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Viola Davis has won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2017 Oscars.
She's won for her performance in Fences, across from Denzel Washington; who both starred in and directed the cinematic adaptation of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
Davis beat out the likes of fellow nominees Naomie Harris for Moonlight, Nicole Kidman for Lion, Octavia Spencer for Hidden Figures, and Michelle Williams for Manchester by the Sea.
"You know there's only one place where all the people with the greatest potential are gathered," she tearfully stated. "And that's the graveyard... exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories. The people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams come to fruition."
She went on to express her gratitude for art as whole: "We are the only profession which celebrates what it means to live a life."
Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Show all 25 1 /25 Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Hailee Steinfeld Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Taraji P. Henson Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Chrissy Teigen Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Ruth Negga Reuters Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Dev Patel PA Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Karlie Kloss Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Emma Roberts Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Riz Ahmed Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Felicity Jones AFP/Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Isabelle Huppert AFP/Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Octavia Spencer Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Mahershala Ali Rex Features Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Michelle Williams Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Naomie Harris AFP/Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Scarlett Johansson Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Ryan Gosling Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Viola Davis Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Charlize Theron Getty Images Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Dakota Johnson REUTERS Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Chris Evans Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Brie Larson Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Jamie Dornan and Amelia Warner REUTERS Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Sofia Boutella PA Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Pharrell Williams Rex Features Oscars 2017: Best dressed on the red carpet Kirsten Dunst Getty Images
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and you want to support the user being able to return later an not having to log in.
It is possible to do this with HttpClient, but you need to initialize it a little differently:
CookieContainer cookieContainer = new CookieContainer(); HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler { CookieContainer = cookieContainer }; handler.CookieContainer = cookieContainer; var client = new HttpClient(handler); var loginResponse = await client.PostAsync("http://yourdomain.com/api/account/login?username=theUsername&password=thePassword", null); if (!loginResponse.IsSuccessStatusCode){ //handle unsuccessful login } var authCookie = cookieContainer.GetCookies(new Uri("http://yourdomain.com")).Cast<Cookie>().Single(cookie => cookie.Name == "auth_cookie"); //Save authCookie.ToString() somewhere //authCookie.ToString() -> auth_cookie=CfDJ8J0_eoL4pK5Hq8bJZ8e1XIXFsDk7xDzvER3g70....
To restore a cookie after creating the CookieContainer you can call the SetCookies method on it:
cookieContainer.SetCookies(new Uri("http://yourdomain.com"), "auth_cookie=CfDJ8J0_eoL4pK5Hq8bJZ8e1XIXFsDk7xDzvER3g70...");
Conclusion
Event though this is a long post, setting up cookies in you Web Api is not that hard. You just need to keep a few things in mind.
Namely, you need to make sure that your cookie is not being generated with a samesite attribute. To do this you should check the Set-Header header that comes in the login response.
Do this using Firefox instead of Chrome’s developer tools. Chrome (at least the version I’m running 67.0.3396.99) does not display the Set-Cookie header if it’s for a different domain than the one from where the request was performed.
The next thing you have to make sure is that you’ve configured CORS correctly. Of particular importance is making sure you have AllowsCredentials in your CORS policy.
Finally, if you are running a web client, make sure you have the withCredentials flag set to true on every request or credentials: 'include' for the Fetch Api.
It's only fair to share... Linkedin
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so there is likewise liability there. The United States has also entered into specific settlements for specific misdeeds—the Cobell settlement for example, or the Keepseagle settlement. Those settlements, however, were for specific events like leasing and mismanaging Native land and never touched on genocide or stealing Native land.
So how do you payback a group for genocide and wholesale land theft? There is literally no way that the United States could pay a dollar amount to square up with Native people (nor with African-Americans for 246 years of free labor, including the US Capitol, the White House and some of the US’s most beloved monuments). No way.
It would bankrupt the nation. Plus, individual reparations are sloppy and probably destructive toward the individuals who receive them.
But there are ways for the institution—the government— to contend with past bad deeds and create structures to help create future equity and fairness just like in the civil case of Rodney King. One example is to adequately fund Native American health care; Indian Health Services is currently criminally underfunded. Another is to ensure that Native students never have to pay for college. Ever. A by-product of displacement and the destruction of Native economies and kidnapping of Native children is we have always been at a huge disadvantage in our pursuit of western white educational achievement. There are exceptions, of course, but structurally—just like black students—the ghosts of yesteryear rightfully still prevents many from fully buying into this system. Making sure that Native students do not have to worry about paying college tuition would normalize college and, understanding that the land will not end up back with us, give some level of equity in our ability to learn and earn and protect our homelands.
That is the value of these symbols—the Native American Heritage Month, the Black History Month, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the Indigenous Peoples Day; to serve as a reminder that the debt still exists and the repayment must exist one day as well. They are symbolic and they are impotent, but they are also important and otherwise America-as it is inclined to do-might forget that these “reparations” are still coming and that it still owes our forebearers for their contributions.
Happy Native American Heritage Month.
Photo Credit: Wesley Roach.
Gyasi Ross is a father, an author and a storyteller. He is a member of the Blackfeet (Amskapikipikuni) Nation and his family also comes from the Suquamish Nation. He is the co-host of the Breakdances With Wolves: Indigenous Pirate Radio podcast. He can be reached at Instagram and Twitter at: @BigIndianGyasi
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2 min read
Having maintained above $10,000 for most of Aug, Bitcoin experienced a slight dip below $10,000. The cryptocurrency is still slightly above the price it started Aug with. The decline comes during a week where even mainstream stock markets experienced worrying lows. However, Bitcoin remains stable in its path to new highs, as assessed by Peter Brandt.
Moving Average Keeps Hopes Up
Markets require patience and understanding, as various factors are involved in price determination. Peter Brandt, on his Twitter account, gave hope to Bitcoin traders despite the dip the cryptocurrency experienced during the week.
Bitcoin remains above the pace of its 2015-2017 bull run (for now). The 2015-2017 trend tested its trend MA multiple times (green arrows). The current trend has yet to do so. $BTC. pic.twitter.com/0KWR1I4Ax5 — Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) August 14, 2019
From the graph, the MA (in orange) provides a more stable outlook of the performance of BTC over the years. By negating all the unnecessary noise seen on the usual trend, BTC may likely reach new highs shortly.
The assessment evoked much response, including some, which showed that the crypto community is also doing its own research on Bitcoin’s performance.
MA 21 WEEKLY is also great, and RSI weekly 50% is key, j'aime la peinture 😉 pic.twitter.com/vXJ7zdfKsZ — cryptojeanjacques (@cryptojeanjacqu) August 15, 2019
Another trader also shared their expected improvement in Bitcoin’s price over time.
Brandt Prediction In Line With Earlier Positivity
Bitcoin’s price has been an issue of debate ever since it broke the $1,000 mark. Various analysts give their market assessment and, sometimes, these assessments and subsequent predictions come true.
Peter Brandt’s analysis is not the first to predict that Bitcoin is headed to new highs. A few weeks ago, Pantera CEO claimed that the cryptocurrency could hit highs of $356,000 in a few years. CNBC’s Joe Kern also gave a $55,000 price prediction by 2020.
All these points towards a new high that will likely surpass $20,000, a figure slightly above the Bitcoin high hit in 2017.
For many Bitcoin traders, this may be the best time to stock up, while the price is lower than expected. The dip is just a slight bump on the road as Bitcoin likely prepares for another record-breaking bull run.
Featured Image Source: Real Vision/Forbes
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by Get updates of new posts here
A single picture can be more powerful than thousands of words. These photos are inspiring for me to race and explore more than my little corner of the world. Today, I hope you’ll be similarly inspired.
Good Morning Japan by Pavel Ahmed
Hazy Morning by Per Ola Wiberg
Sun Rise by Umair Mohsin
Seawall Run by lululemon athletica
Maui Wowie! by Randy Son of Robert
Morro Bay National Estuary at 6:46 A.M. Sunrise over Cerro Cabrillo Peak by Kevin Cole
Gastropod Fossils Beach, Krabi, Thailand by ChR!s H@rR!0t
IMG_1143 by thomas_sly
Dark Trail by Scott Hudson **
Miracle Miles for Kids Race 17April2010-133 by mikebaird
Castello di Amirosa Winery, Napa Valley, California, USA by jimg944
Coming Out to Play by MSVG
Khezr Beach, Hormoz Island, Persian Gulf, Iran by Hamed Saber
That’s Right, You’re the Sh*t! by lululemon athletica
Remember the Summer by pgpdesign (paul)
Antigua, Guatemala by szeke
Russet by Nicholas_T
San Diego Mudrun by Nick Chill Photography
Davos by Astragony
pere vilanova terra de llàgrimes i vent by visualpanic
Here Comes the Sun… by chantrybee
DSC01074 by Dawn – Pink Chick
Flanked by Nicholas_T
Stepping Stones over the River Mole, Box Hill, Dorking by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel
Whities on the Run by Dawn – Pink Chick
Chicago River by Bert Kaufmann
No Limits by A~~~
DSC_1086 by Zach Klein
Zion National Park by Wolfgang Staudt
Free American Bison Buffalo on Antelope Island Utah by Pink Sherbert Photography
“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” Buddha by Ian Sane
NY Marathon – 42 by lululemon athletica
Carr Bridge – the old bridge – Scotland by conner395
Pro Evenflo by Eneas
If you found these photos inspiring, motivating, or just awesome please share this post!
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Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Monday that British doctoral student Matthew Hedges had been charged with spying.
The 31-year-old was arrested on May 5 in Dubai, after a two-week research visit to the country. Investigators said evidence had been gathered from Hedges' electronic devices and intelligence from UAE intelligence agencies.
"The Attorney General of United Arab Emirates... confirmed today that Mr. Matthew Hedges, a British Citizen, has been charged with spying for and on behalf of a foreign State, jeopardizing the military, economy and political security of the UAE," the government said in a statement.
UAE Attorney General Hamad Said al-Shamsi said the charges were "based on legal evidence and findings from investigations that were carried out by the public prosecution."
Hedges had appeared in court in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, last week, but was not informed of any charges at the time.
Read more: Qatari royal says he's being held against his will in UAE
Hedges, whose research interests include civil-military relations, political economy, and tribalism, last year co-authored an academic journal on relations between the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which the UAE is a member, and the transnational Muslim Brotherhood organization.
Although it is an important trade hub and popular tourist destination, the UAE tolerates very little public criticism of its policies and monarchy. The country's leadership is fiercely opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood, which espouses political Islam.
Read more: Dubai: Can the city of black gold go green?
Hedges' wife Daniela Tejada said her husband had not been given proper medical care and attention during his tie in custody and had been held in solitary confinement throughout. She said his research relied only on information that was in the public sphere and appealed for his return.
"He's not disclosed anything... classified or confidential," said Tejada.
Read more: UAE jails rights activist Ahmed Mansoor over social media posts
"Matt is a man of integrity and principle. He has a brilliant academic mind and an impeccable track record. He is kind and caring and greatly loved and respected. Please send him home."
A spokesperson for the UK government said last week that Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt had "personally raised Hedges' case with his Emirati counterpart."
"We are assisting his family and remain in close contact with the local authorities," the spokesperson said.
rc/amp (Reuters, AFP)
Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.
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The EU is contributing a further €30 million in humanitarian funding for Ebola response in efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The second deadliest Ebola outbreak on record has so far claimed more than 1,700 lives in a country already facing a dire humanitarian situation. Today’s funding announcement brings total EU humanitarian aid to fight against Ebola to €47 million since 2018, when the current outbreak was declared.
Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, who is also the EU’s Ebola Coordinator, said: “The fight against the epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo stands at a crucial juncture. The EU is vastly stepping up its aid to save lives and prevent further infections. We are providing new support to the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization, and humanitarian partners on the ground. We also stand in full solidarity with the frontline responders putting their life at risk to tackle the outbreak."
The new EU funding will step up support for:
Infection prevention and control measures
Working with local communities to foster their acceptance of the response, including contagion prevention measures, access to healthcare, and safe and dignified burials
Support for Ebola survivors and their families.
Against the backdrop of a wider deteriorating humanitarian crisis, EU assistance will also address urgent humanitarian needs in Ebola-affected and high-risk areas by providing food, nutrition and access to health services and clean water.
The Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo takes place in a challenging security, political and societal context. Conflict, high population mobility, a frail health system, and community mistrust continue to hinder the Ebola response teams’ efforts in the country.
Background
While the Ebola virus epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo still remains confined to the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, there has been an increase in the number of confirmed cases since April 2019, with the city of Beni, Butembo and Katwa being the main hotspots. According to the World Health Organization’s risk assessment, the risk of a national and regional spread of the disease remains very high, while the risk of a spread outside the region is low. On 14 July 2019 a case was detected in Goma, the main gateway city in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and three spill over cases reached Uganda in early June 2019.
The World Health Organization declared the Ebola crisis was declared as a public health emergency of international concern by the on 17 July 2019. In its rapid risk assessment published on 19 July 2019, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control concluded that the overall risk of introduction and spread of the Ebola virus to the EU/EEA remains very low.
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BIARRITZ, France – President Donald Trump said Monday he is optimistic that the U.S. will reach an agreement with Beijing to alleviate an ongoing trade war but offered few details to counter concerns that China is waiting until after the election to strike a deal.
"They want to make a deal," Trump told reporters at the end of the G-7 summit that took place over the weekend in this seaside town.
Trump's optimism came days after the leaders of both countries significantly ratcheted up trade tensions, including with a series of higher tariffs. Trump announced Friday that he would raise tariffs on $550 billion in Chinese goods, sending markets into a tailspin.
The president said that Chinese officials reached out twice to the administration late Sunday in an effort to restart talks. "We've got two calls, very very good calls, very productive calls," Trump told reporters. "They mean business."
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said he was unaware of any such calls, and Trump declined to say which Chinese officials had called.
Instead, Trump pointed to a statement from Chinese Vice Premier Liu He that he hoped both countries could "calm" tensions. Trump said he agreed with that sentiment and dismissed a question about his tendency to criticize the Chinese government one day and praise them the next.
"Sorry it's the way I negotiate," Trump told reporters. "It's done very well for me over the years and it's doing even better for the country."
Trump made the remarks hours before markets opened in the U.S. Those markets plunged Friday after China raised retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion in American made products. Later Friday, Trump responded by raising tariffs on $550 billion in goods.
Trump said Friday he would raise from 25% to 30% U.S. tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products and would increase from 10% to 15% new tariffs on a remaining $300 billion in goods – some of which are set to take effect next month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up nearly 300 points Monday in midday trading.
Trump came under pressure from allies on trade during his G-7 visit. Early in the talks, new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson – who has sought to align himself with Trump on many issues – suggested all nations should focus on "dialing it down if we can.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, standing alongside Trump during the early moments of the press conference on Monday, said he was concerned that the trade tensions between Washington and Beijing had increased global economic instability.
“What’s bad for the world economy is uncertainty," Macron said. "The quicker an agreement is arrived at, the quicker the uncertainty will dissipate.”
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to help make up for gratuities lost due to the boycott. The hotel has committed to not laying off any employees, and to paying them above and beyond their salaries to compensate for lost business. But many have said they're still making far less than normal.
"Trust me -- the person who's suffering right now is not the sultan," McGowan said. "It's my friend Ruth, who's been working in the diner downstairs for years, and can barely pay her rent."
At one point, photographer Andrew McLeod approached McGowan with his iPhone open, and showed her a photo of the party he'd just posted to Instagram. "The hashtag we decided on was #takebackthebhh. Do you like it?" he asked.
McGowan shrugged. "I was hoping for #9021gay," she said.
"Or what about #CampBeverlyHills," Goodwin suggested with a laugh.
"Too subtle," McGowan said. "I don't think people would get it. And not everyone here is camp..."
Goodwin nodded, chastened. "True," she said. "I'm glad about that. I was worried a bunch of people would come dressed up in latex knee-highs, or assless chaps or something -- the type of thing people are always wearing in photos of Gay Pride..."
"I didn't want that," McGowan said, "I specifically asked people not to do that."
"This is much better. It shows we're people, not freaks. We come in all shapes and sizes," Goodwin said.
"I think that's the message I'd like to get across to the sultan with this event," McGowan responded. "I'd like him to see that gays are real people. I think that's the only thing that would change his mind -- not a boycott."
McGowan admitted, though, that the chances of getting the sultan to capitulate on Sharia were slim.
"I think the sultan of Brunei would ideally evaporate. And that the Beverly Hills Hotel would return to the city," she said. "But I don't think a boycott is going to make that happen. And there's just too much collateral damage."
"That's why we're doing this; to support the staff," Goodwin said. "This has nothing to do with the sultan."
McGowan nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "That's true," she said. "Really, it's about the opposite of everything he stands for. It's about love, not hate. Given the choice between boycotting and helping people, I'm always going to choose the latter."
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A look at some of the craziest things captured by Google's street view cameras and featured on Google Maps.
It took 22 years, but a missing man’s remains have finally been found — and it was all thanks to Google.
A former resident of Moon Bay, Wellington, Florida, did a Google search on August 28 on his old neighbourhood when he noticed something bizarre. He spotted a car seemingly submerged in a lake in one of the Google Earth satellite images, the BBC reports.
Once authorities were notified, the skeletal remains of Florida man William Moldt, who went missing in 1997 at age 40, were found inside the submerged vehicle.
A spokesperson for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Teri Barbera, told AP reporters the former resident of the Grand Isles neighbourhood wasn’t entirely sure of Google Earth’s accuracy.
The man then contacted a current homeowner, who used his own personal drone to confirm it was a white car on the edge of the pond behind his house.
The man then called the sheriff’s office, and deputies later arrived to find the white sedan’s exterior “heavily calcified” and Mr Moldt’s remains inside.
According to a report by the Charley Project — an online database of cold cases in the US — the “vehicle had plainly (been) visible on a Google Earth satellite photo of the area since 2007, but apparently no one had noticed it until 2019”.
RELATED: Google Maps accidentally captures dead body in crime scene
RELATED: Car in lake, plane in water mysteries explained
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Mr Moldt went to a nightclub in November 1997 but did not appear intoxicated as he left alone before midnight. “He also was not a frequent drinker but did have several drinks at the bar,” the report said.
He had called his girlfriend from the club saying he would return to their home in Lantana, Florida, soon.
The subdivision was under construction at the time of Mr Moldt’s disappearance, but the pond was already there.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office told the BBC Mr Moldt was presumed to have lost control of his vehicle and driven into the pond.
Barry Fay, who found the car, told The Palm Beach Post he had never noticed anything from the shoreline.
“Never did I believe there would be a 22-year-old dead body,” Mr Fay told the newspaper.
Mr Moldt’s family has been informed about the discovery of his remains.
— with AP
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, or delete them in this dashboard. We’re probably all guilty of having a rule here or there that just worked so well and made so much sense that we stopped checking in on it at some point. But, that data is still waiting on you, and you should really go make sure your rules aren’t running out of control.
Scripts also live here, and as we’ve talked about before (Secret Jake even mentions them above), scripts can be a super powerful tool for your account. From tracking cool stuff like QS changes to making complex, automated changes to your accounts–if you’re not using scripts, you’re missing out!
Lastly, bulk edits live here! Bulk edits let you do lots of cool stuff quick & easy. Need to change the date in all your ads, raise all your bids to first page bid, or switch your phrase match keywords to exact match? Do it here, and do it in less than a minute!
-AWB
Search Funnels
Search funnels are one of my personal favorite AdWords features. They’re tucked away under “Columns” > “Search Funnels” in the AdWords UI. This handy feature allows access to click-assisted conversions, impression assisted conversions, etc. which provides data for leveraging the entire search funnel. This is a great column to have included when making bid and ad optimizations to make sure you are not bidding down or pausing keywords/ads that could be influencing the funnel in AdWords. Our very own Jeff Allen wrote a nice article about how to actually use the search funnel data that you might find helpful as well.
–Cassie Oumedian (ed. note – Welcome to the blog!)
Facebook’s Power Editor
Managing ads in Facebook can be a bit of a pain, which may or may not be the world’s most enormous understatement. What makes it even more frustrating is when you find out that all of that struggle was pretty much unnecessary. The Power Editor is available to all (even though it’s pretty poorly publicized and a lot of people wouldn’t even know it exists). There are more robust targeting options in there that aren’t even available in the regular Facebook ads interface (ad placement chief among them). And there are things in there that can surprise you on a daily basis (Facebook has labels?!). You should give this tool a whirl if you haven’t already. It’s amazing.
-SQ
What about you, PPC Heroes? Are there tools or places hiding out in the interfaces that you feel like other people should give a whirl?
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Cryptowall attackers are smashing businesses in the Australian state of Queensland, according to the owner of a Townsville sex shop which has paid $1,058 to ransomware attackers to have its files unlocked.
The third iteration of the dangerous ransomware hit Sweethearts, which describes itself as Queensland's oldest sex shop, last Friday with a ransom demand for three Bitcoins to have the AES 256-hidden files unlocked.
Cryptowall 3.0 is the most capable of ransomware families, with law enforcement agencies all the way up to Interpol saying it's the chief threat. Unlike older versions, nobody's yet found an implementation weakness that would let it be unlocked without paying the ransom.
Sweethearts' Colin Edwards told Vulture South the attackers sent the Cryptowall 3.0 decryption key yesterday which was used to unlock the store's servers which had been entirely encrypted.
"We paid the ransom, they accepted it, and sent the key," Edwards says. "It's the only thing you can do."
Edwards says his business, and others in the state, were targeted through the Seek employment website on the back of an advertisement posted for vacant staff positions.
Net scum delivered the ransomware through a phishing HTML email masquerading (in Sweethearts' case) as one of 47 job applications.
Edwards says he did not even open the email and that it executed the payload after it was merely previewed in his mail client.
He has since heard from other victims including local trade unions, a veterinary clinic, a Chemist, and a council which have been hit with Cryptowall 3.0 and forced to pay in recent weeks.
Stewart Livingston, director of local tech support Nu Wave Computers, was called in to triage and help Sweethearts.
"I've had three call outs since yesterday," he says. "And I fully expect to be flat out by the end of the week."
Both say state and federal police along with the federal Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network is unable or unwilling to help.
Livingston says victims have "no choice but to pay up" and risk inflating the ransom if they delay payment or bork removal and backup restoration efforts.
It could be possible to restore from backups but the tech says drives have to be fully formatted otherwise files may be re-encrypted.
Businesses should maintain regular air-gapped backups of critical data to reduce the impact of ransomware. Default passwords should be changed on public-facing services like remote desktop protocol, and applications and operating systems patched.
Security screws should be tightened on email clients where possible to prevent the code execution in open and preview modes. ®
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Joss Whedon'sgets the '80s treatment in this new teaser trailer. The Japanese Age of Utron trailer has all the cheesy elements of our beloved, classic 80s films, and the result is amazing. Take a look.In the video, the Japanese reworked the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer with what can only be described as an 80s twist, so much so that it almost seems like a completely different movie, more cheesy perhaps. While many of the scenes in the trailer may be shot-for-shot with the most-recent American Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer, the emphasis on certain aspects of the plot makes this Japanese Avengers trailer look more like a throwback. Clearly, Americans and the Japanese see the Avengers in different ways, and it’s pretty cool, from beginning to end.At first, you might have thought that you were watching yet another Americanized trailer for Avengers, since it starts out with Tony Stark/ Iron Man speaking in English, but then suddenly you hear the voice of a Japanese narrator—which by the way is extremely dramatic. After the introduction of the story villain, Ultron (James Spader), we see the Avengers come together to once again save the world. The focus of the Japanese Avengers trailer is more on togetherness, teamwork and saving the world. Another thing that this Japanese take ondelivers is an awesome, 80s signature-style power ballad. Suddenly, the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer gave off a completely different tone for the movie than the one many of us saw opening weekend. Remember the animated Transformers movie back in the 80s and, equally important, the Stan Bush’s song "The Touch?" Those two were completely synonymous with each other since the song was so prominently featured in the movie, and still are for those who grew up in the late 80s. Moral of the story: music can make the trailer.Sure, we did see the same shots of the infighting, death and destruction in the U.S. trailers, but it was de-emphasized. Instead, the Japanese Avengers trailer focuses more on the relationships, like the apparent connection between Black Widow and Hulk, and more family shots of Clint Barton/Hawkeye. Man, they show a LOT of the movie in this clip!In the end, the Japanese trailer brought you back to the main focus, which was the team bravely embarking on an insurmountable obstacle — something that was perhaps smarter and more powerful than all of them combined — but persisted in spite of this and were victorious, because "together they will always win the fight, together they will always be as one." Even if it is cheesy, you have to admit this odd trailer does make you want to see Avengers: Age of Ultron again, right?
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activity under the 2003 legislation, which was “superseded” by the Intelligence and Security Act 2017 and a “revised suite of Bureau policies.” The law was changed in 2013 and 2017 to legalise previously unlawful surveillance methods and broaden the powers of both the GCSB and the SIS to spy on the population.
Recent “inquiries” into the activities of both agencies are part of a damage limitation campaign after widespread outrage following the Snowden revelations. Along with the GCSB’s unlawful spying for the police and the FBI on NZ resident Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, the revelations shattered claims the agencies were protecting New Zealanders from terrorist threats.
Far from being an independent “watchdog,” Gwyn was appointed in 2014 by the then-National Party government, which was confident of her essential reliability. Having spent some years in an anti-Marxist Pabloite group in the 1980s, Gwyn later pursued a career in the state apparatus, working as deputy solicitor-general during the 1999–2008 Labour government.
Gwyn’s appointment paralleled that of SIS head Rebecca Kitteridge, who had joined anti-apartheid protests in the early 1980s. The fact that secret service agencies were now headed by women with “radical” credentials was hailed as a “cultural shake-up” in media reports, aimed at portraying their activities as “open” and benign.
Gwyn recently took this charade a step further. In April, she established an 11-member “Reference Group,” consisting of journalists, lawyers, academics and security experts, purportedly to help ensure the intelligence agencies “act lawfully and properly” and keep them “in touch” with legal, social and security developments in New Zealand and overseas.
Significantly, the group includes figures such as Hager and New Zealand Herald journalist David Fisher, who have been critical of the spy agencies’ activities in the past.
This is a further attempt to put a gloss on reactionary state institutions whose role is to advance New Zealand’s neo-colonial interests in the Pacific and elsewhere, while contributing to US imperialism’s operations, in particular the drive to prepare for war against China.
The secret spying operations, hostile to the interests and basic rights of the working class within New Zealand and across the Pacific, will intensify in the coming period, as working class opposition grows to the war preparations and the accompanying deepening attacks on living and working conditions.
The author also recommends:
New Zealand spy agency illegally accessed immigration data
[15 January 2018]
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”
6. Werner, “Itineraries of Escape: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope-Poems,” in The Gorgeous Nothings, 217.
7. Jen Bervin, “Studies in Scale: An Introduction,” in The Gorgeous Nothings, 10.
8. Werner, “Imagining Emily Dickinson’s Desks, 1870–1885.”
9. Ibid.
10. Werner, “Unsettling Emily Dickinson.”
11. Ibid.
12. Bervin, “Studies in Scale,” 9.
13. Werner, “‘Their period for Dawn —’: Housing Dickinson’s Late Work.”
14. Werner, “Fly Leaves: Toward a Poetics of Reading Emily Dickinson’s Late Writing (An Illustrated Essay).”
15. Johanna Drucker, The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 19.
16. Johanna Drucker, Figuring the Word: Essays on Books, Writing, and Visual Poetics (New York: Granary Books, 1998), 59.
17. Werner, “Itineraries,” 211.
18. Bervin, “Studies in Scale,” 10.
19. Werner, “Itineraries,” 207.
20. Werner, “Unsettling Emily Dickinson.”
21. Werner, “Itineraries,” 207.
22. Holland Cotter, “A Poet Who Pushed (and Recycled) the Envelope: ‘The Gorgeous Nothings’ Shows Dickinson’s ‘Envelope Poems,’” New York Times, December 5, 2013.
23. Higginson, “Emily Dickinson’s Letters.”
24. Werner, “Fly Leaves.”
25. Reviewers have made scant mention of the essays accompanying the images, but they are necessary reading. Werner’s, an illustrated guide, is valuable on its own, but housed in this book, her breadth and intimacy with the original of these shining facsimiles animates them.
26. Werner, “Itineraries,” 219.
27. Ibid.
28. J1733, F1342B, quoted in Werner, “Itineraries,” 210.
Related:
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Three more cases of mumps have been confirmed on Oahu, the state Department of Health announced Thursday.
Two of those people are children and one is an adult. They contracted mumps from others whose sickness had already been confirmed, the department stated in a news release.
Fifty-seven mumps cases have been confirmed on the island this year, though none of those resulted in hospitalization, according to the department’s website. One case was reported on Kauai, DOH Immunization Branch Chief Ron Balajadia said.
Ale Proimos/Flickr.com
Balajadia said the department isn’t aware of any severe cases, and the patients range in age from 1 to 47.
“The classic symptom of mumps is swelling of the salivary glands under the ears, resulting in a tender, swollen jaw,” otherwise known as parotitis, the website states.
Fever, body aches, headache, fatigue and a loss of appetite are also symptoms, though some patients experience mild symptoms or none at all, according to the release.
The disease can be spread when an infected person coughs, sneezes or shares eating or drinking utensils. It can also be contracted when someone touches contaminated objects and then touches their eyes, mouth or nose, the release said.
Balajadia said people who contract mumps should wash their hands often, get vaccinated and quarantine themselves to ensure family members don’t get sick. Most importantly, he said people need to “take it seriously.”
“(Mumps) takes people out of work, it takes kids out of school … it may come down to something worse than what it is now,” he said, adding people should “spread aloha, not germs.”
For more information on DOH’s ongoing mumps investigation, click here.
Mumps can be prevented by the MMR vaccine, which is 88 percent effective with two doses and 78 percent effective with one dose. Residents can locate a pharmacy that carries the MMR vaccine here, or dial 211 for the Aloha United Way information line.
Thanks to vaccines, the U.S. has seen mumps cases decrease by more than 99 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC’s website says mumps outbreaks often occur on college campuses — and many were reported in 2015 and 2016. Hawaii’s outbreak hasn’t been tied to UH, Balajadia said.
Nationwide, a total of 2,570 mumps cases have been reported this year across 42 states, according to the CDC.
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The submission we have is from Dr Eamonn Mathieson.
Ms CAMPBELL — Who is speaking to Eamonn Mathieson’s submission?
Dr FRENCH — I was going to speak to Eamonn’s submission. May I to see your copy?
Ms CAMPBELL — Because Doctors in Conscience is definitely not a Catholic organisation.
Dr FRENCH — Yes, indeed. That’s fine — —
Ms CAMPBELL — It has Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and non‑religious people involved in it, and that was who we invited.
Dr FRENCH— Okay. In that case — —
Ms CAMPBELL — So we need someone who can speak on Doctors in Conscience.
Dr FRENCH — I can briefly speak on behalf of them. I am a member of that group and I have been working to this particular document so I am prepared. I can speak on behalf of it.
Ms CAMPBELL — But you are also a member of Catholic doctors of Victoria?
Dr FRENCH — Yes, I am, as it happens. So I can speak on behalf of Doctors in Conscience. I am a member of both organisations and I have actually prepared my proposal based on this document that has been given to you.
The CHAIR — On the submission of Doctors in Conscience?
Dr FRENCH — Yes.
The CHAIR — Okay. And the opening remarks you were making are consistent with the submission of Doctors in Conscience?
Dr FRENCH — Yes.
Oh dear! It’s so hard when you simply can’t remember whether to wear your Catholic camauro or your secular slouch hat when fronting up to these inquiries!
If Christians want to have their voices respected in the public square it’s time to stop these ridiculous games of religious hide ‘n seek. If your views are based on your religious convictions, at least have the honesty and courage to say so. If you can support your religious convictions with reasonable secular argument based on evidence and good science, by all means do so. But, for Christ’s sake (literally) have the decency to make it clear that even if every bit of evidence supported the opposite view, you would still oppose the proposition purely on religious grounds. After all, you wouldn’t want us to think that Christians cynically conceal their dogmatic beliefs in secular clothing and try to pass them off as ‘science’. That wouldn’t be acting in good conscience at all, would it?
Chrys Stevenson
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�resectable,” and it usually entails “a relatively small tumour (about three centimetres or less) localized to the pancreas that does not involve important arteries and veins so it can be removed by surgery,” Capobianco said.
This is also known as “localized,” which means “there is no sign that the cancer has spread outside of the pancreas.”
READ MORE: ‘Don’t ignore the warning signs’: N.B. mother battling terminal ovarian cancer speaks out
Stage 2
Stage 2 is also called “borderline resectable.” This usually refers to a “slightly larger tumour which involves some vessels that may be possible to be removed by surgery,” said Capobianco.
Stage 2 is split into two sub-groups known as IIA and IIB.
Stage IIA usually means the cancer is confined to the pancreas, it’s bigger than four centimetres across and it hasn’t spread to nearby lymph nodes or to other distant sites.
WATCH BELOW: Career criminal charged with theft of cancer wigs
1:56 Career criminal charged with theft of cancer wigs Career criminal charged with theft of cancer wigs
Stage IIB has many sub-groups within it, but it’s usually similar to IIA, except that the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes.
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Stage 3
Stage 3 is “locally advanced,” which means “the tumour is still localized to the pancreas but encases or surrounds arteries and veins that are needed to feed other organs,” said Capobianco.
These tumours are not amenable to surgery.
READ MORE: Alberta mom shows off live-saving ostomy bag in powerful boudoir photo shoot
Another word used to refer to a cancer which has spread from the pancreas to nearby structures or lymph nodes is “regional.”
Stage 4
Stage 4 is also known as “metastatic pancreatic cancer,” defined by cancer cells which have “spread beyond the pancreas to lymph nodes or other organs,” Capobianco said.
Another word used for Stage 4 is “distant.”
“Generally, Stage 4 is nearly incurable in most cancers. The later the diagnosis and stage, the more advanced and likely spread the cancer has become.”
[email protected]
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too. I was especially moved by James Keach’s 2017 documentary Turning Point: The Quest for a Cure. It’s about the attempt to develop a first-generation drug for Alzheimer’s, and it does a great job of highlighting the challenges and showing how heroic the participants and their caregivers are. (I helped fund a project to show the film to health care professionals and medical students and faculty.)
Here’s a clip from the movie where you meet a couple of patients, their caregivers, and doctors:
The research group I worked with plans to share its findings with the Alzheimer’s community and publish a paper, hopefully next year, that will propose potential solutions. What I can say now is that we see three areas that are worth exploring:
Increase awareness of Alzheimer’s, so patients start seeking help earlier in the disease’s progression.
Develop better diagnostics so that doctors can detect the disease sooner and help people enroll in the right clinical trials. (I’m one of a few partners funding work on this through something called the Diagnostics Accelerator.) Researchers are working on various solutions, including simple blood tests and voice analysis performed by a computer.
Raise awareness of—and openness to—clinical trials among doctors and patients alike.
My hope is that the clinical trial process becomes a lot easier for patients and researchers in the near future. There are a number of people exploring ways to speed up the process. One of them is Dr. Jessica Langbaum, a neuroscientist I met earlier this year, whose lab is developing genetic tests to identify, earlier and more cheaply, people who might qualify for studies on how to prevent Alzheimer’s. Another researcher I’ve met, Dr. Michael Weiner, has created a registry that uses online quizzes to identify potential volunteers.
If you’ve been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, or if you’re caring for someone who has, I encourage you to consider getting involved in a study. In the United States, the National Institute on Aging has a great online tool that can find one near you; the United Kingdom’s National Health Service has a similar tool. Dr. Langbaum’s Alzheimer’s Prevention Registry and Dr. Weiner’s Brain Health Registry are also great resources.
One of the many awful things about watching someone you love struggle with Alzheimer’s is the feeling of helplessness. You keep thinking, There must be something more I can do. Joining a study won’t make that feeling go away, but by pitching in to fight this disease, you can know that you might help make life a little better for future generations.
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Update (Nov. 1, 15:03 UTC): Deribit will reimburse over $1.3 million in losses from the BTC index calculation data issue witnessed at 21:00:00 UTC on October 31, 2019.
Another flash crash has occurred for bitcoin (BTC), this time appearing on the Coinbase Pro and Deribit exchanges.
At 19:55 UTC on Oct. 31, BTC’s spot price dipped from $9,260 to $9,055 in quick succession on Coinbase’s exchange for professional traders.
An hour later, Deribit, a futures and options exchange for BTC, saw futures prices drop from $9,150 to $7,720 before bouncing back above $9,000 within minutes.
The move caught traders unawares as multiple orders were executed in the process.
Crypto trader @Crypto_boy1 took to Twitter to slam Deribit for telling customers that trades would not be rolled back and that they should manage positions accordingly.
“It’s over. I would withdraw all funds and never use this exchange again If I was a user” he said.
5-minute chart
As seen above, BTC dropped to a low of $7,720 on Deribit, sending shock waves throughout the derivatives market. Liquidations shot through the roof on Bitmex, for example.
However, in an official response on the same thread, Deribit said it would attempt to rectify the incident by changing the price of stop-loss trades to a fixed BTC level, depending on the product.
“Equity will be brought back to the pre-incident level, around index price $9,160,” the exchange said.
5-minute chart
An hour before Deribit’s incident, Coinbase Pro users also experienced problems as stop-loss orders were “deleted” right before BTC’s sharp drop from $9,260 to $9,055.
According to a user of CoinDesk’s Dojo trading forum who goes by the handle Radyohead, the price dropped below their stop-loss order, yet no sale was executed:
“Coinbase crashed as far as I can see. And it deleted my Stop Loss as it happened, nothing sold for me despite the price being lower than where my stop was.”
Prices have since rebounded, currently changing hands for $9,145, while the issues on both exchanges appear to be resolved.
Disclosure: This author holds no cryptocurrency at time of writing.
Ride image via Shutterstock; Charts via TradingView
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Broken knees, broken ankles, cracked vertebrae, nerve damage, the works. Brad Johnson is proof-positive you don't need brain trauma to suffer from your NFL career for the rest of your life.
Robert Klemko of USA Today (and soon of Peter King's new football site) catches up with Johnson, who retired in 2008 after a 17-year career, with his most notable stints in Minnesota and Tampa. Johnson wasn't a lineman—he didn't crash headfirst into opponents on every play. He claims he never suffered a concussion (though a teammate says otherwise). Yet his post-playing days are filled with pain, discomfort, and it's only going to get worse.
"I go down one step at a time with two feet. One step. One step. One step," the 44-year-old former NFL quarterback says. "My 73-year-old dad was visiting and I told my son to help him get his suitcases up the steps. He walks slow and he's got a bad knee. He starts walking and my son turns to me and he says, 'Dad, he walks just like you.'
Johnson was suffering chronic pain back by 2002, when he was among the masses of players that received regular injections of the painkiller Toradol. It doesn't treat pain; it masks it, and former players have alleged in lawsuits that it left them unable to realize when they were too injured to play.
Johnson doesn't blame Toradol, and he doesn't blame football. "You have to give your body to the game," he says.
But his situation illuminates a major hole in the NFL's commitment to the well-being of its former players. Johnson received five years of health insurance upon retirement; that will expire this year. There are additional benefits available, but only for players who suffer neuro-cognitive disorders. The banal, continuous pain he suffers from the bumps and bruises and breaks of a normal football career don't qualify him for any more care.
Johnson says he'd like to see all former players receive health insurance for life, something the NFL has deemed a non-starter.
"I do think the league has done a better job as far as providing better benefits. I don't know if they can backtrack for all the guys who played. But for the future players, I wish they would extend those benefits."
Johnson's coaching now, and he sounds happy. He can manage. But as his wife says,"think about what it will be like 10, 20 years from now." By then maybe it'll be accepted that lifelong pain isn't a risk of playing football, but the price.
[USA Today]
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unk in what looks like an aggressive gesture or arch it prettily over their back.
“They use their tail like a squirrel for balancing,” Stussy explains. “They can climb like crazy.”
Ringtails are top notch acrobats. In addition to the help from their tails, they have semi-retractable claws to get a good grip on rocks or tree branches and their hind feet can rotate at least 180 degrees – allowing them to quickly climb head-first down trees and rock faces.
Other incredible climbing behaviors include “chimney stemming” (i.e. pressing their feet against one wall and their back against another like the Grinch climbing up a chimney), “ricocheting” like a video game character bouncing back and forth between more distant walls, and “power leaping” accurately across large distances.
Conservation Needs
The IUCN classifies ringtails as least concern for conservation because of their wide distribution and ability to adapt to human inhabited areas. However, there is limited information on population densities and trends across their range, which makes it difficult to assess conservation needs.
“What is their range? Is it expanding or contracting? It would take a lot of effort to find out. Their home ranges are very small,” Stussy explains. “It needs more work like a lot of things. I hate to think of ringtails going the way of the fisher and nobody’s even looking at them to know it.”
Efforts are underway in Oregon to improve methods of assessing ringtail density as part of the Oregon Conservation Strategy. Stussy’s research initiated an effort to create a consistent ringtail monitoring protocol for Oregon using camera traps. Progress has been slow in part because it is currently unclear whether a low number of sightings in an area is a sign that there are low numbers of ringtails or that the protocol has failed for some other reason (like bears stealing the ringtail bait).
“My work generated a lot of interest,” Stussy says. “One article in the newspaper led to about a hundred calls from people who wanted to report seeing them.”
One promising area for future ringtail research is citizen science. If citizens could capture an image of a ringtail and report the sighting to a centralized database, that would provide far more data for the range and abundance of ringtails in the US than biologists are currently able to capture on their own.
There is not yet, to my knowledge, a dedicated ringtail citizen science project. In the meantime, you can report your ringtail (and other nature) sightings to iNaturalist.
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of Pro Cycling Manager is a caricature. The radios just don’t work that well. Anyone lucky to have seen Sporza’s Wieljahroverzicht, their annual review of 2014 will have enjoyed the team car and radio footage from the classics. Either way managers paying millions for teams want to retain some contact during a race
Second is the political aspect. Push back the UCI on radios and teams show they can break any rule they like. The rulebook goes from being the legitimate definition of cycle racing towards a code, an à la carte menu where teams can pick and choose the bits they like.
Summary
Radios have been in use for a quarter of a century now but the UCI has moved to ban them. This isn’t a Spanish Día de los Inocentes wind-up: I gave it a mention in the Christmas Quiz a few days ago (answers here) but the topic, ranging from tactics to politics, merits a bigger explanation and generated some interest by email. Early attempts to prohibit radios met with protests by the teams and some riders and a compromise solution was reached where the continued use of radios was allowed in World Tour events. Now the rulebook says they’re banned for every road race in 2015. What will the teams do?
Update… what will the teams do? Seems clear…
“@micacquarone:the UCI goes back. As usual. So sad. RT“@inrng: Inner Ring: Race radios banned in 2015 http://t.co/vYymZa5tLl””no f*cking way — Patrick Lefevere (@PatLefevere) December 28, 2014
@inrng want to place a friendly wager on this? No way they are banned in 2015. Watch. — Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) December 28, 2014
Meanwhile @ciclopassione suggests it’s a grande typo…
It was the same in 2013 to 2014. We guess that Uci secretary only made a little mistake @inrng pic.twitter.com/9TDBpDXKUF — CicloPassione.com (@CicloPassione) December 28, 2014
Update II: Radios will be allowed in 2015 on the same basis as 2014, in World Tour, Women’s World Cup and Time Trials. I’m told the UCI rulebook will be amended to reflect this early in the new year. So a vintage typo in the rulebook or did this piece above provoke discussions? It seemed odd that it sat in the rulebook for months.
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Their ascendancy is not new; for a generation, they have eclipsed their secular and leftist predecessors, whom they often act (and sometimes speak) like. But the legacy of their virtual monopoly on opposition is becoming more and more clear. They have reinterpreted conflicts — between Arab and Israeli, East and West — and have highlighted the degree to which the very notion of identity has shifted in the Arab world; so much so that “Arab” may soon become passé in defining that world. And with a politics bereft of ideology beyond faith, they have narrowed the avenues for change in a region whose inhabitants desperately want it.
These movements often exude a canny pragmatism. Islamists in Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have all embraced electoral success; in time, they may even reinforce a democratic body politic. But on issues from poverty to Palestine, they have imposed a paradigm of morality, ethics and occasional absolutism that tends to neglect society’s most pressing problems or turn them into unrequitable anthems.
This is a large reason that for reformers, provocateurs and critics outside their orbit, pessimism is the fashion today. “Religious politics or politicized religion has taken over,” said Fawwaz Traboulsi, a historian, columnist and longtime leftist activist from Lebanon. Asked if there was any counterexample out there — beyond the quixotic fringes and uncompromising idealists — he shook his head.
“No,” he said, “I don’t think there is.”
The American University of Beirut hosts a collection of hundreds of posters from an age that was violent, tumultuous but, to many in the region, more capable of hope that solutions for the region’s deep problems could be found. They are eclectic, from the agitprop of secular Palestinian groups to the intoxicating promises of Lebanese partners bent on abolishing the nation’s vaguely feudal system a generation ago.
Many are imbued with the iconography of the third world liberation movements of the day. (Read: ample imagery of the Kalashnikov rifle.) The haircuts date the photos. So do the terms. (“Armed struggle,”rather than today’s preferred “jihad.”) But they capture a fervent idealism. To the West, it may have been the era of the massacre at Munich, hijackings and the rise of Yasir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. But to many Arabs, it was a time pregnant with the promise of real change, when the Palestinian movement captured the Arab imagination to a degree unmatched before or since.
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noted the past campaigns of Ross Perot and the past flirtations by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Both are billionaire businessmen. Kasich is not — and he doesn’t exactly have a bunch of them beating down his door to run for president.
“What I am going to try to do is to continue to raise money to support the operation that I have that allows me to be … out on the public stage,” Kasich said Wednesday. “Where that’s going to go, I have no idea.”
Sam Nunberg, a former Trump adviser, doesn’t see it going anywhere.
“He can’t self-fund. He’s not the type of person that’s a natural iconic leader. He’s not a military leader. He doesn’t have an astonishing record in the private sector. And even though he was on Fox News, he’s not really considered a TV personality,” Nunberg told BuzzFeed News.
“I don’t think Kasich is exploring a run as an independent,” Nunberg added. “I think he’s looking to raise his speaking fees.”
Until last year, Kasich had a canny way of seeing the political future. He was an early adopter in the Reagan and Gingrich revolutions that previously reshaped the Republican Party. When Kasich first ran for president — in 2000, though he never made it past 1999 — he ran with a compassionate conservative message, but without George W. Bush’s money or catchy sloganeering. When he ran for governor in 2010, Kasich tapped into the grassroots anger of the moment, bragging that he was Tea Party before it was cool.
As he made his way back to New Hampshire on Wednesday night, Kasich wrestled with the question of whether, after 2016, he still has the ability to anticipate what’s next.
“What Trump did was he used negative populism to come up with a quick solution to all of these very complicated problems,” Kasich said. “And I just didn’t think the level of the discourse would allow him to win.
“I still don’t understand that. I still can’t figure that out. But I know that right now we have a very divided country, and I see these young people, and I don’t see them getting excited or gravitating toward a political party. And I don’t know what this means. And I don’t know what the manifestation of it is going to be. But in my judgment, there’s big change coming.”
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In late December 1980, there were rumours of UFO encounters near RAF Woodbridge ( a two-base complex operated and occupied by the United States Air Force).
In the immediate hours of 26th December patrol men were sent out to investigate strange lights that showed up in the forest. They found nothing but two days later Colonel Charles Halt was ordered out again to investigate these lights. The UK’s ufologist were delighted, this ‘British Roswell’ had everything to prove it was a real sighting, Substantial evidence, credible eyewitnesses and validation from the highest level.
The Theory
Neither the British nor the American authorities wished to take the investigation further, so the ufologist established their own investigation discovering an extraordinary story.
The three patrol men on duty reported seeing a glowing metallic triangular object in the woods. This object drifted off but left three holes in the ground, in the shape of a triangle. There was high levels of radiation left behind.
Later on one of the patrol men alleged to have felt the object, sketching its markings. Colonel Charles Halt saw beams of light, supposedly from the UFO, beaming down on the bases nuclear weapons bunker. Halt also made a tape recording of the encounter. His radio malfunctioned as well as lights that had been set up at the site.
A cover up seemed to be occurring as well. A roll of film sent to the photo lab never returned. Witnesses claimed to have been harassed by the authorities. One ufologist sought to question Margaret Thatcher (Priminister at the time) about the incident, her reply was “You can’t tell the people”.
The Official story
The source of lights were from a nearby lighthouse. The patrol men’s second testimonies never matched their original. At first it was claimed that they did not get closer than 50 metres to the object. In that case they never touched it unlike the second story.
Halts story had holes in it, his timing and description on tape showed that he was looking at the lighthouse. His radio never stopped working and those types of lights always break.
The holes in the ground were made by rabbits and the radiation levels were normal for the area. There was nothing to investigate and Margaret Thatcher response was misinterpreted, what she meant was that people refuse to listen to logic when it comes to UFO’s.
Conclusion
The Rendlesham incident concludes itself. There is clear evidence that it was in fact the lighthouse and not a UfO. Most ufologist believe that the incident was false and lacked any evidence. Aliens could be out there somewhere but I doubt they ever landed in Rendlesham forest.
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�s national conference would attend the regional version without further elections, when many GC members had not even been informed about the London conference
The effect of these and other manoeuvres is, according to members, an attempt to stifle democracy in Streatham Labour and to disenfranchise many new members. Part of a SKWAWKBOX email to the Streatham chair and secretary
No response had been received at the time of publication. There had already been huge controversy over the election of Streatham’s conference delegates, so sending them without a further vote to the regional conference is deeply problematic.
Members fear that the meeting – which takes place this coming Thursday, 31 January – will be stacked against them, especially because of the inadequate communication, but also because the meeting will be run by a former candidate for the National Executive Committee (NEC) supported by the right-wing Progress and Labour First groups.
It is therefore essential that every Streatham member who can attend on Thursday does so. Venue details are below:
Lambeth College
45 Clapham Common South Side
SW4 9BL
(NB: not the Lambeth College campus on Brixton Hill)
The meeting starts at 8pm but members are asked to arrive no later than 7.30pm to allow time for registration and to ensure they have a vote.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
There were serious problems with the conduct of the meeting to elect Streatham’s executive committee in November.
The decisions of the exec to prevent the election of delegates for the coming London regional conference and to bar the women’s officer from email access suggest that the democratic problems in Streatham Labour, which the right it determined to hold onto, are entrenched and ongoing.
The first step in unpicking these issues is to ensure that Streatham switches to AMM, so all members have a direct say in the CLP’s decisions and the election of its executive. If you’re a Streatham member, you need to be there on Thursday night.
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Crossout’s Story-Driven Adventure Mode Is Now in Closed Beta Testing
Ben Bayliss November 29, 2018 5:56 PM EST
Crossout's Aventure mode introduces a sixteen square kilometer map for campaigning in this post-apocalyptic title.
Free-to-play title Crossout has received a brand new Adventure mode which gives players into a story-driven campaign, however, it’s currently in closed beta stages.
Crossout, for those unaware, is developed by Targem Games and published by Gaijin Entertainment and puts players into a post-apocalyptic MMO in which they gain creative freedom over their off-road vehicles. It also comes with advanced damage technology meaning that damage dealt will affect the target instantly. Players battle others in an online PvP environment, however, this new mode brings players together. Back in 2017, the title hit three-million players in under a month since it launched back in May 2017.
Players will now be able to take part in a large-scale, story-driven campaign with an array of side quests and other events taking place around the world. It can be played either alone or with friends through cooperative mode, and those that do play will earn a special resource that can be spent to craft unique weapons or even decorative elements for any vehicle in Crossout. This resource is known as Engraved Shells.
The story looks at inhabitants who have lost their mind, becoming hostile and craving death. Those who don’t fall victim end up with no memory of their past life. You take control as one of these survivors who desire to learn more about themselves as the campaign progresses. They attempt to find allies to help locate the evil lurking in the Wastelands, return their memory, and more. If that interests you then you’ll be able to find more details about the background story through Developer Diaries.
For now, Adventure mode is taking place in Blood Rocks, which is currently Crossout’s biggest location sitting at sixteen square kilometers. Players are able to explore the world, hunt enemies, and take on the story and additional missions. Furthermore, you’ll be able to use any of your vehicles with the enemies in the world based on your power score. There’s no time limit and allows players to pause and return to a campaign mission at any time.
Crossout’s Adventure mode is available now in closed beta testing and only available for those who own the Crossout pack ‘Wholesale Recall’. Although, there is an application to get access to the test ahead of the modes official release.
Crossout is available now for free on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
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�s perhaps like going for a prostate check with a cheer squad?!
When the embryos are transferred back to the uterus, they take the long 10-12″ flexible syringe/catheter device back to the lab to be ‘cleared’ by the embryologist under a microscope and double checked by the second scientist, to confirm that the embryos have indeed gone where they need to go and aren’t still sitting in the end of the insertion device. So one of the weirdest things about this scenario is the compulsion of all the people in the room to make small talk while waiting for confirmation from the lab guys while my feet are still in the air! We’d talk about whatever book I was reading in the waiting room, my IVF guys’ fondness for motor racing and occasionally he would tell me stories about other patients.
Well one day we are waiting for the scientists to give the all clear and he tells me about one of his patients whose husband was completely unable to provide a sample for their first IVF cycle… his wife had done all the injections and drugs, been through the egg pick up surgery and they had a limited window to get that sperm! Usually they get the men to extract a fresh sample in the Masturbatorium just before their partners go in for surgery.
Apparently, the poor guy had been at it for ages, they’d given him binders of fresh porn, videos, the whole works and jerks (snigger) and he just couldn’t make it happen. His wife was still coming out from anaesthetic so she was of no help and they’re turning up the pressure. Eventually the forlorn husband comes out and says he ‘just can’t do it’. The IVF specialist eventually turns to the poor (and sore) husband and says innocuously ‘So, have you had anything to eat today?’ and unfortunately for him, yes, he’d had a decent breakfast and lunch only about an hour earlier. Dr IVF “Uh oh, that’s not good. We have to get that sperm out of there somehow and given you’ve pretty much just eaten I can’t put you under for this.” Yep that’s right, the poor guy had to go through a testicular aspiration (ie: they stuck a dirty big needle into his goolies to retrieve as much a sperm as possible) whilst CONSCIOUS.
You know I always thought that if they put a poster in the Masturbatorium like this one… they’d get a lot more motivation and a lot less complaints about how hard it is to produce a specimen on demand!
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A pair of high heels can make an average attire sexy and elegant. Over time, wearing heels also high and too usually could pitch your body forward, leading to a permanently unsexy sway-back pose and also low back discomfort.
The great information is that you don’t need to forgo stylish shoes to restore your tall, straight posture and healthy and balanced back. Beginning by switching over out your highest heels with lower-heel options on some days, and also commute in comfortable flats whenever feasible. Include a few specific posture-fixing exercises to your exercise program. Professionals agree that you can resolve lots of back pains problems by being energetic and practicing the ideal stamina and also versatility exercises.
Try these four stability-ball exercises made to assist combat the effects of heels. The regular takes just 6 minutes to perform, so aim to do it once a day.
1. Strengthen your abs
Sit on a huge exercise sphere as well as stroll your feet onward until the sphere is in between your tailbone and your shoulder blades. With your hands behind your head, curl your shoulders and top back off the round (maintaining your elbow joints wide), after that reduced back to the start position. Begin each repetition by pressing your navel towards your spinal column. Perform repetitions for 30 seconds. Repeat for 30 more seconds, crossing alternate shoulders toward the contrary side of the body.
2. Stretch your calf bones and also hamstrings
Sit on the sphere as well as prolong one leg onward. Maintaining your leg as straight as feasible, grab your toes as well as draw them back toward your body. Hold for 30 secs and repeat on the other leg. Repeat on both sides again.
3. Reinforce your core as well as glutes
Lie on your back and area your heels as well as calves together in addition to the ball. Press your abdominals and glutes, and also raise your hips off the ground developing a straight line from your feet to your shoulders. Hold for 5 secs and after that lower. Start with concerning two collections of 10 repetitions.
4. Stretch your front thighs
Kneel on one knee behind the sphere positioning the various other foot a little before the ball. Roll the sphere ahead a few inches enabling the back leg to straighten out a bit a lot more, as well as really feel the stretch in the front of your upper leg. Let the top body unwind onto the round. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on the other leg. Repeat on both sides again.
Barb Gormley is a qualified individual instructor as well as a freelance fitness author. You can call her at www.barbgormley.com.
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While the pontiff looked on, Leo Varadkar highlighted the Church's abuses and highlighted how Ireland has embraced modernity.
In a Saturday speech referred to as "blistering" by The Guardian, Ireland's out prime minister, Leo Varadkar, highlighted the numerous scandals and abuses of the Catholic Church, as Pope Francis stood to his side.
The Dublin speech took place during the pontiff's first visit to Ireland in almost 40 years; he was there for the Church's World Meeting of Families. During Varadkar's speech, the prime minister repeatedly brought up the sexual abuse of children perpetuated by Catholic priests and made mention of a recent Pennsylvania grand jury report that detailed systemic clerical abuse.
Varadkar also spoke of the Church's forced adoptions of children from unwed mothers, a mass grave of infants recently found near a Catholic mother-and-baby home, and Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, where "fallen women" were housed and often subjected to horrors.
"I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the church charged with responsibility for their protection and education," Varadkar said.
The failure of ecclesiastical authorities — bishops, religious superiors, priests and others — adequately to address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community. I myself share those sentiments."
Varadkar described "brutal crimes perpetrated by people within the Catholic church, and then obscured to protect the institution at the expense of innocent victims... stains on our state, our society and also the Catholic church. People kept in dark corners behind closed doors, cries for help that went unheard.”
Varadkar also spoke of a changed Ireland; one where homosexuality and abortion were illegal during the last papal visit. Now, Ireland is led by a gay man and grants women the right to make their own reproductive decisions.
The Irish people understand "that marriages do not always work, that women should make their own decisions, and that families come in many different, wonderful forms, including those headed by a grandparent, lone parent or same-sex parents, or parents who are divorced."
As Ireland moves forward, "religion is no longer at the center of our society, but... it still has an important place," Varadkar said.
In attendance for the prime minister's speech were survivors of clerical abuse and Irish senator David Norris, a staunch LGBTQ advocate.
Pope Francis — who has made several conflicting statements on LGBTQ rights, most recently saying same-sex couples are not families — will meet with sexual abuse survivors during his brief Irish visit.
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For the second straight time, the US6 National Team was eliminated in the WMF World Cup’s Round of 16. Defending champion Czech Republic used a four-goal second half rally to overtake the US and hold on for a 5-4 win. Czech Republic will face Mexico in the quarterfinals tomorrow.
The US executed its game plan and showed more heart and determination than in the previous three games, but a 3-1 halftime lead turned into a 5-3 deficit in a span of about five minutes.
After Jermaine Jones was stopped on an early penalty kick, the US got on the board first with an excuse-me goal that hit the post, and rebounded into the goal off Franck Tayou. Brian Farber cashed in a VcMor Eligwe rebound to make it 2-0.
Farber collided with a forward in the box and Czech Republic was awarded a penalty kick, which they easily converted to cut their deficit to 2-1.
The US got a break when Kraig Chiles converted a free kick goal on a pass from Slavisa Ubiparipovic in injury time to give the US a 3-1 lead as time expired in the first half.
Czech Republic got two rebound goals and two goals off turnovers early in the second half. The fourth and fifth Czech Republic goals were scored mere seconds apart.
Farber scored his second of the night, on a Gordy Gurson pass, to get the US back in the game and the US kept the pedal to the metal the rest of the way, but couldn’t find the equalizer.
Czech Republic will have their hands full tomorrow against Mexico, in a rematch of the 2017 WMF World Cup Final. Mexico easily dispatched Tunisia 7-0.
Brazil advanced with a 3-2 win over Serbia. They will face Slovakia who escaped with a 4-3 win over Moldova on PKs.
Rising arena soccer star James Togbah, who signed in the offseason with Utica City, reflected on the game and on his first tournament with the national team. “It was a great experience coming together with the top players from the MASL to represent the country,” Togbah said. “There’s a learning curve for me. I’ll take this in and work to improve my game as a player.”
The US will regroup and prepare to try to qualify for the next WMF World Cup, which will be in Ukraine in 2021.
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IRISH VENDEE GLOBE sailor Enda O’Coineen said Sunday he was devastated but uninjured after the mast of his boat broke south east of New Zealand.
O’Coineen’s Kilcullen Voyager-Team Ireland boat dismasted at 0830 GMT as he was racing 180 nautical miles south east of Dunedin.
“I have to laugh because if I don’t I will cry,” said the 61-year-old O’Coineen, the first Irishman to compete in the non-stop, solo around the world race.
“I am devastated. Things were going quite well. I was in good shape. Having got this far I felt we could handle anything.
“I am mastless, the deck was holed. It is not a happy situation, but there it is, you roll the dice.”
O’Coineen was sailing in 15th position with 19 competitors left in the race which set sail from the French Atlantic port of Les Sables d’Olonne on November 6.
The Irishman was positioned 6,600 nautical miles behind French leader Armel Le Cléac’h on board Banque populaire VIII.
“A full assessment of his (O’Coineen’s) situation is being made,” organisers said.
Vendee Globe standings on Sunday
1. Armel Le Cléac’h (FRA/Banque populaire VIII) at 4,734 nautical miles from finish
2. Alex Thomson (GBR/Hugo Boss) at 187.32nm from the leader
3. Jeremie Beyou (FRA/Maître CoQ) 1,017.21
4. Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA/StMichel-Virbac) 1,712.90
5. Yann Elies (FRA/Queguiner-Leucémie Espoir) 1,862.66
6. Jean Le Cam (FRA/Finistere Mer Vent) 1,876.34
7. Louis Burton (FRA/Bureau Vallee) 3,080.13
8. Nandor Fa (HUN/Spirit of Hungary) 4,215.55
9. Conrad Colman (NZL/Foresight Natural Energy) 4,392.76
10. Eric Bellion (FRA/CommeUnSeulHomme) 5,670.14
- © AFP, 2016
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Japan’s military has found debris from a F-35A fighter jet that disappeared from radar with one pilot on board during a training mission over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday evening.
A Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) spokesman has confirmed that debris from the F-35A plane, which lost radar contact with ground control at Misawa Air Base during a routine training mission off the coast of Aomori Prefecture on Tuesday, has been found.
"We recovered the wreckage and determined it was from the F-35," he told Reuters.
It is the second F-35 crash in the fighter's history, and the first one outside the US. The plane was less than a year old and was delivered to the JASDF last year. It was flying with three others of the same make about 135km off the coast when it disappeared.
Also on rt.com Exorbitant cost, multiple failures, years overdue: A recap of the ongoing F-35 calamity (VIDEO)
Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya grounded the Air Self-Defense Force’s entire fleet of F-35As as a precaution after the aircraft went missing at about 7:30pm local time, half an hour after taking off. At the same time the fighter disappeared from the radar screens, ground control also lost all radio contact with it.
It was reportedly the first F-35A to be built at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries facility in Nagoya. In December, Japan announced plans to place an order for 105 more F-35s from the US on top of the 42 it had already bought – a deal which would make Japan the largest international buyer of the troubled plane.
The F-35 is considered the most expensive US military program ever, and a 2018 report by the Project on Government Oversight claims that senior officials involved in developing the aircraft concealed dangerous flaws in its design instead of fixing them in order to avoid paying cost overruns on what was already an enormously expensive project. A 2018 Government Accountability Office report showed the plane had 111 Category One deficiencies that severely restricted its combat readiness, posing the risk of death, severe injury, loss or major damage.
Also on rt.com Japanese F-35 fighter jet 'disappears from radar' over Pacific
A February report from the Pentagon further revealed that some of the F-35s' lifespan is nearly four times shorter than expected, and the firing accuracy of the fighter's guns is “unacceptable.” The number of operation-ready planes remained below 60 percent, and previously-uncovered cybersecurity “vulnerabilities” were still wide open.
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This card kicks ass.
With Celebrity Gift you're basically selling information to the Runner for, which might sound a bit questionable at first due to Netrunner being all about information, but that would be ignoring how much Netrunner is just as much about misinformation. This is one of my favourite cards in the game because it is just useful, intelligently designed, game-changing fun. And, with it now being implemented into the Revised Core Set, anyone will be able to use this cheeky sod right out of the gate.
Looking at the basic fundamentals of the card, Celebrity Gift costs 3 s and takes two s to install; as a in its lowest form is a, let's go with the idea that Celebrity Gift is going to cost you 5 s. Because of this, you're going to need to reveal at least 3 cards from your hand in order for this card to be worth playing, although, realistically, you're probably going to reveal your entire hand because, well, why wouldn't you? If you do this, you will gain 10 s from 2 s, which is crazy.
This allows for Celebrity Gift to be a big economic benefit to Jinteki -- it's home faction -- as well as whatever other faction you're likely to shove it into, although this is probably much less worthwhile due to the influence cost and your option for other, cheaper alternatives such as Hedge Fund, Successful Demonstration, or Medical Research Fundraiser, even though I would recommend Celebrity Gift for more than just its economic benefit.
Celebrity Gift's best feature is that it allows you to seriously mess with the mind of your opponent, making them wonder what the hell you're actually planning to do with all that crap in your hand.
Show them a hand full of traps? They'll avoid your HQ, which is good; allowing you to guard it safely or bung them wherever you like, making the Runner think twice before they run anything, which is really good.
Show them a hand full of agendas? They'll rush your HQ, which is bad; unless you booby trap your HQ beforehand, which is good.
Show them a mixture of both? They'll be considering either of the above, which is great; until you then install one of those revealed cards into a remote server, tearing their mind in two, which is fantastic.
Celebrity Gift is all about screwing with your opponent and getting paid, two things that should never go underappreciated in Android: Netrunner. You're dangling a carrot in front of the Runner to get them to give chase, and when they do, you pull the carrot away and kick them in the face.
Also, the artwork is adorable, goddamn.
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Ex-FBI agent details raid on Phoenix body donation facility A former FBI agent has provided gruesome details from a 2014 raid of a body donation facility in Phoenix
PHOENIX -- A former FBI agent has provided gruesome details from a January 2014 raid of a now-closed body donation facility in Phoenix whose owner later pleaded guilty to a felony charge for his role in mishandling donated body parts.
Few details of the weeklong search of Biological Resource Center were publicly revealed five years ago when FBI employees wearing hazardous-material gear raided the facility.
But retired FBI Agent Mark Cwynar provided a description in May as part of a lawsuit against Biological Resource Center and other companies alleging fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress and intentional mishandling of bodily remains.
Cwynar said in court records that he saw many male torsos without limbs or genitalia, a bucket of heads, a cooler filled with male penises, and body parts throughout the facility that had no identification saying which bodies they came from.
"I observed a large torso with the head removed and replaced with a smaller head sewn together in a 'Frankenstein' manner," Cwynar said.
The lawsuit, filed by dozens of people whose deceased loved ones' bodies were donated, said FBI employees involved in the raid required trauma therapy because of the graphic scene they witnessed.
The lawsuit alleges people who donated their deceased relatives' bodies were deceived when they were assured the bodies would be treated with dignity and used for medical research projects, when some of the bodies were actually sold to the Department of Defense.
"These bodies were literally used as crash test dummies, which meant they were used in experiments involving exposures to destructive forces, e.g. impacts, crashes, ballistic injuries and blasts," the lawsuit said.
Jim Stauffer, one of the plaintiffs, told Phoenix television station ABC15 that his mother's body was used for military testing.
"She was then supposedly strapped in a chair on some sort of apparatus, and a detonation took place underneath her to basically kind of get an idea of what the human body goes through when a vehicle is hit by an IED," Stauffer told the television station.
In earlier filings, company owner Stephen Gore had denied the allegations within the lawsuit.
Gore pleaded guilty in October 2015 to a state charge of illegally conducting an enterprise. In his criminal case, he acknowledged his firm provided vendors with human tissue that was contaminated and used in ways that went against the wishes of the donors.
In a letter to the sentencing judge, Gore said he should have been more involved in the supervision of his employees and could have been more open about the donation process on his company's brochure.
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The Calgary housing market is cooling fast. New sales and listing data for the first half of the month have been released and the numbers aren’t pretty.
The number of homes trading hands has plunged 37 per cent compared to the first two weeks of January 2014, while the number of active listings surged 64 per percent.
That means there are far more homes up for sale in Canada’s energy capital compared to a year ago, and far fewer buyers. The result: prices declined 1.5 per cent, according to data from the city’s real estate board.
There are now more than 4,000 homes on the market in Calgary versus about 2,500 in the same period a year ago.
“Calgary’s high-flying housing market has caught a serious chill,” Sal Guatieri, senior economist at Bank of Montreal, said Monday afternoon.
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The price drop “is likely the start of a correction,” the economist said.
Until very recently, Calgary’s housing market was the top performing in the country alongside Toronto and Vancouver. Plunging oil prices have worked quickly to cool things down, however.
MORE: Oil’s collapse sends shiver across Alberta’s real estate market
Oil prices have declined to about $47 (U.S.) a barrel, down more than 55 per cent from their June peak. The plunge has seen investment plans by companies in the energy patch cut back and led to layoffs. Most experts expect oil to remain at their current levels well into the new year.
A report from the Conference Board of Canada last week predicted that Alberta, which accounted for one in three new jobs in Canada last year, will contract in 2015 – an outlook Alberta Premier Jim Prentice disputed.
“More pain lies ahead,” BMO’s Guatieri said of the Alberta real estate market, noting pending sales in the province’s biggest city are also down 53 per cent year over year. “Ouch.”
BMO says economic growth in Alberta won’t contract this year but will slow to a crawl, or 0.5 per cent. That’s a sharp deceleration from the average annual growth rate of about 3.5 per cent in recent years, or the best clip in the country.
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Here’s what average home prices looked like in Canada’s Big Three markets versus other major centres as of December.
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Took place near women’s entrance of the mosque in Parachinar as people gathered for Friday prayers
An explosion apparently targeting a Shia mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Parachinar, in a remote area bordering Afghanistan, killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens, officials said. Parachinar is in the Kurram Valley of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan and has been sporadic target of terror attacks.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the blast, which took place as people gathered for Friday prayers near the women's entrance of the Shia mosque in the central bazaar, follows a series of attacks this year.
Gunfire before attack
A parliamentarian from Parachinar, Sajid Hussain, said the death toll from the explosion had reached 11, with 60 wounded. He said gunfire preceded the incident, which he described as a suicide attack, adding, "The attack took place in a busy area and a women's mosque appears to be the target."
Last month, more than 80 people were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan that was claimed by Islamic State.
Authorities in mainly Sunni-Muslim Pakistan said a military rescue helicopter had been sent to the scene to help evacuate the injured.
Two children among dead
Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in the region, said five bodies, including a woman and two children, and more than three dozen wounded, had been brought to the hospital and an appeal for blood donors had been made.
"Patients are being brought to us in private cars and ambulances and we have received over three dozen patients so far," Dr. Hussain told Reuters.
The attacks have shattered hopes that Pakistan may have come through the militant violence that has scarred its recent history and increased pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to show it was improving security.
Mr. Sharif condemned the attack and said the government would keep up efforts to "eliminate the menace of terrorism."
In a statement, he said, “The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil.”
Spate of blasts
On 21 January 2017, a bomb was detonated at a vegetable market here in which at least 25 people were killed and 87 injured. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami and Pakistani Taliban splinter Shehryar Mehsud group both separately issued a joint claim of responsibility for that blast.
The same area has seen several explosions in 2008, February 2012, September 2012, 2013 and in December 2015.
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Last year, Xiaomi released a tablet, fittingly called the Mi Pad. The device was apparently enough of a success that a sequel was in order, and so last month the Mi Pad 2 released. Priced at 999 Yuan (approximately $156) the device had only 16GB of storage and ran Android. Today, Xiaomi released a 64GB variant that has Android or Windows 10 on-board, for a very reasonably 1299 Yuan ($203). The biggest surprise however? The new variant sold out in under a minute.
The Mi Pad 2 features a 7.9 inch, 1536 X 2048 pixel display, a 2.2GHz Intel Atom X5-Z8500 SoC, 2GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 and a 5-megapixel front facing camera, a 6190mAh battery, and USB Type-C.
The sudden sell out
The sales surge for this particular product is quite a curious one to say the least. Given that the 16GB Mi Pad 2 failed to generate such a sell-out, it begs the question of what was the cause today? Three potential explanations are plausible:
Xiaomi underestimated demand and there were not enough of the 64GB variants to meet it. This is certainly a possibility assuming that the OEM didn’t understand the impact increased storage would have on its tablet, but is probably unlikely. Customers had been waiting and were overwhelmingly interested in the larger storage option. Windows 10.
As global tablet sales have begun to plateau, it is possible the presence of Windows 10 gave the Mi Pad 2 a greater sense of allure than its Android compatriot. While it would ultimately require Xiaomi to provide specifics as to the sales breakdown across all three of the devices, should it be revealed that Microsoft’s platform earns the majority of sales, the relatively new Chinese OEM might conceivably have a viable future in making an entire range of Windows products.
The workings of Windows
Interestingly enough for a growing company like Xiaomi to potentially see success with Windows might not only help out its overall profit picture, but also begin to alter the Chinese OS situation. Android is currently extremely popular there with Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, and various other OEMs all making use of Google’s platform.
If Windows becomes more relevant however, there would seemingly be little reason not to also see an adoption of Windows 10 mobile devices, or at the very least resources that would have been spent entirely on Android product development split between the two.
Given that Xiaomi has already released Windows 10 on one of its phones, and now a tablet as well, clearly there is more than a mild amount of curiosity as to the potential of such products.
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, PlateCount = int.Parse(loadoutResults["5"].ToString()) }},
{new BarbellLoadout{ PlateSize = 2.5M, PlateCount = int.Parse(loadoutResults["2.5"].ToString()) }}
};
loadingChart.ItemsSource = results; mainPivotControl.SelectedItem = barbellLoading; }
currentTotal = DesiredLoad.to_i - BarbellWeight.to_i
output = {} output["45"] = (currentTotal / 90).truncate currentTotal -= output["45"] * 90 output["25"] = (currentTotal / 50).truncate currentTotal -= output["25"] * 50
output["10"] = (currentTotal / 20).truncate currentTotal -= output["10"] * 20
output["5"] = (currentTotal / 10).truncate currentTotal -= output["5"] * 10
output["2.5"] = (currentTotal / 5).truncate currentTotal -= output["2.5"] * 5
return output
I learned a very important lesson: All global variables set from the outside must have a capitalized variable name; otherwise, the variables will not work. Even more frustrating, in my script I prefaced the global variables with a dollar sign, and they didn't balk -- the variables auto initialized to the defaults, giving me no output. It took me a couple of hours to really get things working.
One alternative to my technique is to use the dynamic functions of C# 4. For example, a Ruby script could create classes, and you could use dynamic to instantiate them and run their methods from C#. I didn't try this directly, but dynamic worked when I gave it a dry run in plain C#, and I have no reason to believe that it wouldn't work to call IronRuby code.
Conclusion
This novel approach is not terribly practical, unless you prefer Ruby or have a deep investment in it. The big issue is that the already lean debugging options are nonexistent in the hosted DLR scenario. You can't step into the Ruby code; for me to debug it, I copied it into another IronRuby project and set up global variables to replicate what my C# code was setting so I could step into the code. This might be enough for a Ruby pro, but as a Ruby novice, it's not what I need. All the same, using IronRuby in Windows Phone 7 apps is of interest.
If you want more Ruby on Windows Phone 7, check out iron7, a Ruby interpreter for WP7.
J.Ja
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, including each member of the crew [wearing] a GPIRB. I would like to add my personal condolences to the family and crew that were part of this sad event.
'Just last week, I participated in the Marblehead-Halifax Race,' continued Jobson. 'We had a record-breaking run. I kept my safety harness attached to the boat during the nighttime hours.'
According to Chicago Yacht Club race officials, WingNuts was removed from race documents immediately following the disaster in an effort to protect the lost sailors’ families. This was by no means intended to hide information—only to help provide some privacy to the close-knit family crew aboard WingNuts amidst the media frenzy of the past 36 hours.
The CYC will republish WingNuts data on their website, in due course.
Here is a partial list of the boats that stood by to assist during the tragedy: Turning Point, La Tempete, Sociable Buzz, J Crew'd, Northstar, Nautilus, MENTAL, Que Loco II, Timberwolf, Gauntlet, Usual Suspect, Bozos Circus, Lady K, and Say Uncle.
Specifically, Robert Arzbaecher’s Sociable, a Beneteau 40.7 from the Milwaukee Yacht Club, deserves special mention, as they successfully rescued six of WingNuts surviving crewmembers. While Arzbaecher and crew have requested privacy during this difficult time, they deserve to be recognized as heros.
The loss of two sailors from the WingNuts crew is the worst tragedy in the race’s proud 103-year history.
Please take a long moment of silence to honor two lost members of our extended sailing family. Please also seriously consider the safety equipment on your boat, and constantly re-familiarize yourself and your crew on the best MOB practices.
While the WingNuts crew undoubtedly practiced excellent seamanship, and best-accepted practices, their boat was simply no match for 100-knot winds.
Sadly, this is a stark reminder that all boaters must accept the fact that—while extremely rare—these sorts of freak storms are a possibility that every skipper must be prepared to encounter.
For more information on the Chicago Yacht Club's 103rd Race to Mackinac, please visit www.cycracetomackinac.com
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
www.sail-world.com
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/86145
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Passport And Twitter Handle, Please: Border Agents May Soon Ask For Social Media Info
The Department of Homeland Security might start requesting some travelers' social media handles.
That's according to a proposal submitted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection last week.
The proposed policy — which is currently open for public comment — would ask for social media "identifiers," such as handles or usernames, from travelers entering the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program.
Providing such information would be optional, not mandatory. The Department of Homeland Security says it would provide "greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections" by giving investigators more tools to analyze.
The program allows residents of many countries to visit the U.S. without applying for a visa (which is required for visitors from the rest of the world).
"Thirty-eight nations, including most of Europe, are visa waiver countries," NPR's Brian Naylor reported last year. "It's a largely hassle-free way to come to the U.S. for tourists and business people. You'll need to answer a few questions on a form on the Internet and have a passport with a digital photograph."
The proposal from DHS would add an extra field to that form. The proposed text would read:
"Please enter information associated with your online presence—Provider/Platform—Social media identifier."
Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida criticized the idea in a statement, arguing that a proposal that relies on voluntary disclosure "lacks teeth."
"What terrorist is going to give our government permission to see their radical jihadist rants on social media?" Buchanan asked. "The only people who will share that information are those with nothing to hide."
Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, told the BBC that he opposes the move for a very different reason.
"Democracy in general requires having spaces free from government scrutiny and increasingly social life happens online," he told the British broadcaster.
The proposal is currently in a public comment period and won't move forward with approval until at least Aug. 22.
You might remember that the Visa Waiver Program made headlines late last year, following the November attacks in Paris, when the program came under scrutiny.
As of this past January, citizens of VWP countries who are also citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria are no longer eligible for the VWP. People who have visited one or more of those countries since March 1, 2011, are also excluded.
That doesn't mean they can't visit the U.S.; it just means they must go through the lengthier visa process to do so.
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his confirmation hearing that the U.S.-led global order is facing its biggest challenge since World War II, and he identified threats from Russia and terrorist groups as well as Chinese aggressiveness in the South China Sea as the key challenges currently facing the United States. The most serious of those issues from Australia’s vantage point is China. The U.S. is prioritizing China as one of its main issues, both from an economic and security perspective. The U.S. will not withdraw from its security commitments to its allies, but it will insist that the burden of defense be shared more equally. The U.S. wants Australia to take a more active role in managing the South Pacific, but it also needs Australia to play a bigger role in the Pacific’s balance of power at large. The problem is that China, the country Australia is primarily balancing against, is Australia’s most important trading partner. This puts Australia in a difficult position, which is no different than the usual state of affairs. The U.S.-Australia relationship could be summed up as a series of instances where the U.S. has asked Australia to support U.S. moves in challenging situations.
As for why Trump would choose to embarrass such a close strategic ally publicly, the most we can offer is an educated guess. Trump campaigned on the immigration issue and has made it a defining part of his first 100 days in office. The fact that the U.S. had a prior agreement to take 1,250 refugees, most from countries Trump banned from entering the U.S. in last week’s executive order, from two Australian offshore detention centers might anger his base, whose support he must maintain. Perhaps someone intentionally leaked parts of the conversation between Trump and Turnbull to The Washington Post so that Trump could score domestic political points at Turnbull’s expense, while still behind the scenes begrudgingly living up to a prior U.S. commitment to a key ally. The fact that Trump tweeted about the immigration issue a few hours after the Post article appeared increases the likelihood of the possibility, but there is no way to confirm where the leak came from and the intention of the person responsible.
What can be said is that the U.S.-Australia alliance goes beyond personalities. Personality clashes between U.S. and Australian leaders have happened before, but the two countries’ imperatives have kept them close and will continue to do so. Australia does not have a viable option to replace the U.S. security guarantee, and the U.S. must maintain a close relationship with Australia to secure its position in the Pacific and keep the containment line against China’s ambitions in the region robust. Need is a more stable basis for an alliance than affection.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp BAC.N, the largest U.S. retail bank, may set aside a record $6.5 billion in the first quarter to cover possible future loan losses, including in its mortgage and home equity portfolios, according to a banking analyst.
A taxi speeds past a Bank of America branch in New York's Times Square January 11, 2008. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Richard Bove of Punk Ziegel & Co also slashed his earnings forecasts for the bank through 2010, though he still expects a first-quarter profit.
He said actual losses in the portfolios should be “somewhat less” than the amount he expects set aside, suggesting the bank would be conservative in its forecast of future credit trends.
“I do not foresee the economy plunging to a level that will substantiate this reserve build,” wrote Bove, who has a “buy” rating on the bank, in a report dated March 24. “It is my impression that the management has made a decision to try to take, upfront, the potential losses that it believes may be nascent.”
Bove cut his profit per share forecast to $2.98 from $3.81 for 2008, to $3.96 from $4.30 for 2009, and to $4.78 from $4.93 for 2010. He sees first-quarter profit of 37 cents per share.
Bank of America was not immediately available for comment.
In January, Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said he expected full-year profit would top $4 per share. He predicted credit costs would rise by more than 20 percent, largely in consumer portfolios, but that such an increase would be manageable.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank set aside $3.31 billion for credit losses in the fourth quarter, and $8.39 billion for all of 2007, up 67 percent from a year earlier.
Bank of America agreed in January to buy Countrywide Financial Corp CFC.N, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, in a transaction now valued at about $4.4 billion.
The all-stock transaction values Countrywide at $7.63 per share, which is 32 percent above Countrywide’s Thursday closing price of $5.78. The gap reflects some investors’ expectations that Bank of America might at least try to renegotiate the merger terms because the housing market has weakened.
Bank of America shares closed Thursday at $41.86 on the New York Stock Exchange. They rose 17 percent last week, a strong week for bank stocks, and are up a little more than 1 percent this year.
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Suspected rhino poachers killed by lions
(CNN) -- Suspected poachers sneaked onto a South African game reserve to hunt rhinos, but a pride of lions found them instead.
A guide at the Sibuya Game Reserve spotted what appeared to be human remains on Tuesday near the group of lions, according to reserve owner Nick Fox. It was getting too dark to search the area, so police came back the next day with the reserve's anti-poaching unit and other specialists.
The remains were strewn over an area covered with thick brush and Fox said it was impossible to know how many people were killed.
Investigators did find three pairs of boots and three pairs of gloves.
They also found a high-powered rifle with a silencer, wire cutters and an ax that Fox said would have been used to remove a slain rhino's horns.
"We're almost 100% sure this is connected to rhino poaching," Fox said.
The six lions in the pride were tranquilized while the area was searched.
"Investigators and specialists combed the scene and managed to retrieve remains, which were taken by the Department of Health to conduct forensic testing. Investigation continues and at this stage we are unable to speculate as to how the remains ended up at the scene," South African Police Service Capt. Mali Govender said in a statement.
Fox said he thinks the poachers got onto the reserve on Sunday night or early Monday morning.
An anti-poaching dog signaled that it noticed something during a patrol about 4:30 a.m. and her handler heard a commotion from the lions. Lions are often active at night, so the noise didn't raise suspicions.
"The anti-poaching unit never suspected anything wrong because it was the lions making noise and not the rhinos," Fox said.
The poachers had a rifle, but they did not get off a shot before the lions took them down, Fox said.
"It was a bit of luck for us and not so much luck for them," he said.
The poachers were apparently on foot when they encountered the lions, which is very dangerous.
Fox said reserve staff and guests never go near the lions unless they're in big trucks.
He said they're watching the lions closely and they have shown no signs of being aggressive around vehicles.
Rhinos are endangered and are prized for their horns.
In 2016, poachers killed three rhinos at the Sibuya Game Reserve and hacked off their horns.
Fox said security was increased at the 25 square kilometer reserve in Kenton on Sea and installed more cameras to monitor the rhinos.
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A security guard was fired last week for helping apprehend a man who allegedly punched a police officer in the face.
The security guard tackled a suspect who allegedly struck a Placer County Sheriff's officer at a Best Buy in Roseville, California, and fled into the parking lot.
Best Buy said the employee's actions violated company policy, which forbids workers from intervening with illegal events outside the store.
"Our policy is clear, employees are not to chase potential criminals outside of the store, the company told ABC affiliate KXTV in a statement. "Chasing an individual in the parking lot creates a safety risk that isn't worth taking, regardless of how noble an employee's intention is."
Best Buy did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
The Placer County Sheriff's Department said officers made contact with 35-year-old Timothy Trujillo, a suspect who was on the run, after receiving a tip that he might be nearby.
"Trujillo struck one of the detectives and fled in an attempt to escape. After a short foot pursuit they were able to get Trujillo under control and handcuffed," the Placer County Sheriff's Office said in a statement last week. "Trujillo and his car were searched and detectives found methamphetamine, stolen property and burglary tools."
Trujillo was arrested on the scene and faces charges for "assaulting and resisting a peace officer, possession of burglary tools, possession of methamphetamine, and burglary," according to the statement. "After further investigation, detectives connected Trujillo to burglaries in Placer County, in addition to his Nevada burglaries. He was booked at the South Placer Jail, where he remains in custody without bail."
Trujillo was wanted on a felony warrant by Nevada State officials and the Placer County Sheriff's Department after detectives were informed he might be evading law enforcement in the Roseville area, according to KXTV. It's unclear whether Trujillo has legal counsel at this time.
Placer County Sheriff's Office Lt. Andrew Scott thanked the Best Buy employee for his help with the arrest in an interview on Saturday.
"Obviously, we are very grateful he intervened," Scott told ABC KXTV. "Luckily, no one was hurt. That's our first and most pressing concern in something like this, but because he intervened we were able to catch this man and take him off the streets."
Scott said he was grateful for the employee's assistance, but that his office prefers citizens not get involved in law enforcement matters.
"We don't want to see someone get hurt," Scott said. "And our deputies are trained to deal with situations like this."
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SINGAPORE - A former Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) lieutenant-colonel has been convicted of drink driving for the second time in 10 years.
S. Vengadeshwaran, who has served as an honorary aide-de-camp (ADC) to former presidents S R Nathan and Tony Tan Keng Yam, drank three pints of beer before getting behind the wheel in February last year.
He was later stopped for a spot check at a road block and 56 microgrammes of alcohol were found in every 100 millilitres of his breath. The prescribed limit is 35 microgrammes.
Vengadeshwaran, 39, who resigned from the RSAF, was sentenced on Tuesday (Nov 13) to two weeks' jail and a fine of $4,000 after pleading guilty to a drink-driving charge.
He was also disqualified from driving all classes of vehicles for three years and a month.
The court heard that in 2008, he was fined $2,000 and banned from driving for a year following his first drink-driving conviction.
According to The Istana website, full-time ADCs to the President attend to their general administration, security and social needs.
They also accompany them at events such as state functions and ceremonies. Honorary ADCs, on the other hand, assist their full-time counterparts to perform their duties.
Vengadeshwaran had been drinking with a friend at an Aliwal Street pub near Beach Road shortly after midnight on Feb 4 last year. He left at around 2am to drive home.
About 45 minutes later, he made a wrong turn and ended up driving along Jalan Toa Payoh towards the Pan Island Expressway where he was stopped at a road block.
A Traffic Police officer noticed that he reeked of alcohol and he was arrested after failing a breathalyser test.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Teo Lu Jia urged District Judge Lorraine Ho to sentence Vengadeshwaran to at least two weeks' jail, adding that he had previously been fined for multiple other traffic offences including speeding.
Defence lawyer Patrick Fernandez said that his client had the capacity to reform and did not object to the two-week jail sentence.
Vengadeshwaran is now out on a bail of $15,000 and will surrender himself at the State Courts on Nov 20 to begin serving his sentence.
For drink driving, first-time offenders can be jailed for up to six months or fined between $1,000 and $5,000. Repeat offenders can be jailed for up to a year and fined between $3,000 and $10,000.
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When Donald Trump was running for president, he told voters he would run the country like he ran his business. Two years later, it’s one of the few promises he’s actually kept. Family members are doing jobs they’re not remotely qualified for. Corruption and self-dealing are a regular feature of life inside the administration. Trump is surrounded not by the “best,” but by the dumbest people. And, like his Taj Mahal casino—along with all the other businesses that ultimately went bust—the nation’s debt is soaring under the genius businessman’s tutelage, a situation that has become significantly more precarious as his pointless shutdown reaches its 19th day.
Shortly after Trump delivered his Oval Office prime-time address on Tuesday, Fitch Ratings’ global head of sovereign ratings, James McCormack, warned that mounting debt is weighing on the U.S. and that the inability to deal with a “meaningful fiscal deterioration” as the shutdown drags on could put our triple-A rating at risk. A credit downgrade—which has only happened once since 1941—would make it more difficult for the U.S. government to borrow money and increase borrowing costs. Speaking at an event in London, McCormack added: “If this shutdown continues to March 1 and the debt ceiling becomes a problem several months later, we may need to start thinking about the policy framework, the inability to pass a budget... And whether all of that is consistent with triple-A.” Other victims of the shutdown, of course, include the 800,000 federal employees who are furloughed or working without pay, a situation that has resulted in people skipping medication to pay for food or rent.
As a reminder, during the campaign Trump claimed that he would eliminate the national debt in a period of eight years. Last week, the Treasury Department reported that the national debt had clocked in at $21.974 trillion at the end of 2018, representing a $2 trillion bump since Trump took office. According to the Daily Beast, the president is unconcerned about the U.S.’s financial situation because he “won’t be here” when the shit truly hits the fan.
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Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.
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, in typical fast-moving "Homeland" style, subsequent episodes informed us that Allison, whom Saul trusts with his secrets as well as his body, is really a Russian mole ready to plant her knife firmly in his back, setting him up to be suspected by the CIA as collaborating with Israelis in sabotaging a key CIA plan to replace the leader of Syria. Saul, she knows, is vulnerable to these suspicions, we learn, because he passed secret information on suspected terrorists to the Israelis decades earlier — and his CIA colleagues have always looked askance at his cozy relationship with his co-religionists in Jerusalem ever since.
The suspicions weren’t totally off-base, judging from the way that Saul made his getaway, once it becomes clear to him that he is being plotted against from inside the CIA. He obviously had an exit plan in place with the Israelis, triggered by an innocent-seeming phone call regarding his laundry. Moments later, his CIA escorts are set upon by a band of masked men who grab him and whisk him away in a van, and he ends up next to Etai, the ambassador, cluing us in that his "kidnappers" are really Mossad agents. Etai turns and asks him, "So what exactly are we doing here?"
Saul responds: "I don’t know, I’ve never defected before."
So what now? Only the clever minds behind "Homeland" know for sure. Unfortunately, there was no news of the series filming in Israel last year, so it would be wishful thinking to imagine we would see Saul in exile strolling on the beaches of Tel Aviv, enjoying hummus in Jaffa, or maybe finally hooking up with a nice Jewish girl after the long-suffering Mira and the treacherous Allison. One wonders whether Patinkin’s off-screen relationship with Israel — he is on the board of American Friends of Peace Now — has had any impact on the script.
In any case, the pieces seem to be in place for an exploration of the relationship between American Jews like Saul Berenson and Israel, the extent — and the limits — of their ties, especially in these unbelievably complicated times in the Middle East.
When we entered the world of "Homeland" in its first season, the show was all about the CIA team led by Saul Berenson trying to get inside the mind of former Prisoner of War Nicholas Brody, a scarred but faithful Muslim convert, and figuring out where his true loyalties lay, and what he really considered his "Homeland."
It will be fascinating to see what it is like for Saul on the other end of that microscope.
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If you want a good idea of what is wrong with America and needs to be fixed,
I highly recommend Wayne's book, It's NOT the LAW.
Donations:
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The disaster rains never came to Oroville
I will not be doing more significant Oroville updates until this chart starts looking bad again, or unless something major happens because this chart says it all automatically. I would bug out if water level reached 898 and was rising.
Access to past topics July 2016 (1) | July 2016 (2) | July 2016 (3) | june 2016 | june 2016 (2) |May 2016 |All the missing dates will fill in here later as I get to them. Oct 2015 | Sep 2015 | Sep 2015 (2) | August 2015 | July 2015 | June 2015
March 23-34 2017 - If the date does not keep up, what lands in the back door window below will be fresh anyway.
ANONYMOUS SENT:Jim I can say with honesty, the best evidence you have had to the truth was your Fox link with Carl Cameron on the covering of Isrealhell on the 911 situation, Can I recommend leaving this link permanently accessible at the top of you web page. Its the key to the lock on us. My response: HERE IT IS.
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‘Tweet Me A Reminder’ Might Be Netflix Best Idea Yet
‘Tweet Me A Reminder’ Might Be Netflix Best Idea Yet by Bryce Olin
Netflix CCO Claims Reliance on Ratings Is Hurting Creativity on TV by Bryce Olin
ATTENTION! THIS MAY CAUSE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED HOUSE OF CARDS!
As you know, Season 3 of House of Cards is set to return on February 27 on Netflix. To celebrate Netflix newest announcement and most popular show, I’ve decided to share the best quotes and lines from House of Cards main man, Frank Underwood.
Hopefully, this will get you in the mood and excited for season 3’s premiere at the end of February. Here at Netflix Life, we will be providing you with updates, recaps, summaries, and all that jazz as we get closer to the Season 3 premiere date.
For today, though, enjoy the maniacal Frank Underwood and his words of his wisdom, if that’s what you want to call it.
11. “When you’re fresh meat, kill and throw something fresher.”
10. “The road to power is paved with hypocrisy, and casualties.”
9. “Proximity to power deludes some into thinking they wield it.”
8. “Friends make the worst enemies.”
7. “Power is a lot like real estate. It’s all about location, location, location. The closer you are to the source, the higher your property value.”
6. “I’ve always loathed the necessity of sleep. Like death, it puts even the most powerful men on their backs.”
5. “Money is the Mc-mansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after 10 years. Power is the old stone building that stands for centuries. I cannot respect someone who doesn’t see the difference.”
4. “If you don’t like how the table is set, turn over the table.”
3. “What a martyr craves more than anything is a sword to fall on. So, you sharpen the blade, hold it at just the right angle, and then… 3,2,1…”
2. “Democracy is so overrated.”
1. “For those of us climbing to the top of the food chain, there can be no mercy. There is but one rule: hunt or be hunted.”
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At stake in the election is control of the three state governments, as well as their seats in the upper house of the federal Parliament. But beyond the short-term political tussle lies the question of long-term damage to the country’s halting attempts to integrate its newcomers, many of whom were born here but are still viewed as outside society’s mainstream.
Politically, the Christian Democrats have everything to lose, since they already control all three governments. Even if they manage to maintain control, simply losing seats would likely be interpreted as a sign of weakness, as the campaign for the next national elections in 2009 already looms large. Mrs. Merkel hopes to win a large enough share of votes to break up the marriage of convenience with the Social Democrats known as the “grand coalition.”
She struck a more measured tone when she spoke at the rally after Mr. Koch. “Violence in this country, whoever is responsible, is not acceptable,” Mrs. Merkel said. She asked for a discussion “in all calmness” with the Social Democrats.
When the debate first flared up, Mrs. Merkel seemed to steer clear of the controversy. Then a few days later she stepped up to support Mr. Koch. “It cannot be that a minority in this country creates fear in the majority,” she said, leaving wiggle room as to whether she was referring to immigrant youth specifically or to young people generally.
Mrs. Merkel pointed to the high share 43 percent of violent crimes committed by those under 21, and the fact that close to half of those were by what she called “foreign youths.”
Critics argue that the problem lies in disproportionately disadvantaged backgrounds, and that poor German youths are as likely to commit crimes as poor Turks or Russians. Statistics show that juvenile crime rates fell in 2007 from the prior year, but the debate has been more rhetorical than statistical.
Immigrant groups, Germany’s Jewish community and in particular the rival Social Democrats have called Mr. Koch a populist xenophobe and worse. Peter Struck, parliamentary floor leader for the Social Democrats, went so far as to accuse Mr. Koch of being “glad at heart” that the Munich subway attack had happened, a charge Mr. Koch denied.
Critics say the racial overtones cross the line. A campaign poster in Bavaria showed a still image from a surveillance video of the attack, in which the one attacker in the frame is a black silhouette. The victim’s image is cut out, making him a pure white shape. Where he slumps on the ground are written the words, “So that you are not the next.”
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A new method for counting sunspots undermines the argument that solar activity is responsible for global warming. Photo courtesy of NASA/SOHO | License Photo
HONOLULU, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A favorite argument of those who deny the reality of manmade climate change is that sunspots, or solar activity, dictate climate change.
The theory already had holes, but new research suggests the alleged correlation is nonexistent.
In a new study, researchers argue that a sunspot counting method called the Group Sunspot Number is fundamentally flawed. The flaw is responsible for the discrepancy between the Group Sunspot Number and the numbers tallied by another, older counting method called the Wolf Sunspot Number.
The Group Sunspot Number was created in the 1990s by a group of scientists who suggested lacking telescope technology resulted in astronomers lowballing the sunspot totals. The creators of the method claimed their analysis was based on sunspot measurements made by Galileo in 1612, and was a better way to account for the observations of ancient astronomers.
But the two scales disagreed on sunspots and sunspot group totals prior to 1885, as well as a period around 1945.
Now, researchers say that flaw has been eliminated and the sunspot counting method has been recalibrated. The new and improved method, dubbed Sunspot Number Version 2.0, shows that solar activity has not, in fact, been trending upward since the 18th century, but has remained largely the same.
The revelation makes it more difficult for climate change deniers to claim a long-term increase in solar activity is responsible for rising global temperatures.
Most climate scientists have never denied that solar activity may play a role in influencing climate, but have simply questioned the relative effect of that influence -- as compared with factors like greenhouse gas emissions.
But the new numbers will require climate scientists to re-examine climate models and the interplay between temperature and solar activity.
A team of researchers -- including scientists from England, Germany and the United States -- presented their new findings at the International Astronomical Union XXIX General Assembly in Honolulu on Tuesday.
RELATED Underwater monolith found off Sicilian coast
It hasn't been long since the link between sunspots and climate change last made the news. Earlier this year, Valentina Zharkova, a math professor at England's Northumbria University, told an assembly of astronomers that a precipitous drop in solar activity could pave the way for a mini ice age in the 2030s.
That story made the round on the Internet, but was quickly called into question by a variety of scientists, who questioned the significance of solar activity on weather and climate patterns on Earth.
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if we do not follow the police’s every order and command, no matter how unreasonable or unjust, that society will quickly fall apart and descend into chaos. Society is so convinced of the need for blind obedience that something as simple as feeding the homeless without a permit has now become a crime for which one can be thrown in a cage.
Indeed, it seems that a world in which innocent people can be tortured, killed or harassed on arbitrary grounds, is a lot more chaotic and evil than one in which people flout unjustified authority, and engage only in voluntary transactions.
So, if this isn’t a police state, what is? Only when police institute pogroms? When people are rounded up into camps? Innocent people are already being harassed, tortured and killed, while police see little punishment due to “internal investigations” and “paid suspensions.” Those who actually do get fired have little trouble finding jobs as cops again, in the next city. Do we literally have to turn into Nazi Germany before we refuse to put up with any more?
While we’re on the subject of Nazi Germany, a friend once ask me what my beef is with the system anyway, since I haven’t been beaten, shot, tortured, or even arrested and seem to be doing just fine in life. He called me selfish and ungrateful, as my complaints were so petty in comparison to all the ills of the world history has seen.
I pointed out to him, that his reasoning was analogous to that of a blond-haired, blue-eyed person in Nazi Germany who looks smugly to the minority of Jews being tortured and killed, and feels grateful for doing just fine in Nazi Germany.
Don’t be like most of the volunteers in Milgram’s experiment. Don’t be like a smug Aryan in Nazi Germany. Be the one guy in Milgram’s experiment who refused to go further after 300 volts. Be Mr. Hernandez who abides by the golden rule.
No one expects you to go and disobey the law and get arrested to make a statement, but at the very least, stop voting for these crooked politicians and these senseless laws.
If you believe in democracy, or a collective will, then you must believe that you are personally responsible every time there is an instance of police brutality, dead civilians in Afghanistan, or innocent deaths due to botched drug raids. If you do not believe you are responsible, then you must accept the logical correlate that there is no such thing as a “collective will,” and that democracy is merely a meaningless tool used by the majority to trample on the rights of the minority.
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Name Nicolas Sarkozy
Age: 61.
Appearance: Short, scheming.
I remember him. Wasn’t he in charge of France or something? And didn’t he have that wife? He was president of France from 2007 until 2012 – well done for noticing. And yes, soon after being elected he divorced his wife, and four months later married the musician and former model Carla Bruni, the second former model of his three wives.
That’s right. They call him “Sarko”, don’t they? They do. He’s probably the biggest political personality in France.
Summarise this personality, please. Grandiose, charming, jingoistic, chippy. His hunger to become president was legendary before it finally happened.
Like Napoleon, basically? Basically. The French went off him badly towards the end, then changed their mind almost as soon as they replaced him with Hollande.
That’s despite the lingering corruption allegations? For French presidents, those are not uncommon. Anyway Sarko has denied them and is now back. Undaunted, he’s just announced that he plans to run for the presidency again next year, if he can win the Les Républicains nomination.
He never sounded easily daunted. Indeed. And now he has moved on to Marine Le Pen’s turf and rebranded himself as a man of the quite-far-right.
What does that mean? “It is time to engage in a determined combat against multiculturalism.” That’s from his new book, Tout Pour la France, or Everything for France.
Cripes. He wants to “drastically reduce” immigration, make people wait 10 years before applying for citizenship and suspend the right of legal immigrants to be joined by their close family.
Why can’t people who move to France have the liberté to live how they like? “We are not Anglo-Saxons who allow communities to live side by side while ignoring one another,” Sarko writes. Basically everyone has to change their personality when they move to France.
Isn’t that quite difficult for people to do? Might it not happen quicker if you don’t force them, and doesn’t it happen anyway after a couple of generations? Don’t interrupt Sarko when he’s talking tough.
Do say: “Imagine trying to get the Republican party nomination with lots of xenophobic posturing!”
Don’t say: “Yeah, that would never work.”
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In a swift and unusual rebuke, U.S. Central Command stated Tuesday that U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria were on high alert against possible "imminent" attack by Iran and its proxies, countering claims earlier in the day by a deputy commander that Iran posed no immediate threat.
Remarks Tuesday morning by British Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika, deputy commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, given in a video briefing to the Pentagon, "run counter to the identified credible threats available to intelligence from U.S. and allies regarding Iranian-backed forces in the region," Navy Capt. Bill Urban, CENTCOM spokesman, said in a statement.
In his briefing, Ghika said in response to questions that "No, there's been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria" despite warnings from the White House to the contrary. But Urban said CENTCOM has already coordinated with OIR to boost "the force posture level for all service members assigned to OIR in Iraq and Syria."
"As a result, OIR is now at a high level of alert as we continue to closely monitor credible and possibly imminent threats to U.S. forces in Iraq, " Urban said.
Ghika had said that OIR officials saw no reason currently to raise alert levels, particularly in regard to the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, in Iraq whose ranks include militias closely linked to Iran.
"If the threat level seems to go up, then we'll raise our force protection measures accordingly," Ghika said.
The swift walkback of Ghika's remarks could be seen as reflecting concerns that warnings from White House and Pentagon officials, supported by President Donald Trump, on the threats to U.S. interests in the region and U.S. resolve on retaliation would not be taken seriously by Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday warned of possible "false flag" operations in the region that the U.S. could use as an excuse to attack Iran, according to Iran's state-run Fars news agency. He referred to reports of damages inflicted on four ships in the United Arab Emirates this week.
"We discussed the regional issues and dangers that the policies of extremist individuals in the U.S. administration are trying to impose on the region as well as concerns about the suspicious and sabotage acts that happen in our region," Zarif said in New Delhi after meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Fars reported.
"We had earlier predicted that they will adopt such measures to provoke tensions," Zarif said, according to Fars.
-- Richard Sisk can be reached at [email protected].
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from the Huffington Post
by Alexander Eichler
Scales continue to tip in the rich’s favor the world around.
Income inequality — the gap between a society’s richest members and its poorest — is rising not only in the United States but in most of the world’s major economies, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Since 1985, income inequality has grown more pronounced in 17 of the 22 countries for which the OECD has long-term data, including Mexico, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The OECD’s report suggests an explanation for why the Occupy Wall Street movement has grown from a single protest site in New York’s Zuccotti Park to a global phenomenon with hundreds of chapters in dozens of countries. Among other things, protesters in the Occupy movement say they oppose the concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people.
In the United States, the incomes of the very highest earners havegrown by leaps and bounds over the last quarter century, while remaining more or less flat for the vast majority of the population.
Comparable growth in the wealth gap has taken place in Germany, Finland, Israel, Sweden, Luxembourg and New Zealand, according to the OECD. Only five countries — Greece, Turkey, France, Belgium and Hungary — saw their levels of income inequality decline or remain constant.
Income inequality has been linked to a number of troubling economic trends, and some analysts believe the wealth gap is contributing to the slow rate of recovery for the global economy.
Earlier this year, a study in the newsletter of the International Monetary Fund suggested that a country is more likely to enjoy a sustained period of growth if it has a relatively equitable distribution of income — meaning that for the wealthy, high-inequality nations named in the OECD report, bouncing back from the worldwide recession may be taking longer than it needs to.
Income inequality has also been cited as a catalyzing factor for a number of protest movements around the globe, including the riots in England this summer and the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East on which the Occupy Wall Street movement has been patterned.
An OECD press release notes that income inequality, besides affecting the wealthy member-nations of the organization, is also a major concern in many of the developing countries outside of it. The correlation between a nation’s wealth gap and its poverty and social and political instability was suggested earlier this year, when The Atlantic published a world map color-coded by inequality. China, Brazil, Rwanda, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire and Serbia all had high levels of income inequality — as did the United States.
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separate from the rest of the prison population to ensure they can’t proselytize.
Afzal has campaigned for years for Britain’s deradicalization efforts to be better funding and professionalized. He notes that the more successful overseas programs are better funded, run by special agencies, involve the community and faith leaders and use reformed offenders as peer models and mentors, something British authorities are reluctant to do. “I am ashamed to say that the events of Streatham and London Bridge will be repeated until we take a different approach, and even then it will take time,” he wrote in a commentary for The Times newspaper.
Freed terrorists are required to follow a strict set of rules, including not using the internet, not associating with former accomplices, observing a curfew and attending only approved mosques. They are required to wear electronic ankle tags so their movements can be monitored.
Criminal justice experts have been warning for months about a lack of rigor with the prison rehabilitation programs, arguing that some offenders game the system to appear as though they are on the way to being deradicalized.
Former prison governor Ian Acheson, who in 2015 led an independent review of how Islamist militants are handled by the country’s prisons and probation system, said in the wake of December’s London Bridge attack that the entire rehabilitation system is deeply flawed. He said it is marked sometimes by naïveté and a “toxic combination of arrogance, defensiveness and ineptitude.”
He complained in his 2015 report the “screening tools to detect and programs to tackle radicalized behavior were rudimentary in-house creations with former terrorist offenders telling us how easy courses were to ‘game.’” He argues Britain’s criminal justice system is “unsuited to managing the risk of religious extremists with a martyrdom complex coming from a moral universe far away from the professionals responsible for their management.”
Criminal justice experts said that just lengthening sentences won’t necessarily solve the problem. Eventually offenders will have to be freed, and when they are, they will remain a threat if deradicalization efforts aren’t improved. They also worry that keeping more terrorist offenders locked up will create more extremists among the prison population.
They say Britain’s high-security prisons have become “jihadi training camps.”
In his 2015 report, former prison governor Acheson warned that “charismatic” jihadi prisoners are “acting as self-styled emirs” and “exerting a controlling and radicalizing influence on the wider Muslim prison population.”
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BILL NUMBER: AB 51 CHAPTERED BILL TEXT CHAPTER 141 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE AUGUST 19, 2016 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR AUGUST 19, 2016 PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 1, 2016 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 4, 2016 AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 1, 2016 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 22, 2015 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 11, 2015 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Quirk and Lackey (Coauthor: Assembly Member Chu) DECEMBER 1, 2014 An act to add Section 21658.1 to the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 51, Quirk. Vehicles: motorcycles: lane splitting. Existing law requires, whenever a roadway has been divided into 2 or more clearly marked lanes for traffic in one direction, that a vehicle be driven as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane and not be moved from the lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety. This bill would define "lane splitting" as driving a motorcycle, that has 2 wheels in contact with the ground, between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane, as specified. The bill would authorize the Department of the California Highway Patrol to develop educational guidelines relating to lane splitting in a manner that would ensure the safety of the motorcyclist, drivers, and passengers, as specified. The bill would require the department, in developing these guidelines, to consult with specified agencies and organizations with an interest in road safety and motorcyclist behavior. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 21658.1 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read: 21658.1. (a) For the purposes of this section, "lane splitting" means driving a motorcycle, as defined in Section 400, that has two wheels in contact with the ground, between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane, including on both divided and undivided streets, roads, or highways. (b) The Department of the California Highway Patrol may develop educational guidelines relating to lane splitting in a manner that would ensure the safety of the motorcyclist and the drivers and passengers of the surrounding vehicles. (c) In developing guidelines pursuant to this section, the department shall consult with agencies and organizations with an interest in road safety and motorcyclist behavior, including, but not limited to, all of the following: (1) The Department of Motor Vehicles. (2) The Department of Transportation. (3) The Office of Traffic Safety. (4) A motorcycle organization focused on motorcyclist safety.
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A party to launch Milo Yiannopoulos’ long-delayed book was axed after the venue’s owner realised what the event was.
The ex-Breitbart editor’s ‘Coming out Conservative’ night at New York Pride was cancelled at the last minute.
The owner of New York dim sum restaurant, Jue Lan Club, said he had no idea what the event was when they took the booking.
Horrified club owner Stratis Morfogen banned the alt-right group over fears it would alienate his regular customers.
The restaurant is based in Chelsea, New York, which has a considerable LGBT population.
“I had no idea this was booked. It was told to us it was a gay pride event,” the restaurateur told Page Six.
Milo hit back at the cancellation, claiming “angry, bitter leftists” had bullied the venue.
“Angry, bitter leftists have seized control over the Pride celebration and made it a political statement against President Trump,” said Yiannopoulos.
“I am throwing a party for the outcasts, the rebels, and the gay conservatives who speak, think, and live free of liberal demands.”
Milo’s new book, Dangerous, is due to be released in July four months after it was axed by its major publisher.
Guests of the event had been sent an invite from Milo claiming it was harder to come out as conservative than gay.
The invitation read:
Across the country, gay conservatives have been warned that they are not welcomed at Pride this year. Angry, bitter leftists have seized control over the celebration and made it a political statement against President Trump.
In honour of my new book Dangerous, I am throwing a party for the outcasts, the rebels, the gay conservatives who speak, think, and live free of liberal demands.
Join me for complimentary cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres.
Come celebrate all the things that make us different and Dangerous to politically correct gay liberals.
The former columnist and semi-professional internet troll was hastily ditched as an alt-right figurehead earlier this year after damaging tapes emerged in which he discussed men who have sex with underage boys.
In just 24 hours the columnist was dropped from far-right news website Breitbart News, had his book deal axed by Simon & Schuster, and was removed from the line-up of the Republican CPAC conference.
His book ‘Dangerous’ had been set for release this year, but after the cancellation of the Simon & Schuster deal Yiannopoulos was forced to self-publish.
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Pinnacles of 19th Century Science February 12, 2009
Utica, N.Y.
Richard Feynman famously presented his students with his unique (and let's admit it, hyperbolical) view of history when he said
From a long view of the history of mankind — seen from, say, ten thousand years from now — there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as [James Clerk] Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade. (The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume II, 1-11)
Others might acknowledge Maxwell's work but argue that the most important scientific event in the 19th was instead the codification of the laws of thermodynamics. Many people contributed to thermodynamics, including designers of steam engines, Sadi Carnot, James Joule, and Rudolf Clausius, but it was William Thomson (later known as Lord Kelvin) who first stated the first two laws of thermodynamics in the early 1850s, and who popularized the use of the word "energy" in its modern sense.
Thermodynamics and Maxwell's equations help us understand how the universe works, but 19th-century science also brought about an increased understanding of the mechanism of living things, primarily through the discovery of the process of biological evolution by means of natural selection and sexual selection as described by Charles Darwin, whose 200th birthday we celebrate today.
To quote the famous title of Theodosius Dobzhansky's 1973 essay, "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution." Yet Darwin was clearly aware from the beginning of his researches that evolution had profound implications not just for biology in general, but for the origins of human beings. Evolution answered millennia-old questions like "Where did we come from?" with the revelation of a marvelous process involving the accumulation of small incremental changes tested for viability in the real world over millions of years, accepting what works, abandoning what's harmful.
We are part of this process, so evolution also tells us much about ourselves. Every other living thing is one of our distant cousins. Instead of having "dominion" over all the earth, we are yet another creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. We came about through a blind, mechanistic, natural process, yet one that led to the development of minds capable of self reflection and wonderment, including the inquisitive, experimental, brilliant mind of Charles Darwin.
Evolution is a process more beautiful than any work of art, more awe-inspiring than any miracle, more meaningful than any theology.
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Following the U.S. Department of Justice's decision to dismiss its lawsuit against Apple after it managed to access the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, the agency announced its intention to continue on with a similar New York lawsuit where it is attempting to get Apple's help to breach an iPhone 5s used in a drug case.
In a filing this afternoon, Apple again refused to help the DOJ gain access to the device in question and asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming the government has not proven that it has exhausted all other means of getting the data. There are specific references made to the San Bernardino case, where the FBI did manage to find another way into the iPhone without involving Apple. Via The Wall Street Journal:
"The government has utterly failed to demonstrate that the requested order is necessary to effectuate the search warrant, including that it exhausted all other avenues for recovering the information it seeks,'' Apple argued in the new filing to U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie. "Before the government demands that Apple do the work of law enforcement, the government must offer evidence that it has performed an 'exhaustive search' and that it remains unable to obtain the data it seeks without Apple's assistance.''
According to Apple, the FBI has not adequately demonstrated that the method it used to gain access to the iPhone 5c used by Syed Farook does not work on the Brooklyn iPhone 5s. Apple also argues the FBI has not proven it has consulted with the third party that helped with the San Bernardino iPhone or other third parties that could provide assistance.
In late February, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein ruled the FBI lacked the legal authority to force Apple to breach the New York iPhone, but the U.S. Justice Department filed a formal appeal in early March in an effort to turn over the ruling, which is what Apple is responding to with today's filing.
In the New York case, which dates back to October 2015, the FBI is aiming to access data on an iPhone 5s belonging to Brooklyn drug dealer Jun Feng. While the FBI employed the help of "professional hackers" to access the iPhone 5c in the California case, FBI Director James Comey has said the method used to gain entry to that device does not work on the iPhone 5s or later.
The iPhone 5s in question is running an earlier version of iOS (iOS 7) that Apple does have the means to access, but Apple is refusing to do so after taking a stronger stance on encryption and customer privacy. While Apple can obtain data from that particular iPhone 5s, it does not have the means to do so on devices running iOS 8 or iOS 9 due to a change in its encryption methods.
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A story from the Financial Times this week revealed the UK government’s latest act of sabotage against the Scottish renewable energy industry. It’s just one more in a long line stretching back to just after the independence referendum, when a string of “Better Together” promises were broken almost the minute the No vote was secured.
It was a particularly weak argument in the first place – if there’s a market in the rUK for Scottish energy, it’ll be there whether Scotland is independent or not. But it unravelled faster than most as soon as it had done its job.
All those U-turns came on top of the UK energy grid policy which already massively discriminates against Scotland, as noted by the BBC’s Douglas Fraser yesterday.
And it’s not rocket science to see why the Westminster government is so keen to slow down and hamper renewables in Scotland. A country surrounded on three sides by water and wind, in a world where climate change makes finding alternatives to fossil fuels ever more imperative, would be incredibly well placed to reap a bonanza that would make North Sea oil look like pocket change, and even more so if it wasn’t being penalised with huge surcharges from London every step of the way.
(Just last month, even the modest array of wind turbines that are currently positioned in and around Scotland generated enough electricity to power nearly every residential household in the country, and that wasn’t even a record.)
As the cost of renewable energy and storage plummets and the rewards increase, an independent Scotland heavily focused on it would have an economy that was the envy of the world, utterly destroying the “too wee, too poor, £15bn black hole yada yada etc” mantra that blares daily from the Unionist press and opposition.
So it’s vital that in the crucial couple of years leading up to Brexit, the UK government does everything it can to obstruct the growth of the Scottish renewables industry, because the stronger it gets the weaker the Union’s only argument becomes.
It only has to succeed for a couple of years, because once Brexit is concluded and we’re out of the EU, independence gets a lot more complicated in a lot of ways. It’s all about stalling for time, until Scotland’s wealth can be safely extricated and squandered by London again.
Of course, we’re probably just being mad paranoid nats as usual. After all, it’s not like the UK has any kind of history of this sort of thing.
We’re sure it’ll all be fine.
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Gender and sex are two different things -- the latter is biological, while the former is a social construction. For much of humanity, the two have been linked, but in recent years, some of our minds have evolved to think outside this box. Sure, there are still ignorant people that feel gender and their stereotypical roles should be cemented into society, but the truth is, women are doing jobs that men have historically done, and vice versa. And doing them well, I must add. For instance, a woman can be a soldier, while a man can be a nurse -- it is wonderful.
Unfortunately, major languages were formed during the ages of gender ignorance, causing some words to unnecessarily have masculine and feminine versions. For instance, in English, a man is a hero while a woman is a heroine. This is problematic with translation services, as gender bias in machine learning can influence the end results. Google is not satisfied with that, so today, it announces its Translate service will be offering multiple translation results when they can vary by gender. The user can then select the appropriate one.
ALSO READ: Google Translate on the web gets improved looks and functionality
"Google Translate learns from hundreds of millions of already-translated examples from the web. Historically, it has provided only one translation for a query, even if the translation could have either a feminine or masculine form. So when the model produced one translation, it inadvertently replicated gender biases that already existed. For example: it would skew masculine for words like'strong' or 'doctor,' and feminine for other words, like 'nurse' or 'beautiful'," says James Kuczmarski, Product Manager, Google
ALSO READ: Google Santa Tracker gets even better for Christmas 2018
Kuczmarski further says, "Now you'll get both a feminine and masculine translation for a single word -- like'surgeon' -- when translating from English into French, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish. You'll also get both translations when translating phrases and sentences from Turkish to English. For example, if you type 'o bir doktor' in Turkish, you’ll now get'she is a doctor' and 'he is a doctor' as the gender-specific translations."
Regardless of your feelings about gender and associated roles, it cannot be denied that reducing bias is a positive. Look, the search giant is merely giving more possible results, which will arguably make translations more accurate by allowing the user to decide the gender of the words.
What do you think of Google's initiative to reduce gender bias? Please tell me in the comments below.
Photo Credit: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV/Shutterstock
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One Piece 964 Title : "Oden’s Adventures"
-Even though his request of joining Whitebeard was turned down, his stubbornness led to Whitebeard and his crew sneaking away at night to leave.
-Oden jumps into the sea, and they captured Oden and Izou, who chased after Oden, with ropes.
-Whitebeard decided that Oden will stay this way, and he only pull Izou up.
-He then said to an enraged Izou that if he wants him to give up then he’ll have to persuade Oden himself.
-They made a deal that if Oden can endure for 3 days, then he’ll let him on the ship.
-Oden was exhausted when he had just a hour left.
-On the beach Toki was troubled by bad guys, and that’s when she met a worn out Oden.
-The bad guys appeared again after they’ve been chased away.
-It’s Whitebeard who came back that helped them. Oden, Izou, Toki all got on Whitebeard’s ship.
-Inu and Neko followed them secretly
-Oden’s happy that he’s traveling from places to places.
-Shanks and Buggy read about Whitebeard Pirates’ successful activities from newspaper.
-And Roger who says that he wants to meet that samurai
Chapter end. Break next week.
Translated by u/EtenBoby
Spoiler Image 00 : Whitebeard Pirates sailing away
Spoiler Image 01 : Izo says "I won't forgive you, Whitebeard"
Spoiler Image 02 : Lady Toki : My age? I'm 26. I was born…… around 800 years ago
Spoiler Image 03 : Inu and Neko sneaked onto Whitebeard's ship
Spoiler Image 04 : Oden uses ropes to get on to the ship
Spoiler Image 05 : Oden holds onto the ropes while Izo is holding him
Spoiler Image 06 : Whitebeard, Oden and co eating some food
Spoiler Image 07 : Whitebeard Pirates welcoming Oden and his retainers with a big celebration
Spoiler Image 08 : Lady Toki's full appearance with her sword
Spoiler Image 09 : Captain Karma
Spoiler Image 10 : Oden with "amazing cool eyes"
Spoiler Image 11 : Buggy and Shanks read the news about the Whitebeard Pirates
Spoiler Image 12 : Gold Roger reads newspaper and says he wants to meet Oden
More to come. Will keep you updated.
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An American lawyer gored in the neck during the famous running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain on Sunday said he felt like he was “hit by a car or a truck” the moment he was struck by a 1,000 pound bull.
Jamie Alvarez, a San Francisco resident who works as a public defender in Santa Clara, was participating in the first run of this year’s San Fermin festival when he nearly lost his life after being struck by a stray bull he never saw coming.
“The joy and the excitement of being in the bullring quickly turned into a scare, into real fear for my life,” Alvarez, 46, told The Associated Press Monday from his hospital bed.
“In the course of a few seconds, a million thoughts came to my mind, and that of dying was definitely one of them.”
Alvarez said he ran most of the 913-yard course when the pack of bulls caught up to where he was. He climbed up a fence to wait for the danger to pass and returned to the arena shortly after to shoot a victory video, “a 5-second video scene to say ‘Here I am, I did it.’”
That’s when a stray bull came charging at him, striking him in the neck.
“The impact was unlike anything I’ve ever felt. It was like being hit by a car or a truck,” he said. “It was scary.”
Alvarez was gored deep in his neck, fracturing his cheekbone. He said he was told it was “beyond miraculous” that his jugular vein or major arteries were not severed in the accident.
After being pulled from the arena by spectators, Alvarez was taken to hospital where he underwent a nearly three-hour surgery. He was reported in stable condition on Monday and could be released as early as Tuesday.
Two other Americans have been injured so far this year. Video footage showed how a bull approached Aaron Froelicher of Florence, Kentucky, from the back, tossed him into the air and gored him in the left thigh. Authorities said the 23-year-old remained hospitalized Monday while recovering from surgery.
The running of the bulls — and the nine days of seamless partying that accompanies the festival — draws about 1 million spectators to the city of 200,000 every year. The bulls chosen to race in Pamplona often weigh in the range of 1,102 to 1,323 pounds.
Alvarez has vowed to return to the race — but only as a spectator.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Two years after it established an aggregation program to reduce electrical rates, the Village of Lombard is returning to Commonwealth Edison, inking a deal that will raise rates more than 65 percent.
The village board voted Thursday to make the move because, despite the significant increase, ComEd offered the lowest rate.
"We weren't able to beat ComEd. It's that simple," Village Manager Scott Niehaus said Friday.
According to the village, the ComEd rate for June through September is 7.6 cents and 7.42 cents per kilowatt hour for the remaining 8 months. ComEd is also planning to reset rates again in the fall. The rates offered by ComEd are for the 12-month period beginning June 1.
Whether the village chose with an aggregator or ComEd, rates are going up. The village's current supplier is First Energy and the rate is 4.6 cents per kilowatt hours. The summer ComEd rate is more than 65 percent higher than the First Energy rate.
The village received bid proposals from First Energy and from other energy companies including Constellation Energy, Homefield Energy, Integrys and Verde. Next to ComEd, the lowest three-year fixed rate proposal came from Constellation at 7.74 cents per kilowatt hour.
"We will always have the ability to go out to the competitive market in one year, but we see no reason why the village should lock its citizens into a rate that is higher than what ComEd would provide," Niehaus said.
The village posed a ballot question two years ago to voters who gave them the go-ahead to field rates from other suppliers than ComEd. Anyone who didn't want to access the rate had to opt out of the program. Only a handful opted out, Niehaus said.
"We were happy with aggregation," he said. "That model worked."
Even though the village is choosing the lowest rate available, Niehaus said residents will see an increase in their electric bill. ComEd's rates represent a 21 percent increase over their current rates, he said.
Niehaus said when the aggregation programs started two years ago, power rates were at 10-year lows, and the village was able to take advantage of that low pricing. The village estimates that the aggregation program saved residents an estimated $3.36 million in total, or $246 per household during the first 15 months of the program.
Niehaus said the village will continue to keep an eye on the market.
"We're going to continue to review rates and we'll continue to be competitive on behalf of residents," he said.
[email protected]
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Ten department stores have committed to hiring the graduates who will receive a monthly salary of $500
Ten local department stores have committed to hiring 242 Bruneians as shop assistants after they successfully complete a four-week training programme at the Centre of Capacity Building (PPK).
PPK’s new Shop Assistant Programme recently welcomed its first cycle of 20 students, with another eight cycles expected to be held across the next 12 months.
Trainees will receive an allowance of $300 during the course, which is split into two weeks at PPK and another two weeks at a retail store. After, the government will top up $100 to their starting full-time salary of $400 for three years.
PPK’s director Gary Young said the programme was developed after consulting with retail businesses to identify gaps in hiring locals in frontline service roles.
Hua Ho, Leong Wui Department Store, Sim Kim Huat, Soon Lee, Supasave, Jaya Hypermart, Milimewah, Utama Grand, Pertama Department Store and First Emporium have signed onto the programme, offering conditional offers of employment (COE) to trainees.
The department stores reported that the attrition rate for local shop assistants was high, with Young citing the lack of specific training for the role as one of the main reasons.
Traditionally, shop assistants without experience are expected to be able to immediately perform their duties after their first few days on the job.
“The new employees often lack the necessary tools and confidence to interact with customers and do their jobs well, so they could find themselves unable to cope with their jobs and quit soon after,” said Young.
“The Shop Assistant Programme will initiate them gradually into the workplace and give them the necessary skill set to not only succeed but also thrive in their new job.”
The programme is open to Bruneians who have completed secondary education (O-Levels) aged between 18 to 35-years-old. Trainees must be able to converse in Malay and English and should possess a valid class 3 driving license.
Modules covered during the training include inventory management, interpersonal skills, customer relations and operational basics.
PPK was set up last year as a training centre for Bruneian job seekers, upskilling them with specific competencies to be ready for employment. There are currently 12 programmes offered – with employment opportunities available upon completion.
Those who wish to find out more or are interested to apply can email [email protected] or contact their hotlines at 8268087, 8298087 or 8324488.
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Although this trend of slippage is happening most among white evangelicals, closely followed by minority evangelicals, it's actually true of all Christian denominations. This table shows the drop-off in support for citizenship for illegal immigrants across denominations:
Support for a Path to Citizenship Among Religious Groups
This is all the more remarkable because these numbers came from a callback survey—meaning the very same people who gave their opinions in 2013 gave them again in 2014. In general, Americans feel pretty strongly about the issue: In both surveys, roughly a quarter of of respondents felt that immigration reform should be the country's top policy priority, and another 47 percent said it should be among the highest. In general, there have been few other shifts in attitudes toward immigration in the past year, which hints that this slight downward trend among evangelicals might be about more than frustration with Washington.
One possibility is that lay born-again Christians' opinions are shaped by factors other than faith. Across the survey, race seemed to influence views on immigration, and the same was true among evangelicals. Fifty-four percent of minorities supported paths to citizenship, compared to 48 percent of their white counterparts. Evangelicals are also more likely to have conservative, Republican-leaning views than any other religious group—so it may be that the party, not the pastor, is the main source of influence here.
The report's authors noted one other fascinating source of influence: Fox News. Evangelical Republicans and non-Republicans were equally likely to oppose a path to citizenship, but disciples of Hannity and other "fair and balanced" shows felt the most strongly:
Support for Immigration Reform Among Evangelicals Who Do and Don't Watch Fox News
The same doesn't seem to be true of evangelical leaders. Pastors at conservative Christian churches and the heads of evangelical organizations have been among the most vocal advocates for reform.
"I would not conclude that rank-and-file evangelicals are in a different place on immigration," Jones said. "But they may have less intense feelings about it than the leadership does. This issue is fairly low on the white evangelical priority list."
Salguero suggested it might be a question of education and communication. "If there’s any divergence, it’s in how much [congregants] know about this issue. As people get more acquainted with the issue, there has been a massive conversion among evangelicals in the pew."
Church involvement in immigration reform has been important in Washington, but increasingly, it's important for the congregations themselves: Among Hispanic Americans, evangelicals are the fastest growing religious group. In general, white evangelicals and minorities tend to have different political priorities—and as the demographics of the faith change, these differences will come into even greater relief.
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Story highlights Anthony Shannon Lane is charged with murder 23 years after he abused his infant girl
Amanda lived 22 years in bed, unable to move, see or speak, because of the abuse
Lane also abused a half brother of Amanda's and is serving time in prison for that
Amanda was adopted by woman who says she was a treasure
A Tennessee man convicted and jailed for abusing his two infant children is charged with murder -- 23 years later.
Anthony Shannon Lane was convicted in 1992 of beating his 5-week-old daughter Amanda so badly she lived the rest of her life in bed: blind and unable to talk or move, except for seizures, said her mother, Nancy Woodall-Holmes, who first fostered and then adopted Amanda.
Amanda died last year at age 22 and on Monday, Lane, 41, was charged with first-degree murder in Amanda's death.
"She was such a treasure," said Woodall-Holmes, who became Amanda's foster parent on a Christmas Eve.
At the time, she was told Amanda had a short life expectancy and her placement would be temporary. "I can't put into words just how precious she was," said Woodall, who adopted Amanda at age 4
"We will work with the district attorney's office in the prosecution of this case for justice for Amanda," said Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold.
According to an autopsy by the state medical examiner's office, Amanda's death was a homicide, caused by complications of blunt force head injury.
Lane's first court hearing is scheduled for July 18.
Second infant abused
After serving a 10-year sentence for aggravated child abuse of Amanda, Lane had a son, Ryan, who was abused at 3 months old, according to court documents.
Lane was convicted in 2003, again of aggravated child abuse, and is serving a 25-year prison sentence for that assault.
Ryan suffered cerebral palsy, brain injury, blindness, epilepsy and failure to thrive from the abuse, according to a pediatrician who testified in the case.
Justice for Amanda
Ryan is in a wheelchair and was adopted by a family near Amanda's home, said her mother.
"We were able to get the children together, and it seemed like they made a connection with each other," said Woodall-Holmes. "He was there when she died. His hand was touching her hand."
Woodall-Holmes said the murder charges against Lane, even 23 years later, will have an effect on victims of abuse.
"It may take 23 years but justice will be served. That's the message I want to get out there."
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A 15-year-old girl in Illinois who suffered third-degree burns after a fire pit exploded was unable to attend her high school’s prom on Saturday. So, her friends decided to bring prom to her instead.
Korryn Bachner was one of 12 people who were injured after a teenage boy poured gasoline on a backyard fire pit, which caused an explosion. The incident occured at a party on April 28.
While the past few weeks have been difficult, to say the least, Bachner was still able to enjoy prom -- albeit from her Lombard basement, her mother, Ellen, told Fox News on Tuesday.
“It was different, but she got to wear her dress and jewelry and take pictures with her friends,” Ellen said, adding that Bachner’s close friend, Jonathan, decorated the basement as a surprise. He wanted to make the night as special as possible for the teen, who suffered burns to her face and hands.
"Having all my friends support helps a lot, gets my mind off things," Bachner told ABC 7.
The teen’s recovery has been slow, Ellen said, but “it’s going in the right direction -- every day we see improvement."
Aside from a few short outings and doctors appointments, Bachner is homebound. But the 15-year-old is “handling it better than I ever would have expected,” Ellen said. “She’s a trooper and resilient; she’s not curled up in a ball crying everyday.”
While Bachner is expected to make a full recovery, there is a chance she will have to undergo surgery. However, her doctors want to hold off until they “know for sure that her body won’t heal itself,” Ellen said.
The incident has left at least one of the victims, 16-year-old Autumn Hamilton, in critical condition. Hamilton, who suffered second and third degree burns to more than 40 percent of her body, was on life support at one point, according to her GoFundMe page. Hamilton is one of Bachner's best friends, her mother said.
The boy who poured the gasoline on the fire also suffered serious injuries. While police are still investigating the incident, they believe it was an accident with no malicious intent. As of now, no charges have been filed.
“He is suffering the same way as the others,” Ellen said, adding that her daughter and the other victims were “at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“You don’t wish this on anybody,” she added.
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right? We buy birthday presents. That's not immoral, that's not wrong. We buy flowers as gifts and we buy dinner on Valentine's Day. Now imagine Twin America with different conventions. Different customs. There, they pay for wedding speeches. They make birthday presents. They grow flowers as gifts. And they make dinner on Valentine's Day. Here, they use the middle finger to mean fuck you. There, they use the thumb to mean fuck you. Which of these two worlds is the morally good and which is the morally bad one? Answer, neither, right? It's a mere convention. There is nothing between these two worlds that makes the one morally good and the other morally bad. And you can picture Michael Sandel. On our world, he says things like some people buy wedding speeches, can you believe it? Don't they know how disrespectful that is? Or you can imagine twin Sandel on Twin Earth at Twin Harvard, good reference here. Saying some people write their own wedding speeches. Can you believe it? Don't they know how this is disrespectful? If you care about someone, you're gonna hire a professional. You don't get Jimmy down the block to take your wedding photos. Why would you, like an idiot, write your own wedding speech? Hire a professional if you care about that person. You can picture the reasoning. And the point here is that the meaning of market transactions, whether they signal the commodification attitude or not, is a mere convention. It's not written into the fabric of what a market exchange is. It's a contingent fact. It is nothing but a mere convention. It's not immoral for us to buy and sell plasma. At best, it might be bad manners, but given what I've said about the importance of having a sufficient amount of blood plasma, I think we need to get over whatever conventions we think attribute the commodification attitude to blood plasma. Now, I've done my best in Canada and elsewhere to make it plain that we need blood plasma and we should be paying people in Canada to do it. Every time I pitched an article in Canada, I can just talk about blood plasma. In the U.S., people are really keen on talking about markets and sperm for some reason, so I'd include that too. I wrote one for the USA Today that started with Don't end NAFTA, Canada needs your bodily fluids. Like a Doctor Strangelove reference, but five hours later, USA Today and their clicking team or their Twitter team or whatever, changed the title to Why Canada needs our sperm. That was a much more effective title for getting people to click on the link on USA Today. So that's the mere commodity thesis and that's the end of my talk. Thank you very much.
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Although the federal disciplinary guidance remains controversial, the campaign for bystander intervention that the White House launched in 2014 has won widespread support. Obama himself proposed the idea of involving men in ending sexual misconduct, according to aides.
Matt Hill had agreed to help launch It’s On Us in September 2014 while serving as the student body vice president at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. About a month later, a friend called to say that she had been raped the night before at a campus party.
Hill said he asked himself, “Why, a month ago, as a male junior in college, did I not think this was an important issue?” The following April, he helped organize a 2,000-person campus rally where Biden was the featured speaker.
At a party that weekend, two sorority members he knew told him they had been raped. The women told him the Biden rally left them feeling “empowered and supported.”
And apart from the campaign, students have started demanding more accountability from schools. Kansas State University is being sued by two students, Sara Weckhorst and Tessa Farmer, who say they were raped at different fraternity houses, in 2014 and 2015, and now share the campus with their assailants because the university refuses to investigate sexual assault off campus. On Friday, the Justice Department filed two separate amicus briefs on the students’ side, arguing their Title IX suits should go forward.
Zach Lowry, president of the interfraternity council there, is pressing the university to investigate those allegations and others. Kansas State gives his group reports of sexual misconduct so the council can decide whether to discipline any of its 24 member organizations, but the school offers no assistance in investigating the claims.
“It’s like pushing these incidents aside and not dealing with them,” Lowry said. “I want to find out if these incidents happened.”
For his part, Biden continues to meet privately with women and men, in settings ranging from college campuses to a hallway at the Academy Awards. He ushers out most of his staff, and the men and women tell him their stories.
Laura Dunn, who founded the victims rights group SurvJustice and who filed a federal complaint against the University of Wisconsin in 2006, picketed the Education Department in 2013 for not doing enough to hold universities accountable. But she has also met with Biden twice and has advised the administration on its campus-assault policies for several years.
“I think the government heard us,” Dunn said.
A previous version of this article indicated a lawsuit against Brandeis University concerning its sexual misconduct policy had settled. It is still pending.
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Belgrade's 'tiny head' Gagarin statue causes dismay By News from Elsewhere...
...as found by BBC Monitoring Published duration 9 April 2018
image copyright Twitter/CENZURA image caption All plinth and no body: Belgrade's tribute to Yuri Gagarin has not been well received
A tribute to the first man in space recently unveiled in the Serbian capital Belgrade has caused dismay because of its seemingly ridiculous proportions, it's been reported.
The bust of Yuri Gagarin was ordered by the city council last year, and was put up on a street that bears his name, the Blic news website reports.
But its appearance - a tiny bust on top of a tall plinth - has been met by a hugely negative reaction, the paper says.
"The only way you can see it clearly is to launch yourself into the sky," the Noizz website says. "While this is somewhat symbolic," adds writer Ivana Stojanov, "there's certainly no common sense on show".
One of the first to notice something wasn't quite right was the Belgrade-based @Cenzura Twitter account, which posted a photo along with the simple caption "Oh no".
image copyright Robert Coban image caption Reactions to the sculpture have been overwhelmingly negative
'A scandal and an insult'
The reaction on social media has been predictably humorous, news website Telegraf reports, with one Twitter user suggesting that the sculpture was designed that way to beat the elements: "Belgrade is windy. Probably so it wouldn't blow him away!"
Another thought the designers were worried about local crime: "I think the reasons were practical, to stop someone from stealing it".
Meanwhile, a third thought the rest of the statue was simply concealed within the enormous plinth: "It looks like they packed it inside that monument, so it's just his head", while another suggested it was a conceptual art piece where you have to discover the rest of his body yourself.
But there are many who consider it an unfitting tribute to the Soviet hero who orbited the Earth on 12 April 1961. Compared to monuments to the first space traveller in Moscow, "the one in Belgrade today is a scandal and an insult," Belgrade-based Danilo Curcic tweeted.
image copyright Douglas Miller/Hulton/Getty image caption Gagarin's flight in Vostok 1 made him a global superstar. He died in a plane crash in 1968
Reporting by Alistair Coleman
Next story: Uzbekistan TV show chastised for shaming public lovers
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.
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Scientists at the University of Birmingham have developed a ground-breaking technique that uses a urine test to help to diagnose adrenal cancer.
The test, which enables endocrinologists to distinguish between harmless and cancerous tumours, uses a biomarker tool to measure excreted levels of steroid hormones which are produced by the adrenal glands.
The breakthrough is reported online today in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
"This is the first urine test for this application; we can detect the hormone fingerprint of a tumor and diagnose cancer faster and more efficiently than with costly imaging procedures," reports Professor Wiebke Arlt, who led the collaborative Medical Research Council-funded study with Professor Paul Stewart at the Universitys Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism.
Adrenal tumors affect around two per cent of the UK adult population and are more common with age. Hard to detect, they are often picked up from routine CT scans for other conditions. It is estimated that up to ten per cent of 70-80 year-olds have an adrenal tumour without realizing.
A small but significant number of adrenal nodules will prove cancerous. Adrenal cancer is an aggressive disease, mainly occurring in middle-aged adults. Because of the glands location deep in the body, most cancerous tumours are not found until they are large and have metastasized (spread) to surrounding tissue via the lymph system and blood. In spite of surgery, survival rates remain poor.
Professor Arlt explains: "The imaging procedures and blood tests currently in use for diagnosing adrenal cancer have poor sensitivity and specificity and often cannot tell the difference between benign and malignant tumors, while biopsies are fairly non-informative."
Many patients end up undergoing multiple scans, which are not only time-consuming and expensive but expose the patient to repeated episodes of radiation.
The Birmingham team used gas chromatography mass spectrometry to measure and compare multiple steroid metabolites in urine samples from all over the UK and Europe, in collaboration with the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors. Computational analysis of results produced profiles of benign and malignant tumors, enabling the most informative biomarkers to be identified.
The test will now be offered via the University of Birminghams joint venture company Bioscience Ventures Ltd.
Professor Arlt adds: "The next step is the validation of our diagnostic test in clinical practice, which is planned soon, hopefully supported by the NIHR (National Institute of Health Research)."
Explore further Gene Associated with Rare Adrenal Disorder Appears To Trigger Cell Death
Provided by University of Birmingham
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LOGAN SQUARE — The developer behind the $69 million Congress Theater rehab project has made significant changes to the residential tower he’s proposing to build next door.
The new proposal calls for a seven-story tower with 72 apartments and ground-floor retail on the vacant lot just north of the Congress, according to a flier distributed by zoning attorney Rolando Acosta.
That’s significantly smaller than what developer Michael Moyer proposed in September, when he pitched the impacted neighborhood group, Greater Goethe Neighborhood Association, and other residents. That proposal called for a 10-story tower with 117 apartments.
Neighbors will get a chance to weigh in on the latest proposal at a community meeting set for Monday at Haas Park Fieldhouse at 2402 N. Washtenaw Ave., beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Moyer didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.
RELATED: Congress Theater Rehab Won’t Happen Until 10-Story Tower Gets Built Next Door, Developer Says
The tower has been a part of Moyer’s overall vision for the Congress Theater rehab project since 2016, when he filed a zoning application with the city. But details didn’t emerge until September.
The 10-story proposal didn’t go over well with neighbors at a meeting in September.
At the meeting, Sally Hamann, a member of Greather Goethe Neighborhood Association, was concerned families are being forced out of the neighborhood at “an astronomical rate.”
“While we’ve had a lot of redevelopment, they’re almost all very small studios. What we really need are two-, three- and four-bedroom units suitable for families that are being forced out in this neighborhood,” Hamann said in September.
After the tense meeting, Moyer told Block Club the Congress Theater rehab, which has been underway for more than a year, depends on the money generated from the tower.
“Everything stops if this tower doesn’t get built,” Moyer said.
The rehab project calls for a total overhaul of the notoriously rundown yet historic theater at 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave. and the construction of a 30-room hotel, 14 affordable apartments and 16,000 square feet of retail space in the surrounding 160,000-square-foot theater building.
The city approved the allocation of $9.7 million in Tax Increment Finance (TIF) funds toward the project this summer.
The community meeting flier.
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TAIPEI -- Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen toured NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Sunday, becoming the island's first sitting leader to set foot in an American government facility in the U.S.
The visit, highlighting the close ties between Taiwan and the U.S., appears aimed at checking China's efforts to absorb the island. Although China has yet to react officially to Tsai's visit, it may have a vociferous response.
Tsai's itinerary included the Mission Control Center and other facilities, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported. Tsai stopped in Houston on her way home from a roughly weeklong tour of Central and South America.
"Astronaut Michael Fincke told me that the beautiful lights of Taiwan were visible from the space station passing over," Tsai wrote on Facebook.
Tsai also visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Los Angeles at the start of her trip on Aug. 13, making a speech praising Reagan's contributions to U.S.-Taiwan relations.
Tsai's tour of the Americas is part of the island's effort to be recognized as self-ruled and democratic, and distinct from China. "In going abroad, the whole world can see Taiwan. They can see our country as well as our support for democracy and freedom," Tsai said, before her flight to Los Angeles. "We only need to be firm, so that no one can obliterate Taiwan's existence.
The Taiwanese president's visit to the U.S. was treated as a stopover. Tsai was on an official visit to Paraguay and Belize, two of the remaining 18 countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Taipei. Her visit was aimed at ensuring that they do not switch recognition to Beijing.
Paraguay may be tempted to do so. China is forging closer ties with the South American country, as higher U.S. tariffs on soybeans exported to China encourage it to look for new suppliers, including Paraguay.
China hopes to gain control over Taiwan, and it has been pressuring other countries and companies not to recognize Taiwanese sovereignty. Beijing has ordered foreign companies to specify that Taiwan is part of China on their websites.
As a courtesy to China, the U.S. traditionally places strict limits on media appearances by the Taiwanese president on American soil. But Washington has recently played up its ties with Taipei, sending a message to Beijing amid rising tensions between the two countries over trade and geopolitics in Asia.
U.S. President Donald Trump in March signed the Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages high-level government exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwan.
Masayuki Yuda in Tokyo contributed to this report
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And now we get to the real reason behind the US-North Korea summit.
In talk that was reminiscent of then-candidate Trump's famous comparison of the Israel-Palestine conflict to a land deal during the Republican primary debates, Trump told a group of reporters Tuesday that he had floated the prospect of rebuilding North Korea's coastline to feature beachfront hotels and other developments, allowing the developer-in-chief to relate to Kim Jong Un through perhaps his only life-long passion: Real estate.
Trump says he showed Kim an iPad that reportedly included details about how, instead of ballistic missiles, North Korea could have "some of the best hotels in the world."
"They have great beaches...you see that whenever they're exploding their cannons into the ocean. I said instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world right there," Trump said he told Kim. "Think of it from a real estate perspective, you have South Korea, you have China - and they own the land in the middle. How bad is that?"
Trump's comments followed the conclusion of the Singapore summit, which saw Trump and Kim sign a nonbinding letter of intent whereby Trump agreed to halt US-South Korean joint military drills while making other unspecified "security guarantees" while Kim "reaffirmed his firm and unwaivering commitment" to removing nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. Trump added that he planned to invite Kim to the White House and the two leaders would meet "many times" for future talks.
Trump said he brought Kim to the table by showing him what the future could look like should he choose the path of peace: "Instead of [testing missiles] you could have the best hotels in the world right there. Think of it from a real estate perspective" https://t.co/XBC0Sh0nRK pic.twitter.com/dlxvxLPcLG — CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 12, 2018
Asked in a post-summit interview if the removal of US troops from South Korea was discussed, Trump said "we didn't discuss that, no." But Trump added that "we will be stopping the war games."
Trump has repeatedly spoken of North Korea's potential to be a "great" country, including - most recently - before he departed the G-7 Summit in Quebec for North Korea. As the Hill pointed out, Trump comments showed that his "experience as a real-estate developer was on full display."
All of which begs the question:
Have they broken ground on Trump Pyongyang yet?
asking for a colleague. — shinebox (@ljzaz) June 12, 2018
And some have imagined it...
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revolution is a continuing and irresistible process. The peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America are today in the vanguard of that struggle. They are the grave-diggers of world imperialism.
References
[1] General Vo Nguyen Giap. Once Again We Will Win. Foreign Languages Publishing House, Hanoi, 1966.
[2]A Proposal Concerning The General Line of the International Communist Movement. Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1963.
[3] Lin Piao. Long Live The Victory of The People’s War. Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1967.
[4] Ibid, 154.
[5]Mao Tse-tung. Selected Works, Vol I, p 147. Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1964.
[6]Lin Piao. Long Live The Victory of The People’s War. Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1967.
[7] Mao Tse-tung. The Chinese Revolution And The Chinese Communist Party.
[8]General Vo Ngyuen Giap. Once Again We Will Win. Foreign Languages Publishing House, Hanoi, 1966.
[9] In the 1965 edition of his Selected Works Mao somewhat amends his view concerning size of territory; His additional note reads in part: ’Since the end of world war two...in the new historical circumstances...the conditions under which the people of various countries conduct guerilla warfare today need not be quite the same as those which were necessary in the days of the guerrilla warfare waged by the Chinese people against Japan. In other words, guerrilla war can be victoriously waged in a country which is not large in territory, as for instance, in Cuba, Algeria, Laos and southern VietNam.’
[10]Message of Greeting to Cuba, 26 July 1961. From Cuba Si, Yanquis No. Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1961.
[11] Notes for the Study of the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution. Verde Olivo, Havana, 1960.
[12] An important critical review of Debray’s book appeared in the Nov-Dec 1967 issue of ’Progressive Labor,’ journal of the US Progressive Labour Party.
[13] The revisionist Popular Socialist Party initially condemned Castro as an adventurer and refused to support the Sierra campaign. Only in the final stages did the PSP give any active support to the armed struggle.
[14] Che Guevara. Cuba; Exceptional Case or Vanguard in the Struggle Against Colonialism. Verde Olivo, Havana, 1961.
[15] Ibid.
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Pest professionals: continue to go to work if it's safe, says Gove to BPCA
Today (6 April 2020), the UK Government confirmed that pest management professionals can continue to go to work when it's safe to do so.
BPCA wrote to Government ministers, asking for pest management professionals to be considered essential workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the BPCA's advice has always been to continue to work if you can mitigate the risks of spreading the virus, today the Cabinet Office has confirmed our advice to be correct.
Michael Gove MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, wrote to BPCA to say:
The indicative list published in the guidance does not have wider implications, and does not confer special status on individuals included in the guidance pertaining to travel, business or any other services. Michael Gove MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On continuing to work, Gove said:
"The Government's position remains that everyone who can work from home should do so.
"Where that is not possible, people should go into work where it is safe and they are not symptomatic, following relevant [Public Health England] PHE guidance."
We have created guidance for helping to decide should you keep trading/go out on a job, which is available for anyone to download.
Does the UK Government class us as key workers?
Gove confirmed that key worker status does not have any broader implications other than schools.
He said:
"We are asking individuals, employers and schools to make sensible judgments about the policy".
We take this to mean that where you are supporting one of the following sectors, you should be considered a key worker:
Health and social care
Education and childcare
Key public services
Local and national Government
Food and necessary goods
Public safety
Transport
Utilities, communication and financial services.
Ian Andrew, BPCA Chief Exec, said:
"While it's reassuring to see that BPCA's advice to the pest management community is correct, we'd have preferred to have seen the key workers list updated to explicitly include our sector and we will continue to push for this
"If we go into further lockdown measures, we want to make sure that pest professionals can continue to travel and conduct vital public health pest management.
“BPCA will never stop shouting about the incredibly important work our members do to protect British citizens and will continue to talk with the Government on matters important to the sector”.
Source: Online
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the third rail.
There are some serious thinkers to be found. But speaking out without abundant, soothing caveats is highly dangerous. The state motto might as well be Upton Sinclair's "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
Everything is not fine. The complexity of the issue and the details still open to argument should not lull anyone into denial.
I recall the hysterical denunciations that met Andrew Ross' Bird on Fire, published by that slipshod bunch of nobodies, The Oxford University Press (Yes, I was extensively quoted in the book). It's unclear if the apologists even read it, much less with an open mind.
What really stuck in the collective craw was his subtitle: Lessons From the World's Least Sustainable City.
What about Dubai! Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Riyadh — Houston, for goodness sake? All are very hot places and will feel the whip of climate change. But they are also global centers of wealth and commerce. Their prosperity will buy them time. Baghdad, surely more unsustainable! Perhaps politically. But Phoenicians don't aspire to a Third World life, so the analogy doesn't work.
What makes the provocative subtitle worth, well, sustained reflection is that Phoenix and Arizona mostly exist to add population and give most residents greater or lesser degrees of a "resort lifestyle" in a completely artificial environment. There is no larger economy — oil, world-class ports, major financial center — sufficient to backstop the population.
Arizona is now the third most populous state in the entire West, behind California and Washington. The state as a whole uses about 7 million acre feet per year. This is far more than the CAP and SRP can deliver, so much of it is coming from precious groundwater.
What happens when the cost of population becomes too great? When the tipping point begins to hurt?
So far, Arizona has not begun making transitions that might take a decade or two to complete. Chief among them is moving away from a real-estate development/extraction economy.
Instead, the real-estate interests and "economic freedom" ideology unite to continue the one thing that should be stopped: sprawl development outside historic urban footprints. Against this continued destructive arrangement, hedges such as the estimated 3 million acre feet of CAP water stored in aquifers are not enough to avoid eventual disaster.
Phoenix is not going to run out of water tomorrow. Arizona has more than a few years of water, even in the most vulnerable places. This could buy time for intelligent responses to reality. Instead, it is empowering a continued toxic status quo.
So far. It's not too late.
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TORONTO
A 59-year-old man may have been suffering from mental health issues and looking for help when last seen at a Downsview hospital.
Three weeks later, family members are trying to remain optimistic while searching for answers in Frank Lista’s sudden unexplained disappearance.
“We’re shifting between grief and hope,” said Brandon Vecchiola, the eldest of the missing man’s five children.
The 31-year-old London man, who was in Toronto putting up posters and doing whatever he can, said his dad has struggled with depression and anxiety throughout his life.
And while Vecchiola was aware his father was headed to Humber River Hospital to get help on Nov. 3, he didn’t realize “the extent to which he was suffering.”
Now he and his siblings are preparing for the worst but hoping their dad is found safe.
“The best-case scenario may be that he has had a total psychotic break and is wandering the streets begging for change,” Vecchiola said.
Lista was seen by a security camera at the hospital on Wilson Ave., west of Keele St., around 11:20 a.m. Nov. 3 and hasn’t been seen since.
Vecchiola said his dad’s disappearance is “odd,” especially since he has full custody of his 16-year-old daughter, who he would “never intentionally abandon.”
Lista also has two grown daughters, ages 24 and 22, and has shared custody of his nine-year-old son.
Vecchiola said his dad left his glasses and his winter coat at home. And since his disappearance, there has been no activity with his bank account or phone.
“I believe that if he was able to, he would have contacted us by now,” said Vecchiola, who usually has weekly contact with his “loving” father.
The family is asking people to check their yards and for business owners to have a look in any vacant properties for clues about Lista’s whereabouts.
Lista is 5-foot-8 and 200 pounds, with grey shoulder-length hair and a grey beard. He was last seen wearing a beige ball cap with “LF Builders” on the front, a black jacket, blue jeans and black shoes.
A vigil is planned Nov. 30 at St. Chad’s Anglican Church, on Dufferin St., just south of Eglinton Ave. W.
[email protected]
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Downtown property owner sues to halt demolition of former Chronicle building Property owner asks for a halt to the demolition of the Chronicle's old building
The downtown Houston Chronicle building, at 801 Texas, is shown on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, in Houston. ( Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle ) The downtown Houston Chronicle building, at 801 Texas, is shown on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, in Houston. ( Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle ) Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff Image 1 of / 74 Caption Close Downtown property owner sues to halt demolition of former Chronicle building 1 / 74 Back to Gallery
A downtown property owner is taking a neighbor to court over demolition plans it says will impede its ability to connect into the downtown tunnel system.
Theater Square LP, an entity affiliated with the Linbeck construction family, filed a lawsuit against an entity controlled by the Hines development firm, owner of the former Houston Chronicle building at 801 Texas, and Hearst Newspapers, the Chronicle's parent company.
Hearst sold its downtown building to Hines last year, and the Houston developer is planning to tear it down. The Linbeck entity is asking a judge to stop the demolition, which it says will affect its ability to connect a future building to a portion of the tunnel system that currently ends beneath 801 Texas. Linbeck's property is directly north of the former Chronicle site. It is bounded by Preston, Prairie, Milam and Travis.
Hines declined to comment. Hearst officials were unavailable for comment.
In the lawsuit, the Linbeck entity said it has an agreement stating that it owns easements through the basement of the former Chronicle building for purposes of constructing a tunnel. The agreement, it said, was put in place in late 2007 with Hearst, and it remains binding with subsequent owners.
Since the sale, Hines has "disregarded" the easement rights and "induced Hearst to breach its obligations" by denying access and failing to help Linbeck obtain permits and related rights to build the tunnel as part of the agreement, according to the suit filed last week in state district court.
It also said the companies intentionally interfered with its rights by "unreasonably denying, delaying and conditioning" access to its easement area.
The Linbeck entity said it is in the initial phase of developing its site, which will include a retail and parking structure on the southern half of the block. The city has approved its foundation permit.
The Linbeck entity wants a court to keep Hines from demolishing or damaging the passageways or basement areas of the Chronicle building. The company is also seeking damages and attorney fees.
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A former moderator on one of the internet’s most prominent gaming forums, NeoGAF, has been arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.
Thirty-two-year-old Christopher John Goldberg, who went by the name “Amir0x” on social media, was a male feminist who often took to Twitter to express his hatred at “sexists” and Trump supporters, in vocal support of the Women’s March. He was active during the GamerGate debacle that took the gaming world by storm in 2014, taking the side of feminists.
The Tobyhanna, Penn. man was charged this Wednesday with 64 counts of child porn possession and one count of criminally using a computer to download the illicit materials. Goldberg told police that he believed the pictures were not illegal if they didn’t depict sexual acts, but the police didn’t buy his excuse and issued the charges against him.
According to the Pocono Record, Goldberg told investigators that he “has many fetishes” and downloaded different types of porn, including that of nude children. The man did not contest the allegations, and told police that the materials were an outlet for his urges.
Investigators from Monroe County DA’s office conducting a hunt for pedophiles online discovered a suspect computer possessing child porn, and traced those activities back to Goldberg’s home. Investigators state that he downloaded images of prepubescent girls with their privates exposed.
On June 28, Detective Brian Webbe, who leads the task force, executed a search warrant at Goldberg’s residence and found a download folder on one of his cellphones containing one child porn video and 53 images.
A laptop recovered by investigators revealed software used to download the illegal content, and multiple files indicative of child porn.
The video depicts a girl between the ages of 12 and 14 wearing only a skirt and dancing suggestively for the camera, whereas the 53 pictures are of nude children between the ages of 4 and 12.
In tweets spanning multiple years leading up to his arrest in June, Goldberg signaled his support for feminism and accused Donald Trump and supporters, anime-watchers and gamers of being secret pedophiles.
Christopher John Goldberg’s behavior is indicative of a prevalent problem on the progressive left, especially among self-proclaimed “male feminist allies.” Individuals active within the social justice movement have been charged with crimes ranging from first-degree murder, like feminist YouTuber Aleksandr Kolpakov; to multiple counts of rape, like male feminist and tech writer Matt Hickey. Devin Faraci, an outspoken male feminist and former editor-in-chief at Birth Movies Death, was forced to resign following sexual assault allegations.
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students said that they felt like a failure. “That’s part of what made it difficult,” Martinsek says. With so few women in physics, she had an added layer of emotion because she worried that she’d let her gender down. It helped when Martinsek reminded herself that her decision to leave “doesn’t mean that I couldn’t be successful—it doesn’t mean that women in general can’t be successful—but I’m making a choice for myself,” she says. It also helped that she was happy “pretty rapidly” afterward. “But it was still hard at the time because you go into a program expecting to finish.”
Schulz recalls thinking, “Everyone thinks I’m stupid.” He also fretted that because he’d spent years working on a specialized project in grad school, he didn’t know what to put on his resume to go look for “a regular job.” Potential employers, he thought, would view him as someone who didn’t have any real experience. “How do I go out into the world at large? What do I even do with myself?” he wondered.
He ended up taking a winding path—first working as a teacher and then moving into a career in software. “I think it worked out for the best,” says Schulz, who now works as a quantitative software engineer at a mortgage company in Columbia, Missouri. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel a lot of weird, complicated, sad feelings about it.”
Tye says that quitting her Ph.D. was, in a lot of ways, the most difficult thing she’s ever done—but also the thing she’s most proud of. “It was so liberating,” she says. “I was high on life.” She likens the experience to the movie The Truman Show: “You realize that there’s more than this little world.”
Muredda, with the benefit of hindsight, has taken the time to reevaluate his motivation for entering grad school in the first place. “I went into science, I think, partly for the right reasons and partly for the wrong reasons.” He was fascinated by the biology of life and was curious about how things work. But “for whatever reason, those three letters meant a lot to me,” he says—referring to the Ph.D. “That’s not the reason to go into science.”
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Debrecen goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic during a Montenegro Wold Cup qualifier in 2010.
A Danish newspaper claims it has been confirmed to them by Europol sources - but stressed Liverpool are under no suspicion.
Liverpool won the match at Anfield when Debrecen goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic parried a shot from Fernando Torres, which fell to Dirk Kuyt.
However, Poleksic was allegedly paid to ensure there were more than two goals in the match, which he failed to do as Liverpool won 1-0 despite having seven shots on target.
A second Champions League tie involving the Hungarian side in the group stages, a 4-3 defeat by Fiorentina, has already been investigated by German police.
The 30-year-old Poleksic has since been banned for two years by UEFA for failing to report an approach from match-fixers and failed to overturn the suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year.
The FA said in a statement on Monday: "The FA are not aware of any credible reports into suspicious Champions League fixtures in England nor has any information been shared with us."
The European police agency (Europol) revealed on Monday that a wide-ranging investigation into match-fixing has uncovered more than 380 suspicious matches, including World Cup, European Championship qualifiers and two UEFA Champions League games.
Europol's chief Rob Wainwright said the investigation found "match fixing activity on a scale we have not seen before", and revealed the probe uncovered around £7m in betting profits and £1.27m in bribes to players and officials and has already led to several prosecutions.
The investigation identified about 425 corrupt officials, players and serious criminals in 15 countries and 50 arrests have been made so far.
Wainwright also stated that the involvement of organised crime "highlights a big problem for the integrity of football in Europe" with Asian gambling cartels identified as part of the match fixing operation.
European football's governing body, meanwhile, stressed it had a zero-tolerance approach to match-fixing.
It added in a statement: "UEFA is aware of the statements made by Europol regarding the alleged match-fixing that has taken place in various football competitions and expects to receive further information in the coming days.
"As part of the fight against the manipulation of matches, UEFA is already co-operating with the authorities on these serious matters as part of its zero-tolerance policy towards match-fixing in our sport.
"Once the details of these investigations are in UEFA's hands, then they will be reviewed by the appropriate disciplinary bodies in order that the necessary measures are taken."
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Cryptocurrencies are supposed to provide people with an alternative store of value, facilitate fast and cheap transactions, enable payments and more, all without relying on trusted third parties or middlemen.
Today, we have thousands of cryptocurrencies that aim to do just that. However, the fact of the matter is that we’re just not there yet. Take Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency for example. Transactions are slow and expensive and the price is highly volatile. It’s not an ideal currency for payments or transferring a stable store of value. Other cryptos suffer from the same issues and when we add conversion between crypto-assets into the mix, more issues arise.
When converting one crypto for another, you generally send it to an exchange. The process takes time, it’s kind of complicated, and involves various fees (transaction fee, deposit fee, trade fee, withdrawal fee). When it’s all said and done, it’s just not an efficient process.
All of these issues described above is exactly what PegNet aims to solve.
Explaining PegNet (PEG) in great depth was the CEO of Factom Paul Snow on October 19th, where he gave an informative presentation about his exciting new project, PegNet:
To summarize the above presentation; PegNet is an open, distributed, autonomous protocol running on top of the Factom protocol. It’s a stablecoin 4.0 network for payments, conversions, and store of value for digitized assets including cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, commodities, and more.
With PegNet, users can hold the value of Bitcoin, the value of the US dollar, the value of Gold, and the value of any other digitized asset on the PegNet network. But that’s not all, users can also use PegNet to make payments in Dollars and Euros without a credit card, without a payment processor, without a central bank, without a currency processor, without an exchange, without a broker, or without any other centralized third party.
PegNet enables users to store value, convert between assets, and make payments themselves by embedding these capabilities into the PegNet protocol. It truly is a revolutionary protocol with the potential to bring crypto mainstream and it’s already growing at an unprecedented rate.
As seen from the tweet below, PegNet has surpassed $350,000 in asset capacity in just 9 short days:
All in all, PegNet is an exciting new protocol that enables new possibilities with digitized assets and cryptocurrencies.
What do you think about PegNet? Will this new and exciting protocol revolutionize the crypto and digitized assets industry? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
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Photograph from “The Postmodernists Dinner,” 1983 by Jill Krementz (b. 1940)
From the University of Houston’s collection of Barthelme’s papers. The entry’s description:
Left to right: unidentified, unidentified, Donald Barthelme, John Barth, Robert Coover (turned), unidentified, Kurt Vonnegut, Walter Abish (with patch), William Gaddis (squatting), unidentified, William Gass, unidentified, unidentified. In 1983, Barthelme arranged a “Postmodernists Dinner” for the group of writers who were often lumped together under the “postmodernist” label. The reclusive Thomas Pynchon declined the invitation.
It would be swell if anyone could identify the women in the photograph.
In his 2009 Barthelme biography Hiding Man, Tracy Daugherty offers the following recollection of the “Postmodernist Dinner” from novelist Walter Abish:
Around this time — in the spring of 1983 — “Donald had this idea to make a dinner in SoHo,” says Water Abish. “A major dinner for a group of writers, and he planned it very, very carefully. It was a strange event. Amusing and intriguing. He invited…well, that was the thing of it. The list. I was astounded that he consulted me but he called and said, ‘Should we invite so-and-so?’ Naturally, I did the only decent thing and said ‘Absolutely’ to everyone he mentioned. I pushed for Gaddis. Gass was there, and Coover and Hawkes, Vonnegut and his wife, Jill Krementz, who took photographs, I think. Don’s agent, Lynn Nesbit, was there. She was always very friendly. Susan Sontag was the only woman writer invited.
Daugherty continues:
Pynchon couldn’t make it. He wrote Don to apologize. He said he was ‘between coasts, Arkansas or Lubbock or someplace like ‘at.”
Abish recollects that the meal was at a very expensive restaurant, prefix, and the writers had to pay their own way. There were about 21 attendees, and Barthelme was “Very, very dour.”
Here is Pynchon’s letter declining the invite (via Jessamyn West, both on Twitter and her wonderful Donald Barthelme appreciation page):
I had never seen the photograph until today when Ethelmer shared it with me on Twitter. Thanks!
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Head of Research at BitWise: Most Cryptos “Will Die”
Matt Hougan, the head of research at BitWise, has declared that the crypto bubble will burst soon and that 95 percent of cryptos will die, in a February 5, 2019 interview with Bloomberg.
Bubble Burst
While most people outside the cryptoverse are most familiar with giants like bitcoin and Ethereum, there are still thousands of other cryptocurrencies. The last decade has seen an explosion of new cryptos such as platform cryptos and even celebrity cryptos. However, Matt Hougan, global head of research at Bitwise Asset Management, believes that this is merely a phase and stated:
“95 percent of these will die a painful and deserved death.”
This isn’t a bad thing however, as Hougan has said that similar to the dot-com bubble, the crypto bubble will leave the truest viable entities surviving and the market will have a chance to mature.
Hougan explains:
“From those ashes, if you call them ashes, I mean cryptos up 300 percent over the last two years, so that’s ashes. They’re nice ashes. But from those ashes, I think will merge important things. Just like from the dotcom ashes emerged Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc,”
Just a Phase?
Like any emerging industry, crypto has a lot of people entering and exiting at a rapid pace, and it is estimated that new currencies are created and folded up every week.
A reason for this is because many still see cryptocurrency as a get-rich-quick scheme and either create currencies that are virtually unknown or engage in pump-and-dump schemes. Like Hougan has pointed out, the industry will likely see a burst in which the less viable cryptocurrencies will die off and only the stronger ones will survive.
This was the case in the dot-com bubble era and it seems History is bound to repeat itself.
A similar option was given on ICOs, where Hougan stated that too many of them were not genuine.
“People are going to jail and I think they should.” he said, “ …but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t legitimate things.”
This mirrors statements made by the SEC in 2018 when they announced that they had been forced to shut down several ICOs for failure to register or being outright scams.
Hougan also expressed optimism at BitEise gaining approval for an ETF, which they filed for in January and is awaiting SEC approval, stating that an ETF could bring a lot of positive attention to the industry.
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Torture and brutality are widespread in Libyan prisons run by various militias two years after the overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi, according to a United Nations report.
About 8,000 prisoners are held without trial in government jails on suspicion of having fought for Gaddafi, while countless others are detained by militias out of sight and in primitive conditions, the report, released on Tuesday, said.
"Torture and ill-treatment in Libya is an on-going and widespread concern in many detention centres," said the report, released jointly by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
UN investigators, who had periodic access to various detention centres, said there was evidence that 27 people have been tortured to death in the prisons, 11 of them this year, according to the report.
The report said that the problem is rampant in jails run by militias that triumphed in the eight-month civil war in 2011.
“In some cases, members of the armed brigades freely admitted, and even tried to justify, the physical abuse of detainees,'' the report said.
No one was immediately available for comment from the Libyan government.
'Torture will become institutionalised'
The report noted the Libyan government had declared its commitment to ending torture and to ensuring the proper working of the country's criminal justice system, and praised its passage of a law making torture a criminal offence.
Torture and ill-treatment in Libya is an on-going and widespread concern in many detention centres. UNHCR report
But both UN bodies feared that unless firm action was taken "there is a danger that torture will become institutionalised within the new Libya".
Many arrests were arbitrary, motivated by personal or tribal score-settling, the report said.
The paper detailed cases of men, some hauled off the street on the way to work or in their homes without explanation by militiamen, and how they were beaten and raped with bottles or large bullets and left without food in filthy jails.
In government-controlled jails run by trained police or prison officers, which UN staff had been able to visit, conditions and the treatment of detainees was better than in those operated by the militias - to which they had had little access.
In the latter, it said, torture was most frequent immediately upon arrest, and then - as in Gaddafi's time - detainees were held without access to lawyers and with only sporadic visits by their families.
A tribal group near Zintan in south-western Libya is holding Gaddafi's son and one-time political heir Saif al-Islam and has rejected a government request to transfer him to a Tripoli jail.
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At least one contract worker for Coinbase, the Bitcoin startup backed by Union Square Ventures & Andreessen Horowitz with over $30M in investment, has been paid in BitCoin to do work on a contract basis. Given that the startup manages thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins on a regular basis, it’s no surprise that it has accumulated a stock of the cryptocurrency, and, as the value continues to go up, it is in Coinbase’s favor to pay using Bitcoin.
Initially, I was a bit shocked regarding the idea of being paid via Bitcoin – surely this is circumventing labor laws, right? Well, no. Services like BitPay which launched earlier this year already allow employers to enable their employees to receive part or all of their income in BTC – nevermind whether that’s a reasonable thing for an employee to do – essentially by deducting taxes and then paying the net paycheck in some combination of USD$ and BTC. I highly doubt that services like BitPay account for overseas employment – I wonder what local governments would think of knowing that one of its citizens is working for BitCoin, given their recent hearing on BitCoin?
Despite the fact that CoinBase has found itself in hot water a few times for, well, taking $35K from someone and not delivering their BitCoin, the company has already been hailed as the first Billion Dollar Bitcoin startup – although, that’s only ~1.6 Million BTC. It’s no stretch to say that in the past 12 months, BitCoin, which jumped from $13USD to $1000USD and back down to around $600USD today, has become more present in our lives – or at least, you can now buy almost anything with BitCoin, if you know who accepts it.
2014 may be the year that BitCoin crashes, or stabilizes, or both – the fun that people had up until 2012 mining BitCoin is certainly over, as the currency has evolved from libertarian geek fantasy to a highly uncontrollable anonymous currency. I’ve been enjoying watching the new TV Show Almost Human, which has managed to interweave BitCoin as the go-to criminal currency in its futuristic buddy cop series – Hollywood is great at imagining today’s technology as standards of tomorrow’s living.
The government may have thought Silk Road was the worst thing that could happen with BitCoin, but what happens when the very companies that are trying to be BitCoin banks are paying workers in their own currency? Can this expenditure be properly tracked, taxed, and quantified, or will it slip between the cracks?
One thing’s for sure – BitCoin is real. A real payment method, and a real problem that governments need to figure out.
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forces could legitimize violent insurgency and promote further excessive and extrajudicial violence on behalf of Duterte. Particularly with recent US involvement in the conflict, the Philippines is unlikely to need the support of rebel groups, and now can use US resources as an alternative to members of insurgent groups involved in the current ceasefire.
The Philippine military involved in the recapture of Marawi must also be careful to differentiate between its true opponents and innocent citizens of the Muslim-majority area. Terrorist recruiting is most successful when immigrants and minorities feel excluded and alienated. Therefore, Duterte must be sure his soldiers take aim only at those truly responsible for the violence, and avoid creating more enemies in the future by targeting civilians or instituting policies that could be seen as discriminatory. Declaring martial law can certainly help in the effort to retake Marawi right now, but its implementation must be carefully managed in order to minimize the potential risk of Muslim Filipinos feeling targeted by law enforcement.
There are some potential benefits to using other rebel groups to fight ISIS but the associated risks far outweigh the benefits. According to Duterte, Nur Misuari, the founder and leader of the MNLF has offered military aid. In addition, Islamic insurgent groups fighting against ISIS-backed rebels could help to damage ISIS’ brand as well as create the impression that Duterte is willing to work with and accommodate the Filipino Islamic community. However, supporting rebels of any kind is risky, a lesson the United States has learned many times. There is no guarantee that the newly armed rebels will not see a chance to replace Maute, a rival group, after defeating them, or otherwise turn against the government. As evidenced by the long and arduous events of the recent Colombia peace talks between the government and guerilla fighters in 2016, true peace is by no means guaranteed, and even if a ceasefire can survive there will be tension. Moving this quickly from peace talks to military cooperation with a rebel group in one’s own country is uncharted territory, and could have catastrophic consequences.
The success or failure of Duterte’s efforts to recapture Marawi and the long-term results in the fight against terror will be critical to gauging the potential expansion of ISIS and other extremist groups in Southeast Asia. The battle for Marawi reflects changing environments for terrorist groups as well as ISIS’ ability to be agile and flexible in how it adapts to them. How the Philippines manages this new destabilization and the long-term effects will be valuable lessons for other countries outside of the Middle East in how to prevent extremist influence from manifesting itself as ISIS seeks to ensure its survival.
Adam Petno is an intern at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security.
This article appeared originally at Atlantic Council.
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It’s East meets West End Line!
An Asian supermarket chain will likely replace Bensonhurst’s shuttered Waldbaum’s. Queens-based Jmart made the winning bid for the D train-adjacent New Utrecht Avenue building that Waldbaum’s left in November, an attorney for the market confirmed. And the neighborhood’s largest-in-the-city population of Chinese immigrants is excited to have old-world options in its new home, a community leader said.
“They do express that it would be great to have a huge Asian market over there so they don’t have to travel over to Sunset Park for what they need,” said Wai-Yee Chan of the Chinese-American Planning Council, which provides services to immigrant families.
Jmart specializes in imported Asian ingredients, produce, seafood, and meat, according to its website. Specialty items such as duck feet and jellyfish heads are available in high supply, but the market also offers American-style groceries. Timeout New York called the chain’s Queens flagship a cook’s paradise in 2013.
The news ends speculation that Key Food would take over the shuttered market. The chain bought 23 stores in New York and New Jersey from Waldbaum’s parent company A&P last year.
Not everyone is happy about the prospect of a new Asian-centric market in the neighborhood. More than 1,300 people signed a petition last week pleading with hipster chain Trader Joe’s to open a new store at the former Waldbaum’s.
Most people wrote messages citing the chain’s healthy and affordable fare as reason enough to want a Trader Joe’s in the neighborhood, but others slung racist jabs at the neighborhood’s Asian population — the city’s largest, according to a recent New York Times article.
A bankruptcy court judge will rule on the sale on Feb. 5 and is likely give Jmart his stamp of approval, a Brooklyn bankruptcy lawyer said.
“It’s always subject to approval, but 99 percent of the time, the court will approve the sale,” said Bruce Weiner of law firm Rosenberg, Musso, & Weiner. “Most of the time its a rubber stamp.”
The news was first reported by retail news site Coupons in the News.
Reach reporter Dennis Lynch at (718) 260–2508 or e-mail him at dlync h@cng local.com.
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Babul Supriyo also targeted Mamata Banerjee for her tweet calliing BJP's rule an era of'super emergency'
Union Minister Babul Supriyo took a dig at Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying that Alipore Central Jail in Kolkata has been specially painted by her to host the TMC leadership which is going to land behind bars very soon for their crimes.
"I was travelling through Alipore area. Ironically, Didi has painted the Alipore prison in blue and white as she has a fondness of painting everything in her party's colour. We are suspecting that she has premonition that Alipur prison is going to be the official party office of TMC. They all are going to shift in the prison," said Mr Supriyo while commenting on Ms Banerjee's alleged protection to IPS officer, former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.
Commenting on the state of affairs in West Bengal, Mr Supriyo alleged that Ms Banerjee has been misusing police to keep her hold over the state. The BJP and Trinamool have been locked in a battle to secure the state for themselves. The battle had seen political violence erupting during the Lok Sabha polls.
"She sat on dharna for the officer when all that CBI wanted was to summon Rajiv Kumar in a case. She lost her dignity and degraded CM''s position by sitting on dharna outside tainted Rajiv Kumar''s house. Going by the buzz on social media, people are saying that TMC has made arrangements for hiding Kumar," said Mr Supriyo.
Mr Supriyo also targeted Ms Banerjee for her tweet in which she termed BJP's rule as an era of'super emergency'.
"Of late, Ms Banerjee is on the mode to confess all crimes she had committed against humanity. She is talking of cut money and about super emergency she has imposed in Bengal. We have faced her tyranny where opposition members got killed. She has even robbed youngsters of their right to protest," said Mr Supriyo.
Taking an aim at the Central government, Ms Banerjee on Sunday said there was a state of "super emergency" in the country and called upon people to do everything it takes to "protect rights and freedoms" guaranteed by the Constitution.
An unprecedented chain of events had unfolded on February 3 when a CBI team reached former Kolkata Police Commissioner Mr Kumar's residence to question him. The team was detained, taken to a police station and was later released.
The West Bengal Chief Minister had also visited the officer's residence, following which she sat on a dharna.
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A custody battle is raging between a newspaper and its former reporter over a Twitter account. The Roanoke Times’s parent company, BH Media, is suing one of the newspaper’s former college football reporters, Andy Bitter. They say he refused to hand control of his Twitter account—which he had acquired from the previous reporter on his beat seven years prior—back to the newspaper when he left to take a job at The Athletic last month.
Screenshot : BH MEDIA GROUP, INC. v. ANDY BITTER
BH Media says that The Athletic, which has been systematically pillaging talent from local newspapers for more than a year, is a direct competitor to the Roanoke Times and is seeking “a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction arising from misappropriation of its trade secrets, computer crimes.”
The lawsuit says that the account was created in August of 2010 by Bitter’s predecessor, Kyle Tucker, and was handed over to Bitter in October of 2011. It says Bitter signed an employee handbook saying account belonged to the newspaper. The lawsuit doesn’t say how many Twitter followers the account—now @AndyBitterVT—had when Bitter began managing it, but that number was assuredly far less than its current following of over 27,000.
For reporters, especially beat reporters who build their reputation on tracking and breaking—usually on Twitter—team minutiae and transactional updates, being able to reach a large audience is crucial. Having a relatively large Twitter following likely contributed significantly to why Bitter was hired at The Athletic to begin with. Considering that Bitter was mostly responsible for growing the presence of the social media account to its current following, he’s also mostly responsible—I’d say, anyway—for the value of the account, and should get to retain control of it. The lawsuit, by the way, estimated the value of his Twitter account at $150,000. Yes, it said a beat writer’s Twitter account about Virginia Tech football was worth as much as a small yacht.
In what reads as a bleak assessment of its own newspaper’s ability to report, break, and then share news on social media, the BH Media lawsuit said: “Any effort to create a new account similar to the Account in question would not net 27,100 followers for many years, if ever.”
The lawsuit also notes, however, that Bitter used the Twitter account to plug his own “Why I’m going to The Athletic” story. At this point, that in itself should probably get you kicked off Twitter.
The full suit can be read below:
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel took aim at Donald Trump’s world view in a speech on U.S. soil, saying unilateralism risks bringing down post-World War II alliances and trade wars threaten the “foundations of our prosperity.”
“More than ever, our way of thinking and actions have to be multilateral rather than unilateral,” Merkel said in a commencement speech to Harvard University’s class of 2019 that combined tough criticism of nationalist policies with philosophical vistas of a change for the better.
Merkel, 64, was addressing a receptive audience on Thursday as she seeks halt a deterioration in the trans-Atlantic alliance under Trump’s presidency. In her 14th year in office, officials in Merkel’s government are beginning to speak of a point of no return in U.S.-German relations.
At times, Merkel drew applause from the crowd by seeming to address the U.S. leader directly, urging graduates not to act “first impulses” or to brandish “lies as truth and truth as lies.”
Some 2,000 miles to the west, Trump reprised his America First doctrine in a speech to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, saying the U.S. won’t sacrifice its interests for those of foreign powers.
“We don’t do that anymore,” Trump told graduates. “In all things and ways we are putting America first. and it’s about time.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, waves as she is presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree as former Harvard President Drew Faust, left, and Harvard Provost Alan Garber, right, applaud during Harvard University commencement exercises, Thursday, May 30, 2019, on the schools campus, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
East German Past
Merkel, Germany’s first female chancellor, drew from her own biography as the daughter of a pastor who grew up in East Germany and rose from political obscurity after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and German reunification in 1990 to the country’s highest elected office.
Merkel joins a list of prominent commencement speakers in recent years, from Facebook Inc. co-founder and Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg to “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and television host Oprah Winfrey. Last year’s address was given by U.S. civil rights pioneer and U.S. representative John Lewis.
Merkel is the first German leader to give an address at Harvard since 1990, when former Chancellor Helmut Kohl delivered it the year of German reunification.
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Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, is looking at acquiring homegrown online retailers that have a large customer base as well as a robust network of merchants.
The China-based company is also looking at firms that can help improve customer experience as well as expand its range of products and services.
"Alibaba Group's investment strategy focuses on three aspects of our business: increasing user acquisition and engagement, improving customer experience and expanding our products and services," an Alibaba spokesperson told PTI.
At present, Alibaba Group has four offices in the country. Its platform has several small businesses from the domestic market selling goods ranging from spices to chocolates to tea.
Its B2B e-commerce platform provides a global market to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the spokesperson added.
"Our investment approach also involves supporting entrepreneurs in the development of innovative products and technologies," she said.
In November 2014, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who was on his first visit to the country, said that he will "invest more in India, work with Indian entrepreneurs, India technologists to improve the relationship of the two nations".
Ma, one of China's richest persons with a fortune of about US $24 billion, founded Alibaba in 1999 in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang province.
Market insiders said one of Alibaba's key strategies over the short-to-medium term is to go global so that it can collaborate and work with small businesses around the world.
The Chinese e-commerce major is also in talks with many smaller e-tailing players in an attempt to create a large online marketplace model to take on rivals such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.
India, with its expanding Internet users and smartphone penetration, is one of the largest online retail markets in the world and is seeing growing interest from investors globally.
According to the consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the e-commerce sector in the country is expected to grow by 34 per cent to US $22 billion in 2015 compared to the previous year.
In January 2015, Alibaba signed a memorandum of understanding with industry body Vonfederation of Indian Industry (CII) for greater business engagement between SMEs in India and China.
In February, Ant Financial Services - part of the Alibaba Group - had announced acquisition of 25 per cent stake in One97 Communications, the parent of mobile commerce firm Paytm.
In March, Alibaba pulled out of talks with Snapdeal on stake purchase due to high valuations being sought by the homegrown online retailer.
During the same month, Ma met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed how the firm can help in empowering small businesses in India.
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A Labour MP was accused of exaggerating the problems caused by a No Deal Brexit after she suggested today that it could lead to an outbreak of scurvy.
Rupa Huq claimed that food and drink shortages if the UK left the EU without a deal could spark a return of the deadly disease, caused by a lack of vitamin C, which historically afflicted sailors on long sea voyages.
She made the claim in a Commons' debate with a swipe at the ongoing Tory leadership race, in which all the remaining candidates - Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt - have said they will leave without a deal if they have to.
Ealing MP Mrs Huq said: 'In reality only just over half of the food we eat is made in Britain, with over a third coming from the EU.
'Why then when the Food and Drink Federation is predicting after a no-deal Brexit fresh fruit and veg would run out after two weeks, are the remaining contenders in the Tory leadership battle continuing to entertain this damaging prospect?
'Isn't scurvy back on our streets more important than the whims of fundamentalist party members' wishes?'
Rupa Huq asked: 'Isn't scurvy back on our streets more important than the whims of fundamentalist party members' wishes?'
She attacked Tory leadership rivals for contemplating the 'damaging prospect' of a No Deal Brexit
Environment minister David Rutley said the Government was preparing for 'every eventuality'.
'I think she's ruined a perfectly reasonable question by exaggerating,' he said.
'We're preparing for every eventuality.
'A deal is the best outcome. We all have a responsibility to help deliver that. We're preparing for all outcomes.'
Brexiteer Tory Michael Fabricant asked if his constituents needed to'stock up with tins of Spam or apricots in syrup?'
Brexiteer Tory Michael Fabricant weighed in, joking: 'So will you confirm that my constituents in Lichfield do not need to stock up with tins of Spam or apricots in syrup?'
Scurvy was a major problem for sailors on long voyages in the age of sailing ships.
They were often far from shore for long periods on a diet that did not include fresh fruit and vegetables.
Symptoms include bleeding gums and teeth that fall out easily, bulging eyes and hair loss. It can lead to death in extreme cases.
In the 19th century it was discovered it could be treated with lemon and lime juice and stores were taken on long journeys, leading to Royal Navy sailors - and later Britons in general - being nicknamed 'limeys'.
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As the Brexit debate moved on to immigration, the home secretary decoupled a key aim from May’s agreement
This article is more than 1 year old
This article is more than 1 year old
Theresa May’s deal offers the end of freedom of movement, a change that supporters of her offer say is crucial in delivering the Brexit for which people voted in 2016.
As ending of freedom of movement is central to the deal, some MPs have been calling for the government to publish the white paper for its post-Brexit immigration bill before next week’s meaningful vote.
The government has told those MPs this is not likely to happen. On Wednesday, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, said it was “still his intention” to publish it this month – a choice of words opposition MPs met with groans and sighs.
Defending the delay, Javid told MPs: “It’s worth keeping in mind that this is the biggest change in our immigration system in four decades. It’s important that we take the time and we get it right.”
Javid also said freedom of movement would end, “deal or no deal” – in effect saying that while it was a key part of the deal, it was not strictly tied to what May was offering.
He also said MPs had been given glimpses of what the post-Brexit immigration system would look like.
The government is proposing a single immigration system that treats migrants from EU countries in the same way as those from non-EU countries. Highly skilled workers who want to live and work in Britain will be given priority.
However, the government says the ability of people from abroad to deliver services and student exchange programmes will form part of future trade agreements.
Brexit: MPs rail against backstop plans in second day of debate on May's deal – Politics live Read more
Javid said he would consider scrapping the current cap of 20,700 on highly skilled migrants as part of the post-Brexit vision.
Applicants will need to meet a minimum salary threshold – for highly skilled migrants this stands at £30,000 – but Javid has hinted this will be reviewed.
Successful applicants for highly skilled work will be able to bring their immediate families, but only if sponsored by their future employers.
For tourists and short-stay business trips, the government is looking at developing a system of e-gate visa checks for all countries considered low-risk.
Passports would be scanned in airports, train stations and ports. All security and criminal records checks would be carried out in advance of visits, in a US-style system.
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