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Mass rides: Ride your bike—it is cheap, it is fun, and it doesn’t pollute. Budapest has long been one of the most polluted cities in Europe.
Kükü and the Critical Mass Budapest Community talk a bit more about the impacts of and evolution beyond the rides:
In the early days we did not have any definite goal, but as time went on we realized that we are one of the most progressive communities in town and it would be a giant mistake not to engage in outlining our needs and standing up for our wishes. With our small community behind us we started to collect demands online, and took our neat little wish list to the City Hall. As the demonstrations grew bigger and bigger, the town began building some new bicycle lanes and the two-wheel symbol suddenly appeared in political campaigns. But political support was not strong enough and only resulted in 30-40 km of badly-designed and poorly-constructed bicycle roads, mostly at the expense of pedestrians. But we were too smart and enthusiastic to stop, so we reconsidered our goals and instead of politicians, we took aim at the people of Budapest. By this time a very strong net of cool activists started to take shape, and we have slowly become the largest civil movement in Budapest, without any official organization, strict hierarchy, office, or expenses.
…
The city cannot keep up with the bike boom and is now facing a strange phenomenon: as cyclists have no dedicated space, they have simply begun to flood the streets and ride anywhere they can. In the beginning this led to numerous conflicts with motorists, but soon it brought a drastic drop in accidents, which fell to about 10% of their previous level; this in turn caused a further decline of the fear that inhibits people from riding bikes in traffic. There’s something really unique going on in Budapest: the city is becoming bicycle-friendly despite the circumstances, without substantial investments.
…
We’ve moved past the never-ending growth as the agent of change. Now the everyday sense of enormous numbers of cyclists is the demonstration itself, spreading cycling like a virus to workplaces and schools. … The unbelievable truth is that we have managed to change our city forever.
To learn more about the various ways the Budapest bicycle movement has matured, and how cycling enthusiasm has reached out past the city to the world, get your own copy of Shift Happens!: Critical Mass at 20, either at the event next week, or online. You can also download it to your Kindle. | 800 |
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LONDON — The price of oil surged Friday as global investors were gripped with uncertainty over the potential repercussions after the United States killed Iran's top general.
News that Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, was killed in an air attack at the Baghdad international airport prompted expectations of Iranian retaliation against U.S. and Israeli targets.
In previous flare-ups in tensions with the U.S., Iran has threatened the supply of oil that travels from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. About 20 percent of oil traded worldwide goes through the Strait of Hormuz, where the shipping lane is only two miles wide and tankers have come under attack this year.
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The international benchmark for crude oil jumped 4.1 percent, or $2.70, to $68.95 a barrel in London trading.
“Revenge will come, maybe not overnight but it will come and until then we need to increase the geopolitical risk premium,” said Olivier Jakob, head of consultancy Petromatrix, in a note to investors.
He noted that Iran's response may not be limited to the Strait of Hormuz.
In September, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched drone attacks on the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia. The strike briefly took out about half of the supplies from the world's largest oil exporter. The U.S. directly blamed Iran, which denied any involvement.
Launching attacks that can't be easily linked back to Iran limits the chances of direct retaliation.
But Iran has also directly targeted tankers. This year it seized a British-flagged tanker, the Stena Impero, for several weeks. And it has shot down a U.S. military drone.
About 80 percent of the crude oil that goes through the Strait of Hormuz goes to countries in Asia, including China, Japan, India and South Korea.
But the rise in the global price of oil will affect other countries more widely, particularly oil-importing countries with big manufacturing sectors like Germany and Italy. Those countries fared worst in the stock market on Friday, with their main indexes falling 1.4 percent and 1.1 percent respectively. | 801 |
Berkshire Hathaway increased its net worth by $18.3 billion last year, the company said in its 50th annual letter on Saturday, with a "good year" marred in part by underperformance at its Santa Fe railroad unit.
The Omaha, Nebraska based conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett also dropped a big hint that the era of its larger-than-life CEO was nearing a close.
Buffett, an octogenarian who is one of the world's wealthiest men, is closing in on retirement after decades at the helm. In the letter, he referred to discussions had with Vice Chairman Charlie Munger about selecting a new chief, and strongly suggested the candidate would be promoted from within.
Berkshire reported a net profit of $4.16 billion, or $2,529 a Class A share, down from $4.99 billion, or $2,297 a share, a year earlier. Operating earnings, excluding some items, were $2,412 per Class A share, against the prior year's $2,297 a share.
In its annual report, Berkshire said its five largest "powerhouse" non-insurance businesses bring in record pre-tax earnings. It also saw its per share book value rise by 8.3 percent in 2014, its slowest rate of gain since 2011. Berkshire's per share market value rose by 27 percent during the year, giving it a compounded annual gain of 21.6 percent since 1965.
The company called 2014 "a good year," but cited disappointing performance by BNSF—its railroad operation—as its lone trouble spot. "During the year, BNSF disappointed many of its customers. These shippers depend on us, and service failures can badly hurt their business."
Read More Cramer Remix: What was Buffett thinking on IBM?
Berkshire, however, called BNSF its "most important non-insurance subsidiary," and plans to spend $6 billion on improving plant and equipment assets in the coming year. "That sum is nearly 50 percent more than any other railroad has spent in a single year and is a truly extraordinary amount," the company said.
Nevertheless, BNSF's revenues grew year over year, by nearly $3.9 billion in 2014 against a $3.8 billion gain in the comparable year.
In 2009, Buffett purchased BNSF for $26 billion. Last year, the railroad pulled in revenue of more than $23 billion. | 802 |
full of socks which might never see the light of day then I draw comfort from the fact that our ocean floors are buried with immense biodiversity of which we know nothing.
Furthermore, we love the serendipities and sense of frisson arising from the sudden discovery of things we had long forgotten. These are sensations you miss out on because you have thrown away most of your things and will never suddenly come across them again, and if you do remember any of them, you can only wallow in nostalgia and regret.
Tang’s books and suits packed into a wardrobe
You are mistaken that I live an inefficient life. As I buy almost everything in multiples, I have everything I need at each of my abodes. Hence, I hardly ever have to pack when I travel between Beijing and Hong Kong and London. I get on the aeroplane simply with my shoulder bag and luxuriate in the knowledge that I have everything I need at the other end. Ergo, I live a very efficient life involving lots of travel.
And you need not shed any sympathy for those working around me. They know they are not expected to do any real tidying up, especially with my books, pictures or clothes that happily remain piled up or stuffed up until further notice, which is usually a long time. Therefore, they only attend to surface cleaning, whose spring never seems to come. This laissez-faire attitude lightens their workload and I should be credited for being considerate.
So please, as your new best friend, even if we disagree on the stuff of life, I beg you not to slide down that inexorable path of gradual elimination. It’s a dangerous tendency to “tidy things up”, when that job should only be properly handled by the henchmen of the Yakuza.
Masses of love
Sir David Anthony Prise
Wing-Cheung Tang, KBE, OBE, Chevalier l’Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres, DSc, BA
Photographs: Victoria Birkinshaw
…
Letters in response to this article:
A case for letting the auctioneers in, Sir David / From Matthew Pagett
Tang v Kellaway was absolutely hilarious / From Shauneen Henrick
Titles and decorations are yet more clutter / From Christopher Bellew
Whistleblower unworthy of space in your columns / From S Solomon Raj | 803 |
Imminent launch of YOVOX, the first global network that translates digital opinions into positives actions.In a world where social media are all about business and profits, YOVOX sets up a new deal: to use the power of social networks for the better good.The idea is born in the midst of the global crisis and the recent worldwide protests, inspired by the rise of cyberactivism. Its purpose is not only to offer the first platform conceived from its origin to take part in public debate, but also to overcome one of the major challenges cyberactivism faces nowadays: to translate digital opinions into positive actions.
To achieve this, the network will be managed by a non-profit foundation supporting Human Rights.The network combines all the current social media tools in one platform with a clean, and intuitive interface. All the contents will be public and published under a Creative Commons License in order to ease the debate and invite users to interact with new members. Anyone can write and post anything on YOVOX -within the limits of the law- but members are per se defenders of Human Rights, since the non-profit foundation which operates the network officially supports them.
This implies that the money collected from the network, through advertisement -like in most networks- or through a small monthly subscription fee for those who prefer a “clean surfing”, will be donated to defend causes voted by the community, in a democratic way.
Each member will be able to choose among a list of causes such as Human Rights, of course, but also Ecology, Equality, Animal Defense, Civil Liberties, to mention a few. YOVOX will act for its community, donating its profits to NGOs and associations working in the field for those causes. That way, activism on the Internet can have a tangible effect in the real world.
From now on, social media users have a choice: posting and sharing on networks whose main purpose is profit, or doing the same in a platform which acts for the society in the name of its members.
Conceived by Laurent Botti, French renown writer whose novels have been translated into 12 languages, and Nicolás Ivanhoe, Computing and IT student and co-organizer of the 15M demonstration in Spain, precursor of the Occupy Movement in the USA, the network is currently under development, supervised by Javier Bustos, programmer and co-founder.
The official launch will be on February 2014. In the meantime, beta testers eager to take part in the adventure are welcome to apply on the official website. | 804 |
The U.S. Capitol dome in Washington, August 2, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Breakingviews) - A large coronavirus-related fiscal stimulus is good for America and bad for its bloated balance sheet. Congress on Thursday approved $8.3 billion to mitigate a potential outbreak. That number is misleading though, because in reality hundreds of billions more may be needed to stem economic damage. The problem is that the deficit is already $1 trillion, pushed up by tax cuts and higher spending the economy didn’t obviously need.
The package the Senate has approved for vaccine development and other needs is bigger than President Donald Trump’s $2.5 billion request, but it’s still a rounding error. Others are less optimistic. Senator Elizabeth Warren – until Thursday herself running for the White House – has proposed a $400 billion plan for low-interest government loans to help businesses and expand unemployment insurance, among other benefits.
The government’s financial health was already deteriorating. The deficit had nearly halved between 2012 and 2016 but has been rising. Republican tax cuts caused federal tax revenue to fall by 0.4% in 2018, and it was nearly flat the following year despite a healthy economy and low unemployment rate. That plus a spending increase resulted in a debt-to-GDP ratio of 81% this year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Tax revenue will suffer as companies grapple with falling profit due to the virus. The International Air Transport Association said on Thursday that annual global airline revenue could fall by up to $113 billion. Apple and Microsoft are among the firms that have sounded a warning.
Even without the virus factored in, the CBO projected that the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio would hit an unhealthy level of 98% by 2030. In 2019, the government also projected that the Social Security trust fund would run out of money by 2035, forcing a cut in benefits, while the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund would be depleted in 2026.
About $17.8 trillion of U.S. debt is held by the public, including foreign governments like China. Right now, yields on U.S. government debt are falling to record lows. As finances worsen, though, and the crisis driving investors into U.S. bonds abates, Treasuries will look less attractive. The fiscal room to deal with crises, already lower than it needed to be, could soon be strained to the max. | 805 |
The House on Wednesday unanimously passed a broad condemnation of anti-Semitism days after Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., received widespread criticism over her comments on Israel.
The language, which does not mention Omar by name, was approved 424-0 using a legislature procedure that lets the minority party make a last-minute motion to change legislation just before it's passed. The procedure almost never works for the minority party, in part because the minority usually tries to make radical changes to the bill that the majority quickly rejects.
On Wednesday, however, Republicans used the so-called "motion to recommit" vote to call for the addition of language to a resolution that states it is in the "national interests of the United States to combat anti-Semitism at home and abroad."
"With an unfortunate rise in anti-Semitism and attempts to delegitimize Israel, the United States House of Representatives must emphasize the importance of combating anti-Semitism and reject all movements that deny Israel’s right to exist," the amendment states.
The sponsor of the language, Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., indicated the language was aimed at Omar, who has been criticized by both parties for comments they say amount to anti-Semitism.
“This horrific anti-Semitic tone being taken by some Members of Congress must come to an end," Kustoff said. "The language I offered affirms the United States’ interest in combating anti-Semitism at home and abroad, something my colleagues on both sides of the aisle should and must support. I am proud to stand today in solidarity with my Jewish community as this hate has no place in our country."
The House easily approved the proposal, marking the first time in several years that the motion to recommit worked.
The move by GOP lawmakers came after they repeatedly called on House Democrats to remove Omar from her Foreign Affairs Committee assignment, an act they lack the power to do themselves.
Omar was accused this week of peddling an anti-Semitic trope on Twitter that incorporated a slang reference to attack Jewish influence in politics. She apologized at the request of Democratic leaders, who publicly rebuked her.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had threatened to take steps against House members who make anti-Semitic remarks, but did not provide specifics.
CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this article, Rep. Ilhan Omar was mentioned as being from Michigan rather than Minnesota. The Washington Examine r regrets the error. | 806 |
Ever dreamed of taking your selfie game to new heights — literally?
The out of this world idea of incorporating selfies in space secured one Virginia Tech team first place at the national Astranis Students for the Exploration and Development of Space Satellite-II competition. Founded in 1980, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space is the largest student-run space nonprofit organization in the world that empowers young people to participate and make an impact in space exploration.
The team from Virginia Tech, inspireFly, was selected as the winner for its ContentCube project, a unique and personalized space experience that includes a selfie-stick that captures pictures of an external LCD screen in space and incorporates images submitted by the general public.
While there are a large number of active cube satellite (CubeSat) projects performing observations and collecting data in existence already, the competition challenged teams to think bigger and explore and push the boundaries of a CubeSat to design a novel 10-centimeter cube satellite.
“As we brainstormed ideas, we wanted to get the general public excited and make the experience of space, local,” said Ben Strickler, team lead and a senior majoring in aerospace engineering. “Very few people have ever had the chance to gain access to space. We saw an opportunity to give them that personal connection by appealing to younger generations through our selfie project while also testing a new technology in the space environment.”
The undergraduate student team’s proposal was hailed by the judging panel for the novelty of its concept and its technical approach of testing LCD screens in space. Once developed and launched into space, users would submit a photo to the ContentCube website. The photo would then be uploaded to the satellite via the Virginia Tech ground station, taken with a camera on a deployable boom, and routed back to the ground station again. The result is a selfie taken in space with Earth as the backdrop, available to anyone.
Kickoff for the project began a year ago at the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space annual SpaceVision conference, where interested teams had the opportunity to attend the competition’s sponsors Astranis and Nanoracks’ workshop on designing, building, and integrating a CubeSat for low Earth orbit.
Thirteen chapters from across the country entered the competition and submitted proposals. Proposals were judged on engineering design, nontechnical development and support of the design, professionalism of proposal, novelty of the proposed CubeSat mission, and demographic makeup of the design team. | 807 |
li > ) ) } </ ul > ) ; } ;
Second, the SearchableList component which only cares about the state from the previous example but not about the archived items anymore:
const SearchableList = ( { list } ) => { const [ query, setQuery ] = React. useState ( '' ) ; const handleQuery = event => { setQuery ( event. target. value ) ; } ; const filteredList = list. filter ( byQuery ( query ) ) ; return ( < div > < Search query = { query } handleQuery = { handleQuery } > Search List : </ Search > < List list = { filteredList } /> </ div > ) ; } ;
That's how you can lift state down. It is used to keep the state only next to components that care about the state. However, note that sometimes it may be useful to have umbrella components like the SearchableList component that manages state on other component's behalf. It makes it easier to locate the important parts of your application which manage state.
Let's recap both approaches. In the first example, the "Search a List"-example, the state had to be lifted up to share the query property in two child components. The Search component had to manipulate the state by using a callback handler, but also had to use the query to be a controlled component regarding the input field. On the other hand, the SearchableList component had to filter the list by using the query property on behalf of the List component. Another solution would have been to pass down the query property to the List component and let the component deal with the filtering itself. After all, the state got lifted up the component tree to share it vertically across more components.
In the second example, the "Archive in a List"-example, the state could be lifted down to keep the state maintainable in the long run. The parent component shouldn't be concerned about state that isn't used by the parent component itself and isn't shared across multiple child components. Because only one child component cared about the archived items, it was a good change to lift the state down to the only component which cares about the state. After all, the state got lifted down the component tree.
Both examples have been separated and styled over here by Richard Hess. In conclusion, lifting state allows you to keep your local state management maintainable. Lifting state should be used to give components access to all the state they need, but not to more state than they need. | 808 |
Ever faked an orgasm? Or simply settled for orgasm-less sex?
If you’re a woman, your answer (statistically) is probably yes. Surveys conducted in 2017 by the Kinsey Institute suggests that men, straight or gay, climax about 85 percent of the time during sex, while lesbians do so about 75 percent of the time. Straight females, on the other hand, placed third, hitting orgasm during about 63 percent of sexual encounters. The gender gap is real, and it extends past the workplace. Equality between the sheets is something that Vibrant is fighting for. Originally created by longtime Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountain’s team members in 2015, Vibrant’s mission is to promote happy and safe sex for all.
“We believe that all of us in the health and wellness space can spread the word that pleasure is a fundamental component to healthy sexuality,” expressed President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. “I’m thrilled to see Vibrant leading that charge, while at the same time becoming an innovative partner supporting Planned Parenthood’s mission.”
In an effort to bridge the orgasm gap Vibrant is hosting an orgasm day, Tuesday, March 20. The event will take place at Cultivated Synergy in RiNo. It includes a “clothes on” orgasm workshop led by licensed clinical professional and resident sexologist Dr. Laura Deitsch. Deitsch has her doctorate in human sexuality and is a respected authority on bedroom health. Following the orgasm workshop, BedPost Confessions, an event-series focusing on sexuality and storytelling, will host performers as they share their unique stories around sexual experiences. In addition to the orgasm workshop and BedPost story-time, the event will feature an intermission sex toy pop up shop and chance to win a free vibrator.
Gender equality should extend from the office to the bed, and everywhere in between. So if you’re feeling a deficit in “Vitamin O,” don’t settle for less than a full dose. Vibrant’s Orgasm Day is attempting to bridge the gap for women across the metro. And tickets are $15 and include two drinks, light bites and entry.
This event is 21 and over. It takes place Tuesday, March 20 at 2901 Walnut Street, Denver. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. RSVP here and check out their Facebook page for more information. | 809 |
Bitcoin Over? No Chance, Says Wide Swath of Recent Events
October 17, 2016 By: Steven Anderson
Just in case anyone thought that the cryptocurrency known as bitcoin was out of fashion, there’s great news: it’s alive, well, and pulling a lot of discussion. While the news isn’t exactly good on all fronts, there are plenty of positive developments that are keeping this currency alive and well.
The good news is actually fairly substantial. It’s becoming increasingly popular worldwide in the face of economic uncertainty. In China, bitcoin is becoming a surprising replacement for devaluing yuan, and the town of Keene in New Hampshire is putting some unusually strong support behind bitcoin. Keene is offering bitcoin as a payment method in several places, including a local food truck dealing in several breeds of food, along with a slate of local businesses. While bitcoin mining is proving increasingly difficult, there are reports of those still managing to mine bitcoins thanks to an advanced understanding of the high-energy systems needed to solve the necessary equations.
The news isn’t universally good, as noted previous, as some efforts are proving stymied by government regulations. In Turkey, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to mine or even buy bitcoin in the wake of a hacking incident. The hacking group, known as Redhack, allegedly managed to access the minister of energy and resources’ email account, which prompted a crackdown by the Turkish government against several services, including DropBox, GitHub, and OneDrive.
That’s just the start of developments, and it’s starting to seem like bitcoin may be breaking through to the mainstream. Perhaps the ultimate in digital currency, it could potentially make mobile payments a universal system, operating in about the same fashion as cash, and just about anywhere, too. It’s been slow to catch on, but there have been some fairly high-profile entrants in the field. With places like Overstock.com taking it, some have wondered if a wide-scale launch was to follow. While it hasn’t, at least not yet, there’s still plenty of room to suggest that it might. The sheer number of other cryptocurrencies in the field, from dogecoin to litecoin, is perhaps the biggest suggestion.
Bitcoin’s seen a lot of gain lately, and soon, we may well see this in places we’ve never seen it before. That will fundamentally change the mobile payments market with it. | 810 |
Amazon’s facial recognition technology falsely matched nearly 30 professional athletes to individuals in a mugshot database, the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said.
Amazon’s technology, called Rekognition, has faced similar criticism in the past. Earlier this year, the ACLU found that it also mistook one in five California lawmakers for criminals, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Last week, the Massachusetts ACLU chapter announced that it compared headshots of 188 athletes from New England professional sports teams to a database of 20,000 mugshots. The athletes were from the Boston Bruins, the Boston Celtics, the New England Patriots, and the Boston Red Sox.
In total, 27 athletes across all of the teams were falsely matched to the mugshots, the ACLU said, including Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale, Patriots running back James White, Patriots wide receiver Phillip Dorsett, and Patriots defensive back Duron Harmon.
In a statement provided by the ACLU, Harmon called the technology “flawed” and said it should “not be used by the government without protections.”
The ACLU felt similarly:
“The results of this scan add to the mounting evidence that unregulated face surveillance technology in the hands of government agencies is a serious threat to individual rights, due process, and democratic freedoms,” Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “Face surveillance is dangerous when it doesn’t work, and when it does.”
In a statement to 7 News Boston, a local television station, Amazon Web Services said the ACLU chapter was “misrepresenting” its facial recognition technology.
“As we’ve said many times in the past, when used with the recommended 99 percent confidence threshold and as one part of a human-driven decision, facial recognition technology can be used for a long list of beneficial purposes, from assisting in the identification of criminals to helping find missing children to inhibiting human trafficking,” the company told the news outlet in a statement. “We continue to advocate for federal legislation of facial recognition technology to ensure responsible use.”
Last month, Recode reported that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company’s public policy team was working on facial recognition regulations it hopes to share with lawmakers, essentially trying to write laws that would regulate the space it’s operating in.
READ MORE: | 811 |
The Copa America Centenario final between Argentina and Chile ended 0-0, but MLS provided many goals over the past week, due in large part to some of the best playmakers in the league.
Roland Alberg led the way with four goals over two games for the Philadelphia Union, helping them defeat the Chicago Fire 4-3 on Wednesday night before falling to the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday.
Kaká scored the game-winning goal for Orlando City SC against Toronto FC, while Mauro Diaz chipped in two assists as FC Dallas defeated Real Salt Lake.
In the final game of the weekend, Diego Valeri was a terror for the Portland Timbers as he delivered a great through ball to Lucas Melano on the Timbers' first goal before finishing two penalty kicks goals as Portland beat the Houston Dynamo 3-2.
Check out the rest of the team below:
Player (Week 16 Audi Player Index Ranking)
GK: Clint Irwin, TOR (#48): 3 saves, 1 goal conceded
D: Jalen Robinson, DC (#155): 7 clearances, 4 interceptions
D: Marvell Wynne, SJ (#149): 6 tackles, 3 interceptions, 84% passing accuracy
D: Ronald Matarrita, NYC (#59): 1 goal, 5 tackles, 2 interceptions
M: Lamar Neagle, DC (#8): 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 shots
M: Mauro Diaz, DAL (#20): 2 assists, 3 chances created, 2 shots
M: Roland Alberg, PHI (#3): 2 games, 4 goals, 13 shots, 4 chances created
M: Diego Valeri, POR (#1): 2 goals, 1 assist, 7 shots, 5 chances created
M: Kaká, ORL (#43): 1 goal, 5 shots, 1 chance created
F: Dom Dwyer, SKC (#2): 2 goals, 6 shots, 1 chance created
F: Kekuta Manneh, VAN (#9): 1 goal, 4 shots, 2 chances created
Bench: Bill Hamid, DC (#27); Matias Laba, VAN (#256); Benny Feilhaber, SKC (#24); Boniek Garcia, HOU (#4); Chad Barrett, SJ (#6); Giovani dos Santos, LA (#32); Ola Kamara, CLB (#14)
Agree or disagree with our Team of the Week? Let us know! | 812 |
On the Premier League's opening weekend, 22 English starters featured for last season's top six
Marcus Rashford's double for Manchester United capped a successful opening Premier League weekend for English talents at last season's top-six clubs.
The striker was one of 22 English players who started for Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.
English starters for top six in MW1
Arsenal
Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Aged 21), Calum Chambers (24), Reiss Nelson (19)
Chelsea
Mason Mount (20), Ross Barkley (25), Tammy Abraham (21)
Liverpool
Trent Alexander-Arnold (20), Joe Gomez (22), Jordan Henderson (29)
Manchester City
Kyle Walker (29), John Stones (25), Raheem Sterling (24)
Manchester United
Aaron Wan-Bissaka (21), Harry Maguire (26), Luke Shaw (24), Jesse Lingard (26), Marcus Rashford (21)
Tottenham Hotspur
Kyle Walker-Peters (22), Danny Rose (29), Harry Winks (23), Harry Kane (26)
That is the highest total of English starters at those clubs since 2016/17. All 22 were under 30 years of age, with an average of 23 years and 351 days.
That included two Arsenal teenagers, Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock, who played in the 1-0 win at Newcastle United.
There was also a Premier League debutant in Mason Mount, who came through the Chelsea Academy alongside fellow first-team starter Tammy Abraham.
Seven strikes
Rashford's double contributed to seven goals by English players at those clubs in Matchweek 1, with Raheem Sterling netting a hat-trick in Man City's 5-0 triumph at West Ham United and Harry Kane clinching a win for Spurs over Aston Villa with a late double.
That total is the most by English players at those clubs in a Matchweek 1 since 26 December 2017, when Sterling and Kane contributed four of the nine goals netted by English top-six players.
Across the 2019/20 fixtures, 83 English players were among the 220 starters, the highest number on an opening weekend since 85 Englishmen started on Matchweek 1 of 2010/11.
Burnley and Southampton led the way with seven English players apiece at Turf Moor. | 813 |
(CNN) -- High water and a swift current has helped break up an oil spill that dumped hundreds of barrels of crude into Montana's Yellowstone River over the weekend, local officials said Sunday.
ExxonMobil said between 750 to 1,000 barrels (32,000 to 42,000 gallons) of oil escaped late Friday when a pipeline ruptured beneath the river near Billings. Some of the of the oil has washed ashore or formed pools of "milky brown" residue in river eddies, Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder said.
But Linder and Duane Winslow, the county's emergency services director, said flooding has made it harder to track and clean up the mess. The Yellowstone was running above flood stage over the weekend, sweeping brush and logs into the river, and had a 5- to 7-mph current Sunday.
"It's too dangerous to do anything on the river, to put out any sort of boats or anything," Winslow said. "So people will be working from the shores rather than out in the middle of the river."
The spill was discovered late Friday night near Laurel, west of Billings and about 100 miles downstream from Yellowstone National Park. The pipeline feeds an ExxonMobil refinery in Billings, and the company said it had shut down the line within minutes.
"We will stay with the cleanup until it is complete, and we sincerely apologize to the people of Montana for any inconvenience the incident is creating," Gary Pruessing, the president of ExxonMobil's pipeline subsidiary, said in a statement issued Sunday.
There were no reports of wildlife being endangered by the spill, Tim Thennis, who is leading the response for the Montana's Disaster Emergency Services agency, said Sunday.
The spill forced the evacuation of more than 200 nearby residents after it was discovered Friday night, but they were allowed to return Saturday morning. Laurel rancher Lloyd Webber said the spill left a "pretty heavy" smell of oil hanging over the area Friday night as he and his wife left their home.
"We went to the Perkins in Billings and drank coffee for two or three hours, then went back," said Webber, who lives about a half-mile from the river.
The Yellowstone is one of the tributaries of the Missouri River, which it joins in neighboring North Dakota. Thennis said state agencies, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and ExxonMobil are working together to clean up the spill.
CNN's Matt Smith and Joe Sutton contributed to this report. | 814 |
itor coming to VISION 2018, shares this view. "Areas where object recognition or object classification is the primary goal will definitely drift from traditional approaches to deep learning," the company states. "Texture analysis, template matching, OCR, pose estimation, urban scene analysis and interpretation, and handwritten text recognition are some examples."Combining deep learning with traditional machine vision can nevertheless make sense when it comes to ensuring 100% classification, as Irida Labs Vassilis Tsagaris affirms. "It wont be long before we start seeing more and more ‘hybrid systems," he predicts. "Most of the time, you need both deep learning and computer vision algorithms that have proven to be robust." Volker Gimple also believes that there are many fields in which conventional methods can hold their own thanks to a crucial characteristic that machine learning approaches typically lack: "The ability to track decisions - including flawed ones," as Gimple puts it.Deep learning on embedded devicesMeanwhile, deep learning can also be applied to embedded vision devices. "The widely used embedded board NVIDIA Jetson TX2 also supports the deep learning inference in MVTecs HALCON software," Dr Munkelt confirms. Particularly in Industry 4.0s decentralised approach to computing, he is seeing increasing demand for embedded vision in connection with deep learning solutions in which small machine vision units or intelligent cameras can take on sophisticated aspects of various tasks. At VISION 2018, Silicon Software is planning to unveil a deep learning solution in its own VisualApplets environment on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) Irida Labs will also present a similar link between the megatrends of embedded vision and deep learning at VISION 2018. Its DeepAPI framework - a library for implementing deep learning on any embedded device - can be used for product quality inspections even when a limited number of images are available.About VISIONVISION, the world's leading machine vision trade fair, will take place this year from 6 to 8 November in Stuttgart. Held every two years, the trade fair covers the entire spectrum of machine vision technology. Besides prestigious exhibitors, the fair is also distinguished by a highly international flair and varied accompanying programme: an established fixture at the trade fair again this year is "Industrial VISION Days", the world's largest lecture forum for machine vision. Additional highlights include the "Integration Area", the special show on the "International Machine Vision Standards" under the aegis of the EMVA, and the IPC4 Vision booth showcasing industrial PCs (IPCs). | 815 |
�t be done better on a regular stove and oven – and in many cases it can take as little time! Furthermore, oven cooking won’t give you food that is soggy, limp, and colorless – a microwave will. Every time, guaranteed.
3 Ab Machines
Infomercials have been pumping out a variety of ab building machines for the last ten years. The fact is, these machines are used once or twice and then end up in the garage or a cupboard never to be used again. The machines do nothing that the human body can’t already do, and if you are earnest about building up good abs, you would be far better off doing regular sit ups and getting a gym membership. It will probably cost the same price and won’t clutter up your home!
2 Sugared Cereals
It was a true genius that came up with the idea of taking something healthy and coating it with loads of sugar to appeal to children. Unfortunately this concept has now become so popular that many children will refuse to eat any cereal that is not sugary. All around the world governments are whining about fat children and trying to find a solution by banning all manner of things and trying to promote healthy living – but no one seems to be concerned about the fact that the majority of children start their day with a huge sugar rush followed by a crash and carbohydrate cravings.
1 Bottled Water
Bottled water is an utter waste of money and resources. To illustrate just how ridiculous a concept it is, I will demonstrate with Dasani Bottled Water. This product was created by Coca Cola and was marketed as superior bottled water. First of all, bottled water is a ridiculous concept in the western world where we all have easy access to tap water which is drinkable in most areas. Coca Cola wanted to be part of the ridiculous fad so they entered the bottled water market, but they simply filled their bottles with tap water! When the product was released in the UK it was a disaster. They used the slogan “bottled spunk” which may seem innocuous to the Americans who came up with the idea, but unfortunately in the UK “spunk” is a slang word for sperm. Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, scientific testing of the bottled water showed traces of bromate – a carcinogen. Coca Cola had to withdraw half a million bottles of the water and they pulled the product from the UK market. | 816 |
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The original three hosts of “The Morning X” on 99x have reunited for the second time since the show went off the air (the first was in October 2017 for the 99x 25th anniversary), and all it took was a worldwide pandemic.
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Barnes, Leslie, and Jimmy by way of streaming video and audio podcasts are hosting several new weekly episodes and filing in the gaps with “best of” The Morning X episodes.
The daily 10 a.m. show will last the entirety of Georgia’s shelter-in-place order, or as Barnes called it in an email to What Now Atlanta (WNA) Friday, “lockdown.”
“We’ve got nothing better to do so we decided to put the show back together and have some fun,” Barnes wrote.
“It’s amazing to me how the chemistry just comes right back together. I look forward to each of the new shows. We phoned it in for over 10 years so these shows are right on par”
On Monday, April 13, the trio will have Clark Howard on the show and on Thursday, April 16, tune in to catch up with Tiger King’s John Finlay (promo vid below).
Starting in May the show will shift to one live video per week and two “best of” shows for as long as the three can work with each other’s schedules.
“We remembered how we were able to be a small comfort during tragic times like 9/11 and the Olympic Bombing in Atlanta, so this just felt like the right thing to do during this pandemic,” Leslie Fram told WNA.
“Our hope is to make a few people laugh or smile and take away their anxiety during this time.”
Here are all the places to catch the show:
[Editor’s note: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is rapidly evolving as is its effect on Atlanta, and the City’s businesses and its residents. Click here for What Now Atlanta’s ongoing coverage of the crisis. For guidance and updates on the pandemic, please visit the C.D.C. website.] | 817 |
Fishing is often seen as a relaxing pastime but for one Australian couple their boating trip quickly became a freak, near-death experience after a mackerel came flying through the air and slit the woman’s throat.
Last week, the Binghams were partaking in some fishing offshore Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, when the unthinkable happened: Belinda Bingham was struck in the throat by a 10kg (22lb), meter-long (40 inch) mackerel flying through the air. The fish died on impact before it could inflict any more damage on Bingham, but her husband wheeled around to a scene taken right out of a slasher film.
“Neither of us had a line in the water at the time. I was putting bait on so my back was towards Belinda,” her husband said, as cited by ABC News. “Next thing she's on the floor at my feet… she had her hand to her throat. You could see the blood coming out through her fingers, pumping.”
The couple quickly returned to the shore where they were met by emergency services who encountered Bingham with a deep wound across her neck which almost reached her thyroid gland. Several major blood vessels were struck and bleeding profusely.
As a result of injuries sustained during the bizarre incident, Bingham temporarily lost her voice and now doctors worry it may be irreversibly damaged.
Terrifying piranha with ‘human teeth’ pulled from Russian riverhttps://t.co/KSS2rDqKjjpic.twitter.com/whUzc4qpcT — RT (@RT_com) September 19, 2018
“Other than that it's the chest pain and my voice, because the fish bashed my throat and they have been worried about the voice coming back,” she said.
All things considered, Bingham is lucky to be alive.
“I believe from the paramedics report there, it had actually impacted on a number of major vessels within the throat area,” St John Ambulance NT operations manager Craig Garraway said. “As you're aware [it is] a very serious part of the body to get a nasty laceration and could have ended up a lot worse off.”
The couple did not eat the would-be killer mackerel.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! | 818 |
Oregon senior forward Chris Boucher underwent successful surgery on Wednesday to repair his torn left anterior cruciate ligament.
The most popular Duck sustained the injury in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinal against California. Boucher tore the ACL in the first half, but remained in the game to finish with 10 points and two blocked shots. He is expected to make a full recovery.
“Chris Boucher underwent successful ACL reconstruction surgery,” said Dr. Riley Williams. “We anticipate a full recovery with rehab set to start next week.”
The procedure took place in New York at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
Clearly, the Sports Illustrated cover boy will not be able to join his teammates at the 2017 NBA Draft Combine in Chicago from May 9-14. Yet, rehabilitation is set to begin in less than a week which is a great sign for his future prospectus.
Boucher may be the most “skilled” player from the historic 2016-17 Oregon basketball team. His NBA Draft stock took quite the hit with his injury, yet it will not scare away a majority of NBA suitors.
Dylan Ennis, Dillon Brooks, Tyler Dorsey and Jordan Bell are expected to participate in the combine next month. Everyone but Ennis will have 10 days after the showcase to declare for the NBA Draft in June.
After an incredible career that saw Boucher record an unreal 35-0 record at home from Matthew Knight Arena, the 6-foot-10 versatile athlete is ready for his next step.
Boucher averaged 11.8 points per game, alongside 6.1 rebounds a night this past season. He led the Pac-12 in blocked shots with 2.6 per contest.
The Montreal native set the UO single-season record with 110 rejections in 2015-16. CB is also the only person in Pac-12 history to record 35 or more 3-pointers and 100 or more blocked shots in one season. He is No. 2 all-time in Oregon program history with his 189 career blocked shots. Bell is ranked No. 1 with 233 career blocks.
NBA GM’s are salivating at the thought of Boucher playing for their franchise. Only time will tell who has the most interest. Look for my NBA Draft Preview for every eligible Oregon Duck in the coming days/weeks.
Stay tuned to ATQ on Instagram @eugene_levys_eyebrows Twitter @TheQuackFiend | 819 |
SAN FRANCISCO – Madison Bumgarner came out of his first rehab start Sunday in Arizona with no issues and was cleared to take the next step. He will start for Triple-A Sacramento on Friday, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
How was Bumgarner feeling?
“What part?” he said, scrambling up the clubhouse stairs.
Ummm… the arm?
“Feels like an arm.”
Isn’t that is Matt Cain’s line?
“So what? I like it.”
Bumgarner paused a moment. “But naw, I feel pretty good.”
Bochy said he didn’t have a complete schedule for Bumgarner’s rehab starts as he builds up strength in his bid to return to the rotation after the All-Star break. But there’s a good chance his next start after Friday would come July 5 at Single-A San Jose against Rancho Cucamonga instead of on the road at Albuquerque for Sacramento.
In the meantime, Bumgarner took batting practice on the field at AT&T Park Monday.
—
Third baseman Eduardo Nuñez (hamstring) continues to do baseball work and is in line to be activated on Friday, Bochy said. The Giants likely will go down to a 12-man pitching staff at that time.
—
Outfielder Austin Slater (hip flexor) was improved and an MRI ruled out structural damage. He might be available to pinch hit and could start by Wednesday.
—
Matt Moore’s 6.04 ERA might be the highest among NL starters, but Bochy said he didn’t plan to skip the left-hander in the rotation.
“He’s better off pitching,” Bochy said. “It’s important to keep him going. I don’t think he wants to take longer than the five days to think about it or to take a step back. There’s no health issues involved. And I think he’s really close, I do. He tried to establish his fastball too much last time, and got burned because of it.”
—
Lineups as the Giants begin a series with the Colorado Rockies, to whom they have lost 10 of 11 games this season: | 820 |
Next Game: at Tulsa 10/11/2016 | 7:00 PM
The No. 10 Creighton men's soccer team picked up a 1-0 victory over No. 9 Butler at Morrison Stadium on Friday night to move into sole possession of first place in the BIG EAST.The Bluejays improved to 7-1-3 overall and 3-0-1 in the BIG EAST, while the Bulldogs fell to 8-2-1 overall and 3-1-0 during conference action.Creighton scored its lone goal during the 14th minute.launched the Bluejays' first corner kick of the night into the box whereheaded the ball into the net for his team-leading ninth goal of the season.The Bluejays continued their offensive pressure, firing three shots in the next five minutes.Creighton forced Butler to play defense for the majority of the first half, as the Bluejays held a 9-2 advantage in shots and 4-0 in corners. Eric Dick made four saves for the Bulldogs during the opening half.Butler switched the field during the second half, taking 10 shots and limiting Creighton to only two.During the 54th minute, the Bulldogs had one of its best opportunities for a game-tying goal. Marco Charalambous received a pass in the middle of the box and fired a shot that went just wide of the net asplayed off his line and had little to no opportunity for a save.The Bulldogs also held a 3-1 advantage in corner kicks during the final 45 minutes, but the Bluejay defense did not allow a shot on goal.Butler had an opportunity during the final seconds for an equallizer, but Alex Lehtinen's shot went wide of the near post as time expired.Kapp recorded his sixth shutout of the season as the senior captain ended the night with only one save on the scoresheet. Butler was held scoreless for the first time since its season-opening match at Louisville (0-0 draw).In a physical game, the Bluejays and Bulldogs were whistled for a combined 19 fouls and three yellow cards.With the victory, Creighton improved to 5-0-1 as a top-10 team against top-10 opponents.The Bluejays return to the pitch on Tuesday for their final nonconference match of the regular season. Creighton plays at Tulsa on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.The Bluejays resume BIG EAST play Oct. 15 at Morrison Stadium against Marquette. | 821 |
Fanatec has announced Xbox One compatibility for their hardware thanks to a new licensing deal with Microsoft.
As speculated here on VirtualR a few days ago, Fanatec has now officially announced a licensing agreement with Microsoft regarding Xbox One compatibility of their racing hardware.
Fanatec plans on releasing a broad range of Xbox One-compatible racing peripherals as well as making their existing product lineup compatible to the next gen console.
While existing wheel’s will be made compatible in combination with a Fanatec wheel base, Xbox 360-compatible peripherals such as pedals, shifters & handbrakes will be made compatible as well, allowing sim racers to carry over their current equipment.
While details on the exact proceedings are still sparse, this is certainly welcome news, giving Xbox One owners plenty of choice when it comes to racing wheels.
More info on all Fanatec products can be found on the Fanatec website.
[toggle title=”Click Here for the Full Press Release”]This is the announcement many people have been waiting for and we are happy to announce that Endor AG (the company behind the brand Fanatec) and Microsoft Corp. have closed a license agreement to make racing peripherals for the Xbox One.Fanatec plans to release a b road line up of racing wheels which will fit all kind of racing styles and different budgets.Xbox One brings the latest in innovation and power to the development of racing peripherals giving fans of Fanatec products the opportunity to play the newest Xbox One titles with full support and integration.Available soon, fans will be able to enable Xbox One compatibility on their current Fanatec wheels by simply attaching them to a Fanatec wheel base, making their whole system compatible to Xbox One. Additional details and features will be announced soon.Additional Fanatec peripherals like pedals, shifters or handbrakes that were purchased with an Xbox 360 will also be compatible with Xbox One. The modular configuration system in the Fanatec webshop allows you to purchase only the components you need.
Thomas Jackermeier, CEO of Endor/Fanatec: “I am very excited to announce this partnership as we have been working with Microsoft behind the scenes on new and exciting products. Xbox One and “Forza Motorsport” will continue to be a landmark of ultra-realistic racing simulations on any gaming console and we look forward to bringing this realism to a whole new level for our fans.”[/toggle] | 822 |
southern de-escalation zone, since it virtually relieves him from yet another headache in the Middle East he’d otherwise have to deal with. It’s more complicated with the Israelis, but since they genuinely count only on themselves anyway, the Russian proposal gives them just another yet important “security layer” against Iran.
Another track Putin mentioned in Helsinki that Russia was open to pursuing is coordination of the Astana process and “small group” activities. While it’s not clear whether the latter is ready for such engagement, representatives of the former are scheduled to meet in Sochi July 30-31 to discuss the issue of refugees.
In parallel, a new meeting between the heads of Russia, Iran and Turkey is also being prepared. Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said the exact date has not been set as of yet, but diplomatic sources have it the trilateral summit will most likely occur at the end of the summer or in early fall. This will be the third meeting between Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Previously, the trio met first in Sochi in November 2017 and then in Ankara this past April.
Finally, in Helsinki, Putin also signaled Moscow’s readiness to engage with regional and Western states on humanitarian efforts. As part of the effort on July 18, Moscow announced the establishment of the Center for the Reception, Allocation and Accommodation of Refugees. The center, which the Russian Defense Ministry created together with Syrian authorities and whose activities will also be coordinated with Russia’s Foreign Ministry, will “monitor the return of all temporarily displaced people and Syrian refugees from foreign countries to their places of permanent residence, the delivery of humanitarian aid, medical aide and construction materials.”
Moscow won't disclose the exact coordinates of the center for security reasons, but Russian sources say the structure will be located “either in Damascus or in some other big city in southwestern Syria.” The center, above all, is yet another tool Russia now has over the reconstruction and reconciliation process in Syria — the next big stage in Russia’s Syria campaign. Aware of potential complications of the Assad government as a sole decision-maker in the process, Moscow thus seeks to both restrain the powers of Assad in this process and create conditions on the ground for other potential donors to come and negotiate terms of their contributions. Three years into the Middle East, Russia has been mastering some of its own “Oriental” bargaining practices. | 823 |
China has been inflaming tensions in the region with its territorial claims over international trade routes, even building artificial reefs and islands to expand those claims. Other nations, Taiwan and Vietnam, are following suit.
In a statement, the Pentagon said the USS Wilbur had sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracel Islands, to counter "excessive maritime claims of parties that claim the Paracel Islands".
"This operation challenged attempts by the three claimants – China, Taiwan and Vietnam – to restrict navigation rights and freedoms," said a Pentagon spokesman.
"This operation demonstrated, as the President [Barack Obama] and [Defence] Secretary [Ashton Carter] have stated, that we will fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.
"That is true in the South China Sea, as in other places around the globe.".
Angry reaction from Beijing
It is the second such statement of intent by the US following last year's sail past the disputed Spratly Islands by the US destroyer USS Lassen and the reaction from Beijing was again an angry one.
"The US warship violated Chinese law and entered China's territorial sea without authorisation," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
"The Chinese side conducted surveillance and vocal warnings to the US warship."
Senator Payne opened the door to Australia talking a more proactive role to protect its trade routes, saying "Australia continues to cooperate closely with the United States and other regional partners on maritime security".
In December, Australia backed the US by stepping up flights of a surveillance aircraft, an RAAF P-3 Orion, over the disputed air space, prompting a demand from Chinese naval forces in the waters below to explain itself.
An Australian crewman told the Chinese navy the plane was "exercising international freedom of navigation rights".
The situation was discussed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and President Obama when they met in Washington two weeks ago and by Mr Turnbull and US Pacific fleet Commander Admiral Harry Harris when they met in Hawaii as the Prime Minister flew home.
In November last year, Mr Turnbull put Australia's concerns directly to both China's president and premier during bilateral talks on the sidelines of international summits.
In Malaysia, he used talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to reinforce Australia's message that Beijing's behaviour was "counterproductive" to China's interests and warn that history had shown such behaviour had led to armed conflict.
| 824 |
The Obama administration resettled 8,858 Somali refugees in the United States last year, and nearly 43,000 during Obama's eight years, a huge number that is now raising concerns after a Somali refugee led a one-man attack spree on the campus of Ohio State.
We resettled nearly 9,000 Somali refugees last year - https://t.co/Jw53KlVYTr — CIS.org (@wwwCISorg) November 28, 2016
Like Syrian refugees, there is no adequate way to check the backgrounds of the Somalis, according to the head of the Center for Immigration Studies.
The Somali refugee numbers into the U.S. from the Department of Homeland Security and State:
— 2015, 8858.
— 2014, 9,000.
— 2013, 7,608.
— 2012, 4,911.
— 2011, 3,161.
— 2010, 4,884.
— 2009, 4,189.
The Center also reviewed other data Monday and told Secrets that some 97,000 Somali refugees have been resettled in the United States since 9/11. Of those, 99.6 percent were Muslim, and 28,836 (29.7 percent) were males between the ages of 14 and 50.
We've admitted about 50k Somali refugees just since 2009 - https://t.co/FiGMDLPBaQ — CIS.org (@wwwCISorg) November 28, 2016
In a review of the numbers he reissued after Monday's attack, CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian said:
"We have no way of vetting people from any of the failed states of the Islamic world, whether Somalia or Libya or Yemen or Afghanistan or Iraq. The latter two actually we have more intelligence on, having ruled them for a number of years, but even that information is of limited use; we admitted two Iraqis as refugees who, we only discovered later, had been [improvised explosive device] makers back in Iraq. And the FBI fears dozens more such terrorists have been admitted as refugees.
"Oh, and we resettled nearly 9,000 Somali refugees last year."
He wrote that in a blog post last year based on the latest information available.
Read it here.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at [email protected] | 825 |
is to tell a journalist.
Facebook reinstated a Chechen independence activist group this year after the Guardian inquired about its decision to shut down the page for “terrorist activity”. Reporters’ inquiries also forced the site to admit that it had erred when it censored posts from a Rohingya group opposing Myanmar’s military, which has been accused of ethnic cleansing.
There are no easy solutions to moderation given the scale and complexity of the content, but experts said the companies should invest significantly more resources into staff with journalism and ethics backgrounds.
Facebook’s fact-checking efforts – which have been unsuccessful, according to some insiders – should involve a large team of full-time journalists structured like a newsroom, said Kirtley: “They have to start acting like a news operation.”
Reem Suleiman, campaigner with SumOfUs, a not-for-profit organization that has criticized Facebook for having a “racially biased” moderation system, argued that the companies should be more transparent, release internal data and explain how their algorithms work: “Without the work of journalists chasing down some of this information, we’re just completely left in the dark.”
Claire Wardle, research fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, said the platforms were starting to develop more robust specialist teams doing moderation work. Still, she said, it was “shocking” that Twitter would not have detected propaganda accounts that a group of BuzzFeed reporters without access to internal data was able to uncover.
US gun violence spawns a new epidemic: conspiracy theorists harassing victims Read more
“The cynical side of me thinks they are not looking, because they don’t want to find it,” she said.
A Twitter representative touted its machine learning technology and said it detected and blocks 450,000 suspicious logins each day. The statement also praised the work of the media, saying: “We welcome reporting that identifies Twitter accounts that may violate our terms of service, and appreciate that many journalists themselves use Twitter to identify and expose such disinformation in real time.”
A Facebook representative noted that the company was hiring thousands of people to review content and will have 7,500 total by the end of the year. That team works to evaluate whether content violates “community standards”, the representative noted, adding, “We aren’t the arbiters of truth.” | 826 |
CRESTED BUTTE — This end-of-the-road village is winning the Colorado snow count, with a second storm firing up late Sunday and pounding the East River Valley with two inches an hour for most of Monday.
It was yet another week of Snowmaggedon for Crested Butte. Last week saw Crested Butte Mountain Resort harvest a state-leading 47 inches from a hydrological hammerdrop. The resort’s powder-cam snow stake on Monday was buried beyond its 18-inch top by midday and the resort, struggling with a windy, damp and bountiful storm, made the very rare call of closing early.
“CLOSED. For the safety of our guests and employees, we are shutting down operations early for the day,” read the announcement on the powder cam.
Resort spokeswoman Erica Mueller was answering a steady flow of phone calls and radio chatter early Monday as the line grew at the stalled Silver Queen lift outside her office window. Lift issues were growing. Mechanics were getting stuck in their snowmobiles. Ski patrollers were closing Crested Butte’s renowned steep terrain due to avalanche danger. Mueller was laughing in between the increasingly urgent calls.
“Regardless of everything, this is sweet,” she said.
Across the Gunnison Valley, it was a day of closures. Western State Colorado University had a rare snow day. The Crested Butte Community School closed for for the first time in recent memory.
“We had a half-day once,” said Laney Giannone, who spent the past eight years of her life at Crested Butte Community and Western State.
Bus service between Crested Butte and Gunnison was suspended. Trash and recycling service stopped. Government offices closed.
Everyone — at least those not involved in the somewhat Sisyphean yet critical task of snow re-location — went skiing, but then the ski area closed. The base village bars were filled by 3 p.m. with soggy-yet-giddy skiers.
“I’ve been here 36 years and I can’t remember anything like this,” said Gordy Spencer, sipping a margarita at Mount Crested Butte’s Avalanche Bar & Grill after missing the chairlifts because he spent the morning pulling his neighbors’ cars out of growing canyons of heavy snow. “This is historical.” | 827 |
, Codea. You can prototype and publish your games to the AppStore.
Unity — this one is a bit more interesting. If you are into Unity and find yourself more coding than moving things inside scene by hand, you can make your project work on your iPad. In terms of coding, autocomplete, intellisense. No rendering, compiling etc of course.
When you will try to import Unity project into Continuous you will stumble about numerous errors — lack of UnityEngine, UnityEditor libraries.
This can be fixed. It’s tricky solution but it does it’s job. First, you will need to find all of Unity core dll files inside your Unity installation on your PC/mac. I won’t cover here where to find them, you can google it successfully by yourself. Then you create folder inside your repository and call it something like “UnityCoreFiles”. Paste there all dll files and inner folders with dlls files you found. Here goes the most hard and boring part. Unity creates files: Assembly-CSharp.csproj and Assembly-CSharp-Editor.csproj. These files has links for all the dependencies to Unity dlls and your script files in them. In XML format. The thing is. You will need to copy those files and rename them somewhat to Assembly-CSharp-Editor.csproj_ and Assembly-CSharp.csproj_ respectively. Then change all paths to core dlls files you have in your repository (like “./UnityCoreFiles/UnityEngine.dll”). After doing all this, inside Continuous you would rename working Assembly-CSharp.csproj and Assembly-CSharp.csproj files to something like Assembly-CSharp.csproj_pc and Assembly-CSharp-Editor.csproj_pc and rename your own copied files with unerscore in the end to original names (remove underscode). Continuous will learn about your new files and learn about core dlls. From here you can code and have all intellisense, autocomplete for Unity core libraries without errors.
Conclusion
Hey, if you come to this point, you sure want to code without problems on your iPad. I hope this article helped to clarify some things and made your development more mobile!
If you found mistakes or have suggestions, please do not hesitate to comment and point things out.
Thanks for reading! | 828 |
We want to thank the community for giving us feedback that have lead to this update. We welcome you all to keep giving feedback so we can keep improving and maintain our high standards.
We have updated our Stratis Wallet to version 2.0.0.2. This update includes our new logo and a better first time connection. We advise you to update your Stratis Wallet to the new version. For new users of the Stratis Wallet we would like you to take a look at our Wallet Instructions before your start. These instructions will guide you through setting up your wallet step by step. Our Stratis Wallet is available for Mac OS and Windows.
Before you update always close your existing wallet if it’s open and then run the new wallet. This wallet will overwrite your existing wallet version. It’s also a nice opportunity to make a new backup of your wallet.dat file in order to keep your wallet safe. We recommend you to backup your wallet on a regular basis.
We’ve noticed that there are still some of you that are using the old 1.2.2 wallet. We urgently ask you to update your Stratis wallet to version 2.0.0.2. People that are running the old wallet are on the old chain. Any stake rewards you received on the old chain after we’ve switched to our new chain will be lost. You will start to receive staking rewards again once you have updated and resynched. It’s essential that you re-synchronize the blockchain after you have updated to version 2.0.0.2. Make sure to make a copy of your wallet.dat file before you begin the process. If you need help with the process please join us on Slack and ask for help in the #support channel.
With the Stratis Wallet you have the possibility to stake your $STRAT. By staking your coins you help to secure the network and in return you get Stratis rewards. The inflation over a year is 1%. A good measure of the amount of rewards you can get is by moving your mouse onto the lightning symbol in your Stratis Wallet.
And last but not least we want to remind you on the following things:
If you aren’t a member of our community on Discord we hereby invite you to join us.
If you still have unclaimed Stratis coins, now is the time to claim them.
Keep your $STRAT safe, secure and stake away :). | 829 |
By Chris Wright
With a prospective quadruple still on the cards, Manchester United were in serious danger of wibbling into the New Year on a downward keel after slipping to back-to-back league defeats at the hands of Blackburn and Middlesbrough as 2002 drew to a close.
However, a comfortable 2-0 victory over Birmingham City at Old Trafford on 28th December ensured United strode into 2003 on the crest of a win, sitting third in the table behind Chelsea on goal difference alone.
It was Diego Forlan who opened the scoring in the 37th minute before David Beckham wrapped up the tie in the 73rd with one of his lesser-celebrated crackers.
Latching on to a beautifully weighted through-ball from Juan Veron, Becks found himself well clear of a disastrously sparse Brum back line, taking a moment to asses his options before chopping the rinky-dinkiest of chips over the back-peddling Nico Vaesen…
Man, trajectories like that do funny things to our special parts.
As for Becks and United, their 2-0 win over Brum proved to be one hell of a catalyst, with Sir Alex’s mob going unbeaten for the rest of the season en route to clinching their eighth Premier League title.
A selection of other random great goals on Pies…
Patrick M’Boma (Gamba Osaka) vs Shonan Bellmare
Roberto Cabanas (New York Cosmos) vs Tulsa Roughnecks
Thierry Henry (Arsenal) vs SC Wiez
Darren Barnard (Barnsley) vs Huddersfield
Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Juniors) vs Corinthians
Hugo Almeida (Porto) vs Inter Milan
Paulo Wanchope (Costa Rica) vs Uruguay
Rivaldo And Friends (Olympiakos) vs PAOK
Jon Harley (Fulham) vs Aston Villa
Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) vs Fiorentina
Dimitar Berbatov (Leverkusen) vs Roma
Dennis Tueart (Sunderland) vs Oxford United
Jari Litmanen (Finland) vs Norway
Keisuke Honda (Japan) vs Hong Kong
Robin van Persie (Arsenal) vs Blackburn
Ray Wilkins (England) vs Belgium | 830 |
A day after Virgin boss Richard Branson announced he was joining forces with Qualcomm and OneWeb to bring Internet connectivity to remote areas via an array of satellites, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed he, too, has plans for a similar project.
Musk says his plan involves a network of hundreds of satellites that would orbit the Earth about 750 miles up, a distance considerably closer to the ground that most other satellites currently in operation. According to Bloomberg, which reported Musk’s ambitious plan shortly before it was officially announced on Friday, the service could offer speeds that “rival fiber optic cables on land.”
Musk told Bloomberg the satellites would take around five years to develop at a cost of about $10 billion. He also poured cold water on the idea that he might team up with Greg Wyler’s OneWeb, as was suggested late last year.
“Greg and I have a fundamental disagreement about the architecture,” Musk told Bloomberg, adding, “We want a satellite that is an order of magnitude more sophisticated than what Greg wants. I think there should be two competing systems.”
Mars funding
There’s a twist with Musk’s plan, however, as the billionaire businessman wants to use his proposed network of satellites to not only provide low-cost Internet access to poorly served areas on Earth, but also to use the profits to help fund one of his many other projects – that of colonizing Mars. That’s right, in case you’d somehow forgotten, Musk and his SpaceX company also has a plan to get humans on Mars some time in the 2020s.
As Musk moves toward his Mars dream, his SpaceX technology is being used to ferry cargo to the International Space Station in an ongoing program aimed at significantly reducing the cost of space travel, though the enterprise is clearly facing some serious challenges.
Rivals
With Facebook and Google also working on launching airborne Internet-providing technology projects of their own, the skies way above us look set to become even more crowded with a vast range of kit, from drones the size of large passenger planes to high-altitude balloons to satellites.
There’s even talk of a technology called ‘free-space optical communication’ (FSO), which uses light to transmit data through space by way of invisible, infrared laser beams. But for the time being at least, Musk’s ambitions are focusing on a satellite-based solution.
Editors' Recommendations | 831 |
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His food truck effort is strictly extracurricular, he says by email. He’s “just someone who works at 125 Sussex, heard people complain about the lack of food options once too often and decided to do something about it.” He refuses an interview on company time.
But the way the councillor for the area, Mathieu Fleury, tells it, Buchan had a simple idea: get a rotation of trucks, like Ad Mare and Dosa and Sula Wok, to set up nearby and purvey their high-end street food.
Turns out this wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
Global Affairs is on the official ceremonial boulevard between Rideau Hall and Parliament, but it’s snarled in bridge approaches and traffic circles that isolate it as thoroughly as if it were in a highway cloverleaf. According to Fleury, the city looked for a place to put a food truck spot and found none on the roads. What it did find is a city basketball court, tucked into a sliver of parkland between a roundabout and the Rideau River, with its own tiny parking lot that isn’t used much during the day. What about there?
Fleury says they took the idea to Dan Chenier, the city’s general manager for parks.
“Dan at first wasn’t super-open. At first he was, like, ‘We’ve never done something like this, I don’t know’,” Fleury says. But after some persuading, everyone agreed to try it.
The first food truck produced more demand than even the most frenetic chef could serve.
The response on Day 1 a couple of weeks ago was overwhelming. Crazy lineups. More demand than even the most frenetic food truck chef could serve. Since then business has been up and down but good enough that in the second week, Buchan invited a second truck, plus on some days a dessert cart — Stella Luna gelato, Mr. Churritos. The weekly roster goes up on a tiny but popular website, including in a printable form suitable for office bulletin boards. “Variety is the spice of lunch,” it says. | 832 |
The northern Russian port city of Murmansk, with a population of 300,000, has been partly left without electricity following an emergency at an energy facility. Eyewitnesses captured a bright flash, after which the lights went out.
There have been eyewitnesses' reports of a "huge blast" at one of the city's electrical substations, according to SeverPost news agency.
#мурманск #авария #тэц #россия #заполярье #Murmansk #russia A video posted by Vlad Alexsson (@vovafly) on Nov 8, 2016 at 6:40am PST
Emergency services are working at the scene, the agency said, adding that there have so far been no official comments from rescue teams.
Пожар на Мурманской ТЭЦ #Мурманск #авария #пожар A video posted by Kinder-потрошитель (@x_xxgd95) on Nov 8, 2016 at 7:13am PST
There is apparently no electricity in government headquarters in the city center, FlashNord reported citing its correspondent in the area. Lights have been off in both central areas and in the outskirts, according to SeverPost.
An incident happened at one of the facilities of the Kolenergo regional energy company, its press service told RT, without specifying what exactly happened.
The causes of the "incident" are now being investigated by a special commission, the company said, adding that specialists are now working on damage control and recovery.
"Not the whole city has been left without electricity, but only its smaller part," the company spokesperson added.
A source in the local emergency services told RT firefighters were dealing with the incident and there was no further threat to civilians. There is no panic in the city, a local official said.
Murmansk, located in the extreme northwest of Russia, is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle. Built on the coast of an ice-free bay of the Barents Sea in the Arctic Ocean, Murmansk is one of Russia's largest sea ports. All of the country's nuclear-powered icebreakers are based in the city. | 833 |
Bacteria found on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean might have the longest life-cycle on Earth, surviving for as much as 100 million years in hibernation while waiting for the ice to thaw enough for them to be viable again.
These remarkable creatures were discovered when researchers at the UK's Newcastle University were testing sediment samples taken from the sea floor near the Arctic island Svalbard. Based on previous experiments, they expected gradual heating of the sediment to reveal a spike of microbe activity at the colder temperatures, but none at anything much hotter than 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
As expected, there was a spike of microbial activity at around that temperature, then a drop-off as the temperature increased. But then something shocking happened: microbe activity picked up again as the sediment hit 100 degrees, reaching a highpoint of activity at 125 degrees. What were these bacteria that thrived at such scorching temperatures - known as thermophiles - doing on the Arctic sea floor?
Analysis of the microbes' DNA revealed they were closely related to bacteria found in the hot, almost oxygen-free regions of the ocean's crust. Casey Hubert, one of the leaders of the research team, hypothesizes that changing sea currents might have carried them away from their tiny niches and into the wider Arctic Ocean, where they were forced to enter a period of dormancy in order to survive. At that point, the microbes had to just wait for temperatures to increase enough for them to wake up.
Here's the really crazy part - it might have taken 100 million years for that to happen. The microbes that became active when the researchers warmed the sediment samples were the exact same microbes that went into hibernation all those millions of years ago.
It's difficult to know precisely how long those microbes were frozen in the Arctic sediment, but if they were even in the ballpark of 100 million years, then they might be the longest-lived creatures on Earth. (Although it's worth mentioning the credible but disputed claim that 250 million year old bacteria were revived from New Mexico salt deposits.)
And it's worth remembering that the only reason the microbes were revived at all is humans happened to dig them up - who knows how long it will take their fellow bacteria still buried in the sediment to find the right conditions to wake up. If they're going to need the bottom of the Arctic Ocean to reach temperatures near 125 degrees, then they could be in for a wait that makes 100 million years look like a catnap.
[Environmental Microbiology via New Scientist] | 834 |
A leading breast cancer specialist is on trial Monday for allegedly poisoning her ex-lover and fellow cancer researcher's coffee.
As one of the most respected oncologists in the world, Dr. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo received plenty of praise for her work, reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano.
"One of my aunts died with lung cancer when she was 35 and I was 10, so that was when I made the decision that this is what I wanted to do," Gonzalez-Angulo said in a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation profile video from 2012.
However, prosecutors are expected to allege that the doctor, known for trying to cure her patients, tried poisoning fellow Dr. George Blumenschein when their "casual sexual relationship" turned sour.
Gonzalez-Angulo is accused of lacing two cups of Blumenschein's coffee with ethylene glycol, a colorless and odorless chemical found in anti-freeze and widely available at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where both doctors work.
According to court documents, Gonzalez-Angulo made Blumenschein the coffee at her apartment. When he said it tasted "sweet" and that he liked his coffee "black," she allegedly told him it was just Splenda.
Four hours later, Blumenschein "began experiencing slurred speech, poor balance, and loss of fine motor skills." Twelve hours after that, he was admitted to a hospital emergency center.
Blumenschein survived, but suffered severe kidney damage.
Gonzalez-Angulo has pleaded not guilty. Still, prosecutors have accused the doctor of making incriminating statements.
They reportedly said they had secretly recorded her on the phone bragging that she had "people assassinated" before and that she takes care of things "the Colombian way."
In a statement, her attorney Derek Hollingsworth told CBS News: "Dr. Gonzalez has been accused of something she did not do. Our first priority is to make sure the jury has the evidence to see that."
The aggravated assault trial is expected to last two weeks, and a jury of seven women and five men will eventually decide her fate.
Both Gonzalez-Angulo and Blumenschein are still employed by MD Anderson, although the hospital tells CBS News the trial is not about Anderson's medical capabilities -- it's related to personal matters between people who just happen to work there. | 835 |
Boeing aircraft factory workers in South Carolina are scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
The IAM has also long unionized a Boeing plant in Washington, where a strike was organized in 2008 causing the company to relocate $750 million in funding the the South Carolina plant with further investment of $1 billion to expand production. The vote in South Carolina could unionize 3,000 workers.
Labor relations consultant described the vote as a “major, major win for the machinists if they got this.” A main selling point is that IAM could help bring higher wages and more consistent hours to workers at the plant.
However, South Carolina has proved to be a staunchly anti-union state. One of 28 states where union membership is not required, South Carolina has the lowest union membership at 1.6 percent. New York has the highest percentage of union membership: 23.6 percent.
Professor at the Darla Moore School of Business at University of South Carolina, Hoyt Wheeler, cites South Carolina’s history of cheap labor and high business class influence as a reason union are often dead out of the gate. The IAM previously tried to hold a vote in April of 2015 but canceled due to what they called “political interference” and “misinformation” among the workers.
At the time, former Gov. Nikki Haley was among those strongly opposed to IAM. In her State of the State address in 2015, Haley stated that South Carolina is a “state that doesn’t want unions, because we don’t need unions.”
Boeing is using the same lawyer and standard union avoidance strategy now as it did in 2015. Boeing’s social media has been portraying IAM as divisive, and has starting airing its videos on local TV stations.
One video features a production manager, Daniel Mihalic, who was a unionized machinist in the Washington plant unionized by IAM, describing the tension and loss of income he experienced during a strike. Mihalic urges workers to vote no and speaks about how he struggled while on strike wondering how he was going to feed his child.
Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 in Washington, says he hates seeing the anti-union campaign and workers should have “free choice on what they want to do, being able to ask questions and not seeing intimidation.” | 836 |
�s health workers, who are passionate about treatment and passive on regulation, they can only hope that Minneapolis will assist their cause.
“This is about progress and making sure we move,” says an excited Bucher. “Instead of being illegal or underground, [the Warehouse] can move into a better place, which means it moves into a better place for safety and a better place for health.”
The Party Goes On
On a slow Saturday evening in March, Delage is hosting another sex party, the 150th or so since the Warehouse raid. The parties never ended, in fact. They just moved to a second property, a home in a blighted pocket of the city where Delage’s renovations have made it the nicest house on the block.
“We stopped having parties at that address because we’re being law-abiding citizens. But it’s never stopped. It’s never gonna stop,” he chuckles. “You know what I mean? There’s a need. There’s an absolute need.”
The new place is much smaller, attracting groups of about 20 men at a time. Many regular patrons shied away after the raid, but have slowly found the house. But this time, Delage is much more guarded about who he admits. Anyone he doesn’t recognize better come with a friend he does.
There is music and porn, a coat check and a private bedroom for private things. But most of the toys are locked up in the Warehouse, collecting dust like a museum of eccentricities frozen in time.
The health workers have not been back. The new space is simply too small.
On this Saturday, most of the patrons are middle-aged men who look as though they’ve just gotten off work as accountants somewhere buttoned up. There are also younger men in their early 30s, mid-20s, diverse men, reflections of an outside world that is slowly, clearly changing.
“I would absolutely love to bring them back to the Warehouse because I don’t want it to end,” Delage says. “It’s a pure need. It just is. Gay men are just gay men. They like to have anonymous sex here and there or would like to have lots of anonymous sex with lots of partners, and some men are just the opposite. We need the Warehouse.” | 837 |
A 21-year-old student “burned up from the inside” and died after taking a fatal number of diet pills bought online.
Eloise Aimee Parry, from Shrewsbury in Shropshire, died in hospital on 12 April after swallowing eight diet pills – six more than a lethal dose – known as 2,4-Dinitrophenol, or DNP.
The Glyndwr University student began feeling unwell at around midday, driving herself to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital where staff performed a toxicity test – only then was the severity of her situation revealed.
Yesterday, Fiona Parry recounted doctors' “uphill battle” to try and save her daughter - known as Ella to friends and family - after she stopped breathing and her heart failed as her body’s metabolism went into overdrive.
“She had taken so much DNP that the consequences were inevitable. They never stood a chance of saving her. She burned and crashed.”
“She never intended to take her own life,” Mrs Parry said. “She just never really understood how dangerous the tablets that she took were. Most of us don’t believe that a slimming tablet could possibly kill us. DNP is not a miracle slimming pill. It is a deadly toxin.”
Ms Parry, a volunteer for West Mercia Women’s Aid and a Young Health Champion with the YMCA, is believed to have bought the pills online where they retail for between £70 to £100.
West Mercia Police are conducting a full investigation into the causes behind Ms Parry’s death, with a full coroner’s report expected to establish the exact cause of the young woman’s death.
Meanwhile, police have issued a stark warning to others about the dangers of buying pills online, urging people to be “incredibly careful when purchasing medicine or supplements over the internet. Substances from unregistered websites could put your health at risk as they could be extremely harmful, out-of-date or fake.”
Chief Inspector Jennifer Mattinson said in a statement that police were working to discover the origin of the pills and how they were advertised.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has advised the public against taking any tablets or powders containing DNP, stating: “it is an industrial chemic and not fit for human consumption. | 838 |
World-Cup-winning midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger will leave Bayern München for English side Manchester United, as announced by club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge at a pre-season press conference on Saturday afternoon at the Allianz Arena.
"An agreement has been reached with Manchester, everything is resolved. Bastian wants to try something new at the end of his career, which I understand," said Rummenigge, who would not be drawn on revealing the terms of the transfer. "What I will say is that they are very fair for both sides," added the chairman.
"Basti is an outright leader and a world-class player who can make his mark on any team, and he definitely will at Manchester United," said Germany national manager Joachim Löw. "He also knows Louis van Gaal, who will have definitely wanted to sign him, so the signs look good from the start. I’m convinced that Basti will be successful in his new venture in the Premier League – I know that he still has great ambition. He’ll take on this new challenge in England just as we have known him: with commitment and motivation. I’m confident that it will give him another boost and a further incentive, especially with the European Championship in France on the horizon – we’ll be looking to him to lead the team at that tournament. His departure is without doubt a big loss for Bayern and for the Bundesliga."
"I can understand why Basti wanted to add a chapter in the Premier League to his already fantastic career," said DFB general manager Oliver Bierhoff. "Manchester United, like Bayern, is a club with worldwide appeal. The English fans can look forward to seeing someone like Basti, who is a very passionate player that will fit in straight away. I always think players gaining experience abroad is a very positive thing – seeing things from a different perspective always helps you develop, not only as a footballer but as a person too. The fact that Basti is willing to make this change shows his drive, and that he still wants to achieve great things."
Schweinsteiger spent 17 years at Bayern and is expected to sign a three-year-deal until 2018 with the most successful English side in history. The Germany captain’s contract with Bayern München was initially meant to run until June of next year. At Manchester United, the midfielder will be reunited with former-Bayern coach Louis van Gaal. | 839 |
With the Swiss outfit keen to forge closer ties with its Maranello-based partner, it has been clear for some time that it would hand one of its race seats to F2 champion and Ferrari protege Charles Leclerc.
However, the decision on its second seat has been much tougher to nail down, with Ferrari weighing up whether or not to place its other junior driver Antonio Giovinazzi there as well.
Against that background, Sauber's owners – who have close links to Marcus Ericsson – have been considering whether or not they would prefer to commit to the Swedish racer for another season.
Although there have been growing indications that the team was edging closer sticking with Ericsson, a final call would be made only after sign off from Ferrari.
And it has emerged that part of Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne's thinking for how to take the partnership with Sauber forwards, has included the idea of a rebranding of its customer engines as Alfa Romeo.
Marchionne has long talked about his desire to bring the Alfa Romeo name back to F1, and with Sauber eager to embrace a long-term future with Ferrari, there is an opportunity to try to do something with the Swiss outfit.
Late last year, Marchionne even suggested that key to a possible Alfa Romeo project was it becoming linked with Ferrari's junior drivers.
"Alfa Romeo in F1 could become a fine breeding ground for young Italian drivers," he told Italian media.
"The best one, Giovinazzi, is already with us, but there are others besides him, and they are struggling to find room. Alfa Romeo, more than our customer teams, could offer them that space."
Whether or not such a tie-up is possible as early as 2018, or longer term, is unclear at the moment but, should Marchionne give the sign off, then it would be a huge boost to Sauber in terms of its global branding.
With the iconic name and its famous four-leafed clover back in F1, there would be great opportunities to tie up fresh sponsorship interest as Sauber goes about ramping up its effort.
In the end, though, for all the advantages that Sauber knows it would get from such a deal, the final say will rest on whether or not Marchionne wants to throw his weight behind the Alfa Romeo commitment – especially amid such delicate times with F1's owners Liberty Media. | 840 |
him a sort of futuristic bullet-train look (which admittedly doesn't work all that well with the massive chunks of armour and turrets on the body of the train, but it's something).I wonder if he's compatible with Takara's Plarail series? Posted by Black Hat on March 19th, 2016 @ 7:32am CDT
Re: New Transformers Titans Return Images Show First Look at Astrotrain (1773830)
Posted by
steals_your_goats wrote: Looks like I was right about Galvatron's colors being wrong on the video (suck it Will ) he looks really nice in hand. Looks like I was right about Galvatron's colors being wrong on the video (suck it Will) he looks really nice in hand.
I am more than happy to be wrong. I would rather be wrong about having set my expectations low than be wrong about being so hyped over something. I am more than happy to be wrong. I would rather be wrong about having set my expectations low than be wrong about being so hyped over something. Posted by william-james88 on March 19th, 2016 @ 8:19am CDT
Re: New Transformers Titans Return Images Show First Look at Astrotrain (1773831)
Posted by
william-james88 wrote: steals_your_goats wrote: Looks like I was right about Galvatron's colors being wrong on the video (suck it Will ) he looks really nice in hand. Looks like I was right about Galvatron's colors being wrong on the video (suck it Will) he looks really nice in hand.
I am more than happy to be wrong. I would rather be wrong about having set my expectations low than be wrong about being so hyped over something. I am more than happy to be wrong. I would rather be wrong about having set my expectations low than be wrong about being so hyped over something.
I'm just yanking your chain, but I must admit I was slightly worried that they changed the color to that terrible pink too. You can imagine how relieved I was when these pictures came out. I'm just yanking your chain, but I must admit I was slightly worried that they changed the color to that terrible pink too. You can imagine how relieved I was when these pictures came out. Posted by steals_your_goats on March 19th, 2016 @ 8:23am CDT | 841 |
The only thing funnier than a nationalization statement spun as positive, or favorable for taxpayers, is one that has been Google translated, in this case from Spanish, courtesy of Bank of Spain, which has just formally bailed out Bankia, leaving the best for last: "In any case, BFA-Bankia is a solvent entity that continues to function quite normally and customers and depositors should have no concern." Move along. Nothing to see here. Nobody should be concerned.
From de Bank of Spain:
Statement on BFA-Bankia
The Board of Finance and Savings Bank (BFA) announced today the Bank of Spain its decision not to buy in the terms and conditions agreed to the securities issued in the amount of € 4.465m who signed the FROB (Bank Restructuring Fund). BFA has concluded that the most desirable to strengthen the soundness of the business project that began with the appointment of Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri as president is to request the conversion of these titles in stock ordinary. This conversion must be authorized by the Bank of Spain and the other authorities Spanish authorities and community and will be conducted in accordance with the valuation process established in the indenture securities.
The Bank of Spain has worked hard in recent months with the group address BFA-Bankia to specify the measures to ensure compliance with the provisions of the RD-l 2/2012 for the sanitation Spanish financial system. BFA-Bankia late March presented a restructuring plan and restructuring that included measures that would comply with the RD-l, and standardize its financial position.
After analyzing this reorganization plan, the Bank of Spain also ordered the entity measures complementary to streamline and strengthen management structures and management, increasing professionalization and a divestment program. These additional actions should serve to enhance the soundness of the institution and restore market confidence. The events of the past weeks and the growing uncertainty about the future of the company has made it advisable to go further and raise the providing resources to accelerate and increase public sanitation.
The changes in the presidency of BFA-Bankia is precisely oriented in the direction shown in professional management and allow the group to boost its restructuring program. The new address of the entity must submit in the shortest possible plan of reorganization strengthened that places BFA-Bankia able to cope with a full guarantee its future.
In any case, BFA-Bankia is a solvent entity that continues to function quite normally and customers and depositors should have no concern. | 842 |
A former ambassador believes Sunday’s terrorist attack in Orlando that left 50 dead and 53 injured could make presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump the next president.
“If I were Donald Trump now I would have come out as soon as the FBI started to leak this morning that this is a terrorist operating from Islamic motivation with ties to — first of all the name itself, Omar Siddiqui Mateen, a Muslim name, son of immigrants from Afghanistan with whatever connection to Islamic extremist organizations, it already greatly influences the race for the presidency,” Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to America from 2009 to 2013, told a journalist Sunday.
Omar Mateen assaulted Pulse, a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, early Sunday before being killed by police. The attack is the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Mateen was a Florida resident who a senior FBI official said might have had ties to Islamic State.
Oren states Trump could benefit politically by quietly pointing out Mateen’s possible ties to ISIS.
Trump’s initial response on Twitter to the Orlando attack didn’t mention the shooter’s name or Islam.
Horrific incident in FL. Praying for all the victims & their families. When will this stop? When will we get tough, smart & vigilant? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016
Media outlet’s have predicted that a major terrorist attack could boost the real estate mogul’s campaign.
“You can bet that if any significant national-security threat is posed between now and November, Trump’s poll numbers will soar in the same way that Bush’s did in 2001,” Nick Bilton, a political correspondent for Vanity Fair, wrote in May. “And if that happens, God forbid, I’m willing to bet that he may be the next president of the United States.”
A terrorist attack in Brussels in March likely caused support for Trump to spike at a critical time during the Republican primaries and analysis by Nate Silver’s political and statistics blog FiveThirtyEight indicates that terror attacks have helped Trump politically.
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Send tips to andrew@ dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | 843 |
"It is highly likely that Erin could have been harmed by an unknown firearm," the court documents state. "Sometime after Erin left with Lee, her phone was deactivated (turned off). Detectives believe if Erin was injured and left at an undisclosed location, she would not (be) able to call for help."
In the weeks following Corwin's disappearance, investigators served search warrants for Lee's home and his Jeep. Authorities also searched a Yucca Valley horse farm, White Rock Horse Rescue Ranch, where the Lee couple stayed briefly in early July. The Lees and the Corwins volunteered at the ranch.
When questioned by detectives, Lee said he had kissed Corwin but that they never had sex. Lee also said he had gone hunting on the day Corwin disappeared, but that the Marine wife wasn't with him.
Other statements threw suspicion back on the Lees, however.
According to the court documents, Isabel Megli, owner of the horse ranch, told authorities that Nichole Lee had said detectives did not have a case "without a body," and that they would "never find the body."
While staying at the horse ranch in early July, Nichole Lee, supposedly told Megli that authorities "missed something" while searching Lee's apartment, and that she was worried her husband did not have an alibi and would "not be able to keep his lies straight."
Megli later told The Desert Sun that police had twisted her words in the court documents, taking her statements out of context in order to shift suspicion onto the Lee couple.
"They put a spin on it," Megli told The Desert Sun. "I'm not going to say I didn't say it, but it definitely wasn't the whole of what I said."
Although the sheriff's department has been investigating Lee for more than a month, they have repeatedly refused to confirm he was a suspect. The department also criticized a news story that discussed how they were examining Lee, insisting this coverage could hamper the investigation.
In recent weeks, few updates have been provided about the Corwin search. Although volunteers continued to comb the desert, clues seemed few and far between, and it appeared progress had stalled.
It was unclear Monday if Chris Lee has a lawyer. Nichole Lee could not be reached despite calls to her cell phone. Efforts to reach Lee relatives at their house in Anchorage were unsuccessful. The Desert Sun partnered with the Alaska Dispatch News in an effort to reach the family. | 844 |
In the cannabis industry, being a multistate operator can mean big profits and broad brand awareness, but brings unique challenges due to the complex regulatory framework that surrounds the burgeoning legal marijuana markets across the U.S.
At Wednesday's Cannabis Capital Conference, three executives from some of the biggest companies in the space offered their perspectives on the ever-changing landscape and what’s ahead in 2019 for this booming business.
Moderator Alan Brochstein, founder of the 420 Investor, focused the majority of the panel on the burning questions so many single-state operators have, asking how to decide which markets to enter and what it takes to stay compliant across borders.
“If you ignore California, you’re ignoring huge opportunity,” said panelist Steve White, CEO of Harvest Health & Rec, a company with medical cannabis licenses in nine states including California.
“If you can create a following in California, you have a real strong probability of being successful elsewhere,” said George Allen, CEO of Acreage Holdings (OTC: ACRGF), which boasts investments in multiple portfolios representing cultivators, processors and dispensaries. "Nationwide awareness doesn’t mean anything if you can't deliver," Allen said.
Kim Rivers, CEO of Trulieve (OTC: TCNNF) — which holds licenses in California, Florida and Massachusetts — implored the audience to focus on smart and strategic growth while making sure to examine any and all challenges posed by each market.
“Our responsibility is to provide high-quality products to the consumers,” Rivers said. “Having an eye on national policy, state laws and local regulations is tough. There are a lot of unknowns and lots of balls in the air to juggle at any given time.”
Rivers' fellow panelists echoed her sentiment, saying that planning for the future of their businesses during an uncertain time for cannabis has been by far their greatest challenge.
“You have to keep your eyes on where the industry is going,” Acreage Holdings' Allen told the crowd in Miami Beach.
“Focus on long-term creation of shareholding value. For us it’s not only about investing in the brands, but also the infrastructure leading this fast-growing land grab.”
Related Links:
GrowGen And The Future Of Cannabis Cultivation Supplies
NY Gov. Cuomo Vows To Legalize Adult-Use Cannabis | 845 |
Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David speaks during a press conference at the Commission on Human Rights office, September 18, 2017. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File
The Philippine National Police on Thursday said it is ready to protect priests who are facing death threats.
Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, a critic of the government's anti-narcotics drive, said he has been receiving death threats from unknown people since earlier this month.
The threats came after the President Rodrigo Duterte said bishops are "better off dead" and even hinted that a certain Bishop "David" was stealing donations.
He later appealed to the public not to harm leaders of the Catholic Church, despite repeatedly urging drug addicts and criminals to maul, kill and steal from moneyed bishops.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has informed him of threats against the clergy, especially in Caloocan.
He said he has offered to validate the threats and assign bodyguards to priests.
"Inassure naman natin po si Cardinal Tagle na tutulong tayo 'pag may mga threat po na natatanggap iyung mga kaparian," he told radio DZMM.
(We assured Cardinal Tagle that we will help if priests receive threats.)
Watch more in iWant or TFC.tv
Opposition Senators Leila de Lima and Risa Hontiveros have blamed the President for the death threats against David.
"The Catholic clergy was never threatened with harm by anybody until Duterte said that they are better off dead," De Lima said Wednesday.
"Duterte is not fooling anyone with his Pontius Pilate act," she added.
Hontiveros, meanwhile, said "not even President Duterte's sudden turnaround will absolve him of his role in this matter."
"This is what happens when you have a leader who encourages violence through his words," she said.
Malacañang has refused to take the blame for death threats against Church officials, saying Duterte's perceived attacks were merely "hyperbole."
Under Duterte, several priests have been killed by unknown assailants, and critics say the alleged climate of impunity under the current administration has emboldened the killers.
Duterte routinely attacks the Church and its teachings. Last year, he drew flak after calling God "stupid." | 846 |
Nirmala Sitharaman said the centre was taking adequate steps to arrest the onion price hike.
Highlights Nirmala Sitharaman explained measures to control onion prices
These included imposing a ban on exports, enforcing a stock limit
Onions are being transported from surplus to deficit areas in the country
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, interrupted by opposition MPs during a debate on the soaring prices of onion in parliament on Wednesday, quipped that she "doesn't eat onions much" and belongs to a family that has little use for the kitchen staple.
"I don't eat a lot of onions and garlic, so don't worry. I come from a family that doesn't have much to do with onions," Nirmala Sitharaman remarked, responding to opposition taunts during her statement in Lok Sabha on rising onion prices. The remark drew laughter in the house, with one parliamentarian pointing out that "eating too much onion tends to make one irritable".
This exchange came at a time when the Finance Minister was listing out the various measures adopted by the central government to stem rising onion prices in the country. These included imposing a ban on exports, enforcing a stock limit, importing the produce from abroad, and transferring onion from surplus to deficit areas within the country.
She also claimed that the government has plugged all loopholes through the direct benefit transfer scheme, and assured the house that "middlemen have been eliminated from the system".
Rising onion prices, with rates threatening to climb as high as Rs 150 in Kolkata, have been the cause of much commotion inside the parliament and outside it. Cases stocked with the vegetable have gone missing from trucks transporting them across the country, and a farmer in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur even reported the theft of onion crop worth Rs 30,000. Many agriculturists in the state have taken to standing guard over their fields at night.
Ms Sitharaman's address in the Lok Sabha came after Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that the government has been skirting the onion issue for several weeks now. "From the economic situation to Jammu and Kashmir and farmer's distress, the government tries to escape questions on issues that it is unable to address. When we tried to raise the issue of onions in the parliament, they prevented us from doing so by creating a ruckus," he said.
Onion is selling at anywhere between Rs 100 and Rs 110 in most retail markets across the country. | 847 |
Learn all about ICS Cyber Security & Get Certified!
Take this this easy Abhisam online software based training (e-learning) course now and learn all about ensuring Industrial Control System security, SCADA security and Safety Instrumented System security.
Industrial Control Systems, referred to as ICS for short, include control systems such as DCS, PLC, SCADA systems as well as Safety Systems like SIS and others. They are the crucial systems that control plants and keep them safe. Manufacturing plants, as well as critical infrastructure (such as the Electrical Grid, pipelines, power generation, water distribution other utilities).
ICS network and control systems also include Buildings control system, Transportation related control system ( for example Railway signaling systems, ship control systems and so on) as well as Defense related installations.
Today the biggest threats facing a control system is from the cyber domain. Typically many manufacturing plants and critical infrastructure that exists today was built many years ago. At that time a typical control system was not built for resilience against malicious attacks and even today many of these ICS environments, use older operating systems for their Human Machine interface (Operator and Engineering stations). The Many times the Industrial Control System in an older plant, may run on a very old operating system, which may be difficult to upgrade and patch.
When malicious entities target and attack your control system then you may not only
Lose your Intellectual Property (stealing batch recipes, setpoints, process data, production figures, yield ratios) that are stored in the ICS environments.
Put your Assets at risk (the breached Industrial Control systems may execute unwanted actions that can cause fires, explosions and environmental damage)
Damage your organization's reputation and market capitalization
Run afoul of the law
You may need to prepare an incident response protocol that will take these above into account.
Most companies have realized this and seek to employ only those individuals who undergo security training and are qualified in this important subject. The fastest way of learning this AND getting certified is by accessing this real world training course.
Note: Merely reading standards like IEC 62443 will not prepare you for the task of ensuring ICS Security, you need to understand and know many concepts, aspects and techniques. Companies have realized that negligence (or ignorance), in respect of ICS security can be really disastrous, literally. They have started hiring these cybersecurity professionals who are trained in ICS security and this is an excellent opportunity to boost your career. | 848 |
who wish to continue to develop and ship their games/content and stay on a stable version for an extended period.
Who is the TECH stream intended for?
The TECH stream is for anyone who wants to use the latest features and those who want to be up-to-date with the latest Unity is offering.
What are the main issues that an LTS stream will address?
The LTS version will not have any new features, API changes or improvements. It will address crashes, regressions, and issues that affect the wider community, console SDK/XDK, or any major changes that would prevent a large section of users from shipping their game.
Will there be updates for both the TECH and LTS streams?
Yes.
We will continue to offer weekly updates for the TECH stream. However the updates for the current TECH stream will stop when the next one is released. For example, when 2018.2 is released, weekly updates for 2018.1 will stop, and when 2018.3 goes live, support for 2018.2 will end.
The LTS updates will be less frequent with one every other week. The updates will continue for two years with the version numbers going as: YEAR.4.1, YEAR.4.2, …, YEAR.4.24, for example.
Will there be any version number changes to updates for the TECH and LTS streams?
All updates for both TECH and LTS streams will have.f suffixes as they are not patches but fully tested updates recommended for all.
Why do you call them updates and not patches?
The.p suffix used for patches has been replaced by the.f suffix because these regular updates are released with extended testing. This is due to the change in our release-testing process. The dedicated Sustained Engineering QA team has started doing extended tests in addition to verifying each of the bug fixes in patch releases some time ago. This extended testing, known as Release Acceptance Testing, is performed using a whole host of manual tests done across various areas. So, there is no need to do both patches and wrap-up of public releases any longer.
What happens to the legacy versions, 5.6, 2017.1 & 2017.2?
As mentioned, 2017.3 has become 2017.4 marking the beginning of 2017-LTS. As promised, all legacy versions will be supported with patches, with.p suffixes for a year from their releases. | 849 |
A police officer was stabbed in the neck in the centre of Brussels on Tuesday morning by a man who was reported as having shouted “Allahu Akbar” before launching his attack.
The knifeman, 33, was shot three times by another officer outside a police station close to Brussels’ world famous Grand Place, a Unesco world heritage site, at 5.30am local time on Tuesday morning.
The wounded officer was rushed to hospital. Police spokeswoman Illse Van De Keere said, “The officer is injured but his life is not in danger.”
The attacker, who wielded two kitchen knives, is also expected to survive his injuries, which include wounds to his chest, but is in a critical condition.
Belgian media reported the man was known to police for robbery and violent crimes but not for terror offences.
It emerged that the suspect, named in the Belgian press as Issam T, was only released from a secure hospital in October and against the advice of the public prosecutor’s advice, which has opened an investigation into “attempted murder with a terrorist context”.
Ms Van de Keere said it was too early to make any statements on whether the attack was terror-related or the allegations the man had shouted “Allahu Akbar”, which means “God is Great”.
Koen Geens, the minister of justice, told local radio, “We are looking for a link with radicalism but for the time being it does not seem to be there.”
“The police are victims of a cowardly attack,” said Jan Jambon, Belgium’s deputy prime minister and security minister.
The prosecutor’s office is due to give an update on the investigation later this morning.
In May, a lone terrorist on day release from prison murdered three people, two of whom were female police officer, in the Belgian city of Liege.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president who is on a state visit to Belgium, visited the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek today.
The visit is heavy with symbolism because those responsible for the Paris terror attack came from Molenbeek. Franco-Belgian relations suffered amid accusations the Belgian had not done enough to stem radical Islam in its country.
Mr Macron said that the “worst thing” would be to equate the Paris bombers with the people of Molenbeek. | 850 |
My 12yo recently let us know that she really, really wants to go to public school. We've been helping her pursue her own interests and learn whatever she wants to learn to the extent that she wants to learn it, so she, her dad, and I agreed that we will spend this coming year helping her get to the place where she'll need to be to start 8th grade in the fall of 2013.
My reasons for wanting her to spend this year in preparation are so that she'll feel confident among her peers, and also so that, should she realize a few days or weeks or months into it that this is not for her, we can easily withdraw her without raising any red flags among school employees.
I realize that some people might see the path that we are now taking as an indication that unschooling is no longer working for our child -- or that dh and I have somehow been doing it all wrong -- but dd's recent behavior has actually been proving to me how perfect unschooling always was and still is for her. Not because I think she won't be going to school next fall, because she probably will still decide to do so, but because, after a week of wanting me to give her assignments, she has quickly moved back into the driver's seat and begun setting her own goals and figuring out how she wants to work toward them.
I realize that we'll need to provide her with some guidlines as to what exactly is expected of an 8th grader in our state -- but once we help her get to the resources she needs in order to learn the required information and/or work on the required skills, she'll be in the driver's seat and we'll simply be available as additional resources that she can draw on.
Some people might say that I should regret not having her start on all this earlier -- but what I'm seeing is that she's got a motivation now, and even if it's a motivation to catch up with her schooled peers, it's still a motivation and it makes it all very exciting for her.
The way I see it, we'll still be unschooling when/if she goes to school because she'll be pursuing her dreams as an empowered young woman who knows that she can use the vehicle of school for as long as it's working for her, and can return to home education if and when she decides to. The world is and will always be her oyster.
Thanks for listening and I'd love to hear your own ideas and stories! | 851 |
Monogram Direct have announced that their San Diego Comic Con exclusive Kingdom Hearts items will be available to purchase at their booth at New York Comic Con 2017 with limited availability.
The SDCC exclusive Kingdom Hearts 6 piece Pewter Pin Collector's Set will be available for $30.00 USD, and only 60 sets are available. The SDCC exclusive Kingdom Hearts 4 piece Pewter Key Ring Collector's Set will be available for $40.00 USD, and only 60 sets are available as well. The SDCC exclusive Kingdom Hearts 3 piece 3D Foam Key Ring Collector's Set will be available for $25.00 USD, and only 80 sets are available.
Each item set will be available to purchase at Monogram Direct's booth, Booth #226, at NYCC2017, which starts October 5, 2017, and ends on October 8, 2017.
UPDATE [Dec. 14, 2017]: Monogram is now selling the 2017 San Diego Comic Con exclusive Kingdom Hearts merchandise on their online store. You can check out each item below, and you can purchase each item by clicking each link below:
- 2017 SDCC Exclusive Kingdom Hearts Pewter Lapel Pins - 6 pc Set - $30.00 USD
Take a look at the Monogram product description for the 2017 SDCC Exclusive Kingdom Hearts Pewter Lapel Pins - 6 pc Set below:
Monogram’s Kingdom Hearts Pewter Pin 6 pc set is made exclusively for San Diego Comic Con. The collection features Mickey Head, Sora Head, two Key Blades, Heartless, and Kingdom Hearts Logo.
- 2017 SDCC Exclusive Kingdom Hearts Pewter Key Rings - 4 pc Set - $40.00 USD
Take a look at the Monogram product description for the 2017 SDCC Exclusive Kingdom Hearts Pewter Key Rings - 4 pc Set below:
Monogram brings you this rare collection of 4 Kingdom Hearts Pewter Key Rings. These highly detailed key rings are appropriately Kingdom Hearts’ key blades. Each key ring has a lobster style clasp for easy attachment and the ring style attachment for secure fastening. -First to feature Fenrir & Circle of Life Swords in Pearl -Exclusive silver & gold Key Blade -Exclusive Black Wait the Dawn Sword
- 2017 SDCC Exclusive Kingdom Hearts 3D Foam Figure Key Rings - 3 Pc Set - $25.00 USD
Take a look at the Monogram product description for the 2017 SDCC Exclusive Kingdom Hearts 3D Foam Figure Key Rings - 3 Pc Set below: | 852 |
Members of Black Youth Project 100 protesting J. Marion Sims statue, New York, August 19, 2017. Photo: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters.
I don’t mean to belittle those who might want to be warned of a trigger; nor would I want to dismiss the term’s clinical significance as it relates to post-traumatic stress disorder. To be triggered, rather, in the sense of the term’s vernacular use, is to experience a political condition, to exist in a continuous, nauseated state of malaise and vigilance, one that involves knowing, recognizing, remembering. It’s notat least not necessarilyto feel defeat. Both the horrific and the not-so-horrific stories, variations on a tragic theme articulated and circulated in the #MeToo revolt, foster and illuminate this condition, focused as they are on pervasive, ongoing, gendered abuses of power. These violations retain their enraging, familiar (that is, triggering) quality whether scaled up or down. To want to be triggered by art is perhaps as simple as wanting objects and images that cut through, that synthesize the evidence in jolting ways, or that distill our era’s dreadful background hum into compelling new symbols.
Force is the sexuality of fascism, of slavery. Gender is one of its most formidable weapons—can it be deployed by the other side?
As the Right inveighs against forgetting “our” history, outraged that people might act to remove, adjust, or replace monuments to American fascism, and as the accused patriarchs of entertainment, tech, journalism, politics, and publishing leave astonishing empty places at the top, we wonder how consequential the changes to public space, cultural mores, and corporate structure will be. In the art world as well as in the realm of art itself, there is work to be done. Rape, broadly speaking, must still figure in antirape culture, so let it be represented in gratifying new ways. Let rape be rape as well as, at last, an honest metaphor. Rape should be a trope, an art-historical subject belonging to the people fallen men have traditionally fucked over.
Johanna Fateman is a writer, an owner of Seagull Salon in New York, and a frequent contributor to Artforum. She is coeditor of the forthcoming Last Days At Hot Slit: The Radical Feminism of Andrea Dworkin (Semiotext[e]). | 853 |
wouldn’t exist. Of course, in the absence of such laws, Chinese homeowners have no recourse to justice and/or compensation – and steelmakers and building contractors have nothing to fear but loss of face.
Also, for further discussion in a later post: what will happen to twenty-year home mortgages taken out on Shanghai apartments which will only last – structurally – for ten years. At some point, I’m pretty sure, this is going to become an issue.
[Addendum 3/13: Via an email, I was reminded of a story that I reported but didn’t publish (last year) concerning Chinese steel quality. Without naming names (which is one reason that I didn’t publish) … three years ago, a European-Chinese JV steel foundary in Wuxi found itself in desperate in need of raw materials, and decided that it would begin feeding its metling furnaces with a mixture of scrap steel pipe procured in the Wuxi area. As it happens, Wuxi is one of China’s pipe manufacturing centers (an enormous industry, in fact), and there is a plentiful supply of pipe scrap for those willing to compete with local dealers for it. Another advantage of pipe scrap as a raw material for steel making- especially pipe manufactured for the export market – is that it is typically manufactured to very strict quality standards.
Anyway, the JV foundary built a furnace especially tuned to melt the precise types of pipe manufactured in Wuxi, and – at the same time – invested heavily in a locally-owned scrap yard to procure that pipe from Wuxi’s manufacturers. But there was one problem: none of Wuxi’s pipe manufacturers were able or willing to match the quality specifications that they claimed, and which were required by the steel foundry’s furnaces. As I was told by a foundry procurement officer: “The chemistry of the pipe steel is all over the place.” It wasn’t just one pipe factory, either; the foundry couldn’t find acceptable pipe scrap from anyone in Wuxi.
For better or worse, that prevented the steel foundry from utilizing its new furnace (note to other foreign-invested foundries in China: there is such a thing as due diligence), but it hasn’t yet dented Wuxi’s thriving steel pipe industry, which exports low-quliaty products throughout China and the world.] | 854 |
Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer
Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, is recommending the creation of a currency board and the adoption of the United States dollar as solutions to Jamaica's economic concerns.
Last week, Jamaica was ranked fifth most miserable on a list of 90 countries with a score of 42.3. The list was determined on the basis of data from the Economic Intelligence Unit in Baltimore and Hanke's calculations.
The formula used to compile the list was developed by adding the unemployment rate to the lending and inflation rates, minus percentage change in gross domestic product per capita to arrive at a score.
The index revealed that the nation's main cause of misery was its high interest rates.
"The interest rates are very high because the Jamaican dollar is very weak. To try to stabilise the dollar to keep it from sinking any lower would be bad because there would be more inflation," said Hanke. He pointed out that he had predicted 10-15 years ago that the Jamaican dollar would be weak, interest rates would be high and an attempt to stabilise the dollar would cut off growth.
SCRAP JA DOLLAR
As a solution, Hanke proposes that the Jamaican dollar be scrapped and the country turn to utilising a currency board and the United States dollar.
"This would lower the interest rate immediately and then the misery index score would get a lot better. One way to solve this is to get rid of the Jamaican dollar completely and substitute it with the US dollar," he said.
"Having a currency board would be tied to the US dollar; a fixed exchanged rate and would be freely convertible and backed 100 per cent by the United States reserves. In this case, the Jamaican dollar would be a kind of clone of the US dollar," he continued.
In his opinion, there is no other solution.
When asked if Jamaica's current arrangement under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would help in putting Jamaica on the right economic path, Hanke expressed pessimism.
"No, no! You have had many agreements with the IMF and none has ever worked. This one won't work; none will work. Until you change the currency regime, nothing is going to work in Jamaica, period - end of story. We have enough experience with the IMF and they always end in failure," he concluded.
[email protected]
| 855 |
Therefore, developers are critical players for the adoption of AppCoins. AppCoin tokens will be distributed to key developers (who have apps with a large user base) in order to foster their swift understanding of the benefits that the system brings to them and to speed up their adoption. These players will be incentivised from the beginning of the project given that they have to provide means for the users to be able to use AppCoins in their apps. OEMs: The device manufacturers have the power to considerably influence the app economy, given that they select which app stores to include by default on the mobile devices. Therefore, a share of AppCoin tokens will be delivered to these players to incentivise them to integrate app stores that adopt the AppCoins model. The rollout with OEMs is scheduled for the 6th month onwards, when an MVP is available and a critical mass of developers is onboard. Users: Along with developers, users are the key target audience of AppCoins, for whom the envisioned ecosystem brings improved trust and accessibility to the app economy (the availability of AppCoins to spend in the economy adds the value and the payment method). The allocation of tokens to users will be used to speed up their adoption.
Team
The AppCoins team has significant product launch and user adoption experience. Additionally, their social community is fairly active on Twitter, Telegram and Facebook.
As for the AppCoins advisory team, there looks to be a strong crypto representation, including the CFO of TenX and Head of Platform Partnerships at Ripple.
Financials
AppCoins concluded a token sale in January 2018, where they sold 19,791,636 APPC Tokens for $1.8M.
The APPC token currently trades at around $1.00 (~$100M market cap), with a circulating supply of 100,054,312 APPC and a total supply of 246,203,093 APPC.
AppCoins is currently listed on Binance and Huobi.
Final Take
AppCoins is tackling a massively growing market with a unique vision, a strong underlying product with significant user adoption, and a team/advisory board that is proven. Combined, these make AppCoins a project worth watching in 2018.
Disclaimer: The author of this article may have a position in one or more of the securities mentioned above. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments. | 856 |
Hundreds of new armoured vehicles are being built with Swedish steel, a defence minister has revealed.
The £3.5 billion scheme, for 589 Scout vehicles, requires "specialist" steel in "relatively small quantities", Philip Dunne said in a written Parliamentary answer.
Mr Dunne told shadow defence minister Kevan Jones the prime contractor on defence projects is responsible for buying materials to complete the work.
Challenged at last week's Prime Minister's Questions on the crisis-stricken steel industry, David Cameron said the Government had changed the rules to ensure British steel could be used on taxpayer-funded projects.
In the written answer, Mr Dunne said: "Steel for key defence programmes is sourced from a range of suppliers.
"It is the responsibility of prime contractors to obtain the steel required to complete Ministry of Defence programmes at a competitive cost, within time constraints and to the required quality.
"The quantities of steel required for the Ajax programme, previously known as Scout, are relatively small and spread over eight years of manufacture. The steel is specialist in nature with the majority coming from Sweden."
In a separate answer, to a question about Mars Tanker ships, Mr Dunne added: "Under European and UK procurement regulations, the Ministry of Defence could not contractually mandate the use of particular suppliers."
And in a further written answer, the minister said: "The Government's policy is to provide our Armed Forces with the best capabilities we can afford and, in doing so, to obtain the best possible value for money.
"Steel for defence programmes is sourced from a range of suppliers, including steel-producers in the UK."
Challenged on British steel by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Mr Cameron said: "On procurement, we changed the procurement rules so that it was easier to source UK steel.
"That is why Crossrail - 26 miles of tunnels, the biggest construction project anywhere in Europe - is being completed using almost exclusively British steel.
"That did not happen under the last Labour government; it does happen now."
Announced on the eve of last year's Nato summit in Wales, the contract for 589 Scout Specialist Vehicles is the largest single order placed by the Ministry of Defence for armoured vehicles for more than 30 years.
Delivery of the first vehicles is expected in 2017, with a training establishment and first squadron due to be equipped by mid-2019 and a brigade ready to deploy by the end of 2020.
Belfast Telegraph | 857 |
and would be more vulnerable to predation," he continued. "After a few months, when we went back to the islands, that's exactly what we found."
The authors of this study also found selection for different morphological traits that occurred in parallel to natural selection on behavior. This result is particularly exciting because it shows that natural selection is a complex process that can simultaneously shape different phenotypic dimensions such as behavior and morphology at the same time.
Besides upending the common view that natural selection and evolution can drive physical, but not behavioral changes, the study points to the need for further research.
"Traditionally, people have assumed an animal might be bold or shy depending on the situation, but as we are doing more research in this field, we are realizing that is not the case," Lapiedra said. "Researchers are increasingly finding that there are individuals that are always shy or others that are always bold." Unraveling how these behavioral traits emerge and change through time will help us understand how animals deal with changes in their environments -- an idea of major importance in our rapidly changing Planet.
And though the study demonstrated that those traits can face pressure from natural selection, it's not yet clear whether they can be inherited by later generations.
"Natural selection is crucial for adaptation to new environmental challenges," Lapiedra said. "But the presence of natural selection per se does not imply evolution. What we have shown is that there is consistent variation in behavior. If there is heritability in behavior...lizards that are more bold would have more bold offspring. But so far, we don't have evidence for this. We can say that some phenotypes survive better than others in certain conditions...but that does not necessarily imply evolution."
That evidence, however, may be on the way. Lapiedra and colleagues have been collecting genetic samples from the offspring born on the islands and are using genetic tools to identify whether they inherit their bold or shy nature from their parents.
"We have two years of data already," he said. "From that we hope to be able to say if behavior is heritable or not, and if it's changing in one direction or not. So that would provide actual evidence for evolution in behavior -- that would be a big step to unravel the role behavior plays in evolution."
This research was supported with funding from a Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral fellowship, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, a National Geographic Explorer Grant, and the University of Rhode Island. | 858 |
Denver's other two proposals involve expanding the scope of automatic instant-replay reviews to include all fourth-down plays that fail to reach the line to gain and all extra-point and two-point conversion attempts. The latter came up during the Broncos' Week 11 win over the Chargers in Los Angeles last November.
These represent two of nine proposed rules changes that involve instant replay. These represent more than half of the 16 overall proposals.
The Competition Committee submitted two proposals involving instant replay. Both of them incorporate the Broncos' proposal regarding automatic reviews on extra points and two-point conversions. The first Competition Committee proposal would make pass-interference penalties reviewable. The second proposal would make pass-interference, roughing-the-passer and hit-on-a-defenseless-player penalties subject to coaches' challenges and review.
Any expansion of instant replay could result in slowing down the game, which is part of the balance that will be considered.
Kansas City proposed three changes to overtime rules, the most notable of which would guarantee each team one overtime possession. Overtime ideas were discussed "at length" by the Competition Committee said McKay.
"We'll see how the proposal fares," McKay said. "We've had a lot of discussion about the OT procedures over the years, and it's been a good one driven by data."
"Data tells us since 2001, 80 percent of the time, both teams touch the ball [in overtime]," said Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations. "And just putting on my old cap, you've got to play D. You've got to stop the offense, and when the offense gets on the field, you've got to score.
"There's something about that -- not just tradition -- but you've got to play ball. Statistically, when people raise it, it's because they fell short on the other end. They didn't, the team that won the toss, took the ball down the field, which happens maybe 20 percent of the time. Other than that, you've got to play ball."
McKay also said the NFL will experiment with an eighth official during the preseason, but the league is still trying to determine where on the field that official would be aligned.
But the key is that an eighth official would be on the field. McKay said there was "no support" in the Competition Committee for having a "sky judge" that could assess penalties from a press-box perch. | 859 |
While Nintendo continues to work on its first original high-definition Zelda game, two fans are recreating parts of a classic Zelda game, the Nintendo 64's Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, in an effort to make them look better than ever. A new video update (above) on the Zelda Majora's Mask Project was published yesterday through its YouTube channel. It shows off a variety of gorgeous 3D environments and models, including one of Deku Link.
To be clear, this is not a playable remake of Majora's Mask. "This work has been created by fans for fans, but its ultimate purpose is to be presented to Nintendo," the video's description states. Creators Pablo Belmonte and Paco Martinez--no doubt in the hopes of ensuring Nintendo doesn't shut them down--say this is an interactive project that hasn't used any materials from the original game, adding that they are not profiting from it in any way.
A video from the duo that looked like a trailer for a remake was first released two years ago (see it below), showing a beautiful-looking segment from early on in Majora's Mask. That video was accompanied by a description that described the project as a "small test" intended to serve as "a proposal" to convince Nintendo to make it a reality.
Updates on the project have been hard to come by since then; no additional videos were posted until one appeared last month showing Belmonte and Martinez, who say they work in the industry, with a Happy Mask Salesman statue.
The latest video describes the project as a work-in-progress, but offers up no additional information about when we'll see it again. We've contacted the creators to learn more and will report back with anything we learn.
Majora's Mask is one of two Zelda games released for the N64, the other being Ocarina of Time. That game received a 3DS remake in 2012, and Nintendo has hinted that a Majora's Mask remake could follow at some point. An HD remake of another Zelda game, Wind Waker, was released on Wii U last year. Presently, the company is known to be working on a new, open-world Zelda game for Wii U.
Would you like to see a 3DS remake of Majora's Mask similar to The Ocarina of Time 3D, or would you prefer that Nintendo make a full HD remake of the game resembling what's seen in these videos? Let us know in the comments. | 860 |
Please upload your replays before playing your next opponent. The upload button is the paperclip icon that can be found when you mouse-over your match. In the event casters have to leave the game due to lag, they at least have some replays to cast.
This tournament is open to all players.
You can help contribute to the prize pool here.
Please sign up as your most known alias, and then sync your in-game nick to that alias.
It's Brood War, you can easily make a new profile for tournament use unlike SC2.
Prize (minimum USD $50):
1st: 70% + 60 OSC Points
2nd: 30% + 30 OSC Points
3rd: 20 OSC Points
4th: 10 OSC Points
5th - 8th: 5 OSC Points
9th-16th: 2.5 OSC Points
Everyone: Additional 2.5 OSC Points for participating
*Points count towards the SC:R OSC league, mini SC:R Championship projected for late Jan-Feb
Gateway: U.S. West
Channel: OSC
Speed: Fastest
Turn Rate: 8
Custom Hotkeys: Enabled
Map pool: Destination, Match Point, Longinus, Tau Cross, Circuit Breakers, Fighting Spirit, Jade (Download)
Ban-pick order: Bo1 ABABAB A - Bo3 ABAB ABA - Bo5 BAB ABAB
Competitive rules apply
If you're unable to get a response from anyone in chat, relog and check if people can see your messages. There's a weird chat bug.
In the event of lag, both players are to set Network Latency to "High" or "Extra High" before deciding whether to change hosts or not.
In the event of disconnect, players are to come to a common conclusion whether the map is to be awarded to a certain player or regame. If both players are unable to come to a consensus, please contact the admin.
To find opponents, practice partners, tournament updates, news, Q&A, announcements, etc, join our new OSC Community Discord Server: discord.gg/wVtXBtB
For Rules, Regulations, Race Selection, Walkovers, Streamed Matches + more, see here. | 861 |
VANCOUVER, BC – Who’s the fastest Whitecaps FC player? How about the fittest?
You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Well, kind of.
The ‘Caps underwent their annual preseason fitness tests earlier this week – a number of players didn’t test for various reasons listed at the bottom of this page. But if you’re wondering who stood out among those that did, here are the top five finishers from each category.
ENDURANCE (YO-YO INTERMITTENT TEST)
1. Sam Adekugbe
2. Marco Bustos
3. Kianz Froese
4. Jackson Farmer*
5. Christian Dean
10-METRE SPRINT
1. Deklan Wynne*
2. Erik Hurtado
3. Brett Levis*
4. Jordan Smith
5. Deybi Flores
20-METRE SPRINT
1. Jordan Smith
2. Deklan Wynne*
3. Erik Hurtado
4. Brett Levis*
5. Deybi Flores
30-METRE SPRINT
1. Deklan Wynne*
2. Erik Hurtado
T3. Jordan Smith
T3. Brett Levis*
5. Deybi Flores
COUNTER MOVEMENT JUMP (START FROM UPRIGHT STANDING POSITION)
1. Jordan Smith
2. Erik Hurtado
3. Jackson Farmer*
4. Tim Parker
5. Giuliano Frano*
*WFC2 player
NOTES:
Fraser Aird (will join team in Tucson), Christian Bolanos (will join team in Tucson), Kekuta Manneh (ankle), Darren Mattocks (arrived the following day), Tim Parker (international duty), and Russell Teibert (ankle) did not test
Parker’s counter movement jump results were obtained from U.S. men’s national team camp
Sam Adekugbe, Marco Bustos, and Kianz Froese only did the Yo-Yo test before leaving to join the Canadian national team
Click here to find out how you can cheer on the ‘Caps, in person, at the 2016 Major League Soccer Preseason in Tucson. | 862 |
— are running scared from the Durham investigation[.]... The reason the CIA's "analytical work" is being subjected to a federal prosecutor's scrutiny is that there is a lot of evidence of criminal conduct by the CIA and FBI. That's one of the fundamental differences between the Barr/Durham investigation and the Mueller investigation into the imaginary conspiracy between candidate Trump and his campaign and the Russians[.]... Durham's investigators will begin with people such as those but first they'll want to get the relevant documents from the CIA. Those documents will include an enormous volume of classified emails, text messages, and other communications among the top CIA officials and between them and the FBI's senior officials — James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, James Baker and Bruce Ohr — who ran the FBI's part of the spy op on Trump from the Justice Department.
It is worth noting that John Durham has crossed paths with former "collusion delusion" czar and special counsel Robert Mueller III before. Durham is familiar with the often illegal lengths that Mueller, Clapper, Brennan, Comey, et al. will go to to nail their prey. As Rush Limbaugh noted, citing a New York Times article:
"Mr. Durham has a long history of serving as a special prosecutor investigating potential wrongdoing among law enforcement and national security officials. He was appointed to the federal bench in 2017 by President Trump. Mr. Durham has even investigated the use or misuse of FBI informants." In fact, one of his best-known investigations was an investigation of the FBI's handling of the mass murderer and Boston mobster Whitey Bulger. This is very significant. It was Robert Mueller III[.]... Keep in mind (we've talked about this a few times, but it's been a while, and I don't know how many of you are gonna remember this) it was Robert Mueller III, Mr. Integrity, Mr. Honorable, who kept four innocent people in prison for decades in order to keep Whitey Bulger from being exposed as an FBI informant. Four people. Four people who were innocent were kept in jail for years in order to protect the status of Whitey Bulger as an FBI informant.
Durham and Barr are getting closer to putting the leaders of the Deep State coup in jail for years for their crimes against their country. And James Clapper is beginning to feel the chill.
Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications. | 863 |
governors all over the country, including in New York state where Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to tie 50 percent of reading and math teachers’ evaluations—and their jobs and pay—to standardized test scores.
The campaign against teachers has found its sharpest expression in the brutal prison sentences handed down to Atlanta educators last week for a test cheating scandal driven by the Obama administration’s punitive testing mandates. (See: Judge hands down brutal sentences in Atlanta test cheating case)
Teachers in Washington and around the country enjoy widespread sympathy and a genuine struggle in defense of public education could garner popular support. The biggest obstacle to this are the teachers’ unions—the National Education Association (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and their state and local affiliates—who are allied with the Democratic Party and the capitalist profit system.
The NEA and AFT, which were among the first unions to promote Obama’s election and re-election, are not opposed to corporate “school reform,” but are only looking to be partners in the process. Both unions received millions from enemies of public education like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to back Obama’s Common Core curriculum.
Under conditions of growing opposition, the NEA and AFT are doing everything to isolate different sections of embattled teachers and sign sellout agreements that preserve the institutional interests of the union apparatus. United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)—an AFT affiliate—has just agreed to a concession deal for 35,000 teachers, which includes insulting pay raises, after years of de facto wage cuts from furlough days, while abandoning any fight for smaller class sizes or against teacher victimizations.
The precondition for a real struggle is an understanding that teachers are in a confrontation with both big business parties and the profit system they defend. While tens of millions of working and middle class children are being deprived of the right to a quality public education, the Democrats and Republicans are handing trillions to the banks and major corporations like Boeing and squandering precious resources on war.
Teachers require new organizations, independent of the trade unions and the two corporate-controlled parties, to fight for the widest mobilization of the working class to defend and vastly improve public education. This should be the beginning of a fight to build a mass political movement, based on socialism, to defend the social rights of the working class and break the stranglehold of the corporate and financial elite over society.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. | 864 |
ground. Attacking teams were in turn forced to run more mobile tanks like Winston and D.Va in hopes of disrupting the high ground, leaving the attacking Widowmaker at a disadvantage without a barrier to scope behind. At least Anubis saw some more variety on Point B as teams could swap onto Reaper, while Horizon compositions typically remained from Point A to B.
In Stage 2 however, there is noticeable diversity between the pairings. Just look at the two Assault maps: Volskaya could see defensive teams run Sombra while Soldier and the rest of the team spread themselves across the high ground that overlooks Point A. Meanwhile, Hanamura will invite defenses to get more tanky and potentially even run Mei on the opening point (or Point B if you’re LiNkzr).
Stage 2 maps present a number of opportunities for teams to try running specialists on certain points too. Could we see Mei on Hanamura or Nepal Village? How about Doomfist on King’s Row, or even PharMercy on some Lijiang Tower maps and Nepal: Sanctum? One map in particular that most teams are excited for is King’s Row since it lends itself so well to Zarya and Reinhardt with its narrow passages for engagement and Pharah with its extensive vertical channels.
Another wrinkle that teams will have to consider is that hero flexibility will play a huge role during Stage 2 given the inter-map diversity from point-to-point. Tank-heavy compositions are likely to see an increase in pick rate in response to both the map pool and new hero balances. Teams could switch between triple-tank and 2/2/2 very often as a result. Not only will the second DPS be required to flex to Off-Tank, but the main DPS will also need to swap between a variety of heroes depending on the situation.
Stage 2 will ultimately reward the most flexible teams. While dive is sure to feature prominently, the map pool will even up the odds quite a bit by requiring teams to run tankier compositions. Even the best dive teams will be forced out of their comfort zone far more often than in Stage 1. For that reason, I expect to see some surprising results coming out of the first week with matches that should feature a variety of familiar and novel strats.
Featured image credit goes to Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
Words by Dave “BenchMobDC” Cecconi
Edits by Théo “Tepojama” Salaun | 865 |
A Breitbart London analysis has revealed hundreds of historical and contemporary messages sent via social media platforms urging violence against UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage.
Over the course of just a few hours, Breitbart London uncovered hundreds of tweets and Facebook updates dating back as far as 2010, with some as recent as last Thursday afternoon after Member of Parliament Jo Cox was murdered.
The revelations go some way to shattering the narrative that “hateful” or “aggressive” rhetoric emanates from only one side of UK politics. Most of the messages listed below are from younger people, and Breitbart found that most were either Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party, or Labour Party supporters. Most of them also expressed pro-European Union sentiment and were overwhelmingly supportive of the ‘Remain’ campaign at the European Union referendum.
Basic level searches under the search terms “shoot Nigel Farage”, “stab Nigel Farage” or “kill Nigel Farage” reveal hundreds of messages, some of those in fact with further messages of support for the notions in the replies.
For example, on January 17th 2013, Liberal Democrat member Craig Swanney tweeted, “Can someone just shoot Nigel Farage”. As of June 20th, Mr. Swanney has a “TEAM #INtogether” image on his Twitter profile.
Other examples range from those playing “Snog, Marry, Kill” and opting to kill Mr. Farage, to some deeply disturbing comments such as “If I was a hitman, I’d kill Farage for free” and “I want to stab Nigel Farage in the neck”.
Some social media users urge others to attack Mr. Farage, while some suggest they are willing to do it themselves.
What follows is a non-exhaustive list of some of the most pertinent examples of how Mr. Farage is threatened for exercising his freedom of speech as a political party leader that attracted four million voters at the last general election.
Mr. Farage and his party have had to pay for private security for the Member of the European Parliament for years, and he is routinely attacked on the campaign trail, including recently in Northampton, and last year when his family were chased out of their local pub while enjoying a Sunday meal together.
In March last year Breitbart London revealed how comedian Noel Fielding urged his fans to “stab Nigel Farage”.
THE LIST:
| 866 |
Reigning time-trial world champion Rohan Dennis has officially dropped out of the Tour de France after inexplicably stopping in the middle of Stage 12 on Thursday — a day before he was expected to win the only individual time trial.
The 29-year-old cyclist left the world stunned after vanishing at the base of the Pyrenean Stage.
Bahrain Merida management released a statement via Twitter regarding the welfare of their champion player after Dennis did not show up for hours, but he wasn’t missing as the team believed.
Other riders spotted Dennis near the finish line with his bike parked against the Bahrain Merida team bus, where he refused to talk to reporters.
Gorazd Stangelj, Bahrain-Merida sports director, said that it disappointed him when Dennis quit, with the champion expected to give his best effort on the 13th stage Friday — an individual time trial he won last year at the 91st UCI Road World Championships.
Stangelj told reporters: “It was his decision today to stop in the feed zone. We tried to speak with him. He said, 'I don’t want to talk,' and just abandoned the race.” Strangelj said Dennis’ health should not be factored into his exit.
THOMAS EFFECTIVELY SEALS HIS 1ST TOUR DE FRANCE TITLE
Dennis broke his silence in a statement on the Bahrain-Merida team website, dated Thursday.
“I am very disappointed to leave the race at this point. Obviously, the individual time trial tomorrow had been a big goal for me and the team, but given my current feeling it was the right decision to withdraw earlier today. I wish my teammates the very best for the remainder of the race and would like to thank all the Tour de France fans who cheered for me, at home and on the roadside, since Brussels.”
The Guardian reported on speculation that Dennis didn't enjoy taking the backseat to Vincenzo Nibali, one of the premier stage racers on the team.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Dennis has only one more year remaining on his contract, but when reporters asked Stangelj if there were any underlying issues tied to his departure, he insisted there were none.
Simon Yates crossed the finish line Thursday, winning his first Tour de France stage after Dennis’ departure.
Fox News' Kira Grant contributed to this story. | 867 |
The endangered African Lion is one of the most majestic creatures on our planet. The king of the jungle, lions are the only cats that live in family units, and they have been revered throughout history for their courage and strength. Lions once roamed most of Africa and parts of Asia and Europe. However, today they are found only in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, except for one very small population of Asian lions that survives in India’s Gir Forest. There are just 30,000 lions left on our planet, and sadly, many of them are kept in captivity without any chance of freedom.
With so few lions left, it is shocking that people continue to hunt them. The killing of the beloved lion, Cecil, stunned the world, but Cecil was just one of more than thousands of lions that are killed every year, many of them in canned hunts. In canned hunts, lions are bred in captivity and then “released” into a closed pen just so that people can get a thrill by shooting them in short range.
The facilities that run these hunts claim that they are contributing to the conservation of the lion species by breeding these animals, but in reality, these animals are incredibly inbred and would, in fact, be extremely detrimental to the gene pool of wild populations. Not to mention, by raising these lions in captivity only so that hunters (the majority of which are Americans), can kill the animals isn’t exactly the spitting image of species protection.
In addition to this horrific industry, thousands of other lions and wild cats are held captive, either in the entertainment industry where they are often abused and neglected, such as in circuses, zoos, and parks. Or they’re captured from the wild and held in people’s backyards as exotic pets. In fact, there are more tigers in people’s backyards than there are in the wild! Don’t these animals deserve better?
This is how all lions should live.
Between canned hunting, the exotic pet trade, and entertainment facilities, few lions have the chance to live the life that this lion does, while protected in Kenya’s Maasai Mara nature reserve. If we don’t act now and protect lions in the wild, scenes like this one above may only be seen in photographs.
Share this post and help raise awareness for the endangered lion. It is up to us to keep this amazing species wild and free!
Image source: Charlotte Rhodes/The Telegraph
Advertisement | 868 |
President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE will reportedly announce Friday that he has selected State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to succeed Nikki Haley Nimrata (Nikki) Haley'The soul' versus 'law and order' Author Ryan Girdusky: RNC worked best when highlighting'regular people' as opposed to'standard Republicans' GOP lobbyists pleasantly surprised by Republican convention MORE as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Fox News reports that Trump will make the announcement Friday morning in a tweet.
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Nauert was reported last month to have been offered the job, but no official announcement has yet been made about Haley's replacement.
Nauert's appointment to the top ambassadorship would follow Haley's surprise resignation announcement in October.
The former South Carolina governor said at the time that she had no plans to run for political office in 2020.
“It’s been eight years of intense time and I’m a big believer in term limits,” Haley said at the time. “You have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job.”
"I will not be running for the office in 2020. I will be campaigning for Trump," she added.
Nauert, previously a reporter and anchor at Fox News, was long rumored to be on Trump's shortlist to succeed Haley, a list which also included former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell.
Powell dropped out of consideration for the role in October. Ivanka Trump Ivana (Ivanka) Marie TrumpSpecial counsel investigating DeVos for potential Hatch Act violation: report Trump, Biden vie for Minnesota Trump luxury properties have charged US government.1M since inauguration: report MORE, the president's daughter and White House adviser, was also touted by Trump as an "incredible" choice for the position, though Trump also said that he would be criticized for nepotism if Ivanka Trump was selected.
The White House and the State Department did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday evening on reports of Nauert's appointment. If nominated by the president, she will face a confirmation by the Senate, which remains in GOP control following November's midterm elections.
--Updated at 8:20 p.m. | 869 |
On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Representative Marc Veasey (D-TX) stated he believes there is proof President Trump made remarks during outtakes of “The Apprentice” “that were absolutely reprehensible and not becoming of a United States president.”
Veasey said, “It’s clear that he was wrong, that he doesn’t have the temperament to be president of the United States, and I wish that we could revoke the president and the rest of his term. Obviously, it’s too premature for that right now, but I hope that in 2020, when we have another election, that the American public just gets sick and tired of this, and that we’re ready to move on. Because I mean this is — this gentleman, this man that’s in the White House right now, he does not have the temperament. He lacks the leadership qualities and the skills to be president. And what happened in Helsinki, to him using the n-word with Omarosa, of course, that rumor has been out for a long time now, that he’s just not fit to serve, and if someone needs to be dishonorably discharged, it needs to be the president.”
Veasey also cited claims that the president made cruel remarks about his children’s intelligence during outtakes of “The Apprentice.”
Host Jim Acosta then asked Veasey, “But Congressman, you would agree that that has not been verified yet? … You’re convinced if he did, but we don’t have that proof of what you’re saying.”
Veasey responded, “I’m convinced that if you did. But if you think about how long this rumor has been out, and you think about what Sarah Sanders said at the press conference, that she could not guarantee the American public that the president did not use the n-word 20 or 30 times on some of these outtakes. To me, that’s proof that there were things said on that tape that were absolutely reprehensible and not becoming of a United States president.”
Veasey further called on the outtake tapes to be released, and argued the president could put the allegations to rest if he called on the tapes to be released.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 870 |
EXCLUSIVE: Fox Entertainment has acquired the rights to The Spellman Files book series by Lisa Lutz, which revolves about a family of PIs, to develop as a drama series.
Forging a path as an independent broadcast network with no affiliated studio, Fox has been focusing on access to talent and source material.
During the Fox TCA executive session today, Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier laid out the network’s core strategy for building a programming slate as an independent via deals “ranging from direct talent partnerships to direct IP acquisition.”
The former include talent pacts, and Fox Entertainment today announced its first direct (broadcast-only) overall deal with Criminal Minds and Teen Wolf creator Jeff Davis.
The network also has been very active buying its own IP. One of its first major moves in that area is the acquisition of the Spellman novels, with the network also bidding on other book properties.
Fox
“We have a book scout in New York in addition to our development teams,” Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn told Deadline at TCA. “We are going to take each property and look at it – what is the best way to package this book, who are the best auspices to help bring this to life, what studio are they based at. If they are based at a studio, we can approach that studio with something the talent and the studio know we are passionate about. If the talent are free-ball, we can partner with (the Fox-owned, Gail Berman-run) SideCar and use our partnership with them.”
Having The Spellman Files as one of his first major IP buys is especially gratifying for Thorn.
“I’ve always tried to get it as a producer, I wanted it when I was at (20th Century Fox TV) but it was always tied up,” Thorn said.
When the Fox book scout recently called to say that the rights were available, “we moved in there and grabbed them.”
Starting next week, Thorn and his team will start searching for a creative team to shepherd the adaptation.
The Spellman book series launched with Lutz’s debut novel, the 1997 The Spellman Files. It consists of six novels about the Spellmans, a close-knit family of private investigators who are intensely suspicious and spend much time investigating each other. At one point, the novels were in development as a feature at Paramount. | 871 |
Migrant crisis: 'Document forgers' held in Greece and Czech Republic Published duration 31 May 2016 Related Topics Europe migrant crisis
image copyright AFP image caption The Schengen visa gives non-EU nationals easy access to most of Europe
Police in Greece and the Czech Republic have arrested more than 20 people suspected of forging travel documents for migrants trying to enter Europe.
European police agency Europol said visas and passports were sold for up to £2,500 ($3,600) and sent across the EU, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Greek police said the criminal networks were also involved in smuggling people across borders.
About 100 people are still wanted in Greece and other countries.
Europol said the network was based in Athens and consisted of two criminal groups, one run by Sudanese people and another by Bangladeshis, and 16 people have been arrested in Greece.
image copyright EPA image caption Hundreds of thousands of migrants have illegally entered the EU over the past year
Both groups forged passports, national ID cards, Schengen visas, driving licences, asylum seekers' registration cards and residence permits, police said.
Ten suspects were arrested in the Czech Republic, where a separate group would send stolen or lost travel documents to Athens for the Bangladeshi and Sudanese groups to falsify.
A police spokesman in the Czech Republic said seven migrants were also arrested for using forged documents.
The Sudanese-led group helped up to 15 migrants a month enter the EU at a cost of up to nearly £4,000 ($5,800, €5,200) per head, Greek police said.
In other developments in the migrant crisis across Europe on Tuesday:
The death toll from migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean last week has been revised upwards to 1,000. International Organization for Migration spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo gave the new figure which comes after an estimate on Sunday of 700 deaths by the UN refugee agency.
A camp for migrants is to be set up in the north of Paris within the next six weeks, after hundreds of migrants have been camping rough in the French city.
A fireman in Germany has admitted setting fire to a house where seven Syrian refugees were living. He said he did it because he was frightened of the refugees, who people said were criminals. He said he later realised they were "awfully nice". He and an accomplice are facing seven charges of attempted murder in a trial that is expected to last 11 days. | 872 |
Korn frontman Jonathan Davis will release a new single later this month titled “What It Is“. It will be released as part of the ‘American Satan‘ soundtrack, out January 26th on Sumerian. The song will later impact at radio on January 30th. Davis has also been preparing a new solo album that is expected out this spring on Sumerian Records as well with more details to come. He also intends to tour in support of it with a U.S. tour reportedly being booked. The ‘American Satan‘ soundtrack will run as follows:
01. Jonathan Davis – “What It Is”
02. Crosses – “Bitches Brew”
03. The Pretty Reckless – “Heaven Knows”
04. Prep School – “Freak On A Leash” (Korn cover)
05. Deftones – “Sextape”
06. Circa Survive – “Schema”
07. Dorothy – “Raise Hell”
08. Skid Row – “18 And Life”
09. Prep School – “Mother” (Danzig cover)
10. Meg Myers – “Make A Shadow”
11. In This Moment – “Joan Of Arc”
12. Barns Courtney – “Fire”
13. Slaughter – “Up All Night”
14. Palaye Royale – “Mr. Doctor Man”
15. Asking Alexandria – “Into The Fire”
16. The Dillinger Escape Plan – “One Of Us Is The Killer”
17. Nightwish – “Alpenglow”
18. Parkway Drive – “Devil’s Calling”
19. Sleeping With Sirens – “Trouble”
20. Bad Omens – “Glass Houses”
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‘American Satan‘ stars members of Black Veil Brides and Asking Alexandria alongside Malcolm McDowell (‘Clockwork Orange‘), Mark Boone Junior (‘Sons Of Anarchy‘), John Bradley (‘Game Of Thrones‘) and more. It was directed by Sumerian Records founder Ash Avildsen and will receive a January 16th home release. | 873 |
:1
118. TURNING TO FALSE COUNSEL (FABLES) 2 Tim 4:4
119. WALKING IN COUNSEL OF UNSAVED Ps 1:1
The advice of the unsaved is deceitful Pv 12:5
120. NOT BEING COURTEOUS 1 Pe 3:8
121.
COVETOUSNESS-AN INSATIABLE DESIRE FOR WORLDLY GAIN Hab 2:9
122. COVETOUSNESS-DESIRE NEIGHBOR’S THINGS Mk 7:22; Ex 20:17; Ezek 33:31
Covetousness is idolatry Col 3:5; Eph 5:5
123. CRAFTINESS 2 Cor 4:2
124.
BIDDING CULTS, GOD SPEED OR WELCOMING THEM INTO YOUR HOUSE 2 Jn 10,11
125. CURSING Ro 3:14; Ps 10:7; 59:12
126. CURSING THE LORD’S NAME Ex 20:7
Penalty for cursing the Lord’s name is death Lev 24:16
127. CURSING THE RICH Ecc 10:20
128. CURSING MEN Ja 3:9
129. DEBATE Ro 1:29
130. MAKING BAD DEBTS Ro 13:8
131. NOT PAYING WHAT YOU OWE (DEBTS) Mt 5:26
132. HOLDING FAST TO DECEIT (LIGHT IN YOU IS DARKNESS) Jere 8:5; Mk 7:22
133. WORKING DECEIT Ps 101:7; 10:7; 35:20
134. DECEITFUL 2 Cor 11:13; Ro 1:29
135. DECEIVING YOUR NEIGHBOR Jere 9:5,6
136. DEFRAUDING OTHERS Lev 19:13; 1 Thes 4:6
137. NOT DELIGHTING YOURSELF IN THE LORD Ps 37:4
138. DESIRE SINFUL WAYS Lk 5:39
139. DESPISING 1 Thes 4:8
140. DESPISING DOMINION (AUTHORITY) Jude 8 | 874 |
to be placed in a box.
“Just because you decide ‘I am this thing’ doesn’t mean you immediately feel like you fit into that thing,” he explains. “That’s another part of the journey that I still don’t always know how to navigate, but I’m feeling more courageous and fortified to explore.”
Fans of Roswell, New Mexico have been supportive of Blackburn and costar Michael Vlamis’s on-screen relationship. Michael Guerin (Vlamis) is bisexual on the show while Alex Manes is gay, but one specific scene stands out: Alex and Michael wake up in bed together and Michael puts his hand on Alex’s leg and caresses it downward, eventually touching where his limb ends — a moving act that many amputees can relate to but rarely see on-screen. The fact that Alex is gay also speaks to the roaring debate on LGBTQ people serving in the military.
“It’s little things like that, that made me realize, ‘Wow, this is a big responsibility,’” he reflects, adding that he’s wasting no time on making other people comfortable.
“I’m so tired of caring so much. I just want to live my truth and feel OK with experiencing love and experiencing self-love,” he says. “Yes, there is an element of, I want to feel like it’s OK to hold my boyfriend’s hand as I’m walking down the street, and not worry. Is someone going to look and be like, ‘Whoa, is that guy from that show? I didn’t know that [he was queer.]’ I want to own my space now.”
In every way, Blackburn is exactly where he should be — the here and now.
“Now we’re at a place where fluidity is spoken about in such a beautiful way that it doesn’t make me feel as pressured to have it figured out,” he says. “My goal above everything is to feel as happy as possible. As free as possible. I don’t just mean happy, like, ‘I’m laughing all day, every day.’ That’s actually insane. That’s impossible. What I mean is, I want to feel free.” | 875 |
The “Alaskan Avenger,” a victim of molestation and abuse as a child, is accused of vengefully attacking pedophiles with a hammer, using the online registry to find sex offenders.
According to Alfred NG of NY Daily News, using Anchorage’s public online sex offender registry to locate up to three offenders, Jason Vukovich allegedly broke into his victims’ homes and bashed in their heads with a hammer in June.
NG says, “One of his victims landed on the sex offender registry 10 years ago, after pleading no contest to attempted sexual abuse of a minor.”
“He said, ‘I’m an avenging angel, I’m going to mete out justice for the people you hurt,’” Wesley Demarest, one of the people Vukovich tracked down, told a local news station.
Police said Vukovich was arrested the same night he allegedly hammered in Demarest’s skull. Police also found a notebook with his victims’ names listed in it, with addresses he found from the registry. Vukovich, 41, is also accused of robbing the three victims after his vengeful beatings.
On the website, users can find sex offenders and child kidnappers through a database by name, zip code, and city, or through a map with details of the person’s address and photos, along with conviction dates, and employer’s information.
NG states, “the sex-offender avenger revealed he had been molested and beaten by his adoptive father when he was a child, he wrote in a letter from jail to the Anchorage Dispatch News.”
“’What I can say at this time is that after being physically and mentally abused by a predator, my life was forever changed,’ Vukovich wrote in his letter.
“He said he targeted sexual offenders in hopes of supporting children ‘in pursuit of their dreams,’ writing that kids should be able to live ‘without the threat of pedophiles lingering around them.’”
Vukovich plead not guilty to the charges of robbery and assault. He is being held on a $100,000 bail, and scheduled to return to court on Oct. 17. He faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.
This post was republished from anonews.co. You can find the original post here. | 876 |
Since 2013, the Bitcoin(BTC) price has always shown a strong last quarter. With the recent price rise of Ripple(XRP), many started wondering whether the last quarter bull run has started. It got more evident after the market added $21 Billion within 48 hours. But despite the initial rush of bull run prediction, Bitcoin price failed to cross the resistance and moved towards the support level.
Bitcoin price took a sharp fall on 25th September trading from $6832 on 24th September to $6480 on 25th September. Bitcoin price failed to cross $7,000 and has bottomed out between $6400 & $6500. Investors predict that Bitcoin would probably break the current support level and trade between $6,100 & $6,250.
Overall the cryptocurrency market has lost around $13 Billion and has a current total market capitalization of $208 Billion from $221 Billion on 24th September.
Bitcoin ETFs hope still up
SEC refused to make a decision over the CBOE’s Bitcoin ETF, asking for more time. With no proper rejection, Bitcoin investors still hope that Bitcoin ETFs would get approved which would make the entire market bullish.
Regulations play an important role in Bitcoin(BTC) price
In a recent research published by BIS, they conclude that regulatory announcements play an important role in the price movement of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. According to the BIS report,
“The impact depends on the specific regulatory category to which the news relates: events related to general bans on cryptocurrencies or to their treatment under securities law have the greatest adverse effect, followed by news on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and on restricting the interoperability of cryptocurrencies with regulated markets. News pointing to the establishment of specific legal frameworks tailored to cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings coincides with strong market gains.“
They also conclude that bringing regulations in the cryptocurrency industry would ultimately be a good thing.
Disclaimer: Blockmanity is a news portal and does not provide any financial advice. Blockmanity's role is to inform the cryptocurrency and blockchain community about what's going on in this space. Please do your own due diligence before making any investment. Blockmanity won't be responsible for any loss of funds.
Get the latest news on Blockchain only on Blockmanity.com. Subscribe to us on Google news and do follow us on Twitter @Blockmanity
Did you like the news you just read? Please leave a feedback to help us serve you better | 877 |
Today, rather unexpectedly, I found myself downtown in the Milk District for Tasty Tuesdays. What is Tasty Tuesday’s you ask? Well, behind The Milk Bar every Tuesday night you can find a wide conglomerate of Food Trucks. Some of the wonderful Trucks this week included: Monsta Lobsta, 5 Gastronomy, fantastic hummus, Local Yolk’l, Soup to Nuts Food Truck, Tubby’s Ice Cream, The Yum Yum Cupcake Truck, and SwedeDISH Food Truck. All open from 6:30-10pm this particular evening to tantalize your taste buds; and most will do it all over again next week. As with any food truck event you never know which Trucks you will see exactly week-to-week, but one thing is for certain: with such a wide variety of flavors and cuisines you are sure to find something to satisfy any craving!
Tonight I savored a wonderful Cupcake from the Yum Yum Cupcake Truck. I treated myself to the Ballad of El Churro; a signature treat of this mobile cup-cakery. The Ballad of El Churro is a cinnamon cake, filled with Dulce de Leche sour cream filling, dipped in cinnamon and sugar and topped with a rich mascarpone buttercream. To add even more decadence it is then topped off with more cinnamon and sugar! Thick and rick this cake is dense and delectable; sweet and bold it is a hug from the inside out, filling your soul with sugary goodness.
And to wash down all your tasty bites? Head into The Milk Bar! With a wide variety of Craft Beers the friendly bartenders will encore that you find one you like. Even this girl, who is not much of a beer drinker, can find something to sip on here: tonight I choose (to drown my sorrows) with a Bell’s Oberon. Yum:
If you haven’t tried one of these babies, I highly recommend it. Sweeter then most beers, it’s wheat-base is bold and refreshing; perfect for a hot day (which we get quite a lot of in Florida).
So come out and enjoy Tasty Tuesdays in the Milk District! Try some good food, have a great beer, and make some new friends! Check out their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/TastyTuesdaysOrlando | 878 |
Image copyright Sidewalk Labs Image caption The city envisaged by Sidewalk Labs would collect data from a range of sources
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is suing three levels of government over a Google-backed plan to build a smart neighbourhood in Toronto.
The association says the project is "invalid and needs to be reset".
It is run by the publicly funded Waterfront Toronto and Google-affiliated Sidewalk Labs.
Privacy advocates are concerned the project will increase surveillance and outsource government responsibilities to a private corporation.
"Canada is not Google's lab rat," said the association's executive director and general counsel MJ Bryant. "We can do better. Our freedom from unlawful public surveillance is worth fighting for."
The association is suing Waterfront Toronto, municipal, provincial and federal governments. Although Waterfront Toronto is funded through federal, provincial and municipal purses, it does not report to the city or the province.
Sidewalk Labs - a firm owned by Google's parent Alphabet - won a bid with Waterfront Toronto in October 2017 to develop a 12-acre patch of industrial landscape in Toronto, Ontario into a "smart city".
But the deal struck between the government-funded organisation and Sidewalk Labs has been mired in controversy and shrouded in secrecy.
Ontario's auditor general said oversight of the project was a concern in her report last December.
In February, the Toronto Star reported that Sidewalk Labs intends to expand onto 300 adjacent acres and build a light-rail line - in exchange for a cut of development fees and property taxes.
The land is potentially worth billions, according to the Star.
Jim Balsillie, the former co-CEO of BlackBerry, called the project a "colonizing experiment in surveillance capitalism attempting to bulldoze important urban, civic and political issues.
"Of all the misguided innovation strategies Canada has launched over the past three decades, this purported smart city is not only the dumbest but also the most dangerous".
Sidewalk Labs said it would submit its development proposal this spring to Waterfront Toronto.
In response to the lawsuit, Waterfront Toronto said it is too early to be up in arms.
"At this point Waterfront Toronto has not received a plan from Sidewalk Labs, its Innovation and Funding Partner for Quayside. Therefore, none of the claims in the in the CCLA Application can be assessed yet," Waterfront Toronto said in a written statement. | 879 |
Kal Penn is simply not here for perpetuating racial stereotypes on your movie theater screens.
The Designated Survivor actor took to Twitter on Tuesday to share screenshots appearing to expose culturally disparaging roles for actors in the entertainment industry. According to the star, who landed his first roles in the late ’90s, he came across the language in everything from scripts for TV shows to commercials during his “first years trying to be an actor.”
The snapshots of swatches of the pages reveal roles such as a “Gandhi lookalike” and “snake charmer.” Penn explained details about a “quirky Indian lab buddy” from a different project with this caption: “Jeez I remember this one! They were awful. ‘Can you make his accent a little more AUTHENTIC?’ That usually meant they wanted Apu.”
Penn’s tweets continue an ongoing conversation about representation in pop culture. It has also been fodder for TV shows, as in 2015, when Aziz Ansari’s Netflix series Master of None ran an episode called “Indians on TV” that critiqued monolithic portrayals of Indian characters.
Penn, who served as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement under President Obama, has been outspoken on issues of racism in Hollywood and beyond. He recently started a fundraising effort for Syrian refugees in the name of a Twitter troll who harassed him with a racist and xenophobic message, according to Entertainment Weekly. He has raised $863,686 in donations for the International Rescue Committee so far.
See below for Penn’s tweets.
He closed by praising the casting on House.
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Write to Ashley Hoffman at [email protected]. | 880 |
Howard Schultz, a former CEO of Starbucks has declared that he is preparing to launch his independent campaign for the US Presidential election. Though such a move is a matter of concern for Democrats who believe it could help re-elect President Donald Trump.
Howard Schultz, who also describes himself as a Democrat says, “I am seriously thinking of running for president. I will run as a centrist independent outside the two-party system”. The independent campaign is focusing on attacking the two-party duopoly that has long defined US Presidential politics and therefore Schultz, believes he has the potential to reshape the dynamics of the race.
As Schultz says, “We’re living at a most-fragile time. Not only the fact that this president is not qualified to be the president, but the fact that both parties are consistently not doing what’s necessary on behalf of the American people and are engaged, every single day, in revenge politics”.
Meanwhile, Democrats are of the view that a credible third-party candidacy could allow Trump to win in the states, where he could have otherwise lost or pushed a decision during the election to the US House, where Republicans may have an advantage in the number of state delegations they control.
Neera Tanden, President of Center for American Progress and advisor to Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama in their 2008 Election campaign says, “If this is about principles and not ego, Schultz would help Democrats defeat Trump or run as a Democrat and broaden the debate within the party. Every value he claims to hold dear is undermined by a Trump re-election”.
Julian Castro, Former Housing Secretary who is also running for the President in 2020 as a Democrat candidate said he is concerned about Schultz political decision but praised him for his business accomplishments. Castro said, “I have a concern that, if he did run, that, essentially, it would provide Donald Trump with his best hope of getting re-elected. I would suggest to Mr. Schultz to truly think about the negative impact that might make”. The Washington state Democratic Party also tweeted a photo of a Starbucks coffee cup with the words ‘Don’t do it Howard!’
It is not something new in the US, in the year 1968 a third-party Presidential candidate won individual states, when former Alabama Governor George Wallace picked up 46 Electoral College votes. Though finally, Republican Richard Nixon won that election the third party bids have been blamed for affecting the election results indirectly. | 881 |
Google has issued a response to criticisms of its recent announcement to close the Works with Nest program, a set of connections and controls that link third-party smart home devices with Nest thermostats, cameras, and other products. The company had originally announced that the Works with Nest program would be shutting down on August 31st, 2019, and all existing connections will stop working on that date. Nest customers would have to migrate their accounts to Google accounts and use Google Assistant controls to rebuild their smart home connections and setups.
In a blog post published today, Michele Turner, director of product and smart home ecosystem for Google Nest, says that existing Works with Nest connections will continue to work beyond August 31st, and customers will be able to use those services and connections until they are replicated in the new Works with Google Assistant program. The company will not allow any new Works with Nest integrations after the August 31st shutdown. Once customers migrate their Nest accounts to Google accounts, their Works with Nest connections will cease functioning.
Additionally, Turner says the company is “working with Amazon to migrate the Nest skill that lets you control your Nest thermostat and view your Nest camera livestream via Amazon Alexa.” Google is also claiming that Google Assistant will support the ability to trigger routines based on Nest’s Home / Away status later this year.
Google plans to migrate the existing Alexa integration over to its new platform
Further, companies that are using the Works with Nest program for more extensive customizations than allowed by Google Assistant will be required to go through special security audits from Google and to allow more granular control over which devices have access to a customer’s Nest data and devices. Tellingly omitted from the blog post is any mention of IFTTT support, which is likely to remain one of the things that will no longer work once Works with Nest is fully closed down.
Google’s end goal is to have all of the Works with Nest functionality replicated in the new Works with Google Assistant program, which provides a more central point of control for customers and greater privacy protections than the Works with Nest program allowed. But the company runs the risk of walling off much of the rest of the smart home ecosystem from the Nest ecosystem, providing customers with fewer choices in their smart home setups than before. Today’s clarification and update on the transition is encouraging, but we’ll have to see how well Google executes on its plan. Otherwise, this transition could turn out to be a mess and a headache for many smart home owners. | 882 |
We’ve known that “The Walking Dead” was moving into a new phase, one defined less by the peregrinations and shifting fortunes of Rick and company, and more by the relationships between competing colonies, each with its own version of civilization. Sunday’s episode represented a notable expansion not only of the players and cast of this story, but also of philosophy.
Whatever you think about the fairy tale aspects of the Kingdom, it seems to be a settlement based in hope and, perhaps, a belief in the fundamental goodness of humankind, which distinguishes it from roughly 100 percent of the groups that Rick and the gang have encountered this far. From the Nero-esque Governor to those ravenous Terminus lunatics to Officer Dawn’s actual police state to the predatory Wolves to the despicable Saviors, “The Walking Dead” has so far equated post-apocalyptic polity with toxicity. Even the fatally oblivious Alexandrians based their decency in denial, leading to vulnerability within — think Pete the serial abuser — and without — think Season 6.
The Kingdom seems to favor a quasi-Marxist program of meeting needs by tapping its members abilities, with spiritual overtones. “Drink from the well, replenish the well,” Ezekiel says, dropping the episode title. Sunday’s hour was about pondering whether Carol could believe in decency anymore, or commit to it enough to risk having to defend it at some point. (You’ll recall that she left her friends in Alexandria because she didn’t want to kill anymore, speaking of fairy tales. The quicker the show abandons this silly pretense, which was apparently a device for getting us to the Kingdom, the better.)
But first, viewers put off by last week’s violence — those who returned on Sunday, anyway — had something special waiting for them: a sliced walker whose face opened like an old mailbox. It was part of an impressionistic sequence that illustrated Carol’s struggle to reconnect to her humanity, the walkers shifting between their pre- and post-death selves as riders wielded swords with ruthless grace.
At least I think that’s what it was supposed to illustrate. Like many “Walking Dead” set pieces, the line between meaningful moment and “check it out bro” visual effects was as hazy as Carol’s perspective. If nothing else, it provided another wallow in fetishized gore for hot-takers to parse. | 883 |
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New Delhi: Former Congress MP Mohammed Azharuddin was on Friday appointed working president of the party in Telangana days ahead of assembly elections in the southern state.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi also cleared some fresh appointments in the Telangana Pradesh Congress, approving the names of two vice presidents - B M Vinod Kumar and Jaffer Javed, eight new general secretaries and four secretaries in the state unit.
"Congress president Rahul Gandhi has approved the appointment of Mohammed Azharuddin, ex-MP, as working president of the Telanagana Pradesh Congress Committee," a statement from AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot said.
Azharuddin was a former captain of the Indian cricket team. His cricket career came to an abrupt end when he was implicated in the infamous match-fixing scandal in 2000 and was banned by the BCCI for life. However, the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2012 declared the life ban on him as illegal.
Azharuddin was an MP from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh in 2009, after he joined the Congress in the same year. He again unsuccessfully contested the 2014 election from Rajasthan's Tonk-Sawai Madhopur constituency in 2014.
The former cricketer, who hails from Hyderabad, is seeking to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Secunderabad constituency in Telangana.
Telangana goes to polls on December 7 and the Congress has forged an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the state to oust the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Government of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
The Congress chief also appointed former Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit as Secretary of AICC and attached him to the AICC Civic and Social Outreach Congress.
Dikshit is the son of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and has been an MP from the Delhi East constituency earlier.
The party chief also appointed Lingaraju as president of Karnataka Pradesh Fishermen Congress.
Among those appointed new general secretaries of Telanagana Pradesh Congress are Jagadeeshwara Rao, Nagesh Mudiraj, T Narsa Reddy, Manavatha Roy, Faheem, Kailash, Laxma Reddy and Krishank.
The new secretaries of TPCC are Durgam Bhaskar, Daruvu Ellanna, Vijay Kumar and Bala Laxmi. | 885 |
for Texas’.
In 2013, Scott flipped, stating that he couldn’t, “in good conscience, deny the uninsured access to care.” But he never pushed hard for the change in Tallahassee, and the state legislature turned it down.
Last month, when a crack opened in the legislature’s united front against expansion (the state Senate seemed ready to consider it), Scott reversed course again. Now he’s against it, and seems to be saying that his earlier position was aimed at trying to goad the Obama administration into approving a waiver allowing the state to fashion Medicaid as it wished.
How bad is Scott’s Obamacare Derangement Syndrome? Last week he traveled to Washington to ask Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell for federal healthcare money--as long as it wasn’t labeled “Obamacare.” Specifically, he sought an extension of the government’s Low Income Pool, which helps hospitals cover the uninsured population. Since the ACA is supposed to reduce those costs, the government is planning to phase out the pool.
Last month, an HHS official explained to the Scott administration how the pool is flawed, and how expanding Medicaid would be a much better way to serve what Scott says is his goal--providing care to low-income residents. The message, stripped to its essentials was: If you want to serve your constituents, expand Medicaid.
Scott chose to view this as an attempt to “coerce” Florida and filed a lawsuit against the government, just before sitting down with Burwell. Asked why he won’t just accept the money that would flow into Florida via Medicaid instead of trying to twist a non-Obamacare program into something it’s not, he didn’t have a cogent answer.
But now he’s in a box. The reduced federal healthcare funding outside of the Medicaid expansion may force him to renege on promised tax cuts and higher school funding. The Palm Beach Post put it most succinctly in a headline (H/T Greg Sargent): “War between Florida Republican leaders may claim new victims: Taxpayers and school kids.”
That’s the thing about Obamacare Derangement Syndrome: If unchecked, it’s infectious.
Keep up to date with the Economy Hub. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see our Facebook page, or email [email protected]. | 886 |
dangerous sea crossing," Jensen said.
About 3,770 migrants and refugees died in 2015 crossing the Mediterranean, making it the deadliest year on record for those fleeing conflict and poverty, according to the IOM.
RE-TRAFFICKED
Human trafficking by Nigerian organised crime gangs is one of the greatest challenges facing police forces across Europe, according to the EU's law enforcement agency Europol.
A lack of coordination between European states and Nigeria is allowing traffickers to act with impunity, said Kevin Hyland, who was appointed Britain's first anti-slavery chief in 2014.
"There has been some progress, but it's been a piecemeal plan, and responsive rather than proactive," Hyland said.
Nigerian anti-trafficking official Arinze Orakwe said more European nations should criminalise the purchase of sex to curb the number of Nigerians trafficked into prostitution in Europe.
"If nobody is buying, nobody will sell," said the official at NAPTIP, which has rescued some 1,340 victims in Nigeria over the past year, and works with NGOs to support them.
The Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF) clothes and feeds victims, provides counselling and attempts to reunite them with their families.
"But sometimes families are hostile, and not interested in getting them back," said WOTCLEF coordinator Veronica Umaru.
Disillusioned by her parents' disappointment at her return home, Mary hoped to go back to Italy before being referred to Girls' Power Initiative, a Nigerian NGO that housed her, trained her to run a business and encouraged her to help other victims.
Yet Mary says many former victims have been re-trafficked to Italy, and fears not enough is being done to stop traffickers or persuade women and girls not to go abroad and into prostitution.
"Girls today, unlike me, know exactly what they are in for when they agree to go to Italy to work," Mary says tearfully.
"But they do not understand the trauma they will face." (Reporting by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and Kieran Guilbert, writing By Kieran Guilbert, editing by Alisa Tang. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | 887 |
Before he was running for Senate in North Carolina, before he was endorsed by Rand Paul, and before he was earnestly arguing that food stamps are a form of slavery, Dr. Greg Brannon was the president of a Tea Party group called "Founder's Truth." Like any self-respecting Tea Party group (or political activist of any stripe, for that matter) Founder's Truth had itself a website. The website's no longer operational, but BuzzFeed, using the magic powers of the internet, was able to unearth some of its best material. And, man, is it good.
What BuzzFeed found is that Founder's Truth's website had itself a blog. It was called "The Freedom Blog." And while you'd expect the Freedom Blog to have musings from Brannon or other members of his group, BuzzFeed found that the Freedom Blog featured something else: Articles, reposted in their entirety, from well-known conspiracy theorist websites like Alex Jones' Infowars.com and Mike Adams' Naturalnews.com.
Advertisement:
So what kind of stories did Brannon's Freedom Blog repost? Here are some good ones that BuzzFeed found:
A post sincerely propagating the Agenda 21 conspiracy theory.
A post referring to the Aurora massacre as an "op" (i.e., a government initiative).
A post warning of "secret police murder and cover-up in the USA."
A post about the nefarious plot of global elites to create "one world currency." (A step, many conspiracy theorists believe, toward the establishment of a New World Order.)
A post reporting that the TSA may force people to wear "shock bracelets."
A post titled "They Really Do Want To Plant Microchips Inside Your Brain"
A post charging that putting fluoride in drinking water is "patently unethical and criminal"
A post asking if Israel will engage in a "false flag" operation in order to spark a war with Iran
That's a lot of conspiracy theorizing!
By the way, although recent polling shows Brannon slightly behind Thom Tillis in the race for the GOP nomination, polls also show that if Brannon were to run against Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan, he'd win. By 2 percentage points. So take that, schemers of the New World Order! Once Brannon joins Rand Paul (who also has a history of conspiracy theorizing) in the U.S. Senate, there'll be nowhere left for you to hide. | 888 |
In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo Wednesday evening, New York congressional candidate and democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned how Congress can "write unlimited blank checks for war" and pass the GOP's $2 trillion tax cut for the wealthy, but when it comes to proposals that would help every American—such as Medicare for All—"our pockets are empty."
"Why is it that our pockets are only empty when it comes to education and healthcare for our kids?" she posed. "Why are pockets only empty when we talk about 100 percent renewable energy that is going to save this planet and allow our children to thrive?"
"We only have empty pockets when it comes to the morally right things to do," she continued, "but when it comes to tax cuts for billionaires and when it comes to unlimited war, we seem to be able to invent that money very easily."
"We only have empty pockets when it comes to the morally right things to do, but when it comes to tax cuts for billionaires and when it comes to unlimited war we seem to be able to invent that money very easily," Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says. https://t.co/cgpyxY7z1g pic.twitter.com/dgVgv8EMRb — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 9, 2018
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The 28-year-old, who is expected to win New York's deep blue 14th District in November, has championed a boldly progressive platform, demanding Medicare for All, a federal jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal, and tuition-free public college.
Predictably asked by Cuomo about the "sticker shock" of implementing a system that would guarantee healthcare for all Americans, Ocasio-Cortez said, "People talk about the sticker shock of Medicare for All—they do not talk about the sticker shock of the cost of our existing system."
She pointed to a recent Koch Brothers-funded study that spectacularly backfired for the right-wing oil barons by demonstrating that such a system would not only cover everyone but also save $2 trillion over a decade.
"At the end of the day, we see that this is not a pipe dream. Every other developed nation in the world does this. Why can't America?" she said. "That is the question we need to ask." | 889 |
Outside of institutions like the South African Reserve Bank and Statistics South Africa, there are very few government programmes that can be considered successful, says Efficient Group economist Dawie Roodt.
Speaking at a Free Market Foundation event on Wednesday (27 February), Roodt said that the current malaise surrounding the state and the deteriorating economy could only be turned around if government begins to focus on ‘easy wins’.
“This is where we need to start – get government to do some simple, stupid things (right). It can be something small but just do something well.
Roodt said that a good place to start would be addressing South Africa’s issues around road safety.
A 2018 study conducted by the Road Traffic Management Corporation and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) estimated that the cost of crashes to South Africa last year was R166.2 billion.
It is estimated that one death on the road represents an average loss of R4.6 million to the economy in terms of lost productivity, pain and suffering, medical costs, legal and funeral costs.
“This is something everyone would support and it would be something (government) could do well,” Roodt said. “Just do something that can help get the economy back on track because at the moment it is a disaster.”
Roodt noted that the other ways that government could help get South Africa back on track include:
Having a clear plan on Eskom;
Reducing the public wage bill;
Scrapping the current cadre system;
Scrapping BEE;
Protecting South Africa’s property rights.
Commenting on these issues, Roodt said it was not clear how Eskom and other state-owned enterprises will be funded.
He added that while he was supportive of the plan to cut R160 billion from the public wage bill, the government was likely to face strong resistance from the country’s labour unions.
“I really hope that the President (Cyril Ramaphosa) supports Mboweni’s plans to cut the wage bill. There are just too many civil servants.
“I must also say that I don’t think we will avoid a credit downgrade from ratings agency Moody’s this time around. I think they have given us enough time.”
Read: The 2020 budget in a nutshell | 890 |
By John Farnam
Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- American Airlines
I flew out to the East Coast last weekend. Back to CO yesterday.
I flew on American Airlines. One connection on each leg of the round trip.
In all fairness, flights were comfortable and mostly on-time.
There was one problem:
AA now insists on putting a bright, red tag on all checked luggage that contains guns. The tag says:
“Return to BSO” (Baggage Security Office)
At AA, luggage containing guns does not go out to the carousal, as it does with most other airlines I fly. It is delivered directly to the AA baggage-claim office and must be surrendered personally to the legitimate claimant (after showing identification). I notice that it arrives at the baggage-claim office after all other luggage is out on the carousal, so you can now add at least ten minutes to your stay at the airport.
I guess I can understand their concern, but I don’t like this latest version of “steal me” tags hanging-off my luggage.
SW doesn’t do this to me, and they also don’t gouge me with luggage fees!
Again, in all fairness, both I and my luggage made both legs of my trip safely, and we both arrived at our destinations, mostly on-time. My checked bags contained my customary complement of guns, magazines, and ammunition, and none of that was any kind of problem.
However, as long as they insist on putting bright, red “steal me” tags on my checked luggage, I won’t be flying American Airlines!
/John
About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent and unlawful lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance, if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or inactions.
It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com | 891 |
Things are starting to take shape in Elon Musk’s vision for a digital brain-computer interface, also referred to as a “neural lace”. What was once a topic of science fiction – robotically enhanced humans taking refuge in a post apocalyptic Earth – could be making its way into our present day world.
Following Musk’s announcement that he was serious about embarking on a tunnel project that would seemingly connect SpaceX with LAX airport, the billionaire serial tech entrepreneur revealed plans to maybe announce a neural lace concept as early as next month.
@BelovedRevol Maybe next month — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2017
Musk first spoke about his concept that would allow humans to “achieve symbioses with machines” last year during a sit-down with Y Combinator’s Sam Altman. Both Altman and Musk are the co-chairmen of OpenAI, an organization looking to advance digital intelligence with boundaries to prevent harm to humanity.
Related: Elon Asks How Long Before New Wave of Bots Become Hitler
The modern day Tony Stark has not been shy about voicing his concerns about the dangers of artificial intelligence, going as far as saying that unregulated AI development is akin to “summoning the demon” and more dangerous than nuclear weapons.
Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2014
The concept behind a neural lace is a wireless mesh that can serve as an interface between an ultra-fine computing device implanted into the brain and the brain’s biological circuitry. The neural lace would be programmed to regulate chemicals being released by the brain’s neurons, thereby artificially enhancing certain human functions, at least in theory.
Early experiments of a neural lace concept have already been conducted on lab mice. Researchers injected a thin “syringe-injectable electronics” directly into the brain where it fused with the brain’s natural circuitry. According to published reports in the journal of Nature Nanotechnology, mice receiving the mesh electronic survived the procedure and were sending brain signals augmented by the neural lace.
It isn’t yet clear what applications Musk’s neural lace concept would have in humans, but it could, in theory, be used for early detection of degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. | 892 |
Emilie Stevens was seven-months pregnant walking home from a long day at work in June of 2017 when she noticed a woman sitting on the sidewalk of the Granville Street bridge.
"There were people just walking past her. I initially walked past her as well, but something just didn't seem right," Stevens said this week.
She went to speak to the woman and quickly found out that she was in her early 20s, had just been discharged from the hospital and wanted to jump off the bridge. There was no persuading her otherwise.
Stevens called 911 giving a description of the young woman's clothes.
"As luck would have it, another person wearing the same colours was actually about 20 feet down on the same side of the bridge," recalls Stevens.
When police arrived, they stopped early, mistaking the other person for the jumper.
As soon as the woman heard the police sirens, she made a jump for it.
"I honestly didn't think.... but I just grabbed her and held on."
The woman was halfway over the railing.
Stevens was able to hold on to her long enough for police to arrive and rescue them both.
"I say that Lily here was my counterbalance, because I was a bit heavier than usual and had a different centre of gravity than I usually would," said Stevens.
Emilie Stevens said the extra weight from her now five-month old-daughter Lily helped her hold on to the distraught woman. (Tina Lovgreen/CBC)
On Thursday, Stevens held her five-month-old baby Lily as she walked across the stage at the Roundhouse Community Centre where she and five other civilians were given the award of merit by the Vancouver Police Department for their bravery.
VPD Chief Constable Adam Palmer and Vancouver Mayor and police board chair Gregor Roberston handed out the awards at the annual VPD commendation ceremony.
Steven's husband Bradley Coe was also at the ceremony and said he was very proud of her.
His initial reaction was, "You did, WHAT?"
"In the end, that's just what Emily is like. I would be surprised if she did anything else," said Coe.
"Hopefully, Lily takes after her mom on that," he said.
Stevens hopes the woman she rescued is doing well.
More than 50 police officers were awarded commendations and citations for their bravery and dedication to their work. | 893 |
Recently I came across this idea of center loss described in this paper. You define the outputs from the second last layers of the neural network as embeddings. For this loss, you define a per class center which serves as the centroid of embeddings corresponding to that class. The center loss term is defined as:
Equation for center loss
As the network gets updated with gradient descent, the per class center term needs to be updated. Ideally the update would involve going through the entire training data, but that is not feasible in practice. Thus the update is done over the mini-batch and a hyperparameter ‘alpha’ controls the learning rates of the centers. The update is given by:
Update equation for centers
Another scalar ‘lambda’ is used to balance the two loss functions. The total loss used for training the neural network is given by:
Total loss used for training the neural network
To see how the distribution of learned feature changes with the addition of this loss term, authors trained a neural network having embedding of size 2 with different values of lambda on the mnist dataset. This is what the features looked like when plotted:
plot of embeddings trained using different values of lambda
As it can be seen, as lambda increases features are more spread apart from each other.
Results
The authors of the paper used various face recognition datasets to test their results. Following were the results on different datasets:
model A was trained using standard softmax loss, model B using softmax loss with contrastive loss, model C using softmax loss with center loss.
Read this paper to understand contrastive loss.
results on Labelled faces in the wild and Youtube faces dataset
. Identification rates on MegaFace with 1M distractors
. Verification TAR at 10–6 FAR on MegaFace with 1M distractors
As it can be seen, on Megaface (which is a very challenging benchmark) center loss smashed all the previously published results.
My experiments on different datasets
Face recognition typically involves training on a dataset involving a large number of classes (~10k).
I wanted to check whether this idea will work with datasets involving smaller number of classes. I conducted experiments on 4 datasets in that directions. The datasets were cluttered-mnist, fashion-mnist, cifar-10 and cifar-100.
Results on cluttered-mnist | 894 |
Suggested by Zach Lowe, would Portland and Dallas entertain a Josh McRoberts and Moe Harkless swap?
The NBA Trade Deadline is this Thursday, February 8th.
For the Dallas Mavericks, the rumors have been quiet outside of a tweet from Marc Stein saying the team would entertain a Wesley Matthews trade if they received a first in return.
On Monday, ESPN’s Zach Lowe threw out a speculative trade for the Dallas Mavericks and Portland Trail Blazers in his latest trade deadline piece.
Portland
The Blazers are currently barely over the tax and could look to get under that number considering their position in the standings. Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum shouldn’t be heading elsewhere before Thursday, so trying to shed one of their longer term deals or re-shuffling the deck could be something they entertain.
Evan Turner, Meyers Leonard and Moe Harkless are all on the books for double-digit millions over the next two years after this one.
Paying a second round pick to shed the contract of Harkless would not only take them underneath the tax this season, but clear up over $22 million over the next two seasons.
McRoberts would be an expiring contract they would probably explore buying out.
Dallas
McRoberts obviously isn’t part of the future, so would Dallas take on a second round pick for the long-term contract of Moe Harkless?
Harkless is making $10.1 million this season. Over the next two years, Harkless is due $10.5 million and $11.2 million with no options on the last year.
Harkless is a 6’9″ wing that has fallen out of the rotation in Portland. He is shooting 38% from behind the arc this season and is still just 24 years old. He was the 15th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, eight spots behind Harrison Barnes.
He would give the Mavericks much-needed depth on the wing behind Harrison Barnes.
Dallas would also get a future second round pick in the deal.
This deal basically comes down to two things: Is Portland willing to attach a second round pick with Harkless and is it worth it for Dallas to sacrifice cap space for a flyer on the wing?
Personally, I’m not sold on the deal as I believe the $22 million in cap space over the next two seasons would be more worth it. | 895 |
Last week, the city council of Manteca, CA unanimously passed two ordinances aimed at clearing out the homeless population.
One will ban people from sleeping or setting up encampments on any public or private property as of December 4, although the homeless won’t be jailed or fined. It will, however, allow the police to tear down any homeless sleeping areas as soon as they appear without having to be invited by the property owner, as was the case previously.
Explaining why the ordinance is necessary, Police Chief Nick Obligacion said, “The goal is actually to correct the wrong. So, if the correction is them leaving Manteca, then that’s their choice.” He also opposes any sort of shelter for the homeless.
The other ordinance bans public urination and defecation, but also comes after the city temporarily closed public restrooms in a park, a location often used by the homeless to relieve themselves in private.
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STORY: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/10/3590672/manteca-homeless/ | 896 |
. 28 it had site issues last week, again linked to DDoS. But spokeswoman Lynne Woodman stressed that the disruptions, which have not been affecting the site this week, were minimal.
"At no time were our systems down or compromised. The issue was strictly one of access, which was hampered by all the bogus messages trying to clog our access channels," she said.
And Wayne Mielke, spokesman for Comerica, did not comment about whether the bank's site took a DDoS hit, but he confirmed that Comerica was enhancing its online defenses. "We are well aware of recent cyber-attacks against banks and, as a result, have stepped-up our defense and monitoring systems to respond to current and potential threats," he said.
Though BankInfoSecurity did not receive comments or confirmations from other targets named in the Pastebin post, Ben Rushlo, director of performance management for online-performance tracking company Keynote Systems Inc., says CapOne, Citizens Bank, HSBC, Regions and Barclay Card, which was not listed, all suffered from "major" online access issues last week. Keynote does not track or investigate the causes behind site outages and inaccessibility issues, Rushlo says (see Are Banks Winning the DDoS Battle?).
Attacks Connected
The banking executive, who asked to remain anonymous, says there is little doubt the most recent attacks were waged by the same group that has been targeting leading institutions since the fall. "The [traffic] patterns looked very similar," the executive, whose institution was affected last week, says.
The recent attacks were smaller, with traffic just more than 1 gigabyte, the executive says. Comparatively, attacks waged during the first campaign, which ran from mid-September to mid-October, were approximately 100 gigabytes. "These were dumbed-down attacks, by comparison," the executive notes. "These newest attacks were just brute force to overwhelm the institutions' resources. Once they were stopped, they went away."
Thus, the most recent attacks were not too damaging, the executive says. "It looked like everybody got hit hard for about an hour, so some things were unavailable for a short period. But the attack on any institution lasted less than three hours. This was about intermittent issues versus a wholesale outage."
Other institutions that have been targeted since the DDoS attacks began in mid-September include Ally Bank, Citigroup, SunTrust Banks and U.S. Bancorp. | 897 |
As Selim Algar reported in Wednesday’s Post, the city’s Gifted & Talented programs are “safe — for now.”
Chancellor Richard Carranza admitted on WNYC Tuesday that students now in G&T “aren’t going to have the rug pulled out from under them” — “this year,” anyway.
But he also made it plain that he wants major changes, complaining that programs differ across the city: “You can’t point to a specific pedagogy or a specific curriculum.” But why would you need to?
“It’s just faster and more. That can’t be what Gifted & Talented is in the biggest school system in the nation.” Why not? Faster and more is the point: Some kids learn best at an accelerated rate; it’s not fair to them to not offer greater challenges. The main (entirely just) complaint about G&T is that there’s not enough of it. Better to add more programs, not mess with ones that work.
Instead, the chancellor plainly shares the view of the mayor’s handpicked School Diversity Advisory Group, which last week called on the city to not only ditch the current G&T system but also toss out academic admissions screening for middle and high schools. In fact, Carranza’s spent the last year bashing selective admissions at all levels as a racist plot.
As a practical matter, he reassured no one by announcing, just two days before classes begin, that G&T is safe for the year. Rather, his vow “to look at with a very critical lens what is it that we’re doing for gifted students” only leaves parents worried about their kids’ future — and much more prone to give up on the public schools and even on living in the city altogether.
Yes, local leaders, from teachers union chief Mike Mulgrew to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, have spoken out against killing G&T. But the drive to end screening started before Carranza got here, and will likely continue after he skips off to his next position.
Parents may wait out Mayor Bill de Blasio’s remaining years in office, betting that he won’t destroy the whole system before he’s forced out come Jan. 1, 2022. But they sure could use more reason to hope. | 898 |
The city says it's "worked hard and in good faith" to settle a lawsuit over Hamilton's Tim Hortons Field stadium, but a new statement shows there's no immediate end in sight.
The city is involved in litigation with Infrastructure Ontario (IO), the Toronto2015 Pan Am organizing committee, the Ontario Sports Solutions (ONSS) construction consortium and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats over the stadium, which suffered so many construction setbacks that its opening was delayed by months.
And while the city previously hinted a legal resolution is imminent, a statement Tuesday shows otherwise.
"The next step is for the parties to submit their statements of defence, which the city plans to do early summer," it says.
The city, it says, is also "confident in its position in the litigation."
It comes more than a year after the city filed a notice of legal action against IO and ONSS. IO filed its own notice of legal action, as did the Ticats.
The city's claim asked for $35 million in damages for breach of contract, negligence and misrepresentation when it came to the planning, procurement, design, construction, project management and other aspects of the stadium. Of that, $14 million in damage awards would be passed on to the Ticats.
In March, city councillors voted not to hire Kenaidan Contracting — which with Bouygues Building Canada comprised ONSS — for two years. David Kirkland, Kenaidan's chief operating officer, apologized to them.
"It injured our reputation," he said. "It's something we regret, and we will regret for a long time."
The stadium had numerous problems. Its opening was delayed by months as crews rushed to finish it. Then last year, a speaker the size of a bar fridge fell and bounced several rows, taking out 30 seas. The city hired its own engineer to check "everything in the air."
The city has kept mum on the results of that effort, citing the current litigation.
In a statement, the The Tiger-Cats said they "have no comment on the litigation and see no merit in discussing a legal matter in the media beyond a continuing commitment to working with the City of Hamilton, Infrastructure Ontario and other necessary parties to resolve the dispute. We have the exclusive right to bring both the Grey Cup and Professional Soccer to Hamilton, and are happy to hear the City is committed to working with us to bring both of these great opportunities to our great city and region." | 899 |
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