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(Photo: caseygrants / Flickr)In 1951, my grandfather Salvador Herrera, 81, left his hometown in rural Durango, Mexico, to work as a migrant worker in the United States as part of the Bracero Program – the United State’s first large-scale attempt to use guest workers. He was young, single and eager to work. Employment opportunities in his hometown were scarce, and whatever earnings he did make, he was forced to relinquish to his parents. He saw the Bracero Program as an opportunity to become financially independent.
Before heading off to pick crops in California’s Central Valley, however, he first had to travel to Empalme, Sonora, to obtain a contract. He says that he was required to work for 15 days before he was eligible. The conditions were dire – the work was arduous, and he was sometimes forced to sleep on the wet ground.
From Empalme, he had to pay for his travel by train to Central California, where he picked grapes, lettuce and other crops. Though the living conditions improved once he was in the United States, the work itself was still grueling. “Those who couldn’t pick fast enough didn’t even earn enough money to eat,” he says.
Years later, after my grandfather was married and had a family, he returned to the United States two more times – in 1964 and 1967 – to work as a bracero. Each contract this time was six months long. Like most other braceros, 10 percent of his earnings were taken from his checks. He said that he was never informed why this amount was being retained or told where the money could be claimed.
After several lawsuits throughout the years and a settlement in 2008, Mexico was forced give each bracero, or a surviving heir, $3,500 if they provided proper documentation. Their pay had been deducted and transferred to the Mexican government to be given to the workers when they returned to Mexico, but most braceros never saw that money.
So in 2008, at the age of 75, my grandfather finally received the 38,000 pesos ($2,903 today) that were owed to him. “I probably broke even with all the trips I took to Durango (the city) to look for the money,” my grandfather says.
His story is typical. Between 1942 and 1964, thousands of Mexicans from impoverished areas were recruited to come to the United States as farm workers, and many never received the back pay that was owed them.
Like my grandfather, Durango native Lorenzo Cano, 88, didn’t receive his 10 percent until 2008. Cano had worked as a bracero in the 1940s for a total of about 10 years. He was only 16 when he left home to pick cotton in Texas. According to Cano, the work was backbreaking, and those who were slower didn’t earn enough to feed themselves. Some men were forced to sleep on the floor.
During that time, Cano says, no one ever explained to him and his fellow workers why 10 percent of their earnings were being taken from them. It wasn’t until the late 2000s, when his son saw coverage of the Bracero settlement on TV, that he decided to pursue recovering his back pay.
“The 10 percent was taken from workers so they wouldn’t walk away from their contracts and to guarantee that they would leave the country,” says David Bacon, author of Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. While this practice was clearly unjust, Bacon believes the whole program needs to be examined, not just that piece of it. “We have to look at the impact on the braceros themselves and other workers in the communities around them. The exploitation was in the whole system and how the whole system operated,” he says.
One of the ways in which the program was exploitative, he says, was that it required many of the workers to get into debt before coming here. Many men had to pay for their visas and travel to the United States. “In these countries, you very often have an abusive and corrupt system to bring people here.” Bacon says.
Rubén Ochoa Barajas, 67, who worked as a bracero for two months in 1963 and three months in 1964, says that not only did he have to pay 1,000 pesos for the contract, he also had to pay his travel expenses. Though the requirements seemed unfair, the promise of financial prosperity was alluring for a working-class, 17-year-old in Mexico. “There were rumors that people swept money in the United States,” he jokes.
While portions of workers’ wages are no longer withheld from them, and employers must meet many federal requirements now, not much else has changed since then. Bacon says that even when there are minimal standards for pay, overtime, housing and other requirements, employers violate them without any consequences.
The United States currently has two guest worker programs for temporary work lasting less than a year: the H-2A program, for temporary agricultural work, and the H-2B program, for temporary nonagricultural work. Many businesses and legislators are in favor of these kinds of programs, but as the Bracero Program has shown, those who hold restricted status in the United States are vulnerable to extreme discrimination and workplace abuses.
Bacon says that the new guest worker programs are very similar to the Bracero Program in the recruitment by employers and the fact that workers’ stay in the country is completely contingent on their work. “The basic economic reality has not changed at all,” he says.
In a Fusion article about guest worker programs, Sarah Rempel from El Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, a migrant advocacy group, said that many times recruiters charge high fees to get the visa, which causes worker indebtedness, and in some cases, worker trafficking. Workers are not only tied to their employers and unable to work elsewhere, they also make well below poverty wages – between $15,000 and $20,000 per year.
“The whole purpose is to supply employers at the price they want to pay. Bills in Congress very overtly intended to supply cheap labor to employers. Once they are in the country, their situation is very close to slavery,” says Bacon. He points out that workers are subjected to many illegal practices, such as getting charged for tools, being cheated by piece rate and being exposed to chemicals. Workers must also live in very small and cramped quarters.
“Guest workers can’t even get into a US court and sue their employers,” Bacon says. “Even if you fix it on paper, paper rights are exactly that – ‘paper rights.’ ” The power relationship is stacked against them.
Bacon says that not only does this allow the abuse of guest workers, it makes it difficult for migrant workers to organize unions and raise wages.
As immigration reform hangs in the balance, Bacon believes guest worker programs should be scrutinized, and Family Preference Systems should be given precedence. “We need an immigration system that gives people rights and permanent immigration status.” |
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) learned a lesson in humility on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday night.
Reacting to an amendment proposed by Broun that would withhold funding for the enforcement of a key portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who actually marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others during the civil rights movement, said that Broun’s move was “almost unbelievable.”
“Under [the Voting Rights Act], seven states in the south, as well as Arizona, Texas and a number of counties scattered across the country, are required to receive federal preclearance to every change they make in election laws,” Broun said. “The provision stipulates that only changes to election law in those covered locations, which are shown to be non-discriminatory, may be precleared. Unfortunately, the burden of proving that a change is non-discriminatory is on the state or locality which wishes to make the change.”
He added that the law, signed by President Lyndon Johnson (D), essentially assumes the guilt of southern states, making it an “onerous” burden and an “antiquated provision.” “My home state of Georgia, as an example, has long struggled with the U.S. Department of Justice over its identification laws,” Broun said, claiming his home state is “being discriminated against.”
Lewis’s response to that assertion was fiery, to say the least.
“Maybe some of us need to study a little contemporary history dealing with the question of voting rights. Just think, before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it was almost impossible for many people in the state of Georgia, in Alabama, in Virginia, in Texas, to register to vote, to participate in the democratic process. The state of Mississippi, for example, had a black voting-age population of more than 450,000, and only about 16,000 were registered to vote. One county in Alabama, there was more than 80 percent not a single registered African-American voter.”
“It’s shameful that you would come here tonight and say to the Department of Justice that you must not use one penny, one cent, one dime, one dollar to carry out the mandate of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,” he said. “We should be opening up the political process, letting all our citizens come in and participate. People died for the right to vote! Friends of mine, colleagues of mine! I speak out against this amendment. It doesn’t have a place. This is not the place.”
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) rose next to agree with Lewis, lecturing other members that “both Democrats and Republicans throughout history have used race to try to draw congressional districts and legislative districts,” and citing currently ongoing disputes over voting maps in New Mexico and Texas.
Soon thereafter, Broun then withdrew his amendment and apologized.
“I have the same dream that Martin Luther King had where people are accepted for their character and not any discrimination against their skin or their forefathers or anything else, and any insinuation that I would ever believe in any kind of discrimination or trying to suppress anyone from having their constitutionally given rights, I would contest that accusation, frankly,” he said. “I apologize to any hurt feelings that anyone has, because I certainly wasn’t meaning to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
This video was broadcast by C-SPAN on Wednesday, May 9, 2012.
This video was broadcast by C-SPAN on Wednesday, May 9, 2012.
(H/T: The Atlanta Journal Constitution) |
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Two geostationary communications satellites rode an Ariane 5 rocket into orbit Wednesday from a launch pad in French Guiana, embarking on missions to broadcast television across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, link European air travelers with Wi-Fi, and relay video and data signals across India.
The tandem satellite launch marked the fourth Ariane 5 flight of the year, and Arianespace’s seventh mission of 2017, deploying a spacecraft shared by the Greek and Cypriot operator Hellas-Sat and London-based Inmarsat and a payload built and owned by the Indian Space Research Organization.
The nearly 180-foot-tall (55-meter) rocket blasted off at 2115 GMT (5:15 p.m. EDT; 6:15 p.m. French Guiana time) after a 16-minute delay to allow the Arianespace launch team time to finalize final countdown preparations.
Rocketing into a partly cloudy sky shortly before sunset, the Ariane 5’s guidance computer directed the launcher east from the northeastern coast of South America before it dropped two side-mounted solid rocket boosters into the Atlantic Ocean just after the flight’s two-minute point.
The Ariane 5’s Swiss-made nose cone jettisoned in the fourth minute of the flight, and the core stage’s Vulcain 2 main engine, guzzling a mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fired for nine minutes before giving way to an HM7B upper stage powerplant for the final maneuver to enter orbit.
The launcher intended to drop off the Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN and GSAT 17 communications satellite into an egg-shaped transfer orbit with a perigee, or low point, of 155 miles (250 kilometers) and an apogee, or high point, of 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers). The drop-off was inclined around 3 degrees to Earth’s equator.
Arianespace said the Ariane 5 reached an on-target orbit before releasing the two satellite passengers, first the 12,742-pound (5,780-kilogram) Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN spacecraft, which launched in the upper position inside the rocket’s dual-payload accommodation.
The Indian-built 7,665-pound (3,477-kilogram) GSAT 17 communications satellite separated second.
Officials with Thales Alenia Space, the manufacturer of the Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN satellite, and the Indian space agency confirmed ground controllers established contact with both spacecraft soon after arriving in space.
The launch closed out a successful first half of 2017 for Arianespace, which had its launch campaigns in French Guiana halted more than a month in March and April by a general strike by local workers.
Arianespace resumed launchings May 4, and Wednesday’s mission was the French launch company’s fourth rocket flight in eight weeks.
“Arianespace is delighted to announce that Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN and GSAT 17 have been separated as planned in the targeted geostationary transfer orbit,” said Luce Fabreguettes, executive vice president of missions, operations and purchasing at Arianespace.
“For the fourth time this year, and the 80th time in a row, Ariane 5 performed flawlessly,” she said. “Unlike Ariane 5’s usual missions, our heavy-lift vehicle delivered not for two but for three major customers at the service of telecommunications today.”
The satellites will fire on-board thrusters in the coming days to circularize their orbits nearly 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) over the equator, where they will hold position over a fixed spot on the planet in geostationary orbit.
Developed in a cost-sharing arrangement by Hellas-Sat and Inmarsat, the mission’s larger payload will broadcast direct-to-home television programming over Europe, Africa and the Middle East with 44 Ku-band transponders and a Ka-band payload owned by the Hellas-Sat, a telecom provider based in Greece and Cyprus.
It will expand and eventually replace broadcast capacity currently offered by the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite launched from Cape Canaveral by an Atlas 5 rocket in May 2003.
Harry Iordanou, Hellas-Sat 3 project manager, said the satellite “will be Hellas-Sat’s second satellite at 39 degrees east delivering in-orbit, direct-to-home, and telecom services over its coverage areas in Europe, the Middle East and sub-Saharan African countries.
“Its activation will not only maintain but also expand Hellas-Sat’s business reach with additional capacity, while bringing video content in high and ultra-high definition format,” Iordanou said.
The satellite’s initial orbit-raising maneuvers and deployments will be controlled from Thales Alenia Space’s center in Cannes, while in-orbit testing and commercial operations will be managed from a control site in Nemea, Greece.
Speaking soon after Wednesday’s launch, Greek telecommunications and digital policy minister Nikos Pappas said Greece is set to start its first space agency “in the next month or two.”
The S-band payload on the Hellas-Sat/Inmarsat S EAN spacecraft will connect airline passengers traveling across Europe with Wi-Fi as a centerpiece of Inmarsat’s European Aviation Network.
“This is a key milestone for our European Aviation Network,” said Michele Franci, Inmarsat’s chief technology officer. “It’s part of a hybrid satellite and terrestrial network to provide cabin connectivity to passengers throughout Europe. This is one step of many, but with this we hope to be able to launch the service at the end of this year.”
The European Aviation Network will have coverage in all 28 European Union member states, plus Norway and Switzerland.
The aeronautical communications project is a partnership between Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom, which provides a network of approximately 300 4G ground sites, allowing a computerized controller aboard aircraft to automatically switch between ground and satellite Wi-Fi service as needed.
The airborne Wi-Fi network is “a European program that has been riding on one of Europe’s best successes, Ariane, and it’s to provide a service in Europe for European passengers,” Franci said. “It will add to our drive to provide more and more services for aero connectivity, for cabin and passenger connectivity throughout the world. We have several hundred planes already being installed with our terminals and getting into our network, and we’ll be able to serve many, many airlines over the next months and years.”
Passenger jets operated by British Airways, Vueling, Iberia and Aer Lingus will be among the first to go live in the European Aviation Network.
Heading for an operating position at 93.5 degrees east longitude, GSAT 17 is the heaviest Indian-built spacecraft ever built, according to Prakasha Rao, GSAT 17 launch campaign manager at ISRO.
Outfitted with C-band broadcast transponders and an S-band payload designed for mobile services, GSAT 17 will join 17 current satellites in India’s communications network. According to ISRO, GSAT 17 also hosts a payload to relay meteorological data and has a search and rescue support mission.
K. Sivan, director of India’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, said GSAT 17 is the third Indian communications satellite to launch in the last 50 days. It also caps a busy June for ISRO, which launched the maiden orbital test flight of its largest rocket, the GSLV MK.3, June 5 and deployed 31 Indian and international satellites in orbit on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle last week.
“GSAT 17 is a major (mission) for ISRO and India,” Sivan said “It is providing continuity of services of two aging satellites, as well as augmenting our transponder reliability and broadening our horizon to mobile satellite services, as well as to the Antarctic areas.”
Arianespace’s next launch from French Guiana is set for Aug. 2 at 0158 GMT (Aug. 1 at 9:58 p.m. EDT), when a lightweight solid-fueled Vega booster will hurl the Optsat 3000 high-resolution reconnaissance satellite into orbit for the Italian military and deploy a French-Israeli environmental satellite named Venµs.
The next Ariane 5 mission is scheduled to lift off Aug. 31 with the Intelsat 37e and BSAT 4a communications satellites.
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1. |
Richard Branson eat your heart out - now you too could snap up your very own island at Allsop Space's largest ever public auction.
Richard Branson eat your heart out - now you too could snap up your very own island at Allsop Space's largest ever public auction.
This island could be yours - for just €100k
Dunvillaun Beg island is around two kilometres off the coast of Co Mayo and has been deserted since its last occupants moved to the mainland in the late 19th Century.
The 55-acre site, which is part of a cluster of islands lying south of the Inishkea islands, is offered at a reserve of just €100,000.
However, prospective buyers might need to have a little further cash tucked away, as a lack of a slip or pier means the easiest way to visit is via helicopter.
The island is just one of 261 properties to go under the hammer at the event in the RDS in Dublin on September 16, including more than 100 properties in Dublin.
The two most expensive residential lots in the catalogue are being brought to market by private sellers. They are Castle Terrace Court in Malahide, a development comprising 23 apartments with a reserve of €4m to €4.5m, and The Hollows in Lucan, a 27-unit development with a reserve of €3.5m to €4.5m.
Meanwhile, there are a number of houses and apartments being offered at prices beginning as low as €10,000, such as a 1,000sq ft mid-terrace three-bedroom house in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon.
Associate director Jonathan Fenn said the number of residential properties had sky-rocketed within the past six months due to growing demand, particularly in the capital.
In February, the auctioneers were offering 16 Dublin lots, totalling €3m. These figures have now mushroomed to 61 lots worth €22.5m.
Mr Fenn said: "There are 30 houses in total. Nine are ready for immediate occupation, and then about 13 or so are in bedsits. They can either be retained as investments, or with some TLC they can be returned to family homes."
He added that prices had risen up to 15pc within the past year due to growing demand.
More than half of the properties available are commercial.
The top priced property is a bank investment building at 14 Liberty Square, Co Tipperary, currently trading as AIB Bank. It has a reserve of €2.15m to €2.3m.
Irish Independent |
Media Carry Water For NRA's False Attack Ad That Claims Michael Bloomberg Wants To Ban Guns August 20, 2014 2:44 PM EDT ››› Blog ›››››› TIMOTHY JOHNSON
Media outlets are uncritically reporting the false claim in a new attack ad from the National Rifle Association that gun safety advocate Michael Bloomberg wants to "ban ... your guns." In fact, Bloomberg supports the right to own a gun. The NRA is launching an ad campaign against Bloomberg due to the former New York City mayor's position as a chairman of gun violence prevention group Everytown for Gun Safety and his pledge to spend $50 million this election cycle in support of gun safety measures. Although he is not a candidate for office in 2014, the NRA plans to run an ad in Senate battleground states attacking Bloomberg over his support for gun safety proposals. In the ad a narrator states, "Bloomberg tries to ban your snack food, your sodas and most of all, your guns." But neither Bloomberg nor Everytown for Gun Safety are proponents of general gun bans, a fact that some media outlets covering the NRA ad are leaving out of their reports.
The USAToday.com article which first reported on the NRA ad, as well as articles at CBSNews.com and The Washington Post's Post Politics blog quoted the NRA's false gun ban charge without noting that it's not true. (By contrast Time and MSNBC.com reported on the NRA's attack ad without quoting its false claims.)
Bloomberg recently called lawful gun ownership a "right" and when asked in June on NBC's Meet The Press why he was spending $50 million dollars on gun safety initiatives, he said, "I want to make sure that the public gets together, tells the Congress and their state legislatures we want reasonable background checks. We don`t want to end the Second Amendment. It has nothing to do with gun control."
After the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Bloomberg expressed support for banning a specific category of gun -- assault weapons -- but also said, "nobody questions the Second Amendment's right to bear arms." Later as a vote on a background check bill in the Senate approached, Bloomberg said, "This is about the public having the right to buy arms and the right to protect themselves and the right to use them for sport, for hunting. But, also, it's about the public's right to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. That's in everybody's interests."
Appearing on Meet the Press on April 16, one year after the NRA's Senate allies filibustered background check legislation, Bloomberg again argued in favor of background checks stating, "This is simply making sure that people -- that everybody agrees should not be allowed to buy a gun, criminals, minors and people with psychiatric problems make sure they can't buy guns. Nobody's going to take anybody's gun away, nobody's going to keep you from hunting or target practice or protecting yourself. It's just making sure that a handful of people who we all agree shouldn't have guns don`t get their hands on them."
Bloomberg's group, Everytown for Gun Safety, also does not advocate for a ban on guns. According to the group's website, its four areas of focus are background checks, strengthening prohibitions on gun ownership by domestic abusers, advocating for the safe storage of firearms around children, and cracking down on illegal gun trafficking. |
— The Supreme Court won’t stop some federal judges from getting cost-of-living increases promised to them by Congress but never paid, a move that could end up increasing the salaries of all federal judges.
The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal of a decision ordering the money to six federal judges. Congress in 1989 limited federal judges’ ability to earn money outside of their job, giving them instead automatic cost-of-living increases. But Congress withheld those cost-of-living increases in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2007 and 2010, while giving other federal employees their promised increases.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in October ordered Congress to pay the six federal judges who sued for back pay, saying the Constitution ordered that compensation for federal judges “shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.”
“Congress’ acts in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999 constitute unconstitutional diminishments of judicial compensation,” the appeals court said in its October order, adding that money also was due that had been withheld in 2007 and 2010. “As relief, appellants are entitled to monetary damages for the diminished amounts they would have been paid if Congress had not withheld the salary adjustments.”
Smithsonian to Close Galleries Due to Budget Cuts
The justices, without comment, refused to reconsider that decision.
This decision comes in the middle of mandatory government budget reductions, known as sequestration, and while it only applies to a small number of judges now, could expand to the rest of the federal judiciary if a companion class action lawsuit moves forward.
The current salary for district court judges is $174,000, and for circuit court judges, $184,500. According to the American Bar Association, if all of the promised cost-of-living adjustments had been paid, circuit and district court judges’ salaries would be approximately $262,000 and $247,000. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts adds that a district judge who has served since 1993 has “failed to receive a total of $283,100 in statutorily authorized but denied pay,” and that total would be even higher for circuit judges.
The Federal Circuit originally dismissed the judges’ complaint about their not getting their promised cost-of-living increase, but the Supreme Court sent the issue back to the appeals level, at which time the Federal Circuit voted to grant the judges their back pay.
The appeals court’s decision only applied to the six current and former federal judges who sued in the Beer v. United States case. Another group of judges is trying to get a class-action lawsuit approved so they can get the missed salary adjustments for more than 1,000 other current and former federal judges who court papers say would have been eligible at a cost of millions of dollars.
The Justice Department predicted that lawsuit in court papers. “The decision below provides a basis for every current or former federal judge (active or senior) to bring suit against the United States,” Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. said.
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The Justice Department also said the lower court decision would mean all current federal judges would be entitled to salary increases as long as they remain on the bench, but Congress wouldn’t have to give those increases to future judges, leading to paycheck inequities between judges doing the same jobs.
Chief Justice John Roberts and his predecessor, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, have advocated for higher judicial salaries for years, with the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts saying that while inflation has increased by 36 percent since 1992, judicial pay has increased only 39 percent over the same time.
The case is United States v. Beer, 12-801.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) |
Alex Jones, the InfoWars host, has apologized to the owner of Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant. (Lucas Jackson/REUTERS)
A heartfelt apology can be a beautiful step toward healing.
Alex Jones’s “Pizzagate” apology doesn’t come close.
For one thing, the motivation seems to spring from his wallet, not the depths of his heart. Its timing strongly suggests that he wanted to minimize legal consequences for spreading, on his Infowars website, the bizarre and dangerous lie that a child-sex-trafficking ring was being run out of a Washington pizza parlor, Comet Ping Pong.
What’s more, his words — even if you believe them — don’t fix the damage.
That damage lingers in the effects on James Alefantis’s restaurant business, not to mention his and his employees’ peace of mind, considering that they have received death threats.
(Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)
It lingers in the fear that neighborhood residents continue to feel months after a gunman — who came from North Carolina to “self-investigate” the situation — opened fire there in December.
And it lingers in the continuing, if evidence-free, belief of gullible people about what was claimed to be happening there — not only that the restaurant was the site of sex trafficking but that Hillary Clinton and her presidential-campaign chairman, John Podesta, were deeply involved.
“I made comments about Mr. Alefantis that in hindsight I regret and for which I apologize to him,” said Jones in a six-minute video released last week, titled “A Note to Our Listening, Viewing and Reading Audiences Concerning Pizzagate Coverage.”
“We relied on third-party accounts of alleged activities and conduct at the restaurant,” Jones said. “We also relied on accounts of reporters who are no longer with us.”
This has about the same level of sincerity as the downcast “sorry” muttered by a 6-year-old after kicking his brother while Dad glowers over him with a yardstick in hand.
Jones, of course, is a great favorite of President Trump, who was interviewed on his radio show last year. Trump has cited as fact some of Jones’s outlandish ideas — for example, that the news media has covered up terrorism by Islamist extremists — and has complimented his “amazing reputation.”
No surprise, then, that Jones, who at best can be called a conspiracy theorist and at worst a cynical wacko, recently bragged about his ability to get White House press credentials, should he want them. Trump’s crony, the political trickster Roger Stone, said he thinks that’s a good idea.
(Erin Patrick O'Connor,Manuel Roig-Franzia/The Washington Post)
If Jones were really interested in cleaning up the bilge he spreads, he wouldn’t be starting now.
He would have apologized for the disgusting claim that schoolchildren were not gunned down in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 and that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a government-run hoax to take away gun rights.
He would have taken back claims that fluoridated water is a government plot to control your mind.
He would have done penance for spreading the lies that 9/11 was an inside job and that Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen.
But none of those lies seem to have merited an apology.
As my colleague Paul Farhi reported over the weekend, the timing of Jones’s apology suggests he was concerned about a potential lawsuit, since his remorse came after he received a letter from Alefantis’s lawyer last month.
Farhi wrote: “Under Texas law, the Austin-based Jones had to retract or apologize for the stories by Friday — one full month after receiving Alefantis’s letter — to avoid exposing Infowars to punitive damages in a libel suit.” And Friday, indeed, was the very day that Jones’s apology video was aired.
Friday was also the day that the Comet Ping Pong gunman, Edgar Welch, pleaded guilty to assault and weapons charges.
But some of the true believers haven’t changed their minds one whit. Apparently they aren’t moved, despite Jones’s admission of “an incorrect narrative.”
Last weekend, The Washington Post reported, about 50 people demonstrated Saturday near the White House, demanding an investigation of the supposed sex-trafficking at Comet.
The article quoted one demonstrator, Kori Hayes, a corrections officer who drove with his wife and three kids from Middleburg, Fla.
“I don’t have any doubt that Pizzagate is real,” said Hayes, who called Infowars “the only place you can get the news nowadays where it’s not opinion.”
Like a hundred other conspiracy theories gone viral, this particular Pandora’s box of lies, once opened, can’t be neatly closed up again.
And no apology can change that.
For more by Margaret Sullivan, visit wapo.st/sullivan. |
I just got back from several days in New Hampshire, attending political rallies across the state and observing thousands of voters in their natural habitat. What have I learned about what will happen in the presidential race? Nothing!
“Well, Hamilton, you’re a bad journalist, a lazy hack, a cynic and a grump with no insight into the proclamations of the American voter.” Yes, yes, all true. Unfortunately, even the good and energetic and enthusiastic journalists that descend upon Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina and dutifully watch all the stump speeches over and over and interview people in coffee shops and truck stops and gossip with campaign operatives, I’m sorry to say, learn nothing of value.
Political campaigns are a great feature story. The weirdos, the crooks, the hateful lunatics, the mile-deep ignorance that drives the election of the world’s most powerful person—all of these things can produce great stories. Poetic stories, personal stories, stories of greed and anger and lust for power. These sorts of stories can get at deep truths in the same way that a great novel can, and are certainly valuable because of that, and, by the way, are much more enjoyable to read than dry horse race reporting.
But does political reporting as it is generally practiced in the USA produce any useful and valuable knowledge about the real political state of our country and what direction we are going in? Not really. Go to a Donald Trump rally. Talk to Donald Trump voters. They like Donald Trump. They dislike Wall Street. Go to a Bernie Sanders rally. Talk to Bernie Sanders voters. They like Bernie Sanders. They dislike Wall Street. Go to any politician’s rally. Some people there like the politician. They have various concerns. Talk to the campaign spokespeople. They tell you the candidate is very popular. Talk to other journalists at the bar. They tell you about how they did the same things you did today, in different places.
These methods will give you set of facts that you can easily use to produce standard political stories: “Donald Trump Voters Are Energized.” “Bernie Sanders Voters Engage in Class War.” “John Kasich Fills Room.” “Jeb Bush Campaign Declares Strength.” “Chris Christie Supporters Say They Are Scared of Terrorists.” Etcetera. You will recognize these sorts of stories from every nightly news broadcast and newspaper front page during campaign season. And what real insight into the future of the American electorate have these political reporters gained via these methods? None at all!
You know what sort of political story tells you something of real value? A poll. That is a useful snapshot of the American electorate. Talking to the six people wearing the most outrageous outfits at a Donald Trump speech does not, I am sad to say, provide a statistically significant sample of the electorate. Talking to paid operatives does not provide an impartial look at the state of the race. Certainly, talking to the six most insane people at a Donald Trump speech and to the people craven enough to take jobs on a Donald Trump campaign could provide excellent fodder for a lively feature story delving into the psychological makeup of America’s most dangerous citizens. But that is not the way that political journalism is usually practiced. Usually, professional political reporters follow candidates around to events and talk to a statistically insignificant sample of voters and hear from paid operatives and then—from this set of data that may well be wildly misleading—concoct conclusions about what is or will be happening in the race.
These conclusions, based as they are on trifles and guesswork, are often wrong. And yet because they have been arrived at through accepted methods, their wrongness does not often cost the political expert anything. That is how we get to where we are today, when Bill Kristol is a respected political expert despite being wrong in virtually every prediction, and where Peggy Noonan is a respected political expert despite predicting a Mitt Romney victory because she saw quite a few of his yard signs up. On a more mundane level, it is why people employed as mainstream political reporters are invited onto television and taken seriously as experts, even though—to use only the most recent example—last night’s primary was won by two candidates that no mainstream political reporters took seriously one year ago. It is why Scott Walker, who not long ago was the media’s favorite choice for likely Republican nominee, dropped out of the race so long ago that his name is barely ever spoken now. Most political analysis is not based on something solid; it is based on, well, what feels right, the same way average idiots “predict” who they think will win the Super Bowl next year.
It is also based on what everyone else is predicting! There is career safety in numbers.
Predictions are hard. The expert predictive analysis of political pundits is mostly worthless. A statistician with a reliable method of analyzing valid national polls may be able to make a useful prediction about a political race. A political beat reporter who got a five-minute sitdown with Carly Fiorina’s campaign manager will not. If our political media focused on issues rather than on the horse race, they could produce stories with value independent of their resemblance to Las Vegas gambling tip sheets. There are many (important, interesting, informative, true) things to be said about the many contentious political issues that directly affect people’s lives today. Political reporters might, in a parallel universe, view their task as exploring those issues directly, and then comparing their findings to the stances of the various political candidates. But this is not the world that we live in. We live in a world in which people with no inherent expertise in anything at all (reporters like me) are expected to be able to produce grand insights into the future behavior of one hundred million demographically diverse people based upon how energetic the crowd of five dozen at the last Jeb Bush town hall meeting was.
A true genius can mine profound and universal truths from the smallest fact. As long as you believe that most political reporters are true geniuses, our current system is fine.
[Image via Getty] |
Bangalore: Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund Trust, one of the mutual fund investors in Flipkart, has marked down its estimate of the company’s valuation for the third consecutive time in the past six months.
Morgan Stanley values its Flipkart holdings at $84.3 a share as of 30 June, some 4% lower from the preceding quarter, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Morgan Stanley valued Flipkart shares at $142.2 a share as of June 2015, filing show. Flipkart had last raised a financing round in the middle of last year when it bagged a valuation of $15 billion.
Morgan Stanley’s markdown implies that it estimates Flipkart is now valued at around $9 billion.
The Economic Times reported the news earlier.
The mutual fund investor had cut the value of its Flipkart’s holdings by 15.5% (sequentially) at the end of the quarter ended 31 March and by 27% (sequentially) at the end of the quarter ended 31 December.
Flipkart didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Flipkart’s markdown is part of a bigger trend among technology start-ups. Investors in the US have marked down valuations of start-ups such as Uber, Snapchat, Dropbox and others because of concerns over losses, slowdown in sales growth and other reasons.
Apart from Morgan Stanley, four other mutual fund investors have also marked down Flipkart’s valuation this year.
Flipkart is battling slowing sales growth that have led to market share losses to arch-rival Amazon India. The company is also under pressure to cut losses, which are estimated to have increased significantly last year. |
It is a question I am asked at least once a year. Why do I, a secular Jew, attend a Rosh Hashanah service? At a Conservative shul, no less.
Having been brought up in an Orthodox German community as a young refugee from Germany in New York City I, of course, attended shul every Shabbat and on all yomtovim.
At the age of 11, I was part of the men's choir (women's voices were not allowed) and sung in the "high tenor", soprano-like section with other boys whose voices had not yet broken.
So I was quite knowledgeable about the services in an Orthodox synagogue - particularly the musical portion of the service. My mother had been a singer in the Berlin Philharmonic Choir until 1933, when Jewish voices were no longer permitted. So I also had some background regarding music and singing.
Part of my answer, then, is music. And another part is content. Some of the prayers, such as the Al Chait Shechetonu, still speak to me - this prayer in particular lists primarily secular sins, on which everyone can, and should reflect. There are also other sections in the prayer book I find attractive - and universal, not necessarily just Jewish.
We may hope the next generation will be better educated Jewishly
I suppose there is also an element of recalling one's youth. The shul I attend has a wonderful mixed men and women's choir, which, from time to time, performs old, well-known melodies, which I enjoy.
Of course, Rosh Hashanah is a religious holiday, with primarily religious issues, items, and history. But it is also a time for reflection on my own form of Judaism. Nearly 20 years ago, my friend, the late Professor Isaiah Berlin, asked me to get him a seat for Yom Kippur at my synagogue. He stayed nearly all day in the first row and was both reading a book and seriously listening to the service and participating.
Some of the parishioners asked: "Who is that pious man in the front row so deeply involved in the service?" Isaiah, though completely secular, also wanted to do this from time to time to recall his youth, and remind him of the religious nature of our culture.
I can completely understand why many or most secular Jews do not attend religious services. Finding a place within Judaism can be difficult. In the hierarchy of Jewish religion, I attend a synagogue that some would consider treif and others would consider too religious. I attend, as it is part of a heritage that I cherish, even if I no longer practise the religion.
Today, the majority of Jews self-define as secular. They have a difficult task to decide what, if anything, to do on religious holidays. It is easier in Israel, which offers all kinds of non-religious holiday activities on the traditional yomtovim.
Today, Israel is also meeting the challenge of educating the children of the secular majority. One of the Posen Foundation's signature programmes is the Ofakim project at Tel Aviv University, which trains Israel's future teachers in Jewish history, culture philosophy etc, from a cultural point of view. This is now the programme used in Israel's state Mamlachti (not the religious Mamlachti dati) school system.
We may all hope that the next generation - in Israel and the UK - will grow up better educated Jewishly. In the meantime, my attending synagogue is part of the heritage into which I was born, and which I am able to value at the same time as I do not practise the religion. |
TWO out of three Greek workers either understate their earnings or fail to disclose them to the taxman altogether, according to Stephen Hall, an adviser to the Bank of Greece. Last year an estimated 24% of all economic activity in Greece went undeclared to evade tax and regulation, well above the European average of 19%.
The IMF, which was in Athens this week to check up on Greece’s public accounts, would like to bring more of this activity into the sunlight, to boost government revenues. After a calamitous recession in which the economy shrank by 30%, government debt now stands at 174% of GDP; the budget deficit last year was almost 13% of GDP. But there is a risk that an overly aggressive tax-raising drive will compound the problem.
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Greeks, even more than their counterparts elsewhere, feel that their taxes are wasted. One study, using data from the 1990s, put Greece’s “tax morale” fourth-lowest of 26 countries. Greece’s public sector is more corrupt than that of any other EU state, according to Transparency International, a pressure group. Satisfaction with public services is extremely low. No wonder, then, that many Greeks have few qualms about not paying their share.
Greece also has high self-employment, which tends to lead to bigger underground economies. It is relatively easy for those working for themselves to evade income tax and social-security contributions. Greeks have plenty of incentive to do so: government levies account for 43% of labour costs, compared with the rich-country average of 26%.
A big shadow economy, naturally, crimps government revenue. Each percentage-point increase in the underground economy’s share of GDP lifts the debt-to-GDP ratio by 0.4 percentage points, according to a recent study of 11 European countries. Before Greece joined the euro, it was able to reduce its debts through high inflation. With monetary policy now in the hands of the European Central Bank, that option is no longer available: inflation has been negative for more than a year.
Lots of shady activity may also be bad for growth. Shadowy firms find it hard to borrow, which limits their productivity. According to Francesco Pappada of the Einaudi Institute of Economics and Finance many small firms in Greece deliberately avoid taking out loans because it involves being more transparent. Unproductive firms pay low wages.
The IMF wants Greece to learn from Peru, which in the 1990s tackled tax evasion by creating a small, well-trained task force. Eliminating the many exemptions and loopholes in its labyrinthine tax system will help, by making it possible to lower rates, thereby reducing the incentive to cheat. On October 6th the government unveiled a budget that included tax cuts. Greece may also refine its definition of tax fraud in an attempt to catch more evaders.
But the taxmen must tread with care. Over 25% of Greeks are officially unemployed; the shadow economy is a lifeline to many of them, notes Friedrich Schneider of Johannes Kepler University. Two-thirds of shadow earnings are spent almost immediately at businesses that do pay tax. Too severe a crackdown on tax evasion might put all that in jeopardy. Take a law passed in 2011 but yet to be implemented, which mandates that certain workers use time clocks to monitor their working hours. It may simply discourage bosses from hiring, thus bringing in little revenue while lowering incomes.
Greece should instead try to coax shadowy businesses into the open. Mr Schneider wants to see short-term tax exemptions for those who work a second job at night. Mr Pappada wants Greece to offer tax breaks to small businesses that take out loans. Both schemes would encourage workers and firms to register with the government, making it easier to shrink the shadow economy over time.
The best cure, though, would be a sustained economic expansion. According to the European Commission, Greece will grow by 0.6% this year and 2.9% next. Unemployment in the second quarter of 2014 was 3.6% lower than a year before. As unemployment falls and wages rise, the urge to go underground will wane. At any rate, that is what happened from 1993 to 2003, when growth averaged 2.5% a year and the shadow economy shrank by a third. |
A story is told in images.
You can do it with words, you can do it with pictures, or you can do it with both.
For those interested in doing it just with pictures, there are two books in print right now on woodcut novels and wordless books that are absolute must-reads. First, for an overall sampler and history of the form, get David Beronä‘s Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels. Beronä is the Library Director of the Lamson Library at Plymouth State University, and he’s been researching woodcut novels and wordless books for twenty years.
Beronä begins with the granddaddy of it all and my personal favorite, woodcut artist Frans Masereel, and points out three major elements that were in the air when Masereel started to create his works:
1) the revival of the woodcut, mostly thanks to the German Expressionists
2) silent cinema, and a “public already familiar with black-and-white pictures that told a story”
3) newspaper cartoons
Beronä goes on to trace the development of the form, including some of my other favorites: the woodcut novels of Lynd Ward (whose name spelled backwards is “draw”) and Otto Nuckel, Milt Gross’s cartoon novel He Done Her Wrong, and Istvan Szegedi Szuts’ ink + brush piece My War.
In the book’s introduction, the the fantastic cartoonist and scratchboard genius Peter Kuper mentions the biblical story of the Tower of Babel and locates wordless woodcut stories as part of humanity’s ongoing quest to use images and symbols to “sidestep our language barriers and create…stories that can be universally understood.”
“Looking for similarities among these artists you find that many share a contrasting use of black and white, dark and light, with a dash of yin and yang. Most also share a connection through choice of materials. From wood engraving to leadcut to linoleum printing, these artists have chosen a medium with a process beyond the immediacy achieved of putting pen to paper. There is a unique quality to these print images that is arresting and iconic. It’s as thought the art were announcing a rally and needed to be read as easily on a lamp post as seen in a book.”
It’s no coincidence that Otto Neurath turned to woodcut artist Gerd Arntz to create the symbols for his celebrated Isotype system of pictorial communication. There’s something in the stark black and white of woodcut and ink and brush that leads to that iconic quality…
…which brings us to the second book and perfect companion to Wordless Books, Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels, which collects in their entirety Frans Masereel’s The Passion of a Man, Lynd Ward’s Wild Pilgrimage, Giacomo Patri’s White Collar, and Laurence Hyde’s Southern Cross. The book was edited by woodcut artist and printmaker George A. Walker. From Walker’s introduction:
As a woodcut artist, I’ve always been attracted to black-and-white art. I think it has something to do with the rich contrasts. I love a deep rich black that you can stare into, forever. The effect is like our colorful world torn down to its base so that we can read the unerlying message. The truth is always easier to take in black and white. Typography is always more legible in black and white, so why would we be surprised to find the readability of artworks enhanced by those contrasts? Remove the grays and hues, reduce the image to lines and solid blacks, and open up the whites. You have a thing of beauty and simplicity. Another way to understand our attraction to black and white is through the science of how we see. The human eye consists of rods and cones that process the reflected light of our world. These signals are then translated into color and form for processing by our brain. The rods, which are sensitive only to black and white, are the first components activated in a baby’s eyes. That’s why infants readily respond to high-contrast black-and-white images. We are hardwired to appreciate black-and-white artwork.
In addition to the great service of publishing these complete works together, the introduction to the book gives a history and overview of relief printmaking techniques (see this MOMA infographic, “What Is A Print?“), focusing on the tools used to create the images:
As anyone who’s familiar with my comics and illustration work should know, I owe a great debt to this form and these artists, and I can’t wait to finish this book of words, so I can get back to making stories out of pictures again! (For those who haven’t seen my previous feeble attempts, see: “Birdseed,” “After the War,” and my abandoned graphic novel, “A Terrible Calamity At Sea!“).
And for those interested in digging further into this subject, check out my Amazon Listmania! List for Wordless Graphic Novels + Comics. |
by David P. Greisman
DENVER — Mike Alvarado came in one pound over the junior welterweight limit for his bout with Ruslan Provodnikov, which will take place Saturday night at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo., in a main event being broadcast on HBO’s “World Championship Boxing.”
Alvarado has two hours (until about 5:20 p.m. local time, 7:20 p.m. Eastern Time) to lose that pound. Provodnikov, last seen making a jump up to the 147-pound division, dropped back down in weight for this bout and tipped the scales at 139.8 pounds.
Alvarado lost a great battle to Brandon Rios in October 2012, getting stopped in the seventh round. Yet Alvarado came back with a different strategy in their March rematch, mixing up boxing and brawling. It worked; Alvarado won a narrow unanimous decision. That brought the 33-year-old from Thornton, Colo., to 34-1 with 23 knockouts.
Provodnikov is coming off a career-making performance, which came in the form of a close decision loss in a war with welterweight titleholder Timothy Bradley back in March. The 29-year-old transplant from Beryozovo, Russia, is 22-2 with 15 knockouts.
As for the undercard fighters:
- Former unified lightweight titleholder Juan Diaz came in at 135.5 pounds for his third comeback fight. Diaz, 30, of Houston, returned this past April after two and a half years away from the sport. He’s scored stoppage wins over Pipino Cuevas Jr. and Adailton De Jesus and is now 37-4 (19 KOs).
His opponent, Juan Santiago, a 28-year-old from Denver with a record of 14-10-1 (8 KOs), came in at 134.5 pounds.
- Donovan Dennis, a 26-year-old heavyweight from Davenport, Iowa, with a record of 8-1 (6 KOs, 1 no contest), came in at 221 pounds.
His opponent, Hugo Arceo, a Colorado resident who is 3-0-1 (3 KOs), came in at 245.
- Starling Cordero, a 22-year-old from Carolina, Puerto Rico, with a record of 6-0 (3 KOs), came in at 118.5 pounds.
His opponent, Abraham Rubio, a 25-year-old who hails from Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, and has a record of 3-1-1 (1 KO), came in at 118.5 pounds.
- David Escamilla, a 21-year-old Denver resident who is 2-0 (1 KO), weighed 129 pounds.
His opponent, Jair Quintero, a 20-year-old from Hermosillo, Mexico, who is 1-0-1 (zero KOs), weighed 130 pounds.
- Vitor Jones de Olivera, a 20-year-old nephew of Acelino Freitas who is 0-0 with 1 no contest, came in at 130.5 pounds. His sole pro fight listed on BoxRec came in July 2012 and was a first-round technical knockout win that was overturned.
His opponent, Martin Quesada, a Denver resident who is 2-7 (2 KOs), came in at 128.5.
- Carlos Marquez, a 25-year-old from Longmont, Colo., with a record of 4-1 (1 KO), weighed 145 pounds.
His opponent, Daniel Calzada, a 22-year-old from Dona Ana, N.M., with a record of 8-9-2 (2 KOs), weighed 146.
- Manuel Damairias Lopez, a 23-year-old from Denver with a record of 4-0 (4 KOs), came in at 141 pounds.
His opponent, Julio Chavez, a 38-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M., with a record of 6-5-1 (2 KOs), came in at 143 pounds. Chavez is listed on BoxRec as not having fought since 2010, with one fight in 2009, no fights in 2008 and 2007, and then three bouts in 2006. He’s lost four in a row and is 1-5-1 since September 2005.
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon. Send questions/comments via email at [email protected] |
By
21st Century Wire says…
(Police photo: A young Jim Morrison)
It’s more than just an urban legend now, the story of how the CIA created the “Hippie Movement”, and introduced the counter-culture via the Laurel Canyon scene in Los Angeles.
Links with with the underworld of organized crime and the mob, this is about well-established channels involving drug dealing and distribution, murder, prostitution, child pornography, snuff movies and black magic – all part of a system of control and manipulation of high-profile personalities – a system which still thrives to this day…
Neil Sanders author of “Your Thoughts are Not Your Own”
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Brasscheck TV
A surprising number of rock and roll stars of the 60s came from military and military intelligence families.
For example, the father of the Doors Jim Morrison was the chief naval officer involved in the manufactured Gulf of Tonkin Incident that led to the Vietnam War.
And then the artists started dying like flies: Jim Morrison, Jim Hendrix, Janis Joplin and many others.
As for LSD, the military and the CIA had been playing with it extensively since the 1950s. Then they unleashed their supply on the youth culture with a well orchestrated promotional media campaign worthy of Madison Avenue via agents like federally-funded Harvard Professor Timothy Leary and former (?) Army Intelligence officer and crypto-fascist Stewart Brand (“Mr Whole Earth.”)
It’s literally true that the roots of the drug culture and rock and roll are in the Pentagon and Langley.
Why did they do it?
To disrupt the anti-war campaign.
As any peace activist active in the early pre-LSD 60s will tell you, the introduction of hallucinogens shattered the energetic and broad based Bay Area peace movement. The Pentagon boys needed bodies and they didn’t want an effective peace movement to get in their way of getting them.
If you attribute the murders of JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King to their opposition to a US war in Vietnam (and there is good reason to), then a little cultural monkey-wrenching is lightweight stuff in comparison…
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READ MORE HOLLWOOD NEWS AT: |
New Delhi: Defence minister Manohar Parrikar and US secretary of defence Ashton Carter on Thursday finalised India’s designation as a “major defence partner" of the US. This was announced in the India-US joint statement issued at the close of Carter’s visit to New Delhi. Thursday’s meeting between Carter and Parrikar was the seventh since the Narendra Modi government took office in May 2014.
Carter is on his farewell visit to Asia as the eight-year-old Barack Obama administration prepares to hand over charge to the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
A US Congressional conference committee had on 30 November asked Carter and secretary of state John Kerry to take steps necessary to recognise India as US’s “major defence partner" in a bid to strengthen bilateral security cooperation.
The provision also asked the defence secretary and the secretary of state for an assessment of the extent to which India possesses capabilities to support and carry out military operations of mutual interest of the two countries. The US administration’s move to designate India as such now needs to be formally passed by the Congress—the House of Representatives and the Senate—before US President Barack Obama can sign it as law.
So what does it mean to be a “major defence partner" partner of the US?
According to a joint statement issued by the two sides on Thursday, the designation “is a status unique to India".
It “institutionalises the progress made to facilitate defence trade and technology-sharing with India to a level at par with that of the United States’ closest allies and partners, and ensures enduring cooperation into the future," the statement said.
India is not a treaty partner of the US—which is a formal alliance partner with close cooperation with Washington like Japan or Australia. Neither is it part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which includes countries like Britain.
But India is seeking benefits granted to the closest allies of the US, such as Australia—that the Pentagon was hesitant to concede in the past.
Thursday’s joint statement does not specify details of the benefits that will accrue to India under the designation.
But it is expected that procurement of weapons’ systems, spares for those platforms already in the Indian inventory and most critically the transfer of technology will get smoother.
It was during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Washington in June that the US said it recognized India as a “major defence partner".
The joint statement issued then had acknowledged the US-India defence relationship as a possible “anchor of stability", with the US saying it will “continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners".
During Parrikar’s visit to the US in August, the two sides had discussed the framework of the designation which was later negotiated by the two sides. |
(Newser) – Interesting times indeed: The Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland on Monday and the chief of the city's largest police union feels that the situation is so volatile that gun rights should be temporarily rolled back. Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, tells CNN that after the shooting of three officers in Baton Rouge on Sunday, he thinks openly carrying firearms during the convention would be "irresponsible" and he wants open carry to be banned in the whole county until the RNC is over. Loomis says he wants Gov. John Kasich to issue an order, and "I don't care if it's constitutional or not at this point." Kasich, however, says Ohio governors "do not have the power to arbitrarily suspend federal and state constitutional rights or state laws."
Two men with long guns briefly turned up at a protest Sunday, apparently to demonstrate their open carry rights, Cleveland.com reports. Other demonstrators including 100 nude women in an art installation, assorted anti-Donald Trump groups that held marches and rallies, and a gathering of thousands of people on the Hope Memorial Bridge with a message of love. Some 11,000 attended a GOP event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with entertainment including Three Dog Night.
The GOP released its convention program Sunday and it looks like it will be one big Trumpfest at the Quicken Loans Arena: With daily themes like "Make America Safe Again" and "Make America First Again," there will be a Trump speaking each day, starting with Melania on Monday and finishing with both Ivanka and Donald on Thursday. Other speakers include Rick Perry, Scott Baio, Duck Dynasty's Willie Robertson, and Ted Cruz.
There will be around 50,000 people attending, the AP reports in its convention preview, but prominent Republicans including the party's last two presidents and last two nominees will not be among them. Kasich is also skipping the convention.
Marco Rubio will also be appearing, but only via video, Roll Call notes.
In a look at what to expect on Day 1, the New York Times predicts that the Baton Rouge police shooting will lead to even stronger Republican calls for law and order. In the evening, Melania Trump's speech may mark the start of a Trump effort to improve his dismal ratings among women voters.
This promises to be a memorable convention, but it will have a long way to go to rank among the wildest in US history, Politico finds in a look at convention craziness in years past, including 1924, when Democrats exchanged taunts of "Ku Klux McAdoo" and "Booze, booze, booze!"
(Trump is expected to officially become the GOP nominee Thursday, but the Never Trump movement hasn't given up yet .) |
A report by the Institute For Science and International Security (ISIS) released last week claims Israel has 115 nuclear warheads and some 660 kg of plutonium.
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Israel has never confirmed or denied having nuclear weapons under a policy of ambiguity aimed at deterring longtime Arab and Muslim adversaries.
The report, written by institute founder David Albright, is based largely on information leaked by Mordechai Vanunu in 1986, as well as intelligence reports, media reports and other research.
In his report, Albright reviews Israel's alleged nuclear activities at the Dimona nuclear reactor which started, he claims, shortly before the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Dimona nuclear reactor (Photo: Getty ImageBank)
The report's assessment that Israel has some 660 kilograms of plutonium is slightly lower than the amount estimated by the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) because Albright believes the Dimona reactor's production capabilities are lower than what the IPFM researchers believe.
"The actual number of Israeli nuclear weapons is a closely guarded secret," Albright explains.
"Israel has a wide range of delivery vehicles for its nuclear weapons. With French assistance in the 1960s, Israel developed the nuclear-capable Jericho ballistic missile. It has developed several improved missiles since then on its own, as well as nuclear-capable cruise missiles. It also has aircraft that can deliver nuclear weapons. It may have the capability to launch nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from its submarines."
According to the report, Israel also illegally procured a wide variety of high tech nuclear equipment from abroad, that can be used both for civilian and military purposes.
"In the 1990s, under US pressure, senior Israeli government officials stated that Israel committed not to violate supplier controls to acquire dual-use goods for its nuclear programs," Albright notes.
However, "occasional procurements possibly intended for the nuclear program are observed despite this pledge," he notes.
Albright's estimate of the number of nuclear warheads Israel allegedly has is based on the assumption each warhead has 3-5 kilograms of plutonium. Based on the amount of plutonium he believes Israel has, it amounts to 165 warheads.
But Albright estimates Israel did not use all of the plutonium in its possession to build warheads, so the number of nuclear warheads it actually has is more likely around 115, as of the end of 2014. |
Modest Is Not Hottest
So for those of you who aren’t familiar with how Mormons dress, we have modesty standards, similar to other faiths. We wear clothes that have some sort of sleeve, shorts/skirts to the knee, and nothing too low in the front or back. This is an outward expression of an inward commitment. This essay is in no way intended to imply I am unhappy with dressing modestly. This is actually something I have chosen to do, and love to do.
Modesty is a lot of things, and it is primarily a way in which we show respect for our bodies and Heavenly Father. However, over the years, as I’ve attended Firesides, Girls Camp, Youth Activities, Sunday School, etc., I occasionally heard a different message. Modesty was my responsibility to make sure the boys around me were not tempted toward immoral thoughts or actions. Now that I’m older, I’ve started hearing it even more. This is simply unacceptable.
Implying that a woman’s modesty is something to be done for the benefit of men and boys is a destructive message for several reasons. The second Article of Faith states, “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins…” Constantly telling a girl that a man’s thoughts and actions are her responsibility is doctrinally incorrect. It also translates closely to the idea that it is a woman’s responsibility to maintain the sexual standards of a relationship. Elder Jeffery R. Holland said, “I have heard all my life that it is the young woman who has to assume the responsibility for controlling the limits of intimacy in courtship because a young man cannot. What an unacceptable response to such a serious issue! What kind of man is he, what priesthood or power or strength or self-control does this man have that lets him develop in society, grow to the age of mature accountability, perhaps even pursue a university education and prepare to affect the future of colleagues and kingdoms and the course of the world, but yet does not have the mental capacity or the moral will to say, ‘I will not do that thing?’ No, this sorry drugstore psychology would have us say, ‘He just can’t help himself. His glands have complete control over his life–his mind, his will, his entire future.’… I refuse to buy some young man’s feigned innocence who wants to sin and call it psychology.”
Another problem is these ideas can kill a girls image of herself as a daughter of God deserving of respect. Girls are often told boys will give women respect if they are dressed in a respectful way, and they will behave inappropriately if you are dressed inappropriately. Unfortunately, that’s not how the world works. Some men behave disrespectful to women regardless of dress. Instances of rape and sexual assault are often higher in countries with laws dictating how a woman dress. Men with that mindset will not be deterred by fabric.
I know in my own life, I have always been meticulously modest. However, I have constantly been at the receiving end of some of the most degrading comments. “Wow, you can tell you have a huge rack even in that sweatshirt!” and “You’re a solid 8, except for your boobs. They’re a 10,” probably come in as most memorable. I had FHE brothers admit to me that they assumed I was not a very good Mormon because of the way I’m built. As sweatshirt man pointed out, there is really only so much I can do, short of wearing a giant bag to hide the fact I look like a woman.
For a long time, when I would hear these things, my mind couldn’t but help think that it was somehow my fault. I clearly wasn’t a very good person, or else I wouldn’t be having men say things like this to me. My value as a daughter of God was being degraded, and instead of demanding to be treated like a human being, I shrunk back, thinking I had been the one in the wrong.
Probably one of the most concerning aspects of this mindset is it is a form of victim blaming. Women at the receiving end of verbal, physical, or sexual assault are often asked “Well, what did you do to provoke him,” “Were you asking for it,” or, one of the most common, “What were you wearing?” Last I checked, when given the commandment not to commit adultery there was no addendum that said “Unless she was dressed like a slut, then it’s totally her fault, and you’re off the hook.” Someone once told me that when you are teaching women to change what they do to prevent being assaulted or raped, what you are actually doing is saying “Make sure he assaults someone else.” You are not fixing the real problem, which is the man’s problem. Men have to exist in the world where women will have a variety of dressing habits. All of these women all are deserving of respect, and if his thoughts or actions cannot be controlled, that is his problem.
I like dressing modestly. I like other people being comfortable around me. But the real reason I want to dress modestly is because for me, it is a way of looking forward to respecting the covenants I will make in the temple. When I get dressed, I ask myself, “If I was endowed, could I wear this?” No offense, but as a woman whoes figure is somewhere between a greek sculpture and the women they used to paint on airplanes in WWII, and legs that go to Canada, certainly dressing modest is not hottest. But my choice in clothing is not about that, nor is it about a need to hide my body. As I said at the beginning, it is an outward display of an inward commitment, one that I would like to remind certain people they are supposed to respect, too. (Yes, I’m looking at you Mr. RM who spends the entire summer in a cut out tank top.) Modesty is an important principal, but it is not one that should be taught as a scapegoat for men’s responsibility.
DISCLAIMER: I have had the privilege of interacting with a lot of stellar men in my life. This is in no way supposed to be an indictment of the entire male population.
UPDATE: Due to the unexpected popularity of this post, I’ve had a mountain of comments so go through. I love the discussion, and pretty much approve all of them (As long as there is no foul language or threats to another person), but I do have other things to do than moderate this post. So…
The comment section will close today, 2/17/14 at 10 pm MST. Get all of your discussion in before then. Happy blogging!
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Apparently, Arrow isn’t waiting until its season four premiere to crack the Internet in half.
The CW’s superhero drama will rile fans much sooner than that, supposedly through a trailer for the upcoming season. As Arrow executive producer Wendy Mericle recently teased on Twitter, Arrow’s next trailer is going to break the Internet.
It will be interesting to see what the trailer cooks up, especially since Arrow’s third season ended on a rather calm note. Perhaps the trailer will reveal what force will draw Arrow back to Star (formerly Starling) City after his extended sabbatical with Felicity Smoak, or finally say the words "Green Arrow"? Or, if we’re on our best behavior, maybe the trailer will give a glimpse of Matt Ryan’s Constantine. But with only a few more weeks until Arrow Season Four’s premier, the trailer should be just around the corner with answers.
Pretty sure this trailer is going to break the internet #ArrowSeason4 https://t.co/V6QQ7dXF1M — Wendy Mericle (@MericlesHappen) August 25, 2015
What do you think this Internet-breaking trailer might entail? Make a guess in the comments! |
Cancer patient Deborah Charles looks into the tube of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner as she prepares to enter the MRI machine for an examination at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington in this May 23, 2007 (JIM BOURG/REUTERS)
ONCE AGAIN, Congress seems set to prove it can be bipartisan — when the challenge involves caving in to special interests. Republicans and Democrats look set to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s medical device tax, a 2.3 percent excise on manufacturers of everything from sutures to pacemakers to MRI machines. The winners would be an influential lobby and rank hypocrisy. The loser would be the country.
The more than 7,000 firms in the medical device industry have spent $30 million a year since 2008 lobbying Congress. Nearly 400 lobbyists are working on the issue. Members of both parties have taken hefty campaign contributions from the industry. Powerful lawmakers have come to the defense of medical device manufacturers. The Obamacare-hating Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), put repealing the medical device tax in the top tier of priorities for the new Congress. But Democrats such as Sens. Al Franken (Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) also back repeal; both their states contain a large number of medical device companies.
The gall on both sides is astounding. Republicans who supposedly care about the federal deficit are racing toward repealing a source of federal revenue without a plan for shoring up the budget, which would take a nearly $30 billion hit over 10 years. Democrats who favor levying taxes to pay for national priorities such as health care apparently draw the line when the special interests in their states get upset.
The medical device tax isn’t particularly elegant policy. But it accomplishes its goal of helping to fund health care for the poor and middle class without dealing unreasonable damage to the economy. The Congressional Research Service concluded as much in a report it prepared for lawmakers this month. Using straightforward supply-and-demand analysis, the analysts estimated that job losses relating to the tax probably range from 0 to 1,200 — the high end representing 0.2 percent of industry jobs.
Medical device manufacturers cite much larger job-loss numbers, but they are based on industry surveys a Post fact check found to be unreliable. Absent years of data that are not yet available, the Congressional Research Service’s Jane G. Gravelle told us, there’s no other way to fairly evaluate the effects of the tax than the way the CRS did. Surveys of executives asked to evaluate a tax on their own industry and anecdotal accounts aren’t compelling.
There is more at stake in the medical device tax repeal effort than $30 billion in revenue. If the medical device industry gets a break, others hit with similar taxes and fees will demand one, too. In that broader view, about $165 billion in federal revenue over 10 years is on the line.
Despite all of the pressure for repeal, the effort may yet founder on legislative mechanics. Republicans might propose cutting spending to offset the repeal. Democrats would resist that. It would be better if Congress just did the right thing, for the right reason. |
Wolf and Forgotten Message (Spice and Wolf Long-form Analysis)
Spice and Wolf is no doubt widely and thoroughly enjoyed. The show appears frequently on recommendation lists or in recommendation threads and sits comfortably with a 8.4 rating on MAL, not to mention ranking as the 68th most popular anime in that same database (at time of writing). Yet, that seems a shallow metric to judge this show by. Come to think of it, all of the praise for Spice and Wolf borders on shallow. With the exception of Mother’s Basement’s fantastic (and ultra in-depth) analysis of the show’s two openings, anything resembling a critical opinion on the show boils down to “moe economics” and “great romantic chemistry”. If you ask me, that’s selling it insultingly short.
Though, I’ll admit, the two immediate draws of Spice and Wolf are its ability to turn a medieval economics lecture into riveting dialogue and its ever-developing romance. I mean, the series is titled Spice and Wolf for a reason. While I’m at it, let me also admit that the show does suffer from light novel syndrome in that only a third of the source material ever saw adaptation. However, despite the number of people praising said economics and romance, I’ve never seen any kind of meaningful discussion or analysis of why those elements succeed.
Hopefully, throughout this essay, I can expand upon those praises, as well point to several less-appreciated elements of the series that are, in my opinion, equally important to the show’s success.
So, despite over half the runtime of certain episodes being spent on discussions of economics, why is Spice and Wolf still enjoyable? I’d argue it’s because of the characters, plus a splash of well-written dialogue. Lawrence is established as valuing money/profit over everything else early on in the show. He lives a lonely nomadic lifestyle as a merchant, and, as early as Episode 1, we see him turn down Chloe’s business proposal (replete with emotional and sexual appeal) because of the economic risk. Later, we learn that his hunger for money is primarily the result of wanting to afford a shop so that he can settle down in one town and start a family.
This humanizes Lawrence, and allows us to sympathize with his desire for money. We would have a harder time allying ourselves with a protagonist who simply wants riches for riches sake. Furthermore, establishing both Lawrence’s goal of acquiring money and his skills at doing so makes conversations about economics extremely relevant to his ‘quest’. Money and successful business ventures are vital for Lawrence to move forward on his journey. In this way, details about business and economics in Spice and Wolf are equivalent to details about (for random example) Sauron’s army in Lord of the Rings. The exposition is tied directly to the stakes and challenges of our protagonist’s quest.
Oftentimes, Lawrence is talking to Holo about economics. Holo’s character makes these discussions dynamic and entertaining. She gives Lawrence an excuse to explain the numerous currencies and how their purity affects markets by playing the fish out of water. Yet, there is an interesting hierarchy of knowledge between her and Lawrence. Lawrence holds the upper hand in knowledge of markets, but Holo possesses much more worldly knowledge, leading to a sort of Padawan teaching the Jedi situation. In one moment, Lawrence is wracking his brain over the intricacies of devaluing currency. The next, Holo points out that Zheren could have given Lawrence made-up information and would profit if Lawrence did, but suffer no losses if Lawrence failed. Moments like these break the monotony of pure economics-driven discussion with riddling logic.
That’s Holo’s secondary purpose in these scenes. First, she acts as an ambassador for the viewer. Then, she bridges the conversation to a topic or theme beyond economics. Most often, she pushes the conversation towards teasing Lawrence or begging for food, both of which serve as some romantic development (more on that soon). Sometimes she brings their talks towards the macro-adventure of the series—for example, when Lawrence acquires massive debt in Ruvenheigen, she listens for the necessary information and then says she’ll help him resolve the debt so that they don’t hit a roadblock on their way to the north. Because they are traveling partners, Lawrence’s trials affect Holo’s quest as much as his.
Although the two couldn’t seem further apart, those business discussions play a large role in creating romantic chemistry between Lawrence and Holo. We can’t forget that Lawrence is a merchant through and through. In Episode 8, Holo flirts with Lawrence in terms of debt and interest as she asks for oil for her tail. She may be talking about money as well, but her cooing voice and the way she touches Lawrence imply that he’ll be investing in her affection. I don’t mean to say that Holo’s a gold digger—we’ll see that she certainly isn’t—but the mercantile business is often used as a frame for romantic tension. This is a brilliant way to interweave the themes of business-adventure and romance that keeps us invested in any conversation between Lawrence and Holo. We’re always on the lookout for both romantic and plot development.
By hiding some of the flirtation in this way, there’s a natural give-and-take like you would expect when haggling a deal at a shop. That same give-and-take bleeds through to the duo’s less-veiled flirtation. Holo will allow Lawrence to pat her head and enjoy her more submissive attitude, only to take the lead and run off a second later. But this is not to be confused with the archetypal tsundere. This is a realistic relationship, where the partners have moments of insecurity, where they need to lean on each other sometimes, and where they know what pleases their partner’s emotions. Again, Lawrence (the merchant) and Holo (the Wise Wolf) are two characters perfectly suited to this kind of interaction that relies on an understanding of human desire and motivation.
Those interactions are great fun to watch, but the romance goes deeper than simple flirtation. Lawrence and Holo are set up to be a match—in terms of desires, backstory, and faults. Lawrence wants to find a home; Holo wants to return to hers. Lawrence is a traveler, shown in the first ten minutes of the anime wishing he wasn’t sitting alone on his wagon; Holo also traveled far from home, and is revealed in the first two episodes to be abandoned by the town that once worshipped her. Lawrence is a human fearful of wolves; Holo is herself a wolf. Lawrence’s focus on success leads him to callously slap away Holo’s hand when he’s buried in debt; Holo’s pride as the Wise Wolf leads her to not consider Lawrence’s feelings when bragging about wolves attacking humans.
These connections—this matching—allow Lawrence and Holo to challenge each other. Since their wits are a decent match for each other, too, they tend to push each other forward after a bit of struggle. Thus, we see developments like when Holo sets aside her pride to save Nora the shepherdess. Holo trusts in Lawrence’s judgment of Nora and acts because of her connection with him. She can’t ignore the moral reasoning of the one she loves. Likewise, Lawrence places trust in Holo to protect Nora and not kill needlessly. Knowing that she kneeled before the forest’s wolf spirit, he has faith in her own morals and won’t ask her to sacrifice any more of her pride.
A particularly interesting example starts in Episode 2, and also serves as individual character development for both Lawrence and Holo. As mentioned before, Holo makes up a story about wolves eating the brains of humans, which causes Lawrence to remember times he was attacked by wolves. He becomes angry and Holo, realizing she’s distanced herself from her only friend, reveals a bit of vulnerability. Wolves attack humans because they’ve never been able to live in unison with—or under the care of—humans. This draws a melancholic parallel to Holo’s own loneliness and rejection.
Later on, as the duo sneak through the sewers of Pazzio, Holo is forced to assume her wolf form. She asks Lawrence not to look at her any longer—her fangs bloody and sharp, but her eyes wet and pained. Lawrence does look, and winds up cowering in fear of Holo’s true form. In this moment, Holo is vulnerable because of her fear of rejection, while Lawrence is vulnerable because of his fear of wolves. The pair almost split apart, but Lawrence calls out to Holo that he’ll follow her. In that, Lawrence faces his fear and believes that the Holo he knows won’t harm him. Likewise, when Holo returns the next day, she is taking a step by believing that the Lawrence she knows won’t reject her.
Well, that may just be a more in-depth look at the popular praises of Spice and Wolf. I did say I would explore beyond that, didn’t I?
Next to their romantic chemistry, Lawrence and Holo’s shared cunning is perhaps the main selling point of the medieval Wall Street that is Spice and Wolf. Holo is the Wise Wolf, after all. The duo escapes financial and mortal peril time and time again. Not only that, but they tend to steal away with a bit of profit as well. We eagerly wait to see how they pull themselves out of danger or—sometimes—how a profitable situation might turn into a trap. However miraculous their reversal of fortune, we never doubt its validity. They climb out of the bottomless pit via a thread we never noticed, but that was certainly there all along.
But how does this trick work? And—answering that—what can be done with this trick? As always, let’s figure it out and see if we can’t profit in the process.
We can boil this down to a formula, and it makes sense to start with the simplest incarnation of that formula. In Episode 3 of the first season, Holo buys dozens of apples and piles them atop the marten furs in Lawrence’s cart. In fact, the cart is separated into very distinct sections, and the apples are only shown in the fur section. Later on, in a demonstration of Holo’s business talent, she has the master at Milone Trading smell the furs. Their fruity smell swindles him into paying almost double his original offer.
There’s no way we would realize the apples would smell up the fur our first time watching. As Holo says, “[the master] will probably be impressed to know such a method exists.” She also tells us we won’t “get far” if we get upset over being tricked. We should learn from this. So what happened? Or, rather, why/how were we tricked? The lie itself is not as important as the reason behind it—thanks again, Holo.
The apples are introduced casually and for a separate purpose, but they are also introduced such that we have no doubt the story planned all of this in advance. Holo simply wanted to eat apples, a desire so plainly in character that we think nothing of it. The banter surrounding the purchase of the apples is equally typical. Yet, the camera shows us an absurd quantity of apples placed specifically on the furs. More importantly, Holo states she wants apples because they “smell delicious”. Lawrence thinks more like us, musing that they “look delicious”. It’s no coincidence that Lawrence and the viewer both miss the opportunity Holo sees—we’re made to identify/focalize with Lawrence’s perspective on purpose.
When it comes to more important plot points, the same principles hold true. When Lawrence gains the upper hand against the shop owner who tilted his weighing scales unfairly, he buys armor, explaining there’s a market for it in Ruvenheigen and any other goods would be too heavily taxed to make a profit. This statement about taxation simultaneously avoids raising suspicion over the armor, and plants an out for Lawrence’s debt. The armor market is revealed to have crashed and smuggling gold is Lawrence’s only chance at paying off his debt.
Of course, this is all hinted to ahead of time. The tricky shop owner should be suffering a significant loss, yet doesn’t seem too upset to sell armor. Immediately after, Holo scolds Lawrence for his overconfidence, claiming he’ll overlook important details like he did with Chloe—a bit of a shot at us viewers. Indeed, Lawrence does overlook a risk due to his overconfidence. The smuggling scheme with Nora is also foreshadowed in Lawrence’s words that he “has faith in God” to bring him profit. In the end, it is only the Church’s control of the gold market and Nora (a shepherdess for the Church) that allows Lawrence to overcome his debt.
We do begin to heed Holo’s warnings, though. When we encounter Amarti in Season 2, we’re more than a bit suspicious. Granted, this is an easier fish to catch than the subtle clues about the armor in Season 1. Amarti is clearly attracted to Holo, and he has so much screentime in the first episode that we can’t help but assume he’ll be an important character. Put two and two together and it’s not hard to see that he’ll cause trouble. But we don’t know exactly what that trouble will be, or how Lawrence will escape. Spice and Wolf does a good job not showing its hand by adding in subplots with Diana the chronicler, and by having Holo appear to side with Amarti. The situation is different enough from previous conflicts that we’re kept on our toes.
I’ve been focusing mostly on narrative and character, but Spice and Wolf is no slouch when it comes to directing. I won’t argue it’s a tour de force or anything, and the animation can be stiff or worse in the first season, but there’s certainly more going on than ‘point the camera at the subject’. There’s some cool formal stuff happening in Spice and Wolf if you look close enough.
As I mentioned when explaining the show’s narrative trick/formula, Spice and Wolf knows how to plant clues seamlessly into the flow of every scene. This smart directing not only ties together the story, but also patches up any gaps in the viewer’s understanding. When Lawrence and Holo visit the money exchanger in Pazzio, we suddenly hear the clinking of coins much more often than before. Holo’s ears twitch as she listens to the coins, cluing us in that her superior senses allow her to notice a difference in the coins’ purities. Similarly, when the duo is ambushed that same night, Holo asks Lawrence if his eyes have adjusted to the darkness. Holo’s own eyes stick out as a bright red, letting us know that she has no trouble seeing in the dark.
These little touches save the show from explaining the extent of Holo’s powers, and keep the viewer in the loop. This is one huge advantage the anime has over the light novels, and Spice and Wolf capitalizes on it excellently. Holo’s wolf features continue to add either complexity or emphasis to her expression. She may involuntarily wag her tail while pretending to be upset, or suddenly bare her otherwise hidden fangs to show she’s exceptionally angry.
While the directing is often in service of expression or exposition, there are times it enhances a particular message. After Holo cries and explains her lonely nightmares to Lawrence, he gets up to wipe her face with the sketch of his dream shop. Lawrence even crumples the sketch up himself. Given that Lawrence settling down with a shop would end his journey with Holo, it is particularly powerful that he symbolically sacrifices his dream to stay by her side.
But what does this all amount to? Well, as the opening says: “The freezing daybreak, the parched afternoon, and the trembling dark night—let us go see what lies past them.” This is a journey through time. Days and seasons pass. Old gods are replaced with technology and new gods. But perhaps most interestingly, nature and animal instincts are replaced with structure.
Holo is nature incarnate. The show opens with narration about the villagers’ old belief that the life cycle, harvest, and even motion of wheat were all due to the actions of a wolf spirit. Maybe they didn’t originally believe a spirit was literally running through the wheat, but they spoke in those terms and assigned their understanding of the world to the spirit. Pasloe’s only way to ensure a healthy harvest was to make a promise with Holo, who would then watch over the wheat. Mankind understood the world in terms of nature, not science and especially not through any social structures.
Holo’s wisdom is not knowledge of economics or politics. In fact, we see she often struggles with the more convoluted matters of man’s social order. Though she can grasp the logic behind certain trade deals, she fails to memorize the names and values of the many different coins of the world. Currency—and the kingdoms and histories that spawn it—is such an unnatural and self-imposed idea to Holo that she can’t comprehend it even with all her years of experience. Human emotions and intentions, however, are simple to her. She claims to be able to notice every lie, and we never see her fail. It seems Holo’s wisdom pertains to timeless knowledge—instinctual, basic, natural knowledge. She struggles with structuralized info like the currency itself, but can understand why the currency minter would want to measure people’s reactions to a change in purity.
Lawrence, on the other hand, is a master navigator of man’s social labyrinth. He can fire off the names and insurers of all his coins. He knows the relationships of towns to one another, and details about their religious affiliations and trade tendencies. Holo’s wisdom would not inform her of Ruvenheigen’s tariffs on gold, and the Church’s control on the market via stamped “blessed” gold. To Holo, the gold would be the same gold regardless of whether the Church laid hands on it. Lawrence needs to understand this socioeconomic model in order to run a successful business. He’s a structuralist merchant, you could say.
For all that Lawrence has learned about markets and politics, he lacks in knowledge of nature. This is illustrated perfectly in Episode 2 during a talk with Holo. Lawrence says “time is money”, such that there are 24 hours in a day and he can equate each of those hours with what it produced for him in terms of income. He believes time is something you can “have” and spend, and that farmers live and work in accordance with the clock of hours.
Holo laughs and immediately brings her more Romantic and naturalistic viewpoint: farmers are just good at “sensing” things. “They wake up when they sense daybreak” and then they do their jobs when it feels right to do them. “They do not care about time.” Holo calls Lawrence “sharp-witted but inexperienced”, which falls in line with our theory thus far. The difference between Lawrence and Holo shows not only in what they say, but also how they say it. Lawrence speaks in more concrete terms (at the start of the series), explaining economics like a professor. Holo speaks around her words. Instead of explaining to Lawrence that he left her hand hanging twice, she tells him he “failed to grab the happiness given to [him] by God” and that it’ll run away if he ignores it again. Lawrence, of course, doesn’t understand.
Considering all of this, what does Spice and Wolf say about nature and structure? The villagers of Pasloe rejected Holo once they discovered how to insure a bountiful harvest without her and (other than our external knowledge of agricultural failures like the American Dust Bowl) the show doesn’t portray many negative consequences of that rejection. All we’re really shown is Holo’s loneliness and suffering. Assuming Holo represents nature, this may be a way of implying man’s rejection of natural law will inevitably cause nature/the environment to suffer.
A more fruitful perspective is to consider where we see mankind not rejecting nature. Though the villagers of Pasloe broke their promise to Holo, they still play at the reaping of the last wheat and still build a wooden wolf for their festival. They jest about Holo’s importance, yet still find the most pleasure in keeping up old traditions. Their loudest—perhaps truest—happiness seems to come from the festival worshipping nature rather than their full wallets.
Lawrence, too, gains happiness and grows because of Holo/nature. As discussed earlier, Lawrence is unmistakably lonely at the start of the show, to the point of trying to talk to his horse. Life as a merchant—life as someone who knows only the economic, political, and structural facets of the world—has stripped him of a bond to other people. The only people he’s close to are ones he rarely gets to see, and can you even call that a connection? By accepting Holo, he not only expands his mind to a more naturalistic way of thinking, but he also connects with life and with another ‘person’.
I don’t believe Spice and Wolf attempts to portray social structure as evil, but it does show the dangers of severing one’s connection with nature. To bravely quote Thoreau, “Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity.” Spice and Wolf tells us that there is much we can learn by looking beyond our perceptions of the world, for they have likely been tunneled by the structures around us. I wouldn’t go so far as to call the show postmodern, but it is certainly Romantic (as well as lowercase romantic). There is great love and knowledge to be found beyond and before the structured ways we choose to view the world.
Spice and Wolf urges us to embark on our own journey, viewing time not as something to schedule around, but to flow through. It asks us to value the structure our societies provide, but to never forget the natural world we impose those structures upon. Our fullest potential to love lies somewhere on that long, long road we walk down. As for me—I’m just a guy who really loves Spice and Wolf.
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The Walking Dead has some of the most vocal fans of any TV show, to the point where it's not uncommon to hurl abuse and threaten the stars.
Austin Amelio, who plays Rick Grimes' inside man Dwight, is the latest actor from the series to reveal some of the less savoury things he's had thrown his way, which include threats that his home would be burned down.
Dwight has done his share of controversial actions since first appearing in season six.
He shot Daryl in the shoulder, and shot Denise through the eye with a crossbow.
AMC
Related: The Walking Dead season 8 premiere: 13 HUGE questions and theories after 'Mercy'
"When I shot Daryl, people were like, 'I'm gonna burn your house down'," Amelio told TVGuide.com. "So I've had that sort of stuff.
"I'm Austin. I'm nice. Dwight's a dick."
Amelio must be pretty relieved, then, that his character now appears to be Team Rick.
Gene Page/AMC
Seth Gilliam, who plays Gabriel, recently recounted some of the death threats he has received in the past.
"It took a little getting used to, the death threats, and realising they were coming from 13-year-old boys in the basement of their Wisconsin home, as opposed to people who were really meaning me harm," Gilliam said.
And Josh McDermitt (Eugene) quit social media after receiving abuse, when his character shifted over to Negan's side.
The Walking Dead airs Sunday on AMC in the US, with FOX and NOW TV airing the show a day later in the UK.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set. |
VANCOUVER — Japanese hard hats and fishing floats are now lying in old growth forests on the B.C. coast after being washed into the Pacific Ocean by the biggest tsunami of 2011, and then out of the Pacific by the largest tsunami of 2012.
But apart from the shared wreckage, the two tsunamis show just how different impacts of the giant waves can be.
The largest tsunami of 2011 off the coast of Japan generated waves up to 40 metres high that raced ashore killing almost 16,000 people, destroying coastal facilities and communities and triggering a nuclear reactor meltdown.
The largest tsunami in 2012 was off the remote west coast of B.C.’s Haida Gwaii and created formidable waves up to 13 metres high, but it hardly left a trace.
Federal scientists have made repeated trips to the windswept, rocky and unpopulated west coast of Haida Gwaii to look for evidence of the tsunami that was triggered by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake, Canada’s second largest recorded quake, on October 28, 2012.
After scrambling up rocky beaches and into coastal forests Lucinda Leonard and Jan Bednarski, of Natural Resources Canada, did uncover telltale signs of the tsunami.
Dead salmon on the forest floor, seaweed dangling from tree branches metres off the ground, and Japanese fishing floats sitting beneath giant cedars revealed how huge waves hit the shore of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and grew as they raced up inlets, inundating low-lying forests with up sea water.
“Western Haida Gwaii was impacted by significant tsunami waves that reached up to 13 metres above the state of the tide,” report the scientists, whose findings will be included in an upcoming report on the Haida Gwaii quake and tsunami in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
One large black fishing float stamped “Musashi” is identical to one discovered on a Washington beach and traced to an oyster farming area hit hard by the 2011 Japanese quake.
Bednarski said in an interview he was also stuck by the distinctive Japanese hard hats the sea tossed into the remote forest. And how campsites on seemingly protected beaches would have been hit with some of the biggest waves that funnelled up inlets.
Had the quake and tsunami struck in the summer — instead of an evening in October — it would have been a much different story as many people would have been fishing and kayaking in the region.
“It could have been a disaster,” says Garry Rogers, a senior scientist at NRCan, noting “it was not a small tsunami.” The scientists say it was the largest tsunami recorded globally in 2012.
But the tsunami was very focused, Rogers says, sending waves racing ashore along about 200 kilometres of Haida Gwaii and across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii where it was picked up by tide gauges.
The Hawaiians evacuated coastal areas as a precaution but the tsunami was much smaller than expected — the waves were less than a metre high when they arrived. There was no damage, but the evacuations caused bumper-to-bumper traffic jams in Hawaii and calls for better tsunami forecasting.
There was also plenty of confusion and frustration in B.C. It took provincial emergency officials more than half an hour to issue a public tsunami warning, leaving many people in coastal communities wondering whether they were supposed to head for higher ground. Emergency Management B.C. says it is now working to improve earthquake/tsunami preparedness programs.
Scientists say the information gathered from the Haida Gwaii quake and tsunami have provided valuable insight into the geological forces at work off British Columbia’s north coast.
It also shows tsunamis do not always leave a lot of evidence behind, unlike the tsunamis generated by the giant quakes known to occur along the Cascadia subduction zone that runs from Vancouver Island south to California. Megaquakes rip down Cascadia about every 500 years — and the sand layers left by the tsunamis have been found up and down the coast providing evidence of 19 giant Cascadia quakes in the last 10,000 years.
The Haida Gwaii tsunami left “no sign of a sandy deposit,” Leonard and Bednarski report, “despite evidence that debris had been carried by a marine inundation up to 12 metres above mean sea level with flow depths up to 2.5 metres.“ The way the tsunami travelled up narrow steep fjords may help explain the absence of sand in the forests hit by the sea water, they say.
Twitter.com/margaretmunro |
Not to be confused with the Great Firewall of China (GFW), which might only be one part of the Golden Shield Project.
The Golden Shield Project (Chinese: 金盾工程; pinyin: jīndùn gōngchéng), also named National Public Security Work Informational Project (Chinese: 全国公安工作信息化工程), is the Chinese nationwide network-security fundamental constructional project by the e-government of the People's Republic of China. This project includes security management information system (治安管理信息系统), criminal information system (刑事案件信息系统), exit and entry administration information system (出入境管理信息系统), supervisor information system (监管人员信息系统) and traffic management information system (交通管理信息系统), etc.[1]
The Golden Shield Project is one of the 12 important "golden" projects. The other "golden" projects are Golden Bridges (金桥, for public economic information), Golden Customs (金关, for foreign trades), Golden Card (金卡, for electronic currencies), Golden Finance (金财, for financial management), Golden Agriculture (金农, for agricultural information), Golden Taxation (金税, for taxation), Golden Water (金水, for water conservancy information) and Golden Quality (金质, for quality supervision).[2]
The Golden Shield Project also manages the Bureau of Public Information and Network Security Supervision (公共信息网络安全监察局, or 网监局 for short), which is a bureau that is widely believed, though not officially claimed, to operate a subproject called the Great Firewall of China[3] (GFW, Chinese: 防火长城; pinyin: fánghuǒ chángchéng), which is a censorship and surveillance project that blocks politically inconvenient incoming data from foreign countries. It is operated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) of the government of China. This subproject was initiated in 1998 and began operations in November 2003.[4] It has also seemingly been used to attack international web sites using Man-on-the-side DDoS, for example GitHub on 2015/03/28.[5]
History [ edit ]
The political and ideological background of the Golden Shield Project is considered to be one of Deng Xiaoping’s favorite sayings in the early 1980s: "If you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in." (Chinese: 打开窗户，新鲜空气和苍蝇就会一起进来。; pinyin: Dǎkāi chuānghù, xīnxiān kōngqì hé cāngying jiù huì yìqǐ jìnlái.[nb 1]) The saying is related to a period of economic reform in China that became known as the "socialist market economy". Superseding the political ideologies of the Cultural Revolution, the reform led China towards a market economy and opened up the market for foreign investors. Nonetheless, despite the economic freedom, values and political ideas of the Communist Party of China have had to be protected by "swatting flies" of other unwanted ideologies.[6]
The Internet in China arrived in 1994,[7] as the inevitable consequence of and supporting tool for the "socialist market economy". As availability of the Internet has gradually increased, it has become a common communication platform and tool for trading information.
The Ministry of Public Security took initial steps to control Internet use in 1997, when it issued comprehensive regulations governing its use. The key sections, Articles 4-6, are the following:
Individuals are prohibited from using the Internet to: harm national security; disclose state secrets; or injure the interests of the state or society. Users are prohibited from using the Internet to create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit information that incites resistance to the PRC Constitution, laws, or administrative regulations; promotes the overthrow of the government or socialist system; undermines national unification; distorts the truth, spreads rumors, or destroys social order; or provides sexually suggestive material or encourages gambling, violence, or murder. Users are prohibited from engaging in activities that harm the security of computer information networks and from using networks or changing network resources without prior approval.[8]
In 1998, the Communist Party of China feared that the China Democracy Party (CDP) would breed a powerful new network that the party elites might not be able to control.[9] The CDP was immediately banned, followed by arrests and imprisonment.[10] That same year, the Golden Shield project was started. The first part of the project lasted eight years and was completed in 2006. The second part began in 2006 and ended in 2008. On 6 December 2002, 300 people in charge of the Golden Shield project from 31 provinces and cities throughout China participated in a four-day inaugural "Comprehensive Exhibition on Chinese Information System".[11] At the exhibition, many western high-tech products, including Internet security, video monitoring and human face recognition were purchased. It is estimated that around 30,000-50,000 police are employed in this gigantic project.[12]
A subsystem of the Golden Shield has been nicknamed "the Great Firewall" (防火长城) (a term that first appeared in a Wired magazine article in 1997)[13] in reference to its role as a network firewall and to the ancient Great Wall of China. This part of the project includes the ability to block content by preventing IP addresses from being routed through and consists of standard firewalls and proxy servers at the six[14] Internet gateways. The system also selectively engages in DNS cache poisoning when particular sites are requested. The government does not appear to be systematically examining Internet content, as this appears to be technically impractical.[15] Because of its disconnection from the larger world of IP routing protocols, the network contained within the Great Firewall has been described as "the Chinese autonomous routing domain".[16]
During the 2008 Summer Olympics, Chinese officials told Internet providers to prepare to unblock access from certain Internet cafés, access jacks in hotel rooms and conference centers where foreigners were expected to work or stay.[17]
Actions and purpose [ edit ]
The Golden Shield Project contains an integrated, multi-layered system, involving technical, administrative, public security, national security, publicity and many other departments. This project was planning to finish within five years, separated into two phases.
Phase I [ edit ]
The first phase of the project focused on the construction of the first-level, second-level, and the third-level information communication network, application database, shared platform, etc. The period was three years.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, since September 2003, the Public Security department of China has recorded 96% of the population information of mainland China into the database. In other words, the information of 1.25 billion out of 1.3 billion people has recorded in the information database of the Public Security department of China.[18] Within three years, phase I project has finished the first-level, second-level, and the third-level backbone network and access network. This network has covered public security organs at all levels. The grass-roots teams of public security organs have accessed to the backbone network with the coverage rate 90%, that is to say, every 100 police officers have 40 computers connected to the network of the phase I project. The Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China said that the phase I project had significantly enhanced the combat effectiveness of public security.
Members participated in the phase I project include Tsinghua University from China, and some high-tech companies from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Israel, etc. Cisco Systems from the United States of America has provided massive hardware devices for this project, and therefore was criticized by some members of the United States Congress.[19]
According to China Central Television, phase I cost 6.4 billion yuan. On 6 December 2002, there came the "2002 China Large Institutions Informationization Exhibition", 300 leaders from the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China and from other public security bureaus of 31 provinces or municipalities attended the exhibition. There were many western high-tech products, including network security, video surveillance and face recognition.[20] It was estimated that about 30000 police officers have been employed to maintain the system. There was a multi-level system to track netizens violating the provisions. Netizens who want to use the internet in a cybercafé requires to show their Resident Identity Cards. If some violating event happened, the owner of the cybercafé can send the personal information to the police through the internet. It is called a public security automation system, but it is actually an integrated, multi-layered, internet blocking and monitoring system, involving the technical, administrative, public security, national security, publicity, etc. The features are known as: readable, listenable, and thinkable.
Phase II [ edit ]
The phase II project started in 2006. The main task was to enhance the terminal construction, and the public security business application system, trying to informatize of the public security work. The period was two years.[21]
Based on the phase I project, phase II project expanded the information application types of public security business, and informationized further public security information. The key points of this project included application system construction, system integration, the expansion of information centre, and information construction in central and western provinces. The system of was planning to strengthen the integration, to share and analysis of information. It would greatly enhance the information for the public security work support.[21]
Censored content [ edit ]
Mainland Chinese Internet censorship programs have censored Web sites that include (among other things):
Blocked Web sites are indexed to a lesser degree, if at all, by some Chinese search engines. This sometimes has considerable impact on search results.[23]
According to The New York Times, Google has set up computer systems inside China that try to access Web sites outside the country. If a site is inaccessible, then it is added to Google China's blacklist.[24] However, once unblocked, the Web sites will be reindexed. Referring to Google's first-hand experience of the great firewall, there is some hope in the international community that it will reveal some of its secrets. Simon Davies, founder of London-based pressure group Privacy International, is now challenging Google to reveal the technology it once used at China's behest. "That way, we can understand the nature of the beast and, perhaps, develop circumvention measures so there can be an opening up of communications." "That would be a dossier of extraordinary importance to human rights," Davies says. Google has yet to respond to his call.[25]
Bypassing [ edit ]
Because the Great Firewall blocks destination IP addresses and domain names and inspects the data being sent or received, a basic censorship circumvention strategy is to use proxy nodes and encrypt the data. Most circumvention tools combine these two mechanisms.[26]
Proxy servers outside China can be used, although using just a simple open proxy (HTTP or SOCKS) without also using an encrypted tunnel (such as HTTPS) does little to circumvent the sophisticated censors. [26]
Companies can establish regional Web sites within China. This prevents their content from going through the Great Firewall of China; however, it requires companies to apply for local ICP licenses.
Onion routing, such as I2P or Tor, can be used. [26]
Freegate, Ultrasurf, and Psiphon are free programs that circumvent the China firewall using multiple open proxies, but still behave as though the user is in China. [26]
VPNs (virtual private network) and SSH (secure shell) are the powerful and stable tools for bypassing surveillance technologies. They use the same basic approaches, proxies and encrypted channels, used by other circumvention tools, but depend on a private host, a virtual host, or an account outside of China, rather than open, free proxies. [26]
Open application programming interface (API) used by Twitter which enables to post and retrieve tweets on sites other than Twitter. "The idea is that coders elsewhere get to Twitter, and offer up feeds at their own URLs—which the government has to chase down one by one." says Jonathan Zittrain, co-director of Harvard's [[Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society]. [27]
Reconfiguration at the end points of communication, encryption, discarding reset packets according to the TTL value (time to live) by distinguishing those resets generated by the Firewall and those made by end user, not routing any further packets to sites that have triggered blocking behavior.[28]
Unblocking [ edit ]
Certain sites have begun to be partially unblocked, including:
The English-language BBC website (but not the Chinese language website). [29]
Wikipedia (wikipedia.org), HTTPS version is not blocked (As of December 2013 , excluding Chinese Wikipedia). However, if one uses HTTP, many wikis are blocked.[ citation needed ]
Exporting technology [ edit ]
Reporters Without Borders suspects that countries such as Cuba, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Belarus have obtained surveillance technology from China although the censorships in these countries are not much in comparison to China.[30]
Differences from the Great Firewall [ edit ]
The Golden Shield Project is distinct from the Great Firewall (GFW), which has a different mission. The differences are listed below:
Politically,
The GFW is a tool for the propaganda system, whereas the Golden Shield Project is a tool for the public security system. The original requirements of the GFW are from the 610 office, whereas the original requirements of the Golden Shield Project are from the public security department. The GFW is a national gateway for filtering foreign websites, whereas the Golden Shield Project is for monitoring the domestic internet.
Technically,
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ There are several variants of this saying in Chinese, including "如果你打开窗户换新鲜空气，就得想到苍蝇也会飞进来。" and "打开窗户，新鲜空气进来了，苍蝇也飞进来了。". Their meanings are the same. |
The Rhineland Palatinate government decided it had run out of options to try to save the Nürburgring firm on Wednesday morning – because a hoped-for rescue package from the European Commission seemed unlikely.
State Premier Kurt Beck said the €13 million that had been requested was not expected to be approved by July 31. Therefore, “with greatest probability, bankruptcy would be applied for, for the end of the month due to lack of liquidity,” he said.
He criticised the Commission, which he said had given out positive signals on the matter just a few days ago, but had then simply stopped dealing with the matter.
“Not deciding on a European level means a lack of power to act for Rhineland Palatinate,” he said.
The Rhein Zeitung newspaper said on Tuesday it had heard from good sources that the European Commission was not going to rescue the Nürburgring GmbH firm.
The Rhineland Palatinate state government had asked the Commission to pump €13 million into the firm as part of a rescue package which would also seee the firm would defer payment on a €330 million loan from a state-owned bank.
But European competition authorities refused to approve the plan and the firm which owns the track will now go into administration.
Administrators will then soon be responsible for all contracts, whether this be with Bernie Ecclestone for the Formula 1 races or with concert organiser Marek Lieberberg for the Rock am Ring festival.
European authorities are already in the midst of checking whether more than €500 million has been funnelled into the racetrack and leisure complex in contravention of competition rules.
The Rhein Zeitung said that tax payers should expect to pay heartily for the situation, as the entire complex is said to be only worth €126 million – according to a study compiled by Ernst & Young for the state.
The figures show the firm is €413 million in debt, including €330 million borrowed from the state-owned bank and €83 million to share-holders, the paper said. The state could end up sitting on debts of around €287 million.
The current season of events at the Ring will probably continue, but the future will depend on the administrators. They are obliged to get as much value out of the situation as possible for the creditors, the largest of which is the Rhineland Palatinate state.
The Local/hc |
The purple nutsedge is one of the world's worst weeds, spreading stealthily underground and shrugging off herbicides as if they were soda water. But new research shows that for one ancient people, this noxious plant may have served as a tooth cleaner.
A new analysis of skeletons reveals that people who lived in Sudan 2,000 years ago were eating the purple nutsedge. Those people had surprisingly sound teeth—and the antibacterial properties of the weed may deserve the credit, scientists say in a study published in the journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday.
Early humans generally had relatively few cavities, thanks in part to meals that were heavy on the meat, light on the carbs.
Then humans invented farming and began eating more grain. Bacteria in the human mouth flourished, pouring out acids that eat away at the teeth. The first farmers tended to have much more tooth decay than hunter-gatherers did.
But when scientists looked at the teeth of people buried roughly 2,000 years ago in an ancient cemetery called Al Khiday 2, they found that fewer than one percent of the teeth had cavities, abscesses, or other signs of tooth decay, though those people were probably farmers, says study co-author Donatella Usai of Italy's Center for Sudanese and Sub-Saharan Studies.
View Images Extracts of purple nutsedge (above) impede the growth of the bacteria most widely implicated in tooth decay. Photograph by Dinodia Photos, Alamy
Analysis of hardened bits of plaque on the teeth showed those interred at the cemetery had ingested the tubers of the purple nutsedge, perhaps as food, perhaps as medicine. People buried at Al Khiday at least 8,700 years ago—before the rise of farming there—also consumed the tubers, probably as food.
Experiments by other researchers show that extracts of the weed impede the growth of the bacteria most widely implicated in tooth decay. So the weed could have served as both a nutritious dinner and a primitive, if unintentional, antibacterial potion, the scientists say, though they caution that they haven't proved a link.
Such a function is certainly possible, says biological anthropologist Sarah Lacy of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who is not associated with the new study. No other example has been reported of a specific plant that kept tooth decay in check among ancient people, says Lacy, who calls the results "very exciting."
The purple nutsedge tuber may have many virtues, but a nice flavor isn't one of them. People might have tried to tame the tubers' bitterness by cooking them, says study co-author Karen Hardy of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, or they may have just tolerated the bad taste. |
In response to my nomination of Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Company and creator of the Samuel Adams line of brews, for craft-beer canonization, three main trends in reader response:
1) What about Fritz Maytag? Many people wrote to say that the founder of the Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco deserved first-tier credit. For instance:
Don't forget Fritz Maytag on your list of heroes! He single-handedly saved a classic beer style from extinction, and was the first to introduce what we now think of as American Pale Ale. A great modern-brewing pioneer!
And:
[You should honor] Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewery, who instead of choosing to be a bored member of the rentier class took his inheritance and started craft-brewing before Messrs. Koch and Grossman.... When I started home-brewing in 1984, it seemed that the only craft beer around was Anchor's, not Sam Adams (which I do like) or Sierra Nevada's. Praise is free; please spread it around.
2) What about Jimmy Carter? The post-incumbency rise in esteem for our 39th president continues, in this case because of what he did for the the home-brew and craft-brew industries:
I have to note that you left out Jimmy Carter from your list people who deserve credit for leading America into its current Golden Age of Beer.
I personally know of 3 people who began home brewing when he sparked the legislation that made home brew legal. One of these people ... is a commercial brewing concern now! One of several here in the greater Springfield, MA area.
3) What about (in a different sense) Jim Koch? Paul Rickter, a home brewer in Massachusetts, thinks praise of the Sam Adams line and its founder is overdone:
Your hagiography on Jim Koch touched a nerve with me.
You state up front your "bias" in favor of Jim Koch, and that's helpful. As a longtime Boston-area homebrewer, I'm happy to admit being biased against Koch, for a variety of reasons... He makes some good beers (the niche specialty varieties, not the mass-market stuff that is contract-brewed for him), though his real talent is in marketing himself everywhere as the man who single-handedly saved American beer. He's certainly played a key role in the resurgence of American craft beer, but he's been a little too eager to grab that spotlight and has been loathe to lose the "craft" label, even though his company has grown way beyond that status.
I have one major quibble in what you wrote about the list of "craft" brewers: "Koch's Boston Brewing is #1, and Grossman's Sierra Nevada is right behind him" Look at the 2011 numbers (displayed in the slideshow) -- Sierra Nevada is #2 at 858,000 barrels and Boston Beer Company is #1 at 2.44 million, almost 3 times the size of Sierra Nevada. The only reason that Boston Beer Company is even on this list anymore is that the rules of the Brewers Association were changed a year ago, increasing the "craft" limit from 2 million barrels to 6 million barrels. In other words, when the sales of Boston Beer Company were about to exceed the craft limit, the rules were changed to accommodate Jim Koch, allowing him to maintain his reputation as a small craft brewer.
Jim Koch: great salesman and decent brewer, but NOT a craft brewer and he should stop pretending to be.
Even our greatest heroes: feet of clay. Still these are all figures worthy of respect and credit. |
Story highlights Expiration dates on food aren't related to the risk of food poisoning or foodborne illness
Dates solely indicate freshness, and are used by manufacturers to convey when it's at its peak
Eggs, for example, can be consumed three to five weeks after purchase
Use-by dates are contributing to millions of pounds of wasted food each year.
A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic says Americans are prematurely throwing out food, largely because of confusion over what expiration dates actually mean.
Most consumers mistakenly believe that expiration dates on food indicate how safe the food is to consume, when these dates actually aren't related to the risk of food poisoning or foodborne illness.
Food dating emerged in the 1970s, prompted by consumer demand as Americans produced less of their own food but still demanded information about how it was made. The dates solely indicate freshness, and are used by manufacturers to convey when the product is at its peak. That means the food does not expire in the sense of becoming inedible.
For un-refrigerated foods, there may be no difference in taste or quality, and expired foods won't necessarily make people sick.
But according to the new analysis, words like "use by" and "sell by" are used so inconsistently that they contribute to widespread misinterpretation — and waste — by consumers. More than 90% of Americans throw out food prematurely, and 40% of the U.S. food supply is tossed--unused--every year because of food dating.
Eggs, for example, can be consumed three to five weeks after purchase, even though the "use by" date is much earlier. A box of mac-and-cheese stamped with a "use by" date of March 2013 can still be enjoyed on March 2014, most likely with no noticeable changes in quality.
"We are fine with there being quality or freshness dates as long as it is clearly communicated to consumers, and they are educated about what that means," says study co- author Emily Broad Leib, the director of Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic. "There should be a standard date and wording that is used. This is about quality, not safety. You can make your own decision about whether a food still has an edible quality that's acceptable to you."
Because food dating was never about public health, there is no national regulation over the use of the dates, although the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture technically have regulatory power over the misbranding of products. The only federally required and regulated food dating involves infant formula, since the nutrients in formula lose their potency as time goes on.
What regulation does exist occurs at the state level — and all but nine states in the United States have food dating rules but these vary widely.
"What's resulted from [the FDA letting states come up with regulation] is really a patchwork of all sorts of different rules for different products and regulations around them," says study co-author Dana Gunders, a staff scientist with the NRDC's food and agriculture program. "Sometimes a product needs a date, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes a product cannot be sold after a different date. Or there is no requirement at all. Even with different categories there is so much variability."
The result is a confused public — and tons of wasted food.
Correcting these entrenched misconceptions, however, won't be easy. The report authors say the re-education could start with a clearer understanding of what the dates mean.
"Use by" and "Best by": These dates are intended for consumer use, but are typically the date the manufacturer deems the product reaches peak freshness. It's not a date to indicate spoilage, nor does it necessarily signal that the food is no longer safe to eat.
"Sell by": This date is only intended to help manufacturers and retailers, not consumers. It's a stocking and marketing tool provided by food makers to ensure proper turnover of the products in the store so they still have a long shelf life after consumers buy them. Consumers, however, are misinterpreting it as a date to guide their buying decisions. The report authors say that "sell by" dates should be made invisible to the consumer.
Jena Roberts, vice president for business development at the food testing firm, National Food Lab, studies "shelf-stable" properties of foods to help manufacturers determine what date indicates when their products are at their best.
"The food has to be safe, that's a given," says Roberts. "[The manufacturers] want to make sure the consumer eats and tastes a high quality product."
But she acknowledges that even if the food is consumed after its ideal quality date, it's not harmful. A strawberry-flavored beverage may lose its red color, the oats in a granola bar may lose its crunch, or the chocolate clusters in a cereal may start to 'bloom' and turn white. While it may not look appetizing, the food is still safe to eat.
"It's a confusing subject, the difference between food quality and food safety. Even in the food industry I have colleagues who are not microbiologists who get confused," she says.
The report authors aren't against food date labeling. The system was created to provide more information to consumers, but it's important that people know how to use that data.
"The interest is still there on the part of the consumers, but we want this to be clearly communicated so consumers are not misinterpreting the data and contributing to a bunch of waste," says Gunders.
While the food industry could make changes to date labels voluntarily — such as having the dates read when food is most likely to spoil — the study authors also call for legislation by Congress to develop national standards that would standardize a single set of dating requirements.
Such standards may already be in the works; following the release of the report, Congresswoman Nita Lowey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee and author of the Freshness Disclosure Act says she will be reintroducing legislation to Congress that calls for establishing a consistent food dating system in the United States.
"I look forward to reintroducing this legislation this Congress and working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fix this glaring gap in our nation's food safety laws so that American consumers have the information they need," Lowey said in a statement.
You can read the full report and recommendations, here
In the meantime, for tips on what expiration dates really mean, see our examples, here |
Women who play as over-sexualized female characters in games are more likely to objectify themselves and participate in rape myth acceptance, according to a recent Stanford study published Oct. 11 in Computers and Behavior.
Researchers used 86 female participants between the ages of 18 and 41. Women played as an avatar dressed in either revealing or conservative clothing; some avatars were also modified to look like their player.
Participants were then asked to respond to questions on a five-point scale about their avatar's appearance, resemblance and more. When asked questions such as "In the majority of rapes, the victim is promiscuous or has a bad reputation," researchers found that women who played as sexualized versions of themselves were more likely to "agree" or "strongly agree" than those who played non-sexualized avatars.
Following play time as sexualized avatars, participants asked for write-ups were also more likely to self-objectify themselves in their answers.
According to the study, findings were in line with the Proteus effect — a phenomenon where people act more in-line with an online avatar. The full study is available through Stanford. |
He added: “They’re going to come in, and they’re going to tell me what they want to do. They’re going to tell me how much it costs, and I’m going to say yes — assuming it doesn’t bankrupt the company. I don’t think they’ll come in with a bankrupt-the-company scenario, but I’ve told them that I’m willing to spend. We need a championship here.”
The courtship began three months ago, according to Mr. Dolan’s and Mr. Azoff’s accounting. After years of watching his wife organize a party for friends that she called “Just Us Girls,” Mr. Azoff wanted to throw one of his own. So he invited about 150 of his male friends to his home in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, including actors (Larry David), television executives (Les Moonves) and musicians (at least three members of the Eagles). Also on the guest list: Mr. Jackson and Mr. Dolan.
Mr. Azoff said that his wife, Shelli, and the actress Chelsea Handler were the only women who attended.
Mr. Dolan knew that Mr. Jackson would be there. He said they had met only once, last year at the 4oth anniversary celebration of the Knicks’ last N.B.A. title at the Garden. (When the team previously pursued Mr. Jackson for its head-coaching position, the front-office executives Dave Checketts and Isiah Thomas were the envoys from the Knicks who gauged his interest, Mr. Dolan said.)
At Mr. Azoff’s party, Mr. Dolan sought out Mr. Jackson. The Knicks were plummeting to the depths of the Eastern Conference, struggles that had caught Mr. Dolan by surprise, he said. The team was coming off a 54-win season, after all. But whatever chemistry that had kept that unit together was failing amid a flurry of injuries and late-game blunders.
Mr. Dolan, 58, and Mr. Jackson, 68, retreated to a small downstairs office, away from the other partygoers. Mr. Dolan asked Mr. Jackson if he was interested in coaching. Mr. Jackson told him that he was not.
“I kind of knew from Irving that it wasn’t on the table,” Mr. Dolan said. “But you have to ask. And so I did.” |
(NaturalNews) As the debate over health care reform remains stalled in Congress, many U.S. residents are taking matters into their own hands by simply driving to Mexico for affordable care and prescriptions."I'm very lucky to live near enough to Mexico to get good healthcare at a reasonable price," said retired police officer Bob Ritz, who lives in Tombstone, Ariz. Although Ritz does have insurance, many of his medical costs are simply not covered, or the co-pays and deductibles are so high that he cannot afford them on his fixed income."I pay $400 a month for my health insurance, and it's still cheaper to come to Mexico," he said.In contrast to Ritz, approximately 46 million U.S. residents live without any medical insurance at all.According to a study by the University of California-Los Angeles' Center for Health Policy Research, roughly one million people go to Mexico for dental or medical care or prescriptions every year from California alone.The primary difference between Mexican and U.S. health care is the cost -- with many U.S. doctors having trained at Mexican medical schools and vice versa, and similar hygienic standards in place. Responding to the influx of people from the U.S. seeking affordable care, clinics in Mexican border towns now offer everything from regular dental care to cosmetic and weight-loss surgeries or other major procedures like hysterectomies.In Naco, Mexico, Dr. Sixto de la Pena Cortes charges roughly $20 for a standard checkup. He says he gets about 15 patients from the United States every week. The most common complaints that he treats are "bronchitis, pneumonia and stomach problems," he said, but he has also treated broken bones. Once, he referred a patient to a hospital for an appendix removal operation that cost $2,000."I waste up to four hours coming to an appointment, but it's worth it as we'll save thousands of dollars," said Beatriz Iturriaga of Eastlake, California, who paid $6,500 for bariatric surgery in Tijuana.A typical bariatric surgery in the United States costs as much as $40,000.Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking of Hurricane Katrina, it is the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, as well. Well, even though Hurricane Irene prompted a series of extraordinary measures in New York City—a complete shutdown of the transit system and mass evacuations on an unprecedented scale—officials did not take any steps to evacuate some 12,000 prisoners held in the city jail on Rikers Island.
Many residents used the city’s color-coded map to determine whether they lived in an evacuation zone. While Rikers Island was surrounded by areas where evacuation was either mandatory or recommended, the island itself was left, indicating—was left white, indicating there was no plan for it to be evacuated.
According to the New York City Department of Corrections website, more than three-quarters of Rikers Island’s 400 acres are built on landfill, which is generally thought to be more vulnerable to natural disasters.
During one of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s many news conferences this weekend, a reporter asked him why the prisoners weren’t being evacuated. This is the Mayor.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: There’s no reason to evacuate Rikers Island. It is higher than the Zone A areas, and it’s perfectly safe.
AMY GOODMAN: But human rights organizations condemned the city’s decision, with Vince Warren, the director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, saying it’s, quote, “appalling” and that the lives of prisoners were no less valuable than those of other New Yorkers.
Well, today does mark the sixth anniversary of another massive storm and decision not to evacuate prisoners. It was August 29th, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina led to the flooding of New Orleans, the nation’s 35th largest city. During and after that hurricane, prisoners in city and parish jails were also not evacuated, left to fend for themselves. Many died as a result.
To talk more about the prisoners in New York and New Orleans, we go to Washington, D.C., to speak with Jim Ridgeway, a journalist for Mother Jones magazine and founder and co-editor of Solitary Watch, a website that tracks solitary confinement and torture in American prisons.
Jim Ridgeway, we welcome you to Democracy Now! Talk about what the Mayor said, how he justified not evacuating the prisoners at the city jails located on Rikers Island.
JAMES RIDGEWAY: Well, in the first place, Amy, I don’t really see what whether it’s built on landfill or not has to do with this. It’s a moral issue. I mean, a lot of the people at Rikers Island are juveniles. There are other—a lot more are mentally ill. There are a lot of people there who are awaiting trial and who are innocent. There are people there who can’t make bail. So, you know, it’s the whole idea, that it’s like total insanity. Why wouldn’t you have a plan to get these people out, get everybody out of that place, in the midst of an emergency? I mean, here is this island. It sits up there in the East River. It’s exposed both to the east and to the west. And all New York did, and all the country did, was talk about storm surges. So, you know, who knows how high a storm surge might have come or might not have come?
But knowing what we know about Katrina and these guys left in cells, I mean, you realize that in Katrina prisoners were waist-high—the water was waist-high around them, you know, filthy water, you know, a lot of dirt and feces and so forth in it, and the guards just took a hike. They fled. Well, so they were left, essentially, to die in cages, in iron cages.
Well, in this particular instance, in Rikers, fortunately nothing happened. But it’s not just the people in the prison. I mean, there are thousands of people who work there. And one would think that the unions representing the guards, the corrections officials, would be up in arms about this, and the families of the corrections officials. I mean, what’s the deal here? Are they going to be just left there, too? I mean, they’ve got 12,000 prisoners, plus I don’t how many thousand corrections officers. It’s a moral issue for the City of New York.
AMY GOODMAN: What is being done about this right now? I mean, now the hurricane has passed. Even the low-lying areas were not hit in New York the way it was expected. Other areas severely affected, you know, up in Vermont, etc. Are you calling on the city to have a plan now?
JAMES RIDGEWAY: Well, yes, the city ought to have a plan, but you would think that the city council would be up in arms, that the members of Congress. I mean, these jails and prisons are often financed both by the state and by the federal government through various programs. I mean, where are the senators? Where are the congressmen? I mean, there ought to be some kind of oversight. There surely ought to be a plan, and not just some sort of paper, you know, go-to plan, but a real plan.
Now, New York State has a very unusual situation, because there’s something there called the Correctional Association. That association has the right to go into prisons. It’s very much unlike other states. And so, I don’t know whether they’ve done a report, but you would certainly think that they would immediately heave to and do a report on what’s going on there. I mean, I don’t see why this prison should operate if it doesn’t have an evacuation plan for emergencies. I mean, what are you going to do with 16-year-old kids or people who are mentally ill? I mean, you just going to let them die in an emergency there? I think the Mayor’s response is ridiculous.
AMY GOODMAN: Looking at other cities and states, North Carolina, for example, evacuated over 1,300 prisoners before Irene struck, New Jersey, 500 prisoners, Jim Ridgeway.
JAMES RIDGEWAY: Well, yeah. I mean, some places, I mean, have learned or reinforced their concepts as a result of Katrina. I mean, Katrina was a wake-up call, or ought to have been. I mean, the ACLU put out this really excellent report describing all this. And you would think that federal, state, local officials would be aware of this aspect of a hurricane or a tornado or other natural disasters.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jim Ridgeway, I want to thank you very much. We’re going to link to the ACLU report, as well as yours. Jim Ridgeway reports for Mother Jones magazine and is co-editor of Solitary Watch, a website that tracks solitary confinement in American prisons. |
Gagne, 41, will pitch for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic this month after serving as the pitching coach for France in 2013. Gagne will continue training by throwing bullpen sessions when he's not working with Dodgers pitchers.
PHOENIX -- Former Cy Young Award winner Eric Gagne is serving as a guest pitching instructor for the Dodgers this week, but he's also been on the mound with a comeback under consideration.
PHOENIX -- Former Cy Young Award winner Eric Gagne is serving as a guest pitching instructor for the Dodgers this week, but he's also been on the mound with a comeback under consideration.
Gagne, 41, will pitch for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic this month after serving as the pitching coach for France in 2013. Gagne will continue training by throwing bullpen sessions when he's not working with Dodgers pitchers.
• Spring Training: Information | Tickets | Schedule | Gear
But the Scottsdale resident also has had throwing sessions with the Padres and D-backs. He hasn't pitched in the Major Leagues since 2008 with Boston and hasn't been in a camp as a player since 2010 with the Dodgers. That's when Gagne asked for his release after being assigned to Minor League camp as he showed the effects of two elbow operations, back surgery and shoulder problems.
Gagne said his fastball has climbed into the 90s and the changeup that made hitters look so foolish is back as well.
"I feel great. It's almost scary," he said.
Gagne won his Cy Young Award with the Dodgers in 2003 when he saved 55 games.
Ken Gurnick has covered the Dodgers since 1989, and for MLB.com since 2001. |
by @thoughtontracks
I’m a proud early supporter of suburban Chicago punks The Orwells. The band’s debut* LP, Remember When, hit on all of my guilty pleasures and was on of my favorite albums from 2012. Debut comes with an asterisk the band mentions two prior LPs that they released independently as freshmen and sophomores in high school. The Orwells will release a new EP called Other Voices on June 30. The release is currently available for streaming via Pitchfork Advance.
The group recently dropped by Chicago Public Radio’s Studio 10 for an hour-long segment featuring interviews and live performances. The music alone is worth the price of admission (free). However, during the interview segment The Orwells speak candidly about borrowing from The Stooges’ self-titled LP and getting banned from playing their hometown’s York High School for covering Velvet Underground’s “Heroin” at a fundraiser. Not to be missed. Listen and download the performance, in its entirety, below. Pre-order your copy of Other Voices from UK label National Anthem.
Connect with The Orwells via Facebook | Twitter
Written by Rob Peoni |
Political Landscape Turning Bleak for Stephen Harper
[Ottawa – August 10, 2014] As part of a pretty comprehensive diagnostic poll on a range of current issues, we have conducted an update of the political landscape in Canada. There is nothing particularly remarkable about these results, but put in context with the overall time series which precedes it, and some of the other more probing questions we will be releasing later, this poll really does not augur well for the Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party.
This poll does, however, reinforce the notion that the now profound lead enjoyed by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party is far from a blip. Whether it is the putative gaffes around Abortion rights policy, or the attempts to portray Justin Trudeau as a sorcerer’s apprentice who will unleash Reefer Madness on playgrounds throughout Canada, there is little evidence that this is having any discernable impact on a voting public who seem increasingly weary with the current regime. The ballyhooed Big Shift of a few years ago seems not only to be indiscernible, all of the collective evidence is pointing in the opposite direction. It appears that the Canadian public are now moving to the centre and left and this may arguably be a response to increasing fatigue to being governed from the right when Canadians are actually moving in a more progressive direction.
We will explore these themes, along with the much debated role of the middle class and new forms of inequality in subsequent releases, but these deeper currents and forces must be considered in explaining what appears to be a new political normal emerging in Canada. Far from the apparent ascendance of the Conservatives as the new natural governing party, their reign appears to be closing and the recent surprising (not to us we note ) election of majority Liberal governments in Canada’s two largest provinces, may well be a harbinger of the end of the period of conservative political dominance in Canada.
Obviously, we aren’t making any predictions about the results of the next federal election. The Conservatives will have cash in reserve and a balanced budget. They will also have the profound advantage of the political arithmetic of a fractured centre left arrayed across four party choices, three of which are led by neophyte leaders, versus a consolidated Conservative Party supported by a seasoned and effective political machine. Yet the evidence suggests the likelihood of another Conservative majority is increasingly obscure, even at this early date.
Vote Intention: Huge Changes since 2011
What a difference three years and a new leader make. The erstwhile hapless Liberal Party of Canada has gone form a dismal 18.9 points in the last election to a muscular 38.7. The very surprising Conservative majority with an impressive 39.6 per cent of the vote has collapsed into a meagre 25.6 per cent with the NDP within the margin of error at 23.4 per cent. The more obvious question now isn’t whether the Conservatives can repeat its stunning majority triumph of 2011; it may be whether it can even hold onto opposition leader status.
While Thomas Mulcair and the NDP may not be pleased with these numbers, they have some reasons for optimism. Mulcair has a lead in Quebec and enjoys the highest approval rating of any of the party leaders (see discussion below). It is also notable that Mulcair’s relative position is much stronger today than was Jack Layton’s in the lead up the shocking advance that they made in the 41st federal election.
The trend lines are more daunting for the Conservatives. It may well be unprecedented to see a Liberal or Conservative party more than double its support over a similar time period. It is also clear that the Liberal rise which seems to once again be moving upward is not a blip, but a solid trend. Equally clear is that the Conservative trend is a real and disturbing fall from grace which shows little sign of recovering to the 2011 results.
The public view on the next election mirrors the evidence we have just reviewed on trends and current numbers. By a clear margin of 44 to 27, the public sees a Liberal – not Conservative – government succeeding in 2015. Of those who see a Liberal government, however, the clear lean is to see a minority rather than majority. Notably, only 12 per cent of the public see another Conservative majority in the cards, compared to the 18 per cent who see a Liberal majority.
Mulcair and Harper at Opposite Ends of Approval Spectrum
This month, we updated our approval numbers for Canada’s party leaders. As noted earlier, Thomas Mulcair enjoys the highest approval rating of any of the three party major leaders (54 per cent). More importantly, his popularity seems to transcend party lines and he enjoys high approval ratings everywhere outside of the Conservative base. Justin Trudeau benefits from similarly high approval numbers (49 per cent), although his disapproval rating is noticeably higher (34 per cent, compared to 25 per cent for Mr. Mulcair).
Stephen Harper, in contrast, is the least popular of any of the seven leaders we tested. Indeed, by a margin of more than two-to-one (65 per cent to 29 per cent), Canadians disapprove of the way Mr. Harper is handling his job. Even Alberta – a long-standing Conservative stronghold – is divided, with as many respondents leaning towards disapproval as approval. Nevertheless, he remains remarkably popular with Conservatives and enjoys the highest in-party approval rating of any of the federal party leaders so it is highly unlikely that his party will be giving him the boot anytime in the near future.
We also included the Premiers of Canada’s three largest provinces in our approval testing. At the front end of the spectrum is Kathleen Wynne who garners the approval of 52 per cent of Ontarians, a marked improvement from the later years of McGuinty’s reign, when the plurality of Ontarians disapproved of their Premier.
Philippe Couillard enjoys similar approval numbers in Quebec (48 per cent) and has yet to make any enemies, with a disapproval rating of just 27 per cent. Nevertheless, a sizeable number of Quebec residents – 25 per cent – still aren’t sure what to make of him. Christly Clark, meanwhile, receives approval from less than one-third of her constituents (31 per cent), with a clear majority (62 per cent) expressing disapproval.
Finally, we included Barack Obama who, as usual, outranks any of the Canadian leaders tested. He does well with Canadians across all ages and regions, although his popularity is notably lower in Alberta, perhaps a reflection of his persistent unwillingness to make a decision regarding the Keystone Pipeline system.
So Should Stephen Harper Stay or Go?
We haven’t had much good news for Stephen Harper in this poll but he might take some comfort that there is no clear desire to see him resign before the next election. The public are highly divided, although a very slim majority favours an early exit. Not surprisingly, enthusiasm for his staying is largely restricted to the shrunken Conservative base (only nine per cent think he should go which should cool the ambitions of any pretenders to this throne initiating a push).
Nevertheless, a sizable group of non-Conservative supporters want Harper to stay. This finding is surprising as they certainly don’t give him those kinds of approval numbers outside of the Conservative base. Whether it is respect for due process or some sense that he has become an asset to progressive fortunes is unclear.
Direction of Country/Government
Methodology
This study was conducted using EKOS’ unique, hybrid online/telephone research panel, Probit. Our panel offers exhaustive coverage of the Canadian population (i.e., Internet, phone, cell phone), random recruitment (in other words, participants are recruited randomly, they do not opt themselves into our panel), and equal probability sampling. All respondents to our panel are recruited by telephone using random digit dialling and are confirmed by live interviewers. Unlike opt-in online panels, Probit supports margin of error estimates. We believe this to be the only probability-based online panel in Canada.
The field dates for this survey are July 16-23, 2014. In total, 2,620 Canadians aged 18 and over responded to the survey. Of these cases, 2,448 were collected online, while 172 were collected by computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI). The margin of error associated with the total sample is +/-1.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Please note that the margin of error increases when the results are sub-divided (i.e., error margins for sub-groups such as region, sex, age, education). All the data have been statistically weighted to ensure the sample’s composition reflects that of the actual population of Canada according to Census data.
Click here for the full report: Full Report (August 10, 2014)
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Proposed amendments to the UK's Digital Economy Bill have revealed a desire by some MPs to force search engines to tackle piracy. A new clause would require search engines to come to a voluntary arrangement with rightsholders, or face being forced into one by the government.
Content owners regularly accuse companies such as Google and Bing of including infringing content in their search results, often on the initial pages following a search where exposure to the public is greatest.
In addition to having these ‘pirate’ results demoted or removed entirely, content providers believe that results featuring genuine content should receive priority, to ensure that the legitimate market thrives.
At least in part, Google has complied with industry requests. Sites which receive the most takedown notices are demoted in results, while some legitimate content has been appearing higher. But of course, entertainment industry companies want more – and they might just get it.
Currently under discussion in Parliament is the Digital Economy Bill. It’s been covered here on several occasions (1,2,3) due to a key aim of harmonizing the punishments for on-and-offline infringement.
However, the Bill appears to be broadening in scope and the role of search engines is now on the agenda, something which the BPI hinted at last week in comments to TorrentFreak.
A new clause titled “Power to provide for a code of practice related to copyright infringement” envisions a situation whereby search engines come to a voluntary agreement with rightsholders on how best to tackle piracy, or have one forced upon them.
“The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for a search engine to be required to adopt a code of practice concerning copyright infringement that complies with criteria specified in the regulations,” the proposed clause reads.
“The regulations may provide that if a search engine fails to adopt such a code of practice, any code of practice that is approved for the purposes of that search engine by the Secretary of State, or by a person designated by the Secretary of State, has effect as a code of practice adopted by the search engine.”
If the clause was adopted, the Secretary of State would also be granted powers to investigate disputes surrounding a search engine’s compliance with any code, appoint a regulator, and/or impose “financial penalties or other sanctions” if companies like Google fall short.
The Conservative government previously made a manifesto commitment to reduce copyright infringement and several MPs believe that this clause would help it to achieve that aim.
Speaking in Parliament this week, Labour MP Kevin Brennan said that Baroness Neville-Rolfe, the Minister for Intellectual Property, had chaired a series of roundtable discussions and meetings between rights holders and search engines including Google, Bing and Yahoo.
The rights holders proposed a voluntary code of practice, with some interesting parameters for the search engines to live up to.
“The guiding principles for the voluntary code of conduct would have been that in the top three results, fewer than 1% link to illegal sites; in the top 10, fewer than 5%; and in the top 20, fewer than 10%,” Brennan explained.
“Achieving these objectives would improve the quality of search results and resolve disadvantages that limit the visibility of legitimate sites on which consumers can buy or stream copyrighted works.”
However, it appears that the search engines in question aren’t particularly enthusiastic about the role they’re being asked to play.
“In essence, rights holders want search engines to do what ISPs already do — work co-operatively to take action against sites that have been identified by the High Court as pirate sites — but despite numerous efforts, search engines will not co-operate or agree to the code of practice,” Brennan said.
“They continue to take little responsibility for the fact that listings can overwhelmingly consist of illegal content—the equivalent of the ‘Yellow Pages’ refusing to take responsibility for publishing the details of crooked traders and fraudsters.”
Introducing the new clause (which grants the Secretary of State power to fine search engines) could help the search engines to become more compliant, Brennan said.
“Given the difficulties in negotiations, the new clause would provide a legal backstop to prevent search engines from refusing point-blank to co-operate in discussions. While the code of practice remains a voluntary dream, search engines can refuse to collaborate, as they have for many years.”
Concluding, Brennan indicated that given the Digital Economy Bill is in front of MPs, there is no better time to introduce such a clause. However, Minister for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock urged patience.
“I care about the substance of getting this Bill through right. There are, of course, important parts of parliamentary process both here and in the [House of Lords],” Hancock said.
“Given that the round table discussions are ongoing, including a meeting next week, now is not the right time for the broad reserve power.”
The debates continue. |
This afternoon, I drove out to Bald Eagle SP to do some birding after the storms had moved through the region. A few groups of Ruddy Ducks, 4 Ring-necked Ducks, 6 Double-crested Cormorants, and 2 Common Loons were the only waterfowl I could find on the lake, but many areas I stopped at had lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers and various sparrows fluttering around. I planned to then head west towards Curtin Wetlands and Julian Wetlands to look for a Nelson’s Sparrow….a species I have been trying really hard to find in Centre County this year. However, since I was at the very east end of the state park I decided to jump over into Clinton County and check out Mill Hall Wetlands quickly.
Once I got to Mill Hall (checklist), it was clear that there was a lot of bird activity around the three ponds. Multiple species of sparrows (although mostly Swamp) were climbing around through all the brush, as well as Yellow-rumped Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, and both subspecies of Palm Warblers. I was also able to find a few late warblers, including 1 Magnolia and 1 Nashville. A somewhat cooperative flock of 20 Rusty Blackbirds were foraging in a hedgerow along the north pond, so I quickly sat down in the brush hoping they could come close. After a while, one curious female Rusty made her way over near me but never gave me a chance for a photo of her without a branch or two in the way.
Once I had made my way around to the southeast side of the north pond, I climbed up onto the dike and almost immediately a sparrow flushed up onto some cattails. The bird’s orange and blue head immediately gave it away as a Nelson’s, and I swung my camera up to grab a photo. A few seconds later the sparrow dropped down and out of view. I sent out a quick text alert to the SCRBA and then tried to re-find the bird for better photos.
I crept in closer and was able to quickly find the bird again, as it slowly foraged through the vegetation at the edge of the pond. For the next 3 minutes or so, I worked hard to get clear angles on the bird for a mostly un-obscured photo but it was difficult as the bird was so active. Luckily, the bright orange color on the bird’s head made it somewhat easy to keep track of as it moved around. The bird seemed to completely ignore that I was within 10 feet of it! A great way to get a new state bird!…#310 for me!
Nelson’s Sparrow (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux) Nelson’s Sparrow (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux) Nelson’s Sparrow (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux) Nelson’s Sparrow (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux) Nelson’s Sparrow (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
Nelson’s Sparrows are rarely-found migrants through Pennsylvania, with specific habitat requirements and secretive habits. This bird that I found actually represents the first record for Clinton County, and one of only a handful of records for central Pennsylvania. The Nelson’s Sparrow, specifically the ‘interior’ subspecies, nests in the central plains states and then migrates to the east coast’s saltmarshes for the winter. During migration, they search for marshy areas especially wetlands and wet fields with tall, weedy vegetation. The ‘interior’ subspecies can be told from the ‘Atlantic’ subspecies by the double white stripes running down the bird’s back, the rich orange facial markings, as well as the more defined streaks on its breast. Nelson’s Sparrows in general can be separated from the similar (and previously conspecific) Saltmarsh Sparrow by their buffy-orange breasts and thicker breast streaks although Saltmarsh Sparrow is much more uncommon in the state. The traditional spot for finding Nelson’s Sparrows in Pennsylvania is at the Bainbridge Islands on the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County. Just recently, Mike Epler and a few other birders found a whopping 9 Nelson’s there! |
This week Robert Kirkman announced in a letter to his fans that after 13 years we’re ending our beloved superhero comic INVINCIBLE. The news came as a shock to almost everyone, though fans should take solace in the fact the series still has a YEAR left to wrap up. However comforting that may be, it didn’t stop our amazing fans from expressing their dismay at the end of one of their favorite comics. To honor the passion fan’s have for Invincible, we compiled the best Twitter reactions to the news:
Fan Reactions
Some Fans Were Super Bummed
@Skybound @RobertKirkman @RyanOttley Nooooo!!!! Haven’t been this bummed since Watterson ended Calvin and Hobbes. Thanks for the great ride! — Tom Lee (@NoDrummerBoy) August 18, 2016
How ironic is it that the night I start #invincible @Skybound announces that the series is ending… -__- pic.twitter.com/EPEd1Grf6d — Akasan (@akasan) August 18, 2016
@Skybound sad to hear its ending, but like all great things, right? Just hoping for a great ending that befits it. #dontsopranosit — Jared Bosak (@Scromtar) August 18, 2016
@Skybound Invincible is my favorite comic series and I will be sad to see it end. I’m glad we will have closure to this series though. — Spicy Boy (@VVipeout) August 18, 2016
Bummed that Invincible is coming to an end but I’ve always said that one of the big appeals for me was that it WOULD one day end. — Tony Polanco (@Romudeth) August 18, 2016
@Skybound @RobertKirkman Sad to see such a great book go but better to go on your own terms and still while this book tops art/storywise.. — Jose Nieves (@SNOWMN71) August 17, 2016
Invincible is ending next year. Lmao how about my life just end WITH ALL THE THINGS I LOVE. — ABSLYMPICS (@PUNCHDRUNKFU) August 18, 2016
@Hectorisfunny please tell me you are just as depressed as the rest of us that Invincible by @RobertKirkman is coming to an end — Tom Sawyer (@Darge718) August 18, 2016
Other Fans Resorted to Gifs
Some Skybounders Weighed In
My heart breaks once again because of #Invincible Hands down the best comic in the universe. https://t.co/j2e08m1r7I — Shawn Kirkham (@BigClutch) August 17, 2016
Almost got a little misty reading the outpouring of support from fans. It’s gonna be crazy year for INVINCIBLE. https://t.co/UDWxedD0kC — Brian Huntington (@NotZombies) August 17, 2016
But Most Fans Were Just Grateful
Just thinking about Invincible finally coming to an end and, man, the first volume of the hardback collections was a MAJOR influence on me. — John Cullen (@nellucnhoj) August 18, 2016
One of my favorite titles to end, but it will end in the best, most natural way possible. I LOVE INVINCIBLE. https://t.co/XBuuo1tG4M — Leila, Boston D701 (@leiladelduca) August 17, 2016
@Skybound @RobertKirkman Has it been this long already? Thank you for your dedication. Invincible is and will always be my fav superhero. — Padawan Julie (@veganium) August 18, 2016
I still can’t believe that #invincible is coming to an end. Of all the books I’ve read, it may be the best. — Edgar Blackmon (@edgarblackmon) August 18, 2016
@Skybound @RobertKirkman Robert. Thank u for this great book! I will miss it but look forward to what’s to come! Love your writing! Thx! — Mr. Bloom (@ChrisChicarello) August 17, 2016
@Skybound INVINCIBLE is the best superhero comic i’ve ever had the privilege of reading, been an AMAZING journey & i’m sad to see it ending! — Ayed oukhay (@AyedOukhay) August 18, 2016
@Skybound Invincible has been the best 100+ issue run of a superhero comic since Stan Lee on Amazing Spider-Man. So sad to see it go! — Radio Shock (@radioshock) August 18, 2016
@TheWalkingDead @RobertKirkman Goodbye #Invincible … It was a wonderful and great time. We will miss you! — Miss Deee (@Hanny_Nanny) August 17, 2016
@Skybound @RyanOttley @RobertKirkman I wouldn’t be a comic book artist w/out this book, thanks for the run and the inspiration — Alex Cormack BCCD230 (@AlexCormack4) August 17, 2016
I prefer stories that end, so this is great news. https://t.co/AxiEeTqqg6 — Fabian Rangel Jr (@FabianRangelJr) August 18, 2016
@Skybound It’s been incredible, loved it enough to name my sons after characters in the book. Can’t wait to see how it ends. — Robert Swathwood (@slycomics) August 18, 2016
@Skybound Sad, but thrilled at the same time for what’s to come. This doesn’t mean past issues will disappear, he is Invincible after all. — TheInvinciblePodcast (@InvincibleCast) August 18, 2016
Sad to see Invincible go, but I’ve loved every second of the ride. Thank you, @RobertKirkman and @RyanOttley. https://t.co/eUa8RPqmtX — Greg Miller (@GameOverGreggy) August 17, 2016
…Including Comic Creators
“Birthright” Writer Josh Williamson:
Bummed to hear about the end of Invincible, one of my favorite comics, but excited for @RobertKirkman & @RyanOttley ending it their way. — Joshua Williamson (@Williamson_Josh) August 17, 2016
When I first started pitching Image, all publishers really, I obsessed over @RobertKirkman‘s pitch for Invincible in the first hardcover. — Joshua Williamson (@Williamson_Josh) August 17, 2016
“Saga” Artist Fiona Staples
13 years and well over 100 issues! @RyanOttley is the strongest and most dedicated artist in comics. I’m in awe. https://t.co/Nglp91BunY — Fiona Staples (@fionastaples) August 17, 2016
“Chew” Artist Jon Layman
Probably should have said this yesterday, but let me add to outpouring of love for Invincible, and the fact that @RyanOttley is a god. — Layman (@themightylayman) August 18, 2016
More than once, in script notes to @Rob_guillory, during particularly bloody fights, I urged him to “go full Ottley.” (@RyanOttley) — Layman (@themightylayman) August 18, 2016
“Savage Dragon” Creator Erik Larsen
Invincible is ending? Oh, no! Say it ain’t so! https://t.co/Za62M5JMlN — Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) August 17, 2016
“Outcast” Artist Paul Azaceta
Congrats to @RobertKirkman @corenthal & @RyanOttley for a tremendous run on a creator owned book. It’s not everyday you can do 100+ issues. — Paul Azaceta (@paulazaceta) August 17, 2016
“Glitterbomb Wayward” Writer Jim Zub
And every @Marvel+@DCComics editor just sat straight up, realizing @RyanOttley, one of the best modern artists, will be available in 2018… — Jim Zub (@JimZub) August 17, 2016
“Revival” Artist Mike Norton
2017
Me: Revival’s over! What’s next?
Comics: You didn’t hear? @RyanOttley’s drawing all comics now. Based on a nightmare I had last night — Mike Norton (@themikenorton) August 18, 2016
And last but not least…”Invincible” Artist Ryan Ottley
Awesome to get all the well wishes and messages from you all! We still have a while to go though, awesome things coming! #invincible — RYAN OTTLEY (@RyanOttley) August 17, 2016
You people are too nice to me. Someone say something mean to me, quick! — RYAN OTTLEY (@RyanOttley) August 18, 2016
How did YOU feel about the announcement? Tell us in the comments below and THANK YOU for being an Invincible fan! |
London for $639? Yes, British Airways is having a 'Brexit' fare sale
Is British Airways having a "Brexit" fare sale?
That's the vibe from the carrier’s in-progress three-day fare sale to London. British Airways is courting American customers by saying: “Your dollar has never gone further, and with our amazing 3 day sale you can see even more of London! “
As for the details, economy fares are available for as little as $639 round-trip from New York. Fares are slightly higher from “select” other BA gateways in the USA, including Baltimore, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington Dulles, among others.
Your dollar has never gone further, and with our amazing 3 day sale you can see even more of London! https://t.co/yaaJ808kVW — British Airways (@British_Airways) June 27, 2016
This screenshot of British Airways' website - taken June 28, 2016 - shows a round-trip sale fare of $678 from Chicago to London. (Photo: British Airways)
The sale ends Wednesday (June 29) and covers travel for “midweek” flights from Aug. 23 through Dec. 14 and from Jan. 9 through May 31. BA says “a weekend surcharge of up to $50 in each direction applies” for itineraries involving weekend flights.
A minimum stay of 7 days is required to get the lowest fares. And BA notes sale fares are “open to U.S. residents paying in dollars only, with travel originating in the U.S.” The full fine print for the sale is available on BA’s website.
Regardless of the details, commenters weighed in on BA’s apparent Brexit sale via social media.
Some reacted enthusiastically to the sale. But, underscoring the rancor that developed in the debate over whether to leave the EU, others said the sale was "in poor taste."
“Too soon,” said one Twitter user.
“how greedy of you to quickly use your countries economic troubles for your own gain,” wrote another.
TWITTER: You can follow me at twitter.com/TodayInTheSky
@British_Airways how greedy of you to quickly use your countries economic troubles for your own gain. #businessisbusiness — She And Me (@SheAndMe8) June 28, 2016
@British_Airways This feels in poor taste. — Danielle Therriault (@Satiricd) June 28, 2016
British Airways planes at Heathrow Airport on Aug. 11, 2005. (Photo: John D McHugh, AFP/Getty Images)
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This article was originally published in The YU Observer.
It was a recent Friday night in the Heights when, in the middle of a neutral conversation, someone suddenly slipped a derogatory aside about the ultra-Orthodox. I was sitting across from her at the Shabbat table, involved in the stimulating discussion until this point. Immediately, a round of giggles and titters rippled from the other members of the group. I, meanwhile, cringed.
It doesn’t matter what the off-taste comment in question was. Unfortunately, by now I’ve heard too many disapproving remarks and critical mutterings about the haredi community to count, and not just from my fellow peers and acquaintances. Once, at a YU event, a very prominent speaker made a negative joke about how Yeshivish teens marry so early. The satirical comment confused me. Would he be as critical of people who get married later in their 30s? Or those who decide never to marry at all? Just because people choose different paths than ours—whether these decisions are further to the right or to the left—who are we to judge?
Many of my fellow college students are quick to voice their acceptance of their LGBT friends, but they turn up their noses and frown slightly when they speak of a Hasid. They dare not find anything offensive about couples who have one child, but will roll their eyes and smirk silently when they see a family of eleven at an amusement park. They laugh agreeably and talk freely in the presence of those who throw out curse words, or admire those who converse in professional jargon, but will poke fun at those who use Yeshivish lingo. They will be the first to volunteer in soup kitchens, drop coins into the outstretched palms of subway musicians, or romanticize the ascetic lives of Bohemian artists, but will grumble (or declare loudly) about the need for Kollel bachurim to “get a job.”
Why are we hesitant to pronounce judgment on those so incredibly different than us, but cannot do the same for our own? We are oh-so-ready to sympathetically stand behind so many diverse cultures and causes of mankind, yet this same respectful acceptance somehow disappears when it comes to the ultra-Orthodox.
Why the intolerance? Why the negativity? And, though one may offer several theories, the ultimate question is: how to cure this seeming imbalance of acceptance?
I am not arguing for a less tolerant attitude to those less observant. It is not my place to judge those who choose to maintain a less rigidly religious lifestyle. But it also is not my place, or our place, to judge those who choose to maintain a more stringent practice, either.
I have friends who are completely unaffiliated with Judaism, and that’s okay. I have relatives who are more laid back in traditional observance—not a problem.
But I also have friends who wear thick stockings every day, and pleated skirts that hit mid-calf, and who pin back their long-sleeved blouses to ensure their collarbones are hidden—and that’s okay, too. One of my best friends married a 22-year-old full-time yeshiva bachur as soon as she returned from seminary, and of course I was happy for her.
The Modern Orthodox community is proud to promote its tolerance and open-mindedness, yet they sometimes seem to be respectful and broad-minded about everyone except for “them.” We are careful never to let slip a racist joke against ethnic minorities, and we strive towards political correctness. We run to defend all sorts of people who do not conform to our own culture. So why are we so intolerant and less accepting (and yes, irritated at times) toward the sects that choose a more right-wing philosophy than ours? If we consider ourselves “open-minded,” and pride ourselves upon it, it seems hypocritical and contradictory to condemn or attack that lifestyle, too.
If we extend the hand of acceptance to so many radically different demographics in the world, shouldn’t we, all the more so, make an effort to embrace a community so near our own?
The Jewish community is already such a tiny group relative to the outside world. Instead of isolating and dividing ourselves further, let’s focus on unifying and bringing our people together.
Thanks to Avital Chizhik and Rabbi Avi Shafran for contributing their thoughts to this article.
The words of this author reflect his/her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Orthodox Union. |
There's nothing more romantic than an outlaw. Robin Hood, Han Solo, Star-Lord, pretty much anyone played by Patrick Swayze -- they're our favorite Hollywood characters. But, in reality, outlaws are usually nasty folks committing crimes for all the wrong reasons. Notice we said "usually." That's because, once in a while, real life takes a page from a screenwriting class and gives us folks like ...
5 The Man Who Stole Jewels For The Civil Rights Movement
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In 1963, Eddie Sandifer wanted to help kick racism and oppression to the curb of history. There was only one problem -- his low-paying job as a nursing-home administrator couldn't even buy a foot soldier in the Civil Rights Movement a pair of good marching shoes, let alone make the kind of serious contribution he was dreaming of. Clearly, the only thing to be done was to volunteer his spare time instead. Just kidding: He became a jewel thief.
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He was inspired by MLK's "I Have A Brooch" speech.
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Sandifer robbed six stores and exchanged his illicit bounty for licit cash that he donated to the cause. And some of these were real Hollywood-style capers: On one job, Sandifer and his driver plotted and timed their getaway route so perfectly that they flew through a train crossing just as the train came by, leaving the police on the other side, shaking their fists and stomping on hats in consternation. |
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While it’s been a very disappointing season thus far for Buffalo Sabres fans, there are still a few things to look forward to. One of those things is finally getting to see Joel Armia play in a regular season game.
The Finnish forward’s broken hand has nearly healed and he should be ready to play sometime next week. However, fans will have to wait awhile longer before seeing him in Buffalo. ”[Armia] wasn’t a cinch to make the team before he got hurt. said Sabres head coach Ron Rolston, “We’ll probably send him down, he’s got to play some games. It would be tough throwing him right into this league.”
Strong & Talented
Regardless of where he starts, expect to see Armia in a Sabres uniform at some point this season. Given the team’s woeful ways, it’ll only be a matter of time before Armia is given his chance. When he was drafted sixteenth overall in the 2011 NHL Draft, he provided the Sabres with two needed assets at the time – size and scoring ability. While the Sabres have gotten decidedly bigger over the last few years, they currently possess an anemic offense, and this is where Armia could potentially provide a shot in the arm.
His scouting report on Elite Hockey Prospects sounds like exactly what the Sabres need:
A large forward, Armia plays a simple and solid game. He likes to head towards the net and is very strong in one-on-one situations. Armia is extremely dangerous in the slot where he can create space for himself with a simple deke and then use his sharp and accurate shot to finish the play. Armia has good stickhandling and puck skills but could share the puck more often. He has built his physique well and added a new dimension to his game with improved defensive skills.
He has the potential to become the new Thomas Vanek or at least turn into the player we’d always hoped Drew Stafford would be. He has the size and strength to be placed in front of the net on the power play and finishing ability to improve the special teams unit. When at even strength, he’d be best paired with a playmaking center. Looking at the current roster, he could potentially mesh well with Tyler Ennis, who could use a boost to his own game.
Years of Pro Experience
Something that should be to the young forward’s advantage is his years of pro experience. While fellow Finn and Sabres rookie Rasmus Ristolainen hasn’t been able to leverage his SM-liiga experience to his advantage, Armia differs because he’s older and has had more time to develop his game, unlike Ristolainen who’s been thrust right into the NHL after being drafted this summer.
The 20 year old has spent the last three season playing for Porin Ässät in Finland. While playing in 149 games for his hometown club, Armia amassed 55 goals and 45 assists as well as tallied 5 goals and 7 assists in 24 playoff games, which included a deep playoff run last season. The plan to let Armia get acclimated to the North American game in Rochester should translate to success for the forward. He can get accustomed to the different nuances while he competes at a level of competition he is already familiar with.
Barring injuries or other roster transactions, expect to see Armia play for the Sabres after a few weeks of getting his legs under him down in Rochester. While the end result of Armia’s performance may be in question, his debut at least gives the Buffalo faithful something to look forward to during an otherwise bleak season. |
The German city of Leipzig is home to high amounts of left-wing extremist violence according to a new report that showed there have been at least 22 separate cases in 2016.
German anti-mass migration non-governmental organisation Einprozent claims that Leipzig in 2016 suffered from at least one offence committed by left-wing extremists every month of the year except for April. The incidents include burning cars, destruction of property, and physical assaults.
The targets were often the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, right-wing media, and even the German army according to the report.
The first incident of 2016 occurred on the very first day of the year with left-wing radicals burning a total of eight cars outside the main customs office in the city causing €200,000 (£174,000) worth of damage. Setting fire to cars has become a commonly used tactic by far-left extremists in Germany and particularly in Leipzig.
The report shows that seven of the 22 incidents involved the extremists burning cars. In some cases, the targets were members of the AfD such as on February 2nd when an AfD city councillor had their car torched and later on September 15th when the leader of the AfD Frauke Petry, who lives in the city, also had her vehicle attacked and burned.
Even the German army, or Bundeswehr, were not safe from left-extremists who burned several military vehicles, costing well over €100,000.
AfD meetings and offices were also attacked repeatedly, including the offices of supporters of the party. On February 17th, a law office was vandalised, windows broken, and paint sprayed inside and outside because one of the partners was a member of the party.
On March 29th, a meeting of AfD city councillors was attacked when extremists threw “tar bombs” through the windows of the building resulting in costly damages.
The report notes that despite the government often being the target of left-wing extremist violence, there are very few, if any, criminal charges brought against suspects. “In Leipzig, it seems that every left-wing extremist can run off without fear of prosecution by the police or the judiciary,” the report said.
Left-wing terror and violence are on the rise not only in Leipzig but across the country. German authorities have noted the increase and despite this information, many, including the recently elected government of Berlin, have chosen instead to focus on right-wing extremism. The Berlin government has also stated they will be largely ignoring Islamic terrorism as well in a report that outraged many in the wake of the Berlin terror attack.
Einprozent has also noted that some governments have actively given money to groups associated with left-wing extremists in the Saxony-Anhalt region fueling their own speculation regarding other parts of the country. |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. In Berkeley, California, at least 20 people were arrested as fights broke out between white nationalist Trump supporters and antifascist protesters during competing rallies on Saturday. The Trump rally was organized in part by a group called the Proud Boys, which describe themselves as “Western chauvinists.” It’s led by Gavin McInnes, the co-founder of Vice magazine. Photos show some of the Trump supporters posing with the Nazi salute. Police say at least one person was stabbed during the clashes. Several more were injured. In one instance, a known white supremacist was videotaped punching a young antifascist woman named Louise Rosealma in the face. The man who is seen punching her is Nathan Damigo, a former marine who founded the white supremacist organization known as Identity Europa.
To talk more about what happened at the rallies, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Shane Bauer, award-winning senior reporter at Mother Jones. He reported on Twitter during the protest that some of the Trump supporters were members of armed, right-wing militias, his recent piece headlined “I Went Behind the Front Lines with the Far-Right Agitators Who Invaded Berkeley.” Last year, he wrote about the ongoing—undercover with right-wing border militia. He also just won a National Magazine Award for best reporting for his reporting going undercover at a private prison.
Shane, welcome back to Democracy Now! Talk about what you saw on the streets.
SHANE BAUER: Thanks for having me, Amy. Well, essentially, this is—
AMY GOODMAN: Shane, sorry.
SHANE BAUER: Essentially, this is the third major clash that has happened in Berkeley of this kind. And each of these rallies have had a large representation of white nationalist groups. This group—this rally was called by a coalition of the far right under the banner of free speech. It was a—they were saying it was a free speech rally, in the city that was known for its 1960s free speech movement. I think many of the counterprotesters saw this free speech banner as a cover for, you know, white supremacist groups and fascist groups to organize.
So, when I went to the demonstration, essentially, the park that it was being held in was cordoned off by the police. The police were checking people for weapons. There were people on—there was essentially a line drawn between the two sides, and people were shouting at each other. And it didn’t take long before the situation turned into an all-out brawl, where dozens of people are punching and kicking each other. And as time passed, the police essentially disappeared, and there was kind of, for hours, ebbs and flows of major clashes between the two sides.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to a clip, one of the videos that you posted, couple of videos you posted on Twitter from Saturday’s protest. In these clips, you talk to police officers on duty during the protest.
SHANE BAUER: You guys are hanging back.
POLICE OFFICER 1: That would be a good question for the chief of police.
SHANE BAUER: I mean, I haven’t seen the cops around. People are just like beating the [bleep] out of each other.
POLICE OFFICER 2: You want a public statement, right?
SHANE BAUER: No, I’m just asking you guys. I mean, you’re here.
POLICE OFFICER 2: I would defer you to our public information officer.
SHANE BAUER: So they told you to hang back?
POLICE OFFICER 2: As I said, I defer you to our public information officer. What’s your next question?
SHANE BAUER: I mean, I’m just wondering why I’ve been—I’ve been watching all day people get, you know, beat up pretty bad. I haven’t seen you guys around much.
POLICE OFFICER 2: Mm-hmm. OK. And?
SHANE BAUER: Hey, you guys been hanging back today, huh?
POLICE OFFICER 3: What’s that?
SHANE BAUER: You guys been hanging back today.
POLICE OFFICER 3: Doing our job.
SHANE BAUER: What’s your job? I mean, there’s been people brawling all day long. I haven’t seen you around. What’s your job?
AMY GOODMAN: The significance of this videotape? Shane, can you talk about the significance of this videotape?
SHANE BAUER: Yeah, I mean, I have never seen anything like this in the Bay Area. I’ve never seen anything this violent. People are getting constantly bloodied throughout the day. And the police are, essentially, absent for most of the day. You know, the police were there in the beginning, kind of pulling people out of fights, and then were just hanging back, which I think surprised—really surprised a lot of people.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to another video you posted on your Twitter account. In this clip, we hear from a Trump supporter at the protest.
TRUMP SUPPORTER: I thought this was just a march for free speech. I was coming to support it. I brought this stuff just in case they started making people bleed. I put it on. I didn’t even get my helmet all the way on before the first guy came with a laceration. So I’m sitting there holding him against me and everything. We’re trying to get gauze and stuff on him.
SHANE BAUER: Is Berkeley symbolic in a certain way, here?
TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yeah, because, back in the past, this is where—or, Berkeley, rather—is where the free speech movement was done, by the kids who went to Berkeley. And now it’s like the opposite. And it really—honestly, it crushes me inside. It really hurts, man. Like I’m sitting here—like, honestly, I don’t even like when our side is like trying to fight them. Like, I just—I just want peace. Like, I’ve broken up two fights now.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Shane, talk about this Trump supporter and the other Trump supporters you talked to.
SHANE BAUER: Well, he was—he was saying something that I heard from a lot of people, that they came out for free speech. He also came from another part of the country, which was true for a lot of the people that I spoke to. What was really surprising to me about this demonstration and this rally was the kind of—the coalition that came together. I mean, there were white nationalist groups, like Identity Europa. There was one group that spoke at the rally called the Pink Pistols, which is an LGBT group that are Second Amendment advocates and supporters of Trump, because they support the Muslim ban. There were African-American speakers that spoke in favor of Trump. There were—was a writer from AltRight.com who, you know, spreads the conspiracy theory of white genocide. I mean, it was a really strange coalition of people that were coming together under this kind of one banner of free speech and, you know, being able to say what they want.
AMY GOODMAN: Shane, I want to talk to you about—I want to talk to you about the arrests, but we have to end the show, so we’ll do it on the post-show, and we’ll put the web exclusive at democracynow.org. Shane Bauer, award-winning senior reporter at Mother Jones. We’ll link to your piece, “I Went Behind the Front Lines with the Far-Right Agitators Who Invaded Berkeley.” |
When U.S. cable giant Comcast recently announced a deal with Netflix, in which the video-streaming service would receive a direct connection to the cable company in exchange for an undisclosed fee, it had the tech industry worried.
Netflix's performance had been suffering on Comcast's network while its performance on other internet service providers saw little degradation, a fact it made known publicly. Comcast denied it was stifling Netflix's traffic. While the cause of the poor performance was not revealed, the two companies reached an agreement where Netflix would pay Comcast a fee to directly interconnect with the cable company, vastly improving the quality of video streams for Comcast customers.
The deal is a boon for Comcast subscribers, who will now experience better-quality Netflix streams. But it has also raised concerns about the baseline robustness of the internet in North America, potentially uncompetitive behavior by monopoly cable companies and internet users being price-gouged with no alternative.
This particular deal may seem unrelated to the video game industry, but analysts and experts on net neutrality told Polygon that those who use online gaming services like Steam, Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network should be paying attention, because the precedents set in the cable world could potentially impact the gaming world, and it may not be for the better.
REASONS FOR WORRY
The average internet user in North America subscribes to an ISP, selects a download and upload speed, pays a monthly fee for access and doesn't think too much about the way they send and receive data. Barring technical hiccups, services just work, content is just delivered and games are just downloaded or streamed. But there's a lot that goes into making the internet as we know it function, and much of it involves deals between content providers, ISPs and content delivery networks (CDN). A lot of it is complicated, some of it is boring and almost all of it affects the end-user in some way, whether it be through a better or worse service or a higher or lower costs.
There are two main ways that content providers like Netflix, Microsoft and Sony can reach internet users: transit and peering. In a transit arrangement, a company pays another network to carry its traffic to cable providers. In a peering arrangement, a company skips the middleman and pays to directly connect with a cable provider. Until the deal was recently hashed out, Netflix used a CDN to reach Comcast subscribers.
"Netflix is conceding they have to do this, that they cannot survive as an internet content provider without paying the cable companies a fee..."
Peering arrangements are not unheard of, although they are not usually publicized. Some in the tech industry believe the Netflix deal is business as usual. But the scale of this particular arrangement (with Netflix accounting for some 30 percent of internet traffic) has some people believing it isn't, and that it sets a troubling precedent.
Kevin Werbach is a former advisor to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and current associate professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton University. He told Polygon there are two main reasons to worry about the Netflix/Comcast agreement. The first reason is that Netflix was "essentially forced to pay Comcast, because Comcast is now too big and too powerful in the broadband market, and it can now essentially impose a toll on content providers."
While it could be argued that Netflix made the decision to interconnect with Comcast, Kleinberg Lange Cuddy and Carlo law firm partner Uri Fleming echoes Werbach's sentiment. He believes that Netflix was forced to do this, because the company's only other option was to continue having poor performance on Comcast's network, and it simply could not afford to do that given the number of users Comcast has.
"Netflix is conceding they have to do this, that they cannot survive as an internet content provider without paying the cable companies a fee," Fleming said. "So what if the cable companies decide to make that as a policy? If you want to connect to our servers directly so there's less buffering and you get a faster service, you have to pay us.
"As a consumer, I'm potentially faced with an additional cost."
"If you're starting a business that's relying on the internet to get to your customers, then that's a cause for concern. It really sets the potential bad precedent for internet content providers — whether it's a video streaming service, whether it's a massively-multiplayer online game like Eve Online or Warcraft or any other service like Xbox Live — it starts saying that not all data is equal, and if you really want your data to get there in time to be useful, you're going to have to pay the owners of the internet pipes, whether it's Comcast or AT&T or whoever.
"As a content provider, I'm suddenly faced with an additional potential cost. As a consumer, I'm potentially faced with an additional cost. And the frustration from the consumer's side is that the ISPs essentially have a monopoly."
The other cause for concern Werbach mentions is a reverse scenario where Netflix perhaps got a satisfactory deal from Comcast because it's such a big player and because Comcast customers really want access to Netflix. A smaller player in the video streaming or video game market may not be able to get a good a deal because they don't have the same clout or numbers that Netflix has. This, he says, could potentially be a kind of "tax" on innovators and new entrants to the content providing market.
DOMINANCE AND IMBALANCE
John Bergmayer is a senior staff attorney and non-profit public interest group Public Knowledge. He says that paid peering and CDNs have been around for a while, and the fact that Netflix is paying Comcast some amount of money is not necessarily a problem, provided that what they're paying for is actually whatever costs they're causing, such as server fees, electricity, rental fees, etc. The problem would be if Comcast or any other ISP tried to charge as much as they could get away with.
"So what if Comcast is starting to demand not just from Netflix but from others that anyone who wants to send traffic to their subscribers has to pay them, and the amount they're charging isn't really in line with any actual costs?" Bergmayer said. "So it's more like they're selling you access to their customers as opposed to just billing you for actual costs that are accrued as a result of an interconnection. That's where it becomes a problem for me because that's where they're essentially double-dipping, because they're charging their customers for access to the internet, and then they're charging the internet companies for access to their customers."
"I think a lot of this is scare tactics and people think the sky is falling..."
The terms of the Netflix/Comcast deal are not publicly known, and while the double-dipping Bergmayer describes has not necessarily happened, he told Polygon that Comcast has the leverage to do so because it is so big and, in many markets, it is the only cable provider. This, he says, is the danger of having so few players in the cable market, so little government regulation, and a precedent of a big content provider like Netflix paying Comcast directly just so it can have a decent service. Current actions may seem benign, but they may not always stay that way. "Comcast can essentially dictate terms to you, and you basically have to accept them because if you can't reach the Comcast customer base, you're toast," he said. "So it's a problem when you have an imbalance, when you have a single ISP be so dominant."
Polygon reached out to content providers like Microsoft (via Xbox Live and its slew of online services), Sony (via PlayStation Network), Valve (via Steam) and Twitch, but all declined to comment. Netflix issued Polygon a statement saying that its interconnection deal with Comcast "is a standard interconnection, just like the ones Google has with AT&T or Amazon with Comcast or Time Warner. Our data gets no preference over anyone else's."
THE FREE MARKET
Until recently, the FCC had Open Internet Rules, which made it illegal for a broadband access provider to unreasonably discriminate against traffic on their network. These rules were overturned in January and, as of this writing, they are not enforced. Comcast is subject to its own network neutrality obligations agreed to when it acquired NBC Universal, but those rules only apply to discrimination on a network — they do not apply to interconnection. According to Werbach, the FCC up until now has been reluctant to look at these interconnection arrangements because the view has been that the market is competitive and can self-regulate. This is not an uncommon perspective.
"Personally, I think a lot of this is scare tactics and people think the sky is falling," said director of technology innovation and strategy at marketing agency Erwin Penland, Curtis Rose. "In actuality, the net really hasn't changed that much from an access perspective. It's gotten faster speeds, it's gotten more access to new types of content. If you look at it historically, the internet has been a self-governed entity within our country and ... I think we've done a great job as consumers and businesses in really finding a balance that really fulfils both sides of the equation."
Rose references the time AT&T blocked Apple's FaceTime service and how the free market won out when competitors like Verizon and T-Mobile allowed FaceTime to happen on their networks, which caused AT&T to ultimately change its tone. He says he thinks the market will ultimately favor the consumer and, rather than looking at the Netflix/Comcast deal as an ominous sign, he sees it as a win for consumers who are now experiencing Netflix at a faster speed.
"I lean towards the world of free market," Rose said. "If ISPs decide to go the route of [discriminating against data], I think the Steam community of the world, the Xbox Live community of the world, the PSN community of the world, there is a large enough surge in those communities that they're ultimately going to have a voice in this conversation. It's not going to be left out in the cold."
Having said that, Rose finds it unlikely that game companies will be put in a position where they have to interconnect because, unlike Netflix and its 30 percent of online traffic, gaming does not currently generate anywhere near as much data. But according to Werbach, just because gaming isn't a target now, doesn't mean it won't be in the future.
"The games market is always one that people underestimate..."
"The games market is always one that people underestimate, especially when we're talking about high speed broadband and growth rates," Werbach said. "To the extent that gaming goes more into the cloud and multi-platform, that's going to change usage patterns. So I think that will have an effect."
The bandwidth used in the transfer of video game-related data is climbing, with video streaming service Twitch ranked fourth in peak internet traffic in the U.S. this past February. Valve boss Gabe Newell said last year that when a new update is released for its strategy battle game Dota 2, the game accounts for up to three percent of the world's internet usage. And as next-gen video games produce higher-fidelity graphics, more games are streamed from the cloud and the games industry continues to push the limits of hardware and software, gaming is only going to gobble up more of the bandwidth pie. It may not be a target today, but who knows about tomorrow.
"The Netflix story is an example of something that five years ago, Netflix-type streaming was not a large factor in broadband, and now it's by far the biggest factor," Werbach said. "Gaming is certainly going to play more or a role, but exactly how it matches up with who has power, I'm not entirely sure."
HAVING A SAY
Most of the concerns surrounding the Netflix/Comcast deal are less about the deal itself and more about what could come as a result of it. According to Rose, consumers and businesses shouldn't panic. Instead, they should watch where the industry goes, vote with their wallets and speak up where they need to.
Bergmayer encourages the public to participate in FCC proceedings. "Very often, people don't have a lot of choice," he said. "That's why we're always worried about what these companies do because we don't have the market to keep them in check. That means the government, that means the FCC, that means congress needs to regulate them."
Everything the FCC does, it puts out for public comment, and anyone can contribute. Bergmayer encourages people to contribute meaningful arguments and make their voices heard because government responds to public pressure.
"You have to make it the easiest thing to do, and if the easiest thing to do is to cave to public pressure, it'll do that," he said.
If the public doesn't make its voice heard, then it'll likely cave to industry pressure because, while the public doesn't always show up, industry is always there.
"These are public policy issues," he said. "And if things are bad, they can get better. They can change." |
Gov. Pat McCrory delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015 in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
A bill allowing government officials in North Carolina to refuse to issue marriage licenses for religious reasons is now law after the state House voted Thursday to override Gov. Pat McCrory’s (R) veto.
The law effectively allows magistrates to opt out of performing same-sex, or even interracial or interfaith, marriages. If an official declines to officiate a marriage on religious grounds, that official will be barred from performing any marriages for a period of six months.
McCrory vetoed the legislation in May, saying he believed government officials should perform their duties.
"Whether it is the president, governor, mayor, a law enforcement officer or magistrate, no public official who voluntarily swears to support and defend the Constitution and to discharge all duties of their office should be exempt from upholding that oath," said McCrory, who does not support same-sex marriage.
The North Carolina Senate already overrode the veto last week, and the House followed suit Thursday after waiving debate on the bill. The lower chamber surpassed the three-fifths majority needed to override a veto by three votes.
The bill's critics objected to the override. “It creates second-class citizens with the sanction of the government, which we should not be doing,” said House Minority Leader Larry Hall (D).
Same-sex marriage became legal in North Carolina last October when a federal district court judge struck down a ban on gay marriage that had been added to the state constitution in 2012. |
In this age of afflicting the poor and comforting the rich — a favorite pastime of the tea partiers and the new Republican Party they’ve helped shape — there’s a popular myth making the rounds on the Internet that nearly half of working Americans don’t pay taxes, and isn’t that an outrage?
Candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, the Texas motor mouth who believes Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, help build this perception, insisting that before restoring the pre-George W. Bush taxes on the rich we need to make everyone pay some federal income tax.
Bachmann says the lower-income workers, after all, use the parks and roads and benefit from defense measures the government provides to keep us all safe. Perry claims that it’s an “injustice” that so few American citizens pay income taxes. Of course, in Texas they don’t have any personal state income tax at all, just the highest percentage of uninsured and a growing unemployment rate. Perhaps that explains a lot.
But the truth is that every working American pays taxes. Before they even get a chance to cash their paychecks, 6.2 percent has been deducted for Social Security and another 1.45 percent for Medicare. (This year the Social Security payroll tax for everyone has been temporarily lowered to 4.2 percent as part of President Obama’s stimulus program.)
In other words, they’re contributing just as big a percentage of their income to the two major federal budget programs as do the CEOs of major corporations. In fact, because people don’t pay Social Security taxes on income over $106,800, the poor actually pay a higher percentage than the wealthy.
Everyone also pays sales taxes, property taxes if they own property or indirectly if they rent, gasoline taxes to build those roads Bachmann thinks they’re driving on for free, and fees to visit national parks and license their cars, just for starters.
It’s true that the lower half of wage earners, many of them living on the edge of poverty, wind up escaping additional income taxes, but that’s because at one time in this nation’s history we decided to tax citizens on their ability to pay because we believed it was the right thing to do. The Christian way, if you please.
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It was considered quintessentially American for the wealthy to shoulder a larger share of the load it requires to run the country’s business. If you didn’t make a lot, you didn’t pay a lot. If you made a bundle, you paid a bundle for the good of the nation.
Indeed, for decades during the mid-1900s, the richest people in America paid a federal income tax rate of 90 percent of every dollar they made over $1 million. Interestingly, the country got along just fine. Businesses expanded. The middle class came into vogue. Young couples could buy houses, afford cars and eventually send their kids to college.
It was all quite unlike today after George Bush saw to it that the wealthiest in the land got a 10 percent tax cut — 39.6 percent to 35 percent for the highest bracket — and now, in the face of a growing national debt, the Boehners and Cantors in Congress refuse to even consider restoring the old rate. Those cuts contributed mightily to turning a national budget surplus into a huge deficit, especially when decisions were made to fight expensive wars and increase defense spending without raising any additional revenue.
And now Boehner and Cantor don’t even want those making a million or more a year to have to pay a dime extra, as the president has proposed.
Not coincidentally, it was this same wealthy class that hatched the mortgage schemes, played recklessly with people’s savings and crashed the economy. Not only have they escaped any penalties for their disgraceful behavior, but the GOP believes it’s the working people who need to take the hit to reduce the deficit.
America’s middle class has already paid more than its fair share. They’ve suffered pay cuts, layoffs, lost homes and cars and now close to one in six of them live in poverty. To ask them to face a future with weaker Social Security and Medicare programs is nothing short of criminal.
It’s well past time for those who can afford it and who have benefited the most from government’s many services to pitch in and help right the ship — at the very least, end the Bush tax cuts and help restore some fiscal responsibility to the nation’s budget. |
They are pompous, they are presumptuous, they are theatrical and they are narcissistic.
It would be fine if we were talking about a Hollywood or a Bollywood star.
Here we are talking about leaders of two great democracies in the world. One, who is holding the highest office in his country and the other, a hopeful for the most powerful office in the world.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Republican candidate for the US presidency Donald Trump have many, many personality traits in common. Trump and Modi are similar in style, content and in appeal to their respective constituencies.
Also read: Trump as President will be as bad as India's achhe din
Trump is America's Modi and Modi can be described as India's Trump.
To begin with, the anger of the American voters propelling Trump to the Republican candidacy is similar to the Indian voters' rage that brought Modi to power. The objective conditions for a vote in favour of Trump in America are also somewhat similar to those that put Modi in power.
The conditions for Modi to win the election were prepared as a result of ten years of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government under Manmohan Singh which had become hamstrung by corruption cases, economic decline, high inflation and policy paralysis.
Also read: Why didn't Indian media oppose Modi the way America is grilling Trump?
Trump's rise is predicated on similar conditions. During eight years of president Barack Obama, the US suffered the worst recession since the Great Depression, high unemployment and America's perceived decline as the world's greatest power and the consequent loss of face.
Modi found a constituency among the aspirational youth, a large disenchanted middle class and voters who thought India had become a weak nation under Manmohan. Trump has found support among the angry white lower and middle class Americans who feel let down by Obama's weakness on the foreign policy front.
In his quest for power, a smart Modi grabbed the chance to become the prime minister, sidelining the BJP's patriarch and hopeful LK Advani. As an outsider to the Republican Party, smart and clever Trump is forcing himself on the GOP elites who are just as befuddled by the voters' response as Trump's die-hard opponents.
Both Modi and Trump are great showmen, they are flashy and mercurial. They are demagogues par excellence. Through the play of their demagogueries, both Trump and Modi have successfully manipulated crowds and audiences.
During less than two years in office, Modi has displayed his showmanship at home and abroad in storied arenas in Tokyo, New York, London and Sydney.
In New York, the one-time ascetic RSS pracharak made an attempt to impress the Indian diaspora by quoting a line from Star Wars to actor Hugh Jackman "May the force be with you." His upstart-like behaviour impressed few but Modi couldn't care less.
Perhaps, British comedian and TV host John Oliver knew better. He wryly commented on his show "Last Week Tonight" that Modi was doing "weird and inexplicable things". During Modi's numerous visits abroad, TV viewers have watched him doing weird things. In another display of showmanship, Modi played drum in Tokyo to compete with a professional Japanese drummer.
Trump has always been a showman. He has converted the race to the White House into a show as no other presidential candidate has ever done. Theatrics, melodrama, play-acting are qualities Trump honed on an NBC reality television show running since 2004 aptly called "Apprentice". The American audience, a large number of whom have become his cheerleaders today, watched Trump's apprenticeship to the White House race on the reality show.
Trump and Modi are narcissistic to the bone. They are arrogant, boastful and believe they are uniquely gifted to solve all the problems facing their people on their own. They claim to be the know-it-alls.
"I'm so good looking that even the women who criticise me don't attack my looks. My fingers are long and beautiful as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body," Trump boasts.
Modi can match Trump's narcissism. When he wore that Modi monogrammed pinstriped suit at a meeting with Obama, who could have thought the man was once an ascetic RSS pracharak? Modi's penchant for taking selfies loudly speaks of his self-love.
Besides their shared showmanship and narcissism, Modi and Trump's more troubling similarities are their love for unabashed hyper-nationalism and their hatred for minorities. Modi threatened to deport Bangladeshi immigrants in a speech in Kolkata and once said that only Bangladeshi Hindu immigrants were welcome in the country.
Once he said in an interview that he was pained by the Gujarat riots like one is pained even after a puppy is run over by a car. In a speech during the Bihar election campaign he angrily vowed that he wouldn't let any reservation for Muslims to be implemented by taking away quotas from other categories.
Modi's pet theme song during the election campaign was his promise to make India great, to restore the lost glory of its hoary past. He harped on pursuing a muscular foreign policy with respect of Pakistan.
Trump has spoken about preventing Muslims from entering America, about bombing the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists, their family members and even children. He has threatened to build a wall to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering America and make them pay for it.
Trump has promised all this and much more to make America great.
Trump has spoken high of Modi. During a trip to Mumbai after Modi had become the prime minister, Trump said, "He has done a fantastic job of brining people together."
Only a divisive figure like Trump can sing paeans to Modi for brining "people together". |
"I do not take lightly the decision to testify against a Senate colleague. But the immense powers of the Attorney General combined with the deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience," Booker said in a statement issued by his office Monday night. "Sen. Sessions' decades-long record is concerning in a number of ways, from his opposition to bipartisan criminal justice reform to his views on bipartisan drug policy reform, from his efforts earlier in his career to deny citizens voting rights to his criticism of the Voting Rights Act, from his failure to defend the civil rights of women, minorities, and LGBT Americans to his opposition to common sense, bipartisan immigration reform. The Attorney General is responsible for ensuring the fair administration of justice, and based on his record, I lack confidence that Senator Sessions can honor this duty." |
Church of England bishops unite to take a moral stand against controversial policies that they say will hit the poorest hardest
Bishops across the country, backed by Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, have condemned the coalition government's controversial welfare reforms, which they say risk pushing thousands of children into poverty and homelessness.
Eighteen Church of England bishops, backed by Williams and the archbishop of York, John Sentamu, are demanding that ministers rewrite their flagship plan to impose a £500-a-week benefit cap on families.
In an open letter in Observer, they say the Church of England has a "moral obligation to speak up for those who have no voice". Their message is that the cap could be "profoundly unjust" to the poorest children in society, especially those in larger families and those living in expensive major cities.
The high-profile intervention comes after the Church of England became embroiled in an embarrassing row over its attitude to anti-capitalist protests outside St Paul's Cathedral in London. One cleric resigned over plans to evict the protesters forcibly, arguing that the Church should have been more supportive of their cause.
The bishops are calling on ministers to back a series of amendments to the welfare reform bill – due to be debated in the House of Lords tomorrow – that have been tabled by the bishop of Leeds and Ripon, John Packer.
A spokesman at Lambeth Palace said Williams was fully behind the bishops' initiative. "As a president of the Children's Society the archbishop fully supports the proposed amendments to the welfare reform bill."
Sentamu also threw his weight behind the changes. "I hope that the government will listen to the concerns being raised and ensure that children, especially the most vulnerable, are protected from cuts to family benefits."
Under the bill, which is facing huge opposition in the Lords, the government plans to limit the amount any household can claim in benefits to £500 a week, to ensure state handouts cannot exceed average weekly wages for working households.
Ministers, who announced the cap at last year's Tory conference, say the reforms will encourage people back to work while cutting the £192bn a year spent on welfare payments. But the Children's Society claims the policy will cut support to around 210,000 children and make as many as 80,000 homeless.
Packer has tabled five amendments to the bill, drawn up with the help of the society. The suggestions include: removing child benefit from household income for the purposes of calculating the level of the cap; calculating the level of the cap based on earnings of families with children, rather than all households; removing certain vulnerable groups from the cap; and the introduction of a significant grace period of exemption from the cap for households in which people have recently left employment.
The bishops call on the government to act to prevent plunging "some of the most vulnerable children in the country into severe poverty". They add: "We do hope the government will listen to, and act upon, our plea, for the sake of some of the most vulnerable in our society."
Speaking to the Observer, Packer said he understood the aim of the government to encourage people back into work. But he felt "absolutely clear" that the cap would cause "hardship and unintended consequences which we need to prevent". He said: "I think it is the care for children which is particularly important to me in this whole debate about welfare and about the way in which people are treated in our society."
It was also vital, he stressed, to take in the effect on people who cared for the children of others. "One of the things which has been raised is that some large families are actually created by the fact that people have taken on other people's children. That may be in circumstances where the parents have died or for some reason the parents can't look after them, and it is often relatives who have taken them in. This could be a real discouragement to people to take on caring responsibilities."
The bishops who have signed up to today's letter are from the dioceses of Bath & Wells, Blackburn, Bristol, Chichester, Derby, Exeter, Gloucester, Guildford, Leicester, Lichfield, London, Manchester, Norwich, Oxford, Ripon & Leeds, St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Truro and Wakefield.
The bishop of Truro, Tim Thornton, said the unity of the bishops should convince the government to act. "We are proposing something positive rather than just saying something negative."
The Rev Leo Osborn, president of the Methodist Conference, added his support: "The benefit-capping policy will lead to a reduction in the living standards of the poorest in society. It risks creating perverse incentives for families to break up: under this proposal a family with four children could be better-off if it split into two single-parent households."
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson defended the policy. "It simply isn't fair that households on out-of-work benefits can receive a greater income from the state than the average working household gets in wages. This is why we have proposed a benefit cap of around £500 per week.
"Many working-age families with adults in work cannot afford to live in central London, for example, and it is not right for the tax payer to subsidise households on out of work benefits who do."
Many Liberal Democrat and crossbnench peers also oppose a rigid benefit cap and believe ministers will give ground. |
Complications during pregnancy, viral infections, and genetic disorders have all been associated with autism. But for the past few years, an increasing number of researchers have started to focus their attention on another important risk factor: environmental pollutants. These neurotoxins, which include everything from pesticides, to mercury and diesel, are thought to alter brain development in fetuses. Now, a new study further confirms this link by showing that pregnant women who live within a mile of farms and fields where pesticides are employed see their risk of having a child with autism increase by 60 percent — and that risk actually doubles if the exposure occurs in the third trimester.
"Pesticides are one of the toxicants that appear to have the strongest association with autism," says Dan Rossignol, an autism expert at Jeff Bradstreet's International Child Development Resource Center in Florida who did not participate in the study, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives. These latest results, he says, "strengthen that association."
In the study, researchers linked data from the California Pesticide Use Report to the residential addresses of 970 children participating in the ongoing Childhood Autism Risks from Genes and Environment (CHARGE) study. This allowed the scientists to make connections between various developmental delays, and the types of chemicals that mothers may have been exposed to before conception, and during pregnancy. They also took note of prenatal vitamin intake, socio-economic status, and metabolic disorders during pregnancy to avoid interference by possible confounders.
the risk could go up "as much as threefold."
"Women who live within a mile of organophosphate or pyrethroids agricultural pesticide applications were more likely to have a child with autism spectrum than women living further away," said Janie Shelton, an epidemiologist at the University of California Davis and lead author of the study, in an email to The Verge. Currently, 1 in 68 American children have some form of autism spectrum disorder. But the risk could go up "as much as threefold" when women are exposed to organophosphates later in pregnancy, Shelton said. This means that scientists need to "investigate [these results] further, while taking preventive steps to decrease exposure to women during and just prior to conception."
For Rossignol, "the only type of study that would have been better" would have been a study "where women were followed before, during, after pregnancy — as well as their babies — to determine if, over time, those higher exposure to pesticides had a higher risk of autism." Richard Frye, an autism researcher at the University of Arkansas who was not involved in the study, agrees with Rossignol, and pointed out in an email that "there could be bias in the sample of patients because the participants volunteered for the study." This means that these participants are the kinds of people that that "seek medical care for their children" — which isn't necessarily representative of all parents. But overall, both scientists praised the study's design.
pregnant women should avoid contact with agricultural pesticides
Shelton and her team would like to continue the research — if they can get more funding. One of their goals is to find out if certain sub-groups are more vulnerable to pesticide exposure. But, regardless of the outcome, Shelton thinks the message is clear: Pregnant women should avoid contact with agricultural pesticides.
"The neurotoxicity of many agricultural agents have been suspected from animal studies for sometime," Frye said, so "this information needs to be taken seriously for not only expecting women, but women who are planning to become pregnant." He thinks that taking steps to prevent autism and other developmental delays is "much better for society" than treating children "once they have been born with such abnormalities." But to do that, he said, we need to proactively educate mothers about the risks — and what they can do to fight back. "Simple things like proper nutrition and folate supplement [intake] is still suboptimal in some areas," but these are "simple factors that can have a large impact at preventing autism and developmental disorders." |
Android and Mac/Windows/Linux: If you don't want to deal with your phone while you're at your computer, free app Android Notifier will send all your phone's call, SMS, and battery notifications to your desktop.
Whether you wear noise-cancelling headphones at your desk, or you'd rather just receive all your notifications in the same place, you can send mobile notifications to your computer to better fit into your workflow with Android Notifier. Setting it up is easy; just download and install both Android Notifier and the MacDroidNotifier app, which will send notifications to previously mentioned Growl (If you're using Windows or Linux, you'll need the Android-Notifier-Desktop app instead). It takes a bit of setup, but nothing too difficult—you can get instructions from the project's home page.
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You can send notifications over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and pick whether you want notifications for incoming calls, SMS messages, battery messages, and voicemails. Bluetooth setup is pretty easy; Wi-Fi is a bit more involved. It's a pretty nice tool to have around, though, and would probably make a great Tasker task—for example, you could automatically set your phone to forward notifications to your computer whenever your phone is docked.
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Android Notifier is a free download for Android phones and Macintosh computers. Windows and Linux users will need Android Notifier on their phone and Android-Notifier-Desktop on their computer.
Android Notifier [via ReadWriteWeb] |
Posted by Darren Urban on July 30, 2012 – 5:36 pm
Practice was almost over this afternoon when quarterback Kevin Kolb handed the ball off to William Powell in a two-minute drill and then ended up on the ground. Turned out he took a knee to his right thigh. After a couple of minutes with head athletic trainer Tom Reed, he limped off the field on his own to go into the training room. The team called it a thigh bruise for now, but it will be evaluated.
The Cards don’t have a practice until Tuesday afternoon. Coach Ken Whisenhunt talks again at lunch time and I’d assume he’ll have an update then.
P.S. When Kolb came out of the training room he was healthy enough to sign some autographs (the picture is from Cards media relations maven Mark Dalton). After he went to the locker room and got cleaned up, he signed some more, and was still signing when I just left.
Tags: Kevin Kolb Posted in Blog |
cron.weekly issue #89: Fedora 26, ZFS, Go 2, Time, seashells, Boltron, Redis, Duplicity & more
Welcome to cron.weekly issue #89 for Sunday, July 16th, 2017.
A new major release for Fedora with interesting details on handling rolling upgrades, a critical look at ZFS, some geeky timestamp info & lots of more links to follow-up on.
Take care!
News
In a discussion around rlimits being introduced for setuid exec’s, Linus makes the bold statement that he can no longer “trust init to do the right thing”, referring to systemd. Lots of interesting discussion around this on HackerNews.
This post gives you an overview of the security related features that made it to the 4.12 kernel that was released 2 weeks ago.
A critical look at ZFS exploring both its weaknesses and its strengths, together with a bit of history on how it got to this point.
The team behind the Go programming language is publicly discussing their plans & ambitions to get “Go 2” going, looking at what worked in Go 1.x and the technical challenges they want to tackle in Go 2.x.
In PHP 7.2, due to be released in a couple of weeks/months, is going to have built-in support for Libsodium in its core. Libsodium is a modern cryptography library, making PHP one of the first to have this bundled in its core. We all know having the tools available doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll get used correctly, but this is a great step forward for securing PHP applications.
We’ve rolled over the magical 1.4 billion into the 1.5 billion era! `date +%s`
Tools & Projects
Track & alert on the health and performance of every server, container, and app in any environment, with Datadog. Sign up for a free 14-day trial. (Sponsored)
GoCD is a continuous delivery tool specializing in advanced workflow modeling and dependency management. It lets you track a change from commit to deploy at a glance, providing superior visibility into your workflow. It’s open source, free to use and download. (Sponsored)
A distributed issue tracker, in git! It’s implemented as a git subcommand, has a convenient command line interface & all data is just “in git”. This tip came via the Show CW section of the forum.
Pterodactyl Panel is a free, open-source, game agnostic, self-hosted control panel for users, networks, and game service providers. Pterodactyl supports games and servers such as Minecraft, ARK: Evolution Evolved, CS:GO, Team Fortress 2, Insurgency, Teamspeak 3, Mumble, and many more.
Proxy TCP connections based on static rules, HTTP Host headers, and SNI server names.
This is clever: pipe output from command-line programs to the web in real-time!
A new major release for the Fedora project: Fedora 26 introduces GCC 7, Golang 1.8, Python 3.6 & lots of upstream bugfixes. If you want to know what Red Hat 8 is going to look like, get started with the latest Fedora.
Boltron is Fedora’s solution for running multiple versions of applications without conflicting libraries or configuraties. This will allow you to run multiple versions of PHP, Apache, MySQL, … next to each other without interference, allowing you get the latest release for some tools and a more stable release for others.
A real-time visualization of network traffic (Ethernet and Internet), and streaming of header data from your network interfaces via WebSockets. The video explains this best, looks like a very quick & easy way to graph a host layout on your network.
localtunnel exposes your localhost to the world for easy testing and sharing. No need to mess with DNS or deploy just to have others test out your changes.
OPNsense is an open source, easy-to-use and easy-to-build FreeBSD based firewall and routing platform. OPNsense includes most of the features available in expensive commercial firewalls, and more in many cases.
A new replication engine for master/slave, auto-promotions and partial resynchronisation, support for Redis modules, new caching algoritms & improvements all around.
A collection of small bash scripts for heavy terminal users.
Tania is a free and open source farming management system for everyone. You can manage your growing areas, reservoirs, farm tasks, inventories, and the crop growing progress. Written in PHP.
A suite of utilities simplilfying linux networking stack performance troubleshooting and tuning.
OSSEC is an Open Source Host-based Intrusion Detection System that performs log analysis, file integrity checking, policy monitoring, rootkit detection, real-time alerting and active response.
Guides & Tutorials
This post explains the pro’s & con’s of several Bash testing frameworks, giving you a solid base to decide which method you’d like to use for testing your own Bash scripts.
So many good details on tools like kprobe, tracepoints, uprobes, ftrace, eBPF, … if you use strace a lot, you’ll love this post. I didn’t even know there were so many other tracing tools out there!
Very cool examples of using systemd, like overwriting unit file details in a deeper folder hierarchy, tricks with timers & users + some handy little commands for every-day systemd life.
Chances are, you’ve got at least one Windows box lying around. This post gives step-by-step instructions to get those events into Graylog for further analysis. Should be fairly straight forward to adapt the article for any OS with events/logs to be fed into Graylog.
Step-by-step instructions to securing your data onto Amazon’s S3 with Duplicity, covering full & incremental back-ups, restoring data & automation.
An insane amount of examples of things you can do with sed, from simple search & replaces to regular expressions & entire control structures like if /else. Another tip via the forum!
Some very simple steps on using the dnf package manager to do an in-place upgrade from Fedora 25 to 26.
Jobs
We’re on a mission to create the most beneficial payout ecosystem in the world and fundamentally change the way people receive money! As a Site Reliability Engineer at OptioPay you own and manage core infrastructure like Kubernetes, Kafka, Postgres, CI systems, Nginx and the machines on which it all runs. (no remote work) (Sponsored)
Ask cron.weekly
These questions were asked on the cron.weekly forum and stand out or are in need of more eyes to find the answer. Go for it, join the discussions!
Those with little kids at home, what are you doing to protect them from accidentally visiting unwanted sites or limiting internet-time?
A quick survey to find “that missing tool” in your toolbelt, what’s something you learned about recently that you’ve come to love and can’t do without anymore?
What unique features have you seen in load balancers that you’d love to see in others too? |
The acquisition of Rajon Rondo has given the Dallas Mavericks an undeniable edge in the race to lure veteran big man Jermaine O'Neal back to the NBA, according to league sources.
The Mavericks gained an edge toward signing Jermaine O'Neal with the acquisition of Rajon Rondo. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Sources told ESPN.com that O'Neal, who opted to spend the start of this season with family and focusing on business interests while deciding whether to come back for what would be his 19th season, is "highly intrigued" by the idea of joining the Mavericks as a free agent in the wake of the Rondo deal.
The deal not only theoretically elevated Dallas' stock as a Western Conference contender but also left it with a need on the front line after the exit of highly regarded reserve center Brandan Wright in the trade to the Celtics.
ESPN.com reported last week that O'Neal -- a six-time All-Star who played two seasons alongside Rondo in Boston -- intends to make a definitive declaration about his playing future early in 2015. But sources said Friday that timetable might be moved up, since O'Neal would naturally need some time to work his way into game shape.
NBA front-office sources say that the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors are also among the teams with a strong interest in O'Neal should he decide to play on.
But O'Neal maintains his offseason home in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and has long been interested in joining the Mavericks to reunite with his former Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. Heading into the 2013-14 season, O'Neal had serious negotiations with the Mavericks before ultimately signing a deal with Golden State and enjoying a productive season as one of the Warriors' locker room leaders.
"He's had a terrific career," Carlisle told local reporters Friday. "He had a real solid year last year for Golden State despite having some injury issues. I have not talked to him yet myself. It's a possibility, but I don't want to jump the gun out of respect to him and his family. So we'll see. It's certainly one option."
Given the dearth of proven rim protectors in today's game, O'Neal is sure to be in high demand if he choose to keep playing, if not stirring up quite the frenzy Ray Allen would spark among various contenders should the free-agent sharpshooter decide in January or February that he's up for one more playoff run.
But the pull of spending more time with his children and immersing himself in his various business pursuits is a strong one for O'Neal. The Warriors acknowledged many times last season how fortunate they were to have convinced O'Neal to leave his Dallas-based family to play in Oakland.
In late October, O'Neal tweeted about how much he was enjoying the corporate world as well as watching 15-year-old daughter Asjia (who has rebounded from heart surgery to emerge as a highly rated high school volleyball player) and coaching 8-year-old son Jermaine Jr.'s basketball team. |
Throughout high school, my friend Kenji had never once spoken to the Glassmans. They were a popular, football-playing, preposterously handsome set of identical twins (every high school must have its Winklevii). Kenji was a closeted, half-Japanese orchestra nerd who kept mainly to himself and graduated first in our class. Yet last fall, as our 25th high-school reunion was winding down, Kenji grabbed Josh Glassman by his tricepsstill Popeye spinach cans, and the subject of much Facebook discussion afterwardand asked where the after-party was. He was only half-joking.
Psychologically speaking, Kenji carries a passport to pretty much anywhere now. He’s handsome, charming, a software engineer at an Amazon subsidiary; he radiates the kind of self-possession that earns instant respect. Josh seemed to intuit this. He said there was an after-party a few blocks away, at the home of another former football player. And when Kenji wavered, Josh wouldn’t take no for an answer. I could see there was no going back, Kenji explained the next morning, over brunch. It was sort of like the dog who catches the car and doesn’t know what to do with it.
The party was fine. For a while, Kenji wondered if he’d been brought along as a stunt guesta suspicion hardly allayed by Josh’s announcement I brought the valedictorian! as they were descending the stairs to their host’s living roomthough Kenji’s attendance was in the same spirit, really, just in reverse. (This is the party I never got invited to in high school, he told Josh at one point, who didn’t disagree.) At any rate, Kenji didn’t care. His curiosities were anthropological: He had no idea what it was like to be a football player or a cheerleader, get out of high school, marry someone from your local area, and settle in the same area. And his conclusion, by the end of the night, was: Nothing special. It was just an ordinary party, one that might have been a little uncomfortable if we all hadn’t been a little drunk.
You’d think Kenji’s underwhelmed reaction would have been reassuring. But another classmate of ours, also at that brunch, didn’t take it that way. Like Kenji, Larry was brilliant, musically gifted, and hidden behind awkward glasses during most of his adolescence; like Kenji, he too is attractive and successful today. He received a Tony nomination for the score of Legally Blonde, he has a new baby, he married a great woman who just happens to be his collaborator. Yet his reaction was visceral and instantaneous. Literally? he said. Your saying this makes me feel I wish I’d been invited to that.
Well, right, said Kenji. Because that’s the way high school is.
And maybe the way life is, still, sometimes, said Larry. About wanting to be invited to things. He’s now working on a musical adaptation of Heathers, the eighties classic that culminates, famously, in Christian Slater nearly blowing up a high school.
Not everyone feels the sustained, melancholic presence of a high-school shadow self. There are some people who simply put in their four years, graduate, and that’s that. But for most of us adults, the adolescent years occupy a privileged place in our memories, which to some degree is even quantifiable: Give a grown adult a series of random prompts and cues, and odds are he or she will recall a disproportionate number of memories from adolescence. This phenomenon even has a namethe reminiscence bumpand it’s been found over and over in large population samples, with most studies suggesting that memories from the ages of 15 to 25 are most vividly retained. (Which perhaps explains Ralph Keyes’s observation in his 1976 classic, Is There Life After High School?: Somehow those three or four years can in retrospect feel like 30.)
To most human beings, the significance of the adolescent years is pretty intuitive. Writers from Shakespeare to Salinger have done their most iconic work about them; and Hollywood, certainly, has long understood the operatic potential of proms, first dates, and the malfeasance of the cafeteria goon squad. I feel like most of the stuff I draw on, even today, is based on stuff that happened back then, says Paul Feig, the creator of Freaks and Geeks, which had about ten glorious minutes on NBC’s 19992000 lineup before the network canceled it. Inside, I still feel like I’m 15 to 18 years old, and I feel like I still cope with losing control of the world around me in the same ways. (By being funny, mainly.)
Yet there’s one class of professionals who seem, rather oddly, to have underrated the significance of those years, and it just happens to be the group that studies how we change over the course of our lives: developmental neuroscientists and psychologists. I cannot emphasize enough the amount of skewing there is, says Pat Levitt, the scientific director for the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, in terms of the number of studies that focus on the early years as opposed to adolescence. For years, we had almost a religious belief that all systems developed in the same way, which meant that what happened from zero to 3 really mattered, but whatever happened thereafter was merely tweaking. |
And that definitely includes today�s Republican Party, inasmuch as they�ve brought us: #45, plus his hand-picked lunatic staff and cabinet, plus the Republicans who allow this toxic shit-storm to continue unchallenged, plus the yahoos who support this �administration� is just such a threat.
There are no more Eisenhowers.
There are no more Mark Hatfields.
There are no more Nelson Rockefellers.
There are no more Edward Brookes.
There are no more Jacob Javitses.
There are no more Margaret Chase Smiths.
There are no more Charles Percys.
There are no more centrist Republicans.
Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for lying about a blow job, but they�re stony silent about GOP operatives who knowingly courted Russian tampering/hacking an American general election, likely tipping the outcome in their favor.
Republicans displayed nothing but contempt for President Obama, and kept him from being a truly great president by undercutting, blocking and publicly humiliating him (�You lie!�) at every turn. There was never a scintilla of cooperation with the Obama administration, just wall-to-wall obstruction, including a critically important seat on SCOTUS.
Republicans are fine with the last election (no matter the cost), just as they were fine with the 2000 debacle. They�ve cost us two fantastic presidents. They offer NOTHING constructive regarding urgent issues (healthcare, climate change, gun safety, public health, education, disaster relief, �dreamers,� etc.), all they do is spew mock rage and fear � fear of fellow-Americans, mostly. They have their own �state-run� media outlets: Fox, Breitbart, Rush, Alex Jones, et al, all of whom traffic in personal attacks, slurs, misinformation, and simply overwhelming their audience�s senses with phrases and images that aid and abet the right wing.
Republicans are no less than a cancer on the body of America. Every day, they gnaw away at another pillar of democracy. They are the ENEMY. They are trying their damndest to transform the U.S. into a white Christian theocratic oligarchy with some apartheid thrown in the mix.
So yes, I fucking hate Republicans. They are trying to kill (or shorten the lives of) ordinary Americans. They put party before country, just as Germany did in the 1930s. And look how that turned out. |
Strikers Beth Mead (left), Ji So-Yun, Toni Duggan and Dan Carter are all hoping to fire their clubs to the title
With just three rounds of matches remaining, the destination of this season's Women's Super League One title remains unclear.
After last season's final-day drama, the 2015 title race has the potential to serve up an equally mouth-watering conclusion, with any one of six teams still mathematically able to win the league.
Will leaders Chelsea hold their nerve to claim their first-ever league crown? Could top scorer Beth Mead fire surprise package Sunderland to an unprecedented triumph in their first season after promotion?
With the help of former England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis, BBC Sport assesses the chances of each of the teams bidding to win WSL 1.
Chelsea
Women's FA Cup winners Chelsea are bidding to win the second major trophy in their history
The league title is in Chelsea's hands.
The Blues have a three-point lead at the top of the table and the teams in second and third - Sunderland and Manchester City - must play each other.
If other results go their way, Emma Hayes' side could seal the title before the end of September, provided they can beat Notts County and Liverpool.
If not, they face a potentially decisive clash against Sunderland on the final day of the season.
Last year, Chelsea went into the final day two points clear at the top, but the title slipped from their grasp as they lost 2-1 at Manchester City. Will history repeat itself, or can they banish those painful memories?
League form: WLLWW
Remaining fixtures: Notts County (h) 6 Sep, Liverpool (a) 26 Sep, Sunderland (h) 4 Oct.
Rachel Brown-Finnis' verdict: Champions
"They've gone from strength to strength since the FA Cup final. Their depth of players is at least on a par with Manchester City's but Chelsea have the firepower that will be decisive to go on and win the title. They've learnt from last season so I think, come that last game against Sunderland, they won't make the same mistake twice."
Sunderland
Sunderland striker Beth Mead has scored 11 goals in 11 league games so far this season
The Lady Black Cats have, without doubt, the toughest run-in as they face the other three title contenders in their last three games.
After topping the WSL 1 table at the end of July, draws in their last two league matches have seen them drop to second.
Being crowned champions is not out of the question, though. If they beat both Manchester City and Arsenal, they will take the title race to the last day of the season when they travel to Chelsea.
However, without a win in their last five games in all competitions, and several key players picking up knocks, their chances seem unlikely.
League form: WWWDD
Remaining fixtures: Man City (a) 6 Sep, Arsenal (h) 26 Sep, Chelsea (a) 4 Oct.
Rachel Brown-Finnis verdict: Third
"Sunderland have had a phenomenal season. They're an exciting team to watch but I don't think they've quite got the depth of squad. I don't think they'll go on to win the title but they're still in contention for the Champions League and I think they would have been very, very happy to be in that position before they kicked a ball this season."
Manchester City
Toni Duggan's five league goals since the World Cup have helped move City into title contention
After a poor start to the season, few people considered Manchester City to be title contenders as they headed into the mid-season break.
However, after going on a 10-match unbeaten streak in all competitions since the World Cup, the club now sit third in the table, five points behind Chelsea and with a game in hand.
City's 2-2 draw with Notts County at the end of August could prove to be costly for their title hopes, as victory in that match would have left their destiny in their own hands.
They are now relying on Chelsea to drop points if they are to lift the trophy, but if they can win all four of their remaining games, they will at least guarantee themselves Champions League football for next season.
League form: WWWWD
Remaining fixtures: Sunderland (h) 6 Sep, Liverpool (h) 10 Sep, Bristol Academy (h) 27 Sep, Notts County (h) 4 Oct.
Rachel Brown-Finnis verdict: Second
"I have a feeling that their draw against Notts County, when they threw away a 2-0 lead, will be decisive in City's title aspirations. It's been good to see the momentum they've used in the second-half of the season but, with four games to go, I think the title might be a stretch too far."
Arsenal
Will Arsenal's growing injury list prove too much, as they attempt to claim their third WSL 1 title?
Winners of the first two Women's Super League titles and by far the most successful English women's team in history, Arsenal can never be ruled out.
For much of the season, it looked as though the Gunners would offer the toughest resistance to Chelsea's pursuit of silverware.
However, home defeats by Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea since the mid-summer break have cost Arsenal dear, and they are now reliant on several other results going their way if they are to win the title.
Spanish boss Pedro Martinez Losa has been at Arsenal for just over a year, and has re-built his side impressively since then, but this year might be just one year too soon for them to be crowned champions.
League form: LWWLL
Remaining fixtures: Liverpool (a) 5 Sep, Sunderland (a) 26 Sep, Birmingham City (h) 4 Oct.
Rachel Brown-Finnis verdict: Fourth
"It's a toss up between Arsenal and Sunderland for third and fourth for me. There's definitely been something missing for Arsenal. They've had injuries to the likes of Alex Scott, Kelly Smith and Leah Williamson. It's probably taken the sting out of what they've done this season and also the sting out of their hopes for the title."
Chasing pack
Mathematically, defending champions Liverpool and beaten Women's FA Cup finalists Notts County are still capable of winning the title.
However, Chelsea need only one win to dash those slim hopes.
A second-place finish and a spot in Europe are still up for grabs, and they can both certainly have a say on who does top the WSL table at the end of the season, as both sides face Manchester City and Chelsea in the final month.
Liverpool will have a huge say at both ends of the table, as they also entertain title-chasing Arsenal and finish their season at relegation-threatened Bristol Academy.
Impact of relegation fight
Like the title race, the fight for survival may very well go to the last day as Birmingham City and Bristol Academy try to avoid the drop.
The bottom two face each other in a potentially season-shaping clash on Saturday and will be a tricky obstacle for those looking to achieve glory at the other end of the table.
Arsenal host Birmingham City on the final day, while Manchester City entertain Bristol in the penultimate round of fixtures on 27 September.
Compiled by Andrew Aloia, Jo Currie and Tom Garry. |
Philip Tetlock’s new paper on political hypocrisy re thought crimes:
The ability to read minds raises the specter of punishment of thought crimes and preventive incarceration of those who harbor dangerous thoughts. … Our participants were highly educated managers participating in an executive education program who had extensive experience inside large business organizations and held diverse political views. … We asked participants to suppose that scientists had created technologies that can reveal attitudes that people are not aware of possessing but that may influence their actions nonetheless.
In the control condition, the core applications of these technologies (described as a mix of brain-scan technology and the IAT’s reaction-time technology) were left unspecified. In the two treatment conditions, these technologies were to be used … to screen employees for evidence of either unconscious racism (UR) against African Americans or unconscious anti-Americanism (UAA). … Liberals were consistently more open to the technology, and to punishing organizations that rejected its use, when the technology was aimed at detecting UR among company managers; conservatives were consistently more open to the technology, and to punishing organizations that rejected its use, when the technology was aimed at detecting UAA among American Muslims.
Virtually no one was ready to abandon that [harm] principle and endorse punishing individuals for unconscious attitudes per se. … When directly asked, few respondents saw it as defensible to endorse the technology for one type of application but not for the other—even though there were strong signs from our experiment that differential ideological groups would do just that when not directly confronted with this potential hypocrisy. …
Liberal participants were [more] reluctant to raise concerns about researcher bias as a basis for opposition, a reluctance consistent [the] finding that citizens tend to believe that scientists hold liberal rather than conservative political views. …
This experiment confronted the more extreme participants with a choice between defending a double standard (explaining why one application is more acceptable) and acknowledging that they may have erred initially (reconsidering their support for the ideologically agreeable technology). … Those with more extreme views were more disposed to … backtrack from their initial position. (more; ungated)
So if we oppose thought crime in general, but support it when it serves our partisan purposes, that probably means that we will have it in the long run. There will be thought crime.
GD Star Rating
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The vulnerability (CVE-2016-4010) allows an attacker to execute PHP code at the vulnerable Magento server unauthenticated. This vulnerability actually consists of many small vulnerabilities, as described further in the blog post.
Magento is an extremely popular eCommerce platform with a 30% share in the eCommerce market.
It is used by major corporations, such as Rosetta Stone, Nike, BevMo and Dyson, and by small online merchants alike. All in all, Magento is used in 250,000 online shops, handling approximately 50 Billion dollars a year.
These statistics, along with the fact Magento stores almost all customer information, makes it an extremely sensitive target, and the main reason I audited it once more.
The vulnerability assumes one of the RPCs (REST or SOAP) is enabled. As both are enabled by default, and one of them is actually required by the system, this assumption will not be a problem in the absolute majority of installations.
In this document I will use the SOAP API, as XML is more readable in this case.
This vulnerability works on both the Community Edition and Enterprise Edition of the system.
I recommend all Magento administrators to update their installations to the 2.0.6 patch.
Vulnerable Versions
Magento EE & CE before 2.0.6.
Technical Description
The Good
Since the last time I audited Magento’s code, a lot has changed. Most of the code has been re-written, the directories structure changed, and the security mechanisms improved.
So, naturally, I was quite happy auditing this massive codebase again.
The first thing I noticed while going through the code was the vast improvement to the system’s OOP structure. Almost every class in the system implemented at least one interface, inherited from a parent class, and used some advanced magic-method, such as ‘__call()’ or ‘__get()’ to better expose private properties.
Of course, while being a huge step-forward, this extreme example of OOP implementation also complicated things quite a bit – both for me as a researcher, and for Magento developers.
Now, when a developer is writing a new class, it is forced to inherit, or implement, a different class or interface, written by another developer. While this happens quite a lot in the software development world, the security implications of this work-methodology has greatly increased in this particular system – a result of the very dynamic code flow, and, unfortunately, the very dynamic API.
Magento, at its core, is a system built by different “modules”. These so called “modules” are basically different directories containing code for different functionalities the system offers. For example, there’s a module responsible for the payment, one that’s responsible for the virtual cart and one responsible for the customers.
In each module there’s a special directory named “API”. This directory contains all the functionality the module exports to other modules. That way the payment module can communicate with the cart module, the customer module with the authorization module, or the shipping module with the sales module, naming a few examples.
The “API” directory is made out of different PHP files, each containing one PHP class, responsible for exposing some of the module functionality to the rest of the system. Most of the modules API functionality is restricted to other system controlled modules only, as most of it is sensitive.
But, some of the API calls has also been made accessible to another, more user controlled, module – the notorious Web API.
Magento’s Web API is allowing two different RPCs – a REST RPC, and a SOAP API. Both RPCs provide the same functionality, the only difference between the two is that one is using JSON and the HTTP query string to handle its input, while the other uses XML envelopes.
As both are enabled by default, I will use SOAP API in this document as I find it more understandable.
The Bad
Without a doubt in my mind, I can safely say Magento features one of the most comprehensive APIs I have ever seen in a PHP CMS, or really any kind of CMS at all.
In order to expose just part of each module’s API, Magento has provided module developers a convenient way of declaring which parts of their module’s API they want to make accessible to the Web API – the “webapi.xml” file.
The “webapi.xml” file contains all the classes and methods exposed to the Web API, in a neat, organized, XML structure. Each exposed method also specifies the specific privilege level it requires.
These privileges can range from “anonymous” – allowing anyone (even guests) to access the method, to “self” – allowing access only to registered customers, and to specific, admin-only, privileges, such as the “Magento_Backend::admin” privilege – allowing access only to administrators with capabilities of editing the server configuration values.
While granting module developers a convenient way of communicating between the front-end of the system and its back-end, the Web API, using the “webapi.xml” file, also opens another door leading directly into the module’s core.
As we will assume the role of guests in the store, we will only be able to access methods requiring the “anonymous” privilege. This will greatly narrow our attack surface, but will remove the requirement for any special preconditions.
Surprisingly, even with “anonymous” privileges we could still use very dynamic input types. I’m not referring to the regular XMLRPC input types alone, such as arrays or base64 decoded strings, I’m also referring to different objects available in the system. For example, the “CustomerRepositoryInterface::save()” API function allows us to use a “CustomerInterface” object in the “$customer” variable, as can be seen in the following prototype:
interface CustomerRepositoryInterface { /** * Create customer. */ public function save(\Magento\Customer\Api\Data\CustomerInterface $customer); }
How can objects be created using the RPC interface? Interestingly enough, the answer to that question relies in how Magento configured their SOAP server.
Magento uses the default SOAP server that is bundled by default with PHP – “SoapServer”. In order to be properly configured, “SoapServer” requires a WSDL file, which describes all the methods, arguments, and custom types used in the particular RPC request.
Magento generates a different WSDL file for every module supporting XMLRPC functionality, setting its data directly from the module’s “webapi.xml” file.
When an RPC request is parsed by the server, the server uses the data found in the WSDL file to decide whether the request is valid or not, checking the requested method, its arguments, and their types. If the request is valid, it passes the parsed request object back to Magento for further parsing.
It is important to note that “SoapServer” does not interact with Magento in any way – all the information it has about the module’s methods and arguments comes from the WSDL file alone.
At this point, the request sent is still made out of nested arrays – no objects were created during SoapServer’s parsing phase.
In order to create the required objects, Magento continues to handle the input itself.
Magento obtains the prototype (can be seen in the previous code example) of the method requested in order to extract its argument names and data types.
For basic cases, such as strings, arrays, booleans and so on, the system just casts the input into the appropriate type. But for objects, the solution is a bit trickier.
If the argument data type is an instance of a class, Magento will try and create that instance using the supplied input. Remember that at this point the input is just a dictionary – its keys are the properties names and values are the properties values.
First, Magneto will create a new instance of the required class. Then, it will try and populate it using the following algorithm:
Get a property name (from the input dictionary keys) Look for a public method named “Set[NAME]()”, where [NAME] is the property name If there is such a method, execute it using the property value as an argument. If there isn’t, ignore the property and continue to the next one
Magento will follow this algorithm for every potential property the user is trying to set. When all properties have been checked, Magento will assume the instance is ready and it will move to the next argument.
When all arguments are dealt with, Magento will then finally execute the API method.
Let me clarify that part – Magento lets you create an object, set its public properties, and execute any method starting with the “Set” prefix through its RPC.
Surprisingly, this behavior will be Magento’s downfall.
The ugly
Some API calls allow us to set specific information in our shopping cart. Such information can be our shipping address, products, and even our payment method.
When Magento sets our information safely inside the shopping cart instance, it uses the “save” function of that instance in order to store the newly inserted data in the database.
Let’s have a look at how the “save” function looks like:
/** * Save object data */ public function save(\Magento\Framework\Model\AbstractModel $object) { ... // If the object is valid and can be saved if ($object->isSaveAllowed()) { // Serialize whatever fields need serializing $this->_serializeFields($object); ... // If the object already exists in the DB, update it if ($this->isObjectNotNew($object)) { $this->updateObject($object); // Otherwise, create a new record } else { $this->saveNewObject($object); } // Unserialize the fields we serialized $this->unserializeFields($object); } ... return $this; } // AbstractDb::save()
Magento makes sure our object is valid, serializes any fields that should be serialized, stores it in the database, and finally it unserializes the fields it previously serialized.
Sounds simple, right?
Nope.
Let’s have a look at how Magento decides which fields it should serialize:
/** * Serialize serializable fields of the object */ protected function _serializeFields(\Magento\Framework\Model\AbstractModel $object) { // Loops through the '_serializableFields' property // (containing hardcoded fields that should be serialized) foreach ($this->_serializableFields as $field => $parameters) { // Get the field's value $value = $object->getData($field); // If it's an array or an object, serialize it if (is_array($value) || is_object($value)) { $object->setData($field, serialize($value)); } } } // AbstractDb::_serializeFields()
As can be seen, only fields appearing in the hard-coded dictionary “_serializableFields” can be serialized. On top of that, the method makes sure the field’s value is an array or an object before it continues to serialize it.
Now, let’s have a look at how Magento decided which fields it should unserialize:
/** * Unserialize serializeable object fields */ public function unserializeFields(\Magento\Framework\Model\AbstractModel $object) { // Loops through the '_serializableFields' property // (containing hardcoded fields that should be serialized) foreach ($this->_serializableFields as $field => $parameters) { // Get the field's value $value = $object->getData($field); // If it's not an array or an object, unserialize it if (!is_array($value) && !is_object($value)) { $object->setData($field, unserialize($value)); } } } // AbstractDb::unserializeFields ()
Well, it’s pretty much the same. The only difference is that this time Magento makes sure the field’s value is not an array or an object.
Because of these two checks, we can exploit an object injection attack – simply by setting a regular string to a serializable field.
When we set a regular string to a serializable field, the system will not serialize it before the object is stored in the database, as it is not an object or an array. But when the system will try to unserialize it, right after the database queries has been executed, it will be unserialized, as it is not an object or an array.
This small, almost invisible, condition, makes the difference between a vulnerable and a secure system.
The only questions remaining are which fields are considered “serializable”, and how can we set them.
The first question is easy – we just need to search which classes define the “_serializableFields” property.
Quickly enough, I found several classes that define serializable fields, but none of them could be created using our beloved XMLRPC.
To be honest, one of these classes – “Payment” (which is responsible for gathering information about the payment details), does appear in one of the API methods, but not as an argument, so I couldn’t create or control its instance properties.
On top of that, its serializable field – “additional_information”, can only be set as an array using the regular “Set[PROPERTY_NAME]” technique as an extra security measure, so not only we can’t create it, we wouldn’t be able to set it as a string even if we could.
But it can be set in another tricky way.
When Magento sets the properties of the argument instance, it doesn’t actually set its properties. Instead, it stores them in a dictionary named “_data”. This dictionary is then being used in almost all cases where an instance property is needed.
In our case, this means that our serializable field – “additional_information”, is actually being stored inside that dictionary rather than as a regular property.
As a result, if we could control the “_data” dictionary entirely, we could bypass the “additional_information” field array restriction, as we will set it manually rather than call “Set[PROPERTY_NAME]”.
But how can we control this sensitive dictionary?
Well, one of the things Magento does before saving our “Payment” instance is to edit its properties. Magento does that by treating our API input as payment information that is needed to be stored in the “Payment” instance. This can be seen in the following API method:
/** * Adds a specified payment method to a specified shopping cart. */ public function set($cartId, \Magento\Quote\Api\Data\PaymentInterface $method) { $quote = $this->quoteRepository->get($cartId); // Get the cart instance $payment = $quote->getPayment(); // Get the payment instance // Get the data from the user input $data = $method->getData(); // Check for additional data if (isset($data['additional_data'])) { $data = array_merge($data, (array)$data['additional_data']); unset($data['additional_data']); } // Import the user input to the Payment instance $payment->importData($data); ... } // PaymentMethodManagement::set()
As can be seen, the “Payment” data is retrieved with a call to “$method->getData()”, which returns the “_data” property from the “$method” variable. Keep in mind that because “$method” is an argument in an API method, we are in control of it.
When Magneto calls “getData()” on our “$method” argument, the “_data” property of that argument is returned, containing all the payment information we inserted.
Later, it calls “importData()” with our “_data” property as input, replacing the “Payment” instance “_data” property with our “_data” property.
This is a huge step forward. We can now replace the sensitive “_data” property in the “Payment” instance with our user controlled “_data” property, which means we can now set the “additional_information” field.
The problem is that for our unserialize() to work we need that field set to a string, but the “Set[PROPERT_NAME]” method only allows it to be an array.
Surprisingly, though, the solution lies two lines of code before the “importData()” call.
Magento, in its constant effort of becoming the most dynamic CMS ever created, allows developers to add their own payment methods, requiring their own data and information. In order to do that, Magento uses our user-controlled “additional_data” field.
The “additional_data” field is a dictionary containing more data for the payment method, completely controlled by the user. In order for that custom data to be part of the original data, Magento merges the “additional_data” dictionary with the original “data” dictionary, effectively allowing the “additional_data” dictionary to override any value in the “data” dictionary, basically letting it completely override it.
This means that now, after the two dictionaries merged, the user controlled “additional_data” dictionary now became the argument’s “_data” dictionary, and because of “importData()”, it now becomes the “Payment” instance sensitive “_data” property.
Which means we can now completely control the serializable field “additional_information” and exploit an Object Injection Attack.
And the unserializable
Now, that we can unserialize any string we wanted, it’s time to exploit the Object Injection.
First, we will need an object with a “__wakeup()” or “__destruct()” method, so it will be automatically called when the object is unserialized or destroyed. We require such methods because even though we can control the object properties, we can’t call any of its methods. This is why we have to rely on PHP’s magical methods, which are called automatically when certain events occur.
The first object we will use will be an instance of the “Credis_Client” class, which contains these methods:
/* * Called automaticlly when the object is destrotyed. */ public function __destruct() { if ($this->closeOnDestruct) { $this->close(); } } /* * Closes the redis stream. */ public function close() { if ($this->connected && ! $this->persistent) { ... $result = $this->redis->close(); } ... } // Credis_Client::__destruct(), close()
As can be seen, the class does have a simple __”destruct()” method (that will be automatically called by PHP when the object is destroyed), which simply calls the “close()” method.
“close()”, on the other hand, is more interesting – if “close()” recognizes that there is an active connection to a Redis server, it tries to close it by calling the “close()” method on the “redis” property.
Because “unserialize()” allows us to control all the object properties, we control the “redis” property too. Because of that, we can set any object we’d like into that property (not just a Redis one), and affectively, call any “close()” method in any class in the system.
This greatly expands our attack surface. There are several “close()” methods in Magento, and because “close()” methods are usually responsible for terminating streams, closing file handles, and storing object data, we can expect some interesting calls in some of them.
And, as expected, I did find some interesting calls. Let’s have a look at the “close()” method of the “Transaction” class:
/** * Close this transaction */ public function close($shouldSave = true) { ... if ($shouldSave) { $this->save(); } ... } /** * Save object data */ public function save() { $this->_getResource()->save($this); return $this; } // Magento\Sales\Model\Order\Payment\Transaction::__destruct(), close()
Both of these methods are pretty simple. The “close()” method calls the “save()” method, which then calls the “save()” method of the “_resource” property.
Using the same logic we used before, because we control the “_resource” property we can control its class too, so we can call any “save()” method in any class we’d like.
That’s a huge step forward. As can be guessed, “save()” methods are usually responsible for storing some kind of data in some kind of storage – the file system, a database, and so on. All we have to do now is look for a “save()” method which uses the file system as its storage utility.
And, quickly enough, I found one:
/** * Try to save configuration cache to file */ public function save() { ... // save stats file_put_contents($this->getStatFileName(), $this->getComponents()); ... } // Magento\Framework\Simplexml\Config\Cache\File::save()
All this method does is store what’s inside the “components” field into a file. As the file path is retrieved from the “stat_file_name” field, and because we control these two fields, we effectively control both the file path and its content, which results in an arbitrary file write vulnerability.
All we have to do now is find a good path to write our file in, one that has to be writeable by the server and accessible via the web.
One such path is the “/pub” directory, available in all Magento installations. Magento uses that directory in order to store any images or public files an administrator uploaded, and as such, it has to be writeable by the server.
More importantly, because that directory usually stores images, which needs to be retrieved by the browser, it is accessible through the regular web interface.
Finally, we just need to write some PHP code, give our file name a “.php” extension, and we’re good to go. We’ve executed arbitrary PHP code on the server unauthenticated. |
I know this isn’t a universally held opinion, but to me there is a simple reality. Between September and December we were facing a significant chance of another Great Depression. Beyond that, we were potentially looking at a financial disaster from which the United States would never recover.
Today, it looks like we are merely facing a very bad recession.
Who deserves credit? Certainly not Hank Paulson and the Bush administration. They choose philosophy over pragmatism every chance they got. They gave in to the moronic “moral hazard” bullshit argument. They stuck to their right-wing “fuck off and die” mentality toward the banking system. That worked out great didn’t it? Then when they had the chance to use the TARP right, they failed miserably. Again, they gave into the moral hazard wing of the Republican party and instead of buying up bad securities, they initiated the Capital Assistance Program. No moral hazard there!
Can’t credit Obama either. I’ll admit that the Stress Test was a much better idea than anything Bush ever came up with, but I’d argue that by December we had already turned a corner. Obama just managed to keep the momentum going. Besides, his $800 billion stimulus program is, at best, a waste of time, and at worse, contributing to rising Treasury yields and thus retarding the recovery.
I have to give most of the credit to Ben Bernanke. He understood that while liquidity wasn’t the whole problem, illiquidity could have made (and was making) the problem much much worse. He understood what really made the Great Depression a 15 year affair rather than a 2 year recession. He understood what created Japan’s lost decade (and counting). He saw how dangerous debt deflation could be, and he attacked it with both guns blazing.
Some people derided the Fed’s efforts as ineffective. That’s because they were looking at how the stock market or housing market was reacting to Fed rate cuts. But the cuts were never meant to “solve” anything. Housing prices had to fall to more affordable levels. Nothing could (nor should have) been done to stop that. Stocks had to fall in reaction to the oncoming recession as well as the reality of a weak recovery. For that matter, unemployment was bound to rise as workers are moved from leverage-oriented jobs to someplace else. The Fed wasn’t trying to solve any of these problems.
Compare this with Alan Greenspan’s constant manipulation of the stock market. In today’s FT, Greenspan says as much in an opinion piece:
“In my experience, such episodes [rising or falling stock prices] are often not mere forecasts of future business activity, but major causes of it.” ( emphasis added ).
That sums up Greenspan’s tenure at the Fed doesn’t it? He’s basically saying that by creating bubbles, he was able to spurn real economic activity. Look, a lot of us fell for it for a long time. He was called the Maestro for the Force’s sake. But now, in hindsight, we can certainly see the folly in this philosophy.
Now the morons in congress are coming for Ben Bernanke for how he handled the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch merger. Seriously? Now, let there be no doubt. Ken Lewis was pressured by the Fed in a way that should leave a bad taste in the mouth of any free citizen. But we were in the middle of an economic war. Sometimes some bad shit happens on the battlefield and sometimes its OK if we look the other way.
If the Republicans push this, though, Obama will be left with little choice but to not reappoint him. Then we’ll get Larry Summers. Great. Even if you forget all the virtues I’ve just bestowed on Bernanke, remember this. The key to an effective Central Bank is independence. Otherwise we have Arthur Burns. It was Burns, not oil, which caused the Great Inflation of the 1970’s.
How can we seriously assume Summers will be independent of Rohm Emanuel? If Summers winds up running the Fed, mark my word, inflation will follow. |
Do constellations looks the same from space?
We get this questions in a variety of flavours. Two recent examples:
Can the constellation Orion be seen from the surface of Mars? And if so, where in the sky would it appear?
If an astronaut was traveling through the solar system and could look out a window, would stars be more or less visible? Would the constellations be visible as constellations? That is, would the stars still be in pretty much the same relationship as seen from Earth?
The answer is always the same..... Although the constellations are not usually stars which are physically associated with each other, you have to go a very significant distance from Earth before you would be able to see them appear as different shapes. Everywhere within the solar system the constellations would look just the same. If you could travel significant fractions of the distance to the nearest stars (many light years) then you would start to see some changes, but such travel is (unfortunately) way beyond our capabilities at present.
This page updated on June 27, 2015 |
The Home Depot College Football Awards will air Thursday, Dec. 8, on ESPN, and a trio of Alabama players have a chance to bring home some hardware.
Twenty-four players were selected as finalists for the nine National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) awards given annually during the show, and the top-ranked Crimson Tide was well-represented. Defensive end Jonathan Allen is a finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, left tackle Cam Robinson is a finalist for the Outland Trophy and tight end O.J. Howard is a finalist for the Mackey Award.
Allen has been a force for one of the nation’s top-ranked units, anchoring the Crimson Tide’s defensive line. Providing consistent pressure from his end spot, he has collected a team-high 13 quarterback hurries and has made seven sacks (-55 yards). He has also added 9.5 tackles for loss (-70 yards) as part of his 46 tackles on the season. The senior lineman has returned a team-leading two fumble recoveries for 105 combined yards and two touchdowns.
For his career, Allen has totaled 25 career sacks to place him second on the Tide’s all-time list behind former Crimson Tide standout and NFL Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas. The Bednarik is given annually to college football’s top defensive player.
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Robinson has been a staple at left tackle since he stepped foot on campus, starting all 40 games of his career protecting the blind side. He anchors a Tide offensive line that has blocked for the Southeastern Conference’s top scoring offense and has helped the Alabama rushing attack to accumulate 249.8 yards per game, a total that is second in the conference.
The Monroe, La., native has blocked for 10 100-yard rushing games this season and 27 100-yard rushers during his three year career. This season, he has recorded 23 knockdown blocks in 11 games while protecting Alabama quarterbacks from some of the top edge pass rushers in the nation.
Howard has continued his steady play during his senior season, catching 30 passes for 359 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 12.0 yards per catch. He has at least one catch in every game this year and has improved as the season wears on, totaling 16 receptions for 150 yards and a touchdown across his last four games. Howard has also shown impressive blocking skills this season, helping the Alabama’s ground game accumulate 2,777 yards through 11 contests to average 252.5 yards per game on the ground.
The Mackey Award is given annually to the most outstanding tight end in college football and has been presented each year since 2000, and the winner will be announced on Dec. 7, 2016. The award will be presented live on Dec. 8 at The Home Depot College Football Awards Red Carpet Show airing at 6 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
The Home Depot College Football Awards will air on ESPN, Thursday, Dec. 8, at 6 p.m. CT.
THE HOME DEPOT COLLEGE FOOTBALL AWARDS FINALISTS
NCFAA awards announced during The Home Depot College Football Awards:
Chuck Bednarik Award -- College Defensive Player of the Year
Jonathan Allen, Alabama (Sr.)
Myles Garrett, Texas A&M (So.)
Jabrill Peppers, Michigan (Jr.)
Biletnikoff Award -- Outstanding Receiver
Austin Carr, Northwestern (Jr.)
Zay Jones, East Carolina (Sr.)
Dede Westbrook, Oklahoma (RS Sr.)
Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award -- Nation’s Outstanding Placekicker
Daniel Carlson, Auburn (Jr.)
Zane Gonzalez, Arizona State (Sr.)
Younghoe Koo, Georgia Southern (Sr.)
Ray Guy Award -- College Punter of the Year
Michael Dickson, Texas (So.)
Cameron Johnston, Ohio State, (GS)
Mitch Wishnowsky, Utah, (So.)
Maxwell Award -- College Player of the Year
Lamar Jackson, Louisville (So.)
Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma (RS Jr.)
Jabrill Peppers, Michigan (Jr.)
Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award -- Nation’s Best Quarterback
Lamar Jackson, Louisville (So.)
Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma (RS Jr.)
Deshaun Watson, Clemson (Jr.)
Outland Trophy -- Nation’s Most Outstanding Interior Lineman
Pat Elflein, Ohio State (Sr.)
Cody O'Connell, Washington State (RS Jr.)
Cam Robinson, Alabama
Jim Thorpe Award -- Nation’s Best Defensive Back
Adoree’ Jackson, USC (Jr.)
Jourdan Lewis, Michigan (Sr.)
Tre’Davious White, LSU (Sr.)
Doak Walker Award -- Nation’s Premier Running Back
Dalvin Cook, Florida State (Jr.)
D’Onta Foreman, Texas (Jr.)
Donnel Pumphrey, San Diego State (Sr.)
Other awards recognized during The Home Depot College Football Awards:
The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award -- Winner be announced Wednesday, Dec. 8
NCFAA Contributions to College Football Award -- Winner to be announced Wednesday, Nov. 30
Disney Spirit Award Most Inspirational -- James Conner, Pittsburgh (RS Jr.)
William V. Campbell Trophy -- Academic Success
The Allstate AFCA Good Works Team
Walter Camp All-America Team
Awards recognized during The Home Depot College Football Awards Red Carpet Special at 6 p.m. on ESPNU:
John Mackey Award -- Outstanding Tight End
Jake Butt, Michigan (Sr.)
O.J. Howard, Alabama (Sr.)
Jordan Leggett, Clemson (Sr.)
Rimington Award Outstanding Center -- Finalists to be announced Monday, Dec. 5; Winner announced live on the Red Carpet
Wuerffel Trophy -- Community Service
Garrett Adcock, New Mexico (RS Sr.)
Trevor Knight, Texas A&M (Sr.)
Christian McCaffrey, Stanford (Jr.)
Enjoy VIP access to BamaOnLine for FREE until Jan. 1, 2017 with this trial. |
Today, we’re releasing SwiftTweaks, a way to adjust your Swift-based iOS app without needing to recompile.
Your users won’t see your animation study, Sketch comps, or prototypes. What they will see is the finished product - so it’s really important to make sure that your app feels right on a real device!
Animations that look great on your laptop often feel too slow when in-hand. Layouts that looks perfect on a 27-inch display might be too cramped on a 4-inch device. Light gray text may look subtle in Sketch, but it’s downright illegible when you’re outside on a sunny day.
For these reasons, it’s helpful to fine-tune your designs on-device - but that’s a lot of work: open Xcode, tweak your code, and wait for the app to build to device before seeing the results.
What about Facebook Tweaks?
In Objective-C projects, I’ve cherished Facebook’s Tweaks, a tool that makes this process easy. However, while it's possible to use FBTweaks in Swift, it's far less convenient than in Objective-C.
Since Khan Academy’s iOS code is almost entirely Swift, we wanted something that would make it easy to use tweaks. (Plus: with Swift’s generic types, protocols, and all-around awesomeness, we figured we could make some improvements.)
We’ve been using SwiftTweaks for a few months now in our iOS app, and it’s been wonderful for fine-tuning gestures, adjusting animations, and toggling feature flags.
Using SwiftTweaks
Create a TweakLibrary
First, you create a TweakLibrary , which contains Tweaks and a TweakStore . (If TweakStore.enabled is false, then the Tweaks UI will be inaccessible and all tweaks return their default value - which means you can leave this code in-place when you ship your production app.)
public struct ExampleTweaks: TweakLibraryType { public static let colorTint = Tweak("General", "Colors", "Tint", UIColor.blueColor()) public static let marginHorizontal = Tweak<CGFloat>("General", "Layout", "H. Margins", defaultValue: 15, min: 0) public static let marginVertical = Tweak<CGFloat>("General", "Layout", "V. Margins", defaultValue: 10, min: 0) public static let featureFlag = Tweak("Feature Flags", "Main Screen", "Show Body Text", true) public static let buttonAnimation = SpringAnimationTweakTemplate("Animation", "Button Animation") public static let defaultStore: TweakStore = { let allTweaks: [TweakType] = [colorTint, marginHorizontal, marginVertical, featureFlag] #if DEBUG let tweaksEnabled: Bool = true #else let tweaksEnabled: Bool = false #endif return TweakStore( tweaks: allTweaks.map(AnyTweak.init), enabled: tweaksEnabled ) }() }
Calling Tweaks in your code
When you want to use a tweak in your code, use the assign , bind, and bindMultiple functions.
assign returns the current value of the tweak:
button.tintColor = ExampleTweaks.assign(ExampleTweaks.colorTint)
bind calls its closure immediately, and again each time the tweak changes:
ExampleTweaks.bind(ExampleTweaks.colorTint) { button.tintColor = $0 }
bindMultiple calls its closure immediately, and again each time any of its tweaks change:
// A "multipleBind" is called initially, and each time _any_ of the included tweaks change: let tweaksToWatch: [TweakType] = [ExampleTweaks.marginHorizontal, ExampleTweaks.marginVertical] ExampleTweaks.bindMultiple(tweaksToWatch) { let horizontal = ExampleTweaks.assign(ExampleTweaks.marginHorizontal) let vertical = ExampleTweaks.assign(ExampleTweaks.marginVertical) scrollView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: vertical, right: horizontal, bottom: vertical, left: horizontal) }
There are also several handy TweakGroupTemplate types, to help you with commonly-tweaked things. Our above ExampleTweaks library included one for a UIView spring animation:
public static let buttonAnimation = SpringAnimationTweakTemplate("Animation", "Button Animation")
This single line of code creates four tweaks - for duration, delay, damping, and initial spring velocity. Each has sensible defaults (e.g. “delay can’t be negative”) - and there’s a UIView extension to easily use the TweakGroup : UIView.animateWithSpringAnimationTweakTemplate
For more on using Tweaks and TweakGroupTemplates, check out the example project.
Accessing the interface
Lastly, we need a way to adjust our Tweaks while the app is running. The simplest way is to set your app’s UIWindow to be a TweakWindow . By default, the TweakWindow presents a TweaksViewController when you shake the device in a debug build, but you can provide a different gesture recognizer, too.
You can also handle the presentation of a TweaksViewController if you prefer to not use a TweakWindow .
Tweaking values
Now for the fun part - shake your phone, and your tweaks appear! Adjust booleans with a switch, numbers with a stepper or keyboard, and there’s a great color-editing interface in there, too! There’s also a “floating UI” so you can edit tweaks without leaving a screen.
Here's a preview of the SwiftTweaks example app (included in the repository):
Check it out on GitHub and let us know what you think! |
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Marijuana Re-Legalization Coming in 1st in 2nd Obama Poll
Note: The following statistics were collected 12/30/2008 at 3:00 PM EST. This is important to know as the polling is continuing till at least 12/31/2008. At that time 44,298 people have submitted 36,864 questions and cast 1,962,040 votes.
I visited Obama's www.change.gov website to see if Marijuana Re-Legalization was leading again, as it came in first in during the first poll. At first I was disappointed because the first Re-Legalization question was ranked 26th of 36,864 questions. Still not bad. And the leading scoring question was a good one at that:
"I'm concerned about the banks who received tax payers money and have had no
accountability. Will this be corrected after President elect Obama is in
office?"
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The leading question (above) below got 9,862 Yes and 600 no votes
But I then typed "marijuana" in "Search questions" field and clicked to find that 1,071 questions had been submitted regarding Marijuana Legalization. In other words a little less than 3 percent of the questions were focused on Re-Legalizing Marijuana.
And as I went down the list of "Marijuana" questions I noticed that many had overwhelming percentages in favor of Re-Legalization and many had "yes" responses of over 2,000. So there is little doubt that, in aggregate, Marijuana Re-Legalization is destined to come in first place in the second Obama poll. In fact I believe there is more support for Legalization in the 2nd poll than in the first. But Obama's website does not have the tools available to quantify this.
The only unfortunate aspect of the Marijuana questions is that they invariably insist on taxing and regulating it, which I believe to be a very bad idea. This "legalize and tax" model appears to be an instilled "Pavlovian" response of far too many Marijuana Re-Legalization advocates.
Still, it is great to see such support for Marijuana Re-Legalization. Perhaps this second poll will convince Obama that saying "No" to Re-Legalization is just going to seriously "piss off" the American People?
I would highly recommend that my readers consider the MERP Model for Re-Legalization over any "legalize and tax" model. The following links will provide all the background you need to understand the MERP Model that I had authored around 2000.
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===========
Marijuana: Past, Present and Future from Bruce Cain on Vimeo.
http://www.vimeo.com/2056650
Why Lou Dobbs Should Support Marijuana Legalization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VKf5YfQb7s&
The MERP Project
The Marijuana Re-Legalization Policy (MRP) Project
http://www.newagecitizen.com/ReLegalization01.htm
http://www.newagecitizen.com/editorial_on_the_marijuana_re.htm
Bruce W. Cain Discusses the MERP Model, for Marijuana Relegalization, with "Sense and Sensimilla"
http://senseandsensi.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=270029
Video Biography of Bruce W. Cain
http://www.newagecitizen.com/Videos.htm
===========
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What is more important, right now, is to get as many votes on "Re-Legalization" as possible. Here is how you can efficiently register your recommendation for Obama to Re-Legalize Marijuana.
(1) First goto
http://change.gov/
(2) Click on "Open for Questions: Round two"
(3) Click on "Open for Questions" link on new webpage.
(4) Click on "View Questions"
(5) Type "marijuana" in "Search questions" field and click
Next Page 1 | 2 |
Every morning Dutchman Marc Dekker hops on his electric bike and cycles 40 miles from his house in a suburb of Utrecht to his work in the town of Ridderkerk. And when work is done, he cycles back another 40 miles. All in all it takes him about three and a half hours to commute. “The actual distance is 45km (28 miles), but I make a detour to avoid having to cross a river by ferry,” he says.
For years Dekker went by car to his job as a computer programmer. But early last year his employer called him into his office and said: I am worried about you. “He was right,” Dekker says. “I was continuously tired and had a short fuse. I drove to work very early in an attempt to avoid the rush hour and when I got home it was already dark. The traffic jams were killing me and I was never outside. Something had to change.”
It was a speed pedelec – an electric bike that can go as fast as 28mph (45km/h) – that brought about the change. “I love cycling,” Dekker says. “I always wanted to cycle to work, and I tried to do so on my racing bike, but the distance was simply too long. And then I tried out one of these fast electric bikes. Five minutes later I knew my problem was solved.”
The government of the Netherlands is about to reclassify such high-speed e-bikes as mopeds, meaning their owners will be banned from cycle paths, the bikes must be fitted with registration plates, and riders must wear helmets, obtain a driver’s licence and take out insurance. A similar situation already exists in Britain and many other European Union countries, with e-bikes limited to 15.5mph.
But for Dekker – who now cycles to work every day – his high-powered bike has enriched his life. “Every day I am grateful I can cycle to work. I only go by car when there is a storm. When it rains, I get wet. So what? At work I can take a hot shower and change. This has made such a change in my life. The stress has gone. I feel energetic when I get home, instead of tired. And the great thing is: I don’t have to go to the gym anymore, so it actually saves time.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dekker’s e-bike commute has drastically reduced his stress levels. Photograph: Mona van den Berg
Dekker is one of the growing number of Dutchmen who use electric bikes to go to work – although it must be said that most of them cover less impressive distances.
According to a Dutch survey from 2012 the e-bike has the potential to cause a growth of 4% to 9% in the total amount of commuting trips by bike in the Netherlands. In some areas this could even be 20%.
“That survey was done before the advent of the speed pedelec, so we think the effect will be much bigger. But we don’t have any statistics yet to account for it,” says Otto van Boggelen of Fietsberaad, a Dutch centre of expertise for cycling policy.
In the Netherlands, all kinds of initiatives have emerged to stimulate people to commute by e-bike. Companies, universities, local and regional authorities offer their employees bonuses when they come to work on an electric bike. For example, the region Arnhem-Nijmegen gave 650 employees who bought an e-bike a discount of 30%. Erasmus University Rotterdam offers a bonus of €350 (£295) to employees who purchase an electric bike.
“These initiatives have been quite successful,” van Boggelen says. “Generally you see that when people give it a try, they continue to go to work by e-bike. But they aren’t inveterate motorists, of course. They are usually people who have always wanted to cycle to work, but simply couldn’t because of the distance. The e-bike enables them to fulfil this wish.”
The great thing is, you can choose how fast you want to pedal and you don’t arrive sweaty at work Otto van Boggelen
Commuting by e-bike offers many advantages to all parties, he says. “It enables employers to economise on parking places and improves the health of their workforce. Authorities see it as a tool to minimise traffic jams and CO2 emissions. To the commuters it offers exercise and fresh air. And they save on petrol costs.”
The e-bike has also saved many Dutch bike shops. The sale of regular bikes is declining in the Netherlands, but shops still make a profit out of the growing number of expensive e-bikes they sell.
For some time the e-bike suffered from a dowdy image, because in the beginning they were mainly bought by elderly people. But the new generation of fast electric bikes or speed pedelecs are no longer considered a means of transport for the older generation. The number of young people buying them is growing fast.
According to van Boggelen, the speed pedelec is attractive because “you can still experience the bike-feeling” while moving as fast as a moped. “The great thing is, you can choose how fast you want to pedal and you don’t arrive sweaty at work.” He thinks the e-bike could also offer possibilities for commuting in other countries. “In hilly areas these bikes are really helpful. But you do need a safe cycling infrastructure.”
E-bikes also pose problems. They are expensive and can be prone to theft. The Dutch police have recently announced they are going to deploy decoy e-bikes to track down gangs of professional bicycle thieves.
Bike jams and unwritten rules: a day with Amsterdam's new 'bicycle mayor' Read more
And then there is the question of safety. Until now, speed pedelecs have been allowed to use the extensive Dutch network of cycle paths, provided they don’t go faster than 15.5mph. From January 2017, though, the Dutch government will put speed pedelecs on the same footing as mopeds.
That is already the position in most other EU countries, including the UK, where speed pedelecs must be registered as mopeds with the DVLA, taxed and insured. Riders are supposed to wear motorcycle-style helmets – but few do. A recent investigation by the Sunday Times found evidence of London commuters using high-powered e-bikes and retailers selling them without making clear that unregistered bikes should only be used on private land.
“Safety risks hardly increase when you use a regular e-bike, but risks are certainly higher when we’re talking about speed pedelecs,” says Wim Bot of the Dutch Cyclists Union. “So for the safety of other cyclists, we don’t want people on power bikes to use cycle paths in the city. We do think these bikes are a great alternative for the car when it comes to commuting though.”
Marc Dekker agrees: “If it wasn’t for my speed pedelec, I would have never decided to go to work on a bike.”
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Membership in the two federally funded multi-state test consortia tasked with designing assessments aligned with the Common Core standards has dropped 62 percent since 2011.
In 2010, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) indicated they had gathered 26 and 32 member states, respectively. But, by the start of 2016, 38 states had left one or both consortia, reports pro-Common Core Education Next.
According to the report:
State participation in the consortia declined just as implementation of the new standards and tests was set to begin. The pace of withdrawals quickened over time, particularly for PARCC, which five or six states left every year between 2013 and 2015. As of May 2016, just six states planned to implement the PARCC-designed assessment in the 2016-17 academic year. SBAC also faced attrition but fared better and still retains 14 states that plan to use the full test…
Only three states have officially repealed the Common Core standards, though at least two – Indiana and South Carolina – simply “rebranded” the standards, or – save for a few tweaks – essentially gave the same standards a different name, a step opposed by grassroots groups of parents.
These grassroots groups have struggled to truly revoke the Common Core standards in their states, having been up against business and industry groups – especially the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – and status-quo politicians at both the state and federal levels who rely on these groups for campaign contributions. In addition, already purchased textbook and online digital learning materials that had products aligned with Common Core created further cause for resistance to truly changing the standards for officials who wanted to fend off expenses for new curriculum materials.
Parents, however, have been most able to flex their muscles in opting out their children from the Common Core-aligned tests. Teachers, too, opposed their evaluations tied to students’ performance on the assessments. Concerns about federal control of education, too many high-stakes tests, and the data-mining of children’s private information have prevailed and resulted in the significant decline in state membership to the test consortia.
Education Next admits that the Common Core standards reform received “support from the wrong places.” The pro-Common Core report states:
The Common Core standards and their aligned assessments drew many supporters from the federal and state governments, from the philanthropic community, and from reform advocates, but most members of these groups do not have a personal stake—a vested interest—in what happens in schools at the ground level. Therefore, their support alone is not enough to sustain education reform over time. Federal and state policymakers sometimes embrace high standards and quality assessments in principle, but when they experience intense pressure from interest groups and the public, their support is likely to falter.
Indeed, the state boards of education, many of them unelected, that signed onto the unproven Common Core standards did so with little, if any, public or media scrutiny, prior to even seeing the standards themselves.
The Common Core standards were developed by three private organizations in Washington D.C.: the National Governors Association (NGA), the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and progressive education company Achieve Inc. All three organizations were privately funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and none of these groups are accountable to parents, teachers, students, or taxpayers.
There is also no official information about who selected the individuals to write the Common Core standards. None of the writers of the math and English Language Arts standards have ever taught math, English, or reading at the K-12 level.
“They did not reach out to parents, teachers and state lawmakers,” Shane Vander Hart notes at Truth in American Education. “This was done intentionally however because there is no way they would have gotten as many states to sign on with the standards and assessment consortia if they went about adoption in a public and transparent way.” |
Diamonds are the hardest solid materials we know, and the ghostly space-age materials known as aerogels are the least dense. Looking for a challenge, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory decided to combine these substances and turn out a spongy, translucent version of a girl's best friend.
The result is a diamond aerogel, definitely the least dense diamond ever and perhaps one of the most valuable aerogels ever. Both aerogels and diamonds have interesting qualities, so a substance that combines their properties could be useful for, say, optics, quantum computing or structural engineering, among other possibilities.
Aerogels are porous, diffuse rigid materials, resembling a solid block of smoke in appearance and a chunk of Styrofoam in texture. They are used to insulate space suits, pick up cosmic particles, and even as home insulation. They're made by constructing a conventional gel and then removing the liquid though supercritical drying. The resulting material is only slightly more dense than air — aerogels themselves are 90 percent air — but retains the structure and rigidity of the non-liquid gel components.
To make a diamond aerogel, Peter J. Pauzauskie and colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory started with an amorphous carbon aerogel precursor and placed it in a diamond anvil cell, which is used to subject items to prodigious pressures. The team injected neon to prevent the aerogel from collapsing under the pressure, and subjected the substance to 21, 22.5 and 25.5 gigapascals — that's about 200 to 250 times the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, in case you're wondering. (It takes about 18 GPa to make a synthetic diamond.)
The resulting aerogel, confirmed through electron and X-ray spectromicroscopy, had a diffuse yet solid nanodiamond matrix. It's transparent and pliable like plastic, and it even sparkles like the big ones, the researchers said. The aerogel possessed a bright and stable photoluminescence, which its precursor material did not. Diamonds emit electrons, so this particle emission could be useful for ultra-strong quantum information processors, the authors say.
The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
[via io9] |
Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s controversy-courting former campaign manager, really wants you to think he’s about to land a job in the West Wing.
According to six sources familiar with his discussions in and around the Trump administration, Lewandowski has been privately pitching himself as the perfect candidate to join the White House as President Trump weighs a potential staff reboot amid recent scandals.
According to a longtime GOP operative who requested anonymity so as to speak freely, Lewandowski boasted in conversation in recent days that Trump was ready to bring him officially back into the fold.
“Trump wants me there [in the White House], just you wait,” Lewandowski told this person and others, according to the operative. Another Republican source said they have very recently spoken to administration officials who say “Corey is going around telling people” that he is a shoo-in for a Trump staff reboot.
Accounts of Lewandowski privately gossiping that he’s on his way to the Trump White House are not entirely without merit. On Monday night, Politico reported that Trump “personally reached out to” to Lewandowski and David Bossie, another former top campaign aide, to discuss helping the Trump administration as “crisis managers.” Politico noted that no official announcement is expected before the president returns from his foreign trip and that it is not clear whether any hired “crisis managers” will be working directly out of the White House.
Lewandowski, along with former campaign communications director Jason Miller and former deputy campaign manager Bossie, went to the White House earlier this month for what one source familiar with the appointments called “freewheeling conversation.”
“Corey did say to two of them, ‘I’m coming in,’” a source, who spoke with two White House officials after Lewandowski’s meeting last week, told The Daily Beast. “That was taken to mean ‘I’m coming into the White House.’”
On Thursday, Lewandowski appeared on Good Morning America and seemed to call out people in the administration—without naming names.
“Any person who serves in this administration—whether it’s in the White House or in some other department—that isn’t fully supporting the president’s agenda should not be there. It’s very simple,” Lewandowski said. He went on to criticize people leaking information to the press about the goings-on in the tumultuous White House.
“And if you don’t think that the president’s agenda is the right agenda, then you have the prerogative as a staff member to leave at your earliest convenience,” Lewandowski said. “And you should be fired, candidly, if you’re speaking to the press outside of the course of the individuals who are authorized to speak to the press.”
Lewandowski’s continued presence in Trump’s political orbit shows the lasting influence of the brash, hotheaded adviser—someone who was such a magnet for bad press and controversy that he was booted from leading the Trump campaign almost a full year ago. Now, with Trump pining for the glory days of his campaign as his presidency weathers chaotic week after week, Lewandowski is increasingly looking to Trump like the one who got away.
Another Republican source claiming familiarity with Lewandowski’s recent deliberations told The Daily Beast, “He’s acting like he’s already inside.”
“But he learned his lesson from the transition when he quit his lucrative gig at CNN all confident he was headed to the White House, bragging about it,” the source continued. “He burned himself then and was very publicly embarrassed. He’s more cautious about a ‘done deal’ today but still appearing quite confident.”
Several sources told The Daily Beast that the hurdle for Lewandowski to get into the White House would not be with the president but rather with those around him, who are leery of his influence due to his high-profile firing from the 2016 campaign.
White House officials who spoke to The Daily Beast about Lewandowski’s chances were skeptical, to put it generously. “You never know with [Trump], but reinstalling Corey to anything [in the West Wing] is a pipe dream and wishful thinking at best… at least at the moment,” one official said.
“I am certain Corey is trying to get into the White House,” a source outside the administration told The Daily Beast. “I am equally certain the guardians of that galaxy have set their phasers on kill.”
Reached by phone on Friday afternoon, Lewandowski himself denied any suggestion that he was telling people he was angling for a gig in the Trump White House.
“Nope, no job, no discussions, man, thanks so much,” Lewandowski told The Daily Beast, before abruptly hanging up, saying he had to “go grab my kids.”
In the midst of a possible staff shakeup, other previous Trump affiliates have also come into the mix as potential, and some longshot, candidates.
“I’m friends with many of them and I see them frequently, so it comes up every now and again,” Katrina Pierson, former spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, told The Daily Beast. White House press secretary Sean Spicer previously told The Daily Beast that Pierson turned down a White House deputy press secretary position earlier this year, opting for a job at the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policies.
“He’s doing a good job,” Pierson said of Spicer, who along with chief strategist Steve Bannon and chief of staff Reince Priebus is often reported as being on-and-off Trump’s chopping block. “It’s not as easy as people think. Especially with all the hostility and being aware that the majority of reporters aren’t interested in reporting the actual news makes it that much more difficult.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about Lewandowski, but a gig in the federal government could be a welcome change of pace and fortune for Trump’s one-time campaign chief.
Lewandowski recently stepped down from Avenue Strategies, a consulting and lobbying firm he co-founded in December with Barry Bennett, a GOP operative and Trump campaign adviser. He blamed Bennett and other managers at the firm, telling GQ that they had used his name without his consent and signed clients he had not approved.
One of those clients, health technology startup Flow Health, described a rocky relationship with Lewandowski’s firm over the three months it did business with the firm. In an interview with The Daily Beast this month, Alex Meshkin, the company’s CEO, portrayed an amateurish operation that promised big and delivered little.
Flow Health wanted to restart a data-sharing agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs that had been canceled in December, the result, Meshkin says, of retaliation against the company over its claims the VA was exaggerating the size of a genomic database under its control. The VA denies any retaliation and says it canceled the agreement over medical privacy concerns.
Lewandowski’s firm seemed like just the type of sophisticated, connected operation the company needed to reverse that decision, Meshkin says, so he was surprised when the firm sent him a consulting contract copied directly from LawDepot.com. “Our in-house general counsel is like, ‘Are we really going to do this deal?’” Meshkin said. They did the deal, but months later, Flow Health had nothing to show for it.
Flow Health didn’t end up signing the LawDepot.com-generated contract. Indeed, Flow Health and Avenue Strategies never inked a contract at all.
“We were working together in some form or fashion” despite the lack of a signed agreement, Meshkin said. But after three months with little to show for the $50,000 that Flow Health had paid Lewandowski’s firm, their relationship ended. “We just said forget it,” Meshkin recalled. “There’s nothing to terminate. There’s no signed agreement.”
The experience left him wondering about the merits of Trump world’s supposed mastery of the new Washington. “All these people attached to Trump that are peddling influence, how much of that information actually makes it into the White House?” Meshkin wondered aloud.
As Lewandowski would tell it, his influence and relationships might just be strong enough to get the president to take him back. |
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan (D) said in a recent podcast that he would chair former Vice President Joe Biden Joseph (Joe) Robinette BidenBannon: 'Zero' doubt Trump will run for reelection Bernie is back with a bang — but can he hold on to his supporters? Klobuchar backs legalizing marijuana MORE’s 2020 presidential campaign should Biden decide to run.
“Well you know I’d do it if Joe Biden wanted to,” Duggan told Politico’s Off Message podcast published Tuesday.
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Biden had recorded a robocall for Duggan earlier this month on the eve of his mayoral primary. Duggan will face off against Michigan State Sen. Coleman Young Jr. (D) in his fight for reelection.
Duggan said earlier in the podcast recording that Biden is “completely loved” in Detroit.
“You know, I spent time with him. I know, after he lost his son and if it had been at a different point, he would be president now,” Duggan said.
Biden in his upcoming book focuses on his son Beau’s death and his decision not to enter the race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. |
U.S. ethanol producers are being hit by a one-two punch: Hurricane Ike-related damage is softening demand for the alternative fuel while rising corn prices are increasing operating costs.
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Last week, Hurricane Ike left many US oil refineries hobbled in its wake — including the nation’s largest biodiesel refinery. As a result, oil production is down.
Demand for ethanol in the US is closely tied to oil production because of the federal ethanol-gasoline blending mandate. So as oil production has fallen, so has ethanol demand.
At the same time as Hurricane Ike was downing oil refineries, corn futures — essentially the betting on whether or not the price of corn will rise or fall in the coming months — have risen dramatically due to the volatile financial markets and a general upward trend.
When you combine these two issues — weakening demand and rising raw materials costs — with the fact that US production capacity for ethanol has increased by 60% since this time last year, it seems that it’ll be a relatively long time before making ethanol becomes a profitable venture again.
In a Reuters article, Rick Kment, an analyst at DTN, says that ethanol production will be a money loser for the next 6-12 months and most ethanol producers will probably take a 25 cent per gallon hit during that time.
Posts Related to Hurricane Ike and the US Ethanol Industry:
Image Credits: Corn field from antaean‘s Flickr photostream. Oil refinery from hassan abdel-rahman‘s Flickr photostream. Both used under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Reuters (via Biofuels Digest) |
It says a lot about “Entourage” and the world it belongs to that the women who keep their clothes mostly on are named in the main credits at the end of the film, while those who expose themselves are relegated to the “additional credits” along with the celebrities who play themselves. (Among these are Warren Buffett, Liam Neeson and of course Mark Wahlberg, who is also a producer.) Emily Ratajkowski shows up as a love interest for Vince, and then discreetly vanishes so that various guys can talk, almost respectfully, about how hot she is. Emmanuelle Chriqui returns as Sloan, Eric’s longtime (now ex-) girlfriend and the soon-to-be mother of his child. Perrey Reeves is Ari’s wife.
This is not a movie about women, though. It’s about Hollywood, which is to say about the narcissism, neediness and sexual entitlement of men. It sometimes pretends to make fun of those things, but let’s not kid ourselves. You could accuse it of glamorizing the shallow hedonism it depicts, but that charge would only stick if the movie had any genuine flair, romance or imagination. Instead, it has the frantic Ari, whose career, once a half-clever inside joke, has become a shaggy-dog story. He’s upstaged here by Mr. Thornton’s lean, mean Texan, whose code of loyalty is equal to Ari’s and who boasts that he never sees the movies he pays for. That may make him the smartest guy in this one, and even something of a role model.
“Entourage” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Dude, I think she was looking at you. You should totally go for it. |
Development Jews were first mentioned in records on the territory of today’s Burgenland in the 13th century. Especially in 1496, after the banishment of Jews from Styria and Carinthia in the time of Emperor Maximilian I., and in 1526, when Jews were displaced from Sopron and other Hungarian towns after the battle of Mohács, many displaced persons settled in then-Western Hungary, today’s Burgenland.
However, the large increase in Jewish settlements and the start of a continuous populating of the territory of today’s Burgenland did not take place until the expulsion of Jews from Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria (1670/71) by Emperor Leopold I. in the second third of the 17th century. In that way, some of Vienna’s displaced Jews were among the founders of the Jewish community of Eisenstadt. Also at that time, the Jewish communities of Kittsee, Frauenkirchen and Deutschkreutz were formed. Other Jewish villages – as Mattersdorf, Lackenbach and Kobersdorf – were reerected in 1671. In today’s northern and middle Burgenland were developed, under the protection of the Esterházy family, the so-called “Seven communities” (Hebrew: “Sheva Kehillot”): Kittsee, Frauenkirchen, Eisenstadt, Mattersdorf (Mattersburg since 1924), Kobersdorf, Lackenbach, and Deutschkreutz. Around the mid-18th century, alongside these baronial Esterházy communities and the comital Esterházy community of Gattendorf, five other Jewish communities, under protection of the barons and counts Batthyány, existed. In today’s southern Burgenland, these were the communities of Rechnitz, Güssing and Stadtschlaining (since 1929, due to emigration of Jews, only the subsidiary community of the newly established community of Oberwart remained) and today, lying on Hungarian soil, are the communities of Körmend and Nagykanisza.
The settlement of Jews in the respective areas was for economic reasons. So-called „charters of protection“, which were consistently renewed, regulated under contract, explicitly, the rights and duties of the subjects. The Jews had to pay protection fees regularly and gained in return the protection from the lordship in times of crises.
With Joseph II’s Edict of Toleration in the second half of the 18th century, which acknowledged more rights for Jews (professional licenses, lease permit of agricultural goods, etc.), began the time of gradual equality. The revolution of 1848 ended the dependent relationship of Jews with the landlords and thus the “Schutzjudenschaft” (“Protective Jewry”). However, Jews still were not equal citizens. The process of social and legal approximation the of Jews to the non-Jewish population was not completed on a legal level until 1867, with the political and civil equality of Jews through the so-called “Compromise” (on March 15th, 1867, a new constitution adjusted the relationship between Austria and Hungary in the Dual Monarchy). From 1871, the Jews in Western Hungary could found politically autonomous communities, but only the Jews of Eisenstadt were able to keep this political autonomy until 1938. The restrictive regulations for Jews regarding residence, settlement and land acquisition were abolished simultaneously with the legal changes. This led in the mid-19th century to migration and emigration from the western Hungarian region to small towns, and also to Vienna, Graz and Budapest.
In the middle of the 19th century, more than 8,000 Jews lived on the territory of today’s Burgenland. In some municipalities (e.g. Lackenbach) the percentage of Jewish population was over 50%. In 1934, more than 4,000 Jews lived in this region. 1938 The Jews of Burgenland were struck much faster and stronger by the consequences of the so-called “Anschluss”, the annexation of Austria into Greater Germany in March 1938, than the Jews of other provinces. Through the Nazi laws’ coming into effect, the Jews of Austria were without rights, homeless, and unpropertied. In Burgenland, they were banished and deported literally overnight. Initiator of these changes particularly was the National Socialist governor and later vice-Gauleiter of Styria, Dr. Tobias Portschy, who wanted to solve the Gypsy question as well as the Jewish question with National Socialist consistency. But countless party supporters and followers also contributed to the banishment of the Jews and Aryanization of Austria.
The Jewish property was confiscated by the Nazi authorities and in many cases sold to non-Jews well below its value. In the first days after March 12th, 1938, it was also neighbors and local Nazi groups who seized the furniture and stores of Jewish houses and shops. A few weeks later, the systematic expropriation of Jewish property was put under control of the Gestapo and the Property Registration Office in Vienna and Graz.
The Jewish population had to leave Burgenland within a short time. Some fled to Vienna. Efforts were made to try to take others abroad. It came to tragedies at border stations because entry was often denied. Many were destitute and without a passport. These incidents at the border led to international criticism, but the deportations continued, however, not abroad any more but to Vienna.
According to statistics of the Jewish Community, 799 Burgenland Jews were in Vienna on June 17th, 1938. They had mainly come from the communities of Deutschkreutz, Lackenbach, and Rechnitz. In July and August, 1938 began the great migration from Frauenkirchen and Kobersdorf to Vienna. The Jews of Mattersburg followed in September, 1938 and the last Jews left Eisenstadt in October, 1938. On November 30th, 1938, 1700 Burgenland Jews were counted in Vienna. In early November, 1938, the Jewish Community’s weekly report announced that there were no Jewish communities left in Burgenland. Those Jews from Burgenland who could not flee from Vienna were deported to Poland in October 1939, in the spring and autumn of 1941 in the concentration camps of Lodz, Riga, Minsk, and Ljublik, where they were murdered. 1945 After 1945 only a few Jewish families returned to their former home. The legislation allowed the former owners to retrieve their property by the “compensation laws”. The procedure, however, was slow and it took years and decades. Austria’s Jewish organizations consistently lodged complaints with the government because the processing of these laws was only half-hearted.
Today barely a dozen Jews live in Burgenland, scattered over the whole area.
The former Jewish culture only remains in construction debris, cemeteries, and some memorial plaques. |
An estimated 10,000 people— and perhaps many more than that— attended yesterday's Irish Heritage Festival in Adams Corner. The second annual event featured two stages of music and dancing, vendors, outdoor dining and more — all geared towards a massive celebration of Irish culture. The family-friendly crowd swelled well beyond the large turnout of the inaugural street fest in 2009. The event included traditional Irish music as well as rock-oriented acts, including the U2 cover band The Joshua Tree, which took the main stage at 7 p.m.
Organizer Sean Weir told the Reporter that a large crowd had assembled in the village by 9:30 a.m.— a half-hour before the event actually started.
Do you have a good photo from the fest? Send it to the Reporter and DotNews.com with a caption.
The e-mail is [email protected] |
Summary: Researchers present a new theory about dreaming, suggesting dreams may be an accidental byproduct of our waking cognitive abilities.
Source: UC Santa Cruz.
Dream expert G. William Domhoff, a distinguished professor emeritus and a research professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, has spent decades chasing the riddle of dreams and their meaning.
Now, with the publication of his new book The Emergence of Dreaming: Mind-Wandering, Embodied Simulation, and the Default Network (Oxford University Press), Domhoff presents an integrated neurocognitive theory of dreams that is grounded in the similarities between dreaming and drifting waking thought.
“Dreaming isn’t tied to any one brain state,” said Domhoff. “The issue is the level of brain activation. Dreams are imaginative but largely realistic simulations of waking life.”
After more than 50 years of close, empirical study of dreams and dream research, Domhoff, 81, concludes that dreaming likely serves no adaptive function in an evolutionary sense.
“The best way to think about our capacity to dream is that it’s an accidental byproduct of our waking cognitive abilities,” said Domhoff. “Humans have invented uses for dreams in religious and healing rituals, which speaks to how central they are to human experience. But in an evolutionary sense, they don’t serve a purpose.”
Domhoff’s theory addresses many of the persistent mysteries of dreaming, including the preponderance of deeply personal subject matter in dreams, as well as developmental aspects of dreaming, and it provides the neurocognitive link between dreaming and “mind wandering,” or daydreaming.
Dreams originate in the same parts of the brain now known to be most active during mind wandering, according to Domhoff. Called the “default network,” these areas become more dense and integrated between the ages of 8-15, when dreaming also becomes more frequent and dreams become more complex.
The transition to dreaming occurs in stages as we stop paying attention to the external world, according to Domhoff, whose theory integrates insights from neuroimaging studies of brain activity and the discovery of the “mind-wandering” network. First, the externally focused “central executive network” of the brain deactivates. Second, the attentional networks tamp down, including the vigilant salience network that is always poised to send “red alerts.” Finally, as sensory networks screen out stimulation, imagery networks become stronger, and the mind begins to wander intensely.
“It’s like a symphony. It’s very harmonious,” said Domhoff. “As one network deactivates, and then another, the default network begins to ascend, just like when the strings come up or the horns begin to blare. When the default network is free to roam, that’s when we dream.”
Humans spend 20 to 30 percent of their waking hours in this mind-drifting state, said Domhoff. Neurophysiologically, it’s the same process that occurs during sleep, when sleep-inducing neurochemicals provide an additional boost.
Awake or asleep, as the default network ascends, the power of the brain’s imagery network transitions us from mind wandering to what researchers call “embodied simulation,” during which vivid imagery can make dreamers feel a part of the action.
“That’s what makes dreams feel so real,” said Domhoff. “It’s the same with daydreaming. Sometimes you can just feel it. The sense of being an embodied participant is what distinguishes dreaming from other forms of thought.”
During sleep, brain activation fluctuates up and down throughout the night. Arousal increases as morning approaches, and so does mind wandering or dreaming, according to numerous laboratory studies. Dreams are highly personal because the default network includes a big part of the “self network,” added Domhoff.
“We don’t dream about politics or religion or economics,” said Domhoff, whose previous books include The Scientific Study of Dreams, Finding Meaning in Dreams: A Quantitative Approach, and The Mystique of Dreams. “All around the world, dreams are dominated by personal concerns. More than 70 percent of dreams are personal—typically dramatized enactments of significant personal concerns about the past, present, and future.”
The frequency of a given topic reflects the intensity of that concern in the dreamer’s life, said Domhoff.
“Dreams are generated by this network with a strong self-network within it, coupled with the powerful imagery network,” he said. “It’s imagination run wild.”
Studies show that children don’t dream often or with much complexity until they reach the ages of 9-11, said Domhoff, noting that some apparent nightmares in young children happen during “sleep terrors” that aren’t dreams, or during awakening. “We only gradually develop the mental imagery, imagination, and ability to tell a story,” he said. “The capacity to dream is linked to cognitive and brain development.”
Domhoff began studying dreams as a graduate student with his mentor Calvin Hall, a pioneering dream researcher. For many years, he conducted quantitative studies of dream content.
“Gradually, my motivation changed from wanting to understand people through dreams to wanting to develop a really good theory of dreams,” said Domhoff, who took advantage of a university early-retirement incentive program in 1994. Stepping away from the day-to-day obligations of teaching and campus service at the age of 57 freed him to focus his full attention to dreams. “These have been the greatest intellectual years of my life,” he said.
Today, Domhoff’s hope is that his neurocognitive theory will be seen as “one piece of the puzzle of any really good theory of the mind. I want this to be the dream piece.”
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Source: Jennifer McNulty – UC Santa Cruz
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Fox TV show “The F Word With Gordon Ramsay” has already featured two fast-paced, record challenges resulting in triumphant title holders in recent episodes – and last night’s instalment of the show just championed a third.
Shortly after the multi-Michelin star chef earned his first Guinness World Records title from that attempt, he and daughter Tilly competed with egg-cracking record holder Ross McCurdy and daughter Mira in a Father’s Day special.
But last night episodes featured grocery store produce manager Matt Jones, who showcased his cutting-edge knife skills.
In this attempt, Chef Gordon Ramsay challenged the Publix employee to attempt the record for Fastest time to dice a watermelon – a record that incorporates a slicing technique that Jones has perfected over the last 17 years.
Though his co-workers refer to the competitor as the “secret weapon” for efficiency in the produce department, Jones had the added pressure of making sure all pieces were a minimum of 2.5 inches in diameter under a minimum time frame of 45 seconds.
To see the speedy attempt for yourself, check out the video below.
video
With an impressive time of 18.19 seconds, Matt Jones received an official Guinness World Records certificate from adjudicator Michael Furnari for his remarkable dicing abilities.
Based on the hit U.K. series of the same name, each episode of The F Word with Gordon Ramsay showcases foodie families and friends from across the U.S. who will battle it out in an intense, high-stakes cook-off for a final prize of $100,000. |
SANAA (AP) — A cholera outbreak in Yemen has claimed almost 800 lives and is suspected of sickening about 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization and a Yemeni health official.
Nasser al-Argaly, health undersecretary in the rebel-run government in Sanaa, said Thursday that more than 96,000 people had been infected and at least 746 had died since late April. He blamed the outbreak on the two-year-old Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels. The fighting has damaged infrastructure and caused shortages of medicine.
The WHO said the number of suspected cholera cases had risen to 101,820 with 791 deaths as of June 7. In a joint statement with UNICEF, it said that children under the age of 15 account for 46 percent of the cases.
“The cholera outbreak is making a bad situation for children drastically worse. Many of the children who have died from the disease were also acutely malnourished,” said Dr. Meritxell Relano, UNICEF’s Representative in Yemen.
Yemeni medical officials said an aid flight from the United Arab Emirates carrying 50 tons of cholera treatments arrived in the southern city of Aden, which is controlled by government forces. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media. The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition. |
About
PGA Merchandise Show Award Winner
The Golf Square is designed to change the way golfers practice at the driving range. It is the only tool that enables a golfer to setup to the golf ball the exact same way every single time. Optimize your setup with The Golf Square.
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Picture of The Golf Square initial prototype
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4 iron: Stance Width (SW): 34, Ball Position (BP): 13, Distance to Ball (DTB): 34
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SW: 33, BP: 13, DTB: 33 6 iron: SW: 33, BP 13, DTB: 32
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Golf Square is based out of Jupiter, Florida. We are passionate golfers who are driven to change how golfers practice. We arrived at the 2013 PGA Merchandise show and were awarded the "Most Innovative New Concept" award.
Since the PGA Merchandise show, we obtained patent-pending status and have professionally engineered The Golf Square.
We are bringing our project to Kickstarter in order to finish the injection molds for production runs of The Golf Square. Your pledge will bring The Golf Square to market.
THANK YOU! |
Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
NEW YORK – It’s not every day that a leading haredi (ultra-Orthodox) donor, a gvir, is in the news because of what he said. But when Los Angeles businessman Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz takes the stage, haredi journalists take note, and he makes headlines on haredi news websites.
Last week Rechnitz, worth an estimated $2.4 billion, spoke in Jerusalem at a Simhat Beit Hashoeva holiday celebration in the Mir Yeshiva.
He attacked liberal elements in Israel and the United States, including Jewish communities and the protest movement against President Donald Trump He also ridiculed the Women of the Wall and other groups. But his words became harsh when he spoke about the more liberal wing of Orthodoxy. “The greatest threat to Klal Yisrael today is a group called ‘liberal Orthodoxy,’” he said. He called the movement, which is currently based in Israel and the US, and among other things allows the ordination of women Rabbis, a “new religion” comprised of “fake Jews.”Rechnitz spoke at the event in English, and his words were translated into Hebrew by the Kikar Hashabat news website: “The greatest threat to Klal Yisrael today is a group called ‘liberal orthodoxy’ because they took our name and our definition.”He added that if someone does not want to “keep Torah and mitzvot according to tradition but still be considered ‘Orthodox,’ he can join Open Orthodoxy.”“Going to a synagogue does not make you Orthodox, just like a parking lot does not turn you into a vehicle,” he said. “Call it whatever you want, but this new religion is best defined in the famous words of the president of the United States: Fake Jews. It’s all fake. This idea is dangerous and should be eliminated as a malignancy. Not the people, God forbid, the idea.”Rechnitz is an exceptional personality: a well-known figure linked to all policy makers, from the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox world to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is not afraid to express his opinion in matters of hashkafa, or haredi ideology.In 2016 he did so at a dinner event for the Lakewood Yeshiva in New Jersey and this time at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem – both of them among the world’s largest yeshivas.Last year he used the stage in Lakewood to sharply attack, in front of the astonished rabbis, the elitism of the ultra-Orthodox educational institutions, which leave out those who are not considered socially or academically superior.As a result, publicist and writer Haim Walder attacked him for daring to express his opinion. In his column in the haredi newspaper Yated Neeman, without mentioning Rechnitz’s name, he wrote: “You have never heard of a yeshiva or Torah institution that let substantive intervention in content or dictating of an opinion or educational program.”This time, Rechnitz kept to the official haredi line. With regard to the dissolution of the draft law in Israel, he said: “Avreichim, bachurim [married and single Talmudic students], lift your heads up! You saved the people of Israel for the past 70 years; they shouldn’t take any more soldiers. We are dealing with Jewish blood here.”He said many people ask him why he donates so much money “to a cause that at some point will collapse,” telling him that them he keeps men from going to work.He answers them: “First, if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it. And second, even if these people are right, I will not be the one who will go up after 120 and be proud of the fact that I have succeeded in uprooting Torah learning and getting people to work. I’ll leave that to someone else. It’s not something I’d like to be proud of.”
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Dr. Amar Bose ’51, Bose Corporation’s Founder, has given to MIT the majority of the stock of Bose Corporation in the form of non-voting shares.
MIT will receive annual cash dividends on those shares when dividends are paid by Bose Corporation; those cash dividends will be used by MIT to sustain and advance MIT’s education and research mission.
Under the terms of the gift, MIT cannot sell its Bose shares and will not participate in the management or governance of the company. Bose Corporation will remain a private and independent company, and operate as it always has, with no change in strategy or leadership. Dr. Bose will remain Bose Corporation’s Chairman and Technical Director.
Dr. Bose received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and PhD from MIT, all in electrical engineering. He was asked to join the faculty in 1956, and accepted with the intention of teaching for no more than two years. He continued as a member of the MIT faculty until 2001, making important contributions to the Institute’s teaching of undergraduate electrical engineering.
In 1964, Dr. Bose founded Bose Corporation. From its inception, the company has remained privately owned, with a focus on long-term research. Learn about the company here.
In expressing gratitude for this gift, MIT President Susan Hockfield remarked not only on Dr. Bose’s generosity, but also on his humility. “Amar Bose gives us a great gift today, but he also serves as a superb example for MIT graduates who yearn to cut their own path. Dr. Bose set the highest teaching standards, for which he is still admired and loved by his faculty colleagues and the many students he taught. His insatiable curiosity propelled remarkable research, both at MIT and within the company he founded. Dr. Bose has always been more concerned about the next two decades than about the next two quarters.”
“Dr. Bose,” Hockfield continued, “has asked us not to shine too bright a spotlight on him today. So to honor that wish, let us simply celebrate Dr. Bose’s profound belief in the transformative power of an MIT education.”
In a letter to Bose Corporation employees, Dr. Bose paid tribute to his mentors at MIT: Professors Y. W. Lee, Norbert Wiener and Jerome Wiesner. He explained that the gift represents his long-held desire to support MIT education, and reaffirmed the company’s mission to play for the long run.
“We will continue,” Dr. Bose wrote to his employees, “to remain true to the principles upon which our company was founded.” |
Half of the meat samples tested by a local authority food safety team last year contained species of animals not identified on their labels.
Beefburgers and sausages sampled by Leicester Trading Standards contained undeclared chicken, while samples of lamb curry were found to contain cheaper beef or a mix of beef and lamb or turkey.
Leicester city council is the latest authority to publish results from a targeted survey of meat products on sale in its area in 2013, which shows that gross contamination of meat is widespread.
The findings follow similar results from West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and West Sussex councils that also found consumers were regularly being misled about the contents of their food.
Minced beef samples were found in Leicester that were a mix of meat from three species; beef, chicken and lamb. Lamb mince samples contained not only lamb but also beef, chicken and turkey. Twelve out of 20 samples of doner kebab meat also failed to meet legal requirements because the species of animals used were misdescribed.
In total, 105 samples of meat products were collected from butchers, retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, fast food shops and caterers in Leicester and tested by the public analyst. Of these, 50 samples failed to meet legal requirements for composition and labelling, 47 of them because they contained undeclared species of animal.
Leicester council says deliberate deception is likely to be the cause in several cases, while in others failure to clean machines properly between processing batches of different meats may be the explanation.
In 18 samples, meat of an undeclared species was a major ingredient, accounting for levels of between 60% and 100%. The rest of the failed samples tested positive for the presence of at least one type of undeclared meat at medium (30-60%) or minor (5-30%) levels.
One sample returned no DNA result in the tests as the meat ingredient had been so heavily processed it was marked down as denatured.
Last month the Guardian revealed that hundreds of food tests carried out by West Yorkshire councils had also found the routine adulteration of food and drink. Over a third of nearly 900 samples collected in that area were not what they claimed to be or were mislabelled in some way.
The regulator, the Food Standards Agency, which defines any level of DNA of undeclared species of over 1% as "gross adulteration", said the failure rate found by Leicester and West Yorkshire is higher than the picture overall because its sampling programmes were targeted at categories of produce where problems are already suspected. The overall failure rate for meat in 2013 in local authority testing held by the FSA was 13.5%, it said.
It added: "The Food Standards Agency and Defra are helping target local authority resources through greater central coordination of intelligence, giving additional support for complex investigations, and additional funding. The government has increased support to the national coordinated programme of food sampling by local authorities from £1.6m to £2.2m in 2013-14."
Leicester city council's head of regulation, Roman Leszczyszyn said trading standards officers had been encouraged by central government to pursue a policy of intelligence-led enforcement rather than random sampling to "reduce the burden on business and remove unnecessary inspection".
"That's led us to look to the Food Standards Agency for intelligence. Meat composition has never come up on our horizon before," he said.
In line with other authorities, Leicester Trading Standards has seen a steady reduction in resources, with the number of officers employed reduced from 31 in 1997 to 14 currently. Official figures, released in response to a parliamentary question from Labour MP for Bristol East Kerry McCarthy, show that the number of tests carried out by local authorities to check the composition of food roughly halved between 2008-9 and 2012-13. Five years ago 32,600 products were tested to check their composition, but last year just under 17,000 were tested.
Leicester council undertook the sampling programme after the horsemeat scandal when it discovered that lamb burgers being served in local schools and labelled as halal in fact contained undeclared pork DNA. Although its subsequent tests uncovered widespread adulteration with the wrong species, it did not find any other cases of undeclared pork or of horsemeat.
Professor Chris Elliott, who has been commissioned by the government to review the food system in response to the horsemeat scandal, warned that the Leicester results showed takeaways and butchers were still open to deliberate adulteration. "It's clear that big retailers have put good measures in place now against species substitution but it's also clear some places are very vulnerable. It is of paramount importance that local authorities conduct regular scrutiny of outlets in their areas," he said.
In the West Yorkshire findings, illegal examples included mozzarella that was less than half real cheese, ham on pizzas that was either poultry or "meat emulsion" instead of pork, frozen prawns that were 50% water, minced beef adulterated with pork or poultry, fruit juices that contained illegal additives, counterfeit vodka, and a herbal slimming tea that was neither herb nor tea but glucose powder laced with a withdrawn prescription drug for obesity at 13 times the normal dose. |
Chelodina, collectively known as snake-necked turtles, is a large and diverse genus of long-necked chelid turtles with a complicated nomenclatural history.[2] Although in the past Macrochelodina and Macrodiremys have been considered separate genera and prior to that all the same, they are now considered subgenera of the Chelodina.[2]
Chelodina is an ancient group of chelid turtles native to Australia, New Guinea, the Indonesian Rote Island, and East Timor. The turtles within this subgenus are small to medium-sized, with oval shaped carapace. They are side-necked turtles, meaning they tuck their head partially around the side of their body when threatened instead of directly backwards.
Macrochelodina represents those species that have often been termed the Chelodina B group, or thick necked snake neck turtles. The subgenus was described in 1985 by Wells & Wellington (as a new genus) but was not recognized until recently when it was shown that the name was valid. As such they are a side-neck turtle of the family Chelidae with extremely long necks and long flattened heads. They are specialist fish eaters using a strike and gape mode of feeding. They are medium to large species with the largest Chelodina (M.) expansa reaching shell lengths of some 45 cm (18 in).[3] The first fossils (C. (M.) alanrixi) are known from Queensland from the Eocene period (Lapparent de Broin, F. de, & Molnar, R. E., 2001).[4]
Macrodiremys is a monotypic genus recently split off from the rest of the Chelodina.[5] Its sole member is the enigmatic Chelodina (Macrodiremys) colliei from Western Australia.
Taxonomy [ edit ]
Current taxonomy follows that of Georges & Thomson, 2010[2] with updates from van Dijk et al. 2014.[6]
Synonymy [ edit ]
Chelodina Fitzinger 1826 Chelodina Fitzinger 1826:6 Hydraspis Bell 1828:512 Chelyodina Agassiz 1846:79 (nomen novum) Hesperochelodina Wells and Wellington 1985:9 (nomen nudum) Macrochelodina Wells and Wellington 1985:9 Macrodiremys McCord and Joseph-Ouni 2007:57
Type Species: Chelodina : Chelodina longicollis (Shaw, 1794) Macrochelodina : Chelodina rugosa Ogilby 1890:56 = Chelodina oblonga Gray 1841 Macrodiremys : Chelodina oblonga McCord and Joseph-Ouni 2007 = Chelodina colliei
Species [ edit ]
Subgenus: Chelodina Fitzinger, 1826
Subgenus: Macrochelodina Wells & Wellington, 1985[12]
Subgenus: Macrodiremys McCord & Joseph-Uoni 2007[5] |
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images. Bitcoin is trading at its highest price in almost two years, driven by several factors, according to experts in the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin is trading at its highest price in almost two years, driven by several factors including market conditions in Asia, according to experts in the cryptocurrency.
The online currency ended Monday at around $542.77 and hit a high of $548.5 on Tuesday. The price has surged in the last week, climbing 22 percent since last Monday; year-to-date the price for bitcoin has increased by 25 percent.
As a result, this is the highest price bitcoin has reached since August 2014. CNBC examines three reasons to explain the rising price.
Demand in Asian markets
Most experts have pointed towards fears in China and Asia that the yuan could depreciate as reasons for increased investment in bitcoin.
"Signs indicate Bitcoin's price has become linked to a number of macroeconomic factors in China," said Vijay Michalik, research analyst for digital transformation at consultancy Frost & Sullivan, to CNBC in an email.
"It highlights growing concerns about yuan currency deflation, as bitcoin's appeal has grown as an alternative asset class for a population deprived of many investment choices."
James Lynn, U.K. managing director at investment company Billon Group, corroborated this view.
"The most likely explanation appears to be linked to market confidence in the Asia region, with low confidence in local currencies providing a major boost to bitcoin demand," he told CNBC in an email.
Tightening supply
A key feature of bitcoin is that new coins have to be discovered or "mined" in order to be added to circulation, unlike fiat currencies where governments can print fresh bills. When new bitcoins are mined, a record of it is added to the blockchain, which is effectively a giant ledger recording all bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoin miners are rewarded with a set of bitcoins for each block they successfully mine. Miners used to receive a bounty of 50 bitcoins, but this was halved in 2012 to prevent bitcoin inflation and it is expected to halve again in the coming months, potentially leading to supply-side currency constraints.
"Speculators have been pointing to impending rises for some months, citing the impending halving of rewards for miners," explained James Lynn. "I think, however, that's been priced into the market on an on-going basis."
Bitcoin's becoming more robust
Several recent developments have been intended to improve bitcoin's performance and make transactions more reliable.
"Bitcoin's seen some of the developer turmoil subside over the past few months," said Vijay Michalik.
According to Michalik, new technology shows how much progress has been made in making bitcoin easier to use. For instance, the company Blockchain released an alpha version of the Thunder Network earlier this month, which allows payments to be made using bitcoin more quickly, cheaply and at a larger scale.
It is possible that by making bitcoin more robust, these changes will have made the cryptocurrency more attractive to new investors.
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Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (also known as Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls) is a 1995 American comedy film and the sequel to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994). Jim Carrey reprises his role as the title character Ace Ventura, a detective who specializes in retrieval of tame and captive animals. Ian McNeice, Simon Callow, and Sophie Okonedo co-star. Tommy Davidson, who co-starred with Carrey on the show In Living Color, makes a cameo appearance in the film.
The film was written and directed by Carrey's close friend Steve Oedekerk, who had also collaborated in the production and as a character consultant for the first film. It was followed by a direct-to-video spin-off sequel, Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective, in 2009 with involvement from neither Carrey nor Oedekerk.
Plot [ edit ]
In the Himalayas, after a failed rescue mission results in a raccoon falling to its death (a parody of Cliffhanger), Ace Ventura has an emotional breakdown and joins a Tibetan monastery. Once he has recovered, he is approached by Fulton Greenwall, a British correspondent working for a provincial consulate in the fictional African country of Nibia. Because Ace's presence is troublesome to the monastery, the Grand Abbot gives Ace excuses to justify his departure, and sends him off with Greenwall.
Greenwall is subjected to Ventura's eccentric behavior when he starts mimicking different mating calls, and his dangerous driving when they head off to Africa, warning him about the hostility of eastern lowland gorillas as it is mating season. Greenwall wants Ventura to find the Great White bat 'Shikaka', a sacred animal of the Wachati tribe, which disappeared shortly after being offered as dowry of the Wachati Princess, who is set to wed the Wachootoo Prince to form armistice and peace between the two people. After arriving in Nibia and meeting with consul Vincent Cadby, Ace begins his investigation, but must overcome his intense fear of bats in order to succeed.
Accompanied by his capuchin monkey, Spike, Ace begins his search for the missing bat. He eventually befriends the tribe's princess, who tries to seduce Ace. However, Ace admits his oath to celibacy, but quietly masturbates in a hut afterwards. Ace also befriends the tribal prince, Ouda, who assists Ace. Ace's investigation involves eliminating obvious suspects—animal traders, poachers, and a Safari park owner among others—and enduring the growing escalations of threat between the Wachati and the Wachootoo. After being attacked with drugged blow-darts, Ace suspects the medicine-man of the Wachootoo of taking the bat, as he strongly disapproves of the wedding. He travels to the Wachootoo tribal village, with Ouda translating the chief's words rather poorly. The Wachootoo mistake Ace as the "White Devil", and have him go through many dangerous and humiliating challenges to gain their trust. He eventually does when his pain makes the chief, entire tribe, and even Ouda laugh for the first time in years. Despite this, if the bat is not returned in time, the Wachootoo will declare war on the Wachati tribe. As a last joke, Ace is shot in the butt by a non-drugged blow-dart by the Chief. As he and Ouda walk back to the village, Ace realizes the dart he was shot with earlier is not the same as the one he was just shot with—meaning the Wachootoo didn't take Shikaka. He eventually finds two Australian poachers with the bat, and he distracts them by mimicking a Silverback mating call. Unfortunately, they don't fall for it and shoot the initial darts into him and take him away.
After coming to, Ace tries to figure out how the poachers are involved with the war between the tribes. Confused by the case, Ace consults the Grand Abbot via astral projection. Advised by the Abbot, Ace deduces that Cadby has taken the bat and hired Ace to divert suspicion from himself, having planned to let the tribes destroy each other so that he can then take possession of the numerous bat caves containing guano to sell as fertilizer worth billions. When Ace confronts Cadby, he learns he was hired as Cadby's alibi, and is arrested by tribal security chief Hitu. Ace calls an African elephant to escape, and summons herds of jungle animals to destroy Cadby's house. Cadby tries to shoot Ace, but is stopped by Greenwall who punches him in the face. Cadby escapes with the bat in a car, but Ace follows him in a monster truck. Ace destroys Cadby's car, leaving the bat cage lodged in a tree.
Ace, despite his chronic fear of bats, bravely yet dramatically returns the bat just as the tribes are about to meet on the battlefield. Cadby, watching nearby, is discovered by Ouda. Ouda calls him the "White Devil" to give Ace more time, and Cadby is pursued by both tribes. After escaping, he breathes deeply and heavily, then encounters a female amorous silverback eastern lowland gorilla that mistakes his breathing for a mating call and he is subsequently raped by the ape. The Princess is married to the Prince, who is revealed to be the man who humiliated Ace during one of the Wachootoo tribal challenges earlier. Moments later, it is discovered that the young bride is no longer a virgin, apparently on Ace's account. Despite this, peace between the once-separate tribes is achieved, when everyone joins together and furiously chases after Ace.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Filming began under Tom DeCerchio, who later directed Celtic Pride (1996).[4][better source needed] Because of the success of the first film, Morgan Creek Productions gave lead-actor Jim Carrey the power to decide the director. In April 1995, Carrey had DeCerchio replaced with Steve Oedekerk, who had worked on the film's predecessor as a script consultant and wrote the screenplay for this film, but had no previous experience with directing feature films. Spike Jonze wanted to direct the film, but Carrey turned him down as he also had no experience but he mainly didn't know him well enough. Carrey claims this to be one of his biggest regrets.[5] However, Carrey stated he doesn't regret enlisting Oedekerk to direct as they were friends with creative similarities, which included improvising, changing scenes during filming, and had a vast understanding of the main character.[6] In June 1995, scenes were shot in South Carolina.[6] The following month, filming took place near San Antonio, Texas.[7]
Part of the film was also shot in British Columbia, Canada. The film was shot in Super 35.[citation needed] Carrey was paid $10 million for his role.[6]
Release [ edit ]
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls was released on November 10, 1995.[2]
Box office [ edit ]
The film grossed $37,804,076 during its opening weekend, taking the #1 spot. In the U.S. and Canada, the film grossed $108.3 million, and in other territories, it grossed $104 million. The worldwide gross was $212.3 million. Against its $30 million budget, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls was a major financial success.[2]
Critical reception [ edit ]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Nature Calls in this Ace Ventura sequel, and it's answered by the law of diminishing returns."[8] On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[9]
Accolades [ edit ]
1996 ASCAP Award
Top Box Office Films – Robert Folk (Won)
1996 American Comedy Award
Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) – Jim Carrey (Nominated)
1996 Kid's Choice Awards
Favorite Movie – (Won)
Favorite Movie Actor – Jim Carrey (Won)
1996 MTV Movie Awards
Best Male Performance – Jim Carrey (Won)
Best Comedic Performance – Jim Carrey (Won)
Best Kiss – Jim Carrey and Sophie Okonedo (Nominated)
1996 Razzie Awards
Worst Remake or Sequel – James G. Robinson (Nominated)
1996 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards[10]
Worst Picture – James G. Robinson (Nominated)
Worst Actor – Jim Carrey (Nominated)
Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy – James G. Robinson (Won)
Worst Sequel – James G. Robinson (Won)
The Sequel Nobody Was Clamoring For – James G. Robinson (Nominated) |
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, was re-elected on Wednesday to lead the Democrats in the next Congress, despite her party’s loss of more than 60 seats and its majority control of the House in the midterm elections.
Officials said that Ms. Pelosi defeated Representative Heath Shuler of North Carolina in an internal party vote, 150 to 43. Mr. Shuler acknowledged before the vote that he had no chance of winning, but he wanted to give disgruntled Democrats a chance to register their opposition to Ms. Pelosi’s leadership anyway.
Earlier on Wednesday, the House Democrats defeated a motion to delay the leadership election by a vote of 129 to 68. The 68 votes for delay showed the fractures in the caucus over Ms. Pelosi’s continuing as the party’s leader. Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon, one of those pushing for a delay, said he believed the vote sent a substantial message.
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland was expected to be re-elected as the No. 2 Democrat.
With a new Republican majority taking control of the House beginning in January, Ms. Pelosi will be the Democratic leader in the new Congress; Mr. Hoyer would become the party whip.
Meeting separately, the House Republicans chose John A. Boehner of Ohio to be their leader and the new speaker of the House, as expected.
In the midterm election campaign, Ms. Pelosi became something of a lightning rod for public anger over some of the sweeping and costly legislation passed during the past two years. Republican candidates frequently singled her out for attack in their campaigns. Many of the House Democrats who went down to defeat this month were moderates with ties to the speaker.
But it was precisely because of the sweeping defeat the Democrats suffered in the elections that Ms. Pelosi said she wanted to stay on as the caucus’s leader. In her letter to colleagues announcing that she intended to run for minority leader in the new Congress, she said she wanted to resist efforts by the new Republican majority to undo the signature legislative accomplishments of the past two years — overhauls of the health care system, financial regulation, Social Security and Medicare.
“Our consensus is that we go out there listening to the American people,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters Wednesday afternoon after the vote. “It’s about jobs, it’s about reducing the deficit and it’s about fighting for the middle class. I look forward to doing that with this great leadership team.”
Mr. Shuler, the former college quarterback who won his third term representing North Carolina’s 11th District and who publicly called on her to withdraw her name from the leadership election, said after the vote that it sent a message that concerns about Ms. Pelosi’s leadership went beyond a few conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats.
“It came out pretty much as we expected,” he told reporters, adding that “it wasn’t about winning the race, but it was about having a voice within our caucus.”
Ms. Pelosi became the first female speaker after Democrats gained a majority in the House in 2006. She has been a prolific fund-raiser, collecting more than $200 million for the party since joining the leadership in the House in 2002. |
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This article discusses the event choices and how we can manipulate it using scripts to allow developers to easily provide more than 4 choices to the players without using any script calls or comments.
We start by understanding what how choices work, some limitations in the choice system, and finally I propose a solution that is easy to use and present an implementation.
Background
RPG Maker provides built-in support for creating a set of choices and what happens when a player chooses a particular choice. It is available in the event editor as the “Show Choices” command.
When you click on the command, it will display a dialog for setting up your choices
You have 5 choices available to work with. You will understand why there are 5 later.
The cancel behaviour dictates what happens when the player presses the cancel button during choice selection.
If it’s disallowed, nothing happens when the player presses cancel. You must pick an option.
If it’s one of the choices, then that choice will be selected when the player presses cancel.
If it’s a branch, it will execute a 5th option (which does not appear in the selection).
Each type of cancel behaviour has its own purpose depending on what you need, so you should experiment with each option to understand how they work.
Choice Branches
Here’s a setup with two choices.
You can see that under each choice, there are more commands. These are called branches, and you can see that the indentation specifies which choice they correspond to. You can have any number of commands under each branch, including more “show choice” commands.
Here’s the same setup, except we use the “branch” cancel option. A new branch now appears
And this is how it appears in the game. As you can see, the cancel option does not appear in the list of selections.
Displaying Message
Sometimes you might want to display a message along with your choices. You can do this by simply using a “show text” command immediately before a “show choice” command. The event interpreter knows that you want to show this message while the choices are displayed.
More Choices?
So far, everything runs smoothly. You can create up to 4 labeled choices and have the player make a selection. You can then set up cancel behaviours to further control what happens when the player decides none of the options are good and wants to back out.
Now what happens if you want to have more than 4 choices? This is when you can start getting creative.
You can call one of the options “More”, which will lead to another set of choices when the player selects that option. You can use the cancel branch to lead the player to more choices
The first option is reasonable: you show three choices, and if the player doesn’t like them, they can select the “More” option to show more choices. You may choose to use the cancel branch to go back to the previous set of choices if they decide to change their mind and want to go back. “Canceling” to go back is a common theme in RPG Maker.
The Approach
It would be convenient if there was an easy way to set up choices. I use the following criteria to determine whether something is easy
It is consistent It is easy to use It is compatible
Consistency means that you want to provide some functionality without making the eventing process feel too different.
Ease-of-use means that you should be able to figure out how to use the solution quickly and not have to do too much work to get it working. If it is consistent, then it will likely be easy to use as well.
Compatibility means that if you’ve already done work on your project (like set up existing choices), you don’t need to go back and change everything because the solution requires you to change how you set up choices.
The Solution
Suppose you want to display 8 choices. Intuitively, this is how it would look: you just have eight choices lined up one after another. You only have 4 choices per command, but that’s ok we can just use more commands.
Unfortunately, the way the event interpreter would handle this by default is to read one set of choices, ask the player to make a selection, and after handling the first choice, it would then proceed to the second set of choices and ask the player to make a selection.
Basically, they are handled separately, which is undesirable. So what do we do? Simply combine them into one large set of choices, and hence the name “Large Choices”.
There are a few design decisions that need to be made at this point, such as how the cancel behaviour should be handled. My decision was to only take the cancel behaviour from the last set of choices. And here is the result: Eight choices in our window with no extra script calls or commands.
You can see an implementation of this idea in the Large Choices script.
Closing
Choice selection is a powerful feature in RPG Maker that allows you to give players control over how they wish to proceed in your game. Despite some limitations due to design decisions, we can come up with ways to overcome these limitations. Fortunately, adding additional choices to your selection was not very difficult to achieve, but there are many other possible solutions, some of which are not as intuitive or easy to use.
Credits
Graphics were taken from Luna Engine’s sample project: Etrian
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Neil Taylor was sent off for his challenge on the Ireland-Wales game.
Neil Taylor was sent off for his challenge on the Ireland-Wales game.
Updated at 13.40
FIFA HAS OPENED proceedings against Wales defender Neil Taylor following a horror challenge that saw him sent off in last Friday’s Ireland-Wales World Cup qualifier at the Aviva Stadium.
The tackle resulted in Ireland defender Seamus Coleman suffering a double leg fracture, with the Everton defender set to be out of action for the foreseeable future as a result of the incident.
Red cards for violent conduct incur an automatic one-match ban, though Fifa’s latest move has opened up the possibility of the Wales defender’s ban being extended to three games depending on what referee Nicola Rizzoli puts in his post-game report.
Should it be extended to three games, the ban, which only applies to international matches, would see Taylor miss Wales’ upcoming games against Austria and Moldova, in addition to the Serbia encounter in June that he was originally suspended for.
The Irish camp have not estimated a date for Coleman’s return, though the player is not expected to be available for the remainder of the Boys in Green’s World Cup qualifying campaign, with a return to action before 2018 unlikely.
According to The Independent, a Fifa hearing that will decide Taylor’s fate is likely to take place within the next two weeks. |
Until late last year, the idea of a cure for color blindness was a theoretical dream involving gene therapy, which was seemingly beyond our medical abilities. However that may all be changing in the very near future after a study co-authored by Jay Neitz at the University of Washington successfully made an injection of cells into two squirrel monkeys which was a total success!
The monkeys, named Dalton and Sam, both lacked a gene known as L opsin that provides the information for L-Cones in the iris (long wavelength, red sensitive). This is the same cause for red-green color blindness in Humans.
How The Color Blindness Cure Works
As you know, red green color blindness is by far the most common type and is nearly always passed on through defective genetics on the X Chromosome. This defect means that the retina has fewer or none of at least one type of Cone. For healthy color vision all three cones must be present in adequate numbers, or acuity to certain parts of the color spectrum is lost.
The cure is administered by injecting a virus carrying altered genetic information that supplies the missing L opsin gene directly to the retina. Over a period of 24 weeks, the light sensitivity of the cones in the monkeys eyes shifted toward the red spectrum, an area they could not previously differentiate clearly. The adult monkeys received the injection more than 2 years ago and have not yet come to exhibit any side effects.
Summed up in layman’s terms from the original publication online for the journal Nature:
“We’ve added red sensitivity to cone cells in animals that are born with a condition that is exactly like human color blindness,” said William W. Hauswirth, Ph.D., a professor of ophthalmic molecular genetics at the UF College of Medicine and a member of the UF Genetics Institute and the Powell Gene Therapy Center. “Although color blindness is only moderately life-altering, we’ve shown we can cure a cone disease in a primate, and that it can be done very safely. That’s extremely encouraging for the development of therapies for human cone diseases that really are blinding.”
How We Know The Monkeys Are Cured
Co Author Jay Neitz and his Wife, Mauree began training the two squirrel monkeys, Dalton and Sam over 10 years ago. By the time of the injection, Neitz had perfected an adaptation of the Cambridge Colour Test so that the monkeys could tell him which colors they were seeing. Rewards of grape juice were staple during the training!
For nearly 5 months the monkeys showed no change, but then suddenly they were able to correctly identify tests for red and green on the screen. Neitz is not sure what changed, but believes that rather than physical alteration to the neural pathways in the brain, it eventually became able to understand the new information it was receiving.
The prospects for application of this technique may well extend beyond color blindness as mentioned by Neitz:
“…almost every unsolved vision defect out there has this component in one way or another, where the ability to translate light into a gene signal is involved.”
When Can I Get The Color Blindness Cure?
With such exciting results in primates, the research team are pushing toward human trials as fast as possible, but are mindful of the numerous steps involves before the injection will be ready for humans. It is a very promising sign that the monkeys have not exhibited any detectable side-effects in over 2 years, and the virus used to transmit the genetic information, the adeno-associated virus has no record of causing disease in humans. But safety must be conclusively proven before human trials commence.
No time frame has been given, but we can no doubt expect rapid development on the technique – especially given its potentially far reaching applications in curing other forms of more debilitating blindness in the eye. Naturally many researchers involved in vision research have expressed high interest. Sci-fi possiblities may even become reality as speculated by Williams:
“Ultimately we might be able to do all kinds of interesting manipulations of the retina,” he said. “Not only might we be able to cure disease, but we might engineer eyes with remarkable capabilities. You can imagine conferring enhanced night vision in normal eyes, or engineering genes that make photo-pigments with spectral properties for whatever you want your eye to see.”
References:
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/medicine/article6837392.ece
www.physorg.com/news172325926.html
www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/colortherapy/ |
An experimental cancer treatment based on rainforest berries has been successfully shown to destroy tumours in a matter of days.
A drug based on the fruit of the Australian blushwood tree is currently undergoing trials in Queensland.
Denise Powell, a cancer patient who is part of the trial, said the treatment had a radical effect on a tumour in her armpit.
She told Channel 7: “My cancer surgeon said, ‘I can take that one out, if you get any more you might lose an arm.”
2 The blushwood tree, a rare species which grows in the Australian rainforest
2 Denise said the drug had a visible and dramatic effect on her tumour
The chemical inside the berries is called EBC-46 and has already been shown to shrink tumours in animals.
But Denise was shocked to see how profound an effect it had when injected directly into the growth under her arm.
“In less than 20 minutes the tumour had gone purple then black,” she added..
“Then within a couple of days the tumour just kind of shrivelled up and died."
EBC-46 works by triggering the body's immune response so white blood cells begin to destroy the tumour.
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It is believed the chemical could treat head, neck, breast and prostate cancers, as well as other types.
However, it will not be able to tackle metastatic cancers which have spread around the body. |
A woman shopping at a Payson, Utah, Walmart gave birth to a healthy baby at the register right after paying for her items. Screenshot: KTSU-TV
PAYSON, Utah, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Employees at a Utah Walmart said a woman who went into labor at checkout insisted on paying for her items before having her baby inside the store.
Workers at the Payson Walmart said the woman was in line with her husband at register 11 Sunday morning when she started experiencing stomach pain and asked a manager to call 911.
"The funny thing is that the customer was down on her knees and she insisted on paying for her merchandise and we're like, 'You know that's just not important.' You know, we were going to take care of her on it," store manager Dustin Haight told KSTU-TV.
"Literally right after she paid for her merchandise, they rolled her over and she began to give birth," Haight said.
Walmart employees and customers helped the woman with the delivery, which was completed before EMTs arrived on the scene.
"By the time the EMTs got here she had paid for her merchandise and had a baby," Haight said. "In about 15 minutes we went from having a little bit of stomach problem to delivering a baby."
The manager said the experience is one employees will never forget.
"I think we've renamed it register baby -- so whenever we call for help on register 11 it will be now register baby," Haight said.
He said the store is eager to help the family.
"So we're gonna buy her a whole bunch of goods like diapers and formula, that type stuff when the mother comes in so, and this time we won't make her pay," Haight said |
Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon. Alexander Pope
Recently I was working on adding support for sending notifications to mobile devices and came across a cool feature in SQL Server that I didn't know about. I won't go into the details, but what I doing was basically a producer-consumer problem but distributed across multiple machines. When I started, I knew exactly what to do; when I finished, I had learned something new.
First Attempt
Starting out, I already knew exactly what I needed to do and how to do it. The SQL was very straight forward.
UPDATE dbo . NotificationQueue SET IsActive = 0 , LockedUntilUtc = DATEADD ( SECOND , 10 , SYSUTCDATETIME ()), LockedBy = @ MachineName WHERE Id IN ( SELECT Id FROM dbo . NotificationQueue q WHERE q . IsActive = 1 ORDER BY q . CreatedOnUtc OFFSET 0 ROWS FETCH FIRST @ BatchSize ROWS ONLY ); SELECT Id , TargetApplication , SystemType , IsDevelopment , AlertMessage , Payload , Token FROM dbo . NotificationQueue WHERE LockedBy = @ MachineName ;
There are problems with this approach though.
It requires multiple operations (one to find the items to update, one to update, and one to select the items that are now locked)
You need multiple indexes (one for looking up the items that are active, one to look up who has locked the notification)
Refactoring
I don't remember exactly how I ended up on the documentation for UPDATE statements exactly, but I noticed something I haven't ever payed attention to before. Towards the bottom of the page was the section "Capturing the Results of the UPDATE Statement".
How this works is very similar to how triggers work: you get fake tables called inserted and deleted which hold the values that are modified by the query. The inserted table holds the new values for the records. The deleted table holds the previous values for the records.
So, this allows us to remove our second query we had above that was just retrieving the information about our notification. I also ended up using another trick that I had run across previously which is that you can update using a Common Table Expression. This doesn't change the efficiency of the query, I just find it easier to read.
WITH pending AS ( SELECT * FROM dbo . NotificationQueue q WHERE q . IsActive = 1 ORDER BY q . CreatedOnUtc OFFSET 0 ROWS FETCH FIRST @ BatchSize ROWS ONLY ) UPDATE pending SET IsActive = 0 , LockedUntilUtc = DATEADD ( SECOND , 10 , SYSUTCDATETIME ()), LockedBy = @ MachineName OUTPUT inserted . Id , inserted . TargetApplication , inserted . SystemType , inserted . IsDevelopment , inserted . AlertMessage , inserted . Payload , inserted . Token ;
Now that I know about this, I can think of a lot of other situations where it will be extremely helpful. This output clause isn't just limited to UPDATE statements either; it's supported on INSERT and DELETE as well.
If you aren't using SQL Server, there may be an equivalent of this technique supported by your database. The RETURNING clause is the most common variant and it's supported by PostgreSQL and Oracle. |
The latest version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser has been made available for download.
But before you strain yourself while reaching for the nearest download button, be aware that there is not a whole lot to get excited by in Firefox 28.
In fact, for those of us on Linux there are only a handful of cross-plaform under-the-bonnet changes to enjoy:
VP9 video decoding
HTML5 audio/video Volume Control
Opus WebM Support
SPDY 2 retired
Security fixes
Not that these tweaks aren’t welcome; improvement is improvement, however minor it may seem. And it’s great to see Firefox finally add support for VP9 decoding. Google Chrome introduced support for this open, royalty free compression standard in February of last year.
Mac users will find a bit more on offer, including Notification Centre support. Android users will find native text selection, cut, and copy items; more share buttons; and predictive lookup from the Awesome Bar.
Firefox 29, due next month, is tentatively set to introduce the ‘new’ Australis interface on Windows, Mac and Linux, though there has been murmuring that this could be held back to the subsequent release.
Getting Firefox 28
As with every release, you don’t need to do anything special to update. Firefox 28 will be made available on Ubuntu 12.04 and 13.10 through the Software Updater in the coming day or so.
If you’re truly impatient you can grab it from the Mozilla website.
Download Mozilla Firefox |
Thaw The Frozen World
CHAPTER 1
My lips are pursed as my mind drifts to a different world, a world that I created, a world that I am completely in control. My eyes are fixed on my laptop wondering what could possibly be the next scene that would make the story incredibly different.
Let me introduce myself, I am Elsa Arendelle of Arendelle Productions Company. I took over as the CEO as soon as my parents died in an accident several years ago. Having this company at a young age made me realize that I have to widen my social interaction with people around me but I'm afraid to say that I lack in that department.
I am aware of others calling me the ice queen or the snow queen or whatever they want to call me pertaining my lack of social skills. But I don't care. It's just that I love to be alone. I love to be in a world that I created.
Apart from being the owner of one the biggest entertainment company here in LA, I am also one of the writers of several blockbuster movies and TV series in our company. I mostly enjoyed writing. It's my biggest passion.
A knock on the door of my office destroyed my concentration, "Miss Arendelle?" My secretary greets.
"Yes Jasmine?" I sighed.
"Miss Anna Summers is here." Jasmine replied. "Will I let her in?"
Right. Anna Summers. Apparently, her family is one of our closest friends. Her father Kai asked me a favor last week with regards to Anna's on-the-job training.
"Let her in." I said, my eyes fixed on my laptop. I shook my head as I realized that I couldn't write anymore because of the distraction.
"Thank you." I heard her say to Jasmine.
I exhaled a deep breath as I waited for her to sit on her designated seat across from my table. But apparently, there were no movements. I haven't seen her because my eyes are fixed on my laptop; but because of the lack of movements from Anna, I shift my eyes on hers.
"Oh… H-Hi…" she said, her eyes met mine, then she fixed the loose strands of hair behind her right ear. Her eyes are now fixed on the floor.
I close my laptop and look at her. Her eyes met mine again as I spoke, "Please sit, Ms. Summers."
"Oh… okay…" she sat down and look at me.
I cough inwardly, "So Ms. Summers," I started.
"You can call me Anna." She softly said.
"Right, Anna." I looked at her and realized how awkward this situation was. Her cheeks are red and I wonder why. "Okay. So, your father told me you want to work here in my company?"
"W-well yeah. I just graduated and to be honest, I'm having difficulty applying for a job because I'm not that go-"
I narrowed my eyes at her and she stopped.
"Guess I rambled too much, not a good start for an interview, right?" she said, her cheeks flaming red.
I sighed. "Well, for a start, don't ever say that you're not good in a job interview. You should be selling yourself to me."
Her eyes grew big, her mouth agape, and then I realized my mistake. Wrong choice of words.
Before I could speak to correct myself, she said quickly, "Yeah. I got it." she said, smiling lightly. "I'm sorry. It's just that, it had been so long since I saw you and I just couldn't believe how gorgeous you are right now. Wait what?" Her cheeks flushed. "I mean, not that you're not gorgeous before or anything but I mean, yeah. Oh god." She clasped her hands and then covered her mouth.
My eyes went wide. A blushed crept onto my cheeks. "We saw each other before?"
She bit her lip. "Yeah. Don't you recognize me?"
I shook my head.
She sighed. "Well, uhmmm… We haven't really talked so it's understandable that you must have forgotten about me."
I looked at her and realized that was the reason why she feels awkward towards me now. "I'm sorry. I'm just not a people person, I guess."
She nod her head frantically, "Oh yeah. It's fine. It's fine. Don't worry about it."
"So, let's get down to business shall we?"
Anna nods.
I cleared my throat, "Your father told me you want to be a writer, am I right?"
She nods.
"He personally requested me to hire you as an assistant, actually." I said, my voice serious as I noticed her eyes widening. "To personally train you or anything."
"He told you that?" her eyes blinked.
"Yeah. But the problem is I don't usually hire someone to be my assistant." I said, my voice authoritative. "Hence, I don't need an assistant." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Oh." Anna said, looking sad. She looked like a lost puppy as her eyes cast downward onto her lap.
I sighed again. "But."
She looked at me in an instant.
"I might make an exception this time." I finally said that made her smile.
"Oh really? Thank you Elsa! I mean Ms. Arendelle." She said that made her blushed again. What is with this woman and her constant blushing episodes?
"Have you written several stories?" I asked.
"Yes! But they're not that good, I think." She said softly.
"Give me a copy and I'll see what I can do." I said. "You can start tomorrow if you're available to work. I want you to be here at 9:00 sharp. You can ask Jasmine for an employment form in her desk for you to fill it up."
"Thank you. Thank you so much." She stands up, extending her hand for me and I was reluctant at first to accept it but then she took my hand and squeezed it.
Her hands are warm and if I have to be honest with myself, it electrifies me. The mere gesture of our hands clasped together was something I couldn't describe of.
I pulled my hand away in an instant.
Our eyes met.
I brushed away the feelings as I sat down again. "Thank you Ms. Summers." I dismissed.
"So, how was your interview?" Kristoff, my bestfriend, asked me as he walk towards the door of my apartment. He sat down on my couch and stretched his arms.
"Ugh. I just can't believe that my Dad told Elsa to hire me as her personal assistant! I was completely shocked! It was so awkward, you know." I said, as I sat down beside him.
"Well, aren't you happy? You have a crush on this girl since… forever right?"
I blushed. "Well yeah. I ramble a little bit actually." I said, looking down. I winced at the memory of my rambling.
"What did you say this time?" Kristoff asked, her eyes smiling.
"I told her she was gorgeous." I said softly.
Kristoff laughed, "And what did she say?"
"Nothing." I tucked my hair behind my ear. "I hope she didn't noticed my feelings. I was a complete awkward mess this morning."
"Hey. You're fine." Kristoff puts his arm around my shoulders. "So does she really look gorgeous?" he asked. "Maybe you could introduce me? I mean, she really looks gorgeous in TV and in a couple of interviews."
I slap his hand, "Hey! She is mine!." I said, possessively. "I called dibs on her a long time ago, Kristoff!"
"Okay. You and your stupid dibs." Kristoff laughed. "Well, technically she is not yours." He said, teasing me again.
"Well she will be." I said, determination in my voice.
Kristoff just laughed at me, then he stood up and headed towards my fridge.
Before I go to sleep that night, I open my tumbler and instagram app to look for Elsa Arendelle's pictures. Well she doesn't have an official account but because she is popular being the sole owner of Arendelle Productions Company and the blockbuster writer that she is, she gain a lot of popularity in the entertainment world. There are lots and lots of girls, fangirling on her and I'm one of them. I don't want to be classified as a stalker but I can't help but stare at her pictures. She really is gorgeous.
Her hair up in a tight bun makes her look elegant and sophisticated.
Her hair in a loose French braid that is swept over her left shoulder makes her look hot and rebellious.
But yesterday, seeing her with her glasses on makes her even hotter.
I bite my lower lip as I looked at one particular picture wherein she looked even hotter with that crystal blue off-the-shoulder dress of hers with a right knee-high slit showing off her sexy right leg. This picture was taken when she received the Golden Globe award the movie she wrote last year.
I sighed dreamily as I remember her distinct features up close. She has light dust of freckles on her face, her blue eyes and her pale skin. Her skin looks so soft, and her lips. Don't get me started on her lips. Oh god. I should sleep now. I don't want to be late for tomorrow.
"Good morning Ms. Arendelle." I greet her as I walk into her office.
She just nods her head. She didn't even look at me. Her eyes are plastered on her laptop.
I stood awkwardly as I waited for her instruction.
Then after a good 10 minutes, I cleared my throat. "Uhm, I don't want to intrude ma'am but-"
"Sit down." She said.
So I sat down. My fingers clasped together.
Then after a while, she closed her laptop and looked at me. "So, did you bring your manuscript?"
"Yes." I gave her my usb.
"Good." She said as she took the usb from me. Our fingers brushed against each other and I shivered at the touch.
She looked at me, as she furrowed her eyebrows. Then as if she wanted to say something but then she closed her mouth and put her attention on her laptop.
I clenched my fist, as I fought the rummaging beat on my chest.
"I'll read this later but I have some errands for you to do, if you don't mind." She said.
"Sure. Anything. I'll do it. I mean. Yeah. What is it?" I said, cursing myself because of the rambling. I am such a mess in front of her.
"I have a meeting at 2 PM and I want you to print my work, I need them for today." She said, and I nod my head. Then she continued, "I want you to come with me in every meeting I'm attending to."
"Yeah sure. I would love to." I said enthusiastically.
Elsa nods her head. "Uhm. Anna." She said, as she looked at me. "I can be harsh some time because I'm not used to having people around me. I'm not even used to people following me around. I do my job. I managed the company. I do everything on my own. So hiring you as my personal assistant will change my routine. If you're not comfortable with me, you can say so. I will assign you to my other employees. Your father was my father's best friend and I don't want to ruin that relationship because of me even if my father is no longer here. So, if you don't want to become my assistant, you can just say so. I don't want to scare you or anything."
I slumped my shoulders, and then I whispered softly, "But I want to be with… I mean I want to become your assistant."
Elsa smiled lightly but then it vanished in an instant, "Are you sure you want to be an assistant of the snow queen?"
"Snow queen?" I asked, dumbly.
"Well, that's what people call me nowadays. Because of me being cold towards them."
I shook my head. "No, you're not. You are the gentlest person I've ever met. And I want to be your apprentice Elsa, I mean Ms. Arendelle." I said, my cheeks reddened in embarrassment at my slip.
"You can call me Elsa, Anna." Elsa chuckled lightly. "And me being gentle? I doubt that."
I nod my head. "Nevertheless, I still want to be your assistant."
Elsa nods. "Okay. If that is what you want. But remember, you can tell me if you feel uncomfortable working with me."
"Why do you think I'm uncomfortable?" I asked curiously.
Elsa shifted her eyes away from me for a moment then spoke, "Well, you always seems so uhmm… Never mind."
I blushed hard. Am I really that obvious? Oh god.
"I'm sorry. It's just that. This is my first job and…" I lied. "I feel scared and excited at the same time."
"Oh."
I smile awkwardly, "Yeah."
"Okay… I just thought-"
"Thought what?" I asked immediately.
Elsa cleared her throat, "Nothing." Then she shifted her eyes on her laptop again, "Okay, you may do your job now Anna." She handed me her USB. "Print this all."
"Okay." I said cheerfully. I walked towards the door. Then I stopped. "Thanks for trusting me, Elsa." I said softly.
Elsa looked at me, and then she nods her head. And I swear I saw her blushed as she looked down. I smiled triumphantly. Snow Queen, they say? Hmmm. I'm not really sure of that.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm new to this Elsanna Fanfiction but I really ship them so hard right now. I just watched Frozen 2 months ago and I'm hooked. Yeah, I know they're sisters and all, but I can't help it. :)
I spent time reading elsanna fanfics that I decided to write my own. So, I hope you enjoy this as much as you enjoyed my other stories (Brittana and Clexa)
Reviews are very much appreciated :)
ART BY ICE WRAITH (You should take a look, it's HOT) |
Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Tutu celebrated his 85th birthday in Cape Town on Friday
South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu has revealed that he wants to have the option of an assisted death.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and anti-apartheid campaigner said that he did "not wish to be kept alive at all costs", writing in the Washington Post newspaper on his 85th birthday.
Mr Tutu came out in favour of assisted dying in 2014, without specifying if he personally wanted to have the choice.
He was hospitalised last month for surgery to treat recurring infections.
"I hope I am treated with compassion and allowed to pass on to the next phase of life's journey in the manner of my choice," Mr Tutu wrote.
"Regardless of what you might choose for yourself, why should you deny others the right to make this choice?
"For those suffering unbearably and coming to the end of their lives, merely knowing that an assisted death is open to them can provide immeasurable comfort."
There is no specific legislation in South Africa governing assisted dying.
But in a landmark ruling in April 2015, a South African court granted a terminally ill man the right to die, prompting calls for a clarification of the laws in cases of assisted death.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Tutu became Cape Town's first black archbishop in 1986. Pictured with Dean Michael Weeder during a mass to mark his 85th birthday
The Anglican Church - of which Mr Tutu is a member - is staunchly against assisted dying.
This is not the first time Mr Tutu has come out against the church, however.
He is an outspoken supporter of gay rights, and has openly criticised conservative Christian attitudes to homosexuality. In 2013, he said would "refuse to go to a homophobic heaven" in favour of "the other place".
At the time, he added: "I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."
Earlier this year, he blessed his daughter Mpho's marriage with her female partner, despite South African Anglican law on marriage stating that "holy matrimony is the lifelong and exclusive union between one man and one woman".
The then-Archbishop of Cape Town also controversially supported an amendment to make abortion more readily available in South Africa in the mid-90s, despite some personal reservations.
Desmond Tutu:
Image copyright Oryx Media Image caption Desmond Tutu and his wife have four children and seven grandchildren together
Born 1931
1970s: Became prominent as apartheid critic
1984: Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
1986: First black Archbishop of Cape Town
1995: Appointed head of Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Became a fierce critic of South Africa's ANC
Supports assisted dying for the terminally ill
Profile: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Tutu in his own words |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration plans deep cuts to state environmental programs, a summary of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2018 budget showed on Friday, even after some Republicans in affected states raised concerns when the agency released an initial outline of the budget in March.
Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), speaks to employees of the agency in Washington, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
The EPA's grants to state and local governments on pollution issues from air quality management to pesticides enforcement would be cut 45 percent to $597 million in the fiscal year 2018 budget proposal the administration will send to Congress next week, according to details released by the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA). (bit.ly/2qFWvSl)
The nonprofit group, an association of pollution control agencies in 40 states and various municipalities and territories, said details on the budget came directly from a leaked administration document.
More than a dozen programs to tackle environmental problems in environmentally sensitive regions, such as the Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes and South Florida, would be cut to nothing.
“You would have thought the administration would have revised the budget in light of the overwhelming adverse reaction they encountered from previous trial balloons, instead ... they doubled down,” said Bill Becker, the NACAA’s executive director.
Several Republicans, including Senator Rob Portman of Ohio and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, had raised concerns about the EPA’s plans to cut Great Lakes program funding.
The EPA’s budget proposal also includes an overall cut of 31 percent to $5.66 billion, mirroring what was proposed in a preliminary “skinny budget” the administration released in March.
The EPA would not confirm the veracity of the budget summary released by the outside group. But a spokeswoman defended aggressive proposals to cut the agency’s budget.
“The budget prioritizes federal funding for work in infrastructure, air and water quality, and ensuring the safety of chemicals in the marketplace,” said Liz Bowman, an agency spokeswoman. She said the budget aims to “reduce redundancies and inefficiencies and focus on our core statutory mission.”
The proposed cuts are a starting point and the Republican-controlled Congress would temper them in its budget negotiations.
The Trump administration has targeted regulations, which it says have held back business. The budget cuts to the EPA and other agencies, such as the State Department, would help pay for a 10 percent, $54 billion hike in military spending next year.
Also zeroed out in the EPA budget are programs on cleaning up lead contamination, reporting greenhouse gas emissions and managing indoor air pollution, the NACCA said. |
Earlier this month, we reported that the soundtrack for the movie Divergent would be teeming with new tracks from some of our favorite artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Chance The Rapper, and A$AP Rocky. We heard Chance's link with Pia Mia and Clams Casino yesterday, but today we are pleased to premiere Rocky's offering, "In Distress." The song features French producer Gesaffelstein, who had a pretty big 2013, releasing his critically-acclaimed LP Aleph and working with Kanye on Yeezus. Rocky doesn't got full "Black Skinhead" here, but the similar undertones are in line with Rocky's propensity for danker production.
The Divergent soundtrack is in stores March 11. The movie hits theaters March 21.
RELATED: "Divergent" Soundtrack to Feature New Music From Kendrick Lamar, Chance The Rapper, and A$AP Rocky |
and the rest of the Wizards’ decision-makers had two main orders of business headed into last night’s NBA Draft . They needed Paul Pierce insurance (as the Hall of Fame forward decides whether he’ll stay or go) and they needed youth at the trendy but necessary “stretch 4” position. At the end of last season, it appeared Pierce insurance was necessary due to an impending retirement, but in the last few days, Pierce, despite the words of love that owner Ted Leonsis lobbed in his direction, reportedly decided to opt out of his $5.5-million player option and will decide between the Wizards and the Clippers , with Boston in hot pursuit . According to J. Michael of Comcast SportsNet , the Wizards feel confident that Pierce will return, which sounds grand, but means little until he shares the same sentiment.
The inclusion of a stretch 4 became a must when Coach Wittman had a playoff epiphany, realizing that smaller can be better and can produce better results alongside Washington’s young guards. Pierce played that stretch 4, but his age precludes him from doing it regularly, while Drew Gooden is too streaky and too good off the bench to be relied on for heavy minutes, or as a starter.
Enter Kelly Oubre and Aaron White, Washington’s first and second round picks in the 2015 NBA Draft, respectively.
Kelly Oubre was a top-10 recruit out of high school, who found himself on the bench and in Kansas Head Coach Bill Self’s doghouse due to his lack of defensive prowess. He started 27 of the Jayhawks’ 36 games and averaged 9.3 points and 5.0 rebounds, along with a Nick Young-esque 0.8 assists per game. He had a career-high 25 points in the first game of the Big 12 Tournament against Texas Christian, but failed to break double-figures in the next two Big 12 conference games or in the NCAA tournament, where the Jayhawks, the No. 2 seed, were upset by 7-seed Wichita State. The consensus on the 19-year-old Oubre is that he’s high on talent and potential, but low on consistency and “baskeball IQ.”
Here’s what NBA.com’s David Aldridge had to say about Oubre before the draft. It is worth noting that in his mock draft, Aldridge had Oubre going 24th to the Cleveland Cavaliers:
“Oubre was very inconsistent in college, but he’s done well in pre-Draft workouts, where his freakish athletic ability was likely to pop for prospective teams. He’d fit right in as one of the Cavs’ reserves, where he wouldn’t be asked to do too much but could fill the wings on the break while occasionally playing with a starter like LeBron James or Kyrie Irving, depending on matchups.”
Here’s what ESPN’s Chad Ford had to say about Oubre in his pre-draft chat:
“Well, Kelly Oubre is one of the most fascinating prospects of this draft, because again, he checks boxes. He checks boxes for size for position, and he has a 7’2” wingspan and he can be a 2 guard. That’s freaky. He checks size for a few skills. I don’t think he’s an elite athlete but I call him a smooth athlete, and he can shoot the basketball. He’s not an elite shooter, but it’s clearly one of his skill set, and he has the ability to defend. He has all the physical tools to do that. One general manager referred to him as basketball illiterate, and I think that’s the issue with Kelly Oubre right now. The physical tools are there, and even some instincts of the game are there, but his understanding of the game, his understanding about anticipating what’s happening, especially on the defensive end, and you saw this at Kansas, that one of the reasons Bill Self really struggled to play him at first because he just didn’t have a feel for what was happening on the court, and it’s very difficult to play anything other than on the ball defense when a player doesn’t really understand what’s happening with the offense… “He’s been working out with Drew Hanlen pre draft, and Drew Hanlen has worked out Bradley Beal, he worked out Andrew Wiggins last year, and one of the things I love about Drew is Drew takes tape of players that you’re similar to and he starts to show you the tape so you can start to learn what these players are doing and you can start to learn the game. And then he takes what you saw on the tape and takes you back out on the court and trains you how to do that… He’s starting to figure things out. The training is there. So if he keeps working hard and he keeps learning and he keeps hungry, he could be one of the 10 best players of this draft hands down. But that’s what he’s got to do. He’s got to continue to be hungry, continue to learn, and continue to grow that basketball IQ because it’s just low right now.”
The best case scenario for Oubre is that he continues to develop on offense and defense and turns into former Wizard Trevor Ariza, who ESPN’s Jalen Rose compared him to just seconds after he was drafted. He could learn from Pierce and Otto Porter, and even find himself in a 3-guard lineup with Wall and Beal with Porter at the four and Gortat (or Nene) at the center position. Worst-case scenario is that his game becomes stagnant along with his basketball IQ, and he becomes Nick Young part deux—on some nights he’ll go for 25-35 points, but on most nights he’ll shoot the team right out of games (if Randy Wittman doesn’t bench him first).
That type of attitude would be perfectly serviceable for the 2008-10 Wizards squads, featuring Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee and the aforementioned Swaggy P, but not a team that has designs on progressing beyond the Eastern Conference semifinals.
It is encouraging that in a limited sample size, Bill Self was able to impress upon Oubre that more defense equals more playing time. Coach Randy Wittman’s entire tenure has been based on that premise and it is hard to argue with his results (the Wizards ended last season ranked fifth in Defensive Efficiency). It follows, then, that Wittman may be able to squeeze even more defensive improvement from Oubre than Self did.
And then there’s Aaron White, 22, who the Wizards drafted at 49 (causing him to be overcome with emotion). He’s already tentatively slated to be shipped overseas to add seasoning to his game. He was a four-year player at Iowa who averaged 16.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game during his senior year. And, unlike Oubre, who came up short in the NCAA postseason, White saved his best for last. He had 22 points and 13 rebounds in Iowa’s first-round loss in the Big Ten Tournament, and he averaged 22 points in his two NCAA tournament games. Most importantly, White played both forward positions during his four-year career at Iowa, which makes him a perfect candidate—either now or when he returns from overseas—for the magical stretch 4 slot.
Here’s what Eric Laboissonniere of SB Nation had to say about White’s game:
“White is a 6-foot-9 forward that can stretch the floor at the next level. He played power forward and some small forward in college, which is something he will be able to to in the NBA as well. He is not a very strong forward, but he can get to the basket and score efficiently. White was one of the most efficient scorers in the Big Ten last season, and he averaged 16.4 PPG and 7.3 RPG in his last season at Iowa. White is not going to be the go-to guy for an NBA team at the next level, but he can do many different things in the NBA. He did not shoot many three-point shots in college, but he has the ability to knock-down long distance jumpers and attack the rim, which makes him a dangerous stretch-four. He is pretty athletic, which helps him score at the rim. He is a crafty defender because he has good hands, he averaged 1.3 SPG in his senior season at Iowa. White is a very intelligent basketball player and he always seems to make the right decisions on both ends of the floor.”
Here’s what ESPN’s Chad Ford has to say about Aaron White and the mind state of teams who pick players like him in the second round:
“The things that he brings to the table obviously are hustle, athleticism, and the question is is there skill level enough there and is he good enough at those things to warrant a second round pick. Here’s the other thing that people have to understand about the second round. The Sixers own like five picks in the second round. There are multiple pick situations. These teams can’t possibly have all these players on their roster, so you start drafting international players that aren’t nearly as good as Aaron White, but you draft them because you don’t have a roster spot for these other players, and so the second round is often a head scratcher, I think, for a lot of people that follow college basketball, and I think it’s partly where international players get a bad name. Think of all these busts that were drafted in the second round. Yeah, teams are essentially flushing those picks down the toilet. I mean, that’s essentially what they’re doing, like we can’t afford to have this guy on the roster, we need that roster spot for a veteran, we don’t want to pay the money, we don’t have space, so we’ll stash a guy over in Europe and maybe we’ll get lucky. Maybe he’ll turn out to be Manu Ginobili in a year or what have you.”
Last year the Wizards were without a draft pick but managed to sign Pierce, who, by season’s end, turned out to be a better teammate than any draft pick. This year, the Wizards picked Oubre, who may not blossom for another two years, and White, who will be overseas for at least one year. Which means the Wizards may not feel any significant effects of their 2015 draft until 2017, when current Thunder star Kevin Durant could be in the mix.
What was the alternative? Perhaps now would be a good time to mention Bobby Portis.
Portis was drafted by the Chicago Bulls with 22nd pick of the first round, which means the Wizards saw him, thought about it, and apparently opted to pick who they thought was the best player available in Oubre instead of the player who best fit their roster needs. Portis was the SEC player of the year in 2014-15, and averaged 15 points and eight rebounds during his two-year collegiate career. In two games against the semi-professional team that is the Kentucky Wildcats, he averaged a respectable 16 points and five rebounds. Chad Ford (before the draft) and John Paxson on draft night both praised Portis’ ability to play inside and out—which is a less technical way of calling him a stretch 4.
Unlike Oubre, who fell in the draft because of his high “bust” potential, Portis seemed to fall because, as Ford put it, “he does everything good, but nothing great.” The Wizards have yet to dip their toe into the free agent pool, and the Wizards’ brass could very well be cooking up something special to fill the stretch 4 void. But from a distance, it appears as if they missed a golden, and cost-effective, opportunity to upgrade at that position.
On a more positive note, the Wizards now have two young players who they may be able to count on in the future. In past years they have been without draft picks after trading them for veterans or players who have yet to make their way to the U.S. (hello, Tomas Satoransky!). Ironically enough, the Wizards have begun to stockpile assets for the future just when the team—as it is currently constructed with Paul Pierce—is on the brink of advancing to a place where no Wizards team has gone in nearly 40 years. That means that, after the Draft, the immediate future of the Wizards still hinges on Pierce’s decision, Grunfeld’s free agency plans, and the continued growth of Porter, Beal and Wall. Stay tuned. |
First responders work on a man shot in Red Arrow Park in downtown Milwaukee. Credit: Gary Porter
By of the
A veteran Milwaukee police officer on foot patrol shot and killed a man Wednesday afternoon after a struggle in Red Arrow Park downtown, just across from City Hall.
Police Chief Edward Flynn said the 38-year-old officer, a 13-year veteran of the department, had been dispatched to the park about 3:30 p.m. after a call involving the suspect.
When he arrived, the suspect was lying on the ground near the park, Flynn said at a news conference outside City Hall.
Flynn said the officer helped the suspect to his feet and began to speak with him. As the officer began patting the man down, a struggle ensued. The officer withdrew his wooden baton and began to defend himself, Flynn said. During the struggle, the man took the baton from the officer and began to beat the officer in the head.
"The officer withdrew his sidearm and fired several shots at the individual, striking him numerous times and ultimately causing his death," Flynn said.
Flynn said he did not know how many of the shots struck the man. An autopsy has been scheduled.
Eyewitnesses, including a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter, said they heard at least five shots fired. Flynn said it could have been as many as 10 shots.
Mayor Tom Barrett, who was in a sixth-floor meeting room on the south end of City Hall, said he believed he heard at least five gunshots.
The officer used a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson gun in the shooting, which occurred near a temporary Starbucks trailer within sight of moving traffic on N. Water St. and Kilbourn Ave. and as people walked along sidewalks.
Shortly after the burst of gunfire, people scurried for cover, some behind cars and some underneath the canopy that surrounds the sidewalk around City Hall.
The officer, whom police did not name, was taken to Froedtert Hospital for head injuries but was later released. The man, who has not been identified, died at the scene. The baton was found underneath his body.
New law on inquiries
The shooting occurred a week after Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill into law that requires an outside investigation when people die in police custody. Barrett said Wednesday's shooting will be the first time the law will be put into play.
The new law requires a team of at least two investigators from an outside agency to lead reviews of such deaths. It requires reports of custody death investigations throughout the state to be publicly released if criminal charges are not filed against the officers involved.
Officers also must inform victims' families of their options to pursue additional reviews via the U.S. attorney's office or a state-level John Doe investigation, which allows prosecutors to compel witnesses to testify and produce documents and bar them from speaking publicly about the case.
Looking for video
The state Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation will lead the probe. Members of that agency were on the scene, Flynn said, as were District Attorney John Chisholm, members of Flynn's command staff and Mike Tobin of the city's Fire and Police Commission.
"We continue to interview eyewitnesses and process the crime scene," Flynn said. "DCI people are with us observing, making suggestions."
Although the law is new, Flynn said its provisions are not burdensome. He said the Milwaukee Police Department has cooperated with DCI in the past on other cases.
Flynn said investigators would continue to canvass City Hall, nearby office buildings and other offices to locate eyewitnesses. Police also are looking for possible video that may have captured the struggle.
Ald. Robert Bauman, who was in his second-floor office that overlooks the park, said he heard gunshots and looked out the window.
"I saw the officer apparently discharging his weapon. The victim was faltering and stumbling," he said. "I saw the officer on the radio. There was about a two-minute lag and then cavalry arrived."
Bauman said that after the shooting, he saw the officer who fired down on one knee, looking distraught.
Barrett said the shooting was a rare incident downtown, which he called "extremely, extremely safe."
The case was the second fatal officer-involved shooting in downtown Milwaukee in the past six months. In November, a 17-year-old boy armed with a gun was fatally shot by officers inside the Downtown Transit Center after an apparent attempted robbery.
Hearing gunshots
Wally Lecocq was working in his office at the Milwaukee Center across the street when he heard four to five gunshots in rapid succession.
"That's what caught my attention. They were real quick. The police got here really quickly, like in a minute or two," said Lecocq as he watched investigators rope off Water St. and Kilbourn Ave. across from the shooting.
A matinee of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's "History of Invulnerability" was letting out as the shooting unfolded.
Several theater-goers couldn't get to their vehicles that were parked within the crime scene. Two women who declined to give their full names said they smelled gunpowder when they walked out of the theater. They were waiting on Water St. across from the shooting scene for police to allow them to get to their car.
Meg Jones of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report. |
"You can't whistle because the air pressure in the suit is only 4.3 [pounds per square inch], and normal atmospheric pressure is 14.7 psi, so there are not enough air molecules blowing by your lips to make a sound," he said.[...]
Jeff Hoffman, a retired astronaut with three spacewalks (including a mission to repair the Hubble telescope) has traveled 21.5 million miles in space. He said the technicians who trained him on spacewalks had told him that he wouldn't be able to whistle, but he says he tried anyway.
"I couldn't get one note out," he said.
Now I'm not talking about whistling in a vacuum. It's obvious that attempting to do so would fail. But even astronauts on spacewalks in protective suits can't whistle. Why not? Former astronaut Dan Barry explained: Link -via First Things | Photo: NASA |
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