According to People, the imposter Facebook page has been deleted. Chris Pratt also posted his warning message on Twitter as well as Instagram. Pratt, who was just featured in the new trailer for Avengers: Infinity War earlier this week and recently announced his official divorce is in the headlines and most likely a good target for online impersonation.
GeekFeed recommends if you do happen to have young kids to warn them about these types of interactions online. It may seem innocent enough, but the last thing you want is something as harmless as writing on their favorite celebs Facebook page to become something not so harmless.
Avengers: Infinity War opens on May 4th, 2018 and then Pratt can be seen in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom on June 22nd, 2018. You can read more about Chris Pratt’s imposter courtesy of People. | 3,525 |
Source: iStock/Pixfly
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, 2017 was a lucrative year for blockchain patents, in which the absolute lead goes to China, as the Financial Times reports.
Out of a total of 406 patents filed last year, more than half of them — 225, to be exact - were filed by the very same country where crypto is banned in many shapes and forms, followed by the US with 91 filings, and Australia with 13.
Patents relating to crypto in general — not just blockchain — rose 16% to 602 in 2017. Alex Batteson, editor at Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law, said, “Companies are moving fast in order to protect their ideas in new areas of technological development — long before the technology actually goes to market.”
Led by Beijing Technology Development, Chinese companies made up six of the top nine filers for Blockchain patents from 2012 to 2017. While not all patents lead to workable products, the data is significant in that it indicates activity in the industry.
Meanwhile, officials, business leaders and influential media outlets in China have been striking a promising tone this year toward blockchain, as previously reported by Cryptonews.com.
In March, at the major legislative session in Beijing known as “Two Sessions" blockchain technology and cryptocurrency regulation were among the topics discussed in detail.
Zhang Jindong, chairman of electronics retailer Suning Holdings Group, proposed to adopt appropriate legislation regarding data security and expand the adoption of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. Meanwhile, Pony Ma, chairman of China’s Tencent Group, said that blockchain technology “is indeed an innovative and potentially good technology, depending on how it is being used.”
Jindong and Ma both are deputies to the 13th National People's Congress.
Local government officials are also pushing forward the development of blockchain technology in their own parliamentary sessions.
In the US, however, it would seem that blockchain adoption has hit a plateau: when asked about their top concerns about blockchain technology, bankers and capital markets executives cited lack of an obvious business purpose, total cost uncertainty, and interoperability issues, among the major biggest stumbling blocks, American Banker reported.
“Technologies typically take 15 to 20 years to mature to usefulness,” said Robert Palatnick, managing director and chief technology architect at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, according to the report. Palatnick added, “If you have a 3-year-old child, no matter how smart that child is, you wouldn't send it to college.” | 3,526 |
TOI photograph
BENGALURU: An Indian and three Pakistani nationals were arrested in Bengaluru, for allegedly staying in India under fake identities. They were living in South Bengaluru’s Kumaraswamy Layout for the past nine months. Besides their Pakistani passports, the trio was found to be in possession of Indian voter identity and Aadhar cards.
Following the arrest, central intelligence agencies are in Bengaluru, assisting city cops to investigate if they were conspiring anything against India. However, when interrogated, the suspects said they were here for love.
The suspects in custody are Kirhon Ghulam Ali, 26, Khasif Shamshuddin, 30 and Samira Abdul Rehman, 25, natives of Karachi, Pakistan. The fourth individual who was apprehended, Muhammad Shihab, is an Indian hailing from Kerala. Shihab is married to Samira and Khasif married to Kirhon.
During the interrogation, Shihab told cops he met Samira in Muscat, Oman while he was employed there over a year ago. They fell in love and wanted to marry. However Samira’s family in Karachi was opposed the marriage.
Interestingly, Samira’s cousin Kirhon was in a relationship with Khasif. It was opposition to their marriage from their respective families that drove the two away from Pakistan, the duo told cops.
Sometime last year, they decided to come to India. The couples flew from Muscat to Katmandu in September 2016. They subsequently crossed the Indian border in Bihat by road, and travelled to Patna, before arriving in Bengaluru.
Before going to Muscat, Shihab was working in Bengaluru and had been residing at Kumaraswamy Layout. Expecting resistance to his marriage from his family, Shihab came to Bengaluru, and rented a house at Kumaraswamy Layout.
In the rental agreement, the women had changed their names -- Kirhon to Kiran and Samira to Najma. They used these altered names for their Indian identification documents.
Senior cops were mum on the details of what led to the arrest. “CCB got a tipoff regarding them while investigating another case,” police said.
Police have charged the three Pakistanis under the Foreigners Act, Passport Act and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for forging official documents. “Central agencies and the Pakistan Embassy have been informed of their arrests. We are verifying the information that the accused have given us,” said Praveen Sood, Commissioner of Police.
| 3,527 |
Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Sign up here! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email
Household incomes are being squeezed more than during the 1990s financial crisis, a study has warned.
Typical earnings are estimated to have fallen by 0.5 per cent in the past two years - between 2016-17 and 2018-19 - the Resolution Foundation's annual Living Standards Audit said.
This is weaker than the 0.3 per cent growth seen between 1991 and 1993, when the economy was in and then recovering from recession, according to the study.
(Image: Copyright Unknown)
The Resolution Foundation, whose work aims to improve living standards for people on low to middle incomes, said the next Prime Minister "faces an urgent task of restoring decent rises in household incomes after an extended period of weakness which, for some low-income families, predated even the financial crisis".
The Foundation argued that while households have managed to boost their incomes by working more and curtailing their leisure time, they may be "running out of road" when it comes to improving their situation in this way.
Its report also found that despite male employment income representing the largest single element of working age household income, men and women have contributed roughly equally to income growth over the past 25 years.
Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now
Women's employment income has grown by £6,100 typically since 1995, while male employment income has grown by £7,100.
The Foundation said that just as the expansion of paid maternity leave and free childcare has supported family incomes over the past 25 years, a new set of policies will be needed, such as reforming Universal Credit to better support second earners in households to work.
Adam Corlett, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: "Over the past two years, UK households have experienced a near stagnation in living standards, even worse than the income hit experienced during the early 1990s recession.
"Restoring decent levels of household growth is therefore one of the most critical challenges facing the incoming prime minister.
"The living standards history of the past 25 years tells us that there are two broad ways that families have traditionally got richer over time - higher pay off the back of rising productivity, and supporting more women into work.
"After an unprecedented income squeeze over the past decade, and a living standards outlook that includes child poverty rising to record levels, an economic approach that supports higher incomes for all households must be the top domestic priority for the incoming PM." | 3,528 |
The intensity is gradually ratcheting up as MLS preseason training continues at a variety of locations around the world. Catch all the other news and updates from MLS training camps below for Saturday, February 15. And for the entire February preseason schedule, click here.
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA CHAMPS! With a goal in each half by Marcelo Sarvas and Gyasi Zardes, the LA Galaxy downed California Clasico rivals San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 in the Central California Cup held in Fresno, Calif. Josh Morton pulled one back for San Jose, but it was not enough for a comeback. Get all the details of the match, including lineups, from the LA Galaxy and Earthquakes official twitter feeds.
INJURY UPDATE: FC Dallas manager Oscar Pareja has provided the latest on several of the players missing preseason training due to injury. It's not looking good for Eric Hassli, Zach Loyd or Walker Zimmerman.
'CAPS ANNOUNCE TRAVEL SQUAD: Manager Carl Robinson revealed the roster he will be taking to Vancouver Island when they take on the University of Victoria Vikes on Sunday at 5 pm ET. The match has become a preseason tradition.
WHO'S NO. 1? That's still the question in Revolution preseason training camp with Bobby Shuttleworth and Brad Knighton splitting time. GM Mike Burns is under no illusion: Consistency remains the issue. "The question is, are either of them, or both of them, capable to do it from Game 1 to Game 34?" he told ESPNBoston.com.
JERSEY UNVEILING: D.C. United season-ticket holders will be the first to see the new Black-and-Red 2014 kits at an exclusive event being held Saturday afternoon from 2-5 pm ET. But we already have a sneak peek at what's to come. Jerseys go on sale Monday.
CLASSY FINISH: Who will it be starting up top for defending champs Sporting Kansas City in 2014? Dom Dwyer is using preseason to show that he has what it takes:
ALL-ACCESS AT RSL: It's not only about the action on the field during this preseason. New RSL manager Jeff Cassar and defender Nat Borchers will answer questions from fans in an open house at Rio Tinto. And that's not even the best part. It's free!
STAR SIGHTING: Red Bulls fans will hope the dark cloud surrounding Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks don't rub off on Tim Cahill after their meeting at the NBA All-Star weekend in New Orleans. | 3,529 |
More and more Germans are acquiring the permit they need to carry a gas pistol, a newspaper has reported.
The number has more than doubled in the last five years.
Some 640,000 Germans now have an alarm gun license, some 30,000 more than at the end of last year, according to a survey carried out by the Rheinische Post newspaper. The number has risen hugely since 2014, when some 260,000 people carried such a license.
The head of one of Germany’s two big police unions, the GdP, said new statistics exposed a “latent sense of insecurity” in the population.
“At least since the events at the Cologne cathedral square on New Year’s Eve in 2015 people apparently feel more and more unsafe,” GdP chairman Oliver Malchow said, referring to an incident when dozens of young men of North African origin harassed and pickpocketed people out celebrating. There was a spike in applications for the license in the wake of the incident.
Alex Jones exposes the globalist desire to dominate and exterminate humanity.
The so-called Kleiner Waffenschein (“small weapons permit”) is relatively easy to acquire in Germany: they are usually available to anyone over 18 with no previous serious criminal convictions, and who is considered “physically and mentally fit.”
The permits allow people to carry a gas pistol that fires loud blanks in public, though such pistols can be kept at home without a license.
Experts have warned that they closely resemble real firearms and can still be lethal at very close range, and Malchow also warned against potential problems created by the abundance of starting pistols on the streets.
“They imply a deceptive security or a higher readiness for self-defense,” he said. “This is precisely what can escalate a situation and possibly turn the user into a perpetrator themselves.”
A better way to increase security on German streets would be more police presence in public, he added.
The newspaper, which compiled the data from interior ministries from all 16 German states, said that some 5.4 million real firearms were owned privately in Germany in 2018, some 27,000 more than the year before. These were mostly rifles, rather than handguns.
Kale Murphree of MurfsGuns.com joins The Alex Jones Show to talk about how he overcame Facebook censorship limitations to advertise his gun store.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today! | 3,530 |
The Los Angeles Lakers have used the power and allure of the City of Angels to their benefit in many situations, whether signing free agents or cementing their brand all across the world. However, some events in franchise history have pitted their status atop the NBA against them as a hindrance.
In one of the more illustrious events in NBA history, a series of three hours turned into a crazy whirlwind of news across social media. On Dec. 14, 2011, the New Orleans Hornets finalized a trade that sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, with Pau Gasol going to the Houston Rockets, and Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Gordan Dragic and a draft pick heading to New Orleans.
The Hornets pulled the trigger on the trade understanding that Paul wouldn’t be returning to the franchise following the end of the final season of his contract. With news of the trade breaking, social media blew up expressing appreciation or disgust over the trade that would have partnered up Paul with Kobe Bryant.
Eventually, former NBA commissioner David Stern felt that he had to use his authority and rethink the decision of a franchise that was owned by the league at the time. Less than an hour after it was announced, reports surfaced that Stern had vetoed the trade and sent Paul back to the Hornets.
The Lakers front office and fans across the world were sent into a spiral of emotions at the thought of the NBA interfering with a potential third championship run for Bryant. Along with Phil Jackson, the front office had visions of Paul and Bryant dominating alongside center Dwight Howard.
Years after the trade was nixed, Stern stated that it was his duty as an owner representative to shut down the trade. While those around the NBA understood he did use his veto power, Stern chose to describe it as a situation where the trade had not gone through yet.
The falling out from many different parties turned the situation into a fiasco, as Odom and Paul publicly expressed their dismay of the entire situation. At the same time, Gasol was traded from the organization he had won two titles with in just four seasons.
The very next day, Paul was promptly traded to the L.A. Clippers, where he would spend a number of seasons escaping the thoughts of a what-if scenario alongside an NBA legend and ideal partner in pick-and-roll scenarios.
The drama following the situation led to Paul receiving constant boos at Staples Center during clashes with the Lakers, while Laker faithful also continued their disdain of how the NBA handled the situation.
WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE NEW FORUM CLUB | 3,531 |
French researchers have proposed a mechanism by which the observed speed of light might not be the constant we think it is: it could, in fact, vary at the attosecond level.
It's not, however, time to reach for the “the old boffins were wrong!” template, because their reasoning is actually elegant and simple: we know that vacuum isn't really vacuum, therefore the condition for a universally-constant lightspeed (that is, the speed of light in a vacuum) never actually exists.
The study, published in European Physical Journal D and also available on Arxiv here, also takes a shot at explaining three fundamental constants, the permissivity of vacuum, the permeability of vacuum, and the speed of light. Far from “escaping any physical explanation”, the study states, these constants “emerge naturally from the quantum theory”.
Let's tackle the speed of light: James Clerk Maxwell first imagined that light-speed in a vacuum is a constant throughout the universe. However, we've known for some time that if you look at vacuum at a quantum level, it doesn't stay a vacuum: pairs of particles and antiparticles (quarks and antiquarks, electron-positron) that arise spontaneously and annihilate each other in vacuum fluctuations.
That “quantum noise” is a spooky property that looks like the Universe is watching us back: it preserves Heisenberg's uncertainty theorem, since even the coldest vacuum of space can't be perfectly described as being empty; and vacuum fluctuations can even interfere with our most sensitive physical instruments.
The study, by Marcel Urban of France's University of Paris-Sud in Orsay, suggests that the energy fluctuations in vacuum could also affect the speed of light, since there's a statistical chance that light will interact with these “virtual particles”. As noted in publisher Wiley's announcement, “The fluctuations of the photon propagation time are estimated to be on the order of 50 attoseconds per square root metre* of crossed vacuum, which might be testable with the help of new ultra-fast lasers.”
The researchers also say their hypothesis could provide a prediction for the number of ephemeral particles in a given amount of space: the “ground state” of the unperturbed vacuum contains “a finite density of charged ephemeral fermions antifermions pairs” in their model. ®
Correction: The original version of this story stated 50 attoseconds per square metre, instead of per square root metre. ® | 3,532 |
india
Updated: Aug 23, 2019 21:26 IST
Chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s visit to New Delhi on Friday to meet Union ministers regarding developmental work was hampered by the unexpected presence of the rebel disqualified MLAs, who were in the national capital to meet their legal counsel.
Ten of the 17 rebels whose resignation and subsequent disqualification led to the collapse of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government had reached Delhi on Thursday, hours before Yediyurappa landed in the national capital, worried that their case, challenging the disqualification, had not come up for hearing in the Supreme Court.
One senior leader from among the rebels said that the rebels had expected a swift resolution to the matter, so that they could move on. “We were a little concerned about this and, hence, we decided to meet our legal counsel,” the leader said.
However, one senior BJP leader said the rebels were also worried about the lack of communication from the BJP’s side. “They wanted to meet chief minister Yediyurappa to discuss their issues, especially because there has been silence from the national leadership about their future,” he said.
HT could not independently confirm if Yediyurappa met the rebels, though former MLA and BJP leader CP Yogeshwar had travelled with the rebels.
Speaking to HT, AH Vishwanath, former state president of the JD(S), said that there was no truth in speculation that Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra had met them. “We are only here to meet our legal counsel,” he said. When asked if the rebels had demanded that Yediyurappa arrange a meeting with BJP national president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Vishwanath said that was untrue. “We will meet him if he calls us for a meeting, but we have not demanded one,” he said.
Meanwhile, suspense continued over the allocation of portfolios to the 17 ministers inducted into the state Cabinet on Tuesday. Yediyurappa said before leaving Bengaluru on Thursday that he would ask the BJP central leadership to release the list. However, by Friday evening the list was yet to come out.
Ministers of the Cabinet, in the absence of the portfolios have taken to touring rain and flood affected areas across the state. So far, at least 88 people have lost their lives and 1.6 lakh people have been shifted to relief camps across the state, in the aftermath of the heavy rains that lashed the state from August 1. | 3,533 |
adjar! Double Shadjar!" Umber yelled. "Curse you, Virgil!"
His yelling did not impede the bulkhead door, which was still creaking open at a sloth's pace. Emily looked to Umber with urgency. "Let's not get you shot again."
"Agreed. Back to the armory!" Umber grabbed Emily's hand, but it was like grabbing air. "Oh… right. Just follow then. Ben, you too!"
"Don't forget Sage!" Emily reminded him as she phased into an adjacent wall to enter the armory. Umber was in mid-step when before he pivoted around and retrieved the green lump off the floor. Sage gave another loud croak as a gun barrel protruded through the ever-widening space and took a few scattered shots at Umber.
[CONTACT] BRAAAAP! "Oh Shadow! Don't let me die again!"
The assailant let off a quick three round burst, luckily missing Umber as he scampered off around the corner. The bullets ricocheted off the concrete walls and floor before falling silent. The bulkhead squeaked loudly as Special Task Force Zeta-5 started to file through the opening one at a time. By then however, Umber, Sage, Ben, and Emily were in the armory pushing a large cabinet in front of the door. There was no power still but they had a good look around beforehand to see what was there. Frankly, it was a treasure trove of everything a mobile task force would ever want or need to head off a full scale assault or at least put on one hell of a show before dying.
"Well, now we are back in here. Wish I would have taken one of those big guns now." Umber panted, still trying to catch his breath after running for his insignificant life. There were humans coming that wanted him dead… again. Ben floated away from the group back towards the 'ORDNANCE AND HIGH EXPLOSIVES' bin in the southeast corner of the room. Emily was rummaging through some bulletproof vests, something in Umber's size. She didn’t need one at least. Sage was… Sage. Seems like everyone was in action except Umber, but he had to reel in his team. Any second they were going to be looking down the barrels of guns. Guns in the hands of very well trained humans that had no qualms shooting first and asking later, if at all. All Umber had was an armory, his spellbook, and his friends. He formulated a plan. | 3,534 |
The 49th International Bible Contest (Chidon HaTanach), one of Independence Day's major traditions, has come to a close in Jerusalem on Thursday. The theme of this year's contest was social justice.
Some 53 teens from 22 countries have reached the final stages of the competition, 16 of which made it to the final.
Aiming High Bedouin teacher dreams of winning Bible Contest Tamar Trabelsi-Hadad Shadi Abu Arar enrolls in National Bible Contest for adults in hopes of eventually winning international quiz; remains undeterred despite less than enthusiastic responses in Bedouin sector Bedouin teacher dreams of winning Bible Contest
Elhanan Bloch, 17, from Netivot, a student at the Amit Yeshiva High School in Yeruham, was declared the winner of the competition. Bloch, who held a steady lead throughout the contest, was also crowned as the winner of the religious Israeli schools contest.
Bloch was awarded his prize by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he also received a scholarship for undergraduate studies at Bar Ilan University.
The runner-up in the international contest was Akiva Abramovitz from Brooklyn New York, who surprised both judges and participants by managing to remain ahead of most of the Israeli contestants.
Avshalom Kor hosting the Contest (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
The contest was held at the Jerusalem Theater in the presence of in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar. As usual, Avshalom Kor emceed the event.
Netanyahu, who will ask the prime minister's question, arrived at the theater after taking part in a ceremony at the President's Residence where Shimon Peres gave out awards for excellence to 120 troops. Netanyahu's own son came in third place in the bible contest two years ago.
PM Netanyahu with wife, Sarah and Minister Sa'ar at the contest (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
The National Bible Contest winners – Avshalom Adler and Elhanan Bloch – are both students at the same school, the Yeshiva High School of Yeruham. The two are representing Israel in the competition alongside other contestants from Israel, Turkey, South Africa, France, Costa Rica, Panama and more.
The winner of the international competition receives a full scholarship for undergraduate studies at Bar Ilan University. The annual contest is organized by the IDF Chief Education Officer, the IDF Rabbinate, the Defense Ministry, Education Ministry, the Jewish Agency and the JNF (KKL). | 3,535 |
Late Thursday afternoon, the Green Bay Blizzard have moved on by relieving Coach Chris Williams of his duties. He spent the last three seasons with the Green Bay Blizzard and accumulated a combined record of 8-29 (27.6%).
Green Bay Blizzard Part Ways with Coach Chris Williams
Coach Williams started coaching for the Green Bay Blizzard in 2016 after the team went 6-8 in the regular season in 2015. In 2016, the Blizzard had high hopes and expectations that Williams would bring success to the table for them. In 2016, the Blizzard did worse by going 5-11, finished fourth in the United Conference, and seventh in the Indoor Football League (IFL). Green Bay believed that one season doesn’t define a coaches season.
In 2017, Williams returned to the Blizzard with higher hopes. Unfortunately for Williams, his team fell to 3-13. Also this season, the Blizzard finished fourth in the United Conference for the second season in a row, and ninth overall in the IFL.
Returning to the team for his third season, Williams thought for sure he would win games. The team fell 0-5 with some close battles.
Green Bay was probably looking to get a new head coach after losing the first two or three games of the 2018 season, but knew it wouldn’t be smart because there were no Bye Weeks. The Blizzard have two consecutive bye weeks after the news broke out of Williams’ release.
The Future of the Green Bay Blizzard
While it is unknown who the Blizzard are going to sign, the team can only go uphill from here. A coach in three season that only wins just over 27% of their games is a nightmare. With the team having two weeks to prepare for their next game against the Cedar Rapids Titans, they should be able to find a coach that can learn the team and have plenty of time to plan on their next game.
There are still 10 more games left in the season for Green Bay. With the new coach or interim head coach, the team could win more games. Teams that are struggling a little bit this year are the Cedar Rapids Titans and Nebraska Danger after losing their starting Quarterback Damien Fleming.
If the Blizzard beat those two teams every time they faced each other for the remainder of the season, the Blizzard would finish with at least four wins.
Last weekend against the Sioux Falls Storm, the Blizzard kept it a close game until the fourth quarter when fourth downs gave the game away. If Green Bay can keep up with Sioux Falls, then they should be able to finish strong against any other team in this league and pull out some upset victories. | 3,536 |
Cape Town (AFP) - White farmers evicted from their land in Zimbabwe won a symbolic victory Monday when a government-owned house in Cape Town was sold to pay compensation, a lawyer involved in the case said.
The auction of the house, which went for 3.76 million rand ($282,000), was the final step in a complicated case that has been fought through the South African courts for years by a group of Zimbabwean farmers.
But it is unlikely that the farmers will see any of the cash, which will mainly go to cover court costs, said lawyer Willie Spies.
If anything is left over, German bank group KFW Bank Gruppe, which joined the legal action and is believed to be owed tens of millions of dollars by President Robert Mugabe's government, would take the lion's share, he said.
"This is a symbolic victory and we will pursue other commercial properties owned by Zimbabwe," said Spies, who represented the farmers through AfriForum, a mainly white civil rights group in South Africa.
Zimbabwe government representatives attended the auction, but did not bid, he said.
The case began with a ruling in 2008 by a tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which found that Zimbabwe had wrongly taken land from a group of nearly 80 farmers who brought the case, saying they had been targeted due to their race.
The tribunal, which was later disbanded, ruled that they should be compensated.
Zimbabwe rejected the verdict, but a South African court ruled that it could be applied locally as South Africa was a member of SADC.
Zimbabwe fought the judgement through to South Africa's Constitutional Court, which confirmed in a landmark judgement in 2013 that the farmers could sue in South African courts for compensation and attach Zimbabwegovernment assets in the country.
Three other Zimbabwean properties targeted by AfriForum were declared to be covered by diplomatic immunity, while the Cape Town house had been rented out commercially and was therefore liable to seizure, Spies said.
Story continues
"AfriForum regards its litigation against the Zimbabwe government as a civil sanction campaign against the ongoing and systemic abuse of human rights and the rule of law, and the destruction of land ownership in Zimbabwe," the group said in a statement.
Mugabe's land reforms, launched in 2000 and accompanied by violent evictions of thousands of white farmers, were aimed at redistributing farms to landless blacks.
But critics say they mostly benefitted the veteran leader's cronies, led to a devastating drop in agricultural production and crippled the economy. | 3,537 |
We all knew this was bound to happen, right? We all knew eventually the Rockets would be blown out on the glass (again). On Wednesday night, that exact thing happened (again). The Nets destroyed the Rockets on the glass, snagging 60 rebounds to the Rockets' 45.
The lack of rebounds wasn't Dwight Howard's fault, he cleaned up the glass as much as he could, collecting 17 himself. Even James Harden managed to grab 9 rebounds. The problem was no one else on the team had more than four.
While the Rockets love being spread out on offense having essentially one center and four guards. The problem you run into is having four guards and one center trying to rebound missed shots.
When shots are going in, it's no big deal, not much to rebound. But the killer is when you play good defense and get the miss, and then you give up an offensive rebound that's just a killer.
"Their offensive rebounding killed us," Head coach Kevin McHale said postgame. The Rockets gave up 20 offensive rebounds and 33 second-chance points.
"I just think that when we play small ball, everybody has to make a concentrated effort to really help each other out on the boards." Dwight Howard said, "A lot of times when I went over to help, and block shots or whatever, they would crash the boards and send their guys in. We need to do a better job of that,"
Howard is right. On Wednesday night no one aside Nets players was even near the glass.
It shouldn't matter if you have a lineup of Howard and four Muggsy Bogues. If you crash the boards good things will happen.
"I know that everybody wants to say the size or whatever," Marcus Thornton said. "It's about heart out there, it's about heart and determination and effort. It's just you wanting to it and we just have to find a way,"
For the most part, the Rockets have found what Thornton was searching for. One of the early constants during the "small ball" era is the non-bigs have rebounded pretty well. During the four-game win streak, Thornton averaged 5.25 rebounds a game, and Trevor Ariza averaged 6.5.
The Rockets got a wake-up call against the Nets. If they expect to win more games with the small-ball lineup, Dwight Howard can't be the only guy rebounding the ball.
They will face plenty of teams that will try and counter the small ball lineup. It's on the Rockets to prove they can stay small.
Tweet me | 3,538 |
Bertrand Noël/SIPA/Miss France/TF1
Vaimalama Chaves, Miss Tahiti, has been crowned Miss France 2019, succeeding Maëva Coucke.
Chaves is 23, and holds a master’s degree in management as well as qualifications in negotiation and customer relations.
The top five contestants were Lauralyne Demesnay, Miss Franche-Comté; Morgane Soucramanien, Miss Réunion; Vaimalama Chaves, Miss Tahiti; Aude Destour, Miss Limousin; and Ophély Mezino, Miss Guadeloupe.
Mezino was named runner-up and Demesnay found herself in third place. Soucramanien and Destour were in fourth and fifth places.
The event was held tonight at the Zénith de Lille, hosted again by Jean-Pierre Foucault and Sylvie Tellier.
Thirty women aged between 18 and 24 vied for the title.
Named into the top 12 by the judging panel were the regional winners from Guadeloupe, Provence, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Côte d’Azur, Réunion, Aquitaine, Lorraine, Tahiti, Franche-Comté, Île-de-France, Limousin and Langedoc-Roussillon.
For the first time since its inception in 1920, Miss France had an all-female judging panel, headed by Line Renaud, with singer Jenifer, 2011 titleholder Laury Thilleman, comedienne Claudia Tagbo, dancer Alice Rennevand, actress Maud Baecker, and tennis player Caroline Garcia.
The judges and the public nominated the top five, while phone and SMS voting from only the public determined the outcome of the top three places.
The questions for the top five were also from the viewing public.
As in previous years, there were themed segments, including Moulin Rouge, Bollywood, circus and superheroine parades. The swimsuit parade was nearly 10 minutes long. The eveningwear parade was a tribute to late French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour.
Eight million viewers were expected to have watched the telecast live on TF1. Last year’s ratings showed at the telecast attracted 7·4 million viewers (a 37·1 per cent share), peaking at 8·8 million at the time of the crowning. | 3,539 |
DONALD TRUMP: We have rallies of 25 -- 30,000 people and you haven't even said anything about danger in our rallies until Friday, and the danger was ended by a very good managerial decision not to have that particular rally, to postpone it.
JAKE TAPPER (HOST): I said something about it at the debate on Thursday night because people are worried about it.
TRUMP: How many people were -- hey Jake you made a statement, Jake could I ask you a question? You made a statement that at my rallies, people are -- it's dangerous. Other than forthe other day with Chicago and the one man that rushed the stage and Secret Service did a very good job, but other than that, with thousands of people, 21,000, 25,000, 35,000 people a few weeks ago in Alabama. How many people have been injured at my rallies? Zero, zero.
TAPPER: I don't think that it's zero.
TRUMP: There's been nobody injured, but you make it like everybody's being broken down and injured. Because CNN reports very, very unfairly about me. I'll tell you what, so out of all of these rallies with thousands of thousands of people, and nobody is even close. By the way Bernie gets peanuts compared to what we get. And I say we because it's me and I'm just a messenger because there is a lot of anger in this country and it's anger at incompetence, it's anger at the border, it's anger at trade deals that are so bad for us that all our jobs are being taken out of the country, there is a lot of anger. I didn't need to do this, I have a wonderful life, I have a great, great company. I didn't need to do this, I wanted to do it because somebody has to do it.
TAPPER: I would just ask --
TRUMP: Our country is in trouble.
TAPPER: I hear you, sir. I hear you, sir, about the causes of the anger. I would just ask as a fellow American if you could consider whether or not dialing down the temperature, trying to bring down the temperature might be a healthier thing both for your campaign and for the nation at large. But that's all the time we have, thank you so much for joining us Donald Trump.
TRUMP: Well if you would report it right. Well you should report it right. Because we've had no injuries at my events with thousands of people, you just don't report it that way. So do what you have to do. | 3,540 |
their employers would pay more for premiums.
7. Economists across the political spectrum tend to love the idea of limiting -- or, ideally, eliminating -- tax preferences for health insurance. It creates an uneven playing field and is regressive, making it a lot easier for an employer to buy insurance than an individual. It drives up the demand for really robust health insurance packages that may be well beyond what workers need -- but since health insurance is tax-preferenced, it's a cheaper way to pay employees. The federal government loses over $100 billion in revenue each year by not taxing health plans.
8. People -- especially the 56 percent of Americans under 65 who get their insurance through their employer -- tend to hate the idea of ending this health insurance tax exclusion because it means the same exact health benefit package they get right now could get a whole lot more expensive. No matter how much economists like the idea of ending the employer tax exclusion, politicians tend to get brutalized for proposing it (see: John McCain in 2008).
9. One other notable feature of this plan: Obamacare has become the starting point for negotiations. This wasn't really true a few years ago, or even a few months ago, before the health-care law's insurance expansion started. It's interesting that this proposal takes some of the contours of Obamacare and works around them, such as ending pre-existing conditions and continuing dependent coverage up to age 26. The health-care law's $700 million in Medicare cuts stick around, too. Even though it's a replacement plan, it also acknowledges that Obamacare isn't totally going to disappear.
KLIFF NOTES: Top health policy reads from around the Web.
How will Obama handle Obamacare in the State of the Union? "This time, President Barack Obama is going to have to actually talk about Obamacare in his State of the Union address. No more touch-the-base-and-keep-running treatments, the way he’s handled it the past couple of years. This time, he’ll be expected to linger on base a bit, at least long enough to acknowledge the launch of the biggest domestic achievement of his presidency — and do it in the least awkward way possible." David Nather in Politico.
Economists see little Obamacare impact on hiring. "About 75 percent of those surveyed said the Affordable Care Act hasn’t influenced their planning or expectations for 2014, according to data from theNational Association for Business Economics. Twenty-one percent of 64 respondents said that the law would have a negative impact on business conditions and 5 percent said it will be positive." Carlos Torres in Bloomberg. | 3,541 |
FORT BRAGG, NC – Chaplain (Captain) Chuck Williams wrote an open letter on Fort Bragg’s Facebook page calling for the cancellation of on-post secular festival Rock Beyond Belief. Cpt. Williams claims,
“It has now been made blatantly public by [event] organizers that part of this event will be… glorifying violence against people who possess a faith in God through the burning of churches. This is appalling!”
Fort Bragg estimates that 5,000 people will attend the all-day event. It was partially inspired by a controversial evangelical Christian event that targeted non-Christians for conversions. Rock Beyond Belief, to be held March 31, has no such conversion or “de-conversion” agenda. The festival aims to be a family-friendly affair including secular children’s activities grounded in science.
An organizer of the event, Justin Griffith said,
“It is possible that Cpt. Williams thinks that arson is a common hobby of atheists from misinformation he obtained from FOX News. Popular rock band Aiden’s lyrics were purposely taken out of context, making it look like a performer was encouraging the destruction of holy texts and buildings.”
Aiden lead-singer, William Control, has repeatedly explained that the song ‘Hysteria’ was actually a condemnation of faith-on-faith violence and hatred. Though some of Aiden’s songs contain foul language, but ‘Hysteria’ does not. Festival organizers insist that all performers had already agreed to only play radio friendly songs.
Chaplain Williams attacked the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s Mikey Weinstein and festival headliner Richard Dawkins as being “known publicly for their caustic treatment of people of faith.” Ironically, Mr. Weinstein is Jewish and litigates mainly for Christians.
Fort Bragg’s Garrison Commander, Colonel Stephen Sicinski later weighed in on the side of the atheist festival. He even guaranteed the atheists the right to ‘criticize organized religion and its practitioners’ in an official written statement. Cpt. Williams is not the first Chaplain to attack this festival and their efforts now seem to have backfired. Professor Dawkins now has specific permission to push the envelope.
The festival is an American Atheists event. It was made possible by a $50,000 donation from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. For more information on the event, check the RBB website.
*Here’s the latest press release our crew put out. Need a copy?* | 3,542 |
India’s Sakshi Malik poses with her bronze medal for the women’s wrestling freestyle 58-kg competition during the medals ceremony at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) India’s Sakshi Malik poses with her bronze medal for the women’s wrestling freestyle 58-kg competition during the medals ceremony at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Congratulations have been pouring in since morning, as India woke up to a freedom of another kind: Sakshi Malik won a wrestling Bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics, breaking the jinx of the almost-there-but-not-quite fourth places.
Finally, we Indians are free to rejoice and revel as our sportspeople break through to that coveted podium, holding aloft that treasured medal.
But in all this noise, there has been the usual gendered appropriation of Sakshi’s incredible feat, calling her ‘India’s Daughter’ on social networks.
Yes, she is someone’s daughter. And will go on to be, if that’s where life takes her, a wife and mother too. But this gendered appropriation of a young woman’s fabulous achievements reduces it, and her, to a label: the sort of patriarchal label which has enabled us to keep our women in shackles for centuries.
Malik is a sportsperson first and foremost. Do you have any notion of what it takes to get where she has? The hard, hard grind that knows no night or day, no holiday, no cheat days, just endless, relentless practice, just to get that one-hundredth of an edge over a rival practicing just as hard in other corners of the world.
Let’s dump this dominant discourse of ‘ma-behen-beti’. Let’s celebrate Sakshi’s feat for what it is: a great, great sporting achievement.
WATCH VIDEO
You go, Sakshi! Please do nibble one more corner of that medal you so richly deserve : it is real. You’ve done it. Clap, clap.
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines
For all the latest Opinion News, download Indian Express App.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd | 3,543 |
Kim Kardashian West made it clear in a recent interview that she's no supporter of President Trump, insisting that even her four-year-old daughter would make for a better president.
“Anyone can run the U.S. better. My daughter would be better,” she told Harper's Bazaar Arabia on Wednesday. “We’ve worked so hard to get to where we were and to have so many things that we were so proud of in our country, to just literally revert backwards is the most frustrating thing.
“Every single day when you can’t really believe what’s going on, the next day it’s something else even more crazy and tragic,” she said. “It’s really scary, the world that we’re living in now. And when you did feel safe at home, now with Trump in presidency you just don’t feel safe any more.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Kardashian West said that she refuses to follow President Trump on Twitter but still follows his predecessor, Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaTwitter investigating automated image previews over apparent algorithmic bias Donald Trump delivers promise for less interventions in foreign policy Rush Limbaugh encourages Senate to skip hearings for Trump's SCOTUS nominee MORE.
Her husband, rapper Kanye West, famously said last November that if he had voted at all it would have been for Trump. West met with the then-president elect in December and posed for photos with him in the lobby of Trump Tower.
West deleted his tweets about the meeting after Trump took office, however, including one about how he had met with Trump to “discuss multicultural issues,” including “bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago.”
Kardashian West flirted with the idea of voting for Trump herself before eventually coming out in support of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton last September.
“At first I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m so Hillary,’ but I had a long political call with Caitlyn [Jenner] last night about why she’s voting Trump. I’m on the fence,” she said in an interview with Wonderland magazine. "There was a point when I wasn't 100% sure I was even going to vote in this election; I didn't want to vote blindly.
"I found that without a doubt, I stand with Hillary," she later said. "I'm with her. I believe Hillary will best represent our country and is the most qualified for the job." | 3,544 |
A new federal report shows that 10.3 million people paid their Obamacare premiums this year of the 12.2 million who signed up during open enrollment.
The report released Monday, which included data through March 15, found that cost was the major driver for people dropping out. It comes as the health of Obamacare's exchanges is being heavily scrutinized during the congressional debate over repealing the law.
The report from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that in March 2016, 10.8 million people paid their premiums out of the 12.7 million that signed up for open enrollment that year. However, that number dropped to 9.1 million by the end of 2016.
A survey found that 49 percent of consumers who terminated their plans after paying at least one month's premium this year said they received coverage elsewhere. Of that 49 percent, 58 percent of said they received coverage elsewhere and 22 percent said they were eligible for Medicare.
Another 27 percent cited cost as the reason.
About 46 percent of consumers who canceled before paying their first payment cited cost, with 17 percent saying they were ineligible for financial assistance, the report said.
"Consumers are sending a clear message that cost and affordability are major factors in their decision to cancel or terminate coverage," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price used the report to ding Obamacare.
"Many individuals and families across the country are tired of having their healthcare options dictated to them by Washington – particularly when those limited options are unaffordable," he said.
A report last year from the Department of Health and Human Services found that the average Obamacare plan's premiums were estimated to jump by about 25 percent.
The report also outlined the brunt of who may be affected if the White House fails to pay cost-sharing reduction subsidies to insurers. The subsidies reimburse insurers for lowering co-pays and deductibles for low-income Obamacare customers.
Of the 10.3 million people who paid premiums this year, 5.8 million received cost-sharing reductions as of February, the report said.
The state with the highest number of recipients of cost-sharing subsidies was Florida with about 1 million. Coming in second was California with 673,104 people.
The health of Obamacare's exchanges has become fodder for political attacks from both Republicans and Democrats as the Senate aims to take up its version of a healthcare reform bill by the end of July.
Republicans charge that the high premiums insurers proposed for 2018 are evidence of the law's collapse. Democrats counter that the Trump administration is trying to sabotage Obamacare, pointing to the reluctance to pay the CSRs. | 3,545 |
Image caption Between them, Claudia Winkleman, Jonathan Ross and Barry Norman hosted the show for 44 years
The BBC has confirmed it will not broadcast its long-running Film... series next year.
The programme first aired in 1971 and has since been fronted by Barry Norman, Jonathan Ross and Claudia Winkleman.
"In 2019 we will be creating an enhanced offer for lovers of film both on television and online," the corporation told BBC News.
"We're still working through the details and will have more news about what this will look like soon."
Film's title has changed annually since it launched, to reflect the year in which it was being broadcast.
It began in 1971, airing only in the South East area of the UK, with rotating guest presenters including Joan Bakewell.
The following year it expanded and was broadcast to the whole country, with Norman its first permanent host.
Image copyright PA/Getty Image caption Edith Bowman, Charlie Brooker and Clara Amfo have guest hosted Film since Winkleman left
Winkleman, the show's most recent regular host, left the show in 2016, and the programme has since been fronted by various guest presenters including Edith Bowman, Clara Amfo and Charlie Brooker.
But its profile was at its highest in the 26 years when it was hosted by Norman, who was such a well-known TV presence that he was caricatured as a puppet on Spitting Image.
He also had a catchphrase - "And why not?" - invented for him by impressionist Rory Bremner.
It was a time when Norman combined his incisive reviews of the week's releases with on-set reports of future releases and interviews with Hollywood's biggest names.
In 2014, he named Jamie Lee Curtis, Martin Scorsese, Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney as four of his favourite interviewees during his time on the show.
But even when the programme was at its height, fixed in a regular time slot, it did not appear on TV throughout the year - which meant that some major releases (particularly summer blockbusters) only got a summary review from Norman when the programme returned from its annual mid-year break.
The BBC said in a statement that its new plan to cover film from now on would fix that anomaly, offering "a more consistent approach across the year".
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | 3,546 |
WordPress and SEO go hand in hand as a result of the various search engines favor the WordPress running a blog platform to a excessive extent. If you’ve gotten a WordPress weblog, you then all told chance will obtain the next rating than different sites. Reasonably, your probabilities can be improved if you happen to get some issues proper at the start. You can select any matter on the market and there can be a plenty of WordPress blogs overlaying that matter. But, for a mess of entirely different causes, they don’t all have grand search engine rankings. You must discover ways to optimize your WordPress weblog for the various search engines. Ensure that you just place particular issues in movement in order that you’ll be hierarchical extremely in your key phrase.
Paid themes are a safer solution to go and don’t use commercials. If you may meet the expense, you must at the start choose a excessive class theme that’s not shared and it will permit you much less hassles.
Have Trackbacks in Your Comments:
One of the principle issues that helps your WordPress weblog get grand rating is the trackbacks. This makes it easy to have hyperlinks made inside the feedback part to anybody who’s linking to your content material. When you permit trackbacks in your WordPress weblog, this provides different individuals an avenue for linking to your clauses and making a backlink for you. If you do your homework, you’ll be taught that the majority of properly inhabited WordPress blogs have trackbacks turned on. This is a proficiency for permitting others to hyperlink to your clause in the event that they discovered it fascinating.
Sprinkle Keywords in Your Content:
Even if you happen to run your site on the WordPress platform that does not imply you can waive off the essential ideas of SEO. You ought to in the to the last-place degree multiplication preserve an honest key phrase density in your clauses so that you just’re not perfectly ignoring this side. Don’t stuff too many key phrases into your content material still weave them in at focused places that appear important; strengthen your equivalent word use to maintain from repetition your key phrases too many instances inside your clause.
WordPress blogs do appear to have a definite benefit in the case of optimizing for serps. It’s the small stuff that can make or break you disregarding of how large or small your weblog could also get on the second. Why aren’t you acquiring began but? Now your weblog is ordinarily a large player in a very large pond. These three issues may help make that occur. | 3,547 |
Yesterday this Canadian received his Amazfit Bip from a grey-market reseller. With shipping, taxes and duties the final cost was about $100 CAD—pretty much the same price that I paid Amazon for the Pebble 2 SE on the left. How do the two compare? Let’s break it down…
Buttons / UI
Every late model Pebble has four buttons with four programmable long press actions. The Bip has only a single button on its right side. A short press unlocks the screen; a long press can start or stop the workout of your choice, or turn the watch off. The Bip does have a touch screen, though, and while there are no fancy animated transitions it’s still likely to be a more intuitive UI for most users.
Advantage: Draw
Notifications
The two devices handle notifications very differently. Once granted access through your phone (on Android anyway) a Pebble will send through all notifications by default, with the option of blocking certain ones through the Pebble app on your phone.
With the Bip notifications are opt-in, meaning that you have to manually enable notifications on a per-app basis through the Mi Fit app on your phone. Perhaps more importantly, you can’t take any action when a notification comes through on a Bip. You can’t even customize the vibrations on the watch.
Even without the Pebble servers you can still use Gadgetbridge to build a list of customized canned responses for incoming messages. Advantage: Pebble.
Watch Faces
The Bip has 10 built-in watch faces, and room for one more that can be sideloaded from the Mi Fit app—the included selections are shown above. Just don’t expect anywhere near the breadth or depth of what’s available for download (or to archive) from the Pebble app store. Advantage: Pebble.
Fitness Tracking
Here’s where the Bip pulls ahead. With its long battery life, built-in heart rate sensor and GPS, plus an easy shortcut to start and stop your workout, the Bip makes a compelling case for a cheap and cheerful exercise companion. The Mi Fit app is no slouch, either; it was able to chart all the above data from an hour-long walk yesterday afternoon. Advantage: Bip
As a fitness tracker I think the Bip is a fantastic buy. But if it’s a Pebble replacement that you were looking for then I’m sorry to say that you might have to keep looking.
Link: Amazfit Bip on geekbuying | 3,548 |
Better reading: A recent meta-analysis (Graham & Hebert, 2011) summarized dozens of studies examining the impact of writing instruction on reading comprehension. The authors concluded that there is a consistent, positive effect, and argued for three classroom practices.
First, more writing. (No surprise there.) Second, having students write about the texts that they read: for example, close analysis and interpretation, summaries, or the answering of questions, all of which demand understanding. Third, explicit teaching of the skills and processes that go into creating text. If students understand the conventions of writing an effective sentence, an effective paragraph, and an effective essay, then they will better understand how authors use those conventions. For example, they will understand that the start of a new paragraph likely signals the start of a new idea.
A writing assignment may guide student thinking toward substantive issues in, say, history, or it may guide students down a mental primrose path.
It's worth noting that these two advantages -- better writing and better reading -- will probably not accrue if most writing assignments consist of answering short questions, writing in journals, and completing worksheets -- exactly the writing tasks on which elementary school kids spend most of their time (Gilbert & Graham, 2010). Students need assignments that include writing in longer formats with some formal structural requirements.
Better thinking: There is a certain logic to the idea that students can become better critical thinkers by completing writing assignments. Writing forces you to organize your thoughts. Writing encourages you to try different ideas and combinations of ideas. Writing encourages you to select your words carefully. Writing holds the promise (and the threat) of a permanent record of your thoughts, and thus offers the motivation to order them carefully. And indeed some forms of writing--persuasive or expository essays for example -- explicitly call for carefully ordering thinking.
The foregoing logical case may be convincing, but the data are not. Efforts to use writing to teach subject matter have had mixed success (Bangert-Drowns, Hurley & Wilkinson, 2004).
That mixed record is likely due to the considerable diversity in how these programs were implemented and how "success" was measured. A writing assignment may guide student thinking toward substantive issues in, say, history, or it may guide students down a mental primrose path. Merely asking students to write about academic content is no guarantee of better learning; it must be a vehicle for students to engage in serious subject-matter work. Unfortunately, a recent survey (Kiuhara et al 2009) indicated that most high school students encounter writing assignments that typically do not demand this sort of analysis. | 3,549 |
ital movement over her migrant policy, which has seen an influx of more than 1 million migrants and refugees during the last couple years, urged Germans not be cowed by the acts of terrorists.
“We do not want to be paralyzed by terror,” she said. “We will find the strength to live with freedom.”
“I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany,” Merkel said. “This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country.”
The crash came less than a month after the U.S. State Department called for caution in markets and other public places across Europe, saying extremist groups including Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al Qaeda were focusing “on the upcoming holiday season and associated events.”
The truck jumped the curb and ploughed straight into the crowd on Monday afternoon, American eyewitness Shandana Durrani told CBS News.
CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata reported that forensic teams separated the cab of the truck from the trailer and removed it from the scene Tuesday morning for forensic examination.
Other witnesses said the truck turned right off a main road and onto the pedestrianized plaza, and then just kept driving straight through the area packed with tourists and shoppers where stalls were set up.
The cab of a truck that was used in a suspected terrorist attack on a Berlin Christmas market the previous day is removed from the scene by a tow truck for forensic examination, Dec. 20, 2016, in Berlin, Germany. CBS
Among the dead was a passenger found inside the cab of the truck, a Polish citizen. Police were quick to confirm on Monday that he was not in control of the truck at the time of the incident. Officials said Tuesday that the Polish man appeared to have been fatally shot before or during the incident.
As D’Agata reports, the truck had Polish license plates, and was registered to a Polish transportation company. It was hauling 25 tons of steel.
U.S. intelligence officials tell CBS News the horror that unfolded in Berlin bears similarities to the terrorist attack in Nice, France in July, when a truck tore through a crowd and killed 86 people.
ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack, and has since encouraged its supporters to launch similar attacks elsewhere, most recently in an online magazine article published in November. | 3,550 |
EnterpriseDB
EnterpriseDB, a provider of enterprise-class products and services based on PostgreSQL, today announced Postgres Plus Cloud Server, which the company has billed as "a full-featured, Oracle-compatible, enterprise-class PostgreSQL database-as-a-service for public and private clouds with support for Amazon EC2, Eucalyptus, Rackspace, and GoGrid."
We've seen other database-as-a-service offerings come on the scene from the likes of Salesforce.com's Database.com, Amazon RDS, as well as from startup Xeround. But they're not based on PostgreSQL, which has had years of hardening and development by a committed community. The other databases are not "Oracle compatible," which could serve as a competitive advantage for Postgres Plus Cloud Server as it promises to move Oracle applications to the cloud at a fraction of the cost of Oracle licenses. If true, that's compelling.
But what of NoSQL databases such as Cassandra and MongoDB? According to EnterpriseDB CEO Ed Boyajian, the technologies should all play well together. The main thing is to have a platform that users feel comfortable won't suddenly go from open- to closed-source, which some believe Oracle is already working toward.
Article after article blames Oracle for its bad stewardship of open source, whether it be MySQL or Java. Blogger Dana Blankenhorn even pointed out that in Oracle's legal struggles with Google, the company is "arguing for a new understanding of copyright that would make all software, even open source, de-facto proprietary"--a stance unlikely to gain favor with the open-source community.
Interest in PostgreSQL has risen recently. There were reports earlier this month of Apple dumping MySQL for PostgreSQL in Mac OS X Lion Server. And back in June, blogger Matt Asay wondered aloud if Red Hat was planning to acquire EnterpriseDB--the "enterprise PostgreSQL company"--as a power move to combat Oracle head-on.
It's clear that non-relational databases are having a big impact on the way we build applications now, but the database remains a multibillion-dollar opportunity, with the vast majority of the revenue going toward the development and management of relational databases.
The big question is whether or not relational databases such as PostgreSQL will make the jump to the cloud in a meaningful way or if NoSQL will rule. Odds are we'll see a push from both sides, but with developers holding such heavy sway these days, the platform that is best appointed and most open is likely to win favor. | 3,551 |
Part one of my series on basketball concepts and terminology focused on how to read basketball play diagrams, and how they’re used to communicate between coaches and players. In part two, we delve deeper into that language to focus on the various types of off-ball screens that the Los Angeles Lakers use.
Let’s take a closer look:
.@LakerFilmRoom breaks down the various types of off-ball screens the Lakers use, and the terms for each of them:https://t.co/I3ejPiHt1Q pic.twitter.com/r34H6uAHHR — Silver Screen & Roll (@LakersSBN) August 10, 2018
Rip Screens - Back screens off of the ball. Often used on the lob plays that the Lakers run for Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram.
Hammer Screens - Weak-side back screens. The Lakers usually run these as set plays out of timeouts.
Wide Pindowns - Down screens where the screener faces his teammate in the corner. Designed to maximize spacing. The Lakers usually run these in early offense.
Stagger Screens - Similar to Wide Pindowns, but with two screeners.
Ram Screens - Also know as “screen the screener.” The Lakers run a play where (usually) their 2 sets a ram screen for the 4, who then sets the ball screen for the 1. As that’s happening, the 2 pops out to the corner while receiving a screen from the 5.
Elevator Screens - When two screeners converge after their shooter has gotten through to “shut the doors” on the defender. The Lakers run these most frequently on sideline out of bounds plays.
Cross Screens - Set with the screener’s back to the opposite sideline, intended to allow the teammate who’s receiving the screen to cut across the paint. The Lakers did a terrible job of scoring off of these last season, but LeBron James is phenomenal at making those reads so that should improve in 2018-19.
And yes, this video is a subtle way of me saying that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is valuable to the team despite the dumb stuff that he sometimes does, because of his ability to shoot while coming off of screens. Thank you for noticing.
The goal of Laker Film Room is to create content that helps you enjoy the game on a deeper level. If you’d like to support that work, you can do so on Patreon or Venmo. | 3,552 |
Prion and Alzheimer’s disease are protein misfolding brain diseases, where genetic mutations, or more commonly, interactions between an individual’s genetics and environmental influences cause functional proteins in neurons to become misfolded or misrouted. In these diseases, there is a progressive death of nerve cells in specific brain regions, which is associated with the increasing extracellular or intracellular accumulation of misfolded proteins. This leads to synapse degeneration and eventual loss of nerve cells and cognitive and behavioural conditions associated with the disease.
To increase the understanding of the disease mechanisms, the researchers, led by Dr Ayodeji Asuni from the University’s Centre for Biological Sciences, compared prion disease brain tissue, which mirrors key features of Alzheimer’s disease, and the brain of control mice.
They found that the degenerative process is paralleled by an increase in astrocytes – a major support cell in the brain – and four specific astrocytes-associated proteins: GFAP (structural protein), peroxiredoxin-6 (an antioxidant protein), EAAT-2 (glutamate transporter), and Clusterin (a chaperone protein). These are produced in greater amounts in response to the misfolding protein, perhaps to provide support and protection for neurons in the brain.
Current research has identified Clusterin as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease and Dr Asuni’s team extended their investigation to address whether Clusterin changes in the brain could be detected in the blood; such a result would have confirmed Clusterin as a potential biomarker for brain disease.
Dr Asuni says: “In contrast to observations made in Alzheimer’s disease, the increased Clusterin expression in the brain was not reflected in the circulating levels of Clusterin in late-stage prion disease.
“So we caution against the assumption that plasma levels of Clusterin provide an alternate peripheral measure for the progression of brain degeneration. We believe the observations from our study in experimental conditions, in which potential confounds can be well controlled, will likely be of value in the interpretation of results from Alzheimer’s disease patients.”
The study, which is published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, was carried out in the University’s Centre for Biological Sciences as a collaboration between the labs of Professor Vincent O’Connor and Professor Hugh Perry. The research effort was led by Dr Ayodeji Asuni with contributions from Dr Bryony Gray, Dr Joanne Bailey and Dr Paul Skipp. It was funded by the Medical Research Council. | 3,553 |
In the early 1900s, Americans could not get enough of the modern-day variation on the lip-smacking confection called bubble or chewing gum popularized by Thomas Adams. The popular treat has a long history and has come in many forms over time.
Earliest Record of Chewing Gum
A variation of chewing gum has been used by ancient civilizations and cultures around the world. It is believed that the earliest evidence we have of chewing gum dates back to the Neolithic period. Archeologists discovered 6,000-year-old chewing gum made from birch bark tar, with tooth imprints in Finland. The tar from which the gums were made is believed to have antiseptic properties and other medicinal benefits.
Ancient Cultures
Several ancient cultures used chewing gum regularly. It is known that the ancient Greeks chewed mastiche, a chewing gum made from the resin of the mastic tree. The ancient Mayans chewed chicle, which is the sap of the sapodilla tree.
Modernization of Chewing Gum
In addition to the ancient Greeks and Mayans, chewing gum can be traced back to a variety of civilizations around the world, including the Eskimos, South Americans, Chinese and Indians from South Asia. The modernization and commercialization of this product mainly took place in the United States. Native Americans chewed resin made from the sap of spruce trees. In 1848, American John B. Curtis picked up on this practice and made and sold the first commercial chewing gum called the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum. Two years later, Curtis started selling flavored paraffin gums, which became more popular than spruce gums.
In 1869, Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna introduced Thomas Adams to chicle, as a rubber substitute. It did not take off as a use for rubber, instead, Adams cut chicle into strips and he marketed it as Adams New York Chewing Gum in 1871.
Potential Health Benefits
Gum can be credited for several health benefits, such as potentially increasing cognition and brain function after chewing the gum. An additive and sugar substitute xylitol has been found to reduce cavities and plaque in teeth. Another known effect of chewing gum is that it increases saliva production. Increased saliva can be a good way to keep the mouth fresh, which is helpful for reducing halitosis (bad breath).
Increased saliva production has also been found to be helpful following surgery involving the digestive system and for the possible reduction of digestive disorders, such as GERD, also known as acid reflux.
Timeline of Gum in Modern Times | 3,554 |
people] sexualize me, saying I s---ed someone to get where I got. Ridiculous stuff that just goes over my head."
Lee has been branching out into newer game titles, stepping away from her beloved StarCraft. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the newest esport that has captured her enthusiasm. When DreamHack needed a host for one of their CS:GO events, they eventually asked Lee, who already had experience working with them.
"The way I describe my relationship with StarCraft and CS:GO is StarCraft is my first love. I will always love StarCraft, I will always love working StarCraft," she said, enthusiastically. "But CS:GO is new, exciting -- I guess the new game I'm 'dating' now."
Whether the game is chock-full of action or there's always a cool-looking frag, there seems to be no other word other than "exciting" that she can use to describe CS:GO. Being South Korean and American -- and again, being able to command both languages -- has offered Lee opportunities to carve out a space for herself in the realm of esports.
Lee's first love may be StarCraft, but she's branched out to other games, most notably Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Provided by Alex Maxwell/DreamHack
Lee admitted there were instances when she very much felt more American when interacting with the South Korean players. It's still a factor when she engages players on stage. Regarding the instances when players give seemingly blasé answers, Lee said, "I understand why they do it, even though the host in me is, like, 'Please give better answers!'"
Though Lee is transitioning away from a purely live-translating role into a more stage-present host, the South Korean aspect of her identity isn't at all forgotten.
After all, that's what propelled her into what she is now. "It was just a part of who I was that helped me get involved with esports somehow," she said.
She also believes luck has played a role in her career. "It's always humbling to work these events and see kind of the stories behind different players and teams that you meet," she said.
It's clear that Sue "Smix" Lee has no intention of slowing down, at least for the foreseeable future. "That's the coolest thing about hosting," she said. "You get this overarching view of all the players as they work their hardest to win. Working as a host provides that, like, really cool vantage point of just being able to witness that every time you work an event." | 3,555 |
were subtly putting things in and you can track them, and hopefully in 4B you’ll be able to help us solve this puzzle.
TVLINE | Since Aria won’t be in on Ezra’s secret immediately, what does this mean for them as a couple in 4B? Also, what does this mean for Jake?
Jake is returning, and it’ll be very complicated. We know he cares for her and she cares for him, and more than anything, he’s concerned for her welfare because when they met, she was under duress… So her duress escalates in 4B, and he wants desperately to protect her, but she won’t let him — because she’s got Ezra, right?! [Laughs]
RELATED | 2013 Cable TV Renewal Scorecard — Renewed or Cancelled TV Shows?
TVLINE | According to Mrs. Grunwald, Alison is alive. Was that meant to be a definitive reveal to the audience?
Not definitive, just a suggestion from someone who had dealings with her on that night…
TVLINE | Will the girls be on a mission to find Ali moving forward?
Yes…
TVLINE | What can you say about the identity of a second Red Coat?
That is indeed still an issue. People have come to the conclusion that there has to be more than one person; there has to be an ‘A’ team, ultimately. But we’re not saying that’s necessarily true either, it’s just a very valid theory.
TVLINE | Talk a little about what happens, once Caleb is in Ravenswood, to keep him there permanently.
At the end of the Halloween episode, there’s a twist that provides a compelling reason for Caleb to at least stay there temporarily to explore what the hell something is. It pertains to him; it’s not about Alison or Hanna.
TVLINE | What else can you tease about the Halloween special?
It’s really fun and it’s juicy. you’ll get more episodes regarding Mrs. Grunwald and Alison — some great answers. You’ll get some escalation of whether you suspect Ezra of being The Devious One! [Laughs] There’s a really good pursuit of Alison because the Liars have every reason to believe now that she’s still with us. If she’s going to be in this town on this holiday, they’re not leaving here until we find her. | 3,556 |
Asheville Next City That Has Voted To Go Beyond Coal
October 27th, 2013 by Nicholas Brown
On Tuesday, the city council of Asheville, North Carolina voted unanimously to shift the city from coal to clean energy. The vote was on a resolution to work with Duke Energy, the owner of a coal power plant in Asheville, to phase out the use of coal-fired power stations in the city.
Asheville’s coal power station is the most significant greenhouse gas emitter in the city. Also, a local riverkeeper discovered that coal ash containing toxic chemicals from the plant’s coal ash ponds leaked into the French Broad River and groundwater.
“Duke’s toxic coal ash problem is another reason why Asheville needs this plant phased out,” said Hartwell Carson, the French Broad Riverkeeper who discovered the coal ash contamination. “The only way to permanently address toxic coal ash waste is to stop burning coal, and the city’s resolution is the first step toward that goal here in Western North Carolina.”
According to Grist, Ian Somerhalder and Mary Anne Hitt commented publicly on the need to transition from coal to renewable energy, especially solar and wind. Ian’s comments included, but were not limited to: “Let’s double down on solar energy, let’s build wind turbines, let’s weatherize our homes.” He also pointed out that the fear that intensified storms and heat waves might be caused by climate change is the primary driving force behind climate change mitigation efforts.
Whether or not climate change was confirmed to cause these issues, would you want to wait and find out? I wouldn’t. Ian Somerhalder is thinking progressively, and realizes that prevention is better than cure. On top of that, climate change is only one of multiple issues caused by coal power plants.
This coal phaseout campaign was supported by the French Broad Riverkeeper, Western North Carolina Alliance, Ian Somerhalder, and, of course, the Asheville Beyond Coal Campaign.
Follow me on Twitter @Kompulsa
Appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, supporter, or ambassador — or a patron on Patreon.
Sign up for our free daily newsletter or weekly newsletter to never miss a story.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest Cleantech Talk Episode | 3,557 |
8,745,198 (23,007 ) 51,565,241 544,399 Interest Income 544,433 (36,163 ) 1,952,945 - Interest Expense (1,693,642 ) (369,037 ) (2,831,626 ) (432,448 ) Total Other Income (Expense) 7,595,989 (428,207 ) 50,686,560 111,951 Income (Loss) Before Provision for Income Taxes And Non-Controlling Interest (7,979,439 ) (2,712,830 ) 23,111,136 (4,150,756 ) Provision For Income Taxes 947,595 55,000 5,245,595 214,000 Net Income (Loss) Before Non-Controlling Interest (8,927,034 ) (2,767,830 ) 17,865,541 (4,364,756 ) Net Income (Loss) Attributable To Non-Controlling Interest (5,784,546 ) (370,625 ) 25,535,684 (622,042 ) Net Income (Loss) Attributable To Green Thumb Industries Inc. $ (3,142,488 ) $ (2,397,205 ) $ (7,670,143 ) $ (3,742,714 ) Net Income (Loss) per share - basic and diluted $ (0.02 ) $ (0.05 ) Weighted average number of shares outstanding - basic and diluted 154,111,314 148,318,518
Highlights from Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (Unaudited) (Amounts Expressed in United States Dollars) December 31, December 31, 2018 2017 Cash and cash equivalents $ 145,986,072 $ 29,565,497 Other current assets 41,302,968 10,224,339 Property and equipment, net 65,324,080 31,558,357 Intangible assets, net 92,992,831 14,161,995 Goodwill 29,324,360 188,260 Other long-term assets 41,165,427 1,458,833 Total assets $ 416,095,738 $ 87,157,281 Total current liabilities $ 17,960,802 $ 14,280,657 Notes payable, net of current portion 5,733,797 7,206,673 Other long-term liabilities 11,390,377 301,105 Total equity 381,010,762 65,368,846 Total liabilities and equity $ 416,095,738 $ 87,157,281
| 3,558 |
Report in the Lancet shows that children across the globe will hit the same milestones, as long as basic needs are met
Healthy children develop in remarkably similar ways, no matter where they live, according to a study that confounds prevailing beliefs on childhood development.
A report published in the Lancet found that early developmental milestones in a large number of children aged from 0-3 years, in four diverse countries – Argentina, India, South Africa and Turkey – were similar.
The study’s authors said that by using a universal tool for measuring child development for the first time, they managed to overcome a key barrier to addressing analytical difficulties in low- and middle-income countries – that of obtaining reliable data.
Previous research, which has shown that children attain different milestones across sex and cultures, did not pay enough attention to children’s health and its impact on development, researchers said.
Dr Roopa Srinivasan, a developmental paediatrician based in Mumbai, India, said researchers there “have often felt pressured to use what scarce resources we have to develop, customise and re-standardise existing ‘gold standard’ tools for use in our own settings, without which we are not taken seriously by bureaucrats or politicians”.
The report, which studied thousands of healthy children, said: “Our study advances the understanding of early childhood development by showing that many milestones in numerous domains are similarly attained across sexes and countries. We found that the attainment of almost all milestones is similar in the first year when environmental and cultural influences might have the smallest effect.”
The lack of standardised instruments that are culturally appropriate, affordable and simple enough to be used by community health workers has meant that data on child development is scarce, the authors said. Furthermore, low- and middle-income countries have sometimes been reluctant to invest in early childhood initiatives whose logic may be questioned and whose effectiveness they may not be able to measure.
Mineral deficiency exposes 19 million babies a year to brain damage risk Read more
The universal tool used by the study, the guide for monitoring childhood development, uses seven indicators: expressive language, receptive language, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, relating, play and self-help.
The research is part of a growing trend in low- and middle-income countries to focus on child development.
“With irrefutable evidence that children in low- and middle-income countries can be expected to develop optimally as long as basic needs for nutrition, safety and stimulation are met, policy makers and political leaders can now turn their attention to making it happen.” | 3,559 |
A revered D-Day veteran received a fitting salute after passing away last month.
The coffin carrying the remains of Major Jos Mark, 95, was driven to funeral services on the back of a World War II-era Jeep (which appears to be a Willys MB) in Carlisle, U.K., on Sunday. The vehicle was like the ones he drove as a member of the Royal Logistics Corps. The United States provided tens of thousands of the off-roaders to its ally to assist with the war effort.
Mark was the most decorated veteran in the British state of Cumbria, the News & Star reported. He became one of Britain’s “boy soldiers” at age 16, helping to install gun installations across London, including outside 10 Downing Street. Four years later he was on the second wave of the Normandy invasion, then spent the next two months with his brigade fighting to take a strategic hill in the city of Caen from the Germans.
GARY SENISE RAISED $1.3 MILLION FOR VETERANS AND FIRST RESPONDERS WITH AN OLD JEEP
He served across Europe during the war and was at the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, where he helped rescue a Polish woman named Erica who would become his wife the following year.
Mark retired after a posting in Borneo, but spent the rest of his life as a member of the Carlisle and Stanwix Branch of the Royal British Legion, which bestowed him with the title of honorary life president. Six members from the organization carried his Union Jack-draped coffin into St. Cuthbert's church, according to SWNS.
In his later years, Mark often visited the local Trinity School to teach the students about the sacrifices made by their countrymen during the war, and the school choir sang at his funeral.
THE WORLD'S OLDEST 'JEEP' ISN'T ONE
Mark told the News & Star "they always ask about the medals. They think they are chocolate and want to know where you can buy them. I say ‘You can’t just buy them, you have to earn them!”
The great-grandfather received the last of them in 2016, when he was awarded the Legion of Honor from France for his role in the successful Caen battle.
On the way to the cemetery, the Jeep drove past Carlisle Castle, where Mark passed the army entrance exam that set the course of his long, distinguished life.
MORE CLASSIC CAR NEWS FROM FOX NEWS AUTOS | 3,560 |
The bosses of pocket-sized Braaap Motorcycles have been accused of “rebirthing” motorcycles across Australia.
Rebirthing is usually associated with using a VIN number from a write-off on to a stolen bike, or creating a new motorcycle out of stolen parts. The vehicles are usually not roadworthy.
You can check if your motorcycle is rebirthed by going to the government’s Personal Properties Security Register site: https://www.ppsr.gov.au/. Note that the government REVS site no longer exists but there are several private sites with the same name and even with the PPSR name that will charge you a lot more than the government site for a VIN search.
Braaap GM Toby Wilkin and and Braaap founder Brad Smith, a former Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year, have been charged on various fraud charges involving non-compliant parts from Asia.
Police raided Braaap dealers in Tasmania where a punch stamp set, compliance labels, computers, and various documents were seized.
The police raids and charges follow a recent ACCC safety recall of about 200 Braaap bikes over the absence of stickers and stamps on the exhaust and other parts.
Toby referred to it at the time as a “glitch” in their internal auditing process.
“We’re fairly young in the industry as we’ve mainly done dirt bikes and only done road bikes for the past three years with a lot of growth,” he told Motorbike Writer.
“We’ve made a change in the checking and quality assurance and are now making sure everything is spot on.”
The charges follow a three-state police operation involving the sale of up to 85 rebirthed motorcycles across the nation.
Property crime squad Commander Detective Superintendent Murray Chapman alleges the rebirthing syndicate was “sophisticated and carefully-orchestrated”.
Both men were granted bail and will appear in court for the charges to be heard on August 18.
Brad says it is “business as usual” at the company.
In 2005, at the age of 17, Brad sourced factories in China to make bikes to his specifications.
He was named 2008 Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Tasmania’s Young Australian of the Year in 2010 while the company won the Australian Retailers Association’s Small Business of the Year four times.
Braaap experienced sales growth last year of 400%, including international markets. | 3,561 |
If you're staring at some shaky footage in post wishing that it could look a little better, it can -- in fact, it can look a lot better.
No, you don't necessarily need to purchase a pricey handheld gimbal to smooth out your shots. Robert Mcintosh and his partner, both former Light and Magic VFX pros, have created an After Effects plugin called ReelSteady that takes a new approach to video stabilization -- and their results are pretty damn magnificent.
Check out their demo video below. (The shot of the ferris wheel compares no stabilization, the Warp Stabilizer, and ReelSteady.)
Here are a couple of before and after videos, too:
ReelSteady was designed with the GoPro in mind, but it will actually work with any camera/lens combination -- and yes, that includes action cam wide angle lenses. They don't elaborate on the "new approach" they take in terms of stabilization, but whatever it is might be the reason why the examples they've shown thus far don't look warped -- but that's just speculation.
Features
Intuitive user interface
Fully integrated into Adobe After Effects
Advanced rolling shutter removal
Built in lens distortion correction
Adjustable smoothness value
Choose between static or dynamically animated cropped result
Set custom output resolution
Re-stabilize duration tool for refining problem areas
Use any of After Effects' built in masking tools to guide the stabilization
Save and load presets for all of your camera/lens combos
Presets for GoPro cameras included
For those who are big fans of the Warp Stabilizer, you might need a little bit more from ReelSteady to be convinced to shell out $399 for their plugin. First of all, the Warp Stabilizer comes standard in After Effects. Second, WS is a powerful stabilizer that is outfitted with plenty of professional tools that'll get you fantastic results. The rub? Warp Stabilizer can make your footage look -- warped.
So yes, ReelSteady footage looks absolutely amazing, but seeing some kind of comparison chart putting its features up against those of WS (as well as other plugins) would really help potential users feel a little better about parting with the large chunk of change they're asking for. However, you can't deny that, under the right conditions, ReelSteady can make your shaky footage look truly remarkable.
Check out ReelSteady's website to learn more. They've got a bunch of tutorials, too, to show you how everything works. | 3,562 |
Slovakia has adopted a law, which effectively prevents Islam from becoming an official state religion in the country amid surging anti-Muslim sentiments across Europe.
The legislation, which had been proposed by far-right Slovak National Party (SNS), held that a religion needs to have at least 50,000 members, up from 20,000, so it could be registered as official.
It earned support from two-thirds of the parliament, which blocked another proposal that any religion had to have 250,000 followers so it can be considered an official faith.
The party’s Chairman Andrej Danko said, “We must do everything we can so that no mosque is built in the future.”
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has said “Islam has no place” in the country.
Muslims forced out of German Christmas market
In Germany, Muslims, who had set up an information stand at a Chrismas market in the town of Rudesheim on the Rhine, were ordered to leave.
Locals had alerted the police, citing “security concerns” after members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which has some 40,000 supporters in the country, started to put up the booth.
Others had also complained that the move was not in keeping with the Christmas mood.
Judge takes issue with veil
Separately, a judge in New South Wales (NSW), Australia refused to hear a case from a Muslim woman unless she would remove her veil, saying failure to do so on the part of the plaintiff would obstruct justice.
Moutia Elzahed was attending a session held to address her complaint that she had been punched by the police in the face as the law enforcement agents were carrying out a raid against her house over “terrorism” suspicions.
The police had broken down the door to the residence, forcing Elzahed to cover herself with a blanket. They then tried to remove the blanket and threw the blow as she refused their efforts, she said.
NSW District Court Judge, Audrey Balla said the complainant had to remove the veil as it would prevent him from reading her expression.
Her counsel Clive Evatt explained, “I’m instructed that she’s of the Muslim religion and it’s against her religion to reveal her face to men, although not to women,” adding, “Therefore, I’m instructed she will not remove her veil, if that’s the correct expression, or whatever it is.” | 3,563 |
The Herschel Space Observatory has made a major finding -- a hole in space.
The space telescope, which was launched almost exactly a year ago by the European Space Agency, spotted a gaping hole in the clouds surrounding a batch of young stars. The dark spot, or hole in space, actually is a gap in a "nest" of gas and dust containing fledgling stars, according to NASA.
Herschel observatory's finding: A hole in space. Courtesy: NASA.
The hole is close to a triple star system called V38O Ori. NASA scientists said the hole appears to have been created when one of the three stars in the system launched a jet of radiation, creating a gap in the swirl of gas and dust that contains fledgling stars. They also theorize that jets and stellar radiation from other stars contributed to the gap.
"No one has ever seen a hole like this," said Tom Megeath of the University of Toledo, Ohio, in a written statement. "It's as surprising as knowing you have worms tunneling under your lawn, but finding one morning that they have created a huge, yawning pit." Megeath is the principal investigator of the research and works in conjunction with NASA.
Herschel is helping scientists study the formation of stars, which are born hidden in dense clouds of dust and gas.
And NASA noted yesterday that while researchers have seen jets and winds of gas streaming from young stars in the past, it has been a mystery exactly how a star uses the jets to blow away its surroundings and emerge from its birth cloud. For the first time, Herschel may be seeing an unexpected step in this process.
When scientists first spotted the hole, they thought it was a particularly dark cloud until Herschel delivered an infrared image of it, allowing them to see that it actually is a hole in the gas and dust surrounding the young stars.
NASA noted that the hole actually looks "truly empty."
Herschel, which carries the largest mirror ever launched into space, is designed to observe a mostly uncharted part of the electromagnetic spectrum to gain more information about the birth of stars and galaxies, along with dust clouds and planet-forming discs around stars. Herschel also will be looking for water, one of the key elements of life, in remote parts of the universe.
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed. Her e-mail address is [email protected]. | 3,564 |
Two gay men whose marriage was registered by Russian officials have fled the country after receiving death threats and having the electricity and internet reportedly cut off by plainclothes police who besieged their apartment in Moscow. Pavel Stotsko and Yevgeny Voitsekhovsky said they got married in Denmark earlier this month, after which they submitted their passports to a register’s office in Moscow, where a clerk put marriage stamps on the documents.
Although homosexuality is not illegal in Russia, gay marriage is. Stotsko said, however, that he had exploited a legal loophole, citing a law that means Russia recognises marriages registered abroad. He posted online photos of the stamps in the passports, a move that sparked widespread outrage. Vitaly Milonov, a Russian MP and the author of Russia’s law banning so-called gay propaganda, said the marriage stamps had no legal validity and likened the couple to “stinking goats”.
LGBT rights groups said homophobic attacks had rocketed in Russia since President Vladimir Putin approved the controversial law outlawing the promotion of a homosexual lifestyle to minors in 2013. Dozens of gay men were reportedly detained and tortured in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic in southern Russia, last year.
The interior ministry announced that the men’s passports would be annulled and that the clerk who stamped them would be dismissed. It also said that the couple would face a fine for defacing their passports – a charge the men have denied.
All Russians over 16 must by law possess internal passports that document their place of residence and marital status. They cannot be used for foreign travel.
Stotsko, a doctor, wrote on Facebook that he had received online threats from people vowing to “rip off his head”, while his mother had received anonymous telephone calls promising that she would lose her job if she did not convince him to retract his statement about the marriage stamps.
“Police blocked the exit from the apartment where the couple live, as well as prevented friends and acquaintances from coming to support them,” Russian LGBT Network, a gay rights group, said. It also said that police had told the couple they could not guarantee their safety, a statement that was interpreted by the organisation as a thinly veiled threat.
Igor Kochetov, a LGBT rights activist, told Russian independent media on Monday that Stotsko and Voitsekhovsky had given their internal passports to police on their lawyer’s advice and left the country. “They were in real danger,” he said.
The couple did not respond to a request for comment. | 3,565 |
HAVANA (AP) — Raul Castro stood shoulder-to-shoulder Sunday with Latin American countries willing to take in NSA leaker Edward Snowden, but made no reference to whether Cuba itself would offer him refuge or safe passage.
Venezuela and Bolivia both made asylum offers to Snowden over the weekend, and Nicaragua has said it is also considering his request.
"We support the sovereign right of.... Venezuela and all states in the region to grant asylum to those persecuted for their ideals or their struggles for democratic rights," Castro said in a speech to Cuba's national assembly.
The foreign media was not given access to the session, but the speech was broadcast on state-run television several hours after it took place.
Snowden has been out of sight in the transit area of Moscow's main airport since he suddenly appeared there on a plane from Hong Kong two weeks ago.
His simplest route to Latin America would be on one of five direct flights that Russian carrier Aeroflot operates to Havana each week. However those flights normally pass through U.S. airspace, raising the possibility they could be intercepted.
It is also not clear, despite Castro's speech, whether Cuba wants to risk torpedoing mildly improved relations with the United States by letting Snowden transit through the island.
Snowden had been booked on an Aeroflot flight two weeks ago, but did not board the plane.
Castro also voiced support for Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose presidential plane was diverted to Austria recently after taking off from Moscow.
Morales has accused the United States of pressuring European governments to deny his plane permission to enter their airspace amid suspicions that Snowden might have been onboard.
Castro said the case "shows that we live in a world in which the powerful think they can violate international law, endanger the sovereignty of states and trample the rights of citizens."
In his speech, the 82-year-old Cuban leader said his country was aware of the kind of secretive NSA programs Snowden revealed. He said that as a longtime enemy of Washington, the Caribbean nation has been "one of the most harassed and spied-upon nations on the planet."
Story continues
The Cuban leader also brought up the case of Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro militant wanted in both Venezuela and Cuba for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane that killed 73.
Posada Carriles has been living in the United States since 2005. Multiple legal efforts to deport him have failed.
___
Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi | 3,566 |
With these moves, the United States may be hoping to protect the interests of American tech companies, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong about the threat of Chinese spying. That’s real, and laid out in the open: Just look at China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law.
The N.I.L. is no standard security and spying legislation, concerned principally with preventing the leak of state secrets. Its main thrust isn’t protective; it’s proactive. “All organizations and citizens shall support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence efforts according to the Law,” it says. (I know of no official English version; this is my translation, based partly on several others.) Another provision is even more explicit: The state institutions tasked with enforcing the N.I.L. — which also oversee all intelligence and espionage activities, civilian and military — “may demand that relevant organs, organizations and citizens provide necessary support, assistance and cooperation.” Spying for the state is a duty of the citizens and corporations of China under the law, much like paying taxes.
The N.I.L. offers enticements for compliance: “The state gives commendations and rewards to individuals and organizations that make major contributions to national intelligence efforts.” In its January indictment against Huawei, the United States claims that the company systematically gives bonuses to employees who pilfer intellectual property from foreign companies.
The N.I.L. leaves little room for opting out. “Obstructing the work” of China’s intelligence institutions is punishable and may be a criminal offense. Those institutions are entitled to “have priority use of, or can lawfully requisition the transportation or communications tools, premises and buildings of state organs, organizations or individuals” — and “when necessary,” set up “relevant work sites and equipment within them.” In other words, installing a back door in Huawei hardware to collect foreign intelligence would have a firm basis under Chinese law.
During an interview with CBS last month, Ren Zhengfei, the founder and chief executive officer of Huawei, was asked if he had “ever given any information to the Chinese government, in any way, shape or form?” Mr. Ren — who is also Ms. Meng’s father, as well as a veteran C.C.P. member and a former officer of the People’s Liberation Army — answered: “For the past 30 years, we have never done that, and the next 30 years to come, we will never do that.” | 3,567 |
Story:Furious Growth and Cost Cuts Led To BP Accidents Past and Present
In a speech today, BP CEO Robert Dudley warned London's business leaders that an upcoming report and documentary from ProPublica and PBS FRONTLINE would paint an unflattering picture of the company’s safety record. He defended BP’s record on safety but said the company would continue to work to improve.
Speaking at an annual British business conference, Dudley said:
“The company had changed very significantly after the events of Texas City in 2005. So I do not believe that BP is an unsafe company. There will be some documentaries run, I think tomorrow night in the US, that paints that picture of the company.”
ProPublica and PBS FRONTLINE having been working since June on a documentary about BP’s safety record that will air on most PBS stations at 9 p.m. Tuesday. (Check local listings). ProPublica will also publish an investigation detailing the company’s missteps and one EPA attorney’s decade-long effort to force BP to improve its operations and comply with federal law.
In response to a question after his speech, Dudley said that BP will focus more on safety, in part because of public perception and pressure to do so.
“What I will say is, we have no choice. We need to do everything we can to avoid any kind of industrial event like this so we’re just going to move to yet another higher standard on this to make sure we have additional checks and balances. People say ‘You’re going to ruin the performance of the business’ but right now I think we just need to make sure we understand the risks completely through our business and put in place an organization that will provide yet another system of checks and balances. […] Everyone’s very serious about this, I don’t think this is going to be a difficult thing to further embed in the organization.”
Since those comments weren’t part of Dudley’s prepared remarks, they don’t appear in the version posted on BP’s website.
Three days before his speech in London, Dudley declined to testify before a House committee that is investigating the BP explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
“As I am sure you can imagine,” he wrote to the committee, “I have an enormous amount of work to do transitioning into this role and am very focused on ensuring the right decisions are made for the future of the company and the safety of our workforce.” | 3,568 |
is a way to help me deal with my anxiety and stress," she said.
According to Womer, his daughter radiates in the alligator pen, and he believes working with the gators helps give her an identity.
Said Fishbough: "Even when you have problems and you feel like you're not good at anything, you might be good at (hanging with) alligators."
10 alligator facts worth learning Alligators are fascinating creatures. Here are 10 facts that you might not have known about the large reptiles.
Watching the Gator Crusader videos, I admit I've become a fan — I hold my breath and can't believe some of these death-defying stunts. Womer's hugely entertaining to watch, too.
You won't find me swimming with gators or hanging out with them in my living room, but I understand and respect what the creatures mean to Womer and Fishbough.
Fishbough envisions becoming more involved in "the family business," but probably will never be as sensationalist as her dad.
Womer, though, makes no apologies. And, of course, the crazier the stunt, the more people see it.
"I feel like if I'm a good enough entertainer, I don't need to ask for money, which is another reason why I do the sensational thing. If I just sat in front of the screen to tell you about an alligator's third eyelid," that would be boring, he said.
"I know all the scientific stuff about gators, and I could give you a three-hour dissertation, but that's no fun."
Sangalang is a digital producer at FLORIDA TODAY.
Contact Sangalang at 321-242-3630
or [email protected].
Twitter: @byjensangalang
Facebook: /jennifer.sangalang3
Instagram: @byjensangalang
YouTube: /jennifersangalang
Support local journalism: To sign up for a special subscription offer that meets your needs, visit floridatoday.com/subscribe
What's the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? South Florida is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live alongside each other.
Watch it: How to stay safe around alligators Warmer spring weather means #alligators are more active. Here are tips from @MyFWC about how to stay safe. | 3,569 |
Bitcoin Cash ABC Is Winning the War
The Bitcoin Cash war has been brutal to both Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV, as well as the cryptocurrency market as a whole (or so some people are speculating).
Bitcoin has lost over 20% of its value from before last week’s Bitcoin Cash hard fork, and both BCHABC and BCHSV miners have lost millions of dollars in gross revenue due to the high cost of mining and low price of BCH. The war has not been pleasant for anyone.
However, it’s been a week since the fork, and BCHABC appears to be winning the hash rate war by mining more blocks and having a longer chain than that of BCHSV. As well, BCHABC appears to be winning the support of influential community members and cryptocurrency enthusiasts alike.
As we all know, Roger Ver and his massive following support BCHABC, but other influential people do as well. John McAfee, the infamous crypto influencer and cyber security expert, declared his unending support for cofounder of Bitmain Jihan Wu, which is the largest mining pool supporting BCHABC.
Those who stand against Jihan Wu are a idiots who don't see the realities of the playing field. Please, get real. I will not let my ego destroy me by making me think I could challenge the only real power in this space. My email to him should make it clear to anyone where I stand. pic.twitter.com/WJBJyzaEAy — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) November 15, 2018
In addition to winning over influential individuals and crypto enthusiasts, BCHABC is also winning over exchanges. A wide array of big exchanges have already unlocked Bitcoin Cash accounts and transitioned tokens into BCHABC. Some exchanges have even maintained the same BCH name for BCHABC tokens.
CoinMarketCap has listed BCHABC as BCH, making it the 4th-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. At the time of writing, BCHABC or BCH (the official name to be used is still unclear) is trading at $208. On the other hand, BCHSV is trading at $51 and continues to lose value on a daily basis.
Therefore, it is becoming clearer who the winner is, and we will soon be able to put all of this Bitcoin Cash drama behind us. After all, there’s a bright future out there in terms of building and development, and there are far more important things to focus on than the negative and destructive implications of a war. | 3,570 |
Boko Haram crisis: Dozens killed in villages near Chibok Published duration 22 June 2014
image copyright AFP image caption Boko Haram wants to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria
Dozens of villagers are feared dead after attacks by suspected Boko Haram Islamist militants in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state.
The raids on Saturday morning were close to Chibok, from where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted in April.
Villagers said Boko Haram fighters spent six hours on a shooting spree, chasing fleeing residents into the bush and torching homes.
Boko Haram wants to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
The latest attacks by the group appear to have centred on two villages - Kwarangilam and Koronginim.
Residents described how attackers wearing military uniforms arrived in sports utility vehicles and on motorbikes shouting "Allahu Akbar" and shooting everyone in sight.
Many were gunned down as they tried to hide in the bush.
Witnesses also described seeing Nigerian air force planes and soldiers taking part in a counter-offensive.
The bodies of Boko Haram fighters were also reported to have been found outside Kwarangilam along with burned-out vehicles.
Remote areas at risk
Hundreds of villagers have been killed in northern Nigeria in Boko Haram attacks in recent months.
In one attack near the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, at the beginning of June, 45 people were killed.
The attackers told villagers they had come to preach before firing on a crowd that gathered, survivors said.
Militants have frequently targeted remote areas since emergency rule was imposed a year ago in the north-east.
Nigeria's government has been facing growing pressure both at home and abroad to do more to tackle Boko Haram since the militants' kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls.
The BBC's Will Ross in Lagos says that civilians who have formed vigilante groups are calling on the government to arm them with better guns so they can be more effective against the group.
Who are Boko Haram?
image copyright AFP image caption Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has been designated a terrorist by the US government
Founded in 2002
Initially focused on opposing Western education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
Launched military operations in 2009 to create Islamic state
Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria - also attacked police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja
Some three million people affected
Declared terrorist group by US in 2013 | 3,571 |
A convicted child abuser has been charged with murder in the death of a 9-year-old girl whose body was found in a duffel bag on a Hacienda Heights trail a week ago, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Emiel Hunt, 38, was arrested Saturday in San Diego and is accused of killing Trinity Love Jones on or about March 1, according to the criminal complaint. The girl’s mother, Taquesta Graham, was also taken into custody over the weekend, but no charges have been filed against her. Court records show she has a prior conviction for involvement with a minor in prostitution.
Relatives identified Hunt as Graham’s boyfriend.
The girl’s body was discovered on an equestrian trail March 5. She was identified over the weekend after a public appeal by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators led to clues that revealed her identity and linked her to Hunt.
Hunt made a brief appearance in a Pomona courtroom Tuesday on the murder charge but did not enter a plea. Many of the girl’s relatives crowded the courtroom. Hunt said nothing, but a spectator in the court yelled: “You’ll get yours.” Hunt is due back in court April 16.
The girl’s remains were found inside the large bag with her head and part of her body protruding. The duffel bag had been abandoned in light brush a short distance from the Pomona Freeway.
Court records show Hunt was convicted of felony child abuse in San Diego County in 2005 and sentenced to 12 years in state prison. The two felony counts carried an allegation of great bodily injury. A co-defendant Patecia Frazier pleaded guilty to child abuse and was sentenced to five years of probation and 180 days in custody.
In an interview, Antonio Jones, the girl’s father, identified Hunt as Graham’s boyfriend on a sheriff’s website and on social media accounts. “You killed my daughter,” Jones yelled as he cried in court Tuesday.
Barbara Jones, Trinity’s grandmother, said family members were told that detectives think Hunt is responsible for the girl’s death.
“We are filled with rage at this monster,” she said, asking how a man with such a criminal history was allowed near her grandchild. “I want to do to him what he did to her.”
The family of Trinity’s father said anyone responsible for putting her in danger should also be held accountable.
If convicted, Hunt faces up to life in prison. | 3,572 |
�He had the idea that if you laid a tape transfer at the moment of a full moon, the oxide molecules would align,” remembers Zummo. “So we would work all night during a full moon. Our personal inner selves would become unmasked – things would happen.”
Arthur Russell – Lucky Cloud
Russell’s adventures in New York’s debauched gay club scene caught up with him (“these clubs were dens of iniquity, the Grindrs of their day,” remembers Blank) and he contracted HIV, eventually dying of an Aids-related illness in 1992. In his latter years, he retreated to a home studio, but would still perform live even as his illness worsened. “I did a concert with him, at around the time he went into hospital,” remembers Zummo. “He lay on pillows on the floor; we really couldn’t get the music together. I was criticised for doing that, but I had thought, well, he’s alive and he wants to play.”
“I saw him in hospital the night before he died,” Niblock says, “and it was probably the most gruesome experience of my entire life. He was extremely bloated and he couldn’t speak; I wasn’t aware if he knew who I even was.”
His last solo recorded statement before his illness was World of Echo, which seems to eerily preempt his diminishment. It was recorded in part from the soundtrack of an experimental video piece Niblock made of Russell performing, and features new, spectral versions of previously robust songs such as Wax the Van and Let’s Go Swimming. Devoid of percussion, his vocals and cello bounce around the listener as if in an empty cave.
For all his musical brilliance, Ahmed ultimately credits Russell for enlightening him socially. “To black guys growing up in the projects in the Bronx, being gay means being effeminate. Arthur was soft and sensitive, but not effeminate – it was a part of a learning process for me. Charles Arthur Russell was a car,” he says, spelling out his initials, “who took all of us from one place to another.”
For each entry in this series, we’ll also feature these tracks in a longer primer playlist on Spotify, that introduces some of the artist’s greatest songs – here are 20 of Russell’s best.
Event Horizon by the Necessaries is out now on Be With Records | 3,573 |
Charlie Sheen is facing a massive backlash after he took to social media to pray Donald Trump would be the next celebrity to die.
His tweet, which read, 'Dear God; Trump next, please! Trump next, please! Trump next, please! Trump next, please! Trump next, please! Trump next, please!,' was shared just hours after it was announced Debbie Reynolds had died.
The post caused fury among those mourning the actress, with users calling him a'scumbag and a 'useless cockroach'.
Charlie Sheen attends the Snow Queen Cigar Smoker of the Year awards at Boisdale of Canary Wharf on December 12, 2016 in London, England
President-elect Donald Trump - the man Charlie Sheen wants to see die next - speaks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday
One Twitter user said: 'A total scumbag wishing someone dead on Twitter.
'Your contribution to humanity is what, exactly, Charlie Sheen.
'Useless cockroach living off daddy.'
Another simply pointed out that the 51-year-old actor 'has no chill' while others took a more drastic stance urging police to arrest Sheen and some even returned his death wish, saying he is the celebrity that should die next.
One woman pondered how much of a backlash there would have been had Sheen wished death upon Barack Obama rather than the President-elect.
The tweet was posted an hour after news began to circulate about the death of much-loved Hollywood actress Debbie Reynolds.
Charlie Sheen's tweet came as the world was reacting to the death of Debbie Reynolds (pictured)
Debbie Reynolds, pictured in 2011, died on Wednesday after falling ill planning her daughter's funeral
She died on Wednesday a day after the death of her daughter, telling family before a suspected stroke: 'I want to be with Carrie'.
The 84-year-old was rushed from her son Todd's Beverly Hills home at around 1pm after falling ill while planning her daughter's funeral.
She died in hospital hours later.
Todd Fisher revealed on Wednesday evening how his mother had been shattered with grief since his sister's death the previous day.
On the morning of her death, she told him: 'I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie,' according to TMZ.
Carrie Fisher, 60, died on Tuesday from complications which stemmed from a heart attack she suffered on Christmas Eve while flying to Los Angeles from London.
Sheen was accused by Craig Brittain of using the tragedy to attack the Republican.
| 3,574 |
Stratolaunch's rocket carrier plane, the largest aircraft ever built, takes off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California during its first test flight on April 13, 2019.
The company that operates the world's largest airplane has a new owner — but we don't know who it is.
Stratolaunch Systems, the satellite-launching venture established by billionaire Microsoft co-founder and longtime space enthusiast Paul Allen in 2011, has changed hands, the company announced earlier this month.
"Stratolaunch LLC has transitioned ownership and is continuing regular operations," Stratolaunch representatives wrote in an Oct. 11 statement. That statement did not identify the new owner, and we remain in the dark today.
Related: Stratolaunch Test Photos: The World's Largest Plane in Action
California-based company Scaled Composites built for Stratolaunch a huge plane with a 385-foot (117 meters) wingspan. This dual-fuselage aircraft, known as Roc, is designed to carry a satellite-toting rocket high in the sky. After being dropped at altitude, the rocket will fire up, carrying its payload to space.
This air-launch strategy is not new; it's currently employed by Northrop Grumman's Pegasus rockets and Virgin Galactic's six-passenger SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, for example.
Stratolaunch had been owned by Allen's holding company, Vulcan. But after Allen died in October 2018, his sister Jody — the co-founder and chair of Vulcan, and the executor and trustee of her brother's estate — decided to set an exit strategy, Reuters reported earlier this year.
Stratolaunch soon scaled back its operations significantly and laid off a large portion of its workforce, Geekwire reported. And in June, CNBC reported that Vulcan was seeking to sell Roc, for $400 million.
Roc has just one flight under its belt, a 2.5-hour-long test jaunt that took place this past April over California's Mojave Desert. It's unclear when the huge plane will lift off again; we'll just have to wait for more news.
"Our near-term launch vehicle development strategy focuses on providing customizable, reusable, and affordable rocket-powered testbed vehicles and associated flight services," Vulcan representatives added in the Oct. 11 statement. "As we continue on our mission, Stratolaunch will bring the carrier aircraft test and operations program fully in-house. We thank Vulcan Inc and Scaled Composites for turning an ambitious idea into a flight-proven aircraft." | 3,575 |
-day anti-Semitism. The old Judeophobia is projected onto the Jewish state.
Here lies the critical point where European official policy should intervene. Tirades of hate against the Jewish state are found not on the margins but in the center of Western society. Rancor against Israel feeds the dissemination of present-day anti-Semitism more than any other factor.
Consider the common cliché, long ago debunked as fiction and yet still repeated like a mantra: “Every critique of Israeli policy is equated with anti-Semitism.” This is an absurdity. There are clear criteria in the research on anti-Semitism distinguishing between “critique of Israel” and “Israel-directed Jew-hatred.” There are no grey zones in anti-Semitism.
Nevertheless, the anti-Semitic yardstick referring to the condemnation of Israel is still not clearly perceived as a new pattern of Jew-hatred. This must happen if Europeans are to confront the continent’s increasing level of Judeophobia. Anyone who denies the anti-Semitism of hashtags like #DeathtoIsrael or calls to boycott the Jewish state is blind.
When political spokespeople (rightly) criticize the new German right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland because of its refusal to confront the frequent anti-Semitic utterances of its supporters, but at the same time overlook (or even applaud) when Mahmoud Abbas spouts well-known Judeophobic stereotypes in the Parliament of the EU; or when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rages against Israel with surreal accusations; or when Jeremy Corbyn defames the Jewish state as an unjust colonial creation – then these officials have a serious credibility problem. It is not enough to criticize low-level neo-Nazis, Islamists, or BDS activists. Anyone who seriously wants to address the problem should look to the stage of international politics and step in forcefully.
Anyone who shrugs off anti-Semitic raging has not yet grasped that hate speech is a form of mental violence that contains the potential for physical violence. In the end, mental arson turns into physical arson.
The fight against anti-Semitism on the international level continues to be characterized by restraint combined with ignorance. Both are deadly – first for Jews, later for democracy.
View PDF
Monika Schwarz-Friesel is a cognitive scientist and anti-Semitism researcher at the Technical University of Berlin. Together with Jehuda Reinharz she published Inside the Antisemitic Mind: The Language of Jew-Hatred in Contemporary Germany (2017). A German version of this essay appeared recently in the Jewish-German weekly Jüdische Algemeine. | 3,576 |
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang dismissed as a mere “political propaganda” the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that only two in 10 Filipinos believe that China has good intentions for the Philippines.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said “the President’s ardent critics and detractors have become desperate in employing its anti-China card against the Duterte administration.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“After two unsuccessful attempts in creating fear and hatred against the policies of the administration with regard to our foreign relations through first, the China debt trap scare tactics, which have been competently fended off by our economic managers in the case of the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project Loan Agreement, and second, the International Criminal Court challenge against China waged by former Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, now comes another political propaganda purportedly saying that 44% – which is not actually a figure representing a majority – disagree that the Chinese government has good intentions for the Filipino people,” Panelo said in a statement.
Results of the survey, conducted from December 16 to 19 but released only on Saturday, showed that 44 percent disagreed with the statement “most of what the Chinese government wants to happen in the Philippines is good for the Filipinos” while 27 percent agreed.
READ: 44% of Pinoys doubt China’s intentions for PH
Panelo cited figures of the same survey that while 27% of adult Filipino respondents believe that most of what the Chinese government wants to happen in the Philippines is good for the Filipinos, “we also understand that there is a higher percentage, 29%, who remain undecided about the matter.”
“We are seeing that there would be a change of hearts and minds from those undecided and even those who disagree – whom we believe are used to the United States as our long-standing ally – once our enhanced ties with China start to yield positive economic results,” he said.
“The public must be informed on the need to expand our relations outside our traditional allies, such as the United States and Japan, so they would have a deeper understanding and better appreciation of why President Duterte has charted a path of broader diplomatic relations with the international community.”
“With such mindset, they will realize that all these policies of the Administration are intended not for any foreign race or nationality but for the sole benefit of the Filipino people,” he also said. /kga
ADVERTISEMENT
Read Next
EDITORS' PICK
MOST READ | 3,577 |
Here they are…
Via New York Post.
As I wrote yesterday… ODDS ARE Boston Bomber Is Either Islamic Extremist or Left-Wing Terrorist
Pat D. found the suspects in a large crowd shot near the finish line.
Here’s another shot of the suspects from a previous post.
And, Pat D. sent this crowd shot with the two suspects.
TRENDING: FOX News Panel Melts Down After Newt Gingrich Correctly Calls Out Lawless Soros-Funded District Attorneys (VIDEO)
The New York Post reported:
Investigators probing the deadly Boston Marathon bombings are circulating photos of two men spotted chatting near the packed finish line, The Post has learned. In the photos being distributed by law-enforcement officials among themselves, one of the men is carrying a blue duffel bag. The other is wearing a black backpack in the first photo, taken at 10:53 a.m., but it is not visible in the second, taken at 12:30 p.m. “The attached photos are being circulated in an attempt to identify the individuals highlighted therein,” said an e-mail obtained by The Post. “Feel free to pass this around to any of your fellow agents elsewhere.”
The man in blue still has the bag over his shoulder in the crowd later, but the black backpack the man in the cap was wearing is no longer visible. (NY Post)
Here’s another shot of the suspects before the blast.
UPDATE: Reddit says these two men may not be the suspects.
UPDATE: The Daily Mail says one suspect has been identified.
A suspect in the Boston bombings has been caught on CCTV apparently planting the second of the two explosives in what investigators have hailed as a major breakthrough in the case. Video obtained by the FBI shows the suspect placing a bag near the Lord and Taylor department store while talking on a cellphone moments before the twin blasts ripped though the city centre, killing three and injuring more than 180. The unidentified man is also captured using his phone at the moment the first explosion detonated 100 yards away on Boylston Street on Monday and 12 seconds before the second blast close to where he is standing. He was wearing a black jacket, a grey hooded sweatshirt, is about 6ft or 6ft 2ins tall and of a medium build. He had a white or off-color-white baseball cap on backwards.
UPDATE: Infowars has a collection of photos of possible suspects.
UPDATE: The two suspects pictured above were cleared by police. | 3,578 |
B's Announce 2013-14 Preseason Schedule by Staff Writer / Boston Bruins
BOSTON, MA – The Boston Bruins announced today, July 16, the club’s official seven-game preseason schedule, along with other critical dates, including the start of Rookie Camp on Tuesday, September 3, and the opening of Training Camp on Wednesday, September 11. The club will release more details including, camp information, media availability, rosters and the full practice schedule as the preseason draws closer. Please note that the schedule is subject to change.
BOSTON BRUINS PRESEASON SCHEDULE: Tuesday, September 3 (Wilmington, MA).
-Rookie Camp Opens (Ristuccia Arena, Wilmington, MA)
-Friday, September 6 (Coral Springs, FL)
-Rookie tournament
-Saturday, September 7 (Coral Springs, FL)
-Rookie tournament
-Sunday, September 8 (Coral Springs, FL)
-Rookie tournament
Wednesday, September 11 (Wilmington, MA)
-Training Camp opens (Ristuccia Arena, Wilmington, MA)
Monday, September 16 (Montreal, QC)
-Boston Bruins at Montreal Canadiens (Bell Centre, Montreal, QC, 7:00 p.m. ET)
Tuesday, September 17 (Baltimore, MD)
-Boston Bruins at Washington Capitals (1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, MD, 7:00 p.m. ET)
Thursday, September 19 (Boston, MA)
-Boston Bruins vs. Detroit Red Wings (TD Garden, Boston, MA 7:00 p.m. ET)
Saturday, September 21 (Detroit, MI)
-Boston Bruins at Detroit Red Wings (Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI 7:00 p.m. ET)
Monday, September 23 (Boston, MA)
-Boston Bruins vs. Washington Capitals (TD Garden, Boston, MA 7:00 p.m. ET)
Thursday, September 26 (Winnipeg, MB)
-Boston Bruins at Winnipeg Jets (MTS Center, Winnipeg, MB 6:30 p.m. CT, 7:30 p.m. ET)
Friday, September 27 (Saskatoon, SK)
-Boston Bruins vs. Winnipeg Jets in Saskatoon (Credit Union Centre, Saskatoon, SK 8:00 p.m. CT, 9:00 p.m. ET)
View Less | 3,579 |
Article content continued
“The global population is rapidly rising and we have a growing proportion of meat eaters and the way the livestock industry deals with that demand is intensive farming practices.”
This is prompting the need for another source of protein — conceived in labs through the cultivation of animal cells.
Initially, Anderson-Baron didn’t know where to start because there was little work being done in Canada. He formed a relationship with U.S.-based New Harvest, a group that supports research in this field, and received a small grant to try and make a leap on his own.
This isn’t a war against the livestock industry, Anderson-Baron said, noting they are very aware Alberta is the “beef capital.”
“We’re not enemies with the livestock industry, it’s not meant to be like that,” he said. “It’s meant to supplement the supply and I think ultimately will relieve some of the need for those more intense farming practices.”
Very early in the process, Anderson-Baron said a major challenge will be funding the current massive costs of production. Growing the animal cells in culture to allow them to grow and divide requires a nutrient supplement, commonly fetal calf serum, which costs about $1,000 per litre.
But the other major obstacle for the industry overall will be consumer acceptance of the new food products. Even Anderson-Baron’s mother said she supports her son, but doesn’t see herself trying cultured meat anytime soon.
“There’s a little more emotion and culture attached to food, so getting people to accept it and realize that it really is the same thing is going to be a challenge,” he said. “It all comes down to taste and price … and I do think cultured meat will get there.”
Having just hired another biologist, the short-term goal for the company is to explore different avenues for funding to continue its research.
“At this point, it’s a bit of a hard sell because we don’t have a product ready to go, so in terms of investors it’s tricky. How do you tell them how this is going to work?” he said.
If the dollars are there, Anderson-Baron said Future Fields hopes to have its first chicken product on the market within five years and continue to grow from there.
[email protected]
twitter.com/dustin_cook3 | 3,580 |
this and I went into it in some depth. All the incentives are toward less medical care, because …” President Nixon: [Unclear.] Ehrlichman: “… the less care they give them, the more money they make.” President Nixon: “Fine.” [Unclear.] Ehrlichman: [Unclear] “… and the incentives run the right way.” President Nixon: “Not bad.”
Kaiser Permanente contended that this was a crude and inarticulate paraphrase of what Edgar Kaiser was trying to explain to Ehrlichman, and that Nixon’s later statements to Congress about the act made it clear what the two men were attempting to explain. The issue was that doctors needed to be incentivized to provide preventative medicine to reduce overall healthcare costs, but the rate-based, for-profit insurance model currently in play did not provide incentives for this less profitable area of healthcare, unlike HMOs:
Despite Ehrlichman’s miscommunication, Nixon eventually grasped the Kaiser Permanente model of integrated, preventive health care. In a communication to Congress about his Health Strategy Initiative on Feb. 18, 1971, Nixon called “health maintenance” an important part of “a new national health strategy.” He continued: “If more of our resources were invested in preventing sickness and accidents,” Nixon said, “fewer would have to be spent on costly cures. If we gave more attention to treating illness in its early stages, then we would be less troubled by acute disease. In short, we should build a true ‘health’ system—and not a ‘sickness’ system alone. “… Under traditional systems, doctors and hospitals are paid, in effect, on a piecework basis. The more illnesses they treat, and the more service they render, the more their income rises. This does not mean, of course, that they do any less than their very best to make people well. But it does mean that there is no economic incentive for them to concentrate on keeping people healthy.”
All told, little factual basis supports the meme’s assertion that Nixon altered the legality of for-profit insurance by signing the HMO Act of 1973, or its claims that the act was a secret method for Nixon and his cronies to enrich themselves. The only sliver of truth here is the fact that the increase in popularity of HMOs that occurred after passage of the act (and its amendments) greatly expanded for-profit health care in America. | 3,581 |
There has been an update with many new features. Please read here to see what’s new.
Also, since this tutorial, there’s a new Twitter API, so the process for sending the tweet has changed. Please read here to see the process.
Tweet A Sound is a desktop application that uses Twitter as a platform for sharing sonic tweets. Pushing the idea of “social sound design”, Tweet A Sound allows you to design a sound and share it in a community of like-minded folks. It is an opportunity for fun interaction with sound.
Here is an introductory video showing you how to get started with Tweet A Sound. But remember you don’t need to know sound to do this, half the fun is tweaking the settings without knowing what they do! Just tweak and tweet!
Tweet A Sound: getting started tutorial from Andrew Spitz on Vimeo.
Tweet A Sound has been built in Max/MSP. You do not need Max/MSP to run it, but for now you do need to be on Mac OS. I hope to have a Windows version out soon.
The sound engine is based on FM Synthesis and has a waveshaper, a delay, feedback and a flanger. You can get a ton of interesting sounds out of these.
The basics for making your tweet
In “Monitoring”, choose your audio driver.
Switch on the audio (it should be on from opening).
Design your sound.
Log in and send your tweet. For peace of mind, you will see the sent results. If for some reason you can’t send your tweet directly from Tweet A Sound, you can hit “copy tweet” and copy it to Twitter yourself.
The basics for receiving a tweet
In Twitter, either search for #tas (easy to remember, it’s the acronym for Tweet A Sound) or just get them through the people you’re following.
Copy the tweet.
Paste it into the receive text box of Tweet A Sound.
Press the button and hear the sound.
For bug reports, questions, ideas, or suggestions, you can reach me at andrew [at] soundplusdesign [dot] com
Can’t wait to hear your tweets! Follow me on Twitter
If anybody is into designing icons, I would really appreciate a new take on the current one. It’s my first attempt at designing an icon and it’s very far from ideal. | 3,582 |
smartphone. Find a comfortable spot where you will get no disturbance for 15 minutes. Put on the earphones or headphones and start listening to them one by one. However, from the next day, start your routine and listen Track 1 for seven days before switching to the next one.
The main objective of these tracks is to communicate with your Editor (subconscious mind) and reprogram it. These tracks work best if you listen to it with a positive mindset, free from any distraction.
Note: Always use earphones or headphone, instead of speakers.
Who Should Try This Program?
I feel this program is suitable for everyone who wants to get rid of negative thoughts and want to live stress-free. This program can work for anyone if the person has just 15 minutes a day.
If you are interested in trying this program, then you have to arrange these 15 minutes in which you get no disturbance. It doesn’t matter what time of the day suits you as long as you get 15 minutes of free time with zero disturbance. It is recommended to avoid hearing these audio tracks while driving or using machinery.
If you want to make this program work for you then you need two crucial things that are:
Strong belief on the program
Strong faith in your ability
It doesn’t matter whatever self-development program you choose; these two things are necessary from your side.
Final Verdict:
Before creating this 15 Minute Manifestation review, I tested these audio tracks myself for 30 days. Within this period, I feel lighter, and I landed a new job with a higher salary. I don’t know it is because of this program or my late-night prayers, but YES change does happen.
There are many scientific studies on theta frequency and the human brain. You can read them if you have any doubts if these frequencies really work or not.
If you want to eliminate your negative thoughts or the fear of taking the new opportunity then get the copy of 15 Minute Manifestation program.
It is pretty useless to spend hundreds of dollars on life coach or buying tickets of motivational speech because all these are quick fixes. You will remain fully charged when you left the room, but this motivation disappears after a day or two.
You need something that can remain with you and keep you motivated for your goals, and it is only possible if your subconscious mind is rewired to accept positive changes. Fortunately, this is possible.
I Hope You Find This 15 Minute Manifestation Review Helpful, Get Your Copy NOW And Start A New & Positive Beginning In Your Life! | 3,583 |
A rule-bending Brooklyn judge has injected needless courtroom drama into a seemingly open-and-shut case involving a man arrested for repeatedly raping a 9-year-old girl — by personally interviewing a potential trial witness with no lawyers around.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice ShawnDya Simpson secretly spoke with a guidance counselor expected to testify in the upcoming trial of Francisco Castro Rosas without the presence of prosecutors or a defense attorney.
Rosas did not deny having sex with the girl and instead told cops the 9-year-old took advantage of him and initiated all sexual encounters.
According to the Administrative Rules of the Unified Court System, “A judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers concerning a pending or impending proceeding.”
“Judges have professional and ethical obligations and are bound by rules, like not doing private interviews with witnesses,” an affronted law enforcement source said in reaction to the incident, which all occurred off the record.
“It’s a shame Judge Simpson didn’t get that memo.”
Assistant District Attorney Frank DeGaetano asked Simpson to step aside Friday and transfer the case to another judge, saying it was now possible that Simpson herself could become a witness due to her puzzling interference.
“We are in the position now where the court has had an extrajudicial conversation with a witness in the case,” the prosecutor said, adding it could affect the ability of both the DA’s office and the defense team to effectively try the case. “And so we are asking that the matter be tried by a different court.”
“Well, that’s denied,” Simpson shot back.
Simpson, according to court transcripts, explained away her eyebrow-raising behavior by saying she wanted to review the victim’s school records to determine if the child was emotionally strong enough to testify against her alleged abuser.
Rosas stands charged with two counts of course of sexual misconduct against a child, and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
“I was in bed, I woke up with her playing with my penis,” he told cops after his 2017 arrest, adding that the 9-year-old proceeded to have sex with him. “She took advantage of me while I was sleeping.”
If convicted, he faces up to 25 years behind bars.
Simpson and the Brooklyn DA’s office declined to comment. | 3,584 |
The same happened about a month ago.
He heard about the caravan in March when he arrived in Tapachula, the caravan's starting point.
“Going alone is risky. You're risking an accident, getting jumped by robbers, and even your life,” he told BuzzFeed News. “All of that, and then you don't get to the United States. The caravan is slower but you know you're going to get there safely.”
Still, there are no guarantees on the route or assurances that once they reach the US border they'll be able to cross undetected or be allowed to stay under some type of protection like asylum.
Alex Mensing, another organizer with Pueblos Sin Fronteras, made that point clear to the migrants before the group started out. He also stressed that everyone is responsible for their own food, water, and payment for vans or buses. Still, it's far cheaper than being assaulted or falling into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers.
“I'm here to work together with the people who had to leave their countries for whatever reason,” Mensing said through a loudspeaker. “We're fighting together. We're not here to give anyone papers and we're not here to give anyone food.”
Mensing said Pueblos Sin Fronteras isn't calling on people to make the trek, but if they're going to try to go through Mexico on the way to the United States, the group will help them.
The caravan propels itself forward using whatever way it can. Sometimes that means packing into the back of a truck, negotiating lower rates for vans, or hitching a ride on the back of empty big rigs from whatever town they're in. The group sleeps in town plazas. Local townspeople and churches feed them.
In the evening, when the group settles in for the night, the kids play in playgrounds or dart among the crowd, chasing one another. Teenagers and adults play soccer using rocks as goal posts.
On Tuesday, the caravan had plans to board the freight train known as “the Beast” or sometimes “the Train of Death” in Arriaga to speed the journey north. It's a dangerous part of the journey, with death and injury only too possible from a precarious perch atop a rail car, and the group practiced boarding, one woman in a purple shirt slowly making her way up a parked train's ladder while the crowd below cheered her on. On another train car, men wearing backpacks steadily made their way up one by one. | 3,585 |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New U.S. dietary guidelines on Thursday urged Americans to cut their sugar and saturated fat intake to less than 10 percent of daily calories, but consumer advocates said the curbs did not provide clear guidance on the need to lower consumption of meat.
An overweight woman sits on a chair in Times Square in New York, May 8, 2012. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
The government guidelines, which are issued every five years, are a roadmap for U.S. dietary policy, and some groups suggested the recommendations should have better reflected the World Health Organization’s view that processed meat can cause cancer.
Kari Hamerschlag, senior program manager with the advocacy group Friends of the Earth, said in a statement the new guidelines by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture ignored strong scientific evidence presented by its own advisory committee on the need for Americans to eat less meat for health, food security and environmental reasons.
“The administration has clearly put the financial interests of the meat industry over the weight of the science and the health of the American people,” Hamerschlag said.
Other health advocates lauded the guidelines, which aim to reduce obesity and prevent chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
“If Americans ate according to that advice, it would be a huge win for the public’s health,” said Michael F. Jacobson, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said the recommendations were based on the latest scientific evidence, input from the public and other factors. For the first time, she said, they did not include a specific limit on dietary cholesterol consumption.
The North American Meat Institute, an industry group that represents companies including Cargill Inc, Tyson Foods Inc TSN.N and Kraft Heinz Co KHC.O, said the recommendations were an “affirmation of meat and poultry nutrition.”
The guidelines were specific on sugar, encouraging Americans to keep consumption below 10 percent of daily caloric intake, while consuming more fruit and vegetables. In the past, the U.S. has offered more vague recommendations on limiting sugar consumption.
The advice would translate to a sharp reduction in the consumption of sugary drinks, snacks and sweets for many Americans. Teenagers age 14-18 on average consume about 17 percent of their calories in added sugar, according to the guidelines.
Those aged 14 and younger were advised to consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. | 3,586 |
Image caption Two of the bodies were hung from a bridge, seen here four years after the attack
Families of four US men killed in a notorious ambush in Iraq in 2004 have settled a long-running lawsuit with the security firm they worked for.
The four employees of Blackwater, which has since been renamed Academi, were shot, beaten and burned to death in the flash-point city of Falluja.
Two of their bodies were hung from a bridge in an act which shocked America and triggered an assault on the city.
Blackwater was accused of exposing them to high risk without proper protection.
The confidential settlement announced on Friday ended the families' efforts to secure a public investigation into the killings.
The newspaper which first reported the deal, The Virginian-Pilot, said it could have otherwise become "a landmark lawsuit over battlefield accountability, in an era of privatised warfare".
'Just so evil'
Wesley Batalona, Scott Helvenston, Michael Teague and Jerry Zovko had been travelling in two Mitsubishi SUVs, escorting a convoy of lorries to pick up kitchen equipment from a US military base.
It was clear that this was going to be a cover-up from the beginning Jason Helvenston, Brother of dead security guard
The four ex-servicemen were ambushed and shot dead after which their bodies were dragged out by a furious crowd.
Jason Helvenston, brother of Scott Helvenston, said there had been a cover-up.
"The lawsuit coming to an end is no surprise to me whatsoever," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"It was clear that this was going to be a cover-up from the beginning."
Mr Helvenston, who was not a party to the lawsuit, added: "You just feel the injustice of this long enough, and see that these people are just so evil, all you can do is pray to God that he'll take care of it because that's all you've got left."
Scott Helvenston's former wife, Patricia Irby, said the sum their son and daughter would get had not yet been determined.
"I'm glad it's over," she said. "It's been a hard fight and the lawyers did a phenomenal job."
Academi spokesman John Procter declined to comment, citing terms of the confidential settlement.
The families also dropped a state lawsuit dormant while the federal case was litigated, said Kirk Warner, a lawyer representing the company. | 3,587 |
Seventeen years after the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and just a day after former president and "war criminal" George W. Bush was granted the National Constitution Center's "Liberty Medal" at a ceremony in Philadelphia, the Associated Press reports Tuesday on the anger and sorrow of the Afghan people who say that the Americans—despite early and repeated promises to liberate and modernize the country—"have made a hell, not a paradise" of their war-torn nation.
"All the money that has come to this country has gone to the people in power. The poor people didn't get anything," Hajji Akram, a day laborer in Kabul's Old City who struggles to feed his family on around $4 a day, told AP. "The foreigners are not making things better. They should go."
Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan who was installed by the U.S. during the early part of the occupation and later re-elelected, said that early vows to bring harmony to the region were broken and that, ultimately, U.S. officials "simply neglected the views of the Afghan people and the conditions of the Afghans." As the reporting notes, Karzai now blames the lingering war on broken promises and endless U.S. failures.
The comments and despair out of Afghanistan come less than a week after the Cost of War project at Brown University published its latest estimate (pdf) of the number of people killed in America's so-called "Global War on Terror" since it began in the fall of 2001:
New @CostsOfWar Report Tallies the Human Cost of the “War on Terror” - Since the war began with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, it has directly killed between 480,000 and 507,000 people. Read the full paper: https://t.co/OImtXsthYQ pic.twitter.com/NmzvsMvRQT SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Never Miss a Beat. Get our best delivered to your inbox.
— Watson Institute (@WatsonInstitute) November 12, 2018
Hamidullah Nasrat, who sells imported fabrics in Kabul's main bazaar, said he was happy to see the Taliban defeated in 2001, but said now life is even more terrible than before.
"After the Taliban we were expecting something good, but instead, day by day, it is getting worse," Nasrat said. "How is it that a superpower like the United States cannot stop the Taliban? It is a question every Afghan is asking." | 3,588 |
The GOP candidate in Pennsylvania's gubernatorial race called an 18-year-old woman "young and naive" after she asked him about campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry.
"You know what? I appreciate you being here. And you're 18 years old. And, you know, you're a little young and naive," Scott Wagner said during a town hall meeting in Montgomery County, Pa., on Wednesday night, according to vide posted on social media.
ADVERTISEMENT
The woman who asked the question is Rose Strauss, a member of the Sunrise Movement, a group that advocates for leaders to reject donations from the fossil fuel industry, according to PennLive.
Video posted on social media shows Strauss asking Wagner -- founder of the trash hauling firm PennWaste and a former GOP state senator -- if his opinions on climate change have anything to do with the contributions he's received from the fossil fuel industry.
"You've said that climate change is a result of people's body heat, and are refusing to take action on the issue" Strauss said. "Does this have anything to do with the $200,000 that you have taken from the fossil fuel industry?"
Watch @realScottWagner tell a young woman that she is "young and naive" when she asked a question on climate change.#pagov pic.twitter.com/ZDG4vnqgud — Sean Kitchen (@RCPress_Sean) July 19, 2018
Wagner laughs off the question initially, calling Rose naive — prompting applause and laughter from the crowd.
"Are we here to elect a governor or elect a scientist?" Wagner asked. "Okay? I'm here to be the governor. I appreciate, and I understand the question.
Wagner added that "climate change is important," but that he's also focused on issues such as problems related to sewage.
Wagner will face Gov. Tom Wolf (D) in November. Wolf's running mate, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, mocked Wagner's answer in a tweet.
Dear Young + Naive: @realScottWagner knows climate change caused by “more people... humans have warm bodies” #FixPA https://t.co/f2oAXzvOFC — John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) July 19, 2018
A spokesperson for Wagner defended his answer in a statement to PennLive, saying Wagner's point was "that it's naive to suggest he doesn't believe in climate change and that there are things as governor he thinks could be done better to address the issue." | 3,589 |
An Amtrak passenger made an unexpected discovery when he walked off a train at Washington, D.’C.s Union Station with the wrong backpack.
He found $17,900 in cash inside. And in doing so, he triggered a federal investigation that’s since been linked to a convicted drug dealer in New York.
The incident happened in 2014, but was just recently revealed by federal agents who are seeking to formally seize control of the money.
According to a report from investigators obtained by the News4 I-Team, the man mistook the backpack for his own as he left the train. Afterward, he discovered the cash tucked inside the bag. The man, who is referred to only by the initials M.M.A. in court records, notified Amtrak police.
According to paperwork filed by federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the money was linked to another passenger aboard the train, a man named Peter Rodriguez, who remained on board until the Amtrak train reached New York City.
The court filings said Rodriguez acknowledged being the owner of the bag, but denied carrying money in it. News4 was not able to reach Rodriguez for comment.
Court records said Rodriguez’s mother, Angela Rodriguez, later called investigators claiming the cash belong to her and her partner. She said the pair had recently sold mink coats to raise cash to buy a car during a visit with her son in North Carolina, the court filings said.
Rodriguez told agents she’d mistakenly left the cash behind inside a brown paper bag when she returned home to New York. She told agents she’d asked her son to bring the brown paper bag of cash with him in his backpack during his train trip north to New York, without specifying what was inside the bag, according to court records.
A federal prosecutor, in a filing with the federal court, said Angela Rodriguez and her partner did not “provide documents to substantiate central elements of their narrative, such as their travel to North Carolina.”
The agents also reported a police narcotics dog had “alerted” to the presence of the residue of narcotics when searching the backpack in a police office.
Peter Rodriguez was convicted in October 2014 in New York state court for selling drugs. The feds now are seeking to hold the money through the civil forfeiture process.
A Justice Department official told the News4 I-Team the money is secured and transported to a financial institution, where it is then counted and a check is issued by the financial institution to the United States Marshal’s Service. | 3,590 |
Image copyright Jenny Diski Image caption Jenny Diski (right) with Doris Lessing (left) who took her in as a teenager
The author and essayist Jenny Diski, whose memoir about living with terminal cancer was published last week, has died aged 68.
Her partner, the writer Ian Patterson, known as The Poet in Diski's works, announced her death on Twitter.
"Sad news. My darling Jenny @diski died early this morning," he tweeted on Thursday.
Diski was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in August 2014 and given "two or three years" to live.
Image copyright Twitter
The following month, she began writing a diary for the London Review of Books, describing her experience of living with the terminal disease.
Her memoir, In Gratitude, was published by Bloomsbury on 21 April.
"We are extremely saddened to announce that Jenny Diski, an extraordinary writer of rare spirit and vision, passed away earlier today," Peter Straus, Diski's literary agent, said.
"In all her writings spanning 40 years she showed herself to be funny, frank and fearless and she leaves as a legacy a remarkable body of work."
Alexandra Pringle, group editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury, said: "I had the pleasure of working with Jenny some years ago and we were reunited for her latest book, In Gratitude.
"She was, to the very end, remarkable to work with - funny, acerbic, clever, demanding and entertaining. Peter Straus and I went to see her a few days before publication. It was wonderful to see her joy at holding the first copy of what we all knew was her final book. As her publishers we are very proud of her achievement."
Image copyright Michael Bennett/National Portrait Gallery
The memoir examines Diski's relationship over 50 years with the late novelist Doris Lessing, who took her in at the age of 15.
Diski, who was born in 1947 in London, was the author of 10 novels, four books of travel and memoir, including Stranger on a Train and Skating to Antarctica, two volumes of essays and a collection of short stories.
She was educated at University College, London, and worked as a teacher during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Her first novel, Nothing Natural, was published in 1986. Her novels included Rainforest (1987), Happily Ever After (1991), Only Human: A Comedy (2000) and Apology for the Woman Working (2008). | 3,591 |
. Sampson’s numbers weren’t great overall, though he did manage a 4% walk rate. A 4.76 ERA and 3.54 FIP with unremarkable strikeout numbers doesn’t sound particularly impressive, but relatively few 23-year-olds are capable of such a performance at Triple-A.
6. Joe Wieland, RHP (Profile)
KATOH Projection: 2.1 WAR
Dan’s Grade: Unranked
Although he debuted in the majors way back in 2012, Wieland is still a prospect here in 2016. Once a promising young player in the Rangers system, Wieland’s career has been derailed by injuries. But he showed glimpses of his former self last year when he posted a 3.52 FIP as a starter for the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. He figures to have a future in the big leagues, even if it’s an unglamorous one.
7. Tyler Marlette, C (Profile)
KATOH Projection: 2.0 WAR
Dan’s Grade: Unranked
Marlette enjoyed offensive success his first few years in the minors, but hit just.239/.291/.380 between High-A and Double-A last year. His future doesn’t look as bright as it once did, but he’s still a catcher who’s shown offensive promise in the recent past.
*****
Zack Littell posted encouraging strikeout and walk numbers in Low-A last year, and did the same in Rookie-ball in 2014. Cody Martin is already 25, but he struck out a good number of batters as a starter in Triple-A. As a 28-year-old, Shawn O’Malley isn’t really a prospect, but he’s succeeded in Triple-A the past two years, which suggests he be a serviceable major leaguer. Marcus Littlewood hit a passable.231/.305/.390 as a 23-year-old catcher in Double-A last year.
*****
Remaining 45+ FV Prospects Name Position KATOH WAR Dan’s FV Ryan Yarbrough LHP 0.5 45+ Alex Jackson OF 0.2 45
Ryan Yarbrough held his own in A-Ball last year, but KATOH dings him for being 24 already. Alex Jackson’s projection should be self explanatory: he was all-sorts of terrible last year, especially in he strikeouts department. | 3,592 |
UPDATED: Astros pitching prospect Forrest Whitley leaves Hooks game in first inning
Len Hayward | Corpus Christi
Show Caption Hide Caption Astros prospect Forrest Whitley dominating in return to Corpus Christi Hooks Astros pitching prospect Forrest Whitley returned to the Hooks and threw four stellar innings.
Houston Astros top pitching prospect Forrest Whitley left in the first inning of Thursday’s Hooks game at Whataburger with a left oblique injury.
Whitley threw a pitch to Arkansas’ Joey Curletta with two outs in the first inning Thursday and then motioned for the team's trainer to come to the mound. A few minutes later, Whitley made his way back to the Hooks clubhouse with trainer John Gregorich.
Whitley threw 17 pitches prior to his departure, 10 of which were for strikes.
The start was Whitley’s first since the Texas League All-Star break. He had an 0-1 record with a 4.43 earned-run average and 29 strikeouts in 20.1 innings.
Hooks manager Omar Lopez said after Thursday's game he had not received a complete report from the Hooks trainer John Gregorich on the extent of Whitley's injury, saying "it was left-side discomfort and as a precaution took him out of the game."
On Friday it was confirmed that Whitley had a left oblique injury and is listed as day to day.
Lopez said Whitley had not had an injury issues or discomfort over the last few days.
On Friday, Whitley was named to the Major League Baseball Futures Game along with Hooks outfielder and Astros prospect Yordan Alvarez. Alvarez was also promoted to Triple-A Fresno on Friday. The Futures Game is scheduled for July 15 at Nationals Park in Washington D.C.
Whitley's early exit drew some quick reactions from fans across social media on Thursday.
Nope refusing to accept Forrest Whitley is hurt and I won't get to see him pitch in the Futures Game https://t.co/clujE2i1dh — DJ (@SwerdCenter) July 6, 2018
Another setback for the @astros #1 pitching prospect. https://t.co/B2gfYPPok8 — Season Tickets by Larry Manch (@SeasonTickets_) July 6, 2018
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
RELATED COVERAGE
More: Astros pitching prospect Whitley stellar in return for Hooks
More: Possum makes way onto Whataburger Field after Hooks game | 3,593 |
Authorities in parts of Europe issued disaster warnings and scrambled to reinforce flood defences as rivers swelled by days of heavy rain threatened to burst their banks.
Several people have died or are missing in the floods in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland since the rains began on Thursday.
The floods have killed at least one person and left several missing across the Czech Republic.
Czech officials warned that the waters of the Vltava river could reach critical levels in Prague late on Sunday as soldiers erected metal barriers and piled up sandbags to protect Prague's historic centre from flooding after days of heavy rains swelled rivers and forced evacuations from some low-laying areas.
Prague authorities also limited public transport and closed underground stations as water from the Vltava River overflowed into parts of the Old Town.
The area is a UNESCO heritage site boasting hundreds of well-preserved buildings, churches and monuments dating back mostly to the 14th Century, including the Charles Bridge that straddles the Vltava.
"Due to the current situation, I have declared a state of danger for the area of the capital city," acting mayor Tomas Hudecek told a news conference.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said 200 soldiers have been deployed so far to help local authorities.
Disaster warnings
In Germany, where at least four people have died or are missing, Chancellor Angela Merkel promised federal support for affected areas and said the army would be deployed if necessary.
Several cities, including Chemnitz in the east, and Passau and Rosenheim in the south, issued disaster warnings.
Passau, which is located at the confluence of three rivers, could see waters rise above record levels of 2002, said Mayor Juergen Dupper.
German news agency DPA reported that large stretches of the Rhine, Main and Neckar rivers have been closed to ship traffic.
Evacuations are also taking place in neighbouring Switzerland and Austria, where the torrential rain caused widespread flooding and landslides.
At least one person died and two were missing in the deluge in Austria, which in some places has dumped up to two months' worth of rain in just days.
One clean-up worker was killed in a mudslide in the town of St Johann near Salzburg, the Austrian Press Agency reported, while two other people were missing in the province after being swept into raging streams.
The provinces of Upper Austria, Tyrol and Styria were also hit hard by the severe weather, which triggered the worst flooding in some areas since 2002. | 3,594 |
That’s exactly where New York are weakest. Baca went to work on them there and helped give the Red Bulls “a lesson in football,” in the words of Thierry Henry.
Then there's this: Last weekend, with the Quakes up two men and pushing desperately for the go-ahead goal against an incredibly stubborn RSL team, Baca got loose down the right-hand side.
He's not a natural winger. He's got quickness but not outright pace, and isn’t a great one-on-one player. But his technique with either foot is nearly perfect, and his brain is even better.
So when he played back to Tressor Moreno and took off, got to the top of the box and trapped the return-ball, I knew exactly what was going to happen. Not because Baca is predictable, but because he's so fundamentally sound. He makes the right play almost every time.
Baca forces huge save from Rimando
In this case, the right play was stopping both himself and the ball dead, leaving himself in perfect shooting position with the ball on his off (left) foot, and having a go.
Baca didn’t tie himself in knots trying to drag the ball back to his right foot. He didn’t throw an extra move on Tony Beltran, who was rapidly recovering to close down the chance. He just trusted his technique and let rip for the upper 90. It was textbook.
Nick Rimando made a hell of a save on it, and kept the Quakes off the board for another 17 minutes before eventually giving way. But that play encapsulated what Baca is about on the pitch, and tells a big part of metaphrastic effect he’s had on this San Jose team.
That’s what the Quakes needed to help put a terrible 2011 in the rearview.
And it’s what Mexico need, too. They have enough playmakers, enough goalscorers, enough defensive midfielders and wingers. They've invested millions to create this Golden Generation.
Now they need just one more piece, a guy to do the little things. Even if it is a guy who plays in MLS, who spent years in college ball, who wasn't on anyone's radar a year ago.
In Baca, that's what they have. The only question is whether they’ll let themselves see it.
Matthew Doyle writes the Armchair Analyst column for MLSsoccer.com.
Follow@MLS_Analyst | 3,595 |
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said he is voting for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Chertoff to vote for Clinton over 'hysterical' Trump
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, once the lead Republican lawyer on the Senate committee investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Whitewater scandal, will vote for the former secretary of state for president this fall.
Chertoff told Bloomberg that his decision to support Clinton over Donald Trump came down to the former’s stronger stance on national security issues and the latter’s inability to control his impulses. That he and the Democratic nominee have a history of conflict dating back to the 1990s pales in comparison to the threat Chertoff said Trump poses to American security.
"I realized we spent a huge amount of time in the '90s on issues that were much less important than what was brewing in terms of terrorism," Chertoff told Bloomberg, adding that Clinton "has good judgment and a strategic vision how to deal with the threats that face us."
"People can go back decades and perhaps criticize some of the judgments that were made," Chertoff added. "That is very, very insignificant compared to the fundamental issue of how to protect the country."
While it was Chertoff who investigated the Clintons in the 1990s, it was Clinton who did the antagonizing during her tenure in the Senate. The former New York senator was twice the lone vote opposing Chertoff’s confirmation, first in 2001 to head the Justice Department’s criminal division and later in 2003 when he was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals. She voted to confirm him in 2005 as the country’s second secretary of homeland security, and in that role Chertoff said Clinton was “clear eyed and tough on national security issues."
Trump, by comparison, showed Chertoff at last week’s presidential debate that he lacks the temperament to be commander in chief. His decision to spend last week attacking former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado, a woman Trump once called “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping,” proved to the former homeland security secretary that the Manhattan billionaire is too impulsive to be president.
"This issue came up at the debate about Miss Universe," he said. "Not only did he seem at the debate to lose his temper, but to get up at 3:30 a.m. and reach for your smartphone is to me a hysterical reaction. If you're president, the button you reach for is not the Twitter button; it's the nuclear button." | 3,596 |
Exclusive video of King Cobra capture. You can see it attempting to rear up, hood open. Courtesy:Jose Ramirez #abc13 pic.twitter.com/1CDYhsC4cw — Kevin Quinn (@imkevinquinn) August 24, 2016
EMBED >More News Videos Missing king cobra snake found in Needville, Kevin Quinn reports.
NEEDVILLE, TX (KTRK) -- Clint Pustejovsky is known as the snake man. He's been catching snakes for 50 years.The hunt for an escaped king cobra in Fort Bend County took hours, with the snake safely recaptured just before 4pm, not far from where it slithered away."The most venomous snake capture I've ever had by far," Pustejovsky told abc13.The 8-foot-long snake escaped from a room inside a barn in the 12000 block of Cloudt. Inside, investigators say there 24 other snakes, and all but one are poisonous.Pustejovsky called the situation "scary" said it would have been dangerous if the wrong people encountered the cobra."They have a powerful dangerous venom. A bite like that, we had already informed the reptile community, had already informed Dr. Spencer Grant," he said regarding the toxicologist for Houston.But how the king cobra got out is still a mystery. "I usually use hooks. I double check everything. Lock them. All the cages are locked. She just happened to break through," said owner Jared Zellars.Game wardens say a friend of Zellars alerted them to the escape this morning around 7am.Zellars says he bought the snake about two years ago after buying it from a friend who imported it Indonesia.Its venom can be deadly. That's not comforting news for the few neighbors whose homes line this rural street. "I got every gun I got loaded up," said neighbor Wesley Kaack.Authorities say Zellars had all the proper permits to legally keep exotic snakes. In fact, they say the permit allows him to buy and sell them. He says he's been keeping them for about the past five years, that he's fascinated by them.He's been searching the fields near his family's property all day. He offers a public apology for the snake's escape.Needvile High and Needville Middle Schools are both within 2 miles of this property. Both campuses were on alert. The middle school cancelled all outdoor activities today.King cobras can reach lengths of 18 feet and are considered among the most venomous snakes on the planet. The snakes are aggressive when cornered. | 3,597 |
Call it the ultimate in high art: Using a well-timed laser, NASA scientists have beamed a picture of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, to a powerful spacecraft orbiting the moon, marking a first in laser communication.
The laser signal, fired from an installation in Maryland, beamed the Mona Lisa to the moon to be received 240,000 miles (384,400 km) away by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the moon since 2009. The Mona Lisa transmission, NASA scientists said, is a major advance in laser communication for interplanetary spacecraft.
"This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances," David Smith, a researcher working with the LRO's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter — which received the Mona Lisa message — said in a statement. "In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use. In the more distance future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide."
The LRO spacecraft was the prime choice to test out the novel communication method because the spacecraft was already equipped with a laser receiver. While most spacecraft exploring the solar system today are tracked using radio signals, NASA is tracking LRO via lasers as well.
But the timing had to be just right.
NASA used its Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging station at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to send the Mona Lisa signal to LRO. The team divided the famous da Vinci painting into sections measuring 150 by 200 pixels and then transmitted them via the pulsing of the laser to the orbiter at a data rate of about 300 bits per second.
Once the lunar orbiter received the image, it reconstructed the photo, corrected for distortions created as the laser signal zipped through Earth's atmosphere, and then sent the image back to Earth using its normal form of communication: radio waves.
"This pathfinding achievement sets the stage for the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration," Richard Vondrak, another researcher with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter said, "a high data rate laser-communication-demonstrations that will be a central feature of NASA's next moon mission, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust environment Explorer."
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer is slated to launch toward the moon later this year and will focus on mapping the lunar atmosphere and environment.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | 3,598 |
This article is more than 5 years old
This article is more than 5 years old
No murders have been reported in New York City since Super Bowl Sunday, a record stretch since the city began tracking such data in 1994.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed on Saturday morning that no murders were reported overnight in the city of 8.4 million, making for the first recorded 12-day homicide-free stretch.
Experts say a series of cold snaps sweeping the city have helped, keeping New Yorkers indoors and out of trouble. New York is braced for four more days of extremely cold weather. With wind chills taken into account, temperatures are expected to drop as low as -20F (-28C) on Sunday, prompting warnings from officials.
“Stay indoors if you don’t have to be out,” mayor Bill de Blasio urged on Friday.
On Saturday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo added a warning of his own, saying: “New Yorkers should take every appropriate precaution as subzero temperatures and blizzard-like conditions hit the state this weekend.
“This weather can be extremely dangerous for everyone from children to the elderly, so I encourage people to stay indoors whenever possible and stay safe.”
The National Weather Service has predicted that temperatures at LaGuardia Airport in Queens may drop to their lowest since 1943, and Central Park may experience its lowest temperature since 1888.
According to the New York Post, the most recent murder in New York City occurred in Harlem on 1 February, when two gunmen opened fire on five people at a deli. The shooting left a 28-year-old father dead and injured four others.
The new record comes on the heels of a historic year in New York City crime. Last year, murders reported to the NYPD dropped to 328, the lowest figure since the department began collecting reliable statistics in 1963.
Over the last two decades, US rates for crimes such as murder, rape and robbery have plummeted. From 1994 to 2013, the most recent year for which the FBI has data, the US rate of violent crimes fell by almost half, from about 713 violent crimes per 100,000 residents to 367 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.
The trend plays out in New York City, where recently-released NYPD figures show that crimes reported in the city have fallen precipitously. Since 1993, murders are down 79.7%, robbery is down 82% and serious assaults are down 57.9%. Rape, a statistic complicated by victims’ reticence to report such attacks, is down 52.7%. | 3,599 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.