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Hamilton has hired a new head of transit, and it's someone who knows about and is a fan of light rail transit (LRT).
Debbie Dalle Vedove starts as the new director of transit on Sept. 28. The last director, David Dixon, finished in June when he took a new position.
Having worked at TTC, she certainly has lots of that experience. - City manager Chris Murray, of Debbie Dalle Vedove and LRT
City manager Chris Murray said Dalle Vedove is a fan of LRT, and familiar with such systems.
"She's for it," he said. And "having worked at TTC, she certainly has lots of that experience."
Dalle Vedove worked for the TTC for 20 years, starting as an operator. She gained "experience in bus, light rail and subway operations," the city said in a media release Tuesday. For nine years, she's been director of operations with Oakville Transit.
Dalle Vedove takes over from a director who occasionally found himself in the middle of heated LRT debates.
The city Dixon hired Dixon in October 2014. In February 2015, he told city council that HSR wasn't working for drivers or riders, and needed significant investment.
Dixon recommended spending $301 million over 10 years, including $200 million for a new bus maintenance storage facility.
That came just as the city was pressing the province for capital dollars for LRT. Mayor Fred Eisenberger worried then that asking for more would muddy the waters. The province ultimately announced $1 billion to build the LRT line but nothing for the transit plan.
The LRT system is now due in 2024, with city council expected to vote to accept the Metrolinx project later this year.
Dixon said in May that he left the city for a new opportunity, not because of LRT politics.
Eric Tuck, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 107, said then that if anything made departure attractive for Dixon, it was city hall bureaucracy.
"Whoever comes in, they're going to have to let him or her run the show the way it needs to be run," he said.
Gerry Davis, former general manager of public works, has been acting director of transit since June. Dalle Vedove was chosen from nearly 100 candidates from across Canada, Murray said.
"I am pleased to welcome Debbie to our team," said Dan McKinnon, new general manager of public works, in the media release.
"I have no doubt that Debbie's experience, energy, optimism and appreciation for the front line experience from both sides of the fare box will bring tremendous value to our transit division."
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though.
“And as far as my expectations this year, it’s to come in and kill it, of course. That’s how I’m training, that’s how I’m preparing myself, to come in and to be the best possible basketball player that I can be — not be the best possible backup, or best possible two man, but to be the best possible person and player second.”
The Washington Wizards added several wing players this summer — Jared Dudley, Alan Anderson and Gary Neal — and Webster is ready to embrace the small-ball approach, or whatever coach Randy Wittman has planned.
Playing stretch four is something that Webster knows he might have to do this upcoming season and he’s ready for the challenge.
“It’s definitely a change of pace, for sure — it’s more fast, more up-and-down, little bit more exciting, but I still appreciate and respect the methodical offenses that show up and slow it up in the half-court.”
“The San Antonio Spurs, even though they’re younger now and got the pieces they got, they still play so methodical and x’s-and-o’s oriented and it’s beautiful to watch. But, also, you could put in this other dynamic of small, fast, up-and-down pace and it makes for exciting basketball.”
Webster is planning to meet with the rest of the team in Los Angeles, where they’ll stage a mini-camp before the actual training camp begins next month.
“I think I fit in just well. We’ve got our little mini-camp coming up in Los Angeles on the 16th through the 19th where we’ll get to go in and build that camaraderie and start that chemistry early before we report back in September, and ultimately for training camp in October. This is to get a gauge on teammates, kind of open up and try to build something very special before we go into the season.”
On a roster centered around Wall and Bradley Beal, Webster is an often forgotten about player in D.C. After talking to Webster, I’m confident that we’ll see him bounce back this upcoming season and become a valuable contributor again.
Even more importantly, it’s great to see Webster focus on things outside of the court — his music — which is what athletes tend to forget. He’s worked his butt off this summer and I’m extremely excited to see what Martell Webster will produce, both on and off the hardwood.
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None of the bugs fixed in this update are super critical; I’m mainly uploading this build because it contains a couple of things that might be of interest to some players. If you like messing around with easter egg modes, and if you like seeing little hints and previews of upcoming content, then this build is for you!
But first, check out this super-cool video by Sforz – the first 4 minutes of the video are a super-cool Yandere Sim music video!
Fixes, Changes, and Additions
Performed more work on the Photography Club’s clubroom. I’m still not done working on it, but if you take a second look at it now, you may understand it a bit better.
Fixed bug that would cause Musume to use her usual “Phone Addict” animations even after being “broken” by the experience of being kidnapped and held for ransom.
When they are alone, delinquents now use an updated “texting on smartphone” animation that looks much more appropriate for a “tough guy” type of character.
Fixed bug that would cause a delinquent to get stuck walking in a circle if he noticed Yandere-chan holding a weapon while investigating a strange noise.
Fixed bug that would cause Musume to hold an invisible phone in her hands when following Yandere-chan, after being kidnapped and held for ransom.
Musume now loses the “Phone Addict” persona and switches to the “Coward” persona after being kidnapped and held for ransom.
Fixed bug that would cause some male students’ backs to clip through their chairs when they were sitting in their seats.
Male students’ hands will no longer clip into their phones when they are checking their phones before class begins.
Fixed bug that would cause delinquents’ weapons to turn invisible when performing a group takedown on Yandere-chan.
Way back on June 3rd, 2015, I implemented the “Bancho” easter egg. Recently, I accidentally activated this easter egg while trying to use a debug command, and saw it for the first time in years. I realized that it’s incredibly boring – it doesn’t even have any sort of functionality or attack associated with it! I decided to spice it up with a new appearance, new animations, and an attack animation. It’s very similar in nature to other easter eggs we’ve had in the past, but still, I couldn’t resist updating it; I didn’t want to leave Bancho Mode in such a boring state.
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It's quite obvious that clean air is extremely important, but the more we learn about the impacts of air pollution, the more that belief is confirmed and the more urgency we should feel. It's even more important than we once thought: Air pollution globally kills more people than malaria and AIDS combined, and studies show that kids who grow up with cleaner air will have bigger and stronger lungs for life. This isn't just some temporary annoyance, this is about making people's lives better and healthier.
Some changes can take a while, such as dumping coal power plants, but are necessary to make real progress. Other changes should be easier, such as getting rid of the vehicles that pollute a disproportionate amount (the worst of the worst can pollute hundreds of times more than the average car).
© Smoke Control Lantern Slide Collection, ca. 1940-1950, AIS.1978.22, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.
A new study by researchers at the University of Toronto found that 25% of cars and trucks are causing about 90% of pollution from the vehicle fleet. The scientists made on-the-spot measurements of 100,000 vehicles as they drove past air-sampling probes (including a for the first time a proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer; it provided the time resolution required for the plume capture technique used in the study) on College Street, one of Toronto’s many major roadways. The bottom 25% of the vehicles studied emitted:
95% of black carbon (or “soot”)
93% of carbon monoxide
76% of volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, some of which are known-carcinogens
“The most surprising thing we found was how broad the range of emissions was,” says Evans. “As we looked at the exhaust coming out of individual vehicles, we saw so many variations. How you drive, hard acceleration, age of the vehicle, how the car is maintained – these are things we can influence that can all have an effect on pollution.”
This means that just by targeting these dirty old clunkers, badly tuned rust-buckets, and street racers, we could make a significant impact on air quality, especially in urban areas where the density of vehicles gets high enough for pollutant concentrations to reach dangerous levels.
Things like Cash for Clunkers, mandatory emission tests (that are frequent and stringent), better policing, and maybe some real-time dashboard feedback to help teach people not to accelerate too fast for no reason could help.
Via Atmospheric Measurement Techniques journal, U. Toronto, GCC
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Two days after the partial collapse of a high-rise Hard Rock hotel under construction in New Orleans’ French Quarter, rescuers continued to search the building for a missing worker.
“It’s still a very, very dangerous building, a very dangerous situation," said Chief Timothy McConnell of the New Orleans Fire Department, which is leading the rescue. “That tower is still heavily damaged and unsecured.”
Two men were confirmed killed in the collapse. The body of one of those victims was removed Sunday night, while a second remains in the building. The New Orleans Coroner has not yet released the names of the deceased or the person still missing.
The danger did not end after the initial collapse Saturday morning as a 270-foot, multi-ton crane on top of the building became unsecured and threatened to topple. Another crane was moved into the area Sunday to stabilize it.
Witness account:'Mind boggling' Hard Rock hotel construction collapse in New Orleans
Answers will come with investigation:Engineer weighs in on Hard Rock Hotel collapse: 'Logically, it doesn't make sense'
Dozens of workers were injured when the top six to eight floors of the hotel under construction collapsed around 9 a.m. Saturday, sending debris cascading onto Rampart Street. Eighteen workers were transported to the hospital and several others transported themselves for treatment. Only one worker remains hospitalized and in stable condition. No bystanders were injured.
As engineering crews rushed to stabilize a listing crane and avoid further collapses, the blocks around the site were closed to traffic.
Hard Rock hotel construction collapses in New Orleans: 2 dead, 1 missing
Neither the building nor the crane, McConnell said, have moved since Saturday.
As of Monday morning, nine nearby businesses still had no gas or electricity and 37 area families had been forced to relocate to hotels, according to Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
The roof of the Saenger Theater, directly across Rampart Street, was pierced with falling debris, according to the City, and all performances of the musical “Wicked,” set to run until Oct. 20, were canceled.
Cantrell urged patience because it could take weeks or even months to clean up the area, explaining, “This structure is not stable. We want people to stay away from the area. How we touch it – it just matters."
The Hard Rock construction project, she said, was last inspected by the city on Sept. 24.
The federal agency OSHA is already on the scene of the collapse. Once the NOFD ends its rescue operation, OSHA will take over and begin its investigation.
Contributing: Associated Press
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run and a 103.6 mph, 28-degree, 429-foot home run off Dallas Keuchel in a playoff game. Ozuna's been barreling the ball all year.
His contact quality was great...
This stems from all the aforementioned hard-hit balls and barrels. Statcast generates a set of "expected" metrics for every hitter, based on their quality of contact -- the exit velocity and launch angle of every ball they hit -- coupled with their walks and strikeouts.
Every hitter gets an expected batting average, an expected slugging percentage and the all-encompassing expected weighted on-base average (wOBA) -- which is like on-base percentage except it includes everything a hitter does and it weighs the more important things more heavily (e.g. a homer is worth more than a single).
Ozuna ranked near the top of the league in all three of those expected metrics this season. His xBA was.284, placing him in the 88th percentile of hitters. His xSLG was.523, in the 90th percentile of hitters. And his xwOBA was.379, in the 91st percentile.
Your average MLB hitter had a.324 wOBA in 2019. Ozuna, judged by his quality of contact, was 55 points better than average.
That's star-caliber hitting, on the level of hitters like DJ LeMahieu, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso -- who all ranked just below Ozuna on the 2019 xwOBA leaderboard.
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... But his luck was terrible
Now here's what didn't match up: Ozuna's actual stat line. His expected metrics were a lot better than his actual numbers.
In fact, going by the size of the gap between his expected and actual stats, Ozuna was one of the unluckiest hitters in baseball this season, across the board.
His stats were good as is. But he was hitting the ball even better than they showed, and he just didn't get the results to match.
Ozuna's "unlucky" gaps in 2019
Min. 450 PA (169 hitters)
xBA - BA: 43 pts (.284 -.241) -- Largest
xSLG - SLG: 51 pts (.523 -.472) -- 3rd-largest
xwOBA - wOBA: 39 pts (.379 -.340) -- 2nd-largest
Hopefully teams see through to the quality of contact this winter. Because Ozuna impacts the ball at a level few other MLB hitters do -- and even fewer impending free agents.
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cross bunkers to shorten the hole; a landing area toward the right is available for shorter hitters. Any drive too straight risks running through the fairway into the rough. The large green has pronounced undulations.
Hole 13 | Par 5 | 608 yards
Despite its length, this is a straightforward hole possibly reachable in two if the course is firm. A large bunker on the left side is in play off the tee, and cross bunkers 30 yards short of the green will penalize shots coming up short. The green slopes moderately from the back to the front, but the bunker to the right is among the deepest on the course.
Hole 14 | Par 3 | 161 yards
The shortest hole on the course. The tee shot is over a valley to a putting surface that was rebuilt to be wider than it is deep, sloping from back to front and from right to left, with a shelf on top. Gaping bunkers that tumble toward the valley guard the front of the green.
Hole 15 | Par 4 | 457 yards
This long par-4 bends to the left, with the final 180 yards uphill to an elevated green that is protected in front by deep bunkers. Anyone missing the fairway most likely won't reach the green or be able to hold it. The green¬¬—one of the most difficult on the course—is 50 feet above the fairway, with two tiers that slope from the back left to the front right.
Hole 16 | Par 4 | 490 yards
This hole starts with an elevated tee shot that drops 60 feet to a narrow fairway that angles from left to right. The hole bends gently to the left. A sprawling bunker sits short and right of the green, with another bunker to the left. It is one of the few holes at Bethpage where the putting surface can be seen from the tee box.
Hole 17 | Par 3 | 207 yards
Perhaps the best par 3 on the course, although nothing fancy. The slightly elevated green sits 43 yards wide and split by a spine through its middle. A deep bunker guards the front of the green, with other bunkers catching poor shots to the right, long and left.
Hole 18 | Par 4 | 411 yards
The finishing hole presents one of the few birdie opportunities at Bethpage Black. The drive is downhill to a fairway that has been narrowed and threads an enormous cluster of bunkers and fescue on both sides. Players can stay short of the bunkers and leave 160 yards to the green, or hit driver and have a wedge. The approach is to an elevated green that slopes from back to front, so keeping the ball below the hole is critical.
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For those who haven’t been to South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, it’s not just a film/music festival. It’s also a gigantic expo and convention where brands from all over the world bring their wares and products for people to test, engage with, and potentially purchase. It’s a place where people get a glimpse of what the future holds and what they can expect to become the norm in technology, education, culture, and society.
While that all sounds very serious and deep, I can assure you some of it is simply one helluva fun ride! Take, for example, The Mummy Zero Gravity VR Experience, which I was lucky enough to test out. Walking in, I thought that I was going to wear a VR headset and do some kind of interactive presentation where I was on a plane and somehow I felt weightless. While that wasn’t the case, what I did experience was still very entertaining in its own right.
Walking into the hall, a group of us were greeted by the ass end of a large plane, which we boarded from a rear ramp. We got to walk by a prop version of the sarcophagus that can be seen in the trailer before entering a large room with multiple pod-like chairs all lined up facing away from us. The pods, which were Positron Voyagers, were shaped like those egg chairs that were seen in movies like Men in Black, and each contained a VR headset along with headphones.
After taking our seats and putting on our gear, we were then able to see behind-the-scenes footage of the Zero G sequence seen in the trailer. As mentioned before, nothing was interactive. However, the chairs we sat in would tilt, raise, lower, and turn along with the movements in the video, giving a similar feel as if I were actually in the plane. All the while, Tom Cruise and other crew members were narrating what was happening, how it was put together, what went into the shots, the speed at which they had to work, etc. We also learned that the sequence in the film will be 90% practical with some post-production blending needing to take place. For horror fans, that’s certainly a real treat!
As short documentaries go, it was certainly engaging. Plus, the theatricality of the hall that the experience took place in added a lovely dash of excitement and thrill to the event. Does it make me want to see The Mummy any more than I did before embarking on this VR journey? Not really. Then again, I was already committed to seeing it, so I guess their marketing already did the trick!
Follow our 2017 SXSW coverage here.
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A wreckage of a U.S. military aircraft that crashed in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, is seen Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. The aircraft crashed in Ghazni province on Monday, A U.S. military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, an American official said, adding that there were no indications so far it'd been brought down by enemy fire. (AP PhotolSaifullah Maftoon)
A wreckage of a U.S. military aircraft that crashed in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, is seen Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. The aircraft crashed in Ghazni province on Monday, A U.S. military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, an American official said, adding that there were no indications so far it'd been brought down by enemy fire. (AP PhotolSaifullah Maftoon)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces on Tuesday recovered the remains of two American service members killed in the crash of an Air Force plane in Afghanistan, the U.S. military command in Kabul said. They also retrieved what they believe is the plane’s flight data recorder.
They were the only two people aboard the Air Force E-11A electronic surveillance aircraft when it went down on Monday in Ghazni province, officials said. Their identities have not been publicly announced, pending notification of their relatives.
The statement from Kabul said the cause of the crash is under investigation, but there are no indications that it was downed by enemy fire.
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The Taliban hold much of Ghazni province. Monday’s plane crash there is not expected to derail U.S.-Taliban peace talks if the crash investigation determines, as expected, that it was not the result of hostile action.
The U.S. and the Taliban are negotiating a reduction in hostilities or a cease-fire to allow the signing of a peace agreement that could bring home an estimated 13,000 American troops and open the way to a broader post-war deal for Afghans.
A journalist in the area, Tariq Ghazniwal, said Monday that he saw the burning aircraft. He told The Associated Press that he saw two bodies and that the front of the aircraft was badly burned but its body and tail were hardly damaged.
The crash site is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from a U.S. military base, Ghazniwal said. Local Taliban were deployed to protect the crash site, he said. In its statement Tuesday, the U.S. military command in Kabul thanked local Afghans for treating the remains with respect. It said that after removing the remains, U.S. forces destroyed the remnants of the E-11A aircraft.
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reconstruction along the interior. Joe Noteboom, Brian Allen, and Austin Blythe are in their second years and have had to take on three dominant defensive lines in their first three games. Blythe got hurt in week two and in his stead is fellow second year Jamil Demby taken in the sixth round last year. Demby STRUGGLED mightily against the Browns who almost successfully ran the same defense the Pats trotted out in the Super Bowl. The line needs to get better as Goff has been strip sacked twice in the last two weeks.
If they can’t hold the interior then one of Goff’s worst traits will continue to rear its ugly head until it completely submarines the Rams offense. Goff still struggles when the interior pressure gets to him. This has been true since he’s been a starter and with a o-line in progress this is bound to get worse before it gets better. He needs to become a better improviser not just because it would allow him to make better decisions but it would in essence remove the critique that he’s a system QB that is a McVay appendage.
The good news is that despite the growing Jared Goff concern, he’s still capable of making plays. The Rams still have a weird issue with scoring in the red zone but that second touchdown to Cooper Kupp (who has looked TREMENDOUS) was everything the offense is capable of and they should be more willing to stretch the field in red zone opportunities.
He’s still able to thread the needle to Robert Woods and can hit Brandin Cooks deep or even on the sidelines. He can find Kupp damn near anywhere and he’s finding his tight ends more and more as the games have gone on. They’ve also gotten better at running the ball inside which can further help set up play action.
So, like all Jared Goff conversations, this remains incomplete. Yes, his decision making has been sub-par especially when the play breaks down. His line is still struggling on the interior and the defenses they face don’t exactly get any easier from here on out. He’s also just not seeing the field the same way he has when the play action is humming. That can be corrected once the running game gets off to better starts and Gurley can force defenses to respect him again.
Goff can still make plays when he has to, but until he can consistently make plays and not get off to a slow start, the Jared Goff concern chorus will remain. The good news is he gets a porous Tampa Bay defense to tune up on. The bad news is four days later he’s in Seattle and this conversation is going to happen all again.
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Former basketball players turning taxes into money for CSU
CSU fans wanting to give back to the university have a chance to do so by filing their taxes.
Jesse Carr and Adam Nigon, former starting guards for the Colorado State University men's basketball team, have become owners of a website to support their alma mater's alumni association this tax season, TaxMagic.com.
The website operates similarly to well-known online tax companies like TurboTax or TaxACT, with one major caveat — $11 of any paid filing goes directly to a cause or organization, including the CSU Alumni Association.
The easiest way for users to support CSU by filing their taxes is to go directly to www.taxmagic.com/csu, Nigon said.
A "basic" filing for households making less than $100,000 a year costs $19.95 and provides help with factoring retirement income and tax credits. The "deluxe" package runs $39.95 and covers all personal and business income with no taxable income limit and provides assistance on itemized deductions. TaxMagic.com does have a free option; however, using it won't send money to support an organization.
"We basically started doing this as a way to give back to CSU, and we're hoping fans and other graduates will join in and help out our school," Carr said, adding that TaxMagic.com became an official preferred partner of CSU on Tuesday.
The CSU Alumni Association's goal is to connected Rams across the country with events and professional networking.
Carr and Nigon said TaxMagic.com is a side project for them. Carr, who played for the Rams from 2008 to 2012 under former coach Tim Miles, is a title analyst at Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. Nigon (2007-11) operates his family's liquor license at The Chateaux at Fox Meadows, an exclusive wedding venue in Broomfield.
Nigon's family does have a background in electronic tax services. His grandfather, James Fromi, started what's believed to be the first e-filing tax system that was done over telephone lines in the early 1980s. Nigon said his uncle started the website last year, but didn't have enough time to operate it, which is how he and Carr got involved.
In the past, TaxMagic.com has helped with the Wounded Warrior Foundation, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and various charities to rebuild the New Jersey shore following Hurricane Sandy, Carr said.
For insight and analysis on athletics around Northern Colorado and the Mountain West, follow sports columnist Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting.
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ABC
I feel sick to my stomach even writing this. Friends, Romans, Instagram shills, the day we always knew was coming has finally arrived. Call your kids and tell them that, yes, it's time, and yes, they can put the plane tickets on your credit card. Wells is passing on to the next world (Puerto Vallarta) and there's nothing any of us can do about it. I know you all must have a lot of questions, which I promise will be addressed at my press conference in the Rose Garden later this afternoon. But let's rewind: Wells gets a date card from Jojo that says "You better kiss me on this date or your ass is getting Eva Perón-ed right out of here." The other boys make fun of him for not having kissed her yet, which is mean and dumb of them. "I don't know how he does it; I can't keep my hands off her," boasts Robby. Haha, classic Wells! Respecting a person's bodily autonomy and being mature enough to not grope them at every given opportunity is soooo lamesauce. Wells and Jojo go to Fuerza Bruta, which is apparently a chain? There's definitely one a few blocks from my apartment, I swear to God. I always kind of thought it was a restaurant. It's not, it's a nightclub-esque horror show (?) wherein mermaid-looking girls thrash above the crowds in some kind of transparent Slip-n-Slide. Wasn't this one of the photoshoots on America's Next Top Model? Wells and Jojo get a chance to try their hand at being Fuerza Brutes and Wells Slip-n-Slides right on into Jojo's mouth. Jojo then squeals "That was it, Wells! That was the moment!" which I thought was awfully childish of her. Stop belittling the dude! He is the oldest and most normal person on this show! The remainder of the date does not go Wells for him at all. At dinner, he starts sweating like an iced coffee in the sun because he is too tender for the Argentinian heat. He then tells Jojo that his last relationship ended because they had more of a friendship than a romance, and Jojo goes "That's literally so crazy because that's exactly what I was just thinking about you. I can't give you this rose." Back at the Best Western Buenos Aires, a production assistant picks up Wells' very strange-looking suitcase (like truly, go back and look at it) and all the guys make fun of him some more. Awww. Goodnight, tender prince. You are a sweet buttermilk donut too good for this world.
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Pakistan’s foreign minister says he fears India plans to attack Pakistan to divert global attention from Kashmir.
Pakistan‘s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has written to the United Nations, warning the world body of what he says are actions by New Delhi to position missile launchers in Indian-administered Kashmir, according to a statement released by Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Thursday.
In the statement, Qureshi is said to have told the UN that he fears India is planning to launch an attack on Pakistan to divert international attention from human rights violations in Kashmir.
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These are “Indian actions that continue to escalate tensions in an already tense environment in South Asia”, Qureshi said in his letter, demanding the UN respond to the purported moves by India.
The Pakistani minister did not offer evidence to support his claim of missiles being placed in the disputed Himalayan region.
There was no immediate comment from India.
Tension over Kashmir
Tensions between Pakistan and India have been heightened since August 5, when India’s Hindu nationalist government abrogated Article 370 of the Indian constitution, pushing Kashmir into its worst political crisis in 70 years.
The article granted the disputed region, which was India’s only Muslim-majority state, a degree of autonomy. In October, New Delhi divided the state into two federally-ruled territories.
India’s move in August was followed by an unprecedented lockdown which remains imposed.
“Curfew and communications blackouts have now entered the fifth month. Kashmiri political leadership remains in custody, in jails, and in detention centres across India,” said the letter by Qureshi.
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India and Pakistan claim the Kashmir territory in its entirety but rule over parts of it. Many Kashmiris demand either a merger with Pakistan or an independent state.
Pakistan’s top diplomat also claimed in the letter to the UN that India has partially removed the fence in five areas along the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir between the two countries.
“The reason could only be planning for some ‘misadventure’ across the LoC,” Qureshi’s letter said.
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmir since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
They nearly went to war again in February, when a suicide bombing in Indian-run part of Kashmir killed more than 40 paramilitary soldiers.
India responded by bombing an alleged rebel training camp in Pakistan. Islamabad later said its forces downed two Indian air force planes and captured a pilot, who was later released.
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� for particle physics. But that alone was not enough to give such an expensive project priority. Other experiments such as Hyper-Kamiokande, a recently approved massive neutrino detector with a lesser price tag of $600 million, have proved more appealing.
If the ILC is eventually built, it will have supporters in Japanese industry and politics to thank. Both communities see the particle collider as a political and economic coup for the country. Additionally, because of its planned location, the ILC also represents a revitalization effort in the Tohoku region, which is still recovering from the devastating 2011 earthquake-induced tsunami and associated nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
But even ardent supporters of the ILC must contend with the fact that it is not the only path forward in particle physics. Several emerging technologies—such as muon accelerators, energy-recovery linear accelerators and plasma wakefield acceleration—could offer equivalent or superior performance at lower costs, potentially undercutting the rationale for building future colliders like the ILC with conventional technology.
Internationally, the ILC is also in competition with other proposed colliders. Ongoing incremental upgrades to the LHC are underway at CERN and are planned to continue into the 2030s. Beyond the LHC, CERN has plans to build either its own linear collider, the CLIC, or the Future Circular Collider, a behemoth with a 100-kilometer-wide ring, or both devices. Led by Yifang Wang, physicists in China are also at work planning what would be that nation’s first major collider: the Circular Electron Positron Collider.
But dueling collider plans aren’t necessarily bad, according to Wang. “I think healthy competition is actually good,” he says. “If the ILC is approved, certainly it proves that the scientific interest is there and there is international support with this kind of science.”
There is no guarantee that any of these machines will uncover any new physics. Investigating the Higgs could well be a subatomic wild goose chase, only useful insofar as it tells researchers where not to look. Or it could reveal new physics beyond the scope of our current understanding of the universe.
In either case, particle physicists are prepared to do whatever it takes. “This is a very special particle, unlike any we've studied in the past,” Murayama says about the Higgs. “This one, in particular, should be studied to death.”
*Editor’s Note (2/27/20): This sentence was revised after posting. It originally gave a figure of 0.99999999999 percent.
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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican state governor on Monday accused the finance ministry of withholding federal funds to punish his administration for launching an investigation into alleged corruption that has embarrassed the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
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Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral, of the center-right opposition National Action Party (PAN), said the ministry was pressuring the northern border state because of its probe into the administration of his PRI predecessor Cesar Duarte.
Corral said that after he announced last month the arrest by state and federal authorities of Alejandro Gutierrez, a former top PRI finance official, the ministry failed to transfer to the state more than 700 million pesos ($36.5 million) it was due.
“This is an attempt to strangle the government of Chihuahua economically,” Corral told a news conference in Mexico City.
The finance ministry said it had met all the required payments, and that Chihuahua had received more funds in 2017 than originally budgeted due to higher federal revenue.
Deputy finance minister Miguel Messmacher rejected the suggestion the ministry was seeking to punish Chihuahua and told Mexican radio that the Chihuahua state government had asked for additional “extraordinary” funds at the end of last year.
Such funds are conditional on the federal government’s budgetary room for maneuver and were ultimately not paid to Chihuahua, or to a number of other states, Messmacher said.
“But they’re not funds they have a right to,” he said.
The dispute risks keeping attention focused on alleged PRI graft in the run-up to a presidential election in July. Tackling corruption promises to be a key campaign issue, and the PRI faces an uphill struggle to hold on to power.
After noticing the holdup in federal transfers, Corral said, he and aides held a meeting with top ministry officials in Mexico City on the evening of Jan. 4 to discuss the impasse.
There, Corral added, the Chihuahua delegation was told that his state’s investigation into alleged corruption had called “into question the mechanism of how funds are transferred,” for which reason the ministry decided to withhold the money.
Prosecutors in Chihuahua accuse Gutierrez of participating in a scheme to divert public funds worth 250 million pesos into PRI coffers during the 2016 election season, in which Cesar Duarte’s successor was chosen. Gutierrez has denied the charge.
A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for Duarte last March. Corral says his predecessor is in the United States.
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A new app developed by Bath’s Jane Austen Centre promises to make your life a little better by sending you daily quotes
Want a Jane Austen quote delivered to you every day? There's an app for that
“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” Good advice for a bad day at the office, perhaps? Jane Austen’s tetchy words to her sister Cassandra are among many quotable lines that seem just as applicable to the modern world as to the society Austen inhabited more than two hundred years ago.
With that in mind, the Jane Austen Centre in Bath has produced an app providing a daily dose of Austen wisdom, which can be custom-timed to land on your phone whenever you like – “when you have your morning coffee or when you’re on the bus going home”. The Jane Austen Daily Quote app is available now in both major app stores.
“People are always interested in her quotes. They’re always witty, lively, succint and very perceptive - and they do often describe people’s characters really well,” said David Baldock, the centre’s director. As well as alerting readers to Austen’s intelligence and charm, the app will also, Baldock hopes, help to promote the museum, its online store and its digital magazine.
“The Jane Austen Daily quote” is loaded with 365 quotes, one for each day of the year. The plan is to update it with 365 new ones in a year’s time. Three years ago, the centre experimented with launching a similar app, only available to iOS users, and it was downloaded by around 9,000 without any promotion, explained Baldock. Here are some of the quotes in the app:
If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. —from Emma (1815)
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. — from Pride and Prejudice (1813)
For what do we live, but to make sport of our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn? — from Pride and Prejudice (1813)
There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them. — from Mansfield Park (1814)
How quick come the reasons for approving what we like! — from Persuasion (1817)
Whose quotes would you most love to pop up on your devices (and your life) on a daily basis? Let us know in the comments
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undecided), thinking, concentrating, and bothered. Baseline experimental results on the BAUM-1 database show that recognition of affective and mental states under naturalistic conditions is quite challenging. The database is expected to enable further research on audio-visual affect and mental state recognition under close-to-real scenarios.
NMAPS - NMAmit Photo Sketch database
NMAPS is a database of human face images and their corresponding sketches generated using a novel approach implemented using Matlab tool. Database contains 208 South Indian images gathered at the computer science research lab of NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte. Images were taken under the random lighting conditions and environment with varying background and quality. Images captured under the varying conditions and quality mimic the real-world conditions and enables the researches to try out robust algorithms testing in the area of sketch generation and matching. This database is an unique contribution in the field of forensic science research as it contains the photo-sketch data-sets of South Indian people.
EURECOM Visible and Thermal paired Face database
The database was collected from 50 subjects of different age, sex and ethnicity, resulting a total of 2100 images. The camera (camera FLIR Duo R by FLIR Systems) was designed to take simultaneous face images of thermal and visible spectra. Variations include Expression, Pose, Occlusion and Illumination.
VIP_attribute Dataset
Images in the VIP_attribute dataset are obtained in 2017 from the WWW corresponding to 513 female and 513 male subjects (mainly actors, singers and athletes). The images include the frontal pose of the subjects. Co-variates include illumination, expression, image quality and resolution. Further challenging in this dataset are beautification (e.g., photoshop) of the images, as well as the presence of makeup, plastic surgery, beard and mustache. We obtained annotations related to te subjects' body weight and height from websites such as www.celebheights.com, www.howtallis.org and celebsize.com.
Indian Semi Acted Facial Expression Database (iSAFE)
iSAFE is one of it's kind database for human emotions. Human emotion recognition is of par importance for human computer interaction. Dataset and it's quality plays important role in this domain. The dataset contains 395 clips of 44 volunteers between 17 to 22 year of age. All the clips are manually splitted from the video recorded during stimulent clips are watched by volunteers. Facial expressions are self annotated by the volunteers as well as cross annotated by annotators. Analysis of the dataset is done using Resnet34 neural network and baseline for the dataset is provided for research and comparison. The dataset is described in this paper.
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New Chairman of Finance Bank Zambia 2015
On 02 June 2015, Dr. Rajan Mahtani became the Former Chairman Finance Bank Zambia by handling over the responsibilities to Mr William Boli Nyirenda.
Finance Bank Zambia and CURE- What’s the Scenario Today
The name of Finance Bank Zambia is not only popular in the country itself, rather its popularity was encompassing across the world by now. Not only does it bring financial plans that could contribute to the country’s economy, but also at the same time support the NGOs like CURE to help develop the socio-economic scenario of the country.
Unlike the other third world countries, the socio-economic condition of Zambia is terribly miserable. As far as the development (socio-economic) is concerned, the country has hardly made any significant improvement. NGO’s like CURE are taking proactive steps to initiate several projects for the overall development of the society.
Eight years before, when CURE approached the Finance Bank Zambia for financial assistance for setting up a specialty teaching hospital, it was Dr. Mahtani, who came in the forefront to offer his helping hands. Needless to say, the relationship has grown strong over the years and the memorable support rendered by Dr. Mahtani throughout the period is highly commendable.
The establishment of the hospital, while offering financial services was not the only step CURE has taken in collaboration with FBZ. Finance Bank Zambia had also adopted significant measures by celebrating CURE’s arrival and sponsoring the catering needs on the official opening ceremony at the hospital.
As of now, especially after the post-possession period, the relationship between FBZ and CURE is still strong. During the survival stage, FBZ has once again recognized CURE’s need for local financial support. This kind of gesture is truly expected from a man of ingrained morality like Dr. Mahtani. During the economic downturn especially when the corporate entities are supporting popular and lucrative causes, FBZ has the courage to get itself alienated from the crowd. Instead, he traversed a different road and choose to deviate from the norm. Even during the post possession period, when the bank was suffering from financial shortage, he donated $50,000 towards the treatment of poor children with disabling conditions.
As said by Dr. Mahtani, “Sometimes, when we are engulfed in our day to day demands, we forget that there are spiritually wounded and physically challenged people out there. CURE’s cause was a reminder of how blessed we are and how vital it is for those who are able to give a helping hand to those who find it hard to walk the journey of life”.
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First, let me give credit where credit is due. It was Melissa Camara Wilkins who first introduced me to the 3-Item To Do List.
I have used it ever since. And I’d love to recommend it to you.
For most of my life, I was the person with a mile long to-do list next to me at all times, often carrying over from day-to-day and week-to-week. But no longer.
For the past several months, I have been using a 3-Item To Do List exclusively—and I have found it to increase my productivity and work satisfaction significantly.
The 3-Item To Do List is as simple and profound as it sounds. At the beginning of each day, I take time to identify and articulate the three most important items for me to accomplish.
For example, my To Do List for today consists of these three items:
Write a blog post for Becoming Minimalist Set agenda for our next Hope Effect Board of Directors’ Meeting Put final touches on an article pitch for a major publication
That’s it! Three items—all significant, all important, all entirely manageable.
Now, almost certainly, there are other work-related things I will do today: post to Facebook, answer e-mail, text a peer. But my three main identified projects will always take precedence.
The short list approach keeps me focused on the most important tasks I need to accomplish.
But I have found other benefits as well. The shorter list keeps me from feeling overwhelmed. The shorter list also helps me overcome procrastination—the finish line is always in sight.
Additionally, and equally important, the 3-Item List provides a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. This benefit is the main one that Melissa articulates—she even refers to it as an “Enough List.” When the list is completed, there is a sense of finality. She says it like this:
Now instead of ending each day feeling like I’ve fallen behind, I have a built-in sense of accomplishment in the evenings. I finished my three things! I did what mattered most!
The importance of identifying the three most important things to accomplish in a day is revolutionary regardless of where you apply it. It is a helpful productivity hack at work. It can be used equally well by a stay-at-home mom or dad. It can be uniquely tailored for a hobby or side-business.
In order to accomplish our most important tasks, it is essential to remain focused on them. The 3-Item To Do List accomplishes that and requires you to identify them anew each morning.
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Nearly two years later, Boehner and his leadership team finally moved against four of their most frequent Republican antagonists, stripping them of key committee assignments. The move backfired. Conservatives labeled it a "purge," and a month later, three of the targeted members joined with several other colleagues to embarrass Boehner on the floor of the House with a badly-organized attempt to oust him as speaker. The next two years were no easier for the leadership, which continued to struggle passing key legislation without relying on Democrats for help.
That brings us to Tuesday, when the revolt against Boehner more than doubled in size from 2013, and 24 Republicans backed someone else for speaker. Unlike two years ago, this opposition did not catch the leadership by surprise. Within hours of the vote, word got out that the strongest of Boehner's three challengers, Representative Daniel Webster of Florida, and one of his 12 supporters, Rich Nugent of Florida, had been removed from their posts on the Rules Committee. (Whether getting thrown off the Rules Committee, a plum but pretty boring assignment, is actually a punishment is another debate, but its members are appointed by the speaker.) A third dissident, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, told reporters that within an hour of sending a tweet announcing his intent to vote against Boehner, a committee chairman (whom he would not name) called him to tell him a subcommittee post he wanted was now gone.
Yet even those punishments might not stick. Predictably, conservatives immediately denounced the moves against Webster and Nugent. Ted Yoho, another of Boehner's Florida challengers, was overheard by a Roll Call reporter comparing the speaker to Vladimir Putin and his even stronger-armed Soviet predecessors. "Hey, welcome to the new USSR," he said. (Just an hour or so earlier, Yoho was telling reporters that his beef with Boehner had been "laid to rest" after the speaker vote.) On Wednesday morning, in the first meeting of the full House GOP conference in the new Congress, other conservatives rose to protest any retributive action. "I voiced what I think is an ubiquitous opinion among the conference that revenge should never be any part of any equation like this," Representative Trent Franks, a conservative who had backed Boehner, told reporters afterward. "Nothing sows the seeds of revolution more effectively among family members than vengeful retribution."
At a subsequent press conference, Boehner turned to euphemisms and said that no final decisions about committee assignments had been made, pending "a family conversation" among Republicans. That talk began on Wednesday and would continue. Pointedly, the speaker refused to say whether any of the 20-odd other members who rebelled were safe from punishment. As for Webster and Nugent, they hadn't been returned to the Rules Committee, but neither had their replacements been named.
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ABC-TV Wants More ‘Moody’
Australia’s ABC-TV has ordered a follow-up to comedy series A Moody Christmas. The first season focused on the dysfunctional Moody family over several different Christmas holidays. According to IF.com, the new series will be based around significant moments in the family’s year. Producer Jungleboys, which recently signed with Mosaic, has already fielded offers from the U.S. for a remake. Exec producer Jason Burrows told Deadline late last year that the company was waiting until a second season went into production so as to be in a better bargaining position. The follow-up series shoots later this year.
Germany Doles Out Funding To International Pics
Germany’s subsidies continue to make it an attractive co-production partner and shooting destination. George Clooney’s The Monuments Men is one of a handful of international films that’s secured state subsidies from Germany this week. The film started shooting in Berlin in March and has scored 800,000 euros from the Berlin-Brandenburg Filmboard and the German Media Promotion org, the bodies said. Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin and Bill Murray star. The Rupert Everett-directed The Happy Prince was also just granted a bourse by both bodies. That film shoots this summer with Colin Firth, Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson.
France Laments Disappearance Of Spain’s Alta
French film exporters expressed their concern today over the impending shuttering of Spanish distributor Alta. The company’s Enrique Gonzalez Macho told El Pais the distrib had tried to resist closure, “but people have stopped going to the movies, the DVD is ruined and television, especially public, does not support the Spanish film” business. The French exporters union, ADEF, said “This situation is the direct consequence of a lack of political support for national and European cinema, the decisions of public and private television to no longer buy auteur films, the absence of a fight against piracy and the increase in value added tax on cultural products… The rise in ticket prices drastically caused moviegoing to drop at a time when movie theaters were already in great difficulty.” Alta has released films by such international directors as Woody Allen, Michael Haneke, Atom Egoyan, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Nanni Moretti, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Manoel de Oliveira, Danny Boyle and Steven Soderbergh. “There are other Spanish independent film distributors, but I think they will end up with the same fate as us,” Macho said.
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Donald and Vladimir, the floor is yours for a tango, but don’t divide the world into spheres of influence, two leading Finnish journalists have urged, in a warning letter to both leaders ahead of their meeting in Helsinki.
“President Trump often seems to be in search of short-term political benefit at the expense of US allies, the international community,” journalists Saska Saarikoski and Laura Saarikoski wrote on Sunday ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for July 16. Their open letter, addressed to both leaders, was published in the nation’s leading paper Helsingin Sanomat.
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The journalists, who have authored several books on Trump, are alarmed by the prospect of the US president making concessions to the “skilled negotiator” Putin who will sit down at the table “with a whole bunch of aces up his sleeve.”
“What is difficult to understand is the fact that President Trump has threatened and intimidated friendly countries while speaking warmly of autocratic leaders, and even of a tyrant like North Korea’s Kim Jong-un,” the open letter reads. The authors lament the fact that Trump shows no signs of “a persistent policy” required to pressure Russia into changing its attitude. They recall how some observers have raised fears of “a new Yalta where Trump and Putin would divide the world between them in spheres of influence.” By invoking Yalta, the authors refer to the 1945 meeting at which the leaders of the Soviet Union, the UK and the US decided on the political makeup of the world after defeating the Nazis in WWII.
Despite being “worried” about Trump’s rhetoric towards Russia and its president, the Finnish journalists hope that during the upcoming talks “everyone will nevertheless understand that European matters can no longer be agreed-on over the heads of Europeans.”
What is the likely outcome of the Trump-Putin meeting? (POLL)
“The deterioration of US-Russian relations is not beneficial to anyone,” the letter concludes.
Trump took flak at home and abroad for his willingness to meet Putin eye-to-eye and hold bilateral negotiations with him without preconditions. Some of the European politicians have been voicing concerns that Trump might be striking deals with Moscow without consulting or notifying EU and NATO allies.
During his recent trip to Britain, the US president called Putin “a competitor” and reiterated his longstanding view that it would be a “good thing” if the two nations could “get along.”
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Last week, California lawmakers passed a bill requiring 100 percent of the state’s electricity to come from carbon-free sources by the end of 2045, sending the historic clean-energy bill to the governor’s desk (see “California advances an ambitious climate policy that should be a model for the world”).
But the portfolio of technologies employed in pursuit of such policies could radically alter the eventual costs—and the odds of reaching the end goal.
A new paper by MIT energy researchers, published in the journal Joule, concludes that building out a substantial level of “firm low-carbon resources” like nuclear power or natural-gas plants that capture carbon dioxide—rather than relying exclusively on renewable resources like wind and solar, backed up with batteries—could cut electricity costs by as much as 62 percent.
Including these steady sources in the energy mix “substantially increases our chances of affordably decarbonizing the grid,” says Jesse Jenkins, a coauthor of the report and now a postdoctoral environmental fellow at Harvard.
The new study is the latest to conclude that relying on renewables alone is a very expensive way to clean up the grid, contradicting the view of some scientists that sources like wind and solar could affordably fulfill most electricity demands (see “Scientists sharply rebut influential renewable-energy plan”).
The basic problem is that the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. So as these highly variable sources come to represent a growing portion of the grid, vast amounts of additional energy storage and renewable generation are needed to balance out supply and demand across days and weeks. This and other studies have found that costs begin to rise exponentially once the share of variable renewables crosses roughly the 80 percent threshold.
Other “firm” resources that can balance out the peaks and valleys of wind and solar could include large hydroelectric power plants, enhanced geothermal stations, or various forms of bioenergy, the authors state.
Given these technical challenges, it’s wise that California’s measure allows for flexibility in how the state reaches the 100 percent goal, incorporating the term “zero-carbon resources” (unlike Hawaii’s strictly 100 percent renewable law). That means grid operators there could potentially rely on the kinds of resources the study highlights, including small modular nuclear reactors like the ones NuScale Energy is developing, carbon capture systems of the sort Net Power is testing, or enhanced geothermal techniques like the type Fervo Energy is developing.
“It’s important that the policies are agnostic and flexible enough to harness whatever technologies become available to reach a low-carbon grid,” Jenkins says.
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New Delhi: For 36-year old Devendra Jhajharia, hailing from the Churu district of Rajasthan, trips to the national capital have always been ones to remember. But this one he says is the most special of them all and why not, it isn't every day that your name is written in the annals of history.
When the two-time Paralympic gold medallist is handed the Khel Ratna Award by India's 14th President Ramnath Kovind, he will become the first Indian para athlete to receive the country's highest sporting honour. A watershed moment indeed for Indian sports.
"I remember playing with able-bodied kids when I was young, and they would say ‘why is he wasting his time’. The challenge for me began even before I stepped on to the playing field. My fight has been of changing mindsets, of proving people wrong. I began with a small dream of representing my country and look where that persistence has brought me," a proud Jhajharia told News18 in an exclusive interaction.
Jhajharia entered the national consciousness for the first time as a 23-year old, when he won the gold medal in the F46 javelin throw at the 2004 Athens Paralympics, where he set a new world record with a throw of 62.15m.
"When I won in Athens no one knew me, but I received a lot of support after that. I was honoured with the Arjuna Award and with a Padma Shri, and that motivated me further. When you represent your country there is a desire to give your best without asking for anything in return. But when you get recognition, it fires your ambitions up further," the Khel Ratna winner said.
And that inspiration was enough for the now veteran para-athlete to give the best performance of his life at the 2016 Rio Games. Jhajharia went beyond his own expectations to shatter the world record yet again with a throw of 63.97 metres and won his second Paralympic gold medal, another first for an Indian. And he believes that this honour will inspire para athletes all over India to strive for the best.
"I just wanted to give my best at the Rio Games. I never thought I will end up winning the gold medal. This Khel Ratna is not just mine, it belongs to all para athletes in India, who overcome big challenges to bring themselves to the field and perform for the country. I hope this honour inspires more and more athletes from the small towns of our country to chase their dreams. This award shows that you can achieve what many believe is unachievable," the champion athlete signed off.
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who was born with a developmental disorder known as Cornelia de Lange syndrome. He is now 15, but cannot talk, feed himself or bath himself and has the mental capacity of a 5-year-old.
Ajin told the judge that if he were deported, and something happened to his wife, there would be no one to care for his son. And taking him to Jordan is not an option, he stressed.
"There is no life for him there. He will die there," Ajin said, adding if anything happened to his wife, "that means the family is done."
When his lawyer, Chris Vreeland, asked him, "Why should the judge let you stay here in the U.S.?" Ajin answered in three words: "For my family."
Ajin's wife also testified on behalf of her husband, telling the judge her family would be lost without him.
"He's a caring father, a good person. he's a funny guy... He loves everybody," Siham Ajin said, stressing: "He's the only source of income in the house."
After the wife's testimony, the judge asked both sides if they objected to him not calling any other witnesses. Neither side objected, which concluded the hearing with a favorable ruling for Ajin, whose family wept and hugged as they left the federal building.
"I feel good. I love the system. I love the judge and God bless this country," said Issa Issa, Ajin's first cousin, who brought his young son to Detroit with him for the hearing.
The immigrant community in metro Detroit and nationwide has been on edge since the latest crackdown by federal authorities.
Last week, federal agents arrested four undocumented immigrants in Ypsilanti and three undocumented immigrants in southwest Detroit,
These arrests came two weeks after immigration agents arrested 680 immigrants in a series of actions in states across the U.S. that sparked anxiety. The following week, on Feb. 16, immigrants held "A Day Without Immigrants" rallies in cities across the U.S., including in Detroit, Ypsilanti and Pontiac.
Walls, a spokesperson for ICE, has previously said that "reports of ICE checkpoints and sweeps are false, dangerous and irresponsible. These reports create mass panic and put communities and law enforcement personnel in unnecessary danger. Any groups falsely reporting such activities are doing a disservice to those they claim to support."
Walls also has stressed: "All enforcement activities are conducted with the same level of professionalism and respect that ICE officers exhibit every day."
Contact Tresa Baldas: [email protected]. Staff writer Niraj Warikoo contributed to this report.
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Republican Senator Lindsey Graham railed against the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, calling it “illegitimate” and “unconstitutional” and said he plans to introduce a Senate resolution that would argue any articles of impeachment should be “dismissed in the Senate without a trial.”
Unveiling his plans to Sean Hannity, Graham attacked what he said was an impeachment process that was trampling on President Donald Trump’s rights.
“We cannot allow future presidents and this president to be impeached based on an inquiry in the House that’s never been voted upon that does not allow the president to confront the witnesses against him, to call witnesses on his behalf, and cross-examine people who are accusing him of misdeeds,” Graham said, previewing the language of his forthcoming Senate resolution. “All I’m asking is give Donald Trump the same rights as [Presidents] Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton had when it comes to impeachment. I’m insisting that Donald Trump be given the same rights that any American has if you’re giving a parking ticket to confront the witnesses against you: can’t be based on hearsay. And here’s the point of the resolution: Any impeachment vote based on this process, to me, is illegitimate, is unconstitutional, and should be dismissed in the Senate without a trial.”
This new procedural tactic by Graham follows on the heels of his unabashed defense of Trump’s incendiary “lynching” analogy earlier on Tuesday and, notably, comes amid a new Daily Beast report that the Trump White House is frustrated with the lack of assertive pushback from Senator Republicans, in particular the South Carolina senator.
“This process in the House is being conducted behind closed doors, Republicans are being shut out, and if you had an inquiry vote, that allows Republicans and a president to call witnesses and to confront people accusing the president of misdeeds. That’s what happened with Clinton, that’s what happened with Nixon and [President] Andrew Johnson,” Graham said.
Such historical comparisons are inexact and don’t line up with the current circumstances, however. For example, the impeachment of Clinton came after a years-long Independent Counsel investigation and the only witness to testify during the 1998 House impeachment was Ken Starr, the Independent Counsel. And Nixon was never formally impeached, as three articles of impeachment were passed by the House Judiciary Committee after a long investigation into the Watergate scandal, but he resigned before the full House could ever vote on them.
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
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more images that it said showed additional activity at Yongbyon, including testing of a nuclear-reactor cooling system. The reactor was not yet operational as of June 14, the group said.
Several congressional Democrats on Friday demanded that the House Foreign Affairs Committee hold hearings on the expansion of North Korea’s arsenal.
“We are very concerned by recent reports on efforts by the North Korean regime to expand production of nuclear fuel; to make improvements to missile facilities; and to deceive the United States during the course of ongoing negotiations,” the lawmakers, led by Rep. Ted W. Lieu of Los Angeles, wrote in a letter to the committee.
Trump and Pompeo, however, remain publicly optimistic about Kim’s intentions — unrealistically so in the opinion of numerous experts and current and former U.S. officials from both parties.
“Spoke with POTUS while we were both in the air,” Pompeo said in an earlier tweet. “The President told me he believes that Chairman Kim sees a different, brighter future for the people of North Korea. We both hope that’s true.”
With details and access limited, the reporters traveling with Pompeo sought to fill the void. One interviewed their North Korean handler, Kim Kwang Hak, a foreign ministry official.
When ABC’s Tara Palmeri asked him what North Koreans were expecting from the meeting, he quipped, “We’ll have to see, like your president says.” Then he laughed and asked of the American reporters in his van, “No fake news?”
Bloomberg’s Nick Wadhams provided the menu from Pompeo’s lunch with Kim Yong Chol: “Steamed Hock with Red Sauce,” corn puree, kimchi and “Nutritious Boiled Rice.”
And the South Korean newspaper Chosun reported that Pompeo took as a gift for Kim Jong Un a CD of Elton John, autographed by Trump and containing the song “Rocket Man” — the president’s nickname for Kim last year as they lobbed hostile words and threats prior to this year’s warming.
Pompeo declined to confirm the report.
Staff writer David S. Cloud contributed to this report.
[email protected]
For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter
UPDATES:
9:10 p.m.: The article was updated with comments from State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.
The article was originally published at 3:30 p.m.
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Smartphones with a removable battery became a rarity in 2020. Only a few budget models left this useful feature. However, many users still interested in devices that support fast battery replacement. For them, Samsung introduced the Galaxy XCover Pro smartphone. For the first time he appeared on the Finnish website of the company. Now the release of the novelty has been finally confirmed.
Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro a mid-priced rugged smartphone. This phone designed to operate in aggressive environments. Despite the presence of a removable battery, which complicates the organization of moisture protection, the new device will delight customers with waterproof class IP68.
The smartphone is certified according to the MIL-STD 810G standard, which means resistance to vibration, shock, shaking, dust, moisture, pressure, sunlight and other aggressive influences. According to the manufacturer, the novelty withstands without a fall from a height of 1.5 meters.
The case, made of rubberized plastic, contains two additional programmable keys. They can be assigned to launch an application or call a popular function, such as PTT or Microsoft Teams Walkie Talkie.
Galaxy XCover Pro aimed at business customers and has an EMV 1 certificate. Its presence allows you to use the device to receive contactless payments from bank cards and smartphones equipped with NFC. For this purpose, point-of-sale software preinstalled in the system. Samsung reports that the device has received Visa approval for participating in the new Tap to Phone program, which allows turning a mobile device into a payment terminal.
Specs of Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro
Specifications Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro are on a budget-average level and are less impressive than protection and business functions. The smartphone equipped with a 6.3-inch IPS screen with a resolution of FullHD +. It has a small hole under the camera in the left corner and supports pressing with wet hands and gloves.
The basis of the device is an 8-core Exynos 9611 chip, and the amount of RAM / permanent memory is 4/64 GB. Storage can be expanded with a microSD card.
Like most modern smartphones, the Galaxy XCover Pro equipped with a dual main camera. Phone built on matrices with a resolution of 25MP main and 8MP wide-angle. A 13MP sensor installed on the front. For autonomy, a removable battery meets the capacity of 4050 mAh. It supports fast charging with a power of 15 W via a USB Type C port.
The device in the United States will be available for sale in Verizon stores. The retail cost is set at $ 499.
You can also read:
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max: Comparison of Features and Dimensions
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heads with. In scene after rambunctious scene, Venom effectively manipulates Eddie like a rag doll, whether turning him into an expert fighting machine or sending him through the frenzied motions of a high-speed car chase.
This is one instance in which a story that should have been unsparingly dark feels hobbled, even sanitized, by its PG-13 rating.
Tom Hardy, left, and Riz Ahmed star in “Venom.” (Frank Masi / Sony Pictures Entertainment)
For all that, however, “Venom” never fully embraces or maximizes the exuberant nastiness of its premise. This is one instance in which a story that should have been unsparingly dark feels hobbled, even sanitized, by its PG-13 rating, and also by the usual Hollywood franchise imperatives. In time, of course, Eddie and Venom will eventually become a functional buddy-comedy duo, with Eddie partaking of Venom’s extraordinary abilities while bringing those pesky deadly impulses under submission.
At one point, Eddie, desperate to satiate his guest’s ravenous appetite (“Hungry!” is one of Venom’s more frequent exclamations), jumps into a water tank and chows down on live lobsters, in an amusing scene that by rights should have been longer. Hardy might well agree, to judge by a recent Comics Explained interview in which he noted that 40 minutes of footage — including some of his favorite material in the movie — had been left on the cutting-room floor. The slapdash, tossed-together feel of “Venom,” the sense that it’s over just as it’s getting started, would seem to vindicate Hardy’s reservations.
Perhaps we will eventually see a fuller, better version of this movie. Perhaps we already have: This year has already given us the aptly titled “Upgrade,” a viciously clever little biotech thriller starring Logan Marshall-Green (basically Hardy’s doppelgänger) as a man fending off a bodily intruder. You could see it as “Venom’s” more evil twin. Or you could just see it as the good one.
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‘Venom’
Rating: PG-13, for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for language
Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Playing: In general release
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When Paul Ryan was asked about the economy in Thursday night's debate, he didn't have any policy answers. He had a list of problems and, to counter Mitt Romney's dismissal of 47 percent of Americans as victims lacking personal responsibility, a personal anecdote about Romney helping one family. But ideas for making things better for a majority of Americans? Nothing.
Joe Biden's answer emphasizes how bankrupt an approach that is, making the serious point that it's not enough to see economic problems or to care about individuals, you have to have policies that answer those problems:
So I don't doubt [Romney's] personal commitment to individuals. But you know what? I know he had no commitment to the automobile industry. He just—he said, let it go bankrupt, period. Let it drop out. All this talk—we saved a million jobs. Two hundred thousand people are working today. And I've never met two guys who're more down on America across the board. We're told everything's going bad. There are 5.2 million new jobs, private-sector jobs. We need more, but 5.2 million—if they'd get out of the way, if they'd get out of the way and let us pass the tax cut for the middle class, make it permanent, if they get out of the way and pass the—pass the jobs bill, if they get out of the way and let us allow 14 million people who are struggling to stay in their homes because their mortgages are upside down, but they never missed a mortgage payment, just get out of the way. Stop talking about how you care about people. Show me something. Show me a policy. Show me a policy where you take responsibility. And, by the way, they talk about this Great Recession if it fell out of the sky, like, "Oh, my goodness, where did it come from?" It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card, to at the same time put a prescription drug benefit on the credit card, a trillion-dollar tax cut for the very wealthy. I was there. I voted against them. I said, no, we can't afford that. And now, all of a sudden, these guys are so seized with the concern about the debt that they created.
Romney and Ryan have no policies to show. They're busy either trying to hide their support for unpopular policies or pretending their policies are something they aren't. They're not just down on America, they're rooting against its success as long as Barack Obama is president, and the policies they'd put in place would destroy the American economy for all but a very few. Kindness to individuals is great. But it's not enough to meet the bar for president of the United States.
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The victim was playing outside her house when the accused lured her with a cold drink and raped her, said police. (Express Photo: Abhishek Angad) The victim was playing outside her house when the accused lured her with a cold drink and raped her, said police. (Express Photo: Abhishek Angad)
A four-year-old girl was raped allegedly by a 30-year-old man Sunday evening in outer Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy. Police said the accused, a daily wage labourer, has been arrested.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (outer) Vikramjit Singh said, “The victim was playing outside her house on a swing when the accused lured her with a cold drink and raped her. He was drunk when he committed the act.”
Police said the accused is from Uttar Pradesh. He has been living in the area for the last five years. He has no criminal record, police added.
According to police, a case has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and under IPC sections 376 (punishment for rape) and 363 (punishment for kidnapping) at Shahbad Dairy police station. The accused was produced in court, which sent him to 14 days in judicial custody.
The child’s mother said, “My daughters were playing in the courtyard. I left the house for 10 minutes to buy groceries. When I returned, I found one of them missing. Other children who were playing nearby said she went near a swing outside the house and did not return. I searched her for an hour and found the accused sexually assaulting my daughter. When I raised an alarm, he ran away.”
She added that her daughter was bleeding profusely and there were scratch marks on her cheek.
“My daughter was alive but bleeding and covered with mud. Her eyes were red and there were scratch marks on her body. We immediately rushed her to a hospital. Doctors told us there were internal injuries on her private parts. They had perform an operation. Her injuries required three stitches,” said the mother.
The girl’s father, who is also from UP and a daily wage labourer, said the family has been living in the locality for the last seven years.
“My daughter said the accused told her he would give her a cold drink. Instead, she said he took her to his room and slapped her twice,” said the father.
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A trio of U.S. senators has said on a visit to Georgia that they will work to get Congress to pass tougher sanctions against Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) said after arriving in Tbilisi on January 1 that "we hope to make 2017 a year of offense.... It is time to push back against Putin."
"It is time for new sanctions to hit [Putin] hard as an individual, [as well as the Russian] energy...[and] banking sector," he said
Graham is on a two-day visit to NATO-hopeful Georgia with Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona) and Amy Klobuchar (Democrat-Minnesota).
"We will strongly urge our colleagues to enact more meaningful and stronger sanctions against Russia because of their [hacking] attack" on the United States, McCain said, adding that "it's very clear that the evidence is overwhelming that it was Russia [that hacked into Democratic National Committee e-mail accounts]."
The senators visited Khurvaleti, on the boundary with the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia that has been controlled by Russian forces since a brief war in 2008.
"These are very difficult and challenging times," McCain said. "We will continue to do everything we can to support the total independence, freedom, and territorial integrity of the country of Georgia."
WATCH: McCain Visits Georgia's Breakaway Region Frontier
The U.S. senators will also meet with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and President Giorgi Margvelashvili, and opposition leaders, and visit the Georgia-NATO joint training center in Krtsanisi while in Georgia.
Graham said the three senators will return to Congress and tell others "what Russia is up to in the Baltics [and] what they are doing in Ukraine."
The U.S. senators are visiting Georgia following a trip to Ukraine and a three-day tour of the Baltic states.
Speaking on December 31 on the front line in Ukraine's eastern conflict zone, McCain promised continued support for Kyiv in the face of aggression from Moscow.
"I send the message from the American people -- we are with you, your fight is our fight, and we will win together," McCain was quoted as saying by Ukrainian President Poroshenko's press service.
"In 2017, we will defeat the invaders and send them back where they came from. To Vladimir Putin -- you will never defeat the Ukrainian people and deprive them of their independence and freedom," McCain said after a visit to a military base in the southeastern town of Shyrokyne.
With reporting by Reuters
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Councils across London stepped in on Sunday evening to form a 24-hour Grenfell Tower fire response service alongside the government, the British Red Cross, and emergency services and said the initial response was "simply not good enough on the ground".
Eleanor Kelly, chief executive of Southwark council, and part of the newly established Grenfell Fire Response Team, said in a statement: "We want to make clear that whilst the emergency and local community response was nothing short of heroic, we know that the initial response was simply not good enough on the ground. People are angry, and rightfully so.
"Our focus is now ensuring those affected are being cared for and looked after.
"This new team is now leading the recovery and response to the Grenfell Tower fire, which has been one of the most tragic and horrendous events ever seen."
London local government has a resilience response that can be invoked when a major London incident like the Grenfell fire happens.
Yet the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea invoked this only on the afternoon of Friday 16 June – almost three days after the incident.
The response team, a coalition including the Metropolitan police and the London Fire Brigade, said it was currently responding to "what the community are telling us they need", adding that people who came to Westway Sports and Fitness Centre would be able to access services and support provided by a new team around the clock.
It said housing was the main priority and that by the end of Monday 19 June it is aiming to have contacted all known families affected by the fire and completed an assessment of what they need.
The response team said the latest information it has is that 201 households have so far received emergency accommodation to date, of which 113 are homeless – almost five days after the fire.
The Red Cross, which provides humanitarian aid in crisis zones, has been drafted in to provide community assistance and will be part of the teams allocated to every household affected.
BuzzFeed News first revealed earlier that officials from a nearby London council had said they were assuming control over aspects of the Grenfell Tower response operation – as accusations of mismanagement of the crisis mounted against Kensington and Chelsea council.
Volunteers and humanitarian charity workers were told by officials from Ealing council late on Saturday night there would be a complete handover to the west London authority – the same day the prime minister admitted support on the ground for survivors of the disaster "was not good enough".
Rupinder Hardy, a manager at Ealing council, had been called by Ealing emergency response team on Friday to assist with the Grenfell Tower crisis, and was at Westway Sports Centre visiting family and meeting with volunteers from 7am on Saturday morning until after midnight.
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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Eric Ivan CantorThe Hill's Campaign Report: Florida hangs in the balance Eric Cantor teams up with former rival Dave Brat in supporting GOP candidate in former district Bottom line MORE (R-Va.) called on Democratic leaders to join Republicans in making cuts to entitlement programs and federal agencies.
“It’s high time that we see from [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidGOP senators confident Trump pick to be confirmed by November Durbin: Democrats can'slow' Supreme Court confirmation 'perhaps a matter of hours, maybe days at most' Supreme Court fight pushes Senate toward brink MORE [D-Nev.] and this president, their plans. There’s so much talk around here of the alleged draconian cuts that [Republicans] are presenting. Well, where is their [Democrats'] plan? Where is the demonstration that they are willing to make the tough decisions?” Cantor said on Monday afternoon.
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Cantor said that House Republicans will tackle entitlement reform when they release their budget blueprint at the end of March or in early April.“You are going to see some very bold reforms included. I’m hopeful that we can get cooperation from Harry Reid and the president” to tackle the massive entitlement programs, which represent nearly two-thirds of annual government spending, Cantor said.He added that Republicans “can’t do it alone,” referring to reforming the mandatory spending programs.Earlier Monday, President Obama sent his $3.7 trillion government budget blueprint to Capitol Hill. Cantor said that Obama’s budget did not go far enough to include the cuts to spending – mandatory and discretionary – needed to rein in the federal debt and deficit. The proposed Obama budget cuts $1.1 trillion over 10 years.Obama "certainly talks the talk — I think his State of the Union was an occasion to the challenges facing our country. I feel that his budget document here just misses the mark in terms of living up to the expectations that he laid out,” Cantor explained.The No. 2 House Republican, who had lunch with the president last week, explained that Obama refuses to touch the expensive Medicare and Social Security programs.By contrast, the Virginia lawmaker defended the leadership-backed funding measure set for action on the House floor this week.The continuing resolution, which will fund the government through 2011, would cut $100 billion from government spending and will be open to amendments on the floor.Cantor could not say how many amendments were expected to hit the floor, but he called the process “an open one.”He predicted that the House will approve the final measure — likely on Thursday — with “overwhelming support” from his fellow Republicans and possibly Democrats as well.
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Is there anything worse than the feeling when your phone battery dies? There you are all ready to make that important phone call with a dead phone, not a phone box in sight, and you left your charger at home. Luckily, Czech infrastructure design company, mmcité are working on a street furniture collection to solve all your technological problems.
Smartcité, will consist of a series of outdoor benches and sun loungers equipped with smart accessories such as USB chargers, LED backlighting, secure lockable compartments and charging points for electric bicycles, for the everyday city dweller’s convenience.
The new smart range is designed to keep up with ever-evolving technology advances. Mmcité’s park bench, Woody, comes equipped with a built-in USB charger powered by a cable from the ground connecting to the mains. It allows passers-by with a USB cable at their disposal to have a little rest while they charge their phone.
Despite its tech-inspired design, the bench has a natural aesthetic. Based on the concept of ‘stored lumber,’ they are made from wooden boards slotted together to make a chunky block which hangs over small legs creating the effect that the bench is floating above the pavement.
If you have ever felt stifled stuck inside your grey office while the sun is shining outside, then the Blocq range is for you. The square blocks are fitted with USB chargers, LED backlighting and built-in tables for you to use for your laptop, perfect for outdoor working.
The individual benches are made from a wooden block inside a colourful steel frame and provide a colourful break from the usual grey urban landscape.
LED furniture, Radium, are light up benches that will guide you all the way home. Mmcité have redesigned the traditional bench to create a new more robust design made from a bent sheet of steel. The benches are fitted with USB chargers, built-in tables and LED backlighting for when the streetlights run out.
Eblocq has been designed as a practical addition to school sports fields and gyms. The furniture, based on the successful Blocq range of benches, comes equipped with a pair of USB ports for charging electric bicycles and mobile phones, as well as six secure lockable compartments for storing cycling equipment or rucksacks. Personal belongings can be safely stored in the illuminated compartments secured by locks which can only be opened with keys or with electronic codes.
The Rivage sun lounger allows you to capture all those Intagrammable holiday moments without worrying about your phone running out of juice. It comes with a built-in steel table and USB charging port so you will never miss a photo opportunity again.
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An auction of Aston Martins, the car so beloved of James Bond throughout the decades, raised more than £10million.
The sale at Aston Martin Works at Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, was the biggest in the 16-year history of the event and set a new sales record.
A 1964 DB5 4.2-Litre Sports Saloon, the model James Bond drove in Goldfinger, sold for £595,100.
However this was eclipsed by a 1962 DB4 Series IV Vantage Convertible, originally the property of Sir Peter Ustinov, which went for £1,513,500.
A 1966 Aston Martin DB5 Convertible in Vantage specification was the highest-priced car of the sale, fetching £1,524,700.
Further sale highlights included the 1968 Aston Martin DB6 ‘Mark 1’ Volante at £561,500; and the 1960 Aston Martin DB4 ‘Series 1’ Sports Saloon selling for £494,300.
(Image: Rex)
Bonhams’ UK head of motor cars Tim Schofield said: “As pioneers of the single-marque sale, we've returned to the Works Service here in Newport Pagnell for another great auction, exceeding all previous year’s totals, with £10.3 million of motor cars sold.
“The quintessentially British marque of Aston Martin attracts interest from enthusiasts across the world, a fact demonstrated here as we took bids from all corners of the globe.
"This year’s sale attracted a larger and more cosmopolitan interest than ever before, achieving an excellent result.
“The market demonstrated that there is a ready appetite for exceptional examples, even for models that had previously been regarded as not particularly fashionable.
(Image: Getty)
The result we achieved for a Virage Coupe illustrated this with £74,300 realised for the stunning 1990 model.”
Paul Spires, commercial director at Aston Martin Works, said: “Today’s Aston Martin sale has been another hugely memorable occasion with keen bidding, strong sales, and rare and collectable Aston Martin sports cars going to buyers around the world.
“Despite the mixed weather there was a superbly sociable ‘garden party’ atmosphere among the 2,000 or so Bonhams guests who joined us here today - enjoying the sale and helping us to celebrate our 60 years in fine style.”
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a random distribution at the P < 0.01 level,” wrote researchers in their paper titled ‘Knowledge of Magnetism in Ancient Mesoamerica: Precision measurements of the potbelly sculptures from Monte Alto, Guatemala.’
Further analysis revealed that the magnetism present on the statutes might have been caused by “a lightning-induced electrical current across the rock surface,” a feature that may well predate the manufacture of the sculptures.
In other words, the researchers suggest, through the new study, that the magnetized spots on the statues were not randomly distributed by the builders, and it’s nearly certain that they were intentionally carved to make use of their magnetic properties.
Using and detecting anomalous magnetic fields
The researchers have revealed how the “apparently intentional colocation of carved anatomical features and pre-existing magnetized regions” indicates that the sculptors of the ancient statues were well aware of magnetism, and knew precisely how to incorporate it in their constructions. Furthermore, they also possessed methods and tools that allowed them to detect and identify the presence of ‘anomalous magnetic fields’.
When scientists measured the magnetic field on the sculpture’s they discovered how the anomalous areas were “sufficient to visibly deflect a magnetic compass needle suspended within up to ∼10 cm of the surface.”
All of the above has led researchers to conclude that the Olmecs possessed extensive knowledge about magnetism and developed and created tools that allowed them to make use of anomalous magnetic fields.
“A small number of known Mesoamerican artifacts can plausibly be used as magnetic compasses to detect the magnetic anomalies on the Monte Alto sculptures, although they have not been reported at the site. Nevertheless, their presence at earlier sites elsewhere in Mesoamerica opens the possibility that the Late Pre-classic inhabitants of the Pacific coast were aware of the properties of lodestones,” explained researchers in the study.
“Most intriguingly, the hematite-rich bar from San Lorenzo was able to align to Earth’s magnetic fields with <1° precision. Such a device would have readily indicated the locations and morphologies of magnetized regions on the sculptures if it had been available to the ancient Monte Alto sculptor,” researchers concluded.
The new discoveries and measurements of magnetic anomalies on some of the Olmec statues clearly provide “robust evidence that knowledge of magnetism existed in the Americas by the second half of the first millennium BCE,” concluded the researchers.
Click here to read and download a study titled “Mexico and the early history of magnetism.”
Via Journal of Archaeological Science
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MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The Indian government has rejected criticism of its ambitious sanitation program by a United Nations official who said lower-caste communities had their rights violated by being left to clean toilets built in a nationwide drive.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission, with much fanfare after he took office in 2014. The main aim is to eliminate open defecation by October 2019 by building individual and public toilets.
But activists say the campaign has failed to end the practice of manual scavenging, or clearing faeces by hand, and has even exacerbated the problem because the toilets are not connected to water supplies or the sewage system.
The U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation affirmed those observations.
The emphasis on building toilets should not “contribute to violating fundamental rights of others, such as those engaged in manual scavenging, or ethnic minorities and people living in remote rural areas,” Léo Heller said in a statement on Friday.
“Eliminating open defecation is not only about building latrines, but requires adequate methods for behavior change, and sufficient water supply is a pre-requisite for the sustainable and safe use of adequate, low-cost latrines.”
The Indian government dismissed Heller’s “sweeping judgments” as “either factually incorrect, based on incomplete information, or grossly misrepresent (ing) the situation”.
The campaign fully conforms to human rights principles established by the U.N., it said in a statement, adding that it “strongly rejected his mostly baseless assertions”.
Despite laws to end the practice of manual scavenging, a euphemism for clearing faeces from dry toilets and open drains by hand, it is prevalent in many Indian states.
The occupation has long been thrust upon the Dalit community, the lowest ranked in India’s caste system.
At least 90 percent of the country’s estimated one million manual scavengers are women, who clean public and private dry latrines with barely any safety equipment.
While caste-based discrimination was banned in 1955, Dalit communities continue to face threats of violence if they try to give up manual scavenging.
Dozens of manual scavengers have died in recent years from toxic fumes in septic tanks, activists say.
The Indian government has shown “unprecedented commitment” in tackling the gaps in sanitation, but it also needs to adopt a humanitarian focus in addressing the issues, said Heller, who will submit a full report of his findings in September 2018.
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Crystal Palace are pleased to announce that Yannick Bolasie has signed a new contract at the club.
Bolasie’s previous deal in SE25 had been due to expire this summer, but the Democratic Republic of Congo winger has now committed his future to the club by agreeing terms on a new three-year contract.
The winger gave his immediate reaction to cpfc.co.uk. "I am delighted I am here today with it all signed and I’m ready to kick on and play in the best league in the world.
“I was aware there had been speculation about interest from elsewhere but I in my mind I knew it would be best for my development to stay here and play to the best of my abilities.
“Everyone has seen over the last two years that I have improved and improved and that’s what I want to do again this year.”
Bolasie has admitted he is living the dream playing in England’s top flight and will relish the chance of first team football this season. “When I first moved we were bottom of the Championship. Who would have thought that today we would be playing our second season in the Premier League and creating history so this is definitely a dream for me.”
On a day of new arrivals at the training ground he gave his view on the new manager and a return of a good friend. “With the new manager Neil Warnock he’ll be looking to do a good job and the likes of Wilf (Zaha) coming back makes it even better and on the wings there’s a lot of competition which everyone will be looking forward to.
“I think it’s a good deal for the club and for him because obviously he’s been a bit frustrated after not playing many games last season so hopefully he can make amends for us.”
Bolasie joined the club from Bristol City in August 2012 and has gone on to make 79 first-team appearances.
He was key part of the Crystal Palace side that gained promotion to the Premier League in May 2013, playing 48 games in all competitions, scoring three times and contributing plenty more assists – including the telling cross that led to Wilfried Zaha’s opening goal in the play-off semi-final victory over Brighton and Hove Albion.
Bolasie was once again a mainstay of the Eagles’ side under Ian Holloway and then Tony Pulis last term, making the step up to England’s top flight look effortless by turning in a string of fine displays during his impressive 30-game campaign.
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Barack Obama is gone and the liberals at Rolling Stone need another dreamy leftist to fawn over. Apparently, the magazine has found one in Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister. The August 10 issue is beyond effusive, describing the politician as “seductive” and “goddamned beautiful.” The various headlines give a small indication to the Trudeau love in the article. The print edition enthused, “Justin Trudeau: Why Can’t He Be Our President?”
The Rolling Stone home page wondered, “Justin Trudeau: Is the Canadian Prime Minister the Free World's Best Hope?” The online article cheered, “Justin Trudeau: The North Star.”
How bad was the cover? Even liberal MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes tweeted, “This is unseemly.”
But the actual article itself is even worse. Journalist Stephen Rodrick wrote as though he was a starstruck teen talking to a celebrity:
Trudeau reminds me of, well, Obama as he smiles and listens patiently to me droning on about my Canadian wife as if it is actually interesting. For Trudeau, listening is seducing.
Rodrick couldn't get past Trudeau’s alure, describing, “As we chat, he smiles and locks in with his blue eyes.”
This is reminiscent of the New York Times’ David Brooks writing about Barack Obama in 2005: “We were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant.” In 2006, Terry Moran gushed over Obama: “You can see it in the crowds. The thrill, the hope. How they surge toward him.”
Of course, the journalist contrasted the Canadian politician to Donald Trump:
It's strange to witness: He speaks in a modulated, indoor voice. His dark hair is a color found in nature. At home, there is a glamorous wife and three photogenic children, still not old enough to warm his seat at next week's G-20 summit or be involved in an espionage scandal.
Showing that he’s completely fallen for Trudeau, Rodrick concluded:
Trudeau heads back toward his three-car motorcade that stops at all red lights. In the hall, a couple hundred kids hold signs that say "Hope" and "Respect." They grab his sleeve and then skitter away wearing giant smiles. It would have been corny if it had not been so goddamned beautiful.
Talk about a press release. Apparently the journalistic credo of speaking truth to power only applies when the person in question is a conservative politician.
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The White House said Wednesday that it considers the New York City terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov an enemy combatant, a legal option in terrorism cases that has been rarely pursued in recent years.
“I believe we would consider this person to be an enemy combatant, yes,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during the press briefing. “I think the actions that he took certainly justify that.”
Saipov is accused of killing eight people and injuring at least a dozen others in a truck attack in lower Manhattan on Tuesday, the deadliest terror attack in New York City since 9/11.
The White House follows two powerful Republican senators arguing for the enemy combatant designation as well: Arizona’s John McCain and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham. Saipov “should not be read Miranda rights, as enemy combatants are not entitled to them,” McCain said in a statement. He “qualifies as an enemy combatant under the law of war,” Graham said on Fox News.
A designation of enemy combatant means suspects can be held without certain rights granted to citizens, so they aren’t guaranteed a lawyer, for example, and they can be held indefinitely. The president has the power to name enemy combatants. President Obama’s administration didn’t use the term to “symbolically separate the new administration from Bush detention policies,” the New York Times reported in 2009, although Obama did not close the Guantánamo Bay detention center for enemy combatants due to congressional restrictions.
Earlier Wednesday, President Trump said he would “certainly consider” sending Saipov to Guantánamo. But Sanders clarified the comment at the briefing, saying that “the point [Trump] was making is that he supports or would support that, he wasn’t necessarily advocating for that.”
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Write to Tessa Berenson at [email protected].
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WASHINGTON — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) issued a statement Oct. 1 denying speculation that the upper stage of its Falcon 9 v1.1. rocket exploded on orbit following the rocket’s successful demonstration launch Sept. 29 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The speculation was spawned in part by the fact that the U.S. Space Surveillance Network is currently tracking more orbital objects associated with the launch than expected.
In its maiden launch, the Falcon 9 v1.1 carried the Canadian Space Agency’s Cassiope space weather satellite and three secondary payloads to low Earth orbit. The launch was a trial for the upgraded rocket — the Falcon 9 v1.1 features a stretched fuel tank, new engines and a 5.2-meter-diameter fairing — that SpaceX now hopes to use to launch commercial communications satellites to geostationary orbit.
The SES-8 satellite owned by SES of Luxembourg, would be the first of these. It is tentatively scheduled to launch in October from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. However, that launch may be delayed as SpaceX investigates why a planned reignition of the second stage following deployment of the payloads could not be completed.
“Regarding the rumors you may have heard about the Falcon 9 second stage, in short, our data confirms there was no rupture of any kind on the second stage,” SpaceX spokeswoman Emily Shanklin wrote in an Oct. 1 email. “Following separation of the satellites to their correct orbit, the Falcon 9 second stage underwent a controlled venting of propellants … and the stage was successfully safed. During this process, it is possible insulation came off the fuel dome on the second stage and is the source of what some observers incorrectly interpreted as a rupture in the second stage.”
SpaceX attempted to reignite the upper stage after payload separation in a demonstration of a capability it will need to place satellites into the proper geostationary transfer orbit. However, the reignition sequence was aborted after a problem was detected, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk told reporters in a postlaunch teleconference.
Following the launch, an eyewitness in Reunion Island off the eastern coast of Madagascar posted a photograph on the website Reddit of what amateur astronomers later determined was a cloud of rocket propellent surrounding the spent Falcon 9 1.1 upper stage. By Sept. 30, the U.S Air Force-run Space Surveillance System was tracking 20 objects associated with the launch in low Earth orbit. Experts were expecting to see 11 objects, including Cassiope; the three secondary payloads, one of which released seven independently flying objects; and the upper stage.
SpaceX’s explanation of events is copied below:
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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s economy picked up speed in the three months up to its vote to leave the European Union, data showed on Wednesday, helped by the biggest upturn in industrial production since 1999.
Sterling was little moved on the data and few in the financial markets expect the pace of growth will last into the second half of the year, with most economists saying the economy is at a high risk of recession after the country voted to leave the European Union.
Second-quarter gross domestic product beat expectations to grow by 0.6 percent, up from 0.4 percent in the first three months of the year, the Office for National Statistics said.
Output in the three months to June was 2.2 percent higher than a year earlier, the strongest annual growth in a year and exceeding a forecast for it to hold steady at 2.0 percent.
Much has been changed by the Brexit vote, however.
“The collapse in all surveys of activity and confidence undertaken since the referendum suggest GDP is on course to contract in Q3,” Pantheon Macroeconomics’ chief UK economist Samuel Tombs said.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said again after the data that the government had the tools to support the economy as it entered a “period of adjustment” as it prepared to leave the EU.
“Along with the Bank of England, this government will take whatever action is necessary,” he said.
The improvement in economic growth in the second quarter reflected strong industrial output, services and construction in April, which largely dissipated in May and June.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
That chimed with the view of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research that growth slowed markedly towards the end of the quarter.
A closely-watched business survey last week showed corporate activity contracted this month at the fastest pace since 2009, around the nadir of the global financial crisis.
A Reuters poll of economists last week suggested it was more likely than not that Britain will slide into recession in the coming year. [ECILT/GB]
The Bank of England, which estimated second quarter growth would come in at around 0.5 percent, looks likely to cut interest rates for the first time since 2009 next week, although economists are divided about whether it will ramp up its quantitative easing programme. [BOE/INT]
The Bank wrong-footed investors earlier this month by keeping rates on hold, although it held out the prospect of a stimulus package.
The ONS said the pick-up in growth was driven jointly by services and industrial production, the latter of which expanded 2.1 percent on the quarter - its best performance since 1999.
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so I just rewatched The Thin Yellow Line and i think i get what the episode was trying to say
all the banana guards, they were terrified that if they expressed any deviance from their original ‘purpose’, they would be ‘fixed’ or outright destroyed. the impression they’d gotten was that they were created to guard and not for anything else. they had an almost religious fear of their creator’s disappointment, her wrath.
now this is quite interesting because banana guards are TERRIBLE at guarding, the absolute worst. they function so badly at their core job that Finn and Jake are hired in an official capacity to pick up the slack.
but they are really good at their other interests, it’s where they flourish, right? at least the ones that do have other interests, but the ones that dont, theyre important too.
and when it comes to their “purpose”, perhaps that’s what it was supposed to be after all. PB created candy life not because she wanted to build a terifying empire but because she wanted company. And what sort of company is it, really, when everybody is exactly the same? when everybody only serves one function as if theyre a robot? no. to create LIFE, you have to give it INDIVIDUALITY. and if what you’ve created is truly alive it will develop this by itself.
i think PB might have lost sight of this in the past, which is why she got burned by FP and the Candy People in season 6, but by this time she was calming down a bit (and continues to do so). PB’s character has gone from ignoring the effects she has on others to absorbing them; she has to figure out what sort of kingdom she wants to create, whether to build only semi- paranoid defences against an impeding threat or accept that other people will end up taking losses because they’re people.
of course the candy people havent gotten the memo yet and theyre still scared of her. this will probably be amplified after, say, Elements; they have respect for their goddess but are yet to understand her as a person. i think a fitting end for pb would be her candy people standing by her side as friends, not subjects. then the individuality of their life would be fully realized.
[an analysis like this could be applied to any story with artificial intelligence. i was looking up videos with Javik from Mass Effect in and he said that the reason AI and humans will always fight is because AI know who their creators are, know why they were built. they understand that their gods are inallibale and begin to se themselves as the superior evolution.]
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Getty Cruz calls McConnell a Democrat
Ted Cruz on Thursday night accused Mitch McConnell of being "the most effective Democratic leader in modern times."
Furious over the deal to raise the debt ceiling and strike a budget agreement, the Texas Republican and presidential candidate ticked off a set of statistics showing several high-profile votes that united Democrats and divided Republicans. The vote totals for the confirmation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch and backing off of a fight over President Barack Obama's immigration actions led Cruz to a "shocking conclusion" -- that the Senate majority leader is a Democrat in disguise.
"I've got to say, Leader McConnell has proven to be a very effective Democratic leader. With just 46 Democrats, the outcome is exactly what Harry Reid and the Democrats would want," Cruz said of the budget accord. "Is this not a curious state of affairs? Why is a Republican majority leader fighting to accomplish the priorities of the Democratic minority."
The 90-minute broadside, delivered to a mostly empty Senate chamber as lawmakers prepared for a 1 a.m. vote, was more pointed than ever but a continuation of his long-running feud with McConnell. He's already called the GOP leader a liar for allowing a vote on the Export-Import Bank, so perhaps the word "Democrat" is one of the few insults Cruz has left in his arsenal.
Cruz said if McConnell quibbles with the label, he should commit to only voting on legislation that accrues a majority of Senate Republicans.
"That would be a sensible reform. Sadly, I think the odds of it happening are not significant," Cruz said.
In typical fashion, the reserved McConnell was not on the floor to offer a response nor did any of his allies offer a return volley. Plenty of Republican senators oppose the deal that delivers $80 billion in new military and domestic spending, but McConnell's backing is so deep within the Senate GOP that Cruz is alone in dishing out such personal attacks.
The Texan's speech was a bit of a make-up attempt from Wednesday's debate, when Cruz used a question on the debt ceiling to attack the CNBC moderators. While that earned a major applause line, CNBC did not let him answer the question on the debt ceiling and budget deal, an issue directly in Cruz's wheelhouse given his lonely war against McConnell. Cruz later was able to answer, but he didn't hit his stride as he did on Thursday evening.
"In the Senate we have one leadership team. It is the McConnell-Reid leadership team. In the House we have had the Boehner-Pelosi leadership team. They operate in complete harmony growing Washington," Cruz said. "That frustration is what is driving every day the growing and growing rage from the American people."
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Will Rep. Richard Neal face a challenger for his Congressional seat?
Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse is considering a run against Neal, Politico reports.
Morse is privately speaking with fellow Democrats and donors in Western Massachusetts to gauge support in such a run, Politico reports, citing a donor and sources familiar with the conversations.
A telephone survey was conducted in May comparing the two politicians’ records and the importance of issues including Medicare for All, broadband in rural communities and political spending.
The 30-year-old was elected to his fourth term as mayor in 2017. He was 23 years old when he first took office in 2012 as the youngest mayor in Holyoke’s history, and the first openly gay mayor.
Neal, 70, has represented Massachusetts’s 1st Congressional District for three decades. He previously served as the mayor of Springfield and on the city council. He assumed the high-ranking role as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee in January.
As one of the most influential Democrats in Washington, Neal has seen a boost in donor support.
In his first quarter as chairman, Neal received more than $500,000 in donations, including $308,000 in PAC contributions, and reported just under $3.4 million cash on hand.
The first-quarter report also showed $467,220 in spending at high-priced restaurants and sporting events seeking to woo wealthy donors, which has drawn some criticism.
David Daley, former executive editor of Salon.com and a best selling author, wrote columns in several publications accusing Neal of conducting pay-to-play politics, not focusing on his district.
“Neal is one of the very few House members yet to hold a town hall in his district this session. He’s too busy puttin’ on the Ritz," Daley wrote in an opinion piece published in The Republican. "All that money means he doesn’t think he needs to listen to us. Perhaps it’s time for the congressman to talk to his constituents and not his donors. We have a few questions for him.”
Morse could receive support from a critic of Neal’s. The mayor had lunch with billionaire Tom Steyer earlier this year.
Steyer is the founder of Need to Impeach, a progressive organization founded to push for the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. The organization launched billboards earlier this year targeting Neal, urging the House Ways and Means Committee’s chairman seek the president’s tax information.
The House Ways and Means Committee filed a complaint in federal court last week seeking to compel the Internal Revenue Service to turn over six years of the president’s tax returns.
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Members of the International Whaling Commission defeated a Japanese proposal to reinstate commercial whaling at a meeting in Brazil on Friday.
The commission suspended commercial whaling in the 1980s, but Japan argued that stocks have recovered sufficiently for the ban to be lifted and that no good reason exists to maintain a measure that was meant to be temporary. It has repeatedly tried to lift the ban.
Other countries argued that many whale populations are still vulnerable and that whaling is increasingly seen as unacceptable.
Japan's proposal was defeated Friday by a vote of 41-27 in Florianopolis, Brazil.
"This is not a debate about human rights nor is it a debate about global food security," Nick Gales, Australia's commissioner to the IWC, said during a debate on Thursday. "It is a business proposition against which many parties hold legitimate environmental and welfare concerns."
After the vote, Japan suggested that it would reconsider its membership in the international body.
It has argued that the commission has become "intolerant" and remains deadlocked on many issues because of the divide between countries that prize conservation and those that push for the sustainable use of whales.
Japan had proposed changes to the way the body operates, including a provision which would allow measures to be adopted by a simple, rather than super, majority.
"If scientific evidence and diversity are not respected, if commercial whaling based on science is completely denied, and if there is no possibility for the different positions and views to coexist with mutual understanding and respect, then Japan will be pressed to undertake a fundamental reassessment of its position as a member of the IWC," Masaaki Taniai, Japan's state minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said after the vote Friday.
Patrick Ramage, director of marine conservation at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, noted that Japan has frequently threatened to pull out of the body.
The measure's "adoption would have been a big step backwards for the IWC, returning us to the bygone days of open commercial whaling instead of becoming a modern conservation body," Ramage said in a statement. "The real way forward for whales is conservation and responsible whale watching, not cruel and unnecessary whale killing."
The Japanese have hunted whales for centuries and see it as a cheaper alternative source of protein. They currently hunt under a commission provision that allows killing whales for research purposes.
The number of whales Japan kills each year is now capped at 333, about a third of the number it used to kill before the International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that its program wasn't scientific in nature.
Some, however, say the research program remains a cover for commercial whaling because the whale meat is sold for food.
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We thank T. Hyman and I. Poser for donating multiple mouse BAC protein–GFP cell lines and T. Hirota for giving us the eGFP–CENPA cell line. The automatic imaging would not have been possible without R. Höfler and D. W. Gerlich, who developed the Micronaut software. We thank all members of the Ellenberg and Peters laboratories for support, especially M. Isokane, M. J. Roberti, J. Mergenthaler, S. Otsuka, W. Tang and D. Cisneros for generating cell lines, reagents and constructs. We thank A. Callegari for supporting the U2OS data generation. We also thank W. Huber, B. Fischer, B. Klaus and L. P. Coelho for discussions, the EMBL mechanical and electronic workshop, the EMBL advanced light microscopy facility, the EMBL flow cytometry core facility and the IMP BioOptics Facility for their support. This study has benefited from the collaboration with Carl ZEISS Jena, especially with T. Ohrt. The work was supported by grants from EU-FP7-MitoSys (Grant Agreement 241548) to J.E. and J.M.P., EU-FP7-SystemsMicroscopy NoE (Grant Agreement 258068), EU-H2020-iNEXT (Grant Agreement 653706) and the 4D Nucleome/4DN National Institutes of Health common fund (5 U01 EB021223-04 / 8 U01 DA047728-04) all to J.E., as well as by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Y.C., M.J.H., J.-K.H., A.Z.P., N.W., B.K., M.W., B.N., M.K., S.A. and J.E.). Y.C. and N.W. were also supported by the EMBL International PhD Programme (EIPP). Research in the laboratory of J.M.P. was further supported by Boehringer Ingelheim, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF special research program SFB F34 ‘Chromosome Dynamics’ and Wittgenstein award Z196-B20), the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (Headquarter grants FFG-834223 and FFG-852936) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement 693949).
Reviewer information
Nature thanks R. Murphy, J. Swedlow and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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“I mean, that would be pretty special, pretty crazy actually,” Coleman said.
Other coaches are already guaranteed multiple medals here. Edrick Floréal’s hurdlers are having quite a meet, with Omar McLeod of Jamaica winning gold in the men’s 110 hurdles and Kori Carter of the United States winning gold in the women’s 400 hurdles. Floréal also coaches Keni Harrison, the world-record holder in the women’s 100 hurdles, who hit the first hurdle in her semifinal Friday night but recovered to squeak into the final as the last qualifier.
“If you think about it, how many athletes would reach a medal stand without a coach?” Floréal said. “The good ones are really life coaches. It’s not just running around teaching how to hurdle or do stride patterns.”
But while Floréal said he appreciated the gesture by the London organizing committee and track and field’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, he still felt some of its priorities were not in order.
“I think there’s an underlying slap in the face for coaches in that something as simple as getting access to the warm-up track to talk to an athlete means you have to jump through 9,000 hoops and get a pass and then pass it on to someone else when you’re done,” he said. “Meanwhile, it seems like all the agents are getting a pass from the I.A.A.F. Its like the agents are more valued than the people actually getting athletes to perform. There has to be a shift. I think it’s senseless.”
There is also the argument, not unreasonable in light of track and field’s long history of doping violations, that giving medals to coaches only means there will be two to return instead of one after an infraction. Should coaches be so honored considering the role some have played in some of the sport’s biggest scandals? (See Trevor Graham, former coach to Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin.)
“You don’t want to treat everybody as an inmate because a bunch of people are thieves,” Floréal said. “You put the law in place to punish criminals, but I think coaches should be given the benefit of the doubt.”
While Stefanidi said she supported recognizing coaches, she said that if the I.A.A.F. continued the practice there should be an attempt to make the presentation more formal. Now, she said, it feels like an afterthought to be handed the coach’s medal away from the spotlight.
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We can’t disagree with any of this, although we’re puzzled by the sense of surprise. Mr. Trump’s debasement of Mr. Sessions — starting with a mind-boggling interview he gave last week to The Times — is in line with everything he’s said and done since he fired James Comey, the F.B.I. director, in May, in an inept attempt to shut down the bureau’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. Mr. Trump has been unpredictable in many things, but he has been utterly consistent when it comes to resisting any inquiry, however warranted and public-spirited, into his campaign or his close associates.
Mr. Trump’s gratuitous, schoolyard abuse of Mr. Sessions is nonetheless breathtaking. With his thumb-tapping bravado, the president is publicly going after the nation’s top law enforcement officer for doing what professional ethics and department rules required the attorney general to do — recuse himself from any investigations related to the presidential campaign. (Mr. Trump kept up the fusillade on Wednesday, criticizing Mr. Sessions for not firing the acting F.B.I. director, Andrew McCabe, whose wife has political ties to Hillary Clinton.)
Mr. Sessions’s recusal was necessary, of course, because of his role as one of Mr. Trump’s earliest and staunchest supporters, and his own undisclosed contacts with Russian officials — facts that make it impossible for him to maintain the neutrality and independence essential to any credible inquiry. Mr. Trump, who appears to understand little and care even less about the importance of these limitations, thinks Mr. Sessions’s job is to protect him by impeding those investigations. In other words, he expects the attorney general to obstruct justice on his behalf.
Mr. Trump is startlingly blunt about this, calling Mr. Sessions’s recusal “unfair to the president,” as though he is owed a personal loyalty that supersedes the rule of law. The irony is that Mr. Sessions has been the most loyal of Mr. Trump’s supporters, arguably more invested in implementing the Trump agenda than the president himself.
This page is no fan of Mr. Sessions, whose dark vision of America includes a hard-line stance on illegal immigration, a return to the war on drugs and other discredited tough-on-crime policies, and a government newly empowered to seize cash and other property from ordinary citizens without due process. But just as Mr. Sessions was right to recuse himself, he is right to stand his ground now, effectively daring Mr. Trump to fire him.
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It was just about a month ago when the Justice Department kicked to the curb the attorneys representing the alleged Silk Road mastermind. The government said there wasn't a National Security Agency "bogeyman" needed to discover the illicit drug site's servers as the defense lawyers alleged.
Instead, the authorities said poor programming by defendant Ross Ulbricht allowed the FBI to easily discover the Icelandic servers because of a leak in the site's login CAPTCHA.
"Ulbricht conjures up a bogeyman – the National Security Agency (“NSA”) – which Ulbricht suspects, without any proof whatsoever, was responsible for locating the Silk Road server, in a manner that he simply assumes somehow violated the Fourth Amendment," Serrin Turner, the assistant US attorney in New York, had written in a September court filing.
But government documents handed over to defendant Ross Ulbricht's defense team have prompted the defense to cry foul.
Ulbricht attorney Joshua Horowitz, in a new legal filing, wrote that the "explanation of how the FBI discovered the server's IP address is implausible." [PDF]
For starters, he said, the government has maintained no record of packet logs [PDF] of the FBI actually capturing leakage from the CAPTCHA.
"Failure to preserve packet logs recorded while investigating the Silk Road servers would defy the most basic principles of forensic investigative techniques," Horowitz wrote Wednesday.
US District Judge Katherine Forrest in New York on Friday ordered [PDF] the government, if it wanted to, to respond by Monday.
Nicholas Weaver, a University of California, Berkeley computer scientist, has analyzed the documents that the government provided and said traffic logs indicate that the FBI "didn't see leakage" from the login page.
“What happened is they contacted that IP directly and got a PHPMyAdmin configuration page," Weaver said on KrebsOnSecurity.
All of which begs the question, again, of how the authorities discovered Silk Road's servers, he said.
"That’s still the $64,000 question," Weaver said. “So both the CAPTCHA couldn’t leak in that configuration, and the IP the government visited wasn’t providing the CAPTCHA, but instead a PHPMyAdmin interface. Thus, the leaky CAPTCHA story is full of holes.”
The underground drug website Silk Road was shuttered last year as part of a federal raid and was only accessible through the anonymizing tool Tor.
The government alleges that Ulbricht, as Dread Pirate Roberts, "reaped commissions worth tens of millions of dollars” through his role as the site's leader. Trial is set for next month.
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LONDON — Academy Award-winning actress Olivia Colman was honored Friday by Queen Elizabeth II — the monarch she is about to play on television in "The Crown."
Colman was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, in the annual Queen's Birthday Honors list.
The performer won a best-actress Oscar this year for playing 18th-century monarch Queen Anne in "The Favourite." She plays the current queen in the third season of Netflix's royal drama "The Crown," which is currently in production.
Colman said she was "totally thrilled, delighted and humbled" by the honor.
Honors are awarded twice a year, at New Year and to mark the monarch's official birthday in June, and reward hundreds of people for services to their community or national life. Most go to people who are not in the limelight, but there is also a sprinkling of famous faces.
Recipients are selected by committees of civil servants from nominations made by the government and the public, with the awards bestowed by the queen and other senior royals during Buckingham Palace ceremonies.
Feargal Sharkey, former lead singer of The Undertones — best known for punk classic "Teenage Kicks" — was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE. So were singer-songwriter Elvis Costello and actress Cush Jumbo, a star of TV legal series "The Good Fight."
British-Sri Lankan rapper MIA, whose full name is Mathangi Arulpragasam, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE.
In descending order, the main honors are knighthoods, CBE, OBE and MBE. Knights are addressed as "sir" or "dame," followed by their name. Recipients of the other honors have no title, but can put the letters after their names.
Meanwhile Prince Harry and his wife Meghan were among members of the royal family to attend an annual military parade in honor of Queen Elizabeth on Saturday — Meghan's first official royal engagement since the birth of her and Harry's son Archie.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex arrive at Trooping The Colour, the Queen's annual birthday parade, on June 08, 2019 in London, England. Chris Jackson / Getty Images
Known as the Trooping of the Colour, the parade has marked the official birthday of the reigning British monarch for more than 260 years, and this year features more than 1,400 soldiers, nearly 300 horses and 400 musicians.
The display closes with a fly-past by Britain's Royal Air Force.
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The average broadband connection speed in December was at 64 megabits per second.
The average broadband connection speed in New Zealand has more than tripled in the past three years.
According to network company Chorus, the average broadband connection speed in December was at 64 megabits per second.
New Zealand is ranked 21 in the world for fastest connection speed, a significant change from coming 42nd in 2016.
Singapore has the fastest broadband connection speed in the world, at 166 mbps.
READ MORE:
* Chart: Are there more employees in New Zealand's telco industry?
* NZers now paying less for telecommunication services
* Chorus: NZ would be irrational to duplicate 5G infrastructure
Chorus, which is building most of the country's ultrafast broadband network, says it could add a network of 5G access points to its fibre network to avoid the need for unnecessary duplication.
Spokesman Ian Bonnar said that by 2025, there could be fibre-connected 5G access points every "couple of hundred metres apart", if not closer.
Bonnar said Chorus would not get involved in the mobile market, and instead would be part of the wholesale infrastructure.
Chorus chief executive Kate McKenzie said broadband was a commodity that needed to be provided as affordably and reliably as possible.
She said globally, countries were seeking to balance a clear need for high quality internet access with the increasingly challenging economics of building and delivering the technology.
In August last year, $270 million was allocated to a communications infrastructure package, on top of the $150m previously announced, to extend and speed up the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) build, and to roll out improved rural broadband and mobile coverage.
According to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's September 2017 quarterly broadband report, fibre will be available to 87 per cent of New Zealanders by the end of 2022.
UFB can deliver speeds close to 1000 mbps, depending on a user's plan.
As at September 2017, there were 460,000 UFB fibre connections out of the 1.2 million households and businesses able to connect to UFB.
The price of phone and broadband services in New Zealand dropped significantly at the end of last year.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, the price of telecommunication services dropped by a little over 6 per cent from the same time, the previous year.
According to the Commerce Commission's annual telecommunications monitoring report, the average monthly household spending on telecommunications was $135 in 2016, down $10 from 2010.
Learn more about the information shown above, and explore more charts, at Figure.NZ's site.
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Trump calls report on FBI probe of him'most insulting' President Donald Trump on Saturday called "most insulting" a published report that federal law enforcement officials were investigation whether he was working for Russia.
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Saturday called "most insulting" a published report that federal law enforcement officials were so concerned about his behavior in the days after he fired James Comey from the FBI that they opened an investigation into whether he had been working for Russia against U.S. interests.
The New York Times report Friday cited unnamed former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.
Trump reacted Saturday during a telephone interview broadcast on Fox News Channel after host Jeanine Pirro asked whether he is currently or has ever worked for Russia.
"I think it's the most insulting thing I've ever been asked," he said. "I think it's the most insulting article I've ever had written, and if you read the article you'll see that they found absolutely nothing."
Trump went on to say that no president has taken a harder stance against Russia than he has.
"If you ask the folks in Russia, I've been tougher on Russia than anybody else, any other... probably any other president, period, but certainly the last three or four presidents."
The inquiry forced counterintelligence investigators to evaluate whether Trump was a potential threat to national security. They also sought to determine whether Trump was deliberately working for Russia or had unintentionally been influenced by Moscow.
The Times reported that FBI agents and some top officials became suspicious of Trump's ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign but didn't launch an investigation at that time because they weren't sure how to approach such a sensitive and important probe, according to the unnamed officials. But Trump's behavior in the days around Comey's May 2017 firing as FBI director, specifically two instances in which he seemed to tie Comey's ousting to the Russia investigation, helped trigger the counterintelligence part of the investigation, according to the newspaper.
Trump tweeted early Saturday that the report showed that the FBI leadership "opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof" after he had fired Comey.
Robert Mueller took over the investigation when he was appointed special counsel soon after Comey's firing. The overall investigation is looking into Russian election interference and whether Trump's campaign coordinated with the Russians, as well as possible obstruction of justice by Trump. The Times says it's unclear whether Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence angle.
Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the Times he had no knowledge of the inquiry but said that since it was opened a year and a half ago and they hadn't heard anything, apparently "they found nothing."
Trump has also repeatedly and vociferously denied collusion with the Russians.
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A model with a handmade necklace from Etsy's website. Etsy blog Etsy is facing challenges as it never has before.
The artisan marketplace's shares have declined 43% since the company went public in April.
Even though Etsy is the fifth-most-visited marketplace in the world, after Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart, analysts at Wedbush fear it is slipping.
Here are the biggest issues plaguing the brand.
1. Etsy is losing money.
"When Etsy disclosed its first earnings report last week, it showed a quarterly loss of $36.5 million — which it attributed to corporate restructuring and adverse currency-exchange rates — compared to a loss of $463,000 in 2014," Jenni Avins at Quartz writes.
Etsy argues that it is pouring cash into investments.
2. Amazon is building a huge competitor
The online-retailing behemoth Amazon is targeting Etsy, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Amazon is contacting top Etsy sellers via Facebook and email and inviting them to try its "Handmade" site, which seems to offer similar categories to those of Etsy.
"The invite points to a questionnaire on Amazon's site that asks sellers which primary product category they fall under, listing 11 general subjects such as apparel, baby, and pet supplies," The Journal reports. "The poll lists subcategories for jewelry and home and kitchen in particular."
3. Counterfeit goods are running rampant
Analysts say counterfeit goods are bringing down the business and causing quality sellers to flee the store.
One seller, Grace Dobush, started selling handmade cards and journals on the site in 2006, shortly after Etsy opened, she writes in an essay on Wired.
But now she says Etsy has "alienated" the crafting community by allowing people to sell cheap wholesale goods purchased from countries like India and China.
As a result, crafters are increasingly moving to other platforms, such as Shopify.
While Etsy started as a way for artisans to reach a broader market, it has become too big to scale, she writes.
"In practical terms, scaling the handmade economy is an impossibility," Dobush writes. "So while Etsy maintains a hipster facade, they lost their indie cred years ago."
Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson defended the company's practices on a conference call with analysts.
"We strive for a balanced approach that takes into account the interest of our sellers and IP owners, and we believe it is working," he said. "We at Etsy partner with major brands to address the problem of infringing articles. In fact, we are often accused of being too aggressive in taking down material posted by sellers."
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Muscle memory is not a memory stored in your muscles, of course, but memories stored in your brain that are much like a cache of frequently enacted tasks for your muscles. It's a form of procedural memory that can help you become very good at something through repetition, but in exactly the same way it can make you absolutely terrible at that same thing. Here's why.
If you're practicing a song on the piano over and over again, the idea is that you'll continue to improve. "Practice makes perfect" can be an accurate phrase because the more you do something, you build up that procedural memory and your brain can quickly instruct your muscles to carry it out. That muscle memory doesn't judge whether you're doing good or bad, however, and so if you practice a song poorly for hours on end you're going to be really good at making the same mistakes over and over again. This is not only bad because you've wasted your time learning to be bad or mediocre at a task and may see all this work as a failure, but because you didn't necessarily have to fail at all. When you repeat mistakes again and again, you build a muscle memory with those mistakes. That makes those mistakes even harder to overcome later. This is one reason why the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" is often true.
The key to building good muscle memories is to focus on the quality of the quantity. We've often heard, probably from Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, that 10,000 hours is the magic number to make someone an expert. It's likely that this is the case when you practice well, but if you carelessly build procedural memory over and over again you can just end up being really good at repeating your mistakes. When you practice, take it slow at first. Going back to learning to play a song on the piano, don't rush to learn the entire thing. Break the song up into parts and concentrate on learning one part really well. Practice that section slowly until you've got it down, then speed it up little by little until you can play at full speed. More broadly, when you want to learn to do something well, break it into small parts and take each part slowly until you're able to do it very well. Take breaks. Be patient. The more you rush the big picture, the more likely you'll be to develop muscle memories that are difficult to reverse.
Sources: Muscle Memory (Wikipedia), Muscle Memory Explained (Tip It Out), and What is Muscle Memory? (Explain Stuff)
You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter and Facebook. If you'd like to contact him, Twitter is the most effective means of doing so.
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Tom Clancy’s The Division from Ubisoft was one of those games that had a huge launch, lost some of its players, and then rebuilt itself. It now stands as a great success for the developer, and garners a huge, devoted audience of players. So, heading into The Division 2, there is a lot at stake. Can Ubisoft keep the magic of the first title and its DLC? Will it feel like a retread without much new? Will it change something that breaks the gameplay loop that was so meticulously crafted in its predecessor? I got to play it at E3 2018, and while I can’t answer all of those questions just yet, it’s looking very good so far.
Playing on an Xbox One X (instead of my usual PC), the game still looked fantastic. The lights of the Xbox E3 Showcase floor were bright, but they couldn’t hide how well Ubisoft’s developers had crafted the post-apocalyptic Washington DC landscape. Our mission was brief, tasking us with pretty much the same thing you saw at Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2018 press briefing.
We moved through a large building, eliminating foes as they appeared, before moving out into the open swampland of our nation’s capital. Air Force One'[s wreckage was nearby, but we had to go around grabbing some loot along the way, of course. Loot was plentiful, and I really liked how well it was worked into the landscape. One drop was hanging in a tree, which we had to shoot down.
Gunplay was always one of The Division’s strong suits, and that has carried over perfectly into The Division 2. Taking cover, moving through enemy fire, popping headshots whenever possible. It was all here, and it all felt just as fantastic as before. I was using an assault rifle as my default weapon, switching to a shotgun for close-quarters encounters. These were rare, given the huge number of cover spots in the large, open area.
What was more useful and much more fun to use, was my character’s Grenade Launcher. This allowed me to clear entire areas if I could get a well placed shot. Enemies cowering behind cover? Not anymore. Some other features, such as our secondary ability, were disabled for the demo, so I can’t go too much into how this game shifts things around there.
My time with The Division 2 showed that the team has a good handle on what made the first game so much fun to begin with. We should get more info about the game throughout the week, but this first look was impressive, even if it didn’t showcase the big changes that will surely come for the sequel.
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Recent shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, prompted left-wing anti-gun groups to go on a $2-million advertising binge calling for gun control. Liberal media mogul Michael Bloomberg’s group Everytown for Gun Safety led the pack of gun-control advocates with nearly half that spending.
The rest of the expensive ad push came from other groups including Sandy Hook Promise, Ban Assault Weapons Now and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ gun-control organization.
CNBC reported Aug. 15, that Everytown spent $935,000 on digital and TV ads to “call on Congress to require tougher background checks for gun sales along with strong red-flag laws, which are meant to take firearms away from those deemed a threat to themselves or others.”
By comparison, CNBC noted that The National Rifle Association has only spent $14,000 on advertising “since last week.” Everytown spent more than 66 times that on its ad blitz. Bloomberg’s group also outspent the NRA in the 2018 election cycle by roughly a 3-to-1 margin.
“The spate of shootings has given organizations calling for tighter gun laws new momentum, particularly as big-money backers such as Bloomberg look to counter the decades-long influence the NRA has exerted on Capitol Hill,” CNBC reported.
In addition to buying ads, Bloomberg’s group sponsored a gun-control forum attended by 16 Democratic presidential candidates in August. The New York Times reported Aug. 10, that candidates attending that Iowa forum called for “gun control proposals, like requiring universal background checks and banning military-style semi-automatic rifles.”
Everytown also strongly supported the Bipartisan Background Check Act of 2019, which passed the House in February 2019. OpenSecrets noted that his organization spent $400,000 in advertising and sponsorships to encourage constituents to demand their representatives support the bill.
The controversial bill passed 240 to 190. Nearly all House Democrats (232) voted “yes” along with just eight Republicans. Hill reporter Cristina Marcos called the legislation “the most significant gun control bill in years.”
Everytown for Gun Safety was an outgrowth of Bloomberg’s pledge to spend $50 million on the 2014 election cycle as part of his broader push for extensive gun control measures, according to The Washington Post.
In 2017-2018, OpenSecrets found that it spent $2,630,000 on lobbying efforts. The Everytown for Gun Safety super PAC also spent $30 million on state and federal races in 2018, according to OpenSecrets. By comparison, the NRA spent $9.4 million on races during that election cycle.
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Consumption of dietary supplements sold for weight loss, muscle building, and energy was associated with increased risk for severe medical events in children and young adults compared to consumption of vitamins, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study found that, compared with vitamins, these types of supplements were linked to nearly three times as many severe medical outcomes in young people.
"The FDA has issued countless warnings about supplements sold for weight loss, muscle building or sport performance, sexual function, and energy, and we know these products are widely marketed to and used by young people. So what are the consequences for their health? That's the question we wanted to answer," said lead author Flora Or, a researcher with Harvard Chan School's Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders.
The study will be published online June 5, 2019 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The researchers looked at adverse event reports between January 2004 and April 2015 in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System on the food and dietary supplements database. They analyzed the relative risk for severe medical events such as death, disability, and hospitalization in individuals aged 0 and 25 years that were linked with the use of dietary supplements sold for weight loss, muscle building, or energy compared to vitamins.
They found that there were 977 single-supplement-related adverse event reports for the target age group. Of those, approximately 40% involved severe medical outcomes, including death and hospitalization. Supplements sold for weight loss, muscle building, and energy were associated with almost three times the risk for severe medical outcomes compared to vitamins. Supplements sold for sexual function and colon cleanse were associated with approximately two times the risk for severe medical outcomes compared to vitamins.
Senior author S. Bryn Austin, professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, noted that reputable physicians do not recommend the use of the type of dietary supplements analyzed in this study. Many of these products have been found to be adulterated with prescription pharmaceuticals, banned substances, heavy metals, pesticides, and other dangerous chemicals. And other studies have linked weight-loss and muscle-building supplements with stroke, testicular cancer, liver damage, and even death.
"How can we continue to let the manufacturers of these products and the retailers who profit from them play Russian roulette with America's youth?" Austin said. "It is well past time for policymakers and retailers to take meaningful action to protect children and consumers of all ages."
Yongjoo Kim of Harvard Chan School was also a co-author.
This study was funded by the Ellen Feldberg Gordon Fund for Eating Disorders Prevention Research and the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders.
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“My Little Pony has always been about friendship and accepting people”
Discovery Family’s My Little Pony has introduced a same-sex couple in time for Pride. This introduction comes a month after the PBS children’s cartoon Arthur, which features the teacher Mr. Ratburn come out as gay as well as marry a man. Alabama Public Television banned the episode after this move.
My Little Pony has been running for nearly a decade, it’s almost time to bid adieu to the show as it prepares to wrap up. Despite nearly wrapping up, the ninth and final season which is close to halfway through will feature the show fostering inclusivity in new and different ways.
The episode titled The Last Crusade written by Nicole Dubuc features the introduction of the long-absent parents of the young Pegasus Scootaloo. This will excite fans as it answers a longstanding plot point which many have been wondering. In the episode, Scootaloo and her friends who call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders meet the current guardians of Scootaloo, Auntie Lofty and Aunt Holiday.
While it’s easy to assume that the two are adult siblings who are watching over their niece, that’s not the case. In the episode, it becomes clear that Lofty and Holiday aren’t siblings or even in-laws, they are a lesbian couple. Writer and Producer, Michael Vogel, of My Little Pony confirmed the relationship through Twitter.
While this is the couple’s first appearance on the Discovery Family cartoon, it isn’t their first appearance in the My Little Pony lore. The couple first appeared in the 2017 book titled Ponyville Mysteries: Riddle of the Rusty Horseshoe.
Nicole Dubuc said,”I think it’s fantastic that we can show that what truly defines a family is love – that, to me, is the core of My Little Pony.”
Vogel, who is openly gay, has said that My Little Pony has always been about friendship as well as acceptance of anyone different from you.
I legit teared up that a character on My Little Pony now has gay aunts, just like me!https://t.co/squCw0eGYw — Nicolas Barriere-K (@Soranomaru) June 15, 2019
Many people have voiced their agreement over Vogel’s statement and have commended the show for its inclusivity. However, some have also expressed their disapproval such as Australian conservative pundit Lyle Shelton who is one among others disapproving the show’s decision.
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a way for the FBI to get into the iPhone?
Because once we open that door, we cannot go back. First, it is almost impossible to say with certainty that a backdoor created for the shooter’s phone will not work on other iPhones. The existence of a backdoor would make it possible for other iPhones to be hacked in a similar by malicious hackers. If hackers are aware of the existence of a backdoor, they now have reason to search for it. Also, once Apple complies with this request from the fed, there will be more. This has been proven. When Edward Snowden released an abundance of classified documents from the National Security Agency (NSA), it was publicly revealed that the major companies, like Sprint, Microsoft, Google, and others, had been turning over customer data to the U.S. government, every six months, for decades. Making the American public aware of this relationship, between the feds and the private sector, was bad for business.
Some legal experts argue that the existence of encryption does not suggest a reasonable expectation of privacy; therefore, if the government cracks encrypted data, it is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment. However, if you use a passcode to lock the device, thereby keeping the encrypted contents hidden from plain view, this does retain a reasonable expectation of privacy. The FBI is asking Apple to bypass the deceased user’s passcode that locks the device so that they can have access to the encrypted contents of the iPhone. Technically, this would be a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Other experts suggest that this would not be a violation of the Fourth Amendment because Mr. Farook’s phone is actually property of San Bernardino County, where he worked. In many cases, when an employee receives a company phone, the employer administers the phone using mobile device management (MDM). MDM enables the employer to secure and monitor mobile devices in the possession of the employee. It seems that San Bernardino County did not use MDM. But it is interesting that MDM has not been mentioned in the conversation at all. Perhaps, instead of attacking encryption, the government should be encouraging employers to use MDM on mobile devices, which would make their investigations easier. We aren’t having that conversation because cracking encryption would provide the fed with an overall wider swath of data.
The San Bernardino massacre was horrible and the FBI should have access to information that will help them crack the case; however, we have to decide how far is too far. It is unknown whether or not Apple will be forced to comply with the court’s ruling, but one thing is certain, we are standing at the precipice of the end of technological privacy. Without encryption, there will be no way to, technologically, protect your privacy.
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What am I living my life for? For love? For money? For reproduction? For knowledge? Are we living life for livings sake? What are you supposed to do in order to be able to look back at your life and say that you’re satisfied with what it is you’ve done to reach your undeniable fate, death. is it the same for everyone or is it different for each individual? will ignorance & denial of life having a meaning allow you to die without the conscious knowledge of how wasteful you were with your life? Should you follow the current of what others are doing on a daily basis and die with a sense of knowing that you didn’t miss out on the things your peers have experienced? life & death are crucial in the quest of finding the key to a happy life. A true understanding of the fact that you are going to die, (not just knowing, but truly understanding) can liberate you the same way it’s liberating me. The fact that I won’t be walking on the face of the earth some day. The fact that i won’t be able to do the things I enjoy, ever again. The fact that there’s nothing I can do to avoid it… is depressing. But those same facts inspire me to never take life for granted and it fuels me to do the things I enjoy and to do the work that’ll allow me to do things Ill enjoy even more.
I went through hell for a piece of paper called a diploma only to show other people that I can count up the change in your wallet, very…very fast. I’ve gained my diploma but lost my sanity at the same time. I went through many years of schooling only to hear, dismayed, that I’m no longer allowed to continue my university studies due to an administration error. Goes to show that the public school system isn’t about gaining knowledge, it’s about gaining the right papers so you can show other people how well you can sit still and do things you DO NOT even like.That’s most definitely not something I enjoy doing, and therefore will henceforth learn the things that will allow me to live a happy life and die a happy death.
I’m sitting in a roller-coaster filled with all emotions know to human kind and clogged up with loops that will make your head spin and throw up. It’s never ending, my only chance of survival is to jump and pray that I’ll recover fast from the havoc I’ll be creating with my impact.
In order to rise to great heights, I must first fall to the lowest depths.
Welcome to my Ill mind,
Mo
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MEERUT: Celebrated Hindi novelist and scriptwriter Ved Prakash Sharma died late on Friday night in Shastri Nagar here. The 61-year-old had been fighting lung cancer for the last eleven months and had developed complications which led to his demise at around 11pm on Friday. His last rites were performed at the cremation house in Soorajkund on Saturday morning.Sharma wrote 176 novels – some of which were adapted into successful films like "Bahu Maange Insaaf" (1985), "Anaam" (1992) and "Sabse Bada Khiladi" (1995). One of his books, "Wardiwala Gunda" (1992) broke all records and sold 15 lakh copies on the very first day of its release. Sharma also wrote the script for Akshay Kumar-starrer "International Khiladi" (1999).Talking to TOI, Shagun Sharma, Sharma’s son, said, "He was diagnosed with lung cancer in March last year. We detected it at quite an advanced stage. He was being treated in Mumbai for the same but problems started last month, post which he was mostly bed ridden. He breathed his last on Friday. We were all with him." Ved Prakash Sharma is survived by his wife Madhu Sharma, son Shagun Sharma, daughters Karishma, Garima and Khushboo – all three settled in Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr and Meerut respectively.At Sharma’s residence in Shastri Nagar, people kept coming in all day to pay their last respects to the celebrated author. "We have been getting calls from outside the country too. We’re shocked but are also overwhelmed at the love people had for him," said Sharma’s son-in-law Gaurav.Ved Prakash Sharma, who has a lot of pulp fiction stories to his credit, was born on June 10, 1955 in Meerut and went on to do his graduation from NAS Degree College, Meerut. Sharma, who started writing at the age of 16, did not get credit for his work initially as publishers were skeptical about publishing works under the name of a newcomer. After a dozen books that went to print without his name, Sharma finally got his first book in 1973 titled ‘Dahekte Shaher’, udner his name. He also had his own publishing house-Tulsi Books Publications- which prints novels and course books."His only wish in life has been to see his books spreading some cheer in society. We will ensure that his legacy is carried on and he remains alive in the form of his writings," said a teary-eyed Shagun.
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The event is being held at the Bradford Playhouse A dance artist with epilepsy is to try to induce a seizure on stage - but has been urged to reconsider by a charity. Rita Marcalo has stopped taking her medication ahead of the event at The Bradford Playhouse, which the audience will be invited to film. Arts Council England, which is funding the performance, said it aimed to raise awareness about the condition. But the Epilepsy Action charity expressed concerns and urged Ms Marcalo to reconsider the event. Ms Marcalo, the artistic director of Leeds-based dance company, Instant Dissidence, plans to induce a seizure as part of the 24-hour Involuntary Dances event on 11 December, which will also include dance and poetry readings. 'Public embarrassment' If she has a seizure, an alarm will sound and the audience will be invited to film on their mobile phones. Diane Horton of Arts Council England said: "This project raises awareness of a disability through the artist's personal experience of epilepsy and we support this. "We have made sure that a full risk assessment of the project took place, including medical advice, and that appropriate medical support is available during the performance. "Rita is an important artist whose work deserves to be seen and the Arts Council both respects the creative decisions she makes in her work and supports her right as a disabled person to be heard." We would certainly ask the artist to reconsider
Simon Wigglesworth, Epilepsy Action About £2,000 of Arts Council funding has been provided for the 24-hour performance. The total includes £932 for medical risk assessment and support. Bradford Playhouse director Eleanor Bradford said: "Rita has made a decision that she wants to explore her own relationship with epilepsy. "Sometimes epilepsy is seen as a hidden disability and people with epilepsy have traditionally felt they have to hide when they have a seizure - it is associated with public embarrassment. "Rita is doing is the opposite of that and is drawing attention to epilepsy in a very public way." Deputy chief executive of Epilepsy Action, Simon Wigglesworth, said: "Our concern is that anti-epilepsy medication is the cornerstone of treating people with epilepsy. "Throwing away seizure control treatment trivialises the condition and does not respect the fact that some people have spent time trying to get it under control. "It is this artist's own decision as to what she might do but we are concerned that she is putting herself at risk and, if anyone else thought it was a good idea they would be putting themselves at risk. "We would certainly ask the artist to reconsider."
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dumb, it would look like Big Trouble was trying too hard to be serious. When Asian gangsters kidnap Russell’s friend’s fiancée at the airport, it sets off a chain of ridiculously choreographed kung-fu battles that eventually lead to an underground lair. Turns out the girl was kidnapped because she has green eyes, and an ancient ghostly mystic dude (Hong) must marry a green-eyed woman and then sacrifice her in order to lift a curse. But most of that doesn’t matter. What matters is Russell bumbling through fight after fight, running scared one minute and acting tough the next—and keeping an incredulous (yet somehow credulous) look on his face every time something weird happens. Three dudes descend from the sky in the middle of a gang war, and their names are Thunder, Rain, and Lightning? Apparently that’s only moderately weird. And Russell always, always takes a little time out of his action scenes to hit on Kim Cattrall, who plays a green-eyed lawyer along for the ride.
The great thing about Russell’s performance is that he never gets any smarter as the movie progresses. Twice during the movie’s biggest battle sequence, he’s incapacitated by his own stupidity—once by firing a gun into a ceiling and being knocked out by the resulting falling concrete, and once by knifing a really heavy bad guy, who falls on top of him. The whole thing is treated with exactly the amount of seriousness it deserves, which redeems the silliness of a floating eyeball. (It’s exactly the kind of special effect that probably looked incredible in 1986, and now just looks strange. And hey, it was rendered by the Ghostbusters special-effects team.)
But Big Trouble is plenty conscious of its silliness, which it embraces fully. The baddies’ underground lair not only has tons of ancient Buddha statues (huh?), it also has a Buddha-belly elevator, an escalator running into a giant mouth, and tons—I mean tons—of neon accent lights. It’s the perfect backdrop for a battle that looks like it takes place almost entirely on trampolines. In that way, Big Trouble is the best kind of action movie, because it ignores real-world logic in favor of having some fun. (And yes, I love the Crank movies. Sue me.) It sets up its own parameters of ridiculousness and then runs with them, winking a little, but sticking to its story. I don’t know that I’ll ever need to watch it again, but I’m happy that it awoke a little of my 12-year-old soul for a couple of hours.
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After nearly five months of silence, Ebb Software has revealed their upcoming horror title Scorn has been delayed into 2020 in order to deliver their imagined experience for fans to enjoy.
For several years, Ebb Software’s H.R. Giger-inspired title has captured our attention thanks to its visceral, deadly, and uniquely designed experience. During that time, we’ve also been noticing a lot of silence from Ebb Software after their long-in-development project exceeded its EUR€200,000 campaign.
In August of 2018, the team had revealed that they had received external funding that would allow them to release Scorn as a single title versus an episodic experience. Much to the relief of fans, this approach would deliver both a fully-fleshed out experience and a rather immersive one at that.
Ebb Software’s latest update regarding Scorn has revealed that they are currently working on completing the game’s environment and systems, though they had succeeded in achieving an “important internal milestone” back in July of 2019. Unfortunately, their news hasn’t really given us much idea of how far along their ambitious title actually is.
They have, however, revealed that key system elements such as character healing, full-body awareness, and three “more huge puzzle systems, some spanning entire levels” have been implemented into Scorn.
But don’t hold your breath there. Ebb Software has announced that their team is “taking a small breather before pushing forward.” Sadly, we have no idea how long this break is going to take, after all, their game has been in development since 2014, and the team has been extremely dedicated to delivering a polished product, without the issues we’ve seen plague recent projects from Kickstarter such as Agony and The Mighty No. 9.
For what it’s worth, let’s hope they take their time, delay as much as they need to, and release a fully-fleshed out product that will “wow” us when it releases in 2020 or beyond.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the borders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter or Facebook.
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While it has been widely established by the scientific community that the class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids (or neonics) have had devastating impacts on honey bees and other pollinators, new research shows that Monsanto's glyphosate—the world's most widely used chemical weed-killer—is also extremely harmful to the health of bees and their ability to fend off disease.
Documented in a new study by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings show, according to the Guardian, that glyphosate negatively impacts "beneficial bacteria in the guts of honeybees and makes them more prone to deadly infections" by damaging "the microbiota that honeybees need to grow and to fight off pathogens."
Erick Motta, one of the researchers and co-author of the study, said, "We demonstrated that the abundances of dominant gut microbiota species are decreased in bees exposed to glyphosate at concentrations documented in the environment."
Based on their study, Motta and her colleagues are urging farmers and homeowners to avoid spraying glysophate-based herbicides on flowering plants that are likely to attract bees.
Bee experts and advocates worldwide in recent years have been warning that humanity's insatiable use of pesticides has been causing serious harm to bee populations that are essential to the global food supply.
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While previous research has shown that use of glyphosate—the main active ingredient in Monsanto's pesticide Roundup—indirectly harms bees by devastating certain flowers on which they depend, the new research is significant for showing the direct harm it has on the health of bees.
"The biggest impact of glyphosate on bees is the destruction of the wildflowers on which they depend," Matt Sharlow, with the conservation group Buglife, told the Guardian. "Evidence to date suggests direct toxicity to bees is fairly low, however the new study clearly demonstrates that pesticide use can have significant unintended consequences."
According to Motta, "We need better guidelines for glyphosate use, especially regarding bee exposure, because right now the guidelines assume bees are not harmed by the herbicide. Our study shows that's not true."
Speaking to The Advocate, Professor Dave Goulson, a bee expert from the University of Sussex, added: "Those of us that study bees have long ago come to the conclusion that colony health is adversely affected by a number of interacting stressors, including exposure to cocktails of insecticides and fungicides, impacts of pathogens, and effects of poor nutrition."
Now, he said, "It now seems that we have to add glyphosate to the list of problems that they face."
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A group of Reddit users has banded together to write its own legislation aimed at protecting freedom on the web. The group, which has gathered around the sub reddit r/fia, is drafting a piece of legislation it calls the Free Internet Act (FIA).
The people behind FIA claim they want to “promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation by preventing the restriction of liberty and preventing the means of censorship”.
According to the group, “FIA will allow internet users to browse freely without any means of censorship”.
It is writing the legislation, it claims, because “users have the right to free speech and to free knowledge; we govern the content of the internet, governments don’t”.
The people behind the bill do not; however, appear to be of the “every single piece of content on the web should be free, no matter what” mentality.
They acknowledge, for instance, that “enforcements/laws must also be put into place to protect copyrighted content”.
An Austrian reddit user called “RoyalWithCheese22” came up with the idea for FIA, following concerns around copyright protection legislations SOPA,PIPA and ACTA.
Reddit was among the biggest platforms to go black in protest to SOPA and PIPA.
Inspired by this success, the user reportedly thought “maybe I should suggest another solution to this. One that not just deals with a single law or proposed treaty but one that handles all of that.”
FIA has been entirely crowdsourced and the group aims to have it pass through both congress in the USA and the European parliament.
The actual proposed legislation is fairly detailed and has six articles to date. If passed the articles would guarantee everything from network neutrality, to “Service providers, downloader(s) or viewer(s) may not held liable for any illegal content posted” and prior warning when any data or files require removal “from web-pages or from cloud storage”.
The last of these appears to be clear dig at the FBI’s targeting of services such as MegaUpload.
Crowdsourcing legislation isn’t exactly new — after all the citizens of Iceland crowdsourced their constitution in 2011. This would, however, appear to be one of the first incidences of an online community drafting its own legislation from the ground up.
It remains to be seen whether the group can actually get any legislative body to look at its proposed bill. At the very least, though, some members of the community might get an education in exactly what it takes to put an act of law together.
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In industrial microscopy there are many way to quantify the materials in your sample. Today, we will look at three specific methods and discuss their similarities and differences. Phase analysis, porosity, and particle distribution all utilize light and color thresholding techniques to identify materials on your sample, but break out the data differently for your application.
Phase Analysis
Phase Analysis (Fig. 1) is one of the most basic ways of identifying and sorting multiple materials in a sample. When you are looking at a sample through a microscope and seeing each material as a unique color or gray value (a phase), imaging software has separated those materials through the process of defining thresholds for each specific material. Each material (phase) is presented as a percentage of the total image or of a region of interest so you will know quickly if proportions of materials in a sample are correct. Typical applications for this type of analysis include welding quality checks, die casting, steel microstructures, and composite materials.
Porosity Analysis
Porosity analysis (Fig. 2) starts similarly to phase analysis but provides data specific to measuring pores. In this case thresholding is used to identify the pores in a sample. Because pore size is often critical, filters are available to remove pores that are too small or too large. A porosity percentage along with pore density and maximum pore size are outputted, thus results can be based on the entire image or a region of interest. Typical applications for porosity analysis include voids in chemical materials and porosity in foam.
Particle Distribution
Particle distribution (Fig. 3) works similarly but in this case data can be distributed into different classifications based on size. Size is considered differently depending on application so options like area, Feret max, or equivalent circle diameter can be used to define size classifications. Classification distribution can also be considered differently depending on application, so options for particle count, particle percentage, or area-weighted particle percentage can be selected. Typical applications for particle distribution include stability in suspension (e.g., sediments, paints), efficiency of delivery (e.g., asthma inhalers), texture and feel (e.g., food ingredients), and appearance (e.g., powder coatings and inks).
Other Analysis Methods
If none of these methods meets your specific requirements, a comprehensive object detection and classification solution should fit your needs. Count and Measure utilizes threshold detection to identify materials in a sample. Classification and Distribution can be performed by more than 50 different options including shape, size, position, and pixel properties. Filters can be used in conjunction with each classification to refine the resulting data (Fig. 4). All data can be output to workbooks and reports for clear presentation of your results.
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further promote bikes and electric vehicles.
Reads a press release issued by Studio Roosegaard:
We humans have created machines to enhance ourselves, we invented the wheel and cars to liberate ourselves and travel. But now these machines are striking back, making air extremely polluted in high-density cities. In some cities, this pollution is visible. In others, air pollutants and smog may be invisible, but the impact on our daily lives and health is very real. In the Netherlands we live 9 months shorter because of smog. Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde believes we should do more, not less, and make modern cities liveable again.
To be clear (or not so clear in this case), Beijing isn’t totally out of the picture.
Following the tower's maiden run in Rotterdam, Beijing is the first planned stop on a multi-city smog-down. Stops in Paris, Mumbai, Los Angeles and Mexico City are also in the works. The funds raised through the Kickstarter campaign will enable Roosegaarde and team to transport and install the lean, mean, smog-busting machine in these cities and potentially others. You can throw the names of additional cities into the proverbial hat by Tweeting your suggestion to#SmogFreeProject.
Daan Roosegaard's Smog Tree Tower, the world's largest smog vacuum cleaner," debuts in Rotterdam. (Photo: Studio Roosegaard)
As for that jewelry....
While Smog Free Tower doesn’t exactly automatically plop out smog gems (although fun to imagine that it does) as it sucks in filthy, health-compromising air, by funding the Smog Free Project Kickstarter campaign you can score your own piece of “awesome and unique” Smog Free Cube jewelry — rings and cufflinks are both available starting with a pledge of 250 euros.
The material within each resin cube, equivalent to the cleaning of 1,000 cubic meters of pollution-scrubbed air, is indeed honest-to-goodness smog dust that’s been harvested from the Smog Free Tower's filters and compressed. In fact, if Roosegaarde and co. were to keep compressing and compressing, the carbon dust would yield a diamond — a bone fide smog diamond.
“It’s a beautiful way of carrying the message of this project with you and perceiving the tangible environmental impact you’ve made by supporting this project,” explains Studio Roosegaarde.
Who knows — depending on how the project's post-Rotterdam travels go, summer 2016’s hottest fashion accessory might very well be smog.
Via [Dezeen]
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Image copyright Getty Images
The investment firm run by the US billionaire Warren Buffett has reported a record profit for 2013.
Berkshire Hathaway made $19.5bn (£11.6bn) last year, up from $14.8bn (£8.8bn) in 2012.
"On the operating front, just about everything turned out well for us last year - in some cases very well," Mr Buffett wrote to shareholders.
However, it underperformed the S&P 500 share index for the fourth time in the last five years.
Fortunately, my blunders usually involved relatively small acquisitions Warren Buffett, Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway
The growth in the company's book value - that is the company's assets minus its liabilities and Mr Buffett's preferred measure of Berkshire's performance - was 18.2% in 2013, while the S&P 500 rose 32.4%.
But Mr Buffett said that was to be expected when the S&P performed well.
"We expect to fall short... in years when the market is strong - as we did in 2013.
"We have underperformed in 10 of our 49 years, with all but one of our shortfalls occurring when the S&P gain exceeded 15%."
He added that the fund had outperformed the stock market between 2007 and 2013 and that through a full six year cycle he expected to do that again.
"If we fail to do so, we will not have earned our pay," he wrote.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Berkshire Hathaway increased its holding in Coca-Cola
Mr Buffett, ranked fourth on the Forbes rich list, pointed to a strong performance in the firm's insurance, rail and energy businesses for the increase in profit.
Blunders
These include the auto insurer Geico, General Reinsurance, Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad and the electric utility MidAmerican Energy.
The company increased its stake in the US firms Coca-Cola, American Express, IBM and Wells Fargo but reduced its ownership in the UK retailer Tesco - to 3.7% from 5.2%.
Mr Buffett did acknowledge he had made mistakes in some of his investments in the manufacturing, service and retail industries, some of which saw "very poor returns".
"I was not misled: I simply was wrong in my evaluation of the economic dynamics of the company or the industry in which it operated,'' he said.
"Fortunately, my blunders usually involved relatively small acquisitions. Our large buys have generally worked out well and, in a few cases, more than well. I have not, however, made my last mistake in purchasing either businesses or stocks. Not everything works out as planned."
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spectus. Phegley has been in the negative himself. So, add that on top of what we’ve already uncovered about Oakland’s defense.
There’s not a simple fix to this. The A’s aren’t contenders this year, so the defense can be as bad as it wants to be for now, but for the A’s to turn themselves back into a contending club, the defense has got to turn itself back into a respectable one, and it’s not going to be easy. It’s the kind of thing that will require dedication and plenty of moving parts. At least Billy Beane isn’t against moving some parts around.
The Indians had a -40 defensive season in 2013 followed by a -70 season in 2014 before they pulled off one of the most remarkable defensive turnarounds we’ve ever seen. It all started with the swap of Asdrubal Cabrera for Francisco Lindor at shortstop. Calling up elite defensive catcher Roberto Perez from the minors, alongside slick-fielding third baseman Giovanny Urshela and utility man Jose Ramirez helped, too.
But, see, here’s the problem with Oakland. Their top prospect is Franklin Barreto, currently a shortsop, but here’s an excerpt from Christoper Crawford’s most recent scouting report: “…the fundamentals—or lack thereof—make his long-term position a question mark.” Barreto nearly matched Semien’s 35 major league errors at shortstop with 34 in the minors himself. Their next-best position player prospect is Matt Olson, likely future first baseman. Crawford: “…a lack of speed/athleticism makes his future as an unspectacular, though solid first baseman much more likely [than a corner outfielder].” Richie Martin, Matt Chapman and Yairo Munoz all project as big league defenders, but questionable big league bats.
Help in the way of everyday big league players with plus gloves at premium positions don’t appear to be on the way for Oakland as they were in Cleveland. Ideally, there would be obvious internal solutions to bump Vogt off catcher and Semien off shortstop as soon as next year for means of an immediate defensive improvement, but it’s not clear that’s the case. Oakland’s top prospects are defensive tweeners, just as their current major leaguers are the defensive tweeners who have contributed to baseball’s worst defense. Odds are, Oakland’s next contending team will look very little like the one that suits up now. A major overhaul is likely on the way, and defense ought to be a priority.
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Last week, the father of slain US Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, refused to meet with the president. Rather, Bill Owens said he wanted a full investigation into the Yemen raid that left his son dead, injured three other US troops and killed up to 20 civilians.
“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Mr Owens told the Miami Herald.
But on Tuesday night, in his address to the joint houses of Congress, Donald Trump honoured the widow of the special forces soldier - a move that some commentators believed was presidential, but others considered simply exploitative.
"The challenges we face as a Nation are great. But our people are even greater. And none are greater or braver than those who fight for America in uniform,” said Mr Trump.
“We are blessed to be joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of a US Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens. Ryan died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero - battling against terrorism and securing our Nation.”
At that moment, the cameras moved to Ms Owens and she received rapturous applause. She then stood up.
Democrat women wore white to Trump's congress address for good reason
Mr Trump then continued: “I just spoke to General Mattis, who reconfirmed that, and I quote, ‘Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies’.”
He added: “Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity. For as the Bible teaches us, there is no greater act of love than to lay down one's life for one’s friends. Ryan laid down his life for his friends, for his country, and for our freedom — we will never forget him.”
Mr Trump’s comments were warmly praised by some commentators. Van Jones, a CNN analyst who has frequently been critical of the president, said: “That was one of the most extraordinary moments in American politics. Period.”
Former presidential advisor David Gergen, said the point was one of the few times he agreed with Mr Jones.
But others said Mr Trump had made cynical use of the dead solider’s widow, especially given the comments of the man’s father.
“Trump sent a soldier off to die in a half-baked raid and then used his grieving widow as a prop. I'm still processing this,” said one commentator, Jordan Weissmann.
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The award-winning novelist Hilary Mantel has sparked a row with a description of the Duchess of Cambridge as a "shop-window mannequin" with no personality whose only purpose is to breed.
During a lecture at the British Museum, the double Man Booker prizewinner said Kate appeared "gloss-varnished", with a perfect, plastic smile; this was in contrast, the writer said, to Princess Diana, whom she described as awkward and emotionally incontinent.
Mantel's remarks were made two weeks ago, during a lecture organised by London Review of Books, a month after her latest novel, Bring Up the Bodies, won the Costa prize. The lecture, entitled Royal Bodies, was on royal women under the public gaze across history.
Mantel said: "Kate seems to have been selected for her role of princess because she was irreproachable: as painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character.
"She appears precision-made, machine-made: so different from Diana, whose human awkwardness and emotional incontinence showed in her every gesture."
Mantel, whose latest novels are set in the Tudor court, said she saw Kate becoming a "jointed doll on which certain rags are hung". She added: "In those days [Kate] was a shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore.
Mantel's comments came at an event organised by the London Review of Books
"These days, she is a mother-to-be, and draped in another set of threadbare attributions. Once she gets over being sick, the press will find that she is radiant. They will find that this young woman's life until now was nothing, her only point and purpose being to give birth."
She also condemned Kate's first official portrait, by Paul Emsley, which was unveiled in January. The eyes were dead, she said, and the sitter wore "the strained smile of a woman who really wants to tell the painter to bugger off".
During the lecture, Mantel went on to question whether the monarchy is a "suitable institution for a grown-up nation", in a society that sacrificed royal ladies and allowed them to be entertainment.
A spokesman for Mantel told the Telegraph the speech was not a criticism but "remarkably sympathetic", with the author speaking about royal women as victims of their predicament. "It is a piece about appearance," he said. "It's about being trapped. It is about the performance, how the institution of royalty has to project and how it comes across."
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DETROIT (WXYZ) — One man is unaccounted for and two others are injured following a house explosion in Detroit early Friday morning, according to Detroit Fire officials.
Around 4 a.m., Detroit police, fire and EMS crews responded to the 680 block of Archdale on a report of possible shots fired and house explosion with a person possibly trapped inside.
Earlier, fire officials told 7 Action News that the man was deceased, but it is now unclear if he survived the blast and managed to get away. Detroit police say crews were unable to find the man's body at the scene.
7 Action News reporter Syma Chowdhry learned there were at least four people inside the home when it exploded, and two were pulled out of the debris by firefighters.
Look at the fallen debris across the street. The explosion damaged 8-9 houses. Two neighboring homes have structural damage. pic.twitter.com/lZFcVCBDh9 — Syma Chowdhry (@SymaChowdhry) March 20, 2020
A 46-year-old woman is in critical condition suffering from burns.
The cause of the fire was a gas leak.
Police say the woman told firefighters the house blew up right after she lit up a crack pipe.
A 42-year-old man was found in the backyard suffering from burns. Right now, he is in serious condition.
A 65-year-old man has been pronounced dead at the scene.
The explosion caused the home to fully collapse.
The 46-year-old and 42-year-old were taken to the hospital. One is currently in surgery, and the other person is still recovering from minor injuries, according to police.
Some neighbors told Chowdhry they heard gunshots around the same time. Detroit police are investigating that claim.
DTE Energy released this statement in regards to the gas leak:
DTE Energy was called to the scene of a home explosion on Archdale in Detroit early this morning. The specific cause of the fire is unknown, and we are working with local authorities to investigate. Our thoughts are with the two adults who were injured in the incident.
Safety is our top priority. Our crews, working with the fire department, immediately cut natural gas to the residence and made the surrounding area safe. This morning, our crews tested DTE equipment and verified that the gas meter and service lines were operating properly and within specified pressure.
Our understanding is that an investigation is underway regarding a potential issue with an appliance inside the home.
We are continuing to support the local authorities' ongoing investigation into the incident. Again, our thoughts go out to those who were injured today.
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TouchArcade Rating:
It’s an update-y kind of day, with Real Racing 3 and Badland both getting some new content, and now the King of All Mobile Games™ Angry Birds (Free) is getting in on the action too. I know what you’re thinking, though. “Angry Birds has had like 50 billion updates, what so special about this newest one??" Well, I’m glad you asked, because this latest update is actually quite a bit different than anything that’s come to Angry Birds before it.
The new update adds the Red’s Mighty Feathers episode with 15 new levels that change up the typical Angry Birds formula. The Red bird has found special feathers that give him the ability to home in on the Piggies. In each of the new levels you have an unlimited number of Red birds to fling, but you aren’t flinging them at stationary structures like you normally would.
Instead, the Piggies are coming to you, or more accurately, the egg you’re attempting to guard. They’ll barrel towards you in contraptions that look straight out of Bad Piggies, and you’ll need to furiously fling your birds towards them to keep them at bay. Once you’ve destroyed one of their vehicles, the Piggy will hightail it back to whence he came, and you’ll need to actually make sure you pop that pesky Piggy before he’s able to escape.
The familiar 3-star scoring system is also turned on its head, as in the Red’s Mighty Feathers levels you’re given one star for protecting your egg, another for popping all the Piggies, and you’ll only gain that third star if you stay within the allotted number of Red birds used to finish the level. It’s tricky to get 3-stars in these levels, but thankfully it’s not based on some nebulous score threshold so you always know just what you’ll need to do to earn all 3 at any given time.
I have to say this new set of levels in Angry Birds is a real breath of fresh air. It uses familiar mechanics but in a new way, and there’s a much greater feeling of haste to get things done as the Piggies march towards your position. I hope Rovio continues to add these kinds of levels or further play around with the Angry Birds formula, and if you felt like the same ol’ same ol’ gameplay has gotten stale then be sure to check out the new Red’s Mighty Feathers update and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
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Michael Winter
USA TODAY
More than 45 pimps arrested%3B 16 juveniles and 50 women rescued
Big sporting events can be lucrative for sex traffickers
N.J. had set up a Super Bowl sex-trafficking task force
High school students, teens as young as 13 and other children reported missing by their families were among 16 juveniles rescued from forced prostitution during Super Bowl festivities in and around New Jersey, the FBI said Tuesday.
Authorities arrested more than 45 pimps and their helpers, some of whom said they traveled to the New York region to traffic the women and juveniles at the NFL championship at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
The teens, ages 13 to 17, were found in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. More than 50 women coerced into sex for money were also saved, the agency said. Some of the victims had been involved in international sex trafficking.
Six children were rescued in both New Jersey and New York, and four others in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, the FBI said.
Social services, which included food, clothing and referrals to health care facilities, shelters,were provided to 70 women and juveniles.
The FBI and more than 50 other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies spent six months preparing for the two-week operation that recovered the victims. Hospitality workers, airport employees and others were trained to look for signs of sex trafficking, and New Jersey authorities put up billboards near the stadium as part of an anti-trafficking campaign, the Asbury Park Press noted.
"The FBI and our partners remain committed to stopping this cycle of victimization and putting those who try to profit from this type of criminal activity behind bars," said Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division.
The number of prostitution-related arrests jumped in the week leading to Sunday's match-up between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos.
New York police arrested a Florida mother Wednesday for allegedly traveling to Manhattan to prostitute her 15-year-old daughter.
Prosecutors are pursuing felony charges against 39-year-old Yolanda Ostoloza, of Hollywood, Fla., after her daughter agreed to have sex with an undercover officer for $200 in a midtown hotel. Her case was presented to a grand jury Tuesday, and an indictment could be returned Friday, the New York Daily News reported.
Her lawyer said that "at no time did she ever encourage or do anything... that would promote that activity with her 15-year-old daughter."
She reportedly told police she thought her child "was just going to do the fetish stuff."
It wasn't clear whether her daughter was among the juveniles recovered in the FBI operation.
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Babies delivered by Caesarean section at 37 weeks were 4.2 times more likely than those delivered at 39 weeks to suffer from respiratory distress syndrome, and 3.3 times more likely to be treated for hypoglycemia, 2.9 times more likely to develop an infection or to be suspected of having an infection, and more than twice as likely to be hospitalized for five or more days or to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.
Babies delivered by Caesarean section at 38 weeks were 2.1 times more likely than those delivered at 39 weeks to suffer respiratory distress syndrome, 1.8 times more likely to be hospitalized for five or more days, and 1.7 times more likely to have an infection or be suspected of having an infection. Babies delivered by Caesarean at 38 weeks had a 30 percent increased risk of hypoglycemia and a 50 percent increased risk of being admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, compared to those delivered at 39 weeks.
“Faced with the likelihood that there is no other problem, I think it’s prudent to wait until 39 weeks to avoid subjecting these babies to adverse outcomes,” Dr. Tita said. He added that he did not think the results would be different for women undergoing a first elective Caesarean section, versus the repeat Caesareans looked at in this study.
Reactions to the study were mixed. Dr. Michael Greene, director of obstetrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the article, said the paper quantifies differences in risk that many physicians may not be aware of.
“I would bet if you ask the first 10 obstetricians on the street if they thought it would make a difference to deliver a baby in the second half of the 38th week and the first half of the 39th week, they’d say, ’Nah, it’s not a big difference,’ ” he said. “This study, because of its size and numbers, is able to say, Yeah, it does make a difference.’ ”
At the same time, he said the study only reviewed live births and did not weigh the risk of a potential stillbirth that could occur with a longer pregnancy against the risk of a complication resulting from an earlier Caesarean.
“The apparent simple message from this study is too simplistic,” he said. “There is a tiny, small but real increase in stillbirths late in pregnancy for women who had a prior Caesarean section, as opposed to women with no scar in their uterus” from a previous Caesarean section.
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and marijuana, trafficking in stolen property and leaving the scene of a crash involving an injury before he was released in March, according to Florida corrections records.
He previously lived in Tampa and Gibsonton, and was arrested in Hillsborough County five times on numerous felony charges from 2009 to 2011 before landing prison, according to jail records.
As he was being led into the Pinellas County Jail, Parilla told reporters: "I apologize to the family. That was not my intention."
The sheriff scoffed at that.
"It's all a bunch of nonsense," Gualtieri said. "This guy knew what he was doing. He killed a cop, and he needs to be held accountable for that."
Kondek, who spent five years as a New York City police officer before moving to Florida, is the first Tarpon Springs officer shot and killed in the line of duty since 1926, said Joe Voskerichian, executive director of the Gold Shield Foundation, a charity that assists the families of officers killed on duty. The last time a Tarpon officer died while on duty was in an automobile accident in 1969, he said.
It is the first death of an officer in the line of duty in the Tampa Bay area in nearly four years. St. Petersburg police Officer David Crawford was the most recent officer shot to death in the Tampa Bay area when he was killed by a teenager he was trying to question in February 2011.
• • •
As a crime scene technician photographed the location of the shooting, Kondek's equipment lay scattered on the street, including a service weapon, bulletproof vest and police radio.
The sheriff and police chief met with Kondek's family.
"It's devastating," said Tarpon Spring police Chief Robert Kochen. "… Charlie was a great guy.
"We are really proud of him and he will truly be missed."
At the Tarpon Springs police station Sunday, residents dropped off bouquets of flowers to memorialize Kondek.
Rickie and Carolyn Barnes, who live near the crime scene, were jolted awake early Sunday by the piercing crack of gunshots, then the sound of tires squealing. Sirens blared and helicopters circled for nearly an hour.
The scene is familiar to them. They walk that street every day.
"It's just quiet and friendly. The neighbors are great," Carolyn said. "It's just hard to believe."
Times researcher John Martin and photographer Douglas R. Clifford contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Laura C. Morel at [email protected] or (727) 445-4157.
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Dash cam video shows a police officer dragging a 77-year-old woman out of her vehicle after she refused to show a driver's license during a routine traffic stop in Keene, Texas. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
A local Texas police department is standing by an officer who dragged a 77-year-old grandmother out of her car for speeding after she repeatedly refused to provide her driver's license.
The entire arrest was caught on video by the Keene Police Department.
The woman, Lynn Bedford, of nearby Cleburne, was stopped on Aug. 19 for driving 66 mph in a 50-mph zone.
For more, visit NBCDFW.com
Bedford told Sgt. Gene Geheb that she had a bladder infection and had to go to the bathroom, but the situation quickly escalated when the officer asked several times for her identification and she refused.
"Just hurry up; I have to go to the bathroom," she said.
"Let me see your driver's license and insurance, please," the officer asked.
She declined several times.
"No, I want to see your driver's license and insurance, please, and then I'll listen to you," the officer said.
"I'll give it to you in a minute," she replied.
"No, you give it to me now, or I'm going to take you to jail," he said.
"Well, go ahead," she said.
The officer then pulled her out of her car and handcuffed her.
Bedford's attorney, Clay Graham, of Fort Worth, said the officer overreacted.
"The officer is not very interested in listening to what she has to say," Graham said. "She gets a little frustrated. And then he just overwhelms her. That's what I see. And then it goes from routine stop to ridiculous stop."
Graham said Bedford was injured during the arrest.
He said Bedford is not interested in filing a lawsuit right now but isn't ruling it out in the future.
The lawyer said the woman was returning home from playing the piano at church when the incident occurred.
In a statement, Keene Police Chief Rocky Alberti stood by the officer's actions.
"This incident has been reviewed thoroughly by the Keene Police Department and the City of Keene Administration," Alberti said in a written statement. "All parties have concluded that Sgt. Geheb did not violate any state laws or department policies, and in fact was following department policy in regards to violators not providing identification."
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Black Mirror creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones recently revealed that the songs sung by Miley Cyrus in her episode were actually Nine Inch Nails tracks that were readapted into pop standards.
The popular sci-fi series premiered its fifth season on Netflix on Wednesday (June 5) and Cyrus stars in the third episode, titled Rachel, Jack, And Ashley Too, as a teen pop star with obsessive fans. Brooker shared that the idea of transforming NIN songs for the episode was in the script very early on, but they needed to get Trent Reznor's permission to re-write some of his tracks.
Luckily, Reznor was into the idea from the very start, as Brooker said at a press screening in London on May 24, via NME. “It was via email and he was really happy. He wanted to see the script and I got to rewrite his lyrics in a chirpy way," he said. "I’m not the best lyricist in the world, and there’s one point where she’s singing ‘I’m stoked on ambition and verve’ instead of, ‘You’re gonna get what you deserve.’”
“He thought it was all very funny. He found all of the dark comedy very entertaining. There are lots of dark concepts in the film and we just enjoyed a childish subversion of them," Jones added. "You know, an artist being more successful when they’re dead than when they’re alive is just such a ghoulish idea -- but then we’re living in a time when you holograms of Prince, Amy Winehouse or Whitney Houston appear."
“A couple of days ago, Whitney Houston’s estate sort of thought, ‘Oh, we’ve left it a few years now, that’s a tasteful period of time, now let’s dig her up and get her back on stage,'" she continued. "She’ll be so much more valuable as a hologram than in the real world because, you know poor Whitney, no scandal and nothing to derail the tour.”
“We’ll all be asking ourselves questions in a few years of ‘Will we be going to a tour in a few years where there’s a hologram performing music that we love? Is there going to be a point where we ‘Yeah, we accept that’?”
Speaking of Cyrus, the creators said, "At the end, she does a fucking good job of doing ‘Head Like A Hole’.”
Watch the trailer for the episode below.
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Panaji: Saudi Arabia’s bitter political rivalry with Iran and Qatar has taken a dramatic turn in Asian football with the continent’s giants keen to have a new bloc that will include countries from South Asia, including India and Pakistan.
Several countries from South and West Asia joined hands to form the South West Asian Football Federation ( SWAFF ) during a preliminary meeting in Jeddah on Friday but most countries, including India, are awaiting a word from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) before formally stamping its approval.
“There is a proposal and we will put this forward at the next executive committee meeting. There are lot of legalities that need to be looked into. Once we have clarity, we will decide,” All India Football Federation (AIFF) general secretary Kushal Das told TOI on Saturday.
India are currently members of the South Asian Football Federation ( SAFF ) which includes Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. All countries, except Nepal and Bhutan, attended the meeting in the Saudi Arabian capital where initial plans were drawn. From West Asia, besides Saudi Arabia, the federation enjoys the backing of UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen and Oman.
The absence of Jordan and Palestine makes the polarisation in the Middle East clear and brings into sharp focus the current pow-wow between heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran, now part of Central Asian Football Association.
“As of now, I cannot say whether we are leaving SAFF or not. Even if you see West Asia, there are several (sub) federations like the Arab federation (Union of Arab Football Association). The idea (of this federation) is for football cooperation and development,” said Das.
There is talk within Asian football circles that the new bloc led by Adel Ezzat, president of the Saudi football federation, aspires for greater influence. A club competition that could rival AFC Champions League and offers a purse of $5 million has already been mooted.
“Let’s see what happens. Fifa does not recognise any of the regional federations but grants are now being given to regional bodies. All those legalities will have to be examined before we take a final call,” said Das.
The AIFF, however, is clear that they wouldn’t join the new body and upset AFC.
Interestingly, Bahrain, home to AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, a member of Bahrain’s ruling family, is an important member of the SWAFF.
The next meeting of SWAFF has been scheduled for May 25 and AIFF president Praful Patel is among those handed a special invitation.
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Tropical ants that nest in the forest canopy but launch themselves into the air when predators arrive can glide back to their trees using their back legs as rudders, scientists have found.
The arboreal ants, Cephalotes atratus, build elaborate nests in the trunks and branches of tall trees, but are sometimes dislodged by strong winds and tropical downpours, or jump to safety when lizards and birds approach.
Rather than fall directly to the ground, the ants flip their bodies in mid-air and glide backwards, usually to the tree from which they fell, while peering between their legs to see where they are going. Their elongated hind legs are used to adjust their trajectory and latch onto the tree when they land, scientists say.
Researchers used video to study the centimetre-long ants in flight after dropping them from treetops at a field station run by the US Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama canal.
The ants' acrobatic behaviour was confirmed in the laboratory using a high-speed video camera to observe their mid-air manoeuvres.
"For these ants, to fall out of the forest canopy, either into leaf litter or water, would be a really big problem because they'd wind up being eaten," said Stephen Yanoviak at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who led the study. "By gliding, they can steer their way back to a tree, climb back up and go home."
If gliding ants become agitated, for example if they are attacked by a predator, they release an alarm pheromone that makes neighbouring ants leap to safety.
To find out how gliding ants steer, Yanoviak collected some of the insects and painted them white with nail polish to make them easier to see. He then climbed up to the forest canopy, plucked a leg or two off each, and compared how well they glided when released.
"If you take the rear legs off the ants, they can still glide back to the tree, but they're not nearly as good at it," Yanoviak said.
In tests, a control group of intact ants landed on a tree trunk more than 90% of the time. When their hindlegs were removed, however, they made it back to the tree roughly 40% of the time. Removing the ants' midlegs reduced their success to less than 70%
"Trying to understand how something as small as an ant is able to control its fall is interesting and relevant to understanding how these behaviours, and insect flight in general, evolved," said Yanoviak, whose study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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In this Sept. 2, 2009 file picture the Euro sculpture stands in front of the European Central Bank ECB in Frankfurt. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
Or so argues political scientist Fritz Scharpf in a new paper (PDF). Scharpf describes Europe’s single currency as a “non-military attempt at imperial unification,” and suggests that there is a “disturbing continuity of Nazi visions of European unity and the ideas of some prominent promoters of European integration in postwar Germany.” These are very strong words for a German political scientist of Scharpf’s stature (he is an extremely well-known public intellectual).
The rationale of Scharpf’s argument is straightforward. We might think that political institutions are legitimate because of how their ‘input’ works (e.g. because they reflect democratic choices, or because of their ‘output’ (they provide social benefits that we all enjoy). Ideally, political institutions should have both kinds of legitimacy. Europe’s economic and monetary union, as it stands at the moment, doesn’t have either kind of legitimacy. It isn’t the product of democratic choice. Member states such as Greece experience its requirements for austerity as foreign impositions, not as the product of their own democratic decisions. Nor, however, does it provide many benefits for ordinary people in the countries that were worst hit by the economic crisis. Instead, it imposes a regime of rigid austerity:
Austerity policies have deepened the decline of economic activity, while severe cutbacks in social benefits, public services, and public-sector wages, combined with labor market deregulation, have greatly increased mass unemployment, poverty and social inequality …. Employment has dramatically declined in all debtor states, and in some, youth unemployment has soared to more than 55 percent. Lower rates in Ireland reflect massive out-migration which, however, is also increasing in other debtor states. In short, the price of euro-rescuing policies has been prolonged economic decline and deepening social crisis in debtor states.
Scharpf suggests that a move toward greater democracy at the European Union level, or a decision by one of the countries worst affected by austerity to withdraw from the euro might lead to change. He doesn’t seem to see either as particularly likely in the short or medium term. Instead, European states are trapped in an equilibrium where no one particularly likes the current situation, yet there is no obvious consensus on how to get away from it. The financial crisis of 2008 badly damaged the U.S. economy. Its consequences for some European states were much worse, and, if Scharpf is right, its consequences for European politics are perhaps graver yet again.
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released from custody with no medication or supervision despite being sectioned twice and complaining of hearing voices in his head, the jury was told.
Best friend Rhodri Moore said Williams seemed fine after his release from jail, but deteriorated "after the first couple days".
He said: "He was taking drugs on a daily basis. He said when he looked at a can of Coke he could see faces.
"He wasn't very well. He was seeing things, hallucinating. He was annoyed and on edge. Depressed.
"He couldn't get any medication. His mother was trying very hard to get someone to see him.
"He was willing to be helped. He wanted to be helped."
He said Williams binged on amphetamines and cannabis after his release and was smoking weed the day before he killed Cerys, who he had met only two weeks before.
10 Hotel owner Mandy Miles found a bloodbath when she unlocked the door and saw drug-crazed Williams brutally attacking Cerys in his room Credit: Wales News Service
10 Williams was staying at the Sirhowy Arms Hotel in Argoed after his release from jail two weeks before the killing Credit: Wales News Service
Mr Moore went on: "He was looking wired. He looked to me like he hadn't been asleep."
The killer's mother Sally Ann Williams said her son had been diagnosed with drug-induced schizophrenia after claiming he was a tree and saying his food was poisoned.
She said: "There was no mental health support whatsoever.
"He told me he'd been released without any medication. He'd been released without licence and had no probation restrictions."
She added her son complained "the voices were back" in the days before the killing.
Mrs Williams said: "He told me his head wasn't right."
But she said he "seemed fine" hours before he killed Cerys when she dropped groceries for him at the Sirhowy Arms Hotel at Argoed, near Caerphilly, South Wales.
Later he sent her a text saying he had made "a lovely dinner" with the food she brought him.
In the early hours of the next morning he killed Cerys in his room and died after being Tasered by police responding to the bloody scene.
His mother told the coroner's jury: "I returned the next day and that's when I found out what had happened."
The inquest in Newport, South Wales, continues.
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The easiest answers to the hardest questions surrounding the creation of a safe consumption site in Seattle will be on the table as a City Council committee hears updates on how much space is needed and how much it will cost to acquire or lease a property for the facility hoped to help stem the tide of opiate-related overdoses.
Where to locate it? That’s not on the board — yet.
Teresa Mosqueda’s Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers’ Rights Committee is slated for a Thursday morning briefing on the Safe Consumption Site Feasibility Study at the center of $1.3 million in city funding to help get a site running in Seattle.
Officials now know how much space and what features the facility will need (PDF) — “2,000 square feet, with space for approximately 10 consumption stations, offices for the facility manager, clinical providers and social workers, needle exchange, reception, waiting rooms, restrooms storage and utility space.”
Much of Thursday’s discussion will be around how much it would cost to establish that space in Seattle’s booming real estate market under various scenarios:
With $1.3 million earmarked from Seattle to help start the facility, the project faces a significant funding gap under the scenarios to be presented Thursday. SCC Insight reports that Public Health of Seattle-King County will share responsibility for site selection with the city — and will also have to pony up a lot of funding to help close the budget gap. Included in the annual costs for each proposal is $300,000 in “neighborhood mitigation” including “emphasis patrols, garbage sweeps and other ancillary costs.”
Safe consumption sites are facilities where people addicted to drugs can consume substances indoors with trained medical staff on hand to prevent fatal overdoses, reduce the spread of disease from dirty needles, and connect addicts to drug treatment services.
The Seattle site is planned to provide “hygienic space and sterile supplies,” overdose treatment and prevention, as well as “syringe exchange services” and “post-consumption observation space.” Capitol Hill has been discussed as a possible home for a Seattle site and organizations including the Capitol Hill Community Council have voiced support for the facilities.
You can review the presentation from Thursday’s committee meeting here (PDF).
BECOME A 'PAY WHAT YOU CAN' CHS SUBSCRIBER TODAY: Support local journalism dedicated to your neighborhood. SUBSCRIBE HERE. Join to become a subscriber at $1/$5/$10 a month to help CHS provide community news with NO PAYWALL. You can also sign up for a one-time annual payment.
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Ethan Cai, Campus Reform
The state of New Jersey gave out $3.8 million worth of state funding to illegal immigrants to pay for their college tuition, a result of a bill signed by Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy in 2018.
Dale Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, called today’s colleges a “social engineering experiment for left-wing political causes.”
The state of New Jersey gave out $3.8 million worth of state funding to illegal immigrants to pay for their college tuition during the 2018-2019 academic year, according to data released by the state Higher Education Student Assistance Authority.
In total. 749 “Dreamers” — students who came to the U.S. illegally as minors — were gifted the taxpayer dollars, NJ.com reported. Since $3.8 million was given out altogether, each individual illegal immigrant received an average of over $5,000 to attend college.
“Parents shouldn’t pay high taxes and exorbitant tuition to underwrite this radical agenda”
This funding is a result of a program passed in 2018 by Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, granting illegal immigrants the same state scholarships, grants, and other funds given to legal residents of New Jersey.
At the time, Murphy ignored Republican legislators who criticized the move.
“I’d even invite any of those folks who have that attitude, beginning with our president, to come on into this room and allow me or any of us to say, ‘This is the United States of America,’” Murphy said at the bill’s signing ceremony in May 2018.
The bill does not set a limit on how many illegal immigrant students can receive financial aid, but state lawmakers originally estimated that the program would help 600 illegal immigrants while costing $5 million.
New Jersey illegal immigrants attended 40 different schools with their state-funded tuition grants. Most notably, $1,346,974 was given through 328 separate awards for illegal immigrants to attend Rutgers University.
That amount could have paid tuition for 110 in-state students at Rutgers.
“College used to be a place for the pursuit of higher learning. Today, it has become a social engineering experiment for left-wing political causes like free college for illegal aliens,” Dale Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, told Campus Reform. “Parents shouldn’t pay high taxes and exorbitant tuition to underwrite this radical agenda.”
Illegal immigrants are still ineligible for federal student financial aid programs.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @ethanycai
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A new poll suggests Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's response to a crippling ice storm in December has helped his approval rating.
A poll conducted by Forum Research Inc. found that almost half of the 1,105 Torontonians surveyed approve of Rob Ford's work as mayor, and four in ten plan to vote for him in the 2014 election.
On Dec. 9, 42 per cent approved of the job Rob Ford is doing as mayor of Toronto. By Jan. 6, Ford’s approval rating was up to 47 per cent. The mayor's popularity is highest among young voters, the middle class, residents of Scarborough, drivers and those considered "least educated."
Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly has an approval rating of 60 per cent, down 5 per cent from the last survey in December.
"An extreme weather event like the ice storm can be damaging to a city but gold for a politician," Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said in a press release Monday. "Rob Ford grabbed the opportunity with both hands and made the most of it. People saw him taking charge and will remember it."
At the height of the storm, more than 300,000 Toronto Hydro customers were without electricity as a result of downed power lines. Last week, city officials said it will cost more than $75 million to clean up the thousands of tree limbs that splintered during the ice storm.
Ford has called a special council meeting on Jan. 10 to request financial aid from the province.
The poll also asked who respondents would vote for in 2014. Of the declared front-runners, the poll suggests that Rob Ford would get 49 per cent of the votes, beating TTC Chair Karen Stintz (29 per cent) and former city councillor David Soknacki (14 per cent).
In other hypothetical scenarios, Ford still came out on top. If NDP MP Olivia Chow was in the race, Ford would get 39 per cent of votes, with Chow taking 35 per cent and Stintz and Soknacki trailing with 12 per cent and 8 per centrespectively.
If John Tory joined the race, Ford would win with 35 per cent, compared to Chow's 30 per cent, 22 per cent for Tory, 5 per cent for Stinz and 3 per cent for Soknacki.
However, when asked who will be elected as mayor in 2014, 38 per cent think Ford will win, and 51 per cent think it will be anyone else.
The Forum Research poll is based on a telephone survey of 1,105 randomly-selected Torontonians who are 18 or older. The survey was conducted on Monday, and the results are considered accurate to within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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With E3 coming up on Sunday, we’ve got some final details on what Xbox has got going on for the biggest gaming event of the year!
We’ll be kicking things off with our annual Xbox E3 2019 Briefing, which you can watch live beginning on Sunday, June 9 at 1:00 p.m. PDT. During the briefing, you’ll have a chance to check out everything from trailers for unannounced titles coming in 2019 and beyond to in-depth looks at previously announced games. You can watch the Xbox E3 2019 Briefing live beginning at 1 p.m. PDT on June 9 on the official Xbox Channel on Mixer, or on the Mixer app for Xbox One and mobile. Once again, we will plan to have a MixPot (the Mixer feature that drops free content for logged-in viewers on certain streams) for our briefing, so be sure to log in to Mixer to get your free MixPot content!
As with last year, the Xbox E3 2019 Briefing on Mixer will be offered in six languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish (LATAM), Portuguese (LATAM), and includes support for English Closed Captions. To select an alternate language, click the “cog” button within Mixer to view the available list. We’re excited for fans all around the world to join in on the Xbox E3 2019 Briefing festivities.
You’ll also be able to catch a live stream of the briefing on the Xbox Twitch Channel, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Live or on the big screen at select Microsoft Stores.
We’re also very happy to announce that we’re partnering with Fuse Media to bring the Xbox E3 2019 Briefing to Fuse viewers at 1:00 p.m. PDT (or 4:00 p.m. EDT for you east coast dwellers!). Encore presentations will air on Fuse at 3 p.m. PDT (6:00 p.m. EDT) and be available on the Fuse VOD platforms the week of 6/10. Be sure to hit up Fuse.tv to find out where you can watch Fuse.
As we announced a few weeks ago, we’re also bringing Inside Xbox back to E3 this year! Inside Xbox will air Monday, June 10 at 3 p.m. PDT and will feature a livestream full of exclusive announcements, game demos, interviews, giveaways and more.
Be sure to head on over to the Xbox E3 Online Experience for more information and details on what we’ve got going on for the week.
Here’s to a great E3!
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news, local-news
IN A cruel and cowardly attack, an intruder has brutally chopped off the entire leg of a defenceless and crippled dog at its Rocherlea home. The small silky cross maltese had already lost one of its front legs in an accident six years ago, and lost the other front leg to Saturday's attacker. Devastated owner Christine Kleiner said she can't imagine how her dog Cheyanne managed to drag herself the 20-metre distance from her back fence to under the house stairs. Ms Kleiner came home from work on Saturday to make the gruesome discovery. Her dog was euthanised by a vet later Saturday night. ``The vet said it was done with great force with a very sharp object,'' an emotional Ms Kleiner said. ``It went straight through her shoulder.'' Ms Kleiner said she had lived through plenty with Cheyanne in the past 14 years. About six years ago Cheyanne had a front leg amputated after injuring it in latticework. Ms Kleiner considered her 14-year-old pet a family member. The pair lived with Ms Kleiner's mother and dogs Zoe and Shadow. The incident has not just left her devastated _ she said she now felt too scared to leave her two animals outside. ``I can't believe someone could do that to an animal,'' Ms Kleiner said. ``I've had her since she was five-weeks-old. She was my little baby; not just an animal to me.'' Living with three legs hadn't affected the friendly dog's life. ``We'd been through a lot of stuff together... I could accept it if she had been sick but to come home and find her like that, the whole family is devastated,'' she said. The incident makes little sense to Ms Kleiner, whose mother was home when the incident happened. High lattice surrounds the backyard and there seemed to be no sign of entry. Cheyanne's leg has not been found. ``My mother didn't hear a thing,'' Ms Kleiner said. ``I'm not enemies with anybody, I don't argue with anybody, it's just bizarre. I've never had any trouble. ``If they're doing that, what else can they do?'' The police have been contacted and the RSPCA is set to investigate today.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/storypad-GqWhDVz3qcKrZUcJ5p8j7K/d4bb5b60-e83b-4fce-8b32-4ae4e625221d.jpg/w1200_h678_fcrop.jpg
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If time permits, create a specific landing page for the app – here is my Xero landing page
Look to see if they do anything else for integration partners. Xero have a community that I participate in, they have a specific API team Twitter account (which I’ve engaged with and had stuff re-tweeted which has in turn been re-tweeted by the main Xero account), they also have specific events for add-on partners that I’m looking into as well. They have also offered to do a blog post about my launch and they have given me a quote to include in my press release!
Other companies are keen to get their brands out there too and if they have your audience already they are potential gold mine if you play your cards right.
Even if your partners don’t have an integrations directory make sure you reach out to them and say something nice – Twitter is the best place to do this and sometimes you’ll be retweeted to their audience. I do this when I start working with a new partner and once we launch the integration.
7. App comparison sites
There are sites out there that will compare apps to each other. One is Alternativeto.net but there are quite a few of them. You can either add yourself to these or you might find you just get added naturally as you get more exposure.
My app has a free version and most of the incumbents are paid only. So being on these comparison sites as a free alternative to a paid app, sends some great traffic my way. Here is a competitor’s listing on Alternativeto.net which shows me as the only free alternative (thanks in advance for the like).
These sites not only send a lot of traffic but they also convert very well. Incredibly, my conversion rate from Alternativeto.net is over 10%, way above my site average and they are in my top 5 top referrers by volume. I wouldn’t have expected that to be the case.
Build yourself a spreadsheet of sites like this and submit your site to them either before you launch or after (I’ve submitted to a few already and will be doing some more after).
What do you think?
Feel free to let me know below what you think of these 6 traffic strategies. In part 3 I’ll be wrapping up with my final 6.
Dan Norris is the founder of Informly a free tool that gives web entrepreneurs a simple report on the performance of their business. The app talks to popular services like Analytics, PayPal, Xero, Mail Chimp etc and simplifies the information into a 1 page live report available via the web or mobile.
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Italy has elected its first black senator, a Nigerian immigrant who is a member of the country’s far-right, anti-immigrant League party. Toni Iwobi, the head of the party’s immigration department, was elected on Sunday (March 4) in Brescia, an industrial city in northern Italy.
His election comes on the heels of a heated campaign period, in which immigration was a top concern for voters. More than 600,000 migrants have arrived on Italian shores in the past four years, stoking up racial tensions and pushing rightwing parties to call for their arrest and deportation. And even though the recent polls left the country with a hung parliament, populist and anti-European parties including the League and the Five Star Movement emerged as the biggest winners.
Iwobi, 62, came to Italy in the 1970s on a student visa, got married to his Italian wife and became a councilor for the party in 1995. Iwobi said that he wasn’t against immigration but that he wanted people to travel to Italy “legally.” He was elected senator in the same region where his colleague Attilio Fontana, who had called for the “white race” to be defended, became governor.
Facebook/Toni Iwobi Toni Iwobi
“Anybody running away from a country because of conflict and war has to be hosted,” Iwobi told the Guardian. “But anybody leaving their country for the wrong reason and traveling to others in the wrong way has to be stopped. Immigration shouldn’t cost thousands of lives at sea and neither should it cost a cent to the host country.”
In the weeks preceding the election, anti-immigrant sentiment increased, with politicians all too keen on harnessing the growing backlash against the migrants. In early February, a one-time candidate for the League draped with the Italian flag went on a shooting rampage in the central Italian city of Macerata, wounding at least six African immigrants. On Monday, an Italian man also shot dead a Senegalese street vendor selling leather bags and umbrellas on a bridge in Florence.
All this comes as polls showed that anti-immigrant views are not just confined to the fringes: a 2016 Pew Research survey showed that 53% of Italians believed growing diversity made their country a worse place to live.
Iwobi isn’t the first black person to make history in Italy’s government. In 2013, Cécile Kyenge became the first black minister in Italy. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kyenge was compared to an orangutan, had bananas thrown at her, had her speeches disrupted, and likened to a prostitute.
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analogy, and Figure 4 shows Belgian wind generation for September 2014:
Figure 4: Belgian wind generation, September 2014
With an installed capacity of around 1850MW in this month the overall wind capacity factor was 11% and there were a number of occasions on which wind generation fell effectively to zero for hours on end. During these periods wind generation in the neighboring Netherlands would also have fallen to low levels. Were these conditions to repeat themselves now, and if NS’s trains were powered exclusively by wind, they would almost certainly come to a halt. (Although Eneco, NS’s wind power procurer, claims that its “wind farm portfolio guarantees sufficient capacity to cover such eventualities”. Apparently Eneco can make the wind blow to order.)
So how does NS justify the claim that all Dutch trains run on 100% wind power? Well, it actually claims that only the electrified portion runs on 100% wind. Only the Guardian has seen fit to publish a correction:
An earlier version said all Dutch trains were now 100% powered by wind-generated electricity, according to the national railway company NS. The company said all electric trains were now powered by wind energy. (my emphasis)
And how does NS justify this lesser claim? According to Railway Technology because it has a:
“green energy contract – thought to be among the largest yet signed in Europe – between power supplier Eneco and VIVENS, an energy procurement joint venture comprising Netherlands Railways (NS), Veolia, Arriva, Connexxion and rail freight firms”, and because “NS and Eneco have carefully selected a list of wind farms that fulfil their criteria of being traceable, sustainable – or renewable – and additional, or new”, and because “This partnership ensures that new investments can be made in even newer wind farms, which will increase the share of renewable energy. In this way, the Dutch railways aim to reduce the greatest negative environmental impact caused by CO2 in such a way that its demand actually contributes to the sustainable power generation in the Netherlands and Europe.”
The first two are “feel good” justifications that have no practical impact. The third – that by purchasing wind power that would otherwise have gone elsewhere NS is leaving the door open for more wind projects and more CO2 reductions – is the only one that offers any tangible benefits. But there is no guarantee that the unfilled demand will be met by renewables, and in any event the 1.2-1.4TWh/year consumed by NS represents barely more than 1% of the Netherlands’ annual electricity consumption and a totally negligible fraction of European consumption. This is hardly enough to make a big deal about.
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Ripple Labs has so far raised $US34.4 million ($45 million) from a range of backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures and IDG Capital Partners and has signed on smaller institutions like Germany's Fidor Bank and a number of US banks, but CBA is the first major bank to publicly disclose its plans to use it.
Planning for future tech
CBA has enjoyed a reputation in recent history of being a pioneer in technology, in relation to other financial institutions, due in large part to a mammoth program to replace its ageing core banking platforms with a modern system. However Mr Whiteing said it needed to press on with a tech agenda.
"One of the things that my leadership team talks about quite a bit is that today we are a technology team in a bank that has a technology halo, tomorrow if we get this right, we will be a technology company that does banking services," he said.
Mr Whiteing said the bank could not bet on always being ahead of the curve, so needed to design its systems and hire the right staff to be able to react quickly to industry-changing ideas emerging from the tech sector. This will include tearing up the bank's carefully-prepared hiring procedures when the need arises.
"We should mirror the society in which we operate, so if we become really good at being inclusive we will be able to harvest the ideas and be able to respond quickly," he said.
"Our graduate recruitment process is like every big corporate … it is optimised to get the best and brightest graduates that are extremely well-rounded and show great leadership potential. But quite frankly they are useless in some teams that I have got, where I actually need the person who has the first class degree, but sits in the corner of the cafeteria and really doesn't like to talk to people … but is also awesome in crypto or data science."
Following Mr Whiteing's speech director of financial services at technology startup Tilikum Investments, Jodi Stanton, said the bank's use of Ripple has significant positive implications for financial innovation in Australia.
"If the momentum can be carried through with enabling policy and investment, innovation at this institutional level can provide significant consumer savings as well as opportunities for Australian fintech investors and entrepreneurs," Ms Stanton said.
"Consuming these new sources of instant liquidity opens the opportunity for entrepreneurs with the technical know-how to offer a variety of new services, from very fast, low-cost cross-border remittances to new hard asset mobile digital currencies. Opportunities exist to be a price taker or a price maker, or both, and early participants, be they institutions or entrepreneurs, can open a "seat on the exchange" with their own digital offers."
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Breast cancer surgeon Dr Liz O'Riordan unveils statue of herself Published duration 10 September 2018
image copyright Dermot O'Riordan image caption Dr Liz O'Riordan in Bury St Edmunds' Abbey Gardens with the 40cm-high (15in) statue, which has been created using 3D printing technology
A "topless" statue has been unveiled of an "brave and bold" doctor, marking the end of her treatment for breast cancer.
Dr Liz O'Riordan, 43, a breast cancer surgeon at Ipswich Hospital, has twice been diagnosed with the condition.
The statue, revealed in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, depicts her after her mastectomy, with a cycling helmet and triathlon medal covering her chest.
She said: "I was a bit scared of being topless, but I'm really proud of showing the world my scars."
image copyright Dermot O'Riordan image caption Dr O'Riordan is one of 25 women to be immortalised in 3D sandstone statues
image copyright Liz O'Riordan image caption The surgeon transformed into an "Incredible" superhero for her cancer treatment at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge
Dr O'Riordan was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and 2018, and went to her final radiotherapy session at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge dressed as superhero Mrs Incredible
She has had the all-clear and said she has had one breast "flattened" and, on Friday as the final part of her treatment, had her ovaries removed at the West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds.
Two days later, she was at town's Abbey Gardens to show off the statue, which has now been put back in storage.
She said: "Cancer is not a dirty secret, but we shouldn't be ashamed of our scars and I want to share the bad and the good - it's who we are."
The statue is one of 25 created by Non Zero One - a company which aimed to plug the gap in what it said was a lack of statues in the UK of women who are not royal, mythical or dead.
Cat Harrison, lead artist, said "bold and brave" Dr O'Riordan was selected from hundreds of nominations for her "complete honesty and cracking sense of humour".
"I have no doubt Liz will inspire other women to not be ashamed of breast cancer and the outcomes and emotional difficulties that can come with it," she said.
Dr O'Riordan said it had yet to be decided what to do with the statue permanently, although it could go on tour.
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well-known to your standard Western historical education are highlighted. So I think this is just an incredible book to pick up. It’s also short. The two of them packed so much into so little space. It is just a concentrated dose of beauty that explodes in your brain and overwhelms everything.
Oh, I love a slim but powerful volume. Do you know: did one author take one character and the other author take another? Is that how it came together?
That I do not know. I haven’t specifically spoken with the authors about their composition process. That seems like a very natural way of doing it, but I don’t believe that’s in fact what they did. Amal, at least, specifically has said repeatedly that the book is by the both of them, with the implication that every word in the book represents the effort of both. So I’m going to follow her lead and imagine it that way.
Thanks. How do you keep up to date with the best new writing in this field? Do you follow particular publishers, or websites?
My theory is that every good book has its ideal audience, and the entire apparatus of publishing, of publicity, of book tours, and book blogging, BookTubing, and the conversation that we’re having right now—all of these efforts are geared towards connecting the right book with the right reader.
The discovery problem is actually surprisingly hard to solve. A lot of times, books that should do well don’t do well, just because it somehow failed to reach the ideal audience, its ideal readers just didn’t know that the book existed.
So all of us have to try harder at boosting the books that we love, in the hopes of somehow bringing them to the attention of the right readers. There’s a large measure of luck and randomness in how this happens, but it’s not just luck. The only way we can make luck work better is to all work harder on recommending books.
That’s music to our ears.
Having said all that, I do myself try to open myself up to as many channels of recommendations as possible. I listen to other readers whose taste I trust. I do a lot of outreach and participate in fandom. I talk to other authors and try to be of service to new authors. I pay attention to what other writers I admire are working on. I follow new book releases and industry news to see what’s popping up. I try to build buzz for books that I think are wonderful, and hope that in that effort, I can make everyone’s lives a little richer by connecting the right books to the right audiences.
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Republican businessman John Cox is in a dead heat for second place with former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the race for California governor, with less than two weeks to go before the June 5 primary.
The new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll shows Cox with 10 percent support from likely voters, and Villaraigosa with 11 percent support — well within the poll’s 4% margin of error.
Current Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is in first place, with 21% of support from likely voters.
The poll is the latest to show Cox in second place, or within striking distance thereof. A March poll by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) showed Cox in second place, as did a University of California Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) Poll in April. Another poll by the Eyewitness News/Southern California News Group in April showed Cox in third, just behind Villaraigosa.
The latest poll is significant for two reasons. First, the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll was one of the only polls in 2016 that showed Donald Trump with a chance of winning the election. Second, under California’s “top two” or “jungle” primary system, the two highest vote-winners advance to the general election, regardless of party. That means Cox would need to pass Villaraigosa to advance.
President Donald Trump endorsed Cox last week:
California finally deserves a great Governor, one who understands borders, crime and lowering taxes. John Cox is the man – he’ll be the best Governor you’ve ever had. I fully endorse John Cox for Governor and look forward to working with him to Make California Great Again! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2018
If Cox manages to defeat Villaraigosa on June 5, Republicans will have a candidate for the state’s highest office on the ballot, which could boost turnout in November. That, in turn, could help save several vulnerable Republican-held congressional seats that Democrats are targeting in their effort to win back a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and re-install Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as speaker.
Villaraigosa has struggled thus far to mobilize Latino voters, a voting bloc that historically turns out in low numbers.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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The infrastructure department has had $1.75m a week to spend on ads spruiking the government’s policies in the final six weeks before the election is called.
According to the department, $9m of the budgeted $20m for the Building Our Future campaign was spent before 28 February, leaving $11m to be spent from the start of March until 13 April. That equates to at least $250,000 a day for the infrastructure campaign.
The campaign is promoting the Coalition’s 10-year $75bn infrastructure package in the 2018 budget, of which $24.5bn was for new projects and just $4.2bn of that was due to be spent in the first four years.
After the budget on Tuesday, the government is expected to call the election for 11 or 18 May, implying it will be called by 13 April at the latest.
The infrastructure department said the campaign “is scheduled to run until 13 April 2019 but not all funds must be spent”. Although $20m was allocated to the campaign the department said it plans to spend $17.6m.
Other big spending government advertising campaigns include:
$18.7m for the treasury’s Better Tax campaign about the Coalition’s income tax changes made in 2018
$9.4m for the education department’s Quality Schools campaign for changes to school funding made by the Turnbull and Morrison governments
$8.1m for the environment and energy department’s Powering Forward campaign, which helps consumers seek the cheapest offer from their energy provider
Those departments did not clarify how much was left in their campaign war chests. The environment department said its campaign was “still under way” and Treasury confirmed its campaign was “still active”.
AusTender documents show that cumulatively the government has committed more than $200m to advertising since 1 January 2018.
In January the prime minister, Scott Morrison, argued taxpayer-funded ad campaigns were “entirely appropriate for Australians to understand what their government is doing”.
He praised the infrastructure campaign in particular, saying it explained that “what we’re doing is delivering record spending on delivering major infrastructure projects, congestion busting around Australia”.
The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, said the increasing use of millions of taxpayers dollars on “partisan government advertising” was a sign of “desperation”.
The Greens’ democracy spokeswoman, Larissa Waters, said: “Taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for the government’s propaganda campaigns just months out from a federal election.”
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Officially opening at 13:00 SLT on Saturday, April 11th, at the Influence Art Community is a new exhibition of fractal art by Gem Preiz.
“I spend my time amazed with the extraordinary detailed patterns of the fractals, as well as their incredible diversity,” Gem says of his work. “From my explorations in this fascinating universe, I bring back digital images that I have been displaying on SL for two and a half years, using them to illustrate themes which inspire me.”
The result is a series of pictures which come together under the title Rhapsody in Blue Fractals, which Gem uses to form a narrative tracing the story of the universe through to humanity’s arrival and our attempts to fill it with our own creations.
The pieces – twenty in total – are displayed two and three at a time through a series of rooms hanging in space, a single blue walkway running between blue-framed doorways providing the means of progress from one room to another. The choice of blue is deliberate, as Gem notes, “blue as the water from which life arises, as the sky and the air we inhale.”
Each piece bears its own title, giving a clue to its place in the story: Genesis, emerGence, BioloGy, and so on – the capitalised G another link to the blue theme and the title of the piece; Rhapsody in Blue being George Gershwin’s famous 1924 musical composition for piano and jazz band. And it is also, as Gem notes, a play on the first initial of his name, and the person to whom the exhibition is dedicated.
The pieces themselves are also rendered in blue, and each one is intricately detailed and quite beautiful in depth; so much so that time is really required to study and appreciate each piece fully – and even then, it is possible to come back and pick out yet more details on a subsequent visit.. They also represent something of a retrospective of the various styles of fractal art he has produced over the last 30 or so months, something which adds a further layer to the exhibition as a whole.
I’m not sure if there will be a music stream running once the exhibit formally opens, however GEM suggests three YouTube tracks should be listened to when visiting the exhibition, and having wandered back and froth through it with them playing, I tend to agree with him:
Oh, and when you reach what appear to be the end of the blue path and are facing the last image – trust to fate and step off the edge; there’s a little surprise waiting, which is perhaps itself a commentary on the possible cyclical nature of the universe!
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Get the Recipe Pineapple and Bacon Nachos With Brie and Chipotle-Orange Salsa
Reversing the role of the pineapple and the pork in tacos al pastor to produce my bacon-wrapped-roasted-pineapple tacos was an easy way to make a familiar dish exciting and new. Sort of like using soppressata instead of pepperoni on my pizza, or putting on pants before I go to work.* But there are only so many tacos I can eat. With tons of pineapple and bacon left over in my fridge, and nachos on the brain, I decided to adapt the recipe to work as individually topped nachos.
* Ahh, the joys of working from home.
The first step was to simplify the preparation. In my taco recipe, I rub my pineapple with an adobo-style marinade, drape it with bacon, and slow-roast it until it's tender and browned. Nachos should be a much more straightforward affair, so for this recipe, I instead brown bacon in a skillet, then brown the pineapple right after. In place of the adobo marinade, I use a couple of chipotle chilies (already conveniently canned in adobo) and blend them with orange juice, which provides bright acidity and sweetness to balance out the heat.
I tried playing with a number of cheeses here, including your standard nacho options, but it turned out that the best choice was an unexpected one: Brie. There's something about its nuttiness and funk that goes really nicely with the sweet smoke of the pineapple and bacon combo. An Alpine-style cheese, like Gruyère or Comté, would also work really well.
Once the bacon, pineapple, and cheese are all nice and gooey on the chips, I top them off with a few fresh ingredients: thinly sliced red jalapeño chilies, a dollop of my Charred Salsa Verde, a little of the chipotle-orange sauce, and some fresh cilantro.
I gotta admit, they are a little bit odd-looking, but their flavor makes up for it.
If anyone walks in on you eating these, with a puzzled look on their face, you can proudly state, "Yes, there is pineapple on my nachos, and yes, they are delicious." Then go put on some pants. They weren't puzzled by the nachos.
Get the Recipe Pineapple and Bacon Nachos With Brie and Chipotle-Orange Salsa View Recipe »
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