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It’s the carrot at the end of the tunnel
Two guys were told that part of their pay would be made when their work was successfully delivered. They were told to consider it “the carrot at the end of the tunnel”. This is a nice mash up of “light at the end of the tunnel” (the end of a difficult period or job) and “carrot on a stick” (reward that is promised as an incentive to complete a task). This malaphor is probably caused by carrots and sticks having similar shapes. And maybe Bugs Bunny sitting in a tunnel pulling carrots underground? A big thanks to Bob Newstadt for hearing this one and passing it on. An additional shout out to his quick-witted friend Nax Paul Mendler for responding to the speaker with, “don’t you mean the light at the end of the stick?”
If you enjoyed this mixed idiom, you will love my book “He Smokes Like a Fish and other Malaphors”, now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692652205.
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Engineers Buve un Forma Ltd.
Builders Dreamway Ltd.
Larch frames, glass Glass & Wood Ltd. More Specs Less Specs
View terrace and Pavilion are situated in memorial park “The Garden of Destiny”, the area of Consolation which is the first zone of Future according to overall project of the island. The Garden of destiny is memorial place for all souls that have been lost to Latvia in last century and it will be completed as a gift to country on its 100th birthday in year 2018. The View Terrace project started as an architectural competition and with a help of donations is now first realized permanent building in memorial park. View terrace received the Prize of the Year in Latvian Architecture Best Works Award.
View terrace and pavilion creates harmonious environment to discover special character of the site – spaciousness and faraway horizon over river Daugava. The tight bound between Latvian people and nature has been emphasized in the project. Nature is a source of inner energy, strength, peace and inspiration. Nature has been a priority in this project since it is the consolation for Latvians. The building has been designed considering site particularities and in harmony with nature:
- The main flows of people have been analyzed. The building is made in a way to not cover the view to river panorama when approaching the site;
- Stop points such as benches and covered space are situated in the places where view is the most stunning and emotional;
- The building has been shaped in a way to preserve most valuable trees on the site;
- Terrain level differences are used in the project design. The pavilion is partly sunken into the ground so it doesn’t cover the view when approaching the building and to provide comfortable access from the lowest level of terrace.
View terrace and pavilion has diversified levels of “openness”. This gives an opportunity to use the building in all kind of weather conditions as well as lets visitors to choose the level which emotionally suits them the best. For example if it is raining or in case of strong wind people can enjoy the view from the part of pavilion that is covered with roof and protected with large glass. But if the weather is not an issue then exposed long benches can be used. Building can be seen as a platform for harmonious interaction between people and nature.
The main architectonic idea of the project is building volume that following people movement from a pathway and seats gradually grows into a building in this way exploring building location on the very coast of the river. Roof inclinations creates an exciting place where to play and relax. The main challenge of the project was its highly public significance – it is built for everybody and furthermore by donations of people. The building is very compact however its configuration and various possibilities of usage allow to coexist all parts of society. From this year on couples in Latvia can officially get married also outside the church and the view terrace unintentionally has become a very popular place for wedding ceremonies.
Pavilion and view terrace are made in wood - larch. The load bearing structure is larch frames. Finishing is larch planks that are processed in a special technique to avoid slippery surfaces on pathways and roof of the building. |
Google's DeepMind Healthcare A.I. Will Use Blockchain
The British Artificial Intelligence (AI) company DeepMind Technologies, a subsidiary of Google, recently revealed it will be utilizing a blockchain technology. The firm will use a distributed ledger application to better secure patient data.
Also read: Vietnam May See Virtual Currency Regulation Soon
Google’s DeepMind Looks to Blockchain
DeepMind is a software firm that builds algorithms for simulations, applications, and gaming protocols. The company is well known for creating a machine learning platform that learns how to play video games. DeepMind has also built a Neural Turing Machine which mimics a human’s short-term memory. Recently the company signed a five-year deal with a London NHS Trust applying its technology to healthcare. However, this has sparked controversy over the privacy of patients data.
According to the publication CityAM, DeepMind will use a “blockchain-like” technology with its healthcare initiative, according to a Google spokesperson. Co-founder Mustafa Suleyman has detailed the company will use the software for “general transparency” in a “distributed and untamperable way.” Moreover, the company has hired leading cryptographer Ben Laurie. DeepMind has also sought out software engineers who understand blockchain and cryptography.
“The role will be working on innovative solutions involving a range of technologies, capabilities, static analysis/formal methods, “the blockchain” (no, not Bitcoin) to provide both security and transparency to DeepMind’s infrastructure, initially for Health but also covering a wide range of applications,” states the DeepMind career page.
Blockchain to Enhance Health Care Coupled With AI
DeepMind’s deal with the London NHS Trust is to build an application that distinguishes kidney issues for hospital patients. The trial will work with the Royal Free London Stream identifying people in jeopardy of acute kidney injury (AKI). “This is about bringing information to doctors and nurses, much in the way we get news alerts on our phones. We know that a quarter of deaths from AKI are preventable if clinicians are able to intervene earlier and more effectively,” said Royal Free medical director Stephen Powis.
Blockchain technology, healthcare, AI, and IoT concepts are having more and more interlaced relationships. This past April blockchain enterprise company Gem partnered with the multinational firm Philips to create blockchain healthcare architecture. Another well-known corporation IBM is also dedicating energy and capital into blockchain AI prototypes. Additionally, the German-based IBM Watson is working on these protocols with Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals.
DeepMind has been working with Royal Free for the past year, but there have been privacy concerns. The Information Commissioner’s Office told Digital Health News the agency was inquiring about certain privacy aspects of the project. Since the concern for privacy, DeepMind seems to have taken the criticism seriously by starting to work with a blockchain protocol. With blockchain technology DeepMind and Royal Free, data could be distributed in a secure fashion as well as keeping transparency.
What do you think about DeepMind using a blockchain-like technology to secure data? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Pixabay.
Bitcoin.com believes in freedom of speech – and that’s what you’ll always find on our Forums. We don’t censor anyone, no matter how controversial your opinion and no matter what direction you support for bitcoin’s future. All the experts hang out there; you’re bound to get some good advice. |
Scenario: You’ve created a new tool/language/framework and want to get it shared – either online, to the highest number of people possible, or in a live demo and workshop. You need people to start working with it and learning as fast as possible, and to spend as little time as possible getting it set up.
One of the biggest challenges when creating a new development tool is precisely getting it into the hands of users. Chances are your target audience will have to setup the necessary environment and dependencies.
Languages like Golang and NodeJS, and Ruby offer simplified installers, and in the case of Golang and Ruby, in-browser code testing sandboxes that allow for getting a taste of the languages and possibly following through a tutorial online.
But to get a real sense for the tool, they need it on their machines. So, you either sacrifice the flexibility of working locally, or the immediacy of starting to code ASAP. That is, unless you take the hassle out of setting up an environment all together – that’s where Sandbox comes in.
With Sandbox, batteries are included
Let’s try a Ruby application. No, you don’t need to have Ruby installed, it will run inside a container. No you don’t need Docker installed, it comes with Sandbox, which includes everything you need to get going, right there in the Git repo. Automatically, no hassle.
Go ahead and clone this ruby sample repo. Simply run:
git clone https://github.com/stackfoundation/sbox-ruby cd sbox-ruby ./sbox run server
And your app is running! Run ./sbox status to find out the IP Sandbox is running at, and your app will be at [Sandbox IP]:31001 ! This app will update as you change the code in /src, so feel free to experiment with it.
What just happened?
The magic was made by the Sandbox binaries included in the Git repo. They are tiny – less than 200k – but they install everything needed to run Docker and Kubernetes. A workflow file determines what should run where, which includes caching installation procedures, and all things needed for live reloading changing files, in easy to read YAML:
steps: - run: name: Install dependencies image: 'ruby:2.4.2-alpine' cache: true source: include: - Gemfile script: |- gem install foreman gem install bundler cd app bundle install - service : name: Run Application step: Install dependencies script: |- foreman start -d /app source: exclude: - Gemfile - Gemfile.lock - src volumes: - mountPath: /app/src hostPath: ./src ports: - container: 5000 external: 31001
You can read more about how Sandbox does this here.
As a user, you don’t need to go through the hassle of installing a tool to know if it’s right for you – it just works. Also, as the workflow files are very clear and simple to read, they can get a sense of what needed to happen to make the application run, just by glancing at them.
As a developer, your tool can be that easy to share, and that easy to get running on someone else’s machine, with no issues and very little time spent. That means more time and user patience left to try out your creation, and a lower barrier of entry overall! |
Donald Trump — tycoon, TV personality, and Republican front-runner — has been long preoccupied with putting his name on things. A Sept. 3 profile in Bloomberg Businessweek described the teenage Trump attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge back in 1964. When no one mentioned the designer’s name at the ceremony, Trump learned his lesson: “I realized then and there something I would never forget,” he told The New York Times in 1980 regarding the incident. “I don’t want to be made anybody’s sucker.”
From then on, Trump has placed his name front and center. Thanks to his July financial disclosure, we can tally the results of that effort. Of his current holdings — 515 entities — more than half bear his name, including Trump Ice (bottled water), Trump Classic Cars, Trump Drinks Israel, Trump Education, Trump Identity, Trump Marks Fine Foods, Trump Marks Mattress (recently dropped by Serta), Trump Marks Mortgage Corp., Trump Follies, and Trump on the Ocean. We hear Trump so often as a brand that we’re almost desensitized to it, the name or the word. But its highly ambivalent history and connotations spill over into how we understand Trump the person, too — and may even have something to do with how Trump got so very Trumpian.
Trump’s German wine-growing ancestors were named Drumpf, according to journalist Gwenda Blair’s book “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built An Empire.” The family changed the name at some point during the Thirty Years’ War. America was first introduced to the Trump brand, however, by Donald’s father, Fred C. Trump, who named his real estate company and supermarket chains “Trump” and drove a navy blue Cadillac with “FCT” license plates.
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Donald, though, took name-branding to a 5-foot-tall, shiny-brass-letters, next level. “I put my name on something when I really feel that it is going to be right,” Trump said at a 1989 news conference to announce the launch of Trump Shuttle. (Of course, Trump Shuttle was one of Trump’s great flops, along with Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump: The Game, and Trump University, embroiled in multiple fraud lawsuits and now called the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.)
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We’ve become so accustomed to the Trump brand that it’s hard to imagine The Donald by any other name. Yet, had he been born Donald Drumpf, his path might have been quite different. Trump, according to Laurel Sutton at the Catchword naming agency, is an “unusual name, . . . a single-word name, which sounds very grounded, very firm. It’s not a multisyllabic Romance-type name,” which makes it more “masculine-sounding.”
“There’s something about the ‘p’ at the end, the plosive,” added naming and branding expert Nancy Friedman, whereas Drumpf sounds “almost comical in English. That ‘pf’ combination is tough for English speakers and ‘dr’ doesn’t have the same effect on the ear as ‘tr.’ It’s not as sharp, it sounds like ‘drug’ and ‘drop.’ ”
That’s not merely an aesthetic problem if you’re trying to sell luxury hotels — or yourself as a presidential candidate. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that people with easily pronounceable names were judged to be more likeable.
How it sounds isn’t the only aspect of naming that matters when judging a person. The meaning is important, too, notes one of the study’s coauthors, Adam Alter, a psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “We’re sensitive to associations — positive and negative — between any two concept,” Alter said. The effect “is probably small, but it’s automatic and we’re unlikely to be able to avoid it completely when we consider people by their names.”
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The name Trump carries a range of strong associations, veering on being an aptonym — a name whose definition is uniquely appropriate for someone’s profession, like urologist (specializing in vasectomies) Dr. Richard Chopp or the late Filipino Cardinal (Jaime) Sin. As Alter points out, the word “implies victory and dominance.” The “trump card” in bridge and other card games is a card of a suit that temporarily ranks above any other and is derived from “triumph,” a name for an early card game. Underneath that confident note there’s also the golden blare of “trumpet”: “Tharfor trump vp, blaw furth thyne eloquens,” as the OED quotes a 16th-century translation of the Aeneid. Trump himself may derive confidence from these strong, positive meanings to trumpet forth his own eloquence, Alter suggests — although he added, “Of course the effect of [Trump’s] name is likely to be far weaker than the effects of his inherited wealth and self-assured personality.”
Then again, the verb “trump” also once meant to fabricate or deceive (from French “tromper”). The phrase “to trump up” still means “forge” or “invent,” as in “trumped-up charges” or the many, many headlines punning on “Trumped-up rhetoric” or “Trumped-up politics.” If last week’s Washington Post report suggesting that Trump is a compulsive golf cheat is any measure — “the worst celebrity golf cheat,” according to Alice Cooper — this definition of “trump” may be as essential to Trump’s identity as the other.
Britt Peterson is an Ideas columnist. She lives in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter @brittkpeterson.
Related:
• Michael A. Cohen: We’re just living in Trump’s world
• Jeff Jacoby: Trump is not a champion of the little guy
• Q&A: Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change.
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• Joan Vennochi: GOP debate reveals the real Trump
• Editorial: A round of applause for standing up to Trump |
Vancouver, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks President and General Manager Michael D. Gillis announced today that Alain Vigneault has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Associate Coach Rick Bowness and Assistant Coach Newell Brown were also relieved of their duties today. The Canucks finished the 2012.13 regular season with a record of 26-15-7 and won the Northwest Division Championship before losing 4-0 in the Western Conference Quarter-Finals to the San Jose Sharks.
“We have made the very difficult decision to relieve Alain Vigneault, Rick Bowness and Newell Brown of their coaching duties today,” said Canucks President and General Manager, Michael D. Gillis. “Alain, Rick and Newell worked tirelessly to lead this team to great on-ice success. I am personally grateful to each of them and their families for their commitment to the Canucks and the city of Vancouver and wish them continued success in future.” |
Multipotent adult progenitor cells are a recently described population of stem cells derived from the bone marrow stroma. Research has demonstrated the potential of multipotent adult progenitor cells for treating ischemic injury and cardiovascular repair; however, understanding of multipotent adult progenitor cells in orthopedic applications remains limited. In this study, we evaluate the osteogenic and angiogenic capacity of multipotent adult progenitor cells, both in vitro and loaded onto demineralized bone matrix in vivo, with comparison to mesenchymal stem cells, as the current standard. When compared to mesenchymal stem cells, multipotent adult progenitor cells exhibited a more robust angiogenic protein release profile in vitro and developed more extensive vasculature within 2 weeks in vivo. The establishment of this vascular network is critical to the ossification process, as it allows nutrient exchange and provides an influx of osteoprogenitor cells to the wound site. In vitro assays confirmed the multipotency of multipotent adult progenitor cells along mesodermal lineages and demonstrated the enhanced expression of alkaline phosphatase and production of calcium-containing mineral deposits by multipotent adult progenitor cells, necessary precursors for osteogenesis. In combination with a demineralized bone matrix scaffold, multipotent adult progenitor cells demonstrated enhanced revascularization and new bone formation in vivo in an orthotopic defect model when compared to mesenchymal stem cells on demineralized bone matrix or demineralized bone matrix–only control groups. The potent combination of angiogenic and osteogenic properties provided by multipotent adult progenitor cells appears to create a synergistic amplification of the bone healing process. Our results indicate that multipotent adult progenitor cells have the potential to better promote tissue regeneration and healing and to be a functional cell source for use in orthopedic applications.
This study further investigates the role of MAPC in the orthopedic milieu by applying them in an orthotopic, segmental defect model, while comparing their performance to the current MSC standard. In this study, MAPC isolated from human bone marrow demonstrated a select angiogenic protein release profile which surpassed that of MSC in vitro. In vivo, MAPC seeded onto DBM and implanted into a fibular defect contributed to wound closure and promoted enhanced vascularization. In conjunction with improved neovascularization, treatment groups with MAPC demonstrated increased bone healing. These results suggest a synergistic relationship between angiogenic and osteogenic elements that may accelerate the bone healing process.
MAPC have been shown to differentiate along mesodermal lineages, including undergoing osteogenic differentiation in vitro; however, MAPC have not been fully investigated for their use in orthopedic applications. A previous study performed in a heterotopic model demonstrated increased osteoinductivity of a MAPC-loaded demineralized bone matrix (DBM) scaffold. 49 While the authors presented the ability of MAPC to undergo and/or promote ossification in vivo, the study did not utilize an injury model in an orthotopic site. Another limitation of the study was the absence of an injury-induced inflammatory response, which is significant in the bone healing process. Studies have shown that stem cells may require an inflammatory stimulus to initiate the healing response. 50 , 51 While an initial inflammatory response is normal and may trigger advantageous cellular responses, prolonged or persistent inflammation can negatively impact the healing process. 51 MAPC possess demonstrated immunomodulatory properties and the ability to attenuate a local host immune response upon implantation. 38 , 39 , 52 – 56 Lehman et al. 50 established that endothelial cells exhibit a reduced production of vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM), E-selectin, and intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM) when co-cultured with MAPC; the attenuated presence of these proteins reduces neutrophil binding to endothelial cells. This phenomenon leads to decreased endothelial activation that may reduce inflammation and neutrophil infiltration.
To date, research has focused predominantly on the immunomodulatory properties of MAPC as well as their therapeutic efficacy in models of myocardial infarction and hypoxic ischemia. 37 – 40 MAPC have been reported to release proangiogenic factors including VEGF, interleukin 8 (IL-8), and CXCL-5, all of which are required for in vitro vascular tube formation. 41 – 44 The therapeutic potential of MAPC has been studied in numerous in vivo ischemia models, which indicate that grafted MAPC significantly increase angiogenesis, as well as endogenous stem cell proliferation. 45 – 48
Many orthopedic injuries involve major trauma to the skeletal system and require surgical intervention. Therapeutic approaches to treating damaged or diseased tissue can include a combination of hardware, bioactive large molecules (i.e. growth factors and cytokines), viable cells, and/or natural or synthetic scaffolds. 19 – 22 While hardware and scaffolds assist in maintaining structural support and load-bearing integrity, bioactive large molecules and viable cells provide signals for the host to upregulate new tissue formation and stimulate the healing process. One of the most common cell sources for orthopedic applications is bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). MSC are operationally defined as plastic adherent fibroblastic-like cells capable of differentiating along mesodermal lineages, including bone. 23 , 24 While MSC are established, and their applications are well published in the orthopedic field, there may be alternative cell types possessing greater therapeutic implications. One such population, termed multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPC), was first described in 2002 by Jiang et al. 25 MAPC are nonhematopoietic stem cells derived from the bone marrow stroma. MAPC have a broader lineage differentiation capacity than MSC, generating cells of the mesenchymal lineage, as well as endothelium, hematopoietic cells, hepatocyte-like cells, and neuroectoderm-like cells. 24 – 35 In addition to their broader differentiation potential, MAPC can proliferate without obvious signs of senescence and can be expanded to over 70 passage doublings while remaining cytogenetically normal. 26 , 36
Osteogenesis is traditionally considered the most important element for new bone formation; however, it is widely known that angiogenesis plays an important role in bone repair as well. New blood vessel formation allows for the migration of cells and necessary nutrients to the site of injury. Studies have shown that promotion of vessel formation in an injury model can influence bone healing and that health factors that negatively impact neovascularization (i.e. smoking or diabetes) can cause delayed fracture healing or result in nonunions. 13 Furthermore, the literature has demonstrated that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is crucial to the bone remodeling process. Studies have shown that both VEGF and BMPs increase the differentiation of pre-osteoblasts and that they elicit a synergistic effect on bone formation. 13 – 18
Regenerative medicine emphasizes the use of stem cells in conjunction with biologic and synthetic scaffolds. The application of stem cells to a wound site can substantially improve the time, quality, and overall extent of healing. 1 – 6 It is widely known that production and maintenance of bone tissue are mediated largely by a cascade of molecular signals that are released by and acted upon lineage specific stem cells. These cells can either differentiate or participate in further signal conduction with growth factors and hormones to facilitate bone remodeling. 7 Resident bone cells can provide signals to osteoprogenitor cells through pathways including, but not limited to, Wnt, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), and bone morphogenic protein (BMP). 7 – 12
All quantitative assays were performed in at least triplicate, and the mean value was used. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) with p < 0.05 indicative of significance, unless otherwise specified. If normality passed, a Student’s t test (for comparison of two groups) or a standard analysis of variance (ANOVA; for comparison of three or more groups) was used, followed by Tukey’s post hoc test. If normality failed, a nonparametric Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA on ranks was used followed by a Mann–Whitney U post hoc test. Data were analyzed using SigmaStat software (Systat Software, Inc., Chicago, IL).
Immunohistochemical detection of von Willebrand factor (vWF) protein was performed on sections of formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded rat fibulas. Sections were deparaffinized in xylene and then rehydrated through a graded alcohol series. Antigen retrieval was performed for 10 min at 37°C using a Proteinase K solution (Life Technologies). Nonspecific binding was blocked with 10% goat serum (Life Technologies) and 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA; Sigma–Aldrich) in tris-buffered saline and Tween 20 (TBSt) for 1 h at room temperature. Sections were then incubated overnight with anti-vWF antibody (Abcam, Cambridge, England) at a dilution of 1:200 in the blocking buffer. Alexa Fluor 488 goat anti-rabbit IgG (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA) was added for 1 h at room temperature, protected from exposure to light. Slides were counterstained with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI; Life Technologies), and coverslips were mounted with Permount Mounting Medium (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Protein-antibody complexes were detected using an Olympus DSU-IX81 spinning disc confocal microscope (Olympus, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan). A total of 6–10 images were taken per stack, and images were deconvolved using the nearest-neighbor method. Maximum intensity z-projection was used to obtain two-dimensional (2D) images. Signal intensity and exposure duration were consistent across all groups.
After the explants and surrounding tissue were removed, the specimens were fixed, decalcified, and embedded in paraffin using standard protocols. Specimens from the 14-day time point were sectioned transversely, while those from the 28-day time point were sectioned longitudinally to better expose the defect areas for evaluation. Four sections representing different depths into the defect were collected and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). Blood vessel quantification was performed on the 14-day specimens, and bone repair was evaluated on the 14- and 28-day specimens.
Male athymic rats (7–8 weeks old) purchased from Harlan Laboratories (Indianapolis, IN) were used for this study. The animals were acclimated for 48 h prior to surgery. On the day of surgery, animals were anesthetized and surgically prepared. Surgical procedure and postoperative care were conducted according to the established protocol approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of Florida. Briefly, the fibula was accessed through a lateral skin incision and blunt dissection of the musculature. A 4-mm segmental defect in the fibula was created unilaterally. Defects in experimental groups were treated with a DBM scaffold seeded with MAPC (MAPC + DBM scaffold) or MSC (MSC + DBM scaffold) at a concentration of 175,000 cells/cm 3 of DBM, while defects in the control group received DBM scaffold only. All DBM scaffolds originated from the same donor lot to ensure consistency. Musculature was sutured, and skin wounds were closed using skin clips. Animals were sacrificed at 14 and 28 days post-implantation for histological evaluation of new vessel and bone formation.
Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC; Lifeline Technology, Frederick, MD) were cultured in standard medium until they reached 70%–80% confluence. Matrigel (Becton Dickinson, Franklin Lakes, NJ) was added to the wells of a µ-angiogenesis slide (ibidi, Verona, WI) and allowed to polymerize for 30 min at 37°C. A total of 1 × 10 4 HUVEC were added to each well in 25 µL of medium, along with 25 µL of positive control medium (basal maintenance medium supplied by the manufacturer with growth factors for vessel formation), negative control medium (media devoid of growth factors), or conditioned medium from MAPC or MSC. Wells were imaged at 2, 4, and 6 h.
MAPC or MSC were plated at a density of 1 × 10 5 cells/well in a 24-well tissue culture plate. After 24 h, the medium was removed and replaced with fresh serum-free medium. Following an additional 24 h at 37°C, 3% O 2 (MAPC), or 21% O 2 (MSC), the media were harvested for use in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). IL-8, CXCL-5, VEGF, and GRO-α ELISAs (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) were performed according to the manufacturers’ instructions and normalized to total protein levels using the BCA Protein Assay Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA).
MAPC or MSC were cultured in osteogenic medium for 21 days. Calcium production was analyzed using a calcium reagent set (Pointe Scientific, Canton, MI). Briefly, cells were lysed with 0.5 N HCl to expose the mineral to the acid, and the volume was collected. The samples were incubated with calcium reagents for 10 minutes at room temperature, and the absorbance was read at 570 nm.
One million MAPC were seeded onto fibronectin (5 ng/mL)-coated flasks and cultured in maintenance medium for 3 days at 37°C and 3% O 2 . After 3 days, cells were transferred onto a round bottom 96-well tissue culture plate at a density of 4.5 × 10 5 cells/well and cultured in chondrogenic differentiation medium 64 (high-glucose DMEM, dexamethasone, ascorbic acid 2-phosphate, proline (Sigma–Aldrich), sodium pyruvate (Sigma–Aldrich), penicillin–streptomycin, Insulin transferrin selenium (ITS) + premix (Corning, Corning, NY), and TGF-β1 (Sigma–Aldrich)). MAPC were aggregated by centrifugation at 500g for 5 min and then returned to the hypoxic incubator. After 24 h, the medium was changed and aggregates were gently released from the sides and bottom of the wells by pipetting. Aggregates were cultured for 14, 21, and 28 days, with media changes every 3–4 days. At the end of the culture period, the aggregates were fixed in formalin, dehydrated, embedded in paraffin, and stained with toluidine blue (Sigma–Aldrich).
MAPC used in this study were isolated as previously described by Yasuhara et al. 57 and cultured as described by Boozer et al. 58 MAPC were characterized according to the methods of Sohni and Verfaillie. 37 MAPC were cultured and expanded at 37°C and 3% O 2 . Passage numbers ranging from 2 to 4 were used for all experiments. MAPC isolated from 10 donors were validated for consistency in morphology, growth rates, surface markers, and cytokine expression (data not shown). Bone marrow–derived MSC (Normal, Human, ATCC ® PCS-500-012) were purchased from ATCC (Manassas, VA) and cultured according to manufacturer instructions. MSC used in this study were selected as a model system and have been verified by ATCC to expand to 15 population doublings while still maintaining characteristics of primary MSC. These characteristics include morphology, growth curves, differentiation potential, surface marker expression, immunosuppression, and tube formation. 59 These data are comparable to findings published on isolated primary bone marrow–derived MSC. 60 – 63
Furthermore, at 28 days, mineralized callus containing developing areas of bone marrow was detected in the MAPC + DBM scaffold group with minimal fibrous tissue ( ). The MAPC + DBM scaffold treatment group demonstrated significantly higher deposition of woven bone, when compared to the MSC + DBM scaffold treatment group ( ). While the MSC + DBM scaffold group also contained woven bone, it was to a lesser degree than in the MAPC + DBM scaffold group, with substantial fibrous tissue between proximal and distal ends of the fibular defect in the MSC + DBM scaffold group ( – ).
The extent of repair in an acute long bone defect was evaluated using an osteogenic approach with MAPC + DBM scaffold and MSC + DBM scaffold as treatment groups. and illustrate the scoring criteria for woven and lamellar bone. After 14 days, the MAPC + DBM scaffold treatment groups had significantly more woven and lamellar bone ( and , respectively) when compared to the scaffold-only group. In addition, the average total bone ( ) was increased in the MAPC + DBM scaffold group when compared to either the DBM scaffold-only or the MSC + DBM scaffold group.
MAPC + DBM scaffold or MSC + DBM scaffold were implanted into a bone void, and the resultant blood vessel formation was examined after 14 days ( ). Histological evaluation revealed that MAPC + DBM scaffold groups developed significantly more blood vessels when compared to the DBM scaffold control and MSC + DBM scaffold groups ( – and ). To highlight these differences in blood vessel formation, slides were stained with vWF ( – ). An increased number of blood vessels were evident in defects treated with MAPC + DBM scaffold ( and ) compared to those treated with MSC + DBM scaffold and the DBM scaffold alone ( , , , and ). In addition, vessels in the MAPC + DBM scaffold group were larger in size and exhibited more mature morphology (Figure and ).
An angiogenic cytokine array was performed to qualitatively evaluate the secretion of angiogenic signaling molecules in MAPC and MSC (data not shown). We subsequently quantitatively measured the expression of four commonly known angiogenic markers: VEGF, GRO-α, IL-8, and CXCL-5, 41 – 44 , 50 using ELISAs. MAPC produced IL-8 ( ) and GRO-α ( ) at significantly higher levels than MSC, while CXCL-5 ( ) was highly produced by MAPC, but undetectable for MSC. VEGF expression was comparable between MAPC and MSC ( ). A matrigel tube formation assay was performed to determine the impact of these significant differences in protein secretion on endothelial cells. The endothelial cells treated with MAPC conditioned medium exhibited a dense tube-like formation within 6 h, while those in the MSC conditioned medium group had only very sporadic tube formation at the same time point ( ).
MAPC and MSC were cultured in control and osteogenic media for 8 days. Qualitative staining indicated low levels of ALP expression (dark purple staining) by MAPC in control medium, which became abundant when the cells were exposed to osteogenic conditions ( and ). MSC cultured in control medium did not express ALP ( ), with only mild expression following culture in osteogenic medium, mostly restricted to sparse and random areas ( ).
To complement surface marker characterization data as previously described, 37 MAPC were cultured in specific medium that promotes differentiation along osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic lineages. Osteogenic potential was demonstrated by visualization of calcium deposition in the extracellular matrix using alizarin red ( ). Adipogenesis was confirmed by cytoplasmic lipid droplets and intracellular lipid vesicle formation via Oil Red O staining ( ). Finally, chondrogenesis was evidenced by positive staining for glycosaminoglycans using toluidine blue staining ( ). Biphasic organization, indicative of a chondrogenic phenotype, was observed as well. Positive staining was not observed in any of the control conditions ( ). MSC differentiation was performed by ATCC. 59
Discussion
Currently, the stem cell landscape has expanded from uncharacterized stromal cells to a variety of identifiable cell types (embryonic cell, MSC, marrow-isolated adult multilineage inducible (MIAMI) cell, very small embryonic-like (VSEL) cell, etc.) intended for a multitude of applications including cardiovascular, neural, and musculoskeletal repair.67–70 One of the more recently studied stem cells, MAPC, has the common ability to differentiate along the osteogenic lineage in vitro.25,27,58 We aimed to confirm the potential role of MAPC in an orthopedic setting by expanding upon recent published data. To this end, we selected an in vivo bone defect model that would evaluate osteogenesis, as well as angiogenesis. The rat fibular defect model was chosen for its associated low levels of inflammation, which can provide an environment conducive to cell signaling.50 Previous studies have demonstrated that 14- and 28-day time points provide sufficient time to evaluate revascularization and bone healing, respectively, in this model.50,67
The osteogenic potential of MAPC was verified through an evaluation of osteogenic markers, specifically ALP and degree of mineralization. ALP, a well-known early marker of the osteogenic phenotype, was measured in vitro. MAPC mineral deposition was demonstrated after 21 days in culture via staining with alizarin red. Both ALP and mineral deposition were expressed at higher levels in MAPC when compared to MSC. In vitro angiogenic results demonstrated that MAPC-secreted proteins promoted neovascularization through their effect on HUVEC in a tube formation assay, to a significant level over MSC. Specific angiogenic proteins, such as GRO, IL-8, and CXCL-5, which may contribute to the increased tube formation in vitro and the upregulated neovasculature observed in vivo,41–44,71 were all expressed at significantly higher levels in MAPC when compared to MSC.
To determine whether in vitro angiogenic and osteogenic potential translated to in vivo efficacy, we performed a 28-day study in a rat fibular defect model with MAPC seeded onto DBM scaffolds (which provided the necessary osteoconductive and osteoinductive elements for bone formation). This constitutes the first time that MAPC have been used in a clinically relevant orthopedic application. In addition, this study compared the overall healing potential of MAPC to that of the more commonly used MSC. The DBM scaffold control allowed us to isolate the contribution of the cellular component to osteogenesis and angiogenesis. Healing was first indicated by the presence of increased vasculature in the MAPC + DBM scaffold treatment group at 14 days in comparison to the scaffold-only or MSC + DBM scaffold controls. This was evaluated quantitatively and confirmed via fluorescent-conjugated antibody staining for vWF. It has previously been demonstrated that MAPC possess angiogenic properties that make them ideal for use in cardiovascular applications.24,26,41,43,44 Although it is rarely emphasized, angiogenesis is an important factor in the bone healing cascade, allowing for delivery of cells and nutrients to the damaged tissue during the healing process. Lack of nutrient transport between damaged tissue and the healthy surrounding tissue can often compound the disruptive effects of a bone injury. Deficient vasculature and subsequent impeded revascularization may slow down the healing process and can lead to partial or incomplete healing such as nonunions.13,15–18 Before osteogenesis can occur, vessel healing and revascularization must begin, making this an essential element in bone repair.
Once in vivo neovascularization was confirmed, repair and bridging in a bone defect model were evaluated. New bone formation after 14 days provided evidence of an osteogenic response at the defect site and defects with implanted MAPC + DBM scaffold demonstrated increased bone repair when compared to MSC + DBM scaffold and scaffold-only controls. We speculate that the increase in angiogenic factors resulted in enhanced neovascularization in lieu of an angio-inductive element, allowing for improved nutrient availability as well as an influx of osteoprogenitor cells. These factors likely contributed to the increased bone healing present at the 14-day time point in the MAPC + DBM scaffold group.
Based on the results of this study, it is likely that MAPC + DBM scaffold groups are advancing more rapidly through the stages of bone healing when compared to the MSC + DBM scaffold and scaffold-only groups. At 14 days, there was increased neovascularization, as well as a higher degree of vessel maturity ( ) demonstrated. This is likely a result of the elevated levels of angiogenic factors secreted by MAPC, which subsequently increase the development of blood vessels within the defect. This increase in vasculature resulted in an increase in total bone healing in the MAPC + DBM scaffold group at 14 days ( ). Between 14 and 28 days, the MAPC + DBM scaffold group underwent a significant increase in woven bone, while the MSC + DBM scaffold group maintained a low level, and the DBM scaffold-only group experienced a minor increase ( ). This is a possible indication that MAPC + DBM scaffold groups are progressing more rapidly through the callus ossification stage, in which the vessels that matured in the first 2 weeks provided an influx of osteoprogenitor cells, which then mineralized the cartilage callus and formed woven bone. Additionally, there is early indication of a transition from woven to lamellar bone ( ) in the MAPC + DBM scaffold group, which may suggest that this group is advancing into the bone remodeling stage, the final stage of the ossification process. This is further supported by the early stages of marrow development at 28 days ( ). represents a speculative mechanism of healing of MAPC on DBM scaffold.77
The bone healing mechanism is a complicated process involving multiple steps.72–74 In this study, we investigated two of those steps, angiogenesis and osteogenesis, focusing on the 14-day time point. It is known that MSC condense and undergo chondrogenic differentiation during the process of endochondral ossification.8,74–76 This study demonstrated that MAPC have the capacity to undergo chondrogenesis; however, their involvement in the cartilage stage of endochondral bone formation and their role in callus formation warrant further investigation. Speculatively, MAPC may be responding to the chemical environment at the wound site, recruiting stem cells from the circulation and surrounding tissue, and signaling to host stem cells and osteoprogenitors to stimulate blood vessel formation and bone repair.11 The high base levels of secretion of angiogenic and osteogenic factors observed in vitro may be upregulated in vivo in response to the specific wound environment. The degree of repair demonstrated in this study supports the hypothesis that osteogenic signaling and angiogenic protein release are key mechanisms for the role of MAPC in orthopedic regeneration. This study shows for the first time that MAPC have osteogenic and angiogenic properties in an orthotopic defect model. This study also took the first steps in comparing MAPC + DBM scaffold and MSC + DBM scaffold in terms of angiogenic and osteogenic potential in an orthotopic model. The combination of osteogenic and angiogenic potential from a single cell source, together with the mitigation of a local immune response,39,52–56 can promote enhanced bone healing and result in the more rapid total repair of the defect. The results of this study demonstrate MAPC + DBM scaffold as a promising therapeutic for clinical use in orthopedic applications. Future studies will focus on understanding the signaling mechanisms that drive the strong angiogenic and osteogenic effects of MAPC, the potential early callus formation and chondrogenic effects, cell and scaffold interactions, and the pathways involved. |
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Nikki Bidgood / Getty Images
Oh, nobody reads them. Ever.
We're too keen to get the app, get the Wi-Fi that we're not going to read the legalistic screed. We just hope it will never be relevant to us.
UK Wi-Fi provider Purple decided to experiment with people's wholesale acceptance of terms and conditions. It inserted a community service clause into all the legal mumbo and jumbo attached to its hotspot terms.
It read: "The user may be be required, at Purple's discretion, to carry out 1,000 hours of community service."
What sort of community service? Well, some of the possibilities were: cleansing local parks of animal waste, providing hugs to stray cats and dogs and manually relieving sewer blockages. Yes, manually.
Then there was: cleaning portable lavatories at local festivals and events, painting snail shells to brighten up their existence and scraping chewing gum off the streets.
Actually, the snail-painting sound entertaining. I don't know about 1,000 hours of it, though.
Still, Purple says that 22,000 people happily agreed to its terms and conditions and left themselves open to send their hands where those hands would prefer not to go.
"Our experiment shows it's all too easy to tick a box and consent to something unfair," Gavin Wheedon, Purple's CEO, said in a press release on Thursday.
There is, of course, one important question here. How many people did notice the onerous community service clause and objected to Purple? Or, at least, refused to sign up for its service.
"Just one person noticed," a Purple spokesman told me. I'd very much like to meet that person.
The purpose of this experiment was Purple crowing that it's already compliant with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force next year.
Purple says that the new regulation's insistence on "unambiguous consent" before personal information can be used for marketing purposes should be immediately implemented.
Oh, but will we even bother to wade through the details? I fancy that we'll waive our rights, just so that we can download a fascinating new toenail-comparison app more quickly.
Technically Incorrect: Bringing you a fresh and irreverent take on tech.
Special Reports: CNET's in-depth features in one place. |
This in from the council, in their own words. Ed
The Isle of Wight Council is working with Southern Vectis to provide bike storage facilities on four buses. The buses, which are the existing ‘Coaster’ route vehicles, have been converted to each store up to six bicycles at a time using money from the council’s sustainable transport access to tourism project, which is funded by the government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF).
Check the timetables
Four journeys will leave per day from either Ryde or Yarmouth, with some extended to include East Cowes and Newport, providing a round-the-Island connection for cyclists.
It will mean cyclists can now visit local attractions or areas they would normally drive to using public transport instead with their bicycles.
Luisa Hillard is the council’s Executive Member for sustainability and welcomes the new buses. She said:
“This project is part of the council’s commitment to promoting greener, car-free tourism on the Island. It will support cyclists getting from the ferries, to and from their accommodation and to the tourist attractions in more remote locations and will be particularly useful for those who may not feel able to cycle long distances but enjoy cycling locally. “This is just one of many other exciting projects which are benefiting from government funding to improve the cycling infrastructure for visitors and locals and will strengthen the reputation of the Isle of Wight as one of the best places for a cycling holidays in the world.”
General manager of Southern Vectis, Matt Kitchin added:
“The Coaster route has proven to be tremendously popular as it is a great way to see the Island and visit attractions without the hassle of driving. The addition of space for bikes on board gives more opportunities for cyclists to get out and about, enjoying the scenery without relying on a car.”
‘Bicycle Island’
The Island’s destination management organisation Visit Isle of Wight has recently launched its ‘Bicycle Island‘ scheme which is aimed at bringing more cycle tourists to the Island.
Tom Ransom from Visit Wight is responsible for promoting cycle tourism and said:
“Having the bike buses is a really valuable addition to our cycle friendly reputation. It makes cycle touring more accesible to all by providing a service to those of us who perhaps do not have thighs like those of Chris Hoy. Combining a bus trip with a bike ride allows people to be bolder and go further, without needing to use a car for transport.”
The newly converted Coaster buses will begin service from 5 April and will run daily until 28 September. There is no charge to carry bicycles on the buses other than the normal passenger fare.
The mechanism used for storing the bicycles has been designed by two local engineering students.
Image: © Isle of Wight Council |
The teacher who squirted a water gun at an image of President Trump and shouted “Die” in front of her class has been suspended.
The Dallas Independent School District has put 26-year-old art teacher Payal Modi on administrative leave from W.H. Adamson High School after video of the deed posted on Instagram caused outrage from parents and students alike, not to mention national media attention.
A statement read:
“Today, we were made aware of a social media posting being circulated involving a teacher at W. H. Adamson High School. The teacher has been placed on administrative leave and the district has opened an investigation. This is a personnel matter and as such we cannot comment.”
Watch the local news report below:
It’s funny to note that Modi was an art teacher and liberals are currently worried that the arts will be pulled from schools now that Trump is president. Students from her class said the teacher probably meant to be funny because she is always trying to make jokes. Well, it seems if she would’ve just kept to teaching art, none of this would’ve happened.
But that’s logic for you, and liberals lack that.
H/T Mediaite |
PASADENA, CA (November 10, 2016) – Parsons is pleased to announce that the Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) has received a 2016 Federal Energy and Water Management Award. SPIDERS was a collaborative effort by the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and Department of Homeland Security to develop innovative microgrid solutions to improve the energy security of critical assets at U.S. military bases. Parsons, as a subcontractor and lead, provided key support through all phases of the project.
“SPIDERS is an important step toward greater energy efficiency and the security of our nation’s energy assets,” stated Tom Roell, Parsons Vice Chairman and Group President. “I am proud of our teams’ contributions to this project, which will help to ensure a continuous energy supply to our military bases.”
The SPIDERS project successfully demonstrated the capability to develop cybersecure, energy-efficient microgrids to meet the energy needs of U.S. military bases. The benefits include increased resilience to cyber attacks, severe weather, and other threats to the commercial power grid. In addition, through the integration of renewable power sources, the microgrids created greater energy efficiency and reduced the bases’ carbon footprints.
In three phases ending in November 2015, the SPIDERS JCTD deployed microgrids at three U.S. military bases in Hawaii and Colorado. Each phase expanded the scope and complexity of the demonstration: During Phase I, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, HI, the project synchronized existing backup power supplies with a photovoltaic array to increase the availability of electricity to a single facility. During Phase II, at Fort Carson, CO, the SPIDERS smart grid integrated existing power supplies with renewable energy sources (including photovoltaic arrays, stationary energy storage, and bidirectional electric vehicle charging) and added cybersecurity systems. Phase III, conducted at Camp Smith, HI, was the first basewide demonstration of a microgrid capable of providing long-term power using onsite industrial-quality generating equipment integrated with renewable energy sources (solar and stationary energy storage). This final phase also demonstrated the ability to generate up to $1 million in cost savings through ancillary services to the local utility.
Parsons played a key role throughout the SPIDERS JCTD, providing design and construction support during Phase I, cybersecurity design support during Phases II and III, and network design support during Phase III. The corporation has delivered energy solutions to customers in federal, regional, and local government and private industry for more than 60 years. It has delivered cybersecurity solutions for more than 30 years. |
Ireland: Bankers joke about their €7 billion bailout scam
By Steve James
29 June 2013
Transcripts released this week by the Irish Independent record conversations in 2008 between leading Irish bank executives, joking about how they had scammed billions of euros to bail out the now-defunct Anglo-Irish Bank.
The conversations provide an insight into the reckless, sneering cynicism of the ruling elite as they proceeded to swindle the working people to the tune of trillions of euros.
The conversations focussed on the Anglo-Irish Bank board’s attempt to stem the massive losses it suffered following the collapse of the Irish property bubble out of which it had made billions. The board’s sting was to downplay the scale of the bank’s mounting losses and sucker the authorities into offering large sums of cash. The hope was that, once committed, the Irish government and central bank would be unable to back out of further support.
In one conversation, the retail banking director Peter Fitzgerald asked the head of capital markets, John Bowe, how he had arrived at a sum of €7 billion to bail out the bank. Bowe responded, “as Drummer [David Drumm, Anglo-Irish CEO] would say, I picked it out of my arse.”
He went on, “Yeah and that number is seven, but the reality is that we need more than that. But you know, the strategy here is you pull them in, you get them to write a big cheque and they have to keep, they have to support their money.”
Bowe elaborated on the calculation behind the figure. “If they saw the enormity of it up front, they might decide they have a choice.... They might say the cost to the taxpayer is too high. But if it doesn’t look too big at the outset...it looks big enough to be important, but not too big that it kind of spoils everything, then I think you have chance.”
Bowe makes clear that there is no likelihood of the gigantic sums given to the bank ever being repaid. “This is a €7 billion bridging. So you know, it is bridged until we can pay you back...which is never”.
A fortnight after Bowe and Fitzpatrick’s chat, the Irish government rolled out a bank guarantee, which offered 100 percent cover for all deposits in the banking system and worth €440 billion. It was presented at the time by then-Fianna Fail finance minister Brian Lenihan as “the cheapest bailout in the world”, who had hoped that by offering the guarantee, the banks would stabilise. Immediately on its announcement, deposits briefly flooded into Irish banks, particularly from Britain and Germany.
Another conversation, this time between Bowe and Drumm, recorded the duo’s attitude to concerns from the Irish financial regulator that the guarantee was being used to pull in new deposits, rather than back up existing ones.
Drumm crowed, “so fucking what, just take it anyway, stick the fingers up”. Drumm pointed to the British banks’ behaviour after the British government propped up the collapsed mortgage bank Northern Rock. “They went around with the fucking Union Jack wrapped tightly around them like a jump suit and grabbed all the deposits and where was our fucking minister for finance then?” Bowe sang a parody of the German national anthem in praise of the German banking deposits swilling temporarily into Dublin.
He went on, “So OK, just keep nursing along...jack the [interest] rates up. That’s what I really meant, get the fucking money in, get it in.”
In the event, the flood of money was short-lived, as a succession of European states offered comparable guarantees to depositors. The consequence of the Irish guarantee was to lock Irish state finances into supporting the country’s collapsing banks, all of which were in almost as ruinous a state as Anglo-Irish.
Before its final demise, around €30 billion was handed over to Anglo-Irish. The bank was nationalised in 2009 and recorded the largest loss in Irish corporate history in 2010 following the arrest of chairman and former CEO Sean Fitzpatrick for fraud. In 2011, the bank was split up, and part of it renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), which also incorporated the remains of the Irish Nationwide Building Society. The IBRC was wound up earlier this year. In total, so far, some €64 billion was pumped in the Irish banks, and the government turned to the European Union (EU)-led “troika” for a €67.5 billion bailout in 2010.
The bank guarantee and the “troika” bailout set in place a mechanism to hone the Irish state and political system into a means to fleece the working population of its wages, welfare payments and social services, to pay the major European banks for the local oligarchy’s speculative debts. Regardless of their political coloration, all the parties and trade unions supported and continue to support the brutal repayment regime and the social destruction it has set in motion.
The Irish authorities have not even been able to launch a full investigation of what took place. An inquiry by the Central Bank concluded that the banks’ boards, senior management, auditors and accounts bore responsibility and pointed to the role of successive governments in encouraging the banks’ property speculation. The 2010 inquiry was supposed to provide terms of reference for an independent commission of inquiry, which both the Fianna Fail/Green Party coalition and its successor, the current Fine Gael/Labour Party ruling coalition, have sought to delay.
Immediately after the publication of the Anglo-Irish tapes, Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny reluctantly announced that the necessary legislation would be processed and a “parliamentary inquiry” set up. Kenny’s belated announcement has nothing to with investigating the truth of what took place, notwithstanding hypocritical expressions of outrage and disgust. Rather, it is another notch in the incremental process of delay and the diversion of immense public anger.
Kenny is also seeking to ease current negotiations at the EU, at which Ireland is seeking access to further European Stability Mechanism funding to recapitalise its still hugely indebted banks. Labour leader and Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Eamon Gilmore complained that “what has come out of these tapes doesn’t make our job any easier”.
Making similar calculations, German chancellor Angela Merkel growled of the tapes, “I have nothing but contempt for this”. She added, “The tone seems to be similar across all banks.” Michael Fuchs, deputy leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said, “We are offended. If you have a feeding hand you shouldn’t bite into it.”
In reality, as Merkel, Fuchs and Kenny are well aware, the unguarded comments of Bowe, Drumm and Fitzpatrick are those of a social type, by no means restricted to Ireland. The entire financial system in Europe and internationally rests on similar criminality. In every bank around the world, similar conversations between executives would have been held, expressing their hilarity and incredulity as vast amounts of money, beyond anything they could have imagined, flooded in to prop up their rotten, corrupt institutions.
Writing in the Financial Times, on June 23, Wolfgang Munchau warned that the entire European banking system, including that of Germany, is keeping the real state of banking losses hidden. “Remember the stress tests of 2011? Or the apparently independent audit of the Spanish banking system which concluded that Spanish banks only need a teeny weeny bit in new capital”.
Munchau explained that banks disguise losses by tricks such as renewing a non-performing loan, which is then not in default—”pretend and extend”. He estimated that given the succession of financial shocks, there could be up to €2.6 trillion of non-performing loans across the euro zone. |
TWISTED jihadis have been sharing nightmarish images depicting an apocalyptic scene in London just hours after the Westminster attacks.
With ISIS’s so-called Caliphate imploding, the terror fanatics ISIS have taken to social media to celebrate the London terror attack.
SITE Intelligence Group 3 This graphic shows the mother of all parliaments ablaze
Now the hateful mob of maniacs are whipping together menacing graphics and sharing them online.
One shows legions of ISIS members with their flags with the slogan “we will march to London by the permission of Allah”.
Ahead of them is the Houses of Parliament which is on fire.
The vision of Armageddon in London comes complete with fireballs falling out of the angry looking sky.
SITE Intelligence Group 3 Buckingham Palace is shown on fire
Another shows a photograph of the scene titled Islamic State Operation in London with a gloating run down of the carnage.
Buckingham Palace is featured in one other.
Over the image is written “we will bring the war in your countries: wait for the worse and be sure this operation will be the first but not the last”.
Then there is one called "London".
The font is dripping blood and there is the vow “there is nothing but fire in front of you".
TWITTER 3 This is meant to scare but instead serves to remind the world of the maniacal nature of ISIS
MOST READ IN NEWS TREE OF TERROR Mum horrified to learn what the strange 'pods' were hanging from branches MISSED THE BOAT Clueless couple stranded as cruise leaves WITHOUT them because they're late SUICIDE WARNING What is Momo and how can parents protect their children? Latest BLASTED OUT THE SKY Pakistan parades bloodied Indian pilot after shooting down TWO planes Warning 'SLAYED BY THEIR SON' Teen, 16, 'killed parents' as part of gang initiation in Mexico MUSCLE MAN Mystery as bodybuilding legend is found dead after ‘complaining of leg pain’
The twisted celebratory tweets from sick ISIS fanatics follow messages of solidarity with the hashtag #IamLondon echoing the terror group’s Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015.
Wednesday's attack on the capital comes after ISIS released chilling footage, released in the aftermath of last summer’s Nice attacks.
The targeting of civilians is in the spirit Islamic State’s bloody-thirsty Abu Mohammad al-Adnani is still inspiring horrific atrocities across Europe from beyond the grave a year after he was killed.
The ISIS propaganda chief’s murderous rants calling for murdering civilians in western cities are still being listened to by legions of fanatics bitter about the so-called caliphate crumbling to dust.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 |
0 School bus video shows driver vaping while driving
EDMONDS, Wash. - The mother of a 12-year-old middle school student says surveillance video showing an Edmonds School District bus driver vaping with an e-cigarette on board the bus, proves what her son had been complaining about for weeks.
Lisa Davis requested the bus video from the Edmonds School District under the Freedom of Information Act. The video shows bus driver vaping while he's driving to pick up students at 8:30 a.m. At times, the video shows the entire front of the bus filled with vapor.
About 10 minutes after the driver parks the bus, he is seen spending several minutes standing in the aisle, vaping between the seats, while the windows of the bus are closed.
"He takes a drag and he's blowing smoke rings," said Davis. "I mean he's really enjoying himself. He's clearly watching for people watching him, he knows he's doing something wrong, and it's minutes, sometimes seconds later before he's picking up kids from the school."
Davis' 12-year-old son Austin had been complaining for weeks about a strong odor that make him feel sick when he boarded the bus, according to Lisa Davis.
"It was definitely hard to breathe," Austin Davis said, recalling how he even confronted the driver himself.
"I was like dude? What's with the smoke? He's like 'Oh that's from the heater,'" Austin Davis said.
Lisa Davis said she wanted the proof because she says neither her son's principal, nor the transportation director took her complaint seriously.
"I'm even more upset now than I was before because now I have the proof," she said. "Before, I just had my son's word against the school district."
A spokesperson for the Edmonds School District told KIRO-7 the driver was suspended with pay, and is still going through due process with the district's human resources, and his union. The spokesperson acknowledged that the driver appears to be violating the no smoking or vaping policy on school grounds -- which includes the interior of district school buses.
"They owe me an apology," Davis said.
© 2019 Cox Media Group. |
Slain: Back from Hell
You control the fate of Bathoryn, a doomed hero in a Gothic world, who seeks to liberate six cursed realms from six deadly overlords.
He must battle his way through this blighted land, packed with gruesome and lethal creatures before ascending (or sometimes descending) into a stronghold, all the while defeating fiendish traps and vile monsters alike.
Accompanied by the heavy metal visuals is an even heavier metal soundtrack recorded by Curt Victor Bryant (formally of Celtic Frost).
Features
Challenging ‘elemental’- based melee and magical combat
6 hours of bone-crushing, metal-fuelled mayhem & grisly gore
Choose from 3 unique weapons in your fight against the demon hordes.
Full soundtrack recorded by Curt Victor Bryant formally of Celtic Frost. \m/
Cunningly concealed secrets (shhh).
Boss fights, mini-boss fights, sub-mini- boss fights & macro-sub- mini-boss fights.
No laborious levelling, no tedious grinding, no wimpy crafting!
(Source : http://microsoft.com |
The Michigan-Notre Dame series is reportedly back from the dead, and this is great news for everyone. Make that, almost everyone.
To free up Saturdays in 2018 and 2019, Michigan will exercise a buyout and pay Arkansas $2 million, according to Sports Illustrated.
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema learned of the news Thursday while vacationing in London, and he was bummed. The former Wisconsin coach wanted a crack at the Wolverines and Jim Harbaugh.
“I’m definitely disappointed,” Bielema told the Tribune. “It was going to be an opportunity to play one of my favorite teams from the Big Ten.”
Asked if the Razorbacks will get to do anything fun with the $2 million, Bielema replied: “Maybe host a satellite camp in Cabo?”
The Michigan-Notre Dame series was extinguished, at least for the time being, in 2014. The Irish romped 31-0 in South Bend, with coach Brian Kelly crowing about a shutout that ended a 42-game rivalry that stretched beyond 100 years.
Then-Michigan coach Brady Hoke accused Notre Dame of “chickening out” of the series, opting instead for an annual five-game scheduling arrangement with the Atlantic Coast Conference. But it’s clear that former Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon also was responsible for a personality clash between him and Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick.
Both Kelly and Harbaugh deserve credit for reviving the series, with Kelly saying recently: “You’ve got two coaches who are committed to making it happen.”
Harbaugh, who quarterbacked the Wolverines to victories over Notre Dame in 1985 and 1986, called the series “very meaningful.”
An official announcement about the series is forthcoming, but Bielema doesn’t need it. Vacationing near the River Thames, he knows two chances for mega-profile victories have been flushed away.
“Wish it could have happened,” he said.
[email protected]
Twitter @TeddyGreenstein |
The White House announced Thursday President Donald J. Trump will not reappoint IRS Commissioner John Koskinen for a new five-year term.
Koskinen was three times the target of impeachment efforts by House conservatives, first by Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R.-Utah) and his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and then twice by members of the House Freedom Caucus.
Each time, Speaker Paul D. Ryan Jr. (R.-Wis.) intervened both directly and through intermediaries, such as the current chairman of House Oversight, Rep. Harold W. “Trey” Gowdy (R.-S.C.) to persuade conservatives to back down.
Trump intends to designate Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy David Kautter as Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the White House said.
Trending: Conservative Journalist Jacob Engels Suspended On Twitter For Calling Out Radical Islam
Koskinen’s term expires on November 12, 2017, but his last day on the job is set for Nov. 9, with Kautter taking over Nov. 13.
Kautter joined Treasury as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy in August, the White House said. He is expected also to carry out his assistant secretary duties, including working on tax reform, while serving as acting commissioner.
Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Kirsten Wielobob will run the day-to-day operations of the IRS, reporting directly to the acting commissioner.
The search for a permanent IRS commissioner is ongoing.
Check out this video from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the case for impeaching IRS Commissioner John Koskinen: |
The Denver Broncos offensive line is beat up right now.
Last week the status of Louis Vasquez was dicey for three straight days. He played on Sunday (and actually looked okay), but for an injury to linger like this already is concerning.
And unfortunately on Wednesday Vasquez was joined by two of his fellow offensive line starters on the Broncos injury report ahead of the Minnesota game.
Check it out:
Yikes.
Right now none of the three injuries sound too serious, but at the same time when 60 percent of your line is on the report it isn’t great news.
Meanwhile Peyton Manning is listed simply because of a scheduled off day and seeing Juwan Thompson participate in full is great news.
The line, however, is a different story — and something to watch the rest of the week. |
The Leafs have been bad for this long, so what’s another year, right? There’s a lot of chatter out there about the value of bottoming out for just one more season, to add another blue-chip prospect to the organization before heading into the gunfight that is the NHL.
It’s a noble thought from people who have taken the whole ‘patience’ thing to heart, but at this point, I’m not sure how necessary being at the top of the order is to the organization.
What do the Leafs have to gain?
Once again, it looks like there are a pair of very, very big noise makers at the top of the 2017 Draft Class. If you’re looking for another impact forward, Nolan Patrick is your guy at #1; the 6’3 native of Winnipeg destroyed the score sheets this year with 132 points in 93 regular season and playoff games in the WHL and is expected to do even more of the same next season.
Tank-favouring Leafs fans seem oddly content with losing the big lottery and settling for #2, though, and it’s easy to see why. In that spot, you currently find 1999-born Swedish defenceman Timothy Liljegren. He’s not overly big (6’0 and 190lbs), but he’s a right-handed shot, skates like the wind, and is already playing some encouraging hockey at the Swedish Junior and Pro levels. Both of these players would be huge additions to arguably the best prospect pool in hockey, but Liljegren, in particular, would fit a position of supposed need.
What do the Leafs have to lose?
To have the best chance of getting one of these two players, the Leafs need to tumble in the standings again this year. Last year, they finished in the 30th seed, had the 20% odds land in their favour, and picked up Auston Matthews. But people forget that the team didn’t get there easily.
For the Leafs to get to the 30th seed, James van Riemsdyk, Leo Komarov, and Tyler Bozak all had to miss time to injuries in what appeared to be coming-out-party seasons for all three. Nazem Kadri and Peter Holland had to lead the way in having the absolute worst shooting years of their careers. They had to move on from Dion Phaneuf midway through the year, and they had to trade James Reimer and replace him with a rookie goaltender coming back from injury.
Even then, the replacement players still played well enough to make things too close for comfort. The team was still top-half in league possession, had the second best record of a last-place team in the Cap Era, and didn’t have the last spot secured until the closing moments of the season.
This year, the Leafs are going to have three or four potential Calder Trophy finalists (Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Nikita Zaitsev) in the lineup, supposedly more stability in net via Frederik Andersen and a list of secondary players that are fighting hard for the remaining spots on the roster. Many of those support players were young and/or unfamiliar with the system last year, so it stands to reason that they should improve now.
On paper, they’re likely a fair bit better than last year’s team. If last year’s team was one that needed a worst-case scenario on the ice to get the asset they wanted off of it, how far off of expectation do they need to be to repeat it this year? Sure, you get another Blue Chip player, but is the gap between that player and who they’ll pick in a regular first round spot worth more than having a dozen or so players have setbacks in their career progression to make it happen? I’m not sure that’s the case.
There’s also the whole “losing is bad for morale” argument, but I’m sure we’re all aware of that.
Looking Back
People who are in favour of another “tank” season will often point to the recent big-three powerhouses on the bottom ring of the Stanley Cup (Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles) as an example of why it needs to happen. After all, these teams built their cores through the draft, right?
Well, yes, but not a ton of it came through the drafting at the very top. Let’s look at the picks in the Top 10 that the three teams made in the decade prior to their first cup, and the self-selected Top 10 picks in the Leafs organization right now.
Chicago Los Angeles Pittsburgh Toronto 07-1 Patrick Kane 09-5 Brayden Schenn 06-2 Jordan Staal 16-1 Auston Matthews 06-3 Jonathan Toews 08-2 Drew Doughty 05-1 Sidney Crosby 15-4 Mitch Marner 05-7 Jack Skille 07-4 Thomas Hickey 04-2 Evgeni Malkin 14-8 William Nylander 04-3 Cam Barker 03-1 Marc-Andre Fleury 12-5 Morgan Rielly 01-9 Tuomo Ruutu 02-5 Ryan Whitney 09-7 Nazem Kadri 00-10 Mikhail Yakubov
It’s pretty interesting how few of these players were pivotal in the team’s successes when the moments came. Kane and Toews were huge difference makers for Chicago, but nobody else was on that 2010 Roster. Doughty was the only homegrown top pick on the Kings roster, and while four of the Pittsburgh 5 were on the 2009 Roster, Staal was a secondary player, Fleury had a weak playoffs until “the save”, Crosby was won in the lockout lottery, and Malkin, who was their MVP that year, wasn’t even the guy they were tanking for in 2004. With that said, they’re the closest to a pure bottom out model delivering results.
That’s not to go full Brian Burke and say that amassing top draft picks won’t help you win. That’s ridiculous, but I think people overstate how long you must amass and how many top picks you have to add to your roster.
Chicago went to the conference finals in Toews and Kane’s second year and won the cup in their third. Los Angeles made the playoffs in Doughty’s second year and won in his fourth. The Penguins made the playoffs in Malkin’s rookie season (Crosby’s second) went to the finals in the year following, and won in their 3rd and 4th years respectively.
What set these teams apart wasn’t dressing a roster of top picks, it was the fact that they built their support cores out of an abundance of picks, and made the most out of most of their “whiffs” near the top of their draft board. The Hawks picked players like Keith, Seabrook, Wisniewski Crawford, Byfuglien, Bolland, and Hjalmarsson in spots a non-tank team could’ve accomplished. The Kings did the same with Brown, Quick, Kopitar, Lewis, Bernier, Simmons, Martinez, King, and Voynov. The Penguins did it with Letang, Malone, Orpik, Armstrong, Talbot, Christensen, Kennedy, Goligoski, and a ton of others (most oddly: it was them, not Los Angeles who originally drafted Jake Muzzin).
The teams recognized found their core superstars at the top of the draft, but were quick to surround them with support, and once the team got moving, got mildly aggressive in free agency and traded players that seemed like they would be held back by systematic depth for more advanced roster talent.
Toronto might not be in the position where they can afford to try to use trading as a leapfrog, or push youth to the side to sign middling free agents, but if Matthews, Nylander, and Marner are as good as we’re led to believe they are, it’s not insane to think that this should be the “go for it with what you’ve got” year that those three teams all had before starting to make their ascension.
Looking Forward
At this point, the concerns about draft picks should be about quantity more so than placement. Even once the team is competitive, having talented players on entry-level deals is going to be important, as Chicago has shown in recent years. Toronto currently sits at seven picks for next year and eight in 2018, and with so many extra depth players in the lineup that can play regular NHL shifts, it wouldn’t be a shock to see them add a few more over the next few months.
But that’s really as far as the draft quest should go. I don’t believe that the Leafs actually “tanked” for Matthews last year, if only because so much had to happen for them to just barely get to 30th. Most metrics imply that the team, while still not powerhouses, did underachieve last year, and it would take a severe pessimist to say that this year’s roster isn’t a good chunk better on paper.
Too much would have to go wrong for the Leafs to find themselves in the same position again, and if recent micro-dynasties have any merit to their blueprints, there’s probably not a whole not of necessity to being there. The Leafs are top heavy enough as an organization to head into the wilderness in due time; it’s just a matter of maintaining the conveyor belt of cost-controlled talent to support them. As it stands right now, I personally believe that that having the 20-25 players on the roster right now play to their expectation would be more beneficial in the long run than finding out that there’s a lot of permanent misses but also having another high profile rookie.
Besides, pro sports are entertainment and goals attached to ambitious progression are more fun than a controlled demolition, but that’s a subject for another day. |
I have been a Republican since 1966. I have been working extremely hard for the Party, for its candidates and for the ideals of a Republican Party whose tent is big enough to welcome diverse points of view. While I have been comfortable being a Republican, my Party has not defined who I am. I have taken each issue one at a time and have exercised independent judgment to do what I thought was best for Pennsylvania and the nation.
Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.
When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.
Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.
I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.
I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.
I deeply regret that I will be disappointing many friends and supporters. I can understand their disappointment. I am also disappointed that so many in the Party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate. It is very painful on both sides. I thank specially Senators McConnell and Cornyn for their forbearance.
I am not making this decision because there are no important and interesting opportunities outside the Senate. I take on this complicated run for re-election because I am deeply concerned about the future of our country and I believe I have a significant contribution to make on many of the key issues of the day, especially medical research. NIH funding has saved or lengthened thousands of lives, including mine, and much more needs to be done. And my seniority is very important to continue to bring important projects vital to Pennsylvania's economy.
I am taking this action now because there are fewer than thirteen months to the 2010 Pennsylvania Primary and there is much to be done in preparation for that election. Upon request, I will return campaign contributions contributed during this cycle.
While each member of the Senate caucuses with his Party, what each of us hopes to accomplish is distinct from his party affiliation. The American people do not care which Party solves the problems confronting our nation. And no Senator, no matter how loyal he is to his Party, should or would put party loyalty above his duty to the state and nation.
My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords' switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.
Whatever my party affiliation, I will continue to be guided by President Kennedy's statement that sometimes Party asks too much. When it does, I will continue my independent voting and follow my conscience on what I think is best for Pennsylvania and America. |
YouTube has demonetized videos by some the platform’s top content creators, leading many users with millions of fans to reconsider their future with the site.
YouTube creator Ethan Klein from the channel H3H3Productions, which has over 3,600,000 subscribers, complained on Twitter Wednesday that YouTube had demonetized a range of videos, from his most popular “Vape Nation” comedy sketch, which has nearly 15 million views, to a “Thank You” for 3 Million subscribers video.
YouTube has demonetized everything from "Vape Nation" to "Thank You for 3 million" with no notification and no option to appeal @TeamYouTube — Ethan Klein (@h3h3productions) March 29, 2017
“Dude same,” replied Jenna Marbles, a popular YouTube personality with over 17 million subscribers. “I’ve also had a bizarre selection of videos demonetized with no notification or option to appeal.”
dude same, I've also had a bizarre selection of videos demonetized with no notification or option to appeal. — Jenna Marbles (@Jenna_Marbles) March 29, 2017
Several other top content creators also replied, adding that they were experiencing the same problem.
looks like a new way they're demonetizing vids, you can't appeal it anymore, just happened to me this week too — Scarce (@JohnScarce) March 29, 2017
same here — Chaos (@Chaosxsilencer) March 29, 2017
experiencing a similar meme — Ian.0 (@Idubbbz) March 29, 2017
yeah happened to me for 4 days until I tweeted them and dm'd them. Email was useless. 🙃 — Evan Edinger (@EvanEdinger) March 30, 2017
https://twitter.com/Kwebbelkop/status/847345696210534403
Other YouTubers, including animator PsychicPebbles and personality Boogie2988, suggested action against the site in protest.
“Yo f*ck this sh*t, let’s start our own website,” said PsychicPebbles, who has already moved the majority of his content to his own site in protest of YouTube’s treatment of animators in the past.
https://twitter.com/psychicpebble/status/847207723754151942
“Just know that they’ll fix this or we will revolt,” added Boogie2988. “You can’t just effectively fire top creators for no reason.”
just know that they'll fix this or we will revolt. You can't just effectively fire top creators for no reason — Boogie2988 (@Boogie2988) March 30, 2017
In response to YouTube demonetizing his videos, popular animator David Firth, who has created some of YouTube’s most viewed animation series including Salad Fingers, Burnt Face Man, and Jerry Jackson, pulled his latest work from the site and launched a Patreon account for fans to donate as an alternative method of income.
“Ahhhhhhh news video is age restricted so no revenue??? how did this happen??” posted Firth on Twitter. “I’m pulling it until this gets fixed.”
Ahhhhhhh news video is age restricted so no revenue??? how did this happen?? — David Firth (Salad Fingers) (@DAVID_FIRTH) March 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/DAVID_FIRTH/status/846410568596623360
“Sorry I have deleted my new video. It was age restricted on youtube. I’m not working that hard to make no money,” he continued, adding “Need a new plan. Youtube is not working for me any more. Any suggestions?”
Sorry I have deleted my new video. It was age restricted on youtube. I'm not working that hard to make no money. — David Firth (Salad Fingers) (@DAVID_FIRTH) March 27, 2017
Need a new plan. Youtube is not working for me any more. Any suggestions? — David Firth (Salad Fingers) (@DAVID_FIRTH) March 27, 2017
Firth went on to proclaim that “If Youtube wants to be daytime TV that’s their business. I just need to take my business elsewhere,” explaining, “My videos are gradually becoming un-monetized without explanation. It’s happening.”
If Youtube wants to be daytime TV that's their business. I just need to take my business elsewhere. — David Firth (Salad Fingers) (@DAVID_FIRTH) March 27, 2017
My videos are gradually becoming un-monetized without explanation. It's happening…… — David Firth (Salad Fingers) (@DAVID_FIRTH) March 29, 2017
Firth’s Patreon account has already received 92 patrons, who have pledged a total of $607 “per creation” made.
I set up a Patreon. It feels like investing in a bomb shelter for the upcoming blitz my channel is going through https://t.co/fVNOXuyD4P — David Firth (Salad Fingers) (@DAVID_FIRTH) March 29, 2017
YouTube replied to Breitbart Tech’s request for comment in an email, citing the withdrawal of advertisers over the past month due to their brands being featured on “offensive” and “extremist” content.
“We recently posted a blog explaining how we’re addressing strong feedback from advertisers around ads running on content they feel does not align with their brand,” said a YouTube spokesman in an email to Breitbart Tech. “Advertiser confidence on YouTube is critical to the financial success of creators. Unfortunately, in recent weeks, we’ve seen some advertisers suspend their campaigns. So earlier this week, we began implementing the new brand safety controls outlined in the blog.”
“If you’re seeing fluctuations in your revenue over the next few weeks, it may be because we’re fine tuning our ads systems to address these concerns,” they continued. “While this can be unsettling, we’re working as fast we can to improve our systems so that advertisers feel more confident in our platform and revenue continues to flow to creators over the long term.”
What can you specifically do? If you are monetizing your videos and seeing a drop in revenue from videos that are being monetized, review your videos’ thumbnails, titles and descriptions to ensure they accurately represent the content in your video and are aligned with the advertiser friendly content guidelines.
If you think your video was demonetized in error, request an appeal by clicking on the yellow $ icon next to the video in Video Manager. You will be notified once a decision is made on the appeal, and if it is successful, your video will immediately be monetized again and have a green $ icon. In light of these changes, we’re pledging to make the reviews process around appeals even faster for creators. You can learn more about how to request an appeal here. We want to ensure that advertisers continue to support the creativity on YouTube and while ad restrictions can feel limiting, they’re essential to protecting the livelihood of creators. We will continue to provide updates on our progress in the Product Forum.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. |
Mum and dad investors have Australia teetering on the edge of a housing crash, report warns
Updated
Australia is at growing risk of a home price crash because of the high number of mum and dad property investors, inflated prices, record household debt and an economy that appears to be losing momentum, a new report says.
Local hedge fund Watermark Funds Management has warned conditions in the Australian housing market are similar to countries which experienced property busts after the global financial crisis, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands.
Watermark predicts national home prices are likely to peak in the first half of next year, with prices in Sydney, Perth and Darwin having already fallen amid a crackdown on investor loans by the banking regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
The price falls indicated that investors were driving the housing market.
The investment firm said the most worrying part of the Australian housing market was the "extreme" level of mum and dad investors in residential property who depend on property prices rising to make a profit.
The proportion of new mortgages taken out by non-professional property investors stands at 35 per cent in Australia — about three times higher than the US, UK and Canada.
The proportion of amateur landlord mortgages in the Sydney market was 42 per cent, which was down from half of all new mortgages in 2015-16.
Aside from the clampdown on investor-lending by the banking regulator, the report said if a Labor government came to power nationally, it may curb tax breaks for property investors, like negative gearing.
"This is a concern to the extent that recent macro-prudential measures and possible future tax changes are being specifically designed to reduce investor activity in the Australian housing market," the report said.
The fear is that price falls could be exacerbated if more amateur investors sell their properties or demand for investor loans continues to decline.
Watermark said a similar situation occurred in the US before the global financial crisis when the high number of property investors in some cities created a more volatile market.
"The US experience in the '00s suggests that housing markets with high participation of leveraged speculators tend to exhibit increased volatility in both booms and busts," the report said.
These 'investor' cities had greater than 50 per cent appreciation in the housing boom and a 50 per cent larger correction when the market declined, compared to the US national average.
Author of the report, head of financials investment at Watermark, Hamish Chalmers, said there was the possibility of a sharp drop in home prices in Australia if mum and dad investors ran for the exits.
"Our research highlighted that the Australian economy is exhibiting many similar symptoms that those other economies did before they had their housing-led busts, so things are definitely slowing," he said.
"What happens next is dependent, and how bad things will be depends on the reaction from the Government and regulators.
"It depends on the reaction of the banks themselves and I think crucially, and where Australia is different, is that there is a huge army of amateur investors."
Households increase mortgage debt
A survey by Morgan Stanley found that 40 per cent of Australian home loan borrowers intended to sell if house prices were flat or falling, with interest-only loan borrowers three times more likely to sell.
The report said extreme levels of household debt caused downturns to be deeper and more protracted than those entered when debt levels were lower.
Watermark said Australian Bureau of Statistics data over the last 40 years indicated Australian households had increased their mortgage debt each year — a situation which has seen the Reserve Bank voice concerns over the record level of household debt, which is one of the highest in the OECD.
Mr Chalmers said the unprecedented expansion of mortgage-borrowing had been driven by Australia not having a significant economic downturn in more than a quarter of a century.
Citing Macquarie Research, the report said Australian home loan borrowers could borrow more money compared to mortgage borrowers in the UK on the same income.
"We believe that British bankers can recall a recession and house price declines while Australian bankers cannot," the report said.
"We believe hindsight will reveal Australian banks have simply over-lent to households."
Topics: housing, government-and-politics, business-economics-and-finance, housing-industry, industry, australia
First posted |
Police Commissioner Marco Stein chose the parking lot on Highway 102, near the city of Brandenburg in eastern Germany, at random. His task was a routine traffic check, making sure that passing cars were carrying a vehicle registration and a first aid kit in the trunk.
It looked to be a routine day of police work. But Stein and his colleagues had only waved down the first few cars when they began to notice the sweetish scent of cannabis. For the most part, there were only mothers with their children in the cars they pulled over -- the odor must have been coming from somewhere else. The commissioner took a look around, peering at a nearby hall that once belonged to a construction supply shop and a neighboring fast food stand. The neighbor's German shepherd growled behind a hedge, but there was nothing else around.
The hall's doors were made of corrugated metal and covered with thick metal bars. The windows were taped over with opaque sheeting. But when Stein, 36, approached a ventilation pipe, any remaining doubts he might have had quickly vanished. He alerted his superiors.
Two hours later, equipped with a search warrant, the commissioner and his colleagues from the criminal investigation department broke down the doors and found themselves in a sea of lush green. Cannabis sativa plants were lined up neatly, watered by an ingenious system of tubes and thriving under artificial light. The building contained more than 2,500 plants in all, from small shoots to bushes as tall as two meters (6.5 feet).
And no one claimed to have seen anything suspicious -- not the man from the fast food stand, whose tables offered customers a clear view of the main entrance to the illegal cannabis nursery, nor Marcus K., a car dealer who lived next door and owned both the German shepherd and the hall.
Investigators first focused their sights on K.'s 35-year-old tenant and several helpers. But three weeks later, police arrived at K.'s door and confiscated two Porsches, an Aston Martin and 10 motor yachts. The public prosecutor's office suspected the car dealer of purchasing these possessions with drug money. They believed K. and his accomplices had earned at least 824,000 ($990,000) since January 2009 with the marijuana plantation investigators believe belonged to them.
That site in the small village of Fohrde was one of the largest "indoor plantations" to be discovered in Germany to date. It was also part of a lucrative, booming black market -- hardly a week goes by in Germany without police discovering a professional growing site. It happened in Berlin again last Monday, when police discovered around 1,400 harvest-ready plants in an office block right in the middle of Wedding, an urban district of the city.
German Pot Edges Out Moroccon and Afghan Supplies
Marijuana grown in Germany is increasingly edging out imports from countries that until now acted as suppliers, such as Morocco and Afghanistan. Where hippies of the past swore by "black Afghan," today's pot smokers are quite willing to roll German hashish and marijuana in their joints.
Hobby gardeners who grow a few plants in their basements or garden plots for their own use are not the main part of the problem. Authorities such as Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) see far more cause for concern in large-scale operations such as the one near Brandenburg, as well as in the business' "organized international structures." Many German marijuana growers have Dutch backers, while those who care for the crops and help with the harvest are often recruited from countries where wages are lower.
The boom in domestic cultivation also means a change in strategy for police. In the past, their main target was drug trafficking. But, increasingly, officials are on the hunt for local marijuana growers and their hidden plantations.
The number of large-scale growing operations discovered -- those with more than 1,000 plants -- increased last year from 18 to 26. Authorities also found 316 small and mid-sized sites with fewer than 1,000 plants. Investigators assume, though, that a considerable number of cases go unreported.
The current phenomenon began in the Netherlands, but the situation there quickly got dangerous for growers. Gang wars sprang up around harvests, distribution channels and markets, and in some cases people were even killed.
Going East
Although the Netherlands is world famous for its tolerant policies towards soft drugs and its pot- and hash-selling "coffee shops," the government in The Hague in recent years has cracked down on cannabis growers -- in effect pushing them out of the country, with many Dutch drug gangs setting up shop across the border in neighboring Germany. Those backing the projects evaded authorities by heading over the border, first to the German federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, all fairly close to the Netherlands.
But there, too, pressure increased, and more and more producers are now moving further east, toward Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, all states that were formerly part of East Germany. With its low population and countless barns and industrial buildings standing empty, eastern Germany appears to offer ideal conditions for marijuana growers and their flourishing greenhouses. This, at least, is how BKA's Marion Gradowski and Bernd Welsch describe it. The two officials maintain a map of Germany specifically indicating marijuana growers' locations.
According to Welsch, who is in charge of investigations relating to cannabis, this eastward expansion is changing the entire German market. Drug cultivators in the west of the country once harvested their crop and brought it back to be processed in the Netherlands, where the plants were dried and fermented. The finished product was then divided up and packed in small plastic bags to be sold, for example, in Dutch coffee shops.
"The further from the Dutch border a plantation is located, the higher the probability that its goods are being produced for the local market," Welsch explains.
It's difficult to estimate what percent of domestic demand German producers are currently fulfilling, given the black market nature of the business. In Great Britain, which has had a flourishing business in homegrown goods for years, local crops dominate the market.
The system's benefits for growers are obvious -- there are next to no transportation costs and there is a lower risk of being discovered. The necessary infrastructure and female seedlings are easy to obtain in the Netherlands and sometimes it's even possible to hire a group of workers who will set up entire greenhouses.
This illegal business model is lucrative too. The initial investment runs between 20,000 and 50,000, depending on the size of the plantation, and that amount can often be earned back in as little as six weeks, when the first harvest is ready. Up to six harvests per year are possible using new plants grown from cuttings, and a flourishing greenhouse yields exorbitant profits. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of hashish or marijuana fetches from 3,000 to 4,000 on the black market, with street prices approximately twice that amount. A harvest of 1,000 plants can produce around 15 kilograms (33 pounds). |
“Straight Outta Compton” dominated a trio of underwhelming new releases this weekend, providing a little proof of life in an otherwise moribund box office.
The rap drama topped charts for the second weekend in a row, picking up $26.8 million from 3,025 locations and propelling its domestic haul to $111.5 million. That’s a tidy return on the $29 million that Universal and Legendary spent making the film about the early days of N.W.A.
“Straight Outta Compton” hasn’t been without controversy. The film has been slammed for glossing over its members’ treatment of women and the blowback forced Dr. Dre to apologize for his actions. The negative headlines do not appear to be taking a toll on its ticket sales.
Of the new films hitting multiplexes, “Sinister 2” performed the best of an inert bunch. The low-budget horror sequel nabbed $10.6 million from 2,766 locations for a third place finish. That’s less than the $14 million to $16 million that Focus Features, the studio behind the film, had been expecting to pull in, and it also trails the first “Sinister’s” $18 million opening. “Sinister 2” might not make much money, but it cost less than $10 million to make, limiting the studio’s financial exposure. Ticket buyers were 51% female and 57% over the age of 25.
Fox’s “Hitman: Agent 47,” a second attempt to transform a popular videogame series into a successful film one, hit a speed bump, earning a meagre $8.2 million across 3,261 locations. It had been expected to generate $11 million in receipts. Swapping “Justified’s” Timothy Olyphant for “Homeland’s” Rupert Friend as the titular assassin didn’t provide much sizzle, as the latest “Hitman” failed to match the $13.1 million opening of its 2007 predecessor. “Hitman: Agent 47” cost $35 million to bring to the screen, and attracted an opening weekend audience that was 61% male and 60% over the age of 25.
That left Lionsgate’s “American Ultra” as the lowest performing of the newbies. The marijuana-encrusted secret agent film went up in smoke, grabbing $5.5 million from 2,778 locations, and securing sixth place. The film centers on a stoner (Jesse Eisenberg) who discovers he is really a crisped version of Jason Bourne. It reunites Eisenberg with Kristen Stewart, his co-star from 2009’s “Adventureland,” and fielded an audience that was 56% male and 65% over the age of 25.
All three films carried R-ratings and catered to adult crowds, something that may have depressed their results.
“At the end of the day, they cannibalized each other,” said Chris Aronson, Fox’s distribution chief. “It’s an unfortunate confluence of events. All three of those films combined would have made a decent opening for any one of them.”
Among holdovers, Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” had a second place finish with $11.7 million. The fifth film in the spy series has earned $157.8 million stateside. “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” an attempt to revive a television show few remembered, earned $7.4 million in its second weekend, edging out “American Ultra” for fifth place. The action film has earned $26.6 million domestically thus far, signaling it will have trouble recouping its $75 million production budget barring a surge in pop culture nostalgia among foreign crowds.
In the art house world, Sony Pictures Classics scored a solid debut for “Grandma.” The comedy about a grandmother helping her granddaughter find the money to pay for an abortion has earned rave reviews for its star Lily Tomlin. It picked up $120,856 on four screens, for per screen average of $30,214.
The Orchard fielded Joe Swanberg’s off-beat mystery “Digging for Fire” on-demand and on three screens where it earned an estimated $24,544.
Broad Green, the newly created distribution company from brothers Gabriel Hammond and Daniel Hammond, launched its first in-house production with “Learning to Drive.” The comedy is pitched at older crowds and stars Sir Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson. It grossed $67,417 from four locations for a per screen average of $16,854. The company was particularly pleased that the film picked up steam as the weekend rolled on, indicating that word-of-mouth is strong. It will expand to four additional markets next weekend.
“We always saw the first three weeks as basically a series of previews,” said Travis Reid, Broad Green’s president of distribution. “We knew the movie needed to get established, because it’s a film that audiences really, really respond to.”
And “Trainwreck” checked an important milestone off its list, as its $2.5 million weekend gross pushed the comedy past the $100 million mark after six weeks in theaters.
Overall ticket sales were down roughly 7% from the year-ago period when “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” were still drawing healthy crowds. The box office is now sliding into a doldrums it won’t be roused from until films like “Black Mass” and “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” hit theaters in mid-September.
“It’s a slow time,” said Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “People are on vacation or generally busy outside, so studios shy away from opening something that they have confidence in.”
Welcome to the dog days of summer. |
Buy Photo Dan Griffin, director of sports information at Millsape College in Jackson, explains that an existing deck in the northeast corner of the school's fooball stadium will be home to a new "beer garden" that will be a part of the gameday experience this year. (Photo: Joe Ellis/The Clarion-Ledger)Buy Photo
In an effort to revamp the game day experience, Millsaps College is partnering with Jackson-based Lucky Town Brewing Company to offer fans and alumni a unique sideline amenity: a beer garden.
At its first football game on Sept. 6, fans, alumni and students (over 21 years old) will have their choice of Lucky Town's Ballistic Blonde or Lucky Town Pub Ale.
The Division III college's new Athletic Director Josh Brooks spearheaded the effort upon his arrival to Jackson after six years at the University of Georgia.
"I spent the last six years at the University of Georgia noticing a trend in the decline in attendance of college athletics and college football," Brooks said. "Up to 21 to 22 schools in Division 1 are selling beer now as a form of revenue generation obviously and a method to keep people attending."
These days, sports fans tend to watch games in the comfort of their own homes, often with a beverage of their choice.
"This is a way to help bridge that gap," Brooks explained.
Attendance at football games has remained pretty steady in the last several years at about 1,000 to 2,000 people per game, according to Sports Information Director Dan Griffin. At special events like Homecoming, the number may rise to 2,500.
The beer garden may play an especially important role this year after Millsaps will no longer play Mississippi College at its annual Backyard Brawl. Mississippi College, its biggest rival since 2000, jumped from D3 to D2 this year.
Lucky Town and Millsaps' partnership, in a way, dates back to last year.
In early 2013, Else School of Management professor David Culpepper and local attorney and Millsaps alum Matthew McLaughlin approached Chip Jones, Lucky Town's co-founder, and encouraged Jones to consider Midtown, the area north of downtown Jackson, as the site for the brewery.
"They definitely helped out with the search and even helped us out in navigating the hurdles we had in getting a zoning ordinance passed" for the building, Jones said.
"From our standpoint, we think it's really exciting. I don't know of any other college program coming out and publicly embracing local craft beer in such a way as Millsaps is," Jones said.
To contact Kate Royals call (601) 360-4619 or email [email protected]. Follow @KRRoyals on Twitter.
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While clubs in the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 mull over failed attempts to sign some summer targets as their respective transfer windows draw to a close on Thursday evening, La Liga outfits will have more of an opportunity to get their shopping done.
Unlike previous years, La Liga has decided not to follow the other four major European competitions and has extended its summer transfer window for an extra 24 hours -- Spain's transfer market will close at 23.59 CEST on Friday.
FIFA's regulation on the status and transfer of players demand for registration periods to be "fixed by the relevant association." Otherwise, football's world governing body will determine the dates. The majority of associations have chosen Aug. 31 as the deadline for registering players for the UEFA Champions League is Sept. 1 but, for example, the Portuguese league has gone as late as Sept. 22.
La Liga confirmed to ESPN FC that it opted to choose Sept. 1 as the deadline for the 2017 summer transfer window, which complies with the FIFA rules.
The first transfer window must begin after the end of the campaign and must last no longer than 12 weeks, according to FIFA.
La Liga's decision to make a date change was not a spur of the moment move because the registration periods for the season have to be "communicated to FIFA at least 12 months before."
Philippe Coutinho's move to Barcelona could go past the English deadline. Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
So what do Spanish clubs gain from having an extra 24 hours?
La Liga did not reveal to ESPN FC its reasons for the change but one can only surmise that it benefits the clubs.
It certainly would have two years ago with the David De Gea transfer fiasco. Real had agreed a deal with Manchester United to sign the Spanish goalkeeper, with Keylor Navas due to move in the opposite direction only for the paperwork not to be submitted in time for the transfers to be completed.
The two clubs blamed each other but it was Real that received widespread criticism in the Spanish media for their failure to sign the player.
By keeping the transfer open one more day to register new players, Spanish clubs know they will have the full attention of other European sides that are no longer in a race against time to bring in new players because their deadline will have already passed.
Though veteran agent Gines Carvajal, whose clients include Real Madrid pair Daniel Carvajal and Sandro Ramirez as well as Jese Rodriguez, now on loan at Stoke City, doesn't see many advantages to have the extra time.
"I don't know the reasons behind La Liga's decision to change the date," he told ESPN FC. "Perhaps you can do a few more transfers but really one day doesn't change much in terms of the transfer window. I believe the transfer windows should be unified everywhere."
This season, though, they are not. Philippe Coutinho's potential £150m move to Barcelona from Liverpool could go past the English deadline and, if it does, Reds' fans won't be able to relax for another 24 hours. |
Forget the perfectly anticipated Greek (selective) default. This is the real deal. The FT just released a blockbuster that Europe's most important and significant bank, Deutsche Bank, hid $12 billion in losses during the financial crisis, helping the bank avoid a government bail-out, according to three former bank employees who filed complaints to US regulators. US regulators, whose chief of enforcement currently was none other than the General Counsel of Deutsche Bank at the time!
From the FT:
The three complaints, made to regulators including the US Securities and Exchange Commission, claim that Deutsche misvalued a giant position in derivatives structures known as leveraged super senior trades, according to people familiar with the complaints. All three allege that if Deutsche had accounted properly for its positions – worth $130bn on a notional level – its capital would have fallen to dangerous levels during the financial crisis and it might have required a government bail-out to survive. Instead, they allege, the bank’s traders – with the knowledge of senior executives – avoided recording “mark-to-market”, or paper, losses during the unprecedented turmoil in credit markets in 2007-2009. Two of the former employees allege that Deutsche mismarked the value of insurance provided in 2009 by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway on some of the positions. The existence of these arrangements has not been previously disclosed.
Naturally, DB is defending itself in the only way it knows: "this is complicated stuff, and we know better than those guys." In other words, this is just a "tempest in a teapot." Where have we heard that before...
The bank said the investigation revealed that the allegations “stem from people without personal knowledge of, or responsibility for, key facts and information”. Deutsche promised “to continue to co-operate fully with the SEC’s investigation of this matter”. The complaints were made at different times in 2010 and 2011 independently of each other. All of the men spent hours with SEC enforcement attorneys and provided internal bank documents during multiple meetings, people familiar with the matter say.
SEC enforcement attorneys eh? Because this is where it gets really fun: the person who was in charge of DB's legal compliance at the time was none other than Robert Khuzami. The same Robert Khuzami who just happens to be the chief of enforcement at the SEC!
Robert Khuzami, head of enforcement at the SEC, has recused himself from all Deutsche Bank investigations because he was Deutsche’s general counsel for the Americas from 2004 to 2009. Dick Walker, Deutsche’s general counsel, is a former head of enforcement at the SEC. The SEC declined to comment on the investigation.
Sadly, the "we are too sophisicated" defense may not be very effective this time.
Two of the former Deutsche employees have alleged they were pushed out of the bank as a result of reporting their concerns internally.
One of them, Eric Ben-Artzi, a risk manager at Deutsche, was fired three days after submitting a complaint to the SEC. In a separate complaint to the Department of Labor, he claims his dismissal was retaliation for his allegations. Matthew Simpson, a senior trader at Deutsche, also left the company after submitting his own complaint to the SEC. Mr Simpson declined to comment. Deutsche Bank paid Mr Simpson $900,000 to settle his anti-retaliation lawsuit. Reuters reported in June 2011 that Mr Simpson had raised concerns about improper valuation of the derivatives portfolio. The third complainant, who worked in risk management and has requested anonymity, raised his concerns to the SEC and voluntarily left the bank.
Or actually, since every bank in the world is forced to lie, cheat and mismark its own balance sheets every single day, not least of all the European Central Bank which as of moments ago has to accepted defaulted Greek bonds as collateral, this may just be completely ignored.
After all opening this particular Pandora's Box may well reveal that not only DB but the world's entire financial system is completely and totally insolvent.
* * *
And for those curious why the SEC's chief enforcer will never lift a finger against his own bank, all other considerations and recusals aside, here is what we wrote back in May 2010
Robert Khuzami Stands To Lose Up To $250,000 If He Pursues Action Against Deutsche Bank
When the SEC'a Robert Khuzami recently recused himself of pursuing an investigation against Deutsche Bank in regard to potential CDO malfeasance, a bank where it is common knowledge the CDOs flowed (and were shorted "where appropriate" by Mr. Lippmann and his henchmen) like manna from heaven, we were curious just how large the conflict of interest must be for him to not pursue his official duty. Luckily, we were able to answer this question when we recently encountered Mr. Khuzami's Public Financial Disclosure Report for Executive Branch Personnel. It appears that Mr. Khuzami, who from 2002 to 2009 worked at DB, most recently as General Counsel, might have directly profited quite handsomely from the very activity he is now prosecuting Goldman, and other banks very likely soon, for engaging in. How handsomely? His 2007 bonus, 2008 salary and bonus, and 2009 salary added up to $3,804,537. This works out to about $1.9 million in comp per year. And let's not forget that 2006/2007 was the peak years for DB's CDO issuance. It sure seems Mr. Khuzami benefited nicely as a participant in precisely the kind of CDO gimmickry that he is currently all over Goldman for. Yet most ironic, is that Robert is expecting to receive between $100,001 and $250,000 in vested deferred stock comp from Deutsche Bank in August 2010. Should he, or someone else at the SEC, commence an investigation into Khuzami's former employer, the SEC's Director of Enforcement is sure to lose a substantial amount of money tied into the absolute value of Deutsche Bank stock.
And it doesn't end there. Khuzami lists the following asset holdings as of June 2009:
Federated US Treasury Cash Reserves: $1,001-$15,000
US Treasury Cash Reserves: $1,000,001-$5,000,000
Fidelity Advisor New Insights Fund: $15,001-$50,000
Henderson Int'l Opportunities Fund: $15,001-$50,000
Deutsche Bank Cash Account Pension Plan: $100,001-$250,000
DB Stable Value Fund: $1,001-$15,000
Goldman Sachs Mid Cap Value Fund: $1,001-$15,000
Dodge and Cox Int'l Stock Fund: $50,001-$100,000
SSGA Money Market Fund: $15,001-$50,000
Delaware Emerging Markets: $50,001-$100,000
Gateway Fund (401k): $15,001-$50,000
Third Avenue Real Estate Fund (401k): $15,001-$50,000
Touchstone MidCap Growth Class A (401k): $15,001-$50,000
Wells Fargo Endeavor Select FD (401k): $15,001-$50,000
Yacktman Fund (401k): $15,001-$50,000
PIMCO Real Return Class A (401k): $50,001-$100,000
Principal Short-Term Fixed Income (401k): $1,001-$15,000
Personal Residence - New York (Gross Rental Income): $1,000,001-$5,000,000
Deutsche Bank Common Stock (Vested Amount Compensation): $100,001-$250,000
Vanguard 529 Moderate: $50,001-$100,000
Vanguard 529 Aggressive: $1,001-$15,000
It appears Mr. Khuzami has done quite well while working in the private sector, undoubtedly defending his German employer from precisely the same actions he, or someone else at the SEC, may soon charge the firm was defrauding investors by. His total disclosed asset range from $2,525,000 to $11,375,000. It is also ironic that nearly half Mr. Khuzami's assets are contained in real estate, and not to mention that a substantial amount of his assets are also contained in Deutsche Bank plans as well as DB stock deferred comp. In fact, let's take a look at that deferred comp of $100,001-$250,000 a little closer.
It appears the SEC's Enforcement Director has between $100,001 and $250,000 in DB deferred stock compensation, which becomes payable in August 2010. Obviously this is not a trivial number. And while Khuzami may have recused himself from pursuing DB for CDO infarctions, that does not mean that some other SEC enforcer (surely, their $1 billion a year budget allows them at least more than one enforcement professional) would not be able to go after DB. The problem as we see it is that since the announcement of the SEC case against Goldman the firm has lost about 25% of its market cap. It is conceivable that DB, which dabbled far more in CDOs, and thus the SEC would have a much stronger case agaisnt the bank, would thus lose far more of its market cap should the SEC announce a case against the Germans. In fact, we could be looking at Mr. Khuzami's Vested Deferred Compensation value dropping from $100,001 - $250,000 to maybe even as low as $15,001-$50,000. Then again, this becomes irrelevant after August, when the former DB GC will have collected all his dues. Does this mean we should expect nothing from the SEC against Deutsche Bank for at least 4 more months? And is September 1 the day when the SEC formally announces charges against Deutsche? We would love to get the SEC's feedback on this.
Mr. Khuzami's potential conflicts of interest do not end with his open exposure to Deutsche Bank. His Schedule A appendix indicates that the man has open equity positions with firms such as Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan. To wit:
Would this mean that Mr. Khuzami, and thus the entire SEC Enforcement Division, if judging by the Deutsche Bank case study, would recuse itself of investigating these three firms from an enforcement standpoint?
We certainly do not begrudge Khuzami's generous winnings as part of the private sector. If anything, any borderline criminal activity he may have helped cover up as GC of Deutsche (an act he was supposed to do so no ill-will there) should provide him with the knowledge to prosecute just such activity. However, when the head of the main US regulator's enofrcement body is so terminally ensnared in not just the Wall Street complex, but in the very fabric of Keynesianism (that up to $5,000,000 Treasury holding for example and not to mention his up to $5,000,000 rental property), the population should ask just how extremely biased this man can be when prosecuting the very system that allows him to have up to $11 million in assets currently tied in to the perpetuated status quo. Surely, should the Fed, and the market in general, be "surprisingly" uncovered to be the same ponzi construct as Madoff's pyramid scheme, Khuzami, and who knows how many other people, stand to lose virtually the bulk of their assets. This makes them very much conflicted in any real enforcement action, and certainly not independent or impartial. Perhaps Dodd, in his joke of a bill, can consider just how to establish a securities regulator which by its very nature is not constantly in bed with the very subject it is supposed to be investigating. |
As far as ass-kicking goes in God of War, Kratos clearly hasn't lost a step from the last time we saw him. But the gameplay footage shown at the PlayStation E3 2017 press conference re-confirmed that he has lost his trademark ass-kicking implement: the Blades of Athena/Chaos. The wicked chain-swords were at the heart of Kratos' whipping, twirling, combat style. But now Kratos wields a relatively modest (but still magic) axe instead. Cory Barlog explained in an interview why it was important to separate Kratos from his signature weapons.
"We were experimenting with lots of different weapons, lots of different things," Barlog said. "I think we wanted to create an identity, because to me the blades represent a very dark time in [Kratos'] life. They are not just a weapon to him. They are his scarlet letter. They are the marking that somebody tricked him, that he made a bad deal, that he made a mistake. Powerful, but I think also powerfully charged in its emotion. So I think of part of him wanting to move forward is being able to [leave the blades behind]."
The gods of Olympus gave the blades to Kratos, and he had what you might call an unhealthy relationship with Ares and company. The blades represented years of deceit and servitude, and lots and lots of killing. Story aside, putting the blades aside was also a new start for the designers.
"It gives us the freedom to experiment with what we really want to do. I think the magic moment with the axe, honestly, was when a programmer and a combat designer was like, 'I have this cool idea', Barlog said. "Right away the magic of throwing the axe, having it stick anywhere in the world, and then recalling it, and then kind of playing around with that, and realizing you can hit people with it, you can throw it behind them, move in front of them, recall it and hit him in the back.
"So it's like, *gasp* a shield guy's standing in front of you! You lob the axe over him and he's like, 'Ah, I got you!' And then you call it back and hit him in the back. It's just phenomenal. It has so much potential for play that we just realized, alright, this has gotta be something we're gonna do."
Make sure you check out our full E3 2017 schedule to stay tuned for all the details as they arrive, and check out our roundup of all the E3 2017 trailers. For more E3 2017 highlights, check out our Nintendo E3 2017 recap, PlayStation E3 2017 recap, and Xbox E3 2017 recap. |
ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - A few weeks ago, a person inside Mosul began to send text messages to Iraqi military intelligence in Baghdad.
Civilians return to their village after it was liberated from Islamic State militants, south of Mosul, Iraq October 21, 2016. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini/File Photo
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State, “has become intemperate,” said the early November message, written by an informant inside the city who has contact with the group but is not a member of it.
“He has cut down on his movements and neglects his appearance,” the message read. “He lives underground and has tunnels that stretch to different areas. He doesn’t sleep without his suicide bomber vest so he can set it off if he’s captured.”
The text message, which Reuters has seen, was one of many describing what was happening inside Islamic State as Iraqi, Kurdish and American troops began their campaign to retake the group’s northern Iraqi stronghold of Mosul.
The texts, along with interviews with senior Kurdish officials and recently captured Islamic State fighters, offer an unusually detailed picture of the extremist group and its leader’s state of mind as they make what may be their last stand in Iraq. The messages describe a group and its leader that remain lethal, but that are also seized by growing suspicion and paranoia.
Defectors or informants were being regularly executed, the person texted. Baghdadi, who declared himself the caliph of a huge swathe of Iraq and Syria two years ago, had become especially suspicious of people close to him. “Sometimes he used to joke around,” one text said. “But now he no longer does.”
While Reuters has verified the identity of the informant who has been texting Iraqi military intelligence, the news agency couldn’t independently confirm the information in the messages. But the picture that emerges fits with intelligence cited by two Kurdish officials – Masrour Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Security Council, and Lahur Talabany, who is chief of counter-terrorism and director of the KRG intelligence agency.
Talabany and other intelligence chiefs said the military coalition is making slow but steady progress against Islamic State. The coalition has formidable assets inside Mosul, they said, including trained informers and residents who provide more basic surveillance by texting or phoning from the city’s outskirts. Some of the informants have families in Kurdistan whom the KRG pays.
The Kurds believe that the military assault on Mosul, which began on October 17, is fueling Islamic State’s sense of fear and mistrust. In the short term, they said, the group’s obsession with rooting out anyone who might betray it may help rally fighters to defend Mosul. But the obsession also means the group has turned inwards right as it faces the most serious threat to its existence in Iraq since seizing around a third of the country’s territory in the summer of 2014.
The number of executions is a clear sign Islamic State is beginning to hurt, said Karim Sinjari, interior minister and acting defense minister with the KRG, which controls the Kurdish area in northern Iraq.
As well, he said, many of the group’s local Iraqi fighters lack the “strong belief in martyrdom that the jihadis have.”
“Most of the die-hard Islamists who are fighting to the death are foreign fighters, but their numbers at the frontline are less than before because they are getting killed in battle and in suicide attacks,” he said.
Barzani said the growing paranoia has pushed Baghdadi and his top lieutenants to move around a lot, further hurting the group’s ability to defend the city. Baghdadi, Barzani said, “is using all the different tactics to hide and protect himself: changing positions, using different ways of traveling, living in different locations, using different communications.”
If the military coalition does push Islamic State from Mosul, the Kurdish officials said, the group is likely to flee to Syria, from where it will pose a nagging threat to Iraq through regular suicide attacks and other guerilla tactics.
DANGERS OF A SIM CARD
Islamic State has always been paranoid. Its rule in Syria and Iraq has relied in large part on a vast intelligence network that uses everyone from children to battle-hardened former Baathists to spy on both subjects and its own officials. [Link to: here]
That paranoia appears to have reached new levels as Islamic State’s enemies advance. Suspicion grew in the weeks before government troops began to encircle Mosul in mid October.
Early last month, Islamic State leaders uncovered an internal plot against Baghdadi, according to Mosul residents and Iraqi security officials. Hatched by a leading Islamic State commander, the plot was foiled when an Islamic State security official found a telephone SIM card that contained the names of the plotters and showed their links to U.S. and Kurdish intelligence officers.
Retribution was brutal. Islamic State killed 58 suspected plotters by placing them in cages and drowning them, according to residents and Iraqi officials.
Since then, Islamic State has executed another 42 people from local tribes, Iraqi intelligence officers said. Those people were also caught with SIM cards.
Possession of SIMs or any form of electronic communication now amounts to an automatic death sentence, according to residents in Islamic State areas. The group has set up checkpoints where its militants search people, and regularly mount raids on areas hit by U.S. air strikes because Islamic State officials assume locals have helped to identify targets.
The informant texting from Mosul is aware of the dangers. “I am talking to you from the rooftop,” began one recent message. “The planes are in the skies. Before I go back down I will delete the messages and hide the SIM card.”
“THE CUBS OF THE CALIPHATE”
Islamic State relies on a network of child informers, the so called ashbal al khilafa or “cubs of the caliphate.”
“These young boys eavesdrop and find out information from other kids about their fathers, brothers, and their activities”, said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraq government adviser and Islamic State expert. “In every street there are one or two ashbal al khilafa who spy on the adults.”
The huge network of informants also hurts Islamic State, according to Lahur Talabany, chief of counter-terrorism for the KRG. Overwhelmed by information, the group is devoting a lot of its energy to its own people rather than its enemies. That fuels further paranoia.
“There are regular (internal) plots against Baghdadi” Talabany told Reuters. “We see incidents like that on a weekly basis, and they take out their own guys.”
Until a few months ago, Talabany said, he had a mole inside Baghdadi’s inner circle: an Islamic State commander who had once belonged to al-Qaeda.
“He was a Kurd born in Hawija”, the Kurdish spy chief said, declining to name the man. “He was one of my detainees. I released him a year before Daesh (Islamic State) arrived.”
After Islamic State seized Mosul, the commander-turned-agent infiltrated the group and was made a military officer. From that position, he began feeding the Kurds “valuable daily information.”
The agent told Talabany that Baghdadi consulted closely with top aides, including Saudis who he said were experts on Sharia law. Saudi Arabia has said that there are Saudi nationals in Islamic State.
“He told me Baghdadi has got charisma, and has connections, but that he is a front. And that the committees around him take the main decisions, even on the military side,” Talabany said.
The agent told Talabany he had met Baghdadi a few times and was plotting to kill the Islamic State leader. But before the commander could act, Islamic State discovered he was working as an agent. A few months ago, Talabany said, Islamic State publicly executed him.
CUTTING THROATS
The group’s brutal methods were recounted in a rare interview with two captured Islamic State fighters last week. Reuters met the fighters at a Kurdish counter-terrorism compound in the town of Sulaimaniya. A Kurdish intelligence official and an interrogator sat in on the interviews but did not interfere.
Ali Kahtan, 21, was captured after he killed five Kurdish fighters at a police station seized by Islamic State in the northern town of Hawija.
Kahtan’s path to militancy began at the age of 13, he said. He became a member of al Qaeda and then joined Islamic State when a friend took him for religious lessons and military training at a Hawija mosque. The training, he said, involved learning how to use a machine gun and pistol. Trainees were also shown how to cut someone’s throat with the bayonet from an AK-47.
Kahtan said that a year ago, a local emir ordered him to cut the throats of five Kurdish fighters. The emir stood over him while he did it, he said.
“One after the other with a knife, a Kalashnikov blade, I did it. Really, I felt nothing.” Afterwards, he said, he returned home. “I cleaned up and sat down to have dinner with my parents.”
Kahtan said Islamic State fighters no longer talk about taking over Baghdad, but focus solely on Mosul, and how to recruit more fighters to protect it.
A second detainee, Bakr Salah Bakr, 21, who was caught as he prepared to carry out a suicide attack in Kurdistan, said Islamic State initially tried to recruit him through Facebook to join the fight in Mosul. They are desperate for Iraqi fighters, he indicated, because the influx of foreign fighters dried up after Turkey slowly closed its borders a year ago.
THE BATTLE
Iraqi intelligence officials say they believe Baghdadi is not in Mosul but in al-Ba’aj district, a bedouin town on the edge of Nineveh province, which borders Syria. Ba’aj has a population of about 20,000 and is dominated by extremists loyal to Islamic State.
The area is heavily fortified, with long tunnels that were built after the fall of Saddam when the town became a staging post for smuggling weapons and volunteers from Syria into Iraq.
Even if Mosul and Baghdadi fall, said Kurdish counter-terrorism chief Talabany, Islamic State is likely to persist. “They will go back to more asymmetric warfare, and we will be seeing suicide attacks inside KRG, inside Iraqi cities and elsewhere.”
Slideshow (12 Images)
Security chief Barzani agreed. “The fight against IS is going to be a long fight,” he said. “Not only militarily, but also economically, ideologically.”
Barzani, who is the son of veteran Kurdish leader and KRG President Masoud Barzani, estimated there are around 10,000 Islamic State suicide bombers in Iraq and Syria. He said Islamic State had prepared waves of fighters it was now deploying to defend Mosul.
“You see the first group come to the frontline and they know they’re going to be killed by the planes overhead, but they still come. And then the second group come to the same place where the others were hit,” he said. “They see the limbs and the bodies all over and they know they will die, but they still do it. They see victory in dying for their own cause.” |
Congress easily passed a thinly disguised surveillance provision — the final version of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA — on Friday; it was shoehorned into a must-pass budget bill to prevent a government shutdown before the holidays.
Born of a climate of fear combined with a sense of urgency, the bill claims to do one thing — help companies share information with the government to heed off cyber attacks — and does entirely another, increasing the U.S. government’s spying powers while letting companies with poor cyber hygiene off the hook. It’s likely to spawn unintended consequences.
Some critics felt its passage was in some ways eerily similar to when the USA Patriot Act, one of the most expansive surveillance bills in recent U.S. history, was made into law shortly after September 11, 2001.
In both cases, Congress had little time to even read the bills, making it inevitable that many would vote without being fully informed. And the result is the same — increased power and less accountability for the intelligence community.
“CISA is the new Patriot Act. It’s a bill that was born out of a climate of fear and passed quickly and quietly using a broken and nontransparent process,” wrote Evan Greer, campaign director for Fight For the Future, a digital rights group, in an email to The Intercept.
“Most members of Congress still don’t understand what it will actually do, which is to dramatically expand the U.S. government’s unpopular and ineffective surveillance programs and make all of us more vulnerable to cyber attacks by letting corporations off the hook instead of holding them accountable when they fail to protect their customer’s sensitive information,” she continued.
“We’re all feeling a collective sense of déjà vu because we’ve seen this before,” wrote Nathan White, senior legislative manager at digital rights group Access Now, in an email to The Intercept. “This is like a bad sequel where we all know the ending, but shouting at the characters doesn’t change anything.”
“Just like the USA Patriot Act, CISA was a collection of old ideas that Congress had repeatedly rejected. And just like the Patriot Act, they rewrote the final bill in secret and snuck it through Congress before most people could even read it,” he continued. “And just like the Patriot Act, the bill will be used for far more than what members of Congress think that they are authorizing.”
When the Patriot Act was on the table in 2001, just weeks after the September 11 terror attacks, it flew through Congress late at night, with almost no debate or review. Legislators couldn’t even get into their offices at the time because they were quarantined, as letters laced with anthrax had been mailed to congressional offices and citizens’ mailboxes — ultimately killing five.
“A massive security bill (like the Patriot Act) was dropped on the floor in the dead of night before members were to vote on it,” wrote Richard Forno, the director of the Graduate Cybersecurity Program at UMBC in Maryland, in an email to The Intercept raising the similarities with this week’s bill.
But as national security writer Marcy Wheeler points out, this time around the intense urgency may have come less from the intelligence community and more from the Chamber of Commerce and some corporations, which will benefit from the way CISA lets corporations “that don’t fix their security issues” off the hook. Wheeler wrote that a provision in CISA may essentially prevent the government from suing companies for not living up to their privacy policies, as the FTC has in the past, as long as they share information about cyber threats — and even if their cybersecurity negligence led to the breach.
Other privacy advocates noted that the cybersecurity bill took a stealthier path to passage than the Patriot Act. “The Patriot Act was billed as something exceptional and game-changing. CISA disguised itself,” wrote Jeff Landale, executive assistant for X-Lab, in a tweet to The Intercept. CISA is “more technically complicated in how it expands the surveillance state,” he wrote. “The main difference politically is that too many in Congress just didn’t see CISA as a big deal.”
Greer, of Fight For the Future, speculated that CISA was “disguised” partly because the climate for spying legislation has changed since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations. “The pendulum swung our way a lot after Snowden, they couldn’t just come out and say it was a spying bill,” she wrote in a tweet.
Versions of CISA have been around for years, so Congress and the White House could have rallied objection to it. Indeed, in 2013, the White House threatened a veto over a very similar bill. However, the White House actually endorsed the bill this time around.
“In one significant way Patriot Act & CISA are the same,” tweeted Jonathan Langdale, a software developer, to The Intercept. “They’re a step backwards because we don’t know what else to do.” |
LONDON — The moment has passed, but it still feels strange that Éder is the scorer who helped seal Italy’s qualification for the 2016 European championship.
It is not that Italy called up a Brazilian to lead its attack, but rather that it needed to in the first place.
It is neither illegal nor exceptional anymore for national teams to field players born outside their country. Éder Citadin Martins, though born in Brazil, qualified for Italy on two grounds, both by residency (he has lived in Italy long enough) and family heritage (he is a dual citizen of both countries).
But what is shocking to some Italians is that given the country’s history of wonderful strikers — like Luigi Riva, Paolo Rossi, Alessandro Del Piero and even Christian Vieri and Salvatore Schillaci, known by his nickname Totò — it had to borrow a player who was born and raised in another culture. |
CLOSE Carol Ann's Carousel in Smale Riverfront Park opens May 16. It has 44 unique figures that celebrate our area. The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. U.S. Bank Foundation donated $5 million dollars to make this happen. Enjoy. The Enquirer/Liz Dufour
Buy Photo Carol Ann's Carousel in Smale Riverfront Park at The Banks will officially open May 16 with ice cream and cake, the date of Carol Ann's birthday. (Photo: The Enquirer/ Liz Dufour)Buy Photo
Smale Riverfront Park planners have long envisioned a carousel sitting inside a glass case, like a crystal jewel box that would glow at night. On May 16, Carol Ann's Carousel – a gift from the Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation – will take its first visitors for a ride.
The huge, 6,300-square-foot glass-enclosed carousel sits just west of the Roebling Suspension Bridge. It has 44 animals and each tells a story about Cincinnati.
Descriptions are courtesy of the Cincinnati Park Board. Photos of the animals are courtesy of Robert A. Flischel.
Baby Elephant
Baby Elephant (Photo: Provided)
The Baby Elephant wears a hat patterned after the dome of the historic Elephant House at the Cincinnati Zoo. Built in 1906, 30 years after the zoo first opened, the grand, $50,000 house was influenced by architecture of India – including the Taj Mahal.
Baseball Horse
The Baseball Horse (Photo: Provided)
The Cincinnati Baseball Horse proudly wears the colors and trappings of the city's beloved team: The Cincinnati Reds. The nation's first paid professional team took to the field in 1869, and won the hearts of the hometown fans in every season since.
The Union Terminal Cheetah
The Union Terminal Cheetah (Photo: Provided/Robert A. Flischel)
This Cheetah, which can run as fast as a train, shows off Cincinnati's Union Terminal, often called "the finest structure of its day." When the Art Deco masterpiece opened in 1933, it accommodated 17,000 train passengers daily. Today, it is the home of the Cincinnati Museum Center.
The Findlay Market Pig
The Findlay Market Pig (Photo: Provided)
This pig honors Findlay Market – the only surviving Cincinnati municipal market house from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its Over-the-Rhine location made Findlay Market, with its produce and butcher stalls, well-situated for people moving out of the river basin during the mid 19th century.
The Downtown Building Giraffe
Downtown Building Giraffe (Photo: Provided)
This giraffe recalls the century-old tradition of Cincinnati's tall downtown buildings. While the giraffe wears the tiara reminiscent of the Great American Tower, there are others to be celebrated including Carew Tower, the PNC Tower and a cluster of the city's first skyscrapers along Fourth Street that preceded the first World War.
The Carew Tower Gorilla
The Carew Tower Gorilla (Photo: Provided)
This gorilla proudly wears the image of Cincinnati's Carew Tower, an art deco masterpiece built during the Depression in 1930. It features an ornate arcade, Rookwood tile, exotic woods, copper fittings, black marble, bronze medallions depicting progress in transportation, and much more. And who could forget the big cinematic gorilla that climbed the Empire State Building just after Carew Tower was built?
Martha, The Last Passenger Pigeon
Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon (Photo: Provided)
On September 1, 1914, Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Though enormous efforts were made to save the passenger pigeon, the birds that once numbered in the billions became extinct. Her passing led to stronger conservation laws.
The Cincinnati Lightning Bug
The Cincinnati Lightning Bug (Photo: Provided)
The lightning bug is a sure sign of summer – and of all the warm-weather attractions to enjoy throughout the Queen City. Splashing in park fountains, the Park Board's "Explore Nature!" summer camps, baseball, opera, community fairs, music and food festivals, dancing on Fountain Square and in Washington Park, and more.
The Cincinnati Observatory Horse
The Cincinnati Observatory Horse (Photo: Provided)
This horse honors the passion of Ormsby McKnight Mitchel to build the Cincinnati Observatory Center. Opened in 1843, the observatory was the nation's first built by public subscription. The 12-inch lens telescope used in 1845 still remains at the observatory which moved from its original home in Mount Adams to Mount Lookout in the 1870s.
The Oktoberfest Horse
Oktoberfest Horse (Photo: Provided)
Cincinnati is home to the world's largest Oktoberfest celebration – outside of Munich – because of the deep roots established by the early German immigrants who came to Cincinnati in the 1800s. It is a beloved festival filled with wienerwurst, schnitzel, beer and oom-pah!
The Praying Mantis
The Praying Mantis (Photo: Provided)
Cincinnati is home to the Carolina praying mantis, a native to the region. Their serene prayer-like posture makes them popular among artists, poets and musicians who depict their grace and spiritual serenity through art, words and song.
The Queen Bee
The Queen Bee (Photo: Provided)
The Queen Bee reigns as a symbol of civic pride for the "Queen City." Citizens, as early as the 1820s, boasted about Cincinnati's rapid growth and referred to their beloved hometown as the Queen City – a name that had staying power.
The Seven Hills Rabbit
The Seven Hills Rabbit (Photo: Provided)
Cincinnati was named after a Roman aristocrat. The city was, like Rome, built on "Seven Hills." The native eastern cottontail rabbit hops through them all: Mount Adams, Mount Auburn, Walnut Hills, Fairmount, Fairview Heights, Clifton Heights and Price Hill.
Trigger
Trigger (Photo: Provided)
Roy Rogers rode his golden palomino Trigger in nearly 200 films and television programs. Rogers was born in 1911 in Cincinnati – in a home in the neighborhood where the park now stands. Rogers' home – along with many others – were razed to make way for Riverfront Stadium in the 1970s.
CLOSE Artists at Carousel Works in Mansfield Ohio create the new Carol Ann's Carousel for Smale Riverfront Park. Each figure on the 48-foot carousel is a unique reflection of Cincinnati. The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong
What you need to know (so you can tell) about the carousel:
1) Schoolchildren and random Cincinnatians (surveyed while at area parks) brainstormed the animals they wanted to see included. The Park Board and ArtWorks got 1,000 different suggestions.
2) Carousel Works in Mansfield, the world's largest maker of wooden carousels, has some stock animals they work from. But they created a few that will be unique here. Like the pig and the passenger pigeon.
3) Look for cool details: The hat on the Baby Elephant is actually a replica of the dome of the Elephant House at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.
4) Look even closer. Nearly all the animals, while sporting local flora and fauna, also have a Lazarus lizard hidden somewhere. According to local lore, the lizards came to Cincinnati in 1951, when the son of arts patron Irma Lazarus brought a few home from Italy in his suitcase.
5) The soap opera horse? A tribute to Procter & Gamble which pioneered the radio/TV genre to sell Ivory soap.
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6) See the Play-Doh crown on the Flying Pig? A tip of the hat to the fact that toys such as Play-Doh and Easy-Bake Ovens were invented here.
7) The carousel's 16 interior murals are based on Cincinnati landmarks, such as Music Hall, the Tyler Davidson Fountain, Union Terminal and Crosley Field. They were painted by ArtWorks apprentices and Cincinnati artist Jonathan Queen. Queen's 16 whimsical paintings, each representing a Cincinnati park, encircle the top ring.
8) Total cost: $1.1 million for the carousel, including its carved figures, paintings, lights and installation. (The cost of the building containing it: $4.5 million.)
9) The carousel is named for the late Carol Ann Haile. In May of 2013, The Haile Foundation announced a $5 million gift to fund its construction.
10) The opening day is also Carol Ann Haile's birthday. Expect free rides and cake and ice cream for all. Ordinarily, rides will cost a nominal fee.
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1zELQtv |
(USATODAY) — WASHINGTON — Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy announced his retirement Tuesday, two years after President Barack Obama appointed him to right the then-troubled agency.
“I am announcing I will retire from the Secret Service effective March 4,” Clancy said in a message to staffers. “President Trump and his administration have been very supportive of this agency and of me personally which makes this a very difficult decision. My love for this Agency has only complicated the decision further, but for personal reasons it is time. I look forward to spending time with my family.”
Clancy, a career agent who headed the organization’s Presidential Protection Division, was called out of retirement more than two years ago after the service was rocked by a series of high-profile incidents of misconduct and security breaches, including a fence-jumper armed with a knife who made it into the presidential residence before being tackled by agents. |
Amazon.com chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos also owns The Washington Post. (Jason Redmond/Reuters)
Amazon.com says the cable industry's own proposal for how to shift Americans away from the set-top boxes they currently rent for hundreds of dollars a year is riddled with flaws.
The online retail giant is arguing that the cable companies' vision for accessing TV content in the future — via apps embedded in smart TVs, phones and other devices — doesn't guarantee the copy protections that currently exist with set-top boxes. (Copy protection has emerged as a key issue in the ongoing fight to determine how cable viewers will someday get their shows and movies.)
The cable-backed "app-based approach" to getting your programs is an alternative to what some federal regulators want instead: A system that forces cable companies to hand over all their programming so that any other company — including, perhaps, Amazon — could build and sell their own set-top boxes straight to consumers. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)
Proponents of the Federal Communications Commission's plan say letting other firms build competing set-top boxes would give consumers more choices than just what they can rent from their cable providers, and would lead to a range of new user interfaces for TV viewers to choose from. Critics say requiring companies such as Comcast to make their TV content freely available to any other box maker poses copyright risks, raising the possibility of theft by content pirates.
Both the FCC approach and the cable industry proposal could reduce the cost of renting set-top boxes — in some cases, by potentially eliminating the need for them altogether. But Amazon's critique of the industry, disclosed in a regulatory filing, claims that the app-based approach has nothing to say about copy protection. As a result, the industry plan "does not in fact address the security concerns [cable companies] have identified" as a main reason to oppose the FCC's plan.
In a statement, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said Wednesday that apps based on HTML5 technology do provide enough security for TV content. A recent FCC report, it said, contains "extensive discussion of exactly how HTML5 secures" TV content, "including support for hardware roots of trust."
If this sounds confusing, that's because you're watching the political process play out in real time. In a nutshell, cable companies are saying new regulations could disrupt the copy-protection regime that undergirds the economics of TV. Amazon's saying the cable industry's counterproposal isn't worth its salt, in part because Amazon potentially stands to gain from a more stringent set of requirements on cable companies. |
national
On Saturday, from 3 pm to 7.30 pm, Santosh Ranjane squeezed a balloon affixed to artificially pumped oxygen machine to keep brother-in-law alive. KEM docs told him no ventilators were available
For four hours at KEM’s emergency ward on Saturday, Santosh Ranjane patiently squeezed the balloon affixed to the artificial oxygen pumping machine at the bedside of his sister’s husband, Pramod Dhanawade, 42. Ranjane had been doing that since 3 pm on Saturday, without stopping. “If I stopped pumping, he would have died, so I could not even move from my seat. My hands were aching, but I could not stop. Of the 27 ventilators in the emergency ward, not one was available,” Ranjane said. It was at 7.30 pm that the doctors finally managed to provide Dhanawade with a ventilator.
After 7.30 pm, doctors at KEM’s emergency ward put Pramod Dhanawade, who had suffered brain haemorrhage, on ventilator
Dhanawade, a resident of Satara, is an engineer and has been working in the city for the past two years. He had been suffering from a fever for a while, which had made him weak and feeble. On Tuesday, while getting out of bed, he fell, badly hitting his head on the side of the bed causing bleeding inside his head. He was first taken to a private hospital in Andheri East, as it was near the SEEPZ area, where he lives. After three days of treatment, when his condition deteriorated, he was put on a ventilator. But, as his family was not satisfied with the treatment, he was taken to Parel’s KEM hospital around 3 pm on Saturday.
Pramod Dhanawade is seen receiving artificial oxygen from a pumping machine
Moved to KEM from Andheri
“When my brother-in-law didn’t respond properly to the treatment at the Andheri hospital, we brought him here,” Ranjane said. At KEM, the doctors said there was no ventilator available and Ranjane was told he would have to manually pump the artificial oxygen machine. Ranjane said, “Hours passed, but all the ventilators were still occupied. It is not like saline that gets over within an hour. I was hoping nothing happened to my brother-in-law until they provided a ventilator for him.”
Of the 27 ventilators at KEM Hospital’s (above) emergency ward, none are currently available for use
There was no one else to take over from Ranjane because he had not told the rest of the family just how serious Dhanawade’s condition is. Dhanawade’s own family, who lives in Satara, reached the city on Saturday morning after hearing that he had been admitted to hospital. “I haven’t even told my sister how serious her husband’s condition is. She has two very young children and is currently staying with another family member in Andheri,” he said.
Hospital says
Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM hospital, said, “During weekends, we get the highest number of patients from private hospitals that misguide patients and send them here. But, before sending such patients, they should at least inquire about the availability of ventilators. We have more than 100 ventilators at the hospital, with 27 in the emergency ward. But, if they are unavailable, there is nothing we can do. We can’t remove a patient from a ventilator to make space for another one.”
“In cases where ventilators are unavailable, we send them to other hospitals for emergency treatment,” he said. The hospital gets more than 600 patients every day in their emergency ward. |
In this Monday, Aug. 3, 2015 photo, Sam Van Aken points out plum varieties on a tree at a nursery at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y. Van Aken has stocked the campus nursery where he does his grafting with hard-to-find antique and heirloom varieties, some from an old research orchard. He has collected more than 40 varieties of plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and almonds he can graft on to his trees. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) The Associated Press
By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Plums, peaches, nectarines and cherries all grow on just one of Sam Van Aken's fruit trees. The trees blossom in a riot of red, white and pink each spring.
The artist calls his creations the Tree of 40 Fruit. And the tree at Syracuse University, and others like it, really does bear 40 or more varieties of stone fruit, thanks to carefully planned grafts.
The hybrid trees provide both juicy fruit and food for thought about preserving agricultural heritage. But most of all, Van Aken wants to provoke a response.
"When somebody happens upon it and they see it blossom in these different colors and they see it growing all these different fruit ... there's this rethinking, there's this sort of moment that sort of interrupts the everyday," said Van Aken, who teaches art at the university.
Van Aken's first 40-fruit tree has been located for the past four years on the edge of a campus green. On a recent broiling summer day, Van Aken plucked a few yellow plums the size of golf balls and ducked under a low branch to give a trunk-to-leaf tour. Starting with a plum root stock, he has over the years grafted on a cornucopia of fruit.
"Right here is a nectarine. It comes out on a plum base, but it continues to grow up here, until you have peaches on the end," he said. "There's a couple of apricots that have been grafted on, and this out on the end is a red-leaf plum variety."
The tree project is an outgrowth of Van Aken's work as a sculptor — one used to working with nontraditional materials. Early on, he considered arranging different trees that blossomed at different times before realizing he could "collapse the entire orchard on to one tree." He decided to work with stone fruit — that is, fruit with pits.
"It actually started with a Tree of 100 Fruit," he said with a laugh. "I was sort of ambitious."
He eventually settled on 40, a number rich with biblical allusions, such as the 40 days and 40 nights of rain when Noah built an ark and the amount of time Jesus fasted. Van Aken was inspired to include harder-to-find fruits after reading a century-old book, "The Plums of New York," that listed hundreds upon hundreds of varieties. The abundance was strikingly different from the few types of purple plums found in modern supermarkets.
He stocked the campus nursery where he works with antique and heirloom varieties, including some from a now-defunct research orchard. Over time, he has collected more than 40 varieties of plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and almonds that he can graft to his trees.
The trees can turn heads in the spring, when the multicolored blossoms signal something unusual. But people who walked by the Syracuse University tree on a recent day barely looked up from their phones to notice the subtle differences in fruit from branch to branch. University employee Karen Davis said she had heard of Van Aken's tree, but walked by it at least twice a day without realizing it.
"I heard about the tree but I didn't know it was right here," said Davis, who called it "fantastic."
Van Aken said there are 16 trees sited around the nation, mostly in the Northeast. More are being grown and grafted in the nursery, including eight that will be planted in downtown Syracuse next year.
Several of the trees have been donated. The cost of the others depends on his travel expenses. Each tree is planted with 20 varieties grafted to it. He returns twice a year for three years after each planting to graft the rest of the varieties.
The trees keep him busy April through September, but he likes the fact that this is a unique type of sculpture that keeps on evolving.
"Every year it's something different. It appears different. It's radically different than it was six months previous," he said. "And that part has been the most rewarding part." |
A Senior Fellow and Director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute in Washington, Hanke had earlier said that “India simply does not have the infrastructure to adapt to Modi’s demonetisation…he should have known.” (Twitter)
Criticising India’s decision to scrap high value currency notes, noted American economist Steve H Hanke has said demonetisation is for ‘losers’ and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not know where the country is heading now.
“#Demonetisation is for losers and has been bungled from the start. No one, not even Modi, knows where India is heading,” Hanke, an American applied economist at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, said in a tweet.
A Senior Fellow and Director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute in Washington, Hanke had earlier said that “India simply does not have the infrastructure to adapt to Modi’s demonetisation…he should have known.”
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 had announced demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption.
The Economic Survey for 2016-17 had said, “demonetisation will have significant implications for GDP, reducing 2016-17 growth by 0.25 to 0.50 percentage points compared to the baseline of 7 per cent.” |
The pyramid is getting an update for the ecotastic age. A clutch of artists has unveiled a conceptual scheme to build nine massive, solar power-generating pyramids smack dab in the middle of the Abu Dhabi desert. And, this being the 21st century, naturally they’re done up in tres chic black. Move over, Giza!
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Lunar Cubit (more on the cryptic name later) has won first prize in the Land Art Generator Initiative, a competition for designers to dream up green energy facilities that could masquerade as sexy art installations in the UAE. The initiative’s strapline: “renewable energy can be beautiful.” Beautiful, indeed. From the renderings, Lunar Cubit looks like a bunch of black diamonds emerging from the dusty sand. You almost expect to see Liz Taylor shooting a perfume ad.
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As for its function: At its most basic, Lunar Cubit is a smattering of power plants covered in frameless solar panels that together produce enough energy for 250 homes. So what’s the connection to the moon? And cubits? Here’s where things get a bit complex. The whole concept is billed as “antiquity gilded with technology,” which basically gives the artists a hall pass to go wild with ancient-civ references. They started off with the Royal Cubit, the first recorded unit of length and the scale used here to size the pyramids. Then, on top of generating energy and generally looking awesome, Lunar Cubit is designed to be a “timekeeper, a monthly calendar, allowing viewers to measure time through eight lunar phases.” So you’ve got eight small pyramids, each representing a different phase of the moon, ringed around one big pyramid. All are equipped with LED lights. Every night, the central pyramid’s LEDs illuminate inversely to the brightness of the moon. The surrounding pyramids light up, too, but only during certain moon phases. Somewhere in all that, there’s a connection to the Islamic calendar. And Einstein.
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Dense stuff. Luckily, you don’t need to know any of it to appreciate the aesthetics of the architecture. The chances of Lunar Cubit getting built are slim, anyway. Who would invest in nine solar pyramids that power just 250 homes, when you can build a solar farm and power 75,000 homes — except maybe a pharaoh? Then again, this is the UAE, and weirder things have happened.
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[The Lunar Cubit team included Robert Flottemesch, Jen DeNike, Johanna Ballhaus, and Adrian P. De Luca. For more info, visit the project website here.] |
With the announcement of the U.S. delegation to the 2014 Olympics in Russia, President Obama is sending a strong political message. (Thomas LeGro/The Washington Post)
With the announcement of the U.S. delegation to the 2014 Olympics in Russia, President Obama is sending a strong political message. (Thomas LeGro/The Washington Post)
The White House announced Tuesday that President Obama, Vice President Biden and the first lady will not attend the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February, a pointed snub by an administration that is feuding with Russian leaders on a range of foreign policy and human rights issues.
The U.S. delegation will be led by a former Cabinet secretary and a deputy secretary of state, and it will include two openly gay athletes — tennis legend Billie Jean King and ice hockey player Caitlin Cahow — in an apparent bid to highlight opposition to Russia’s anti-gay laws.
This will mark the first time since the Summer Games in Sydney in 2000 that a U.S. Olympic delegation did not include a president, first lady or vice president. The White House made the announcement in a news release late Tuesday.
Officials said Obama’s schedule would not permit him to attend the Games during a two-week period beginning Feb. 7, although they did not specify what the president would be doing instead. Obama, a major sports fan, is “extremely proud” of the U.S. team and “looks forward to cheering them on from Washington,” White House spokesman Shin Inouye said in a statement.
The U.S. delegation “represents the diversity that is the United States,” Inouye said. “All our delegation members are distinguished by their accomplishments in government service, civic activism, and sports.”
1 of 24 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Sochi in the spotlight ahead of the Winter Olympics View Photos The Russian host city of the 2014 Winter Games is undergoing more than a simple facelift; it’s building an entirely new self, from head to toe. Caption The Russian host city of the 2014 Winter Games is undergoing more than a simple facelift; it’s building an entirely new self, from head to toe. Russians enjoy a warm November day walking on the promenade along the Sochi River, near the Black Sea. The greater Sochi area edges up against 90 miles of Black Sea coastline. Mikhail Mordasov/For The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
In keeping top officials away from Sochi, the United States joins France and Germany among the nations whose senior government leaders will not attend. The Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights group, hailed the announcement and called Russia’s anti-gay laws “heinous.”
“The inclusion of gay athletes is incredibly important and sends a potent message about the inclusive nature of our democracy,” said Fred Sainz, a spokesman for the group.
The Obama administration’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has deteriorated this year as the two countries have clashed on several issues. The United States blamed Russia, along with China, for blocking a United Nations resolution authorizing potential military intervention in Syria in the summer, and the two countries have failed to agree on a pact for broader nuclear disarmament.
The White House also was angered by Russia’s decision to grant temporary political asylum to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked thousands of classified documents detailing the United States’ broad spying apparatus.
In September, Obama canceled a planned bilateral meeting with Putin ahead of an economic summit in St. Petersburg. Among other things, he cited Russian laws, passed in June, that ban the distribution of any materials to minors that suggest homosexual relationships are normal or attractive.
The president met at the summit with civil rights activists instead.
During a news conference in August, Obama said he did not believe it was appropriate for the United States to boycott the Winter Games altogether, as it did in 1980 by staying away from the Summer Games in Moscow after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
“We’ve got a bunch of Americans out there who are training hard, who are doing everything they can to succeed,” he said. “Nobody is more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you’ve been seeing in Russia.”
Obama added that he hoped some openly gay or lesbian athletes would win a medal, which would “go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we’re seeing there. And if Russia doesn’t have gay or lesbian athletes, then it probably makes their team weaker.”
Cahow, a two-time Olympian, said in an interview with Go Athletes that she believed it made sense for United States to compete in the Sochi Games, comparing it to the example of Jesse Owens, the black track and field star who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany.
“He demonstrated the greatness of who he was as an African-American athlete,” she said.” It’s precisely the same philosophy we should be taking to Russia. I don’t think any athletes are going to go over there just to protest Russian policy. That makes no sense. They’re going to go over there because they want to compete.”
Janet Napolitano, the former secretary of homeland security who is now the president of the University of California system, will head the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremonies, while Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns will head the delegation for the closing ceremonies.
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and Obama aide Rob Nabors are also scheduled to attend, along with Olympic medalists Bonnie Blair, Brian Boitano and Eric Heiden. |
It’s important to remember that while our conversations about religion in the U.S. often center around the false notions of Christian persecution, it’s so much worse in other parts of the world. In certain countries, as we know all too well, you can be lashed, fined, jailed, or murdered for daring to criticize religion.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom just released its periodic report on blasphemy laws, and it’s a depressing account of how bad things are worldwide. (The word they used was “sobering.”)
There are 71 countries that have some sort of punishment for blasphemy, however it’s defined. The Commission ranked them on a scale from 0-80, where 80 represents a country violating all sorts of international principles of freedom many times over.
The worst ones on the list? Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, all of which scored in the 60s — and all of which have an official state religion. Several countries on the list, however, may surprise you. Italy was on there with a 56.2. Greece scored in the mid-40s. Germany, Finland, Spain, and Ireland all made the list, though it’s more because blasphemy laws remain on the books, not because their governments would seriously ruin your life if you criticized religion. (Still, it’s the thought that counts.)
If nothing else, consider reading the report just to become more aware of how lucky we are to have actual religious freedom in the U.S. despite various attempts, in practice if not in principle, to merge church and state.
(Portions of this article were posted earlier. Thanks to Brian for the link) |
Comparing Apples to Oranges: Differences in Women's and Men's Incarceration and Sentencing Outcomes
NBER Working Paper No. 23079
Issued in January 2017
NBER Program(s):Law and Economics, Labor Studies
Using detailed administrative records, we find that, on average, women receive lighter sentences in comparison with men along both extensive and intensive margins. Using parametric and semi-parametric decomposition methods, roughly 30% of the gender differences in incarceration cannot be explained by the observed criminal characteristics of offense and offender. We also find evidence of considerable heterogeneity across judges in their treatment of female and male offenders. There is little evidence, however, that tastes for gender discrimination are driving the mean gender disparity or the variance in treatment between judges.
Supplementary materials for this paper:
Acknowledgments
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w23079
Published: Kristin F. Butcher & Kyung H. Park & Anne Morrison Piehl, 2017. "Comparing Apples to Oranges: Differences in Women’s and Men’s Incarceration and Sentencing Outcomes," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(S1), pages 201-234. citation courtesy of
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Chimayo Press and the Language Company (TLC)
Context counts in teaching English. Your students have their own personalities, their own needs, and their own favorite topics. In the summer of 2011, The Language Company, a chain of over 20 Intensive English Language programs across the United States, asked us to create special editions of selected chapters for their intermediate and advanced students. Here are the three distinctive versions of Compelling Conversations created for their high school students, and two levels (intermediate and advanced) for graduate and post-doc students at the Berkeley campus.
11 Selected Chapters for The Language Company High School Students
Authored by Eric H Roth, Toni Aberson
These 11 thematic chapters have been selected and revised for The Language Company for their Edmond campus high school students. This intermediate ESL (English as a Second Language) conversation textbook includes quotations, paraphrasing activities, proverbs, quotations, surveys, and online assignments. Chapter titles are: Getting Started; Going Beyond Hello; Making and Keeping Friends; Loving Dogs and Pets; Pet Peeves; Traveling; Moving to Music; Talking about Television; Playing and Watching Sports; Holidays and Celebrations; and Clothes and Fashion. All chapters are adapted from the original ESL textbook Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics
11 Selected Chapters on Timeless Topics for Level 1 English Language Learners
Authored by Eric H Roth with Toni Aberson
These 11 thematic chapters have been selected and revised for The Language Company in their Level 1 speaking skills class. This intermediate ESL (English as a Second Language) conversation textbook includes quotations, paraphrasing activities, proverbs, quotations, surveys, and online assignments. Chapter titles are: Going Beyond Hello; Coming to America; Being Home; Eating and Drinking; Exploring Daily Habits; Staying Healthy; Traveling; Driving Cars; California Calling; Enjoying Money; and Crime and Punishment. All chapters are adapted from the original ESL textbook Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics
11 Selected Chapters on Timeless Topics for the Language Company Students – Level 2
Authored by Eric H. Roth, Toni Aberson
These 11 thematic chapters have been selected and revised for The Language Company in their Level 2 speaking skills class. This intermediate ESL (English as a Second Language) conversation textbook includes quotations, paraphrasing activities, proverbs, quotations, surveys, and online assignments. Chapter titles are: Being Yourself; Studying English; Pet Peeves; Holidays and Celebrations; Eating Out; What Do You Think?; Change; Handling Stress; Work Relationships; Practicing Job Interviews; Voting and Choosing Leaders. All chapters are adapted from the original ESL textbook Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics. |
The Fifth Annual Star Citizen Gamescom Party!
For those of you who joined us in Cologne last year, you will be happy to hear that our plans for this year are very similar at this stage. Gamescom runs from 21st through 26th August. We will have a fun and interactive booth in the game halls, opportunities to meet the team in the evenings, and a live show at Gloria Theater on the Friday 25th. Join your host Chris Roberts as we showcase some of what we’ve been working on this year, and deliver some never-seen-before gameplay!
Ticket Details
The 750 tickets for Gloria Theater are €30 each and will go on sale with the following format:
Saturday 22nd April 7PM CEST : 200 Tickets available to Concierge and Subscribers only
: 200 Tickets available to Concierge and Subscribers only Saturday 22nd April 11PM CEST : 175 Tickets available to Concierge and Subscribers only
: 175 Tickets available to Concierge and Subscribers only Sunday 23rd April 7PM CEST : 200 tickets available to all backers
: 200 tickets available to all backers Sunday 23rd April 11pm CEST : The remaining 175 Tickets available to all backers.
The show will start in the evening on the Friday:
Doors Open: 8pm (CEST) // Show Starts: 9pm (CEST)
Tickets will be available here:
SOLD OUT !
When & Where
Friday, August 25th:
Doors Open: 8pm (CEST) // Show Starts: 9pm (CEST)
Gloria Theater, Apostelnstrasse 11, 50667 Köln.
Space is limited, so be sure you get your tickets fast! This will be an evening event, going through until late.
- Frequently Asked Questions
Parking
There are many car parks close by and within walking distance from Gloria. Top 3 below:
Parkhaus Wolfsstraße: Open: Mon-Sun 24 hours Address: Wolfsstraße 6, 50667 Köln
Gertruden-Parkhaus: Open: Mon-Sun until 1am Address Breite Straße 169-177, 50667 Köln
Parkhaus Bazaar de Cologne: Open: Mon-Sun until 1am Address: Große Brinkgasse 5, 50672 Köln
Additional parking available on the street, with a parking ticket necessary until 11pm.
What to Bring
PLEASE remember to bring your printed ticket or a digital copy stored on your phone in addition to your photo ID. If you have a Citizen Card or any Star Citizen clothing, bring it. Cosplay is encouraged, though due to local regulations Gloria Theater prohibits replica weapons of any design. If you come in cosplay, please leave your weapons at home.
There is a bar at the venue for drinks, and a small selection of snacks available from the café. Attendees are highly encouraged to eat meals prior to the show.
Each year, fans have kindly offered gifts for the team. Unfortunately, since many of us are flying back to the United States the next day we are unable to accept anything at the event. We truly appreciate the thought, though!
Is the Gloria Theatre wheelchair accessible?
Wheelchairs should be pre-registered with us by entering a support ticket (link to Contact Us) to ensure suitable entry is available for the event. The hall is located on the ground floor of the theater. While wheelchair users will be given priority access, it is worth noting there are no disabled toilets on the premises; however, these can be found in public buildings in the neighbourhood.
Central Library
Josef-Haubrish-Hof 1
50676 Koln
http://www.stadt-koeln.de/leben-in-koeln/stadtbibliothek/
Can I bring my own food and drink?
No, this is not allowed for the venue – Please stop by one of the traditional German restaurants nearby before the event.
Will there be seating available?
No, this will be a standing event.
Is there an age restriction for the venue?
Yes, the event is 18+
Can people bring their own seating for the wait?
You may bring a small foldable seat to use while outside the theater, however use of them inside the premises is prohibited, so you would need to use the coat check once inside. Please only bring what you’ll need with you to the event, as well as your Star Citizen merchandise!
Is there a Coat Check?
Attendees will be encouraged to store their belongings in the visitor’s cloakroom. Coats, jackets, bags, umbrellas etc., may be asked to be checked if they are large; with deference to everyone’s safety and ease of access. This storage costs €1.50 per ticket (Remember to keep this safe!)
Does my ticket also grant me access to Gamescom?
No, you will need to purchase a separate ticket to attend Gamescom at Koelnmesse. Our party at Gloria Theater does not require you to attend Gamescom. They are separate events.
Please visit the GamesCom Website for their tickets.
What do I do before the show?
Rather than queuing up for hours beforehand, we encourage backers to meet up nearby. Keep an eye on Spectrum for posts on this topic closer to the event date.
If there are unsold tickets from Saturday 22nd, will they be available to all backers when tickets are added on the 23rd?
Yes. On Sunday 23rd the ability to purchase tickets will be unlocked to all backers, which will include any previously unsold tickets.
Stay In The Loop!
Look out for latest news, contests, and additional information about where Chris and the team will be during Gamescom. Whether you’re with us in Germany, or back at home, keep up to date with all things Star Citizen by following our various channels on social media: |
US President Donald Trump comes face-to-face with Russia's President Vladimir Putin for the first time on Friday.
The formal meeting will be scrutinised across the world, set as it is against the backdrop of US investigations into possible collusion between Russia and Trump campaign figures during last year's election.
Whether Mr Trump will raise the issue of election hacking is the million-dollar question, given he has downplayed Russia's alleged role.
First meetings between major world leaders can be unpredictable affairs. Mr Trump has in the past suggested he could get along with Mr Putin and praised him as a "strong leader" but it is unclear how he feels now.
In Moscow, the Kremlin is painting the meeting as an opportunity for the pair to "get acquainted and finally understand the true approach of each other".
But looking beyond the testy politics of US-Russia relations, what do Mr Trump and Mr Putin have in common, and what sets them distinctly apart?
Route to the top: In the shadows and in the limelight
If there's one sharp difference between these two men, it is their back stories.
Vladimir Putin spent his early career in the world of Cold War espionage, and was working as a Soviet spy in East Germany when the communist state crumbled.
He is used to operating in the shadows, and kept a low profile as an aide to the mayor of St Petersburg in the 1990s before taking the reins of the FSB intelligence agency and later the presidency.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Putin, an ex-spy, is seen as a tough and cunning leader
Mr Putin has been at the top of Russian politics since 2000 and has the reputation of a cunning street fighter, an image that can be traced back to his days growing up in a tough communal housing block in Leningrad.
He has said those years taught him that "if a fight is inevitable, you have to throw the first punch".
Donald Trump, in contrast, was born into wealth as the son of a New York real estate tycoon.
He managed to avoid being drafted into military service during the Vietnam War, and got started in real estate himself with a $1m loan from his father, eventually building a property, hotel and entertainment empire.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Donald Trump is the first US president never to have held elected office or served in the military
Far from keeping a low profile like Mr Putin, Mr Trump shot to stardom as host of reality TV show The Apprentice.
He later used his fame and wealth as a springboard to make a bid for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2015.
Yet though his public style is very different - brash and unpredictable where Mr Putin is comfortable yet controlled - like the Russian leader he doesn't shy away from a fight.
Seeing a return to more glorious times
Neither man hides his ambition to recover some sense of lost grandeur for his country.
Mr Putin famously called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] Century".
His moves in Ukraine and Syria are seen as attempts to bolster Russia's power and influence, and hit back at the West for the expansion of Nato into Eastern Europe that he so resents.
And Western European officials accuse him of meddling in their elections to try and weaken the European Union.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Russian interference? No-one knows - Trump
On his side, President Trump's stated ambition is to "Make America Great Again".
For him this means boosting US military spending, putting pressure on allies to pay for more their own defence, and pulling out of efforts to fight climate change to protect jobs in domestic industries like coal.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Putin cultivates a more athletic macho image than Mr Trump, who is older and prefers golf to more extreme pursuits
Image copyright AFP Image caption Nasty surprise: Vladimir Putin introduced Angela Merkel to his dog Koni in 2007
They also share a "strongman" style and macho attitudes which have shone through in meetings with world leaders.
Mr Trump refused to shake German Chancellor Angela Merkel's hand during an awkward March photo-op, and pushed past Montenegro's prime minister at a Nato summit in Brussels in May to ensure he was front and centre.
Vladimir Putin uses more calculated means to intimidate others, once letting his large labrador into a meeting with Mrs Merkel, who is afraid of dogs.
Family matters
The Trump White House is a family affair, something that certainly cannot be said of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin.
President Trump's daughter, Ivanka, has an office in the West Wing and advises her father in an unpaid role.
Her husband, Jared Kushner, is a senior adviser to the president and a significant force in the White House. His responsibilities stretch from the Middle East and China to criminal justice reform and relations with Mexico.
President Putin, on the other hand, zealously shields his private life and family from scrutiny.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump play influential roles in the White House
He and Lyudmila, his wife of nearly 30 years, announced their divorce in 2013, and his two daughters are kept well away from the public gaze.
Little was known about them until media reports in 2015 revealed his youngest daughter Katerina was living in Moscow under a different name and working in a senior position at Moscow State University. She is also an acrobatic rock and roll dancer.
Maria, the elder daughter, is an academic specialising in endocrinology.
The differences in approach to family are stark. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's five-year-old daughter Arabella sang in Mandarin to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his US visit in April.
Mr Putin, meanwhile, recently refused to disclose the names and ages of his two grandchildren.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Family fitness: Mr Putin's younger daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, dances acrobatic rock 'n' roll
'Fake media'
Mr Trump might have popularised "fake news" as a pejorative term that politicians the world over can now hurl at journalists, but he's not alone in describing critical coverage as false.
Mr Putin's government keeps a public list of foreign press stories that it says contains "false information about Russia".
In dealing with the media, however, Vladimir Putin normally remains calm.
Unlike Mr Trump, he does not fire off angry tweets about coverage he doesn't like - he is calculating and level-headed when taking questions from journalists. |
ESET has carried out analysis of new samples of the crypto-ransomware family TorrentLocker, to compare the 2016 campaigns against its research in late 2014.
In December 2014, ESET released a white paper about TorrentLocker, a crypto-ransomware family spreading, via spam, email messages that impersonated local postal service, energy or telecom companies. The paper described its distribution scheme, its core functionalities, its network protocol and exposed some similarities with the Hesperbot banking trojan.
During the last few months, we decided to take a look at new samples to check the current state of this malware family. This article summarizes the results of our analysis and compares the 2016 campaigns against our research from late 2014.
In 2014, the name used in TorrentLocker’s ransom note alert was the well-known “CryptoLocker”. For unknown reasons, a year later the “o”s were changed to zeros, resulting in “Crypt0l0cker”. There are no significant changes in the distribution, C&C infrastructure or malware samples that would indicate it is a different ransomware. We believe the same gang operates it. To avoid confusion, we decided to keep the name TorrentLocker instead of Crypt0l0cker when referring to this malware family.
Distribution scheme
Current distribution is very similar to the techniques used in 2014. Email messages include a link to a page claiming a “document” (supposedly a bill or a tracking code) should be downloaded. If the malicious document is downloaded and opened by the user, TorrentLocker is executed. It then starts communicating with its C&C server and begins encrypting the victim’s files. Some examples of TorrentLocker impersonations between April and August 2016 are:
As we documented in 2014, the distributed URLs are still accessible only from IP addresses apparently in the country targeted by the campaign, making the pages difficult to track for researchers or crawlers outside that country.
Although the scheme looks the same, there are a few changes under the hood. There are added layers of redirections in the chain to the final malicious executable file. The link in the spam email message now leads to a PHP script hosted on a compromised server. This script checks if the visitor is browsing from the targeted country and, if so, redirects to the page where the next stage of this malware is downloaded. Otherwise, the visitor is redirected to Google. Also, the downloaded ZIP file now contains an obfuscated JScript file, which will download and execute the TorrentLocker PE file.
ReaQta published a two part blog post describing the scheme in more detail. To summarize, here is an example chain of events leading to a victim having their files encrypted:
Spam message contains a link to print tracking code: hxxp://diniyat.com/[email protected] User is redirected to hxxp://azrs.postnl-tracking24.org/yr7mb.php?id=dmljdGltQGRvbWFpbi5ubA== User clicks to download hxxp://azrs.postnl-tracking24.org/file/PostNL-pakket.zip User opens the file and double-clicks the PostNL-pakket.js file This JScript downloads and executes TorrentLocker from hxxp://sudoimpex.ru/administrator/file.exe
TorrentLocker still has the ability to exfiltrate address books and SMTP settings to aid its spreading.
Additional four digit password added to prevent payment page enumeration
During the late 2014 analysis, ESET researchers discovered that “user codes” generated by the C&C server to identify the victims are sequential and predictable. This allowed us to access every payment page and to gather statistics on how many victims paid the ransom, the number of cases by country, etc. By the time that our white paper was released, TorrentLocker’s operators had added a four digit password field called “user pass” to access the payment pages.
According to a blog post by TrendMicro, the user_pass parameter was first seen on December 9th, 2014, one week before the release of the ESET white paper. Thus, the operators probably did not find out about the flaw by reading the paper but by inspecting their logs. After the operators noticed that researchers were able to access all the payment pages, they added the password field to prevent future enumeration.
The “user code” generation still uses the same predictable algorithm in the current campaigns. We did not find anything that could help predict the “user pass” value. It looks like a random integer that is added in the database of the C&C server.
Obfuscation
For this analysis, we have chosen three samples of TorrentLocker that were packed using various crypters. We didn’t spend too much time reverse engineering them. As we saw in 2014, there are multiple levels of code decryption and the final payload is injected into the explorer.exe process. TorrentLocker’s core exports the same functions as in 2014, namely “_local_entry” and “_remote_entry“. However, this scheme changed in the “main-13” campaign sample where TorrentLocker doesn’t inject into explorer.exe anymore.
Once unpacked, the TorrentLocker core uses additional obfuscation techniques to make the analysis harder. We’ll describe two techniques that weren’t present in the 2014 samples. First, the strings are encoded using a hardcoded key. The key is the same from one campaign to another, but it is truncated and the size changes. Encoded strings are decoded on demand by simply XORing them with the truncated key. We provide an IDA script on ESET’s Github to help decode the strings from an unpacked sample.
Important Windows API functions are resolved dynamically from a 32-bit hash. The resolving function iterates over the exports of the requested library and computes the hashes of the exported names until it finds a match. This function takes a variable number of parameters: the first parameter is an index into an array of library filenames, the second is the function name hash, the third is the number of parameters passed to the API function and the rest are the values of those parameters. For instance, here’s what a call to InternetOpenW looks like:
resolve_and_call_function(
23, // wininet.dll
0xF190D96, // hash(“InternetOpenW”)
5, // nargs
0, 0, 0, 0, 0x8404C700 // args
);
// calls InternetOpenW(NULL, INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_PRECONFIG, NULL, NULL,
INTERNET_FLAG_PRAGMA_NOCACHE|INTERNET_FLAG_NO_UI|INTERNET_FLAG_HYPERLINK|\
INTERNET_FLAG_IGNORE_REDIRECT_TO_HTTPS|INTERNET_FLAG_IGNORE_REDIRECT_TO_HTTP|\
INTERNET_FLAG_NO_AUTH|INTERNET_FLAG_NO_CACHE_WRITE|INTERNET_FLAG_RELOAD)
C&C Communications
One of the most interesting changes in TorrentLocker is the ways it can contact its C&C. As it used to do back in 2014, TorrentLocker tries to reach a hardcoded domain over HTTPS. However, it now prepends a random subdomain. The hardcoded domains are usually short-lived and taken down quickly.
What’s interesting is that in case of failure, it now falls back on Tor hidden services. A small Tor implementation is statically linked into the binary ensuring it doesn’t rely on external dependencies to connect to the Tor network successfully. Contacting C&C via Tor hidden services is a technique that is becoming increasingly popular among attackers who create ransomware. This makes it significantly harder for malware researchers to find where the C&Cs are located physically.
Here’s a list of the domains used in the three different samples we analyzed:
Domain IP Campaign goanfilter.net 164.132.15.78 main-9 axgumdgrlnup.net 62.76.184.225 main-12 gyhigtotna.com 77.246.149.85 main-13
The following three onion-routed domains are found in that order in all the samples we analyzed:
Hidden services mz7oyb3v32vshcvk.onion h453liaclp7vmxnb.onion vrympoqs5ra34nfo.onion
We haven’t noticed any significant changes in the communication protocol except that when Tor is used, there’s a new field for the victim’s public IP address. Because of how Tor works, the C&C server doesn’t know the source IP address of the request it receives; embedding the victims’ public IP addresses in the report is important as it allows the C&C to geolocate them. TorrentLocker uses the IP address to generate ransom pages in the victim’s most likely language and uses the local currency when displaying the price, as we’ll see later in this post.
While TorrentLocker used to rely only on HTTPS to encrypt communications with the C&C server, the current variants add a layer of encryption. AES-256-CBC is used to encrypt the report before wrapping it in an HTTP POST request, which is then encrypted, either with SSL in the case of HTTPS, or by Tor. The key is hardcoded in the binary and must not change very often because if the key is changed in TorrentLocker’s C&C server, the previous samples won’t be able to talk to it anymore. The AES keys are listed in the appendixes.
Geolocalized behavior
A well-known feature of TorrentLocker is how localized the download, ransom and payment pages are. Victims are provided with information in their own languages and in their local currency. For this analysis, we tried to gather information about which countries are receiving these localized details about the ransom and payment.
To achieve that, we used the fact that successful victim file encryption can be reported over the Tor network. In this scenario, the external IP address (used to locate the victim) is provided as a (user-controlled) parameter to the C&C server. We took one IP address in each country, reported a successful file encryption event to the C&C server claiming to be from that IP address and requested the ransom and payment page.
The default page is in English and the currency is USD. We found that 22 countries received a localized version of the ransom or payment page. Here’s the list of countries:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Martinique
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Republic of Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
United Kingdom
We have seen TorrentLocker spam campaigns for all the countries in bold. It’s unclear if the others are past or future targets or have a different spreading mechanism.
We also noticed that TorrentLocker refuses to encrypt victims from a few specific countries. This behavior was already documented, but we haven’t come by a list of these countries. At the time of our experiment, TorrentLocker refused to encrypt victims coming from these four countries:
China
Russia
Ukraine
US
Cryptography
While the global cryptographic scheme of TorrentLocker didn’t change, some aspects of its implementation did. In 2014, TorrentLocker used a cryptographic library called LibTomCrypt. However, we’ve seen recent variants using the Microsoft CryptoAPI instead (from campaigns called “main-9” to “main-12“). What’s puzzling is that TorrentLocker’s authors decided to use LibTomCrypt again in a sample from August 10, 2016 (in campaign “main-13“). It’s unclear to us why they change from one library to another. Whether it’s LibTomCrypt or the CryptoAPI, the initialization vector (IV) is always 32 null bytes.
As mentioned earlier, the communication with the C&C is encrypted. This is also the case for the configuration and state files left on the disk. They are AES-256 encrypted with a hardcoded key that changes from one campaign to another. The filenames are also random strings now instead of sequential numbers.
TorrentLocker encrypts victim’s files with AES-256-CBC, as it does with the configuration files and reports to the C&C server. The key is generated with a call to CryptGenRandom asking it for 32 bytes. Each of these bytes are then added to the least significant byte of the return value of a call to GetTickCount.
The key is the same for all the encrypted files. It is later encrypted with an embedded RSA public key and sent to the C&C server. The same public key was found in all samples. It is provided in the appendixes.
TorrentLocker ensures the system remains usable by not encrypting system files. Previously, it contained a list of filename extensions to encrypt, such as “.doc“, “.docx“, “.xls“, etc. Now it’s the opposite: it has a list of extensions never to encrypt, such as “.exe“, “.dll“, “.sys” and so on. The full list is provided as an appendix.
Another small change – in 2014, TorrentLocker encrypted the first 2 MB of the files. As reported by Sophos, it was reduced to the first 1 MB.
Conclusion
TorrentLocker is still pretty active and keeps under the radar of many because of how it chooses its potential victims with targeted spam. Look at Lysa Myer’s 11 things you can do to protect against ransomware on WeLiveSecurity for information on prevention.
Thanks to Frédéric Vachon for his help on the analysis and redaction of this article.
References
Lawrence Abrams, TorrentLocker changes its name to Crypt0L0cker and bypasses U.S. computers, 2015‑04‑28, http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/574686/torrentlocker-changes-its-name-to-crypt0l0cker-and-bypasses-us-computers/
Lilia Elena Gonzalez Medina, Insights on TorrentLocker, 2016‑07‑25, https://blog.fortinet.com/2016/07/25/insights-on-torrentlocker
Marc Rivero López, TorrentLocker Campaign Exploits Spanish Utility Brand, 2016‑06‑01, https://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/torrentlocker-campaign-exploits-spanish-utility-brand/
Nicholas Griffin, TorrentLocker is Back and Targets Sweden & Italy, 2016‑03‑15, https://blogs.forcepoint.com/security-labs/torrentlocker-back-and-targets-sweden-italy
Paul Pajares and Christopher Ke, TorrentLocker Ransomware Hits ANZ Region, 2015‑01‑11, https://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/torrentlocker-ransomware-hits-anz-region/
The current state of ransomware: TorrentLocker, 2015‑12‑23, https://blogs.sophos.com/2015/12/23/the-current-state-of-ransomware-torrentlocker/
Thomas White, Crypt0L0cker – TorrentLocker Rebranded, 2015‑05‑13, https://tribalchicken.com.au/security/crypt0l0cker-torrentlocker-rebranded/
TorrentLocker Campaign affecting Spain and Italy, 2014‑12‑26, http://securityblog.s21sec.com/2014/12/torrentlocker-campaign-affecting-spain.html
TorrentLocker Ransomware targeting Swiss Internet Users, 2016‑01‑21, https://www.govcert.admin.ch/blog/17/torrentlocker-ransomware-targeting-swiss-internet-users
Trojaner-Warnung: Gefälschte “A1” Online-Rechnung, 2016‑08‑16, https://www.mimikama.at/allgemein/trojaner-warnung-gefaelschte-a1-online-rechnung/
Uncovering a ransomware distribution operation – Part 1, 2016‑04‑11, https://reaqta.com/2016/04/uncovering-a-ransomware-distribution-operation/
Uncovering a ransomware distribution operation – Part 2, 2016‑04‑26, https://reaqta.com/2016/04/uncovering-ransomware-distribution-operation-part-2/
Kelvin Heath, TorrentLocker Ransomware Outbreak, 2016‑05‑19, https://www.vectra-corp.com/torrentlocker-ransomware-outbreak/
Appendixes
Analyzed files
SHA-1 PE Compile time Campaign ESET Detection name 2BF11BD7C946F36A690BD2DDB6623BF478E8F37B Tue May 17 07:13:48 2016 main-9 Win32/Filecoder.TorrentLocker.C trojan BFF8090E21C020E989E4C36EBFE50B6C33DDC733 Tue Oct 07 00:40:23 2014 main-12 Win32/Injector.DCIZ trojan EB7BF6B79CCA5FD6B73F32049560AE57C9988A70 Wed Aug 10 08:55:29 2016 main-13 Win32/Filecoder.TorrentLocker.A trojan
AES-256 Static keys
IV is always null bytes.
Sample SHA-1 Communication Key Configuration file key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
Files with these extensions are not encrypted
exe
dll
sys
vdx
vxd
com
msi
scr
cpl
bat
cmd
lnk
url
log
log2
tmp
###
ini
chm
manifest
inf
html
txt
bmp
ttf
png
ico
gif
mp3
wav
avi
theme
evtx
folder
kdmp
TorrentLocker RSA-4096 public key used in campains main-9 to main-13 |
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War Thunder Assistant: Available now!
Dear Players!
Keep in touch with your favorite game using our free application - War Thunder Assistant - the mobile app that helps you to stay up to date with the latest events in and out the game.
With our app you can stay up to date with the latest news from the project, as well as discover innovations that will be coming to the game. War Thunder Assistant makes it possible to view the statistics of your account as well as any user's profile in the game.
With your help we will incorporate more of what you need into the application, so submit your suggestions to the Assistant App Suggestion Forums and we will see what we can do!
The War Thunder Team |
SUMMARY
Against the odds, Brexit and Trump have inspired a new mood of unity among Europeans. Rather than defending the world of yesterday, Europe’s leaders will need to reinvent the EU’s relationships with the world outside and with its own citizens and states at home, to give meaning to the idea Europe can protect its citizens.
Europe has to abandon its hopes of creating the world in its image. Instead of continuing to live the dream of universalism, the way forward for the EU is to embrace and secure its exceptionalism, preserving the dream of a strong liberal order internally while accepting a return to a weaker liberal order in the rest of the world.
The EU also needs to restore the permissive consensus, which allows it to function both between the EU and its citizens and between its member states. Instead of promoting interdependence, the EU needs to make it less risky by dealing with negative consequences connected with migration, free trade, and monetary union.
Franco-German leadership will be essential but the new Europe is more likely to succeed if it mobilises a Europe of flexible coalitions rather than one of concentric circles.
INTRODUCTION
Hope has returned to European chancelleries. After the elections in Austria, the Netherlands, and France, there is a feeling that the wave of populism may have broken. After several years where the European Union’s vision was being resisted internationally and its cohesion at home was collapsing, leaders are developing new initiatives rather than simply trying to survive. Instead of killing off the European idea, some people are beginning to ask if Brexit and Donald Trump have given it a new lease of life.
This essay – published on the 10th anniversary of the founding of the European Council on Foreign Relations – is an attempt to map out an agenda for the next Europe, looking at how to use the new momentum to create a European project that can enjoy the support of its citizens. The genius of the founders of the EU came from the fact that their projects, policies, and methods were rooted in the circumstances of the moment. ECFR was first launched during a more optimistic moment, when the EU was coming together and held the ambition to transform its neighbourhood and eventually the wider world in its image. The starting point for this enterprise now must be a sense of realism about the nature of the next European project, adapted to the circumstances of a very different age.
Exciting though it is to talk of Angela Merkel as ‘leader of the free world’ and to watch the vigour of Emmanuel Macron’s handshake with the American president, there are limits to the power of Europeans to shape the global order. Xi Jinping in China, Narendra Modi in India, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey can be tactical partners for the EU but they are not allies for the defence of a liberal world order. At the same time, divisions between Europe’s member states are wider than they have been for a generation, and the ethic of solidarity between nations is ebbing. Within each European member state the trinity of economic uncertainty, cultural anxiety, and political alienation that powered the populist wave in Europe has not disappeared. And if even a fraction of the predictions of technologists about robots taking jobs and of demographers about population flows from the global south are correct, things could get much worse. And when it comes to relations between states, whereas in the 1980s and 1990s countries would compete to be in the inner core of integration, many today see their isolation as a badge of pride.
Rather than defending the world of yesterday, Europe’s leaders will need to reinvent the EU’s relationships with the world outside and with its own citizens and states at home. Conceptually that will mean shifting from seeing the EU as a revolutionary project that will remake the world, to seeing it as a protective one that can make people feel safe in an interdependent world. This essay attempts to give some conceptual foundations to the idea of a Europe that can protect, and to lay out some tracks for a new politics that could give it meaning.
Because this is an anniversary essay, it looks backwards in order to look forwards, blending the personal with the strategic. It argues that we are at a genuine inflection point. If leaders are able to reconceive the European project rather than trying to cling to the status quo, the annus horribilis of 2016 could give way to an annus innovationis in 2017.
From universalism to exceptionalism
Many people fear that we are living through the collapse of the liberal world order – and that Europeans should now come together to defend it. It is a dramatic phrase, but there is not much precision about what it actually means, and even less clarity among Europeans about what their role could be.
In reality, there has been never been one liberal order, but at least two. The thin liberal order – let us call it liberal order 1.0 – was an American project, born in 1945 after the second world war. It was about protecting states from subjugation and invasion by imperial powers. It was given institutional form in the American alliance system as well as the institutions built in Bretton Woods. This liberal order only went to the borders of sovereign states. There was a second, much thicker, liberal order that was a European project – let us call it liberal order 2.0 – built inside the shell of the American security order by Europeans. This really took off after the end of the cold war in 1989. This order went behind the borders of states – and looked at the rights of individuals that lived within them. The EU first pioneered a revolution in political organisation within its own borders – and then it sought to export it by changing the nature of borders themselves, to open them for capital, people, goods, and ideas. EU member states rejected the balance of power in a system of Westphalian sovereignty in favour of a highly developed system of mutual interference in each other’s domestic affairs and security based on the rule of law, openness, and transparency.
If the first decade after the end of the cold war was America’s ‘unipolar moment’, the decade after that – from 1999 to 2009 – was Europe’s ‘universalist decade’ when Europeans thought they were inventing the future and the world was cheering them on. In my book on Europe running the 21st century, I thought that the ‘European model’ of pooling sovereignty would spread through enlargement, through the colour revolutions that were changing the European neighbourhood, through the creation of supranational global institutions – such as the International Criminal Court and World Trade Organization – that embodied European approaches to sovereignty.[1] I also hoped that the creation of the EU would set off a regional domino effect whereby other parts of the world would seek to come together like the EU did in order to prosper economically and regain control of their affairs. In my imagination, if America was the global policeman of the liberal order, Europe was its supreme court and its global aid worker.
But the liberal order 2.0 started to run into trouble in 2008, when Russia provoked a war in Georgia in order to halt that country’s westward drift. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Russia and China formed an assertive axis of sovereignty that pushed back against the post-Westphalian global order. But this rejection of European norms took place within the continent of Europe itself, five years later when Russia also annexed part of Ukraine.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea made Europeans suddenly realise that, although the EU’s political model might be the best in the world, it is unlikely to become universal or even spread to everyone in its immediate neighbourhood. Moscow made it clear that it will not accept a unipolar European order centred around the EU and NATO. It was a shock to many European policymakers that free countries, making a rational decision, could opt for a less conceptually perfect system than the EU. Ivan Krastev and I likened this to the situation of Japanese mobile phones that had become so developed that their development had diverged from the rest of the world. The Japanese labelled this the ‘Galapagos syndrome’, because they had gone down a separate evolutionary path. We argued that Europe was facing its own ‘Galapagos moment’: it suddenly realised that it was not a model for the world, but that its postmodern order was an endangered species that had evolved in a protective ecosystem shielded from the more muscular, ‘modern’ world where most people live.[2]
The question is: What is happening to the liberal order following Trump’s election as president of the United States? An optimistic interpretation is that the guardians of the world order overreached and ended up undermining democratic governments in a way that destroys the legitimacy of the system. And after the calamity of the Iraq war, Lehman Brothers, and the travails of the euro, the utopian project of building a liberal order 2.0 is collapsing. In its place will not be chaos but a return to liberal order 1.0 – with bilateral trade deals, with no ICC. Under this account, Trump does not even represent a big break with past US administrations. Very few of them actually believed in constraining American sovereignty – they were just better at faking it. But there is a darker reading of our situation. This would be that the march of liberal order 2.0 was halted by the rise of sovereigntist powers like Russia and China after 2008. But what is happening now is a rollback even of the thinner liberal order 1.0, driven not by revisionist external powers but by a political counterrevolution within the West itself. The worry is that we will see a new kind of globalisation – world order 0.5 – that combines the technologies of the future with the enmities if the past. In the new world, military interventions will continue – but not the postmodern form that saw Western powers oppose genocide in Kosovo and Sierra Leone. The development of technology could spur a series of connectivity wars, as trade, the internet, and even migration are weaponised. In this world, multilateral institutions and regimes could become battlegrounds rather than a brake on conflict. International conflict will be spurred on by domestic politics that increasingly revolve around identity politics, distrust of institutions, and nationalism.
The most frightening periods in history have often been interregnums – moments between the death of one king and the rise of the next. Disorder, war, and even disease can flood into the vacuum when, as Antonio Gramsci put it in his Prison Notebooks, “the old is dying and the new cannot be born.”[3] The dislocation and confusion of 2016 do not rival the turmoil of the interwar period, when Gramsci wrote, but they are certainly symptoms of a new interregnum. The challenge is not just the decline of the American-policed security order and the European-inspired legal order, but the fact that there are no candidates to replace them. Indeed, unlike in 1989, this is not a crisis of a single type of system. Countries as different as Brazil, China, Russia, and Turkey are coming under heightened political and economic pressure.
Today, Europeans need to spend more time thinking about how to defend their fragile system from internal implosion and external aggression rather than imagining it taking over the rest of the world. This calls for a difficult, deliberate, shift from the ‘universalist decade’ with which they began the 21st century, to an ‘exceptionalist decade’ where the goal is protection rather than expansion. Our goal should be to survive as a Kantian fortress in a Hobbesian world. In other words, Europe needs to reach out to others to underpin, at the very least, a thin liberal order 1.0 for the world, while aiming to strengthen liberal order 2.0 within the EU. We should start to think about order not as a universal project but as a Russian doll, where the closer that countries are to the core of the EU, the thicker our conception of liberal order should be. It will require a mix of détente with powers that can help us stabilise difficult situations, deterrence of actions that can undermine order and our security, and decontamination of the EU itself – in order to preserve its exceptional values.
Global order
Some of the battles at a global level have already begun: the decision by Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the attack on WTO dispute resolution rules, and a soft erosion of the Iran nuclear deal. What they all show is that the biggest challenge for Europe will be rethinking transatlantic relations and the nature of the international system. It is very hard for Europeans to make the mental leap from seeing America as a constituent part of global order to being the biggest source of global disorder because of questions around the reliability of American security guarantees, the attack on global institutions, and the unpredictability of Trump. The EU should not give up on Atlanticism in the long term, but in the short term it needs to try to deal with the American president in a different way. Firstly, it need to increase leverage. Where Europeans have worked together – on privacy, competition policy, and taxation – they have dealt with the US from a position of strength. Secondly, Europeans should hedge their bets and build alliances with others. The EU must reach out to other powers to help shore up global institutions against Trumpian revisionism. It should have no illusions about the motives of Xi Jinping or the other great powers, but the very process of Europe diversifying its foreign policy relationships is likely to have a positive impact on the conduct of the US.
Thirdly, Europeans need to have a revolution in how they think about security cooperation. It is not just that 500 million Europeans cannot expect 300 million Americans to defend them indefinitely, but also that successful terror attacks could drive voters towards nationalist parties across Europe. European law enforcement and intelligence agencies have relied until now mainly on their US counterparts for fruitful cooperation and intra-European intelligence coordination has been slower. Confronting the new reality around Europe and the need to stabilise its immediate periphery, especially the western Balkans, the neighbours to the east, and north Africa, requires a shared way of security thinking and action. It is not about a ‘European army’, although cooperation on complementing military capabilities, synchronisation of technologies and defence systems, and nuclear deterrence should be a midterm goal. The rationale for EU action must be grounded in the diverse domestic politics of its key member states, allowing for flexible arrangement, and addressing vulnerabilities closer to the citizens. Talks about such arrangements can start quickly and also bind in non-EU countries like Norway (or Turkey and the United Kingdom further down the line).
A new wider European security order
Regionally, the rise – and rapprochement – of illiberal forces in Russia and Turkey mean that the EU is no longer the only pole of attraction in the region. This is happening at a time when the EU’s hope of institutionalising a security order around NATO and the EU is receding further. The US is seeking to reduce its investment in NATO, the EU is de-emphasising enlargement, and the chaos in the Middle East and Ukraine is making a mockery of the European Neighbourhood Policy.
The fact that the EU has a dysfunctional relationship with Russia and Turkey, two indispensable powers in the European security space, will become increasingly problematic.
The EU’s relationship with Russia has long exposed differences of history, geography, and economics among EU members. True, all EU countries came together to impose tough sanctions after Putin’s annexation of Crimea. But this temporary unity of purpose conceals fundamentally different views about the kind of relationship member states want for the long-term.
Turkey is obviously in a different category to Russia as a NATO member and an EU candidate. But Erdogan is almost as divisive in some member states as Putin. In the past, Turkey has been seen as a future EU member state and a model for the synthesis of Islam and liberal democracy. But today it is mainly seen as a buffer. For countries such as Germany and Greece, Turkey offers protection from the chaos of the Middle East as well as the millions of refugees fleeing it. And, for political leaders – from Austria to the Netherlands – attacks on Erdogan are used to draw support away from parties of the far right. In the months ahead the EU’s fragile unity on Russia and Turkey will be tested. Europeans find it particularly hard to combine an interest-based relationship with speaking out on questions such as human rights and international law. In fact, they have no mental map for dealing with neighbouring countries that are not on the verge of joining the EU or actively importing its norms and regulations.
But the problem with Turkey and Russia goes deeper than the policy or personality – it goes to the heart of the question of European order. After the end of the cold war, the EU and NATO sat at the heart of an expanding unipolar order that they thought would define the rules for European security. Six years ago, Ivan Krastev and I wrote a paper warning of the ‘spectre’ of a multipolar Europe, where the rules, institutions and key decisions were not taken by the EU. That spectre has become a living reality.
Today the EU is just one of three projects for the European order. Russia is now as hostile to the European Neighbourhood Policy as it is to NATO. It has created the Eurasian Economic Union as the heart of an alternative unification project, while doing its best to hollow out the OSCE and Council of Europe from within. Turkey no longer feels that its role as an EU candidate and a NATO member do justice to its regional aspirations. Its own neighbourhood policy has gone through different phases: from “zero problems with neighbours” to zero neighbours without problems. But its reach covers many countries that both the EU and Russia are engaged with – from the Balkans and central Asia to the Middle East. With the accession process stalled and the conflict in Ukraine still raging, the EU is beholden to countries with which it has increasingly complex political relations. The nightmare scenario is of Ankara and Moscow forming an alliance against the EU. Although much debated in Europe, the recent warming of relations between Moscow and Ankara in not yet that. They are still divided on lots of issues, from the future of Bashar al-Assad and security in the Black Sea to the annexation of Crimea. But the EU needs to develop fresh thinking – and find a new unity on how to handle both of these relationships. If not, it could find itself increasingly isolated and alone in a neighbourhood whose order is defined by other powers.
In addition to preventing an alliance between Russia and Turkey, the EU should rethink its goals in its neighbourhood.
In the troubled Middle East, the EU cannot hope to be the central actor. But EU countries cannot protect their populations from instability if they are only spectators. Particularly in Syria and Libya, the EU needs to playing a more concerted role with regional powers – as well as with the US and Russia – to advance political processes that could help reduce violence, provide humanitarian aid, and stem the flow of refugees. Neither regional powers nor the US and Russia share Europe’s concerns about stabilisation, so the biggest challenge for Europe will be to create the space for this. This will involve some very tough decisions. Rather than going for the empty moral posturing of saying that ‘Assad must go’ without putting real resources into securing that goal or being willing to live with the consequences, the EU should focus its money and limited power on advancing political processes that could reduce the loss of life and suffering. This does not mean embracing the illusion that strongmen can be the solution – as they have largely proved to be a source of the problem – but it does mean being willing to work with regimes that are in place, no matter how distasteful. In the absence of potential breakthroughs on political processes in Syria and Libya, Europe should work on pushing for a decentralisation of power and de-escalation through local ceasefires. This would involve working with the authorities and being willing to use the lever of development aid in regime as well as rebel-controlled territories.
In the eastern neighbourhood, for Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova, the goal should be to promote stable and predictable governments. For the next few years, the EU should view them as independent nation states rather than as member-states-in-waiting. It will be particularly important not to set red lines that the EU is not willing to defend.
Although the Balkan countries that are outside the EU will remain there for many years, they are in the European security space already and Europeans should be prepared to intervene militarily if outbreaks of violence recur. Moreover, EU leaders should pursue a broader definition of peace than the absence of war, including political and social stability and preventing radicalisation in Bosnia and Kosovo. There is a growing consensus that the Russians will test NATO and the EU in the Balkans rather than the Baltic. Unfortunately, beyond talk about accession which lacks credibility, the West has little with which to counter Russian activism. It is time to invest in a new set of policies and approaches that can help to channel Balkan nationalism at a time when enlargement seems unattainable.
But the most challenging question is how to defend the EU’s fundamental values internally. On the one hand, the EU needs to be wary of acting in a way which fuels nationalism and populism by empty and heavy-handed interventions. It is also difficult to avoid charges of double standards and arbitrary responses when dealing with different regimes in different ways (many central Europeans have contrasted the EU’s approach to Silvio Berlusconi and Viktor Orbán). However, these values are constitutive of the EU, and it fundamentally threatens the EU project if leaders such as Orbán are able on the one hand to systematically undermine EU cohesion and norms on the one hand while benefiting from huge financial subsidies on the other. There is now talk of stripping Hungary of its voting rights in ministerial discussions, of suspending its membership of the European People’s Party (EPP), and of using upcoming budget negotiations to step up political pressure (more than 95 percent of public investment projects in Hungary are co-financed by the EU), as well as insisting that it join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. The EU could also adapt some of the mechanisms it has developed into instruments to support its own fundamental values and norms for accession countries and ENP countries within the EU. For example, a new paper by the Stefan Batory Foundation, notes that the civil society sector in Poland and Hungary has been severely hit by cuts in funding from the government. They recommend setting up a body like the European Endowment for Democracy to work within the EU in support of the values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.
In summary, Europe has to abandon its hopes of creating the world in its image. Instead of continuing to live the dream of universalism, the only way for the EU is to embrace, and secure, its exceptionalism, preserving the dream of a strong liberal order internally while accepting a return to a weaker liberal order in the rest of the world. The EU will defend a Kantian Fortress in a Hobbesian World, with a value-driven approach inside that takes on a more realpolitik coating the further it moves away from the EU.
From interdependence to protection
The real power of Macron’s election is that his governing method provides the EU with an opportunity to move past the internal conflicts that have hastened its fragmentation.
Over the past decade, the EU has been gridlocked by tensions between north and south, east and west. Underlying these geographical divisions were some fundamental intellectual divisions: a divide between an open and a closed Europe, and a battle between technocracy and populism. The tension between these positions has defined some of the big debates about the euro crisis, refugees, Russia, and the enlargement of the EU.
One of the most difficult things for those in power is that Eurosceptics have not been training their fire on the traditional failings of the EU, like the waste in the Common Agricultural Policy or corruption in distributing structural funds. The most powerful arguments against the EU have been made against the very things that leaders see as its greatest achievements: free movement of people, the euro, the idea of free trade, and enlargement. The Eurosceptics’ project has been to turn Europe’s biggest successes into its biggest weaknesses.
Because many European societies are now defined by a bifurcated economy and political system, there is a huge cultural difficulty in understanding that European projects which have been a source of so much pride to European leaders should be so hated by European citizens. It is, in fact, the very same phenomena, which to some bring opportunity and security, that to many others signify insecurity and vulnerability.
And because of these fears the people who feel they are at the sharp end of European integration have not felt their voices were heard by mainstream parties and governments. This has allowed insurgent political parties to play on these anxieties – reframing politics into a contest between cosmopolitan elites intent on more globalisation and liberalisation and nationalist parties determined to protect the common man. As the political insurgents have set the agenda, the tide of internationalism has ebbed. The challenge, therefore, is to take these lessons on board before it is too late – to try to capture the energy of the counterrevolution, to rethink the European project so that it can regain its legitimacy.
In order to reach out to those who feel they have been left behind as well as those empowered by European integration, EU leaders will need to develop a new political project. Rather than following the ‘civilising mission’ of the 1990s and early years of this century, EU leaders will need to show how the EU can protect citizens from the world. But they will also need to show how citizens can be protected from some of the dislocations unleashed by the EU itself. Macron’s slogan of a ‘Europe qui protège’ provides a banner under which EU governments could try to reach out to citizens who fear the economic and political instability of today’s world.
The EU was based on a mechanical idea that interdependence would reduce conflict. By linking European means of production together – first through the European Coal and Steel Community, and later through the common market and the euro – the EU hoped to bind Europe’s states together so closely that war between them would no longer be an option. War in Europe indeed became mostly unthinkable and much wealth was created. But the reality is that it is this very interdependence – whether through the euro, free movement, or terrorism – that is leading to feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability. We have become so good at pulling down walls and barriers between peoples, markets and capital that we have become oblivious to the fears that this frictionless world can engender. Over the last few decades the EU proved that it could be a force for globalisation, but today its survival depends on showing that it can protect citizens from the very forces it has promoted. Whereas European integration in the past was about finding new ways of binding people and nations together, future leaders will need to devote all their energy to making people feel safe with interdependence.
Maintaining the four freedoms at the heart of the European project – the free movement of people, goods, capital, and services within Europe – will be possible only if EU governments have credible policies to protect the most vulnerable in their societies. That will mean finding ways of reaching out to citizens by improving protection of the EU’s external borders, compensating domestic losers from migration and free trade, and soothing public fears about terrorism.
The new economic agenda is based around a more critical position on globalisation. Macron has talked about the need to push for reciprocity, suggesting a ‘Buy European Act’ on public procurement and the need to enforce social and environmental conditions. But there is also a big internal dimension within the EU – how to ensure that EU integration and openness to the world do not undercut the social contracts and fiscal viability of EU member states – as the Apple case against Ireland has shown.
An important element of this is also around free movement. In France and Belgium there is an active debate about the posted workers’ directive, as fears grow that wages and jobs in some sectors are being undercut by temporary contractors. This mirrors – to an extent – fears within the UK about the impacts of intra-EU migration. Although such migration had a positive effect on the British economy as a whole, large movements of people did put pressure on public services and wages in certain regions and sectors. The EU should therefore explore how to protect its citizens from the negative impacts of migration, specifically through the introduction of migration adjustment funds that give money to regions and cities particularly touched by migration so they can invest in building more schools and hospitals and provide more social services.
But the bigger debate about EU migration is not about EU migrants but rather how to manage flows from outside the EU and improve integration and security. As my ECFR colleague Mattia Toaldo has argued, the real alternative is not between open and closed borders but between unmanaged and managed borders.[4] There is much that Europeans can do to try to manage the flows – including working upstream on the causes of migration, and assembling a common EU border force. However, most migration experts believe that in order to close the borders to illegal migrants we need to open them to legal migrants. To do that we need to create safe channels for refugees in order to manage the phenomenon and save lives. And while cooperation on terrorism and intelligence-sharing is essential, the integration of migrants is Europe’s biggest challenge but also our best response to security fears. The greatest of the challenges in migration has been the future of the ‘Dublin arrangements’ and sharing the burden of refugees between member states. However, there is much more that can be done if the agenda is expanded to cover the functions of managing migration beyond the question of accepting people, with each country choosing either to settle refugees or contributing to some essential EU functions on border control and migration management.
A grand bargain between member states
This question shows it is not just a challenge of reaching out to citizens who have been left behind, but also that creating a ‘grand bargain’ will be needed to rebuild a sense of common purpose between member states. For most of the history of the EU project, the most powerful mechanism for doing this has been through institutional change. A series of treaties named after European cities mark the milestones for the integration of Europe. Their goal was to create what the Schumann Declaration called a ‘de facto solidarity’. But the last decade has been more marked by disintegration and a widespread loss of solidarity. This lack of solidarity is leading to a new debate about ‘flexible Europe’ or differentiated integration. While this is not a new idea – some member states are not in the euro or Schengen or have opt-outs from policies such as European defence – there is talk about taking it much further now. There are two main competing visions.
One vision sees a refoundation of Europe around tighter institutions. There is talk of a Europe of concentric circles with a unified eurozone – led by France and Germany that make up half of its GDP – at its core. It is clear that the eurozone will need to integrate further and that many of the ideas in the five presidents’ reports are necessary for the euro to survive in the long term – and to prevent the deep social dislocations and democratic deficit that the EU’s attempts to deal with the crisis so far have caused. However, the idea of a Europe of concentric circles will not end the lack of solidarity because many of the divisions are within the eurozone and Schengen rather between different circles. Northern European countries feel betrayed by the fiscal policies and corruption of southern European member states. Southern countries – such as Greece, Spain, and Italy – are not only bruised by austerity but also feel like they have been allowed to face mass migration on their own. Eastern European countries, for their part, fear that they do not have full support dealing with their big Russian neighbour and complain about double standards on governance issues.
While many member states can agree on a protection agenda, there are profound differences between states about what they want to be protected from. I asked the heads of ECFR’s seven offices to map out the concerns of their member state using opinion polls and questions to political leaders. In Germany, the political elite is extremely concerned about the disintegration of the EU as a result of populism. And public opinion polls list terrorism, migration and refugees, and fear about eurozone debt crises. One striking thing is that, while Germans are very concerned with terrorism (73 percent), a large number are also scared that Germany will do something about it militarily. In Italy and Spain, on the other hand, people are very worried about German-led austerity, job losses, and being abandoned to deal with migration from the periphery. In Poland, the public is very split. On the one hand most Poles are worries about Russia and assaults on the single market and labour mobility. But roughly half of the country want a tough government that will resist migration in order to defend Poland’s ethnic and religious homogeneity while the other half fear the erosion of liberal democracy.
There is an alternative view of how flexibility can work, which looks at an ‘EU of coalitions’. My colleague Josef Janning has conducted a major study of coalition-building in the EU.[5] He shows how forming coalitions has become a tool of governance in a largely intergovernmental EU as well as offering a chance to counter veto power in formal meetings. However, there is now a possibility of looking at coalitions as a more formal building block of integration. As ECFR has already observed elsewhere:
“‘Differentiation’ and ‘flexibility’ have increasingly become code-words for finding a way forward for an EU whose members appear deeply divided. The classic approach to ‘more Europe’ is no longer an option given the likely rejection of any significant treaty change in the ratification process. Instead, using the treaty clauses of “enhanced cooperation”, first introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam, or of “permanent structured cooperation”, established for the area of security and defence by the Lisbon Treaty, groups of member states have the option of moving ahead on their own and thus overcome any lack of EU-wide consensus. Another avenue of differentiation could be to follow the example of the Schengen agreement, a treaty concluded between a group of member states outside of the legal framework of the EU.”[6]
Janning’s survey shows that the best hope of deeper integration will be a series of slightly different groupings on different topics rather than an EU of concentric circles. The Franco-German core is at the heart of this but other countries are also key in these areas.
In many ways, Emmanuel Macron has set himself up as a figure that could help transcend some of these divisions. Macron’s security policies try to square tough anti-terrorism measures with a more humanitarian approach to refugees. On economic policy, he has offered reform in exchange for investment. And, given his tough stance on Russia and support for action in Africa and the Mediterranean, he might even be able to rally the EU’s southern and eastern members around a common foreign policy cause.
He has built a career around combining, rather than accepting, today’s false choices. He has laid out a promise to bridge the EU’s geographical divides by positioning himself as pro-European and patriotic, establishment and anti-establishment, open and protectionist, pro-growth and fiscally restrained. Many observers have poked fun at Macron for refusing to commit himself to one side in any debate. They have pointed out that he starts almost every sentence with “en même temps” (at the same time). But for an EU that has been gridlocked by disagreements, these grand en-même-temps bargains that Macron proposes could offer a desperately needed way forward.
If these changes are to work, they will rely not only on Macron, but on the ability of the core of the EU to reach out to the east and west, north and south, and offer coherent trade-offs. Germany has a crucial role to play in all of this. For decades, Berlin has successfully leveraged its two most important relationships to avoid being a normal state: the relationship with the US and within the EU. Measured against its economic power, Germany spends a pitifully small sum on defence and security. This was only possible thanks to the transatlantic relationship and NATO that allowed Germany not to invest in its security. And the EU gave Germany institutions to hide behind – the largest and economically most powerful state on the European continent did not need to do power politics. Germany does not have national interests, Germans like to say; European interests are German interests.
But Germany must change its action and mindset. An exceptional Germany was key to European universalism. A more normal Germany will be key to safeguarding European exceptionalism. Germans have started to understand their crucial role and have begun to change accordingly, vouching to spend 8 percent more on defence this year and to reach the 2 percent NATO spending goal by 2024. But what is more important than capabilities is a change in mindset. Germany does not so much need to be the paymaster, but it needs to be more flexible. It needs to be willing to work inside, but also outside, EU institutions. As well as showing a less rigid approach to economic principles and the interpretation of rules, Germany needs to acknowledge that EU institutions and rules are indeed political, and that essentially it is about shaping majorities within them, or, if need be, outside, to then tie things back into the EU’s institutional environment. Germany needs to start talking politics in Europe.
This process is already well under way. In its approach to the euro crisis, Germany has relied more on the union method than the community method and has pioneered institutional innovations. In the Ukraine crisis, Germany was willing to work within the Normandy format to de-escalate the situation around Ukraine. And, with its deal with Turkey, on the refugee crisis Berlin broke free from the strait-jacket of the enlargement process to craft a new framework for European relations with Turkey. But these moves were often tentative – and were too often done unilaterally rather than as part of a process of coalition-building within the EU.
Embracing change
The process of rethinking European integration will be very difficult. It involves disrupting a world and framework that we have become accustomed to. In a way, Europe as an organisation is experiencing what many of us know on a personal level.
When I was 23 years old, I regarded all change as good. I celebrated disruptions that would sweep away old-fashioned hierarchies and open up space for new people and new ideas. Because I was not attached to the status quo I was able to grasp some opportunities that older people saw as threats. Today, I find it more challenging to embrace change. I have been around for the last two decades and many of my generation are in positions of power. This is why in recent months I have been trying to force myself to think like my 23-year-old self think would if looking at today’s world.
This made me realise that too often we have been trying to defend the indefensible. The system we created for the EU internally has created more conflict than cooperation. The system that we hoped to bring to the world has become enemy number one for Russia, Turkey, and the US under Trump. We need a new politics designed for this world. 2016 was the annus horribilis; Europe, and Germany, need to make sure that 2017 becomes the annus innovationis – the year in which the EU embraces the change necessary to secure the advances it has made.
About the author
Mark Leonard is co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European think-tank. As well as writing and commenting frequently in the media on global affairs, Mark is author of two best-selling books. He is the author of Why Europe will Run the 21st Century (2005) and What Does China Think? (2008), and editor of Connectivity Wars (2016). He presents ECFR’s weekly World in 30 Minutes podcast.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Compagnia di San Paolo for supporting this publication as part of our strategic partnership, in particular to Piero Gastaldo and Nicolò Russo Perez, two strong supporters of the next Europe. This essay draws on many of the insights developed by the brilliant minds on ECFR’s pan-European staff, and has been immeasurably improved by the thoughtful comments that they gave on an earlier draft. In particular I would like to thank Asli Aydintasbas, Piotr Buras, Francisco de Borja Lasheras, Ruth Citrin, Susi Dennison, Anthony Dworkin, Silvia Francescon, Ellie Geranmayeh, Josef Janning, Alba Lamberti, Almut Möller, Jeremy Shapiro, Vessela Tcherneva, Mattia Toaldo, and Nick Witney. Thanks to Julia de Clerck-Sachsse for her comments on an earlier draft. Ulrike Franke has been an incredible partner in thought and contributed substantially to developing the arguments, ideas, and writing. The thinking has been inspired by many conversations over the last decade with people within the ECFR family. I should mention George Soros, Ivan Krastev, Timothy Garton Ash, Emma Bonino, Carl Bildt, Norbert Röttgen, and the three founding co-chairs of ECFR: Martti Ahtisaari, Joschka Fischer, and the incomparable Mabel van Oranje. Although some of the themes have preoccupied me for a long time, they were rendered much more urgent by the twin crises of Brexit and Donald Trump – events which led ECFR to revisit its strategic purpose and priorities and which led me to look again at my own identity and priorities (culminating in the decision to apply for a German passport and spend half of my time in Berlin). Thanks also to Adam Harrison for his patience and his thoughtful editing. |
Kellogg’s cereal products. (John Raoux/AP)
Anyone perusing the articles on Breitbart News, such as “Milo: The Media is Pushing Trannies as a Cultural Norm” and “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy,” will no longer be tempted by sweet, warm breakfast treats like Eggo Waffles and crusty Pop-Tarts while on the conservative media outlet’s website.
Kellogg’s has announced that it will pull all advertising from the site.
The company cited concerns that Breitbart News, which has been described by many as portraying alt-right ideals, does not align with its values. The term “alt-right” is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that ‘white identity’ is under attack by multicultural forces using ‘political correctness’ and ‘social justice’ to undermine white people and ‘their’ civilization.”
“We regularly work with our media-buying partners to ensure our ads do not appear on sites that are not aligned with our values as a company,” said Kris Charles, a spokeswoman for Kellogg’s. “We recently reviewed the list of sites where our ads can be placed and decided to discontinue advertising on Breitbart.com. We are working to remove our ads from that site.”
Breitbart called the decision “un-American” in a statement obtained by the Associated Press.
“Kellogg’s decision to blacklist one of the largest conservative media outlets in America is economic censorship of mainstream conservative political discourse,” it said in the statement. “That is as un-American as it gets.”
[Opinion: Breitbart isn’t just a publication. It’s a pestilence.]
Kellogg’s isn’t the first brand to pull its advertising from the website. That growing list includes Allstate, Nest, EarthLink, Warby Parker and SoFi.
Many of those brands were originally unaware that their ads were appearing on the site, according to Digiday, as many online advertisements are “retargeting ads,” meaning they follow a user around rather than being placed on a specific website.
That’s why you might see ads for something you’ve recently purchased on various sites. If you, for example, recently bought a pair of boots from Thursday Boot Company, its advertisements might pop up anywhere from Breitbart to the Huffington Post, depending on what websites you visit.
As Allstate told Digiday, “Unfortunately, the nature of Internet buys is such that we are unable to receive full disclosure with regards to all of the websites on which our advertising may run.”
Warby Parker offered the website a similar statement: “Warby Parker does not buy advertising from Breitbart News Network directly. If one of our ads appears on a Breitbart site, it’s due to a sale through third-party ad networks or ad exchanges. We are looking into actively blocking our ads from appearing on Breitbart News Network.”
Breitbart, which was founded by the now-deceased former Drudge Report editor Andrew Breitbart and boasted 19.2 million unique U.S. visitors in October, regularly publishes articles with provocative — some say racist and sexist — headlines, such as “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew,” “Hoist It High And Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage” and “There’s No Hiring Bias Against Women In Tech, They Just Suck At Interviews.”
The website’s former chairman and currently one of President-elect Donald Trump’s top aides, Stephen K. Bannon, told Mother Jones magazine, “We’re the platform for the alt-right.”
[‘Let’s party like it’s 1933’: Inside the alt-right world of Richard Spencer]
The term “alt-right” was coined by Richard Spencer, who recently drew headlines for shouting “Hail Trump,” which elicited a Nazi salute from those attending Spencer’s speech at a conference of the National Policy Institute in Washington. The NPI describes itself as “an independent organization dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.”
[‘The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words.’ Museum condemns alt-right meeting.]
The alternative right has come under fire from Hillary Clinton and establishment Republicans, but it has been seeping into American politics for years as a far-right option for conservatives. Here's what you need to know about the alt-right movement. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
The alt-right is often associated with white nationalism, but Bannon recently told the Hollywood Reporter: “I’m not a white nationalist, I’m a nationalist. I’m an economic nationalist.” Furthermore, Trump told the New York Times, “If I thought [Bannon] was a racist, or alt-right, or any of the things that we can, you know, the terms we can use, I wouldn’t even think about hiring him.”
Breitbart News’s current leadership has also pushed back against the idea that it has any affiliation with the alt-right or white nationalism.
According to the Hill newspaper, Breitbart News is preparing a lawsuit against a “major media company” for calling it a “white nationalist website,” but it did not say which media company.
In a statement to the Hill, a representative for Breitbart News claimed that the site “rejects racism in all its varied and ugly forms. Always has, always will.”
“Breitbart News Network, a pro-America, conservative website, is preparing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against a major media company for its baseless and defamatory claim that Breitbart News is a ‘white nationalist website,’” the statement read. “The diversity of the company’s news coverage and its staff continue to embody Andrew Breitbart’s colorblind, distinctly American commitment to ‘E pluribus unum’ — out of many, one.”
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At the crux of Hillary Clinton's campaign so far this election season has been the idea that in order for the middle class to grow, big businesses need to do more to share their good fortune with the employees who do the hard work day in day out.
Now, it seems Apple agrees.
From now on, all Apple employees, from its top engineers to its retail and AppleCare workers, will be eligible for a stock grant program that was previously only available to Apple's corporate employees. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the new program in a company-wide email last night, WIRED has learned. Cook explained that while Apple employees have always been able to buy Apple stock at a discounted rate, until now only corporate employees were eligible to be nominated for restricted stock units, or RSUs, which essentially amount to grants of stock that the company uses as incentives to keep and reward top talent. Now, any employee is eligible. Apple has not yet responded to WIRED's request for comment.
RSUs are commonplace among Silicon Valley startups competing for engineering, design, and business talent. But for a company of Apple's size, which depends not only on high-end knowledge workers but a vast network of retail and service employees around the world, the move sets an important precedent about the role businesses should play in ensuring the financial stability of all—not just some—of their employees.
It's a precedent that Clinton, at least, would like to extend as president. But her plan, called the “rising incomes, sharing profits” tax credit, is slightly different from what Apple is announcing. Instead of a stock program, Clinton proposes a true profit-sharing program, in which companies give employees grants—up to 10 percent of that employee's wages—in return for a two year tax credit. The tax credit would amount to 15 percent of all the money the company divvied out through its profit-sharing program. So, in other words, an employee who makes $50,000 a year could receive a $5,000 grant, and the company itself would receive a $750 tax credit.
"Yes, of course, raise the minimum wage, but we have to do so much more, including finding ways so that companies share profits with the workers who helped to make them," Clinton said during last night's Democratic debate. WIRED has reached out to the Clinton campaign for comment on Apple's plans.
While Clinton's vision of how this will all play out may differ from Apple's, both plans seek to achieve the same ultimate goal: to create more parity between the people at the top of the corporate ladder, the people at the bottom of the corporate ladder, and everyone in between.
Given how Apple has pushed the business world not just technologically but ethically and environmentally throughout the years, it's easy to imagine how Apple could also push its fellow tech and corporate giants on this issue, as well—and provide the Clinton campaign with a marquee company to name-check on the campaign trail. |
Cirelli, 18, played in 62 games with the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League this season, recording 21 goals and 59 points to go along with 27 penalty minutes. He ranked first on the team for assists (38) and points. The Woodbridge, Ontario native also led all Oshawa skaters for power-play goals (10) and power-play points (16). Cirelli made his pro debut with the Syracuse Crunch on April 15, 2016 in a match-up against the Utica Comets.
The 6-foot, 171-pound forward has skated in 130 career OHL games over two seasons with the Generals, registering 34 goals and 95 points to go along with 49 penalty minutes. During his rookie campaign in 2014-15, Cirelli led all Oshawa rookies for points, also ranking ninth in the OHL in that category.
Cirelli was selected by the Lightning in the third round, 75th overall, at the 2015 NHL Draft. |
The number of children in foster care across the country is driven not solely by child abuse and neglect, but by states' varying politics and approaches to social problems, a new University of Washington (UW) study finds.
States with more punitive criminal justice systems tend to remove children from their homes far more frequently than those with generous welfare programs -- meaning that two states with similar rates of child abuse and neglect could have very different rates of foster care entry.
Those findings are the basis of a study published online that will appear in the June print edition of the American Sociological Review. Author Frank Edwards, a UW doctoral student in sociology, concludes that child welfare policies are heavily influenced by how states address social problems overall.
"We see across the board that politics are great predictors of policy," Edwards said. "If a state prefers more punitive criminal justice and less generous welfare benefits, then it's very likely that it will prefer a certain approach to child welfare as well."
Edwards, who previously worked with children in foster care in Texas, undertook the study to determine whether factors beyond child abuse and neglect were driving rates of foster care in various states. While previous studies have looked at the role of incarceration and welfare programs on parents' ability to care for their children, Edwards said none have statistically examined how states' differing policies for addressing social issues influence child welfare systems.
And those variations, Edwards found, lead to big differences in the rates of foster care between states, after controlling for population differences. For example, Edwards found that states with punitive criminal justice systems are expected to place an average of 1.5 more children per 1,000 into foster care annually than states with less punitive criminal justice systems. For the national state average of about 1.47 million children, that translates to 2,200 additional foster care entries annually.
States with generous and inclusive welfare programs are expected to place 0.8 fewer children per 1,000 into foster care, compared to states with meager welfare programs.
Edwards analyzed federal foster care data for 2002 to 2011 for each state to determine rates of foster care entry; he also looked at how frequently states put foster children in residential treatment centers or other restrictive settings.
Then Edwards set out to measure how punitive states' criminal justice systems were, using the number of death sentences, incarceration rates, and numbers of police officers per capita as a benchmark. He also measured the relative generosity of states' welfare systems by their level of welfare benefits, enrollment in various assistance programs, and welfare workers per capita.
Comparing the data for various states, Edwards found that states with more punitive criminal justice systems generally had higher rates of foster care and tended to put children in treatment centers or other restrictive environments more often. Conversely, those with more generous welfare structures had lower rates of foster care, and lower rates of restrictive confinement for children in foster care.
However, states with both generous welfare benefits and large bureaucracies tended to have slightly higher rates of foster care than those with generous benefits and smaller bureaucracies, since bringing more families into contact with service providers increases the ability to identify abuse and neglect.
"The idea of including all these other factors is that it's not just the direct effects of abuse and neglect that are involved," Edwards said. "If a state has a punitive criminal justice system, or a generous system of welfare provision, that indicates a stable way that legislators and bureaucrats think about and respond to problems like crime, poverty, and child abuse.
"These ways of understanding how to solve a particular problem get institutionalized, and play a large role in determining how a state designs and implements social policy across the board."
The study notes the often contradictory nature of child protection agencies, which are tasked both with providing support and resources for struggling parents and taking action when parenting falls short of expectations. That intervention resulted in an average of 1.4 percent of U.S. children coming into contact with the foster care system annually between 2002 and 2011, Edwards found.
There were a few anomalies in Edwards' findings -- for example, some southern states had high incarceration rates and low welfare benefits but also low foster care rates, which he said could be due to less-developed child welfare infrastructures. And there were some limitations to the data. Up to 75 percent of all cases of children being placed in foster care with family members, for example, occur without taking children into state custody and therefore are not recorded in federal foster care statistics.
But overall, Edwards said, the study shows that there is enormous variation in foster care rates across the country that is driven largely by states' politics and policies.
"If we want to understand why some states are putting more kids into foster care than others, we need to look at the policy environment," he said. "A state that prefers to punish people when they break the rules is also a state that might put families in situations such that abuse and neglect are more common. It's also a state that is likely to think that removing a child from the family is the only way to respond.
"The story of foster care is not just the story of child abuse and neglect. It's the story of policymaking and politics, writ large." |
Sarah Palin a hypocrite? I'm shocked.
After spending sigificant time and airspace bashing the earmark process as the running mate of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin requested an unspecified number of earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, Jonathan Stein and David Corn report at Mother Jones.
One hundred earmarks worth $144 million are headed for Alaska, Taxpayers for Common Sense says. That works out to $209.71 per state resident -- more money, per capita, than any other state.
"We have drastically, drastically reduced our earmark request since I came into office," Palin told ABC News' Charles Gibson last year after he pointed out that Alaska received $231 per person in earmarks in 2008.
"The abuse of earmarks, it's un-American, it's undemocratic, and it's not going to be accepted in a McCain-Palin administration," she said. "Earmark abuse will stop." |
Watch Dogs Will Be Better Than E3 2012 Build On PC; PS4 And Xbox One? Not So Much By William Usher Random Article Blend Watch Dogs are basically the poor man's rendition of the game. What you saw in the latest trailer is basically what you'll get: poor man's graphics. PC? Well, the GPCMR will be receiving a version that's better than the E3 build of Watch Dogs from 2012, Ubisoft's creative director admits. The Xbox One and PS4? Well, we've already been down that road.
A lot of people expressed disappointment when they realized that Watch Dogs had undergone The Forzaning is when a game looks really good at E3 – likely due to
The Forzaning is a rare thing, insofar that most people will never recognize that it happens until it's too late. For those who do recognize it, it's a gift... and a true service to the rest of the gaming community when put into action. It takes a special kind of gamer to see through the pre-baked shadows, post-processing effects and upscaling filters to witness the true game behind the PR mind-tricks. When this rare thing happens, we call it: The Forzaning.
Sadly, Ubisoft was caught in such a catastrophic paradox recently with Watch Dogs. The company's latest trailer,
There was a lot of fallout, and Ubisoft worked hard to
Thankfully, Ubisoft has decided to run with what they have. They're acknowledging that The Forzaning did happen, and that the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game are downgraded in comparison to the
According to Watch Dogs. The downgrades weren't infectious and don't carry consolitis with them. Creative director Jonathan Morin
“In many regards better. We did not stop working and PC never stop to evolve.”
“Trailer wasn’t a good GFX reference. E3 2012 was PC as we always said and E3 2013 is PS4 reference. Was always the case”
This is good... this is very good.
Many PC gamers became worried that the revelation of the downgrade was contagious across platforms, but the early diagnosis from Morin tells us that the PC version will indeed, stay intact with what the company showcased in their true vision of the title two years ago at E3.
Of course, gamers have become distrusting. Many are asking for more PC footage; no more console demos, no more console footage. They want to know that the Glorious PC Master Race has not been betrayed... injected with a false sense of hope from the ever-present plague in the AAA business known as consolitis, a disease that sees PC ports downgraded in order to maintain fast porting parity for the home console market.
Morin assures gamers that E3 2012 isn't the last we'll see of the true vision of Watch Dogs on PC...
“We are not making demos every day :) But you will see PC HD footage again yes”
This is good... this is very good.
The prognosis is looking quite healthy for the PC rendition of Watch Dogs, and hopefully it will go on to live a strong and healthy life under the Steam community, and to a lesser and more casual extent, the uPlay community.
For more information, feel free to visit the Ubisoft has confirmed that the console version ofare basically the poor man's rendition of the game. What you saw in the latest trailer is basically what you'll get: poor man's graphics. PC? Well, the GPCMR will be receiving a version that's better than the E3 build offrom 2012, Ubisoft's creative director admits. The Xbox One and PS4? Well, we've already been down that road.A lot of people expressed disappointment when they realized thathad undergone The Forzaning . For those of you who don't know,is when a game looks really good at E3 – likely due to high-end Nvidia GTX-powered PCs with Cosair liquid-cooling and a high-end Intel CPU that pumps out so much power that if it wore a jockstrap it would be too heavy for both the Xbox One and PS4 to carry – and then that same game makes it onto retail shelves and runs decidedly worse... like this The Forzaning is a rare thing, insofar that most people will never recognize that it happens until it's too late. For those who do recognize it, it's a gift... and a true service to the rest of the gaming community when put into action. It takes a special kind of gamer to see through the pre-baked shadows, post-processing effects and upscaling filters to witness the true game behind the PR mind-tricks. When this rare thing happens, we call it: The Forzaning.Sadly, Ubisoft was caught in such a catastrophic paradox recently with. The company's latest trailer, the story trailer , revealed all about the game... and so much more. In fact, the trailer revealed something that Ubisoft didn't think that anyone would see... something they didn't bet on: Watch Dogs had been downgraded. There was a lot of fallout, and Ubisoft worked hard to damage control the news about the downgrade . It was too late, though. The Forzaning happened... and there wasn't enough bullshots and Twitter-spin to make it go back in the box.Thankfully, Ubisoft has decided to run with what they have. They're acknowledging that The Forzaning did happen, and that the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game are downgraded in comparison to the PC version from E3 2012 According to DSO gaming , however, the PC gaming crowd will be on the receiving end of some good things for. The downgrades weren't infectious and don't carry consolitis with them. Creative director Jonathan Morin took to Twitter to state that the PC version, in comparison to the E3 2012 build is...This is good... this is very good.Many PC gamers became worried that the revelation of the downgrade was contagious across platforms, but the early diagnosis from Morin tells us that the PC version will indeed, stay intact with what the company showcased in their true vision of the title two years ago at E3.Of course, gamers have become distrusting. Many are asking for more PC footage; no more console demos, no more console footage. They want to know that the Glorious PC Master Race has not been betrayed... injected with a false sense of hope from the ever-present plague in the AAA business known as consolitis, a disease that sees PC ports downgraded in order to maintain fast porting parity for the home console market.Morin assures gamers that E3 2012 isn't the last we'll see of the true vision ofon PC...This is good... this is very good.The prognosis is looking quite healthy for the PC rendition of, and hopefully it will go on to live a strong and healthy life under the Steam community, and to a lesser and more casual extent, the uPlay community.For more information, feel free to visit the official Watch Dogs website Blended From Around The Web Facebook
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Hillary Clinton's press secretary Brian Fallon said the campaign is preparing for a "very tight general-election contest" against Donald Trump. | AP Photo Clinton's camp says it's bracing for 'very tight' race against Trump
Though Republicans who refuse to support Donald Trump have suggested the presumptive GOP presidential nominee would get slaughtered by Hillary Clinton in November, the Democratic front-runner's campaign claims it is bracing for a “very tight” race.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell about the campaign’s dual contest as Clinton tries to fend off Bernie Sanders all the way through the Democratic National Convention this summer while also focusing more on Trump, press secretary Brian Fallon said this is what the campaign expected.
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“We've planned for this. After the contests on April 26 where we had decisive victories in many of those Mid-Atlantic states, we began undertaking general-election preparations because we need to be ready to wage what we think will be a very tight general-election contest,” Fallon said.
To that effect, a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows Clinton and Trump virtually tied in key battleground states. Clinton narrowly leads Trump in Florida (43 percent to 42 percent) and Pennsylvania (43 percent to 42 percent) but trails in Ohio (39 percent to 43 percent). Dating back to 1960, no presidential candidate has ever won an election without winning at least two of the three swing states.
“We've started placing staff on the ground in some of the states that have already held primaries,” Fallon continued. “At the same time, though, we're gonna be continuing to honor this primary all the way through the middle of June. Hillary Clinton is continuing to visit states that are holding primary contests, including today in New Jersey. So we’re gonna fight for every vote in the primary at the same time that we do what it takes to get ready to take on Donald Trump.” |
Beekeepers have been concerned that pesticides are to blame for the bee die-offs devastating their industry for a while now. As we reported recently, their losses have spiraled out of control, putting not just the beekeepers but our entire agricultural system in peril.
The concern centers around a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allowed to be marketed and sold even after the agency’s own scientists’ put up red flags. And now some in the industry have decided it’s time to formally challenge EPA’s negligence. On March 21, 27 beekeepers and four environmental groups filed a petition [PDF] with the agency asking it to take clothianidin — the neonicotinoid causing the most trouble — off the market until a long-overdue, scientifically sound review is completed.
The EPA asked Bayer — the manufacturer of clothianidin — to conduct a study looking at its effects on bees and other pollinators back in 2003, but allowed Bayer to sell the pesticide under “conditional registration” in the meantime. Bayer didn’t produce a field study until 2007, and in spring 2010, clothianidin was quietly granted full registration. But later that year a leaked document revealed that EPA scientists had found Bayer’s study inadequate. “By that time, the pesticide was all over the country,” said Peter Jenkins, an attorney with the Center for Food Safety, the lead legal group on the petition. “We felt that what EPA did was illegal.”
The beekeepers’ petition claims EPA violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act by not enforcing its requirement for a field study proving clothianidin’s safety, and that this failure creates an imminent hazard to the environment. The petition also holds EPA in violation of the Endangered Species Act for not properly assessing clothianidin’s effects on threatened species.
EPA said it would work with Bayer to design a better study, Jenkins said. But beekeepers don’t have time to wait; they’ve seen average population losses of around 30 percent every year since 2006. “At the rate this agency goes, we know it would be years and years before they actually completed [a new study],” Jenkins said. “So we’re saying, fine, just suspend use of the pesticide until the study’s done.”
It’s unlikely that such a study, if carried out properly, would produce results different from what a wealth of peer-reviewed research has already shown: Clothianidin and other neonicotinoids (or neonics) harm pollinators. A new report from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation handily summarizes the science so far: Plants grown from seeds treated with nenonics absorb the chemical through their vascular systems, and the residue in their pollen or nectar can be lethal to insects that come to forage. Even exposure to sublethal levels of neonics can affect bees’ immune systems and their ability to fly, navigate, communicate, and learn new tasks –- all crucial to keeping a hive functioning. And pollinators face multiple exposure routes to neonics besides direct contact with treated plants: They can be poisoned by the exhaust spewing from machines used to plant treated seeds, either by flying through it or by foraging in nearby fields where the dust has drifted. Once neonics are present in soil, they can stay there for up to six years, meaning untreated plants sown in subsequent years may still absorb chemical residues.
It’s no wonder, then, that beekeepers in both the U.S. and Europe can trace their problems more or less back to when commercial farmers began transitioning away from integrated pest management — a system in which insecticides are sprayed once a pest problem arises — and toward neonicotinoids, which, as Jenkins explained, “are too good, too efficient; they turn a simple corn plant into a killing machine.”
If EPA doesn’t respond to the petition, Jenkins said the Center for Food Safety and other petitioners could sue the agency. But he’s “reasonably optimistic” that EPA will wise up. “We made a really good case, and it’s helped by this new report [from the Xerces Society],” he said. “It’s not unheard of — EPA has responded in the past when it’s clear that a pesticide is killing something in ways that the agency hadn’t analyzed.”
Last summer, EPA ordered a recall of DuPont’s herbicide Imprelis, which had been linked to tree deaths across the U.S. Imprelis, like clothianidin, had been on the market under conditional registration, though it debuted only a year before its recall. Also like clothianidin, Imprelis’ labeling did not warn about its potential danger to another species — even though, it turns out, DuPont knew before its release that Imprelis could harm trees. The beekeepers’ petition to the EPA calls the labeling of clothianidin “defective.”
Since EPA scientists themselves have acknowledged clothianidin’s harmful effects on bees and proclaimed the Bayer study to be inconclusive, getting the chemical off the market comes down to yet another uphill battle against a government agency in thrall to corporations — in this case, the chemical industry. Maybe this petition — backed by over a million citizen petitions — will give EPA the push it needs to listen to its own experts.
UPDATE: The New York Times reports on two new studies published Thursday in the journal Science that give further evidence for neonicotinoids’ role in bees’ decline. |
At the height of his pre-election anti-Obama hysteria, bloviating billionaire Donald Trump was reportedly approached by three of his kids and asked to tone down his risky rhetoric.
This according to a New York Daily News source with knowledge of the meeting.
"[Eric, Donald Jr. and Ivanka] met and went to see their dad in his Fifth Ave. office," the insider told the Daily News. "They showed a lot of respect, but told him he's worked too long and too hard to build up the reputation he has. They understand completely he's always been outspoken and that he likes attention, but this is too much."
The meeting allegedly took place in mid-October, around the time Trump began touting his "October Surprise" stunt that turned out to be a blackmail-ish demand for President Obama's passport records and college transcripts.
The talk, if it did take place, obviously didn't help: Trump went on to have a now-infamous Election Night meltdown on Twitter, calling for Americans to rise up and overthrow the government.
Trump took to his medium of choice over the weekend to deny the Daily News report. "My kids never negatively discussed my criticism of President Obama with me or anyone," he told his nearly two million followers, "it's not in their nature!"
[H/T: Mediaite, photo via AP] |
As children grow older, parents learn to breathe a little easier, their roles finally evolving from just keeping small, fragile beings alive every minute of every damn day. The terrifying mobility of toddlerhood gives way to a brief, blessed time when children can actually dress, eat, and walk by themselves—a sweet spot that continues until the worst and final stage invades, when kids stop speaking to their parents altogether (age 13 and up). Throughout, however, the burden of keeping children entertained never lessens; entire guides have been written on the subject. And after they outgrow Disney films, and the opportunity presents itself to fill those few allotted hours of screen time with something more compelling than The Octonauts, finding a family-friendly movie you can all enjoy presents an all-new challenge. You can only watch so many superheroes.
Purely by accident, I stumbled onto an unexpectedly perfect franchise to watch with my own children: the Ocean’s trilogy. First released 15 years ago this week, Ocean’s Eleven took the slick noir style Steven Soderbergh applied to Out Of Sight and brought it—and George Clooney—to his update of the classic Rat Pack heist film. A fan of Soderbergh since Sex, Lies, And Videotape, I loved the film immediately for its hypnotically cool aesthetics—its showy edits and split screens, its Las Vegas rendered in deep reds and blacks, its captivating, retro-lounge score from David Holmes. But while I, a grownup film buff, appreciated Ocean’s Eleven for all these things and more, I certainly wouldn’t have predicted that it might hold the same interest for my kids.
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My twins were 9 when we first watched the movie, and while I initially had qualms, I soon realized I had nothing to fear. For a crime film, there’s hardly any violence—not much outside of a few punches, plus one guy who gets shot from a faraway distance (to the tune of Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” no less). There’s also no nudity to speak of, although there are a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-them shots of Las Vegas exotic dancers. No sex, either: The closest the movie comes is Clooney giving Julia Roberts a chaste kiss on the cheek. Nobody does drugs. Even the language isn’t that bad. True, there are a couple of stray “fucks” from Elliott Gould’s Reuben and Shaobo Qin’s Yen—but then again, that’s a word the kids are also apt to hear when Mommy realizes she forgot her phone charger.
Really, my biggest concern was whether it would keep their attention. But right from the scene where Clooney’s Danny Ocean lays out his beyond-elaborate plan, with no hint at all toward how his crew will actually accomplish it, it’s impossible for viewers of any age not to want to see how they pull it off. The caper itself is pieced together like a puzzle, with intriguing clues—like those car-freshener trees—dropped throughout. There are simple things to track, like Yen hiding in a room service cart or how many professions Brad Pitt’s Rusty mimics (detective, doctor, S.W.A.T. team leader) and why he’s always eating. And as the newbie just being introduced to the crew, Matt Damon’s young(-ish) Linus even serves as an audience surrogate for kid viewers. The twist, when it comes, is thoroughly satisfying, and it’s all easy enough for kids to follow, though it’s also worth asking them along the way how they think it’s all going to play out. My kids also just genuinely loved the characters, whom my son described as “smart and talented. They make great plans.” (My daughter only took umbrage with Danny Ocean’s name, which she says “doesn’t make sense.”)
They also loved seeing the same crew reunite for Ocean’s Twelve (though my personal favorite is Topher Grace’s return as a washed-up version of himself: “It’s like this kabbalah stuff doesn’t even work!”). The 2004 sequel takes the original’s formula and expands on it: Ocean’s gang gets busted by Andy Garcia’s Terry Benedict, the casino boss they robbed in the first movie. They have to take on a series of elaborate heists to get the money to pay him back—beginning with moving an entire building. However ludicrous that sounds, the specifics are fascinating to watch. The crew also gets dragged into a grudge match with a master criminal named the Night Fox (Vincent Cassel) over who’s the better thief, eventually homing in on the theft of a single Fabergé coronation egg. Like the air-freshener tags, it’s a shell game: You try to keep your eye on it, but where did it go?
By this point, my kids were well-acquainted with who did what. “He’s great at shooting,” my son confidently told me about Don Cheadle’s Basher. “Really good aim.” Once again, they also liked watching the acrobatic Yen get shoved into various small spaces. And Linus continued to be the kids’ main conduit, laughing at the way he continually bothers Pitt’s Rusty and how he gets embarrassed whenever his parents show up. As Cassel’s Night Fox does his Brazilian fighting dance through the laser fields—a scene often mimicked, but never equalled—my daughter commented, “He seems to be enjoying this.” They did, too.
While the critical reception for Ocean’s Twelve wasn’t nearly as warm as that for the first film, it was successful enough to merit a sequel. The prevalent theme in 2007’s Ocean’s Thirteen is loyalty, with the crew reuniting for yet another heist that’s this time motivated by revenge. Setting out to ruin Al Pacino’s Willy Bank, who swindled his former business partner Reuben, the gang comes up with a plan to destroy Bank’s new casino that’s a bit of a mess plotwise, involving outlandish things like simulating an earthquake and inciting a riot in a Mexican dice factory. Some of these efforts get granular and hard to follow, but the action flows as smoothly as ever, including an amazing sequence of Yen ducking elevator cars and a gasp-worthy diamond theft via helicopter.
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From a parenting perspective, Ocean’s Thirteen is the first movie in the series to even tread close to sexual situations, with an aphrodisiac-fueled Ellen Barkin lunging at Damon. It’s also the saddest, what with Reuben’s illness. But it handles the former with slapstick comedy and the latter very sweetly, with Linus’ frequent visits and Basher’s long-winded letters offering testament to just how much friendships mean to them. And while the plot is a bit overly complicated, Pacino’s unhinged Bank makes him an easy villain to root against, no matter what’s going on. Meanwhile, a minor subplot involving the various indignities visited upon a poor hotel critic is gross enough to fill kids with absolute glee. The lack of Roberts further brings it up a few notches (for me, at least). Thirteen also makes clear that even these career criminals have a commendably steadfast, relatively moral code—one that values sportsmanship and respect and dislikes snitching.
Watching these movies with my kids, I also have the optimistic hope that they’re getting an early lesson in film appreciation. Taking in Soderbergh’s use of split screens, or the way Holmes’ score creates atmosphere, or even Jeffrey Kurland’s spot-on wardrobe design, I like to think they’re taking their first step toward becoming film freaks like their mother. They’re certainly thinking about things they wouldn’t with your average CGI-filled explosion fest. Thirteen’s elevator scene, for example, prompted questions on where, exactly, the camera was, and how the elevators were being timed so Yen didn’t get smashed to bits. With each passing view, we notice more of the little details that went into it: the expert timing of the “You think we need one more?” conversation; Danny and Rusty’s running commentary on dealing with domestic life; the subtle sight gag of Reuben being on the cover of Time, etc. And while many have written off the Ocean’s trilogy as slick and superficial, seeing them all together gives you a deeper appreciation of how its characters grow in relation to one another. Linus’ last moment in the trilogy, when he finally impresses the unflappable Danny and Rusty, resonates so much more after watching the films in succession.
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After running through the trilogy, my kids quickly demanded Ocean’s Fourteen and Fifteen, but I had to explain that—due to Bernie Mac dying—no such sequel was in the works. Loving these movies like I do, I have high hopes for the upcoming Ocean’s Eight, which gives the concept an all-female spin. Hopefully it retains the same stylish flair as its predecessor: a franchise with a cool factor so high that even third-graders can recognize it. We can always use another movie series to watch together. |
America’s college campuses have long displayed contempt for the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Now Congress is prepared to pass legislation that tramples students’ Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights as well.
Harrowing allegations of sexual assault at colleges, as well as the lack of support some colleges provide to accusers, have become national news stories. These cases have prompted agitators to denounce the “rape culture” behind booze- and drug-fueled parties and colleges’ refusal to do anything about it. Universities have responded to this pressure by performing their own investigations into criminal allegations and taking action outside local and state justice systems — even when authorities declined to prosecute.
Enter Congress. In the past couple of weeks, three bills have been introduced to address campus sexual assault, the most noteworthy of which is the Campus Safety and Accountability Act. But far from ordering colleges to honor the Constitution, the bill turns the Bill of Rights upside down by favoring the interests of the accuser over the rights of the accused, assuming a crime has taken place instead of determining whether a crime took place.
The bill’s summary calls accusers “survivors” and would allow the government to fine colleges up to 1 percent of their operating budgets — many millions of dollars for large institutions — for failing to properly investigate and report a sexual assault allegation. So what constitutes a proper investigation? The guilty-until-proved-innocent model of justice already employed by university disciplinary panels, often under a definition of sexual assault that’s stretched well beyond statute, at the behest of the U.S. Justice Department. In an article for the website Minding the Campus, K.C. Johnson, a due-process advocate and history professor at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center, wrote that in the past three years at Yale alone, several students were found culpable for sexual assault under “informal complaint” procedures that provide no way for an accused student to present evidence of innocence. And in a “formal complaint” at Yale, the accused cannot have an attorney as part of the process.
Such proceedings have resulted in students being disciplined or expelled without seeing any evidence, without having the ability to defend themselves, without ever facing their accuser, even when state and local law enforcement agencies have refused to prosecute. In some instances, even the accuser has declined to pursue the case. Universities know that clearing the accused will invite federal scrutiny, while handing out harsh punishments could avert a crippling fine.
Former University of North Dakota student Caleb Warner can attest to as much. He was banned from campus in February 2010 after being convicted of sexual assault by a university tribunal. Law enforcement officials ultimately charged Mr. Warner’s accuser with making a false report, yet North Dakota continued to uphold the ban and deny the falsely accused Mr. Warner a rehearing, only overturning the ruling 18 months later following pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
Congress has been pushed to act based largely on an oft-cited statistic that 1 in 5 women have been victims of campus sexual assaults, and that only 12 percent of assaults are reported. That led the American Enterprise Institute’s Mark Perry to investigate. He found that between 2009 and 2012, 98 sexual assaults were reported at Ohio State University; if only 12 percent of assaults had been reported, 817 total incidents would have been a more accurate figure. With a female enrollment of 28,000, 2.9 percent of Ohio State’s women would have been sexual assault victims.
One sexual assault is too many, and there is no doubt that sexual assaults occur on college campuses. But when Congress writes and votes on legislation on the premise that 20 percent of college women are being sexually assaulted, the result — as the proposed bills clearly demonstrate — is emotion-fueled legislation that will do more harm than good. Look no further than current campus policies for proof: dozens of due-process lawsuits have been filed by accused students against schools across the nation, and sexual assaults still take place — at epidemic levels, we’re assured. Rape can destroy lives, but so can false accusations.
If universities want to prevent sexual assaults on campus, and not just react to them, then students — properly trained and subject to background checks — should be allowed to carry concealed weapons. Yet university officials who claim to want to stop sexual assaults are overwhelmingly opposed to self-defense on campus.
Some Republicans, already sensitive to attacks that they are waging a “war on women,” are supporting this legislation simply to avoid being labeled “pro-rape” on the campaign trail. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is a bill co-sponsor. His spokesman, Alex Conant, was asked by the Washington Examiner’s Ashe Schow whether the bill would ensure due process for the accused and inform them of their rights. “This bill does not address this issue,” Mr. Conant said.
Colleges have one overriding obligation to sexual assault victims who have the courage to come forward: ensuring that they call police. Rapists must be punished. But leave criminal investigations and prosecutions to states.
Students don’t lose their rights upon enrolling in college. Nevada’s delegation should vote against the Campus Safety and Accountability Act, and any other legislation that tramples due process. Washington must stop piling overreaching regulations and mandates on colleges regarding crime. Higher education systems are not supposed to be justice systems — no matter how badly college administrators and politicians want them to be. |
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Let the voting begin.
Registered city of Albuquerque voters can begin casting their ballots Wednesday as early voting gets underway. But if you plan to head to any one of the dozen early voting sites, you’ll need to bring a photo ID.
Voters will cast their ballots for mayor, five city council races, bond questions and the proposed Healthy Workforce Ordinance.
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Eight mayoral candidates have qualified for the ballot, but it’s the first time in 20 years that an incumbent isn’t running for the office.
Election Day is Oct. 3.
If no candidate in a race gets 50 percent of the vote, that race will be decided in a runoff between the top two candidates in November.
Early voting will run through Sept. 29 and is available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, at the following locations:
• 98th and Central (Bernalillo County Rental) 120 98th NW, Suite A5
• City of Albuquerque Records Center, 604 Menaul NW
• Office of the City Clerk, 600 2nd NW
• Alamosa Community Center, 6900 Gonzales SW
• North Domingo Baca Multigenerational Center, 7521 Carmel NE
• Don Newton/Taylor Ranch Community Center, 4900 Kachina NW
• Petroglyph Plaza, 8201 Golf Course NW, Suite D1
• Cesar Chavez Community Center, 7505 Kathryn SE
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• Los Altos Plaza, 4200 Wyoming NE
• Daskalos Plaza, 5339 Menaul NE
• Caracol Plaza, 12500 Montgomery NE
• Manzano Mesa Multigenerational Center, 501 Elizabeth SE |
Three more 'illegal' dental clinics uncovered in Melbourne's northern suburbs, health regulators say
Updated
Three more dental clinics in Melbourne's northern suburbs have been caught operating illegally, according to health regulators, just weeks after it was revealed one man had been working unregistered out of his garage.
Earlier this month the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) charged Muhammet Velipasaoglu for working as a dentist without a licence for more than a decade.
Since then, AHPRA said it had raided three other properties — at Yaralla Court and Bicentennial Crescent in Meadow Heights and also Preston Avenue, Roxburgh Park — where illegal dental procedures may have taken place.
The practitioners at the clinics have not been arrested or charged, but investigations continue.
"All of these involved potential risk to the public and people who are not registered as dental practitioners," the head of AHPRA, Martin Fletcher, said.
"[At one Meadow Heights property] we found evidence of dental treatment had recently been provided at this premises.
"Because of significant concerns about poor hygiene, inadequate infection control, potential public health risks and substandard care, we immediately advised Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services."
Mr Fletcher said no-one was registered to practise as a dentist the premises and it was unclear how long they had been operating.
It was also unclear if the practices were linked.
He said the latest tip-off came from a registered health practitioner who had seen someone who received treatment at one of the clinics.
"If you received dental treatment from someone at these locations you may have been exposed to risk," Mr Fletcher said.
What has been found in at least one case shows a concerning risk of transfer of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV Dr Finn Romanes, Acting chief health officer
"We are concerned there appears to be cluster [of unregistered clinics], and that's why we're asking today for people to come forward."
Dr Finn Romanes, Victoria's acting chief health officer, said there was "good evidence that members of our community may have received dental care from unregistered individuals".
"What has been found in at least one case shows a concerning risk of transfer of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV," he said
He said anyone who was concerned about dental work they received, or had any information, should call a health department hotline on 1800 356 061.
Authorities said earlier this month that Velipasaoglu was working in an "unsafe environment, using clinically unsafe equipment" in his home and garage, also in Meadow Heights.
It is believed he was trained in Turkey but had been operating in Melbourne without registration since as early as 2003.
Mr Fletcher said he could not comment on whether those involved in the latest investigation were also trained overseas.
Topics: health, dental, states-and-territories, melbourne-3000, vic
First posted |
British chancellor Philip Hammon REUTERS/Bobby Yip LONDON — Public sector net borrowing increased by £1.2 billion in April compared to the same time in 2016, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics released on Tuesday showed.
"Public sector net borrowing (excluding public sector banks) increased by £1.2 billion to £10.4 billion in April 2017, compared with April 2016; this is the highest April borrowing since 2014," the ONS said in a data release.
Economists polled before the release forecast a deficit of £8.9 billion.
While on a monthly basis the deficit increased, the deficit fell on an annualised basis in the financial year ending in March compared to the end of March 2016.
"Public sector net borrowing (excluding public sector banks) decreased by £23.4 billion to £48.7 billion in the financial year ending March 2017 (April 2016 to March 2017), compared with the financial year ending March 2016," the ONS said.
That marks the lowest net borrowing in the UK since March 2008, just before the worst of the financial crisis hit the UK.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast a larger deficit, with the ONS noting that it had predicted "that public sector net borrowing (excluding public sector banks) would be £51.7 billion during the financial year ending March 2017."
Here is the ONS' chart of the deficit:
Office for National Statistics
Reducing public sector net borrowing — also known as the deficit — has become perhaps the most important issue in UK economic policy since the financial crisis. Getting rid of the deficit has become something of a political necessity, with a surplus seen as the ultimate goal for the UK's public finances.
In its simplest terms, a government runs a budget deficit when in a single year it collects less in revenues than it spends. Governments must then borrow to make up the shortfall, adding to national debt. Britain has run a deficit every year since 2001-02 when the Labour government created a small surplus. That marks the longest period of continuous deficits since the early 19th century.
All major political parties have pledged to reduce the deficit in their recently released election manifestos.
Alongside the deficit numbers, ONS figures showed that the overall level of government debt continued to rise, hitting £1.722 trillion by the end of April, up £114 billion from the same time last year. Debt is now equivalent to 86% of Britain's GDP. |
July 21, 2014, 3:32 PM GMT
A new study, “Replacing Myths with Facts: Sex-Selective Abortion Laws in the United States,” debunks the myth that Asian cultural preferences for sons contribute to the practice of gender-based abortions.
Those alleged preferences, along with skewed male-to-female sex ratios in China and India, are often cited by legislators as reasons for banning sex-selective abortions in America. Eight states have enacted laws banning them.
"We find that this legislation is based on myths and misinformation," wrote Professor Sital Kalantry."In fact, while sex-selective abortion bans have proliferated based on a supposed concern over Asian immigrant birth patterns, the reality is that Asian Americans tend to have more girls than white Americans."
According to the study, foreign-born Chinese, Indian, and Korean Americans, as well as Asian Americans as a whole, have fewer boys (1.03) than U.S.-born white Americans (1.05). Sex-selective abortion bans in Pennsylvania and Illinois, researchers say, did not affect existing ratios.
The U.S. is one of five countries that explicitly bans the practice, including China, Kosovo, Nepal, and Vietnam. |
In this age of invention the science of arms has made great progress. In fact, the most remarkable inventions have been made since the prolonged wars of Europe in the early part of the century, and the short Italian campaign of France in 1859 served to illustrate how great a power the engines of destruction can exert.
-- Thomas P. Kettell, History of the Great Rebellion. From its commencement its close, giving an account of its origin, The Secession of the Southern States, and the Formation of the Confederate Government, the concentration of the Military and Financial resources of the federal government, the development of its vast power, the raising, organizing, and equipping of the contending armies and navies; lucid, vivid, and accurate descriptions of battles and bombardments, sieges and surrender of forts, captured batteries, etc., etc.; the immense financial resources and comprehensive measures of the government, the enthusiasm and patriotic contributions of the people, together with sketches of the lives of all the eminent statesmen and military and naval commanders, with a full and complete index. From Official Sources (1862) |
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Benson Mayowa will be joining the Dallas Cowboys after the Oakland Raiders declined to match Dallas' offer Tuesday.
Editor's Picks Benson Mayowa will be part of Cowboys' committee approach Defensive end Benson Mayowa is an ideal insertion into the Dallas Cowboys' pass-rush-by-committee.
Oakland had until Wednesday to match the Cowboys' three-year offer sheet worth $8.25 million, which includes $4 million in the first year.
Mayowa, who took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, had two sacks in 28 games for the Raiders. He also forced a fumble and recorded a safety.
The Cowboys turned their attention to him after losing out on chances for Adrian Clayborn, Chris Long and Andre Branch.
"At the end of the day, you watch him on tape and you love the way he plays," Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Monday night before the Raiders made their decision. "Obviously we're trying to marry people to what we do on defense and [defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli] and the type of scheme he wants and the players he wants.
"The guy plays hard. He's got the movement that we look for in defensive linemen, and we feel like he's got some upside. Do we think we're getting the next DeMarcus Ware? Probably not. But when you don't have the guy, then you've got to do it by committee and hope you get the right players, playing the right way so that you get pressure."
Defensive end Benson Mayowa, who had two sacks in 28 games for the Raiders, will join the Cowboys after Oakland declined to match Dallas' three-year offer. Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports
The Cowboys have made no effort to retain Greg Hardy, who is a free agent. They also have Jeremy Mincey and Jack Crawford as free-agent defensive ends. Randy Gregory will miss the first four games because of a suspension, and last year's leader in sacks, DeMarcus Lawrence, is rehabbing from offseason back surgery.
The signing of Mayowa would not preclude the Cowboys from using the fourth pick of the draft on a pass-rusher. |
Have you noticed that President Obama barely acknowledges the raving banshee shriek of the radical right, even as it approaches crescendo across the spectrum of media? When he does, at most he acknowledges legitimate opposing viewpoints while mildly observing that it should not be allowed to derail constructive engagement. He even seems pusillanimous to some in the liberal community for being so solicitous with people openly at war with the very foundations of democracy, and the right predictably interprets that attitude in similar terms - they react with aggression in the face of invitations to cooperate, in perfect sync with their pathology.
Whenever an act of Republican-inspired terrorism has occurred - e.g., the IRS suicide attack - the President naturally condemns the specific incident and consoles the families of victims, but he does not, as some wish he would, call out the pan-media hate mongers who filled the perpetrators' diseased minds with paranoid, bigoted fantasies. He does not call out the Republican Party that supports, coordinates, and often directly determines the content of these propaganda sources, and does not talk about how the lies of the GOP have - with clear malice aforethought - created an environment of hate, fear, and violence that victimizes innocent people and hurts the nation.
And if the Republican strategy of fomenting this violence escalates into a significant pattern, I am sure that for a long time - too long, in the likely opinions of many commentators on the left - the President would continue to appear "obtuse" to the fact that Republican leaders were encouraging it, even as they became increasingly bold in doing so. Some would yet again begin to doubt his courage or competence.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. - Napoleon Bonaparte
Now, this isn't to say the administration wouldn't be enforcing the law and making major arrests, but politically they would somehow fail to connect dots that everyone else could plainly see. They would even fail to connect dots that the terrorists themselves openly brag about, and the domain of the progressive commentariat given over to punditry rather than intelligent thought would initiate another circular firing squad cycle: The usual "sound and fury, signifying nothing."
The confidence of the radical right would increase directly in complement to the growing fear and insecurity of everyone else, and pretty soon the ballsier elements on the right would come to the conclusion that The Time Has Come. They would have been watching the whole process unfold, seeing smaller acts of terrorism meet with the tacit approval of the Republican Party and the thunderous applause of rank-in-file extremists, and would lick their chops at how "weak" the administration's response had appeared to be. Plots would become increasingly bold, and eventually one of them would get through and either kill a lot of people or just be so outrageous as to have the same effect.
And then President Obama calls a special session of Congress to address the nation, and makes a Lincoln-esque speech "appealing to the angels of our better nature" while also waxing FDR that democracy would not fall to rule by the gun; that those who would seek to impose their will by force would fail, and the American people stand together, united in defense of their freedom. Some Congressional Republicans might even be so radicalized by this point that they would be dumb enough to shout and heckle the speech, while the Republicans with triple-digit IQs watching the speech would be crying in their soup and trying to think up good names for a new party.
This would almost certainly be accompanied by various legislation - new funding for counter-terrorism, maybe reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine in broadcast media, strengthening of laws against inciting violence - and the GOP would try to block it, while their paramilitary thugs blow their wad in spasms of random, largely futile violence. In their minds, they would be in a state of Civil War with Ultimate Victory just around the corner, but in reality they would be surrounded, their logistics would dry up, support would evaporate, and everyone who had ever been associated with them - i.e., the Republican Party, that had convinced itself it was now safe to play footsy with them - is now politically radioactive.
There might even be acts of vigilantism, although I think the President would be able to persuade people to corral their passions enough to stop that from being a significant factor. Meanwhile, the Republican Party loses, and loses, and loses; the militants end up dead or in Supermax, loathed for all time outside a tiny fringe; life goes on, and thus endeth the Best Laid Plans of Mice who thought they were Men. President Obama, meanwhile, would look like Abraham Lincoln without the country having gone through even a fraction of the convulsions of an actual civil war.
And this is not even an "optimistic" scenario - this is the one where the right really has its shit together, pulling off things they probably couldn't and killing a substantial number of people before they're brought under control. The optimistic scenario is that they're such cowards that their ranting and raving never leads to anything beyond occasional isolated incidents, meanwhile undermining the political viability of their Republican benefactors.
Don't get me wrong, I am not belittling their ability to temporarily cause localized chaos or inflict suffering on innocent people. They are indeed dangerous, in the same sense that automobile defects are dangerous, but not dangerous in the sense they believe themselves to be - not capable of shaping the future in a nation of 310 million people, the vast majority of whom do not share their values.
A republic does not last forever, nor should immortality be considered a criterion for success: Like all living things, republics grow, merge, diverge, and change, and some day the United States of America will not exist. Maybe it will fission into successor states, some of whom will be degenerate and ugly, but some of whom may be brilliant and glorious; maybe it will become the fragmented territories of future empires; maybe it will be subsumed and disappear into a global (hopefully democratic) government; or maybe it will still exist in some fossilized form right up until a global cataclysm makes Earth unlivable (to the mixed dismay, glee, or indifference of space colonies elsewhere).
But that will not happen any time soon - not now, not ten years from now, not fifty years from now, because I am here now to say so. Because you are here now to say so. Because we are the United States of America, and we are strong. We dream. We create. We envision and seek the New.
And as long as that is true of us - true of those of us who recognize that a nation exists in our own choices and acts of creation, rather than being a state imposed upon us by others - then it doesn't matter what percentage of the population believes in Creationism, chupacabras, or alien abductions. It doesn't matter. We will continue to regenerate, give birth to new ideas and heroic leaders, and shock the world by strolling down the sidewalk whistling a happy song five minutes after the world had written our obituary.
We've done it before, we did it recently, and we'll keep doing it, and there's not a goddamned thing the Republican Party, the Hutaree militia, Blackwater/Xe, or any of their comrades can do about it, because they're nothing but noise and entropy and we are Alive. They are nothing but the shadows that remain when light dispels darkness - the pathetic, whining, emptily threatening echoes of enemies long ago defeated. The days when they had the intelligence to drag us with them into suicide are long gone - they are stupid, alone, and have the pedal to the floor headed straight for a brick wall of their own construction, and this country will survive and flourish with or without their permission. |
A week ago, my favourite bottle fairy (Cheers, Tink!) drew my attention to an interesting Guardian article dealing with the sex drives of disabled folk. Triggered by recent revelations of care home workers hiring sex surrogates to sate the lusts of those confined to their care, the article compiles a variety of views on the subject, including this soundbite by one Mik Scarlet:
It’s like the world telling you that disabled people are so unsexy that the only way they can have sex is to pay for it. If you’re growing up as a disabled child or someone who’s just come to disability, how does that affect how you feel about yourself? I don’t want a world where it’s easier for disabled people to visit sex workers, I want a world that sees disabled people as sexual and valid prospective partners.
Many would call this a laudable sentiment and I’d be hard pressed to disagree. However, seeing as the general public won’t be aligning with Scarlet’s vision anytime soon, what will the horny handicapped do for release and stimulation in the meantime? If the general public regard the disabled, in aggregate, as undesirable sexual partners, isn’t interfering with their one outlet simply adding to the cruelty and aridity of their situation? Folk with an anti-prostitution bias dismiss the undesired with a sneer of “let them stroke cock”, but even wanking sounds a tad impractical for those who lack the limbs required for the task.
That said, I’m sure plenty of disabled folk out there get more in the way of cock and/or cunt than many an able-bodied person. Even if the sexual dalit caste contains huge swathes of the crippled and invalid, they’re by no means its only members (neither does it encompass them in toto); beyond the world of the wheelchairs, there exist a plethora of people who may as well be bedridden amputees for all the interest they elicit from those they desire. For them, as well as for their disabled cousins, all the pity in the world’s no substitute for the alleviation of their pent-up yearnings.
Fuck, even in Scarlet’s ideal world, there’d still be a shitload of incel incapacitates passed over in the sexual arena; for them and their more ambulate counterparts, Mik’s heaven would still be hell. Nothing illuminates the inequality of existence quite like the push ‘n’ pull of sexual selection; and, no doubt, nothing exacerbates the ire of incels like the pisstaking and pathos tossed their way in place of pussy (and/or penis). For the bodily-impaired, it must be twice as as infuriating, what with having to deal with the nauseating cultural paternalism that follows them around on account of their condition. All too often, people claim them as living, breathing pets, assuming that because two of their legs are inactive, their third must be also.
I say sod that! I’m guessing the invalids and incels of the world could do without the sexual protectionism and stigmatization erected between them and their drives. Sure, paying for it’s (usually) far from ideal – I doubt the majority of working girls address the more emotional strains of TLC romantic partners (and sex surrogates) specialise in – but at least letting down the barriers to it would serve to satisfy the more primal intimacies craved by most members of our species, particularly those members who would otherwise go without.
~MRDA~ |
As Alabama and Mississippi prepared for their Tuesday primaries, the water was warm for “aren’t Southerners stupid” jokes on HBO’s “Real Time” Friday night. But host Bill Maher went a step further, deploying House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter to Missisippi to find out just how dumb voters are down in the South.
Maher claimed that Pelosi’s daughter, documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, told him she “did not seek out people who look like what some would say [are] rednecks.”
Pelosi told Maher, “If you took any of the footage we didn’t use, it would look just like the footage we did use.”
Pelosi’s film naturally begins with a stereotypical rendition of “Dixie” and stills of run-down homes. As narrator, Pelosi then points out that Mississippi is the most conservative — and poorest — state in the country.
Pelosi then proceeds to press a number of poor white men on why they are conservatives.
The footage has to be seen to be believed, if only because of how unrepresentative Pelosi’s sample is throughout the film. Pelosi only interviewed white men for the project, even though recent census data shows that the state is 51.4 percent female and just 59.1 percent white.
Nonetheless, the Maher panel appeared relieved that its stereotypes of the South were confirmed by Pelosi’s small, unrepresentative sample.
“By the way, she said she cut out 20 people who also did not have teeth,” Maher said. “Just so you know that is wasn’t like, ‘Oh we’re just going to show the guy with no teeth.’ She had to cut out a lot of people who also didn’t have teeth.”
Maher said he plans to send Pelosi to the inner city in the future.
Follow Caroline on Twitter |
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By now, those following the heart-wrenching news from Syria have been saturated with data, analysis, information, and misinformation on developments there since 2011. Many of us have adopted our disparate narratives. This is the case whether we have been observing Syria over the past two decades or whether we suddenly started paying attention in 2011. Unfortunately, in light of the contentious nature of received knowledge on the country, especially under the current conditions, such crystallization is invariably open to doubt or plausible counterargument.1 Ad Policy Related Articles This Film Shows Syria’s Civil War From the Victims’ Point of View Lydia Wilson War Hawks Are Sensing an Opening in Syria James Carden Syrian Writers, Artists, and Journalists Speak Out Against US and Russian Policy Syrian Writers, Artists, and Journalists Against US and Russian Policies in Syria
Worse still, there has been increasing gravitation toward two mutually exclusive narratives: (a) that of “pure and consistent revolution,” and (b) that of “external conspiracy.” Both narratives carry grains of truth, but both are encumbered by maximalist claims and fundamental blind spots that forfeit any common ground necessary for enduring cease-fires or potential transitions, as well as postwar reconciliation.2
These divisions have crystallized at research institutions, think tanks, and policy circles; among artists and journalists; and at media outlets and satellite television stations in the Middle East, which often portray a caricature of their preferred narrative. The debates occur everywhere—including in kitchen-table discussions within families and among friends—but with different intonations, intensity, and immediacy. The exceptions, ironically and refreshingly, are Syrians living in Syria, who are far more exhausted by these and indeed all narratives, and have on average a much more grounded point of view born out of intense suffering and proximity to what has become a theater of extreme cruelty.3 The first narrative insists on the purity and consistency of a revolution that started in 2011.
The target of this essay will be less the policy aspects of this debate and the options regarding greater US intervention, and more the broader discursive realm within which debates occur, particularly in online platforms. Policy and narratives are often connected, even if opportunistically and with a time-lag, which is all the more reason to take narratives, especially the most prevalent ones, seriously. Since my aim is to avoid yet another round of counterproductive personal polemics, I will refrain from associating particular individuals or institutions with the two narratives. Instead, my goal is to contribute to the restoration of some discursive accountability and nuance.4
To be sure, there is some internal divergence on issues within these narratives, which explains some flip-flopping, especially after the solidification of the jihadist component of the uprising. But the focus here is on the core claims around which narratives are woven.5
The first narrative asserts the purity and consistency of a revolution that started in 2011. This revolution, the narrative goes, seeks the removal of a brutal dictatorship in favor of a more accountable and just order. Many of its adherents recognize the problem of militarization and radicalization in the uprising, and even of problematic external interventions on that side. However, such dynamics are not allowed to impinge on the nature of the revolution. In this view, no degree of militarization, radicalization, or sectarianism of the uprising is enough to fundamentally change its potential in securing a more accountable and just order in Syria. This narrative thus acknowledges that various jihadists are practically spearheading the fight against the Assad regime on the battlefield. Yet it simultaneously either denounces their worldview or writes them off as a product of repression, in both cases distancing “the revolution” from jihadists. This narrative may also decry the subordination of the official representatives of the revolution to Arab Gulf states and Turkey, and by connection the United States, including their role in funding or facilitating the entry of jihadists into Syria. Yet it does not recognize the implications of doing so. The revolution is always said to be able to emerge unscathed, and rejection of this claim is dismissed as akin to betrayal.6 The second narrative acknowledges the regime’s repression, but sees only external conspiracy and internal jihadists.
The second narrative recognizes the repression of the regime and the need for change. Its adherents often even recognize the legitimacy of protest, at least in theory. Yet when it comes to the actual uprising, they only see external conspiracy and internal jihadists. In this narrative, the rest of the protesters either fade into an irrelevant background or are brought to the fore as stooges of problematic external actors. Accordingly, there are no secular, anti-imperialist Syrians who are still working, one way or another, to overthrow the regime. They either do not exist or are too few to be counted. Concomitantly, this narrative makes the regime’s destruction of Syria less visible by its descriptive privileging of the imperialist forces that benefit from such destruction. Some go so far as to put the regime’s scale of destruction on par with that of the much weaker rebels. In this view, Syria is not only a theater for regional and international conflict; it is also where external designs must be defeated, no matter the cost to Syrians themselves. Participating in the opposition thus becomes a form of betrayal against anti-imperialism (and the nation itself).7
Both narratives fail to recognize the legitimate aspects of their counterpart. Adherents of both narratives refuse to allow facts and developments to alter their views. Both adopt hypocritical stances regarding intervention. According to the first narrative, US intervention is good only if it is against the regime. For the second narrative, external intervention is good if it supports the regime—Russia is not imperialist, but the United States is, the argument goes. For the first narrative, the potential dangers resulting from state collapse is a moot point. Yet for the second narrative, state collapse is unacceptable no matter how bad things get. On the question of state collapse (as distinguished from regime overthrow), neither position is based on weighted analysis or a consideration of consequences. Instead, both start with an assumption about which side must be defeated, and both reverse-engineer the argument that suits that end. Usually, the first narrative is associated with the West and the second narrative with the regime, with all sorts of “incriminating” implications. And finally, neither side seems open to compromise: Nothing less than complete defeat of either the regime or the opposition is acceptable, forfeiting thereby a number of potential exits from the mayhem.8
* * *9 More nuanced approaches exist, but their proponents are usually dismissed as pro-regime, pro-West, or even pro-jihadist.
Total triumph by one side will not restore well-being to Syria. The country will not be at peace without taking into account the aspirations of the majority of its citizens, whatever their affiliations or preferences. Thus, despite the moral and political conviction of their adherents, neither of these narratives—at least so long as a maximalist version is advanced—is sufficient to bring Syria back from the brink. National reconciliation is a messy and often unsatisfying business, judging from dozens of historical examples. Both sides go too far in discounting the imperfections of any future formula, which explains today’s costly intransigence. Those who take any of this as an argument for moral equivalence between the oppressor and the oppressed are fixated on apolitical, ideal types.10
More nuanced approaches exist, to be sure, but their proponents are usually dismissed by both sides as either traitors to the revolution, politically naive, pro-regime, pro-West, or even pro-jihadist. Sometimes the phrase “pro-opposition” is sufficiently damning for adherents of the second narrative because of the identity of the actors who support the opposition. Similarly, according to the first narrative, not toeing the line of the current opposition is tantamount to supporting Bashar al-Assad.11
Amid this poisonous atmosphere, observers are either forced to choose a side or are considered wishy-washy by both sides. One, it seems, is not allowed to be critical of the opposition from a vehemently anti-regime perspective. Equally, one cannot be for the opposition without being lumped into what is variously branded as the “pro-Western imperialist,” the “pro-Zionist,” or the “pro-jihadist” camp (or all three at once, despite the contradictions). The chief irony, however, is that we all pretend to be speaking on behalf of nearly all Syrians, when in reality most Syrians—those who labor day and night to keep their communities functioning—are far more nuanced than either of these two camps.12
Some who advocate a middle ground may not be saying much, since there is, at least at present, no institutional or social-political conduit for their position. But we should not be seeking an apolitical, abstract middle ground. Rather, a conception of an exit that preserves all groups in Syria, regardless of their preferences, is the only way out of the standoff. And that requires a generosity or flexibility of vision that neither of the two narratives seems capable of at the moment.13
This essay will address the two dominant trends as a way of opening up possibilities for outcomes that may be the best solution to the crisis. Those outcomes will necessarily be suboptimal, since genuine reconciliation is, at least at this point, an illusion.14
Blame-Game Narratives
Amid the bombs and the killing, many continue to bicker about responsibility for the current catastrophe. Often this occurs at the most personal level. Partisanship and rigid politics have numbed our minds, with many trying to absolve or blame this or that actor or factor in an absolute manner.15 The killing we are witnessing today is being perpetrated by all sides, but overwhelmingly by the Syrian regime.
It is difficult to apportion blame accurately, but it is not an intractable puzzle, so long as we consider history and common sense. On the one hand, and at the most basic level, how could one absolve the regime? It was not Jabhat al-Nusra or Qatar that ruled Syria with an iron fist the past four decades. It is one thing to hold external actors responsible for playing a fundamental role in weakening the opposition by hijacking it and encouraging militant elements in the push to overthrow the regime. It is another thing to cling to this narrative as cover for the regime’s decades of repression, its damaging neoliberal economic policies, and other ills. The killing and destruction we are witnessing today in Aleppo and elsewhere is being perpetrated by all sides, but overwhelmingly by the Syrian regime. This destruction is not a break with, but rather a manifestation of, the essential tenets of its rule under different circumstances.16
The regime in Syria would react in the same manner to any threat to its rule. It is not as though Assad would have tolerated a locally grown and independent, secular, anti-imperialist, pro-Palestine, leftist opposition, militant or not. The only difference today is the identity and character of the forces behind the opposition. It is this difference that gives the conflict a geopolitical dimension, from which the regime is poised to benefit by deftly identifying and manipulating the opposition’s multi-layered contradictions.17 Ready to Fight Back? Sign Up For Take Action Now
In sum, the least complicated claim regarding the Syrian situation, and the one least likely to be countered convincingly, is that of the regime’s criminality. Counterclaims do not hold analytical water and do not stand up to factual analysis, let alone moral standing. Those who point to the rebels’ killing of tens of thousands of Syrian Army soldiers and scores of civilians on the regime’s “side,” or those living under its control, are not inaccurate. Yet they do not impinge on the regime’s primary responsibility for the catastrophe, then and now. When the regime’s brutality is invoked, defenders of the “conspiracy” narrative often acknowledge this fact—and then quickly dismiss it in favor of citing (or blaming) bigger culprits as though one cancels the other for those who suffer.18 A legitimate protest movement by most Syrians was tangled up with the most cynical and imperial external motives.
The government—with much help from its regional and international allies—has brutalized the Syrian population since 2011. This fact, however, does not absolve its regional and international opponents from responsibility for significantly contributing to the mayhem. A legitimate protest movement by most Syrians was tangled up with the most cynical and imperial external motives—ones that have nothing to do with bolstering an independent, broad-based, and democratic opposition. No serious reflection can proceed without acknowledging this fact. Many honest observers will admit this much but refrain from drawing out its implications—including the fact that it mars their notion of “opposition” and “revolution.” Many are also unwilling to acknowledge the near impossibility of neatly disentangling the presumably good rebels from the bad ones, and the connection of either or both to unsavory external actors who fueled the violence that has brutalized the Syrian population. Jabhat al-Nusra, now called Fateh al-Sham, becomes a spigot variable, turned on or off depending on the context. According to the “revolution” narrative, all such talk is fodder for the regime to justify its killing. While this is often true, it whitewashes the “opposition” and/or “rebels” and naively absolves the external actors that support them, all with a horrendous foreign or domestic policy record in the region.19
Debunking the excessive claims of external conspiracy does not mean there was no consensus of sorts among regional and international players (i.e., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States). That consensus centered around the notion that Syria and its allies needed to be cut down to size because they impede domination of the region by those players along with their allies, notably Israel. (Syria and Iraq were the only remaining regional powers that posed any potential threat to Israel’s military occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, even if only indirectly, through Hezbollah, in the case of Syria.) These very powers almost tripped over themselves as they rushed to fuel and hijack the Syrian uprising for their own purposes. They soon found that there were serious roadblocks—notably, Iran, Russia, and even China. How, then, can we absolve regional and international actors who have involved themselves in Syrian affairs in the most fundamental ways?20
Furthermore, there is an instructive history that fuels cynicism vis-à-vis the external supporters of the “pure and consistent revolution” narrative. What do we make of the decades-long support the Syrian regime received from some of the same oil-rich Arab countries that have bankrolled the militarization of the uprising? Or the extensive cooperative economic plans drawn up between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syria’s Assad on the eve of the uprising, as though it was a match made in heaven? And what to make of the early US interest in supporting the Syrian opposition, when Washington supported crushing its equivalent in Bahrain only months before, all the while overseeing the mayhem unleashed next door in Iraq with its brutal and fraudulent 2003 invasion?21
Any serious observer recognizes that years of turmoil in Iraq, and its porous borders with Syria, had an impact on the nurturing and development of the most militant elements in the Syrian uprising—with notable support from the Syrian regime itself in facilitating the networking and passage of jihadists into Iraq in the post-2003 period. This unsavory history continues in Yemen today, as those calling for humanitarian aid in Aleppo and an end to Russian and Syrian-regime bombing—Saudi Arabia and the United States—are, respectively, leading and supporting the bombing of rebel-held areas of Yemen, resulting in horrific war crimes.22
None of this justifies the slaughter we are witnessing in Aleppo today, but all of it casts doubt on the support for the leading jihadists of the military opposition during the past five years. The regime is now in far better military standing because of stepped-up support from Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and Iraqi militias. But when it was not, in 2012-14, the “pure revolution” narrative persisted, even as the opposition forces were overrun by jihadists supported by “friends” of the revolution.23
We—all of us—need to rethink what we really want. If the argument is simply, all for the sake of revolution, or all for the sake of toppling the regime, then we should redefine what revolution, or regime overthrow, really means for all Syrians, including those who consider the regime the lesser evil. The fact that no one can answer this question is why a multitude of honest regime opponents can still fundamentally differ in diagnosing the conflict.24
Productive debates within and outside Syria occur not between die-hard supporters of a repressive regime and supporters of a fractured opposition. Rather, serious debates occur between those who fundamentally and unequivocally oppose the regime, but from different perspectives that pivot around the complicity/subordination of significant portions of the opposition to external actors. In these debates, what that development means regarding the notion of “revolution” and the geopolitical significance of the Syrian conflict is as important as the fact that the uprising began as a genuine uprising against dictatorship. There simply is no rhetorical, let alone practical, escape from dealing seriously with this impasse.25
A Regional Catastrophe
News coming out of Syria, Russia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, and elsewhere indicate that we’re nowhere near a solution to the conflict. Humanitarian instincts that push for stopping the bloodshed frequently lead to calls—ever more insistent, during the siege of east Aleppo—for policies that would seem to guarantee escalation by the Western powers.26 To fully understand the impasse, we must adopt a bird’s-eye view of the interconnected regional conflicts.
In an echo of the narrative binary trap, both the United States and Russia are trapped. Washington will not just sit aside for long and watch Moscow rule the conflict. But the most frequently suggested US alternative—imposition of a no-fly zone or a no-bombing zone—would have to be accompanied by readiness for direct confrontation with Russia, an almost necessary consequence of any seriously enforced no-fly zone. On the other hand, Russia is now knee-deep in the conflict, with a professed objective to eradicate “terrorist” groups (as it calls all military opposition to the regime). This is an indefinite task, and ultimately a disingenuous cover for much broader goals of global self-assertion, from which Russian President Vladimir Putin will not easily retreat. Half-baked proposals today are at best a band-aid and at worst recipes for full-scale regional or international war. The United States may scale up its involvement, but it is unlikely to overplay its hand in the face of Russian steadfastness, despite Hillary Clinton’s calls for a no-fly zone.27
Syria alone is not an important enough player or prize in international relations. For their part, the Syrian regime and Russia are accelerating their conquests to enhance the regime’s position, militarily as well as economically, before a new administration assumes power in Washington next January. But there is another dimension.28
To fully understand the reason for this impasse, we must adopt a bird’s-eye view of the interconnected regional conflicts. The Syrian war is increasingly bound up with regional developments from Iraq to Yemen, as well as the question of ISIS. Even as Russia pummels Aleppo, Saudi Arabia is pummeling Yemen, using US-made jetfighters that Washington is currently refueling, with Iran advancing its warships to the Yemeni coast in defense of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Russia, Syria, the Syrian rebels, the United States, Turkey, various Kurdish forces, Iraq, and Iraqi popular mobilization forces are all battling or claim to be battling ISIS. The last five of those players have begun their offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS, though the Turks and the Iraqi government are having a war of words about who will be joining that fight. More complications could be added, even if we discount the future.29
Anyone who thinks the Syrian conflict can be addressed in isolation from these other battles is not paying attention. Timetables for various actors differ, and though the crushing of the rebels in Aleppo might be a milestone for the Syrian regime and the Russians, it would be but a stage in a broader strategic effort, with ripple effects across the region. With all these moving parts, unforeseen developments are likely to complicate the situation in Syria even further, most of them at the expense of Syrians.30
Unsatisfying Exits
For some time now, this conflict has been bereft of principles, and notions of victory and victors have become senseless. So far, there are only victims. It is very difficult to write and think calmly while the country is being destroyed and Syrian society is coming apart. But that should propel us into areas we have not considered before.31
Considering the militant contenders involved, there actually should not be any absolute victors in this conflict. But many do see a potential victor to support. Some want the regime to disappear first, regardless of who is spearheading that effort; they say “only then can we start the talking, building, and reconciliation.” It is as though the regime is an autonomous object, disconnected from people, that can be surgically excised. No less illusory is the demand that the opposition be crushed first, after which the regime will somehow reconstitute its rule over the whole of Syria, bring together whatever is left, and shed its repressive past. Morality aside, both demands are impossible.32
The basics are not a puzzle. There can be no return to the pre-2011 rule of Syria—whether or not Russia or the almighty wills it. Similarly, the opposition will not overthrow the regime and build a secular, democratic, and socially equitable Syria, because neither its external supporters nor its strongest internal militants desire it. Those who do actually desire a secular, democratic, and egalitarian Syrian society exist on both sides of the divide, but their voices are drowned out.33 Regime opponents must devote their energies toward building an inclusive movement based on shared national goals.
Although current conditions are grim, we can at least envision scenarios that would bring disparate voices together under the banner of struggling for a better Syria. But this can occur only if those involved agree that they cannot win in absolute terms, or at least that they need to redefine victory along lines that are not mutually exclusive, that include all Syrian groups, and that preserve the well-being of most Syrians, even as they hold out the promise of justice for those who have suffered.34
Those opposed to the regime, from any perspective, must devote their energies toward building a more independent, democratic, and inclusive movement based on shared national goals and overlapping interests in at least stopping the mayhem. This will be a long and arduous task, one in which we have to take seriously some of the claims and concerns of the narratives this essay has examined. Most importantly, such an effort should not have its sights set on a particular end game; rather, we would do well to keep in mind that there will be life after the conflict, which requires the most responsible kind of building. We must start now, lest other, more powerful, and well-funded actors steal the day yet again and impose only a softer version of a repressive and exploitative Syria.35
The good news is that various groups and organizations in and around Syria have already begun such efforts, and they are well aware that international institutions, funders, and countries will descend on the Syrian scene when it is time to rebuild. These external, well-heeled actors—whether it is the World Bank, the Gulf Cooperation Council, their sponsors, or others, including China—have started their work in anticipation of an eventual end to the conflict, and they have a structural edge in terms of capital and networks. They should not be left alone to rule the “day after.” The alternative efforts deserve our support in pushing for both an independent narrative and a steadfastly independent Syria.36
This might seem far-fetched, but it is a vision from which we can create productive ideas that don’t cancel each other out for the sake of existing visions—ones that are even more far-fetched, and considerably more violent.37 |
Father-of-one: Gregery Bulbuc, 31, pictured in a file image, was killed in the tragic accident in Bermondsey, South London
A tree surgeon died today after his chainsaw 'kicked backed' into his neck and he was left dangling on his rope.
Father-of-one Gregery Bulbuc, 31, was killed in the tragic accident in Bermondsey, South London, while trimming a tree in a private back yard.
The Romanian worker who was employed by Aralia Tree Services had a one-year-old son and was a week away from celebrating his 32nd birthday.
His work colleagues slammed a ladder against the tree and raced up it to try to bring him down.
A neighbour called 999 after she saw the man 'slouched and hanging' from the tree.
The woman, who did not wish to be named, said: 'It was before lunchtime.
'My daughter was going out, she saw him and she said: "You need to come out Mum, there's a man in the tree". I looked and he was slumped over and hanging.
'I'd come out about twenty minutes earlier and I had heard the noise of the chainsaw. But you could tell it wasn't cutting anything, it was just on.
'It was either wrapped around him or hanging from the tree or something, but it was just making that noise.
'It wasn't making contact with anything. I couldn't see any blood, I didn't have my glasses on. I just saw him hanging from the tree.
'I thought he had been electrocuted or something, but I thought he was dead.
'I think his head was still attached to his body.'
After dialling 999 she added: 'Whilst I was there and waiting for the ambulance, his friends, or whoever he was working with at the time, put a ladder up against the tree.
'I remember one banging the ladder against the tree.
'Then he went up the ladder and went to get the man to bring him down.
'Another was standing on a roof nearby. The man was taken down to the garden. It was horrible.'
The Romanian worker who was employed by Aralia Tree Services had a one-year-old son
A ladder and police tent in the garden of the London home where the tree surgeon died today
The tree surgeon has been killed on an affluent street after his neck was injured this morning
Police outside a home in Bermondsey today where the worker died in a chainsaw accident
Witnesses reported seeing 'a lot of blood' after the incident which happened at about 11am
Emotional friends and relatives stared at the ladder this afternoon where Mr Bulbuc sustained his fatal injury.
Fighting back tears Mr Bulbuc's brother Ioan Bulbuc, 27, who also works as a tree surgeon, said: 'He was the perfect brother. He was a dad, he has one boy who is one years old. We lived together in the same house in Beckenham.
'We are both Romanian and my brother was here from around 2001 to 2002, a long time. He had been working as a tree surgeon for ten years.
'He was always so happy. He was so happy to have a little boy. Gregery's birthday was next week, he was such a happy person.'
The Romanian worker (pictured) was a week away from celebrating his 32nd birthday
Mr Bulbuc added: 'The police have told me nothing. His boss has told me that he cut something and the chainsaw kicked back.
'It rebounded onto the neck and he didn't fall down at first because of the rope.'
He added: 'I was working on a tree myself. I got a phone call, it was horrible. It is the second most dangerous job in the world. It was just a terrible accident.'
Witnesses reported seeing 'a lot of blood' after the incident on Banyard Road near a school at about 11am today, which was attended by police and paramedics.
Miles Marvin tweeted: 'Second life threatening accident I've seen at Four Squares Bermondsey in a year.
'Poor man come to earn some money and won't even make it home tonight.
'Tree surgeon had a serious accident, not sure of what actually happened but I saw a lot of blood.'
Another witness told the London Evening Standard: 'There was a lot of blood on the roof of the school next door where the tree was hanging over.
'I saw them giving him CPR and blood. It is very serious. I was on the fourth floor of the estate across the road after the emergency services got there and could see into the garden.
'I saw the ladder, the ropes and chain saw, and the man on the floor.'
Charlie Brenland said he saw police cordon off the road, adding: 'Witnesses and the police said there had been an accident with a worker on one of the trees.
Father-of-one Gregery Bulbuc, 31, was killed in the tragic accident in Bermondsey today
The Romanian worker who was employed by Aralia Tree Services had a one-year-old son
'Someone there said one of the tree surgeons had an accident with a chainsaw.'
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Police were called to Banyard Road in Bermondsey at 11.11am on Wednesday, February 15 to reports of an injured man.
'Officers, the London Ambulance Service and London's Air Ambulance attended. A man, believed to be in his 30s, suffered a neck injury.
'He was pronounced dead at the scene. Next of kin have been informed.
Friends and relatives stared at the ladder where he sustained his fatal injury today
London Ambulance Service sent a Hazardous Area Response Team but could not save him
'This is believed to be a workplace accident and the Health and Safety Executive will be informed in due course.'
London Ambulance Service sent a Hazardous Area Response Team but were sadly unable to save him.
An LAS spokesman said: 'We were called at 11.07am today to reports of an incident at an address on Banyard Road, SE16.
'We sent an ambulance crew, a single responder in a car, a paramedic on a motorcycle, an incident response officer and our Hazardous Area Response Team to the scene.
'We also dispatched London's Air Ambulance. Sadly, despite the extensive efforts of our crews, a patient died at the scene.'
A spokesman for the HSE said it was 'aware and assisting the Metropolitan Police in their investigation and HSE inspectors are attending the site'.
A crowdfunding JustGiving page has been set up to help Mr Bulbuc's girlfriend and son |
Hearthstone Preview: Warlock Minions and Strategy
by Zenstyle - 6 years ago
What would you sacrifice for power? Your energy, your allies, your own health? Those are questions the Warlock deck will require you to answer when it comes to both spells and minions. Of course, like any good demon summoner, the answer should be ‘everything’. You would sacrifice everything for the power to crush your foes with shadow, flame and the strength of infernal minions. If that sounds good, read on!
Imps
Ahh, Imps, because not all Warlocks are rich and can afford nice things. Flame Imp and Blood Imp will not likely win you the game, but they’re reasonable minions to start your match off with. Flame Imp seems like the more solid choice, given the quick damage it can do. You’ll eat two damage yourself, but 3/2 is otherwise great for one energy and can quickly put you out ahead.
Blood Imp isn’t awful because of stealth (We haven’t touched on the mechanic in these previews yet, but the short version is that stealthed minions cannot be targetted by spells or abilities until they attack and break stealth) but it would be a lot better if it buffed damage as opposed to health. The fact is, most demons are not particularly fragile for what you pay for them, and, realistically, I see a high powered offensive benefiting this deck more.
Voidwalker
I liked Voidwalker card until I saw Shieldbearer. There’s a case to be made that synergy with Sense Demons and Demonfire could make this card more desirable, but there are better demons to use either of those cards on. Again, just save up the tiny amount of dust required for totally overpowered Shieldbearer and enjoy a far better one drop.
Succubus
There are a few girls that like to tout themselves as ‘the girl momma warned you about’, but in reality, Succubus is that girl. She’s a feisty 4/3 for two energy. She’ll also cost you one of your cards at random. That might seem steep, but in reality, it’s acceptable. Imagine a turn two Succubus after a turn one Flame Imp. That should hand you board control in most circumstances and force your opponent to play from behind. This is a great example of cost to effectiveness ratio in this deck.
Felguard
It’s not quite an offensive powerhouse, but Felguard is worth running all the same. The blood price this time around is a mana crystal, so use your best judgment on whether or not playing this beefcake is in your best interests early on in the game. If it is, you’ll command a very tanky 3/5 wall with taunt to hide behind while doing other nefarious Warlock things.
Void Terror
And then there’s this guy. Void Terror is a 3/3 for 3, and upon coming into the game he eats the minions on either side of him, gaining their attack and health. This card will be a great counter for low amounts of AoE damage when you want to preserve an offensive. After eating a Consecration or Blizzard if you still have guys on the board, toss down a Void Terror to transform your ragtag gang of beat up minions into one Voltronesque super demon, complete with solid health and, more than likely, a high attack rating.
That said, Void Terror is, on his own, nothing to write home about. The major perk, aside from his primarily ability is that, as a minion, he will not come with additional fees in terms of mana crystals, health or card discard. That’s also why his stats are so pedestrian. He’s not quite core, but I’d feel good about running him.
Pit Lord
Go big or go home, right? That’s Pit Lord all day. Four a mere four energy and, you know, seven damage to your hero, you can summon forth this 7/5 behemoth. There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles to this demon, just throat punching, hurt inducing terror. I love him, and he’ll be a great gut check for your opponents. If they can’t take him out fast, expect a quick end.
Summoning Portal
If you can get Summoning Portal out on turn four, it’s an awesome card. The problem here is that, as your hand size diminishes and the game progresses, it really starts to lose potency. Top decking this around turn ten just doesn’t do a whole lot. If it does get out early though, expect to be able to simply overwhelm your opponent unless they handle it quickly. Running it is purely a judgment call. Are you willing to gamble that you get it out in a reasonable amount of time, or is the risk too much?
Doomguard
Okay, but seriously. At some point, the cost of power might be a wee bit high. Doomguard has charge and a rating of 5/7 for 5, and I’d be willing to pay some health, maybe a mana crystal or a card. Two cards however? I’m hesitant there. Warlock has card draw mechanics, but they’re not fantastic, and turn five’s a really early spot to just drop two cards at random. Doomguard definitely hurts, but the cost is a bit too rich for my blood. He’d need to accomplish a lot to warrant a two card cost.
Dread Infernal
This is not a terribly complicated demon. I like Dread Infernal. Beefy creature, deals one damage to everyone upon coming in, good times to be had here. Even more fantastic if you get the early Summoning Portal up and can get it out before turn six. If not, 6/6 for six is still super reasonable.
Lord Jaraxxus
YOU FACE JARAXXUS, EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION, TRIFLING [Opponent here].
That out of the way, Jaraxxus is a unique and, frankly, amazing card. Once the Eradar Lord of the Burning Legion takes to the field, he’ll replace stuffy old Gul’dan and begin whooping butt. Your hero’s health will be brought to 15 (regardless of how high or low it was before) and you’ll gain two abilities. The first is a melee attack that deals three weapon damage for three energy, with eight durability. The second ability, Inferno, summons a 6/6 Infernal minion for two energy. Nuts, right?
Jaraxxus costs a whopping nine energy, but once he’s out, prepare to make your big push to win the game. The ability to spam out infernal minions will give you an absurd offensive potential, and if you’re holding on to Power Overwhelmings or Demonfires, you’ll likely make short work of your unworthy foe!
Strategy
It’s been hinted at a lot, both in this article and the prior that an all out offensive is my vote when it comes to this deck. Warlock features a lot of high powered, high cost minions that will whittle both you and your opponent down. What it does not feature is a ton of stall. There are a couple of cards that reward you health, but that’s not the specialty of the deck, and it’d take a lot of work with generic minions to change that. Supplementing a host of damaging demons with board control spells and timely buffs will do wonders for your success rate.
That said, this deck will be subject, in my opinion, to a rock, paper, scissors quandary. It will straight up destroy a lot of other aggro decks, and probably some caster decks. However, I believe it will have some real issues against Priest, Paladin and Druid. Any deck that can stall will have a good shot at getting the Warlock to do most of the work for them before swooping in to land the killing blow. Adjust your strategy accordingly when facing these healers.
Bear in mind, beta hasn’t even started, and I fully expect to see a lot of other Warlock strategies come out of the woodwork. More cards will become available and open up new avenues for the evolution of the deck.
Next up: The shadowy Rogue deck. Watch for part one of that preview to go live on Tuesday!
Miss some of BlizzPro’s earlier previews? Take a look at those and other Hearthstone articles here. Have a question about Hearthstone or just want to talk deck ideas? Drop me a line at @RobertAWing on Twitter, or at [email protected]. |
It isn’t every day that one enters an art installation comes with a health warning. Yet that’s exactly what you get with Thoth Jantzen’s Mediamorphosis, the notecard for which opens:
WARNING!!
Seriously, If you suffer from epilepsy or are otherwise adversely affected by flashing lights and colours, do NOT play media here. You won’t get the proper experience, but you may just survive!
This is a fully immersive multimedia presentation which features a mix of music, particle effects, set-pieces, art and a touch of interaction. There’s an extensive backstory to the piece, which forms a narrative and helps points the way towards explorations, but as Thoth points out, there are many ways through the piece (and several points where you can sit back and enjoy the show). Equally, while there is a certain depth and purpose to the piece, it’s not intended to be meaning-of-life deep.
The key thing with this piece is to make sure you have streaming media on and set to play all (if using a media filter) and use the local windlight (or set your viewer to midnight) and – explore.
When you arrive, you’ll find yourself in a white room with a single exit – the wormhole. Walk through – you’ll find the 2001 motifs clear – and the teleport to the exhibit proper in the form of one of the set pieces, the Hopper Cafe. Read the notecard offered and then follow the road. Along the way you’ll find pods you can jump into and enjoy a trippy little ride or two mixing particle effects, art and the various set-pieces, into an immersive show.
You can also spend time inside the Hopper Cafe and witness some of the show projected onto the windows, or you teleport to the other builds which make up the installation, where there are additional opportunities to sit and watch the light / image show. Just be aware that wherever you go – you have yourself become a part of the show for anyone else watching!
Metamorphosis is a piece which is hard to quantify. As the artist himself says in explanation of it, “Huh? What..?” … It is a piece which should, by its nature, be experienced rather than described – although it’s certainly not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Or coffee, for that matter.
Ican only say enjoyed my time exploring and trying out the first-person pods and seats in which you hand over control of your camera to the scripts controlling the exhibit itself, leaving you with nothing to do but just enjoy (and the show is great with the lights out in the room!). Everything is looped, so “rides” take only a few minutes, although it is worth running through things a couple of times to enjoy the complete magical mystery tour.
If I have any complaint at all, it is that there should perhaps be more choice in the music – a loop of just three tracks which can be heard throughout one’s visit to the installation can start to get one’s teeth grinding by the time the fourth or fifth loop is reached…
However, this is just a niggle. Overall, Mediamorphosis is immersive, engaging, unusual and, well, trippy.
Go see for yourself.
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County Court judge Mark Dean, pictured while working as a lawyer in 2009. Credit:Justin McManus Judge Dean: "[Defence counsel], you are unbelievable. Unbelievable. I will use my description that I used yesterday. You are stupid. I ruled" Counsel: "I've got my role. You've got your role." Judge Dean later told the lawyer: "I cannot believe what has happened in this trial, some of the decisions that have been made by the defence. It is beyond me, absolutely beyond me. "In 35 years as a criminal lawyer, 10 years as a silk, I have never seen such incompetence by introducing evidence in a trial which is evidence of the accused man's guilt. And I, for the life of me, have no idea what his defence is."
The judge's comments came to greater notice after the Victorian Court of Appeal delivered a verdict on an appeal in the case on Monday, which contained large sections of extraordinary and heated transcript between Judge Dean and the lawyer. The Court of Appeal decision described the judge's behaviour as "needlessly argumentative and rude". "No matter what view a judge has of the manner in which counsel is running the case, to insult and demean counsel, even in the absence of the jury, is not only likely to offend and embarrass counsel but also to risk impeding counsel in conducting the trial and thus risk giving rise to a miscarriage of justice," the Court of Appeal judges said in their finding. Michael Calvert Cook was convicted of two counts of armed robbery after using a gun to hold up two gaming venues in Mentone in 2012. Cook was sentenced in March 2015. His co-accused, Katherine Nanopoulos pleaded guilty and was sentenced in June 2013. Cook appealed his conviction in March specifically on the behaviour of the judge, with Cook claiming the judge "interjected on too many occasions, descended to the arena and donned the mantle of [the] prosecution", and was biased against him.
His argument centred around a key turning point in the trial. Nanopoulos had burnt some clothes two or three days after the armed robbery he was charged with- a piece of evidence the prosecution could use to argue to the jury she was trying to conceal evidence of a crime. Judge Dean ruled this was inadmissable evidence, meaning the prosecution could not present it to the jury, weakening its case. However defence counsel decided to cross examine Nanopoulos about the evidence, meaning it would become admissible and the prosecution would be able to lead it to the jury. That led to an extraordinary exchange between the judge and the defence counsel, where Judge Dean questioned the lawyer's running of the case. Judge Dean: "What do you propose to ask her?"
Counsel: "Whether she said anything about burning clothes in her statement of 30 April." Judge Dean: "So you want to open up all the evidence that I've ruled is inadmissible." Counsel: "No, no. This goes to her credit." Judge Dean: "[Defence counsel], you are unbelievable. Unbelievable. I will use my description that I used yesterday. You are stupid. I ruled" Counsel: "I've got my role. You've got your role."
Judge Dean: "Yes. But my role — no. But, [defence counsel], you are sailing very close to your ethical responsibilities to this court. You have a primary responsibility to behave in an appropriate manner and to ensure that this process and proceeding is conducted according to law." Counsel: "Absolutely." Later Judge Dean told the lawyer: "I am getting very close to reporting you. Your behaviour in this trial is completely unacceptable. This case has been going for 11 days." Counsel: "Yes." Judge Dean: "It is an embarrassment. Your conduct of this trial, and the ridiculous submissions you make, and points that have no substance, are a serious breach of your duties to this court."
At another point the judge observed the defence counsel had "a very unfortunate habit of asking a whole lot of unnecessary questions" and called one of his questions to a witness "incredibly stupid". This was in response to counsel's questioning of Nanopoulos about whether she had enjoyed jail. During the trial the judge worried aloud whether the accused would be able to get a fair trial. "I have become exasperated with [defence counsel's] incompetence, and I don't think Mr Cook is getting a fair trial because of that". Judge Dean played a very active role in the trial, repeatedly interrupting prosecution and defence evidence to ask his own questions. The appeal judges noted he appeared to grow frustrated with the way both the defence and the prosecution were conducting their cases. "It is not clear why the judge interrupted the cross-examination to ask the direct question about Alex Cook," the appeals judges note.
At another point the appeal judges noted "the trial judge's interventions were unnecessary and risked undermining the course of cross examination". The appeal judges also found it was unnecessary for the Judge Dean to repeatedly describe Cook and Nanopoulos as "pathetic", and at one occasion call them "pathetic drug addicts". However they found this did not affect the trial, as the comments were not made in the presence of the jury. While the appeal judges were critical of some of Judge Dean's conduct during the trial, they found the appeal should be dismissed and the conviction upheld, because the judge's actions did not cause a miscarriage of justice. Before Judge Dean was appointed to the bench he had a long career as a criminal defence lawyer, which included defending North Melbourne Football Club player Jimmy Krakouer on interstate drug trafficking charges Neither Judge Dean nor the lawyer from the case would comment on the story when contacted by Fairfax Media. |
Scientists have made an important breakthrough in the fight against malaria, identifying a potent agent that thwarts drug resistance in the parasite that causes the disease.
In a paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, an international research team is reporting the effectiveness of DSM265, a long-acting inhibitor for the treatment and prevention of malaria and which kills Plasmodium falciparum in the blood and liver.
Professor Vicky Avery and Ms Sandra Duffy, from the Eskitis Institute for Drug Discovery at Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), are part of a scientific collaboration that has declared DSM265 a potential drug combination partner for either single-dose malaria treatment or once weekly doses for ongoing disease prevention.
Malaria kills around 600,000 people each year, mostly children from sub-Saharan Africa, and while treatment and insect control programs have been implemented over many years, increasing resistance in Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax parasites in particular means current drugs are not fully effective.
According to the paper, continued progress in combating malaria requires development of new and easy to administer drug combinations with broad-ranging activity against all manifestations of the disease.
By attacking Plasmodium's ability to synthesise the nucleotide precursors required for the synthesis of DNA and RNA, the scientists say DSM265 has advantages over current treatment options that are dosed daily or are inactive against the parasite liver stage.
DSM265 is a triazolopyrimidine-based inhibitor of the pyrimidine biosynthetic enzyme dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH). It is the first DHODH inhibitor to reach clinical development for treatment of malaria.
"This is a very exciting time for malaria drug discovery," says Professor Avery. "The attrition rates for compounds progressing through this pipeline is considerably high, so reaching this stage is a significant milestone.
"Having compounds which are working through new mechanisms is critical for overcoming the ever growing concerns with drug resistance."
The DSM265 findings follow the announcement in June of another discovery, namely a novel antimalarial compound known as DDD107498.
Identified through collaboration between the University of Dundee's Drug Discovery Unit and Medicines for Malaria Venture - and again featuring Professor Avery's Eskitis research team -- DDD107498 has the potential to treat malaria patients in a single dose, prevent the spread of the disease from infected people, and protect a person from developing the disease in the first place.
Details of the discovery, its properties and mechanism of action have been published in the journal Nature.
"Having two new candidate compounds progressing, both with novel drug targets, is quite amazing," says Professor Avery.
"It illustrates what can be achieved when complementary teams work together. This wouldn't have been possible without the strong collaborative nature of those involved and the great leadership driving these projects forward.
"The next steps will focus on human safety and efficacy studies to ascertain whether the predictions which have been made about these compounds are founded." |
Congressional Republican condemnations of President Obama’s foreign policy are as common as the sunrise. Congressional Republicans urging active-duty U.S. generals to resign, during a war, to protest President Obama’s foreign policy is something else entirely.
As U.S.-led airstrikes continue Friday near the Syrian border with Iraq, it’s hard to imagine what would make the situation worse than the military suddenly losing all its generals. But that is exactly what Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) told a group of voters he wants to see happen, the Colorado Independent reported. “A lot of us are talking to the generals behind the scenes, saying, ‘Hey, if you disagree with the policy that the White House has given you, let’s have a resignation,’” Lamborn said Tuesday, adding that if generals resigned en masse in protest of President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy, they would “go out in a blaze of glory.”
Look, I don’t expect much from Lamborn, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. After eight years in Congress, arguably his most notable legislative accomplishment is championing a House-approved measure to cut off funding for NPR
For that matter, maybe the far-right Coloradan was just flapping his gums a bit, telling tall tales in the hopes of making himself look like a big shot in front of a group of local voters, but never actually doing what he claims to have done.
But if Lamborn was serious, and a member of the House Armed Services Committee actually met “behind the scenes” with U.S. military generals, suggesting they should resign in order to undermine U.S. foreign policy during a war, that’s … a little crazy.
It’s not exactly clear from local reports what it is about Obama’s foreign policy that Lamborn doesn’t like, but under the circumstances, it doesn’t much matter. If a member of Congress has concerns about a president’s approach to international affairs, he or she has a variety of options, including introducing legislation limiting the scope of the administration’s policy.
The options do not include – or more to the point, the options aren’t supposed to include – meeting privately with generals, during a war, to urge them to “go out in a blaze of glory.”
As it turns out, Lamborn is running for re-election against retired Air Force Gen. Irv Halter (D), who told the Colorado Independent, “Our elected officials should not be encouraging our military leaders to resign when they have a disagreement over policy. Congressman Lamborn’s statement shows his immaturity and lack of understanding of the American armed forces. Someone who serves on the House Armed Services Committee should know better.”
That’s putting it mildly.
This is one of those rare instances in which it would be good news if a congressman was lying while boasting to voters.
Update: My colleague Kate Osborn talked to Corey Hutchins, Rocky Mountain correspondent for CJR’s United States Project, who Here’s the transcript of the exchange: : My colleague Kate Osborn talked to Corey Hutchins, Rocky Mountain correspondent for CJR’s United States Project, who originally recorded Lamborn’s remarks
VOTER: Please work with your other congressmen on both sides of the aisles and support the generals and the troops in this country despite the fact that there is no leadership from the Muslim Brotherhood in the White House. [applause] It was not necessarily a question but [unintelligible]. |
On Friday morning Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis struck down the Sandy Hook families’ lawsuit against Remington Arms; a suit that was filed after a legally made and sold AR-15 was stolen from its owner and used to kill innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Hillary Clinton responded to the dismissal of the suit by calling it “incomprehensible” and reaffirmed her determination to change laws so that crime victims can sue gun manufacturers.
Clinton tweeted: ‘It’s incomprehensible that our laws would protect gun makers over Sandy Hook families. We need to fix this.”
It's incomprehensible that our laws would protect gun makers over Sandy Hook families. We need to fix this. https://t.co/96uBe92wPi — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 15, 2016
Think about the specifics of the Sandy Hook attack–the AR-15 that Adam Lanza used was legally manufactured by Bushmaster, which is owned by Remington Arms. The gun was legally sold as well and registered to Nancy Lanza, Adam’s mother. Determined to do evil, Adam stole the gun from his mother–along with other guns as well–and shot and killed Nancy in her sleep. He then went to Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14, 2012, where he proceeded to shoot and kill 26 innocents.
So the suit revolved around a gun that was acquired via thievery then misused in the most heinous way imaginable. Judge Bellis found the suit to be the frivolous type from which gun manufacturers are shielded by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), and she dismissed it. Clinton finds it “incomprehensible” that Remington Arms was protected from a suit under such conditions.
Breitbart News previously reported that Clinton wants crime victims to be able to sue gun manufacturers for gun crime. She highlighted this on December 29, 2015, at a New Hampshire town hall, where she also made clear her belief that crime victims ought to be able to sue gun sellers as well.
How long would the manufacturer and licensed seller of any well-known product be able to survive if they were suddenly held liable for the criminal misuse of their product? The answer–not very long. And this is why Bernie Sanders warned that Clinton’s gun control proposals would end gun manufacturing in America if ever enacted.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at [email protected]. |
Tesla is going to need to make a lot of cars if it's going to fulfill all those Model 3 pre-orders... 500,000 per year by 2018, to be exact. And it's making a big purchase to help it reach that lofty goal. The company is acquiring Grohmann Engineering, a German firm specializing in automated manufacturing. The buyout (which creates Tesla Grohmann Automation) should give Elon Musk and crew more of the expertise and systems they need for high-volume production not only at the Gigafactory, but elsewhere in the world. Grohmann will serve as the base for Tesla's Advanced Automation Germany facility, with more locations coming.If regulators greenlight the deal, it should close sometime in early 2017. As you might guess, Tesla is painting this as a positive for the German economy: it plans to add more than 1,000 "advanced engineering and skilled technician jobs" in the country over the next 2 years.The move isn't coming out of the blue. Tesla had already been partnering with Grohmann on manufacturing upgrades for months, and the two sides found themselves making such major strides that they felt they could do better together. As it stands, Tesla has its work cut out for it beyond just the Model 3. Between new Powerwalls and Powerpacks, promises of full self-driving capabilities and everything that will come from buying SolarCity, it'll have to understand how to manufacture a wider range of products in short order. |
They turned Buffalo into Dayton North and now have made a home on the banks of the Mississippi, not far from Graceland, where hundreds of the Flyer Faithful will flock in the next two days as they bask in the glory of a run to the Elite Eight.
No. 11 seed Dayton played one of its best games of the season on the biggest stage Thursday, running away from No. 10 seed Stanford in the second half to win 82-72 in the Sweet 16 at FedExForum.
The Flyers (26-10), one victory from the second Final Four in school history and first since 1967, play No. 1 seed Florida on Saturday in the South Regional championship. The Gators beat No. 4 seed UCLA 79-68 in Thursday’s other semifinal here.
Next game info: UD vs. Florida | Team comparison
“Honestly, the Elite Eight was never a thought,” sophomore forward Devon Scott said, “but now that we’re here, it’s something we’re definitely ready for.”
The Flyers walked off the court, holding up their hands and acknowledging the large group of Flyer fans. They were everywhere. Earlier in the day, a quick look at famed Beale Street, which is lined with bars and restaurants a block from the arena, would give you the impression that the only fans here in Memphis were Flyer fans.
That homecourt edge paid off because the Flyers played as if they were back home at UD Arena. They shot 48 percent from the field, 35 percent from 3-point range, committed 10 turnovers, trailed once — and by only one point — and pulled away from Stanford in the final minutes.
Twelve Flyers saw action. Eleven scored. Jordan Sibert led the way with 18 points, but Kendall Pollard came out of nowhere with the best game of his freshman season, scoring a career-high 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
“It’s a big-time performance from a true freshman playing on this stage,” sophomore point guard Khari Price said. “He’s always been a confident guy. He’s confident in what he can do. He just showed the world what he can do.”
It was the quintessential Dayton victory in every way. The Flyers got to this stage by playing this way, and they’re not going to change now.
“It’s really special for this team, for a group of guys who have been at the bottom, to come all the way to the top,” senior forward Devin Oliver said. “It’s been a great run. We’re not done yet. I’m just happy for the community and the fans.”
Oliver also scored 12 points. Matt Kavanaugh had 10. Scott and Dyshawn Pierre each scored six points.
Dayton led 42-32 at halftime and stretched its lead to 47-36 early in the second half before Stanford made a run, cutting the deficit to 47-43 at the 15:51 mark. The Cardinal never got closer than four points.
A 3-point play by Scott at the 7:54 mark stopped Stanford’s last push. The Cardinal had just cut the lead to 64-58. Dayton quickly pushed the lead to 11. Stanford didn’t score for a four-minute stretch after a 3-pointer by Josh Huestis with six minutes remaining.
“They made some big shots,” Scott said, “but we always made sure we matched that at least or came back with a big stop on the next possession. We tried to make sure we suppressed the bleeding a little bit.” |
Headlines last week reported that a majority of Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood for the first time in the country's history. The referendum had two parts. The first part asked whether the voter agreed with Puerto Rico's current status as a U.S. commonwealth, which was described on the ballot as Puerto Rico's "current territorial condition." By a 54 percent to 46 percent margin, the voters rejected Puerto Rico's current territorial condition, stating in effect that they would like to change their current status. The second part was entitled "Non-Territorial Options," and listed three options: (1) Statehood, (2) Sovereign Free Associated State, and (3) Independence. According to news reports, 61 percent of voters supported statehood, 33 percent supported the sovereign commonwealth arrangement, and 6 percent voted for independence.
However, a fair reading of the referendum results shows clearly that the headlines proclaiming that a majority of Puerto Ricans support statehood are misleading and erroneous, and certainly promote considerable cynicism regarding Puerto Rico's political process. Indeed, the votes of nearly half a million voters who did not support statehood were not counted. These voters deliberately left blank the second part of the ballot, in effect stating that they preferred a fourth option to the three options listed on the ballot. These voters likely would have supported a fourth option, choosing some form of commonwealth status similar to the current arrangement, but since this option did not appear on the ballot, would have checked a box marked "other" if such a ballot option was available, which it was not. The absence of this fourth option, and the reason for its omission, explain why the official results of this referendum are spurious, and certainly do not support the dramatic headlines proclaiming Puerto Rico's approval of statehood.
As background, several points need to be emphasized. The ballot was prepared and counted by an election board appointed by the pro-statehood governing party (New Progressive Party). In calculating the results, the election board chose to exclude the blank ballots. Had the voters who cast blank ballots been counted in the total number of actual voters, then the total number of voters who supported options other than statehood -- i.e., sovereign free associated state, independence, and the "other" option of a commonwealth arrangement supported by voters who left this part blank -- would have been 55 percent, and the number of voters supporting statehood 45 percent.
Moreover, the way the first question was presented -- "Do you agree with Puerto Rico's current territorial condition?" -- appears to have been deliberately framed by the pro-statehood party to make a "Yes" vote less likely, and to pave the way for a vote for statehood. Indeed, the term "territorial" in Puerto Rican discourse for most citizens is an incendiary word that is an affront to their national identity. Describing Puerto Rico as a territory of the United States is tantamount to insinuating that Puerto Rico is the functional equivalent of a U.S. colony. By the same token, a vote of "No" also presents problems for those voters who do not agree that Puerto Rico is a mere territory. These voters likely would support some other type of commonwealth arrangement, but do not support statehood or independence.
It is not difficult to speculate why the pro-statehood election board did not provide a fourth option for those voters who rejected the three listed options -- statehood, independence, and the new and highly confusing option entitled "sovereign free associated state." Clearly, these voters would have supported some version of the existing commonwealth arrangement, but this was not an option. Excluding from the ballot a fourth option entitled "other" has been controversial, and has been litigated in the Puerto Rican courts. In a previous statehood referendum in 1993, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that referendums must give voters the option to cast a vote for "other," or "none of the previous options" if the voter is not satisfied with the way the options on the ballot are listed or defined. When the 2012 ballot options were announced by the pro-statehood government, the "other" option was deliberately omitted from the ballot. This omission was the result of a lawsuit which had been brought by the pro-commonwealth party, but now, the Supreme Court was comprised for the first time of a majority of pro-statehood judges, and the court overruled the 1993 decision and held that an option listing "other" is not required. It is ironic that the 1993 referendum was actually won by those who voted "other" who were dissatisfied with the way the ballot described the new commonwealth arrangement, the same reason that motivated those voters in 2012 to leave the ballot blank, since there was no place to vote "other."
There is further evidence that pro-statehood supporters lacked a mandate from the voters. The pro-statehood governing party which proposed the referendum was voted out of office, the pro-statehood governor was defeated, the pro-statehood majority in the Senate was voted out of office, and the pro-statehood mayoralties in the cities also lost.
Regardless of the ambiguous vote for statehood, there is little chance that Puerto Rico will become the 51st state, at least in the near future. Article IV of the U.S. Constitution authorizes both houses of Congress to admit new states by a simple majority vote, and the president's signature. But Puerto Ricans in the U.S. historically have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, so it is unlikely that the Republican-controlled House would support Puerto Rican statehood, which would mean at least one new voting member in the House, and two U.S. senators. |
Washington (CNN) The State Department has removed a blog post that touted President Donald Trump's personally owned private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago. The post was available to all embassies through Share America, a State Department program for US embassies.
"The intention of the article was to inform the public about where the President has been hosting world leaders," a small message reads on the Share America website. "We regret any misperception and have removed the post"
The story is still up on the US Embassy in London's website, but officials say the post is expected to be removed.
In a markedly promotional blog post from April 5 that could eventually benefit the President's bottom line, should it spur membership or foreign visits, the embassy writes that the property has "become well known as the President frequently travels there to work or host foreign leaders."
Ethics watchdogs and Democratic groups have been closely eyeing Trump's ability to benefit his bottom line through the presidency and this blog post has some questioning whether the government is now helping publicize the property.
Read More |
This was the note Rod Boyle found on his windshield
A veteran who received a nasty note while he was at the grocery store, was invited back to that store for an apology.On Sunday, ABC11 was the first to introduce you to Rod Boyle. Boyle served in the U.S. Navy and he shops at the Harris Teeter in Creedmoor Village in Wake Forest.As a veteran he parked in the parking spot the store reserves for veterans. When Boyle came out to his car he found a nasty note.The person who left the note apparently didn't think Boyle fit the mold of whatever a veteran should look like or what car he should drive.Boyle informed the management just to make them aware. He never imagined they would invite him back to thank him for his service, give him a cake and $100 in gift cards."On behalf of Harris Teeter I know we're happy to have you as a customer and protecting the country for us," Roy Bunn, store manager, told Boyle on Thursday evening. "For the incident, we deeply apologize for that.""Harris Teeter did nothing wrong. Harris Teeter offered me and every other veteran a parking spot," Boyle told him.Since Sunday, Boyle's story has been circulating around the country and resonating with many veterans.Dave Johnson is also a store manager at the Harris Teeter and he is also a veteran."I've experienced the same thing you have," Johnson told Boyle, "and it's real unpleasant."While Harris Teeter and its management did nothing wrong, it prides itself on being a champion for veterans. They have many veterans working in the company and starting on May 1, it launched its annual Support Our Troops donation campaign, which benefits the USO.Chris Froschner with the North Carolina USO was also at the Harris Teeter on Thursday to meet Boyle and to help spread his story."This is a great opportunity to educate the public," said Froschner.They want to remind people that it's not a rule for every veteran to mark their car as veteran-owned or to wear some type of label."America allowed me to join the military and protect and serve this country. This person who wrote this note on my car was given that right to be able to do that because of what I did," said Boyle. "Why doesn't that person go up to the person that's coming out of the car and say thank you? I mean, it's as easy as that, that's part of the purpose of the parking spot I think is to allow people to know who the veterans are." |
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Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Liverpool are still looking to sign a midfielder before the transfer window shuts.
The Reds admitted defeat in their pursuit of Naby Keita after RB Leipzig rejected an offer of £66million and insisted he wasn’t for sale.
Klopp has since seen his midfield options depleted by injuries to Adam Lallana and wantaway Brazilian Philippe Coutinho ahead of Saturday’s Premier League opener at Watford. The manager says Liverpool are considering potential reinforcements in that department.
“We don’t have too many midfield players in the moment who have experience,” Klopp said.
“Are we looking still for players? Yes. That is the truth. But we were looking for players before Adam was injured. Now he is injured and Phil is injured so we have two less.
“It doesn’t make the situation more comfortable. You cannot be really prepared for situations like this but we have time.
“I’m just thinking about Watford and how we can start the season. But the 31st (August)? Yes, I know. Everything can happen. But I’m not sure that they will happen. If I were sure, they would probably already be in or whatever. It’s still open for business.”
Concerns remain about whether Liverpool have done sufficient business to build on last season’s top-four finish as they prepare for the added demands of European football this term.
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But Klopp has been delighted by the impact of new boys Mohamed Salah, Dominic Solanke and Andy Robertson ahead of the trip to Vicarage Road.
“We will see what happens for us. We’ve tried to strengthen the squad. That’s happened in all parts,” Klopp added.
“Dom puts pressure on all our other central strikers. Mo too and Robbo is really on a good way so that’s all cool.
“We got Hendo (Jordan Henderson) back after a long time out and that is also a big positive thing for us.
“Alberto Moreno – you saw him. He looks good, he looks different, he has matured. He used the year to work on a few things that we had spoken about. When he can really handle them, he is an outstanding player. That’s all good. In this moment I am really fine but we will see what happens.” |
Oh man, when it comes to exciting makeup launches for 2017, this one definitely takes the cake. The second I heard about Mecca Maxima launching their own makeup line I could not contain my excitement. As a retailer, they never let me down and their exisiting Mecca Cosmetica line has some absolute gems so I knew straight away that the launch of Mecca Max would be insane. I cried a little when a big ol’ box arrived with a sneak peek at the range, prior to it’s launch on the 1st of August.
This is by no means an in-depth, tell-all review. I still haven’t had a lot of time to play with these bits so think of this as my first impressions. I’m sure I’m not the only one incredibly excited for this launch so I thought it was worth touching base and passing on the sneak peek to you guys, with a couple of swatches to whet your appetite. I’ll give you a quick overview of the range and my initial thoughts on the bits and pieces I’ve gotten a chance to try. I’ll be sure to report back with more info and proper reviews closer to the launch because this is one you’re not going to want to miss.
Face To The Max
The range of face products is definitely expansive – there’s something for everyone. For complexion, there’s three primers – an SPF, a mattifying and an illuminating – a line of BB creams, powder foundations, liquid foundations and cream concealers. They’ve also got an anti-shine balm and a banana powder in the mix, which I’m interested to try. There’s also plenty of beauties in the cheek department. Powder bronzers, blushes, powder highlighters and liquid illuminating wands. Cannot wait, particularly to swatch those highlighters… Finally, there are three cheek trios – a powder cheek combo, a cream cheeky combo and a selection of three bronzers.
I already love the Mecca Cosmetica primer range so I knew I had high hopes for this one. This illuminating primer smells beautiful and does a great job of adding a natural, dewy quality to the skin – perfect for a natural summertime glam or to put under a matte base to add a bit of lit-from-within glow. The formula is a subtle, slightly champagne-y colour which should work well for anyone and everyone.
Liquid illuminators are all the rage right now, so I was excited to try Mecca’s take on the trend. In a click-up wand form, it’s easy to apply to the high points of the face before blending out either with a sponge or a brush. It swatches quite golden but when blended out, it looks a little more pearlescent. It’s not the most intense liquid illuminator I’ve tried but is awesome, yet again, for that natural glowiness that we’re all striving for.
I’m normally a fan of a matte bronzer but I’ll admit I’m already crushing over this bronzer with a hint of sheen to it. When applied to the skin, it’s incredibly natural and easy to build up without looking too over the top. I think this could be a real winner for me. There’s three shades in the range – Light, Medium and Dark so I’m excited to try the Light shade, too.
Mecca Max Illuminating Primer, Mecca Max Illuminator Wand in Pearl, Mecca Max Sunlit Bronzer in Medium
Eyes To The Max
The eye range looks absolutely incredible, full of unique bits and pieces in a huge range of shades. There’s a couple of different eyeshadow options – a metallic cream eyeshadow, a duo with a powder and cream shadow in complementary colours, six pan mini palettes and the stunner of the pack – the Eyephoria eyeshadow palette. There’s three eye primers, a liquid liner and three pencil eyeliners. For brows, there’s a brow duo and a brow gel. And finally, there’s two mascaras.
The most expensive item in the Mecca Max line but also one of the most beautiful. I audibly gasped when I opened this palette to reveal it’s stunning golds, taupes and purples. I think this will be a really universally flattering palette. The formula swatches incredibly smoothly and when applied on the eye, they’re subtle but easily blendable. It does have a bit of fallout but I expect that from any eyeshadow so it’s definitely not a deal breaker. Swatch this one ASAP.
A double-ended mascara option definitely had me intrigued – a great option for travel or even just lazy days. The formula that goes with the larger brush does seem quite wet, but coated the lashes well and gave a beautiful amount of separation but I think it’s also likely to get better with age as it dries out a little more. I loved the smaller brush, designed for lower lashes. It did a great job of really defining and coating the smaller lashes.
Lips To The Max
Now the lip collection is obviously where things start looking even more beautiful. There’s a huge range of classic lipsticks in three formulas – high definition, sheer & mega matte. Then there’s lip glosses, lip glitter toppers, liquid lipsticks, tinted oils and even a lip mattifier. The shade ranges look incredible so I’m sure there will be something for everyone.
The formula is your pretty standard lipstick – it applies smoothly and with plenty of pigmentation (both of these are from the High-Definition range) and add a little bit of a healthy sheen to the lips. They can cling a little to dry patches but applying a hint of lip balm first helps a lot with this. And the packaging is incredible. I can’t wait to swatch the rest of the range. There will be 13 High Definition shades, 11 Sheer and 5 Mega Matte shades.
The lip glosses have definitely impressed me too. Pow Wow Pink is a little sheerer, the kind of shade I’d wear to amplify another couple, rather than on it’s own. But there are some more opaque shades in the range, from the sounds of it. Nevertheless, this shade adds a beautiful glossy sheen to the lips and also delivers on comfort.
I was very excited to see an easy-to-wear, glossy, hydrating option in the range as well. The Nude shade adds a bunch of gloss and moisture to the lips as well as bringing a bit of a pinky my-lips-but-better vibe. The applicator also makes it an awesome option for throwing it in the bag for on the go. This was probably my favourite from the range, so far, but we all know I love a good effortless oil-balm.
Mecca Max Party Police, Mecca Max Freedom Fighter, Mecca Max Pow Wow Pink, Mecca Max Nude
The Rest Of The Range
Beyond the makeup line, there’s also skincare bits, makeup brushes, tools and other accessories. As well as false eyelashes and nail polishes. The line is extensive. There’s definitely plenty to explore.
My first impressions of the Mecca Max range have blown me away. And it’s definitely got me excited to try much more from the range. I cannot wait to get in store on launch day and swatch everything.
What are you excited to try from the Mecca Max range?
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Dean Baker reviews the economic plans of the Republican presidential candidates:
Creative thinking, by Dean Baker, Comment is Free: Since several of the Republican presidential candidates regard creationism as a serious theory in biology, it should not be surprising that their economic views also have little connection to reality. In fact, the Republicans' test scores in biology are probably somewhat higher than in economics. Creationism is a minority view... By contrast, all of them seem to be spouting some pretty crazy views on the economy. Of course tax cuts are central to the Republicans' economic story. They have great plans to reduce taxes, especially for people who don't work for a living. For example, Mitt Romney ... insists that anyone with an income of less than $200,000 a year should pay no tax on any income from dividends, capital gains or interest. Under the Romney plan, a person who collects $200,000 a year in interest on $4m held in government bonds would pay zero tax. By contrast, a custodian working two jobs to earn $40,000 a year can look to pay around $4,000 a year in taxes. In the same vein, Mike Huckabee has proposed the "Fair Tax", which his website claims is "based on wealth", although it is described as a sales tax. Huckabee proposes to have his Fair Tax replace all other forms of taxation... If a national sales tax is to replace all other federal taxes, then it would have to be in the neighbourhood of 25% to 30%. ... If we don't tax items like healthcare and house sales ..., we might be up to 40% with Huckabee's Fair Tax. But this is where the fun comes in. Typical workers will probably have to pay President Huckabee's Fair Tax on almost everything they buy throughout their life. But, the smart folks who make their money by inheritance, strike it rich on Wall Street or work in highly paid professions can simple skip out on the Fair Tax. ... Their tax burden will get passed on to the teachers, fire fighters, custodians and others who are left behind. What could be fairer? Fred Thompson also deserves credit for creativity. He proposes the option to pay tax at a marginal rate of 10% for couples on earnings below $100,000 and 25% on earnings over $100,000. This would be a modest cut in taxes for most workers, but it would reduce taxes by more than a third for the richest 1%. ... All the Republican candidates claim to be devout believers in tax cut creationism: the view that tax cuts pay for themselves due to their effect on stimulating growth. Even Rudy Giuliani and former straight talker John McCain claim to believe that tax cuts pay for themselves. It is important to understand that this one is not a debatable point, as often claimed in the media. Tax cuts do not come close to paying for themselves. There is no serious dispute among economists on this issue. The Congressional Budget Office recently did a study examining the range of predictions from the available theoretical models on this topic. It found that the most optimistic model showed that growth replaces less than one-third of the lost revenue, and even this gain was only possible for a limited period of time. In short, when the Republicans claim that they can have large tax cuts without any offsetting cuts in spending, they are prescribing a route to really large deficits. Of course, this suggests an important reason why some people may opt to support the Republican contenders. With the Democrats backing down from plans to end the war in Iraq, the war may continue long into the future if Democrats take the White House. On the other hand, the tax cuts proposed by the leading Republicans could take away the money needed to prosecute the war. In short, when it comes to the war in Iraq, the only way out may be to "starve the beast".
Since I've been noting reality-based Laffer curve reporting lately, I should acknowledge this from Ross Douthat (as pointed out at Crooked Timber, it's helpful to realize that David Frum is one of Giuliani's "senior policy advisers"):
Anti-Intellectualism, the Right, and Rudy, by Ross Douthat: David Frum, on populism and anti-intellectualism: Conservatives have drawn strength from populism. But you can overdo any good thing —and I am beginning to think that on this one, we've zoomed the car into the red zone. For me, the lights started flashing in 2005, during the battle over the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court of the United States. Defenders of the president's under-qualified nominee began attacking the concept of qualification. One wrote: "The GOP is not the party which idolizes Ivy League acceptability as the criterion of intellectual and mental fitness. Nor does the Supreme Court ideally consist of the nine greatest legal scholars." Harriet Miers, we were told, had a good Christian heart. That was enough ... In the end, it was not quite enough for Ms. Miers. But it may be enough for many voters in 2008. The currently front-running candidate in Iowa, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, has built his campaign on a plan to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax ... Economists and tax experts virtually unanimously agree that the plan is beyond unworkable -- that it is downright absurd. ... Just a little lower down in the polls is a libertarian candidate named Ron Paul. Paul is best known for his vehemently isolationist foreign policy views. But his core supporters also thrill to his self-taught monetary views, which amount to a rejection of everything taught by modern economists from Alfred Marshall to Milton Friedman. Huckabee and Paul have not the faintest idea of what they are talking about. The problem is not that their answers are wrong -- that can happen to anyone. The problem is that they don't understand the questions, and are too lazy or too arrogant to learn. Fair points all: ..., and Frum's larger worry about anti-intellectualism in the contemporary Right is one I share in spades. But if you're going to be hard on the current crop of Republican candidates for making bogus claims about public policy, it seems awfully unfair to leave out the candidate given to running ads in which he announces: "I know that reducing taxes produces more revenue. The Democrats don't know that. They don't believe that." (They don't believe it, of course, because in the current fiscal landscape you can't find a serious conservative economist who thinks it's true.) Or penning op-eds in which he explains that "the meaning of fiscal conservatism" includes the principle that "lower taxes can result in higher revenue." Or telling a GOP debate audience, in response to a question about whether we need to raise taxes to fix up our nation's transportation infrastructure, that the way “to do it sometimes is to reduce taxes and raise more money.” Now it’s true that occasionally Rudy Giuliani hedges his bets (“sometimes,” “can,” and so forth) on this topic, and it’s true as well that he may not actually believe the extreme supply-side talking points he’s spouting, in the way that Huckabee presumably believes in the Fair Tax and Paul in the gold standard. On the other hand, neither of those ideas are likely to serve as the basis for economic policy in the United States any time soon, and both are marginal even within the right-wing coalition; the “tax cuts raise revenue” canard that Giuliani keeps promoting, on the other hand, is a staple of Bush Administration rhetoric and probably the dominant view among movement conservatives. If you’re looking for cases where the Right’s anti-elitism has shaded into outright anti-intellectualism - for cases where, in Frum's words, a GOP politician has deliberately failed to "study the problem, master the evidence, and face criticism" - Giuliani’s frequent channeling of Larry Kudlow seems like at least as telling an example as anything Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul are peddling.
I don't believe it's "anti-intellectualism," i.e. I don't believe that Giuliani is unaware of the evidence on this issue (and his policy advisers ought to be aware of it - if they aren't, or if they are reluctant to correct his misleading, untrue statements, that's a big worry).
This is a character issue. I don't believe Giuliani has deliberately 'failed to "study the problem, master the evidence, and face criticism"' through a deliberate act of anti-intellectualism. The chances that the campaign is unaware of all the fact checks on this issue are zero. It seems to me that what is deliberate is the willingness to pander to the movement conservative base even if it requires ignoring the evidence and saying things he knows in his heart of hearts aren't true. He's not deliberately ignorant, he's deliberately calculating and we shouldn't excuse it by acknowledging the occasional hedge (“sometimes,” “can,” and so forth) when the intent is to mislead, or use terms like anti-intellectualism to describe the behavior. We shouldn't just say, "when the Republicans claim that they can have large tax cuts without any offsetting cuts in spending, they are prescribing a route to really large deficits," we should also note that there is an intent to deceive, that they are not telling the truth, or they are so ignorant of the truth that it ought to raise questions about their fitness for office.
Giuliani and others who make this claim know what they are doing. When it comes to, say, selling a war with Iran, reforming Social Security, or other issues, will they also be willing to ignore evidence, to only accept "facts" that confirm their preconceived beliefs instead of objectively reviewing the situation, will they be willing to look you in the eye and mislead in order to convince you to go along with their plans? Those who continue to make misleading claims about tax cuts in spite of the very public debunking of that position have given every indication that the answer is yes. |
Hey Everyone!
This meetup will be all about setting up ASAP and playing VR games, trying demos, and hanging out with the Nashville VR community for as long as we can / until they kick us out :)
This event will be super casual so please invite as many friends and family as you can and lets introduce VR to the larger Nashville community.
If you have any kind of VR hardware please bring it so that we can accommodate as many people as possible. Also if you're part of another community like a student group, church, professional organization, etc, feel free to extend an invite to the entire group!
Looking forward to seeing everyone on Friday and blowing some minds :)
Cheers!
---
This meetup will take place at Deavor, one of Nashville's most impressive co-working spaces. Parking map here:
http://imgur.com/oCHWLkL
Please note that the entrance to Deavor is at the top of that image, closest to Jefferson St. |
Pope Francis’s remarks before Congress Thursday included a plea that politics “cannot be a slave to the economy and finance.”
In his address to a joint meeting of Congress, the pope urged lawmakers to ensure that all Americans are boosted by their policies and can “live as one.”
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“If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance,” stated the pope’s prepared remarks.
“Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life.”
The remark about being “slave” to the economy was in the pope’s prepared remarks, but he did not actually deliver the words before Congress.
Francis went on to say that business itself is not bad and actually can serve a critical social role by providing economic opportunity. But he did not mince words when it came to criticizing economic activity that he saw as encouraging other problems in society. For example, he criticized the arms trade harshly and the “shameful and culpable silence” of those that let it continue.
“We have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood,” he said.
Francis has not shied away from criticizing capitalism and finance in the past, arguing that pursuit of economic gains above all else contributes to society’s ills. In his “Laudato Si” encyclical, released in May 2015, he chastised the growth of finance, making the case for a more equal distribution of wealth rather than a “winner take all” system.
“Finance overwhelms the real economy,” he wrote. “By itself the market cannot guarantee integral human development and social inclusion.”
Francis acknowledged Thursday that pushing for more equitable economic treatment will run into powerful opposition, but he urged lawmakers to make it a priority.
“I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort,” he said. |
BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox have come to terms on a seven-year, $72.5 million deal for Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo, a team source said Friday.
The contract is a record number in total dollars paid for a free-agent amateur. Castillo was en route to Boston on Friday, according to ESPN's Pedro Gomez, and was expected to undergo a physical on Saturday.
Red Sox manager John Farrell has seen and read the scouting reports on the 27-year-old outfielder.
"Above-average speed. Can play center field or right field. What kind of power? What kind of average? Obviously our scouts liked him enough, if the reports are true, that's a significant investment. It's an exciting, athletic player by all accounts," Farrell said.
Farrell added that he is aware of the reports of the Castillo signing, but there are still administrative things that Castillo must go through before anything is announced officially.
The contract begins this season, the source said, which makes the average annual value of the deal (for luxury-tax purposes) $10.36 million, a tick below the $11.3 million AAV of the six-year, $68 million deal that Cuban slugger Jose Abreu signed with the Chicago White Sox last winter. Castillo's deal runs through the 2020 season.
The Red Sox, who last winter were outbid for Abreu, won what became a furious bidding war for Castillo, 27, whose workout last month in Miami was attended by 28 major league teams. Castillo subsequently conducted private workouts for a number of teams, including the Red Sox, who in the end, according to multiple sources, held off a strong bid from the Detroit Tigers.
In coming to terms with Castillo, whom the Red Sox project as a center or right fielder, Boston has completed a remarkable transformation of an outfield that had ranked as one of the weakest offensively in club history.
The Red Sox executed trades at the deadline for outfielders Yoenis Cespedes (Oakland) and Allen Craig (St. Louis), and with holdovers Daniel Nava and Shane Victorino expected to be ready for spring training after undergoing back surgery, Boston now has an outfield crowded with experienced veterans. |
Short answer? Yes, I believe that something like it exists, but I don’t think you can get there from the so-called “Shadow Web” site.
There was a site, at one point, that called itself “The Hidden Gateway to the Shadow Web,” and it looked exactly like this:
I had never actually paid my way through to the supposed sites, but as the story goes, there was some extremely sick content on there. Oddly enough, this very same site had a link to a creepypasta entitled A warning to those thinking of accessing the shadow web has increased its “urban legend” status.
My gut feeling is that the creepypasta was made up, but having seen some very sick and disgusting pages on the dark web myself, I was willing to believe that there were worse things in existence.
Photo courtesy of darknoise.co.za
Currently, there’s yet another series of sites up on the Tor network that also refer to themselves as “The Gateway to the Shadow Web,” but I’m starting to become even more skeptical of these.
The new ones look like this:
I’m still suspicious, because the site above appears at least seven different URLs on Tor, which leads me to believe that it’s some kind of trap by law enforcement, or merely a scam. Anything where they want you to download special software, or something like that, is something I would not want to get involved in.
It would be extremely difficult to do something like this over the Tor network, because its speed is akin to that of dialup networks (like the old internet of the ’90s). On the other hand, if you were accessing the dark web through some other method, it would, in theory, be possible.
So What’s the Answer, Damn It?!
Here’s one of the reasons I’m not completely discrediting the “shadow web” idea. I did talk to one reputable Quora author (whom I won’t named here) who said that not only does something like it exist, it was the sickest thing she had ever seen. Actually, she didn’t specifically call it “the shadow web”; she just said it was another part of the deep web that was harder to access.
She said that she “invested in a non-American SSH Tunnel that I trusted and started digging even deeper. I had read stories on the surface web relating to these things, and I do not care what absolutely anybody has to say about it. I know that these sites are not a joke and for somebody to minimize the very real existence of these sites and their victims is not only abhorrently disrespectful but flat out ignorant.” On top of that, she said that it was her reason for getting off of the dark web completely.
Here’s my take on it:
I think something like this could exist (though I have no proof). It may be technologically difficult, but if you were to have enough security protocols in place, I think it could be accomplished.
There are IRC chat rooms that you can access through the Tor network, where people are into some very sick and disturbing things (IMHO, at least). So, if you contacted someone in one of these chat rooms who had knowledge of such things, they could probably point you in the direction of a site like this.
The caveat, of course, is that if it were the real thing, not only would it be illegal, but it would probably cost you a very high amount of money. If a group was organizing such a thing, it wouldn’t make sense to offer it for free.
I did come across a similar site on the Tor network, which supposedly offered films of women getting raped, as well as videos of real deaths (they just weren’t live streams). It was more along the lines of something like Faces of Death, which was a shock film, but the filmmakers hadn’t actually killed the victims. Not that I spent very long on this site, but they basically offered samples of the videos for free, and then you had to pay quite a bit of money to subscribe. (I’ve talked about the site in another post).
I imagine the same would be true of the so-called “shadow web,” that is, if something like it existed. I’m trying to be rational about this, believe me!!
So there’s my two cents. Take it or leave it.
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Joffrey Lupul called out the Toronto Maple Leafs for their treatment of the winger on Sunday, saying the team cheats with the way it uses long-term injured reserve.
Lupul hasn’t played since Feb. 6, 2016, being sent off to what’s been named “Robidas Island”, where the Leafs put their unwanted contracts on LTIR for cap relief.
Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello told media that Lupul had failed his physical at training camp on Thursday, something the 33-year-old refuted on Instagram.
In a comment to a photo he posted, he told a fan that he’s “ready… Just awaiting the call.”
When someone pointed out his failed physical, he responded: “Haha failed physical? They cheat, everyone lets them.”
The post has since been deleted.
The comments make Lupul the latest to criticize the Leafs for the way they manage their reportedly injured players, with defenceman Jared Cowen calling his buyout process a “joke” on Friday.
The 2017-18 season will be the final one of a five-year contract Lupul signed with the Leafs that carries a $5.25-million cap hit.
You have to wonder what the future holds for the five-time 20-goal scorer, who will be motivated to prove he’s not done playing at the game’s highest level yet. |
If Lew et al. were looking for nutters, it seems just a look at the Table of Contents from the Journal they published in would be a prime source. Just look at some of the paper titles:
Yes, they stand by it, but given where the reboot was published “just don’t publish in our journal again” is the real message.
In the light of a small number of complaints received following publication of the original research article cited above, Frontiers carried out a detailed investigation of the academic, ethical, and legal aspects of the work. This investigation did not identify any issues with the academic and ethical aspects of the study. It did, however, determine that the legal context is insufficiently clear and therefore Frontiers wishes to retract the published article. The authors understand this decision, while they stand by their article and regret the limitations on academic freedom which can be caused by legal factors.
But, that doesn’t stop them from essentially labeling everyone who does not agree with “climate change” as having “conspiracy ideation” mental issues. The paper was published in a B list journal called the “Journal of Social and Political Psychology” which advertises open access. What is interesting is that the recycled Lew paper was not published in the original journal that retracted it, even though the journal made this statement :
What’s funny is that Lew et al don’t seem to realize they are talking about a large percentage of the population who have these questions:
Having had their first paper “Recursive Fury” retracted by the journal that originally published it, these clowns are back with a reboot that has the same sad message: “people who question the veracity of global warming/climate change are nutters”.
Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook, Klaus Oberauer, Scott Brophy, Elisabeth A. Lloyd, Michael Marriott
A growing body of evidence has implicated conspiracist ideation in the rejection of scientific propositions. Internet blogs in particular have become the staging ground for conspiracy theories that challenge the link between HIV and AIDS, the benefits of vaccinations, or the reality of climate change. A recent study involving visitors to climate blogs found that conspiracist ideation was associated with the rejection of climate science and other scientific propositions such as the link between lung cancer and smoking, and between HIV and AIDS. That article stimulated considerable discursive activity in the climate blogosphere—i.e., the numerous blogs dedicated to climate “skepticism”—that was critical of the study. The blogosphere discourse was ideally suited for analysis because its focus was clearly circumscribed, it had a well-defined onset, and it largely discontinued after several months. We identify and classify the hypotheses that questioned the validity of the paper’s conclusions using well-established criteria for conspiracist ideation. In two behavioral studies involving naive participants we show that those criteria and classifications were reconstructed in a blind test. Our findings extend a growing body of literature that has examined the important, but not always constructive, role of the blogosphere in public and scientific discourse.
If anyone wants to bother to read it, here are links to the paper.
UPDATE: Barry Woods, who was instrumental in the original retraction of the first Lew paper, adds this in comments:
The complainant were vindicated on a key ethics concern.
Fury, named and labelled real identifiable people. with pathologivcal psychological traits.
Recursive Fury Mark 2, does not.. (nobody is identifiable, so the complaints were right)
I added this comment to Prof Lewandowsky’s blog
Hmmm – table three now has anonymous ID’s… (instead of names)
(thus at least one ethics concern HAS been accepted and addressed)
but as Recursive Fury was the most downloaded paper (Stephan’s own words), which had table 3, with the people actually named…
It isn’t really that anonymous now even now…
Perhaps, now this is published, you should take down the original from here:
http://www.cogsciwa.com/
http://websites.psychology.uwa.edu.au/labs/cogscience/Publications/LskyetalRecursiveFury4UWA.pdf
I was amused by this though (from the new paper):
“Conversely, a peer-reviewed critique of LOG12 and LGO13 has recently appeared in print (Dixon & Jones, 2015) (accompanied by a rejoinder; Lewandowsky, Gignac, & Oberauer, 2015),which exhibited none of the features of conspiratorial ideation that we report in this article and which involved authors that were not part of the blogosphere examined here. Crucially, such academic discourse, however critical,does not involve the attempt to silence inconvenient voices, which has become an increasingly clearly stated goal of elements of the climate “skeptic” blogosphere.”
ref: “and which involved authors that were not part of the blogosphere examined here”
Jones and Dixon were very much involved in the blogosphere with respect to this paper and are well know climate sceptics (Jones FOI’d the Climate Research Unit,( and eventually won) when they refused to supply data, he did this on basic scientific principle, when Climate Audit was refused CRU’s data. And from the climateate emails, showed how the scientist were discussing how to deal with J Jones and Don Keiller, (having words with their university’s)
Prof J Jones even gets quoted in Mark Steyn’s book, criticizing Michael Mann, Ruth Dixon has a well respected blog, and Jonathan Jones has comments in the blogosphere about LOG12 quite often during the period (Climate Audit and Bishop Hill)
an example recently being this (at Climate Audit)
Prof J Jones:
“From one point of view there are only four things wrong with the original LOG13-blogs paper. Unfortunately those four things are the design of the experiment, the implementation of the data collection, the analysis of the data, and the reporting of the results. As a consequence of this interlinked network of ineptitude it is very difficult to disentangle all the errors from each other.
The LGO13-panel paper, by comparison, is much better. The design is relatively standard: no worse than many papers in the field. The implementation is still very poor (see for example the discussion at our post on satisficing), but it’s not so bad as to render the data completely useless. The analysis is still incorrect, but this time it is possible to tease out how and why it is incorrect, rather than just noting that it’s all a horrible mess. The reporting is still poor, but that doesn’t matter for a reanalysis.
So the original point of our comment was to see what we could say about the analysis of the data from LGO13-panel. Somewhat to our surprise we found that, once we knew what to look for, the same analysis also worked for LOG13-blogs, albeit not so clearly because of the appalling skew in that dataset. We don’t say much about other issues, not because we don’t believe they are important, but simply because it’s best in a comment to pick one important issue, where the argument can be made very clearly, and then run with it.” – Prof Jonathan Jones
http://climateaudit.org/2015/03/27/jones-and-dixon-refute-conspiracy-theorist-lewandowsky/#comment-755932
Prof Henry Markram (co founder of Frontiers) explains why he retracted recursive Fury)
“The studied subjects were explicitly identified in the paper without their consent. It is well acknowledged and accepted that in order to protect a subject’s rights and avoid a potentially defamatory outcome, one must obtain the subject’s consent if they can be identified in a scientific paper. The mistake was detected after publication, and the authors and Frontiers worked hard together for several months to try to find a solution. In the end, those efforts were not successful. The identity of the subjects could not be protected and the paper had to be retracted. Frontiers then worked closely with the authors on a mutually agreed and measured retraction statement to avoid the retraction itself being misused. From the storm this has created, it would seem we did not succeed.
For Frontiers, publishing the identities of human subjects without consent cannot be justified in a scientific paper. Some have argued that the subjects and their statements were in the public domain and hence it was acceptable to identify them in a scientific paper, but accepting this will set a dangerous precedent. With so much information of each of us in the public domain, think of a situation where scientists use, for example, machine learning to cluster your public statements and attribute to you personality characteristics, and then name you on the cluster and publish it as a scientific fact in a reputable journal. While the subjects and their statements were public, they did not give their consent to a public psychological diagnosis in a scientific study. Science cannot be abused to specifically label and point out individuals in the public domain.” – Markram
http://www.frontiersin.org/blog/Rights_of_Human_Subjects_in_Scientific_Papers/830 |
Of the top five seeds that played today – all of them advanced. Li Na, Agnieszka Radwanska and Serena Williams cruised through their matches in straight sets, but Sabine Lisicki suffered an upset against Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.
The day started with Li Na’s rematch of last year’s third round match against Laura Robson. This time Li Na came out on top 6-2, 7-5 after an hour and 21 minutes and an ace to finish it all off. Robson does have an injured right wrist that affected her play today, something she will focus on fixing as she takes a rest and gets her wisdom teeth taken out.
Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a close straight set match that took 73 minutes to complete. “It was tough, two tight sets. Actually the first and the second one, it was only by a couple of points, ” she said about her 6-4, 7-6(1) match. Radwanska’s success is due to her creativity on the court. She’s not much of a power player, but she is able to mix up her shots. If she continues she can be the first woman to reach the quarterfinals of all four grand slams this year. The US Open is the only grand slam that Radwanska has failed to reach the quarterfinal in her career. Her only obstacle now is Ekaterina Makarova.
Makarova, ranked 26 in the world, caused an upset over Sabine Lisicki today after the Wimbledon finalist committed 30 unforced errors and lost 6-4, 7-5. Lisicki’s game has not been consistent – she has never reached a fourth round other than Wimbledon. On Thursday, Lisicki cited a wrist injury she acquired after Wimbledon that prevented her from spending as much time on court as she would have liked and for now, grass courts are her comfort zone.
In the battle of the young Americans, Sloane Stephens managed to defeat Jamie Hampton 6-1, 6-3. Stephens was in top shape during the match. Gaining more confidence as the tournament goes on, but she is up against Serena Williams next. This will be their third time meeting this season. There is talk of a potential rivalry between the two, but when Stephens was asked about the match-up she said, “As I always say, I think it will be epic.”
Serena Williams beat Yaroslava Shvedova as the last match of the night. After a very late start, Serena managed to take the first 6-3 in only 38 minutes. Shvedova has had an arm injury and has only played the New Haven Open since retiring in the second round of Wimbledon. Even though she did retire from the last round of qualifying matches in New Haven due to this injury that may still be persisting, but Serena’s momentum was unstoppable after the first set and she took the match 6-3, 6-1.
In other matches, Jelena Jankovic defeated Japanese qualifier, Kurumi Nara 6-4, 7-6(5). Jankovic will face Li Na in the fourth round. After defeating Venus Williams in the second round Jie Zheng lost to Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-4 and she will face Angelique Kerber after Kerber defeated Kaia Kanepi 6-0, 6-4. |
Riverside County sheriff’s deputies are searching for a suspect in a shooting Sunday night in Perris that left two men dead and another wounded.
Perris police were called to a home in the 300 block Flicker Way about 10:15 p.m. where they found the wounded man in the front yard, according to the Sheriff’s Department. The two dead men were found inside the house.
The injured victim was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The names of the victims had not been released Saturday morning because next of kin had not yet been notified, authorities said.
No other information about the shootings or a possible motive was available.
ALSO:
Hikers reported missing in Eaton Canyon are found unharmed
Mexican police search Tijuana home for Northridge kidnap suspect
Pilot error caused tanker collision with Bay Bridge, state board says
-- Stephen Ceasar
[email protected] | Twitter: @stephenceasar |
With Democrat Terry McAuliffe taking a double digit lead in the Virginia gubernatorial contest, leading observers are increasingly looking at Virginia as an indicator of national political trends.
New Washington Post/SRBI polling in Virginia, which puts McAuliffe up 51-39, also demonstrates very clearly the dangers these trends pose to Republicans.
The crack Post polling team has produced a chart based on this poll that shows the GOP brand has collapsed among the very constituencies Republicans must improve their standing among in order to remain competitive in the future, both in Virginia and at the national level:
The interactive chart (run your cursor over the bars to see numbers) shows that the national GOP’s unfavorable rating in Virginia has spiked to 87 percent among nonwhite likely voters. It’s at 69 percent among women voters. And it’s at 69 percent among white college graduate voters — a number that is likely higher among college educated white women. White college grads — particularly women — are an increasingly important constituency to Democrats, and their preferences could have major implications for the GOP’s ability to win elections in the future with an overreliance on white voters.
And it is at 69 percent among independents. All of this mirrors another chart I posted last week that showed the GOP brand collapsing among key voter groups nationally.
Multiple observers — see Mark Murray and Taegan Goddard for examples — argue Virginia is increasingly resembling the country as a whole.
A detailed demographic case along these lines has been advanced by Ronald Brownstein, who has argued that McAuliffe’s probable success is being powered by the growth of an emerging Democratic coalition that will likely be crucial to Democrats in statewide and national races in the future. This “coalition of the ascendant,” as Browntsein calls them, includes minorities, young voters, and college educated whites, particularly women.
Brownstein argues that McAuliffe’s apparent success in riding this coalition — which entails staking out socially liberal stances that swing state Dems have historically downplayed out of fear of alienating culturally conservative downscale whites — could have major implications nationally. This is particularly true given Virginia’s status as a purple state that is getting slowly pushing into the blue camp by demographic change — mirroring similar shifts in other purple states — as well as Virginia’s obvious importance in presidential elections.
If the GOP is going to broaden its national appeal, it will have to improve its performance among these demographics. Indeed, even the much-ballyhooed GOP autopsy spoke to this need. Yet by continuing to let the Tea Party and social conservatives set the party’s agenda, Republicans appear to only be alienating these core constituencies. Hostility to immigration reform; the refusal to evolve on gay marriage; hard core conservative positions on women’s health issues; continued reflexive anti-government rhetoric; and the embrace of governing crises appear to be trampling on the GOP makeover among these groups.
To be sure, much of this could be temporary — the lingering hangover in the public mind from the shutdown and debt limit crises. But there’s surely more to come. House Republicans very well may kill immigration reform. They are likely to stand in the way of a Democratic push to curb anti-gay workplace discrimination. Elements in the GOP are spoiling for more government shutdown and debt limit crises, which could occur in 2014. And the generally uncompromising anti-government stance — not to mention the snarling jihad against Obamacare, and the accompanying failure to offer any serious alternative to it — will likely continue. All this could alienate these constituencies further, since they tend to have a more benign view of government activism or at least are put off by non-constructive or even reckless governing.
Which is to say that the same elements within the GOP that have brought the party to this current low could very well continue to set its agenda, whatever the implications for the party over the long term.
GALLERY: 10 lies about Obama people actually believe |
As we now exist in a world where festivals are so plentiful that it’s almost impossible to keep track of them, The A.V. Club elected to try to find the best one each state had to offer. Of course, some places had a bevy of great options. But for others, finding a fest with a notable component proved difficult. Below is The A.V. Club state-by-state guide to the 2016 summer music festival season (though a few technically occur in the spring and fall). In addition to picking the best festival in each state, we’ve paired each with another activity to make that trip to Wyoming a little more worthwhile.
Where? On the beach in Gulf Shores
When? May 20-22
Why is it the state’s best festival? In an age when every biggish music festival has pretty much the same lineup, Hangout stands out because of its location. It’s smack-dab in the middle of one of Gulf Shores’ loveliest beaches, and boasts amenities like hammocks, a side-stage pool and hot tubs for VIPs, carnival rides, and all sorts of Alabama seafood in its food court. Seriously—at Hangout, you can munch on peel-and-eat shrimp and raw oysters while you watch Calvin Harris bring the bass. If that doesn’t appeal to you—the shrimp part, at least—then you’re a monster.
What else should you do in Alabama? Gulf Shores is a thriving tourist destination, with water parks and a zoo. If you fly in for the fest, you’ll either be coming in through Pensacola, Florida, or Mobile, Alabama, and Mobile boasts both a retired battleship (the U.S.S. Alabama) and a sweet-sounding Mardi Gras museum. [Marah Eakin]
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Where? Ninilchik
When? August 5-7
Why is it the state’s best festival? You can combine do-gooding with camping at Salmonfest (née Salmonstock), the appropriately—if unassumingly—named music festival that was founded to support conservation efforts near Bristol Bay. The Indigo Girls, reggae act Clinton Fearon, twang-rockers Dead Winter Carpenters, and The Young Dubliners are all in the lineup.
What else should you do in Alaska? Go see the glaciers (while they’re still there), or do some whale-watching. And there’s no shame in enjoying some baked Alaska while you’re in the state. [Danette Chavez]
Where? Arcosanti
When? May 13-15
Why is it the state’s best festival? Let’s let the website explain it: “In the alien landscape of Arizona’s high desert sits the micro city of Arcosanti. For one weekend 1,200 participants will gather among its surreal architecture and terrain to experience form.” Curated by Hundred Waters, this “free by application” festival in the Arizona desert wants to inspire creators, with acts like Skrillex and Tortoise performing alongside lectures, workshops, and art installations.
What else should you do in Arizona? You’ll probably be longing for civilization after all the arty desert time: May we suggest “downtown” Sedona, which offers majestic red rock views but also some fun cheesy souvenir shops, as well as crystals and fossils galore. And if you’ve never seen the Grand Canyon, you really should. We know, everybody says that, but it’s just one of those things you should see. [Gwen Ihnat]
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Where? Little Rock
When? June 3-5
Why is it the state’s best festival? Past lineups at Riverfest have been wildly diverse—its site champions previous performers like 311 and Al Green—and the 2016 edition is no different. Country singer Chris Stapleton has been slowly crossing over into the mainstream, and The Flaming Lips are always good in a festival setting. But it’s the event’s third-billed headliner, The Goo Goo Dolls, that highlights the fest’s grab-bag nature. It’s got current hits, bands with strong back catalogs, and former radio-rock darlings that have, somehow, endured. It may not be a destination festival, but it’s nothing to shake a stick at either.
What else should you do in Arkansas? Go to Little Rock Central High School. The A.V. Club is sure it’s on Trip Advisor for a reason. [David Anthony]
Where? Los Angeles
When? August 27-28
Why is it the state’s best festival? Though it started innocently enough as a small punk festival—then billed as Fuck Yeah Fest—FYF is one of the rare fests to have grown in size without losing sight of what makes it stand out. This year boasts such buzzy headliners as Kendrick Lamar and LCD Soundsystem, but its undercard proves just as powerful. With acts like Julien Baker, Andy Stott, Sheer Mag, and many more, the fest unites punk, electronic, and singer-songwriters under one banner, making it a great billing for anyone with diverse taste.
What else should you do in California? Drop by Donut Fiend, the donut shop owned by Drive Like Jehu’s Mark Trombino, which features pun-fueled confections such as Chocolate From The Crypt and Fudgegazi. [David Anthony]
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Where? Downtown Denver in the RiNo Neighborhood
When? May 20-21
Why is it the state’s best festival? Hey, Pabst is a decent beer choice when you’re looking for affordable brew that’s still drinkable. This festival looks to be just as solid and cheap as its namesake, with tickets going for $65. There’s also artsy stuff, incorporating Pabst’s campaigns to draw your own beer cans, and an old-school arcade. With Courtney Barnett, Violent Femmes, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Baroness, and more, it looks like a nice, compact festival.
What else should you do in Colorado? Rent a car and drive through the mountains while you listen to the festival bands through speakers. You can’t really go wrong with the sight-seeing in Colorado, but we recommend keeping with the beer theme and heading southwest to check out Wilson Peak, the mountain adorning the Coors Light cans. [Caitlin PenzeyMoog]
Where? Veterans Memorial Park in Shelton
When? July 9-10
Why is it the state’s best festival? Because no other event in Connecticut so brazenly combines live music with culinary word play. The main attraction here are the cooks competing for top prizes in soup and chili categories; sets from a handful of regional acts are the side dish. Proceeds from the gate benefit a local arts charity, The Mary A. Schmecker Turtle Shell Fund, though charity-hating cheapskates who don’t suffer from motion sickness are in luck: According to the official Soupstock website, “This year there will be no charge for the bounce house.”
What else should you do in Connecticut? TV fans won’t find Stars Hollow on any maps of the Constitution State, but they can do the next best thing: Spend some time in Washington, Connecticut, the burg that charmed Amy Sherman-Palladino into creating Gilmore Girls. [Erik Adams]
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Where? The Woodlands Of Dover International Speedway
When? June 16-19
Why is it the state’s best festival? Dover International Speedway is guarded by a geological creature of massive proportions, but Firefly’s lineup expands beyond rock monsters (speedway mascot Miles The Monster) and monsters of rock (Kings Of Leon, Blink-182)—this year’s headliners include Deadmau5 in addition to featured performances from Disclosure, Vince Staples, and Earth Wind & Fire. The branding and setting promise a pastoral retreat, but the Firefly grounds set are the summer festival equivalent of glamping: There’s an onsite brewery run by Delaware’s own Dogfish Head, while the intimate Coffee House stage includes baristas, couches, and other elements not commonly found in nature. This year, the festival adds a beercade, so there’s no telling if the bleeps and bloops you’re hearing are emanating from M83 and Major Lazer or Pac-Man and the missus.
What else should you do in Delaware? After a weekend of celebrating the musical present, celebrate the recording industry’s past at the Johnson Victrola Museum, a monument to Victor Talking Machine Company founder and Delaware native Eldridge Reeves Johnson. [Erik Adams]
Where? Gainesville
When? October 28-30
Why is it the state’s best festival? The A.V. Club has previously extolled The Fest’s virtues, with its micro look at the punk scene and intimate, South By Southwest-like setup. This year sees it enter its 15th year, and along with that comes a lineup packed full of Fest favorites. It’s one of the few festivals that would count Propagandhi as a top-tier name, but it’s that kind of selective booking that makes The Fest worth the trip.
What else should you do in Florida? Go to Arrow’s Aim Records, one of the best record stores in the country. [David Anthony]
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Where? Atlanta
When? August 13-14
Why is it the state’s best festival? Though only in its second year, Wrecking Ball burst onto the scene last summer with a lineup that connected punk’s past to its present. This year, it’s managed to do it once again, nabbing a few high profile reunions—Thursday, Piebald, and Rainer Maria, just to name a few—but features plenty of newcomers, too. In many ways, Wrecking Ball positions itself as a competitor to The Fest, with a good mix of old and new, all housed in a mid-sized club that best suits this kind of frenetic music.
What else should you do in Georgia? Get thoroughly creeped out at the Center For Puppetry Arts. [David Anthony]
Where? Waikiki, Oahu
When? July 17
Why is it the state’s best festival? While Hawaii is surely a travel destination for those looking to unwind on sandy beaches, it doesn’t share the same type of festival culture that its mainland cousins do. So the celebration of all things ukulele seems an appropriate pick for the island state. It at once speaks to the light, breezy nature of a Hawaiian vacation without having to be reined in by the confines of a music festival.
What else should you do in Hawaii? Hang loose, brah. [David Anthony]
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Where? At Expo Idaho in suburban Garden City
When? June 25
Why is it the state’s best festival? In short, because it’s pretty much Idaho’s only festival. How else would a festival headlined by Coolio, of all people, make this list? There are only three other acts playing: Nelly, Daughtry, and bland pop act Andy Grammer. Thus, “best” is a relative term.
What else should you do in Idaho? If you’re willing to drive three-and-a-half hours, you can go to the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho. Otherwise, there’s always the World Center For Birds Of Prey, which is located right outside Boise and features the world’s largest captive flock of California Condors. [Marah Eakin]
Where? Chicago
When? July 15-17
Why is it the state’s best festival? Now in its 11th year (12th, if you count its humble Intonation roots), Pitchfork offers nearly as extensive a slate of artists as Lollapalooza, but with decidedly fewer stoned suburban kids flopping around the park grounds. Where else can you see The Hotelier, FKA Twigs, and Sufjan Stevens in one weekend, with Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds live for what could be the last time?
What else should you do in Illinois? Stick to Chicago to enjoy great food and drink—the shuttle buses will take you along a strip of restaurants on Randolph, including Little Goat Diner. You can also go a little further south to feast on carnitas in Pilsen, or linger near Union Park for a “cheezborger” at the Billy Goat Tavern. [Danette Chavez]
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Where? Hammond
When? July 20-24
Why is it the state’s best festival? There’s not much competition in the corn-filled boundaries of Indiana. While it’s been home to various fests that have died as quickly as they came together, Festival Of The Lakes has been the long-standing county fair with musical bookings that make little-to-no sense together. This year sees Ludacris, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, and a polka band headlining various nights, showing that Indiana is just as strange as everyone assumes it is.
What else should you do in Indiana? Sure, there’s 3 Floyd’s in the neighboring town of Munster, but downtown Griffith is really where it’s at. With a handful of breweries, a record store, and the best coffee shop the region has to offer, it’s a nice place to spend an afternoon before seeing Ludacris. [David Anthony]
Where? Western Gateway Park in Des Moines
When? July 8-9
Why is it the state’s best festival? Beyond having a pretty good website, 80/35 also has a pretty good lineup. This year, the fest is headlined by Nas and The Decemberists, with supporting performances from acts like Lizzo, Black Lips, and Thao And The Get Down Stay Down. Also, if the fest’s Instagram is to be believed, there are also big-ass smoked turkey legs for eating, and a guy hanging around who just wears a snake on his neck.
What else should you do in Iowa? While the Field Of Dreams field is a three-hour drive away, there’s still plenty of baseball in Des Moines. Head over to Principal Park to cheer on the Iowa Cubs, the AAA minor league affiliate for the Chicago Cubs. Just outside Des Moines is Adventureland, an amusement park that features the Tornado, a wooden roller coaster that’s been named one of the 10 best in the United States. [Marah Eakin]
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Where? Wichita
When? June 3-11
Why is it the state’s best festival? Across its week-long run, Wichita Riverfest boasts a grouping of bands with a little something for everyone. Whether it’s The Roots, Violent Femmes, or the good version of Black Flag that’s currently touring (Flag), there’s no lack of quality or variety. Couple that with its multi-day, multi-venue format, and it’s a fest that offers plenty of great options without becoming overwhelming.
What else should you do in Kansas? Explore the history of barbed wire at the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum. [David Anthony]
Where? Waterfront Park, Louisville
When? July 15-17
Why is it the state’s best festival? Location, location, location: The official Forecastle website touts the festival’s conveniently situated homebase, “located within a day’s drive of half the U.S. population.” Surely there are fans of 2016 headliners The Avett Brothers, Alabama Shakes, and Death Cab For Cutie among those 159 million people—for the rest, Forecastle offers up Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Sylvan Esso, or Bully. The festival is steeped in its Bluegrass State setting, be it through bourbon-soaked bookings like Ryan Adams, Brandi Carlile, and Gary Clark Jr., or the actual bourbon poured at one of two whiskey-centric pop-up saloons. The flashier of those spots, The Gonzo Bar, pays tribute to late Kentucky native Hunter S. Thompson, an amusement park treatment of the author’s legacy that’s either the least “gonzo” concept ever—or the most.
What else should you do in Kentucky: If the destination of your day’s drive is Tennessee, Virginia, or the Carolinas, why not make a pit stop to honor another larger-than-life son of the Commonwealth: The Kentucky Colonel who laid the foundation for a finger-lickin’ empire at the North Corbin service station now known as the Harland Sanders Café And Museum. [Erik Adams]
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Where? New Orleans
When? June 30-July 3
Why is it the state’s best festival? Describing itself as the “Largest Stateside gathering of African-Americans in the United States,” Essence offers a solid musical lineup, including Babyface, Maxwell, Ciara, New Edition, Mariah Carey, and Kendrick Lamar, who had the A.V. Club’s favorite album last year.
What else should you do in Louisiana? The Essence festival is conveniently located in New Orleans, so whenever you’re not enjoying awesome music, you’re hopefully eating something, because all of the food in New Orleans is amazing. Take a cemetery tour or jump on one of those trolleys to check out neighborhoods outside the tourist-laden French Quarter. And the Audubon Aquarium Of The Americas is also on the not-to-be-missed list. [Gwen Ihnat]
Where? Rockland
When? August 3-7
Why is it the state’s best festival? There’s not much in the way of music at the Maine Lobster Festival and, in fact, it’s somewhat shocking that Maine didn’t have some weird, jam-band-focused fest to take this spot. That said, a celebration of lobster is the kind of festival that transcends things like music, as chowing down on a bunch of crustaceans may be far preferable to huffing it between stages on a hot summer’s day.
What else should you do in Maine? What? Bathing in giant vats of butter isn’t enough for you? [David Anthony]
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Where? Boston City Hall Plaza
When? May 27-29
Why is it the state’s best festival? This one has a solid lineup, including Sufjan Stevens, Janelle Monáe, Haim, and Courtney Barnett, with many others. Its downtown location makes it ideal for the U.S. history-minded festival attendee, with the Freedom Trail heading straight out of the festival space to early American landmarks.
What else should you do in Massachusetts? Eat oysters, obviously. The storied Union Oyster House is a literal two-minute walk from the fest—but take advantage of the East Coast location and go up the coast, eating Atlantic fare the whole way. [Caitlin PenzeyMoog]
Where? Baltimore
When? May 26-29
Why is it the state’s best festival? While Europe is filthy with enormous, open-air metal festivals, here in North America, it all comes down to MDF: a four-day, three-stage celebration of the world’s fastest, heaviest, most punishing music. Despite the name, MDF isn’t strictly a haven for death-metal fanatics; this year’s lineup features everything from hardcore punk (Discharge) to grindcore (Magrudergrind) to thrash (Testament) to doom (Bongripper) to stoner metal (Bongzilla) to just plain-old, classic heavy metal (Venom). Big names abound, but the real draw is the promise of discovery—that ability to stumble onto your new favorite band while staking out a spot in the pit for the headliner.
What else should you do in Maryland? After a weekend of watching corpse-painted frontmen pretend to serenade Satan on stage, take a short drive to the “Hell House Altar” in Patapsco Valley State Park. The only remaining structure of the long-demolished St. Mary’s College, this spooky stone gazebo is rumored to have served as an unholy space for real devil worshipers. Horns up for history! [A.A. Dowd]
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Where? Howell
When? May 28
Why is it the state’s best festival? Surprisingly, Michigan is bereft of a festival that catches the spillover from the Midwest’s other big fests. Michigan’s music festivals are smaller, scrappier, and far more interesting as a result. Bled Fest has often felt like a testament to the DIY spirit, and this year’s lineup does a good job of catching artists that embody that across genres. This year sees the state’s own melodic death metal heroes The Black Dahlia Murder headlining a fest where it’s the token metal band, but still feels united to the likes of The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die.
What else should you do in Michigan? Drop by the Historic Howell Theater, which has a pretty impressive, art-focused list of films playing inside its walls. [David Anthony]
Where? Minneapolis
When? June 18
Why is it the state’s best festival? Held in Minneapolis’ best neighborhood, Northeast, Rock The Garden puts you on Boom Island along the Mississippi with a view of the city skyline and tunes from a stellar lineup that includes eight bands from national darlings The Flaming Lips and Chance The Rapper to Minnesota-based Polica and Hippo Campus.
What else should you do in Minnesota? You need to eat and drink at almost every Northeast establishment nearby, but if you only have time for one stop make it Kramarczuk’s Sausage Company. This Easter European deli is the perfect place to fill up on classic deli sandwiches or something heartier like goulash (add some horseradish) and a hard roll, which can be washed down with imported beverages and followed by a tasty dessert. This is just the fuel you’ll need to keep you dancing for hours. [Becca James]
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Where? Greenville
When? September 30-October 2
Why is it the state’s best festival? For a festival that plays off the nickname of the Mississippi River, the Mighty Mississippi Music Festival is appropriately rustic. Although it’s headlined by G. Love And Special Sauce, the rest of the lineup is less focused on G. Love’s mixing of genres and love of jamming. Though the Jimmie Rodgers festival that just passed is a slightly better option on the whole, for the rest of the summer Mighty Mississippi will have to do.
What else should you do in Mississippi? Elvis Presley’s birthplace is now a museum, and that’s surely a good option. [David Anthony]
Where? St. Louis
When? September 10-11
Why is it the state’s best festival? They have a nosh pit, which, unlike a mosh pit, is aggression-free and full of food from some of St. Louis’ best vendors.
What else should you do in Missouri? Check out the Missouri Botanical Garden. The oldest botanical garden in the nation, it includes an impressive 14-acre Japanese strolling garden so that you can stretch those tired festival legs. [Becca James]
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Where? Bozeman
When? August 5-7
Why is it the state’s best festival? For a rinky-dink street festival in Bozeman, Montana, Sweet Pea has historically landed a pretty good lineup of performers. While the lineup for this year’s event isn’t out yet, last year’s hullabaloo was headlined by Shakey Graves and Anderson East. It’s also crazy cheap: In 2014, a three-day wristband went for $15.
What else should you do in Montana? There’s a lot of nature-type stuff to do in Montana, including hiking, camping, and whitewater rafting. Bozeman’s a college town, meaning it has all sorts of modern “cool” amenities, including wine bars, Indian restaurants, and artisanal coffeehouses. [Marah Eakin]
Where? Omaha
When? August 20
Why is it the state’s best festival? Its lineup may be small, but Maha packs a wallop with its handful of bookings. With Passion Pit, Grimes, and Vince Staples serving as headliners, Maha has found a way to book from disparate genres yet still have it all make sense under one roof. There are some older acts added in (Matthew Sweet) and some up-and-comers that are dominating the festival circuit (Car Seat Headrest, Diet Cig), making Maha the type of festival that’s solid from the top of its poster all the way down to the bottom.
What else should you do in Nebraska? Drop by the Saddle Creek shop and buy some records from Omaha’s best and brightest. [David Anthony]
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Where? Las Vegas
When? August 26-28
Why is it the state’s best festival? For its fourth anniversary, this smartly curated metal-and-rock fest relocates from Southern California to Vegas, expanding to accommodate an even better, larger, and more eclectic roster of heavy buzz bands. A sort of artisanal answer to Maryland Deathfest, Psycho is positively stacked from top to bottom, grouping headliners Alice Cooper, Drive Like Jehu, and Electric Wizard with critical darlings like Baroness, grunge survivors like Mudhoney, and talented up-and-comers like Elder. Basically, if you like monster guitar riffs, you’ll find something to enjoy at this festival.
What else should you do in Nevada? Half the lineup makes music that practically begs to be listened to on a lonely stretch of desert highway, windows down, volume up, cactus as far as the eye can see. Download tracks from your favorites of the weekend and peel out into the arid unknown. [A.A. Dowd]
New Hampshire: The Thing In The Spring
Where? Peterborough, New Hampshire
When? June 9-12
Why is it the state’s best festival? The small state of New Hampshire doesn’t draw a lot of festival action. The Thing In The Spring is the exception, and even then, it’s pretty small potatoes. Headlined by the Chicago Underground Duo, Beauty Pill, Susie Ibarra, and O’Death, The Thing In The Spring is more of a celebration of the arts in general than a straight-up rock ’n’ roll blowout. Given that it’s curated by a non-profit art space, The Glass Museum, that should come as no surprise.
What else should you do in New Hampshire? Peterborough is only 70 miles from Boston, so that’s always an option, though that would take you out of New Hampshire. If you want to stay in town, there’s always the QR code tour of the Peterborough metro area, which might be more fun than it sounds, considering the little hamlet inspired Our Town’s Grover’s Corners. [Marah Eakin]
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New Jersey: The New Alternative Music Festival
Where? The convention center in Asbury Park
When? September 16-18
Why is it the state’s best festival? The New Alternative Music Festival could just as easily be called Don Giovanni Records Festival, given the fact the label is putting it on and much of the lineup is culled from its roster. That’s by no means a bad thing, as Don Giovanni has released plenty of great albums in recent years from bands with wildly disparate sounds. The fest also has a commitment that few others do, which is to avoid corporate sponsorship at all costs. It’s a festival based around idealism, shared ethos, and friendship. What more could anyone ask for?
What else should you do in New Jersey? Head to the boardwalk and see if Bruce Springsteen is just wandering around eating an ice cream cone. [David Anthony]
New Mexico: Zozobra
Where? Santa Fe
When? September 2
Why is it the state’s best festival? Zozobra is by no means a music festival, though that hasn’t kept it from having one lengthy, metal tribute written about it. The tale of Zozobra (also known as Old Man Gloom) is that the 50-foot-tall marionette is burned annually as a way of cleansing people of their impure deeds throughout the year. Started in the 1920s, Zozobra has become a long-standing tradition for the city of Santa Fe, attracting many participants from the world over. But, if music is a must, just blast some Old Man Gloom as countless spectators cheer on the burning of the puppet from which the band took its name.
What else should you do in New Mexico? Visit the Space Hall Of Fame at the New Mexico Museum Of Space History. [David Anthony]
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New York: AfroPunk
Where? Brooklyn
When? August 27-28
Why is it the state’s best festival? Though New York City now offers not one but two summertime megafests—Governor’s Ball and Panorama, respectively—AfroPunk is where it’s at. Small enough to not be overwhelming but with a pretty badass lineup, it’s a great fest to check out if you want something different than the norm. Seriously, though—Ice Cube, Janelle Monáe, TV On The Radio, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, and George Clinton all on one lineup? You can’t do better than that.
What else should you do in New York? What can’t you do in New York? If you want to be a tourist, go to the top of the Empire State Building and take a ferry around the harbor. If you don’t, go get some bomb Chinese food at Xi’an Famous Foods and then catch a late-night show at Baby’s All Right. [Marah Eakin]
North Carolina: Hopscotch
Where? Raleigh
When? September 8-10
Why is it the state’s best festival? Hopscotch thrives on its diversity. Past lineups have included everything from Pusha T to Roky Erickson. Though this year’s full lineup won’t be announced until May 9, the fest’s first act speaks volumes: Lavender Country, a group that released the first openly gay country record ever in 1973. Fronted by the outspoken Patrick Haggerty, Lavender Country should help Hopscotch reinforce that even if North Carolina’s legislators aren’t down with rights for all people, the festival is.
What else should you do in North Carolina? If you’re going to go anywhere in North Carolina, the Raleigh-Durham area is the place to go. There are tons of record stores and music venues there, and seeing as how it’s home to both Duke and UNC, there are plenty of cheap, hip little bars and restaurants. If you’re into biscuits—and who isn’t?—you’ll want to check out Rise. [Marah Eakin]
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North Dakota: North Dakota State Fair
Where? Minot
When? July 23-30
Why is it the state’s best festival? It’s the state fair, so its music also comes with funnel cake and, if you’re lucky, some fireworks to close out a lineup that includes Kenny Chesney, Fall Out Boy, and KISS.
What else should you do in North Dakota? Again, it’s a state fair for crying out loud, which means you can stay put. There are definitely enough fun things to do there. [Becca James]
Where? Nelsonville, right in the northern foothills of the Appalachian mountains
When? June 2-5
Why is it the state’s best festival? While there are decent festivals in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio’s best festival is a little more out of the way. Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, Nelsonville Music Festival brings big-name acts to a small, charming mining town that’s seen better days. Not just a fan favorite, Nelsonville has drawn rave reviews from artists, meaning that the lineups get better every single year. This year, the fest features headliners Randy Newman, Gillian Welch, Courtney Barnett, and Gary Clark Jr., with undercard performances from Mac DeMarco, The Tallest Man On Earth, Angel Olsen, Nikki Land, Ibeyi, and more.
What else should you do in Ohio? If you want to stick close to the fest, drive about 15 minutes down to Athens, home of Ohio University. This cute little college town is home to dozens of cheap-ass bars, as well as a creepy, maybe haunted old mental institution. Fill up on a plate of hippie, worker-owned Mexican fare at Casa Nueva before rocketing back up to Nelsonville for a stop at the Rocky Boot Outlet. [Marah Eakin]
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Where? Pryor
When? May 27-29
Why is it the state’s best music festival? “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of rock” is a pretty solid festival slogan, but the real draw is the way this event pulls together the newest bands in the Southern metal tradition and manages to create a three-day bill that’s almost entirely of a piece. From Friday’s headliners of Disturbed and Rob Zombie through Sunday’s sets by Chevelle and Five Finger Death Punch, there’s a unified musical and cultural aesthetic running through every band on the bill that makes the Warped Tour look like a humanities festival of variety.
What else should you do in Oklahoma? Take a breather from the nonstop headbanging and check out Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve, which boasts 3,700 acres containing bison, longhorn cattle, and elk. Now that’s fucking hardcore. [Alex McCown]
Where? Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley
When? August 5-7
Why is it the state’s best festival? Well, for one, because it’s been featured on Portlandia. Beyond that, Pickathon succeeds because of its enchanting, woodland-fairy-like location and killer lineup. This year alone, attendees can expect Jeff Tweedy, Wolf Parade, Beach House, Yo La Tengo, Ty Segall, Open Mike Eagle, and more.
What else should you do in Oregon? Portland’s about 10 miles away, so chug on up there and drink your way through the city’s more than 65 micro or craft breweries. If you’re not that into booze, check out Powell’s City Of Books, the largest independent bookstore in the world. [Marah Eakin]
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Where? Ben Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia
When? September 3-4
Why is it the state’s best festival? Because it was founded by Jay Z, and Hova only grants his imprimatur to the finest of products, be they music festivals, smartphone apps for chartering private jets, and celebrity babies.
What else should you do in Pennsylvania? Engage in a time-honored Philadelphia tradition by whipping a makeshift projectile at the symbol of an upcoming holiday. (The festival takes place over Labor Day Weekend—why not bean a union buster with your empty water bottle?) [Erik Adams]
Rhode Island: Newport Folk Festival
Where? Fort Adams
When? July 22-24
Why is it the state’s best festival? It’s no Blessing Of The Fleet, but the Newport Folk Festival is pretty close to the water, and will be headlined by the well-rested Flight Of The Conchords, debuting some new music. Father John Misty, Ray LaMontagne, and Fruit Bats will also descend ever so politely on Fort Adams State Park for the festival. And getting a first look at newly formed supergroup Case/Lang/Veirs, comprising Neko Case, K.D. Lang, and Laura Veirs, is worth the price of admission alone.
What else should you do in Rhode Island? You could visit one of the nearby saltwater beaches, or you could leave the park to go on an H.P. Lovecraft walking tour. Better yet, get your Beavis on and check out the WaterFire Providence lighting. [Danette Chavez]
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South Carolina: Fall For Greenville
Where? Greenville
When? October 14-16
Why is it the state’s best festival? There aren’t a ton of festivals in South Carolina, so Fall For Greenville gets the nod purely for its breadth of lineup. Though this year’s artists haven’t been announced yet, last year’s four-day affair had everything from national acts like Jeff The Brotherhood and The Orwells to more questionable-sounding local acts like Soul Stew and a group just called Song.
What else should you do in South Carolina? When you think of South Carolina, it’s common to think beaches, but Greenville is actually far upstate, toward the mountains and away from the Atlantic. There are plenty of places to take advantage of the area’s natural beauty, like at Falls Park and the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail, but there are also interesting-sounding indoor attractions in town, like the Museum And Library Of Confederate History and the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum And Baseball Library. [Marah Eakin]
South Dakota: Wild Bill Days
Where? Deadwood
When? June 17-18
Why is it the state’s best music festival? You don’t just have to be a fan of the HBO series to have an excellent reason to visit Deadwood. This festival celebrating Wild Bill Hickok provides a musical lineup of Americana you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. Goldpanning demos, karaoke championships, and reenactments of the legendary frontiersman are unique enough for a fest, but musically, it’s a continuous feast of tunes by the likes of Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Buffett, Johnny Cash, and Garth Brooks, to name a few. Sure, they’re tribute bands, but it’s South Dakota, and the “what the hell?” choice of emcee Jay Leno ensures this should be memorable.
What else should you do in South Dakota? You mean, besides Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Black Hills National Forest? We could throw in the Corn Palace, but seriously, you should already be on board. [Alex McCown]
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Where? Manchester
When? June 9-12
Why is it the state’s best festival? What started as an annual jamboree (emphasis on the jam) for Phish fans and Moe maniacs has evolved into the country’s one-size-fits-all destination festival, where music fans of many walks can spend four days soaking in every genre under the (sweltering) sun. Onsite camping keeps the party going all night (literally, as some bands don’t hit the stage until around 4 a.m.) and the sheer volume and variety of activities, vendors, food, and, uh, recreational substances is staggering. For those in it strictly for the music—the headliners this year include LCD Soundsystem and members of the Grateful Dead, those that’s just the tip of the iceberg—Bonnaroo’s secret weapon is its generous timeslots: Most artists, regardless of where they land on the bill, play full sets, in sharp contrast to the six-song warm-up gigs offered to the undercard acts at other festivals.
What else should you do in Tennessee? Does Graceland have central air? After four days in the Tennessee heat, just standing indoors is going to feel like a luxury worthy of the King himself. [A.A. Dowd]
Where? Austin
When? November 6-8
Why is it the state’s best music festival? With behemoths like ACL Fest and the nearly month-long event that is South By Southwest, it’s easy to be jaded into thinking that just because everything is bigger in Texas doesn’t mean it’s actually better. But Fun Fun Fun Fest’s previous lineups have included a strong mix of music and comedy, with past headliners like Wu-Tang Clan, Tig Notaro, Passion Pit, and Henry Rollins. Below-the-fold acts suggest that this year’s lineup will be equally strong, with an emphasis on hip-hop and heavier acts. Plus, November in Texas is gorgeous.
What else should you do in Texas? Considering you can drive more than five hours in any direction and still be in Texas, the world is your oyster. But if Tex-Mex food (tip: try the cowboy queso at Kerbey Lane, and eat as many breakfast tacos as your stomach allows) and surrounding Hill Country aren’t enough of a draw, you should probably just stay home anyway. [Laura M. Browning]
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Where? Heber
When? June 10-11
Why is it the state’s best music festival? Lots of festivals presume camping out will be an aspect of your participation, but few take it as far as Bonanza Campground. Like an REI-heavy version of Lollapalooza, the festival takes the rugged outdoors as part and parcel of its experience, in gorgeous wooded hills. Big Gigantic and Cold War Kids headline, but there’s a bevy of intriguing smaller acts like Jr. Jr. and the massive beats of Chicago’s Manic Focus. Besides, haven’t you been saying for awhile now that you’ve heard Utah is absolutely beautiful?
What else should you do in Utah? There’s a ton of incredible sightseeing to do in Utah—that reputation for natural beauty doesn’t lie—but for us, the must-see attraction is Arches National Park, which will leave you goggle-eyed and dumbstruck. [Alex McCown]
Where? Burlington
When? September 18-19
Why is it the state’s best festival? Grand Point North blends hippie vibes with alt-country sounds and slaps the whole thing in a lovely location on Burlington’s waterfront. This year, Grace Potter headlines both nights, interestingly enough, while undercard acts include Old Crow Medicine Show, Guster, and Basia Bulat.
What else should you do in Vermont? Burlington has a fairly eclectic population, thanks in part to the University Of Vermont. Expect farmers markets and cute little main street cafes and stores. While Ben & Jerry’s HQ is a good 30 minutes down I-89, there’s still plenty of wackadoodle stuff to see in Burlington, including the World’s Tallest Filing Cabinet. [Marah Eakin]
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Where? Richmond
When? August 20
Why is it the state’s best festival? Since 1984, GWAR has become one of the cornerstones of Richmond’s music scene. Now in its seventh year, the annual GWAR B-Q is the celebration of the scumdogs and everything it entails—which, fittingly, now includes a GWAR-branded barbecue sauce. Taking place right on a lake, and with acts such as Against Me!, American Nightmare, Eyehategod, and Virginia’s own Lamb Of God, the seventh GWAR B-Q may be its best yet.
What else should you do in Virginia? Walk through the streets pleading with everyone that lives there to get Avail back together. [David Anthony]
Where? Olympia
When? August 12-14
Why is it the state’s best music festival? Bumbershoot doesn’t need any more attention, so let’s highlight the most promising underground metal fest in the whole damn country. 20 Buck Spin and Gilead Media have joined forces to give you a concentrated blast of the best contemporary thrashers around—or rather, the best of the newest. With talent like Auroch, Dead To A Dying World, Magic Circle, and Panopticon’s first ever live show, this looks to be the best opportunity all summer long to get your face melted by guitars.
What else should you do in Washington? Have you ever hiked Mt. Rainier? You should. But if that’s a little too ambitious, Puget Sound is gorgeous, the Museum Of Flight is awesome, and since you’re obviously into technical musical artistry if you’re going to Migration Fest, the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle should be right up your alley, nerd. (We went in the early afternoon, and were kicked out at closing time.) [Alex McCown]
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West Virginia: Mountain Music Festival
Where? New River Gorge
When? June 2-4
Why is it the state’s best festival? Just like the country roads that the John Denver song talks about, the Mountain Mama state offers you the Appalachians and tons of wilderness. This festival takes advantage of these area highlights by placing the event in a 1,500-acre nature adventure park. You can take off on jaunts like whitewater rafting, mountain biking, and ziplining in between seeing homespun bands you may/may not have heard of like Trampled By Turtles, Galactic, and Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band.
What else should you do in West Virginia? West Virginia kind of gets a bad rap, but for untainted camping experiences, it’s hard to beat the Appalachians on the East Coast. Or check out historic Wheeling, which has a lovely botanic garden as well as a historic district on Wheeling Island. [Gwen Ihnat]
Where? Eau Claire
When? August 12-13
Why is it the state’s best festival? Curated and founded by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Eaux Claires thrives on its unified vision. Every act playing has been approved by Vernon, and it just so happens that he has pretty decent and eclectic taste. This year’s acts include Melvins, Erykah Badu, Shabazz Palaces, and Mavis Staples. Bon Iver will also perform—something that’s a fairly rare occurrence at this point—and, weirdly enough, Bruce Hornsby And The Noisemakers are set to show up to play The Way It Is in its entirety. What Justin Vernon wants, he gets.
What else should you do in Wisconsin? Hunting and fishing are big in Eau Claire, and so is bowling. There also appears to be no shortage of apple orchards in the area, should you be interested in getting your apple cider doughnut on. For a brief historic stop, there’s always the Paul Bunyan Logging Camp, which takes visits back in time to an authentic 1890s logging camp, complete with cookhouse, bunk house, blacksmith shop, and barn. [Marah Eakin]
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Where? At the Grand Targhee Resort in Alta
When? July 15-17
Why is it the state’s best festival? Wyoming doesn’t have much to offer in the way of music festivals, but Targhee Fest stands out all the same. With a fairly solid lineup including the Drive-By Truckers, Bettye Lavette, and The Jayhawks, Targhee seems like it would be a solid hang. Plus, it’s set on a fancy winter skiing resort, so the scenery is a plus.
What else should you do in Wyoming? On or near the resort alone, there’s mountain biking, scenic chairlift rides, horseback riding, disc golf, and whatever EuroBungy is. Nearby, you can hit Grand Teton National Park, as well as Yellowstone. That kind of grand, majestic silence and space will probably sound mighty nice after a day of loud rock music. [Marah Eakin] |
Drivers honked and pumped their fists Tuesday afternoon, April 28, while passing by the Medford Police Department, where about 30 people representing Medford Overcoming Addiction held signs that read, “Beep for Narcan” while chanting “We want Narcan; We want it now!” and “We can’t wait!”
Although ralliers didn’t know it at the time, they might be very close to getting their wish — that Medford’s police officers start carrying Narcan, a drug used to reverse opiate overdoses that state health officials reported had saved at least 2,600 lives as of last May.
At the Medford City Council’s meeting Tuesday night, just hours after MOA’s rally, City Councilor Breanna Lungo-Koehn read an email from Medford Police Chief Leo A. Sacco Jr. indicating police were on the verge of carrying Narcan.
In the email, dated April 23, Sacco said the Medford Police Patrolmens Association was “in agreement with carrying and utilizing Narcan.”
In February, Harold MacGilvray, the union’s president, said the group still had concerns about administering the drug, though he didn’t expect them to stop the union from agreeing to use Narcan.
With the union on board, Sacco said in the email he was close to finalizing a policy for the department’s use of Narcan. Sacco added he still needed to identify a medical control physician to facilitate training for police officers.
“The union was very agreeable,” Sacco said. “It is the other red tape that has been problematic.”
Sacco also confirmed Medford Police recently received 10 free dosages of Narcan from the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.
MOA planned the rally urging Medford’s police officers and firefighters to start carrying the drug after Sacco said in February he expected patrol officers to have the drug in their vehicles by the end of March.
Medford Fire Chief Frank A. Giliberti Jr. said earlier this year his department planned to start carrying Narcan, but it was “a bit behind” Medford Police in approving its use of the drug. He said the department needed to resolve “contractual issues” before firefighters began carrying Narcan. |
A 22-year-old man was arrested from his in-laws' house in Muzaffarpur in Bihar on Saturday for allegedly raping a five-year-old girl in New Delhi five days ago with investigators suspecting that he fled the capital within an hour of committing the crime fearing the victim had died.
Manoj Kumar, a labourer in a garment factory in north- east Delhi, was apprehended from Chiknouta village, about 50 km from Patna, at around 2 AM, Prabhakar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), said.
Kumar told police during initial interrogation that he fled the house in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar at around 7 pm to catch the 8:30 pm Swatantrata Senani Express for his hometown thinking that the girl has died.
Piecing together the sequence, investigators now believe that the girl might have been kidnapped around 6 pm and raped and brutally assaulted allegedly by Kumar and he left the place around 7 pm.
"Kumar told us that he left the house thinking that the girl was dead...The girl was inside the house for 40 hours," Prabhakar said.
The girl's mother had told police that the victim, who was playing outside their home, went missing around 6 pm and if the versions of both the mother and Kumar are to believed, the abduction and the brutal rape of the victim took place within one hour.
"We have got the transit remand of Kumar. He is being brought to Delhi. We will have to interrogate him to ascertain the facts," Prabhakar said.
Images and Text: Agencies
Image: A file photo of Manoj - the man accused of brutally raping a five-year-old girl in Delhi. |
Illustration by George Yarnton
We stay in flat shares or with our parents, live hand to mouth and subscribe to a culture of anxiety. We struggle with self esteem and live our social lives online. We know what we should be because we learnt it from our parents, who got married when they were our age and had kids, a mortgage and a hatchback just a few years later.
But us? We're fully grown adults living in a state of suspended childhood. So what happens in 20 years when we're all nearly middle-aged? What happens when millennials grow up?
One image immediately comes to mind: a single 43-year-old burdened with mental health issues, living in a shoebox flat that costs £2,000 a month, scrolling obsessively through Tinder and tweeting about the latest Palace drop to an audience of desperately lonely peers.
But really, it's uncharted territory; no one really knows. Of the tens of academics, scientists and economists I emailed, most didn't want to hypothesise – although in many ways, this unsavoury tableau probably isn't too far off the mark.
We're skint now and we're likely to be living hand to mouth in later life, too. Ryan Bourne, head of Public Policy at the Institute of Economic Affairs, says that our generation will go into our forties with far less accumulated wealth and be much poorer than we should be. "This lack of wealth is partly because millennials won't own housing, but partly because they'll have always paid so much for rent that it's quite difficult to save anything to even build up to a pension, or savings and investment. That is a big problem." Generational expert Jason Dorsey agrees: "We're expecting to have people in their thirties and forties still relying heavily on their parents – 30-somethings who still live at home and 40-somethings whose parents still pay for their mobile phone bill. That phenomenon is putting pressure on the older generation. Unless income increases dramatically we'll be in trouble."
Basically, if you thought being in your twenties was high pressure, look forward to the latter end of your thirties and your early forties. Bourne thinks we'll hit a point in our so-called middle age and realise the gravity of our situation. "The risk there is that a lot of people in our generation will get into their forties and panic that they really haven't got enough accumulated assets to live on in 30 years time when they retire," he explains. "So you'll get a lot of people worrying in their forties that they might not have a particularly happy retirement."
Will we ever catch up to our parents' standards of living and accumulated wealth? According to the economists I spoke to: probably not.
"The problem is we'll still chase many of the same things that other generations want, but it's more out of reach," explains Dorsey. "As our cohort enter their mid to late thirties, it'll be an interesting time to see if millennials achieve this idea of adulthood." VICE readers' number one fear is not finding love, which suggests we're not completely put off the idea of marriage, and our anger at the housing crisis shows – somewhat unsurprisingly – that we still value having a secure place to live. As we waiting for these traditional markers of adulthood going into our thirties, said Dorsey and others I spoke to, we're likely to continue to be frustrated and unhappy.
At this age, because we're not able to afford having children, we'll be looking to have them in our late thirties and early forties. "Having kids in your late thirties is more difficult and higher risk, and we believe there is going to be a lot of pressure around that time to get married and have kids," says Dorsey. "It's a perfect storm. The mood will be: if you are going to do it, you have to do it now. And, for the obvious reason that it's going to be more difficult and more challenging, it's going to create a different kind of conversation. You may end up with people having less kids overall, because if they start later maybe they can only have fewer."
The psychological burden of that will lay with women – some of whom will find they can't have children – but it'll be felt throughout society. As Dr Amy Kaler, professor of social structure at the University of Alberta, told VICE, if women stopped having children, "We'd first notice the collapse of economic activity that requires young children and parents, stores for babies, nannies, daycares. Then an upward ripple in elementary schools, kids' sports. We'd also become completely dependent on immigration to continue to exist, as a country. We'd see more efforts to attract immigrants – young immigrants – to bring more people in."
Dr Carole Easton – chief executive of Young Women's Trust, which supports and represents women aged 16 to 30 struggling to live on low or no pay in England and Wales – is particularly concerned for the future women. "The reason women will struggle more, in our view," she says, "is because over their lives they'll get paid less, they're more likely to be stuck in low paid and insecure jobs and, importantly, they're more likely to be the main carers for family members."
No one would ever be able to predict what our mental health and wellbeing will look like in 20 years, but it's likely that we'll remain a generation characterised by anxiety and mental health – particularly considering our openness when it comes to discussing these topics. But we should be concerned by the prevalence of mental illness in our twenties. As a general rule, the quicker mental health issues are dealt with, the more likely you are to recover and have better or more well managed mental health in the future.
"Leaving symptoms untreated can not only result in unnecessary suffering for the individual, but interfere with building a rich and meaningful life moving forward," says clinical psychologist, Dr Lisa Orban. With regards to the anxiety millennials report in their twenties, she says, "The brain is still malleable in young adulthood, and exposure to stress in one's environment early on can have an impact on the course of one's mental health. If young adults learn how to identify stress and develop adaptive coping strategies early on, chances are they will be more proficient at handling stress, which can prevent or mitigate mental health symptoms in the future."
But how successful have we been at developing coping mechanisms?
What mental health professionals are concerned about is that we don't know the long-term effects of living in our "suspended adolescence". Lucy Lyus at mental health charity MIND says, "We know that everything happening to young people at the moment contributes to a lack of wellbeing and can lead to anxiety. Obviously it's worrying to know what is going to happen when this generation grows up." Lyus adds that none of these contributing lifestyle factors are going to change soon. It's in the balance: if we want to improve the future mental health of millennials, changes need to happen now. "We know that the government will say that they are committed to making mental health as much of a priority as physical health, and have committed a billion pounds over the next five years to make that happen," she says. "But we don't actually know how it's going to go."
At least in our miserable middle age we can look forward to a long retirement, right? Not exactly. We'll work longer than any generation yet, partially because we'll be supporting the children we had late in life until much later – an issue compounded by the fact the government are hell-bent on us working right up to the brink of death. "The state pension age is going to have to rise dramatically for us because of an ageing population," explains Bourne. "The government essentially introduced this triple-lock mechanism which makes the state pension even more generous, and that makes no sense when you've got an ageing population. Something's got to give on that, and the most obvious thing to do would be to raise the state pension age very substantially."
Already, retirement ages are scheduled to rise to 66 in October of 2020 and, under current government proposals, 67 between 2026 and 2028, and 68 between 2044 and 2046. We don't know how much higher those could go.
This all sounds very doom and gloom, but conveniently we as a generation don't exist in a bubble. We can't be ignored, and these issues – housing, lack of savings, mental health and so on – left to fester. Eventually the knock-on effects will become a burden and our social and financial issues have to take priority. "The contemplation of what's going to happen if we don't fix all of these problems is almost too awful to think about," says Rachel Laurence from the think-tank New Economics Foundation. "I think if we really don't fix most of them, there will be a major economic crash and a massive depression. But I hope that with the huge amount of people moving into the second and third phases of adulthood with these situations, this is a tipping point."
As Laurence points out, our whole economy is powered by debt. If a generation isn't able to buy mortgages on properties for them or their children, while wages stay stubbornly and unfairly low and the economy grows, it's a "ticking time bomb" situation.
When will we leave our extended adolescence? Does dealing with all this mean we will have finally grown up by the time we're through the worst of it, if we ever even reach that stage? Dorsey predicts that we'll feel like we've reached adulthood when we're about 40 – and I'm inclined to agree. But all we do know with certainty is that what "adulthood" means and how it is defined will completely change with our generation.
Passing 18 could soon mean nothing; just an excuse for a party and the ability to buy a drink without fake ID. And many more traditional markers of adulthood could also be abandoned; "being an adult" might not mean owning a home or having a child any more. Just as our parents set the parameters for our idea of what adulting was, we'll decide what being an adult means for Gen Z and beyond.
@hannahrosewens/georgeyarnton.com
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Why Do We Talk About Millennials Like They're All Middle Class?
Millennials Have Discovered That Going Out Sucks |
In 2017 and 2018, I covered extensivelythe efforts of the American College of Veterinary Botanical Medicine (ACVBM) to achieve recognition as a medical specialty by the American Board of Veterinary Specialties (ABVS). I opposed recognition for several reasons:
Prescribing of herbal medicine in the veterinary field is based mostly on folk medicine traditions, especially Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM), which are mostly unproven and often deeply inconsistent with scientific medicine.
Most herbalists, including leaders of the ACVBM, promote many alternative therapies other than herbal medicine, and these people often have medical philosophies inconsistent with science and science-based medicine.
Very few herbal remedies have been properly tested scientifically, so there is an insufficient foundation of knowledge to justify a specialty. What scientific work has been done in this area falls naturally under the domain of existing specialty organizations, such as the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology (ACVCP), so there is no need to create a new college.
Herbalism is not a recognized medical specialty in human or veterinary medicine in Europe, Australia, or the United States because it has not yet developed a legitimate scientific basis, and recognition of the ACVBM would give a misleading appearance of scientific legitimacy to a set of approaches reliant predominantly on folk traditions.
The ABVS tabled the ACVBM petitionand recommended the group seek subspecialty status under the ACVCP. The ABVS process is quite secretive, so little has been made public about it, but it appears that ACVCP wished to set up a methodical and careful process to consider any potential relationship between the groups, and the ACVBM decided it did not wish to pursue this process. Instead, the ACVBM has reactivated the tabled application for standalone recognition from ABVS. The latest version of the ACVBM petitiondiffers in some respects from the original petition submitted in 2016. The original petition, and subsequent communications with ABVS, tried to emphasize the mainstream, scientific nature of herbal medicine and downplay the alternative nature of the practice. The current petition does this as well, but it seems to emphasize more strongly the differences between a science-based approach to medicine and the philosophy of herbalism derived from traditional sources.
Here are a few examples:
Botanical medicine looks at pharmacognosy, not from the perspective of single molecule phytochemical discovery for the development of new drug leads, but rather to validate or understand traditional medicine and how the herbs work….That the whole plant is more therapeutic than a constituent is a fundamental principle of botanical medicine supported by research.
Principles of botanical medicine respect tradition as a source of empirical evidence that informs formal research design. The study of traditional use of plants within a culture is termed ethnobotany, and the study of traditional medicines is known as ethnomedicine, or ethnoveterinary medicine. Research may validate traditional uses.
Research may validate traditional use, or it may not (which is more common but not acknowledged in the petition). This statement clearly shows the unscientific view that the goal of research is to “validate or understand” the beliefs of traditional folk medicine, rather than to test them and find out if they are true or not. It also accepts as a central principle the traditional notion that whole plants are more effective than isolated plant compounds, though there is virtually no real-world research evidence supporting this idea.
The ACVBM differentiates themselves by interest in the rich knowledge base of traditional botanical medicine use and ethnobotany combined with modern scientific, chemical, toxicological, pharmacological clinical application and research in a practice that could be appropriately termed rationale phytotherapy to distinguish from colleagues who may only embrace traditional findings or who may eschew scientific findings…
This is encouraging, though given the background and other practices of the organizing committee for the ACVBM, I am not convince that the organization is likely to ever give priority to science over traditional knowledge if the two conflict. TCVM vets and practitioners of homeopathy and not really the most reliable guardians of science-based practice.
Veterinarians using botanical medicine have a patient centered approach, whereby the botanical medicines are selected based on the individual signs and pathophysiology as well as the diagnosis. So that two dogs with diabetes for example, may be treated with two different sets of botanical medicines.
This is the common claim of alternative medicine to “individualize” therapy to a greater extent than scientific medicine. I’ve written many times beforeabout why this is a misleading and empty claim that hides the fact that such supposedly “individualized” therapies are almost never scientifically tested or shown to be effective or superior in any way to science-based practices.
The ACVBM also holds the philosophical position, common in alternative medicine, that tradition and personal or anecdotal experience are reliable and sufficient evidence and may even be superior to controlled scientific research. Here are some illustrations:
Sources of information include:
Traditional use. The bewildering variety of ethnoveterinary practices, ethnobotanical uses and folk practices around the world coupled with confounding aspects of cultural, placebo and other non-specific effects make reliable conclusions from any one tradition difficult. Frequently however, traditional use informs research and pharmacological activity is often found to be closely correlated. There are recurring themes in traditional medicine and persistent therapeutic approaches consistent with the use of “archetypal” chemical groups within plants.
I certainly agree that traditional use is inconsistent, low-quality evidence that has rarely led to definitive success in treatment. I disagree, however, with the claim that scientific evidence frequently confirms traditional use. Folk herbalism often uses plants for a wide variety of unrelated problems, and when properly tested the rare few uses which seem to have some real benefits are celebrated and the many that were useless are forgotten.
Collective clinical experience over decades. There is also the clinical experience of veterinary practitioners to consider- thousands of educated veterinary practitioners worldwide prescribe herbal medicines in their work. This has advantages of being in a modern veterinary context. Veterinary practitioners of botanical medicine have written texts and taught other veterinarians to achieve repeatable results within the botanical framework.
Collective clinical experience is another way of saying “anecdote,” and as the saying goes, the plural of “anecdote” is not “data.” The fact that people are “experts” in herbal medicine and have written and taught about it doesn’t, in itself, show that the beliefs and practices being passed along are correct or useful.
The third data source is substantial and scientifically sound but maybe not as clinically relevant to veterinary botanical medicine. The available published literature on phytochemistry and preclinical pharmacology…[this does] not however provide confirmation of a clinical effect; experience in practice is that the effect of the whole plant is rarely predicated on the effects of its parts….it is appreciated that herbs have been dismissed by many in the profession as the refuge of the uncritical. However, when all the sources of information come together and are integrated with pharmacological insights, something important happens; unique treatment strategies for treating notoriously difficult clinical problems become possible and the desire of the ACVBM is for animals to benefit from the efforts of this group to further develop the field. To be a fully effective therapy, it is not enough simply to know about the herbs themselves. Information must also be sought about how and when to use these herbs in response to various therapeutic challenges. Therapeutic approaches are different from those that underpin conventional medicine.
Again, this is a position that says scientific study, including pharmacological analysis of the compound sin plant remedies, is useful, but only as a supplement to the wisdom of tradition and personal experience, which still maintains without much evidence that traditional whole-plant remedies work better than plant-derived medicines. This is a pretty direct refutation of the principles of pharmacognosy (development of medicines from plants), which I suspect is a response to the rejection of the ACVBM by the ACVCP.
The universal role of plants in the treatment of disease is exemplified by their use in all the major systems of traditional medicine and ethnomedicine irrespective of their underlying philosophical premise.
So because lots of people have done it, this means it is worth doing? Not a rational perspective.
The practitioner of botanical medicine regards the whole formula or whole extract as the “active ” component” in the therapeutic context.
The concept of polyvalent or multifaceted activity of the medicine is central to botanical medicine – in the context of the advantage of chemical complexity -and even a single herbal extract is a natural multi agent medicine that can simultaneously target a range of desirable pharmacological effects.
The veterinary botanical practitioner prefers not just to prescribe chemically complex herbs, but often administers them in complex formulations, compared to conventional medicine preferring to prescribe a single drug. The practitioner chooses herbs or formulas for a cooperative or facilitating effect between the components to address therapeutic goals.
Again, these are tenets of faith, not scientifically proven propositions.
Philosophically the veterinary botanical medicine practitioner practices conventional medicine but overlays that practice with the use of botanical medicines in a framework of botanical principles to expand their options for treatment of disease and optimizing health.
Practitioners appreciate traditional knowledge as just one potential source of information, when coupled with published research and clinical experience, herbs can be prescribed safely and effectively.
This is the principle of “integrative medicine,” which holds that mixing the scientific with the unscientific and the proven with the unproven somehow makes the whole treatment approach better. As infectious disease doc Marc Crislip has put it, “If you integrate fantasy with reality, you do not instantiate reality. If you mix cow pie with apple pie, it does not make the cow pie taste better; it makes the apple pie worse.”
The ACVBM petition goes on to acknowledge that many veterinarians are concerned about the paucity of scientific research evidence concerning herbal medicine (though not to acknowledge directly that this is a well-founded concern). However, it then employs the tu quoquefallacy, arguing that since veterinary medicine as a whole suffers from a deficiency of high-quality research evidence, this should not be a barrier to treating herbal medicine as a legitimate scientific specialty. This misses the point, which is that we should be seeking more and better evidence, not giving up on the centrality of scientific research evidence to good medical practice. Giving the specialty imprimatur to an especially evidence-poor alternative practice only weakens the overall scientific basis of veterinary medicine.
An important basis of herbal medicine is the pharmacology and mechanisms of actions of plants and plant extracts, however they differ from drugs in their complexity, and in the underlying ethnomedical knowledge base used to initiate study of them. The botanical medicine diplomate can provide context to client and referring veterinarian inquiries, from both the ethnomedical and pharmacologic perspectives.
This basically suggests that the main reason herbalists should be considered specialists is that they can add the value of traditional knowledge to the scientific perspective on plant compounds. Again, this only makes sense if you presume, generally wrongly, that such traditional knowledge is useful or accurate much of the time.
Bottom Line
Nothing appears to have fundamentally changed in the ACVBM approach since I began to examine it in 2017. The ACVBM is a bit more direct in the latest petition in their claims that the primary reason they should be a distinct specialty group is because of their greater familiarity with traditional sources of knowledge about plant medicines. While they may acknowledge some need for scientific research into herbal remedies, they consistently claim that conventional veterinarians cannot effectively conduct such research without being familiar with the folk medicine approach to herbalism.
This implies that scientists cannot test the effectiveness of any medical therapy without being experts in prescientific folk beliefs about it. Can we not evaluate surgery without being experts in bloodletting? Is the study of antibiotics to treat syphilis futile unless we have first-hand training in the use of the poison mercury for treating this disease?
Ultimately, the ACVBM petition is simply another of the many efforts of alternative medicine to create an exception to the normal, scientific standards of evidence currently applied to medical practices. If scientific research works better than tradition or personal experience to determine which therapies are effective and why (and the evidence it does is overwhelming), then there is no need to give experts in folk medicine beliefs special status as experts in a discipline that can be readily and effectively studied with current scientific methods.
I believe there is great potential for effective medical therapies in plant chemistry, and we have already realized this in many modern drugs. I also believe folk tradition has only very rarely stumbled across truly effective treatments through trial-and-error and anecdote, and it is not a particularly useful guide to which plants we should study for which problems. Those herbalists truly committed to a scientific medical practice should work within the accepted standards of scientific evidence to validate (or invalidate) specific herbal practices, rather than trying to create a group that will exist primarily to promote and self-validate their own alternative standards of evidence. |
About
Hi! My name is Peter Howell. About a year and a half ago, I started my own brewery in Merced, CA. Since becoming involved in professional brewing, I have been surprised to see a relatively small diversity in the hops used across the nation. Before there were relatively high tech hop research facilities in the 20th century, frontier brewers would find wild cultivars that were created by cross pollination in nature, and if the strain had good flavor, they would take cuttings (clones) to grow in their own hopyard. California Cluster hops are one type of hops that was formed after the Gold Rush from wild pollination of the original Cluster hops that grew all over America.
I am from Santa Rosa, a town that used to have a significant portion of its agriculture made up by hops. It's just south of a town called Hopland, and I bet you can guess what they used to grow up there...
... that's right, they grew hops! Here are some of the known hop plants still existing in the wild riparian environment around Hopland today
As long as there is good sun, good, loose soil, and a nearby creek or lake that doesn't dry up, hops will grow. Since many places across California meet these requirements, hops can grow without human help over almost all regions of the state. The Sanel Valley is one of those regions.
Brewers that went to meadows or mountain lakes in the 1800's don't attend those meadows anymore, but their prized hops have likely remained. There are known pockets of hops all along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and around the Sanel Valley, and even some in the mountains to the north and to the east of Los Angeles.
The first previously unknown hop plant discovered through this project
What I am trying to do is find unknown hops, with tastes currently unknown to modern palates. They may be unknown because only one brewer knew where they grew, or unknown because they have gone wild and their flavors are entirely different from when they started.
To create entirely new wild hop varieties, all it would take is one male plant, or one female plant that went hermaphrodite, and there would be naturally diverse hop varieties. These hop varieties would be uniquely suited to the Californian ecology that they developed in, and they would have a flavor that would be impossible to recreate in any other way.
Freshly picked Nugget hops from a hopyard near Bobcat Brewing Co.
With your help, I will be able to go out and collect hops, and then, most importantly, get them genetically and chemically tested. This will let us know the Alpha Acid, Beta Acid, Co- and Isohumulone content, and essential oil characteristics of the hops that we find, as well as let us know what heritage these wild hops have.
These hops will be grown and used in beer all over the country. We will spread unique genetics to many different brewers so that they can begin cultivating wild Californian strains. With your help, an old practice can be new again. Who knows what we will discover if people in the craft beer world decide to Get Wild.
What will the money be used for?
$300 - gas for the trip, food, housing for when I am out on the hop hunt
$200-300 - money to build a very large dehydrator (using screens, wood, and a dehumidifier)
$100 - packaging and storage materials (vacuum seal bags+CO2 for the hops, and standard bags and paper towels for rhizomes)
$1500+ - genetic and chemical testing for the hops that are found. I expect every plant to be different, so we will test as many plants as we are able to. This will cover the testing cost for 12 different varieties at a minimum. We should be able to get an idea of the ancestry of the plants and we will definitely know whether they will be good for aromatics or bittering. This is the biggest cost and what sets this project apart from any old hop hunt - I want people to know about these hops just like you would know about hops you get from HopUnion or another national supplier.
What the T-shirt will look like: |
Google, the world’s richest mapmaker (among other things), has just thrown its hat in the smart grid ring with General Electric, in a new partnership aimed at seizing ground in the field of next-generation geospatial tools for oil, gas, energy and telecommunications.
The two companies announced Tuesday morning that they’re integrating Google Maps data into GE's Smallworld electrical, telecommunications and gas applications -- a set of geospatial analytics tools and software that GE has adapted for Web, mobile and desktop use. On the smart grid front, GE is building Google’s mapping content into its grid distribution management system (DMS) and outage management system (OMS), and it’s also tapping Google’s Android platform to augment its existing mobile products, mainly to give them better, more information-rich maps.
This amounts to a major announcement in the relatively small world of utility geospatial information system (GIS) vendors, to be sure. Today’s market is dominated by such players as Esri and Intergraph, in-house products from grid giants like Alstom and Siemens, and up-and-comers like startup Space-Time Insight.
GTM Research has predicted U.S. utilities will spend between $110 million and $180 million on GIS upgrades and replacements from 2010 to 2015, with projects ranging from the high end, such as Southern California Edison’s $71 million upgrade of its 10-year-old GIS, to a few hundred thousand dollars for small municipal or cooperative utilities.
“Google's rich mapping content will form an integral part of GE's solutions, strengthening the existing geospatial capabilities of GE's Smallworld products by providing out-of-the-box base mapping as well as visualization and analytics capabilities,” according to the announcement.
That applies to network management as well. GE and Google say they can “design and model complex network infrastructures while supporting asset management lifecycle processes,” all deliverable for uses like business intelligence, engineering, schematics, and “corridor management” and “enterprise gateway” solutions.
We’ve seen a growing interest amongst utilities and major smart grid vendors for tools to help them manage complex and disparate communications networks. Companies in the space include Telcordia (now part of Ericsson), SK Telecom’s GridMaven, Cisco, and startup Proximetry Networks, which just landed a partnership with Siemens, a competitor to GE. In the case of GE and Google, it’s unclear just how their new offering compares to NMS providers like these, or to individual AMI and DA communications vendors that do their own network management, however.
Beyond the announcement itself, it’s important to note that GE has a major initiative in the machine-to-machine space, or what CEO Jeff Immelt has dubbed the “Industrial Internet,” which extends to the smart grid as well. GE launched a new suite of analytics capabilities for its Grid IQ Insight platform last month focused on outage detection, prediction and prevention, and also announced a partnership with wireless networking startup On-Ramp Wireless for GE’s first-ever foray into smart meter networking. Both of those projects could use Google’s mapping smarts and mobile flexibility as well. |
Some 4,000 migrants, who crossed the border from Greece to Macedonia, arrived in Serbia on Sunday heading toward western Europe, local media reported.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Saturday, several thousands of migrants stranded for days on Greece's border with Macedonia broke through police lines and entered the Balkan nation.
© REUTERS / Alexandros Avramidis Migrants Break Through Macedonian Border, Police Use Stun Grenades
At least 2,000 people arrived at a migrant reception center in the Serbian southern town of Presevo Sunday morning, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) reported. Another 2,000 reached the nearby village of Miratovac, the broadcaster added.
According to the RTS, the migrants get the papers at the reception center and then board buses to Belgrade.
It is expected that all the migrants, crossing from Greece to Macedonia, will head north toward western EU countries, the broadcaster said.
The situation in Macedonia's south escalated after the number of migrants at its border with Greece, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, had reached about 5,000.
On Thursday, Macedonia declared a state of emergence on the borders to cope with the influx of migrants. The day after, police used stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas against the migrants, trying to enter the country from Greece. |
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