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Throughout history, people have turned to works of literature for guidance, entertainment, and education. Modern businesses aim to tell stories that leave a long-lasting impact as well, and should look to examples of historical success to influence how they create their own content.
Today’s infographic comes to us from Global English Editing, and it looks at 20 of the most popular books in the world. All of the books listed, even those published decades or centuries ago, have made an enduring impact on readers to this day. They have achieved this by stirring discussion and sparking debate wherever they are read.
Controversy: The Evergreen Theme
One of the important traits shared by every book on this list is the controversy that has swirled around each of them. This can be seen across different time periods and genres.
People have questioned the identity and authorial authenticity of Homer and decried the upending of creationism proposed by Darwin. Even a children’s book like the modern bestselling series, Harry Potter, can be a magnet for discussion over what is morally right and wrong.
It is often the case the that most popular and enduring literary works will not only captivate, but also address controversial issues in such a way that people will be talking about them for generations.
Lessons From History
The recent bestselling streak of George Orwell’s 1984, first published in 1950, is an interesting illustration of this trend.
The dystopian novel was banned upon its translation and release in the former USSR due to its implicit critique of Stalinist political ideology. By contrast, in the 1970s and 1980s, several American counties challenged 1984 on the grounds that it might promote communist ideals. In the 21st century, Orwell’s best-known work has been revisited by a new generation of readers as the American political climate continues to create new uncertainties about governance, the distortion of facts, and social control.
For Business Content, Bold Will Hold
The most popular books ever written can teach modern businesses a great deal about what it takes to make content that is evergreen, meaningful, and primed to engage their readers. Creating discussion is key in the age of the reactive “hot take” style of article. Your ability to stand out in the cultural, historical, or political context for having a point of view that many people find worthy of debating will give your work the staying power it needs.
Considering that within any given minute there are 2.4 million Google searches taking place and over 700,000 people logging into Facebook, this is no easy task. But whether it’s through a new product or via customer engagement, creating meaningful discussion is key to making a business’ voice heard through all the noise.
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Free Speech Groups Stand by Embattled Publisher
When the publisher of a satirical book for adults parodying children’s literature recently came under attack for content considered offensive, NCAC spearheaded a statement, endorsed by other major free speech groups, defending the right to create, publish, and read the book. The author, however, decided it wasn’t worth it after receiving thousands of angry messages, and has asked the publisher not to reprint the book, which is nearly sold out.
The book in question, Bad Little Children’s Books, includes parodies of children’s book covers, reminiscent of the “Golden Books” children’s literature series popular in the 1940s and 50s. The book, written by pseudonymous author Arthur Gackley and published by ABRAMS books, is deliberately controversial, using book covers to poke fun at some of society’s most delicate issues. As the author explains in a statement, the work is intended to “comment on the ridiculousness of biases, stereotypes, and intolerance through the prism of questionable taste and dark humor,” in the same vein as the comedy found in South Park or The Simpsons.
The book received positive reviews when published in September. However, in early December a blogger attacked the book as racist in a post that sharply criticized the author and ABRAMS. This provoked widespread criticism of the book and its publisher on Twitter and other online platforms, with critics calling for the book’s removal and a boycott of the publisher. In an initial statement responding to the criticism, ABRAMS supported the decision to publish the book, underlining its parodic nature.
The statement has been endorsed by the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the National Council of Teachers of English, PEN AMERICA and the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, in addition to the National Coalition Against Censorship. The endorsing organizations represent a diverse constituency of readers, writers, educators, publishers, booksellers and intellectual freedom advocates, who promote availability to the public of a wide variety of books and opinions.
The statement can be read in full below. See also the Association of American Publisher’s blog about the statement, here.
In his statement, the author has asked ABRAMS not to print another edition of the book, because it has been so widely misunderstood and misconstrued. In a second statement, ABRAMS, while affirming its support for the book and its commitment to freedom of speech and artistic expression, said it will respect the author’s request.
Read NCAC’s statement below; click here for a full screen view.
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Trade negotiations between the United States and China stalled this month. This has thrown the trade relationship between the world #1 and #2 economies into a tailspin. Gold stands to gain as this debacle unfolds for a number of reasons.
Firstly, gold is a traditional safe-haven asset. Investors tend to flock to it during periods of economic, monetary, and fiscal uncertainty.
A full-blown US-China trade war will spur all sorts of uncertainty. Indeed, economic uncertainty is already brewing as global supply chains get disrupted. The 25% tariffs that the US and China have slapped on each other has forced many companies searching for alternatives.
Additionally, the Trump administration blacklisting Chinese telecom giant Huawei is another major source of economic uncertainty. Many American companies sell parts and buy equipment from Huawei. Accordingly, many businesses on both sides of the Pacific will face disruption.
Investors tend to seek safe-haven assets whenever economic uncertainty increases. Indeed, this is precisely why gold prices almost doubled since the Financial Crisis. Accordingly, the economic uncertainty created by the US-China trade war will also boost gold prices.
A weakening Chinese yuan will also spur gold demand
Another casualty of the US-China trade war is China’s currency. The yuan fell about 2.7% over the last two weeks and is now trading at 6.92 to the US dollar.
This is dangerously close the to the psychologically important 7-to-1 level that could spur upheaval in financial markets. Indeed, if the yuan breaks this support, it could weaken rapidly as Chinese investors and savers abandon the currency.
Typically, gold demand surges whenever investors lose confidence in fiat currencies. This is particularly true for Chinese investors because of China’s long and often turbulent history. Over the centuries, countless governments and currencies have failed in what is now China.
Moreover, the only consistent store of wealth over the wide expanse of Chinese history is gold. Indeed, this is precisely the reason why Chinese culture developed such a strong affinity for the yellow metal. Accordingly, any sustained decline in the Chinese yuan will spur a tidal wave for the yellow demand.
Last year China was already the world’s top gold consumer at a hefty 1,151 metric tons. To put that in perspective, that’s more than a quarter of global gold demand. Moreover, that was before the US-China trade war really took off and Chinese yuan started to stumble.
Accordingly, Chinese gold demand could surge as the US-China trade war crushes the currency. Rising demand in the world’s top gold consumer will inevitably lead to higher prices. Investors would be wise to consider adding the yellow metal into their investment portfolio.
See more of our analysis
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Peter Thiel has sold three-quarters of the Facebook shares he picked as Mark Zuckerberg’s first venture capitalist, even as the Silicon Valley boycott against him intensifies.
Thiel already had a big week by cutting ties with the Y Combinator investor fund. He then sold 160,805 shares of Facebook stock for about $29 million, cutting the last of his holdings to 59,913 Class A shares.
Thiel turned $500,000 in July 2004 into over $1 billion by investing in a rudimentary social networking company started by Harvard drop-outs Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin that later became known as Facebook, Inc.
Lately, Breitbart News has noted that Thiel has been the target of a concerted Silicon Valley effort, led by Ellen Pao and her “Project Include,” in retaliation for his speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention and his unforgivable sin of making a $1.25 million campaign contribution to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Project Include has run an aggressive Internet boycott campaign against Thiel that has called on consumers, job candidates, partners, and other fellow progressive travelers to retaliate against Thiel’s friends and business associates by ending relationships with any organization with which he is associated.
Pao is most infamous for unanimously losing her 2015 gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit in a San Francisco jury trial against the prestigious Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. The court found Pao’s story so unbelievable that the federal judge forced Pao to pay KPCB $276,000 in legal fees.
Thiel sold 16.8 million shares in Facebook’s 2012 IPO for about $640 million; sold another 20 million of his shares for $400 million within a year; and sold 1 million shares for about $100 million in 2016. Facebook’s spokesman told Reuters that Thiel’s sales were routine and would have no impact on his continuing as a company director.
Anger against Thiel just hit a new high after the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, unveiled a plan this week to dump the Obama administration’s Net Neutrality rules that favored Silicon Valley Internet provider monopolies over telecom providers.
The Silicon Valley-dominated Internet Association trade group, which heavily funded by Facebook and Google, called ending Net Neutrality an effort to defy the will of millions of Americans.
But Net Neutrality generated billions of dollars in extra profits for Silicon Valley and was a major reason the S&P Internet Stock Index spiked by over 140 percent since Net Neutrality was first proposed in 2013 — even as investment in new telecommunications infrastructure stagnated.
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The planting of nine native trees on the summit of Auckland's Māungakiekie, or One Tree Hill, this morning is being hailed as a new start for the city.
It was hoped at least one of three tōtara or six pōhutukawa would thrive and replace the original totara that was cut down by settlers in the 1850s.
Photo: RNZ/Anusha Bradley
The trees were planted at dawn by representatives of Auckland iwi, who welcomed dignitaries to the summit with a powhiri.
Some of the pōhutukawa planted were from seedlings found growing in the former Monterey Pine that stood on the summit, before it was chopped down 16 years ago.
Photo: RNZ/Anusha Bradley
Auckland councillor Christine Fletcher planted one of those trees with her grandchildren.
"The pōhutukawa that we plant today are the fifth generation of those very seedlings, so we've come full circle and in seeing these planted it gives me enormous pleasure, and I wanted to share that experience with my grandchildren."
Tupuna Maunga Authority chair Paul Majurey said the trees would be protected to ensure their survival.
"There's going to be the group of trees, a shelter belt and there's going to be fencing all around protecting it. There's no issue we think in terms of any concerns over the safety of the trees, it's really about it being a very harsh environment," he said.
Photo: RNZ/Anusha Bradley
Today was a momentous occasion that should not be underestimated, he said.
"This event is a momentous milestone for this taonga, for Mana Whenua and for the people of Tāmaki Makaurau. To Mana Whenua this Tūpuna Maunga was once known as 'Te Tōtara i Āhua' for the single mighty tōtara tree that stood at the tihi. That tōtara was lost in the mid-1800's. Today native trees rise once again."
Photo: Supplied
Auckland Mayor Len Brown also planted a tree. He said it signified a new era for the city and represented a united Auckland.
Tonight, a beam of light would shine upwards from the summit of Maungakiekie to the heavens to mark the tree planting event.
Over the course of several years, and overseen by arborists, a process of selection would see the stronger trees emerge. The aim is that after a decade, a single pohutukawa or tōtara will remain standing on the tihi.
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will begin and end immediately before the 2016 Presidential campaign begins in earnest with the Iowa caucuses; and the open enrollment period after that will begin around the time that people go to the polls. So if an ObamaCare death spiral moves from mere hints and intimations to harsh realities, progressives in and around the Democratic Party will be confronted with a historic choice: Will they die in the last ditch to defend ObamaCare as is? Will they advocate tweaks? Will they revive the so-called public option?[6] Or — especially given that Clinton has already head-faked left on so many other policies — will they finally push for the simple, rugged, and proven “Everybody in, nobody out” single payer program advocated by Bernie Sanders?
NOTES
[1] Because I’m not a “worse is better” kind of guy.
[2] Obama’s demogoguery on the mandate in 2008 was too much even for Krugman. Clinton supported the mandate; and Obama ran Harry and Louise-style ads (the background) against Clinton, opposing it. Naturally, when in office, Obama supported it.
[3] “Asymmetric Information in Health Insurance: Evidence from the National Medical Expenditure Survey,” The RAND Journal of Economics, 2001. “A robust prediction of adverse-selection models is that riskier types by more coverage and, on average, end up using more care. We test for unobservables linking health insurance status and health care consumption. We find no evidence of informational asymmetries.”
[4] If you squeeze the profit balloon on the policy side, by insisting that those with pre-existing conditions be covered, as ObamaCare does, then the profit balloon expands on the crapification side, and you get narrow networks without specialists and/or limited by geography, high co-pays and deductibles, narrow formularies, and other forms of obfuscation (or, to put it less politely, fraud). We should be seeking to pop the profit balloon in health care, not squeeze it.
[5] Or — anything’s possible — the Tea Party, et al., might actually grow some stones and start doing serious tax resistance, now that the screws are beginning to tighten; interestingly, the ObamaCare statute forbids the IRS from garnishing your wages or putting a lien on you if you don’t pay the tax penalty for not fulfilling the mandate, which sure looks like a set-up to me. (Yes, the IRS can take your refund, but surely that can be gamed.) Another reason 2016 might be more interesting even than the usual Presidential year.
[6] For background, see here and here.
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What fascinated me was how the preppers, who are largely (though not entirely) a right-wing bunch, have much in common with today’s crunchy neo-homesteaders. They’re both interested in self-sufficiency, both skeptical of government and institutions, and both worried about potential disasters (crunchy urban homesteader types tend to worry about, etc, rather than nuclear war.). Though their ideologies are very different, their interests are the same – off-grid living, raising chickens, canning, learning old-fashioned homesteading skills.
I just got back from a trip to see my husband’s family in Salt Lake City, where we spent part of the time staying with my husband’s oldest brother and his wife and three kids and…their chickens, ducks and quail. Like so many people these days, my brother-in-law and his wife are urban farmers, raising their animals in the small backyard of their hip Salt Lake neighborhood. Several of my neighbors here in Chapel Hill are chicken-keepers as well (there are even a pair of urban goats wandering around!), as are many of the people I interviewed for the book. Most of the neo-homesteaders I interviewed were worried about health, food safety and climate change, and also got deep satisfaction out of living closer to the land.
There is also, I think, an element of wish-fulfillment in prepping and homesteading. As I point out in the end of the Outside article, there’s something primally appealing about being self-sufficient, free (or free-er, at least) from the constraints of civilization. Or maybe I’ve just been reading too much Little House on the Prairie
Researching the Outside article made me realize that, cut off from grocery stores and municipal water supplies, I’d last about a week, subsisting on expired cans of tuna and tubs of chocolate-covered almonds. But I have a hard time thinking that “prepping” is a worthwhile use of time, and the ideology of self-sufficiency – whether it’s liberal or Tea Party conservative – strikes me as the wrong way of looking at things. If something’s broken or close to breaking, I’d rather see people put their energy into fixing it together, rather than adopting an “every man for himself” attitude.
From a foodie perspective, I would love to have my own chickens. And a huge garden. And a milking goat. If only someone else would take care of it all…
Thoughts? Any preppers/neo-homesteaders/aspiring off-griders out there?
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Former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt addresses the TMZ video that shows him shoving and kicking a woman in February. (5:55)
The NFL is considering three separate off-field incidents as it works toward a final decision on discipline for former Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt, sources close to the situation told ESPN, and the result is likely to be a multigame suspension that stretches into next season.
TMZ's publishing Friday of a video of Hunt shoving and kicking a woman in a hotel hallway in February led to the league putting Hunt on the commissioner's exempt list and the Chiefs releasing the 2017 NFL rushing leader.
The two other incidents involving Hunt are a restaurant altercation from June about which the league already questioned him and a violent incident at a nightclub in January about which the NFL didn't know until recently. TMZ reported the January incident on Monday.
The sources who spoke to ESPN on this matter didn't know when the league would reach a decision on Hunt's eventual suspension but said all three incidents would be part of the evaluation.
The NFL uses the commissioner's exempt list as a means of keeping a player off the field while it investigates off-field behavior and comes to a decision on a suspension.
Sources said the June incident did not turn violent and that Hunt was "fully cooperative" when NFL officials questioned him about it earlier this season. At that interview, the sources said, the league did not question Hunt about the February hotel incident depicted in last week's video.
The NFL did not file a formal request for records of the Cleveland incident until Nov. 30, the day TMZ published the video, according to records obtained by the Kansas City Star. The Chiefs never requested the video, according to the records.
The NFL told the paper that it had multiple conversations with Cleveland police officers and requested surveillance video immediately upon learning of the incident in February. But the Cleveland police did not have the surveillance footage because the incident was a misdemeanor.
The sources said the January incident at the nightclub did get violent and involved Hunt throwing a punch.
Taken together, the multiple incidents are likely to constitute the types of aggravating factors that can lead the league to impose a suspension longer than the six-game baseline specified in the personal conduct policy for incidents involving violent behavior.
Hunt was placed on the commissioner's exempt list with five games remaining in this season, so any suspension of six games or longer would stretch into next season, even if the league credited him with time served for games missed this season.
Hunt passed through waivers unclaimed Monday, which means he is a free agent and can sign with any team at any time, though being on the commissioner's exempt list prohibits him from attending practices or games.
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Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Neil deGrasse Tyson has claimed that the refusal of the Trump administration to bow to every scientific demand presented to politicians is a threat to democracy.
Neil deGrasse Tyson says science deniers in White House are a profound threat to democracy The scientist spoke out as thousands around the world prepare to march One of America’s most influential and popular scientists has issued a stark warning over what he termed the Trump administration’s rejection of science – saying it is a threat to the country’s “informed democracy”. Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of the StarTalk podcast and TV show and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, said when he grew up, the US had relied on science to drive its innovation. But no longer. “People have lost the ability to judge what is true and what is not, what is reliable, what is not reliable,” he says in a video posted on Facebook. “That’s not the country I remember growing up in. I don’t remember any other time where people were standing in denial of what science was.” …
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/neil-degrasse-tyson-trump-science-deniers-white-house-threat-democracy-a7696186.html
In my opinion, the problem with people like Tyson is they think they have a monopoly on being right. And there are a lot of reasons for thinking Tyson is not right about everything.
Climate Science in particular has an atrocious track record of failed predictions, dating all the way back to James Hansen’s exaggerated Scenario A.
Nothing bad is happening to the global climate, despite efforts by climate scientists to hype up every twitch of the thermometer.
The only tangible effect of anthropogenic CO2 to date is that CO2 is greening the Earth, stimulating faster plant growth, and more drought resilience across a broad range of species.
Claims by climate scientists that the science is “settled” are unconvincing.
To suggest it is unreasonable to have doubts about alarmist climate projections in the face of such a shambolic track record of failure and exaggeration in my opinion is pure arrogance – personal hubris dressed up as scientific opinion.
Video of Tyson explaining why it is wrong to disagree with him
Update (EW): Replaced the video above with a longer version of Tyson’s presentation
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When a country has a bicameral legislature controlled by opposing parties and lacks leaders capable of bridging partisan gaps, coming up with a strategy for ending an economic crisis is devilishly tricky. If you think this kind of gridlock is paralyzing Washington, consider Tokyo.
Japan on Tuesday elected its sixth prime minister of the past five years. Rick Perry he is not; former Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who is conservative by Japanese standards, is a lifelong politician whose extreme humility raises some eyebrows even in Japan, where modesty is a political virtue. In his acceptance speech after being elected head of the Democratic Party of Japan, he compared himself to a mud-dwelling fish, saying his looks wouldn’t win his party any votes but promising to work hard anyway. “Sweating ineptly, but with all my strength and all my heart, I will advance this country forward,” he said.
Japan faces severe economic challenges, with the most worrisome debt-to-income ratio in the industrialized world (its debt amounts to 200% of the country’s gross domestic product, compared with about 100% in the U.S.). It must cope with massive reconstruction costs in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, its social security system is teetering as the population ages, and an uptick in the value of the yen is pummeling the country’s manufacturers. Tokyo’s response to these problems will reverberate here and around the globe because of the importance of Japan’s export-driven economy to the worldwide economic outlook.
Noda has spoken in favor of raising the national sales tax as a way of reining in the debt crisis, though he has been unclear about specifics; on the other side are politicians who want to rebuild quake-ravaged areas by issuing more bonds. The details of the solutions may matter less than finding something that can pass muster not only with Noda’s party, which controls the lower house of the Diet, but with the Liberal Democratic Party, which controls the upper. The split, which former Prime Minister Naoto Kan was unable to overcome, has led to paralysis and all-too-frequent leadership shifts. The government’s failure to come up with a coherent policy prompted Moody’s to downgrade Japanese bonds last week to a level below those of European trouble spots Italy and Spain.
Can Noda overcome the partisan squabbles? Of the five candidates in the leadership race, he appeared the most open to cooperating with the other side. The question in Tokyo now is whether the other side will work with him. For the good of the Japanese and everybody else, we hope their opposition party is more open to compromise on taxing and spending than ours.
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michael
Favourite for Labour leadership holds Edinburgh and Glasgow rallies
UK LABOUR LEADERSHIP hopeful Jeremy Corbyn faced questions on independence and devolution as he arrived in Scotland for a series of campaign rallies.
The socialist candidate has surged into the lead with a recent opinion poll placing his support on 53 per cent among Labour election voters.
However, Corbyn faced questions over his views on Scottish politics in an appearance on BBC programme Scotland 2015.
Corbyn, who agrees with the Scottish National Party on opposing weapons of mass destruction and further cuts to social security, distanced himself from SNP economic policy, further autonomy for Labour in Scotland and a second independence referendum.
When asked whether he was relaxed about working with the SNP, Corbyn replied: “I’m not a fellow traveller because I think there are problems with some of the SNP economic agenda. There’s problems over the privatisation of CalMac [the ferry company operator]. There’s problems over the issue of ScotRail [railways franchise]. There’s issues with going for total fiscal autonomy what then happens to the Barnett formula.”
Corbyn has said he would work with the SNP if Labour was a minority government, an option rejected by Ed Miliband prior to this year’s General Election.
Last October Johann Lamont resigned as leader of Labour in Scotland, claiming the party was treated as a “branch office” by Labour in London.
Corbyn claimed he “didn’t see a huge appetite” for further autonomy in Scottish Labour.
When asked about a further referendum on independence, Corbyn stated that his focus was on further powers to combat inequality and would require an agreement between London and Holyrood.
Journalist Jamie Maxwell was given a different account from the Corbyn campaign.
Told by a good campaign source that Corbyn believes Holyrood should have the final say on a second referendum. Wonder who lent on him. — Jamie Maxwell (@jamesmaxwell86) August 14, 2015
As voting begins in the Labour leadership contest, right-wing Labour figures have continued to criticise Corbyn as unelectable and lacking economic credibility.
Corbyn responded to the criticism by saying: “I don’t do personal, I don’t do reaction, I don’t do abuse.”
Corbyn is likely to face further questions relating to his positions on Scottish politics – which has rarely featured during the UK-wide contest – at rallies taking place today in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
CommonSpace previously analysed the similarities and differences between Corbyn’s political views and those of the SNP.
Picture courtesy of Jason
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A SINISTER figure has reportedly been caught on camera lurking in the woods in western Switzerland.
Dressed in a military uniform with a gas mask covering his face, the figure, known as 'Le Loyon', is said to have been haunting the woods for the past decade. He apparently walks the same route every day.
However, there was no evidence of his existence until local news website Le Matin published the first known photograph of the mystery man last month, and now police are trying to track him down. But is it for real?
"I came across him near the marches," an unnamed amateur photographer who tracked him down told Le Matin. "I approached him up to a dozen metres away.
"He had a military cape, boots and an army gas mark - an antique type, I think. He measured more than 1.9m. He stared at me then turned his back on me and left in silence."
Other locals have also told of their frightening encounters with the man.
"It scared my children," a woman said. "He came out of the woods with his military clothes. We saw neither his face nor his eyes behind his big dark gas mask. It was scary and I know women who are venturing alone in the forest."
In pictures: Amazing alien landscapes
Testicle-eating fish may be migrating
Another local resident, Marianne Descloux of Maules, said she also saw him: "It was a rainy Sunday. He had on a cap, a dark cloak and gas mask. What goes on in his head? I don't know. It was unpleasant. I hope I never run into him again."
The figure was also reportedly spotted clutching what appeared to be a bunch of flowers.
"Families simply won't go into the forest any more," a farmer said.
Police want to speak to Le Loyon to ask him to be less threatening, although he's shown no signs of aggressive behaviour.
Such is the hysteria, that he has been called 'Switzerland's answer to the Loch Ness monster'.
"The situation is delicate because we basically have nothing against this person," Guy Savary, the municipal official in charge of forests, said.
"But since he arouses these fears, we are going to hold meeting to see if we can find a way of locating him, and discouraging him from behaving as he does."
Some believe he could be suffering from a nasty skin condition, is mentally ill or a hermit.
So what do you think, is it a hoax?
Is this proof the Loch Ness monster exists?
Originally published as Photo of mystery figure haunting woods
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Martina Stewart
AC360° Digital Producer
(CNN) – Outspoken anti-bullying advocate and TV talk show host Dr. Phil is far from satisfied with the apology offered Thursday by an embattled local Arkansas school district official.
Related: Arkansas school board member to resign over anti-gay post
“This is the biggest non-apology – non-apology apology I’ve heard,” Phil McGraw says about Clint McCance in an interview that airs Friday on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360°. “He did not apologize for what he said. He didn’t apologize for the message that this gives to children, to kids, to parents out there. What he apologized for was saying that suicide was the only out and that he’s sorry for that he said that.”
Clint McCance, the vice president of the Midland School District in Arkansas, took to his personal Facebook page earlier this week and slammed a recent national awareness campaign sparked by a rash of suicides by young people who had been bullied because they were gay or perceived to be gay by their peers.
The local elected official wrote that he wanted gay people to commit suicide, according to The Advocate, a magazine focusing on gay news. McCance promised to disown his own children if they are gay and said he enjoys "the fact that [gay people] give each other AIDS and die."
After his postings sparked national attention, McCance apologized for his comments Thursday in an exclusive interview on Anderson Cooper 360°.
"I'm sorry I've hurt people with my comments," McCance said. "I'm sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum."
"I would never support suicide for any kids," he also said, adding “I don't support bullying of any kids."
McCance, who was recently re-elected to a new four-year term on the board of the Midland School District, also told Cooper that he intends to resign from his elected office.
Notwithstanding McCance’s efforts to atone, McGraw says McCance should have done more.
“This went beyond just opinion,” McGraw says of McCance’s slur-filled online postings. “So it has to go to a very strong apology if you’re going to try to balance the process here.”
And McGraw offers his own interpretation of McCance’s mea culpa.
“I certainly see his apology as suggesting that he’s sorry that all of this came to light, he’s sorry that somebody called him on it.”
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WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence officials told a Congressional committee on Thursday they are reviewing government use of software from Russia’s Kaspersky Lab as senators raised concerns that Moscow might use the product to attack American computer networks.
FILE PHOTO: An employee works near screens in the virus lab at the headquarters of Russian cyber security company Kaspersky Labs in Moscow July 29, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers told a Senate committee that he was “personally involved” in monitoring the Kaspersky issue, but did not elaborate.
“We are tracking Kaspersky and their software,” said Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vincent Stewart.
ABC News and Buzzfeed News this week reported U.S. officials were increasingly concerned that Russian spies might seek to use Kaspersky computer-security software to spy on Americans or sabotage key U.S. systems.
ABC said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a secret report on the matter in February and that the FBI was investigating Kaspersky Lab’s relationship to the Russian government, citing unnamed sources.
Reuters was not able to verify the claims, which Kaspersky Lab denied in a statement: “As a private company, Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyber espionage efforts.”
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said at Thursday’s Senate hearing on global security threats that lawmakers were “very concerned” about Kaspersky Labs and asked intelligence officials if they could confirm they did not have Kaspersky software on their networks.\
“We are tracking Kaspersky and their software,” Stewart said. “There is as far as I know no Kaspersky software on our networks,” though he added it was more difficult to assess whether the same could be said for intelligence contractors.
Marco Rubio, Republican Senator from Florida, asked the chiefs of the NSA, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, DIA and two other intelligence agencies if they would be comfortable using Kaspersky products. All said no.
Eugene Kaspersky, the company’s founder and chief executive, said in a question-and-answer session on the website Reddit that he would be happy to testify before the Senate to assuage their concerns about his company’s products.
“I respectfully disagree with their opinion, and I’m very sorry these gentlemen can’t use the best software on the market because of political reasons,” he said.
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Perhaps in no other city is anti-Americanism in such full display today.
The capital and much of this Middle Eastern nation are under the control of the Houthis, a northern Shiite rebel group with alleged ties to Iran.
They took advantage of the political and security vacuum that emerged from the 2011 revolution here — part of the Arab Spring uprisings — that toppled longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh. By the fall of 2014, the Houthis had swept southward and occupied Sanaa. They forced Saleh's successor, U.S.- and Western-backed Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to resign last year. Soon after, the anti-American slogans emerged throughout the city.
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On one level, the anger is an extension of the Houthis' credos. Their flag reads: "God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam."
On another level, the slogans are directed at the United States' involvement in Yemen's civil war. Washington is actively backing a Saudi-led coalition that's seeking to restore Hadi to power. The coalition's airstrikes, largely using U.S. and British-made bombs, have killed or wounded thousands of civilians, according to human rights groups and witnesses.
Some of the signs speak to a widespread mistrust of the West and its reasons for engaging in the Middle East. As in other parts of the Arab world, there's suspicion here that Washington has gone to war over the region's oil and other natural resources.
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“The American companies enter a country to steal its wealth and humiliate its people," reads another billboard.
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The attitude is another indication of how far Washington's counterterrorism objectives in Yemen have been eroded in the aftermath of the Arab revolutions. For years, successive U.S. administrations worked with Saleh to fight al-Qaeda's Yemen branch, widely seen by U.S. officials as the most lethal in the terrorist network. Known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP, the group has staged attacks or attempted attacks on American and European soil in the last several years. Restoring the ability to effectively combat AQAP's ambitions is perhaps the key reason the Obama administration is backing the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen's civil war.
It's no surprise that the most creative attacks on the United States can be found on the walls of the now-shuttered Saudi embassy here. Every inch of the outer wall is covered in colorful graffiti. Here's a sampling:
But perhaps the most original assault on the United States and its values was at a Houthi checkpoint on a quiet road near a line of shops. Look familiar?
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Read also:
Modi-Xi summit in Mamallapuram live updates
BEIJING: With Chinese President Xi Jinping due to arrive for an informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Chennai on Friday, it is not clear whether the leaders would confront the major issue of Kashmir or choose to skip it.The two countries have diametrically opposite views on Kashmir, and a discussion on it would result in a deadlock during the summit. The two sides will have to decide if they want to skip or soft-peddle the issue when several other matters, including trade and investment exchanges, remain to be discussed. China is particularly keen to get India on board in its public opposition to trade actions taken by US President Donald Trump which have shaken up the Chinese economy.The Chinese foreign ministry refused on Thursday to discuss the Kashmir issue other than saying that China’s stand on it is consistent. “China’s position on the Kashmir issue is consistent and clear,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during the regular briefing.The careful statement comes a day after the Chinese president supported Pakistan’s claims about Kashmir. Xi was clearly trying to send a signal to India that there was no change in his approach to Kashmir since he took a pro-Pakistan stance and asked his envoys to raise the issue at the UN Security Council.“China thinks Pakistan will come under severe pressure from India if the Kashmir issue is taken off the shelf. It wants to keep the kettle boiling,” a Western diplomat told TOI on condition of anonymity.An informal summit allows leaders to conduct meetings without the need to sign agreements and show results. But official spokespersons from both countries may brief the media during and after the meetings.The government recently allowed the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies to demonstrate its 5G technology during the upcoming India Mobile Congress between October 14 and 16.This is a major concession for the Chinese government which has been actively lobbying with different countries to accept Huawei’s technology in the face of the US decision to resist it.China is still worried that India may not allow Huawei technology even after the demonstrations.“Regarding Huawei, it has been conducting business in India, making contributions to the local community and economy which have been seen by all,” Geng said at the briefing, adding, “On the 5G network, we believe the Indian side will make an independent and objective decision and provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies.”Replying to a question on the meeting between Xi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Geng said, “There are a lot of fruitful outcomes from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit. This will be a new impetus to our bilateral partnership.”
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army of federal destroyers are being unleashed to ruin yet more innocent people’s lives. One can be an honest, hardworking, ethically guided individual with sterling integrity and impeccable reputation all his or her life, but if for whatever reason a corrupt and ruthless player holding inside power connections decides to go after you with false accusations, your life and your small business can immediately be engulfed indefinitely in embattled conflict, legal harassment and irreversible turmoil.
Years of litigation and demands to produce hundreds if not thousands of bureaucratic paperwork document requirements are designed to wear down targeted individuals, forcing them to deplete their life savings in legal defense fees in efforts to right the wrong and clear their name. This is also what America has become, where those imbued with unlimited finances means, resources and power can abusively launch smear campaigns that result in honest, law abiding citizens going to jail on entirely fabricated charges. Especially since the 9/11 coup de tat, the system is heavily rigged as treachery abounds. The justice system we all thought protected us with constitutional rights is neither no longer upheld nor honored. Again, we as a people must rise up and fight the oppressive totalitarian regime that’s made a complete mockery of our American ideals.
The ruling powers are currently utilizing the militarized arms of their fascist tyrannical governments around the world as henchmen executioners out to destroy any movement afoot that dare offers health and prosperity to us little people of the world. So it’s up to us informed and empowered masses – the oligarch’s most feared enemy – to start taking back our God given planet that is rightfully ours from the monsters who are harassing and poisoning us to death. We as one unified global population need to begin reclaiming our stretched-to-resilient limits, natural and sacred earth. We’ve been blessed with humanity’s modern heroes such as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi whose sacrifices have left us the powerful, inspirational legacy and gift to follow their lead practicing civil disobedience and the power of mindful choice to challenge the elite’s scourge that’s been afflicting our planet far too long. Let the truth, justice, wisdom and courage they demonstrated be our role models guiding us to victory.
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.” It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a masters degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field for more than a quarter century. He now concentrates on his writing.
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s behaviour when it is plugged in and do something with it. Such as simply turn off that instance, replace it with older one, safely stop the system, or send an appropriate warning. Similarly, a developer may not develop sufficient unit tests or even avoid testing of his work and plug in a buggy component, so the system must be able to defend its robustness or performances or detect unusual behavior, with mechanisms to detect early and recover from problematic components.
In any case, central point here is separating two ‘worlds’ and making them independent of what is going on in each camp is hugely important in achieving productive surrounding and maintainable products that will not grow overly complex as system evolves. Adding new functionality or changing existing one can turn into a huge nightmare if we act in unorganized manner intermingling different sorts of responsibilities, it is imminent for things to get too tangled and it will be nearly impossible to introduce change without causing disturbances to functionalities on different levels affecting business flow and consequently hurting income flow and/or company reputation, which what we strive to avoid.
Future extensibility is provided by the fact that we can evolve how the Framework is managing its own DAO instances, without the need to ‘inform’ those DAO instances about significant changes in behavior of its management component. This gives us freedom to incrementally develop components of a system independently, without fear of reaching a point where system cannot evolve further without huge interventions in many parts, resulting in new bugs and affecting the system’s stability. Not less important thing to mention – versions dependencies – it is always a huge plus if one module does not have to be aware in any way that there is new version of module it depends on.
Its always soothing to know that pulling a newer version of that module from the codebase has an effect where no dependency is changed at all, everything works as before, maybe only a little faster, with less memory consumption and hey, there is that new functionality I can use to resolve some of my problems… Modules can evolve separately and independently, which can have huge benefits on continuous integration. On the other hand, it allows DAO components to evolve independently of its ‘management system’ too, a Framework that controls its usage (manages it) and to be completely refactored from the inside without affecting outside behavior, hence any functionality of a system, allowing us to rethink internal function of the component, improve it using new algorithm, switch to another database or scale an application across several new instances, without affecting other components depending on functionalities that DAO class provide, reducing inter-team communication and potential showstoppers affecting our agenda.
Start capturing and analyzing all of your log data today with a free Logentries account.
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Deontay Wilder no better than Charles Martin, says Peter Fury
Peter Fury believes Charles Martin (pictured) is 'equally' as good as Deontay Wilder
Peter Fury believes new IBF world heavyweight champion Charles Martin is just as good as WBC holder Deontay Wilder.
Trainer Fury masterminded his nephew Tyson's march to world title glory in November when the British fighter outpointed Wladimir Klitschko to snatch the WBA Super, WBO and IBF crowns.
Fury (25-0-KO18) was promptly stripped of the IBF strap when Klitschko activated a rematch clause, leaving America's Martin (23-0-1-KO21) to face mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov in New York on January 16.
I think Martin is equally as good as Wilder, as far as I can see. He looks impressive and I think he's up there. He has to be taken seriously. Peter Fury
Although Martin became champion due to a serious knee injury to Glazkov that ended the fight in the third round, Peter Fury was impressed by the 29-year-old and believes he has shown as much as Wilder (36-0-KO35), who struggled before recording a ninth-round stoppage of Artur Szpilka on Sunday.
He told Sky Sports: "I had Wilder a couple of rounds behind before the knockout. He got the knockout and that was the main thing but it wasn't an impressive performance.
"Charles Martin looks very good. From what I've seen of him, he's useful. I had him beating Glazkov before the injury and saw the fight going only one way, to be honest.
'Prince' Charles Martin is the new IBF heavyweight champion 'Prince' Charles Martin is the new IBF heavyweight champion
"I think Martin is equally as good as Wilder, as far as I can see. He looks impressive and I think he's up there. He has to be taken seriously and he's the IBF champion now. I liked his punches and the way he was relaxed.
"Martin was doing everything properly. I haven't seen much but from what I have seen, he looks impressive."
Fury was less impressed by the comeback of former WBA world champion David Haye, who returned with an emphatic first-round victory over Mark de Mori at The O2.
He said: "I didn't really make anything of it. David Haye did everything properly but his opponent was some weight-lifter from Croatia so what do you want me to say? He was a non-boxer."
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Giant Tidal Power Turbines Coming to a Canada Near You
January 24th, 2009 by Timothy B. Hurst
One of the world’s leading developers of tidal power will partner with a Canadian utility to develop tidal power technology and associated facilities in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.
Working in partnership with the Canadian company Minas Basin Pulp and Power, UK tidal power developers, Marine Current Turbines will demonstrate and deploy a 1.5MW tidal generator that will be connected to the Nova Scotia power grid.
Scott Travers, of Minas Basin Pulp and Power praised the move as an economic boon. “There is a potential new industry here employing hundreds of people in operations and manufacturing and deployment of tidal power technology, here and globally,” said Travers in a statement.
The SeaGen turbines to be installed use similar principles found in wind generator technology. The tidal turbines generate power from sea currents using a pair of axial flow turbines that drive generators through gearboxes. However, the high density of seawater compared to wind allows a much smaller system. The capture of kinetic energy from a water current, much like with wind energy or solar energy, depends on how many square meters of flow cross-section can be addressed by the system.
With water current turbines, the rotor swept area that dictates energy capture capability, because it is the cross section of flow that is intercepted which matters. SeaGen has over 400 square meters of rotor area which is why it can develop its full rated power of 1.2MW in a flow of 2.4m/s (5 knots).
>>See an Animation of SeaGen turbines in action
Marine Current Turbines is emerging as a big player in the relatively nascent tidal power industry. The company installed the world’s first offshore tidal current device in 2003. And in 2008, it installed and commissioned the 1.2MW SeaGen commercial prototype tidal current turbine in Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland. SeaGen generated at its full output of 1.2MW onto the local grid in December 2008, becoming the most powerful tidal power turbine in the world.
Image: Courtesy of Dr. I.J. Stevenson
Map: Wikipedia
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The general election in Arizona for this Senate seat is potentially going to be difficult for a Republican because of the national mood and the Democrats have a very credible candidate running," Kyl said in a phone interview. "The question is... which of the candidates running in the primary has the best chance to prevail."
"I think Martha McSally can," Kyl continued. "The other two I think just don't have the breadth that would appeal to enough Republicans and independents to prevail in that race."
Kyl noted that McSally comes from the Tucson-based Arizona 2nd District, at risk of going Democratic in November, and gives her an advantage in November.
GOP groups have also taken notice. America Rising, an anti-Democrat opposition research firm, has a tracker following Ward and Arpaio at campaign events throughout the state in the run-up to election day.
Along with trust for McSally comes a distrust for Ward from many Republican circles. Ward lost out a key endorsement from the Border Patrol Council, which backed Trump in March 2016, largely due past decisions, including told hold a town hall in 2014 that centered around "chemtrails."
"I don't think that she can win, period," said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council and an ally of Trump. "But when you look at the record and some of the controversial things she has said, you just don't know where she's going to come from at times. Sometimes she's spot on on issues and sometimes she's just way out in left field."
Judd specifically noted the "chemtrails" chatter from Ward as a reason.
Some Republicans even remain hopeful that Trump could weigh in on the race in the final week and tip the balance to McSally. Some Arizona-GOP political watchers believe the presence of Arpaio in the race has precluded Trump from offering any endorsement, but they readily note that anything can happen with this president.
"I think if he jumps in in support of Martha, I think that she easily wins the primary," Judd said. "I do think there's a possibility [of an endorsement]. He is stumping hard for Republicans and he's going to want a Republican that can actually win in the general. And Martha can win the general."
According to the latest RealClearPolitics average, McSally leads by eight points on Ward and 14 points on Arpaio. While McSally allies remain confident she'll hold on, they are holding their breath a little.
"I was confident of my own races and I'm confident of Martha's abilities here," Kyl said. But as Yogi Berra said, 'Predictions are hard to make, especially if they're about the future.'"
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Tucker Carlson ran a segment on his show Tuesday night dedicated to The Daily Caller’s latest installment of “Walls Across America,” a series dedicated to pointing out those who have walls around their homes while disapproving of President Donald Trump’s desire to build a wall along the nation’s southern border.
WATCH:
“Well that couldn’t be clearer. But wait. There’s a caveat. There always is. Some walls aren’t evil at all. Some are necessary and good. So for those of you keeping track of the theology at home, we offer you now a brief tour of walls the Democratic Party has deemed perfectly moral,” Carlson began. “We begin with border barriers in Tunisia and Jordan. Democrats voted to pay for those walls, so obviously they’re okay. Israel has walls too.” (RELATED: Is There A 10-Foot Wall Outside Obama’s House? We Went There To Find Out)
He continued:
Here in the U.S., it turns out we have plenty of moral walls too. Just this Sunday, Kamala Harris announced her campaign for president. For security, huge swaths of the streets of Oakland, California, were blocked—walled off, you might say. With her own security at stake, Senator Harris had no problem with this. They were moral walls. And there are many more moral walls. Benny Johnson of the The Daily Caller has set out across America to find more of them. And as you might have guessed, a huge number of the most moral walls we have protect the homes of Democratic donors.
Carlson then aired the video of TheDC’s Benny Johnson:
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO:
Carlson added, “Well, it’s quite a list and there are more. But it’s not surprising, the more you think about it, there’s really only one immoral wall on earth. No, it’s not in China. The Chinese are highly moral, ask Dianne Feinstein. The immoral wall is the proposed wall on our southern border, the one that might keep future Democratic voters out. And for that reason alone, it’s immoral.”
Johnson has previously traveled to the walled homes of billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and former President Barack Obama.
Trump continues to push for the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but the funding remains unclear. The government was shut down for 35 days over the issue, the longest shutdown in history. The president agreed to reopen the government for three weeks, despite not getting any funding for the wall.
Follow Mike on Twitter
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Introduction to Modding
new
Admit it: You thought we were kidding
It's only been five months since Skyrim hit store shelves, but the amount of work done on the game by both Bethesda and an army of modders has been enormous. With the Creation Kit now in the wild for several months, we've rounded up some of the best mods available and brought them for your consideration. We'll also walk you through the modding process and how to get started.If you re-map the "F" key in Skyrim's key bindings, thekey to assign a favorite is "A." This isn't explained or listed anywhere in game; we found it by accident.There are literally thousands of Skyrim mods available, ranging from small adjustments to NPC dialog or tone of voice, to expansive projects that alter core gameplay and introduce new spells and visual effects. We've prioritized mods that showcase the technical capabilities of the PC, provide a more balanced game experience, fix bugs, and improve Skyrim's UI. In some cases, particularly when it comes to customized post-processing filters, there is no definable "best" -- just the question of what players prefer.The mods in each section are listed by the scope of their changes rather than being ordered from best to worst. A mod that changes the behavior of one NPC would be farther down the page than a mod that lets you play as Pinkie Pie, from My Little Pony. We've also noted which mods change gameplay and which do not.There are two basic ways to get started with Skyrim mods, and two main websites devoted to user-created content. If you bought the game through Steam, you can use the Steam Workshop. Login, Click on "Community," then "Workshop," and you'll see two games listed: Team Fortress 2 and Skyrim. Installing mods is as simple as clicking on "Subscribe" to a product that you want to download. Steam offers mods both individually and in collections.The other method is to use the Skyrim Nexus website and the Nexus Mod Manager it offers. The Mod Manager offers players more control over how and when mods are loaded, as well as an organization function that automatically arranges mods in the order necessary for them to load properly. This last option is extremely useful for play testing and bug-fixing and it's what we primarily used for our own evaluation.Skyrim Nexus has more mods available than Steam's Workshop as of this writing; a number of the projects we recommend aren't yet available on Steam. If you're interested in trying our recommendations via Steam, we've collected all of the available mods into a single package; available here. For the moment, Skyrim Nexus is a better option, though Steam's one-stop-updating is rather handy.
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The chairman of a Scottish Catholic adoption charity which was recently told it must accept applications from same-sex couples, or risk losing its charity status, has called the raising of children by gay couples “a terrible social experiment”.
In January, the Scottish adoption charity St Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society, was warned that if it did not start accepting applications from gay couples it would lose its charity status.
St Margaret’s policy states that “We expect applicants to have been married for at least two years”.
Father Tom White of St Margaret’s said the country was “on the brink of declaring illegal”, the belief that all children should have a mother and a father, reports the Herald.
The charity has also announced that it will go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, in order to fight to keep its charitable status. Despite the ruling by the Scottish Charity Regulator being upheld, back in March, the charity hopes to fight the decision.
In its annual report, Father White wrote: “Society at large is embarking on a terrible social experiment with children, treating them as commodities that people have a right to, such as gas, electricity, or a hotel room.
“Our country is on the brink of declaring illegal the belief that every child where possible deserves a mother and father.”
The annual report was handed out to supporters and adoptive parents at the St Margaret’s yearly thanksgiving mass at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow.
As well as reaffirming the organisation’s stance, Father White called upon supporters to take on the legal fight, describing the legal costs as “frightening”.
He described a campaign by the Secular Society to have the charity disassociate itself from Catholic teachings, or face the removal of its charitable status as “aggressive”.
He said: “What we have to look at are the implications. If the charity is removed from the Scottish Charity Register, is it viable as an organisation?”
Noting that around £100,000 of funding came from the Catholic church, he said: “So if we were to become disassociated, there would be implications about how viable St Margaret’s would be as a service in the longer term.”
As well as reaffirming its stance on same-sex parenting, the organisation announced its plans to move to improved accommodation, in order to open a new family centre.
Glasgow City Council has started a campaign to encourage same-sex adoption, and a spokesman condemned the views expressed by Father White, saying they were not shared by the council.
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The biggest thing of note is a Certain Tiger is getting his Deck variant fleshed out.
Battle Announcing Arrow Eradicator, Kosanjyou
Grade 0 / Normal Unit / Dragon Empire – Narukami – Human
Power 5000
Shield 1000
AUTO: Forerunner
AUTO (RC): [Retire this Unit] During a battle in which this Unit Boosts, and the Unit Attacking is an “Eradicator” Unit, and its attack hits the Vanguard, you can pay the cost. If you do so, reveal the top 3 cards of your Deck, if all of them are “Eradicator” cards, add 1 of them to your hand, and if you added a Grade 3 to your hand, Soul Charge 1 card, then shuffle your Deck.
Steam Lynx/Links, Nadin
Grade 2 / Normal Unit / Dark Zone – Gear Chronicle – Gearoid
Power 8000
Shield 5000
ACT [Bind Zone] 1/Turn: [CB1 & Bind the top card of your Deck face-up] If you have a “Chronofang” Vanguard, Call this Unit to (RC), then for each card in your Bind Zone, during that turn, this Unit gains 1000 Power, and, if there are 3 or more cards in your Bind Zone, Soul Charge 1, and if there are 5 or more, Draw 1 card.
Efficient Carp
Grade 0 / Trigger Unit – Stand / United Sanctuary – Oracle Think Tank
Power 4000
Shield 10000
AUTO (RC) Oracle: [Place this Unit into the Soul] When your turn ends, you can pay the cost. If you pay it, look at the top card of your Deck, place it on the top or bottom of your Deck, and draw 1 card.
Chronofang Tiger is getting support in “Dragon King’s Awakening”.
Next Issue comes with “Demonic Dragon Berserker, Manasu” (Narukami).
Next Issue comes with “Gang Assault Dragon” (Shadow Paladin)
Episode 40: Oath of Striders
Breather episode as Team Striders prepares for the finals.
Episode 41: Fukuhara High Vanguard Club vs Team Diffrider
Shion’s Team vs Kazumi’s (Part 1 of 2)
Episode 42: Surpass Destiny
Shion’s Team vs Kazumi’s (Part 2 of 2)
Episode 43: Striders vs Jaime Flowers
Chrono’s Team vs Tokoha’s
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Cadel Evans will compete at the Tour de France for nothing less than the maillot jaune.
The 35-year-old entered the 99th edition of the race as defending champion but yesterday finished seventh overall and more than 15 minutes off the pace of British winner Bradley Wiggins (Sky).
>> Save up to 31% with a magazine subscription. Enjoy the luxury of home delivery and never miss an issue <<
“If I come back it’s for the win, yeah,” Evans told Cycling Weekly at the start of the final stage to Paris.
“After winning the Tour I don’t know if I’d be motivated to come back to go for anything less.”
Evans looked slightly off colour at the end of the race struggling with allergies and recovering from intestinal problems that knocked him back after the second rest day. The former world champion is hopeful of making a speedy recovery before Saturday’s London 2012 Olympic Games road race where he will represent Australia. Evans has also been selected for the men’s time trial on August 1.
“I’ve got everything going on at the moment,” he said. “My main thing was I was running on empty after a stomach problem in the last week.
“I just need a couple of days rest and I think I’ll turn around. There’s six days rest after three weeks of racing, it’s actually quite a big block of rest for us.”
Evans gave all in his title defence and praised the support of his teammates including American Tejay van Garderen, who won the white jersey.
“Yeah, I gave it everything I had but when you’re running on empty you can’t push very hard unfortunately,” Evans said. “I went into the (penultimate) time trial (stage) and just rode within my limit with disregard to the result.
“This year Mickey (Michael Schar), George (Hincapie), Quincy (Manuel Quinziato) they were just incredible. (Marcus) Burghardt he was even better than he was last year. He was in the decisive break three days in a row.
“Tejay was racing for the young rider’s jersey. Obviously on Toussuire I would have been minutes without him but otherwise he was pretty focused on his young rider’s jersey.”
Evans extended his contract with BMC last year, after becoming the first Australian to win the Tour, and it will see him through to 2014.
Twitter: @SophieSmith86
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Google has launched a pair of wireless headphones that incorporate its voice assistant feature, meaning they can translate 40 languages in real time.
The wireless Pixel Buds were revealed during Google's hardware launch yesterday, and are the first pair of headphones Google has ever produced.
Equipped with Google Assistant, the in-ear headphones offer real-time translation of languages including English, French, Chinese and Finnish. They are also able to send dictated texts and give directions.
The translation feature is enabled when users hold down a button on the right earbud, and instruct the Google Assistant to help them speak the language required.
Then, as they talk, the Pixel smartphone that the Pixel Buds are connected to plays the translation out loud. When listening to a response, the correct translation is played back through the headphones.
Speaking at the keynote event yesterday, Google Hardware product manager Juston Payne described the headphones as a "personal translator".
"With Pixel Buds, I can use real-time Google Translate to have a natural conversation in over 40 languages," he said. "They let you connect with the world around you in a more natural way by rethinking how headphones should work."
Translation is just one of the smart features that the Pixel Buds offer. They are also able to answer phone calls, adjust volume, play or pause music, send and read out texts, and map directions – all without the need to touch the connected phone.
Google's product developers were keen to make the buds as comfortable as possible, so both are equipped with a fabric loop, which sits inside the ear to hold the headphones in place.
If fully charged, they offer up to five hours of non-stop listening. But they also come with a pocket-sized case that doubles up as a portable charger, allowing users up to 24 hours of listening time in total.
The Pixel Buds come in three colours – black, white and blue. They are designed to match the company's Pixel 2 mobile phone, also unveiled at yesterday's event. When released in November, the headphones will be priced at $159 (approximately £120).
As well as the Pixel Buds and Pixel 2 smartphone, Google's event yesterday saw the company launch an updated family of consumer hardware products – including the Google Home Mini and Max speakers, Pixelbook computer, Google Clips hands-free camera, and new Daydream View virtual reality headset.
Related story Google launches own-brand smartphone to rival Apple's iPhone
They build on products launched by Google last year, as the company attempts to turn around its pitted history with hardware, such as the decision to shelve its ambitious modular smartphone Project Ara and Google Glass headset after years of development and publicity.
| 5,926 |
'Stoke City v Middlesbrough: Match Preview'
Boro will be without defender Sam McQueen who tore a cruciate ligament in his knee in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace in EFL Cup.
Middlesbrough midfielder Sam McQueen might just have played his last game for the club, Tony Pulis has confirmed.
The Southampton man, who joined Boro on loan in the summer, tore a cruciate ligament in his knee during his team’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday.
"Sam's news is not good," Pulis said while speaking to the press in the build up to Saturday’s game.
"He's done his cruciate so I don't think we'll have him for a very long time. We're talking to Southampton now to see if he'll stay here to recover or if he'll return to his mother club."
In addition to McQueen, Middlesbrough will be without a number of key players on Saturday, including defender Daniel Ayala who is suspended for the game after picking up five yellow cards this season, while full-back Ryan Shotton may also miss out once again due to injury.
"I don't think Shotts will be ready in time for Saturday's game," Pulis said about Shotton who has missed last three games for the club due to a knee injury.
Stoke Team News
While Middlesbrough will be coming into this game with a depleted squad, Stoke also have their fair share of injuries coming into this game.
Saturday’s game has come too early for midfielder Peter Etebo who has started training this week after a hamstring injury.
Fellow midfielder Sam Clucas is also a doubt for the game, though Stoke manager Gary Rowett has claimed that he will make a late decision on the midfielder.
Another player who might miss out for Stoke is striker Mame Diouf, who is back in training after a knee injury. Rowett further said that he has multiple players carrying small injuries, though he didn’t reveal any names.
Match Facts
The last time Stoke and Middlesbrough faced each other was in the 2016/17 Premier League, with Stoke coming out as 2-0 victors that day.
Their last meeting with each other outside the Premier League took place in February 1998, a fixture in which Middlesbrough came out on top, winning the game 2-1.
Stoke are coming into this game after losing their last match at home. The last time they lost successive home games in the Championship was in November 2007, when they lost three in a row.
| 5,927 |
Windows 10 going to add Ubuntu’s bash and Linux command line was one of the big reveals at Microsoft’s recent Build conference. Since then, there’s been a lot of speculation about what Microsoft did to make this possible. The whole idea of running Ubuntu Bash shell on Windows is to allow developers to run Linux tools natively on Windows.
Recently Microsoft reveled what they are planning and how bash on Windows 10 will work via the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), through a new Channel 9 video.
Also Read : The best Linux distro for beginners
Bash On Windows 10 Works Via Windows Subsystem For Linux
In the video, team member Deepu Thomas explains how bash on Windows 10 will work. Actually there’s no secret Linux kernel hidden in Windows 10, instead, it’s the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) that was developed by the Windows Kernel team is what provides the foundation that enabled the Linux binaries to run on Windows.
So what is Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
WSL is a collection of components that enables native Linux ELF64 binaries to run on Windows. It contains both user mode and kernel mode components. It is primarily comprised of:
User mode sessionmanager service that handles the Linux instance life cycle
Pico provider drivers (lxss.sys, lxcore.sys) that emulate a Linux kernel by translating Linux syscalls
Pico processes that host the unmodified user mode Linux (e.g. /bin/bash)
Also Read : Two years after its retirement, Windows XP still powers 181 million PCs
According to Microsoft blog post – “It is the space between the user mode Linux binaries and the Windows kernel components where the magic happens. By placing unmodified Linux binaries in Pico processeswe enable Linux system calls to be directed into the Windows kernel. The lxss.sys and lxcore.sys drivers translate the Linux system calls into NT APIs and emulate the Linux kernel.”
The pico process components may ring a bell with folks who’ve followed along with Microsoft Research’s Project Drawbridge work.
The Channel 9 architectural overview video and the related blog post both note that the Windows kernel does include the Drawbridge pico process/pico driver concepts. And it’s these pico processes and drivers that “provide the foundation for the Windows Subsystem for Linux.”
The video is worth checking out for those whose hearts beat just a little quicker when they see an OS architectural diagram.
Also Read : Now Onwards Microsoft Will Tell You What’s Inside In Those Windows 10 Updates
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Li Tianyi, 17, denies raping woman in Beijing hotel with four other men as high-profile case gets under way
A prominent Chinese general's teenage son accused of gang-rape denied the charges against him as his trial began on Wednesday, in a case that has triggered outrage about entitlement and misbehaviour among the country's privileged elite.
Li Tianyi, 17, stands accused of raping a woman in a Beijing hotel with four other men in February. Li claimed that he was drunk at the time and had no knowledge of the incident, according to state media reports.
Li's father, Li Shuangjiang, is a People's Liberation Army general and the dean of the music department at the army's Academy of Arts. His mother, prominent singer Meng Ge, was present at the Beijing courthouse on Wednesday, but refused to answer reporters' questions, according to China's state newswire Xinhua. The proceedings will not be made public because the defendant is an adolescent, Xinhua said.
The complainant did not appear in court for health-related reasons, her lawyer told the newswire. Li's family members have said that she was a bar hostess and argued that the case is one of prostitution, not rape.
The children of China's moneyed and powerful elite, often pejoratively referred to as "second-generation rich", are routinely represented in China's media and online chatrooms as spoiled, reckless and confident that their family connections put them above the law.
Li's case sparked controversy in July, when Tsinghua University law professor Yi Yanyou wrote on his microblog that the rape was less harmful because of the woman's profession. "Chaste women and prostitutes have different views on chasteness," he told the Wall Street Journal after the post went viral, "so [rape has] a different impact on them."
Li Tianyi was the second most-read topic on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblog, on Wednesday afternoon; it has dominated Chinese newspaper headlines for weeks. This month the Beijing Times quoted an "insider" as revealing details of the rape. The report said Li and his friends forced the complainant into a hotel room and beat her after she refused to take off her clothes. Li allegedly raped her first then his friends followed. They allegedly gave the woman 2,000 yuan (about £200) and dumped her on the roadside.
Li has been in the spotlight before – in 2011 he and a friend, driving expensive cars without licences, attacked a couple that allegedly stood in their way as their five-year-old child looked on helplessly. Li was detained for assault and spent a year in a correctional facility, according to state media. His father offered the couple compensation.
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Netflix has ordered its first African original series, “Queen Sono,” a drama about a secret agent who fights crime while dealing with crises in her personal life. The series will launch globally in 2019.
“Queen Sono” stars veteran South African actress Pearl Thusi, who tweeted in an emotional video Monday that she “cannot wait for…every woman on this continent, and actually on this planet, to meet Queen Sono.” Of the deal with Netflix, she added: “It’s going to change the game for every artist on this continent.”
The announcement of the show comes barely a week after Erik Barmack, Netflix’s vice president of international originals, told a gathering in London that the company would begin commissioning original series in Africa starting in 2019.
Speaking about “Queen Sono” with South Africa’s Independent Online, Barmack said: “Taking talent like this and telling stories to the rest of the world puts Pearl in the same category as other strong female characters like Claire Underwood in ‘House of Cards’ and Jessica Jones.”
He added: “Over time, our roots will get deeper in Africa and South Africa, and we’re moving pretty quickly to that now, and plan to invest more in local content.”
“Queen Sono” was created by multi-hypenate comedian-turned-director Kagiso Lediga and is being executive produced by Tamsin Andersson. Lediga and Thusi last partnered on “Catching Feelings,” a dark romantic comedy about a young couple whose lives are turned upside-down when a celebrated older writer moves in with them. Netflix launched the movie globally earlier this year.
The streamer is upping its stakes in Africa, acquiring worldwide rights this year to “Lionheart,” by Nigeria’s Genevieve Nnaji, and landing an upcoming world premiere at Sundance for Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Malawi-shot directorial debut, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
Netflix’s director of international original films, Funa Maduka, told Variety in Marrakesh earlier this month that such moves are “just the beginning” for the streamer’s plans for the continent. “Africa is birthplace to one of the oldest storytelling traditions in the world. It also has a rich cinematic history,” she said. “The talent is here and we want to present ourselves as an option as they choose the best path to connect their stories with audiences.”
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Jamie-Lynn Sigler has given birth to a baby boy.
The Sopranos star, 36, and husband Cutter Dykstra welcomed son Jack Adam Dykstra this week and she shared sweet snaps with fans on Instagram. They already have a son Beau, three.
She wrote: 'He’s here. Jack Adam Dykstra we will talk about your tardiness eventually, but for now we’ve got a lot of love to give. Thanks to my besties for helping me laugh and smile and to my husband for just being my rock.'
Baby joy: Jamie Lynn Sigler welcomed a son Jack Adam Dykstra this week
Baby brother! The actress shared this sweet snap of son Beau, three, holding baby Jack
Jamie-Lynn announced she was pregnant on social media in July, noting that she was'so excited'.
The actress had previously admitted she was worried her multiple sclerosis (MS) would stop her from having children.
Speaking in 2016, she said: 'I was so relieved when I was pregnant [with Beau] because I was so afraid I was going to have trouble because of all the years of [treatment]. You never know how things are going to affect you.'
'Thanks to my besties for helping me laugh and smile and to my husband for just being my rock': Jamie wrote on Instagram on Tuesday alongside a collection of snaps
Hey baby! Jamie-Lynn's pals - including JoAnna Garcia Swisher (right) - threw her a baby shower earlier this month
And Jamie-Lynn has always been keen to have another child but already felt like 'the luckiest girl in the world' because of the two amazing boys in her life.
She added at the time: 'I would love to have another child. I would love to be working and feel inspired and strong, but if life takes another path, I'll be okay.
'I've got my brain and my heart, and I've prepared myself for everything that could happen. But I've got an amazing husband, the best son, and I hope that we can make more babies and just keep having fun. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.'
Bumping along nicely: The star has been documenting her pregnancy on Instagram
Jamie-Lynn who is best known for her role as mobster Tony Sorano's daughter Meadow in the HBO drama Sopranos.
She was first diagnosed with MS at the age of 20 and described the news as 'a sobering moment,' and has admitted that she 'lived in denial for a while.'
She kept her illness a secret for 15 years fearing it could end her career.
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Image copyright PA
The government has seen off a fresh bid by Labour peers to lower the voting age to 16 in the planned referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.
The House of Lords voted to reject an amendment challenging government figures on the cost of registering younger voters, by 263 votes to 246.
The government overturned a previous change to the EU Referendum Bill on the voting age, saying it would cost £6m.
Its victory marks the end of the parliamentary row over the legislation.
David Cameron welcomed the news in a tweet, saying: "A key manifesto commitment delivered as the EU Referendum Bill clears Parliament. Voters will have an in/out choice before the end of 2017."
'Financial measure'
Last week, peers amended the EU Referendum Bill, which paves the way for the in-out referendum before the end of 2017, in order to lower the voting age.
But a Commons vote overturned the move by 303 votes to 253.
The government invoked financial privilege rules, estimating the changes would cost £6m to implement, which can be used by the Commons "as grounds for overruling any House of Lords proposal that has cost implications".
The government has also said it would be wrong to change the "tried and tested" election franchise for a single poll.
But Labour, the SNP and Lib Dems all favoured allowing 16 and 17-year-olds - who were allowed to take part in last year's referendum on Scottish independence - to vote on whether to remain in the EU.
Image caption Lord Faulks said it was "logical and consistent" for the voting age to remain at 18
Urging the Lords not to challenge the Commons again, in Monday's vote, Justice Minister Lord Faulks warned that to lower the voting age might be seen as an attempt to "engineer" the result of the poll.
"That perception would damage the public's confidence in the result of the vote," he said.
He added: "We don't believe it is appropriate to lower the voting age to 16. And even if it were, this bill wouldn't be the place to make such a change."
However, Labour's spokeswoman in the Lords, Baroness Morgan of Ely, said the vote would be a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" and young people should be allowed a say on the country's future relationship with the EU.
She also disputed the estimated cost of extending the franchise, saying savings could be made, and she challenged the criteria used to invoke financial privilege.
However, a majority of peers sided with the government in the vote, defeating Labour's proposal by a majority of 17.
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ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences
Three of the most “intimidating” roundabouts for cyclists in London are to be axed.
The roundabouts at either end of Lambeth Bridge are to be removed and the Imax roundabout at Waterloo is to be redesigned to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
Both areas are notorious for their high number of casualties. The roundabout on the north side of Lambeth bridge was where royal designer Moira Gemmill, 55, was killed in collision with a left-turning HGV as she cycled to work in April 2015.
Transport for London today opened a two-month consultation on the changes. Work to replace the Lambeth roundabouts, expected to cost £12 million, with conventional traffic-light junctions and pedestrian crossings could start next year and would take a year to complete.
The Waterloo changes, expected to cost £25 million, which include closing the south-western corner of the Imax roundabout and implementing a two-way road layout, could start by late 2019 and take 18 months to complete.
Segregated cycle lanes would be built on either side of Lambeth Bridge, and on roads leading to the crossing. Cyclists turning right would do so in two stages, while those turning left would be able to use a “bypass” to avoid having to wait for a green light.
Both Waterloo and Lambeth bridge were among the 73 junctions identified by Transport for London as having the worst safety record for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
A total of 33 of these junctions are due to be improved during the five years of the current TfL business plan.
Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner, said: “Our plans for Lambeth Bridge and Waterloo will make a real difference to these intimidating junctions. They will be completely transformed to make the areas safer and more pleasant to travel through, and will link cyclists up to our wider cycle network. It’s a great example of our work to improve London’s most dangerous junctions and create people-friendly streets across the city.”
A new public space would be created at Waterloo to ease pedestrian overcrowding and reduce traffic dominance. The bus station would be upgraded and cycle lanes would be built around the Imax cinema.
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Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau is being moved from our active Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster to a substitute position until further notice. The team will play with Portuguese veteran Ricardo ‘fox’ Pacheco as his replacement in the upcoming events.
Lincoln is an outstanding player and personality for our team and was a driving force on our way to the top of the world rankings. Unfortunately, differing opinions within the team on how to further develop our approach towards the game grew over time and ultimately led to this decision.
„Lincoln was crucial in our success as he was one of the important pieces that led us to achieve the things we did in the last year. Our team can only be successful when all players are working constantly for the same goal. Lately, it didn't feel like everybody had the same vision for our team going forward. A team lives of good and tough moments during which you need special motivation, hard work and full commitment to get back to where you want to be. Everyone, including Lincoln, tried extremely hard in the last months to fix that situation but ultimately we felt a change was a necessary step for now to development as a team”, says captain Gabriel ‘Fallen’ Toledo
The new fifth player for the upcoming tournaments will be Ricardo ‘fox’ Pacheco, former player of FaZe Clan. Ricardo’s Portuguese nationality allows easy communication with the Brazilian squad and his experience will be a valuable addition going into the ECS Finals in Anaheim in December and the upcoming Major.
“First of all I'd like to thank every single player on the SK roster for this opportunity and for their confidence on my abilities. Secondly I'd like to say that I will be able to fulfill two of my dreams at once. One of them is to represent one of the oldest and most respected gaming organizations in eSports, SK Gaming. I've had the dream of representing them since the CS 1.6 days. The other dream is to play for the best team in the world and the Brazilian iteration of SK Gaming, which was something I never thought was possible, but luckily it was. Third of all I'd like to emphasize that I will only represent SK Gaming for next two tournaments, ECS this week and the ELEAGUE Major next January. Being apart of the SK roster in fulltime was something that was never discusssed. Lastly I'd like to thank every message of support and confidence that I've received.”, adds Ricardo ‘fox’ Pacheco.
After a short Christmas break, the team including ‘fox’ will travel to Cologne, Germany, to prepare for the ELEAGUE major in Atlanta, Georgia, in January.
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Ok. If this is the casting director, I’m all for it.
There are plenty of reasons why BBC’s Doctor Who has spanned more than fifty years, but one of the biggest is certainly the revolving cast. There aren’t many series in which every single actor is replaceable, buthas thrived doing just that. Current lead actor Peter Capaldi has hinted that his third year on the show will be his last. As it happens, however, actor Tim Roth has already expressed interest in becoming the next Doctor, and he could be the perfect choice.In response to a fan question in an AMA about whether or not he’d be open to taking on the role, Roth had this to say:Tim Roth is best known for his role as Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs, but he's had plenty of other memorable roles, including a compelling take on a bigoted politician in last year's. He’s back in the spotlight right now as a part of Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful Eight. The prospect of a big name from the big screen taking a break from film to take part in a sci fi series might seem far-fetched were this sci fi series had Roth not taken roles inandon TV in recent years.The juggernaut has gone through its fair share of upsets recently, however. Quite aside from the growing list of clues that Capaldi will be leavingafter Season 10, the recent departure of companion Clara Oswald will likely leave a vacuum in the series. Clara is certainly not the first companion to leave under somewhat tragic circumstances, but she is also the longest-running companion since Amy Pond and the only companion since Rose Tyler who has spent significant chunks of time with two incarnations of the Doctor. Twelve just may not feel right without Clara by his side.Of course, Tim Roth mentioning in an online chat that he’d be interested in taking on the role of Thirteen doesn’t mean that he’ll be testing out a sonic screwdriver anytime soon. Besides, a twist in the end of Season 9 saw a male Time Lord regenerate into a female Time Lord. Perhapsis preparing to mix things up and cast a woman as the next Doctor. The rules for regeneration have been changing an awful lot over the past few seasons as current showrunner Steven Moffat had to scramble to find a way around the previous limit on number of regenerations. Frankly, anything could happen.Still, Tim Roth’s enthusiasm for the role certainly makes it fun to speculate about him taking over the role. Not only could he be an exciting replacement, he could also make Capaldi’s exit somewhat less heartbreaking. Plus, there's always the chance that he could bring new fans to theworld.
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Transcript for Memorial for victims of the Manchester attack growing in St. Ann's Square
And mourning and Manchester I'm Holly Hunter and it is easy. Oh here in downtown Manchester at that point which shuns all. I'm a little walk around that restaurant you need it any investigation the first one street from me and hail our guys this newspaper has been I'm sleep until. Legal all week. I'm on an inning. It's not an attack like knowing it. Front and where else. We're just after working at night. Popping out seeing flattering man. Coming up. Seen. And over here. You feed as mild as. Thrown inside everything okay I'm. First came back. And Pratt and 83 and it's just afterward started to Wear hopping that night large. Seen. But it's certainly strangers are coming to grieve together. So on hear up here that people want to. I want you together yesterday I'm. Talking with a lot of young women and we've never met each other they were having incredibly open for discussion. Three. About coming together it's comics and then went off course experience. Mark them. Let's just walk in human and art and sent. Spot right around. I interviewed a couple of young mother yesterday. It's okay to carry credit got attacked. Was that it turned against somebody he's attacked and indiscriminate at this thing and exactly. Who they report on the ground up. Mothers. Describes me. In just unbelievable. Obviously protect their children not him describe or explain to their children. What had happened my mother we'll be it was that her child. It hurt they'd be taking her child well. Every child abuse after in fact that heartbreak. Unbelievable here at this idiot I like I had. I think it was his flock here. The apology messages as well. Course written newstalk. United against Pete. We'll strong. Harry and the law. And it's incredible about this time around earth. And neither and again that some people coming. Read together. And here. Stick out. Let laying flowers. I turn. The man. I mean you declare writings you come down to 3%. To stomach. Today pending. And after that demands on your mind. They found. Patty you process. Don't know this and I don't you become a moment. Coming since equipment. Some citizens. And we'll runs. Please note and thank you Dave being. Since delivers I appreciate it is eight and that's methods are different every. Actor and we won't let them and they won't keep it. Think you so much for joining us again on. This time I had Hernandez struck me one last look at that.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
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of the bunch, “When the Yogurt Took Over” and “Alternate Histories.” The former turns a story by Hugo-winning author John Scalzi about sentient dairy products lapping us humans in intellectual capacity – they’re willing to solve all of our economic woes in six months, they just want the state of Ohio – into a brisk, bleak metaphor about the crumbling of a sociopolitical foundation. The latter is a first-season MVP that introduces a mock educational tool running through alt-universe scenarios; in this case, it’s six different timelines involving Hitler’s death, ranging from “killed by runaway horse-drawn wagon filled with bratwurst” to “killed by marathon fornication.” No matter what the scenario, however, WWI still happens, Europe and America are still mired in turmoil and someone – Neil Armstrong, Vladimir Putin, a Viennese prostitute, a squid – lands on the moon. Both are under eight minutes. Both land beautifully.
We are not suggesting that the shorter, sillier instalments are stronger than the longer, serious ones. But there’s a sharp, focused edge to these two in particular that suggest how, with a bit more tightening and trimming, ‘Love, Death & Robots’ can tweak the hit-to-miss factor in their favour. Consistency is not a priority compared to variety, clearly. Still, if Netflix wants to aim higher than just ‘Heavy Metal – The Next Generation’ and do something a little closer to a certain British anthology series they are also running – the one that has a remarkably similar opening credits sequence to LD&R – they will need to sacrifice quantity in favour of quality. Instead of 18 episodes covering the demented-to-dystopic waterfront, boil it down to your top 10. Until then, the show isn’t going to be fit to hold Black Mirror’s beer.
‘Love, Death & Robots’ is an American adult animated anthology web television series on Netflix.
The 18-episode first season was released on March 15, 2019.
The series is produced by Joshua Donen, David Fincher, Jennifer Miller and Tim Miller.
Each episode was animated by different crews from a range of countries.
The series is a re-imagining of Fincher and Miller’s long in-development reboot of the 1981 animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal.
The cast includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Topher Grace, Gary Cole, Samira Wiley and Stefan Kapi?i?, with Grace and Winstead appearing in live-action roles, rather than animated.
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invading another country to protect ethnic brethren. Russia’s political allies are Europe’s far right parties, including the fascists and neo-Nazis.) Meanwhile: fascism is good. (In Russia, Hitler is now being rehabilitated as a statesman, the Jews are being blamed for the Holocaust, gays are presented as an international conspiracy, Russian Nazis march on May Day and Russian Nazis in Ukraine are presented as heroes.)
Russian propaganda provides both sides of the story. We assume that the truth is in between. But no truth lies between propositions that are individually false and mutually contradictory. There is only insanity—or, as Orwell calls it, learning to love Big Brother, the novel’s distant, impersonal totalitarian leader. In 1984, one learns to love Big Brother by sacrificing the thing that one loves the most. In Ukraine, this would be statehood, as Putin has just demanded by endorsing the partition of the country and the formation of a Novorossiya (New Russia) in its southeast; in Europe, this would be peaceful integration, the achievement that Putin threatens; for all of us, reason.
All too often, we try to guess what is in Putin’s mind. We try to dwell in the mind of Big Brother rather than in the world of discoverable facts. But, fundamentally, who really cares what is in Putin’s mind? Does anyone really know, including Putin himself? Even if we did know what was in Putin’s mind today, is that a reliable guide to what will be in his mind tomorrow? And what chance would we have of defending freedom and decency if we begin from the brain of one individual? This is, after all, a man who intervenes in children’s cartoons and presides over television programs that raise the question of his possible divinity.
At the end of 1984, a member of Big Brother’s regime, in the midst of carrying out torture, makes a certain admission: “power is not a means, it is an end.” Whatever is in Putin’s mind, whatever he says and does, all he is really defending is his own power, something that will come to an end before very long in any event. Oppression in Russia, war in Ukraine and the destabilization of the West are grotesquely high prices to pay for one man’s preferences. Rather then beginning from these, rather than staring into the troubled eyes of the doublethinker, we had better think instead about what we value and what we can do to protect it. If Ukraine becomes Novorossiya, Europe becomes Eurasia, and the West collapses, it will not be because if Russia’s physical strength, but because of our mental weakness.
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of panic, she accidentally struck the police officer called to the scene, leading her to be jailed on charges of assault. Without the money to post bail, she’s rotting in jail awaiting a trial, while her children have been sent into foster care. Meredith is visibly changed, ashamed of her own petty problems, and upon her release from jail, she pays her cellmate’s bail.
ABC
Character growth is part and parcel of any narrative, yet to see Meredith’s understanding of the world’s harsh realities broaden and to see her grow into an activist is to see a form of character growth we don’t often see in this kind of television. Certainly having the disposable income to pay a stranger’s bail is a privilege, yet throughout the season, Meredith becomes increasingly cognizant of her privilege, and she leverages it with intention in an effort to improve the lives of others. We see her chastened, changed, mobilized. We see her learn that activism without becoming informed is arrogance—only when she digs deep into the issues is she able to effect the necessary change.
Grey’s has always been political in its storylines, forcing its characters to weigh an eternal moral conundrum: play by the rules of the broken system, or do the right thing despite the consequences? That conundrum has made for excellent, zeitgeisty television, sending the characters to the outer reaches of human empathy. We’ve seen doctors give life-saving medical intervention to children whose parents refused to give consent for treatment. We’ve seen doctors of color forced to treat white supremacists. We’ve seen doctors struggle to sit on their hands when patients refuse simple blood transfusions for religious reasons.
Yet this season, Grey’s isn’t limiting its purview to individual human stories—instead, it’s taking a big swing at the brokenness of the system as a whole. It also takes a decidedly intersectional view, yoking the problem of healthcare together with issues of race, class, and citizenship. As Meredith’s eyes open to the problem and the knottiness of it, so too do ours. In an election year, such clear-eyed interrogation of the system can’t be more timely.
Meredith Grey for president, anyone? She’s got my vote.
Adrienne Westenfeld Assistant Editor Adrienne Westenfeld is a writer and editor at Esquire, where she covers books and culture.
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Max Chilton will return for another partial season of NTT IndyCar Series competition with Carlin Racing.
The Briton, who spent 2016-2017 with Chip Ganassi Racing before moving to Carlin, will spend 12 road and street course races along with the Indianapolis 500 in the No. 59 Chevy. As the 28-year-old chose to do last year after failing to qualify for the Indy 500, he’ll share the Gallagher-sponsored entry throughout the season with an oval specialist. According to Carlin, Chilton’s teammate for the No. 59 will be announced at a later date.
The driver of Carlin’s No. 23 Chevy also awaits confirmation ahead of IndyCar’s open test event at Circuit of The Americas, which starts next Tuesday.
“I’m excited to formally announce that Gallagher will be back for the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season partnering with Carlin for the third season and myself for our fifth season together,” Chilton said, referencing his early years with the team in F3, GP2, and Indy Lights. “The partnership between myself, Gallagher and Carlin is a strong one that honestly feels more like family than the normal motorsports driver, sponsor, and team relationship.”
Chilton’s father Grahame, the former CEO of Gallagher, has been a key partner and financial engine behind Carlin’s international racing operation.
“I couldn’t be more thankful for Gallagher’s continued support of myself and Carlin as we work toward success in the NTT IndyCar Series,” the former Marussia Formula 1 driver said. “To have the opportunity to represent more than 30,000 employees of Gallagher, a brand that focuses so heavily on teamwork and innovation, is a true privilege and I look forward to getting solid results this season.”
Carlin is the last IndyCar team to nominate its drivers for the upcoming 17-round season, and barring Chilton’s continued presence, will sport a different line-up than it used to close the 2019 championship.
Of the six drivers who rotated through both cars, Charlie Kimball has signed with A.J. Foyt Racing; Pato O’Ward has signed with Arrow McLaren SP; Sage Karam will contest an expanded effort with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and Conor Daly was added to Ed Carpenter Racing, leaving Chilton, and RC Enerson who did a single race for the team as the only two who aren’t under contract elsewhere in the paddock.
Chilton has recorded 62 IndyCar starts with a best finish of fourth at the 2017 Indy 500.
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NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court that will be heard if the court decides to take up any petition filed by Congress leaders challenging his election to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat in July last year.
A caveat is a notice given by a person, informing the court that another person may file a suit or application against him and that the court must give the caveator (person filing the caveat) a fair hearing before deciding any matter brought before it in the relevant case.
Jaishankar filed the caveat through advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi in the apex court registry saying that he should be heard before the court entertains and passes some directions on the petitions that may be filed against the Gujarat high court order.
The minister filed the caveat apprehending that Congress leaders, whose pleas were dismissed by the high court, may approach the top court.
The Gujarat high court on February 4 this year had dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Congress leaders challenging the election of Jaishankar to the Rajya Sabha.
The high court's order came on the pleas of Congress leaders Gaurav Pandya, Chandrika Chudasama and Paresh Dhanani challenging the election of Jaishankar and BJP leader Jugalji Thakor to the upper house of Parliament.
The Congress leaders had challenged the election in the high court on the ground that the Election Commission's notifications, treating the two vacant seats, to be of different categories and requiring bypolls to be held separately, were "illegal and in violation" of provisions of the Constitution, Representation of People (RP) Act, 1951 and Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.
The elections to the two Rajya Sabha seats of Gujarat were held on July 5 last year. The seats fell vacant after BJP leaders Amit Shah and Smriti Irani were elected to the Lok Sabha.
The Congress leaders had approached the Gujarat high court to hold and declare the EC's actions to treat the seats having fallen vacant as of different categories which required byelection to be held separately for both the seats.
Asserting that the poll panel's notification, holding of polls separately, was illegal and seeking quashing of the same, the Congress leaders had sought the high court's direction to the poll panel to hold elections to the two seats afresh simultaneously through a single ballot and not through two ballots.
They had claimed that the poll panel's notification was unconstitutional and violated the Representation of People Act, 1951. As per the Constitution, election to the vacant seats of the Rajya Sabha should be held together so that the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote can be applied.
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While checking out my Twitter account today I came across a post from the official Swamp Thing feed that features an image of actress Virginia Madsen, with fans questioning why the series was canceled in the comments.
Well, one of my conversations while at Comic-Con just so happened to be about the cancellation of Swamp Thing.
I'm told what happened is that the series was too expensive.
Maria Sunderland is taking matters into her own hands. #DCUSWAMPTHING pic.twitter.com/Vvi8IScG5R — Swamp Thing (@DCUSwampThing) July 24, 2019
Swamp Thing too expensive
According to my source close to production, no one was overseeing the show, no one was overseeing the costs, but then AT&T execs stepped in (because of the AT&T Time Warner merger) and became aware of the high costs surrounding Swamp Thing and shut down the show.
Recall in April it was first reported that the number of episodes was cut down from 13 to 10, this is because the AT&T execs weren't at all happy with the episode costs.
Also, recall what Virginia Madsen had to say at the time in a deleted Instagram post:
I’m beyond sad. What a terrible decision. We have been cut to the core by those who have never set foot into the Swamp. And despite the rule I am going to use the hashtag. #swampthing.
Note: She says they were cut down by "those who never set foot into the Swamp." Again, according to my sources, "those who never set foot in the Swamp" were the AT&T execs and that they weren't happy that no one was overseeing the show and that it cost a ton to produce, and that they eventually canceled the series.
This also explains why the Sandman series is coming to Netflix and not the DC Universe app, as Netflix will be in part paying for production costs on Sandman as this series is expensive as well.
Swamp Thing has a future within the DCEU
The good news is that my source offered that Swamp Thing would one day make his way onto the big screen, in something like a Justice League Dark movie.
I should also reiterate that when the reports about the cancellation of Swamp Thing surfaced, there was a question surrounding the future of the DC Universe app. I was told (by numerous sources), the DC Universe app is healthy, and even that it will still be around when the big HBO Max app launches. I've also been told the DC Universe app series will be connected to Crisis On Infinite Earths.
Update: Swamp Thing appeared in Crisis (watch the footage).
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FORMER communications minister Pat Rabbitte has described RTÉ as a "recruiting sergeant" for the far left and Sinn Féin, following its coverage of the Irish Water controversy.
In an extraordinary attack, the Labour Party TD last night accused the national broadcaster of trying to "strangle Irish Water at birth" by producing "lopsided coverage" of the introduction of water charges.
Mr Rabbitte claimed in the Dáil that RTÉ relies on a source within the public utility for information leaks which prove damaging for Irish Water.
He highlighted a report on the 'This Week' programme last week, which detailed an absence of minuted meetings between the then Environment Minister Phil Hogan and Bord Gáis chairperson Rose Hynes in 2012.
"If RTÉ were to broadcast similar exposés every time a State company chairperson had an unminuted meeting with a minister - myself included - over the last 30 years, it would fill out the schedule until the end of the year," Mr Rabbitte said.
He claimed RTÉ was failing to fulfil its public service obligations.
The Dublin South-West TD accused the station of failing to highlight the challenges facing the country's water system.
"RTÉ's coverage may have entertained but no sensible taxpayer or citizen could argue that it has informed or educated on the water issue," he said.
Protests
"RTÉ has acted as a recruiting sergeant for those who have taken control of and are manipulating the water protests. There must be people in RTÉ who know that Ireland alone in the EU doesn't have a water charge."
The broadcaster issued a statement last night saying it "absolutely refutes the claims of imbalanced and biased coverage". And Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald described Mr Rabbitte's comments as "bizarre".
Earlier, at the Oireachtas Communications Committee, RTÉ chairperson Moya Doherty said political bias would not be tolerated by either the station's editorial team or the law.
Fine Gael TD for Limerick Patrick O'Donovan said licence payers have switched to commercial and local stations because of a lack of regional balance on RTÉ.
Mr O'Donovan claimed the station would choose to cover "pigs flying up O'Connell Street" over a cultural event in his home city.
But RTÉ's Deputy Director General Kevin Bakhurst insisted the station's editorial team is keenly aware of the need to adequately cover events outside Dublin.
Separately, Mr Bakhurst said the national broadcaster is operating in a "highly competitive environment" which involves competitors trying to "poach" his presenters by offering "more money".
Irish Independent
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2 People Killed In Bayview Hit-And-Run Early Sunday Identified
A silver Mercedes-Benz was speeding on Third Street and didn't stop at a red light at the Paul Avenue intersection, causing a collision with a silver Toyota sedan, police said. A silver Mercedes-Benz was speeding on Third Street and didn't stop at a red light at the Paul Avenue intersection, causing a collision with a silver Toyota sedan, police said. Photo: Google Maps Photo: Google Maps Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close 2 People Killed In Bayview Hit-And-Run Early Sunday Identified 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)
Two people who died in a hit-and-run collision in San Francisco's Bayview District early Sunday morning have been identified as a Lyft driver and passenger, and the suspect remained at large as of Monday afternoon.
The city's medical examiner's office has identified Syed Waseem Ali, 26, of Fremont, and Sela Henriquez, 49, of San Francisco, as the victims who died in the collision reported at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday at Third Street and Paul Avenue.
A silver Mercedes-Benz was speeding on Third Street and didn't stop at a red light at the Paul Avenue intersection, causing a collision with a silver Toyota sedan, police said.
Ali, who was driving the Toyota and had Henriquez as a passenger via the Lyft ride-hailing service, were pronounced dead after the crash.
Two passengers from the Mercedes were taken to a hospital but are expected to survive. The driver fled on foot, leaving the vehicle behind, and had not been arrested as of early Monday afternoon, police said. A description of the suspect has not been released.
A GoFundMe page has been created on behalf of the family of Ali to raise money to transport his body and belongings back to Hyderabad, India, where he was from.
The account at https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraising-for-waseem-ali039s-funeral-transfer had raised more than $50,600 as of Monday afternoon.
Lyft issued a statement following the crash.
"We are deeply saddened by this tragic accident and resulting loss of life. Our thoughts are with the victims' family and friends during this difficult time. We have reached out to the rider's family to offer our support and are working to contact the driver's family," the company said.
Copyright © 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
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(Pictures courtesy: K Antony Xavier)
A Possible Reason
TUTICORIN/CHENNAI: At least 45 small whales (short-finned pilot whales), part of the lot which washed ashore in Tiruchendur in Tamil Nadu on Monday evening, have died. More than 100 whales were found on the 16km stretch from Alanthalai to Kallamozhi coastal hamlets on Tuesday morning. Thirty six of them have been rescued by fishermen."The whales started reaching the shore in groups around 5pm. It is very strange. In 1973 when we were boys, we witnessed same phenomenon. However, not these many washed ashore then," said Rajan, a fishermen in Manapad.Ditto Mascarenhas of Kulasekarapattinam said if local fishermen had not kept a vigil, many more whales would have died. The fishermen remained awake the whole night to keep the whales in water by pulling them back to the sea.Tuticorin district collector M Ravikumar inspected the coast. He said officials were investigating the reason for such a huge number of whales reaching the shore.A team from the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park in Ramanathapuram has rushed to the spot.Former director of Zoological Survey of India K Venkataraman said cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are social marine mammals. They live in groups and if the leader of the group is disturbed due to changes in underwater, they get disoriented immediately. They start drifting from their normal path and head towards the shoreline, leading to their deaths.Moderate earthquakes, geo-magnetic deviations, sonic waves and tidal currents could disorient cetaceans.On Monday, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale and another one measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale were in the Philippines and Indonesia, respectively. These could have disoriented the whales.In India, the first ever report of mass stranding of this whale species was reported in Salt Lake in Kolkata in 1852. The maximum number of whale stranding on Indian coastline happened in 1973 during which time 147 whales got stranded, Venkataraman said.Annually world over 2,000 whales get stranded. More than 1,500 whales have been stranded along the Indian coastline since 1800 till 2015.So far no study on this issue has been taken up in the country, lament researchers. One of the reasons is that not many funding agencies are ready to finance the study.Study on population dynamics of cetaceans, their breeding ecology, habitat degradation and other related issues needed to be taken up by the government. Only such an effort would help in protecting these endangered marine mammals.
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Disney
"It's time to play the music; it's time to light the lights; it's time to meet the Muppets" once again on TV.
A new "Muppets" TV show is in the works from Disney's Muppets Studios and ABC, reports say. "Big Bang Theory'" co-creator Bill Prady is writing the proof-of-concept,, and plans to run the show with TV writer and producer Bob Kushell, who is best known for his work on "The Simpsons," "American Dad," "Suburgatory" and "Anger Management."
Randall Einhorn ("Wilfred") is slated to executive-produce as well as direct the pilot presentation, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This isn't the first time Prady has worked with short co-stars made of fabric and felt. He wrote for "The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson" (1990) as well as "Muppet Classic Theater" (1994) and "Muppet*vision 3-D" (1991) for Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World. He was also a series writer on both "The Jim Henson Hour" (1989) and "Fraggle Rock (1987).
Before his hit TV show "The Big Bang Theory," Prady also shot a "Muppets" presentation pilot in 2007 that Disney passed on.
Prady didn't reveal any details on social media, except for letting fans know that Matt Brooks, a veteran puppeteer for the Henson Company has, along with his wife Nora, a donation page on GoFundMe to raise money after a devastating gas explosion leveled their Manhattan home.
Prady tweeted, "Hearing from a lot of Muppet fans this morning. Here's your chance to help a member of the Muppet family in need."
Prady and Kushell's new "Muppets" TV show is described as a "behind-the-scenes comedy involving classic 'Muppets' characters like Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and others, with proof-of-concept presentation set to film next week," according to The Wrap.
This is great news for those of us who remember watching the original TV program "The Muppet Show" that aired from 1976 to 1981. The show was portrayed as a music variety comedy series both onstage and backstage, with celebrity guest stars ranging from Mark Hamill of "Star Wars" to John Cleese of "Monty Python".
Here's hoping the new series has other special guests, especially actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Zachary Levi, who have already hung out with Muppets on Sesame Street. Hint, hint.
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to collect call log data, since the vast majority of them have no clear purpose in doing so."
Experts say it's not common for apps to record its users' call history.
"It's very unusual for apps to collect call log data, since the vast majority of them have no clear purpose in doing so," said Jason Hong, an associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, who studies app privacy.
He said Facebook may have been doing it to help with "friend recommendations" or to better calculate which friends should appear in your feed.
But such explanations aren't likely to win back the trust of users still reeling from revelations that a data firm with ties to the Trump campaign used a specially designed app to trick users into giving up two dozen points of data about their friends — and that Facebook failed to stop or rectify the issue even after discovering it years ago.
Writer Avi Bagla tweeted that starting in 2015 when he began using an Android phone logged in to Facebook Messenger, "From that time Facebook has an entire log of every phone call and sms I sent. WTF."
downloaded my fb data - when I was in India in 2015 I used an android phone and logged in. FROM THAT TIME, facebook has an entire log of every phone call and sms I sent. wtf — ayvee baglaw (@AviBagla) March 23, 2018
A screenshot he sent NBC News showed the call history for over a dozen different calls, whether the call was incoming or outgoing, the name of the other caller, and the time and duration of the call down to the exact second.
Bagla said he's a "privacy junkie" who typically opts in to a few permissions as possible and was "shocked" when he saw his call records in the file. He wrote to a friend that he had "not realized that any phone calls or SMSes I used outside of the app who have counted as in connection with the service."
After nearly a week of silence, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post last Wednesday that the violations were a "breach of trust" and promised to "fix" the issues.
Facebook took out full-page ads in major newspapers over the weekend, asking for forgiveness and pledging action.
"I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” the ads featuring Zuckerberg's signature read. “We’re now taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
The ads also said the company does "expect there are others" like the Cambridge Analytica app and promised to find them, ban them, and tell affected users.
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20190607T1104-27317-CNS-ILLINOIS-PAPROCKI-COMMUNION.jpg Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., is pictured in a July 11, 2018, photo. Paprocki declared June 6 that Catholic leaders of the Illinois General Assembly who promoted or voted for the "extreme abortion legislation" that lawmakers passed May 31, 2019, are barred from receiving Communion in churches in his diocese. (CNS/courtesy Diocese Springfield)
Springfield, Ill. — Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki issued a decree June 6 stating that Catholic lawmakers in the Illinois Legislature "who promoted or voted for extreme abortion legislation" cannot receive Communion in churches in his diocese. He specifically named House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, "due to their leadership roles in promoting the evil of abortion by facilitating the passage of Senate Bill 25 this legislative session and House Bill 40 in 2017." Other Illinois Catholic lawmakers who voted for either of these abortion bills, he said, also are not to "present themselves to receive holy Communion." The decree comes as the legislative leaders "have shown obstinate and persistent support of extreme abortion legislation," said a news release about Paprocki's decree. S.B. 25 is the "misnamed 'Reproductive Health Act,' " as the state's Catholic bishops referred to it in earlier statements opposing the measure as it made its way through both legislative chambers. Close to midnight May 31, the Senate passed it in a 34-20 vote; the state House OK'd it May 28 in a 64-50 vote. The measure is now on the desk of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has pledged to sign it.
H.B. 40 was signed into law Sept. 28, 2017, by then-Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican. It provides state health insurance and Medicaid coverage for abortions. "The Eucharist is the most sacred aspect of our Catholic faith," Paprocki said in a statement. "As sacred Scripture warns, 'Whoever eats unworthily of the bread and drinks from the Lord's cup makes himself guilty of profaning the body and of the blood of the Lord.' " He added: "To support legislation that treats babies in the womb like property, allowing for their destruction for any reason at any time, is evil. It's my hope and prayer these lawmakers reconcile themselves to the church so they can receive Communion." Paprocki, who is a canon lawyer, cited Canon 915 and 916 in his decree. The first one states that those "who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy Communion."
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.
According to the NAACP LDF, some poll workers were uncertain whether they could accept reidentification forms from inactive voters who forgot the county in which they were born. Others gave inactive voters provisional ballots even if they filled out the entire reidentification form correctly. (Individuals who cast provisional ballots have until Friday afternoon to plead with the probate office to count their votes.)
In Montgomery County alone, the NAACP LDF says, as many as 40 inactive voters who properly reidentified themselves were forced to cast provisional ballots. And at least one poll worker in Tallapoosa County reportedly informed a man in the inactive list that he could not vote at all.
Potential suppression at the polls
Election monitors also fielded complaints on Tuesday about police officers hanging around near polling stations. In Democratic-leaning, majority-black Jefferson County, a voter told Montag that police were stationed outside of a polling place pulling people over for making illegal turns.
Officers held at least one woman, who was on her way to vote, for nearly an hour while writing her up. Montag also received a call from a Jefferson County voter saying that police were stationed at the polling place checking IDs for outstanding warrants, a once-common voter suppression scheme. When election monitors dropped by the precinct shortly thereafter, the police promptly left.
A final, overarching problem on Tuesday — and one that can be traced back to Merrill — was lack of preparedness. Although polls consistently showed widespread voter enthusiasm, Merrill repeatedly asserted that he anticipated low voter turnout and refused to prepare local election officials for a high-turnout scenario.
Police speaking to a man in Pensacola, Florida, riding a bike with signs of support for Roy Moore, the Republican US Senate nominee in Alabama. Thomson Reuters
As a result, many precincts, particularly those in heavily black counties, were egregiously unprepared. At least one polling place ran out of ballots. Others had far too few poll workers, forcing voters to stand in line for much longer than anticipated.
The United States is the only developed country in which these kinds of problems consistently plague elections. Voters who cast ballots in every election should not be told that they have abruptly become inactive; the right to vote should not depend upon one's ability to recall their county of birth; citizens should not fear arrest on their way to cast lawful ballots.
But Alabama's muddled, mystifying system seems designed to trip up voters at every possible turn; it is a testament to the tenacity of Jones' supporters that they were able to elect him in spite of state-sanctioned chicanery.
Alabama's electorate already has plenty of initiative. What it needs now is a secretary of state who conducts truly free and fair elections.
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Title: The Lost Weekend
Year: 1945
Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry
Director: Billy Wilder
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Is It Any Good?: This is a fantastic film. Milland won the Oscar for Best Picture and I really cannot imagine a better perforamance than the one he gave as incurable alcoholic writer Don Birnam. It’s message is clear, but Wilder never quite clubs you over the head with it. He also does a great job of not glorifying alcoholism, and Milland’d performance makes you dislike Don, but you also pity him. He’s pathetic, and that comes on screen strong. I wish they’d done more with Doris Dowling’s Gloria as too often she came in and out when the plot suited. Some of the shots here just marvel particularly the drunken “pink elephants” moment for Don late in the film. Don’s fall off the wagon is a tragic and sad thing to witness. His journey through town just to hawk his typewriter for a tenner is sad as it seems Don is now a man whose abandoned all hope.
Memorable Quote: Nat the Bartender: One’s too many an’ a hundred’s not enough.
Competition: Of the other four nominees three of them are instant classics. Let’s start with the forgettable one first shall we? Anchors Aweigh is a bloated mess of a film with poor pacing that not even Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly could help elevate. Next is the sequel to last years Best Picture winner Going My Way entitled The Bells of St. Mary Bing Crosby returns in the role that won him the Oscar as Father Chuck O’ Malley. This time though he’s brought the heavy acting guns with Ingrid Bergman playing Sister Benedict. You get the winners of both acting award the previous year in a film that’s better then it’s predecessor. Joan Crawford makes Mildred Pierce the thrilling ride that it is with her statue winning turn. It features a master class in the use of light and shadow by former Best Director winner Michael Curtiz. Lastly it’s Spellbound featuring a Salvador Dali designed dream sequence among it’s ranks this fantastic film doesn’t often get into the conversation of Hitchcock’s best. Even if it might be his most visually ambitious.
This was the first time I’d ever seen The Lost Weekend, and man was it worth the price of admission. Next up is a post- WWII coming home story that continues to captivate audiences almost seventy years later.
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Turn your eyes to the skies Friday morning for a rare cosmic event that occurs, well, once in a blue moon.
July 31 marks the second full moon of the calendar month, also known as the "blue" moon.
Typically, the Earth experiences 12 full moons each year, one in each month. But some years have 13 full moons, and one of those extra moons is called a blue moon.
This happens because the lunar month averages about 29.53 days, according to Space.com. This is shorter than most calendar months, so the extra days accumulate throughout the year, eventually resulting in 13 full moons some years.
The blue moon occurs roughly once every 2.7 years, but if you blink, you'll miss it. While most observers perceive the full moon as lasting one night, technically it's an instantaneous event that occurs when the earth, moon, and sun fall in a straight line.
If you want to catch the true blue moon this Friday, turn your gaze on the moon at exactly 6:43 a.m. EDT.
As you're pondering the glowing orb, consider this: What we now consider a blue moon is the result of a historic mistake. The blue moon was originally defined by the Maine Farmers' Almanac as the third full moon in a three-month season that has four moons rather than the usual three.
In a 1946 article, Sky & Telescope Magazine misinterpreted that definition as the second full moon in a calendar month, which is how it is defined today. Friday's blue moon is the second full moon in July. The first occurred July 2, the second will be July 31.
Despite its moniker, the blue moon isn't actually blue. Some have posited that the name comes from the Old English word "belewe," meaning to betray, because the blue moon betrays the usual one full moon per month norm, by which farmers once marked the changing of seasons.
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And while the blue moon isn't actually blue, it may look blue to some observers. In fact, any moon can be blue if a volcanic eruption, forest fire, wildfire or other event blows a significant amount of ash into the atmosphere. That's because particles from the smoke or ash are about as wide as the wavelength of red light, which means they scatter red light but allow blue light to pass through. The particles act as a blue filter, and earthly observers perceive the moon as blue.
The blue moon really does only occur once in a blue moon, however, so lunar fans should set their alarms Friday morning. The next blue moon won't occur until 2018.
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his impulse to pull a trigger on his tormentor, or the greedy man who surrenders to his impulse to steal, or the pedophile who surrenders to his impulse to satisfy his sexual urges with children. … There is much we do not know about the extent of freedom we have in view of the various thorns in the flesh that afflict us in mortality. But this much we do know; we all have our free agency and God holds us accountable for the way we use it in thought and deed. That is fundamental. [60]
1990
Boyd K. Packer
All of us are subject to feelings and impulses. Some are worthy and some of them are not; some of them are natural and some of them are not. We are to control them, meaning we are to direct them according to the moral law…. We receive letters pleading for help, asking why should some be tormented by desires which lead toward addiction or perversion. They seek desperately for some logical explanation as to why they should have a compelling attraction, even a predisposition, toward things that are destructive and forbidden. Why, they ask, does this happen to me? It is not fair! They suppose that it is not fair that others are not afflicted with the same temptations. They write that their bishop could not answer the “why,” nor could he nullify their addiction or erase the tendency. We are sometimes told that leaders in the Church do not really understand these problems. Perhaps we don’t. There are many “whys” for which we just do not have simple answers. But we do understand temptation, each of us, from personal experience. Nobody is free from temptations of one kind or another. That is the test of life. That is part of our mortal probation. Temptation of some kind goes with the territory.... It is not likely that a bishop can tell you what causes these conditions or why you are afflicted, nor can he erase the temptation. But he can tell you what is right and what is wrong. If you know right from wrong, you have a place to begin. That is the point at which individual choice becomes operative. That is the point at which repentance and forgiveness can exert great spiritual power…. [61]
1993
Boyd K. Packer
Doctrines teach us how to respond to the compelling natural impulses which too often dominate how we behave…. After the Fall, natural law had far-reaching sovereignty over mortal birth. There are what President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., called “pranks” of nature, which cause a variety of abnormalities, deficiencies, and deformities. However unfair they seem to man’s way of reasoning, the
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for the scheme. "There were lots of problems. No-one from the school seemed prepared to facilitate the sessions. In one town there was just one guy on a bicycle going from one centre to another opening up," she said.
"The teachers are often not qualified, not competent with IT, can't speak English and maybe felt threatened by this kind of intervention," she added.
Preoccupied parents
Now she conducts her sessions at an after-school club, dubbed Khelgar, where there are lots of encouraging staff.
image caption The children enjoy the sessions and their English is improving
Working with them is Suneeta Kulkarni, who has the incredibly challenging job of co-ordinating the scheme across the whole of India.
For her the rewards are obvious.
"I have seen big differences in the children. They have learnt lots of words and when Jackie holds something up they now attempt to read the words," she said.
What do the children make of a story such as Not Now Bernard, a quintessentially British book about a boy whose protestations to his parents about a monster in the garden fall on deaf ears with tragic consequences.
"Parents across the world are preoccupied, it is a universal message," said Ms Kulkarni.
Retirement cloud
The scheme has now been extended to four schools in Columbia, South America where, said Prof Mitra, it was doing very well.
It is also being used in schools much closer to home.
In Gateshead where literacy levels are lower than the national average, schools such as St Aidan's Church of England primary school are embracing the idea of the granny cloud and intend to use e-mediators to engage children at the very early stages of reading.
"The teachers love it as they can go off and have a cup of tea and the children are very excited about a granny appearing on the screen," said Prof Mitra.
The professor is hopeful that the project can be taken on by a big organisation and made to work at a global scale.
"In terms of potential we have just scratched the surface," he said.
He also sees huge potential for extending the role of the e-mediators into a "retirement cloud".
"We have a silent workforce, retired engineers, doctors, plumbers - all with great expertise to share," he said.
"I hope that at some stage the government picks it up. Retired people can input their information in a 21st retirement club on the cloud for everyone to tap into."
It could, he said, be an important cultural leap in the way we view our ageing population.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Michael (Mike) Richard PompeoOvernight Defense: Pentagon redirects pandemic funding to defense contractors | US planning for full Afghanistan withdrawal by May | Anti-Trump GOP group puts ads in military papers Overnight Defense: House Democrats unveil stopgap spending measure to GOP opposition | Bill includes.6B for new subs | Trump issues Iran sanctions after world shrugs at US action at UN Navalny calls on Russia to return clothes he was wearing when he fell ill MORE said Friday that the NATO alliance is "more indispensable than ever" after recent actions from Russia, including an assassination attempt on British soil.
In his first public remarks after being confirmed as President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE's new secretary of State, Pompeo urged the alliance not to return to "business as usual."
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"In light of Russia's unacceptable actions, NATO is more indispensable than ever," Pompeo said. "As our allies agree, the use of military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia on U.K. territory was a reckless action that put the lives of innocent civilians at risk."
"NATO should not return to business as usual with Russia until Moscow shows a clear change in its actions," he added.
Russia has denied responsibility for the March poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who were found unconscious on a park bench suffering from what the United Kingdom said were the symptoms of a Soviet-developed nerve agent.
The British government, along with the Trump administration, condemned the actions as a Russian operation and refused to accept the denials of the Russian government.
Pompeo's predecessor, Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne TillersonGary Cohn: 'I haven't made up my mind' on vote for president in November Kushner says 'Alice in Wonderland' describes Trump presidency: Woodward book Conspicuous by their absence from the Republican Convention MORE, laid blame for the attack at Russia's feet before his firing by Trump last month.
“From Ukraine to Syria — and now the [United Kingdom] — Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens,” Tillerson said in early March.
Russia has issued a number of statements accusing the U.K. and U.S. of deliberately inflaming tensions over the matter, while ignoring Russia's explanations.
Trump famously called the NATO alliance "obsolete" during his campaign for president, a statement he walked back last year.
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speed S tronic® 602 413 lb-ft 204 3.3 $208,100
Audi R8 V10 Decennium
Reaching 602 horsepower and sprinting from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, the limited edition Audi R8 V10 Decennium is a celebration of the V10 engine and its storied heritage with the Audi brand. The last 50 units of the special edition, numbers 173 to 222, will be available in the U.S. from of a limited global production of 222.
Unique design cues
With special edition paint options, and unique Decennium logo placement inside and out, the R8 V10 Decennium makes its special edition character clear. The model is offered only in coupe form, and in the U.S., all 50 units are painted in Mythos Black metallic. The milled 20-inch wheels and the intake manifolds of the 5.2 FSI engine are finished in matte bronze. The front spoiler, the side sills and the diffuser are painted in gloss black, supplemented by black Audi rings and badges on the exterior. The side blades, rear wings, and the exterior mirror housings are made from gloss carbon fiber.
The interior of the R8 V10 Decennium is also finished entirely in black, with the inlays in gloss carbon fiber adding highlights. The diamond stitching on the sport seats is finished in gloss black with contrasting stitching in a copper tone. The selector lever and the steering wheel – with Alcantara rim and black 12 o’clock marking – feature copper-colored stitching, along with the center armrest, the door armrest and the door rail.
A “Decennium” logo adorns the center console, the door panels above the armrest, and the inlays in the gloss carbon fiber door sill trims, as well as the logo projector when the door is opened. The badge in the center console stands out visually from the gloss carbon fiber around it. It comes with a partially matte finish – a process patented by Audi – with the surface of the material roughed down a few thousandths of a millimeter using a special powder. The door light projects the “Decennium” logo onto the ground, supplemented by the model’s sequential limited-edition number.
Performance
The naturally aspirated 5.2 FSI engine in its most powerful output rating forms the heart of the R8 V10 Decennium. With 602 horsepower and maximum torque of 413 lb-ft, it catapults the special edition model from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds with a top track speed of 205 mph.
Pricing detail
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President Trump Donald John TrumpHR McMaster says president's policy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is 'unwise' Cast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response MORE has promised Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine Timothy (Tim) Michael KaineBiden promises Democratic senators help in battleground states Second GOP senator to quarantine after exposure to coronavirus The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Pence lauds Harris as 'experienced debater'; Trump, Biden diverge over debate prep MORE (Va.) that he will sign a bill providing backpay to federal workers once the government shutdown, which has stretched 20 days, finally ends.
The Senate passed by unanimous consent legislation Thursday evening providing that federal workers — essential and furloughed employees — will be paid once the shutdown is over.
Federal employees are due to miss paychecks Friday, which has caused consternation in the Washington, DC, region.
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Trump made his pledge in a phone call with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMcConnell focuses on confirming judicial nominees with COVID-19 talks stalled McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security Warren, Schumer introduce plan for next president to cancel,000 in student debt MORE (R-Ky.) as part of an effort to work out a deal to adjourn the Senate this week.
Kaine, who represents thousands of federal workers in Northern Virginia, threatened to block the adjournment resolution unless GOP leaders provided some assurance that they would be taken care of for time and paychecks missed because of the shutdown.
“I had an opportunity to talk to President Trump a few moments ago and wanted to indicate to our colleagues that he will sign the bill that we’ve been discussing here to guarantee that government workers who’ve been displaced as a result of the shutdown will ultimately be compensated,” McConnell announced on the Senate floor.
Kaine thanked the leader for working with him and said it was important to send a message to federal workers missing pay checks that they will be “made whole.”
“The best message that we could send — and I’m glad that [we are] able to send it by voice vote form this body — is that they will be paid. When we reopen, they will be paid,” Kaine said on the floor.
Kaine then withdrew his threat to object to adjournment.
The Senate will reconvene at 10 a.m. Friday. Some Democratic senators plan to take to the floor to talk about the hardships endured by government workers during the shutdown.
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OK, so we're not quite ready to resume just yet. Let's enjoy the minute or two that passes for an NHL offseason before rushing back into the fray.
Still, it's never too early to imagine what might come to pass in the coming season. And goodness knows the Olympic orientation camps in late August, as well as rookie and training camps shortly thereafter, will be upon us all too soon.
With that in mind, we thought we would spend the week looking ahead to the 2013-14 season.
TODAY: OUTDOOR MANIA
When we first reported this past spring that the NHL was going to go hog-wild with outdoor games this coming season, there was a lot of harrumphing and head-shaking, mostly from the media and often from folks who've never bothered to show up at one of the league's outdoor events.
The games have been staples on the NHL calendar since the first Winter Classic, on Jan. 1, 2008, in Buffalo. We've been to all of the Winter Classics and have seen the evolution of the event from an NHL game plunked down in a giant outdoor venue to something more encompassing and reflective of the broad appeal of hockey at its grassroots level.
The Winter Classic will return on Jan. 1, 2014 (the lockout wiped out the 2013 game), when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings meet at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, and it will be complemented by events at Comerica Park in downtown Detroit.
Beyond that, the league has an ambitious plan to stage five other outdoor games, including two at Yankee Stadium during Super Bowl week in late January (involving all three New York-area teams), and a game at Dodger Stadium between the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 25.
Looking to kick off the post-Olympic break with a bang, the NHL will return to Chicago on March 1, when the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks will play the Pittsburgh Penguins at Soldier Field. The Heritage Classic, the Canadian version of the outdoor series, will be the next day as the Vancouver Canucks host the Ottawa Senators.
Will it be outdoor overkill?
Each game represents something unique in its marketplace, so if there is a lessening of the oomph factor nationally, the NHL is banking on more than making up for it with the interest in places such as New York, Chicago and the Los Angeles area. Of course, every game also represents a battle between a pro sports league and Mother Nature, and now that battle will be waged times six -- heightening the likelihood of some sort of natural impediment to a game coming off as planned. But that's part of the drama, no?
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animationController3.forward();
} else if (status == AnimationStatus.dismissed) {
animationController.reverse();
}
});
animation3.addStatusListener((status) {
if (status == AnimationStatus.completed) {
animationController4.forward();
} else if (status == AnimationStatus.dismissed) {
animationController2.reverse();
}
});
animation4.addStatusListener((status) {
if (status == AnimationStatus.completed) {
animationController4.reverse();
} else if (status == AnimationStatus.dismissed) {
animationController3.reverse();
}
});
}
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Animation')),
body: Center(
child: Container(
width: MediaQuery.of(context).size.width - 100,
height: 300,
child: Card(
elevation: animation4.value,
child: Padding(
padding: EdgeInsets.all(30.0),
child: Card(
elevation: animation3.value,
child: Padding(
padding: EdgeInsets.all(30.0),
child: Card(
elevation: animation2.value,
child: Padding(
padding: EdgeInsets.all(30.0),
child: Card(
child: MaterialButton(onPressed: () {
animationController.forward();
}),
elevation: animation.value,
)),
),
),
),
)))),
);
}
}
The Duration of Each Animation Can be Increased and Decreased by Changing the Duration of the AnimationController.
To set the App in Portrait Mode ONLY add these to your main() function. void main(){
SystemChrome.setPreferredOrientations(
[DeviceOrientation.portraitUp, DeviceOrientation.portraitDown]); runApp(Myapp());
}
And Done!
Glad! You Gave me a couple of Claps!😊😊
Here’s my Github Repo! Hope you give Stars!🌟🌟
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The Los Angeles City Council set into motion Wednesday the initial stages of a $1.4 billion plan to repair a backlog of broken sidewalks that will allow the city to turn over the responsibility of future upkeep to property owners.
City officials plan to spend the funds, which will average at least $30 million a year over the next three decades, to fix about 11,000 miles of sidewalks throughout the city. The amount of money was agreed to as part of a legal settlement with disability advocates.
The number of damaged sidewalks began piling up about 40 years ago, when city leaders saddled themselves with the responsibility of fixing broken sidewalks damaged by tree roots, but soon ran out of money to finish the job.
In the intervening years, the question of who is responsible for the condition of the sidewalks was in dispute because state law says the task of maintaining sidewalks belongs to the adjacent property owners.
The City Council voted Wednesday to adopt a "fix-and-release" strategy that includes repealing a law that makes the city responsible for the repairs, while also committing to paying for the entire expense of one-time repairs on broken sidewalks next to both residential and commercial properties.
"For decades, the city of Los Angeles lacked a coherent plan to deal with crumbling sidewalks in our neighborhoods," Councilman Paul Krekorian said.
"That's all changing" with the sidewalk repair program -- dubbed "Safe Sidewalks LA" -- that is being launched today, he said.
City officials will begin rolling out several sidewalk repair programs beginning next month. A website will go up on Thursday at http://sidewalks.lacity.org to accept repair requests.
One of the more immediate repairs will likely be the result of requests by those who have a physical disability and have trouble walking over damaged sidewalks and curb ramps. They will also be able to submit requests to have the repairs occur sooner.
The city is also in the midst of paying for repairs of sidewalks next to government facilities.
A broader, complaint-based program is also in the works, with the city expected to begin studying the environmental effects of doing repairs on a more widespread basis. The study would look into how the city will mitigate the effects of trees being removed as the result of the sidewalk repairs yet to be addressed.
While the environmental impact is being studied, property owners can move their repairs up in the queue by agreeing to pay for half of the costs. A rebate program will be available for three years to reimburse property owners up to $2,000 for sidewalks next to residential lots or $4,000 for those next to commercial lots.
Under the lawsuit settlement, the city is required to prioritize sidewalk repairs next to government facilities, transportation corridors and medical buildings.
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Axios says it is in receipt of even more of President Donald Trump's once tightly guarded daily schedules.
These four reported examples of a day in the life of the US president appear to show even more "executive time" than previously reported.
That news comes as the administration is reportedly on the hunt for the source of the original leak of Trump's private schedule last week.
administration is reportedly on the hunt for the source of the original It is not publicly known whether the administration has identified who may have leaked the schedules.
As the White House continues its hunt for the source of the leak of President Donald Trump's private schedule late last week, Axios reports it is in receipt of even more of the revealing schedules.
This latest leak comes on top of an administration in a state of distrust and alarm, with the White House already hunting for the source of previous leaks and leveraging the significant resources of the IT department.
It is not publicly known whether the administration has identified who may have leaked the schedules.
Now Axios has published four more of the president's private schedules from last week. They appear to show even more "executive time' than previously reported. According to the latest documents, published by Axios here, the schedules reveal a president with a more open daily routine than before.
According to the documents, Trump spent about half of the entire four days during the week of February 4 in the now-notoriously titled "executive time."
According to a Politico, report published Friday, a White House official believes the source of the leak is likely a career government worker, rather than a Trump appointee.
These schedule leaks, however galling for the president and his advisers, do not provide a complete picture of the president's working day. Trump has a more detailed, less openly circulated routine that even senior staff aren't given, Axios reports.
According to Trump himself, executive time is not just a time when he kicks about the Oval Office — watching TV, reading newspapers, tweeting, and making phone calls.
"When the term Executive Time is used, I am generally working, not relaxing. In fact, I probably work more hours than almost any past President," he said in a tweet posted on Sunday.
Trump was reportedly incensed by the leak and is well aware of the search for the culprit.
Leaks have been an ongoing problem for Trump.
Unflattering leaks and reports have constantly flowed out of the Trump administration, much to the consternation of officials.
Former White House chief of staff John Kelly attempted to clamp down on the leaks by taking several precautions, including sweeps to collect personal devices and banning cell phones at the West Wing.
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appear to be essentially alternate versions of the same place, and therefore, on alternate versions of the same path. This isn’t to say that every action is essentially predetermined, but just as there are multiple Supermen, perhaps there will also be multiple bands of teenagers in the future who are inspired by the heroics of the past.
That said, I don’t see a real need for multiple universes if they aren’t going to be distinguished from each other in real ways, and I’m sure others feel the same way, so Robinson must surely have some big plans for the book, beyond just mirroring the world we already know.
Second Round: Character compression
The Atom is a perfect example of Robinson compressing multiple characters into one easier to digest person. This is almost the exact opposite approach he took on “Starman,” when he used every possible iteration of Starman in his run, from the three Knights, to future and past versions, and combined to make a tale that was a tapestry of histories, all woven together to tell one epic story.
He appears to be doing the opposite, and taking what he likes from each of the atomic characters from DC’s past and creating the Voltron of Atoms. While I would prefer the former, the later has value, too; why fuss with imperfect characters when you can just take the best parts and make a great character?
If this is the case, then I expect a much more streamlined origin from Hawkgirl, as the Hawks have some of the more convoluted origins in all of comics. But what if the idea is taken to an even further extreme?
What if each character we’re going to meet isn’t just the streamlined version of themselves, but of an entire archetype of hero? So far, the four heroes we’ve met all fit a pretty distinct type of origin:
Scott – the good man challenged to be great
Garrick – the man without a plan being given a road map
Saunders – the mysterious alien
Pratt – the man transformed by science and luck
We’re waiting around for the rich man using his wealth to fight crime (perhaps Rex Tyler?), the simpleton with great powers (Johnny Thunder), the scientist, the vigilante seeking revenge, who else am I missing? Will the Justice Society not just be a team of superheroes, but the team of archetypes? We’ll have to wait and see.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for this column, leave a comment below or email [email protected]
See you next month, and thanks for reading!
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The two men killed by an allegedly drunk driver on the Sea to Sky Highway on Sunday were both fathers and key figures in the Whistler cycling community.
Friends have confirmed that Ross Chafe and Kelly Blunden died Sunday afternoon after a car plowed into a group of cyclists out for a weekend ride about 60 kilometres northeast of Whistler. A passenger in the car was also killed, but he has not been identified.
“It’s going to be a shock to the cycling community all over the Sea to Sky (region),” said Gary Baker, vice-president of the Whistler Cycling Club. “You can do everything right, but if someone else drinks and drives, it could happen to anybody.”
The cyclists were struck head-on when the vehicle crossed the centre line of the highway.
Chafe had young children and travelled frequently for his work in business development for a flag company. Blunden’s children are young adults. He worked in IT for the municipality.
Both men were keen cyclists and very active in the club. Chafe was “instrumental” in securing non-profit status for the group, according to Baker. Blunden maintained the club’s website and had instituted a beginners’ road ride that stressed safety for novice riders.
A third cyclist was riding slightly behind Blunden and Chafe when they were struck. Baker said the three men had just finished a steep 14-kilometre climb east of Mount Currie and were coasting back down the winding road when the collision happened. Initial reports suggested that the third man was also struck, but RCMP Sgt. Rob Knapton said Monday that was incorrect and the cyclist was uninjured.
Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden described the crash as devastating for the resort town. “We’re a small community. We’re a small town at heart, and to lose two community members like this is a huge tragedy,” she said.
The driver of the car was airlifted to hospital in Vancouver, accompanied by a police officer. His condition is unknown.
Police are investigating impaired driving as a “probable cause” of the crash, Knapton said, but officers will wait until lab analyses are complete to recommend charges.
The area where the collision happened has poor-to-nonexistent cellphone coverage, according to Knapton, and a witness had to drive away from the scene in order to call 911.
However, he added that it’s unlikely emergency workers would have been able to save the victims’ lives, even if they had been immediately alerted.
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The US has criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his re-election victory for abandoning his commitment to negotiate for a Palestinian state and for what it called "divisive" campaign rhetoric towards minority Arab voters.
In its first public response to Netanyahu's victory, the White House said on Wednesday that it's "deeply concerned" about divisive language emanating from Netanyahu's Likud Party.
Even as President Barack Obama's administration congratulated Netanyahu for his party's decisive win, the
White House signaled its deep disagreements with Netanyahu will persist on issues ranging from Middle East peacemaking to Iran nuclear talks.
In the final days of campaigning, Netanyahu backtracked on his support for eventual creation of a Palestinian state - the cornerstone of more than two decades of peace efforts - and promised to go on building illegal settlements on occupied land.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest reaffirmed Obama's commitment to a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict and said that based on Netanyahu's comments, "the United States will evaluate our approach to this situation moving forward".
Netanyahu's insistence that there will be no Palestinian state while he holds office, seen as a manoeuvre to mobilise his base when his re-election prospects were flagging, drew criticism from the UN and European governments.
Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, said: "Many people are saying that it's a kind of threat to the prime minister."
"They're saying that the US could go to the UN security council, or not block action against Israel in the International Criminal Court."
Arab-Israeli voters
The United States and this administration is deeply concerned about rhetoric that seeks to marginalize Arab-Israeli citizens Josh Earnest, White House Spokesman
Earnest said the administration would also communicate its concern directly to the Israeli government over much-criticised rhetoric used by Netanyahu's campaign.
Netanyahu charged on election day in Israel that opponents were trying to get Arab-Israeli voters out "in droves" to sway the election against him.
"The United States and this administration is deeply concerned about rhetoric that seeks to marginalise Arab-Israeli citizens," Earnest said.
Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Israel's population of eight million and have long complained about discrimination.
A collection of Israeli Arab parties that ran together as the Arab Joint List claimed third place in Tuesday's election with 13 seats.
Although Netanyahu must still put together a coalition, his victory all but guarantees that Israel's president will give him the first opportunity to form a government.
However, "the unprecedented security cooperation between the US and Israel, including our strong military and intelligence relationship, will continue," Earnest said.
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Germans who use Swiss banks to keep fortunes from the German state may soon be facing hefty new tax bills from the Swiss authorities - but will avoid prosecution in Germany, according to Michael Offer, spokesman for the German finance ministry.
"Initial talks on this issue went well," Offer said, without going into details.
A complex legal tussle between Germany and Switzerland over tax evasion has been running since the spring, when a series of CDs containing evidence of massive tax evasion by Germans using Swiss bank accounts were sold to the German taxman.
No handouts
Swiss banks will protect the names of their customers
Offer said that the two governments are now planning to sign a double taxation agreement by the end of this month, which will set the protocol for dealing with the hidden money. But Offer denied media reports suggesting that a spectacular deal had been reached, whereby Switzerland would hand the German state 30 billion euros ($42 billion) in order to protect its banking secrets.
"Speculations about billion-euro return flows to the German state have absolutely no basis," Offer said. "There are no secret papers either."
New taxes
Instead, Switzerland will in the future impose a new tax on German banking customers, and revenues will be passed on to Berlin. But the names of the customers will not be handed over.
The two sides are reportedly considering a flat rate tax of 35 percent, 10 percent more than would be payable as capital gains tax in Germany.
An agreement has also been proposed for German savings that have been earning interest on investments in Swiss bank accounts for years. According to news magazine Focus, the banks will calculate the amount by which the funds have grown in the past 10 years, and will transfer 35 percent of this directly to the German state.
A scandal erupted when a CD containing bank account data was stolen
Volker Wissing, chairman of the German parliament's financial committee, told the magazine, "There are only winners, except for the tax cheats."
Constructive, but secret, discussions
Offer commented that the bilateral working group set up in March is aiming to set up a permanent solution to the problem of untaxed capital investments set up by Germans in Switzerland. "The initial discussions were constructive," he said. "Both parties have agreed to keep the details confidential."
It will be decided in the autumn whether these discussions will lead to formal negotiations, but Offer says that the new protocol, which is almost ready to be signed, meets the standards of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in terms of transparency and the effective exchange of information.
Author: Ben Knight (AP, dpa)
Editor: Nicole Goebel
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Cazorla: Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined playing for Spain again Spanish National Team Returns to La Roja for first time in four years
Santi Cazorla has admitted his surprise at being called up to the Spanish national team for the first time in four years.
The midfielder has rejuvenated his career at Villarreal this season after years of injury struggles and setbacks.
"If someone had told me this would happen at the end of this season, I wouldn't have been able to believe them," said Cazorla. "It's been two very hard years due to injury and I know that I'm at an age [34] where it's difficult to get back into the national team.
"I always try to contribute to my club and feel important. Thanks to everyone else, I've been able to rediscover my best form."
Cazorla also revealed the way he learnt about his inclusion in Luis Enrique's squad as Villarreal prepare to face Getafe on the final day of the season this weekend.
"I was told as I entered the dressing room - my teammates told me," he said. "I came in after training and everyone was singing my name. It took me by surprise and it's still sinking in. Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined it.
"I thank again Juan Carlos Herranz, the whole of Mikel Sanchez's medical team in Vitoria and my family. Without them, it would've been impossible. I'm not going to forget such an amazing year that we've all experienced."
The diminutive playmaker thinks he can make an impact with La Roja during their Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Faroe Islands and Sweden in June.
"I'm going to work and contribute," he said. "I think I can do it. My only objective was to get back to [my] peak level; it didn't matter to me if I did it in the lower leagues. I'm going to enjoy it but contribute like everyone else.
"I had wanted to go on holiday but that can wait. The important thing is to keep enjoying football and to keep enjoying the adventure that I'm having right now."
Cazorla has played a key role in keeping Villarreal in LaLiga Santander this season and he hopes that the team can improve for the following campaign.
"I'm going to keep working to maintain my form and improve next year," he said. "I hope see a better Villarreal next season. I'm waiting to speak with the club. My idea is to stay here. I have a lot to thank Villarreal for; I consider it my home."
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A reader was curious as to why Snapple’s Apple Juice Drink, despite having pictures of cut apples on the front, did not have “apple” in the list of product ingredients. Instead, they have “filtered water, sugar, pear juice, concentrate, citric acid, natural flavors” and “vegetable and fruit extracts (for color).” So I emailed Snapple customer service asking them them why, and also if they mainly used pears instead of apples. Here is their reply, which contains the words “promulgated” and “proprietary.”
June 22, 2011
Dear Mr Popken: Thank you for contacting our Company regarding our ingredients in our products. Our Company complies with all applicable labeling regulations promulgated in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory bodies. Product flavor components that form part of our “natural” or “natural and/or artificial flavors” ingredients are considered proprietary to our Company. If you have a concern regarding the intake of this product, we suggest that you contact your health care provider. If you have known sensitivities to any substance listed in the ingredient statement, we advise discontinuing use of the product. Thanks again for contacting us. Sincerely, Consumer Relations
Mmm, that delicious opacity tastes “natural,” like it was flavored with artificial and natural “malarkey.”
Here’s what’s really going on: While something called “juice” and having pictures of fruit on it is required to have its flavor mainly come from the pictured fruit, if you call it “juice drink” you don’t need to have the flavor be derived from the items on the picture. It can also contain as little as 5% juice.
That sounds like a contender to become the next “Snapple Cap Fact!”
So the answer to this mystery is that Naturally Flavored Snapple Apple With Other Natural Flavors Juice Drink contains 10% juice, most of which is pear juice concentrate flavored to taste “appley,” because the government says it’s okay, and, most importantly, people will buy it.
Supposedly also apple juice itself doesn’t taste like what people expect of apples when its used as a flavoring, which is why tweaked-out pears are used instead.
As an amusing aside, our reader is not the first to be confused about this phenomenon, as it was recently made into no less than two rage face comics:
MORE
Food Label Fibs: Juice Drinks [Foodcom.org]
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during the uprising. Only three of us are still living. When there were still several more of us … we would lay flowers in places where the largest numbers of our friends had perished. That is how we used to honour the dead,” said Zukowski.
Every year, there is an official ceremony outside parliament, followed by a ceremony for insurgents and their families at the main Military Cemetery. In the evening a bonfire is lit on the Warsaw Uprising Mound, which burns for 63 days, marking the length of the struggle.
Over the years, former fighters have been eager to share their experiences.
“Marking the day is a reminder for the younger generations that freedom has to be fought for,” said Zukowski.
Yet still-living fighters are now over 90 years old.
“The 75th anniversary is probably the last one when they can still participate in the commemorative events.”
To Ukielski, this is one of the last moments when “they can pass on their values as part of a generational relay.”
As the next generation picks up the baton, commemorative events are evolving.
For the sixth year running, 750 people raced to the top of the “PAST” building, a key vantage point which was captured by fighters during the uprising.
On August 1, a flotilla of decorated vessels will sail down the Vistula river through central Warsaw.
In the evening, an estimated 30,000 Poles will gather at Pilsudski Square to sing upbeat patriotic anthems forbidden during the German occupation, which have regained nostalgic sparkle.
People should be made aware of the fact that a city of almost one million people was nearly obliterated from the face of the earth. Andreas Nachama, director of the Topography of Terror Museum in Berlin
The military scale, casualties and destruction following the Warsaw Uprising still come to some as a shock.
Former mayor of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, said that when Boris Johnson, then-mayor of London, attended the 2014 commemorations, he mistook “50,000 casualties in the Wola district” as a glitch in translation. He assumed the interpreter had meant 5,000.
On July 25, an exhibition about the Warsaw Uprising was opened at the Topography of Terror Museum in Berlin.
According to Andreas Nachama, director of the museum, it speaks to the horrors of World War II.
“People should be made aware of the fact that a city of almost one million people was nearly obliterated from the face of the earth.”
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We will be posting special Black Friday Gaming Deals all week. Gaming Deals is a special section of the website where you can find out about hot video game deals online. This post is all about some upcoming Lightning Deals that have a limited run. All of these sales are sure to be gone fast so camp out at your computer and grab them while they last!
Little Big Planet 3
Platform: PlaySation4, PlayStation3
Sony
SALE TIME: Starts @ 4:55 PM PT
About: Be sure to grab Little Big Planet 3 before the sale is over!
GET THIS DEAL!
The Legend of Zelda: TriForce Heroes
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo
SALE TIME: Starts @ 7:55 AM PT
About: Don’t Miss this deal! Being one of the most fun and loved new games for the 3DS this Lightning Deal is sure to run out very quickly.
GET THIS DEAL!
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo
SALE TIME: STARTS @ 7:55 AM PT
About: This never goes on sale! Grab it before it’s gone!
GET THIS DEAL!
New Super Mario Bros. U + New Super Luigi U Platform: Nintendo Wii U
Nintendo
SALE TIME: STARTS@ 7:55 AM PT About: Grab this before the lightning sale is over! This bundle includes the New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U games.
GET THIS DEAL!
Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash with Chibi-Robo amiibo bundle
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo
SALE TIME: STARTS @ 11:55 AM PT
About: CUTE ROBOT. MUST GET DEAL.
GET THIS DEAL
BONUS DEAL!
Get 10% OFF on all vinyl decals from Cosplay & Fan Gear!
Personalize your laptop or console with these gaming decals.
On Cosplay & Fan Gear‘s Amazon Store use Coupon Code: BSMH10SV for 10%OFF your order.
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If you’re looking for our other Black Friday 2015 Posts Check them out here:
BLACK FRIDAY 2015 GAMING DEALS
From the time of posting the prices may have changed, see below for current pricing:
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Jose Mourinho says Alexis Sanchez's transfer from Arsenal to Man Utd 'not done' yet
Jose Mourinho insists he is staying out of the negotiations for a swap deal involving Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alexis Sanchez Jose Mourinho insists he is staying out of the negotiations for a swap deal involving Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alexis Sanchez
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed talks are ongoing over a swap deal involving Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan with Arsenal, but says a deal is "not done" yet.
Mourinho said he is awaiting news on the transfer but insisted he is "out" of the negotiations.
"Clearly everyone knows that we are there and especially when the Arsenal manager speaks so clearly like he did, there is no point in trying to hide or deny," Mourinho said.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not be in Manchester United's squad to face Burnley, says Jose Mourinho
"But [it is] not done, not done at all. In this moment Mkhitaryan our player, Sanchez is an Arsenal player. With a match tomorrow, I want to switch off and focus on what is the most important thing."
Mkhitaryan arrived at United's Carrington training ground as normal on Friday morning but Mourinho confirmed the Armenian will not be involved against Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday.
Mourinho said: "[He is] not selected. But in very good condition, training really well."
Sky Sports News understands an agreement is yet to be reached between all parties in the deal, including some of the representatives attached to it.
Arsenal are also discussing a move for another player, believed to be Borussia Dortmund forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Mourinho, though, said his involvement in the transfer ended when he told the club he wanted to sign Sanchez.
Henrik Mkhitaryan arrived at Manchester United's training ground on Friday, amid a proposed move to Arsenal Henrik Mkhitaryan arrived at Manchester United's training ground on Friday, amid a proposed move to Arsenal
"Sometimes people think transfers involve the managers a lot in the negotiations," he said. "I think it depends a lot on the profile of the club, the way we establish our jobs and in my case when it goes to the table of negotiations I like to be out.
"I'm out. I will just be calmly waiting for news. No more than that."
Asked what is holding up the deal, Mourinho said: "I don't know. My involvement in the situation is just to say the reasons why I would like to have the player and no more than that. I'm out."
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The push to garner campus endorsements of calls to divest from Israeli occupation-linked corporations scored another success this week when the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) student government voted in favor of a resolution authored by the Committee for Justice in Palestine (CJP).
By a vote of 22-14, the UCSC Student Union Assembly (SUA) endorsed a resolution urging the University of California to divest from companies that “profit from and/or support many of Israel’s ongoing human rights violations.” The vote made Santa Cruz the fifth UC chapter to endorse divestment in recent years.
The clear majority in favor of divestment surprised members of CJP. Last year, a similar divestment resolution was voted down 17-19. And some officers of the student government have gone on free trips to Israel sponsored by organizations that vehemently oppose divestment, a practice that has become a contentious issue on UC campuses.
In a press release, CJP laid out what happened at the student government meeting:
While official discussion of the Divestment Bill was scheduled at 11PM, a SUA member motioned at approximately 8:15 to indefinitely table the bill. The motion failed. After addressing the Graduate Student Association’s appeals to condemn administrative intimidation efforts towards students in the April strike, as well as the Compassionate University Resolution and SUA budget, the Divestment testimonials were initiated at 11:30 PM. Following the three hour debate, the first SUA vote on the resolution revealed widespread support for Divestment landing just shy of the necessary two-thirds majority. SUA representatives then voted to suspend the SUA bylaw dictating a two-thirds majority, instead requiring only a simple majority vote to pass the resolution.
The divestment resolution was supported by a wide coalition of student groups, including the Muslim Student Association, the Queer Student Union, and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), a Chicano student group.
The resolution was opposed by groups like the AMCHA Initiative, a right-wing Zionist organization known for attacking professors who speak out on Palestine and criticize Israel.
The AMCHA Initiative is run by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a Hebrew lecturer at UCSC. Last year, she came under fire for claiming that Palestine solidarity activists on campus were linked to terrorist groups.
In January, the Electronic Intifada‘s Nora Barrows-Friedman and Asa Winstanley revealed that a Santa Cruz student working with Benjamin had monitored students during a delegation to Israel/Palestine. The AMCHA Initiative compiled the information the student gathered into a report that paid particular attention to those sympathetic to Palestinians.
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On 15 January 2019, Cryptopia, a New Zealand crypto exchange, announced that the platform was hacked and sustained unspecified heavy losses. The exchange initially informed its users that an unscheduled maintenance was ongoing on the platform, but later announced that a breach was detected, and a report was filed with the local law enforcements.
On 20 January 2019, Elementus, a blockchain infrastructure firm, published an analysis showing that Ethereum (ETH) and ERC20 tokens worth up to $16 million was stolen from the crypto exchange as a result of the hack. The analysis found that approximately $3.5 million in ETH, $2.4 million in Dentacoin, $2 million in Oyster Pearl, alongside $3 million of other unnamed tokens were stolen in the theft case.
According to the report, the hack started from as early as 13 January 2019 and continued surprisingly until the early hours of 17 January 2019, which was a considerably long time after its detection. Two Cryptopia core wallets, one contained ETH and another contained tokens, were reportedly the first targets of the hack in the morning of 13th January, where both wallets were emptied out by the afternoon of the same day. The hack continued to draw funds from over 76,000 secondary wallets owned by Cryptopia until 17th January.
Elementus deemed the attack to be abnormal when compared to the two common exchange hack profiles which are “smart contract exploits” and “unauthorized access credentials”. Smart contract exploits are cases where a vulnerability in the code controlling smart contracts is found and exploited. Elementus explained that these cases usually target multiple wallets, but the attack will normally get under control in a short duration.
Unauthorized access credentials are cases where individuals gained direct access to a wallet’s private key without the owner’s knowledge. These cases usually involved a single wallet and funds would already be emptied out from the wallet by the time the breach was detected.
In this current case, the 76,000 secondary wallets breached did not have smart contracts, implying that the hackers gained direct access to the private keys of all the wallets. Moreover, the attack was described by Elementus to lack urgency as the theft continued days after its detection, implying that the hackers knew that Cryptopia lost access to all the wallets and had no way of stopping them.
As of now, $880,000 of the stolen funds were reportedly exchanged for cash through various exchanged such as Binance, Huobi and HitBTC. The hackers allegedly had two wallets containing the remaining stolen digital assets worth around $15 million and kept them under control.
Other crypto exchanges, such as Binance, are helping out Cryptopia by freezing funds suspected to be sent in by the hackers.
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the biggest impact from real-time analytics since every second is at stake here. Based on the most recent information from analyzing both traditional and non-traditional data, financial institutions can make real-time beneficial decisions. And because this data is often only valuable for a short time, being competitive in this sector means having the fastest methods of analyzing it.
Another prospective opens when combining real-time and predictive analytics in this area. It used to be a popular practice for financial companies have to hire mathematicians who can develop statistical models and use historical data to create trading algorithms that forecast market opportunities. However, today artificial intelligence offers techniques to make this process faster and what is especially important — constantly improving.
Therefore, data science and AI made a revolution in the trading sector, starting up the algorithmic trading strategies. Most world exchanges use computers that make decisions based on algorithms and correct strategies taking into account new data. Artificial intelligence infinitely processes tons of information, including tweets, financial indicators, data from news and books, and even TV programs. Consequently, it understands today’s worldwide trends and continuously enhances the predictions about financial markets.
All in all, real-time and predictive analytics significantly change the situation in different financial areas. With technologies such as Hadoop, NoSQL and Storm, traditional and non-traditional datasets, and the most precise algorithms, data engineers are changing the way finance used to work.
Deep personalization and customization
Firms realize that one of the key steps to being competitive in today’s market is to raise engagement through high-quality, personalized relationships with their customers. The idea is to analyze digital client experience and modify it taking into account client’s interests and preferences. AI is making significant improvements in understanding human language and emotion, which brings customer personalization to a whole new level. Data engineers can also build models that study the consumers’ behavior and discover situations where customers needed financial advice. The combination of predictive analytic tools and advanced digital delivery options can help with this complicated task, guiding the customer to the best financial solution at the most opportune time and suggesting personalize offerings based on spending habits, social-demographic trends, location, and other preferences.
Conclusion
For financial institutions, the usage of data science techniques provides a huge opportunity to stand out from the competition and reinvent their businesses. There are vast amounts of continuously changing financial data which creates a necessity for engaging machine learning and AI tools into different aspects of the business.
We focused on the top 7 data science use cases in the finance sector in our opinion, but there are many others that also deserve to be mentioned. If you have any further ideas, please share your vision in the comment section.
Originally published in activewizards.com
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The author is a Russian farmer whose business grew following the mutal sanctions between Russia and the EU. He rejoiced at the news that the Russian government prolonged food counter-sanctions. He explains why in this letter he sent to Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia’s most popular daily newspaper.
“Dmitry Medvedev, thank you! I totally support the government’s decision to prolong the sanctions for eighteen months. This is very good news! I even wanted to write to Merkel (Not my female-goat, the other one who lives in Germany): “Merkel, hang in there! Don’t give up! Don’t remove the sanctions! I haven’t finished repaying the loan on my cheese factory and cowshed.”
For Oleg Sirota from the Moscow region, sanctions-countersanctions game is a blessing
What does this bring me (not only me but everyone investing in agriculture)? Confidence! As soon as I heard the announcement, I got the courage to expand production, I felt free to order a three-ton cheese vat. And a fancy press. Before I hesitated – "Is it worth it?" – and now I finally decided to do it. I’m also ordering a new thermostatic box for yogurt and a new yogurt maker, and planning to set up a special van for deliveries – sales volume of yogurt keeps growing and I’ve expanded to Mitino (a district in Moscow) and the Dorogomilovsky market. I don’t need to think twice!
As for farm construction, the government has already issued me the subsidy I recently won. You can joke about it, but the Medvedev government found money for the "Family Farm" program after all. So I’m officially declaring that I’m starting a cowshed on Monday!
Besides building a cowshed, I need to expand the cheese factory promptly and dig new cellars – I’m planning to double production space, but I need the money. I will shake it out of the bank and get government compensation for the interest. That’s hard – getting a government subsidy turns out to be much easier than getting bank credit.
I wish the government would further reduce interest rates for agricultural manufacturers, like in Germany. My German colleague Gunter still thinks I’m joking when I tell him that interest rates for bank loans for farm construction are 20%. He says 1.5% is already high.
I’m also longing for the prolongation of the sanctions not, just by 1.5 years but by 5-7 or even 10 years.”
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Saints have sold more season tickets for next season already than they did for the whole of the last campaign as excitement over the Ralph Hasenhuttl revolution grips the city.
The Daily Echo understands that Saints have been inundated with supporters wanting to buy new season tickets as well as a healthy stream of renewals since they published their new pricing structure.
It is believed that the club have sold almost 20,000 season tickets so far this summer with around two months of sales still left to go and their lowest priced offering at £399 still available.
The backing from Saints fans is a major boost for the club who are hoping Hasenhuttl will bring the good times back to St Mary’s and would love nothing more than a full stadium each week.
Average attendances have suffered over the past few years as fans voted with their feet as the team struggled on the pitch.
But it seems the optimism that has been created since Hasenhuttl took over has led many to reconsider and opt to secure their seats for the new season, which begins in August.
The club will also see it as an endorsement of their new season ticket pricing plan.
Having been heavily criticised by supporters in the past for merely freezing prices rather than reducing them, there was a radical rethink this summer.
Two thirds of existing season-ticket holders have seen a price reduction.
The other third, those sat in the centrally located premium areas, have had the cost of their seat frozen.
Adults opting to renew early, sitting in the Kingsland and Itchen stands, have seen their prices fall by £70, taking it down to £660 from £730.
The cost of an adult ticket in the family section hasn’t seen a reduction – they remain at £541.
And for those choosing to park themselves in the corners of the ground have been given a reduction of £40, taking the overall cost down from £570 to £530, if they took advantage of renewing early.
Saints also introduced a new season ticket which will see 2,000 fans seated in the Itchen South corner.
They come at a cost of £399 – and currently remain available for purchase - after the club liaised with the Saints Voice panel and other supporter groups.
There has been an age increase in the young adult category from 18-21 – 18-25, as the club look to entice youngsters into St Mary’s.
For children aged under-11 sat in the Family Stand, their season ticket costs £19, working out at £1 per match.
Supporters who opt-to-pay for their seat through finance are also not being charged interest.
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YAVORIV, Ukraine -- Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe visited the International Peacekeeping and Security Center here May 18, 2015 with Ukrainian Land Forces Commander Lt. Gen. Anatoliy Pushniakov and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Dr. Evelyn Farkas to assess the first month of training between U.S. paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the Ukrainian National Guard's 3029th Regiment as part of Fearless Guardian. Fearless Guardian is the name for the Congress-approved, Departments of State and Defense initiative under the Global Security Contingency Fund-Ukraine to train and equip the newly-formed Ukrainian national guard. The mission and the program of instruction come at the request of the Ukrainian government. "I came here to see the training," said Hodges. "I want to see how it can be improved in the future." The training is a continuation of the more than 20 year-old strong training relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine, said Farkas.In the fourth week of training, the paratroopers provided instruction on squad-level patrolling skills, as well as urban operations. The visit included observing Ukrainian guardsmen conducting a patrol in the woods and reacting to simulated contact, all while American instructors coached and offered feedback."The [Ukrainian] soldiers are eager to learn and have improved greatly over the last three weeks," said Sgt. Anthony Wilson, a paratrooper assigned to 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regt., 173rd Abn. Bde.During the visit, Hodges not only met and spoke with paratroopers and Ukrainian guardsmen, but toured the training area and viewed current capabilities and future construction plans to facilitate both training of Ukrainian forces, NATO allies and partners in future exercises. "I am impressed at the size of the investment Ukraine has made in the development of the IPSC," said Hodges.At the conclusion of the tour, Hodges met with British, Ukrainian and German media at the training site. When asked whether the presence of U.S. troops would disrupt the ceasefire under the Minsk Agreement, Hodges replied that "the U.S. is here at the invitation of the Ukrainian government. Russia is in Ukraine at no one's invitation." The paratroopers from 173rd Abn. Bde. are in Ukraine for the first of several planned rotations to train Ukraine's newly-formed national guard as part of Fearless Guardian, which is scheduled to last 6 months.The 173rd Airborne Brigade is the Army Contingency Response Force in Europe, capable of deploying ready forces across the U.S. European, Africa and Central Commands areas of responsiblity in 18 hours or less.
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Can you explain what you mean by building your brand?
Yes. I want to be a professional racquetball player, but I know that at the moment there is not a lot of money in the sport. If you win first place in a tournament you can make some money, but that is very hard to do. But many players in other sports make a lot of money from sponsors, and sometimes they make more money from sponsors than their prize money. They do not even have to be the best player, but if they are very popular, the sponsor wants to work with them. I think it is important to try to be like that.
Paola Longoria is a very good example of what you can do to make money from sponsors that are not normally part of racquetball. Her popularity in Mexico helps her to make money and makes racquetball more popular. Of course, it helps that she is successful on the court!
I am not just doing this to get sponsors so that I have more money. Well, I do want more sponsors to have more money, but I need more money in order to travel to more pro stops. If I can play more and better players, I can learn more quickly and gain more experience. Sponsors can help me go to tournaments, which helps me improve my racquetball skills, which helps me earn more prize money by getting better results in tournaments.
How did this start and what specific things are you doing to build your image?
I have been working with GOAT Sports Performance for the last few months. We are developing a plan to grow my image and develop a sponsorship plan. One of the videos that I watched that GOAT Sports made was an interview with Gearbox Sports owner Rafael Filippini. He talked about how to promote yourself as an athlete and gave examples of players who understood they were their own business. Since watching the video, I have been talking with Rafael and getting his advice so that I can learn from the best.
I have also started creating instructional videos about racquetball and have a playlist of videos I have made so far. I am slowly making short videos to help those who might be interested in learning more about racquetball skills and technique.
The last thing I am doing is to create video logs about my racquetball and life experiences. I want to be able to share with people my experiences studying in America, traveling to tournaments, and what it is like to be a professional racquetball player. I am really excited about this and I want to show people my experiences and adventures playing racquetball. I am hoping to travel a lot this year, which will give me lots of great material!
What are your plans for the near future?
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Image copyright King's College London Image caption Patients in the study had to control the rocket and bring it down to earth
People with schizophrenia can be trained by playing a video game to control the part of the brain linked to verbal hallucinations, researchers say.
Patients in a small study were able to land a rocket in the game when it was connected to the brain region sensitive to speech and human voices.
In time, the patients learnt to use the technique in their daily lives to reduce the power of hallucinations.
But this is a small pilot study and the findings still need to be confirmed.
The research team, from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and the University of Roehampton, says the technique could be used to help schizophrenia patients who do not respond to medication.
People with the condition are known to have a more active auditory cortex, which means they are more sensitive to sounds and voices.
All 12 patients in the study experienced nasty and threatening verbal hallucinations every day - a common symptom of schizophrenia.
To try to control their symptoms, they were asked to play a video game while in an MRI scanner, using their own mental strategies to move a computerised rocket - and in doing so they were able to turn down the volume on the external voices they heard as well.
Image copyright King's College London Image caption The auditory cortex (in yellow) is hypersensitive in the brains of people with schizophrenia
Dr Natasza Orlov, from King's College London, said: "The patients know when the voices are about to start - they can feel it, so we want them to immediately put this aid into effect to lessen them, or stop the voices completely."
She said all the patients in the study, who each had four turns in the MRI scanner, found that their voices became less external and more internal, making them less stressful. They were also better able to cope with them.
Dr Orlov added: "Although the study sample size is small and we lacked a control group, these results are promising.
"We are now planning to conduct a randomised controlled study to test this technique in a larger sample."
Prof Sukhi Shergill from King's, and a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said the research offered "a novel approach" for helping patients.
"While this is preliminary data, it's particularly promising that patients were able to control their brain activity even without the MRI scanning - suggesting that this may be a strategy that people, who have followed the MRI neuro-feedback training protocol, can benefit from at home."
The study was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
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[UPDATE BELOW] It's not easy to replenish the gold bullion you spent on a hoop skirt and that Napoleonic cannon on-the-go these days. Thankfully, rare coin gallery Stack's Bowers's "Gold-to-go" ATM has got you covered, offering up solid gold bars for a mere $1,327-a-pop.
Scouting NY spotted the mini Fort Knox this week, located just outside Stack's Bowers's shop on West 57th Street. The machine allows you to use a credit card or cash [EDIT: Cash only!] to purchase one ounce gold bars for around $1,300, in addition to 10 gram bars for about $490 and 5 gram bars for $255, depending on market prices. You can also purchase gold and silver coins, along with commemorative Bronx Zoo silver coins and pieces, in case you want a memento from a tourist attraction located several miles north—all purchases come packaged in "an attractive gift box."
According to a Times piece, as of 2009 there were only about 20 such Gold ATMs in the world, slightly edging out the international Cupcake ATM count. And it appears these machines, created by German gold dealers TG-Gold-Super-Markt, were fashioned to stick it to the man, in a way. "The banks have an oligopoly,” company founder Thomas Geissler, an apparent sworn enemy of William Jennings Bryan, told the Grey Lady. “Generally, oligopolies wait too long to compete, and by then it is too late."
We contacted Stack's Bowers to find out if anyone's traded their Cash4Gold at the machine recently, and will update if and when we hear back. And before you make a beeline for Midtown to go all Scrooge McDuck on the ATM, note that you pretty much can't use gold for anything other than to show your friends how rich you are, so you might as well save your money for a bitcoin machine.
Updated 12:54 p.m.: We spoke with Andrew Bowers of Stack's Bowers, who told us the Gold ATM is used pretty frequently. "We had someone use it today," he said, noting that though the smaller gold and silver items were more popular than the pricy bars, "We've sold items over $1000 dollars as well."
Bowers says there were two other Gold ATMs in the United States as of last year, with one in Las Vegas and another in Atlantic City. Stack's Bowers purchased the machine from TG-Gold-Super-Markt about two years ago. "Lots of people come in and take pictures and use it," he said. "It catches people's eye."
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=303207 [23] For Ismay not being questioned see William E. Kelly, JFK Countercoup, and for Ismay burning the logbook see Patrick Gavin, Politico Click (11/23/10) http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2011/10/sequoia-jfk-assassination.html, http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1011/were_jfk_yacht_log_books_burned.html [24] Rockwell International history, Commander History, http://rockwell-commander.tripod.com/history.htm [25] Reagan Presidential Library, Appointment of Eight Special Assistants to the President for National Security Affairs, February 11, 1987, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/021187e.htm [26] Commission on Wartime Contracting, resume for Grant S. Green, http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/index.php/about/commissioners/green [27] NewsMeat, Political contributions of Grant S. Green Jr, http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?city=ALEXANDRIA&st=VA&last=GREEN&first=GRANT [28] Dan Briody, The Iron Triangle [29] Alice-Leone Moats, Weapons’ Consultants... And You Could Get It Through Sears, Philadelphia Inquirer, December 16, 1986, http://articles.philly.com/1986-12-16/news/26070633_1_tangled-web-iranian-arms-sears-executives/2 [30] Wikipedia page for Lee W. Hamilton, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_H._Hamilton [31] U.S. Army Materiel Command, Reflections of senior AMC officials, 1990, http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p4013coll11/id/863/rec/2214 [32] Tom Redburn and James Gerstenzang, Reagan Picks Carlucci as New Security Adviser : Says His Many Years of Service ‘Uniquely Qualify’ Him for Job, The Los Angeles Times, December 03, 1986, http://articles.latimes.com/1986-12-03/news/mn-451_1_arms-sales [33] Johnathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott and Jane Hunter, The Iran Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era, South End Press, 1987
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When Jamal Roache, 26, was gunned down on Thursday night, it was the third time his mother lost a child to gun violence.
It was the fourth time the woman had lost a family member to bullets; over a decade earlier, her sister Audrey was shot dead.
Carol Roache had buried both her daughter, Chemere, and son, Yannick, in 2002 after two separate shootings.
Chemere Roache was just 18 when she was shot in the head while standing outside a nightclub with her boyfriend in March 2002. Four men were charged. Yannick Roache, who had carried Chemere’s casket at her funeral, was ambushed and killed nine months later -- on Christmas Eve of 2002.
At the time of Yannick’s death, Carol Roache appealed to the killers at a Toronto Police press conference. “For these two men who have done this to my son, there’s nowhere to run and there’s nowhere to hide,” she said.
Toronto Police made a similar plea on Saturday as they released a video with surveillance footage that shows the moment Jamal Roache was killed at a strip mall on Keele Street near Sheppard Avenue.
In the video, a dark Honda Civic is seen stalking Roache. A man jumps out of the passenger’s side of the car, unleashes a torrent of gunfire, and then runs back to the vehicle, which speeds off.
Police described one suspect as a man wearing a black and grey hoodie, dark shoes with white soles, and a toque. Race and age are unknown.
As he released the video, Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan described Jamal’s mother as “lovely,” and “heartbroken.”
On Sunday, Audette Shephard, from the local community group United Mothers Opposing Violence Everywhere, called Carol Roache’s loss is “devastating,” and appealed to politicians for action.
Shephard lost a son to gun violence in 2001.
“I truly hope that the new mayor who was just elected will work with the provincial government and try to do something to reach out and make a difference for our community,” she said. “It seems young men just feel so disenchanted with our society.”
In response, a representative for mayor-elect John Tory released a statement to CTV Toronto. It said Tory he will immediately push the federal government to stop the flow of illegal guns across borders, and will work to create more opportunities for young people.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Ashley Rowe
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Dimensional Feats
These feats represent a mastery of teleportation. You weave easily through dimensions and make masterful use of such abilities in combat.
Dimensional Ambush
Prerequisite: Any teleportation spell or ability
You are adept at using teleportation in combat. Whenever you teleport to a space next to a creature, you have advantage on the next attack roll you make against that creature.
Dimensional Awareness
Your familiarity with teleporting means you can feel effects that warp the space around you and you defend yourself against tactics that utilize such abilities. You gain the following benefits:
The next attack made against you by a creature that has teleported to a square you threaten has disadvantage.
You may use your reaction to make an opportunity attack against a creature that is teleporting out of a square you threaten.
You can't be surprised by a teleporting foe, or by foes using a spell such as Blink.
Dimensional Mobility
Prerequisite: Any teleportation spell or ability
You are able to get the most out of your teleportation magic. You gain the following benefits:
You add 5 feet to the distance of any spell or ability you use to teleport, such as Misty Step.
When using spells such as Blink, you may return to an unoccupied square you can see within 15 feet of the space you vanished from.
If there is no unoccupied space available when you teleport or blink, you may choose the nearest unoccupied space.
Planar Anchor
Prerequisite: The ability to cast the Plane Shift spell or similar ability
It is difficult to cast you through dimensions against your will. You have advantage on saving throws against banishment effects.
Planar Exorcist
Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell with a banishment effect
You are adept at expelling threats originating from outside your plane of existence. Creatures that roll against your spell save DC for banishment effects have disadvantage.
Teleport Mastery
Prerequisite: The ability to cast 7th level spells, any teleportation spell or ability
You are masterful in your use of long range dimensional travel. You gain the following benefits when using a relevant spell or ability:
You add 5 feet to the range of the Teleport spell and other similar abilities.
You may take one additional object or willing creature.
You add 5 feet to the size limit of any object you transport. (A 10-foot cube becomes a 15-foot cube.)
You have advantage on any roll for a successful transport, such as on the table for the Teleport spell.
Credit: ES Legends - Genius Pathmage
v1.0
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. [ISIS] started from the little area and now they are in 32 different nations. Congratulations. Great job.” — Trump
The Islamic State has attracted sympathizers across the globe, mostly through social media. But a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in late June concluded that in addition to Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State only has “affiliates in several other countries,” citing armed groups in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Yemen that have sworn allegiance to the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
3. “These are radical Islamic terrorists and [Hillary Clinton] won't even mention the word.” — Trump
In an interview on NBC in June, Hillary Clinton broke with President Obama by using the term “radical Islamism.” She said, "And to me, radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing. I'm happy to say either, but that's not the point."
4. “Last year, we had an almost $800 billion trade deficit” — Trump
Trump is referring here to the U.S. trade deficit in goods. But the U.S. also imports and exports services. Combined, the U.S. trade deficit was $500 billion in 2015.
5. “[Obamacare is] very bad, very bad health insurance, far too expensive, and not only expensive for the person that has it, unbelievably expensive for our country. It’s going to be one of the biggest line items very shortly.” -- Trump, referring to Obamacare
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that the parts of Obamacare that expand health coverage will cost the federal government more than $1 trillion over the next decade. But that’s not the whole story because other pieces of the law offset the costs of insuring people. CBO has estimated that repealing the health law would actually be more costly to the federal government than keeping it. Scrapping the law would add $137 billion to the deficit over 10 years.
6. “I’ll have more than $100 million invested [in my campaign]. [I’m] Pretty much self-funding mine.” — Trump
That’s wrong. As FEC filings show, self-funding accounts for a mere 33 percent of Trump’s overall campaign funds. Further, his campaign has spent at least $8.2 million with Trump-owned companies, as a September 22 piece published by POLITICO revealed.
Ben Oreskes, Zachary Warmbrodt, Josh Gerstein, Alex Byers, Ian Kullgren and Zack Stanton contributed to this report.
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Kerry Here, Kerry There, Kerry Everywhere!
John Kerry, the globe-trotter, has recently visited the following cities or countries, some more than once: Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Hiroshima, Kabul, UK, Saudi, Georgia, France, Egypt, Mongolia, Iraq, Belgium, China, Norway and others.
He has managed, in those visits, to sort out a myriad of problems, including wars, covering the so-called Ukrainian, Syrian and Iraqi civil wars, Poland’s and the Baltic States’ insecurity and fear of a Russian imminent invasion, the unjustified Russian rejection of NATO surrounding it, selected the vegetables to add to the South China Sea boiling stew pot, bring Iran to its senses regarding its alleged atomic program, arrange to install atomic ballistic missiles in Poland and Romania as a deterrent to the Arab/Islamic atomic threat likely to materialize in the next two to three decades, and a plethora of critical issues that threaten world peace and doom our, one and only, earth.
Now, he is Kenya and East Africa to sort out the South Sudan civil war, and then will take on the Somali Shabab terrorists. He will finish off this trip in Nigeria and do-in the Boko Haram Islamists who have been terrorizing West Africa.
Is Kerry Superman? Or as some, obnoxious scoundrels, are claiming that there are duplicate Kerry dummies stacked in a closet somewhere in Washington? A fresh duplicate is pulled out every day and put on a plane to a “hot” destination.
But if this is so, how can these dummies tackle the olio of different problems that he is engaged in? No, he must be Superman!
Again, the obnoxious scoundrels, claim that US foreign policy is static and hasn’t changed for half a century. It contains three easy points that have to be observed by all other countries, and if they fail, then Wham Bam, they are knocked down. This simple policy is photocopied, and each dummy is handed one copy before it is sent off to powwow with the leaders of other nations.
I don’t care for the scoundrels, and still believe Kerry is Superman. And, rather than retire at 73 to a porch on a serene ranch in Kansas with his Labrador at his feet, bless his heart, he is still out there battling to save the World.
My only worry, is that the Russians and Chinese have some Kryptonite* hidden in their pockets, ready to douse him when he eventually corners them.
* Kryptonite is rock from the science fiction planet, Krypton, from which Superman came from. In its presence Superman loses his super powers.
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Shocked and deeply saddened at the untimely demise of Kalikho Pulji. My heart goes out to his family & loved ones
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 9, 2016
My thoughts are with the family & supporters of Kalikho Pul on his sad demise. His service to Arunachal Pradesh will be remembered: PM
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 9, 2016
Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul found dead
ITANAGAR: Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister and Congress rebel Kalikho Pul was found dead at his residence on Tuesday. He allegedly hanged himself.No suicide note was found from Pul's residence, news agency ANI reported quoting Union home ministry sources.Further, the situation is tense in Itanagar as Pul's supporters protested at chief minister Pema Khandu's residence, ANI said. Union home minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu about Pul's death.The situation is tense in Itanagar as Pul's supporters protested at chief minister Pema Khandu's residence.Congress President Sonia Gandhi expressed shock "at the untimely and tragic demise" of Kalikho Pul, ANI reported."I am really shocked, I don't know what extreme reasons lead to this," said Congress party member Ninong Ering, to ANI.PM Narendra Modi also tweeted his condolences.Pul had been chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh for four-and-a-half months in early 2016, but had to resign in the wake of an adverse Supreme Court verdict in July 2016."He was staying in CM's House, maybe loneliness crept into him. When your mind is empty, its a devils workshop...As per his (CM's) last conversation with him, he was positive about the state. He said he was sure people will choose him again," Ering said.In February, Pul was sworn in as Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh with the support of 18 dissident Congress lawmakers, two independents and 11 BJP lawmakers who gave him outside support in the 60-member Assembly.Before that, Nabam Tuki was chief minister. He was dismissed following days of turmoil, after 21 of the 47 Congress MLAs - including Pul -rebelled against him. Arunachal Pradesh was placed under President's Rule on January 26.Last month, the Supreme Court ordered the restoration of the earlier Congress government in Arunachal.In a separate judgement, Justice Madan B Lokur also set aside the Assembly Deputy Speaker's order quashing the Speaker's decision to disqualify 14 rebel Congress MLAs on December 15 last year.
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Description
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Agenda:
09.00am – Registration and Networking
09.30am – Open – NatWest/ BNI
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10.05am – Rachel Lamsley
10.35am – Close – NatWest/BNI
10.40am – Networking & optional tours
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WHEN:21st June 2019 – 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
WHERE:Wrexham – Moneypenny
SOURCE:eventbrite.co.uk
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Article content continued
Swaths of Alberta, the nation’s biggest beef producer, got less than 60 per cent of normal rainfall since April 1, according to government data. The deteriorating grazing conditions sent the price of hay used as feed to as high as $200 (US$153) a metric ton, twice as much as a year earlier, according to Alberta Beef Producers. Feed barley has jumped 30 per cent in that time, according to Brian Perillat, a senior analyst at Calgary-based Canfax.
Limited Inventory
In southern Alberta, 60 per cent of pastures are in poor or fair condition, according to an Aug. 17 report from the province’s agriculture ministry. The lack of available hay and pasture means some buyers are turning to poorer quality and hail-damaged crops. Meanwhile, cattle producers’ feed inventory is limited, and “hay and pasture for sale is scarce,” the ministry said in an earlier report. Drought has also limited feed supplies in neighboring Saskatchewan.
“There are guys looking for feed all over the place,” said Rick Toney, chairman of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association. “Guys are planning on selling because they can’t afford to feed their cows this winter.”
Guys are planning on selling because they can't afford to feed their cows this winter Rick Toney, chairman of Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association
Dryness has also struck the southern U.S. Plains, also forcing some ranchers this year to sell cattle to feedlots earlier than normal. The move helped boost meat supplies, and cattle futures traded in Chicago have slumped about 9 per cent in 2018. American beef production is projected to swell 3.5 per cent this year to a near record 27.2 billion pounds, with the growth rate slowing to 2.3 per cent in 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.
In Canada, the extra culling is expected at a time when the herd was already growing at a limited rate. Ranchers held 9.7 million beef cattle as of Jan. 1, up less than 1 per cent from a year earlier, according to the latest available government data.
At Toney’s farm in Gull Lake, Saskatchewan, he and his son plan to cull their herd by 10 per cent more than usual to keep feed costs in check.
“We’ll just get a little tougher on them and get rid of a few more,” Toney said by phone. “Putting the extra money into the feed you’re not going to get the return on that money.”
Bloomberg.com
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Fox News’s former mantra of being “fair and balanced” is exactly how director Alexis Bloom approached her new documentary about the network’s founder Roger Ailes–except she actually meant it.
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes chronicles the rise and dominance of Ailes, from his childhood in Warren, Ohio, to sitting atop his media juggernaut. Between the vicious right-wing propaganda he stoked at Fox News to the toxic culture toward the women who worked there, Bloom’s documentary could’ve easily become a scathing takedown piece of one of the U.S.’s most controversial figures in recent memory.
But that’s exactly what she didn’t want.
“We try to balance the monstrous things that Roger did in his life with an acknowledgement that he was also very canny and a bit of a television genius,” Bloom says. “We were interested in capturing a sense of his humanity. He’s capable of monstrous acts but he isn’t a monster–he’s human.”
Bloom was very particular with which voices she included to help contextualize Ailes as a person. She pulled in his childhood friends and people who worked closely with him at Fox News (including Glenn Beck) and what was essentially its prototype in the mid-’90s, America’s Talking. Getting people in Ailes’s orbit, particularly toward the end of his life, was a challenge Bloom anticipated. Some sources gave a flat-out no, while others took up to a year of courting. While Ailes’s death in 2017 didn’t alter the story Bloom was in the middle of developing, she says it opened the door for people to tell their truths.
“He was a very litigious man and loved a battle. And he tended to terrify and intimidate people. So the fact that he was no longer around and wouldn’t sue them was a factor for people,” Bloom says. “We told [sources] this is a project that’s going to look at all of his life. It’s not an activism piece, and it’s not something that’s narrowly focused only on sexual harassment.”
Knowing Ailes’s troubled history with women spanned as far back as his days as a producer on The Mike Douglas Show and came to the career-ending blow with former Fox News correspondent Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment allegations, Bloom was meticulous in making sure that the narrative didn’t supersede the larger picture of Ailes and the influence he had across media and politics.
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Social Media
You guys, thanks to Microsoft’s sexist new ad, I’ve decided to give up my interest in Social News Daily to commit my time to better pinning to my Pinterest boards and finding a guy to marry so I can plan a sweet wedding!
According to my long-time business partner James, Microsoft’s sexist spot is a bit misleading. He says that I can use the Mac I already have to engage in these (far more suited to my vagina) activities than the work of building growing web properties I’ve been frittering said resources away pursuing. All the time we’ve spent using our respective equipment to create and build SND and other sites, and all along I could have been improving my meatloaf skills and debating shoe colors for the big day. Sigh.
Thank God I can consult his masculine expertise here, but I’m kind of pissed no one told me before that all these fantastic tools could be used toward far loftier goals … mainly upgrading my relationship status to married on Facebook, and planning what to wear next season.
Allegedly, I can also save and share crafts and recipes, and I’ve been wasting all this time writing for like five whole years. Who knows how married and well-dressed I’d be in the kitchen right now without males to help us utilize the most cutting edge features technology offers?
Perhaps not surprisingly, women in tech and social media are displeased that Microsoft has innovated a touch screen tablet capable of handling all our wedding-related needs, whining about how they do other important, non-husband-finding activities with their techy gadgets.
Sandy vadge feedback on Twitter includes:
No thanks. I use my Mac to take over the world. “@Salon: Microsoft’s silly, sexist new ad: http://t.co/zziAJG4UBJ” — Melissa (@LettersEmpire) March 4, 2014
From the women-are-more-than-trivial-tech-user-caricatures files… Pssst! Microsoft.. fire your ad agency. STAT!! http://t.co/ZtitBWJMxT — David Spector (@dhmspector) March 4, 2014
I for one find it sad that these poor women and beta men aren’t taking full advantage of the wedding planning advances available in 2014, where women’s wedding-related opportunities are rife and shareable … it’s as if a great giant glass ceiling just shattered, and we can wedding the hell out of everything!
Watch Microsoft’s sexist tablet ad above.
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There’s something refreshing about the earthy scent of mud and I got up close and almost personal with it during the inaugural Gone Country Jeep Weekend at the Redneck Yacht Club Mud Park in Punta Gorda, Fla. It was a glorious gathering of all things Jeep with no other vehicles allowed on the grounds.
I watched as some took on the obstacle courses in efforts to climb man made hills stacked with cement culverts. From what I saw, more didn’t make it over the top than those who did. I don’t consider myself a car or truck person – a vehicle is a means of transportation – but it was pretty impressive seeing these vehicles climb.
As for the mud, Jeeps seemed to be having a jolly time rolling through the pits, coating them from roof to tires in a chocolate-brown, gooey layer. I even saw people splattered with mud. The extent of my interaction with mud was picking some up on the treads of my pink Converses and brushing up against the Jeep escorting me through the grounds.
Although the Gone Country Jeep Weekend (Jan. 24 – 26, 2014) was for Jeeps only, the Redneck Yacht Club offers other mudding and non-mudding events open to the public throughout the year. The 800-acre property is available to rent for private events and includes a concert stage, Florida wilderness, primitive camping and of course, tons of mudding opportunities.
Personally, I’d think it’d be interesting to hold a Burning Man-type event out there for a weekend or week. Or, I can see a corporation hosting a weeklong retreat or meeting, using recreational vehicles for lodging accommodations and headquarters. It’d also make a fantastic product launch site for various outdoor products, such as ATVs, four-wheel drives and apparel. I also wonder if a spa vendor has entertained the idea of offering mud massages and treatments during mudding events. Hmm.
Anyway, visit www.redneckyachtclubmudpark.com for additional information on future events and learn more about what the Redneck Yacht Club Mud Park offers.
And yes, the name Redneck Yacht Club, LLC, is licensed from the writers of the song, “Redneck Yacht Club,” Thom Shepherd and Steve Williams.
Redneck Yacht Club Mud Park
44570 Bermont Road
Punta Gorda, Fla. 33982
Tel: 239- 209-3773
www.redneckyachtclubmudpark.com
Visit my Flickr account for additional photos from my adventure and search #GCJeeps on social media channels to find more photos of the event
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The Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance-Jacob France Institute (BNIA-JFI) has issued 13 editions of its Vital Signs report. It’s a neighborhood-centered approach to tracking quality-of-life indicators, and a wealth of statistics.
With all of the coverage on the issues behind the unrest that followed Freddie Gray’s funeral, Vital Signs was quoted often. Before releasing this year’s Vital Signs in a couple of months, the staff at BNIA-JFI dug into the data they already have, and found some takeaways.
They boiled it down to three goals for city leaders and advocates to focus on as they look to stave off population losses in a new report called “What Happened in Baltimore and What Can We Do? A Neighborhood’s Perspective,” which was published last week. The idea is to connect all of the dots that are plotted on many maps of the city that the University of Baltimore-based organization produces.
“We will be advocating that any program or policy assess the neighborhood impact on any one of the three indicators/goals,” Seema Iyer, Associate Director of the Jacob France Institute, said in an email.
Briefly, here are the three goals:
1. Increasing housing diversity
Having more different types of housing (i.e., house vs. apartment, rent vs. own) in an area eliminates deep disparities between rich and poor, and is directly tied to educational outcomes, the report states. BNIA-JFI advocates upping the diversity in every neighborhood, not just the most stressed communities.
2. Cutting vacant property to 4 percent or lower
Iyer used this goal to illustrate how this report differs from BNIA-JFI’s other work.
“This report takes conclusions from Vital Signs and takes the next step by explicitly stating how many properties would need to be addressed in high vacancy neighborhoods to bring them down below 4%, which seems to be the point at which a neighborhood’s population won’t grow,” Iyer wrote.
3. Reduce commute times to under 45 minutes
Iyer touched on the importance of commute times as a reflection of access to jobs at a SocEnt Breakfast in May. The basic idea: It’s harder to keep a job if it’s harder to get to work. And when it comes time to a change, it’s either the job or the neighborhood. Workforce development initiatives and other programs must take commute time into account, the report states.
How did they reach these conclusions? There’s a lot more in the full report.
-30-
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an SDF offensive toward the Euphrates Valley and Deir al-Zor would “allow the US to block the planned Iranian corridor and maintain pressure on the Assad regime.”Rumors about a possible Syrian Democratic Forces advance or US-backed Arab force advancing on Deir al-Zor have been floating for months. Some of these envisioned the US transporting units of the Maghaweer al-Thawra from Tanf, near the Jordanian border, to al-Shaddadi, which is controlled by the SDF and is 100 km. north of Deir al-Zor. Maghaweer al-Thawra is an anti-ISIS Arab force trained by the coalition but, as Balanche points out, it is not very large.The reality on the ground is that the SDF has not moved from its positions in al-Shaddadi since January.It has focused on defeating ISIS in Raqqa since June. There are no SDF troops advancing toward Deir al-Zor and the US does not appear to have any forces in play to reach the Euphrates near the city.Nevertheless, Twitter accounts have spread statements attributed to British Army Maj.-Gen. Rupert Jones, deputy commander-strategy and support for Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, claiming the US “will not allow the Syrian regime forces to bypass the Euphrates River.”In an emailed statement, the coalition denied this. “Maj.-Gen. Jones made no such comments as he took meetings in Ayn Issa to discuss the needs of the people of Raqqa post- Daesh [ISIS].” Furthermore, the statement notes “the coalition mission is to work by, with and through our partner forces to defeat Daesh in Iraq and Syria. The coalition has no fight with the Syrian regime or its allies in the counter-Daesh fight.”According to the coalition, the current de-confliction line agreed to by the SDF, the coalition, Russia and the Syrian regime, runs in an arc from southwest of Tabqa around to the Euphrates River, where it extends toward Deir al-Zor. It does not extend into the city. This is a key point, that means the decision on the progress of the conflict past Deir al-Zor is unclear. This illustrates that the only thing the US is focused on is defeating ISIS, and de-conflicting with the Syrian forces that are moving toward Deir al-Zor.“We have no fight with anyone but Daesh and will not support any operations that are not against Daesh,” the coalition public affairs office wrote in an email. It further noted that ISIS is a “truly evil enemy of the people of Syria, the region and the world."
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, the Buddhist temple itself has been quite an attraction, but in 2013, a sixth-century BCE ancient tree shrine was discovered under the temple by archaeologists.
This small shrine is possibly the earliest evidence of Buddhist structures ever found, and was located under a nested series of brick temples below the current temple. The mineralized tree roots in the structure of the temple fit well with Buddhist beliefs that associate shrines with trees, particularly since Buddha was said to have been born under a tree.
Cenote Angelita
Mexico
photograph by nonperturbative/Flickr user
In Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, there is a submerged cave made out of collapsed limestone called the Cenote Angelita (“Little Angel”). Divers in the cave experience a unique phenomenon called a halocline, where waters of different salinity form into layers due to density. Since the dense saltwater stays at the bottom of the cave, it looks like a river flowing along a bigger underground river.
Cenotes, which are natural pits or sinkholes, were traditionally been used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings, so there may be gruesome surprises for intrepid explorers lurking in this river within a river. One particular cult was known to worship the rain god Chaac by ritually casting people into particularly sacred cenotes.
Rat King
As the final thing within a thing, we will cheat a little, partially because rat kings are so awesome.
Rat king in Germany’s Naturkundliches Museum (via Wikimedia)
It’s a phenomenon that supposedly arises when a number of rats accidentally get stuck together with a goo made up of blood, dirt, ice, feces, or simply the knotting of their various tails.
The original German term, Rattenkönig, was adopted into English as rat king, and it refers to Medieval beliefs that the rat king was actually one animal with many bodies. Legends even grew around the thought that a king rat would sit on the tails of the other rats, overseeing the movements of the animals as they skittered along with their little paws. Kinda like a rat surfing on other rats, which should be enough to make you royalty already.
Preserved rat king in the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Nantes (via Wikimedia)
One rat king specimen found in 1963 by a Dutch farmer consisted of seven rats. X-rays done on the calluses growing on the fractured tails show that the animals survived for a long period of time with their tails tangled. However, despite the fascinating idea of rats within rats, the rat king is widely regarded as a macabre myth.
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President Donald J. Trump (above) applauds newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, his wife, and daughters.
President Donald J. Trump nominated 15 more federal judges yesterday.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-eighteenth-wave-judicial-nominees-eighteenth-wave-united-states-attorney-nominees-thirteenth-wave-united-states-marshal-nominees/
They are to fill positions in New York, Ohio, Tennessee, California, Rhodes Island, and Nebraska. There are 146 federal judgeship vacancies left for the President to fill.
Yesterday’s nominees are:
Joseph F. Bianco of New York, to serve as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Michael H. Park of New York, to serve as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Patrick J. Bumatay of California, to serve as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Daniel P. Collins of California, to serve as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Kenneth Kiyul Lee of California, to serve as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Stanley Blumenfeld of California, to serve as District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
Brian C. Buescher of Nebraska, to serve as District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska
Clifton L. Corker of Tennessee, to serve as District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
Philip M. Halpern of New York, to serve as District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Thomas Marcelle of New York, to serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York
Matthew W. McFarland of Ohio, to serve as District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
Jeremy B. Rosen of California, to serve as District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
Mark C. Scarsi of California, to serve as District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
Aaron L. Weisman of Rhode Island, to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island
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�s a signal that investors consider these individuals to have already been “pre-screened,” as it’s very difficult to get a job at those companies. (Interestingly, while going to an elite school correlated with higher financial returns, it did not correlate with a higher pre-money valuation, perhaps suggesting that investors do not view education as quite so effective a pre-screening measure.)
The Amazons of the world expect quite a lot of their employees, from technical ability to time spent at the office. Employees there learn hard skills, such as project management, but also softer skills, such as politics and networking. Once honed, these skills can be vital to effectively navigating the chaotic roller-coaster ride of early-stage startups.
Not all top startups come from Silicon Valley. Where do the best new ventures form? Founding location did not seem to make a dramatic difference in performance in our data set. First Round companies started outside New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area performed just as well as those founded in traditional new-venture hubs. Twenty-five percent of the investments in the data set were outside these cities and, on average, performed slightly better than the rest. This is good news for all the younger technology startup hubs propagating across the U.S., from Austin, Texas, to Raleigh, North Carolina.
It also coincides with the fact that finding good investments is becoming easier. Angels and VCs have historically been referred to potential investments through their own networks, but this is changing. First Round has been alerted to high-potential investments from a wide variety of sources, including Twitter and in-person pitch gatherings such as ”Demo Days.” These nontraditional sources yielded companies that outperformed referred companies by 58.4%. And founders that came directly to First Round with their ideas did about 23% better.
Seed investing has come of age, and it’s a leading source of funding for the next generation of disruptive technologies and services. In over 300 investments, we have observed some patterns: The importance of female entrepreneurs in a traditionally male-dominated industry and the benefits of a good education and pre-startup experience are clear. The leveling of the geographic playing field gives credence to the development of startup-friendly areas in cities nationwide. And while fit, gut feel, and due diligence will always be critical, this study points to the value of data in making equity capital decisions. Successful companies and their portfolios would be well served to understand their investments more deeply through longitudinal data collection and analysis. Smart companies will use this to create competitive advantage for themselves and for the startups they invest in.
Acknowledgements: Thank you to First Round Capital for their assistance in developing this article.
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Bitcoin has been struggling to remain above the $8,000 support level in a hostile market where almost every signal indicates a bearish sentiment. The decreasing number of profitable holders on the network and a shocking 97 percent drop in large transactions spell trouble for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Almost every Bitcoin metric in the red
The world’s largest cryptocurrency took a massive hit at the beginning of the week, despite most predictions anticipating a slow and steady price recovery. A massive sell-off triggered a drop of more than 4 percent in less than 24 hours, with Bitcoin now struggling to remain above $8,000.
It’s not just the price that’s going downwards, either. The latest data from crypto analytics firm IntoTheBlock showed that multiple other signals indicate bearish sentiment.
Bitcoin has been one of the few cryptocurrencies where a majority of its holders didn’t lose money on their investment, but the insanely volatile price in the past few days has increased the number of addresses who lost money on Bitcoin.
For any address with a BTC balance, IntoTheBlock identifies the average price at which the coins were bought and compares it with its current price. Calculating how many addresses are in or out of the money creates a more realistic picture of an asset’s volatility.
Despite more than two-thirds of addresses being in the money, the number of those whose balances are at a loss has increased in the past week has drastically increased.
The Bitcoin network is stagnating
The increased number of addresses out of the money could be what caused the Bitcoin network to stagnate. Everything from the average transaction size to the average balance on the network has been in decline, with the only slightly growing metric being the number of bears that have shown up on the market.
Large transactions on the network have taken a huge hit. The number of transactions larger than $100,000 decreased by almost 35 percent in less than two days, while the total volume was slashed in half.
In line with the decreasing number of large transactions, the overall number of transactions on the network has also been declining.
While a handful of optimists remain, most analysts and traders are now signing to the tune of a bearish market. If a downtrend lasts until the end of the year and continues throughout 2020, it could be the first time Bitcoin enters a halving while bearish.
Bitcoin $8,186.97 -3.95% Bitcoin, currently ranked #1 by market cap, is down 3.95% over the past 24 hours. BTC has a market cap of $147.83B with a 24 hour volume of $23.83B. Bitcoin Price Chart BTCUSD Chart by TradingView
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both later being acquitted in the Senate. Then, there’s Richard Nixon, who resigned during the Watergate investigation before he could be impeached. It’s Nixon that Trump’s story arc resembles the most, since both faced accusations of obstruction of justice.
“In reality … impeachment is a long shot for many reasons” comedian John Oliver said. “Not the least of which is it would require a majority of the House to vote to impeach, and that is currently controlled by Republicans. And then it would need two-thirds of the Senate to vote to convict the president, and it is also controlled by Republicans right now.”
He added, “Trump has seemed to reach the end of the line on multiple occasions only for nothing to happen.”
Others are more optimistic, including Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who said, “We’re going to learn a lot about the connections between this president, his allies and the Kremlin. I believe it’s going to lead right to impeachment.”
Taking it a step further, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) said, “We will move forward and, as a matter of fact, I am currently crafting — drafting if you will — articles of impeachment. These acts, when combined, amount to intimidation and obstruction. If the president is not above the law, he should be charged by way of impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives.”
With no clear examples of what impeachment could actually look like, other than Johnson and Clinton, America is now in uncharted territory. If true, Trump’s transgressions may run deeper than any of his predecessors.
Speaking about the constitutional requirements for impeachment, attorney Terence Finley explained just how difficult it really is.
“There are only two presidents to ever be impeached and both were eventually found not guilty and got to keep their jobs,” Finley said. “So, that just shows you how difficult it is to successfully impeach and remove a president.”
But Trump’s case may be unique, something Finley acknowledged.
“The chances seem much better than they were for Johnson and Clinton,” Finley said. “Johnson basically got impeached for throwing a temper tantrum in the Oval Office over a political appointment, and Clinton was impeached for lying about a very public sex scandal.
“Those things pale in comparison to literal treason. Nobody likes a traitor.”
As Trump tweeted in 2014, “Are you allowed to impeach a president for gross incompetence?” Those words may come back to haunt him.
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EMBED >More News Videos ABC News' Dr. Jen Ashton explains what health officials know -- and don't know -- about the deadly outbreak.
PRINCETON, New Jersey (WABC) -- The first patient in New York City to be tested for coronavirus has tested negative, the health department announced Tuesday. Results from two other patients are still pending.NYC announced three possible coronavirus cases this weekend. All three people had recently been in "mainland China."One woman, in her 40s who was staying at a hotel, was taken to Bellevue Hospital on Friday night. She had fever, cough and runny nose after staying in the U.S. for about two days. She tested negative for influenza. Her samples were sent to CDC lab in Atlanta and came back negative."We're relieved to hear that the person in question does not have the novel coronavirus," said Mayor Bill de Blasio. "I can't say this enough: if you have the symptoms and recent travel history, please see your health provider immediately."The other two people were identified at local hospitals in Queens -- both patients are older than 60. Their samples were also sent to CDC lab in Atlanta.Tests are also still pending throughout New York state and across the country as fears continue to spread of the coronavirus that has sickened 20,000 globally and killed more than 400.There are 11 confirmed cases in the United States, and while there are none in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, officials are still awaiting test results on possible cases.Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported that at least 11 cases from New York have come back negative from the CDC with six pending (including the three in New York City) in the state.Meanwhile, students from Princeton University who traveled to China within the last two weeks are being asked to self-isolate amid growing concerns of coronavirus.A spokesperson with Princeton said that as of Sunday, 108 students were in self isolation. By Monday evening, the number dropped to fewer than 20 students who were still being assessed.Additionally, an off-campus student from Cornell University presented symptoms that met criteria for testing and is currently in isolation receiving safe and ongoing care. It may take a week for that student to learn the results.Experts say because the strain is so new to the world stage, there is not much the public can do except wash hands frequently, seek medical help immediately if presented with symptoms, and of course, avoid travel to Wuhan -- considered the ground zero for coronavirus.New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced a task force for the potentially deadly respiratory illness, while New York has a hotline (1-888-364-3065) where experts from the Department of Health can answer questions regarding the coronavirus.----------
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based on information like the route, the depth, and the coverage. From that point, the passer and receiver split responsibility for how well they perform above that expectation. Dropping a pass will bury a receiver, while making contested catches will result in a higher Points Earned.
A more in-depth explanation can be found here. This stat shows which receivers have helped their team win the most while catching the deep ball:
Receiver Points Earned Kenny Golladay 16.0 Tyreek Hill 14.8 DJ Chark Jr. 14.7 Amari Cooper 10.1 Marquise Brown 9.9 Terry McLaurin 9.9 Mike Evans 8.9
Golladay has had the largest positive impact among receivers when catching the ball downfield, with 16 Points Earned. Chark Jr. and Amari Cooper find themselves in another table, solidifying how dominant they have been while going long. Marquise Brown and Terry McLaurin both make their first appearance on this table. Maybe this means their teams should be giving them more opportunities to catch deep bombs.
Conclusion
Successful field-stretching receivers are hard to come by. Those that excel at chasing down deep balls are nearly impossible to find. Chark Jr. and Cooper are two prime examples of receivers that are consistently targeted deep, and that consistently catch those deep targets.
Other receivers who perform well when going long, such as Brown and McLaurin, aren’t afforded the chance to display their talent at a high enough rate to truly take advantage of the deep ball. It will be interesting to see if these teams continue their deep ball tendencies, and it will be interesting to see how these leaderboards change from now until the end of the season.
QB Leaderboards:
Here’s an updated look at how quarterbacks are faring in on-target percentage and completion percentage on passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield.
Highest Catchable % – Passes 20+ Yards Downfield Name Catchable % Attempts Jacoby Brissett 74% 19 Jimmy Garoppolo 65% 23 Matt Ryan 63% 32 Kirk Cousin 62% 37 Deshaun Watson 62% 42 Gardner Minshew 62% 34 Aaron Rodgers 62% 52 Russell Wilson 61% 44 Daniel Jones 59% 32 Dak Prescott 58% 48
Highest Completion % – Passes 20+ Yards Downfield Name Comp % Attempts Russell Wilson 52% 44 Jimmy Garoppolo 52% 23 Tom Brady 51% 37 Gardner Minshew 50% 34 Dak Prescott 48% 48 Kirk Cousins 46% 37 Deshaun Watson 45% 42 Kyler Murray 43% 42 Patrick Mahomes 42% 42 Matthew Stafford 41% 54 Mitchell Trubisky 41% 27
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WINNIPEG -- The Manitoba government is taking out newspaper and electronic advertisements in Quebec that welcome civil servants there to move to Manitoba if they feel threatened by their province's ban on religious symbols in the workplace.
The ads, which are to start rolling out Thursday, are the latest overt criticism of the legislation from Premier Brian Pallister, who has raised the issue at meetings with his fellow premiers.
"Here in Manitoba, we have respect for diversity," Pallister said Wednesday in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"We respect personal freedoms and rights, and we're not big on clothing police here."
The Quebec law bans some public-sector employees, including teachers and police officers, from wearing religious symbols such as hijabs for Muslim women and yarmulkes for Jewish men in the workplace.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault has defended the legislation as a legitimate way to ensure secularism in the public sector. He has said the law is supported by Quebecers.
Pallister said Manitoba has a shortage of bilingual employees in some areas of its civil service. The ads allude to 21 reasons to consider a move to Manitoba -- a play on Quebec's Bill 21 before it became law.
The budget for an initial round of ads is about $20,000, Pallister said, with more to follow depending on how they are received.
Is Pallister concerned about ticking off the Quebec government?
"It's too late for that. I understand that the premier feels he's well within his rights in Quebec to go with something that's popular," Pallister said.
"I don't see this... as right, whether it's popular or not."
In July, Pallister wrote letters to Quebec professional organizations, colleges and other entities to invite public-sector workers to move west. There was no take-up on that offer.
"At this time there have been no specific responses or inquiries from those organizations," read a written statement from Manitoba's civil service commission.
Pallister and his Progressive Conservative government introduced a resolution in the Manitoba legislature Wednesday to condemn the Quebec law.
The resolution is a non-binding expression of the collective will of legislature members. The Ontario legislature passed a similar resolution earlier this month.
Manitoba's Opposition New Democrats supported the idea and proposed an amendment that they said would strengthen the wording, in part by expressing support for a constitutional challenge of the Quebec law.
"Any policy, any legislation, any ruling that is based upon how you look or what faith you practise, is not right," NDP heritage critic Diljeet Brar told the chamber.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2019.
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